BDSP Travelog Thread

[zoroarctic]

I managed to finally beat Cynthia on my fourth attempt back on Tuesday. I didn't have an effective way to counter her Marvel Scale/Flame Orb Milotic, so I had Wraith nerf it by spamming Mystical Fire and outlasting it. Cynthia tried to get around that by switching into Lucario and Roserade, but that didn't help her at all. I'd say Wraith was definitely the MVP of the fight; she took down Spiritomb, Roserade, and Lucario, and did some significant damage to Garchomp before going down. I had Slider finish the job; her defenses were high enough to survive Garchomp's Dragon Claw even after the Swords Dance Boost with plenty of HP left for a Wood Hammer.

Gen 8 Cynthia was by far the most difficult battle I can remember. I really hope this is the norm going forward.

Since becoming Champion, I've been exploring around Sinnoh and the Grand Underground. I caught both Giratina and Spiritomb, and I'm in the process of assembling teams for Gym Leader and E4 rematches.

 

[JFrombaugh]

Just defeated Cynthia and obtained the National Dex. Wow, that was indeed pretty tough, even with my team around Level 60. Aaron & Bertha were no problm, but Flint really caught me off guard - if that damn Drifblim manages to Baton Pass Minimize onto Infernape, you're done. Battle over. Lucian was also surprisingly tough with Trick Room; I'm surprised I didn't bother to pick up a TM92 before taking on these battles, considering how slow most of my team is.

And Cynthia if anything is even tougher than in Platinum and actually took me a couple tries to beat (and I almost never lose to a story boss in Pokemon games!). Luckily for me Magnezone was able to penetrate the Flame Orb Milotic after lots of Thunderbolts & Full Restores. But if you can't beat Garchomp in speed, you're probably not going to win the battle after a Swords Dance, unless Cynthia makes a really sloppy play. Strategy that finally worked for me was to use Tailwind with Pelipper so Clefable could take it out without getting OHKOed by Poison Jab.

My final team:
Torterra L64
Gallade L63
Pelipper L65
Absol L64
Magnezone L64
Clefable L65

Anyways, great remakes. Had a blast walking down memory lane on the big screen. Would I have liked more features from Platinum? Yes. But all in all, as far as remakes go, definitely far better than the Let's Go games. For sure.

 

[techitisJ]

Made my way through the Galactic HQ today and battled Cyrus for the first time. After receiving my Master Ball and beating Saturn again, I freed the Lake Guardians. Now that I know a bit more context about them I find I actually like them a little more now. I almost forgot to buy repels before making my way up Mt. Coronet so I quickly turned back to buy one. Knowing me I would have gotten terribly lost up there and not having enough repels would have been death sentence. After battling through a handful of grunts as aI made my way up the mountain (I think I missed a few), I teamed up with Barry to take down Mars and Jupiter, then took on Cyrus once again. After wiping the floor with him I attempted to catch Palkia without using the Master Ball. But it didn't want to be caught and it was taking too long so I used the Master Ball anyway. After that, I went to Sunnyshore. While looking for Volkner I spotted Jasmine which I was very surprised by. I never played the original games or Platinum, but I know a decent bit about the games just because of the internet. Jasmine being in this game was not one of them though. She wouldn't talk to me much though without me beating Volkner so I quickly took him down and then returned. I wonder if she plays any role later in the game because there's really no reason for her to be there if all she does is give the player the TM for Waterfall. Though I guess since this is a 1 to 1 remake, they probably just kept it from the OG, and she was originally there to give a nod to Johto that was remade back in Gen 4.

 

[techitisJ]

My friend was streaming Brilliant Diamond today so I decided to bring up my game while I watched him. I only played for half an hour or so and I didn't make much progress, just made my way through the water route that leads up to Victory Road.

 

[UxieLover1994]

Since my last post, I have defeated Cyrus and caught Dialga, acquired the rest of the badges, filled my team, and now preparing to face the Elite Four and Cynthia.

Of course, before that point, I've got a dex to fill up. Currently at 131 seen, and 96 caught (including Manaphy). First is trying to catch Mesprit, but she seems to be a troll, given that she's never in the same location as I am, and shaking off Dusk Balls even though Mesprit is paralyzed and at low HP because of Streifen's Nuzzle and Super Fang.

On the bright side, I caught a Shiny Budew in the Grand Underground. I didn't even have the Diglett bonus in effect at the time, either.

Infernape ♀ (Gertrude)
Gastrodon ♂ (Siegfried)
Pachirisu ♂ (Streifen)
Drapion ♂ (Stachel)
Bronzong (Glocke)
Froslass ♀ (Gretchen)

 

[Sakuraa]

So I attempted to battle the E4 again. It was a total disaster.

Aaron was a mess. His Beautifly nearly swept me. Sparkling (Pachirisu) struggled so much against Dustox. Her attacks were doing all of nothing. I switched to Beaming (Mothim) who was able to beat Dustox, Heracross, and Vesipquen with Quiver Dance boosted Air Slashes. He was low on health so I switched out on Beautifly. Big mistake, this thing used it's own Quiver Dance and took out everyone except Flaring (Infernape). After switching, and healing Beaming took down Beautifly on very low health. Drapion was also a monster, it's Earthquakes were killing Flaring and after a lot of healing we only won with anime friendship bonuses and Drapion switching to other moves for some reason.

Next was Bertha. She started off pretty easily. Twinkling (Cherrim) set up Sunny Day while Quagsire used Toxic. Solar Beam OHKO'd Quagsire, Whiscash, Sudowodo, and would have KO'd Golem if not for Sturdy. I used Leech Seed completely neglecting to figure she'd heal. I decided to risk it all to set up Sunny Day again and took a hard Stone Edge. Thankfully Leech Seed and Leftovers were healing Twinkling so she was able to win. I set out Sparkling to use Charm on Hippowdon making it weak enough for Shimmering (Bibarel) to beat it with Waterfall.

Then Flint. Was annoying with Hypnosis and Poison Jab but after some healing Shimmering took it out with Swords Dance Waterfall. Lopunny and Steelix were beat by Flaring's Power Up Punch and Fire Blast. I sent out Sparkling for Drifblim and paralyzed it with Nuzzle, but Drifblim used Minimize and Baton Passed to Infernape who beat Sparkling. I sent out Dazzling (Toxicroak) to use Toxic since I knew it wouldn't miss, though she still was defeated. Beaming stalled Infernape's toxic with Protect. Flaring was able to beat Infernape with Acrobatics after it lowered it's defenses with Close Combat. Last Shimmering beat Drifblim with Swords Dance Crunch after it was unable to attack due to paralysis.

Lucian was last, literally. I lost here. Mr. Mine was the death of me as it set up Light Screen which was horrible for my team of mainly special attackers. I took it down after hammering away at it with like half my team, though most fainted in the process. Dazzling's Poison Jab finished it off. Medicham beat Dazzling easily and then this thing proceeded to defeat the rest of my team which wasn't beat by Mr. Mime. And this thing NEVER missed a High Jump Kick, yet I missed Rock Climb...

So yeah, despite the fact that I am OVERLEVELED, I guess I'll need to level up EVEN MORE.

And man, I hear Cynthia is a beast. I am not looking forward to battling her.

 

[Gengarzilla]

Ok. Well. This is interesting.

Just like I did in Platinum, I've defeated Cynthia with four Pokémon in my team. And this one was so damn close.


My quartet was Gardevoir (63F), Houndoom (63M), Toxicroak (64F), all from the Underground, and my starter Torterra (66M). The Underground trio's egg moves (respectively Ally Switch, Destiny Bond, Headbutt) have all been dropped for more conventionally useful moves throughout our journey, making them no different from aboveworld encounters.

Aaron's Bug types dropped like flies against Houndoom's Flamethrower or Gardevoir's Psychic (when super effective), with Torterra showing up to take down Drapion at the end. Nothing particularly noteworthy.

Bertha was mostly a Rock Polish Torterra sweep until Hippowdon got the Ice Fang knockout (thanks to using Wood Hammer on her several x4 Grass weak Pokémon), but because it's at low health now, Toxicroak pulled off a safe Substitute on the Full Restore turn and kept chucking Focus Punch strikes from behind her shield, while putting a new Substitute when Hippowdon got healed or used Rest. I give myself a pat on the back for my timing on those subs. If you haven't guessed, Substitute is my favourite move.

Against Flint, I have to admit luck played a role here. Rapidash's Hypnosis missed Torterra as he used Rock Polish and one-shots with Earthquake, then Steelix's Iron Tail missed afterwards. Drifblim drops by to say hello and takes a Rock Slide flinch, eats the Sitrus Berry and starts Unburden in response, then pulls two turns of Minimize and passes them on to Infernape after taking no further damage... and Infernape suddenly gets cucked by the Random Number God. Rock Slide finally hits on the Baton Pass switch, then Torterra takes a Fire Punch with 10 HP left and KOs with certainly the most clutch Earthquake in a while. For whatever reason Drifblim returns and Torterra gets to finish the job. Last is poor Lopunny, who I let Toxicroak handle because I didn't want a potential Quick Attack of all moves bringing down my beast after all his hard work. Substitute and Focus Punch again finish the job, even one-shotting through a Chople Berry because Focus Punch is just that powerful.

Lucian was very interesting because the Poison/Fighting Toxicroak actually played the largest role in our battle. Mr. Mime survived the Poison Jab at low health undoubtedly because of Filter and brings Toxicroak to 10 HP with Psychic straight off; she only survives at all because I gave her a Payapa Berry (the SE Psychic reduce berry). Said Poison Jab has poisoned Mr. Mime and the additional damage is too much. Next is Alakazam, who amusingly loses when we reveal Sucker Punch in what has to be my most based play of this run. Girafarig takes about half from another Sucker Punch and finally brings Toxicroak down, who, I have to reiterate, has spat in the face of this immense type disadvantage and already cleared half the battle herself. Things calm down afterwards; Houndoom beats Girafarig, Gardevoir beats Medicham, Bronzong beats Houndoom after taking roughly 90% from Flamethrower, then Torterra finishes Bronzong regardless of the 25% healed from its Sitrus Berry.


Finally, we've reached Cynthia.

Gardevoir leads us off against Spiritomb and one-shots with Moonblast, as expected. Roserade is next up so I bring Houndoom in, but Flamethrower is only a two-shot and he's poisoned by Sludge Bomb during the skirmish.

Following that is Gastrodon. Torterra is assigned for this job and performs it well, taking a Scald pretty well (no burn too) while using Rock Polish and then one-shotting with a blistering Wood Hammer. Milotic now takes the field, who I consider the toughest opponent besides Garchomp. I also consider this Milotic's set to be karma for the time I used a burned Milotic to wall and beat Garchomp in Platinum. My +2 Speed Torterra moves first and delivers another strong Wood Hammer for something like 70% of Milotic's HP, and then predictably falls to Ice Beam. This is fine, my highest level Pokémon may be out (we will not use Revives if I could help it) but I've done extensive plotting and he accomplished all I needed from him. Milotic is tired but not enough for the Full Restore, and also tired enough for Gardevoir's Moonblast to pick another knockout.

Now for Lucario. Houndoom comes back in but gets outsped and defeated by Aura Sphere; my first actual clean loss without doing any damage back for this battle. Toxicroak finally shows up here and creates a Substitute which, together with a Flash Cannon before, leaves her at 11 HP. The next Flash Cannon breaks our sub but its protection has allowed us another safe Focus Punch, which is a one-shot.

At her current HP and considering our final opponent's ability, Toxicroak is not the one to bring us ultimate triumph. It's all in Gardevoir's hands now. She once more gracefully takes to the field as the dreaded Garchomp is sent out...

And I have a plan.

Gardevoir's ability is Trace, so she copies Garchomp's Rough Skin. When a Pokémon with this ability is hit by contact moves, the attacker loses 1/8th of their max HP.
Gardevoir presently holds a Jaboca Berry. When a Pokémon with this berry is hit by a physical move, the berry is used up and the attacker loses 1/8th of their max HP.
Garchomp knows Poison Jab, which is contact and physical.
Poison Jab is super effective on Gardevoir.

Garchomp moves first because of course she does, and the expected Poison Jab inflicts huge damage, bringing Gardevoir to an incredible 2 HP. Rough Skin and the Jaboca Berry both trigger and shave off a combined quarter of Garchomp's HP... which is enough for Moonblast to bring the titan down and out.

It's all over. With two active Pokémon left and a grand total of 13 HP remaining between them, I've once again triumphed over the Sinnoh Pokémon League with just four Pokémon, all without legendaries/mythicals or overlevelling. Just an incomplete yet diverse team of normal Pokémon guided to victory with plenty of behind-the-scenes plans.

Now it's time to actually finish said team!

 

[UxieLover1994]

I finally managed to catch Mesprit with the help of a Girafarig knowing Mean Look, although it took 13 Dusk Balls to get her. In contrast, her sisters were more kinder to Streifen and his Nuzzle/Super Fang combo; Uxie only needed six Dusk Balls. Azelf only needed one.

I've just finished with the Sinnoh Dex, and cleared the Sinnoh League, and boy, was it a challenge. Aaron wasn't too hard (apart from his Drapion), but the next battles needed thought put in. In the end, I only defeated Cynthia by trying to outsmart her. For Milotic, I started by having Stachel use Knock Off to get rid of the Flame Orb, then have Streifen bring Milotic down to low HP through Super Fang before finishing her off with Discharge. But in the end, Garchomp easily wiped out everyone except Glocke (who's ability is Levitate), who used Trick Room to gain the speed advantage, and Future Sight, which unleashed right when Garchomp was in the red, and before Cynthia could use a Full Restore in the next turn, winning the match.

As of this post, the National Dex is at 188 seen, and 145 caught, although that would probably shoot up over the next few days (along with needing more money for Quick Balls/Dusk Balls). Too bad completing the National Dex is just bragging rights in this game, as I heard the Shiny Charm is useless. But it's a goal I'd want to focus on during this Christmas and New Years season given all events in my city have been cancelled due to COVID-19. And who knows. BDSP's new patch that appears to introduce the Wonder Trade might drop in before PLA even comes out

Infernape ♀ (Gertrude)
Gastrodon ♂ (Siegfried)
Pachirisu ♂ (Streifen)
Drapion ♂ (Stachel)
Bronzong (Glocke)
Froslass ♀ (Gretchen)

 

[Sakuraa]

Okay, today was finally the day for E4 attempt 3. What happened in attempt 2 you ask? Oh I got swept by Aaron's overpowered Heracross. So lets not talk about that. I actually decided to go back in without leveling up because I really wanted to try it as we are.

Spoiler: Super long

This time around, Aaron was a clean sweep with Beaming (Mothim). I set up 2 Quiver Dances and he took out everything except Drapion with a single Air Slash. Luckily Drapion flinched so it did nothing to Beaming as he took it down.

Twinkling (Cherrim) swept nearly all of Bertha's 4x weak to grass team. Shimmering (Bibarel) defeated Hippowdon but was nearly 1HKO'd by a single earthquake.

Now on to Flint. Shimmering beat Rapidash easily. Dazzling (Toxicroak) beat Lopunny, though she struggled due to being burned. Flaring (Infernape) beat Steelix with Fire Blast. Sparkling (Pachirisu) beat Drifblim after a very drawn out battle. There was one point where Thunder left this thing with 1HP and it healed with a Sitrus Berry, then healed AGAIN with Strength Sap. Flaring might have been able to beat Infernape had I used Acrobatics instead of Power Up Punch, but I thought I was faster than it. It then proceeded to destroy most of my team, beating Dazzling, Beaming, and Twinkling. I had to sacrifice those three and heal Flaming in order to beat it.

Then it was time Lucian; the one I lost to before. The battle started off great (not really). I started with Twinkling and he led with Mr. Mime. I used Sunny Day and he used Light Screen. I went for Solar Beam and he swapped in his Sap Sipper Girafarig! Twinkling has only Grass moves so I had to swap. I switched to Shimmering who wasn't fully healed, but actually survived a Psychic. She used a Crunch which did half damage before fainting to Thunderbolt. I wanted to paralyze it so I sent out Sparkling and used Nuzzle. And of course this thing had Trick Room. Long story short, we went back and forth until Sparkling went down to Psychic. Beaming was next to take it down with Bug Buzz. He then beat the monstrous Medicham with a single Air Slash and Alakazam with Bug Buzz. Dazzling technically beat Mr. Mine. She used Poison Jab to take it down to like 1 HP before going down to Psychic. But her jab poisoned Mr. Mime so it went down. Sad she couldn't get the Exp for her KO. I sent out Flaring for his last mon which was Bronzong. He nearly took it out with Fire Blast, but it held on, healed with a Sitrus Berry, then used Trick Room. Then Flaring went down to the Future Sight I completely forgot Alakazam set up. I sent out Twinkling to use Leech Seed. as Bronzong hit Earthquake. I knew he would heal so I set up my Sunny Day. Then I went for Growth as Lucian only used Earthquake. Then I hit Solar Beam for a bit of damage. Twinkling kept healing with her leftovers and Leech Seed and Bronzong seemed to have no other moves, so she held on well and took Bronzong out with another Solar Beam.

At last, we made it to Cynthia. Beaming took out Spirtomb but took over half damage from Dark Pulse. I sent out MVP Twinkling for Gastrodon. I set up Sunny Day and she hit hard with Rock Tomb. A single Solar Beam took it out. Next I sent out Dazzling to battle Roserade. It hit Dazzling hard with Dazzling Gleam as I hit Poison Jab and my dumb self forgot the sun was up and Dazzling has Dry Skin so she was taken to half health. Thankfully she hung on from the second Dazzling Gleam at one HP and KO'd Roserade with a second Poison Jab. Next I sent out Sparkling and she sent out Lucario. I used Charm on Lucario expecting a Physical attack, but it was obviously a special Lucario and it set up Nasty Plot. So Sparkling went down to one Aura Sphere. Shimmering was tanking hits on 1HP and I tried to heal to get around this, but to no avail. I then got swept by Lucario.

And I won't lie, my ass restarted the game back to when I'd saved before her. (I was debating on doing this and I'm SO glad I did). I was not going through the E4 again. To be as fair as possible, I recreated the entire scenario back to Lucario. THAT'S WHAT I WOULD SAY IF HER STUPID SPIRITOMB HADN'T FREAKING CRITDARK PULSE TO OBLITERATE BEAMING. Thankfully another alteration from the first battle was Bug Buzz lowering Spritomb's Sp. Defense. I sent out Sparkling who did a lot with Thunder and even Paralyzed the ghost. SHE ALSO GOT CRIT BY DARK PULSE. She survived with 11 HP to take out Spirtiomb with Electro Ball. Twinkling vs. Gastrodon was the same, but sadly, Dazzling lost to Roserade and it had to be defeated by Flaring who took a HUGE chunk from Sludge Bomb. I switched to Twinkling for Milotic. I used Sunny Day and this beast crit an Ice Beam. The second one took out Twinkling, as Solar Beam did less than half damage. So I sent out Shimmering and set up Swords Dance as she used Recover. Ice Beam didn't do much and I healed Sparkling. I used another Swords Dance and she used Scald....which burned me. Great all my attack bonuses were gone. In a rage I used my full Restore but she switched to Lucario. She then OHKO'd with Aura Sphere. I thought she would set up again so I used Nuzzle. Well she didn't set up but thankfully Aura Sphere didn't KO so my Nuzzle was successful. Flaring was the last man standng, but he could outsped Lucario to burn it with Fire Blast. I thought Garchomp was next, but I forgot about Milotic. I healed Shimmering so I could try my Swords Dance Strategy again. And I was able to do so after like 10 minutes of this thing using recover, burning me with Scald, and other nonsense. I FINALLY KO'd it only to get destroyed by Garchomp.

Guess, I'll be trying AGAIN.

 

[techitisJ]

These past couple of weekends I've been slowly making my way through Victory Road. For one reason or another my inspiration to play this game has been really low, so getting through Victory Road (which is just a bunch of battles, my least favorite aspect about Pokemon). Finished making it through Victory Road today and after looking up the levels of the Elite 4 and Cynthia, I knew that if I wanted to get by easy I'd have to do some grinding. Knowing me, it would be another month before I would be done with grinding because I am not interested in it. So, after beating Barry I went in with what I had. Aaron was easy, making me think that the rest would also be okay, but oh I was wrong. Bertha gave me some trouble, but the first to really mess me up was Flint. His Driftblim is probably the most annoying Pokemon I've ever seen. Because it was the last Pokemon I faced, and it didn't die to a crit Night Slash from Saber (Absol), it was able to start minimizing and strength sapping, making it basically unhittable and eating away at my attack and using it as HP. Eventually, I got lucky and was able to hit two Night Slashes a couple of turns apart, taking it down. Lucian was also a chore. Mr. Mime kept tanking my attacks, making it impossible to get by. I think I was able to eventually paralyze it with Kipper (Pachirisu), and take it down, then I used Saber and Twilight (Misdreavus) to take out the rest.

Cynthia was a true nightmare though. I've heard tales of how powerful her team is, I knew going into this battle that she was going to be tough. But oh my gosh I wasn't expecting spending around half an hour just trying to beat her. I saved it right before I went in the room, and did my first attempt. It went okay, but her Milotic was practically impossible to take out, something I didn't think I would have trouble with because I put Grass Knot on Kipper in hopes that their size difference would make the move hit hard. But it didn't work and eventually, I was taken down. Attempts 2 and 3 were quick, Spiritomb was making things very difficult, and it didn't help that most of her Pokemon were tanking hits. I was starting to regret not grinding before going in, but it was too late, I had a save state right before her and I wasn't going back.

Attempt 4 was different though. I changed up my strategy a bit more and instead f trying to take out the Spiritomb with a Fairy type move (the only thing it's weak too), I relied on Saber and his Super Luck ability, landing two crit Night Slashes and healing while she used a Full Restore, and landing two more crit Night Slashes which took it out since it no longer had the Sitrus Berry. Cynthia brought out Roserade next, and unfortunately, it lived Garnet's (Infernape) Flamethrower. She withdrew it as I was about to use another Flamethrower and switched to Gastrodon. Knowing Kipper really wasn't doing that much, I stuck to Garnet and used a couple of Power-Up-Punches since the Gastrodon wasn't doing anything that could hurt me yet. I managed to get a couple off before she switched to Milotic, which I was worried about. But then Garnet somehow lived two hits, and I managed to beat it with a few Close Combats. She switched back to Gastrodon and since it was already a little low in HP, I decided to use Saber to take him down knowing that Kipper just wasn't putting in the work before. Saber actually took it down, and then Cynthia brought out the weakened Roserade. I stayed in with Saber but he was taken out, and then I went in with Melody (Altaria) to use Fly. Melody took Roserade out, so I switched to Shelly (Gastrodon) who managed to tough out an Aura Sphere from a Nasty Plot Lucario while I healed up Melody for Garchomp. I beat the Lucario, and last was Garchomp, who was doing way more with its Dragon Claw than Melody was doing with her Dragon Pulse. I knew I really only had one option left, Twilight who I taught Dazzling Gleam before the battle. But it wasn't enough. There was a chance though. Twilight could take a hit from Garchomp, so I healed her to full and used Perish Song, then spammed healing items till our timers were up.

Honestly, my win felt a little cheap to me. It's the first time I've ever resulted to using Perish Song in a run, but at this point, I just didn't care and had gotten so much luck. I knew that the luck I had would not happen again, so to me, this was my only real chance to beat Cynthia without going back and grinding up more. I took Cynthia down and logged my data into the Hall of Fame for the first time in the Sinnoh Region.

It looks like there might be a little bit more to this game with this battle zone and volcano. But as far as I'm concerned that's post-game and right ow I have no interest in it. So I'll probably hold off till I eventually feel inspired to do it but for now, I think I'll end this log here.

 

[CynthiaLover]

So, after much procrastination and just general holiday busyness I finally picked up my main Brilliant Diamond run again.

Started off at Mt. Coronet where I ran into four shinies in the span of that one trek: Geodude, Graveler, Golbat, and Chimecho (you can see the details in the Shiny Encounter thread). But putting that aside, since I now had the Razor Fang I've been waiting for I was finally able to evolve Skyfang into a Gliscor, thereby completing my team. Which means I was now fully ready to tackle Team Galactic. The grunts were cakewalk, as my team was grossly overpowered compared to their army of Beautifly, Bronzor, and Glameow (to name a few). I also managed to catch an Abomasnow while I was lurking around the outer areas of Mt. Coronet. I also spent ample time searching for hidden items, netting quite the collection of goodies. But putting that aside I finally made it to the peak of Mt. Coronet.

After watching the cutscene I took on Mars and Jupiter in a double battle with Barry. Our dream team only lost a single Mon to the battle: Munchlax, mainly due to Skuntank's Poison Gas, but we ultimately won the battle. Then I watched the Lake Trio ruin Cyrus' plan and got a good laugh at his chibified expression of shock and disbelief before it was time to battle him. Hotshot the Infernape took care of Honchkrow, though he kept healing it before I finally took it down. Next up Kazap the Magnezone VS Gyarados. Despite the Wacan Berry it had Kazap's Discharge ended Gyarados in one shot. Then it was time for Hawkeye the Staraptor VS Weavile. Like with Gyarados despite the Chople Berry it had Weavile went down with one Close Combat. Then it was Frostbite the Glalie VS Crobat. Crobat's speed got the jump on Frostbite, nailing a Cross Poison, but Freeze-Dry managed to weaken Crobat into Ice Shard range, and since Cyrus spent all his healing items on Honchkrow I just had to launch one more attack and it was all over. I really wish they had Platinum's story instead of DP's but whattya gonna do.

Anyway, when it was time to face Dialga I merely chucked a Master Ball, as I wasn't in the mood to battle it (I woke up too early this morning so I don't have a lot of oomph right now, but I wanted to get the climax done while I wasn't busy with holiday stuff). Named it Clockwork (get it? As it's the deity of time and that fin on its back looks like a gear), so that ended Team Galactic's plans. After getting back down to Celestic Town via the shortcut in Mt. Coronet I picked up Palkia's "data" from Cynthia's grandma. Now I'm at Pastoria City farming Leppa Berries and taking care of any other business before moving on to Sunnyshore City. My team are all in the mid-to-upper 50s, with Hotshot being in the 60s. I know there's going to be a massive difficulty spike after Volkner so I'm preparing for it.

 

[colours]

after another run through the battle tower, i think i've managed around 43-44 wins in a row before losing to a charizard. i knew i kinda had to pick my weaknesses here since my team consists of Rotom-W, Venusaur, and Mamoswine. Rotom-W couldn't do much due to already being on low health, so i guess that was setting me up for defeat.

thinking about it a bit though... after doing battle tower so many times, i can feel the tinge of boredom begin to set in. i feel like i'm having more fun ev training new members and exploring the underground more than i am of constantly challenging the tower only to expect to lose at some point. i'm only pushing forward because im playing this game with a real life friend and im hoping to run the tower with him at some point.

i was initially going to transfer some of my swsh 'mons to bdsp (at least, anything that i have that's gens 1-4), but i feel disinclined to do that given what little there is to do for me outside of constantly challenging the battle tower and gym leader/e4 rematches. but legends: arceus is around the corner, so might as well play a bit more~

 

[Kelleo]

Gen 8 Cynthia was by far the most difficult battle I can remember. I really hope this is the norm going forward.

I agree with the first sentence. Not the second. I don't find such an overly difficult game fun.

That said, I still love Sinnoh, so BD is fun for me besides the league. All I have left for the main game is to somehow beat Cynthia, but I'm not sure if that's going to happen unless I just mess around and let my team go into high 70s or 80s level wise. The league didn't need to be this hard...

I've just been doing a few contests and growing berries. My team is just under lv. 70 while I've been leveling up a new team member to maybe rebattle the league, but I'm still unsure.

 

[zoroarctic]

I agree with the first sentence. Not the second. I don't find such an overly difficult game fun.

Yeah, reading the logs from you and @Sakuraa made me rethink that. A league this difficult makes it almost impossible for some players to use their favorites.

 

[Kelleo]

Yeah, reading the logs from you and @Sakuraa made me rethink that. A league this difficult makes it almost impossible for some players to use their favorites.

Yeah. I mean, even back in the originals, I had a bit of a harder time using Pokemon like Lumineon and Lopunny, but it wasn't impossible to win the league with them. I didn't use Lumineon this time, but I had to replace Lopunny. Lopunny is one of my all time favorites. So to not be able to use it this time was disappointing.

Even if I do actually beat Cynthia here, I still don't want another league like this one. I'd say Platinum had the best difficulty in the franchise. It nerfed the league from DP, but not too much. So it wasn't too hard, but not too easy either.

 

[Sakuraa]

I did it. I beat Cynthia. It was not through hard work and determination. It was not due to proficient strategies or anything like that. It was due to luck, the power of friendship, pivoting, and heal spamming. I did not earn my win AT ALL, but I WAS F-ING TIRED. I was tired of this battle, the crits, the getting one shot, my moves missing 10 times in a row, the stupid f-ing Milotic, EVERYTHING!

So here's what happened. Spiritomb, Gastrodon, and Roserade were pretty easy. Beaming (Mothim), Twinkling (Cherrim), and Flaring (Infernape) handled them relatively easily, though Beaming and Flaring took a lot of damage. Lucario was next and I only beat this thing because I was able to set up a Leech Seed, paralyze it with Nuzzle, and get some lucky friendship bonuses. After that it was the monster Milotic. My only mission with this thing was to prevent it from burning itself by all means necessary. The only one who could take it down was Dazzling (Toxicroak). She hit it with Toxic and weakly wittled it down, only for it to use Recover. Thankfully Dazzling's Dry Skin prevented it from using Scald and she had no special moves so Mirror Coat was useless, but she took heavy damage from Ice Beam.

From here, the battle turned into nothing other than Dazzling weakly hitting moves, getting damaged, getting healed, Milotic spamming recover, and Cynthia using Full Restores. This had to have lasted for over 10 minutes, I swear. The damn thing would not die, and if I didn't go for Toxic on a turn she healed and that loss ness mutant was able to burn itself, the battle was over. There were two chances where she nearly had that opportunity. I didn't think she was low enough on health to heal once, but she did and I went for Poison Jab instead, which THANKFULLY poisoned her, so she didn't get the Flame Orb to activate. If that Poison didn't happen, I would have lost again. From then on, I made sure to re-use Toxic anytime she was low on health. On the turn before her last Full Restore for Milotic, Dazzling was frozen by Ice Beam. I had no choice but to use Toxic and pray she thawed out on the same turn, and thankfully she did. After a lot of this nonsense Milotic went down FINALLY.

Last was Garchomp. I thought Twinkling would be fine, since I couldn't think what it would have to hurt her, but of course right as I thought that she used Poison Jab and nearly took her out. Thankfully she lived and did not get poisoned so she got off the Leech Seed which saved the battle. I healed her since I knew she could always live a hit, but Cynthia seemed to get tired and used Swords Dance. So of course, Twinkling went down. From here, I just healed and pivoted around for the entire battle. I bated out Earthquakes with Sparkling (Pachirisu), and had Beaming swap in to take no damage, then use Protect to stall further. I thought I was in the clear, but somehow this woman had ANOTHER FULL RESTORE. I was sure she used them all on Milotic, but clearly not. And I would have lost had it not been for the power of friendship allowing me to dodge a Dragon Claw at one point, and live on 1HP multiple times with multiple team members. So I kept healing and luckly surviving attacks and protecting until FINALLY, through luck and heal spamming, I won.

And I don't care. I don't feel like I cheated myself at all. I'm done! I got into the Hall of Fame, I beat the game, and I never need to deal with this battle again!

My final team was Flaring (Infernape), Shimmering who sadly didn't get to do much in this last battle but she carried us for most of the game so I don't feel too bad (Bibarel), Sparkling (Pachirisu), Twinkling (Cherrim), Beaming (Mothim), and Dazzling (Toxicroak).

I'll handle the post game stuff another day. I'm free! Overall, I adored this game. The nostalgia was amazing. But for the love of God, I don't want to see Cynthia again for another 15 years!

 

[LuxrayOfTheWild]

After not playing for so long, I finally jumped back in to take on Maylene. I don't think I ever used so much strategy going into a battle before. I took down Meditite just fine. When it came time to Machoke, I started bulking up with Cotton Guard on Swablu to prepare for her Lucario. I managed to take out Machoke and when it came time for Lucario, Lucario thankfully wasn't doing too much damage. I managed to get Lucario paralyzed with Dragon Breath and managed to use Power Swap after letting Lucario stack up Bulk Ups. I almost took down Lucario, but she used a potion and changed up strategies. She managed to take out Swablu because she kept using Screech. Thankfully, being pararlyzed allowed to set up my fail safe with Houndoom. I managed to get in a Destiny Bond, but I didn't need it cause Lucario's paralysis took effect and I one shot it with Flamethrower the next turn.

 

[Kelleo]

Oh yeah, I eventually did beat Cynthia, though I got lucky because my Empoleon froze her Garchomp on its first Ice Beam hit. lol And also my Rapidash toughened out the hit from Lucario because it still couldn't outspeed or take a hit from the damn thing otherwise... However, I also did come up with the effective strategy of setting up the sun with Cherrim to first take down Gastrodon with Solarbeam and then have Rapidash continue using the sun after to dish out big damage. So it wasn't ALL luck.

Now I actually have the second trainer card with two stars. I got a master rank in the beauty contest! ...Even though that particular show actually failed. lol Only by a little bit, but still. I was thinking you had to master rank all contest categories to get a card upgrade, but you don't, strangely.

I'm currently adding Pokedex entries and preparing to seriously try to catch Mesprit, as I've left it wandering the region. My Rapidash has 11 ribbons now and I do plan to get him at least a couple more! He's my main partner in this file and my favorite Pokemon. It was also my childhood favorite until Keldeo took that spot for a while, and then Galarian Ponyta/Rapidash happened. lol Now both forms of Ponyta and Rapidash are my favs.

 

[CynthiaLover]

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.

 

[Puddle]

I've been playing through Brilliant Diamond again, this time with an unevolved Turtwig. It took me hours to find an Everstone in the Underground! My plan is to keep Turtwig in the first slot of my party at all times and drastically overlevel it, so that it hopefully remains as strong as the rest of my party members even in the late stages of the game.

In my first playthrough, I regretted evolving Turtwig into Torterra because it walks so slowly. Now I get to have Turtwig running around behind me wherever I go. I'm essentially pretending that I'm playing "Let's Go, Turtwig!" I've been wanting to do an unevolved Turtwig run for years and now seemed like a good time.