Part 9: Corphish are Crap, Hey Hey!

Music: Ranger Base


You perfectly understood the Ranger's role in society, and you worked hard to live up to it. Circe, you've earned a promotion, I hereby certify you as Ranger Rank 3!

Music: Rank Up!


We ranked up twice in the span of a few hours!
Circe is moving up in the world!

We got a notification that we can now use Poison and Psychic Poke Assists. For some reason I don't think we're going to Summerland anytime soon...


Music: Ranger Base
Circe, when you go up in Ranger Rank, there is another benefit. A new segment is added to your Styler's Partner Gauge when you reach Ranks 3, 5, 7, and 9. To tell the truth, all Stylers have a 5-segment Partner Gauge to begin with. We cap the number of segments on the Partner Gauge to avoid putting too much stress on the partner Pokemon. Your partner, Plusle, has grown much stronger being with you, so it can handle more pressure. So, allow me to remove the first cap on your Styler's Partner Gauge. Circe, you are now authorized to operate your Styler with a 2-segment Partner Gauge.



Plusle is now slightly more useful/significantly less useless!
Double the electricity for everyone!

You've been handling jobs one after another since escorting Prof. Hastings. You're sure you're not too tired?



The aqueducts are supposed to be absolutely clean, but they're overflowing with horrible sludge! That's never supposed to happen, so I went to investigate, and what do I find? The place is crawling with Grimer! Leader, I'm begging you, we need help! You've got to do something! And the smell! It's putrid down there!

Congratulations, DoubleNegative. One of your prediction from last update is correct
Hahaha. I mean, it is pretty obvious if you think about it for like two seconds.

Mr. Civil Engineer from the Waterworks Bureau, you've come to the right place. I'll send out a Ranger to the waterworks right away.

His name is literally Civil Engineer?

I knew you were the guy to see, Leader! You catch on fast! The thing is, we never had Grimer show up in the waterworks ever before. We can't figure it out. So I thought maybe the Rangers could do something about them. I'll run along and wait outside. I'm depending on you, Leader! *leaves*
It seems as if there's no end to the troubles affecting our city. Unfortunately, Fall City has an acute shortage of Rangers because of the ongoing Go-Rock Squad investigation. In fact, Circe, you are the only Ranger who is free. So you don't get a choice in this matter. You must accept this mission. Of course, as you're already aware, that is the Ranger's role, so you don't ever get to refuse anyway. So, this is your mission.

The game doesn't even bother with any pointless yes/no prompt.
The pure distilled essence of "But Thou Must..."

Capture the Grimer that have overrun the waterworks. Also, the captured Grimer are to be turned over to a Ranger who is specially trained for the role. Circe, you're the one-and-only Ranger that Fall City can count on now.

What about that specially-trained Ranger? (I see we're all still ignoring all those Rangers upstairs)

Music: Mission Received!


So, our first mission is an escort mission. The second is menial tasks. The third is a sewer level.

This game really doesn't sound good if you put it that way.
They didn't put their best foot forward did they?



Any guesses on how many Grimer we're going to capture in this mission?
Uh... eight?



Poison assist is just like Grass except it can actually hit flying Pokemon. It's not actually better though since it's still Poison and thus has bad typing matchup.



Psychic has similar effect to Discharge (which I'm going to call Electric form now on). It's going to be extremely useful this mission.

Hastings and Joel have no new dialogue, so we go outside.

Music: Fall City


The screen then pans to the entrance to the waterworks in case we don't know where it is. Not that we need it since we can't go anywhere else.



I mean... I haven't put my makeup on yet! ...But, um... Doesn't something reek? It seems to be coming from the waterworks?

Dream cake?



Many Pokemon that live near water also live in the waterworks. Pokemon that like dark places live there, too.





Usually, it doesn't stink anything like this... Urp!

Good thing we don't have to actually deal with the smell.
There's an area near where I live that has a sewage leak that nobody can find. I imagine it smells like that

Music: Mission Start!


Pokemon can be seen literally everywhere in this universe, so the blurb is kinda redundant.

Music: Krokka Tunnel


From: Spenser
To: Circe

I've heard the latest from Joel. You might be intimidated being in an unfamiliar city, but I'm sure you'll acquit yourself fine. Both Joel and I are too busy with the Go-Rock Squad to do anything else. What's important for you is not to worry about the Go-Rock Squad. You need to take on missions and gain experience. That's why I also want you to go out on the Grimer mission. Make me proud!



This stink is downright awful! I've been holding my breath! You're Circe, right? I'm the Ranger they sent down to recover the Grimer you capture. Glad to meet... ...Urf, this stench is getting to me...The stench is even worse the farther you go in, so I'm sorry, but I'm going to wait out here. Everytime you capture a Grimer, I'll come running to recover it, and then I'll dash right back out. ...Urf, I can't take it! I'm holding my breath.

Makes you wonder how releasing Pokemon works here. I assumed it works like Allure/Guide in Octopath where they just go back to wherever we found them. But shouldn't that means Rhydon/Venonat/Machoke stay where they were?
Nobody wants to be in the sewers, so maybe releasing something down here just means it runs away?

The top path leads to the wrong end of a shortcut, so down we go.



What better place is there to find a Totodile than in a sewer?



It shoots water twice in succession with a break to fake us out.



Required Loops:4
Possible EXP: 18/21/24/28



There's sludges in our path. Going near them makes Grimer fall from the ceiling (presumably).

We can walk past this one without trigerring this encounter. Makes me wonder if we can skip any Grimer on this mission.
These green pools are really reminding me of the NES game Fester's Quest.

Music: Wild Pokemon Capture


Grimer releases sludge trails. They will damage us if hit.



It also has another attack, but it didn't use it this time. Instead, it chooses to fake us out.

On another note, Grimer with its mouth wide open is adorable
Imagining a grimer going "Yayyyyyy!" and it's the cutest thing.

Music: Capture Complete


Required Loops: 5
Possible EXP: 22/27/32/39

Grimer moves very slowly, so it's very easy to catch. Which is good because we're going to catch plenty of them this mission.

Captured Grimer: 1

Music: Krokka Tunnel


After the capture, the sludge fades away.



I'll take the Grimer, so keep at it, and... ...Urpp! This stench is overpowering! I'm not going to inhale. *leaves*

The ranger will leave with the Grimer we caught. Like with the Skitty before, we have to wait until the Grimer is also out of the screen. It's not as long as the Skitty, but there's going to be more of them.

Whether it's more annoying or less is up to you. Personally, I think they're both annoying.
It's probably not nearly as bad as the Skitty, unless every time this Ranger shows up, there's a longer train of Grimer following him.



Actually, whether this mission is worse or better than the last is debatable. What's not debatable is the fact that the Corphish is by far the worst part of the mission.



Not because it's hard to capture, since it only has this one slow attack.



Required Loops: 6
Possible EXP: 16/17/18/19

The low EXP is part of it, yes, but that's not the main reason.



There's the 3-way fork. We have to go to the bottom left path since the top right one is blocked and the bottom right one only has a Corphish.



Anyway, the reason why Corphish is terrible: It chases you. It's quick and there's not much room in the sewers. Getting into encounter and fleeing wastes at least 7 seconds. Those seconds adds up.

Unintentional Corphish: 1
The presence of a counter does not bode well...



What went wrong? Why would Grimer suddenly appear? They've never been here before...

Frankly I'm surprised the sewers haven't been infested with Grimer since the beginning.



Speaking of Grimer, now we have to deal with two of them at once. Since dealing with just one is too easy.

Music: Wild Pokemon Capture


Here's its other attack: Shooting out puddles. It disappears after a second so it's not that hard to avoid.



The best strategy for multiple Pokemon is still the same: focus on one of them.

Captured Grimer: 3

Music: Krokka Tunnel


I'll relieve you of the Grimer... ...Urrrf... I can't take this! I won't breathe anymore.

Did it not occur to this dude to get some Vicks and rub it right under his nose? Sure some of the stink would get through, but most of it would be cut down.



Unintentional Corphish: 2



Up ahead, we find a Drowzee, which is a godsend for this mission.



And even better, its only attack is easy to avoid.



Required Loops: 6
Possible EXP: 26/30/34/39



I can see one of them scurrying around on the other side of the water... Hey, get lost, you little vermin! Whoops, sorry, I'm yelling at that critter, not you.

Going down, we find...



...A whole floor of sludge. With Koffing to boot. I'm definitely not going to drink water from here
The boss of this area is totally a Muk, isn't it?



The sludge coating the floor is what was left over after we tried to filter the water to make it drinkable. The sludge is very slippery. Don't try to skate on it or anything. It's too dangerous.

If you're wondering why the screen is purple, I'll explain that later.



Capturing Koffing certainly is unique. It has an attack, but we'll see it later in the overworld. As you might have guessed, it's why the screen was purple.
I love the capture gif!
Sadly, I can't make it for every Pokemon since doing that will expose how much I suck at this game.



Required Loops: 8
Possible EXP: 22/25/28/32



The sludge here (which won't disappear since there's no Grimer around) is slippery. And there's holes around. I think we all know what this means.

That's the second reason why this mission is bad.
Oh dear god... it's a combination sewer/ice level!



If we managed to get through the sludge without falling, we can reach this Raticate.

Music: Wild Pokemon Capture


It bites. That's it. It does move rather quickly, though.

Music: Capture Complete


Required Loops: 5
Possible EXP: 25/26/27/28/29/30

Music: Krokka Tunnel




Falling down is a quicker method for getting back.



Or at least it would be if I didn't get hit by Koffing's attack. It's the reason the screen is purple (just like Venonat.)

Koffing will do this exact attack in battle, but it won't do it if we're in the middle of looping it, so you shouldn't see this often.



Did I mention that this game has status effects? Well, this game has status effects. Poison from Koffing's attack causes us to move VERY SLOWLY. The speed in the GIF is the actual ingame speed.

AND it persists through screen transitions and encounters, so we're forced to wait for it to wear off over time.
That sounds awful. Is there a way to cure the status effects like a consumable item?
Nope! In fact, there's no usable items whatsoever in this game !



I actually managed to avoid the Corphish on the way back from the sludge hole.



Of course, the Corphish near the fork attacks while I was trying to Target Clear

Unintentional Corphish: 3



Anyway, we cut this fence. Next time, I'll try to explain why I actually like this mission more than the last one.