MonoGen challenge

[CURIE]

Update 41: The Third Exception

While going through the forest, Jack finally learned a better grass move in Seed Bomb, Braveheart learned Hyper Voice, which is essentially a normal type Flamethrower, and Strawberry learned Play Rough. Now, this is where I’m torn. Strawberry’s ability to recover with Draining Kiss made him an awesome tank, who could also dish out tons of damage when setting up with Fake Tears. But Play Rough does much more damage on its own, without any set up nessecary. But it’s physical, so Fake Tears doesn’t do anything to boost it either! I ended up deleting Energy Ball, so that I could go with either whenever I feel like it, at the expense of Strawberry only being able to use one type of move: Fairy. I don’t need the type coverage as much anymore since I have Jack, I guess.

And since tonight was a windy night, I was able to access the Mysidia Railcave. By going in the direction the train tracks DON’T point, I got Eevee, who counts because she evolves into Sylveon. Yes, she, because I made sure it was female for breeding purposes. Wait a second, since I got her for breeding, and put her in the “slaves” box, does that make her a…

How about we change the subject. Spinel Town. Not much going on there, other than that I got the Good Rod, which will be important in getting some new Pokemon in the near future. Oh and I fought Bennet, let’s talk about that battle instead. Led with Pumpkin as always to set up the screens, then went to Strider to wreck Larvesta with Smack Down. And Vivillon, and Masquerain, and Butterfree. Man, he’s got quite a weakness to Rock types huh? And just when Venomoth was about to come out, Strider learned Extrasensory. Now we’re finally starting to get some good moves for him! He wrecked Venomoth with his new move, making Dustox the only Pokemon he didn’t take down, who was done in by Sassy.

Also there was a battle with Team Meteor in Tanzaan Mountain. Braveheart’s new damage spread move and DiggersbyTho’s Swords Dance boosted attacks were destroying them, and then one of them used Earthquake. The ceiling went down and EVERYONE fainted at once. And when I sent out the replacements, they all got poisoned from Toxic Spikes that were sent out earlier! And to make it worse, one of the opponents used heal block to stop me from healing the poison! We pulled through though, through some wise choices on when to use boosting moves and when to use priority moves. That was a pretty difficult but interesting battle, I kinda wish I got something out of it.

And now, to not fight Serra. Like with Kiki in the previous episode, Serra doesn’t have a field effect because Ame hasn’t (or hadn’t. She probably has by now) developed one for her yet, and will in the next episode (and maybe one for Noel?). And since I want to fight her at her best, I’m going to wait until that next episode comes out to continue the story. But don’t think I’m done with this run until then, oh boy I have a lot of things I want to do first…

[CURIE]

Update 42: A new team member!

It’s been a while since I updated this, and that’s because I’ve ton a crapton of stuff since then. First of all, the new Pokemon. In the poisonous waters of… Well, anywhere actually as long as the water is poisonous, I can now get Skrelp since I have the good rod. I don’t think I’ll actually use it as a team member, but I do know I’ll make use of its Toxic. It’s the only 6th Gen Pokemon to learn it by level up, and of course we’re not getting it by TM anytime soon. I also filled my Pokedex some more with a Dedenne from Taanzan Cove and a Furfrou from the forest. Am I missing any other 6th gen Pokemon I can get right now?

And now for the standard grinding. As is the norm, I’ve grinded the whole team up to the level cap of 50. Insert any changes in movesets. Pumpkin learned Misty Terrain, which I replaced for Charm so he could help support his new teammate.

So about that new teammate. Remember Hardhead? The male Litleo that I kept around as a spare Headbutt slave? I grinded him all the way up to evolution, because at 33 he learns Echoed Voice. You see, my plan was to go back to episode 12.1, where you could breed TM moves, and breed Echoed Voice onto a baby Eevee. But as it turns out, Echoed Voice apparently was bugged and unable to be bred, and no one had noticed until now. Of course, that bug will never be fixed, since the breeding system has moved on to Gen 6 mechanics starting in episode 13.

So new plan, we’re going with Breedee and leveling her up to 45, preventing her from evolving the whole way so that she can learn Trump Card. Since I was going through all this trouble, I decided I might as well go the whole distance and EV train her. Gave her 252 in Special Attack, and split the defenses evenly. When she evolved, she didn’t have Pixilate like I wanted, but I easily fixed that with an Ability Capsule. Anyway, about the move I went through so much effort to get. Trump Card is a move that gets stronger the less PP it has, starting at 40, then going to 50, 60, 80, and suddenly jumping up to 200. Before a major battle (like say, Serra), I’ll go waste 4 Trump Cards on random wild Pokemon to give her a one-time use super attack. And BOY is it super. With STAB, the added Pixilate bonus, and the Pixie Plate bonus (I gave Strawberry the Metronome back), the attack will have a base power of 468, 540 if it’s in a Misty Field! She pretty much becomes this:

Her other moves by the way, are Moonblast (a consistently powerful move to fall back on), Swift (with Pixilate, this is pretty much the strongest never-miss move in existence. Plus, it’s a spread move), and Misty Terrain (see above description of Trump Card). Her weakness? Well, apart from being the slowest member of the team, she has the same problem as Strawberry: Her attacks, while powerful, are all of one type. For now, at least, maybe I’ll give her some other moves when I get the TMs for them. And when I get the Tutor for Hyper Voice… Hehehehehe…

Sylveon here has, by far, the most effort I’ve put in to any Pokemon in this run, maybe even the most out of any Pokemon ever (even though half of it was futile because of that stupid bug that will never be fixed). I hope she doesn’t disappoint. By the way, after all this stuff I’ve gone through with her, I still have yet to come up with a nickname! Any ideas?

[Gaunt]

I'm not very good with nicknames...if i have to choose...maybe Demon? Because i don't trust those eyes

[Farnsworth]

I think Destiny is a good name for a Sylveon.

[CURIE]

Update 42.5: Test battle against Serra

I decided that since I compared Sylveon to Rainbow Dash earlier, I might name her after the pony. Called her Dashie, a common nickname for her (forgot if it was just fan invented or actually used in the show), I didn’t want to straight up call her Rainbow Dash because that’s already a thing in Reborn. I really wanna find an excuse to use that in a future run… I like it as a name, but it seems kinda akward to be named after someone who can go 10 times the speed of sound, when you’re the slowest Pokemon on the team.

Anyway, I’m not going to actually fight Serra to progress the story until episode 15, but I did some test battles to see what she’s like now, before the field effect. The most trouble I got from her was actually her first Pokemon, Cloyster. Yeah, it’s the infamous Skill Link-Shell Smash-Icicle Spear Cloyster. If I led with Pumpkin and started off with screens, it would use Shell Smash and sweep everyone, even with Reflect up. I tried leading with Apollo, who was faster than it and could easily KO it with Thunderbolt, but it had a Focus Sash and would always skip the Shell Smash and go straight to Icicle Spear, which barley kills Apollo every time. I tried going back to buy a Snowball and make Apollo hold it, but apparently I was wrong in thinking it absorbed the damage.

What I ended up having to do was bring out Strawberry and use Cotton Guard twice, using a Berry Ice Cream in between uses, then spam Draining Kiss to victory. I had to try this multiple times though, because that Cloyster got more critical hits in a row than I’ve ever seen in my entire lifetime of playing Pokemon. Next was Abomasnow, who obviously went down in one hit to Braveheart’s Flamethrower, though not before making it hail. Next was Avalugg, and I switched to Pumpkin to use this oppritunity to set up screens. Then came out Dashie. I knew how tanky Avalugg was, so I was going to reduce its bulk to nothing with a single attack. I used Dashie’s signature Nuclear Trump Card attack- and it had Sturdy. NOPE, restart. I’m not wasting such a special move on something that will survive it.

So the next time, after setting up the screens with Pumpkin, I got one Psychic in (to negate Sturdy, ya know) before switching to Braveheart, using Flamethrower, and hoping for the best. Surprisingly, I did get the best, as Flamethrower took it down in one hit. I guess Avalugg’s tankiness is just limited to physical moves, huh. Braveheart had taken an Earthquake coming in, surviving with the help of Pumpkin’s Reflect, and was at too low health to really be useful anymore.

Next up was Lapras. Turns out this thing is the special tank to Avalugg’s physical, even being able to survive a couple of Apollo’s Thunderbolts before confusion haxing him. You know what that means. NUKE TIME! Wait, it SURVIVED????????

Okay, let me take this time to express my issue with Pixilate. Turns out in Reborn, pixilated normal moves have their type changed AFTER damage calculation, rather than before like in the real Pokemon games. This means they can’t hit Ghost types, don’t get STAB, and in the case of Dashie, don’t get a boost from the Pixie Plate. I also didn’t have the Misty Field up (I thought I wouldn’t need it), so that means rather than 540, it only did 260 base damage, which is apparently enough for Lapras to barley survive when at full health. I REALLY hope this is fixed by episode 15.

So, take 27. When Lapras was coming out, I switched back to Pumpkin to set up the Misty Field, THEN went to Dashie to drop the nuke. THAT was enough to one-shot the Lapras. Next stop, Froslass. I had switched Apollo with Jack this time around, hoping he could do something with his super effective priority Shadow Sneak, but alas, it was not to be. Froslass only took half damage, and one shot Jack in return. Dashie had to come back in and clean things up, bypassing Froslass’ Snow Cloak with Swift- oh wait, the Pixilate thing. Right. Okay, Dashie had to come back in and clean things up with Moonblast, hoping she didn’t get haxed out by Snow Cloak. Finally, Cryognal. Dashie probably could have taken it on her own, but I decided to give Strider a chance with Smack Down. Didn’t expect him to OHKO it, but whaddya know, he did.

And that was Serra. Definitely the most trouble I’ve had with a gym battle since episode 13, and I’m kinda nervous since this is WITHOUT a field effect on her side. Please Ame, if you make Serra even harder next episode, at least fix Pixilate!

[Qaaz]

Blizzard field effect on his way

[Gaunt]

Wow you found more bugs in this mono than me in all my runs...as for Serra i hope it'll become a double battle again (those were fun times)

[CURIE]

Update 42.5.1: The Mega Rayquaza Glitch

So episode 14.5 is out, and while it doesn't give a field effect to Serra, it has something even more terrifying: A glitch that makes a very early-on trainer rebattle you, and gives him a LEVEL 78 MEGA RAYQUAZA. The update has since been fixed, but I was like "CHALLENGE ACCEPTED" and refused to redownload the fix until I had challenged and defeated the menace.

First of all, Rayquaza isnt his first Pokemon. It's a level 4 Patrat. Dashie, who was protected by a Focus Sash, would set up the Misty Field first, and once Rayquaza came out, detonate the Nuclear Trump Card. Turns out, I wouldnt even need the Focus Sash. You see, the guy's Patrat always uses Protect twice in a row, unless it fails the second time, in which case he uses it 3 times in a row, and then switches to Rayquaza regardless if you KOed it or not. I just had to predict the switch, and fire the nuke at just the right time, and



*sigh* AME, FIX PIXILATE ALREADY. Yes, I know Dashie will still win because of her Focus Sash, but I was kinda hoping to win this fight without wasting one.

Okay, new plan. I led with Pumpkin, used Reflect, switched to Strawberry, and used Cotton Guard. The way things worked out, the Rayquaza came out just as Strawberry reached maximum defense. At this point, Dragon Ascent only did this much damage:



From there, I just spammed Draining Kiss (didnt need to use Fake Tears, Dragon Ascent did it for me lol). On the very last hit, Reflect Faded, which made Dragon Ascent do a lot more damage:



But it was too little, too late.



With Rayquaza down, all that was left was his aforementioned Patrat and a level 3 Rattata. Needless to say, Strawberry went overlevel from killing what is currently the strongest Pokemon in the world, but that was easily fixed.

[Knight_Teutonic]

Ame might have done this on purpose, for the shits and giggles

[Gaunt]

That probably was just a test to see if Mega Rayquaza worked

[Deleted User]

No it wasn't on purpose. One person on the development team had left Techie Jonathan (the first trainer on the list of trainers to test battles with) with Mega Rayquaza after doing some tests for the functionality of Strong Winds.

[Red_Chaos]

No it wasn't on purpose. One person on the development team had left Techie Jonathan (the first trainer on the list of trainers to test battles with) with Mega Rayquaza after doing some tests for the functionality of Strong Winds.

was that you?

[CURIE]

Update 43: vs the Hax Queen

I’m not sure at the time I’m writing this, if there are any 6th gen events that have been added to earlier in the game. If there are, it doesn’t matter, I’m forced to fight Serra first. Why, you ask. Well, guess why. That’s right, ANOTHER bug. Long story short, the doors to Serra’s Ice arena remained locked even when they were supposed to be open, and while the devs were able to warp me inside, I was unable to leave until Serra was defeated (if I did, the doors would lock behind me and I’d be stuck again). What I had to do, was temporarily teach DiggersbyTho Rock Smash in place of Strength, skip the trainers, and soft reset until I’ve solved the puzzle without taking any damage. And then immediately replaced Rock Smash with Strength again. Thanks Ame for making the HMs forgettable!

Now, about her new field. Serra’s always been considered the queen of hax, what with her snow cloaks and Brightpowders and overreliance on high critical hit ratios. Well now that episode 15’s out, her new field makes matters even worse. Or so it would, if it didn’t have a huge weakness: It can get wiped out by Diggersbytho’s Bulldoze. Sure, it takes half her health out when he does it, but I don’t care. She’s a ground type in an ice type gym battle, it’s not like her fainting is a real setback.

First up was Cyrognal this time, which is different from episode 14. Led with DiggersbyTho and went straight to Bulldoze (it doesn’t hit the Cyrognal, but it still destroys the field). It of course outsped me, and of course used Frost Breath, and of course got a critical hit, and of course the critical hit was boosted by the field. DiggersbyTho didn’t go down, but she was left with less than half of her health, so the destruction of the field did kill her. I sent in Strider next, and like in the test battle, he outsped and defeated the Cryognal with a Smack Down.

Next was Jynx, who wasn’t there before (turns out most of Serra’s team has been changed). It went down in one Flamethrower from Braveheart, who got the Moxie boost and used it to sweep aside everyone until Arorus. SOMEHOW, Arorus was able to tank the +3 Fire Fangs and outlast her, despite using one of those turns to put up a light screen. I had Strawberry come in and finish the job, and the last one up was Froslass. I had been saving Dashie and her Nuclear Trump card for her Lapras, but it turns out that was axed, so obviously I decided I might as well use it now. Oh by the way, I forgot to mention. The bug with Pixilate was fixed , so Trump Card now hits ghost types and does the right amount of damage! Obviously, the attack OHKOed Froslass despite the Light Screen.

Ironically enough, despite being given a field effect, Serra was much easier than in episode 14. I guess that Ame decided to balance out her difficulty with the new field? Well, it didn’t exactly work, since I got rid of the field on the very first turn.

(P.S.) due to some stuff that’s been added/changed in this new version, I’ve modified some of the rules on my first post.

[CURIE]

Update 44: Another Game-Changing Decision

One thing I would have done before Serra, if I had the ability to, would be getting the Experience Share. Oh, you didn’t hear? The experience share is in Spinel town now. Remember that girl whose furniture disappears when you enter her house? Well in episode 15, she sends you on a quest to find her furniture. When you do, she gives you the aforementioned item. What about that 7th street event, then, you ask? The one you mentioned in your first post? Well, that has been changed to a Lucky Egg. I’ll still be making an exception to my rules to pick it up, by the way. Also, my file has been fixed so that the doors to the mirror arena are unlocked again, so I was able to go fight the trainers there for some extra experience before the looming boss fight. Oh, and also I was able to do that sixth sticker quest. Today just happened to be a clear day.

Now anyway, back to the main story of the game. Remember back in the Yureyu building, when I chose not to fight Connal because it was (probably) the choice needed for the secret ending? Well up next is a boss fight that hinges on that choice. If you DID choose to fight Connal then, you fight Sirius now. But I didn’t, so it’s the other way around for me. He leads with Jolteon and I chose Dashie for an eeveelution battle. You’re probably asking, why didn’t I use DiggersbyTho, set up a Swords Dance, and sweep with Bulldoze? Well, because both of Sigmund’s first two Pokemon (Jolteon and Electivire) not only outspeed her, but have moves to hit her super effectively. One could argue that competitively, Jolteon is a “better” eeveelution than Sylveon, but there’s no question it would get its butt kicked in an actual fight with one. It’s faster, yes, but all its attacks are special, which Sylveon eats for breakfast. That’s what happened here. His attacks did little enough damage to let me set up a Misty Field before obliterating him. Next was Electivire. Its physical attacks were a much bigger problem, and it could somehow survive a full-powered field-boosted Moonblast, so I decided to go ahead and use the Nuclear Trump Card.

Luxuray would’ve been the perfect time for DiggersbyTho to switch in and set up a Swords Dance, but it had Intimidate. So instead I brought out Pumpkin and set up screens first. He did his best to take down the foe with Psychic spam, but just barely didn’t make it. So instead, I took my chance to get Diggersby in there, use Swords Dance, and OHKO with Bulldoze. From there, it was just “Press Bulldoze to win” until Elektross, who took 2 Strengths. The final Pokemon was Rotom, who’s immune to literally everything DiggersbyTho had, so I switched out to Jack for a ghost vs ghost fight. Rotom outsped and used Confuse Ray, but Jack fought through the condition to deliver a fatal Phantom Force, and give me the victory.

And now that I’ve won, another choice presents itself to me, that will obviously affect the secret ending. Basically, from the living room there’s two different directions to go in the house. Sirius goes up the stairs, and Sigmund goes towards the kitchen, and I can only stop one of them. I scouted ahead to see which one looked like the “correct” ending, but since there’s no immediate difference in difficulty, it was hard to tell. But I noticed something that tipped me off:

Between the two choices I have here, and the two choices I get had I fought Sigmund back at Yureyu, there are four different ways this scene can play out. 3 of them have one of the girls captured, and I have to go save them with Saphira. But if I chose to stop Sigmund, then Saphira gets captured, and I have to go save her with Laura. I think it’s a safe bet that is the path I’m supposed to take. It’s also the most logical choice, because Laura’s guarding the staircase and would’ve been able to handle Sirius anyway.

It also helps that this story path has Saphira HYPER BEAM Sigmund through a wall.

[CURIE]

Update 45: Raid on the Tanzaan base, Laura edition

Statistically, only about one fourth of the people who played the game have seen the Laura storyline. Realistically, it’s even less, because the majority of people probably jumped at the chance to battle Sigmund back at Yureyu. So I’ll describe the differences between it and the Saphira version as I go along. First of all, the way you get past the first gate. Saphira had her Dragonite tear it open, but Laura accidentally trips over the secret switch to open it. The first two guards inside, Laura puts to sleep, as opposed to Saphira who straight up kills them.

As far as I know the grunts you face are the same with almost the same dialogue, except referring to a “pink haired woman” rather than a purple one. When you get to Saphira’s cell, it turns out she already broke out, but is nowhere to be seen. Things go normally until you meet up with her, where she tells you to hold off a pair of guards while she disables the controls for a gate somewhere. After the short double battle, you can gain access to the room with the PULSE Abra.

Now, as for the scene in this room. In this version of the storyline, when Saphira accuses Sigmund of not caring for the orphans, he gets all weirdly defensive, yelling at her that she “doesn’t know anything” and starts muttering to an imaginary person named “Lizzy”. If you kept up with the community a while ago, you’d know what he’s talking about, but if you didn’t it’s probably not my place to spoil you. Also, when Sirius barges in and says Lin’s coming, Sigmund visibly reacts to the name. I’m betting that “Lin” is the name he was talking about in this scene from so long ago:

Also, if you say no to fighting Connal, he reveals that he’s sticking around Team Meteor due to hearing a name being tossed around that he’s familiar with, and is curious to find out more.

Maybe she even IS “Lizzy”… Would explain why Saphira says the name sounds familiar…

Anyway, the cutscene proceeds as normal, complete with you, Saphira, and Laura getting teleported to the Tanzaan Depths. I had forgotten I would need flash down there, and no one on my team at the time could learn it who had an easily-replaced TM move, so I had to reset and backtrack all the way back to the cove to put Sweetie on my team instead of Apollo. It was a big pain to go all the way there and back, so I think I’ll call it a day here.

[CURIE]

Update 46: Giant Steelix

You’re probably expecting me to jump straight into the giant Steelix battle, aren’t you? Well not yet, there’s still more to this alternate storyline. In the room right next to the one you’re teleported into, you find Laura unconscious. When she wakes up, she goes off on a weird tangent on how she hates the number seven, since it’s so close to her favorite number, 8, yet not quite. She has OCD, if you haven’t noticed by now. She then reveals that she knew Lin from back at the orphanage (there goes my theory of her being “Lizzy”) and was one of THOSE kids. You know, the ones that grow up into serial killers. And she used to bully Laura, and once got in trouble by hooking up Sigmund to his own electro-shock therapy machine (HEY I SUDDENLY LIKE THIS GIRL), and was never seen again. Did she escape? Did the Doctor kill her? Well considering she’s alive now, it’s pretty clear it’s the former. She then leaves to look for Saphira.

From there, things go pretty much normally, except that instead of you and Saphira, it’s you, Saphira and Laura. But at some point, you hear Laura scream as soon as she walks offscreen, and when you go to investigate, you find her unconscious, having been whacked in the face by the monster (and somehow still alive? BS!). Then the Steelix itself appears, and it’s battle time.

As for that battle, well, Dashie’s Nuclear Trump Card wrecked it. …Is what I’d be saying, if it wasn’t part steel type. Oh well, it was worth a shot. At least it did enough damage for the rest of the team to take it down, since they all outsped it. The battle was pretty uneventful actually, after the failed nuke, it was just a pattern of me sending out a pokemon, getting some damage in, dying in one hit, and sending out the next pokemon, until it died. In case you were curious, it was DiggersbyTho that landed the finishing blow.

Saphira then took control of the thing as usual, but instead of ditching you to ride on it some more, she takes Laura home and leaves the PULSE Abra to you. It’s looking like the story’s gonna go normally from this point on.

[CURIE]

Update 47: PULSE Abra

It’s been quite a while since I updated last, hasn’t it? Yeah, that’s mainly because I was busy with college stuff. That, and I was kinda putting it off out of laziness. As for the titular Abra, Dashie’s Nuclear Trump Card wrecked that thing! …Is what I’d be saying, if it wasn’t part Steel type. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Shame, since Dashie was tanking those special moves so well. I switched her out with Braveheart, who managed to get in a Flamethrower before dying to Hyper Beam, and DiggersbyTho finished it off with Bulldoze while it was recharging. And as I predicted, the following cutscene was the same as in any other storyline.

Next up is the battle with Noel, which is considered by most to be the second-hardest gym battle in the game. So needless to say, I spent some time grinding everyone up to the level cap. No changes to the movesets this time around, and it looks like that’ll be the norm from now on. As my Pokemon reach the mid to upper 50s, they’ve pretty much already learned all the moves I’m interested in them using, at least through leveling up. Well, that is, aside from one very big and important move that DiggersbyTho will be learning in the near future. I think you can guess what it is.

Unfortunately, it’ll be a while before my next update as well. I want to battle Noel in sunny weather, and my game isn’t getting any of that this week.

[CURIE]

Update 48: Noel

(No, I wasn’t putting it off out of laziness this time. It seriously took my game this long to give me a day with strong sunlight)

According to Ame, the trend of giving old leaders new fields each episode stopped with Serra. Noel’s going to keep his grassy field, so I have no qualms going in without waiting until episode 16. As for strategy, I considered teaching Braveheart a move to turn the grass into a sea of flames, but the problem is that it would also hurt the rest of my team, especially Apollo. So instead, I waited for a sunny day and went in with Braveheart spamming the usual Flamethrower. It doesn’t change the field, but it does increase its power by catching the grass on fire. Combined with the free sun and STAB, that’s a 3.375x multiplier, meaning that attack goes from 90 power to a whopping 303.75! What’s more is that, after two Moxie boosts, Fire Fang does even more damage despite having a lower base power!

Despite this ridiculous amount of sheer strength, it was just barely not enough to one-shot Wigglytuff, Noel’s first Pokemon. So I went all the way back to Reborn City, went to the highest floor of the department store, and bought a fire gem (actually I bought a couple, in case I want to use more later). That was enough to take Wigglytuff down in one hit (455.625 base power by the way, up there with Dashie’s Nuclear trump card), and next up was the infamous Cinccino. This thing is famous for its multi-strike attacks, one of which is Rock Blast, coupled with its ability Skill Link, which makes those moves always hit all 5 times. It’s pretty darn fast too. If it were to outspeed Braveheart, it would have surely one shot her. Thankfully it didn’t, and instead got one shot itself by the super flamethrower.

Next was Porygon Z. Also outsped, also OHKOed. At this point, Fire Fang had become stronger than Flamethrower, not that it mattered. The fourth ‘mon was Swellow, who is also infamous. Its whole shtick is that it holds a burn orb, which activates its Guts ability, AND powers up its Facade attack, making it almost as powerful offensively as my superpowered Pyroar. What’s more is that it’s REALLY fast, even faster than Braveheart. However, since the Burn Orb takes a turn to activate, its Guts ability wasn’t activated yet and it had to go for U-turn, being switched out for Girafarig who promptly died in one hit to Braveheart’s power.

Unfortunately, this is where Braveheart’s reign of terror ends. By killing Girafarig, she went overlevel and I had to switch her out, while that dreaded Swellow was still alive. I went to Pumpkin to set up Reflect, and with it he tanked a U-turn surprisingly well. It switched Swellow out again this time with the only other team member still alive: The hated Clefable. This thing is a huge tank and can make itself even harder to kill with Cosmic Power, and its Magic Guard ability makes it that only sheer brute force can damage it. Throw in Wish, and this thing is a nightmare. It also knows Moonblast, which means I could have benefitted from setting up a Light Screen, but I didn’t. Instead, I used Misty Field, switched to Dashie, and tried to fire the Nuclear Trump Card. But alas, Clefable got two Moonblasts in, both boosted by the field, the latter of which got a lucky critical hit, and Dashie went down without landing a hit.

I reset and started the battle again, and it went the same until the part where I sent Pumpkin out against Swellow. This time, predicting the U-turn into a special attacker, I used Light Screen instead of Reflect. I predicted wrong, it used Brave Bird. Suprisingly, Pumpkin managed to survive even without the Reflect, however now Swellow had its Guts activated and was easily capable of one-shotting my entire team, even with reflect.

I used Pumpkin’s last move to set up reflect anyway, and he predictably went down immediately after. Unsure of what to do, I tried Apollo, and to my surprise he outsped the monster and killed it with Thunderbolt. Boy am I glad I didn’t give up on him back when he was a crappy Helioptile. Oh and the sunlight hurt him a bit but who cares. Now it was time for the final showdown, the rematch between the tanky faries. Not wanting to power up Clefable’s Moonblast like I did last time, I took a chance and dropped the nuke without the misty field. Before I could fire it, however, “Nomos” used Cosmic Power, and just barely survived. I tried finishing it off with Moonblast. No dice, Ultra Potion.

I switched to DiggersbyTho, who took a Moonblast to the face and ate it up like a boss. Set up Swords Dance, but by this point Clefable’s Leftovers paired with the field had brought it back to full health. Strength left Clefable with just under half HP, which was restored to just over half HP. Just then, my light screen faded. DiggersbyTho can now no longer tank Moonblasts casually. Do I use another Swords Dance, and risk getting killed by the next Moonblast? Or do I use Strength now and risk it just barely surviving? I went with option B, because I figured that if I used Strength now and it did survive, I would have the opening to Swords Dance while Noel used the Ultra Potion (assuming my girl didn’t die from the next Moonblast). Turns out Strength was enough to kill it anyway.

Now if only I had thought to use one more common Candy on Braveheart. She would have totally made this the easiest gym battle ever.

[CURIE]

Update 49: The Adventurine Region

Remember how Braveheart could have completely swept Noel, but I had to hold back due to the level restriction? Well, we have a battle against Fern up next, which also takes place on the grassy field, and I still have some sunlight left today, so let’s try to do that against him. His first Pokemon, Fraxure, may be resistant to fire moves, but he went down in one hit anyway. Yes, even without a fire gem. Krookodile got OHKOed too. And at that point Fire Fang had surpassed Flamethrower, so you can guess how the rest went. Only thing of note that happened was that Braveheart wanted to learn Overheat, but I turned it down. Oh and Serperior outsped me and paralyzed me, but it didn’t matter. Braveheart is already level 58, way ahead of the others and almost at the level cap, but it was worth it to sweep Fern with only one Pokemon. I didn’t even need to use the light shard the game gives you right after the fight.

Between the random trainers on Route 1 and the Bouffalants/Tauroses I needed to fight, I took the oppritunity to get DiggersbyTho to level 57, where it finally learned the move. You know, THAT move. I shouldn’t need to tell you, you should understand what move I’m talking about. Not much else was noteworthy about those battles.

[CURIE]

Update 50: A whole lotta nothing

As the title suggests, not much of note happened today. I spent most of my exploring through the Route 1 and its neighboring forests, and the only thing I have to say about the battles is that Sassy seems to have started going the way of Apollo before he evolved. I think I’m gonna have to replace her eventually, and I think I know just the Pokemon for the job (except that it’s way far in the future).

I got the itemfinder, so from this point on I won’t have any shortage of random little items, especially shards. Speaking of small random items, I didn’t mind giving Nyu all my candies and Ice Cream in exchange for his Honey, rather than backtracking all the way to the city to buy some. This is because in the far future, I’ll need to get rid of them all anyway in order to unlock a secret cutscene that will probably be required for the secret ending. I also did all the Pinsir/Heracross events too, but obviously only for the experience and items (and the 8th sticker). I’m not allowed to actually add either of them to my team.

Speaking of additions to the team… well, actually it’s more like additions to the PC. In this new area I caught Skiddo, who I then evolved into Gogoat since he was already over the evolving level, and five Flabebes. Why five? Because as I mentioned before and you may have forgotten, I want to include all the different forms of the 6th gen Pokemon in my run. I came prepared with five Floral Charms, and kept soft resetting until I had one of each color (which by the way, is different in Reborn than it is the real games. Instead of red, blue, yellow, white, and orange, they’re red, blue, green, purple, and black). Since these Flabebes were all past the evolving level, I took the time to turn them all into Floettes. To make them Florgeses, however, I’m gonna need five Shiny Stones, and I don’t have a single one right now. And yes, I remembered to pick up the Oddishweed while I was doing all this.

Don’t worry, next time I’ll actually make story progress. I promise.

P.S. I found another bug. When you talk to the left half of the Ice Rock, it gives you the text for talking to the Moss Rock.

[CURIE]

Update 51: Faster than a speeding Pumpkin

Before episode 15, I was planning to skip the Beldum event. You don’t get any items out of it, and the Beldum itself is only level 1 so the experience you get from it is pointless. But in episode 15 Ame changed it a bit, and now a whole optional cutscene occurs when you trigger it, which forever changes the look of Aya’s home. I’m thinking that maybe, you will need to have done this to unlock another event in the future. Maybe it’ll even be part of a secret storyline and be required for the secret ending. So I backtracked all the way to the city, only to realize that Ame made it that you can only do the event later in the game. I’m assuming it’s either after beating Radomus, or after beating Luna.

It’s not all bad though, because while I was down there, I went and stocked up on supplies, particularly Oran Berries. After trading away all of my Ice Cream for honey, I needed a new kind of healing item, and that replacement is Moomoo Milk, which you get by feeding Oran Berries to the Miltanks along Route 1. They restore 10 more points than Strawberry Ice Cream, and due to the whole Oran Berry trade thing, are much, much cheaper. The drawback is they take an annoyingly long time to get.

I think I’ve spent enough time doing non-story stuff now, so I moved on through the Vanhanen Hedge Maze (which I never noticed until now, was a veritable treasure trove of hidden items) and reached the castle for my first encounter with Gossip Gardevoir and battle with Cain. I was hoping that since I went all this way in the game without joining either the Magma or Aqua gangs, that I would get some special dialogue from her in place of “you joined a street gang? Didn’t think you were the type”. But no, the dialogue is exactly the same but with that one line cut out.

But anyway, as for the battle. First of all, it was on the chess field even though we were in the castle’s lobby and not on one of its chess boards. I dunno, something about that seems off. But it helps me out, namely it boost DiggersbyTho’s Strength and the Meowstic sibling’s Psychic, so I’m not complaining. With this (much needed) boost, Sassy swept not only Muk and Nidoking, but also Galvantula since the field gives her attack Rock-type damage as well. When Samurott came out, I went to her brother to set up screens (I forgot to bring Jack or Apollo on my team) and then had to heal because that thing had Night Slash. It took two Psychics to bring down, and next up was Absol who predictably got destroyed by Dashie. Next up was Gengar, and I went back to Pumpkin to try and take advantage of Psychic’s buff one last time. I expected Gengar to outspeed me and use Shadow Ball or something, but I hoped that the Light Screen would let him survive. But to my surprise, Pumpkin was faster and OHKOed it. Sure, he was 4 levels higher, but I didn’t think that would make so much of a difference. If Pumpkin’s this fast on his own, is Prankster really necessary?

[CURIE]

Update 52: Strawberry’s successor

Story-wise, it’s quite the jump from Gardevoir getting captured to fighting El’s Ditto-become-God, but the truth is that nothing really happens in between that’s worth talking about. It’s all just a bunch of cutscenes, puzzles, walking around, minable rocks, and like, a TON of hidden Star Pieces. Oh, and a Shiny Stone, so I guess now that means I can evolve one of the five Floettes. What’s really important, though is the choice you get right before the boss battle. If you side with El, you’re allowed to lose the boss battle and the story will continue. But if you choose Radomus, you HAVE to win. And as you probably know, that battle is Solaris’ Garchomp all over again. It’s a safe bet that you have to choose Radomus for the secret ending, but even if you don’t, I refuse to leave this challenge be. I’m determined to win this.

First of all, Strawberry won’t be able to take this guy down like he did Garchomp and Mega Rayquaza. Those guys were physical attackers, which played into Strawberry’s stats and Cotton Guard move. Not to mention he had type advantage over both of them. This Arceus is strictly a special attacker. So instead, I first tried the good ol’ Nuclear Trump Card. I Led with Pumpkin who set up a Light Screen, and with it was able to survive long enough to set up a Misty Field. When he died, Dashie came in, ate up a Judgement to the face like a boss, and fired the nuke. With the Pixie Plate and the field effect, it left Arceus with about a quarter of his health left. Since Dashie tanked his special attacks so well, I tried finishing it off with a Moonblast or two, and whattya know, it only required one. I had this whole strategy planned out with Toxic and Embargo and Focus Sashes and a Quick Claw, but all of it wasn’t needed, because Sylveon is that awesome.

And just like the previous two times when I killed a titan of Reborn with a single fairy, I’ll provide evidence.

Now that I have easy access to the city, I went back to restock on supplies (and get rich off of all those Star Pieces). Next time, let’s see how I fare when both I and my opponent can use the field to our advantage.

[CURIE]

Update 53: Radomus

As per usual, I grinded everyone up to the level cap, even Braveheart. While I usually leave her a level under the level cap due to her boosted exp, it doesn’t really matter this time since I don’t plan on using her. Radomus’ most common and strongest attack, Psychic, turns into a rock type move on this field and hits her super effectively. She did get some action in this gym though, particularly against that one trainer with the Beldum and two Mentangs. She swept his entire team before he got to use the dreaded move.

Starting off the battle against the main man himself, I led with Jack and Pumpkin, Pumpkin obviously to set up screens. Radomus’ team is based around Trick Room, which is used by his Reuniclus, so I wanted to take it down before it got a chance to use it. I used Shadow Sneak, hoping it would OHKO, but it didn’t. Luckily, though, it didn’t use Trick Room but instead Calm Mind, allowing me to take it down next turn with the same move. Meanwhile, Gallade used knock off on Pumpkin after he used Reflect, so that means his Light Screen will now only last 5 turns instead of his usual 8. And the next turn, he was KOed by the Gallade. Out came Metagross as Reuniclus’ replacement, so I went with DiggersbyTho to replace Pumpkin. Being a grass type, Jack was able to resist Earthquake, but there was another big risk to me using DiggersbyTho: That Gallade was still out and would easily one-shot her if given the chance. I used Shadow Sneak on it, hoping that if it wasn’t enough to OHKO, DiggersbyTho would outspeed it and Earthquake would finish it off. The latter of those two options happened, and Gallade went down while Metagross was left with about 20% hp. Next up was Malamar.

I knew Metagross would go down this turn, so I aimed a Phantom Force at him while DiggersbyTho used another Earthquake. Metagross was replaced by Slowking, just in time to take the attack and also go down. It didn’t hurt that Jack got to avoid getting hit by another earthquake, either. Malamar almost went down too, but Radomus Hyper Potioned it. Now it was just Malamar and the famous Gardevoir. I took a break from spamming Earthquake to use Swords Dance, and aimed a final Phantom Force at the leader’s ace. I probably should have used Earthquake again, because Malamar took the oppritunity to use Superpower and KO DiggersbyTho. And since it’s ability is Contrary, its attack and defense went UP and not down from the attack. I was torn on who I should send out next: Slurpuff would tank physical hits better, but take longer to take Malamar down due to its defense being raised. Dashie would easily OHKO it, but it has boosted attack and she’s a special tank. Since the guy was on his last two Pokemon anyway, I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go with the more risky option in Dashie. I aimed a Moonblast at the Malamar, and just then my Light Screen went down. Just in time for Gossip Gardevoir to hit me in the face with her own Moonblast. Despite being a special wall, Dashie almost died from it, and if Malamar outsped her it would have doubtlessly killed her. Thankfully, it didn’t, and Malamar went down. Phantom Force then landed on Gardevoir and critted, and she went down in one hit as well. I wonder if it would have OHKOed her if it didn’t crit… Not that it matters, if she survived I would have finished her off with Shadow Sneak. And if she survived THAT, and killed Dashie, I’d still have 3 more Pokemon.

[CURIE]

Update 54: I finally get a bike

Now’s finally the point in the story where I’m required to choose either Team Magma or Team Aqua, and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t make a difference in regards to the secret ending which one I pick. The only real differences are which Pokemon you get out of it, and whether you get the TM for Sunny Day or Rain Dance first. But since none of the Pokemon involved are sixth gen, and I’m so far into the story that I’ll get one TM very shortly after getting the other, even that doesn’t matter to me. So I went with team Aqua, since I went with Team Magma in my first playthrough of this game.

Not much is to be said about the quests leading up to gaining access to 7th street, because I’m massively overleveled at this point. But in case you’re reading this and had no idea, you should know the Magikarp quest can be continued once you join one of the gangs. Just south of Team Magma’s alley, there’s a member who claims to have paid for the pokemon and then had it stolen from him by a Team Aqua member. That member is in Lapis Ward, and if you talk to him he says he sold it on 7th street. You’re going to have to fight one of those two guys, by the way. Which one depends on what team you chose, but the overall result is the same.

During these quests, the game forces you to aquire a Ponyta (Chinchou if you picked Team Magma) and a Carvahna (Houndour if you picked Team Magma). Obviously, I released them as soon as I reached a PC.

Most importantly though, I finally unlocked the sidequest for getting a bike! Yeah, if you hadn’t heard, I’ve been playing the entire game up to this point on foot.

P.S. dunno why I didn’t think of doing this earlier, but since Braveheart is still the only member without a held item I went and bought her a Scope Lens.

[CURIE]

Update 55: 7th Street

Even with the levels back to where they should be, the battles don’t have much to talk about. The only difficulty I had in 7th street was when I fought using the Meowstic siblings, due to how mediocre they’ve become. However, there’s a lot to talk about down here that other than battles.

First of all, the move tutors down there gave me something cool: Remember how Apollo had Bulldoze and never used it because it sucked really bad? Well now I was able to replace it with Electroweb! It’s like Bulldoze, except more powerful due to being special and having STAB! Problem is, Apollo is now in the same boat as my two fairies: He only has moves of one type.

On a related note, I got the TM for Explosion and temporarily taught it to Jack in place of Trick or Treat, since, you know, Trick or Treat doesn’t work. I also got the Charchoal, finally an item for Braveheart other than the Scope Lens.

Next stop, the Nature guy. Remember how much of a physical tank Strawberry is? Well guess what, his nature lowers his defense. I needed that changed ASAP. And while I was at it, I gave Dashie a nature that boosts her special attack, Pumpkin a nature that boosts his defense, and DiggersbyTho a nature that boosts her attack.

Then, there’s the whole deal about illegally buying the Pokemon. There are two NPCs selling Pokemon, and one of them is part of the Magikarp quest. He sells you Magikarp for two Blue Shards, but then some weirdo who calls himself “Corin-Rouge” comes in and steals it from you. As of episode 15, this is where the Magikarp quest ends. However, the guy who sold it to you hints that you can find the crook after returning to the city in episode 16.

The other salesman sells the Pokemon from the cages in Blackstream Factory. As I mentioned before, you need to buy all of them in order to get the Lucky Egg, and as I also mentioned before, I’ll make an exception for them despite the fact that none of them are sixth gen Pokemon. I of course released them all shortly after buying them.

Lastly, I found yet ANOTHER bug:

The item it’s referring to is Blackglasses, but I already picked it up. It’ll keep saying it’s there even though it’s not.