After learning that, I was naturally curious how long it would take for a Sandygast to be fully nurtured, and what kind of potential it was going to have. I also wanted to know if all Sandygast would have the same potential since they were all being nurtured by the same matrix in the same manner. Interestingly enough, Utopia shared that the answers to those questions were connected. According to Utopia, the fastest the Sandygast Nurturing Matrix could nurture a Sandygast while working at full capacity was 24 hours, though if it did that the potential of the Sandygast that came out would be light orange at worst and likely either light yellow or yellow at best.
Utopia said that the best it or rather the Matrix could do during a rush job was guarantee that the Sandygast's potential won't fall below light orange. As for why it mentioned a likelihood for the Sandygast to have up to yellow potential? That was connected to the soul that would naturally form inside the vessel/body nurtured by the matrix, which would then develop together with the vessel/body. Palossand's case had already shown that the soul had an impact on the potential of a Pokemon so I was not all too surprised by that.
In essence, the period of nurturing by the Matrix determined the minimum potential limit, while the newborn soul, or luck, set the upper limit, though the upper limit could apparently not exceed the lower limit by too much. Honestly, it reminded me a bit of the way the potential of the parents affected the potential of their offspring; Even if I felt that this was in some ways better or rather easier since one could determine the lower limit by simply extending the nurturing period. Consequently, my next question to Utopia obviously was how long the Sandygast Matrix would have to focus on a Sandygast for the lower limit to be higher than light orange.
The answer was simultaneously somewhat disappointing yet not really unexpected. In fact, if one looked at the answer objectively, the numbers were actually pretty good, incredible even. Utopia said that allowing the Sandygast Nurturing Matrix to work at full capacity for a full 3 days in cooperation with Utopia would set the lower potential limit to orange, while 5 days would raise that to deep orange. This was honestly not that long, and considering that a nurturing period of just 7 days could apparently guarantee a Sandygast with light yellow potential at worst, it was actually pretty good.
I was quite happy when I learned that a nurturing period of 2 weeks raised the lower potential limit to yellow, while 3 weeks elevated that to deep yellow. Even more so when Utopia announced that a month-long nurturing period would go so far as to raise the lower limit to light green, which was incredible, especially since it was the lower limit with a very real chance for there to even be Sandygast with light blue or maybe even blue potential. This meant that by setting the nurturing period of the Sandygast Nurturing Matrix to a month, I would easily be able to start an elite colony without having to do anything.
One should not forget that the Sandygast would be "born" after that month, unlike eggs which still had to hatch. Heck, that was not even the best part since Utopia proclaimed that any Sandygast that was brought to the world through the matrix would have already completed its youngling/stageless stage during the nurturing period. This meant that they would directly start from the (low) iron stage, which would allow them to start battling and more importantly really training from the moment of their "birth".
The fact that they could skip the youngling/stageless period saved them around half a year to a year, which added to the egg period that they got to skip as well, saved nearly 1 to 1.5 years of "growing"/waiting time in total, though that came at the cost of them being unable to enjoy their baby/childhood period. The part that disappointed me but did not truly surprise me was that the matrix had a limit, which happened to be the 1 month period or rather the light green potential lower limit. Utopia passed on that the Sandygast Nurturing Matrix was unable to raise the lower limit higher than that regardless of how much one prolonged the nurturing period. Any variations in potential after the month-long nurturing period would be linked to the soul/luck of the Sandygast in question.
Frankly, the fact that Utopia would be able to deliver (low) iron-stage Sandygast with potential ranging from light green to light blue or blue was incredible in itself. I just could not help but feel a bit disappointed that that was actually what their potential was going to remain as since they would not be undergoing Utopia's optimization process; They were after all in some form products of Utopia, even if it was in conjunction with the Sandygast Nurturing Matrix and the universal rules. Regardless, Utopia's participation was incorporated in the improvements it made to the matrix and was what ensured the lower limit along with the shorter periods needed to nurture the Sandygast.
Ultimately, I was very happy with what I learned since anything else would be just silly, and I could not help but order Utopia to immediately start the setup for the Gastly Nurturing Matrix since Utopia had reported that it was capable of setting up that one as well. It had to access my blood reserves but other than that, the Gengar habitat had everything Utopia needed for the setup, so once I gave it the permission to access anything it needed, Utopia began arranging the Gastly Nurturing Matrix. It took a few minutes but Utopia eventually informed me that the setup was successful. When I asked if it had the same nurturing periods as the Sandygast Nurturing Matrix, Utopia told me that that was not the case.
Apparently, the nurturing periods of the Gastly Nurturing Matrix were a bit longer though the upper limit remained the same. Utopia operating the Gastly Nurturing Matrix at full capacity for a full 4 days would set the lower potential limit to orange, which was just a day longer. 8 instead of 5 days would bring that up to deep orange, and a nurturing period of 12 instead of 7 days would result in a Gastly with light yellow potential at minimum. Extending the nurturing period to 18 days instead of 14 would raise the lower potential limit to yellow, while 24 days instead of 21 promoted that to deep yellow.
A full 31 days would allow the Gastly Nurturing Matrix to deliver a Gastly with a minimum potential of light green. 31 days for a Gastly with potential ranging from light green at worst to light blue or possibly blue at best was more than fine, and I now had the makings of yet another elite colony. Honestly, once I managed to help Utopia set up the Litwick and Mimikyu Nurturing Matrixes I would be able to establish a team/faction of future elite ghost specialists by myself if I wanted to; Palossand as a ghost/ground type, Gengar as a ghost/poison type, Chandelure as a ghost/fire type, and finally Mimikyu as a ghost/fairy type.
Moreover, each of the ghosts I would be able to provide were more than just decent, even Mimikyu who had a BS/RV of 476 was considered pretty good, while Palossand was slightly better off with 480 RV. Not to mention that both Gengar and Chandelure were considered top species with a total RV of 500 and 520 respectively. Add an Aegislash with its steel/ghost typing and 500 RV along with maybe a Jellicent with its water/ghost typing and 480 RV to that lineup would result in a full team of six ghosts with a nice diverse secondary typing.
Maybe even more important than that was that all six species were strong, ensuring that there would be no weak link, though unlike with Honedge, which I could actually get thanks to the high number of Aegislash and Doublade living in Utopia, I would first have to get my hands on a Frillish and Jellicent to see if that would help Utopia create a Frillish Nurturing Matrix. Otherwise, I would have to get my hand on a bunch of high-potential Jellicent to establish a breeding group. It may be easier to simply swap it with Golurk since I had a lot of those in Utopia as well, though that would overlap with the guaranteed high-quality supply of Sandygast provided by the Sandygast Nurturing Matrix.
Perhaps using Cofagrigus as a replacement would be better since it would be a pure ghost type. Still, I was actually curious if the addition of Frillish and Jellicent would allow Utopia to work out a Nurturing Matrix for Frillish, so I would have to try that out anyway before making any hypothetical plans about establishing a group of ghost specialist subordinates. If it ended up working I could try my luck with more ghost species, like Dhelmise, Pumpkaboo, or Driftloon.
After temporarily tying up that line there, I focused back on what I could do right now, so I inquired with Utopia what it needed to arrange the Litwick Nurturing Matrix as well as the Mimikyu nurturing one since both seemed to be missing some components for the setup. Utopia revealed that the Litwick one did not necessarily need any extra components, but that it needed a supply of high-quality wax to maintain the same potential standard as the other matrixes. I would need to provide three kg of D-class wax per Litwick to ensure slightly longer nurturing periods than those of Gastly, while a kg of C-class wax per Litwick could reduce those periods to the same level as the Sandygast Matrix.
Unfortunately, even natural waxes fell under the same category of unreplicable goods just like blood, so I would have to provide/procure those myself, though I doubted that it would be too hard. Worst case I ordered the Beedrill living in Utopia to produce and offer up some Beedrill Wax, though simply going out and buying a ton of C-Class wax from a store or online shop at once would probably be easier since I would then not have to worry about the supply for about 4000 weeks since that amount would cover the nurturing of 1000 Litwick.
I naturally asked if using B-class wax would help raise the minimum potential limit above light green but Utopia denied that and declared that it would simply reduce the nurturing period to around 2 weeks instead as long as I used 3 kg instead of just the 1 that sufficed since the light green limit was the ceiling of the current matrixes. I had to admit that even that was very tempting, though I would first have to see how much that would cost. As long as it was not too absurd, I would probably go for it.
The Mimikyu Nurturing Matrix on the other hand actually needed two things for the setup. The first was an old plushy that had truly been treated with care and fondness before being eventually discarded or simply set aside to gather dust. I had to admit that that was a very specific requirement and I was very happy that I only needed one of those to be used during the core array arrangement. That there was no quality requirement for the plushy was another relief, though I made sure that using a low-quality plushy would have no impact on the nurtured Mimikyu. Utopia assured me that it was the emotions poured into the plushy and the contrast of it then being left to gather dust or discarded that was important.
When Utopia suggested going for a plushy that had been left to gather dust instead of being discarded/thrown away since the Mimikyu nurtured through the former would be more likely to be compliant, I naturally decided to follow its suggestion. Anyway, the second component I had to supply was a cloth/some fabric that could be used to cover Mimikyu's actual body. Apparently, it was a necessity due to Mimikyu's Disguise ability, and the nurturing would not be complete without the first initiation of that ability.
Still, Utopia informed me that unlike with Litwick, the quality of the cloth would not affect the length of Mimikyu's nurturing period. Using higher quality cloth, especially one that has been processed into something cute/good looking, would however raise the happiness and temperament of the nurtured Mimikyu. I felt that that was a good enough reason to use processed fabrics anyway. That aside, the nurturing period for Mimikyu was pretty much the same as that of Sandygast.
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