SPOILERS! Mantine Surf Discussion and Records

Level 51

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Approved by DHR-107.

With the release of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon came the best minigame to grace Pokemon since the Pokeathlon: Mantine Surfing! Available from the moment you complete the first island's story, Mantine Surf is not only a great way to infuriate yourself (and curse the Sharpedo for their inexplicable vendetta against you) but also a fine and relatively easy way to earn small amounts of Battle Points (aka Beach Points).

So that's Mantine Surf, and it's a fun little minigame in itself. There's a few highscores built into the game to beat so you can be rewarded with an almost unusable Surf Pikachu, but what other point is there to the Mantine Surf minigame? To compete with other needlessly competitive players, of course!

Rules
  • Regular Smogon and Orange Islands forum rules apply.

  • All Mantine Surf-related discussion is welcome here, whether it's highscoring techniques or complaints about Sharpedo and Wailord!

  • To submit a score, simply take a picture of the course score breakdown at the end of the course. You must score higher than Boss to be eligible for the Leaderboards, but feel free to post any and all scores you get and discuss them!

  • Actually, that's all. Mantine Surf isn't that complex a thing, I guess.
Records
Big Wave Beach
Records (Normal Course):
#01. Dr. Igor: 116,792
#02. TheMantyke: 110,484
#03. IDW: 107,627
#04. Unbreakable: 105,288
#05. Jiv3ysaur: 86,390
#06. Max. Optimizer: 85,216
#07. OrderEX: 83,289
#08. Eneybetall: 70,926
#09. Patkilla7558: 68,968
#10. Kartartheelephant: 67,381
#11. LM3: 59,880
#12. Johta: 55,880
#13. DestinyUnknown: 52,360
#14. Moose And Goose: 31,788
#15. Prof. Almeida: 29,029
#16. Boss: 12,200
#17. Big G: 11,400
#18. Samson: 10,600

Heahea Beach Records (Super Course):
#01. Dr. Igor: 166,037
#02. IDW: 160,002
#03. TheMantyke: 156,055
#04. Unbreakable: 134,329
#05. Max. Optimizer: 130,725
#06. Jiv3ysaur: 113,563
#07. Kartartheelephant: 110,152
#08. PsychicAcademic: 102,411
#09. OrderEX: 101,559
#10. Moose And Goose: 98,646
#11. Patkilla7558: 96,135
#12. Johta: 91,283
#13. LM3: 90,749
#14. Boss: 27,200
#15. Big G: 20,400
#16. Samson: 15,600

Ula'ula Beach Records (Hyper Course):
#01. Dr. Igor: 222,414
#02. TheMantyke: 210,434
#03. IDW: 206,580
#04. Poke Gamer: 189,066
#05. whalesgomoo: 188,192
#06. Max. Optimizer: 176,020
#07. Unbreakable: 163,594
#08. Jiv3ysaur: 162,142
#09. PsychicAcademic: 159,666
#10. Patkilla7558: 130,422
#11. Siggu: 116,321
#12. Project_Mars: 101,982
#13. Undead_Philz: 97,421
#14. Johta: 63,081
#15. Boss: 43,200
#16. Big G: 33,800
#17. Samson: 24,600

Poni Beach Records (Master Course):
#01. Dr. Igor: 222,634
#02. IDW: 195,846
#03. whalesgomoo: 194,191
#04. TheMantyke: 187,379
#05. Unbreakable: 175,570
#06. Max. Optimizer: 153,244
#07. PsychicAcademic: 145,497
#08. Jiv3ysaur: 139,395
#09. Giratina93: 129,311
#10. Patkilla7558: 127,880
#11. Johta: 84,089
#12. Boss: 58,300
#13. Big G: 44,800
#14. Samson: 35,900
 
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There's a score for, no clue if it's any good (probably not lol).

My initial thoughts on the surfing:
The surfing is pretty interesting. It does take a bit to get used to how to control Mantine. It took me a few attempts to realize that you didn't need to spam the direction you want to go in order to gain speed. Controlling Mantine is tricky when you're dodging obstacles with the speed as you would expect, but it is also even more difficult because mantine only can turn about 20 degrees in either direction. That said avoiding things hasn't been very difficult for me on the first two surfing spots. Experimenting around with random jumping I learned there's a "Magikarp Splash" Combo that you can get if you do 4 random spins / flips that don't create any other combo (might have been revealed prior to release but I didn't know about it.
 
Saw this on a Japanese website


With 163k points, you can get 50 BP. Not sure if there's an upper limit for the amount of BP you can get, though.
 

Level 51

the orchestra plays the prettiest themes
is a Site Content Manageris a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SCL Champion
Nice score, Moose And Goose! I read on Serebii that Up/Right/Down/Left apparently gets you "Over-the-Gyarados", referenced by some ingame surfer dude as a mythical combination that only one person has ever been able to do. Trying that combination for myself only gets me a Magikarp Splash, though, so I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe it has a random chance of activating Over-the-Gyarados when you do that, and just gives Magikarp Splash the rest of the time? Either way, though, Magikarp Splash gives you a ton of points but only once (I think some random NPC on a beach mentions this).

Also an interesting find, Kanburi! I thought BP awarded capped at 10, since all my attempts have maxed out at that (with around 51k points). If you can indeed get that many BP, this could make Mantine Surf a viable source of BP in and of itself, instead of just being like a precursor to the Battle Tree to help you get the requisite tutor moves / Mega stones / etc.
 
I believe that you need to first actually have learned the move in order to use it, no?

So first you need to do whatever subquest gives you the Gyarados whatever?
 

Level 51

the orchestra plays the prettiest themes
is a Site Content Manageris a Community Contributoris a Top Tiering Contributoris a Contributor to Smogonis a Top Smogon Media Contributoris a Team Rater Alumnusis a Forum Moderator Alumnusis a Battle Simulator Moderator Alumnusis a Past SCL Champion
I believe that you need to first actually have learned the move in order to use it, no?

So first you need to do whatever subquest gives you the Gyarados whatever?
There's not enough space on the bottom-screen UI which makes me think it's a hidden move; furthermore the guy I talked to merely mentioned the move and then didn't say anything which would indicate that such a sidequest exists :P it's kinda weird
 

Marty

Always more to find
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Research Leader
To unlock Over-the-Gyarados you have to get first place at every beach and then go speak to the guy with Surf Pikachu in the building to the right of the Heahea Pokemon Center.
 

destinyunknown

Banned deucer.

This is my record for Big Wave Beach.

Over-The-Gyarados is unlocked once you get #1 spot in all 4 surf spots and go to the surf association.

As for the maximum BP you can get: I have been getting 10 BP in both Big Wave and HeaHea no matter how many points I get. You get 10 BP in Big Wave from ~20k upwards or so (not sure whats the lower limit) and you keep getting 10 BP even if you score 50k.
 
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Double post since the content is a bit different:

Hit 143K at the Ula Ula Beach spot. Got 50 BP for it. Got 137K the ride before and got I think 45 BP? My guess is 50 is the cap and starts at 140K.

People were surprised I was getting such high scores on discord, so I guess I'll give a few things that help me:
  • You seem to gain speed in notable quantities whenever you hear the "WHOOSH" going up or down. I tend to go down, then back up as soon as I hear the woosh, turn back hard enough up the wave to trigger a second woosh, regain height, then repeat until orange.
  • Try to go for the orange boost as much as possible. That gives you enough time to comfortably do a Starmie 720 + a Lanturn on high waves / a primarina on low waves.
  • Surfing is a lot like driving a car irl. Your eyes should be glued to the horizon so you can adjust your course accordingly, not on what's right in front of you.
  • Save your Magikarp for the very end. That way if you fuck up a trick, you can just burn it then for the one time point bonus. Side rolls are way quicker than flips, so do those to do your splash
  • It seems like the easiest course to get bonkers high scores on is the Ula Ula spot.

I have no idea why points seem to vary so randomly. I thought at first there might be some SSB-esc stale moves system, but I don't think that's the case. Maybe it's based on wave height?

I should probably actually pick up my surfing pikachu so I can do the Gyarados, lol
 
Can I just hijack this thread for a little topic about why I love this minigame so much?

It allows you to earn BP super-early in the game.

- Tutor Move possibilities for speed runs/playthroughs shenanigans. Interesting Nuzlocke challenge runs etc.
- Early Power Items. I instantly bought the one that raises attack, very useful ingame
- Really cheap Vitamins, I did some surfing and could easily stock up the EV on one of my mons. This is great if you want to ever do wierd Pokemon Runs(e.g. Middle Cup runs to compete with strong enemy Pokemon as your stats will fall off eventually)

This is just great for replayability.


TheMantyke as you got so many points I just want to ask: Do you ever wait for the wave to get big or do you "constantly" do tricks as soon as you get the max speed?
 
TheMantyke as you got so many points I just want to ask: Do you ever wait for the wave to get big or do you "constantly" do tricks as soon as you get the max speed?
I trick as soon as I get orange boost, then do a primarina for small waves or a lanturn for tall, followed by a starmie (or vice versa). The only time I don't go after orange boost is if I need to trick to avoid a wall of Sharpedo / Wailmer or if I just screw up.
 
I know, another double post but this is major information on how to get 50 BP easy everytime on mantine surf.

Plus...


I beat that JP screenshot guy!

So, Mantine surf actually has two hidden mechanics that I can tell. They are:

Stale Moves: Similar to Smash bros, there's a stale moves query for the tricks your perform. Perform two moves and the moves return to its full point amount. Use it immediately and there's a noticeable point deduction. Use it after one other move and there's a slight point reduction.
Clean Movement: My trick scores were varying wildly and it was driving me nuts. It turns out the variance is all in how clean your presses up, down, left, or right are and how close they are to the cardinal direction. Look at your thumb while doing the tricks to make sure they're clean. It's a huge help.

The hyper (Ula Ula) course is the only one worth doing. It's long, contains relatively few obstacles, and gives you the most consistent bonkers high scores.

So, let's combine that with knowledge about all the tricks:

Starmie: Bread and butter. Most points you can get from a single trick that doesn't need a certain height.
Lanturn / Primarina: Good for high / low waves, bad otherwise a double stale starmie gives more points than a fresh improper height lanturn / primarina, so only use them at the proper height.
Gyarados: One time huge amount of points. Use this to refresh some of your moves at ideal times. With an orange jump, you can squeeze out a huntail before you land. More on that later
Magikarp: Smaller but still large point bonus. Use like Gyarados, but you have the time for a Lanturn or Primarina.
Gorrebyss / Huntail: Almost completely useless except to add a trick to the end of a Gyarados or launch yourself with non-orange speed.

Now with all that, we have a route:

[starmie, primarina,] (wave transitions), lanturn, starmie, *Gyarados / Magikarp refresh opportunity* [starmie, lanturn] (wave transition), primarina, starmie *Gyarados / Magikarp refresh opportunity* repeat entire thing.

Anything in [] brackets you should repeat until the wave changes height.

That particular pattern of Starmie, height trick allows you to do the new height trick first and then get a fresh starmie. The Starmie, Starmie sucks after you've used your Gyara and Magikarp, but again, double stale Starmie > fresh wrong height trick in terms of point value.

That's it! Once you're dodging and hitting the orange for your jumps often, you should be able to get the 140,000 points needed for 50 BP. This is all through pretty crude and lazy testing, so I look forward to others optimizing things. Good luck!
 
Idk if we are keeping track of this but...

Hyper course (all scores made by me):

86,XXX | 12 BP
92,XXX | 12 BP
94,XXX | 14 BP
100,452 | 16 BP
106,963 | 18 BP
114,114 | 21 BP
114,994 | 21 BP
115,432 | 21 BP
119,085 | 24 BP
123,212 | 28 BP
130,610 | 33 BP
 
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I don't have the exact score results of when I got them because I didn't think I'd be sharing them, but I do have those^
I hope they're enough proof, If not I'll get a pic of my highest score on a result screen.
 

Now that I have all of the moves, finished the main story, and gained some practice I achieved 98,646 on the super course!

e: the pic was super huge so I made it smaller
e2: it's still pretty big lol
 
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I thought I'd do this minigame once and forget about it but since BP payoffs are insane, I feel 'forced' to try to go to higher scores.

Example below, on the Hyper course.

 
Not a big deal (not sure if it gives you any point variance) but Starmie 720s can be done either RLR or LRL. I did the opposite of what was listed on accident and found that it still worked.
 
I tried the last beach and at least I managed to get past the in-game high score with around 61k points. I haven't picked the Surf Pikachu, but....

Screw these torpedo sharks. Screw them and their sorry fin with their unwarranted vendetta against surfers. Also, I still don't know how to avoid these Wailmers when more than 5 of them are arranged pretty closely like a diagonal formation net, other than jumping the wave....

Short waves are pretty dangerous. At least high waves let you avoid these annoying shenanigans....
 
They really are, though you could dodge them by just climbing the wave, or really down of it. Also managed to get 120k on Master course too.
 

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