Part 34: Selene City Gym

Hello everyone and welcome back. Today's update should be fairly fun, because all we're doing today is getting the 6th badge! So let's not waste any time.



First off, as much as I love Centaurion, this is definitely not the dungeon for a fighting type. He would get eaten alive in there. So let's meet the "new" team. I say new, but it's mostly old friends we've seen before.





Dracolich is a shoo-in for the psychic/ghost gym. Dark and ghost attacks do nasty things to both types.





Fancy's time on the team is limited. Having multiple mega-evolvers on the team is a bad idea anyway, and the one thing I wanted to use her for is no longer a viable option. She'll probably be sticking around until the end of the Infernal Cult though, because she's still an Earthquake sweeper and they're the fire cult.





Beeisel is Beeisel. How can you not love the tanky engine bee?





I actually hadn't intended to use Wrath again, but she fills the water-and-flying type coverage nicely.





This is our first proper introduction to Flamenco, our Delta Roserade. I've swapped his ability from one that gives passive healing during New Moon to one that doubles his speed. A level 65 functionally having 298 speed is both wonderful and absolutely nuts. Also three gyms and 15 levels later we finally have a fairy type with Moonblast. Attract is there just for shenanigans-related reasons.





Despite every instinct in my body telling me that Leopold doesn't hang, I bring him along because bug type against the psychic gym! Rollgirl is half poison type and would get just as fucked up as Centaurion.





For what it's worth, there's a liminal route just next to the gym. It leads up to the Dragon Ruins that Taen talked about several updates ago.







There's nothing of interest here.



If you, somehow, have a Deoxys, you can apparently use these rocks to change out its formes. Anyway, back to town.



In the middle of town there's an obvious dive spot.





There's not much we can do in here right now. We need another Mew DNA power to do anything in this tower, and there's just some random wild pokemon to be caught here in the grass. If you look really carefully, you can see a small hidden grotto just to the right of the tower.



In here is a really pretty flower garden where you can find, as I understand it, close to if not all of the different worldwide variations on Florges and Vivillon.



Case in point. This appears to be the... pokeball pattern.


I didn't catch it because I'm not interested in a complete catalogue of butterflies, but it's really cool that you can catch limited-time event-only patterns here!









I love that the further in the game we get, the more powerful these tutors are. Seed Bomb and Giga Drain are both absolutely amazing to be freely available like this. If I didn't already have Energy Ball on Beeisel, I'd be using one of these instead.



Sadly, only Leopold can learn Giga Drain.



And Fancy can learn Seed Bomb? Sure, whatever!





Anyway, we'll be back in a few updates once we can do stuff in this tower. Delta Noibat and the start of the Delta Ditto quest await! And, yes, at the top in the post-game is Ho-Oh. It may be up there before the postgame, but it's also level 100 so... y'know.



That's enough stalling, let's go kick Diana's ass.



Thinking back on it, I probably should have made this dude a portrait. Oh well, 6 gyms in is too late for that!

favorite types: Psychic and Ghost!

Ghost-types too!











There's a path through the gym to skip all of the trainers. But we won't be taking it. Why? Money, son! Each of these jerks pays out between $2000 and $4000. With 12 trash trainers in the gym, that's a lot of turns on the Audino trainer.




While I blunder through the rest of the dungeon and extort these psychics for their lunch money, try to imagine what the riddle here is.



The "maze" is just a linear path with some trainers along the route. The other side of the gym is either its mirror, or is very close to the same layout.







At level 65, Dracolich needs approximately 2 Level 70 Audinos to level up. Each one gives nearly 7,000 XP. There is next to no chance of leveling up off of these fights.









Sounds reasonable I think.





Cass isn't a psychic, game. She's a hard-drinking cowgirl in the post apocalypse who lost her caravan in an ambush.





There's 3 trainers in each section, and there's four sections. So let's go backwards through the right side now.







breaking a sweat!











I want to point this person out because they have the only Beheeyem in the normal game. You can't actually catch one until a route very very deep in the postgame.





That's half the gym done, so let's tackle the other half now. But first...


It's a pretty simple riddle. You've probably already guessed the secret, but if not just hold tight.



Rude.





I...







Sure you might say I use Mega Evolution too much. But also consider that I don't use it nearly enough!



Yes, I know the trick. But I need to bully all the nerds in here.





He says while paying me $3,600 because I beat up his puppet and balloon with my elephant ball.



It's like they didn't consider that I wouldn't beat these guys on basic principle, XP reward be damned.





I love how they keep acting smug about it while paying a large chunk of money to a small child that just kicked their asses.

of Psychic-types.

You know what? Fair.











Thanks for the vote of confidence.



That was all the trainers in the gym, so after a quick pokecenter trip, here's the solution to the riddle.



Yeah. Just walking straight past the sign and into the wall.



Both walls.



: Welcome, challenger. I am Diana. Leader of the Selene City Gym. The Gym I run is themed around dreams- and as such, I specialize in both Psychic- and Ghost-types.





I made $34,952 from the trainers in your gym.

: When it said to walk right ahead... well, I couldn't be any more literal! But anyways, enough of that, right? Let's get this show on the road. Get ready to lose!





A black outfit, black tights and blue heels do not go together. At all.



Prankster Sableye is very very dangerous. It's a good thing that Flamenco is up first! Also Cresselia is here too. Hm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. I wonder if that's significant!





Flamenco shuts down the Sableye with a moonblast. So whatever nonsense this sucker was gonna perform is no more.





Flamenco tries to set up a two-turn whammy on the Gengar, but then eats shit because of his poison weakness. He goes down, but the damage has already been done. This is not an ideal environment for most of Diana's team, especially because New Moon lasts 8 freaking turns.



Dracolich doesn't even need to Mega Evolve for this one. Sure it's a gamble because of Shadow Ball and Icy Wind, but...



141 power. Instant-charge. Super Effective.



Another tenuous place for Dracolich because of that Moonblast and Ice HP on the Gardevoir.





I don't think it's a problem.



This is supposed to be Leopold's chance to shine. There's a slight problem.





Mega Gothitelle becomes triple-typed.





On its own, Mega Gothitelle is Psychic/Dark type, thus Leopold. However, she has an ability called Ethereal Shroud (Grants the user Ghost-type associated immunities and resistances).

So yeah. Triple-typed. Also it has a BST of 590.



A promising start, but...





Pity the AI doesn't realize that New Moon buffs ghost attacks, or she would have one shot Leopold with Shadow Ball.



Leopold hits far above his what his weight class might suggest for a normal effectiveness move.



He tried. God help him, he tried his hardest.



Dark Pulse really hurts under the New Moon, but Fancy was gonna win regardless. Her stupidly high attack combined with her inability to be one shot meant this Gothitelle was going down.



Hahahahaha. It wasted its White Herb curing its attack decrease. I love it.



A spoky ghost Chandelure may be, but Wrath can extinguish its candles easily.



Cresselia is her last pokemon. Dracolich comes back out to put an end to this farce.



May as well go for style points!



I don't know why I didn't just use Lunar Cannon.





Excuse me what the fuck, yo.



Thank god for full heals.



Cute, but futile.











: I guess it had to happen eventually! Congratulations. Here's your prize.



I have no idea what the cutoff even is anymore.

: This will let higher level pokemon obey you. It can also attract rarer wild pokemon in certain areas, such as the Friend Safari. And take this, too, as a gift from me.

Yep, now that we finally have our 6th badge, we get a second pokemon slot in our Friend Safari. The third unlocks when we become league champions.



Fuck YEAH.

: That TM contains the move Psychic. Psychic is perhaps the most well-known Psychic-type move. It's very strong, and very reliable. This TM is definitely an invaluable asset for any trainer.



: My boyfriend, Calreath, runs the Gym there. His team specializes around the Rain, so you might want to prepare for that. Oh, and don't forget- you can exit the Gym just by going straight down.







Sigh. Always with the Taen?



We'll deal with him... next time.

Looking Ahead

Route 13

Parasect
Flaaffy
Bellossom (2%)
Linoone
Dustox
Sawsbuck (Spring)

Dragon Ruins

Charizard
Feraligatr
Sceptile
Cradily
Golurk
Delta Bergmite*

* - Requires Mew DNA we don't have yet

Route 14

Plusle (10%)
Minun (10%)
Vespiquen
Pachirisu (10%)
Meowstic
Dedenne

Dewott (Surf)
Simipour (Surf)
Jellicent (Old Rod)
Barbaracle (Good Rod)
Horsea (Super Rod) (4%)

Route 14 Hidden Grotto

Bulbasaur
Girafarig
Sneasel
Scraggy

Oranos Town

Binacle (Old Rod)
Dratini (Good Rod)
Seadra (Super Rod)
Dragonair (Super Rod) (5%)
Gible (Trade any water type)

NEXT TIME: Into the Dragon Ruins. It's gonna be extremely dumb. Dumber than that. Dumber than that. Yeah, that dumb.