Pokémon White Version Wedlocke Lite Part 11: Surfing Unova

Now that I have Surf, it's time to backtrack and look at some of the places I couldn't access before.

First on my list was to head west from Route 1 onto Routes 17 and 18. I specifically wanted to get the Larvesta egg on Route 18. In order to do this, I had to bend the rules slightly by temporarily depositing one of my Pokémon. This isn't technically breaking the restrictions I set for myself because I allowed myself to obtain eggs and keep them in my party just until they hatch. If I didn't do this, it would be impossible for me to obtain egg Pokémon unless one of my party Pokémon and all of my boxed Pokémon died first.

For starters, I used Max Repel to postpone my Route 17 encounter so my team wouldn't be full, and off I sailed.

The trip to Route 18 was fairly uneventful since I was using Repels, but I did have quite a few trainer battles which were just challenging enough to give some good experience. It was especially good for Honeydew, who was still catching up with the Exp. Share.

I finally reached the house where a Pokémon Ranger gave me the Larvesta egg! That was easy. Now for the hard part... hatching the egg. I haave to hatch it on Route 18 for it to count as my encounter here, so it's time for lots and lots and LOTS of walking in circles.

In the meantime, I found HM05 Waterfall while wandering around. If I remember correctly, I won't need this for a while.

After a small eternity, the egg finally hatched! Good lord, it's about time!

This Larvesta is a female, so I had to name her after something sweet. I decided to go with "Chai", because it's sweet but with a little spice. I thought that would be an appropriate nod to her Fire typing.

On my way back, I came across a new area, the P2 Laboratory, where I found the Dubious Disc and TM24 Thunderbolt.

My encounter for this area was a Watchog (oh, Guava...). I've always found Watchog kind of creepy with those eyes... Well anyway, welcome to the group, "Sesame". Now get in the box.

Heading back through Route 17, my encounter here was a male Frillish. My first thought was to name him "Onion", but I decided to name him "Pringles", just in case I ever evolve him.

The other area I could reach now with Surf was Mistralton Cave, but I didn't want to explore there just yet. Instead I went back to Pinwheel Forest to search some previously inaccessible areas. I found the TM for SolarBeam, so I'd say it was a worthwhile side trip.

I also found this blocked area. I've played this game before, but I don't remember coming across this area. Perhaps it has something to do with one of the event Pokémon from the game?

Returning to Icirrus City, I decided to explore Route 8 and resume training. Here I encountered a Stunfisk. I named this little derp "Potato". I'll probably never use him, but I have to say Stunfisk's Electric/Ground typing always intrigued me.

I continued to the Moor of Icirrus, where I used a Max Repel to search for one of the special surfing spots. I encountered a Seismitoad, but I miscalculated and accidentally knocked it out. Darn... Oh well, I have a Tympole I could always raise. Not that I would of course, since they are pure evil.

With those side quests done and Honeydew finally on par with the rest of my team, I figured it was time to set my sights on the Icirrus Gym. Tune in next time for that!

(credit for party sidebar format goes to Marriland)

Pokémon White Version Wedlocke Lite Part 10: What a Twist!

First of all, apologies for the quality of some of these photos. I decided to play during a bumpy car trip in full sunlight, but I did the best I could to overcome the glare and shaky camera.

On with the show! Let's start with my Gym battle with Skyla.

I led with Cornbread and had him use Sandstorm right from the start. Swoobat couldn't deal much damage to Cornbread, and one Sand Rush boosted Rock Slide was all it took to win round 1.

Skyla sent out Swanna second, so I switched to Gingersnap. Her Sand Rush ability assured that I would have the Speed advantage. It took a couple of turns, but Gingersnap came through as always.

For round 3 against Unfezant, Snadstorm was still in effect, so one more boosted Rock Slide from Cornbread was enough to pull off a victory.

Badge number 6: the Jet Badge!

As soon as I set foot outside the Gym, N appeared once more! Uh-oh, is he gonna be cheap and battle me right after I challenged the Gym?

Nope, looks like he literally wanted to talk to my Pokémon. And look, Cornbread trusts me! Aw, that's sweet of you, Cornbread.

Next stop: Twist Mountain. But even though N didn't want to battle me, there is one person who will always bug me for battles... Cheren, of course!

After all that, Alder appeared from out of nowhere and gave each of us HM03 Surf. Yay for good HMs!

Now that I have Surf, there's a few places I can backtrack to in order to find some new things. First, though, I decided to go through Twist Mountain to Icirrus City.

One limitation of the challenge I am playing is that I don't always have a strategy for trumping certain types because I can't freely change my party whenever I catch new Pokémon. One type that has given me some trouble with my current team is Fighting Pokémon. Peach is strong against them offensively, but not defensively, which can be dangerous since most Fighting types are highly offensive.

While exploring Twist Mountain, I encountered a trainer who had one Pokémon, a Throh. I had Hot Wings out first, but I didn't want to risk him in case his attacks weren't powerful enough for Throh's bulk. So I used Yawn and then switched to Peach. With Throh asleep, I had Peach use Fly. This did a lot of damage, but not quite enough to take it out. Unfortunately, the Throh woke up that turn and retaliated with Revenge. Since Throh had just been hit with Fly, Revenge's power was doubled, making it enough to KO poor Peach. Darn, what a way to go...

When the battle ended, I immediately headed back to the Mistralton Pokémon Center to give Peach her burial in the Memorial PC Box. Oh Peach, you had doubters, but I was very proud of you. Your combo of Super Luck and the Scope Lens was awesome. Farewell...

So this meant I had to choose a replacement Pokémon from my PC. Because of the part of the Wedlocke rules I am playing by, since Peach was a female, I must choose a female as a replacement. Here are all the female Pokémon I could choose from:

I really wanted to use Cherries the Minccino or Pineapple the Joltik, but thinking strategically, I decided to go with Honeydew the Sigilyph. Yes, she doesn't have the Magic Guard ability, which will make some people upset *cough cough*, but she has plenty of good points. First, she can learn Fly, which is just plain convenient. Second, she has double type coverage against Fighting types. Third, she can learn a pretty decent variety of attacks. Add to that the fact that her nature is neutral, which I can never complain about. So I put Honeydew in my party and gave her the Exp. Share. Here is a look at my updated team:

Time to finish going through Twist Mountain. I had been using Max Repel the whole time in the area because I wasn't sure if I wanted to use up my encounter there just yet. But eventually I found myself in an icy cavern and thought maybe I'd have a slightly better chance at finding a Cubchoo (I don't want to wait two months for winter). So I let Repel wear off and...

Eh, oh well. Say hello to "Beef Jerky".

When I finally reached the exit, it seemed that Cheren was chasing off some Team Plasma grunts. Well, that's less work for me, I guess.

Once I set foot in Icirrus City, I figured I'd walk around the shallow water to see what Pokémon I would find. My first encounter was a Shelmet. Since my only other alternative would have been a Palpitoad (an evil Palpitoad), I was fine with that. I wanted to name her "Dragonfruit", but it wouldn't quite fit within the character limit. I removed the "i" to make it fit, but her "real" name with still use the correct spelling.

Well, now that I've reached Icirrus City, I think I'll take a step back and revisit some places I couldn't reach before without Surf. That will be the focus of the next part. See you next time!

(credit for party sidebar format goes to Marriland)

Pokémon White Version Wedlocke Lite Part 9: Pokéballs of Clay

At last, after all the dealings with the drawbridge and all the time spent chasing Team Plasma, it's finally time to challenge Clay at the Driftveil City Gym!

Ok... after one more cutscene...

Now on to the Gym! Seeing the original layout of this Gym again, I definitely prefer the elevator puzzle here to the confusing mine cart puzzle in Black 2 and White 2.

I figured the easiest way to handle this Gym would be to have Scampi solo the battle with Clay. But in order to do that I needed a way to take care or Clay's... *shudder* Palpitoad, the evolution of the ruthless evil Tympole. Fortunately he could learn Grass Knot, which will be four times super-effective.

Here we go. Let's do this, Scampi!

Scampi easily handles the first round with Water Pulse. No sweat.

Clay decides to bring out his heavy hitter Excadrill for round 2. He proves to be an annoyance for a few turns, but my persistence is rewarded with victory.

Round 3, against... Palpitoad! Scampi uses Grass Knot and with one hit avenges the loss of Guava so long ago.

I had hoped Scampi would reach lv 36 in this battle, but he was just shy of it. Darn.

Now the Quake Badge is mine! But before I could get the TM for Bulldoze, Clay asked me to meet him outside of Chargestone Cave. They sure do like to emphasize the critical path in this game...

To reward Scampi for his great job in the last Gym battle, I took a quick detour back to the Cold Storage and fight one more wild Pokémon to get him to lv 36 so he could evolve into a Samurott!

Now off to Route 6 to continue my adventure! But wait, what's this...?

Bianca, why am I not surprised? Well, that means more fairly easy experience points...

At least at the end of this battle I got something really useful—HM02 Fly. Thanks!

Now to find my encounter on Route 6. I really was hoping to find a Deerling, but...

Eh, that's kind of disappointing, but whatever. I decided to call her "Gummi", because she kind of looks like a gummy candy.

Once I got to Chargestone Cave, Clay arrived to open up the entrance. As a parting gift, he gave me the TM for Bulldoze. It's a potentially useful move, but I'm not sure I'll be needing it right now.

I took about three steps into Chargestone Cave when I was suddenly surrounded by the mysterious Shadow Triad, who took me three more steps to face N. N said a few things like he always does, and then he left for another part of the cave. Ok then, time to explore.

But wait, there's more. Bianca had to arrive and teach me how to move those floating charged stones. I would have found that more useful if I had never played the game before, but that can't be helped. Fortunately Prof. Juniper also arrived and gave me the Lucky Egg! Now this whole ordeal was worthwhile!

Time for my encounter here. My first choice would be to catch a Tynamo, but the odds of finding one are so low that it's not really worth it. Instead I wanted to find a Joltik, and lo and behold I actually found the Pokémon I wanted! I named this adorable little Pokémon "Pineapple".

I didn't get too far after that because Bianca and Juniper found me again, and Juniper proceeded to postulate on the origins of Klink. Ok, that's kind of interesting, but I'd really like to get through this cave now.

Nope! Now I must be surrounded by the Shadow Triad once more. But this time they just show up, take me across a bridge, and then leave.  . . .

When I finally reached the end of Chargestone Cave I ran into N again. This time he challenged me to a battle. I won't complain about that!

After I defeated N, he started going on about his desire to win over people to his way of thinking. At this point Bianca and Prof. Juniper showed up again, and N had some choice words for Juniper. Well that was awkward...

I took my first steps out of Chargestone Cave and into Mistralton City and met the other Prof. Juniper, Cedric, aka the father of the female Prof. Juniper. This is getting a bit confusing to type... Anyway, he upgraded my Pokédex to record multiple forms of Pokémon species.

And what do you know, immediately after that I was approached by Mistralton's Gym Leader, Skyla. She wasn't ready for me to challenge the Gym yet, though. First, I needed to meet her at the top of Celestial Tower. Having to complete a side quest before being able to challenge the Gym... what a surprise.

So on the way to Celestial Tower I had to pass through Route 7, where I encountered a wild Zebstrika. I was kind of hoping that my first encounter could be Deerling, but Zebstrika is nice too. I named her "Cupcake", and I don't even know why.

As I continued along, minding my own business, I found myself sucked into an unavoidable triple battle. That is not something you want to happen during a Nuzlocke. Fortunately my Pokémon were well matched against my opponent's in terms of type so they were able to come out unscathed. Whew!

At last I reached Celestial Tower, where my encounter was, of course, a Litwick. He's such a cute little soul-stealing Pokémon! I thought he looked kind of like a big cube of tofu, so I decided to name him "Tofu". Of course, this name won't make any sense if I ever evolve him.

Since Celestial Tower is full of Ghost and Psychic type Pokémon, Shortcake pretty much destroyed everything in her path. By the time I reached the top of the Tower, she got to lv 39 and evolved into Scrafty, becoming the last of my Pokémon to reach their final evolutionary form. Yay, Shortcake!

At the top of Celestial Tower, Skyla asked me to ring the bell. I did so in memory of my dearly departed Guava. After that Skyla was ready to return to the Gym and accept my challenge.

This next Gym battle has me a little nervous, because even though my Pokémon's levels are still pretty high, I don't have a lot in terms of type trumping for Flying types. Cornbread can probably handle Skyla's Swoobat and Unfezant with Rock Slide, but I wouldn't dare risk sending him out against her Swanna. Plus, none of my Pokémon can learn damaging Electric attacks, at least not the ones I currently have the TMs for. I'll probably have to go with Gingersnap because her defenses are pretty solid in addition to the fact that she's a good attacker.

While thinking about it, I had the idea to teach Cornbread Sandstorm. This would increase Rock Slide's power, and if it's still in effect when I send out Gingersnap she'll get a speed boost from her Sand Rush ability. Not to mention that Sandstorm will deal residual damage to Skyla's Pokémon while leaving Cornbread and Gingersnap totally unharmed. I think that strategy is going to work, but you'll have to check out part 10 to find out!

(credit for party sidebar format goes to Marriland)