BDSP BDSP Travelog Thread

[eyaEE]

I got a fire stone and a skull fossil at the same time.

 

[Kelleo]

After much, much, MUCH procrastinating I finally made my way to the League. After doing some grinding in the Grand Underground to get my Mons up to a certain level it was time to take on the E4 and Champion.

Spoiler: The Final Battles (long-ish)

First was Aaron. He was pretty much cakewalk. I steamrolled him with ease. It helps that a lot of my Mons are strong against Bug. Even his Drapion went down to one Earthquake from Skyfang the Gliscor (though it did get a crit with Night Slash but it wasn't enough to save him). So, Aaron went down easy.

Bertha was next. She wasn't that difficult, either. Really, only her Golem was a problem for me. Mainly due to its high Defense and Sturdy (and she liked using Full Restores on it to further stall), but Skyfang still won. Hippowdon went down to a single Surf from Slick the Gastrodon (mainly thanks to getting a crit). So Bertha was defeated pretty handily.

Then came Flint. This one gave me trouble. All because of one teeny-tiny issue: Drifblim's Minimize. Skyfang's Knock Off wasn't enough to KO it and it not only burned him with Will-O-Wisp but managed to nab three Minimizes before Baton Passing them to Infernape. God, that was a pain to deal with. After a few Full Restores and several misses I finally managed to have Skyfang KO Infernape, though not without dealing with its Focus Sash first. I then let Kazap deal with Drifblim, especially since it no longer had its Sitrus Berry thanks to the aforementioned Knock Off. Hotshot the Infernape pretty much dealt with the rest of his team.

Now it was time for Lucian. He wasn't as bad as Flint but his use of Light Screen with Mr. Mime did slow things down a bit. But Kazap took it out and stalled enough turns to have the Light Screen expire shortly after Mr. Mime went down. Hawkeye the Staraptor easily clobbered Medicham with Brave Bird. Then came Giraffarig and its annoying Trick Room. Skyfang managed to stall both it and Alakazam long enough for Trick Room to expire shortly after he sent in Bronzong. After that Hotshot cleaned up Bronzong with ease. That was the final E4 member, which meant it was time to face Cynthia.

Here's the big one: Cynthia. I opened up with Hotshot against her Spiritomb but I got blindsided by Psychic, so I used U-turn to pivot out and bring in Hawkeye to finish it off with Brave Bird. Next up was Milotic against Kazap. God, the battle slowed to a Slugma's pace as her Milotic kept stalling with Recover. After a few attacks she recalled Milotic and sent out Gastrodon, forcing me to swap Kazap for Frostbite the Glalie. Frostbite took Gastrodon out with one Freeze-Dry. Then it was Hotshot against her Lucario. Easy win, as all it took was one Close Combat and Lucario went down. She sent out Milotic again, so I brought in Kazap. After pretty much a stall war between Full Restores and Recover Kazap finally beat Milotic. Skyfang went up against her Roserade. While Roserade was faster Skyfang KOed it easily with one Acrobatics, though he did get poisoned in the process by Poison Point. Now... for the big battle: Garchomp. I sent out Frostbite against it. I used Freeze-Dry on it. I knew it had a Yache Berry but I hoped that Freeze-Dry would do enough damage to put Garchomp into Ice Shard range... but sadly that wasn't the case. Frostbite was beaten by Garchomp, becoming my first KO during these final battles. So I sent out Slick, as he has Ice Beam. I was surprised at how many Full Restores Cynthia has, even after using several on Milotic, as it kept her Garchomp from getting KOed. It managed to get a Swords Dance off, which would've spelled my doom. However, as fate would have it, when Garchomp went in for the kill, Slick used Affection to survive the would-be lethal blow and KOed Garchomp with one last Ice Beam.

That was it. It was over. I had beaten Cynthia. Whew... that was rougher than I had thought, as even with proper planning she still proved to be the True Queen of Pokemon. I gotta give ILCA credit, they turned an already insanely strong trainer into a one-woman army. But I entered the Hall of Fame with my prized team. Now it's off to the post-game.

Your bit on Cynthia makes me realize how damn lucky I actually got with her Garchomp. My Empoleon ended up freezing it on the first Ice Beam hit, so it was rendered helpless and I was easily victorious. o_o Otherwise, I would have probably been subject to everything you mentioned here with it.

I struggled with her... The rest of the league wasn't too challenging, though still not easy. But her, just as in the original DP, it took me multiple tries. I had to level up more too, actually. But in the end, I did a little Sunny Day + Solarbeam with a Cherrim and Rapidash took advantage of that sun for Lucario. It had to use affection to survive a hit from said Lucario, but one sun-enhanced Fire-type attack did the job after.

Btw, I had a funny strat for Lucian. I used his own Trick Room against him! My Luxray got to move first against his Alakazam, so I KO'd it with Crunch before it could do anything. Hahaha...

 

[EmCeeChupi the Undying]

Going through the E4 again because I want to, but despite me doing the Stark Mountain escort mission, they have their pre-Stark Mountain teams (e.x.: Lower leveled than my team, only 5 Pokémon).

 

[Greninjaman]

Going through the E4 again because I want to, but despite me doing the Stark Mountain escort mission, they have their pre-Stark Mountain teams (e.x.: Lower leveled than my team, only 5 Pokémon).

I think you need to battle the league multiple times for their teams to upgrade?

 

[EmCeeChupi the Undying]

I think you need to battle the league multiple times for their teams to upgrade?

Who knows
Pibu

 

[pokemoll]

Finally picked SP up again today for the first time since PLA's release. Apparently I was in the middle of exploring the final cave of Victory Road with Marley when I last played, so I finished that off today, explored Route 224, finished up with any lingering trainer battles, and picked up any items in said areas.

With that done, I'm now practically done with the post-game, aside from the dreaded Ramanas Park. >_> Don't get me wrong, the actual concept is interesting, I'm just not overly excited by the idea of grinding out Mysterious Shards in the Underground for hours; especially seeing as they only have a 15% spawn rate, apparently? I'm going to try and get through it anyway as I don't like leaving things unfinished, and I wouldn't want to conclude that I was done with the game until I've done everything I wanted to, and I do very much want to experience that Lvl. 100 Origin Form Giratina battle. Maybe if I put a film on in the background the grind will be a little less monotonous.

Either way, I'm glad that I've made so much progress with the rest of the post-game!

 

[Kelleo]

Oh, I never mentioned that last time I was playing Brilliant Diamond, I SUCCESSFULLY SOUGHT AND CAUGHT SHINY CRESSELIA! It took a total of 973 encounters and I was so sure I'd be going to 1000 or more. lol

https://twitter.com/AnacybeleKels/status/1486525798169206790

This is the clip I made of not the initial encounter, but a second one after I decided to paralyze her to help the catch chance. I later pinned her down with my Crobat's Mean Look and Timer Ball'd her in the end!

 

[pokemoll]

Although grinding for Mysterious Shards have been a massive pain (I went 4 hours yesterday without finding one! Aaaahhhhhh!!!!), I've been making pretty decent progress in catching the Ramanas Park Legendaries. So far I've managed to collect enough shards for all of the Regis, two of the Legendary Birds and the Lvl. 100 Giratina battle, which I ended in 2 turns, oops. Torn between grinding out the rest of those Shards before I go and catch Regigigas, or just getting that out of the way.

Spoiler: absolutely awful Regi nicknaming skills

Spoiler: my love ♡♡♡♡

 

[pokemoll]

[ Apologies for the double post! (･ω･)b; ]

As of a few minutes ago, I am 100% finished with everything I wanted to do in Shining Pearl! That includes completing the main and post-game, collecting every item (including hidden ones), battling every trainer at least once, and catching every Legendary in and outside of Ramanas Park. If I feel like it later on, I might have a scratch at the Battle Tower, but I'd be lying if I said it was a priority for me. There's also potentially levelling all of my team up to 100 just for funsies, but that will have to wait until after I'm done with completing (to my standard, anyway) Legends Arceus.

Towards the end, the grind for Mysterious Shards turned out decently. I got lucky yesterday by getting four L Shards in one sitting in the afternoon, and was pretty much able to blitz through the hunt from there on out. In terms of actual battles, capturing Kyogre and Groudon was a bit of a pain due to them having access to Rest, negating my borrowed Ninjask's puny False Swipe AND my Rotom's Thunder Wave, which had been my strategy for the rest of the Legendaries. Later, however, I was blessed with a critical capture on Rayquaza, so I really shouldn't complain. After I finished up with the Ramanas Park Legendaries, it was on to capture Regigigas; this was especially exciting for me as I've actually never owned one before. Although I played Ruby extensively as a child, I never actually beat the champion (orz), so never knew the Regis existed, and subsequently never traded them up for Regigigas. It's a similar case for Phione (who I almost forgot existed, whoops) - never owned a Manaphy before BDSP, therefore never owned a Phione, either.

Honestly, I really enjoyed my time with Shining Pearl. Whilst I completely understand the many complaints I've heard about BDSP in general, and many of them I agree with, the experience was overall a positive one for me. I adore Sinnoh, and I'm glad for the chance to explore it in an 'updated' fashion, even if it didn't come close to topping Platinum for me. My final play time is 95:48, I've seen 293 Pokemon, and I'm happy to put it down for now to focus on other games.

Spoiler: Final Team & Legend Collection

 

[KerfishSea]

wanna give my Togekiss (Eggroll is his name) props for surviving on 1hp from a swords danced boosted Poison Jab from that darn Garchomp of Cynthia's. Oh and to my other team members. Tart the Torterra, Cakeu the Flareon, Friend the Gengar, Quagsire I couldn't think of a name for, and Shark the Garchomp

 

[Arceusgjengen]

I am now stuck in Wayward Cave. Will probably face the difficulty when I am less tired.

 

[Kelleo]

I successfully shiny hunted Shaymin! Caught it in one Quick Ball too, didn't even have to lower its HP. lol Must have a higher catch rate than other legendary/mythical Pokemon. I didn't entirely keep count for this one though, but I definitely estimate that it was 2000+ encounters. Now I'm working on Darkrai. I didn't shiny hunt Arceus, I thought that'd be too risky and I'm not real crazy about its shiny colors.

 

[Kiertronik]

I'm grinding up my Pokémon outside of the Pokémon league right now, also waiting for one of my friends to help me evolve my electabuzz.

 

[ABCD1234]

Just beated Tower Tycoon Palmer in Battle Tower (singles). First encounter at 20 consecutive win streak. I've never done any postgame stuff since pokemon Emerald on the GBA. Feels nice to breed pokemons to beat the machine and not to just beat some other real people. Will try to get the 49 win streak and then move to doubles to also get 49 wins and then to expert mode.
Currently going with Garchomp, Gyarados and Scizor.

 

[ABCD1234]

Just beated Tower Tycoon Palmer in Battle Tower (singles). First encounter at 20 consecutive win streak. I've never done any postgame stuff since pokemon Emerald on the GBA. Feels nice to breed pokemons to beat the machine and not to just beat some other real people. Will try to get the 49 win streak and then move to doubles to also get 49 wins and then to expert mode.
Currently going with Garchomp, Gyarados and Scizor.

Beated also at second encounter (49th battle). Last weekend a normal NPC beated the shit out of me with a Crawdaunt with Knock Off. It was the 71th battle. Still salty about it.

 

[Kelleo]

Oh yeah, shiny Darkrai came to me at 2343 encounters last week! And since I got it in a Timer Ball, I can still save my Master Ball for Ho-Oh (the current plan). I'm done hunting legendaries for the time being though and have been filling up the Sinnoh dex as much as I can. I'm mostly only missing trade evolutions and Pearl exclusives now. And I'm also picking up the Ponyta hunt I'd started before Shaymin, Arceus, and Darkrai had been released for BDSP.

 

[colours]

oof, it's been quite a few months since my last post, but not too much has changed!

• i've finally made it to battle tower masters! kinda exciting to finally face legendaries, although i haven't been doing well in it at all lmao. i'm kinda stubborn on not using legendaries just to see how far i can go so i'm going to keep trying at some point
• rn i'm attempting to shiny hunt shaymin so i can transfer it over to l:a or something. slow going, but still trying! i think after this i might drop bdsp for a while contrary to the above since there's not much else to do other than battle tower masters

 

[Gengarzilla]

Going through the E4 again because I want to, but despite me doing the Stark Mountain escort mission, they have their pre-Stark Mountain teams (e.x.: Lower leveled than my team, only 5 Pokémon).

Late response, but just for anyone else wondering, you apparently need to battle or catch that Heatran at the end. One of the two, I'm not sure which so catch it just in case.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Started a new playthrough of BD since I wanted a change of pace. Started with old Chimmy (named Heatshot) and caught everything that's available up to Oreburgh City (sans Kricketot due to it being tied to morning/evening and I started this run midday). My Chimchar evolved into a Monferno shortly after reaching Oreburgh and swept Roark with a combo of Taunt (to shut down Stealth Rock), four Power-Up Punches to build up Attack, and finished the job with a Mach Punch, destroying him like it was child's play, earning me the Coal Badge. Heatshot also learned Fury Swipes shortly after beating Cranidos. As a result of my victory I can now trade with other copies of BDSP, which I'll take advantage of in a little while. My team is Monferno, Zubat, and Bidoof (those two are temporary members until I iron out what I want for a team, especially since I've had no luck getting decent Starly).

 

[CynthiaLover]

Forgive the double post (although it's been a couple of days) but I got more done in my recent BD playthrough. Scratch that: got a LOT done.

First off, I finally caught a decent Starly (actually, he's pretty great, what with his Jolly nature and all, IVs notwithstanding since I don't know) and I traded over two leftover eggs from another version, hatching into a Gible from a previous breeding experiment way back when and a Rotom, the former is now a freshly evolved Gabite and the latter I transferred back over to my main file to transform it into a Rotom-Wash before trading back. Rotom-Wash effectively kills two birds with one stone (gives me both a Water and Elec Mon in one slot) though it's been slow getting him any decent moves without trading TMs or whatnot. Anyway, I did the Valley Windworks and gave Mars the boot. Followed up with Eterna Forest and escorting Cheryl. I had also done a few Honey Trees and I got super lucky with one: a Heracross, who has since been added to the ranks. I also caught an Aipom, but the rest were Wurmples. Afterward I did some work in the GU, catching a ton of Mons and getting several rare items from mining, including, but not limited to: Evolution Stones, Weather Rocks, Plates, Heart Scales, and more. I also completed all of the Underground Man's challenges, including the ones that require a second player. Then it was time to face Gardenia. Heracross and Monferno steamrolled her like it was no one's business.

Then I dealt with Team Galactic and had Gible steamroll, or should I say Bulldoze, Skuntank, ending their threat (for now). Got the bike and rode down to Oreburgh to revive two Skull Fossils for two Cranidos: one for data (and in case the newspaper guy in Solaceon Town wants to see one) and added the second to the team temporarily to level him up so I can get a Rampardos. I also traded over two more eggs from a more recent breeding project, both of which contained Shieldon for the same reasons as the two Cranidos: data/newspaper and to get Bastiodon. I'm also going to add in one of the Murkrows I caught in the GU later on, as I want to abuse Super Luck and Thief to get rare items for later (plus he has a good nature that would fit nicely with the team). But I've since gone back to Eterna City so I can do more GU stuff, netting more items and catching various Mons I missed before (Cherubi, Combee, Absol, and Roselia, to be exact).

My team consists of Monferno (Heatshot, male), Staravia (Aero, male), Gabite (Jetfang, male), Heracross (Riesz, female), Rotom-W (Sparkplug), and Cranidos (Crash, male), all of them in the mid to upper 20s.