Part 57: Holon Desert

Hello everyone and welcome back. Let's go into the desert.



It wouldn't be a desert in a pokemon game without the everpresent sandstorm.



Slight spoiler, I suppose, for an event that happens midway through our trip here. Anyway, this spot is nice and wide open after the cramped marsh.

make it completely worthwhile!







Griping about the sandstorm aside, I actually like this desert . There are some thematically cool Delta species found here.





Same.







You can see half of a new Delta pokemon in this screenshot.













Delta Tangela is pure ground type, while Delta Tangrowth is Ground/Fighting type. Both have Dry Skin (Reduces HP if it's hot. Water restores HP), Sand Force (Boosts certain moves' power in a sandstorm), and Rough Skin (Hidden; Inflicts damage to the attacker on contact) as abilities.

Dry Skin covers one of its many weaknesses, but that still leaves it with five instead of six. It's not a bad pokemon at all. In fact, it seems pretty nice. But like so many other postgame Deltas, I really wish it were available sooner.

For whatever it's worth, Tangela still only evolves when it learns Ancient Power... at 38. Yeeeeahhh. At 56, it's already learned every move it can, so you have to spend several heart scales, or you have to breed it with a Delta Ditto in order to make it usable.



Still, a tumbleweed Tangela is at least a cool concept.



I can't see a tumbleweed without thinking about that joke from Fievel Goes West.



The desert is actually much smaller than the marsh, which I'm extremely thankful for.

take and reuse!





You're a dumbass who's out in the desert without any shoes.



I want that TM!







mistakes have been made





After we finish the mini questline in this region, a Delta legendary will show up here. I think.





We'll actually need this in about 40 seconds. If you remember the map above, you might have seen an arrow pointing at a wall. We need to go to approximately where it's pointing.









There's no indication that's there. The arrow made of rocks is not pointing at where you need to use Dig. You just have to kinda blindly grope around until you find the right spot. Oh sure, the arrow is meant to point at the spot, but for whatever reason, the interact point is misaligned.

















Delta Buneary and Lopunny are Fighting type, while Mega D. Lopunny is Fighting/Psychic type.

Buneary has Pickpocket (Steals an item from an attacker that made direct contact), Frisk (The Pokemon can check an opposing Pokemon's held item), and Limber (Hidden; No paralysis) for abilities. Lopunny has Unburden (Boosts the Speed stat if its held item is used or lost), Inner Focus (No flinching), and Limber (Hidden). Mega Lopunny has Hyper Cutter (Prevents other Pokemon from lowering its Attack stat).

D. Buneary also only evolves if it despises your guts. It needs the absolute lowest possible friendship to evolve. As far as usability goes, it's a neat gimmick, but it arrives too late to be very useful.





That's exactly what it is... a rotten little punk.



I...





Probably just a coincidence, I'm sure.





My dad actually believes this.





He legitimately believes that aliens gave predynastic egyptians something called Zero Point Energy that let them lift those multi-ton blocks into the sky as if they were nothing. He has multiple books on the subject.





For no particular reason, I'm going to restore everyone's health to full before walking into the pyramid.





Hey Nora!

It's so good to see you again, Amy. I'm glad you're doing well. It's crazy to think you're the Augur now. I remember when we both had our first battle back in Midna Town... And now we're out here, helping out with the Holon University Research team. You know what?



when we first met! So bring it on, Amy! I can't wait to see how far you've come!





The only "wait what?" gotcha is the Delta Girafarig. Everything else is no problem.



Centaurion has been doing most of my fighting, so this is a bit one sided...



But if there's one thing you can always expect an Aegislash to do, it's use King's Shield right out the gate.



Gotta love that 50% attack damage reduction right out the gate.



Even with 16 levels, that 50% reduction hurts.



Sacred Sword... not so much.



The second Fire Punch hurts juuuust fine.





A few turns later and the Aegislash is fucked.



Centaurion one shot it through its shield forme.



Cirno eats Flygons for breakfast.





Like so.









Generator two shots her Florges.



I guess Nora did that trade back in Torren.



A 4x weakness to Ground is not a good thing to have around Aragog.



Same with Celebi and its 4x weakness to bug.





the whole Giratina thing a while back. You're amazing, Amy. I wish I were as great as you. Anyways, I should get going. I'm heading up north.







This is bringing back memories of Ragnarok Online. The item we came to the pyramid for is in the far back, in that little alcove next to the red tablets. But there's also two Delta species we can pick up in here, and there's no way I'm leaving without them.



Most of these tablets don't have anything on them.



There are several tablets in here that have purple markings. You can kinda see them in the map above. All of them together give the answer to this puzzle.



This is the item we came in here for. This is actually the last HM replacement. The Magic Carpet lets us fly up waterfalls!

We can actually now return to the dream realm and do the first sidequest involving it.



Amy! Holy Pidgeot! You gotta come out here and see this. I'm just outside the pyramid- I was stopping by the desert to check on you and I saw the most incredible thing! Hurry!

We'll be out once we finish snooping around in here.



Earlier when I mentioned purple markings, this is what I was referring to.





3HM? Surf?



The pyramid is pretty easy to navigate with a map just outside of the game window.



3HM
2K

Okay...







Uh... huh. We can't even GET Delta Milotic until later in the region. I'll cover it then.



Anyway, that's all the damage we can deal on the first floor.





We're in the upper left corner.



3HM
2K
1SE







The top floor of the pyramid is so small that I'm actually using 1:2 scale in RPG Maker to show the map.



3HM
2K
1SE
4ET

We'll think on what that means in a minute.



I don't know how you're supposed to figure this out, because no indication is given of how long this sequence is, and if you can repeat colors. The password is Yellow, Yellow, Red, Blue.



Let's grab this too. We'll need it soon.





This is a special Delta. One I've been waiting to show off since before I started this LP.















Delta Torchic and Combusken are Psychic type, while Delta Blaziken is Psychic/Flying. All three have Keen Eye (No accuracy loss) as their primary ability. Torchic and Combusken also have Rivalry (Hidden; Deals more damage to Pokemon of the same gender) as their hidden, while Blaziken has Gale Wings (Hidden; Gives priority to Flying-type moves).

If you read that closely, that's pre-nerf Gale Wings. Combine that with Blaziken's stats, and you have a certified shitwrecker of a pokemon that gets priority STAB Acrobatics. It can also learn Psychic and use it effectively because fuck you, that's why.

Delta Blaziken is really goddamned broken. We only have one Dream Mist, and I feel extremely confident in spending it to get this guy his hidden ability.





Ramesses II is popularly believed to be the pharaoh who ruled during Exodus. His name was also translated into Greek as Ozymandias, King of Kings.

All in all, a pretty good name for the Pharaoh Pokemon.





The hole drops us back on the second floor.



Back down at the red tablet, let's see if we can make sense of our clues from the purple heiroglyphs.

3HM
2K
1SE
4ET

Putting them in order we get...

1 SE
2 K
3 HM
4 ET

SEKHMET?



Sekhmet is commonly depicted as a lioness.









Oh my god IT'S ADORABLE.













Delta Riolu is Dark type. Delta Lucario is Dark/Ground. Both have Justified (Boosts the Attack stat when it's hit by a Dark-type move), Pressure (The Pokemon raises opposing Pokemon's PP usage), and Mummy (Hidden; Contact with the Pokemon spreads this Ability) as abilities. Mega Lucario gets Defiant (Boosts the Pokemon's Attack stat when its stats are lowered) as its ability.

As for how good it is, it's friggin Lucario. It's good.







Anyway, that's all we can do in the pyramid.





While you were in the pyramid... something happened here. I know, right? Understatement of the century. One of our field agents here reported a battle between two powerful pokemon.



...but there aren't very many Ground or Rock-type legendaries. Regirock doesn't have any enemies as far as we know, and I feel like we'd know if Kyogre or Groudon were here. It MUST be a Delta. It MUST be. They said I was crazy. They said a Delta Species Legendary was a fantasy. An impossible dream.





Riiiight.

...anyways, please keep me updated. Let me know if you see these mysterious pokemon or find evidence of fighting. I'll call you. I'm going to head up to Settlement Juliet. You might want to head north, too, when you're done here. There's a lake, a mountain, and more that way.



Cool. Professor Maple is losing his mind. Good to know.



Anyway, that's quite enough of that for now.

NEXT TIME: Holon Lake