It's been a while since the last post -- not sure I can remember what order things went in.
Anyway, I've done the rounds and collected the legendaries. Kyogre and Groudon weren't too bad, the Regis broke out of a slew of Ultra Balls as usual, and once spotted, Latias was a pain to both track and catch. There was yelling and complaining. Still, like I shouted at the game numerous times, it was gonna happen, and now they're all safely tucked away in the Specials box on the PC.
The Latias I named Skye, and she will be the companion to the original Emerald game's Latios, Cloud. Not sure if I'll name the others, except Rayquaza (his name is Serpentine, and he's my Fly/Surf slave). I've noticed that folks trading for legendaries don't always like them to come with nicknames.
During all that, I had to trade over Hugh and Sockeye from the original Emerald to unlock the Regis, since I hadn't caught a Relicanth and didn't feel like raising another Wailord. So I took a look at what Pokemon I still needed to raise, and traded some of their first forms between games so that they'd earn Exp faster.
Being me, I've been stupid enough to go for EV training on some of them. So Portabella finally got raised up to a Breloom with Spore (and I'm in the midst of training her mate Foolscap), and got her Effort Ribbon. I've also raised a Skitty and used my only Moon Stone in that game to evolve him to a Delcatty; when I trade him back I'll name him Dandy (he's got Attract, Assist, Faint Attack, and Heal Bell).
I'm currently working on Foolscap (Portabella's future mate), Igloo (a Snover), a Cacnea that I'll probably name Prickle, and a Grumpig whose name I haven't come up with yet. After that, I have a Numel to raise, and those dang fossils. Plus I've got two more fossils that I have to restore. Gotta go get the second one from the Desert Underpass.
I also need a Masquerain, but Surskit can't be caught in Emerald. Which leaves me the choice of catching one in Sapphire and trading it over to raise, or maybe breeding one that could have one of my Emerald trainer IDs. I should look up Surskit's egg moves.
Another thing I've done is to go pawing through the Abandoned Ship in both Emerald games and fetch the Scanner for Capt. Stern. That gave me the Deepseatooth in one game and the Deepseascale in the other, which are attached to lvl 25 male and female Clamperl respectively, all ready for trading back and forth for 'Dex credit for Huntail and Gorebyss.
With all of that done, that should finally see my original Emerald 'Dex completed. The second game will take a bit longer, since there's some first and intermediate forms I don't have on hand, and will have to catch, trade, or raise.
Still. Very close now!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Friday, December 17, 2010
Emerald II - We are the Champions
Well, it took two tries, but the Elite Four are down.
I'd turned on the game to do Yet More Training and thought, eh, what the heck, why not just try it. So I gave the E4 a go. To my surprise, I made it all the way up to Wallace without too much difficulty. His Ludicolo was tough, taking out half my team before I finally got it down, but I still had Samson to pit against Wallace's Gyrados. I was within one hit of winning it when I found out the hard way that if you use something like Detect or Protect against Hyper Beam, the user does NOT have to recharge on the following round. Ouch.
Afterwards, I found myself standing on the steps of the Pokemon League with all my Pokemon intact. I was about to reset, but my team had all gained a level or two in the battle. Sure, I'd lost half of over 200K Pokeyen, but regaining those levels would mean SO much grinding....so instead of resetting, I saved.
And then I trudged back into Victory Road and continued training. I got everyone up to lvl 58, except Tabasco who I raised to lvl 59 so I could have him forget Rock Smash and learn Sky Uppercut. Then I fed everyone a Rare Candy to celebrate, and headed up to the Pokemon League again. To guard against monetary loss, I bought up a whole bunch of potions and full restores and revives.
This time, things went much more smoothly. My Pokemon were mostly going first due to their higher levels, and type advantage took most opponents out on one hit. Wallace's Ludicolo was still a bit of a pain, but Samson got his Gyrados down on the recharge round this time, and it was over.
Hall of Fame, ribbons all around. My time was something like 85 hours, but eh.
After the credits rolled, I went back in long enough to get the Nat'l 'Dex, the SS Ticket, and the call from Scott about that place he'd like me to visit, i.e. the Battle Frontier. Oh, and Mom: that Pokemon they were talking about on TV? It's red. :)
So that gives me two completely open Emerald games. I should be able to catch up the second 'Dex with the first by trading, and then I've only got nine Pokemon left that I'll have to hand-raise to complete them both. I'll also be able to catch an extra round of legendaries, and my own Latias. And once both 'Dexes are complete, I'll have the opportunity to collect both of the other Jhoto starters.
And then someday, maybe I can get back to finishing SS.....
I'd turned on the game to do Yet More Training and thought, eh, what the heck, why not just try it. So I gave the E4 a go. To my surprise, I made it all the way up to Wallace without too much difficulty. His Ludicolo was tough, taking out half my team before I finally got it down, but I still had Samson to pit against Wallace's Gyrados. I was within one hit of winning it when I found out the hard way that if you use something like Detect or Protect against Hyper Beam, the user does NOT have to recharge on the following round. Ouch.
Afterwards, I found myself standing on the steps of the Pokemon League with all my Pokemon intact. I was about to reset, but my team had all gained a level or two in the battle. Sure, I'd lost half of over 200K Pokeyen, but regaining those levels would mean SO much grinding....so instead of resetting, I saved.
And then I trudged back into Victory Road and continued training. I got everyone up to lvl 58, except Tabasco who I raised to lvl 59 so I could have him forget Rock Smash and learn Sky Uppercut. Then I fed everyone a Rare Candy to celebrate, and headed up to the Pokemon League again. To guard against monetary loss, I bought up a whole bunch of potions and full restores and revives.
This time, things went much more smoothly. My Pokemon were mostly going first due to their higher levels, and type advantage took most opponents out on one hit. Wallace's Ludicolo was still a bit of a pain, but Samson got his Gyrados down on the recharge round this time, and it was over.
Hall of Fame, ribbons all around. My time was something like 85 hours, but eh.
After the credits rolled, I went back in long enough to get the Nat'l 'Dex, the SS Ticket, and the call from Scott about that place he'd like me to visit, i.e. the Battle Frontier. Oh, and Mom: that Pokemon they were talking about on TV? It's red. :)
So that gives me two completely open Emerald games. I should be able to catch up the second 'Dex with the first by trading, and then I've only got nine Pokemon left that I'll have to hand-raise to complete them both. I'll also be able to catch an extra round of legendaries, and my own Latias. And once both 'Dexes are complete, I'll have the opportunity to collect both of the other Jhoto starters.
And then someday, maybe I can get back to finishing SS.....
Monday, December 13, 2010
Emerald II - E4 Prep
Most of the past few weeks has gone much more to spinning plarn and crocheting than to Pokemon. Maybe it's the mid-winter darkness, maybe it's the allergies, maybe I over-did my last Poke-binge; but I've just been too brain-dead to play much.
Nevertheless, the full team's up to lvl 55, via more expeditions into Victory Road than I care to count. I might try to get them up another level or two, and will probably end up feeding them that last round of Rare Candies to save time. The Champion's highest-levelled Pokemon is at lv 58, so I'll want to get as close to that as I can stand to.
I wish I could get more rematches, both for the XP and for the cash to buy all those Full Restores and Revives I'll need, but Match Call doesn't seem to like me. I miss the Vs. Seeker. It's occurred to me that levelling would go faster if I traded the team to another game, but general stubbornness has kept me from doing that so far.
Before I go for it, I'll want to fix Tabasco's moveset. Poor thing got stuck with Rock Smash so I didn't have to drag along two HM slaves every trip. I'll want to keep Blaze Kick and leave a slot for Sky Uppercut; then teach either Brick Break (via TM) or Seismic Toss (which would require a trade to FR). According to Serebii, Blaziken can in fact learn Dig as well, so I may do that. Aerial Ace would be another choice.
And then it'll be time to save, and see how it goes. I'll be very surprised if I win on the first try without totally relying on potions and revives and such -- and if I lose, I'll have to see whether I've the patience to keep trying with this team.
Nevertheless, the full team's up to lvl 55, via more expeditions into Victory Road than I care to count. I might try to get them up another level or two, and will probably end up feeding them that last round of Rare Candies to save time. The Champion's highest-levelled Pokemon is at lv 58, so I'll want to get as close to that as I can stand to.
I wish I could get more rematches, both for the XP and for the cash to buy all those Full Restores and Revives I'll need, but Match Call doesn't seem to like me. I miss the Vs. Seeker. It's occurred to me that levelling would go faster if I traded the team to another game, but general stubbornness has kept me from doing that so far.
Before I go for it, I'll want to fix Tabasco's moveset. Poor thing got stuck with Rock Smash so I didn't have to drag along two HM slaves every trip. I'll want to keep Blaze Kick and leave a slot for Sky Uppercut; then teach either Brick Break (via TM) or Seismic Toss (which would require a trade to FR). According to Serebii, Blaziken can in fact learn Dig as well, so I may do that. Aerial Ace would be another choice.
And then it'll be time to save, and see how it goes. I'll be very surprised if I win on the first try without totally relying on potions and revives and such -- and if I lose, I'll have to see whether I've the patience to keep trying with this team.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Emerald II - Ready for Victory Road?
Team Aqua is dealt with, the Sootopolis Gym is down, and Rayquaza is caught. The team's levels were high enough that the Gym wasn't too much of a problem. Sky Pillar was still frustrating, but not as impossibly so as it was the first time, and this game's Rayquaza wasn't nearly as hard to catch.
Which means....it's time to head for Victory Road and the Elite Four.
The problem with that is, the Hoenn Elite Four are a serious challenge. In my original Emerald game, it wasn't until my team was lvl 65-70 that I was able to get a truly decisive win.
The team in this game is only at lvl 50 (except for Joelle who I have to catch up from lvl 45). The trainers and encounters in Victory Road will help some -- at least for the four team Pokemon I can take along with the HM slaves -- but that'd still only get them to around lvl 55. Maybe. If I'm lucky.
But I do have enough badges to win the obedience of any level of Pokemon. Like, say...my lvl 70+ original team.
So the question becomes: do I trade in my team from the original Emerald, and use them to blast through this game's Elite Four? Or do I slog back into Victory Road as many times as it takes to raise this game's team to at least lvl 60?
The first option would be the sanest...but then I'd feel like I've gotten my team all this way just to deny them the ultimate victory. Knowing me, I'll probably end up raising them to lvl 55 and trying it anyway.
I dunno. The whole thing will likely have to wait until I'm done fooling around with trying to handspin plarn. :)
Which means....it's time to head for Victory Road and the Elite Four.
The problem with that is, the Hoenn Elite Four are a serious challenge. In my original Emerald game, it wasn't until my team was lvl 65-70 that I was able to get a truly decisive win.
The team in this game is only at lvl 50 (except for Joelle who I have to catch up from lvl 45). The trainers and encounters in Victory Road will help some -- at least for the four team Pokemon I can take along with the HM slaves -- but that'd still only get them to around lvl 55. Maybe. If I'm lucky.
But I do have enough badges to win the obedience of any level of Pokemon. Like, say...my lvl 70+ original team.
So the question becomes: do I trade in my team from the original Emerald, and use them to blast through this game's Elite Four? Or do I slog back into Victory Road as many times as it takes to raise this game's team to at least lvl 60?
The first option would be the sanest...but then I'd feel like I've gotten my team all this way just to deny them the ultimate victory. Knowing me, I'll probably end up raising them to lvl 55 and trying it anyway.
I dunno. The whole thing will likely have to wait until I'm done fooling around with trying to handspin plarn. :)
Friday, November 19, 2010
Emerald II - An eternity of EVs, and much HM hate
Well, it took six slices of forever, but EV training is complete. Effort Ribbons and evolutions all around.
Jamie and Drama's EVs were fairly spread out, with a slight concentration in Atk/Sp Atk for Jamie, in Def/Sp Def for Drama, and some extra Speed for both. For Joelle I divided her points between Atk, Sp Atk, and Speed.
Once everyone earned their Effort Ribbons, I held off evolution for Jamie until he'd learned Blizzard (I had him forget Surf to learn it) and for Drama until she'd learned Hyper Voice (it was hilarious watching her take down two opponents at once in a team battle, with nothing but sheer noise!). Joelle was evo'd directly at lvl 37 to get Shadow Punch, then levelled up to match everyone else (the team is all around lvl 45).
Since Match Call is a pain in the ass, I had to hit the various sea and underwater routes to get them all levelled up that far. This gave me access to Sootopolis and Pacifidlog. As to whether you can get into the Sootopolis Gym before the whole mess with the legendaries is cleared up -- no. The Gym's door is closed, as is the door to Sky Pillar, and that old man is blocking access to the Cave of Origin. You can swim around all you want, but nothing's going to open up until Team Aqua's been dealt with and Kyogre's loose.
Final movesets for my three new team members are looking like:
Jamie: Aurora Beam - Ice Ball - Body Slam - Blizzard
Drama: Stomp - Uproar - Supersonic - Hyper Voice
Joelle: Shadow Punch - Confuse Ray - Night Shade - something else, not sure yet
So now I've got three more of the Pokemon I need for Hoenn's 'Dex. YAY. I'll need to trade them back and forth before raising Jamie any more, so I can get 'Dex credit for a Sealeo.
However, this also leaves me with an unforeseen problem: too many Pokemon, and not enough slots on the team. Why? In a word -- HMs.
Technically I think the team at this point would be Tabasco, Samson, Sybil, Jamie, Drama, and Joelle. Usually, though, I spread out a few of the more useful HM moves throughout the party -- Surf, Fly, and Strength, at the least. This leaves me with fewer HMs that have to be dumped on a slave, usually Cut and Rock Smash, and that slave generally has enough room for other moves to still be effective as a team member and go to the E4 along with everyone else.
This time, though, since the focus is hand-raising Pokemon for the 'Dex, I've been exceedingly reluctant to just waste their movesets on HMs. Sure, I've got enough Heart Scales that I can always adjust their movesets later, but somehow I can't bring myself to foist these useless moves off on them.
Instead, I've been using true HM slaves -- Pokemon I don't really need to raise, whose moveset is wasted on HM moves, and who aren't meant to go to the E4. Problem is, there's so damn MANY HM moves in Emerald that this pretty much uses up two slots on the team, because there's nothing in the Hoenn 'Dex that can learn both Fly and Surf (both of which are indispensable just for getting around). Worse yet, the HMs that you could do without most of the time in other games (like Cut and Rock Smash) are actually needed fairly often in Hoenn.
Thing is, having to give up two team slots to HM slaves really slows down training ... a LOT. Unless you don't train the HM slaves up to match the team, in which case you are effectively going around with a party of four. If your heavy hitters go down, those neglected HM slaves don't have a chance.
The ideal would be to have a single HM slave that had all the moves you need most of the time, and one that had the ones you don't need so often. In Hoenn, though, you need too many of the moves on a regular basis. So I guess the best I'm going to be able to do is to divide the moves between two slaves, and just drag them along everywhere. Yuck. What a waste of perfectly good Pokemon.
With that said, the division should probably be one for Fly, Cut, Strength, and Rock Smash; and another for Surf, Dive, Waterfall, and Flash. Too bad that doesn't leave room for any non-HM field moves, like Dig.
I miss my original Emerald team; especially Meadow and Gossamer, who between them had most of the necessary and useful stuff; Jubal took care of Surf, and then I only needed one slave for Dive, Waterfall, and Flash.
Or....hmmmm. I see on the internet that Rayquaza can learn Fly, Surf, Strength, and Rock Smash (plus Flash, Dive, and Waterfall). Oh ho. Maybe once I catch this game's Rayquaza, I can make it do HM duty (one really only needs Cut now and then in certain places) and all I'd need then would be a Water slave for Dive, Waterfall, and Flash. I could raise my female Chinchou Aurore for that; I need a Lanturn anyway. Maybe a Nincada or Anorith for Dig, Cut, Secret Power, and False Swipe.
That way, three Pokemon would get me everything I need; one for basic getting around, one for the water stuff and Victory Road, and another for the other field stuff. Ah HAH.
Now I just need to thrash Team Aqua and catch Rayqyaza...ho boy.
Jamie and Drama's EVs were fairly spread out, with a slight concentration in Atk/Sp Atk for Jamie, in Def/Sp Def for Drama, and some extra Speed for both. For Joelle I divided her points between Atk, Sp Atk, and Speed.
Once everyone earned their Effort Ribbons, I held off evolution for Jamie until he'd learned Blizzard (I had him forget Surf to learn it) and for Drama until she'd learned Hyper Voice (it was hilarious watching her take down two opponents at once in a team battle, with nothing but sheer noise!). Joelle was evo'd directly at lvl 37 to get Shadow Punch, then levelled up to match everyone else (the team is all around lvl 45).
Since Match Call is a pain in the ass, I had to hit the various sea and underwater routes to get them all levelled up that far. This gave me access to Sootopolis and Pacifidlog. As to whether you can get into the Sootopolis Gym before the whole mess with the legendaries is cleared up -- no. The Gym's door is closed, as is the door to Sky Pillar, and that old man is blocking access to the Cave of Origin. You can swim around all you want, but nothing's going to open up until Team Aqua's been dealt with and Kyogre's loose.
Final movesets for my three new team members are looking like:
Jamie: Aurora Beam - Ice Ball - Body Slam - Blizzard
Drama: Stomp - Uproar - Supersonic - Hyper Voice
Joelle: Shadow Punch - Confuse Ray - Night Shade - something else, not sure yet
So now I've got three more of the Pokemon I need for Hoenn's 'Dex. YAY. I'll need to trade them back and forth before raising Jamie any more, so I can get 'Dex credit for a Sealeo.
However, this also leaves me with an unforeseen problem: too many Pokemon, and not enough slots on the team. Why? In a word -- HMs.
Technically I think the team at this point would be Tabasco, Samson, Sybil, Jamie, Drama, and Joelle. Usually, though, I spread out a few of the more useful HM moves throughout the party -- Surf, Fly, and Strength, at the least. This leaves me with fewer HMs that have to be dumped on a slave, usually Cut and Rock Smash, and that slave generally has enough room for other moves to still be effective as a team member and go to the E4 along with everyone else.
This time, though, since the focus is hand-raising Pokemon for the 'Dex, I've been exceedingly reluctant to just waste their movesets on HMs. Sure, I've got enough Heart Scales that I can always adjust their movesets later, but somehow I can't bring myself to foist these useless moves off on them.
Instead, I've been using true HM slaves -- Pokemon I don't really need to raise, whose moveset is wasted on HM moves, and who aren't meant to go to the E4. Problem is, there's so damn MANY HM moves in Emerald that this pretty much uses up two slots on the team, because there's nothing in the Hoenn 'Dex that can learn both Fly and Surf (both of which are indispensable just for getting around). Worse yet, the HMs that you could do without most of the time in other games (like Cut and Rock Smash) are actually needed fairly often in Hoenn.
Thing is, having to give up two team slots to HM slaves really slows down training ... a LOT. Unless you don't train the HM slaves up to match the team, in which case you are effectively going around with a party of four. If your heavy hitters go down, those neglected HM slaves don't have a chance.
The ideal would be to have a single HM slave that had all the moves you need most of the time, and one that had the ones you don't need so often. In Hoenn, though, you need too many of the moves on a regular basis. So I guess the best I'm going to be able to do is to divide the moves between two slaves, and just drag them along everywhere. Yuck. What a waste of perfectly good Pokemon.
With that said, the division should probably be one for Fly, Cut, Strength, and Rock Smash; and another for Surf, Dive, Waterfall, and Flash. Too bad that doesn't leave room for any non-HM field moves, like Dig.
I miss my original Emerald team; especially Meadow and Gossamer, who between them had most of the necessary and useful stuff; Jubal took care of Surf, and then I only needed one slave for Dive, Waterfall, and Flash.
Or....hmmmm. I see on the internet that Rayquaza can learn Fly, Surf, Strength, and Rock Smash (plus Flash, Dive, and Waterfall). Oh ho. Maybe once I catch this game's Rayquaza, I can make it do HM duty (one really only needs Cut now and then in certain places) and all I'd need then would be a Water slave for Dive, Waterfall, and Flash. I could raise my female Chinchou Aurore for that; I need a Lanturn anyway. Maybe a Nincada or Anorith for Dig, Cut, Secret Power, and False Swipe.
That way, three Pokemon would get me everything I need; one for basic getting around, one for the water stuff and Victory Road, and another for the other field stuff. Ah HAH.
Now I just need to thrash Team Aqua and catch Rayqyaza...ho boy.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Emerald II - The pitfalls of Happiness, plus Mossdeep Gym and EV training
Now that I'd figured out what I wanted to do with Sancho and Roland, I took them to the Move Deleter to get rid of their HM moves.
"......Hm! Your Sancho doesn't seem willing to forget Surf," the old man told me. Whaaat?!
I had a sudden sneaking suspicion that I'd run into the same problem my sister had with a Bibarel of hers, who refused to be released or traded. A couple other Pokemon have since displayed the same behavior, and we've been trying to figure out why this happens. To further the experiment, I saved my game, then tried releasing Sancho.
"Sancho came back! Was it worried about you?"
Yep, same message as with that Bibarel. On the theory that this behavior is related to high Happiness, I went to see that lady in Verdanturf, and showed her Sancho.
"Oh! Your Lotad...It adores you. It couldn't possibly love you more," she gushed. "I even feel happy seeing it."
Ah hah! It seemed that once a Pokemon reaches max Happiness (250+), it would stubbornly refuse to abandon its trainer, or forget the HM moves its trainer gave it. But this was a problem -- what if I couldn't trade Sancho over to the original Emerald game, much less adjust his moveset?
I scooted over to the medicinal shop and bought some nasty bitter herbal remedies, which are supposed to lower happiness, then went out into the grass in search of Oddish to inflict damage and status conditions. Feeding Sancho some of the herbs didn't seem to help, however.
While I mulled over the problem, I evolved Roland, then took him and Knives through the Mossdeep Gym. The battle with Tate and Liza was a near thing -- that Xatu of theirs, jacked up on Calm Mind, took out most of my team. Good thing this wasn't a Nuzlocke run! Badge in hand, I wrapped up Roland's training with some rematches. I even wrote some Mail for him to hold.
With Roland ready to go, I finally just went for the trading, and what do you know, Sancho went over without a single complaint. Apparently they didn't introduce the happiness-prevents-trading feature until Gen IV.
With Sancho's Happiness thus re-set to the default, I was able to adjust his moveset in the original Emerald game, and evolve him to a Ludicolo. That gave me 'Dex credit for four more Pokemon (Sancho and Roland plus the final evo's of Tabasco and Samson).
Forgetting completely about the Mossdeep Space Center, I then set about training my new team members. So far I've gone for Attack and Defense EVs for Jamie and Drama, via the combination of Macho Brace and Exp Share. It looks like Drama will need much more Defense, as that's her weakest stat, and Jamie will be needing some Speed. Haven't started with Joelle. It's going to take a while before any of them are up to resuming the game storyline, that's for sure.
11/9/2010 -- Turns out that Macho Brace only doubles EPs for the Pokemon holding it, and this doesn't transfer via Exp Share. So if Jamie's holding Macho Brace and fights a Zubat, he'd gain 2 Speed EPs, but poor wee Drama only gets the normal 1 EP from holding Exp Share. That's going to slow things down a bit...
"......Hm! Your Sancho doesn't seem willing to forget Surf," the old man told me. Whaaat?!
I had a sudden sneaking suspicion that I'd run into the same problem my sister had with a Bibarel of hers, who refused to be released or traded. A couple other Pokemon have since displayed the same behavior, and we've been trying to figure out why this happens. To further the experiment, I saved my game, then tried releasing Sancho.
"Sancho came back! Was it worried about you?"
Yep, same message as with that Bibarel. On the theory that this behavior is related to high Happiness, I went to see that lady in Verdanturf, and showed her Sancho.
"Oh! Your Lotad...It adores you. It couldn't possibly love you more," she gushed. "I even feel happy seeing it."
Ah hah! It seemed that once a Pokemon reaches max Happiness (250+), it would stubbornly refuse to abandon its trainer, or forget the HM moves its trainer gave it. But this was a problem -- what if I couldn't trade Sancho over to the original Emerald game, much less adjust his moveset?
I scooted over to the medicinal shop and bought some nasty bitter herbal remedies, which are supposed to lower happiness, then went out into the grass in search of Oddish to inflict damage and status conditions. Feeding Sancho some of the herbs didn't seem to help, however.
While I mulled over the problem, I evolved Roland, then took him and Knives through the Mossdeep Gym. The battle with Tate and Liza was a near thing -- that Xatu of theirs, jacked up on Calm Mind, took out most of my team. Good thing this wasn't a Nuzlocke run! Badge in hand, I wrapped up Roland's training with some rematches. I even wrote some Mail for him to hold.
With Roland ready to go, I finally just went for the trading, and what do you know, Sancho went over without a single complaint. Apparently they didn't introduce the happiness-prevents-trading feature until Gen IV.
With Sancho's Happiness thus re-set to the default, I was able to adjust his moveset in the original Emerald game, and evolve him to a Ludicolo. That gave me 'Dex credit for four more Pokemon (Sancho and Roland plus the final evo's of Tabasco and Samson).
Forgetting completely about the Mossdeep Space Center, I then set about training my new team members. So far I've gone for Attack and Defense EVs for Jamie and Drama, via the combination of Macho Brace and Exp Share. It looks like Drama will need much more Defense, as that's her weakest stat, and Jamie will be needing some Speed. Haven't started with Joelle. It's going to take a while before any of them are up to resuming the game storyline, that's for sure.
11/9/2010 -- Turns out that Macho Brace only doubles EPs for the Pokemon holding it, and this doesn't transfer via Exp Share. So if Jamie's holding Macho Brace and fights a Zubat, he'd gain 2 Speed EPs, but poor wee Drama only gets the normal 1 EP from holding Exp Share. That's going to slow things down a bit...
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Emerald II - Moveset Musings
Having chased Team Magma out of their hideout and watched Groudon give Maxie the slip, I went about chasing Team Aqua out of -their- hideout. Only, I'd forgotten that you have to truck down to Slateport to watch them steal Stern's sub first, and that they get to make off with it to awaken Kyogre, who is on the oceanfloor rather than actually in the hideout. Regardless, I was finally able to get those Wailmer out of the way and surf on to Mossdeep...and Shoal Cave.
So I am now the proud trainer of a lvl 26 Spheal, named after Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman. Because, y'know, the 'stache.
Except... that means I'm at the point where I can rotate some new Pokemon into my team. And that means I have to get some movesets straight, particularly the Pokes I'm rotating out.
First problem is Sancho, my Lotad. I'd originally figured on him having Surf and Strength, plus Uproar and some kind of solid grass move. Except, despite being a water/grass type, Lotad learn pretty much NO grass moves after Absorb, and no water moves of any use until they get Hydro Pump at lvl 49. In fact, it's almost as if their learnset is pathetic precisely so they can be HM slaves.
Only, if I want to train that Spheal (and I do, 'cause I need credit for both Sealeo and Walrein) I won't be using Sancho as an HM slave. So, what to do?
Sancho's actually been doing pretty well with just Absorb, Nature Power, Uproar, and Surf. So maybe I have him forget Surf and remember Thief, and then hand him a Water Stone. That way I'll have a hand-raised Ludicolo that isn't just a bunch of HM/TM moves.
Next problem is Roland, my little Phanpy. I'd been keeping him from evolving because Donphan don't have Pickup, and wasting him as an HM slave to boot. Only, Donphan have a much better learnset -- they get Rapid Spin at lvl 41, Earthquake at lvl 49, and can remember Horn Attack via the Move Relearner. So I guess it's time to have Roland forget the HM moves, keep Rollout, and level him up some to get the other three (though 49's a long way to go....maybe I'll finish that out over in the original Emerald. Folks ought to be wanting rematches by now).
That leaves me with the problem of who to stick with Strength and Rock Smash. It seems Skarmory can learn Rock Smash but not Strength, so I guess poor Knives gets to play slave some more. Maybe I really do need a Tropius, though that's a waste of a perfectly good grass type. Damn HMs.
After trading out Sancho and Roland, the team would then be down to Tabasco, Sybil, and Samson; which allows me to add in Drama (my teeny lvl 6 Whiiiiismur), Joelle (lvl 26 Duskull), and Jamie (the aforementioned Spheal, lvl 26). They will all need a bunch of levelling/EVs, especially Drama.
I'd planned for Drama to have Uproar and Hyper Voice, and probably Strength. But Supersonic and Stomp seem more...dramatic. heh. It should be noted that Loudred and Exploud can learn both Strength and Rock Smash...and Rock Smash might actually make sense as an off-type move for such a straight normal type.
Joelle will need to evolve directly at lvl 37 to learn Shadow Punch, and will unfortunately have to relearn Night Shade (I should have a few Heart Scales tucked away). Confuse Ray and Disable are the other contenders, though Dusclops can learn Strength and Rock Smash as well, and again it makes sense to have an off-type, non-ghost move.
For Jamie, I was intending to give him both Surf and Dive, but once again, it seems a shame to waste so much of his moveset on HMs. Damn, damn HMs. I'd rather keep stuff like Ice Ball (an ice version of Rollout) or Body Slam. Aurora Beam and (much later) Blizzard are contenders as well. Plus the final attack in the learnset is the one-hit KO move Sheer Cold. How cool would that be? (no pun intended).
For Flash and Waterfall, which I'll need to get through Victory Road, I'm going once again with a Chinchou. Only this time I should evolve it, because I need a Lanturn for the 'Dex. They evolve at lvl 27, and don't learn anything really compelling anyway, so I can pretty much let it go right away. It can keep Supersonic and Spark for its other attacks (or maybe Thunder Wave if I catch it at a low enough level).
An option I should keep in mind is that I can always have everyone forget their HM moves and relearn things from their own movesets once I'm through the Elite Four.
So the next thing (after completing Shoal Cave at low tide, and possibly the Space Center and Mossdeep Gym) is to catch my new team members up to the others via Macho Brace and Exp Share, and to get everyone up to lvl 45. Maybe I'll spend some Rare Candies on the ones who already have Effort Ribbons. Then it'll be time for the undersea routes, and the mess with the squabbling legendaries.
Emerald is a long game. *whew*
So I am now the proud trainer of a lvl 26 Spheal, named after Mythbuster Jamie Hyneman. Because, y'know, the 'stache.
Except... that means I'm at the point where I can rotate some new Pokemon into my team. And that means I have to get some movesets straight, particularly the Pokes I'm rotating out.
First problem is Sancho, my Lotad. I'd originally figured on him having Surf and Strength, plus Uproar and some kind of solid grass move. Except, despite being a water/grass type, Lotad learn pretty much NO grass moves after Absorb, and no water moves of any use until they get Hydro Pump at lvl 49. In fact, it's almost as if their learnset is pathetic precisely so they can be HM slaves.
Only, if I want to train that Spheal (and I do, 'cause I need credit for both Sealeo and Walrein) I won't be using Sancho as an HM slave. So, what to do?
Sancho's actually been doing pretty well with just Absorb, Nature Power, Uproar, and Surf. So maybe I have him forget Surf and remember Thief, and then hand him a Water Stone. That way I'll have a hand-raised Ludicolo that isn't just a bunch of HM/TM moves.
Next problem is Roland, my little Phanpy. I'd been keeping him from evolving because Donphan don't have Pickup, and wasting him as an HM slave to boot. Only, Donphan have a much better learnset -- they get Rapid Spin at lvl 41, Earthquake at lvl 49, and can remember Horn Attack via the Move Relearner. So I guess it's time to have Roland forget the HM moves, keep Rollout, and level him up some to get the other three (though 49's a long way to go....maybe I'll finish that out over in the original Emerald. Folks ought to be wanting rematches by now).
That leaves me with the problem of who to stick with Strength and Rock Smash. It seems Skarmory can learn Rock Smash but not Strength, so I guess poor Knives gets to play slave some more. Maybe I really do need a Tropius, though that's a waste of a perfectly good grass type. Damn HMs.
After trading out Sancho and Roland, the team would then be down to Tabasco, Sybil, and Samson; which allows me to add in Drama (my teeny lvl 6 Whiiiiismur), Joelle (lvl 26 Duskull), and Jamie (the aforementioned Spheal, lvl 26). They will all need a bunch of levelling/EVs, especially Drama.
I'd planned for Drama to have Uproar and Hyper Voice, and probably Strength. But Supersonic and Stomp seem more...dramatic. heh. It should be noted that Loudred and Exploud can learn both Strength and Rock Smash...and Rock Smash might actually make sense as an off-type move for such a straight normal type.
Joelle will need to evolve directly at lvl 37 to learn Shadow Punch, and will unfortunately have to relearn Night Shade (I should have a few Heart Scales tucked away). Confuse Ray and Disable are the other contenders, though Dusclops can learn Strength and Rock Smash as well, and again it makes sense to have an off-type, non-ghost move.
For Jamie, I was intending to give him both Surf and Dive, but once again, it seems a shame to waste so much of his moveset on HMs. Damn, damn HMs. I'd rather keep stuff like Ice Ball (an ice version of Rollout) or Body Slam. Aurora Beam and (much later) Blizzard are contenders as well. Plus the final attack in the learnset is the one-hit KO move Sheer Cold. How cool would that be? (no pun intended).
For Flash and Waterfall, which I'll need to get through Victory Road, I'm going once again with a Chinchou. Only this time I should evolve it, because I need a Lanturn for the 'Dex. They evolve at lvl 27, and don't learn anything really compelling anyway, so I can pretty much let it go right away. It can keep Supersonic and Spark for its other attacks (or maybe Thunder Wave if I catch it at a low enough level).
An option I should keep in mind is that I can always have everyone forget their HM moves and relearn things from their own movesets once I'm through the Elite Four.
So the next thing (after completing Shoal Cave at low tide, and possibly the Space Center and Mossdeep Gym) is to catch my new team members up to the others via Macho Brace and Exp Share, and to get everyone up to lvl 45. Maybe I'll spend some Rare Candies on the ones who already have Effort Ribbons. Then it'll be time for the undersea routes, and the mess with the squabbling legendaries.
Emerald is a long game. *whew*
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Emerald II Dawdling and FR Impatience
On the Emerald side of things, I did climb Mt. Pyre to witness Team Aqua making off with the Red Orb, but mostly spent a weekend growing Berries, making Pokeblocks, and attempting Contests. Turns out that blending at the different tables changes the flavor of the resulting Pokeblock, moreso than the level or feel. So Sybil's up to Hyper Rank in Smart, and Samson and Tabasco are up to Great Rank in Cool and Beauty respectively.
The next task will be to see what Team Magma's up to at Mt. Chimney, and to watch them awaken poor grumpy Groudon. Then it'll be back to Lilycove to start out on the sea routes, and if I haven't caught a Duskull to train already, I'll want to do that. Also, as soon as I get to Mossdeep I'll want to Surf north to Shoal Cave to get my Spheal.
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In a sudden fit of impatience, I decided to ditch Entei-hunting for a bit in FireRed, and catch the other legendaries and do the round of the Sevii Islands instead. The birds were much more of a bitch to catch this time; for Articuno I had to restart I don't know HOW many times after spending all 25 Ultra Balls. Zapdos and Moltres were recalcitrant as well.
Finally, though, I managed to catch all three, and then set about fetching gemstones for Celio. The many trainers about the islands served to level the team up to around lvl 57-58, with Irving much higher at lvl 66 -- his attack set isn't good for long slogs like that so I'd handed him Exp Share. So that gives me trading capability with the Hoenn region games.
The only thing left to do is to go after Mewtwo, and attempt to net him with an Ultra Ball. Once that's done, there'll be no excuses left to put off resuming the hunt for Entei... *sigh*
The next task will be to see what Team Magma's up to at Mt. Chimney, and to watch them awaken poor grumpy Groudon. Then it'll be back to Lilycove to start out on the sea routes, and if I haven't caught a Duskull to train already, I'll want to do that. Also, as soon as I get to Mossdeep I'll want to Surf north to Shoal Cave to get my Spheal.
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In a sudden fit of impatience, I decided to ditch Entei-hunting for a bit in FireRed, and catch the other legendaries and do the round of the Sevii Islands instead. The birds were much more of a bitch to catch this time; for Articuno I had to restart I don't know HOW many times after spending all 25 Ultra Balls. Zapdos and Moltres were recalcitrant as well.
Finally, though, I managed to catch all three, and then set about fetching gemstones for Celio. The many trainers about the islands served to level the team up to around lvl 57-58, with Irving much higher at lvl 66 -- his attack set isn't good for long slogs like that so I'd handed him Exp Share. So that gives me trading capability with the Hoenn region games.
The only thing left to do is to go after Mewtwo, and attempt to net him with an Ultra Ball. Once that's done, there'll be no excuses left to put off resuming the hunt for Entei... *sigh*
Friday, October 22, 2010
Emerald II: Lolling around Lilycove
Spent most of this week watching season one of BSG rather than playing Pokemon, so, not much progress. Also fending off some zombies. Yep.
But I did take a couple turns around the Safari Zone, and caught a few more things. Plus, won Normal Rank Ribbons for a few of the team -- Smart for Sybil, Cool for Samson, and Beauty for Tabasco (despite his mixed Cool/Beauty moveset, he seems destined to be pretty).
That, of course, led to blending Pokeblocks, which in turn led to growing Berries. Turns out that using the higher-numbered Berries will get you Level 23/Feel 19 Pokeblocks, even as much as I suck at blending. That's about the same level as the Dept.Store Poffins in Platinum, so it's enough to max a given condition. Sure, they take longer to grow (with the curious exception of Hondew) but what the hey. Hopefully I can harvest before tomorrow's hectic day...maybe I'll go down to the Berry Master's plot on Sunday and replant the Berries I get from today.
In any case, I'd like to get at least Great and maybe Hyper/Ultra Rank for each of them before moving on to Mt. Pyre and getting the story moving again. Might as well do it now; I've noticed that the end-state battle movesets are rarely good for contests.
But I did take a couple turns around the Safari Zone, and caught a few more things. Plus, won Normal Rank Ribbons for a few of the team -- Smart for Sybil, Cool for Samson, and Beauty for Tabasco (despite his mixed Cool/Beauty moveset, he seems destined to be pretty).
That, of course, led to blending Pokeblocks, which in turn led to growing Berries. Turns out that using the higher-numbered Berries will get you Level 23/Feel 19 Pokeblocks, even as much as I suck at blending. That's about the same level as the Dept.Store Poffins in Platinum, so it's enough to max a given condition. Sure, they take longer to grow (with the curious exception of Hondew) but what the hey. Hopefully I can harvest before tomorrow's hectic day...maybe I'll go down to the Berry Master's plot on Sunday and replant the Berries I get from today.
In any case, I'd like to get at least Great and maybe Hyper/Ultra Rank for each of them before moving on to Mt. Pyre and getting the story moving again. Might as well do it now; I've noticed that the end-state battle movesets are rarely good for contests.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Emerald II to Lilycove
Couldn't update last week because work was crazy and Google didn't think I was a human being. o_o
First -- Petalburg to Fortree
When I last posted, some serious training was being undertaken towards toughening up the team for the Petalburg Gym. It mostly worked. I still had to run out and heal after almost every trainer, but in the end, it was Samson who one-shotted most of Norman's Pokemon with Leaf Blade. Gonna have to feed him some PP Up for that move.
That got me Surf, which got me access to the eastern half of Hoenn. Instead of running up to Fortree right away, I spent a while at the Berry Masters' farm, growing a crop of Leppa and an assortment of status-cure Berries. I also dodged over to the Desert and made the round of the trainers and items there.
With the Berries all harvested and the Desert explored, it was time to make the long run up to Fortree. In the rain. Still, all that levelling for Petalburg paid off. Nothing was all that much trouble -- not the trainers along the road, nor Team Magma at the Weather Institute, nor the rival battle with neighbor boy. I walked into Fortree with Tropius and Castform recorded in my 'Dex, and HM Fly tucked away in my bag.
Before I could get to the Gym, though, I had to run over to Rt. 120 and grab the Devon Scope from Stephen to reveal the Kecleon blocking the way. I spent a frustrating little while running about trying to catch one of the invisible Kecleon scattered about, and finally succeeded. 'Dex entry safely recorded, it was time to take on Winona. Tabasco got me through most of the Fortree Gym with Blaze Kick.
That got me my sixth badge, and obedience to lvl 70. Amusing to think that this still wouldn't make my team from the original Emerald listen to me here, since they're all lvl 70 or above!
By that time, Twitter had learned Aerial Ace, which is the last attack I'd wanted him to learn, so I let him evolve to a Swellow before putting him away and taking out my hard-caught Skarmory. Knives immediately got taught Cut and Fly.
Second -- Fortree to Lilycove
The game got put down for most of the week due to general work craziness, but last night I finally set out for Lilycove. The route wasn't nearly as much trouble as last time, again due to the team's high levels. I put Exp Share on Knives to catch him up some with the rest of the team, and took a second to dodge down past Mt. Pyre to Rt. 123, where a gal will give you Giga Drain if you've got a Grass-type with you (mental note: must do this in original Emerald as well). I ended up teaching it to Samson instead of Sancho.
Because it was already waaaay past bedtime, I left Mt. Pyre and the Safari Zone alone, and just went straight for Lilycove....where the annoying neighbor boy is waiting for me again, in front of the Dept. Store.
So the next things will be to do a few turns through the Safari Zone for some 'Dex entries, then to make the pilgrimage up Mt. Pyre and advance the plot a bit. Probably should take a minute to smack down the neighbor boy again, and get at least a couple ribbons for the core team.
Also, Tabasco and Sybil are refusing to be fed vitamins, so I should swing by Slateport and see if it's time for Effort Ribbons. Possibly for Twitter and Sancho as well.
Speaking of Sancho....I'd originally intended to have him as a partial HM slave, with Surf and Strength, and then get Giga Drain to go against the very water-heavy last half of the game. But now that he's one level away from learning Uproar, I'm not so sure. I'd much rather have Samson as my go-to Grass type.
So now I'm leaning towards fixing Sancho's moveset to replace the HM moves with some from his own learnset, evolving him, and then trading him back to the original Emerald. Same with Roland, actually. I should probably hold out on that at least until I make it to Mossdeep and can catch a Spheal from Shoal Cave. At that point, the Spheal can become my Surfer, and Knives can take over Rock Smash and maybe Strength from Roland. I really HATE how many HMs this game has, and how many are actually necessary to do certain things.
The final team is shaping up to be Tabasco, Sybil, Samson, that Spheal, and...I dunno yet. I did want to raise dear little Drama, and maybe a Dusclops. Perhaps once I get to a point where I can rotate the team somewhat, I can go back and do some catch-up training with the Macho Brace.
First -- Petalburg to Fortree
When I last posted, some serious training was being undertaken towards toughening up the team for the Petalburg Gym. It mostly worked. I still had to run out and heal after almost every trainer, but in the end, it was Samson who one-shotted most of Norman's Pokemon with Leaf Blade. Gonna have to feed him some PP Up for that move.
That got me Surf, which got me access to the eastern half of Hoenn. Instead of running up to Fortree right away, I spent a while at the Berry Masters' farm, growing a crop of Leppa and an assortment of status-cure Berries. I also dodged over to the Desert and made the round of the trainers and items there.
With the Berries all harvested and the Desert explored, it was time to make the long run up to Fortree. In the rain. Still, all that levelling for Petalburg paid off. Nothing was all that much trouble -- not the trainers along the road, nor Team Magma at the Weather Institute, nor the rival battle with neighbor boy. I walked into Fortree with Tropius and Castform recorded in my 'Dex, and HM Fly tucked away in my bag.
Before I could get to the Gym, though, I had to run over to Rt. 120 and grab the Devon Scope from Stephen to reveal the Kecleon blocking the way. I spent a frustrating little while running about trying to catch one of the invisible Kecleon scattered about, and finally succeeded. 'Dex entry safely recorded, it was time to take on Winona. Tabasco got me through most of the Fortree Gym with Blaze Kick.
That got me my sixth badge, and obedience to lvl 70. Amusing to think that this still wouldn't make my team from the original Emerald listen to me here, since they're all lvl 70 or above!
By that time, Twitter had learned Aerial Ace, which is the last attack I'd wanted him to learn, so I let him evolve to a Swellow before putting him away and taking out my hard-caught Skarmory. Knives immediately got taught Cut and Fly.
Second -- Fortree to Lilycove
The game got put down for most of the week due to general work craziness, but last night I finally set out for Lilycove. The route wasn't nearly as much trouble as last time, again due to the team's high levels. I put Exp Share on Knives to catch him up some with the rest of the team, and took a second to dodge down past Mt. Pyre to Rt. 123, where a gal will give you Giga Drain if you've got a Grass-type with you (mental note: must do this in original Emerald as well). I ended up teaching it to Samson instead of Sancho.
Because it was already waaaay past bedtime, I left Mt. Pyre and the Safari Zone alone, and just went straight for Lilycove....where the annoying neighbor boy is waiting for me again, in front of the Dept. Store.
So the next things will be to do a few turns through the Safari Zone for some 'Dex entries, then to make the pilgrimage up Mt. Pyre and advance the plot a bit. Probably should take a minute to smack down the neighbor boy again, and get at least a couple ribbons for the core team.
Also, Tabasco and Sybil are refusing to be fed vitamins, so I should swing by Slateport and see if it's time for Effort Ribbons. Possibly for Twitter and Sancho as well.
Speaking of Sancho....I'd originally intended to have him as a partial HM slave, with Surf and Strength, and then get Giga Drain to go against the very water-heavy last half of the game. But now that he's one level away from learning Uproar, I'm not so sure. I'd much rather have Samson as my go-to Grass type.
So now I'm leaning towards fixing Sancho's moveset to replace the HM moves with some from his own learnset, evolving him, and then trading him back to the original Emerald. Same with Roland, actually. I should probably hold out on that at least until I make it to Mossdeep and can catch a Spheal from Shoal Cave. At that point, the Spheal can become my Surfer, and Knives can take over Rock Smash and maybe Strength from Roland. I really HATE how many HMs this game has, and how many are actually necessary to do certain things.
The final team is shaping up to be Tabasco, Sybil, Samson, that Spheal, and...I dunno yet. I did want to raise dear little Drama, and maybe a Dusclops. Perhaps once I get to a point where I can rotate the team somewhat, I can go back and do some catch-up training with the Macho Brace.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Emerald II to Petalburg
As I suspected, the Lavaridge Gym was really tough. Not so much the other trainers, but Flannery. I really needed to either have more super-effective attacks, or have the team levelled way higher than they were. I only beat Flannery by dint of using nearly all my potions, which didn't feel like much of a victory. Even worse, Roland -- who was the only one of the team who had the Defense to really stand up to Overheat -- stopped obeying me as soon as he hit lvl 31. In the end, my poor little Tabasco, who was still a Torchik at the time, managed to pull out the win.
So now Roland will listen to me again for a while, and Samson will obey me as well. At least until lvl 50.
To really deal with the Desert, though, Sancho should have Surf. And to get Surf, I need Petalburg's badge. However, a battle or two with the Petalburg Gym trainers confirmed my suspicion: the team just isn't levelled enough. This is the classic problem with overlevelling...you coast along one-shotting everything, and then run into a wall when you reach a point where it becomes obvious you haven't needed to train as much as you should have.
Petalburg Gym is one of those points. Because normal-types don't really have any type advantages, the whole gym is a strategic showcase: really high Speed to strike first, for example; or confusing opponents, or tank-like Defense, etc. In my first game, I remember that even some of the warm-up trainers were tricky, and Norman was really strong.
So I've been taking some time out to level-grind like crazy, with an emphasis on levelling to evolve. I made a point of battling a humongous horde of Zubat in Meteor Falls, too, to get some speed EVs for Roland and Sybil. Also spent a bunch of time one-shotting Spinda, to get Sybil a higher Sp. Attk.
Tabasco is finally a Combusken, and I'm working to get Sybil up to lvl 40 so she can learn Future Sight and evolve to a Gardevoir. Because I'll want Tabasco to evolve again in a couple levels, I'll need to do a few quick rotating trades to get 'Dex credit in the original Emerald (and I should fix Roland's name). I should probably spend a little time levelling up Sancho and Twitter as well, just to keep the team sort of even.
And then, look out Norman!
So now Roland will listen to me again for a while, and Samson will obey me as well. At least until lvl 50.
To really deal with the Desert, though, Sancho should have Surf. And to get Surf, I need Petalburg's badge. However, a battle or two with the Petalburg Gym trainers confirmed my suspicion: the team just isn't levelled enough. This is the classic problem with overlevelling...you coast along one-shotting everything, and then run into a wall when you reach a point where it becomes obvious you haven't needed to train as much as you should have.
Petalburg Gym is one of those points. Because normal-types don't really have any type advantages, the whole gym is a strategic showcase: really high Speed to strike first, for example; or confusing opponents, or tank-like Defense, etc. In my first game, I remember that even some of the warm-up trainers were tricky, and Norman was really strong.
So I've been taking some time out to level-grind like crazy, with an emphasis on levelling to evolve. I made a point of battling a humongous horde of Zubat in Meteor Falls, too, to get some speed EVs for Roland and Sybil. Also spent a bunch of time one-shotting Spinda, to get Sybil a higher Sp. Attk.
Tabasco is finally a Combusken, and I'm working to get Sybil up to lvl 40 so she can learn Future Sight and evolve to a Gardevoir. Because I'll want Tabasco to evolve again in a couple levels, I'll need to do a few quick rotating trades to get 'Dex credit in the original Emerald (and I should fix Roland's name). I should probably spend a little time levelling up Sancho and Twitter as well, just to keep the team sort of even.
And then, look out Norman!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Emerald II to Lavaridge
Before leaving Mauville, I did some trading, exchanging Hemmingway and that nameless Zigzagoon for Samson and a Phanpy from my original Emerald game. I forgot to name the Phanpy before sending him over, though. If I take him all the way to the E4 I'll have to fix that, so he's recorded as Roland and not just as PHANPY.
While I was trading I also sent Sybil back and forth, to get 'Dex credit for Kirlia. So now she can evolve after she learns Future Sight; I'm figuring on a moveset of Calm Mind, Psychic, Future Sight, and possibly an off-type attack to replace Confusion.
That gave me a couple more 'Dex entries in the original Emerald, where I took the time to get Hemmingway raised to a Slaking. I took him to the Move Deleter to forget Cut, so his final moveset was Faint Attack, Slash, Yawn, and....I forget if I replaced Slack Off with something else. Hmm.
Anyway, with all that out of the way, I hit the road north from Mauville, fighting trainers as I went. Only, I forgot: you can't get into the desert at that point in the game, because you need the Go-Goggles, and you only get those after beating the Lavaridge Gym. So I crept through the Fiery Path, slogged around through Spinda-infested volcanic ash to Fallarbor. On the way I caught a Skarmory, who took most of my stock of Pokeballs to capture. I named him Knives, and put him in my Specials box to be an HM slave later.
Perhaps to balance that out, I caught a Solrock almost straight off upon entering Meteor Falls. There was the little scene with Prof. Cozmo, Team Magma, and Team Aqua; then I was free to exit the caves and head towards Rt. 115. Without Surf, I couldn't hit that northern patch of grass where the Jigglypuff are, but I fought the trainers on the way south to Rustboro, then headed back around to Mt. Chimney and got the Metorite back from Team Magma. Did a loop down Jagged Pass to fight the trainers there, then back up to Lavaridge, where I got the Wynaut Egg from the old lady.
So the next thing will be the Lavaridge Gym. The team is all around lvl 30, but I'm anticipating a hard battle. Sancho has no water attacks yet, and Roland only really has Rock Smash that's super-effective. I should probably teach him Dig before I try my luck against Flannery.
After that, I can swing down to Fallarbor to return the Meteorite to Prof. Cozmo, then hit the Desert.
While I was trading I also sent Sybil back and forth, to get 'Dex credit for Kirlia. So now she can evolve after she learns Future Sight; I'm figuring on a moveset of Calm Mind, Psychic, Future Sight, and possibly an off-type attack to replace Confusion.
That gave me a couple more 'Dex entries in the original Emerald, where I took the time to get Hemmingway raised to a Slaking. I took him to the Move Deleter to forget Cut, so his final moveset was Faint Attack, Slash, Yawn, and....I forget if I replaced Slack Off with something else. Hmm.
Anyway, with all that out of the way, I hit the road north from Mauville, fighting trainers as I went. Only, I forgot: you can't get into the desert at that point in the game, because you need the Go-Goggles, and you only get those after beating the Lavaridge Gym. So I crept through the Fiery Path, slogged around through Spinda-infested volcanic ash to Fallarbor. On the way I caught a Skarmory, who took most of my stock of Pokeballs to capture. I named him Knives, and put him in my Specials box to be an HM slave later.
Perhaps to balance that out, I caught a Solrock almost straight off upon entering Meteor Falls. There was the little scene with Prof. Cozmo, Team Magma, and Team Aqua; then I was free to exit the caves and head towards Rt. 115. Without Surf, I couldn't hit that northern patch of grass where the Jigglypuff are, but I fought the trainers on the way south to Rustboro, then headed back around to Mt. Chimney and got the Metorite back from Team Magma. Did a loop down Jagged Pass to fight the trainers there, then back up to Lavaridge, where I got the Wynaut Egg from the old lady.
So the next thing will be the Lavaridge Gym. The team is all around lvl 30, but I'm anticipating a hard battle. Sancho has no water attacks yet, and Roland only really has Rock Smash that's super-effective. I should probably teach him Dig before I try my luck against Flannery.
After that, I can swing down to Fallarbor to return the Meteorite to Prof. Cozmo, then hit the Desert.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Emerald II to Mauville
So Steven got his letter, and Capt. Stern got his Goods. Brawly's Gym at Dewford went down easily enough, between Sybil and Twitter.
Wattson, in Mauville, was another matter.
Apparently Torchik is the most difficult starter in R/S/E, and it doesn't help that as usual I'm waiting for Tabasco to learn certain attacks before allowing him to evolve. But STILL. Last time, Jubal easily swept the whole gym at lvl 24, with everyone else around 20-22. This time...oy. The trainers weren't too bad, but I lost to Wattson three times (saving beforehand and turning the game off each time).
To get past Wattson, I had to spend at least a couple hours out on Rt. 117 getting Twitter and Hemmingway to lvl 24, Sybil and Sancho to lvl 26, and Tabasco to lvl 28. Took for-freakin'-EVER, but hey, at least this time I nabbed a Volbeat almost straight off. Go figure.
I've currently got some Leppa growing -- you can never have too many Leppa -- but after they've been harvested I can FINALLY move on to the desert, then do the Lavaridge Loop. Right after I open up the Rustboro-Verdanturf tunnel, of course. Got my Macho Brace from the Winstrates, and already ran back for the Exp. Share.
I'm still divided on what to do about all the HMs I don't want to bother with...I'm actually regretting giving Cut to Hemmingway, because Vigoroth learn some good moves. I'm leaning towards just making that Zigzagoon another HM slave like Meadow, then trading up to a Linoone when I get that far. Just rotate out the team for training. Not that I know yet what that team will be.
[later edit -- looking up Pickup, I see that Phanpy also has this ability, and can learn Strength and Rock Smash. And hey, I need a Donphan. Perhaps I could trade one in; that sure would've helped against Wattson, and would also be useful in New Mauville.]
That still doesn't solve the Fly problem; Tropius probably is a good bet for a grass-type, but still, I'd wanted to raise the max evos I don't already have, like Cacturne. I guess as far as Fly goes, I've already raised everything that could learn it anyway. *sigh* I wish this game didn't have so many darrn HMs. Maybe I should trade over Sam's starter Samson and raise him -- I do need a Sceptile.
Silly thought: It'd be really cool to do a playthrough with all three starters. Perhaps someday.
Wattson, in Mauville, was another matter.
Apparently Torchik is the most difficult starter in R/S/E, and it doesn't help that as usual I'm waiting for Tabasco to learn certain attacks before allowing him to evolve. But STILL. Last time, Jubal easily swept the whole gym at lvl 24, with everyone else around 20-22. This time...oy. The trainers weren't too bad, but I lost to Wattson three times (saving beforehand and turning the game off each time).
To get past Wattson, I had to spend at least a couple hours out on Rt. 117 getting Twitter and Hemmingway to lvl 24, Sybil and Sancho to lvl 26, and Tabasco to lvl 28. Took for-freakin'-EVER, but hey, at least this time I nabbed a Volbeat almost straight off. Go figure.
I've currently got some Leppa growing -- you can never have too many Leppa -- but after they've been harvested I can FINALLY move on to the desert, then do the Lavaridge Loop. Right after I open up the Rustboro-Verdanturf tunnel, of course. Got my Macho Brace from the Winstrates, and already ran back for the Exp. Share.
I'm still divided on what to do about all the HMs I don't want to bother with...I'm actually regretting giving Cut to Hemmingway, because Vigoroth learn some good moves. I'm leaning towards just making that Zigzagoon another HM slave like Meadow, then trading up to a Linoone when I get that far. Just rotate out the team for training. Not that I know yet what that team will be.
[later edit -- looking up Pickup, I see that Phanpy also has this ability, and can learn Strength and Rock Smash. And hey, I need a Donphan. Perhaps I could trade one in; that sure would've helped against Wattson, and would also be useful in New Mauville.]
That still doesn't solve the Fly problem; Tropius probably is a good bet for a grass-type, but still, I'd wanted to raise the max evos I don't already have, like Cacturne. I guess as far as Fly goes, I've already raised everything that could learn it anyway. *sigh* I wish this game didn't have so many darrn HMs. Maybe I should trade over Sam's starter Samson and raise him -- I do need a Sceptile.
Silly thought: It'd be really cool to do a playthrough with all three starters. Perhaps someday.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Another round of Emerald
Finally succumbed to the temptation to play through Emerald again.
After spending HOURS of beach time hand-raising a Swalot (Slurpea, from Sam's game) it occurred to me that, with rematches dependent on Match Call, raising all the max evo's I still needed would take for-freakin'-EVER. It'd be much easier to raise them as part of a core team, in a new game. Which would either mean cleaning out and restarting my Emerald cartridge -- or getting another one.
As luck and the Internet would have it, there was a GameStop right nearby in White Marlin Mall. Which had not just one, but three cartridges of Emerald. One was defective -- but the second was perfect: trainer Drake (heh) had only 6 hours and 12 Pokemon on his game, so I could just restart without feeling the need to clean out the cartridge first.
So now I've got a second game of Emerald going, have completed Rustboro, and am about to head out to Slateport to deliver the Devon Goods, stopping at Dewford to bring Steven his Letter. The guiding principle for this play-through: Concentrate on catching and raising the Pokemon I'm missing in the first Emerald cart.
The team so far is: Tabasco (Torchik), Sancho (Lombre, evo'd from Lotad), Sybil (Ralts), Hemmingway (Slakoth), and Twitter (Taillow). Plus I've got a nameless Zigzagoon along, because Pickup is just too useful. I've also caught Drama (Whismur) to raise later on, and also plan to catch and raise a Spheal.
This leaves me with a couple problems. First, neither Torchik nor its evolutions can learn Fly. Raising a Swellow, Pelipper, or Altaria is a waste of time, as all of these can be caught wild. Things like Skarmory or Tropius don't evolve. And I've already raised a Flygon and Salamence.
The other problem is the lack of decent Electric types, when the end of the game is so slanted towards Water. Again, there's no point in raising an Electrike when Manectric can be caught wild, and Plusle and Minun don't evolve. I could go for a Magneton, but again, I already have one (finally caught one in New Mauville).
Maybe I should go for a Tropius. Grass is just as good against Water as Electric (even though it's weak to Fire). And Tropius make great HM slaves, too. The other option would be to trade in that female Bagon, and raise her as a match for Fafnir.
[later edit: Did I mention I finally got the solid walloping of the Elite Four that I wanted, in my original Emerald game? With the team finally at lvl 70, I did. ^_^ ]
----------
Didn't get in much swimming at the beach. Though Hurricane Igor was nowhere near the coast, it was raising more surf than I've ever seen at OC. But I sure did get my steps in. So I've caught pretty much all the Pokemon I needed off every Pokewalker route up to Sinnoh Field.
Am still standing outside Diglett's Cave, in SS.
Entei continues to elude me.
After spending HOURS of beach time hand-raising a Swalot (Slurpea, from Sam's game) it occurred to me that, with rematches dependent on Match Call, raising all the max evo's I still needed would take for-freakin'-EVER. It'd be much easier to raise them as part of a core team, in a new game. Which would either mean cleaning out and restarting my Emerald cartridge -- or getting another one.
As luck and the Internet would have it, there was a GameStop right nearby in White Marlin Mall. Which had not just one, but three cartridges of Emerald. One was defective -- but the second was perfect: trainer Drake (heh) had only 6 hours and 12 Pokemon on his game, so I could just restart without feeling the need to clean out the cartridge first.
So now I've got a second game of Emerald going, have completed Rustboro, and am about to head out to Slateport to deliver the Devon Goods, stopping at Dewford to bring Steven his Letter. The guiding principle for this play-through: Concentrate on catching and raising the Pokemon I'm missing in the first Emerald cart.
The team so far is: Tabasco (Torchik), Sancho (Lombre, evo'd from Lotad), Sybil (Ralts), Hemmingway (Slakoth), and Twitter (Taillow). Plus I've got a nameless Zigzagoon along, because Pickup is just too useful. I've also caught Drama (Whismur) to raise later on, and also plan to catch and raise a Spheal.
This leaves me with a couple problems. First, neither Torchik nor its evolutions can learn Fly. Raising a Swellow, Pelipper, or Altaria is a waste of time, as all of these can be caught wild. Things like Skarmory or Tropius don't evolve. And I've already raised a Flygon and Salamence.
The other problem is the lack of decent Electric types, when the end of the game is so slanted towards Water. Again, there's no point in raising an Electrike when Manectric can be caught wild, and Plusle and Minun don't evolve. I could go for a Magneton, but again, I already have one (finally caught one in New Mauville).
Maybe I should go for a Tropius. Grass is just as good against Water as Electric (even though it's weak to Fire). And Tropius make great HM slaves, too. The other option would be to trade in that female Bagon, and raise her as a match for Fafnir.
[later edit: Did I mention I finally got the solid walloping of the Elite Four that I wanted, in my original Emerald game? With the team finally at lvl 70, I did. ^_^ ]
----------
Didn't get in much swimming at the beach. Though Hurricane Igor was nowhere near the coast, it was raising more surf than I've ever seen at OC. But I sure did get my steps in. So I've caught pretty much all the Pokemon I needed off every Pokewalker route up to Sinnoh Field.
Am still standing outside Diglett's Cave, in SS.
Entei continues to elude me.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
I know he's out there somewhere
Still no Entei, and I've been trying once or twice almost each night. ARGH. Part of me is tempted to just take a break and wrap up the islands, but my stubborn half wants to nab Entei first. I am SO done with this game, I just want to find that dang Entei so I can clean out the cartridge already.
Nothing new in SS except a couple Pokewalker catches. I did get the Wailmer off Warm Beach, so now I just need the Carvanha and I can move on to the next route.
As for Emerald, I got that Lairon raised to an Aggron, and am now contemplating the various grass-types I'm missing. Haven't had time to pick it up this crazy week, though.
Happily, my beach vacation is coming up, so that'll be Sunday through Wednesday where I should have plenty of time to do....something.
Last but not least: Black and White have arrived in early pre-order shipments in Japan, so all kinds of info on that should hit the Internet in the next few days.
Aaaaand....I'm off for shots!
Nothing new in SS except a couple Pokewalker catches. I did get the Wailmer off Warm Beach, so now I just need the Carvanha and I can move on to the next route.
As for Emerald, I got that Lairon raised to an Aggron, and am now contemplating the various grass-types I'm missing. Haven't had time to pick it up this crazy week, though.
Happily, my beach vacation is coming up, so that'll be Sunday through Wednesday where I should have plenty of time to do....something.
Last but not least: Black and White have arrived in early pre-order shipments in Japan, so all kinds of info on that should hit the Internet in the next few days.
Aaaaand....I'm off for shots!
Friday, September 10, 2010
The hunt for Entei goes on, and a BW rant
Have gone Entei-hunting in FR most every night this week, to no avail.
The process is basically this: Use a Max Repel with a lvl 30 Snorlax in the lead, then run around the grass between Celadon and Saffron until the Repel gives out. Dodge into one of the towns and back out again to make Entei change routes. Rinse, lather, repeat. If all Max Repels are used up, turn game off.
You'd think that if there's 23 routes in Kanto, he'd go roaming in the grass of Rt. 7 at least ONCE, out of 25 Max Repels. >_< But nooooo.
-----
Haven't picked up Emerald or SS this week, other than to transfer in stuff from the Pokewalker. Despite the whole company walking program thing, I haven't managed to get enough steps for a Skitty off Hoenn field, so I decided to be more realistic and try the Warm Beach. Hmmm. Maybe if I go for new tires/brakes tomorrow, I can do some walking up and down Rt. 40? It's supposed to be lovely this weekend.
-----
Okay, so about Black/White. Today, Serebii posted the count of Pokemon in the new Isshu region, along with how many legendaries there'd be. For the sake of spoilers I won't repeat the total amount but, holy crap, 9 in-game and 3 event legendaries?? That makes a total of 47 legendary Pokemon in the total 'Dex!
Not to sound like one of the old-gen diehards, but...really, Nintendo? The more legendaries they add, the less "legendary" they get, and the more they seem like excuses to make players scramble after yet more stuff. There's already too many to fit in a single PC box (not even counting forms), and given the gimmicky nature of many legendaries, that's where most of 'em end up staying. Especially since most legendaries have high levels but no EVs when caught, making them actually WEAKER than a trainer's carefully raised core team -- some fairly intensive training is needed before they're even really usable.
Aren't two version mascots, one trio, one uber, and one event legendary enough per generation? Am I the only one who thought the Regis were extraneous in Hoenn, or that Heatran was just one more 'Dex chore in Sinnoh? Am I the only one who thinks most legendaries aren't worth much but to fill up box space?
The process is basically this: Use a Max Repel with a lvl 30 Snorlax in the lead, then run around the grass between Celadon and Saffron until the Repel gives out. Dodge into one of the towns and back out again to make Entei change routes. Rinse, lather, repeat. If all Max Repels are used up, turn game off.
You'd think that if there's 23 routes in Kanto, he'd go roaming in the grass of Rt. 7 at least ONCE, out of 25 Max Repels. >_< But nooooo.
-----
Haven't picked up Emerald or SS this week, other than to transfer in stuff from the Pokewalker. Despite the whole company walking program thing, I haven't managed to get enough steps for a Skitty off Hoenn field, so I decided to be more realistic and try the Warm Beach. Hmmm. Maybe if I go for new tires/brakes tomorrow, I can do some walking up and down Rt. 40? It's supposed to be lovely this weekend.
-----
Okay, so about Black/White. Today, Serebii posted the count of Pokemon in the new Isshu region, along with how many legendaries there'd be. For the sake of spoilers I won't repeat the total amount but, holy crap, 9 in-game and 3 event legendaries?? That makes a total of 47 legendary Pokemon in the total 'Dex!
Not to sound like one of the old-gen diehards, but...really, Nintendo? The more legendaries they add, the less "legendary" they get, and the more they seem like excuses to make players scramble after yet more stuff. There's already too many to fit in a single PC box (not even counting forms), and given the gimmicky nature of many legendaries, that's where most of 'em end up staying. Especially since most legendaries have high levels but no EVs when caught, making them actually WEAKER than a trainer's carefully raised core team -- some fairly intensive training is needed before they're even really usable.
Aren't two version mascots, one trio, one uber, and one event legendary enough per generation? Am I the only one who thought the Regis were extraneous in Hoenn, or that Heatran was just one more 'Dex chore in Sinnoh? Am I the only one who thinks most legendaries aren't worth much but to fill up box space?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
And now for something completely Emerald
Having blazed through half of Kanto, I got the sudden urge to boot up Emerald and see what the heck I'd been up to in Hoenn. Which, it turned out, was raising the Marill and the Jigglypuff I'd bred.
I renamed the Marill Freddie, so I'd remember it was supposed to have Sing (for Freddie Mercury, who else?), and finished raising both him and PuffDaddy. Marill don't learn much that's interesting, but PuffDaddy ended up with Body Slam, Doubleslap, Hyper Voice, and Perish Song. Getting them up to lvl 45 wasn't too hard -- since I hadn't booted the cartridge in a while, practically every trainer was ready for a rematch or two.
Also straightened out Bombadil's moveset, and whoah is that combo of Chlorophyll - Sunny Day - Synthesis - Solarbeam effective. Got him up to lvl 35.
All this training did good things for my core team. Jubal's up to lvl 70, Tympany's at 68, and everyone else is at 69. Since the Pokemon remaining in the 'Dex will need to be hand-raised, the whole team's sure to make it to lvl 70 at some point.
It occurred to me that my 'Dex was still missing a few Pokemon that could be caught. Lots of running around Mt. Pyre finally nabbed me a Chimecho. I then went to the back of Granite Cave, and ran around there long enough to inspire this haiku:
All those Pokemon
In the back of Granite Cave.
Yet, not one Nosepass.
Okay, Professor Oak I'm not. Finally I admitted defeat and looked it up. Turns out Nosepass only appear by using Rock Smash on the boulders in the lowest part of the cave. Armed with that knowledge, I went and caught one.
That left only Snorunt. Them, I looked up straight off, as I've never seen one in-game, and thus the 'Dex wouldn't tell me where they were. I had to wait for low tide in Shoal Cave, and for some reason had trouble finding the way down, but a little bit of running around that ice chamber at the bottom got me a pair of Snorunt.
From there, there's a few more trades I can do from Sapphire or FireRed (at least, once I complete the islands and fix that infernal machine, AGAIN), and then the rest will have to be hand-raised. Right now I'm working on a Lairon -- it gets Double-Edge at lvl 53, which will be downright wicked with the Rock Head ability -- but I dunno if I'll have enough patience to get more than that done in the near-term. Maybe raise that Nincada to get Ninjask and Shedinja, but that might be it for now.
As for the trades -- the Terrell cart has a Latias, Zangoose, and Lunatone that I can get trade-credit for; I can't catch any of those in Emerald, so that's fair. Will probably also trade over Huntail and Gorebyss if JD had them among his max evos, since you can only get one of the pair per game. Good thing I restarted for the other two Hoenn starters.
And what will all this effort of finishing the Hoenn 'Dex get me? A Jhoto starter, namely a Chikorita, from Prof. Birch. That's a lot for one little Chikorita.
When I get worn out with raising Pokemon on Emerald, I might go and finish the Islands in FireRed. Nab the three legendary birds, get that Sludge Bomb TM from the Rocket Warehouse, and try for Mewtwo. Might as well, right? Oh, and try for Entei. Yeah.
I renamed the Marill Freddie, so I'd remember it was supposed to have Sing (for Freddie Mercury, who else?), and finished raising both him and PuffDaddy. Marill don't learn much that's interesting, but PuffDaddy ended up with Body Slam, Doubleslap, Hyper Voice, and Perish Song. Getting them up to lvl 45 wasn't too hard -- since I hadn't booted the cartridge in a while, practically every trainer was ready for a rematch or two.
Also straightened out Bombadil's moveset, and whoah is that combo of Chlorophyll - Sunny Day - Synthesis - Solarbeam effective. Got him up to lvl 35.
All this training did good things for my core team. Jubal's up to lvl 70, Tympany's at 68, and everyone else is at 69. Since the Pokemon remaining in the 'Dex will need to be hand-raised, the whole team's sure to make it to lvl 70 at some point.
It occurred to me that my 'Dex was still missing a few Pokemon that could be caught. Lots of running around Mt. Pyre finally nabbed me a Chimecho. I then went to the back of Granite Cave, and ran around there long enough to inspire this haiku:
All those Pokemon
In the back of Granite Cave.
Yet, not one Nosepass.
Okay, Professor Oak I'm not. Finally I admitted defeat and looked it up. Turns out Nosepass only appear by using Rock Smash on the boulders in the lowest part of the cave. Armed with that knowledge, I went and caught one.
That left only Snorunt. Them, I looked up straight off, as I've never seen one in-game, and thus the 'Dex wouldn't tell me where they were. I had to wait for low tide in Shoal Cave, and for some reason had trouble finding the way down, but a little bit of running around that ice chamber at the bottom got me a pair of Snorunt.
From there, there's a few more trades I can do from Sapphire or FireRed (at least, once I complete the islands and fix that infernal machine, AGAIN), and then the rest will have to be hand-raised. Right now I'm working on a Lairon -- it gets Double-Edge at lvl 53, which will be downright wicked with the Rock Head ability -- but I dunno if I'll have enough patience to get more than that done in the near-term. Maybe raise that Nincada to get Ninjask and Shedinja, but that might be it for now.
As for the trades -- the Terrell cart has a Latias, Zangoose, and Lunatone that I can get trade-credit for; I can't catch any of those in Emerald, so that's fair. Will probably also trade over Huntail and Gorebyss if JD had them among his max evos, since you can only get one of the pair per game. Good thing I restarted for the other two Hoenn starters.
And what will all this effort of finishing the Hoenn 'Dex get me? A Jhoto starter, namely a Chikorita, from Prof. Birch. That's a lot for one little Chikorita.
When I get worn out with raising Pokemon on Emerald, I might go and finish the Islands in FireRed. Nab the three legendary birds, get that Sludge Bomb TM from the Rocket Warehouse, and try for Mewtwo. Might as well, right? Oh, and try for Entei. Yeah.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
SS - Three badges down, three more to go
Because I am a lazy doofus, instead of enjoying the gorgeous weather and getting all kinds of exercise like I should have, I went on something of a Poke-binge.
Ended up taking the eastern seaside route from Lavender down to Fuschia. The part just south of Lavender that's all wooden piers over water is now apparently called Silence Bridge -- people tiptoe so as not to scare the water Pokemon away. ^_^ This was a decidedly long haul, especially as I took the opportunity to clear the route east of Vermilion that I couldn't get to because of the Snorlax.
(It occurs to me that Vermilion the town is easily confused with Vermillion my Red Gyrados. Heh.)
The southeastern-most part of Kanto, south of the fence maze, is now a pretty hill with wind turbines. A surprise awaited me there: Suicune, calling to me from out on the water. It ran away as usual when Eusine showed up, but he said something about it liking windy hills near water -- "somewhere up north". (Apparently that's not the Cape north of Cerulean, either, 'cause I've looked.)
Having made it to Fuschia and verified that the Pal Park was available, and seeing as it was Saturday, I hopped the border back to Jhoto and entered the Bug Catching Contest with Rotti again. This time, Rotti was more than strong enough -- in fact, he KO'd pretty much everything with one hit. It was still good training for him, though, and as a bonus I caught myself a female Combee: trading gold. This also got me second place, and another Everstone (though what I could really use is another Exp Share).
After that, I hopped back over to Kanto and opened up Cerulean. Misty was nowhere to be seen, so I decided to tackle Cycling Road. The bikers on it were astonishingly friendly after being defeated; I got a bunch of phone numbers, and one of them called me up later to hand me a Dusk Stone, of all things. Since I'd used the one I bought to evolve Rotti after he reached lvl 35, that was an unexpected but very welcome gift.
All that battling had finally gotten Rotti and Tremor up to decent levels, so I went for some badges. Erica's Gym was pretty easy, between Rotti and Cynder. In Janine's Gym -- she took over in Fuschia from daddy Koga after he joined the Elite Four -- I bungled a little and missed a trainer battle. Instead of being subtly marked on the floor, the invisible walls were only obvious when you stumbled into them, and then a small section would become visible. Worse, all the trainers were disguised as Janine. And I found her before I found all of them. So, missed one there.
Still, that got me two more badges, and with the Snorlax blocking Diglett's Cave, the only way to western Kanto was the long water route past the Seafoam Islands. So I decided that I'd check out what was up at the Power Plant. I'd been expecting a Rocket hideout, but all that was there were the workers who'd cleaned the place up and gotten the generator working. A part had been stolen by some "shady character", was all. Sure enough, the guy turned out to be a Rocket when I chased him down -- and with his badly mangled English, from some other country at that (Isshu, maybe? heh) -- but his single Golbat went down easily, and the Power Plant was running again in short order.
At some point, though, I'll have to go back that way and go through Rock Tunnel, which I totally skipped. Vermillion's really the only one of the team that's strong enough against Rock types.
With that wrapped up, I was able to chase down Misty on her date at the Cape (was that really Red? He didn't look at all familiar) and nab the Cascade Badge. Sadly, though I was able to get the Expansion card for my Radio, neither Lavender Tower nor Silph Co. were accessible beyond their first floors. The only thing left to do was to go play PokeFlute music on my Radio to wake up the Snorlax, which I caught easily enough.
All that being quite a Poke-marathon, I stopped outside the entrance to Diglett's Cave. Next stop, Pewter City and the Boulder Badge!
I have to say, I'm really impressed with the new rendering of Kanto in SS. Besides the basic improvements to the graphics, the routes have more variation and, well, for lack of a better word, really great landscaping. Instead of just being long stretches between cities, they feel like real countryside now -- but at the same time, they're similar enough to bring back that Red/Blue-era nostalgia. It's very well done. Props to Nintendo on that one.
You'd think I'd be Poke'd-out after all this, but I have the sudden urge to boot up Emerald and check where I was...
Ended up taking the eastern seaside route from Lavender down to Fuschia. The part just south of Lavender that's all wooden piers over water is now apparently called Silence Bridge -- people tiptoe so as not to scare the water Pokemon away. ^_^ This was a decidedly long haul, especially as I took the opportunity to clear the route east of Vermilion that I couldn't get to because of the Snorlax.
(It occurs to me that Vermilion the town is easily confused with Vermillion my Red Gyrados. Heh.)
The southeastern-most part of Kanto, south of the fence maze, is now a pretty hill with wind turbines. A surprise awaited me there: Suicune, calling to me from out on the water. It ran away as usual when Eusine showed up, but he said something about it liking windy hills near water -- "somewhere up north". (Apparently that's not the Cape north of Cerulean, either, 'cause I've looked.)
Having made it to Fuschia and verified that the Pal Park was available, and seeing as it was Saturday, I hopped the border back to Jhoto and entered the Bug Catching Contest with Rotti again. This time, Rotti was more than strong enough -- in fact, he KO'd pretty much everything with one hit. It was still good training for him, though, and as a bonus I caught myself a female Combee: trading gold. This also got me second place, and another Everstone (though what I could really use is another Exp Share).
After that, I hopped back over to Kanto and opened up Cerulean. Misty was nowhere to be seen, so I decided to tackle Cycling Road. The bikers on it were astonishingly friendly after being defeated; I got a bunch of phone numbers, and one of them called me up later to hand me a Dusk Stone, of all things. Since I'd used the one I bought to evolve Rotti after he reached lvl 35, that was an unexpected but very welcome gift.
All that battling had finally gotten Rotti and Tremor up to decent levels, so I went for some badges. Erica's Gym was pretty easy, between Rotti and Cynder. In Janine's Gym -- she took over in Fuschia from daddy Koga after he joined the Elite Four -- I bungled a little and missed a trainer battle. Instead of being subtly marked on the floor, the invisible walls were only obvious when you stumbled into them, and then a small section would become visible. Worse, all the trainers were disguised as Janine. And I found her before I found all of them. So, missed one there.
Still, that got me two more badges, and with the Snorlax blocking Diglett's Cave, the only way to western Kanto was the long water route past the Seafoam Islands. So I decided that I'd check out what was up at the Power Plant. I'd been expecting a Rocket hideout, but all that was there were the workers who'd cleaned the place up and gotten the generator working. A part had been stolen by some "shady character", was all. Sure enough, the guy turned out to be a Rocket when I chased him down -- and with his badly mangled English, from some other country at that (Isshu, maybe? heh) -- but his single Golbat went down easily, and the Power Plant was running again in short order.
At some point, though, I'll have to go back that way and go through Rock Tunnel, which I totally skipped. Vermillion's really the only one of the team that's strong enough against Rock types.
With that wrapped up, I was able to chase down Misty on her date at the Cape (was that really Red? He didn't look at all familiar) and nab the Cascade Badge. Sadly, though I was able to get the Expansion card for my Radio, neither Lavender Tower nor Silph Co. were accessible beyond their first floors. The only thing left to do was to go play PokeFlute music on my Radio to wake up the Snorlax, which I caught easily enough.
All that being quite a Poke-marathon, I stopped outside the entrance to Diglett's Cave. Next stop, Pewter City and the Boulder Badge!
I have to say, I'm really impressed with the new rendering of Kanto in SS. Besides the basic improvements to the graphics, the routes have more variation and, well, for lack of a better word, really great landscaping. Instead of just being long stretches between cities, they feel like real countryside now -- but at the same time, they're similar enough to bring back that Red/Blue-era nostalgia. It's very well done. Props to Nintendo on that one.
You'd think I'd be Poke'd-out after all this, but I have the sudden urge to boot up Emerald and check where I was...
Friday, September 3, 2010
SS - Kanto it is
Allright, so maybe I'll be staying in Kanto. :P
It turns out that one can easily Fly between regions by using Victory Road/Indigo Plateau as a transfer point. Thinking that the Bug-Catching Contest would be a great way to get Rotti levelled up some, I flew over to the National Park and sallied forth into the grasses.
Only, I'd forgotten that after one gets the Nat'l Dex, the park now features bugs from all the regions -- at levels twice as high. Poor Rotti was KO'd within five minutes, and I simply rebooted the game instead of taking the hit to my Pokeyen.
So instead, I decided to look around Kanto some more. Conveniently enough, the levels of the wild Pokemon north of Vermilion were around level 13 or so, just in the right range for Rotti and Tremor to get in a few levels. The weird thing was, the trainer battles along the same route were at waaay higher levels, as in low-40's. This disparity seemed strange to me -- if you went through with low-level Pokemon, the trainers would clobber you; but if you went through with Pokemon strong enough to defeat the trainers, there'd be little point in the wild encounters. Lots of switching up was required.
I'd expected Saffron to be blocked off as always, but it wasn't; so I went up and netted myself the Marsh Badge from Sabrina. This wasn't too hard, especially since I dodged out of the Gym to heal up after defeating the other Gym trainers. Both Silph Co. and the Magnet Train were inaccessible, though -- it seems that the Rockets are up to something at the Power Plant.
Instead of jumping on that situation immediately, I ran over to Lavender. Lavender's Pokemon Tower is now a Radio Tower, but again, not in operation due to the Power Plant issue. If it were, there'd be a PokeFlute station, which would wake up the Snorlax blocking the path east from Vermilion. With not much else to do there, I went over in the other direction, to Celadon. There I discovered that the Game Corner there is also a Voltorb Flip game, and satisfied my itch to play for a bit.
Erika's Gym ought to be a cinch with Cynder, though I'd like to get Rotti up to the point where I can use him there as well. From there, I have several options. I could go back to Vermilion, and through Diglett's Cave to Rt. 2, and do the usual trek eastward through Mt. Moon and Cerulean. Or I could just run north to Cerulean from Saffron, and grab the Badge. Finally, there's Cycling Road, which would take me to Fuschia to net another Badge and open up the Pal Park.
With the guidebook ending at the League, there's really no way to tell which Gym to hit next. From Bulbapedia, it seems like most of the Kanto Gym teams are around high-40's to low-50's levels, so maybe it doesn't really matter. I'd like to get most of the towns opened up to Fly to, at least.
With no gaming (though I wish the reason for that was not so unfortunate! D: ) and a holiday weekend coming up, I should be able to make some definite progress.
Also -- Saturday is supposed to be cool and windy, so I should get me out for some triking if I can. I've been looking at the Spring Grove campus as a potential location closer than the BWI trail. I should also try for some serious steps, since I'm now on the Hoenn Field Pokewalker course. Pity I didn't think to stay on the previous stroll, which could have netted me a Skitty. I now have a second PC box dedicated to Pokewalker catches, and I intend to fill it. 8D
It turns out that one can easily Fly between regions by using Victory Road/Indigo Plateau as a transfer point. Thinking that the Bug-Catching Contest would be a great way to get Rotti levelled up some, I flew over to the National Park and sallied forth into the grasses.
Only, I'd forgotten that after one gets the Nat'l Dex, the park now features bugs from all the regions -- at levels twice as high. Poor Rotti was KO'd within five minutes, and I simply rebooted the game instead of taking the hit to my Pokeyen.
So instead, I decided to look around Kanto some more. Conveniently enough, the levels of the wild Pokemon north of Vermilion were around level 13 or so, just in the right range for Rotti and Tremor to get in a few levels. The weird thing was, the trainer battles along the same route were at waaay higher levels, as in low-40's. This disparity seemed strange to me -- if you went through with low-level Pokemon, the trainers would clobber you; but if you went through with Pokemon strong enough to defeat the trainers, there'd be little point in the wild encounters. Lots of switching up was required.
I'd expected Saffron to be blocked off as always, but it wasn't; so I went up and netted myself the Marsh Badge from Sabrina. This wasn't too hard, especially since I dodged out of the Gym to heal up after defeating the other Gym trainers. Both Silph Co. and the Magnet Train were inaccessible, though -- it seems that the Rockets are up to something at the Power Plant.
Instead of jumping on that situation immediately, I ran over to Lavender. Lavender's Pokemon Tower is now a Radio Tower, but again, not in operation due to the Power Plant issue. If it were, there'd be a PokeFlute station, which would wake up the Snorlax blocking the path east from Vermilion. With not much else to do there, I went over in the other direction, to Celadon. There I discovered that the Game Corner there is also a Voltorb Flip game, and satisfied my itch to play for a bit.
Erika's Gym ought to be a cinch with Cynder, though I'd like to get Rotti up to the point where I can use him there as well. From there, I have several options. I could go back to Vermilion, and through Diglett's Cave to Rt. 2, and do the usual trek eastward through Mt. Moon and Cerulean. Or I could just run north to Cerulean from Saffron, and grab the Badge. Finally, there's Cycling Road, which would take me to Fuschia to net another Badge and open up the Pal Park.
With the guidebook ending at the League, there's really no way to tell which Gym to hit next. From Bulbapedia, it seems like most of the Kanto Gym teams are around high-40's to low-50's levels, so maybe it doesn't really matter. I'd like to get most of the towns opened up to Fly to, at least.
With no gaming (though I wish the reason for that was not so unfortunate! D: ) and a holiday weekend coming up, I should be able to make some definite progress.
Also -- Saturday is supposed to be cool and windy, so I should get me out for some triking if I can. I've been looking at the Spring Grove campus as a potential location closer than the BWI trail. I should also try for some serious steps, since I'm now on the Hoenn Field Pokewalker course. Pity I didn't think to stay on the previous stroll, which could have netted me a Skitty. I now have a second PC box dedicated to Pokewalker catches, and I intend to fill it. 8D
Thursday, September 2, 2010
SS - Onward to Kanto
Simply decided, heck with it, and boarded the S.S. Aqua to Vermilion City. The re-done graphics look pretty good. But the Gym was way harder than I'd been expecting -- one of the trainers almost took me out, before I even got to Lt. Surge. Tremor and Rotti are apparently just not up to Kanto standards. Even the wild Pokemon near Vermilion would likely be more than they could handle.
To get them properly levelled, not to mention EV'd, it looks like I'll have to make the trip back to Jhoto and do some tedious training. But I missed the Wednesday return voyage of the SS Aqua, and haven't looked yet to see if I can Fly to Indigo Plateau or Victory Road, then back to Jhoto from there. Honestly have just been too tired to bother with Poke-ing, despite a growing craving to play some Voltorb Flip.
To get them properly levelled, not to mention EV'd, it looks like I'll have to make the trip back to Jhoto and do some tedious training. But I missed the Wednesday return voyage of the SS Aqua, and haven't looked yet to see if I can Fly to Indigo Plateau or Victory Road, then back to Jhoto from there. Honestly have just been too tired to bother with Poke-ing, despite a growing craving to play some Voltorb Flip.
Monday, August 30, 2010
SS - The Elite Four are down
Yay! first current post!
By dint of sheer stubbornness and too many wild battles to contemplate, I finally got Sheepish and Cynder caught up to the rest of the team. With everyone at lvl 50, I finally went for the Elite Four.
The funny thing is, the trouble was not where I'd anticipated. I'd been thinking that Lance's lvl 50 Dragonite would be the Poke to beat, but instead it was Bruno's Machamp and Lance's Aerodactyl that gave me the most trouble (along with a few tense moments during the battle with Karen's Dark team).
Machamp was a problem mostly because it hit so dang hard. But Aerodactyl exposed a real weakness in my team: none of them can stand up to Rock-type attacks. And with Vermillion down, no one else had something super-effective. I was reduced to using hasty Max Revives just to stay in the fight, as one after another of my Pokemon were one-shotted. Also, Chet really must have crap IVs, because his stats are far lower than everyone else's at lvl 50, and he wasn't nearly as much help as I'd have liked.
Still, once I finally got Aerodactyl down by reviving Vermillion, the rest of Lance's team went down to Ice Beam, and it was over. I hit the Hall of Fame with something between 85-90 hours on the game (I blame this on the lack of easy trainer rematches).
Following the credits, the game took me back to New Bark Town. Mom told me to go see Prof. Elm, who gave me the SS Ticket for Kanto.
Except, I was strangely reluctant to depart for Kanto. Instead, I bred me that Murkrow. Took a few tries to get a male with Super Luck. I named him Rotti -- for Rotti Largo from Repo the Genetic Opera -- and set about raising him. I also pulled my Larvitar Tremor out of storage to raise him as well, and put away Peya and Chet. [and I forgot to say, I spent a truly stupid amount of time chasing around to get the whole team their three Shiny Leaves; except Tremor who was put off by the rain on Rt. 33.]
The next task was to get a Dusk Stone for Rotti. Research said that one could buy one at the Pokeathlon Dome, or get one by winning the Bug Catching Contest. However, it turned out that this was only after one has the Nat'l Dex, and a tiny little, easily-missed superscript on Bulbapedia's Pokeathlon page was the only indicator of this.
So I spent a good bit of time trying the Bug Catching Contest. From Bulbapedia, I found out that the Bug Catching Contest is about only two things: the stat total, as inferred by rarity and level, and how undamaged the captured Pokemon is. I'd had no idea that the amount of damage even mattered. Sure enough, I was able to catch a lvl 15 Beedrill with max HP, which won first place.
Right after that, I stupidly fainted Raikou on a chance encounter on Rt. 32. D'oh. I couldn't find whether the roaming beasties reappear if you faint them, so I was forced to turn off the game and do the Contest again. I didn't win that time, but since I'd also learned that the Sun Stone was the only pre-Nat'l Dex first prize, it didn't really matter.
Finally, I bit the bullet and flew to Olivine, to see if I could get the Nat'l Dex without boarding the ship to Kanto. And sure enough, up came Prof. Oak, before I could even talk to the guy at the boarding gate. So I was able to go back and buy the Dusk Stone from the Pokeathlon Dome. I just have to check if Rotti gets any more good attacks as a Murkrow -- he's currently got Fly, Sky Attack, Wing Attack, and Night Shade -- because it'll be a LONG while before he learns Night Slash or Dark Pulse.
Only problem is, this leaves all of my current games basically finished, except for after-game stuff. I mean, I know I still need to do Kanto in SS, but we'll see if I can keep up my motivation.
By dint of sheer stubbornness and too many wild battles to contemplate, I finally got Sheepish and Cynder caught up to the rest of the team. With everyone at lvl 50, I finally went for the Elite Four.
The funny thing is, the trouble was not where I'd anticipated. I'd been thinking that Lance's lvl 50 Dragonite would be the Poke to beat, but instead it was Bruno's Machamp and Lance's Aerodactyl that gave me the most trouble (along with a few tense moments during the battle with Karen's Dark team).
Machamp was a problem mostly because it hit so dang hard. But Aerodactyl exposed a real weakness in my team: none of them can stand up to Rock-type attacks. And with Vermillion down, no one else had something super-effective. I was reduced to using hasty Max Revives just to stay in the fight, as one after another of my Pokemon were one-shotted. Also, Chet really must have crap IVs, because his stats are far lower than everyone else's at lvl 50, and he wasn't nearly as much help as I'd have liked.
Still, once I finally got Aerodactyl down by reviving Vermillion, the rest of Lance's team went down to Ice Beam, and it was over. I hit the Hall of Fame with something between 85-90 hours on the game (I blame this on the lack of easy trainer rematches).
Following the credits, the game took me back to New Bark Town. Mom told me to go see Prof. Elm, who gave me the SS Ticket for Kanto.
Except, I was strangely reluctant to depart for Kanto. Instead, I bred me that Murkrow. Took a few tries to get a male with Super Luck. I named him Rotti -- for Rotti Largo from Repo the Genetic Opera -- and set about raising him. I also pulled my Larvitar Tremor out of storage to raise him as well, and put away Peya and Chet. [and I forgot to say, I spent a truly stupid amount of time chasing around to get the whole team their three Shiny Leaves; except Tremor who was put off by the rain on Rt. 33.]
The next task was to get a Dusk Stone for Rotti. Research said that one could buy one at the Pokeathlon Dome, or get one by winning the Bug Catching Contest. However, it turned out that this was only after one has the Nat'l Dex, and a tiny little, easily-missed superscript on Bulbapedia's Pokeathlon page was the only indicator of this.
So I spent a good bit of time trying the Bug Catching Contest. From Bulbapedia, I found out that the Bug Catching Contest is about only two things: the stat total, as inferred by rarity and level, and how undamaged the captured Pokemon is. I'd had no idea that the amount of damage even mattered. Sure enough, I was able to catch a lvl 15 Beedrill with max HP, which won first place.
Right after that, I stupidly fainted Raikou on a chance encounter on Rt. 32. D'oh. I couldn't find whether the roaming beasties reappear if you faint them, so I was forced to turn off the game and do the Contest again. I didn't win that time, but since I'd also learned that the Sun Stone was the only pre-Nat'l Dex first prize, it didn't really matter.
Finally, I bit the bullet and flew to Olivine, to see if I could get the Nat'l Dex without boarding the ship to Kanto. And sure enough, up came Prof. Oak, before I could even talk to the guy at the boarding gate. So I was able to go back and buy the Dusk Stone from the Pokeathlon Dome. I just have to check if Rotti gets any more good attacks as a Murkrow -- he's currently got Fly, Sky Attack, Wing Attack, and Night Shade -- because it'll be a LONG while before he learns Night Slash or Dark Pulse.
Only problem is, this leaves all of my current games basically finished, except for after-game stuff. I mean, I know I still need to do Kanto in SS, but we'll see if I can keep up my motivation.
In retrospect: SS - Drive for the Enigma Stone
(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)
(8/23/2010)
According to Petty, the Enigma Stone isn't needed to catch whichever of the Lati@s pair roams in your game version -- it's needed to catch the OTHER one of the pair.
Technically, since I've already caught a Latios in Emerald, I don't strictly need the Enigma Stone; but no self-respecting Pokemon fan should pass up a chance at a legendary. So, just in case, I went over to the Pokeathlon Dome and got my Aprijuice Blender and my jersey, and gave the whole thing that ol' college try.
And, as I expected, it was a pain in the ass. The Apricorns don't blend by the same rules Berries do, so a juice that raises one performance stat can unexpectedly lower another. And there's several of the minigames that require you to control multiple Pokemon at once. So I failed to get any medal except Stamina.
With that done, however, I headed out towards Kanto, as Petty has assured me that my legendary beasties will happily continue to roam Jhoto until I return. So, while it was too late to attempt Victory Road last night, I'm in position to make a go of it.
Now if I could only remember what the heck I was doing with my team! Looking over the target movesets in an earlier entry, I think Izzel, Sheepish, Vermillion, and Chet are basically in final form (Chet just hit lvl 50 and learned Poison Jab) so it's just Cynder who needs to level up to 46 to get Rollout, so I can let him evolve. He may have to do without Blast Burn for the E4, though, since once I get through Victory Road I won't be able to Fly back to Blackthorn to have him learn it.
So tonight's agenda is just to make it through Victory Road, doing the complete run of trainers and items. Hopefully that'll get Cynder to 46, and catch the rest of the team up to Chet somewhat. I think the levels of the Indigo E4 are lower in HG/SS, so getting the team up to lvl 50 should be enough. ...I hope.
To be sure, getting past the E4 gets me more than just the Enigma Stone -- it means more Pokewalker courses, and access to Pal Park once I reach Fuschia. More courses will be helpful, as I've indicated my intent to sign up for the Shape Up the Nation walking program, and it'll be good to have that extra motivation. At my last allergist appointment I was actually down to 244, from a high of 262, and that's just from watching portions, 'cause the weather's been WAY to hot for walking.
But sadly, I'm still not in much of a Poke-mood; not in much of a mood to do anything, in fact. Otherwise I'd be tempted to bring forward all my Emerald Pokes into GIV and restart Emerald...
(8/25/2010)
Petty was right, the Enigma Stone triggers an event that lets you fight and capture whichever of the Lati@s pair that doesn't normally appear in your game version. Unfortunately, though, I looked this up at Bulbapedia, and it seems this is my only try at a Latias! It's Latios that roams in SS.
So I've been training like a mad thing the past couple nights. Victory Road was something of a let-down -- it wasn't all that hard, more like annoying because the constant encounters kept interrupting my Itemfinder. And there were NO trainers, except for the one rival battle at the end. Now that, I had not counted on. Every other Victory Road has always been a long-haul ordeal of encounters and trainer battles to get you properlly levelled up to face the E4. But not here. Not at all.
That leaves me with no ready source of Exp, since you have to wait for folks to call you for trainer rematches, which means it's wild battles or nothin'. Even so, I got all the team up to at least lvl 45/46, with Chet at lvl 50. And Cynder finally learned Rollout, so I let him evolve at last. Better yet, I discovered that you CAN Fly back to Indigo Plateau, as well as to the start of Victory Road. So I went back to Blackthorn, got Cynder Blast Burn, and found that only Peya still needs her Effort Ribbon. I also collected a crapton of Apricorns, and discovered that blending longer actually makes Aprijuice worse. Fought a few trainer rematches, but nowhere near enough.
Where this leaves me is, if I want to get the whole team to lvl 50 before taking on the E4, I've got a LOT of wild battles to fight, and not much time to do them in. I'm debating using up my Rare Candies to save me at least a little time; or just making a go of it with the team at lvl 46 (since most of the E4's Pokemon are well below that, except for their standouts, and Lance). At this point, I think everyone's got their final attack sets. I guess it'll depend on my level of impatience with the whole thing, when I get home tonight.
(8/26/2010)
Argh.
Via Exp Share, the team is now up to lvl 50 for Chet and Izzel, and up to lvl 47 for everyone else. And everyone's got their Effort Ribbons. If there is time/patience, I may try and get Cynder to 50 as well. But otherwise, levelling properly is simply too time-consuming without trainer rematches. LOTS of rematches.
So tonight's plan is grind Cynder through those last three levels as quick as possible (i.e. without Exp Share on anyone else), then maybe feed one Rare Candy to the other three to get them to lvl 48. And then just save and GO for it.
After the E4 are down and I'm on my way to Kanto with the Nat'l Dex in hand, I should sync over the Pokewalker to get all those new courses. Broke 5000 steps already today by walking to Pratt St and back for the Shared Services training; it'd be nice if that could have gotten me some new Pokemon. I should probably do some Item Dowsing before syncing over, just for the heck of it.
(8/27/2010)
Well. Apparently there was no need at all to go through all this trouble, because Dave had left a message last weekend that one did NOT have to have the Nat'l Dex in order to download the Enigma Stone. And sure enough, I was able to download it last night with no trouble at all. D'OH.
Still, as long as I'm so close, there's no point in just putting the game down again. So, with the Enigma Stone safely bagged, I kept on training. Got Peya up to lvl 50 via Exp Share, and the remaining team members all up to lvl 48.
As luck would have it (or unluck, because Joni and Kaye are both sick, poor things) there is no gaming tonight. Without Exp Share active, getting everyone up those last couple levels shouldn't be nearly as time-consuming. Some stupid, stubborn part of me wants to get everyone to lvl 50 without resorting to the Rare Candies.
And then it'll be time to take on the Elite Four at last! Hopefully my levels will be high enough that even Lance won't be TOO problematic. I'm hoping for a nice satisfying trouncing, if not exactly an easy battle.
From there, it'll be maybe one more sweep of Johto for Apricorns, and then onward into Kanto. The guidebook ends at the Elite Four, so I've no idea at all what to expect. Should be fun.
I'm seriously thinking about changing the team up somewhat, though. Maybe I just haven't given Peya the right moves, but I'm finding Xatu somewhat underwhelming. I'd really like to train the Murkrow from the Pokewalker, see what they're like. Plus I should train up my two Dratini (and breed them for a third one, to trade). I'm also not feeling the Ariados vibe as much as I'd hoped, so maybe there's room in the team for something else there.
I dunno. I'm fairly certain about swapping Murkrow in for Peya (heeee, if it's a male I should name it Sayik), but the other slots will likely depend on how well they do against the E4.
Oh, and I should likely run up to the Shinjo Ruins with Arceus, and get me my lvl 1 dragon legendary. Get a Dialga (since that's my only chance at a self-caught Dialga) and name it Tardis. 8D
further -- research shows that Honchkrow learn Night Slash and Dark Pulse at lvls 45 and 55 respectively. Murkrow can get Drill Peck by breeding, and learn Night Shade fairly early, at lvl 21. With Fly, this'd make for a really awesome moveset. They can also learn Shadow Ball or Psychic by TM, plus the usual heavy-hitting Flying type TMs. Abilities include Insomnia or Super Luck. Super Luck would be especially nasty, as it doubles the normal critical hit ratio to 12.5%. On top of that, moves that have an increased crit ratio like Night Slash and Sky Attack (also an Egg Move) would be particularly vicious. Sky Attack is also available from the Frontier Access tutor for 64BP, or can be relearned by Noctowl for a Heart Scale. ...I think that gives me a breeding project!
(note: this entry catches me up to the end of the "pokeplans" file -- finally!)
(8/23/2010)
According to Petty, the Enigma Stone isn't needed to catch whichever of the Lati@s pair roams in your game version -- it's needed to catch the OTHER one of the pair.
Technically, since I've already caught a Latios in Emerald, I don't strictly need the Enigma Stone; but no self-respecting Pokemon fan should pass up a chance at a legendary. So, just in case, I went over to the Pokeathlon Dome and got my Aprijuice Blender and my jersey, and gave the whole thing that ol' college try.
And, as I expected, it was a pain in the ass. The Apricorns don't blend by the same rules Berries do, so a juice that raises one performance stat can unexpectedly lower another. And there's several of the minigames that require you to control multiple Pokemon at once. So I failed to get any medal except Stamina.
With that done, however, I headed out towards Kanto, as Petty has assured me that my legendary beasties will happily continue to roam Jhoto until I return. So, while it was too late to attempt Victory Road last night, I'm in position to make a go of it.
Now if I could only remember what the heck I was doing with my team! Looking over the target movesets in an earlier entry, I think Izzel, Sheepish, Vermillion, and Chet are basically in final form (Chet just hit lvl 50 and learned Poison Jab) so it's just Cynder who needs to level up to 46 to get Rollout, so I can let him evolve. He may have to do without Blast Burn for the E4, though, since once I get through Victory Road I won't be able to Fly back to Blackthorn to have him learn it.
So tonight's agenda is just to make it through Victory Road, doing the complete run of trainers and items. Hopefully that'll get Cynder to 46, and catch the rest of the team up to Chet somewhat. I think the levels of the Indigo E4 are lower in HG/SS, so getting the team up to lvl 50 should be enough. ...I hope.
To be sure, getting past the E4 gets me more than just the Enigma Stone -- it means more Pokewalker courses, and access to Pal Park once I reach Fuschia. More courses will be helpful, as I've indicated my intent to sign up for the Shape Up the Nation walking program, and it'll be good to have that extra motivation. At my last allergist appointment I was actually down to 244, from a high of 262, and that's just from watching portions, 'cause the weather's been WAY to hot for walking.
But sadly, I'm still not in much of a Poke-mood; not in much of a mood to do anything, in fact. Otherwise I'd be tempted to bring forward all my Emerald Pokes into GIV and restart Emerald...
(8/25/2010)
Petty was right, the Enigma Stone triggers an event that lets you fight and capture whichever of the Lati@s pair that doesn't normally appear in your game version. Unfortunately, though, I looked this up at Bulbapedia, and it seems this is my only try at a Latias! It's Latios that roams in SS.
So I've been training like a mad thing the past couple nights. Victory Road was something of a let-down -- it wasn't all that hard, more like annoying because the constant encounters kept interrupting my Itemfinder. And there were NO trainers, except for the one rival battle at the end. Now that, I had not counted on. Every other Victory Road has always been a long-haul ordeal of encounters and trainer battles to get you properlly levelled up to face the E4. But not here. Not at all.
That leaves me with no ready source of Exp, since you have to wait for folks to call you for trainer rematches, which means it's wild battles or nothin'. Even so, I got all the team up to at least lvl 45/46, with Chet at lvl 50. And Cynder finally learned Rollout, so I let him evolve at last. Better yet, I discovered that you CAN Fly back to Indigo Plateau, as well as to the start of Victory Road. So I went back to Blackthorn, got Cynder Blast Burn, and found that only Peya still needs her Effort Ribbon. I also collected a crapton of Apricorns, and discovered that blending longer actually makes Aprijuice worse. Fought a few trainer rematches, but nowhere near enough.
Where this leaves me is, if I want to get the whole team to lvl 50 before taking on the E4, I've got a LOT of wild battles to fight, and not much time to do them in. I'm debating using up my Rare Candies to save me at least a little time; or just making a go of it with the team at lvl 46 (since most of the E4's Pokemon are well below that, except for their standouts, and Lance). At this point, I think everyone's got their final attack sets. I guess it'll depend on my level of impatience with the whole thing, when I get home tonight.
(8/26/2010)
Argh.
Via Exp Share, the team is now up to lvl 50 for Chet and Izzel, and up to lvl 47 for everyone else. And everyone's got their Effort Ribbons. If there is time/patience, I may try and get Cynder to 50 as well. But otherwise, levelling properly is simply too time-consuming without trainer rematches. LOTS of rematches.
So tonight's plan is grind Cynder through those last three levels as quick as possible (i.e. without Exp Share on anyone else), then maybe feed one Rare Candy to the other three to get them to lvl 48. And then just save and GO for it.
After the E4 are down and I'm on my way to Kanto with the Nat'l Dex in hand, I should sync over the Pokewalker to get all those new courses. Broke 5000 steps already today by walking to Pratt St and back for the Shared Services training; it'd be nice if that could have gotten me some new Pokemon. I should probably do some Item Dowsing before syncing over, just for the heck of it.
(8/27/2010)
Well. Apparently there was no need at all to go through all this trouble, because Dave had left a message last weekend that one did NOT have to have the Nat'l Dex in order to download the Enigma Stone. And sure enough, I was able to download it last night with no trouble at all. D'OH.
Still, as long as I'm so close, there's no point in just putting the game down again. So, with the Enigma Stone safely bagged, I kept on training. Got Peya up to lvl 50 via Exp Share, and the remaining team members all up to lvl 48.
As luck would have it (or unluck, because Joni and Kaye are both sick, poor things) there is no gaming tonight. Without Exp Share active, getting everyone up those last couple levels shouldn't be nearly as time-consuming. Some stupid, stubborn part of me wants to get everyone to lvl 50 without resorting to the Rare Candies.
And then it'll be time to take on the Elite Four at last! Hopefully my levels will be high enough that even Lance won't be TOO problematic. I'm hoping for a nice satisfying trouncing, if not exactly an easy battle.
From there, it'll be maybe one more sweep of Johto for Apricorns, and then onward into Kanto. The guidebook ends at the Elite Four, so I've no idea at all what to expect. Should be fun.
I'm seriously thinking about changing the team up somewhat, though. Maybe I just haven't given Peya the right moves, but I'm finding Xatu somewhat underwhelming. I'd really like to train the Murkrow from the Pokewalker, see what they're like. Plus I should train up my two Dratini (and breed them for a third one, to trade). I'm also not feeling the Ariados vibe as much as I'd hoped, so maybe there's room in the team for something else there.
I dunno. I'm fairly certain about swapping Murkrow in for Peya (heeee, if it's a male I should name it Sayik), but the other slots will likely depend on how well they do against the E4.
Oh, and I should likely run up to the Shinjo Ruins with Arceus, and get me my lvl 1 dragon legendary. Get a Dialga (since that's my only chance at a self-caught Dialga) and name it Tardis. 8D
further -- research shows that Honchkrow learn Night Slash and Dark Pulse at lvls 45 and 55 respectively. Murkrow can get Drill Peck by breeding, and learn Night Shade fairly early, at lvl 21. With Fly, this'd make for a really awesome moveset. They can also learn Shadow Ball or Psychic by TM, plus the usual heavy-hitting Flying type TMs. Abilities include Insomnia or Super Luck. Super Luck would be especially nasty, as it doubles the normal critical hit ratio to 12.5%. On top of that, moves that have an increased crit ratio like Night Slash and Sky Attack (also an Egg Move) would be particularly vicious. Sky Attack is also available from the Frontier Access tutor for 64BP, or can be relearned by Noctowl for a Heart Scale. ...I think that gives me a breeding project!
(note: this entry catches me up to the end of the "pokeplans" file -- finally!)
In retrospect: B/W info, E3 announcements, and a Zelda rant
(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)
(6/14/2010)
Have done nothing in either SS or FR except try for Entei a few times, and migrate a bunch of FR's random catches to Pearl for transfer to the ranch. I'm still standing outside Victory Road....if I recall correctly, once you leave Jhoto it's a while before you can get back, and I'm not sure I'm done there. For one thing, I should probably nab Raikou and Entei. Only, I kinda want to catch FR's Entei first. HMM.
Been looking at Serebii's B/W information. The region map looks kinda cool, and it looks like the wireless features are way more integrated into the game (GTS available in every Pokecenter, for example). But I'm not that thrilled with the designs of the new Pokemon revealed thus far -- the Water starter is even goofier looking than Bidoof, and they seem once again to have added pre-evolutions just to extend the Pokedex. From the number of new Pokes shown already, it looks like the normal region's worth of new Pokemon will be added to the already-ridiculous National 'Dex. Hopefully they will limit the legendaries this time around.
Worse, it seems as if you can only send Pokemon from Gen IV in a one-way transfer via wireless. Not a good thing, if I want to keep my core team Pokemon in the games they came from. Hopefully the next-gen DS hardware will play the old DS games, which will at least give me trading capability between that and the DS Lite. However, that might mean it's time to transfer everything forward from my GIII carts, or at least to trim down the number of them.
Given that the Terrell cart is hacked, and I now have a fully open copy of Emerald, I should probably sell that cart back after getting anything I've raised off it. Leave it as-is for the next trainer, hacked items, lvl 100 Pokemon, and all. FR, of course, will get cleaned out and sold back as soon as I catch Entei. But maybe I should keep my main LG cart and Emerald, in case I'd like a replay or want to breed/trade/raise stuff.
Not that I've ever been good at resisting temptation; but if I can successfully hold out until they release B/W's third version, that should give me time to clean all this up. And catch that dang Entei, dammit!
(6/16/2010)
Have done nothing in any game but that's not the point.
Lots of info from E3 this week. Among other things, it turns out that B/W will be released for the DS, not the 3DS.
This is unexpected and unwelcome news; I'd been thinking that buying a 3DS for B/W would give me DS trading capability. But now I've got no reason to buy the 3DS as long as the Lite is still working (certainly not for the 3DS remake of OoT). Which would mean no trades or transfers without someone's help.
The other slightly alarming detail: the 3DS apparently is made to constantly ping for other 3DSs, and will automatically connect and download items or goodness knows what else, even if you're not playing. WTF. Do we get to turn off this option? How much battery power does this waste?
Which would explain the C-gear thing in B/W, which is also apparently on a constant lookout for possible connections. I wonder if that's disabled if one plays on a regular DS.
The 3DS is supposed to be fully backwards-compatible with previous DS games -- I didn't see any second slot, though, so it probably uses same-sized cartridges.
Also, a prediction: Autumn asked me, on dA, whether I thought there'd be any new Eeveelutions. My reply: at least two, and they'll keep making 'em 'till they've got ALL the types covered. And these two will probably be poison, ground, rock, or steel -- likely poison and ground because those are opposites like dark/psychic and grass/ice.
How do I arrive at that conclusion? Well, they already have normal, fire, water, electric, dark, psychic, grass, and ice covered. Flying, dragon, fighting, bug, and ghost types seem problematic to me. That leaves poison, ground, rock, and steel; and poison and ground would make a good pair.
It'll be fun to see if I'm right about that.
In unrelated whinging: I am coming to the conclusion that Zelda is burdened with a truly trope-worthy Unpleasable Fandom.
Nintendo releases WW. Everyone bitches and moans about the cel-shading and the "kiddie cartoon" look. So Nintendo releases the Darker and Edgier TP. Fans bitch and moan about the limits of Wii graphics capability and some say it's "dreary". So Nintendo makes Skyward Sword a compromise between WW and TP, and already the fans are bitching and moaning about it looking like whichever one they liked less.
STFU, people. Seriously. Play the damn thing before tossing it aside solely on the basis of the first trailer.
As to the complaint that it's "nothing new" -- what else were they expecting? Miyamoto/Ayonuma/Word of God had already said that the Wii Zelda would be the last Zelda like we were used to. That would tend to imply that, yes, this Zelda would be another iteration of the standard formula -- run around the overworld and kill things, venture into the dungeons to fetch the item and defeat the boss, healthy mix of combat and puzzle-solving, rinse, lather, repeat.
Yeah, so what's wrong with that? If you didn't like that sort of thing, how'd you become Zelda fans in the first place? If you're tired of it, what are you still doing here? If you're such a dang "hard-core" gamer, why aren't you playing f*ing Halo or some other infinitely polygonal "go shoot things" game? Were you looking for "innovation"? First: Remember that whole "last Zelda like we're used to" bit. Second: Remember that the last "innovation" in the Zelda series resulted in the eminently forgettable Four Swords multi-player crap.
The fandom can go hang. Bring on Skyward Sword! But...on one thing I do agree: right-handed Link? No way! ;P
(8/2/2010)
So I haven't picked up the DS in months, except for one event download, and a few Pokewalker connections.
However, the Enigma Stone -- which lets you catch one of the Latias/Latios pair depending on your game version -- is now available for download to HG/SS. Except, you need the National 'Dex to get it, which means not only defeating the Elite Four, but from what I can glean online, boarding the SS Aqua for a one-way trip to Kanto.
So if there's anything I wanted to do in Jhoto before getting stuck in Kanto for awhile, I've got until August 27th to do it, and to beat the Elite Four. This kinda sucks, because even though it'll get me a self-caught Latias to complement my Emerald Latios, I haven't been in anything like a Pokemon mood lately.
B/W information continues to trickle in; most of the GV Pokemon designs continue to be "meh", except for a really cool looking eagle thing that I assume is the final evo of the region's Pidgey equivalent. Annoyingly, it seems that you have to play a lame "shoot-n-catch" minigame if you want to transfer your Pokemon from GIV, and it's a one-way trip. Pain in the ass. And, Team Plasma? Really? It shouldn't be too hard to wait for the third iteration of the games, unless I get swept away by everyone else's fervor.
I -did- break 10,000 steps for the first time since I started wearing the Pokewalker though, from walking around Otakon last Friday! So yay on that! There were also a lot of folks at the con with Pokewalkers, so I stopped some of them to connect; I have a whole BUNCH of Heart Scales waiting for transfer back to SS now.
Plus, getting to meet so many dA folks -- Autumn, Hione, Degrith, and Keaton -- was awesome.
(6/14/2010)
Have done nothing in either SS or FR except try for Entei a few times, and migrate a bunch of FR's random catches to Pearl for transfer to the ranch. I'm still standing outside Victory Road....if I recall correctly, once you leave Jhoto it's a while before you can get back, and I'm not sure I'm done there. For one thing, I should probably nab Raikou and Entei. Only, I kinda want to catch FR's Entei first. HMM.
Been looking at Serebii's B/W information. The region map looks kinda cool, and it looks like the wireless features are way more integrated into the game (GTS available in every Pokecenter, for example). But I'm not that thrilled with the designs of the new Pokemon revealed thus far -- the Water starter is even goofier looking than Bidoof, and they seem once again to have added pre-evolutions just to extend the Pokedex. From the number of new Pokes shown already, it looks like the normal region's worth of new Pokemon will be added to the already-ridiculous National 'Dex. Hopefully they will limit the legendaries this time around.
Worse, it seems as if you can only send Pokemon from Gen IV in a one-way transfer via wireless. Not a good thing, if I want to keep my core team Pokemon in the games they came from. Hopefully the next-gen DS hardware will play the old DS games, which will at least give me trading capability between that and the DS Lite. However, that might mean it's time to transfer everything forward from my GIII carts, or at least to trim down the number of them.
Given that the Terrell cart is hacked, and I now have a fully open copy of Emerald, I should probably sell that cart back after getting anything I've raised off it. Leave it as-is for the next trainer, hacked items, lvl 100 Pokemon, and all. FR, of course, will get cleaned out and sold back as soon as I catch Entei. But maybe I should keep my main LG cart and Emerald, in case I'd like a replay or want to breed/trade/raise stuff.
Not that I've ever been good at resisting temptation; but if I can successfully hold out until they release B/W's third version, that should give me time to clean all this up. And catch that dang Entei, dammit!
(6/16/2010)
Have done nothing in any game but that's not the point.
Lots of info from E3 this week. Among other things, it turns out that B/W will be released for the DS, not the 3DS.
This is unexpected and unwelcome news; I'd been thinking that buying a 3DS for B/W would give me DS trading capability. But now I've got no reason to buy the 3DS as long as the Lite is still working (certainly not for the 3DS remake of OoT). Which would mean no trades or transfers without someone's help.
The other slightly alarming detail: the 3DS apparently is made to constantly ping for other 3DSs, and will automatically connect and download items or goodness knows what else, even if you're not playing. WTF. Do we get to turn off this option? How much battery power does this waste?
Which would explain the C-gear thing in B/W, which is also apparently on a constant lookout for possible connections. I wonder if that's disabled if one plays on a regular DS.
The 3DS is supposed to be fully backwards-compatible with previous DS games -- I didn't see any second slot, though, so it probably uses same-sized cartridges.
Also, a prediction: Autumn asked me, on dA, whether I thought there'd be any new Eeveelutions. My reply: at least two, and they'll keep making 'em 'till they've got ALL the types covered. And these two will probably be poison, ground, rock, or steel -- likely poison and ground because those are opposites like dark/psychic and grass/ice.
How do I arrive at that conclusion? Well, they already have normal, fire, water, electric, dark, psychic, grass, and ice covered. Flying, dragon, fighting, bug, and ghost types seem problematic to me. That leaves poison, ground, rock, and steel; and poison and ground would make a good pair.
It'll be fun to see if I'm right about that.
In unrelated whinging: I am coming to the conclusion that Zelda is burdened with a truly trope-worthy Unpleasable Fandom.
Nintendo releases WW. Everyone bitches and moans about the cel-shading and the "kiddie cartoon" look. So Nintendo releases the Darker and Edgier TP. Fans bitch and moan about the limits of Wii graphics capability and some say it's "dreary". So Nintendo makes Skyward Sword a compromise between WW and TP, and already the fans are bitching and moaning about it looking like whichever one they liked less.
STFU, people. Seriously. Play the damn thing before tossing it aside solely on the basis of the first trailer.
As to the complaint that it's "nothing new" -- what else were they expecting? Miyamoto/Ayonuma/Word of God had already said that the Wii Zelda would be the last Zelda like we were used to. That would tend to imply that, yes, this Zelda would be another iteration of the standard formula -- run around the overworld and kill things, venture into the dungeons to fetch the item and defeat the boss, healthy mix of combat and puzzle-solving, rinse, lather, repeat.
Yeah, so what's wrong with that? If you didn't like that sort of thing, how'd you become Zelda fans in the first place? If you're tired of it, what are you still doing here? If you're such a dang "hard-core" gamer, why aren't you playing f*ing Halo or some other infinitely polygonal "go shoot things" game? Were you looking for "innovation"? First: Remember that whole "last Zelda like we're used to" bit. Second: Remember that the last "innovation" in the Zelda series resulted in the eminently forgettable Four Swords multi-player crap.
The fandom can go hang. Bring on Skyward Sword! But...on one thing I do agree: right-handed Link? No way! ;P
(8/2/2010)
So I haven't picked up the DS in months, except for one event download, and a few Pokewalker connections.
However, the Enigma Stone -- which lets you catch one of the Latias/Latios pair depending on your game version -- is now available for download to HG/SS. Except, you need the National 'Dex to get it, which means not only defeating the Elite Four, but from what I can glean online, boarding the SS Aqua for a one-way trip to Kanto.
So if there's anything I wanted to do in Jhoto before getting stuck in Kanto for awhile, I've got until August 27th to do it, and to beat the Elite Four. This kinda sucks, because even though it'll get me a self-caught Latias to complement my Emerald Latios, I haven't been in anything like a Pokemon mood lately.
B/W information continues to trickle in; most of the GV Pokemon designs continue to be "meh", except for a really cool looking eagle thing that I assume is the final evo of the region's Pidgey equivalent. Annoyingly, it seems that you have to play a lame "shoot-n-catch" minigame if you want to transfer your Pokemon from GIV, and it's a one-way trip. Pain in the ass. And, Team Plasma? Really? It shouldn't be too hard to wait for the third iteration of the games, unless I get swept away by everyone else's fervor.
I -did- break 10,000 steps for the first time since I started wearing the Pokewalker though, from walking around Otakon last Friday! So yay on that! There were also a lot of folks at the con with Pokewalkers, so I stopped some of them to connect; I have a whole BUNCH of Heart Scales waiting for transfer back to SS now.
Plus, getting to meet so many dA folks -- Autumn, Hione, Degrith, and Keaton -- was awesome.
In retrospect: SS to Victory Road, and putting off Entei
(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)
(5/25/2010)
Whoah. Haven't updated this in a while.
Part of that is, I haven't been Entei-hunting in FR as much as I should. And another part is that I finally nabbed me some Munchlax, after saving up Watts for a whole week and then getting to a point where I could do enough walking to get the 8K steps. So until they distribute another route or I win the Indigo League, I've got everything the Pokewalker can get me. At the moment I'm on Night Sky's Edge again for the expensive goodies.
Though I haven't tried for Entei nearly enough times, I'm already heartily tired of looking. So I ended up booting up SS and playing for a bit. I got to Blackthorn, which has the Move Deleter and all the Move Tutors (the Relearner, Granny Wilma, and the ultimate starter move person) in the same little cabin. It also has a house with the gal who gives out Effort Ribbons, and only Chet has all his EVs (probably 'cause I'd slapped the Macho Brace on him).
Only, Heart Scales are horribly difficult to obtain, in HG/SS. You can pretty much get them only from the Pokethlon -- and then, only on Wednesday -- or from using Rock Smash. I may have to resort to trading them in from Pearl or Platinum.
Which brings me to several problems. One: To properly dupe Blue's Aquamarine, I need a Heart Scale to re-teach her Slam. And then I need to train her like crazy to get her up to where she'll learn Hyper Beam, if I can't buy the TM (or substitute Draco Meteor). Only, I can't train both her and Vermillion. Two: To properly dupe Silver's Vermillion, I need a second Heart Scale so he can have Thrash.
Three: I need an HM slave to dump Waterfall, Whirlpool, and Rock Smash upon (and possibly Flash) because I do NOT have room in the party for so many dang HM moves. Ideally a Jhoto water-type for this, but more likely candidates are Lapras or Golduck, or duping Silver's Wyrmling. Thing is, I'll have to cart that slave along, which means not training one of the core team. ARGH.
Since Aquamarine isn't meant to go to the E4, I put her away after learning Dragon Rush at lvl 35, and started training Vermillion instead. To help him catch up on EVs, I put the Macho Brace on him and fed him some vitamins. I did a whole level's worth of very low-level Poke-battles in the early routes, then moved up to Rt. 42's Mareep and Flaffy for some EVs in Sp. Atk. Somewhere in there, he found a Shiny Leaf, so I whipped out the book and found the other couple I can get before the E4. I also got a bunch of calls from trainers wanting rematches, which helped.
Aquamarine hadn't done well against the first trainer in the Blackthorn Gym, since dragon-types are weak to other dragons. Vermillion did much, much better, since he had Ice Fang and wasn't weak to dragon moves. He and Sheepish got me through the whole Gym until Clair. For her, I needed a lot more Hyper Potions than I liked to use, and it was Peya who finally knocked down her lvl 41 Kingdra. I was definitely underpowered for that Gym.
Worse, Clair wouldn't hand over the badge. Sore loser! So now I've got to go into the Dragon's Den and fight the Master there....which means, I need Whirlpool. And that means I've got to solve the HM slave problem before I can make any progress. ARGH again.
Crap, I forgot to call the Reed Group about that appointment. ARGH a third time!
(5/26/2010)
OK, so I didn't do any Entei-hunting, but did solve a couple of the above issues.
As I suspected, there were few Pokes who could have a moveset of Flash, Rock Smash, Waterfall, and Whirlpool, and one of the evo families that could was Psyduck/Golduck. But another was Wooper/Quagsire, and I'd wanted to use a Jhoto Pokemon for this purpose. So I fetched my random-caught Quagsire out of storage, named her Big Woop (like my other HM slave Big Mama) and taught her the necessary moves. For the moment she's taking Chet's slot in the party (since he's got all his EVs).
But I didn't make it into the Dragon's Den, between trying to train Big Woop up a little (she was caught at lvl 24), going through Dark Cave looking for smashable rocks, and doing a couple trainer rematches (I don't think I did the last two though, 'cause Deadliest Catch was on).
Turns out that not only was there a Heart Scale hidden on Rt 32, but going over to Cianwood and repeatedly attacking the rocks there netted me two more. I figure that if I keep bashing the rocks there, I can get all the scales I need -- one for Aquamarine to re-learn Slam, one for Vermillion to be taught Thrash (though I should look into replacing that with Outrage, maybe?) and then a few for Hootie, to get his attack set in order.
And speaking of Hootie, the Beautiful Beach course on the Pokewalker also has Heart Scales at a moderately rare find rate, so I'm on that course until I can build up Watts and steps to try finding some.
(6/1/2010)
Quite a bit of progress.
Between Beautiful Beach and lots of smashing rocks, I was able to get quite a few Heart Scales. I brought Hootie in long enough to have him relearn Confusion and teach him Fly; however, Noctowl can't learn Nightmare anymore, so I will need to think of something else. Vermillion relearned Thrash, and I'll mess with Aquamarine later.
Upon looking in the book and finding out the Dragon's Den involved a quiz rather than a battle, I went ahead and did that. Answering all the questions correctly netted me a Dratini with Extremespeed. This will be my new Wyrmling, though I think I'll tweak his moveset some, replacing Slam with Extremespeed and Hyper Beam with Draco Meteor instead of going for a straight dupe.
That got me the badge from Clair, which in turn got me the Master Ball from Prof. Elm, who told me to hop over to the Ecruteak Dance Theater. Fighting all five Kimono Girls got me the Tidal Bell, so it was off to the Whirl Islands to catch Lugia. After making my way through the caves, there was a really nice sequence with the Kimono Girls summoning Lugia with a dance, and Lugia making an impressive entrance. However, the damn thing took all but one of my Ultra Balls to catch. Don't have a name for it yet, either.
After that, I spent waaaay too much time chasing down rematches and collecting Apricorns before finally deciding to try for Victory Road. I put Peya away to make room for Big Woop, since you pretty much can't fly in Kanto 'till you make it to the League. Once I get through, I can bring Peya back out and go back into the caves to get everyone to lvl 50 (the Jhoto E4 are a bit lower in level than is usual).
And of course, I still haven't managed to find Entei in FR.
(6/2/2010)
Bored, and so thinking about SS movesets.
The thing about the nostalgia vs. utility debate is this: it occurs to me that it's reasonable to approach this as if I had been able to bring forward the originals, then update their movesets with all the fabulous new GIV options. Start with the original movesets as a basis, then tweak from there.
Cynder originally had Swift, Rollout, Flame Wheel, and Flamethrower; new target moveset is Swift, Rollout, Flamethrower, and Blast Burn, the ultimate Fire move. He'll need to learn Rollout at lvl 46 before I'll let him evolve to a Typhlosion so he can get Blast Burn, though.
Izzel originally had Cut, Swift, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes; new moveset is Cut, Headbutt, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes. Reasoning here is that Swift isn't as kickass as it used to be, whereas Headbutt can now be used on any tree and therefore becomes a useful field move.
Sheepish originally had Strength, Flash, Thundershock, and Thunder; new target moveset is Strength, Thunder Wave, Thunder Punch, and Thunder. It makes more sense to have an HM slave for Flash, and with the new physical/special split, it's useful to have a typed attack of each kind.
Hootie originally had Hypnosis, Fly, Confusion, and Nightmare; new target moveset is Hypnosis, Fly, Extrasensory, and possibly Dream Eater or Roost. Extrasensory is an upgrade to Confusion. Nightmare was TM50 in Silver, but it's no longer a TM, and Noctowl can't learn it.
Vermillion originally had Surf, Thrash, Dragon Rage, and Hyper Beam; might replace Hyper Beam with an Ice attack, because I'll need one against Lance and his dragons. [ Going with Ice Fang, and will likely up its PP as well. ]
Wyrmling originally had Waterfall, Outrage, Dragon Rage, and Hyper Beam; it seems perfectly natural to replace Outrage with Extremespeed, since I got the special Dratini with that from the Dragon Master, and to replace Hyper Beam with Draco Meteor.
Peya's target moveset is Fly, Miracle Eye, Psychic, and possibly Future Sight.
Chet's target moveset is Spider Web, Night Shade, Poison Jab, and possibly either Psychic, or relearn Bug Bite which would be good against Dark types.
(5/25/2010)
Whoah. Haven't updated this in a while.
Part of that is, I haven't been Entei-hunting in FR as much as I should. And another part is that I finally nabbed me some Munchlax, after saving up Watts for a whole week and then getting to a point where I could do enough walking to get the 8K steps. So until they distribute another route or I win the Indigo League, I've got everything the Pokewalker can get me. At the moment I'm on Night Sky's Edge again for the expensive goodies.
Though I haven't tried for Entei nearly enough times, I'm already heartily tired of looking. So I ended up booting up SS and playing for a bit. I got to Blackthorn, which has the Move Deleter and all the Move Tutors (the Relearner, Granny Wilma, and the ultimate starter move person) in the same little cabin. It also has a house with the gal who gives out Effort Ribbons, and only Chet has all his EVs (probably 'cause I'd slapped the Macho Brace on him).
Only, Heart Scales are horribly difficult to obtain, in HG/SS. You can pretty much get them only from the Pokethlon -- and then, only on Wednesday -- or from using Rock Smash. I may have to resort to trading them in from Pearl or Platinum.
Which brings me to several problems. One: To properly dupe Blue's Aquamarine, I need a Heart Scale to re-teach her Slam. And then I need to train her like crazy to get her up to where she'll learn Hyper Beam, if I can't buy the TM (or substitute Draco Meteor). Only, I can't train both her and Vermillion. Two: To properly dupe Silver's Vermillion, I need a second Heart Scale so he can have Thrash.
Three: I need an HM slave to dump Waterfall, Whirlpool, and Rock Smash upon (and possibly Flash) because I do NOT have room in the party for so many dang HM moves. Ideally a Jhoto water-type for this, but more likely candidates are Lapras or Golduck, or duping Silver's Wyrmling. Thing is, I'll have to cart that slave along, which means not training one of the core team. ARGH.
Since Aquamarine isn't meant to go to the E4, I put her away after learning Dragon Rush at lvl 35, and started training Vermillion instead. To help him catch up on EVs, I put the Macho Brace on him and fed him some vitamins. I did a whole level's worth of very low-level Poke-battles in the early routes, then moved up to Rt. 42's Mareep and Flaffy for some EVs in Sp. Atk. Somewhere in there, he found a Shiny Leaf, so I whipped out the book and found the other couple I can get before the E4. I also got a bunch of calls from trainers wanting rematches, which helped.
Aquamarine hadn't done well against the first trainer in the Blackthorn Gym, since dragon-types are weak to other dragons. Vermillion did much, much better, since he had Ice Fang and wasn't weak to dragon moves. He and Sheepish got me through the whole Gym until Clair. For her, I needed a lot more Hyper Potions than I liked to use, and it was Peya who finally knocked down her lvl 41 Kingdra. I was definitely underpowered for that Gym.
Worse, Clair wouldn't hand over the badge. Sore loser! So now I've got to go into the Dragon's Den and fight the Master there....which means, I need Whirlpool. And that means I've got to solve the HM slave problem before I can make any progress. ARGH again.
Crap, I forgot to call the Reed Group about that appointment. ARGH a third time!
(5/26/2010)
OK, so I didn't do any Entei-hunting, but did solve a couple of the above issues.
As I suspected, there were few Pokes who could have a moveset of Flash, Rock Smash, Waterfall, and Whirlpool, and one of the evo families that could was Psyduck/Golduck. But another was Wooper/Quagsire, and I'd wanted to use a Jhoto Pokemon for this purpose. So I fetched my random-caught Quagsire out of storage, named her Big Woop (like my other HM slave Big Mama) and taught her the necessary moves. For the moment she's taking Chet's slot in the party (since he's got all his EVs).
But I didn't make it into the Dragon's Den, between trying to train Big Woop up a little (she was caught at lvl 24), going through Dark Cave looking for smashable rocks, and doing a couple trainer rematches (I don't think I did the last two though, 'cause Deadliest Catch was on).
Turns out that not only was there a Heart Scale hidden on Rt 32, but going over to Cianwood and repeatedly attacking the rocks there netted me two more. I figure that if I keep bashing the rocks there, I can get all the scales I need -- one for Aquamarine to re-learn Slam, one for Vermillion to be taught Thrash (though I should look into replacing that with Outrage, maybe?) and then a few for Hootie, to get his attack set in order.
And speaking of Hootie, the Beautiful Beach course on the Pokewalker also has Heart Scales at a moderately rare find rate, so I'm on that course until I can build up Watts and steps to try finding some.
(6/1/2010)
Quite a bit of progress.
Between Beautiful Beach and lots of smashing rocks, I was able to get quite a few Heart Scales. I brought Hootie in long enough to have him relearn Confusion and teach him Fly; however, Noctowl can't learn Nightmare anymore, so I will need to think of something else. Vermillion relearned Thrash, and I'll mess with Aquamarine later.
Upon looking in the book and finding out the Dragon's Den involved a quiz rather than a battle, I went ahead and did that. Answering all the questions correctly netted me a Dratini with Extremespeed. This will be my new Wyrmling, though I think I'll tweak his moveset some, replacing Slam with Extremespeed and Hyper Beam with Draco Meteor instead of going for a straight dupe.
That got me the badge from Clair, which in turn got me the Master Ball from Prof. Elm, who told me to hop over to the Ecruteak Dance Theater. Fighting all five Kimono Girls got me the Tidal Bell, so it was off to the Whirl Islands to catch Lugia. After making my way through the caves, there was a really nice sequence with the Kimono Girls summoning Lugia with a dance, and Lugia making an impressive entrance. However, the damn thing took all but one of my Ultra Balls to catch. Don't have a name for it yet, either.
After that, I spent waaaay too much time chasing down rematches and collecting Apricorns before finally deciding to try for Victory Road. I put Peya away to make room for Big Woop, since you pretty much can't fly in Kanto 'till you make it to the League. Once I get through, I can bring Peya back out and go back into the caves to get everyone to lvl 50 (the Jhoto E4 are a bit lower in level than is usual).
And of course, I still haven't managed to find Entei in FR.
(6/2/2010)
Bored, and so thinking about SS movesets.
The thing about the nostalgia vs. utility debate is this: it occurs to me that it's reasonable to approach this as if I had been able to bring forward the originals, then update their movesets with all the fabulous new GIV options. Start with the original movesets as a basis, then tweak from there.
Cynder originally had Swift, Rollout, Flame Wheel, and Flamethrower; new target moveset is Swift, Rollout, Flamethrower, and Blast Burn, the ultimate Fire move. He'll need to learn Rollout at lvl 46 before I'll let him evolve to a Typhlosion so he can get Blast Burn, though.
Izzel originally had Cut, Swift, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes; new moveset is Cut, Headbutt, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes. Reasoning here is that Swift isn't as kickass as it used to be, whereas Headbutt can now be used on any tree and therefore becomes a useful field move.
Sheepish originally had Strength, Flash, Thundershock, and Thunder; new target moveset is Strength, Thunder Wave, Thunder Punch, and Thunder. It makes more sense to have an HM slave for Flash, and with the new physical/special split, it's useful to have a typed attack of each kind.
Hootie originally had Hypnosis, Fly, Confusion, and Nightmare; new target moveset is Hypnosis, Fly, Extrasensory, and possibly Dream Eater or Roost. Extrasensory is an upgrade to Confusion. Nightmare was TM50 in Silver, but it's no longer a TM, and Noctowl can't learn it.
Vermillion originally had Surf, Thrash, Dragon Rage, and Hyper Beam; might replace Hyper Beam with an Ice attack, because I'll need one against Lance and his dragons. [ Going with Ice Fang, and will likely up its PP as well. ]
Wyrmling originally had Waterfall, Outrage, Dragon Rage, and Hyper Beam; it seems perfectly natural to replace Outrage with Extremespeed, since I got the special Dratini with that from the Dragon Master, and to replace Hyper Beam with Draco Meteor.
Peya's target moveset is Fly, Miracle Eye, Psychic, and possibly Future Sight.
Chet's target moveset is Spider Web, Night Shade, Poison Jab, and possibly either Psychic, or relearn Bug Bite which would be good against Dark types.
In retrospect: Focus on FireRed, with a side of SS
(note: next chunk pasted from the original "pokeplans" file on my work computer. Dates left as-is rather than attempting to create back-dated blog entries for each.)
(4/9/2010)
Realtor guy had a contract on the house already on Wednesday and it took forever for him and Dad to get through initialing and signing it all, so too tired and late for anything afterwards. Hootie spontaneously found me an Oran Berry, though. I should grow some this weekend, so I can wrap that sideplot up in SS.
Last night, despite being TURNED AWAY for Xolair after driving all the way up to the allergist's, I got FR restarted. Traded out the starter and a Rattata, holding the Star Piece and a Moon Stone respectively. Then went to breed Norton the second, and it took FIVE TRIES to get a male. ARGH. With that done, though, I finally started my new FR game, got to Viridian, and traded Norton in. For insurance, I did catch another Mankey -- I remember that I was going to name the female I'd had in the last game Scorn, so I did that. Got Irving up to lvl 10 and the other two to lvl 8, then marched off to trigger my second rival battle, which was harder than I expected. Still won though, and the next step will be to get through Viridian Forest and take down the Pewter Gym.
The Forest will probably level Norton past where he'll listen to me until I can get to Misty, but with the Mankey to get me through Mt. Moon, that should be okay. I dunno that I'll bother to look for a Pikachu this time -- if one appears I'll catch it, but otherwise, eh. Likewise with Metapod and Kakuna. It's faster to do a few rotating trades than it is to wander endlessly through grass searching for stuff, and at my fourth turn through Kanto, I'm really just looking for speed.
(4/13/2010)
Some progress in both games. Grew me some Oran Berries on Saturday between oysters, visit to house, and an hour's walk around Centennial Lake (which wore me out just as much as the hour's walk on the Boardwalk). Fed the Miltank, got my Seal Case, traded for that Krabby, and wrapped up Olivine. Also got through the bit with the Lake of Rage, and Team Rocket's hideout in Mahogany, but have not yet tried for the Mahogany Gym (which will let me use Whirlpool). Nor did I venture into Mt. Mortar. But I did catch Vermillion, with an out-loud "welcome back." 8D And Sheepish now has Strength, as she ought to.
As for FR, I got through Viridian Forest, swept through the Pewter Gym, and headed out towards Mt. Moon but didn't yet go in. I even managed to catch a Pikachu and a Jigglypuff without too much searching, so my 'dex is getting reasonably filled out. So far I've been able to manage with just Irving, Norton, and Scorn; though at lvl 12 Norton is starting to disobey me. If Irving and Scorn can get me through Mt. Moon, then maybe I can hit the Cerulean Gym before trying to catch another Slither so that Norton will listen to me again. Then I can train Slither up to match the team, clean out Rt. 25, and head for Vermillion, which will catch me up to the previous game. (reading back, I was just about to take on the SS Anne after training Norton when that game poofed.)
Not sure how much of that I'll get done tonight, though, since both V and the new season of Deadliest Catch are on. Might also have an episode of SGU waiting in On Demand. At least I did get my taxes done and filed... And it's raining, plus we're at EOB, so there's nowhere to walk today. I may have to jog during commercials to try and get in at least SOME exercise.
(4/15/2010)
Did laundry, got my exercise by running around the basement, and STILL had time to Poke before my shows -- getting off at 5 really helps! Made a speedy run through Mt. Moon by doing most of the upper level in a few go's, then using an Escape Rope and healing up before the final push. This got me to Cerulean, where I did not wait to catch my Ekans before taking Misty down, so Norton was once again compliant. Then went out to catch my Slither, who is NOT made of glass this time. Did the route up to the cape then headed for Vermillion.
Only, I didn't get Slither up to team level, and spent waaaaay too much time running around Diglett's Cave trying to find a Dugtrio. Apparently the RNG still hates me, 'cause I used up all Irving's attacks while looking. Finally one appeared and I caught it. Also ran out towards the end of Rt. 11 on the vague recollection that one of Prof. Oak's Aides was there, but unfortunately I didn't have the 30 species it would have taken to get the Itemfinder. Gotta buckle down and get Slither up to the point where I can comfortably take on the SS Anne, blow through there, then head for Rock Tunnel. I have an Abra to teach Flash to, and am debating whether to give Dig to Slither, or wait until I've got my Growlithe.
(4/16/2010)
Brought Slither up to speed by going through the rest of the trainers on Rt. 11 east of Vermillion, took down Lt. Surge's Gym, and fought my way through the SS Anne. The rival battle went spectacularly well -- not only was the team quite nicely overlevelled by that point, but Norton's Swords Dance made the whole battle a series of one-shots. With the Thunderbadge, I can now use Fly outside of battle. Normally I wouldn't have the Fly HM at this stage of the game, but thanks to breeding Norton has the move anyway.
Next push will be to get to and through Rock Cave. That'll get me to Lavender, and while I won't be able to do anything about that Snorlax to the south yet, I'll be able to catch my Growlithe (gotta think of a good name). And I can also get the Tea for the thirsty Guards and open up the way though Saffron.
Movesets: I've decided that Dig should go to the Growlithe, and Giga Drain (after I beat Erika in Celadon) to Slither. Poison, as it turns out, seems to be weak against Ground, so having a Grass attack in his moveset would help with that. I might also bring over a Sludge Bomb TM from the main Rue cart, since Acid isn't terribly powerful and doesn't poison; and I had been thinking to give Toxic to Irving. I believe I'll go with a moveset of Bite, Dig, Flame Wheel (or Flamethrower if I can buy the TM) and Extremespeed for my future Arcanine.
(4/19/2010)
Rock Cave went fairly quickly, between Irving and Scorn, and I arrived in Lavender. Caught my Growlithe, though it took forever to find a female with the Flash Fire ability, and named her Khamsin (hot desert wind), which enabled me to retire Scorn. First thing after that, I nabbed my Eevee from the Celadon Mansion, then got the Tea and opened up Saffron. Between the trainers on that route, the Celadon Gym, and the Fighting Dojo, plus a passle of wild battles to rack up some EVs, I got the whole team up to lvl 33 (Norton to lvl 37). Taught Dig to Khamsin and Giga Drain to Slither.
So that gives me four out of six of my final team. The next objective is to get the Snorlax out of the way and get to Fuschia, which means getting the Poke Flute from Mr. Fuji, which in turn means getting the Silph Scope from the Team Rocket Hideout in Celadon. I might also try working the Game Corner enough to get Flamethrower for Khamsin, though that'll take 4000 coins -- not chump change.
Haven't done a darn thing in SS -- I'm still standing in front of Pryce's Gym. Didn't get many steps over the weekend due to cramps, either, so haven't caught anything new with the Pokewalker. Probably I'll keep going with the push through Kanto in FR until I get tired of it (most likely when I get impatient with Entei-hunting).
(4/20/2010)
Blew through the Game Corner Hideout and Pokemon Tower and got both Snorlax out of the way. Because the team's so overlevelled, most of the battles were just a series of one-shots, including the rival battle. Everyone's now lvl 35-37.
I also spent some time at the Game Corner and was able to rack up over 4000 coins -- though, now that I think about it, I might put them towards Ice Beam for my prospective Shellder. Or maybe try to win enough for both Ice Beam and Flamethrower; but if I can only have one, it'll be Ice Beam. Should probably take care of that before leaving Celadon.
So the next thing is the push towards Fuschia. Because I always take the waterside route, I'm thinking of going down Cycling Road this time. But I'll still want to grab the Super Rod, run out to Vermillion, and catch me a Shellder first. In fact, why haven't I done that already? D'oh.
Fuschia means the Safari Zone, which will net me a passle o' Pokes, plus Surf. Once I'm done there, I can take the waterside route back up around to Saffron to clear out Silph HQ. Then once Saffron Gym's down (and between Slither and Khamsin having Bite, this should be easy as long as they're properly levelled) it'll be off to Cinnabar. And THIS time I won't ignore Bill when he invites me to the islands.
...Though, it would likely be worth it to take a side-trip down to the Power Plant the moment I do get Surf, and get my Electabuzz. That way I can train it on those water routes.
That makes the plan: Get Super Rod > Catch Shellder > Down Cycling Road to Fuschia > Visit Safari Zone and obtain Surf > Catch Electabuzz at Power Plant > Circle back around to Saffron > Boot Team Rocket out of Silph HQ and get Master Ball > Defeat Sabrina > Head for Cinnibar > Do the Island sidequest.
Got my 5000 steps yesterday with a solid half-hour of walking and netted myself a Smoochum. Today's stroll on Blue Lake does not include either Dratini or Shellder, so I'll want to return and go back out to Blue Lake when I get home. Tonight's also Deadliest Catch and V, so maybe not much Poke-time.
(4/26/2010)
Much progress.
Got the Super Rod and caught my Shellder, a gal who I named Bertha (after Baltimore's "eat Bertha's mussels!" bumper stickers [ forgot that Pearl's hand-raised Cloyster is also named Bertha, oops ]). Bought Ice Beam at the Game Corner, and after levelling her up to get Aurora Beam and Protect, bought a Water Stone and evolved her to a Cloyster. Whereupon I set off down Cycling Road -- didn't fight all the Bikers right away but got to Fuschia.
That got me Surf, which Bertha immediately got taught, and finding the Warden's teeth got me Strength as well. Thus I ran up to the Power Plant and finally netted my Electabuzz, a male named Farraday (need to check spelling on that though). With my E4 team finally assembled, I went down Cycling Road again and took out the rest of the Bikers, then did a few turns through the Safari Zone to fill out my 'dex. Started up the coastal route back to Saffron, but didn't make it through all the trainers because it was getting late. I did get Exp Share, though, which should prove helpful, and the whole team's at lvl 39.
The next thing will be to finish up the coastal route, and to comb through the grass for a Ditto or two. Even though it's only that gang of Bikers and the fence-maze trainers, it could take a while to spot a Ditto. Then it'll be onward to clear the Rockets out of Silph Co. so I can get into the Saffron Gym. This'll also get me the Master Ball.
I've put almost 26 hours on FR so far, so I probably won't beat it in anything near 31 hours, but still. I've nearly got enough 'dex entries to get the Nat'l 'Dex right after the Elite Four, as long as I rescue Lostelle this time. Evolving Irving should do it; and he's got Synthesis now so I've taken away his Everstone. Getting through Silph should take care of levelling him enough to evolve -- in fact everyone should be lvl 40 or over by the time I hit the Gym. Koga gave me Toxic, so I should replace Poisonpowder with that, too.
After completing Saffron, the path will be: Return to Pallet > Surf to Cinnabar > Detour to Islands and rescue Lostelle > Find Gym Key in Cinnabar Mansion > Defeat Cinnabar Gym > Return to Viridian and defeat Gym > Hit the trail to the Pokemon League. I can leave the birds for after the E4, and after going through the Mansion and Victory Road I should have more than enough 'dex entries.
Once I've caught Entei (fingers crossed and knock on wood!) I'll probably transfer all the Berries to Emerald via rotating trades. Items can go to LG for now, and random catches should be Pal Parked (in fact I don't necessarily need to wait until the game is finished, for that). I should also take the opportunity to catch a breeding pair of all the FR exclusives, for transfer to both Emerald and LG.
So, besides that -- I got 5000 or more steps a day for five of seven days last week, along with my half-hour of walking. However, I managed to severely blister my feet by doing 50 minutes barefooted on Heather's and Julie's treadmill. So, won't get my steps for a few days, and will have to debate some other kind of exercise. I've netted a few more Pokes via the PW, but right now am on Night Sky's Edge for the valuable items.
And I actually DID make some progress in SS -- did some training in Mt. Mortar, and defeated Pryce's Gym. That, of course, triggered the call from Prof. Elm that the Rockets have taken over Goldenrod Tower, so that'll be the next task there. Interestingly, that puts both games at about the same point, and the teams at nearly the same levels.
(4/27/2010)
Definitely am not beating FR in my record hours -- I already have over 30 hours on it, and still have several major chunks of story to go.
Wrapped up the coastal route and caught a Ditto (might go back for another later). Then went to Saffron and cleaned out Silph. I'd been thinking it was about time my rival showed up again, and he did; his Gyrados gave me a little trouble but otherwise he went down pretty easily. With the Gym unblocked, I managed to sweep through all the minor trainers just with Slither. Sabrina's Alakazam gave me a LOT of trouble, though. It one-shotted two-thirds of my team by boosting Psychic with Calm Mind, and Farraday only JUST pulled through long enough to hit it with Strength one last time. Still, I got the badge, so that gives me obedience to lvl 70.
From Pallet I turned south, caught a Tangela, then avoided all the trainers on the way to Cinnabar. Bill was nowhere in sight, which means that I will have to get the key from the Mansion and beat Blaine before I can do the Island subquest. Should also go back over the water and take out all those trainers. And I keep forgetting to teach Irving Toxic; though I did finally let him evolve.
(5/3/2010)
Did not get nearly as many steps from Sheep and Wool this weekend as I'd expected. Too many people and more shuffling and standing than actual walking. My feet hurt from the standing but the blisters were OK.
Got through the Cinnibar Mansion, though, and took down most of Blaine's Gym with Khamsin and Dig. That triggered the Island sequence, so I followed Bill down there and rescued Lostelle. Since I was around there anyway, I also trucked out to the cape on Two Island and got Frenzy Plant for Irving. With that done, the next thing was Viridian Gym, which I wasn't levelled enough to tackle. So I spent a bunch of time running around the Power Plant and Cinnabar Mansion, as well as fishing off Cinnibar, to collect more of the FR exclusives. Besides those, you can also catch some final evo's that aren't in LG, like Seadra and Weezing; so I went ahead and nabbed those too.
When I'd caught enough, the team ranged from Norton at lvl 45 to Irving at lvl 50, so I decided to take on the Viridian Gym. Lots of trainers there with large teams, but Bertha Surfed all the Ground-types to oblivion, and Norton handled the fighting types. Bertha took down all of Giovanni's team as well -- I'd held Irving in reserve but didn't even need him. I remembered to pick up the hidden Macho Brace, healed up at the Pokecenter, and saved.
So now all that stands between me and the E4 is Victory Road. That'll give me a chance to fill out my 'dex some more and get my levels up properly. For the E4 themselves, Khamsin and Farraday should take care of Lorelei and Agatha, Bertha and Norton should be good for Bruno, and Bertha and Farraday should be able to take on Lance. Then it's just that last rival battle, and I can grab the Nat'l 'Dex and start Entei-hunting!
(5/4/2010)
Got through Victory Road in just a couple runs. I was able to catch some Ekans and a couple Arbok, though I missed catching a Machamp. Oddly enough, the wild encounters were almost more trouble than the trainers.
That left me at the doorstep of the Elite Four, and got me Fly access to Indigo Plateau. Thing is, the team's still only lvls 47-50, which is too dang low to take on the E4. Training will be required -- I think I've beat the E4 with a lvl 55 team, so I'll aim for that (which, amusingly, should let me have a nice even battle with one of my other teams, while I'm doing my trading).
From there, I should probably start the process of cleaning out the cartridge. Theoretically I should Pal Park all the non-exclusive random catches to Pearl and transfer them to the Ranch....by the time I'm done I might actually have caught Entei.
FR exclusives will go to LG only -- I don't feel like going through the Islands and fixing the dang machine AGAIN. Although maybe it'd be worth it to pick up another Sludge Bomb TM, since I plan to teach that to Slither. Dunno.
I should likely collect the legendary birds as long as I'm at it, though Mewtwo will depend on whether I feel like completing the Islands again. Then it's items/team/specials/exclusives to LG, Berries to Emerald (if I work the rotating trades with the FR exclusives, that'd take care of that, though the machine would have to have been fixed first).
Bah, who am I kidding, I'll probably finish the whole thing again, 'cause I'm me. Maybe I should go Entei-hunting first, and see how I feel about it after I've netted him.
Still. SO CLOSE. And then I can concentrate on SS, after all this is over with.
(5/5/2010)
Note to self: lvl 50 is too dang low to take on the Elite Four, especially with several weaker team members.
Since I was there, I figured I'd give the E4 a try. Not that I expected to win or anything, but whoah were they a LOT harder with the team not properly levelled. I was already in trouble in the first battle, and had to fall back on revives and potions just to keep going. Even so, I made it all the way to the final rival battle, and through most of his Pokemon. I had just two more to take down when he finally got me.
But that gets me thinking. There's no way of telling when you've maxed your EVs in FR/LG, short of trying to feed your Pokemon vitamins, and them having no effect. If I did that, though, and was able to confirm that the team's got its max EVs, then I could level them with the Rare Candies I've been saving. I've already got three games' worth of the dang things, and it sure would be a lot faster. And I lost with a narrow enough margin that just a few more levels should do the trick.
The other thing I should really do before hitting the E4 again is bring over Sludge Bomb for Slither, because Acid sure as heck wasn't cutting it, and Sludge Bomb did a LOT of damage when Agatha's Arbok hit me with it. While I'm at it I could probably trade the FR exclusives for the LG ones, and fill out the 'dex just a bit more.
I do have to say, though, Slither did better than I thought. When my supereffective choice went down (which happened a LOT) I found myself going back to him time and again as the one to throw out there until I could get my other Pokemon revived. Hopefully that won't be necessary next time, and I can one-shot or two-shot most everything.
(5/10/2010)
And the Elite Four are DOWN.
The vitamin idea didn't work, because as it turned out, more than one team member did not have their full EVs. So instead, I ran around a bit in Victory Road and elsewhere to train, then got impatient with that and just fed everyone a Rare Candy and went for it.
At around lvl 53 this is probably the lowest-levelled team that I've ever taken up against the Elite Four. Still, it went a heckuva lot better than last time. I was able to down most of their Pokes in one hit, and only a few really gave me any trouble. Not an easy win, but not as difficult as, say, the E4 were in Platinum.
This is both good news and bad news: I can go Entei-hunting! Which means....going Entei hunting, and all the time and patience that requires. I've only gone at it three or four turns so far, and I'm already tired of it. But I've got to remember, it took weeks of searching to find Suicune and Raikou, and there's no reason to hope that the RNG will be any kinder to me this time around.
On the SS side of things, I booted up long enough to sell some of the Pokewalker goodies and see if my trade went through yet (after what, a couple weeks?), and discovered that Team Rocket are blocking access to the GTS. How dare they! A trouncing is clearly in order.
I also kept Hootie on the cartridge long enough to feed him a Rare Candy and evolve him. At some point I may fix his moveset, but I have to get to Blackthorn first, which means clearing the Rockets out of Goldenrod.
More importantly, I cleared 9,000 steps for the first time! Since the Mt. Airy shop didn't have any Sidewinders to show me, I went by Subaru for a test drive of an Outback, and came to the conclusion that it's more car than I can justify needing. And then I went out to Ellicott City to check out the Short Line #9 trail. I did at least fifteen or twenty minutes each way, for a good 6,000-some steps, then went home and jogged for the other few thousand. Caught a Bouncing Magikarp, a Bronzor, and a Duskull, but did not get the Munchlax with Leftovers. They only have a 5% appearance rate, but I'm fairly sure they're on my current stroll, so I'm going to save up my Watts until I can get 8,000+ steps again.
(4/9/2010)
Realtor guy had a contract on the house already on Wednesday and it took forever for him and Dad to get through initialing and signing it all, so too tired and late for anything afterwards. Hootie spontaneously found me an Oran Berry, though. I should grow some this weekend, so I can wrap that sideplot up in SS.
Last night, despite being TURNED AWAY for Xolair after driving all the way up to the allergist's, I got FR restarted. Traded out the starter and a Rattata, holding the Star Piece and a Moon Stone respectively. Then went to breed Norton the second, and it took FIVE TRIES to get a male. ARGH. With that done, though, I finally started my new FR game, got to Viridian, and traded Norton in. For insurance, I did catch another Mankey -- I remember that I was going to name the female I'd had in the last game Scorn, so I did that. Got Irving up to lvl 10 and the other two to lvl 8, then marched off to trigger my second rival battle, which was harder than I expected. Still won though, and the next step will be to get through Viridian Forest and take down the Pewter Gym.
The Forest will probably level Norton past where he'll listen to me until I can get to Misty, but with the Mankey to get me through Mt. Moon, that should be okay. I dunno that I'll bother to look for a Pikachu this time -- if one appears I'll catch it, but otherwise, eh. Likewise with Metapod and Kakuna. It's faster to do a few rotating trades than it is to wander endlessly through grass searching for stuff, and at my fourth turn through Kanto, I'm really just looking for speed.
(4/13/2010)
Some progress in both games. Grew me some Oran Berries on Saturday between oysters, visit to house, and an hour's walk around Centennial Lake (which wore me out just as much as the hour's walk on the Boardwalk). Fed the Miltank, got my Seal Case, traded for that Krabby, and wrapped up Olivine. Also got through the bit with the Lake of Rage, and Team Rocket's hideout in Mahogany, but have not yet tried for the Mahogany Gym (which will let me use Whirlpool). Nor did I venture into Mt. Mortar. But I did catch Vermillion, with an out-loud "welcome back." 8D And Sheepish now has Strength, as she ought to.
As for FR, I got through Viridian Forest, swept through the Pewter Gym, and headed out towards Mt. Moon but didn't yet go in. I even managed to catch a Pikachu and a Jigglypuff without too much searching, so my 'dex is getting reasonably filled out. So far I've been able to manage with just Irving, Norton, and Scorn; though at lvl 12 Norton is starting to disobey me. If Irving and Scorn can get me through Mt. Moon, then maybe I can hit the Cerulean Gym before trying to catch another Slither so that Norton will listen to me again. Then I can train Slither up to match the team, clean out Rt. 25, and head for Vermillion, which will catch me up to the previous game. (reading back, I was just about to take on the SS Anne after training Norton when that game poofed.)
Not sure how much of that I'll get done tonight, though, since both V and the new season of Deadliest Catch are on. Might also have an episode of SGU waiting in On Demand. At least I did get my taxes done and filed... And it's raining, plus we're at EOB, so there's nowhere to walk today. I may have to jog during commercials to try and get in at least SOME exercise.
(4/15/2010)
Did laundry, got my exercise by running around the basement, and STILL had time to Poke before my shows -- getting off at 5 really helps! Made a speedy run through Mt. Moon by doing most of the upper level in a few go's, then using an Escape Rope and healing up before the final push. This got me to Cerulean, where I did not wait to catch my Ekans before taking Misty down, so Norton was once again compliant. Then went out to catch my Slither, who is NOT made of glass this time. Did the route up to the cape then headed for Vermillion.
Only, I didn't get Slither up to team level, and spent waaaaay too much time running around Diglett's Cave trying to find a Dugtrio. Apparently the RNG still hates me, 'cause I used up all Irving's attacks while looking. Finally one appeared and I caught it. Also ran out towards the end of Rt. 11 on the vague recollection that one of Prof. Oak's Aides was there, but unfortunately I didn't have the 30 species it would have taken to get the Itemfinder. Gotta buckle down and get Slither up to the point where I can comfortably take on the SS Anne, blow through there, then head for Rock Tunnel. I have an Abra to teach Flash to, and am debating whether to give Dig to Slither, or wait until I've got my Growlithe.
(4/16/2010)
Brought Slither up to speed by going through the rest of the trainers on Rt. 11 east of Vermillion, took down Lt. Surge's Gym, and fought my way through the SS Anne. The rival battle went spectacularly well -- not only was the team quite nicely overlevelled by that point, but Norton's Swords Dance made the whole battle a series of one-shots. With the Thunderbadge, I can now use Fly outside of battle. Normally I wouldn't have the Fly HM at this stage of the game, but thanks to breeding Norton has the move anyway.
Next push will be to get to and through Rock Cave. That'll get me to Lavender, and while I won't be able to do anything about that Snorlax to the south yet, I'll be able to catch my Growlithe (gotta think of a good name). And I can also get the Tea for the thirsty Guards and open up the way though Saffron.
Movesets: I've decided that Dig should go to the Growlithe, and Giga Drain (after I beat Erika in Celadon) to Slither. Poison, as it turns out, seems to be weak against Ground, so having a Grass attack in his moveset would help with that. I might also bring over a Sludge Bomb TM from the main Rue cart, since Acid isn't terribly powerful and doesn't poison; and I had been thinking to give Toxic to Irving. I believe I'll go with a moveset of Bite, Dig, Flame Wheel (or Flamethrower if I can buy the TM) and Extremespeed for my future Arcanine.
(4/19/2010)
Rock Cave went fairly quickly, between Irving and Scorn, and I arrived in Lavender. Caught my Growlithe, though it took forever to find a female with the Flash Fire ability, and named her Khamsin (hot desert wind), which enabled me to retire Scorn. First thing after that, I nabbed my Eevee from the Celadon Mansion, then got the Tea and opened up Saffron. Between the trainers on that route, the Celadon Gym, and the Fighting Dojo, plus a passle of wild battles to rack up some EVs, I got the whole team up to lvl 33 (Norton to lvl 37). Taught Dig to Khamsin and Giga Drain to Slither.
So that gives me four out of six of my final team. The next objective is to get the Snorlax out of the way and get to Fuschia, which means getting the Poke Flute from Mr. Fuji, which in turn means getting the Silph Scope from the Team Rocket Hideout in Celadon. I might also try working the Game Corner enough to get Flamethrower for Khamsin, though that'll take 4000 coins -- not chump change.
Haven't done a darn thing in SS -- I'm still standing in front of Pryce's Gym. Didn't get many steps over the weekend due to cramps, either, so haven't caught anything new with the Pokewalker. Probably I'll keep going with the push through Kanto in FR until I get tired of it (most likely when I get impatient with Entei-hunting).
(4/20/2010)
Blew through the Game Corner Hideout and Pokemon Tower and got both Snorlax out of the way. Because the team's so overlevelled, most of the battles were just a series of one-shots, including the rival battle. Everyone's now lvl 35-37.
I also spent some time at the Game Corner and was able to rack up over 4000 coins -- though, now that I think about it, I might put them towards Ice Beam for my prospective Shellder. Or maybe try to win enough for both Ice Beam and Flamethrower; but if I can only have one, it'll be Ice Beam. Should probably take care of that before leaving Celadon.
So the next thing is the push towards Fuschia. Because I always take the waterside route, I'm thinking of going down Cycling Road this time. But I'll still want to grab the Super Rod, run out to Vermillion, and catch me a Shellder first. In fact, why haven't I done that already? D'oh.
Fuschia means the Safari Zone, which will net me a passle o' Pokes, plus Surf. Once I'm done there, I can take the waterside route back up around to Saffron to clear out Silph HQ. Then once Saffron Gym's down (and between Slither and Khamsin having Bite, this should be easy as long as they're properly levelled) it'll be off to Cinnabar. And THIS time I won't ignore Bill when he invites me to the islands.
...Though, it would likely be worth it to take a side-trip down to the Power Plant the moment I do get Surf, and get my Electabuzz. That way I can train it on those water routes.
That makes the plan: Get Super Rod > Catch Shellder > Down Cycling Road to Fuschia > Visit Safari Zone and obtain Surf > Catch Electabuzz at Power Plant > Circle back around to Saffron > Boot Team Rocket out of Silph HQ and get Master Ball > Defeat Sabrina > Head for Cinnibar > Do the Island sidequest.
Got my 5000 steps yesterday with a solid half-hour of walking and netted myself a Smoochum. Today's stroll on Blue Lake does not include either Dratini or Shellder, so I'll want to return and go back out to Blue Lake when I get home. Tonight's also Deadliest Catch and V, so maybe not much Poke-time.
(4/26/2010)
Much progress.
Got the Super Rod and caught my Shellder, a gal who I named Bertha (after Baltimore's "eat Bertha's mussels!" bumper stickers [ forgot that Pearl's hand-raised Cloyster is also named Bertha, oops ]). Bought Ice Beam at the Game Corner, and after levelling her up to get Aurora Beam and Protect, bought a Water Stone and evolved her to a Cloyster. Whereupon I set off down Cycling Road -- didn't fight all the Bikers right away but got to Fuschia.
That got me Surf, which Bertha immediately got taught, and finding the Warden's teeth got me Strength as well. Thus I ran up to the Power Plant and finally netted my Electabuzz, a male named Farraday (need to check spelling on that though). With my E4 team finally assembled, I went down Cycling Road again and took out the rest of the Bikers, then did a few turns through the Safari Zone to fill out my 'dex. Started up the coastal route back to Saffron, but didn't make it through all the trainers because it was getting late. I did get Exp Share, though, which should prove helpful, and the whole team's at lvl 39.
The next thing will be to finish up the coastal route, and to comb through the grass for a Ditto or two. Even though it's only that gang of Bikers and the fence-maze trainers, it could take a while to spot a Ditto. Then it'll be onward to clear the Rockets out of Silph Co. so I can get into the Saffron Gym. This'll also get me the Master Ball.
I've put almost 26 hours on FR so far, so I probably won't beat it in anything near 31 hours, but still. I've nearly got enough 'dex entries to get the Nat'l 'Dex right after the Elite Four, as long as I rescue Lostelle this time. Evolving Irving should do it; and he's got Synthesis now so I've taken away his Everstone. Getting through Silph should take care of levelling him enough to evolve -- in fact everyone should be lvl 40 or over by the time I hit the Gym. Koga gave me Toxic, so I should replace Poisonpowder with that, too.
After completing Saffron, the path will be: Return to Pallet > Surf to Cinnabar > Detour to Islands and rescue Lostelle > Find Gym Key in Cinnabar Mansion > Defeat Cinnabar Gym > Return to Viridian and defeat Gym > Hit the trail to the Pokemon League. I can leave the birds for after the E4, and after going through the Mansion and Victory Road I should have more than enough 'dex entries.
Once I've caught Entei (fingers crossed and knock on wood!) I'll probably transfer all the Berries to Emerald via rotating trades. Items can go to LG for now, and random catches should be Pal Parked (in fact I don't necessarily need to wait until the game is finished, for that). I should also take the opportunity to catch a breeding pair of all the FR exclusives, for transfer to both Emerald and LG.
So, besides that -- I got 5000 or more steps a day for five of seven days last week, along with my half-hour of walking. However, I managed to severely blister my feet by doing 50 minutes barefooted on Heather's and Julie's treadmill. So, won't get my steps for a few days, and will have to debate some other kind of exercise. I've netted a few more Pokes via the PW, but right now am on Night Sky's Edge for the valuable items.
And I actually DID make some progress in SS -- did some training in Mt. Mortar, and defeated Pryce's Gym. That, of course, triggered the call from Prof. Elm that the Rockets have taken over Goldenrod Tower, so that'll be the next task there. Interestingly, that puts both games at about the same point, and the teams at nearly the same levels.
(4/27/2010)
Definitely am not beating FR in my record hours -- I already have over 30 hours on it, and still have several major chunks of story to go.
Wrapped up the coastal route and caught a Ditto (might go back for another later). Then went to Saffron and cleaned out Silph. I'd been thinking it was about time my rival showed up again, and he did; his Gyrados gave me a little trouble but otherwise he went down pretty easily. With the Gym unblocked, I managed to sweep through all the minor trainers just with Slither. Sabrina's Alakazam gave me a LOT of trouble, though. It one-shotted two-thirds of my team by boosting Psychic with Calm Mind, and Farraday only JUST pulled through long enough to hit it with Strength one last time. Still, I got the badge, so that gives me obedience to lvl 70.
From Pallet I turned south, caught a Tangela, then avoided all the trainers on the way to Cinnabar. Bill was nowhere in sight, which means that I will have to get the key from the Mansion and beat Blaine before I can do the Island subquest. Should also go back over the water and take out all those trainers. And I keep forgetting to teach Irving Toxic; though I did finally let him evolve.
(5/3/2010)
Did not get nearly as many steps from Sheep and Wool this weekend as I'd expected. Too many people and more shuffling and standing than actual walking. My feet hurt from the standing but the blisters were OK.
Got through the Cinnibar Mansion, though, and took down most of Blaine's Gym with Khamsin and Dig. That triggered the Island sequence, so I followed Bill down there and rescued Lostelle. Since I was around there anyway, I also trucked out to the cape on Two Island and got Frenzy Plant for Irving. With that done, the next thing was Viridian Gym, which I wasn't levelled enough to tackle. So I spent a bunch of time running around the Power Plant and Cinnabar Mansion, as well as fishing off Cinnibar, to collect more of the FR exclusives. Besides those, you can also catch some final evo's that aren't in LG, like Seadra and Weezing; so I went ahead and nabbed those too.
When I'd caught enough, the team ranged from Norton at lvl 45 to Irving at lvl 50, so I decided to take on the Viridian Gym. Lots of trainers there with large teams, but Bertha Surfed all the Ground-types to oblivion, and Norton handled the fighting types. Bertha took down all of Giovanni's team as well -- I'd held Irving in reserve but didn't even need him. I remembered to pick up the hidden Macho Brace, healed up at the Pokecenter, and saved.
So now all that stands between me and the E4 is Victory Road. That'll give me a chance to fill out my 'dex some more and get my levels up properly. For the E4 themselves, Khamsin and Farraday should take care of Lorelei and Agatha, Bertha and Norton should be good for Bruno, and Bertha and Farraday should be able to take on Lance. Then it's just that last rival battle, and I can grab the Nat'l 'Dex and start Entei-hunting!
(5/4/2010)
Got through Victory Road in just a couple runs. I was able to catch some Ekans and a couple Arbok, though I missed catching a Machamp. Oddly enough, the wild encounters were almost more trouble than the trainers.
That left me at the doorstep of the Elite Four, and got me Fly access to Indigo Plateau. Thing is, the team's still only lvls 47-50, which is too dang low to take on the E4. Training will be required -- I think I've beat the E4 with a lvl 55 team, so I'll aim for that (which, amusingly, should let me have a nice even battle with one of my other teams, while I'm doing my trading).
From there, I should probably start the process of cleaning out the cartridge. Theoretically I should Pal Park all the non-exclusive random catches to Pearl and transfer them to the Ranch....by the time I'm done I might actually have caught Entei.
FR exclusives will go to LG only -- I don't feel like going through the Islands and fixing the dang machine AGAIN. Although maybe it'd be worth it to pick up another Sludge Bomb TM, since I plan to teach that to Slither. Dunno.
I should likely collect the legendary birds as long as I'm at it, though Mewtwo will depend on whether I feel like completing the Islands again. Then it's items/team/specials/exclusives to LG, Berries to Emerald (if I work the rotating trades with the FR exclusives, that'd take care of that, though the machine would have to have been fixed first).
Bah, who am I kidding, I'll probably finish the whole thing again, 'cause I'm me. Maybe I should go Entei-hunting first, and see how I feel about it after I've netted him.
Still. SO CLOSE. And then I can concentrate on SS, after all this is over with.
(5/5/2010)
Note to self: lvl 50 is too dang low to take on the Elite Four, especially with several weaker team members.
Since I was there, I figured I'd give the E4 a try. Not that I expected to win or anything, but whoah were they a LOT harder with the team not properly levelled. I was already in trouble in the first battle, and had to fall back on revives and potions just to keep going. Even so, I made it all the way to the final rival battle, and through most of his Pokemon. I had just two more to take down when he finally got me.
But that gets me thinking. There's no way of telling when you've maxed your EVs in FR/LG, short of trying to feed your Pokemon vitamins, and them having no effect. If I did that, though, and was able to confirm that the team's got its max EVs, then I could level them with the Rare Candies I've been saving. I've already got three games' worth of the dang things, and it sure would be a lot faster. And I lost with a narrow enough margin that just a few more levels should do the trick.
The other thing I should really do before hitting the E4 again is bring over Sludge Bomb for Slither, because Acid sure as heck wasn't cutting it, and Sludge Bomb did a LOT of damage when Agatha's Arbok hit me with it. While I'm at it I could probably trade the FR exclusives for the LG ones, and fill out the 'dex just a bit more.
I do have to say, though, Slither did better than I thought. When my supereffective choice went down (which happened a LOT) I found myself going back to him time and again as the one to throw out there until I could get my other Pokemon revived. Hopefully that won't be necessary next time, and I can one-shot or two-shot most everything.
(5/10/2010)
And the Elite Four are DOWN.
The vitamin idea didn't work, because as it turned out, more than one team member did not have their full EVs. So instead, I ran around a bit in Victory Road and elsewhere to train, then got impatient with that and just fed everyone a Rare Candy and went for it.
At around lvl 53 this is probably the lowest-levelled team that I've ever taken up against the Elite Four. Still, it went a heckuva lot better than last time. I was able to down most of their Pokes in one hit, and only a few really gave me any trouble. Not an easy win, but not as difficult as, say, the E4 were in Platinum.
This is both good news and bad news: I can go Entei-hunting! Which means....going Entei hunting, and all the time and patience that requires. I've only gone at it three or four turns so far, and I'm already tired of it. But I've got to remember, it took weeks of searching to find Suicune and Raikou, and there's no reason to hope that the RNG will be any kinder to me this time around.
On the SS side of things, I booted up long enough to sell some of the Pokewalker goodies and see if my trade went through yet (after what, a couple weeks?), and discovered that Team Rocket are blocking access to the GTS. How dare they! A trouncing is clearly in order.
I also kept Hootie on the cartridge long enough to feed him a Rare Candy and evolve him. At some point I may fix his moveset, but I have to get to Blackthorn first, which means clearing the Rockets out of Goldenrod.
More importantly, I cleared 9,000 steps for the first time! Since the Mt. Airy shop didn't have any Sidewinders to show me, I went by Subaru for a test drive of an Outback, and came to the conclusion that it's more car than I can justify needing. And then I went out to Ellicott City to check out the Short Line #9 trail. I did at least fifteen or twenty minutes each way, for a good 6,000-some steps, then went home and jogged for the other few thousand. Caught a Bouncing Magikarp, a Bronzor, and a Duskull, but did not get the Munchlax with Leftovers. They only have a 5% appearance rate, but I'm fairly sure they're on my current stroll, so I'm going to save up my Watts until I can get 8,000+ steps again.