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The Official Travelog + Let's Play Thread

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So, I got through the Akala Trials today and man, I was shook. Spoilers for length.

First things first, Lana's trial. I was a bit surprised to be told I'd be herding Wishiwashi, but then proceeded to be a bit dissipated in that I was just battling the Wishiwashi as I did back in Sun/Moon. I was a bit delighted to see the addition of the Dewpider just to get a bit more EXP, but didn't think much of it. Fast forward to the Totem battle and lo and behold, a giant af Araquanid pops up where I expected a damn Wishwashi. Now that was surprising, because I had no idea of any new Totems outside of Marowak, so I was super shook. Luckily, despite my shock, the battle went pretty well. I did have to change my strategy since I planned on going in there and letting my new Fomantis handle the job, but obviously that had to change, and we won on the first try.

Once again Dulse and Zossie pop up and they bring their UB Abhesive who's name is Piopole I guess (cuz let me tell you I legit had no idea what they were talking about). Again, I continue to be surprised at how frequently these two show up.

I caught a Mareep who replaced the Flabebe I'd been carrying around and he quickly evolved into a Flaaffy. In the Battle Royal I slayed by OHKOing Kukui's rock mutt with a nice, delicious All-Out Pummeling from my Hawlucha. And I think this is actually the first time I didn't lose in there.

I next headed to Wela Island Volcano to do Kiawe's trial. I already knew about the Marowak, but I was pleasantly surprised to see some new dances added to the trial as well. I was also surprised to see Slazzle as Marowak's ally rather than a Cubone. I lost to these monsters 2 or 3 times before finally pulling out a victory, thanks to my Furfrou for the Baby-Doll Eyes and Sand Attack spam.

After Mohn shows up out of nowhere, Dulse and Zossie show that they have no problem telling all of their business to some random 11 year old child. Seriously, why are they always telling me what they're up to? I could legit report their creepy asses to the police and then their plan would be over. Anyway, I like that they also added some new photo spots as well since I'm a sucker for those.

Finally I got to Mallow's trial, which was pretty simple. I like the changes they made that made the trial go so much quicker than it did in Sun/Moon. I was cute that they actually had angry Pokemon chasing and battling us for taking their stuff. And as for Totem Lurantis, again, Hawlucha handled most of the fight since Lurantis couldn't do crap to her. I was surprised to see the Keckleon (who's ability now seems to work differently) and Comfey allies, but they didn't really cause much trouble. After the battle I caught my 4th official team member, a Comfey. And in looking for one with Triage, I was surprised to run into like 4 Passimian. I guess either they booted the encounter rate or I was really damn lucky.

Now we're getting ready to head through Diglett's Tunnel and probably get destroyed by Olivia.
 
After updating Isle Evelup, I put in my Lopunny, and each session in level 2 gives 250 EXP.

Also, here's my team:

Litten → Torracat → Incineroar
Zorua → Zoroark
Pichu → Pikachu
Noibat
Fomantis
Poliwag → Poliwhirl → Poliwrath

Lastly, I have completed my second Grand Trial! I'd like to thank Ultra Moon for increasing the amount of EXP given at Isle Evelup.
 
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Water trial compelte. I was very disappointed that they changed Lana trolling you, now she's really generic. She was a great waifu before but now she's eh. I'll take the Sun Lana any day. The new totem of Araquanid annihilated me the first time. I laughed at how it used Bubble, only for Bubble to one shot a few of my Pokemon. Attempt two was a little more strategy wise, as I made use of Thunder Wave, Leech Seed and Charm to weaken the Totem. I ended up with three Para-hax in a row, so that aided me well. I was slightly disappointed they replaced Wishiwashi but at least it ended up being a big challenge. Last time I critted the Wishiwashi with Razor Leaf, so I suppose I didn't end up with a proper challenge, this time... I lost. Was slightly my own fault though, I lead with a Pokemon then switched out for exp only for my Zubat to get killed upon switching out and that was gonna be my dude for it. I then decided not to be an idiot on two and started with Pikachu for Thunder Wave.

Zubat- level 19
Randy Orton the Torracat - 19
Buneary - 19
Akechi the Pikachu - 18
Cottonee- 18
Miltoic - 18

I also switched out the filler slots and have a full team now.
 
There we go, the punishment for taking your time and fililng your Pokédex with the same team has been hitting me. Now even my starter Pokémon has started to disobey me because his level is too high. Maximum friendship? Pfff, a real Pokémon only cares about stamps and badges.
 
Managed to take out the Ghost totem on my first try. Haven’t done that since Gumshoos. Had my new Dedenne paralyze it while the rest of my team gradually wore it down until Saki KO’d with Iron Head.

Also defeated totem Araquarnid in UM. Much easier this time thanks to Hawlucha.
 
Pikachu's brittleness never cease to amaze me. That thing got OHKO twice in a row by a Pokémon eight levels beneath its own level. Fortunately I have Mudsdale and Primarina.
 
So now that I'm on Thanksgiving break, I finally got around to beating the rest of the game, including the Rainbow Rocket episode. General comments:

-The Kommoium-Z is located on Poni Island in the postgame area, pretty close to the Meadow & Resolution Cave. I was very excited for this Z-Move, and I can tell you it does not disappoint, I used it well in the RR story.

-The RR Episode lasted a lot longer (in terms of puzzles) than I thought it would, and I like how they incorporated some new puzzles like the Simon Says floor tiles in addition to some classics like the spinning arrow tile maze. I don't like how they put in Festival Plaza as the first place you meet them though!

-The RR members, including Grunts, have excellent type coverage on their movesets, so be prepared. Giovanni was by far the hardest with his Mega Mewtwo Y, and it was only thanks to Oranguru's Trick Room that I managed to win. Clangorous Soulblaze helped me against the other evil leaders.

-I think we can all agree now that Faba is actually much more of a sociopath than Lusamine!

So at long last, my second journey through Alola has come to a close. Overall, I'd say I definitely enjoyed these games more than I thought I would at first, and I agree that it's a much better story than original Sun & Moon & the small touches really make a difference.

BUT I would say they are not as different as we've been made out to believe, and they definitely still have an Emerald/Platinum "feel" to them overall. I can't help but feel like I'm getting kinda tired of the Alola region by now, and I probably would have just passed on Sun & Moon if I had some psychic power to forsee the future and know that GameFreak was indeed coming back to third versions.

Some random statistics
Total time played: 25 hrs 36 min
Totem Stickers: 57
Money: ~1.6 million Poke (after selling the 55 Big Nuggets)

My team as of the end of RR story
Decidueye L72
Kommo-o L71
A-Sandslash L73
Dusk Lycanroc L73
Oranguru L70
Umbreon L72
 
Made it to Po Town. I hate this place. Very depressing music and scenery. I get on my Ride Pokemon just to liven up the music.

Same team as mentioned:
Peter the Incineroar
Morris the Persian
Nadine the Midday Lycanroc
Dante the Electabuzz

All at level 52 going on 53
 
My lovely Pokemon had found an Ice Stone in Poke Pelago, so naturally I evolved Sandshrew right away!
I then focused on making my way through Ula'Ula Island, battling all of the Trainers I had skipped before and collecting more Pokemon and Totem Stickers along the way.
I made my way to the Aether House and took on the Ghost Trial. Alolan Sandslash was a blessing and I was so excited to take down the Totem Mimikyu as fast as I could that I opened with the Steel type Z-Move right away! I totally forgot about the Disguise Ability. However, we still won fairly easily.
I spent so more time in Festival Plaza too. I got my Battle Agency Grade up to 6 and got to try our an Abomasnow and a male Unfezant. Neither were bad, but nothing special. I also got my Festival Rank up to 35.
I Trainer dodged my way up to Po Town for the sake of collecting more Totem Stickers. I thought Totem Mimikyu was the next one I was due, but I got a Totem Togedemaru instead. I guess Totem Mimikyu is next (my planned final team member). But at least I got a new Pokemon for the Pokedex.

Current Team Status:
Incineroar, Level 46.
Lopunny, Level 46.
Lycanroc, Level 45.
Leafeon, Level 46.
Sandslash, Level 45.

Pokedex Completion Status:
Melemele, seen 119, caught 99.
Akala, seen 131, caught 108.
Ula'Ula, seen 109, caught 80.
Alola Total, seen 252, caught 197.
Total Completion, 49%.
 
Didn't do much today other than run into Looker and grind my team up to get demolished by Olivia. Rotom is getting more and more active though. He activated his double Z-Move bonus 2 times and asked me a few times if I wanted to save or heal my team. It's great.

I guess I'll get destroyed by Oliva tomorrow.
 
Just beat the game with:

- Decidueye lvl. 66
- Lycanroc Dusk lvl. 66
- Crabominable lvl. 66
- Totem Salazzle lvl. 66
- Kommo-o lvl. 66
- Dawn-Wings Necrozma lvl. 67

I guess Ultra Beasts and Team Rainbow Rocket is up next but I'm doing a bit of Ultra Wormholing first.
 
I'm going to start Ultra Moon. I want a fighting type on my team by I cannot decide between Crabrawler or Passimian.

I haven't played as a female with the playable character since ORAS when I chose a run through as May. I will either name her "Selene" or "Luna"
 
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I'm going to start Ultra Moon. I want a fighting type on my team by I cannot decide between Crabrawler or Passimian.

Passimian is exclusive to Sun/Ultra Sun, so you'd have to trade one over to use it in UM. Meanwhile, Crabominable is now accessible much earlier since you can access the base of Mount Lanakila to evolve Crabrawler as soon as you reach the Tapu Village. Given that, I'd choose Crabralwer unless you really want to trade for a Passimian.
 
-I went to Aether House to find Accerola. Then proceeded to the abandoned market to do the trial. I love the ghost trial so much. It's my favorite.
-I was really worried about the totem Mimikyu battle since I had nothing I could beat it with. Started with Whimsicott to throw some Shadow Balls at it but it defeated it and decided to send SoftKitty. I was worried but then Play Rough did like... 40% damage? I survived and using a Z-boosted Iron Head (I taught her a steel move anticipating it) I killed it.
-I traveled all the way to Po Town to recover Yungoos. I hate Team Skull so much. They're my least favorite team. But I beat Guzma, recovered the pokemon and went out of there.
-I fought Nani... Nanu? I always forget the name. Hawlucha beat this for me. Piece of cake.
-Went to the Aether Foundation with Gladion and Hau. I still loathe Hau with all my soul. I kept fainting his pokemon in the battles haha. Also beat down Faba and Guzma, I also hate them.
-After beating the URS I went in and witnessed all the family drama. Hah I love a good drama
-Defeated Lusamine. Off to the Ultra Wormhole she goes. What now?... Well to Poni it is!
 
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The fire totem is insanely over powered. A 160 base attack Pokemon at level 22 with a speed boost with a 111 special attacker with 117 speed ally is waaaaaaaaaaay too powerful. Like, I lost 7 times before I won. They would just team up and kill all my dudes with either 1 or 2 shots. Only reason I won on try 8 was that I had to soft reset till it started with Detect so that I got a free Roto Boost on all stats. Then I Z water moved it to death (normal Z move only did half even though it was from a one level below Milotic, so wtf. Meant that after doing it like 4 times before this, she would always get killed the turn after)

Like, that shit is way to difficluty and I pretty much had to cheat to win. Idk why they would do that, it'd be pretty tough even as the final trial.

Zubat would be one shot instantly by Flame Wheel, Torract died in 2 hits, Lopunny would die to Brick Break, Cottonee is useless in this trial and Pikachi also died in one hit so unless I wanted to grind for days (I was one level below them, though when my Zubat evovled shortly afterwards I wondered if it could've lived some of the attacks but tbh it woudln't have mattered since it would've just been two shot instead)

So yeah, for me - this is the most BS battle in all of Pokemon.

Golbat- level 22
Randy Orton the Torracat - 22
Lopunny - 22
Akechi the Pikachu - 22
Cottonee- 22
Miltoic - 22
 
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Passimian is exclusive to Sun/Ultra Sun, so you'd have to trade one over to use it in UM. Meanwhile, Crabominable is now accessible much earlier since you can access the base of Mount Lanakila to evolve Crabrawler as soon as you reach the Tapu Village. Given that, I'd choose Crabralwer unless you really want to trade for a Passimian.

I can catch a Passimian in Sun/Ultra Sun and move it over via Bank. But trading won't be so bad, I can send over my spare Ice Stone I have with it for Sandshrew if I catch one.

But maybe I'll catch a Crabrawler.

The fire totem is insanely over powered. A 180 base attack Pokemon at level 22 with a speed boost with a 111 special attacker with 117 speed ally is waaaaaaaaaaay too powerful.

You need a Brionne with Aqua Jet or a rock type with rock tomb and you'll be good.

I just started UM, I named my character "Selene" and I think I'll choose Popplio or Litten. But I have a Litten in my bank. Decisions decisions.
 
I started with fire and none of my dudes could learn Rock Tomb but it's reet, I used Rotom to cheat it.
 
Imo you shouldn't need to have a specific starter to be able to beat a trial. I managed to beat it after three tries but it was definitely extremely hard. Not only do both those Pokémon kill almost every member of your team before they can even lay a hit, as soon as you can lay a hit Marowak uses Protect and Salazzle Torment so your most effective move is now disabled. Or you do hit Marowak once and you're hit with Cursed Body, and again end up with a disabled move. I had two moves disabled this way during that battle :/ Two very fast and powerful Pokémon who also disable your useful moves was a bit much imo, it was hard enough without all the disabling. So yeah I agree this was a bit of a BS battle, better just keep it at Marowak and Salazzle being fast+powerful, and keep the disabling strategy to Togedemaru. Using that strategy in two trials also felt a bit cheap to me anyway.

Anyways, finally having time to play again I reached Ula'ula! Got me a new shirt after being forced to visit the Professor in Malie Garden for no good reason, visited all the routes around the city, and went on by bus to Sophocles' trial. Which was more annoying than hard, as said above I think it's a bit cheap that they used the Protect (Spiky Shield in this case) + Torment trick again. At least this time the Pokémon don't outright kill you all the time (thank god cause I have three Flying types on my team so not much to switch out to), so it was easier, it just took very long before I was finally able to take out Togedemaru.

That Veteran close to the Pokémon Center though, damn. It took me three tries to beat him cause somehow that Absol was able to take out my whole team in one-two hits before I could even hurt it. And the third time I was just very lucky that Furfrou's Headbutt kept making it flinch, so I was able to kill it in three hits without it hitting me ^^;

Now on my way back to Malie Garden cause for some weird reason Kukui forgot his mask and Molayne has it (good friends, riiiiiight).

Current team:
  • Kimi (Masquerain) Lvl.32
  • Kuro (Murkrow) Lvl.33
  • Noki (Natu) Lvl.32
  • Meave (Furfrou, regular form) Lvl.31
  • Aiko (Alolan Marowak) Lvl.34
 
Here's what I've got total in my PC.

001 Rowlet
004 Litten → 005 Torracat → 006 Incineroar (IN PARTY)
007 Popplio
010 Pikipek
013 Yungoos
015 Rattata
016 Raticate (Totem)
017 Caterpie → 018 Metapod → 019 Butterfree
020 Ledyba
024 Buneary → 025 Lopunny
026 Inkay
028 Zorua → 029 Zoroark
030 Furfrou
031 Pichu → 032 Pikachu (IN PARTY)
032 Partner Cap Pikachu
034 Grubbin
037 Bonsly
042 Munchlax
044 Slowpoke
047 Wingull
049 Abra
062 Meowth
054 Magnemite
057 Grimer
059 Mime Jr.
061 Ekans
063 Dunsparce
064 Growlithe
066 Drowzee
068 Makuhita
071 Crabrawler
073 Gastly
076 Drifloon
080 Zubat
083 Nobat (IN PARTY)
085 Diglett
087 Spearow
091 Vullaby
093 Mankey
096 Hawlucha
097 Oricorio
098 Cutiefly
100 Flabébé
103 Petilil
105 Cottonee
107 Psyduck
111 Magikarp
117 Machop
120 Roggenrola
123 Carbink
125 Mawile
126 Rockruff
126 Rockruff → 127 Lycanroc (Dusk Form)
150 Lillipup
153 Eevee → 154 Vaporeon
153 Eevee → 155 Jolteon
153 Eevee → 156 Flareon
163 Flaaffy
165 Mudbray
167 Igglybuff
174 Dewpider
176 Fomantis (IN PARTY)
180 Paras
182 Poliwag
182 Poliwag → 183 Poliwhirl → 184 Poliwrath (IN PARTY)
186 Goldeen
188 Basculin (Blue Stripe)
192 Fletchling
195 Salandit
197 Cubone
200 Magby
205 Stufful
208 Steenee
210 Comfey
215 Oranguru
247 Larvitar
250 Phantump
252 Natu
254 Nosepass
256 Pyukumuku
257 Chinchou
264 Trubbish
266 Minccino
268 Pineco
277 Minior (Blue)
 
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