Scarlet & Violet Travelog

[Kelleo]

It doesn’t actually need to be with the let’s go feature. You just press ZR to release them from their Pokeball then you run around with them, maybe do a few laps of a city. That’s all they need!

...Um, isn't that what the Let's Go feature is?

 

[Tood]

I've only played SV for like 6 hours since release, but I have predictions based on what I've seen thus far:

Spoiler: very mild spoilers; just some speculation on my part, but just in case

• This game seems like it's going to look like mario 64 and be just as buggy, but it'll be like an elder scrolls kind of buggy where it kind of contributes to the charm of game (not like thats an excuse for a game I paid 90 bucks for) ((i mean i also bought skyrim on switch at full price so idk what's wrong with me))
• Characters might actually be good? A lot of effort seems to have gone into the design of the teachers, just based on some of the classes I've taken thus far. Each one seems really unique. I hope the gym leaders are the same. I'm legit surprised that none of them are teachers at the school?
• I'll have to find 666 of those gimmighoul coins or something to make it evolve, and it will be the bane of my existence. (Assuming it does evolve - if it doesn't, I will be mildly disappointed since I kind of want one on my team and don't like single stage mons all that much)
• My team will be mostly ghost/grass types again, for the 9th generation in a row, because I have no self-control.

I just got permission to leave the main hub and start exploring

 

[Gengarzilla]

Spoiler: very mild spoilers; just some speculation on my part, but just in case

• I'll have to find 666 of those gimmighoul coins or something to make it evolve, and it will be the bane of my existence. (Assuming it does evolve - if it doesn't, I will be mildly disappointed since I kind of want one on my team and don't like single stage mons all that much)

Spoiler: An answer to one point, if you're interested

It does evolve, but you need 999 coins. Then you just level it up once you've got enough.

 

[Kelleo]

I'm now at the point where I've only got two gym leaders, two Team Star bases, and one titan left to go before I'm finished with these. Getting closer! I found that my team lacks a way to counter Fairy types though, and that's the specialty of one of the two remaining Team Star bases. Nobody in my team can learn any Steel or Poison type moves at all except for Metal Claw and I'd replaced it. I'll put it back, but I'll need more than just one move. So I'm going to level up another temporary team member for Mr. Fairy Boy up north. I'm not sure who I'm gonna challenge next tho. I know Eri is the strongest Team Star boss and I'm guessing Grusha is the strongest gym leader, so they should probably be last, but I'm not sure who would be easiest right now between the Ghost gym leader, Fairy Boy (I love calling him this because of LoZ: OoT lol), or the last titan... Guess I'll have to take a gamble with one.

 

[MrMeowPuss]

...Um, isn't that what the Let's Go feature is?

I may be wrong but they sort of merged the two. Say you press ZR and release the Pokémon. You can just run past Pokémon with it out of the ball and it won’t attack them unless you press Z. When I evolved mine I didn’t do any battling at all, I just took it out of its ball, ran along a route and back then used a rare candy and it evolved.

 

[Kelleo]

I may be wrong but they sort of merged the two. Say you press ZR and release the Pokémon. You can just run past Pokémon with it out of the ball and it won’t attack them unless you press Z. When I evolved mine I didn’t do any battling at all, I just took it out of its ball, ran along a route and back then used a rare candy and it evolved.

I'm still confused. Isn't letting the Pokemon out of the ball to follow you Let's Go regardless of whether or not it battles anything? I was just trying to get steps, not battle anything.

 

[Gengarzilla]

I'm now at the point where I've only got two gym leaders, two Team Star bases, and one titan left to go before I'm finished with these. Getting closer! I found that my team lacks a way to counter Fairy types though, and that's the specialty of one of the two remaining Team Star bases. Nobody in my team can learn any Steel or Poison type moves at all except for Metal Claw and I'd replaced it. I'll put it back, but I'll need more than just one move. So I'm going to level up another temporary team member for Mr. Fairy Boy up north. I'm not sure who I'm gonna challenge next tho. I know Eri is the strongest Team Star boss and I'm guessing Grusha is the strongest gym leader, so they should probably be last, but I'm not sure who would be easiest right now between the Ghost gym leader, Fairy Boy (I love calling him this because of LoZ: OoT lol), or the last titan... Guess I'll have to take a gamble with one.

Spoiler: A small heads up for the Ghost gym that could be considered spoiler territory

It's a Double Battle gym.

 

[MrMeowPuss]

I'm still confused. Isn't letting the Pokemon out of the ball to follow you Let's Go regardless of whether or not it battles anything? I was just trying to get steps, not battle anything.

It could be, usually when I see people refer to the Let’s Go it’s having the Pokémon do Auto Battles. Having them run around is super easy that’s why I got confused, I seen a video of someone evolve Pawmi from just having them do 3 laps of that very first town you visit before the school and that was enough.

 

[Kelleo]

It could be, usually when I see people refer to the Let’s Go it’s having the Pokémon do Auto Battles. Having them run around is super easy that’s why I got confused, I seen a video of someone evolve Pawmi from just having them do 3 laps of that very first town you visit before the school and that was enough.

Oh okay. I see now, thanks for explaining.

 

[Esiouqrut]

Didn't do too much yesterday. I planned to go to the Open Air Titan but ended up in Mesagoza, so I took that chance to take some classes. After that I made my way to the titan and caught my second shiny: a Skiddo. I'm glad I noticed that one because at first I just thought it's the night lighting that made it look white. Finally I defeated the titan, which is quite easy as my team is overlevelled, and learned more about Arven and his goal, which kinda touched me tbh.

My team at the end:
Mayura the Quaxell (M) - Lv. 24 - Poké Ball
Haaku the Clodsire (F) - Lv. 25 - Net Ball
Orth the Tinkatuff (F) - Lv. 26 - Heal Ball
Saltarada the Lokix (F) - Lv. 24 - Dusk Ball
Pátrica the Kilowattrel (F) - Lv. 25 - Nest Ball
Pimaño the Scovillain (M) - Lv. 24 - Repeat Ball

I went to the dark type crew straight from the titan location and, as usual, distracted by many things. The dark type crew was also quite easy as I'm still quite overleveled. I'm actually quite curious about what happened one and a half years ago, since I heard some people actually quite enjoy the Starfall story.

After that I went to Cascarrafa to challenge the water gym, but the leader went off across the desert so I headed back to take my revenge on Mala and her fire crew. Still haven't there yet because, again, distracted by things. I'm still at the beach in Area Five of South Province. I also encountered 2 of those stick(?) that is related to one of the sub-legendary Pokémons (or at least it seemed so).

My team at the end:
Mayura the Quaxell (M) - Lv. 26 - Poké Ball
Haaku the Clodsire (F) - Lv. 26 - Net Ball
Orth the Tinkatuff (F) - Lv. 27 - Heal Ball
Saltarada the Lokix (F) - Lv. 26 - Dusk Ball
Pátrica the Kilowattrel (F) - Lv. 26 - Nest Ball
Pimaño the Scovillain (M) - Lv. 26 - Repeat Ball

 

[Kelleo]

I got my first TWO shinies in the game today, and both within an hour of each other, that's crazy. lol A male Snorunt (unfortunately... I would've much rather gotten a female to evolve into Froslass...) and Cetitan's pre evolution. Funny how they're both Ice type too. I don't remember the last time I had this kind of shiny luck.

On another note, one gym leader, one Team Star boss, and one titan left to go! I think I'll go for that titan next. Except for one, my team is lv. 50+ now. Training up a Seviper to take on Ortega was a good idea. I would've been smashed by this Fairy Boy otherwise. lol

 

[Sakuraa]

Very VERY busy day today. I got 5 badges in only a few hours.

Spoiler: Very VERY long

Episode 7: Badges, Badges and more Badges!

Okay, so long story short, I last was heading over to battle Team Star's Fighting Crew but once again I realized that my levels were super low for this challenge. And rather than waste time grinding with random trainers and auto battles, I decided it made way more sense to just travel back to Mesagoza and start doing the challenges on the west side of the region. This isn't the order I wanted to handle things, however, my literal only mission with this game was to get my ice-type gym badge as early as possible within reason, and I already succeeded in that. So, I figured there was no harm in taking on the tasks on the other side of the map.

Obviously being MASSIVELY over leveled for the west side's early portion, nearly everything was a breeze so I was earning badges left and right. Gym Leader Katy was utterly destroyed by Shrooran (Grafaiai) alone. Tanaranja (Maushold) made quick work of Titan Bombirdier, taking almost no damage. And Team Star Giacomo and Gym Leader Kofu were pretty easy for Mija (Pawmo). The only actual challenge I had was Titan Great Tusk. Dear Lord this thing was a BEAST. I was thinking I'd be over leveled for it just like everything else, but NO. This thing was tough. It was not only dealing heavy damage, but even Arven's Scovillian was at a higher level than my Pokemon, meaning Great Tusk had to have been even STRONGER! Thankfully Lyran (Quaquaval) had the type advantage to be able to take down both phases of Great Tusk. But even being Terastallized didn't allow us to one shot the thing. In fact, Lyran would have fainted if not for his speed and type advantage through Aqua Step.

But long story short. We made it. 5 badges in probably a couple of hours at most. So now I've earned 5 Victory Road badges, 3 Starfall Street badges, and 4 Path of Legends badges. 12 in total, 6 remaining.

I was happy to of course get more lore from Arven, Penny, and Nemona too of course. Arven really strikes me as odd. He seems so distant and easily angered normally, but then friendly and excitable other times. Seeing him jump up in glee at the thought of only being one Herba Mystica away from fully healing his mutt was kind of endearing. I'm still curious about what he'll be doing after we finish the final mission. Koraidon meanwhile can now swim and glide. I'm assuming the last thing I'll need to unlock will be climbing. I'm also still curious about Professor Sada, as we barely hear form her. I hope after we finish the Path of Legends we can find out more about the story behind Arven, Sada, and Koraidon.

Penny on the other hand also intrigues me. I'm still curious on what is her backstory with Team Star. She did say that she wants the bosses beaten otherwise her treasure will be lost. Now I'm wondering what that treasure is. I hope to figure out the full mystery behind Team Star soon. Not to mention finding out Casseopia's identity, Clive's whole part in this, and of course discovering the big boss of Team Star. Oh, I also like that Koraidon seems to like Penny.

Last of course was my battle crazy friend Nemona. Well actually, before her, I met another Elite 4 member, Rita I think, with Hassel at Katy's gym. The when I made it to Kofu's gym I ran into Nemona. I actually told her I didn't want to battle because I didn't want my team to be damaged before the fight, completely neglecting the fact that she likely would have healed be beforehand, but whatever. After beating Kofu, Geeta showed up and since I hadn't battled Nemona, Geeta actually stuck around to watch out battle. I'm curious what this entire scene would have been like had I not said no to Nemona at first because all of her dialogue involved Geeta being there and they spoke afterward. Either way, Nemona's team is getting strong, but I had no issues in the battle being still pretty over leveled compared to her right now. I see her starter has now fully evolved and...my gosh Skeledirge is certainly something. Not what I expected from Fuecoco's final evolution but fine I guess. I do prefer Quaquaval by a longshot though. Haven't seen Sprigatito's final form yet.

Anyway, Geeta gave me some Tera Blast TMs and I taught the move to Shrooran. Not only does he now have a powerful normal-type STAB move, but he can how take advantage of his fairy Tera Type since he knew no fairy moves. Some new classes opened up at the Academy and I'll be taking those next time.

Overall, a very productive day and I'm excited to see how things will progress as I start wrapping up the Treasure Hunt.

 

[Kelleo]

I've defeated everyone at this point now other than a few endgame folks and I must say Team Star has my full support. I sympathize with them quite a bit. And the end of this story arc has gotten...interesting, to say the least. I also found I heard wrong about Grusha being the strongest gym leader. I was definitely overleveled for him and I know one gym leader had Pokemon stronger than his. Oh well. At least I didn't need to struggle. I have to say Arven is my favorite character in the game so far.

But right now I could battle the Team Star main boss or take on the Pokemon league, either one. It doesn't seem like I can do the final parts of the Path of Legends story until after, so I'm holding off on it. My team is now at lv. 60 on average.

Daisy (Quaquaval) lv. 60
Bambi (Sawsbuck) lv. 60
Pillsbury (Dachsbun) lv. 59
Mayula (Ceruledge) lv. 60
Jerry (Pawmot) lv. 60
Banana (Espathra) lv. 59

Oh, and if anyone was wondering about Deerling/Sawsbuck's forms, they can change form while in your party. I've determined that it occurs when you boot up the game in an area where a different form is located. For example, if you bring a summer Sawsbuck to Glaseado Mountain, save and quit, and then boot up the game again later, it will have changed to winter form.

 

[Silverwynde]

Managed to get my first Badge last night. My Charcadet, NemesisPrime, handled everything quite well. He's starting to become a bit of an MVP on my team.

Been hitting up the Tera Raid Battles; I have a lot of Eevee in my boxes now! Gonna have fun with those. I've also been using the Raid Battles to plug in gaps in my Dex, so that's coming along nicely.

I'm at a crossroads, however: second Gym or first Titan? I kinda don't know which way to go!

 

[UxieLover1994]

I've not been playing much this past week, but I proceeded further along Victory Road and got the badges from Kofu and Larry, as well as defeating Mela and Atticus in Starfall Street. I must say, Larry was the biggest challenge for me yet, even moreso than Titan Bombirdier, as his Staraptor easily defeated half of my team, and I just had the luck of having a Ghost-type in Skeledirge.

Cecilia's team is still in development. I've discovered my first wild Ditto, disguised as a Donphan, but they resisted a Quick Ball and fainted from an unlucky critical hit from my Kilowattrel (I caught another through a Tera Raid). A few days later, I found two Pachirisu near Medali, and since I didn't have that Pokémon registered yet, I decided to catch one of them. Cue the Zorua who disguised himself as a Pachirisu.

I caught my first Shiny Pokémon shortly after beating Atticus: Psyduck. Somehow, I'd knew it would only be a matter of time before I get myself a Shiny Psyduck, as I always find one when on interstate road trips in Pokémon GO, and one of my first Shiny Pokémon in PLA was also a Psyduck.

Skeledirge ♂: Level 42
Sawsbuck ♂: Level 41 (Summer)
Kilowattrel ♀: Level 40
Cetoddle ♀: Level 36

Oh, and if anyone was wondering about Deerling/Sawsbuck's forms, they can change form while in your party. I've determined that it occurs when you boot up the game in an area where a different form is located. For example, if you bring a summer Sawsbuck to Glaseado Mountain, save and quit, and then boot up the game again later, it will have changed to winter form.

I've noticed. My Sawsbuck, who was in Spring Form when I last played, is now in Summer Form.

 

[Kelleo]

I've noticed. My Sawsbuck, who was in Spring Form when I last played, is now in Summer Form.

Yeah, mine started out in summer form, then was autumn form after I saved and quit somewhere in the western part of the region, then became spring form when I'd saved and quit somewhere south. I'm thinking now: north = winter, south = spring, east = summer, and west = autumn. For where to change forms.

And while I'm here, I'm doing some serious story business now after having completed the initial three arcs.

Spoiler: Spoiler heavy story stuff, beware!

I got to go to the crater at last, exciting! And I start to feel like something is fishy with Turo. And then he starts acting like a...malfunctioning robot?! And when I see him in person, finally, my suspicion is confirmed, he IS A FREAKING ROBOT. And the robot tells me the real Turo DIED and has been dead for a long time! Like holy crap, I never saw any of this coming. What a fascinating story now though, I like it a lot. Probably the best mainline Pokemon story since gen 5. I'm still not quite finished here though, so please nobody spoil the rest for me.

My team is also about lv. 65 now. Arven has definitely become my favorite character. I love Team Star too though, almost every single one of them. But either Ortega or Eri is my favorite from there. I can't pick. lol

 

[Esiouqrut]

I went to the dark type crew straight from the titan location and, as usual, distracted by many things. The dark type crew was also quite easy as I'm still quite overleveled. I'm actually quite curious about what happened one and a half years ago, since I heard some people actually quite enjoy the Starfall story.

After that I went to Cascarrafa to challenge the water gym, but the leader went off across the desert so I headed back to take my revenge on Mala and her fire crew. Still haven't there yet because, again, distracted by things. I'm still at the beach in Area Five of South Province. I also encountered 2 of those stick(?) that is related to one of the sub-legendary Pokémons (or at least it seemed so).

My team at the end:
Mayura the Quaxell (M) - Lv. 26 - Poké Ball
Haaku the Clodsire (F) - Lv. 26 - Net Ball
Orth the Tinkatuff (F) - Lv. 27 - Heal Ball
Saltarada the Lokix (F) - Lv. 26 - Dusk Ball
Pátrica the Kilowattrel (F) - Lv. 26 - Nest Ball
Pimaño the Scovillain (M) - Lv. 26 - Repeat Ball

I've done quite a lot since this last time I posted here. I went to Mela and won the battle without too much challenge. Next I went to Levincia for Iono's gym. I've got to say, though, so far the gym test is quite fun and unique so I'd enjoyed it quite a bit. Iono was actually one of the gyms I was wary about since some people here have had a difficult time with her. But I don't find it very challenging personally, for better or worse. Her Mismagius didn't do too much to my team.

After that, I went to defeat the steel titan. Once again, it wasn't too much of a challenge to my team. If I went with the recommended order I'd have to go to water gym after. I didn't since it's on the other side of Paldea. I instead challenge the poison crew of Team Star, and this time I was quite overwhelmed by Atticus. Most of my party fainted during the battle and I just won because I stale with Haaku the Clodsire. It was a stressful yet fun battle.

I also caught some Pokémon I encountered, including Zorua which disguised itself as (mostly) Pineco. I don't know what's its deal about Pineco, but I began to wonder is Pineco even available around that area. I also tried to enter the great crater from above but quickly teleported back up instead.

One last thing I forgot to mention before, some of the caves here is the best cave they've made since the transition to 3D. Two in particular that came to mind is the cave to the psychic gym's town and the one's in Glasdeo Mountain. I'm glad they moved on from making all caves linear and boring.

My team at the end:
Mayura the Quaxell (M) - Lv. 33 - Poké Ball
Haaku the Clodsire (F) - Lv. 33 - Net Ball
Orth the Tinkatuff (F) - Lv. 33 - Heal Ball
Saltarada the Lokix (F) - Lv. 33 - Dusk Ball
Pátrica the Kilowattrel (F) - Lv. 33 - Nest Ball
Pimaño the Scovillain (M) - Lv. 33 - Repeat Ball

 

[Sakuraa]

I'm still making my way on this journey and getting closer to the end, both for my school lessons and Treasure Hunt.

Spoiler: Progress

Episode 8: Journey to Alfornada

I took my next set of classes at the academy and things seem to be wrapping up. I think Jacq said out next class would be our last?! Also in history class I was informed that the academy literally has a copy of the Scarlet Book just chilling in the front?! So of course I went to read it and man, why do I feel all this stuff will come into play during some climatic future moment?

After my classes I evolved Mija (Pawmo) into Pawmot. I had to look up how to evolve her and of COURSE it was some convoluted nonsense. Whatever, I got it done rather quickly so the team is fully evolved now. After that I decided to look into whether or not I could get to Alfornada at Koraidon's current skill set and we could. I had no idea I to go though a cave though. It was tough as it seems the levels are getting higher again, but we made it through with no issues.

I got to Alfornada for my next Victory Road gym battle and imagine my shock when Ms. Deidre was the one who gave me my gym test! I was so shook to see her there. I passed the gym test rather easily and I love how my Maushold Tanaranja was next to me as I did the test. After that I went to battle Tulip and with 3 Pokemon weak to psychic-type, I went in with just Charna (Armarouge), Tanaranja, and Tina (Tinkaton). Thankfully the battle wasn't really difficult. I think Charna took out her Farigaraf with a few hits, then weakened her Gardevior before going down. Then Tanaranja finished off Gardevoir and took out Espathra with Shadow Claw. Lastly, Tina took down her Terastallized Florges with a Terastallized boost Gigaton Hammer.....and a Play Rough because SOMEHOW that super powerful combo wasn't enough on its own.

After leaving Alfornada, I headed over to Medali. Of course Nemona showed up for another battle and I beat her without much difficulty. And by the way...where on earth are Nemona's Smoliv and Lechonk? The website teased Nemona having these Pokemon along with Pawmi, yet I've not seen her use one yet and most of her Pokemon are fully evolved now...

My next task will be battling the Normal-type gym for my second to last gym badge. After that I think I'll be finishing up Path of Legends story and I'm so excited to see how that plays out.

 

[Kelleo]

I have now completed the main story! That was a crazy but cool end to a pretty crazy story climax. And now I'm officially at the post-game. But I'm not ready at all to do some of the post-game stuff yet.

Spoiler: Post-game Stuff

The ending was pretty wholesome, I really liked it. Arven is definitely still my favorite character too, and I feel for him. I once lost a loved one suddenly, so I understand his sadness, but also like how he handled the news on Turo. He's staying strong! And gym leader rematches?! Actually surprised me. I don't think we've seen this in main games since maybe gen 5. Definitely not ready to try that after several 6 on 6 high level battles already. lol

 

[Tood]

So I have about 200 Gimmighoul coins now. I'm beyond happy that chests drop like 50+ coins, because oh my god that would've been painful. In other news, I found out it only learns Tackle and Astonish as moves, so it's going to be dead weight until I get the 999 coins.

I have 4/6 of my intended party members so far, and I'm leaving space for the last 2. But memes I've seen of Tinkaton are making me want one. I already have its pre-evo, but I just don't want to restrain myself to 5 party members so early in the game. Maybe I'll do like I did in PLA and rotate between teams of 3 while I fill out the dex.

This game is a pleasant surprise, I was expecting so much worse based on the discourse around its gameplay. It's fun so far.

Also I got a shiny , and that's neat.