Part 33: Going Post

Part 30: Going Post



Now that we've covered the Battle Frontier and even tackled 1/7th of it, I guess there's other stuff to do around the mainland, starting with this cave.

Altering Cave



It's an empty cave full of Zubat! How's that for content? The Altering Cave isn't e-Reader content we never got, it's just completely unreleased content period that will be covered here!

Trick House



It may have taken us 23 updates, but hey, let's finally complete the Trick House.




It's a sliding puzzle that's about shiny floors instead of ice, which is pretty nifty.



Even got some postgame trainers with levels that don't go above the bottom of the Elite Four.



It's pretty easy once you've mapped out where you need to go.



Onto the second half.




You've beaten the POKEMON LEAGUE CHAMPION? That's too much!



I suppose I could talk about the various mail types in this gen and where you obtain it and how some of it is only obtainable from in-game trades... but it's just mail. I don't care that much.




Oh hey it's a Pokemon we haven't seen yet. How neat.



Oh please, like I'm going to write about how absolutely wonderful he is at every opportunity I get.



...so yeah, let's get our prize.



Wh-what should I do? My fountain for tricks has run dry... Perhaps it is time I toured the country on a quest to devise new tricks... I hate to admit defeat, but you have bested me! Still, you must have been reeled in by my charisma for you to visit me again and again. Yes, you must have! But, that has nothing to do with my losing! In recognition of the friendship between you, the driven, and the genius that is myself, I demand that you take this keepsake! Actually, there are two--a RED TENT and a BLUE TENT. Which do you prefer?



I wish that you will one day visit and entertain me again. And now, farewell!



That's it for the Trick House. Bar one thing. See, after finishing the final challenge, under the cushion the Trick Master was on in the back room, there's a hidden Nugget. I completely forgot about it since I don't have item pages open for areas that don't have that many non-obvious items to find. Whoops!



Let's check in with our good friend, whatever his name was.



I was digging away, you see... when the whole wall collapsed... I think there's a giant cavern underneath now... but I've left it alone because I don't think there are any FOSSILS there...

Desert Underpass



This long hallway is supposed to go under the desert on Route 111, but I think you'll find that just heading due east from Route 114 means we don't go under the desert at all *adjusts glasses and trips over untied shoelace*



Alongside Whismur and Loudred, there's also Ditto here, making any future breeding projects a breeze. Now you don't have to trade for them to make use of Flame Body!



Oh yeah, here's the other fossil, making this the only game in the entire series where you can obtain every fossil that you can find in that game, instead of them being version exclusive, or only being able to obtain one.



Oh hey it's the new PC option.



Looking good.



I guess we should finally hatch an Azurill and evolve Marill. Exciting times here in this LP.




We've got both fossils, but when will we evolve them? Stay tuned.




Now that we've beaten the game, our vocabulary has expanded so we can use "Contest" and "Hustle" and get two more sweet berries. The Pamtre and Belue berries are good for Pokeblocks. Yawn.




Free stuff from Steven? Hell yeah!



I've decided to do a little soul-searching and train on the road. I don't plan to return home for some time. I have a favor to ask of you. I want you to take the POKEBALL on the desk. Inside it is a BELDUM, my favorite POKEMON. I'm counting on you. May our paths cross someday.





You should definitely Take Down this analysis and move on to the next one! Haaaaaaaaaaaaa.



Okay, now that you've got a Pokemon with actual moves to use, what does it do? Well, looking at its stats, you wouldn't think it would evolve into one hell of a titan, especially since its movepool is pretty bad aside from Psychic and it takes way too long to evolve. But it has a fantastic movepool aside from that, even at this stage and gets a great Steel move in Meteor Mash. While a lot of its expansive movepool can't be used due to its relatively lower SpAtk, it still gets every single good physical attack via TM, Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Brick Break, Sludge Bomb, Rock Slide, Explosion, the list goes on, especially with postgame move tutors. Its typing covers all its Psychic weaknesses and gives it a few due to Steel, but that's not gonna matter much. Alright, I might be talking about Metagross a bit here, but this ain't far off.

Hey, we're evolving some more shit over here.



Oh my god it's the roamer, what are the chances???



Okay that was just me hacking it in so I could see it on the Pokedex. Like with Gen 2, it's a major hassle getting the roamer in this gen, since you need to encounter it first and that could take forever. If you do find it, just Masterball it, thankfully there's just the one roamer in this game, same for FRLG, so it's not too bad. You can also get multiple Masterballs by cloning, so it's whatever. It's best to hunt on Route 110 or Mauville City, since it's pretty easy to go back and forth in those areas.





Out of the two jet dragons, Latios is stronger and gets slightly better moves, whereas Latias is more defensive with a pretty meh defensive typing. There's a couple of moveset differences, but the ones you'll actually be going for are the same across both dragons, so unless you want a weaker Latios, you have to go more defensive. You do at least get that, from learning Wish and Recover, as well as screens. Only Wish is unique to Latias, but with Calm Mind, you also become a real strong special tank, so if that's appealing to you, then Latias works as a great setup sweeper. Mist Ball is simply a weaker Psychic with 50% chance of lowering the opponent's SpAtk. Eh, just use Psychic. We also can't not mention the Soul Dew, which boosts both Latis SpAtk and SpDef by 50% when held, which is pretty fuckin ridiculous. Don't think that's an easy ticket though, its effect is nullified in the Battle Frontier and banned from official tournaments. This makes both Latis much, much more potent, but also means Latios gains enough SpDef to be a better Latias. She just can't win.



So here's the boy nuke. It's much better to OHKO an opponent and take no damage, then do a lot of damage and take some in return. With a great special movepool, Luster Purge having a 50% chance of lowering the opponent's SpDef and Soul Dew in more casual settings, Latios is a very dangerous sweeper, with Dragon Claw, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt and even Surf. Its exclusive moves of Protect, Memento and Dragon Dance are pretty rubbish, since you can just use a Protect TM, but it has the firepower to not really care. It's definitely the better choice if you want more power right out of the gate, but Latias is better at the whole staying around to boost up and sweep. Still, there's quite a few exploitable weaknesses regardless, so unless you've got a good matchup, it is just better to smite your foes. Now if only I could actually find a Soul Dew...



Easy enough. In RS, the Latis were version exclusive, but since we can choose which colour the Latis are in this game, it doesn't really matter which one we get. Shame there's no way to get the other one. Well whatever, I didn't need to complete the Pokedex anyway.



Now that we've seen Latios, we can use it in a phrase and get another berry! Contests! Fuck off!



How about going on a legendary hunt, since we're in the mood?



Could that mean, somewhere near ROUTE 129...



Yep, it's time to break out Dive one last time and go down into the depths.



Now you can find out where abnormal weather is from our Castform giver, but you can also just explore around the region and see if anything pops up. On various water routes, it could be raining and a new dive spot will appear.




The Marine Cave doesn't have anything in it... aside from one really big blue thing.

Legendary Titan Battle





From the deepest depths comes the giant leviathan, with incredibly scary stats and enough tools to make it a serious threat to anything to comes across. Kyogre is much more potent compared to Groudon due to its ability boosting the moves it gets STAB on, as well as working with its highest stat. A rain boosted Hydro Pump or Water Spout is incredible and when you add in Ice Beam and Thunder (due to endless rain of course), then suddenly the Pokemon that can stand up to Kyogre becomes very small. Hilariously, Shedinja is a Pokemon that Kyogre cannot touch unless you give it a Rock move. Which you won't. Add in Calm Mind and with enough boosts, even Wonder Guard will struggle to keep afloat. This Pokemon is scary and is easily one of the best in the series... until the remakes raised the bar to ridiculous levels. It's only real downside is its Speed and it can be physically frail, so Groudon has that going for it. You know, if it didn't stand on a tiny patch of land in the middle of a lake.



With a much higher level than in Sapphire, as well as the rain, Kyogre is a very deadly Pokemon to try and catch.



Good thing we can clone then!



With Kyogre obtained, Groudon will now start appearing. Don't worry, this isn't another Altering Cave.




Come forth sunshine dino!





The counterpart in the boiling magma isn't as immediately devastating, due to Drought powering up Fire types, which Groudon is not (YET). Still, it can use its pretty alright SpAtk to pretend it has Fire STAB, as well as Solarbeam, to really rub it in Kyogre's face. You know, if it didn't switch for some reason. Anyway, you still have a ridiculous Attack stat, so either go mixed and slap on Earthquake and Rock Slide, or just go full physical and use your ability to weaken Water attacks. It gets Swords Dance through tutor, as well as Return and Iron Tail, so it can absolutely wreck even without a boost to its STAB, and Choice Band can give you that dizzying power very quickly. But being weak to opposing Solarbeam, as well as various Ice moves, is a bit of a pain. Still, Groudon dishes out so much more pain, so be prepared.



Why couldn't I have done this earlier? Saved a good five updates of nonsense.



Alright, just one more to get. I wonder how hard this one will be to catch.



Unfortunately Rayquaza is grouchy when you wake it up and so it wrecked the place. How rude.




But luckily I'm just so good at these games for ages 3 and up.



It's a nice stroll up the rest of the tower.





This ozone nuisance slapper downer is definitely mixed (heh), since it has amazing stats, a pretty bad typing, a great movepool with no real Flying STAB and really bad defenses. You've got Outrage, Extremespeed, Dragon Dance, Earthquake, Ice Beam, Fire Blast, Thunderbolt, Surf and Rock Slide, so you can go fully physical, mixed late game sweeper, or full special. So long as you don't get hit by an Ice Beam, you're perfectly fine to tear through anything and everything with such wide coverage. Man, if you gave this thing any more, it'd be seriously broken. Hahahahahahahahaha. Also its ability says fuck your weather, I'm gonna smash you up regardless. It can be tough to use with those defenses, but man it is very easy to get going when it wants to.



Alright we finally got the mascot. Get to the box, scrub. Anyway, if we catch anything else I won't use Master Balls, even though I totally could.

Safari Zone




Since we've been catching lots of stuff, here's two more areas of the Safari Zone to catch things in! Wooooooooooo! *clap*



If you've been missing these weak dex fillers, then fret not, there's nothing but Johto Pokemon in these areas, some of which you won't find anywhere else in Gen 3! And, uh, Goldeen and Seaking by fishing. But whatever.




However we're in the Safari Zone, so standard bullshit applies.



Another mon flees...



Just kidding, I have save states and I love using them for any minor inconvenience.









So I may have caught a couple things in here.



Another thing to catch in the water. Octillery can be hooked up with the Super Rod, but it's 1%, so no.



As well as a surfing encounter. There's also Marill, which I nearly caught, before remembering it's in the Hoenn Dex and I already have one!



I did a lot of grass running (moving in spot is too boring), so back in for the final area.



There's also a hidden Zinc in the north, but I never do anything with it, so fuck making a screenshot of me picking it up.




More things to find, though since there's a bit of overlap with Area 5, there's slightly less to catch.




I'm glad this also didn't take long.






There we go, you now have no reason to play Pokemon Colosseum.



Oh yeah here's the last tiny thing. Are we done with the dex yet???

Meteor Falls



Last on the list for this update is checking out this new cave up there. Since there's still a chunk to this update, then you know there's nothing in here that's important.



Oh hey, let's fight pretty boy.



No, that can't be right. We battled alongside each other at the SOOTOPOLIS SPACE CENTER. You should have a very good idea about how good I am. Okay, YUKI, if you're going to mount a serious challenge, expect the worst!

VS Former Champion Steven (yeah I know the rival music is meant to go here, but that's dumb)




Steven Stone/Daigo Tsuwabuki: I'm the strongest and most energetic after all!
From steel and, uh, stone, as well as stevensite, a mineral, and deigo (Indian coral tree) and tsuwabuki (leopard plant), which contains ishi (stone).





Well this is quite a jump. You wanted a postgame fight? You got one. As for why there's no video for this: the battle was over 20 minutes long. This team is really rough.



Since his team is 20 levels higher than his Champion team and the only fights we could do are against the Elite Four, since we've, uh, fought everyone else, we don't have a lot of options to catch up. So we'll just have to make do. We'll be fine. Probably.



There's gonna be a lot of healing on both sides. That did just skip 3 minutes at least. RNG manips, totally.




This Aggron still has an... interesting moveset, but it shouldn't be taken lightly. We know what Aggron can do.



Hey that Flash was worth it, good job Ranmaru.



We just dodged a fuckin bullet there. Also seriously, what is this luck?





With a weird typing and good defensive options, you'll be opening up google to type "what is Cradily weak to?" The answer is Fighting, Ice, Bug and Steel, or FIBS for short. Crazy, I know. It can do some damage, but it really needs TMs to do anything, otherwise its best move is Ancientpower, which is pretty yikes. Thankfully it can learn Giga Drain, Earthquake, Sludge Bomb and Return, as well as Toxic, Recover from breeding, Stockpile and Ingrain. Sure, it's not the best tank out there, but it does pretty well with limited weaknesses and plenty of moves to keep itself topped up. It can also learn Confuse Ray, Amnesia and Double Team just to be really annoying, but if you're facing a Steel or Poison type, you won't be doing much at all in return, so make sure it's not dead weight and you should be golden. Probably.



I dunno what I was expecting with this.



Ah well, Plan C. The C stands for Curse.



Confusion damage has never been something Wargreymon has cared about.




This ain't gonna save you.





Slightly less confusing typing, but still alright. It's got a really high Attack and can take a few physical hits, but its movepool is dire, getting only Fury Cutter and Rock Slide from tutor or breeding, as well as Swords Dance. From there, you've got some good physical attacks, but it's really all you can do, so Brick Break, Earthquake, Iron Tail, Return, whichever you need. It's a slow attacker, so it's prone to being swept away by Water, so watch out for that. But when it connects an attack, boy does it hurt.



Holy shit. Since my opponents are usually packing a mean move to use against Wargreymon, Nobunaga is a real good candidate to actually survive the really strong attacks heading our way. Barely.



I dunno what I'd do without Revival Herbs. Best item for the endgame.



Oh god we really don't have much for this thing due to its nasty coverage. It's just got Earthquake and Ancientpower, but pray tell, who on our team can take those attacks? Correct, Nobunaga, what a surprise.



We can survive two Earthquakes even! But we do nothing in return. So how am I gonna get out of this jam?



Correct, it's stalling out Earthquakes!



There we go, now it's doing fuck all.



I absolutely need to lay this down while I get ridiculously lucky.



Because of that. Nasty.



But there we go, just one more.





Oh. It's a goddamn monster. Metagross has a lot of things going for it, from its excellent defensive typing, to its incredible Attack, to its staggering movepool. Sure, it doesn't like using Psychic moves, but it can very easily avoid them and be just fine. Meteor Mash is a very savage move, and you get every physical move you can think of from TMs. And then it gets low in health and explodes on you. It's just a super nasty Pokemon to fight, since it will hit you very hard and if you don't have a Ground or Fire move, you might be in trouble. Don't bank on outspeeding it, it has Agility and even screens if it wants to be super annoying, but that's not hugely common. It's just a big supercomputer sized problem, in your face.



So what's my plan against this thing?



Bank on a Meteor Mash miss to Curse it. This thing 2 shots my entire team.



Sure, Nobunaga can take a hit and retaliate with Earthquake, but maybe the rest of the team could do something.



It's, uh, not looking like it. I don't think Wargreymon survives a stock Earthquake, but I guess we'll never know.



Because Nobunaga conquers all. Holy shit.



Come to think of it, ever since our paths first crossed in GRANITE CAVE in DEWFORD, I had this feeling. I thought that you would eventually become the CHAMPION. My predictions usually come true. And where will you go from here? Fufufu, even I couldn't tell you that.



Well that was scary. While that's all the regular stuff the game expects you to do with the postgame, it's still not very long even with some cool Emerald additions, there's still a fair few things left. Next time though, it's something less scary than Steven.

Just kidding it's the Battle Palace.