We left off in Eterna City.
Castor starts her job as HM slave.
I find a SilverPowder and give it to Bruce for a stronger Leech Life.
The Pokemon we get from the honey tree in Floaroma Meadow is... a male Combee.
I doubt Barry B. Benson is ever gonna leave the PC.
Time to check out the Old Chateau.
I encounter a Gastly, very nice. Can't get Gengar though, so it's just gonna be stored in the PC for now.
I find and old cake. Yuck!
I also find the Dread Plate, with an ominous text inscribed on it. I give it to Simba for a stronger Bite.
There's definitely a good chance I'll teach Substitute to one of my Pokemon at some point.
Gonna come back here when it's nighttime.
How do so many of the Pokemon I catch have a Lax nature?
Now it's time for me to grind up Rose to evolve into Roselia during the daytime.
After battling many Pokemon up to level 24 and not having evolved yet, I decided to move onto clearing Route 211.
And so we enter Mt. Coronet for the first time!
Our encounter here is a Nosepass.
We manage to capture it and appropriately call it PotatoHead (I have in fact seen Toy Story). I store Bruce the Zubat since its typing overlaps with Staravia and Budew.
Taunt could maybe come in handy at some point.
As you may or may not know, Nosepass evolves when leveled up in a special magnetic field, which Mt. Coronet happens to contain.
Big Papa Probopass!
I can't be the only one who thinks having one of these at level 15 is a bit odd. It has Magnet Pull, which is cool I guess.
Pretty sure I can steal berries and such with this, which could come in handy.
Now it's time to infiltrate the Team Galactic Eterna building.
Having a level 24 Budew and a level 15 Probopass fighting together is comical.
Time to fight Commander Jupiter.
Should be an easy job for PotatoHead.
Zubat's Giga Drain bounces off and PotatoHead's Rock Throw does a lot.
This one's gonna be a bit tougher.
Unfortunately Night Slash (crit) is doing quite a bit, while Rock Throw is doing very little now.
Wukong, resistant to Night Slash, manages to take Skuntank down, saving the bicycle shop owner.
On my way to get the bicycle, Cynthia gives me another gift. Again, what a nice lady.
I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike! Now I backtrack a bit since I know there was a part of Oreburgh Gate only accesible by bike. Biking long distances makes progress on the egg and Rose's friendship anyway.
I missed this one earlier, could be nice in tandem with Rest.
Brick Break is definitely nice to have.
And as we return to Eterna City, the egg hatches!
Yay!
Hustle? Well, that pretty much makes it unviable. Boxed.
Time to stock up on some more Poké Balls. Why are there still no Great Balls available?
Cleared the cycling road.
The Route 206 encounter is another Machop. Would've like to see Gligar, but it's alright.
Poison Barb is an item Rose can use later.
Hoping I'll find a Gible as my first encounter.
YES!
Between Dragon Rage always doing 40 and Sand Tomb trapping your Pokemon, Gible is a very dangerous Pokemon to catch, but fortunately we manage to do it without much of a sweat.
I'd go Chomper here. Impish is a good nature too! Gonna be very careful to not let this one die.
We also find one of the best TMs out there! I teach it to Gible, since it doesn't actually learn it naturally. With Dragon Rage and Earthquake it is truly a menace.
I make my way to Mira deep in the cave as quickly as possible, so she can heal my Pokemon along the way. I decide that I won't leave this cave until Rose has finally evolved.
And sure enough, right after the next battle, Rose reaches level 28...
...and evolves into Roselia.
She also learns Toxic Spikes, which can definitely come in useful for some major battles.
I give Rose the Poison Barb (though it doesn't actually know any Poison-type attacks yet) and in turn give Birb the Soothe Bell so I can teach it Return in the future.
Double Team is another nice TM.
After I get the gang (bar Birb which is in the box to make place for Castor) up to level 22 I say goodbye to the cave (and to Mira).
Dawn is nice enough to give me the Vs. Seeker...
...and the Dowsing Machine. Very nifty to find hidden items.
In Mt. Coronet, I meet Cyrus again. He's kind of a weirdo.
At Route 208 we find... Budew.
As we reach Hearthome City, I stop this Buneary from escaping its trainer's tyranny.
Secret Power is a very interesting move.
More cheese options.
Money, money, money! Might as well give this to Wukong for now.
Spoopy
It's great to see Mom again.
Rose got a lot of smart moves, so I figure I might as well join a contest.
I'm looking fabulous...
...and so does Rose.
Owned by the voltage...
Now the time has come to challenge the Hearthome Gym. The trainers weren't too much of an issue, apart from the annoying overuse of Confuse Ray and Hypnosis (and Drifloon's dangerous Aftermath ability).
Before challenging Fantina herself, I decide to train up all members of the team up to level 24.
Chomper too, which means...
Gabite!
Training complete.
Making sure to stock up on some Super Potions and Awakenings before the fight.
Here we go!
I lead off with Wukong to avoid getting burned with Will-O-Wisp. I hit her with Flame Wheel, doing just under half, as she goes for Pursuit, thankfully. Ember doesn't put her in potion range, as she goes for Future Sight. Then, I finish Duskull off with another Flame Wheel.
I make sure to switch to Birb on Haunter, as I don't want Wukong the catch the Future Sight and he's immune to Haunter's Ghost-type attacks. He also weakens Haunter with Intimidate.
It doesn't do much at all, as he takes a Hypnosis.
After waking it up with an Awakening and going for a Wing Attack, I come to realize Haunter's moveset is Shadow Claw, Sucker Punch, Hypnosis, and Confuse Ray. This means I can just spam Double Team on her and the only thing that can hurt me is confusion self-hurt. I go for Double Team six times and then Birb takes down Haunter with another Wing Attack.
Now it's time for the big one, but I figure I'll be okay with +6 Evasiveness.
This one has Magical Leaf too, seriously?
Thankfully it's not doing much since Birb is resistant.
You sure about that, Fantina?
I heal Birb up just to be safe, since I figured she'll do the same.
After going for another Magical Leaf, she managed to hit Birb with a Psybeam, which does quite a lot.
As I heal Birb up, she manages to hit him with another one.
At this point Mismagius is really low and Birb is at 34/64 HP after taking a Psybeam. I figure surely she won't go for another one, hit it and get a high roll/critical hit...
She does in fact go for Psybeam and
it does connect yet again on
+6 Evasiveness Birb, and it happens to be
a high roll and confuses Birb. What are the odds of that?!
Thankfully, Birb lives on 1 (!) HP,
doesn't hit himself in confusion, and takes out Mismagius with a Wing Attack. Beast.
What a thrilling and unlikely series of events...
Well, at least we got another badge without any casualties again.
I guess I might teach it to one of my Pokemon later on for Ghost coverage.
And this is where we're at right now. The gang's looking better and better, I'm just hoping I won't lose any of them soon.
