Part 58: Holon Lake

Hello everyone and welcome back. I just spent the better part of 8 hours recording this, and 75% of that footage is being thrown straight away because it's irrelevant.



First up, Generator is moved into the Hall of Heroes to join 24 others.



Demyx, the Wizard Ludicolo is back. You all asked if TMs could make him usable.



In short, yeah. TMs can fix a lot of his problems.



I took him up from 50 to 90 and he's merely alright. But everything he does, Cirno can do much better.



I seem to remember saying that Delta Mawile isn't very good, but for some reason you all wanted to see me use him. So, sure, whatever.



Here's the thing... by level 62, it's pretty damn apparent that it's just not good. Regular Mawile is barely good, and was largely only saved from obscurity by dint of its Mega Evolution giving it Huge Power. Delta Mawile doesn't get that safety net.



So I'm gonna give TuxedoMask his new home in the BestPalsClub.



Never used a Shellos or Gastrodon before.









MaryShelos seems pretty usable.



I took her up to 48, and she wouldn't be too bad to use in a normal pokemon game.



Please don't misunderstand, I don't hate her. I just don't see her having a place on the team in the postgame.



Giratina is standing too close.





If we give him a crystal piece to hold, he will become his primal form in battle.



Actually not all that impressed with his stats.



It's gonna be a bit one-sided, but we can use the DexNav to fight a bunch of trainers with level 50 pokemon.





Giratina automatically primal evolves.

Regular Giratina has a BST of 680. It's extremely high, but most of his stats are balanced. Primal Giratina has a BST of 820.





Its ability also becomes Omnitype, which... uh...

https://wiki.p-insurgence.com/Omnitype_(Ability)

It's just easier to link it than try to explain it. It hurts my head just trying to think about it.



So we'll just cut to the chase and drop PokeSatan back in his box where he belongs.





The next request takes us over to Route 14, just outside of Oranos Town.



While searching for the grotto on the route, I find this peeking out from behind some trees.



Ah, bingo.



Double bingo!







We'll need this young lady's services.





Hahahahaha. Yes!



It's like Artix never left the party!





Jumping ahead 45 minutes... Baggy here is something of a gimmick pokemon. She has the highest defense stat I've ever seen, and Bulk Up only makes it grow larger. But then once she's sufficiently swole, she plays a neat little Power Trick and suddenly that 521 Defense is 521 Attack. If she, somehow, could get off 6 Bulk Ups, she could have 2,084 effective attack!

Of course, then she'd also have the defenses of wet paper mache and a stiff breeze could take her out. vv Realistically, she's too much of a glass cannon to be effective. But in a theoretical punching bag scenario, she could deal some frankly shocking amounts of damage.

Anyway, I know I said I was probably done with the team overviews, but given that we're replacing four members I think one is called for here.





Blaze is a Delta Greninja, and he's there pretty much because I had an open 6th slot and wanted to fill it with something.





Virulence, a Delta Camerupt, can learn a pretty impressive number of moves. Poison Gas doesn't have perfect accuracy, but it's fine. It hits 9 times out of 10, which is close enough for government work.





I had a devil of a time pinning down a move list for Anubis here. Stone Fist, which used to be a mainstay of Centaurion's attack list, makes a welcome return.





Ramses has pre-nerf Gale Wings, and 110 power Acrobatics. He does learn Brave Bird by level up, so I could just as easily swap one for the other, and then give him a held item. While Psychic might look odd on his otherwise physical move set, don't forget that he has 309 SpAtk!



Cirno also makes an appearance here, because she's traded Psychic for Thunderbolt.



Now that we've caught up, let's cover some new ground. Holon Lake is up this waterfall, so let's try out our new magic carpet, yeah?



I couldn't decide on which reference to make, so... ¿Porque no los dos?





Holon Lake is huge. It's 140x120 blocks. It's also, I would say, particularly obnoxious. Now don't misunderstand me, all of the Holon Region has an encounter rate that could best be described as "way too fucking high" but the lake is one of two places in the region where there is no reprieve from it.

If you're surfing on the lake's surface, literally 90% of the encounters are against Tentacruel, with the remaining 10% being Starmie. Now look again at the size of the lake and despair. If your lead pokemon is slower than either, you're not gonna be able to escape the battles without taking some amount of damage as payment.

And if you choose to fight? Well, there are enough of both that you'll run out of PP for your attacking moves. There is no winning here short of bathing in Max Repels.

project.







The strawman trainer is describing a very real and very serious problem. Someone definitely was writing what they knew.

saltwater lake.





I just can't figure out why they disappeared- they had all these cool Delta Pokemon!











There's a whole cave system down there.





Who the hell had this dialogue originally and why are so many trainers copying it?



While wandering around, we get a notice.



Sorry, it's just a rock.



Anyway, before we go down to investigate that noise, we need to go over here first. Trying to be as efficient as possible, you see.



This is in the far upper right of the map. When we approach the turtle...





It runs away.



While chasing it down, this jerkbag hails us for a battle.







Just south of that guy is the turtle again.



And like before, it runs off.





This time it's under the water.



Was. Was under the water.



Another person wants to battle with us. This guy is in the south of the map.







Who's more pathetic, the little girl, or the guy who lost to her?



This island is just north of where we entered the map.



This is getting really old.



This is in the southeast corner of the map.



We're actually not chasing the turtle this time. We're going after a different delta. One that won't run away.



















Delta Snivy and Delta Servine are Water type. Delta Serperior is Water/Dragon. All three have Multiscale (Reduces damage the Pokemon takes when its HP is full) as their regular ability. Snivy and Servine both have Hydration (Hidden; Heals status conditions if it's raining) as their hidden ability, while Serperior has Drizzle (Hidden; The Pokemon makes it rain when it enters a battle) for its.

Here's where we run into a problem. Serperior is an alright tank, but it's not particularly great either. At best it's alright defensively. Most of what it learns is special attacks, and both its attacking stats are 75 base. To put it bluntly, it's mediocre at best.



No I will not raise one to show it off.



Gotta love the bad transliteration of "leviathan" used for Illusion of Gaia/Illusion of Time's English localization.



Anyway, our slippery turtle has fled underwater once again.



There's a cave hidden under the northern shore.



Once we surface, a cutscene takes over.



Can't see shit, captain.



The game will assume we were able to see what was happening, so lemme fill you in.



These two were fighting each other.



And then they ran off.



This is the Holon Undercave. There's several Deltas to find down here, so let's not waste any time.





























Delta Dratini's line is Electric/Water type. All three have Swift Swim (Boosts the Pokemon's Speed stat in rain) and Volt Absorb (Hidden; Restores HP if hit by an Electric-type move) as abilities.

It's only got two weaknesses. It's a pseudolegendary that resists 5 types. It has 134 base attack. It's good!





Close enough.



And behind Yu'lon is this!





Did I cover Mega Politoed before? I swear I did. Well, whatever. When in mega form, it has 600BST, with 140 base SpDef and 120 base SpAtk. It's just Politoed, But Better. Also it has Drizzle.



Anyway, onto the next delta.







This has officially Gotten Old.



Over against the far wall of the Undercave is a small dive spot.



Going in the door in the previous shot was actually a trap, because the dive spot is the only way to get up here.















Delta Mabgy and Delta Magmar are both water type. Delta Magmortar is Water/Steel type. Magby and Magmar both have Swift Swim and Rain Dish (Hidden; The Pokemon gradually regains HP in rain) for abilities. Magmortar has Mega Launcher (Powers up aura and pulse moves) and Filter (Hidden; Reduces damage from supereffective attacks).

It's pretty good! The Mega Launcher ability makes it an absolute beast damage-wise. Plus its typing renders it resistant to ten different types of damage, and fully immune to an 11th.





Not gonna lie, ScubaSteve is on my shortlist for a team slot.



What a strange spot to find something like this.



We're nearly done. Just gotta chase down that turtle.







Finally, the sixth fucking time we encountered it, we can fight Delta Turtwig.













Delta Turtwig's line is Water/Ground type. All three have Water Absorb (Restores HP if hit by a Water-type move) and Swift Swim (Hidden) as abilities.

It learns a large number of special moves, but TMs can fix that right up. If you can hold out on evolving Turtwig until 37, it can learn Waterfall. Gonna be honest, there are better part-ground types out there, but it's still a solid pokemon.





In case you don't get it.





Hey! Amy! It's me! Professor Maple!

Down, tiger, down!

Listen, I've got some interesting news for you. But first, any luck with finding those fighting pokemon? Remember? Like the ones we saw in the desert? You saw... Regice fighting with a similar-looking pokemon... except it was made of water?



The Delta won, naturally? Of course, it must have. Deltas are so much stronger! Ah, they didn't finish. I'm sure the Delta would have won in the end, though. They're the future of pokemon! They can't lose.





...but as I was saying, this makes it very likely that Regirock was involved in the fight in the desert. If Delta Regice was really fighting its inferior form... perhaps a similar confrontation took place.



We'd like your assistance. It's very possible that Registeel is going to confront its Delta form, too! Maybe we can trap it? Study it? Definitely do nothing malicious with it? Please come north. I'm waiting in Settlement Juliet. That's the settlement right up the mountain.



That's enough for now!

NEXT TIME: Holon Jungle