Our buddy Groudon caught, it's time to head back to not-Fuchsia and check out the thing that's most memorable about Fuchsia.
The Safari Zone! Or rather, what's replaced the Safari Zone. There's no step counter, no safari balls, and each of the four zones have very clearly set level limits. This ranges from the low leveled 55ish mons in the starting area, including ones like Cinccino, Staraptor, and Kangaskhan.
To some interesting options to the east including most of the weather setters (Poliwrath can be found surfing and Hippowdon not shown), poor Abomasnow, and yet another Shadow Tag Pokemon. The northern area has a bunch of Bug types in the low 70s, but the western area (with the Safari House) is something else entirely.
The wilds have really stepped up their game to the west, this just being a few of the high leveled options in this area. Shedinja being here gives me an opportunity for my favorite piece of trivia.
If you've ever played Dark Rising you might have noticed that you never found Nincada or Ninjask. This is because they don't exist. The question is, why is Shedinja here then when it could be replaced with something more exciting? That's because Shedinja's slot in the national dex, 292, is what the 1 HP hardcoding is tied to. Unless you do some shenanigans you'd best be replacing Shedinja with another 1 HP fakemon or keep it in there. I mentioned this in my Vega playthrough as well, but it's still fun knowledge.
So we got Surf from Misty south of not-Fuchsia, so what's in the Safari House now?
not you too (it's not actually an ambush)
This better not be yet another recurring rival.
She uses the three starters in their second stage all at level 80.
Also this. Bianca's Mom is just horrifically underleveled, I'd even call the wilds outside the house stronger.
After we trounce her, she starts going off about how DHR .-. is stronger than us and we only won last time because he didn't use all four of the musketeers, ignore that Salamence was the biggest threat there. She then says that DHR .-. right now has the best chance of beating DOORBELLS.
To make it so that Bianca can beat DARRELS first she gives us this.
I don't understand why it matters that we be the one to defeat Basically Satan. If DHR .-.'s capable then why not support him too? Saving the world shouldn't be a competition, if DHR .-. has a better shot then let him go for it and have Bianca be backup. This "Bianca you'd better hurry before DHR .-. beats DORGIS first!!!" is just kind of frustrating.
anyways yeah shaymin with serene grace physical air slash yay
In a pleasant change of pace, Kayo doesn't actually want to fight us despite being outside the gym but instead tells us that we'll have a showdown elsewhere. Whatever floats your boat dude. He leaves and we're free to head into the gym.
the gym which has a sandstorm going on inside
i just don't understand
Bruce here doesn't even use Rock types how is this sandstorm happening? Nobody's talking about it, it's just
there. Anyways, Steel types, not exactly the most inspiring threat to our team in particular.
Metagross @ Leftovers Lv88: Meteor Mash/Earthquake/Signal Beam/DynamicPunch
Probopass @ Leftovers Lv88: Stone Edge/Thunderbolt/Earthquake/Flash Cannon
Bastiodon @ Leftovers Lv88: Earthquake/Iron Head/Body Slam/AncientPower
Magnezone @ Leftovers Lv88: Thunderbolt/Mirror Coat/Double Team/Flash Cannon
Bronzong @ Leftovers Lv88: Flash Cannon/Calm Mind/Psychic/Stealth Rock
Klinklang @ Leftovers Lv89: Autotomize/Flash Cannon/Hyper Beam/Signal Beam
Leftovers on all the things. Well, I can certainly see the vague synergy with the inexplicable sandstorm. Pity that it's not going to matter here, what with our 2 Fire types, Ground type, and even babylonia for Fighting backup. It's going to be a cakewalk. Klinklang is the enemy exclusive and is certainly a pretty steep downgrade from Meloetta-P.
Also notice that Bruce does not hit the level curve of 90. This isn't the first time a gym leader is behind the curve (level 80 Vanilluxe right before the 5th gym says hi) but it's still a little out of place.
I wonder where the whole gym leader name = pun on their type thing went. We had it pretty clear early on, maybe I'm just not getting Bruce.
Sandstorm neutralized. Flamethrower OHKOs.
I don't understand why he decided to send out three mons 4x weak to Earthquake in a row when he's got a Levitate Bronzong but sure whatever you say.
Nasty Plot on Stealth Rock means wincon has no issues OHKOing with +2 Flamethrower.
+2 flamethrower op
Yes thank you much appreciated. We'll go back and check out some previous surf spots to see if there's anything neat.
your entire team is immune to poison why are you giving me this
Anyways, with our newfound surfing prowess we can head back into the Training Grounds and pick up the item floating in the water. It was irrelevant.
Also we can surf on the single row of 'grass' directly below this pond, though there's no encounters in those spaces.
These are all found in the western area, while stuff like Poliwhirl, Crawdaunt, and Walrein are found in the other areas. One of these is found by fishing with the Good Rod, can you guess which one?
of course it's swanna what did you expect
We're actually going to catch the Milotic.
That's because, at long last, babylonia's entering retirement. She's had a good run, but her terrible Special Attack just holds her back from being particularly helpful. Say hello to tyranny the Milotic, who doesn't have too many levels to make up for.
Time to backtrack and check out new areas that we can Surf on.
Well first, this Thundurus event has respawned. It's not a fight but it's something that we didn't see previous times we visited the route.
What we're actually here for is this.
The level curve is at 90.
That means you and your team of 4 mons isn't scary anymore.
Hippowdon @ Soft Sand Lv90: Earthquake/Stealth Rock/Iron Head/Superpower
Golem @ Hard Stone Lv90: Earthquake/Rock Wrecker/Iron Head/Double Edge
Machamp @ Black Belt Lv92: Drain Punch/Stone Edge/Earthquake/Bulk Up
Rhyperior @ Hard Stone Lv94: Rock Wrecker/Earthquake/Megahorn/Iron Head
He's totally a gym leader, look at his battle title!
Anyways, this is actually something that can be handled way earlier with a good rain team but our semi-sun works fine too at these levels. It's still wildly inappropriate for the point in the game that it can be accessed.
It's also completely pointless.
The Thundurus event respawning made me curious though. What else has reset that we haven't seen yet?
this fight with level 16-18 grunts next to the first town did
yay
Pete has regressed.
So did Sydney, but astoundingly she
isn't a ghost. This is a step up! Not much of one but still, points to Sydney for trying.
The first Light fight with his level 50 Tornadus doesn't respawn, even after we fight Sydney. There might be some way to cause it to activate, but for now we'll have to give up on revenge.
the starter event is active again
well not really we can't get another starter
We can do this though. Listen to Arceus, we cannot win simply by attacking, but right now flamberge only has attacking moves. We'd better switch to wincon.
flamberge get down from there where's wincon
that doesn't answer my question
Having more than one Pokemon breaks the tutorial battle in interesting ways. Don't let the player get extra Pokemon before the tutorial battle.
Moving on, another ghost Pete.
Even though he's a ghost, I'm gonna say this counts. The Kyurem twins should be happy, Bianca has fulfilled her promise and resurrected V.
please stop attacking people who walk into your lab
The flooded Mt Moon is very well constructed. The Brock fight and the others outside the water gym town didn't respawn, and the Entei fight happened again as usual. We're going to Fly ahead to not cover old ground at this point.
I said we wouldn't be reviving the fossil we got from Pete's Dad because we had no use for it, but the fact that the fossil man doesn't recognize it means we really won't be getting a Cranidos or Lileep whatever this is.
Actually, since we're here and the SS Titantic hasn't left, let's go see if we can find ourselves a Mew.
this might still count as a truck
Much further ahead, these guys have popped back into existence. The Kyurem twins don't ambush us or move or do anything even when we try to speak to them.
I'm sure they're just speechless that their dad's back.
oh this respawned
This is the last one, the other ambushes past here haven't reactivated, including elevator Kayo pleasantly. This entertaining diversion out of the way, it's time to move on with the plot.
We're setting out to the south of not-Fuchsia. No, I don't understand the need to edit the Surf prompt text.
After dodging the various swimmers and surfing behind this specimen, we finally arrive at the very small and flat Thunder Mountain.
Which is where Kayo, a bunch of giants, and Raikou are hanging out.
In the text before the battle the giants seemed pretty down on Kayo
so i'm not sure why they granted him the rank of master
With the rain gone, wincon quickly OHKOs Ferrothorn, Garth sets up Swords Dance two times on Reuniclus as it tries Thunder and Water Pulse, and sweeps the lot. Despite the Hydregion level, Kayo isn't actually behind the curve.
He's right on it.
Sorry, what?
that doesn't actually clarify things
Talking to Kayo brings this up again, Raikou doesn't say anything interesting, while both the yellow giants refuse to acknowledge our existence.
The green and black-pink ones don't just sit there when we talk to them though.
instead the
crash the game
Thankfully I save stated right before Kayo. The second go around Garth sets up Swords Dance four times on the lead Ferrothorn and just sweeps.
Surfing east of Thunder Mountain brings us to yet another tiny island. We cannot enter any of the houses here, the doors don't work.
The townsfolk are more than happy to attack us though.
All six of her Pokemon have Substitute.
look i'll give you a chance to take that back because you gave me surf
yes she makes anime references
no, she doesn't take it back
We can't lead wincon due to her Drizzle Politoed lead, so instead we'll switch to it. wincon sets up Nasty Plot three times, eats a Full Restore to heal the Body Slam paralysis and heal up, and sweeps. Zen Headbutt misses Gyarados once so wincon has to eat an Earthquake.
Aside from that, it's an uneventful sweep of the monowater Rain team with a Fire type.
Misty out of the way, we can surf to the final island in this chain and enter the Twilight Zone.
Also known as Navel Rock.
Fun fact, if you walk north after coming up the ladder you can skip this event. We're not going to pass it up though.
Time to fight the creator's self insert.
Leading with a Pokemon who has Dark Pulse/Moonlight/Toxic/Confuse Ray is a fatal flaw. speed sets up to +4 with Bulk Up.
Sky Uppercut makes this very dead, just like Umbreon.
oh look it's the mythicals
oh there they go
Tarea then tells us that we are Special because we can talk to legendary Pokemon and we should go catch the mythicals.
They're just hanging out in the remaining parts of Navel Rock.
Not at the same level we just fought them at of course, that would be
absurd. Deoxys was kind of painful to catch honestly, taking a whole three resets due to it struggling to death. Having Superpower/Zap Cannon as its only attacking moves meant it wasn't hard to take hits from though.
In the other passageway, Jirachi is just hanging out on one of the landings.
Same deal for Celebi.
Mew gets its own level.
Something I didn't realize until here is that while the legendary Pokemon behave the same as that Landorus and Groudon did (that is, they stick around and can be fought/caught against after being caught), this state only lasts until you load a new area by climbing a ladder or entering a building or something like that, at which point they despawn. In other words, if we wanted a ton of Mews, we'd need to get them all at once. We don't, but that's how it works.
After our misadventures with mythicals, we're finally done with
Navel RockThe Twilight Zone.
oh boy another ambush
This one isn't a battle though but instead we're being kidnapped and dragged onto a boat.
sevii island time
Long plot short, apparently DOGOUTS has assumed direct control of the police and now everybody's a wanted criminal. We can reverse this by putting gemstones in this machine. Unfortunately this is all predicated on us having the Sapphire and we kind of don't have that, just the Ruby.
We're still told that we need to go find the Emerald.
Anyways, yes it's the Sevii Islands plot, right down to the broken PCs. Thankfully we have our Fly user in our team already.
You might have noticed that Joy was replaced. This is the local shop. He sells mushrooms.
These are useful for the move tutor right next door.
Not so useful for us unfortunately, nobody on our team has moves we'd benefit from relearning. Garchomp has a very small level up movepool that does not contain the moves of its prevos because that'd be silly.
There's also these two places in town, both completely useless. Only the Kanto starters can learn the elemental hyper beams (no speed Blast Burns) and the cave doesn't actually let us enter.
oh
he states that he did some of the scripts for this game
i sure hope none of those were the ambush battle scripts
That out of the way, east of the town is a dozen police officers with level 70s to grind through along with grass containing level 60ish wilds.
Partway through the route is this cave. We'll check it out later.
Crossing the short ocean directly north of the cave brings us to even more legendaries.
They're all pretty underleveled. We catch Raikou and don't actually engage the other two because Raikou's the only one we could possibly consider using.
Soon after the legendary dogs is the rocket warehouse. In a pleasant surprise, the grunt right above the tiles at the entrance still turns one set upside down after being beaten.
There's a lot of grunts here and while they're all kind of terrible they do wear down our PP. Brave Bird's being taken over Rock Slide as a nuclear option - Stone Edge is a little better than Rock Slide in my opinion and we want to keep Aerial Ace for spamability over Brave Bird.
Also this is Intimidate Brave Bird Archeops, hear him roar.
We're going to not deal with Vladimir at the back of the warehouse just yet, instead going for a quick look through the cave after we heal at the center.
It's actually very straightforward, just a warp right back to the mainland. South of here is actually the island that we were kidnapped from, but we're going to head north.
There's a (very easy) current maze before an island with yet another cave on it.
Oh look we found Lost Cave. The path is the same as normal, nothing interesting here.
Sydney's in the back, apparently after a legendary Pokemon in the basement. Naturally we stake our claim to every legendary Pokemon and Sydney rejects that and reasonably says that we can fight for the right to catch the legendary.
This isn't an ambush or an unbearably stupid reason to fight. Progress!
Her team isn't bad and it's right up there with the level curve.
It's pushing the curve a little even. It's no match for speed though.
what
Alright, let's catch Kyogre and then go back to the Sevii Island plot.
oh
a lot of the dark rising shiny sprites are kind of screwed up
but that is a shiny kyogre
i don't care i'm gonna use it, both to show off the screwed up shiny palette and because it's a kyogre, sorry tyranny you had a short run
It vanished after we caught it what is this witchcraft.
Let's go add Kyogre to the team!
or not that's fine too
Next time: Even more of the Sevii Islands.