Rsoohoo's Pitcher Guide
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First of all, VivaLaWeb gets alot of credit for discovering that you could upgrade your custom pitch multiple times. http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=939498&topic=39478781 In that thread, you will find all the info you need to know about getting the custom pitch. There's also good advice in that thread about what kind of upgrades you should get for your pitch. The custom pitch offers you something that you cannot get by just editing player stats under the view profile mode, you will only be able to get these kind of pitches from success mode.
Secondly, the strategy i used to get this character these stats was a refinement of a strategy i already posted, much of this information of a collective of the discussion on these boards: http://boards.gamefaqs.com/gfaqs/genmessage.php?board=939498&topic=39143411 Please read the general strategy there, or none of the following will make sense.
The Guide
First of all, i took the previous strategy i had posted in that thread, and rethought it. Instead of worrying about building skills, i instead thought of how i could get through the game while having to work/study/date as little as possible and practice as much as possible.
The only skill which i have found that you cannot get anywhere else is the intimidator skill, which you need to get by marrying(?) Becky. The number of weeks you have to spend dating instead of practicing is a huge sacrafice, and i skeptical if it's worth it. It maybe possible to still get becky as your GF if you manage to get enough random events that improve your likablity with her, but i lacked the patience to pull that off.
This guide is aimed for people developing PITCHERS.
When i finished the game with the above character i had level 1 ladies man, level 4 study, and level 3 money man.
Rules I Followed
1. You need to Win every game but the very first exhibition one and the MLB superstars one to maxamize your stats, this is a challenge and requires alot of patience. You can beat them without Alvin on your team, and you can win with horrible stats. There's alot of luck involved, be willing to save/load.
2. There are only 4 times in the game where i found Dating to be the best option. Both Christmas's, and Both Valentines Days.
The best path to take for the first year of holidays is to have a present for Annie, and get the suprise bag. For the first Valentines day, take BECKY on a date, and have a YES card. When you are asked for a present, cancel the menu, and you will only have to spend $100 on a present. She gives you a random item and you have a small chance to get an ability. You may want to reload this even till you get a good item (Tourmaline Ring is best i managed to get), Annie's item here is marginal (best i have gotten is a shuffe whistle), still useful if you have knowledge of upcoming events. If you can't afford a present for Becky, don't be afraid to just pursue
For the Second year of holidays, I dump Becky. Give Annie a christmas present again, and make sure it is NOT THE SAME ONE THAT YOU GAVE LAST YEAR, or you'll get the same affect as not giving her a present. It's likely Becky will dump you here for not seeing her for any of the 2 christmas times, and you will also most likely pick up "Fat Pitch" or a negative ability. You can correct this ability by spending a marginal number of skill points in the abilities screen, and i consider this a worthwhile trade since you can get a book from the bag which will give you abilities you cannot get from the abilities screen. Meet Annie for Valentines the 2nd time and you'll get a skill book for $10 (no present required). You should choose the Amusement Park and CHALLENGE for your 3rd time meeting Annie and reload till you get the gyroball skill, after that the only thing you could possibly want to go on a date for is to raise your motivation or to save/load certain events to gain abilities at random.
3. Your Scout Rating matters little. I'm pretty sure that if you beat the championship rings year 3, you will make it into the majors reguardless of what happens. If you cannot accomplish this, then you will have to worry if you're going to make the majors or not. If you're playing to max your character, you won't have to worry about scout eval, but don't go out of your way to try to lower it.
4. Most of your 3 year life should be spent with your vit bar empty. Only 2 action commands require you to have yellow+ vit, and it's working and studying. You shouldn't have to study if you use the mind training strategy, so you should really only work after sleeping if you need money. Get the Recovery Neck and Mindtraining neck as early as possible. Keep 1 emergency powerin or invincible chocolate on hand in case you encounter an event where your vit is completely drained. If you ever get into a jam where you have no vit, and are out of hyperrecovery, consider stalling for a week by dating and hope that the shop pops up or you get a Vit recovery event. Also consider studying, since you will just fall asleep and recover vit. You will probably have to reload alot, injury % toward the end of the game was 58% for me with this strat, so i had to reload through injury quite alot.
5. Always rest when your Hyperrecovery bar is as far to the right as you can get it. At some point the bar will have an overtraining part on it's far right. If you use a hyperrecovery supplement, you will be able to sleep when you are in this grey area, and hit +99 strength points. For this matter, hyperrecovery supplements are certainly one of the better things you can spend your money on, and you should never them to "just barely hit hyper recovery."
6. Get your practice types replaced as early as you can, and try to get Running Replaced with "Throwing," ASAP. I have found it to be the best practice for a general pitcher, period. "Shadow Racket" replacing Strength Training is comparable, but the fact that you will get a ton of STR points from Hypersleep makes Tech points way more valuable then anything. You may want to take a different path if you're trying to be a "pure breaking ball pitcher," or a "fielding pitcher." The main reason why i advocate throwing is because you'll be able to raise Pitching Control a little every week, and gamble on a your MPH or an ability. Stamina / Str is very easy to raise because of hypersleep, most of the refinement in my strategy has come from figuring out how to raise Pitching Control as much as possible. Until you get throwing or shadow racket, i recommend doing alot of "Shadow Pitching" with an occasional "Strength Training" when you're low on Mentality points.
If you can try to get "Target Practice" to replace "Shadow Pitching," once you already have Racket Shadow or Throwing. This is good to use right before you play in a game, or encounter an event where you can gain exp stats accross the board. Tech points are the hardest to come by, and if you know you're going to get a little in the rest of that stats, i'd choose tech points and gamble with the rest.
There are points in the game where you can save/reload to get the right training method replaced. I believe that one of these dates is the first Christmas.
5. Work as Little as Possible, and Be Very Picky of What you Spend Money on. Sell everything you don't need. The following items are the ones that i used the most:
Powerin / Invincible Chocolate - Good idea to keep atleast one, incase you get caught with 0 vit because of a random event.
Shuffle Whistle - It's a good idea to keep one of these around, in case you get stuck in an event without a card choice you want. Ultimately, if you're patient enough and plan ahead you can save/load enough to avoid ever having to buy one of these, but this is one of the few luxury items i buy.
Chocolate Bars - (when used with throwing training gives you a total of +9 more points, Be willing to save/load to avoid tooth decay) I bought a ton of these with whatever free money I had.
Recovery Neck - See original strat
Mind Training Neck - See original strat, i sell this right after i hit study level 4 (which ever allows you to unlock items), because i haven't found anything spectacular through invention.
Hyper Recovery Supplement - Neccessary when your bar starts to get the grey area's on it's right hand side. Will allow you to train an extra week before sleeping and get you max str points (+99) from hypersleep.
Presents - You will most likely need atleast 2 if you plan on visiting Annie for both christmas times. Make sure you don't give her the same thing as you did the year before, she'll notice.
Training Equipment – Get it early if you can afford it, I went with the earplugs since it helps Throwing Training, and you actually need Ment points if you plan on getting high control.
Baseball Equipment – You do not need money man level 5 to take full advantage of these. If you buy an item in the shop and it has “Potential ?” listed under its stats, it has an ability on it, you just won’t know which, you can save/load to make sure you’re buying an item with something to unlock on it. If you look at what abilities these gloves potentially have and have bookworm level 3, you can pick up some decent abilities at a chance.
Everything else in the shop is a luxury item, and will mostly cut down on the amount of saving/reloading you will have to do. I have a feeling that the +luck necklaces increase your chance of getting events, so I often times will buy those if I have extra money. I also didn’t buy the psychic goggles until the 3rd year.
6. Purchase Green Abilities (Breaking Ball P, Gd Pace, Power P) before you play in the 2nd year series. These abilities seem to affect the way the AI plays your character, and how your character plays affects your point gains. Good Pace is necessary for a starting pitcher if you don’t want to get knocked out as early, and the other 2 should depend on what your characters strengths are. I have no way to prove this though.
7. The more patient you are and the more time you’re willing to spend on a character will ultimately affect how good he will be. If you’re willing to save/load till things fall in your favor, you could potentially create a very powerful character. In the future, Konami could make this a much more interesting game by adding online capability, and forcing people to save/load whenever there is randomness involved.
