Technologies

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: Best Ways to Farm Exp. Points

Every Pokemon trainer needs as much experience as they can get. Here are the quickest ways to level up your Pokemon.

Exp. Points, you can never get enough of ’em. If you’re progressing through Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, an IV drip of Exp. Points is always a great help. That’s especially true if you’re hoping to complete the Pokedex, which involves leveling up hundreds of Pokemon to spark evolutions.

There are three key ways to farm Exp. Points in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. The first is the Chansey method, which becomes available fairly early in the game. The second is a passive method that opens up later on in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: It allows you to earn Exp. Points even if you’re away from your Switch. And finally, there are Tera Raid battles. These are available throughout the game, but become invaluable for Exp. Point farming in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet’s post-game, when five- and six-star Tera Raids open up.

Below is what you need to know about farming Exp. Points, which level up your Pokemon, in the new games. Note: The first two methods are greatly enhanced if your lead Pokemon is holding a Lucky Egg, which you get after beating your fifth Gym Leader. Lucky Eggs boost Exp. Points earned by 50%.

The Chansey method

This one is simple. Chansey yield huge amounts of Exp. Points when you defeat them, and appear throughout Paldea, the region in which Scarlet and Violet take place. The downside is that they’re rare: Though they can be found in many places, you probably won’t find them often unless you go out of your way to do so.

So it’s time to go out of your way.

The first part of Exp. Point farming via fighting Chansey Pokemon is crafting Ham Sandwiches. Go to an Artisan Bakery store — they’re in many Paldea towns, I went to the one in Levincia — and purchase ham, pickles, mustard and mayonnaise for the inside of the sandwich. The next step is to go to one of Chansey’s natural habitats. You can see said habitats below:

Chansey will appear at different levels depending on where you go. North and northeast are where they’re strongest; southwest and west are where they spawn at lower levels. The Pokemon I wanted to level up was level 40, so I went north, near Team Star’s Fairy Crew base.

Set up a picnic table and assemble your Ham Sandwich. As you can see below, that will offer a few perks. The one we care about is Encounter Power: Normal. It means normal-type Pokemon are more likely to appear. Since Chansey is the only Normal-type Pokemon in several of its habitats, that means eating a Ham Sandwich can kick off a Chansey Party.

You have two options. You can throw a Pokeball at Chansey to start a traditional battle, which will yield thousands of Exp. Points if you’re at a similar level. Or you can activate Let’s Go mode by pressing ZR, which will cause your lead Pokemon to run at all the Chansey. This is easier and more passive, and you’ll earn about 700 Exp. Points per Chansey downed.

Note that if you’re in the northern or northeast habitats, a Blissey may appear. These are Chansey’s evolved form and earn you much more Exp. Points. Initiate an old-school battle if you see a Blissey to savor all that sweet, sweet Exp.

Each Ham Sandwich buffs you for 30 minutes. That’s enough time to earn to earn tens of thousands of Exp. Points.

Passive Golduck Method

This opens up further into the story — or rather, is in an area most will encounter relatively late in the game. If you’ve cleared Team Star’s Fighting Crew base, this Exp. Point farming method is something you can take advantage of. All you need is a good crepe and a grass- or electric-type Pokemon.

Just like with the Chansey method, you want to eat something that boosts encounters with water-type Pokemon. There a few sandwiches that achieve this, but it’s much easier to just fly to Mesagoza and eat a Chocolate Banana Crepe. Next, go to the area shown on the map below. It’s southeast of North Province (Area One) and northwest of South Province (Area Two).

As the topography indicates, you’ll find a water-filled crater. It’s crawling with Golduck, and a few Dratini too. Unleash your Pokemon in Let’s Go mode, then get on your mount and jump to the ledges that circle the crater. From there, you can watch as your Pokemon demolish the Golduck. Or you can, like, go do your washing or something.

This is a passive method, but it works best if you can keep an eye on your Switch. You may need to heal your Pokemon, and sometimes it’ll withdraw to its Pokeball if it goes long enough without encountering another Pokemon. The Golduck are at around level 50, and will give you about 600 Exp. Points per Golduck defeated if your Pokemon is at a similar level. Over the course of 15 or 30 minutes, that ends up being a lot of Exp. Points.

Caution before the next section: There are mild post-game spoilers.

Tera Raids

This is the simplest method, but takes the longest time to unlock. If you’ve played Pokemon Scarlet and Violet for any period of time, you’ve surely encountered a Tera Raid. They’re initiated by approaching the chunks of crystal that glow into the sky like a searchlight. Upon entering the Raid, you’ll fight a Pokemon that’s Terastalized: superpowered and made of crystal.

Tera Raids are graded on a star scale of difficulty. Once you beat the Elite Four, you’ll unlock five-star Tera Raids. After you beat the Elite Four, you’re given a mission to beat Paldea’s Gym Leaders again. Once you do that and go through more battles at your school, you’ll get access to six-star Tera Raids.

Completing these Tera Raids can be tough — make sure you equip your Pokemon of choice with damage-boosting items, like Choice Specs — but they yield huge amounts of Exp. Points. When you complete a five- or six-star raid, you’ll get an assortment of Exp. Candy, including XL Exp. Candy. Every XL Exp Candy, when used on a Pokemon, gives them 30,000 Exp. Points. That’s on top of the L Exp. Candy and M Exp. Candy you earn, which are worth 10,000 and 3,000 Exp. Points each.

It’s not a fancy trick, but doing circuits of five- and six-star Tera Raids ends up being the quickest way to get a Pokemon from level 1 to 100.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, Dec. 24

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Dec. 24.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I’m Irish-American, but yet 6-Down, which involves Ireland, stumped me at first. Read on for all the answers.. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Wordle or Boggle
Answer: GAME

5A clue: Big Newton
Answer: ISAAC

7A clue: Specialized vocabulary
Answer: LINGO

8A clue: «See you in a bit!»
Answer: LATER

9A clue: Tone of many internet comments
Answer: SNARK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Sharks use them to breathe
Answer: GILLS

2D clue: From Singapore or South Korea, say
Answer: ASIAN

3D clue: Large ocean ray
Answer: MANTA

4D clue: ___ beaver
Answer: EAGER

6D clue: Second-largest city in the Republic of Ireland, after Dublin
Answer: CORK

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

Technologies

Quadrantids Is a Short but Sweet Meteor Shower Just After New Year’s. How to See It

This meteor shower has one of the most active peaks, but it doesn’t last for very long.

The Quadrantids has the potential to be one of the most active meteor showers of the year, and skygazers won’t have long to wait to see it. The annual shower is predicted to reach maximum intensity on Jan. 3. And with a display that can rival Perseids, Quadrantids could be worth braving the cold to see it.

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source.

The show officially begins on Dec. 28 and lasts until Jan. 12, according to the American Meteor Society. Quadrantids is scheduled to peak on Jan. 2-3, when it may produce upwards of 125 meteors per hour. This matches Perseids and other larger meteor showers on a per-hour rate, but Quadrantids also has one of the shortest peaks at just 6 hours, so it rarely produces as many meteors overall as the other big ones.

The meteor shower comes to Earth courtesy of the 2003 EH1 asteroid, which is notable because most meteor showers are fed from comets, not asteroids. Per NASA, 2003 EH1 is a near-Earth asteroid that orbits the sun once every five and a half years. Science posits that 2003 EH1 was a comet in a past life, but too many trips around the sun stripped it of its ice, leaving only its rocky core. The Earth runs through EH1’s orbital debris every January, which results in the Quadrantids meteor shower.

How and where to see Quadrantids

Quadrantids is named for the constellation where its meteors appear to originate, a point known as the radiant. This presents another oddity, as the shower originates from the constellation Quadrans Muralis. This constellation ceased to be recognized as an official constellation in the 1920s and isn’t available on most publicly accessible sky maps.

For the modern skygazer, you’ll instead need to find the Bootes and Draco constellations, both of which contain stars that were once a part of the Quadrans Muralis. Draco will be easier to find after sunset on the evening of Jan. 2, and will be just above the horizon in the northern sky. Bootes orbits around Draco, but will remain under the horizon until just after 1 a.m. local time in the northeastern sky. From that point forward, both will sit in the northeastern part of the sky until sunrise. You’ll want to point your chair in that direction and stay there to see meteors.

As the American Meteor Society notes, Quadrantids has a short but active peak, lasting around 6 hours. The peak is expected to start around 4 p.m. ET and last well into the evening. NASA predicts the meteor shower to start one day later on Jan. 3-4, so if you don’t see any on the evening of Jan. 2, try again on Jan. 3.

To get the best results, the standard space viewing tips apply. You’ll want to get as far away from the city and suburbs as possible to reduce light pollution. Since it’ll be so cold outside, dress warmly and abstain from alcoholic beverages, as they can affect your body temperature. You won’t need any binoculars or telescopes, and the reduced field of view may actually impact your ability to see meteors.

The bad news is that either way, the Quadrantids meteor shower coincides almost perfectly with January’s Wolf Moon, which also happens to be a supermoon. This will introduce quite a lot of light pollution, which will likely drown out all but the brightest meteors. So, while it may have a peak of over 100 meteors per hour, both NASA and the AMS agree that the more realistic expectation is 10 or so bright meteors per hour.

Technologies

Today’s Wordle Hints, Answer and Help for Dec. 24, #1649

Here are hints and the answer for today’s Wordle for Dec. 24, No. 1,649.

Looking for the most recent Wordle answer? Click here for today’s Wordle hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Today’s Wordle puzzle is a little tricky, with a double letter that could confuse players. If you need a new starter word, check out our list of which letters show up the most in English words. If you need hints and the answer, read on.