Part 25: The Under, Part Two

The Under, Part Two
After a few too many rounds at Mt. Battle, we had resumed the story. Venus had just escaped after the battle that resulted in our Snag of Shadow Suicune! We should go after her. Maybe... eh. Fine. There's not too much else we can do, other than Colosseums we've beaten already for more money, or Mt. Battle for Poké Coupons.


Venus starts running the heck away as soon as we approach the direction she was running in. That implies that if you never go downstairs after the battle with her... she just waits there. Forever. Then again, the alternative of her not being there makes you wonder if you missed something, so let's just go with it.


This door, previously locked from the side we're on, will allow access to the lift to the surface, via the entrance to The Under Colosseum. It's a long path from the next area, through this room, to there, but it'll get a lot of transit, and is shorter than riding the UFO twice each time.


There are two exits, side by side; Venus exited through the left, but I select the right. Why? Well...


Venus takes the lift downwards, which leaves us the stairs. There's no way to activate the elevator from where we are, so going through the left door would've been a complete waste of time and lead to backtracking to the right, in order to accomplish the same thing.



There's very little to do in this room, other than battle the four trainers within it, and find a few hidden caches of items, but there is a ton of walking if you plan on going from a battle back up the stairs to heal or use the PC to save. Intentionally-programmed deterrent to healing? Needless game-lengthening tactic? Both, or neither? You decide.

The following trainers are much easier to deal with than Venus, and the advanced training at Mt. Battle makes going through them a piece of cake. Hitmontop's Rapid Spin and Espeon's Return attacks have been surprisingly useful, not for knocking out Pokémon, but for hitting Shadow Pokémon with weak attacks, in order to whittle down their HP, something that's a bit difficult to do with their usual attacks, given how strong they have become.


HUNTER FRENA, P$688
Teddiursa (Lv.37)
Shroomish (Lv.35)
Jigglypuff (Lv.36)
Gligar (Lv.43, F, Great Ball, Hyper Cutter)
FRENA: Nooooo! I'm not supposed to lose! I've won a COLOSSEUM challenge!
FRENA: If you're mean to me, I'm going to cry. Okay?
YES: Waaaaaaah!
NO: But I want to cry... Waaaaah!
Spiffy Point: Frena has one of, if not actually, the largest/longest loss texts we've encountered at this point.


> What's FRENA doing up top?
CHASER LIAKS, P$860
Kirlia (Lv.37)
Roselia (Lv.38)
Gloom (Lv.38)
Stantler (Lv.43, M, Nest Ball)
LIAKS: Wh-What's with this ridiculous power?
LIAKS: I know why FRENA up top let you two through. Oh, I get it. I got it real good.
When working through this area, Stantler can be one of the most deceptively difficult Pokémon to Snag. Shadow Rush causes it minimal recoil damage, where Take Down can lead to huge drops of its HP. This Pokémon, more than many, is important to use Sleep on when trying to Snag, for these reasons. Worst case scenario, try not to bring its HP too low, again allowing for recoil damage for situations where it wakes up before you manage to Snag it.


Heading off of the left branch when reaching here on the stairs, a side room containing two Timer Balls and two Hyper Potions can be found. How generous.


BODYBUILDER LONIA, P$1032
Octillery (Lv.38)
Masquerain (Lv.38)
Dunsparce (Lv.39)
Piloswine (Lv.43, M, Premier Ball)
LONIA: I never, ever thought that I'd take a fall this easily!
LONIA: I'm a loser... I can't show my face in front of Lady VENUS like this...


At the base of the stairs, tucked away in the corner, are four Ultra Balls. If you're playing the game normally, P$4800-worth of Poké Balls proves to be a welcome surprise.


RIDER NELIS, P$430
Corsola (Lv.41)
Seviper (Lv.40)
Loudred (Lv.41)
Sneasel (Lv.43, M, Great Ball, Inner Focus)
NELIS: Someone please protect me!
NELIS: This makes me feel like going somewhere far away by train...
How convenient it is that there's a station right behind you, then! Fighting, Ground, and Psychic types work well here, though the latter is vulnerable to Sneasel simply because most have low Defense stats, which Sneasel will occasionally exploit with Screech, to lower them even further.


VENUS: Eek! Eek! Oh, why did you have to chase me here?! It's so unfair! …Tch. This isn't good. I can't lead them to the LAB.
The three of them retreat into the train, and we follow. On opposite control panels at each end, the train demands a key we don't have: The key is missing. This can't be operated.


We also get this bit of text by checking out the crates, easily missed. Inspected or not, we can both enter and exit this inoperative train either by the near or far door. Either way, Venus will appear by the right door, the one which we entered by, when we exit.


VENUS: See? The KEY for the SHADOW LINER is right here. You didn't think I would really let you take our train? Beh! Bye-bye, and this time I mean it! Don't you dare forget about me!
But... wait, I thought we were going after her... we didn't even really know about the train except for a few hints alluded to by optional character to speak to, the only mandatory one being the one down here, right outside the doors... Why do we even need a train? We've got an awesome half-hovercraft, half-motorcycle.


On the far train platform, in some storage back there, is an awesome item: the BlackGlasses. Similar to the other type-boosting items, this gives Dark-type attacks 10% more damage. Feraligatr could always use it to boost her Bite attack, but the Mystic Water (boosting Surf) really is the better attack-boosting item for her to hold. Still...

It's a pity that Venus got away, though. We had her cornered; that train wasn't even operational. If only ♀ had stayed outside of it.


Or, you know, Venus could be clumsy and drop the key.


With it in our possession, activating the left terminal of the Shadow Liner sets us in transit to... somewhere, another station at the other end cap. Presumably, we're somewhere closer to the Shadow Pokémon Lab, and in fact, we're right under the left half of it.


See that dashed line? It has been representative of the Shadow Liner's railway this whole time, not that we knew how to get to it before, or even had a way to with that door locked on the other side. Although, given the map's orientation... those stations seem to be backwards. The one heading east should be at The Under, not the one we arrive at in the Shadow Pokémon Lab's basement.


This video better shows what happens, compared what to the screenshots can, as well as showing off some of my favorite architecture in the game. For those of you just following along with the plot, I'll cover the same material here, but it doesn't really show off one of the more fun points of the game:
{video start}

> Huh? Hmm... I've seen your faces somewhere... That's it! The blacklist! You're [NAME] and ♀! How did you get down here?! Argh! This won't do! We can't let these two get into the SHADOW POKéMON LAB!
Both run off, and we start following in pursuit. Halfway to the door, though...

And... I have to say I'm glad I wasn't following too closely. If that explosion was enough to do just that to the door, imagine what would've happened if we were closer.


Up here, to the right of the detonated door, we have the U-Disk, a UFO disk that brings you to a destination you'll only need to go to once. I'll show off where it brings us a bit later, in the next mini-update.


2> Wh-Whoa... Don't you think that was overdoing things a little?
1> Uh... It's too late now... Come on, let's skedaddle!
Now, I know you might be surprised by this, but we aren't able to get across that huge chasm in the floor. You'd think the Pokémon we have would be useful for that. Flood it up with some water from Surf, or something. Oh well.


At least in the debris, there's yet another key. This opens up that gate to the "Mystery Lab" from so long ago, that we were looking at, when we got the call from Chief Sherles about the criminals we stole the Elevator Key from. With nothing else to do down here, we take the Shadow Liner back to the right, and never ever have to deal with anything between the far station and the room beneath The Under Colosseum's registration desk.
{video end}

Pokémon Poopsock: Snagged Pokémon IVs, Part 2:
 When in brackets I say {HP Type Number}, that translates into its Hidden Power, if we chose to use it, being of that given type and base power.
Entei (Hasty): 6 / 17 / 3 / 23 - 24 / 5 / 26
Suicune (Relaxed): 28 / 0 - 1 / 28 / 11 - 12 / 12 / 30 - 31
Gligar (Jolly): 2 / 18 / 31 / 10 / 0 / 13 {HP Poison 44}
Stantler (Adamant): 16 / 10 - 12 / 28 / 11 / 19 / 18 {HP Electric 65/66}
Piloswine (Naughty): 24 / 28 / 25 / 11 / 9 / 4 {HP Psychic 40}
Sneasel - #215 (Docile): 29 / 13 / 26 / 31 / 23 / 27 {HP Dragon 68}

Gligar's Hidden Power is too weak to be put to use; comically, Poison Sting is equivalent to Hidden Power 35, and at least has a 10% chance of inducing the Poison status. Stantler has a great Hidden Power, but poor nature/stats to use it well, and learns a better move by TM. Piloswine could put a Psychic Hidden Power to use, but the base power is too low, and its stats favor a physical Hidden Power type. Sneasel's Hidden Power is damned good, but the Dragon type is Special, and Sneasel has a hideous Special Attack stat. 

Pokemon Day-Care status:
Plusle grew to Lv.47! (+6 Levels)

Plusle has finally learned Thunder, the last of its level-up moves. Note the massive increase of level from Lv.13, at which we started, from all of the wall-walking used to Purify the Shadow Pokemon. On that note, thanks to some more wall-walking, all previously Shadow Pokémon are now Purified and ready to go for next update, including the four Snags from this update. There's nothing plot-worthy left to do in The Under; our next point of infiltration is the Shadow Lab. However, I have a mini-update planned, to show off some things that have changed since getting the Maingate Key. The update's going to be a bit on the short side, which is why I was wondering if you'd like me to take care of some more of Mt. Battle or the now-accessible Under Colosseum for getting our hands on four TMs. If we go with either of the two latter options, Stantler will start getting some experience, in place of Dunsparce, as per popular demand from the previous vote. If we go with the first, we won't have the time to prepare it for usage.

Courses of action for next update:

- Use the newly-acquired Maingate Key to gain access to the Shadow Pokémon Lab.
Upcoming Snags:

Aipom (Normal)
Murkrow (Dark/Flying)
Forretress (Bug/Steel)
Ariados (Bug/Poison)
Granbull (Normal)
Vibrava (Dragon/Ground)

- Challenge the now-available Under Colosseum, scoring a bit of experience, some more cash and some awesome TMs.

- Take on Mt. Battle, Areas 7 & 8, earning valuable experience points and Poké Coupons.