Part 6: Tunnel Gag

Um.


Burole town is boring as shit and it's full of water that has no fishing encounters! The game still says "not even a nibble!" though, so it's hard to tell if you're having bad luck or if there's just nothing there to even catch!


A few Burole residents say that Moki Town sucks. Most don't. That's as close to a character as this town gets.


Uh, thanks for telling me about this evolution, and not any of the 6 trade evolutions, lady!


Oh my, Blants has a perfect special attack IV and a nature that ups it even more.

Maybe this little ant has potential.

Potantial.


This is the totality of the Burole gym leader's personality.


There's exactly one cave, and it's the gym.

Such a weird town.


Oh boy, kitsch nick-knacks!


Wait it's drugs. Well then.

These items are powerful restoratives, but they reduce the happiness of Pokemon that consume them. Be mindful of who is relying on Return for damage, or needs happiness for something else. Otherwise you can tank it at your leisure.


There's a school in Burole, but instead of giving gameplay tips it provides meaningless chatter.


The second floor has four trainers to fight.




Bob Dennis has her first STAB move, and it's acceptable.

Oh yeah, her opponent is a li'l lizard pokin' out of the ground named Grozard.


You'd think a child with an inner tube would use water Pokemon. In most cases you'd be right, except for this one, right here.


He's got starters for some reason.




While it doesn't go as high as Low Kick, Karate Chop's consistent power and 1/8 critical hit ratio are appreciated.




Took until level 13 for Zapmander to get its other STAB. Sheesh.


Hey, it's Chyinmunk's evolved form! Kinetmunk is Normal/Electric, but it's still pretty garbage.


...Uh

what is this thing?

Is it a snake with a grabby hand on its butt?

Well it's mono-dragon and it has a good attack stat and shit all else.


These trainers are enough for Lotadio to hit level 14 and evolve.


And rubbing the Water Stone on him puts him in his final form, Ludicolo. He's not going to get any moves from leveling but Giga Drain will carry his butt for a long, long time.


Davern's theme is "caves". This extends to his Pokemon selection. He's not a rock-type or ground-type expert, he uses Pokemon found in caves. His theme is caves.


His gym's puzzle - using that term liberally - is smashing rocks until one of them randomly provides the key item.


There we go.


His junior trainers use three of the same Pokemon. They're ones found in caves.


It's a really simple gym. Here's Davern.


He recounts his entire backstory, which is the same as what that old guy said. Davern likes caves.


Is that a wispy mustache or does he have a lot of nostrils?



OFSelects: KMFDM - Disobedience
No particular reason I used this here, I just like this song and was short on ideas.




His Grozard opens with Bulldoze. The assured speed drop is annoying, but Lotadio one-shots it with Giga Drain.


Some sort of Dark/Ground mole with a drill for a face. It also can't take Giga Drains very well.


Barewl's evolution is

uh

at least it looks like something, some sort of horsedeer?


It's still steel/rock so it isn't weak to Giga Drain. Lotadio still drains it out.


Tofurang is Tonemy's evolution. Now it's some sort of mohawk hippo. It's lost Levitate but got Intimidate.



This would be a real mean move if I didn't have a steel-type thing. Bad poison is a lot like regular but it starts at 1/16th damage and doubles each turn.




It's not totally helpless as it has a ghost move. Uranium uses the 6th generation type chart so it hits for neutral damage.


Both of our moves get their side-effects. One of these is significantly more useful for winning a damage race.


That's two of eight!!


And at level 15, Bob Dennis becomes a horsedeer herself!



Well, uh, this is a really good move. Fighting is an incredibly useful type so even if I will never hit the bonus of clearing out damage-halving screens, a 75-power move that most things can learn is still a huge boon.

Davern has nothing interesting to say.


That's all Burole has, but I'd rather not end the update here.


Pokemon Uranium OST: Route 4

To the east of Burole is Route 4, which of course comes with new wild Pokemon!


Ekans has no new or interesting traits... for now.

The people who give me nicknames like memeing me.


Uranium's own Pika-clone! Except theirs is ground/electric.


Its ability puts its first move in the +1 priority bracket. There are some tricks I could've done with that if I didn't have better tricks.


The lakes don't have any fishing encounters, but the oceans do. An annoyingly rare one is:


A fish with an exposed brain!


Blants hit level 16 somewhere in there and learned this move.


It's an upgrade to Ember, even if I'll never use the side-effect for anything. But more importantly, it's a condition for Smore's evolution!


Now Blants is properly a fire-type. Bug/Fire. Bire.


Besides two random encounters on route 1, Lungs?! was leveled from 10 to 16 entirely on the rich boy in the Kevlar Pokemon Center. It took 27 battles, as evidenced by Lungs?! hefty chunk of defense EVs. This earned me 8,640 neo-shekels. This is the only way besides wild Pokemon to get something caught up, as Uranium's level curve is not kind to me.

It was not fun.


There's more to route 4, to be sure, but... we'll cross that bridge when we get there.