So I decided to do the egglocke challenge on my second save file and my pokemon are at least 5-6 levels higher than they were than they were when I did my first playthrough. Is there a reason? I only grinded one time and it was for one Pokemon. I’m playing normal mode. I’m in Hekate Town fighting the Infernal Cult and my strongest is level 64(everyone else are around lvl 60) whereas in my original playthrough my strongest was about lvl 57 and everyone else were about lvl 54.
Each and every pokemon species has different amounts of base xp they give upon defeat (along with their levels and modifiers). You may have fought pokemon that gave a higher base yield of xp, or higher levels than the first run through by luck. Also, unless you counted how many pokemon you fought, there is a pretty good chance you just ended up fighting more pokemon than the first time. Unless there is some feature about egglockes I don’t know about… which is possible considering I never played one, but those are the only two reasons I can think of off the top of my head. XP is kinda hard to “predict” (yes there is mathematical ways to predict a single Pokemon’s yield, but over an entire game you can’t account for all the different pokemon and how many you fight, there is too much randomness). So, going off where you should be in terms of levels at certain places, is kinda… strange…
Edit: I also forgot, each pokemon species also has a speed of growth. Fast, medium fast, medium slow, and slow. If you ended up with pokemon species who level faster than your first run, they will of course level up higher with less xp required.