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kjorteoLast time: A gravely ill, possibly dying Ampharos, barely breathing and desperately struggling for air when it did, needed medicine immediately, so I took two weeks off to go to a convention.
We set out from Olivine with the team of Empress, Auryn, Atreyu, Falkor, Omnihunter, and Sweetie. I wanted to include Kracko and Oracle, but alas. They'll be swapped in later as everyone takes turns leveling up to... let's say 30 is the goal for this section. For now, Falkor leads.
Just outside Olivine City is a tunnel that leads nowhere for now, but will eventually connect to the Johto Battle Frontier. There's an NPC who's been standing there for days just to be the first in line, and invites me to get in line if I want to be the second one in.
Ahahahaha. No.
There's a beach just beyond that post, and the rest of the route is a surfing route through water. The second half of the route houses a bunch of islands that we can't access yet, so for now, we just swim around to battle all the trainers before moving on. Falkor uses up the last of her PP for Dragon Rage in a trainer battle, but hits level 30 as she defeats the last Pokemon of that same battle, which is enough to trigger an evolution! The Dratini line is a very late bloomer, and Falkor was quite possibly the last Pokemon on my team who could evolve but hadn't yet. She finally gets with the times and becomes a Dragonair.
The swimmer she defeated to earn this honor mentioned being tired before the battle, and after the battle, he laments: "It's so far to Cianwood. But it's no easy return trip to Olivine either. What should I do?" He is exhausted and in the middle of the open ocean, which is a great way to drown, but this game doesn't have a "rescue NPCs who are clearly about to die" function so we just leave him and return to our explorations.
With Falkor at 30, Empress tags in. With her type advantage over Water, she destroys everything until she too hits 30. Auryn is the next one to go forth and battle, despite also being my transportation. Then Auryn hits 30 too, and Atreyu is working on it by the time we reach Cianwood City.
Cianwood City reuses the Ecruteak theme, or so I thought, but... actually, Cianwood gets a new version of that theme with more of a laid back island-like feel. It's very appropriate, and it shows that the HeartGold/SoulSilver developers wanted to put more effort into this than "let's just reuse the same song" while remaining faithful to the original games (which did just reuse the same song.) This was an unexpected treat that took me by surprise in the best possible way. That means this theme got me again, and this is now the second time in one week a game has reduced me to sitting in a quiet, pensive state and thinking about my life.
The first building next to the Pokemon Center is the Cianwood Pharmacy, where all we have to do is name-drop Amphy to get a free SecretPotion. The pharmacist claims the SecretPotion is a bit too strong for normal Pokemon, and is only offered in emergencies. Considering Amphy's state last time I checked on the poor thing, this is probably an emergency.
But not enough of one to prevent us from having a look around town while we're here, of course.
Cameron the Photographer lives in this town. He's not home at the moment, but he left an automatic camera outside his house. This means that I now have access to getting my picture taken whenever I want, without having to worry about catching him at a certain time according to his schedule.
Nearby, a timid NPC tells us that a person matching Silver's description scared him into giving away his prized Pokemon. Professor Elm's Cyndaquil is not the only kidnapped mon on Silver's roster, it would seem. The NPC has one more Pokemon but is worried that Silver might come back, so he gives it to me for safekeeping. I don't really have a use for Shuckie the Shuckle, but Box 4 (I got a new box just for Other People's Pokemon after all those Diamond trades) seems like as safe a place as any.
While I'm messing around with my PC boxes anyway, I may as well swap Pokemon who hit their target levels. Empress, Atreyu, and Falkor out; Oracle, Kracko, and Nimbly in.
At the north end of town is...
Suicune! I mentioned that Suicune is following Crystal rules, which makes it not part of the roaming random encounters by which one can find Entei and Raikou. It turns out that catching Suicune is a matter of seeing it in certain predetermined areas on the overworld. Suicune quickly runs off, which means it is now waiting for me to see it again in the next designated location. These are arranged in convenient plot order, with the rest being in areas I haven't been to yet, and the final one is well into the postgame. In short, I need to pay attention for more spots like this as I'm moving forward, but there shouldn't be any need to backtrack.
Of course, one can't have a Suicune encounter in this game without also running into Suicune's biggest fan. Eusine rushes up on cue. He only caught a glimpse of Suicune as it fled, but he describes its movements with words like "awesome" and "beautiful" so many times that I'm already starting to ship them.
Eusine comes to the decision that he will battle me as a trainer to earn Sucine's respect! I have no idea why this will earn Suicune's respect; I mean, even if Suicune cared about such things, it already just left. But okay.
Eusine leads with a level 25 Drowzee. I lead with my level 28 Oracle. Empress isn't here to throw screens, so I guess we can go straight to the sweep? I decide Oracle can probably survive an extra round to set up Hail. Drowzee answers with Disable, which... prevents me from using Hail again. That's... that's okay, I really only needed the one, and I'm pretty sure I'll be switching to other moves now anyway. Thanks, though.
Next comes the slaughter. Shockingly, Drowzee survives a Blizzard and even counters with Hypnosis, putting Oracle to sleep, but then the end-of-round hail damage is enough to finish it off. Eusine sends out Electrode.
I spend the next round using an Awakening to un-Hypnosis Oracle; Electrode tries to Screech but misses. Thanks, increased evasion in hail! Oracle hits with a full-blast Blizzard next round, and Electrode is the second of Eusine's team to live through that, though only barely. It tries to Screech and misses again, then succumbs to end-of-round hail damage.
Eusine sends out his last Pokemon, a Haunter. We'll never know what it would have done, though, as Oracle goes first next round (thanks, pumping him up with ten Carbos!) and one-hit KOs the thing with one final Blizzard.
Eusine calls me amazing and mentions that he's starting to understand why Suicune was keeping an eye on me. It was? I'm willing to believe it was at this point, since the Kimono Girl, Mr. Pokemon, and Professor Elm also all seem to believe that I'm some sort of chosen one that can draw all of the legendary Pokemon. Eusine then leaves, obviously because he must keep searching for Suicune.
There's a gym here! It belongs to Chuck, "His Roaring Fists Do The Talking." So a Fighting type gym, then.
Oh, honey.
Nimbly had the number of Morty's entire team, but they were still able to be annoying on the way down thanks to a speed advantage, status ailments, and Curse. Fighting types are typically more straightforward. Furthermore, their weakness is going to be a STAB Psychic from Auryn, who is by far the fastest Pokemon on my team, and who already just hit level 30. This is going to be a massacre.
Chuck is actually in his gym, which is a miracle in this game. He's right by the front door, even, though he's training under a waterfall and doesn't notice us there. This is little more than how this gym handles the obligatory "fight through all the sub-trainers and then the boss is at the end" setup: we'll need to climb up to the top of the gym, battling all the trainers along the way, then find a way to turn off the waterfall. That will snap Chuck out of his training, at which point we can battle him.
Once the waterfall's off, I step back to the Pokemon Center to... "heal" is the wrong word. Replenish Auryn's PP from all that Psychic-ing. I also swap Empress for Oracle while I'm there and put her in the lead, just out of sheer politeness. As soon as Auryn switches in, it will probably one-Psychic sweep Chuck's entire team, and it won't even need screen support, but so help me I just want to feel like Empress is doing something in boss battles.
Chuck leads with a level 29 Primeape. I lead with Empress. The first round is pure setup on both sides: Empress casts Reflect, Primape casts Double Team. Do I need Light Screen too? Not really, but... eh, why not. Empress casts Light Screen, Primeape Double Teams again.
I switch in Auryn, and Primeape Double Teams again. The one thing that could derail my sweep is if Auryn keeps missing, since Primape has been boosting its evasion this entire time. Haha, just kidding; Psychic connects on the first try and destroys Primape in one hit.
Chuck only has two Pokemon, and the other is a level 31 Poliwrath. Auryn goes first and blasts it with Psychic, and Poliwrath amazingly survives (but barely) and answers with a Surf. This... might have worked out better for it had Auryn not been strong against Water, considering Auryn is Water. Also, not that we really needed it, but Light Screen weakens the incoming Surf even further. All in all, it does a mere 7 damage, and one more Psychic at the beginning of next round ends the battle.
Yeah, that was kind of sad. Sorry, Chuck. You tried.
Chuck gives us the Storm Badge, along with the TM for Focus Punch. The Storm Badge lets us use Fly outside of battle, and someone just outside the gym door gives us the Fly HM itself now that we have the badge. Fly is one of the more useful HMs in the series. When used on the overworld, it allows the player to instantly warp back to any town that has already been visited and unlocked. Backtracking is no longer painful!
I did mention before that I had plans for how to fit every HM (minus Surf, but plus Flash) on two specific Pokemon, and I wouldn't have to worry about needing to put HMs (besides Surf) on any of my main battle Pokemon. That will eventually be true, but unfortunately, both of those Pokemon come later and I need to fly now. Reluctantly, I go ahead and overwrite Nimbly's Wing Attack. As a Flying-type battle move, Fly is... okay. For my play style, it's a bit of a downgrade from Wing Attack. By the time I get my main HM Pokemon, though, I should also be in a position to erase HM moves and give Nimbly a better Flying-type attack... or at least give her Wing Attack back.
And now that we have the medicine and can fly back to Olivine City, it takes mere seconds to return to the lighthouse and cure Amphy. Sorry to have kept the poor thing waiting, but at least the recovery is full and immediate. Relieved, the gym leader watching over Amphy returns to her gym, so we have another badge we can get.
Also, the phone rings. True to Baoba's word, he calls to let us know the Safari Zone is now open!
I need to do both of these things immediately, but I'll get the badge first. Olivine City's gym is run by Jasmine, "The Steel-Clad Defense Girl." Steel type, huh? That's going to be a little more interesting. Steel's biggest weakness is Fire, and I am fresh out of Fire coverage after having decided there was no longer room for Bam Bam on the team after Oracle joined. It's also weak to Ground, but I don't really have any Ground coverage yet (that's what the Safari Zone is going to be for.) We might have to...
Oh. Fighting. Why do I keep forgetting that? This is a job for Atreyu, then. Supported by Empress, Kracko, Nimbly, Oracle, and Omnihunter, if I'm reshuffling teams anyway.
Jasmine's gym is all done up with an iron and steel architectural look and feel, but it's possibly the easiest gym in series history as far as making it to the boss: seemingly out of gratitude for curing Amphy, no sub-trainers attempt to battle or otherwise stand in our way. It is a literal straight line from the front door to Jasmine, and the only other people there are NPCs who merely wish us luck.
Jasmine leads with a Magnemite; I lead with Empress. I throw a Light Screen first, because Magnemites tend to hit with special attacks like Thunderbolt. Empress then eats a Thunder Wave which invokes paralysis. Yeah, I figured. I hate Magnemites.
Empress loses the second and third rounds to paralysis, and the fourth to hurting herself in her confusion, because Magnemites. It would have been nice to have Reflect up as well, but at this point, all I'm doing is wasting turns of Light Screen coverage. I give up and switch Atreyu in.
Atreyu goes first and one-hit KOs the Magnemite with a Karate Chop at the start of next round. Jasmine sends out another Magnemite.
The second one (barely) survives its Karate Chop and gets off a Thunder Wave. Atreyu loses the next round to paralysis, Jasmine uses her Hyper Potion to fully heal it, and Light Screen wears off. I'm in no danger of losing this battle to being outdamaged (probably) but it is very probable that Jasmine is going to irritate me to death.
Magnemite 2 goes ahead and confuses Atreyu while it's at it, so I use a Full Heal on Atreyu to cure both ailments at once. Atreyu then eats a Thunderbolt that paralyzes him again. Sigh.
Fine. I don't normally do this, but I have healing items, too. Of course, the longer this goes on before I can put Magnemite 2 away, the more likely it is to... yep, there's the confusion again.
Atreyu gets a lucky break and cuts through full parafusion to get a Karate Chop off, and this one is able to drop Magnemite 2 in one hit. This leaves Jasmine with her last Pokemon, a level 35 Steelix. Hopefully this means the end of status shenanigns, but Atreyu starts in the unfortunate position of parafusion and half health. I go ahead and restore his HP first, then another Full Heal for the status. Meanwhile, Steelix sets up a Sandstorm and hits with Iron Tail, which very nearly wipes out Atreyu. I don't think I'm going to keep on top of the dance of healing and attacking only when I have enough health to afford it. Instead I bank on Steelix being slow and heavy, and hope that a (now-status free) Atreyu can go first and one-hit KO the thing with a full-power Low Kick next round.
Low Kick does about 40% of Steelix's health in damage, and another Iron Tail wipes out Atreyu. Oh, that's not good.
The problem with the entire rest of my team is that Steel resists everything. I really have no other good options, aside from maybe using someone as a warm body to hold the line while I revive Atreyu and get him back in there. I want to at least try having the others contribute in some way, but that Iron Tail hits way too hard....
The screens.
Speaking of holding the line, Omnihunter is about the sturdiest Pokemon I have. While he sits there eating semi-effective Iron Tails, I un-paralyze and confuse Empress, revive Atreyu, and heal them both. By the time I'm done with my item spree, Omnihunter has 1 HP left, and he never actually launched an attack. Still, it worked; Steel Defense Bug stood tall, did not lose, and gave me time to bring the others back. That was all I needed.
I switch him out for Empress, who gets both her screens off, then gets out of there with about 33% health remaining. Atreyu now has protection with Iron Tail's damage being cut in half. Those hits do still add up, and Atreyu is fairly banged up toward the end, but he does manage to Low Kicks his way to... getting Steelix down to about one hit point and Jasmine using a second Hyper Potion to fully heal it.
Fine, I have a Hyper Potion too, and Empress' screens haven't worn off yet. Let's dance this dance again, then.
... Or Low Kick could crit right after I use that Hyper Potion and end it right there.
Man, I only had two Hyper Potions in my inventory, and I just blew one of them. I could have gotten away with a lesser healing item there after all, if that was going to happen. Mmh... no, better not to have taken the risk.
A very, very ugly win is a win, and the Mineral Badge is now ours, as is the TM for Iron Tail. The well-wishers in her gym suggest going to Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage next, but of course my next stop (after healing and swapping Oracle out in favor of Sweetie) is the Safari Zone.
Because the Safari Zone is a new area, the route leading to it is a new area as well. Taking full advantage of "look at all the cool stuff we can do with generation IV Diamond/Pearl graphics" mode, it's a majestic cliff side with an all new and frankly incredible theme that I adore already.
To celebrate such a magnificent view, Cameron is here!
It occurs to me that the fight with Jasmine would have been a much better stopping point for this entry, since the Safari Zone is actually somewhat anticlimactic when I finally arrive. Don't get me wrong; I'm still going to do something awesome with it (you'll see,) but because the Safari Zone is kind of new for this version of the game, I wasn't familiar with how certain portions of it worked.
It turns out the thing I wanted to do requires adjusting some of the terrain types within the zone, which has a real-life time delay of a few hours before unlocking. It will be past my bedtime when that happens, and I need to get back to work tomorrow, and I've been playing this game enough for one session. I wanted to get a certain new Safari Zone recruit on my team tonight so that I could level it in the Pokewalker throughout next week, but Jasmine politely informed me that the rest of my team needs more levels first anyway.
Still, it was important to get that first step out of the way, or else this delay would only have stopped me whenever I did get around to trying it. At least I can do the thing next time.
And I will.
We set out from Olivine with the team of Empress, Auryn, Atreyu, Falkor, Omnihunter, and Sweetie. I wanted to include Kracko and Oracle, but alas. They'll be swapped in later as everyone takes turns leveling up to... let's say 30 is the goal for this section. For now, Falkor leads.
Just outside Olivine City is a tunnel that leads nowhere for now, but will eventually connect to the Johto Battle Frontier. There's an NPC who's been standing there for days just to be the first in line, and invites me to get in line if I want to be the second one in.
Ahahahaha. No.
There's a beach just beyond that post, and the rest of the route is a surfing route through water. The second half of the route houses a bunch of islands that we can't access yet, so for now, we just swim around to battle all the trainers before moving on. Falkor uses up the last of her PP for Dragon Rage in a trainer battle, but hits level 30 as she defeats the last Pokemon of that same battle, which is enough to trigger an evolution! The Dratini line is a very late bloomer, and Falkor was quite possibly the last Pokemon on my team who could evolve but hadn't yet. She finally gets with the times and becomes a Dragonair.
The swimmer she defeated to earn this honor mentioned being tired before the battle, and after the battle, he laments: "It's so far to Cianwood. But it's no easy return trip to Olivine either. What should I do?" He is exhausted and in the middle of the open ocean, which is a great way to drown, but this game doesn't have a "rescue NPCs who are clearly about to die" function so we just leave him and return to our explorations.
With Falkor at 30, Empress tags in. With her type advantage over Water, she destroys everything until she too hits 30. Auryn is the next one to go forth and battle, despite also being my transportation. Then Auryn hits 30 too, and Atreyu is working on it by the time we reach Cianwood City.
Cianwood City reuses the Ecruteak theme, or so I thought, but... actually, Cianwood gets a new version of that theme with more of a laid back island-like feel. It's very appropriate, and it shows that the HeartGold/SoulSilver developers wanted to put more effort into this than "let's just reuse the same song" while remaining faithful to the original games (which did just reuse the same song.) This was an unexpected treat that took me by surprise in the best possible way. That means this theme got me again, and this is now the second time in one week a game has reduced me to sitting in a quiet, pensive state and thinking about my life.
The first building next to the Pokemon Center is the Cianwood Pharmacy, where all we have to do is name-drop Amphy to get a free SecretPotion. The pharmacist claims the SecretPotion is a bit too strong for normal Pokemon, and is only offered in emergencies. Considering Amphy's state last time I checked on the poor thing, this is probably an emergency.
But not enough of one to prevent us from having a look around town while we're here, of course.
Cameron the Photographer lives in this town. He's not home at the moment, but he left an automatic camera outside his house. This means that I now have access to getting my picture taken whenever I want, without having to worry about catching him at a certain time according to his schedule.
Nearby, a timid NPC tells us that a person matching Silver's description scared him into giving away his prized Pokemon. Professor Elm's Cyndaquil is not the only kidnapped mon on Silver's roster, it would seem. The NPC has one more Pokemon but is worried that Silver might come back, so he gives it to me for safekeeping. I don't really have a use for Shuckie the Shuckle, but Box 4 (I got a new box just for Other People's Pokemon after all those Diamond trades) seems like as safe a place as any.
While I'm messing around with my PC boxes anyway, I may as well swap Pokemon who hit their target levels. Empress, Atreyu, and Falkor out; Oracle, Kracko, and Nimbly in.
At the north end of town is...
Suicune! I mentioned that Suicune is following Crystal rules, which makes it not part of the roaming random encounters by which one can find Entei and Raikou. It turns out that catching Suicune is a matter of seeing it in certain predetermined areas on the overworld. Suicune quickly runs off, which means it is now waiting for me to see it again in the next designated location. These are arranged in convenient plot order, with the rest being in areas I haven't been to yet, and the final one is well into the postgame. In short, I need to pay attention for more spots like this as I'm moving forward, but there shouldn't be any need to backtrack.
Of course, one can't have a Suicune encounter in this game without also running into Suicune's biggest fan. Eusine rushes up on cue. He only caught a glimpse of Suicune as it fled, but he describes its movements with words like "awesome" and "beautiful" so many times that I'm already starting to ship them.
Eusine comes to the decision that he will battle me as a trainer to earn Sucine's respect! I have no idea why this will earn Suicune's respect; I mean, even if Suicune cared about such things, it already just left. But okay.
Eusine leads with a level 25 Drowzee. I lead with my level 28 Oracle. Empress isn't here to throw screens, so I guess we can go straight to the sweep? I decide Oracle can probably survive an extra round to set up Hail. Drowzee answers with Disable, which... prevents me from using Hail again. That's... that's okay, I really only needed the one, and I'm pretty sure I'll be switching to other moves now anyway. Thanks, though.
Next comes the slaughter. Shockingly, Drowzee survives a Blizzard and even counters with Hypnosis, putting Oracle to sleep, but then the end-of-round hail damage is enough to finish it off. Eusine sends out Electrode.
I spend the next round using an Awakening to un-Hypnosis Oracle; Electrode tries to Screech but misses. Thanks, increased evasion in hail! Oracle hits with a full-blast Blizzard next round, and Electrode is the second of Eusine's team to live through that, though only barely. It tries to Screech and misses again, then succumbs to end-of-round hail damage.
Eusine sends out his last Pokemon, a Haunter. We'll never know what it would have done, though, as Oracle goes first next round (thanks, pumping him up with ten Carbos!) and one-hit KOs the thing with one final Blizzard.
Eusine calls me amazing and mentions that he's starting to understand why Suicune was keeping an eye on me. It was? I'm willing to believe it was at this point, since the Kimono Girl, Mr. Pokemon, and Professor Elm also all seem to believe that I'm some sort of chosen one that can draw all of the legendary Pokemon. Eusine then leaves, obviously because he must keep searching for Suicune.
There's a gym here! It belongs to Chuck, "His Roaring Fists Do The Talking." So a Fighting type gym, then.
Oh, honey.
Nimbly had the number of Morty's entire team, but they were still able to be annoying on the way down thanks to a speed advantage, status ailments, and Curse. Fighting types are typically more straightforward. Furthermore, their weakness is going to be a STAB Psychic from Auryn, who is by far the fastest Pokemon on my team, and who already just hit level 30. This is going to be a massacre.
Chuck is actually in his gym, which is a miracle in this game. He's right by the front door, even, though he's training under a waterfall and doesn't notice us there. This is little more than how this gym handles the obligatory "fight through all the sub-trainers and then the boss is at the end" setup: we'll need to climb up to the top of the gym, battling all the trainers along the way, then find a way to turn off the waterfall. That will snap Chuck out of his training, at which point we can battle him.
Once the waterfall's off, I step back to the Pokemon Center to... "heal" is the wrong word. Replenish Auryn's PP from all that Psychic-ing. I also swap Empress for Oracle while I'm there and put her in the lead, just out of sheer politeness. As soon as Auryn switches in, it will probably one-Psychic sweep Chuck's entire team, and it won't even need screen support, but so help me I just want to feel like Empress is doing something in boss battles.
Chuck leads with a level 29 Primeape. I lead with Empress. The first round is pure setup on both sides: Empress casts Reflect, Primape casts Double Team. Do I need Light Screen too? Not really, but... eh, why not. Empress casts Light Screen, Primeape Double Teams again.
I switch in Auryn, and Primeape Double Teams again. The one thing that could derail my sweep is if Auryn keeps missing, since Primape has been boosting its evasion this entire time. Haha, just kidding; Psychic connects on the first try and destroys Primape in one hit.
Chuck only has two Pokemon, and the other is a level 31 Poliwrath. Auryn goes first and blasts it with Psychic, and Poliwrath amazingly survives (but barely) and answers with a Surf. This... might have worked out better for it had Auryn not been strong against Water, considering Auryn is Water. Also, not that we really needed it, but Light Screen weakens the incoming Surf even further. All in all, it does a mere 7 damage, and one more Psychic at the beginning of next round ends the battle.
Yeah, that was kind of sad. Sorry, Chuck. You tried.
Chuck gives us the Storm Badge, along with the TM for Focus Punch. The Storm Badge lets us use Fly outside of battle, and someone just outside the gym door gives us the Fly HM itself now that we have the badge. Fly is one of the more useful HMs in the series. When used on the overworld, it allows the player to instantly warp back to any town that has already been visited and unlocked. Backtracking is no longer painful!
I did mention before that I had plans for how to fit every HM (minus Surf, but plus Flash) on two specific Pokemon, and I wouldn't have to worry about needing to put HMs (besides Surf) on any of my main battle Pokemon. That will eventually be true, but unfortunately, both of those Pokemon come later and I need to fly now. Reluctantly, I go ahead and overwrite Nimbly's Wing Attack. As a Flying-type battle move, Fly is... okay. For my play style, it's a bit of a downgrade from Wing Attack. By the time I get my main HM Pokemon, though, I should also be in a position to erase HM moves and give Nimbly a better Flying-type attack... or at least give her Wing Attack back.
And now that we have the medicine and can fly back to Olivine City, it takes mere seconds to return to the lighthouse and cure Amphy. Sorry to have kept the poor thing waiting, but at least the recovery is full and immediate. Relieved, the gym leader watching over Amphy returns to her gym, so we have another badge we can get.
Also, the phone rings. True to Baoba's word, he calls to let us know the Safari Zone is now open!
I need to do both of these things immediately, but I'll get the badge first. Olivine City's gym is run by Jasmine, "The Steel-Clad Defense Girl." Steel type, huh? That's going to be a little more interesting. Steel's biggest weakness is Fire, and I am fresh out of Fire coverage after having decided there was no longer room for Bam Bam on the team after Oracle joined. It's also weak to Ground, but I don't really have any Ground coverage yet (that's what the Safari Zone is going to be for.) We might have to...
Oh. Fighting. Why do I keep forgetting that? This is a job for Atreyu, then. Supported by Empress, Kracko, Nimbly, Oracle, and Omnihunter, if I'm reshuffling teams anyway.
Jasmine's gym is all done up with an iron and steel architectural look and feel, but it's possibly the easiest gym in series history as far as making it to the boss: seemingly out of gratitude for curing Amphy, no sub-trainers attempt to battle or otherwise stand in our way. It is a literal straight line from the front door to Jasmine, and the only other people there are NPCs who merely wish us luck.
Jasmine leads with a Magnemite; I lead with Empress. I throw a Light Screen first, because Magnemites tend to hit with special attacks like Thunderbolt. Empress then eats a Thunder Wave which invokes paralysis. Yeah, I figured. I hate Magnemites.
Empress loses the second and third rounds to paralysis, and the fourth to hurting herself in her confusion, because Magnemites. It would have been nice to have Reflect up as well, but at this point, all I'm doing is wasting turns of Light Screen coverage. I give up and switch Atreyu in.
Atreyu goes first and one-hit KOs the Magnemite with a Karate Chop at the start of next round. Jasmine sends out another Magnemite.
The second one (barely) survives its Karate Chop and gets off a Thunder Wave. Atreyu loses the next round to paralysis, Jasmine uses her Hyper Potion to fully heal it, and Light Screen wears off. I'm in no danger of losing this battle to being outdamaged (probably) but it is very probable that Jasmine is going to irritate me to death.
Magnemite 2 goes ahead and confuses Atreyu while it's at it, so I use a Full Heal on Atreyu to cure both ailments at once. Atreyu then eats a Thunderbolt that paralyzes him again. Sigh.
Fine. I don't normally do this, but I have healing items, too. Of course, the longer this goes on before I can put Magnemite 2 away, the more likely it is to... yep, there's the confusion again.
Atreyu gets a lucky break and cuts through full parafusion to get a Karate Chop off, and this one is able to drop Magnemite 2 in one hit. This leaves Jasmine with her last Pokemon, a level 35 Steelix. Hopefully this means the end of status shenanigns, but Atreyu starts in the unfortunate position of parafusion and half health. I go ahead and restore his HP first, then another Full Heal for the status. Meanwhile, Steelix sets up a Sandstorm and hits with Iron Tail, which very nearly wipes out Atreyu. I don't think I'm going to keep on top of the dance of healing and attacking only when I have enough health to afford it. Instead I bank on Steelix being slow and heavy, and hope that a (now-status free) Atreyu can go first and one-hit KO the thing with a full-power Low Kick next round.
Low Kick does about 40% of Steelix's health in damage, and another Iron Tail wipes out Atreyu. Oh, that's not good.
The problem with the entire rest of my team is that Steel resists everything. I really have no other good options, aside from maybe using someone as a warm body to hold the line while I revive Atreyu and get him back in there. I want to at least try having the others contribute in some way, but that Iron Tail hits way too hard....
The screens.
Speaking of holding the line, Omnihunter is about the sturdiest Pokemon I have. While he sits there eating semi-effective Iron Tails, I un-paralyze and confuse Empress, revive Atreyu, and heal them both. By the time I'm done with my item spree, Omnihunter has 1 HP left, and he never actually launched an attack. Still, it worked; Steel Defense Bug stood tall, did not lose, and gave me time to bring the others back. That was all I needed.
I switch him out for Empress, who gets both her screens off, then gets out of there with about 33% health remaining. Atreyu now has protection with Iron Tail's damage being cut in half. Those hits do still add up, and Atreyu is fairly banged up toward the end, but he does manage to Low Kicks his way to... getting Steelix down to about one hit point and Jasmine using a second Hyper Potion to fully heal it.
Fine, I have a Hyper Potion too, and Empress' screens haven't worn off yet. Let's dance this dance again, then.
... Or Low Kick could crit right after I use that Hyper Potion and end it right there.
Man, I only had two Hyper Potions in my inventory, and I just blew one of them. I could have gotten away with a lesser healing item there after all, if that was going to happen. Mmh... no, better not to have taken the risk.
A very, very ugly win is a win, and the Mineral Badge is now ours, as is the TM for Iron Tail. The well-wishers in her gym suggest going to Mahogany Town and the Lake of Rage next, but of course my next stop (after healing and swapping Oracle out in favor of Sweetie) is the Safari Zone.
Because the Safari Zone is a new area, the route leading to it is a new area as well. Taking full advantage of "look at all the cool stuff we can do with generation IV Diamond/Pearl graphics" mode, it's a majestic cliff side with an all new and frankly incredible theme that I adore already.
To celebrate such a magnificent view, Cameron is here!
It occurs to me that the fight with Jasmine would have been a much better stopping point for this entry, since the Safari Zone is actually somewhat anticlimactic when I finally arrive. Don't get me wrong; I'm still going to do something awesome with it (you'll see,) but because the Safari Zone is kind of new for this version of the game, I wasn't familiar with how certain portions of it worked.
It turns out the thing I wanted to do requires adjusting some of the terrain types within the zone, which has a real-life time delay of a few hours before unlocking. It will be past my bedtime when that happens, and I need to get back to work tomorrow, and I've been playing this game enough for one session. I wanted to get a certain new Safari Zone recruit on my team tonight so that I could level it in the Pokewalker throughout next week, but Jasmine politely informed me that the rest of my team needs more levels first anyway.
Still, it was important to get that first step out of the way, or else this delay would only have stopped me whenever I did get around to trying it. At least I can do the thing next time.
And I will.
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Date: 2017-11-06 08:07 am (UTC)vs. Chuck/Eusine: Auryn/Oracle does this.
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Date: 2017-11-06 09:58 am (UTC)But, in the end, you overcame the challenge. All it takes is hard work, determination, and guts.
I really need to stop quoting that.
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Date: 2017-11-06 04:53 pm (UTC)On the other hand, Empress did something. Like, legitimately. I wasn't having her lead with screens on a battle that really did not need them just to be polite and make some busywork for her (sorry, Chuck.) I was in a jam, Iron Tail was hitting too hard, Atreyu was down, and I didn't know what to do, and then in a serious situation where it really mattered and everything I had an actual "Oh, this is a job for Empress!" realization. She pulled through, and she saved the day. I mean Atreyu still brought Steelix down, but he wouldn't have been able to do it without Reflect support keeping him alive long enough to stack repeat Low Kicks.
So, you know, I do feel pretty good about that part of it.
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Date: 2017-11-06 08:44 pm (UTC)You just have to believe in yourself and also the RNG.
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Date: 2017-11-06 08:50 pm (UTC)Believe in yourself.
Yourself.
YOURSELFFF.
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Date: 2017-11-06 09:27 pm (UTC)I do feel strangely proud of myself for cobbling together something mid-battle and it working, though.
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Date: 2017-11-06 08:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-11-06 09:04 pm (UTC)... also there were items. *mumble*
But like. That was a team effort, and that part of it feels awesome.
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Date: 2017-11-06 08:34 pm (UTC)also that music <3 mmm
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Date: 2017-11-06 08:53 pm (UTC)Fighting types are great, don't get me wrong; I mean just look at how Atreyu saved our butts this time. But a gym leader, where that's your entire team and challengers have the opportunity to build around it? Well, let's just say not all types are created equal at that point. For example, Dragon type trainers are pretty much automatically formidable just because Dragon is only weak against itself and Ice, and there weren't exactly a lot of good viable Ice Pokemon before Glaceon came around. Lapras, maybe?
But Fighting, geez. You are weak against Psychic. In gen 1-2. That is a bad thing to be weak against.
Sorry, Chuck.
Plus, like I said, they don't even have any tricks to compensate. Morty's Ghosts and even Jasmine's Magnemites had a bunch of status nonsense. Fighting types can just kind of... like... punch you, unless you're faster (which if you're a Psychic type, you probably are.)
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Date: 2017-11-07 08:47 am (UTC)Which is to say, most water types have nice, easy access to an Ice-type move, be it Ice Beam, Ice Fang, or Ice Punch. And you'll generally always have a Water type in your main-game team just because Surf is so necessary.
While pokemon that are Ice-type are generally on the less stellar side (having four relatively common weaknesses will do that to you, it's the same problem that plagues Grass-types and Rock-types), the moves are common enough, especially in later levels, that Dragons are basically meant as a final obstacle to overcome before you plateau. They're absurd early on, but when you get to a gym that actually uses them, you easily have the tools to take them on.
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Date: 2017-11-09 05:33 am (UTC)And before you ask how in the world I cover all the types I could be up against with that restriction, the answer is gratuitous abuse of dual-types. (Auryn is my answer to any situation that requires Psychic or Water, for example.)
That being said, Oracle is pretty awesome so far so I don't regret picking him up. But, uh... yeah, I really need to work on that problem in general.
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Date: 2017-11-09 07:24 am (UTC)To bring both comments into this one, the thing about Pokemon is that it's a lot more important to remember neutrals and stat distributions than it is to absolutely stick to Super Effects. The reason I brought up Skarmory in the other one is because it covers almost all of its weaknesses, but more importantly, the stuff it shifts to neutral tend to be physical moves. It's designed for soaking a bunch of damage all around, so you really want to smack it with the lightning or the fire. Steelix, the more important part is making sure you hit it with a special attack, because its SDef can't hold up to a solid assault but its normal defense sure as heck can, it's practically game-best.
Water in particular is a really safe choice in most circumstances; it hits a lot of neutrals and you get a guaranteed Decently Strong choice in both physical (Waterfall, for your Gyarados) and special (Surf, for other things) capacities. Psychic will hit most things that Water stumbles on, etc.
Glaceon is good because Ice is just as good at attacking as it is bad at defending, and it has the Special Attack to back that up. It's a very glass cannon typing, so as long as you remember to strike first (haaaa, that's the flaw of Glaceon) then you're good to go.
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Date: 2017-11-10 03:31 am (UTC)The main drawback to this strategy is that I end up spreading myself a bit thin. I have at least one thing to cover everything, but that one thing might not be the best thing. (Case in point: my only Super Effective answer against the Bug-type gym was a half-Dark dual type. I mean it still worked and Murkrow still had a Super Effective STAB and all, but....)
Another drawback is that it completely overlooks the defenders' stats. As you just saw, I completely forgot that attacking Steelix with even a neutral Special move would get me farther than a Super Effective physical one. The good news is I probably have a Super Effect for every situation, the bad news is I forget about the times when there are other options that might be better than that Super Effect. And another drawback is that I don't really have an answer for when the enemies spec outside their own types and have counter-their-own-counters moves (hi, Fire/Thunder Punch Dragonite.)
Also, after pumping like ten Carbos into Oracle, this particular Glaceon is faster than any mon on my team except Auryn. I'm sure that will catch up to me at higher levels, but I'm definitely enjoying him being a drawback-free weapon of mass destruction for now.
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Date: 2017-11-10 03:47 am (UTC)I love how this turned into a whole conversation about Ice and Dragon types based off my one parenthetical example in my parent comment, but there was, like, nothing at all contesting my main point that Fighting is basically the worst, most pushover type to be a gym leader based around in the earlier generations.
And possibly the later generations too but I wouldn't know.
Also also Grass types are great, shush.
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Date: 2017-11-10 06:09 am (UTC)At the same time, its weaknesses are common enough even without that (I only remember that Fighting is weak to Flying by remembering what happened when a goose met Fabio's face) that no matter what, it's hard to take a pure fighting gym seriously at any point in the game. Late game fighting gyms (there's a few later on) have to lean super hard on dual-types like Lucario and Blaziken and the like in order to be anything resembling threatening.
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Date: 2017-11-06 08:56 pm (UTC)...y'think the Pokemon universe will ever invent the HANDRAIL? "Let's all stand with our backs to an open cliff! Hey, balance on this narrow wooden bridge! Ha ha, no regulations!"
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Date: 2017-11-06 09:06 pm (UTC)No. No one will ever need or want basic safety features or regulations when they have Pokemon.
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Date: 2017-11-07 07:31 am (UTC)Gives Johto its own peculiar musical feel, at least.
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Date: 2017-11-09 05:16 am (UTC)I have no idea if they did anything to distinguish any of those in HG/SS because obviously I'm not that far yet. I'll find out eventually, I suppose; no spoilers until then please. I'm not holding out hope, though, because this game does not seem like it's trying to make a habit out of splitting up the songs. Olivine City did just directly reuse the Violet City theme, for example, so I know it has no problem doing that. If anything, the Cianwood mix of Ecruteak's theme was actually striking partly because I wasn't expecting it.
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Date: 2017-11-09 11:31 am (UTC)Except Buena's Password why is it in my head please help.
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Date: 2017-11-07 08:39 am (UTC)Those types are Water and Electric. And Ground is weak to Water. Also, its special defense is pathetic, meaning hitting it with a Surf (or even a Water Gun) from Auryn would have done a lot more than trying to kick it in the face with Atreyu.
It may not help so much after the fact, but knowing those weaker points will make a difference when facing other hybrid steel types. (Hi, Skarmory.)
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Date: 2017-11-09 05:27 am (UTC)Case in point: Giving Dig as an emergency "but what if I have to fight a Steel type" move to Oracle. It turns out that, between Glaceon's piddly attack vs. obscene special attack, the physical tankiness of most Steel type Pokemon, and STAB, a Not Very Effective Ice Beam is more effective than a Super Effective Dig in most cases. (Magnemite being the major exception, because Ground is a quad weakness.) So, um, oops.
Do tell about Skarmory, though? That one I know to electrocute because it's half-bird and the Steel typing won't save it there, if that's what you mean.