Part 14: Vipik Dump

Oh hi there. I didn't see you come in.



I probably shouldn't have won that gym battle. It was full of bad playing and bad decisions. But the file's already been saved over and I sure as fuck ain't redoing all this crap. The save file is just shy of 17 hours and that's way too much game to replay just to redo a hard fight.



Infector, Zucchini, and Clarence all get benched. They served their purpose well. Gateau, Dracolich, and Chompy Boy come out of storage.



You all also spoke and asked for a Venipede. Well because nobody did like I asked and suggested someone to bench, the monkey's paw curls a finger and duranduran gets sent to the Hall of Heroes.



So let's go catch a Venipede.



The Abyssal Cult are here in force. Every time I type that name I have to seriously stop and think hard about what it is, because the temptation to call them Team Aqua is really strong.



Here we go!





I have to admit I couldn't come up with a good name for Scolipede, but kept coming back to Whirlipede instead. I think it works regardless.





Now we have a teensy problem. Venipede reaches its final evolution at 30. Rollgirl here is level 30. I thought about getting a Ditto and breeding another one, but that potential is pretty good. So we'll just live with it.



In fact, her moves are pretty good too. In a perfect world I'd change Agility out for something that raises her attack even higher, but it's still pretty workable.



Don't mind me... just temporarily modifying the mart worker in my secret base to sell Heart Scales.



And buying enough to last for the entire rest of the game. Don't worry, I'm not going to abuse the system. Some pokemon can learn their hardest hitting moves with heart scales as soon as they evolve. That wouldn't be very interesting. Instead, I'm holding onto these "just in case." In fact, we'll find a legitimate use case for these in the next update.



The move relearner gets shunted off to the back corner of the base where we don't have to worry about him.



The reason I bought these in the first place is because of Rollgirl's high level. I've never used a Scolipede before, so I don't know what it might learn at evolution. The answer is nothing worthwhile.



Also want to show this off. With the second badge, we can now use up to level 40 Audinos. The next gym battle isn't for a little bit, but it's a few levels above that.







I could teach her Megahorn right now, but it's one of those high damage "less than perfect accuracy" moves that I hate anyway. So... fuck that. And Baton Pass wouldn't be very useful because all she has is Agility for stat boosting moves anyway. So we'll just roll with her as-is.



All the trainers in the dump are around 34-35, so let's get everyone else caught up.





Thundervolt has probably the second lowest stats on the team, but is still an absolute beast.





Gateau has impressive stats but... well, if you don't read the thread between updates, you'll see. Suffice it to say that I'm not impressed with the meme pokemon.





Chompy Boy still feels kinda fragile, but some upcoming routes will be his time to shine.





If Rollgirl had a better stat boosting move, she'd be nearly perfect. Pity she can't learn Bulk Up.





HenryDavid is a lot better than I expected one of the gen 5 wireframe muppets to be. His day to shine is still a long way off, but it will be glorious when it arrives.





Dracolich was this close to being benched. I'm still not entirely sold on him to be honest. He's probably next on the chopping block if he doesn't start impressing soon. About the only thing to look forward to is he'll be the first on the team to get a mega stone here in a few updates.

Also yeah he evolved.



So with our team all between 35 and 37, let's go rescue Damian.







Thunder Punch goes in favor of Discharge.



Given how hard Thundervolt is about to kick the entire organization's ass, I think this no longer qualifies as a trap. It's just an old fashioned ass kicking.



By the way see that trash? Amy is a very lazy little girl. As such those discarded potato chip bags are insurmountable fences. Same with the bottles and balled up paper.



Here's the map of the dump.



Here's the path we have to follow. I don't know what the Insurgence devs' obsession with mazes was all about, but I'm glad they eased up on it.



It's kind of a pain in the ass to navigate.





Bold words for someone whose two pokemon both got swept in a single turn each.

I'm the strongest trainer there is!

I'm skipping the "would like to battle" screen because it's a bunch of mostly identical cultists.



unstoppable!



Thundervolt is getting more and more powerful by the battle, but is also the most reliable way to one shot their stuff.





Underestimate? If anything I overestimated you dipshits.





No...? Why on earth would I want to lower physical defense with a pokemon that I'm using as a special attacker?



These past couple that claim to have been "among the strongest grunts" is really damning the Abyssal Cult, huh? These guys are so worthless.



You can leave the dump at any time, they don't care. I needed to recharge Thundervolt after she spent most of her PP frying water types. She's also so far ahead that it's not even funny. So I'm gonna try something else for a bit. Gateau is up to bat!





Kyogre?



This Simipour made things harder than it really needed to.



This is a huge part of my issues with Gateau. It's just not very good. It has defenses of wet paper mache. One scald took it down to half health. Another took it to 4 health and burned it. So Gateau went down before it could throw a single attack.



Rollgirl takes out the Simipour and then gets clobbered by a crab.



So I learned the valuable lesson of "just one shot all the trash trainers and be done with it."



I'm trying to avoid overusing Thundervolt here, but this is often how Insurgence rolls. If you don't one shot your opponent, they'll often pull out some bullshit that makes you wish you had just done the easier thing instead. A battle that could have been over in less than 30 seconds instead required a trip back to the pokecenter to heal up.

won't be alive to complain about it, hmm?

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that this is entirely Nora's fault.



It was the easiest job in the world. She didn't have to do anything and the secret would have been kept. Instead, she felt the need to shout it from the rooftops.



This reminds me... need to buy some of these now that they're available for purchase.



You know, I'm not gonna hold Damian responsible here. He's just an idiot kid who got caught up in this whole mess.



I went and looked in RPGMaker to see who this is. The two on either side of this person are abyssal_grunt. This person is named '. Yes, just a single apostrophe. So given that this is probably just a faceless grunt, I'm not gonna give them a portrait.









friend.

: Don't do it, Amy! I'm not worth it!









I imagine the blue person is probably meant to be the leader of the Abyssal Cult. But until the game explicitly says so, I'm not gonna use a portrait. Also are these jerks under the impression that I'm carrying Mew around with me?



Despite ostensibly being a boss fight, this is just two trash cultists at once.



My only misstep here is forgetting that Discharge hits everyone. So Chompy Boy goes down to some friendly fire.



Bless Dracolich here, he thinks he's helping.



Thundervolt also finally hits level 44 where she'll remain until probably the next gym where I'll need to actually grind her up to the new baseline.



Yes who could have forseen that electric would trample all over water types?



We can't convince you, so I'll ask Mew.





seconds.

I have so many questions about that.







: Mew.



: Mew... you came? But... you can't leave Amy alone!



come here.



: Shaaay!







Shaymin summons some colored orbs.









Well I'd say that threat has been nullified.

That was amazing.

legendaries here?









: Why did you rescue me?





: Wow, I didn't think I was that special...





safe.



Please don't. Nora will probably go bragging about it to the news media.

: I'll meet up with you later, Amy. And thanks for rescuing me, I appreciate it.



transform and use the Seed Flare ability.

You remember all those pools of Nickelodeon Slime we've seen? All two of them? We can now turn them into pure water.



I think that's a good stopping point for now.

NEXT TIME: The Crossroads, the SHAME BOX, and more!