Part 3: Rocking Up To Rustboro

Part 3: Rocking Up To Rustboro

Route 104



Welcome back, as you can see, we've got our nicknames for Ralts and Zigzagoon. Oh yeah, a Mild nature is +Sp Atk and -Def, so Freesample's sole duty of taking hits for the team will be even less effective. Great!



You can have this, so you try it out! Use it on a POKEMON, and it wil learn a move for firing seeds rapidly.



A TM, TECHNICAL MACHINE, is good only for one-time use. Once you use it, it's gone. Think twice before using it!

Bullet Seed is pretty great, giving the early Grass types something better than Absorb to work with (since it does, at minimum, as much damage as Absorb). Though like all multihit moves that there are a weird amount of, they're crap as we get further into the game. It has 10BP, 30PP and 100% accuracy and a 37.5% chance of hitting 3-4 times or a 12.5% of hitting 4-5 times, so 3 times on average.



So because I reached this area and then stopped for a bit, the Cheri tree died and started to sprout again. Whoops! Oh well, it's not a huge deal, they only start doing it when you first enter the area, so you're not under pressure to get through the game as fast as you can before all the plants die.



This is the PRETTY PETAL flower shop. Spreading flowers all over the world! Your name is? YUKI. That's a nice name. YUKI, would you like to learn about BERRIES? BERRIES grow on trees that thrive only in soft, loamy soil. If you take some BERRIES, be sure to plant one in the loamy soil again. A planted BERRY will soon sprout, grow into a plant, flower beautifully and then grow BERRIES again. I want to see the whole wide world filled with beautiful flowers. That's my dream. Please help me, YUKI. Plant BERRIES and bring more flowers into the world.



You'll like tending flowers. I'm sure of it. You can have this.



Oh, another thing. If you don't pick BERRIES for a while, they'll drop off onto the ground. But they'll sprout again. Isn't that awesome? It's like they have the will to live.



You can plant a BERRY and grow it big, or you can make a POKEMON hold it. But now they have a machine that mixes up different BERRIES and makes candies for POKEMON. I want some candy, too.



Flowers, yo. I'll go over the specifics later, but you can tend to berries and water them on each of their growth stages to reach their max yields. The youngest sister will give you a random Berry out of the first 9. The Persim Berry heals confusion.



Huh, I wonder why I didn't screenshot that item ball. Well whatever, it was a Potion.




There are some things money can't buy. That's POKEMON...

For everything else... there's a reference you might get?



Hey I'm glad you did.



But you just made your own decision and regretted that too. I don't get girls.



A+ nickname right there. We need Cut, these barriers are getting annoying.



(GINA) Okay, let's battle with our POKEMON!



Oh yeah, Double Battles are a thing, they're pretty cool.



(GINA) Losing upsets me!



You can walk right past double battle trainers if you only have one Pokemon in your party conscious.




I got too into fishing. I forgot I had to raise my POKEMON...



Finally got some Cheri Berries, which heal paralysis, as well as Leppa Berries, which restore 10PP to a move that drops to 0 in battle, or to any move you fancy in the field, very helpful.



But make sure you plant a BERRY in the same spot. That's common courtesy. Here, I'll share this with you.



TRAINERS often make POKEMON hold BERRIES. It's up to you whether to grow BERRIES or use them.

Rustboro City



I pick this up every time I play this game even though I never use it and always throw it away. Like I'll do in this LP!




Rustboro City/Kanazumi City: The city probing the integration of nature and science.
From rust and borough, and kanazoku (metal) and sumi (charcoal).

"and your well-trained POKEMON...

You're obviously a skilled TRAINER! No, wait, don't say a word. I can tell just by looking at you. I'm sure that you can put this HIDDEN MACHINE to good use. No need to be modest or shy. Go on, take it!



A HM move is one that can be used by POKEMON outside of battle. Any POKEMON that's learned CUT can chop down thin trees if the TRAINER has earned the STONE BADGE. And, unlike a TM, a HM can be used more than once.



None of our team can learn Cut, which isn't a bad move at the moment, so we'll dish out some FREEJUSTICE to those small trees.




My daddy's working at the CORPORATION. When I grow up, I'm going to work for DEVON, too.



Unlike literally every place we've been to so far, there's a fair few things to do in Rustboro, it's pretty great. Let's go to school!

Trainer School



I've been traveling everywhere in search of outstanding TRAINERS. More specifically, I'm looking for POKEMON battle experts. So, what brings you to this SCHOOL? Are you a TRAINER, too? The first thing you should do is to have a POKEMON learn the move CUT. If I remember correctly, someone in this town has CUT.

Hmm... the talent levels of the students here are unknown. The potential's there.

Way ahead of you there. We'll see Scott in a few places throughout our journey, but he can be easy to miss in some cases.



Whether or not you are a good student will be evident from the way you use this item.

"before its opponent."

There are many other items that are meant to be held by POKEMON. Just those alone will give you many topics to study!



The Quick Claw is alright, though it only activates 10% of the time. We don't have anyone that's hugely slow, so I'll stick it on Nobunaga.

Rustboro City



I have a question for you. Have you ever baby-sat? You see, I'm a new father, so raising a child is all new to me. And I have a problem. My daughter WANDA doesn't laugh enough. I think she'd laugh for me if I told her something funny. Do you know of a funny word or phrase you can tell me?

Please, you should know from my LPs that I'm a comedy genius.

Oh, that's wonderful. So, let's hear it, your suggestion. Ah, I see. Well, let's give it a try, shall we?



Damn, I was sure that would work. Oh well, we'll come back to this in a bit.



Finally, the first Gym. We'll check it out in a minute.



But if you really want, I'm willing to trade it to you. I'll trade you my SEEDOT for a RALTS if you want.



Well I'm not giving you Ranmaru, so how about this other Ralts I totally caught and didn't clone after realising catching Seedot on Route 102 was completely pointless. No sir.







There we go, no need to run around finding a 1% encounter! In RS this was a Slakoth for a Makuhita, which is a much better deal, since Slakoth is 1% more common than Ralts, found closer, Makuhita won't be found for a little bit yet and will be more useful to you coming up than Seedot would be.




Cheers for the berry, now get in the box. Later, since you might be useful in a moment.




There are some more areas we can go to, but we'll save it for later.



Least we've got a nice little item at this dead end here.



Alright, it's Gym time!

Pokemon Gym



I'm no TRAINER, not me, but I can sure give you winning advice. That's settled, then! We'll aim for the POKEMON CHAMPIONSHIP together! It's your job as a TRAINER to collect GYM BADGES, am I right? But GYM LEADERS aren't pushovers! And that's where I come in! I'm here to provide expert advice! ROXANNE, the GYM LEADER, is a user of ROCK-type POKEMON. The ROCK type is very durable, but it can't stand WATER-type and GRASS-type moves. Come see me afterwards, if you beat the GYM LEADER. Well, go for it!

Jim Gui returns and you can't help but like him. So it's only the third update and we could go off and train some more. But I'm not worried.




For one reason. Mudkip and Treecko slaughter this Gym. Torchic will have some trouble, but if you've picked up Wingull, Shroomish, Lotad, Seedot, hell, even Beautifly, then you'll slaughter this Gym too. Or evolve Torchic and slaughter.




Gyms have changed slightly between RS and Emerald, but in all but 1 case the puzzle is similar, but shifted around slightly.



Here's one cool new feature of Emerald: Multi Battles. While there are dedicated double battle trainers (mostly with the Twins), if you get into the sight of two trainers you could fight individually, they'll join together in a double battle. This is super cool and lets you battle more trainers faster. Emerald added a lot more trainers into areas to make use of this feature and more battles are always good.



C'mon Ranmaru, work with me here, you're getting left in the dust.



Oh yeah, since you might be used to more modern double battles, in Gen 3, sending out a Pokemon to replace one that fainted happens DURING the turn, not at the end. This means you could potentially knock out FOUR Pokemon in one turn, which is nuts.



It took smarts and sense for her to pick the ROCK type at her young age.

ROXANNE is stronger than me by several times. You'd better be on your guard!



This battle could go south if I don't keep on top of things, so it's always good to save and heal and prep for the big fight.



I became a GYM LEADER so I might apply what I learned at the POKEMON TRAINER'S SCHOOL in battle. Would you kindly demonstrate how you battle, and with which POKEMON?

VS Gym Leader VS Leader Roxanne




Roxanne/Tsutsuji: The Rock-Loving Honors Student
From rock and anne, and from tsutsuji (rhododendron) and tsushi (earth).






Alright, maybe Ranmaru won't be contributing in this battle much. Also, Geodude has Sturdy, which prevents it from being affected by OHKO moves, or Rock Head, which prevents recoil damage from moves, except for Struggle, or (High) Jump Kick.




Well I'm getting wrecked. Rock Tomb has 50BP, 10PP and 80% accuracy and lowers the opponent's Speed by one stage. Good thing I have that Quick Claw, since being outsped is never nice.



Ah, finally! Now for Ranmaru to learn a new move!



Yeah, Ralts doesn't have the strongest start...



Shame you don't have Compoundeyes, makes my life a lot easier. So every single Gym Leader got a team change in Emerald. More or less they got 1 or 2 new Pokemon added to their roster and moves slightly tweaked, so I'll be showing both teams to compare. For whatever dumb reason the RS teams were used for the remakes, since GF really likes sticking to the original games as much as possible.



Well having a second Geodude didn't really change anything, but onto the main event!





What the hell is with that sprite? Uh, anyway, Nosepass has Onix syndrome, which means it was completely gimped so it could be the first boss of the game. Those defensive stats are impressive, but it's to the detriment of everything else, holy crap. Though the defenses are slightly less impressive when you look at its HP stat. Can't let it be too tough since it doesn't have a 4x weakness after all! It gets Rock Slide early, which is a weirdly rare Rock move to have, and then Zap Cannon, because fuck you. It can be a mixed attacker with Thunderbolt and Earthquake and that, but its stats let it neither attack, nor defend that well. I dunno what they were going for, other than the first boss.

Magnet Pull prevents Steel types from fleeing or switching out of battle. That could be cool, except Nosepass is weak to Steel. Hmm. Steel types can still switch with Baton Pass, or when holding a Smoke Ball (though they can't switch with that). When at the front of the party, there is a 50% chance of encountering a Steel type, if possible. It's not bad since Mawile and Skarmory are 5% encounters in this game and it could let you snap up a 1% Magneton, so it has its uses.



Take damage, peasants, so the real stars can prepare!



Keep it up, Dots! Block is a Normal status move with 5PP and prevents the target from fleeing so long as the user remains in battle. They can be switched out with Baton Pass, but the new Pokemon will still be affected. They can still be switched out if Roar or Whirlwind is used on them, or if they have Run Away, or are holding a Smoke Ball.




You, uh, need to kill me before I do the same to you.



Alright, I think I can make it so the Oran Berry is the only healing Nosepass will get. The accuracy drop could be helpful (it wasn't).



Still, since it doesn't have a 4x weakness, Nosepass can take some hits.



Hrm. Well since it's using Tackle, I'm not that worried.



Why do you have two?



It only did 14 damage with Rock Tomb last time, so I wasn't worried. That's that!

Gym Leader Victory



It seems that I still have much more to learn... I understand. The POKEMON LEAGUE's rules state that TRAINERS are to be given this if they defeat a GYM LEADER. Please accept the official POKEMON LEAGUE STONE BADGE.

Pokemon Gym



It also enables them to use the HM move CUT outside of battle. Please take this with you, too.



It not only inflicts damage by dropping rocks, it also lowers SPEED. If you use a TM, it instantly teaches the move to a POKEMON. Remember, a TM can be used only once, so think before you use it.

Since you are so strong, you should challenge other GYM LEADERS. By battling many TRAINERS, you should learn many things.



The STONE BADGE you got should be properly recorded on it. In other words... you've climbed the first step on the stairs to the CHAMPIONSHIP! That's got to feel awesome!



Neat, one badge down! Let the good times roll. Nothing could bring down my mood.





Goddammit.