171 replies to this topic

[Sir Deimos]

Bahaha. You think they changed the Victini business in the hack?

[Showsni]

Regrettably, Nature Power becomes Earthquake on "sand," which also counts for most of the roads you walk between towns. I believe Earthquake gets anti-STAB from both of Verde's types, and is a physical, so it's definitely neutered in his case.

Oddly, Nature Power becoming Earthquake is usually the only reason people use it (to give EQ to more things, like Sawsbuck).

Remember Hoppip and... uh... Jumpluff? Yeah me neither. TORCH IT NACHO

Hey man, Jumpluff saved me in Crystal!

With stats like that, it is imperative you catch a Smeargle! (Okay, I guess other stuff getting buffed makes it less awesome, but still...) Then teach it Spore.

[deep]

Chapter 16 - Beedrill



God damn it they're across the street from the gym.



Wow. You're so anonymous and expendable that you are attributed as the name of your "team." Not even "Grunt."

How does that feel?



They're still rockin Onixes. Despite his insane Defense, Guac rolls him.



Durants show up early!

That's cool.



Also 4x Fire weakness!




I still have no answer for Electric-types!

Except for my own Electric-type.



I don't think the hacked AI understands Lightningrod. For how sharp it is at other aspects, this has to be broken. My big problem right now is that Lightningrod buffs Special Attack and I've got Thunder Fang and Feint, both physical attacks. I will work this brokenness to my advantage someday.



UGH SPEECHES














Oh uh what now?



Well I guess that was an okay reward.

Snarl is a Dark-type special attack that can lower special... defense? Attack? Anyway I don't use it.



GYM TIME



FIGHT CLOWNS



I love Ariados. I rolled with one in my old Crystal game.



Butterfree's got Quiver Dance. Special Attack, Defense and Speed up. Not that it helps.



Okay now it might help. Nah, Queso's still faster.




Thunder waaaave





(I usually hate spiders...)



For every fight, picture me using Fire Fang and then this happening.




Peking keeps learning skills in the background. I make a tough decision to keep Wing Attack over Air Cutter. They're rather similar attacks.




MOAR CLOWNS



Fire Fang missed.

Since Paras is frickin Paras, I take this opporunity to remove a Stun Spore.




OH ALSO PARAS HAS SWORDS DANCE LOOK THE HELL OUT

Nah Fire Fang.



Water/Bug grumble no Fire Fang grumble




So Beedrill's faster than me. He throws out a Hone Claws. Plus attack, plus accuracy.

So I Fire Fang him, but he survives it.



He's also got Twinneedle.

Welp.



TIME FOR PEKING'S GRAND DEBUT.





WELP.

Uh, Verde?



OH GOD

So fine, Guac can outspeed him.



EAT FAKE OUT

It doesn't kill him. He's got a snippet of health.

Then I throw a Bullet Seed at him. I've only got that or Low Sweep, but both are awful choices.



IT HITS HIM THREE TIMES AND UGH



Splendid.



Queso tanks a Twinneedle and finishes the job.


The last fight's not so bad.



Fire Faaaaaa



aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa



aaaaaaang!








----

Next time, I get my ass beat.

Edited by deep, 23 July 2012 - 07:32 PM.

[deep]

Chapter 17 - The Insect Badge



This is mostly a recon mission, to see what his levels are like. And maybe which of his Pokemon is a roadblock.



Still only five. At least I outnumber him!



I'm not inherently threatened by this here Volbeat, so Nacho throws out a Howl to raise his attack.



Light Screen means Volbeat's covering a Special Defense gap, either for him, or for Burgh's team in general.

Fire Fang's physical, so it's all clear.

I Howl one more time, but that Volbeat's next attack hits fiendishly hard, and I'm no longer comfortable buffing, so I get to sweeping.



Nacho's packing Leftovers, so subtract 9ish HP to get about 42 damage from that last attack.

Volbeat got a bunch of stat boosts, which is nice, because they're way underpowered in vanilla.

But I was kind of glad they were so weak, because they also look like creepy, balding, middle-aged faeries.



Suddenly, Burgh is not fuckin around.



Oh that's never good.



NOPE NOT GOOD AT ALL

I don't remember what Escavalier uses here, but it's super effective to Fire, which means he's got coverage against his main source of pain.



We've both got Leftovers on.



Of course Burgh drops a Hyper Potion here.

But I've anticipated this. I chose Fire Fang over healing myself because I knew Burgh would take Escavalier's turn to heal him.



So now we're back here.

I choose another Fire Fang, because either Burgh's gonna use up his last potion, or he isn't, in which case I attack first.

(For the record if Escavalier had a Quick Attack analog here, I would've cried deeply.)



I keep Nacho out, because he's got two rounds of attack buffs, and he's inflicting mortal wounds with decent speed.



Leavanny's got a 4x Fire weakness, and he's grass and bug-typed. I'm not worried he's going to seriously harm Nacho.



So I slow things down and give Sir Nacho a Oran Juice.

What you don't want to do is use up your attack to heal your Pokemon and then get one-shotted by the opponent's retaliation.



Luckily, I guessed right.





Then Leavanny takes the little kid gloves off.

I won't lie, I was pretty surprised to see Swords Dance again.

I was going to take this opportunity to Howl a few more times to really secure my victory.



Burgh's got one of those asshole berries that I don't have access to, but I actually outdamage the berry and one-shot Leavanny anyway.



You haven't seen my stats in a while. Nacho entered this gym at level 26.

Once I even their levels out, Nacho leads my team in HP, Attack, Defense, and Sp. Atk, Sp. Def. He's a close second in speed.



At this point, I slowly crawled my level up to theirs, and I still have two Howls under my belt with decent speed.



Fire Fang only has 95% accuracy, but hasn't missed during this fight.



Burgh's last Pokemon is Venomoth. I am worried, but I've got a full team to back Nacho up if he falls.

It's actually faster than Nacho and gets off a Signal Beam.



Not very effective = 40+ damage.



OP NERF NACHO



Why thank you.



This turned out a lot better than I expected. But that's probably because Arcanine might be one of the strongest Pokemon I currently have access to.



Burgh drops Signal Beam on me.

It's a special attack with 75 base damage that also has a chance to confuse.





I love how Burgh's IQ visibly drops when the hacker inserts a few new lines to reflect the change from Bug Bite to Signal Beam.



I teach it to Queso, actually. Remember how I said I need a special attack to benefit from Lightningrod? Bug isn't necessarily the best attacking type I can get, but I can sneak up on Dark and Psychic types. And hey, Electric is no-dice against Grass, so I've got that too. Plus, Bug hits with normal effectiveness against Rock and Ground, should that need arise.




Bianca, you don't want any bit of this.


---

Next time, Bianca gets a bit of this, and I start exploring the desert proper.

Edited by deep, 24 July 2012 - 11:14 AM.

[Sir Deimos]

I remember in the proper games Signal Beam was rather good. I had a Porygon that learned that, and I kept it because it was great in tight spots against things where bug attacks are actually useful. <3 Porygon Z.

[deep]

Porygon Z looks pretty darn okay stat-wise in this hack.

Don't feel like doing the whole stat comparison thing, but his new stats are:

HP: 90
Attack: 95
Defense: 95
Sp.Atk: 155
Sp. Def: 125
Spd: 108

[Twinrova]

Burgh's got one of those asshole berries

A dingle berry?

[deep]

[Twinrova]

I'M SO CLEVER

Edited by Twinrova, 24 July 2012 - 01:32 PM.

[JRPomazon]

This run has been an absolute treat so far. Gotta love the fact that you can actually catch cool pokemon for a change without having to wait through half the game.

[deep]

No kidding. It makes me excited for each new patch of grass and body of water. Both for the new Pokmeon, and also the new stats that each one has. Even the evolutions and attack changes (which I wish there were more of)

It's like playing through a History pop quiz after time travel is invented. You definitely know like half of the answers, but the other half are subtly different because someone went back and killed Alexander the Great and encouraged Hitler to become an artist.

[Sir Deimos]

We would live in a world with pokemon if someone went back and killed Alexander the Great and encouraged Hitler to become an artist.

[canas is back]

We would live in a world with pokemon if someone went back and killed Alexander the Great and encouraged Hitler to become an artist.

needs to happen NOW.

[deep]

haha. My words, they have been twisted.

Also, dudes and dudettes, thanks to my day job, update schedule is going to be reduced to one a day at the very most. I'm going to try and keep daily updates going, but first I've gotta see how working these crazy full days affects my ability to play Pokemon and stuff.

So you're due one tonight. We'll see how things go from there.

[Sir Deimos]

:C oh. Ok.

[Twinrova]

Don't you dare abandon this thread for real life D:<!!!

[deep]

Chapter 18 - Sandstorms are Jerks



Yeah yeah let me just whoop your ass and get this over with.

Where do you want this battle to go down?



Why?! There's plenty of outside to go fight in!

Fine.



My hat is better than your hat.

It also fits adequately and does not require adjusting.




Four Pokiemans.



This is Not Fair for Kirlia.



I toy with it a little bit.



Thief's attack is 60, so I use it as a normal attack. That makes 90 with STAB. Plus Peking's ludicrous attack stat.




I do bad things to Prinplup.












Ponyta is really fast and manages to lay the smack down on Cool Ranch before his Razor Shell connects.



Gloom has Drain Punch, which is kinda cool and thematic of Gloom. I'm down.



I have Wing Attack.


And that's Bianca's team.

I head out into the desert to start catching stuff.



I <3 Aron.



This makes catching him incredibly easy.

His name is Rock Taco.



Man. What is a Rock Taco?




Dammit. That's not what umbrellas are for. They do rain and snow, not dust and flying gravel.



I beat up her Poliwhirl.



She stands him back up so I can knock him down. You know how this goes.







I pick up a Phanpy cos why not



Curry!



Rhyperior has ridiculous stats. I'll probably be trading up for one much later.



Atom.




I'm looking forward to the inevitable Sandslash I'll be facing in the Ground Gym.







Well this is certainly showing up early. Elgyem have an ability that make them stronger just by going second. They also have dismal speed. They're really strong if you let them live.



I hear Sean likes Sandiles.


I eat this one.

The Engineers around here have jerks for Pokemon.



Poison Fang took a huge chunk out of Verde.



Donphans look like turbo-Dumbo.



Getting a Fire attack this early in vanilla is hard. I would be loving this if I didn't have a bountiful harvest of Fire-types in my PC Box.



I don't catch this. I don't know why. I love them.



I am never ready for Cheren. He always sneaks up on me.



Luckily I just happened to have Peking out front.



C'mon Cheren really?



His Monferno outpaces Cool Ranch, and raising his Special Attack two stages isn't a good omen. But I keep Cool Ranch in anyway.



He throws a Flame Charge at me like a doofus.



WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE THESE



It doesn't entirely matter.



Nah, it's mostly handwritten spreadsheets and grinding.



...you don't even have a Pignite.

Maybe your Pokemon will trust you more if you remember their names?

I hear girls like that too.


---

Next time, I do even more desert.

[Showsni]

I'm kind of sad the gym leaders don't have out and out amazing competitive teams. I mean, you've probably got the Pokémon and stats to cope with it; so, the bug gym for instace...

Lead with Venomoth. Venomoth with max defensive investment is surprisingly bulky; and you start by getting off either Sleep Powder or Quiver Dance. Dance whilst they're asleep (or switcthing, or using an Awakening). Soon enough you've got the boosts to pass away with a Baton Pass. Pass along to a Volcarona and you can handily sweep, or dance some more (Volcarona can also work well standalone, but maybe it's a little unfair to meet one this early). With their DW abilities, Volbeat and Illumise also make great Baton Pass team members - throw up some screens, sure, but more importantly Tail Glow (now +3!) and Baton Pass, all with Priority thanks to Prankster! Some other great Bugs could also be used here - Yanmega springs to mind. Detect turn one to let Speed Bosot make your faster than everything, and it loves getting passed Tail Glow or Quiver Dance. Very powerful Bug Buzz. There are some good support and defensive bugs too - Forretress, Shuckle... And the sheer power of Choice Band Technician Scizor's Bullet Punch hardly needs mentioning.

[deep]

What you've described is approaching downright mean, however, because the team you've assembled has resources the player doesn't yet have access to. I'm only 3 badges in, so the hacker has to compensate for my lack of solid hold items, lack of learned level-up attacks, lack of solid TMs, and in many cases lack of top tier evolutions.

Not to mention the Pokemon no longer have most of the abilities you mentioned.

But, on the other hand, the bug gym was by far the easiest I encountered, and I only had to employ a pretty simple of strategy of Howl + Fire Fang ad nauseum.

Edited by deep, 26 July 2012 - 03:48 PM.

[Showsni]

Heh, good job I don't make hacks then. (Punishing players is fun, right?)

Sturdy Escavalier does seem pretty mean, though.

(I did start making a hack once... Finished the starting town, anyway. I had the starters as Trapinch, Seedot and Nidoran, I think, to get the Ground/Grass/Poison cycle. I'd changed their stats and movesets. You played as a Team Rocket member, and had to go out to town and steal one of those three to start, and they were all in different places; then you had to steal the Pokédex and battle off the goody two shoes professor's grandson. I'd not got much further than that. Oh man, and it's all on my old computer so I can't access it... Distressing. I'd worked hard on making all teh events trigger at the right times and everything!)

[Twinrova]

Showsni that hack sounds awesome. Pleeeease find a way to resurrect it! xD

[deep]

That sounds pretty awesome actually.

[deep]

Chapter 19 - Just Deserts
^{_{see it's a joke because this update is just in the desert bahaha}}



That makes 3 of them. Now that I see this screenshot, however, I realize that I forgot that I have 3 of them and have only been using two.



Anyway I fight this guy.



Damn gurl. I want a Garchomp!



4x Ice weakness what what



Gible looks really funny with his mouth closed.



Dewott is rarely this effective. He's easily my weakest Pokemon by far. Level 36 cannot come soon enough.



More backpacking action.



Pikachu is too smart for my Lightningrod and instead cuts the only attacks I have. SMART.

I Signal Beam him to death slowly and laboriously.



This goes much more quickly.



Thunder Fang. I wonder why Cute Charm procs when the user faints immediately after?

I wonder how Queso must feel, falling in love with someone who dies within one second. The mental anguish for those few seconds must be intense.



Peking destroys Chansey with Wing Attacks. I didn't screenshot the trainer using 2 Hyper Potions. With each Wing Attack proc-ing an Attack boost, those potions didn't do a whole lot.



Skiploom! Hoppip, Jumpluff, and a Skiploom! I knew I was forgetting one of them oh it's already dead from intensely buffed Wing Attack.



I suck at screenshotting sometimes. I was showing off that Bullet Seed hit 3 times and still took only that much damage off. Sudowoodo is sturdy as heck.

I thought he was cool as shit in Gold/Silver.


So I walk up to the next city to restock on goods.



Oh god plot leaving now



There's a second free healer in this area. Because this sandstorm is a pain the ass.



He's also quite nice about it.



pfffffffffffff no!

That's what you are for.



Oh neat! Catchin dis.

I shall name you Rova.



Wild Pokemon have Spikes. I don't know if this Sandslash thinks I'm gonna be doing a lot of switching but uhh



I don't catch this Diglett, but it's a nice nostalgia bomb.



There are also Dugtrios.



I also clean up the trainers around here.



Urgh I want a Taurosss why can't you be willlld



Magnezone would be nice. I'd trade in Queso. Too bad this isn't wild.




Oh yay!




More trainers!



Ducklett > Wingull

That still doesn't answer why we have two Flying/Water types.



Ugh so jealoussssss I want oneeee




Oh hey, a Joltik. I did threaten to catch one if I found it in the wild.



Cheddar!

Time!

Spoiler

Flipping through my notebook, I see that I wrote down the stat loadout for Galvantula and Raichu, squared some numbers, circled others, and wrote, "Same, but Raichu has better phys." Looking now, Joltik is a little better at everything, but trails Raichu by about 40 in terms of physicals. He might not be a bad switch out if I can keep him with straight specials.

Onix just straight-out evovles into Steelix in this hack.



Sausage!




These guys are showing up mighty early too. I don't grab one cos meh, Gen V.
^{_{(shhh I know Joltik is also Gen V)}}

MOAR TRAINERS



This screen shot is illustrating both that trainers have access to cooler Pokemon than me, and that Verde learns Flash and can piss a whole bunch of new Pokemon off.



A wild Gible!

Sadly I couldn't catch him. I've only got crappy balls and Thunder Wave, which doesn't even work against him.



This is a needlessly complicated attack that nobody can learn so I shelve it.



I hop into the Relic Temple. Not much to do.



Sableye still doesn't have grand stats despite the hack.





Where we're going, we don't need eyes...


---

Next time, I observe family issues and fight things.

[Veteran]

ohmygodeventhorizon!!

And poor Rova!

[Sir Deimos]

It's a shame you missed that Gible. They rule.

[Twinrova]

Oh neat! Catchin dis.

I shall name you Rova.

[deep]

Chapter 20 - Dress Up



Nothing cool in the Relic Temple just yet. Couple fights.



But this! I catch it because they had a weird encounter table. They've got some niche stats.



Fondue.

Why are there so many Doritos flavors.



There's a Chingling, but meh.

Also, I'd like to make a redaction from last update.

See, I said that I named that Nosepass after Rova, and that's untrue.

I lied.

And I'm sorry.







I named this Nosepass after Rova.





Okay, plot time.



She gives us this. As if it will somehow be helpful in the immediate future.



You know, I never actually thought about it that way. Thank you, Mr. Hacker. Your additional dialog was not terrible for once.



Well I mean... yeah? It's "the physical counterpart" kind of implies that.

Dammit Mr. Hacker.



There's a disturbance up ahead.

Team Plasma wants to relieve the Day Care of their charges.



hehe well I did beat the third gym in one try this time so I guess I am



Chump.

I must've not screenshotted it, but I procured Dig a while back. I gave it to Queso so I could hurt the Electric-types I stonewall with him. I also gave Drain Punch to Guac, replacing Low Sweep.

I have played these parts so far in advance that I am forgetting small details.

The important part is that I'm not getting the crap kicked out of me.




Turns out Joltik knows Me First, which steals Dig when I use it.

Well this is awkward.

However, Me First steals the attack and makes the stealer go first. You can logic out the rest of that.

Spoiler

I haven't shown off stats in a while.



That's Queso. Solid attack, fast, regrettable defense.



Team Plasma are stepping up their game.

I mean, sort of. I still whooped him.



Skarmory's a good choice!

TOO BAD I HAVE FLASH



mwahahahahahaha



oh

uh

TOO BAD I HAVE 14 MORE CHARGES OF FLASH




phew



Verde's stats. Crazy specials, rough physicals, no speed.

I should consider dropping him, considering I've got Grass and Water types primed to evolve. He's redundant once they can hold their own.

Such is the peril of early evolutions.



Fly!

No changes. I'm still loathe to drop Wing Attack for it, and I don't really have any need for flying just yet, because I don't have Strength.



But I am a lady



But I can't teach it to myself. How do I get to feel manly power now?

Well, I sure know how to feel womanly power!






SHOPPING _i'msosorry

These are legit the first Revives I have come across. Have not picked up even one.

I buy a handful.



gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!



No it will grow up into a TERRIBLE KILLING MACHINE



No Bianca, this is why Cheren is better than you!

Ugh fine.








uh oh I uh well you two just work this out I'm gonna go ride on the Ferris Wheel and stuff


---

Next time, I go on a date.

[Twinrova]

Also, I'd like to make a redaction from last update.

See, I said that I named that Nosepass after Rova, and that's untrue.

I lied.

And I'm sorry.

Oh! Yay!

I named this Nosepass after Rova.

....

[JRPomazon]

Peking is quite fetching in the contests it seems.

[Veteran]

Needs more LIKE A BOSS references for the Honchkrow.