Bug Pokemon Make Me Happy!

But even after knocking out two of my team and poisoning basically everyone else, Larvesta really helped against Revavroom and thennnn another Revavroom! And Rabsca’s mud shot was very helpful too. Now I know I said I didn’t need to revive pokemon after gym battles or against team star or the totem pokemon- but when I finally got back to my game, I’d forgotten that, so I was terrified I’d lost both Rabsca and Masquerain forever! Luckily, I did have one revive, which I was able to use on Rabsca, and then revival bleeding on Masquerain.

I decided to spend some more time in Tagtree Thicket training. I saw a pineco on my way in to the star base, but it had turned out to be Zorua in disguise…. But there had to be pineco around here somewhere, right? I was disappointed to not find any venipedes but a pineco would be pretty cool. I’ve always liked them since I saw one on a card before Gen 2 came out and I thought it was a samurai with armour on…which it kind of is…

I headed through tagtree thicket with Larvesta and Vespiquen leading the way- they were my fill ins after I lost Venomoth and Spidops, and they were both doing pretty well! Fire is a very useful type to have on an all bug team, and Vespiquen’s power gem has really come in handy, too. I’d never explored Tagtree so much in the first game, and it’s quite pretty. So many Mimikyu! And I battled an ace trainer with a Pupitar that I was worried about, but luckily, Lokix and his double kick saved the day. But still no Pineco…

But then….I decided to properly give headhunting trees a go. It didn’t seem to do anything most places, but maybe these painted trees were special? And…the first one I tried it on, an Oranguru fell to the ground! This was definitely a different method to find pokemon I hadn’t seen yet. Second headbutt…Applin! Such a pity Applin isn’t a bug Pokémon, I mean it’s so close…

A few more trees just had Grafaiai fall from them but the final one before I got out of Tagtree Thicket- and two pineco fell to the ground! Larvesta used leech life and got it down to yellow health, and (luckily) it didn’t use self destruct- and I used an ultra ball and finally caught a new Pokémon! Peggy the Pineco, welcome to the team. Although…because Pineco evolves through trade, I wasn’t actually sure how useful it would be. I put her in my box for now and headed back out to the rocky mining area.

I’m not a huge fan of the Rocky area, it’s so big and feels kind of empty, even with all the pokemon in the overworld, but coming out of Tagtree thicket, I decided to jump in the river instead and follow it down to Levincia city, which I could see shining below us. The river actually turned into a waterfall quite quickly, and dropped my off in the azure waters around Levincia- one thing which has really improved in this game is the surfing. So many water pokemon dropping in and out of the surface. Luvdisc is really pretty and the Finizen gathering round me were very sweet too!

I made my way up onto the grass and around to Levincia city, but I came across a pokemon centre, and a guy asking me to defeat seven trainers. I realised I was quite close by the fire squad of Team star- maybe it was finally time to battle them, and battle seven trainers in this area too? And maybe I should try and train up Pineco, and find someone to trade him with. I fed Pineco some rare candies- and to my great surprise, suddenly, Pineco was evolving!

Now I had a Forretress on the team, with curse and heavy slam, access to steel moves and a good defensive Pokémon. So glad I hunted for a Pineco! I used Forretress against every trainer I could find up to team star, but I knew she wouldn’t be much good against Mela, so I swapped Larvesta to be first in line. And before I knew it, it was time to take on the Schedar Squad…

Mela started with Torkoal, which got the sun out. Larvesta could really take a hit, flame wheel basically did nothing, and he was able to set up a light screen. But I knew my key to the battle was Masquerain. I swapped Simon in, and thankfully, he’s high enough level to take a flame wheel in the heat. And then I was able to use rain dance- with a damp rock, this would definitely be the key to defeating Mela. As I thought, one bubble beam in the rain was enough to knock out Mela’s Torkoal and I was finally onto her last pokemon- Revavroom, of course.

I did consider maybe swapping in Vespiquen for some power gem, but bubble beam was just too good to pass up. Masquerain managed to splash up the blazing torques from Revavroom and before I knew it- Mela had been defeated!

As I doubled back, I ran into a Cetoddle! I sent out Larvesta, the only pokemon left to evolve in my party any more. Larvesta tried to get a flame charge off, but Cetoddle knows bounce! It bounced high up into the air…Larvesta used light screen while it wouldn’t be able to hit, and thankfully, bounce missed, but a second flame charge didn’t knock it out, and Cetoddle was soon up in the air again.

I thought I’d be okay holding on, one more flame charge would do it- but bounce hit, and knocked Larvesta out in one go! I swapped to Rabsca- luckily, I’d been to the pokemon centre in Zapapico- and used revival blessing, and then extrasensory, and finally, this rogue Cetoddle was down, and Larvesta was saved. It was a close one, though!

Heading back through the passage, I managed to find the four trainers, and got my prize from the pokemon centre man- but as I started talking to him, out of the corner of my eye I noticed- a SHINY SNORUNT! It’s blue, like an Inuit. It faded away as I was talking to the man and I feared the worst, but I ran up to it again and it was still there!

I used Vespiquen- air slash didn’t do much, but Snorunt kept protecting and it had ice body so it was tricky. But I got a struggle bug in, and it got down to red health, and then my first ultra ball- I caught it! The shiny rule in this game will be that I can catch the pokemon, but I won’t be able to use it unless it’s a bug type, so straight to the box it went- but it’s so cute!

Now I’d beaten all the trainers for the passage, I returned to Zapapico. Nothing much to do there, especially when I’m not going to evolved any Charcadets, so I heard straight out into the mining area- where there was another guy who wanted me to defeat 7 trainers in area 3! Koraidon can fly, which was useful. Cufant kept sneaking up on me and trumpeting loudly, and I was a bit worried about Rolycoly, but actually, after that tricky passage, all the pokemon and trainers around here were pretty easy!

The hardest one was a school girl who talked a lot about moxie, she led with a Naclstack, but it happened to be raining at the time and I had Masquerain use bubble beam on her. Then, she sent out Flareon- which also could have been trouble, but again, bubble beam finished her off quickly! Finally- she had a Hariyama, which looked really great and rubbery, and I think extra slick from the rain, but one air slash from Masquerain finished him off easily.

The trainers were pretty easy to beat, but quite hard to find, actually, and as I was searching high and low around the mines, I came across the waterfall that leads to the electric town, all lit up. It was really pretty! A dragon tanner here had a Flapple, but Larvesta tore through it no problem.

I climbed to the top of the big tower to get the gimmighoul, and while I was at the top, I spotted the titan Orthworm! Koraidon flew down to land on its head and I ran around after it for a while. It really does look giant, but Larvesta had an easy time beating it. Even Arven’s Toadscool didn’t have much to do to help out.

Pretty quickly, Orthworm was down and I’d earned the fourth Titan badge- and Koraidon could now do proper leaps! That made easier work of the hills and valleys around here, and I found my way back to Zapapico- where I discovered I’d beaten all 7 trainers already! Next up, the Poison team star are just around the corner, so I’ll have to give them a go. Maybe there’ll even be some new bug Pokémon to catch there? It’s been ages since I’ve caught a new friend…

He started with Komala- I started with Venomoth. Except Venomoth can’t put Komala to sleep, so my strategy was kind of moot. I swapped to Spidops to get a low kick in, but Komala used take down, and it really took us down. Low kick barely took damage out at all…and then Spidops was defeated! I changed to Lokix, but Komala body slammed him and got him down to yellow health, and paralysed! I decided not to risk it, swapped again and got Rabsca out there, but I didn’t have time for a revival blessing. Luckily, extrasensory did the trick and Komala fell. Larry was onto his second pokemon.

Which is, of course, Dudunsparce. I Terastalized Rabsca, and got a few extrasensories in. Dudunsparce kept using hyper drill, which I thought was ground but must be normal type. It did more damage than I was expecting and Rabsca was running low on health! I knew what was coming up, but one more extrasensory and Dudunsparce would be through… Maybe we weren’t going to beat Larry in one go. If we did, maybe I’d need to make it a rule that fainted Pokémon from a gym battle can be revived… I kept Rabsca out, used extrasensory, and Dudunsparce was dudududown.

Now, everyone in the restaurant was cheering and Larry started getting fired up (well, as fired up as Larry can get. I actually only realised this time around that he’s called Larry because he’s a sa-Larry-man.) He brought out Staraptor, and terastalized it to Normal type. Rabsca was not going to survive. I didn’t know if anyone was going to survive, really. But my best chance was Lokix. I used my turn to full restore Lokix, and Rabsca fell to a drill peck.

Lokix went with screech to start, and Staraptor went for facade- but she wasn’t paralysed or anything so Lokix was okay. Second turn, Lokix got in two double kicks, and down to more than half health. Now Staraptor landed a drill peck- and Lokix survived, on red health! Double kick (which looks great on Lokix, he unfurls his extra legs) and Staraptor was down- Larry was defeated!

Now I had to decide- my Rabsca and Spidops had both been defeated. But maybe I could add a rule where if it’s in a gym battle (or against a titan or team star boss) then I can revive everyone at the pokemon centre after. Losing Rabsca would just be too big a loss at this point. I took everyone to the pokemon centre, healed them all, and started thinking about where to go next. The pokemon (and trainers) around Medali are all pretty strong, but I didn’t want to double back all the way to the fire team star base. I checked my map- and noticed if I went through the Dalizapa Passage, I could get to the Poison and then fire team star bases without doubling back! So that was the plan.

I headed up to the Dalipaza Passage. One trainer along the road had a Mudsdale. I sent out Spidops, using bullet seed, but again, it only ever hit twice or three times. Mudsdale’s high horsepower knocked Spidops out! I swapped in Rabsca, used revival blessing, revived Spidops, then used extrasensory and Mudsdale was blasted to next week- they have such low special defence!

I healed everyone up with Fresh Water and got to the start of the passage. There was another trainer there, but this time, I sent out Venomoth to start. This delivery driver sent out- Corviknight! And immediately taunted Venomoth! Bug Buzz from Venomoth did hardly anything, and I didn’t have Larvesta on me for fire power…I kept Venomoth there for another turn, and Corviknight knocked him out in one go with drill peck!

Thinking this may be a full party knock out, I sent out Spidops to lower corviknight’s speed. But every time I tried to land a silk trap, Corviknight used scary face! Instead, Spidops tried a low kick- which did hardly anything- and then Corviknight landed another drill peck, and Spidops was down! I sent out Rabsca now, to revive people, but I’d used revival blessing on Spidops in the Mudsdale fight! It was out of pp! Rabsca went for extrasensory again, and it did a decent amount, actually. Corviknight taunted me, so Rabsca got a struggle bug in, which basically did nothing. But if I kept Rabsca in, it was going to be over soon, for sure.

Rabsca landed another extrasensory, then I swapped out to Lokix- and Corviknight landed a drill peck, taking Lokix to red health! But Corviknight was in the yellow…Lokix went first, (thanks to Spidops and the silk traps, I guess!) and double kick knocked out Corviknight- and we’d won!

But now I was in a very difficult predicament. I’d already made a rule that said I didn’t have to release my pokemon if they died in a gym battle. And this was not a gym battle. I had no revives, and no pp left on revival blessing. This…had to be the end, for both Spidops and Venomoth. Spidops had been with me from the very first route, was the first Pokémon I ever caught!

The poke centre man said to defeat five trainers so I went off around the fields, looking for them all. They were hard to find! It’s such a large area, around Medali, although it is very pretty. The hardest battle was with a dragon trainer that had an Altaria , but once I swapped out Venonat and Frosmoth had done feather dance enough times to neutralise the threat, one Aurora Beam finished it off.

And then- Venonat evolved! Venomoth is very pretty in this game, although it’s kind of freaky how his eyes look at you from behind as well at the front. He can also learn quiver dance, so I decided to try a new strategy with him- sleep powder with compound eyes, then quiver dance, then bug buzz. I started out on the Medali gym test to give it a go.

The first trainer had a dunsparce, and sleep powder hit right away- except after one turn, dunsparce woke up! I had to change to Masquerain to finish him off, and use a revive on Venomoth. The next trainer had a Greedent- and again, sleep powder hit first go, but then while I was quiver dancing, Greedent woke up, again, first go! Venomoth got some good hits in but again tainted and I had to change to Rabsca to use revival blessing and extrasensory. It seems like, even with compound eyes, sleep powder hits but it’s very likely they’ll wake up after. Or maybe my luck is just bad?

Once I’d defeated all three trainers, I ordered the special rice balls and the gym appeared in the restaurant…but I wanted to check my pokemon would be able to handle a normal type gym. Larvesta is the only unevolved pokemon I have. I swapped to Spidops, because he has low kick (even though his stats are terrible) and went back out into the fields to try and defeat a Meowth.

Except Meowth was a ditto! With Masquerain’s help, I defeated the ditto (which had transformed into Spidops) but then…a Persian came running up behind me! I wasn’t sure if Spidops could handle a whole Persian but actually, silk trap did lower its speed, Spidops could handle a few Bites, and low kick really packed a punch because Persian’s a bit heavier than Meowth. And Spidops levelled up! It wanted to learn headbutt but I left it with low kick, bug bite and bullet seed. However- Lokix also learnt a move- Throat Chop, which means he has a really powerful dark type move to replace assurance with!

Nemona took us down to the battlefield and I sent out Spidops, already prepared for a water battle. But Nemona sent out Rockruff first! Spidops did have low kick, but I tried to set up silk trap first- and Rockruff used double team! So I went straight for low kick, and did okay, but then Rockruff hit me with a rock throw and took over half my health. I tried one last silk trap, but again Rockruff used double team! I was in a really tricky position cause I had no revives left…I could swap into Rabsca I guess and try to get revival blessing happening… I went for a bullet seed- and it only hit twice! Rockruff Rock throw-ed me into oblivion and now Rabsca was out.

I was taking no chances, so I terastalized Rabsca right away. Revival blessing worked, and Rockruff used howl so I didn’t lose any health. Then, a single struggle bug, with the extra terastalize power, was enough to knock Rockruff out! Next up was Pawmi- who was now a Pawmo. I suddenly realised how much more useful mud shot would be on Rabsca, instead of Rollout which isn’t even special…

However, extrasensory cut through Pawmo quicksmart and Nemona was soon down to her last Pokémon- Quaxwell. No fighting type yet, but extrasensory did okay….i got a bit worried when Quaxwell used pluck and changed to Lokix for the extra speed, but Lunge on Lokix was a winner, and Quaxwell was down! Maybe water types wouldn’t be so tricky after all?

Now Nemona was dealt with, I went in to face Kofu- after teaching my Rabsca Mud Shot again, of course. Kofu led with his “vaultin’ Veluza!’ (Veluza is a pretty boring pokemon but that saying makes it a million times better.) I started with Spidops. Again, bullet seed kept only hitting twice. I took a risk and swapped in Lokix, and Terastalized right away.

One lunge from Lokix was enough to send Veluza packing! Next was Wugtrio, so weird and pink looking. But Lokix knocked him out in one go too! Finally, Kofu brought out his ace- Crabominable Terastalized to water type. I do like the water crown on crabimonable’s head, it really suits him.

Crabhammer packed a punch on Lokix, but Lokix had already had time to set up a screech and again, incredibly, knocked Terastalized Crabominable out in one hit! Lokix is such a powerhouse, especially when he’s Terastalized. And I’d defeated Kofu! Bit of a pushover, really.

Up the top, I kept bumping into Kirlias and Girafarig, but further down the hill, there was nobody to interrupt Rhea from rolling along. I did accidentally put her back in her ball a few times cause I got too far ahead, but at the bottom of the hill, I turned right around and headed to the top again, and then straight for a Deerling, ready to battle…

Except Deerling was actually a Ditto! I Terastalized Rellor and got the first rollout in- I was worried Ditto would start doing the same thing back. It did transform into a Rellor and rollout did a heap of damage, and then…ditto used take down, Rellor stuck it out, and knocked out ditto with another rollout! Not quite enough experience to evolve her, but another Deerling was watching us battle so I scooted over, and thankfully this one was real! A few bug bites later and Rellor got enough experience to level up- and evolve!

I was glad I’d remembered everything to evolve Rellor- the first time it took me forever. But one thing I didn’t remember is Rabsca’s signature move, revival blessing. In a normal play through, it’s kind of a useless move, cause why not just use a revive? But on a nuzlocke, it’s a godsend. Now, if I ever knock a pokemon out and have no revives, as long as I get Rabsca out in the same battle and use revival blessing, I will consider that pokemon healed. Phew!

Down in Porto Marinado, I finally caught up with Kofi. His assistant wanted to battle- my first time up against a water trainer. I had considered teaching Rabsca electro ball, but she has such low speed, I dunno if there’s any point. I decided to stick with Lokix Terastalized- a single lunge knocked out the trainer’s Floatzel, and then another one knocked out his Clauncher! Lokix really packs a punch, even without a type advantage.

Once I’d gotten Kofi his seaweed, it was finally time to head back across the desert and battle him- except who did I need to train up for a battle against water types? I brought Spidops out again and decided to put Venonat first in the party. He’s still got such low defence, but if he learns a physical poison move, he will be quite handy. Before we got to the desert, we were accosted by (another) Girafarig and I sent Venonat out. Except Girafarig’s psybeam knocked him out completely!

It was time for my new strategy. I sent out Rabsca, used revival blessing to revive Venonat, and then shot out a struggle bug to the Girafarig- and Venonat was saved! He really needs to evolve soon though, I can’t keep reviving him, revival blessing is out of pp now.

As I cruised the desert, I came across the top trainer for the area. I decided this would be a good warm up for my battle. I sent out Frosmoth- he sent out Shellos. I used Aurora beam, forgetting that Shellos isn’t ground type yet. But a few Aurora beams still did the trick, and Shellos had soon fainted- the trainer was now sending out a Naclstack!

Naclstack is one of my favourites of the new gen (my top favourite being Rellor) and I know how nasty it can be. I kept Frosmoth out to start, using feather dance to lower its attack. It used rock polish, and I started to get very worried about Frosmoth…I changed to Lokix. Again, Naclstack used rock polish. I terastalized Lokix just in case and screeched…again, rock polish! And Lokix landed a lunge, even a not very effective one was enough to finish off Naclstack. Even rock types are no match for us these days!

Snowsalot the Frosmoth knows Aurora beam now and is really helping me out against flying types, but I ended up heading back to Asado Desert instead of finding the trainers. Maybe I really could defeat Great Tusk? With a Frosmoth, it was possible.

I led with Frosmoth, who started with feather dance. Great Tusk got a rapid spin and took me to 2 hit points, and then the sandstorm got Frosmoth! Masquerain took over and air cutter did quite a lot of damage, but he’s just so dang tough! Thinking I wouldn’t get through, I let Masquerain fall too, and ended up with Lokix. But a screech and a few double kicks, and Great Tusk was down!

Now Arven came to join me and I decided, if I could defeat Great Tusk and get healed at the end, I could keep my pokemon. His Scovillain took a lot of hits at the start, but again, Frosmoth set up feather dance. It wasn’t long until Scovillain was out, but Frosmoth got Great Tusk down to about half health, and then it was up to Masquerain. Annoyingly, I can’t set up rain dance because the sandstorm is a part of the battle, I guess. I still love seeing the pokemon get dirty in the sand, it’s such a cool detail. Masquerain’s bubble beam did hit quite hard, but not hard enough to break through Great Tusk- and Arven was not bringing out anyone else to help.

I gave Venonat a go, knowing that psybeam would be super effective, but starting with confuse ray. It did confuse Great tusk, but he still hit anyway, and he packs a punch! And even though psybeam is super effective, it barely made a dent in him, and soon Venonat was down too. However, Great Tusk was still confused and so I tried Lokix and screeched his defence down a bit. Luckily, Great Tusk hit himself twice in a row, and Lokix got double kick in twice- I thought it might not be enough but finally, the shaking earth titan was down!

And the sandwich taught Koraidon how to glide! I definitely didn’t have that ability so early last time I played. I tried out gliding out of the desert and up to the lighthouse on the hill. Porto Marinado is quite a pretty town to fly around, and I flew around to the beach on the other side too- where an outbreak of kilowattrel had gathered! Very dangerous for us, but pretty great to see, there were at least twenty and it really looked like a flock of birds.

Except it wasn’t fire type, it was psychic! I changed into Lokix, hoping to get nil damage from a psychic attack, but Oricorio went for air cutter, and Lokix was on yellow health! Just to play it safe, I terastalized Lokix (he has the bug type) and went with Assurance- and in one hit, Oricorio was down!

As soon as I was out of the battle, a Rufflet jumped us for a battle, which was very scary! Luckily, Larvesta’s flame charge made sure he was faster and we got out of that battle quick smart. And now I was deeper in the desert, I noticed a Rellor! I ran at the first one I found, sent out Larvesta, and flame charge took it down to red health. The sandstorm took more health out- but didn’t kill it! Aaaaand…I caught Rellor!

I’ve been keeping to the rule of only changing pokemon when I’m at the pokemon centre, like the old days, so Rellor would have to wait. For my next trainer, I decided to start with Venonat, who needed training the most. Luckily, the first Pokémon they sent out was Wigglytuff! I was ready to do some serious damage, until I remembered Venonat has no damaging poison moves (they’re still so uncommon! But one more toxel spike and I could teach it Acid…) anyway, I decided to go with psybeam- but Wigglytuff was fast, went with a body slam and paralysed me! Venonat might have to try confusing this guy to get through this battle- and thanks to compound eyes, supersonic hit first try- but Wigglytuff still hit, with another body slam, and Venonat was out!

I switched back to Larvesta, who actually does massive damage with Flame Wheel even though it’s not a very high powered move, and we defeated the Wigglytuff, and the trainer. I went into my bag for my revive- and couldn’t find one! Was this the end for my poor Venonat? I’ve gotta be so careful with these guys, and I was sure I had one more revive left….and phew, I found it, healed Venonat back and breathed a sigh of relief. But I’ve definitely got none left now…

I healed everyone up and tried to find my way out of the desert, up along a cliff path, hoping to double back to Cascarrafa- but the path led to a cave instead, full of dragon type pokemon. Annoyingly, there are still no bug dragons, and I had swapped out Snom, so I took an almighty leap on Koraidon back into the desert.

On the way down, I spotted the Great Tusk. On my first run through of the game, I remember Great Tusk being quite hard, and I always have trouble remembering the types of paradox Pokémon, but I was pretty sure it’s ground type…maybe Masquerain would be able to handle it? Asado Desert is so big and so full of Rufflet, I decided to fight it, and if all my pokemon fainted, I’d get back to the pokemon centre in Cascarrafa and be able to start again.

Aaaand….Great Tusk really is great. Particularly great defence. Bubblebeam took out a fair amount, as did Spidops’ Trailblaze, so I’m guessing it is ground type, but it kept using brick break, which made me think it might be fighting type too? The graphics on Great Tusk are great in this new version, too, it really feels like he’s huge- and for the first time, I noticed my poor Masquerain got dirtier the more time he spent in the sandstorm, such a cool detail!

Unfortunately, Great Tusk really destroyed my team and we were back in Cascarrafa regrouping pretty quickly. I decided to swap out Spidops for Rellor- with Rollout and Mud Shot, there are some fun new types on the team. I love the way Rellor evolves, too. I also decided to put Snom back on my team, even though I know she doesn’t evolve foreverrrrrr- I have memories of it being something like level 40, but an ice type against a ground type seemed too good an opportunity to pass up.

Again, we headed out into the desert- and I tried Snom out against a few Cacnea and even Silicobra. I even beat back a Rufflet with Snom’s powder snow- and, Lo and behold, after the battle, Snom evolved! It’s friendship that Snom evolved with! Something that’s always easier to achieve on a nuzlocke, when you don’t faint nearly as much. Snowsalot is now a beautiful Frosmoth!