Part 57: The Middle of the End (Sky Tower)

Ouch... where are we?



Wah! Jake, this is cool! We're on clouds!



Oh, wow! Look up there!



It's a huge tower of clouds... It must be at the very top... That must be where Rayquaza is...

Wooow...

Jake! Let's give it our best!

Y-yeah!





Welcome to Sky Tower, the longest, most difficult dungeon we can reach pre-credits. In fact, we can't return post-credits until we get the Fly HM. It's got 25 floors, a checkpoint, then 9 more floors of Sky Tower Summit. It's also got some nice music.



We've got plenty of provisions, though, so hopefully we won't run into any trouble.



The dark blue areas here are, as you might expect, holes in the startlingly solid clouds. Pokémon that can fly or levitate can pass over it; so can Jake, with his gummi-acquired All-Terrain Hiker.



This dungeon has plenty of ghosts in it. Fighting ghosts sucks. There's this move, for instance, which made me wonder if bringing only two Max Elixirs was going to be enough.



Some of them have the Pressure ability, which drains even more PP when we attack them.



They like to phase through walls, where we can't hit them, except by chucking Gravelerocks.



They like being complete dicks to Jake for no good reason.



It isn't always possible to lure them onto solid ground without getting a team member seriously hurt, or worse.



Oh, and don't forget this lovely move, which inflicts major damage over time. (Fortunately, as you can see, it wears off over time too-- and Jake's Self-Curer IQ skill lets him shed it quickly.)



Or this move, which means they're hitting Jake increasingly harder as he struggles to kill them with Gravelerocks.



Or this move, which hits all adjacent squares for fixed damage.



Or this move, which... well, I think you get the idea. Ghosts are dicks.



All of which at least partially explains why I do something here I've never done before: turn down a team member of a species I don't already have. (The other part of the explanation is that I'm hoping to get a Solrock to go with my Lunatone.) I'd forgotten Absol gave me the Darkness Ridge friend area.



Shedinja, on the other hand, is less annoying to fight than it is in the mainline games. Sure, it still has Wonder Guard, which means any move not super-effective against it does no damage, and sure, it actually has more than one HP, which means our typeless basic attack won't instantly KO it, but we can actually kill it pretty easily, even without Biting it (it's vulnerable to Dark attacks). The secret? Gravelerocks, which do a typeless 20 points of damage.



And not all of the pain comes from ghost Pokémon, at least not directly. Several levels have hail, and this one added insult to injury by dropping us in a Monster House.





Still, we prevailed, and some good did come of the trip.



Mr. Shine (Lunatone, #337) is hugged! Pokémon hugged: 31.
Mr. Bright (Solrock, #338) is hugged! Pokémon hugged: 32. (Thanks, Zutaten (name) and Shaezerus (art)!)

Hooray! Another matching set!

I have a salt and pepper set at home of you guys.







(Same batch of experience.)



Pro tip: even when paralyzed and confused, you can still throw Gravelerocks in the correct direction.



Checkpoint!



Sky Tower Summit is more of the same, though thankfully by now the ghosts have given up.



Their legacy remains, though. We've acquired so many purple gummis that, at this point, I actually have Jake try one.

I don't like licorice.

It's not actually bad for him, but it gives the least benefit of any gummi.







(Mr. Shine's health is so low because he lagged behind and got beat up by a Metagross. He had to use our Reviver Seed, but we were able to rescue him, thankfully.)



Not shown due to losing the footage: Aerodactyls are nasty customers. They know Agility, which boosts their speed, and they can do good damage to Jake even at his level. Ghosts are annoying, but an Aerodactyl's probably the most likely Pokémon to end your trip to the Sky Tower. If you get this far without grinding for Pokémon like we did, some grinding for levels would not go amiss.

Team Hugs's newest members:

Next time on Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rayquaza awaits...