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The Official Travelog + Let's Play Thread

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I played a little bit more Diamond last weekend and tonight. Decided to go with Golduck instead of Gyarados since I haven't really used it since Red and Blue. I just beat Fantina and my current party is Infernape, Roselia, Murkrow, and Golduck, all at level 36. I also caught a Bibarel and a Noctowl for HMs. I've been having fun, just getting to the point where the game starts to pick up. Looking forward to evolving Roselia and Murkrow too.
 
Of my aforementioned objectives, I've achieved achieved at least unlocking the Champions Tournament. I need to check if I've already caught all the outbreak Pokémon, but I've at least caught most of them already. Same with the Fossils.

I'm also making good progress with my Habitat List completions. I've filled up a lot of different areas on it already. The Prop collecting is also going smoothly, and I think I've already collected all from one genre. Currently, I've won the Musical six times, so I need four more wins to get the Winner's Belt Prop. I've faced N in his winter theme battle (I stupidly went and passed the opportunity to battle his autumn team when I had the chance). As for the Black Tower, I've currently cleared all areas up to Area 6.

I've decided to leave the Battle Subway and the League Challenge Mode rematches until after I've cleared the Black Tower. With my team just hitting level 80 upon clearing Area 6 at the Black Tower, I don't think those last two will even be that big of a challenge. If I feel like it, I may give the Champions Tournament a whirl too, although I have pretty low expectations for clearing it. Unless I raise some semi-competitive mons for it. Currently, the only such mon I have is an Archeops, which has been of tremendous help at the PWT, and will probably also be at Battle Subway. Thank you so much, Join Avenue dojo!

Oh, and speaking of Join Avenue, I've kept recommending it to the NPC bypassers every day I can to get more points, because why not? Currently, its rank is in the 40s. My Medal Rally just broke the 100 Medals mark, upgrading my Medal Rally status to Elite.

Man, I love how much post-game content these games have. It's almost insane.
 
I'm debating if I want to shiny hunt in Ultra Sun or Let's Go Pikachu today. I've completed the dex in both games.
 
I'm playing a LeafGreen save file I haven't touched in ~15 years. I'd beaten the E4 and done most postgame, but I hadn't beaten their rematch teams so I'm trying to do that. Its really hard cause my team's only levels 60 - 70 and theirn are pushing 80 D: I've failed about a dozen times so far, but each time I end up closer to victory--last run I whited out at Gary's last pokemon. I reckon I'll beat him next run. My team:

  • 233MS.png
    Cyborg the Porygon2 w/Trace (I actually prefer this to Download)
    • Psychic
    • Thunderbolt
    • Conversion
    • Recover
  • 208MS.png
    Avalanche the Steelix w/Sturdy (before it got good)
    • Iron Tail
    • Earthquake
    • Sandstorm
    • Rock Slide
  • 006MS.png
    Pyro the Charizard w/Blaze
    • Fly
    • Heat Wave
    • Steel Wing
    • Overheat
  • 103MS.png
    Amazon the Exeggutor w/Chlorophyll
    • Sleep Powder
    • Dream Eater
    • Giga Drain
    • Skill Swap
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    Capricorn the Kingdra w/Swift Swim
    • Surf
    • Ice Beam
    • Rain Dance
    • Attract (placeholder move until we have something better)
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    Vetero the Castform W/Forecast
    • Weather Ball
    • Thunder
    • Sunny Day
    • Hail (need Rain Dance but dont have another TM >.>)

I'm trying to go for a multiple weather team: Amazon + Pyro for Sunny Day, Capricorn for Rain Dance, Avalanche for Sandstorm and Vetero benefits from all of them (and is the only one who benefits from Hail).

I played a little bit more Diamond last weekend and tonight. Decided to go with Golduck instead of Gyarados since I haven't really used it since Red and Blue. I just beat Fantina and my current party is Infernape, Roselia, Murkrow, and Golduck, all at level 36. I also caught a Bibarel and a Noctowl for HMs. I've been having fun, just getting to the point where the game starts to pick up. Looking forward to evolving Roselia and Murkrow too.

Golduck is highly underappreciated.
 
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I'm doing random things in the Black 2 post-game. I've caught all but two of the outbreak Pokémon (missing Farfetch'd and Ariados), completed the Habitat Lists, defeated the Champions Tournament at the PWT (and every other tournament besides the Type Expert ones), defeated Benga, cleared the Pokémon League rematches on Challenge Mode, collected over 120 Medals, and raised my Join Avenue's Rank past 50.

My team is in their 80s, and I'm aiming to catch the remaining outbreak Pokémon and get to at least 150 Medals, although I'm not sure if I'll be able to. And once I feel like I've squeezed out the last bits of enjoyment out of this game, I think I'll play White again.
 
I'm attempting to evolve an Eevee into an Espeon in Moon and starting to see red!
I've filled its affection scale in Refresh mode, I have it holding the soothe bell, I've fed it two Masaladas and more than 20 beans in refresh mode, I've used oran berries and leppa berries to heal it and refill it's PP, battle only with it and never let it faint.
What the fuck am I still not doing!? I officially hate happiness evolution with a passion!

Sorry needed a vent. Thanx.
 
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I started playing Pokemon Quest a couple days ago.
My current quest is to get all the starters.
Still waiting since they're incredibly rare.
 
I'm attempting to evolve an Eevee into an Espeon in Moon and starting to see red!
I've filled its affection scale in Refresh mode, I have it holding the soothe bell, I've fed it two Masaladas and more than 20 beans in refresh mode, I've used oran berries and leppa berries to heal it and refill it's PP, battle only with it and never let it faint.
What the fuck am I still not doing!? I officially hate happiness evolution with a passion!

Sorry needed a vent. Thanx.

Have you tried taking it to get a massage? And also, try using some vitamins on it and so forth. And in battle, use battle items like x attack and so forth on it.

I wish that GF would change Eevee's evolution mechanic for Umbreon/Espeon. Why can't it evolve after learning a particular move and then its evolution is then determined by the time of day (which the second half is already in place).

I'm replaying Pokemon Diamond (or maybe it's Pearl, I can't remember which). I'm currently on Iron Island with Riley leveling up my team, which really doesn't need it but I really don't want to deal with Bastiodon when I do take on the next gym.

Current team:
Floatzel, lv. 37
Infernape, lv. 36
Torterra, lv. 35
Staraptor, lv. 35

I think I'll use Garchomp and Lucario to round out my last two. I have a boxed Luxray that I may use to alternate with Staraptor - who I honestly only have because of Fantina's annoying ghost Pokemon. I had fun with her - my Luxray knows Swagger and Crunch, so that the end of one of her Gengar, my Staraptor (Staravia at the time) made her Driftblim's life miserable; and I used Luxray's Swagger to confuse her Mismagius, and then swapped it out with Staravia to keep her Shadow Ball at bay. I spent my time healing Luxray and Staraptor with potions and stuff while I left Mismagius knock itself out with its confusion.
 
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I'm attempting to evolve an Eevee into an Espeon in Moon and starting to see red!
I've filled its affection scale in Refresh mode, I have it holding the soothe bell, I've fed it two Masaladas and more than 20 beans in refresh mode, I've used oran berries and leppa berries to heal it and refill it's PP, battle only with it and never let it faint.
What the fuck am I still not doing!? I officially hate happiness evolution with a passion!

Sorry needed a vent. Thanx.
Amie / Refresh mode doesn't actually affect friendliness / happiness. It is a separate value from affection. I tried it once in XY. The affection is only for Sylveon.

Anyhow as for me, I'm not actually playing any Pokemon game as of yet. But I have been considering starting a new playthrough in Gold with a mono-type run. I just haven't figured out yet type to use yet.
 
I just beat the Elite Four in Silver. When I was grinding for it, I encountered (and caught) a shiny Ponyta.

I intend to try to catch the legendary dogs next.
 
Not much for me, still doing random post-game stuff in Black 2. My Join Avenue is less than 100 points away from reaching Rank 75, bringing me yet another step closer towards Rank 100. My teams levels are two 89s, two 90s, and two 91s. My intention is to raise everyone to level 100 and earn the medal that you get by beating the Pokémon League with just one Pokémon. I've already earned the medal you get as proof of beating the League with just Steel types.

Not sure what I should play next. I think I've had enough Unova for now, so I'll probably replay either Platinum or a Johto game.

Also, something that's been bothering me...
I think I'll play White again.
I meant to say Black here, not White. I played White just before Black 2.
 
[...]
I intend to try to catch the legendary dogs next.
I bred a Parasect with False Swipe for the purpose, and had to grind it to level 79 to get it to be fast enough for Raikou. I beat the Elite Four 20 more times to do so. I caught all 3 of them, followed by Lugia.
When I finally bothered to go to Kanto, I was very over-levelled. I obtained all 8 Kanto badges, but went back to Johto in the middle of that to get Ho-oh.
As far as the Pokédex is concerned, I have only 2 left to get (Sunkern and Corsola) before I must start evolving them. [2019-07-29T15:16-0700] Update: I just caught Sunkern and Corsola.
 
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I started up HeartGold to do a run of it since I haven't actually fully completed the game yet. I plan on posting all the finer details later, once I make some pretty graphics to go along with it all. So far, I've only just started the game. I picked Cyndaquil, and I decided to catch a Bellsprout and add that to my team as well since I don't think I've ever used one in a normal playthrough of any of the games before. I'm currently working on going through Sprout Tower so I can challenge Faulkner, and I'm using it as an opportunity to get Bellsprout some levels and a little extra EXP for Cyndaquil, since Vine Whip vs Vine Whip fights left and right would take hours and I'm not about that life.
 
I've been doing a marathon of all the games for... some reason. Honestly I don't really know why! But hey, it busts the commute. I have a pretty long public transport commute :p

I'm up to Pokémon Gold having finished Red, Blue and Yellow, and actually completed the Pokédex in Yellow! First time I've ever finished a Pokédex in 20 years of playing them :wynaut: Undecided if I'm gonna spend the time completing Red & Blue's Pokédex - I have pretty much everything I'd need to do it, it's just whether or not I want to spend the time to spend trading stuff between them.

I'm actually really enjoying going back to them, they haven't aged nearly as badly as I thought they would have (although the jump in quality from Gen I to Gen II is very noticable). Understanding how to play the games a lot better than I did back in the day is making them a lot more enjoyable too, plus I'm making a point to try to use things on my teams that I've never used much before:

Yellow: Pikachu, Clefable, Venomoth, Aerodactyl, Nidoqueen, Lapras
Red: Charizard, Parasect, Hypno, Dodrio, Hitmonchan, Omastar
Blue: Blastoise, Golem, Alakazam, Machamp, Gengar, Dragonite

(Finally having access to those trade evolutions that 10-year-old me never did is pretty sweet!)

And my Gold team (7 Badges so far): Quilava, Quagsire, Umbreon, Heracross

Planning to add a Xatu, but not sure what my 6th will be - I don't have access to the Gen II trade evolutions yet (my Silver or Crystal team's gonna have loads of fun stuff), so might go with a Normal-type like Granbull or Ursaring.

I've fallen in love with Gen II all over again though, it's such a step up from the originals. The presentation is wonderful, there's so much more to do, a lot of the little annoyances are fixed, it generally feels a lot more like a modern gen game than I expected it to whilst still running off the humble Game Boy

(edit: omitted a progress detail since I saw other people in the thread haven't played through GSC/HGSS yet :) )
 
Got through Sprout Tower the other night and beat Falkner. Picked up the Egg from the professor's assistant; I'm undecided on using it once it hatches, but I'll see where I'm at when that time comes. I also picked up the Hive Badge and made my way to Goldenrod City. I took a look in the department store, hoping they'd have a Leaf Stone on sale for later when I go to get a Weepinbel, but they didn't so I'll just have to find one elsewhere. That was where I'd stopped for the night though. My Cyndaquil also evolved into Quilava!

@Nil If you're worried about spoiling me with HGSS details (or even just gen 2 details in general), no worries! I played GSC when I was a kid, so I already know a lot of what happens in the game, haha. I just never played through HG even though I've had it for quite a while, and I've finally decided to just sit down and play the game.
 
Hey y'all! So I've been planning this playthrough of Emerald for quite literally years but I've just been putting it off for so long. You see, I like to play through games as NPC's or franchise characters, much like how a number of us as younger kids named ourselves "ASH" and copied his team, I do that but with more characters, a list of characters I've done before includes:

Ash: Ruby/LeafGreen (as a 7 year old)
Red: Yellow VC/X
Anabel: SoulSilver

Another one I've been planning is this one, for a very obscure character named Dahlia! For those of you who don't remember her, she is the Frontier Brain of the Battle Arcade in the Gen 4 games, and something notable about her team is it consists of mostly Hoenn Pokemon (Blaziken, Ludicolo, Medicham, Dusknoir) and then one each from Kanto and Johto (Zapdos, Togekiss). I decided that it would make sense if her journey began in Hoenn before she was eventually brought on as a Frontier Brain in SinJoh. For that reason, I've chosen to play through Emerald as her with a strict goal of obtaining all seven Hoenn Battle Frontier symbols, no cheating involved, but glitches can be used, and used they will be, because right off the bat I will be using RNG manipulation to get a suitable Nature and IV spread on my Torchic.

For those not familiar, whenever Emerald boots up, an RNG table of sorts begins counting from 0 at the same rate as the games frames, which are 60fps. Each frame has a predetermined nature, IV spread, and so on that a Pokemon encountered or generated on that exact frame will always have. As explained here, it's fairly easy to manipulate this to your advantage. I will be using similar methods throughout the game, including obtaining the otherwise unobtainable Zapdos and Togepi, for that I will be using the Pomeg Berry glitch, the Battle Tower cloning glitch, and the traded Pokemon glitch with Dotts, the founder of the glitch with Dotts coined it "Glitzer-popping" for whatever reason, and basically it allows you to manipulate a Seedot obtained in an NPC trade named Dotts into turning into an egg that can hatch into any Pokemon you want. Specifically, I will use it to semi-legitimately (as in, no cheating device used) obtain a Zapdos and Togepi. Other than inherent glitches inside the game, which I don't consider cheating, I will be using no other cheating devices, I will simply rely on RNG manipulation and glitzer-popping to receive desired Pokemon.

I've already made use of RNG manipulation with my Torchic, at the link below you can download an Excel spreadsheet that lists every single frame's nature, IVs, and so on. I was aiming for frame 1160 or 1161, both were Naive natures, 1160 has the following IVs: (HP, Attack, Defense, Sp. Attack, Sp. Defense, Speed):

13​
25​
31​
15​
31​
19​

And frame 1161 has the following IVs:

19​
15​
31​
19​
17​
28​

Either one of these works fine, although I think I prefer frame 1161 just ever so slightly for the faster speed, but 1160 has its perks too like higher Attack and Sp. Defense. Either way, both should suffice. I know for a fact me and my friend conquered the Frontier when we were kids and we didn't even know what IVs and EVs were and just powered our way through it spamming Earthquakes and Fire Blasts, I'm just taking available precautions if I can. The two tables are too similar to tell which one I got at level 5, but as Torchic levels up I should be able to figure out which table I got. After just leveling up to 6, it seems I hit frame 1160, as my Speed stat on IV calculators is showing to be 10-26 now, so I fell just short of matching frame 1161, which is fine, Blaziken isn't the fastest Pokemon around so I might've needed those few IVs to catch some key out-speeds, but with a positive Speed nature I think I'll be okay.

As for my projected team, which is subject to change, this is what I have planned so far, keep in mind that since Dusknoir and Togekiss don't exist in Emerald, I will be making use of a Dusclops and Togetic, even if sparingly. This is the team I have planned out at this time, with some explanations included:

1. Blaziken

Nature: Naïve

Ability: Blaze

Item: Scope Lens

EVs: 252 Speed, 100 Sp. Attack, 100 Attack, 56 HP

Moveset:

-Blaze Kick

-Sky Uppercut

-Thunder Punch

-Slash


This set for Blaziken, with the Scope Lens, takes advantage of the already-increased crit ratio of Blaze Kick and Slash to try to grab as many crits as possible. Sky Uppercut is alternate STAB to Blaze Kick, and Thunder Punch provides coverage on pesky Water and Flying-types.



2. Ludicolo

Nature: Modest

Ability: Swift Swim

Item: Leftovers

EVs: 252 Sp. Attack, 152 HP, 104 Speed

Moveset:

-Surf

-Giga Drain

-Ice Beam

-Rain Dance


Ludicolo with Swift Swim requires a rain setter, which on this team, is itself or Zapdos, more on Zapdos later. As many EVs are dumped into Special Attack as possible, with Surf and Giga Drain providing dual-STAB, and Giga Drain additionally providing HP recovery, Ice Beam serves for Dragon and Grass coverage, Leftovers helps with restoring HP over longer battles using Giga Drain.



3. Medicham

Nature: Adamant

Ability: Pure Power

Item: Bright Powder/Choice Band

EVs: 252 Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP

Moveset:

-Brick Break

-Shadow Ball

-Body Slam

-Double Team/Rock Slide


This set initially was going to use a combination of Bright Powder and Double Team to cheese the AI into missing key attacks, although more recently I've begun favoring a Choice Band set replacing Double Team with Rock Slide.



4. Dusclops

Nature: Adamant

Ability: Pressure

Item: Quick Claw

EVs: 252 Attack, 100 Defense, 100 Sp. Defense, 56 HP

Moveset:

-Shadow Ball

-Earthquake

-Confuse Ray

-Toxic


Dusclops is an inherently slow Pokemon so I figured nothing bad could come out of giving it a Quick Claw for that occasional clutch Confuse Ray or finishing attack. Toxic puts basically any Pokemon on a timer, and Confuse Ray can combo with Toxic to deal further damage and prevent them from attacking.



5. Togetic

Nature: Modest

Ability: Serene Grace

Item: King’s Rock

EVs: 252 Sp. Defense, 100 Defense, 100 Sp. Attack, 56 HP

Moveset:

-Flamethrower

-Water Pulse

-Psychic

-Thunder Wave


With Serene Grace, I can grab more burns and confusions off of Flamethrower and Water Pulse, as well as lowering the Special Defense with Psychic. These combined with Thunder Wave for slowing enemies down can help me set enemies up for quick KO'es with my other Pokemon. King's Rock can also help me grab the occasional flinches, unfortunately Air Slash didn't exist in Gen 3, otherwise that would obviously be the go-to strategy here.



6. Zapdos

Nature: Timid

Ability: Pressure

Item: Magnet

EVs: 252 Sp. Attack, 252 Speed, 4 HP

Moveset:

-Thunderbolt

-Thunder Wave

-Rain Dance

-Thunder


Finally onto Dahlia's legendary Pokemon, Zapdos. This is a relatively simple set that gets walled by anything that resists or is immune to Electric, despite that, anything that takes even neutral damage dies to a Magnet-boosted 100% accurate Thunder, thanks in tandem to Rain Dance, fortunately for Zapdos, Ludicolo makes a fantastic partner, as it can take care of 3/4 types that wall Electric, those types being Ground, Grass, Electric, and Dragon. Ground, Grass, and Dragon all die to an Ice Beam from Ludicolo, so either one of them can lead, setup Rain Dance, and then I can switch to whichever I need, so really only Electric truly walls the duo of Ludicolo and Zapdos, and even then, a neutral hit from Ludicolo might suffice depending on the Pokemon.

As far as predictions, I imagine that I'll typically use Blaziken, Zapdos, and Ludicolo as my core, I feel like I have really well-rounded type coverage with them and if a matchup doesn't favor Blaziken from the start, I can switch to Ludicolo or Zapdos and hopefully run 5 turns in the rain between those two and not have to go to Blaziken before the rain is up which is the only danger with this trifecta, is managing Blaziken's usage based on whether I want to setup rain or not. Due to this fact Blaziken will almost always be either the 1st or 3rd Pokemon I send out, as I'd want to have Ludicolo and Zapdos back-to-back to take advantage of 5 turns in the rain.
 
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Been playing HeartGold off and on lately. Since my last post here, I've progressed all the way to Olivine City. I'm working on grinding a couple of my party members, specifically Quilava and Sudowoodo, up to level 30-35 (I can't remember which now) so I can have an easier time against Jasmine. I already tried challenging her once, and I ended up losing because of her Steelix, so I'm hoping that getting my levels up will help with that.
 
Okay I've finally made some progress on my Emerald playthrough as Dahlia. I spent literally hours the last 3 days trying to catch various-natured Ralts on Route 102 with Synchronize for the purpose of getting all of my team as I go. Just as I mentioned in my first post, Emerald runs off an RNG table that begins rolling from 0 based on the game's fps every time you boot the game up, but stationary Pokemon, like my starter Torchic, run off a separate table than wild encounters. Stationaries are assigned to "method 1" by Smogon, wild encounters are assigned to "method 2" by Smogon. So based on the method 2 table, I had a few Modest Lotad's I was aiming for, but they mention here that using a Pokemon with Synchronize can force the table to roll to the next closest of that nature, it cannot go backwards, but if you hit the 50% to get the same nature as your Pokemon with Synchronize, it forcibly rolls ahead on the RNG table to the next possible frame with that Nature, using this decreased my margin of error as I didn't have to actually land on a specific frame, I could be a few frames early and get forced into the frame I wanted. That being said, I must've been either way too early or way too late because the Lotad I got was NOT the one I was aiming for, which was:

14​
4​
30​
21​
10​
22​

Instead, the one I got was:

10​
29​
16​
31​
31​
9​

And I'm honestly not complaining, the one I was aiming for specifically had trash Attack but above average Speed and Sp. Attack, but the one I got has respectable Speed and perfect Sp. Attack and Sp. Defense, although that Attack stat is mighty wasted on a Modest Lotad. That being said, the first table wouldn't have worked either. Just as natures and IVs are assigned by frame, so are Abilities, and I didn't know which Ability to aim for, they're marked as 0 or 1, and the first table is marked as 1, the second table is marked as 0. What this means is that the table I desired had Rain Dish anyways, so I'm content with the one I got, being that it at least has Swift Swim. Unfortunately my ideal frame would have me stuck with Rain Dish. I don't think the Speed will be a big factor because I will typically play Ludicolo under rain anyways. Onto Rustboro City for my first Gym Badge!
 
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I managed to beat Jasmine and Pryce in HeartGold. Working on getting to Clair now, just gotta finish beating down Team Rocket for the hundredth time. I guess it works out since I decided I wanted to use Seel/Dewgong over Staryu, and I need to train my new party member up so it stands a chance against Clair.
 
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