Screenshot Teen UCL3 - Luv's Globe-Trotting Gauntlet

[NightFlowerLuv]

Alright time to beat up Giovanni and then probably our rival and most of Victory Road, let's GO

Spoiler: Fire Red Part 9

Despite Giovanni's specialization, the trainers in here have all sorts of nonsense, so I should be able to get everyone some time in the sun. Giovanni's ace is at 50, so I'm probably good in terms of levels with all the EXP the trainers will offer? We'll find out I guess lol.

Okay I got maybe. Two levels? One people that weren't Grimm? But eh, I'm higher level than everything EXCEPT his ace, who is just. A Rhyhorn? So I should be good once I get my PP back.

If you say so, my dude. From my perspective it was more of a sweep. I'm off to become the Pokemon champ, thanks. I think I might finish FireRed today? I might finish FireRed today. I'm not sure, depends on how much grinding I want to do, Lorelei by herself is at level 54 and Gary maxes out at 63, so there's definitely some room for improvement in my levels. We'll see when we get through Victory Road! At least now I have Earthquake, which will probably go on Grimm, because I think I'm going to reorganize to remove Charles and one of my fliers for Jolty and Lara? Depending on some other stuff -- fire isn't SUPER useful in the E4 so I might keep Charles, but Grimm could use EQ just as much if not more than Charles can so we'll see.

But first!

... Shit. I wasn't sure if a Quick Attack could kill and I was hoping he could take a Flamethrower better than that or outspeed, but the level difference is definitely a factor and Blue's Charizard is not a joke. I'm actually, like, genuinely a little afraid of what to do here.

Shit my Golbat too fuck I think I'm about to wipe I didn't stock up on enough healing items

... I did. I did wipe. Including my Aerodactyl. Fuck. I don't remember the protocol for this... okay it looks like I have to rebuild from the box, wonderful. I'll, uh... I guess that answers whether I was going to need to grind. I'll see you guys, uh... At Some Point.

ahahahahahahahaha fuck me sideways

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

Alright asshole let's try this again with feeling this time

Spoiler: Fire Red Part 10

One!

Two!

Three!

Four!

Five!

And SIX, you fucker! Eat shit. Let's get to the league so I can kick your ass again, hm?

I can get an encounter on the way up to Victory Road but none of them are new so I'm just gonna leave it. As for Victory Road itself:

Can you believe I never got one of these guys? I'm baffled. Hopefully it's not about to blow up on me -- OH WAIT I HAVE A WAY TO MAKE SURE IT DOESN'T thank you Misty

(it went for it too lmao)

Unfortunately it went down in one Confusion so rip lmao

I like the puzzles in Kanto Victory Road decently well, it's a fun idea and they don't make it too long or anything.

And we're out! Everyone is level 52 now. I'm not sure what level I want to grind to, but I'm finishing today so I'll figure something out.

[insert grinding montage]

God I hope 57 is enough. I've been doing a lot of EV investment so my stats are pretty good but I Am Definitely Afraid... regardless, here we go.

Okay that's one down, I wasn't too worried about Lorelei at my current levels so that's fine

This one scared the hell out of me because even though my Dodrio has VERY high Attack I'm still terrified that I'll just barely not one shot something and then he'll crumple like a piece of paper, but I didn't need to worry, at least in this case, so that's good

phew the second Gengar worried the hell out of me for a bit but I have healing items and we're all still alive so that's good

Now for the Really Scary Parts I have ways of dealing with most of this but I have no idea which of my team members can handle his Aerodactyl -- oh okay he didn't hit Misty that hard actually and she handled it, we're doing really well actually

That EV training was so important god lmao

Just one fight left!

Here we go.

One...

Two...

... and three, without problems, but then his Alakazam just barely survived a Fake Out followed by a Slash, leading me to...

A VERY bad position, given that I was counting on Cheer for Charizard. Considering my options, and given that Gyarados was up next, I had Jolty roast it and then, against the Charizard, attempt to set up a Light Screen -- either he was faster and I would get an extra turn to blast with Thunderbolt, or he was slower and Jolty was either doomed from the start or would have it set up even if he barely hung on, so I could switch to Misty or someone else to take care of it

I outspeed. It's roasting time -- but not quite a one shot, and he's in Blaze range now which means Jolty --

-- is down for the count. I know he outspeeds, though, which means that Patches, Lara, and Devin all do for sure too. Lara hasn't gotten any time in the sun and she resists the fire, but one Strength cuts him into Full Restore range, which is not great. The benefits are still present, though -- I can take a turn to heal Cheer and I THINK the Light Screen will still be up on the turn I'd switch her in... ? Nope, it isn't, BUT I can switch to Misty instead and set up a Rain Dance to Surf that thing into oblivion. Two Surfs might just be better, actually, but we'll see how much Aerial Ace does before we make any snap judgements.

Oh huh it called a switch and went for Fire Blast instead. I think that'll do worse than Aerial Ace for sure and it means it's almost OUT of Fire Blast, so... that's probably good? Not sure, but we got CRIT so that's just rude. Misty's fine, but I have to spend a turn to heal now and I'm upset about that. I'm considering the rain just for the sake of not triggering Blaze again, but I'm not sure how much it matters if it doesn't go for Fire Blast...

Oh it went for it and it missed! I think that's five so I might not even have to worry about Fire Blast anymore, but Surf knocks it into possible healing range and DEFINITE Blaze range so I am terrified.

Okay he went for the heal, I could've set up the Rain Dance but two Surfs should be fine, I just have to survive whatever move it throws at me this next turn and I think I win?

Oh god it had another Fire Blast but it missed again

That's the game! We fuckin did it lads!!!!

I'll be real with y'all, I have actually finished VERY few real full nuzlockes, this is an endorphin trip and a half

Anyway Oak is a dick to Gary in this scene and I don't love it, just as a final stinger

Man, that sure was a journey. Hopefully next time, I'll be a bit more careful and have fewer deaths -- I know Johto a lot better than Kanto, so I'll have that advantage, at least!

In the next few days, I'll begin SoulSilver. Look forward to it!

 

[Kazzius]

WOO good job getting it done! Picking back up after a wipe at that late in the game is real impressive.

Good luck in Johto!

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

So while I work on my story-based Black run I'm consumed with the desire to just fuck around in a 'locke and Johto is a good place so let's just GET RIGHT INTO IT FOLKS

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 1

So! This time I remembered to go in and fix trade evos, as well as updating moves and base stats to gen 6, so no crazy early Leech Life but better Rock Smash and Uproar and things like that! I know Johto PRETTY well and I like it a lot, even if the level curve is absolute nonsense, so this should be a solid experience. You get lots of encounters early in this game too, which is fun. Let's GOOOO

Once again, I am Luv, and the last digit of my ID is 9, so I'm going with the water starter this time! I love all the Johto starters so I would've been happy with this no matter what~

My Totodile shall be Jaws, because originality is a lie. He's Quirky, nice and neutral, that's decent, and it looks like he has a pretty solid defense IV? Anyway let's do an errand, I'll catch up with you when it's rival battle time

Here we are!

I'm afraid I ran into a number of Kakuna on the way to and from Mr. Pokemon and you are NOT in a good position, sir. Also Silver having Chikorita is always kind of fun character-wise, I love him a lot

Anyway that was the opposite of a problem, Silver isn't super challenging in general as a rival except when he takes you off guard or if you don't have a way to handle his Magnemite? The Azalea Town fight is probably the hardest just because of how easy it is to trigger it before you're really ready for it

Don't mind me I just have a type

Alright, my mom is saving money for me, my rival is named, and now I have POKE BALLS BABEY

Our encounter! Hell yes, I LOVE Sentret and Furret. His name is Timon because reasons and he's Adamant, which is fairly rad

Encounter for Route 46! Her name is Rose and she's Docile. Not sure how long I'll keep her directly on the team, but Nim was super powerful while she was on my FireRed team so who knows? I love Normal types and I wouldn't mind using two early game ones at once for as long as it seems viable.

Encounter for Route 30! He's Serious, and his name is Finch, because why not. Good to have a bird, even if Gust kind of sucks for Pidgey now with the physical/special split

Now the real question is whether I want to grab a rock or a bat from the Dark Cave... honestly, it's not a bad idea, even if having a Zubat and a Pudgy and a Rattata on the same team will be very similar to most of my FR experience lol

Meanwhile, my encounter for Route 31. I'm not super mad, I love Beedrill a lot, and he's Naughty, which isn't a terrible nature, it's just going to be a bit of a pain to evolve him from here

Decided to check the cave! Decided to copy Jaiden and name a rock Dwayne -- I have trade evos on so now I'm set to get a Golem at least, that's good

Alright, we're in Violet City now. I'll grab my Route 32 encounter and then get everyone up to level 10 or so

No Mareep for me :C At least not for a while. Bellsprout's not bad, though, so I'll drop off Rose for now. Grass isn't exactly the best type for Johto, as we all know, but type coverage is type coverage, and there are always caves and such. Time to level up!

Eyyyyyy time to go into Sprout Tower, I already have a Rattata so I just need to remember to come back later tonight to get a ghost

Our Rock can now throw other rocks, which is very good and important

Time to beat the Elder! Not a problem at all. Gotta get up to at least 12 or 13 for Falkner, I think I'll be fine at that level since I have a Rock

Oh I just checked and Falkner's just at 13 I thought he was at 14 but I was probably thinking of some other first Gym Leader

(also Rock Smash acquired)

I honestly expected that to be a lot more annoying than it wound up being but I guess after spending literally an entire evening and morning grinding for the end of FireRed I've reached a sort of grinding enlightenment

Let's go throw some rocks at Falkner, folks

The opposite of a problem! I think that'll be good for today. See you next time!

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

Updated my story run so let's keep up the Johto Journeys too~

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 2

So first things first, I put Finch in the box for a bit, since we have An Egg and it'll be a Normal/Flying type also and I fucking love the Togepi line a lot so, y'know. But first!

Like hell I'm getting a Union Cave encounter that isn't Lapras

Miracle Seed: get!

Rock Tomb: also get!

And we got through the cave without an encounter. Time to grab stuff here and in the forest instead!

Here's our encounter for Route 33! His name is Dandelion because again, originality is a lie. Probably not gonna use him until way later if something goes wrong. Now for the forest, since I can get there without a fight right now. There's not a TON I can get here? I can get a Zubat at night so maybe I should wait? But then I might get an Oddish and that's just redundant... not that Paras ISN'T redundant... fuck it, I'll wait until I get Headbutt, I've got Repels still, may as well use them.

Let's go to the well instead! There's not a lot there either but I wouldn't mind a Zubat and I got really lucky with the one Cubone in the Pokemon Tower anyway so maybe I'll get lucky again! I think Slowpoke is actually more common here than Cubone was there. Hi Kurt. Bye Kurt.

Meanwhile it's time to get Experience. I need to get up to level 16 for Bugsy at least, I think? I have a Geodude so I have a pretty solid advantage, but Scyther is still a beast if you aren't careful.

Ran into a Zubat, but it was level 5 and I Quick Attacked it into oblivion, that's not great. Oh well, we have plenty of other chances to get Zubat.

Also:

Hooray! Time to kick Proton's ass.

Done! Dwayne got Magnitude, too, so that's good. I'm gonna give Kurt my Green Apricorns so I can get Friend Balls tomorrow. I love these Apricorn Balls, honestly, they can be super helpful.

Anyway now I'm going to beat up the gym trainers and then assess how much I need to grind before Bugsy.

Okay everyone is level 15 except for Dwayne, who is 16... let's just go for it, I think Dwayne can handle this.

I was correct! I could've probably used other 'mons for the Metapod and Kakuna since he decided not to use U-turn and I just one shot his Scyther without any problems? But I didn't really feel like it. Dwayne tried to learn how to blow himself up, but obviously I didn't want to go for that.

Now it's time for our second fight with Goro, and he leads with his Gastly so I can lead with Jaws, I think? This shouldn't be a huge problem, I think Hive can handle his Bayleef? We'll see how it goes.

Okay it has Reflect and Synthesis and is higher level than me and very bulky so this might not be a workable plan, hm

Okay I decided to have Tristan poison it with Poisonpowder we'll see how that goes, it won't offset the Synthesis TOO much but it's better than nothing... in terms of actually doing damage, I swapped to Timon and Fury Swiped at it and things worked out, though it was a bit hairy.

The Zubat killed my Beedrill because I tried to fight while confused and didn't want to swap to Dwayne and give him any more XP than he already had, which I realize isn't a great mindset to have in a Nuzlocke but it's hard to rewire it when I spent so long in my childhood trying to make myself level everything evenly

I'm not super heartbroken because there will be other opportunities to have A Bee and there are tons of other options since we're still pretty early on but it's still a shame. I let Jaws finish of the Zubat because it was pretty low on health and again, hard to rewire those thoughts

I'll grab Finch back for now, we'll see how things pan out in terms of future encounters

First I need to find these Farfetch'd and get Cut, thank god I have Repels -- hopefully they last me until I get Headbutt and can get that encounter

I'm just gonna teach Cut to, uh... Tristan, why not, I don't want him to have the same moveset as any given Bulbasaur, and now to teach Headbutt to every possible Pokemon and then --

Our encounter! I made sure not to attack it this time and just threw my Great Balls. Time to see what I get in Azalea -- I think I know what tree to smack to at least have a CHANCE at Heracross, but honestly I kind of want an Aipom... have I mentioned I love Normal types?

Well, we didn't get either of them, so oh well.

Meanwhile!

Welcome to the world! My Togepi is a rare female one, and has Serene Grace, so we're at least lucky about that! I have dubbed her Xion.

... actually she's Impish which. sucks. but WHATEVER it'll still be fine I'm sure

Taunt: get! Probably not going to use it but it'll be money at least

Route 34 encounter is...

Not bad? I guess? I don't have strong opinions about Drowzee. Her name is, uh... fuck it, Myla, that's a name.

Now we're in Goldenrod! I want an Eevee so I can't go for the Dratini in the Game Corner -- you get a free one later so it's probably fine. I think I might have forgotten to get the Old Rod before Union Cave, by the way, but I'm not going back through that cave and waste more Repels until I can actually get myself a Lapras

I do want some TMs tho so I'm going to be playing Voltorb Flip on and off every so often as I go through the game

Anyway time to go north and get more encounters!

(also Bicycle: get)

Encounter for Route 35! I fucking LOVE Nidoking, but I'm not sure who to drop off for this guy... his name is Beast, btw, I always name these that. If I drop someone off it's going to be either Finch or Timon, but... hm. I'll think about it after I find something for the National Park. It's coincidentally Bug Catching Contest Day, so we might get something cool, as long as it's the first thing I run into. The problem is that it can be tough to catch the really strong stuff without getting beaten up yourself, so let's see how we do, I guess.

First encounter is a Beedrill, so I can ignore it. Wouldn't mind a Butterfree or an analogue, but of course Scyther would be the raddest thing

I am running into a NUMBER of Weedle, and I can't run from them super easily so I'm having to knock them out, as though Dwayne needed more levels

Okay, it's a Metapod, that's. fine, even if I probably won't use it like I would an out-of-the-box Butterfree or even a Caterpie, just because of the ease of use. I got third place in the contest, which is neat? I don't remember what the third place prize is, I think it's a berry or something though.

It is a berry! A SItrus berry, even, which is wild and also excellent, I'll definitely plant that once I get the pots. Metapod is named Carl for lack of any better ideas. I also now have a Soothe Bell and a TM for Dig, both of which are extremely useful for different reasons, so that's nice!

And our encounter for Route 36 is...

... huh. Alright. Would've preferred a Vulpix, but I. I guess this is fine? I do also like Nidoqueen, for reference, but it's kinda silly to have both lol

Her name shall be Diana. Now it's time to reconsider my team composition for Whitney, so I think I'll call the post here for now. See you next time!

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

Fuck it I love Johto let's keep it going

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 3

Alright so Myla is Modest which is pretty cool and while Beast has Rivalry which isn't great Diana has Poison Point. I have swapped out Finch and Timon, at least for the time being, and brought the two of them on. Time to get Whitney into her Gym and then level like a madwoman. Whitney is at level... 19, which Dwayne is already at but no one else is, so we have a bit of work to do.

This should be fine for now, Diana has Double Kick so she'll get some experience in the Gym. Let's go!

Oh wait I didn't go into the Underground, there's some trainers and a massage there, let's do that first

Okay Diana and Tristan are level 18 now that's excellent, back to the Gym

Ugh is right, sheesh. I thought that maybe Dwayne would be good for Miltank but I forgot about Attract, and between that and Stomp flinches it was a HELLISH time. I basically had to swap back and forth between him and Diana to manage dealing with flinches, Attract, and Rollout, while trying to deal enough damage to eventually take it down. It did go down without any casualties, though, so that's good! I got an encounter on Route 36 already, so I can't get Sudowoodo, but I'm not particularly interested in Sudowoodo anyway at the moment lol so let's go kick its butt instead so we can finally plant our Sitrus Berry

Oh, right, I forgot, I didn't fight the trainers in the National Park because the Bug Catching Contest was happening

... aaaaaand I misclicked. and sent my Croconaw out against a Raichu's Thunderbolt, which vaporized him instantly. I don't know what was going through my head, I think I got like four different brain wires crossed at once, but sheesh that sucks. There are a solid number of good Water-type options in the near future, at least? But fuck do I feel shitty about that.

... and then I was like "okay let's see if Tristan can handle it" and he got crit. fine. I'll just use my Geodude like a boring person.

Welcome back to the team, Finch, Timon. Sorry it has to be under these circumstances.

Now let's see if we can kill this Sudowoodo without too much headache -- I'm hoping so, but I'm not holding my breath

Okay it copied Double Kick and attempted to use it on Diana, like some sort of buffoon, and got poisoned for the trouble, and then she managed to take it out, that's good

Berry Pots: get

Now time for a Route 37 encounter

Oh heck yes! I love Vulpix, and it'll be nice to have a Fire-type. HIs name is Kurama because, as I've said a number of times, originality is a lie. Sorry Timon, I appreciated having you around for a bit. Kurama unfortunately lost Ember for Will-o-Wisp at the level he currently is at, but he'll get Flamethrower at 24, which is basically no time at all tbh

There's this awful double battle against two Beauties that I need to prepare for so excuse me while I get Finch and Kurama up a few levels (Kurama is Calm btw which is painful for right now when I don't have Ember but will be excellent later on)

Eyyyyyyy okay I think we're alright for this now genuinely I hate this fight a lot

okay phew it was a bit stressful but we handled it -- aaaand Finch died to a wild Stantler because I wasn't paying attention, fuck me that's three deaths in one part but whatever

Bill is back in Goldenrod to give me an EEVEE tho so that's good, god only knows what I'm going to evolve it into since I'm apparently incapable of keeping any of my Pokemon alive for longer than five minutes

I know what water types I'm going to be aiming for tho and I have a fire type so probably Jolteon or maybe Umbreon, we'll have to see I guess? I don't have a direct NEED for it at the moment

Sunny of Sunday gave me a Magnet, I wonder if I should take that as a hint lmao but if I get a Mareep or Flaaffy I'm going to want to use that for sure so [shrug]

Eevee's name is... Royce, I guess, that's a name. He's Mild, -Sp Def/+Sp Atk, which is, like, fine? I'll put him in the PC for now, because we're going to be exploring a LOT in a hot minute -- you don't have to take on the Ecruteak Gym right away, and you can in fact take on all of the trainers on the routes to Mahogany and Olivine to get Maximum Experience. You can't surf until after the gym, but the experience is still useful, since the level curve actually takes the fact that you can fight them at that point into account and also Morty has a Gengar who can be VERY dangerous if you don't have the right tools and enough levels

I always make sure to grab all the possible experience, including from the Lighthouse, and then catch the red Gyarados and take on the first parts of the Rocket Hideout before I fight Chuck -- it's the best way to make the most of the wonky level curve Johto presents, in my experience

Anyway that's not super relevant RIGHT now because we have to go into the Burned Tower first I think...? actually Goro's going to be at level 22 so that's gonna be something I save for a bit later and take on, idk, the Rocket Grunt harassing the Kimono Girl first instead? Yeah that guy's level 12 that's not a problem let's go beat him up

Success! We got Surf, even if we won't be able to actually use it for a solid while

Now I'm going east to get some new encounters~

Shadow Claw and Strength: get! Dunno who I'm going to give Shadow Claw to, there are a few options I think...? they might not be on my team atm tho lol, like, Diana might be able to learn it but idk how well it'd suit her longterm

Now let's see what I get in Mt Mortar I suppose

Why hello! I'm okay with this. He's Docile, and I think Wing Attack isn't too far away in his future so that could be fun? We'll see I suppose

Meanwhile! Now we should be set for Morty tbh, Gengar can't actually do that much to Normal-types if you play it right.

Now for an encounter for Route 42...

YEEEEEHEEHEEEE I was hoping so! I shall call him Nate and he shall be mine~ I guess I'll have to leave Kitetsu in the PC for now. Johto has so many good 'mons, man, having to stick with just six is torture! This is why I love the new EXP share

Now I COULD go up to Route 43 towards the Lake of Rage, and I honestly probably will in just a bit, but I want to get to Olivine first because the trainers on the routes in that direction are a bit lower leveled and there're some items and stuff there, the most important of which in this case is the Good Rod! There's a certain Pokemon you can fish up in Olivine that I would absolutely love to have but it's somewhat rare so I'm not getting my hopes up

... god DAMN it why do Stantler Stomps always hit way harder than I expect them to?! I'm sorry, Nate, I should've just swapped, bluh

NO MYLA I COULDN'T RUN STANTLER ARE NOW MY MORTAL ENEMY FUCK ALL OF THEM JESUS CHRIST

I should probably just stop but I dun wanna, sue me lmao

I crossed over to Violet via the three way intersection to grab a berry from Wade and the Old Rod that I missed before

Alright, west we fuckin go I'm not quitting until things start going WELL

Huh, that's neat. Magnemite is always a good Pokemon, I might go for it but I'm not sure atm

... Raticate have Pursuit. Kitetsu is also dead.

I'm a fucking wreck right now but I'm gonna keep getting encounters so I can, like, properly get myself back on track next time at least

Encounter for Route 39. Y'all know I like cats, so I'm okay with this -- she has Technician, so that's pretty fucking rad, at least

Good Rod: get. Now it's time to fish here and the route to the west and we'll sort through everything and team composition next time.

... I can't get the Pokemon I want in either of those two areas and I have to wait until I can surf.

Bluh.

ANYWAY.

Our encounters:

Our Staryu's name is The Face because of a reference and Magikarp is Regalia. I'm almost always drawn to the Red Gyarados but Regalia is Jolly and her speed IV looks pretty good too so, like, she would probably be a solid addition

I'll consider that when I'm less tired, though. Good fuckin night.

tl;dr: Pain Peko

 

[redninjapuffle]

oof, that must have sucked to happen to you, thats like 5 deaths in one part

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

@redninjapuffle: it was Not Pleasant, and almost definitely because I was tired and should've stopped halfway through that part, honestly. I love how I said "oh man I know Johto a lot better than Kanto" and then Stantler just decides to fuck with me three separate times because I underestimated it

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 4

SO upon a bit of research, it turns out that the randomizer I used to fix impossible evolutions does also include the ones that are possible in Sinnoh but not in Johto, so I can get not only Magnezone without too many problems, but also a Leafeon with just a Leaf Stone if I want that -- my Eevee doesn't have a great nature for that, though, so I probably won't go with that. Evolution stones are a bit of a hassle to get since I'll have to hook up my tablet and do the Pokeathalon but I'm going to need a Fire Stone and a Moon Stone for sure and I might want a Water Stone for my Staryu too so I may as well get on that. I'm not sure how long that's going to all take since I can fuck about with the date on my computer and it won't affect things TOO badly I don't think? But it might still be a bit time consuming. Let's find out!

... or my laptop can be its old-ass self and have its ports be useless garbage. fine. I'll just have to attempt to do it with the trackpad, I guess. After some trial and error, the Jump Course seems to be the most consistent with the 'mons I have and the trackpad use so I'll just have to grind it out a bit.

Alright, around 6 runs through the Jump Course later, I have a Moon Stone. Now to see if changing the date on my computer makes me unable to buy anything, because I know that happens when you change the date normally (you can normally only buy one of each available item per day)

Nope! We're good! That's a relief. I did do it in the "change your clock to one minute before midnight and let it roll over" way but idk if that's actually relevant or if it's just that reading my system clock on my computer isn't the same mechanism as reading the DS clock

Five or so runs later, Fire Stone: get! I think I'll leave it at that for now for the sake of my sanity tbh lol

I have multiple options for Water-types right now and even with that in mind I'm going to get one that I really very much want after we get the Fog Badge so, like, the Water Stone is probably less important atm

Time to get Coil the Magnemite and some other sixth team member up to par with everyone else and then get everyone ready to take on the Lighthouse and the route north of Mahogany!

Meanwhile, I healed the Miltank and bought some MILK

GOD FUCK I FORGOT KRABBY GETS MUD SHOT NO MY MAGNEMITE YOU FUCK

Okay that one wasn't me being careless at least it was just me not knowing Krabby very well because I barely ever use it but still BLUH

Alright here we go Route 43 encounter is... okay so the first thing we ran into is a Flaaffy and, like, ngl? I kinda want it. I think the other options on this route are, like, Wooper and Girafarig and stuff? Oh, it's Venonat, not Wooper. Girafarig WOULD be pretty neat, honestly, and I don't think you can find it other places...? Oh you can find it in and outside the Safari Zone, alright, Flaaffy it is, her name is Nia and she's going on my team immediately

We're steadily gaining levels and doing good things, but we're going to need to get more levels than this to fight Morty, I'm barely level 22 with everyone and Morty's Gengar is 25

I might be able to fight my rival at least tho so we'll do that in a hot second once Nia is up to par with everyone else

This should be fine for Goro for right now, at least, I'll grind some after

My encounter for Burned Tower is... a Koffing that died in one Thundershock. I thought it would take at least one, but w/e I guess lol

Alright Goro handled, no major problems, and the beasts have been unleashed, so now it's just time to get high enough level to take on Morty. The Gengar can't actually do anything to Normal-types except put them to sleep and attempt to Sucker Punch which you can play around very easily, so I think Xion can probably handle it? Regalia doesn't have Bite because she evolved a level late so that's not great, but I think we'll be okay even if I am still a little worried

Alright I took a break to buy some milk and I got Dragon Rage on Regalia and Bite on Diana in the meantime so I think we're actually set, if I get Kurama to level 24 on the trainers and get Flamethrower we'll be in BUSINESS

Alright, no Flamethrower yet, but we should still be alright, I think. Let's do this.

Oh hey, there's Flamethrower, hella

Hehe, between Yawn, Sweet Kiss, and Extrasensory, Xion had the Gengar on lock! Heck yeah. This is the strategy I usually use with this, but I always feel less confident in nuzlocke contexts, especially when I fucked up so hard last time. We handled it like a champ, though! I haven't actually gone to the Lighthouse yet so we'll go there next, and then we'll maybe catch the Red Gyarados and start taking down Team Rocket? I might go to the Safari Zone first, though, even though that'd be a bit time consuming... we'll see. For now: Lighthouse awaaaayyy!

Side note: I could probably evolve Kurama right now. The other option is waiting for Extrasensory at Level 44 and I don't really feel like that's a good idea, but I'm not sure exactly when I want to actually evolve him. Confuse Ray, Will-O-Wisp, Quick Attack, and Flamethrower are... probably alright as future/final moves??? idk man I'm holding off in case something stupid happens but less stupid things might happen if I just do it so mrgh I could also just evolve Diana too there's not really anything I'm waiting on...

ANYWAY LIGHTHOUSE TIME

Eyyyy alright fuck it let's evolve the rest of our gang too I think we may as well

So that's good! We're almost done with the lighthouse now, but I'm. not entirely sure if I want to teach Surf to Regalia or not? I have some other Water-types I could teach it to as a stopgap until I -- WAIT WHAT AM I THINKING I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE TO GET THE SURF USER I WANT

Alright I'm putting Regalia and uh... I guess Dwayne, for now, into the PC and setting my clock to Friday because it is LAPRAS TIME

wh -- my mom just. sent me a Moon Stone. alright. ANYWAY.

Yeeeeheeheeeee~~~ the nature's not great but it's not necessarily ACTIVELY AWFUL so who cares, it's Lapras and I will cherish her forever, give her Surf immediately, and then pat Regalia on the head melancholically before leaving her in the box until I need a Waterfall user

Now I'm off to Cianwood to get more encounters as well as some medicine and also a few levels, then I'll take the medicine back and unlock the Safari Zone, THEN I'll go catch the Red Gyarados and beat up Team Rocket, THEN I'll GO to the Safari Zone, and after that I'll actually fight the Gyms, because Chuck is at level 31 and Ariana is at level 27 in case you were thinking this level curve made any sense at all if you don't do it this way

Alright here we are on Route 41 and there's a Pokemon that WAS available in Olivine City in Gen II but moved out here in Gen IV that I really REALLY would like to have as a potential option for the team, but it's not super common so I'm not holding my breath. Let's find out what fate has in store!

FATE HAS SMILED DOWN BABEY! I absolutely love Chinchou and Lanturn and while I have both Water and Electric coverage on my team atm I am SO glad I have access to this lil gal in case something goes wrong

... oh hey something went wrong, that something being my inability to pay attention to how much damage things are doing before pressing buttons

And here I always get on people's case for that god I'm such a hypocrite anyway I am now 0 for 2 on potential Ampharos so fuck me

I know that I'm sucking a lot but consider: this is just as painful for me as it is for y'all reading

Ampere the Chinchou is Timid, though, so that's kinda cool

Caught a Krabby in Cianwood, so that's neat, his name is Pinchy. I have the medicine and I could fight Eusine if I wanted to but I'll save it because his levels are the same as Ariana's because this game's level curve is nonsense, so I'll fight him after I take down the Rockets probably

Alright Lake of Rage time! The red Gyarados shouldn't have Ice Fang yet so I should be good to Yawn at it with Xion as long as I'm careful

okay sheesh I knew Extrasensory wasn't going to do a LOT but that's a little irritating

Eyyyy we got 'im. I shall dub him Rampage. Once I can fly I'm going to finally get my EXP Share but that won't be for uh... a Bit, since Team Rocket takes priority at this moment in time. Leveling time!

Also, like, hi Lance and all that

Oh right, I just remembered I technically get an encounter here, it can be either one of the explosives in the floor on the first floor or one of the Electrode... I'm not really hung up on any of the options or anything so I'll just grab the first Electrode I fight and not worry about it, probably

... but I can feel myself starting to get kind of tired? And I've gone for a while so I'll call it here and say I'll do all of the Rocket stuff and the Safari Zone stuff next time. bai~

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

Alright gang it's time to kick some Rocket butt

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 5

So at my current levels the security goons are surprisingly useful for EXP so that's good! We might not get up to 27 before Ariana but we'll be close enough and Lance'll be there to help so it should be fine? Maybe I should be more worried about Petrel, let me see which of his many Koffings can blow up

Oh he gets the five Koffings in the second battle, that's right, he just has one here and it can definitely blow up, but I'm already ahead of his levels so I SHOULD be okay, let's just get through here

Thanks for the heals Lance!

Petrel handled, Xion OHKOed the Koffing and the rest was cake~

Alright Ariana bring it on!

SHIT I FORGOT SHE HAD A GLOOM AND I DIDN'T SWITCH LIKE SOME SORT OF MORON dammit I wanted to actually use a Golem this time why am I LIKE this

At least Kurama handled the rest of the fight and I have some good 'mons on standby but BLUH man

I have an Electrode now, so that's neat I guess

... okay no if I put either of my Gyarados on the team that's three Water-types and while water is a VERY solid type and there isn't a TON of overlap plus I have answers to the types that would give them problems, it still might not be a great plan... my Eevee is an option? But the most useful evo for it at this point would be Espeon and that would be a bit of a pain... not, like, impossible, but still kind of a pain... I guess I could just have an open slot for a bit? We're going to the Safari Zone next and that's going to be a big opportunity to get lots of stuff and then consider options from there, so I'll go ahead and do that... actually, if that's what I'm doing anyway, I may as well grab Royce and give him the Soothe Bell while I make my way over there and run around places, that would be smart. Off we go to the Safari Zone!

Eyyyyy look what happened on the way

I'm going to go ahead and skip getting something in the water from route 47 so I can get something from the grass once I have Waterfall? Yeah, let's do that.

Meanwhile, it's time to take on the single most terrifying regular trainer battle in the entire game, this pair of ace trainers with an Electabuzz and a Magmar. Thankfully I have a Ninetales and a Lanturn which are about the most helpful pair to use against these two, and they handled it with ease! Thank god.

... My computer crashed and set me back to inside the Rocket HQ. Hold on while I consult the Discord server to ask what I'm supposed to do here.

... looks like Dwayne is still dead. That sucks, but I guess it gives me more time to give happiness to Royce.

This time since Dwayne wasn't there I managed to divide the EXP so Ampere evolved after Petrel, so that's pretty cool

Kurama swept Ariana and her goon, so that's good, and I still caught an Electrode, so, y'know, so far so decent. Off towards the Safari Zone we go for real this time!

I actually forgot to fight Eusine before going into Cliff Cave before so let's make sure to do that this time

Okay so the first few encounters in Cliff Cave are Geodude, but then I found a Golbat, and that's... tempting. Honestly yeah, I'll go for it. Now to fight the terrifying duo again, hopefully it goes as well as last time -- yep! We handled it. Onto actually new stuff, shall we?

Encounter for Route 48 is...

Oh HELL yes, that's rad -- if I can actually get it to stay in the BALL, uh oh

Okay cool we're cool, welcome aboard, I'm gonna name him a reference no one will understand

Now for the Safari Zone. In this case, I'm going to attempt the first encounter in each separate area for the sake of potential variety, although that might wind up with me getting nothing

Not going to bother with the whole test thing or anything either, especially since Geodude is a dupe and all that. Sorry Baoba!

Alright which areas do I have... obviously I have the one with Geodude at the front, looks like I also have Plains, Meadow, Mountain, Wetland, and Savannah. Let's see if I can catch any of the things I find!

For Peak... okay so honestly? It might actually be worth catching another Geodude just so I can actually have Golem, because I like Golem's design a lot. On the other hand, neither of its types are super great in any of the upcoming Gyms and it's useful against MAYBE Lance and Koga in the E4? So probably not.

Magnemite, on the other hand, is much more potentially worth catching, but I have an Electric-type I'm very fond of at the moment and there are other cool things in this place I haven't already had, so I'll give it a couple more encounters. The actually new things I can find in here are Magmar and Wobbuffet, so it's not like I necessarily NEED something new more than I'd need a Magnemite... okay here's another magnet, I have decided this is the one I want to attempt so if it runs fuck me -- nope, caught it! Alright, that's one encounter succeeded.

So for Plains, the new encounters include Girafarig, Abra, Stantler, and Smeargle, any of which would be pretty neat, so let's see what we find... Girafarig! That's actually pretty neat, I might have that be my new sixth team member if it doesn't run away. Let's see!

... nope. That sucks. Oh well, onto the Mountain area! There's actually a small chance of friggin Larvitar here, which would be rad as hell, but other than that the only new thing is Lickitung. I don't mind Lickitung at all, but Larvitar would definitely be cooler lol

It's Lickitung! Let's see if it wants to stay in a ball -- nope. Oh well. Wetland is next, what's interesting here... we've got the Polis, also Farfetch'd for some reason -- I guess it is a duck? -- plus Wooper and Psyduck. Nothing, like, SUPER interesting, but Wooper would be pretty solid I suppose... oh, it's a Farfetch'd, interesting. It fled right away, but hey, still interesting.

Savannah, hm... looks like Nidos and Rhyhorn. I'd like a Rhyhorn, they're pretty cool. Does it want to stay in the ball?

Oh hey it does!! Heck yeah!!!

And now for Meadow, our final area. Options include Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Marill, and Wooper, all very interesting. Let's see what we get... a Jigglypuff! I like that line a decent amount, so let's see if -- it ran after one ball. Darn!

Well, hey, that's two successful captures, at least, which is better than we might have gotten. I wonder if I could have cheesed the system a little bit if I caught the Geodude and then counted every different biome in the Safari Zone as a new area... well, it doesn't really matter now, I'll consider that for next time. Let's get outta here.

So alright, for our sixth party member, we have a few options. There's evolving Royce into an Espeon, which will take a bit of effort but we're already on our way to, Mingjue the Tauros, the Golbat or Magnemite dupes I picked up, or Sawdust the Rhyhorn. In terms of immediate usefulness, Sawdust is good against the Olivine Gym IF he gets a ground move by then which I don't think he does, and Royce being an Espeon would be great against Cianwood's Gym, as would the Golbat. The Magnemite would be decent for a decent chunk of Mahogany's Gym, but not all of it, and none of them are amazing for Clair... the Golbat is Timid which isn't great, and Sawdust has Lightningrod and not Rock Head which means no Solid Rock, although Lightningrod is still a pretty useful ability in some circumstances... gah, I have no idea. I think Royce is probably the best pick objectively just because Psychic is a solid type in general, but I know that Steel is one of the best types in the series too so I'm torn between those two... and I could also just totally reorganize my existing team members if I feel like REALLY grinding -- the route right outside the Safari Zone is a really solid spot TO grind so I have options. I'm going to end the part here and give it some thought.

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

Alright that took less time than expected to figure out, let's get back into it, shall we?

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 6

So I decided to go with Espeon after all! It took some doing but thankfully there's no downside to messing with my computer's clock with this emulator so I was able to just spam the Haircut Brothers and get Royce evolved before he'd learn Confusion -- which is important, since otherwise he'd have basically no way of doing realistic damage until level 36 aside from Shadow Ball, which I have in fact taught him immediately

Now I just have to get him, and everyone else, up to the proper level to take on Chuck and Jasmine. Everyone else is already at 28, but 30 or so is definitely the safest -- I'm not super nervous about Jasmine at all between Kurama and my two water types, but Chuck can pull some nonsense and I don't appreciate it

So, I'm off to right before the Safari Zone once again! The other good way to grind is off of Tentacool and Tentacruel in this ocean near Cianwood so depending on what EVs you want it's all in that general area.

There we go, that should be good. Let's go kick Chuck and Jasmine in the teeth, shall we?

Jesus I hate this Poliwrath it's always bulkier than you expect it to be -- GOD DAMMIT okay so between Body Slam paralysis and Hypnosis this thing gets off its stupid Focus Punch WAY more than I feel like it should, right, and, well, my Lanturn fell victim to it. I am VERY upset about this, but I do have some options? One of my Gyarados is probably the best choice... Regalia's great nature is too hard for me to turn down, despite the allure of the shiny one. At least we have Fly now, even if putting it on my Togetic feels kind of gross... although given that her nature is kind of meh anyway I guess it doesn't really matter. Anyway, Regalia is now level 30. Let's go beat up Jasmine! She's actually higher level than Pryce, btw, because again: Johto's level curve makes no sense at all. Still, I guess since her team is pretty easy to counter it's not really that big of a deal. Handled!

... Hm. I just realized that actually I don't have any electric coverage now and that's the easiest way to handle most of Pryce's team.

... Alright, I was hoping to get around it, but it looks like I need a Thunderbolt TM and I need it now. I love Voltorb Flip, but it's going to take a while to get up to the amount of coins I need, so I better get on it ASAP.

... wait, is Team Rocket already in the Radio Tower? Ah, no, they just have a few more goons out in preparation, that's neat.

... [head slam]

My computer crashed again. This is an old-ass laptop and I really should be saving more often but UGH that sucks. I'm back to right before Chuck, it looks like, which means I need to drop off poor Ampere and level someone else up instead. I could get Regalia up again, but honestly I regretted not going with Watt, my new Magnemite, and I feel like it'd be the best choice -- it's weak to Fighting, which means it's not great for Chuck himself, but hopefully now that I remember he can paralyze me and shit along those lines I can plan around him a bit better. maybe use some better switching to my advantage, or something? Whatever the case, I'm still going to need a Thunderbolt TM at some point for my Magnemite so that's a whole number of hours I'm going to need to repeat. I was past 8000!! I was almost there!!! I'm upset, but whatever, we have to keep marching on. It might actually be easiest to just slap the EXP Share onto Watt, beat the Cianwood Gym, and then fly to Route 43, where there are a lot of Noctowl (at least at night) that provide decent experience and HP EVs, which are very good for Magnemites... I'll consider it tomorrow.

[insert time lapse here]

Alright Chuck let's do this again with less death this time

Kurama handled the Primeape this time -- the first time I led with Royce, and he took some damage so I swapped for Poliwrath. Hopefully Royce can handle the Poliwrath this time... yep! I've been growing Sitrus Berries, and they came in handy. Watt gained a good few levels in the gym, and now we can fly over to the Lake of Rage to level him up all the way to meet the rest of the team.

There's a lot of stuff that gives Sp. Atk EVs here too, in addition to the Noctowl, so this is a really solid place, actually --

[Watt hits itself to death in confusion because I didn't switch it out]

... why am I like this. WHY am I like this. As I hit the button that turn I was like "this could very easily be a bad situation actually" and it was and I could've just headed or switched and there was NO REASON FOR THAT TO HAPPEN UGH

Alright I think my best option now is probably Mingjue the Tauros? My Krabby is an option, I think it can get some stuff that's decent against ice, and that's kind of what I need to be focused on right now. Dewgong atm is... not going to be a great time, without a good Electric or Fighting-type attack, and I don't have a lot of options... okay, I have Rock Tomb, which both Tauros and Kingler can learn, but Kingler will resist Ice attacks and also be a decent Waterfall user once I get that, so I think that might be my best bet atm. Let's hope I don't fuck it up completely!! Ugh. Best place to train that up would be in Cliff Cave, I think, between the Machop line and the Geodude line.

So far so good! Let's beat up Jasmine again... yeah, no problem. Now let's actually fuckin handle the Mahogany Gym, shall we?

Alright! Nessie handled the Seel and Piloswine, and Pinchy handled the Dewgong. Not bad!

Next time: More Rocket Shenanigans!

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

RADIO TOWER TAKEOVER TIME LET'S GO

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 7

Everyone is level 31, except for Diana at 30. The unfortunate thing about this is that the final boss of this area, Archer, has an ace at level 38, because as I've said before, Johto's level curve makes no sense. There are fights with every other Admin in this place and the one right before Archer, Ariana, is at level 32. Why is Johto like this? Arceus only knows. Let's just get straight to it and do our best to get as much XP as possible.

I do like that we get to dress up as a Rocket Grunt, even if it doesn't last long. I still have no idea how I'm supposed to read Silver forcing you into your normal clothes, though, like, there are other outfit changing things in this gen where you just spin around and change clothes but it's not really clear if Silver is forcing the clothes off of you in a very questionable situation or if you just magical girl transformation by yourself? It's just. weird.

It does establish that Silver is a reckless angry dumbass tho and I do love him lmao

Alright so Petrel has five Koffing and a Weezing and every single one of them can blow up. Thankfully, the Koffing are all level 30 and the Weezing is only level 32, so Royce should be able to handle all of them without too much issue.

... okay so he didn't OHKO the Weezing and I was terrified but it just went for Tackle so we're fine I'm FINE

Now I gotta fight Goro and he's at level 34 which isn't TOO bad but I think I want to grab one more level for Nessie so she gets Ice Beam

[game show time lapse music]

Okay let's go

He actually pulled a swap and it was a little close with the Meganium but we handled it!

The puzzle here would be super confusing if I didn't remember that you just go from left to right with the switches

I have an Amulet Coin now, that's good

Card Key get, time to double back and fight some Admins

Proton wasn't a problem, Royce handled his two Poison-types without problems

Ariana wasn't a problem either, between Royce, Nessie, and Kurama

Now all that's left is Archer and his level 38 Houndoom... I have a few potential ways of handling it. One is to use Pinchy, because his Houndoom is mostly physical and doesn't have Thunder Fang, and I can use Rock Tomb and Bubblebeam and that would work out pretty well? Nessie could do well also, or I could use Dig with Diana... I'm not sure, I'm honestly a little worried about flinchhax because I know that Houndoom is a speedy 'mon... if nothing else I can use Kurama as a pivot since he has Flash Fire and neither Archer's Houndour nor Houndoom do... so, like I'm not in an AWFUL position but I'm not good at nuzlockes so, y'know, Fear

Let's just do this

Alright Nessie handled the Houndour, and Pinchy managed to handle the Houndoom super well! I'm super proud. The Koffing was, of course, not a problem. Good for us!!

Now we just have to make our way over to Blackthorn and take on Clair! God, I'm so glad that went well. My team is really doing great now!

Alright, Route 44 encounter, what are my options... huh, not a lot, let's see if we can find...

... uh. Hello, unfortunately you do not count, but it's, uh, nice to see you?

There's what I was expecting! Not a bad 'mon, honestly, especially with the evolution, but I'm not in need of a Grass-type atm -- aw, darn, I went through like, seven balls and the burn I put on it to make it easier killed it, that sucks.

... Raikou showed up too, okay, sure

Ice Path time! We're going to get Waterfall here which'll be good for Pinchy. I might teach Pinchy Whirlpool for the time being as well, since someone needs to and I don't REALLY need Metal Claw on him I don't think?

Ooh, I like Swinub, let's see if we can catch it... yep! Excellent.

Okay, here's --

... Kingler can't learn Waterfall? What???

Alright then, I guess I'm dropping Pinchy for Regalia once we get to Blackthorn. For now, he gets to have Strength instead of Stomp so we can get through here.

And we're out! C'mere, Regalia. There's not a TON of trainers to fight around here, but there's a few, and a couple of encounters too. The Move Relearner is here, but I don't particularly feel like hunting for Heart Scales at the moment and I can't think of any moves that would be super useful to relearn either

I can grab a Poliwag here, which I haven't gotten before, let's grab that -- or one shot it with Swift because Royce is a strong boy, that works too, rip

Now, Route 45. I wish I could get Phanpy, but, like, Skarmory is here in Soul Silver, so I'm not ACTUALLY upset lmao. I could also get a Teddiursa which I find very neat so let's see which it is

Cutie!

Alright, now it's just the Gym left. Clair's Kingdra is at level 41, and while I'm doing decent at level 35ish for everyone except for Regalia, that's still a pretty solid gap. Even her lowest is level 38, and the other trainers have pretty high-level stuff too. I'm gonna take on at least a couple of them, since they just have Dratini and Horsea mostly, but... I think I really need that Thunderbolt TM now before anything else. Hopefully my computer doesn't crash in the middle this time!

Alright, a couple of hours later, we got it! The only ones who can learn it are Diana, Regalia, and Nessie, and out of those I think Nessie will be the most effective, so unfortunately I have to say goodbye to Confuse Ray on her. Her attack is WAY higher than her special attack because of her nature and the types of Pokemon I've been fighting, but her special attack isn't BAD or anything so it should be okay.

We also have a few rematches, which is cool. Makes the process for getting Regalia caught up with everyone else at least a LITTLE bit easier, anyway, but now the real training montage begins!

[insert Rocky music here]

Alright this'll do for the Gym Trainers at least

Regalia and Nessie both got a level, that's good, but I'm going to need to be at LEAST 38 if I want to stand up to Clair...

... alright, so. Diana has Dig, right. And Graveler, right, they have Magnitude. Which is super-effective, and hits while a Pokemon is underground. And most of the levels of Magnitude, Diana is bulky enough to take, so. I wasn't. Super worried about it.

But then there was a really high one.

So. That's going to be even more time spent grinding, plus I have to actually figure out a team member. Maybe Sawdust? A lot of my team is weak to Electric so a Ground-type is pretty freaking important... oh yeah, I have a Swinub! I already have an Ice-type, but there's not actually a ton of weakness overlap between the two of them, I think it's just Fighting, which I have answers for, and Grass, which I also have answers for. I think it might be a solid choice, plus she's one of the higher leveled options, though I might need to get a Heart Scale to fully evolve her, hold on... yep, I do, so that's a whole thing I'm going to need to spend time on. Wish me luck, fam!

[insert more Rocky music here]

Me: "okay good things are going well I want to have EVs in both attacking stats on this guy so the Glooms will be useful too --"
Gloom: [Mega Drain crit]
Me: ...
Me: SCREEEEEECH

Alright I'll call it here for now, I'll see you guys next time with a full team of level 38 Pokemon even if that team is only five members, bluh

 

[NightFlowerLuv]

So upon further investigation it would appear that I post a lot shorter of updates than my peers, possibly because of how bad I am at these so more stuff happens in shorter amounts of game time (because deaths)

I am unsure how to feel about that? But who knows, I think I'm working through at a pretty decent pace all things considered? Idk if I'm doing this in the most, like, efficient way, but w/e, I'm new at this anyway, i'll learn lol

Spoiler: Soul Silver Part 8

Alright so I went for my Rhyhorn and then underestimated a Kingler's ability to Bubblebeam me in the face, so I decided to try Tauros instead, and hours later, we're finally here.

Let's see how Clair goes, shall we?

Alright, so, she leads with Gyarados, and I lead with Nessie to Thunderbolt it. It barely doesn't KO so I go for Ice Shard and Clair actually switches in a Dragonair, predicting another Thunderbolt, so I do pretty decent damage and then KO it next turn with Ice Beam. Her second Dragonair comes out an paralyzes me, so I take a turn to heal up a bit and then Ice Beam, getting her in healing range, but I gave Nessie a Sitrus Berry so she's fine on HP even now that the Dragonair has gone down.

Now the Kingdra is coming out... I think the best option might be Royce? He's fast, has pretty solid special defense and that's what all of the Kingdra's moves are, and he hits really hard... yeah, I think he's my best bet. Psybeam does... a bit less than a third, that's less than encouraging. Kingdra decides to Smokescreen me, too, which is even less fun... Shadow Ball won't do more than Psybeam but the chance for a Sp Def drop would be huge... then again so would the confusion chance so I think going for Psybeam is the best idea atm --

I miss, and it hits with Hydro Pump. How much is this doing... more than half. Alright, it's time to switch back to Nessie -- her Sp Def isn't actually as good but she has tons more HP and is immune to Hydro Pump. Hyper Beam will be scary as hell but... hah! She went for Hydro Pump as I switched and healed Nessie a bit, that's excellent, since she's still paralyzed. Dragon Pusle hits for... less than a quarter, that's pretty decent, and Ice Beam does a little less than Psybeam did, popping her into berry range... we trade damage a bit more, I heal -- oh shit, there's the Hyper Beam

Nessie is at, like, 3/5ths HP, how much is this going to do... okay, just about half of what I had left and I get a free turn, even if I was paralyzed hat specific turn which sucks. Nessie gets her Ice Beam off on the free turn for the KO though!! I decide to leave finishing off the Gyarados to Royce, forgetting she had another item available, so now I am Afeared. This Gyarados is built special but does have Bite, I just figured I'd outspeed and it didn't have much HP left but that was a silly way of thinking. The Psybeam did confuse it, though! I swap to Regalia to get her Intimidate off just in case... oh, and it hits itself! Two Strengths should do it... yeah! Clair defeated!!! That's all eight badges baby!!!!

There's still a bit to do before we get this one tho ofc lol and then we have some Plot to handle -- it's been a long time since I had to go through the Whirl Islands to get to Lugia and the Kimono Girls are a little bit hellish for a Nuzlocke, so that's going to be An Experience.

I am going to be using Repels to get through Dragon's Den so that my encounter can be the Extremespeed Dratini, btw. Not sure if I'll use it, but, like, I have no reason not to, really. I think if I do swap anyone out, it'll be Xion -- I love the Togepi line and she's been doing just fine, but her stats are the least impressive out of the gang atm.

Anyway, first I need to make sure I have enough Repels to actually do that... I have a Max and four Supers, I think that'll be fine? It's not a super huge area. The real problem is I need to teach Whirlpool to someone for the foreseeable future and the best choice is probably Nessie, even though I like all of the moves she already has. The easiest to get back would be Ice Shard or Ice Beam, but I'd still have to get a Heart Scale, and even though I got one EXTREMELY fast the last time (which I used to teach Xion Magical Leaf in case you were wondering why it would be gone when I didn't end up needing it for a Piloswine) I usually have terrible luck with them. I guess I could teach it to Regalia? Regalia learns moves at level 41 and 44 that I could just make sure to have Whirlpool deleted before, and shifting Strength from her over to Mingjue anyway would be a solid idea, so I think I'll go with that.

Dragon Pulse: get! Now I can double back for my new baby, I just need to put Xion in the PC for a bit. It won't be permanent -- I just double checked, and Lance's team maxes out at 50, like the cheating dingus he is, so unless I overlevel to a RIDICULOUS degree, I won't have a Dragonite anyway. If I decide to continue this file as a locke in my own time through to Red, which I've never done before, then I'll bring the lil baby with me, but who knows :p

I have a baby! Her name is Hana and she's... Calm natured. That can certainly work, but it's not exactly ideal. Doesn't matter much at this stage, though! It's off to fight some kimono girls for me. Checking their levels, I should be good, but having to fight them all in a row fucking sucks. Mingjue can possibly handle them? I'm worried that the Umbreon will be too bulky but he's the best bet matchup-wise so I think I'll go for it.

Alright, let's begin. Strength, even with Mingjue holding a Silk Scarf, isn't even a 3HKO, and I got confused, but I may as well keep going for now... yeah, okay, that wasn't great. Its Dark Pulse is hitting harder than I thought, so I'm just gonna switch to Regalia for now. I go immediately for the Waterfall to avoid being confused, and it KOs, though that means that I didn't get a chance to heal Mingjue... Okay, Espeon is next, I think that's fine to heal Mingjue, he's decently bulky -- oh Jesus that hit hard, that's more than half Mingjue's HP AND he got Sp Def dropped, I'm swapping to... Royce? I don't know if this thing has Shadow Ball and I definitely do and should outspeed? But then again Espeon is kind of specially bulky so maybe I should just let Regalia handle this again... yeah, that'd be for the best -- gah that still hits really hard I need to outspeed this thing because I can't keep switching around, Regalia c'mon I know you can do this -- NO IT'S FASTER SHIT -- OH MY GOD

OH MY GOD SHE LIVED WITH 2 HP HOLY SHIT REGALIA YOU RULE

Waterfall didn't KO tho so now I'm definitely leaving the rest to Royce. Good job, everyone, even if I am fairly weakened now and afraid as a result

Which one is next... Flareon? Okay that could be bad also, Flareon's not a slouch but it's pretty slow, at least -- oh god it has Fire Blast, how much is that doing, I took the turn to heal Mingjue to get a feel for this but that could be very bad -- yeah, it's pretty bad. Regalia is still at 2HP so that's not going to work and while Kurama has Flash Fire Flareon does too so that'd be a zero sum game... Nessie is neutral but she's bulky as heck so let's give it a shot!

SHE GOT CRIT UGH YOU LOSER but she's still alive so that means she doesn't get 2HKOed and I can heal safely

It switched to Will-o-Wisp and Surf didn't OHKO... I'm not sure if Ice Shard will finish the job if I'm burned so I just have to hope nothing awful happens and go for Surf again... okay, we're good. God, everyone is taking damage and I kind of need Nessie for Vaporeon, ugh...

Alright Jolteon is next, does it have Thunderbolt or Thunder...? Okay, it's Thunderbolt, and it looks like it's not a 2HKO but there's no way it doesn't outspeed me and it could be a damage range and I'm terrified but I don't have a lot of options to deal with Electric types so I have to count on Mingjue here -- oh, it decided to paralyze me and the paralysis immediately took effect, wonderful, I hate you too, game

I just have to keep trying to hit it, I don't have any better options right now -- oh, DOUBLE TEAM? REALLY? God, just put me out of my misery you jackass

I hit though! It wasn't as much as I'd hope for but it was decent -- now i just need to both survive this next Thunderbolt and actually hit the thing, which is very low odds but I can't afford to switch out right now -- Mingjue did it!! Heck yeah!!!

Alright it's just Vaporeon left and Mingjue is low on HP so it won't go for a water attack I don't think so I can't just swap to Nessie to get free healing but if I heal Mingjue THEN it'll go for a water attack and THEN I can switch to Nessie, hopefully, dear god I hope this works

It worked!! Ahahahaha!!! Alright now I can just take a few turns to heal Nessie and this thing can't do much to her I don't think? I don't believe it can do much except Quick Attack and maybe Swift so we SHOULD be okay

Yep, it's going for Aurora Beam and doing less than 5 damage, I'm perfectly fine to heal off Nessie's burn as well and then start throwing Thunderbolts around

It's going to take, like, four Thunderbolts but again, it's doing maybe 4 damage to me each turn so that's not a super huge problem lol

We did it!!!! No casualties!!!!! Heck yeah, that feels awesome!!!!!

Now, the ever-present question: am I going to just Master Ball Lugia and then not use it, am I going to attempt to catch it the organic way, or am I going to just attempt to knock it out? I think the most interesting thing to do would be to knock it out, but I don't have a lot of moves that are super effective on it and it's pretty bulky

Anyway the connection between the Kimono Girls and Lugia was always a little weird? Like, I guess Lugia used to roost in what was the Burned Tower, so the connection to Ecruteak is still there, but if you think about it, Lugia seems to have been added to the mythology way after Ho-oh, given how early into the series's life Ho-oh was introduced and how it's in the Ruins of Alph and everything but Lugia isn't

Lugia did get its own movie and a whole-ass cave system dedicated to it tho so it's not like it got left out or anything, it's just interesting that there's such a contrast there, at least imo

Okay so I checked on Lugia's moves at the level we're facing it at and it has both Extrasensory and Aeroblast, as well as Hydro Pump

My two best options for this are going to be Ice Beam from Nessie and Shadow Ball from Royce and I have no idea what their capability to outpace its damage is going to be because its level is WAY higher than mine at the moment -- it's more bulky than it is damage-dealing but that still means I might be easily outpaced and I'm pretty freaking terrified... as long as I bring enough healing items I SHOULD be okay? But still, like. Fear.

First, though, I gotta go through here and pick up all the items, lol

... you need Flash in here? What the fuck. Thank god I never sold that TM but holy shit

Also, encounter. Her name is Brianna.

Alright ladies here we go

Ice Beam from Nessie is doing... almost a third, that's not bad, actually. It set up the rain, so Surf might be almost as good now... I'll give it a shot, anyway...

HA it went for Hydro Pump

Surf gets a crit! It's down to red, so it might actually be in Ice Shard range... I'm going for it -- yes!! Wow, that went way better than I expected! Nessie rules!

With that settled, it's just Victory Road and the League left... I think I'll leave that for next time! See you guys then!