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.
Friday, October 22, 2010
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.