Part 64: Nightmare Badlands
Hello everyone and welcome back. We've got a new friend.
I had a hard time deciding between Autotomize and Acid Armor/Iron Defense. (Delta Aggron learns all three by level up). On the one hand, she vastly improves one of her worst stat and reduces her vulnerability to Low Kick with each usage. But on the other, she could take her already ironclad defense and boost it to staggering levels (up to a theoretical maximum of 1,852). There's really not a wrong choice, it's just down to preferences.
Charsi replaces Virulence on the team. I love Delta Camerupt, but he was the most easily replaced.
Let's return to the Dream Realm.
Adam's waiting for us?
Oh dear... It may be a bit hard to tell, but all these cultists have been Deoxyfied. Check it out:
This is an unused battle sprite in the game's raws.
Amy! Oh, it's great to see you. We're not in such a great state right now. Here, come on into the Gym. There's a back entrance, we need to talk.
Erebus City is a mess right now. That Deoxys virus that followed you down here... Well, remember all of Persephone's cultists that Darkrai sent down? They've all gotten... changed. They're all part of that old guy's side now. I'm not exactly sure how it works.
We need... we need a trump card. Amy, I'm not sure how much you know about how the Dream Realm works. Obviously it exists in your mind, all of this. But, humanity's Dream Realm is all one land- there aren't separate realms for each person. The parts of the Dream Realm for each person are separated by dangerous Badlands.
else's Dream Realm. It's dangerous- nobody's really ever tried. But somewhere in the center of it all, connecting the realms... is Rem Village. According to legends, it is the place where Darkrai rests. We need to convince it to join us.
Thank you. So much. One of my pokemon can teleport you to Prion Town, but from there you'll have to walk. The Badlands are just west of it. Alakazam! Come on out!
We're way back where we first landed in the Dream Realm. In fact, we even have briefly visited the Nightmare Badlands but we couldn't make any progress.
Like a lot of postgame maps, the Badlands look a lot more daunting than it really is
Also it's full of Darkrai cultists. Wait, what?
Only the weak ones were!
Heh. Zoroark trainer doesn't have anyone else.
Her? Oh wait does this mean what I think it means?
No.
Yes this means exactly what I think it means. We get to fight Persephone again!
Then why did you join the Cult of Darkrai?
Oh if only.
The path forward is actually here, but let's continue exploring. There's more to see here.
You had a Tyranitar and a Spiritomb. My frost spirit is 18 levels higher than either of them.
Good old Lunar Cannon!
We can catch our own Deoxys in this Relic Song wall once we beat the Elite Four rematch. We can also catch our own Hoopa on this route, but it requires entering from another location. I'll show that off in the next update.
Let's just heal everyone to full.
You are not beating me to REM Village. I don't even have any assistants anymore. That virus turned all the members of my group into weird Deoxys things. You've already trapped me down here in this miserable hole. And then I learn that Darkrai lives here? My hope of light and a chance of escaping?
The funny thing is we could even work together in this. We both want her group uncorrupted and out of Amy's dream realm. It's the world's easiest alliance of convenience. However, Persephone is a moron, so...
You've taken everything from me, but you're not going to take this. Darkrai is mine, and I am going to figure a way out of here! You're going down!
To put it bluntly, if you could beat Professor Maple, then you can easily beat Persephone. Also the Spiritomb isn't level 80, it's 93.
Even sadder, most of Persephone's team is really weak to Cirno's special brand of bullshit.
15 level difference, supereffective hit.
Battle of the Metagrosses!
There's a slight difference between the last fight with Persephone and this one.
That difference being that we're not so much winning the battle as we are utterly humiliating Persephone.
Nothing she has can even so much as move before it's swatted like a fly.
In fact, the first move she gets is a Shadow Ball from her Alakazam.
She should have tried a little harder. 80 base power + 50% from mega launcher x 2 (supereffective). Then add another 35% on top of that thanks to Noctem. Compound all that against how fragile Alakazam is.
A pity for Alakazam that it won't survive a second Dark Pulse.
ScubaSteve moves first the second time.
To Gengar's credit, it very nearly one shots Ramses.
But "almost" and "nearly" don't count here. Ramses may have only 5% life, but anything more than 0 means he's good to go. Also it strikes me that if I had used Acrobatics, he wouldn't have been hurt at all thanks to Gale Wings.
Good effort. Execution needs a little work.
You got whacked 'cuz you're weak.
I don't know what kind of dumb plot armor you have, but it's not something I can beat on my own. ...but I can wait. Darkrai's been around for longer than you have, and it'll be around for longer than you will. It'll come back here eventually. I can outlast you. That I know.
Keep moving.
Darkrai's place is just back here. I'd post a shot of REM Village, but it's a single house and some wilderness around it.
REM Village and the Nightmare Badlands are the only two places in the game that you can find wild Zoroarks. Same with wild Reuinclus.
I had to look up what this does. It changes the formes of the Forces of Nature. We've actually been able to catch two of them for a while now. In fact, Thundurus has technically been catchable since we got Tesseract.
I'm about to make a mistake.
And there it is. I caught Darkrai.
The wiki warns to heal up before you leave the house, because once you do, you're forced into another boss fight. So I did just that...
You can't hold out forever, Adam. Muahahaha... would it really be so bad? We can promise you peace. We can promise you tranquility! We can promise you immortality. That's nothing to laugh at. A long life like yours isn't a life worth living. We're not going down easy.Also Adam's technically been immortal. It's what got him and everyone else into this mess in the first place.
I've been trying to hold them off, but I can't fight on my own forever. I need your help taking them down. Will you fight with me? I can battle Malde, if you can battle your friend. Together, I'm sure we can fend them off. Father and daughter. Just like it always should have been.Hell yeah we'll help!
Well, isn't this cute? Damian, deal with her. Maybe this will redeem you for giving them that crystal piece- the one thing we had down here.
Don't make this any harder than it has to be, Amy. Make this easy for both of us. Lose.
Boss fight was supposed to go here.
In fact here's what it was supposed to look like. But remember that I fucked up. If you catch Darkrai, the game skips the boss fight.
It's over. We've beaten you both. Amy's caught and partnered up with Darkrai, the ruler of this realm. So? I'm invulnerable, undefeatable! So? I was too, until they sent me here and tried to wipe Amy's memory. It was a clever munchkin around immortality, I'll give them that... but now that we have Darkrai, we can do the same to you. It's over. You're done. You need to leave.
Here's what you're going to do. You're going to free my daughter's friend. I want him normal, got it? Safe and healthy... just as he was before. After that, you're to leave forever. Scramble off to the Badlands, I don't care. It doesn't matter to me. And I want these cultists here cured, too.
... ... ... Do it. Now, or else. ...you're a fool. Fine. I'll do it. But you'll regret this, I promise.
Damian is cured!
What... what happened? You'll regret this, Adam. You're not the Augur any more, remember that.
You're Damian, right? The trainer from Telnor Town? I'll take care of him, Amy. He seems to be a bit out of it. I'm so glad you were able to catch Darkrai. I'm not sure how I would have gotten out of that one otherwise.
I wish I could have guided you along your journey. I shouldn't have let Jaern and Persephone separate us like that. But somehow, even without me, you've grown into twice the trainer I could have ever been.
Listen, I'm going to keep your friend here for the next little while, just to make sure he's okay. I'll have him call you when he's feeling a bit better, promise. So keep your phone on!
And just like that, the crisis is over.
But before we end this update, we still have some unfinished business.
That chef did say we'd find a badge collector "in our dreams". He didn't realize just how literally true it was.
to.
The trading sequence is very nearly finished. The scientist gives us our ultimate reward, so we'll drop by the next time we're in the area.
And that's enough of that for now!
Defeat the Timeless
Explore the Holon Region
- The Hunt for Taen
Missingno
Relic Song
- Deyraan Town
Cured Damian
- The Parcel
- "One of you is close to someone who needs help. Find this person fast."
- The Finale
We've finished half of the postgame sidequests! Unless anyone has any objections, then next time we're going to be continuing the Hunt for Taen in No Man's Land, the liminal space between regions. Then after that will be helping the kid in Deyraan Town.