Part 2: From Oasis to Hive

Part 2: From Oasis to Hive

Phenac City



Hm... I like what I see in your expression. Fufufu... I have a feeling I may see you again somewhere.



That guy seemed friendly. Well, before we enter the Mayor's house, let's pick up this pretty big Pokeball.



It's actually a chest containing multiple of an item! Item "balls" are few and far between in Orre, so when we do find something, it's usually pretty good.

Mayor Es Cade



Now, you wanted to see me. Is there something that I may be able to assist you with?

Um... er...

Oh? What may I do for a pretty young lady like you?

I... I saw it!

Saw it? And what did you see?

I saw a peculiar POKEMON... no, that's not quite right. What I saw was a POKEMON that gave off a black aura. It was like a fighting machine! And, that POKEMON would attack people!

O-o-o-oh, my! POKEMON like a fighting machine? And it attacks people?! Now, if that were true, that would be truly frightening. However, it is a little hard to believe.

It's true! It's true, Mr. MAYOR! Because I saw that POKEMON, I was made the prisoner of some frightening men until just a little while ago.

Hmm... I see. I understand... I will order an investigation at once.

You will? Thank you, Mr. MAYOR!

Oh, no, no. There is no need for thanks. We mustn't allow thugs to do as they wish. Especially thugs that endanger a pretty young lady like you! I'll ask that you give me a little time on this matter. I promise we will get some useful information for you.



You appear to be POKEMON trainers yourself. If so, I urge you to visit our city's pride and joy, our POKEMON STADIUM. It's a breathtakingly beautiful STADIUM befitting our oasis city! I promise you, we will obtain useful information about those sinister POKEMON. While we do so, I heartily recommend that you visit our STADIUM, the symbol of our civic pride!

Phenac City



I don't wanna know what's going on upstairs... Anyway, I think going to a Pokemon Colosseum here in Pokemon Colosseum is probably a good idea. Let's go.



This is where we register trainers for challenges. However, the current challenge has already started. So, we are no longer accepting trainers for this challenge. Please come back and enter the next challenge.



Drat. Now what do we do?



Wrecking the HIDEOUT wasn't good enough for you?! So you rip off the SNAG MACHINE? You've got some nerve!

Who are these people? Huh? Are they TEAM SNAGEM? And what did they mean by traitor? THOMAS... you mean...

That's right, pretty lady! He's from TEAM SNAGEM, just like us! But he's no ordinary member. He's a SNAGGER. He's the best in TEAM SNAGEM at Snagging POKEMON without fail!



Uh, I-I really don't rock the bald look.

Oh! You gritted your teeth, didn't you? Didn't you?! Then it must be true! That's a little shocking!

Hey, THOMAS! Come on, hand it over! Give back the SNAG MACHINE you ripped off from the HIDEOUT!

SNAG MACHINE? THOMAS, do you really have something like that?

The SNAG MACHINE's built for trainers. When a trainer puts the SNAG MACHINE on, their POKEBALLS are converted. Ordinary POKEBALLS are turned into SNAG BALLS that can steal POKEMON from their trainers in battle.

Hey, you blabbermouth! Keep that stuff secret!

I get it, THOMAS. That's why these creeps are chasing after you.

Creeps? What do you mean by creeps? Gah, this is getting us nowhere! If you won't give it up willingly, we'll take it by force!

Trainer Battle




Looks like blowing up a hideout wasn't enough, Team Snagem is still crawling around.



I forgot to heal up after the Pre Gym, but it's not like Umbreon was gonna do much on his turn anyway.




We'll be seeing more of spread moves later on, they're pretty useful, but remember they're only 75% as strong when used against two Pokemon.



Blast you, THOMAS! Don't think this is over! We're going to get that SNAG MACHINE back. Just you wait!



It's okay. THOMAS, it doesn't matter to me who you are. After all, you're my gallant price who rescued me when I was in trouble. So, it doesn't matter. Besides, I thought up something after listening to those creeps. Listen, THOMAS. We should go shopping for some POKEBALLS.



Maybe they're selling Pokeballs now.




That works too, back to the beginning!

Outskirt Stand



Some rough-looking characters came around asking about you. It had me worried. Those guys, they looked like they're from TEAM SNAGEM.



Huh? POKEBALLS, you say? There's no call for those things around these parts... where'd I put them now? Oh yeah, here they are! A little dusty, I'm afraid, but otherwise perfectly useable. Here! Take these. I'll let you have them for free.



Well, since I found them, I may as well put them out with the rest of my merchandise. If you need some more, well, how about buying them from me?



Pokeballs can only be bought at the Outskirt Stand and we'll be coming here pretty often, since we're gonna need them very soon. Getting 10 extra to also get a Premier Ball is a good idea, as well as a few Great Balls.

Phenac City



A whole lot of scary men came here! I think I even saw those two creeps who took off in the truck earlier!



Oh no! I'll save you Justy!



But it won't matter if those guys do something bad. I'm sure JUSTY won't let them get away with anything!



Oh no! I'll save you Es Cade!

Villain Encounter



Darling, did you say your name was THOMAS or something? I so don't like saying this, but we're not at liberty to keep your lady friend at liberty. That sweet young thing, she can see things that ordinary people aren't supposed to see. That just will not do for what we're planning to do. No, it just won't do at all. If you don't like pain, like most people, you can avoid the pain by keeping your nose out of places it needn't be.



Boys, I shall make my return to PYRITE now. Do remember that I will be waiting for you to return with the little lady. Am I making myself clear? I won't accept failure from you again, boys. Fuhohoho... Let the music spin! Let's get it on!



Well they were some interesting characters. Guess we're left with the scraps.

Trainer Battle




This is looking all too familiar.



Starting a new game means we see Growl again, always weird going back to the shitty early moves.




Ooh, already this is a bit more interesting.



But wait, Trudly also has another Pokemon!



Those jerks captured me because I saw that POKEMON. I can see a black aura coming from it. They must have done something to that POKEMON!



THOMAS, be careful! This POKEMON isn't afraid to attack people! I know, THOMAS! I hate to say this, but there's no other choice. Get that POKEMON back from the bad guys! Please, you have to! You can... actually, only you can do it!



You heard the lady, let's get to snagging a trainer's Pokemon! Oh yeah, remember that Gen 3's double battles have sending Pokemon out before the turn ends, so Umbreon still needed to attack after that cutscene.



Umbreon doesn't need to do anything this turn, so I could Call it, which is a mechanic that I'll go in to in a little bit, or I could just blindly attack, it won't matter.





There we go, this Makuhita will always have a 100% catch rate, so you can do whatever. Indeed, up until the first major boss, every Shadow Pokemon we'll encounter will have a boosted catch rate to help us a bit. Not that you'd think so, but whatever.



Hey, what are you saying? You're not supposed to be impressed! Oh man... what are we supposed to do? We got flattened again. MIROR B.'s going to chew us out!

What do we do? What is there to do? Run away!



But I'm sure there are others like it. Let's get all of them back from the bad guys!



Ah, our first of many Shadow Pokemon. We'll go into more detail in a moment, but for now, we'll be keeping this little guy in our party. Not as a team member, no, I have 6 Pokemon already picked out, but because we need to lower its Heart Gauge and one of the best ways to do that is to battle with it! But since we won't be doing that I'll just walk with it. It would be pretty nifty in battle, since it knows Shadow Rush, a pretty physical move, but it means I can't really talk about its effectiveness in this game yet, since it only has that one move.



I dunno, you seem pretty damn tough.



Alright, we can only battle one of these guys and as you'd expect, they have a Shadow Pokemon. With a choice between a green, red or blue guy, you're right in that it'll be a starter Pokemon! The Johto starters, to be precise! And I'll be using one on my team! Which one?



Haha, are you surprised?

Villain Battle




Our second team member will be Bayleef, since we've already used the Cyndaquil line and we just used a Water starter, so let's use an adorable plant dino. So while Quilava, then Croconaw, then Bayleef are the best choices, I'll go over why in just a moment.



Verde, Rosso and Bluno have the same team aside from the Shadow Pokemon, though the abilities of Grimer and Spoink depend on the trainer.




Good of you to shine, Umbreon, since that's your replacement.




Well that's kinda helpful, since I don't want to risk Confusion against our new member.



Catching Shadow Pokemon is just like a wild Pokemon, except they all have a recoil move, so it can be pretty risky. Coupled with only saving at PCs and you might accidentally knock it out and lose a ton of progress. I'll be using savestates, but I will be keeping a tally on how many times a Shadow Pokemon I'm trying to catch faints. In a lot of cases, you'll be restarting, since we won't encounter this specific Shadow Pokemon again until the END OF THE GAME, so that's not very helpful if I want to use it on my team. This will also apply to the two other Shadow starters you didn't pick, we won't be seeing them for a long time. To add to the challenge, I'll be catching every single Shadow Pokemon the first time we encounter them, with like 3 exceptions, I believe. Oh I'm dedicated.



We'll be catching this Bayleef in a Premier Ball cause I like catching team members in different Pokeballs when possible. But we've only got 1 and I don't wanna restart just for that.



So we'll use Espeon's turn to catch it and Umbreon's turn to switch the Premier Ball to another slot in the bag and then attack just in case.



Shoot it broke out, but hey we still have our Premier Ball. See, Pokemon Colosseum is a little bit broken, it was Genius Sorority's first game after all, so a few things slipped through. Such as the Infinite Ball Glitch. On your first Pokemon's turn, use a Pokeball like normal, then on the second Pokemon's turn, switch the Pokeball you used with any other and then use its turn like normal. Hey presto, the game gets confused and doesn't use up the Pokeball you just threw. Oh yeah, the Masterball is in this game.



The second time gets it and I still used the glitch just in case. I won't be abusing this glitch much, but it makes things a little easier if you have to use it, there's a lot of Pokemon to catch. Oh yeah, when I properly talk about a Pokemon and how good it can be, I'll include the catch rate and the approximate chance you'll have of catching it if you use the tools you can have at that point, so in this case low HP with a Pokeball, most likely. This comes to a 16% chance of capturing due to a 45 catch rate, but the game boosts early Pokemon by an unknown amount, so it'll be higher in those cases, I'll just list the base chance. Aren't I nice?

Phenac City



That? It's a POKEMON that we turned into a fighting machine by artificially closing the door to its heart.

No! You didn't! You artificially closed the door to that poor POKEMON's heart?!

Humph. Knowing that's not going to help you do anything!



They say that if any POKEMON closes the door to its heart, it can be gradually reopened by battling with it. THOMAS, let's go. Those guys are probably headed for PYRITE TOWN. After all, it was in PYRITE that they captured me.



While a Shadow Pokemon has its heart completely closed, it only knows one move and has its nature hidden. We'll need to open it, otherwise they'll be tough to use. A lot of Shadow Pokemon are holding type boosting items, so this is the best way to get them in Gen 3, as we'll find all 17 eventually. This does give Quilava another point, since you can sell the Charcoal for a chunk of cash if you don't care about the 10% boost to Fire moves.



With that, Umbreon has been replaced, but will remain in the party for a little bit longer, just in case I need some walling. Before we head off to Pyrite, let's go over the starters! And Makuhita I guess!.

Quilava, 45 catch rate (16%, low health with Pokeball), starting moveset: Flame Wheel, Dig, Smokescreen, Shadow Rush/Sunny Day

Out of the three choices, Quilava is the best, since Fire Blast users are often very good and it'll hit hard when it needs to. While none of the starters are exactly bad, Croconaw uses the wrong stats and Bayleef will have to rely on Solarbeam for major damage, so neither of them will reach the strong special damage Quilava will. However, like Espeon, it really doesn't have many options aside from that and you really need to decide which team members will get the limited TMs available to it. Dig isn't great, since Earthquake is around a fair bit, so Brick Break is your best bet. Still, if you need to get rid of a Pokemon right now, then something clicking Fire Blast ain't a bad option.

Croconaw, 45 catch rate (16%, low health with Pokeball), starting moveset: Surf, Bite, Scary Face, Shadow Rush/Rain Dance

Next up is the water dile, with a lot of special moves. This is the main problem, while Surf is a fantastic move in this game and Bite gives it more coverage than the other two, it won't get a single physical move for quite some time and will rely on the (pretty good) Shadow Rush. It's probably the best Return recipient, or even Earthquake or Brick Break, but again, TMs are very limited to go along with limited Pokemon movepools. There's also a pretty good Water type coming up super soon, so it can be a bit conflicting on who to use. Sure, Surf will do some real nice damage, but it has the lowest SpAtk out of all three and with it doing 75% damage, you'll notice it's not very impressive. Especially if you give it Blizzard. Still, when you finally get some physical moves rolling and maybe even set up a Rain Dance, it'll be just fine.

Bayleef, 45 catch rate (16%, low health with Pokeball), starting moveset: Razor Leaf, Body Slam, Synthesis, Shadow Rush/Sunny Day

Finally, we have our choice, mainly due to the process of elimination, as Bayleef is good, but also not so good. It has some pretty nice moves to begin with, including an alright STAB, but it'll compare similarly to Croconaw's Surf in that it isn't doing much damage as a spread attack. Since its attacking stats remain equal, you can use a few moves on it, but the best it'll get is Giga Drain or Solarbeam, not exactly riveting. To use the latter, you need Sunny Day, which compounds its Fire weakness and if it got another powder aside from Poisonpowder, I could recommend it. Still, like Umbreon it has some nice support options with screens and Safeguard, but it's gonna be a little tricky to use in pure offensive presence. Still, you could always Body Slam something to death.

Makuhita, 100% catch, starting moveset: Cross Chop, Vital Throw, Focus Energy, Shadow Rush/Foresight

As far as first captures go, Makuhita is pretty damn good, learning great moves and hitting hard with Shadow Rush in the meantime. Though it's pretty limited in the moves it can learn, not being able to hit Ghost types at all, since it missed out on, uh, Knock Off. Did I mention there's no Move Reminder in this game? Well there isn't lol, so you're stuck with whatever moves the Shadow Pokemon gets at its level. Still, Cross Chop is pretty damn amazing and Belly Drum ain't far off, so with enough team support, this mon could absolutely wreck on its own. It can take some hits (and has to cause it's so slow), but it'll do some damage. Y'know, to most types.



Though since it's on the way, there's a really really big building here.



This is no place for tourists to visit. Go on, scram.



There's nowt here for us, so off to Pyrite we go!

Pyrite Town




From the mineral pyrite, known as fool's gold, and a corruption of pirate. Hope you like the theme, we're gonna be here a while...



That better be true, CAIL. If you're trying to con me, I'll know about it!

Mr. JOHNSON, sir! I wouldn't think about lying to you! You've gotta believe me, right?

All right, fine. I'll let you off easy today. See you!




He seems nice.



Why, just a while ago, she even determined where my wife is living since she left me... sob...



I am FATEEN. If ever a problem clouds your brow, you shall come to me. Whatever your problem may be, my fortune-telling shall lead to the solution. Fwofwofwo.

If you ever get lost, then Fateen will tell you what to do. I never used her since the game is pretty clear as to what to do, aside from one time coming up soon, but Fateen doesn't help you then, so she's kinda useless. Oh well.




You see, CHIEF, there's talk that thugs have been witnessed using strange POKEMON... ...huh? CHIEF? ...you're not the CHIEF... I beg your pardon!

I'm here, JOHNSON... that story isn't new. I've heard about it over and over already.

Oh! Oh, CHIEF, there you are! You're such a kidder! Ahaha.



I see. Well, whether you are or not, it would be best if you were to get out of the town as soon as possible. This town's descended into a state of lawless chaos. I couldn't guarantee your safety if anything were to happen.



It would be pretty bad if a rough guy like that got out. Hope you enjoy all the portraits that can't be found anywhere else, big thanks to Fionordequester for getting these models for me, they look fantastic!



After we blew our last chance, we couldn't go back. So we turned ourselves in for stealing that truck and here we are! If we stayed here, we'd be safe. Hehehe.



Aw man, you can get great black market deals here!



I hate this town already. Getting Revives this early is super nice though!



If you want to enter a battle, go see the COLOSSEUM's receptionist. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm busy.



Okay well if you say so.



Just kidding, who wouldn't?!



Waaah! You startled me! How did you get in here? That's weird... my little brother is supposed to be on lookout.




Please come visit and play with us another time.



Aww, what a bunch of cute little kids plotting to take down the criminal underworld. I used to do that too.



What is the matter with you? Have they sucked the spirit right out of you?!

...

Tch. So you just clam up. I've lost faith in you!



But he was really angry. His face looked all scary.



Well we don't have much in the way of leads, but entering the Colosseum sounds good. Maybe this one will actually let us in.



Good. That's okay, then. I'll teach you about one of the few rules this town has. Here, we have street battles rather than exchanging greetings!

Trainer Battle



Yay plant dino!



Espeon does what Espeon do, so let's show off this Shadow move!



...or just enter Hyper Mode and don't attack. Well okay then. Guess we can use the Call option!




There's a chance your Shadow Pokemon will enter Hyper Mode instead of attacking. It's a bit annoying, since you can't heal it in this state and it can only use Shadow Rush, but it increases the move's chance to crit to a 87.5% chance, which is pretty damn insane, especially for a Pokemon with high Attack. Calling a Pokemon will snap them out of it and reduce their Heart Gauge. It's best to snap them out of it if you need to use other moves, or if you've got the time to do so. But if you want to crit a lot, or you're not really in a position to spend a turn calling, then staying in Hyper Mode is definitely worth it.




Shadow Rush will do quite a bit, but if the recoil is too annoying, then you don't have to use it, unless you're in Hyper Mode. Using Shadow Rush won't decrease the Heart Gauge in any way, but there are plenty of things that will, which we'll go over in great detail when we've explored this mechanic in full.



Since we've gotten rid of one gauge, we get a move back to use! Synthesis will make Bayleef pretty tanky, but it's probably better to use a healing item, since that might not use up Bayleef's turn.



Fufufu... I can see it in your eyes. You're just like us. It's easy to see.



There's no Pokemon Center in this town (there is a PC in the police station), but we have a Hotel. Sure, they usually don't heal Pokemon, but maybe this time...



It's a mere $100 a night. Will you stay with us? Oh, that's too bad, then. The next time you need to stay a night, make sure it's right here at the PYRITE SUPER GRAND HOTEL.



Nightmares about confusion? I can relate. While we can heal Pokemon by depositing them into the PC, it's pretty cheap to just heal here.



Wait a second! Who are you to call me a wallflower? What about me makes me a wallflower?

Ahaha! Look at her, she's all serious! Uncool! I'm only teasing out of boredom. A guy like him, he's not to my taste.

Grrrrr! That's it! I'm furious now! THOMAS! Be a man: stomp her down!

Stomp? Who, me? Ahaha! That's a laugh! Come on, then. I'll go easy on you!




It's pretty cool when Rui interacts with random trainers, but it barely happens, which sucks. Oh yeah, I'll be calling our protags Wes and Rui since I don't trust myself to not do that.



What kind of a man battles a frail girl like me without easing up? You're not going to win the hearts of girls that way.



We should be careful. Even at the best of times, there's nothing normal about this town.

It seems like there's a lot of trainers up ahead, so next time, we've got quite a few battles to go through!