Now, I’ve gotta admit, it’s been a while since I sat down to play and by the time I got back to it, I’d really forgotten a lot of my battle with Atticus. He’s actually my favourite team star leader, and I had quite a tricky time with him last time- and this time too, mainly because I forgot that Bug is not very effective against Poison in this game.
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!
I had fun flying down the hillside back to Levincia city, and was pleased to find I had defeated seven trainers and so could pass into the city. Now…my team were definitely a high enough level to defeat Iono, but she does have a flying type pokemon as an ace…maybe Forretress would be the key with her? Only one way to find out….
