Part 12: Vipik City

Hello everyone and welcome back. I wanted to show this screen to let you know how far along we are. Just shy of 15 hours is actually better than I originally anticipated.





Last update I was still recovering stuff from the crash, so I hadn't yet reinstalled RPG Maker XP. Here's the map of Metchi Town now that we're nearly done with it. Secret bases are on the far east of town, the pika taxi on the dirt path north, the exit is surfing south.



And if we ride our freaky water mount north...







This is just a little area hidden behind Metchi Town. There's nothing here yet except for a TM and a potion. There aren't even any wild pokemon encounters.



The door is locked and disused. So where are we?



This is the site of a sidequest in the postgame. We'll be back much, much, much later.



I'm making some preparations for later. This is back on Route 3, in front of the hidden grove.



Second try! Sometimes the items in hidden groves are worth checking out. I never think to post what can show up, because most of the time you're after the pokemon in them anyway. At any rate, we'll be needing that fire stone shortly.



Now that we have our evolution stone, time to surf due south.



Route 4 is both long and short at the same time. How, you might ask?



Here's a 1/4 scale shot. We enter from the top and Vipik City is off the bottom edge.







This is the only important thing that happened in the fight.







Thundervolt gained quite a few stats on evolving! Which is good, because she won't be turning into an Electivire for a while.

defeat you!





Dracolich is having trouble keeping up with the rest of the team. I'm gonna hold onto him until he turns into Charizard, but if he doesn't improve substantially, I'm gonna be hunting for a replacement sooner rather than later.

He takes on average between 3 and 5 hits to down something when hitting for supereffective STAB damage. Even the normally-impressive dragon moves are entirely underwhelming.





Anyway, after we take out the lying medium lady, time to go back north. You might have spotted the hidden grotto on Route 4 in the first shot. If not, it's right in front of Amy here. We're hunting for yet another Delta pokemon.



Only four resets this time! Not bad.















Delta Sunkern sucks. It's Fire/Poison type and looks terrible. Its stats are completely unusable, with a flat 30 across the board; 180 BST. It falls over if a Ground type so much as sneezes nearby. However, there's good news. Delta Sunkern and Delta Sunflora have the exact same moveset when leveling up, and it evolves with a fire stone.

I'm gonna use it. Sunflora has 425 BST, which ain't too bad for the early game. Its speed is still terrible, but HP, attack, special attack, and special defense all get substantial increases. It also gets a mega evolution that makes it extremely good, but the chances of us ever seeing the stone are so slim as to be vanishing.

As far as abilities go, Sunkern can have Flame Body (30% chance to burn on contact, makes eggs hatch faster), Analytic (boosts move power when its user moves last), or Poison Point (Hidden; Chance to poison on contact). Sunflora has the same. However, its mega evolution... that's another story. Mega Delta Sunflora gets Chlorofury (raises the user's Special Attack and Special Defense stat by 1 stage each.)

We won't be using him for long, but he's a key part of my strategy for the upcoming gym.







On the way back to check and see how usable Infector is, we find this little guy.









MudBath is okay. He's very alright. He's extremely not bad. Out of all the Mudkips that ever hatched, he sure is one of them.





Infector's stats are terrible, but I see potential in this disgusting oily blob. The ability is an unfortunate one. Normally I'd be pretty happy to get Flame Body right after unlocking the daycare, but it will literally not matter in about 5 minutes.



I can hear people getting angry right now. Dracolich and Gateau both went into storage for the time being. Gateau, being half fairy type, has zero business being anywhere near the next gym. It'd be like taking your Squirtle solo into Lt. Surge's gym.



Zucchini and Infector join the party instead.



Infector also blossoms into a... fiery sunflower-shaped oil blob.



Those stats are pretty good for level 10.



And while we're still in the pokecenter... do you remember very early on when I found a locked door behind the bookshelf?



Yeah, it's a shortcut into our secret base. So we can access it from any pokecenter in the game!



I also hire a pokemart worker while I'm in here. We'll be using their services quite a lot.

A short while later...





I forgot to grab a shot of his moves at the time, but here they are in his first battle. He's developed from a little puny weakling into an actual monster.



Zucchini also gets brought up to 30. He and Infector both are special attack powerhouses on the team, and they're gonna be doing the bulk of the lifting in the next gym.



Back on Route 4... you may have seen this house on the map I posted earlier.



Inside we find a Ralts.



Hooo boy. This is gonna take a bit...













This is a male Mega Delta Gardevoir.



This is the female variant. It is very important she have boobs, you see.















That's 28 different sprites from one starting point. I think that's the record, because Delta Eevee ain't a thing. Anyway, if you couldn't guess from the color palette, the Delta Ralts line is Electric/Ice type.

Ralts, Kirlia, and Gardevoir all have Lighting Rod (Draws in electric moves, gets +SpAtk from them), Clear Body (Prevents stats from being lowered), and Snow Cloak (Hidden; Evasion+ in hail) for abilities. Mega Delta Gardevoir gets Lightning Rod. Gallade gets Volt Absorb (Restores HP when hit with electric moves) and Ice Body (HP regen in hail). Mega Gallade gets Volt Absorb.

You don't need me to tell you why the Ralts line is so good. Electric and Ice are both predominately special types, and Delta Gardevoir puts them both to use with surgical precision. I used one through most of the game my first time through, and she only got better and better as time went on.





WhiteLightning wouldn't fit.

In fact, speaking of my old Delta Gardevoir... why don't we take a peek?



Lemonade is level 104. Look at those monstrous stats.



Ignore my shitty "EV training" and instead look at the IVs. She wasn't even particularly gifted in SpAtk and still almost breached 300 by the end.



Her only job was to kick ass, and she did it very, very well.



Anyway, back to the LP in progress...







No idea my dude.



This Doduo will be the last of the temporary subs for the next gym.





What can I say? "Be strong for mother" never fails to make me laugh.







Thundervolt chews up water types for breakfast. Anyway, just past him is the city limits!





In 1/2 scale, the image was like 1200px across, so this is a little easier to stomach.

carries everywhere.

I'll give you three guesses what's on everyone's mind.



I don't think you'll need that many.



The local pokecenter is a huge one, so if we want to do any last minute training, we need to go upstairs to find the bookshelves.







His ace will fuck up a fire type. Unlike Orion, Xavier doesn't really have a gimmick.









Thanks for the warning.











Stop lying. The fashion is the same between cities. So you can get the same clothes in Vipik that you could get in Suntouched.





This Volbeat gives us a bug gem.





If this sounds like Torren hasn't found a replacement for one of the gym leaders... it's because they haven't. The region only has 7 badges. To challenge the League, however, you still need 8. It's kind of a major problem.







Oh god, I'm gonna have to cover all the new fish available now. But on the upside, we have the next rod already!



This kid keeps talking. And talking. And talking.



These guards won't let us past because we haven't triggered the arbitrary flags necessary. It's a pity too, because there's some really nice pokemon to catch in there.



We can't leave the town because these two jerks decided to hold a conversation across the exit.







Sweet. These are always appreciated.



Elite Four status: still balls hard.



This is a Togepi egg.



This nice guy gives us a free Cleanse Tag!



I'm pretty sure this is the house next to the PikaTaxi. This guy is extremely important!









You read that right. For a nominal fee of $1 per step, you can pay this guy to take the number of steps required to hatch an egg down to 0. I wish I could hire him for my secret base, but it's worth the effort to come out to Vipik just to get him to sprinkle his magic pixie dust.





Floette starts appearing in a couple routes. It's not the immediate next one, but the one after that. You can also find them in friend safaris too. Sneasels can, likewise, only be found here and in a friend safari. This is a pretty decent deal, all things considered.







I just happened to notice this TM behind the tree. I never found it at all in my first playthrough!



Damian is patiently watching us run around the town.

Gym?

: So am I! I'm just getting ready.



That's an Abyssal Cult member behind him.









: Umm... no! No, of course not! We would... Uh... no, we didn't.

Damian you're a terrible liar.



remember?

: Nora said there was a prophecy or something.





I think that's enough for now. I need something stronger than Dr Pepper before I can write about that gym...

But, we have the Good Rod now. So let's see what's new.

Shade Forest (Good Rod)

Tympole

Route 1 (Good Rod)

Skrelp

Midna Mine (Good Rod)

Luvdisc

If the lists look a little thin it's because the Good Rod and Old Rod encounters are largely the same. You can also find some pokemon that were previously only found in Surf encounter tables as well, but I'm cutting down on repetition.

NEXT TIME: Gym #2!