Part 20: Sportssportssports (HGSS)

Update 16.5: Sportssportssports (HGSS)

Route 35



Boy howdy have we got a long update today. You like SPORTS? We got all the SPORTS you could ever want. Let's get stuck in.



: Hmm... I feel it! The twinkle in your eyes! The twinkle of friendship! You're quite something. Your SLUGMA is quite a Pokémon! It's ready to participate in the Pokéathlon, bud! Most of all, your solidarity with and trust of Pokémon makes me believe in infinite potential! All right. Follow me!



: Inside the Dome are various challenges awaiting Trainers and Pokémon to test their friendship. Why don't you try it? You're amazing, bud! This is a pleasant surprise! To see a Pokéathlete with strong potential is such a pleasure! I'm glad I held the Pokéathlon here in Johto. ...My name is Magnus. We shall meet again, bud.



Welcome to one hell of an optional area. The Pokeathlon is one of my favourite side areas in the series and I have sunk many hours into it. But just before we head into the actual dome itself, let's have a look around the outside.



: Huh? What's that confused look about? You don't know about Aprijuice? There, take this!



There's a reason for the expanded availability of Apricorns, you can now blend them up deliciously. Since we'll be talking about the actual Pokeathlon itself, I'll talk about Aprijuice and Performance stats in today's Side Notes.

"their true potential!"

: It's so easy to make! All you have to do is put Apricorns in the Apriblender. Put in as many as you can! The more, the merrier! Then you walk! You can run if you want... 98...99...100 steps! Here! Then you open it, give it to your Pokémon, or drink it yourself. You can buy Aprijiuce here. Why don't you try and see how it works?



I can easily explain it faster later on. But I will go over it briefly.



Now we can see a Pokemon's possible performance. The stars are based on the Pokemon's species, so they can never be higher than this, but you are able to fill in the blank stars via Aprijuice. The stars may also increase or decrease depending on the day of the month, the Pokemon's nature and their personality value. This may change a stat by up to 2 stars before you even use Aprijuice.



Anyway, let's head in before I talk about Performance and Aprijuice too much.

Pokeathlon Dome



Ah, I've heard this track play for many an hour, it's great. Let's see what there is to find.



Uh, sure.

: I used to love Jump events. The record I have from when I was fully active as a Pokéathlete is 998 jumps! Just two more! All I had to make was two more! I had to retire due to my age... Could I ask you to jump 1,000 times for me? Well, the record may make you dizzy. But you're still young. You can do it! I'll just sit and wait.

Yikes. Well that's one of the many, many milestones to reach in the Pokeathlon. If you do surpass this record, then he'll give you a Rare Candy. There are two other trainers around with similar dreams, one for dashing 1000 times and one for tackling 2000 times. Not exactly worth it, but if you play the Pokeathlon a ton, it's just something to grab on the way, really, it's not that bad.



: Flying sweat! Breathing in unison! Newborn friendship! We support your Pokéathlete lifestyle. The Athlete Points you have earned can be used her for prizes.



Now these are some fancy prizes. We'll get Athlete Points in droves by participating in the Pokeathlon, getting us infinite Apricorns for Aprijuice. The items available change daily and have a whole host of different ones available, with an even greater selection later on.



Alright, time to participate. But first...

"City, you know?"


: Were you going to participate in the Pokéathlon looking like that? You're not prepared at all, are you? So... Are you a medium or a small? You look more like a medium... OK! I'll get you a jersey that suits you! You want to look your best if you're going to participate in the Pokéathlon, don't you? Wait right there!




As a skinny white nerd I'm actually a small, but there are certain times where I'm an M. Glad Whitney sees that.



: Oh, no! Where are my Pokémon? I have to go back. See ya!



Well, we're all ready, so let's do this.



Hell yeah.



To go with the five Performance stats, we have the five courses. Like the name implies, Pokeathlon is a triathlon, where you participate in three courses in a row and try to score points. However, each of the ten events in these courses make use of either 3 or 4 of the Performance stats. So it's best to go with certain species and know what events are in what courses.



We'll go with one of the easier and more enjoyable courses. Thankfully, there's only a couple of mediocre or bad events.



Jumpsuit on and let's do this!



We should do alright with this party. Sure, I could boost up some stats, but where's the fun in that?

Opening Ceremony



Hmm, that guy seems familiar...



: Why can you jump that high?! Simple, it's because it's all you can do. Team Mendel: MAGIKARP, GOLDEEN and REMORAID!

: Flying is like breathing to me! That's only natural, if you ask me. Team Noel: HOOTHOOT, GOLBAT and SKIPLOOM!

: We're not done. We're just beginning! We'll show you just how far we can jump! Team Amelie: MAGBY, SMOOCHUM and ELEKID!



Start of the Event



During the Event



First up is Lamp Jump, a unique event to this course. All events require the touch screen and this is where I have an unfortunate problem. See, the entire reason I'm able to record this is because I'm doing this on a computer. With a mouse. That is definitely not a stylus, so I won't be fully completing the Pokeathlon, mainly because I can't: the controls are too awkward. But I'll still be showing everything off, it's what I do after all.



All you need to do is drag a Pokemon down and then it'll fling up into the air, in the opposite direction you dragged it in. Any lamps it touches will score you points, which increases up to 5 per lamp the more you touch in a single jump. All lamps will relight themselves every 8 seconds, so perform lots of quick and small arching jumps to touch as many lamps as possible.



However, if two Pokemon collide in mid air, or one lands on another Pokemon, then they'll be stunned for several seconds and cannot jump, though if this happens in mid air, the Pokemon will still complete their jump and score points from touching lamps.



Despite my mouse controls, this is a pretty fun and easy event to score high in. The Performance stats influence a few things. The Jump stat determines how high a Pokemon jumps. If they jump high enough, when they land, they could still have enough momentum to bounce again, though this is counted as a separate jump; Power determines how long you stun the Pokemon you hit into; Stamina determines how quickly you recover from being stunned; and Skill determines the accuracy of the jump.

Announcing the Results



: Congratulations on First Place! This event's results will be determined by points!



All events calculate their points differently. For Lamp Jump, it's simply the points you scored divided by 3.5.



Next up is Disc Catch. It is exactly what it sounds like.

During the Event



You can determine where the discs will go from the top screen. You then manoeuvre your Pokemon to that area and tap them so they'll jump. The further the discs are allowed to travel, the more points they'll be. So do you go to the front and catch the discs with little points, or go to the back and potentially catch high point discs, or get nothing, cause someone else caught it before you? Decisions, decisions.



Controlling three Pokemon at once is a bit tough, especially with my mouse controls and you can push the other Pokemon out of the way, depending on the Power stats. You can fall off the pier and respawn after 3 seconds in the same position you started the event.



Get used to seeing low scoring an poor play. It's really hard with a mouse, guys! Anyway, Speed affects how quickly you can move; Jump determines how high and for how long you can jump for and Power affects your ability to push opponents around. Overall, it's an alright, if pretty hectic, event to play.



Damn. Oh well, I didn't do too badly.



Athlete Points are calculated using the formula 30 + 120*score/(12.5 + score). Weird right? Anyway, on to the final event.

Final Event



Hurdle Dash is also a pretty fun and fast paced event.



You'll see the hurdles come up on the top screen and you need to tap your Pokemon so they jump over it. Fail to and they'll crash into it and lose speed, but if you wait until the last second to jump, your Pokemon will get a boost in speed and have a wind effect around them. Do that five times and it'll turn red and your Pokemon will be the fastest it can be. You can also tap a Pokemon the moment it touches a hurdle to have it bounce off and save it from crashing.



You can't see the other Pokemon, but it's in your best interest to place in the top three. Your Pokemon are technically competing against each other, but it makes no difference. Speed relates to your movement. Jump relates how long your jump is and Skill relates to your acceleration. All in all, a very simple and very fun event.



Now that's what I'm talking about.



Points are determined as 11500 divided by the total time in seconds.

The Results



: But first... who's overflowing with fighting spirit? A Challenge Bonus for Pokémon and Team!



The Challenge Bonus is determined by your overall Performance stats. It's calculated as 75 minus the total number of stars on a team when unaffected by Aprijuice (so Aprijuice allows you to use lower skilled Pokemon no problem). As base Performance is determined by species, using the same team will always result in the same score.



Individual prizes are earned to a Pokemon that did a "no-miss" criteria in every event. So for Lamp Jump, it didn't get stunned colliding with another Pokemon; for Disc Catch, it didn't fall off the stage; and for Hurdle Dash, it didn't break any hurdles. It's only 10 points, so it's like whatever.



Oh cool. This is awarded to the Pokemon with the highest individual score. If any Pokemon are tied for this, then it's awarded to all of them, even if they're on the same team. It gives a much better 20 points.



: The Pokémon that jumped the most... Team Noel's SKIPLOOM! That's all! Finally... we'll add up the event points!

The last bonus is a random one of whoever did the most of action, either dashed, jumped, hit, failed the most, or missed collecting the most points. A 10 point wild card at the end of the bonuses.



Event Champion



The first of many, I presume.



: Congratulations! That was a wonderful Performance! Keep aiming to be the top Pokéathlete!



And that was one of the courses. It's a lot of fun if you're using a stylus, otherwise, not so much.

Pokeathlon Dome



: You will receive Athlete Points based on your score. This time, Kotone's score was 372! Earned 372 points! For winning these events, you will be awarded another 100 points. Please join us next time.

So the score you earn in the Pokeathlon translates directly to your Athlete Points, including a bonus if you win. These are all fairly fast paced and a lot of fun, so you'll get a lot of points in no time.



Now let's see what else there is in the Pokeathlon, starting with downstairs.



Here we can check our most recent win in each of the five courses. We've got a long while to go, so obviously we've got to check out the other four courses.

"are allowed here."

A'ight, then, guess that's our goal for the moment.



But first let's head upstairs.



Ah, there's Primo. Let's go say hi.



: Running out of energy? Hello, again! Good! My name is Maximo! I am the Pokéathlon MC! Nice to meet you! I'll be there for you when you need to know anything about the Pokéathlon.



Guh? Buuuh? You're not Primo???



: Oh, don't be shy. Some people call me the "big brother"! But really, the big brother is... ... my twin brother! The "big brother" as they say, is really the younger brother. So this "big brother" has a bigger brother... Do you get what I mean?



Uh, gotcha. Man, what a crazy family...



Anyway, we'll be doing an abridged version of the remaining four courses, otherwise this update would easily go over the character limit. While I remember, you can use any Pokemon in these competitions and it includes all Pokemon in your PC, so you don't have to keep switching and that.



Heh, too easy.



Okay, new event. Now we're controlling just the one Pokemon.



It's relatively simple, you run around the area, controlling the Pokemon with a flick of the stylus, picking up flags that pop up in pre-set locations. Best way is to go in a circle or semi-circle around the arena. You can hold a maximum of nine flags and you trade them in at the starting line. Then, you switch to the next Pokemon and do it all over again.



However, you can also hit into another Pokemon from behind and steal up to two of their flags, so watch your positioning, otherwise you'll get screwed over like me.



You've gotta make sure to cash in your flags before time is up, but if it happens while you're handing them in, they'll all still count. But if you're out in the field, then too bad. Speed determines how fast you move; Skill determines how easily you turn; Power determines how easy it is to KO opponents, while Stamina determines your ability to withstand being KO'd.



I didn't do too bad, considering. Your score is simply the number of flags you picked up multiplied by 3. It's a nice fast paced game and it feels good running around collecting flags then hurrying back to the starting point before they all get nicked.



Finally, we have another fun event, Relay Run.



You flick the stylus to move your Pokemon around a racecourse and try to do as many laps as possible. Gravel will slow you down, while rocks will just stop you outright, so spamming forward won't always work out.



Eventually your Pokemon will tire out and its speed will tank, so switch it to your next Pokemon ASAP and keep up those laps. If you keep it out anyway, it'll faint and you'll lose a few seconds where you can't do anything, you monster.



You can of course hit into other Pokemon, have all kinds of fun working out the hitboxes of these damn rocks and then sometimes you'll be in a four Pokemon pileup with no escape. Your Pokemon become more fatigued doing this, though the Pokemon in front loses less fatigue and also gets a small speed boost from it.



I find this one a lot of fun. You're probably seeing a kind of pattern here. Well, I'll talk about it later. Speed, again, determines how fast you go; Skill determines your acceleration; Power determines how much you decrease your opponents' Stamina with a collision, while Stamina determines your running endurance and how resistant you are to collisions.



Hmm, Victor got a fair few bonus points. Anyway, your score for Relay Run is simply the number of laps multiplied by 10, but there is a cap on 200, so there's no point going over 20 laps.



Ah goddammit, while the bonus points are pretty small, they can still tip the scales. Still, win or lose, you get your Athlete Points, so it's always a good time. Let's move onto the Power Course.



Block Smash is up first and it's a pretty fun, strategic time.



As you'd expect, this event has you smashing blocks. How easy you break through them depends on your Power. You may also notice small cracks in the blocks. Hit those and you'll enter a furious blue state called Tension, where it becomes easier to smash blocks. This affects the whole team, which is useful because...



You'll get tired out eventually and need to switch, otherwise you'll faint for a few seconds and can't do anything. If you keep tapping the cracks, you'll eventually get a red aura and enter High Tension. For a set time, you can't be fatigued and can smash multiple blocks in one go, though when you come out of it, you'll be in high fatigue. Unlike normal Tension, this does not pass on to the next team member, so milk it for all its worth.



Still did fairly well. Power determines how many hits you need to break a block. It's a real waste having to use more than one hit to break a block, so try to avoid that. Skill determines how much Stamina you use per hit, as Stamina is your general endurance.



Your points are determined by how many blocks you broke. It's that simple. Definitely a big fan of this event, it's so satisfying to smash through a load of blocks.



Next up is Circle Push. So far we're doing well for enjoyable events.



As you'd expect, you manoeuvre your three Pokemon into the circles and at the end of the time limit, you get points. Very simple, but it can be devilishly tough to get a high score.



There's a lot of Pokemon on the field and in the later rounds it can be really hectic getting your Pokemon into the various circles. You can get pushed out of the circles and indeed the ring by opposing Pokemon. The layout is the same everytime, so there's a max of 66 points to obtain. Just note that if you push too many Pokemon around, you'll get fatigued and eventually faint if you go too far.



It still went alright overall. I'm not a huge fan of events where you control all three Pokemon, it gets a bit too hectic, but this one has just the right balance of fun and challenge that I like it fine. So, Speed determines how fast you move, Power is your pushing strength and Stamina is your endurance for pushing. Simple.



Multiply your score by 3 and that's your Athlete Points, so the max you can get is 198. So everything's been going alright, I'm probably not going to win, but more or less every event we've had so far has been pretty good.







I'm definitely not a fan of Goal Roll. Just push balls into opponent's goals. Simple, right?



Well I left Wooper as the goalie, so I'll just push this ball away and...



Ah, god, fuck, shit! The controls are pretty clunky, it's really difficult to figure out where the hell the ball is gonna go cause there's just too many Pokemon around, so it becomes a real hassle to score. And if someone scores against you, you lose a point, so if you're not paying attention, your score could vanish pretty quick.



I'll admit that I'm not the best at these games, so it could definitely be me just being shit at football, but I'm just not a fan. You can dribble the ball around, or you can dash into it for a Power Shot that knocks other Pokemon away, but also builds your fatigue. You can regain it by standing still.



When there's 30 seconds left, the timer is replaced by Second Wind! and another ball drops onto the field. Uncommonly, a ball can be golden and score 2 points for your team. Speed affects your movement; Skill affects your dribbling ability and endurance against an enemy's Power Shot; Power determines Power Shot damage and the ability to stop a Power Shot; Stamina determines the resistance to a Power Shot and fatigue recovery.



Yeesh, we all did terribly. Regardless of score, everyone gets a base 60 points and then an additional 5 points for every goal scored. Finally, you get either 10, 20 or 40 extra points for having a higher score than one, two, or all opponents, respectively. The cap is 200 points.



Oh well, I lost. Now onto the Skill Course.



Snow Throw is kinda interesting. You tap a Pokemon to create a snowball, then flick it at the opponent teams.



If you land a hit, you get a point. You don't lose a point for getting hit, thankfully, but you do lose a bit of fatigue. You can keep tapping the Pokemon to increase the snowball size, but all it does is increase the fatigue of the Pokemon that's hit by it. While fainting one Pokemon for a few seconds can be useful, there are eight other Pokemon still around to throw balls, so it's best to rapid fire small snowballs and rack up the hits.



While it can be fun, it's not particularly interesting, so I'm overall eh about the event. Power determines how much fatigue a Pokemon loses when you hit them with a snowball, while Stamina is your ability to withstand being KO'd; Skill determines your accuracy and speed of the throw.



Score is simply the number of hits multiplied by 3, again capped at 200 points, or 66 hits. But yeah, I didn't do all that great, having the two screens side by side did make determining where to throw the snowball pretty tough, so I missed a lot. I have the images this way so it's easier to read, but there are just some occasions when vertical viewing is better.



Goal Roll went as well as ever.



As did Pennant Capture. The mouse controls are really biting me in the ass, but oh well. Stamina Course anyone?



Our final event of the Pokeathlon. Ring Drop is also kinda eh, but in different ways to Snow Throw.



It's fairly similar to sumo wrestling, where you tackle and jump on your opponent to knock them out of the ring and gain points. Tackling the opponent gets you 1 point and a successful jump nets you 2 points, as well as pushing the opponent fairly far.



It's not too difficult to knock other Pokemon out of the ring if you're strong, but if you're too into it, you'll fall off yourself and lose 10 points. At least you lose no points if you're knocked out by another Pokemon.



I really need to stop doing that. If you fall off, your next Pokemon is switched in, but be greyed out for two seconds, where it can't push or be pushed. If you also keep your Pokemon out for too long, it'll become fatigued. You can only switch to your next Pokemon when you're in your side of the ring, so be careful not to faint, as that makes you really susceptible to being pushed around.



I should just give up trying to win these events at this rate. Anyway, Speed determines how fast you move; Power determines your tackling power; Stamina is your endurance to attacks; Jump is how far you can jump, as well as how powerful your presses are when you land on another Pokemon.



Your score is simply multiplied by 1.5 (rounded down) to give the athlete score, with a cap on 200 points (so no more than 134 points). Oh yeah, I'll go over the no-miss awards for the rest of the events while we finish up the Stamina Course.



For Pennant Capture, no flags must be taken from the Pokemon via tackling. For Relay Run, the Pokemon must not faint from being too tired to run. For Block Smash, the Pokemon must not faint from being too tired to smash blocks.



For Circle Push, the Pokemon must be inside the circle in all six rounds, for Goal Roll, the Pokemon must not be knocked out by being hit by a Power Shot, nor should it score an own goal. For Snow Throw, the Pokemon must not faint by having a snowball thrown at it. And finally, for Ring Drop, the Pokemon must not be knocked off the stage or never faint from fatigue. They are tricky challenges to accomplish and for just 10 points it doesn't seem worth it. But hey, if you get the bonus, then congrats.



Anyway, that's enough of the events for today. But what if you managed to win a whole bunch and get loads of cool medals and that? Well, let's have a little look downstairs shall we.



Like the woman said, you can only progress to the next room when you've obtained every medal from each of the five courses. But what about those crown symbols next to the medal? You obtain crowns through completing certain objectives in each room. To get a Collective Trophy, as they're called, score 420 Athlete Points or more in a course. To get two Collective Trophies next to the course medal, score 450 points.

WARNING

Do not do what I just did and use an AR code to access the rest of the Pokeathlon rooms. It causes a load of events in the game to trigger, meaning in some future areas you'll just get stuck unless you cheat even more. If you don't care about that, then go right ahead, but goddamn it's such a hassle. Don't do it. Later on in the LP, I copy my team over to a fresh save just to avoid all of this nonsense, so while you won't see a difference, hopefully, just know that it happens and there is a fix for it at least.



Next room is where things become interesting. This showcases Medalist Pokemon, Pokemon that have obtained all five medals. Note that this refers to species, not individual Pokemon, since they have the same base Performance stats. So can you fill all 493 slots? Why would you, you mad man? In any case, you only need one Medalist Pokemon to move onto the next room, but you get a Trust Trophy upon getting 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, 150 and 200 different Medalist Pokemon. Holy shit that's a lot. Good luck mate.



There are also podiums that fill when you complete certain milestones. You can get a pair of golden Running Shoes for dashing 5000 times. You get a golden track suit for joining the Pokeathlon 50 times and then you get a red flag for switching 200 times. Note that these are not cosmetic items for your character, that would be too fun. They're just shown here.



Next up is the Potential Room. This tracks the record times for each Pokeathlon event. There's a 1st place record set by the Johto starters, as well as a Mastery Record, which gives you a Potential Trophy when you beat or tie with it. The 1st place records, however, must be beaten and doing so for all ten events allows you access to the next room. You may also notice the option to view Link records. We'll talk about that in a moment. Overall, it shouldn't be too tough to beat all the 1st place records: I did two without even really trying.



Like the last room, there's a couple more additions to this room upon reaching certain landmarks. You'll get a golden Pokegear for winning the Pokeathlon 100 times and if you win first place on every Pokeathlon event 50 times, you get a model Pokeball engraved with the words "Stay on Top". Again, a bit tough to complete, but you'll eventually make it.



: You are...! It is indeed you, Kotone! Outstanding! Quite an achievement for you to come up here, bud! This is the "Friendship" room. It was built to commemorate the solidarity, trust, and potential of Pokémon and people and to hope for the eternal friendship between Pokémon and people. Congratulations! This room is only for those true Pokéathletes who have earned real friendships with Pokémon!

: Kotone! You are a true Pokéathlete, bud! Having said that... this is also the moment of a new beginning... That's right, bud! You have just heard a new starting signal. Your challenge continues for a whole new height and to become the legendary Pokéathlete! Take a look at this statue. You may be looking at your goal...



For clearing the Pokeathlon and reaching the final room? Well, let's have a look.



This is the final goal for the Pokeathlon: to obtain ten Friendship trophies by increasing your global score. This is calculated as the sum of your best final score in each of the five courses, your highest score for each of the ten events (after being converted to Athlete Points) and the total number of Trust medals you obtain, so every Medalist Pokemon will give you five points each. Upon reaching 4500 points, you obtain your tenth Friendship trophy and fully complete the Pokeathlon. That's it. No other rewards. What, were you expecting a medal?



: ...But this is not your goal, bud. Each room has Trophies to earn, but you can aim for any new height. It is entirely up to you whether you get there or not... That's right! Your true goal is not something anyone else can decide for you, bud. Kotone! You can overcome any difficulties with your friendship with your Pokémon.



Honestly, being able to make it to this room and collecting the various trophies is a fun and fine reward. But there are a few other things: firstly, by the time you get to this point, you'll have loads of Athlete Points to buy all kinds of stuff. The items you can buy are very useful, so it's a good idea to do this and get lots of evolutionary stones and hold items.



Reaching the final room (so getting 1st place records in every event) also gets you a star on your Trainer Card. Sometimes Trainer Card stars can be a real hassle to get, but this is definitely one of the better ones.




Another thing you can buy is Data Cards. If you have Athlete Points to burn, then go right ahead, cause all they do is tell you one statistic, such as how much you've won a certain event, or how much Athlete Points you've spent. If you want to keep track of the certain milestones downstairs then this is a good way to do it. There's 27 cards in all, so it's another thing to aim for if you want.

"Athlete Points."

And here's the real point to the Pokeathlon, being able to buy drinks at the vending machine! Okay, not really. The desk there is for the Link Pokeathlon, where you can play with three other friends in local wireless. Instead of the five courses with three events, you have a combination of two courses with four events, so the Speed and Jump course would have Hurdle Dash, Lamp Jump, Disc Catch and Relay Run. Winning those gets you the two medals, though your records in Link mode can't unlock Potential trophies or the Friendship room. There's also the Master course, which is four random events with no medals, but double the Athlete Points. Try it out with friends. Also how the hell do you have three other friends interested in Pokemon? Tell me your secrets.



Lastly, there's a couple hidden items around. I'll pick these up in new and exclusive HGSS areas: there's quite a few new places to explore.



But is that everything? Are we done? I think so. There's actually a little bit more to the Pokeathlon at a much later time, but yeah, we're done for now. There is a staggering amount to this place and it's so much fun. If you never gave it much of a go, try it out! I can say that it is an absolute blast.