Part 5: Sprouting Wings
Update 05: Sprouting Wings
Sprout Tower
Welcome to Sprout Tower, a good place to train just before the Gym, cause our team could use it.
"obtain an HM."This large flexible pillar is called a jūkōzō and is used in hundreds of modern high rise buildings to limit the damage from earthquakes and such. And creates cool symbolism as well. We also have our mini objective for the area, so let's get climbing.
We have the peaceful monks dotted around, let's not disturb the meditation and keep heading up.
Trainer Challenge #2
"will stand strong."These bastards are promoting violence!
Trainer Battle
Yeah, what a surprise. We'll be seeing a lot of these as we climb the tower.
This is kind of a problem, since our Fire type does not have a Fire type move, but they can't do too much in return, so it'll be a slow time.
And this is basically what Jeremiah will be doing for most of this area, cause we can't have Kakarott hogging all the exp.
And a level up for Kakarott. It is far from the last.
Sprout Tower
Heading back down and woo items.
: Here, we express our gratitude to honor all POKéMON.
Easy enough.
"cooperation."
: We must always be thankful for this.
Back to the first floor.
Eh, I'll be the leaf instead.
LEARN A FIRE MOVE GEEZ
3 level 3s does equate to that, yes.
: But I didn't train well enough.
Let's make sure we're all healed up before we take on the monk gauntlet. And there's just one more thing I want to do.
Wild Pokémon Battle
HP: 30 | ATK: 35 | DEF: 30 | SP.ATK: 100 | SP.DEF:35 | SPD: 80 | TOTAL: 310
#058: Gastly
Hey, that's my job.
But easy enough to catch. Lick (Shitadenameru: Tongue Lick) is a weak 20BP Ghost move with 30PP, 100% accuracy and a 30% chance to paralyze the target. Unlike last gen, this move can now paralyze Ghost types. Thankfully it's not the only STAB Ghost move in this game, but it's not good at all.
Interesting considering that Gastly learns no Poison moves. Oh well.
Sprout Tower
"POKéMONSame, my brother.
Oh hey, maybe now they won't say how weak they are.
Growth (Seichō) is a Normal status move with 40PP that raises Special Attack by one stage. Eh. It gets better.
Good experience at least.
"the trainer.": No, wait. As the trainer grows stronger, so do the POKéMON."
"black darkness."Oh goody. We'll have such a reward when we clear this area.
Good good, keep on up Jeremiah.
There will be, cause there aren't many places where it wouldn't be.
"your POKéMON."
The fuck? This isn't a Bellsprout.
Still, least Jeremiah can get her licks in, despite Bubble being a terrible move, Poliwag having lackluster Special Attack and Hoothoot having good Special Defense. But at least Jeremiah won't die!
"JEREMIAH!"Uh, cool. Foresight (Miyaburu: Thought Read) is a Normal status move with 40PP and 100% accuracy that removes a Ghost type's immunity to Fighting and Normal and resets the opponent's evasion stat.
I'm glad that Jeremiah could keep up in levels, though it was a bit of a hassle to switch things around constantly.
Okay good, let's finish this up.
"trainer.": As promised, here is your HM. But let me say this: You should treat your POKéMON better. The way you battle is far too harsh. POKéMON are not tools of war...Rival Challenge
: He claims to be the ELDER but he's weak. It stands to reason. I'd never lose to fools who babble about being nice to POKéMON. I only care about strong POKéMON that can win. I really couldn't care less about weak POKéMON.Sprout Tower
Does the word POKéMON now sound weird to you? Anyway, let's go talk to the elder.
: People and POKéMON test their bonds to build a bright future together. I am the final test. Allow me to check the ties between your POKéMON and you!Trainer Battle
Oh good, back to the Bellsprout.
Ah, finally, our starter has STAB! Way too fucking late, but OH WELL.
Jeremiah could definitely use some better moves too, ugh.
Ah, beautiful. Ember (Hinoko: Sparks) is your basic Fire move with 40BP, 25PP and 100% accuracy with a 10% chance to Burn something.
Trainer Defeated
Now that we're getting up in levels and have some actual moves to work with. Wasn't too bad, really, but I will be pretty happy to be clear of this area.
: Take this FLASH HM.
Yaaaaaaaaay. Flash (Furasshu) is a Normal status move with 20PP and 70% accuracy that reduces the target's accuracy by one stage. It's bad, but it also helps light up dark caves, including Dark Cave. Unlike gen 1, where you only used it in one cave and even then you could get through fine, you need it for 5 areas in Gold and Silver, 4 areas for Crystal and 4 areas in the remakes. And as we saw, you really do need it if you want to explore those areas efficiently.
"of all places.": But to use it out of battle, you need the BADGE from VIOLET's GYM.: I hope you learn and grow from your journey.
Ooh neat. Let's get out of here.
Violet City
Now let's heal and prepare for the Gym. I believed there was something we could get in the Dark Cave after getting Flash, that's not the case, so we won't be needing it for a while. And if we do need to use it before we get a full team, then we'll use our lovely Spinarak, I'll keep Flash off our movepool as much as possible, but for ease of convenience later, I'll have to figure out who's gonna get less moves to work with.
Pokémon Gym
Alright, now it's Gym time!
"some advice!"
: Believe me! If you believe, a championship dream can come true. You believe? Then listen.: The grass-type is weak against the flying-type. Keep this in mind.
"face Falkner!"Uhhhhh, thanks Jim Gui. Honestly that's not really much of a factor in these games, even if you have a Grass type, but sucks for you if you chose the Fire type, as we'll soon see.
Ah, it's good to do things with Jeremiah again.
"rookie trainer..."That's kinda the point of being in the first gym of a region.
: Those here are training night and day to become bird POKéMON masters. Come on!
Aw man, so close...
: Don't get cocky just because you beat me!
Oh we should be fine, so it's time to save up and take him down!
"leader!"
: People say you can clip flying-type POKéMON's wings with a jolt of electricity... I won't allow such insults to bird POKéMON!: I'll show you the real power of the magnificent bird POKéMON!Gym Leader Battle 
VS Leader Falkner 
Falkner: The Elegant Master of Flying Pokemon
Hayato: Magnificent Flying Pokemon Tamer
(So since there isn't really any artwork of the Gen 2 NPCs, aside from a few, we'll be using the Gen 4 artwork, which is fine, since I'll be going over this fight in the remakes... later. I've also included the team we'll be facing and every leader has a different description from English to Japanese for whatever reason)
(Anyway, Falkner is from falconer, one who trains falcons, though there isn't gonna be one of those for a long ass time. Hayato literally means Peregrine falcon man (with Peregrine being a type of falcon))
Alright, first gym battle aaaaaand it kinda sets the stage for how this game will go. LEVEL SEVEN. Geez, that's kinda awful, so our team is overleveled for this. Oh well, should have an easy time with Kakarott.
Ah, it won't be too easy, cause both of Falkner's Pokemon have Mud Slap (Dorokake: Mud Spray) which is a weak Ground move with 20BP, 10PP and 100% accuracy that always lowers accuracy by one stage. So Chikorita is an alright choice, since that's resisted, while Kakarott will have a bit of a tough time.
HP: 63 | ATK: 60 | DEF: 55 | SP.ATK: 50 | SP.DEF:50 | SPD: 71 | TOTAL: 349
#011: Pidgeotto
While we are higher level than it, it's still an evolved Pokemon with increased stats, so we should be careful. Mud Slap will do a fair amount of damage to Kakarott, since it's physical. Also for the linked analysis, I'll be including links to the pre-evolved forms, for comparison.
Whittle, whittle, whittle.
And this is the best move it can go for, Gust (Kaze Okoshi: Stir Up Wind) is a weak Flying move with 40BP, 35PP and 100% accuracy that is actually a Flying move now, but pales to Wing Attack, since that got its useful boost.
I don't want to get unlucky with a crit, or with lowered accuracy with Mud Slap, so the best opponent is a sleeping opponent, since you could get very lucky and roll 7 turns.
And good times all around. Finally got Water Gun (Mizu Deppō), a weak Water move with 40BP, 25PP and 100% accuracy. It's definitely an improvement to Bubble, but it would've been nice to have earlier. Sigh.
Gym Leader Defeated
"POKéMON...": All right. Take this. It's the official POKéMON LEAGUE ZEPHYRBADGE.
Hot damn.
Pokémon Gym
: ZEPHYRBADGE raises the attack-power of POKéMON. It also enables POKéMON to use FLASH, if they have it, anytime. Here--take this too.
: Think before you act--a TM can be used only once. TM31 contains MUD-SLAP. It reduces accuracy while it causes damage. In other words, it is both defensive and offensive.: There are POKéMON GYMS in cities and towns ahead. You should test your skills at these GYMs. I'm going to train harder to become the greatest bird master!
That's what we're aiming for.
That's one badge down. Oh so many to go.