Part 18: A Buggy Contest

Update 15: A Buggy Contest



: The rules are simple. Using one of your POKéMON, catch a bug POKéMON to be judged.



What better way to start off an update than a tutorial. Let's do this.



: You have more than one POKéMON. You'll have to use POLIWAG, the first POKéMON in your party.



Wouldn't have anyone else up front.

"while you compete."

: Here are the PARK BALLS for the Contest.



Bug Catching Rules

: The person with the strongest bug POKéMON is the winner. You have 20 minutes. If you run out of PARK BALLS, you're done. You can keep the last POKéMON you catch as your own. Go out and catch the strongest bug POKéMON you can find!

Bug Catching Contest



Alright, let's go and find some bugs!



In similar vein to the Safari Zone, you find a Pokemon and try to catch them. This time, however, you can simply battle a Pokemon to make it easier to catch. Park Balls are the same as a Great Ball, so they will help somewhat, but if you run out or your Pokemon faints, the contest is over.



We can throw off some of the competition, but there's a couple unique Pokemon you can find here, one of them being Scyther. The other one is...




HP: 65 | ATK: 125 | DEF: 100 | SP.ATK: 55 | SP.DEF: 70 | SPD: 85 | TOTAL: 500
#112: Pinsir



Hmm, yes. Vicegrip (Hasamu: Clamp (no not that one)) is a Normal move with 55BP, 30PP and 100% accuracy. And that's it.



Now you may think it's a little crazy throwing balls now, I have a Pokemon with me, I don't need to catch things at full health! It doesn't make a huge difference, but in this competition, every little bit helps. But that's where the judging for the Bug Catching Contest come in. We'll go over it in a moment.



Ah good, this move again. Bind (Shimetsukeru) is a Normal move with 15BP, 20PP and 75% accuracy that deals 1/16th of the target's max HP for 2-5 turns, during which the target cannot switch out or run, but it can attack, thankfully.



Thankfully it doesn't take much to finally stay in.



Now we can keep going and find another bug. We have the option to compare and then replace the bug if we want, but let's see how well we do with this one.



: OK. Please wait here for the announcement of the winners.

"caught."

: ...... ...... We have chosen the winners! Are you ready for this? Placing third was BUG CATCHER JOSH, who caught a SCYTHER! The score was 314 points!



Second??? I call bullshit!

"VENONAT!"


Fuuuuuuuuuuck yooooooooooooou. It's pretty difficult to win the contest. Now I could go off and catch another Pokemon to get a better score, but obviously Pinsir and Scyther are hard to find and I want to win the competition with a Pinsir. Thankfully, who gets what is random each results, so all I need to do is keep resetting until I win, cause fuck waiting a few more days for the next competition to then lose again. While I'm resetting, here's how the game determines your score:

The judging is relatively simple, it's simply a score and whoever has the highest wins. But the way they determine that score is pretty damn iffy, starting with 4 times the max HP of the Pokemon added to the stats of the Pokemon (note: not the base stats, the current stats) and then 1/8 of the current HP of the Pokemon. So to score high there it's best to just catch it at full health, though it only gets you like 5 or 6 points, really.

Then, you get additional bonus points depending on the DVs of the Pokemon. If the Defense DV is odd, you get 16 points, 0 otherwise. 8 points if the Attack DV is odd, 0 otherwise. 4 points if the Special DV is odd, 0 otherwise. And 1 point if the Speed DV is odd, 0 otherwise. Finally, if the Pokemon is holding an item (which Butterfree, Beedrill and Paras have a chance of doing), you get 1 point.

So that's where the problem comes in. If you happen to get the wrong DVs, you lose out on a chunk of points that could tip you over to first place. It sucks, but at least it's not the majority of the points you'll get. You just gotta hope you get some nice high HP DVs to contribute to most of your score and that its overall stats are also pretty high. If you don't win, then too bad, try again in two days, or reload a save and catch your Pokemon all over again and hope it's better.

[40 resets later]

"PINSIR!"

And there we go, easy as that. So long as you're lucky enough to roll plenty of odd DVs, you'll win no problem.

"SUN STONE!"

: Please join us for the next Contest! We'll return the POKéMON we kept for you. Here you go!



The big reason for wanting to win the contest is to get the Sun Stone. It's the only place you can get it and you need two to complete your dex. Since Sunkern is doing nothing except being useless, let's just evolve it.




HP: 75 | ATK: 75 | DEF: 55 | SP.ATK: 105 | SP.DEF: 85 | SPD: 30 | TOTAL: 425
#103: Sunflora



So that's one Sun Stone used. But we still need another for later.

Route 36



: This is it--the one we've all been waiting for! GOLDENROD DEPT. STORE's bargain sale is on now! Don't miss this GOLDENROD chance!

: Huh? I sound like a huckster? Well, yeah. I was mimicking them... Anyway, you've got to get there as soon as you can! See you later!

Goldenrod City



Might as well do this before jumping into another Bug Catching Contest, there's a couple things I wanna do around this area anyway.



This is the clearout sale: a load of basic stuff at a cheaper price. It's not too bad, so we'll grab a couple things here and there. This isn't every item, but since we're only getting early items, it changes with how many badges you have, so we could buy a Full Restore for $600 later on. Bargain!

"my radio show?"

Next stop is Buena and her password show.



: What was your name again? ...MARINA, OK! Come on, MARINA. Join the show.



: I want to hear you shout out today's password for MARINA!



Everyone at home shout it out!



: You earned one point! Congrats! Yup! Our contestant was MARINA. Thanks for coming! I hope all you listeners will come too! I'll be waiting!



Well darn. It's gonna be some time before we get a full 30 points, but we'll get there.

Bug Catching Contest



Anyway, Bug Catching and shit.



We'll be winning the contest with this one!



...or maybe not.



You know what, we'll catch a different one, maybe that'll win. Pursuit (Oiuchi: Pursuing Attack) is a Dark move with 40BP, 20PP and 100% accuracy. It seems pretty unremarkable, but if it's used when the opposing Pokemon switches out, Pursuit gains +7 priority and has 80BP, making it a very good trapping move for weakened Ghost and Psychic Pokemon.



It has more health, so it must be better. Now I'm sure to win!



Fuck. Restart~

"SCYTHER!"


There we go, let's never participate in this contest ever again.

Route 36



Anyway, let's finally move on and see about this tree. No, not this one that heals the Pokemon of Burn, but the wiggly tree.



That's cheating and I'm going to call the police... just as soon one of the policemen I battle gives me their number.




HP: 40 | ATK: 35 | DEF: 30 | SP.ATK: 120 | SP.DEF: 70 | SPD: 105 | TOTAL: 400
#090: Kadabra



Unsurprisingly, Confusion (Nenriki: Mindpower) is a Psychic move with 50BP, 25PP and 100% accuracy that has a 10% chance of confusing the opponent. It's a means to an end that you'll replace when you can.



Again, cheating.

"any POKéMON!"

Oh?




HP: 65 | ATK: 55 | DEF: 115 | SP.ATK: 100 | SP.DEF: 40 | SPD: 60 | TOTAL: 435
#179: Tangela



That's one way to say type disadvantage.



: There's more to life than just reading books. Reading textbooks is worthwhile every so often.

: When I'm reading and walking, I have to look down. So I notice items on the ground. Next time I find something, I'll give it to you.



Yours is a pretty good number to have, so sure.



Man I hope I get rolling in items soon, cause damn I'll need them.



I have a bad feeling about this.



: When I sprinkled water on that wiggly tree, it jumped right up! It just has to be a POKéMON. I bet it would be shocked out of its disguise if you soaked it! I know! I'll tell my sis and borrow her water bottle!



Heh. Anyway, this is a weird change from Gold and Silver. You need to head out here to then go back to Goldenrod to progress. So back we go. What do you mean I just went back to Goldenrod for other couple things? You think I do any forward thinking in these updates?

Goldenrod City



: If I beat WHITNEY, I wonder if she'll lend me her water bottle...



: You'll be OK, then. Here's the SQUIRTBOTTLE!



So yeah, I suppose this change was because you wouldn't really know to come here after beating Whitney, so having the girl by the tree is a good indication. But you still need to come all the way back in order to progress, so the best way to do it would be for the girl to talk to you when you leave the Gym. Oh well, we're good to continue on now.



: The weird tree doesn't like the SQUIRTBOTTLE! The weird tree attacked! Gah!




HP: 70 | ATK: 100 | DEF: 115 | SP.ATK: 30 | SP.DEF: 65 | SPD: 30 | TOTAL: 410
#106: Sudowoodo



Woah, it's a Rock type, not a Grass type! My world is flipped upside down. Anyway, Flail (Jitabata: Wriggling) is a Normal move with varying power, 15PP and 100% accuracy. Its power equates to how much health you have, with 20BP between 71% and 100% health, all the way to 200BP between 1HP to 4% health. It has a usable power of 80BP below 35% health, so up to you if you wanna risk it. It can work since there's not many priority moves around.

"BUBBLE!"

As you'd expect, Mimic (Monomane) copies the last move used by the opponent, with 5PP. However, it cannot mimic Sketch, Struggle, Metronome and any move the user already knows. It's very situation, but can be fun to play around with.



Aw man, I don't have many of those!



Ah, finally. Rock Throw (Iwa Otoshi: Rock Drop) is a Rock move with 50BP, 15PP and 90% accuracy, a 25% increase from last gen, making it much easier to recommend. It's still fairly basic and should be replaced when given the chance.



Now the tree is gone, allowing us easy access to Violet City and that. There's quite a few things we can do, so let's get started. Next update. Later y'all.