The top shop always sells healing items and standard Pokeballs. While we're here, let's toss our entire wallet into them... We're going to need more.
And this is the bottom shop. They range from garbage mail items to TM shops, to Special Pokeball shops. TMs... Well, I'll explain those when the time comes. Mail items let you slap a short message on to them and then they can be given to a Pokemon to hold. It's still rubbish.
Bianca was waiting for us. Our mother... She just arrived. And with Polo's Sister too.
Should've been Oshawott.
Deal. With. It.
Hold B to move faster. Simple, but I'm pleased all the same.
Why would I need... Maps are built into the Pokedex!
Oh hey! A map! That's good, we didn't have one of these.
...Whatever. It's the thought that counts. I guess.
Yeah, sure. I'm bound to run into him anyway.
Well, now I have to. The votes say so.
Oh hey. A tunnel.
Thank you, person I've never met before...
These electronic bulletins can be found in every tunnel. They mention swarms, random tidbits, and so on.
Bianca's Pokemon Catching Tutorial.I make no promises.
Straight forward route. No battles. There's a potion in this patch of grass though, so we grab it.
Did this kid just sit out here for days on end hoping somebody would ask him about ledge hopping? That's just sad. Now let's take a moment to laugh at him.
What.
Alder.This lunatic is still jumping off cliffs I see.
At least it's not a waterfall. That's how Giovanni died.
Right. Well, Alder was in the original game. He was the Pokemon League Champion. That's all you need to know.
Kyren, from Aspertia.
After four hours he better be...
...Oh Alder. If only you knew.
Floccesy Town Theme.As you can see, this is Floccesy town. We'll be here for a bit.
What-ey what town?
I don't understand you young folk and your new fangled lingo...
Males breed with Females and vice versa. Both breed with Ditto. Outside of this, there are minor cosmetic differences based on Pokemon.
It was in the left house. Speaking of, they look rather rustic. Kind of nice.
They don't look rusty at all!
It's for my associate.
Huh. Freedom. Let's see what we can find out-
Patrat. It had to be a Patrat.
Just a Purrloin in that fight. We also grab a Paralyze heal several feet ahead.
Here's a shock! It didn't!
He'll continue blocking this path until we pick up the first Gym Badge. So we head west.
Floccesy Ranch Theme.Nice place, huh? We'll be spending a lot of time in the grass patch to the left. A
lot of time. In fact, let's catch several new Pokemon right now.
Our rival is waiting just ahead. I forgot to heal, but it's of no concern.
Rival Battle 2.Uh... Yeah. The hell is wrong with your AI?
I dunno. Seems like a douche thing to do.
Get off the douche wagon.
Hm? What? Wasn't paying attention.
...
...
Your sister sent a map.
Huh. Free stuff is always a good thing.
Damn it, Polo.
If you talk to her, she'll heal your entire team. You can do this as many times as you want. So... Let's heal up and move out.
Mareep! Yay!
Yes. Sheep are adorable.
I did. Now, let's catch a couple more.
Heading south leads to a dead end, so we head north.
What the hell is a Janitor doing back here?
He must clean up after the Mareep. Have you seen those things at TGIF? Man...
...What the hell goes on in your head.
That's true about nearly everything. You have to relax, man.
Fucking. Patrat. At least he had a Psyduck too.
Yeah. Fine. Maybe I can-
Well now. What do we have here.
Good. Now I can thrash him... Or just stall until help arrives. Win-win.
Team Plasma was the extremist group that surfaced two years back. They attempted to 'liberate' Pokemon by separating them from their owners. Many of them actively
stole Pokemon. Some of them thought they were doing the right thing, but... Well, here we are. Or as he puts it:
Click the image. Really. You won't regret it.
He ran off, but we saved Herdier. Good enough.
Actually, he was completely right this time. Paranoia saves the day... And then he was gone. Must be off to train or something.
Uh... Shouldn't you be?
"Well then. Instead of training you, I would like you and your Pokemon to give me a hand! Come with me."
And they will lose. Hard.
The boy had a Panpour, the girl had a Simisear. They're two of the three elemental monkeys, the third being Pansage. The three are relatively lackluster, mostly due to their limited movepool. Also, Simisear's evolution is ugly as hell. The Pokemon change depending on your starter. The first kid uses the monkey your starter has a type advantage against, and the other uses the one that puts you at a disadvantage.
Also, we learn Growth. This will help Snivy and his pathetic Physical Attack stat immensely. Growth boosts bother Attack and Special Attack at the same time per use. In fact, let's go over stat boosts and reductions.
Each boost in a stat is equivalent to 50%. So if Snivy had 10 attack before the boost, he would have 15 after. You can boost a stat up to 6 times. It's also additive, meaning he would gain 5 more attack per boost. If you max out on boosts, you can triple a stat until you switch the Pokemon out or it faints.
Stat reductions, however, work by dividing the stat. After one reduction the stat will be at 2/3 of it's original value. Then 1/2, 2/5, 1/3... As you can see, it's not nearly as effective.
...Yay... The Medal Box. For doing certain things like walking a certain number of steps or biking for a certain number of steps you get a medal that's thrown into the case. You can check in on how well you're doing at any Pokemon Center if you choose to do so. Now let's pretend this guy doesn't exist and get on with things.
"As for the newly opened Gym in Aspertia City, I heard a new Gym Leader has arrived there. You should go and test how strong you've become!"
Bah! Who is it now!?
And there he goes with the cliff jumping again.
I will never use these.
"If you think hard about what the Pokemon at your side can do, and what you should do as a Trainer, victory will be yours!"
Tackle. Tackle. Tackle. Tackle.
Right. So, uh... To the Gym. Finally.
So yeah. This building back in the first town that we couldn't do anything with? It's open. And it's a Gym.
Riolu doesn't learn a single Fighting type move until level 15. If you managed to grind him up to level 15, anything else at said level would do just as well. So really, the game is just shouting "Riolu is in this game! Go catch one!" I can get behind this.
We're totally keeping him.
Clyde does this in every Gym. He tosses you rather obvious hints about the Gym Leaders too.
Oh hey! It's-
Pure evil! The devil! THE DIABOL-
Stow it.
It's Cheren! One of the friends/rivals who helped the last protagonist along in the original Black/White. There's quite a bit more to it, but that's all you need to know for now.
He's still EVIL!
You're downright exhausting to deal with, you know that?
Both of them had a Patrat and a Lilipup. Easy stuff.
Without a doubt.
-as a Gym Leader!
Click the image. Really.
Normally he just has a Patrat and a Lilipup. This being challenge mode, their levels were bumped up and he added a Pidove to his team. Honestly, he's still really easy as long as you don't let him set up.
-as a Gym Leader...
Oooh! Shiny!
And it goes right into the case. We've obtained the Basic Badge.
"This is an important milestone! With this Badge, Pokemon up to Lv. 20 will obey you, including traded Pokemon. And I want you to take this!"
See! He's going to beat us up! I told you he was evil!
The hell is wrong with you?
"When you use Work Up while battling, it raises the user's Attack and Sp. Atk. By the way, TMs can be used as many times as you want!"
Yes. Since the original Black and White TMs have been infinite. It's one of the best changes the series has ever implemented.
And that's that. Let's head out.
We're never coming back here!
I spammed Growth. Then I smacked him several times. I won.
Return is a godsend early game. It's a Normal type attack that bases it's power off of your Pokemon's happiness stat. Happiness caps at 255. A max power Return has about 100 base power behind it. Before STAB. For reference, Tackle only has 50 base power.
Just something to note. Cheren wore glasses in the previous game. Bianca didn't. Now he doesn't and she does. No idea why, but I still find it noteworthy.
-in the Xtransceiver!
Speaking of which...
Oh god. Kyren's smile.
83
...Right. Well, you can tell who's speaking on the Xtransceiver by the speaker mark.
He'd have crushed me. I forget the exact levels, but I'm fairly certain his entire team was level 60+.
Yeah, sure. I mean, she told you to give me the grass snake, so...
Standard fare for beginners. We won't need it, but it's nice that it's there.
Sheesh. Just how fast is this kid?
Haha... Yeah, uh. He'd better have trained.
Which we won't be using. It modifies the bottom screen though, so I'll show that off.
There it is. You can pick up different themes for it off Wifi and the like if you want.
Then off we-
I'm beginning to sense a trend.
Yeah. It's actually fairly useful. If you open the Pokedex and select Habitat, you can view the listings for every major area in the game. It'll list every Pokemon that shows up in said area. Also, there's a key feature we haven't been able to access yet in this game...
The path to power is now open! In rustling grass you can find rare Pokemon in the area, and more commonly.. Audino, a pink marshmallow looking Pokemon. I've mentioned that it's an experience pinata. Well, this is the only way to encounter them.
There's still some work to do before I wrap up this update...
See that little pool of dark water? That's the water equivalent to shaking grass. We physically cannot reach it yet.
Right. So that was a lower level Audino Dunsparce just knocked out. Standard Trainer Pokemon of similar level have been giving us 50 experience or so, Trainer owned Pokemon coughing up more than Wild Pokemon. Now what did this Wild Audino give us?
Two levels. Now what about a level appropriate Audino? Also, the move Spite is fairly useless. It knocks a few uses of a move off the opponent.
Grinding made easy. Also, Snivy picked up a move that's going to make him far more useful.
Now he can use his Special Attack instead of his subpar Physical Attack stat. It's also a good deal more powerful than Vine Whip. Nearly twice as much. Also, he evolved.
Click the picture. When a Pokemon evolves, they typically become more powerful and occasionally pick up a second typing. In Snivy's case, he's just more powerful. Now let's take a look at our current team.
Oh wait. I ran around in circles for about an hour to build his happiness up. I got him to evolve.
We're now set to steamroll the game.
----------------------
Next time we plow past that hiker.
In the meantime, voting strikes again! Here are the Pokemon we'll be meeting in the next update.
It's Growlithe! Growlithe is a pure Fire Type. He's also awesome. His stats are even great. Yet, there's always a catch. His physical movepool is pretty lousy unless you keep him from evolving until he learns Flare Blitz. At level 56. Yeah. Still useable, just not nearly as much if I could breed the moves onto him. Arcanine learns jack shit outside of Extreme Speed at 39. Growlithe evolves through using a Fire Stone. His base stats once fully evolved:
HP: 90
Attack: 110
Defense: 80
Special Attack: 100
Special Defense: 80
Speed: 95
This is Magnemite. He's a mix of Steel and Electric even after evolving. This guy... Is actually pretty damn good, even without TMs. His special attack is sky high, he's sturdy, and he even learns some halfway decent moves. Doesn't hurt that he has Sonic Boom from the get go, which is wonderfully abuseable for a while. He evolves at level 30, then again if he levels up as Magneton in a certain area. His stats once fully evolved:
HP: 70
Attack: 70
Defense: 115
Special Attack: 130
Special Defense: 90
Speed: 60
And now onto...
It's Pikachu!
...It's Koffing.
GOD DAMN IT AAHHH!
It's Koffing. Well... Pure Poison type. Stays that way. His movepool is great, if you have TMs for it. Which we don't. He's pretty tanky, has acceptable attacking stats, and learns self destruct early in. Which is silly. He evolves at level 35. His stats once fully evolved:
HP: 65
Attack: 90
Defense: 120
Special Attack: 85
Special Defense: 70
Speed: 60
If you choose him, he'll probably exist just to be thrown at bigger enemies for Self Destruct abuse. That move will one shot anything that doesn't resist it for a while.
This is Elekid. Pure Thunder type all the way through. Fast, hits hard with both attack stats. Decent spread of moves. Really, the only thing that hurts him is the inability to reach his final evolution without cheating on an Emulator. He evolves at level 30, then again if you trade him while he's holding the Electrilizer item. If you want, I can just turn him into an Electivire once we pick up the Electrilizer itself. His base stats once fully evolved:
HP: 75
Attack: 123
Defense: 67
Special Attack: 95
Special Defense: 85
Speed: 95
Last but not least, Venipede. This little guy is pretty cool. Bug and Poison type for the rest of it's life. It learns a decent mix of attacks and has access to plenty of TMs. His stats are pretty good too, outspeeding the target with ease and battering them. He evolves at level 22 and then again at 30. His stats once fully evolved:
HP: 60
Attack: 90
Defense: 89
Special Attack: 55
Special Defense: 69
Speed: 112
So there you have it. If you want one of them to join the team, select one of our previous teammates to hit the bench in their place. Nickname them if you wish.