Part 5: Dewford Island

Part 5: Dewford Island

Dewford Town




Dewford Town/Muro Town: A tiny island in the blue sea.
From dew and ford, and muro (Temple juniper) or mu (martial arts) and ro (dew).

It's Dewford time, there's a fair amount to explore on this island, so let's get started with the various denizens.



Fishing? Sounds like a great use of my time!

I hear you, and I like what you're saying! I'll give you one of my fishing RODS.



First, you want to face the water, then use the ROD. Focus your mind... if you get a bite, pull on the ROD. Sometimes you can snag something immediately, but with bigger catches, you need to time the pulls on your ROD to haul them in.



We'll do a bit of fishing later, but for now, I smell items inside this house.



Oh, I can see your eyes twinkling! You appreciate my dazzling style! Oh, you're a delight! Here you go, I want you to have it!



It's a marvelous SCARF that will go with almost all POKEMON!

Replacing both the Pink Bow and the Polkadot Bow, the Silk Scarf boosts Normal moves by 10%. It's alright. There are other scarves in this game, which we'll see later.



Listen, have you heard about this new "MISTAKE NAP"? That's right! Of course you know! I mean, sheesh,"MISTAKE NAP"... it's the hottest thing in cool! Wherever you're from, "MISTAKE NAP" is the biggest happening thing, right?

Right!



While not the most hilarious Trendy Saying (tm) I've seen, it's still pretty good. The trendy phrase can be changed every now and then and will appear in other people's games when you mix records. It effects exactly one thing in the game and it's something I'm not looking forward to in the slightest.



I had a Mistake Nap last night, it was pretty great, but I did leave my lamp on. When was the last time you had a Mistake Nap?



The results... terrible, like you needed to ask. But I was delighted that ROXANNE would even let me challenge her! You wouldn't believe how much more I admire her! I'm going to really focus and work! I'd better go!

Like in Gen 2, you'll get randomly called by those you've registered in the Pokenav about all kinds of, uh, interesting stuff about them by people I totally remember who they are. Anyway, it's just fluff in this game since registering people doesn't actually do anything in this game aside from rematches, there aren't special items, or swarms to be notified about, which is a missed opportunity.



Alright, fishing. Siiiiiiigh. Instead of just getting a bite and that's that, now you play a little minigame where you press A when you get a bite. If you fail, the Pokemon gets away, if you succeed, you either hook it, or have to do it multiple more times. It's annoying and I don't like it.



As always, you can catch Magikarp with the Old Rod. It's as useless as ever.



You can also catch Tentacool with the Old Rod, though unlike Gen 2 there aren't a variety of Pokemon you can catch with the Old Rod, it's just Magikarp and Tentacool, with one exception later down the road.



All that's left in this town is the Gym, which we'll go to in just a moment, might as well explore what's to the north at least.

Route 106



What if my ROD hooks a big one while I'm in the washroom? I just can't go...




Cool Pickup.



There's only a couple Fishermen out here, but might as well get as much training as we can before the Gym, it's gonna be a tricky one.




You agree with me, right?



Obviously there's more to do on the route when we can Surf, but at least there's a cave.

Granite Cave



It'll be tough trying to explore. That guy who came by earlier... STEVEN, I think it was. He knew how to use FLASH, so he ought to be all right, but... well, for us HIKERS, helping out those that we meet is our motto. Here you go, I'll pass this on to you.



It lights up even the inky darkness of caves. But, to use it, you need the GYM BADGE from DEWFORD's POKEMON GYM.



While Flash is a garbage HM that really doesn't deserve the moveslot, Ranmaru won't be running out of space any time soon, so he can have it. Anyway, now it's Gym time.

Pokemon Gym



WHO SAID THAT???

DEWFORD's GYM LEADER BRAWLY commands FIGHTING-type POKEMON. Going against him with NORMAL-type POKEMON is asking for trouble. FIGHTING POKEMON will lay a serious smack down on NORMAL POKEMON, so be careful! What's worse, the GYM is as dark as the ocean floor. But it will get brighter after defeating the TRAINERS in your way. Hey, okay, go for it!



I still don't know who this is. Is Jim Gui challenging me to a battle?





Meditite would usually be a throwaway Pokemon if not for its ability, like Marill. Also like Marill, its Pure Power ability means its Psychic STAB isn't affected, though it has its Fighting STAB to fall back on, which it can use very effectively. That is what I would like to say if it learned a single Fighting move until level 32. However, it can use any physical move very effectively until then and when it does learn Hi Jump Kick, it absolutely annihilates anything in its way. Unless it misses. It will never use its Psychic STAB particularly well, alas.

Pure Power is like Huge Power except it's called Pure Power. The Meditite line can make much much better use of this ability due to have a physical STAB, which the Marill line (except Azurill lol) lacks. Medicham also has 10 more Attack than Azumarill, so it can get to a pretty staggering 480 Attack. That's pretty impressive considering Deoxys-Attack has a max of 504. So yeah, these abilities are pretty nuts. If you're curious, Mega Mawile has 678 max Attack.




Every time we beat a trainer our vision circle gets slightly larger. It's difficult to notice in Emerald since there's quite a few trainers in this Gym, compared to the 3 in RS. Another reason why Emerald is better, more trainers!



There's not much reason to screenshot where I'm going like this, just gotta find some trainers.




Oh this is gonna be good.



Detect can fuck off.





As far as evolution moves go, Grovyle gets the short stick with Fury Cutter, though it's not a bad option considering you have Absorb and Bullet Seed as your other moves. Things will become fantastic when Leaf Blade is obtained at level 29, but it is a rough road until then. Also by evolving you've missed out on Mega Drain. Oh... no? Still, until it gets stronger, it needs TMs, or lots of Fury Cutter hits, whichever works.



Oh cock. Now a kicking chicken, Combusken starts with the pretty neat Double Kick, giving it an 66BP move from the get go, which ain't too bad. It then also gets Peck immediately after. Then... nothing until it evolves again, which is a bit rubbish, let's be honest. A lot of the Fighting and Fire TMs are a bit far off, but maybe you can try your luck with Focus Punch? Like Grovyle, Combusken has a rough start, but when it evolves and learns the good stuff, then it's a force. Until then it kinda sucks.



This big fishy is also alright, starting with Mud Shot, which is a fine Ground move, though you will be waiting a while for Earthquake. Like with the others, it really doesn't get much, but Take Down will give that extra boost of power. Still, it's a Water type, so Surf and Ice Beam are the main draws that the others really don't get, but that's still a little while. Also being really weak to Grass can be a problem, but this fish is prime to wreck the next few Gym Leaders. Overall, there's still no bad choice, they're all as meh as each other until they reach their final forms.



Mud Shot is a pretty nice Ground move with 55BP, 15PP and 95% accuracy that lowers the opponent's Speed by one stage, which is always appreciated. This is gonna be the best move Marshtomp will get for a while, which shows just how good it'll be. It's gonna be rough.



I'm getting mixed signals here.



Alright, I can kinda see where I'm going now, let's head left.




Slowly but surely the circle is getting bigger.






A big ol' punching bag, Makuhita doesn't have the raw power of Meditite... or the Speed... or the typing... it does at least have a lot of HP, which is good cause you'll be using Vital Throw at lot, which requires you to go last. Aside from that though, it really doesn't learn much aside from, uh, Smellingsalt? Well that's not good. It needs some TM help and a lot of HP recovery, cause you don't want to rely on Arm Thrust. It will have a massive HP stat, but its defenses kinda let it down. I think that's the point though.

Thick Fat reduces Fire and Ice damage by 50%, or more specifically the opponent's Special Attack stat is reduced by 50% during calculation. How interesting. It basically results in the same thing.



We've faced a lot of punchmans, but not the punchman, wonder where he's at?




Well he's definitely not here. With this new level, what will Ranmaru learn?



Hrm. Actually kinda useful, as you'll see later.



One day I'll become a GYM LEADER... no, I'll become the POKEMON LEAGUE CHAMPION!



Ah, there he is. Alright, hopefully I'm ready for this.



I've been churned in the rough waves of these parts, and I've grown tough in the pitch-black cave! So you wanted to challenge me? Let me see what you're made of!

VS Gym Leader VS Gym Leader Brawly




Brawly/Touki: A big wave in fighting
From brawl (big surprise there), and tōki (Japanese herb) or tōki (fighting spirit).






This battle is super tough if you don't have something to deal a lot of damage, but thankfully Ranmaru is gonna be super helpful in this battle.



Getting Brawly to waste his Super Potions is great, since it's a full heal for all of his Pokemon.



Now this Meditite might look pretty intimidating, but a flawless strategy against it is to always attack it, every single turn. It never goes for its other attacks... aside from just then, which is the first time I've ever seen it do that.



If Focus Punch lands, you're getting knocked out. It's a 150BP move with 20PP and 100% accuracy that requires a tightening focus at the start of the turn.



If you're not damaged by an attack then the move will go off, otherwise you do nothing. It doesn't matter what you need to do against this Meditite, since its only attacking move is Focus Punch, never ever stop attacking, because HOLY SHIT, Pure Power, STAB Focus Punch and potential Bulk Up boosts are just ever so slightly mental together.



I also wasn't bothered by Light Screen, since it would fade before Brawly's final Pokemon.



This is also good. We need all we can get for the endgame.



But yeah, you can imagine what happens.



Okay, this Makuhita is super deadly compared to RS. If you got unlucky with Arm Thrust hits, then that would suck, but you could get lucky with that too. But in Emerald?



Vital Throw has 70BP, 10PP and will always hit, but has -1 priority. Holy shit this does a lot of damage. Arm Thrust, meanwhile has 15BP, 20PP and 100% accuracy that hits between 2-5 times, with an average of 3 times, so 45BP. Obviously not as deadly as Vital Throw.



Now you might think that the negative priority means it'll take a load of damage and you can get it low to take it out. Reversal says fuck you to that. The lower Makuhita's HP, the more damage it'll do. Going from 20% health to 1% health boosts its power from 80 to 200, so it's a pretty crazy.



It also has a Sitrus Berry, which restores 30HP when you go below 50% health. That's a lot of health in the early game, but later on it's pretty naff.



I think I was just barely above the 10% health threshold, otherwise Nobunaga is a monster for taking a 150BP STAB attack with more than half health. So yeah, this fight is pretty easy, honestly. Well, if you can just blast Makuhita with strong attacks. If you can't win (cause this battle is super nasty for how early it is), then you can just skip this Gym battle and come back later, you don't need it for anything all that important. HOWEVER, there is one Pokemon nearby that you can find that will absolutely make this Gym a walk in the park. Trust me.



Whoah, wow! You made a much bigger splash than I expected! You swamped me! Okay, you've got me. Take this GYM BADGE!

Pokemon Gym

"trades, obey without question."

And, you'll be able to use the HM move FLASH outside of battle. If you'd like, use this TECHNICAL MACHINE, too.



It's a move that raises both ATTACK and DEFENSE stats.



I can see your talent becoming a giant wave to cause a storm of astonishment among TRAINERS one day!

Oh yeah, just in case Makuhita wasn't terrifying already, it can use Bulk Up, which has 20PP and raises the user's Attack and Defense by one stage. If you're using mostly physical attackers (very likely), then it becomes stronger and harder to kill. Super terrifying.



A potentially harrowing battle, but Ranmaru made things a LOT easier.

Granite Cave



Freesamples always cheers me up. Let's go find this Steven guy already.



There's a lot of cool Pokemon to find in this cave. Makuhita is one of them, but there are other super neat mons.



Is the game trying to tell me something? Well we don't need this.



Zubat is a super good answer against Brawly, resisting all of his attacks, though it can't do all that much in return.



Now in dark caves, this is your vision. It's pretty rough, but it's not the complete blackness of Gen 2. If you're patient (since this cave is super linear), then you could get through this area without Flash and not have to bother fighting Brawly.



Not using Flash in a screenshot LP seems a bit silly, so let's makes things a bit easier to see.



There's not much to this cave, this was the only side path, so it's real easy to find your way.



Further down we go.





This little gem goblin is a hard catch. It's typing means it has no weaknesses and it completely and utterly walls Brawly to make him a complete joke. But, uh, that's about it. Its stats are low and it doesn't learn any good moves until later, so for a while the best STAB move you'll have is Astonish. It still takes a lot of damage despite its typing due to having low HP, defenses and Speed. Just low everything, really, so it's not something to really bother with, unless you want to be annoying to Meditite.



Okay, relatively painless, which is good cause we've still got a lot left to catch.



Ah, just what I'm looking for!



Shit. Turns out Mud Slap still kills it.



Goddammit



GODDAMMIT. Also we'll come back to these rocks later. Ugh.



Yeah, there's not much to this cave if you're not looking for Pokemon. Anyway, we need to chill on this floor for a minute.



FINALLY! Eventually we got the 27% chance.





This ironclad cutie laughs in your face when it comes to physical moves... aside from Fighting and Ground, obviously. Aside from that it is a terrifying wall with a good enough Attack to back itself up. While it learns no Rock moves through level up (ugh), Rock Tomb will have to do for, uh, the entire game. At least with Steel moves it has more of a choice. Unfortunately that choice is Iron Tail, but hey, we'll take what we get. It's obtained in a super bad place though, all trainers for a while are super bad for it to fight against and it cannot contribute against Brawly. Still, past that it's (mostly) alright, but for the love of god keep it away from Water. It also evolves super late and that sucks.



It's our third team member. Lairon is my 3rd favourite Pokemon so it and Mudkip were the two Pokemon that were locked in before I even started planning.



It's good to reference Pokemon's slightly-dead-but-not-really spinoff every now and then, but I didn't catch this before Brawly because it would've died instantly against everything. Sure, Meditite doesn't know any Fighting moves, but it would've just been a hassle coming down here to get an Aron at the level I want and then go back to the Gym.





If you thought that Sabeleye was bad then ohhhhhhh myyyyyyyy, Mawile just has no chance against Aron, especially since the only Steel type move it learns is... Hidden Power Steel. Holy guacamole. Its movepool isn't that bad, getting Crunch (which it can't use effectively), Sludge Bomb, Brick Break and, uh, Astonish? Well it's not brilliant, but it has some options if you want to use it for... some reason. Hey, if you need a Pokemon to pass Iron Defense boosts, then this is the one for you. God Iron Head cannot come soon enough for this poor thing.

Its abilities are great though. Hyper Cutter prevents its Attack from being lowered, aside from self inflicted drops AND removes grass in a 2-tile radius when using Cut in the overworld, instead of a 1-tile radius. Though Mawile (and Trapinch) cannot learn Cut. Anyway, Intimidate lowers the opponent's Attack by one stage when the user is sent out. It has the same overworld effect as Keen Eye, a 50% chance of preventing encounters if the Pokemon would be 5 levels or lower than the user. So yeah, Intimidate is probably the best ability, ever. Makes Mawile a bit more tanky so it can do... something.



Mawile is a Ruby exclusive while Sableye is Sapphire exclusive. Both of them are in this game, but Mawile is only obtainable at Victory Road. Uh, fuck that, let's just get it now, who cares man. I can understand why Sableye was allowed to stay at before Brawly's Gym.



Alright, we've got every Pokemon here, so let's get the heck outta here.



I'm interested in rare stones, so I travel here and there. Oh? A LETTER for me?



You went through all this trouble to deliver that. I need to thank you. Let me see... I'll give you this TM. It contains my favorite move, STEEL WING.



If you keep training, you could even become the CHAMPION of the POKEMON LEAGUE one day. That's what I think. I know, since we've gotten to know each other, let's register one another in our POKENAVS.




He seemed like a real ironclad guy, know what I mean? Anyway, let's head back and see what our new team member is like.

Dewford Town



Well... it could be worse. I would've preferred Rock Head, but Sturdy could be handy. Also its nature is neutral, or more specifically, it boosts and lowers Defense. Not a huge deal, I'll use the first one I come across at the level I want, I'm not picky.



Now we can head to Slateport, but we'll be doing that next update. There's a few things I want to backtrack for, so back to Petalburg. Well, Rustboro.



Ooh, the Cheri tree is grown. Convenient.



I heard from BRAWLY that you're moving up through the ranks of TRAINERS at an incredible clip. Well, I'd rather not think that I can't beat you. I promise, I will shape up my GYM so that you may challenge us again. I hope you'll be looking forward to that occasion as much as me!



Neat. After like, I dunno, 200 steps after Brawly, Roxanne will call and register. Oh yeah, Gym Leader rematches are in this game later on down the line. It's pretty bad, but GF has never done a convenient easy way of rematching all the Gym Leaders. Both systems in Platinum and HGSS have their problems, but they're nothing compared to Emerald.

Rustboro City


"EXP Points from battle."

It will get EXP Points even if it didn't actually battle. I would say EXP.SHARE is quite useful for raising weak POKEMON.

Since my youth, I've immersed myself in work. Consequently, I'm not familiar with trends and that sort of thing. But do young people all want to be TRAINERS in the POKEMON LEAGUE?



Holy shit we get the Exp Share real early compared to Gen 2 where it was just before the 7th Gym. It's gonna be super helpful in getting Wargreymon up to speed with the rest of the team while we're fighting trainers that he wouldn't be huge fans of.



I've got a cool peep with the perfect phrase for ya.



Oh, yes! She's laughing! Oh, I am as delighted as she! Thank you! Thanks to you, my darling WALDA laughed for me! Actually, I may not look all that special, but I'm one of DEVON CORPORATION's top researchers. So, how about I do something in return for you? I know, I'll add some new wallpaper patterns for the BOXES in the PC POKEMON Storage System. In the wallpaper pattern menu, select "FRIENDS." That will give you access to the new wallpaper patterns.



Ah, it's beautiful. This is the design Onmi created, which was voted for and what I'll be using for the rest of the LP. So getting Walda to laugh is just a way of inputting a code to get some sweet self designed wallpaper. So how the hell are you supposed to know about this? Well, there's the Japanese fansite Daisuki Club that has a few of these weird online code generators that unlock some cool stuff in Emerald and the Gen 4 games, it's where I got the various Eggs in HGSS, though since Daisuki Club is Japanese (and was closed for a while), filb.de is where you go for your code needs. There's a long ass algorithm to determine how the code is made from what you designed, but even I'm uninterested in listing it out in a Side Notes. All to get some new wallpaper, from Walda Pepper's father! Eh? Ehhhhh? EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?



Thanks, DAD NORMAN



Alright, let's head off to Slateport, we've spent long enough on this island.



We'll be seeing all of this shit in like 10 updates or so.



And next time, it's Slateport City.