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The Official Travelog + Let's Play Thread

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I'm not sure whether I was expecting to be playing until 4am or not, but it happened. Couldn't really stop until I had beaten the champion (which actually took twice. Was pretty under leveled but thankfully had a better idea how to go in the second time) but then of course there's 10 more minutes of unstoppable cutscenes right after. :v Excited to check out the post game in the mornin.
 
Just finished the second trial. It was actually a bit more difficult than I'm used to from Pokemon, or at least Wishiwashi and the Alomomola it summoned were pretty bulky. I ended up using a dire hit to do some better damage.

On my way to the Battle dome town now (not sure what the name is)

Team:

Dartrix lv 22
Cutiefly lv 20
Mudbray lv 20

I finally got a fishing rod too, so it's time for some Mareanie hunting.
 
Just finished the main game. Nuzlocked, but with the additional rule that only new Pokemon and Alolan forms count (for instance, if I run into a ledyba on route 1 as my first encounter, I disregard it. If I run into a Pikipek, I must catch it)

Hall of Fame:

Oricorio-P (F): Olivia
Marowak-A (F): Tharja
Araquanid (F): Cordelia
Mimkyu (F): Noire
Ninetales-A (F): Sumia
Exeggutor-A (F): Cherche

RIP:

Rattata-A (M): Kellam
Gumshoos (M): Frederick
Diglett-A (F): Maribelle
Mudsdale (F): Sully
Grimer-A (F): Kjelle
Decidueye (M): Virion
Minior (M): Inigo

Box:
Meowth-A (M): Ricken
Trumbeak (M): Basilio
Todegemaru (M): Brady
Crabrawler (M): Owain
Wishiwashi (M): Gregor
Solgaleo: Nebby


regarding solgaleo's name
I know that Sogaleo breaks the Fire Emblem Awakening theme, but if you name your mascot legend anything but Nebby you probably have no soul lol :p
 
Did Olivia's grand trial yesterday and it was not that hard. Probably because my team is strong against Rock type or my team is just overleveled, tough just a little bit. And then I head straight up to Aether Paradise. I must say I don't like Faba, though I dislike most of Aether's character even the grunt. The only Aether character I quite like is Wicke.

Anyway, went up to the conservation area and met Lusamine. I laughed when she said that she's already over 40. Didn't expect that, but then again who would? UB-01's appearance is quite dramatic, and I like the fact that the MC didn't smile when that happened. Lusamine's smile after I defeated the UB is creepy and suspicious. I mean, she's already suspicious before, but she's even more suspicious now.

Got to Malie City after that and Hau suggested us battling. Why not? So I battle Hau and, dang, his A-Raichu is scary. But I managed to beat him fortunately. Next is the Sophocles trial, and once again I'm delighted of how they introduce us to the totem Pokemon. Vikavolt is quite hard as I forgot it's ability at first, but I managed to defeat it. Right now I'm on route 11 after receiving Mudsdale PokeRide. Current team is Chvette (Decidueye), Primarina, Ka'lio (Mudsdale), Chléo (Salazzle), Tesla (Charjabug), Quiao (Crabrawler). Mudsdale is supposed to be a filler until I caught Sandile, but now I'm quite attached to it. :/
 
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After meandering a whole lot on Route 3 and filling up my dex(MeleMele is somewhere around 23%), I got to Iki Town.....what a bummer. Despite being two levels higher, the Totem was harder then Hala. Level 18 Hardy Trumbeak and I OHKO Pluck'd my wat through his team. Not even his Z Move Crabrawler could take down the birb. Maybe its Refresh? But yeah, I was surprised to be so overlevelled, the game felt balanced for it to be in that range. Onto Akala, till around Kiawe's trial, then back to melemele to do the Tauros paths and explore Kala'e Bay. Thinking about using Diglett as well, cause I'm ditching the Pika Line come Togedemaru. I have a crazy good one that I caught to fill the dex that has raised Attack and lowered special. This thing is doing wonders with its stab moves.
Torracat Lvl 19
Trumbeak Lvl 20
Pichu Lvl 18
Current Location: HeaHea City
 
Just defeated the third trial. (the fire one) It was looking a bit dicey for a moment, both Cutiefly and Dartrix got destroyed by Salazzle....but

then Mudbray came in with one hit k.o to save the day. (this trials totem battle has a serious ground type weakness)

The trial was a bit wackier than I was expecting (I mean Kiawe seems pretty serious)

Team:

Dartrix lv 22
Cutiefly lv 21
Mudbray lv 23

I'm going to add more team members before I think about taking on Mallows trial.

Edit: Also...(character spoiler)

I just bumped into freaking Colress! Honestly I'm kinda fangirling right now, he was one of the characters I really wanted to see return! :D
 
Defeated Red at the Battle Tree - he was an easier knock out than Blue, who solidly beat me in my first attempt.

Now I'm on a mission to capture a ditto.
 
Being catching pokemon especially for in game trades. Found some items I have missed. Defend my champion title by beating Hau with Decidueye, Incineroar, Primarina, Vikavolt, Solgaleo and Zygarde.
 
Spent most of the time trading with various people, so that I could breed a Turtonator for my team. All that remains now as filler is Butterfree and my team is set. Grinded up Turtonator and now I'm sat outside the forest or whatever for the water challenge. I think that's what it is anyway, the first on the second island. I believe Lana is in there waiting, or something.

Sparkle the shiny Magnemite level 18
Butterfree level 18
Evolved Rowlet level 18
Rockruff level 18
Evolved Pikipek level 18
Turtonator level 18
 
Forgot to mention this last time, Malie City is the first store coming through with some decent customization options~ I grabbed a couple things from there I liked~ Also, the garden's reference to Johto is lovely~ And meeting Oak's cousin was nice, as well!

Moving on, the challenge continues. I was almost swept by an Absol for goodness sakes, before taking on Sophicles, who was a monster in himself! The parahax were real, but we were able to pull through! Side note, I enjoyed Route 8's side quest of finding the adorable little Stufful!

On the way to deliver a certain someone's mask back. ;3

Team
Incineroar = Jongdae (My little man is all grown up :'3 ), Rimbombee = Kyungsoo, Tsureena = Minseok, Formantis = Se Hun, Comfey = Yixing

In Party Mons: Same
 
I got a whole lot done today. 2 trials and a Grand Trial.

Battled another Sightseer. This time one with a Meowth. I love how she took a selfie after the battle.

Moving on to Kiawe's trial, I'm glad it was easier than Lana's. I was worried those dances would actually be really difficult to tell the differences between.

Totem Salazzle was quite a challenge, especially since they just threw me into the battle without letting me heal first. The combinations of Toxic+ Venoshock, Vemon Drench and a high Sp. Attack Flame Burst was devastating. Luckily I taught my Rockruff, Helios, Rock Tomb before the battle. He ended up taking out the Totem and her Salandit buddy after my Torracat, Abysunnyan, and our Oricorio helper, Hoolaa, knocked their heath down. After the match I equipped a Firium-Z crystal to Abysunnyan so he can now use Inferno Overdrive.

I was super surprised to run into Colress. I heard people were theorizing him to be in the game, but I never expected that to be the case. He gave me Flame Charge, which I taught to Abysunnyan.

Then I went to the Lush Jungle to take on Mallow's Trial. It took a while, but finally got all of her ingredients to pummel into her special dish.

Totem Lurantis was difficult as hell. I was thrown off by the Trumbeak assistant. I expected a Fomantis. Luckily, I started with Hoolaa to use Feather Dance to completely decimate Lurantis's attack and a bit of Trumbeak's. Helios took out Trumbeak before going down to that Solar Blade. When Lurantis called upon a Castform, I sent out my Fomatis Lily while I revived by fainted Pokemon. I lowered Casform's attack and then sent out Abysunnyan. I used his Inferno Overdrive Z-Move to nearly take out the Castform. Then either he or Helios took it out, I can't remember. Then I just used my Cutiefly Soleanna to take out Lurantis since she was incompletely resistant to all of Lurantis's now weakened attacks.

After the battle I went back into the Jungle to catch my fourth official team member, a Bounsweet named Solaris. I gave both her and Soleanna Grassium-Z Crystals (Soleanna's is for her Stun Spore. I then used one of the Rare Candies I got from the Cafe to level her up and she evolved into Steenee immediately. While in the Jungle I also caught a Passimian that I named Zabu to add as a new helper team member. Then I made by my way to the lab where I met Kukui's wife, Hau and Lillie once again. Since she mentioned Ultra Beasts, I'm guessing the plot is about to start picking up.

Upon arriving to Koniknoi City, I updated my wardrobe yet again. I bought an Orange Ruffled Blouse to further match my avatar, White Sporty Knee Socks, and a Pink Ruffled Shoulder Bag. I later bought a Beige Sea Star Head Band from Oliva's shop.

While making my way to Oliva for our battle, Helios and Soleanna evolved and learned their signature moves. I was unexpectedly battled by Plumeria and then went to heal my team and buy some medicine.

Olivia's battle was pretty decent. I started out with Solaris, but she was quickly overpowered by Nosepass. Forurtnatley, Zabu was able to take it out with ease. I brought a newly healed Solaris back out to take out Boldore, which she narrowly succeeded in doing. When Oliva sent out Lycanroc, I brought out Abysunnyan to lower its attack with Growl. Oliva wanted none of that and destroyed him with her Lycanroc's Continental Crush. I sent out Zabu again to lower its speed with Scary Face and bring it down to half health with a crit Rock Smash. Then I had Solaris finish him off with Bloom Doom.

After the fight, I gave Helios a Rockium-Z crystal. Then I flew off to heal my team and will soon be off to meet up with some Aether Foundation employees.

I'm having way more fun now that I've got more Z-Crystals that are compatible with my team. I'm expecting to head to the next island tomorrow.
 
I started off just before the Totem Wishiwashi battle. My strategy was to start off with Makuhita's knock-off, then focus on knocking out both allies before taking on Wishiwashi itself. What was surprising about this battle was that my strategy actually worked better than I expected, and I ended up defeating the totem before Alomomola.
Next up is Kiawe's trial. I spent some time beforehand looking for a female Salandit for my party, after which I leveled her a bit to catch up to everyone before actually starting. I had no coverage against Fire or Poison-types aside from Rock Tomb, so the Salazzle battle was the closest I've been to actually losing so far.
Before heading to Lush Jungle, I caught a Volt Absorb Chinchou for my party and played around with PokéPelago for a bit. I also caught a Stufful with Fluffy after getting Klutz three times in a row. That was annoying. As for Mallow's trial, the lead-up to the totem battle was so hilarious I couldn't help but restart just to watch it again. Lurantis was a pain to fight, even with taking advantage of Sunny Day to increase Salandit's firepower.
Next up, a good half hour or so of level grinding and plot! Eventually made it to Konikoni city. I'm currently at the Ruins of Life, just before battling Kahuna Olivia.

Party:
Dartrix lv.26
Ribombee lv.26
Salandit lv.26
Chinchou lv.26
Stufful lv.26

By the way, might I add that I'm loving the heightened difficulty in SM so far. Boss battles are actually challenging imo and require more than just mashing A like Gen VI.
 
Just finished the second (I think it's second?) trial with the giant blue fish and the girl with the blue hair (I'm tired and I'm terrible with names even when not tired). Been spending most of my time catching Pokemon. At first I was excited that almost every single new route/place came with a metric crap-ton of new Pokemon not in my dex yet, but now it's kinda exhausting. I've probably missed a bunch. I do know I keep accidentally murdering things I'm trying to catch, like Psyduck and that weird thing with the two horns. Grubbin? Sure.

I've sort of gone back in time to the days when I first started playing Pokemon and thought it was a good idea to level every Pokemon in my box to the same level. Now it's mostly just to fill out my dex rather than "I think this is a good idea for battling." The aforementioned giant blue fish managed to murder three of my guys, but that was mostly my fault for having two of them be new Pokemon I'd just caught that were like lv 20 (Cottonee and Fomantis).

Still trying to figure out which ghost I want to use. I have Brunhilde the Misdreavus and HMS Magellan the Drifloon both at lv 25, and AnaPhylax the Gastly is like 20 atm. Probably going to try to run around with Isla the Pichu tomorrow to try to get it to evolve into Pikachu so I can have another electric type besides Bad Compass the Magnemite.

So yeah, slowly making my snail's pace way through the game. Would probably help if I didn't have to study for finals :p
 
Captured the rest of the UBs and Necrozma, and defended my champion title; planning on catching the Tapus next. My current team is Primarina, Solgaleo, Toucannon, Magnezone, Mudsdale, and Hariyama.
 
Picked up the game today and started. It took me a good fifteen minutes to pick a name for my Trainer....

Anyway, our starter Pokemon is a girl! That hasn't happened since Gen 3. She also has a slightly beneficial Nature in being Calm.

Also, I absolutely LOVE the improvements they made to the Pokemon Storage PC system.
 
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Day 3 and Day 4

Route 2 doesn't seem like the most eventful route, so the only notable thing that was done was to complete the first trial. If I were to know that you can catch Alolan Rattata here, then I don't need to go catch one earlier. However, it's still nice to see that there's a place to catch one. On an unrelated note, my Rowlet evolves into a Dartrix at this point. In my opinion, Dartrix is a fancy gentle-Pokemon, and I think that the entire line is amazing. I wonder why Dartrix never turn its head around like Rowlet did, though.

As for the trial itself, it's funny how you have to rely on Team Skull Grunts to catch the Raticate that changes holes. I wonder how did Hau go through this, assuming that Team Skull didn't interfere. The Totem Pokemon itself doesn't seem to be tough, even though I didn't use any Fighting-types (the Pokemon there are double-weak to Fighting attacks). Despite the Defence increase, Raticate doesn't seem like a tough Pokemon given its well-rounded stats, unless it has Hustle (which I didn't notice anyway). I wonder if Gumshoos is harder since its Attack is on the high side.

After the trial is over, battles are available in the cave, and then surprisingly, wild Pokemon can now call for help! Sometimes this would feel annoying because if their HP is not quite enough to KO them, then they can call for help. It could be welcomed if the new Pokemon has better IVs, but I couldn't really verify this. I assumed it's true because that's what other people were saying. I once chained Diglett like 6 in a row, but the original doesn't seem to be able to call for any more help, so I just ended the battle then and there.

On to Route 3. I think that, given the progress in this game, Vullaby is the first version-exclusive Pokemon I've found. It's nice that they given Vullaby and Rufflet are available early, but I can't imagine it being easy to level them up, given their slow levelling and high evolution level. I suppose this is good trade fodder, so I caught two. The trainers are easy as they usually are, but once all were beaten, then the Ace Trainer put up quite a fight compared to the others, utilising Stealth Rock and Red Card, and of course the usual Potion and Full Heal when his Pokemon got too injured. By that point I have 3 Pokemon weak to Rock, so the Rockruff seems like a nuisance. I did utilise Curse on Gastly on his Slowpoke, in case the battle lasted longer than it should. The battle rewards me with Red Card, which seems like an item that's too good to use given that it gets consumed after use.

On Route 3, I also encountered a Crabrawler, but unfortunately it was KO'ed before I could capture it. It was a one-hit KO, which made it worse because apparently you cannot get Crabrawler until more berries appear.

The cave that Lillie goes to seems like a nuisance at this point, since there are a lot of places where wild Pokemon can crop up. The hidden cave is pretty long, and it surprised me that the end of the cave is a dead end, with just an item at the end of the tunnel. Still, I'm not planning to go back there until I can go through the water. Speaking of the cave, I was surprised to find that Oricorio is hard to catch, but with a catch rate of 45, I guess it's not too surprising.

Back to Route 1, which I am surprised at, the places seemed familiar only when approaching the kahuna, and then there is an opportunity to face Hala in a Fighting battle. Since my team has sufficient number of Pokemon who can take on Fighting-types, I thought it shouldn't be too hard. Well, for the most part, it isn't, but I underestimated him. For one, I used Gastly to stall out Crabrawler, and I didn't even know it has Pursuit until he got lucky by not being fully paralysed (though the animation for Pursuit is quite amazing!). Other than that, he's not too hard since I have two Ghost-types and two Flying-types on my team at this point.

Beating Hala means that I can go to the next island, but there is no need to be hasty about this, because Ten-Carat Hill is now opened, now that Tauros can be called. But first, I went to retrieve Thief, which I used on Meowth since it's more Dark STAB. At the Ten-Carat Hill, I encountered a Carbink, which inadvertantly called Sableye, and what did you know? It defeated Carbink even after it called for help! Oh well, at least I caught a Sableye this way. A Pokemon I added to my team is a Roggenrola, who is easier to test its ability compared to Wingull. Mainly, Sand Stream Gigalith means that Roggenrola must be Weak Armour, and the one I caught is of a Naughty nature (+Atk, -SpDef). I attempted to catch another one, but its nature is not as good (Bold; -Atk, +Def), so I continued using the Naughty one. Roggenrola replaces Misdreavus, because at least Gastly has Hypnosis for easier captures.

At Ten-Carat Hill, my Meowth finally evolved into a Persian at Level 21, which is lower than that of an actual Persian. This is because I gave it a Soothe Bell to make it able to reach the friendship level more easily, and is my first fully-evolved Pokemon.

After a few more captures at Ten-Carat Hill, I am done with this place for now. But first, before my voyage, I will need to check and see if I miss any Pokemon I can encounter in Melemele Island, because you never know: there might be.

Members:
1) Dartrix (Olivia): Jolly (F)
2) Wingull (Aqua): Relaxed (M)
3) Grubbin (Loki): Relaxed (F)
4) Persian-A (Paul): Timid (M)
6) Gastly (Gus): Quiet (M)
8) Charistan (Roggenrola): Naughty (M)

Reserves:
5) Drifloon (forgot to nickname): Brave (F)
7) Benedict (Misdreavus): [Forgot Nature] (M)

Thanks for reading.
 
Did quite a bit since my last post. I completed Mallow's trial and defeated Olivia....then visited Aether Paradise and I just arrived on Ula Ula island now. I also traded for a Drampa and added one to my team after Kiawe's trial.....and I managed to catch a Mareanie without too much hassle on route 9. (it took me about 20 minutes to find Corsola and then Mareanie was about the third Pokemon it called) I decided to breed some Mareanie and send them out over Wonder Trade since I've heard they can be annoying to find.

Team:

Dartrix lv 28
Ribombee lv 28
Mudbray lv 27
Drampa lv 27
Mareanie lv 23

No idea what Pokemon will be my final team member. I'm going to wait it out for a while and see what pops up.
 
I'm just before Brooke Hill, and this game has me legit shook. Its pretty linear, sure, but Paniola Ranch and Route 5 are pretty insane in terms of map design. Even route 4 is pretty great to traverse, I am absolutely in love with the route leader concept. Its something I have been conceptualizing for ages, besides gym leaders, there should be special trainers on each route that are specifically harder to beat, and shake things up. If only they could have rematches for em, and perhaps make em more unique. But its still a joy to finally see it happen. Also switched up my team, ditched Pichu, and gonna use a ounsweet from that trade. Still gonna need to start rotations, its a 5 man team once Dewpder comes into play.
Mudbray Lvl 18(also have to say that Stamina is such a good ability)
Torracat Lvl 23
Trumbeak Lvl 22
Bouncee Lvl 15
 
My internet was really crappy lately, so unfortunately I wasn't able to write too much about my experience like I wanted to. I intended to get Sun on the release date, but I was 1 day late and when I got to the store they only had a single copy of Moon left, so I got it. Otherwise I'd have to wait until yesterday to get a copy of Sun, and I couldn't wait that long.

This is my first ever Pokémon game, and I heard that lately the games have been way too easy, so I was a little worried that there wouldn't be any challenge. So before even getting to the first battle, I changed the battle style to set. I used the Exp. Share for a little while when I got it, but turned it off when I noticed that I was getting a little OP. Overall I'm happy with the game's difficulty level, it feels just right.

I'm currently grinding before going to the Pokémon League. Since I got Moon instead of Sun, my team ended up a little different than what I planned, but I'm happy with it. My current team is:

Primarina (female): My starter. I was hoping to get a male so I could annoy guys with fragile masculinity, but I got a female. I guess I could have reseted but it wouldn't feel right, I need to accept what I get. I still love her though. She's a beast, especially with her Oceanic Operetta Z-move.

Ribombee (male): The fourth Pokémon I got and the first one aside from my starter that didn't leave the party. I wasn't planning to get one at first since it wasn't one of my particular favorites pre-release, but I heard it was good and decided to get one. And it is a great Pokémon indeed. Despite sharing a type with Primarina (they are the only Pokémon in my party that share a type) it is able to stand out, since I use Primarina as my go-to for Fire and Dragon types while Ribombee is my go-to for Psychic and Dark types.

Jolteon (male): I knew before getting the game that I wanted to use one, but I didn't know when I could get an Eevee and didn't want to look it up because I was worried about spoilers. So I was really happy when Eevee hatched from the egg I got. It was a little weak at first, even when I evolved it, since it's only electric move was Thunder Shock. But once I got some decent TMs, he became a great Pokémon and was actually the only one to ever surpass Primarina in level, even if only for a brief time.

Palossand (female): The only other girl on my team. It was one of the Pokémon I planned on using and I got it the first moment that I could. She was incredibly weak at first, and it was actually a litle frustating to level her up, as she evolves really late. However, she made up for that weak phase after evolving and is now just as a reliable member of the team as the others.

Goodra (male): The most recent Pokémon I got. I was originally going to use Kommo-o but I learned that Goomy appears earlier in the game than Jangmo-o so I went with it instead. He was also a little frustrating to evolve but is very strong now. I'm trying to make him more friendly so I can teach him Draco Meteor.

I also need to get a sixth member, but I don't know who I should use. I was thinking about using the demo Greninja, but it might be a little redundant having two Water types on my team (then again, I also have two Fairy types).
 
I have now beaten the water totem (I was disappointed I didn't get to fight Lana, thought we would get to fight all of them). Anyway I was annoyed too, I critted the Wishiwashi and killed it, so it ended up easy D:. I also caught a Dewpider and added it to my team so I now have 6 guys! I then went to the Battle Dome and jobbed out hard as Hau one shot my Rockruff with Aqua Jet. ...yay. I then tried another only for my level 19s to get killed by level 50s. Oops again.

Sparkle the shiny Magnemite
Dewpider
Dartrix
Rockruff
Evolved Pikipek
Turtonator

Levels 19-21. Forget which has which level, lol
 
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