(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.)
(3/25/2010)
Too tired after Lorien last night to do any Poke-ing. But I did have over 3,000 steps -- and when I activated the Pokeradar, I only saw Paras. Which MIGHT mean that the Group A Pokemon for this stroll is Wobbuffet, who is the rarer one. That would mean, in turn, that I need to rack up 4,000 steps today so I can try to catch one. Maybe I can walk around my allergists' building or something?
I also owe Petty a Buneary with Sky Uppercut, to trade for that Spinarak Sunday. Luckily I'll be breeding in Pearl, and Hitmonchan get Sky Uppercut at lvl 36, plus all the elemental punches at lvl 31. Ah, but wait -- if I'm going to tutor Bounce instead of levelling two Buneary to lvl 46, I need to breed in Platinum, where I might not have a Hitmonchan. Graaaaah. Oh well, will make it work somehow. I'm thinking Sky Uppercut, Bounce, Ice Punch, and some interesting TM.
(3/26/2010)
Caught my Wobbuffet last night, though I needed over 5000 steps to do it. Today's stroll is on the Rugged Road, where the selection of the day includes Onix, Geodude, and not sure what the group B one will be.
Also booted Team Rocket out of Slowpoke Well -- Executive Proton was surprisingly weak -- then went for the Azalea Gym. Their bugs burned nicely as expected, with the exception of Bugsy's Scyther. Switching out Cynder for Rocky did the trick though. Then I ventured far enough into Ilex to find the missing Farfetch'd and get Cut (need to remember to pick up the Charcoal from the kiln apprentice). So I'm now at the point where I need the event Pichu for Ilex. All the core team are now trying to evolve (except Cynder, who's holding the Everstone).
I also need to decide what I want to do with Izzel's moveset. The original Izzel from Silver had Cut, Swift, Quick Attack, and Fury Swipes -- a theme of quickness, accuracy, and slashing claws. But I'll need someone on the team to learn Headbutt, shortly. I'd wanted her to learn Slam, but Headbutt is nearly as good and more accurate. Cut is a natural replacement for Scratch. But Fury Swipes? why did I keep such a pathetic attack? I see from Bulbapedia that back in GII they didn't learn much after that (Swift was a TM, and this was back when it was a kickass attack). In fact, they STILL don't learn much of use beyond Slam at 19. And she's already got Quick Attack and Fury Swipes, so maybe I teach her Cut and then just replace Swift with something. Again, it's nostalgia vs. utility. [no. I forgot the kind of damage Fury Swipes can do in a fast Pokemon with a high Attack. Izzel totally rocks the Fury Swipes, as the original Silver one must have.]
Maybe I could teach Headbutt to Rocky instead. I already stuck him with Rock Smash. This creates its own problem, though, because that puts two field moves on a Pokemon I am not planning to keep on the team. ...y'know, though. Making him a Steelix might not be a bad idea; they get Crunch later, and they're Steel/Ground, so Dig would be super-effective. Hmmm.
The essential conundrum here is the nostalgia thing. Do I duplicate my Silver team move-for-move, even though the GII learnsets were so limited? Or do I give up on straight duplication, and go for the newer better moves in GIV? I suspect that the answer is somewhere in the middle....keep signature moves/themes, but replace what just doesn't make sense. I can't just ignore the new attacks, after all. Goodness knows my Blue-redo team in LG didn't end up much resembling their forebearers.
The original Cynder had Swift, Rollout, Flame Wheel, and Flamethrower, all of which they still learn. The only HM they can learn is Cut. Think I'll go for nostalgia here....or maybe, replace Flame Wheel with Lava Plume?
The original Sheepish had Strength, Flash, Thundershock, and Thunder. I usually do end up putting Strength on my Electric types, so that's fine. But Flash? I suspect I needed that to get through Victory Road, and I would much rather keep Thunder Wave. Thunder is still the most powerful attack they learn, but now they can also get interesting stuff like Discharge, Signal Beam, and Power Gem. ...heh. If Faros were an Ampharos, he'd totally have those last two. But for Sheepish I think I'll do Strength, Thunder Wave, Discharge (i.e. an upgraded version of Thundershock), and Thunder.
Hootie's moveset doesn't really matter much, since moves aren't used on the Pokewalker, but I can probably do a close dupe of his original Silver moveset; I don't think Nightmare is available anymore though.
It'll be a while before I get my Natu, so I can worry about that when I get there....plus, since I didn't raise one last time, I can do what I want. Natu should learn Miracle Eye, though; this removes Dark's immunity to Psychic attacks. They also get Night Shade and Teleport pretty early. After evolving, Xatu can also learn Fly and Defog...no Headbutt though. Teleport can be replaced with Fly (which is essentially Teleport with the choice of destination), then the rest can be Miracle Eye, Night Shade, and Psychic.
Oh, but what about my prospective Spinarak? ...actually, they don't learn much either in terms of level-up moves, aside of Night Shade, and don't learn any HM moves either. But they can learn Flash and Dig (sadly, not Headbutt). Signal Beam can be tutored, in the Frontier Front for BP in SS, or by the Survival Area tutor for two of each shard in Pt. Given the Bug/Poison combo, Toxic would be a natural choice as well. Note that they also learn Spider Web, which keeps the target from escaping or switching out; this is one of two Bug moves they learn by level-up.
I gotta say, the necessity of Flash is really annoying. As is the fact that there's so darn many field moves, when only a few are really useful enough to keep around all the time (like Fly or Surf).
(3/29/2010)
And after all that, when I got to Ilex Forest and met the Headbutt guy, the only team Pokes I had with me were Cynder, Rocky, and Izzel, because of having to clear the party for the two Pichus. So, Izzel got Headbutt, and I let her evolve since she's got that instead of Slam. Might have to throw Rock Smash on her too someday....too many dang HMs and field moves.
On the plus side, I did pick up the special notch-eared Pichu. And bred a wacky Buneary with Sky Uppercut, Bounce, Ice Punch, and Solarbeam for Petty, and got a Spinarak Egg in return. Since it hatched male, it got named Chet. It's got no special moves, just what they get at lvl 1, but I'm going to take it out to the early Routes and train it. Can pick up Apricorns and take the notch-eared Pichu by Prof. Elm's while I'm at it.
On the not-so-plus side, breeding that Buneary took an awfully long time, seeing as I had yet to get up to the Survival Area in Platinum. And while I was levelling stuff up I made the decision -- unwise, in retrospect -- to go catch my Shaymin as per Oak's Letter. However, this turned out to be on Rt. 224, and for that I had to truck through the back end of Victory Road, and doing that got me stuck with Marley. In fog. So getting through there took longer than it needed to. But I did catch my Shaymin and named her Petunia, and Corwin did help me move stuff over to SS. He also gave me an Egg containing a Wooper with Surf, Earthquake, and Blizzard, bred I think from the Quagsire from the previous trainer's game.
All this Poke-ing, though, meant I didn't get in much walking. I did walk up to the Paradise 7-11 for some milk, but even that little walk had me panting for breath. I tried to offset this by stepping in place during episodes of SGU, but I can't do that for more than five minutes, either. So I ended up with maybe 3000 steps for the entire weekend, which meant I didn't get any Group A Pokemon from Beautiful Beach.
Also need to send Jirachi to the Pokewalker to unlock Edge of the Night Sky. And there's an event Saturday for a Pokemon group on dA, where everyone brings five Eggs, and trades them with everyone else so that everyone ends up with five Eggs. I know I've got stuff I can run off in Pearl, so I'm thinking of attending....I love the random mystery Egg trade idea.
Anyway. Need to do some walking today, and maybe fire up the Wii to get in a half hour of SOME kind of exercise. D: Maybe spring for Wii Fit Plus, or Wii Sports Resort? Also need to return that cart of FR....
(3/30/2010)
V starts up again tonight. And SGU starts up again Friday, and Deadliest Catch on Tues Apr 13. WHOO
Have been training Chet (have to check if his name should actually be Chester? can't remember) diligently outside New Bark Town, and he's finally getting to where he can hold his own against the weaker Pokes there. Took the notch-eared Pichu to show Prof. Elm, who talked about time travel and Celebi and that this Pichu had surely travelled too much through time so take extra good care of it. So of course I dumped it in the PC and went back to training. ;P
Managed over 5,000 steps yesterday despite the rain -- took the long way 'round the building, walked up 7 floors of the parking garage, and did a LOT of running in place while catching up with the season finale of Caprica. Caught a Poliwhirl, a Slowpoke, and a Staryu off the Pokewalker.
Also signed up for the Poke-fanclub's Easter Egg Scramble, despite having to join the group to do it, and also despite the fact that I'll be at a hotel on Saturday, which means re-configuring WiFi. I should look for a hotel and make sure to get one with wireless internet...
Tonight I wanna train Chet some more, pick up Apricorns along my way back to Azalea, and then see if I can't get to Goldenrod. This will get me Daycare access, and hopefully GTS access too. And I'll need to look over my breeding pairs in Pearl before this weekend, and see what's interesting for the Scramble.
(3/31/2010)
Holy crap, it's gonna be April already and I haven't done my taxes. O:
Trekked back to Azalea, picking up Apricorns and training Chet as I went. Made it through the rest of Ilex and up to Goldenrod, then spent time running around the town. The layout's basically the same, but the graphics are vastly improved -- the place looks great. I grabbed my Bike, answered a quiz for my Radio Card, fought trainers in the Underground and got the Fashion Case from Ethan, and finally got Izzel properly named. Stopped by the GTS to register my location and upload a Sunkern, in hopes of getting the international trade I need to unlock the Beyond the Sea Pokewalker course. And tried out the new Voltorb Flip game in the Game Corner, which is HORRIFYINGLY addictive.
Surprisingly, Ethan showed up to introduce me to the Day Care couple, who are apparently his grandparents. Given their confusion over where those Eggs keep coming from, it's my guess that they adopted. XD
In Pokewalker news, I think this stroll might have Elekid on it, so I didn't connect the Pokewalker last night, and took a 20-minute walk at lunchtime today. I've already got 3500+ of the 5000 steps I'd need to catch one, if it's there, so I think I can do it. Maybe.
Next goal in the game is to wallop Whitney, and that'll take some preparation. I have verrry bad memories of her Miltank -- between Stomp and Rollout, it's a huge powerhouse, and with Milk Drink, it might be almost impossible to take down. Plus Attract, to mess with the boys. It's lvl 19 so I'd best be at levels around 25. Luckily Sheepish and Izzel are both female; maybe if Sheepish can paralyze it (Lum Berry notwithstanding) then I'd have a chance.
After that I can get the Squirtbottle, and possibly the Berry Planter. Should also nab the Gracidea while I'm there.
(4/1/2010)
Well, THAT was anticlimactic.
In dread of Whitney, I spent time running up north of Goldenrod and fighting trainers along routes and in the National Park to get the team up around lvl 22 before I even set foot in the Gym. Yet, when I actually faced her, her Jigglypuff went down to Izzel in one hit, and Rocky and Sheepish took care of her Miltank without too much trouble. Got the Plain Badge first try, and can now use Strength outside of battle (not that I've found the HM yet).
With that done, I got the Squirtbottle from the Flower Shop, and caught the Sudowoodo. Flora from the Flower Shop was standing there, and gave me the Berry Planters, so during beach trip I might try growing me some Berries since I'll be around to water them. I did bring Petunia by the Flower Shop before doing that, and the lady there didn't react to her; but I ought to go back and try again now that the Sudowoodo has been dealt with.
Spent waaaaay too much time trying the Voltorb Flip. It's much easier to win coins a little at a time if you quit the games while you're ahead, but really dang hard to actually clear a game. Still, I've already got over 1000 coins. I'm saving for a Dratini (now I know where Wyrmling came from, in my Silver game).
Couldn't find an Elekid on the Pokewalker to save my life, even though I easily got 5000 steps yesterday. The book says the chance of them appearing is really really low....so maybe I just rack up as many watts as I can in advance of beach, then walk the Boardwalk to get the steps I need and just keep trying?
(4/2/2010)
Morty more than made up for what Whitney lacked.
In a fit of complacency, fresh from my victory at Goldenrod's gym, I trucked on up to Ecruteak (after a quick stop at the Bug-Catching Contest, where I placed third with a Pinsir). I made the rounds of the town, rescued the Kimono Girl from the Rocket Grunt (winning Surf in the process), and took a turn through the Burned Tower. Trounced my rival, met Euisine, released the legendary beast trio. And then, with no further training or ado, I took on the Ecruteak Gym.
The Mediums went down so easily -- one or two shots of Cynder's Flame Wheel for each Pokemon -- that I got cocky and went right up to Morty. And his lvl 25 Gengar proceeded to one-shot half my team with Shadow Ball. If I hadn't been carrying Petunia, I'd have lost that battle. As it was, I was able to squeak through with most of the team down, Cynder at 1 HP, and Petunia using Synthesis to fend off Curse. T'was not a pretty sight. But I have the Fog Badge, obedience to lvl 50, the ability to use Surf, and the Shadow Ball TM.
Before continuing on to Olivine, I want to check out the Bell Tower in Ecruteak, then head down to the Ruins of Alph to net me some Unown and catch my Natu. I'll need a temp Pokemon to teach Surf to, since I don't have Vermillion yet, but it can't be helped.
I should also check on that Ditto I caught, and see if it has Rocky's moveset. And possibly see about that guard and his Spearow with Mail. And let's not forget that somewhere before 7 PM tomorrow, I need to scrape together five Eggs in Pearl for the Scramble event.
As to the Pokewalker -- I finally caught a couple Elekid, even though I spent over 300 carefully hoarded watts to do it, so I was able to finally end my Suburban Area stroll. Downloaded the Yellow Forest, and when I went in to start a new stroll, I noticed that there was a second page of courses. Night Sky's Edge was right there on that second page. DUH. So, have started that, and will likely transfer stuff back at points tomorrow to rack up Stardusts, which are really really easy to find and will get me some money. WHOO. There's no Pokemon worth the watts on this course except Jigglypuff and Clefairy, which both require 5000 steps. We shall see.
(4/7/2010)
Too much progress to go into detail. I did get a Clefairy off Night Sky's Edge, and won enough coins at Voltorb Flip to net me a Dratini to use as my temp Surfer (since she's female I am duping Aquamarine from Blue instead of Wyrmling from Silver). Delivered that Spearow, and the Ditto did not have Rocky's moveset. Also got down to the Ruins after getting Surf and caught Peya, my Natu.
However, ComfortInn's WiFi was set to pop up a terms and conditions page, which prevented the DS from being able to connect. So, even though I'd bred Eggs for the Scramble, I couldn't participate. I even tried walking down to Somerset St to try the municipal WiFi, but with no luck. I've offered them as WiFi prizes for the club.
I tried the Yellow Forest course, but found that I'm not yet in shape enough to walk 10K steps. Mostly I just kept the Watts, since I spent more time cycling than walking (yay bannana bikes). I didn't do any Berry growing at all, despite my best intentions.
Got over to Cianwood and beat that Gym, which was also harder than I'd expected, and brought back the SecretPotion for Amphy. But my first attempt at the Olivine Gym was a complete disaster, so much so that I just switched off the DS rather than lose yet more money. The team's levels just aren't high enough, and preventing them from evolving is starting to bite me in the ass. Peya and Chet are also just weaker than they should be for their levels. I'm going to have to do some serious levelling before taking on Jasmine again -- get Cynder up to learning Flamethrower so he can evolve, and maybe go in there with Petunia as well.
Unfinished tasks include catching a good Krabby to trade that one guy, and getting enough Oran Berries to heal the farm's Miltank. I foolishly started feeding her all my Oran Berries without growing more, and guess what! I didn't have enough. Gonna have to net some off the Pokewalker and grow them -- according to Serebii, they appear with 50% probability on Refreshing Field between 300 and 500 steps.
And another thing: Before leaving for OC I swung by the Catonsville GameStop to exchange that FR cart. Turned out that the cartridge was an illegal hack -- as in, not even made by Nintendo! I should have spotted it -- the cartridge was clear red, not solid; and the version name printing was different. However, they did have a real FR cartridge, so I was able to exchange. Even better (from my viewpoint) there's virtually nothing already on the game. Just a gibberish-named Charmeleon and some common low-level Pokes in the party...the PC is empty. The only standout items are a Star Piece and a Moon Stone.
So I'll just trade out the Charmeleon and the Star Piece, and re-start. Pick my new Irving, get to Viridian, then breed another Farfetch'd (and thankfully the parents are already set up, so this won't take long) and trade it over. That way I'll have a Flying type going into Viridian Forest, and can Peck the heck outta all those bugs. It'd be nice to have something else as insurance, just to get me through Mt. Moon, but I may just see if I can blitz through there with only the two? Maybe I just need to invest in some Repels. Hopefully the new Slither won't be as fragile, and I can get back to Vermillion without too much trouble.
Monday, August 30, 2010
In retrospect: Starting SoulSilver, and FireRed evaporates
(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.)
(3/22/2010)
FINALLY started SoulSilver! Petty got her package Friday, but I wasn't able to get my game going until Sunday night. Still, I now have the Pokewalker clipped on, and am counting steps.
Unfortunately, unlocking courses seems to count unspent watts only. So, unlocking the rest of the courses might take a while....
Also, while running around on Friday, decided to stop in the Columbia GameStop just in case, and nabbed a FR cart. However, there was no prep needed before starting that game, because when I booted it up, it acted as if it was completely new -- gave the rundown of the game controls, even. So, no catching stuff for breeding, no trading for the Farfetch'd, no cleaning out to do. Ominously, though, everytime I start up the cartridge, it says "The save file is ok" before it displays the continue game/new game screen. I take that to mean some idiot tried hacking the game, and wiped their save file. Hopefully it'll be OK to play a normal game on, though, because I'd gotten too far by the time I discovered this to want to restart.
So in Kanto I have a Bulbasaur named Irving, along with a Mankey and a Spearow that I don't really want to train. But all the Pokemon I actually WANT on my team aren't available until Cerulean or later, and I needed something to get me that far. Viridian Forest makes a Flying type almost necessary (and Spearow get Peck right away). So I will likely name those two and put them in the Specials box, even though I wasn't intending to train them.
I also have my Ekans, Slither, who I suspect has a crap IV in Defense because he is made of friggin' GLASS. Since I've already worked hard to train him, I suppose I'll throw vitamins at him later to compensate. For all my lack of an electric Pokemon, Misty went down to Irving with no problems, despite me taking time to raise my temporary team evenly.
So that got me to Vermillion, where I can trade for the Farfetch'd. Have caught a higher-level Spearow in the main Rue cart for this, then will breed my own Farfetch'd, hatch it, and trade it back. I was going to trade the unwanted Spearow I was training, but dang it, I've put too much work into it to just give it away.
From there I think I've got no choice but to fight through the SS Anne for Cut. Once I've got that and have gotten through Rock Cave, though, I can run over to Celadon, grab the Tea for the Guards, and open up the crossroads through Saffron. Then I'll be able to run to the other side of Saffron to catch my Growlithe, and level it up some before I take on Erica -- and, after I beat her, obedience won't be an issue for a good long while. Unfortunately, there's a Snorlax between me and the Super Rod I need to catch a Shellder in Vermillion until after I've done Silph Co. and Lavender Tower. I should likely give the Leftovers under it to Slither, to help offset his low Defense.
As for SS, my next foray will be into the Sprout Tower, followed by the attempt at Falkner's Gym. And lots of Poke-walking -- I've solved the nostalgia problem I was having over not wanting to train another Hootie by making him my walking partner. In the Pokewalker combats, level and attacks don't matter, so there's no problems with him not being strong enough. And Flying's one of the preferred types for the first two default routes. So Hootie has a new purpose, and will get raised despite not being in the team.
Other than Cynder and Hootie, though, I don't have any of my team Pokemon yet, which will no doubt prove a problem in short order. Maybe I can catch a Sentret off the Pokewalker today, and start raising my Izzel? Looking at Bulbapedia, there's nothing in Sprout Tower besides Bellsprout and Gastly, and it looks like I'll need Surf before I can get a Natu. This might cause problems, as the concentration on Cynder has gotten him levelled beyond where I can even catch other Pokemon easily.
Makes me wonder how far I have to get before WiFi trading is activated, so I can maybe get that Spinarak from Petty. Or maybe Hootie's going to have to get some training after all. WHY are none of the Pokemon I want available as early as I remember??
(3/23/2010)
Instead of advancing either game, I spent some time breeding Farfetch'd. Trading the lvl 32 Spearow I'd caught in LG got me a Farfetch'd that had Swords Dance, so I taught him Cut and Fly and bred a female. After raising her to get Swords Dance as well, I bred a Farfetch'd with Peck, Cut, Fly, and Swords Dance, named him Norton (although, I know I've got something elsewhere with that name [ yes, a Taillow]) and traded him back into FR. Then I spent time raising him up to lvl 20 to match the rest of the team. Norton seems to be holding his own pretty well, which let me put my Spearow away.
Did nothing in SS except rack up steps and catch two Doduo on the Pokewalker. Unfortunately, the more steps I get in a day, the less likely it becomes that a Sentret will appear. This means that to get the Sentret I want, I'm going to have to save watts from the previous day, then try first thing in the morning while the steps are still at 0. I'm already over 700 steps today which is too high to get a Sentret. Also, if I only see Pidgey when doing that, I'll have to return Hootie and start another stroll.
Though, catching Pokemon on the Pokewalker is way harder than I thought. First you have to pick the clump of grass showing the "!", up to four times for the rarer Pokemon. If you don't get to it in time using the two buttons, or pick the wrong one, the Pokemon gets away. Then, the battles are deceptively tricky. Besides losing the Pokemon if you faint it, it can also just up and run off. Worse, while all your steps get saved, the watts you spend trying to find items or catch Pokemon are NOT sent back to the DS. You spend it, you lose it. This means you have to rack up enough watts to spend on multiple attempts, AND to unlock new courses. Pain in the ass, really.
Another issue is the day/night thing, which I remember being an issue back in Silver, too. Quite a few Pokemon only appear during the morning or day, which is going to be a problem when I can usually only play at night. I'd wondered why I didn't see any Sentret on that first route.
Anyway, the plan for tonight is to blow through both the SS Anne and Rock Cave in FR, if possible. SS will have to wait until I manage to nab a Sentret.
(3/23/2010)
Aaaand the best laid plans of mice and men....
Upon sticking the FR cart in the DS and starting it up, I was greeted with a message declaring that "The save file has been deleted." So much for those ten or more hours, and all that training....yet, I'm surprisingly mellow about it. In fact, I half-expected this to happen. Restarting the game didn't seem to help, either, because the "The save file is OK" message still appears. So I'm going to take the cartridge back to the Catonsville store as defective, and see if I can't get another. Goodness knows Slither wasn't as strong as he could have been, and I can easily breed another Norton -- in fact, I can get Norton as soon as Viridian now, and train him from the get-go.
Conversely, I managed to catch a Sentret on the Pokewalker with comparatively little effort. So I ended that stroll, sending Hootie and my new Sentret back to the DS -- but a second later, another Sentret had spontaneously joined me on the Pokewalker! Sure, it's a function of the programming, but that's still awesome. I sent her back to the DS immediately, and put her on the team (even though I'll have to wait until Goldenrod to nickname her properly).
After a bit of training, I took my new Sentret up Sprout Tower and got Flash, then easily swept the Violet City Gym. From there I went out to the Ruins of Alph, but sure enough, I can't get a Natu there until after I have Surf. Will have to look to see if they're available elsewhere. [they're not.] Instead, I went south towards Azalea, and despite running out of Pokeballs for random catches, I did catch a Mareep. So now I have three of my final team: Cynder, Izzel, and Sheepish. I also have Merry, the Togepi from the Mystery Egg, and Rocky the Onix, traded for a Bellsprout. All are at lvl 15 (except Merry, who I'm not sure I'll train since I've got Surprise in Pearl).
That means the next tasks are to get through the Slowpoke Well and the Azalea Gym. I should likely pop back to Union Cave and catch a Zubat for 'Dex credit, and probably fish for a Magikarp now that I have the Old Rod. I missed catching any Unknown, but I'll be back that way later anyway so they can wait. After that, it'll be time for Ilex Forest, which means I'll need my special Pichu to trigger the event there. This weekend, I need to bring my DS and games to Traci's, and get the event Pokemon moved over. I also promised Corwin something but I forget what. [it was a Ditto.]
(3/22/2010)
FINALLY started SoulSilver! Petty got her package Friday, but I wasn't able to get my game going until Sunday night. Still, I now have the Pokewalker clipped on, and am counting steps.
Unfortunately, unlocking courses seems to count unspent watts only. So, unlocking the rest of the courses might take a while....
Also, while running around on Friday, decided to stop in the Columbia GameStop just in case, and nabbed a FR cart. However, there was no prep needed before starting that game, because when I booted it up, it acted as if it was completely new -- gave the rundown of the game controls, even. So, no catching stuff for breeding, no trading for the Farfetch'd, no cleaning out to do. Ominously, though, everytime I start up the cartridge, it says "The save file is ok" before it displays the continue game/new game screen. I take that to mean some idiot tried hacking the game, and wiped their save file. Hopefully it'll be OK to play a normal game on, though, because I'd gotten too far by the time I discovered this to want to restart.
So in Kanto I have a Bulbasaur named Irving, along with a Mankey and a Spearow that I don't really want to train. But all the Pokemon I actually WANT on my team aren't available until Cerulean or later, and I needed something to get me that far. Viridian Forest makes a Flying type almost necessary (and Spearow get Peck right away). So I will likely name those two and put them in the Specials box, even though I wasn't intending to train them.
I also have my Ekans, Slither, who I suspect has a crap IV in Defense because he is made of friggin' GLASS. Since I've already worked hard to train him, I suppose I'll throw vitamins at him later to compensate. For all my lack of an electric Pokemon, Misty went down to Irving with no problems, despite me taking time to raise my temporary team evenly.
So that got me to Vermillion, where I can trade for the Farfetch'd. Have caught a higher-level Spearow in the main Rue cart for this, then will breed my own Farfetch'd, hatch it, and trade it back. I was going to trade the unwanted Spearow I was training, but dang it, I've put too much work into it to just give it away.
From there I think I've got no choice but to fight through the SS Anne for Cut. Once I've got that and have gotten through Rock Cave, though, I can run over to Celadon, grab the Tea for the Guards, and open up the crossroads through Saffron. Then I'll be able to run to the other side of Saffron to catch my Growlithe, and level it up some before I take on Erica -- and, after I beat her, obedience won't be an issue for a good long while. Unfortunately, there's a Snorlax between me and the Super Rod I need to catch a Shellder in Vermillion until after I've done Silph Co. and Lavender Tower. I should likely give the Leftovers under it to Slither, to help offset his low Defense.
As for SS, my next foray will be into the Sprout Tower, followed by the attempt at Falkner's Gym. And lots of Poke-walking -- I've solved the nostalgia problem I was having over not wanting to train another Hootie by making him my walking partner. In the Pokewalker combats, level and attacks don't matter, so there's no problems with him not being strong enough. And Flying's one of the preferred types for the first two default routes. So Hootie has a new purpose, and will get raised despite not being in the team.
Other than Cynder and Hootie, though, I don't have any of my team Pokemon yet, which will no doubt prove a problem in short order. Maybe I can catch a Sentret off the Pokewalker today, and start raising my Izzel? Looking at Bulbapedia, there's nothing in Sprout Tower besides Bellsprout and Gastly, and it looks like I'll need Surf before I can get a Natu. This might cause problems, as the concentration on Cynder has gotten him levelled beyond where I can even catch other Pokemon easily.
Makes me wonder how far I have to get before WiFi trading is activated, so I can maybe get that Spinarak from Petty. Or maybe Hootie's going to have to get some training after all. WHY are none of the Pokemon I want available as early as I remember??
(3/23/2010)
Instead of advancing either game, I spent some time breeding Farfetch'd. Trading the lvl 32 Spearow I'd caught in LG got me a Farfetch'd that had Swords Dance, so I taught him Cut and Fly and bred a female. After raising her to get Swords Dance as well, I bred a Farfetch'd with Peck, Cut, Fly, and Swords Dance, named him Norton (although, I know I've got something elsewhere with that name [ yes, a Taillow]) and traded him back into FR. Then I spent time raising him up to lvl 20 to match the rest of the team. Norton seems to be holding his own pretty well, which let me put my Spearow away.
Did nothing in SS except rack up steps and catch two Doduo on the Pokewalker. Unfortunately, the more steps I get in a day, the less likely it becomes that a Sentret will appear. This means that to get the Sentret I want, I'm going to have to save watts from the previous day, then try first thing in the morning while the steps are still at 0. I'm already over 700 steps today which is too high to get a Sentret. Also, if I only see Pidgey when doing that, I'll have to return Hootie and start another stroll.
Though, catching Pokemon on the Pokewalker is way harder than I thought. First you have to pick the clump of grass showing the "!", up to four times for the rarer Pokemon. If you don't get to it in time using the two buttons, or pick the wrong one, the Pokemon gets away. Then, the battles are deceptively tricky. Besides losing the Pokemon if you faint it, it can also just up and run off. Worse, while all your steps get saved, the watts you spend trying to find items or catch Pokemon are NOT sent back to the DS. You spend it, you lose it. This means you have to rack up enough watts to spend on multiple attempts, AND to unlock new courses. Pain in the ass, really.
Another issue is the day/night thing, which I remember being an issue back in Silver, too. Quite a few Pokemon only appear during the morning or day, which is going to be a problem when I can usually only play at night. I'd wondered why I didn't see any Sentret on that first route.
Anyway, the plan for tonight is to blow through both the SS Anne and Rock Cave in FR, if possible. SS will have to wait until I manage to nab a Sentret.
(3/23/2010)
Aaaand the best laid plans of mice and men....
Upon sticking the FR cart in the DS and starting it up, I was greeted with a message declaring that "The save file has been deleted." So much for those ten or more hours, and all that training....yet, I'm surprisingly mellow about it. In fact, I half-expected this to happen. Restarting the game didn't seem to help, either, because the "The save file is OK" message still appears. So I'm going to take the cartridge back to the Catonsville store as defective, and see if I can't get another. Goodness knows Slither wasn't as strong as he could have been, and I can easily breed another Norton -- in fact, I can get Norton as soon as Viridian now, and train him from the get-go.
Conversely, I managed to catch a Sentret on the Pokewalker with comparatively little effort. So I ended that stroll, sending Hootie and my new Sentret back to the DS -- but a second later, another Sentret had spontaneously joined me on the Pokewalker! Sure, it's a function of the programming, but that's still awesome. I sent her back to the DS immediately, and put her on the team (even though I'll have to wait until Goldenrod to nickname her properly).
After a bit of training, I took my new Sentret up Sprout Tower and got Flash, then easily swept the Violet City Gym. From there I went out to the Ruins of Alph, but sure enough, I can't get a Natu there until after I have Surf. Will have to look to see if they're available elsewhere. [they're not.] Instead, I went south towards Azalea, and despite running out of Pokeballs for random catches, I did catch a Mareep. So now I have three of my final team: Cynder, Izzel, and Sheepish. I also have Merry, the Togepi from the Mystery Egg, and Rocky the Onix, traded for a Bellsprout. All are at lvl 15 (except Merry, who I'm not sure I'll train since I've got Surprise in Pearl).
That means the next tasks are to get through the Slowpoke Well and the Azalea Gym. I should likely pop back to Union Cave and catch a Zubat for 'Dex credit, and probably fish for a Magikarp now that I have the Old Rod. I missed catching any Unknown, but I'll be back that way later anyway so they can wait. After that, it'll be time for Ilex Forest, which means I'll need my special Pichu to trigger the event there. This weekend, I need to bring my DS and games to Traci's, and get the event Pokemon moved over. I also promised Corwin something but I forget what. [it was a Ditto.]
In retrospect: Spirit Tracks, wrapping up No-Entei, and SS/FR debates
(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.)
(2/15/2010 -- four months later!)
Aaaand my interest in Emerald just sort of poofed after that last entry, and I have done nothing since. Haven't booted any of my Pokemon cartridges except to get event items or Pokemon.
However, HG/SS will be out next month, so my Poke-interest is sure to pick up again for SoulSilver. Also, when we went for the special Shiny Pichu this weekend, Corwin got a used cartridge of Platinum. After his parents help him plunder the cartridge for any useful items or Pokemon from "Mat", he'll be restarting his own game. He's already planning on picking Chimchar (and naming it Bob) so I bred him one of my fabulous Piplups, and Traci will be breeding him one of her terrific Turtwigs. That should help re-vitalize all our Poke-interest, as well.
So between here and there, I will need to wrap up Spirit Tracks. I've already spent some time crossing off sidequests before the last dungeon. Just need maybe a couple more heart containers and then I'll feel up to tackling the Sand Realm, which most likely features dead things. From there it should just be the top of the Tower of Spirits, then Malladus. [hah. it's not. there's a whole 'nother realm between me and the final battle after I get through the Sand Realm.]
Also, they'll be giving away the special Jirachi that unlocks the Edge of the Night Sky Pokewalker course, later this month.
For Jhoto I'm already planning on re-constituting some of my team; defnitely Cynder, Vermillion and Sheepish, and maybe Hootie and Izzel. That last slot, though, I think I'll do something new and different with. Petty had mentioned really liking her Ariados, and that might be pretty kick. Xatu or Heracross also come to mind. ...dang. Now I'm already tempted to do one game and then restart. Will have to decide whether nostalgia is stronger than sense of adventure: nostalgia would dictate that the core team re-create the original Silver team as closely as possible, but then I limit myself from trying out new Pokemon.
(2/18/2010)
Still working on Spirit Tracks. Had begun the Sand Realm, got the Sand Wand out of the temple, but got stalled on one of those STUPIDLY DIFFICULT things with the sinking sand. Lots of rocks and spikes, some sand-critters, and a few Stalfos so far. Apparently there's not just the top floor of the Tower but also some kind of Dark Realm thing after that, before Malladus. I want to be done and all, but it's just kinda ARGH.
Tried out Google Docs last night to make a spreadsheet of all my Pokemon games, with sheets for select Pokemon: team, specials, and legendary/event. Plus a sheet for the Pokedex, listing all 493 Pokemon and detailing which ones I've caught or raised, have stored or just data-traded for. That way I'll have a central repository, accessible from multiple computers, of all my info going back to Blue. It'd be neat to be able to look at all my teams, and assemble an all-star lineup. Maybe even raise those to lvl 100.
Have been sort of looking sidelong at Emerald with the vague thought of raising some of the 35 more I need for the 'Dex, but haven't been able to rouse myself to actually do it.
(2/23/2010)
Have filled in the Poke-spreadsheets with everything up to Emerald, to which I threw away most of my Saturday. That prompted me to actually fire up the game and finish raising Fafnir, who is now a lvl 50 Salamence. Got the whole team up to lvl 67 (and Jubal to lvl 68) doing it, too.
After that I took another look at the Emerald Pokedex, and noticed that when I switched it to Hoenn mode instead of National, that I was in fact missing a whole bunch of Kanto Pokemon as well. This brings the total I'd have to obtain to 50-some, instead of 35. D'oh! Some of those I can easily bring over from LG, but still, it's lots more than I'd thought.
So, since I was home with cramps Monday, I decided to do me some breeding. Seeing as how I had to get the baby and max evo's of both the Marill and Jigglypuff evo chains, I thought, why not breed in some egg moves while I'm at it? I grabbed a male Lapras from that last LG game who had Perish Song, caught a Luvdisc for the Heart Scale to have him remember Sing, then snagged a female Marill and female Jigglypuff, both around lvl 25-26.
This gave me an Azurill with Sing, and a male Marill with Perish Song. I raised him high enough for breeding, then threw him in with the Jigglypuff to give me an Igglybuff with Perish Song. Then I biked back and forth with the two babies until they were happy enough to evolve.
And there I made my first mistake: challenged one of the breeders on Rt. 117 with Exp Share on the Azurill. That trainer has a team of six, all in the low 30's. So the Azurill got raised far too high all at once. Am attempting to fix that with the Macho Brace, with Exp Share on the Igglybuff. So the Azurill will probably not turn out so well. The Igglybuff, I named PuffDaddy, and aside of Perish Song will maybe dupe my old PuffDaddy from Blue.
I also need to get Bombadil straightened out. Looking above, his final moveset was supposed to be Sunny Day, Synthesis, Solarbeam, and Faint Attack. So I need to teach him Solarbeam (replacing Nature Power) and hand him a Leaf Stone, and that'll be another Hoenn Pokemon I can cross off the list.
Speaking of that last LG game, otherwise known as "you STILL haven't caught Entei?" I now believe that I messed up the game by not doing the island quest for Lostelle before beating the Elite Four. I recall someone saying that if you didn't do that, your legendary beast would not show up. I can't find where I read this, but this is my only LG game so far where I didn't save Lostelle pre-E4, and the only one where I've had THIS much trouble finding my legendary. So I've been importing its random-caught Pokemon to Pearl, for transfer to the Ranch. Will most likely trade out its TMs, items, and Berries to Emerald, and its team/special Pokemon to my main LG game. Should most likely catch the game's Mewtwo as well, just to have it.
From there I have a couple options. One, just restart and go for it again. Two, trade it in to GameStop and get FR instead. This'd give me access to the Kanto Pokemon that I never get to have, like Ekans, Growlithe, Scyther, Shellder, and Electabuzz. Either way, once I got through it I'd trade the cart in again. I've got the Kanto region down to Hall of Fame debut in 30-40 hours or so, it shouldn't take too long. Though it galls me to have wasted all that time on the 3rd round of LG only to have to play through Kanto AGAIN. And goodness knows I'll be catching the legendary beasts in SoulSilver anyway -- and by the time I get all those random Pokemon Pal-Parked to Pearl (alliteration!) it'll probably be out already.
Bleh. And of course, all this Poke-ing means I haven't gotten any futher in the Sand Temple in Spirit Tracks.
(2/26/2010)
Spirit Tracks? what's that?
For some reason it wasn't enough to Pal Park all my random catches from the Entei-denied game of LG to Pearl for the Ranch. No, I had to go out and catch YET MORE STUFF. While I was at it, I took a turn through the Cerulean Cave and nabbed Mewtwo. In an Ultra Ball, too, so I get to keep this game's Master Ball. That gives me two legitimate extras.
All this catching does serve a useful purpose, though. The trade-evolvers alone will allow me to cross off a nice chunk of the Kanto portion of my Emerald Pokedex, given that I'll get credit for both evolutions. Not to mention a few more that are not available in Emerald but easily caught in FR/LG.
So the next things to catch will be Horsea, both for the dex credit and to get a Dragon Scale for Trident. Then off to the Islands to catch Ponyta, Rapidash, Persian, and to nab a Haunter from the Lost Cave. Hopefully it'll be higher level than the ones in Pokemon Tower, if not equivalent to the other trade-evolvers I caught in Cerulean Cave.
As a bonus, running around Cerulean Cave allowed me to level up some of my team (even if I did have to Revive poor Salome a half-dozen times. Damn Wobbuffets and their Shadow Tag). I should spend time leveling them there, since in this game all the outsiders get extra Exp. Maybe to level 60.
(3/5/2010)
I know not of this Spirit Tracks you mention. O_<
So yeah, still Pal Parking the random caught Pokemon out of LG, though not every single night, so this isn't going all that quickly. It occurs to me that, with four cartridges at 6 Pokemon a day, if I stuck to it I could have a Mew within a month. I ought to Pal Park in all of JD's max evos and store them, that'd be a bunch.
Finally gave up on catching wild Horsea and hoping for a Dragon Scale, and just went for Trainer Tower. Winning the Double Battle challenge there nets you a Dragon Scale (the other challenges also give various evolution hold items like Upgrade, Metal Coat, and King's Rock). Since the other trainers are at the level of your strongest Pokemon, it was more of a haul than I'd expected. Many revives and potions were used. But I did the run in about a half hour and had my Dragon Scale.
Then it was time for trading. Along with Trident and his Dragon Scale, I sent across a Kadabra, a Golem, a Machoke, and a Haunter. I hadn't actually needed credit for some of those, so it didn't increase my Emerald 'dex as much as I'd hoped, but that still got me credit for five max evo's. And because all the trade-evolvers had been caught at high levels, they're good enough without being hand-raised.
Unfortunately, that leaves me with all the stuff that DOES have to be hand-raised. And I haven't gone back to that Marill (who needs renaming) and Puffdaddy. Should take care of Bombadil, too.
I'm leaning more and more towards trading in that LG cart for a FR one, once I get it cleared out.
Pokemon in FR but not LG include: Ekans/Arbok, Oddish/Gloom/Vileplume/Bellossom, Psyduck/Golduck, Growlithe/Arcanine, Shellder/Cloyster, Elekid/Electabuzz, Scyther/Scizor, Wooper/Quagsire, Murkrow, Quilfish, Delibird, Skarmory.
Of the Kanto portion of those, only Oddish and Psyduck can be caught in Hoenn (Psyduck in the Safari Zone). And I know that I've always had trouble getting hold of Ekans/Arbok, Growlithe/Arcanine, Shellder/Cloyster, Elekid/Electabuzz, and Murkrow.
Plus, it sounds like the FR exclusives would make a pretty good team. Given that I have to start off with Bulbasaur (again!) if I want Entei, then Growlithe would be good for Fire type, and Shellder would be good for Ice against Lance's dragons. And it'd be lovely to raise something that WASN'T a friggin' Pikachu for once, for my electric type. Only issue there would be that I'll need an electric type against Misty before Electabuzz is available. Since Eggs can't be traded in, I'd have to catch an Electabuzz before restarting, trade it over to the main LG game to breed and hatch it, then put up with potential obedience issues. Or just wait until I can get one, and just take Misty on with what I've got. But that Starmie of hers is a bitch.
STILL. The team would then be: Yet Another Venasaur, Arbok, Arcanine, Electabuzz, Cloyster, and...what? Well, I've never raised a Nido-thing all the way before, maybe one of those. They're tanks, and would also make a good HM slave. It's also tempting to raise an Oddish instead of Bulbasaur, but it seems more worth it for Emerald's dex just to catch two high-level Glooms and apply the stone of choice. ...Ohwait. Y'know what the team is missing, is Flying.
Unfortunately the list of Pokemon that can learn Fly in FR/LG is depressingly short, and are all either things I don't want, things I've already trained, or single evos. Kanto's flying Pokemon are just so...boring. And I can't trade in anything from outside Kanto until post-E4. Bleh. Might do Farfetch'd just for the novelty of it; in fact since the only Farfetch'd one can get is a trade anyway, might as well breed some moves and trade in. Once I get past Misty, levels up to 30 will be no problem, then Erika in Celadon will clear me up to lvl 50.
Looking at the GIII learnset, it doesn't actually look like Farfetch'd learns much that's interesting. Maybe if I haven't already traded for the one in the latest LG, I can catch a waaaay high-level Spearow in the Islands to trade for it. Still looks like Cut and Fly are the most interesting moves it can get; Swords Dance (at lvl 31) and False Swipe (at lvl 46) seem to be the other choices. Possible Egg Moves might include Flail, Gust, Quick Attack, or Steel Wing.
(3/8/2010)
Well foo. I have indeed traded for the Farfetch'd in both LG games. So, getting a high level one for breeding is out. Egg moves would still be possible, though, I guess.
Of course, the problem now is, HG/SS are out this Sunday. And there's no darn WAY I'd finish a 30+ hour game between now and then. So unless I put off buying SS just to catch Entei, my set of legendary beasts must remain incomplete. But that rankles. I dunno.
In any case, I'm nearly done Pal Parking random catches out of the no-Entei game. All that's left to do will be to trade out the team, specials, and legendaries, and clean out the items and Berries. I'm thinking the Pokemon can go to the other LG game, but maybe the TMs/items/berries can go to Emerald?
One thing I do think I'd like to do, is to restrict my SS Pokedex to things I caught or raised myself. No plundering cartridges of any game I didn't play, no data trades, no GTS even. Given that only a very very small subset of Pokemon are unobtainable within HG/SS, and most of those are either legendaries I have, or ones that involve specific Sinnoh locations to evolve, this shouldn't be too much of a limit. Anything I can't get in SS I can either import, or trade over from P/Pt.
Since SS gives us GIV access to Kanto, the other thing I should consider is transferring over everything from FR/LG to SS. Well, not everything -- all the random catches can likely be transferred to Pearl and put into the Ranch, especially Arceus' named ones. But certainly all the teams and anything I actually raised, along with ALL items, TMs, and Berries. Though, if I'm going to give up my LG cartridges I should likely trade items/TMs/berries over to Emerald, because I wouldn't have another GIII source after that.
One VERY nice feature of HG/SS is that they nixed the six-per-cart-per-day limit on Pal Park. You can still only transfer six at a time, but now you could do it all day long from a single cart. This'll let me clear out my main LG cart MUCH more quickly. Of course, I'd still need to trade them over to Pearl if I want to put anything in the Ranch.
(3/10/2010)
So bored and scattered today, and yet I managed to get some things done, or at least further along.
Spirit Tracks? Pffffft.
All the random catches from the no-Entei game are now stored in the Ranch. All that's left are the team, specials, and legendaries; plus the items, TMs, and Berries.
Items, TMs, and Berries should go to Emerald. With a few exceptions (the trade evolvers should maybe also go to Emerald?) everything else can go over to the main LG cartridge.
From there, I plan to restart the game, pick the default trainer and rival names, and save; that'll keep any hackers from using my trainer name and ID.
I can then take the game back to GameStop and trade it in for FR. Maybe at the same time that I buy SS. Even though I'll most likley play SS first, I'll at least have the cart for FR. Maybe if Jhoto doesn't Poke me out (not to mention re-doing Kanto in SS) I can complete my set of legendary beasts.
Regardless, it occurs to me that I should also transfer out all the random catches that I didn't actually raise from Emerald and LG and toss them in the Ranch too. Maybe even the ones from Pearl, as well. If I haven't done anything with them since catching them, there's no reason for them to sit in there; and if I need to breed or raise anything I've caught once, I can always catch another. Probably I should Pal Park JD's Pokemon as well, except maybe the starters and legendaries. I imagine that'd get my Ranch totals up a bit, and simplify storage on my remaining cartridges.
In any case, the first thing I need to do is catch trade fodder in the main LG cart, and some rotating trade fodder in Emerald, and get that no-Entei cart cleaned out.
(3/15/2010)
Haven't Pal Parked anything else -- technically there's no hurry on that for the cartridges of LG and Emerald that I'm keeping, unless I want the Ranch Mew THAT badly. However, I did get the rotating trades done to move items, TMs, and Berries to Emerald. The only things I didn't move were the 26 TinyMushrooms, because those are useless in Emerald (the Move Relearner dude has stepped up to Heart Scales), and 4 Moon Stones. So I'll either toss those on the Pokemon I'm moving to the main LG cart, or do five sets of rotating trades to move them over.
I've also caught my trade fodder in the main LG, and just need a box named to put things in. I believe I'll name it "no Entei for you". D:<
With that done, I can restart (will likely release the remaining Pokemon first, because I'm a dork) and save. And then I'll be free to go get SS! WHOO
Though, should not forget that this week I also have to do my Ostra Bag, and get something for Heather's birthday -- both of these by Saturday. So, playtime might be limited. And I should really make some time to work on the Castle Town map. Too much to do, too much time spent on working for a living. bleh.
(3/16/2010)
Got all my trading done last night. Remaining items and all Pokemon from the "NoEntei" game of LG are safely in the main LG cart (though, I had a nervous moment when I accidentally released Salome, and had to reboot the game to get her back). Restarted the cartridge with naught but a single Magikarp left, and saved straight off, before even getting a starter. I pity the poor schmoe who buys this cart looking to plunder it...
And tonight I will turn it in and get a FR cart at the same time I buy SS (provided they have both). Solved the time crunch for the week by taking Friday off, to make time for sleep and Ostra prep. Still need to figure out a present for Heather. Still, that should let me start out with either SS or FR tonight. FR if I'm being nice and showing solidarity with poor Petty not having gotten her game yet. [nope, no FR for me....and, did not start SS.]
Besides, if I -can- get my hands on a copy of FR, and it's far enough along in the game, there's a couple things I should do before restarting. Bring over the team Pokemon and anything else interesting, surely; but this time I shouldn't be such a dang packrat. One, it takes such ridiculous amounts of time, and two, I can't be sure that the previous trainer's stuff isn't hacked. So I will try to be strong, and leave most stuff behind. It's not like I don't have several dupes of every dang thing from Kanto at this point, anyway.
What I -do- want to do, though is catch an Electabuzz to breed from, so I'll know it's not hacked. And also, if the Farfetch'd is still available, get a very high-level Spearow from the islands, in LG if I have to, to trade for it. That'll let me breed a fairly kickass Farfetch'd for my flyer. ....allright, so maybe I won't be starting EITHER FR or SS tonight.
So, looking into movesets for the prospective team.
Ekans/Arbok doesn't learn a whole lot, will have to supplement with TMs (Toxic or Sludge Bomb, and something off-type). Bite and Glare are both learned before it evolves, so no reason to hold off. Should try to catch one with Shed Skin ability.
Growlithe doesn't learn Flame Wheel until lvl 31, but it evolves via Fire Stone so there's no worry it'll evolve too soon. One with Flash Fire would be ideal, as that both protects against fire moves AND boosts them. Learns Flamethrower at lvl 49 but Arcanine learns Extremespeed at the same level, so choice would have to be made by then.
Shellder is another stone evolver. It gets Icicle Spear, Supersonic, Aurora Beam, and Protect all by lvl 30. Ice Beam at lvl 49. Surf is obvious here too. If evolved will learn Spikes at 33 and Spike Cannon at 41. Ice Beam is stronger, but can also be learned via TM so it might be best to evolve Shellder sooner.
Electabuzz will most likely need to be bred, because the levels of the Power Plant ones will definitely cause obedience problems early on. They get Quick Attack and Thunderpunch from the get-go. Thunderbolt at lvl 47 and Thunder at 58. Elekid learns these even earlier. They can also learn Strength, Flash, and Rock Smash. Egg moves include Karate Chop and Cross Chop, which would be wonderfully super-effective against Rock. Ah -- but wait. If I breed an Elekid, it won't trade over until I have the Nat'l Dex -- and they don't evolve until lvl 30. I'll have to come up with something else for beating Misty, then.
As for Farfetch'd, Steel Wing is the only interesting Egg move. I'm thinking a moveset of Swords Dance, Cut, Fly, and Steel Wing ought to work. Swords Dance is learned at lvl 31.
And that's another thing I ought to do: Catch one each of all the version-exclusive Pokemon before restarting, and trade them out to LG.
(2/15/2010 -- four months later!)
Aaaand my interest in Emerald just sort of poofed after that last entry, and I have done nothing since. Haven't booted any of my Pokemon cartridges except to get event items or Pokemon.
However, HG/SS will be out next month, so my Poke-interest is sure to pick up again for SoulSilver. Also, when we went for the special Shiny Pichu this weekend, Corwin got a used cartridge of Platinum. After his parents help him plunder the cartridge for any useful items or Pokemon from "Mat", he'll be restarting his own game. He's already planning on picking Chimchar (and naming it Bob) so I bred him one of my fabulous Piplups, and Traci will be breeding him one of her terrific Turtwigs. That should help re-vitalize all our Poke-interest, as well.
So between here and there, I will need to wrap up Spirit Tracks. I've already spent some time crossing off sidequests before the last dungeon. Just need maybe a couple more heart containers and then I'll feel up to tackling the Sand Realm, which most likely features dead things. From there it should just be the top of the Tower of Spirits, then Malladus. [hah. it's not. there's a whole 'nother realm between me and the final battle after I get through the Sand Realm.]
Also, they'll be giving away the special Jirachi that unlocks the Edge of the Night Sky Pokewalker course, later this month.
For Jhoto I'm already planning on re-constituting some of my team; defnitely Cynder, Vermillion and Sheepish, and maybe Hootie and Izzel. That last slot, though, I think I'll do something new and different with. Petty had mentioned really liking her Ariados, and that might be pretty kick. Xatu or Heracross also come to mind. ...dang. Now I'm already tempted to do one game and then restart. Will have to decide whether nostalgia is stronger than sense of adventure: nostalgia would dictate that the core team re-create the original Silver team as closely as possible, but then I limit myself from trying out new Pokemon.
(2/18/2010)
Still working on Spirit Tracks. Had begun the Sand Realm, got the Sand Wand out of the temple, but got stalled on one of those STUPIDLY DIFFICULT things with the sinking sand. Lots of rocks and spikes, some sand-critters, and a few Stalfos so far. Apparently there's not just the top floor of the Tower but also some kind of Dark Realm thing after that, before Malladus. I want to be done and all, but it's just kinda ARGH.
Tried out Google Docs last night to make a spreadsheet of all my Pokemon games, with sheets for select Pokemon: team, specials, and legendary/event. Plus a sheet for the Pokedex, listing all 493 Pokemon and detailing which ones I've caught or raised, have stored or just data-traded for. That way I'll have a central repository, accessible from multiple computers, of all my info going back to Blue. It'd be neat to be able to look at all my teams, and assemble an all-star lineup. Maybe even raise those to lvl 100.
Have been sort of looking sidelong at Emerald with the vague thought of raising some of the 35 more I need for the 'Dex, but haven't been able to rouse myself to actually do it.
(2/23/2010)
Have filled in the Poke-spreadsheets with everything up to Emerald, to which I threw away most of my Saturday. That prompted me to actually fire up the game and finish raising Fafnir, who is now a lvl 50 Salamence. Got the whole team up to lvl 67 (and Jubal to lvl 68) doing it, too.
After that I took another look at the Emerald Pokedex, and noticed that when I switched it to Hoenn mode instead of National, that I was in fact missing a whole bunch of Kanto Pokemon as well. This brings the total I'd have to obtain to 50-some, instead of 35. D'oh! Some of those I can easily bring over from LG, but still, it's lots more than I'd thought.
So, since I was home with cramps Monday, I decided to do me some breeding. Seeing as how I had to get the baby and max evo's of both the Marill and Jigglypuff evo chains, I thought, why not breed in some egg moves while I'm at it? I grabbed a male Lapras from that last LG game who had Perish Song, caught a Luvdisc for the Heart Scale to have him remember Sing, then snagged a female Marill and female Jigglypuff, both around lvl 25-26.
This gave me an Azurill with Sing, and a male Marill with Perish Song. I raised him high enough for breeding, then threw him in with the Jigglypuff to give me an Igglybuff with Perish Song. Then I biked back and forth with the two babies until they were happy enough to evolve.
And there I made my first mistake: challenged one of the breeders on Rt. 117 with Exp Share on the Azurill. That trainer has a team of six, all in the low 30's. So the Azurill got raised far too high all at once. Am attempting to fix that with the Macho Brace, with Exp Share on the Igglybuff. So the Azurill will probably not turn out so well. The Igglybuff, I named PuffDaddy, and aside of Perish Song will maybe dupe my old PuffDaddy from Blue.
I also need to get Bombadil straightened out. Looking above, his final moveset was supposed to be Sunny Day, Synthesis, Solarbeam, and Faint Attack. So I need to teach him Solarbeam (replacing Nature Power) and hand him a Leaf Stone, and that'll be another Hoenn Pokemon I can cross off the list.
Speaking of that last LG game, otherwise known as "you STILL haven't caught Entei?" I now believe that I messed up the game by not doing the island quest for Lostelle before beating the Elite Four. I recall someone saying that if you didn't do that, your legendary beast would not show up. I can't find where I read this, but this is my only LG game so far where I didn't save Lostelle pre-E4, and the only one where I've had THIS much trouble finding my legendary. So I've been importing its random-caught Pokemon to Pearl, for transfer to the Ranch. Will most likely trade out its TMs, items, and Berries to Emerald, and its team/special Pokemon to my main LG game. Should most likely catch the game's Mewtwo as well, just to have it.
From there I have a couple options. One, just restart and go for it again. Two, trade it in to GameStop and get FR instead. This'd give me access to the Kanto Pokemon that I never get to have, like Ekans, Growlithe, Scyther, Shellder, and Electabuzz. Either way, once I got through it I'd trade the cart in again. I've got the Kanto region down to Hall of Fame debut in 30-40 hours or so, it shouldn't take too long. Though it galls me to have wasted all that time on the 3rd round of LG only to have to play through Kanto AGAIN. And goodness knows I'll be catching the legendary beasts in SoulSilver anyway -- and by the time I get all those random Pokemon Pal-Parked to Pearl (alliteration!) it'll probably be out already.
Bleh. And of course, all this Poke-ing means I haven't gotten any futher in the Sand Temple in Spirit Tracks.
(2/26/2010)
Spirit Tracks? what's that?
For some reason it wasn't enough to Pal Park all my random catches from the Entei-denied game of LG to Pearl for the Ranch. No, I had to go out and catch YET MORE STUFF. While I was at it, I took a turn through the Cerulean Cave and nabbed Mewtwo. In an Ultra Ball, too, so I get to keep this game's Master Ball. That gives me two legitimate extras.
All this catching does serve a useful purpose, though. The trade-evolvers alone will allow me to cross off a nice chunk of the Kanto portion of my Emerald Pokedex, given that I'll get credit for both evolutions. Not to mention a few more that are not available in Emerald but easily caught in FR/LG.
So the next things to catch will be Horsea, both for the dex credit and to get a Dragon Scale for Trident. Then off to the Islands to catch Ponyta, Rapidash, Persian, and to nab a Haunter from the Lost Cave. Hopefully it'll be higher level than the ones in Pokemon Tower, if not equivalent to the other trade-evolvers I caught in Cerulean Cave.
As a bonus, running around Cerulean Cave allowed me to level up some of my team (even if I did have to Revive poor Salome a half-dozen times. Damn Wobbuffets and their Shadow Tag). I should spend time leveling them there, since in this game all the outsiders get extra Exp. Maybe to level 60.
(3/5/2010)
I know not of this Spirit Tracks you mention. O_<
So yeah, still Pal Parking the random caught Pokemon out of LG, though not every single night, so this isn't going all that quickly. It occurs to me that, with four cartridges at 6 Pokemon a day, if I stuck to it I could have a Mew within a month. I ought to Pal Park in all of JD's max evos and store them, that'd be a bunch.
Finally gave up on catching wild Horsea and hoping for a Dragon Scale, and just went for Trainer Tower. Winning the Double Battle challenge there nets you a Dragon Scale (the other challenges also give various evolution hold items like Upgrade, Metal Coat, and King's Rock). Since the other trainers are at the level of your strongest Pokemon, it was more of a haul than I'd expected. Many revives and potions were used. But I did the run in about a half hour and had my Dragon Scale.
Then it was time for trading. Along with Trident and his Dragon Scale, I sent across a Kadabra, a Golem, a Machoke, and a Haunter. I hadn't actually needed credit for some of those, so it didn't increase my Emerald 'dex as much as I'd hoped, but that still got me credit for five max evo's. And because all the trade-evolvers had been caught at high levels, they're good enough without being hand-raised.
Unfortunately, that leaves me with all the stuff that DOES have to be hand-raised. And I haven't gone back to that Marill (who needs renaming) and Puffdaddy. Should take care of Bombadil, too.
I'm leaning more and more towards trading in that LG cart for a FR one, once I get it cleared out.
Pokemon in FR but not LG include: Ekans/Arbok, Oddish/Gloom/Vileplume/Bellossom, Psyduck/Golduck, Growlithe/Arcanine, Shellder/Cloyster, Elekid/Electabuzz, Scyther/Scizor, Wooper/Quagsire, Murkrow, Quilfish, Delibird, Skarmory.
Of the Kanto portion of those, only Oddish and Psyduck can be caught in Hoenn (Psyduck in the Safari Zone). And I know that I've always had trouble getting hold of Ekans/Arbok, Growlithe/Arcanine, Shellder/Cloyster, Elekid/Electabuzz, and Murkrow.
Plus, it sounds like the FR exclusives would make a pretty good team. Given that I have to start off with Bulbasaur (again!) if I want Entei, then Growlithe would be good for Fire type, and Shellder would be good for Ice against Lance's dragons. And it'd be lovely to raise something that WASN'T a friggin' Pikachu for once, for my electric type. Only issue there would be that I'll need an electric type against Misty before Electabuzz is available. Since Eggs can't be traded in, I'd have to catch an Electabuzz before restarting, trade it over to the main LG game to breed and hatch it, then put up with potential obedience issues. Or just wait until I can get one, and just take Misty on with what I've got. But that Starmie of hers is a bitch.
STILL. The team would then be: Yet Another Venasaur, Arbok, Arcanine, Electabuzz, Cloyster, and...what? Well, I've never raised a Nido-thing all the way before, maybe one of those. They're tanks, and would also make a good HM slave. It's also tempting to raise an Oddish instead of Bulbasaur, but it seems more worth it for Emerald's dex just to catch two high-level Glooms and apply the stone of choice. ...Ohwait. Y'know what the team is missing, is Flying.
Unfortunately the list of Pokemon that can learn Fly in FR/LG is depressingly short, and are all either things I don't want, things I've already trained, or single evos. Kanto's flying Pokemon are just so...boring. And I can't trade in anything from outside Kanto until post-E4. Bleh. Might do Farfetch'd just for the novelty of it; in fact since the only Farfetch'd one can get is a trade anyway, might as well breed some moves and trade in. Once I get past Misty, levels up to 30 will be no problem, then Erika in Celadon will clear me up to lvl 50.
Looking at the GIII learnset, it doesn't actually look like Farfetch'd learns much that's interesting. Maybe if I haven't already traded for the one in the latest LG, I can catch a waaaay high-level Spearow in the Islands to trade for it. Still looks like Cut and Fly are the most interesting moves it can get; Swords Dance (at lvl 31) and False Swipe (at lvl 46) seem to be the other choices. Possible Egg Moves might include Flail, Gust, Quick Attack, or Steel Wing.
(3/8/2010)
Well foo. I have indeed traded for the Farfetch'd in both LG games. So, getting a high level one for breeding is out. Egg moves would still be possible, though, I guess.
Of course, the problem now is, HG/SS are out this Sunday. And there's no darn WAY I'd finish a 30+ hour game between now and then. So unless I put off buying SS just to catch Entei, my set of legendary beasts must remain incomplete. But that rankles. I dunno.
In any case, I'm nearly done Pal Parking random catches out of the no-Entei game. All that's left to do will be to trade out the team, specials, and legendaries, and clean out the items and Berries. I'm thinking the Pokemon can go to the other LG game, but maybe the TMs/items/berries can go to Emerald?
One thing I do think I'd like to do, is to restrict my SS Pokedex to things I caught or raised myself. No plundering cartridges of any game I didn't play, no data trades, no GTS even. Given that only a very very small subset of Pokemon are unobtainable within HG/SS, and most of those are either legendaries I have, or ones that involve specific Sinnoh locations to evolve, this shouldn't be too much of a limit. Anything I can't get in SS I can either import, or trade over from P/Pt.
Since SS gives us GIV access to Kanto, the other thing I should consider is transferring over everything from FR/LG to SS. Well, not everything -- all the random catches can likely be transferred to Pearl and put into the Ranch, especially Arceus' named ones. But certainly all the teams and anything I actually raised, along with ALL items, TMs, and Berries. Though, if I'm going to give up my LG cartridges I should likely trade items/TMs/berries over to Emerald, because I wouldn't have another GIII source after that.
One VERY nice feature of HG/SS is that they nixed the six-per-cart-per-day limit on Pal Park. You can still only transfer six at a time, but now you could do it all day long from a single cart. This'll let me clear out my main LG cart MUCH more quickly. Of course, I'd still need to trade them over to Pearl if I want to put anything in the Ranch.
(3/10/2010)
So bored and scattered today, and yet I managed to get some things done, or at least further along.
Spirit Tracks? Pffffft.
All the random catches from the no-Entei game are now stored in the Ranch. All that's left are the team, specials, and legendaries; plus the items, TMs, and Berries.
Items, TMs, and Berries should go to Emerald. With a few exceptions (the trade evolvers should maybe also go to Emerald?) everything else can go over to the main LG cartridge.
From there, I plan to restart the game, pick the default trainer and rival names, and save; that'll keep any hackers from using my trainer name and ID.
I can then take the game back to GameStop and trade it in for FR. Maybe at the same time that I buy SS. Even though I'll most likley play SS first, I'll at least have the cart for FR. Maybe if Jhoto doesn't Poke me out (not to mention re-doing Kanto in SS) I can complete my set of legendary beasts.
Regardless, it occurs to me that I should also transfer out all the random catches that I didn't actually raise from Emerald and LG and toss them in the Ranch too. Maybe even the ones from Pearl, as well. If I haven't done anything with them since catching them, there's no reason for them to sit in there; and if I need to breed or raise anything I've caught once, I can always catch another. Probably I should Pal Park JD's Pokemon as well, except maybe the starters and legendaries. I imagine that'd get my Ranch totals up a bit, and simplify storage on my remaining cartridges.
In any case, the first thing I need to do is catch trade fodder in the main LG cart, and some rotating trade fodder in Emerald, and get that no-Entei cart cleaned out.
(3/15/2010)
Haven't Pal Parked anything else -- technically there's no hurry on that for the cartridges of LG and Emerald that I'm keeping, unless I want the Ranch Mew THAT badly. However, I did get the rotating trades done to move items, TMs, and Berries to Emerald. The only things I didn't move were the 26 TinyMushrooms, because those are useless in Emerald (the Move Relearner dude has stepped up to Heart Scales), and 4 Moon Stones. So I'll either toss those on the Pokemon I'm moving to the main LG cart, or do five sets of rotating trades to move them over.
I've also caught my trade fodder in the main LG, and just need a box named to put things in. I believe I'll name it "no Entei for you". D:<
With that done, I can restart (will likely release the remaining Pokemon first, because I'm a dork) and save. And then I'll be free to go get SS! WHOO
Though, should not forget that this week I also have to do my Ostra Bag, and get something for Heather's birthday -- both of these by Saturday. So, playtime might be limited. And I should really make some time to work on the Castle Town map. Too much to do, too much time spent on working for a living. bleh.
(3/16/2010)
Got all my trading done last night. Remaining items and all Pokemon from the "NoEntei" game of LG are safely in the main LG cart (though, I had a nervous moment when I accidentally released Salome, and had to reboot the game to get her back). Restarted the cartridge with naught but a single Magikarp left, and saved straight off, before even getting a starter. I pity the poor schmoe who buys this cart looking to plunder it...
And tonight I will turn it in and get a FR cart at the same time I buy SS (provided they have both). Solved the time crunch for the week by taking Friday off, to make time for sleep and Ostra prep. Still need to figure out a present for Heather. Still, that should let me start out with either SS or FR tonight. FR if I'm being nice and showing solidarity with poor Petty not having gotten her game yet. [nope, no FR for me....and, did not start SS.]
Besides, if I -can- get my hands on a copy of FR, and it's far enough along in the game, there's a couple things I should do before restarting. Bring over the team Pokemon and anything else interesting, surely; but this time I shouldn't be such a dang packrat. One, it takes such ridiculous amounts of time, and two, I can't be sure that the previous trainer's stuff isn't hacked. So I will try to be strong, and leave most stuff behind. It's not like I don't have several dupes of every dang thing from Kanto at this point, anyway.
What I -do- want to do, though is catch an Electabuzz to breed from, so I'll know it's not hacked. And also, if the Farfetch'd is still available, get a very high-level Spearow from the islands, in LG if I have to, to trade for it. That'll let me breed a fairly kickass Farfetch'd for my flyer. ....allright, so maybe I won't be starting EITHER FR or SS tonight.
So, looking into movesets for the prospective team.
Ekans/Arbok doesn't learn a whole lot, will have to supplement with TMs (Toxic or Sludge Bomb, and something off-type). Bite and Glare are both learned before it evolves, so no reason to hold off. Should try to catch one with Shed Skin ability.
Growlithe doesn't learn Flame Wheel until lvl 31, but it evolves via Fire Stone so there's no worry it'll evolve too soon. One with Flash Fire would be ideal, as that both protects against fire moves AND boosts them. Learns Flamethrower at lvl 49 but Arcanine learns Extremespeed at the same level, so choice would have to be made by then.
Shellder is another stone evolver. It gets Icicle Spear, Supersonic, Aurora Beam, and Protect all by lvl 30. Ice Beam at lvl 49. Surf is obvious here too. If evolved will learn Spikes at 33 and Spike Cannon at 41. Ice Beam is stronger, but can also be learned via TM so it might be best to evolve Shellder sooner.
Electabuzz will most likely need to be bred, because the levels of the Power Plant ones will definitely cause obedience problems early on. They get Quick Attack and Thunderpunch from the get-go. Thunderbolt at lvl 47 and Thunder at 58. Elekid learns these even earlier. They can also learn Strength, Flash, and Rock Smash. Egg moves include Karate Chop and Cross Chop, which would be wonderfully super-effective against Rock. Ah -- but wait. If I breed an Elekid, it won't trade over until I have the Nat'l Dex -- and they don't evolve until lvl 30. I'll have to come up with something else for beating Misty, then.
As for Farfetch'd, Steel Wing is the only interesting Egg move. I'm thinking a moveset of Swords Dance, Cut, Fly, and Steel Wing ought to work. Swords Dance is learned at lvl 31.
And that's another thing I ought to do: Catch one each of all the version-exclusive Pokemon before restarting, and trade them out to LG.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
In retrospect: Emerald for real - aftergame
(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.)
(9/28/2009)
Ack. Mt. Airy Fair is THIS weekend. And I haven't replaced any of my stock.
I didn't really accomplish as much as I should have, just grew a mess of Berries, tracked down a bunch of rematches, and spent way too much time running around Meteor Falls looking for Bagon. That place is so full of Golbat that the whole team's up to lvl 60 (and Jubal's at 62). I also ran into Steven, and was dumb enough to talk to him when my team had already spent most of their attacks and were down HP. He wiped the floor with me, of course, but since I hadn't intended to get into that particular battle, I simply soft-reset without saving.
The stupid thing was, I'd been running around back there because Bulbapedia had Bagon appearing only in the "Back Room" of Meteor Falls. Well, the Back Room wasn't the inner cave where Steven was. Exploration revealed that there was more to Meteor Falls than I'd discovered previously -- including a tiny little chamber, mostly water, which contained TM 02 Dragon Claw. This, it turned out, was the "Back Room", and I caught me a breeding pair of Bagon. I named the male Fafnir, with plans to raise him with good attacks for breeding.
I also took a turn or two through the Safari Zone extension areas, and caught me some Mareep. My plan is to breed the female with my Raichu from the latest LG game, which will give the offspring Body Slam, Thunder Wave, and most likely Thunder too, since that's a TM. Then I'll raise me an Ampharos, by hard-core training and battling via Macho Brace, to bring with me when I go back to the E4. Because I want to give them a solid thumping, and a decent Electric type will give me a much better chance. Meadow having Thunder really didn't get me that much, so her slot will go to the Ampharos.
In fact, I'm kinda contemplating a secondary team, which I've never done before. I did pick up the Beldum from Steven's house, naming it Tungsten, but I'll save it for breeding since Tympany is already levelled. But I want to raise Fafnir, and there's also my revived Anorith, Cambrian (which should be good against Sidney's Dark types). I've never bothered to face any region's E4 more than once or twice, tops, so this'd be a new experience. This time, I should make sure I can deal with both Water and Ice. Especially Ice.
Still need to grab the Berries and items from Sam's game (and I've got 15 Pokemon to catch for permanent trades there). Plus I can swap through my LG Pokes, for 'Dex credit for what I've already caught or raised in those games. Might as well bring over the higher-order Berries from LG, too, since there's not much I can do with 'em there. I'm not sure I have the patience to complete the GIII National 'Dex, but I can at least maybe raise enough to get my Jhoto starter. Not sure it actually takes having all 200 Hoenn Pokemon, since Terrell got his, and his regional 'Dex is only at 175. Maybe he traded, or got an egg?
But I do want to solidly beat the E4, and also to defeat Steven, as well as raising at least a few more Pokes. So, still plenty to do.
(9/29/2009)
I did mention I'd caught some Feebas, right? Seven of them, actually -- four females and three males. All with names, and in Premier or Dive Balls.
I'd already picked one of the females as my prospective contest entry, mostly because the rest had paired names, and taught her Surf, Dive, and Waterfall. Only problem was, Lilium's nature turned out to be completely unhelpful: Careful, which dislikes dry flavor, the very same flavor I needed to feed her tons of to max out her Beauty. Plus, the Careful nature raises Sp. Def and hinders Sp. Atk, not great for a Milotic, or for her moveset.
But I hadn't grown that whole bushel o' Berries for nothing. Even as much as I suck at Berry Blending, I was able to blend up a pile of Indigo Pokeblocks from Hondew berries at the four-way table, which were both Dry and Bitter. She didn't love 'em, but she didn't hate 'em either. Only lvl 23 feel 19, but that was enough to max both Beauty and Smart. And a few other Pokeblocks, to minimally increase the other conditions. Of course, this maxed her sheen as well, so she'll never be real Cute, but hey.
Hoenn contests allow attack combos for increased points, and Surf/Dive or Dive/Surf are both possible Beauty combos. With that and max Beauty, Lilium won the Normal ribbon on her first try, and each of the other three on her second try. That makes her my second Master Ribbon-winning Pokemon, and the first I caught and raised myself. I'm wondering if she can repeat the feat in Sinnoh....I left her the Splash attack, since I vaguely remember that it was useful in Sinnoh contests. I'll need to look up the effects of her attacks in Sinnoh contests before I do anything irreversible.
(OK, here we go....
Splash (Cute) More hearts for low voltage
Surf (Beauty) 2 hearts, +2 if first in turn
Dive (Beauty) 1 heart, +3 if another Pokemon appeals to the same judge
Waterfall (Tough) 3 hearts, no added effect
That might actually work; an attack that gives more for low voltage is a must in the higher rank contests of Sinnoh. Plus, since someone else always picks the same judge in the higher ranks, Dive should work well too. A basic appeal is always good to fall back on, so Waterfall is good. And Surf should be a good opener if I can nail the visual and dance rounds well enough.
What I should do, probably, is duplicate this attack set in one of the males, and breed a contest-ready offspring before Pal Parking Lilium -- most likely to Pearl, where I need all five Master ranks to get my trainer card star. It'd be neat to have a two-region contest champion Milotic!
The only other thing I did last night (actually in the wee hours of the morning, when I'd woken up coughing) was to get Meadow up with the rest of the team, at lvl 60. I'd thought Wally would make a good Exp farm, but he apparently only fights on specific days, because he hasn't wanted to battle me since the weekend.
Next goals: Give another try to the E4, and breed that Mareep. As long as the E4's levels haven't heinously increased after the initial battle, I should have a bit of an easier time. I'd like to defeat them solidly with my original team. And even if I don't do any other trading, I can at least bring over Sparks and do some breeding. Those neglected water routes near Dewford should make for some great training, plus I can look up the rematches around the Dive areas, and do that Sea Current route from Pacifidlog back to Slateport that I never bothered with.
Another thing -- Other than non-Hoenn Pokemon, and the Battle Frontier, nothing else has happened, plot-wise. I haven't heard a word about Kyogre or Groudon since the Sootopolis incident, or about Maxie and Archie either. And I've even seen Latios! What gives? I think I've got to haul myself to the peak of Mt. Pyre to trigger the quest for Kyogre and Groudon. Somebody mentioned doing that, maybe Steven or Wallace. Hopefully that'll also get the necessary things moving to get me access to the Regis. With my team as high as it is, I should be able to nab all of them. So that's another goal: Get all my legendaries.
As a side note, I did download Oak's Letter, but haven't yet gone for Shaymin. The challenge there will most likely be not fainting it before I can get it in a Ball...
(9/30/2009)
Stayed up waaaaay too late last night. I forgot how much time the E4 take, much less contests. And trading. Oy, the trading!
Just for kicks, I went and got Lilium Normal rank ribbons in all the other contests. The Cool category took multiple tries and was hard as crap, and the others were close, but eventually I got them all.
Then I thought, hey, the team's all at lvl 60 now, let's trounce the E4. Well, it wasn't the solid trouncing I'd wanted....if anything, Drake and Wallace were actually HARDER this time around. And I still had to use Coriolis -- this time for Wallace's Ludicolo, who would just NOT go down. And if Coriolis hadn't had Rest (and me the Blue Flute) that wouldn't have worked either. >_< Still, I didn't have to use potions/revives as much. Eh.
So then I figured I'd do my trading to grab berries out of LG and get Dex credit. Except, in a fit of whimsy, I decided hey! why not battle myself while I'm here?
It was indisputably an ultimate dork moment -- not only was I having a Pokemon battle against myself, but I had the equipment to even make it possible. Still, it was fun in a silly kind of way. The best part, I think, was getting to see all my hand-raised Pokes from both teams in action from an opponent's view. As I pretty much expected, the Emerald team scored a solid win, since they were so much higher in level. The LG team did make a good showing, though, taking out everyone but Jubal and Tympany, with Jubal in the red. I didn't use potions or revives on either side, and tried to battle each side as if I'd never seen the other team before. Good nerdy fun.
With that over with, I got down to business with the trading. I gave my caught Pokes in LG all the berries above Sitrus (i.e. the non-useful ones), along with a bunch of items (elixirs and rare candies and the like), then rotated through the trades. But I started this at quarter to 11, ignoring how long all those trades would take -- three hours. It was nearly 2 AM by the time I was done, which was absurdly later than it should have been. My priorities are obviously wacked.
I ended up keeping a lvl 46 Gengar in Emerald for potential breeding, along with trading Sparks over to breed with my Mareep. So I'm now in a position to breed and raise that Ampharos, but I won't be tempted to mess with the E4 again for a while. Say, when the whole team is at lvl 70, which might take too long to actually happen.
I'd still like to bring in Sam's stuff, though, and then see where my Hoenn 'Dex is and how much time and effort it'd take to get it to where I could get the Jhoto starter. It'd be nice to accomplish that without resorting to plundering JD's Pokes.
(10/2/2009)
Yep, priorities definitely completely wacked. Stayed up way too late again, then spent too much of the night coughing. So today I'm giving that Five-Hour Energy stuff a try. >_<
Told the Thursday crew about my Pokenerdiess, and got properly laughed at -- but not without understanding. All us geeks have our obsesssions, after all.
While downing Medivka and tea after getting home, I decided it was time for some breeding. So I dropped off Sparks and my Mareep over at the DayCare, and figured out that the stretch of Verdantuf, Rt. 117, Mauville, and western Rt. 119 make for a nice long unobstructed 134-step run. A dozen or so trips back and forth by Mach Bike, and I had myself four Eggs.
Here's where I made my first mistake: With Gossamer, Jubal, and the four Eggs in tow, I kept biking until the first Egg's status was "it's making sounds! it'll hatch soon!" and then headed for New Mauville, because I like hatching things in appropriate places. Only, I'd forgotten how friggin' high the encounter rate is there. I was racking up maybe a half-dozen steps between wild Poke battles. Both Gossamer and Jubal had earned a level by the time the first couple Eggs had hatched, and Jubal earned most of another while I got the other two hatched. And this was including the use of about a half-dozen max repels, too.
Mind you, I saw three or four Electrodes while running around there, but not a single Magenton. Good thing I got the 'Dex credit from LG. >_<
But finally, I had my new batch of Mareep: Shiny (f), Beacon (m), Luma (f), and Lucia (f). I was disappointed to see that they hadn't inherited all of Sparks' moves, but they did get the important ones -- Body Slam and Thunder, along with Thunder Wave. As each one hatched, I threw on Exp Share for two encounters. This raised them all quickly to lvl 9, whereupon they learned Thundershock (I knew there was a reason I'd loved Sheepish so much!). I figure it'll be easy to make up the EV's later via Macho Brace.
Then came the choice of which one to train. Getting them all so quickly to lvl 9 let me see which stats were increasing fastest. Beacon and Lucia had disasterously low Speed. Between Shiny and Lucia, it was Shiny who had the better nature -- Naughty, which also likes Spicy flavor. And most of their movesets were in the Cool category. So Shiny it was (though, I would like to think of a better name, since I was thinking "shiny" as in the 'Verse, and she is not a shiny Pokemon).
At lvl 9, I figured she'd be able to one-shot pretty much anything on the early routes. I gave her the Macho Brace and took her out between Petalburg and the Woods. She didn't quite one-shot everything, and the Brace was lowering her Speed too much to get in the first hit. I withdrew all the vitamins from my PC that my main team couldn't use anymore, and fed them to her; went to Slateport and bought a few more. Then, with Shiny at lvl 13, I got bored and decided, let's go try some Contests! Maybe she could get the Master Ribbon in Cool!
This, of course, meant Pokeblocks, and lots of them. I will need to replace some Berries this weekend. Between generous helpings of Pokeblocks made with Pomeg (spicy-bitter), Kelpsy (dry-sour), Qualot (spicy-sweet) and Tamato (spicy-bitter), I got her condition pretty decent in all categories, and near to maxed in Cool. Then it was time to try some Contests.
It was also time to go to bed, but I ignored that and kept going.
Shiny had varying degrees of success with the Appeals round in the different contests -- Cool in particular didn't go as well as I'd have liked -- but her high condition netted her the ribbon in all of them anyway. I'm considering trying for all the Super rank ribbons as well. Training should also continue, to get her up to the point where I can take her over the water to Dewford. So my little Mareep should keep me occupied for a while. I plan on replacing Thundershock with Thunder Punch, but otherwise keeping the moveset she's got. There should be lots of time at Fair, as long as my battery doesn't give out.
(10/7/2009)
Work is crazy and I am so damn TIRED. Been getting up at 6:30 AM for the last three days to verify the forecast refreshes. Had to hit the 5-hour Energy stuff agin. argh.
But since I'm waiting for the new V7 appset so I can recreate SLR...
I really didn't Poke as much over the weekend at the Mt. Airy fair as I'd thought I would, but I did get Shiny all the Super rank contest ribbons between crocheting. There was only one of them that she had to try more than once (can't remember which, now). Saturday night, with Traci doing all her Facebook games beside me, I went for the Hyper and Master rank Cool ribbons, and got them with hardly any trouble -- again, more for her condition than her moves, but hey. And once again, the artist dude offered to paint her, and gave her the "you've been painted" ribbon, for a total of 13.
Back out in the Contest hall, I noticed a bunch of people standing around the Berry Blender tables. I had lucked out -- the Blending Master was in residence! No matter which Berry I put in, no matter how badly I did, I was getting Level 50-plus Pokeblocks (though the feel was also very high, around 43 mostly). Still! what luck! So I blended until my Pokeblock case was full, fed some to my team, and blended some more, then did that again. Who knows when he'll appear again?
Still no Mirage Island though. I have to wonder what I could have done with one of the really rare Berries -- Leichi, Starf, or Enigma. Ah well.
Unfortunately, I haven't had time to pick up the SP since, what with having to fall into bed at practically 8 PM to be able to hoist my ass up by 6:30 in the god-awful morning. Tonight I visit Mom and have to load EIM when I get home, then tomorrow I have to get my allergy shot, go to Dave's, then process the HT dimensions when I get home. And Julie's talking about working overtime to get caught up with our V7 testing. argh again.
So, dunno when I will get back to training Shiny (who might keep that name now that she's got her portrait up). I think I left her at lvl 20, and she did evolve to a Flaffy, but the first trainer along the Dewford water route proved to be at lvl 26 -- too high. So the plan is to get her up to lvl 30, evolve her to learn Thunder Punch, then hit the water and fight all the swimmers between Petalburg and Slateport. With the Macho Brace on, she should earn her Effort Ribbon by the time she approaches the level of the rest of the team. I will probably want to level them all some more before I try the E4 again, though. Probably to lvl 65 or, better yet, 70. I can't try the E4 too many more times, or their levels will increase...should ask Dave about that.
Also. I did go up to the peak of Mt Pyre awhile back, to see what was up with Kyogre and Groudon. Sure enough, Maxie and Archie were there, giving back their Orbs. Then they just walked away. One stopped and said "Rue..." then kept walking, and that was it. Sheesh. So I guess I should look into revisiting Mt. Chimney and the Seafloor Cavern, to see if the legendaries are waiting for me. I have no idea what triggers the quest for the Regis, but their caverns aren't open. I think I'll work with Shiny first, to get her levels up to where the underwater areas will be a good training ground.
(10/8/2009)
I got back from Mom's and finished the EIM load in time to get a little Poke-ing in. Plus, well, stayed up past 11. But I'd already taken my meds so that actually worked out better -- while playing I got most of the coughing out of the way. Slept straight through the night.
Shiny had progressed beyond where the levels of the wild Pokemon around Rustboro were doing her a whole bunch of good, so I made the rounds to collect some Berries (fighting a few rematches along the way) then headed for Slateport to train on Rt. 110. But then I saw the Trick Master's house and thought, eh, why not. Turns out this was the final puzzle. The trainers in the house were around lvl 45, so I used the opportunity to get Meadow and Jet up to lvl 62.
Then I headed west, forgetting that it was Rt. 117 next to Mauville that I was thinking of, and what should have appeared but the Altering Cave. The cave was thick with Zubat of about the right level, so I brought Shiny back out and set to training. When Shiny levelled, I noticed this had really helped her Speed, so I continued for another level. During this I attempted to feed her a couple Protiens I had sitting in my Bag, and it said they'd have no effect. That meant she was approaching her max EVs. When she'd gained another level (and 4 more Speed points) I ran over to Slateport. Sure enough, Shiny had earned her Effort Ribbon.
This brings her to lvl 26, which is probably enough to hit the water to Dewford. If I get any time tonight, I might try that....if her EVs are maxed, it's all about the Exp from here on in. Pity I don't have a Lucky Egg....
(10/10/2009)
eData is being a pain again.
Did I ever not have time to Poke on Thursday. Got back late from Dave's, then ran into critical failure trying to process PROJ. Ended up hauling IT out of bed at 1 AM and staying up 'till 7 AM getting CPA back online, plus handing the issue over to the rest of the team. Tried to sleep during the day but woke up every hour from dreaming about the whole mess.
When I finally was able to crawl out of bed Friday afternoon, Gabriel and Mandar had traced the problem to an HT entry that tried to assign a new child project to another child. So other than having to reprocess PROJ and re-load the data that got dumped all was well. Except now eData doesn't want to work.
Needless to say I didn't go to gaming -- stayed home and happened to catch the first couple episodes of Stargate Universe instead. It's actually pretty damn good. And between then and today, got some Poke-ing in.
Friday I mostly ran around finding places to level up Shiny to lvl 30. Today I took her down the water to Dewford, and from there over to Slateport. Fought all the trainers, including those in the above-water cabins of the Abandoned Ship. Then, just for giggles, I took the SS Tidal from Lilycove to Slateport. Ignored Scott blathering about the Battle Frontier and just went the rounds of the trainers.
In Slateport, someone said something about checking by the Weather Institute. I remembered something about that from the web, so I flew on up there and dropped in. The scientist said that they'd been picking up abnormal drought on Rt. 115, just north of Rustboro. I dutifully flew over to take a look. To my surprise, I stumbled on a new cave entrance, which proved to be Terra Cave. Inside was Groudon, in all its grouchy glory. I saved, just in case, and captured him with almost no trouble, especially given that Groudon was at lvl 70.
I decided that Shiny needed to be lots higher in level before trying for Kyogre. While looking in the Match Call list for rematches, I noticed that six of the eight Gyms had re-opened, and their leaders were ready for a rematch. Again to my surprise, the rematches were two-on-two. So not only did Shiny get a bunch of Exp, so did Tympany and Meadow.
After all that, I went looking in the wrong place for Kyogre, and ran around Shoal Cave for a bit instead. With Shiny at lvl 48, I went back to the Weather Institute and found out the right place to go, and went there. Had to backtrack to the Pokemon Center and grab Hugh, as it turned out Marine Cave was underwater.
I didn't get Kyogre on the first try; it took Shiny down with one hit before she could get in a Thunder Wave, then just as I'd finally gotten it down into the red it used Double-Edge. Fortunately I thought to save before the attempt, so I hope the next try will go better. Probably I should go in with Meadow and see if I can paralyze it with Thunder.
I also tried to nail Latios with Thunder Wave, but at the time he was too much higher in level than Shiny. I'd like to get him in an Ultra Ball if I can, and hang onto my Master Ball.
later: It took a few tries, but I nabbed Kyogre. Latios remains elusive...I am considering raising Alfred, the Golbat I caught in the Cave of Origin, to max out his Speed so that he can throw Mean Look at the darn thing. With any luck I can get him up to a Crobat while I'm at it.
After that I swung by the other couple Gyms that were ready for me, ran around the back of Meteor Falls and zapped a horde of Golbat, and chased down a lot more rematches. At the end of all that, Shiny was all the way up to lvl 60. Before going back to the E4 with her, though, I want her at least up to lvl 65, along with everyone else. Then maybe I can give them the solid trouncing I wanted.
Dinner is making suspicious noises, must go....
(10/12/2009)
I should know better than to start growing Berries on a Sunday. The Lum were only just taller this morning. Still, I replaced some of the berries I spent on the Blend Master. And he's due for another appearance tomorrow. I should look into what to feed Gossamer and Tympany. Pity Jet's sheen is maxed.
Other than growing a bushel of Berries, I also got Jubal all four ranks of Tough ribbons (though the artist dude did NOT offer to sketch him, as he didn't finish the appeals round in the lead). His moveset didn't turn out to be all that great for contests; I think it was only his condition plus the Scarf that got him the ribbons, really.
I also finally did the trading to bring in Sam's berries and items, along with the not-in-Emerald Pokemon (except, for some weird reason, I seem to have overlooked Lunatone). This time I timed it -- each trade, from talking to the lady at the counter to being out of the room, takes about 8 minutes, if one is paying attention. So alltogether it was about two hours. After all that was over and done with, I checked the Pokedex. Turns out I have only 35 more to go for the Hoenn 'Dex, not counting Latios and the Regis. Which isn't at all bad, after having gone through the full GIV National 'Dex.
Shiny is at lvl 61 and counting, though it's getting difficult to keep finding battles, especially since Wally doesn't seem to want to fight me. I need to look up both Wally, and the SS Tidal -- was battling the onboard trainers just a one-time deal, or can I milk them for Exp on every trip? And what days does Wally fight on?
(10/13/2009)
So last night I finally gave in, and went to take a look at the Battle Frontier.
It's huge and full of buildings and random people, but there's not much there that's really interesting if you're not into the whole battling thing. There was a Sudowoodo to catch, and the Artisan's Cave, where you can trip over a Smeargle every couple steps. They were good for training, too; Shiny's now even with the team, at lvl 63.
Despite being thoroughly unenthused, I gave a couple of the facilities the old college try. The first one, which I think was the Battle Palace, didn't let you command your own Pokemon. Instead, they'd choose moves according to their nature, from three categories: offensive, defensive, and "odd". Evidently my Pokemon don't have the right moves for their natures. I didn't make it too far.
The Battle Pyramid was actually kind of fun, for the first few floors. This involved exploring in the dark, while fighting the occasional wild Pokemon and up to eight trainers, and snagging items from the floor. But they take away your bag, so you don't have access to your own items, and you only get three Pokemon. And as you ascend the Pyramid, the wild encounters increase to the point where you can't take more than a few steps between encounters, and you can't run away anymore. I made it to the top, but it was frustratingly difficult. And you can't catch the wild Pokemon, because you don't have Pokeballs. Goodness knows I'm not gonna see an Electabuzz anywhere else.
On the plus side, this seemed to trigger a couple more events -- Lilycove's cleanout sale and the Energy Guru's sale are upcoming, in addition to the Game Corner service day and the Blend Master's appearance. And I did catch a Sudowoodo and a couple Smeargle.
What I really need, though, is an Exp farm to get the whole team up to lvl 65 so I can try the E4 again. At least Wally did want to battle last night -- maybe it's on the same day the E4 were last defeated?
(10/15/2009)
According to Bulbapedia, Wally can be fought "several times a day". No idea if that's every day, or whether it relates to the E4 at all. I think I beat them first on a Monday, and second on a Tuesday; and I got two or three battles out of Wally this Monday. Coincidence?
One thing that's becoming painfully clear is that it's going to be a lot of effort to raise those last 35 Pokemon without a good Exp source. Especially if I want to get them all the way up to lvl 50. The SS Tidal appears to have been a one-time deal, which is very disappointing. Rematches have been hard to come by, too. I may have to hit a few hitherto-unexplored areas, like the other bits of the sea current route, or the underwater level of the Abandoned Ship.
However, Shiny and Gossamer are even with Jubal at lvl 65, and everyone else is at lvl 64. I'll give the E4 one more try when the whole team is lvl 65. After that, I think I want to EV train Alfred for Speed -- KO a bunch of Zubat with the Macho Brace on, basically -- and raise him to a Crobat. Hopefully he doesn't have a contrary nature. If I jack up his speed enough I shouldn't have to get him much higher than lvl 45 or so for him to out-Speed the roaming legendaries.
Also -- I went and got Meadow a couple Cool ribbons, just for giggles. Her moveset was not at all geared towards Contests, so I dunno if I she can aspire to the Master Ribbon. I let the Blend Master pass, and missed the Lilycove sale; but I did go by the Energy Guru and net a whole bunch of half-price vitamins, mostly Carbos for Alfred.
(10/16/2009)
Wally didn't seem to be up for a battle yesterday, but I still managed to do some levelling. This was mostly accomplished by surfing repeatedly along the sea current route, trying to reach the Dive spot leading to the Sealed Chamber. The currents shunt you in different directions, so there's only one path that will get you there. Again, I have no concept how long things take, because I felt it necessary to translate all the Braille in the chamber using the chart in the FR/LG guide.
"First comes Wailord. Last comes Relicanth."
"In this cave we have lived. We owe all to the Pokemon. But, we sealed the Pokemon away. We feared it. Those with courage, those with hope. Open a door. An eternal Pokemon waits."
Of course, I'd forgotten to bring both Hugh and Sockeye, so I had to go back and get Sockeye, then surf back to the Chamber. Went up to the first inscription with my party in the right order, and ta daaah! three doors opened.
First I went to the Desert Ruins. Another inscription there read "Left, left. Down, Down. Then use Rock Smash." So I walked left twice and down twice and had Meadow use Rock Smash. The inner door opened, and Regirock was on the other side. It was a moderate pain to catch, and I had to reset once. Hugh's attacks were too strong, so I had Sockeye use Yawn and then whittle it down. I had the thought again that maybe I could nab the Regis in Premier Balls, but that wasn't working so I fell back on Ultra Balls. A handful of tosses later, and I had me a Regirock.
Next I went out to the Island Cave. The instructions there were to "Stay close to the wall. Run around one lap." This proved ineffective, or I wasn't doing it right, so I ditched and went to the next one.
That was the Ancient Tomb, which said, "Those who inherit our will, shine in the middle." I grumbled mightily and went to fetch Phosphor, came all the way back, then stood in the middle of the cave and had Phosphor use Flash. Behind door #3 was Registeel. And Registeel did NOT want to stay in any kind of ball. Even paralyzed or asleep, with its HP in the red, it just shrugged off the Ultra Balls like they were mere Poke Balls and as if it were fully healthy. I had to reset I think three times because I'd thrown all 21 of my Ultra Balls without catching it. Finally, the damn thing stayed in the 9th-to-last Ultra Ball. So I had my Registeel, but it was after midnight. >_<
Luckily I had done the contest thing right after getting home, rather than after all this running around for Regis. Meadow not only won the Master rank Cool ribbon, but actually came out ahead in the Appeals round and got herself a portrait into the bargain. I was kinda surprised, even though she did score the voltage bonus.
So the next item on the Pokegenda is to get in to catch Regice. According to Bulbapedia, the lap needs to be counterclockwise....doesn't say if you have to run it. I hope not, because I wasn't able to run and stay along the walls.
Then, as the whole team is now at lvl 65, I can give the E4 another try. Hopefully that'll go well, but even if it doesn't, the next project will be to raise me some Pokes for the 'Dex: Alfred first, so I can nab Latios; then Samson, Atomic, Fafnir, Cambian, and my brand-new Lileep, Permian.
For an insane moment a day or so ago, I was actually tempted to buy another Emerald cartridge, simply to be able to raise different team Pokemon. O: Hopefully that moment has permanently passed, even if I don't know how else I'll get enough Exp without fighting a million wild Pokemon.
WHOO ARCEUS AT TRU NOV 7-15! And it's downloadable to both D/P and Platinum, so I can get two!
(10/19/2009)
The moment of insanity hasn't passed. I am still tempted to buy a second Emerald cartridge -- not just to raise another, different team, but to catch my own Latias instead of just scrounging Terrell's, without having to restart.
Gaming was cancelled Friday, so I was able to go back and catch Regice. It took damage a lot more easily than the other two, so much so that I KO'd it on my first couple tries and had to reset, but it didn't take more than a couple Ultra Balls to get it.
Then I set out to EV-train Alfred. First I maxed out his Speed EVs via a couple Carbos and defeating 150 Zubat in Altering Cave with the Macho Brace on. But I didn't think things through before feeding him two of all the other vitamins; I divided the rest of his available EVs between Defense (Silcoon and Cascoon weren't easy to find, but gave 4 pts each with the Brace) and Sp.Defense (much easier because almost everything on Rt. 114 raises Sp. Def.) A quick trip to the Effort Ribbon lady verified that he was as EV'ed as he was gonna get, so then it was off to level him a bit. Fortunately the Pokemon breeders on Rt. 117 were in a mood to battle a few times each, so I got him up to lvl 50 without too much trouble.
I also got Wally to battle again, so Jubal is at lvl 67, and the rest of the team at lvl 66. The annoying thing, though, is that when calling trainers up for matches, they keep throwing my "2-win streak!" at the Battle Palace in my face. >_< It's almost enough to make me go back and try again...but only almost.
Regardless, with Alfred trained and levelled to learn Mean Look, it was time to go a-hunting me a Latios. In no time at all, I had it paralyzed and down to a sliver of HP -- but the darn thing was even more reluctant to stay in a ball than Registeel had been. Worse, it kept using Refresh, and getting rid of the paralysis -- that's a bitch of a move to put on a roaming legendary. As if that weren't enough, its psychic attacks were super-effective against poor Alfred. I ended up resetting several times, not only to conserve Ultra Balls but so that Alfred wouldn't end up hating me.
Finally, persistence paid off: Latios didn't KO Alfred, and stayed in an Ultra Ball (which means I get to keep my Master Ball). I named him Cloud (Latias would be Skye), cheered, and turned my attention to Fafnir.
Fafnir gained his first level on Whismurs, who add HP; then I trained him some in Granite Cave, hoping to catch a Nosepass, but no dice. This would mostly raise Defense, with some Attack from the many Makuhita. From there I moved to Rt. 114 to get him some Sp. Def, but he seemed to have some trouble there. And of course I hadn't had the foresight to check IVs before I started, so I've no idea if he just has poor IVs. Too late now! The nice lady didn't give him an Effort Ribbon yet, though, so I should most likely check to see what'd give Sp. Attack -- probably Shuppet -- and go do a couple levels of those. Once he's got his EVs, I can swap the Macho Brace for an Everstone (he's already trying to evolve at every level) and just powerlevel like crazy.
From there I should really move on to the other starters or the fossils, but I have an urge to breed a Whismur. Extrasensory would be too hard to get, since I'd have to level a Nuzleaf really really high, but Snore might be doable. A moveset of Uproar, Hyper Voice, Rest, and Snore would be amusing...the noise attacks to do damage, Rest to regain HP, and Snore to do damage in the meantime. Or Supersonic, instead of Uproar.
Gotta pick up prescriptions tonight; hopefully my prednisone is ready, and the antibiotic will do some good for my skin, at least, if not my lungs. Luckily I already have food in the house, so no need to shop (though I probably should).
(9/28/2009)
Ack. Mt. Airy Fair is THIS weekend. And I haven't replaced any of my stock.
I didn't really accomplish as much as I should have, just grew a mess of Berries, tracked down a bunch of rematches, and spent way too much time running around Meteor Falls looking for Bagon. That place is so full of Golbat that the whole team's up to lvl 60 (and Jubal's at 62). I also ran into Steven, and was dumb enough to talk to him when my team had already spent most of their attacks and were down HP. He wiped the floor with me, of course, but since I hadn't intended to get into that particular battle, I simply soft-reset without saving.
The stupid thing was, I'd been running around back there because Bulbapedia had Bagon appearing only in the "Back Room" of Meteor Falls. Well, the Back Room wasn't the inner cave where Steven was. Exploration revealed that there was more to Meteor Falls than I'd discovered previously -- including a tiny little chamber, mostly water, which contained TM 02 Dragon Claw. This, it turned out, was the "Back Room", and I caught me a breeding pair of Bagon. I named the male Fafnir, with plans to raise him with good attacks for breeding.
I also took a turn or two through the Safari Zone extension areas, and caught me some Mareep. My plan is to breed the female with my Raichu from the latest LG game, which will give the offspring Body Slam, Thunder Wave, and most likely Thunder too, since that's a TM. Then I'll raise me an Ampharos, by hard-core training and battling via Macho Brace, to bring with me when I go back to the E4. Because I want to give them a solid thumping, and a decent Electric type will give me a much better chance. Meadow having Thunder really didn't get me that much, so her slot will go to the Ampharos.
In fact, I'm kinda contemplating a secondary team, which I've never done before. I did pick up the Beldum from Steven's house, naming it Tungsten, but I'll save it for breeding since Tympany is already levelled. But I want to raise Fafnir, and there's also my revived Anorith, Cambrian (which should be good against Sidney's Dark types). I've never bothered to face any region's E4 more than once or twice, tops, so this'd be a new experience. This time, I should make sure I can deal with both Water and Ice. Especially Ice.
Still need to grab the Berries and items from Sam's game (and I've got 15 Pokemon to catch for permanent trades there). Plus I can swap through my LG Pokes, for 'Dex credit for what I've already caught or raised in those games. Might as well bring over the higher-order Berries from LG, too, since there's not much I can do with 'em there. I'm not sure I have the patience to complete the GIII National 'Dex, but I can at least maybe raise enough to get my Jhoto starter. Not sure it actually takes having all 200 Hoenn Pokemon, since Terrell got his, and his regional 'Dex is only at 175. Maybe he traded, or got an egg?
But I do want to solidly beat the E4, and also to defeat Steven, as well as raising at least a few more Pokes. So, still plenty to do.
(9/29/2009)
I did mention I'd caught some Feebas, right? Seven of them, actually -- four females and three males. All with names, and in Premier or Dive Balls.
I'd already picked one of the females as my prospective contest entry, mostly because the rest had paired names, and taught her Surf, Dive, and Waterfall. Only problem was, Lilium's nature turned out to be completely unhelpful: Careful, which dislikes dry flavor, the very same flavor I needed to feed her tons of to max out her Beauty. Plus, the Careful nature raises Sp. Def and hinders Sp. Atk, not great for a Milotic, or for her moveset.
But I hadn't grown that whole bushel o' Berries for nothing. Even as much as I suck at Berry Blending, I was able to blend up a pile of Indigo Pokeblocks from Hondew berries at the four-way table, which were both Dry and Bitter. She didn't love 'em, but she didn't hate 'em either. Only lvl 23 feel 19, but that was enough to max both Beauty and Smart. And a few other Pokeblocks, to minimally increase the other conditions. Of course, this maxed her sheen as well, so she'll never be real Cute, but hey.
Hoenn contests allow attack combos for increased points, and Surf/Dive or Dive/Surf are both possible Beauty combos. With that and max Beauty, Lilium won the Normal ribbon on her first try, and each of the other three on her second try. That makes her my second Master Ribbon-winning Pokemon, and the first I caught and raised myself. I'm wondering if she can repeat the feat in Sinnoh....I left her the Splash attack, since I vaguely remember that it was useful in Sinnoh contests. I'll need to look up the effects of her attacks in Sinnoh contests before I do anything irreversible.
(OK, here we go....
Splash (Cute) More hearts for low voltage
Surf (Beauty) 2 hearts, +2 if first in turn
Dive (Beauty) 1 heart, +3 if another Pokemon appeals to the same judge
Waterfall (Tough) 3 hearts, no added effect
That might actually work; an attack that gives more for low voltage is a must in the higher rank contests of Sinnoh. Plus, since someone else always picks the same judge in the higher ranks, Dive should work well too. A basic appeal is always good to fall back on, so Waterfall is good. And Surf should be a good opener if I can nail the visual and dance rounds well enough.
What I should do, probably, is duplicate this attack set in one of the males, and breed a contest-ready offspring before Pal Parking Lilium -- most likely to Pearl, where I need all five Master ranks to get my trainer card star. It'd be neat to have a two-region contest champion Milotic!
The only other thing I did last night (actually in the wee hours of the morning, when I'd woken up coughing) was to get Meadow up with the rest of the team, at lvl 60. I'd thought Wally would make a good Exp farm, but he apparently only fights on specific days, because he hasn't wanted to battle me since the weekend.
Next goals: Give another try to the E4, and breed that Mareep. As long as the E4's levels haven't heinously increased after the initial battle, I should have a bit of an easier time. I'd like to defeat them solidly with my original team. And even if I don't do any other trading, I can at least bring over Sparks and do some breeding. Those neglected water routes near Dewford should make for some great training, plus I can look up the rematches around the Dive areas, and do that Sea Current route from Pacifidlog back to Slateport that I never bothered with.
Another thing -- Other than non-Hoenn Pokemon, and the Battle Frontier, nothing else has happened, plot-wise. I haven't heard a word about Kyogre or Groudon since the Sootopolis incident, or about Maxie and Archie either. And I've even seen Latios! What gives? I think I've got to haul myself to the peak of Mt. Pyre to trigger the quest for Kyogre and Groudon. Somebody mentioned doing that, maybe Steven or Wallace. Hopefully that'll also get the necessary things moving to get me access to the Regis. With my team as high as it is, I should be able to nab all of them. So that's another goal: Get all my legendaries.
As a side note, I did download Oak's Letter, but haven't yet gone for Shaymin. The challenge there will most likely be not fainting it before I can get it in a Ball...
(9/30/2009)
Stayed up waaaaay too late last night. I forgot how much time the E4 take, much less contests. And trading. Oy, the trading!
Just for kicks, I went and got Lilium Normal rank ribbons in all the other contests. The Cool category took multiple tries and was hard as crap, and the others were close, but eventually I got them all.
Then I thought, hey, the team's all at lvl 60 now, let's trounce the E4. Well, it wasn't the solid trouncing I'd wanted....if anything, Drake and Wallace were actually HARDER this time around. And I still had to use Coriolis -- this time for Wallace's Ludicolo, who would just NOT go down. And if Coriolis hadn't had Rest (and me the Blue Flute) that wouldn't have worked either. >_< Still, I didn't have to use potions/revives as much. Eh.
So then I figured I'd do my trading to grab berries out of LG and get Dex credit. Except, in a fit of whimsy, I decided hey! why not battle myself while I'm here?
It was indisputably an ultimate dork moment -- not only was I having a Pokemon battle against myself, but I had the equipment to even make it possible. Still, it was fun in a silly kind of way. The best part, I think, was getting to see all my hand-raised Pokes from both teams in action from an opponent's view. As I pretty much expected, the Emerald team scored a solid win, since they were so much higher in level. The LG team did make a good showing, though, taking out everyone but Jubal and Tympany, with Jubal in the red. I didn't use potions or revives on either side, and tried to battle each side as if I'd never seen the other team before. Good nerdy fun.
With that over with, I got down to business with the trading. I gave my caught Pokes in LG all the berries above Sitrus (i.e. the non-useful ones), along with a bunch of items (elixirs and rare candies and the like), then rotated through the trades. But I started this at quarter to 11, ignoring how long all those trades would take -- three hours. It was nearly 2 AM by the time I was done, which was absurdly later than it should have been. My priorities are obviously wacked.
I ended up keeping a lvl 46 Gengar in Emerald for potential breeding, along with trading Sparks over to breed with my Mareep. So I'm now in a position to breed and raise that Ampharos, but I won't be tempted to mess with the E4 again for a while. Say, when the whole team is at lvl 70, which might take too long to actually happen.
I'd still like to bring in Sam's stuff, though, and then see where my Hoenn 'Dex is and how much time and effort it'd take to get it to where I could get the Jhoto starter. It'd be nice to accomplish that without resorting to plundering JD's Pokes.
(10/2/2009)
Yep, priorities definitely completely wacked. Stayed up way too late again, then spent too much of the night coughing. So today I'm giving that Five-Hour Energy stuff a try. >_<
Told the Thursday crew about my Pokenerdiess, and got properly laughed at -- but not without understanding. All us geeks have our obsesssions, after all.
While downing Medivka and tea after getting home, I decided it was time for some breeding. So I dropped off Sparks and my Mareep over at the DayCare, and figured out that the stretch of Verdantuf, Rt. 117, Mauville, and western Rt. 119 make for a nice long unobstructed 134-step run. A dozen or so trips back and forth by Mach Bike, and I had myself four Eggs.
Here's where I made my first mistake: With Gossamer, Jubal, and the four Eggs in tow, I kept biking until the first Egg's status was "it's making sounds! it'll hatch soon!" and then headed for New Mauville, because I like hatching things in appropriate places. Only, I'd forgotten how friggin' high the encounter rate is there. I was racking up maybe a half-dozen steps between wild Poke battles. Both Gossamer and Jubal had earned a level by the time the first couple Eggs had hatched, and Jubal earned most of another while I got the other two hatched. And this was including the use of about a half-dozen max repels, too.
Mind you, I saw three or four Electrodes while running around there, but not a single Magenton. Good thing I got the 'Dex credit from LG. >_<
But finally, I had my new batch of Mareep: Shiny (f), Beacon (m), Luma (f), and Lucia (f). I was disappointed to see that they hadn't inherited all of Sparks' moves, but they did get the important ones -- Body Slam and Thunder, along with Thunder Wave. As each one hatched, I threw on Exp Share for two encounters. This raised them all quickly to lvl 9, whereupon they learned Thundershock (I knew there was a reason I'd loved Sheepish so much!). I figure it'll be easy to make up the EV's later via Macho Brace.
Then came the choice of which one to train. Getting them all so quickly to lvl 9 let me see which stats were increasing fastest. Beacon and Lucia had disasterously low Speed. Between Shiny and Lucia, it was Shiny who had the better nature -- Naughty, which also likes Spicy flavor. And most of their movesets were in the Cool category. So Shiny it was (though, I would like to think of a better name, since I was thinking "shiny" as in the 'Verse, and she is not a shiny Pokemon).
At lvl 9, I figured she'd be able to one-shot pretty much anything on the early routes. I gave her the Macho Brace and took her out between Petalburg and the Woods. She didn't quite one-shot everything, and the Brace was lowering her Speed too much to get in the first hit. I withdrew all the vitamins from my PC that my main team couldn't use anymore, and fed them to her; went to Slateport and bought a few more. Then, with Shiny at lvl 13, I got bored and decided, let's go try some Contests! Maybe she could get the Master Ribbon in Cool!
This, of course, meant Pokeblocks, and lots of them. I will need to replace some Berries this weekend. Between generous helpings of Pokeblocks made with Pomeg (spicy-bitter), Kelpsy (dry-sour), Qualot (spicy-sweet) and Tamato (spicy-bitter), I got her condition pretty decent in all categories, and near to maxed in Cool. Then it was time to try some Contests.
It was also time to go to bed, but I ignored that and kept going.
Shiny had varying degrees of success with the Appeals round in the different contests -- Cool in particular didn't go as well as I'd have liked -- but her high condition netted her the ribbon in all of them anyway. I'm considering trying for all the Super rank ribbons as well. Training should also continue, to get her up to the point where I can take her over the water to Dewford. So my little Mareep should keep me occupied for a while. I plan on replacing Thundershock with Thunder Punch, but otherwise keeping the moveset she's got. There should be lots of time at Fair, as long as my battery doesn't give out.
(10/7/2009)
Work is crazy and I am so damn TIRED. Been getting up at 6:30 AM for the last three days to verify the forecast refreshes. Had to hit the 5-hour Energy stuff agin. argh.
But since I'm waiting for the new V7 appset so I can recreate SLR...
I really didn't Poke as much over the weekend at the Mt. Airy fair as I'd thought I would, but I did get Shiny all the Super rank contest ribbons between crocheting. There was only one of them that she had to try more than once (can't remember which, now). Saturday night, with Traci doing all her Facebook games beside me, I went for the Hyper and Master rank Cool ribbons, and got them with hardly any trouble -- again, more for her condition than her moves, but hey. And once again, the artist dude offered to paint her, and gave her the "you've been painted" ribbon, for a total of 13.
Back out in the Contest hall, I noticed a bunch of people standing around the Berry Blender tables. I had lucked out -- the Blending Master was in residence! No matter which Berry I put in, no matter how badly I did, I was getting Level 50-plus Pokeblocks (though the feel was also very high, around 43 mostly). Still! what luck! So I blended until my Pokeblock case was full, fed some to my team, and blended some more, then did that again. Who knows when he'll appear again?
Still no Mirage Island though. I have to wonder what I could have done with one of the really rare Berries -- Leichi, Starf, or Enigma. Ah well.
Unfortunately, I haven't had time to pick up the SP since, what with having to fall into bed at practically 8 PM to be able to hoist my ass up by 6:30 in the god-awful morning. Tonight I visit Mom and have to load EIM when I get home, then tomorrow I have to get my allergy shot, go to Dave's, then process the HT dimensions when I get home. And Julie's talking about working overtime to get caught up with our V7 testing. argh again.
So, dunno when I will get back to training Shiny (who might keep that name now that she's got her portrait up). I think I left her at lvl 20, and she did evolve to a Flaffy, but the first trainer along the Dewford water route proved to be at lvl 26 -- too high. So the plan is to get her up to lvl 30, evolve her to learn Thunder Punch, then hit the water and fight all the swimmers between Petalburg and Slateport. With the Macho Brace on, she should earn her Effort Ribbon by the time she approaches the level of the rest of the team. I will probably want to level them all some more before I try the E4 again, though. Probably to lvl 65 or, better yet, 70. I can't try the E4 too many more times, or their levels will increase...should ask Dave about that.
Also. I did go up to the peak of Mt Pyre awhile back, to see what was up with Kyogre and Groudon. Sure enough, Maxie and Archie were there, giving back their Orbs. Then they just walked away. One stopped and said "Rue..." then kept walking, and that was it. Sheesh. So I guess I should look into revisiting Mt. Chimney and the Seafloor Cavern, to see if the legendaries are waiting for me. I have no idea what triggers the quest for the Regis, but their caverns aren't open. I think I'll work with Shiny first, to get her levels up to where the underwater areas will be a good training ground.
(10/8/2009)
I got back from Mom's and finished the EIM load in time to get a little Poke-ing in. Plus, well, stayed up past 11. But I'd already taken my meds so that actually worked out better -- while playing I got most of the coughing out of the way. Slept straight through the night.
Shiny had progressed beyond where the levels of the wild Pokemon around Rustboro were doing her a whole bunch of good, so I made the rounds to collect some Berries (fighting a few rematches along the way) then headed for Slateport to train on Rt. 110. But then I saw the Trick Master's house and thought, eh, why not. Turns out this was the final puzzle. The trainers in the house were around lvl 45, so I used the opportunity to get Meadow and Jet up to lvl 62.
Then I headed west, forgetting that it was Rt. 117 next to Mauville that I was thinking of, and what should have appeared but the Altering Cave. The cave was thick with Zubat of about the right level, so I brought Shiny back out and set to training. When Shiny levelled, I noticed this had really helped her Speed, so I continued for another level. During this I attempted to feed her a couple Protiens I had sitting in my Bag, and it said they'd have no effect. That meant she was approaching her max EVs. When she'd gained another level (and 4 more Speed points) I ran over to Slateport. Sure enough, Shiny had earned her Effort Ribbon.
This brings her to lvl 26, which is probably enough to hit the water to Dewford. If I get any time tonight, I might try that....if her EVs are maxed, it's all about the Exp from here on in. Pity I don't have a Lucky Egg....
(10/10/2009)
eData is being a pain again.
Did I ever not have time to Poke on Thursday. Got back late from Dave's, then ran into critical failure trying to process PROJ. Ended up hauling IT out of bed at 1 AM and staying up 'till 7 AM getting CPA back online, plus handing the issue over to the rest of the team. Tried to sleep during the day but woke up every hour from dreaming about the whole mess.
When I finally was able to crawl out of bed Friday afternoon, Gabriel and Mandar had traced the problem to an HT entry that tried to assign a new child project to another child. So other than having to reprocess PROJ and re-load the data that got dumped all was well. Except now eData doesn't want to work.
Needless to say I didn't go to gaming -- stayed home and happened to catch the first couple episodes of Stargate Universe instead. It's actually pretty damn good. And between then and today, got some Poke-ing in.
Friday I mostly ran around finding places to level up Shiny to lvl 30. Today I took her down the water to Dewford, and from there over to Slateport. Fought all the trainers, including those in the above-water cabins of the Abandoned Ship. Then, just for giggles, I took the SS Tidal from Lilycove to Slateport. Ignored Scott blathering about the Battle Frontier and just went the rounds of the trainers.
In Slateport, someone said something about checking by the Weather Institute. I remembered something about that from the web, so I flew on up there and dropped in. The scientist said that they'd been picking up abnormal drought on Rt. 115, just north of Rustboro. I dutifully flew over to take a look. To my surprise, I stumbled on a new cave entrance, which proved to be Terra Cave. Inside was Groudon, in all its grouchy glory. I saved, just in case, and captured him with almost no trouble, especially given that Groudon was at lvl 70.
I decided that Shiny needed to be lots higher in level before trying for Kyogre. While looking in the Match Call list for rematches, I noticed that six of the eight Gyms had re-opened, and their leaders were ready for a rematch. Again to my surprise, the rematches were two-on-two. So not only did Shiny get a bunch of Exp, so did Tympany and Meadow.
After all that, I went looking in the wrong place for Kyogre, and ran around Shoal Cave for a bit instead. With Shiny at lvl 48, I went back to the Weather Institute and found out the right place to go, and went there. Had to backtrack to the Pokemon Center and grab Hugh, as it turned out Marine Cave was underwater.
I didn't get Kyogre on the first try; it took Shiny down with one hit before she could get in a Thunder Wave, then just as I'd finally gotten it down into the red it used Double-Edge. Fortunately I thought to save before the attempt, so I hope the next try will go better. Probably I should go in with Meadow and see if I can paralyze it with Thunder.
I also tried to nail Latios with Thunder Wave, but at the time he was too much higher in level than Shiny. I'd like to get him in an Ultra Ball if I can, and hang onto my Master Ball.
later: It took a few tries, but I nabbed Kyogre. Latios remains elusive...I am considering raising Alfred, the Golbat I caught in the Cave of Origin, to max out his Speed so that he can throw Mean Look at the darn thing. With any luck I can get him up to a Crobat while I'm at it.
After that I swung by the other couple Gyms that were ready for me, ran around the back of Meteor Falls and zapped a horde of Golbat, and chased down a lot more rematches. At the end of all that, Shiny was all the way up to lvl 60. Before going back to the E4 with her, though, I want her at least up to lvl 65, along with everyone else. Then maybe I can give them the solid trouncing I wanted.
Dinner is making suspicious noises, must go....
(10/12/2009)
I should know better than to start growing Berries on a Sunday. The Lum were only just taller this morning. Still, I replaced some of the berries I spent on the Blend Master. And he's due for another appearance tomorrow. I should look into what to feed Gossamer and Tympany. Pity Jet's sheen is maxed.
Other than growing a bushel of Berries, I also got Jubal all four ranks of Tough ribbons (though the artist dude did NOT offer to sketch him, as he didn't finish the appeals round in the lead). His moveset didn't turn out to be all that great for contests; I think it was only his condition plus the Scarf that got him the ribbons, really.
I also finally did the trading to bring in Sam's berries and items, along with the not-in-Emerald Pokemon (except, for some weird reason, I seem to have overlooked Lunatone). This time I timed it -- each trade, from talking to the lady at the counter to being out of the room, takes about 8 minutes, if one is paying attention. So alltogether it was about two hours. After all that was over and done with, I checked the Pokedex. Turns out I have only 35 more to go for the Hoenn 'Dex, not counting Latios and the Regis. Which isn't at all bad, after having gone through the full GIV National 'Dex.
Shiny is at lvl 61 and counting, though it's getting difficult to keep finding battles, especially since Wally doesn't seem to want to fight me. I need to look up both Wally, and the SS Tidal -- was battling the onboard trainers just a one-time deal, or can I milk them for Exp on every trip? And what days does Wally fight on?
(10/13/2009)
So last night I finally gave in, and went to take a look at the Battle Frontier.
It's huge and full of buildings and random people, but there's not much there that's really interesting if you're not into the whole battling thing. There was a Sudowoodo to catch, and the Artisan's Cave, where you can trip over a Smeargle every couple steps. They were good for training, too; Shiny's now even with the team, at lvl 63.
Despite being thoroughly unenthused, I gave a couple of the facilities the old college try. The first one, which I think was the Battle Palace, didn't let you command your own Pokemon. Instead, they'd choose moves according to their nature, from three categories: offensive, defensive, and "odd". Evidently my Pokemon don't have the right moves for their natures. I didn't make it too far.
The Battle Pyramid was actually kind of fun, for the first few floors. This involved exploring in the dark, while fighting the occasional wild Pokemon and up to eight trainers, and snagging items from the floor. But they take away your bag, so you don't have access to your own items, and you only get three Pokemon. And as you ascend the Pyramid, the wild encounters increase to the point where you can't take more than a few steps between encounters, and you can't run away anymore. I made it to the top, but it was frustratingly difficult. And you can't catch the wild Pokemon, because you don't have Pokeballs. Goodness knows I'm not gonna see an Electabuzz anywhere else.
On the plus side, this seemed to trigger a couple more events -- Lilycove's cleanout sale and the Energy Guru's sale are upcoming, in addition to the Game Corner service day and the Blend Master's appearance. And I did catch a Sudowoodo and a couple Smeargle.
What I really need, though, is an Exp farm to get the whole team up to lvl 65 so I can try the E4 again. At least Wally did want to battle last night -- maybe it's on the same day the E4 were last defeated?
(10/15/2009)
According to Bulbapedia, Wally can be fought "several times a day". No idea if that's every day, or whether it relates to the E4 at all. I think I beat them first on a Monday, and second on a Tuesday; and I got two or three battles out of Wally this Monday. Coincidence?
One thing that's becoming painfully clear is that it's going to be a lot of effort to raise those last 35 Pokemon without a good Exp source. Especially if I want to get them all the way up to lvl 50. The SS Tidal appears to have been a one-time deal, which is very disappointing. Rematches have been hard to come by, too. I may have to hit a few hitherto-unexplored areas, like the other bits of the sea current route, or the underwater level of the Abandoned Ship.
However, Shiny and Gossamer are even with Jubal at lvl 65, and everyone else is at lvl 64. I'll give the E4 one more try when the whole team is lvl 65. After that, I think I want to EV train Alfred for Speed -- KO a bunch of Zubat with the Macho Brace on, basically -- and raise him to a Crobat. Hopefully he doesn't have a contrary nature. If I jack up his speed enough I shouldn't have to get him much higher than lvl 45 or so for him to out-Speed the roaming legendaries.
Also -- I went and got Meadow a couple Cool ribbons, just for giggles. Her moveset was not at all geared towards Contests, so I dunno if I she can aspire to the Master Ribbon. I let the Blend Master pass, and missed the Lilycove sale; but I did go by the Energy Guru and net a whole bunch of half-price vitamins, mostly Carbos for Alfred.
(10/16/2009)
Wally didn't seem to be up for a battle yesterday, but I still managed to do some levelling. This was mostly accomplished by surfing repeatedly along the sea current route, trying to reach the Dive spot leading to the Sealed Chamber. The currents shunt you in different directions, so there's only one path that will get you there. Again, I have no concept how long things take, because I felt it necessary to translate all the Braille in the chamber using the chart in the FR/LG guide.
"First comes Wailord. Last comes Relicanth."
"In this cave we have lived. We owe all to the Pokemon. But, we sealed the Pokemon away. We feared it. Those with courage, those with hope. Open a door. An eternal Pokemon waits."
Of course, I'd forgotten to bring both Hugh and Sockeye, so I had to go back and get Sockeye, then surf back to the Chamber. Went up to the first inscription with my party in the right order, and ta daaah! three doors opened.
First I went to the Desert Ruins. Another inscription there read "Left, left. Down, Down. Then use Rock Smash." So I walked left twice and down twice and had Meadow use Rock Smash. The inner door opened, and Regirock was on the other side. It was a moderate pain to catch, and I had to reset once. Hugh's attacks were too strong, so I had Sockeye use Yawn and then whittle it down. I had the thought again that maybe I could nab the Regis in Premier Balls, but that wasn't working so I fell back on Ultra Balls. A handful of tosses later, and I had me a Regirock.
Next I went out to the Island Cave. The instructions there were to "Stay close to the wall. Run around one lap." This proved ineffective, or I wasn't doing it right, so I ditched and went to the next one.
That was the Ancient Tomb, which said, "Those who inherit our will, shine in the middle." I grumbled mightily and went to fetch Phosphor, came all the way back, then stood in the middle of the cave and had Phosphor use Flash. Behind door #3 was Registeel. And Registeel did NOT want to stay in any kind of ball. Even paralyzed or asleep, with its HP in the red, it just shrugged off the Ultra Balls like they were mere Poke Balls and as if it were fully healthy. I had to reset I think three times because I'd thrown all 21 of my Ultra Balls without catching it. Finally, the damn thing stayed in the 9th-to-last Ultra Ball. So I had my Registeel, but it was after midnight. >_<
Luckily I had done the contest thing right after getting home, rather than after all this running around for Regis. Meadow not only won the Master rank Cool ribbon, but actually came out ahead in the Appeals round and got herself a portrait into the bargain. I was kinda surprised, even though she did score the voltage bonus.
So the next item on the Pokegenda is to get in to catch Regice. According to Bulbapedia, the lap needs to be counterclockwise....doesn't say if you have to run it. I hope not, because I wasn't able to run and stay along the walls.
Then, as the whole team is now at lvl 65, I can give the E4 another try. Hopefully that'll go well, but even if it doesn't, the next project will be to raise me some Pokes for the 'Dex: Alfred first, so I can nab Latios; then Samson, Atomic, Fafnir, Cambian, and my brand-new Lileep, Permian.
For an insane moment a day or so ago, I was actually tempted to buy another Emerald cartridge, simply to be able to raise different team Pokemon. O: Hopefully that moment has permanently passed, even if I don't know how else I'll get enough Exp without fighting a million wild Pokemon.
WHOO ARCEUS AT TRU NOV 7-15! And it's downloadable to both D/P and Platinum, so I can get two!
(10/19/2009)
The moment of insanity hasn't passed. I am still tempted to buy a second Emerald cartridge -- not just to raise another, different team, but to catch my own Latias instead of just scrounging Terrell's, without having to restart.
Gaming was cancelled Friday, so I was able to go back and catch Regice. It took damage a lot more easily than the other two, so much so that I KO'd it on my first couple tries and had to reset, but it didn't take more than a couple Ultra Balls to get it.
Then I set out to EV-train Alfred. First I maxed out his Speed EVs via a couple Carbos and defeating 150 Zubat in Altering Cave with the Macho Brace on. But I didn't think things through before feeding him two of all the other vitamins; I divided the rest of his available EVs between Defense (Silcoon and Cascoon weren't easy to find, but gave 4 pts each with the Brace) and Sp.Defense (much easier because almost everything on Rt. 114 raises Sp. Def.) A quick trip to the Effort Ribbon lady verified that he was as EV'ed as he was gonna get, so then it was off to level him a bit. Fortunately the Pokemon breeders on Rt. 117 were in a mood to battle a few times each, so I got him up to lvl 50 without too much trouble.
I also got Wally to battle again, so Jubal is at lvl 67, and the rest of the team at lvl 66. The annoying thing, though, is that when calling trainers up for matches, they keep throwing my "2-win streak!" at the Battle Palace in my face. >_< It's almost enough to make me go back and try again...but only almost.
Regardless, with Alfred trained and levelled to learn Mean Look, it was time to go a-hunting me a Latios. In no time at all, I had it paralyzed and down to a sliver of HP -- but the darn thing was even more reluctant to stay in a ball than Registeel had been. Worse, it kept using Refresh, and getting rid of the paralysis -- that's a bitch of a move to put on a roaming legendary. As if that weren't enough, its psychic attacks were super-effective against poor Alfred. I ended up resetting several times, not only to conserve Ultra Balls but so that Alfred wouldn't end up hating me.
Finally, persistence paid off: Latios didn't KO Alfred, and stayed in an Ultra Ball (which means I get to keep my Master Ball). I named him Cloud (Latias would be Skye), cheered, and turned my attention to Fafnir.
Fafnir gained his first level on Whismurs, who add HP; then I trained him some in Granite Cave, hoping to catch a Nosepass, but no dice. This would mostly raise Defense, with some Attack from the many Makuhita. From there I moved to Rt. 114 to get him some Sp. Def, but he seemed to have some trouble there. And of course I hadn't had the foresight to check IVs before I started, so I've no idea if he just has poor IVs. Too late now! The nice lady didn't give him an Effort Ribbon yet, though, so I should most likely check to see what'd give Sp. Attack -- probably Shuppet -- and go do a couple levels of those. Once he's got his EVs, I can swap the Macho Brace for an Everstone (he's already trying to evolve at every level) and just powerlevel like crazy.
From there I should really move on to the other starters or the fossils, but I have an urge to breed a Whismur. Extrasensory would be too hard to get, since I'd have to level a Nuzleaf really really high, but Snore might be doable. A moveset of Uproar, Hyper Voice, Rest, and Snore would be amusing...the noise attacks to do damage, Rest to regain HP, and Snore to do damage in the meantime. Or Supersonic, instead of Uproar.
Gotta pick up prescriptions tonight; hopefully my prednisone is ready, and the antibiotic will do some good for my skin, at least, if not my lungs. Luckily I already have food in the house, so no need to shop (though I probably should).
In retrospect: Emerald for real - to the Elite Four
(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.)
(9/1/2009)
Having fixed William's template issue (which actually turned out to be a data issue) I'm pondering Pokes. I won't get to play tonight, since Julie's coming over for sushi and videogames, but I'm still mulling over the problem of that extra slot on the team.
I really need something that's good against Water, preferably that can learn an electric attack like Shock Wave or Thunderbolt. And now, there's a thought....I'll be needing something to learn Dive and Waterfall, and Bulbapedia says that Chinchou are common in the underwater seaweed. That way I wouldn't have to switch out that last slot when I went underwater. Only problem there is, I'd have to have something with Dive before I could even catch a Chinchou. All right then, maybe not.
Just...dunno. The other Hoenn Pokemon that appeal to me are all either overused (like Salamence), legendaries (I was thinking of replacing Gossamer with Rayquaza if I catch it before the E4), or are weaker/novelty Pokemon: Spoink, Spinda, Kecleon, Castform...things like that. NPLU kinds of Pokemon.
Garrrrgh. Can't decide.
Another idea I was musing upon: I'd hauled that Nincada out of the boxes to dump Flash on. Turns out they can learn Secret Power as well. So maybe I should give it a name, level it up a bit so it learns False Swipe, let it keep Flash, and teach it Secret Power. Then I could take it out when I needed it, without having to spend slots in my team's movesets for Flash or Secret Power. Then I could give Thunderbolt to Meadow (but again, spending TMs on a female might not be a good idea).
Maybe I should just keep that last place on the team free, for rotating out special-use Pokemon. Anyway. Off for sushi and gaming!
(9/3/2009)
Allright, so I did look at Rt. 119 online before I went for it.
Wasted a ton of time going through the tall grass looking for Kecleons. The whole team is now lvl 35 or above. Somewhat ominously, both Jet and Alba had a bit of difficulty against the wild Pokes there, which were mostly Oddish, Zigzagoon, and Linoone at lvl 24-27, with the occasional Tropius.
I did find a Kecleon eventually, which I caught in a Premier Ball and named George with the thought of training it; but after all that, it turned out there were opportunities to catch about three or four (I forget) Kecleon that were invisibly blocking the path in places. I just had to go through Fortree to Rt. 120 and run into Steven, who gave me a Devon Scope. So now I've got Martha (to go with George), another unnamed female, and Argyle (also in a Premier Ball).
Before Fortree, I took care of Team Aqua at the Weather Institute, and got my Castform. Luckily I thought to heal and save before heading back out, because I was soon surprised by Brendan, who nearly ran me over with his bike before demanding to see how I was raising my Pokemon. He only had a team of three, so it wasn't too tough a battle. And it paid off -- after giving me props for having gotten "decent" at this whole Pokemon thing, Brendan handed me HM 02 Fly before pedaling off. After collecting a few more items from the area, I taught Fly to Gossamer, then went back to the Institute and put Alba away. As an afterthought, I threw Argyle into the party.
The Fortree Gym wasn't all that difficult. I went through it with Tympany in the lead and won my sixth badge without too much trouble. That also means I can now use Fly outside of battle. Because of the time I'd spent looking for the dang Kecleon, though, it was too late to get any farther. I saved with 6 badges, 62 Pokemon owned, and 30 hours on the game.
I haven't actually trained Argyle or George at all, so I might check their IVs before I do. Alba is officially retired from the core team, now that Gossamer has Fly. And Dragonbreath is kickass, so Gossamer is definitely strong enough now. That leaves me that extra slot on the team.
It turns out that of my five final team members so far, only Meadow can learn Thunderbolt. Given that I'm now planning to have the Nincada learn Secret Power, Meadow has a slot open in her moveset (currently taken by Covet, which is apparently a normal-type equivalent to Thief). Bulbapedia says the Lilycove Dept Store has Thunder -- I could teach her that instead so I'm not spending a TM I can't replace on a female. The alternative would be to teach Jet Shock Wave, though the TM/female problem applies there too.
When I reach Lilycove, it'll also be time to bring in the Berries from Sam and JD, so I can get with the making of Pokeblocks. In fact I should see about trading in all their items. I should only need six Pokemon for this, since I can rotate through the groups and just remove items then trade them back for the next set. That would also advance the heck out of my Pokedex.
Though, maybe that's a bit unfair, since JD raised all those poor Pokemon through powerlevelling. So maybe I take the Berries off the Whismur first, then put the other items on them? But Sapphire is so cumbersome with moving items. Eh. Maybe I just take the Berries now, then, and put off the rest.
Whichever, the next goal is to get to Lilycove. There's no Gym there, so no badge. However, there's the Contest Hall, which opens up that whole thing, and I think Team Aqua's base, so I can expect some story advancement. There's also a berry person, and the Move Deleter. It also looks like I can catch Wailmer here, even with just the Good Rod, so I should probably try for one since I will need a Wailord later to get to the Regis. All of that should be enough to occupy an evening....
(9/4/2009)
More than an evening, as it turns out. Granted that I started late, but still.
Route 120 out of Fortree was hella long. I'd had no idea there was that much on it...tall grass, trainers, berries, items, even a couple more of those invisible Kecleon. By the time I got to Rt. 121 towards Lilycove, most of my team were nearly out of attacks. And I'd forgotten that both Mt. Pyre and the Safari Zone were on Rt. 121.
By the time I got that far it was nearing midnight, so I just booked it for Lilycove, avoiding trainers as much as possible, and even leaving items lie.
In Lilycove, my neighbor was waiting for me in front of the Dept. Store, where I needed to go get that Thunder TM for Meadow. I had her in the lead, and she took down his team of four, including his starter. Upon his defeat, Brendan said he was going back to Littleroot to help out his dad with the Pokedex. Which, as I know from Bulbapedia, means Wally ought to be showing up soon with that Ralts of his to take over the rival role.
I did get to try berry blending, and I suck at it. It's all about timed button pressing, with each spin getting faster. The first two spins are easy but after that it swiftly becomes nigh-impossible to hit the marker. Still, I got a couple Pokeblocks that were about as good as a Dept. Store Poffin in Pt.
So, tomorrow I should have lots of time, if I can drag me outta bed at some kind of semi-decent hour. And there's tons I want to do:
--Go back to the start of Rt. 121 and go through it properly.
--Team Aqua's up to something in Mt. Pyre. And hey, I was going there for Shuppet and Duskull anyway (should make sure they're both in Emerald).
--Take a hike or two through the Safari Zone.
--Try out a Contest, and practice Berry Blending.
--Catch a Wailmer.
--Team Aqua's base is in Lilycove, and I'm sure I'm supposed to do something about that.
--Bring in Berries from the other games.
--All five of the core team are now lvl 38. I'd like to get them to lvl 40 before leaving Lilycove.
Also. While roaming the grasses of Rt. 120, I caught an Absol. Took an Ultra Ball to catch it, too; it wouldn't stay in anything less. I should look them up again; maybe that's my other slot?
(9/8/2009)
Whew. I need a day off to recover from my days off. At least there shouldn't be much more than one more trip to the house...
Gaming was canceled Friday night, so I had a good chunk of time. After clearing Rt. 121 properly, I caught my Wailmer (named Hugh) and headed down for Mt. Pyre. I fought my way up through the trainers, caught a Shuppet, grabbed the items on the way back down, then climbed the slope outside. Turns out Team Aqua wanted the Red Orb; Team Magma had already taken the Blue Orb. The old couple at the top told me the legend and worried about what would happen with the Orbs separated. I took a minute to catch a Duskull and went back down.
The Safari Zone was unexpectedly difficult. There's a Pokeblock feeder near the entrance, and apparently you need to fill it before you'll see the rarer Pokemon. Also, there's portions you need specific Bikes to get to, meaning you can't get to all sections in a single trip, which is a real pain. Still, I caught what I could in two hikes, which wasn't much. Probably I should look up the finer points before going back.
Back at Lilycove, I gave Berry Blending another try. I'm getting better at the four-person blender. Looking over the party, Jet seemed the most contest-ready with all her Smart moves, so I blended up a bunch of purple Pokeblocks with Pomeg berries and got her a couple ribbons. They evidently simplified contests a lot between GIII and GIV, because whoah this was complicated. The first appeal still depends entirely on condition, and therefore on Pokeblocks. But the move appeals are much harder. There's five rounds of appeals, and you not only have to worry about getting hearts and the audience excitement, but about your opponents jamming you. So you can set up a great appeal, and then have it ruined by the Pokemon who come after you. The GIV version is much simpler and more fun. I can see why Traci was so proud when her beloved fire-chicken won the Master rank -- just the Normal rank was hard as hell.
Tired of that, I went to check out the Team Aqua base. There were two grunts blocking the way in and talking about what Team Magma could be up to at Mt. Chimney. That was enough for one night, so I left it there for the rest of the weekend. Instead, I grew me bunches of berries at the Berry Master's plot. It seems that even left unwatered, the more common plants at least will produce two berries, so I could theoretically double my berries just by planting in the morning and harvesting in the evening. I'm sure the higher-order berries won't produce more than one unless watered, though.
I didn't get around to bringing in the berries from the previous Emerald games. Instead, I spent some time in Sapphire catching the things that don't appear in Emerald. It took longer than I'd thought it would. Surskit in particular was a bitch to find, and I had to go to Victory Road to find Meditite and Medicham. While there, I made the mistake of talking to Wally and was immediately dumped into a rival battle I had not been prepared for. Three of the Pokemon I had with me were lvl 30-ish, and all of his were in the upper 50's. Yikes. It took some Hyper Potions, but I pulled it out and managed the win.
Despite being tired as hell last night after going down to the house, trying to rewire Kaye and Joni's AV system, and having Julie and Heather over for a bit of FFXII, I flew up to Lavaridge and bounced up Jagged Pass to Team Magma's hideout. There were many grunts but most only had one Pokemon. And by now my team was all lvl 40, versus the Magma grunts at lvl 29, so that wasn't too hard. I did have to spend some Max Repels on the annoying number of wild Pokemon inside the hideout, though. After getting a bit lost, I finally cleared all the grunts and found my way to Maxie just as he (I think he's a he) awakened Groudon with the Blue Orb. Maxie was quite perplexed when Groudon promptly ran away. I swear, these people always think the legendaries are just going to do whatever they want. So he blamed it on me, and the battle was on.
I was glad I was levelled as high as I was, because his team was all mid-to-high 30's. Still, it wasn't too difficult, except for the darn Crobat. With Maxie defeated, Team Magma abandoned their base, and that was that.
I assumed that the next order of business would be a similar scenario at Team Aqua's base. But to my surprise, the grunts were still blocking the way. They blabbed about Archie stealing Capt. Stern's new sub from Slateport, so down to Slateport I went. Sure enough, Archie showed up and stole the sub. I took a minute to run by the market and show my team to the Effort Ribbon lady. Turns out that both Jet and Tympany -- who both trained with the Macho Brace a lot -- had reached their max EVs. The rest of the team still needs to "go for it a little harder". At that point I called it a night.
Not sure what's next. Team Aqua's base, maybe? Or the underwater canyon? Though, for that I need Dive. I've been training Hugh via Exp. Share, so hopefully he'll be caught up to the team before I reach that point. One thing's sure, between the no-doubt upcoming confrontation with Team Aqua, and the concentration of water routes in the last part of the game, and also that last Water gym, I really need to deal with my team's ineffectiveness against Water types, and soon.
(9/10/2009)
7 badges, 72(?) caught, 40-some hours. Started the evening's efforts in the Acro Bike area of the Safari Zone, but didn't catch much (just Phanpy and Heracross).
Turned out that witnessing the sub being stolen unlocked the Team Aqua hideout. Except for figuring out if the warp panels had made me miss anything, it was dead easy. Archie was already aboard the sub though, and it went off right after I fought the admin, so no leader battle. However, there -was- a Master Ball, just lying around on the floor in an inner office. Whoo! I'm saving it for Latios. Roaming Pokemon are too much darn trouble otherwise. Though that probably means I should buy as many Ultra Balls as I can for Rayquaza...
With the hideout cleared, the Wailmer who'd been blocking the sea route disappeared. So I Surfed on out there, ran from a bunch of Tentacool I didn't feel like dealing with, fought the swimming trainers, and got to Mossdeep.
The town was all abuzz about the ominous letter to the Space Center from Team Magma informing all and sundry that they were going to come steal the center's rocket fuel. However, Steven didn't seem pressed, and asked me if I'd looked around town. This meant, of course, that I was supposed to take down the Gym first.
Since Tympany was the only one of the team who wasn't yet lvl 41, I went through most of the Gym with it in the lead, reserving Gossamer and Jet for the twin Gym leaders. Tympany wasn't as effective as I'd have liked against the Psychic trainers, but we made it through anyway, and it did level up. However, the Gym leader battle was unexpectedly difficult. Their team was at or beyond my levels, and I had to use Revives and Potions to get the win, even using Jet and Gossamer who both have Dark attacks. This got me the Mind Badge -- my seventh -- and the ability to use Dive outside battle.
On the way back to the Space Center, I ran into a cluster of Magmas, so I knew it was time to take them on. Sure enough, they were all over the Space Center. The Grunts went down easily, and then it was time for the double battle: me and Steven vs. Maxie and Tabitha. I'd never done a true double battle before -- it made me choose which three Pokemon I was going to use. No idea what would have happened if all three went down, since Jubal and Steven's Metang made short work of the two Magmas. Maxie began to question the team's purpose before the Team ran off. I expect that since they've already let Groudon loose, it's the last I'll see of them.
That was pretty much it for Mossdeep, so I straightened out my items, taught Hugh Dive (he's catching up, at lvl 37), and saved there. I should likely spend some time Diving on that previous route to catch what I can before I head south towards Sootopolis. Also, I got the Super Rod in Mossdeep, so I can now fish properly.
The difficulty at the Mossdeep Gym worries me, though. Here I am with my seventh badge, almost to the E4, and yet my team's only lvl 42? It would appear that I need to do some serious, serious training. They need to be lvl 50 at least before I can even aspire to beating the E4, maybe higher. It does look like there's a good chunk of the game between here and the E4, however, so maybe that'll be okay.
There's also the ineffectiveness against water-types thing. I still haven't taught Meadow Thunder. It occurs to me that if I wanted to train an electric type against the upcoming water gym, a Magnemite might be a good choice. I'm sick of Pikachus, Electrike/Manectric are ridiculous, and this game doesn't have Shinxes. And when I was going through New Mauville, I remember avoiding them because the Electric/Steel combo made them such a pain. Granted that you can catch 'em in FR/LG, and I think in New Mauville, but I've never raised one. And I never did do the water routes to Dewford, which'd give me the opportunity to train it up. Hmmm. Looking them up on Bulbapedia, they are weak to Fighting, Fire, and Ground, but resistant or immune to damn near everything else.
(9/11/2009)
Didn't end up doing much last night except levelling Meadow up to lvl 42, and diving around Rt. 124. I did catch a couple Clampearl, a couple Chinchou, and a Relicanth, though, which brings me up to 85 Pokemon caught. I'll need the Relicanth for getting into the Regis, and I'm thinking of raising Chinchou along the Dewford Surf routes. Its Electric attacks should get it through there with ease, and will make it a better Dive/Waterfall slave than Hugh. If I have the patience to level it enough, it should help me sweep the last Gym.
About that extra slot, though? Who am I kidding, I'm totally saving it for Rayquaza -- so that solves that problem. Provided, of course, that I can catch the darn thing. I'd like to get it in a Premier Ball, which is darn unlikely.
The next game goal is to get to Sootopolis and get the last badge. The Sootopolis Gym is all around lvl 40, except for Juan's Pokemon. According to Bulbapedia, two of his team are at lvl 43, and his Kingdra is at lvl 46. This means I better darn well have at least one decently levelled Poke on hand with an electric attack, or that I better level up the whole team to around lvl 45. Possibly both. If I did that, Jubal would be just one level away from learning Earthquake, and Gossamer would evolve to Flygon. That'd get most of the team to final evolutions and movesets. Plus, the TM Brick Break is available in Sootopolis, which I was considering as an option for Jubal (especially given that all the good Move Tutor moves are only purchasable at the Battle Frontier, after the E4).
Instead of going for the badge right away, then, I'll probably spend some time diving around, while levelling the team and training that Chinchou (whose name is Phosphor). Since Hugh's at lvl 40, I can put him away and teach Dive to Phospor. But I should most likely try and get to Sootopolis, at least, so that I can Fly there when I'm ready (unless I get impatient and try for the badge anyway!)
Also, unless I spend a bunch of Pokeyen on Max Repels, I'm probably going to want to have Bulbapedia's route maps up while I'm diving about. Otherwise there's too many damn Tentacool in the water. >_<
I've also got an urge to get every one of the core team at least one contest Ribbon. Hopefully I can do that without having to make Pokeblocks.
Not, of course, that I'm going to get any play time until tomorrow night at the soonest.
(9/14/2009)
Progress! 8 badges, 91 caught, just short of 52 hours.
While diving around the routes near Mossdeep, I discovered the Seafloor Cavern. So instead of just trying to get to Sootopolis, I decided to run on in there and see what Team Aqua was up to. The cavern doubled back on itself so much that I got a little lost, but eventually I found my way to the bottom. And of course, what Archie and his grunts were up to was awakening Kyogre. Like Groudon, Kyogre paid Archie back by running off.
That set off the whole "battle of the super-ancient Pokemon" chunk of the story, so I'll never know whether the Sootopolis Gym would have been accessible beforehand (unless I am insane enough to replay this someday). After much battling of swimmers and snagging of items from the seafloor, I navigated the underwater path to Sootopolis. Kyogre and Groudon were going at it right in the middle of the caldera lake, with all the town's inhabitants anxiously looking on.
This was apparently major bad juju, causing torrential rains in some parts of the surrounding routes and abnormally strong sunlight in other parts. Maxie and Archie were blocking the way to the Gym, brandishing their useless Orbs, begging the ancient Pokemon to stop their battle. Interestingly, there was one kid who said he got the feeling that Kyogre and Groudon weren't angry, so much as that their power was too strong for them to control.
Obviously the crisis had to be averted before I could get to the Gym. Steven was on the scene, and took me back to the Cave of Origin to meet Wallace, who knew that Rayquaza was needed but not where it might be found. The game allowed me to suggest the Cave of Origin itself ("don't be silly! that's right here!"), Mt. Pyre, and Sky Pillar (along with a "don't remember" option). Wallace discarded every suggestion but Sky Pillar, and then ran off. I knew that the Cave would be sealed off once I'd brought Rayquaza back, so I took the time to run around until a Golbat appeared (though I should have caught a female too, if I'd had patience for it).
Of course, no one knew where Sky Pillar was. I had a vague recollection that it was along the sea routes near Pacifidlog, so off I went, once again battling swimmers along the way. Sure enough, a resident of Pacifidlog mentioned a tower out to sea a little ways, and there it was. Wallace apologized for running off without me, and let me have the distinction of going up and poking Rayquaza.
I thought that meant that I'd have to catch it, so I went and bought Ultra Balls and did the buy 10-sell 10 thing to get a TON of Premier Balls. Then I ran up Sky Pillar without stopping to level up or catch anything else, wanting to be fresh for the fight with Rayquaza. Somewhat anticlimactically, it flew off as soon as I approached it. D'oh! So I headed back to Sootopolis to watch the throw-down. Rayquaza more or less flew up and screeched at the other two, and they sank away and disappeared. It was like it was their mom -- "you two stop that RIGHT NOW or you are gonna be in SO much trouble when Arceus wakes up!" Heh.
With that, the weather cleared up, and all was well. Maxie and Archie ran off, lamenting the futility of their foolish plans, and Wallace invited me to take on his mentor Juan in the Gym. I also got HM07 Waterfall, which I'd need the badge to use.
I didn't think I was levelled enough for this, but I whipped out that Thunder TM, taught it to Meadow, and gave it the old college try. And what do you know, between Tympany, Meadow, and Jet, I managed it. Juan wasn't as easy as I'd have liked, but I got my last badge.
That left me with two immediate goals: Catch Rayquaza, and go for the E4. In that order.
Problem being, Rayquaza is lvl 70. So I ran down to New Mauville, figuring that'd be a good place to train Jubal, and I could catch a Magneton while I was at it. Only, random number generator still hates me. I think I spent three hours running around there, got everyone up to lvl 46-48. Jubal even learned Earthquake and I let him evolve. And I caught an Electrode, which has the same appearance rate. But NO Magneton. ARGH. It's like when I spent all that time trying to get a Volbeat, except Martin pointed out that I could have raised a Magneton by then, probably to lvl 50.
So I got Gossamer (who is now a Flygon) up one more level, and vacated the premises. Flew over to Slateport long enough to confirm that yes, everyone has all the EVs they're going to get. Effort Ribbons all around, ta dah and yay. Then I flew over to Pacifidlog and saved.
I'm debating what to do about catching Rayquaza. On the one hand, I'm tempted to bring in something high-leveled from Sapphire, and go for an easy catch. But that smacks of cheating, and I kinda want to see if I can do it without the "help". So the other plan is to spend some time in Sky Pillar, catching what I can and training the team. Maybe get 'em all up to lvl 50 and pray it'll be enough. If I do manage to nab Rayquaza, then it'll be time to head off for Victory Road. If I fail the first attempt.....maybe I just switch off without saving, then go look up all those trainers that are ready for a rematch. [totally did NOT realize how hard it'd be just getting UP the Sky Pillar, here.]
One thing's sure, I shouldn't stay up so darn late trying, this time. >_< I feel like crap today.
(9/24/2009)
Badges: 8 -- Caught: 101 -- Hall of Fame debut: 65:18 hours. TAA DAAAAH.
I wasn't kidding about feeling like crap; I've been sick since that Monday, including during our beach trip. Went into work anyway, infected two co-workers, ran around at night, and didn't stop until we left for OC Saturday morning. So, no Poke time until beach.
Sky Pillar had apparently acquired a lot more cracks in the floor since I went up to poke Rayquaza the first time, and it took a good couple aggravating hours just to get back up to the top. Still, only Tympany was lvl 50 by the time I reached Rayquaza. Since I had clawed my way up there, though, I decided to try for it anyway.
As expected, it was monstrously powerful. Tympany was the only thing that could stand up to multiple attacks and get its HP down...whereupon it would use Rest. ARGH. I had to turn off the game after fainting it probably about ten times, but finally Meadow actually managed to paralyze it with Thunder, and it stayed paralyzed while Tympany got it down into the red. The stars aligned and an Ultra Ball nabbed it (as difficult as the whole thing was, I'd given up on getting it in a Premier Ball). I cheered, named it Coriolis, and headed gratefully back to Pacifidlog to heal.
Since I wanted the whole team to be lvl 50 before hitting Victory Road, I surfed right back out to Sky Pillar and headed for the fifth floor, cursing the cracked floors mightily. Sky Pillar is a great training ground, with all the wild Pokes at mid-to-high 30's. I managed to get everyone up to lvl 50 and accomplish my secondary goal of catching a female Altaria to go with the males I had already caught.
With that accomplished, I surfed on over to Evergrande, and taught my Relicanth Sockeye (who I'd been levelling via Exp Share to match Hugh) Waterfall. I hadn't gotten too far into Victory Road before I was challenged by Wally, which I hadn't seen coming. Fortunately his team was only in the 40's, so I was able to one-shot most of them via type advantage. With him out of the way, I discovered I needed Flash, so I swapped Sockeye for Phosphor, my little Chinchou. I knew I'd need Waterfall inside Victory Road, so I taught him both that and Flash, and then forayed into the caves again.
Trucking through Victory Road got everyone up to lvl 53 -- still not high enough. So after saving at the Pokemon League center, I spent some time doing some serious levelling, mostly by looking up the trainers who were ready for another battle.
That's when I got the sudden urge to look for Feebas. In Emerald, Feebas appears in only six of the water tiles on Route 119. This is a very long route, and its water area is extensive, so that's quite a chunk of time. I began at the top and worked my way down, fighting any Carvanha over lvl 30. This raised at least a couple of the team up to lvl 55 by the time I finally found one of the six magical random tiles. I caught about seven Feebas (in Premier or Dive Balls, and all with nicknames). I plan to raise at least one to a Milotic and enter it in contests with the Dive-Surf combo.
Following that, I looked up some more trainers to fight. This took me to the neighborhood of the Desert, and it occurred to me that Sky Pillar had given me valuable practice in getting over cracked floors. Sure enough, I made it past the second floor of Mirage Tower within a handful of tries. To my relief, there weren't any more cracked floors, just the fossils. I selected the Claw Fossil and watched the Tower collapse before flying off to Rustboro to revive my new Fossil into an Anorith.
By that point, Jet was the only one of the team not yet at lvl 55, so I fixed that with a couple sorties into Victory Road, then pulled out Rayquaza and saved. Deep breath: it was time for the Elite Four.
Sidney and his Dark types went down without too much trouble, and Phoebe's Ghosts went down fairly easily given how many of my team had Dark attacks. Glacia's Ice team was a bit tougher, and Drake's Dragons were a bit of a pain. Still, I only had to pull out Coriolis once, for Drake's Salamence -- I'd wanted to try and make it through on the merits of my own trained team as much as I could.
Wallace, though, was quite a challenge. Not on the order of Cynthia, but still bad enough. I managed to get down all but his last Pokemon -- a lvl 58 Milotic -- but my team was low on both attacks and HP (and I was getting low on potions), so in the end everyone had gone down except Coriolis. And of course that's when the damned Milotic started throwing Ice Beam at me, for 4x effectiveness. >_< Luckily I had more Full Restores than it had Ice Beam PPs, and a single Outrage took it down on a critical hit. I didn't even need the Persim Berries I'd been growing (along with more Leppa).
Not quite as well as I'd wanted to do -- I hadn't wanted to have to use Coriolis, much less win by dint of potions -- but still. I'd done it. More hours on the game than usual, but I blame that on all the looking for impossible Pokemon like Volbeat and Magneton, and the fishing for Feebas, and insisting on that female Altaria.
So after Wallace entered my team in the Hall of Fame, I watched the credits, and then opened my post-game back home in Littleroot. Watched a news bulletin with Mom about a strange Pokemon flying over Hoenn (they said blue, Mom!), got the SS Ticket, and more importantly, the National Pokedex upgrade. Which means I can now trade with LG.
The SS Ticket, of course, is my invite to the Battle Frontier, which I've never really cared about. Scott sounded positively ecstatic about it though. I'm not really sure what else I want to do with my post-game. There's all the legendaries to catch, Kyogre and Groudon and Latios and the Regis, which would give me an almost-full set of Hoenn legendaries that I'd actually caught myself. And I kinda want to take a stab at contests; get everybody a ribbon or two, and evolve that Milotic.
Oooh, plus there's those new areas in the Safari Zone. I could catch a Mareep and raise me an Ampharos.
Another thing I should look into is finally bringing over all those items and berries from the previous games. That's a lot of trading, i.e. a lot of time. Plus JD's Pokemon would sort of unfairly bulk up my Pokedex. Maybe I should just strip the items/berries off of Sam's Pokes, bring over the ones I want to keep/raise, and Pal Park the rest to Pearl for transfer to the Ranch. I also feel that I'd be within my rights to trade with LG for credit for everything I've caught there. Maybe clean out the Entei cartridge of everything I don't actually need to catch Entei? ...of course, that means I'm back to catching Entei. Argh.
Something else not to forget: Oak's Letter will be available via WiFi starting Monday 9/28. I should nab that and then go get my Shaymin, since I think it's only at lvl 30.
(9/1/2009)
Having fixed William's template issue (which actually turned out to be a data issue) I'm pondering Pokes. I won't get to play tonight, since Julie's coming over for sushi and videogames, but I'm still mulling over the problem of that extra slot on the team.
I really need something that's good against Water, preferably that can learn an electric attack like Shock Wave or Thunderbolt. And now, there's a thought....I'll be needing something to learn Dive and Waterfall, and Bulbapedia says that Chinchou are common in the underwater seaweed. That way I wouldn't have to switch out that last slot when I went underwater. Only problem there is, I'd have to have something with Dive before I could even catch a Chinchou. All right then, maybe not.
Just...dunno. The other Hoenn Pokemon that appeal to me are all either overused (like Salamence), legendaries (I was thinking of replacing Gossamer with Rayquaza if I catch it before the E4), or are weaker/novelty Pokemon: Spoink, Spinda, Kecleon, Castform...things like that. NPLU kinds of Pokemon.
Garrrrgh. Can't decide.
Another idea I was musing upon: I'd hauled that Nincada out of the boxes to dump Flash on. Turns out they can learn Secret Power as well. So maybe I should give it a name, level it up a bit so it learns False Swipe, let it keep Flash, and teach it Secret Power. Then I could take it out when I needed it, without having to spend slots in my team's movesets for Flash or Secret Power. Then I could give Thunderbolt to Meadow (but again, spending TMs on a female might not be a good idea).
Maybe I should just keep that last place on the team free, for rotating out special-use Pokemon. Anyway. Off for sushi and gaming!
(9/3/2009)
Allright, so I did look at Rt. 119 online before I went for it.
Wasted a ton of time going through the tall grass looking for Kecleons. The whole team is now lvl 35 or above. Somewhat ominously, both Jet and Alba had a bit of difficulty against the wild Pokes there, which were mostly Oddish, Zigzagoon, and Linoone at lvl 24-27, with the occasional Tropius.
I did find a Kecleon eventually, which I caught in a Premier Ball and named George with the thought of training it; but after all that, it turned out there were opportunities to catch about three or four (I forget) Kecleon that were invisibly blocking the path in places. I just had to go through Fortree to Rt. 120 and run into Steven, who gave me a Devon Scope. So now I've got Martha (to go with George), another unnamed female, and Argyle (also in a Premier Ball).
Before Fortree, I took care of Team Aqua at the Weather Institute, and got my Castform. Luckily I thought to heal and save before heading back out, because I was soon surprised by Brendan, who nearly ran me over with his bike before demanding to see how I was raising my Pokemon. He only had a team of three, so it wasn't too tough a battle. And it paid off -- after giving me props for having gotten "decent" at this whole Pokemon thing, Brendan handed me HM 02 Fly before pedaling off. After collecting a few more items from the area, I taught Fly to Gossamer, then went back to the Institute and put Alba away. As an afterthought, I threw Argyle into the party.
The Fortree Gym wasn't all that difficult. I went through it with Tympany in the lead and won my sixth badge without too much trouble. That also means I can now use Fly outside of battle. Because of the time I'd spent looking for the dang Kecleon, though, it was too late to get any farther. I saved with 6 badges, 62 Pokemon owned, and 30 hours on the game.
I haven't actually trained Argyle or George at all, so I might check their IVs before I do. Alba is officially retired from the core team, now that Gossamer has Fly. And Dragonbreath is kickass, so Gossamer is definitely strong enough now. That leaves me that extra slot on the team.
It turns out that of my five final team members so far, only Meadow can learn Thunderbolt. Given that I'm now planning to have the Nincada learn Secret Power, Meadow has a slot open in her moveset (currently taken by Covet, which is apparently a normal-type equivalent to Thief). Bulbapedia says the Lilycove Dept Store has Thunder -- I could teach her that instead so I'm not spending a TM I can't replace on a female. The alternative would be to teach Jet Shock Wave, though the TM/female problem applies there too.
When I reach Lilycove, it'll also be time to bring in the Berries from Sam and JD, so I can get with the making of Pokeblocks. In fact I should see about trading in all their items. I should only need six Pokemon for this, since I can rotate through the groups and just remove items then trade them back for the next set. That would also advance the heck out of my Pokedex.
Though, maybe that's a bit unfair, since JD raised all those poor Pokemon through powerlevelling. So maybe I take the Berries off the Whismur first, then put the other items on them? But Sapphire is so cumbersome with moving items. Eh. Maybe I just take the Berries now, then, and put off the rest.
Whichever, the next goal is to get to Lilycove. There's no Gym there, so no badge. However, there's the Contest Hall, which opens up that whole thing, and I think Team Aqua's base, so I can expect some story advancement. There's also a berry person, and the Move Deleter. It also looks like I can catch Wailmer here, even with just the Good Rod, so I should probably try for one since I will need a Wailord later to get to the Regis. All of that should be enough to occupy an evening....
(9/4/2009)
More than an evening, as it turns out. Granted that I started late, but still.
Route 120 out of Fortree was hella long. I'd had no idea there was that much on it...tall grass, trainers, berries, items, even a couple more of those invisible Kecleon. By the time I got to Rt. 121 towards Lilycove, most of my team were nearly out of attacks. And I'd forgotten that both Mt. Pyre and the Safari Zone were on Rt. 121.
By the time I got that far it was nearing midnight, so I just booked it for Lilycove, avoiding trainers as much as possible, and even leaving items lie.
In Lilycove, my neighbor was waiting for me in front of the Dept. Store, where I needed to go get that Thunder TM for Meadow. I had her in the lead, and she took down his team of four, including his starter. Upon his defeat, Brendan said he was going back to Littleroot to help out his dad with the Pokedex. Which, as I know from Bulbapedia, means Wally ought to be showing up soon with that Ralts of his to take over the rival role.
I did get to try berry blending, and I suck at it. It's all about timed button pressing, with each spin getting faster. The first two spins are easy but after that it swiftly becomes nigh-impossible to hit the marker. Still, I got a couple Pokeblocks that were about as good as a Dept. Store Poffin in Pt.
So, tomorrow I should have lots of time, if I can drag me outta bed at some kind of semi-decent hour. And there's tons I want to do:
--Go back to the start of Rt. 121 and go through it properly.
--Team Aqua's up to something in Mt. Pyre. And hey, I was going there for Shuppet and Duskull anyway (should make sure they're both in Emerald).
--Take a hike or two through the Safari Zone.
--Try out a Contest, and practice Berry Blending.
--Catch a Wailmer.
--Team Aqua's base is in Lilycove, and I'm sure I'm supposed to do something about that.
--Bring in Berries from the other games.
--All five of the core team are now lvl 38. I'd like to get them to lvl 40 before leaving Lilycove.
Also. While roaming the grasses of Rt. 120, I caught an Absol. Took an Ultra Ball to catch it, too; it wouldn't stay in anything less. I should look them up again; maybe that's my other slot?
(9/8/2009)
Whew. I need a day off to recover from my days off. At least there shouldn't be much more than one more trip to the house...
Gaming was canceled Friday night, so I had a good chunk of time. After clearing Rt. 121 properly, I caught my Wailmer (named Hugh) and headed down for Mt. Pyre. I fought my way up through the trainers, caught a Shuppet, grabbed the items on the way back down, then climbed the slope outside. Turns out Team Aqua wanted the Red Orb; Team Magma had already taken the Blue Orb. The old couple at the top told me the legend and worried about what would happen with the Orbs separated. I took a minute to catch a Duskull and went back down.
The Safari Zone was unexpectedly difficult. There's a Pokeblock feeder near the entrance, and apparently you need to fill it before you'll see the rarer Pokemon. Also, there's portions you need specific Bikes to get to, meaning you can't get to all sections in a single trip, which is a real pain. Still, I caught what I could in two hikes, which wasn't much. Probably I should look up the finer points before going back.
Back at Lilycove, I gave Berry Blending another try. I'm getting better at the four-person blender. Looking over the party, Jet seemed the most contest-ready with all her Smart moves, so I blended up a bunch of purple Pokeblocks with Pomeg berries and got her a couple ribbons. They evidently simplified contests a lot between GIII and GIV, because whoah this was complicated. The first appeal still depends entirely on condition, and therefore on Pokeblocks. But the move appeals are much harder. There's five rounds of appeals, and you not only have to worry about getting hearts and the audience excitement, but about your opponents jamming you. So you can set up a great appeal, and then have it ruined by the Pokemon who come after you. The GIV version is much simpler and more fun. I can see why Traci was so proud when her beloved fire-chicken won the Master rank -- just the Normal rank was hard as hell.
Tired of that, I went to check out the Team Aqua base. There were two grunts blocking the way in and talking about what Team Magma could be up to at Mt. Chimney. That was enough for one night, so I left it there for the rest of the weekend. Instead, I grew me bunches of berries at the Berry Master's plot. It seems that even left unwatered, the more common plants at least will produce two berries, so I could theoretically double my berries just by planting in the morning and harvesting in the evening. I'm sure the higher-order berries won't produce more than one unless watered, though.
I didn't get around to bringing in the berries from the previous Emerald games. Instead, I spent some time in Sapphire catching the things that don't appear in Emerald. It took longer than I'd thought it would. Surskit in particular was a bitch to find, and I had to go to Victory Road to find Meditite and Medicham. While there, I made the mistake of talking to Wally and was immediately dumped into a rival battle I had not been prepared for. Three of the Pokemon I had with me were lvl 30-ish, and all of his were in the upper 50's. Yikes. It took some Hyper Potions, but I pulled it out and managed the win.
Despite being tired as hell last night after going down to the house, trying to rewire Kaye and Joni's AV system, and having Julie and Heather over for a bit of FFXII, I flew up to Lavaridge and bounced up Jagged Pass to Team Magma's hideout. There were many grunts but most only had one Pokemon. And by now my team was all lvl 40, versus the Magma grunts at lvl 29, so that wasn't too hard. I did have to spend some Max Repels on the annoying number of wild Pokemon inside the hideout, though. After getting a bit lost, I finally cleared all the grunts and found my way to Maxie just as he (I think he's a he) awakened Groudon with the Blue Orb. Maxie was quite perplexed when Groudon promptly ran away. I swear, these people always think the legendaries are just going to do whatever they want. So he blamed it on me, and the battle was on.
I was glad I was levelled as high as I was, because his team was all mid-to-high 30's. Still, it wasn't too difficult, except for the darn Crobat. With Maxie defeated, Team Magma abandoned their base, and that was that.
I assumed that the next order of business would be a similar scenario at Team Aqua's base. But to my surprise, the grunts were still blocking the way. They blabbed about Archie stealing Capt. Stern's new sub from Slateport, so down to Slateport I went. Sure enough, Archie showed up and stole the sub. I took a minute to run by the market and show my team to the Effort Ribbon lady. Turns out that both Jet and Tympany -- who both trained with the Macho Brace a lot -- had reached their max EVs. The rest of the team still needs to "go for it a little harder". At that point I called it a night.
Not sure what's next. Team Aqua's base, maybe? Or the underwater canyon? Though, for that I need Dive. I've been training Hugh via Exp. Share, so hopefully he'll be caught up to the team before I reach that point. One thing's sure, between the no-doubt upcoming confrontation with Team Aqua, and the concentration of water routes in the last part of the game, and also that last Water gym, I really need to deal with my team's ineffectiveness against Water types, and soon.
(9/10/2009)
7 badges, 72(?) caught, 40-some hours. Started the evening's efforts in the Acro Bike area of the Safari Zone, but didn't catch much (just Phanpy and Heracross).
Turned out that witnessing the sub being stolen unlocked the Team Aqua hideout. Except for figuring out if the warp panels had made me miss anything, it was dead easy. Archie was already aboard the sub though, and it went off right after I fought the admin, so no leader battle. However, there -was- a Master Ball, just lying around on the floor in an inner office. Whoo! I'm saving it for Latios. Roaming Pokemon are too much darn trouble otherwise. Though that probably means I should buy as many Ultra Balls as I can for Rayquaza...
With the hideout cleared, the Wailmer who'd been blocking the sea route disappeared. So I Surfed on out there, ran from a bunch of Tentacool I didn't feel like dealing with, fought the swimming trainers, and got to Mossdeep.
The town was all abuzz about the ominous letter to the Space Center from Team Magma informing all and sundry that they were going to come steal the center's rocket fuel. However, Steven didn't seem pressed, and asked me if I'd looked around town. This meant, of course, that I was supposed to take down the Gym first.
Since Tympany was the only one of the team who wasn't yet lvl 41, I went through most of the Gym with it in the lead, reserving Gossamer and Jet for the twin Gym leaders. Tympany wasn't as effective as I'd have liked against the Psychic trainers, but we made it through anyway, and it did level up. However, the Gym leader battle was unexpectedly difficult. Their team was at or beyond my levels, and I had to use Revives and Potions to get the win, even using Jet and Gossamer who both have Dark attacks. This got me the Mind Badge -- my seventh -- and the ability to use Dive outside battle.
On the way back to the Space Center, I ran into a cluster of Magmas, so I knew it was time to take them on. Sure enough, they were all over the Space Center. The Grunts went down easily, and then it was time for the double battle: me and Steven vs. Maxie and Tabitha. I'd never done a true double battle before -- it made me choose which three Pokemon I was going to use. No idea what would have happened if all three went down, since Jubal and Steven's Metang made short work of the two Magmas. Maxie began to question the team's purpose before the Team ran off. I expect that since they've already let Groudon loose, it's the last I'll see of them.
That was pretty much it for Mossdeep, so I straightened out my items, taught Hugh Dive (he's catching up, at lvl 37), and saved there. I should likely spend some time Diving on that previous route to catch what I can before I head south towards Sootopolis. Also, I got the Super Rod in Mossdeep, so I can now fish properly.
The difficulty at the Mossdeep Gym worries me, though. Here I am with my seventh badge, almost to the E4, and yet my team's only lvl 42? It would appear that I need to do some serious, serious training. They need to be lvl 50 at least before I can even aspire to beating the E4, maybe higher. It does look like there's a good chunk of the game between here and the E4, however, so maybe that'll be okay.
There's also the ineffectiveness against water-types thing. I still haven't taught Meadow Thunder. It occurs to me that if I wanted to train an electric type against the upcoming water gym, a Magnemite might be a good choice. I'm sick of Pikachus, Electrike/Manectric are ridiculous, and this game doesn't have Shinxes. And when I was going through New Mauville, I remember avoiding them because the Electric/Steel combo made them such a pain. Granted that you can catch 'em in FR/LG, and I think in New Mauville, but I've never raised one. And I never did do the water routes to Dewford, which'd give me the opportunity to train it up. Hmmm. Looking them up on Bulbapedia, they are weak to Fighting, Fire, and Ground, but resistant or immune to damn near everything else.
(9/11/2009)
Didn't end up doing much last night except levelling Meadow up to lvl 42, and diving around Rt. 124. I did catch a couple Clampearl, a couple Chinchou, and a Relicanth, though, which brings me up to 85 Pokemon caught. I'll need the Relicanth for getting into the Regis, and I'm thinking of raising Chinchou along the Dewford Surf routes. Its Electric attacks should get it through there with ease, and will make it a better Dive/Waterfall slave than Hugh. If I have the patience to level it enough, it should help me sweep the last Gym.
About that extra slot, though? Who am I kidding, I'm totally saving it for Rayquaza -- so that solves that problem. Provided, of course, that I can catch the darn thing. I'd like to get it in a Premier Ball, which is darn unlikely.
The next game goal is to get to Sootopolis and get the last badge. The Sootopolis Gym is all around lvl 40, except for Juan's Pokemon. According to Bulbapedia, two of his team are at lvl 43, and his Kingdra is at lvl 46. This means I better darn well have at least one decently levelled Poke on hand with an electric attack, or that I better level up the whole team to around lvl 45. Possibly both. If I did that, Jubal would be just one level away from learning Earthquake, and Gossamer would evolve to Flygon. That'd get most of the team to final evolutions and movesets. Plus, the TM Brick Break is available in Sootopolis, which I was considering as an option for Jubal (especially given that all the good Move Tutor moves are only purchasable at the Battle Frontier, after the E4).
Instead of going for the badge right away, then, I'll probably spend some time diving around, while levelling the team and training that Chinchou (whose name is Phosphor). Since Hugh's at lvl 40, I can put him away and teach Dive to Phospor. But I should most likely try and get to Sootopolis, at least, so that I can Fly there when I'm ready (unless I get impatient and try for the badge anyway!)
Also, unless I spend a bunch of Pokeyen on Max Repels, I'm probably going to want to have Bulbapedia's route maps up while I'm diving about. Otherwise there's too many damn Tentacool in the water. >_<
I've also got an urge to get every one of the core team at least one contest Ribbon. Hopefully I can do that without having to make Pokeblocks.
Not, of course, that I'm going to get any play time until tomorrow night at the soonest.
(9/14/2009)
Progress! 8 badges, 91 caught, just short of 52 hours.
While diving around the routes near Mossdeep, I discovered the Seafloor Cavern. So instead of just trying to get to Sootopolis, I decided to run on in there and see what Team Aqua was up to. The cavern doubled back on itself so much that I got a little lost, but eventually I found my way to the bottom. And of course, what Archie and his grunts were up to was awakening Kyogre. Like Groudon, Kyogre paid Archie back by running off.
That set off the whole "battle of the super-ancient Pokemon" chunk of the story, so I'll never know whether the Sootopolis Gym would have been accessible beforehand (unless I am insane enough to replay this someday). After much battling of swimmers and snagging of items from the seafloor, I navigated the underwater path to Sootopolis. Kyogre and Groudon were going at it right in the middle of the caldera lake, with all the town's inhabitants anxiously looking on.
This was apparently major bad juju, causing torrential rains in some parts of the surrounding routes and abnormally strong sunlight in other parts. Maxie and Archie were blocking the way to the Gym, brandishing their useless Orbs, begging the ancient Pokemon to stop their battle. Interestingly, there was one kid who said he got the feeling that Kyogre and Groudon weren't angry, so much as that their power was too strong for them to control.
Obviously the crisis had to be averted before I could get to the Gym. Steven was on the scene, and took me back to the Cave of Origin to meet Wallace, who knew that Rayquaza was needed but not where it might be found. The game allowed me to suggest the Cave of Origin itself ("don't be silly! that's right here!"), Mt. Pyre, and Sky Pillar (along with a "don't remember" option). Wallace discarded every suggestion but Sky Pillar, and then ran off. I knew that the Cave would be sealed off once I'd brought Rayquaza back, so I took the time to run around until a Golbat appeared (though I should have caught a female too, if I'd had patience for it).
Of course, no one knew where Sky Pillar was. I had a vague recollection that it was along the sea routes near Pacifidlog, so off I went, once again battling swimmers along the way. Sure enough, a resident of Pacifidlog mentioned a tower out to sea a little ways, and there it was. Wallace apologized for running off without me, and let me have the distinction of going up and poking Rayquaza.
I thought that meant that I'd have to catch it, so I went and bought Ultra Balls and did the buy 10-sell 10 thing to get a TON of Premier Balls. Then I ran up Sky Pillar without stopping to level up or catch anything else, wanting to be fresh for the fight with Rayquaza. Somewhat anticlimactically, it flew off as soon as I approached it. D'oh! So I headed back to Sootopolis to watch the throw-down. Rayquaza more or less flew up and screeched at the other two, and they sank away and disappeared. It was like it was their mom -- "you two stop that RIGHT NOW or you are gonna be in SO much trouble when Arceus wakes up!" Heh.
With that, the weather cleared up, and all was well. Maxie and Archie ran off, lamenting the futility of their foolish plans, and Wallace invited me to take on his mentor Juan in the Gym. I also got HM07 Waterfall, which I'd need the badge to use.
I didn't think I was levelled enough for this, but I whipped out that Thunder TM, taught it to Meadow, and gave it the old college try. And what do you know, between Tympany, Meadow, and Jet, I managed it. Juan wasn't as easy as I'd have liked, but I got my last badge.
That left me with two immediate goals: Catch Rayquaza, and go for the E4. In that order.
Problem being, Rayquaza is lvl 70. So I ran down to New Mauville, figuring that'd be a good place to train Jubal, and I could catch a Magneton while I was at it. Only, random number generator still hates me. I think I spent three hours running around there, got everyone up to lvl 46-48. Jubal even learned Earthquake and I let him evolve. And I caught an Electrode, which has the same appearance rate. But NO Magneton. ARGH. It's like when I spent all that time trying to get a Volbeat, except Martin pointed out that I could have raised a Magneton by then, probably to lvl 50.
So I got Gossamer (who is now a Flygon) up one more level, and vacated the premises. Flew over to Slateport long enough to confirm that yes, everyone has all the EVs they're going to get. Effort Ribbons all around, ta dah and yay. Then I flew over to Pacifidlog and saved.
I'm debating what to do about catching Rayquaza. On the one hand, I'm tempted to bring in something high-leveled from Sapphire, and go for an easy catch. But that smacks of cheating, and I kinda want to see if I can do it without the "help". So the other plan is to spend some time in Sky Pillar, catching what I can and training the team. Maybe get 'em all up to lvl 50 and pray it'll be enough. If I do manage to nab Rayquaza, then it'll be time to head off for Victory Road. If I fail the first attempt.....maybe I just switch off without saving, then go look up all those trainers that are ready for a rematch. [totally did NOT realize how hard it'd be just getting UP the Sky Pillar, here.]
One thing's sure, I shouldn't stay up so darn late trying, this time. >_< I feel like crap today.
(9/24/2009)
Badges: 8 -- Caught: 101 -- Hall of Fame debut: 65:18 hours. TAA DAAAAH.
I wasn't kidding about feeling like crap; I've been sick since that Monday, including during our beach trip. Went into work anyway, infected two co-workers, ran around at night, and didn't stop until we left for OC Saturday morning. So, no Poke time until beach.
Sky Pillar had apparently acquired a lot more cracks in the floor since I went up to poke Rayquaza the first time, and it took a good couple aggravating hours just to get back up to the top. Still, only Tympany was lvl 50 by the time I reached Rayquaza. Since I had clawed my way up there, though, I decided to try for it anyway.
As expected, it was monstrously powerful. Tympany was the only thing that could stand up to multiple attacks and get its HP down...whereupon it would use Rest. ARGH. I had to turn off the game after fainting it probably about ten times, but finally Meadow actually managed to paralyze it with Thunder, and it stayed paralyzed while Tympany got it down into the red. The stars aligned and an Ultra Ball nabbed it (as difficult as the whole thing was, I'd given up on getting it in a Premier Ball). I cheered, named it Coriolis, and headed gratefully back to Pacifidlog to heal.
Since I wanted the whole team to be lvl 50 before hitting Victory Road, I surfed right back out to Sky Pillar and headed for the fifth floor, cursing the cracked floors mightily. Sky Pillar is a great training ground, with all the wild Pokes at mid-to-high 30's. I managed to get everyone up to lvl 50 and accomplish my secondary goal of catching a female Altaria to go with the males I had already caught.
With that accomplished, I surfed on over to Evergrande, and taught my Relicanth Sockeye (who I'd been levelling via Exp Share to match Hugh) Waterfall. I hadn't gotten too far into Victory Road before I was challenged by Wally, which I hadn't seen coming. Fortunately his team was only in the 40's, so I was able to one-shot most of them via type advantage. With him out of the way, I discovered I needed Flash, so I swapped Sockeye for Phosphor, my little Chinchou. I knew I'd need Waterfall inside Victory Road, so I taught him both that and Flash, and then forayed into the caves again.
Trucking through Victory Road got everyone up to lvl 53 -- still not high enough. So after saving at the Pokemon League center, I spent some time doing some serious levelling, mostly by looking up the trainers who were ready for another battle.
That's when I got the sudden urge to look for Feebas. In Emerald, Feebas appears in only six of the water tiles on Route 119. This is a very long route, and its water area is extensive, so that's quite a chunk of time. I began at the top and worked my way down, fighting any Carvanha over lvl 30. This raised at least a couple of the team up to lvl 55 by the time I finally found one of the six magical random tiles. I caught about seven Feebas (in Premier or Dive Balls, and all with nicknames). I plan to raise at least one to a Milotic and enter it in contests with the Dive-Surf combo.
Following that, I looked up some more trainers to fight. This took me to the neighborhood of the Desert, and it occurred to me that Sky Pillar had given me valuable practice in getting over cracked floors. Sure enough, I made it past the second floor of Mirage Tower within a handful of tries. To my relief, there weren't any more cracked floors, just the fossils. I selected the Claw Fossil and watched the Tower collapse before flying off to Rustboro to revive my new Fossil into an Anorith.
By that point, Jet was the only one of the team not yet at lvl 55, so I fixed that with a couple sorties into Victory Road, then pulled out Rayquaza and saved. Deep breath: it was time for the Elite Four.
Sidney and his Dark types went down without too much trouble, and Phoebe's Ghosts went down fairly easily given how many of my team had Dark attacks. Glacia's Ice team was a bit tougher, and Drake's Dragons were a bit of a pain. Still, I only had to pull out Coriolis once, for Drake's Salamence -- I'd wanted to try and make it through on the merits of my own trained team as much as I could.
Wallace, though, was quite a challenge. Not on the order of Cynthia, but still bad enough. I managed to get down all but his last Pokemon -- a lvl 58 Milotic -- but my team was low on both attacks and HP (and I was getting low on potions), so in the end everyone had gone down except Coriolis. And of course that's when the damned Milotic started throwing Ice Beam at me, for 4x effectiveness. >_< Luckily I had more Full Restores than it had Ice Beam PPs, and a single Outrage took it down on a critical hit. I didn't even need the Persim Berries I'd been growing (along with more Leppa).
Not quite as well as I'd wanted to do -- I hadn't wanted to have to use Coriolis, much less win by dint of potions -- but still. I'd done it. More hours on the game than usual, but I blame that on all the looking for impossible Pokemon like Volbeat and Magneton, and the fishing for Feebas, and insisting on that female Altaria.
So after Wallace entered my team in the Hall of Fame, I watched the credits, and then opened my post-game back home in Littleroot. Watched a news bulletin with Mom about a strange Pokemon flying over Hoenn (they said blue, Mom!), got the SS Ticket, and more importantly, the National Pokedex upgrade. Which means I can now trade with LG.
The SS Ticket, of course, is my invite to the Battle Frontier, which I've never really cared about. Scott sounded positively ecstatic about it though. I'm not really sure what else I want to do with my post-game. There's all the legendaries to catch, Kyogre and Groudon and Latios and the Regis, which would give me an almost-full set of Hoenn legendaries that I'd actually caught myself. And I kinda want to take a stab at contests; get everybody a ribbon or two, and evolve that Milotic.
Oooh, plus there's those new areas in the Safari Zone. I could catch a Mareep and raise me an Ampharos.
Another thing I should look into is finally bringing over all those items and berries from the previous games. That's a lot of trading, i.e. a lot of time. Plus JD's Pokemon would sort of unfairly bulk up my Pokedex. Maybe I should just strip the items/berries off of Sam's Pokes, bring over the ones I want to keep/raise, and Pal Park the rest to Pearl for transfer to the Ranch. I also feel that I'd be within my rights to trade with LG for credit for everything I've caught there. Maybe clean out the Entei cartridge of everything I don't actually need to catch Entei? ...of course, that means I'm back to catching Entei. Argh.
Something else not to forget: Oak's Letter will be available via WiFi starting Monday 9/28. I should nab that and then go get my Shaymin, since I think it's only at lvl 30.