Part 55: Holon Grasslands

Hello everyone and welcome to the Holon Region! We'll be here for the next several updates, so let's get comfy, yeah? Personally I'm excited, because there are a bunch of delta pokemon here in Holon and we're gonna be catching as many as we possibly can!



We're currently in Settlement Foxtrot. It's not really a town, per-se, it's more like an expedition camp. The Holon Region is a trackless place. The only paths you'll see are in the camps themselves. A lot of it is uncharted, and so the maps look a little more "wild" as a result.



assignment.





Everyone here is so friendly.



You may have seen the music note rock on the map above. This is actually a relic song wall, and behind it is a Delta Meloetta. We'll be back for her later, and I'll cover her then. Recall that in the last update, I mentioned that the final sliding tile puzzle is in this region.





If you read the thread between updates, then you'll know what we find in that pyramid. If not, then you're in for a pleasant surprise in a few updates!









The Emolga Taxi guy followed us to Holon, but we can't use him to Fly here. There are some pokemon you can only get via soaring, and we'll cover that at the appropriate time. The gaudy ass building behind him is the regon's equivalent to the pokecenter.



We can't enter our secret base from here, but there's a chansey to heal and a PC to swap the party around.



We'll see him later this update.

families.





Somehow I'm not surprised that Nora's also here. Being part of a research expedition seems like the sort of thing she'd enjoy.







None of the puzzles are brain twisters, but they do require some lateral thinking.



If, for whatever reason, you have fossils you absolutely must revive, this guy's here in town too.



The large building is the expedition HQ.









most of Holon is still wild terrain.







We've already met. I'm Professor Pine, of course, and that's Professor Maple.
Charmed.





I'm in the more experimental side of this project. I'm developing special pokeballs on commission for the University, and helping out with the study of Deltas found.



Was. Amy has raised more Delta species than anyone in this room, so she's the expert now.

That's right. I'm here to try and examine the Deltas here and see what they can tell us about the distant past of this region. Why are there so many Deltas? Why are Deltas usually so much stronger? These are the kind of questions I try and answer with my research.

where they come from.

It'd be nice if you could help us out, Amy. We can supply you with pokeballs and information you can't get anywhere else. Professor Pine can hook you up with any supplies you might need, and you and I can divide and conquer the region.

Sounds good!

If you go north through the grasslands, we have another settlement there. I can meet you there, if you'd like.
I'll be dropping by the different settlements. We don't have pokemarts here, so I can get you access to all the supplies you need.
Oh and... one of your friends was invited here, too. I think her name was... Nora? She was out looking for Delta Species Pokemon, too. I think she's working on something slightly different, but you might see her once or twice.

It's honestly a shame that Damian is missing out on this. He would have loved doing this sort of thing.

Anyways, thanks for coming, Amy. Let's meet up again!



Let's buy some shit from Pine.



Snore Ball - 1x catch rate. If it fails, it puts the pokemon it was used on into a 1 turn sleep.
Delta Ball - 5x Catch Rate on Delta species, 1x on everything else
Shiny Ball - 255x Catch Rate on Shinies, 1x on everything else
Ancient Ball - 5x Catch Rate on Legendaries, 1x on everything else



Pine also sells infinite amounts of honey for 200x cheaper than the guy at the pokemon league.





The biomes between the settlements are pretty big. The grasslands has a bunch of regular pokemon, and four Delta species to catch. So let's get cracking!



If that's what you really want, sure.











Fuckin'... I got some words about Delta Karrablast.













There's a hidden grotto in the corner of those trees just behind Amy. We'll be back for it in a bit.







Classy. Threatening to beat up a child.







Good luck.











Heheh. Jones.



Up on the northern end of the zone there's a sign.









Here comes Delta Treecko.



There goes Delta Treecko. The game doesn't let you move after you hit the buzzer, so you can't ambush him. We'll come back to this puzzle in a bit.







It's not like you can stop me!



Delta Karrablast hangs out in this tree trunk, but only during a real life full moon. The game tracks it down to the start time in minutes. So I had to google it.


And then I had to actually set my PC time and date to March 20th, at 9:43 PM.











Delta Karrablast's line is Fairy-type. Their abilities are Gluttony (Makes the Pokemon use a held Berry earlier than usual), Sweet Veil (Prevents itself and ally Pokemon from falling asleep), and Simple (Hidden; The Pokemon is prone to wild stat changes). To evolve it, you still need to trade it for Shelmet.

It seems like it's pretty powerful, but it's also a physical attacking fairy type. And this one doesn't even get Shell Smash to make use of Simple.







We can start the next puzzle by coming down to this little flower garden.



We have to disturbe the resident Combee.



No Vespiquen for us!







With Combee gone, we need to enter a building and return. For our purposes, a grotto works just fine, so...



In we go!



This isn't a normal hidden grotto. Only one pokemon lives in here.













I love that Delta Mawile is a rose bush. It's so fitting and I don't even know why. Anyway, it's Grass/Dark type! Its abilities are Serene Grace (Boosts the likelihood of additional effects occurring), Aroma Veil (Protects allies from attacks that limit their move choices), and Immunity (Hidden; Prevents the Pokemon from getting poisoned). Meanwhile, Mega Delta Mawile gets Regenerator (Restores a little HP when withdrawn from battle).

Mega Mawile losing Huge Power limits its usefulness, but it is a pretty pokemon at least.







Now that we've reloaded the area, let's return to the flower garden.



There's a Mothim here now!









We need to reload the area again, so... back in a second.



Now there's an Unfezant.



It changed genders between the map and the battle.







Reloading the area one last time...



'sup?











This is a different Delta Petilil. This one is Fairy/Flying type. Its abilities are Serene Grace, Synchronize (Passes poison, paralyze, or burn to the Pokemon that inflicted it), and Healer (Hidden; Sometimes heals an ally's status condition).

It doesn't learn very many STAB moves, though it does learn Moonblast and Hurricane. It's cute, but I don't see myself ever using it.







Let's go get Delta Treecko next! But first...



This was hidden in the Deta Mawile grotto.



You probably saw the Heart Swap statue earlier. Well, what we need to do is drag it over to where Delta Treecko runs past.



It's actually a fairly clever puzzle that requires thinking outside the box.



I like it.



That should be good enough.





He runs into the statue and just stops.















Delta Treecko and Delta Grovyle are Normal/Fighting type, while Delta Secptile is Dragon/Fighting. Its line only has two abilities... Inner Focus (Protects the Pokemon from flinching) and Iron Fist (Hidden; Powers up punching moves).

The slight problem is that Sceptile is a special attacker, with 105 base SpAtk, vs 85 base Atk. It learns mostly physical moves. Sadly, just another delta that doesn't have the stats to make proper use of the moves it learns.





If it had been a female, I'd have named it Julie-san



And I'm actually gonna cut the update here!

NEXT TIME: Holon Marsh