Monday, November 11, 2013

Xisode: Pre-4 team





Ok, I'm as ready as I'm going to be. Here's my team prior to the elite 4. The only thing I know about them is their types; Fire, water, dragon and steel. I don't know anything about the champion. I'm guessing he'll have a mix. I might have gotten carried away and over leveled a little bit, we'll see. Grinding is just super easy in this game.




Colby - Chesnaught lvl. 70
Role: Physical tank
Hammer Arm
Leech Seed
Seed Bomb
Spiky Shield
Item: Rocky Helmet









Smithers - Blastoise lvl.70
Role: Special tank/dragon killer
Toxic
Flash Cannon
Scald
Ice Beam
Item: Blastoisinite







Goomba - Goodra lvl. 70
Role: Special tank/attacker
Power Whip
Substitute
Thunderbolt
Dragon Pulse
Item: Leftovers






Bellatrix - Malamar lvl. 70
Role: Physical carry
Psychocut
Superpower
Pluck :P
Night Slash
Item: king's rock










Verde - Scolidepe lvl. 70
Role: physical carry
Megahorn
Swords dance
Earthquake
Poison Jab
Item: black sludge






Whyyyyyy??? - Druddigon lvl. 66
Role: Fodder
Shadow Claw
Outrage
Rock SLide
Superpower
Item: quick claw


Saturday, November 9, 2013

Xisode 8: The light at the end of the tunnel.

So, after trouncing the final gym leader, Habberdash sets his sight on victory road. Before we commit ourselves to the perilous depths of the cave though, we have a couple last locales to check for new teammates. We still have an open spot. The final route of the map yields a Spinda that is at too low of a level for me to weaken enough to catch without being a total headache so I end up just slaying it. A spinda killed my prized Altaria in my emerald nuzlocke back in the day and I have little appreciation for the cretins. The last first encounter excites me though, victory road itself. I enter the cave with bated breath, whoever I encounter here has a good chance of being my 6th teammate for the elite four. The battle music plays and I square off against the mysterious outline... A druddigon! Pretty cool, Goomba is my resident dragon, but it wouldnt hurt too much to have a second I suppose. Lorraine the aggron should be able to handle this one without too much trou-
WHY DOES IT KNOW SUPERPOWER.
The 4x effective fighting move from the high leveled dragon drops Lorraine like a sack of steel potatoes. She was missing MAYBE 4 hp from her encounter with the spinda, but thats more than enough to keep her sturdy ability from keeping her alive at 1 hp. Frig. I'm pretty sure this is my first loss to a wild pokemon. The rest of the team rallies magnificently and captures the fiend, whom I dub WHYYYYYY??? and dump on the bench. I blame spinda. I may have a vendetta on my hands now.
WHYYYYYY???

Too intimidated to start traversing the cave, I scour the map for other locations I may have missed using for an encounter yet. I find one on the north west side of the region. A quick fly and romp through the bushes yields my next teammate, Bellatrix the Inkay. (My first encounter was actually a slowpoke, but I got to reencounter due to my no doubles clause. RIP Qwop. This was my first time using this addendum the entire game. After 30+ catches I never encountered the same pokemon first on a route. Crazy).
Bellatrix
Evolved Bellatrix
Inkay is a weird pokemon. Everything about it is supposed to be backwards I guess. Its a squid that lives on land, its a psychic/dark type (which is cool) but is a physical attack for some reason, and you have to hold the ds upside down to get it to evolve. The best backwards thing about it though is its ability is contrary(!). This reverses every stat change made to it. And it learns superpower. So essentially, it has an attack with 120 base power that increases her attack and defense every time she uses it. We're going to be pulling some crazy pokemon showdown junk now.

My 6th slot I fill with Trevan the Trevanent and begin some serious grinding on him and Bellatrix. Once they're near competitive levels we set off to tackle victory road. Despite his intensive training regimen, Trevan was felled by an aurorus's ice beam that I was not expecting. His replacement, Garfunkle the Klefki, who had been an on again-off again member of the team for some time now, was slain by a heracross's earthquake. This game teaches crazy moves to pokemon I just am not prepared for. Despite these further setbacks, we beat the cave, our rival, and a horde of wild druddigon to stumble out into the pokemon league. Only one last hurdle stands between me and ultimate victory.

We have some serious training to do before then. I only have 4 trained dudes on the team, and based off of victory road, I'm not sure any of them are a high enough level. The existing trained team is as follows.

Bellatrix the Malamar, level 65
Colby the Chesnaught, level 65
Goomba the Goodra, level 66
Smithers the blastoise, level 67

Here's a shot of my bench. I'm really interested in who you guys think I should bring along as my last two

Including:
Holmes the ledyba, 13.
 Squiggle the Sandile, 16.
Chopsuey the machop, 16 (I'd probably just take grover if I want a fighting type due to him already being trained).
Lapras the Lapras, 30 (gift pokemon, not crazy about using).
Howie the Clawitzer, 35 (badass crab cannon, considering using despite being a second water type).
Xerneas (legendary, meh).
 Leverne the carnivine, 33.
 Elmer the psyduck, 13.
Grover the sawk, 52.
Eddie the Noctowl, 50.
WHYYYYYY??? the Druddigon, 58.

In addition, here's a shot of the graveyard I have been steadily filling up this whole time.

RIP Cornroll, Magpie, Fetch, Chalmers, Trungle, Qwop, Woofy, Bunkle, Heartattack, Felix, Gullbee, Betty, Westley, Sid, Scooter, Grumble, Lorraine, Trevan, and Garfunkle. Your sacrifice will not be in vain.

Thank you all for your input and putting up with these long updates. And congrats to Ry on getting gold!

Badges: all
Deaths: 19
Cheats: 3


Friday, November 8, 2013

Optimal Elite Four Shellacking Team

Before I relate to you what I have been up to I want to post a preliminary post.  Throughout this nuzlocke challenge of Soul Silver, I have been accumulating an array of comrades.  The thing is, not all of them can have the same amount of attention given, and thus, some get more attention than others just because they are higher level or were what was needed for the next gym and then they were left in the party by default.

So, what I am asking you, the community is this:  Who do you think I should include in my final team for when I confront the Elite Four?  What would be the "Optimal Elite Four Shellacking Team"?

Here is the list of the pokemon that I have right now whether in my party or in the box and their respective levels.  Keep in mind, though, that some of these are low levels so have that play some factor in deciding who I should train up.  Because the League calls to me and I know that my patience will wear down eventually.

There is one that I know WILL be in my team:

  • DEVASTATOR the Feraligator lvl 50
    • Ice Fang
    • Agility (Up for debate)
    • Surf
    • Crunch

Comments, suggestions, and full team party proposals are welcomed!
Tell me what moves you think each pokemon should know, too!

List:

  • Falcon the Pidgeotto lvl 19
    • Gust
    • Sand-Attack
    • Whirlwind
    • Quick Attack
  • Faramir the Farfetch'd lvl 24
    • Knock Off
    • Aerial Ace
    • Slash
    • Air Cutter
  • *Carnage the Red Gyarados lvl 30
    • Bite
    • Dragon Rage
    • Leer
    • Twister
  • Utters the Miltank lvl 13
    • Growl
    • Defense Curl
    • Stomp
    • Milk Drink
  • Bane the Machop lvl 19
    • Focus Energy
    • Karate Chop
    • Foresight
    • Seismic Toss
  • Triforce the Magneton lvl 17
    • Thundershock
    • Supersonic
    • Sonicboom
    • Thunderwave
  • --Adm AKBAR the Jynx lvl 22
    • Powder Snow
    • Double Slap
    • Ice Punch
    • Mean Look
  • *Shocker the Ampharos lvl 39
    • Discharge
    • Charge
    • Thunderpunch
    • Thunder Wave
  • *Mange the Ghastly lvl 5
    • Hypnosis
    • Lick
    • Spite
  • *Elrond the Dratini lvl 18
    • Extreme Speed
    • Thunder Wave
    • Twister
    • Dragon Rage
  • --Kenya the Fearow lvl 39 (Via trade so she grows quickly)
    • Aerial Ace
    • Agility
    • Pursuit
    • Fly
  • Rocky the Onix lvl 26 (Via trade so he grows quickly)
    • Headbutt
    • Strength
    • Screech
    • Sandstorm
  • Draco the Drowzee lvl 12
    • Pound
    • Hypnosis
    • Disable
    • Confusion
  • *Kronik the Graveler lvl 16
    • Mud Sport
    • Rock Polish
    • Rock Throw
    • Magnitude
  • Dopey the Slowpoke lvl 21
    • Growl
    • Water Gun
    • Confusion 
    • Disable
I put asterisks * next to the ones that I would love to evolve and level up, and bolded the ones that I think I will end up going with, and put dashes -- next to the two that I'm unsure of.
You can recommend a pokemons evolved form, too.
I realize that I have the Victory Road still to catch one more, so I might be adding someone new to this list soon.
Thanks for your help!

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The Earthbadge and its Hefty Toll

There's not much between Cinnabar Island and the intense 2x Homecoming Showdown at Viridian City. Not much but some serious grinding. Hella Jeff the Snorlax and Jiminy the Venusaur both caught up to the party, who still hovered at around level 40-41, since, frankly, we've barely moved since fighting Blaine. Giovanni was never a pushover in the two previous encounters we had with the doofy Rocket boss, but we never lost a teammate to him, either, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

Well, his Dugtrio had Earthquake, which, if you remember, is basically the only actual ground attack in gen 1. Despite a type weakness and a 10-level disadvantage, Jiminy took it like a champ, because he's awesome. Hella Jeff rocked the his Persian with some well-timed Body Slams and Counters. Gosh, you guys, I'm so proud of my new buddies. Things got sketchy when it came to his Nidoqueen and Nidoking. Julio the Kadabra took the 'queen out, taking significant damage along the way. I had to switch out. Judson the Aerodactyl did some solid work, handling the 'king's Leer and Double kick effortlessly, until the thing busts out THUNDER.

OOOOOHHHHHHHHHH FFFRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGG

It missed. It missed, you guys. But I was terrified. I now knew three of the Nidoking's moves, and I was pretty confident guessing its fourth move was Earthquake. Considering all of my pokemon and the damages they had, essentially, everyone was either too damaged or weak to one or more of his moves. I decided to bank on him not using earthquake on his next move, since 1) I had Aerodactyl out, so, duh. and 2) I wasn't even totally sure he had the move. Counting on good all-around stats and superior speed, I send out Stevie the Flareon.

It used Earthquake. One-hit-K.O.

Butts.

Julio swooped in for a psychic knockout, thankfully. With a guaranteed first move, he's got no problems pwning a noob.

His last pokemon was Rhydon, and here's where I made my other mistake. Counting on him using more ground than rock moves (and in this game, I've only seen, like, two rock attacks at all, ever), I sent Judson, just to confuse him and heal up my other dudes. But it was not to be. He used Rock Slide, and I forgot that rock doesn't protect against rock. With subpar (for a rock-type) defense and a 2x type disadvantage, mighty Judson crashed to the ground and died in a crumbly mess.

Jiminy finished the little turd off and we won the badge. Giovanni pretended to repent of his criminal ways, but he was only mocking me. He knew the price I paid wasn't worth the prize.

So here we are. I caught a Nidorina approaching Victory Road and accidentally killed an Onix once I got there, so no new party members, although I'm considering adding Sam the Pidgeotto to the party. I mean, he's in the party now, but I'm not taking his training that seriously. I think I'm going to use Victory Road and its abundance of trainers to make my four serious party members as serious as possible, and, with the pile of Rare Candies I've amassed, hope to get some overwhelming levels and just power through the Elite Four like a boss. Pray for me, friends. We always knew it was gonna be tough, but man. It's tough.


Oh, and I beat Gary again, because he's a smug little fart.


Badges: 8
Deaths: 9