Part 17: Helios City

Hello everyone and welcome back. We've passed 20 hours and unlike the last several updates, the next couple are going to be content dense. But let's get started, yeah?



Through the magic of not giving a fuck, we have enough coins to buy everything we want.



Delta Wooper will be joining Gateau in the SHAME BOX. This actually brings me to something I've been tumbling over in my mind from the past couple of updates. The developers of Pokemon Insurgence understand that quality of life features are good; the story they're telling isn't offensively bad, it's not good by any means, but it's not bad either; they may have questionable dungeon design ethics, but on the whole I would say that the game is competently developed. However, they have a major, massive failing. A failing that's sadly kinda important in a pokemon game.

They can't design move lists for shit. We'll see this more later in the update, but think about all the Deltas we've covered so far. How many have been rendered unusable by attacks that are either too little too late, or just not there? It's most of them. The two inhabitants of the aforementioned SHAME BOX are perfect examples. Gateau and this new unnamed Wooper are both a perfect storm of having a terrible move list and not having the stats to back up the moves they do learn.

Increasingly it feels like the Deltas that do have usable moves and the stats to back those moves up are happy accidents rather than intentional. How, for example, do you make a fire-type that never learns any offensive fire moves after fucking Ember? Ember being a move that it learns by default and very likely no longer knows when you get it from the Game Corner.

I'm not saying that Deltas need a move list as involved as Pikachu's, but it feels like they barely even tried.



I used to know a person named Noel. Anyway, if this had been a female Misdreavus I would have 1000% been behind naming it Cirno. Also the name is kinda timely because the Holiday Season has started here in the US. I'm told the local Top 40 station started playing 24/7 Christmas music on November 4th. So let's celebrate with a cute little seasonal ghost!



My nicknames usually aren't very good. So like, don't forget if you want to suggest a new name for anything we're fielding, feel free. Seriously, I don't mind changing.



Last time I accidentally overlooked this person.





Now we can evolve TightLips into either of her evolutions!



When googling for the solution to a completely unrelated problem, one of the FAQs actually written by the devs mentions that you can press the P button to "refresh the map." This is the listed solution specifically to "this NPC got in the way and refuses to move" so good on the dev team!



The team's taking on both Noel and Sparky, so Chompy Boy and Rollgirl both go into storage for the time being. The Evil Team Du Jour has become the Sky Cult, so a bug type is not anything we want near that. HenryDavid will later be temporarily benched for the same reason. Don't worry, they'll be back later!



The SHAME BOX is also renamed to Benchwarmers. This may or may not have been influenced by Miss's amazing fanart of Gateau and a Farfetch'd.











Noel is pretty good, and his potential is pretty high in all the spots that matter.



Shit! A level 8 + Lucky Egg + Level 40 Audino. That's one hell of an XP payout, among the highest I've ever seen in a pokemon game. The other high numbers, I should point out, are also from this game.





Sadly I forgot to get a "before" shot for Sparky. So these will have to do again.

HP: 61
ATK: 18
DEF: 41
SpATK: 40
SpDEF: 37
SPD: 16



His potential isn't quite as high as Noel's, but it's still very usable.



Litwick evolves at 41, and that's coincidentally where this level spree is stopping.



Before we continue on, we're back out into the desert to wrap up the last several trainers we skipped.











I swear there's something in the water in the Torren Region. The random trainers out in the wilds are all insane.





At least the game lets us wander around in it freely. Imagine if we had to go through a bunch of really stupid contrived events just to get goggles.





What are you talking about?



Ultra Balls are always handy and always a welcome find.







Poor guy. He and Sue should start a support group.



There will come a time where I will basically bathe in repels. Sometimes you just want to get through a cave and not be stopped for a battle every 7 steps.



There's a few more trainers in here.

it, it's kind of unethical!





Unethical or not, you're the one who forced your magneton to battle a lantern.









This reminds me. Sometime in the future I need to go back to Telnor Cave to pick up a Cubone. Marowak is one of the very few pokemon that learns False Swipe by level up. Like so much else, the TM for that is located in a postgame route and it's too useful to not have access to.

So some homework for you all is to come up with a good name for a Cubone. We'll leave them on retainer and they'll assist with catching stuff as we progress through the game.



over the region!



As far as I can tell, Insurgence doesn't have that mining minigame from DPPT. A pity, because that was kinda fun.



Some day I will turn Constant Daytime off to show you all just how pitch black the night in this game is. You can't see shit at all and there's no way to brighten it up.





Route 6 is huge. The critical path is fairly straight, but ends in an inexplicable fence maze, but there's also a random mountain over on the right side that has a single trainer chilling at the top.



This guy ain't kidding. Helios City is gigantic.





No worries there.





This weird island in the middle of the route is over a dry riverbed. According to the wiki, some postgame stuff related to one of the Gen 5 Kami legendaries happens down there.







For some reason trainers started making little emoji faces. No idea why.











As per request, a Farfetch'd was caught and will join the Benchwarmers to become friends with Gateau and the Wooper.





Agreed. Bug types are amazing.



Bugs never got their due until Gen 5. Thank god for that rework. Rollgirl is a valued member of the team, and I'm not averse to un-retiring duranduran from the Hall of Heroes to saddle up for one last ride if necessary.





Normally I have a pretty good sense of direction. I somehow got lost on a linear path and wound up going toward the dead end instead.







Dangit Bobby!



I had to just look up what this does. By the time we get to the next screenshot I'll completely have forgotten. According to the wiki, the earliest we get access to Rhyhorn is the route that doesn't open until we finish the events in Helios City.



Why does a parade have to navigate a maze? Why do we?







I just saw the item in the corner of the image. Also the exit to the maze is directly behind Amy.



Is creating mazes just a phase that map makers go through?



Route 7 is entirely a linear path. The only time you can really deviate from that path is a tangent that's full of Mutagen Ooze.



Sorry, Amy already has the other job that orphan children stereotypically take up. If it's not "circus performer" then it's "RPG protagonist."











I actually spent the longest time running back and forth looking for a third trainer. The wiki claims they show up here, but they weren't anywhere that I could find. They aren't in RPG Maker either.

with people like you!





Talk shit, get hit.







I wasn't kidding when I said how huge this place is. That weird little speech in the opening took place in the square on the left side of the town. The Dept. Store has the orange roof in the bottom right, while the tower in the top middle both serves as the local gym as well as Jaern's headquarters.

The exit in the top left is another postgame route blocked off by rock climb. Pity too, because the False Swipe TM I mentioned is just a hop, skip, and a jump away from the other side of the loading zone. The route between the TM and Helios City is full of trainers with level 90+ pokemon



: I have some bad news. I went to the Jade Tower to warn the Augur, but there were already cultists there!





You have to give Damian credit. He's not a bright boy, but he's earnest to a fault. He's also perfectly willing to enter a tower full of cultists in order to protect the strongest trainer in the region. You have to admire that sort of drive.





Great. We find the only person in the region who vaguely recognizes Amy and it's a half senile old man.





Sweet.





Thankfully talking to the local NPCs fills us in on where we need to go next. And it's the fucking sewer level.



She's not joking. Everything is just that much larger in here.









Oh how I wish. Imagine the insanity of both Delta and Alolan Variants in one game.











This is true, yes. There is a Delta Cyndaquil in the distant future.





Wayy ahead of you.



themselves out.



Rude.









I like the people in Helios City. They're really generous! Sure, I'll never use the gem but it's the thought that counts.

Also pictured in those above screenshots is a shortcut we can't use until we get Dive much later in the game. This shortcut lets us get to the black market under Helios nigh-instantly instead of having to navigate the sewers.





The Department Store is gonna take a bit to go over. There's a looot of shit for sale in there. Someone in the Reborn thread posted a huge list of everything that's for sale, and that, along with the "it's not shit" testimonials was what convinced me to give the game a shot. Now it's 2 months since I read that and here we are.



On reflection, this might be the shortcut to the black market. I can never tell when it comes to single-tile dive spots.

criticize the Second Augur.

God forbid we criticize Glorious Leader Jaern.



If it feels like I'm jumping around, I'm trying to talk to all the outdoor NPCs before entering the houses.





To save ourselves from 8 unskippable text boxes, this woman is a Move Tutor for Eevee. But she only tutors unevolved Eevees. She can teach them the following moves:



and now I'm kinda annoyed because she can teach Moonblast, but only to Eevees. You'll understand my annoyance in a bit.







Wonderful. We can't get a Shaymin until the end of a long postgame quest.



Both this guy and the NPC in question act like this Barboach is an amazing deal when you can catch as many as you want in previous routes. Also the jerk wants a fucking Gyarados for it.



This is a Wynaut Egg. It's the only one you can get until the midgame. So it's a pretty good deal! I take this deal in order to, in the words of OFS, "put a gun on the mantle."





In fact, yes. A good ice type completely humiliates East's team.















Delta Lotad is Psychic/Water type. It's, unfortunately, another victim of the Insurgence devs' inability to create a proper move list. As far as abilities goes, this line has Magic Bounce (Reflects status moves), Synchronize (Passes poison, paralyze, or burn to the Pokemon that inflicted it), and Unaware (Hidden; Ignores the opposing Pokemon's stat changes).

Sadly, the moves that this wizard duck learns just aren't good enough. Take a gander, pun not intended...





Ludicolo, because it's a stone evolution, doesn't learn shit outside of TMs.

The potential is there, but it's just not enough to make it more than a curiosity. Of course, because it's a wizard duck, I'll make this decision for you all. Yes, it'll join the team for a bit because... wizard duck.

Just please be patient, because I have some things I need to do before we can get this little guy.







That's a lotta shots this game takes at Gen 1.



Thanks, I hate it.



: Oh, hey Amy! Remember me? Xavier! The Gym Leader!

after all.











Uh... no, that's alright. I wouldn't take care of it.







I feel called out.







No?



The sewers have an encounter rate that can be best described as "fucking obnoxious." There's a lot of items down there but... ugh.



Neat!







That's all the houses and NPCs worth talking to on the surface. So let's finish this update off by covering the staggering amount of items for sale in the Dept. Store.



This lady tells us about any of the 4 floors. She doesn't want us going downstairs, but can't stop us.











Right Cashier

Potion
Super Potion
Hyper Potion
Escape Rope
Repel
Super Repel
Ice Heal
Burn Heal
Full Heal

Middle Cashier

Poke Ball
Great Ball
Dive Ball
Net Ball
Timer Ball
Level Ball
Luxury Ball
Lure Ball
Moon Ball
Friend Ball
Love Ball
Heavy Ball
Fast Ball
Repeat Ball
Heal Ball

Left Cashier

Smoke Ball
Full Incense
Lax Incense
Luck Incense
Odd Incense
Pure Incense
Rock Incense
Rose Incense
Sea Incense
Wave Incense

Incense no longer looks like a word.

Artist

Styles Furfrou's hair.



We can never reach the ball behind this woman. If you somehow edit the game to make it possible, it displays the following message: "You and your hacking."



Left Cashier

TM17 - Protect
TM21 - Frustration
TM39 - Rock Tomb
TM56 - Fling
TM82 - Livewire
TM83 - Shock Wave
TM95 - Sleep Talk

Right Cashier

HP Up
Protein
Iron
Calcium
Zinc
Carbos
Power Weight
Power Bracer
Power Belt
Power Lens
Power Band
Power Anklet
Health Wing
Muscle Wing
Resist Wing
Genius Wing
Clever Wing
Swift Wing
Pomeg Berry
Kelpsy Berry
Qualot Berry
Hondew Berry
Grepa Berry
Tamato Berry

The berries are all $20. Someone who knew what they were doing with regards to EV training could do some damage here.



Right Cashier

Air Balloon
Toxic Orb
Mental Herb
Power Herb
White Herb
Absorb Bulb
Expert Belt
Metronome
Scope Lens
Wide Lens
Zoom Lens
Quick Claw
Lagging Tail
Focus Band
Focus Sash
Flame Orb
Amulet Coin
Red Card
Eject Button
Rocky Helmet

Middle Cashier

Deep Sea Scale
Deep Sea Tooth
NeverMeltIce
Dragon Fang
Electirizer
Magmarizer
King's Rock
Protector
Razor Fang
Razor Claw
Up-Grade
Dubious Disc
Prism Scale
Soothe Bell
Metal Coat
Dragon Scale
Reaper Cloth

Left Cashier

Fire Stone
Thunder Stone
Water Stone
Leaf Stone
Moon Stone
Sun Stone
Shiny Stone
Dawn Stone
Dusk Stone
Everstone

I buy a Focus Sash, an Electirizer, a Wide Lens, and a couple Shiny Stones.





And here's where I fuck up. Misdreavus and Lampent both learn Moonblast around level 50. But there are no moves on Mismagius' and Chandelure's move lists, so they can no longer move the fairy equivalent to the move Psychic. I realized almost immediately how I fucked up, too. Sadly I had already saved, and the previous was a ways back.



So let's end the update with this little look at the team as it currently stands.

NEXT TIME: The sewer level, the black market, and a fuckton of leveling!