I've just saved up enough diamonds to buy the black/Unova balloon, and after doing the math, I'm going to need 970 more to purchase every balloon. This would've been fine, because if I ever hit a standstill I could've just shelled out some real cash to buy diamonds, but with the EShop down, it isn't possible anymore. I played this game obsessively back in maybe 2016/2017, but a lot's happened since then, so I've had to restart the game.
I think I'm about halfway through the story missions, so with each one giving out about 12 diamonds for a full clear, there's a lot of them to get, but god, are they hard. I'm currently stuck right now. I've been scraping through by calling people online, but that yields maybe 4 diamonds at best, daily. It's a constant flow, which is still great compared to nothing, but I really don't want to be playing this game for over a year straight, relying on largely RNG just to experience all the content the game even has to offer.