Part 25: Milk and Darkness (HGSS)

Update 20.5: Milk and Darkness (HGSS)

Route 36



: It just has to be a Pokémon. I bet it would be shocked out of disguising itself if you soaked it!



Woah, that tree was a Pokemon this whole time!



Don't underestimate it though.



But still, easy enough.


"with no worries!"

: That's right! I'll give you some Berries, too. Berry Pots won't do any good without Berries.



Neat.

"to time. Then they'll grow strong!"

: I have to go back to Goldenrod. Are you heading for Ecruteak? Then you should go north here. See you around!



Aye, we'll see Floria again. Anyway, the Berry Pots are pretty rad, letting you grow four portable Berry trees. Though of course you need the berries to actually grow them to begin with.



There's actually a number of ways to obtain Berries. Wild Pokemon can hold some, your MOM buys all the super effective type reduction berries, while others have to be traded in from a Sinnoh game, or found in the Pokewalker. There's also Jugglers in some cities that will exchange berries for shards. Fancy.

Mulch will also affect how quickly your plant grows, how many berries it yields and how quickly it dries out the soil. All can be bought in the Goldenrod Flower Shop. Growth Mulch makes plants grow 25% faster, but the soil dries out 50% faster. Damp Mulch makes soil dry out 50% slower, but berry growth is increased by 50%. Stable Mulch makes berries stay on the plant 50% longer, while Gooey Mulch makes plants 50% more likely to regrow from dead ones. If a soil is dry, just water it. Simple.



It's a good idea to plant some Oran Berries, enough to give you 7 for very obvious reasons. By the time we get to that point (in this update no less), they'll be all grown, yay.



I also completely forgot that you don't need to get rid of Sudowoodo to get HM06 in these games. You can get it before the first badge, no less.

Dance Theater



There's a few notable things in Ecruteak, starting with Corphish invading the Dance Theater.



: Huh? Are you telling me you don't respect what the customer wants? Well, then I'll show you how to dance. I'll show you a great one. Wahahaha!



Sigh. Let's punt out the riffraff.



: You are a Trainer, aren't you? Please help her!



: You dare get in my way?



You'll be easy enough to take care of. As well as be the perfect debut battle for my fourth team member. Boy, I wonder what it'll evolve into?



: Oops! I have an important mission. If they find out I was wasting time here, they'll make me start over as the lowest Team Rocket Grunt! I better leave now!



: Kind and strong... Good at raising Pokémon as well... That person does know what to look for in people... Ohoho! That was just me talking to mysefl. Never mind.

Hmmmmmmm. Well, this is how we get Surf, just the one battle, since the other girls aren't around.

"Pokémon."

: But they battle only for good reasons. I don't know if you could defeat them if they showed what they could do.

Burned Tower



Since we can't fight dancing girls, let's go to the Burned Tower, see what's changed.



Huh. Those are some big hamsters.



The usual suspects are all here, no change there.

"of fire better than anyone!"

But we have the Gold and Silver trainers back, so let's see what they've got.



Uh, nothing much, honestly.




Maybe this guy is different.



Yeah, actually. 40 damage at this stage of the game is pretty nasty.

"burned up!"

Good experience for our fluffball there. Though having to keep switching is a bit annoying.



Man, I've gotta catch these roamers twice over. Not looking forward those updates. Might roll it all into one.



Can't do much down here, so it's Gym time, baby!

Pokemon Gym

"Pokémon at will.

: A ghost is like a shade or a phantom... I won't do any good to use physical strength alone.



The puzzle of this gym is kinda similar to GSC, but you have to memorize the path before you beat the trainer and the light goes out. Misstep and you're back to the start, but then the lights of trainers you've beaten stay lit. It's a pretty cool effect, I like it.



It's only gonna get harder from here.



But it's a good time for Psycho Cat to evolve. You need to evolve Eevee before level 15, or your new Pokemon is gonna be without STAB until level 35. Vaporeon can get around this by learning Surf, but some of them, like Espeon, need their respective move.



She's not wrong, the path is straight from the next trainer's line of sight. But the puzzle is getting around that trainer in the darkness.



Now this is just mean.



Two steps down, Cross, not three... but at least it's a straight shot to the leader. And you'd probably go back and heal anyway.



: Here in Ecruteak, Pokémon have long been revered. It's said that a rainbow-hued Pokémon will come down to appear before a truly powerful Trainer. I believed that tale, so I have secretly trainer here all my life. As a result, I can now see what others cannot. I see a shadow of the person who will make the Pokémon appear. I believe that person is me! You're going to help me reach that level!

Gym Leader Battle








Morty hasn't changed a huge amount. His Hypnosis strategy is more or less the same, but there are some key differences. His Gastly is as notable as ever, having the exact same moves as before.




I have not missed this strategy. Again, nasty if you can land it, but if not, then it's hilariously ineffective.



I'm only having trouble cause I wanna use Sizzle, dammit! With both Dream Eater and Nightmare at its disposal, it can be a nasty opponent, but healing Sleep does kinda make that strategy a bit rubbish.



Now here's the big guns. And this, my friends, is the perfect counter.



It's just playing with me, ready to sweep me away at a moment's notice.



But here's where Morty's strategy kinda falls apart. The only move Gengar has to affect Normal types is Sucker Punch. Not only does that rely on Gengar's piss poor Attack stat, but it only works if you attack it. So if you don't attack, then it just wastes the 5PP it has until...



All it can use is Shadow Ball. This makes Morty laughably easy compared to GSC, where it at least had Dream Eater to be threatening. But if we were using Gen 2 Togepi, then it wouldn't have any attacks to work with. His Gengar is a lot more potent since Shadow Ball is special, but if you have a Normal type, this Gym becomes really easy to work around. And obviously all Pokemon in this Gym are immune to Ground, but there's still plenty of ways to take them down. If not, load up those healing items and hope for the best.



But Gen 4 Togepi ain't about that weak shit. With Mean Look, you might think it's trapped in here with Gengar, but no no no, IT'S TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME



Even your Sitrus Berry won't protect yourself from my wrath.



Uh, except for that. Oh well. Since we probably won't see it in the main LP, I might as well go over Struggle (Waruagaki: Vain Struggle), a Normal move that deals typeless damage with 50BP, 1PP and 100% accuracy that you can only use when you have literally no other option. Due to doing typeless damage, it affects all types normally and cannot give STAB. The user takes 50% of the damage done as recoil damage, until Gen 4, where the recoil is always 25% of the user's health no matter what. It dealt Normal damage in Gen 1, meaning it was resisted by Rock types and couldn't hit Ghost types. The changes in Gen 4 were to prevent the unwinnable situation of two Wobbuffet in Gen 3 hitting each other forever with Struggle.



: We've got more discipline than anyone else!



Man, this guy has items out of the wazoo. The last Haunter is also pretty meh, but could be annoying if you let it.



What a crazy up and down battle. Just how I like it!

Pokemon Gym

"something more than that..."

: So be it. This Badge is yours.

"Pokémon, will obey you."

: Also, Pokémon will be able to use Surf. Here is another thing... I want you to have this, too.



: Use it if it appeals to you. I get it... The person the Kimono Girls were talking about must be you... Never mind. You should be strong enough to go across the sea. When you go west and then south, you'll reach Olivine City.

Route 42



We're not gonna do that just yet. There's a quick reason to go onto Route 42, but not for the same reason we quickly went here in Crystal.



Ow



: Sorry that I bumped into you. Did I hurt you? Please don't cry. Here, take this.



: When a Pokémon learns it, it can move boulders out of your way. Enjoy a happy mountain-climbing life!



Some good shit here. Since Strength isn't required for Cianwood Gym anymore, they just moved its location to here. Sure it makes more sense, but it's annoying to remember differences and shit, ya know?

Route 39



: My name is Baoba! I used to run a Safari Zone in Fuchsia City, but it was becoming out of date with new entertainment options coming out. I decided to go overseas to learn the newest technology and open a state-of-the-art Safari Zone in Cianwood. It may be more than a coincidence that we are chatting. Why don't we register each other's numbers in the Pokégear? I can give you a call once the Safari Zone is open before I call anyone else! Do you want to register?

Safari Zone, eh? Sure, why not.



: I'll let you know over the Pokégear once it's ready!



It'll be a couple HGSS updates until we can reach the Safari Zone. And even then, it'll be another while before we can really make use of it.



All the cows are in for the night. The TM is always here though.



Instead of seven Berries, we now need seven Oran Berries.



If you put them in right from the get go, then you'll probably have enough. If not, then they don't take long to grow and it's not hard to come back to this place.



: It's brimming with energy.



So after healing Moomoo, you should get the Seal Case from the left girl. But accessing all the basement rooms of the Pokeathlon has messed with a LOT of event flags, so the game thinks she's already given it to me. It's kinda silly what the game thinks I have and haven't done, but if I knew it was gonna cause this, I would've shown the Pokeathlon rooms on the revisit. It's honestly not a big deal since I can tweak my save file as much as I like.



: It's my pride and joy, there. Give it to Pokémon to restore HP! I'll give it to ya fer just $500.

Introduced in Platinum, and thankfully kept in all games onwards, is the ability to buy Moomoo Milk by the dozen. Absolutely fantastic!



: That there's Natural Gift. Its move type and Power will depend on the Berry yer Pokémon holds. When you use it once, the Berry's gone. You best think how you ought to use it, hon.



Oh why not, it's been a while.



Team's looking pretty good, but it's still a while from being complete.



But anyway, off to Olivine for whatever the hell has changed there between versions. And probably even more places beyond. Later nerds!