Part 23: Whirl Islands

Hello everyone and welcome back! Today's update is gonna be a short-ish one so let's not waste any time!



Uh... sure thing.



I'd been putting this update off because I really didn't want to do this. I remembered this fight being an absolute bastard. The past tense there is intentional.



Anyway, this is the Stormy Seas route. It's fairly straightforward, just being L-shaped.



A few wild pokemon are wandering around on the map. If you talk to them, you can fight them. You can encounter both Quagsire and Crawdaunt in this way.



The route is also full of boulders and debris like submerged trees and scattered leaves. Just south of where Amy's... uh... ride is parked is a dive spot. Once you have the ability to do so, if you follow that, you'll wind up in a little place called Lush Island. On Lush Island is a tree you can interact with. In that tree...





Delta Dunsparce is Water/Bug type. I've never used Dunsparce so I don't have personal experience with how good it is. I'm gonna lean on the side of saying "probably not very." Its abilities are... Hyper Cutter (no attack reduction), Swift Swim (2x speed in rain), and Skill Link (Hidden; Multi-strike moves hit more times).

It's a curiosity, but I probably wouldn't use it.





There's not much to see on the previous route. There's no trainer battles and you get interrupted every 10 steps with another Mantine looking for a fight.



On the other hand, there are five entrances to the Whirl Islands. But before I forget, there's another dive spot near the top two. Follow that one and you'll find this little cutie...













Delta Clamperl is pure Dragon type. Delta Huntail is Dragon/Dark, while Delta Gorebyss is Dragon/Fairy. Clamperl comes at level 40 and only learns Shell Smash at 50. Both Huntail and Gorebyss are pretty good choices. Gorebyss learns a lot of Fairy moves and barely any Dragon moves. Huntail, being physical focused, learns all sorts of stuff including Crunch and the elemental Fang moves.

All three have Pressure (foe PP usage +1) as their basic ability. Clamperl gets Battle Armor (Hidden; No crits received), while Huntail gets Strong Jaw (Hidden; bite moves +50%) and finally Gorebyss gets Marvel Scale (Hidden; Defense +50% with status affliction).

My inclination is to say there's better dragon types to use, so give these guys a pass. Though if you do wind up using them, they don't appear to be too bad.



Anyway, we won't have Dive for a while yet. But if I don't cover these guys now I will never remember to come back and do so.



The Whirl Islands are a maze of interconnected caverns. You might see something while wandering through that you can only access from one particular entrance. In this case, we're going in via the southeast island.





I'd give you a map of the interior, but I honestly can't tell the individual levels apart. Posting the RPG Maker map would be more confusing than helpful I fear. So instead just relax and look at the pretty screenshots.





We're just north of the ladder from here.



You took the words clear out of my mouth, nameless grunt.



Given how confusing this place is, and how much I would prefer to not gain more levels than necessary, I'm going to skip every trainer I don't have to fight.



In fact, this is the only cultist we're battling on the way to see Audrey.



That way I don't have to keep going back and forth between these islands and Miara to keep replenishing my team's PP.





Yes, we just came all that way for a friggin' Meloetta tile puzzle. I still need to go back and do the one in the Helios Sewers, but



Skipping ahead five minutes...



That's 2/8!



Speaking of Meloetta... here's another Relic Song wall. This one is going to make Zeratanis upset, because he's been asking me to please use a Gyarados. This particular wall is hiding Gyaradosite. Remember, we can't bust these open until well into the postgame.



According to the directions on the wiki, we can enter either the northwest or northeast entrances to wind up where we need to go. Also pictured: the diving spot that leads to Delta Clamperl.





First floor is pretty simple.



We've seen this section in a previous screenshot. The ledge on the bottom of the screen is where we were wandering around in order to reach the Meloetta puzzle.



Sorry my dude, you are simply not worth the time or energy it takes to fight. There's also absolutely nothing up on the ledge that requires rock climb.



No, really. There's nothing up there. The item list on the wiki doesn't mention rock climb, and I'm certainly not fuckin' coming back in the postgame to check.





Y'need to hop down this ledge to continue.









Back on the bottom floor again...



We could have saved so much hassle if Amy could have slid down from the tile puzzle.



It's like he saw Amy passing by but didn't want to bother her, so all he can do is just repeatedly sigh in the most passive aggressive way possible.





This is pretty obviously the boss arena, so you should probably drop a save here.

: I was getting worried you wouldn't show up. After all, we wouldn't want to start without our special snowflake hero, would we?



: Lugia, the guardian of the sea, the Stormslinger.

The Stormslinger is a nickname that was made up for Insurgence. Googling "stormslinger pokemon" brings up a bunch of Insurgence let's plays and then a bunch of results about the weapon from Horizon: Zero Dawn.



Going to give the game the benefit of the doubt here and assume they're talking about the manga character.

: But now, the Whirl Islands- its home- have returned. The domain of a legendary pokemon isn't an ordinary place... It's connected to that pokemon's artifact.

Flute.



: Now, emerge, Lugia! You will be mine! You will become my pawn... and soon, the world will tremble in fear!



These old ladies dance around Audrey for a while. I have so many questions right now.



Lugia's cry starts ringing out in the cavern...







Fuck. This is the moment I've been dreading...





Okay seriously. What is with these cult leaders in the Torren region treating the very pokemon they worship so casually?

: Hi Lugia, how are you? I'm fine. I'm glad you answered my call. Well thanks for listening.

: With your strength, and my leadership, this planet could be ours.



: What do you say? Will you join us? Will you work under me?





Sadly Lugia is dumber than Darkrai and decides that Audrey has some fine ideas.

: Of course you aren't. You'll want to battle. But here's the thing...



: Why would I? Beating me won't change a thing. You walked right into a trap.





Like I said last time, Audrey is actually a competent villain.

: I'll give you a chance to prepare. I won't indignify the Stormslinger by having it fight a weakened opponent.



"A chance to prepare" means a chance to shuffle our team and apply healing items before the battle starts. Also the chance to softlock your game if you save here and can't beat her team.



For no particular reason, let's put Snorflax up front.

let's begin!





Read 'em and weep boys and girls. Unless you can put a stop to it, Audrey's team is designed to hurt. Bad. Her Lugia in particular is particularly tanky.



I'd like to pretend that giving Snorflax Earthquake was a stroke of genius that I prepared specifically for this. I'd be lying, though it does work out quite nicely. I put Snorflax on the team to shut down the electric half of Lanturn, and if need be to shut down Swampert.



Paralyzing my fat tree bear was not a smart move.



Didn't even need to set up Belly Drum. Lanturn got two shot by Earthquake.



Lucille is here in particular to make Lugia hurt.



She barely survives the first hit, but it's enough to put a time limit on the most dangerous part of the fight.



Next turn she goes down, but the damage has been done. Generator is in now and he can take Lugia's hits all day long.



Between Discharge and Curse, Lugia goes down hard. And just like that, the fight is over. Oh sure Audrey has four more pokemon but... the fight is over all the same.



See, her team has kind of a crippling weakness to Freeze Dry. Kingdra, Swampert, and Ludicolo all take 4x damage from it.







Crawdaunt is somewhat threatening, but is also a solved problem. Why is it threatening, you may ask?





Mega Crawdaunt has a BST of 568, and has Adaptability. Unfortunately, it can't take special hits very well (only 85 base) and its HP is outright terrible (63 base). Meanwhile, Generator has the highest special attack on my team by a wide margin and deals supereffective damage.



It went first, but Generator hit harder and one shot it despite the mega evolution.



In case you thought I was kidding about how insane Generator is. His special attack is just a tad lower than Dracolich's when he's mega evolved.



So yeah, like I said... the fight was over once Lugia went down.



If you're unprepared, this is one of the hardest fights in the game. I, uh, may have overprepared.

Crawdaunt.

: Fine. I'll let you live... for now. But be warned, Amy, if you ever cross my path again, I might not be so merciful. It's time to move on to the next phase.





And now we have to backtrack all the way out. But fuck that... time to use an escape rope!





And cutting out the backtracking to town...





Islands to challenge the Abyssal Cult.



It's not like you could have stopped me, y'know.



And it's definitely not like you could have remotely stopped her.







Route 9 is open for business!



Now before we end this update, let's go over some administrative stuff.



Noel is retired into the Hall of Heroes. With how well he performed against both East and Audrey, it is a well deserved rest. Lucille likewise joins him in the Hall of Heroes for her pivotal role in taking out Lugia. Snorflax and Generator, while both having done their jobs admirably, are benched and earmarked for future use. We're not done with the Abyssal Cult. Not by a long shot.

Otherwise, the old team returns and Ahem will be joining them for the time being.



I finally remember to take away Rollgirl's Toxic Orb and replace it with some Black Sludge instead. Now she has a steady drip of healing over the course of a battle!



And now with the administrative tasks over, let's finish up.







Thank god for Heavy Balls.



On the way back to town to heal, I accidentally step in grass and find this lady.





Fitting, I think.



And now we're finally done!

Looking Ahead

Route 9

Raticate
Ninetails
Primeape
Loudred
Hawlucha
Klefki

Route 9 Hidden Grotto

Treecko
Mudkip
Honedge
Delta Combee (Another member of my Champion Team!)

Sonata City

Cyndaquil (Trade Druddigon)

NEXT TIME: Preparing for the fourth gym!

BONUS:





We can't get a Delta Snivy until the postgame.