Simple Guide to Mastering PokeRogue Endless Mode

Welcome to the ultimate guide for conquering Endless Mode in PokeRogue! This guide will walk you through the essentials, from team composition to item prioritization, to help you make it far in the game. Let’s dive in!

Getting Started: Setting Up Your Team

Starting Team:
- Choose a Pokémon with Pokerus: Pokerus gives a 1.5x EXP multiplier to your team. It spreads to other Pokémon after 50 waves. Starters with Pokerus will have a purple border, they change daily.
- Prioritize Shiny Pokémon: Shiny Pokémon increase luck in the item shop, with Epic Shinies offering the best boost. A red shiny icon is best, then blue, then yellow. Aim to get your luck tier to SSS.
- Have a Carry Pokémon: This is your main attacker for the first half. Choose one with good base stats and preferably a move that hits both opponents in double battles. Marshadow is my favorite, despite it’s lack of a double battle move.
Abilities to Look For:
- Pickup: This ability gathers items after each wave, especially berries, which are crucial for healing. I use zigzagoon/linoon.
- Run Away: Allows you to flee non-boss waves, which is useful for avoiding tough encounters and will be very important in the late game. I use ratata/raticate.
Filling Your Team:
- Late Game Pokemon: Once you have a carry, a pickup and a run away, you can go for late game pokemon. For our strategy I recommend something fast with low HP. I personally use diglett with its passive unlocked. The nincada line is also a good choice.

Item Prioritization

First of all there are some items that may seem good, but should be avoided. Let me lay that out for you here.

Never Take:

Exp. Share: Other guides will say this ruins the exp. gain for your carry, it doesn’t but it does make the late game harder if you plan to use leech seed dugtrio.
Exp. Balance: This one will really give your carry less exp. You won’t need the rest of the team leveled.
Tera Orb: Tera orb is a curse. You’ll have to deal with tera shards being in the item pool taking up slots for the rest of the game, and terastralizing is temporary and mostly useless.
IV Scanner: It isn’t needed and it’s somewhat annoying and time consuming having to say no on every pokemon you don’t want to scan. Take it if you really want it.
Candy Jar: By the time you have enough of these to level significantly past the level cap, it will actually be beneficial for you to be lower level.

Early Game (1-500+):

Big Nuggets & Relic Gold: These items help build your finances.
Exp. Charms & Super Exp. Charms: Prioritize these for faster leveling early on, when your early game carry is hitting level cap you can stop taking them.
Master Ball: Always have at least one to capture a shiny or legendary Pokémon, or to get yourself out of a tough situation. Master balls can catch most bosses at full health and save you from a total KO.

Mid Game(500-1000):

Lock Capsule: Essential for rerolling items in the shop. This is the most important item, take it over anything else at any time.
Grip Claw: Steal items from foes. This will be important once opponents have more than one or two items each.
Amulet Coins & Golden Punch: Boost your money rewards significantly. Always take amulet coins and take enough golden punch to have the max number on your early game carry.
Soul Dew: Boosts the effectiveness of your Pokémon’s nature. It really adds up, put it on your early game carry.
Berry Pouch: You need three of these ASAP, they’re going to keep your pokemon from using up their berries which is great any time and is going to keep them alive late game.
DNA Splicer: This will be important once you have the required pokemon to set up your late game carry.
Vitamins: Pile these on your early game carry, don’t bother with your late game carry as they either won’t matter or will hinder it. Early carry vitamin priority: damage > carbos > hp up > defenses. This is the priority because if you’re doing it right you’ll rarely get hit.
Bonus Damage: Things like black glasses, charcoal, mystic water and others that buff certain attack types. Late carry won’t need them.
Shell Bell: This can be useful for your early carry if you’re getting hit more than you’d like, but you shouldn’t need it.

Late Game:

Focus Band & Leftovers: Provides survival and healing each turn. Put them on your early carry, transfer them to your late carry when it’s time to switch (at the bottom of the item select screen between waves), or just outfit both if you get enough.
Berries: Keep your carries fully outfitted. At the very least you need lum and citrus at all times but the others can help.
Heal Charm: This is going to keep your late game carry alive, you need every one you can get.
Shiny Charm: Ensures you get more shiny Pokémon. That’s what you’re here for, right?
Ability Charm: This gets you more hidden abilities, some of which are very OP compared to the basic abilities.
Egg Voucher Plus: I always take these unless something great pops up with it, I’m here to farm.

Strategies for Success

First, our late game strategy.

Late Game Carry:
- Start with a fast pokemon with low hp. I like diglett with its passive, sturdy, because it saves us a fusion later on plus it has extremely high speed and low hp. It’s perfect, but some other good choices are the nincada line or shuckle (though you lose the speed with the last choice).
- You are going to fuse and unfuse this pokemon multiple times. You want your pokemon to have the following attacks: leech seed, soak, and salt cure. The fourth is up to you, I recommend thief, covet, or something with a flinch effect.
- The pokemon I recommend to fuse with: I pick these mostly based on ease of locating and capturing. Wailord with Soak. Peliper is also an option. Pumpkaboo, ferrothorn and snover are common pokemon that get leech seed. Nacli line for salt cure is a must, its final evolution may also have sturdy, making it a good final fusion if the pokemon you started with doesn’t.
- The final pokemon must have sturdy. This will keep you from getting KO’d. Either unfuse the final fusion if your base pokemon started with sturdy, or fuse with a secondary pokemon that has sturdy as its ability. Some pokemon lines that get sturdy include: geodude, onix, magnemite, pineco, shuckle, skarmory, aron, nosepass, bastiodon, roggenrola, dwebble, carbink, togedemaru, and garnacl.
- Battle Strategy: Use leech seed turn one, then salt cure, then soak. After that spam your filler attack until the enemy goes down.
- Why this works: Your HP is low and you will be taken down to 1 HP every turn. Sturdy keeps you up, berries, leftovers, and leech seed (which heals a higher percentage if you have less max hp) are enough to heal you and take you up to max health every turn. Your speed also allows you to hit first with your flincher/thief multiple times, effectively stunlocking your opponent. The only thing that will kill you is weather, losing both lum berries, or multihit attacks. Unskipable end bosses don’t use anything that threatens you.
Handling Boss Waves:
- Preparation: Equip Reviver Seeds on your carry Pokémon before boss waves if possible. Keep an eye on the wave number and grab some X items on the way if you feel you need them.
- Item Check: Ensure your Pokémon have the best items equipped before facing tough opponents. Move your berries and damage boosts from your pickup to your carry.

Endgame Strategy

Final Waves:
- After wave 3000, run away from anything you don’t want to catch. KO bosses with your late carry. Throw master balls at what you do want or whittle them down with your late carry and throw rogue balls, but be ready to reload the game if anything goes wrong.

Conclusion

By following these strategies and tips, you’ll be well-equipped to dominate Endless Mode in PokeRogue. Remember, the game is heavily influenced by RNG, so stay adaptable and keep experimenting and don’t get frustrated, we all have bad runs. Good luck, and happy hunting!