MonoGen challenge

[CURIE]

Update 56: Pre-Luna Preperations

After falling for the most obvious trap in the world, going through a stealth section (hey Ame, you should make it that you have your Pokemon taken from you during that section, it’ll make more sense as to why you can’t just beat the guards up), solving what’s probably the most obscure puzzle in the game, and sitting through a cutscene that disappoints in its lack of a climatic boss battle, I’m ready to go back to Iolia valley. The battles in that cultist place were tougher than the ones in 7th street, but the holy field helped me more than it did them. Psychic moves boosted? Sassy, Pumpkin, Strider. Fairy moves? Strawberry and Dashie (as if Dashie’s pixilated attacks weren’t already wrecking balls). Special normal moves? Braveheart has that covered with Hyper Voice.

Before I go to the “valley of the shadow of death”, however, there’s even more stuff to do around 7th street that I’ve just unlocked. I fought and defeated that old hag Craudburry, who got one-shot by all my attacks despite having higher leveled Pokemon than anything I have faced in a while. I finally got the TM for Rain Dance from it, and taught it to Pumpkin instead of Misty Terrain. After that I was able to rematch the leader of Team Magma, and boy did the new TM help with him. I then got the TM for Sunny Day from him. I’ve been wanting these moves for a while, and intend to have Pumpkin use one or the other depending on the situation. I can think of a certain gym leader in the future who will make me really glad I have Rain Dance in particular…

Anyway, I can also do the Order of the Helix stuff now. That’s why I made a point to get a Helix Fossil earlier despite not being able to use it, because they won’t give you any missions if you don’t own one. I had to make two more exceptions to my sixth gen only rule, to gather the messiah and the slayer of trees. This was so that I could aquire the fossils for Amaura and Tyrunt, who ARE sixth gen Pokemon. I may or may not use Arorus, just like I may or may not use that shiny Noibat.

Speaking of Shinies, remember that woman who gives you the Chespin egg?

Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll ever use Chesnaught.

I used my new Lucky Egg to bring everyone to the level cap, which is something I normally don’t do until I’m just about to face the gym leader. But since Iolia Valley only has one trainer other than her, and since he’s a toughie, there wasn’t much point in me waiting.

Oh, and I checked the Beldum event, and it still didn’t work. I guess you have to wait until you’ve beaten Luna.

[CURIE]

Update 57: Bennet

As mentioned earlier, Bennet is the only trainer in Iolia Valley other than Luna herself, so not much happened of note before I got to him. Actually no, something significant did happen: I caught a Carbink. You may notice that put it in “not yet trained” with Amaura and Shiny Noibat. That’s because if you look at Diance’s Pokedex entry, it says she was once a Carbink that underwent a sudden mutation. I can 98.65% guarantee you that’s how Diance is to be obtained in Reborn, and when I do get her I’m going to use her on my team due to her being the only 6th gen mega in existence. As of now, at least…

Anyway, on to the only non-gym leader battle in the valley: Vs Bennet. Since you need Rock Smash to go through Iolia Valley, I needed to sacrifice a slot for Slavetho. My team of 5 against him consisted of Braveheart, Strider, Pumpkin, Strawberry, and of course, Dashie with her Nuclear Trump Card loaded (or I guess you could say unloaded). He led with Larvesta, so I sent Strider and OHKOed it with Smack Down. Yanmega was next, but sorry to say Smack Down only almost killed him. Despite being rock type and not weak to signal beam, Strider was one-shot by the attack since apparently the field boosts it. Pumpkin came out to set up screens, and the increased Special Defense only allowed him to barely survive Signal Beam. I had to sacrifice SlaveTho in order to get Braveheart in, and she proceeded to sweep the rest of his team. That battle started out really intense, but then turned disappointingly easy really quickly. I can’t wait to see what he’s like as an Elite Four member.

Since Rock Smash is a forgettable TM in this game, I could theoretically go back, get a better team, teach one of them rock smash, come back to Luna, and replace Rock Smash. But before I do that, let me try Luna with the team I have right now and see how I fare.

[CURIE]

Update 58: Luna

First of all, sorry for the delay. You see, I was in the middle of doing the stuff that will be the events of update 59, which took forever, and then when I came back here to check something, I realized I never posted update 58 even though I had already written it all long ago. My bad.

For round one I led with Pumpkin, not just to set up screens, but also to use Sunny Day. The sunny weather nullifies the effects of the darkness field, so- wait, it doesn’t? Yep, I found ANOTHER glitch. According to the field effects guide, Sunny Day is supposed to turn the Darkness field into a Crystal field temporarily, but in episode 15 it just doesn’t.

Okay, round one take two. I didn’t even bother with the screens this time and led with Braveheart, to melt her Carpenter before it could set up Stealth Rocks. Unfortunately I couldn’t keep the Moxie streak going, because the Bandersnatch was next. Now that the threat of Stealth Rocks was gone I was able to switch to Pumpkin and use dual screens, and then switched to Strider to Water Pulse it. Water Pulse did a disappointingly low amount of damage, requiring 4 hits to take down the foe. I really need to get a new water move. But on the bright side, Bandersnatch destroyed its own field effect with Earthquake, so the Sunny Day glitch isn’t all that bad. When It was about to go down, however, Luna switched it with the March Hare, who Confuse Rayed me. Strider fought through the confusion and almost killed it with another Water Pulse, but I knew the Hyper Potion was coming and didn’t want to risk Strider wasting a turn. I switched to Dashie.

Whatever move the March Hare was gonna use next, it wasn’t a status move, because Dashie actually outsped it and OHKOed it with Moonblast. Just then, my Reflect faded, and Bandersnatch was coming back in. Not wanting to risk my specially defensive fairy falling to a Physical attacker (with Iron head), I replaced her with my physically defensive fairy, Strawberry. Two Cotton Guards and a Fake Tears later, he had the foe in a hopeless situation, although Luna prolonged the inevitable by wasting all her Hyper Potions. Humpty Dumpty was next, and I remembered it had physical attacks, so I decided to stay in and two-shot it with Play Rough. But remember how play rough lowers the opponent’s attack? And how Humpty Dumpty has Contrary? Yeah, I ended up boosting its attack, but it didn’t really matter because I was at +6 defense anyway and knocked it out next turn.

Jubjub Bird was next, and it almost died in one hit to Play Rough. Just as I was about to finish it off, Luna Switched it out with the Cheshire Cat. I sent out Dashie for a climactic battle of eeveelutions, and she got Toxiced coming in. No matter, I fired the Nuclear Trump Card and- no wait, I got confused and hurt myself. Hold on, lemme just full heal her and try again. Nope, same thing happened. How about I skip the full heal and just try again. No? How about now? No? How about now? Finally! Good thing Dashie’s such a huge tank, and that Cheshire’s only attacking move is Dark Pulse. As expected, the nuke OHKOed the inferior eeveelution without even having the Misty Field boost. Jubjub bird came back, and since it was 5 against 1 anyway I decided to stay in and see if Dashie could finish the job despite the confusion. She… kinda did. Jubjub outsped her and KOed her with Brave Bird, but also died to the recoil damage.

Now that I’ve kinda awkwardly won my Eclipse Badge, I finally have access to another actually good move for Strider in Dark Pulse. I replaced Lick, because Dark is super effective against the same types as Ghost, it’s a far stronger move, Strider’s special attack is higher than his physical attack, and in the later game I don’t find myself using the sudden immunity to normal/fighting moves anymore.

[CURIE]

Update 59: Final Preperations

The moment I progress the story any farther than it is now, I will be locked out of pretty much the entire game I’ve explored up to this point and be stuck in a new, smaller area. For that reason, there’s a bunch of things I want to get done before I pass through the point of no return.

But before any of that, check out another glitch I found!

You can walk around anywhere in the room where you’re supposed to find Sableye. Once you use Dark Pulse to turn the place dark, however, the walls become solid again, so don’t get yourself stuck.

Okay so first of all, I went and combed pretty much the whole game with the Itemfinder. I got some stuff from it that could potentially be useful, including another Shiny Stone for one of my Floettes, and a lot more things that aren’t and I sold for tons of money. Also while mining I found a Dread Plate, which will make a good replacement for Strider’s Splash Plate until he gets a better water move. I especially need tons of money at this point, because I went to the department store and bought a bunch of friendship berries. I used them to get rid of the unneeded EVs my team has accumulated (Attack EVs on Apollo, for example), and spent some time replacing them with EVs that I’ll actually use. While doing this, I used the exp share to evolve all the Pokemon that I can so far in my box. Yes, even the Amaura and Shiny Noibat. So that means I had to buy extra friendship berries just in case I ever decide to actually train them. And finally, I grinded the whole main team up to the level cap of 70. Again, not something I usually do until I’m about to face a gym leader, but I’m already doing so much grinding anyways so why not.

Oh, and I also went and did the Beldum and Rotom sidequests. Obviously I didn’t catch them. I explained why I wanted to do the Beldum quest already, and the Rotom quest gave me some good exp with all those Electrodes. While doing that, I found another glitch:

So now I think I’m ready, but if you think there’s anything I’m forgetting I suggest you speak up now. Next time, I’m going to enter the second half of the game, and when I do I won’t be able to come back for a very long time.

P.S. remember the “Rare Candy” hallucinogenic drug that you can trade for a Piplup? I found out that it sells for a ridiculous amount of money- as much money as 3 gold nuggets! I didn’t sell it, though, because there’s only one in the game so far, and I never know if it’ll be required for another event that involves a sixth gen ‘mon.

[CURIE]

Update 60: Circus Tour

It seems I’m as prepared as I’m gonna get. I passed the Agate threshold, and now I won’t be returning to any of those previous areas until episode 16 comes out. And who knows how long that will take. The thing I’ll probably miss the most, is the lack of easy and cheap access to Moomoo milk. But it’s not all bad, because there’s a shop in Agate Circus that introduces me to a new source of healing: The ultra potion. It’s not that much stronger, though, only 20 more hp points.

Other than healing items that Ame clearly made up on the spot while sleep deprived one night, the circus offers an actually good Water move for Strider in Water Pledge. I’ll probably never utilize its field changing capabilities, not only because I don’t have anyone else that can learn any other pledge, but because I don’t think my team would really benefit from any of the fields they make. Also, if I simply wanted to make the field something other than what it is, I have other moves for that.

Also, I WOULD have gotten uproar on Dashie, but she can’t learn it for some reason. First of all, that’s disappointing. Second of all, WHY? She can learn Echoed Voice and Hyper Voice, so why not Uproar? It just seems dumb. And no I’m not just butthurt that I don’t get a base 90 Pixilatable move to make my walking nuke shooter even more deadly or anything!

Next stop on the circus tour is the Hidden Power guy. Strider’s hidden power is Water, which means I could have conceivably had a slightly stronger water move than Water Pulse long ago! Not sure if the extra 10 base power would justify losing the ability to confuse, though. DiggersbyTho’s power is Rock, which would be AWESOME if it weren’t a special move and she weren’t a special attacker. Braveheart’s is ghost… Meh. Dashie’s is Electric, which is interesting in the fact that she could have a move other than Fairy type. Buuuut I don’t think I wanna go for it, the four all fairy moves she has are just too good. Apollo’s is also Ghost, also meh. Pumpkin’s is Dragon, completely useless. Jack’s is poison, which again sounds cool except he’s also a physical attacker. Strawberry’s is fire, also meh.

But what got me interested is Sassy’s: Rock type. I’ve been noticing a need for a rock type move on my team lately, and since Strider’s a special attacker his physical Smack Down just won’t cut it. And remember how I said Sassy was starting to fall behind the others? Yeah, this is exactly what she needs to stay relevant again! But the question is: Which move to replace? She’s got Psychic, obviously I won’t get rid of that, and Signal beam to take down Darks and other Psychics, and Charge Beam which is a necessity for someone with subpar stats like hers, and Shadow Ball for ghosts. I ended up dumping shadow ball, because I already have a ghost type.

Next stop, the Ice Cream stand! You see, there’s an event in the future, probably required for the secret ending, where you need to have Blue Moon Ice Cream as the only food-type item in your bag. To get it, you need to go to the ice cream vendor and repeatedly enter and exit his shop menu. Eventually, the rare flavor will appear, and it’s very expensive (20,000). Despite only needing one, I bought 4 because they’re powerful healing items in emergency situations. I could have gotten them an easier way earlier in the game, by spam buying ice cream at vending machines, but the problem is I couldn’t buy vanilla because the first one you buy will always be vanillite. And spam buying chocolate is too expensive for my taste. Get it? Taste? Because it’s… nevermind.

And today’s final attraction is: the “test your strength” thingy. The grand prize is the TM for Swagger, which I want, but there’s a problem. The second place prize is a pokedoll, but the first time you get it it’s not a pokedoll but an actual Clefairy. And obviously, I can’t have that, so I had to keep soft resetting until I got an “over 9000” before getting a “powerful”. It took me 12 resets and 104 tries total, and on the final reset I tried 27 times. But I got a “nice” 5 times and got my money back each time, so that means I spent a total of 7,700 on this TM. I taught it to Pumpkin in place of the weather moves, but if I need to go back to Rain Dance or Sunny Day I can easily do it since I have the TMs for all three. I also have the TM for hail, but I seriously doubt I’ll ever use it.

[CURIE]

Update 61: Route 2

New area means new Pokemon to catch! Two new Pokemon, in fact: Bergmite and Hawlucha. Avalugg it a great physical tank and Hawlucha is a powerful sweeper, but I already have both of those on my team so I don’t think I’ll be using them. As for Route 2’s infamous Crustle rock hopping puzzle, I honestly didn’t find it very hard, just tedious. Well, actually, there is ONE part I have trouble with:

For the life of me, I can’t figure out how to get to that rock up there! It’s infuriating, because the itemfinder says there’s an item on it! I bet it’s an amazing item…

Anyway, there were only a few trainers along the route, so there isn’t much else to talk about here. I got to Fiore mansion no problem and got the battle pass, so next time I’m gonna fight Samson. People say that episode 15 was one of the shortest episodes of Reborn story wise, but I think the one is Samson (12, I think?) holds the record for all time shortest. Just a couple cutscenes, a tedious puzzle, and a gym battle. Not even a minor boss battle. I think this may be the only episode without one of those.

[CURIE]

Update 62: Samson

I always seem to use Pumpkin in my gym matches, so this time I’m gonna challenge myself to go a match without his dual screens. I went in with his sister since she’s psycic type, the two fairies for obvious reasons, Strider since he can become Psychic type, and Jack since he’s a ghost type. My sixth pick might seem strange to you, however: DiggersbyTho, a normal type. She may be at a type disadvantage, but she's fast and can take advantage of the field since her ability is Huge Power, which makes her always get high rolls on the high striker. I have temporarily replaced Strength with Bounce, since it’s super effective against Sampson’s type.

He starts with Haryiama and I led with Sassy, and started out with a Charge Beam hoping to get the attack boost. It’s a good thing I did, because the opponent’s Heavy Slam got a “Powerful” and almost killed me. Sassy responded with a Charge Beam-boosted Psychic, which one shot it. Next up was Mienshao, who outsped Sassy and killed her with U-turn. Lucario came in to replace it, so I sent out DiggersbyTho and used Earthquake. To my dismay, the Lucario outsped me and used Swords Dance. Why would I be dismayed at it using a status move you ask? Because it had a Focus Sash and, despite my Earthquake getting a “Powerful”, I couldn’t take it out before it got another hit in. Now I’ve got a +2 Lucario who’s got type advantage and is faster, and no one to switch into. I decided to just take the hit and die, and send out Jack… but then Samson decided to prolong the inevitable with a Hyper Potion. The thing didn’t restore all of its health, so when DiggersbyTho hit it with another “Powerful” Earthquake, its Focus Sash didn’t activate, so it went down. I got lucky there.

Next was Mienshao, who I knew for a fact was faster than Diggersby. I switched to Strawberry and used Cotton Guard, expecting the U-turn, but instead I got Brick Break, which was “weak”. It still did about a quarter damage, though, because critical hit. I went for another Cotton Guard, but then found out it had Poison Jab, which ALSO got a crit. I barely survived it, but guess what, it poisoned me and the poison was enough to take Strawberry down before I could heal. I knew there was only one guy I could use against this: Strider. I went for Extrasensory, hoping that it would use Brick Break and not U-turn (both are effective against Strider before he changes to Psychic), but as it turns out Mienshao outspeeds even him and used… poison jab? It did over half damage and poisoned me, but I’m not complaining because Brick Break would have KOed me. Oh, and Extrasensory took it down in one hit.

Next was Hawlucha. I was pretty sure it would outspeed DiggersbyTho, I didn’t want to keep Strider in in his state, and I didn’t want to switch to Jack for obvious reasons. My only choice was Dashie. It was a good choice, because it used U-turn and went to Blaziken. It was at this point that I realized: I forgot to ready the Nuclear Trump Card. I tried a Moonblast, and to my surprise it got a crit and OHKOed the thing, but not after it almost killed me with Blaze Kick. I tried healing, but it Hawlucha used Acrobatics and took out the exact same amount I healed. I knew what I had to do: Heal Strider instead, let Dashie go down, and hope he can outspeed the thing and OHKO it with Extrasensorry. But instead of having Hawlucha finish me off, Samson switched to his ace, Conkledurr. Not one to miss an opportunity to save Dashie, I healed her only to find the thing had poison jab and killed her. I sent in Diggersby, knowing she would outspeed it, and used Bounce. I got another “Powerful” and one-shot it, leaving only Hawlucha. I sent in Strider for the moment of truth, and as I hoped, Extrasensory outsped and one-shot it.

After getting my badge, I replaced Bounce with Strength again. It seems like a waste of two purple shards to only use that move once, but I don’t mind because I have a metric ton of those things thanks to the itemfinder. Also, I decided to replace Hammer Arm with Brick Break. It has less power, but I think the lack of speed reduction makes it worth it. That battle overall was harder than it needed to be, next time I’m definitely bringing Pumpkin.

[CURIE]

Update 63: Say hello to the new slave

With Sampson done, I got an even better water move for Strider in Surf. Again, it feels like a bit of a waste of blue shards to use Water Pledge for such a short time, but I’ve got plenty of shards anyway so it doesn’t matter. Oh, and remember how Apollo has Dry Skin? My idea is to pair those two up in double battles, and have Strider constantly be healing Apollo while also damaging his opponents by spamming the move.

Oh right, I almost forgot: There’s a bit of a story choice here. To admit to Titania you were reading her diary, or not to? To tell Amaria about what Titania wrote in her diary, or not to? Well, I’ve scouted ahead and out of all four possibilities, the dialogue and events of that scene and the following one are exactly the same, down to the last letter. I take this to mean that your choice doesn’t actually affect if you get the secret ending or not. But in case it is, I opted to admit to reading the diary, and refuse to tell Amaria. It seemed like the more stand-up guy thing to do.

Well now that I can Surf, I can explore some of the three mountains, which means I can catch a new Pokemon: Clauncher. I named him “Surfboard”, because he’s gonna be my new slave for surf related stuff. Yes, Strider can learn Surf itself, but Dive and Waterfall are physical moves and I don’t want to waste them on him. That’s where Surfboard comes in, he’s able to learn all three of those moves. And maybe whirlpool if Ame ever decides to make that a thing in the future.

Other than that, I spent the rest of the day going around the three mountains with the itemfinder and mining kit. Nothing else to talk about since there were no trainers. Oh, but there were a ton of wild Pokemon. Up until now I had never really considered repels to be a worthwhile investment, but I had to buy a whole chunk of them because of how bad the mountains were. Not like I was running low on money or anything, I’m getting rich off of this itemfinder business.

[CURIE]

Update 64: The quest to Calcenon

“It’s not far at all” Hardy says. “Just around the corner” he says. Well, he would have been right, if it weren’t for the PULSE Clauncher conveniently taking out the stairs and making us go the long way. And then taking out the long way and making us go the even longer way. Now, because of that, I’ve got to do a ton of double battles with team Meteor. And I can’t even use that Strider/Apollo strategy I mentioned earlier, because I’m stuck with Aya as a partner. You know, If I weren’t already at the level cap, this would be the ideal time for level grinding. I encounter two wild Pokemon at a time, and get healed after every battle. What a shame.

Anyway, the “even longer way” happens to be through a meteor base, so that means lots more double battles with Aya. I would say that Apollo dominated these with Parabolic Charge, since Aya’s first Pokemon resists it and her second is immune to it, but it seems every single trainer we met had at least one ground type who used Earthquake and one shot him. And then they’d use it again, even after Apollo was down, which causes the ceiling to collapse and kill everyone- me, Aya, and them. It doesn’t help that all of Aya’s Pokemon are weak to Earthquake, either. It seems that she only served to get in the way, her only useful purpose being to soak up hits in place of my own Pokemon. Which is ironic, because if you talk to her during this whole ordeal one of the things she says is “plz don’t use me as meat shield”.

Didn’t help that her AI sucks, one time she kept spamming Thunderbolt even though one of the opponents was a lightningrod Manectric. The other foe wasn’t weak to Thunderbolt or anything, either, it was a Machamp. And then, one time when one of the opponents was weak to sludge bomb, she used sludge bomb… on the other opponent. Also, it seems that even a much needed Rock move doesn’t justify my keeping Sassy around, she gets one or two shotted by absolutely everything.

Next up is one of the most dreaded non-gym leader boss fights in the game, and if the last couple of battles were any indication, my greatest opponent in that battle will be my own partner.

[CURIE]

Update 65: Eclipse’s grand finale

This is the final battle against Aster and Eclipse, and boy does Ame intend to make you remember it. Normally I’d lead with Pumpkin and set up screens, but this time I led with Strider and used Surf. It’s important I take out those first two Pokemon (Solrock and Lunatone) asap, as they’ll spam Bulldoze and make the rest of the battle a nightmare. Aya’s Dragalage was Dragon type anyway, so she could tank it. Turns out one of the two barely survives it, so I switched Strider from the Dread Plate back to the Splash Plate. That 20% boost was enough to get the double KO. As it turns out, the next two Pokemon are also weak to Surf, but this time one of them barely survived. Aya took it out with Dragon Pulse (wow, she did something helpful!), but not before it used Thunderbolt and OHKOed Strider. Now, I brought out Pumpkin for some dual screens action. While I did this, Aya surprised me with another good move: Using Thunderbolt on the enemy Milotic! Too bad it didn’t do much damage… I then used Swagger on Rhyperior, and the AI made an odd move of switching Milotic out with Vileplume. Upon coming in, Vileplume took a critical Sludge Bomb and was reduced to about 30% health. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to finish it off with Psychic, but nope. Hyper Potion. Also, Dragalage got taken down and replaced with Nidoqueen. I took the Vileplume down next turn, and Milotic came back out.

It was then that I realized I made a stupid move by using Swagger on Rhyperior, because I just boosted its attack. Thankfully my mistake didn’t come back to bite me, because it KOed itself. Next up was Electivire, who I also Swaggered not realizing it was also a physical attacker. THAT time it came back to bite me, and I got Thunderpunched and KOed despite Reflect still being up. I sent in Braveheart, and she started Hyper Voicing. It didn’t do that much damage to either of them. Electivire fought through confusion again, and took down Aya’s Venasaur (oh yeah I forgot to mention, she switched Nidoqueen out for some reason), but took life orb damage and killed itself. The experience from that thing was apparently enough to send Braveheart overlevel, so I had to switch her out with Apollo. The opponent sent out Vespiquen.

This was actually the perfect time to send that guy out, since she summoned Nidoqueen again and both opponent’s Pokemon were weak to electric. Also, the field effect boosted electric type moves. Now I could use Parabolic Charge and not hurt my ally… no wait, Nidoqueen went down and was replaced by Tentacruel. You know, the guy who’s WEAK to the move. And who has liquid ooze, which means using Parabolic Charge HURTS me. It was annoying, but I kept spamming Parabolic Charge anyway. Eventually Tentacruel and Vespiquen also went down, and next up in Aya’s lineup was Gengar. Since it’s immune to Earthquake, I switched to DiggersbyTho and spammed Earthquake. Milotic didn’t stand a chance. The field broke, Aromatisse was next, and one side of the field was all out of Pokemon. Two Earthquakes later, I had beaten what was probably the hardest miniboss in the game.

And what is my reward? Eclipse turns good for a second only to get double plus killed (it’s like being killed, except your soul also dies and you get no afterlife), Aya gets captured and I’m left alone. My team doesn’t even get healed up! Doesn’t matter really because there’s a healing machine right next to where the battle takes place, but still! Oh, and the only known way at this point into Labradorra gets cut off, too. The fact that meteor grunts can go between the two cities in that underground tunnel, though, indicates that Mr. Mime’s barrier doesn’t go underground or through caves. This leads me to believe we’ll get into the city by going to the desert, getting rock climb, climbing up the back of the mountain, and sneaking in from behind.

Oh, and I got the TM for Grass Knot. I taught it to Strider in place of Smack Down.

[CURIE]

Update 66: New team member, maybe?

Even with Meteor’s base conquered, it’s still not a straight shot to Calcenon. I still gotta go through Route 4, a twisty path through a forest with a couple trainers. In that forest, I caught yet another Pokemon to add to the collection: A Phantump.

But is he really to be just another addition to the collection? I’ve been debating for a long time now, whether or not I want him to replace Jack. Trevenant has a higher attack, some more well-rounded defenses, is just a liiiiitle bit faster, and most importantly: Has a much better ability. It doesn’t learn Shadow Sneak, but it does learn Destiny Bond, it gets both Trick or Treat and Forest’s Curse, instead of Seed Bomb it has Horn Leech (actually it DOES get Seed Bomb, but Horn Leech is better), and it can also get Will-O-Wisp and Wood Hammer. Oh, and it also gets Phantom Force. Whether or not I end up using it, I already used a Link Stone on it since evolving doesn’t change its leaned moves. Also I’ve already come up with a name: Fangorn, after the forest where Ents come from in the Lord of the Rings.

Other than that potential new team member, not much of significance happened on Route 4. The trainer battles weren’t noteworthy, aside from one particularly annoying Snorunt with freeze hax and attract. And even though I didn’t need the experience, I did the Absol event. I wonder if it’s the same Absol who’s been following me around throughout the game? Well, we’ll see if it ever shows up again after I defeated it.

I finally made it to Calcenon and had more than enough money to repair the bridge, but it turns out I don’t have the option to until I’ve beaten Charlotte. Next up, the gym that everyone regards as the hardest in the game…

No wait, not yet. There’s still a story choice: Do you say you’d sacrifice Charlotte in order to keep the Ruby ring or not? I scouted ahead and the scene plays out almost the same either way… almost. If you say “yes”, she gives a couple extra lines of dialogue that give you a little insight to her view of humanity and some foreshadowing to the twist of her being responsible for the death of her parents. So I’m pretty sure that’s the answer you have to give for the secret ending.

[CURIE]

Update 67: Charlotte and more

Yeah, she had trainers in her gym, but they were just Diggersby fodder. Let’s get on to the main attraction herself.

I actually had several conflicting ideas on how to begin this battle. I gave Pumpkin Rain Dance, which was a necessity, so I had to lead with him. For the other Pokemon to start with, I chose Strider. In the first few turns of the battle, I had Pumpkin use Rain Dance, Light Screen, and then Reflect, and had Strider spam Surf. It lowered my accuracy each time I used it, but I didn’t mind. That is, until he got outsped by a Rotom Oven (?????? That’s a base 86 speed vs a base 122 speed!) and OHKOed by a critical hit Volt Switch. I sent in DiggersbyTho and managed to survive getting off a Swords Dance, and for Charlotte it was all downhill from there. All my own Pokemon got one-shot by her Earthquake spam, but I didn’t care because so did the opposing pokemon. I just used their turns to heal what damage DiggersbyTho took, and in no time all that was left was that impossibly fast Rotom. It of course outsped me and used overheat, but thankfully it missed (I only had Diggersby and Braveheart at that point). Needless to say, it went down that same turn.

Well that was short, and to think everyone considers it to be the hardest gym fight in the game. I wonder how badly I would have been wrecked if I didn’t have Rain Dance. Anyway, since this was a short update, I’ve decided that I will, in fact, train up Fangorn and add him to the team in place of Jack. I trained him to the max in Attack, gave him balanced defenses, and threw in some HP. No speed, which means Dashie’s no longer the slowest one on the team. His ability is Harvest, and his held item is a Sitrus Berry. Now, every time he goes low on health, the Sitrus Berry activates and heals him, but then his harvest ability causes him to get the thing back. His main attacking moves are Phantom Force and Horn Leech, and Will-O-Wisp was a must have. But I was conflicted on his fourth move. Should I give him Destiny Bond, Forest’s Curse, Trick or Treat, or Wood Hammer? For now I’m going with Wood Hammer.

And since I was grinding him up from 60 to 70 anyway, I decided I might as well take him and everyone else to 75. While I was doing that, I also decided I might as well evolve Bergmite and Surfboard. Speaking of fully evolved Slaves, I then realized I would need a Fly slave later on. So remember that shiny Noivern that I wanted to train but never did? Well now he’s been “promoted” to future Fly slave. His name is now Slavebat Jr. Why not just bring back the old Slavebat, you ask? Well, isn’t it obvious? Because SHINY NOIVERN, that’s why!

P.S. In case you’re wondering what Fangorn’s hidden power type is, it’s grass. Now I own two Pokemon whose hidden power type is the same as their own type.

[CURIE]

Update 68: The Ametrine Gauntlet, Part 1

The Nuclear Trump Card did about 75% damage to the Pulse Avalugg (yes, that was with Misty Field up), and since Dashie was faster than it, she was able to finish it off with Moonblast before it could use Recover. Not much of a fight there.

A few ice sliding puzzles later, though, I’m in Ametrine City, a place that is a bit more worth talking about. First of all, there’s an item up here that will forever change Dashie’s life, but I’m not quite able to get to it yet. For that reason, I’m gonna hold off on doing that department store sticker quest until after I have it. It’s not like I’m missing out on anything by not doing it yet, since I won’t be able to go to the department store itself anyway. Speaking of items and shopping, there seemed to be a disproportionate amount of sellable items lying around when I used the itemfinder. Wonder why that is. And despite them not being cost efficient, I bought some Max Repels because come on, I’m rolling in dough right now.

Other than that, there’s still not much to talk about here, because it’s just a bunch of cutscenes and a puzzle. There is a story choice here, and there’s no question on which answer is required for the secret ending: When Blake asks you to give up the Ruby Ring, you have to refuse him every time. The game eventually forces you to give it to him, so it may seem at first like your choice didn’t matter, but the story actually turns out different. Much different. In this timeline, he refuses to give you Waterfall or tell you where Heather is, despite the fact that he just said he would if you gave him the ring, and runs off. After solving the puzzle, which stays the same, you find her locked in the shed and free her as usual. Oh and Cal shows up too. Turns out he and Shelly had something going on in the past, but he did something that hurt her feelings. You find that all out in either timeline. In this one, however, they kinda make up, while in the other one they just argue a bunch. Also Cal mentions Heather being an E4 member, which is a bomb that isn’t dropped until later if you play the other timeline.

Now, it’s time for the one of the most annoying parts of this entire game: The infamous Ametrine City Gauntlet. As you chase Blake up the mountain, he sends wave after wave of Meteor goons at you, and every single one of them has 6 Pokemon, and they’re all double team-up battles. Which means you’re fighting 12 enemy Pokemon per battle, WITH the game’s crappy partner AI! What’s more is that it simply won’t stop hailing, plus the fact that it’s on a snowy mountain field.

For this reason, I’ve brought along Pumpkin and in addition to double screens, he’ll be providing Rain Dance support. Why Rain Dance and not Sunny Day? Because boosting Fire type moves is kinda pointless when you’re on a field that weakens them. The only move anyone can learn to change the field is Heat Wave, and I don’t have access to the tutor for that yet. Probably won’t get that until around the same time I get the tutor for Hyper Voice.

About how this field softens fire attacks, that’s especially annoying since in the first battle, your partner is Cal. After setting up the screens and changing the weather, I switched to Fangorn and burned the Slaking for obvious reasons. Horn Leech took it down to the point where the Burn killed it off, and at the same time Cal took down the other Pokemon. Now it was a Quagsire and an Arcanine. I didn’t want to die to the flaming dog, but since he was on a fire-weakening field in fire-weakening weather I decided it would be fine and OHKOed Quagsire. Ironically enough, before it went down the Arcanine used Heat Wave, taking out the field. The rest of the battle went smoothy, and I gotta say, Cal’s AI actually did really good. He OHKOed a lot of opponents with the right moves at the right time.

I’ve typed enough for now, so I think I’ll continue this gauntlet next time.

[CURIE]

Update 69: The Ametrine Gauntlet, Part 2

Battle 2 of the Gauntlet also has you paired up with Cal. I probably should have started with killing the Ariados with Psychic, because while I was doing the usual routine of screens and weather it used Sticky Web, giving both me and Cal a speed disadvantage the entire battle. Speaking of Cal, his Magmortar got put to sleep, so I decided to just bring out Strider and use Surf to put it out of its misery, along with both opponents at the time. He sent Darmanitan out next, and I didn’t want to also kill it with Surf, so I instead went with Grass Knot since one of the opponents was a Golem. It survived with Sturdy and used Bulldoze, putting Strider at even more of a disadvantage than he already was. I would have switched, but then Darmanitan took out the other enemy and in its place came another Golem. I knew what was coming: Double Explosions. I could have switched to Fangorn and laughed at their failure, but then Cal would lose his Darmanitan. So instead I aimed another Grass Knot at one of the Golems, hoped it didn’t have Sturdy, and that Darmanitan would finish the other off.

It did have Sturdy. What’s more, one of those Golems somehow outsped Darmanitan, although instead of Explosion it used Bulldoze, killing its partner and putting me at even MORE of a disadvantage. The rain had run out too, so I knew it was time to switch Strider out- wait is that a Toxicroak? Okay, I just had to stay in one more turn to use Extrasensorry on that Toxicroak. It was a bad idea. They both outsped me, and between both their attacks I was KOed. What’s worse, is that Cal’s Darmanitan went down, and his replacement Charizard got frozen the moment he came out. I sent out Pumpkin, since my screens were about to come down, and put them back up again before healing and OHKOing the frog. He had gotten poisoned while I was doing all that, so I switched to Dashie and put up a Misty Field (yeah, I dunno what I was thinking last time when I said I had nothing to change the field). With Dashie’s already insane power boosted by the field, I was able to wrap up the battle.

Battle 3 has you switch Blake out for Shelly. Sucks that she leads with a Yanmega and that the opponents lead with a Lickilicky who has Rollout. Not even my Reflect could save her. Also sucks that the other Pokemon is a Vanilluxe with Frost Breath, which hits straight through Light Screen. Just when it looked like both opponents were about to die (Cain had been chipping away their health with Rock Slide) Lickilicky exploded and killed all of us except Cain. I went with Dashie again, and did the whole Misty Field thing. It seems I should have picked Fangorn, because both opponents ended up being x4 weak to grass. No matter, a field boosted Swift killed one of them and almost killed the other. I kept spamming the move, even when the opponents used Poison types, because I knew the field wouldn’t last long and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. Eventually she went down via double Gunk Shot to the face. At the same time my screens went down, but I couldn’t bring in Pumpkin, because, well, he’s already dead. I went with Sassy and hoped for the best, and surprisingly I got it. She OHKOed Muk with Psychic, and Shelly made a smart move with Hurricane and took out the other guy. All that was left was a Dusclops after that, and it went down easily.

[CURIE]

Update 70: The Ametrine Gauntlet, Part 3

Battle 4 is again with Shelly, and again my screens couldn’t save Yanmega from going down the first turn. I didn’t want to use Rain Dance just yet, because there was a Jellicent on the field who was spamming Water Spout. I took a turn to hit it with Psychic, but then the thing decided to use Ominus Wind instead for once and Pumpkin went down. Now, I was stuck with Hail for the rest of the battle. Not wanting both hail AND that field to deal with, I went to Dashie and did the whole Misty Terrain/Swift Spam thing again. I took down four opponents with that, and then I found another bug. When I used Swift and the first of the two opponents went down, Dashie went overlevel. The move should have landed on the second opponent anyway, since she had already used the move, but no, she was loafing around and it never hit. It would have OHKOed it too, because it was a Mightyena. How disappointing. Throwing caution to the wind, I tried to use Swift again despite Dashie not listening, because I knew I could OHKO that thing, but then it got switched out to a Barbaracle. Amazingly enough, she still successfully used the move and OHKOed it anyway. At that moment, my screens went down and the field went away. But Mightyena was back out, so I still wanted to keep trying. Dashie “ignored orders” but used the move anyway, and Mightyena wend down while Beartic was left with only 1 or 2 HP left. In place of Mightyena came another Dark type, Liepard, so I decided to see how long I could go with this overlevel Pokemon before its unruliness caught up to me. By the time she went down, the opponent only had one ‘mon left: A Venomoth. Apollo one-shot it.

And now that the 4th battle’s over, I finally can reach the item I mentioned earlier: The TM for Echoed Voice. You see, with Pixilate, Echoed Voice starts at base 78 Power. That’s okay, but weaker than Swift. The next time you use it, though, it becomes base 156, stronger than Moonblast. A third use makes it 234 power, four uses equal 312 power, and the fith use onward makes it as strong as the Nuclear Trump card at 390 power! And this is all without considering the fact that Dashie’s always carrying the Pixie Plate, which means the numbers are actually 93.6, 187.2, 280.8, 374.4, and 468! And under the effects of the Misty Field, those numbers jump up to 108, 216, 324, 432, and 540!

Now the question is, which move should Echoed Voice replace? Moonblast is a good, powerful move to fall back on if I don’t have time to get the ball rolling with Echoed Voice. Nuclear Trump card is in a similar position, it’s a max power Echoed Voice without the four turns of buildup. Misty Terrain is a must have, so that leaves Swift. But look at the past couple double battles, and how useful Swift was in them. Do I really want to give that up? Well, considering its usefulness is highly situational, I guess I can Heart Scale it back if I ever really need it, and then easily put Echoed Voice back since I have the TM for it now.

There’s one more double battle where I can test out the new move, and I’ll get to that next time.

[CURIE]

Update 71: The Ametrine Gauntlet, Part 4

The 5th battle is the last of the double battles, but not quite the end of the Gauntlet as a whole. It’s also Dashie’s first battle with her new move. You’re again paired up with Shelly, and it’s also the first battle where Yanmega doesn’t get completely destroyed the first turn. After doing the usual routine of screens and rain, I switched to Dashie to set up Mist and wasted no more time in trying out the new move. The first hit was used on a Druddingon who was at only 5% hp left, so obviously it went down. Second hit was on a Chesnaught, and it one shot it from full health. Unfortunatley, Shelly’s Vivillon then used Hurricane, taking away my Misty Field. Oh well, I’m still at 3 uses now, which still makes me a walking nuke shooter. Hit 3 took out a Steelix, but then Dashie got Poisoned, so her days are numbered. I can’t stop to heal, because that would end the streak. Hit 4 took out a Scolipede from full health, but unfortunately we never got to see hit 5. She had been hit with a Cross Poison that reduced her to a sliver of health, and the poison finished her off. Still, she reduced the enemy team to nothing but an Aggron and a Slurpuff in just 4 turns, so I’d say her new move was a huge success. Sassy one shot both those Pokemon after a Charge Beam boost.

Now, if you chose the same story path as I did back with Blake and the ring, there’s actually a secret 6th battle, but it’s a single battle. Aster shows up and shows you that he has the HM for Waterfall, and says you need to fight him and take it from him. He leads with Solrock, and instead of Pumpkin I led with Dashie and went straight to Echoed Voice spam. Well, actually I set up Misty Field first. Solrock got off a LightScreen, which allowed it to survive the first two hits, but that only played into my favor as it got no damage off on me while I set up Echoed Voice. Aster used two Hyper Potions trying to keep it alive, and as a result by the time it went down Dashie was already at her 5 hit maximum. She one-shot everything, despite the Light Screen, up until Milotic. At that point she was overlevel, then ended her streak by refusing to follow orders, and then was KOed by a combination of Scald and burn damage. No matter, I had Apollo come in and clean up the mess.

After beating him, he gives you Waterfall as promised, and talks a bit about how he’s gonna change his life or something like that, and how it’s up to me to change the world. Anyway, I’ll give Waterfall to Surfboard later. For now, I have one more battle left on the Ametrine Gauntlet.

[CURIE]

Update 72: The Ametrine Gauntlet, Finale

The final battle is a double battle against Blake himself at the top of the mountain. No Shelly or Cal, just you and him. I led with Pumpkin and Strider to do the usual screens and weather change. This time, I switched Pumpkin for Apollo when done. Remember so long ago when I mentioned his Dry Skin ability makes for a convenient pairing with Strider’s Surf? Well, this is the first time I’ve really been able to take advantage of that. By the way, while I was doing all that screens stuff with Pumpkin, Strider took out Jynx with Dark Pulse. Once Apollo was out, it was pretty smooth sailing. Both my guys were faster than Blake’s entire team, and any damage Apollo took was healed by Surf. Any damage Strider took, I used Apollo’s turn to heal. Before long, all that was left of Blake was Walrien, who I used Grass Knot for instead of Surf.

Well, since that battle was a bit short and anticlimactic, let’s do some other stuff before calling it a day. First of all, I think it’s high time I got around to doing that sticker quest. You know, the one where you go all Megaman.exe on a bunch of missingnos on a glitch field? It makes for good practice, too, since the next area will also entirely take place on a glitch field.

A lot of my team members are rendered pretty much helpless on this field. Fangorn’s grass moves become useless, but at least he still keeps Phantom Force and Will-O-Wisp. Strawberry is completely useless, as his attacks become normal type. Dashie would also be rendered useless, but she can actually reverse the effects of the field temporarily with Misty Terrain. The only ones who aren’t affected at all by the field is DiggersbyTho and Apollo. Strider, Sassy, and Pumpkin, though, are actually buffed due to having their Special Defense become as high as their Special Attack. Not to mention the whole thing about Psychic moves being boosted. Only problem is that Sassy now can’t use Signal Beam anymore, and Strider can’t use Dark Pulse. Not too awful a loss.

Anyway, as for the three battles themselves. They were all Strider Fodder, but he went overlevel at the end of the second battle. I switched to Dashie and tested the Misty Field thing. It seems that I’ll only get 4 turns after using the move before the field goes back to normal, so I’m not sure if trying to use Echoed voice is worth it, or if I should just go with Moonblast. Echoed voice was enough to wrap up that third battle, at least.

Finally, I did the Riolu quest. Obviously I can’t actually pick up the Riolu, but I wasn’t going to pass up a boss fight against a level 85 Lucario. Now, the problem with this fight is that I only have two Pokemon who can hit that thing super effectively: One of them is weakened by the field, and one of them will probably be outsped and destroyed by Close Combat or something. Dashie could probably one-shot it with the Nuclear Trump Card, but I think I’ve used her enough for a while. Instead, I’m giving Fangorn a chance. Well that was a bad idea, as it turns out Lucario has Crunch and brought him down to exactly 1 HP. He managed to get it burned with Will-O-Wisp, but then the hail killed him. I sent in Apollo, and tried to see if Thunderbolt could take it down. It did. It’s a shame that I have to leave the egg sitting there in the cold for the rest of eternity, but hey, it’s just a video game.

[Genesis]

Just to let you know, that item on route 2 is a link stone. The rock pattern changed from previous episodes where you could get it. As of Ep15 you can't.

Btw thanks for the inspiration to start a monogen challenge, I landed up with gen 2, Can't wait to see you finish this and thanks for the tip on Carbink

[Drymus]

Here's to the coming conclusion of the mono-gen pioneer run.(Until Episode 16, of course)

*raises glass*

[CURIE]

UPD4T3 69: W3LC0M3 T0 T3RR4L4ND

There’s one more thing that the story choice from earlier affects, but this time it’s optional. After getting Waterfall from Aster, go back to that house in Calcenon with Eclipse’s father. If you’ve been there and talked to him before, he doesn’t believe your story of her being dead and tells you to get out. Now, Aster has shown up and brought Eclipse’s body, forcing the father to accept the truth. He apologizes to you and lets you go into Eclipse’s bedroom and see her body, and in that room you find the Shiny Charm. Again, this is all only available if you refuse to give Blake the ruby ring all 3 times the game asked you.

After returning to the Circus and doing some much needed restocking of supplies, I’m ready to take on Terra’s mini gauntlet of madness. There wasn’t much to say about the battles, BECUZ IMA S00P3R L33T HAX0R WHO SW33PS ALL TEH NEWBS. ALTHOUGH I LOLD WH3N TH4T 1 GUY S41D T3RR4 WUZ INSURED FOR 10,000! LIKE B1TCH THAT’S POCKET CHANGE TO M3. BTW IN 2SP00PYTOWN YOU M4Y NOT H4V3 NOT1CED A GRAVE S4Y1NG “C4T3LyN ‘3CL1PS3’ F1SH3R” AND IN THE W4ST3LAND3 ONE 4 K1KI, & THAT WAS 4CTUALLY PR3TtY SP00KY. TH3R3 W4S ALSO GONNA BE ONE FOR UR MUM BUT SH3 WAZ T00 FAT TO FIT

M3WT2 WUS A DIFFERENT STORY THO. HE OUTSP33DS EVERYONE BUT STR1D3R N 4POLL0, & 1 SHOTS LIT3RALLY 3V3RY1! WHAT I DID WAS G1VE PUMPKIN MLG ROOM AND WITH PR4NKST3R LIGHT SCREEEEEEEN HE STOL3 MEWTW2’S MLGNESS AND GAVE IT TO D4SH13. NOW THAT SHE H4D HIS MLGNESS DASHEE BENT HIM OV3R AND TOR3 H1M A N3W ONE WITH NEWCLEAR MLG CARD. SHE DIDTN 3V3N N33D MISTY F13LD, SHES SO MLG. HENCEFORTH HER NAME SH4LL B3 MLG AND NOT D4SHIE.

[CURIE]

UPD4T3 69 & 1/2: DAH QU33N O’ B00TY

TEH EPIC SHOWDOWN IZ ON L1K3 D0NK3Y K0NG’S 3XP4ND3D D0NG. I L3D WIHT PUMK2N N’ EXPANDED MINE OWN D0NGS. BOTH OF THEM. THEN I RAWWWWWWRED HER NIDOPUSSY WITH PSYCH1C AND TH3N STR1D3R CAME AND THEN CAME ALL OVER EXCAKILL, HIPPOPATAMUS, SWAGSIRE, ADN CLAYBOYBUNNY. STR1D3R OP PLZ N3RF. ALL TH4T WAZ LEFT IS RAWRCHOMP, AND MY REFLECT JUST THEN LEFT ME LIKE ALL MY GIRLFR13NDS. I S3NT IN MLG AND US3D Misty Field, finally giving me a small respite from that madness. Wait, why is Dashie named MLG? Since when did that happen? Anyway, you might have noticed that Dashie’s- er, MLG’s Nuclear Trump Card actually worked on Mewtwo without the Misty Field. It seems that Pixilate still works in the Glitch Field, huh. Not sure if that’s a bug or not. Theoretically, that means Moonblast is stronger in the Glitch Field, since it becomes normal type and therefore gets the Pixilate boost. Still, it’s stronger in a Misty Field.

Garchomp used Bulldoze, but obviously I could take it… no wait. That did too much damage. I needed to get my Reflect back up, but Pumpkin was down. Not wanting to risk losing MLG, I switched to Sassy and sacrificed her to use a Revive. I do believe this is the first time in this file I’ve ever used one of those. Sassy went down as expected, and Pumpkin came back out. Just then, the field went down LIKE YOUR MOM LAST NIGHT LOLOLOLOL ANYWAYS PUMPKIN US3D REFLECT AND MLG CAME BACK OUT TO USE MISTY… WA1T, N0! N0T TH4T M0V3! DON’T SEND ME BACK TH3R3 PLEA- and we’re back to Misty Field again. …Anyway, just as I was about to land the finishing blow, Garchomp got a lucky crit and I almost died. It was a dire situation, requiring the most emergencyish of emergency healing items: The Blue Moon Ice Cream. I later learned I had several Hyper Potions with me, and it healed the exact same amount, but you know what? MLG is my personal favorite Pokemon on the team, she deserves something special. I then was able to fire the Nuclear Trump Card. Rawrchomp didn’t stand a chance of surviving it.

That’s weird, now that I’ve beat Terra I feel like a part of me died deep down. Eh, whatever. Ima go change MLG’s name back now. And maybe see if I can’t get another Blue Moon Ice Cream.

[CURIE]

Update 75: Down the Cascade

We’re nearing the end of for the current release; all that’s left is some adventures in the Water Treatment Center, another one of those gauntlet-type sequences, and a boss battle with Ciel. Now what sucks about the Water Treatment Center, is that you need Waterfall to get in and out, and there’s no PCs once you’re in. Like in Iolia Valley, I’m gonna have to sacrifice a slot on my team for a slave. Also like Iolia Valley, I could totally just rewrite Dark Pulse on Strider temporarily. But not only is Strider not on the squad I’m bringing down there, but fighting through the area with only 5 Pokemon seems like a challenge to me, one that I don’t wanna chicken out on.

Before any battles get started, though, there’s a story choice that you probably missed unless someone else told you about it already. Remember how I said there’d be a point where I need only Blue Moon Ice Cream in my bag and no other food items? This is it. And yes, “food items” even includes the expensive Cotton Candy. You’ll have to either use it or sell it, and in retrospect I should have used one against Terra instead of that regular revive. Oh well, it’s not like I have any problem with money right now. Anyway, you may or may not have noticed that if you talk to Titania at a certain point in the adventure, she says she’s famished and asks if you have anything to eat. If you have food items in your bag, she’ll take some candy or ice cream, and nothing else happens.

If all you have in your bag is Blue Moon Ice Cream, though, she’ll be like “Nevermind then, keep it for yourself. That stuff is rare”. But you have to refuse and insist she has it, about three or four times, and eventually she gives in and eats it. Then, she does the unthinkable, the impossible: She says “thanks”! Ame said this secret event will affect Titania’s attitude towards you in the future, so I’m pretty sure this is gonna be required for the secret ending.

On to that infamous double Meteor battle, where your partner is Titania who only has one Pokemon. Once it goes down, it’s two on one. What’s worse, is that the first thing to happen in this battle was that partner Pokemon being put to sleep. Since it’s gonna be a tough fight, I led with my strongest, and didn’t even bother setting up Misty Field before getting Echoed Voice going. While I was setting it up, Agislash’s AI was dumb enough to go into Attack Stance without being able to actually attack. It died a turn later, leaving me alone against two opponents at once. But it didn’t matter, because by then Dashie had reached one-hit-kill status with Echoed Voice. Her bulk allowed her to survive long enough to go overlevel, and by then the only enemy left was a Simisage. I simply switched out to Braveheart and you can guess what came next.

Oh, and remember that secret Blue Moon Ice Cream cutscene? Well as you near the Pulse Swalot there’s a double battle where you normally are using two Pokemon at once against two trainers at once. If you do that special event, however, Titania jumps in to help you with her one Aigeslash. I appreciate the sentiment, Titania, but you actually just made the battle harder, because once you go down it’s two on one. I did the same strategy as last time, namely lead with Dashie and spam Echoed Voice on everything. Unfortunatley that didn’t work, because someone used nature Power which turned into Gear Grind which got boosted by the field which one-shot me. I instead sent in Braveheart, and a few Flamethrowers later everything was swept by Headbutt. Agislash got to live this time, and I got spared having to go all the way back to Fiore Mansion to prepare for Pulse Swalot. Oh, and after the battle she actually lets those two guys live. It seems my kindness made an impact on her.

P.S. You may have noticed I’m skipping the Fennekin event for now. I’m gonna wait until I’ve cleared episode 15 before I do that.

[Genesis]

Wow, thanks for the heads up, I was completely unaware of that scenario. I best get some blue moon ice cream and soon.

Your run is nearly at an end for this point at least, it's been great catching up on everything and seeing all the challenges you faced and trumped

[CURIE]

Update 76: Return of Azurine

It’s time for the final, decisive battle over the fate of Azurine lake! I thought about using Apollo, since Swalot’s weak to electric and the field boosts electric attacks, but his Dry Skin is a bit of a hindrance since the field also hurts him every turn. So instead, I tried leading with Dashie to set up Misty Field. This is a double bonus, because it stops Swalot’s ability to heal itself, and nerfs its attacks. Infestation did absolutely zippo damage, so I stayed in and tried Moonblast. As expected, it did diddly squat. I predictably got KOed by Sludge Wave (well actually it was a critical hit, I wonder if I would have survived if it wasn’t…), then went to Apollo and started spamming Thunderbolt. Two hits were enough to take it down, and the sludge wave it did get off only did about 60% damage.

With the Meteor’s sabotage removed, I had to go through all the other rooms in the area and flush out the sludge, restoring the water to its former glory. It may seem tedious, but I didn’t mind because 1: It feels really good to see blue water again, and 2: Being able to surf on the water opens up new areas to explore. I got the TM for Sandstorm, which I guess I could teach Pumpkin if I needed too (but I don’t think I ever will), and Rock Tomb, which I might give to DiggersbyTho once I get back to a PC. Now, the whole Azurine lake is clean and blue again. Titania says she wants to make sure Amaria lives to see it, but honestly I’m more concerned that I live to see it. At the rate things are going, I’ll be 400 years old by the time episode 16 comes out.

Now all that’s left for this area is a boss fight. It’s an optional boss fight, but I’m not about to chicken out of a challenge.

[CURIE]

3 YEAR LATER EDIT:  Turns out I was wrong here.  If you're reading this and have been taking my direction on getting the secret ending, DO NOT fight Taka.  If you've already made the choice to fight him because of reading this post in the past, I'm sorry.

 

Update 77: Taka

This boss fight is optional, Taka straight up asks you to beat him and you can say “Yes” or “No”. Some people say that the “no” option could be the one required for the secret ending, citing some philosophical crap about “entitlement” or something like that, but they’re just sissies. Of course you’ll need to fight an optional boss in order to obtain an extra ending that’s based off of going above and beyond!

Taka’s first Pokemon is Kelfki, so I led with Braveheart and melted it with Flamethrower, though not before it set up spikes. Areodactyl was coming in next, and I was going to switch to Apollo, but then I reconsidered. I knew it would have earthquake, and I wasn’t sure if it was faster. So instead I sent out Strawberry and used double Cotton Guard. A few Fake Tears later, Draining Kiss took it down. Not wanting to give up the +6 Defense, I stayed in for Cradily. Even with the thing at -6 special defense, it took less damage from Draining Kiss than it did Play Rough, but I took it down eventually. Chatot was next and I knew Strawberry would not survive its wrath, so I went to Dashie. It was here that I realized I had again forgotten to prepare the Nuclear Trump Card, so I just used Moonblast and hoped for a OHKO. It worked. It also would have OHKOed Huntail, but it had a Focus Sash. So instead of risking dying to another Aqua Tail, I switched to Apollo to eat up that water move. He outpsed the Huntail and finished it off with Parabolic Charge, reactivating the field (Areodactyl had broke it with Earthquake). Final Pokemon was Gliscor, and I knew it would have the Poison Heal/Toxic orb combo. So I went to Fangorn and used Will-O-Wisp, ruining its strategy and halving its attack, pretty much dooming it. Despite having a super effective Night Slash (which even got a crit once), it couldn’t scratch me and went down two Horn Leeches later.

When you go back to the entrance of the Water Treatment Center, and Titania mentions how it turns out she didn’t really need you after all, she usually says something like “and I’m not even sorry”, whatever that means. But, if you did that super secret Blue Moon Ice Cream event, she says “but, I guess, I don’t regret bringing you. Let’s go.”

Rather than going to Fiore Mansion to continue the story, I went back to the circus to heal, use the PC, and restock. Since I’m done with the event that requires having no food items, I bought a couple of each type of candy. I’ll be going through another gauntlet, with no time to enter the pause menu in between battles this time, so the team I pick is important. I’m leading with Pumpkin, big surprise, and have Strider, Dashie (obviously can’t go into this without my strongest), Braveheart, Apollo, and finally DiggersbyTho. Speaking of whom, I have Rock Tomb on her in place of Brick Break for now, but I’m not sure if it will end up being more or less useful. They’re both TMs that I have, though, so I guess I can easily switch if I ever want to.

It was at this point that I remembered: Getting Waterfall opened up a metric ton of new places in the mountains to explore, and I have yet to go explore any of them. So I spent the rest of this update item hunting. No new Pokemon for me to catch, but I did find a bunch of sellables, and the TMs for Roar, Rock Polish, and Retaliate. Retaliate would have been an AWESOME move for DiggersbyTho, but she can’t learn it for some stupid reason. Also, I got a second Pixie Plate, and I think I’ll trade that in for Strawberry’s Metronome. I just don’t see him spamming one move as much as I used to; he’s gotten much stronger.