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The Old Chateau music and ghosts scared the heck out of me as a kid. I'd always come in, get everything ASAP, and then never return.
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May 24, 2019 22:28
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| # ? Jun 1, 2024 21:12 |
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 Hell yeah Rotom, I love that guy. And all the appliance forms are really cool. On my playthrough of Platinum I used Mow Rotom because I mean just look at him. It was great, especially throwing out leaf storms so early on in the game. Missed opportunity to not give a Robot Rotom mentioned in the (inexplicably elaborate) backstory and complete the Pulseman reference, though.  Also gently caress honey. It's a cute idea, an interesting twist on the headbutt idea and one that actually was planned since Gen 2! but it suuuuuuuuuuucks, even if you dont want munchlax.
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May 24, 2019 22:30
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What do you expect when you fight a balloon with a pokemon named "Pop"?
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May 24, 2019 22:35
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quote:But meeting was Lucas used to occur at the start of Route 207, but because you could go around via Floaroma Town to do that event from behind, you weren't able to leave Eterna City that way after getting the bike, which was a real pain since it stopped you getting to the Old Chateau and the other Cut trees if you hadn't done it yet.
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May 24, 2019 23:12
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Simply Simon posted:I'm not sure if I'm too tired for this sentence, but it doesn't scan for me. That also means I do not get what the problem actually is - could you clarify? I always like making fun of dumb design choices, but I just don't get it... Basically, the meeting with Lucas used to occur when you exited the Cycling Road. But technically, that meeting could be subverted by getting the bike and going back to Oreburgh City through Floraroma Town and that whole area. So to keep you from missing the Vs. Seeker and Dowsing App, they put a person who would force you to go to Cycling Road. This prevented you from going to the Old Chateau until you had gone through Cycling Road, as well as cutting down all the trees in the areas you've already been in.
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May 24, 2019 23:20
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Also, that Rotom backstory is rather sad when you learn who the writer is. 
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May 24, 2019 23:29
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Cheryl & The Amber Castle So when you think "story arcs" in Pokemon, what comes to mind? Maybe an overarching theme for a season, like Whirl Islands? A short 2 maybe 3 parter about a significant game location or team plot? Tournaments? Maybe the league? Well for some reason there are 3 episodes dedicated to Cheryl in the Eterna Forest and a honey plot line and hell if I know why. So far as I recall none of the other partner trainers have this at all.  Cheryl's generally a nice person which you can see in her dialog in the games. Unlike the games, the gang isn't helping her through the woods, they're helping her find "enchanted honey". She's been traveling around on her own and been looking to capture a Burmy, because she's actually a treasure hunter from a whole family of treasure hunters and Burmy will lead her to the honey. Also they made her a weirdo and it owns "My beloved grandfather once said: 'Once you've caught a Bug-type Pokemon, you may never hold hands with a man again!'" "All roads begin with Burmy!" [Team Rocket kidnaps Burmy in the middle of a battle] "Well that's not nice." [Team Rocket boasts what they're going to do with Burmy] "So you're going to evolve Burmy for me? That's so nice!" She pulls out a wacky treasure map trying to find The Amber Castle an enhcanted castle where the enchanted honey is rumored to be and how no one has ever been there. Cheryl didn't have much personality, even in Platinum, so I approve. a quick tl;dr leading us to the amber castle Episode 1: Capture Burmy, find out about the honey, evolve Burmy. Shenanigans ensue for evolving because Burmy is so weak even Team Rocket accidentally beats it. Turtwig literally beats it in one blow while blinded by the leaves. This happens at one point though  and suplexes wobbs into meowth into the ground. Why isn't that something it can do in the games, gamefreak?? Episode 2: Mothim leads them ...in a full circle to the tree where they caught Burmy last episode, instead of the enchanted honey. Then a Gloom. Then a Gardenia shows up and half the episode is a battle against Ash. But a team rocket encounter later we get back on track and find a Combee...wall.  Both characters know that Combee make the enchanted honey but for some reason Cheryl didn't think to just search out Combees in the first place...? Episode 3: Another chase sequence later they finally enter the Amber Castle, hidden deep down in a giant cave behind a waterfall.  Spoiler alert this doesn't exist in the game at all, though it'd be a pretty cool set piece. The castle proper is hidden behind a ton of tunnels that gives the vibe more of an ant hill, and then a wall of (defense order) combee protects it even further. It's easy to get lost but thankfully we have...literally any Pokemon because it's not just Mothim that can sniff it out. You're worthless, Mothim. Why did you even come here. Team Rocket starts digging around, makes Vespiquen (already territorial) super mad and sicks swarms of Combee firing beams (people theorize this is how Attack Order works) through the caverns to gently caress everyone up and isn't too pleased once everyone breaks into the hive. Cheryl sees no issue to this, no sells all the combee staring angrily at her, talks to the Vespiquen about her backstory and asks for some honey. Then the good animators burst through the ceiling as the frames per second triple for the finale with TR and almost destroys the entire thing. yadda yadda yadda they fix the castle, TR is blasted out and Cheryl gets through to Vespiquen to get the honey and leave on good terms. Then the gang parts ways by way of Cheryl seeing a Beedrill, giving one last idiom of traveling alone, and off she goes never to be seen again. It's a cute little arc but it's pretty inexplicable. Did they just really really like Cheryl? Honey? Meowth, running from hundreds of bug Pokemon because they're covered in honey: Better get those honey soaked clothes off quick! James: Now? Jessie & Meowth, screaming into the sunset: Nooooooooooooooooo
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May 24, 2019 23:40
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Tsk, tsk. You didn't share Meowth's.... Interesting boss fantasy. ......probably because it was cut from the dub for the obvious reason.
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May 25, 2019 01:05
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hopeandjoy posted:Tsk, tsk. You didn't share Meowth's.... Interesting boss fantasy.  Do I want to know the context for this?
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May 25, 2019 01:26
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hopeandjoy posted:Tsk, tsk. You didn't share Meowth's.... Interesting boss fantasy. Yeah I was rewatching the dub for this and totally forgot it was here, god Hobgoblin2099 posted:
Do the Gen 3 & 4 era of the anime introduced a skit for every episode: they're looking at some Pokemon (or Technology) to steal for that episode and Meowth figures out some way even the most innocuous thing can lead to Giovanni giving them a promotion. ie: Oh Giovanni obviously goes to bed early but has trouble waking up and he'll be late for work and irate about it all! And his alarm clock sucks! WELL if he used this Loudred to wake him up every day, he would never have to worry about not hearing the alarm and getting up ready for the day and its all thanks to Meowth and his friends, let's give them a promotion! In this case, Giovanni can slather himself in Enchanted Honey which is 100 times more effective than normal honey and go on his daily run* and he wouldn't even haev to do anything special otherwise to just be DROWNING in Pokemon who will come from all over in swarms to get that honey. now that he never has to worry about team rocket getting pokemon again, he would love to give Meowth & his friends a big promotion!  These fantasies all but stopped in Best Wishes (can't wait for crosspiece to get to gen 5 because WOWEE are there things to talk about) and I don't think they came back even once they got to be wackier in XY & SM. *If Giovanni ever appears shirtless he is always always super buff 
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May 25, 2019 01:59
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Edit:wrong lp!
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May 25, 2019 02:50
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rannum posted:Do the Gen 3 & 4 era of the anime introduced a skit for every episode: they're looking at some Pokemon (or Technology) to steal for that episode and Meowth figures out some way even the most innocuous thing can lead to Giovanni giving them a promotion. Clearly the real TRio motto is "be gay, do crimes".
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May 25, 2019 04:30
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Name a pokemon Oh poo poo he so you can get a screenshot of "Oh poo poo he used Tackle! It was super effective!"
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May 25, 2019 11:12
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SimplyUnknown1 posted:Basically, the meeting with Lucas used to occur when you exited the Cycling Road. But technically, that meeting could be subverted by getting the bike and going back to Oreburgh City through Floraroma Town and that whole area. So to keep you from missing the Vs. Seeker and Dowsing App, they put a person who would force you to go to Cycling Road. This prevented you from going to the Old Chateau until you had gone through Cycling Road, as well as cutting down all the trees in the areas you've already been in.
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May 25, 2019 12:07
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Carbon dioxide posted:Name a pokemon Oh poo poo he so you can get a screenshot of "Oh poo poo he used Tackle! It was super effective!" Unfortunately I think this is the gen that introduced a profanity filter.
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May 25, 2019 12:14
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Nah, I don't think it applied to singleplayer until Gen 6, it just wouldn't be tradeable on the GTS. Which, y'know, it isn't anyway.
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May 25, 2019 13:46
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Carbon dioxide posted:Name a pokemon Oh poo poo he so you can get a screenshot of "Oh poo poo he used Tackle! It was super effective!" Tackle isn't super effective against anything. 
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May 25, 2019 15:35
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Hobgoblin2099 posted:Tackle isn't super effective against anything. I KNEW someone was gonna mention that.
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May 25, 2019 15:53
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Carbon dioxide posted:I KNEW someone was gonna mention that.
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May 25, 2019 16:42
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There is an ability like that. ...It's Normalize, which doesn't help that situation. Also backing up that the profanity filter didn't apply to single player yet; I named a Basculin something along the lines of "Lil poo poo" (because it took way too long to catch and I was Very Mature) and it was fine up until I sent it to XY via Poke Bank. Also backing up something along the lines of Oh poo poo he (or Then, I, though that might be cribbing from OFS too much) because that seems hilarious.
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May 25, 2019 17:23
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I want toy robot Rotom.
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May 25, 2019 18:18
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Part 9: Passage to the Heart Wayward Cave  Ah, it's time for this poo poo place. Time to saddle someone with Flash, but for whatever reason, this is the ONLY location in Sinnoh where Flash is needed. Don't worry, there's still an alternative Flash mechanic, but worse! Yay!   This place is winding and there's not much to really establish where we are, so here's the map of the place, so you can see how annoying this is. But since I've been through this area so many times, I know exactly where I'm going and we'll be heading straight to the top right corner.   Ooh, we'll use that later.     Content~    I'm so scared... please! Please take me to the exit!  Oh hey this mechanic is back. Cheryl is the only mandatory one, but not doing everyone else means you're stranding this poor girl in a dark cave, you monster.     There's plenty of trainers about, but we could've fought them earlier in double battles. However, this splits the exp between two Pokemon, unlike multi battles.   We'll talk about Gible in a sec, but Kadabra is super deadly, since it was only level EIGHTEEN in DP. Mira could've walked outta here no problem if she really wanted.    Small bitey boi is an interesting addition to a team, since it should be available much later, but we're in its domain right now. It takes a while to fully evolve, of course, but it has a couple of tricks to keep up. Dragon Rage still works this early, 2HKOing stuff no problem, but its only STAB move being Sand Tomb is a problem... but you won't have to worry about that. Well, you will in DP, where this mon comes too little, too late to really bother with, but Platinum offers up all kinds of options and it's pretty loving busted because of it.   It's almost unfair, but I don't care, anything to speed this portion up.    I'm very picky, so I want to collect every Pokemon without anyone's help. ...I do have friends, though. No, seriously! I do! I've scoured every inch of this place... most of it while I was lost. Anyway, if there's one thing I can say, this place can't be called ruins!  I like helpful Pokemon moves like Growl and Minimize. Those kinds of moves are my favorites. This cave... it's so easy to get confused. Do you know where we are? Hikari, did you get to be so good because you're always with your Pokemon? Yes! That has to be it! Mira will try like you! "battle!" "Let's have a quick Pokemon battle!"I hope you weren't expecting anything else here. This section is just corridors and dead end trainers.  Pretty good coverage, making this battle partner super dependable. Though it also has Flash and Kinesis, so maybe that's to balance out how strong it is.    Why have a picnic here? I don't know. There's no deep meaning to it. I got separated from my friends... I've got my Pokemon with me, so I'm OK, but...  See why the Dowsing Machine is so amazing to get beforehand? There's also a hidden Super Potion far southwest of those two trainers, wherever the gently caress that is.  The only real indication of a new area is smashing rocks.     Since Kadabra is nearly wiping out everything in one shot, might as well give Togepi a shake.   Kadabra is still a bit fragile, so it's all up to you now!   Alright, little bit scary, but everything worked out nicely-   THAT DIDN'T KILL??? Well at least we can rely on regular priority priority moves.   I'm not lost, I tell you! I'm camping! That's my story! I just wanted to have a picnic under the Cycling Road. I didn't think I would get lost in a place like this...  Even I don't remember specifically where I am. Oh well.     Alright let's have some more fun, especially against those with low Sp.Def.   That Atk stat makes me so sad.   Rock Polish is usually learned by slow Pokemon and boosts Speed by 2 stages, which is pretty drat nice. Flatter is just a worse version of Swagger, since it boosts Sp.Atk by 1 stage instead of 2 Atk stages that contribute to confusion damage. Pass.   Please stop messing around.    Me? No, I'm not lost. I live here! I hear there's a Pokemon that has mushrooms growing on its back. Not around here, somewhere far away. I wonder if they taste any good? Many shards, yum yum yum.     Alright I think this is the last section we haven't been to yet.   lmao Togepi coming through with the slow U-Turn.    Speaking of crying, I'm positive I heard crying from deeper in the cave. I'm playing hide-and-seek here. I like some underground tag, too. Grrrrrrrreat. Let's get the gently caress outta here.  I want to get tougher, so I won't be such a scaredy-cat. Hikari, bye-bye!  Just back outside, usually Gligar is a rougher pick due to no STAB and indeed, it yet again doesn't learn any through level up, but its addition in Platinum is perfect timing, it'll get an amazing Ground move very shortly. Sure, it's got some competition with the new Gible, but it'll be able to evolve and learn Aerial Ace around similar times, so it can definitely keep up.   We're not done with this drat cave yet, there's a secret entrance that's blocked by Strength boulders... in DP! So instead of coming here after Gym 6, we can come here after Gym 2. Well I'm sure there's nothing much down here anyway.   Alright now I can evolve Murkrow or Misdreavus! Who don't appear in this game! Alright! Also hidden evolution items are pretty common in this game. This also wasn't here in DP, the first one we could get is after Gym 7, which is a long time to be carrying those mons.   Xtreme biking!!!  We've gotta be in third gear to only lightly hop over these slopes.   Boy oh boy are there a lot of useless items to go over that'll clutter our bag to no end. This makes all binding moves last for 5 turns. Trash.     With all that XTREME out of the way, let's catch a psuedo-legendary! By far the earliest we can obtain one, with the second closest being Game Corner Dratini. This one is much easier to use.   Mainly because of that.   And also because of this. Yes, seriously. You get Gible AND Earthquake JUST AFTER GYM TWO! Little bit broken, so even though Gible will take a while to evolve, it'll be just fine. It's also quite a boon for a lot of other physical attackers, though Etrian will only be able to learn it as he evolves to then shortly learn it so it's not needed there.    We're done with the cave, so let's catch some- I SAID, WE'RE DONE WITH THE- ugh, loud memes aside, this bug is an interesting choice, if not hugely good. If you didn't stick around for Bug Bite, then X-Scissor is a long way off, so I hope you like Fury Cutter. Well Brick Break is also a fine choice and Slash will keep you going, but that's about it, until later on when you can expand to stuff like Aerial Ace and Night Slash. Its stats are pretty poor overall and it'll usually take a hit with its poor Speed, but if you're looking for a challenge, this is a perfectly good choice.   Hey, you can't break out of Net Balls, that's illegal.   Only available in Diamond, this mon is a good choice for the upcoming- oh wait, not in that game. Regardless, it's much more accessible than the Pearl choice, Glameow, which is first available just before Gym 6. Yikes. Oreburgh City Night   You have a Fossil for me, yes? Shall I turn it into a Pokemon? Yes?! I am in the process of extracting your Pokemon from a Fossil. You go outside, yes, please. Now! Time alone is what I now need. NOW!!! You were gone too long! You kept us waiting! Unacceptable! This is your CRANIDOS! You be good to it, OK!    Thanks to Jolene for this nickname, also goddamn, an Adamant nature first try! Skulletor would get crazy if he got anything more.     Muuuuuch better. That Kricketune happened to have a Metronome on it, which is only a 5% chance, though there's an easier way to get it later. It'll boost a move's power by 10% when used in succession, up to 100%, which is pretty loving mental. This ain't ever coming off. And while we're shackled with Rock Tomb due to lack of any other STAB for a good long while, Mold Breaker and Earthquake means we barely have to look at it. So yeah, Skulletor won't change too much during the LP, but he's already a terrifying monster.  And of course, a regular Pokeball is boring, so we'll cheat a little and give it something else. This was something you guys were meant to vote on, but I forgot, whoops! No matter, there's still plenty of participation left. Oreburgh Gate  Oh yeah, since we're here with the bike, might as well grab this, it's pretty useful!  Pop could use a stronger move, Water Gun ain't exactly keeping up, even with his special inclination.    Bah, killjoy. We've still got to get the other fossil from Pearl, or an even ID number in Pt. For single player, shifting crazy good offenses to crazy good defenses is... something, but it's really let down by its HP. Also its typing is atrocious, giving it lots of weaknesses, including 4x Fighting AND Ground, which is pretty bad for a physical wall. Like Cranidos, it doesn't have the greatest movepool to start off with, but I guess there's Take Down? Iron Defense makes life much easier and of course we just got Earthquake and Rock Tomb, so it'll be just fine, but with those offenses it just really can't do much. At least they're even, so it can have a few tricks like Thunderbolt or Fire Blast, but it's tricky to use and kinda easy to kill.  Okay. I think we're done with this area. For at least one update. Onto the mountain, again, again! Route 207 Night  Hmm, interesting strategy, Metal Burst reflects back the damage dealt by 1.5x if it goes after the opponent, since it has regular priority. It doesn't matter whether it's physical or special, but will return the damage as a physical attack. It doesn't work with Substitute.   Due to having to see every Pokemon, it does make opponent variety real nice, but there's areas later that are a bit too variable and it's a pain on repeat playthroughs if you want to quickly get through the game.   We've beaten half the trainers on this route already, but this lower area has a lot more to it than the straight shot above.  Also, while Togepi is high enough in level to continue being used in battle with the Soothe Bell, it doesn't have the stats for it and with levels further apart, the constant switching doesn't do much for it now, so it'll sit in the back and hopefully evolve soon. Man I hate happiness evolutions.   Considering that was effectively a 260BP move from an Adamant Cranidos, that's pretty impressive.   k   Hmm, that Rare Candy reminds of all the various evolutions I usually do by this time in the LP. But since we'll encounter every Pokemon in the dex at some point and we're seeing a fair bit of variety, the only ones to evolve are Cascoon and Dustox. Eh, whatever. I'll need to catch the other two starters at one point.    Yup! Good going! I like the way you battle!  Alright, it's time for a proper excursion through Mt. Coronet. Mt. Coronet  Oh, hello again mysterious man.    A world where only time flowed and space expanded... there should have been no strife. But what became of that world? Because the human spirit is weak and incomplete, strife has spread... This world is being ruined by it... I find this state of affairs to be deplorable...  What a nice young man.   In this new section we thankfully don't have to bother with evolving Cleffa, since Clefairy can be found here. Now the first Moon Stone is a while away yet, so either get lucky in the Underground, or hope that a Clefairy or Cleffa holds one if you want to evolve it soon. And you definitely will, its Sp. Atk is fine enough, but will soon get left behind, so load up the special moves, Cosmic Power and have fun.   And there we go, pretty small mountain overall, doesn't seem like there's much else to explore, ahahahahahahahaha. Ha. Route 208 Night  Sigh... I feel even hungrier... maybe I'll chow down on some Berries... but that's kind of gross. What am I, a Pokemon?  As is always the case with monstrously strong mons, they're fragile as poo poo. Though I dunno what I was expecting.    Hey, if you've got a Vs. Seeker, you'd better put it to good use. Nothing beats some repeated battling for toughening up your Pokemon. Take note of all the different times we'll have to come back to this area. HMs are great.     I suppose I'm not David anymore, but I'll still take down any Goliaths.  Wow, you're sure impressive! I guess it makes no difference if you're young or old in battles. Why are those rocks even there???   Everyone's been really mean on this route so far.   Hm? Where did those petals come from. Oh well, back to covering this bee in rocks.   You and your Pokemon have so much energy. I think you would do well in Contests, too.  I hope I don't have to visit this guy 20 times over the course of an LP for exclusive berries.    I want people to learn how wonderful they are. You're deserving of one! T-Thanks...   That will make Pokemon happy. Seeing that, people will be motivated to plant more Berries. And that will make Sinnoh a greener, more natural place.We can get the first THIRTY berries from this guy, and of course we got number one. Thankfully all of his berries can be found elsewhere, since the chance of getting the one you want is pretty drat small.  Uh, sure, whatever.  Yes, yes, I thought so! I'm the same way! I feel a sort of kinship! You can have this Poketch app!  Good to show where you need to harvest stuff in areas you've already visited, but since I don't care about that sort of stuff, meh. You will need lots of berries for Contests and other specific uses, but that's something I can get around very easily.   I didn't talk about growing berries in Emerald since it was pretty simple, keep watering to get the best yield, but there's a few more factors in this game, so I think there's enough. Later, gotta space them out so I don't start drooling from info overload.  I made it by mixing high-grade soil with Pokemon... um... you know... it will promote healthy Berry growth.It's canon, Pokemon poop. She says this for every mulch, so it doesn't really say what they do, but the book will tell you about it. And me. They all affect the berry tree, with the Growth Mulch making berries grow in 75% of the time, but dries the soil out 50% faster. Damp Mulch makes soil dry out 50% slower, but plants grow 50% slower. Stable Mulch makes plants stay for 50% longer before dying and regrowing and the Gooey Mulch makes dead plants regrow 50% more than usual. So yeah, only the Growth Mulch is worth a drat, since keeping the soil MOIST is pretty easy and increases the total yield anyway.   Oh good, the painters are back from Sevii.    Oh good, more babies. Mime Jr. is definitely a name, but is a perfectly fine mon to use, since it evolves early, 19 at the earliest as it learns Mimic at 18, and that's all it's good for. As always, what moves does it give Mr. Mime? Tickle and Uproar? Get outta here! Since they both learn moves at the same level, there's no reason not to evolve it, though only Diamond gets this Pokemon early, Pearl and Platinum have to wait a loooooooong time before getting the chance to catch it, but we can find Mr. Mime later on anyway. Still, with a pretty early Psybeam, screens and a host of special moves, it's definitely a fine choice, don't just write it off because it's a creepy motherfucker when it evolves. Filter is an exclusive ability that is also real drat good, reducing super effective attacks by 25%, so making them do 1.5x instead of 2x. Through any weird situations, if it was 4x effective, then it would only be 3x effective, but even with the added Fairy typing later, that's still not usually possible. If you're curious, using Forest's Curse might make you think it'll become 4x weak to Bug, but remember Fairy resists that, though Trick-or-Treat makes it 4x weak to Ghost, as Fairy makes it resist Dark. Well that was fun.  Oh hey it's that Gen 3 Pokemon that was in a bunch of side games. Bonsly is similar to Mime Jr., you can find it earlier in Pearl and then the other games muuuuuuch later, though Sudowoodo is in Platinum easily enough. It can evolve at level 18 with Mimic at 17, so you can get some good stats very quickly. Between Low Kick, Faint Attack and Rock Throw, you're off to a standard start, but Fake Tears and Uproar are something you don't need to bother keeping for Sudowoodo. Between various physical attacks, elemental punches and even Wood Hammer from the move reminder (Mr. Mime only gets Magical Leaf, pfft), it's definitely a slow, but strong choice. Especially when factoring in Rock Head to ignore Wood Hammer's recoil. You won't fool the AI into using Fire attacks however.    I shall title it... "My Pokemon Is Fight"!  Uh- Go to Route 209! Go underground! Listen to the stone pillar! Talk to people underground! All that's left is the wild Pokemon here. Whatever this keystone is for, I'm pretty sure I don't care.   Even a resisted move does over half. Lad needs some Iron in his diet.   You thought Bidoof was the ultimate HM user? You can call this the ultimate user 2. Bibarel can learn SIX of them, including both Water ones, which is always nice. But you can see the stats and its pretty good typing means you can very easily use it on your team. Hyper Fang is a pretty potent move to learn early, though Return is probably better by this point if you take care of your beaver. Any important TM you can think of it probably knows and it'll even learn Superpower later on, though you can get that from move tutor a little beforehand. Regardless, once you get those physical HMs going, you can definitely use it to fight. Weird when that actually happens.  Of course... we'll get it later.   Bite is so cheeky. If you liked the prospect of Budew, but not the evolution requirement, well, you've probably reached it already, especially with the Soothe Bell, but hey, here's the evolution if you didn't fancy it. Gonna be a while until it can evolve again though, but it should be fine until then.   Oh hey, this will evolve immediately and actually has an attacking move to start, how wonderful! We know how good this mon can me, but if you've got a male, then maybe it can do something else for you. Uh, later, but we'll find Kirlia later when we want to do something about that.   Phew, it's been a bit of a journey, but we're here in Heartho- what the gently caress is that? Hearthome City Day / Night   If it weren't for you, who knows how far away my BUNEARY could have run... baby BUNEARY, back into the Pokeball you go! I'm Keira! I'm a Pokemon Contest Judge. Be sure to drop by the Contest Hall so I can thank you properly! Hearthome City: Warm and Kind From the expression home is where the heart is. Yosuga City: Where hearts touch each other. From 縁 yosuga (homeland).   Or things that are like Eggs, anyway. I wonder how my pal Prof. Elm is doing these days? He was always the quiet sort and didn't really stand out.Johto confirmed! This guy actually gave us an Egg in DP, but we recently got one, so I get it. We'll just have to obtain that mon another way.  We need to find the Pokemon Center and end the update, but there's a couple of things we can get distracted by along the way.    When you wish to treat your Pokemon to a treat, what, I say, do you do? If I may say so, and I will, I feed Poffins to my Pokemon! And why, I say, would I do that? Because the giving of Poffins is a way of expressing your love! For example! If I were to give a Sweet Poffin, the Pokemon eating it would become more cute! For example! A Spicy Poffin will add to the coolness of a Pokemon! In such ways I say that Poffins have nothing but goodness for Pokemon! Therefore! I declare this Poffin Case to be a gift to you!  "to your Pokemon!" Nationwide, there are fan clubs, but we are number one! And why are we number one? Because I brag more than anyone! But now I can't brag as much... people started complaining, so I've had to curtail my bragging...  Here's the residential friendship checker. Though since we've got an app for that, she's not necessary, as she has the same tiers of happiness rating past 150, which is what you care about.  Togepi is at least over 200 happiness, so not long to go!   Wait a minute...  Who's that Pokemon? Seems like it's a pain in the rear end to level up.  Fancy buildings in here don't use stairs.    The Shell Bell should be held by a Pokemon in battles. The holder regains HP a little every time it inflicts damage. That was given to me when I was on vacation, but I already had one.Same as last gen, but much easier to obtain. Still pretty naff.  No new balls, but always good to restock. And new mail, of course!!!  Hmm, we'll go more into detail next update, since we've got some preparing to do.   Silence...   No one knows my real name. No, not even I do... I dedicate myself to seeking rarities. It's what I live for. Hm! Hmhmhmhm?! I'll find something rare for you, so talk to me some other time.There's 14 items we can get from Mr. Goods when we meet certain requirements. There's a few we could've done by now, or at least, used to be able to, but we'll return another time.   I'm getting kinda lucky with these, but we've got plenty of time to face them all.   Man, what is this black magic???    A clown's makeup is a face that's crying while laughing. Mwahahah! It defines what we do!Creepy rear end motherfuckers... Lee can be found in this center on weekends. I probably should specify that you can find these guys every day in a specific center, usually bouncing between 3 centers. But next time, there's still a big city to explore!
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May 30, 2019 05:10
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Gligar is weirdly blue in Gen IV. And the church in Hearthome is still one of the weirdest loving things in a Pokemon game.
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May 30, 2019 05:17
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Weird quirk about Gligar is it's really blue/purple only in this game specifically. I wonder how that happened? Any time it shows up, the exact shade of pink varies a bit but here its Like here it is in DP. A bit more purple than the usual pink, but still a stark contrast.  and here it is in HGSS, with the more traditional vibrant pink.  All the other appearences before & after also maintain the normal pink hue. It applies to the back sprite too, which would go on to be used but color corrected in HGSS   Also, man, the caves. Sinnoh has a ton of caves. I don't know if it has more or less than other regions, but it feels like it does have more. Probably because Mt. Coronet is the centerpiece of the region. So it's a shame they never really varied their design until gen 5. Starting then they really tried adding either some big gimmick to the caves or a completely different visual style.
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May 30, 2019 05:26
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... is the painter a Something Awful reference with “My I thought there used to be a goon who did the translations for some of the Pokémon games, but I don’t remember if they translated DPPt.
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May 30, 2019 05:30
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Nondevor posted:... is the painter a Something Awful reference with “My They did, I think Platinum specifically is the last time they did so before using...in-house localizers, I think?
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May 30, 2019 05:33
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Nondevor posted:... is the painter a Something Awful reference with “My Yeah, Douglas Dinsdale was his username on the forums. There's a reference to RedChocobo's Crystal LP too! Also, Kricketune was the first time I caught a full odds shiny. Got him in Diamond, and he's sitting in one of my special boxes in Pokemon Box. I love my golden violin cricket  In hindsight, I wish I had given it a nickname referencing "Devil Went Down to Georgia" or something, but I was a pretty dumb teenager.
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May 30, 2019 06:48
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I got that reference. 
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May 30, 2019 06:54
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After suffering through the Reborn LP, coming to this game and getting Earthquake and Brick Break this early is amazing. For all that I look down on this gen, the music is some of the best. We won't reach my favorite tunes for a while yet, but Hearthome and Route 205 are great. MissileWaster posted:Yeah, Douglas Dinsdale was his username on the forums. There's a reference to RedChocobo's Crystal LP too! He's still active on the forums! Just the other day I saw him explaining why it's called "evolution" in the English titles, even though "metamorphosis" is a more correct choice.* But I can't recall which thread that was in. *Because that's the word the Japanese script uses.
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May 30, 2019 08:03
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Maybe Gligar is just purple in Sinnoh due to some kind of regional variant thing, like how Arbok changes its patterns every Gen until 4? Or maybe Game Freak just was weird with the color palette. Crosspeice posted:
So that's why he never welcomes you to the world of Pokemon. Blueberry Pancakes fucked around with this message at 10:47 on May 30, 2019 |
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May 30, 2019 10:43
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I love that little cave. It would be boring to do on every single playthrough, but sometimes it's just fun to take a disgustingly overpowered early sharkdragon with a disgustingly overpowered early endgame move and rampage across the region kicking everyone's teeth in.
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May 30, 2019 14:28
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I thought move evolutions happened the same level you learn the move, because you learn the move in battle and then the evolution check is at the end of the battle? Doesn't apply if you use rare candy, though. I don't think I've ever actually used a move evolution that learns it through level up rather than move relearner, so I could be wrong.
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May 30, 2019 15:13
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Procrastine posted:I thought move evolutions happened the same level you learn the move, because you learn the move in battle and then the evolution check is at the end of the battle? Doesn't apply if you use rare candy, though. I don't think I've ever actually used a move evolution that learns it through level up rather than move relearner, so I could be wrong. That is how it works, I believe. In order to get Eevee to evolve into Sylveon, the earliest it can do that is level 10 since it learns Baby Doll eyes at level 9. Unless it has an Egg move like Charm that's Fairy type, but that works in a similar way.
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May 30, 2019 16:33
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Part 10: Sights of Hearthome City Hearthome City Night  Oh, what's up? Why that astonished look? Oh, right, sorry! There I go running my mouth again! My name's Bebe! You know the PC Pokemon Boxes? I'm the system administrator! Ah gently caress that's right I'll need to get all the Eeveelutions for the Pokedex again! Here you go! That EEVEE, I got it from a good friend in Johto who has a whole lot of them. Who knows how many EEVEE he's raised over the years. Sorry, that doesn't mean anything to you. Please, be good to it! My buddy Bill developed the basic Pokemon Box storage system. I tinkered with it here and there to make it easier to use.  Next door to the Pokemon Center is Bebe, who gives you an Eevee, though this happens in DP's postgame. It's an Eevee, it's not that great in this form, so choose which one you like and aim for that. All of them can be obtained around now aside from Glaceon, which is just before Gym 7 and thus completely bullshit. We'll go over them all, and get round to evolving all these drat things, when we come across them.  Alright, time to establish where we'll spend an entire update later on. It's a hell of a lot earlier than Hoenn's contests, so good to get it out of the way early. But not that early, it won't be next update, mainly because of how far ahead I've recorded. Ah, it's bliss. Contest Hall  RSE mom left the house to make sure you didn't forget the Running Shoes, but this is the first time a mom has left their town. I didn't even think it was possible. Oh yeah, she even has a goddamn name, that's just crazy. Wait! No! Really?! Johanna is your mom? So you might be a Contest star?! Oh, I don't know about that. I've never spoken to Hikari about Contests. I'm surprised you two know each other, though. Oh, yes, that's right! I need to thank you for earlier. Please take this Accessory.  It will lend a nice touch of sophistication and glamour. I'm a Contest Judge, so come join us for a different kind of fun. If you're unsure of yourself, we also offer practice sessions. OK, Johanna, I'll see you! I got bored, so I came out to Hearthome for a little vacation. I'm just as surprised to see you here, my dear! But are you serious about entering Contests? Not dressed that way! When your Pokemon is all dressed up, you can't be dressed your usual way. Put this on for a little glamour.  Go enjoy the Contests, honey! Contests will give you a different look at the many charms of Pokemon. It should be an eye-opening experience for you. Bye now!   Incidentally, Fantina, the Gym Leader of Hearthome, is also a Contestant. She is, how do you say, trés fantastique! Fantina being myself, of course! Mmm, let me see... you also seem to be trés strong. Enfin, so it shall be. I wait for you at the Gym! Que?      Oh, and a word of advice. Go take a run at the Contests! The best way to get ready is to get some practise first. You can take practise sessions at the counter on the right. This is all looking very familiar. From the central counter, we can participate in contests, from the five different categories and the four different ranks to earn ribbons and a few other things. The right counter is for practise contests, which is just a contest with no rewards, ew, and the left is for local multiplayer contests, which I'm sure we've all played in some way.  There are a few stark differences compared to Hoenn contests, there's now 3 rounds, with the Visual round consisting of both showing off your Pokemon's condition and sheen, as well as a dressup round, for all the Accessories you've been collecting. However, the points have been drastically reduced, meaning this round will no longer carry you in rougher rounds, but getting the max score matters for the final totals, as the other players are given a score proportional to how well 1st place did. Next up is the Dance round, yes a rhythm minigame, that really doesn't matter overall and just wastes time, but again, you need to get the best score to make things easier. Finally, there's the good old appeal round, which is mostly similar, though now you can select which judge to appeal to and gain more points if you're the only one to do so. This is frustrating with the AI, you can imagine. The order is also reversed, the worst you do, the earlier you appeal, and you are unable to repeat a move period. Doing the Contests got a bit boring last time, but it was a fun enough distraction. It's more of the same here, but the added chaff is not appreciated when I have to do twenty of these drat things in a row.   If we're gonna dive into contests, then oh boy is it Poffin making time. It's somewhat similar to making Pokeblocks, though you can only make them with other people via local multiplayer, of course. It's not too different working together, but the faster a Poffin is made, the better it is, and all players will get the same number of Poffins as there are players. What berry is used determines the base level of the Poffin, with a faster time resulting in a higher level Poffin. All berries have a different base level, as well as a Feel stat, which determines the smoothness of the Poffin, which increases the Pokemon's Sheen stat. I'll go into specific detail later on, but also keep in mind the specific flavour values of each berry too, at least those ones you can see on the tag.  We'll need to stir the batter to make it into something good, so we're on the bottom screen for a minigame!   And this is when I realised it wasn't going to work out, the batter just barely moved whenever I "stirred" it with the mouse. Emulating a stylus kinda sucks, so I'll be burning all my Poffins.   There's 3 stages to Poffin making, when the flames are red the batter is easy to stir, but also easy to spill, and that decreases the level of the finished Poffin. Don't spin too slowly, or you'll burn it, which also decreases the level. When the flames are orange, the batter is sturdier, but you can still spill it. You also need to follow the arrows and keep your speed up.   The final stage, with blue flames, has a hardened batter, so you can stir it as fast as you want. It'll finish when it's properly cooked.  It'll automatically stop after 1 minute, so finishing before that time results in a higher level Poffin. But, uh, since I burned mine a fair amount, I got a Foul one. There's a lot of different varieties that I'll go over soon enough, but they're usually the colour of the main berry flavour. Those that have two flavours due to the berry have the second attribute on top as sprinkles. I'm not too bothered about not being able to make Poffins, I was going to hack in the necessary condition and sheen anyway.   Now, before we head into the Gym, how about another side mode? This one is a lot more consice, but still very important. Amity Square    Walking Pokemon??? Best game EVAR, 7.8/10! Ah, just kidding, I've never been that bothered if a game does or does not have walking Pokemon, but this is a nice little area to hang with your cute Pokemon* *Note, cute Pokemon are only Pikachu, Clefairy, Psyduck, Pachirisu, Drifloonn, Buneary or Happiny. Expands to Jigglypuff, Torchic, Shroomish and Skitty after beating the game. Expands further to the Turtwig, Chimchar and Piplup lines in Platinum.   There's a couple things in here and you can talk to your Pokemon as they do weird things.   Ah, a warp. Oh goody. Anyway, unlike DP, the park is now split between both entrances, so we'll head to the right side.   ...I don't wanna know. Every 200 steps your Pokemon will pick up a berry or accessory. The accessory pool depends on the Pokemon, with some exclusives to specific groups. All of these accessories can only be found here and while 5 of the berries, Spelon, Pamtre, Watmel, Durin and Belue, can only be found in Amity Square, there's another way to get them. The other 5 berries found can also be given by the Berry Master.   Look, either I render the game so that there's black spots everywhere, or I render it so the sign is chopped off and there's a few lines in the ground.   Let's do the rock warp again. Always nice getting this early, Pop will get it because everyone else is busy. To show how much worse DP is, it was found in the same area, but also HIDDEN, but thankfully the Luck Incense is found later with the same effect, so whatever.  Some of these warps don't lead anywhere, but you can cycle between the locations using the left or right warps, while the top warp will send you to the first one.   I don't mind the cleaning at all. I find all sorts of items doing so. It's quite fun, even exciting. Oh, I know. Do you know the item Big Scale? I found some. Would you like them?  This guy is pretty important since once a day you can get 1 accessory or 5 of a certain berry. These accessories are the rarer ones a Pokemon can find and all the berries are the same. It's important to note that you can only hold 10 of each accessory, so it slowly removes things from the list until you can only get berries in this area no matter what. Sounds loving crazy though.   2spooky4me   The man will be in a different place each day, but only on this side of the park. If you don't want the item offered, he may change it and his location if you re-enter the park.   Cool, it's Gym time motherfuckah! Pokemon Gym  I'll tell you! First, it's pitch-black! Oh, no worries, though! I have a flashlight right here for you. Also, there are the usual Gym Trainers. They have flashlights, too. If you cast a light on one, or they catch you in the light, the battle's on! OK, now this is really important! It's about the tiles on the floor. First, find the one blue tile in the room, and memorize the mark on it. Next, head for the red door with the same mark on it. Advance through the correct red doors to reach the Gym Leader. If you choose a wrong red door, you get sent back here, though. That's how this place is. Go get 'em, Champ-to-be!    Oh yeah, I should probably mention that Hearthome Gym is actually the FIFTH one in DP, as Fantina just refuses to fight you until you're stronger. Honestly, I have no idea why they made it that way, it's dumb as heck and delays your updated shop inventory for a while for no real good reason.   Also the gym puzzle was completely changed, like Eterna's, to be substantially less lovely. It involved spooky stuff like, uh, lifts and maths? Those are perfectly acceptable phobias, but it was probably one of the worst gyms in the series, which says a lot when Gen 1 and 2 hog most of the spots.   Skulletor is so illegal I love it.   Ah, loving finally! Are we ready to use it on our team? Hahaha, oh my no. Togetic is alright with some special moves, but we don't get those kind of TMs until later and its movepool otherwise is similarly shocking. This is a little earlier than I was planning to evolve it, but it still works out quite nicely.   When don't I? This first room is super easy, we can see everything in one go.     We're back in Gen 2, baby! Oh god, not the level curve!   He'll be caught up in no time.   This is literally the worst spot to tell me this.  Hmm, this room is the same. Must have one hell of a flashlight.   Whatever happens in life, it's better to try and enjoy it the best one can. Being in the dark here, I came to realize that.Shut up, nerd.     At least Ghost types are usually fragile so they're easy to wreck.   If you don't have friends... that play these games, like me, then Haunter is what you're stuck with. It's fragile, but it works out alright, but it's laden with various physical moves before it can finally use Shadow Ball, Sludge Bomb and Dark Pulse when it either learns it, or through TMs. Curse and Night Shade might have to do until then, but it's a bit of a pain.   Oh yeah, now I remember, I need to change the renderer!  Muuuuuuch better. Since we didn't see much, we can continue like normal. Gotta remember to change back when we're done though.   Least we only have to stumble around to find one trainer.   Hey now, using good moves is cheating.   Okay that makes up for it. They just can't resist.   Yeah, great, let's get the heck outta here.  Okay, now we just need to find the heart shaped door and-  Ah. Well that makes things easier.   Since I came to this country, always I try to learn new things. They hold Contests in this city? I say to myself, enfin, I will excel. That is why I dress this way. C'est une performance! Also, I study Pokemon very much. I have come to be Gym Leader. And, uh, so it shall be that you challenge me. But I shall win. That is what a Gym Leader does, non? Gym Leader Battle   Fantina/Melissa: The Alluring, Soulful Dancer! From phantom, or fantasia, and malice, or the clearly non-Japanese name Melissa.      Due to when you face Fantina in various games, her team is vastly different, though Mismagius remains the ace. Not too much to say about Duskull, since it's a bit too weak and doesn't deal much damage to really be a threat, though getting burned can be annoying. Due to its late evolution level and mediocre attacking stats, it's not too fun to use for most of the game to fully evolve it, but it can be gotten much later in a much more convenient fashion.    Ah, time for another evolved mon to kick our rear end. Mismagius is obtained pretty late in DP and isn't obtainable in Plat, but we have the stone, so trade it over and evolve it. Well, the best time to evolve is after Psybeam at level 23, since in DP, you'll get the Shadow Ball TM before the Dusk Stone, so it doesn't really matter. Now with your new mon, it'll do you just nicely, though it'll need some TMs to work out. Still, even Psybeam stings with those stats and you can get Magical Leaf from the relearner, since Energy Ball is postgame. You're physically frail, but you have all the right stats in all the right places, so go ham with this Pearl exclusive.   This mon is a certified problem, so Togetic is definitely useful here. And just here, since he can't do anything back.   Don't have too many answers for this mon, but hey, I'm liking how tricky these Gym battles have been. And I'm always happy my team can get through them, since I'm picking whatever I fancy and hoping it works!   However, I was trying to bait out a healing item on Duskull, but Skulletor is just too strong!   It 2HKOed everyone with Shadow Ball, so I'm glad it didn't do that.   Just because this Haunter only has physical moves doesn't mean it's not still dangerous, especially since Mismagius tore through most of the team.   Darn. Sucker Punch is a cheeky move, an 80BP physical Dark move with 5PP, 100% accuracy and +1 priority. It only works if the target is about to use a damaging move, regardless if it can execute it or not, such as status effects, abilities, or type immunities.  Pop should be able to survive a hit and clinch it, finally giving him time in the spotlight! As an aside, Fantina uses broken English and French phrases in most versions, but in the Japanese and French translations, she uses broken Japanese or French and English phrases. So she's either from Kalos or Galar, who knows for sure?   Well crap. Our team is just too fragile to stand up to endless strong Ghost attacks, but at least we've got Togetic! Shadow Claw is a 70BP physical Ghost move with 15PP and 100% accuracy with an increased crit ratio.   Yeah sure, we'll go with this. Pokemon Gym So very, very strong! You, your Pokemon, so strong! Your power is admirable! I shall honor it with this Gym Badge!  Also, you can make use of this Technical Machine. That is what I think.  A very startling move it is. Its hits turn critical often! Three Gym Badges... but you must not forget this. There are many other Trainers. Strong Trainers, too. There are many more in Sinnoh. Have patience! You must become stronger, one at a time.  There seems to be no end to how tough you are getting! At least that's how I see it! ...you do realize I say that to everyone, right? Oh yeah, this is how the first room is meant to look, but you can still solve the puzzle at a glance, so it's whatever.  And that's badge 3, but the case is identical to DP, so it looks like we've just hacked our way in.   At least the shops have finally changed so we can easily get Great Balls, Revives and Super Repels! Yes, you'll be waiting even longer in DP to finally buy these items and it sucks! But with that, we're basically done with Hearthome City, though we shall return again!    Hey, you're a Trainer now. You're expected to be ready for a battle. No whining! No waiting! Let's get the show started! Rival Battle   Been a little bit since we faced Barry, but he probably won't be too bad.   In DP, you still faced Barry, but it was just before you left Hearthome with no warning, compared to him waiting here, so the games are getting less mean about that. However, his team is much weaker for no real reason, so even with the extra badge here, they bumped up his levels to be a more interesting fight. It won't be the last time they do this.   Depending on the starter, Barry will be rounding out his team with various Pokemon. I usually try to avoid using the same Pokemon as the rivals, but oh well, I stand by my choices.   Hey, get back here!   Well two can play at that game. If Barry doesn't pick Chimchar, then he'll go for Ponyta. Because he has to, as his team doesn't change in Platinum to accommodate the new Pokedex options.   Who's faster and will pull off their priority move?   drat straight. Route 209 Day / Night  Say, hey, Hikari. Remember what I told you before? Make sure all of your attacks hit! Avoid every enemy attack! I thought it was a wicked strategy, but it doesn't work worth beans. I guess I have to grind it out and toughen up the team a bit at a time. Anyway! I'm off to Solaceon Town! See ya, Hikari! You'll be shocked by my growth the next time we meet!  Mmm, that route music is sublime. Since there's a trainer right here, might as well fight him, but that doesn't mean we'll be clearing this route this update. Plenty of other things to do after all.    It's obvious you raise your Pokemon with a lot of love.Lot of Breeders around here, for specific reasons. We'll be able to catch Pichu later, in the same area we can first catch Pikachu, in fact, but keeping it as a baby is worth it to learn Nasty Plot. The other moves of Charm and Sweet Kiss aren't worth it, nor is tutoring Uproar, but that single move is almost worth the happiness garbage.   Well it's not super, but sure.  Hmm! We're of identical minds! Hmm! Take this Good Rod!  When you're fishing for Pokemon, the first hurdle is getting a bite. When you start to reel that Pokemon in, you've got to battle it. So, fishing gives you twice the fun! Hopefully we get some more interesting mons than just Magikarp.   Always a strange choice, but it can work, I guess. You'll be relying on Water Pulse and Horn Attack for a while, but learning Waterfall through level up is cool, I guess. If you haven't decided on a Water type, there's worse options, probably.   Oh wow, I wasn't expecting the 5% encounter to be first. We'll finish this update with catching a few Pokemon and Chansey is only notable for its rarity. Its offenses and defenses are somewhat pathetic, but its SpAtk becomes pretty passable when it evolves. It'll need some special TMs and will be useless for a while because happiness evolutions are everywhere and also awful. It'll be cooking in the back, like an egg, get it, until it evolves.   Pop really hates balloon shaped Pokemon.   Neat.   Nice not having to evolve some stuff, it's still a good choice.   Somewhat rare during the night, there's an area later where they're more common.   That's all the regular Pokemon on that route, so let's backtrack a little bit for some more fishing encounters.   Ah, geez, so slimy, Barboach starts off well with Mud Bomb and Water Pulse and evolves early enough to offset its low stats. It won't be as impressive as Shellos due to worse abilities, but it's a perfectly fine substitute.   Having a map constantly displayed is convenient, no? You can also mark things, so it's that much more useful.  Don't forget about this new app now that we've got 3 badges! The Marking Map isn't very useful for its specific function, since you could forget what the markings mean after all, but it is very important later on. Boy am I not looking forward to it, like always.    Hey there cutie, think I'd forget about you? If there was ever a generic Water type, then this is it. It's somewhat unique in learning butterfly moves, like Gust and Silver Wind. As those Pokemon are terrible, this makes it also pretty mediocre, but hey, if you want a Water type and have a burning desire to use one, go ahead. It can also get Icy Wind and Ominous Wind from tutor, to make it somewhat more interesting. Otherwise, it's really nothing impressive and thankfully evolves before it gets left behind too much.  And that's a wrap. Next time, we'll head off to new towns and maybe find another Gym? Hmm, seems unlikely.
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Jun 2, 2019 21:27
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Side Notes 04: Can you make some Poffins, man? How many breads have you eaten in your life? In similar vein to Pokeblocks, Poffins are necessary to become a Contest star by upping their Condition and Sheen. But how does it all work and why is it so needlessly complicated? Well let's find out. To begin with, you need to decide which Berry you are going to use. I'll assume you're making Poffins alone instead of with your cool friends, laughing with you just offscreen, therefore only using one Berry, but doing this only cuts down on the time to make them, since you not only spin them faster, but also get more of them when you're finished. While you need to be pretty good at the minigame, selecting the right berry for the job is very important. Each berry has a specific base level, feel and flavour stat that, aside from flavour, you only know after you've made your Poffin, potentially wasting the berry. Fun times! On the berry's tag, it specifies in a pentagon what flavour a berry has, and how strong it is. Some only have the one flavour, others have two, while certain berries can have all 5 flavours. Though, importantly, some berries might be really good for specific Poffins, but were only available via events and the only way to get them now is having someone to locally trade you one. Or hacking. Just hack.  These are the best berries for the job, though while it might be tempting to only use the ones on the right, the final row are practically unobtainable due to being event only, or from Gen 3 event berries in the Enigma Berry case, and using the berries on the second-to-last row might not be the best idea. Usually the rarer the berry is, the higher its base level and smoothness is, so feeding high level Poffins is always important, but high smoothness Poffins increase a Pokemon's Sheen. And if that goes over 255, you can't feed it any more Poffins, thus no more increasing their stats. To maximize the amount to feed them, the third-to-last row is usually the best, but it's up to you. Like Gen 3, it's important to fill the adjacent category stats as well, since they also contribute towards Appeal round points, though it's not as necessary this time. Now to determine the Poffin you'll make with the berry you have. You can find out the berry's base level by taking 60 seconds to make the Poffin, since that'll be the base level of the Poffin, and the smoothness will always be the same due to what berry you use. The faster time you make, the higher level it'll be, determined by this formula: Level = B x (60/T) - M B is the base level of the Berry, T is time taken to make the Poffin, and M is the number of times you either burned or spilled the mixture. Simple enough. The minigame isn't too interesting, to begin with, when the flames are red, it's easy to stir, but also easy to spill. When the flames are orange, the mixture has thickened, but it can still spill. Finally, for blue flames, the mixture can't be spilled anymore, so spin as fast as you can to end the minigame as fast as you can. You'll also need to alternate the direction you stir on occasion.  The final result depends on the flavour of your Poffin, though if there's two flavours, which a good chunk of berries are, then the lesser flavour will still appear in the form of sprinkles. But there's a few more varieties of Poffins you can get, depending on performance and flavours.  We've seen the Foul Poffin, it occurs when you tank the level by burning or spilling the mixture too much, resulting in the flavour being reduced so much it reaches 0. They also occur when two of the same berry is used in multiplayer. Rich Poffins are any poffin with 3 flavours and Overripe Poffins have 4 flavours. Due to how it all gets made, there's no way to get 5 flavours in one Poffin, since having one flavour makes another flavour be subtracted by that amount. Mild Poffins are any Poffin above level 50. This overrides other Poffin types. A Mild Poffin still retains whatever flavour values resulted from the input berries and the formula, just like any other poffin, and will raise the corresponding attributes by the appropriate amounts. The type of Poffin (foul, rich, overripe, mild, named after flavours) is cosmetic, it's just meant to help you categorise them, the stat gains are determined entirely by the flavour values. The Mild Poffin you get from Jordan is an impossibly powerful one: it has a feel/smoothness/sheen value of 40 and a value of 60 in every flavour. This is an utterly absurd combination you'll never obtain through blending and is definitely worth using on a contest star. Poffins are also made similarly to Pokeblocks, but since we don't have NPCs, the single player ones are usually pretty mediocre. Platinum fixes this by offering store-bought ones later on, which are actually pretty drat good if you can afford the price. They're a combination of two flavours, so it'll increase your Sheen by a fair amount. With your Poffins in hand, you can feed them to your Pokemon until their Sheen maxes out. However, while it rounds down to 255, the boosted stats are not, so getting as many poffins as possible as close to the Sheen limit is important. Of course, natures make it easier for certain stats to rise, with one being boosted and one being hindered, similar to regular stats. Also important is evolving Feebas, which requires 170 Beauty, so feed it Poffins that have a higher level than feel and you should be fine. That's everything about Poffins, but of course that's only half the story, we've still gotta win the drat contests... Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Nov 29, 2019 |
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Jun 2, 2019 21:28
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Man, is it Contest time already? Well I guess so. It's time to submit the 5 Pokemon we'll be using for Contests, so get your thinking caps on and get submitting. Here's the rules: The Pokemon MUST be from Gen 4 and eligible to use in Contests, doesn't matter if we've seen it or not, just throw it in! This includes various forms, so go crazy! For the category entered, Cool, Cute, Beauty, Tough, Smart, it MUST know 4 moves all from that category and hey, if you want to use a combo, then feel free to, but they were significantly scaled back due to being pretty overpowered last time, so whatever. Please format like so: Pokemon (Nickname), Category Gender? Shiny? Move 1 Move 2 Move 3 Move 4 Feel free to vote on ones you like best, otherwise I'll pick whichever I prefer. Crosspeice fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Jun 3, 2019 |
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Jun 2, 2019 21:36
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Well, you mentioned Contests and Poffins so it's time for me to be the  guy again, sigh. Oh well.Crosspeice posted:We've seen the Foul Poffin, it occurs when you tank the level by burning or spilling the mixture too much. The Rich Poffin is similar to the Foul Poffin, being low level, but raises 3 attributes, so created by a bad multiplayer performance, or using a low level, multi-flavour berry. The Overripe Poffin is a high level Poffin that raises 4-5 attributes, usually obtained through multiplayer. The final Poffin is Mild, which is made no matter what at level 50+, overriding all other Poffin types and raises all 5 attributes. Created from rarer, high level berries with a flawless cooking performance, alone or multiplayer. Foul Poffins are like Black Pokeblocks were in RSE, they're basically the failure state. You get them if the final flavour values are all 0 (this is what happened to you, the total number of burns/spills gets subtracted from the flavours), or in multiplayer if two players use the same berry. Rich Poffins are any poffin with 3 flavours, just like Grey Pokeblocks. Overripe Poffins have 4 flavours, just like White Pokeblocks. As far as I know, there is actually no combination of berries that can produce a poffin with 5 flavours, the formula just doesn't allow it (I'll talk more about this in a second). Mild Poffins are any poffin above level 50. This overrides other poffin types. HOWEVER. Bulbapedia is 100% wrong to say that this causes it to raise all attributes, and I don't know why that error is still there after all these years. A Mild Poffin still retains whatever flavour values resulted from the input berries and the formula, just like any other poffin, and will raise the corresponding attributes by the appropriate amounts. The type of poffin (foul, rich, overripe, mild, named after flavours) is cosmetic, it's just meant to help you categorise them, the stat gains are determined entirely by the flavour values. That confusion about Mild Poffins stems from the very specific poffin you were given by Jordan here. That Poffin is very special: it has a feel/smoothness/sheen value of 40 and a value of 60 in every flavour. This is utterly absurd. This poffin is incredible, and it is literally impossible to produce something like this by actually making poffins even if you're blending with four players and have all the best berries. (There is no way to get all five flavours to have a positive value in a poffin, because berries are zero sum: every flavour's value gets subtracted from the flavour to its left. Some examples: if a berry has 10 dry, it will also have -10 spicy. A berry with 40 spicy and 10 dry will actually have a net effect of -40 sour, +30 spicy, +10 dry. Go ahead and try to disprove me if you want, but the maths check out. As long as berries behave like this, you cannot get a net positive in all five flavours. Jordan is a cheater, but that shouldn't stop us taking advantage!) The poffin formulae are similar to those for pokeblocks in generation 3, but much more dependent on the minigame performance. We also don't have NPCs to blend with any more. This makes it much, much harder to get decent contest stats making poffins by yourself, and I'd honestly say it's not even worth bothering. There are poffin calculators out there that you can play with to see this. There's good news for Platinum players, though! A bit further on in the game, there will be a shop that sells poffins (but only in Platinum). They're a bit expensive, but they're actually incredibly good and much better than anything you can make by yourself. You can get a pokemon to have perfect contest performance using just these store-bought poffins. The storebought poffins all have two flavours, each at level 32, and a feel/smoothness/sheen of 20. If you want to do, say, a Coolness contest, you'd want to max out Cool, Beauty, and Tough. You can do this with 4 each of the Spicy-Dry, Spicy-Sour, and Dry-Sour poffins, and 1 more of anything (which you want to do to max out the sheen, the type doesn't matter unless your pokemon had an unfavourable nature with respect to one of these three stats, in which case fix that). This gets you 32 x 8 = 256 in each of the three relevant stats, and the cap is 255. It works out perfectly. If you want a single pokemon with universal contest stats, the easiest way is to abuse the absurd magical poffins from Jordan, and do two or three playthroughs (since you can only get one per file). If you feed two of those and one each of the 10 different storebought poffins (as long as the last poffin you feed is the Mild poffin), you'll get to 248 in everything. If you replace two of the storebought poffins with a third special Mild poffin (so eight storebought poffins with no flavour overlap in the two you skipped, then 3 mild) you'll get to 255 everything. Isn't that a great trick? Alternatively, here is a link to some 4-player blending recipes that would be enough to get perfect stats. Unfortunately, these still need several of the rarest berries, and decent performance in the minigame. It takes fewer cartridges and less effort to just trade off a pokemon after it's eaten the poffin from Jordan a few times. Edit: I return to edit this post nearly two years later because I've just learned I made an error and don't want to leave that stand in case someone stumbles on this via Google or whatever (especially now that Sinnoh remakes are out). The Mild poffin Jordan gives does not have the stats I claimed; rather, it's 60 spicy, 30 dry/sweet/bitter/sour, and 40 smoothness. This means it's not as suitable for creating perfect-stats pokemon as I thought (and all the calculations I laid out involving it are rubbish). The good news for anyone playing the remakes is that you no longer need other players to mix multiple berries and the good berries are no longer event-exclusive, and the old recipes for perfect stats still work. Explopyro fucked around with this message at 21:08 on Dec 28, 2021 |
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Jun 2, 2019 22:35
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Don’t do the contests
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Jun 2, 2019 22:50
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Might as well nominate something. We won't see Abomasnow for a while, but I'd like to see it used, so here's a moveset. Abomasnow (ColdWoody), Beauty Category Male, Not Shiny Hail Blizzard Icy Wind Sheer Cold
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Jun 2, 2019 23:21
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how could you forget to show off the line where a Blackbelt laments that his Gyarados isn't considered cute enough for the amity square?! And now that we're on Route 209 it's time to post one of my favorite remixes that Brawl inexplicably brought about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AZJ-cPcKtk Brawl's other 3 gen 4 remixes were Vs Dialga/Palkia, Vs Wild Pokemon and Vs Team Galactic so it kind of stands out but I adore it. Route 209 owns. When will Glaceon get the justice it deserves? Platinum: Gym 7 HGSS: Not available at all (neither is Leafeon) BW2: Post-game (Leafeon too) XY: Gym 7 SM: victory road USUM: It's still victory road but I am pointing it out because they added another magnetic area for Vikavolt/Probopass/Magnezone and extended the mountain area for Crabominable but did not do this It's also only available in ORAS after the climax but that also applies to eevee as a whole so we'll give that a pass.
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Jun 3, 2019 00:01
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