Part 16: Weekend at the Fire Academy
Hey, d'ya get it? Tiko wears a skirt.
HE IS A MAN BUT WEARS AN ARTICLE OF CLOTHING THAT IS GENERALLY ASSOCIATED WITH FEMALES
GET IT
the puzzle here is pushing boulders on to panels to make walls of fire go up and down.
Rocket Man has Earthquake for most of the fire-types and Rock Slide for the two not weak to Earthquake.
Zapmander can also show this stuff what-for, because Scald is disgustingly good.
GET IT HE IS WEARKING A ASSKJSIRT
We get to Tiko himself with no real issue. After rescuing him from Anthell he wants to see our moves.
...Why is his face so soft and gentle?
OFSelects: Electric Six - Dance Commander
By the way that's the skirt this game has been flipping its shit about.
Taking out this Palij in one hit means it can't plant Sunny Day, which would kind of suck when Tiko has a big set of firemen and I'm relying on a water move.
This ant is as lame as ever, so it's also one-shot.
Chimaconda, Chimical's evolution. It Curses to undo the edge in speed Petrify gave it while doing nothing to stop Scald from blowing it apart.
Pajay is the evolved form of Palij.
That 30% flinch chance sucks a ton, and Pajay is fast enough to make it count. Thankfully Zapmander doesn't fall for it and Scalds it down.
He has his own Inflagetah, and its normal colors look off to me because I'm so used to my shiny one.
Flame Impact and Extreme Speed are as ridiculously brutal here as on Rocket Man, but getting Scalded in the face once does it in.
Electruxo is a fucking house.
Oh finally I'm past all problems with his electric move too. Thunderbolt has been clocking in since 1996, making water- and flying-types never truly secure in their place in the world.
Get it
it's a dance but also a spicy thing.
At least it's not a fucking skirt joke.
Badges aren't tied to HM usage in the final game, but thanks for telling me what my next HM is.
Overheat has a ludicrously high power but halves special attack after use. It's used for hit-and-runs, burst damage, and murder of Skarmory and Forretress.
Per usual, defeating a gym leader leaves us with no immediate place to go next but we run into Theo when trying to leave.
Of course we have to beat him up. Again.
His team is the same as before, except his Minyan evolved. Quetzoral/Vilucard/Nimflora/Linkite/Archilles.
Acrobatics is a good move, though. Not on Quetzoral at all, but Bzzztt would make it fucking terrifying.
Harptera learns it, yes.
His Archilles is shaping up though.
Like Thunderbolt, but fire! Fire Blast's accuracy is decent enough that it isn't a braindead choice. Maybe you want Flamethrower's PP and accuracy sometimes.
Theo copes with losing better than before, but in general seems distracted and frustrated.
Oh well, new HM.
Like Flamethrower, but water, with no side-effect, and is an HM move! Scald vs Surf is a question of power vs. that hefty 30% burn chance. I don't need the burn chance, but maybe something of your's does?
Original: Pu-Surfing(mp3).ogg
Yes it has the .ogg. Even the ridiculous orchestra can't save this melody from being inherently dull. Luckily, I don't have to deal with anything even vaguely related to a canon surfing theme.
OFSelects: Dinosaur Jr. - Little Fury Things
Surf turns all those bodies of water from decorative walls to new passages. Uranium actually does a pretty good job of making this moment exciting. There are a lot of incidental ponds and lakes and rivers across west Tandor and a lot of them have items sitting on the other bank.
And they have their own encounter tables, which means new friends!
Mostly just this guy, for now.
Y-you'll see.
Tinkerer gives us the item to replace strength, the power glove.
Dark-boosting item. Now My Fursona has some killer shades.
I changed the wild Pokemon theme again at this point.
OFSelects: T. Rex - Girl In The Thunderbolt Suit
It badly poisons your guy at the end of the turn. Seems pointless, but it'll activate abilities like Guts reliably, and a Pokemon can only have one major status at a time, so a poisoned thing can't be burned. It has its uses, you just have to look for them.
Extremely powerful, but extremely risky. But get a Substitute up and the risk is mostly gone. My Fursona's final form is really apt for abusing it, but I go a different direction with him. Mostly because he has Moxie and not his hidden ability Intimidate.
This is much better than a few tiles down from the road.
I have a Gyarados, Nep-Nep, and a matching mega stone, but with no key stone I can't yet mega evolve her.
The subway only goes to four places, these + Bealbeach. It's convenient enough, but it doesn't replace Fly.
Which we still don't have.
Another mega stone in Passage Cave. This is the only thing that dates this game as post-ORAS.
I love the power glove. It's so... good.
There's a gang of bikers who like Dunsparce in here.
I also switched up the trainer battle theme:
OFSelects: Paradise Lunch - Stuff
And a strength puzzle. I hope you like those. Uranium has a lot.
It's kinda rare that My Fursona gets on a roll with Moxie boosts. I'm glad when it happens.
Turns out these bikers are all really good people!
Okay???
MEGAWEAPON is back now that I've shown off enough other things and he's finally learning level up moves.
The leader of the Dunsparce Gang has Dunsparce's evolution! It's not just Digimon with angel dragons now!
What!?
Dunseraph keeps its preevolution's Serene Grace, so this is a high-power flying move, off of Dunseraph's 100-base special attack, with a 60% chance to paralyze per use! Holy shit!
Dunseraph is flying/dragon, so Blizzard instantly obliterates it.
That was all a sidequest but there's no reward as the NPC is a dick. Uranium!
The berry shop's owner is back, and sells EV-reducing berries. Convenient, but a little terrifying in its implications.
And now I got stuck in the corner. Thankfully I can surf out, but why can I surf into walls in the first place? Uranium!
The tour has us back home. So let's wrap it up with a great big collection of evolutions.
Fire/Grass monkey was completely absent from the fire gym for some reason. Stat-wise it's a glass cannon with high attack, and it learns, like, every fucking physical move in both of its types but leaf blade. It has Iron Fist for Fire Punch, or Technician with Bullet Seed, Flame Wheel, and Flame Charge. Get around how bad it is defensively and cope with its middling speed somehow and it could actually rip some heads off.
Of course, our own Quetzoral.
Braillip evolves into some sort of eel with arms and finally encases its brain in something. Sure? It's a special wall with a base 140 special defense.
Primeape's evolution is still not very good-looking. Its ability boosts its attack one stage whenever it gets hit, which almost might make this worth it, maybe.
Like Minyan, Lunapup evolves with a stone. It's slow, but fighting/ground is offensively rigorous and it has a big enough movepool to accent Drain Punch/Earthquake as STABs.
Another stone evolution. Glavinug is statistically acceptable but water/ice is just rancid typing. If you could get its hidden ability Snow Warning before the post-game that'd be one thing, but you can't. Alas.
Our own Pajay. It can't really do much besides use its special STABs, so trying to cheese as hard as possible off of its resistances is your only real option. Ground/Fire immunities are really something else, at least.
why does a cute little fart frog evolve into a pervert who is undressing me with his eyes
it has nearly the same stat spread as Glavinug, which is pretty similar to Brainoar. Water/Poison is grossly effective defensive typing, though Blubelrog lacks Recover like the official water/poison walls.
The only mono-steel Pokemon in the universe. It kinda sucks statwise, leaning real hard into its 140-base defense. Head Smash with Rock Head is nice even without STAB, and Sheer Force is really good on a thing with STAB Iron Head.
Too bad it's so slow and has a mediocre 100 base attack.
The HERO evolution, Kiricorn does action stages. It doesn't get the one physical Fairy move, Play Rough, until level 50. It has a disgustingly huge movepool, though. It'd be something if it had its hidden ability, Defiant, so it could come in on intimidates and only come out stronger for it.
Frynai evolves at level 36.
And again, with a water stone, into Daikatuna.
Suck it down.
Daikatuna is water/steel. Fast with a high attack stat, and decent physical bulk with awful special defense. I wish I had its hidden ability, Sheer Force, again! But it'd be even better here, with Waterfall to make anything that doesn't resist water his bitch.
And Gooey evolves into some sort of six-psudeopodded horse amoeba? As weird as it looks, Gellin is no slouch. It's a weird sun-based Grass/Electric that works out rather well in practice if kept away from fire things, as its types cover each other rather well. Rather tough with 90/75/100 defenses and its base 125 special attack lets it get lumps in even if you don't indulge it with weather.
With that I barely crack in to 100 species registered. Halfway there!
Bamb'o gives me another egg. This one's typing is Fairy/Dragon, so it's another new thing.