Part 22: Miara Town

Hello everyone and welcome back. After the awful way that the previous update ended, today's will be a nice breathing period. There's a little story, but it's nothing grim or mature or whatever. So let's get started, yeah?



That battle from earlier has wrapped up now that we've seen the prophecy. So onto Route 8 we go!



Route 8 is fairly straightforward. There's a few optional paths, and a couple houses, but otherwise it's a straight shot down to Miara Town.



Seriously what is with this game and fence mazes?



Thankfully we can just walk around it. I'm sure there's something in there, but I don't give a shit.







Yeah, unless you know exactly what to look for, you'll never see them.





There's actually a 50% chance to get that rare pokemon if the grotto rolls to get a pokemon. It still takes multiple resets to get it. The Desire Sensor feels no pity.



Searching for the grotto...









High Press continues to pay off as a coverage move for HenryDavid.



We'll be using this!









I'm sorry!



We can see the next roadblock just ahead. We won't get a pokeflute until after we finish the next major boss battle... which is coming up much sooner than you might think. Indeed, the majority of today's update is preparing for that boss fight.

pokemon!

Selene City is a very long way away. In fact, it's the location of the sixth gym of the region.



Just down from the Hariyama kid is the sleeping Snorlax.







It's the Farfetch'd. Everyone underestimates Daisy.

like easy experience.

Hey, fuck you!







An Ampharos and a Sceptile don't a complete team make.

anymore.

You can just have it for free.



Sweet. I don't really want or need it, but it's always nice to have the option. The PikaTaxi covers 99% of the uses of fly I'd ever need. The remaining 1% is flying to the high magnetism area. You'll see what I mean later in the update.



Ah! There's the grotto.





Delta Snorlax has a gimmick. See if you can guess what it is.

























Delta Munchlax's line is pure Grass type. The different formes above are only cosmetic changes. Do you remember that leaf we found a couple updates ago? That's one of the items that's connected to changing this pokemon's forme.

Sadly, we can't actually change them legally, so we're stuck with the Spring edition. The only way to change the seasons are with the Book of Leaves, which was only distributed via Mystery Gift several years ago. If there's interest I can obtain it via code injection in shops. But personally I like Spring Snorlax the best.

Anyway, for abilities this pokemon line gets Overcoat (No damage from weather), Thick Fat (50% damage from Ice and Fire moves), and Adaptability (Hidden; Powers up moves of same type).

Snorlax was already a wall, being Grass type with its moveset just reinforces that nature. It learns a lot of moves that restore HP, and very few offensive moves. Hilariously it can learn Toxic, making Delta Snorlax an amazing staller.





I asked several people and this was the only pun name. Honestly I expected to be inundated with weed jokes and nobody took the bait.



Just down from the salty ace trainer is the exit to Miara Town.





Miara is a pretty small town, with only a handful of houses.

: Ah, Miara Town. My favorite place in Torren. What a lovely, lovely town. It's peaceful, serene, and built of the shining sea.



Very stilted exposition.

: It's almost a shame, really. Perhaps, when I flood the region, I'll leave this town for last.

I'm sorry, what?





Judging by the fact that she has a proper portrait, there's zero points for guessing that she's an important character. We'll catch up with her at the end of the update.





Did... did you not just hear her talking about flooding the region?



The museum is our ultimate goal in this update.





There are no shinies for trade in the trade house.





regions.



This is a hint for a sidequest we'll be getting to in a little bit.







This is the trading hut. We'll check this out in a bit.





Cool.



I don't really like that the PikaTaxi is down there. The only way down there is through the musuem, which is kinda annoying.

southeast.



want to get in over my head.

I'm not sure what islands he's talking about.

Super famous explorer!











Makes sense.



The trade house has a bunch of people who want to trade various stuff.



Vigoroth can't be found until Route 12, a rather long time from now. You can also find it in friend safaris. Either way, there's easier ways to get Gengar.



There's a lot of wild Machoke in Samsara Cave. But you can also just wait and find wild Machamp on Victory Road.















Delta Koffing is Electric/Flying type. It's, uh, okay? I mean, it's got Koffing's usual stats so it's not great at any one thing besides having an odd amount of defense. Being flying type gives it the same ups and downs as Emolga... namely complete immunity to ground in exchange for weaknesses to rock and ice.

For abilities, the line has Cloud Nine (Negates weather effects), Amplifier (Boosts sound based moves by 1.5x), and Volt Absorb (Electric attacks heal).

To be honest I'm not sure why you'd want it to have Cloud Nine, since it learns Thunder at 51, and that makes it very dangerous to Kyogre in particular.



That's two towns in a row where people will take a Slugma for anything. Still not worth it because we can get our own in infinite amounts!



Tropius are available on route 13 or in the friend safari. So unless you desperately need a flying banana dinosaur now, just wait.



There's still a couple more places to look at, so let's go surfing.



If you talk to the flowerbeds on the far left or far fight of this girl, you have a chance to get a Sunkern.



This guy here in the bottom left of town is Jeffrey, and he has a sidequest for us.







Typically people give some information about the favor they want performed.

places like Kanto and Alola.

By thieves!



No need to post a map, because it's just a large square island.







This whole sidequest has the tone of a regular pokemon game.











Normally I don't bother with searching for hidden items. But because this is a one-time area, I'm cleaning the place out.



Also the directions on the Insurgence wiki are wrong. The person who wrote them couldn't tell West from East or Left from Right.



There's a handful of more trainers inside the storage depot.







A man of action! I can respect that.





I doubt it. Rollgirl was hitting your guys for supereffective damage.



Pretty sure this raises speed by 3 steps, but these things as far as I can tell never go on sale.











I like these burglars. They're so goofy and dumb.





This NOT joke just aged me into dust.







To the north in the building is the second room, with the boss burglar.









That's not the insult you think it seems to be.









Why is everyone always so surprised?









Wait, what?





This little guy here doesn't speak any language and is lower level than any of the burglars outside. I have so many questions.













Delta Haxorus may look familiar if you have a good memory. He's another part of my champion team that I posted as one of the first screenshots in the LP. Axew and Fraxure are both water types, while Haxorus is Water/Steel type. This guy is good. Really fucking good. He has a base attack value of 147!

The line has Strong Jaw (Bite moves +50% damage) and Water Veil (No burns). Axew and Faxure have Swift Swim (Hidden; Speed x2 in rain), while Haxorus has Heavy Metal. (Hidden; Weight doubled)

In fact, let me introduce you to my old Delta Haxorus.



You're reading that attack stat correctly. At level 102, he had 375. This guy was an unstoppable beast.



And he could make his attacks hit even harder with Swords Dance. Stuff that he hit had a tendency to not get back up after.



I probably won't be using him just to keep things fresh. But Delta Haxorus is an insanely strong addition to any team. Oh and for what it's worth? My old one only had an attack IV of 11.



Name courtesy of the SALT discord. It's pretty fitting, even if our Axew is a girl.











Alright so now all that's left is to prepare our team for the upcoming challenge. The next update is going to conclude with what I would consider to be among the hardest fights in the entire game. My first time through I, no kidding, reset this fight a good 8 times. There's no easy Wobbuffet shortcut for this one, and I don't want to overplay Boppo as a get-out-of-jail-free card.



So I'm going to temporarily deposit most of the team. Daisy, Rollgirl, HenryDavid, and Fancy are all going to the bench because of some aspect of the upcoming battle. Noel remains because I had this fight specifically in mind when I taught him Freeze Dry, and Dracolich stays because he can mega evolve.



After some shuffling around and conferring with both Orange Fluffy Sheep and Epicmissingno, here's the new team. Ahem is the one wildcard, but I like Whismur's line. vv Otherwise, Snorflax, Lucille, and Generator are all there specifically to counter parts of this upcoming boss team.









Now, I want to take Generator farther, but Magneton can't evolve on its own. It's one of the few pokemon that needs some outside influence to evolve. So we need to take a little road trip to the next dungeon ahead of schedule.



South of Miara Town is the next route. I'll actually cover it in the next update, but for now we need to pass through it.



It's always raining here, and the encounter rate is unnecessarily high.



Might need this for later...



At the far end of the route are the Whirl Islands, which may sound familiar to anyone who's played GSC/HGSS.



We just need to step inside one of the caves here...



The game never tells you this, but the Whirl Islands have an unusually high magnetic field... the sort that is ideal for evolving Magneton or Nosepass.



So if I stuff a rare candy down Generator's throat...



Great. Now let's get the hell out of here. I hate this place.



You guys seriously have no idea how much I dislike it. It's a high encounter rate maze, and if you take the wrong route you have to start over again.

But enough about that, let's meet the new team.





Ignoring the Lucky Egg that I forgot to unequip, Generator is a beast.





Noel is still amazing, but is probably going to be retired to the Hall of Heroes after the upcoming battle. The lack of Moonblast is going to fuck him over and will ultimately leave him behind other pokemon that aren't constrained by the limitations of stone evolutions.





Dracolich isn't done learning moves yet. Soon he'll have the Dark-version of solarbeam and it will be glorious with his mega evolution. Or if I just teach him New Moon.





I'm tempted to use my only Ability Capsule on Snorflax here, to make the upcoming boss's Ice Beams sting a little less. As you can see, though, the plan for him is to use Belly Drum, and then to settle in with Ingrain and Leftovers to make enemy trainers hate life.





Ahem is a couple levels off from learning Boomburst, sadly. His whole job is to hit really hard and, if need be, stall for time while I pump revives into the rest of the team.





Lucille won't be able to mega evolve until near the end of the game, which is a shame. However, I need her now. Her job is to put Curse on the boss every time it switches in.



Now let's go into the musuem.





Sure.



That's a pretty achievable goal my dude.



Most of the displays in here aren't worth mentioning. Just random fossils you can get from smashing rocks!











That was nice of him!



Uh... oh dear.



Indeed.



The question mark portrait will today be use in place of this fellow.

: It's very valuable, so I'll need to accompany you if you want to take a closer look.



: It powered Kyogre back in the days of the beginning of the universe. It was also involved in the Aqua-Hoenn conflict fifty years ago.



Spoilers for Alpha Sapphire I guess?

: It was generously donated to us by someone who wishes to remain-
: Oh, no way.



Oh hell.

: Ah, hello, Miss. I was just in a speech about this Orb, perhaps you-
: Oh, no, sorry. I'm only here for the relic.
: Ma'am, I'm sorry, but I can't-
: Save it. Let's make this easy for the both of us. I'm sure you know of the Abyssal Cult.
: You mean the terrorists? Are you trying to intimidate me?
: Well, yes, actually. I'm kind of a murderer. It'd be easier for both of us if you just moved.
: You don't even look like one of their members!





Smart man.

: What... what are you planning on doing with it?
: Well, you tell me. What could the leader of the Abyssal Cult possibly want with the artifact of Lugia?
: You... you must want it to summon...





: A secret compartment. Clever. It's hard to believe the Tidal Bell was this easy to find.
: The Tidal Bell? But... but...

underneath it?

: ...but that's the Blue Orb, the legendary artifact of Kyogre!
: You're absolutely right. But that's not the orb.



: The best place to hide something is in plain sight. Nobody would think to look for the Bell next to a fake Orb. And well, this cheap plastic ball here...



: Why...?
: Well, as the leader of the Abyssal Cult, everyone assumes I'm after Kyogre. Naturally, people don't want me getting my hands on the Blue Orb. Having a copy that's in a guarded museum... well, what better way to make everyone think I don't already have it?



: You're the one that Mew chose?



: To the south of Miara lies the current location of the Whirl Islands. When you're ready to lose, just stop on by.

Do you know why Audrey is terrifying? Because she's competent.



: I need to report this incident to my superiors. Oh man. I'm going to be in so much trouble.



Yeah, good luck with that buddy. I'm outta here.

Looking Ahead

Stormy Seas

Quagsire
Corphish
Tentacruel
Wingull
Sharpedo
Wailmer (5%)
Swanna (4%)
Delta Dunsparce (Need Dive)

Lanturn (Super Rod) (4%)
Feebas (Super Rod) (1%)
Huntail (Super Rod) (15%)
Gorebyss (Super Rod) (15%)

Whirl Islands

Golen
Lairon
Sealeo
Gigalith (5%)
Carbink
Glalie
Cryogonal
Delta Clamperl (Need Dive)

NEXT TIME: We face Audrey in the Whirl Islands.