Thursday, December 30, 2010

Emerald II - Legendary round-up and the EV grind

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!

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.....

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.