Chapter 14 - Journey's End

When I challenged the Elite Four, my team was as follows:

Rebound (Wobbuffet) – lv.50 – Counter, Mirror Coat, Safeguard, Destiny Bond

Gem (Tentacruel) – lv.53 – Surf, Barrier, Giga Drain, Ice Beam

Charlie (Exploud) – lv.59 – Earthquake, Flamethrower, Rest, Sleep Talk

Major (Manectric) – lv.56 – Thunderbolt, Iron Tail, Charge, Bite

Crash (Swampert) – lv.60 – Surf, Ice Beam, Brick Break, Earthquake

At this stage I should point out that I realised I wouldn’t have a hope in hell of winning this thing without using Potions. So I decided to change my rules so that I was allowed no healing items – UNTIL the Elite Four. I figured it was impressive enough to get this far without healing once; I could allow myself a bit of slack. It would have been very nice to round my team off to the full complement of 6 with Spice, but it wasn’t to be, I had to make do.

So unto the breach I went, dear friends. The first member of the Elite Four was Sidney, a Dark-type trainer. Gem took his whole team down single-handedly (single-tentacledly?), even finishing the fight with full health due to Giga Drain.

Next up was Phoebe, who uses Ghost-types. Charlie took them on due to his immunity to Ghost-type attacks. He won in the end, despite a tough final bout against Phoebe’s second Dusclops – Phoebe used a couple of Full Restores as Charlie couldn’t quite finish it off. Charlie hit 6 HP at one point, but Rest and Sleep Talk won the day in the end and Charlie hit lv.60.

Next up was Glacia. Charlie struggled through another epic encounter with her first Glalie, but when Sleep Talk and Flamethrower both ran out of PP I had to switch in Major, who swept through the rest of the team with no trouble.

The last member of the Elite Four was Drake, a Dragon trainer. I decided to lead with Gem, because Ice Beam should be able to take care of all the Dragons; the only worry was that Dragons have high stats. Hopefully Gem’s high Speed stat would make the difference.

And boy, did it. Gem swept everything before her, getting 5 one-hit kills and levelling up to 54.

I’d beaten the Elite Four. The only remaining challenge was… The Champion. Steven.

He led with Skarmory. Luckily I’d seen that coming, and one-hitted it with Major’s Thunderbolt. Next was Aggron. I switched in Gem… Oh no. Earthquake! I completely failed to see that coming. Cursing my stupidity, I watched Gem’s health fall… and stop at 31/183. What a let-off. I’d nearly lost Pokemon to all three members of the Aggron evolutionary line! Surf took care of the big lump, and Gem moved on. Steven’s next Pokemon was a Claydol. I hate Claydol. I usually struggle to take them out. I needed to try something new. I looked at my remaining Pokemon, and selected… Rebound.

I was hoping Rebound’s massive HP stat would allow him to take a few Earthquakes and come out fighting. Was I right? Hell yeah I was! Claydol went down to a Counter, and Rebound was on a roll. Cradily was next – another pain in the arse to take out due to its Rock/Grass typing removing most of its weaknesses. It led unexpectedly with Giga Drain, rendering Counter useless; I switched to Mirror Coat and it went down.

Next up was Armaldo, which annoyingly survived a Counter to its Ancientpower; I’d need two to take it down. After a few Full Restores by Steven (and one or two by me) it went down. Finally. I was down to Steven’s last Pokemon, the last Pokemon in this entire challenge – Metagross!

It led with Meteor Mash… which killed Rebound! He had served me well in the short time I’d used him, and he died honourably. In came Crash, for his first appearance in the whole Elite Four (a real surprise considering I’d expected to rely on him for the whole thing…) and two Earthquakes later (Steven had run out of Full Restores it seems) Metagross was down!

It was over. After all the successes, all the losses, and all the grinding of this epic run through Hoenn, I’d reached the pinnacle of any Pokemon trainer’s career, and become the Champion of the Pokemon League. Steven took me through to a room where my comrades and I were immortalised in the Pokemon League records, but I was barely listening.

I’d avenged Jabs, Thumper, Tiny, Laser, Pepper, Spice and Rebound, and I was the Champion.

Thanks for reading! I’ll post my thoughts on the whole thing soon.


-Samwise

Chapter 13 - Giving up the Ghost

I had to do some grinding if I wanted to beat the Elite 4. For a start I only had four Pokemon who were battle-worthy, and they were only level 51. They wouldn’t stand a chance against the Champion’s level 58 Metagross – a pseudo-legendary (meaning very high stats) Psychic/Steel type (meaning very few weaknesses). So, to training I went, full of hope and optimism having finally reached the end point of my journey.

My joy was to be short-lived, however. I was training Spice at level 53, when disaster struck. She had almost half health, which had been enough to avoid danger until now, when she took a critical hit from a wild Lairon’s Iron Tail. Spice was down. I had just three battle-ready Pokemon left, and I was still underleveled.

At this point I seriously considered giving up; having come so far, this was a hefty kick in the sack, especially given that Spice had the enviable ability to take no super-effective hits from 3 of the Elite 4, and to dish out super-effective hits to one. I had to plough on though; I hadn’t struggled past Flannery and Norman and lost so many dear Poke-friends to bottle it at the death.

But I needed a new team member.

I looked in my PC box. I didn’t have too many options; a bunch of Pokemon that would never be strong enough, a few strong Pokemon whose types rendered them useless for the task ahead, and a few decent Pokemon who were of the same types as my current team. I decided to take a two-pronged approach.

Firstly, I’d withdraw Rebound and put him in the Daycare centre. For those new to the idea, the Daycare centre is a place to store your Pokemon mainly for breeding purposes. The bonus is that any Pokemon left at the Daycare gains 1 XP point for every step the player walks, meaning they can level up as you progress through the game. The drawback is that any new moves they learn automatically replace their old ones.

By this time Rebound was a Wobbuffet, and had learned all the moves he was ever going to learn (Wobbuffet’s an odd Pokemon, as he only knows countering moves – he can only damage an opponent after he takes damage himself). He was the perfect candidate for the Daycare, and he might be a genuine life-saver.

My second approach was more conventional; I’d withdraw Gem and train her up, teaching her Ice Beam so that she could be back-up for Crash against those pesky Dragon-types. Plus, When Gem evolved into Tentacruel, she’d be quick and blessed with a monstrous Special Defence stat, which is never a bad thing.

So, to grinding I went. With only four Pokemon + Rebound (who was pretty much an unknown quantity) I figured I’d need to be over-levelled to stand a chance. I spent a good four hours buffing out my team, and finally I thought I was ready. Ready to become the Champion. Ready to avenge my fallen comrades. Ready to take on the Pokemon League.


-Samwise

Chapter 12 - Gunning for Victory

Wallace proved to be a pushover in the end. I was expecting to have trouble with his Milotic due to its high Special Defence rendering my Electric attacks less deadly, but Major cleaned up with little trouble. I’d earned the final badge, and now nothing stood between me and the Elite 4, and success!

I Surfed east on Route 128 to Ever Grande City, the site of Victory Road. For those that don’t know, Victory Road exists in every Pokemon game as the final area before the Elite 4. Victory Road is a long, tough series of maze-like caverns, containing high-levelled wild Pokemon and lots of tough trainers. In short, it’s not particularly easy to navigate when you’re not allowed to heal your Pokemon.

With that in mind, I decided to do some more training before I gave it a go, and cleared out a few areas I’d not yet visited, including the Dragon Trainers at the top of the waterfall in Meteor Falls. I couldn’t catch any Pokemon here – so no chance of adding a super-powerful Salamence to my team before the Elite 4 – but a few trainers provided some valuable experience. I also picked up the Dragon Claw TM, which is one of my favourite moves, but none of my Pokemon could learn it. Darn.

By the time I’d cleared these trainers out, my team were looking fairly handy and I decided to brave Victory Road, leaving Swift in the PC because I wouldn’t be needing Fly. In her place I withdrew Curly, so I had all the HM moves covered in case I needed them all. If all went wrong I had some Escape Ropes so I could flee back to the relative safety of the nearest Pokemon Centre anyway. So in I went, and the first Pokemon I bumped into was… a female Golbat.

Now, Golbat can be very useful, because they evolve into Crobat, which are awesome. But the trouble is they don’t evolve in the normal way – by hitting a certain level – instead evolving when their “happiness level” gets high enough. The happiness level is one of the many hidden stats in Pokemon, increasing every 255 steps by 1 point. When the level gets high enough that the Pokemon loves you, it will evolve when it next levels up.

The trouble is, the threshold for happiness evolutions is something like 250 happiness points – meaning that if I wanted to evolve Golbat, I’d have to walk something like 60000 steps with her in my team. That’s a lot of steps and would take a lot of time, and frankly I couldn’t be bothered. I caught the Golbat anyway (JUST in case) and called her Succubus. And on I went.

On a side note – how to the trainers in Victory Road expect to beat the Pokemon league with a single, lv.40ish Pokemon? The Champion’s Pokemon are above level 55, for God’s sake… How did they even beat Wallace?

Anyway, I realised/remembered a few important things during my time in Victory Road. One – I’d never got this far in a Pokemon game without a Fire-type Pokemon in my team. Fire is my favourite type. Sadly Tiny hadn’t made it, so no Fire for me. Sorry Tiny. Secondly, not being allowed to use Repels is annoying. It would have been very handy to deter all wild Pokemon instead of being attacked every 5 steps. Third, at one point Crash was reduced to 14/161HP because I took a risk and assumed he’d survive another hit. I remembered that such risks were ridiculous, especially with my number 1 Pokemon and so close to the finish line. Fourth, there were rumours of a tough little kid around, who came from Petalburg City. Could it be… Wally?

I reached the end of Victory Road. I could see the daylight shining through the exit door. I was mere seconds away from freedom and safety…

“Locke!”

It was Wally. He attacked.

First out was his Altaria. Major paralysed him with Spark, and finished him off with another.

Next out was Delcatty, renowned for Attract-based annoyance tactics. Major threw everything he had into one powerful Thunderbolt, to finish the pussycat off in one. It worked.

Third, Wally sent out Magneton. I switched in Crash for his immunity to Electric-type attacks; Magneton used his free turn to fire a Thunderbolt, which had no effect on Crash. Then Crash used a quadruple-effective Mud Shot, and Magneton was no more.

This was going well.

Wally threw out Roselia, which was a Grass-type and therefore had moves 4x effective against Crash. Despite what I said before about not taking risks, I decided to use Ice Beam – super-effective against Grass-types, and Roselia was down.

Wally’s last Pokemon was the first her ever caught, now fully evolved and a Psychic-type to be reckoned with. Gardevoir.

Crash hit Gardevoir with his strongest attack, Surf, which only took about 40% of Gradevoir’s health off. Clearly the Psychic-type had a good Special Defence, especially after it used Light Screen. A change of tactics was required, so Crash hit Gardevoir with Mud Shot for some Physical Damage. It didn’t finish Gardevoir off, but while Wally was using a Super potion I had a chance to switch in Spice. Time for a super-effective Shadow Ball; if that didn’t finish Gardevoir off, nothing would.

It missed. Gardevoir had used Double Team to raise its evasion. I feared for Spice.

But there was nothing to fear. Shadow Ball hit second time, and Gardevoir was down. Wally – about 20 levels on average stronger than the last time we fought – was defeated. He said something about how he’d beat me one day, but I wasn’t listening. I left Victory Road and headed to the nearby Pokemon Centre.

I had made it to the final stage of my journey.

The Pokemon League.


-Samwise

Chapter 11 - A date with destiny

After I’d finished Mossdeep Gym, I figured I’d track down the submarine Archie had stolen. Where might one find a submarine… At the bottom of the ocean, of course. I wonder if my new HM will help me out here…? Of course it did. I tracked down the submarine in no time and started to work my way through the Underwater Cavern, taking out Aqua Grunts as I went along and catching a new Zubat – named him Taser. A couple of close shaves later – Spice is something of a glass cannon, it seems – I made it to the final room, where a large, orca-shaped beast lay dormant in the middle of the room.

As I approached it, Archie appeared from behind me, and challenged me to a fight! I was slightly nervous given that he was pretty tough the last time we fought, but this time I was a whole lot stronger Archie was no match whatsoever. Major wiped the floor with his team singlehandedly.

When the match finished though, Archie laughed… He had the Red Orb with him, the Orb he’d obtained at Mount Pyre! It started to glow, and the shape in the middle of the room started to stir… It was a Pokemon! A legendary Pokemon! Kyogre, the Pokemon that controls the very seas! It awoke, and vanished from the room…

When I got outside, the weather had taken a turn for the worse, to say the least. Torrential downpours now lashed the entire region of Hoenn; the whole world was flooding! And it was up to me to solve the problem. I Dived again to Sootopolis City on Steven’s advice, where I entered the Cave of Origin to face Kyogre.

My first wild Pokemon in this area was a Sableye, lv.32, female. I caught her after a few wasted Pokeballs – Sableye are unique (until Spiritomb in Gen.IV at least) in that they are Dark/Ghost type, meaning that no moves are super-effective against them. Pretty handy, except that Sableye’s stats are dross, and Spiritomb’s moveset is equally as dross. Ah well, it’s the thought that counts, eh? I named my new Sableye Shade, and moved on. I now wouldn’t be able to catch Kyogre (not that I would anyway, since Legendaries aren’t allowed on a Nuzlocke team), so I headed onwards to kill the beast.

I reached Kyogre, and sent out Major to do battle. Major had a level advantage (only one) and type advantage, with Kyogre being Water-type. I led with Thunderbolt, which took off over half Kyogre’s health, and Kyogre used Ice Beam. I prayed that it wouldn’t freeze Major… it didn’t. But Major had very little health left; while I was throwing unsuccessful Ultra Balls at Shade, he’d taken a few hits. One more Thunderbolt would finish Kyogre and pretty much save the world, but if it missed… I didn’t want to think about it. Major used Thunderbolt… it hit. Kyogre was down.

I’d saved the world.

I Escape Roped out of the cave, to rapturous applause, showers of women and riches and the general adulation of the entire human race. Or, in true Pokemon style, I left the cave and no-one even acknowledged it. Ho hum.

Next up, I’ll challenge Wallace, the last Gym leader, as I edge towards the finish line!


-Samwise

Chapter 10 - Psych-out

Route 120 passed without any particular excitement. I’d already caught my one-Pokemon allowance here, so I just killed everything I came across. Route 121 came around and the first Pokemon I came across was a Zigzagoon… boo. I was hoping for a Shuppet, but I probably used up all my luck when I caught Major. Especially annoying was the fact that after I killed Zigzagoon, the next two Pokemon to show up were both Shuppet… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: “ARGH”. I reached Lilycove with no further troubles, then flew to Slateport to pick up a Pokeblock case and nipped to the Safari Zone in case I could catch anything interesting. That something interesting turned out to be a Phanpy, which I managed to catch – lv. 29, female, Rash, named Rose. I do like Donphan, but I didn’t need another Ground-type, so sadly Rose was boxed away.

I got quite a long way today while I was away from the computer. After reaching Lilycove I quickly did Mt. Pyre, where the first Pokemon I met was a Shuppet. I took it down to half health but then it used Curse, so it killed itself. Arses. After finished Mt. Pyre I moved onto Route 123, where the first Pokemon I met was another Shuppet, lv.27, female. I threw an Ultra Ball at her straight away just in case she committed suicide with Curse like the last one, and it caught her in one! Good news. Her natures was Relaxed (meh) and I named her Spice.

I went back to Slateport to talk to Capt. Stern, and witnessed Team Aqua stealing his submarine. Shady business indeed. Back to Lilycove – via Rustboro to pick up the Exp. Share – to sort out their Hideout, which didn’t take long (and I picked up a Master Ball in the process). Sadly I was a bit late though, and Archie the Team Aqua Boss escaped in the submarine. Spice was gaining a nice few levels by now.

The Route to the East of Lilycove had opened up now, so I Surfed along it, beating a few trainers and catching my first Tentacool (lv.23, female, Naïve, named Gem). Even though I seem to be getting lucky with Pokemon on this run, I’m not getting too lucky with natures. Tentacool’s biggest strength is its outstanding Special Defence, and my Tentacool’s nature lowers hers by 10%. Terrific.

Onwards and upwards, though; I reached Mossdeep, where Steven gave me HM08 – Dive. I taught this to Bubble (a Marill I caught in the pond in Petalburg City immediately after beating my father’s Gym – forgot to include that in my update), caught and discovered that the Gym was Psychic-type. The Gym leaders here use Rock/Psychic types though, which removes a lot of their weaknesses, but importantly makes them weak to Water. Another Gym in which Crash can excel, then.

I trained up a few levels around the surrounding Routes – in fact I made it all the way down to Pacifidlog Town (one of the more ridiculous town names in Pokemon games) and Spice evolved into a Banette. Good times.

Eventually I headed back to Mossdeep to chance my arm against Liza and Tate, the Gym leaders. And in the end, they were no match for Crash and Major. After an easy win, I taught the Calm Mind TM I had won to Spice, and moved on.


-Samwise

Chapter 9 - Filling in the gaps

I decided, after winning in Fortree, that I’d been chasing badges for too long. I needed a break from chasing after my goal of completing this Nuzlocke challenge, and so I decided to go down a few Routes I’d not been down before, and tie up a few loose ends. There were a lot of trainers I was yet to battle, and there were a lot of Pokemon I could still catch. So I started by Surfing north from Rustboro City to the random little outcrop of rock where a couple of trainers were.

I led with Charlie, thinking that I hadn’t used him much. First trainer threw out a Hariyama. Only lv.28, but I hedged my bets and switched in Crash, who finished him off easily. The second trainer led with Machop… great, another Fighting-type that could be super-effective against Charlie’s Normal-type. Still, Machop’s unevolved, and it was only lv.26, so I gambled, and Strength was a OHKO. Trainer 2’s second Pokemon was a Machoke, lv.26 also. Hmm. An evolved Machop… still, 11 levels should be enough, I though.

Blimey.

Charlie used Strength, which took off 75% of Machoke’s health. Oh dear. Not a OHKO… Machoke used Revenge. A Fighting-type move, super-effective against Charlie, that deals double damage – at a base power of 120 – if the user sustains damage before it attacks. Machoke had just sustained a lot of damage.

I nearly shat myself.

Time slowed down. I watched, powerless, as Charlie’s health went down… and down…

…AND DOWN…

…And stopped. At 9HP. 9 out of a possible 115.

Close call. Never again.

Next I headed down Route 105 towards Dewford Town from Petalburg. A few more trainers awaited me here. The first wild Pokemon I encountered was a Tentacool, male, lv.8. Whoopee. Charlie killed it just for the hell of it; I’m sure I can find another Tentacool should the need arise.

Further down was Route 106, where my first wild Pokemon was another Tentacool, lv.31 this time. Accidentally killed this one too, even though it might have been a plan to catch it just in case something should befall Crash… ah well, plenty more ‘cool in the pool.

I hit Dewford and healed up, then headed East on Route 107 as Charlie was getting pretty close to lv.40 by now, when he’d become an Exploud. The first Pokemon I bumped into was a Pelipper, another male, lv.30. I caught him because… well, I might as well really. I named him Clive. He knew Mist, which would have been good if Pelipper weren’t such a terrible Pokemon. I taught him Surf and Fly though, just in case. Onwards to Route 108, where my first wild encounter was a female Wingull, lv.30. Not interested, so Charlie used Shock Wave and she was no more.

I stopped off at the Abandoned Ship, where I bumped into a few trainers and Charlie hit lv.40, evolving into an Exploud! Hurrah. Exploud rock, what with their big silly mouths and angry little faces and series of weird tubes poking out of their heads. Charlie learned Hyper Beam and all was well. Inside the Abandoned Ship I found TM13, which of course contains Ice Beam. I was a bit miffed seeing as I’d spent 80000 Yen on the very same move earlier in the game, but I got over it. It’s only money, right?! I couldn’t finish the Abandoned Ship mini-quest because I didn’t have Dive yet, so I made a mental note to come back and moved on.

I eventually reached the end of Route 109 having defeated all the trainers and wild Pokemon there. I figured I’d been tying up loose ends for long enough now, so I flew back to Fortree City, healed up and set off down Route 120.


-Samwise

Chapter 8 - A shocking new addition

My entry into New Mauville was celebrated with the newest addition to my team’s ranks – Dash the Voltorb, lv.24, Naïve nature. New Mauville was a piece of cake and I headed onwards.

I Surfed across the little stretch of water on Route 118 hoping not to get Tentacool’d, - I wanted an Electrike in the grass beyond – and was successful. Picked up the Good Rod from the Fisherman and headed further down Route 118. I bumped into Steven for a pointless conversation and delved into the grass. First Pokemon I encountered was… a Manectric! What are the chances?! Oh, 10% according to Bulbapedia… Male, lv.26, Static as his ability (I found this out when Crash was paralysed on contact with him). Named him Major. His nature was Quiet… Ok I guess. Now I can stick Dash the Voltorb in the PC and concentrate on my new, 4^th team member. Bulbapedia told me that Major wouldn’t learn Thunderbolt naturally so I used the TM24 Wattson had rewarded me with for sorting out New Mauville.

Route 119 sucks. It’s long and a Breloom nearly killed Major and you have to sit through the “It is raining” animation every damn turn… At least the Weather Institute was amusingly easy and has a bed to heal in. I obtained a Castform for saving the scientists, which I wasn’t able to nickname for some reason. Female, lv.25, Timid nature. I’m not allowed to use her though, as she’s the second Pokemon I obtained on Route 119 after catching Streaky the Linoone (lv.25, Male, Calm). I released Castform as soon as I could reach a PC and carried on, beating up May to obtain HM02. Swift was the lucky learner of Fly.

I reached Fortree City with little trouble, and looked around. An old lady gave me Hidden Power because I have psychic powers, a stupid girl wants to trade my Pikachu for her Skitty (why would I do that?!) and that’s about it. Bulbapedia told me that Winona, the Gym leader, had an Altaria at level 33. A quick Ice Beam from Crash should sort that out quite nicely, what with Altaria's 4x weakness to Ice attacks, so I figured I was already prepared to take her on… but something invisible was blocking the route to the Gym so I carried on down Route 120.

The first Pokemon I encountered on Route 120 was another Linoone, which I killed instead of capturing. I headed onwards and found Steven, who gave me the Devon Scope. He used it to make a Kecleon appear and attack; Major made short work of the Kecleon, which I couldn’t catch anyway. Something tells me this Devon Scope will get me into Fortree Gym…

It did. I progressed with minimal difficulty past the Gym trainers (and don’t you just love the puzzle in this Gym? I do) and set up a showdown with Winona… which was a complete anti-climax. I absolutely destroyed her, even though she switched in her Altaria a lot sooner than expected. 4 OHKOs later and I was outta there with a new Badge and the TM for Aerial Ace. I decided against teaching it to Swift as she was getting left behind level-wise – she was only lv.32 while Major, Charlie and Crash were at 37, 37 and 39 respectively, and her usefulness was dwindling, much as I loved her for being able to Fly me to any town.

Next up, I’ll head down to Lilycove City and finally help Crash forget Rock Smash!


-Samwise