Part 60: Holon Mountain

Hello everyone and welcome back. Today we're gonna climb Holon Mountain!





It's not nearly as complex as it looks. In fact, it's mostly a straight path with a couple small detours.







Running up and down a mountain seems like it would be really bad on your knees.





The Hyperspace Hole drops us on a ledge fairly high up.



Rock Polish I could take or leave, but that Relic Song wall is going to stop us from getting one of the Deltas on this route. I'll explain more when we work our way back up to where it is.



If we follow the small stream to its other end, opposite the Hoopa portal, we find one of these. There's actually quite a few really nice, rare items to be found here like vitamins and several TMs.



ScubaSteve comes out to lead the party as we climb up to the first landing.



It's been a while, hasn't it? I haven't seen you since the pyramid. Listen, so we're going to battle. That's obviously going to happen. But before we start... you know Professor Maple? I haven't really been working with him, I've been helping out Professor Pine, but he's been acting super weird.

legendaries.

Someone made the comparison to Mr. Crocker and, yeah. It's impossible to take Professor Maple seriously now. Not that it was possible before but... you get what I mean.

He might be losing it. I'm worried. I think the whole Delta thing is getting to him. You're working with him, right? You might wanna keep an eye on him. But anyways, you know why I'm here.







Nora's traded her Delta Girafarig for a Delta Maractus. Her team is also higher level than 6 out of 7 of the Timeless, and she could probably easily beat Red. So, y'know, we need to take her seriously.



This is ScubaSteve's first real test.



He very nearly one shot her Aegislash with Dark Pulse.



And it wasn't a weak hit, either. That was with two 30% damage boosters attached.





Sacred Sword hurts quite a bit, but...





Something I forgot to mention is that this route is perma-hailing. And Aegislash is well below the 1/16th tax it takes per turn.



Her Darmanitan is up next.



ScubaSteve is the best.



Maractus-bot vs Virulence. An odd matchup you might think.





Even though Delta Camerupt learns Corrode naturally, he can also learn Flamethrower. And he has enough SpAtk to make it viable. Plus, Poison Gas (Toxic)/Venoshock is a very potent combo.



Cirno against Flygon.





It's a tale we've seen several times now. It's a little faster, but Cirno can one shot it.



Poor Florges. Something like Virulence is the sort of thing that gives fairy types nightmares.





Moonblast hurts, but Virulence can take it. The punishment he dishes out in return is more than enough.



Even from the earliest encounters against this Celebi, it's continually run afoul of my bug types and been one shot for it.



X-Scissor is one of the best physical moves that bug has, and when backed by a Metagross's mountain of stats...





Someday, maybe, I'll beat you, but I guess I have to take the loss for now. You might be the most talented trainer of this generation, Amy. I don't know how someone can be so good. But anyways, just remember what I said about Professor Maple, okay? I wonder... if this is what happens to a distinguished professor when he's surrounded by Delta Pokemon...



legendaries around? I'll see you around, Amy.



That was the last time we'll ever fight or even see Nora in this LP. She has one more brief appearance after the Elite Four rematches, but I really doubt I'm going to be doing those.



There's three ways to go... left, up, and right. We'll go right first.





I'm a scientist, studying pokemon. I love my job.









There's a small grotto between those two trees above us.



















Delta Meditite is fairy-type, while Medicham is Ground/Fairy. Both have Sap Sipper (Boosts the Attack stat when hit by a Grass-type move) and Athenian (Hidden; Doubles the Pokemon's Special Attack stat) as abilities. Mega Medicham has Athenian as well.

Its hidden ability is Huge Power, but for SpAtk. Even better, Athenian can only be found on Medicham's line and on Mega Stunfisk. I'm not really sure how good this pokemon is, but it's certainly interesting. Also a Satyr pokemon is a good concept that I'm genuinely surprised GameFreak hasn't yet explored.







We're now climbing the path north of the crossroads. This will be a short trip.



That TM is further along the critical path.



We're still a ways away from being able to open this. On the other side is...









Delta Hoothoot is Ice/Flying type. Both it and Noctowl have Snow Cloak, Keen Eye, and No Guard (Hidden) for abilities.

While you could have a lot of fun with No Guard and Sheer Cold, at the end of the day this is still a Noctowl. It tops out at mediocre-at-best. I won't be back to pick it up whenever we get Relic Song.













Starts snowing? It's already snowing!



anything.

She has good advice, though.



Here's a little mood music for a snowy mountain.





The way to Settlement Juliet is still up the mountain, but we've got a cave to explore first.





The cave's pretty open, and fairly large.



And it's full of items.





And it has encounters every 6 steps.



This is in the far back of the cave. It looks important, but there's not much we can do with it right now.





What is one of Anastasia's custom-made armors for the Perfection Cult doing here?



If we wanted to, we could now turn Virulence into a toxic waste volcano.




It's 150BP, 5PP, Normal type. Because of our Delta heavy lineup, the chances of us getting to use it are slim to none.



We need to get through that blocked-off cave entrance. But how? Well, the answer is on the screen. Do you see it? It's well hidden.



If you guessed "the slightly discolored rectangle on the wall" then congratulations!



The stalagmite drops, allowing us access.





I love Flash just being a flashlight in this game.



The path is fairly straight, with a couple jagged shifts. Also each time the path shifts to the right, there's another stalagmite in your way. So it's the sort of place you need to use your flashlight.

It's very two steps forward, two steps back.



Got a time rift here!





That pile of stone and rubble is now a pokemon.















Delta Elekid and Electabuzz are pure Rock type, with Inner Focus and Battle Armor (Hidden; Protects the Pokemon from critical hits) for abilities. Delta Electivire is Rock/Dragon type, and has Shadow Dance (Boosts the Speed stat when the New Moon is active) and Sturdy (Hidden).

123 base attack, plus Rock and Dragon moves is a nasty combination. It's basically a Gyarados, but actually with dragon typing. While its base SpAtk is "only" 95, that's still good enough to wield any special attack with deadly efficiency. Even better, with its regular ability, it can double its speed to unprecedented levels.

It's a goddamned monster. But it also has six weaknesses.



A gargoyle pokemon is another really good concept.



I actually never watched the Gargoyles TV show. I had the movie/board game box set as a kid, but never actually saw the show airing.





There's Delta Hoothoot now, but it's completely out of our reach.





We're finally up at the top of the mountain. There's still one more Delta to find, though.



diverse!





His Gigalith exploded on Cirno and one shot her.



Ugh... this cave.



The gimmick so nice they used it thrice.



If we had a Cryogonal, we could now make it like Yuki's and have any hail it causes deal 20% HP per turn.



This is actually a neat gimmick for luring out a Delta.



First, we need to get into a battle. Trainer or wild doesn't matter.





We next need to use an Electric attack in the battle near the lightning rods.



With the rods charged, the screen now occasionally pulses blue.



And once the rods are charged, the next wild battle we get into is with...













Delta Seedot's line is all pure electric type. All three have Volt Absorb (Restores HP if hit by an Electric-type move), Minus (Boosts the Sp. Atk stat if another Pokemon has Plus or Minus), and Competitive (Hidden; Boosts the Sp. Atk stat when a stat is lowered) as abilities.

I'm not sure exactly how good this line is. They barely learn any moves outside of the usual electric suspects. I guess Delta Shiftry looks cool, but Cirno does everything he can do, but better.











Nothing worthwhile.



Anyway, that's enough for now.

NEXT TIME: Settlement Juliet and Holon Volcano