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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Bug Run 4: Final Comments & Movesets

(Apologies for Cleo barely being in frame there, I had to take screencaps crazy-fast)

This fourth bug run was interesting in a number of ways. For starters, I lacked a lot of moves I was used to getting extra help from on these types of runs. I didn’t have any Sleep Powers or paralyzing moves, I didn’t have any confusion-causing moves; no accuracy-dropping moves save for a quick, dirty affair with Double Team; I didn’t have Swords Dance or other buffing moves, and I had very few stats-dropping moves (Scary Face and Screech, the exceptions, were often essential).What’s more, many of the movepools of my pokemon were incredibly shallow when it came to coverage moves.

In addition to all of that, half of my team was Bug/Flying. This is not so surprising; Bug/Flying is an incredibly common combination. Still, it certainly adds to the difficulty. As a result of all of this, I sometimes had to be very creative with the limited options I had available to me.

However, this run was also surprising to me. In particular, bugs I had underestimated in the past really managed to impress me again and again.

Mothim: Air Slash/Psychic/Bug Buzz/Hidden Power Ground - Razor Claw

Mothim, which I had always assumed had terribly pitiful performance when compared to his fellow butterflies and moths of other gens, actually performed pretty damn admirably. Sparkler often somehow survived hits I assumed would slaughter him, and he actually packed quite a punch with his attacks. In addition, his movepool, while not the biggest in the world, actually was really generous when compared to the rest of my team for most of the run. Being an early-game bug, he tended to earn the high-basepower moves sooner then the others, and so he often was a huge help; the fact he was blessed with Hidden Power ground also was an enormous boon in this run. For a very, very long time, he was my only defender against the ground and rock type pokemon with his HP ground, a very bizarre situation but one that worked out for us. His Psychic also helped out against the extremely, extremely common Zubat line endlessly. He more then pulled his weight on the team; he was essential for me.

Wormadam: Iron Head/Psychic/Protect/Stealth Rock - Shell Bell

Mothim’s counterpart, Wormadam, was another bug type that never interested me much before. And while Fiberglass’ attack was never hitting particularly hard, as a defensive poke, she was my rock. She formed an essential part of my defense core in a team that consisted mostly of attackers and pokemon with low defenses, and allowed me to grit and stall things out when stall was what I needed. While I may not be able to reccomend using Wormadam in all settings, in this particular setting, she filled her role on the team admirably.

Vespiquen: Attack Order/Heal Order/Toxic/Power Gem - Quick Claw

Cleopatra had an interesting journey in this game. When she joined the team, at the time she was the strongest teammember. For a while, her power in both attack and in defensive bulk made her the ace of my team. She felt a lot like the mother bee watching over the rest of the team, somebody to run to when I was in deep shit so she could take care of things. Gradually, over time, her status as the ace faded. Eventually, the other pokemon she had watched over began to even outpace her; Mothim often was fast enough and hit hard enough– and had the coverage– to take care of foes that would otherwise fell Cleo, and the same could be said of the others. Cleo was slow, was the thing; terribly slow, and at times, that worked heavily against her. She still retained a vital role on the team, though, even in the late game, and despite her extremely shallow coverage moves. She held my Toxic and she had excellent recovery and very good bulk. Toxic stall was simply a vital tactic on my team that often had limited options available to them. Many foes I didn’t have super-effective moves for just wouldn’t go down any other way.

Yanmega: Air Slash/Ancient Power/Giga Drain/Hyper Beam - Wise Glasses

ROFLCOPTER sat in an often very frustrating position on my team. There is something deeply cruel about the movepool that Gamefreak gave Yanmega when they first introduced it. It does not get proper special attacks until extremely late into its life. The poor bug had to limp by with some truly shitty attacks for most of his time, never reaching his true potential until very late on. Once properly used, though, ROFL’s speed and special attack are practically unparalleled for bugs. His speed was my saving grace when squaring off against the tougher teams that had pokes in very high tiers. He is, of course, a glass cannon, but without that glass cannon, I would not have been able to punch through a number of the scarier obstacles.

Drapion: Poison Jab/Rock Slide/Earthquake/Scary Face - Soft Sand

Black Fang started out as an almost purely support pokemon. With Scary Face and Toxic Spikes and a very late-level evolution, he was the last unevolved poke on my team for a while, and just wasn’t hitting hard enough to score kills on his own at first. Despite that fact, he often played an important team role anyway. I had played without a speed-dropping move for most of the game. His Scary Face was insanely helpful. Getting off toxic damage was just a wonderful added bonus. Of course, once Fang picked up some proper attacking moves and I got access to some TMs, his utility increased dramatically. He could learn vital coverage moves nobody else could, filling in some very major gaps in my ability to hit things. Dig and then, eventually, Earthquake were essential. Rock Slide was also very important to hit Flying types, though I did already have a few special rock moves with my other pokes. And when Fang finally evolved, of course it helped that he lost his bug typing and offered a slightly wider range of defensive possibilities on my mono-team. I won’t lie about that. He did a lot of work late-game, and carried a lot of weight. Would we have managed without him, and with somebody else on the team? No way of knowing for certain, but I like to think yes. I don’t think his usefulness meant we were utterly dependent upon him late-game; we would have found a way. Still, it was fun having him around– even if I never really could get used to his strange design.

Kricketune: X-Scissor/Natural Gift/Brick Break/Screech - Black Belt

Then there is Maestro.

I am so damn proud of my Kricketune. I remember when I first played Diamond/Pearl and ran across Kricketot and was so happy, but once I tried him out I was disappointed. Ever since then, I learned what a huge reputation the line had for being weak. As my starter, I didn’t hold out very high hopes of him accomplishing too much.

And yet, somehow, he accomplished so much. There came a point around mid-game when I assumed his usefulness had reached the point of diminished returns, and he would rapidly become the deadweight on the team used as death fodder and nothing more. It saddened me, but I thought it inevitable. But it was not. He kept going and kept surprising me. Screech became a crucial asset. When I taught him Brick Break, it opened so many doors for him. He often ended up felling foes I never would have dreamed he could. Far from deadweight, he was an important teammember who took care of us.

He even defeated Cynthia’s ace. While the rematch had Cleo win with tox-stall, if she had full restored, I still would have used Kricketune to deliver the finishing blow again. Because the strange fact of the matter was– Kricketune had the highest base Attack of my entire team. His speed was middling and his defenses were pretty squishy, but he actually could pack a punch. And when the chips were down, he was there for me.

If there’s anything this run has taught me, it’s not to underestimate the dele-dele-whoop.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Dec 14, 2018.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun4 #mycontent #pokemon playthroughs

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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Bug Run 4: The Final Reckoning

So, here’s the thing. I wanted to go into this last gauntlet as low-levelled as possible.

So I tried several times. I’ll give some recaps of those warm-ups. But in the end, I did find I needed to level up on levels on par with Cynthia in order to properly face her. I do want to include the warm-ups, however, because those lower Elite fights become quite trivial at higher levels. So I feel like the warm-ups do cast an important light on the merits of the team.

Just as a quick refesher on the rules:

1.) no healing items during battle unless the foe uses them first, and then I can only match the items one-for-one.

2.) no entering the Elite four at levels higher than the highest-level pokemon in the Elites/Champion.

Warm-Up One

With this first warm-up, my team was all at levels 55. Honestly, they did surprisingly well, all things considered. The first few Elites, specializing in Bug and Ground, were not any trouble. After all, ROFLCOPTER’s Ancient Power/Air Slash could just sweep the bug team, and I had plenty of ways of handling the ground team as well. (In fact, Maestro took out Rhyperior all on his own– which I am so proud of. The power of Screech and Brick Break, and Rhyperior missing one of his Megahorns, heh.)

The true challenge was Flint.

One of only two Elites who specialize in the Fire type, surely this was the true test of a bug team’s mettle.

I started off with my Drapion, as you can imagine his typing and his Earthquake were pretty important for this match. Sadly I fall JUST short of a 1HKO on Houndoom. The dog gets Sunny Day up, which is … really, really bad. Then Flint heals. I take out Houndoom the next time, but that’s the least of my concerns. Infernape is next up, and I send out Yanmega, because I’m certain it will outspeed Drapion. After a little Protect just in case, I Air Slash, which juuuuuuust barely falls short of killing. Fortunately Infernape Flare Blitzes and takes us both out. My Black Fang is back out again, squaring off against Flareon. Sadly, my EQ doesn’t one-shot, so I get an Overheat straight to the face. I finally bring Flareon down, but next up is the scary horse that is Very Fast. I revive my dragonfly (potion was used on Houndoom) and send him out. While Rapidash spends a turn getting Sunny Day back up, I throw some rocks. Another turn of rocks and it goes down, but then the major problem hits.

It’s Magmortar. In the sun, no less.

My Ancient Power hardly even phases him, depressingly. Once ROFL goes down, that’s it. Magmortar outspeeds everyone in a giant ball of fire.

Warm-Up Two

So, no real surprise that Magmortar presented a bit of a problem for us. My second warm-up had my team all at levels 57 when I started out. This is the level of Flint’s ace poke. These higher levels made things a lot easier: Black Fang took Houndoom out in one hit, preventing Sunny Day. ROFL’s Air Slash on Infernape took him out clean this time. Fang’s EQ could also clean out Flareon in one hit. Rapidash was the first to not fall to one hit: he took one Ancient Power, just barely. However, ROFL somehow survived the Flare Blitz and Rapidash fell to recoil.

I’m sad to say ROFL’s rocks still barely put a dent in Magmortar; and Magmortar still outsped nearly everyone on my team still. Except for one– Black Fang. Thankfully, EQ killed, letting us squeak on by.

The last Elite member was a Psychic specialist. As you can imagine, for a full-bug team, this wasn��t too terrifying a prospect. I sent Maestro out first, 1HKOing the Mr. Mime. Gallade was the ace, and pretty damn tough. I decide to send Fang out to get a couple Scary Faces off, because his speed terrifies me. Then I smash away with Poison Jabs, poisoning him in the process. I’m almost home free until (of course) Full Restore rains on my parade. So I continue the process, stabbing away with Poison Jab, but my foe decides to be clever and switch Bronzong in. I try using Crunch on it just to see, but it’s not really worth much; I drop to Extrasensory and probably shouldn’t have wasted Drapion like that.

That said, Maestro goes in and has this covered for me. I’ve spent many an hour beating up Bronzongs in Victory Road and know that one Screech and the bell falls to my X-Scissors, despite the bulk and the resistances. No worries.

Gallade returns from his break, so I send ROFL in. I proect on what I think is his last Stone Edge before Air Slashing him to death.

Last is Alakazam. Air Slash puts him at 1 HP, which is quite annoying, because of course Full Restore is next. Yes, I don’t have Bug Buzz on ROFL. I know, that’s a bit silly, but I wanted to pack a bunch of coverage moves on him. Anyway, I bring Fiberglass in and smash away with Iron Heads as plan B. I take 2 Focus Blasts to the face easily and immerge victorious.

Easy peasy.

But truth be told, despite how far we had gotten, we just weren’t ready for a particular pokemon to come.

Cynthia’s opeing Spiritomb is easy enough. I used Cleo to toxic it and healed heavily, and swooped in with Attack Order when the time was ripe.

Togekiss was out next, which … is pretty scary. I had equipped Black Fang with Rock Slide, but Togekiss is still bulky as fuck. Plus, Air Slash did a LOT to Fang, even though it wasn’t super effective. I got lucky with the flinches, simply put (even after one full restore from our champion). Somehow, against a Togekiss, this seems fitting, though.

Luck wasn’t going to carry us through Garchomp, though. The run ended there, once again in flames. It was just too high-levelled and too strong.

Warm-Up Three

I spent some time grinding more, getting the team up to levels 60-62. I also bought and grabbed a few extra HMs and items. I would need to be careful and incredibly precise with this battle.

This fight came so incredibly close. It certainly confirmed I was on the right track.

I opened with Fiberglass, setting down my Stealth Rock. I bashed away at Spiritomb with Iron Head, which was around a four or five hit kill. That sounds slow, but Fiberglass resisted the Dark Pulses and Shadow Balls that it threw at me, so it was quite reasonable. I did get some bad luck with a Special Defense drop on a Shadow Ball, though. This means when Cynthia stopped to potion up, I did too. Eventually Spiritomb fell, though.

Next was Garchomp. She was going right to the big guns this time. I had a plan for this, though. I sent out my Drapion, equipped with a Focus Sash. The plan was Scary Face. I absolutely needed to drop its terrible speed. Lacking any paralyzing moves whatsoever, Scary Face was all I had. Earthquake brought me down to 2 HP (which was hilarious, not even consuming the sash) and I got the Scary Face off; then I pondered my next move. I decided to risk swapping Cleopatra in.

She switched in on an Earthquake as I had hoped, and then was able to Toxic. She tanked Garchomp’s Flamethrower damn admirably, and was able to heal off the damage several times. Then a critical hit catches her and she goes down. Still, it felt like holding back an ocean tide, and I was impressed she managed to do it as long as she did.

Then I sent Maestro in.

“A fucking Kricketune against a Garchomp?” you ask. “Are you mad?”

But this Kricketune had a Pomeg berry and that weird move Natural Gift. As most of you probably don’t remember this weird-ass move introduced in gen IV, the move’s power and typing changes depending on the berry you hold. It’s kind of like Hidden Power, but easier to manipulate … but can only be done once, as it consumes the berry.

Pomeg berry translates to a base 70 Ice attack. And it worked, taking the Garchomp down. It was deeply satisfying.

Next was Togekiss. I had hoped Fiberglass could do a little chip damage but her health was just too low and she went down immediately. Somehow, I manage to take Togekiss out with 2 Ancient Powers from ROFL, though (after surviving an Air Slash).

Milotic is out next, and I’m fully aware how tanky this beast is. I send out Sparkler to try a Bug Buzz, and get a very lucky critical hit– sending the HP down to 1/3. Ice beam then takes us out, but ROFL can easily revenge with Air Slash.

Lucario is next! I try Air Slash, and it brings him down to less then ½ health, which is great! But what’s not so great is Lucario has Stone Edge. Another bug drops.

Maestro manages to get the kill with Brick Break– surviving a Stone Edge to do so. It feels fantastic, but we’re in deep trouble now. I’m down to just two pokemon; Maestro and Black Fang, and they’re both in the low red.

It’s just not quite enough. She outspeeds Maestro and so he’s gone.

And that’s it. The run stops here. I know Fang can’t 1HKO.

We came so close, though. So ridiculously close. What if our luck had been just a little bit better? Or what if … what if I put the Focus Sash on Sparkler? I’d already seen Fang could just barely survive one hit.

What would happen then?

One More Fight

The rematch is very, very similar to before, with only a few small differences.

This time round, Fiberglass got through Spiritomb a little more easily. I didn’t need to use a potion to get through it when Cynthia potioned it; I just plugged away and brought the ghost down.

The fight with Garchomp went pretty similarly. I got a Scary Face off with Drapion, swapped Cleo in, did some toxic stalling … although once Garchomp’s health gets into the red and I choose “Toxic” again, anticipating the Full Restore, for some odd reason it never comes. Garchomp Dragon Rushes instead– which misses, and toxic of course fails. The following turn, Garchomp goes down. I have no idea why Cynthia didn’t Full Restore that time, but in the long run, it didn’t make a difference, as you will see.

Next up was Togekiss, and I send Fiberglass back in, but potion up Drapion this time– using the potion I was owed that Cynthia used before on her Spiritomb. Fiberglass goes down to a critical Air Slash, and Drapion goes out to tough it out again with Rock Slides. Once again, Cynthia potioning up and I need to Rock Slide through another round, but manage to not fall victom to Rock Slide misses. I’m thankful.

Milotic is next again, and Sparkler Bug Buzzes. He does not score a crit this time, and I see just how pitiful the damage is when it’s not a crit. Oof. My sash is consumed and I get one more hit off, which helps, but Milotic is not as low as before. When I send ROFL in, Air Slash does not kill.

Oddly, Milotic decides to Mirror Coat instead of Ice Beam. I take heavy damage but don’t die. I try to Giga Drain, now confused over what Milotic was doing, and thinking the HP might help me survive a non-ice hit. It brings Milotic down into the red but she still doesn’t DIE, and Cynthia potions back up.

This wasn’t going good. I attack more, finally go down to an Ice Beam, and bring Fang in to revenge-kill with a Poison Jab, which thankfully does the job.

Lucario is out next. I swap in Cleo, who’s in the low red. I use the chance to do one thing: potion Drapion back up again. Cleo goes down, and Drapion can kill with one EQ.

Finally, Roserade. I’m back to the same scenario as before– with Maestro and Fang the last ones standing– but both are at full health this time.

Two Poison Jabs take Roserade down, and that’s that.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Dec 14, 2018.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun4 #mycontent #pokemon playthroughs

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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Bug Run 4: Getting Dizzy

The appearance of Giratina and the journey into the Distortion World is honestly one of my favorite parts in any pokemon game. It had always been so memorable for me. But was my team of bugs ready to traverse such harsh territory? Would they stick by me even in these insane conditions?

It was time to find out.

I had forgotten, unfortunately, just how many HMs you needed to get here. The sad fact was I would need to keep my HM slave in the party during this trip. This whittled my party down to just 5 fighting members, which made things tricky.

Because the final fight with Cyrus, as it turns out, is quite the jump in difficulty; at least when it comes to a full bug team taking him on. This takes place deep in the bowels of the Distortion World, after wandering all over the place and solving puzzles. Last time, he was only packing Sneasel, Crobat and Honchkrow with some middling movesets. This time, he wasn’t pulling any punches.

He opened with a Houndoom and prompted wiped my team. The thing was just too fast and too powerful. I tried a few things, but I was forced to conclude my team was both a little under-levelled compared to his and that I was lacking in some important movesets. I would have to leave and prepare a little.

So, I reluctantly returned to normal reality. I knew my team could do it, I just needed to think a little more carefully here.

Our first and perhaps most important step was to locate the TM for Earthquake and replace Fang’s Dig. Armed with Earthquake and Soft Sand, I felt we had far better footing with the opening Houndoom.

I also did a little shopping and picked up Solar Beam for my Yanmega. I had left Yanmega behind, actually, to leave room for my HM Slave, but decided it would be smarter to take Yanmega along for this. My Mothim would sit on the bench for this one instead. I hoped Yanmega’s crucial speed and powerful sp. atk. would help him deal with the Gyarados. I also spent time grinding a little more in the caves. Of course, I made sure to not exceed the level of the highest pokemon on Cryrus’ team; that would just be over-levelling. We needed to win on our own merits.

When I finally returned to the Distortion World, I was full of anticipation and had several plans and alternate plans of action in mind. But when the time finally came, once again … it was almost painfully easy to actually complete. I really do keep forgetting how much a difference just a couple levels actually makes. Admittedly, Earthquake helped too. I one-shot the Houndoom with Earthquake, then took out Gyarados with my Yanmega’s Ancient Powers. I don’t remember what I did with Honchkrow– which had HEAT WAVE, for some reason– but he didn’t bother me too much either. Crobat was probably the most difficult; Cleo took him on, but kept getting terrible luck with confusion. I felt frustrated and wished I had given her a Lum berry, watching as her health crawled into the red. I knew her time had come, as even with a single Scary Face up, Crobat still outsped the slow bee– not surprisingly.

But then something weird happened; she made a little bounce and struck Crobat down with one last Power Gem. For a solid several seconds I had no idea what had happened and all I could think was the mechanic they had introduced in gen 5 when pokemon who really loved you would sometimes tough things out in a pinch. (It took me far too long to remember I had given her a freaking Quick Claw. Haa. But still, for a few seconds that was a fun moment.)

And that was that; Maestro took care of Weavile easily enough.

Giratina is always awesome, but when you’ve caught one legendery, you’ve caught them all, I suppose. Just sort of flinging balls for half of forever and occasionally using potions and hoping you catch before they struggle. This was the one time I used potions during battle, and even then, it was just to speed up the process.

The final gym after Distortion World was kind of a walk in the park at the levels I was at, too. Especially with Black Fang now owning Eathquake. The short hike through Victory Road was more fun, facing the varied Ace Trainers scattered in there. Once I reached the other side, I got to work grinding in Victory Road.

This was going just fine; I was on my way out the door from healing, ready to grind more, but somehow stepped a little too close to the Elite Four doors I guess when I hadn’t done so the previous several trips.

Forgot this triggers a rival fight. Whoops. This was … kind of a pain, since one of my slots had an HM slave, and I had Kricketune in my first slot, but Gavin wasn’t waiting around for me. Things were a little tight, but I cleared through his team anyway, and after the rude interruption, I could get back to my grinding.

I was going to need it. What was coming up next would be no easy feat.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Dec 13, 2018.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun4

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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Bug Run 4: Mountainclimbing

After mulling it over, I decided to hike back down the mountain and retrieve my missing teamember. It was just too lonely without him. So I kicked my HM slave to the curb and taught Maestro Strength, as he’s a cool guy and he was willing to sacrifice the moveslot. Strength’s a decent move in battle, anyway.

Returning once more, we sought our sweet vengence upon the man with Electabuzz and Magmar. First up was to slow down Electabuzz with a Scary Face, which was slow enough for Sparkler to use his HP ground. This wasn’t enough to finish the job, so I fooled about stalling with protects using Fiberglass and letting hail do some work before finishing it with Flash Cannon. Easy!

Magmar of course annihilated my Steel-Bug. Yanmega got one Ancient Power off before going down. Then Cleo could come in, tank one Flamethrower right to her face, and wiping out her foe with Power Gem.

A quick heal and we pushed on through the path up the mountainside. The snows grew deeper and fiercer, but we were able to handle the battles the rest of the trek. Eventually we reached the small, almost eerily quiet Snowpoint City perched on top of the world. It was actually kind of cozy.

Now was not the time to fool about sipping hot cocoa in the Pokecenter, though. We had a gym to take down. This was Fiberglass’ time to shine. With an Ice resist, tanky defense and a very strong move that was super-effective on ice types, she blazed through the place with utter ease.

After that, there’s more Team Plasma nonsense. Galaxy. Galactic. Whatever they’re called. We chased them to their headquarters, had a few uninspired fights in their building, and reached Cyrus again. It was time for Cyrus Part Deux!

This fight was cutting things a little close. I battled him twice, actually; the first time I was actually on the brink of winning, but then he popped a Full Restore for his ace. Gotta love those strats of pay to win.

That said, I still managed to win the second time, despite dirty tactics.

Maestro took Sneasel out in one shot, although he sustained heavy damage while doing so.

Crobat is honestly a monster, but I was able to tank one hit with my little Skorupi and get a Scary Face off. I have to say, Scary Face has been serving me damn well, especially in the absence of any pokemon who can use Thunder Wave or whatnot. Anyway, I sent ROFL out, protected for a turn just in case, and proceeded to smack Crobat with Ancient Powers. Sadly, even this didn’t quite take Crobat out, but I had Sparkler to finish the job!

… except that’s when Cyrus decides to use another Full Restore. Sigh.

At least the Psybeam I used did a good chunk of damage. I used it again and thankfully did outspeed; still, it fell just short of the kill. That wasn’t good. There was no way Sparkler was living an Air Cutter. I gave it a shot anyway, though, just in case– and yet once again, Sparkler lived on a smidgen. He seems to constantly surprise me with that. And so, the moth triumphed over its age-old nemesis, the bat.

Finally, there was Honchkrow. The plan of action was to send Cleo out and get the Toxic in. She did manage to live on a precious few HP after that, but was down the next hit. After that, frankly, it was just throwing pokemon out there to be slaughtered while stalling for poison. Finally, I sent a fresh and ready Fiberglass out. Not wanting more Full Restore shenanigans, I hit with Flash Cannon, hoping to finish things off; and got the kill!

Just to be clear, my team was at levels 39-42, while his team was levels 44-46. My humble bugs were hitting way above their weight, especially little Skorupi, who had yet to even evolve. I was very happy with their hard work.

After the fight, Cyrus blathered on about Mount Coronet, and it took me way too long to find which side to approach it from, but then I began my ascent. I know this is kind of the final gauntlet for Team Galactic, but I have to say, it’s a bit of a dull grind. There’s just so many grunts, and their teams are all the same damn thing, and it’s all just so damn easy. Mix it up a little, guys!

After a very, very, VERY long climb, I reached the summit, where you’re treated to a double-battle with mini bosses and your childhood friend/rival.

Look, guys! Teamwork! :D Me and my friend, sharing the love of bug pokemon! ~~YaYYY~~

(we both died soon after in a fireball because the skunk inexplicably gets flamethrower for coverage, I mean c’mon have you ever met a skunk that farted FIRE?)

I decided I was a little under-levelled, so I did some good old-fashioned grinding in the cave until my team was all the way up to level 45 each. In the process, this happened!

Our last evolution! I’m so proud. Fang is all grown up now and … weirder looking. Seriously, has anyone ever figured out Drapion’s design? He reminds me of this really weird k’nex-like twisty-bendy connecting-thingy toy I had as a kid. I dunno, I always found him vaguely unsettling looking. It’s … weird.

But regardless, it was a chance to try him out!

I should probably pause to note here that technically speaking, Drapion is NOT a bug type. He evolves from a Poison-Bug type into a Poison-Dark type. He’s still obviously based on a scorpion, of course (a really, really weird looking one, albiet, but a scorpion). I thought long and hard about whether I was going to allow him on my bug run. Very long and hard. Honestly I probably spent too much time thinking about it when I should have been doing other things. But point is, I considered these main factors:

(a) Skorupi is the only bug-type pokemon to lose its bug typing upon evolution; he’s quite the unique case

(b) Drapion is in the Bug and Water 3 Egg Groups (Water 3 grouping is for water-dwelling invertebrates, close relatives of insects/arachnids/land isopods/etc.)

As such, I eventually decided that Skorupi would be allowed to evolve and remain on the team. He’s a buggy buggo boy.

(Also, I learned I never picked up the TM for Poison Jab, so I went and grabbed it for him. This was very helpful, because he’d been limping along thus far on Bugbite and Dig alone.)

After that really long tangent, let us return to the story. My team was buffed up big time, because I wanted to be ready. I didn’t want to have to climb that damn mountain yet again, after all.

Upon my return, we wiped the Galactic admins with so much ease that it felt terribly anti-climactic. Ah, well, at least I’d be ready for the next part, right?

Right?

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Dec 8, 2018.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun4 #mycontent #pokemon playthroughs

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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Bug Run 4: Through Fog, Smoke and Snow

Diving boldly forth into the fog of night, I eagerly set out!

But I am a tight-ass bitch who doesn’t want to waste a move slot on Defog, so instead I toughed it out with thrilling battles such as these:

Yeah. ROFLCOPTER still doesn’t have a flying move. It’s pretty messed up, honestly.

Battles on this route were a rather dreary affair, the most difficult being a tag-team of Raichu and Gyarados. Eventually I clawed my way out of the fog and immerged into the sleepy town of Celestic. Although it’s not so sleepy tonight, as an old lady informs me a spaceman is ranting about a bomb. I go kick his butt, check out some cave paintings, and then Cyrus pays me a visit.

After all my trouble to lay down tox spikes on his opening poke, I find out his next two are Crobat and Murkrow. Dangit. Cleo’s Power Gem is essential for flying types, although I mix it up a little this time and try some Ancient Powers to finish things off. It really wasn’t a problem.

Running into Gavin at Canalave, however …that was a little scary. Cleo took out his Staraptor just fine, because she’s a tanky beast, but next up was fully-evolved Infernape, a few levels higher then me. Ooof.

After a lot of thinking I sent Sparkler out against him. She was my fastest with a useful move. I tried Psybeam, but not surprisingly, Infernape still outsped.

What was surprising, though, was that Sparkler lived on 8 HP and got a good Mind-Plate-powered Psybeam off. Not enough to finish things entirely, but I used toxic and stalled him out with Cleo the rest of the way, just barely.

Next was his Heracross.I had Fiberglass’ Psybeam for that, no problem. Except, uhh. Despite my decent defense and Brick Break only being neutral, it was still doing a huge chunk. I couldn’t win at this rate. I swapped to ROFLCOPTER, feeling the pain of lacking a Flying move more keenly then over. Pelted away with Ancient Powers until eventually Heracross went down.

Finally was Floatzel, and after the rest of my Ancient Powers, I just chipped away with Pursuit until he caved.

So that was that. MAN, I need to get decent moves on Yanmega.

Next, I went to train hard in the gym! I never miss my workout! Just …gimme a minute let me watch some TV, I’ll go soon … *grabs a bag of chips* *flops on couch*

Hey, see? The TV says bug lovers are happy, well-adjusted people. We’re not freaks, I swear.

Anyway, I eventually got off my butt and went to visit Byron in his steely gym of doom. Most of his underlings were easy pickings for Sparkler’s HP-ground. For the rare few with Levitate, I had plenty of others to deal with it.

Byron himself, however, wasn’t exactly a pushover.

I did the Byron fight twice. The first time, Black Fang crit the opening Magneton and 1HKO’d. Buuuuut then Bastiodon came out and wrecked my face with Stone Edges. I had to try again and think a little harder about strategy instead of charging in so recklessly.

Second time round, Black Fang only got Magneton a little below half HP with his Dig. Somebody had to faint to give my Mothim a safe switch-in. I decided to toss ROFL out there for the slaughter, as I doubted he’d be doing much this match. Sparkler took Magneton out, but next was Bastiodon. I used Hidden Power Ground, did a great chunk but activated Bastiodon’s berry and healed him back up to 3/4s HP. Goddamnit. I hoped for a miss, but down Sparkler went to Stone Edge. Not a chance in heck he was livin’ that.

Next, I sent out Maestro. He’s easily my weakest of the team; I’m willing to bet nobody has ever sung the praises of Kricketune’s base stat totals. Around this time in the run, he’s been really struggling to be useful on the team at all, usually going down in one hit to everything. It makes sense; he’s available so early-on in the game, and those pokes tend to have low base stats. Sooner or later, that fact was going to bite Maestro in the butt.

Still, I had a plan. I’d recently given Maestro Brick Break. This fantastic upgrade was 4x effective on Bastiodon. The only thing is, I knew from my last attempt it wasn’t a 1HKO. I had to Screech if I had any hope at all. I also knew Maestro went down to a single Stone Edge, so it would be up to the others to somehow chip away at Bastiodon… maybe? Though … that seemed unlikely. I had to try, though.

I screeched. It thankfully landed. And … Stone Edge missed. Sweet mercy. After that, Maestro was able to take level 41 Bastiodon out clean. Hoorah! Maestro took out Byron’s ace!! HE DID A THING!

The final was Steelix, though. I tried Brick Break first, and was apalled at how little it did. Utterly disgusting. So I screeched again, but this time it missed, unfortunately. However, Maestro managed to survive long enough to try one more time, successfully landing the second screech before going down. This ended up being very essential indeed.

Things were a bit tricky, because I didn’t exactly have much for Steelix– especially with Sparkler down, since Sparkler and his HP Ground was my main go-to for dealing with all these Steel and Rock types. I sent out Fiberglass and tried out a Bug Bite just to see … mmm yeah that’s not working in a million years. Psybeam was no better, quite frankly. Steelix took Fiber out with several Earthquakes.

Out of other options, I put Cleopatra out. I had to hope the Screech would be enough help for her to chip away with her newly-learned Attack Order. I honestly thought the battle was done at that point, though, because if Steelix knew Rock Slide …

Steelix used Ice Fang on me and the damage really wasn’t too horrible for super-effective damage. Ok, if that was the best he could use on me, I could work with this. I chipped away with Attack Order and kept healing up. Steelix used Sandstorm to do more chip damage for me– but despite the super effective Ice Fang and the Sandstorm, if I was careful enough with my heals and when I timed my attacks, I could maintain a good amount of health and come out on top.

It was a very slow process, though, and I was terrified of getting frozen, which had decent odds considering how many ice fangs I was taking. That would probably spell the end. Still, I couldn’t get too hasty.

Another thing I knew was probably coming was Byron would probably soon use–

Yeah, Full Restore. MMM THAT’S GREAT.

So back to chipping away all over again.

Somehow, I eventually prevailed (and was thankful Byron did not use another Full Restore).

(everyone was level 36 except Cleo and Sparkler at lvl 38)

After this was some more Team Galactic plot and exploding lakes, but beating the grunts and even the admins was really pretty trivial. After taking care of two lakes it was time to head in the direction of the final lake, first passing through Mt. Coronet.

Charging through the snow, I didn’t expect to have many problems, but almost immediately ran into somebody with a high-levelled Tropius and I was convinced I was going to full-party wipe after my ace Cleo was taken out. I’d stalled long enough for Maestro to take care of it, though. Whoo. Maybe I should be more careful.

I hadn’t exactly started out on this journey well-stocked, either. A little resthouse saved me from that problem, fortunately. Yeah! W-we’re good! Let’s just carry on then!

… oof. I was fine until an Electabuzz and Magmar tagteam wrecked my shit. I decided to backtrack and train on some of the other Ace Trainers, only to meet somebody with a Golduck, Rapidash and Sudoowoodoo that also wrecked my shit. A second try with a LOT of careful planning had me scraping through, though: lay down toxic spikes at the start with Golduck, clear Golduck out with Yanmega to get my speed boosts up and running, hit Rapidash with a good Ancient Power, then come in and finish stalling with Cleopatra. Sudoowoodoo was tough, though, man, his Rock Slide taking Cleo out cold. Black Fang got one Dig off, and then Maestro could finish with Brick Break.

Did I mention I was working with only five pokes since I had an HM slave at the time? All of them sub-level 40? Boy.

Getting past the gatekeeper with the Electabuzz and Magmar was going to take some thinking, though. I decided I’d leave that for another day, though. It had been a long day of work, and we all deserved to retire for the night in our rustic lodge.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Nov 25, 2018.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun4 #mycontent #pokemon playthroughs

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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Bug Run 4: Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Facing Fantina with my team of four bugs (at levels no higher than level 26, self-inflicted rule) was easier said than done. Duskull and Haunter weren’t the problem; the issue was Mismagius. With its fantastic special defense, I just didn’t have the moves to touch it. My only physical attacks were bug, normal or fighting moves; my best special moves could only put a mild dent at best.

I also lacked a lot of the usual handy moves on my team, like any of the powder moves at all, or any confusion-inflicing moves, or any screens, or Swords Dance, or … anything, really. My TMs and HMs didn’t offer much help, either. They are slim pickings this early on in the game, and most my team can’t even learn at that.

It seemed like I was stuck. Gazing at my shallow pile of TMs, I realized a strategy I could use, but it wasn’t exactly a pleasant one. My options were very limited, though, and I knew I had to work with what I had.

So I taught Vespiquen Double Team. After getting six of them set up on Duskull, I could chip away at Mismagius and survive hits long enough to take it down. I honestly hope I never have to use that strat again, because I feel dirty.

Almost immediately after the gym fight, we smack into another tough poke when I meet my rival, though, because his Monferno can outspeed my entire team. Fortunately, by now, Vespiquen has learned Toxic. With Heal Order and Toxic, she’s our designated tox staller now, and is able to endure Monferno long enough.

We take a lengthy tour through Solaceon Town, raid the ruins for valuables, buy some souvenir Moo Moo Milks, and then travel the long route up to Veilstone. The next gym isn’t too terrible, being a fighting type. Unfortunately the pokes do know rock moves, but it’s nothing a little toxic stalling won’t fix. I mean, I think I gave one of them a guts boost, but ah well, whatever.

The last poke was Lucario, though. Hmm. That could be tricky. I sent Sparkler out, my Mothim, which packs his trusty Hidden Power Ground. It was clearly a 2-HKO though.

Somehow … Sparkler survived two Iron Claws and took Lucario out. I’m so proud!! ;____;

Took me a while to find out where to go next, but eventually made it over to Pastoria City. Exciting!! This was the location of the new, improved, swampier Safari Zone!

I quickly went in there and nabbed my Yanma, then realized this was where you got Skorupi too so I had to go back in. Forgot to get a picture of capturing him, so here’s his stats screen instead.

Nice HP. Anyway, with my final two members of the team freshly caught, I moved to the gym, but my rival was waiting to ambush me. Defeating him was a repeat of last time– Wormadam to wear down his bird, Vespaquen to toxic stall his Monferno, Sparkler to take care of the rest, rinse and repeat.

After visiting the gym I saw I was a little under-levelled, so I did a bit of grinding.

Sadly Yanmega is really shafted for any decent special attacks until really late levels, but what can you do?

The grinding here took longer than I expected but I finally got the team up to 35.

After that, I took on Crasher Wake. I used a couple Scary Faces with Black Fang on the opening Gyarados to make things easier for Cleo, so she could come in and hammer away with Power Gems. The Floatzel I managed to toxic before he gave me a little surprise with Ice Fang, but I finished stalling with Fiberglass. Then for Quagsire it was just a slow chipping away with Fiberglass’ attacks and doing some switching back and forth because the dang thing kept confusing me and had Yawn. I kind of needed to use Fiberglass, though, because Quagsire also had Rock Tomb. It was slow, but it worked.

And that’s about it for tonight’s report! My rival said something about a bomb but whatever, it’s probably nothing.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Jul 22, 2018.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun4

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jaybug-jabbers · 3 years

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Bug Run 4: The Grind

So, I was all excited about putting honey on the tree and wondered how long it took for pokemon to appear. I came back five minutes, then ten minutes later, surprised it still had no encounters. Time to google how long it takes.

… six HOURS?

And that’s a REDUCTION from the time it took for Diamond and Pearl. What the freak? Do they think kids have that kind of time and patience? Heck no. I sure as heck don’t as an adult.

So, I cheated. Don’t worry, this cheat didn’t in any way reduce the amount of effort I had to put into this run … believe me. All I did was pop in some encounter codes so I could catch the three bug types I was wanting to get with honey encounters. I caught them all at low levels and still had to grind them up from scratch.

This took … a Very Long Time.

Largely because Burmy only learns Protect as its starting move and you need to limp him along before he even gets an attacking move– and even then, only a measely Tackle that does diddly squat. Both Burmy and Combee do not hit particularly hard and have defenses like a wet paper towel. Eterna Forest was very helpful as a training ground for them, because with constant healing after every battle and a stout partner like Chansey, plus lots of trainer battles, it gave me the chance (haaa….) to catch these two up.

Finally, after what felt like years, I left the forest …

Two fresh evos under my belt, ready to join the team as full members. Mothim ended up learning Hidden Power Ground (an interesting choice) and Cleopatra gained the very useful Power Gem. My second Burmy, the female, was still not levelled because quite frankly I got sick of grinding. Time to move on! There’s a new city waiting for us!

And a new Team Galactic member to wallop! Well … sort of wallop.

Cleo took care of the Zubat no problem with Power Gem, but the Skuntank was a bit bulkier of a beast. After eating its berry, I whacked away with Power Gem until it was in the red, but one more hit would have dropped Cleo (and that sweet, sweet EXP). So I threw Fiberglass out as a sacrificial offering so I could get a free switch-in with Sparkler and finish things off. I’m cruel, I know, but life on the team is tough, what can I say.

(Note: Turtwig is there as HM Slave ‘Cut’ to get in this building. He did not participate in fighting. Or even as being used as death fodder. Because that would break the rules of an all-bug team.)

Oh, by the way, there was also a Grass-type gym in there. I kind of forgot to mention it because it was pretty trivial for a full bug team to take out. I will note, however, that talking to NPCs, they mention multiple times that using Fire and Flying against Grass is a good idea. Not once do they mention bug. This is discrimination.

Afterwards, we finally gain access to a bike and new routes, so I wander around a while and eventually find a cave under a bridge called Wayward Cave. I’m curious so I explore it a bit, and wonder what the heck it’s for. Eventually I find a little girl very deep into the cave and she wants help back out, so it’s for a side-quest, I guess.

At first it’s great because I’m grinding up my second Burmy but eventually I get sick of the cave and lost and wonder if I’m ever finding my way out. I could just Escape Rope and ditch the little girl, of course, but that seems rude.

To make matters worse there are children in this cave who apparently have been spending too much time around Hypno.

Eventually we get back to the start, though, and see the light of day again. Well. Not really. It’s dark outside by the time I leave the cave. But we’re out, at least.

After that lengthy detour we head to Hearthome City for the next gym. Training in the gym also gives us the opportunity to do this finally!

I definitely wanted Trash Wormadam because the power of artificial insulation and steel protects this bug, which helps balance out the team slightly. She also picked up a Hidden Power of her own, although I have yet to determine what it is.

I have, however, narrowed it down to either Poison or Bug, and I’m going to be mighty ticked if it’s bug-type. (Incidentally, Mothim’s Ground-type Hidden Power has been fantastic. Odd that I use a delicate little flying type to take on Geodudes and Onixes and such, but it works.)

Facing the actual leader of the spooky gym will be for another day, though. For now, we’re going to rest the evening in Hearthome and enjoy some fresh poffins I cooked up for everyone.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Jul 18, 2018.

#pokemon #bugrun #bugrun4 #mycontent #pokemon playthroughs

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