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Official Generation I-VIII Travelog Thread

Alright, my runthrough of Pokémon Sword has gone to the point where I’m in the Wild Area. Started filling up the Pokédex early on by catching lots of Pokémon and sending them to the Boxes. I found a Brilliant Nickit, which I caught and sent to a Box, as well as a Brilliant Skwovet, which I also sent to a Box. My team is as follows (I don’t do nicknames). I forgot the levels...
  • Scorbunny
  • Gigantamax Meowth (I put it first in the party to serve as my catching ‘mon, thanks to Fake Out.)
  • Rookidee
  • Dottler
  • Chewtle
  • Ninjask (yes, I got lucky and found this level 15 one in the Wild Area via special overworld encounter. It has False Swipe, which is sure to come in handy.)
I tried a Max Raid Battle against a Minccino, but I could only battle with NPCs, since I didn’t get a Nintendo Online subscription, and all the NPC Pokémon got one-hit KOed, save for those with Focus Sashes. Needless to say, I lost the battle, and it wasn’t even my fault.

After that, I set up Pokémon Camp for my first time, and cooked spicy curry with a Cheri Berry. I got Wobbuffet Class, which I’m not sure if it’s good or not. My Pokémon certainly enjoyed it.

I haven’t gotten to the first Gym yet...
I have reached Route 5! I evolved Rookidee into Corvisquire and used it to beat the Turffield Gym with ease. I battled in the Wild Area for a bit, ditched Ninjask and replaced it with a Drilbur which I caught in a Galar Mine, and replaced Meowth with the Toxel from the Daycare. My team, which had evolved a few, is as follows:
  • Raboot
  • Corvisquire
  • Toxel
  • Dottler
  • Drilbur
  • Chewtle
Of course, in the Galar Mine, I had no trouble with that battle with Bede...until his Solosis's Confusion confused my Dottler. Oh well, I still won, though.

I put Ninjask away because it had absolutely no moves that were the same type as it, and besides, I taught my Drilbur TR Drill Run. That ought to be good.

I use Pokémon Camp for healing on the go, experience gain, and gaining friendship.
I progressed along and took a trip to the Wild Area. I got super lucky with finding a Rare Den with a Riolu inside. I battled and caught the Riolu with a Friend Ball that I received from the Ball Guy. After beating the Hulbury Water Gym, my team is this:
  • Raboot
  • Corvisquire
  • Toxel (Brave Nature, so it will evolve into an Amped Toxtricity)
  • Lucario (That Friend Ball really worked wonders! Lucario beat the Dynamax Drednaw with ease.)
  • Drilbur (the Sociable)
  • Drednaw (who helped beat Goldeen and Arrokuda with its Strong Jaw-boosted Bite and its STAB Rock Tomb)
I sure made a lot of progress since I last played! I made it all the way to Stow-on-Side, and beat the Motostoke Gym along the way. I used nothing but Drednaw, and it worked out fine.

I also ran into Bede a couple of times. I easily swept his team with my Drednaw’s Bite.

And of course, at one point Hop loses to Bede. Oh well. Somewhere along there, Opal the Fairy-type Gym Leader comes along as well, apparently looking for a successor. Hmm...

At Stow-on-Side, I battled Hop. I knew he would send out a Cramorant first thanks to me watching my friend play through that point, so I sent out my newly-evolved Amped Toxtricity and one-shotted it with Spark.

Thanks to Wild Area News, I nabbed two Milcery and evolved them both into Alcremie, though one of them was level 30 while the other was 17, so I’m going to use the level 30 one against the upcoming Fighting-type Gym.

Stopping for now, though I’m going straight for the Gym next time I play.
I beat the Stow-on-Side Gym, using my Alcremie against everyone and Gigantamaxing her against Bea's Machamp. Alcremie had Draining Kiss, Sweet Kiss, Acid Armor, and Stored Power, so I basically used Acid Armor to max out my Defense first. Then, I could use Stored Power effectively, and of course protect against physical moves. That was how I beat Bea, with stacking on Acid Armor. Miraculously, the Pangoro survived my Draining Kiss with 1 HP and used Circle Throw to phaze Alcremie out. That was unexpected. It took me three G-Max Finales to knock out the Gigantamax Machamp.

Afterwards, I took care of Bede, though he managed to knock out my Drednaw. He just got lucky with a confusion from Psybeam.

Then, after healing up, I headed for Ballonlea, catching an Impidimp in Glimwood Tangle. After I arrived, I went to the Wild Area and caught a level 40 Morgrem from a Max Raid Battle. When I flew back to Ballonlea, I healed at the Pokémon Center and fed my Pokémon some Experience Candies, evolving Corvisquire and Raboot into Corviknight and Cinderace respectively. Next, I'll battle Opal at the Fairy-type Gym.
So...I managed to get through a lot. I did some Max Raid Battles and beat the Ballonlea, Circhester, and Spikemuth Gyms. I didn't change my team at all, and I'm seeing more in-depth interactions between my Pokémon in Camp, up to the point where my Toxtricity and Corviknight started fighting. (I stopped the fight.)

In the Ballonlea Gym, none of the Pokémon stood a chance against my newly-evolved Corviknight's Steel Wing. The only annoying part was the attack missing sometimes. Against Opal, I used Corviknight against all but the Mawile, where I switched to Cinderace and one-shotted it with his newly-learned Pyro Ball. Against the Gigantamax Alcremie, I Dynamaxed Corviknight and knocked it out in one or two hits with Max Steelspike.

In the Circhester Gym, I relied solely on my Lucario (it was a Rock-type Gym, since I play Sword), and once we got to face Gordie's Shuckle, I spammed Calm Mind until Lucario's Special stats were maxed out up to +6. (The Shuckle had no offensive presence.) Then, I used him to knock out the opposing Pokémon, and although the Gigantamax Coalossal's Max Flare did a lot of damage on my Dynamaxed Lucario, he still managed to survive and knocked out the Rock/Fire-type in one hit with Aura Sphere Max Knuckle.

In the Spikemuth Gym, I sent out Lucario first, whose Inner Focus Ability made him immune to both Piers' Scrafty's Ability Intimidate and its move Fake Out. I used a combination of Lucario and Alcremie to defeat the Gym Leader.

Of course, I battled Hop a few times along the way, but I beat him every time. I would prepare and send out Lucario first against his Dubwool, serious type advantage there.
It's been a long time since I last played. I got all the way to Wyndon, after defeating Raihan at the Hammerlocke Gym. It was a bit of a challenge fighting him (not the Gym Trainers, those were easy), and a few of my Pokémon were knocked out. At least I Dynamaxed my Lucario and took advantage of Duraludon's horrible Special Defense to OHKO it with an Aura Sphere-boosted Max Knuckle.

I went on Route 10 and went hunting for Galarian Darumaka, only to find one on my first try. It was female, too, so I can easily breed more for competitive when I get there. After Route 10, I made it to Wyndon and started the Champion Cup, using type advantages to wipe Marnie's and Hop's teams. I then went to Rose Tower, battled my way upwards, and confronted Oleana, who I defeated using type advantages. Against her Tsareena, I sent out Corviknight (complete with Leftovers) and stalled by maxing out Corviknight's Defense with Iron Defense, before maxing out Attack and Accuracy with Hone Claws. It took long, but it was totally worth it, as I swept the rest of Oleana's team and one-shotted her Gigantamax Garbodor.

After that, I went to complete the next round(s) of the Champion Cup, defeating Bede, Nessa, and Bea. I beat Bede's Mawile with my Cinderace's super effective Pyro Ball, and used Corviknight the rest of the way. I defeated Nessa's Golisopod with my Toxtricity's Overdrive before using Corviknight the rest of the way. Of course, I stalled with Iron Defense before racking up Hone Claws boosts. I defeated Bea with my Alcremie alone. Bea's Pokémon didn't dare use Fighting-type moves against Alcremie.

And well, that concludes my seventh entry. Raihan's next, and I'll be sure to use my Drednaw first against his Torkoal, which he'll send out first.
I'm happy to say I beat Raihan without much trouble. The specifics I don't remember, but I defeated Torkoal with Drednaw and beat Goodra and Flygon with Alcremie. When Duraludon came, I used Lucario, Dynamaxed, and defeated it. Not too hard.

When I was about to battle Leon, the Darkest Day started, and Hop and I went to the Slumbering Weald to fetch the Rusted relics. Then, we headed to the Hammerlocke vault. I defeated Chairman Rose with a combination of Cinderace and Lucario. Specifically, against Perrserker, I sent out Lucario and Dynamaxed him, letting Lucario one-shot Perrserker with Max Knuckle. Then, I had Lucario use another Max Knuckle against the Gigantamax Copperajah, who very nearly knocked him out with Max Quake. Lucario finally used a Max Quake off of Bone Rush, allowing him to defeat the Steel-type.

Next, I knew I had to battle Eternatus, so I went to the Pokémon Center to heal up my team. After that, I went back to the vault and battled regular Eternatus, "defeating" it with my Drednaw's Stomping Tantrum. When Eternatus Eternamaxed, Zacian and Zamazenta came to help out Hop and me. It was a long battle, but actually easier than Wild Area raids. Powerful, cooperative allies combined with no shields and no turn limit or knockout limit helped us secure a quick victory. I caught Eternatus in a Premier Ball.

The Champion battle was the hardest battle I'd ever fought. After watching a friend use an X Sp. Atk and sweep Leon's team with Eternatus, I figured I could do the same, but things went downhill quickly. The Aegislash used Flash Cannon when I used the X. Sp. Atk, whereas in my friend's instance, it simply used King's Shield. Though I defeated Aegislash, the Dragapult complicated things further by moving first despite my Eternatus's Hasty Nature and paralyzing it with Dragon Breath. Thus, my Eternatus couldn't move. The next turn, it was defeated.

I sent out Lucario to stall while I Max Revived Eternatus. Dragapult used Flamethrower. Then, I attempted to use Lucario's Meteor Mash, not really expecting him to last, but surprisingly, he "toughed it out so I wouldn't feel sad." Friendship for the win. When Lucario fainted (I wasn't really prepared for Dragapult's sheer speed and really wished I still had Alcremie in my team), I sent out Eternatus and finally defeated Dragapult with Dynamax Cannon, though not without getting paralyzed by Dragon Breath again.

The next few turns blew by, with me using a couple of Max Revives and in one instance, a Full Restore to heal Eternatus. It came down to my Drednaw against Leon's Charizard, where I really wished Drednaw packed a status move for Max Guard. There was a Sandstorm swirling about for some reason, and I hoped the Special Defense boost combined with Dynamax could allow Drednaw to survive Charizard's Max Overgrowth, but to no avail. Luckily, I still had Cinderace left, the only time in my entire playthrough when I was down to one Pokémon. I simply Max Revived Drednaw, and by then, although Cinderace was knocked out, Charizard returned to normal.

I finally sent out Drednaw. Charizard, who was faster, attempted to use Solar Beam, what a dumb choice! Sure, it was 4 times super effective, but the Sandstorm weakened the power, and it would take two turns to charge! I didn't let him. I had Drednaw use Liquidation 'cause I didn't want to risk a miss with Rock Slide. Luckily, Liquidation was enough to KO Charizard (finally!), winning me the battle and making me Champion.

The credits rolled, making me take a rest from playing so intensively. After that was done, I saw my team in the Hall of Fame, and continued to find myself back at home. Knowing there was another long cutscene on the way, I turned off the game. I had enough excitement for one entry.

The only thing bad about the Champion battle was the loss of friendship caused by my team fainting so much. My next entry will probably start by going to Camp and playing with my Pokémon (maybe cooking) to restore the friendship levels.
UPDATE: I have done what my earlier entry said I would do, and much more. I evolved my earlier Drilbur into Excadrill, caught a bunch of Gigantamax 'mons, and battled in the Battle Tower a lot. I evolved the gift Type: Null into Silvally and made its default type Dark (because 1: I don't have any other good Dark-types, and 2: because Dark is my favorite type! :p). Just a warning; don't expect me to regularly keep entering on my progress. Maybe I'll resume my regular entry pace once I start the post-game.
I finally continued into the post-game I'd been neglecting for so long, but not before making sure my Eternatus was EV-trained. I changed my party and replaced Toxtricity with my Silvally.

At the Slumbering Weald, I battled Sordward and obviously won. While I would have said it was strange that Hop lost against Shielbert if I had picked Sobble as my starter (because Hop would have Cinderace), it was understandable now as Rillaboom's type does not exactly excel against Steel.

Then came the Dynamaxed Gym Pokémon, and I usually had a Pokémon that had a type advantage against them. I used Cinderace against the Grass Pokémon, I brought back Toxtricity for the Water Pokémon, and sent out Drednaw against the Fire Pokémon.

Next, I had to go back to the lab in Wedgehurst to confront the sword and shield brothers in a Double Battle. Corviknight did amazing, as I had her Bulk Up a bunch of times and used a Hyper Potion when she was on low health. The Leftovers Corviknight was holding helped, too. When Hop and I finished off the last of the opponent's Pokémon, Corviknight had amazingly held on at 1 HP and I had not lost a single Pokémon. (The same couldn't be said for Hop, though; he was whittled down to his own Corviknight.)

Of course, that was not all. I tackled the remaining Gyms next, but I first went to Ballonlea so as to get Bede over with. Then, I fought the Dynamaxed Pokémon at the Hammerlocke Gym Stadium with my Eternatus, and easily defeated it with Dynamax Cannon. At Stow-on-Side, I brought Alcremie back to deal with the Dynamaxed Pokémon. Lastly, I brought in Silvally to face the Dynamaxed Pokémon at Circhester, and changed its type to Ground. (The Gigalith had no way to hit pure Ground-types super effectively.)

When all the Dynamaxed Pokémon were taken care of, I went to Hammerlocke Stadium, made sure my party was healed up and ready to go, and then battled Sordward one more time. The end of that battle really dragged on, but I used Corviknight's Pressure Ability in conjunction with Bulk Up and Iron Defense to PP stall out Sordward's Golisopod's Liquidation (though they did get a critical hit in—ouch). Finally, I had Corviknight defeat it with a Steel Wing coming off of a x4 Attack stat.

After racing back to the Hammerlocke Pokémon Center for healing, I entered the climax. I battled Zamazenta with my Eternatus, and managed to 3HKO it with Dynamax Cannon. The Black Sludge Eternatus was holding aided it in surviving whatever attacks Zamazenta used. After defeating the shield wolf, I went all the way back to the Pokémon Center to heal up before I catch Zacian.
 
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Well, why not? Let's enter this mid-report.

Picked myself up after several days of doing anything but the plot. Beat up fairy gym. Filled in dex some and stopped last night ready to head into route 8, hopefully.

- Cinderace "Bep"
- Vanillish "Nilly"
- Cincinno "Cinny"
- Obstagoon "Azeban"
- Sylveon "Ribbon"
- Manectric "Raijin"
- Mudsdale "Platero"
- Vespiquen "Rita Beepulsa"
- Noibat "Fidget"
- Sirfetch'd "Boudicca"
- Rilaboom "Louie"
- Intelleon "Moore"
- Pupitar "Isabelle"
- Dreepy (No name yet, though Japanese)
- G-Weezing "Fujin"
- Copperajah (No name yet)
- Cursola "Ecto"
- G-Rapidash (No name yet)
- GMAX-Lapras "Maxwell"
- Escavalier (No name yet)
What? Screw using just 6, there's too many I want to use and moreso that may never get to use them again. Did it the last two games and pushing it to as far a reasonable logical extreme as can be. Game's seemingly built for it anyway with all the candy you get. Last two are for max (r)aids and catching Pokemon when Quick Balls fail me respectively. They're much higher leveled, compared to the others who are all around Lv40.
 
I have done a Max Raid Battle yesterday against a Gigantamaxed Alcremie, sent in Zacian while the only other real player sent in Zamazenta. It just helps a lot when all the moves being used against Dynamaxed/Gigantamaxed Pokemon are super effective to take them down faster. The only moves that we used were Behemoth Blade and Behemoth Bash thanks to Alcremie being weak to Steel-type moves in general.
 
A few days ago something happened that I never thought would happen in sword and shield: Alfie's wobbuffett actually managed to KO a pokemon in a max raid battle. (It was a 5 star G-max toxtricity.)
 
Haven't achieved too much lately, as I've been working on a backlog of a number of games. Mostly just doing some raids and breeding for a (semi-competitive) shiny Hawlucha. Haven't gotten said shiny Hawlucha yet, but I did end up getting a 6 IV one in the process. I might trade it over to another game file so I can have an early powerhouse on that team. We'll see. Though I did get a shiny 4-star G-Max Grimsnarl yesterday (and the AI just barely survived the raid, since I still have some... reservations with online play, especially since my wi-fi is shaky at best, making online play tedious at times).

EDIT: While I'm still trying to get that shiny Hawlucha, I managed to breed four more 6 IV Hawluchas. Given the fact my boxes were starting to get full, I Surprise Traded all the recently hatched Hawluchas (95% had 5 IVs minimum) to see what I get, keeping one of the 6 IV Hawluchas for myself. Though, as stated before, my wi-fi is shaky at best, and true to form, it crashed three times during the searching process, so I still have a fair few Hawluchas to give out, but I'll wait until my Switch recharges (I was using it in handheld mode this time).
 
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Haven't been playing too much, but I picked it up for the second time today before I went to work. I'm on Route 3 making my way towards the first gym. Not too much to say here. I've got a team of 5 Pokemon already, which I wasn't expecting, but apparently they threw a bunch of the ones I wanted to use early on. I tried a raid battle, which got me my 5th Pokemon, a Corphish, though I may drop it later on down the road.

Overall, I'm enjoying the game thus far and I'm looking forward to continuing with it.
 
I've managed to resurrect a Shield playthrough on my main Switch today (it was my technically second main Shield playthrough, as my first, which was on my Switch Lite, ultimately glitched). It was positioned just after beating Kabu, with a team consisting of a Cinderace, Corvisquire (now Corviknight), Lucario, Vaporeon, Appletun, and Hattrem. Since the new event has been going on, with the whole version exclusives thing, I decided to activate it on that playthrough. And boy, was I glad I did that. I was raking in the rare Mons in that playthrough: a HA Galarian Darumaka, a G-Max Snorlax, and a G-Max Machamp (though that damn Snorlax gave me a lot of trouble, as I had to reset the Max Raid a good six times before I finally got the blubber belly boy, while I got the Machamp in one shot). Glad I decided to do something different instead of shiny breeding for a change. I may keep that event going on that save file longer than it will allow due to wanting to find a few more HA G-Darumakas, since I want to try breeding them for future playthroughs, especially since they're one of the few HA Mons from this gen I was missing (that and the one I caught has a Calm nature, which won't work for it, so I'd rather have a few other options to breed with).

But, in regards to the actual playthrough, I'm currently at Hammerlocke, just before meeting Rose (I wanted to heal and sell all the vendor trash I got, plus the 50 Poke Balls that had been accidentally stockpiled, as I refuse to use them now that I have access to at least Great Balls... plus I hate the standard model, which is a well-known fact about me at this point). I also caught a bunch of other Mons outside of the Max Raids that I was missing like Liepard, Gloom, Cufant, Kingler, and so on, now that I can access Mons that are Lv35 and lower. Taking a break now to let the Switch's Joy Cons recharge but I may go back on the hunt either later today or tomorrow. Also hoping to get my new Pro Controller for the Switch delivered soon, as my Joy Con buttons are starting to get worn out (curry cooking and using the Poke Toy at camp will do that after a long enough time, among other factors). That's all for now.

EDIT: Update time. After taking it back up around 4 PM (considering there's a snowstorm going on here, I don't have much else to do), I have to say the event has been very kind to me in this revived Shield playthrough. I caught another G-Max Machamp, two more G-Max Snorlax, another G-Darumaka (though no HA), a HA G-Farfetch'd, a G-Max Gengar, a HA Pincurchin, and both Shelmet and Karrablast. With the exception of Sirfetch'd, G-Darmanatan, Accelgor, and Escavalier (as those can only be found in 4-Star Raids and up and I'm only up to 3-Stars, though I can just simply evolve the ones I have), I've caught virtually everything this event has to offer in one day for this Shield version. Also got a truckload of fossils, so I can, um... "revive" all the Fossil Mons (Cara... why must you torture those poor creatures by bringing them into existence???). Not to mention more vendor trash like Rare Bones, which has pushed my Poke Dollar funds to nearly the 1,000,000 mark. Overall, a very nice event this is, as it saves me (and everyone else) a lot of trouble gathering up rare/version exclusive Mons without the need of a blasted NSO or second console/game/player. Gotta hand it to GF this time, as this was one of their smarter moves.
 
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After about a week of non-stop hunting, I have finally gotten myself a shiny Gmax Pikachu, and with Lightning Rod to boot. When I first saw that orange Pikachub my heart nearly leapt out of my chest. Thankfully it was a three star raid so I was able to defeat and capture her fairly quickly.
 
I picked this game back up after all the talk with the recent DLC release. I managed to finally get to the first gym and beat it (after 2 attempts), and after a failed first attempt on the second gym, I'm training up my Yamper to level 20 so he (or she? I can't remember) can have Spark and I can (hopefully) do better on the second attempt.
 
My god, I can’t believe how long it’s been since I last posted. I’ve long intended to fill out the playlog after Days 4 and 5 where a lot of significant stuff happened (winning against Kabul, catching a Vulpix during his gym challenge that I named Rumika, the battle against Marnie (where her Morpeko was actually pretty strong and took down Musashi and Kiteruguma), Kiteruguma, Musashi, and Sarunori defeating Allistor (his gym battle was really fun by the way), and a wide number of evolutions with Musashi evolving into Centiskorch, Sir Dinadin evolving into Corviknight, Kiteruguma evolving into Bewear, and eventually Sarunori evolving into Rillaboom. I tried to hold off on playing anymore until I finished this playlog but between my last full day playthroughs, I went through the Glimwood Tangle where I was able to meet and catch one of the most anticipated Pokémon I’ve wanted for my team; Galarian Ponyta. We found her after a trainer battle that did a lot of damage to Sir Dinadin. I caught her in a Heal Ball and named her Amalthea. After that, we were able to get to Balloonlea (which is GORGEOUS by the way, I only wish it was bigger). I held off for quite a few months but during that time, I was able to;
- Collect several Alcremie sweets and Milcery from the events
- Get the clover sweet for Clover and evolve her into a mint Alcremie
- Explored the Wild Area a lot and participated in quite a few raids
- Did lots of Camping with various Pokémon both in my party and the box
- Battled Opal (with Sir Dinadin pretty much being the main player in the match)
- Reached Circhester (and spent all most of my money on the beautiful dresses)
- Celebrated my birthday
and now, with the Isle of Armor out and seeing so many people having fun with it, I’ve decided I can’t hold back anymore and have decided to carry on with battling Melony.

When I first entered the gym, I was taken aback by Hop losing against Melony. That surprised me. By now, my entire team is either in their late 40s or lvl 50. I was a little nervous when Sir Dinadin took down a level 38 Snom and Sarunori took out a Cloyster singlehanded in a OHKO but the opposition proved to be tough once one of the gym trainer’s Beartic came out and gave Musashi a tough fight. Once she snapped out of confusion, she became the ace in that gym, taking down said Beartic, Avalugg, Frosmoth, and Eiscue. After hearing about the Fire type Zen Mode, I had YIYIYEE go against G. Darmanitan. It was a pretty tough battle with Darmanitan’s Icicle Crash but a couple Counters, a Crunch attack, and a Razor Shell took that abominable snowman down. Now I had planned for Sir Dinadin to go against Gigamax Lapras but what I didn’t expect was how tanky it was and how little damage Max Steelspike did against it. I was hoping it would be able to take Lapras down with Steel Wing after the Gigantamax wore off but Lapras was able to defeat him with Surf. I then sent out Kiteruguma. It didn’t start off so well with her Hammer Arm missing and getting hit by an Icy Wind and Sing but she was able to wake up and take Lapras down with Payback, earning us the Ice Badge. Afterwards Sonia took Hop and I out to a restaurant for a meal, talking about the tapestry on the wall.

We were at the hot springs when Hop requested we battle. I can’t tell you happy I was to see Dubwool back up front on Hop’s team again and the battle between it and Amalthea was pretty fun with Hail, Hop being strategic with Defense Curl and Hyper Potions, and confusion, along with Hop and Dubwool being in sync again. Amalthea was able to win against Dubwool, Kiteruguma OHKO’ed Hop’s Snorlax, Sir Dinadin battled his Corviknight in a battle of the Corviknights with Sir Dinadin winning thanks to an Attack boost from Hone Claws, and Sarunori took down Pinchurin and Intelleon.

After I was finally able to get those dresses I wanted and hit the Pokémon Center, I closed off for the night. That’s all for now. Hopefully it won’t take me over four months for my next entry xD
 
Started the Isle of Armor today and I'm enjoying it so far. :bulbaWave:

Started my journey on the Isle of Armor. I kept my original team of Irene (Cinderance), Red Velvet (Alcremie), Seulgi (Appletun), Joy (Dracozolt), Yeri (G-Rapidash), and Wendy (Morpeko) who are all at lv. 100. I'd heard the levels would reflect my team being at max level, but that didn't seem to be the case since none of my opponents have been lv 100. Not a big deal though. I passed the trials with ease, though that Slowpoke chasing mission irked me. I kept running into wild Pokemon. I also got distracted for a bit and went to the nearby forest to do raid battles :p

I love Avery so much. He is so funny. I love how he uses move names (mainly psychic type) in his speech. As usual, Sheild continues to have the best version exclusives. I even offered for him to take my Max Mushrooms, when that came up. Our battle during the final trial was funny. Irene got really beat up by his Ponyta becuase she kept missing Pyro Ball and she was confused by Psybeam and kept hitting herself. I seriously thought she'd lose, but she pulled through. I finished the battle using Red Velvet in her new G-Max form against his Dynamax Slowbro. I was actually a bit nervous considering the type disadvantage, but it ended up being totally fine.

I ended up using my Max Soup to give Red Velvet the ablity to Gigantamax. Alcremie is my favorite G-Max Pokemon and I wanted one on my team from the start, but of course I couldn't get one to use on my first playthrough, so I'm thrilled to finally have one. I'll be making more for Seulgi and Irene later once I get more mushrooms.

I got a female Kubfu from Mustard, which surprised me since I expected it to be genderless. I named her Roulette and now I've got to become buddies with her. Mustard has allowed my Pokemon to follow me now, and I was shook when it happened automatically for the first time. I thought it was so cute.........and then I remembered that half of my team is slow af. I can't run or bike of they'll get left behind and it makes me so sad. :cry:

Tomorrow I'll get to work befreinding Roulette.
 
The adventure continued today.

Long story short, I spent most of my time leving up Roulette the Kubfu. I boxed my main team, added Roulette and Kindgdom (Zamazenta) to my party and gave her the Soothe Bell. Then we just battled and caught a bunch of wild Pokemon, along with using Exp. Candies here and there to get Roulette to lvl 50. Once we got to that point, as I expected, Mustard deemed us besties. :bulbaLove: Before leaving I spent a huge load of my 200k saved watts to help renovate the dojo. I'm glad I'd been saving those, I figured they'd come in handy eventually. :bulbaWave:

I made my way to the Tower of Waters ready to take on the challenge.....only to find out that I needed to be at lv 70. :lapras: So I just stuffed Roulette's face with Exp. Candies until she got to lvl 70. I wasn't about to do more battling. We went through the tower using the basic strategy of Bulk Up + Close Combat/Iron Head and got through pretty easily. The only annoying battle was the 4th floor guy with the Poliwhirl who kept using Protect and Whirlpool. I wanted to use Iron Head to save PP on Close Combat for the final battle, so I wasn't doing much damage either. But we ended up winning and everyting was fine.

Then we battled Mustard, who had magically predicted which tower I chose. We started with our Bulk Up, but his Kubfu used Arieal Ace which hit Roulette Hard. I went for a Close Combat which I thought had one-shot enemy Kubfu, but he held on with a Focus Sash and I got nervous. Thankfully he only used Focus Energy. I finished him off with an Iron Head. After the battle I evolved Roulette in Rapid Strike Urshifu.

We headed back to the Dojo and I thought everything was all over.......execpt NOT becasue I waltz in to see my OG bestie Hop talking to Mustard. And now we've got a new mission to find some honey so Roulette can stomach the taste of Gigantamax Soup.
 
I've managed to make it all the way to Ballonlea, which is just simply a beautiful town, today. I'm planning on playing more a little later, but I've progressed to Ballonlea and started Opal's gym challenge before I had to go finish getting ready for work. I struggled a lot with Bea's gym, but with a little bit of grinding, my team was able to pull it off. I'm still looking for a sixth party member too; I'm planning on sticking with Pokemon native to the Galar region, but I haven't found anything that's stuck out to me just yet.
 
I finished the Isle of Armor story today :bulbaWave:

So yesterday I got a bit distracted and did some Zeraora raids for literally no reason. I don't have Home so I'll never be able to get a Zeraora after all of this is over, but whatever. Hop and I ran around the island to get some honey and after failing twice we finally got it after that horrific battle against a lvl 3000 D-Max Vespiquen. Seriously, I thought I'd just take Roulette (Urshifu) in there and knock the thing out after a few hits. Nah, man. That sis was deadly. I ended up bringing one of my lvl 70 G-Max Corviknight (ZTao) and Kingdom (Zamazenta) to do most of the work.

So I finally got the honey, but then remembered I had to get more Max Mushrooms. So yesterday and today I wandered around the Island until I ended up getting 3. One of which I got completely by accident since I didn't even know they spawned in the Focus Forest. I was just in there trying to do the raid battles that were active and happened to bike by one. I also ran into Kabu and his Centiscorch who were kinda just there not doing anything. :confused: The other two mushrooms I got from two of the caves, but I don't remember which. I also came across some of those Alolan Diglett that I had kind of forgotten about. I guess I'll have to get back to that later. So, I was able to give Roulette the Max Soup and it was time to take on Mustard for the final time.

I was thinking he'd only have Urshifu, so I went in with only Roulette. Imagine my surprise when I saw he had a full team. I after losing the first time I went back with Kingdom and ReallyBadBoy (Eternatus) added to my team. RBB took out Meinshao, Kommo-o, and Corviknight, while Kingdom beat Luxray and Lycanroc. Roulette Gigantamaxed and easily beat Mustard's G-Max Single Strike Urshifu. They were at the same level and his Max Ooze did very little damage. So we were victorious and our main adventure on the Isle of Armor ended.

After that, I brought back my original team and finally left the island for the first time in 4 days and finally used my Style Card to get a new look for the first time in ages. I'll be spending my time waiting for the Crown Tundra by filling up my Pokedex and probably doing that Diglett mission.

Overall I enjoyed the Isle of Armor. I really liked Avery as a character and I was very happy that they brought Hop back again for the story. It ended up being longer than I expected so that was nice. I'm excited to see what the Crown Tundra will bring.
 
I guess I should update on how I've been doing in the Isle of Armor.

So, I've been jumping back and forth between different save files to see how they differ, with one being my main file that's in post-game while the other is pre-Champion Cup. I won't report much on the first one since I've been playing it less than the pre-Champion Cup one (though it is, for the most part, complete), but anyway, on with the show.

Anyway, I have to say I like Klara better than Avery for a "jerk rival" (as boring and overrated as the "class" is), especially since even her hair ribbons emote with her. That's a fun touch. Sadly, she doesn't have a Dustox to match that hair ribbon, which is bit of a wasted opportunity, but whatever. Anyway, I like Isle of Armor as a whole. It's definitely what the Wild Area should have been, what with the more diverse environments with more "realistic" weather for each, but I'll give GF a pass on that, since I feel that the main game Wild Area was a beta test for open world-like content (even though I feel the whole open world bit is getting overrated and over-saturated at this point). Moving on, I caught a male Toxapex while I was wandering around looking for the A-Digletts (a fun little side-quest, if I do say so) and named him Depth Charge (after the Beast Wars character), making him my Water-type, while also giving him a Scald TR I had picked up in the normal Wild Area for a Water STAB (and, since I know how the DLC plays out due to the main file playthrough, he'll be my Ratchet-sized wrench in the final trial). Anyway, got to the dojo and began the events there.

I LOVED how the Slowpoke made a monkey out of Klara by snatching her uniform, especially since they cut her "Item Get!" jingle short before bolting like Zubat outta the Distortion World. I easily beat them and got back the uniform, though I was surprised that the Slowpoke's speed in the overworld translated into battle, too, which was a nice bit of gameplay and story integration (my main Mons from the main file outsped them, so I didn't know that until I brought my lower leveled team. I also caught a male Bouffalant just to try one, as I've never really used one before, and since I'm (mostly) using Mons I've never used before in this run, or at least in a while, I figured "Why not?", so I named him Crash after a certain bandicoot that everyone knows and loves.

Anyway, time for the next trial: finding Max Mushrooms for Max Soup (blegh... I hate mushrooms, especially in soup). While in the Forest of Focus I caught a male Amoonguss and named him Shiitake (after the mushroom, duh), ultimately replacing Mayfair the Shiftry (I needed more Special Attackers in my party, and Amoonguss is very beefy in terms of HP and defenses, though it was a tough choice, to be honest). Also, Heatblast the Raboot evolved into Cinderace, giving me a powerhouse ready for action (also, he's a custom-bred Cinderace from my main file with Libero and 2 Egg Moves, and I have to say I can understand why some say Libero Cinderace is the new Greninja). Anyway, after doing a Max Raid I had to stop because I started developing a migraine (damn shifting weather getting to me again), though I had enough oomph left to post this (and I'm not good at resting during the day), so that's where I ended things at the time. As a result of the DLC, I now have a full team, with half of them from the DLC itself (though Toxapex is a toss-up, as it can also be found in the main game, but whatever). And I will say this: the DLC is a vast improvement from the main game. I really feels like how Sword/Shield should have been, but, again, I now consider the base game the beta test for more open world Pokemon games due to the DLC taking the idea and improving on it significantly. Makes me excited for Crown Tundra to see how that'll play out. Until next time.
 
Forgive the double post but I managed to recover from my migraine and continued my Isle of Armor adventure.

After resting and recharging, I resumed my hunt for the Max Mushrooms. I managed to catch a bunch of Mons along the way, but I'm sticking with my current team now. Found some Max Mushrooms only to have to whup Klara again over them. She's so amusing, unlike Avery, who feels like a Bede knockoff to me. Sword really does have the best stuff of the two versions. Anyway, got the Max Mushrooms and returned to the Dojo, though I stopped briefly to dig with Digging Pa to collect some Watts. And boy howdy, did he deliver! I got over 250,000 Watts from him since he gained a second wind. I put those Watts to work later on by improving the Dojo up to the Curry ingredients in the fridge level. I can donate more, but I'll wait until tomorrow before I do. Also gave Hyde the 500 Watts to get his machine fired up, so now I can use it whenever I want.

Anyway, the next trial was a battle with Klara. Since I was aware from my main playthrough that she rigs the field to her advantage (which, to be honest, is rather true to form for a Poison-type), but since I had Depth Charge the Toxapex in front, he threw a Ratchet-sized wrench in the works, freeing the field up for me to work without fear of poison. Whupped her again, resulting in her turning over a new leaf (I find her character development more realistic than Avery's, to be honest) and earning me Kubfu. After that I explored as many areas on the Isle of Armor as I felt like before deciding to pack it in and return to the mainland to continue my main story, especially since, from what others have said, Kubfu needs to get to Level 70, which is an end-game level, before I can do his "training", so I might as well take care of some other stuff on the mainland, like collect more Gym Badges, before returning to complete the DLC proper. I will return tomorrow, however, to farm more Watts from Digging Pa so I can keep upgrading the Dojo, along with having Watts to spare to buy TRs in the Wild Area. Anyway, returned to Hulbury so I can head to Galar Mine #2 to find Kabu (though I took a quick pit-stop at Motostoke to do some ball shopping, since I had nearly exhausted my supply of Net, Nest, and Heal Balls in Isle of Armor, along with refreshing my supply of other balls from the Watt Traders in the Wild Area).
 
Managed to get all the way to my (first) champion match with Leon today. Of course, Rose had to interrupt it. *rolls eyes* I've caught Eternatus though (I think? I'm not sure, I didn't see the part where it was sent to a Box since my party's full, and I wasn't given the option to nickname it either), so I'm gonna rechallenge him and hopefully win. I also got my 6th team member today, though it was in the early parts of the Slumbering Weald, so unfortunately, I probably won't really be using it in my champion battle since it's far too underleveled. (But hey, at least I got a team of 6 before the final battle!!)
 
Time to continue the journey.

So, I picked up where I left off last time, at Hulbury. However, I quickly made a detour back to Isle of Armor for more Watt farming from Digging Pa. Not the biggest showing this time, but it gave me more than enough to upgrade the Dojo again, now sporting Vitamins, though only Proteins and Irons. Also did a bunch of Max Raids and collected as many shiny spots as possible, along with collecting more A-Digletts. Afterward, however, I returned to Hulbury to continue the journey.

Went into Galar Mine #2 and whupped Bede and Team Yell in short succession, though Heatblast the Cinderace's High Jump Kick picked a lousy time to miss against Team Yell, which is starting to becoming a recurring situation (I NEED to get a Wide Lens so I can finally make all his lower accuracy moves more on-target). Anyway, I also camped in Galar Mine #2 after grinding and catching anything I needed, which helped me boost my Mons' Friendship/Affection to more desirable levels, at least at this point in the game. Anyway, ran into Kabu, caught a few more Mons, and battled Marnie before turning in for the night (in-game, obviously) for my next Gym Badge. Took care of Kabu's Gym with ease. Kabu's Will-O-Wisp strategy badly backfired on Knuckles the Conkeldurr, as I had changed his Ability to Guts (along with fishing out a Flame Orb from another file), but he burned Knuckles for me, which allowed him to steamroll Ninetales and Arcanine. Then it was a G-Max showdown between Heatblast and Centiskorch. Because G-Max Fireball ignores abilities, it allowed my flaming rabbit to toast that centipede in one hit. Then spent some time in the Wild Area with more Max Raids while Hop duked it out with Bede before heading to Hammerlocke.

Did all the story events there, including the Applin and Paula quests (though the latter obviously wouldn't be finished right away), and since I needed the Fire Tracksuit to get the Acrobatics TM later on, I not only purchased it, but I got a pair of Marnie's boots due to the Style Card, albeit red colored. Now I have quite the mixed assortment of clothing pieces (I have a weird fashion sense for game characters... makes them look like they're straight-up rummage sale rejects). Anyway, battled Team Yell in the next area and took care of catching whatever I needed from Route 6, though I skipped Cara for now, as I only had Fossilized Dino pieces (though I did get some Birds later). I also camped again to further my Mons' Friendship/Affection levels before moving on. Battled Hop again with his newly rearranged team, with only his Crammorant landing a blow on me due to I was using the slower Knuckles (he has a Rock move, and I don't have any Electric moves right now, so he was the next best thing), but ultimately won. Challenged Bea next. My team was a bit less prepared to face her this time, as some of my Mons are rather passive, so she actually put up a solid fight, with Nevermore the Corviknight doing most of the heavy lifting, ultimately resulting in a G-Max showdown between Heatblast and Machamp, with, obviously, Heatblast winning, netting me my next Badge.

Fought Bede and whupped him and watched karma sink its teeth into him where the sun doesn't shine due to desecrating the (rather crummy) mural, revealing the ruins. Next up was Glimmerwood Tangle. Picked up a better move for Heatblast while I was there (U-Turn) before getting to my next destination. Did everything that needed to be done, collecting everything I could before heading into the Gym. Having two Poison types and one Steel type made this Gym pretty easy (that and knowing the answers to the quizzes helped) before utterly creaming Opal, effectively one-shotting everything, with the final fight between Nevermore and G-Max Alcreamie. Escorted Opal to Hammerlocke and watched the old coot drag the freshly disqualified Bede to Fairy boot camp to have what's left of his dignity destroyed. Talked to Sonia and Leon before battling Hop again (not without collecting all the TMs from the other PokeMart first), pretty much owning him. A funny thing happened in the battle, too. Knuckles had his Flame Orb activated against Heatmor before facing off against Snorlax, one-shotting it with a Guts-boosted Mach Punch, which he then preceded to self-heal his burn afterward... only for the Flame Orb to activate again. Haven't seen that happen before. After whupping Hop I returned to the Pokemon Center to save for the night. Everyone in my party are in the 40s, with Heatblast being the highest at 51. Until next time.
 
I am now the Champion of the Galar region! :D Took me 3 tries and some Max Revives on my third attempt, but I managed to pull it off. I'm now spending some time collecting the rest of the Pokemon for my Galar dex.
 
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