Part 19: Loose Dark Ends

Update 16: Loose Dark Ends

Route 36

"have this."


: You can shatter rocks with just a single well-aimed smack. If any rocks are in your way, just smash 'em up!



Rock Smash (Iwa Kudaki) is a pretty bad Fighting move with 20BP, 15PP and 100% accuracy that has a 50% chance of lowering the target's Defense by one stage. You also use it to get rid of rocks on the overworld, but it's not necessary to use. Churchill can have it for now, since it's just a TM, so I can get rid of it later if need be.

Violet City



Now that the tree is gone, it's much easier to head back to familiar territory. So we'll be spending most of this update doing a bit of backtracking here and there.

Route 31



: What's that? You have MAIL for me?

"holding the MAIL."

Now I should note here that you will hand over the Pokemon holding the mail, NO MATTER WHAT IT IS. Kenya? Gone forever. Random Pokemon you gave it to? Gone forever. Your treasured starter? Gone forever. Obviously they changed this in the remakes to him giving you the Pokemon back if it's not Kenya. But yeah, you've been warned.



: That's good to know. Thanks for bringing this to me. My friend's a good guy and you're swell too! I'd like to do something good in return too! I know! I want you to have this!



: It's a wicked move that steadily cuts the HP of a sleeping enemy. Ooooh... That's scary... I don't want to have bad dreams.



Let's load up and finally explore this Dark Cave, as the letter did say there was more to that place. Nightmare (Akumu), meanwhile, is a Ghost status move with 15PP and 100% accuracy that afflicts a sleeping Pokemon and reduces their health by 25% at the end of each turn. This wears off when the Pokemon wakes up. It's not a great move as Dream Eater is better to use, but hey, it's a new Ghost move, so yay?



Oh, I guess this is happening now. Neat.




HP: 45 | ATK: 75 | DEF: 37 | SP.ATK: 70 | SP.DEF: 55 | SPD: 83 | TOTAL: 365
#150: Magby



From the Odd Egg, we can obtain one of seven Baby Pokemon, with the exclusive (as in, not Kangaskhan) move of Dizzy Punch (Piyo Piyo Panchi: Chirp Chirp Punch), a Normal move with 70BP, 10PP and 100% accuracy, with a 20% chance of confusing the target.



There's no way to really find out what the Egg will hatch into and it takes a little while, so unfortunately, I don't need another Fire type on my team. Maybe it would've determined some of my team if I'd gotten certain Pokemon, but it can be a bit of a hassle to level them up. We'll talk about the other babies when we can encounter them. And it's a shame it wasn't shiny, but we only have a 14% chance of that happening, instead of the 50% chance in the Japanese versions, but at least we can get this no matter when we play the game.

Dark Cave



Ah, so this what this cave looks like. Neat.



We can't explore the whole cave just yet, but with Flash and Rock Smash we can reach somewhere new.



Beautiful.



There's quite a few rocks around, so you'll need to smash 'em.




HP: 20 | ATK: 10 | DEF: 230 | SP.ATK: 10 | SP.DEF: 230 | SPD: 5 | TOTAL: 505
#166: Shuckle



I'm not gonna waste balls on something we'll get for free later on. But it is a Pokemon you can obtain now. The only other Pokemon you can find through Rock Smash is Geodude. I'm just riding around grabbing some sweet items.



There's a few ledges around, but there's a rock at the bottom to smash that lets you backtrack, so just keep finding all the items.



But, uh, that's really it. This place ain't very big.

Route 46



And as the letter said, we're now in a new area.



We can't head up, so let's head down. Or more specifically to the left.



: Will you battle with me?



Nostalgia. Karate Chop (Karate Choppu) is now a Fighting move with 50BP, 25PP and 100% accuracy that has an increased critical hit ratio. While it won't crit as often as it used to, it's still a fine STAB move until you get something better. Or not. Fighting still isn't the best type right now.



Good to see Mankey can still mess things up.



...no regrets?





HP: 50 | ATK: 85 | DEF: 55 | SP.ATK: 65 | SP.DEF: 65 | SPD: 90 | TOTAL: 410
#201: Ponyta



No, horse.



: It's filled with pretty flowers! It really made me angry to lose. I'll have to train much harder...



Ehhhh, I don't really have space for more numbers. Not that you'd be too useful to have anyway.

"items."

Oh good, this is back. Well it's not a problem to throw out some garbage and be fine again. The fact that this is the first time this is happening shows how much of an improvement this is from the previous games.



But hey, we're back on Route 29. Let's have a little trip back home.

Pokemon Lab




: The EGG hatched! So, POKéMON are born from EGGS... No, perhaps not all POKéMON are. Wow, there's still a lot of research to be done. Thanks, MARINA! You're helping unravel POKéMON mysteries for us! I want you to have this as a token of our appreciation.



: Some species of POKéMON evolve when they grow to certain levels. A POKéMON holding the EVERSTONE won't evolve. Give it to a POKéMON you don't want to evolve.



We've got a nice chunk of change at our MOM's, but we're managing fine for now. Alright, back around the loop to Dark Cave.

Route 29



: Please allow me to introduce myself. I am TUSCANY of Tuesday. By way of introduction, please accept this gift, a PINK BOW.

"is most adorable?"

: It strengthens normal-type moves. I am certain it will be of use.



I believe it will be, might as well boost Normal moves by 10%, as we don't have much else to hold. I won't be making use of the Everstone myself, but it saves having to cancel evolution every level, but it means you can't hold anything else.



: Oh, hi, MARINA? Working hard? You're visiting CHERRYGROVE CITY? How about coming home for a bit?

I never called MOM when we were in Cherrygrove, so I've fixed that. Another thing crossed off the list.

Route 46

"mountain POKéMON!"

Back through Dark Cave, we now head down the ledge instead of left, since there is another trainer.



Churchill smash.



Ooh baby.




HP: 90 | ATK: 120 | DEF: 75 | SP.ATK: 60 | SP.DEF: 60 | SPD: 45 | TOTAL: 450
#124: Granbull

"are like that."


Churchill's become a very early game powerhouse and while she'll eventually drop off the further we go into the game, she's gonna be a lot of fun until then.

Route 32



Still more to do and see and that.




: WROOOAR! IT'S ROAR! EVEN POKéMON RUN FROM A GOOD ROAR!

Q-quite. Least this move has some use this generation, especially with the inclusion of entry hazards.

"for me!"


: My pal was snoozing, right? Heh, what'd I say?

Heading back to good ol' Webster gets us a HP Up. Since I'm not bothered about Stat Exp right now, I'll be selling it for cold hard cash.

Route 34



: We were raising your POKéMON, and my goodness, we were surprised! Your POKéMON had an EGG! We don't know how it go there, but your POKéMON had it. You want it?



Neat. The egg train won't stop. At least until we fill up our team. Which honestly won't be for a while.



It'll be interesting to see how high we can get it, cause this Ditto ain't leaving the Daycare until it's done.




Excellent, a fair few trainers give you evolution stones if you have their number, which is necessary since you can't really obtain them in many other ways. Gold and Silver players are a bit limited.

(Ralph called me when I was changing time and by the time I realized he had something to say it was too late. Oh well that's what text dumps are for.)

: Listen, I... Yowch! Uh, sorry! See, QWILFISH are biting like there is no tomorrow over here on ROUTE 32! Aiyee! Ouch! One jabbed me! Heh, they're some kind of fiesty! MARINA, you have to see this rare sight! Get ready to fish! You call your mom somtimes too!



Let's do this.




HP: 65 | ATK: 95 | DEF: 75 | SP.ATK: 55 | SP.DEF: 55 | SPD: 85 | TOTAL: 430
#161: Qwilfish



Swarming Pokemon will happen on occasion and change around the encounter tables. While it's a lot easier to find Qwilfish with other rods during a swarm, you can still find it easily enough with an Old Rod. However, all swarming Pokemon can be found normally, you just have to wait until you get the Super Rod, or rely on a 1% encounter, so it's less of a headache to do it this way.

Route 37



Now then, it's finally time to head onwards to new places. We will be heading back to south and east Johto when we have some more HMs, but for now, it's onwards to new locations.

"gether!"

(ANN): ANNE and I are in this together!



I miss double battles...

"our POKéMON."

(ANN): I can tell what my sister and my POKéMON are thinking.



Yo.

: I'm SUNNY of Sunday, meaning it's Sunday today! I was told to give you this if I saw you!



: Um... ... What was it now... ... Oh! I remember now! A POKéMON that knows electric moves should hold it. My sis MONICA said it powers up electric moves!

: My sisters and brothers are MONICA, TUSCANY, WESLEY, ARTHUR, FRIEDA and SANTOS. They're all older than me!

Well we've met four of them so far. Only ones left are Monica, Wesley and Santos. I wonder where we'll find them...



Finally we find some more Apricorns. You can only find them here, which is good cause it's nice and close to the nearby city, this route is pretty short.

"asleep."

: I'll show you how scary that is!



The pain train gives no fucks about status.



Momma's on a shopping spree, goddamn.



But that's it. Let's find some wild Pokemon.



Ah, a new Pokemon, let me just bring up the analys-




Ah. Shit. This thing broke out of like ten Poke Balls. It's my fault for being so stubborn and wasting all of them, but sometimes random wild Pokemon are harder to catch than legendaries.

Ecruteak City



Ahh, soothing music, now I don't feel like punching something.

Pokemon Center



: Hi, I'm BILL. And who are you? Hmm, MARINA, huh? You've come at the right time. I just finished adjustments on my TIME CAPSULE. You know that POKéMON can be traded, right? My TIME CAPSULE was developed to enable trades with the past. But you can't send anything that didn't exist in the past. If you did, the PC in the past would have a breakdown.

: So you have to remove anything that wasn't around in the past. Put simply, no sending new moves or new POKéMON in the TIME CAPSULE. Don't you worry. I'm done with the adjustments. Tomorrow, TIME CAPSULES will be running at all POKéMON CENTERS. I have to hurry back to GOLDENROD and see my folks. Buh-bye!



Well cool, Bill just created time travel, how convenient. Multiverse theory? Well anyway, we'll be going into the Time Capsule at a later time. Right now, I've got me some mons to catch.




HP: 73 | ATK: 95 | DEF: 62 | SP.ATK: 85 | SP.DEF: 65 | SPD: 85 | TOTAL: 465
#129: Stantler



First fucking Pokeball, of course. I hate this wonderful game.



But that's not all.



Oh just get in. Vulpix is a Pokemon unavailable in Crystal, but we can catch it here in Silver, so we shall.



It's been quite nice not having to catch like five new Pokemon each route. That definitely won't last for long.



Next time, we won't be exploring this old city, but instead doing some sports.

Sportssportssportssportssportssportssportssportssportssportssportssportssportssports