Pokemon Platinum Part #8 - Spooky Scary Cycling

Part 8: Spooky Scary Cycling

Part 8: Spooky Scary Cycling

You know, people've been talking about the ghost Pokemon of the Old Chateau. I've been hearing rumours about sinister shadows, too. I should check it out myself, but going in there is... ...well, you know, being that I'm a Gym Leader, I'm always busy. So, since I'm so busy, I can't go in. It's not because I'm s-scared! S-so, good luck with your investigation!

I'm sure this place isn't a big deal. R-Right?

All the plates have 6 set phrases that cycle in the order you pick them up. Gotta pick up all 16!

Old Chateau

Well it's a bit dusty, but everything seems fine.

Mmm, sweet, sweet, candy.

There was a specific implication in DP that had an Antidote hidden in one of the trash cans. More useful than the Honey, that's for sure.

Damn moon speak.

This Old Gateau here in the Old Chateau is similar to the Lava Cookie in being a Full Heal. Want another one? Start a new game, or get it from the Pokewalker.

Eh, just cause there's more TMs doesn't mean they're all winners.

Woah... did you just see that?! The picture seems like it's looking at you. But that's really just an optical illusion with how we look at a 2D image from different angles. Hmm, a ghost in another room? I can't see other rooms from where I am, keep up people.

I do get the feeling like I'm being watched, but it's my imagination.

Man, that TV is making a lot of noise, I should turn it off.

200 channels, nothing but electroplasma phantasms...

Wait I feel like a legendary is a little bit early in the LP!

Rotom Encounter

In a unique encounter that befits a legendary... well, it isn't one, this was just moved from postgame to as soon as it's night time with Cut. Pretty good for something so early, with nice typing, good utility with Thunder Wave, Confuse Ray and Double Team, though it'll take a bit before its best move isn't Thundershock. Aside from that, it doesn't do much else, just throws out various Electric and Ghost moves, doing nothing more of note. In DP. I guess it does something else in this game, but you can't do that unless you trade to HGSS, so it's whatever.

Since it has a somewhat legendary catch rate, we'll definitely need to wear it down. But I have a secret plan.

Admittedly this is how all of my legendary plans will go.

But it works. God I love Dusk Balls.

But that was the source of everything spooky and there's definitely no- AHHHHHHH, A GHOST!!!

Eterna City Night

Still, is it really time already for an event that was only available for a short time and therefore impossible to do now? Why, yes it is!

You might think this is bullshit, but Wonder Cards these Mystery Gifts come from tell you where to go. At least this was obtainable over wifi, instead of being in a specific place in the world at a certain time, now you just had to have a specific connection at a specific time! Since I only had the regular DS, finding something that was WEP was hell.

Uh, anyway, the Secret Key was distributed in Japan from Sep 28th to Nov 4th 2008 and then from Jan 16th to Mar 2nd 2009. Of course they got it twice. NA was from Apr 20th to May 12th 2009, which is hilarious short, all PAL regions had it from Jun 8th to July 19th 2009 and even Korea joined in with these events, getting it from July 6th to Aug 31st 2009. And that's it! Japanese players could at least send their Wonder Card to 5 others, but this was the only time to obtain this item. Even if they always kept it up, it would've died with the servers anyway, so oh well!

"Remarkably, ROTOM has the ability to enter and merge with special motors. It's now known that ROTOM can stay inside a motor almost indefinitely. However, it will emerge if it enters a Union Room or a Wi-Fi Club. ROTOM will also emerge from the motor if it is left at the Day Care. ROTOM may also forget certain moves when it leaves a motor. This Pokemon requires exhaustive observation and analysis. To ensure I get all the credit, my ROTOM research must be kept secret. They will come to recognize me as the scientific genius Char..."

So new to Platinum are 5 new Rotom forms where it enters different appliances and gets a new look, a new exclusive move to that form and a new typing. Oh wait, that last bit is next gen, but its stats do increase and looks pretty cool. We'll be using my favourite form, and my fourth favourite Pokemon in general, Rotom HEAT as the example.

These exclusive moves really affect how a form works out, with Wash learning Hydro Pump, Mow learning Leaf Storm, Frost learning Blizzard and Fan learning, snrk, Air Slash. It can only have that move in that form, and if it's the only move it knows when it leaves a form, it'll revert back to Thundershock. This makes regular Rotom less appealing, but it has its own strengths, and obviously some forms are waaaaaay better than others. But that's a discussion for another time.

You must be eager to fill your Pokédex to be searching even here. What am I doing? I visit a professor I know in Eterna every so often. He tells me intriguing rumors of rare Pokémon sightings and such.

That is somewhat off from what I've heard about it. Hmm... This is what I've heard. Long ago, there was a Pokémon that merged with a toy robot. Should that Pokémon be recognized as a new species or not... Debates over the issue were about to start when they were rendered moot. The very topic of discussion--the Pokémon-infused robot--disappeared...

In the process, it may also learn new moves. In a way, I suppose it could be thought of as a mechanical Pokémon. Hmm...! Though it is utterly unique, it is undeniably a form of Pokémon. Fine, fine, so be it! No matter how old one gets, there will always be new Pokémon discoveries! Take care, Hikari!

So since all the Rotom forms in this generation are the same type, they're not too different to before, but the additional coverage move and higher stats definitely help. Less Speed sucks, but hey, this stuff is heavy. Even now, Wash is still the best since its exclusive move doesn't hurt it too much, while Heat is a powerful move to go along with its other attacks. You might think Frost would work well, but Blizzard doesn't compare to HP Ice's consistency. Mow sees some use since Leaf Storm is a nice pickup, and Fan drew the shit straw, nothing Air Slash does can't be covered by the other forms. Since there's little difference between each form, it can use whatever it fancy to fit the team's needs, if not being particularly exciting otherwise.

If the only way to obtain these forms is in this room, then how can you use Rotom today? Well, if you trade Rotom over to HGSS, you'll be able to use it to access the basement of Silph Co. and access an identical room there. Just that easy, probably. In any case, you can battle with it online no problem, so long as you avoided the Union Room and its online equivalent.

This notebook has FIFTY screenshots of text, so I'll have it in its own thing at the end, as well as talking about each Rotom form individually, as you know them in Gen 5 on, so think of it like a little sneak peek into that LP.

Route 205 Night

There's still plenty more to do around here, so let's get rid of all these damn trees.

I collect Berries and trade them for Accessories in Floaroma Town. I sometimes worry for days on end about what Accessories I should be putting on my Pokemon.

Early game sure is a trip, huh.

Ugh, honey tree.

Since it's night time, it's appropriate we get these two, both version exclusives that can't be found in Platinum, Murkrow in Diamond, Misdreavus in Pearl. They're both fine, but in those games the first Dusk Stone is after Gym 6, so you're saddled with these two for a long while. Wait until later to catch them.

Ooh, a female, gonna need 3 of those. ...because of course I'll get all the Wormadam forms. I don't know why, I'll never use one, but I will.

And there we go, we slathered 4 Honey trees and got... 3 Burmy and an Aipom. There's a fair host of Pokemon you can only obtain from these trees and some of them are pretty damn rare. Now wait 6 hours and try again!

I teach at the Trainers' School, and I'd like to give you a lesson. But before I do, I'd like you to have this TM.

Well, the move Captivate only works against the opposite gender. For example, it only works when used by a male Pokemon on a female. The move sharply lowers the target's Special Attack, or Sp. Atk for short. You also probably know this, but a TM is good for only one use. Choose the Pokemon wisely if you do decide to use it.

I need an adult.

It is Friday, my dudes, so let's finally grab this mon!

Floating freely, Drifloon is a nice little mon that works a lot better in DP since it's encountered at level 22! Its high HP means you wait longer for its health to go down all the way, but it has the stats in the right place, but not really the moves. Gust is the best you'll get until it evolves, but it gets a wide variety of TMs and it can learn Air Cutter through tutor. That's really about it, so Pluck will have to do until you can finally find Shadow Ball. Least you're immune to a bunch of common stuff, but it's much easier to use in DP due to that crazy level difference.

Fuck, it is another Friday, my dudes.

After more heart attacks, at least we finally got it.

Now to legitimately obtain all the remaining Honey Tree Pokemon. I know, it's this easily, apparently! That's four Burmy now, three female, one male, it's important!

The main problem with Honey trees is, well, firstly waiting a million years to get the wrong Pokemon, but also due to it being impossible to really figure out which trees are special and have a 1% chance of being Munchlax. It is an absolute pain.

If you didn't think saving and resetting before Honey trees was too useful for Burmy, then this is the Pokemon you absolutely must. It has a 7/8 chance of being completely useless as only female Combee evolve. But when you do get the right gender, it's still a rough journey, even to that low evolution requirement. Like Burmy, Wurmple and Kricketot, man there's a lot of weak bugs in this game, Combee barely learns anything, only Gust and Sweet Scent, as well as Bug Bite and other tutor moves in Platinum. But its stats are just awful, so it won't do much even with some mediocre STAB. Surely something that takes so much effort to get must be worth it, right? Ehhhhhhhh...

Honey Gather might be the worst ability in the series. It does do something, there's a chance after battle the Pokemon will obtain Honey if it's not holding an item, with the chance increasing with level, starting at 5% and going up by 5% every 10 levels. Firstly, wild Combee will have, guaranteed, Honey as a held item and it can be obtained super cheaply otherwise. It's a cute idea, but it is completely pointless. At least in PMD it can be used to obtain Nectar from treasure boxes to increase IQ by 10. I just found this out, goddammit.

Also also, we'll need both genders for something later, so don't evolve your female just yet! Or do, I'm not the boss of you, now.

Heracross is the rarest Honey Tree Pokemon, only having a small chance of appearing, even on rare trees, since it only appears in one set of Pokemon at the lowest rate, which I'll go over shortly. A shame too, cause it's a real good Pokemon, learning Aerial Ace and Brick Break naturally and very quickly. No Bug moves until level 55 with Megahorn sucks as always, it doesn't even learn Bug Bite until HGSS tutors, but with all the physical TMs it can get, it'll be just fine, this thing is a monster, easy. And then it learns Close Combat before the lategame. Yeah.

And here's the actual rarest Honey Tree Pokemon. Only 4 trees out of 21 have a 1% chance of having Munchlax. That's fucking ridiculous, the only indication a tree has a chance of having Munchlax is it spawning rarer Pokemon more often, since only one of two groups can spawn Munchlax. As always, it's needlessly complicated and I will devour it for you.

Fuck this thing. Not only is it stupidly hard to find, stupidly hard to catch, since it always holds Leftovers, it's also a happiness evolution. YIKES! Still, it's pretty good for a baby Pokemon, with all of its stats coming from its bottomed out Speed. It gets fuck all for level up moves, so slap a Return TM on it and see it work wonders. Since it has a crazy strong evolution, it takes some of that and can use a million TMs and can learn a good chunk of everything. It'll always go second, and maybe Snorlax ain't as strong as it used to be, but even though it's an awful time, it's still kinda worth it. Well, maybe not, just trade over a Snorlax from HGSS and breed it, do NOT try and catch this thing, there's a reason Honey Trees are one of the worst mechanics in the series.

Oh hey, this wasn't unexpected, you usually get the Togepi Egg with a few steps already on it.

Anyway, this thing doesn't learn a single attacking move for a long time, since Eggs now start at level 1, if you want to use it on your team, firstly it's got a lot of catching up to do, even this early, happiness evolutions are awful, so it'll be useless for a while, and even Togetic ain't great since it'll be quite a while before it can evolve again. Also if it hatches with Hustle, it doesn't really matter since it doesn't use its physical attacks, or at least it can't anymore, but Serene Grace is so much better.

So anyway, we'll be using Togepi on our team. Yep, I know what I just said, which is why it's not a team member... yet. First, we need to evolve it, or we'll be having a sad time and then it needs some better moves, which will come soon enough. I like picking team members that are easy enough to obtain, but how about this time we have a bit of a challenge. After all, you can use whatever you want in the main game with enough time and care. Since it'll level up super easily, best boost the friendship gains. But that's everything around Eterna, let's finally head on.

I'm Professor Rowan's assistant and Lucas's father. I've come a long way to help you on your adventure at the professor's behest. Hikari, let me ask you, how many Pokemon have you met? Oh, my! You've met 63 Pokemon! Wonderful! Yes, bravo! Professor Rowan should be delighted! Here is something for you!

It will get Exp. Points even if it didn't actually battle. Therefore, it should be held by a Pokemon you want to raise quickly. Also, a Pokemon you get in a trade may disobey you if it is too high in level. Don't worry, though. It will obey if you enough Gym Badges.

Bicycle

An early Exp Share and Cycling Road, good to get these out of the way early. It's one of those downhill slopes though, always a pain.

Here's the mascot, nothing too crazy unless it has a Light Ball, so shove a stone down its throat and move on. Get it from the Underground, since you won't get it in DP otherwise until just before Gym EIGHT. We'll find our stone before we find chus in this game at least.

"and awesome Trainers all around!"

Eh, I think it's better than Hoenn's at least.

Yeah expect to see that a lot. Staravia is a nice early evolution that gets a nice stat boost in the right places. Return will only keep getting stronger and Pluck served you well in the Gym. But can you keep going until it evolves again? Well, yeah, Intimidate is one of the best abilities in the series, making you more physically bulky than you'd think. I haven't looked at its moves until now, I just know it's this good already. Sure any Ice or Electric attack coming your way will sink ya pretty fast. I guess Steel Wing wouldn't hurt eventually. It gets better, surprisingly enough.

This is the best "attacking" move Togepi gets until level 33. It's one of the reasons why it'll never really fight.

With all the catching we've been doing recently, it's nice to get the team doing stuff again.

Ooh, exp sack!

It's always that way with me! I might try racing through Cycling Road in one long shot.

I've had this bike like 5 mins, I should probably shift the seat...

Oh, geez... I seem to have fallen off my Bike. I should have challenged you to a race, not a battle!

I do like the route below, but I feel this place will be in the way when we go down there.

The 3-speed makes for easy turning, and the 4-speed's for going fast. I love them both!

Not too much here, but it's good to chill a bit.

Gotta be technique since if I go too fast, I can't show everything off!

As easy as that. We get 3 happiness per level, and with the Soothe Bell it becomes 4.5. So, uh, 4, but might as well!

Don't you think the area below Cycling Road looks nice?

I'd visit it, but there's still 4 trainers left to fight.

Ah, memories.

Aww! Why did you beat me?! I hope you get so lost in Wayward Cave you cry! Boo-hoo-hoo!

Fucking hell.

Hearthome is where they hold Pokemon Contests. You should dress up your Pokemon for Contests with your Accessories.

Route 207 Day

We'll head to the lower area in a moment, but there's something important.

Since we visited this route before, and changed time a fair bit since, these berries are loooooong gone.

Alright, onto Mt. Coronet!

Interesting to see that we're on level with the opposing trainers, don't see that much.

Ah crap, an Electric mon with an Electric move. How rare.

I think we'll visit the TV station in Jubilife City next. Or maybe we should go to the Global Terminal?

Dig for Fossils in the Underground. The mining museum might be able to bring back the ancient Pokemon!

Sneaky sneak...

Lucas Encounter

Me? I'm always doing great! ...I wish... but that's not important. Lately, I've been experimenting with a couple of neat tools.

Oh yeah. You want the Vs. Seeker. Yup, Hikari, you know what's important.

"you again."

Hikari, what about a Poketch? Do you have one? Yup, you do. You can have this too, then. You deserve it for all your effort, Hikari.

The DOWSING MACHINE is... just try touching it. It'll alert you if there is an unseeable item on the ground. Try it out now. I think there's something here. OK, keep working on your Pokedex. Professor Rowan is counting on us!

This is why we had to come all the way here, the Vs. Seeker is useless, it always is, I've never found much use rematching people. The Dowsing Machine is much better, hidden items can be very sneaky sometimes. But meeting was Lucas used to occur at the start of Route 207, but because you could go around via Floaroma Town to do that event from behind, you weren't able to leave Eterna City that way after getting the bike, which was a real pain since it stopped you getting to the Old Chateau and the other Cut trees if you hadn't done it yet.

Finally, Itemfinders are actually useful, though it gets improved upon from HGSS onward, since you can't use this while moving.

Now to head back and explore under Cycling Road, can't skip that!

FUCK! Oh well, let's just get this over with.

Remember how I usually have a status inflicter to make catching the entire Pokedex easier? Well, this is the move we'll be using! I'm serious, since Radium is an Electric type that doesn't naturally learn Thunder Wave and the TM is postgame! Great fun.

Ooh, good idea, there's something new to show off too.

So, shall we battle? I'll let you join my fan club if you can beat me!

On certain days in all Pokemon Centers starting from Jubilife, they'll be some trainers to fight, that have different teams depending on your badges. These trainers were found in Jubilife TV in DP with just the one team, but we should be able to fight them all over the course of the LP. Grace appears here on Tuesday and Thursday.