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Comments
Oops.
3 stage unusual it is.
Apparently it has a catch rate of 200, which is pretty decent, and a Ditto has a catch rate of 35, which is far lower, but I guess I took appropriate precautions (low HP and sleep) and got lucky.
I still don't understand how Fast Balls work though. Apparently in a later gen they're based on the base speed stat but right now they're based on...I actually don't know.
Karate Chop is normal-type in gen 1 which made me really confused when Low Kick was super-effective against my Geodude. Good thing they fixed it here.
What is this move?! Apparently a rather interesting variable-power ground move. Just the average magnitude nearly killed off my same-level Oddish and that Diglett outspeeds me! I need to bring out my flier.
SEEN: Mankey, Diglett
In other news, why is Constrict such a shit move.
And then a nurse stops me in the Goldenrod Pokémon Center and gives me a GS Ball. Hmm...
Apparently the GS Ball does nothing in normal western Crystal version, but the patch notes for this edition say:
There's a thunderstorm going on right now in real-life outside so I'm going to stop playing for a bit.
Got ODD EGG.
Weird, Kurt is now busy. He won't even give me my Fast Ball.
Apparently Constrict was a move even back in gen 1, and it also sucked back then.
Meanwhile, Rock Throw's accuracy was increased to 90%, making it far more reliable.
Seems like nighttime mons in Ilex Forest are different.
ACQUIRED: Venonat
Holy shit, it's a level 30 Celebi.
It just creamed my team. Considering that my highest leveled mons were my L 18 Gastly and L17 Totodile...yeah, no surprise at all.
Anyway, this thing is indeed the real deal.
Also, wtf Future Sight. And Ancient Power? WTF? And Safeguard and Heal Bell. That's it's moveset. That's some crazy shit.
also wasted some Fast Balls and some Great Balls
and a Potion on my Onix, who was the only one who could survive Ancient Power and did so several times but then instead just got asshanded by Future Sight
Spinarak (L14) got Ancient Power'd on the first turn. Onix put three Screeches on it and then was able to use Bind to actually do some significant damage (since Bind calculates damage relative to the victim's HP rather than the attacker's attack stat). Onix fell to Future Sight eventually, and Gastly was next. Gastly Hypnotized it and then Licked it once and left it with like 1 or 2 HP I think (what you see in that screenshot). It woke up and Ancient Power'd Gastly. Oddish was next. It was balls all the way down at that point. I totally expected to run out of mons before I ran out of balls, considering that basically everything was a OHKO except Onix and I only had five mons on me (carrying the Odd Egg).
ACQUIRED: CELEBI
I had no business going up against that thing.
Incidentally though I didn't check it but it seems that Kurt's daughter blocks your way past the Ilex Forest so you can't even easily grind your mons when that event happens. Maybe that's why they dummied out the event in the western release of Crystal? But a fix for that seems rather simple...maybe they just wanted to make it event-only.
In the original Crystal, he's got a Machop, whom he's willing to part with in order to get an Abra (Drowzee in Gold/Silver apparently).
In this game, however...he apparently comes from a place where firebirds are quite common.
Because he's offering a Moltres.
Looks like I need to get myself another Abra...
Pokémaniac Isaac's Lickitung knows Cut. Whoa. It took out my less-than-half-HP Spinarak in one hit.
But then again, it only has Cut. So my Onix made short work of it.
Curiously, Isaac says he gave his pokémon a haircut, and is showing it off. But Lickitung doesn't have hair...
Stopping by the Goldenrod City
CasinoGame Corner reveals that they have a line of slot machines facing a wall for some reason.Looks like Goldenrod's Game Corner prizes are much more reasonably priced than Celadon's -- Abra for 100 coins, Cubone for 800 coins, and Wobbuffett for 1500 coins -- and only up to 2100 coins for Dratini in Gold/Silver. Contrast that to Celadon's requiring 6500 coins or 9999 coins for its to prizes. Also apparently there's an alternative game that gives much more reliable payouts in this gen, as opposed to gen 1 where it was either buy coins or play slots.
Gina the Picnicker has something interesting. Let's see how long it takes me to get there.
So apparently I never picked up the Old Rod from that one NPC. Well now I have.
Todd the Camper "just failed to beat Abra by a tiny margin". How do you manage that. Mean Look + Lick.
Unless maybe you somehow found a trainer who was using one and had TM'd it with something, like Psychic or something.
Let's try the Old Rod. Hey, look, it's the world's fastest Pokémon that does nothing!
ACQUIRED: Magikarp.
Meanwhile, I got sidetracked in real life before I got to Gina...until I realized I went to find Liz the Picnicker instead.
Oddish reaches level 16, tries to learn Stun Spore. Poisonpowder is better, Absorb and Cut are its staples, Cut can't be forgotten anyway, and Sweet Scent has an out-of-battle use. Rejected.
Gina has...a Leaf Stone! Okay, now that is pretty awesome.
Gina now wants a rematch. Sure, I'll do that. She says she's gotten better...but her Hoppips are still using Splash....
"Is there a Pokémon that appears only in the morning?"
In this romhack I am definitely sure there is...I presume that it applies to some in the original game too?
"You can't buy a BERRY at a MART."
Going by what I've seen so far, this seems true.
"Does HM01 contain the move FLASH?"
Pretty sure that's HM05, while HM01 is Cut.
"Is FALKNER the Violet City gym leader who uses bird POKéMON?"
FalconerFalkner definitely uses bird mons. Might have been Violet City? Let's say yes."Does Goldenrod City GAME CORNER's slots have CHARMANDER on their reels?"
...I haven't played the slots yet, but I'm going to guess yes.
Oops.
Anyway...
Aaaaaand here's Buena. Apparently she's unique to Crystal version. And it looks like that her little radio show, by offering nuggets (and other things) as prizes, basically guarantees that the player has an easy source of income without having to get to the endgame -- unlike Pokémon Red where the only repeatable sources of income were battling the last five trainers again and again. (At least in Blue you could get Meowth, who could learn Pay Day...)
Those of you who have seen the Johto Journeys may be reminded of "Song of Jigglypuff", one of the Totally Pokémon songs that were featured in excerpt form at the ends of episodes, in a thing called "Pokémon Karaokemon". That song's lyrics start (aside from Jigglypuff singing), "Anytime any place, anywhere...".
Pokémaniac Donald has a "hot tip" about Anthony on Route 33.
I could stand to clean up my phone contacts a bit I guess. Still have one space left at the moment.
Poison Sting for some reason doesn't affect Magnemite. What? And then Lick is ineffective against Magnemite.
Wait, did Magnemite pick up a Steel type? This trainer (Super Nerd Teru) did say something about types before he started battling...
Wow, it seems I don't have much of anything that beats Steel at the moment. If only I had my Zubat with me then I could also try Bug and Dark...
Water is the only thing I have it doesn't resist. Thankfully that's a level 7 Magnemite and so I'm willing to have my level 17 Totodile eat two Thundershocks to kock this thing out.
NPC: "Once I was battling my pokémon and it couldn't make any moves. Its PP were all gone." (paraphrased) Well, what about Struggle? :P
And now I've picked up Randy's Spearow (named Kenya). "Dark Cave leads to another road". Interesting.
Also it's really cool game design, how the game makes the NPCs show off all the multiplayer features.
Anyway I've got a few appointments now. Todd on Route 34 wants to battle and I want an Abra from that route to get a Moltres in Goldenrod. Anthony on Route 33 knows about rare mons. And I need to deliver Kenya to someone on Route 31.
Poison Sting is so pathetically weak that my level 16 Spinarak using it can't take down a level 6 Paras in one hit. But at level 17 my Spinarak finally learns Night Shade! Goodbye String Shot, you were outclassed the day I got Scary Face.
Joey wants to fight again. With his level 4 Rattata. Naaaaaah.
My Odd Egg hatched! I got a Cleffa!
ACQUIRED: Cleffa
(FYI the possibilities were "Will hatch into a Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Tyrogue, Smoochum, Elekid, or Magby that knows Dizzy Punch. It has a 14% chance of being Shiny in international versions." I got a Cleffa that knows Dizzy Punch and is not shiny.)
Interesting. Cleffa learns Sweet Kiss at level 13, when Clefairy would instead learn Double Slap. (Pound and Double Slap are the only attacks this evolutionary line ever learns.) So Dizzy Punch would basically outclass either of these.
By being level 5, this Cleffa fails to learn Encore (learned at level 4). Since eggs are always hatched at level 5, wouldn't this mean that Cleffa never learns it? Or did Dizzy Punch just replace Encore?
Also, channel 13.5 is the ????? (Unown Ruins channel). Only available at the Ruins of Alph. I'll come back here later when I need to level up some early mons, and I'll bring myself a truckload of pokéballs for this.
Welcome back, Zubat! And time to take this Abra (surprise! it only took one pokéball! I guess @Bee was right) to that one guy who just doesn't want to get one himself but seems to have firebirds flowing out his ears.
Still kinda hard to believe it was this easy. Then again, this was clearly not meant as part of the original game design, so I can excuse it. The hack obviously was using preexisting features to make completionism possible.
ACQUIRED: Moltres
That said, I originally thought stuff like catching Celebi would be the grand finale of this run -- the way catching Mewtwo is the grand finale in gen 1. Well, at this rate it's more likely that battling Red with his level 80+ stuff in Kanto is going to be the grand finale...
Cleffa can be born knowing Encore already if its father does. Other than that I'unno.
----
Aww, I think I missed a swarm of Qwilfish on Route 32.
I actually never knew about the swarm feature until just now.
Meanwhile, Anthony the Hiker is the Engineer. "All righty then!"
ACQUIRED: Croconaw.
Camper Ivan has two Digletts. One is at level 10, the other at level 14. Digletts are really fast. They can also learn Dig which is a devastating Ground attack. Fortunately I have a Zubat which they can't Dig to.
Juggler Irwin is our first Juggler. Irwin...starts off the battle with a level 2 Voltorb for some reason. Then he shows us a level 6 Voltorb. Then he shows us a level 10 Voltorb. I think his last mon will be a level 14 Voltorb...and I'm right. Two Screeches and my Onix still only takes 1 damage from a Tackle. I love Screeching back though.
It strikes me that juggling Voltorbs seems like a bad idea.
Irwin wants to be added to my friends list! But my friends list is already full because I have these people on it:
* Mom: I don't think I can get rid of her number.
* Prof. Elm: I don't think I can get rid of his number either.
* Joey the Youngster: Calls me for rematches and telling me how he's sticking with his Rattata. An internet meme these days.
* Wade the Bug Catcher: Gives me berries, reminds me of the Bug-Catching Contest at the National Park, and occasionally asks for a rematch (as he just did).
* Liz the Picknicker: I don't remember why she calls me, other than for rematches. I think?
* Ralph the Fisher: Usually calls me to say how he doesn't hang out with his family enough. But there was one time when he alerted me to a swarm event...
* Gina the Picnicker: Cool items and rematches. Once gave me a Leaf Stone.
* Todd the Camper: Rematches and...probably sales events at the Goldenrod City Dept. Store?
* Bill: I'm not even sure whether I can get rid of this number.
* Anthony the Hiker: Haven't gotten a call from him yet but supposedly he calls when he finds rare mons (which might mean swarm events).
Joey, you'll have to do better than keeping your Rattata at level 4.
Hey, it's the National Park. Now I've officially gotten further than I had in my previous playing of Gold many years back.
ACQUIRED: Nidoran (F), Nidoran (M).
So I can go east when I'm just south of the National Park, or I can go east out of the National Park itself. Let's take the more southern path. Arnie the Bug Catcher's Venonat has surprisingly strong special defense, and Bite is a special move because this was before they had separate physical and special moves for each type. Arnie wants my number, too...and seems like he's into rare mons as well...meanwhile Liz just called me for a rematch...let's cheat a little and consult the strategy guide. Turns out Liz is actually the weakest link since she doesn't give anything (Youngster Joey actually gives HP UP? What?) So, poof goes Liz's number. Sorry, Joey and Liz.
Oh hey, the two paths connect up again once I use Cut on a tree.
SEEN:
* Pidgeotto (Bird Keeper Bryan's). Hey, how did he get a level 14 Pidgeotto??? It's supposed to be level 18+!
* Magmar (Firebreather Walt's).
* Marill (Camper Elliot's).
* Pikachu (Picnicker Brooke's).
Elliot wants "to show my girlfriend I'm hot stuff" but then sends out no fire pokémon. Heh. Also, my Oddish forgot Poisonpowder and learned Sleep Powder. Meanwhile, Brooke's Pikachu falls to my Spinarak's Night Shade because I'm taking advantage of its low HP, heh (though not before showing off Double Team). They seem to think they can get away with only using mascot mons (and Sandshrew)...
Arnie calls me at 11:40 PM and wants a rematch. Venonat shows me its foresight to...continue getting pelted with Night Shade, because it's not Normal type and starting with Gen 2 Night Shade no longer hits Normal types, which is a thing I keep forgetting because it's like the one non-crappy move on my Spinarak.
ACQUIRED: Psyduck, Drowzee.
And I ran out of Poké Balls by accident. Had to use a couple Fast Balls to catch those two. So I went back to town and picked up a truckload of Poké Balls. By that I mean 20.
Also just realized I need two Oddishes for this because I need one to get Bellossom.
Anyway, that's it for tonight.
Kinda interesting how my Zubat (Poison/Flying) has Leech Life (Bug) and Bite (Dark), while my Spinarak (Bug/Poison) has Poison Sting (Poison), Constrict (Normal), and Night Shade (Ghost). Croconaw (Water) only has Scratch (Normal), Rage (Normal), and Water Gun (Water), Gastly (Ghost/Poison) only has Lick (Ghost), Onix (Rock/Ground) has Tackle (Normal), Bind (Normal), and Rock Throw (Rock), and Oddish (Grass/Poison) has Absorb (Grass) and Cut (Normal). My type coverage right now is pretty bad. That Psyduck might get me Water and Psychic moves. (I want to avoid using a Kadabra much this run because I did that on my first gen 1 run.) I do have an overabundance of Poison-type mons though -- recently got two Nidorans to raise and I eventually want Ekans/Arbok to get Strength.
Edit: Encore presentation!
Got a couple more Fast Balls from Kurt, and caught a "Belloddish", as I nicknamed it. And discovered that Officers can be fought at night -- and they like Growlithes. Also level 12 Hoothoots know Peck and thus I shouldn't be sending my Spinarak out against them. And no, Wade, I'm not battling you; you're insane for calling me at half past midnight.
ACQUIRED: Scyther
SEEN: insanely overleveled caterpies, kakunas, etc.:
Only second place? Camper Barry had a Kakuna worth 317 points, I had a Scyther worth 340 points, and Cooltrainer Nick had a Butterfree worth 349 points. Must have been a level 15 Butterfree...
Nick hints at the existence of shinies for the first time, by saying that you might get a higher score if you catch a pokémon of a different color. Which is ironic since the Contest's scoring doesn't actually take into account shininess.
Anyway, it's time to take down Whitney's Gym.
Beauty Victoria has three sentrets. Easy. Beauty Victoria has two Meowths. Surprisingly difficult because the first Meowth actually knows Bite. Well, there goes my Onix. (It's at 3 HP and for some reason I'm playing with the conducts "don't use healing items" and "don't visit a Pokémon Center until all gym trainers are defeated".) Lass Carrie has a level 18 Snubbull, and I already know it's gonna have Bite. These trainers aren't joking around, and I can see why that entryway guy recommended Fighting mons, because Fighting beats Normal and resists Dark if I recall correctly. Lass Bridget has three Jigglypuffs. Says she's trying to beat Whitney. Well, three Jigglypuffs isn't going to do it, though they are pretty decently strong (but Pound is still laughably weak).
Whitney starts off with a Clefairy. I think it has Metronome. I lead with Zubat, and my new Confuse Ray doesn't seem to help that much against it. With Zubat close to going down I switch out to Oddish who finishes the job using repeated applications of Sleep Powder.
Miltank is next. Here's the famous Miltank with Rollout that just creams things. I lead with Oddish (and basically have four usable mons -- Oddish, Croconaw at about 2/3 HP, Spinarak at about half HP, and Gastly at full HP). Despite Whitney's gym type, Rollout is not a Normal move, so it can hit my Gastly.
By twice interrupting Miltank's famous Rollout with Sleep Powder, I got Miltank's HP down pretty low. Then it woke up and Enemy MILKTANK used STOMP. ODDISH fainted!
*rageface*
Spinarak would benefit the most from the boatload of XP Miltank has, but its attacks are pathetically weak (and Night Shade doesn't work here). Gastly can Hypnotize it but can't damage it. Let's go with Croconaw. Had lots of HP left. RAGE VS. ROLLOUT HERE WE GO.
Enemy MILTANK used MILK DRINK. Well I guess our HP counts are even now.
Couple Rollouts and Rages go by. Then Rollout misses! And then it tries to finish off my weakened Croconaw with a Stomp...which doesn't work! Croconaw's Rage builds again and wins the battle!
Croconaw grows to level 21 and learns Bite, giving it another special attack. (It replaced Leer.)
Whitney cries over it. "Oh, no. You made Whitney cry. It's okay, she'll stop soon. She always cries when she loses."
Entryway guy admits to being a lech, being too busy "admiring the ladies here" to notice me winning.
IIRC my whole team was weak to rock. My Quilava stood no chance.
> Abra
> with Flash
Haha, no problem.
> Abra
> with Flash
That Flash isn't even hitting me for some reason. Meanwhile, I've got a psyker killer right here. A Zubat with both Bite and Leech Life. So what if it's weak to Psychic itself?
> Kadabra
Bring it on. I'm going to bite the crap out of you.
> Confusion
> Bite
...this was a bad idea.
On the other hand, Alan's Tangela really IS a joke. I can beat it even with my Spinarak.
Anyway...
SEEN: Kadabra, Tangela.
It turns out this level 20 Sudowoodo has Rock Throw (which is better than the sad suck it was in Gen 1), Low Kick (second time seeing this move), and Flail. It also has a ton of HP. Oops, there goes my Oddish. At least my Oddish took it down to red first.
ACQUIRED: Sudowoodo! Weird thing it is.
Irwin the Juggler congratulates me for beating Whitney. And some guy gives me TM08, which is Rock Smash. Now I have that and a Headbutt TM, neither of which I've used yet. Both of them are ways I might be able to pick up more mons. I'll mess with them later.
to pick up my balls, but whatever. Wade is still waiting to battle
me...with a level 2 Caterpie, a level 2 Caterpie, a level 3 Weedle, and a
level 2 Caterpie.
My Spinarak lightly taps each of them, and everything but the Weedle falls in one hit to Constrict. (Weedle takes two.) They each gave 22 or 33 XP. I got 32 Pokédollars for winning (and sent some to Mom of course).
Anyway, time to restock on various berries! Not like I was running low to begin with, to be honest.
ACQUIRED: Ariados! Now I can switch it out for something else. I could pick up Scyther (which evolves into Scizor at level 25), but I don't quite feel like it. What should I raise next?
* Growlithe (dedicated Fire-type when I have nothing else like it, but I need it to get enough levels before I evolve it to Arcanine, which means level 34 or 42, depending on whether I want Agility, and it learns no HMs)
* Hoothoot (when do I get that Fly HM anyway? I might not even keep it for that long since it becomes Noctowl at level 20)
* Drowzee (Psychic-type coverage and Headbutt, and becomes Hypno at level 26)
* Slowpoke or Psyduck (Psychic-type coverage, but duplicates Water with Croconaw; Slowpoke evolves at level 37 or by Water Stone [meaning anytime or at 43 depending on whether I want Amnesia or Swagger] in this edition, while Psyduck evolves into Golduck at level 33)
* Snubbull (evolves into Granbull at level 23)
* Togepi, Cleffa, or Jigglypuff
It's 70% accuracy in gens 1, 2, and 3. 100% afterwards.
Whitney's Miltank is likely infamous because most people are used to thinking in terms of type advantages first, and dealing damage, rather than in terms of tactics.
They likely survived Fury Cutter by having something that resisted it (a Flying-, Ghost-, Fire-, or Poison-type mon would be able to do so), and because it started at 10 base power rather than 30. Chikorita, Pidgey, Hoothoot, Spearow, etc. etc. etc.. And Scyther is less of a tank (literally and figuratively) than Miltank. The only things that resist the Rock-type Rollout are Fighting-, Ground-, and Steel-types, which are at this point in the game much less common to have.
Once you know how Rollout (and Fury Cutter) works, the strategy to overcome it is pretty trivial -- interrupt it. Sleep Powder, Stun Spore, Spore (though only for Paras at level 25), Hypnosis, Sand-Attack, Bite, and Hyper Fang are all available before facing Whitney.
In this sense, she's somewhat of a skill gate.
A lot of these aren't very reliable, though. Also I've never really liked using a mon for the purpose of a specific battle. *shrug*
Incidentally, Mud-Slap is an example of a move that is in Gen 2 but is not naturally learned by anyone. Sadly, Shadow Ball is another example, which means that the Ghost type barely got any better without it.
Anyway:
Twins Ann & Anne presage the double-battle feature. And lol, their Clefairy Encore'd my Onix Screeching at it.
Psychic Greg: "I'll show you how scary [putting pokémon to sleep] is!" and sends out a Drowzee. Lol. Imagine the look on his face when my leading mon is also a Drowzee. And I get the first drop on it by successfully Hypnotizing it. And it stayed asleep for six turns during which I Pounded it down to red.
That said, it knew Hypnosis and Dream Eater, which it proceeded to do. It ate my dreams twice...and then I woke up. Then a Hypnosis-missing battle was waged, and I got mine to connect first, and I pounded it three more times until it fainted.
Take that, Greg.
Arrived in Ecruteak City. Actually, I just remembered, I've been here in my last playthrough too. I wonder why I didn't recognize the National Park...must have been absent in Gold.
Morty's gym told me to sod off because he's out.
I see Kishgal. Hmm...time to be prepared... *saves*
Kishgal has a level 20 Haunter (somehow). It had great luck Licking my Zubat into paralysis, but I still Bit it into submission. Kishgal's level 18 Magnemite was put to sleep by my Oddish's Sleep Powder, evasion reduced by Sweet Scent, and I got it down to half HP before it woke up and Supersonic'd me. Level 22 Bayleef...sadly, I have no good way of dealing with this one. My Zubat did have Leech Life against it, but that didn't work all the way (and sadly it knocked out my Zubat), and I ended up trading my Croconaw to low HP until it went down. Level 20 Zubat...put up a fight with Confuse Ray and Bite, but my Onix Rock Threw it into the ground. Well, my team is pretty shot now.
Lower level of the Burned Tower...holy crap, legendary pokémon! Was so afraid that I actually had to fight that thing... I've definitely never gotten THIS far into the game...I think the farthest I got was fighting those five trainers in that one house here in Ecruteak City...
ACQUIRED: Koffing! Now I just need a Meowth to make a Team Rocket team...
And also found an Ether and an Ultra Ball. Guy who gave me this Itemfinder was right about there being random stuff here...
Irwin calls again to tell me that he heard I defeated Whitney. You're amnesiac, Irwin.
I walk into the Pokémon Center and Kishgal is there??? WTF? No wait, that's Bill. He tells me about the Time Capsule. I love the in-game explanations for out-of-game stuff, lol. I've also heard I should go back and visit him, too.
SEEN: Naoko's Flareon, whose AI tells it to use Sand-Attack infinitely against my Onix for no reason. Sayo's Espeon. Zuki's Umbreon, who knows Pursuit and actually got me with it, and whose tactic seems to be to annoy the other trainer and then make the opponent fall to Pursuit (which it uses every turn after several Sand-Attacks and Tail Whips). Kuni's Vaporeon. Miki's Jolteon. Seriously, these Eeveelutions have so much sand everywhere.
Okay, old man, what do I win. Oh! HM03, which contains Surf! Now that's pretty awesome. Suddenly my Croconaw gets what's almost a strict upgrade (just less PP) to Water Gun. And I wonder if I can Surf to Kanto now...?
Come to think of it, one thing I like about the way this game is set up is that there are multiple progress gates, but you can advance some of the without advancing others. Like, you can get Surf and explore the world without having to deal with the rival or Morty's gym. A more linear game would have gated Surf behin--
> Sorry, but a new badge is required.
...never mind everything I just said.
Anyway, Mt. Mortar has wild Raticates. And wild Machops. Go back to sleep, Machop.
ACQUIRED: Machop.