Pokémon Gold/Silver thread

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Now I remember how much of a bastard Lance is to defeat on this game.

Team 11 badges in:

Espeon
Ampharos
Typhlosion
Red Gyarados
Togetic
Scizor

Now I remember how much of a bastard Lance is to defeat on this game.

Team 11 badges in:

Espeon
Ampharos
Typhlosion
Red Gyarados
Togetic
Scizor

pretty similar to how my team would've looked, had things not gone to shit

Still haven't finished my virtual Yellow or Moon, but once I do I'll give Gold another go (although IMO HeartGold is better because graphics).

So, I had this idea prior to challenging the Elite 4 to try to make this run more interesting for Kanto, but since the Time Capsule doesn't actually work the way I hoped it would, I'm gonna save it for when Pokémon Crystal comes out instead.

Basically, upon reaching Vermilion City, a new extension to the rules would be added that would allow for alternative encounters involving the Time Capsule. In these games, it's possible to send Pokémon from the first generation over to the second—you just need to trade over something that actually existed during Gen I, and you could carry your team from Red, Blue, or Yellow over to the next gen.

In doing this, the Gen I Pokémon you carry over may be carrying some kind of rare or valuable item that cannot be obtained through any other means. Somehow, I never took much advantage of this feature as a kid, even though I would've had a lot of fun with it—so I came up with this idea.

Basically, after beating the Elite 4, my Silver challenge would be put on hold. Then, I would start a new challenge with the same exact ruleset on a fresh Pokémon Yellow file (or Red, or Blue. Doesn't really matter). Once I've completed that Yellow challenge, I could resume playing Silver and make my way through Kanto.

This is where the rule extension comes in. Basically, for every area in Silver's Kanto that has a parallel in Yellow's Kanto, I can either walk around in the grass and encounter something normally, OR, alternatively, I can invoke Time Capsule Clause.

This is a clause that allows me, for every new area, to trade with my previously completed Pokémon Yellow file. This will serve as my one encounter, but the interesting thing is this—the only thing I'm allowed to trade is the Pokémon I found on that specific route in my previous file. So, for example—if, in my Yellow nuzlocke, I found a Magnemite on Route 9, I can THEN sacrifice my one encounter on Route 9 in my Silver nuzlocke, once I actually reach that route. From there, I won't be able to get anything else as normal.

It's totally fair, too, since Time Capsule trades are indeed trades—I'm not gaining Pokémon through this method. I'm losing one and then gaining one. This idea not only promotes variety, but also gives me an opportunity to use a feature I overlooked as a kid, and potentially use some Pokémon I otherwise would never be able to in a nuzlocke, like Golem, Alakazam, Machamp, and Gengar, because I don't typically allow trade evolutions.

This was a great idea, and I was prepared to do it immediately after beating the Elite 4—but unfortunately, it hinged upon the idea that I only needed one 3DS with both Yellow and Silver on it to actually use the Time Capsule. As it turns out, you do in fact need two 3DSs with two separately-purchased copies of the two games loaded onto them.

That's not how it was advertised at all, but whatever.

I'm such a shill for Pokémon anyway, that when Crystal comes out, I'll probably end up buying another 3DS. I kinda want a new one anyway, and I'll purchase Crystal on that machine while using my Yellow file on my old device. I'm making this happen, but it's just a matter of time before the game actually comes out.

Has Crystal even been hinted at/confirmed?

Has Crystal even been hinted at/confirmed?

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/09/rumour_data_miners_find_evidence_of_pokemon_crystal_in_the_gold_and_silver_vc_releases

Has Crystal even been hinted at/confirmed?

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/09/rumour_data_miners_find_evidence_of_pokemon_crystal_in_the_gold_and_silver_vc_releases

Rumour

Has Crystal even been hinted at/confirmed?

https://daily.pokecommunity.com/2017/09/22/what-happened-to-pokemon-crystals-eshop-release/
"Patches used to allow Virtual Console to work with Crystal have been found in the app code for the Virtual Console versions of Gold and Silver, suggesting that the release of Crystal is imminent:"

beyond that, not really—i'd say the writing's on the wall, but mostly, i'm just going off the fact that there's very little reason for them not to release it eventually, and i'd be very surprised if they never did

As I made my way to Kanto via the SS Aqua, I was reminded once again about how fucking awesome this game's music is:

YouTube

When I made it to Vermilion City, I decided to explore the whole region as much as I possibly could before I actually fought any gym leaders (and it actually is possible to explore the entire region).

I proceeded to do lots and lots of shit, and I don't remember all of it, but I'll try my best.

The first thing I did was retire Shuckie. Sad, I know. He's been amazing, but I honestly will not need him again for a very long time, and training him requires me to sap experience points from my other party members, so he's gotta go. He's still a champion.

On top of Prithvi's absence, this left me with only four party members, so I momentarily recruited Madam the Girafarig to help round out the squad. Though they're still respected, Peckham and Narayan have definitely succeeded Verbette and December in terms of usefulness, so I won't be bringing them back unless the situation calls for it.


Route 6 - North of Vermilion
Wanted to catch: Abra, Magnemite, Oddish
What I caught: Meowth



Meowth isn't all that bad of a catch, despite the fact that I wasn't really shooting for it. It learns Pay Day, which allows me to grind for money, especially if I'm having him hold the Amulet Coin. Might come in handy for some really expensive item down the line.

Magnemite would've been all-around the best catch. I need an Oddish to get a Leaf Stone later, but I'll have several more opportunities to catch one. Not catching an Abra is fine, in all honesty—I can't fully evolve it anyway. It's just kinda hype when it happens.


Saffron City

No Pokémon are available here, sadly.


Route 7 - West of Saffron
Wanted to catch: Vulpix, Murkrow, Houndour
What I caught: Vulpix



Say hello to the newest official party member. His name is Kurama.

WAY cooler than any of the Dark-types available here.

Since Quill's death, my team has been totally bereft of any Fire-types, and since Ninetales has probably my second favorite Fire-type line in the game, I figured it could fill that void pretty well—and, for the most part, he has. For having the lowest stats on the team, he's actually quite powerful, and packs a mean Flamethrower.

There's one problem, though—and this applies to every Pokémon I've ever planned to evolve with an evolutionary stone during this run:

It's not possible.

In Pokémon Gold & Silver, there is only one way to get evolutionary stones. In Kanto, you can meet Bill's grandfather at the Sea Cottage, north of Cerulean City. He'll ask you to show him a few rare (or not so rare) Pokémon, and for each one, he'll reward you with the corresponding evolutionary stone.

Show him a Lickitung, and he'll give you an Everstone.
Show him an Oddish, and he'll give you the Leaf Stone.
Show him a Staryu, and he'll give you the Water Stone.
Show him a Pichu, and he'll give you the Thunder Stone.
Show him a Vulpix, and he'll give you the Fire Stone.

You can get one of each, but ONLY one of each.

This is the part that kills me, though—you can't just show him any of those Pokémon at any time. You have to show him each Pokémon in that specific order. Right now, I'm in a position where he's asking to see a Pokémon with a long tongue (Lickitung), but because I wasn't at all prepared for this nonsense, I've already burned the one route where Lickitung can actually be found. Now, there is actually no way for me to get ANY of the stones at all.

Can you blame me, though? Route 44 is the only Lickitung route, and in this game, it has a 15% chance of appearing. Since this is a nuzlocke, I'm pretty much fucked.

On the bright side, this is one of the many things about Gen II that Pokémon Crystal fixed—they actually added more methods of obtaining the stones. That doesn't do much for me right now, though. Not only am I unable to evolve my Vulpix, I also won't be able to evolve my Weepinbell, my Poliwhirl, or the Staryu that I want to catch. So bad.

By the time I reached the Sea Cottage, however, I had already trained Kurama up to level 45 (from 18), so at this point, I still consider him a pretty valuable part of the team. He hasn't really done much to disappoint me yet. So I guess I'll let him stick around. The fact that he'll never be a Ninetales really sucks, though. This is something I'll have to keep in mind for future runs.

Though, technically, there's still one way for me to catch a Lickitung. If I were to find a shiny one out in the wild, I could invoke Shiny Clause and catch that. That's obviously not very practical, though.

There's also a pretty well-known but extremely cheesy method of obtaining the strongest Pokémon on each route, which can be exploited easily in nuzlockes. It involves taking a Pokémon that is one level below the strongest Pokémon (level-wise) in the area. Then just use a Repel and keep running around until you find the thing. Since the Repel prevents all weaker Pokémon from showing up, you're guaranteed to find the highest-level thing possible.

Fortuitously, wild Lickitung can be as high as level 26, making it the strongest Pokémon on the route.

NORMALLY, doing this is highly frowned upon in nuzlocke challenges, because some people argue that it defeats the entire point, and I kind of agree. But in this particular instance, since you NEED to get a fucking Lickitung just to  evolve certain Pokémon, I honestly wouldn't have any qualms exploiting this method. But just for this.

Or, I guess you could just play Crystal where shit actually makes sense and you can get as many Water Stones as you want. But that's not out on the virtual console yet, so we'll have to wait for that.

But, oh well—Sorry, Kurama. You're still awesome.


Route 8 - East of Saffron
Wanted to catch: Abra, Kadabra, Noctowl, Haunter
What I caught: Meowth (again)



c'mon game i just fucking caught one of these aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

My chances of catching something cooler were 65%, or 70% if you include Vulpix.


I'll post these in digestible chunks.

Lavender Town

This area doesn't have any Pokémon in it, either—nor does the Lavender Radio Tower—but I was able to pay respects to all my deceased Pokémon at the Soul House. Fifteen deaths.

Route 12
Wanted to catch: Qwilfish, Tentacool
What I caught: Tentacool



Cthulha died in such a stupid way, so I really don't mind getting to use another Tentacool.

This is also the route where I can finally pick up the Super Rod, which means I can head back to Johto and cover the last few areas that I've been saving all this time for this one moment—Cherrygrove City and Dragon's Den.


Cherrygrove City
Wanted to catch: Staryu
What I caught: Krabby



God fucking dammit.

I didn't even actually catch it—I just ran away. At level 40, the Krabby almost assuredly knows Guillotine, which can instantly kill any of my party members. Definitely not even worth it.

As I would later find out, I wouldn't even be able to evolve a Staryu even if I caught it, but it still kinda sucks.


Dragon's Den
Wanted to catch: Dratini, Dragonair
What I caught: Magikarp



Sorry, Flee—it seems that the Dragonite Gods have not smiled upon me. It just wasn't meant to be.

But that's okay, because the Magikarp Gods have much more clout anyway. It's level 40, so even if it evolves, it'll be piss useless because it won't learn any good moves. But I caught it anyway and named it Clair.

The last remaining areas in Johto are Tin Tower and Silver Cave.


Route 13
What I wanted: Chansey, Nidorina, Nidorino, Noctowl
What I caught: Nidorina



Back in Kanto, I made it over to the infamous Chansey Routes. There are three bordering routes—13, 14, and 15—that each have a 1% chance of finding a Chansey. If I were to find one, I also have the option of trading it for an Aerodactyl, the only fossil Pokémon available in Gen II (but I'd rather just keep the Chansey).

Needless to say, I did not find one here.

I'm okay with a Nidorina, though. Since B and G both died stupidly, I appreciate having been given an (undeserved) third chance with this species. In keeping with the theme of naming them single letters (after the speedrunning practice of doing so), I named her J.


Route 14
What I wanted: Chansey, Nidorino, Noctowl
What I found: Quagsire



Keyword "found."

I didn't catch it.

It ran away.

Fuck.


Route 15
What I wanted: Chansey, Nidorino, Noctowl
What I found: Noctowl



All right, no Chansey for me.

That's actually fine, though—I've always wanted to catch a Hoothoot or Noctowl anyway, so it's about time. It knows some pretty great moves, like Hypnosis and Reflect, so I'm definitely not against using him to help catch more Pokémon.


Route 11
What I wanted: Magnemite
What I caught: Rattata



Sigh. Pretty bad route, honestly—the only other thing available here is Drowzee, which is one of my least favorite Pokémon in general. This will be the last Rattata that I catch for this entire run—if I see any more repeats, I'm just gonna run away from them.


Back in Vermilion City, I decided it probably wouldn't hurt to do a little bit of training at the gym. I wasn't planning on fighting Surge just yet—before I fight any leaders, I want to take care of the Power Plant issue first. I was just gonna fight the gym trainers, that's all.

The trainers here are all very low level, so I thought it would be easy—and then something had to go and happen.

There's a cut bush blocking Surge's gym, so I took Capulet the Weepinbell along. I could technically just use Surf, as well, but since I'm saving my Vermilion City encounter for Snorlax, I didn't want to take the risk of encountering something useless in the water.

This was also before I discovered how stupidly difficult it is to get evolutionary stones in this game, so right now, I'm thinking, "Capulet needs to gain some levels before he becomes a Victreebel." So I use him against the first gym trainer: a Juggler named Horton.

He used four Pokémon—or, more specifically, four Electrode. They are all significantly lower leveled than Capulet, and Electrode has the weakest Self-Destruct in the game, so I wasn't too worried.

The first Electrode blew up on the very first turn, though.

Capulet survived, taking about 70%. That's pretty scary, but the odds of the second Electrode blowing up immediately afterwards are pretty dang low, so I took a chance and used Sleep Powder.

It missed, but thankfully, there wasn't a second blow-up.

I tried Sleep Powder again, and it missed once more. Now, I'm getting a little pissed. Still no Self-Destruct, but my fucking god. This Weepinbell is easily the weakest and most useless thing I've ever used. You may recall me having issues with him earlier, but he just never got better.

The third Sleep Powder worked, but it didn't matter—the third Electrode finally did Capulet in. After healing, he proceeded to miss with Sleep Powder three times straight before getting hit by Self-Destruct and dying.

I don't even feel that bad, really—he was an absolutely good-for-nothing Pokémon who was obviously very miserable to be on the team, and now he's out of that misery. Had he hit with Sleep Powder just ONCE on the turns that he absolutely needed to, everything would've been fine—but no.

Even in death, however, Capulet is still inconveniencing me.

Since he's, you know, dead, I technically shouldn't be able to use Cut now when I exit the gym. Because that doesn't make any sense. Other people treat those rulings differently, but personally, I don't use the dead corpses of my Pokémon for specific HMs, even if I absolutely need them. If I'm ever at a point where I need to use an HM to progress, I don't have a single living Pokémon that can learn the move, and I don't have any remaining encounters, then my options are to either take the L and forfeit the run, or grind for a suitable shiny Pokémon.

But, yeah. I don't have to worry about that, because I can just Surf my way out with Peckham. It just sucks, because I'm technically risking a minimum of two tiles worth of potential encounters—if I encounter ANYTHING in the water, that'll prevent me from catching Snorlax later, so that ended up being potentially disastrous.

I didn't encounter anything, though. That's nice, but now I have to re-teach Cut to Alkali. That's not so nice.

Next stop is the Power Plant.

With Capulet dead, not only does that leave me out of a Cut user—I also have to teach somebody Flash.

I tried Ocellus (my new Tentacool), but he doesn't learn it. Eeylops (my Noctowl) does, though, and I'll be able to use his trusty Hypnosis to catch whatever cool things I find north of Lavender Town.

I wanted to take care of the Cycling Road route west of Celadon and Fuchsia City first, though, since there's a particular Pokémon I wanted to catch there that's more common during the day.

Speaking of Celadon City, Porygon is available here, but I need 9999 Game Corner coins to get it. It's my favorite Pokémon of all time, I can't just not go for it—so, for several hours between performing productive tasks in the game, I spent a lot of time intermittently gambling, stopping whenever I felt I made a decent gain.

The slot machines are actually easier to game than you'd think, and I had a pretty decent rhythm going.


Route 17 - West of Celadon
What I wanted: Slugma
What I caught: Slugma



I don't have any particular desire to use this Pokémon. I just think it's interesting, because it's one of the only Pokémon introduced in Generation II that is only available in Kanto—plus, it's still kind of cool for what it is. I'm glad I caught one, especially since I've never actually seen one in the wild before.

Now, time to stop dilly-dallying and head to the Power Plant.


Rock Tunnel
Wanted to catch: Cubone, Marowak, Kangaskhan, Machop, Machoke, Geodude
What I found: Onix



As you can see, I wanted to catch just about any other Pokémon in this fucking cave—but I had to go and find one of the only two things I didn't want to see at all. How cool would it have been to use a Cubone? I love Cubone. Not this time, though.

Didn't bother catching it, obviously, since I already have a (well-trained but retired) Onix.

After this point, all of Kanto's interesting encounters kinda go down the shitter.


Route 10
What I wanted: ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING
What I got: Goldeen



This route sucks. In Silver, these are literally the only Pokémon available:
Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, Magikarp, Goldeen, and Seaking.

Notice something? Not only is every single one of these Pokémon available in droves across the entire game, I also happen to own every single one of them. I didn't have the Pokédex entry for Goldeen, but I did catch its evolved form.

How incredibly boring. In Gold, there's at least a chance to catch a Mankey, and Crystal, of course, adds a ton of interesting shit. Silver got the shaft this time.


Route 10
What I wanted: Electabuzz
What I found: Voltorb



I already have one; didn't bother catching this one.


Cerulean City
What I wanted: Staryu
What I found: Krabby



After stopping by at the Power Plant, I was sent on a mission to receive a missing machine part that'll cause the plant to start generating power once again. Then I can start taking the Magnet Train back to Johto and stuff.

West of the plant is Cerulean City, where I was eventually able to find the part, which was thrown in the pool at the gym by the last remaining Team Rocket member (who doesn't even realize that Team Rocket has disbanded and speaks in broken English).

It was in this gym that I was able to fish for another Staryu attempt that night, but I just found another Krabby instead. No thanks.


Route 4 - West of Cerulean
What I wanted: Jigglypuff, Ekans
What I caught: Jigglypuff



Finally, something cool. I wanted to use a Jigglypuff since the beginning, but it might be too little too late at this point in the game. Still, it's a pretty rare encounter, and I don't mind catching one at all.


Route 24 - North of Cerulean
What I wanted: Oddish, Abra, Venonat
What I caught: Venonat



I was looking for an Oddish because I'm still on the verge of finding out that I can't get evolutionary stones. In the end, what I ended up finding ended up being better anyways. Beedrill, Scyther, Shuckle, Venonat. If this keeps up, I'll be turning full Bug Trainer.


Route 25
What I wanted: Oddish, Abra
What I caught: Venomoth



Yeah, no joke.

I guess that instantly invalidates the Venonat that I just caught? I wouldn't know; I still have to look up their learnsets.

It was shortly after this catch that I found out about the evolutionary stones thing. Fuck me.


Route 5
What I wanted: Abra
What I caught: Bellsprout



Apparently, the game thinks I deserve a third chance with one of these things. All right, then.


Route 16
What I wanted: Grimer, Muk, Murkrow
What I found: Grimer



Just one thing I needed to do before taking my break—clear up the two routes above and below Cycling Road.

I didn't catch anything here. The Grimer I found ran away before I could successfully catch it. Oops.


Route 18
What I wanted: Grimer, Muk, Murkrow
What I caught: Grimer



I caught this one, though. Yay.

After that, I was pretty sure that I hit an impasse (even though I ended up being wrong)—I figured I should start fighting some gym leaders, starting with Lt. Surge.

Here's the team at this point:



Alkali went to town on his Raichu and Electabuzz, two-shotting both of them with Sludge Bomb.

Narayan tanked two Explosions from both of his Electrode.

Kurama burned down his Magneton.

Easie-peasie—I have a feeling that most of these Kanto gyms are gonna be a breeze. All you need is one type advantage, and you can pretty much destroy their whole team. It's kinda sad.

Of course, I eventually realized that I'm supposed to pick up the EXPN Card from some random dude in the Lavender Radio Tower, since I cleared the issue at the Power Plant. I have no idea how the fuck I was supposed to know to talk to this guy, and I have no memory of needing to do so, but whatever.

With this, I gain access to the Poké Flute Channel, which I can use to wake up Snorlax back in Vermilion.


Fuchsia City
What I wanted: Nothing
What I found: Magikarp



The Safari Zone is closed in this game, so the only thing you can actually catch anymore are Magikarp. I didn't even bother catching it—I just chose to burn my encounter while I still technically had it.

The lack of a Safari Zone is probably one of my least favorite parts of the game, since there's virtually no excuse for it.


Celadon City
What I wanted: Porygon
What I got: Porygon



After gambling for several hours, I made 7000 coins from 1000 and simply bought the rest.

Please welcome our newest member: Quadcore.

Like I said before: Porygon is my favorite Pokémon, which essentially earns him a free spot on the team. I'm boxing Madam for now, even though she's been pretty useful.

Porygon starts out at level 20, so it has a lot of training to do, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what I want it to become.


Vermilion City
What I wanted: Snorlax
What I caught: Snorlax



A scary level 50, I was fortunately able to catch her in two Ultra Balls without even having to put it to sleep. Snorlax is actually extremely OP in this game, so I don't wanna use her, but she's holding Leftovers, which is one of my favorite held items in the game.

That gives me two, as well, since you can actually find Leftovers in a wastebasket in Celadon City. I think it's the only wastebasket across the entire fucking series that actually has something inside of it.

Anyway, the Snorlax was blocking Diglett's Cave, which was the only way to reach Pewter City and Viridian City—so now that it's freed up, I may as well head out for those places.


Diglett's Cave
What I wanted: Nothing
What I caught: Diglett



I'm not much of a Diglett fan, but that's the only Pokémon available here, so whatever.


Pewter City
What I wanted: Rapidash
What I found: Nothing

There is only one Pokémon available in Pewter City, and it involves an in-game trade. Some dude wants to trade his Rapidash for your Gloom—but since I've already burned every single route that has Oddish and Gloom on it, I won't be able to get that Rapidash any time soon.

I also found an old man who gave me a Rainbow Wing. This is the item I need to gain access to the Tin Tower back in Johto, where I can try to catch a Gastly (and eventually fight Ho-Oh much later).


Tin Tower
What I wanted: Gastly
What I caught: Gastly



Blair was a Gastly, and she was the first Pokémon to die in this relatively death-filled run. Most of my deaths have been the result of stupidity and irresponsibility on my part, so catching this Gastly at one of the final areas kinda felt like making peace with them all.

Since the Gastly was at such a low level, I couldn't weaken it with any of my moves, and I never brought along Eeylops for this—so, I just had to chuck a few balls. I tossed three Poké Balls, and they all broke out without even shaking once.

Then I decided to toss a Friend Ball as a peace offering (it's a ball that has no special modifiers, but instantly boosts a Pokémon's friendship rating to 200/255, assuming you successfully catch with it). It shook three times and stayed in the ball.

With that, Johto is nearly complete. The only area that remains here is Silver Cave, the final dungeon.


Route 3 - East of Pewter
What I wanted: Ekans, Arbok
What I found: Zubat



Laaame. That was my last shot at getting my hands on an Ekans/Arbok, too. Ah well.


Mt. Moon
What I wanted: Paras, Clefairy
What I found: Paras



I have five different Bug-type families—one more, and I'll be able to start my own Bug-type gym.

This is actually a very nice encounter, though. This will help me make something useful out of Rosalie. Remember her? She was my Smeargle that I tried (and failed, hard) at teaching Transform. But with a Paras, I can help her learn the move Spore, which is probably the second best move that I can actually have her Sketch.

That'll come later, but that's definitely looking like a sexy option right about now.

I also forgot that the next rival fight takes place in here. Silver's getting pretty strong, but not strong enough to put a dent on my team (okay, except for the Donphan incident, but not this time).


Viridian City
What I wanted: Nothing
What I found: Poliwag



The only Pokémon available here are Poliwag, Poliwhirl, and Magikarp. Needless to say, I didn't bother.


Route 22 - East of Viridian
What I wanted: Ponyta
What I found: Spearow



Not a very exciting route.


Pallet Town
What I wanted: Shellder
What I found: Shellder



I only wanted to catch a Shellder because it's the only thing I haven't caught yet when it comes to fishing, not including Staryu (which I will eventually), Corsola (which is my least favorite Water-type anyway), and Horsea (which I already caught in Blue).

And hey, I caught one. Neat. I probably won't use it, of course, but it's nice catching something new every once in awhile.

Here are the only remaining areas in Kanto: Routes 1, 2, 19, 20, 21, 28, and Cinnabar Island. Some of the Pokémon I wanted in some of these areas are only available during the day, I stopped here.

Route 1
What I wanted: Sentret, Furret
What I found: Pidgey



Sentret is only available in the daytime, and I've never used one in my life, and I guess it's saying that way for now.

Not that I was really expecting great things from this route anyway.


Route 2
What I wanted: Ledyba, Ledian, Pikachu
What I found: Kakuna



I've woken up early in the morning for every single Ledyba route in the game. On top of that, Ledian is my favorite Bug-type, and catching one would've put me at full Bug Trainer status. But, according to this run, it just wasn't meant to be.


Route 21
What I wanted: Mr. Mime
What I found: Mr. Mime



Since TM50 does contain Substitute in this game, Mr. Mime is the only Pokémon that happens to learn the move naturally. This will be immensely useful for Rosalie the Smeargle as well, but it's going to be a rare encounter. They have a 10% chance to run away every turn, too, so finding one is relatively dicey.

The only other Pokémon available on this route is Tangela, which I'd really rather not get, but it's practically guaranteed at 95% during morning and night, and 90% during the day. Naturally, since it was daytime, I went ahead and explored this route when Tangela would be at their least common.

And somehow, I was able to actually find and catch a Mr. Mime. This run is fucking memetastic.


Cinnabar Island
What I wanted: Nothing
What I found: Tentacool



I already have every Pokémon available here.


Route 20
What I wanted: Nothing
What I found: Tentacool



Same here.


Route 19
What I wanted: Staryu
What I found: Staryu



MY FUCKING BIRTHRIGHT

It's about goddamn time. Literally, since the beginning of the game, I've been waiting out for this thing—and now I finally have one. And because Bill's grandfather is a fucking daft bastard, I won't even be able to evolve it. But hey, whatever, I have a Staryu now. That's still cool in and of itself.

In terms of encounters, that completes Kanto, except for Route 28, which is the route just before Mt. Silver.


Now, here's my entire collection (ordered by descending strength):

THE PARTY:


THE BOX:


TRADED AWAY:


RIP:

Just defeated Red.

His pokemon were like 20 lvls higher too, not bad.

Fuck his snorlax though.

I'm gonna talk about Quadcore and Rosalie for a moment.



So, I thought about going the traditional route with my Porygon—a simple "bulky" mixed attacker with things like Recover, Ice Beam, Return, etc. and maybe playing around with Lock-On + Zap Cannon as well.

Trouble is, I can't evolve it. It's not even a case where I could technically cheese it by finding a shiny Pokémon to show to Bill's grandfather—he needs to be traded while holding an Upgrade item. Therefore, he'll be stuck as a Porygon for the rest of the game, unfortunately, and his mediocre stats are gonna stay that way.

So, I'm gonna try to make the absolute best of it by using a little bit of creativity.

His current set involves the following moves:
- Iron Tail
- Curse
- Conversion
- Recover

Conversion works differently than it did in Gen I. In those games, Porygon would change its type to match whatever its opponent's type was (so, fighting a Pikachu would turn Porygon into an Electric-type).

Now, it changes its type to match one of its own moves instead (unless it's Normal-type or ???-type, like Curse). So, if my Porygon knew both Zap Cannon and Iron Tail, it would randomly select between Electric and Steel. But since mine only knows Iron Tail, it will always change into a Steel-type—giving him eleven resistances and one immunity.

It also boosts Iron Tail's power from 100 to 150, despite its terrible 75% accuracy. I'd use something different, but of the three Steel-type moves introduced in this generation, Porygon only learns one of them—so, I'll make due.

Curse and Recover are there, of course, to turn the little duck into a hard-hitting metal tank that can shrug off its injuries—though Curse will progressively make it slower and slower.

There are several downsides to this set. Iron Tail's accuracy is godawful, and having to rely on it as the sole attacking move is kind of shitty—but it's integral if I want to keep having a Steel Porygon, and I do. Curse is also necessary to make Quadcore as tough and formidable as possible, and since the entire set revolves around Conversion, the fact that I have to spend the first turn applying the metal coating is also an issue, especially since I have to reapply it every time I switch out.

If I want an extra attack move, it's gonna have to be Return—both because of its power, the fact that it gets STAB (pre-Conversion), and the fact that it doesn't fuck with Conversion in any way. I can't use any attacks that aren't Normal-typed, and if I absolutely had to replace any move, it would have to be Recover.

I think this is a pretty fun and interesting set, though, and we'll see how it goes.




Oh, Rosalie.

It's about time I bring her back from the box. I've been waiting to give her a viable moveset for a long time after all those Transform experiments failed—and since I've caught a Paras and Mr. Mime, I can finally start inching towards giving her a viable moveset for her stats.

Her current moves consist of the following:
False Swipe
Fly
Spore

That's right—Spore. In Generation II, before double battles, it's possible to have Smeargle Sketch the move Spore.

How the fuck did I manage that? With great difficulty—but with the help of my new Paras (named Peach), I was able to do it after a couple of tongue-tying and asinine experiments—the first of which involved once again hunting for wild Ditto.

Step one, of course, was to slap that Exp. Share onto Peach and feed her enough experience for her to learn Spore—a move that she learns at level 25 as a Paras, but since she evolves into Parasect at level 24, I had to momentarily cancel that. She's a Parasect now, though.

Next, I had to head over to the Move Deleter and delete all the rest of her moves. Since the Ditto will be transforming into Peach, it would be most optimal for her to have Spore as her only move.

If you see where I'm going with this, you might be asking, "But Spore has 100% accuracy—how are you supposed to Sketch it if it's always going to put you to sleep?"

Recall how, once afflicted with a status condition, you can't be afflicted with another one. So, simply enough, I have to find a way to poison, burn, or paralyze poor Rosalie—this will prevent her from falling asleep against the Ditto!Parasect. Paralysis is obviously the safest and least suicidal option, so I found a wild Pokémon that can induce paralysis and had Rosalie paralyzed. I also have her holding a Mint Berry, just in case.

Unfortunately, the Ditto we'll be facing are all level 10, and Parasect is level 25. Even though Parasect is a very, very slow Pokémon, Ditto isn't exactly the fastest thing, either—so if I want the Ditto to swiftly transform into Peach without putting it to sleep first, I have to use a bunch of silly time-wasting items like Dire Hits, just to burn my turn and allow the Ditto to use Transform in peace.

Once the Ditto is transformed, I switch to Rosalie, who is still paralyzed and thus cannot fall asleep. Her speed has also been crippled greatly, which definitely helps me out, since Sketch needs to move last in order to work. As expected, the Ditto!Parasect's Spore failed, and—moment of truth—I used Sketch.

And it failed.

It would seem that Sketch is hard-coded to always fail when used against a Ditto, or something to that effect. That actually raises a couple of interesting questions and possibilities—like, if something other than a Ditto were to use Transform—like a Mew, or maybe a Clefairy after getting it with Metronome—could I THEN have Smeargle try to Sketch it? The speed tie experiment is still up in the air, as well.

Anyway, I still wasn't finished with Spore. There's still one thing I can try out—find a wild Smeargle and try to have it Sketch Spore from Peach, and then switch to Rosalie (still paralyzed) and have her re-Sketch the move from the wild Smeargle.

A couple problems still arose. This time, Peach's low speed was starting to bite her in the ass. She couldn't outspeed the wild Smeargle, so they would Sketch nothing—and since the move only has 1 PP, they would be using Struggle for the rest of the battle. And a low speed means she can't escape very well, either. I tried giving her a Smoke Ball to remedy this, but unless I wanted to grind 20 levels so that she can outspeed these things (which I don't), I needed to give her something else to use: the Quick Claw.

In this game, the Quick Claw actually has a pretty dang decent chance at getting your Pokémon to move first—it's somewhere between 20% and 25%. What I needed to happen was this—upon finding a Smeargle, she'll use Spore, and the Quick Claw activates, putting the Smeargle to sleep before it's able to Sketch anything.

Now it's asleep, sure. That's a problem, but there are no ways to reduce your own accuracy in this game—though, in retrospect, I could've tried switching to Peckham. He would use Thunder Wave to paralyze the Smeargle, preventing me from putting it to sleep, while still giving it a chance to Sketch Peach's Spore upon switching back to her.

Yeah, I'm just realizing that I could've done that, but I didn't. Whoops. It even would've solved the speed issue, because paralysis quarters your speed in this game. What an obvious solution that flew completely over my head.

The way I did it instead was to continually spam Spore until it woke up—but on the turn that the Smeargle would've woken up, the Quick Claw would have to activate a second time so that it can be Sketched.

Very unlikely thing to happen, but fortunately, it ended up happening a quick two attempts in. Awesome—I taught a wild Smeargle Spore. That means I'm halfway there.

Since I obviously cannot just catch this Smeargle, I have to switch to Rosalie, who—yes, she's still paralyzed—and then use Sketch on the Spore that the wild Smeargle just Sketched. Doesn't that just make your head spin.

But, wouldn't you know it—it actually fucking worked. I have a Smeargle that legimately knows Spore in Generation II, in a fucking nuzlocke challenge. What the fuck is this run?

It doesn't end there, though. Once Rosalie learns Sketch for the fourth and fifth times, I have even more moves I want to teach her, including Belly Drum (which Mr. Green learns naturally) and Baton Pass (which Madam already knows).

And since I caught a Mr. Mime (who I named Chaplin), I can even have her Sketch Substitute down the line, if I so please—but that means I'm gonna have to sacrifice her Flying abilities, and I may not want to do that.

By the time she's all ready, though, she'll be level 71—so I have that to look forward to, now.

Welcome back to the team, mascot.

Oh, I also toasted Erika. One-shot her entire team with Kurama's Flamethrower.

I can't believe she only had four Pokémon.

Oh, I also toasted Erika. One-shotted her entire team with Kurama's Flamethrower.

I can't believe she only had four Pokémon.

Wouldn't it be one-shot?

Oh, I also toasted Erika. One-shotted her entire team with Kurama's Flamethrower.

I can't believe she only had four Pokémon.

Wouldn't it be one-shot?

technically yes, even though that sounds really off

Oh, I also toasted Erika. One-shotted her entire team with Kurama's Flamethrower.

I can't believe she only had four Pokémon.

Wouldn't it be one-shot?

technically yes, even though that sounds really off

Something, something, get your tenses acting right, something, something.

this seems like a lot of work

this seems like a lot of work

with the amount of writing i'm doing in college at the moment, i'm getting pretty used to typing a whole lot

this is nothing tbh

this seems like a lot of work

with the amount of writing i'm doing in college at the moment, i'm getting pretty used to typing a whole lot

this is nothing tbh

whatever floats your boat i suppose

whatever floats your boat i suppose

it helps that it's my 4th or 5th favorite game, and given that i haven't played it through in almost ten years, it's easy for me to get all excited and passionate over it

Janine was supposed to be the easiest gym leader.

She specializes in Poison, which is perhaps the most underwhelming type in the game. It's not super effective against anything, it doesn't have any powerful attacks to exploit, and her entire team is comprised of Pokémon in their level 30s, whereas my team is comprised of five level 50s and a level 45 Porygon.

My Porygon can also change into the Steel-type, like I described earlier, which invalidates all Poison-type moves. Theoretically, all I need to do is set up Conversion, and I've instantly won the fight.

And, sure, I won the fight. But in true Verbatim fashion, I found a way to fuck something up.

I led with Quadcore, intending to use my patent-pending Conversion + Iron Tail strategy.

She led with her level 33 Crobat. I have literally no reason to be afraid at all. She uses Confuse Ray, which is perhaps one of the only moves she can actually use to fuck with me. But it's okay, because all Quadcore has to do is convert to Steel-type, and he'll be absolutely fine.

But Quadcore hits himself. But okay, that's fine. I'll just try it again next turn. No big deal.

Then Crobat uses Screech, putting me at -2 Defense. But it's OKAY. I'm still not worried.

But then Quadcore hits himself AGAIN, taking a little bit of extra damage now after that defense drop. He's at 65% now.

BUT IT'S OKAY, BECAUSE IT'S A LEVEL 45 AGAINST A LEVEL 33.

HITTING MYSELF IN CONFUSION TWICE IN A ROW IS ONE IN FOUR, SO IT'S BOUND TO HAPPEN ONCE IN AWHILE.

WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG IF I TRY TO GO FOR CONVERSION A THIRD TIME?

The Crobat could get a critical hit on Wing Attack. That's what could happen. Quadcore fucking dies.

That, my friends, was a chain of events that had a 1 in 64 chance of occurring, and—don't worry, I checked the numbers—it was the only chain of events that NEEDED to happen in order for this fucking Crobat to actually take out my Porygon. According to Showdown's damage calculator, Quadcore easily could've survived the critical hit. He just didn't. The RNG won.

This all could've been prevented if I just used someone else, like Narayan, who doesn't need to waste a turn using Conversion to be a Steel-type. I just wanted to have a little bit of fun with my favorite Pokémon, that's all. Silly me. I seem to have forgotten what run I was playing. The run that's been fueled by pure shit, piss, and memes since the very beginning.

I proceeded to slaughter the rest of her team effortlessly with Sheila. I wanted this fight to be a little bit more fun and interesting than that, but the game wasn't having it.

I mean, I guess random death is interesting in and of itself, but for fuck's sake. It just had to be my favorite.

HeartGold is better because graphics).

Had to replace Quadcore with somebody, so I went with Madam, even though I need to start training Rosalie, too.

Misty was simple enough to take out—Peckham ran a train over her with Rain Dance + Thunder. Quagsire may have been immune, but it still couldn't handle a rain-boosted Surf.

Just four more badges.

All right, I took out Brock, Blaine, and Sabrina.

Brock was pretty easy overall, but things got a little bit dicey with his Omastar. I tried having Narayan fight it with Steel Wing, intending to reduce its high Defense a little bit, but I forgot—Steel Wing doesn't lower their Defense. That's Iron Tail.

Still, the move did exactly 50%, so I thought it would be okay to just go for it aga—AND THEN IT FUCKING MISSES of course why do I never learn from these things jesus christ

The Omastar responded with Surf, and Narayan barely survived with 17 HP left. From then on, I switched to Madam and had her blast everything away with Psychic, because that's what she does.

Blaine should've been easy, too, but I lost yet another Pokémon due to bad RNG. I lead with Madam and just spammed Psychic throughout the whole fight, pretty much—but his last Pokémon was a level 50 Rapidash, and Madam was level 47 at the time. I assumed she would be able to take it on, because Rapidash's Special Attack is quite a bit lower than its Attack—so, even if it uses something crazy like Fire Blast, Madam should honestly be able to tank it.

And then it critical'd. A one-hit KO at full health. Can't tank that.

According to Showdown's calculator, Madam was guaranteed to have survived with about 30-40% had it not been a crit. I can't be upset at random bullshit—it happens, and it wasn't my fault at all. The only thing I could've done was to just NOT use Madam, but I'm not the kind of person who lives in fear that every attack is going to result in a crit. Just gotta go for it sometimes. The only upsetting thing is having lost a pretty solid teammate who has been here since the Lake of Rage.

Only a couple Pokémon left to use, now—Rosalie the Smeargle and Shuckie the Dragonslaying Shuckle. I decided it was time to bring back Rosalie. She knows Spore now, miraculously, so she'll actually be extremely useful in these upcoming fights.

When I fought Sabrina, I played it excruciatingly safe. Even though she only has three Pokémon, a STAB Psychic is going to hit like a freight train, so I made liberal use of Narayan's defenses and struck her down with Sheila.

There's only one gym left now, and this is gonna be the toughest one before Red.

I'm giving it some thought right now, and I'm considering retiring Kurama early. He'll never evolve, his stats are very, very low, and his overall usefulness has been tapering off. If I bring back Shuckie, that'll also reunite the five surviving champions—and, yeah, I think that's how it's gonna have to be. I'll teach Shuckie Toxic before the Red fight and see where that takes me.

All right, here's where everyone is at in terms of stats:

Pokémon                 - Level - Stat average

Sheila the Scyther      - 51    - 123.5
Peckham the Lanturn     - 51    - 121.5
Shuckie the Shuckle     - 51    - 121
Narayan the Skarmory    - 51    - 114.3333333333333
Alkali the Beedrill     - 51    - 107.3333333333333
Rosalie the Smeargle    - 51    -  79

Everyone's looking pretty good.

- I've reunited the five champions, boxing Kurama for the time being.
- Shuckie knows Toxic and Protect now, making him a premiere staller.
- Alkali knows Hidden Power Dragon again in place of Cut, just because.
- Rosalie sketched her fourth move: Belly Drum.

In ten more levels, Rosalie's gonna sketch Baton Pass from my Mr. Mime. The original plan was to have her sketch it from Madam, but then she went and died. Chaplin happens to learn the move naturally as well, though, so that's still an option.

My level cap right now is 58, so she won't be able to abuse her strategy during the Blue fight.

After I fight Blue, though, the level cap will shoot up to 81 or something, so that'll work out just fine.