How to play
Introduction
The Scavengers Room on Pokemon Showdown! revolves around scavenger hunts that consist of three questions, each of which must be solved in a set order. Other people may attempt to solve these questions as well, meaning that everyone is competing to see who can finish the fastest!
Both the hunts and the individual questions may vary in theme (usually Pokemon, though this can be practically anything) and in difficulty. Some hunts are easy enough to solve within a minute, while others can take up to an hour to complete! Don’t fret, though, as it won’t feel as long as it appears, and the challenge will keep you busy.
Hunts may only be started by staff (%, @, #, &, and ~), although users who are not staff can create hunts and send these hunts to staff to be started. This will be covered later.
When a scavenger hunt starts, a message clad in blue will appear in the chat telling you that a hunt has started. When participating in one, you can attempt to answer the question by using /scavenge [answer]. There is no limit to the amount of guesses you can make, so don’t be afraid of getting a question wrong, as this happens to everyone. Once you get a question right, you’ll receive a notification and will be informed what the next question is. You can now try to answer this question, and this continues until you have correctly answered the third question, in which case, congrats - you have finished the hunt! In the case that you forget the question being asked, you can use the command /scavengerhint to see the question again.
Once you answered all three questions correctly, a blue bar will show up saying that you have finished the hunt and how many people solved it before you. Finally, when a staff member ends the hunt, it’ll name everyone who solved the hunt, and the answers, before moving on to the next hunt.
Both the hunts and the individual questions may vary in theme (usually Pokemon, though this can be practically anything) and in difficulty. Some hunts are easy enough to solve within a minute, while others can take up to an hour to complete! Don’t fret, though, as it won’t feel as long as it appears, and the challenge will keep you busy.
Hunts may only be started by staff (%, @, #, &, and ~), although users who are not staff can create hunts and send these hunts to staff to be started. This will be covered later.
When a scavenger hunt starts, a message clad in blue will appear in the chat telling you that a hunt has started. When participating in one, you can attempt to answer the question by using /scavenge [answer]. There is no limit to the amount of guesses you can make, so don’t be afraid of getting a question wrong, as this happens to everyone. Once you get a question right, you’ll receive a notification and will be informed what the next question is. You can now try to answer this question, and this continues until you have correctly answered the third question, in which case, congrats - you have finished the hunt! In the case that you forget the question being asked, you can use the command /scavengerhint to see the question again.
Once you answered all three questions correctly, a blue bar will show up saying that you have finished the hunt and how many people solved it before you. Finally, when a staff member ends the hunt, it’ll name everyone who solved the hunt, and the answers, before moving on to the next hunt.
Solving Questions
We can’t give you a definite way of finding the answers of questions, since each question will have its own unique answer. However, there are many good tips on how to increase your chances of finding an answer.
Obviously, your first attempt at retrieving an answer when you don’t know it by heart will be to Google it. A lot of answers can be found pretty easily this way. Check out the first few links and look if any link to a page holds a hint, if it does, that may be a good page to check out! If you find a web page this way where you suspect may be the answer, or at least a hint, try using Ctrl + F to find some key words. This is usually an easy way of finding relevant information on larger pages, so you don’t have to read through the entire thing. Another important thing to remember when googling questions is to make sure to keep the data you search relevant. While this won’t be an issue with smaller questions, the more fluff around the question, the more irrelevant information will show up when you search it, so try to search exactly what you need.
Another good tool to use is Pokemon Showdown! itself. Pokemon Showdown has a lot of information about Pokemon, including their stats, abilities, types and moves. Using the Teambuilder and commands like /ds (types, stat ranges, moves, abilities) and /ms (pokemon, types), while other commands may also have a lot of other information. When you get a question about what Pokemon has something like this, Pokemon Showdown may just give you the answer. Finally, the commands /auth and /roomauth are useful commands if you get questions about the staff themselves, so you at least know who could be the answer.
Another possibly obvious tool is Bulbapedia. Being arguably the best source of information about Pokemon there is on the internet, it’s a great place to seek for an answer to any question related to Pokemon, which most are. Since it is really easy to find pages by name, which is relatively easy to find, we'll give you a tip on how to find more abstract questions. Bulbapedia has a browse function, so you can filter pages which have relevant information. By simply googling a word or two that will be important for your question, you can filter a lot of pages, then you can quickly scroll past them and see if there is any page which you feel may be of any use, and remember to use Ctrl + F! Thankfully, most of the time you can just click on pages normally, so this is usually only needed when you don’t know where to search.
Another site you can use is Smogon, but there is no exceptionally easy way to browse Smogon. You can browse it, but there are usually a lot of results, so usually it’s the easiest to browse a specific board if you have an idea where it could be. Luckily, you can filter on user and on title, but you can’t search for threads made between certain times in 2011 and 2013, so that may be annoying.
Finally, when you’re desperate you can get a list of possible answers and try guessing them all (also known as spamguessing). This strategy has succeeded a few times now, and it will help you over time, but it takes a long time, so I don’t recommend it unless you don’t see any other way to solve the question.
Many other ways to find questions exist, and practice makes perfect, so it’s important to just keep trying and eventually you will get better at it. Try to find hints if you can’t find the immediate answer and try to keep getting closer by gathering information and eventually doing a final search. Of course, there are many other sites to browse, but it’s important to know what information is relevant and what’s not and how to find it, since otherwise you’ll take way too much time.
Obviously, your first attempt at retrieving an answer when you don’t know it by heart will be to Google it. A lot of answers can be found pretty easily this way. Check out the first few links and look if any link to a page holds a hint, if it does, that may be a good page to check out! If you find a web page this way where you suspect may be the answer, or at least a hint, try using Ctrl + F to find some key words. This is usually an easy way of finding relevant information on larger pages, so you don’t have to read through the entire thing. Another important thing to remember when googling questions is to make sure to keep the data you search relevant. While this won’t be an issue with smaller questions, the more fluff around the question, the more irrelevant information will show up when you search it, so try to search exactly what you need.
Another good tool to use is Pokemon Showdown! itself. Pokemon Showdown has a lot of information about Pokemon, including their stats, abilities, types and moves. Using the Teambuilder and commands like /ds (types, stat ranges, moves, abilities) and /ms (pokemon, types), while other commands may also have a lot of other information. When you get a question about what Pokemon has something like this, Pokemon Showdown may just give you the answer. Finally, the commands /auth and /roomauth are useful commands if you get questions about the staff themselves, so you at least know who could be the answer.
Another possibly obvious tool is Bulbapedia. Being arguably the best source of information about Pokemon there is on the internet, it’s a great place to seek for an answer to any question related to Pokemon, which most are. Since it is really easy to find pages by name, which is relatively easy to find, we'll give you a tip on how to find more abstract questions. Bulbapedia has a browse function, so you can filter pages which have relevant information. By simply googling a word or two that will be important for your question, you can filter a lot of pages, then you can quickly scroll past them and see if there is any page which you feel may be of any use, and remember to use Ctrl + F! Thankfully, most of the time you can just click on pages normally, so this is usually only needed when you don’t know where to search.
Another site you can use is Smogon, but there is no exceptionally easy way to browse Smogon. You can browse it, but there are usually a lot of results, so usually it’s the easiest to browse a specific board if you have an idea where it could be. Luckily, you can filter on user and on title, but you can’t search for threads made between certain times in 2011 and 2013, so that may be annoying.
Finally, when you’re desperate you can get a list of possible answers and try guessing them all (also known as spamguessing). This strategy has succeeded a few times now, and it will help you over time, but it takes a long time, so I don’t recommend it unless you don’t see any other way to solve the question.
Many other ways to find questions exist, and practice makes perfect, so it’s important to just keep trying and eventually you will get better at it. Try to find hints if you can’t find the immediate answer and try to keep getting closer by gathering information and eventually doing a final search. Of course, there are many other sites to browse, but it’s important to know what information is relevant and what’s not and how to find it, since otherwise you’ll take way too much time.
Types of Special OFficial hunt formats
Besides normal hunts, there are quite a few other ways the room likes to host competitions, which have been developed by various users over time. These are called Special Style Officials, and they pop up from time to time instead of a normal official or even could be a part of a monthly twist (weekly special styles, for example)! This part of the guide will attempt to explain them, so you won’t be stuck when you face any of them. Usually, all special official hunts award more points than normal hunts and sometimes even everyone who completes them receives some points!
Scavenger Games
Created by Snaquaza, Scavenger Games is a game mode that focuses on elimination by time. The first round is open to everyone who wants to participate. The participants get a minute to solve the hunt, which should be a reasonably easy one so it’s doable to solve it in one minute. Those who manage to do so will move on. The host will keep starting hunts and ending them after a minute, until only one person is left. If no one gets a certain hunt, that round won’t count and another is started.
Knockout Games
These work much in the same way as Scavenger Games; however, elimination is based on placement, not time. For example, in a standard KO Games, the last person or x number of people to finish are eliminated each round. This way, there’s no threat of having a hunt where everyone left is eliminated.
Jump Start
Created by GoodMorningEspeon, Jump Start is a game mode that rewards you even more for finishing first. That’s because it consists of two hunts; depending on how fast you finish the first hunt, you’ll receive the first question of the second hunt ahead of time. That means if you finish the first one quickly, you can have a head start to the win, points on the ladder, and/or bragging rights!
Point Rally
Created by ashiemore, this format rewards you for how consistently you can solve hunts. Several hunts, usually between 8 to 10, but sometimes more, are hosted in succession. Depending on how you place in each hunt, you receive points on a leaderboard that add up throughout the hunts - think of it as a miniature Scavengers Ladder! Once every hunt has been completed, the user with the most points on the leaderboard gets the win, the user with second most gets second, and so on. Hope you like hunts, and lots of ‘em!
Odyssey Hunt
This format of official really makes you commit to solving questions until you finish, since you don't know how many questions the hunt has! It could be a quick five question official or an intensive thirty-five question official, you'll never know until you complete it!
Incognito Style
Created by Stylus and Gleeb, this format is a typical three question official, but with a twist! Finishers and their finish times are hidden until the hunt ends! As such, a relatively short timer will be set at the beginning of each Incognito Style official. Since the place you finished is a surprise until the end of the hunt, bluffing is encouraged. O.O
Team Scavengers
Team Scavengers is a hunt format where players work on hunts with one or more teammates. These are typically harder hunts, where players on the same team can work on multiple parts of the same question or even different questions at the same time. Teams will either be randomly chosen, or an easier hunt will be done beforehand to choose team captains. All team members will get full official points.
Scavenger Games
Created by Snaquaza, Scavenger Games is a game mode that focuses on elimination by time. The first round is open to everyone who wants to participate. The participants get a minute to solve the hunt, which should be a reasonably easy one so it’s doable to solve it in one minute. Those who manage to do so will move on. The host will keep starting hunts and ending them after a minute, until only one person is left. If no one gets a certain hunt, that round won’t count and another is started.
Knockout Games
These work much in the same way as Scavenger Games; however, elimination is based on placement, not time. For example, in a standard KO Games, the last person or x number of people to finish are eliminated each round. This way, there’s no threat of having a hunt where everyone left is eliminated.
Jump Start
Created by GoodMorningEspeon, Jump Start is a game mode that rewards you even more for finishing first. That’s because it consists of two hunts; depending on how fast you finish the first hunt, you’ll receive the first question of the second hunt ahead of time. That means if you finish the first one quickly, you can have a head start to the win, points on the ladder, and/or bragging rights!
Point Rally
Created by ashiemore, this format rewards you for how consistently you can solve hunts. Several hunts, usually between 8 to 10, but sometimes more, are hosted in succession. Depending on how you place in each hunt, you receive points on a leaderboard that add up throughout the hunts - think of it as a miniature Scavengers Ladder! Once every hunt has been completed, the user with the most points on the leaderboard gets the win, the user with second most gets second, and so on. Hope you like hunts, and lots of ‘em!
Odyssey Hunt
This format of official really makes you commit to solving questions until you finish, since you don't know how many questions the hunt has! It could be a quick five question official or an intensive thirty-five question official, you'll never know until you complete it!
Incognito Style
Created by Stylus and Gleeb, this format is a typical three question official, but with a twist! Finishers and their finish times are hidden until the hunt ends! As such, a relatively short timer will be set at the beginning of each Incognito Style official. Since the place you finished is a surprise until the end of the hunt, bluffing is encouraged. O.O
Team Scavengers
Team Scavengers is a hunt format where players work on hunts with one or more teammates. These are typically harder hunts, where players on the same team can work on multiple parts of the same question or even different questions at the same time. Teams will either be randomly chosen, or an easier hunt will be done beforehand to choose team captains. All team members will get full official points.
TYPES OF Questions
When in Scavengers, you will often see questions that are rather straightforward: A question is asked, and you must scavenge to find the answer based on the given information. However, you may see other types of questions, or may want to make hunts with different kinds of questions. All of those special variations can be found here!
Psywaves
Psywaves questions are questions made around the pronunciation of their answers. Usually they state in what category they are seeking the answer (Pokemon, Moves, etc.). They’ll usually give a synonym for the sound they’re looking for, and you need to combine those sounds to find a fitting answer in the category! Remember that these questions are phonetic, so you shouldn’t just rely on the spelling: some things may be written quite differently, but still be pronounced around the same way.
Ports
Port questions are usually given by a chain of certain categories in [...] brackets. The idea is that you select something from each category to form ports with the next word in the chain. The idea is that the two or more last letters of the first Pokemon are the same as the two or more first letters of the next Pokemon, so they can be combined into one word like Hariyamask or Heatranorith. This should be done until the entire chain has been completed. There is rarely more than one answer possible, so sometimes you may think you nearly have it, to just come to a dead end.
A Circle Port is a special type of port that loops back into itself, so that there is no definite start or end to the port. For example, a possible answer to [Bug type Pokemon][Grass Type Pokemon][First term again] is LarvesTAngeLArvesta is a circle port because it starts and ends with the same term, and could be started anywhere.
Puns
Pun questions are, as their name implies, puns on their answers. Also known as losedude questions, they require the participants to think about the phrase given and think what it could refer to, without any direct hint being given. This causes people to have to think about how the pun could be seen and what could do this, creating an unique puzzle.
Reworded Dex Entries (RWDs / RDEs)
Reworded Dex Entries are another type of question which are exactly as they sound like. The idea is that the creator of the hunt rephrases the Pokedex Entry of a Pokemon, making it extremely hard to find by just googling, since it will be a completely new phrase. This requires the users to test their knowledge about Pokemon and see if they remember which Pokemon the entry applies to.
Anagrams
Anagrams are simply anagrams. This means that they have mixed up the letters of the answer. Usually a category will be given so you know what things it could be an anagram of. Just mixing and matching letters will probably get you an answer immediately, as when some are in the right order, you may just see the answer.
Riddles
Riddles are a type of question where you get two boxes (or more!). There will be a relation between the Pokemon, or whatever is given in the first box that you need to find out and apply it to the second box too. In the second box there should be a blank, and if you find out the relation and find out which Pokemon would fit in this relation, you get the answer to the question.
Params
Params is short for parameters, more specifically, parameters for the /ds (or /ms) command. The idea is that you get the results and the amount of parameters and you should find out which parameters you can use to get the given results in /ds. The answers are usually given in alphabetical order.
Click the button below to try your hand at some of these puzzles!
Psywaves
Psywaves questions are questions made around the pronunciation of their answers. Usually they state in what category they are seeking the answer (Pokemon, Moves, etc.). They’ll usually give a synonym for the sound they’re looking for, and you need to combine those sounds to find a fitting answer in the category! Remember that these questions are phonetic, so you shouldn’t just rely on the spelling: some things may be written quite differently, but still be pronounced around the same way.
Ports
Port questions are usually given by a chain of certain categories in [...] brackets. The idea is that you select something from each category to form ports with the next word in the chain. The idea is that the two or more last letters of the first Pokemon are the same as the two or more first letters of the next Pokemon, so they can be combined into one word like Hariyamask or Heatranorith. This should be done until the entire chain has been completed. There is rarely more than one answer possible, so sometimes you may think you nearly have it, to just come to a dead end.
A Circle Port is a special type of port that loops back into itself, so that there is no definite start or end to the port. For example, a possible answer to [Bug type Pokemon][Grass Type Pokemon][First term again] is LarvesTAngeLArvesta is a circle port because it starts and ends with the same term, and could be started anywhere.
Puns
Pun questions are, as their name implies, puns on their answers. Also known as losedude questions, they require the participants to think about the phrase given and think what it could refer to, without any direct hint being given. This causes people to have to think about how the pun could be seen and what could do this, creating an unique puzzle.
Reworded Dex Entries (RWDs / RDEs)
Reworded Dex Entries are another type of question which are exactly as they sound like. The idea is that the creator of the hunt rephrases the Pokedex Entry of a Pokemon, making it extremely hard to find by just googling, since it will be a completely new phrase. This requires the users to test their knowledge about Pokemon and see if they remember which Pokemon the entry applies to.
Anagrams
Anagrams are simply anagrams. This means that they have mixed up the letters of the answer. Usually a category will be given so you know what things it could be an anagram of. Just mixing and matching letters will probably get you an answer immediately, as when some are in the right order, you may just see the answer.
Riddles
Riddles are a type of question where you get two boxes (or more!). There will be a relation between the Pokemon, or whatever is given in the first box that you need to find out and apply it to the second box too. In the second box there should be a blank, and if you find out the relation and find out which Pokemon would fit in this relation, you get the answer to the question.
Params
Params is short for parameters, more specifically, parameters for the /ds (or /ms) command. The idea is that you get the results and the amount of parameters and you should find out which parameters you can use to get the given results in /ds. The answers are usually given in alphabetical order.
Click the button below to try your hand at some of these puzzles!
Official Hunts
Official hunts are the most prestigious hunts of the Scavengers room. They are noted down on a leaderboard (which can be found by typing /scavtop in the chat) managed by the Room Owners. This leaderboard is reset twice per month, and each month has a unique ladder twist which lasts for both cycles of that month. This twist can be anything and will affect the way points for the leaderboard are earned. Users who have an average place among the top 5 in both cycles in a month (excluding those who are already auth in the room) will be nominated for Room Voice, meaning they have a chance to be promoted. For example, placing 3rd during the first cycle of the month and 6th during the second cycle would be enough to qualify for a nomination, but placing 5th during the first cycle and 7th the second cycle would not. Previous leaderboards can be found here: Scavenger Ladder Archive.
During an official hunt, the winner gets 30 points on the leaderboard, the runner-up 25 points, the third finisher 20 points, the fourth finisher 15 points, the fifth finisher 10 points, and the sixth finisher 5 points. Consolation winners, users who finish after 6th place, receive 2 points.
Officials also have a special “BLITZ” mechanic, which will be given any finisher if they finish within a minute: they get 10 bonus points. Additionally, they must all be finished within an hour and will be forcibly ended afterwards. Officials may only be hosted by roomauth, which means that roomvoices and roomstaff may host them.
Certain rules apply to official hunts; they may not use any “special” kind of question, such as Psywave and portmanteau, although RWDs (reworded dex entries) are fine.
Additionally, all officials are quality checked by two staff members who will verify whether the questions are up to scratch. If an official passes these checks, it may be hosted in the Scavengers room.
Some officials, known as mini-officials (or minis, for short), aren't scheduled and will pop up in the room from time-to-time. These are basically officials that are easier than regular officials and will usually take a shorter amount of time to complete, just remember that there's no BLITZ points for these hunts! The winner of a mini-official gets 15 points on the leaderboard, the runner-up 13 points, the third finisher 10 points, the fourth finisher 8 points, the fifth finisher 5 points, the sixth finisher 3 points. Consolation winners receive 1 point each. Points are compared below:
Officials are generally reserved in this thread on Smogon. This is to make sure everyone can go to the room at this time if they want to participate, as well as making sure other auth don’t reserve an official, only to find out that their spot is taken already. If you want to be notified when an official hunt will be hosted, make an account on Smogon and click “Follow Thread”.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that there is a practice hunt hosted before every official hunt; these consist of extremely easy questions so that everyone can get used to the commands if they’re new to Scavengers.
During an official hunt, the winner gets 30 points on the leaderboard, the runner-up 25 points, the third finisher 20 points, the fourth finisher 15 points, the fifth finisher 10 points, and the sixth finisher 5 points. Consolation winners, users who finish after 6th place, receive 2 points.
Officials also have a special “BLITZ” mechanic, which will be given any finisher if they finish within a minute: they get 10 bonus points. Additionally, they must all be finished within an hour and will be forcibly ended afterwards. Officials may only be hosted by roomauth, which means that roomvoices and roomstaff may host them.
Certain rules apply to official hunts; they may not use any “special” kind of question, such as Psywave and portmanteau, although RWDs (reworded dex entries) are fine.
Additionally, all officials are quality checked by two staff members who will verify whether the questions are up to scratch. If an official passes these checks, it may be hosted in the Scavengers room.
Some officials, known as mini-officials (or minis, for short), aren't scheduled and will pop up in the room from time-to-time. These are basically officials that are easier than regular officials and will usually take a shorter amount of time to complete, just remember that there's no BLITZ points for these hunts! The winner of a mini-official gets 15 points on the leaderboard, the runner-up 13 points, the third finisher 10 points, the fourth finisher 8 points, the fifth finisher 5 points, the sixth finisher 3 points. Consolation winners receive 1 point each. Points are compared below:
- Official: 30 - 25 - 20 - 15 - 10 - 5 - 3...
- Mini: 15 - 13 - 10 - 8 - 5 - 3 - 1...
Officials are generally reserved in this thread on Smogon. This is to make sure everyone can go to the room at this time if they want to participate, as well as making sure other auth don’t reserve an official, only to find out that their spot is taken already. If you want to be notified when an official hunt will be hosted, make an account on Smogon and click “Follow Thread”.
Finally, it is worth mentioning that there is a practice hunt hosted before every official hunt; these consist of extremely easy questions so that everyone can get used to the commands if they’re new to Scavengers.
Point System
Submission Points:
Normal Hunt and Official Points:
Special Style Official Points:
Note: For lists of points (i.e. hunts and officials), points correspond to placings: 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th - 5th - 6th and so on. Orange numbers followed by a [...] are consolation prizes awarded for any finishers past the previous placing.
Daily Question Points:
Prizes:
- Submitting a Hunt: 4 (when started)
Normal Hunt and Official Points:
- Regular Hunt: 5 - 3 - 2 - 1...
- MINI Official: 15 - 13 - 10 - 8 - 5 - 3 - 1...
- Official: 30 - 25 - 20 - 15 - 10 - 5 - 3...
Special Style Official Points:
- Knockout Games / Point Rallies (10 - 20 Qs): 35 - 30 - 25 - 20 - 15 - 10 - 0...
- Knockout Games / Point Rallies (21+ Qs): 45 - 38 - 32 - 25 - 20 - 15 - 0...
- Odyssey Hunts (10 - 20 Qs): 35 - 30 - 25 - 20 - 15 - 10 - 3...
- Odyssey Hunts (21+ Qs): 45 - 38 - 32 - 25 - 20 - 15 - 4...
Note: For lists of points (i.e. hunts and officials), points correspond to placings: 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th - 5th - 6th and so on. Orange numbers followed by a [...] are consolation prizes awarded for any finishers past the previous placing.
Daily Question Points:
- Completing: 2 (limit once per day)
- Submitting: 4 (when used, limit once per cycle)
Prizes:
- Top 3 will get a shoutout in the roomintro that lasts for the next cycle
- Any non-auth user who finishes within an average of Top 5 over any two consecutive cycles will receive a nomination for roomvoice