Buddy Talk
I have a hard time deciding what is the most economical choice for a buddy. I haven't found a site / page that really talks about this in much detail other than the specific buddies like Feebas. Does it make the most sense to walk legendaries that you need to power up, even though they take 20km to walk? Or maybe walk one of the 400 candy evolutions because they are going to take forever to get, even though they are pretty much useless anyway? I just wonder if there is a ranking of "good deals" to be had when walking buddies. What do you do? Maybe walking a pidgey is a good strategy to save up for mass evolutions? But I am already level 37 so leveling up isn't much of a concern of mine. Perhaps there is something that exists now that will evolve further in the next generation worth saving up for? I am curious what the panel here thinks.
Answers
I look for value, and what is hard for me to get enough candy for locally.
Something like Togepi is a 3km buddy and has a decent evolution in Gen 4. Or Bagon as a 5km buddy because it's so hard for me to get enough wild catches.
I've never considered a legendary because it would take so dang long and I could end up stuck working on 1 silly candy for days unable to switch to a different buddy.
My current buddy is Beldum and my previous buddy was Ralts. Last year, I walked Chansey, Machop (before raids were introduced) and of course, Larvitar.
Earning candy from buddy walking is very slow on its own, but very steady at complementing candy from egg hatches and Pinaped wild catches.
That is why walking legendaries is not recommended. They are only around for a limited period and cannot be hatched from eggs or caught in the wild (in any case, using Pinaps on them is unwise).
Another way to look at this: Walking 20 km earns 1 legendary candy or 4 non-legendary candy. Using 1 Rare Candy nets 1 legendary candy or 1 non-legendary candy.
I don't think walking legendaries is the way to go unless you really don't need candy for any other mons. I think about it like this, If I use a rare candy on a legendary I've saved 20km of walking compared to only 5km or 3km on some dex filler mon. So I only use candy for legendaries and walk pokemon like Beldum, Wailmer, Bagon, Trapinch or whatever is the rare dex filler in your area :D Geodude is a 'good deal' at 1km seeming as Golem is still the top pure rock type attacker, but most high level players don't need anymore Golems.
As for saving candy up for future generations, I think Swinub is your best bet. All Ice types so far are pretty average and Mamoswine will completely outclass all of them if it gets double ice moves. Rhyperior could be good too, but only if it gets double rock moves otherwise it will still be outclassed by Groudon as a ground type I would assume.
No to walkling legendaries. The 400 candy will come with time and those mons are not that useful....dragonite is out since the community day...machamp is not rare anymore...exeggutor was surpassed by venasaur...so from gen 1 that leaves Golem and Rhydon (you probably don't have 6 groudon powered up and Rhydon will evolve further in gen 4). Gen 2 has Tyranitar, Blissey and Pilowswine (future evolution) worth it if you don't have candy from raids/events. Gen 3 is new and the top choices are Gardevoir and Metagross. Salamence is not superior to Dragonnite and Rayquaza.
I also don't understand this. I have a 100% IV Gyarados at lvl38 and I love his flying typing and higher HP to differentiate from my 2x 98% Kyogres. In some matchups (like Groudon), it's practically the same powerful, and unlike Kyogre you can put it on a gym. Place it between Blisslaxes and force switching for potion-careful trainers. Waterfall will still hit like a train, and good luck dodging Hydro Pump consistently if it fires off.
Walking a Legendary is a real drag, so using Rare candy is better.
I prefer to focus on regular Pokemon.
Before reaching L40 I did walk with Pidgey a bit to get more candy. But seeing as I wanted to complete the Pokedex I also walked with Pokemon I needed more candy for.
I did at one point walk with Wailmer, but that was sort of unnecessary because I got loads of candy from hatching eggs. After evolving the first one I've already got like 600 more candies.
And of course I walked with Feebas to be able to evolve it.
Right now I'm walking a Bagon because I want more candy so as to evolve a better Salamance.
Most Economical: Hands down is Geodude/Graveler/Golem
If you walk a geodude 20KM that's many levels (below 32) or nearly an entire level (above 32). You would get 1 legendary candy for that distance, or 4 Ttar/Machamp/dragonite/etc candy, which is either next to nothing (for legendaries) or 1 or less powerups for non-legendaries.
If you don't have 6 maxed out golems (or enough candy to do so) then you should be walking one of these. That should buy you enough time until someone writes an actual analysis on the subject.
Machop is a 3 km buddy so it's actually quite efficient as well. 6 maxed out Golems isn't something every player needs though. It's a very risky investment because it's only a small moveset change away from losing its spot as top rock and there isn't much to do with them anyway. You can do just fine with lower 30s Golems in raids, 6 maxed is only for the players who want to duo Moltres/solo Flareon without water attackers etc.
Maybe with the additions of quests, things will be different, but being able to complete raids with the absolute least number of players is the last/only challenge in the game. Why do you think one out of every two or three posts is seeking advice on solos? If you play long enough, even the toughest solos become easy (or at least easier). Next step after that is Duo/trios of legendaries, and when you get there having a bank of hundreds of geodude candies will be very handy, cuz 600 candy goes faaaaaaaast when trying to reach high level breakpoints.
And yet the majority of players do not yet have a complete pokedex, 6 maxed Tyranitars etc. so you need to prioritize. 6 maxed Golems doesn't do anything relevant in the game right now and shouldn't be something to work towards unless you're running out of other things to do.
I'm working on my Golem team because I'm almost double 40 and am set with most other things, but even then I don't need to walk Geodude much because it nests and is common during partly cloudy.
Buddies I've had since gen 3 release:
Ralts
Beldum
Feebas
Bagon
Lileep (last missing non-hatch dex entry)
Blissey
Geodude
Good:
Non-nesting species, Chansey, Larvitar, Bagon, Beldum etc. Honorable mentions Tangela and Togepi for gen 4 prep but only if you're set with everything that currently exists.
400 candy evos if getting the candy is very hard otherwise
Bad:
Legendaries, too inefficient
Pidgey, huge opportunity cost unless you're swimming in maxed top tier mons already. 1 Pidgey candy is worth 500/11 = 45,5 exp without any bonuses. So you're trading a Bagon/Beldum/Feebas candy for 227 exp, a bit more than a good first throw catch. Walking a Pidgey is absolutely terrible.
Early in the game I walked with geodude a lot, because Golems looked to be useful against the legendary birds. Got lucky when they got buffed (and annoyed when my CP 2500+ Lapras got nerfed to CP 2200). Now, not so sure, they are still useful, but won't be the best rock attacker for much longer. But the 1 km per candy is really nice. You walk a bit, and suddenly you're set.
