BDSP Travelog Thread

[swiftfox]

Cynthia handed me my first loss in the game. That Milotic is a real problem for me, and I’m not sure if I have a good counter for it. Will try again tomorrow.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Still working on my Demon School-themed playthrough. I added a Chingling to my ranks. I'm not sure if I am actually going to use her full-time but I decided to name her Elizabetta anyway. She has since evolved into a Chimecho due to the fact that I had trouble sleeping last night. I've also been spending copious amounts of time in the Grand Underground digging and catching Mons and as a result my team is starting to get overleveled. I've also ended up with several Plates thanks to the GU and other locations, along with various Stones and certain other items. I've added a Cranidos to my team temporarily until he evolves into Rampardos. Anyway, I did the Wayward Cave escort, nabbing myself a Metal Coat from a Bronzor thanks to Smoke's Super Luck + Thief, which I have since duplicated with the duplicate item glitch. I did all the events in Hearthome, gaining the ability to walk with my Mons. I battled Barry. It was a total massacre due to my team being accidentally overleveled compared to his. I'm now as Solaceon Town about to embark into the Unown... I mean unknown at the ruins. My team is as followed:

Asmodeus (Monferno, male, Lv33)
Balam (Staravia, male, Lv32)
Smoke (Murkrow, female, Lv32)
Opera (Roselia, male, Lv30, shiny)
Elizabetta (Chimecho, female, Lv28)

 

[pokemoll]

Last night I cleared my way through Victory Road and arrived at the League. Pleasantly surprised to find out that I'm not as drastically over-levelled as I had previously believed, and the E4 were (initially) a bit of a challenge; I wiped on my first attempt fighting Aaron! After that initial attempt, I realised that having my Togekiss use Nasty Plot 2x and then relying on Flamethrower pretty much ensures a 1-HKO against all of his team, so it's not a concern anymore. Leafeon can also take out all of Bertha's team with 1x Leaf Blade against each member, and Toxicroak makes short work of Flint... it's Lucian that's giving me trouble, not to mention Cynthia...

As per my custom, I'm not putting any effort into winning these trial battles against them - instead just focusing on grinding EXP. & money for healing items - and I've managed to make it to Cynthia's first Pokémon without using any healing items, reviving my 'Mon, etc. Between grinding against the E4 in preparation for taking them on properly, I've also been venturing to the Grand Underground in the hopes of acquiring some Heart Scales (I made my Toxicroak forget Poison Jab in favour of Venoshock, like a fool), but no luck whatsoever as of yet. I did get a shiny Rotom statue, though! Yay!

So, before I actually put effort and thought into my fights against the E4, I'm hoping to acquire enough Heart Scales for my Toxicroak to relearn Poison Jab, Togekiss to learn Air Slash, and Porygon-Z (which I forgot to mention my friend finally caught for me!!) to relearn Conversion (for the sake of Psychic STAB, I guess). Then it's a matter of grinding to as high of a level average as I can without the fights becoming too easy - once I get a sense that I'd probably make it through the entire E4 & Champion with the use of healing items, I'll stop grinding and start taking it seriously.

On the Porygon front... I FINALLY GOT A PORYGON! My friend decided it would be more convenient for us to trade and trade back immediately to get it all the way to its final evo stage, so despite lagging behind the rest of my team a little in terms of levels, I do finally have my hands on the Porygon-Z I wanted from the start; this also means that my team is looking exactly how I planned it in my head! Welcome to the team, Dr. Worm!

 

[Primal Dialga 4629]

Welp, I've managed to put together Cynthia's Team, I'm planning on beating Cynthia, with her own team. I had requested trade for Rough Skin Gible, Spiritomb, and Feebas, managed to get them, while I caught, Egg move Roselia (Sleep Powder), Togepi, Egg Move Gastrodon (Curse), and Riolu. Right now I've got 6 gym badges and about to take on Team Galactic, this is my team so far:
Garchomp Lv 54
Gastrodon Lv 47
Roserade Lv 48
Lucario Lv 49
Milotic Lv 52
Spiritomb Lv 50

In Storage:
Togekiss Lv47

But my question is which Cynthia Team is better, Her DP team with Gastrodon or her Platnium team with Togekiss, or her BDSP post team with Porygon-Z and Togekiss?

 

[pokemoll]

Tonight I finished my grind and BEAT CYNTHIA!

Made it to her without using any of my healing items, so I thought I'd save before the battle and reload if I lost and use her for practice as before without wasting any healing items; fortunately, the battle went in my favour, so I beat her on my first attempt - she definitely posed a threat, though. Her Garchomp had me in the corner for a while there.

Spoiler: my hall of fame memento

Will edit this post at a later date with information about my final team composition. A little tired right now.

 

[Orchid]

Been getting through the postgame content rather slowly. I managed to defeat Roark again (those rematches are NOT messing around, I really struggled bad the first time), but I like doing Gym Leader rematches in order so I haven't moved on to Gardenia yet.

A certain somebody was nice enough to give me a Root Fossil that he found, so I spent most of my night last night soft-resetting it for good stats at the museum. I haven't decided on its name yet, but I ended up keeping a Lileep with a Calm nature and 3 perfect IVs in Def, Sp.Def, and Speed (and above average in HP and Sp.Atk). Now that I'm used to that whole process, I might try for a shiny fossil Pokémon later when I don't have anything better to do.

The swarm today is Skitty, which is perfect, but still no Eevee or Porygon in the Trophy Garden today. So far I've seen Jigglypuff, Meowth, and now Chansey. Makes me miss the olden DPPt days where you could just SR to get a different one.

Today I'll be EV training my Lileep, grinding BP at the Battle Tower to buy the Ability Patch for it, and getting through more of Ramanas Park.

91:13 playtime, 300 Pokémon seen.

 

[CynthiaLover]

Still working on my Demon School-themed playthrough. A friend elsewhere traded me a female Piplup that I've since bred a few times until I got another female who I named Ameri, thus giving me my final teammate. Anyway, did the events in the Solaceon Ruins (and caught the Unown that spell out "FRIEND" while I was at it), battled everyone along the way to Veilstone (except the Joggers, as I missed their morning timeframe), and managed to evolve Asmodeus, Balam, and Ameri into Infernape, Staraptor, and Prinplup, respectively, along with evolving Cranidos into Rampardos before boxing him. I also managed to nab a Shiny Stone via Pickup on the temporary teammate Pachirisu, so I can evolve Opera at any time. I then took care of everything that I had to do in Veilstone prior to battling Maylene's gym, such as getting all the items, shopping at the department store, and buying a new outfit. I then battled Maylene's gym and won pretty handily. I then helped Lucas recover his dex from the Galactic Grunts before making my way to Pastoria. I've currently stopped at the hotel as I just nuked the trainers in the restaurant. My levels are in the 30s with Asmodeus being in the 40s.

 

[Kelleo]

I was initially shiny hunting my starter, but I came up with a different idea after a while and decided to go with a normal starter. I just finished the Pastoria gym and have this team so far.

Sidney - Empoleon lv. 36
Pitts - Ponyta lv. 36
Ben - Luxray lv. 37
Sarris - Lopunny lv. 35
Yinz - Staraptor lv. 36

My sixth slot has yet to be filled and I might replace Sarris. Right now I'm using the sixth slot to level up and evolve some Pokemon for the dex. Anyone know what my naming theme here is? lol Here's a hint: three other names I intend to use are Heinz, Phipps, and Lemieux.

 

[swiftfox]

I was initially shiny hunting my starter, but I came up with a different idea after a while and decided to go with a normal starter. I just finished the Pastoria gym and have this team so far.

Sidney - Empoleon lv. 36
Pitts - Ponyta lv. 36
Ben - Luxray lv. 37
Sarris - Lopunny lv. 35
Yinz - Staraptor lv. 36

My sixth slot has yet to be filled and I might replace Sarris. Right now I'm using the sixth slot to level up and evolve some Pokemon for the dex. Anyone know what my naming theme here is? lol Here's a hint: three other names I intend to use are Heinz, Phipps, and Lemieux.

Go Pens!

 

[Sakuraa]

Finally, I battled Cyrus. The battle was pretty easy, but then I had to go through Mt. Coronet. I somehow got lost on the mountain, but eventually I made my way to Spear Pillar. Not gonna lie, the battle against Mars and Jupiter with Shine was pretty tough. Jupiter especially switched out her Bronzor to bring in her Skuntank which really hurt us by poisoning us both, using it's Berry to use Belch which did major damage, and using Flamethower which was boosted with the sun I put up with Twinkling (Cherrim). Thank goodness for some odd reason she only aimed for Munchlax and not Twinkling. Still, I had to do a lot of switching because I was paranoid. I was only confused why Shine had a Quick Claw on his Staraptor and not his slow ass Munchlax.

Then I had the second battle against Cyrus which was actually challenging this time. Sparkling (Pachirisu) took out Honchcrow and was close to taking out Gyarados, but Earthquake took her down. I probs could have beat it if I just used Thunder, but I didn't want it to miss so I tried my Nuzzle + Electro Ball combo, but I should have expected it would have a Wacan Berry. Oh well. Shimmering (Bibarel) took out Gyarados with a Swords Dance boosted Rock Climb. Next was Weavile so I sent out Dazzling (Toxicroak). I expected Dig, so I used Toxic (just for funsies since I knew it would still hit). Weavile's Dig took half of Dazzling's health, but she K.O.'d it with Drain Punch chople berry didn't save him. Last was Crobat, which Flaring beat with Fire Blast.

It took 3 tries, but I successfully caught Palkia in a Net Ball. I wanted to use a Dive Ball, but that thing just wasn't working, and I'm impatient. Also, Palkia was kind of obliterating my team so I had to hurry up and catch it. I named him Pearl.

I changed into the Platinum Style as I made my way to Sunnyshore City. After buying some more seals (I wish this damn store was in an earlier city!), I headed to the gym where I'll hopefully battle Volkner tomorrow.

 

[Kelleo]

Go Pens!

On the right track, but that's not the actual theme. XD Go Pens indeed though!

 

[swiftfox]

On the right track, but that's not the actual theme. XD Go Pens indeed though!

Looks like Pittsburgh as a whole. I just wanted to get that in there.

 

[Sakuraa]

Today was my final gym battle against Volkner. I legit forgot this man had a team of four so I only planned to bring 3 of mine; Sparkling (Pachirisu), Dazzling (Toxicroak), and Twinkling (Cherrim). I especially wanted Twinkling to do well since she's battled in the fewest gym battles so far. Well, it's fine, who doesn't like a good challenge?

Me!! That battle was stressful af.

The first matchup was Sparkling vs. Raichu. Okay, so Sparkling only knows electric moves and Charm. So I spammed Thunder and Electro Ball as foe Raichu used Surf over and over. In the end Sparkling went down to Volt Switch. Great, I'm already down to two. He sent out Ambipom and I went into Dazzling. I got hit by Fake Out then used Toxic. It hit Double Hit which did a lot of damage so I had to heal. Then Double Hit took Dazzling to half and I couldn't waste time healing again, so had to just risk it and pray I lived in the red. But for some reason he switched to Thunderbolt and I used Drain Punch which was weakened by the Chople Berry (why didn't I expect that). I then became grateful that I went for that Toxic...or I would have if it would have finished Ambipom off which it didn't. I expected the full restore which he did so I used Drain Punch. With no more Chople Berry it went down instantly. I sent out Twinkling to finish off Raichu. I used Sunny Day as Twinkling avoided Volt Switch. The second Volt Swtich hit and he sent out Octillery, who took a Solar Beam and fainted. I don't know why he didn't just go into Luxray, but oh well.

Volkner sent out Raichu AGAIN, used Volt Switch AGAIN (which crit) then sent out Luxray. Solar Beam took it to below half and it healed with its Sitrus Berry. Twinkling holds leftovers which I got from a wild Munchlax so she was constantly being healed. That said, his Ice Fang did a lot. I used Leech Seed not expecting much damage and wanting a way to wean this thing down and avoid him healing again. Twinkling was low on health so I switched to Dazzling to use Toxic, and she took a good chunk from Iron Tail. Unfortunately Luxray's health was in healing range, so as expected, Volkner healed, but only with a Hyper Potion so he was still poisoned. I decided to do some pivoting to get Luxray's health down and avoid major damage. So I switched back into Twinkling to take the Iron Tail and then back into Dazzling to take the Ice Fang. Finally, I went back into Twinkling to take the last Iron Tail and Luxray fainted from Toxic and Leech Seed. Last was Raichu and I'm not gonna lie I was terrified this thing was gonna have some super effective move to easily end us. But I guess not since it used Surf and I used Sunny Day. Then it used Volt Switch which put Twinkling in the red and I used Solar Beam for the win.

That. was. too. much. I swear whenever I try to give myself a tiny challenge I always end up almost losing or actually losing multiple times. Anyway, My next mission is to get through Victory Road and have one last battle with Shine.

 

[techitisJ]

Had a busy weekend last weekend, and have had work all week so I hadn't been able to make much progress at all. I had been playing a bit here and there, just doing more of the mining. I don't know why I just enjoy collecting the statues and stuff and seeing what I get.

I wasn't expecting to get back to playing Pokemon today but I got off of work incredibly early today so I sat back and played some Animal Crossing first, then switched over to Pokemon. After defeating the trainers to the left of Celestic Town I flew back to Hearthome Gym and went up to beat Fantina, purposefully going to defeat all the trainers along the way. I've noticed so far that the wild Pokemon and trainer battles in the routes just don't compare level-wise to the Gym Trainers and Leaders, so I take as much experience I can get from. After basically sweeping the trainers and Fantina with Saber (Absol) and Twilight (Misdreavus), I obtained my fifth Gym Badge and went to Canalave City as per Cynthia's suggestion. I Barry again (which I actually felt kind of bad for this time around after watching the Pokemon Evolutions episode that dropped today), then decided to take a quick break and look through all the books in the library. After my break, I went to challenge Byron and the Canalave Gym. Probably my favorite gym design thus far for the game. It's a simple puzzle, but it's fun to run around in. Byron proved to be as easy to take down as his son, so I made quick work of him and collected my sixth gym badge. Barry met me outside of the gym and asked me to come to the library. In the library Professor Rowan requested I go investigate Lake Valor when there was an explosion. I quickly flew back to Pastoria and made my way up to Lake Valor which was full of flopping Magikarp and Team Galactic Grunts. Melody (Altaria) took them down with ease and did the same with Commander Saturn.

 

[Kelleo]

Looks like Pittsburgh as a whole. I just wanted to get that in there.

Yes, that is correct. lol I'm from there and I love that Oreburgh is totally a reference to my home city. So I decided why not theme my team to the city this time as well?

I have a full team now and also fully evolved, yayz.

Sidney - Empoleon lv. 48
Pitts - Rapidash lv. 48
Ben - Luxray lv. 49
Sarris - Lopunny lv. 47
Yinz - Staraptor lv. 48
Heinz - Toxicroak lv. 46

I could've added Toxicroak sooner, but I just wasn't sure about my last slot until today. And to explain the names now just because it's fun:

Sidney - Sidney Crosby, the captain and star of the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team.
Pitts - Should be obvious lol. Pittsburgh itself.
Ben - Ben Roethlisberger, the star quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team.
Sarris - A brand of chocolate only found in the Pittsburgh area. It's VERY delicious!
Yinz - The most famous "Pittsburghese" term. lol
Heinz - The iconic condiment and ketchup brand that is headquartered in Pittsburgh.

 

[GhostLucario]

I had a very busy week but I had a lot done. I am almost finished with the game.

Spoiler: too long

Now that I had gotten my Spiritomb, I traveled to Celestic to see Cynthia's grandma and the ruins. Then backtracked to Hearthome to battle Fantina. Wow, this was a difficult battle. Kudos to ILCA for improving the battles. I almost lost and only won because I had Shadow Sneak on my Spiritomb (which is slow as hell).
Then I got surf and went to Canalave City. I fought Byron there, which was another difficult battle. The AI and teambuilding for the gym leaders really is so much better than SwSh or even the originals.
After that I went to Iron Island to get a shiny stone for my Roselia. I decided not to go for Togekiss since it's not a good team member to have for the upcoming battles. It's weak to the poison types of Team Galactic, the ice types in Snowpoint city and the Electric types in Sunnyshore and the only trainer battle it would help with would be Aaron. So I ditched Togepi and Clefable and made Electabuzz a permanent member of my team.
I dealt with Team Galactic, which was much easier than the originals since steel type was nerfed in Gen 6. Now Bronzor is weak to Ghost and Dark, which is helpful since those Bronzors in Team Galactic really do make the battle in Mt. Coronet much harder. I beat Cyrus effortlessly (though he almost got me with his Gyarados and Weavile, I mean it was an impressive use of held items and movesets to cover for his weaknesses. If I had not been 10 levels higher than him I would've lost).
After catching Dialga (I did not have the energy to shiny hunt this, plus I have like 4 shiny Dialgas from the events in gen 5 so I caught it and called it a day) I made my way to Sunnyshore. I evolved my Electabuzz into Electivire and then went to the gym. Volkner was a pushover in DP but not anymore! It was a challenging fight and Ambipom and Luxray actually gave me trouble. Plus the level spike in Volkner's team compared to the gym trainers and the trainers in route 222 caught me off-guard. My entire team was only 2 levels higher than his when it had been 8-10 levels higher compared to the other trainers. Now I'm fearful for the E4.

Too bad that the level curve and the exp. scaling are so weird. The game is too easy at times but then has some difficulty spikes out of the blue. But I am enjoying so much more than XY, SM and SwSh. Now I'm excited and nervous to reach the E4 for the first time in ages.

 

[JFrombaugh]

My team is about Level 45 now, about to take on Candice.

Now that Clefairy has learned Moonblast, I'm looking for a Moon Stone for her. Have yet to see one in my many hours of digging in the Grand Underground, and have used Thief on literally about 50 wild Cleffa & Clefairy so far (as per the PP counter), absolutely NONE of which were holding one.

 

[GhostLucario]

OMG. I just beat the game and... HARDEST E4 AND CHAMPION EVER! Seriously, this is the first time, in any pokémon game that I actually faced any sort of challenge (even Cynthia in the og does not compare. Neither does Red in GSCHGSS since a lot of the difficulty is just him using high-level pokémon).
I arrived at the Pokémon League. My team was Infernape, Mamoswine, Roserade, Floatzel, Spiritomb and Electivre. All of them were level 59, except Mamoswine who was level 57. And this is how it went:

Spoiler: very very long

First battle: Aaron. This fight definitely caught me by surprise. I remembered him being a total pushover in DP. Well, not anymore! He sent out Dustox I started with Infernape. I laughed because there's no way a Dustox can beat an Infernape. I use Flamethrower, Dustox survives with half health then uses Light Screen. I used Flame Wheel, which did like 25%, it uses Moonlight. I try to use Flame Wheel again, Aaron withdrew Dustox and sent out Heracross. Flame Wheel did like 40% maybe, then Heracross uses Earthquake. Boom! Infernape faints. I sent out Roserade since I did not have any Flying coverage, I thought Dazzling Gleam would do decent damage. It did maybe 25%, Flame Orb kicks in, Heracross uses Facade... OHKO's. I sent out Floatzel, use a Waterfall. Heracross flinches. With a bit of burn damage and a second Waterfall I KO the Heracross. This is the moment I realized all the things I had heard about this E4 were true. They are not messing around. Aaron sent Dustox back in, I use Waterfall. It did very little and Dustox flinches. I used another Waterfall, Dustox did not flich and OHKO'ed with Bug Buzz. Next I sent out Mamoswine, I used Rock Slide and finally killed the Dustox. THen Vespiquen went out, I used Rock SLide again and did around 80%. Sitrus Berry kicks in, Vespiquen uses Defend Order but a second Rock Slide kills it. Beautifly comes out but Rock Slide OHKO's. Then Drapion is sent out, I use Earthquake and kill it in one hit. That was close!

I heal and go into the second room. I also remembered Bertha being super easy in DP but now I was weary. I sent out Roserade, she had Quagsire and I OHKO with Giga Drain. Whiscash is out and I OHKO again despite the berry. Sudowoodo is next, I use Giga Drain and OHKO again. I am feeling confident. Then Golem comes out. I use Giga Drain, but thanks to Sturdy Golem survives and OHKO's Roserade with an Earthquake. I was like... WTH?! Bertha heals and I sent out Floatzel but Waterfall was doing very little damage because it's physical and Golem has high Def. I keep using Waterfall but my flinching luck is done and Golem KO's with Earthquake. I sent out Infernape and Bertha heals again, I try using Close Combat but an Earthquake OHKO's. I sent out Electivire, use Low Kick, get Golem to yellow and then, it kills with Earthquake. Finally I sent Mamoswine and finally KO with my own Earthquake. Last is Hippowdon, I am starting to get worried that I am going to lose. I use Ice Fang, Hippowdon gets to yellow health uses Ice Fang too it does ok damage so I use Ice Fang again and it freezes. Lucky me! I keep using Ice Fang until I win.

Third was the most intense battle. I start with Floatzel, Flint sent out Rapidash. I use a Waterfall but do not OHKO so Rapidash uses Hypnosis. It lands but I wake up next turn and use Waterfall again. I kill and then Steelix comes out. I go for Waterfall but do very little and my Floatzel is OHKO'd with Thunder Fang. Since Mamoswine is weak to both Steel and Fire I know I'll probably lose this. I go for Infernape since Steelix does NOT have a Ground type move. I slowly chip away at its health with Flamethrower but it hits like a truck and KO's my Infernape with Thunder Fang. I sent Mamoswine, use Earthquake and for some reason Iron Tail does not OHKO so another Earthquake kills the thing. Then Lopunny comes out, uses High Jump Kick and it's bye Mamoswine. Since I do not have any other super effective hits, I go for Spiritomb. Fire Punch does very little to my Spiritomb so I start using Nasty Plot to increase my Sp. Attack. trying to stall Lopunny to get it to struggle. After a few turns, I start using healing items, and thanks to Pressure, Lopunny runs out of Fire Punch. Since Quick Attack does nothing, it then uses High Jump Kick... and loses a big chunk of health. LOL the AI was not that smart this time. I use Sucker Punch and bam! Lopunny is gone. Drifblim comes out, uses Will-o-wisp but it doesn't matter since I am using special moves, I OHKO with Shadow Ball. Finally Infernape is out, I survive a Fire Punch and it goes down to Shadow Ball... that was close.

Fourth battle was the one I was most scared of and it was the funniest. I start with Floatzel, Lucian leads with Mime. Mime sets up Light Screen but I use Brick Break. Despite the minimal damage it succeeds in getting rid of Light Screen. For some reason the AI did not like this and it withdrew Mime to sent out Medicham. I go for Watefall, it does not flinch and I lose Floatzel to a Thunder Punch. So I sent out Spiritomb, I use an X attack while Lucian heals, then I use Shadow Sneak and boom! it OHKO's Medicham. From here it just snowballed. Alakazam is out, a single Shadow Sneak kills it. Girafarig is sent out, a single Sucker Punch kills it. Mr. Mime is sent back out and Shadow Sneak kills it. Finally Bronzong is out. I use Sucker Punch and it takes out a big chunk of health, Bronzong goes for Gyro Ball which does almost nothing. If it had used Earthquake or Trick Room I would've lost for sure so the AI was very dumb. I do not risk it and use Shadow Sneak to win.

Finally it's time for the Champion. I decided I could never beat Cynthia fair and square so there was only one thing I could do to win... She led with Spiritomb I did the same. I use an X Sp. Def I had in my bag, and then proceed to set up with Nasty Plot. Her attacks did very little and since I kept using Nasty Plot she ran out of Sucker Punches. I then spammed 3 X speeds I had, and then proceed to OHKO her Spiritomb with Shadow Ball. She sends out Roserade, I know there's no way I outspeed her so I just pray Dazzling Gleam does not OHKO. Surprise! I outsped and OHKO with Shadow Ball. Gastrodon is next, I outspeed and OHKO with Shadow Ball. Milotic is out, I use Shadow Ball, it leaves it with red health, she uses Scald and burns, it does not affect me since I am using Special moves but now I'm on a timer. For some reason the AI is stupid again and DOES NOT HEAL. So I KO with another Shadow Ball. If she had healed, she would've stalled me out and I would've lost. Lucario is out and I outspeed and OHKO with Shadow Ball. OMG thank you Gen 6 for nerfing Steel and buffing Ghost type. Finally Garchomp is out. I am very, very afraid at this point since Garchomp can and will outspeed my entire team and kill it. Garchomp outspeeds, uses Earthquake, leaves me with 2 HP, I go for Shadow Ball and OHKO. I beat Cynthia! I know I used items to sweep her team but hey! She used competitive items, movesets, hidden abilities, EVs and perfect IVs. The player does not have access to any of those before post-game so spamming X items is really only leveling the field. But I'm glad I won.

The game is such a breeze to get through but gets insanely hard towards the end. And honestly those 15 hours I put into getting Spiritomb were totally worth it. Now I know there's no way I would've won using the garbage mons I wanted to use at first (Pachirisu, Ponyta, Burmy, Cherubi...) And also I've realized I need to rethink my Shining Pearl team once I get it.

 

[Sakuraa]

I finally made it through Victory Road today, though I got lost for a bit. The major event of today was my final Shine battle. For some reason this idiot had Staraptor use Rain Dance and I had Sparkling (Pachirisu) use Thunder so...yeah we know how that went. I mean it had a Focus Sash but my follow up Electro Ball took it out. Next Flaring (Infernape) battled Snorlax. His Power Up Punch did about 1/3 damage and Snorlax's High Horsepower did over half to Flaring. The second punch took it down. I sent out Dazzling (Toxicroak) to battle Empoleon since she's immune to water-type moves. Unfortunately he never used one. Empoleon's Quick Claw let it use Charm which caused Dazzling's Drain Punch to do less that half. The second punch took it down to red and Empoleon's Flash Canon did well over half to Dazzling. Thankfully Quick Claw did not activate again, and I took it down with a final punch. Beaming (Mothim) was sent out to fight Roserade. It only used Grassy Terrain and went down to a single Air Slash. Then Beaming took down Heracross with Air Slash after he luckily avoided Rock Slide. Last I had Shimmering (Bibarel) battle Rapidash. His Mega Horn missed and Shimmering won with a single Waterfall.

Yay, now all that's left is to beat the Elite Four. I went in to challenge Aaron....and only beat 3 Pokemon before losing. And that is WITH some amie/refresh bonuses here and there AND being a few higher levels than his team. These Pokemon must have max stats and the best natures or something because this is crazy. Guess, this is going to be a challenge.

 

[techitisJ]

This morning I continued my adventure by flying to Lake Verity to make sure everything was okay there, then started my journey up to Lake Acuity. Halfway through Route 217 I realized I completely forgot about Riley and Iron Island, so after reaching Snowpoint City (and seeing that I had to take on Candice before I went to Lake Acuity), I went and battled my way through Iron Island with Riley, then returned to battle Candice. Another easy badge under my belt thanks to Garnet (Infernape). After that, I went to Lake Acuity and talked to Barry, and now I'm at the Veilstone HQ and just found the Dusk Stone to evolve Twilight into a Mismagius.

I'm not quite sure how long this Team Galactic stuff is going to be, but I'm hoping to at least beat it tomorrow and possibly even the 8th gym after that, so I can do Victory Road and the e4 next week.