• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

The Official Travelog + Let's Play Thread

Status
Not open for further replies.
After skipping a day yesterday, I decided to plow through and make lots of progress today.

First I have to say, I really liked the addition of the PC doing the Alola hand movement when saying goodbye to Hau in Malie Garden. After rounding up the 8 Stufful for the woman on Route 8 (I think) I headed up to Mount Houkulani. I was surprised that there was no battle against Molyane this time around, but I did like that they actually had him demonstrate the pose for Corkscrew Crash when he didn't in the last game, so now it makes sense how I knew it. My Flaaffy also evolved into Ampharos while we were grinding for the trial.

I like the way they changed Sophocles's trial. It was a lot more memorable and interesting to line up Charjabug to power a Vikivolt robot over just answering questions in the dark like last time. I was actually surprised by the Totem Togedemaru. I guess it was possible to predict it with the trailers, but I was assuming that scene was a Z-Move after what got confirmed with Mimikyu and Lycanroc. Anyway, I got demolished here and I'm not even joking. I was not prepared for what honestly felt more like a steel-type battle over an electric one, especially since I was underleveled. I could not get through Totem Togedemaru's boosted defense with my primarily physical attacking team, so he literally just destroyed my entire team with Iron Heads (oh course they give the thing a good steel-type move after I already use one on my team :() and Zing Zaps. It also didn't help that it knew Bounce for fighting-types and Spiky Shield to block my attacks. And then they threw in Skarmory to use Tailwind and outspeed my team :/ Basically it was a nightmare.

I did better the second time around when I actually planned out a strategy and taught 2 of my Pokemon Brick Break to get major damage in. I just used Persian to lower T Togedearu's defense with Screech, Popplio to lower his attack with Baby-Doll Eyes, and Ampharos to lower his speed with Cotton Spore. Then Ampharos or Hawlucha, (I seriously can't remember, but I think it was Ampharos) took it out with a combo of All-Out Pummeling plus a regular Brick Break.

After the battle, I decide that I desperately needed to grind up my team and luckily Ro-dex decided to activate Roto-Prize Money to get extra money for the nearby trainers. I love how he's always looking out. Fomantis evolved finally with the aid of some Rare Candies I'd been saving.

Dulse and Zossie showed up where I demonstrated the proper way to do the Alola greeting. Oh, the also told me that they have Necrozma looked up somewhere in their world, because again, they have NO problems telling random 11 year olds their business. :confused: I caught my 5th team member, an Alolan Vulpix and grinded up for Acerola's trial.

I was a tad disappointed that the only addition to Acerola's trial was the fake Acerola in the back. I would have hoped for more (at least different ghost-types to take pics of), but at least her trial that was already pretty interesting. Mimikyu wasn't that difficult, surprisingly. Popplio using Baby-Doll Eyes to lower her attack instantly made it easier than it would have been otherwise. All I needed to do was hammer her with attacks until the end and it was pretty simple. I did like the addition of Banette and Jellicent though, especially when the Jellicent literally got one shot by my Lurantis.

Afterwards I spent like 3 hours searching for my last team member, a female Mimikyu. The reason why it took so long wasn't only because I wanted a Pokemon that appears 5% of the time that had to be female. It was because I made the decision that she needed to be capture in the Love Ball Oak gave me. Mimikyu wants to be loved, so I'm showing her the love. And with her capture, my team is now complete :D
 
I finished Exeggutor Island and I really liked the minor change of having an Exeggutor actually have to help you to reach the flute. Very simple but a nice touch.
I made my way to Vast Poni Canyon and was all prepared to face Hapu with my Leafeon, but ended up fighting Poipole again. Poipole was defeated easily by Sandslash and his Drill Run.
I battled my way through the Canyon and took out the Totem Kommo-o with ease, making full use of Mimikyu's special Z-Move.
I then took some time out to do some trading on the GTS to get Gigalith and Machamp for my Pokedex. I also collected my FC reward for participating in the Global Catch Event. I am not surprised that we didn't achieve the total. The resulting reward helped me get Festival Plaza to Rank 41.
I then continued with the story, I really liked the changes and continue to prefer this iteration of Lusamine. I also loved all the additional cutscenes with the Kahunas and the Ultra Beasts. Dawn Wings Necrozma went down to with one Malicious Moonsault and I ventured in to the Ultra Wormhole. I love the travelling feature, but was desperate to change the controls to the Circle Pad. I arrived in Ultra Megalopolis and, while it is basic, it was still interesting for the whole five minutes I spent there. Ultra Necrozma was defeated just as easily and I returned to the Altar of the Moone.
As soon as the story scenes were complete, I flew straight to Heahea City to change the Ultra Warp Ride controls. I then spent the rest of my night playing with it, finding the Ultra Wilds three times and catching Sigilyph, Grumpig and Magcargo. I also got lucky and found the Ultra Crater and caught Celesteela. I think, while again they are basic and boring if spent too much time in, the Ultra Beasts home turfs definitely make this game much more interesting than the previous Sun and Moon did.

Current Team Status:
Incineroar, Lopunny, Lycanroc, Leafeon and Sandslash, all Level 61. Mimikyu, Level 58.

Pokedex Completion Status:
Melemele, seen 138, caught 122.
Akala, seen 149, caught 130.
Ula'Ula, seen 146, caught 123.
Poni, seen 98, caught 81.
Alola Total, seen 331, caught 277, 69%.
 
Went through battles of familiar bosses. In one of them, Ace did not want to go down. He was on one point of health.
 
What the flip? I got Solgaleo through Wonder Trade. No joke. :eek:

Has Adamant nature too. I'm not complaining. Trades like this make me doubt if the sender wasn't paying attention and could have send their legendaries by accident.
 
US finally arrived this afternoon, so I've been playing for a couple of hours. After arriving at Hau'oli City, I decided to slow down a bit and catch some Pokémon before progressing. Gave my character a haircut and bought her some clothes.

Current Team:

  • Aoi/Popplio lv.10
  • Railgun/Grubbin lv.9
  • Excalibur/Honedge lv.8 (bred in Moon)
  • Beast/Rockruff lv.10 (temporary)
 
Last edited:
I banked over some more version exclusives today, as well as my Type:Null, Silvally, Zygarde, Cosmog, Cosmoem and Solgaleo from Moon.
I played with the Ultra Warp Ride some more, encountering an Audino and Thundurus! My first Ultra Wormhole Legendary! Thankfully I caught both and can't wait to explore more.
I took on Mina's Trial, which was a lot of fun, but I wish I could have battled all of the Trial Captains. Including Acerola. I get why they didn't include her, but I feel like there is a big enough gap between this Trial and the Elite Four that it wouldn't have felt repetitive for me.
I also liked that Hapu's Grand Trial took place on Exeggutor Island.
I made my way through the new Victory Road in Mt. Lanakila, which I was pleasantly surprised to see. Like with the events on Poni Island, I was surprised with how much more expanded it all was and I loved it.
Seeing Necrozma crashed and waiting on the Mountain, it was so emotional and beautiful and I loved it. I felt so amazing sharing the Z-Crystal light with it and, for the first time, I felt quite honoured to catch the story Legendary and this story and this climax has really elevated Necrozma for me. I think if I have taken anything from this game is how well the little touches have brought this game to life and I hope to see it continue in the coming installments.
I have stopped for the night right outside of the Elite Four and plan to take them on tomorrow.
Oh and I also got to evolve my Poipole, such an amazing feeling!
 
Selene just got her hair did finally and I don't like it. So I'll go shell about another 5000 to change it to something else.

Right now I'm still in Hao'li City (or however you spell it) facing off against the Skull goons. I haven't really been motivated to play UM, but I like that there are some slight dialogue changes to accommodate for female player characters versus male

My UM team right now:

Pikipek
Popplio (chosen starter)
Rowlet
Litten
Buneary (undecided still if I want to box her)
Event Rockruff

Edit: Buneary is getting boxed. I want a Crabrawler.
 
Last edited:
Still going to do a proper travelog for Akala, but I wanted to share how my battle with Olivia just went!

I had a lot of choices to choose from in terms of type advantage (like Hawlucha and Araquanid), but I decided to go with Pikachu (was counting on her super-effective Iron Tail), Lycanroc (wanted to show my Dusk form off to Olivia while also having mine defeat hers) and Dartrix (my good old starter, best friend, and a Pokemon with an actual type advantage over Rock types).

I went in kind of blind (inadvertently saw comments about Olivia now sports some Fossil Pokemon), so I started with Pikachu since I figured Steel type attacks would be the most universal. She led with Anorith, whom I made two horrible assumptions about. I mean like, Ash level blunders that would make Iris and Misty shake their heads in disappointment. For starters, I thought Anorith was part Water type for some reason (it can learn Water type moves, looks like a shrimp and trilobite, etc) rather than Bug. Secondly, I thought this thing was slow. So I had Pikachu use Electro ball, but Anorith outsped (how?!) her and used Bug Bite. This reduced Pikachu's HP to about half, but thankfully her Static activated-we had a chance! I realized my blunder and had Pikachu immediately counter with Iron Tail...which missed. Anorith was paralyzed, so it couldn't move. The next Iron Tail hit its mark and brought the Old Shrimp (see why I thought it was Water?) Pokemon down to a sliver of red. Unfortunately, the paralysis wasn't on our side this turn and it knocked out Pikachu with another Bug Bite. It was my fault-if I would have played better and been more aware of my opponent, Pikachu would have won her match.

I sent in Lycanroc next since Dartrix couldn't hit super-effectively. Naturally, my loyal orange wolf made short work of Anorith with Rock Tomb, despite Olivia healing it with a Super Potion. She sent out Lileep next, and I decided to keep Lycanroc in to attempt a knock out with Iron Tail. Iron Tail hit and lowered Lileep's Defense, but it countered back with a powerful Giga Drain (shoot!) restoring a large part of its health. I knew that this next attack would decide things, so I placed my faith in Lycanroc with another Iron Tail...which missed. Lycanroc went down, leaving Dartrix to deal with both Lileep and Olivia's ace.

At this point, I admit, I thought we were going to lose. Dartrix is weak against Rock types, had a lot of slack to pick up, and Olivia's remaining Pokemon were near full health. Dartrix attacked Lileep with a Razor Leaf, which got it down to a decent yellow. Naturally, it countered with Ancient Power, which Dartrix didn't/couldn't avoid. Thankfully Lileep didn't get an all-stat boost, but Dartrix did lose some health (barely green). I wasn't sure if the second Razor Leaf would knock out Lileep, but I didn't want to waste Bloom Doom on it either. So we struck with Razor Leaf again...and knocked it out! Surprisingly! I attribute it to Lycanroc's Iron Tail's Defense drop, most likely.

Now it was, a weakened, Dartrix versus Olivia's ace, Lycanroc. Fully healthy and likely to outspeed us, I assumed the worse would happen and we would lose-all of our team's progress and experience in Akala rendered moot. The Wolf Pokemon leapt with Rock Tomb...which Dartrix endured with only 1 HP! Of all the times, all the moments for Pokemon Refesh to pay off, for our bond to show, this was one of them! Cue Dartrix countering with an Overgrow boosted 100+ base power Bloom Doom; Lycanroc was history, sent back to B.C. times. Now that's flower power indeed. We won! I still can't believe it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of my favorite experiences about Pokemon-the hard, nitty-gritty battles that can literally come down to the wire like this. It's both exhilarating and rewarding, seeing how your team tries their best to win for you in situations like such. I bet both Olivia and Lillie were flabbergasted-I still am. Even though Olivia didn't use her Z-move (second Kahuna in a row!) to make the event even more incredulous, this is definitely my favorite battle in Ultra Moon so far, and one my favorite ones in the franchise in general. I wish it could have been animated.
 
Defeated Hau, who I was surpised had 5 Pokemon (not expecting any more) and defeated the Malie Gym Leader. Wait wut a gym in Alola?

Crobat- level 29
Randy Orton the Torracat - 29
Lopunny - 29
Akechi the Alolan Raichu - 29
Cottonee- 29
Miltoic - 29
 
What the flip? I got Solgaleo through Wonder Trade. No joke. :eek:

Has Adamant nature too. I'm not complaining. Trades like this make me doubt if the sender wasn't paying attention and could have send their legendaries by accident.

I have so many legendaries in my bank from all the game run throughs that I sometimes use them in trades. Never in wonder trade though, for that I send Yungoos/Gumshoos named Donald Trump.

My goal for today is to get through Ilima's trial. I'm not worried about it - I'm playing UM so the totem is A-Raticate, and I think I have it covered between my Pikipek (soon Trumbeak) and a fighting move, and Popplio and Disarming voice.
 
Been a while since I've posted, but I've been having now DOUBLE 3DS battery problems. My main 3DS's battery is starting to keel over (meaning it takes longer to charge and the charge doesn't last very long) while my spare 3DS is completely dead (battery no longer accepts charges, more or less), so I had to order parts from Nintendo's website (I hate them...). So my playtime has been very limited until I get the replacement parts. But I have managed to make some progress before both batteries started to fade, especially in UM, so let's get on it.

I has just completed the Fire Trial last time. It turns out that you can now access the tunnel between the volcano and the next route. I found that strange, until I ran into the URS and could catch Kecleon in there. Those guys still give me the creeps, and their music still feels out of place. But anyway, ran into Corless and got the TM for Flame Charge after his own chat with the URS. I spent some time playing with that adorable Vulpix. Poor thing is still freaked out after those numbskulls Team Skull harassed it. Normally I don't like Alolan Forms, but I'm starting to develop a soft spot for Vulpix (probably helps that it's an Ice-type, my favorite type), so I might actually deviate from my plans for US and use one in that version, since I know it's exclusive to US. Anyway, did a bit of battling and Meowzma evolved into Incineroar, so now I'm more than pumped for the Grass Trial. Speaking of pumped, I managed to catch myself a new friend from the hit new series: "Courage the Cowardly Wimpod Show", starring Courage the Cowardly Wimpod. (Sorry, couldn't resist, heheh.) It'll take him a bit of work to catch up to the rest of the team, but I have confidence in Courage. And he lived up to that confidence. During Mallow's trial, he took down the first two "unhappy" Pokemon that I "took" ingredients from before Wimping Out with Sudowoodo, not that that bothered me. But this allowed him to Level Up quickly. Then came the Totem Battle. Sure, Courage got out first, but I swapped him for Meowzma, who then proceeded to OHKO Lurantis with Fire Punch (I admit I backtracked a bit to see if was moves were available to my team at the time), followed by Brick Breaking Kecleon. Easy-peasy. Got myself the Grass Z-Crystal and a new TM from the Professor.

I decided that, before moving on, to take some time and catch various Pokemon in the jungle, as well as Level Up Courage a bit more. Glad I did, as I found Comfey, Oranguru, and Steenee very easily, along with a Hoothoot and an SOS Noctowl, so I filled up some pages while I was at it. Time to move on. Battled and defeated the remaining Trainers near Brooklet Hill and battled the Z-Move Trial Guide. Since I OHKOed his Slowpoke, he had to let Mr. Mime use the Z-Move, which turned out to be Z-Reflect, but I had Nightwave use a Poison-type Hidden Power to deal with it. So it was off to Burnet's lab. Learned about Ultra Wormholes and Ultra Beasts before moving on. Took care of business in Diglett Tunnel and smacked around those Team Skull numbskulls before heading to Konikoni City. Did a bit of shopping in the form of TMs, certain items, and clothes, so now I have a really cool (to me, anyway) wardrobe. But next on my agenda was Olivia, but before I could fight her, I had to deal with Plumeria. Her Golbat kept confusing Meowzma with Confuse Ray, so that got very annoying, but at least she never poisoned him or anything. Sveta cleaned her Salandit's clock with a single Rock Tomb, and the resulting Level Up allowed her to learn Rock Slide. Nice! Now it was off to Olivia.

Olivia was tougher this time around, especially with the addition of Fossil Mons. Lileep gave me some trouble, especially thanks to a well-timed Super Potion + Giga Drain, but the two Fossils went down. Then it was a duel between Lycanrocs. Sveta scored a Critical Hit Rock Slide, OHKOing Olivia's Midnight form without breaking a sweat. Not only that, but the resulting Level Ups caused both Courage and Solaris to evolve into Golisopod and Lurantis, respectively. I've never had a double evolution before, so that was quite the surprise. After all was said and done, I decided to backtrack and do some side-quests that I had missed, such as the 7 Mysteries, the Ditto 5 and such. Plus I found enough Totem Stickers to obtain the next Totem Mon, but I don't plan on using it, as I do have Courage, and he's proving to be a useful battler.

That about sums up what I did within two rounds of gametime, but the fading 3DS batteries are getting to be problematic, so I can't get much more done until I get the replacement parts. Hopefully they'll come soon. But that's all for now.

Team:
Meowzma (Incineroar, male, 39)
Sveta (Dusk Lycanroc, female, 36)
Solaris (Lurantis, female, 35)
Courage (Golisopod, male, 32)
Nightwave (Noibat, male, 35)

(Yes, my team is very overleveled, but a lot of the side-quests provided a lot of extra EXP for them to chew on. Plus some of the other posts here have me concerned about future battles, so it never hurts to have a few extra levels on hand.)
 
Completed Ilima's trial and Hala's grand trial! Hala was more of a challenge than he was in SM, but that just makes battles more fun imo. Tried a round of Mantine Surfing at the game's insistence and ended up with around 2047 points. It was a fun imo, I could see myself enjoying this feature later on. Bought clothes after arriving at Heahea, then met Dexio and Sina. Caught a Mudbray and headed to Paniola Town.

First up was Lana's trial. Araquanid was actually easier compared to Wishiwashi, though still posed a challenge imo. Marowak was OHKO'd by Brionne's Hydro Vortex, making it my easiest Totem battle so far. Lurantis wasn't as difficult as in SM thanks to my Fletchinder.

I've just arrived at Konikoni city. I figured I might as well explore a bit and grind before taking on Olivia.

Current Team:
  • Brionne (Aoi) lv.27
  • Charjabug (Railgun) lv.27
  • Honedge (Excalibur) lv.27
  • Mudbray (Gaia) lv.27
  • Fletchinder (Charlotte) lv.27
 
All I did today was head over to Po Town. I liked the addition of the Team Skull Grunt in Battle in Pokemon Center and running into Faba in Ula'ula Meadow. I'll make more progress tomorrow.
 
Took care of Ilima, I find his dialogue in the game to be annoying. I know who he is, he doesn't need to say "Greetings, Captain Ilima here", dud you aren't that special. I took care of the Totem in the Verdant Cavern easily. Pikipek + Brick Break. I caught a Crabrawler but he hasn't really seen much battle.

For Hala, I battled him with my newly evolved Trumbreak, my Brionne, and Dartrix. Now I'm listening to Hala blah blah blah and I'll get Tauros added to my ride pager.
 
Defeated the Electric Trial (that puzzle did my head in), made my way up to Aether House and will take on the Ghost Trial next. Also lost to some dude with three middle stage dragons who had OP movesets. He was three levels above me too, so I suppose it was more my own fault. The Gabite swept me with Earthquake. The revenge came in which 5 of my dudes were killed but I was left with one on little HP. Yay, I suppose. I didn't expect the final starter at level 34 though, so that was a shock.

Crobat- level 34
Randy Orton the Inciniroar - 34
Lopunny - 34
Akechi the Alolan Raichu - 34
Cottonee- 34
Miltoic - 34
 
Started off today with Olivia's Grand Trial. Her Lileep was the most difficult part because I didn't have any Steel moves. Hau and I were then invited to Aether Paradise where Nihilego appeared and was promptly defeated by Gaia. She evolved afterwards, so that was neat.
We then met up with Professor Kukui at Malie Garden. Tbh I just rushed through this part because I wanted to capture a Pancham as soon as possible. Lillie and I met Acerola at the library, and some lore happened.
The Charjabug puzzle was actually very easy imo. Togedemaru was burnt and quickly fainted, unlike Skarmory who was such a pain. I returned to the garden, fought Guzma, then headed to Blush Mountain so I could evolve Railgun. Hapu also gave me the Mudsdale Pokéride. It was a nice gesture, but why can't I just use mine?
Totem Mimikyu was easier by comparison. I really love the Ghost Trial's atmosphere - it's definitely my favourite Trial because of how eerie the entire site is. I'll be holding off Po Town to work on my Pokédex; I've been catching things as I go, but I'd really like to reach 25% before the climax.

Current Team:
  • Primarina (Aoi) lv.36
  • Vikavolt (Railgun) lv.36
  • Doublade (Excalibur) lv.36
  • Mudsdale (Gaia) lv.36
  • Talonflame (Charlotte) lv.36
  • Pangoro (Bancho) lv.36
 
Last edited:
Just got to Malie City today and had a battle with Hau. The battle gave my Dartrix just enough EXP to finally evolve into Decidueye! I'm gonna explore the city a bit and go battle in the Kantonian Gym to prepare for Sophocles trial.

Current Team
  • Revali- Decidueye- Level 34
  • Peaches- Dusk Lycanroc- Level 33
  • Boomer- Noibat- Level 31
  • Vappers- Vaporeon- Level 32
  • RazzleDazzle- Salandit- Level 29
 
So, I made a bit more progress today.

I started by finishing the Po Town mission, and I was surprised that the questions to get to Guzma were about Plumeria instead of the boss himself. For a minute, I thought I was about to battle Plumeria. I kinda wish it was because, once again, Guzma tore me apart. It sucks that I have so few counters to his bug-types, I always get nearly destroyed. I'm also really regretting not getting a Meowth with Limber, because Fur Coat would have been really nice to have so many times :(

Anyway, the battle with Gladion was much simpler, though I keep forgetting about his Zoroark. I guess it's fine though since it normally disguises as Type:Null and I'm often ready to bust out a fighting-type move. Anyway, after that battle I turned on the EXP. Share because we were way too underleveled and I knew we were about to come across a huge amount of super tough battles.

The battle against Nanu was easier than I thought it would be, mainly since he didn't heal his Persian even when it was low on health. Hilariously he easily led to his demise when he used Swagger on my Lurantis and a nice attack boosted Leaf Blade Bloom Doom decimated his Krokorok. :D

I went through Aether Paradise with the EXP. Share so my team got on equal playing field with Guzma when we battled him again. It was probably the easiest battle I've had against Guzma this entire game. Dulse and Zossie showed up once again and battled me again with UB Adhesive. And from here, I like how the story takes such a grand turn. So, Lusamine is trying to go into Ultra Space herself to battle Necrozma and try to save Alola? Cuz that's a HUGE change from last time. And Lillie and Gladion are trying to stop her because they're worried for her after what happened to Mohn? Now this is a nice surprise. I'm really excited to see what happens next because it's clear the major changes are about the start and I'm hyped. :D
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom