Part 12: Welcome to Coventry

Part 12: Welcome to Coventry

Route 210 Day



Some of our customers are rowdy types that want to battle. Do what you will with them. I don't mind.



Course, all we ever have is Moomoo Milk. Moomoo Milk, $500 a bottle.



Yes... hahaha... YES! I'm a big believer in Moomoo Milk, it's a great healing item to use for most of the game, but this is the first time in the main series we can get it early and quickly. It was available in XD early enough, but only one at a time, like it was in DP. I will be back here quite a few times.



After a match, you should have some Moomoo Milk to quench your thirst! Just chug it right down! Glug glug!

Hope you enjoyed seeing the Waitress class, since she's the only time you encounter one outside of a battle facility. Yeah I don't get it either.



You motherfucker.



It took me forever to catch it using Honey! I went through a lot of bother to catch my Pokemon. But since I've not raised it, it's as weak as when I caught it.

Uh, actually, Pokemon from Honey Trees can only be as high as level 15, and furthermore *gets shoved in locker*



Ah fuck, my team is not ready to face a Heracross. But wait, there is one idea...



It's just that easy.



I'm more knowledgeable than anyone else! I have a rare Pokemon! But, I'm weak at battling... that's a Pokemon Collector for you...



Honestly, who decided these route numbers? John Kanto??? It's raining.




Bronzor in the rain is an interesting idea for having both abilities at once. But Water Pokemon will still kick your ass. Pop's Swift Swim is gonna be great here.



Please, how many stupid shards will I really need?



Still too early for this shit.



Sticking to one's own goal is more important than it seems. If you match your goal with someone else, you'll lose your identity.



It's good for Pokemon battles, but if you do that in real life... there'll be no end to the fighting, that's for sure.



Use it after the foe, and its power gets doubled!



Two Black Belt ways to go, hmm, let's go... both ways!




Ah, so that's Payback. Or karma? Is that a Pokemon move? It should be.



If I lose here, I wouldn't stand a chance at the Battle Frontier. Not against those hardcore pros, I wouldn't.



We really are gonna be finding these plates all LP, huh.



It's... just... that easy...




Very mountain road feel to this route, I like it a lot.




I'd think you'd catch a cold training in the rain like this.



First time we can get Marill. Make sure it has Huge Power, or you'll be very sad.



There's more mons in the route, but they just don't fancy appearing.



That's cool, though no one needs it.



What, don't fancy learning Wild Charge? Bolt Strike? Volt Tackle??? Ugh, fine.



And that was the last Jogger of the game, aside from battle facilities. Wasn't that worth changing the time to?



But hey, since we can make it night again, here's a Noctowl. I've used it just fine in HGSS, so you can here, since it gets Uproar and Confusion to carry it until Air Slash. The rest is history, though it won't have other special moves of note, like Psychic, Silver Wind and Heat Wave until much later on, alas.




Hypnosis, not even once.



Cool. Still got a mon missing.



Rude, I kinda need that maybe. This tongue with a Pokemon attached is a fine choice, I've used it before. It has Stomp to carry it to Rollout at level 33, which then leads to evolution after that. It's a Normal type, so give it all the TMs ever, since it doesn't have much otherwise, aside from Power Whip. It also learns Explosion, which is how you should always play life.




Man my team is weak to Grass. Still, so long as it doesn't attack Pop, we'll be fine.



Dammit.





Double dammit. Blimps are cool, and so is Drifblim, even if it's fragile as fuck. Sure, it has great HP, but those defenses are a travesty. If you had a later level Drifloon from DP, then you're not too far from Ominous Wind, which is the best STAB you'll get for a while. Always a shame when the Stockpile and combo moves hog spots on the movelist. Still, we just got Shock Wave and there's a fair few other special moves to learn later. There's also Air Cutter from tutor later on. It's perfectly fine, it's just a journey getting there. See, all its problems would be solved if it just learned Pluck!



Getting nearly swept by Roselia aside, good fight.



In a Pokemon battle, it doesn't matter how old or young you are. Your gender doesn't matter, either. Nothing like that means anything!

I think about Pokemon all day long. I was confident, you know.



Well that was fun, we're in a brand new city. What's it like?

Veilstone City Day / Night



Veilstone City: Hewn From Rock
From veil and stone. Woah.
Tobari City: A space surrounded by rock.
From 帳 tobari, curtain.



Depressing and full of criminals. Cool.



So inconsiderate, dropping stuff like this. Yoink!



This is Team Galactic's warehouse! It ain't no playground for kids!

This is the awesome Team Galactic's awesome warehouse! A little kid like you should be playing at the Pokemon Gym. After all, the Gym Leader happens to be a kid just like you!



Good to get refreshed after such a brutal burn. What's in this house?



It's a Pokemon called PORYGON. I found it near Team Galactic's building. I'm no Trainer, so can you take it off my hands? Oh! Excellent! Thanks! That'll make the PORYGON happy, too. I suspect it ran away from those Team Galactic goons.



It's so bizarre, like a robot that's about to start moving.



Yo dawg, I heard you like trade evolutions. If you have a friend, or a second DS, let's not kid ourselves here, then Porygon can become very useful very quickly. We already have the Upgrade, though the Dubious Disc is postgame... in DP, it's after Gym 7 in this game. Still, Porygon is fine to use for a little bit if you've gotta wait for your best friend to come back from vacation. Who's in Canada. And totally real. Psybeam is a good start, with Signal Beam coming shortly and then give it all the TMs. All of them. It doesn't matter when you evolve it, so long as you do it!



Oh baby, let's spend about 50 screenshots in this place!

Veilstone Department Store




Why wait for badge requirements when you can just get it all from here? Okay, no Full Restores, but considering the Marts haven't changed since ETERNA in DP, this is a wonderful thing.




It will give your Pokemon a different look for Contests.



If you're bad at making Poffins, like me, or cba with all that bullshit, then you can buy them in this basement area exclusive to Plat! They're always two flavours, with a level of 32 and feel of 20. These are pretty damn good if you've got the cash and make your Pokemon ready for a contest by quickly letting you max 3 stats before the sheen cap.



Here's some cool stuff to buy. We've found some of these berries already, and they can be given out by the Berry Master, but hey, they're super cheap, so why not. All restore 1/8th of HP when the Pokemon is below half health, but will confuse the Pokemon if they don't like the flavour. Yup, trash, but maybe one day they'll be good. Probably not.



Mmm, cheap Full Heals. Seriously, why would you bother buying them when there's 10 a pop right here! You could only obtain the one in DP, so another reason why this game is great.



How could you. I need my 20HP recovery!!!



I can give you the Counter app over the counter. Would you like it? OK, here you go. Go forth and count!



I hope that Counter app I gave you is useful.



I mean, I would've preferred the Counter TM. Well you can keep count until you change app or turn the game off. Counting egg hatches? I dunno man.



Here's the stuff I never really use. Well, I've been shoving down the drinks we get here and there, but it's all whatever.



The TM selection is very nice, always find a way to fit Fire Blast on my team, and Focus Blast for those that desperately need the coverage, suckers. Endless False Swipe is nice and Flash is useless past Wayward Cave, so that's cool.



The rare instance of a decoration not being in the Underground. Those dolls are definitely ones that scream pre-release Gen 4.



I think this is the first vending machine we've seen? Well it's not good as Moomoo Milk, otherwise Lemonade is the one to go for.




That Sticky Barb is a hold item. If a Pokemon holding it is hit... the Sticky Barb sticks to the foe and inflicts damage!

Riiiiiight. Pretty weird item that inflicts 1/8th health per turn until a Pokemon with no hold item hits it with a contact move. Then it'll transfer. Repeat until something faints. At least Magic Guard protects the damage, but yeah, wow, yikes.



This building got one hell of a redesign in this game, so let's see what it's all about.



They making some kind of Space... Force?



I'm sorry, this is the Galactic Veilstone Building. Cosmic energy for the win! Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could harness that boundless energy?



Well here's some energy.



Hmm, four meteorites. I imagine there's an alien that could change depending on which one it interacted with, but that also sounds silly.



Ah, we'll talk about this place in a moment. Lots to do here. Well, for most of the world.


"use any items on it."

Anyway, enjoy your visit to Veilstone, the city of... well, stone.

Oh yeah, I just remembered looking at this guy that Roughnecks only have that one guy in the Lost Tower, outside of battle facilities. So that's another unique class to the Solaceon area. Why is it up to 5???



I meant your Pokemon. If you'd like, I can give a massage to a Pokemon. Would you like that? Which one needs a little love?



When I was massaging your Pokemon, I found this.



So we've got Accessories you can buy, Accessories you can find in Amity Square and now we've got 16 Accessories from the Massage Girl. You can do this once a day, so after 160 straight days, you'll max out on the Accessories and get nothing. It's a flat +3 to happiness no matter what amount the Pokemon's at, so it's consistent, but there's a better method later on. If the Pokemon is dreamily content, then its happiness is above 199, but there's other ways to find that out. Since we've seen all the different ways we can repeatably get Accessories, besides winning Contests themselves, I'll be hacking in every Accessory, just so the Appeal Round has some goddamn variety.



Now, which hand is that Coin in? My left or right? Bravo! A winner is you! For our winner, I have here... a Coin Case!



God, clowns are so fucking weird, I've never understood their appeal. Anyway, let's go GAMBLE!

Veilstone Game Corner



Further investigation is needed, and I am just the man to do it. Also, where the masses gather, so too does information. ...ack. My streak is broken.



Listen, when CLEFAIRY appears, that's your chance to line up sevens. Line those babies up and you're into the bonus round!




Oh, let me impart a piece of advice to you! If the moon turns red, you don't want to get a replay because it makes CLEFAIRY tired!



If you accomplish the feat of completing 10 uninterrupted bonus rounds, please go to the counter. You will be presented with a fabulous prize! The current record sits at 9 straight bonus rounds!



Are you a Trainer? Did you battle the Gym Leader? She happens to be my daughter. She's some kind of tough!



So welcome to gambling, like always this is the quickest and easiest way to get coins, since there's some pretty damn sweet prizes. The minigame will be covered shortly and it's a pretty boring one, alas, but you need to win the bonus game in order to get the sweet prize you can't get anywhere else. That prize? Well, since it's a tedious grind to try for it, let's see what it is!

Ten straight bonus rounds on the slots! That's amazing! I would say you had an explosion of good luck! So please take this Technical Machines as a memento! [Obtained TM64 Explosion] Please keep playing the slots for another explosion of good luck!

Now the TM is actually quite nice, some Pokemon really appreciate the move, but it's the last sentence that really sucks. There's only one TM per save file, so even if you grinded against the slots to reach 10 bonus rounds again, you won't get another TM. And it's still faster to buy coins. You'll see my best attempt in the Side Notes later.



With all your coins, what kind of crazy prizes can you get? Well there's a million TMs, but we'll go over the four items first. The Silk Scarf and Zoom Lens can only be obtained from here, but, as Skulletor is glad for, the Metronome and Wide Lens can also be found as wild held items, which is something I'll eventually go over, from Kricketot/Kricketune and Yanma, respectively. Since we're unlikely to see them otherwise, the Wide Lens boosts accuracy of all moves by 10%, while the Zoom Lens boosts accuracy for all moves by 20% if the holder goes after the opponent. Not too useful, but they're here.



As for TMs we have, in order... Substitute, Endure, Swords Dance, Double Team, Rest, U-turn, Hidden Power, Return, Frustration, Flamethrower, Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Psychic, Gyro Ball and Giga Impact. An extensive list with a lot of good moves, but Endure, Swords Dance, Gyro Ball and Giga Impact can only be obtained here, though Hidden Power is only in DP and Rest is only through Pickup. The prices are ridiculous, since the Coin Case has a much higher limit in this game, but at least some of the pricier ones can be obtained otherwise.

But overall, there's a lot here for playing the slots, which is why I'm playing the US version of this game! If I was playing the EU version, due to new revisions by PEGI, any kind of gambling makes your game 18+. Obviously that wouldn't work for Pokemon, so they had to remove it for the game in those regions. The general stigma of gambling in video games made the shift to games like Voltorb Flip occurring over the regular slots in international versions of HGSS, which I've previously covered, and then the complete removal of them later on. It's a bit ridiculous considering mobile gaming and lootboxes and predatory practises are in games everywhere these days, but at least that's getting some eventual pushback. It's not a big loss, the Game Corners were always consistently shit for getting coins outside of buying them, and I don't miss them. Wahoo, this is the last one I have to cover!



It's a power that lets me see the Hidden Power of a Pokemon. When they learn that move, I can tell what type the move will be. So, want my to use my Hidden Power? I'll tell you what type your Pokemon's Hidden Power will be.

"would be ELECTRIC."

Ooh, Pop can get some interesting coverage. We can find this out through save editors anyway, and the important part is the move's power, so these guys are never too helpful.



Wow, you just keep getting tougher and tougher. Me? Well, I took a look in the Game Corner, and... I mean, yeah, of course I've been working on my Pokedex, but... anyway, keep it up!



I'm the tidal wave of power to wash you away! Put out the fire, Crasher Wake! Run from electricity, Crash Wake! Ah, ah, aaaah! The ring is my sea.

"are you?"

Let me tell you now, she's young, but she's a born genius. I tried trainign with her, and I was stunned by how tough she was! Whoops! I'd better tell you who I am! I'm the triple-threat Gym Leader in Pokemon, wrestling, and song. I'm Crasher Wake of Pastoria Gym! We'll meet again!



Lucas/Dawn were pretty bland in DP, so them becoming the straight man to the weirder inclusions of Plat is hilarious. But hey, might as well take down the Gym. You doing anything better with your time? ...me neither.

Pokemon Gym



The Gym Leader is a user of Fighting-type Pokemon. She'd be a terror against Normal-type Pokemon. But! And it's a big but! Just between you and me... Maylene, the Gym Leader, said Flying- and Psychic-type Pokemon could be real trouble for her! If you want to battle her, smack the punching bags along the rails. You have to hit those bags hard!



Veilstone Gym is the last redesigned one, since moving barriers to get around didn't exactly fit thematically. This works a little better, but it's a lot easier.



Usually you've just gotta push these to the ends of their path, nothing particularly tricky about it.




Worth it, though our team is still pretty fragile and not too great against Fighting types. Machoke will do you fine if you can't evolve it, with Submission shortly after evolving, but it definitely doesn't have the same oomph to it, especially since it'll miss out on Stone Edge. It still gets Earthquake and Rock Slide, so it's great, but you can evolve it whenever, so you probably should.



But our Gym Leader Maylene will break you like a stack of bricks!




Thank you for not using a Fighting move. The last two quads better use Power and Wisdom.



To overwhelm by force... that is my ideal beat-down style. It doesn't seem to work that way with Pokemon, however.



C'mon Doug, how could you miss this???



I'll have to redo my training, though. Maylene's gonna trample me again...



This being the way forward is a little sneaky when the other paths are blocked off.



It can take a moment to get your head round everything, but each bag only has one path to take.



Yeah sure, just kick me while I'm down.



Heracross is still pretty damn scary, especially when I could've given it a Guts boost!



I lost because I didn't eat enough pizza. ...no. Anything I say will sound like I'm making excuses.



And there we go. Let's take down the leader.



I don't really know what it means to be strong, or how I got to be the Gym Leader. But I will do the best I can as the Gym Leader. I take battling very seriously. Whenever you're ready!

Gym Leader Battle






Maylene/Sumomo: The Barefoot, Fighting Genius!
From melee, and sumo and the Japanese plum, sumomo.






Yeah, expected. But hey, gotta have Skulletor show up! There's a few subtle differences in the teams, but since Maylene and Wake could be fought in either order, their teams are similarly levelled. This isn't the case with Wake, he's much stronger due to definitely being the fifth leader, instead of potentially the third, but Maylene isn't too much stronger.





Oh hey it's a furry. Lucario definitely deserves the hype it got in the run up to the game's release, since it has all the right stats in all the right places. It can work on either spectrum, but has better physical options, of course, so it's a shame to let so many stat points go to waste. It leans a lot more into its Fighting type, giving you the choice of Aura Sphere or Close Combat later on, and only learning Metal Claw otherwise. It should only use its Steel typing defensively, as its movepool is immense, it gets Bone Rush, Dark Pulse, Swords Dance, Extremespeed and Dragon Pulse from movepool ALONE, imagine if your favourite got this much love?

From there, any good TM and tutor move you can think of, it gets, hell, even its Egg moves are good. It's got Poison Jab, Flash Cannon, Stone Edge, Shadow Ball, Water Pulse, Bullet Punch, Blaze Kick, Vacuum Wave, Ice Punch, Zen Headbutt, fucking Magnet Rise. How are you gonna fit all that in 4 slots? Well you don't, and that's its main problem. It has a great typing, but its Steel typing covers and then adds to its weaknesses, it's a mixed bag. Zoroark got a similar push, but definitely not a similar love. What a shame.

And to top it all off, there's Steadfast, which raises Spd by 1 when flinched. Makes those with Fake Out hesitate slightly in using it.



This thing is pretty scary, have you seen those stats? What's our best answer to this?



The main reason I gave Pop Brick Break. Don't like doing it much, but Etrian won't be doing much to it, that's for sure. Pretty sure the crit doesn't matter, but it's nice to see!



Unfortunately Etrian is still a bit beat up, so Pop will have to close this out. Lots of scary opponents!



Alright m8 calm ur tits.

Pokemon Gym



That was a tough loss. I learned a lot from it. Please, accept this Gym Badge.



With it, you can use that hidden move Fly outside of battle. Oh, and since you now have four Gym Badges, Pokemon obtained in trades will obey you up to Lv. 50. Oh, and please take this as well.



Um... that move inflicts damage, and it robs the target's HP. Gee, I'm hungry... oh, sorry, it's nothing. I didn't say anything. Hikari, I can't explain what it means to be strong. I don't know how much effort does into being strong... but being with Pokemon lets us keep making the effort, doesn't it?



Of course, I thought you'd win.



God that looks so dumb. Still, only one more badge until it looks how it should.



I sure could use your help. I'll be waiting in front of the warehouses. Please come!

Well gee, I'd love to help you, but it seems we're out of time, gotta wait until next update, byeeeeeeeeee.