Pokemon Crystal Part #34 - Unleashing My Rage

Part 34: Unleashing My Rage

Update 27: Unleashing My Rage

Mahogany Town: Welcome to the Home of the Ninja!
(From the reddish-brown timber, mahogany. Woo.)
Chōji Town: Welcome to the home of the ninja.
(From chōji, clove and chōji-iro, the brown colour of the clove.)

Let's have a look-see at everything to do in Mahogany Town. It's not a lot!

: You should head north and check out the LAKE OF RAGE right now.

Can't go to the Gym right away, so guess we've got to look elsewhere.

"a RAGECANDYBAR!"

Let's get some candy!

Just a Souvenir Shop, Nothing Suspicious about It, No Need to Be Alarmed

Well this seems like a perfectly normal local shop.

"charm."

: MAGIKARP are just worthless, but GYARADOS are big moneymakers.

Ooh, some real rare stuff here. Both the Tinymushroom and the Slowpoketail do nothing, but this is the only time in the game you can outright buy them. While Tinymushrooms are held by wild Paras and Parasect, good luck finding them.

Screw that earlier guy for selling one for a million pokedollars. I just knew I'd find a cheaper deal if I waited.

: I see you're new in MAHOGANY TOWN. Since you're new, you should try and yummy RAGECANDYBAR! Right now, it can be yours for just $300! Want one?

Ooh, more rare items. Yes please!

The Ragecandybar is an interesting item. It's basically a Potion, so it's pretty much useless for us, but we can buy them at any time. What I find interesting is the name: the Japanese name is Rage Manjū, which can be translated as Rage Dumpling, or due to the character limit, Rage Bun. But good old Doug Dinsdale's handlers went with Ragecandybar instead. They also gave us Mr. Mime and Splash! Nice going idiots...

Route 43

But yeah, that's everything to do with Mahogany Town. Nothing else to do but head north.

Oh hey, it's our fifth team member. There's a number of reasons why I'm choosing to catch a Venonat now instead of using the one we caught in Ilex Forest. It's got quite a few levels to gain before it reaches our current team, so we'll be seeing it a fair amount in the next few updates.

While it's pretty obvious, I like the nickname you guys gave it.

One reason I'm going with Venonat is that is knows Confusion right off the bat. It's better than Leech Life.

It works fine as a mixed attacker, but unfortunately this is the best move we can give it right now. Oh well, it'll manage.

"it's super-fun!"

Pokemon fwend!

Due to the terrible level curve in these games, Mothra won't have a problem levelling up as everything is barely reaching level 20. After all, we could've gone this direction after taking down Morty, so it means the levels are thinly spread throughout the entire region. Fun.

Sounds like there's quite the problem up there. Time for me to solve everything.

Let's see what else this route has.

Rocket Toll Booth Motherfucker

: The toll is $1000 to go through. Thank you very much!

Goddammit.

Route 43

: Everyone wants to see what's going on up at LAKE OF RAGE.

That'll be the only time I give Team Rocket money...

: Some TERRAN guy made fun of my POKéMON! Darn it! My POKéMON's great!

While everything else is low level, it doesn't mean Mothra can take them down no problem, so the rest of the team will cameo on occasion.

: POKéMON isn't just about having the most powerful one.

: That's why I started--and why I'll keep on collecting POKéMON!

This guy speaks to me on a spiritual level.

"POKéMON?"

: MARY on the radio. I bet she's cute!

We could head up towards the Lake, but there's some new Pokemon to catch! I changed it to night to catch Venonat, but now it needs to be day. These are the problems I face in today's society.

HP: 52 | ATK: 65 | DEF: 55 | SP.ATK: 58 | SP.DEF: 62 | SPD: 60 | TOTAL: 352

#158: Farfetch'd

Mmmmmmm, I'm having dinner tonight.

Girafarig is not available in Crystal, so we're bending the game code to our will to find it here as in Gold and Silver. You know, like the average player does...

: Maybe it's the gear I'm using. Let's battle for a change of pace!

Man, the lake really is whacked.

A pummelling is the best medicine.

: It's much more effective than a ULTRA BALL.

HMs bitch.

: Let's play for a little while!

Waaaaaaaaay ahead of you lady.

"adorable thing?"

Pippi!

We're heading to the side area of the Lake of Rage first, since it has some cool stuff for us.

Woo tree mazes.

: Seeing as how it's WEDNESDAY today, I'm WESLEY of Wednesday. Pleased to meet you. Please take a souvenir.

"of fighting moves."

: Since you found me, you must have met my brothers and sisters. Or did you just get lucky?

Six down! Just one more left to find! The Blackbelt is a 10% boost to Fighting moves. They aren't as prevalent as they will be in future, so it's not a well used item.

This is fun.

Detect (Mikiri: All-Seeing) is a Fighting status move with +3 priority and 5PP that protects the user from all damage for a turn, not including weather and previously afflicted status conditions. The success rate decreases each consecutive turn, or when consecutively used with Protect and Endure. The success rate is determined to begin with as 255/256 and is then divided by 2 each time, rounded down, eventually reaching 0/256 on the ninth turn. The moves Curse, Future Sight, Perish Song, Psych Up, Sketch and Transform are unaffected by Detect or Protect.

At the end of the maze, we reach a house.

: Here I have meditated. Inside me, a new power has been awakened. Let me share my power with your POKéMON. Take this, child.

: It draw out the power of POKéMON for attacking. Remember this: its type and power depend on the POKéMON using it.

I've gone over Hidden Power before, so you know how difficult it is to actually make use of it. But when you can, it's a great addition to a Pokemon's moveset. But due to how completely random it is, I wouldn't recommend actually considering it in a casual game.

Anyway, damn Wesley was standing on a Rare Candy. Frieda was also standing on a hidden item so it seems like something the siblings just do.

Now let's visit the actual lake. And we've found another Fishing Guru.

: The crater filled up with rainwater and the LAKE was formed. That's the story passed on from my Grandpa's great-great-grandpa. It used to be that you could catch lively MAGIKARP there, but... I don't understand what's happening.

Seems we've got some bad mojo happening at the lake. It can't be to do with this mysterious radio channel, right?

Strange Radio Signal

Eh, probably not.

Lake of Rage

Let's go and tackle the source of the problem. Hopefully it's this Pokemon, otherwise I'm out of ideas.

Oh look, a shiny. I can toss it onto the pile of other shiny Pokemon you guys gave me for the Battle Tower. Yawn.

Since this is a guaranteed shiny, you should've saved before this so you have no worries if you accidentally don't catch it. I mean, it's a free shiny, why not catch it?

Shiny Pokemon have the same catch rates as normal Pokemon, so it's never too hard to catch them, depending on the species.

Neat.

Maybe during this LP I'll get an actual shiny people care about. A man can dream.

We'll be making use of the Red Scale later. In the meantime, let's go say hi to a caped weirdo.

"nothing else..."

: So the MAGIKARP are being forced to evolve...

"rumors?"

: You're MARINA? I'm LANCE, a trainer like you. I heard some rumors, so I came to investigate... I saw the way you battled earlier, MARINA. I can tell that you're a trainer with considerable skill. If you don't mind, could you help me investigate?

If it gets me into the Gym, I'll do anything.

: It seems that the LAKE's MAGIKARP are being forced to evolve. A mysterious radio broadcast coming from MAHOGANY is the cause. I'll be waiting for you, MARINA.

What a strange, yet weirdly familiar, man.

Cherrygrove City

Alright, it's Mr. Pokemon time!

: That's rare! I, I want it... MARINA, would you care to trade it? I can offer this EXP.SHARE I got from PROF.OAK.

I'm annoyed we couldn't give this any earlier.

The Exp. Share is pretty great. A Pokemon holding it will get 50% of the experience gained by defeating Pokemon, no matter what. Though if it participated in the battle and then switched out, it would gain 75%. This is a great way to ensure that Mothra keeps getting experience every fight, speeding up its levels.