With strong interest, Venti installed and loaded [Pokémon Auto Chess].
"The graphics and models are very good, as if reality has been shrunk and put on the screen."
Because it was an internal closed beta test, there was no public matching mechanism yet, so after the first game, the opponents were all computers and AI bots.
Ding!
A bar of chess pieces popped up on the screen.
Four 1-Cost cards and one 2-Cost card.
Venti hadn't been exposed to mobile games much, let alone the complex mechanics of Auto Chess. He had not yet understood the meaning of the Synergies (Bonds) between these chess pieces and the lineup.
Boom! Boom!
The sound of war drums came.
The countdown for the appearance of wild monsters in the First Round began.
He only had 1 Gold Coin. He could only buy a 1-Cost card in a hurry and throw it onto the board.
[Geodude]
Wild monsters came up to attack the Geodude.
Venti was a little nervous. He watched the Geodude activate its skill, throwing a rock from a distance. It instantly killed a small wild monster (Rattata) first, and then bravely faced the group of monsters.
Half health... remaining health...
[VICTORY!]
The trumpet of triumph sounded.
Venti breathed a sigh of relief. Before he had time to celebrate, the chess piece shop for the Second Round was refreshed.
There was a beam of light that enveloped a second Geodude in the shop.
In addition, the other Pokémon chess pieces were: Caterpie (1 Cost), Weedle (1 Cost), Gastly (2 Cost), and Charmander (3 Cost - Rare roll!).
At this moment, Venti finally had 30 seconds to study the mechanics, and he looked at each one carefully, especially the "Synergies" that came with the Pokémon.
Caterpie Synergy: Swarm Heart and Rapid Growth.
The same synergy as the Weedle.
Gastly Synergy: Levitate and Ghostly Prank.
"In Swarm Heart, you can summon a random Bug-type chess piece after a friendly Bug-type piece dies?"
Venti could not understand the high-end gameplay potential of the Bug system for the time being.
"The Rapid Growth is quite understandable. When two different Bug-type Pokémon are present, two 1-Star cards can be combined to upgrade them to a 2-Star card instantly."
After thinking about it, he had 3 Gold Coins this round. Venti bought both the Caterpie and the Weedle on the board. In the next round, he would upgrade the population limit.
Venti threw both bugs onto the battlefield to fight. At the same time, he opened the newly refreshed shop and, sure enough, saw another Caterpie spawned.
He bought it for 1 Gold Coin and put it on the bench.
Ding!
There were obviously only 2 Caterpies and 1 Weedle on the field/bench.
Under normal circumstances, 3 Pokémon with the same name are needed to evolve (upgrade to 2-Star).
But because of the Rapid Growth synergy...
The light of evolution enveloped the Caterpie on the field, and the chess piece actually evolved into a Metapod!
But the combat power of the "2-Star Card" Metapod was actually not as good as the 1-Cost Geodude 1-Star card in raw damage. It was just a tank.
It was the first time Venti fought against an AI player, and he was defeated.
Venti was a little confused.
"I understand. No wonder we need this Rapid Growth."
"If the Bug chess piece does not have this characteristic and is not upgraded to a 3-Star form card quickly, it is garbage!"
He became very interested and started committing directly to the Bug type strategy.
Search for cards (Roll)!
Search for cards!
Ding! After four or five rounds, the Metapod evolved into a 3-Star Butterfree.
In the round that it just evolved, Venti's population was 3/3. He had never spent any money to increase his population, but he actually won his first battle against a 5/5 AI player with the highest economy and HP.
It was a bloodbath!
"Gust, Supersonic, and Stun Spore... it actually has 3 skills?! That's too powerful!"
However...
Venti's bright smile quickly stiffened.
Butterfree only brought him two victories. In the eleventh round, an AI opponent brought a 3-Cost card and evolved it into Charmeleon.
He was once again brutally tortured.
Venti saw the opponent's 2-Star Charmeleon use Flamethrower.
Whoosh!
Butterfree only had a trace of health left instantly!
Holy grass?
Two-Star killing a Three-Star in seconds?
Even if it is a 3-Cost card vs a 1-Cost card, the damage difference was too exaggerated.
Venti saw that his Trainer Avatar had lost more than ten points of Health, and his HP was at the bottom among the eight players.
Now he had low health, a broken economy (from rolling), and a low population. Just playing with fire!
Before being eliminated in 8th place...
Venti finally figured out why Charmeleon's damage was so high.
"Fire type vs Bug type... it does Super Effective damage and critical hits... so that's what it's like..."
Looking at the darkened game screen ("DEFEAT"), Venti murmured:
"It seems that this game has many tricks!"
"Not only must we consider Synergies and Lineups, but we must also consider Type Matchups!"
At first, he just played a round of Bugs with casual thoughts, but now, Venti's emerald green eyes gradually revealed a serious competitive spirit.
...
In the same camp.
Mr. Morax (Zhongli) looked at the Kubfu who was training independently, then looked away, and clicked on the [START GAME] option on the Pokédex game screen.
Which game is this today? Ah, Auto Chess.
The familiarization process of the Old Emperor was similar to that of Venti. In the first game, he made a quick 8th place exit. In the second game, he slightly figured out some Lineups and Synergy combinations (going for Geo/Rock, naturally), but his ranking only barely improved by one place... 7th.
The third game, the fourth game, the fifth game.
Unknowingly...
The whole morning was spent in "happy" game time.
BOOM——
On the screen, the earth was shaking.
The Old Emperor looked at his 8-Population Rock-type Lineup, which was defeated by the computer's 8-Population Water-type Lineup. His face gradually turned a little dark.
He had a 3-Star Onix, which was super huge and imposing.
However, the opponent's 3-Star Blastoise—the final form of the Water Starter—fired a Hydro Pump, and the Onix was instantly killed.
[CRITICAL HIT!]
"Rock and Ground elements are all restrained by Water attributes!"
The Old Emperor shook his head, a little regretful, but more contemplative.
"If the Main Carry (Main C) was not the 3-Star Onix, but the 5-Cost Orange Card Regirock, would the results change?"
In this game, he managed to reach 4th Place. He also initially mastered the gameplay of [Pokémon Auto Chess].
"The Lineup and Synergies allow players to quickly grasp the racial characteristics of Pokémon."
"After taking shape, the mutual restraint between the lineups also lets players know the importance of Type Matchups in competitive battles..."
"There are also Evolutions of chess pieces, and players can also learn about the skills and combat power of Pokémon in different forms..."
Thinking of this.
Zhongli was deeply moved and couldn't help but send a private message to Hiroshi:
Zhongli: "Educational and entertaining."
Zhongli: "I would like to call you the Father of Pokémon."
...
At this time.
Hiroshi had picked up poor little Klee from the Confinement Room at the Knights of Favonius Headquarters in Mondstadt via Teleport (with Jean's permission).
After Klee repeatedly promised Jean that she would not cause trouble, Jean allowed her to go to Liyue with Hiroshi for a while to keep her occupied.
"Klee, I'll install a game for you."
"What game?"
As soon as she heard "game," Klee's eyes lit up.
"It's a fun game... fun enough to indulge two Gods."
Sure enough, a few minutes later, little Klee stared at the Pokédex screen, frowning in concentration as she tried to build a "Boom Boom" (Fire/Explosion) lineup.
Hiroshi secretly laughed when he saw this.
Look, sometimes raising children is so simple.
It would be too scary to throw little Klee into a normal school, and it will explode when the time comes. What can the school do?
So why not take advantage of her strong combat power and embark on the road to become a Pokémon Master now?
"With Klee's racial advantages (Elf) and long life... once she becomes the Leader of Mondstadt in the future, she may even touch the Throne."