Part 63: Samsara Cave
You all voted to get Relic Song. So that's what we're doing. We're standing just outside of Samsara Cave, on Route 5.
This is one of the only routes in the game with waterfalls, making the Flying Carpet marginally less useful than the Flashlight. Also, this is the cave that leads back to the Nightmare Realm. We'll be back here in the next update. For now... further on up we go!
This little unassuming cave entrance leads to Relic Song.
As with every cave, the encounter rate is now officially Too High, so we're bathing in Max Repels to walk through.
Handy, I suppose. Weird that it's in the postgame, but whatever.
Samsara Cave is full of small mazes made of one-way ledges and rocks.
It's thankfully also pretty short.
I'm sure there are a lot of hidden items that I'm missing, but I don't care.
The cave has a lot of floor changes, going back and forth.
We were starting to run low!
The path is pretty straightforward. There's really only one way to go.
And even when there are multiple choices, like here, the branches are short and have items at the end.
Ah, here we go!
It's a straight shot to the end from here. 1, by the way.
2...
3...
4...
5...
My first time playing, I got stopped here because I had only collected 5 of the scrolls. 6, by the way.
That's 7...
And that makes 8! That's all the Mysterious Scrolls set into pedestals.
Now we're walking over top of where we were before.
Meloetta!
Meloetta is level 100. That means it knows the last four moves in its learn list. Let's just take a look at that.
One entry in that list might jump out at you. You only get a single chance to capture Meloetta. It knows Perish Song.
I caught it here because I kept trying the Snore Ball/Ancient Ball combo, and because it never used Perish Song. You may not be so lucky.
You get Relic Song regardless of whether you catch it, run away, or even if it enacts a murder-suicide.
And now all those walls that have been taunting us since the 4th update can finally be knocked down. I think it's time for a montage!
Telnor Cave... the first one we ever saw.
This wall scattered a bunch of items around and brought us a Delta friend.
I still love its silly buck teeth.
This isn't a Relic Song wall, but we've only recently gotten the ability to do this. We're in the Midna Garden.
Here's the deal... I hate catching legendaries. It always comes down to lobbing balls and praying, and Professor Pine's balls are expensive enough that each failure costs me thousands upon thousands of dollars. So each legendary I find on this trip, I'll give an honest shot at catching. If I fail several times, I'm just going to reset the game and move on.
Spoilers: we don't catch Cobalion. Or any of his brothers.
Next, we're back at the Ancient Ruins for the final time.
Two main things are hidden by Relic Song walls: mega evolution stones and legendaries.
Next, we're up near Orion's Gym, in Suntouched City.
We don't catch Zapdos.
This is Koril Town, at the entrance of the desert.
We've been able to do this since we got Rock Climb, but...
Like I said earlier, we don't catch any of the musketeers.
The next spot is way over in the Whirl Islands.
Good thing we were blocked from using Mega Gyarados until this deep in the postgame. God forbid we be able to use something like that unchecked.
It was around here that I remembered that we have a couple unmarked sidequests we can advance. So we're back in Metchi Town.
Thanks for coming. Hey, Derren. I'm just going to show this kid around to our little project.
Oooh. We get a chance to look at the daycare backyard.
I'm going to allow you to beta test our little... experiment. It's been cooped up here for too long, and we need to make usre it can do what we made it for. But, I gotta make sure you know what you're doing. The experiment is obviously a Delta- but if you can tell me what species it was originally, I'll let you through.
Uh... warning for the sheer number of incoming images.
It's Ditto, but Delta. The Insurgence devs actually gave it some neat utlity. It can learn three moves: Transform, Morph, and Retrograde. Morph is like Transform, but if a Delta species of the target exists, Ditto becomes that instead. Retrograde, meanwhile, lets Ditto undo an opponent's mega evolution.
But let's be real, there's only one reason you want a Delta Ditto.
Our next stop is actually back in Orion's Gym. You might remember that the trade sequence needed someone in here.
It's this kid.
Moss, eh?
Fancy ingredient, eh?
'sup Delta Liepard.
You might not even remember Le Feu. We actually need to talk to his friend in red there.
His friend in red who, for some reason, is allowed to wander around.
A badge, eh?
My dreams, eh? You've got yourself a deal!
Crystal Caves has Aggronite. There's another Relic Song wall deeper in, but we'll visit it the next time we have to come here. Because you never stop coming to this fucking cave.
There's Damian's ladder.
After a certain point, there isn't much to say about roundups.
We eventually find Jirachi.
Somehow, we catch it.
This is down in the foothills of Mt. Rose, just north of the Infernal Checkpoint.
Mega Shiftry is another Shadow Dancer, meaning its speed doubles during a New Moon. Its attack also goes up to 135, and SpAtk to 125, meaning it's a pretty powerful mega!
We don't catch Registeel. And while we could traverse Victory Road to get the legendaries there, we won't. Because fuck Victory Road.
Instead we're going back to Holon real quick.
Delta Meloetta is Dark/Fairy type. If it uses Relic Song in battle, it becomes Dark/Fighting type. As a mime, it has 128 base attack (part fairy), and as a Magician, it has 128 bas SpAtk (part fighting).
If the stats between its formes were reversed, it would be a lot more useful. Fairy is a shitty physical attacker.
We don't catch it, either. Not for lack of trying, mind you.
Anyway, that's quite enough for now.
NEXT TIME: We're going to save Damian