Gameplay Journal UNBREAKABLE: Mandriel's Diamond Nuzlocke (complete)

So after the failure of my White Nuzlocke, I'm back at it again! This time, we're taking on the 4th generation!

This started with me soft resetting the game in an attempt to get a shiny piplup but... I am a rather impatient person and ended up giving up after about an hour.

So just to lay down the rules:
- Only the first Pokémon on each route can be caught. If I knock it out, I can't catch anything else for that route.
- All Pokémon must be nicknamed
- If the first Pokémon on a route is one I have already caught, I have 3 tries to catch another
- If I find a shiny, I can catch it whether or not it is the first I have found on the route
- Legendaries aren't permitted

After giving up my soft-resetting extravaganza in an attempt to procure a shiny, I finally gave in a settled for a regular old piplup I called Bing Bing, after our family's word for 'penguin'. Don't ask how we came up with it because I don't know.

The first Pokémon I caught was a starly I called Flappy. I must admit, I've never used a starly before, but I hear that its evolutions are pretty useful. And since I don't have much of a choice in the matter, I'll have to go along with it.

On the route past Sandgem Town, I accidentally KOed a bidoof, so no Pokémon for me. I trained Bing Bing and Flappy a bit before taking on the trainers at the school, earning myself the TM for Hidden Power that I'll sell when I'm low on money.

North of Jubilife City, I found a shinx, who I named Zap. I was disappointed that his ability is Rivalry but beggars can't be choosers.

*Sob* Why did it have to be Rivalry...

I then caught a zubat in the cave, who I called Ray. Then we fought all the trainers, levelling up everyone except Ray to levels 10 to 11. My rival, Floof was easy to beat with my high-levelled team and we proceeded onwards with little challenge.

Then on the next route, I came across another bidoof, this one I didn't accidentally knock out so I had to catch. Yay. I named her Nommy and she'll be my HM slave.

In the meantime, I guess I'll try and train my team a little, Ray in particular is hard to level up since the only moves he knows are Leech Life and Supersonic. Until next time!

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Flappy

Zap

Ray

Nommy

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
N/A

DEATHS:
N/A

 

I'm pleased to see that Flappy's been really useful so far, I guess I never used one before since I often discarded Pokémon you find on early routes.

Yeah, I would have preferred Intimidate. Rivalry is good as it raises the attack of your Pokémon when you're fighting an opponent of the same gender, but it also lowers attack when your opponent is of the opposite gender. Intimidate is a lot more predictable and it doesn't negatively affect your stats, so it appeals much more to me.

 

I'm back!

The next Pokémon I caught was a geodude in the Oreburgh Mine, who I named Georgia. I travelled north, hoping to catch a machop but ended up with a kricketot named Louie instead. Oh well, life is full of disappointments.

I was a little concerned about battling Roark, since Bing Bing was my strongest Pokémon with a type advantage. I taught Georgia Rock Smash in case something went wrong, but Bing Bing performed perfectly. And right after the battle, he evolved. I'm so proud of him.

Back in Mt Coronet, I travelled north slightly were you can use Rock Smash to go down into a lower level and found a psyduck who I called and nicknamed Duckie. And then I tossed into the PC because I already have a water type, who is way better in every way.

In Floaroma Town, I bought a whole lot of honey. I'm not sure what I plan on doing with it yet, but I used it on a tree, and attracted a cascoon that Georgia accidentally murdered. Whoopsie. Near Valley Windworks, I caught a shellos, nicknamed it Blobby and dropped it in the PC to hang out with Louie and Duckie. I then furiously levelled up Georgia since she's my best option for fighting Mars and the other Galactic grunts.

Georgia did a lot better than I'd initially thought, single-handedly taking on Mars's team. She's an incredibly reliable Pokémon at the moment, but I'm a little concerned about the fact that she'll never become a Golem as I don't have anybody to trade with.

Anyway, Team Galactic was beaten and everybody laughed and had a good time. Then I travelled north and caught a... Buizel. That's the third water type I've caught in a row. I named it Bubbles and I doubt I'll ever end up using it.

I was making my way toward the Eterna Forest, minding my own business when some picnicker challenged me to a fight. She sent out Piplup, I send out Zap and before I knew it, I just lost my first team member. And I'd been doing so well...

So I swapped Zap out for Louie. Not because I actually plan on using him, but because if he evolves into a kricketune, I won't be obligated to catch one that I find in the wild.

Also, I went back to Valley Windworks to catch myself a drifloon. I'm making a new rule that event Pokémon can be obtained whether or not a Pokémon in that area has been caught as I try and get over the first of many losses.

Anyway, until next time!

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Flappy

Georgia

Ray

Louie

Nommy

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel

DEATHS:
Zap - Shinx

 

Yeah, it's a bit of a shame, really. If they had better moves and stats, I'd have no qualms against using them. But... Ah well.

 

So on Friday I caught myself Boo the drifloon. He's a pretty high level so I kept him in my party in exchange for Ray, who still hasn't learned any good moves, so I'll just keep him as backup in case. I also realised that I hadn't tried to catch a Pokémon south of Floaroma Town and my first few steps into the tall grass got me a budew, who I named Sir after a budew in one of my fanfictions that I've neglected.

In the Eterna Forest, both Flappy and Louie evolved and after completing the dungeon, I doubled back and caught myself a buneary I called Fluffyflop. I doubt I'll end up using her since it's a pain to raise a buneary's happiness, but I suppose it's better than a wurmple. I also caught myself another electric type; Sparky the pachirisu. She is also named after a character from a fanfic I've neglected. She's adorable and I love her.

I caught a meditite I named Cora who I accidentally got killed in her first Gym battle. Whoops. Anyway, I was soon distracted from her death by the Explorer Kit and the Underground. After getting myself a Skull Fossil and some stones and shards, I travelled over to Mt Coronet (I'm counting each entrance as a new area since there are so many of them) in hopes of catching a chingling but ended up with Manuel the machop instead.

Boo was able to beat the Gym fairly easily, with Bing Bing and Sparky joining in every now and again for experience. Then we stormed the Team Galactic building afterwards. I was concerned about my Pokémon being under-levelled, but Georgia was able to beat practically all their Pokémon. She should be evolving anytime now...

Then we got a nice bicycle for free and a VS Seeker I'll probably forget to use. Then underneath the Cycling Road, I finally got myself a dark type in Kit the stunky. I'm going to protect her with my life. I've always had trouble with one trainer in these games: Lucian the psychic Elite Four trainer. In my first playthough of the game when I was 8, the only Pokémon strong enough to fight him were my infernape, pelliper and roserade; two of which were weak against him. Then in my second playthough, I only trained poison types and, well... You get my drift. I'm terrified that Lucian is going to bring this Nuzlocke to an end right when I'll be so close to finishing...

So I'l going to take real good care of Kit. And hope that the first Pokémon I'll find in the Great Marsh will be a skorupi. That would be nice, too.

I also caught a bronzor called Bluey that I doubt I'll ever use. They're pretty handy in this generation with abilities like Heatproof and Levitate, but Bing Bing's already going to evolve into a steel-type.

Anyway, I finally caught my Chingling (Dane) in Mt Coronet, went back down to Oreburgh to revive my skull fossil, battled some more trainers, ran around in Amity Square and found an amulet coin, battled my rival, and ended up catching a Mime Jr that I named Mimie.

Wow, I caught a whole lot of Pokémon this entry. I sure hope none of them die anytime soon. I might evolve a few of them that I don't want to catch in the future, like Manuel or Ray.

I just realised, I have four Pokémon that level up with friendship. That's a lot of time to dedicate to evolving them...

Spoiler

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Boo

Sir

Sparky

Georgia

Kit

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Ray - Zubat
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Manuel - Machop
Flappy - Staravia
Bluey - Bronzor
Adrian - Cranidos
Dane - Chingling
Mimie - Mime Jr

DEATHS:
Zap - Shinx
Cora - Meditite

 

So I played a little bit this morning and made a bit of progress.

First things first. *Clears throught* GEORGIA WAS MURDERED IN COLD BLOOD BY SOME FARMER'S GIRAFARIG.

Ok, I got that out of the way. The poor geodude was THIS close to evolving. But on the bright side, I evolved Mimie and caught myself a ponyta I called Dash. This is literally going to be the only fire type I can catch before the Elite Four, so I'd better not let him die.

I tried evolving Nommy, but I ended up running into and catching a wild bibarel I called Nommy II. So I guess I have two HM slaves now.

I levelled Ray up a little bit, he should be evolving soon. I'm trying to train Dash, Kit and Sir, especially since I want the latter to evolve as soon as possible. Most of my team is around the same level as the local trainers' Pokémon, so I'm slightly concerned about their wellbeing. I suppose this means I have quite a bit of grinding to do...

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Sir

Sparky

Kit

Dash

Boo

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Manuel - Machop
Flappy - Staravia
Bluey - Bronzor
Adrian - Cranidos
Dane - Chingling
Mimie - Mr Mime
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat

DEATHS:
Zap - Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude

 

I lost another good friend last night. R.I.P Sparky. I had miscalculated the strength of a critical-hit Revenge. One that hits after you damaged your opponent. And your opponent has a STAB to boot. There's no kill like overkill. I know you were never going to last until the endgame, but you were gone far too soon.

I swapped Sparky out for Dane, who I figured I may as well build up some friendship if I wanted him to evolve in the future. I was a little wary about continuing on to Veilstone as there's this pair of Ace Trainers at the end of the route who have always given me trouble.

(I also tried to catch a kadabra on that route but the bastard teleported away...)

Anyway, Dane levelled up a lot faster than I'd anticipated and I was really excited at how well he was doing until a freaking bonsly killed him with a critical hit Rock Throw.

I've just noticed; every Pokémon that's died so far has died due to a critical hit. I am displeased.

Also, I caught a murkrow in the Lost Tower, which I'm really pleased about. It's about time things started to go my way again. I named him Russell because, well... He's a crow.

Get it???

In the Lost Tower, we had several close calls where someone in my team would drop down to red health and I'd have a mini heart attack. Dash was almost beaten by a wild murkrow and was only saved because the murkrow just so happened to have gotten burned on that exact turn, so its attack stat was halved. I made sure to be a lot more careful after that.

I finally managed to get Sir to evolve. At last, I was getting concerned that his horrible baby Pokémon stats were going to get him killed. Dash, Kit and Russell are all considerably weaker than the rest of my team, so I'm making sure they get plenty of EXP. Russell is levelling up pretty fast, but it's really hard to train Kit as the only useful moves she knows are Toxic and Fury Swipes. I'm really hoping she learns some good moves soon since it's getting really tiring to switch her out for a stronger Pokémon every battle.

Oh yeah, I also caught an Unown I that I called Imbecile but let's be honest, I'm never going to use it.

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Boo

Sir

Kit

Dash

Russell

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Manuel - Machop
Flappy - Staravia
Bluey - Bronzor
Adrian - Cranidos
Mimie - Mr Mime
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling

 

I spent so much time grinding between the last entry and this one...

I got to Veilstone City safely but decided I should challenge the Gym when I got a bit stronger. I travelled south in search of stronger Pokémon and trainers and I came across a wild girafarig. Unfortunately, Kit poisoned it and it kept breaking out of it's ball so it eventually fainted. Then the exact same thing happened to the next girafarig I found outside Lake Valor. Maybe I should stop relying on the Poison stat to weaken wild Pokémon...

I also ran away from every wild graveler I came across. They all know Selfdestruct and I'm not risking any of my Pokémon... Except maybe Boo because he's immune. But still. And speaking of Boo, he finally evolved. He still doesn't know any Ghost-Type moves though which is a pity, but he's my strongest Pokémon at the moment.

Anyway, I caught a wingull I named Vivian east of Pastoria City, so I guess that makes up for losing two routes worth of Pokémon. Immediately after, I one-shotted a wooper I was trying to catch west of the city. I'm a little concerned I may have trained my Pokémon a little too much as all of them are around 10 levels higher than the wild Pokémon on Route 212.

I also went down into the Trophy Garden to see what I could catch. My second encounter was Chino the pikachu! Woo! I finally have an electric type again! I'm gonna take good care of him, I'm not going to let what happened to Zap and Sparky happen again!

I hope. He's literally 10 levels lower than the rest of my team, so he has a lot of training to do.

So after making a 360 back to Hearthrome, I travelled back to Veilstone to challenge the Gym. Boo took down pretty much every Pokémon on his own except Maylene's Lucario, where I swapped Boo out for Dash. We've finally got our third badge! Yaaaaay!

I'm planning on going off to get the next badge soon. After I waste some more time in the Underground looking for a Shiny Stone or Dusk Stone. I've been finding a whole lot of shards and Skull Fossils instead. At this point, I think I've got enough Skull Fossils to build my own team of cranidoses. Cradidosi. Cranidos. A team of six cranidos.

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Boo

Sir

Dash

Kit

Chino

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Manuel - Machop
Flappy - Staravia
Bluey - Bronzor
Adrian - Cranidos
Mimie - Mr Mime
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Russell - Murkrow
Vivian - Wingull

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling

 

*Slams face against desk* I have made a horrible mistake. *Slams face against desk again* A terrible misfortune has befallen my team. *Slams face against desk and keeps it there* Siiiiiiiir.............

So I went to challenge Crasher Wake with Chino at an acceptable level and Sir ground up to level 30. Wake's gyarados and quagsire fell with little effort, and then he sent out his floatzel. I had Chino out since he was still a little under-levelled but I swapped him out for Sir when I saw that the floatzel was too strong for him to handle. Sir was able to take the floatzel's Swift attack just fine, but he was too slow to heal himself with a Giga Drain, and his opponent knew Ice Fang...

I ToLd MySeLf I wOuLdN't GeT aTtAcHeD.................

*Slams face against desk once more* My poor brave child... My poor flower baby...

After Chino somehow managed to KO Wake's last Pokémon, I found myself staring at my PC box and realising that I didn't want to train any of these Pokémon. I have too many water and flying types, and I don't want to use Pokémon like Louie or Mimie. Well, I like Russell, but I already have a dark type and a flying type on my team.

I ended up withdrawing Manuel the machop, deciding I may as well evolve him now because I don't want a machoke in the future. Too bad he accidentally died when he failed to run away from a wild starly.

In the Great Marsh, I added Quigley the quagsire to my box. Yay, another water type. Just what I needed after Duckie, Blobby, Bubbles, Vivian and Bing Bing. Not.

*Slams face against the desk some more* Why Sir, why? Why did I let myself grow so close to you? Why did I allow this to happen to you? You were too precious for this world...

After Manuel's untimely death, I withdrew Bluey. When I thought Chino was tough to train since he was 10 levels lower than the rest of my team, I hadn't seen a real challenge yet. Bluey is 15 levels lower than the rest of my team; about half as powerful as each Pokémon. We have a looooot of training to do...

Cynthia gave me a headache potion for those psyducks and insisted that there were some rare Pokémon on the way to Celestic Town, but all I've found so far are geodudes and ponytas.

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Bluey

Boo

Dash

Kit

Chino

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Flappy - Staravia
Adrian - Cranidos
Mimie - Mr Mime
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Russell - Murkrow
Vivian - Wingull
Quigley - Quagsire

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling
Sir - Roselia
Manuel - Machop

 

I'm glad to hear this is entertaining for you guys

It's pretty entertaining for me, too. Except, of course, the whole bit where one of your Pokémon... Gets brutally murdered because... You... Underestimate your opponent... *Sniffle* We'll never forget you, Sir...

 

I've been in Celestic Town for quite a while now and there's still no sign of those rare Pokémon Cynthia mentioned. It appears that the Pokémon League Champion is also a liar...

I may have not caught any rare Pokémon, but I ended up catching myself a graveler. I called her Georgia II because I was in a particularly unimaginative mood when I caught her.

It took forever to grind Bluey up to level 30. They've got great defences, but their attack stats are so looooooooow........ Even super-effective moves are barely doing any damage. I'm used to training Pokémon that can take down their opponents in 1 or 2 moves, so I don't have much experience with Pokémon like these. But I don't want to train any of my other boxed Pokémon (except Russell. And I dunno, maybe Georgia II as well) so I guess I'll just have to stick with what I'm doing now.

On the flip side, Bluey is pretty close to evolving. Maybe they'll get better attack stats then. Or I'll be stuck with a tank on my team of sweepers. Oh well.

I noticed that Chino seemed to be struggling a little, so I went into the Underground to see if I could find him a Thunderstone. I knew it wasn't going to be too likely as I think that's the rarest stone in the game, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. Amazingly, the first wall I dug into had one! Unfortunately, the wall collapsed before I could dig it out. Then by some crazy luck, the next wall I dug into had one that I fortunately didn't lose.

I have no idea how any of that happened, but I'm not going to complain.

With my team barely gaining any EXP from the wild Pokémon, I decided it was time to move on and challenge the next Gym. Kit now knows Night Slash, so I don't expect this to be too hard.

So far, I've been getting all the answers to the quiz wrong so I can get as much money and EXP as possible. One of the trainers confused her, which was a pain as she kept hurting herself. But then that same Pokémon kept using Pain Split every time Kit hurt herself, essentially healing her and damaging itself a little every turn. Now that's what I call shoddy A.I.!

The Pokémon in the Gym are giving out plenty of EXP, Kit finally evolved into a giant smelly kitty! (Am I the only one who thinks the stunky line is kind of cute?) Right now, she's the strongest Pokémon on my team at level 34. I might try and train Boo up a bit in this Gym, but all the Pokémon are super-effective against him. I guess I'll see how far he can go but I'll try not to push him too hard.

Spoiler: TEAM

Bing Bing

Kit

Boo

Bluey

Dash

Chino

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Flappy - Staravia
Adrian - Cranidos
Mimie - Mr Mime
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Russell - Murkrow
Vivian - Wingull
Quigley - Quagsire
Georgia II - Graveler

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling
Sir - Roselia
Manuel - Machop

 

I was paranoid about letting Boo fight in Hearthome's Gym, so I only let him battle a weaker Drifblim whom he KOed in one hit. Other than that one battle, I only used Kit. Have I mentioned I'm proud of her? Because I am.

I experienced some more shoddy A.I. when batting Fantina. Her mismagius kept using Magical Leaf instead of the more powerful Shadow Ball. But just like before, I'm not going to complain because I got a nice, shiny new Gym Badge! Yay!

Now that I finally have the badge that allows me to use Surf, I was finally able to travel to a hidden area east of Hearthome City where I got the TM for Giga Drain. All that did was serve as a reminder that SiR iS gOnE fOrEvEr.......... Also, I need to find a new grass-type soon. Maybe I should have chosen turtwig instead because I'm getting a heck of a lot of water-types and no grass Pokémon. The only grass-types I can get now are cherubi and snover. Eughhhhh........

Anyway, I used Bing Bing's new Surf attack to cross that river/lake/sea/thing west of Jubilife City. On the water, I found a tentacool that I named Blop after the noise I think she'd make if I dropped her on the floor. I then battled a sailor who sent out a mantyke and Bluey took years to beat.

I'm trying to use Bluey more since they're only 3 levels away from evolving, but it's so hard to. They can take hits amazingly, but they take so long to KO an opponent that's it'll be way more productive to use literally anybody else on my team. But I'm training them because there's no other Pokémon I want to use. Except maybe Russell or Georgia II. Ooh, or that riolu I'll get after getting through Iron Island. Yeah, that actually sounds pretty good.

New plan: I'll evolve Bluey, consider whether or not I could be bothered to actually use them, and then replace them with a lucario. I'll just have to make sure my riolu won't die while I'm still training it.

Well, looks like that plan just failed. I deposited Chino and Kit into the PC as I prepared to go to Iron Island (I needed two spots in my party: one for the first Pokémon I catch and the other for the riolu egg) and I forgot that you have to battle your rival as you cross the bridge into the other side of the city. I was able to take down most of his Pokémon with little trouble, but Bluey ended up getting killed by a critical-hit Brick Break from Floof's heracross.

Alas, poor Bluey. You could resist nearly any attack, but not that one.

On Iron Island, I came across plenty of gravelers but the third Pokémon I found was Ray II the golbat. I soon found that Iron Island is a great place to train Bing Bing and he quickly evolved. Now I just hope Dash will follow suit so I'll have a rapidash by the time I challenge Canalave Gym...

Until next time!

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Dash

Boo

Chino

Ray II

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Flappy - Staravia
Adrian - Cranidos
Mimie - Mr Mime
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Russell - Murkrow
Vivian - Wingull
Quigley - Quagsire
Georgia II - Graveler
Blop - Tentacool

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling
Sir - Roselia
Manuel - Machop
Bluey - Bronzor

 

Iron Island was plenty of fun. Except for the part where every graveler knew Selfdestruct. Fortunately, nobody was killed so I guess things turned out ok I managed to grind most of my team up to around level 40 or so. I tried to put off battling Team Galactic for as long as possible since I get so much more EXP battling wild Pokémon two at a time. Also, it didn't hurt to have Riley healing my team after each battle.

After what felt like forever, I finally got Dash up to level 40 and he evolved. *Toot toot party horn sounds* I couldn't be bothered to grind anymore, so I just went straight to the Gym, after receiving my riolu egg from Riley.

When I reached the exit of Iron Island, I found a Shiny Stone. I feel like the entire game is still trying to mock me for losing Sir, dang it.

I was a little nervous about Canalave Gym as the last time I challenged a mining Gym that used elevators to get from place to place, I ended up losing my Nuzlocke. But I found that Dash did fantastically, though I had to swap him out for Bing Bing to fight Byron's Bastiodon (there were too many Bs in that sentence). Anyway, I got another badge!

So I re-entered the story, went to the library and listened as the Professor told me to travel to Lake Valor. I figured that it would be a good idea to use Team Galactic to train my riolu, so I first headed over to Solaceon Town where there's that really long strip of land perfect for cycling on to hatch eggs. Within a couple of minutes, I got my new buddy, Dia.

I've been taking extra good care of Dia, putting her at the front of my party and switching her out so that my other, stronger team mates can fight her opponents for her. She's been levelling up extremely fast and I've been feeding her all the vitamins I've got, so she should evolve soon. I think. I hope. She'd better...

I beat the Galactic grunts and admins at lakes Valor and Verity and right now, I'm heading over to Snowpoint City to fight Jupiter at Lake Acuity. I tried to catch a clefairy in Mt Coronet on the way there, but accidentally knocked it out. Whoopsie. I'm outside of the mountain and there's a patch of grass right ahead, so I'm going to have caught something by the time I write the next entry. I'm kind of hoping for a medicham or snover.

So until next time, bye-bye!

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Dia

Dash

Kit

Boo

Chino

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Flappy - Staravia
Adrian - Cranidos
Mimie - Mr Mime
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Russell - Murkrow
Vivian - Wingull
Quigley - Quagsire
Georgia II - Graveler
Blop - Tentacool
Ray II - Golbat

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling
Sir - Roselia
Manuel - Machop
Bluey - Bronzor

 

The first Pokémon I came across was a snover, who I called Snew. I was then pleasantly surprised to find that there was another route a little further on where I caught a sneasel I called Snee Snoo. Then outside Lake Acuity, I was unpleasantly surprised when the medicham I tried to catch KOed itself with a Hi-Jump Kick.

I tried to train my team a little but I ended up giving up and going to challenge the Gym. After Dash took on Candice without any trouble, I finally, after what felt like forever, got Dia to evolve. I then realised that every Pokémon on my team except Boo has a weakness to ground-types and Dia isn't really bringing anything new to the table and I should probably switch out for a different Pokémon that would balance out my team a little better instead of wasting my time training her.

No hard feelings, Dia.

I went back to training my team a little more outside Lake Acuity when poor Boo got knocked out by a wild sneasel's critical-hit Feint Attack. I got careless and thought he could take the hit... Well, there goes my second-oldest teammate... What was I thinking, sending a ghost/flying Pokémon out against a dark/ice Pokémon?

Goodbye Boo, you brave soul.

I took this chance to switch Dia out for Snew, who's probably the last grass-type I'm going to catch in this game. I also withdrew Russell when I realised that I needed another flying-type to replace Boo and he was the only one out of all my flying Pokémon that I actually want to use. I was considering withdrawing Snee Snoo, but then half my team would be dark-types. I know that I'm concerned about battling Lucian, but that may be overdoing things a little.

I soon found out that there are plenty of other Pokémon sitting in my PC that are better than Snew. Not because he has a double weakness against fire-types (there are so little fire Pokémon in this gen that that fact never bothered me), but because of his friggin Snow Warning ability. It's great that it does a little damage to the opponent each turn, but if I want to switch him out for another Pokémon in the same battle, they end up getting hurt, too! I used two TMs on him (Giga Drain and Avalanche) but I don't think I have the patience to find out a way to bring out his full potential, so I dropped in back into the PC in favour of Mimie.

Mimie was a Pokémon that I'd only evolved because I didn't want to be forced to catch a Mr Mime that I'd probably never use. I'd evolved her at level 18, which is about 24 levels lower than the rest of my team. Wow, first was Chino at 10 levels lower, then Bluey at 15... The further I get through the game, the more grinding I have to do when somebody dies. All the more reason to avoid letting your Pokémon faint, I suppose. At least Mimie levels up faster than Dia.

Most of Mimie's moves suck, so I'm wondering whether or not I should look for the TM for Psychic or suck it up until she learns it at level 39. On one hand, she'll have a powerful move sooner in the game but on the other hand, if she faints, I'd have wasted a perfectly good TM.

In between training Mimie and Russell, I continued on with the plot. I got that Storage Key from the grunt outside the base. Before giving it to me, he went on this mini rant about how because of me, his Pokémon got taken away and his partner in crime left him. Basically, I ruined his life and was sent on a major guilt trip over the this singular character who never stood out to me - who I don't even remember what part of the game I'm supposed to have encountered him. He was so insignificant to me in my journey, yet one thoughtless action impacted him so greatly. This one nameless, faceless grunt really has me thinking: how many people's lives do we impact daily without knowing it? How many people's days have I ruined without even knowing? How many times have we done something without thinking or considering the consequences, and how many times have those actions led to the misfortunes of innocent bystanders?

Oh well enough of that, I got a Dusk Stone to evolve Russell! Time to ruin some more peoples' days as I storm the warehouse!

Spoiler: TEAM

TEAM:
Bing Bing

Dash

Kit

Chino

Mimie (for some reason, I can't get a sprite of her)

Russell

Spoiler: BOX AND DEATHS

BOX:
Duckie - Psyduck
Blobby - Shellos
Bubbles - Buizel
Louie - Kricketune
Fluffyflop - Buneary
Flappy - Staravia
Adrian - Cranidos
Nommy - Bidoof
Nommy II - Bibarel
Ray - Zubat
Imbecile - Unown
Vivian - Wingull
Quigley - Quagsire
Georgia II - Graveler
Blop - Tentacool
Ray II - Golbat
Dia - Lucario
Snee Snoo - Sneasel
Snew - Snover

DEATHS:
Zap -Shinx
Cora - Meditite
Georgia - Geodude
Sparky - Pachirisu
Dane - Chingling
Sir - Roselia
Manuel - Machop
Bluey - Bronzor
Boo - Drifblim

 

Yeah, that's what I'm dreading the most. Dash was about the same level as Candice's abomasnow during that battle and I haven't really levelled him or any of my stronger Pokémon up since. I can't remember how strong Cyrus is in his first battle, but I recall almost losing to him in my last playthrough at Spear Pillar.