Gameplay Journal An Ultra Journey through Alola... at night!

RadEmpoleon · May 7, 2025

Entry #13! Elite Four time! This happened a few weeks ago, but I haven't gotten around to typing this all out. (Well I did try last week, but then the browser refreshed and everything I wrote was deleted. I didn't get too far, but I still do have to start all over.)

- Defeated Hapu in the Poni Grand Trial
- Battled Gladion for the last time
- Caught Necrozma in Mount Lanakila
- Traversed through Mount Lanakila
- Made it to the summit
- Shared a special moment with Selene

But first, before I actually took on the Elite Four, I had an idea: how about I take my team to the Alola Photo Club and get everyone's picture taken? This honestly ended up being a great idea. Each picture got me more and more excited and warmed up to this feature I'd only used once or twice before. Now I can say with full confidence that this is one of my favorite features in all of the Alola games. I had so much fun with it!

I ripped the pictures directly from my SD card and arranged them all together in Adobe Illustrator.

Without the stickers:

With all the stickers:

I crammed on as many stickers as they would allow, so they do look a bit messy. I like it, and that's all that matters. I did a different Z move pose that matched with their respective types, and I picked a different theme for each picture. I will ramble a bit about each one:

FightNight (Hariyama): I wanted us to be fighting since I thought it would be funny. As if I wouldn't get absolutely destroyed by a Hariyama in a fight. Also I thought the bow on her head was funny.

Mikey (Mr. Mime): this one might actually be my favorite. I have done the impossible feat of making Mr. Mime look cute. The bow on her head is really helping out. Then I added as many cutesy stickers as possible.

SludgeBoss (Alolan Muk): I wanted this one to look like some sick album cover. The Po Town backdrop was definitely a must for this one. I didn't really have a lot of stickers that fit the vibe though, so there's a random Haunter with a fake mustache and sunglasses.

Selene (Primarina): all the music notes are fitting since she's a singer. We're on the beach since where else would we be in Alola beside sunny shores? And of course there are bubbles too.

Andi (Ampharos): this is what I imagine Jojo stands are like. (I know nothing about JJBA aside from the memes.) I really like that little Wimpod sticker. It fit perfectly in the speech bubble in the frame.

Vanrouge (Noivern): I thought it would be a cool "fourth wall break" if the tornado and dragon claw stickers overlapped the dialogue box. We're in this cool cave since bats usually live in caves. I gave him the tie because I thought it was funny. (Only realized this after the fact, but I unintentionally put my 2 male team members both in the tie.)

Anyway, back to the Elite Four. I honestly don't remember the last time I challenged the Elite Four in Alola. (And yes, I know the E4 isn't the exact same in SM and USUM.) I don't really challenge the E4 for fun anymore like I did when I was a kid. It's been a while since I actually did it in any of the games I've played.

The camera was panning while I was trying to take the picture, so it ended up a bit blurry.

I always challenge the Alola E4 left to right, so we're starting with Molayne.

I kinda forgot that he replaced Hala in the E4 in USUM. Well my team isn't really equipped to deal with Steel types. My best answer is FightNight, but I didn't want to have her do everything. Plus there's only 5 PP for Close Combat, so I tried to conserve it for all the battles. I had more trouble than I'd like to admit, especially against his KLEFKI. I very stupidly let it set up 3 layers of spikes. I think 2 team members got knocked out, Andi and someone else.

Next was Olivia.

Not nearly as difficult as the previous battle, but 1 team member did get knocked out. I genuinely do not remember who it was.

Next was Acerola.

She's too stinking cute I want to give her a little squeeze and a pat on the head. Anyway, this was the first battle where nobody got knocked out.

And finally, Kahili.

I always forget about Kahili since she's the one E4 member who doesn't show up during the game. I mean she shows up for 20 seconds when you pick up the Flying Z crystal to demonstrate the dance for it, but she disappears after that. Anyway, she was the only one of the E4 battles that actually got to use their Z move. I knocked out all the others' Z move users before they could use it lol

And on to the Champion battle with...

Again, I had it in my head that I would be battling Professor Kukui since that's what I vaguely remember from the very first Champion battle in Sun that many years ago. But no, we battled against our dear rival Hau. It was a fun and exciting battle. It came down to his Incineroar, and I brought in Selene so our starters could duke it out. Unfortunately she got knocked out and I gasped and shouted HOW DARE YOU?! I threw in SludgeBoss to sack off so I could try to heal her back up. I know it would've been smarter and quicker to just let SludgeBoss finish it off, but I insisted that Selene be the one to finish the battle. I healed her up on the first turn and then Toxic poisoned the Incineroar before SludgeBoss got knocked out to safely switch Selene back in. The Incineroar had the audacity to JUST BARELY LIVE the Sparkling Aria with a sliver of HP??? That should've been a clean knockout. But the Toxic poison was able to finish it off at the end of the turn.

And with that victory against Hau...

The camera was panning really fast here to show everybody on my team. I wanted to get the picture with me and Selene, but this was the best shot I could get.

There was a big celebration and all the kahunas and trial captains came to celebrate.

I understand I picked the female MC, but it bums me out a little whenever they refer to me as "she". (irl I go by they/them but that wasn't really an option back in USUM. And I just don't have the spine to correct people irl, so most people end up referring to me as "she" as well. But I suppose we're getting off-topic. We're supposed to be celebrating!)

We'll also have to say goodbye to this lovable goober, who went off to train somwehere (probably Kanto if we're being honest)

This loser (said endearingly) just hid behind a tree instead of joining in the celebration, then left without a goodbye! What kind of friend does that?!

This might be the most diabolical side eye I've ever seen. I need you to understand I was laughing so hard at this that I could barely hold my phone steady. I'm surprised the photo turned out relatively clear lol. I did have to distort it a lot so it could try to fit the 5 : 3 ratio that I crop all the photos, so there's some border issues in the top left where I could not stretch the photo enough.

One last goofy pose for the road as he sails off to (I don't remember where, sorry). I wonder if he ever comes back to Alola? (Probably not.)

And with that, we have completed the main story of Ultra Moon. But wait, there's more!

The next day, there were news reports about Ultra Wormholes and Ultra Beasts appearing in Alola, so we were set on the case along with Hau. We met up with Wicke on Poni Island, where she gave me a Type: Null from Gladion. I do remember Gladion himself giving me the Type: Null back in Sun, but I suppose he can't do that if he's off in (wherever he went to).

GraveDigger is the name I gave mine back in Sun. A silly nickname, but I don't have any better ideas. I will evolve it in due time.

There were Ultra Beasts (in our case in Ultra Moon, Stakataka) appearing in Poni Wilds that we were to catch.

I really don't like Stakataka. Blacephalon is way cooler, but that's sadly a version exclusive. I had to trade the one I got back to the owner because I just wanted to fill in my Pokédex. I really wish I could've kept it...

I thought that using Close Combat would sufficiently weaken it so I could catch it. Even though it's quad weak, it has an ENORMOUS Defense stat and it got +2 Def boost. However, FightNight decided it would be a good idea to crit the poor thing and it one-shot the Stakataka. I had to go find another and thankfully she didn't crit that one. I need to get a better name for it because I don't like the name I gave it.

The next day came, and Sophocles came running up to our house and there was this gem of a line:

It's not even that funny, but I was laughing super hard.

Anyway, he came to tell us that Festival Plaza was taken over by delinquents, which were later revealed to be members of Team Rainbow Rocket, thus starting the Rainbow Rocket episode. I know that it exists and that there all the previous evil team leaders, but I don't know anything beyond that. and also that it's RSE Archie and not ORAS Archie

I had to battle Rainbow Rocket grunts using rental Pokémon. I think I picked Decidueye and Alakazam. I defeated the grunts, Festival Plaza was restored, whoop dee doo. I called it quits after that part. We will continue the Rainbow Rocket episode another time.

I have only the Psychium Z left to find, which, if memory serves me correct, is somewhere in Haina Desert. I will find it in due time.

RadEmpoleon · May 8, 2025

Entry #14! Not too much happened this time, and I forgot to take pictures for most of the time I was playing. This entry will be really text-heavy.

- Took photos with my team members at Alola Photo Club
- Battled and defeated the Elite Four trainers
- Battled and defeated Hau for the championship battle
- Received Type: Null from Wicke
- Found and caught Stakataka
- Saved Festival Plaza from Team Rainbow Rocket

At first I wasn't really sure what to do next. For once, there isn't the little flag on the Rotom map telling me where to go. The Rotom actually suggested I go explore areas I haven't before (basically the rest of Poni Island), so I went and did that. There was another Stakataka out in the wild that I had to catch. FightNight once again crit-ed the Stakataka and knocked it out in one hit. I took her Scope Lens away until I found another, which thankfully she didn't crit again.

I then went on my merry way towards the Battle Tree. I didn't realize they raised the levels of the wild Pokémon outside of the Battle Tree. Back in SM the highest they went was level 59, but these wild Pokémon (and the ones in the trainer battles) were in the 60s.

There was a double battle just outside of the Battle Tree and my team was already pretty beat up at that point, so I wasn't doing so hot in the battle. They had a sun based team- one with Fire types and the other with grass Pokémon with Chlorophyll and Solar Beam and such. The guy's Volcarona landed TWO Hurricanes IN THE SUN when the accuracy is 50%. WHAT THE FU--

I didn't even try to heal or revive up my team during the battle. I just let myself black out so I could just start fresh. Even when my team was in good condition, I was having some trouble against them. Go figure as soon as I replaced Heavy Slam with Earthquake on FightNight, this is when I run into Fairy types that I can't really touch otherwise. That Comfey would've been absolutely deleted by a Heavy Slam.

We finally made it to the Battle Tree where THE Red and Blue were waiting for us. They asked which one of them I wanted to battle, but I kept whining "No I don't want to battle right now, my team is in shambles!" But Blue healed up my team beforehand, so I stopped with my whining. I picked the battle with Red because I sympathize with him (as someone who was selectively mute for a portion of their life).

He led off with Pikachu, which was level 74. Mind you, the rest of my team is around level 69-70. The Volt Tackle almost one shot FightNight, but Earthquake easily would've knocked it out even before it took over half of its HP in recoil. The rest of his Pokémon were around level 70, so it was more of a fair fight.

Afterwards, I thought that maybe I should report back to Wicke to let her know that all the Stakataka have been captured. However, when I got to Aether Paradise, there was something ominous looming...

Lillie and I got caught up to Faba, who then revealed that he's working with Team Rainbow Rocket and that he's allowing them to make their base on the island. Lillie felt betrayed by him. We had to battle him and another Aether employee in a double battle alongside Lillie. I think this is the first time she's actually participated in a battle. Good for her. Her Clefairy was supportive with dual screens and Friend Guard. FightNight did most of the work with my strategy of Focus Energy + Scope Lens, which guarantees critical hits for every attack.

And now, to actually enter the Rainbow Rocket lair. There were immediately more battles, but an unlikely friend came to our aid.

Guzma asked me to battle alongside him. um YESSIR o7

After that battle, Guzma stood in the main room, and Lillie went off to the room in the back where she will heal up my team. I was off to go exploring around the lair.

I went off to the warp tile on the right, and there were memorization panels to unlock further rooms. I an terrible at memorization patterns like these. The first two rooms were fine, but the next ones I was having trouble. And of course there are more grunts in there to bother you with battles so you forget the correct sequence. It got to the point where I had to write it down because I couldn't remember past the first 4 in the sequence.

After all that memorization nonsense, we have finally found the first evil team leader.

I forgot that they used the RSE designs instead of the ORAS redesigns. I'm so used to ORAS Maxie with his glasses that the og design makes me think he can't see.

The battle against Maxie wasn't too difficult until he threw out Groudon. It wasn't as straightforward as having Selene use Sparkling Aria because of the sun from Drought. I brought her in and used Ice Beam instead. The Groudon outsped and used Solar Beam (which I wasn't expecting) and Selene lived at a little over half HP. I thought she could take another Solar Beam and knock it out with another Ice Beam, but it surprised me with Earthquake and knocked her out. I brought in Vanrouge next so I could Roost off the damage from prior battles. He resists Solar Beam, and the AI wouldn't use Earthquake against a Flying type, so I wouldn't have to worry about it even with Roost removing the Flying type. I think it used Ancient Power instead, which did neutral damage because of the Roost. Vanrouge finished off the Groudon.

I went back to Lillie so she could heal up my team, and then went off to the warp tile on the left. There were no memorization sequences (thank god), but there were so many warp tiles to navigate. FightNight got poisoned at one point and I was healing her up in Refresh after a battle when I thought... hey, maybe I should keep her poisoned for the Guts boost. I kept ignoring the Refresh button that popped up after every battle. I never do that- I always refresh up my team after every battle whenever the button pops up, as much it annoys me sometimes. Honestly I feel really bad for keeping her poisoned just for the damage boost. She pretty much cleared everything in one hit, so she never really took any poison damage, but even still... that was really cruel and selfish of me to keep her suffering like that.

Eventually, we found the next evil team leader. And of course, where there's Maxie, there's...

Again, I know they used the original designs for them, but I really LOVE Archie's redesign. It's easily the best out of all of the ORAS redesigns. So seeing og Archie bummed me out a bit. I'd love to see the redesigns in the gen 7 improved character models. ESPECIALLY Archie.

Archie proved a bit more difficult than Maxie. My best answer for Kyogre was Andi, so I had to reserve her until then. FightNight cleared the Mightyena, even after the Intimidate, because of the Guts boost. I promised myself I'd heal her up after this battle, just for her to hang in there a bit longer. Down to the Kyogre, and I brought in Andi. I wouldn't have to worry about Thunder missing because of the rain. The Thunder almost knocked it out clean because of a crit. Archie healed the Kyogre, and the next Thunder did only about half without the crit. I was hoping it would paralyze, but no luck. The second Hydro Pump (which it conveniently landed both times) knocked out Andi. I brought in Selene, hoping for a Sp. Atk drop from Moonblast, but no dice. The Kyogre also had Thunder, which cleared her in one hit. Next I brought out Vanrouge because he's the fastest on my team. Dragon Pulse couldn't knock out, and it used Ice Beam (which I probably should've anticipated considering how many Water types can learn it) and that definitely killed it 5x over. I don't remember who I threw in next, but it was at low enough health that they could easily knock it out.

I went back to Lillie to heal my team and that is where I stopped. I believe Archie and Maxie mentioned something about entering the red and blue paintings. Super Mario 64 reference??

I'm still a little confused why they're using the RSE designs for them and not the ORAS ones. Is it some sort of alternate timeline thing? Does that mean that RSE and ORAS are in different timelines? (Embarrassingly, I haven't played ORAS yet, so I don't really know...)

RadEmpoleon · Jun 13, 2025

Entry #15! I wasn't playing for too long, so this one will be pretty short.

- Caught the second Stakataka
- Red and Blue spotted at the Battle Tree; battled against Red
- Went to Aether Paradise, where Team Rainbow Rocket set up their castle
- Battled with Lillie against Faba and Aether employee
- Battled with Guzma against Rainbow Rocket grunts
- Several memorization patterns later, found and defeated Maxie
- Several warp tiles later, found and spotted Archie

I really want to change my trainer's outfit since I've been wearing the same exact outfit the entire time, aside from switching my hat to the flower hairpin. But I'm not sure if I have to finish the whole RR episode or if I can leave part ways through. Either way, it's more motivation for me to finish up.

After pressing the buttons hidden behind the painting in Archie and Maxie's rooms, the second floor of the castle opened up. Guzma was restraining two grunts when these golden dialogue gems popped up:

Are they really that funny? Probably not. But they made me laugh so I wanted to include them

There were two more rooms in the next floor. I went to the one on the right like I did on the first floor, and there were red Meowth statues that wouldn't let me walk past them. I didn't understand how to progress, so I left and went to the room on the left.

There were lots of spinning tiles. It reminded me of my Pearl nuzlocke, where recently I had to deal with a million and one spinning tiles to navigate Fuego Ironworks. This was a cakewalk compared to Fuego Ironworks. That led me to believe that Cyrus was next. And what do you know...

Very interesting that this is the first room that doesn't have any decorations, just the G logo on the floor. Though I guess this does make sense lore-wise since Cyrus just wanted an empty world, so of course he wouldn't have too many decorations.

Cyrus led off with Houndoom, which I'm assuming was an addition to his team in Platinum. (I've only played Diamond and Pearl) I accidentally left Mikey in the front and she can't really touch the Houndoom, so I switched in Selene. The Houndoom was packing SLUDGE BOMB, which go figure I switched out my Fairy type for another Fairy type. Not only did it crit her which dealt like 75%, but it ALSO poisoned her. WTF?? I wasn't sure if she could outspeed the Houndoom to try to knock it out, so I just used a Full Restore. Sludge Bomb did a little over half HP without the crit, and Sparkling Aria knocked it out.

His last was Palkia, which surprised me because I thought that it would be Giratina. I was anticipating Giratina, so I was trying to keep SludgeBoss healthy to deal with it. But anyway, I sent in Mikey to deal with the Palkia. I set up Light Screen first and Palkia's Surf didn't do SHIT. Mikey is no specially defensive slouch, especially with the Light Screen up. It took 2 Dazzling Gleams to knock out the Palkia. The deity of space got destroyed by a mime. This will never happen again lol

Back to the room with the red Meowth statues... apparently you're supposed to click on them to rotate them so you can progress. Now I feel really stupid. This was really easy to navigate otherwise. There was also this gem of a line:

I guess by process of elimination that Lysandre was next? The statues were red, after all...

Help why is he smiling like that

There were two buttons behind Lysandre: one that would let me progress through the RR castle and one that would activate the ultimate weapon. I was supposed to pick one to push. My initial thought was to push the red (orange?) button but I decided to flip a coin for kicks. My TCG coin very fittingly has Yveltal on it, so I said heads was the red button and tails was the blue button. It landed on heads, so red button after all. I guess that was the one to activate the ultimate weapon. Lysandre said the other button would deactivate it, but only if I defeated him in battle.

I didn't remember a single Pokémon on Lysandre's team aside from the Pyroar. (It's been over a decade since I played through X and Y, and I really want to replay them) Mikey was in the front again, and he led off with Mienshao. It outsped and went for U-Turn, and switched out for Honchkrow, probably trying to trick me into using a Psychic-type attack. I almost picked Psychic but instead went for Dazzling Gleam, which sniped the Honchkrow on the switch-in. That was my favorite moment of the whole battle.

It was his male Pyroar against my female Primarina, which I thought was interesting since they're both 1-in-8 odds for their respective genders. Sparkling Aria just wiped it out in one hit. I brought Andi against his Gyarados, hoping to nuke it with Thunder. I forgot that he had Mega Gyarados, and Earthquake decimated my already weakened Ampharos. I very angrily sent out FightNight to delete the (now weak to Close Combat) Mega Gyarados and avenge Andi. Waterfall did more than necessary because another crit, but no flinchies. Mega Gyarados down.

Lastly was Yveltal. I was 90% sure he'd have Yveltal and not Xerneas, but I had SludgeBoss ready to fight in the event that it was Xerneas. I sent in Selene since Andi was down. Moonblast did a bit over half to the Yveltal, and even with it healing back HP with Oblivion Wing, it only took 2 to knock it out.

I pressed the blue button to stop the ultimate weapon from activating, then made my way back to Lillie to heal my team. A secret door opened up in Lillie's room, and she healed my team. This is where I'll be stopping for now. We will go in the secret room next time.

RadEmpoleon · Jun 23, 2025

Entry #16: the Rainbow Rocket episode finale!

- Made it to the second floor of the castle
- Several spinny tiles later, found and battled against Cyrus
- Several red Meowth statues later, found and battled against Lysandre
- Found a secret entrance in Lillie's room

I tried to go to the secret entrance, but someone found their way to us.

Random fun fact: when I was a kid, I read his name wrong initially and thought it was pronounced "jeetis". I didn't see the H at first. I guess I missed the first S as well. Yes I'm aware now it's pronounced "get-sis" but I still call him Jeetis sometimes- partially to poke fun at myself and partially because it sounds funny.

Anyway, he comes in how he couldn't believe that children were the cause of the commotion and yada yada. Then he starts talking about "the freak without a human heart" and I said WOAH WOAH SLOW YOUR ROLL. This poor child (N) didn't deserve any of that. Shut up about him! Then he basically held Lillie as hostage- if you release your Poké Balls, I'll let her go. To which I said: NUH-UH. I did nothing of the sort. Get away from her!

The battle against him wasn't too difficult. Reshiram was a bit tricky, but nothing too crazy. I thought Andi's Hard Stone boosted Power Gem could do some decent work but it barely did a third of its HP. FightNight was extremely low on HP after tanking a Head Charge from Bouffalant earlier, so I healed her up on Andi's turn and let the Reshiram knock it out with Blue Flare. I brought FightNight in to Earthquake, and she tanked the Blue Flare and knocked it out. How did Jeetis manage to land all four 85% accurate Blue Flares he used???

Even after beating him in battle, he was still bent on trying to defeat us. Lucky for us, Colress teleported in and transported Lillie away from Ghetsis. After some conversation between the two of them, Colress sent Ghetsis back to his timeline.

Lillie thanked Colress for saving us from Ghetsis. I don't care that he helped us, I'm still a hater. Go away Colress.

With Ghetsis out of the way, we could finally enter the secret entrance, where Lusamine was being held captive. In there was the big boss man himself...

Every time I battle Giovanni, I always think of the "How many times do we have to teach you this lesson, old man?!" meme from Spongebob.

He was impressed that a child managed to defeat the other leaders and make their way to him. He asked if I wanted to join Rainbow Rocket, to which I also said: NUH-UH. I have MORALS. I have STANDARDS. I would never join Rainbow Rocket.

The battle against Giovanni wasn't too difficult either. The Nidos were a bit tricky because the two mons on my team with super effective attacks against them (Selene - Water and Mikey - Psychic) are both conveniently weak to Poison. Mikey nearly OHKO'd the Nidoking but it lived at a sliver and used Poison Jab. I switched in Selene and anticipated he would heal the Nidoking, so I used Sparkling Aria instead of Aqua Jet. He didn't heal it up, so Selene had to take a Poison Jab. I left her in to deal with the rest of the Ground types. (plus he set up Stealth Rock and I didn't want everyone taking unnecessary damage)

Then for his Mewtwo, I saved SludgeBoss. I haven't used him that much recently, so this was his time to shine. Immune to Psychic, and a great SpDef tank. So long as it didn't have Earth Power, we'd be fine. Its best attack was Ice Beam, which did a lot more than I was expecting. Then again, it was Mega Mewtwo Y with its insane SpAtk stat. I used Toxic, then Crunch next turn. In retrospect, I don't think Toxic was necessary because the Crunch knocked it out in one hit. I did that just in case the Mewtwo got out of hand.

Giovanni retreated, saying that maybe we'd battle again. Colress was able to change the castle back to its original state, and Lusamine was waking up again. Faba, being the suck-up he is, rushed in and asked if Lusamine was okay. Lillie tried to explain that he betrayed us, but he cut her off and tried to write her off as "shaken up by the conflict". What an absolute loser.

I genuinely want to hit him with a baseball bat. He was the one who let Rainbow Rocket set up the castle, trying to be buddy-buddy with Giovanni. I highly doubt that he would've liked Faba, and would probably just string him along until he no longer needed him. I don't think ANY of the leaders would've liked him tbh. He's trying too hard to be like one of them. And that makes him a suck-up. And now he's trying to suck up to Lusamine and pretend like he had no idea what happened, even though HE WAS THE ONE WHO ALLOWED RAINBOW ROCKET THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?! Absolute LOSER energy.

Well his argument was not at all convincing to Lusamine, so she demoted him. And with that, we have concluded the Rainbow Rocket episode.

There's a lot of text here, but that didn't take much actual time to go through. I still wanted to keep playing, but I wasn't really sure what to do next. My first thought was to explore the last few grayed out areas on the map- Melemele Sea and Ula'ula Sea. I figured now would be a good time to start catching mons to fill out the Pokédex, so I caught a few things along the way.

Next I thought I should go find the Psychium Z crystal in Haina Desert. I'm sure there's some easier way to navigate, but I didn't feel like looking it up. I wandered aimlessly until I found the Z crystal. Now we have all 18 Z crystals! (I have yet to use a single one this entire game)

While I was here, I figured it would be a good time to catch the Tapu Bulu. More aimless wandering, and I found the ruins.

As the Discord server folks might know, catching Tapu Bulu was a nightmare and a half. I weakened it as much as I could (really annoying with Grassy Terrain healing it up) and threw in Andi to paralyze it with Static, but it just didn't want to stay in the ball. Timer Balls, Premier Balls, Ultra Balls, Poké Balls (thrown for shits like I did for Necrozma). Nothing. I'm glad I bought a lot more in the shop beforehand, but I didn't anticipate it would be this hard.

The Tapu theme is actually quite a banger. I don't remember the last time I listened to it. This picture was so hard to take because not only did I have to wait for the screen to show the Tapu Bulu, but I also had to take the picture when the blinking paralysis button was on screen. So many pictures didn't have it there.

This was one such picture, but I accidentally caught it switching between frames (which I've never actually done before). I wanted to include this here since it looks like it could be a screencap from an anime OP.

I did see Roto Catch Powers in my bag, but I didn't want to use them. I wanted to do it the old-fashioned way. I suppose in that sense, I am partially to blame for how difficult this was, but I just don't like using the Roto Powers in general. I have so many stocked up because I've hardly used any of them the whole time.

Lots of complaining later, I FINALLY caught the Tapu Bulu. I wanted to rip my hair out

It has an Adamant nature- nice! I'm not sure how many tries to catch and frankly I don't want to know. It had to have taken at least 15-20 minutes to catch. I just hope the other Tapus don't do this to me as well.

And with that, I'm stopping for now. The Tapu Bulu was really pissing me off.

At long last, we have all the Z crystals across the bottom!

As for the future of these entries... I don't know. There's not too much left story-wise to go through- maybe the Ultra Beast arc, and I think that's it? (I'm not even sure if that arc is in USUM like it was in SM, or if they're just sitting in the Ultra Space.) There are other things to do, of course: exploring the Ultra Space, trying to do more Mantine surfing, dabbling in the Battle Tree, completing the Pokédex... but I'm not sure how well any of that might translate into these entries. These don't have nearly as linear of a narrative as, say, the main story arc or the Rainbow Rocket episode.

I guess that's the bittersweet ending of finishing up the story mode in a video game. It's been a joy to write these entries out, even if a hassle to type everything up (even the most insignificant details). It's a really great time capsule as well! My memory alone can only do so well. Writing these in the moment keeps everything fresh, and reading them back lets me remember what I may have forgotten.

It's not farewell just yet! (I think... I hope.) I don't want to call it quits just yet, but I'm not sure how well future entries might fare with a less linear narrative than previous entries.

RadEmpoleon · Jul 13, 2025 at 10:44 PM

Entry #17! This took place on two separate days several weeks apart, but I'll lump these events together. I don't have many pictures, so this will be another text-heavy entry.

- Defeated Ghetsis, who then was sent back to his timeline by Colress
- Defeated Giovanni
- Finished the Rainbow Rocket episode
- Aimlessly wandered in Haina Desert to find the Psychium Z crystal and Ruins of Abundance
- Painstakingly caught Tapu Bulu

I've been meaning to change my player's outfit for a while now, since I've been wearing almost the exact same outfit the whole time. I'm sure those clothes STINK.

I bought some striped socks, a Luvdisc tank top, and a frilly beach hat with a flower. I even went to one of the dye houses in Festival Plaza to dye the hat pink. I only have access to cool-colored clothes in UM, so this was the only way I could think of to get more pink clothes to match the pink of the Luvdisc. The pale pink dye doesn't match the darker pink of the Luvdisc, but that's the best I can do. It still looks cute.

I didn't change the shorts, shoes, or bag, but everything else is new. It feels so fresh, even if only half of the outfit changed.

I was interested in battling in the Battle Tree because I wanted to buy a Gengarite for my shiny Gengar that I found last year. I don't have too many Pokémon in this game, but I scraped up a team of 3 mons that could hold up in battle: a (definitely hacked) shiny Huntail that I transferred up from White 2, a leftover Buzzwole from Sun, and a Salazzle that I think I got off of Wonder Trade.

I led off with Huntail because I thought it wouldn't do as well as the other mons on the team. It knocked out an Altaria in one hit with Ice Fang, which eased my worries. It took a few battles to realize that the Huntail was still at level 100, whereas all the opponents were at level 50. I suppose that's how a Huntail knocked out an Altaria in one hit. I've never seen any of the other battle facilities keep your Pokémon's level, even if it exceeds level 50. Regardless, we made it to the 20th battle, against the battle legend Red.

Needless to say, I swiftly defeated Red with a Pokémon double the level of his.

I went on to the Super Singles, where my Pokémon were actually capped at level 50. I wouldn't be steamrolling my way through this one. I wish this Huntail knew Shell Smash, but I think it's only available from Clamperl. I went to the move reminder prior to any of the Battle Tree battles and it didn't show up in the list of moves... oh well. It also knows Return, but the friendship level probably isn't that high. Maybe I'll go work on raising its friendship some other time.

Surprisingly, my slapdash team managed to win 9 battles in a row, which meant that the next battle would be against a special opponent. You could imagine my sheer disappointment when it was COLRESS. As I've mentioned in previous chapters, I don't like him. I didn't even like him when I was a kid. I know it was because he did something bad in White 2, but I honestly don't remember what he did. (hmmm maybe I should go replay the Unova games or something idk) So all this hating is pretty shallow and petty. But buckle up gamers, because this battle was absolutely ridiculous.

I lead off Huntail, Colress leads off Alolan Muk. I spam Waterfall because that's the best attack I have for it. A 3HKO because Huntail sucks. Defense drop from Alolan Muk's Crunch, the second Waterfall flinched the Alolan Muk. Next was Porygon2, which got Download in Attack because of the Def drop from Crunch. Which is great for me because Pory2 doesn't really use physical attacks. Huntail got knocked out, Buzzwole took care of the Pory2. Currently 2v1 for me.

Colress's last was Metagross, which MEGA EVOLVED (where did this guy get the Mega stone???). I was sure a +1 Earthquake would knock out (or at the very least do a huge chunk to) the Mega Metagross. It used Zen Headbutt, which FLINCHED my Buzzwole. I suppose that was karma for flinching the Alolan Muk earlier, but ARE YOU SERIOUS???? Aguav Berry healed back most of the damage, but it couldn't live a second Zen Headbutt (which it conveniently landed).

My last was Salazzle, which I was hoping could knock it out. Or at the very least, Zen Headbutt misses. Mega Metagross OUTSPED my Salazzle, which I wasn't expecting, and go figure he landed a third Zen Headbutt. Salazzle of course did not survive the hit. (It would've been nice to have a Focus Sash, but I don't have a lot of BP for fancy items.) I was FUMING.

I probably would've saved the battle replay out of spite if I got cheesed this hard if it were against any other character (even an NPC), but just because it was Colress of all people, I didn't save it. I didn't want to relive this battle. I just furiously scribbled down notes of what happened after the fact. Do you know how humiliating it was to lose to HIM, of all characters?!

I was more surprised about the Mega Metagross outspeeding Salazzle more than the humiliating Zen Headbutt flinch. So I looked into it: Salazzle has base 117 Speed and Mega Metagross has base 110 Speed. I should've outsped no problem. Then I realized the issue: The Salazzle I had was Modest, not Timid. Its Speed stat is 169, but the highest Speed Mega Metagross can have at level 50 is 178. This means it had to be running near max Speed and +Speed nature for it to outspeed my Salazzle... how humiliating.

...but through all those battles, I got enough BP for a Gengarite and Mega evolved my shiny Gengar!

I know there's that NPC at the Battle Tree where he'll check the IVs or something so I went and double checked. Apparently if you hatch at least 21 eggs, he'll install something in the PC to check for IVs. So my next mission was hatching enough eggs to get the IV checker.

I focused on breeding things that I needed for the Pokédex like Golett. I transferred up a Ditto from White 2 (the oldest remaining Pokémon I had in that game) and mostly used that for the breeding. At first I put it with a Golurk that I also transferred up, but realized that because they were from the same OT, they wouldn't breed. Because of this, I checked with every single other Pokémon to make sure that they would get along.

Because this was my first time visiting the Paniola Ranch, Rotom had a special hatching power to make the eggs hatch faster, so I worked quickly to hatch as many eggs as possible. I also had my brother's Magmortar with Flame Body to also help with hatching the eggs. It does have Pokérus, so a few of the hatched eggs ended up with Pokérus as well (which I was trying to avoid).

I thought I had enough hatched and went back to the NPC, but I guess that wasn't enough. I wasn't keeping count, so I guess that was on me. I went back and hatched a couple more eggs. Apparently I had a second Ditto and didn't even realize it, so I used that one to breed with anything I transferred up from White 2. Eventually I got tired of hatching eggs and assumed I had more than enough. I went back to the NPC again, and I had enough for the IV checker.

I went and checked the IVs of every single Pokémon I had for funsies. My poor Selene has such terrible IVs. They're all "decent" except for SpDef which is "no good" and Speed which is "pretty good". But that's okay, we still love her anyway. I checked on the Salazzle as well- it's hyper trained in everything except for Attack. It also has max Speed EVs as well. I guess this is as fast as it could possibly get without a Speed boosting nature.

My thumb was really starting to hurt from running in circles with the Circle Pad to hatch all those eggs, so I decided to stop here. This was the first time since starting this file that I put my team back in the box. This might even be some of these mons's first time ever going in the box. It did feel a bit strange to carry around different mons, but I do feel bad for having them all sit around doing nothing.

Because of this, I don't feel that it's necessary to show the picture of my team as I always have in previous entries. And for a similar reason, the other picture showcasing all the Z crystals was there to show how many I had. Since I have them all now, again I feel there's no need to share that image here either. I think from here on out, I want to show the Pokédex completion until I have it completely filled out. I think that's my next major goal I have in mind.

Bonus image because I didn't know where to put this in the entry.