#ventelocke

[ventela1]

Ventelocke - Short update

(Originally posted out of order. This one happens after reaching Sootopolis City for the first time!)

Zigzag is now level 43 and Sam is level 36.

I skipped Sky Uppercut for now, but that may change later.

I decided we should take advantage of the permanent rain. Before we potentially tackle Kyogre (I haven't looked ahead and all of my knowledge of this part comes from reading the Emerald game guide and some peoples' Nuzlocke comics about a decade ago, so I have no idea what's going on next), we stopped for a little shopping.

We looked around the city and caught up to Steven.

And I think I know who this other guy is.

As I knew he would, Steven's friend introduces himself as Gym Leader Wallace. He says he's also "been entrusted with the protection of the Cave of Origin", which is very interesting.

Hey mister Wallace, I have something. Could this help?

Yep. Been keeping it safe, as I was asked to.

This has been the weather, with Steven. Thanks, Steven. Back to you, Wallace.

Wait, so the Cave of Origin isn't where we found Kyogre? Ohhhkay.

Wallace says no one from Sootopolis is permitted, but we have to go in with the Blue Orb. So much for "10 year olds can't save the world this time"!

... But like, can I have a hint?

Hey, my comment earlier was a joke. I wasn't trying to make you feel guilty about it.

*Hugs Zigzag*

We always do.

(To be continued!)

(...

Time to go eat some pizza.)

[ventela1]

So, I don't know how I missed THIS:

But if you've been really confused about my plans to Dive to Sootopolis and take on the next Gym before battling Liza and Tate... It's because I got mixed up and thought Sootopolis Gym WAS Liza and Tate, not Wallace.

No worries, all the swimming around has given me ample opportunities to toss the team headfirst into battles with Pokemon around LV 34, and at this point in the game I really don't want to skimp the training.

I've literally never battled them before, and while Ruby/Sapphire Tate+Liza have a much smaller Gym team than they do in Emerald, I'd be lying if I said it didn't shiver my timbers a little when I peeked at their movesets just now. The Pokemon Company really wanted to make sure that you couldn't just grab one of the Water Types around here and go destruction mode on them too easily, huh?

It's a Double Battle, so one possible strat would be to teach someone Protect and send them in with Gooey, who knows Surf. We could probably get some good damage in before they set up Light Screen and Sunny Day. My concern is if it's not enough to KO right away and then I have to worry about switch-ins, Protect failures, and more...

I mean, there is someone who knows Protect already. Someone who I've been mentioning a lot lately, who I initially planned ahead to have in this battle... Who is weak to Flamethrower and doesn't resist Psychic, but also has a higher Special Defense stat at level 27 than some of the current party members have at level 35+...

Anyone reading my mind?

Well, you know moths. They love to follow the light of the celestial bodies. It was only natural she'd find herself at this Gym.

Let's rock.

[ventela1]

Reddit had warned me of a trainer on Route 120. A formidable opponent equipped with a single strong Pokemon. I planned to avoid the battle or prepare accordingly.

And then I forgot and ran into her.

Cooltrainer Jennifer.

You see, Route 120 has permanent rainy weather. Milotic knows Water Pulse, a good Water Type move that can cause Confusion in addition to being boosted in power by the weather.

I'm sure you guys can do the math.

Unfortunately, I wasn't leading with Zigzag and had to spend a turn to send him in.

Here's the damage from ONE Water Pulse. I pivoted to Gooey and...

I realized this was yet another "a crit will screw us over" situation and decided not to take chances. I settled in for the heal stall. Am I ashamed? ABSOLUTELY NOT. This trainer can team wipe an unprepared Nuzlocker! I was ready to do anything necessary to ensure we exited this battle with without any casualties.

I had been falsely informed that Milotic has Ice Beam (it doesn't), so I refused to send out Trip. In hindsight, that was probably the right call anyway, given his lower defenses.

*Sigh*

Yeah, while the constant looming threat of a critical hit was there to keep it worrying, the battle was also just going to take a really long time. Better a long victory than a short loss, though.

Milotic refused to use anything other than Water Pulse. Unfortunately, I forgot to count the turns, and waiting it out felt like it took enough turns that I actually had to Google whether NPCs in Gen 3 can run out of PP for a move. They can, so I knew we only needed to outlast 20 total Water Pulses.

It still felt like a lot longer. Shoutout to Gooey for holding a Whirlpool for 5 turns, though.

With an insane amount of luck re: No crits, we finally forced Jennifer and her Milotic into another move.

Two other moves, actually.

NOOO IT'S ONLY COOL WHEN *I* DO IT

Whichever game dev put this in must have really wanted to humble some children. And adults.

But since we were safe from Rain-boosted Water Pulse, finally:

We exited the fight many Potions poorer, but with the party intact!

[ventela1]

It didn't take terribly long to make our way back to Fortree City. We picked a few more battles before looking for a way around the Kecleon.

So do I! You were only a route away.

Gabby and Ty are always a bit scary to fight. But we pulled through.

Does anyone want to explain how using Thunder Wave on my Electric Type Pokemon paralyzes it, though? >.>

Hey, Steven!

Heck yeah! Fresh from the 'Center.

Steven says he wants to help with the invisible blockages, but maybe it's easier to just show us rather than explain.

Look at that cutie!

This, uh. This was the whole battle. Screech on every turn. Guess he was just scared and didn't want to hurt us.

Please welcome this new friend, Coco!

As a point of interest, Kecleon knows Faint Attack. I think it's deliberate that they give you a never-miss move right before the Gym battle with potential Double Team spam.

Uh, sure. Thanks. (Spammed Sonic Boom until it was time to throw an Ultra Ball)

Steven gave some kind words about how he thinks my Pokemon and I are doing great, and then flew off!

I love Coco, but I am a little annoyed that he counts as my route catch. That was intentional and I don't regret it, I used Repels in the grass so I wouldn't encounter another Pokemon and everything. But this was my first encounter after Coco, once the Repel wore off:

Maybe on the next route!

The second battle with a Kecleon was far more interesting. It's fun to play against a Pokemon that changes into whatever type of move you hit it with.

We fought a few Bird Catchers, but I avoided going too far down the route for... reasons that I'll get to in another post.

On the bright side, Zigzag is now able to consistently 1-hit KO high-level Swellow. The Gym battle is starting to feel less scary, besides Winona's Altaria.

Time to hit the Gym! Just one more Kecleon battle-

Oh. Okay...

Remember this guy? He remembers you!

[ventela1]

My actual reaction to that information:

Very good to know that it doesn't do a lot of damage.

So, something very interested happened. After getting back to Dewford, I realized I could finally swim around behind the town. And that opened up an area between there and Petalburg.

Meaning this lovely little sandbar is our opportunity to finally get a Wingull or something!

As a reminder, dupes clause is on. Tentacool, Goldeen, Magikarp are all no longer available for me to catch.

But y'know, it's been a while since I initially wanted to catch Wingull. I love that Pokemon very much and kinda wanted it in the run, but nowadays I have Matrix (Water/Flying) and Mim (Normal/Flying) in the party. So unless something bad happened with them (knock on wood), poor Wingull would likely stay in the box.

But there's also...

That. (Thanks, Bulbapedia!) Still a chance it'll be a box 'mon, but pure Water with a really good evolution looks mighty tempting.

Except uh, fishing is a lot harder than I remember? I'm mashing the A button or rather the D key and it keeps getting away. I've failed legit like 5 times. Is the Good Rod harder to use or something, or do I just suck?

...

Make that 8 times.

See you in a bit...

[ventela1]

Ventelocke update

I decided to sort out the box and figure out who's on the roster for the next Gym.

Here's the potential lineup (bottom row). We're underleveled, but there's no time like the present.

From left to right: Twizzler can learn lots of TM moves. Rodney has a Rock Type attack and the ability Levitate to avoid Altaria's Earthquake. Betty is one of my favorite Pokemon and can learn Swift to guarantee a hit against Double Team users. Zigzag and Crisco are both speedy Electric Types, the former of which can learn Rollout (though I'd really rather not get locked into that against this Gym).

Winona's ace, Altaria, is scary. To my knowledge there aren't really any good counters to its typing or moveset available at this part of the game, except to try to get it caught in a status effect or stuck using Dragon Dance after an Encore, which risks a sweep.

But her Swellow is also a menace, packing a classic combo of Double Team, Endeavour, and Quick Attack. Yikes.

Winona also features a diverse team with decent counters to most of their weaknesses. As a Flying Type lover myself, I appreciate how tough this Gym is set up to be. It's a scary portion of the Nuzlocke. But we have a plan.

Three of Winona's four Pokemon are weak to electricity, so Zigzag and Crisco are both solid bets. I have a couple of Electric TMs on standby. And aside from Altaria's Earthquake, I think Gem can tank hits from Winona's team pretty well.

For the ace, we have Matrix.

Defense a bit lower than I'd like, but it'll have to do. We're going to reach at least level 32 on the Gym team before facing her, I think, since her highest is a LV 34.

I decided to start by training up Crisco, the Elektrike. He's 2 levels away from evolution. A high speed stat Pokemon with the overall defense buffs that come with evolution could be critical against Winona.

I had to free up a spot in the party before the Team Aqua fights to level him up, and didn't really want to risk Selena, so I made the decision to put her in the box. Something that's been very, very rare in this run. But first I made sure she reached LV 24.

No more stalling, time to help out the Weather Institute!

It's a little scary not knowing what lies ahead.

But here's the thing about Crisco. Even though his defenses aren't the highest, at level 24 he still packs a punch.

And at LV 25, he started outspeeding LV 26 Carvanah.

It was pretty easy to get to the boss fight. All of our opponents opted for some scary stat-lowering moves, but didn't have time to follow them up with actual damage. Plus, there was the bed a floor below to heal at.

The boss fight itself? Pretty good! Was reminded, however, that while his defenses are amazing, Gem takes several turns to start causing significant damage. He did absorb several Bites from a high-level Mightyena, though. Good job, buddy.

A welcome addition to the team. Meet Castform, to be named later.

Surprisingly well-rounded stats, and our first access ever to several weather moves and an Ice Type move. Next time: Onwards to Fortree City!

[ventela1]

Going to sleep, will continue tomorrow!

Here’s the team so far. Big flying type weakness, which is part of why I’m training Selena up.

[ventela1]

Nuzlocke updates!

Picking up where we left off the other night immediately after the Gym battle...

That TM will be great for Ren or Mim!

We then visited Wally’s parents’ house. Apparently Whalley has gone off on an adventure, too! They gave us the HM Surf, which Matrix quickly learned as the team’s first offensive Water Type move.

I went to go see Mr Briney and ask him a favor, but it turns out he’s no longer at home. We’re on our own for surfing the high seas!

At Mauville, Wattson said hi.

He asked us to go to New Mauville and turn off a large generator. Putting those surfing skills to the test, we also picked up a Rare Candy and encountered some Pokemon.

No trainer tips this time!

At New Mauville, Sand got lots of EXP, and evolved!

And we met a new friend!

Welcome, Zigzag!

After the New Mauville quest was completed, Wattson gave us the TM for Thunderbolt. Sweet.

We headed out of Mauville across the ocean, and hit land again a very short hop away.

This kind man gave us a Good Rod. Gabby and Ty, the reporters, wanted a battle, which i entered a bit sooner than I meant to. It was scary, but we came out on top.

The team is pretty underleveled at this point, so we’re doing a bit of training. I’m also agonizing over who to train for the upcoming Flying Type Gym. The Gym Leaders are getting tougher, and their teams are more well-rounded against opposing Types. Winona apparently has a counter to all of my candidates, so I’ll have to use several and not rely on only one Pokemon.

In the grass, someone popped up. He’s been added to the list of potential Gym Pokemon.

Welcome, Crisco!