Single post in Exclusive Hunting for Dummies!

Yes, these are the basics, but how does it work, exactly?

What are "Loading Periods"?

Warning! I'm about to get pretty technical, but understanding how the Red Giga works is extremely useful if you want to be proficient at exclusive hunting! Please, stay with me, here! Also a warning, this is purely my own speculation! I have never seen anyone else talk about this, so I may be totally wrong, but this is something I have observed and have personally found to be extremely consistent throughout my time using the Giga! Have you ever noticed the small pause after feeding a pokemon before the interaction goes through? It takes around one to two seconds. Have you also noticed that when you feed a bunch of pokemon in a row, all of the interactions go through at the same time after a second or two of feeding the last pokemon? This is most easily seen when making party interactions, but can also be seen in fields as well, pay attention to the "sent" number, and how it doesn't update until after you stop clicking! I call this a "Loading Period" or a "Loading Stack", and it is key to how the Red Giga works. The Red Giga doesn't decrease your pokemon's happiness over time, nor does it decrease happiness based on the amount of interactions you make. It instead decreases your pokemon's happiness based on how many loading periods that have gone through. This means that clicking a pokemon one time in a party and waiting for the interaction to go through and clicking an entire field all in one go decreases the SAME amount of happpiness. Remember how I briefly mentioned you want to find full fields, ones that are all filled with 40 pokemon each instead of 20? This is why. If you click a field full of 40 pokemon, that will decrease the same amount of happiness as clicking the field with only 20 pokemon. It will decrease your pokemon's happiness MUCH quicker, forcing you to use more Sweet Hearts more often, which, believe me, adds up. However, you can't click someone's entire field collection on just one loading period. There are two other conditions besides waiting that cause loading periods to go through, or start another loading period separately: switching fields and changing berries. This means the largest amount of interactions you can make in one loading period is 40, and that you should avoid switching your fed berry while in the middle of interacting. (Of course, changing fields and switching berries by themselves don't cause loading periods, just only when used while you have interactions still being loaded.)

What are the numbers?

Each loading period decreases your pokemon's Happiness by 1 while the Red Giga is active. This is less than 1% of your pokemon's Happiness, so it's hard to tell just by percentage alone. Sweet Hearts increase your pokemon's Happiness by 20, or 8%. So, practically speaking, the most ideal way to use the Red Giga is to click 20 full fields, give a sweet heart to both pokemon of your pair, and repeat.

So...what do I actually do?

First, feed your pokemon Sweet Hearts until they are both at MAX happiness. Make a few interactions once or twice to have a loading period or two happen, and check back at your pair. If they're at 99% happiness, you're good to start. Open up two separate windows or tabs with your pair's summary pages. Go into their menus, go to "Give Item", select Sweet Hearts, and go up until the point where it asks you to have the pokemon Hold the item or Use the item. Keep it on that menu, and do the same for the other pokemon. If you have a big enough screen, keep those two separate windows open to the side of your screen, or just have them in separate tabs. While massclicking, keep count of how many fields you are clicking. If you happen to switch berries in the middle of clicking a field, or click on a party pokemon in your own party or someone elses, or anything you know will trigger another loading period, keep a count of that as well. Stop when you reach 20, and check/refresh your daycare page. If you've counted each loading period correctly, your pair's happiness should be at 91%. Go to your tabs/windows, and select "Use Item" for both of them. Their happiness should now be at 99%, and another menu should pop up asking if you want to feed them another. Go back to your main clicking window and repeat the process, counting to 20, checking, and feeding. If their percentage is at 92% or higher, just click a few more fields until it goes down below 92%. (The reason we don't want to feed them at 92% is because, if you do, it will max out their happiness and won't give you the option to feed your pokemon again! You will need to go through all the item-giving menus again, it's a huge hassle) If their percentage is lower than 91%, don't fret! Just feed your pokemon and count to a smaller number for the very next clicking round, such as 18 or so. Hopefully, you'll get a number closer to 91% so you can get back on your groove!

Why can't I click their happiness down to 0%?

You can! This might be more useful for mobile clickers, as tabs are a bit more cumbersome and may not be as viable of a tool as they are on desktop/tablets. If you click all the way down to 0%, then feed your pokemon all the way back up, that is a much simpler way to massclick that doesn't require interruption ever 30 seconds or so, and is a perfectly decent way of massclicking! If you want to know exactly when your pair is at 0% happiness, you can go into the menu for one of your pair, select "Set Target", and then have it notify you when its happiness is at a low number, like 10 or 5. The unfortunate part of this system is it only works for numbers above that happiness, and not below that happiness, so you will have a constant notification. However, this does alert you to when their happiness is low, as the notification will disappear when it drops below the number you set. I prefer my "topped-up" method for a few reasons: I don't have to go through the consumable menu TWICE every single time, I don't have to have a constant notification, and pokemon have a higher chance to produce eggs while at a higher happiness.