Part 25: Currently Eight

Part 23: Currently Eight

Pokemon Gym



And, to get to JUAN, an icy floor will hamper your progress... Listen, I'm sorry, but that's all the advice that I have for you. The rest of the way, you have to go for it yourself!



Final Gym already? I didn't realise I was playing through Yellow again with how fast we were going through this game.



The first two ice puzzles aren't hard, but the last one can be a bit tricky. We want to fall through anyway.



There's a million trainers down here. I won't question it. While I didn't fall in place to start a double battle, we can do one of those with one pair as is. So let's get battling.




Closer and closer to the whole team being level 42.




You can see the double battle attempts I tried for, but this is the only one. At least it's something.



I think you have potential. Why don't you stay and train with us?

I wish I could forget about lost causes before I can manage an "Oops!"




Nearly done down here.



You battled with more beauty than I could muster... The grace you bring to battle is fabulous. Oh... I'm so fortunate to have found POKEMON.

Oh, there now! Did you have a good look at my POKEMON? I came to this GYM because JUAN praised me for my darling POKEMON. Oh, if only I'd met JUAN years ago when I was younger...





With this angry snowball, our team is complete. So hey, those are some pretty bad stats, right? Sure, they're not particularly awful, but they're just not high enough to really stand out. It's also a pure Ice type, so while it gets every Ice move imaginable, it's a bad defensive type, so hopefully you'll knock out that Dragon before it does the same. While you learned all the good moves as a Snorunt, there's still some coverage to be had, with Water Pulse, Earthquake and Shadow Ball. Otherwise, just focus on its Sp.Atk and try and hit things really hard.




Alright, now it's a straight shot to the leader. But first...

"to ignite my own EXPLOSION..."

Maybe it's because deep down, I would rather stay here...

Cold Gregg can make use of the tutor move in Pacifidlog, as we'll soon see.



Juan time.

"Ah, I should not be so coy."

It was I who taught WALLACE everything there is to know about POKEMON. Once, I had given up my position as the GYM LEADER. In my place, I had entrusted WALLACE with the GYM. However, a compelling reason arose for me to make a comeback. Ah, but enough chatter. Let us begin our match, shall we? Please, you shall bear witness to our artistry. A grand illusion of water sculpted by POKEMON and myself!

VS Gym Leader VS Leader Juan




Juan/Adan: The Gym Leader with the beauty of pure water!
From Don Juan, a Spanish womanizer. Thanks, Bulbapedia. And from nada (open sea) and adan (thatch screwpine).





There's a lot of Pokemon between us and victory and with Attract strats, this Luvdisc can be a PAIN for your male members.



But if Wargreymon breaks through twice, then Luvdisc is down. Good job.





By a whisker, this is just a bigger Spheal with more stats. Hey, that's not a problem, but it might be a bit of a struggle getting it to level 44 with just Body Slam and Aurora Beam. Surf, Earthquake and Iron Tail will be enough to keep you going, though there are other Water HMs to keep in mind. Otherwise, yeah, it's very similar to Spheal, which isn't too surprising, but don't expect it to change all that much as you evolve. You learn all the good moves already!



No, don't hit yourself!



Very nice, two down.





Alright, I think this is the final physical Dark type we'll be covering. Hot damn that is a high Attack, at the expense of HP, Sp.Def and Speed, but whatever. Crawdaunt will be making use of its Sp.Atk, which is thankfully quite nice, since it'll learn Crabhammer naturally, which is a great move. If you trade it to FRLG before level 51, it'll learn Crunch too! Cool! Just ignore that large Attack stat, that's what you wanna do, right? Still, at least you get... Vicegrip as a physical move to pair with Swords Dance, which is just grand. At least you get some good physical TMs, like Sludge Bomb, Brick Break and Aerial Ace. No Earthquake though, you are a lobster after all. If you want to stick to the special side, then at least there's Ice Beam. But you're slow and very weak to special attacks, so hopefully you deal some real damage before going down.



Nice and cooked under the shell.



And you can see, this Kingdra is a bit of a butt. But we have ways of dealing with it. It's just as bad as Wallace's Milotic in RS, but let's not talk about that.



IT'S OVER



Ah. Well. Nevertheless,




Okay now the game is fuckin with me.



This is a bit of a problem. Least he's out of healing items.



And since I'm at +2, he's not hitting me for much. Kingdra's biggest boon is only being weak to Dragon, but it can't do a huge amount of damage in return, especially to Water types.



Oh, now that's just nasty.



It's alright, we just need to keep it high enough to knock it out in two hits and so it doesn't Rest.



Well ain't this fun.



But hey, all we needed to do was hit two times in a row. It was that easy. No problem. Had it under control the whole time. Haha.





This catfish doesn't really make you quake in your boots with those stats, but its typing and high HP do make it an alright tank when you factor in Amnesia. Its balanced stats also let it make use of both of its STABs, especially since you get Earthquake pretty soon after evolving, to replace Mud Slap. With Surf, Ice Beam and Return, it's not a bad mixed attacker, if not having the stats to really make a mark. Still, if you boost up your Sp.Def enough, even Grass type moves won't one shot you. And that's all a Water/Ground type can ask for.



Well wasn't that fun? Juan might not be too strong against our team, but everyone got their chance to shine, even if it didn't end up working as planned. Well, that's just Pokemon, isn't it?



However, compared with me or even WALLACE, you are lacking in elegance. Perhaps I should make you a loan of my outfit? Hahaha, I merely jest! Rather than my clothes, I shall reward you with this, the RAIN BADGE!

Pokemon Gym

"to your every command."

The RAIN BADGE also allows the use of the HM move WATERFALL to scale walls of cascading water. And, so that you never forget the battle we shared, take this...




The TRAINERS who have gathered all the GYM BADGES of HOENN should make way to the ultimate destination. The POKEMON LEAGUE. Travel to the easternmost reaches of HOENN, to the island EVER GRANDE. There, you shall find the POKEMON LEAGUE.



Okay! Check out your TRAINER CARD. If you've gotten all the BADGES, you're set for the POKEMON LEAGUE challenge!



That's every badge! So are we going to the Pokemon League? Hell no! There's so much left to do in Hoenn, we won't be heading to Ever Grande for a little while yet.

Surfing



We have three water routes left and they're real easy ones to cover. Routes 132, 133 and 134 have powerful currents that make traversing the entire area pretty tricky, but I'm gonna do my best. Just take the current routes as one big area that we'll be going across multiple times, starting with the top and going down.



These areas are a lot trickier to go over in Emerald since they added more stuff to them, but we shall persevere!



There's also a bunch of trainers on these routes, but they're the usual uninteresting fare. None of them can be registered in the Pokenav! Well annoying.




Still staying at the top. We'll get to all the various items and trainers we're floating by.



With Kingdra actually being used by opponents, you might remember that the line is actually in the Hoenn Dex.



Alright, now that we're on this island, there's some tips and tricks to go over.



Most of the time the current will push you left, so if you can find rocks, or things that block the currents that push you that way, you can reach places you wouldn't normally.



Usually we'd have to just surf in to reach this trainer, but this way we can do more in one pass through.



Though by doing this, we won't do anything else worthwhile by continuing to head left.



In those cases, we'll fly back to Pacifidlog and we'll catch up on the path we just went on to instead head a slightly different way. So instead of going round the island to the Bird Keeper, we just keep heading left.




Don't worry if you don't exactly know where I am at all times, I had to keep all three routes images up so I can work out which bit leads to what area, it can be quite the headache.



Nothing for us if we keep heading left, so let's go down to this island.



... It was I who challenged you, and yet I lost. I am deeply shamed...

You're kidding! Explain how I lost! Haha! You won, all right! I'll work my way back up by taking on TRAINERS I happen to meet!



Alright, back to Pacifidlog!



We'll keep up top and then head towards the middle in order to reach this. That's it, we're done. Back to Pacifidlog.




Now we'll be heading around the middle of the various routes, with lots more items and trainers to find.



Hey now, welcome to trainer island.

"I wonder if I can win on my own."


Play nice you two.



Ah, I see that I couldn't manage to win on my own after all. My wife must be looking for me. I'd best go find her right away.

Okay! I won't complain about other people being here. I suppose I can partner up with that old man and challenge that other team.



Goddammit! That is so frustrating!!!





I hope you've been enjoying hitting things with Pure Power, cause it just keeps going on. With good Speed and sky high Attack, all you need to do is click Hi Jump Kick and win. Well cya. Okay, aside from absolutely annihilating everything, you also have Shadow Ball and Return for coverage, but your Sp.Atk is just a bit low to really make use of Psychic STAB, as well as the elemental punches you can learn through Heart Scale. A bit of a shame, but it'll be good for next gen, I suppose. If anything, you can get Ice Punch. Otherwise, you've got Recover, Detect or Meditate for the final slot. Also if you don't knock out the opponent, you'll be in trouble since you're pretty damn fragile.




Wow! That's pretty strong, all right! I can't shake the feeling that someone's watching me. I can't concentrate!

That young man over there looks just like my husband when he was young. He's making me blush!



Here's a cheeky path to take, you can just about reach these currents by jumping up here.



I, uh, do, actually. I think about this LP a lot...



I may have lost thousands of times, but a loss still stings. Keep at this, youngster. So you can become like my husband and me.

You have a firm sense of purpose. Don't let others lead you astray. Don't lose direction as you grow older.



We'll head back to Pacifidlog, then back to trainer island to ride this current up.



And then we keep going. Until...




It's way more fun to do things the way I want than to be like everybody else. I mean, that's obvious!



RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR. This beautiful combination of themes and objects will dance your heart away. I hope you didn't keep Lombre around until level 49 to learn Hydro Pump, since Surf will do you just fine. With Ice Beam, Giga Drain and, uh, Brick Break, you'll have a fine moveset. It's been a bit of a wait getting here, but Ludicolo is definitely worth it, good special options, good typing and a wonderful sombrero. What's not to love?



Now let's head back to Pacifidlog and down from the bottom of trainer island, just barely missing out on the current that drags you up.




Quite a large area for just one item. Well, let's keep going along.




Hmm, was that a dive spot? Eh, probably wasn't important. Here's a water maze.






It's your regional dragon with high Attack. Yeah, that doesn't work too well with its special STAB. In fact, Bagon is just tricky to use, since it doesn't get a STAB move until well after its evolved. At least it gets Headbutt, but it also get Bite and Ember. Hmm. Still, you can teach it Return, Aerial Ace and Brick Break and it'll do alright. But it's gonna need some evolutions before it can make use of its stats. But don't expect to be using your best stats if you want STAB.



I haven't lost my passion for speed. I will try harder.

We will return for more training at METEOR FALLS. If you'd like, you should go, too. It will definitely toughen you up!



We're nearly done with all these currents! Just need to head off this way.




There we go, that's everything to obtain on these routes. But of course, there's one place left to explore, so let's prep our team.



We can forget Rock Smash for the moment. It'll be important.



Whoops, meant to give that to Wailmer instead. Oh well, Nobunaga can take a back seat for the moment.





That's a big girl. Wailord has a massive HP stat let down by its pathetic defensive stats. Still, it has pretty good attacking stats, so if you can keep all your HP, you can absolutely obliterate with Water Spout, which starts off at 150BP when you're at full health. Aside from that, though, there's Ice Beam, Earthquake and, uh, Rock Tomb? Nah, let's go with Return. Anyway, it'll do what it needs to, but waiting until level 40 is a bit rough and it kinda falls over pretty easily. Still, it's a perfectly fine Water type, so I dunno what else you were expecting.



With a Relicanth and Wailord in tow, it's time to dive into the depths.




Can you solve the puzzle? Get your manual out and translate some Braille! I mean, it's cool, but I dunno why they chose this as the puzzle language.

Sealed Chamber



Yep, we can go up and arrive in this strange cave. Fret not, all the Braille shall be translated.

GO UP HERE.



All these various rocks are just the alphabet. The real puzzles are just up ahead.



DIG HERE.



That one is a bit tricky, since you get no indication that Dig will open the way instead of just sending you out. The messages usually have a period to throw you off if you're trying to work it out just by the number of letters.



There's a lot of words in here, so strap in.

IN THIS CAVE WE HAVE LIVED.
WE OWE ALL TO THE POKEMON.
BUT, WE SEALED THE POKEMON AWAY.
WE FEARED IT.
THOSE WITH COURAGE, THOSE WITH HOPE.
OPEN A DOOR. AN ETERNAL POKEMON WAITS.

FIRST COMES WAILORD.
LAST COMES RELICANTH.



Slightly different to RS, with Wailord in your first slot and Relicanth in your sixth slot, we seem to have done... something? Well, I'm sure we'll figure it out.



How about we do something a bit crazy and... head back to Pacifidlog.



Oh wow, WHAT ARE THE CHANCES??? Turns out, Freesample had just the right PID to unveil Mirage Island for us. How lucky.



In all seriousness though, Mirage Island only appears when the two randomized bytes generated by the game match the last two bytes of a Pokemon's PID in the party. The numbers are generated when you go into the start menu and last until the start menu is accessed again past midnight of the next day. Getting the numbers to match is stupidly rare, a 1 in 65536 chance that a Pokemon in your party will have the right numbers, though obviously you can swap in as many Pokemon into your party to try your luck, so the chance can be much higher.



There's not much on the island. Wild Wynaut appear between level 5 and 50, though we already have one from the Egg in Lavaridge. It's not a huge deal if you never see this island, I had to use a neat little program sent to me by Explopyro that matched the PID of the first Pokemon in my party to the generated number of Mirage Island. I've never done this legit, this is my first time setting foot on this place.



The big reward is a single Liechi Berry. This is the best berry for making Pokeblocks, but you can receive them from other players, since it can be grown and obtained multiple times. But that's it for all the secrets around Pacifidlog. Next time, we could go round the region and finishing up all the little things left... or we could conquer Contests. I think we should do that first.