A Tale that starts Early-Mid game

[Noir]

After dealing with say a week of losing my file, I had it revived through RPG Maker by a kind soul, and decided to progress through there as intended.

After reviving at the post-Shelly storyline, I've been through the Aqua Gang quests, the Doctor quests, and at the moment post-Shade, completing the Pangoro/Scraggy sidequests as well. At the moment I intend to prepare for the PULSE Muk and the Apophyll Academy quests.

So, before I illustrate how faring against the malevolent Gym Leader went, here's my current progress.

Infernape

Level 41

Nature: Naive

IVs: 27/31/18/20/31/29

Current EVs: 214 Attack/44 Special Attack/252 Speed

Item: Black Belt

Ability: Blaze

Grass Knot

Flame Wheel

Shadow Claw

Close Combat

Tried and true, Infernape always stays my starter in 70% of my Reborn runs. It's not overly easy like Blaziken but is enough to do some very potent work for its own caliber. If you're wondering why I got Grass Knot early, I loaded an episode 10 File, and so Nature Power and Grass Knot have been substituted (meaning I can only get Nature Power in the late-game where Grass Knot is obtainable). Although it's a shame I can no longer pick up an early Flare Blitz, Episode 15 compensated for it with Shadow Claw after you defeat Shade, which will help out on the later NPCs with types weak to it, such as Kiki and Aya. It's also the first Pokemon I've actually successfully manage to EV Train with the help of Cheat Engine, so it didn't take me too long before I finished the EVs through some spots. It's high Speed also means that Mach Punch, while a good move, can be negligible. Apart from that, Infernape's never wavered as the top carry of the team, hitting fast and hard. Black Belt further bolsters the damage of Close Combat, that allowed me to OHKO the Pangoros and Beartic at low levels.

Pawniard, also known as Debronee, is my second top carry. With luck obtained as a female with Psycho Cut from the mystery egg and as the pre-evolution of my favorite Pokemon, I then proceeded to breed it with an also good IVed Male Cacnea with Sucker Punch to grab both moves. Who am I kidding it was literally RPG produced. Pawniard's been a solid contender since his arrival to the team, possessing a pretty powerful 112 Attack for its level; with some luck, I could pick up a Dread Plate from the scattered mining Rocks in the icy mountains for even more power. Now it patiently awaits for itself to evolve into a big bad Bisharp and truly shred teams like the monster it is.

Tynamo

Level 28

Nature: Quiet

IVs: 6/27/25/26/29/22

Current EVs: 34 Attack/39 Special Attack

Item: None

Ability: Levitate

Tackle

Spark

Charge Beam

Thunder Wave

Tynamo's now an obtainable event early-game. While it's hard to grind effectively, I intend to use it over other Electric types (particularly that lovely Helioptile still sitting in my box with Hidden Power Ice) simply because my team's very Ground allergic as it is. After getting it to a certain point, I'll be grinding it in the Unown spot for both offensive stats. Of course, Tynamo's usage is little as it is, but it will grow to be a significant teammate once it evolves into an Eelektrik, or, if I'm lucky enough to find a ThunderStone through the mining Rocks, an Eelektross.

Trubbish

Level 33

Nature: Relaxed

IVs: 31/24/24/31/25/19

Current EVs: 80 HP/56 Defense/40 Special Defense

Item: Toxic Plate

Ability: Aftermath

Trubbish is potent as an early game support tank. Particularly, this one was so good it managed to take Florinia's Cradily solo while it was underleveled. I probably should evolve it, although training it in the right EVs while having the experience is very difficult. Of course, his use will only extend to the mid game, where other options for my team will begin to expand.

Masquerain

Level 35

Nature: Bold

IVs: Revived with 31 IVs across the board, but it's just an EV absorber.

Current IVs: Randomized.

Item: Insect Plate

Ability: Intimidate

Agility
Air Cutter

Bug Buzz

Bubblebeam

Masquerain was my early status absorber, and with Bug Buzz, it helped a lot in tons of matches such as against Florinia and the ZEL/Taka Battle. As of now, I'll find Intimidate very handy for a very specific someone, but otherwise I hope to replace her with someone else soon, as much as her contributions have been massive to the team.

Drifblim

Level 39

Nature: Mild

IVs: 0/21/3/31/24/20

Current EVs: Randomized.

Item: Oran Berry

Ability: Unburden

Hex

Charge Beam

Ominous Wind

Phantom Force

Drifblim was one of my old prime carries, although I now use it as an EV absorber as well as a temporary solution for a part of Shade's Pokemon. Oran Berry and Unburden are appealing to get the Speed Boost making it potent for sweeps and revenge kills. Training it was particularly easy because Unowns are Ghost allergic, although I intend to replace all Pokemon apart from Infernape, Pawniard and Tynamo as soon as possible.

I also have a couple of stuff such as a Shiny Emolga, a Shiny Scraggy, a decent IVed Shiny Jolly Klink in my Box, and a really good Careful Gourgeist that I carry for Pickup, and the like I use only for specific purposes.

Before that, though, I'll give a small tale about how I defeated the Ghost Gym Leader, Shade. As Charlotte and the rest guide me to the Abandoned Power Plant after finishing the minor sidequests, I witness the deja vu of the forseen deaths of certain characters in the story, before I proceed to face the Entity himself. Leading with Gengar, I sacrificed my Trubbish so Tynamo could get the experience, before proceeding to revenge kill with Drifblim after taking one Shadow Claw and despite at low health cut through Doublade effortlessly with Hex due to its low Special Defense. Pawniard easily executed Trevenant and Banette with Sucker Punch. Rotom was admittedly Shade's most annoying Pokemon, although with a bit of luck Infernape managed to 2HKO it with two Flame Wheels, one being Blaze-boosted. Finally, I sacrificed Emolga to paralyze Chandelure before Drifblim dealt the killing blow, with experience shared to Tynamo.

That said, any suggestions on what can help my team out for the moment as I go, particularly overall synergy wise? I'll continue updating this with more of my tales and stories of my walkthrough.

Edited June 20, 2015 by YagamiNoir4896

[Noir]

And so the tale continues....

After witnessing the kidnapping of Charlotte and the other children, I venture back to the scene to discover Victoria looking for Cain, her telling me that he would be in the Beryl Ward. I witness Cain taking his Muk over to the Apophyll Academy, presumably in efforts to pick up the Strength TM from Kiki I myself so very require. I simultaneously encounter the beautiful Amaria, whom I met before the other day during the PULSE-Tangrowth crisis, who tells me of the crisis in Blacksteam Factory and I follow her there. Going through grunts, the cage puzzles and whatnot, I finally stumble upon the source of the pollution, PULSE Muk. Avoiding sudden death from Solaris, I face ZEL in battle.

ZEL leads with Glaceon. At this point, I've trained my Tynamo to an Eelektrik, so I led with it before swapping it out to Infernape for a simple KO with Close Combat, to attain Special Attack EVs. He immediately corresponds with Muk. Fortunately, it wasn't as difficult as I'd thought it to be, since Muk wasn't going to use any Ground moves against Eelektrik, and a paralyze/sacrifice Emolga helped me out a lot. With two Sparks, I KOed it on Protean-Water form, surviving a Muddy Water. Thankfully, ZEL decides to use Umbreon first instead of Espeon, giving me time to heal up Eelektrik for some extra Special Attack EVs. Umbreon, like its icy Eeveelution counterpart, falls to one Close Combat, whereas Espeon fell to two Crunches from Eelektrik, surviving one Psychic and getting a free turn from Espeon using Future Sight the turn beforehand.

With that, the pollution has ended, but the damage is too much. Solaris squabbles with Amaria about Team Meteor's ways and retreats. Amaria is left with hard hitting Superpower from Solaris' Tyranitar, and, feeling unwell, departs and grants me the Harbor Key to use her Boat to take to Apophyll Beach.

I encounter the beach to the Academy in search of Kiki where I also find her student and friendly rival Victoria. Kiki, understanding our need for the TM to rescue the children, grants us each an individual quest; Victoria will take her test (which seemed easy for her since she's presumably the top student) whereas I need to face Cal, one of Kiki's finest students, and whom Victoria has a big crush on, atop Pyrous Mountain. Getting through the mildly tedious puzzle, I reach the top of the Volcano and meet the Fiery ex-Gym leader. He tells me of his past with Shelly and his older brother Blake, before we do battle.

Cal begins with Infernape; my own Infernape being 8 levels higher than it easily OHKOed with Close Combat. After taking down the primate, Charizard is sent out, where Eelektrik forces him to spend all his potions before finally knocking it out with Spark. Magmortar, his ace, continues the match; knowing that I need the EVs but cannot take Magmortar due to the stupid bloody advantageous field effect for Cal, I leave it in and switch out into Infernape, comfortably taking one attack before OHKOing with Close Combat, again. Delphox comes out; with paralysis support from Emolga, falls to Eelektrik's Crunch in the end. Blaziken also gets Close Combated to oblivion, whereas Typhosion got paralyzed by Dunsparce before Eelektrik attains its share of Special Attack EVs.

With that, I complete my quest and return to Kiki to enquire my battle. Kiki doesn't fare very well at this point, however, and Victoria attempts to halt me and we do battle. (She's caring and nice, I guess. She always has, but that's not stopping me.) I won't get into too much detail on this battle considering it was pretty much a sweep for Infernape, but I decided I'd spread some HP EVs from Hariyama to Eelektrik and kill Gallade with Pawniard. Sadly, she allows our match.

Kiki and I do battle on a beachy, sandy field. For this battle, I can use Shadow Claw to my advantage and thus I equipped Scope Lens over Black Belt. She leads with Machamp; Close Combat comes close to an OHKO but I also survive one Rock Slide from her, before KOing with Flame Wheel + CC after she healed her Machamp with a potion. I OHKO Gallade with a critical hit Shadow Claw. Toxicroak responds, as I OHKO with Psycho Cut from Pawniard after paralysis support from Emolga (I'm starting to feel bad making it do that all the time, but oh well.) The rest was pretty much a sweep with Infernape with her final combatants of Medicham, Lucario and Hitmonlee, all of whom which Infernape OHKOed effortlessly. Thankfully I have stocked up on Common Candies so Infernape won't be too overleveled.

As Kiki attempts to provide me with my badge, she faints and her will is shattered. Kiki wishes to be alone and Victoria sends me to Azurine Island to look for the disappeared Cain. Until next time....

At this point of game, Aya is threat Number 1 for me. I have a solution for Solaris, but my team is very weak against Aya, so I need some advice, again, on overall teambuilding. For the moment, though, here's my current team I wish to keep;

Infernape

Level 45

Nature: Naive

IVs: 27/31/18/20/31/29

Current EVs: 214 Attack/44 Special Attack/252 Speed

Item: Black Belt

Ability: Blaze

Grass Knot

Flame Wheel

Shadow Claw

Close Combat

Pawniard

Level 41

Nature: Adamant

IVs: 24/31/25/16/29/29

Current EVs: 4 HP/252 Attack/1 Special Defense/70 Speed

Item: Quick Claw

Ability: Defiant

Feint Attack

Metal Claw

Psycho Cut

Sucker Punch

Eelektross

Level 44

Nature: Quiet

IVs: 6/27/25/26/29/22

Current EVs: 17 HP/152 Attack/162 Special Attack

Item: Soothe Bell

Ability: Levitate

Crunch

Spark

Thunderbolt

Grass Knot

Give advice, anyone! Thanks in advance.

Edited June 20, 2015 by YagamiNoir4896

[pyrromanis]

Get a Numel in Pyrous mountain to help you with Aya. Its Earth Power in not nerfed in her field like Earthquake and Magnitude. Just try to take down Tentacruel before you send out Cumerupt

Edited June 20, 2015 by pyrromanis

[Noir]

Okay, I've gotten really, really far since I've last touched this. So far that this post might be super long.

I hope I don't get penalized for this or anything, but I'd like to give credit for Xiri for the pictures that exist on this. I apologize and know it's kind of rude and uncouth of me to kind of take this stuff without asking you about it beforehand, but I'll remove them if necessary. You could also check out his own playthrough which is a pretty interesting one at that.

Azurine Island, in search of the Princess

Going back from where I last was, Victoria instructs me to venture towards Azurine Island to search for the missing Cain. During which I pick up my Ground type which didn't even need to be sent out against Aya in the form of Seismitoad, since I thought I'd need it sooner or later against it. I first find Aster and Eclipse cornering me in a house, but despite the Double Battle, I managed an easy battle while maintaining all EVs. Eventually and true enough, I find Team Meteor's secret base with Cain and a Camerupt trapped, as I face Taka and do battle.

Taka's most annoying Pokemon was that Gligar, given the bulk it had alongside Acrobatics that my team was very weak against at the moment, and it's tendencies to U-Turn further mess up my EV plans. Thankfully, capturing Seismitoad hit the spot at defeating Taka's Gligar whereas the rest was easy carry work for Infernape. Defeated, Taka and the part of the crew there depart, as Cain and I hasten back to Apophyll to halt Team Meteor's plans at Pyrous Mountain.

Halting Apophyll's Crisis

We return to the Academy as Victoria, worried of her teacher's fate as well as the safety of Apophyll, decides to join us to the peak of the mountain. Cain hurries off as Victoria sticks with me, being sweet and nice and as we finish off the last of the goons decides to become further obvious on her crush and intentions to confess to Cal, but little did she know that things were to change quite soon. We find Cal on the mountain alongside Taka and the Mysterious Solaris, with the PULSE Camerupt set up for the eruption that will destroy the island. Solaris instructs Taka, revealed to be his son, to distract Victoria whilst he faces me, arrogantly claiming that "he won't take more than a single Pokemon to defeat me." I endured the fact that how that this wasn't exactly a fair fight, a fight that I could win as it may, and promised in my heart that the next time we met I would bestow upon him a fate worse than death through my bitter resentment of him throughout the games, although I could have a change of heart as I get to know him later. He deserved it for the resets I did in so many runs before some episodes with new perks arrived. I may or may not want to kidnap him and torture him on a daily basis.

Of course, his words did have their relevance considering I was facing off against a level 75 Garchomp whereas Solaris had 4 Full Restores to spare, which ruined my momentum quite significantly, especially considering how Toxic/Focus Sash Trubbish didn't work, and I thus ended up wasting it. I defeated him on the second try with clever revolving on the AI, though, as Masquerain left Garchomp sitting at -5 while sacrificing only Dunsparce and Eelektross as well as minor damage on Pawniard, before Gourgeist proceeded to stall it out with Leech Seed, and despite having very mild investment Garchomp just couldn't touch Gourgeist at -5 and when it had +1 Defense. I may or may not have used an X Defend to help things out. It's a shame that I lost my Focus Sash since it'd be better used elsewhere, but I suppose I would have a plan for the battle in which I should've used the Sash.

As Solaris is defeated and as he expresses his denial, Kiki arrives to the scene to intervene and stop Team Meteor; sending out Medicham, she issues an attack only to be stopped by Cal's Magmortar, who throws KIki's Pokemon into the lava. As we all (well, except me, I know this was coming) watch in disbelief at Cal's betrayal, Solaris executes Kiki with his Garchomp, tearing her in two, which was a scene we last saw at Shade's gym (I thought it wasn't supposed to be still alive, though, I just beat it, didn't I). Cal, however, disapproves of Solaris' actions and turns on him by destroying the PULSE Camerupt with a seemingly hacked Magmortar Blast Burn. Solaris confronts Cal scornfully, mentioning his brother Blake and how he was right and in that he was "totally useless", and the fact that his reckless actions would not change that fact that his own teacher had died as a result of his own actions, before retreating. Victoria is anguished over Kiki's death but Cal's betrayal added salt to her wound, in her heart however knowing that her master died a death that was befitting of her greatness, dying to protect the place she loved until the very end.

As we return to the Academy, Victoria decides to honor her master's place and stay, but denies me my badge although she provides me the Strength TM. Cain advises me to head to the Byxbysion Wasteland where her sister Aya resided in where I could pick up my badge and utilize Strength from her, knowing that we needed it to save the kidnapped children as soon as we could. Victoria provides us with her good wishes in that we would defeat the Reborn League, but at this point of time, we have other priorities. Gazing at my sweet female acquaintance a final time as I wondered where again in the game I would be able to see her again as well as the memories of this place that I had engraved in my heart, I departed to the Coral Ward with Cain towards the closed gates of the toxic Wasteland.

The Byxbysion Wasteland

Cain challenges me to a battle to test my ability before I can enter the Wasteland, as I oblige.

It wasn't exactly a difficult match although Nidoking gave Infernape some minor scrapes and bruises, as Eelektross handled Samurott easily. Infernape did most of the easy carrying for the umpteenth time witht he exception of his Muk which I had saved for Pawniard. With the teams' combined efforts, it was another successful round as Cain finally provides me access to the Wasteland.

I probably am not inclined to describe the fairly tedious process it took to reach the Gym, although if there's one thing that happened that was interesting it would be the battle with Mr.Biggles. Needless to say, level 65 was a huge amount and it had coverage moves like Drain Punch that meant Pawniard wouldn't have that easy of a field day. Managing to paralyze it with Eelektross' Spark as Masquerain sacrificed itself for an attack drop, a combination of Pawniard and Eelektross' attacks managed to defeat the Garbodor and his league of Scraggy. I'm sorry he missed his hug, though. That and I managed to pick up a whooping number of plates through mining, which was great considering I now had the Dread, Zap and Flame Plates for the three main aces. Seimitoad needless to say was holding the Earth Plate, as I wondered initially in which how I was to face Aya when my EVs were incomplete.....

Wasteland Punk Aya

I finally reach Aya's house as I meet her mother and discover Fern just defeating her. Hardy also arrives to the scene as I learn about some of their history and accepted the challenge of the arrogant green douche in battle.

Honestly speaking, though, Infernape beat him 1-5 without effort. I must admit that I'd bought about 50 Common Candies for a reason though, and I'm grateful they're cheap as they are. With an exchange of snide comments from Hardy and him, Fern continues his really snarky and denial attitude and decides to watch "the battle between two noobs." Hardy became the referee of our match, although Aya admittedly wasn't that excited about it.

Aya's match was far easier than I'd imagined it to be -- ironically, Pawniard killed every Pokemon on the field with the exception of Venusaur that was taken out by Infernape, and none of her Pokemon actually targeted her with the exception of Nidoqueen's hazard tactics that left it at a little over half left. Seismitoad had no action during this match, which was a shame but I promised myself I would give him a time to shine (well, or ditch him if he becomes totally unused at some point). I pick up Sludge Wave and the badge, as Aya also reveals to me of her past with Cain, as I head out in search for Cain and continue our rescue for the missing children.

The Proceeded Rescue

Before we proceed into this though, I actually fought the Kiki Specter as I got Strength, so let's see how that goes.

I venture through places I don't know how to describe until I reached a dark room with a grave in it. I read the grave -- to discover Kiki's name? Suddenly, the spirit of Kiki appears and blames me, anguished and tormented of her death as she proceeds to threaten me with a dangerous level 65 Shiny Medicham. With a little luck, sacrificing slight damage on Pawniard and a death to Dunsparce managed to support Masquerain in bringing it down to -3, as Eelektross paralyzed and defeated it with a combination of Crunch + Thunderbolt. "Kiki" then exposes herself as a Misdreavus that intends to follow me, as I agree. I felt lucky that it had Destiny Bond, which would certainly help me in some pickles later on in the game.

With that I return to the Railnet and find Cain there waiting, as the clear the debris necessary and we venture into the North Obsidia Ward, where the Yureyu Building lay. Within a tedious series of threats of guards slitting throats of Charlotte and Shelly, as well as a flashy stunt pulled off by the red-headed female, we manage to unlock the gates and rescue Shelly and Charlotte unscathed. We meet familiar Meteor Grunts revealing that they intend to reshape the world and in that it was Team Meteor who destroyed this place instead of the building collapsing to Earthquakes.

The Electric Doctor

As Charlotte intends to find a way to free Noel from his cage, Cain and I go upstairs to find the two younger girls, Heather and Anna, whom were accompanied by Dr.Sigmud and Sirius, respectively. Sirius being someone I want to tear limbs off twice as much as Solaris, I didn't want Cain to intervene so I could face him one on one later. After a series of conversation about the silenced Heather, Anna's Amethyst Pendant, and other weird stuff, Cain and I gang up on the doctor and duel.

This wouldn't be such a bad battle if Pawniard wasn't limited to two kills. Nidoking coordinated considerably badly considering Pawniard had to take two powerful Discharges from Sigmund's Raichu, whilst Double Kick wasn't exactly doing enough to even 2HKO the Mouse. Luxray's Intimidate activated Defiant, though, which allowed me to easily OHKO Luxray and Electivire with Knock Off and Sucker Punch (soon to be RIP) respectively. This was where Seimistoad actually had a chance to shine for once, given that Mud Shot easily handled his Pokemon apart from Rotom and Eelektross. That said, Muddy Water still managed to deal decent chunks and we won the battle.

Defeated, the doctor surprisingly leaves us alone as we retrieve Heather, not even calling for backup or something -- but perhaps they're out of support. We head upstairs to find Sirius marauding Anna's Amethyst Pendant, as the Doctor and him have a short argument before they retreat, satisfied that they had acquired what they wanted. I noticed the key at the corner of the room and -- realizing it would prove helpful -- took it and ran away with the kids.

Running and in Hiding

As we reached the formerly blocked door near the stairs to the ward, opened by the key, we found ourselves in a confusing, destroyed train puzzle. With hints from Shelly, clearing this puzzle after examining the entire area, including taking important items such as stickers and the move tutor key, I successfully managed to open the gate blocking our way as we escape out.

Charlotte guides us throughout the mountainous journey of Tanzan Mountain and the hidden Cove where her sister Laura stayed, offering us temporary refuge. Anna remains sick, however, although she still insists that it's Nostra that's sick, as I am enquired to go to Spinel Town and pick up the Medicine necessary to cure her current illness.

The Bewildering Chrysolia Forest, and the secluded Spinel Town

The road to Spinel Town requires me to pass through the complicated forestry of Chrysolia. What's odd isn't the thickness of the Forest, but rather -- how everything teleports and disappears left and right. The puzzle really screwed with my head at first, but with time, I managed to reach Spinel Town. There were a few things to do here, but notably I can't pick up the Medicine I need since the PokeMart teleported to the balcony of the Gym. As of now, I just picked up my sticker from the injured girl event.

I'd leave my current team here, but I'll save it for my next post that talks about the Bennett/Serra battles after I finish work/EVing. I'll need advice since my team isn't that well established at the moment, but stay tuned for the next post!