GRcade Plays: Your Pokémon Journeys

GrinWithoutaKat wrote:
Just once a day, yeah. He doesn't give amazing XP, but it's more than any wild Pokemon, and more than any of the trainers in the tournament at the Wyndon stadium just as he's higher level. You can also battle Honey once a day if you give her a LOT of watts. I think it might be a million, and as I have terrible luck with the digging Pa, I've not unlocked that yet. What I usually do is get Pokemon up to the 60/70 range with the Mustard battles and then use EXP/Rare Candy from there to go to 100.

AHH that's a cool way of doing things Grin! Certainly saves on the EXP Candies for the first 60/70 levels! Am I right in saying Honey is a tougher challenger again?

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Ironhide wrote:
Still mostly enjoying it apart from the need to have a party slot occupied by Pokemon purely for HM use, why they couldn't just have certain types able to use certain field moves defeats me, I've got a Vigoroth purely used for Cut and Rock Smash, my Azumarill has Surf, Fly is being performed by my *checks Pokedex* Vibrava (an absolute beast btw) and gave Strength to the Ryhorn I got in the Safari Zone.

Current lineup post team Magma hideout:

Hot Wings (Combusken) - lvl 35
Agua (Azumarill) - lvl 30
Chomp (Vibrava) - lvl 44
Ferro (Lairon) - lvl 36
Shreik (Banette) - lvl 38
Inkcap (Breloom) - lvl 31

Yea HM slaves seem very dated now! You'd probably get on with Sun/Moon/Ultra Sun/Moon as they're the first games to do away with them. It certainly frees up your party a bit!

AHH yes Vibrava is awesome, it's final evolution, Flygon, is my favourite dragon type!

Looks like you have a good varied team there Ironhide, it should do you well in your playthrough!


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Cumberdanes wrote:I finished Sword last night and played through the post game up to getting Zacian. I’m probably gonna continue evolving what I have to fill out the Dex then I might get the DLC when I get paid.

I wish I’d known about how everything in the wild area switches to level 60+ after you become champion as I may have held back beating the main game until I’d caught a little more.

Ahh cool Cumber how did you find the game? What w as s your final team you went for?

Would you have rather caught more to be able to use in your playthrough?

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Herdanos wrote:Great Ghost write-up TDS!

Who is Mustard?

Thanks Herdanos!

Mustard is a character in the Isle of Armour DLC who you battle eventually.

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Ironhide wrote:Also started a Pokemon X playthrough the other day but have only dabbled so far as I'm concentrating my efforts on Emerald atm.

Went with the fire starter (twisted fire starter) as per usual and have currently got a Pikachu, Pidgey, Beedrill, Panpour and a Spewpa.

Oh wow Ironhide, double dipping with Pokémon journeys!

Ahh yea Fennekin is a cool starter! It's nice to see them do something different with the Fire starter, making its final evolution a Fire/Psychic type, rather than a Fighting/Dark/ Physical attacker.

I have a playthrough that's in its early stages on X myself, been sitting around for the last couple of months, perhaps I'll make it my main playthrough focus!

My final guys were Rillaboom, Mudsdale and Gyarados. The other 3 slots were taken up by stuff I was evolving.

I prefer catching stuff at a lower level and raising it myself but I will admit catching stuff at level 60 then levelling it one to tick off the evolution plus catching trade evolutions like Gengar or Machamp are handy for filling out the Dex quickly

I’ve now evolved almost everything I can now without trading or particular stones so I’ve added Pikachu, Corviknight and the Ninetails I smashed the grass gym with to level them up now.

Cumberdanes wrote:My final guys were Rillaboom, Mudsdale and Gyarados. The other 3 slots were taken up by stuff I was evolving.

I prefer catching stuff at a lower level and raising it myself but I will admit catching stuff at level 60 then levelling it one to tick off the evolution plus catching trade evolutions like Gengar or Machamp are handy for filling out the Dex quickly

AHH yes you did mention, my apologies!

Yea I get you on that one Cumber, this game has made completing the Dex much more accessible which is great! Interestingly, even though all 900+ Pokémon aren't available in these games, you can catch more than any other generation so far!

I started a fresh run of Diamond on DS too, not very far in headed to Jubilife Coty waiting for nightfall to catch a Kricketot.

Not sure if I’ll continue with it or wait for the remake.

Just caught the Rayquaza in Emerald, catching it was by far easier (master ball) than actually reaching it, had to set the games FPS to 20 as my reactions are too slow to make the quick direction changes necessary to avoid falling through the broken floor tiles, even then it took over 50 attempts.

Going to attempt getting the other legendaries before heading for Victory Road.

Also, found out you can use a randomizer to make the trade only evolutions possible without trading, think that can wait until after I've finished the game though as I don't want to risk corrupting the savefile.

Been trying to catch a Relicanth as its necessary for unlocking the locations where the three of the legendaries are bbut its taken ages thanks to the 5% encounter chance.

Still not as elusive as the sodding Feebas which I've given up on trying to catch.

Good to hear you’ve made good progress with this Ironhide, Rayquaza is such a good legendary Pokémon.

The Feebas finding/catching method is awful, how that got past testing I don’t know

Regirock caught, Regice and Registeel remain.

Costing a fortune in ultra balls.

Edit: got all three

Just started the trek through Victory Road, which incidentally is roughly the point where I usually stop playing Pokemon games (Fire Red and Soul Silver spring to mind) as that's the point I realise I need to do loads of grinding as my 'mons are underlevelled.

Most of the ones I intend using against the elite four are at least lvl 40 (Rayquaza being lvl 70).

Am I late to the party? I’ve been doing a slow replay of Sword with a Dinobots team and whilst it has some glaring weaknesses I am enjoying it so far. My team is as follows, all gained before the replay from Pokémon Home trading abuse. Brackets is their names in-game:

1. Sobble (Serpentor)
2. Tyrunt (Grimlock)
3. Amaura (Sludge)
4. Axew (Snarl)
5. Bagon (Sky Lynx)
6. Aerodactyl (Swoop)

I know I am missing Slag but the one Triceratops-type Pokémon, Bastiodon isn’t available in Sword. I would have used a Snivy for Serpentor but again, not compatible with Sword.

“Me Grimlock beat Pokémon League”

Ironhide wrote:Just started the trek through Victory Road, which incidentally is roughly the point where I usually stop playing Pokemon games (Fire Red and Soul Silver spring to mind) as that's the point I realise I need to do loads of grinding as my 'mons are underlevelled.

Most of the ones I intend using against the elite four are at least lvl 40 (Rayquaza being lvl 70).

Apologies for being quiet recently, had a lot on my plate at home!

Just caught up with your updates, Ironhide, looks like you've come a long way! I hope you've enjoyed your journey so far?

Rayquaza is awesome and will really help you big time in the league! I've never personally used the Regis, are you planning on using them in your team for the league too? You'll be quite the formidable opponent!

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Carlos wrote:Am I late to the party? I’ve been doing a slow replay of Sword with a Dinobots team and whilst it has some glaring weaknesses I am enjoying it so far. My team is as follows, all gained before the replay from Pokémon Home trading abuse. Brackets is their names in-game:

1. Sobble (Serpentor)
2. Tyrunt (Grimlock)
3. Amaura (Sludge)
4. Axew (Snarl)
5. Bagon (Sky Lynx)
6. Aerodactyl (Swoop)

I know I am missing Slag but the one Triceratops-type Pokémon, Bastiodon isn’t available in Sword. I would have used a Snivy for Serpentor but again, not compatible with Sword.

“Me Grimlock beat Pokémon League”

You're not too late at all, this is an on going thread for anyone to join in at any time!

I LOVE the idea for your playthrough! I'm a huge Transformers fan and the Pokémon you've chosen fit really well with the Dinobots!

How far are you through it so far? Make sure to keep us posted on your progress!

I like the idea of a specific playthrough, but I can't imagine replaying Sword!

The game was pretty easy though, so I think I'll try something difficult from the outset with the next game I play.

Personally, while the other type advantages and disadvantages come naturally to me, the Fairy type is one I struggle to understand - Sword was the first game I played where it was a thing! So I'm leaning towards attempting a Fairy-only playthrough for Pokemon Legends Arceus.

I'll be keeping an eye on this page (Arceus Dex list) to see if that's viable though. At the moment I would struggle to assemble a team!

Emerald finished

Took over 80 hours (and judicial use of save states in the final section) but in 2021, at the age of 40, I have finally finished a Pokemon game.

The winning team:

Congrats Ironhide hope you’ve enjoyed it enough to play another game in the series in the future!

Ironhide wrote:Emerald finished

Took over 80 hours (and judicial use of save states in the final section) but in 2021, at the age of 40, I have finally finished a Pokemon game.

The winning team:

Congrats man! That's a great team you took into the League there, did Gilgamesh do most of the heavy lifting, or was it more of an insurance policy?

The Doom Spoon wrote:

Ironhide wrote:Emerald finished
The winning team:

Congrats man! That's a great team you took into the League there, did Gilgamesh do most of the heavy lifting, or was it more of an insurance policy?

Gilgamesh was the primary attacker but I did use the others during the five battles, used Hot Wings against the ice types, both Chomp and Daenerys had dark moves for dealing with the ghost types, Brains and Marley saw the least action, mostly as 'decoys' when healing and reviving the others.

Gilgamesh single handedly destroyed Drake's team of all dragon types with two moves (Outrage and Fly).

The Dinobots have currently completed Kabu and the 3rd gym. Nyssa was a bit tough as most of my team have rock in their type somewhere and I have no grass or electric. I was debating swapping our Axew for Treecko and maybe Aerodactyl for Archeops but I won’t bother now.

Ironhide wrote: Gilgamesh was the primary attacker but I did use the others during the five battles, used Hot Wings against the ice types, both Chomp and Daenerys had dark moves for dealing with the ghost types, Brains and Marley saw the least action, mostly as 'decoys' when healing and reviving the others.

Gilgamesh single handedly destroyed Drake's team of all dragon types with two moves (Outrage and Fly).

That's awesome that you were able to utilize your team! Congrats for finishing your first Pokémon game, I look forward to following your future journeys!

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Carlos wrote:The Dinobots have currently completed Kabu and the 3rd gym. Nyssa was a bit tough as most of my team have rock in their type somewhere and I have no grass or electric. I was debating swapping our Axew for Treecko and maybe Aerodactyl for Archeops but I won’t bother now.

Great to hear Carlos! I can imagine Nyssa being tough, she typing is actually quite strong! Good luck for the next part of your journey!

I’m about to go up against the Fairy-type Gym (located in the southern part of Galar) with a team of mostly Dragon-types.

Enjoy that

Already getting the itch to another run of a Pokémon game but really should wait for BDSP to come out!