Spent most of this week watching season one of BSG rather than playing Pokemon, so, not much progress. Also fending off some zombies. Yep.
But I did take a couple turns around the Safari Zone, and caught a few more things. Plus, won Normal Rank Ribbons for a few of the team -- Smart for Sybil, Cool for Samson, and Beauty for Tabasco (despite his mixed Cool/Beauty moveset, he seems destined to be pretty).
That, of course, led to blending Pokeblocks, which in turn led to growing Berries. Turns out that using the higher-numbered Berries will get you Level 23/Feel 19 Pokeblocks, even as much as I suck at blending. That's about the same level as the Dept.Store Poffins in Platinum, so it's enough to max a given condition. Sure, they take longer to grow (with the curious exception of Hondew) but what the hey. Hopefully I can harvest before tomorrow's hectic day...maybe I'll go down to the Berry Master's plot on Sunday and replant the Berries I get from today.
In any case, I'd like to get at least Great and maybe Hyper/Ultra Rank for each of them before moving on to Mt. Pyre and getting the story moving again. Might as well do it now; I've noticed that the end-state battle movesets are rarely good for contests.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Emerald II to Lilycove
Couldn't update last week because work was crazy and Google didn't think I was a human being. o_o
First -- Petalburg to Fortree
When I last posted, some serious training was being undertaken towards toughening up the team for the Petalburg Gym. It mostly worked. I still had to run out and heal after almost every trainer, but in the end, it was Samson who one-shotted most of Norman's Pokemon with Leaf Blade. Gonna have to feed him some PP Up for that move.
That got me Surf, which got me access to the eastern half of Hoenn. Instead of running up to Fortree right away, I spent a while at the Berry Masters' farm, growing a crop of Leppa and an assortment of status-cure Berries. I also dodged over to the Desert and made the round of the trainers and items there.
With the Berries all harvested and the Desert explored, it was time to make the long run up to Fortree. In the rain. Still, all that levelling for Petalburg paid off. Nothing was all that much trouble -- not the trainers along the road, nor Team Magma at the Weather Institute, nor the rival battle with neighbor boy. I walked into Fortree with Tropius and Castform recorded in my 'Dex, and HM Fly tucked away in my bag.
Before I could get to the Gym, though, I had to run over to Rt. 120 and grab the Devon Scope from Stephen to reveal the Kecleon blocking the way. I spent a frustrating little while running about trying to catch one of the invisible Kecleon scattered about, and finally succeeded. 'Dex entry safely recorded, it was time to take on Winona. Tabasco got me through most of the Fortree Gym with Blaze Kick.
That got me my sixth badge, and obedience to lvl 70. Amusing to think that this still wouldn't make my team from the original Emerald listen to me here, since they're all lvl 70 or above!
By that time, Twitter had learned Aerial Ace, which is the last attack I'd wanted him to learn, so I let him evolve to a Swellow before putting him away and taking out my hard-caught Skarmory. Knives immediately got taught Cut and Fly.
Second -- Fortree to Lilycove
The game got put down for most of the week due to general work craziness, but last night I finally set out for Lilycove. The route wasn't nearly as much trouble as last time, again due to the team's high levels. I put Exp Share on Knives to catch him up some with the rest of the team, and took a second to dodge down past Mt. Pyre to Rt. 123, where a gal will give you Giga Drain if you've got a Grass-type with you (mental note: must do this in original Emerald as well). I ended up teaching it to Samson instead of Sancho.
Because it was already waaaay past bedtime, I left Mt. Pyre and the Safari Zone alone, and just went straight for Lilycove....where the annoying neighbor boy is waiting for me again, in front of the Dept. Store.
So the next things will be to do a few turns through the Safari Zone for some 'Dex entries, then to make the pilgrimage up Mt. Pyre and advance the plot a bit. Probably should take a minute to smack down the neighbor boy again, and get at least a couple ribbons for the core team.
Also, Tabasco and Sybil are refusing to be fed vitamins, so I should swing by Slateport and see if it's time for Effort Ribbons. Possibly for Twitter and Sancho as well.
Speaking of Sancho....I'd originally intended to have him as a partial HM slave, with Surf and Strength, and then get Giga Drain to go against the very water-heavy last half of the game. But now that he's one level away from learning Uproar, I'm not so sure. I'd much rather have Samson as my go-to Grass type.
So now I'm leaning towards fixing Sancho's moveset to replace the HM moves with some from his own learnset, evolving him, and then trading him back to the original Emerald. Same with Roland, actually. I should probably hold out on that at least until I make it to Mossdeep and can catch a Spheal from Shoal Cave. At that point, the Spheal can become my Surfer, and Knives can take over Rock Smash and maybe Strength from Roland. I really HATE how many HMs this game has, and how many are actually necessary to do certain things.
The final team is shaping up to be Tabasco, Sybil, Samson, that Spheal, and...I dunno yet. I did want to raise dear little Drama, and maybe a Dusclops. Perhaps once I get to a point where I can rotate the team somewhat, I can go back and do some catch-up training with the Macho Brace.
First -- Petalburg to Fortree
When I last posted, some serious training was being undertaken towards toughening up the team for the Petalburg Gym. It mostly worked. I still had to run out and heal after almost every trainer, but in the end, it was Samson who one-shotted most of Norman's Pokemon with Leaf Blade. Gonna have to feed him some PP Up for that move.
That got me Surf, which got me access to the eastern half of Hoenn. Instead of running up to Fortree right away, I spent a while at the Berry Masters' farm, growing a crop of Leppa and an assortment of status-cure Berries. I also dodged over to the Desert and made the round of the trainers and items there.
With the Berries all harvested and the Desert explored, it was time to make the long run up to Fortree. In the rain. Still, all that levelling for Petalburg paid off. Nothing was all that much trouble -- not the trainers along the road, nor Team Magma at the Weather Institute, nor the rival battle with neighbor boy. I walked into Fortree with Tropius and Castform recorded in my 'Dex, and HM Fly tucked away in my bag.
Before I could get to the Gym, though, I had to run over to Rt. 120 and grab the Devon Scope from Stephen to reveal the Kecleon blocking the way. I spent a frustrating little while running about trying to catch one of the invisible Kecleon scattered about, and finally succeeded. 'Dex entry safely recorded, it was time to take on Winona. Tabasco got me through most of the Fortree Gym with Blaze Kick.
That got me my sixth badge, and obedience to lvl 70. Amusing to think that this still wouldn't make my team from the original Emerald listen to me here, since they're all lvl 70 or above!
By that time, Twitter had learned Aerial Ace, which is the last attack I'd wanted him to learn, so I let him evolve to a Swellow before putting him away and taking out my hard-caught Skarmory. Knives immediately got taught Cut and Fly.
Second -- Fortree to Lilycove
The game got put down for most of the week due to general work craziness, but last night I finally set out for Lilycove. The route wasn't nearly as much trouble as last time, again due to the team's high levels. I put Exp Share on Knives to catch him up some with the rest of the team, and took a second to dodge down past Mt. Pyre to Rt. 123, where a gal will give you Giga Drain if you've got a Grass-type with you (mental note: must do this in original Emerald as well). I ended up teaching it to Samson instead of Sancho.
Because it was already waaaay past bedtime, I left Mt. Pyre and the Safari Zone alone, and just went straight for Lilycove....where the annoying neighbor boy is waiting for me again, in front of the Dept. Store.
So the next things will be to do a few turns through the Safari Zone for some 'Dex entries, then to make the pilgrimage up Mt. Pyre and advance the plot a bit. Probably should take a minute to smack down the neighbor boy again, and get at least a couple ribbons for the core team.
Also, Tabasco and Sybil are refusing to be fed vitamins, so I should swing by Slateport and see if it's time for Effort Ribbons. Possibly for Twitter and Sancho as well.
Speaking of Sancho....I'd originally intended to have him as a partial HM slave, with Surf and Strength, and then get Giga Drain to go against the very water-heavy last half of the game. But now that he's one level away from learning Uproar, I'm not so sure. I'd much rather have Samson as my go-to Grass type.
So now I'm leaning towards fixing Sancho's moveset to replace the HM moves with some from his own learnset, evolving him, and then trading him back to the original Emerald. Same with Roland, actually. I should probably hold out on that at least until I make it to Mossdeep and can catch a Spheal from Shoal Cave. At that point, the Spheal can become my Surfer, and Knives can take over Rock Smash and maybe Strength from Roland. I really HATE how many HMs this game has, and how many are actually necessary to do certain things.
The final team is shaping up to be Tabasco, Sybil, Samson, that Spheal, and...I dunno yet. I did want to raise dear little Drama, and maybe a Dusclops. Perhaps once I get to a point where I can rotate the team somewhat, I can go back and do some catch-up training with the Macho Brace.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Emerald II to Petalburg
As I suspected, the Lavaridge Gym was really tough. Not so much the other trainers, but Flannery. I really needed to either have more super-effective attacks, or have the team levelled way higher than they were. I only beat Flannery by dint of using nearly all my potions, which didn't feel like much of a victory. Even worse, Roland -- who was the only one of the team who had the Defense to really stand up to Overheat -- stopped obeying me as soon as he hit lvl 31. In the end, my poor little Tabasco, who was still a Torchik at the time, managed to pull out the win.
So now Roland will listen to me again for a while, and Samson will obey me as well. At least until lvl 50.
To really deal with the Desert, though, Sancho should have Surf. And to get Surf, I need Petalburg's badge. However, a battle or two with the Petalburg Gym trainers confirmed my suspicion: the team just isn't levelled enough. This is the classic problem with overlevelling...you coast along one-shotting everything, and then run into a wall when you reach a point where it becomes obvious you haven't needed to train as much as you should have.
Petalburg Gym is one of those points. Because normal-types don't really have any type advantages, the whole gym is a strategic showcase: really high Speed to strike first, for example; or confusing opponents, or tank-like Defense, etc. In my first game, I remember that even some of the warm-up trainers were tricky, and Norman was really strong.
So I've been taking some time out to level-grind like crazy, with an emphasis on levelling to evolve. I made a point of battling a humongous horde of Zubat in Meteor Falls, too, to get some speed EVs for Roland and Sybil. Also spent a bunch of time one-shotting Spinda, to get Sybil a higher Sp. Attk.
Tabasco is finally a Combusken, and I'm working to get Sybil up to lvl 40 so she can learn Future Sight and evolve to a Gardevoir. Because I'll want Tabasco to evolve again in a couple levels, I'll need to do a few quick rotating trades to get 'Dex credit in the original Emerald (and I should fix Roland's name). I should probably spend a little time levelling up Sancho and Twitter as well, just to keep the team sort of even.
And then, look out Norman!
So now Roland will listen to me again for a while, and Samson will obey me as well. At least until lvl 50.
To really deal with the Desert, though, Sancho should have Surf. And to get Surf, I need Petalburg's badge. However, a battle or two with the Petalburg Gym trainers confirmed my suspicion: the team just isn't levelled enough. This is the classic problem with overlevelling...you coast along one-shotting everything, and then run into a wall when you reach a point where it becomes obvious you haven't needed to train as much as you should have.
Petalburg Gym is one of those points. Because normal-types don't really have any type advantages, the whole gym is a strategic showcase: really high Speed to strike first, for example; or confusing opponents, or tank-like Defense, etc. In my first game, I remember that even some of the warm-up trainers were tricky, and Norman was really strong.
So I've been taking some time out to level-grind like crazy, with an emphasis on levelling to evolve. I made a point of battling a humongous horde of Zubat in Meteor Falls, too, to get some speed EVs for Roland and Sybil. Also spent a bunch of time one-shotting Spinda, to get Sybil a higher Sp. Attk.
Tabasco is finally a Combusken, and I'm working to get Sybil up to lvl 40 so she can learn Future Sight and evolve to a Gardevoir. Because I'll want Tabasco to evolve again in a couple levels, I'll need to do a few quick rotating trades to get 'Dex credit in the original Emerald (and I should fix Roland's name). I should probably spend a little time levelling up Sancho and Twitter as well, just to keep the team sort of even.
And then, look out Norman!
Monday, October 4, 2010
Emerald II to Lavaridge
Before leaving Mauville, I did some trading, exchanging Hemmingway and that nameless Zigzagoon for Samson and a Phanpy from my original Emerald game. I forgot to name the Phanpy before sending him over, though. If I take him all the way to the E4 I'll have to fix that, so he's recorded as Roland and not just as PHANPY.
While I was trading I also sent Sybil back and forth, to get 'Dex credit for Kirlia. So now she can evolve after she learns Future Sight; I'm figuring on a moveset of Calm Mind, Psychic, Future Sight, and possibly an off-type attack to replace Confusion.
That gave me a couple more 'Dex entries in the original Emerald, where I took the time to get Hemmingway raised to a Slaking. I took him to the Move Deleter to forget Cut, so his final moveset was Faint Attack, Slash, Yawn, and....I forget if I replaced Slack Off with something else. Hmm.
Anyway, with all that out of the way, I hit the road north from Mauville, fighting trainers as I went. Only, I forgot: you can't get into the desert at that point in the game, because you need the Go-Goggles, and you only get those after beating the Lavaridge Gym. So I crept through the Fiery Path, slogged around through Spinda-infested volcanic ash to Fallarbor. On the way I caught a Skarmory, who took most of my stock of Pokeballs to capture. I named him Knives, and put him in my Specials box to be an HM slave later.
Perhaps to balance that out, I caught a Solrock almost straight off upon entering Meteor Falls. There was the little scene with Prof. Cozmo, Team Magma, and Team Aqua; then I was free to exit the caves and head towards Rt. 115. Without Surf, I couldn't hit that northern patch of grass where the Jigglypuff are, but I fought the trainers on the way south to Rustboro, then headed back around to Mt. Chimney and got the Metorite back from Team Magma. Did a loop down Jagged Pass to fight the trainers there, then back up to Lavaridge, where I got the Wynaut Egg from the old lady.
So the next thing will be the Lavaridge Gym. The team is all around lvl 30, but I'm anticipating a hard battle. Sancho has no water attacks yet, and Roland only really has Rock Smash that's super-effective. I should probably teach him Dig before I try my luck against Flannery.
After that, I can swing down to Fallarbor to return the Meteorite to Prof. Cozmo, then hit the Desert.
While I was trading I also sent Sybil back and forth, to get 'Dex credit for Kirlia. So now she can evolve after she learns Future Sight; I'm figuring on a moveset of Calm Mind, Psychic, Future Sight, and possibly an off-type attack to replace Confusion.
That gave me a couple more 'Dex entries in the original Emerald, where I took the time to get Hemmingway raised to a Slaking. I took him to the Move Deleter to forget Cut, so his final moveset was Faint Attack, Slash, Yawn, and....I forget if I replaced Slack Off with something else. Hmm.
Anyway, with all that out of the way, I hit the road north from Mauville, fighting trainers as I went. Only, I forgot: you can't get into the desert at that point in the game, because you need the Go-Goggles, and you only get those after beating the Lavaridge Gym. So I crept through the Fiery Path, slogged around through Spinda-infested volcanic ash to Fallarbor. On the way I caught a Skarmory, who took most of my stock of Pokeballs to capture. I named him Knives, and put him in my Specials box to be an HM slave later.
Perhaps to balance that out, I caught a Solrock almost straight off upon entering Meteor Falls. There was the little scene with Prof. Cozmo, Team Magma, and Team Aqua; then I was free to exit the caves and head towards Rt. 115. Without Surf, I couldn't hit that northern patch of grass where the Jigglypuff are, but I fought the trainers on the way south to Rustboro, then headed back around to Mt. Chimney and got the Metorite back from Team Magma. Did a loop down Jagged Pass to fight the trainers there, then back up to Lavaridge, where I got the Wynaut Egg from the old lady.
So the next thing will be the Lavaridge Gym. The team is all around lvl 30, but I'm anticipating a hard battle. Sancho has no water attacks yet, and Roland only really has Rock Smash that's super-effective. I should probably teach him Dig before I try my luck against Flannery.
After that, I can swing down to Fallarbor to return the Meteorite to Prof. Cozmo, then hit the Desert.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Emerald II to Mauville
So Steven got his letter, and Capt. Stern got his Goods. Brawly's Gym at Dewford went down easily enough, between Sybil and Twitter.
Wattson, in Mauville, was another matter.
Apparently Torchik is the most difficult starter in R/S/E, and it doesn't help that as usual I'm waiting for Tabasco to learn certain attacks before allowing him to evolve. But STILL. Last time, Jubal easily swept the whole gym at lvl 24, with everyone else around 20-22. This time...oy. The trainers weren't too bad, but I lost to Wattson three times (saving beforehand and turning the game off each time).
To get past Wattson, I had to spend at least a couple hours out on Rt. 117 getting Twitter and Hemmingway to lvl 24, Sybil and Sancho to lvl 26, and Tabasco to lvl 28. Took for-freakin'-EVER, but hey, at least this time I nabbed a Volbeat almost straight off. Go figure.
I've currently got some Leppa growing -- you can never have too many Leppa -- but after they've been harvested I can FINALLY move on to the desert, then do the Lavaridge Loop. Right after I open up the Rustboro-Verdanturf tunnel, of course. Got my Macho Brace from the Winstrates, and already ran back for the Exp. Share.
I'm still divided on what to do about all the HMs I don't want to bother with...I'm actually regretting giving Cut to Hemmingway, because Vigoroth learn some good moves. I'm leaning towards just making that Zigzagoon another HM slave like Meadow, then trading up to a Linoone when I get that far. Just rotate out the team for training. Not that I know yet what that team will be.
[later edit -- looking up Pickup, I see that Phanpy also has this ability, and can learn Strength and Rock Smash. And hey, I need a Donphan. Perhaps I could trade one in; that sure would've helped against Wattson, and would also be useful in New Mauville.]
That still doesn't solve the Fly problem; Tropius probably is a good bet for a grass-type, but still, I'd wanted to raise the max evos I don't already have, like Cacturne. I guess as far as Fly goes, I've already raised everything that could learn it anyway. *sigh* I wish this game didn't have so many darrn HMs. Maybe I should trade over Sam's starter Samson and raise him -- I do need a Sceptile.
Silly thought: It'd be really cool to do a playthrough with all three starters. Perhaps someday.
Wattson, in Mauville, was another matter.
Apparently Torchik is the most difficult starter in R/S/E, and it doesn't help that as usual I'm waiting for Tabasco to learn certain attacks before allowing him to evolve. But STILL. Last time, Jubal easily swept the whole gym at lvl 24, with everyone else around 20-22. This time...oy. The trainers weren't too bad, but I lost to Wattson three times (saving beforehand and turning the game off each time).
To get past Wattson, I had to spend at least a couple hours out on Rt. 117 getting Twitter and Hemmingway to lvl 24, Sybil and Sancho to lvl 26, and Tabasco to lvl 28. Took for-freakin'-EVER, but hey, at least this time I nabbed a Volbeat almost straight off. Go figure.
I've currently got some Leppa growing -- you can never have too many Leppa -- but after they've been harvested I can FINALLY move on to the desert, then do the Lavaridge Loop. Right after I open up the Rustboro-Verdanturf tunnel, of course. Got my Macho Brace from the Winstrates, and already ran back for the Exp. Share.
I'm still divided on what to do about all the HMs I don't want to bother with...I'm actually regretting giving Cut to Hemmingway, because Vigoroth learn some good moves. I'm leaning towards just making that Zigzagoon another HM slave like Meadow, then trading up to a Linoone when I get that far. Just rotate out the team for training. Not that I know yet what that team will be.
[later edit -- looking up Pickup, I see that Phanpy also has this ability, and can learn Strength and Rock Smash. And hey, I need a Donphan. Perhaps I could trade one in; that sure would've helped against Wattson, and would also be useful in New Mauville.]
That still doesn't solve the Fly problem; Tropius probably is a good bet for a grass-type, but still, I'd wanted to raise the max evos I don't already have, like Cacturne. I guess as far as Fly goes, I've already raised everything that could learn it anyway. *sigh* I wish this game didn't have so many darrn HMs. Maybe I should trade over Sam's starter Samson and raise him -- I do need a Sceptile.
Silly thought: It'd be really cool to do a playthrough with all three starters. Perhaps someday.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Another round of Emerald
Finally succumbed to the temptation to play through Emerald again.
After spending HOURS of beach time hand-raising a Swalot (Slurpea, from Sam's game) it occurred to me that, with rematches dependent on Match Call, raising all the max evo's I still needed would take for-freakin'-EVER. It'd be much easier to raise them as part of a core team, in a new game. Which would either mean cleaning out and restarting my Emerald cartridge -- or getting another one.
As luck and the Internet would have it, there was a GameStop right nearby in White Marlin Mall. Which had not just one, but three cartridges of Emerald. One was defective -- but the second was perfect: trainer Drake (heh) had only 6 hours and 12 Pokemon on his game, so I could just restart without feeling the need to clean out the cartridge first.
So now I've got a second game of Emerald going, have completed Rustboro, and am about to head out to Slateport to deliver the Devon Goods, stopping at Dewford to bring Steven his Letter. The guiding principle for this play-through: Concentrate on catching and raising the Pokemon I'm missing in the first Emerald cart.
The team so far is: Tabasco (Torchik), Sancho (Lombre, evo'd from Lotad), Sybil (Ralts), Hemmingway (Slakoth), and Twitter (Taillow). Plus I've got a nameless Zigzagoon along, because Pickup is just too useful. I've also caught Drama (Whismur) to raise later on, and also plan to catch and raise a Spheal.
This leaves me with a couple problems. First, neither Torchik nor its evolutions can learn Fly. Raising a Swellow, Pelipper, or Altaria is a waste of time, as all of these can be caught wild. Things like Skarmory or Tropius don't evolve. And I've already raised a Flygon and Salamence.
The other problem is the lack of decent Electric types, when the end of the game is so slanted towards Water. Again, there's no point in raising an Electrike when Manectric can be caught wild, and Plusle and Minun don't evolve. I could go for a Magneton, but again, I already have one (finally caught one in New Mauville).
Maybe I should go for a Tropius. Grass is just as good against Water as Electric (even though it's weak to Fire). And Tropius make great HM slaves, too. The other option would be to trade in that female Bagon, and raise her as a match for Fafnir.
[later edit: Did I mention I finally got the solid walloping of the Elite Four that I wanted, in my original Emerald game? With the team finally at lvl 70, I did. ^_^ ]
----------
Didn't get in much swimming at the beach. Though Hurricane Igor was nowhere near the coast, it was raising more surf than I've ever seen at OC. But I sure did get my steps in. So I've caught pretty much all the Pokemon I needed off every Pokewalker route up to Sinnoh Field.
Am still standing outside Diglett's Cave, in SS.
Entei continues to elude me.
After spending HOURS of beach time hand-raising a Swalot (Slurpea, from Sam's game) it occurred to me that, with rematches dependent on Match Call, raising all the max evo's I still needed would take for-freakin'-EVER. It'd be much easier to raise them as part of a core team, in a new game. Which would either mean cleaning out and restarting my Emerald cartridge -- or getting another one.
As luck and the Internet would have it, there was a GameStop right nearby in White Marlin Mall. Which had not just one, but three cartridges of Emerald. One was defective -- but the second was perfect: trainer Drake (heh) had only 6 hours and 12 Pokemon on his game, so I could just restart without feeling the need to clean out the cartridge first.
So now I've got a second game of Emerald going, have completed Rustboro, and am about to head out to Slateport to deliver the Devon Goods, stopping at Dewford to bring Steven his Letter. The guiding principle for this play-through: Concentrate on catching and raising the Pokemon I'm missing in the first Emerald cart.
The team so far is: Tabasco (Torchik), Sancho (Lombre, evo'd from Lotad), Sybil (Ralts), Hemmingway (Slakoth), and Twitter (Taillow). Plus I've got a nameless Zigzagoon along, because Pickup is just too useful. I've also caught Drama (Whismur) to raise later on, and also plan to catch and raise a Spheal.
This leaves me with a couple problems. First, neither Torchik nor its evolutions can learn Fly. Raising a Swellow, Pelipper, or Altaria is a waste of time, as all of these can be caught wild. Things like Skarmory or Tropius don't evolve. And I've already raised a Flygon and Salamence.
The other problem is the lack of decent Electric types, when the end of the game is so slanted towards Water. Again, there's no point in raising an Electrike when Manectric can be caught wild, and Plusle and Minun don't evolve. I could go for a Magneton, but again, I already have one (finally caught one in New Mauville).
Maybe I should go for a Tropius. Grass is just as good against Water as Electric (even though it's weak to Fire). And Tropius make great HM slaves, too. The other option would be to trade in that female Bagon, and raise her as a match for Fafnir.
[later edit: Did I mention I finally got the solid walloping of the Elite Four that I wanted, in my original Emerald game? With the team finally at lvl 70, I did. ^_^ ]
----------
Didn't get in much swimming at the beach. Though Hurricane Igor was nowhere near the coast, it was raising more surf than I've ever seen at OC. But I sure did get my steps in. So I've caught pretty much all the Pokemon I needed off every Pokewalker route up to Sinnoh Field.
Am still standing outside Diglett's Cave, in SS.
Entei continues to elude me.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
I know he's out there somewhere
Still no Entei, and I've been trying once or twice almost each night. ARGH. Part of me is tempted to just take a break and wrap up the islands, but my stubborn half wants to nab Entei first. I am SO done with this game, I just want to find that dang Entei so I can clean out the cartridge already.
Nothing new in SS except a couple Pokewalker catches. I did get the Wailmer off Warm Beach, so now I just need the Carvanha and I can move on to the next route.
As for Emerald, I got that Lairon raised to an Aggron, and am now contemplating the various grass-types I'm missing. Haven't had time to pick it up this crazy week, though.
Happily, my beach vacation is coming up, so that'll be Sunday through Wednesday where I should have plenty of time to do....something.
Last but not least: Black and White have arrived in early pre-order shipments in Japan, so all kinds of info on that should hit the Internet in the next few days.
Aaaaand....I'm off for shots!
Nothing new in SS except a couple Pokewalker catches. I did get the Wailmer off Warm Beach, so now I just need the Carvanha and I can move on to the next route.
As for Emerald, I got that Lairon raised to an Aggron, and am now contemplating the various grass-types I'm missing. Haven't had time to pick it up this crazy week, though.
Happily, my beach vacation is coming up, so that'll be Sunday through Wednesday where I should have plenty of time to do....something.
Last but not least: Black and White have arrived in early pre-order shipments in Japan, so all kinds of info on that should hit the Internet in the next few days.
Aaaaand....I'm off for shots!
Friday, September 10, 2010
The hunt for Entei goes on, and a BW rant
Have gone Entei-hunting in FR most every night this week, to no avail.
The process is basically this: Use a Max Repel with a lvl 30 Snorlax in the lead, then run around the grass between Celadon and Saffron until the Repel gives out. Dodge into one of the towns and back out again to make Entei change routes. Rinse, lather, repeat. If all Max Repels are used up, turn game off.
You'd think that if there's 23 routes in Kanto, he'd go roaming in the grass of Rt. 7 at least ONCE, out of 25 Max Repels. >_< But nooooo.
-----
Haven't picked up Emerald or SS this week, other than to transfer in stuff from the Pokewalker. Despite the whole company walking program thing, I haven't managed to get enough steps for a Skitty off Hoenn field, so I decided to be more realistic and try the Warm Beach. Hmmm. Maybe if I go for new tires/brakes tomorrow, I can do some walking up and down Rt. 40? It's supposed to be lovely this weekend.
-----
Okay, so about Black/White. Today, Serebii posted the count of Pokemon in the new Isshu region, along with how many legendaries there'd be. For the sake of spoilers I won't repeat the total amount but, holy crap, 9 in-game and 3 event legendaries?? That makes a total of 47 legendary Pokemon in the total 'Dex!
Not to sound like one of the old-gen diehards, but...really, Nintendo? The more legendaries they add, the less "legendary" they get, and the more they seem like excuses to make players scramble after yet more stuff. There's already too many to fit in a single PC box (not even counting forms), and given the gimmicky nature of many legendaries, that's where most of 'em end up staying. Especially since most legendaries have high levels but no EVs when caught, making them actually WEAKER than a trainer's carefully raised core team -- some fairly intensive training is needed before they're even really usable.
Aren't two version mascots, one trio, one uber, and one event legendary enough per generation? Am I the only one who thought the Regis were extraneous in Hoenn, or that Heatran was just one more 'Dex chore in Sinnoh? Am I the only one who thinks most legendaries aren't worth much but to fill up box space?
The process is basically this: Use a Max Repel with a lvl 30 Snorlax in the lead, then run around the grass between Celadon and Saffron until the Repel gives out. Dodge into one of the towns and back out again to make Entei change routes. Rinse, lather, repeat. If all Max Repels are used up, turn game off.
You'd think that if there's 23 routes in Kanto, he'd go roaming in the grass of Rt. 7 at least ONCE, out of 25 Max Repels. >_< But nooooo.
-----
Haven't picked up Emerald or SS this week, other than to transfer in stuff from the Pokewalker. Despite the whole company walking program thing, I haven't managed to get enough steps for a Skitty off Hoenn field, so I decided to be more realistic and try the Warm Beach. Hmmm. Maybe if I go for new tires/brakes tomorrow, I can do some walking up and down Rt. 40? It's supposed to be lovely this weekend.
-----
Okay, so about Black/White. Today, Serebii posted the count of Pokemon in the new Isshu region, along with how many legendaries there'd be. For the sake of spoilers I won't repeat the total amount but, holy crap, 9 in-game and 3 event legendaries?? That makes a total of 47 legendary Pokemon in the total 'Dex!
Not to sound like one of the old-gen diehards, but...really, Nintendo? The more legendaries they add, the less "legendary" they get, and the more they seem like excuses to make players scramble after yet more stuff. There's already too many to fit in a single PC box (not even counting forms), and given the gimmicky nature of many legendaries, that's where most of 'em end up staying. Especially since most legendaries have high levels but no EVs when caught, making them actually WEAKER than a trainer's carefully raised core team -- some fairly intensive training is needed before they're even really usable.
Aren't two version mascots, one trio, one uber, and one event legendary enough per generation? Am I the only one who thought the Regis were extraneous in Hoenn, or that Heatran was just one more 'Dex chore in Sinnoh? Am I the only one who thinks most legendaries aren't worth much but to fill up box space?
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
And now for something completely Emerald
Having blazed through half of Kanto, I got the sudden urge to boot up Emerald and see what the heck I'd been up to in Hoenn. Which, it turned out, was raising the Marill and the Jigglypuff I'd bred.
I renamed the Marill Freddie, so I'd remember it was supposed to have Sing (for Freddie Mercury, who else?), and finished raising both him and PuffDaddy. Marill don't learn much that's interesting, but PuffDaddy ended up with Body Slam, Doubleslap, Hyper Voice, and Perish Song. Getting them up to lvl 45 wasn't too hard -- since I hadn't booted the cartridge in a while, practically every trainer was ready for a rematch or two.
Also straightened out Bombadil's moveset, and whoah is that combo of Chlorophyll - Sunny Day - Synthesis - Solarbeam effective. Got him up to lvl 35.
All this training did good things for my core team. Jubal's up to lvl 70, Tympany's at 68, and everyone else is at 69. Since the Pokemon remaining in the 'Dex will need to be hand-raised, the whole team's sure to make it to lvl 70 at some point.
It occurred to me that my 'Dex was still missing a few Pokemon that could be caught. Lots of running around Mt. Pyre finally nabbed me a Chimecho. I then went to the back of Granite Cave, and ran around there long enough to inspire this haiku:
All those Pokemon
In the back of Granite Cave.
Yet, not one Nosepass.
Okay, Professor Oak I'm not. Finally I admitted defeat and looked it up. Turns out Nosepass only appear by using Rock Smash on the boulders in the lowest part of the cave. Armed with that knowledge, I went and caught one.
That left only Snorunt. Them, I looked up straight off, as I've never seen one in-game, and thus the 'Dex wouldn't tell me where they were. I had to wait for low tide in Shoal Cave, and for some reason had trouble finding the way down, but a little bit of running around that ice chamber at the bottom got me a pair of Snorunt.
From there, there's a few more trades I can do from Sapphire or FireRed (at least, once I complete the islands and fix that infernal machine, AGAIN), and then the rest will have to be hand-raised. Right now I'm working on a Lairon -- it gets Double-Edge at lvl 53, which will be downright wicked with the Rock Head ability -- but I dunno if I'll have enough patience to get more than that done in the near-term. Maybe raise that Nincada to get Ninjask and Shedinja, but that might be it for now.
As for the trades -- the Terrell cart has a Latias, Zangoose, and Lunatone that I can get trade-credit for; I can't catch any of those in Emerald, so that's fair. Will probably also trade over Huntail and Gorebyss if JD had them among his max evos, since you can only get one of the pair per game. Good thing I restarted for the other two Hoenn starters.
And what will all this effort of finishing the Hoenn 'Dex get me? A Jhoto starter, namely a Chikorita, from Prof. Birch. That's a lot for one little Chikorita.
When I get worn out with raising Pokemon on Emerald, I might go and finish the Islands in FireRed. Nab the three legendary birds, get that Sludge Bomb TM from the Rocket Warehouse, and try for Mewtwo. Might as well, right? Oh, and try for Entei. Yeah.
I renamed the Marill Freddie, so I'd remember it was supposed to have Sing (for Freddie Mercury, who else?), and finished raising both him and PuffDaddy. Marill don't learn much that's interesting, but PuffDaddy ended up with Body Slam, Doubleslap, Hyper Voice, and Perish Song. Getting them up to lvl 45 wasn't too hard -- since I hadn't booted the cartridge in a while, practically every trainer was ready for a rematch or two.
Also straightened out Bombadil's moveset, and whoah is that combo of Chlorophyll - Sunny Day - Synthesis - Solarbeam effective. Got him up to lvl 35.
All this training did good things for my core team. Jubal's up to lvl 70, Tympany's at 68, and everyone else is at 69. Since the Pokemon remaining in the 'Dex will need to be hand-raised, the whole team's sure to make it to lvl 70 at some point.
It occurred to me that my 'Dex was still missing a few Pokemon that could be caught. Lots of running around Mt. Pyre finally nabbed me a Chimecho. I then went to the back of Granite Cave, and ran around there long enough to inspire this haiku:
All those Pokemon
In the back of Granite Cave.
Yet, not one Nosepass.
Okay, Professor Oak I'm not. Finally I admitted defeat and looked it up. Turns out Nosepass only appear by using Rock Smash on the boulders in the lowest part of the cave. Armed with that knowledge, I went and caught one.
That left only Snorunt. Them, I looked up straight off, as I've never seen one in-game, and thus the 'Dex wouldn't tell me where they were. I had to wait for low tide in Shoal Cave, and for some reason had trouble finding the way down, but a little bit of running around that ice chamber at the bottom got me a pair of Snorunt.
From there, there's a few more trades I can do from Sapphire or FireRed (at least, once I complete the islands and fix that infernal machine, AGAIN), and then the rest will have to be hand-raised. Right now I'm working on a Lairon -- it gets Double-Edge at lvl 53, which will be downright wicked with the Rock Head ability -- but I dunno if I'll have enough patience to get more than that done in the near-term. Maybe raise that Nincada to get Ninjask and Shedinja, but that might be it for now.
As for the trades -- the Terrell cart has a Latias, Zangoose, and Lunatone that I can get trade-credit for; I can't catch any of those in Emerald, so that's fair. Will probably also trade over Huntail and Gorebyss if JD had them among his max evos, since you can only get one of the pair per game. Good thing I restarted for the other two Hoenn starters.
And what will all this effort of finishing the Hoenn 'Dex get me? A Jhoto starter, namely a Chikorita, from Prof. Birch. That's a lot for one little Chikorita.
When I get worn out with raising Pokemon on Emerald, I might go and finish the Islands in FireRed. Nab the three legendary birds, get that Sludge Bomb TM from the Rocket Warehouse, and try for Mewtwo. Might as well, right? Oh, and try for Entei. Yeah.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
SS - Three badges down, three more to go
Because I am a lazy doofus, instead of enjoying the gorgeous weather and getting all kinds of exercise like I should have, I went on something of a Poke-binge.
Ended up taking the eastern seaside route from Lavender down to Fuschia. The part just south of Lavender that's all wooden piers over water is now apparently called Silence Bridge -- people tiptoe so as not to scare the water Pokemon away. ^_^ This was a decidedly long haul, especially as I took the opportunity to clear the route east of Vermilion that I couldn't get to because of the Snorlax.
(It occurs to me that Vermilion the town is easily confused with Vermillion my Red Gyrados. Heh.)
The southeastern-most part of Kanto, south of the fence maze, is now a pretty hill with wind turbines. A surprise awaited me there: Suicune, calling to me from out on the water. It ran away as usual when Eusine showed up, but he said something about it liking windy hills near water -- "somewhere up north". (Apparently that's not the Cape north of Cerulean, either, 'cause I've looked.)
Having made it to Fuschia and verified that the Pal Park was available, and seeing as it was Saturday, I hopped the border back to Jhoto and entered the Bug Catching Contest with Rotti again. This time, Rotti was more than strong enough -- in fact, he KO'd pretty much everything with one hit. It was still good training for him, though, and as a bonus I caught myself a female Combee: trading gold. This also got me second place, and another Everstone (though what I could really use is another Exp Share).
After that, I hopped back over to Kanto and opened up Cerulean. Misty was nowhere to be seen, so I decided to tackle Cycling Road. The bikers on it were astonishingly friendly after being defeated; I got a bunch of phone numbers, and one of them called me up later to hand me a Dusk Stone, of all things. Since I'd used the one I bought to evolve Rotti after he reached lvl 35, that was an unexpected but very welcome gift.
All that battling had finally gotten Rotti and Tremor up to decent levels, so I went for some badges. Erica's Gym was pretty easy, between Rotti and Cynder. In Janine's Gym -- she took over in Fuschia from daddy Koga after he joined the Elite Four -- I bungled a little and missed a trainer battle. Instead of being subtly marked on the floor, the invisible walls were only obvious when you stumbled into them, and then a small section would become visible. Worse, all the trainers were disguised as Janine. And I found her before I found all of them. So, missed one there.
Still, that got me two more badges, and with the Snorlax blocking Diglett's Cave, the only way to western Kanto was the long water route past the Seafoam Islands. So I decided that I'd check out what was up at the Power Plant. I'd been expecting a Rocket hideout, but all that was there were the workers who'd cleaned the place up and gotten the generator working. A part had been stolen by some "shady character", was all. Sure enough, the guy turned out to be a Rocket when I chased him down -- and with his badly mangled English, from some other country at that (Isshu, maybe? heh) -- but his single Golbat went down easily, and the Power Plant was running again in short order.
At some point, though, I'll have to go back that way and go through Rock Tunnel, which I totally skipped. Vermillion's really the only one of the team that's strong enough against Rock types.
With that wrapped up, I was able to chase down Misty on her date at the Cape (was that really Red? He didn't look at all familiar) and nab the Cascade Badge. Sadly, though I was able to get the Expansion card for my Radio, neither Lavender Tower nor Silph Co. were accessible beyond their first floors. The only thing left to do was to go play PokeFlute music on my Radio to wake up the Snorlax, which I caught easily enough.
All that being quite a Poke-marathon, I stopped outside the entrance to Diglett's Cave. Next stop, Pewter City and the Boulder Badge!
I have to say, I'm really impressed with the new rendering of Kanto in SS. Besides the basic improvements to the graphics, the routes have more variation and, well, for lack of a better word, really great landscaping. Instead of just being long stretches between cities, they feel like real countryside now -- but at the same time, they're similar enough to bring back that Red/Blue-era nostalgia. It's very well done. Props to Nintendo on that one.
You'd think I'd be Poke'd-out after all this, but I have the sudden urge to boot up Emerald and check where I was...
Ended up taking the eastern seaside route from Lavender down to Fuschia. The part just south of Lavender that's all wooden piers over water is now apparently called Silence Bridge -- people tiptoe so as not to scare the water Pokemon away. ^_^ This was a decidedly long haul, especially as I took the opportunity to clear the route east of Vermilion that I couldn't get to because of the Snorlax.
(It occurs to me that Vermilion the town is easily confused with Vermillion my Red Gyrados. Heh.)
The southeastern-most part of Kanto, south of the fence maze, is now a pretty hill with wind turbines. A surprise awaited me there: Suicune, calling to me from out on the water. It ran away as usual when Eusine showed up, but he said something about it liking windy hills near water -- "somewhere up north". (Apparently that's not the Cape north of Cerulean, either, 'cause I've looked.)
Having made it to Fuschia and verified that the Pal Park was available, and seeing as it was Saturday, I hopped the border back to Jhoto and entered the Bug Catching Contest with Rotti again. This time, Rotti was more than strong enough -- in fact, he KO'd pretty much everything with one hit. It was still good training for him, though, and as a bonus I caught myself a female Combee: trading gold. This also got me second place, and another Everstone (though what I could really use is another Exp Share).
After that, I hopped back over to Kanto and opened up Cerulean. Misty was nowhere to be seen, so I decided to tackle Cycling Road. The bikers on it were astonishingly friendly after being defeated; I got a bunch of phone numbers, and one of them called me up later to hand me a Dusk Stone, of all things. Since I'd used the one I bought to evolve Rotti after he reached lvl 35, that was an unexpected but very welcome gift.
All that battling had finally gotten Rotti and Tremor up to decent levels, so I went for some badges. Erica's Gym was pretty easy, between Rotti and Cynder. In Janine's Gym -- she took over in Fuschia from daddy Koga after he joined the Elite Four -- I bungled a little and missed a trainer battle. Instead of being subtly marked on the floor, the invisible walls were only obvious when you stumbled into them, and then a small section would become visible. Worse, all the trainers were disguised as Janine. And I found her before I found all of them. So, missed one there.
Still, that got me two more badges, and with the Snorlax blocking Diglett's Cave, the only way to western Kanto was the long water route past the Seafoam Islands. So I decided that I'd check out what was up at the Power Plant. I'd been expecting a Rocket hideout, but all that was there were the workers who'd cleaned the place up and gotten the generator working. A part had been stolen by some "shady character", was all. Sure enough, the guy turned out to be a Rocket when I chased him down -- and with his badly mangled English, from some other country at that (Isshu, maybe? heh) -- but his single Golbat went down easily, and the Power Plant was running again in short order.
At some point, though, I'll have to go back that way and go through Rock Tunnel, which I totally skipped. Vermillion's really the only one of the team that's strong enough against Rock types.
With that wrapped up, I was able to chase down Misty on her date at the Cape (was that really Red? He didn't look at all familiar) and nab the Cascade Badge. Sadly, though I was able to get the Expansion card for my Radio, neither Lavender Tower nor Silph Co. were accessible beyond their first floors. The only thing left to do was to go play PokeFlute music on my Radio to wake up the Snorlax, which I caught easily enough.
All that being quite a Poke-marathon, I stopped outside the entrance to Diglett's Cave. Next stop, Pewter City and the Boulder Badge!
I have to say, I'm really impressed with the new rendering of Kanto in SS. Besides the basic improvements to the graphics, the routes have more variation and, well, for lack of a better word, really great landscaping. Instead of just being long stretches between cities, they feel like real countryside now -- but at the same time, they're similar enough to bring back that Red/Blue-era nostalgia. It's very well done. Props to Nintendo on that one.
You'd think I'd be Poke'd-out after all this, but I have the sudden urge to boot up Emerald and check where I was...