All the Pokemens

[Aura]

Agate Village

It's our first location familiar from Colosseum! It's always nostalgic for me to return here. I don't think I've mentioned it until now, but Pokemon XD is actually the very first video game I've ever beaten on my own as a kid. That's right, even before Colosseum. I'd rented Colosseum so I was somewhat familiar with it, but I had no idea this game was a sequel to Colosseum, I just saw it as a new 3D Pokemon game and thought Shadow Lugia looked really cool. Knowing how little I knew about pokemon at the time, I'm honestly not sure how I managed such a feat as beating the game, though, because this game does get genuinely difficult at times later on. But, I managed somehow! Anyway, because of that fact, I certainly have a lot of nostalgia for this title, even more so than Colosseum. This is just one of the many factors that got me really excited to finally arrive at this game!

Anyway, Agate Village hasn't changed much at all from Colosseum. The town is mostly home to elderly people with many young trainers coming to get stronger!

Right at the entrance, impossible to miss, is a chest containing a PokeBall! You still can't buy these yet, so make sure to grab it!

    

There are lots of new trainer classes here. From left to right: The Fun Old Man, Matron, Cooltrainer F, Rider, and Bodybuilder M. They've all been redesigned at least slightly from their Colosseum counterparts and feature much higher quality models. They can still look a bit odd up-close, but definitely far better than the squished faces of the Colosseum models.

--------------------------

For defeating Matron Belish, the old lady with the Poochyena, you'll be rewarded with TM09: Bullet Seed. It's not the best move, but you might be able to find some use for it!

------------------------

   x 3

Of course, all the same secret areas from Colosseum return here and with them come a variety of items: Another pokeball, a Super Potion, three regular potions, and most importantly, an Ether!

Just like in Colosseum, there's a man who will give you a random berry once a day, so make sure to visit him as often as you can! 

In the Pokemon Day-Care, the Day Care lady is out for now, but her Granddaugther is stated to be coming in soon to take over the Day Care, so we'll have access to it soon enough. Still, there's something worthwhile here. Just like in Colosseum: It's the Name Rater! With this man, I'm finally able to rename my Jolteon!

Since Jolteon was a gift from my father, I figured a fitting name would be "Family"

And last but certainly not least, the secret cave in the west side of town where you would've gotten the Silk Scarf in Colosseum is now home to a brand new Move Tutor who will teach you many of the tutor moves from Fire Red and Leaf Green. She'll teach each move only once and the selection of moves she will teach will increase over the course of the game, so be sure to revisit her!

------------------------

Aside from the useful NPCs, there's also some other familiar faces such as Senilor who now swears he saw a Wailord flying in the sky and his son who is convinced his father is delirious and seems to actually be pretty bothered by that, kind of sad, actually.

Funnily enough, there's also an old man who claims he's been feeling really tired after trying on his new sandals which he was told was a great invention... hmm...

=================

Well, now that we're done exploring around, it's time to finally seek out Eagun! We can't get to the Relic Stone without his permission after all! Apparently he ran off to prepare something, but we should be able to wait for him at his home underneath the giant tree.

We're of course met with Eagun's wife, Beluh! She recognizes us and tells us they'd already received a message from Lily that we were coming. Apparently these two are acquainted! She tells us that Eagun was overjoyed to be able to help out and ran off. But, before long...

Eagun charges in to announce that everything is ready for our arrival! He's surprised to see that we're already here and immediately tells us to find him at the Relic Stone!

================

Relic Cave

This cave has now been repurposed as a means to help us purify our last remaining Shadow Pokemon!

   

Eagun has gathered four trainers including two new trainer classes: A Cooltrainer M and Supertrainer F. Naturally, we're going to want to put our remaining Shadow Pokemon at the front of the party in order to purify them as quickly as possible!

=================

Relic Forest

For many of these images I'll be using going forward, I'm going to be pulling from an old Tumblr Blog called projectxd001. Screenshots of this game are very hard to come by, and this blog just so happens to have some really clean screenshots of areas that aren't on Bulbapedia! The blog appears to be old an the author has since relocated to a different blog, however, that second blog also seems to have been abandoned. So unfortunately, I don't think contacting this person will really work out. Hopefully they don't mind me using these images for a little bit!

Yes, it's obviously an image from Colosseum, but again, there's unfortunately not a whole lot of screenshots of Orre so I'll take what I can find! The area is identical in XD, anyway.

By the time we reach the forest, our Shadow Pokemon's heart gauges have all been reduced to zero, so we're ready to purify them! One lovely new addition I've yet to point out is that the Shadow Monitor app on your P*DA will now alert you whenever a pokemon is ready to be purified! You'll no longer have to go into your pokemon's summary just to see if it's ready to be purified yet, nor will you end up sending your pokemon out only to see that its heart gauge was reduced to zero while walking around between battles! Just another lovely quality of life addition.

Credit to projectxd001 on Tumblr

Of course, Eagun wants to battle with us as well to check how well our pokemon are doing. He hasn't battled in five years, so his Pikachu has grown a bit weaker with age, but he's still excited to battle again!

===============

My Team:

------------------

Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 14

Item: None

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Bite, Sand-Attack

------------------

Teddiursa F; Lv. 11+ [5/5]

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Mist, Lick, Metal Claw

-----------------

Ledyba M; Lv. 10+ [5/5]

Item: None

Ability: Early Bird | moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Shed, Aerial Ace, SuperSonic

-----------------

Poochyena M; Lv. 10+ [5/5]

Item: None

Ability: Run Away | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Hold, Poison Fang, Howl

=============

Myth Trainer Eagun

-----------------

Pikachu Lv. 12

               

                

Oh, so even though Eagun only has one pokemon, he's still willing to take us on two-on-one with his only Pikachu... curious, but maybe he'll surprise us! Er... no. The Pikachu goes down pretty quickly...

Yeah, I'm gonna be honest, we may still be in the beginning of the game, but it takes a little bit longer than Colosseum for the battles to start actually getting serious. We've yet to have a real boss fight, though I do believe we're slowly approaching one.

===============

Upon defeating Eagun, he admits that it was fun to revisit his youth once again and, recognizing that you have a pokemon ready to be purified, he invites you to approach the Relic Stone. Indeed, on approach, our pokemon can now be purified!

----------------------

Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 12

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Refresh, Return, Lick, Metal Claw

===============

Upon purifying one of your pokemon, you automatically return to Eagun's home where he and Beluh begin discussing what happened to Prof. Krane. They then tell you that a friend of theirs, Vander, another familiar name, mentioned seeing suspicious characters in the desert which sounds like a lead if I've ever heard one!

The two point us in the direction of Mt. Battle where we can find Vander, so it sounds like we have our destination!

=================

Credit to projectxd001 on Tumblr

Ah, but before we leave toward our next destination, we definitely should purify our remaining pokemon, shouldn't we?

--------------------

Child (Ledyba M); Lv. 11

Item: None

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Refresh, Psybeam, Aerial Ace, SuperSonic

----------------------

Youth (Poochyena M); Lv. 11

Item: None

Ability: Run Away | Moves: Heal Bell, Dig, Poison Fang, Howl

================

Now that Ledyba and Poochyena are purified, since they're not permanent members on my team, I'll go ahead and store them in the PC for now. I want to focus all of my efforts on training up Family and Friend!

Now then, with three shadow pokemon snagged and three purified, next time we'll be making our way to Mt. Battle to see where the story will take us next! If you think back to Colosseum, though, I think you probably have an idea of where this is going already...

[Aura]

Well, crap. I wrote out almost this entire post and ended up accidentally clicking away form the page and losing everything because the post recovery feature didn't save my work. Since it's already late and this was a pretty long session today, I'm unfortunately going to have to give you a very abridged summary of what happened. This really sucks because I went into a lot more detail originally, but lost everything.

Credit to projectxd001 on Tumblr

Mt. Battle

On first arriving at Mt. Battle, you're greeted by none other than Eldes, one of Mr. Verich's bodyguards. It's unclear what his purpose is in being here, but he mentions he once trained here relentlessly with the sole purpose of getting stronger and no other motivation. He says that's how he's obtained his current status but that he's recently started to question his own motivations and considers he may be putting his pokemon under undue stress. As a result, he encourages you to ask yourself for what purpose you are getting stronger before leaving. An odd conversation, but one that only makes him that much more intriguing.

Credit to projextxd001 on Tumblr

Inside the receptionist area, we'll find that Mt. Battle isn't actually accepting any challengers. This is because they're currently training new rookies for the first area. That's fine, because that's not really what we're here for anyway. We're only here to speak with Vander about what he saw in the desert. Since there is no official challenge going on, though, I don't think there's any need to cover the various NPCs you can find here just yet since they all cost PokeCoupons to use. That is, save for the Move Deleter whose services remain free. But there's really not much of a need for him this early on.

If you speak with the receptionist, she'll understand the situation and permit you special entry into the first area of Mt. Battle. Since this isn't an official challenge, your pokemon won't be automatically healed between battles, so don't get too careless!

 

Thankfully, you don't have to go very far to meet with Vander. You'll just have to take out the first two trainers, a beauty and casual dude, both new trainer classes (don't confuse the casual dude with the casual guy! Silly mistake, I know.)

On the third platform, you'll find Vander teaching Cooltrainer Bardo about Double Battles. He asks why your here but immediately connects the dots. Before he can speak with you however, he needs to finish up with Bardo.

Recognizing that you must be a strong trainer just by sight alone, he requests that you treat Bardo to a battle. After defeating Bardo, Vander returns to the lobby with you and points you in the direction of an old facility that once belonged to Cipher.

As it turns out, this is the very same lab that was transporting Shadow Pokemon to The Under by subway in Pokemon Colosseum! It's certainly suspicious that Vander's been seeing people enter Cipher's old lab and undoubtedly must be related to the return of Shadow Pokemon and, by extension, the "spies" that kidnapped Prof. Krane!

On our way out of Mt. Battle, we get an email from Aidan telling us that Agate Village is now selling Pokeballs! It's a good idea to stop by before going to the Cipher Lab because we're definitely going to be catching lots of pokemon! Of course, you can even get a Premier Ball for buying 10 pokeballs at a time!

===================

Cipher Lab

When you first arrive at the lab, it appears vacant. There's no sound and the electric barrier that once lined the perimeter is offline. However, it won't take long to notice a familiar vehicle parked on site: The very same one Prof. Krane was taken away in! This is the place!

Hexagon Brothers

As you approach the building, six men dressed in a variety of colors come pouring out and begin counting off! The red one starts the count off, but they start counting with Blue, causing the count to end with Green at 5. This alerts them to the possibility that somebody might be missing. Green then denies the possibility and starts the countoff himself. Again, the count starts with purple at 1 leading to the count ending with red at 5! This convinces all six members that one of them must be missing.

Ah, I suppose there's no way to really cover the joke here while still making it funny. The delivery is a big part of it after all, but I've always loved this squad! As they debate what to do about the "missing" member, they're all alerted to your presence and put off their problem for now to focus on you. As they try to intimidate you into leaving, they end up spilling that, indeed, they are a part of Cipher, confirming that Cipher was never truly defeated, even after the arrest of Evice! All six of these trainers can be battled, but you can actually completely ignore them and just walk right on by. This is actually pretty useful because there's a healing machine right inside the door they came out of that's been newly installed for convenience! No more healing at the PC in the awkward side building! With access to this healing machine, you can battle each member at your leisure. And I strongly recommend you do so because, as you might have guessed, each of these trainers has a team correlating to their aesthetic, either by their pokemon's type or color. Each one also has a shadow pokemon with a type corresponding to their color. You can essentially consider this XD's answer to Colosseum's Duel Square. Though the pokemon you can catch here are mostly far better than anything you could've caught in Duel Square! I want to catch them all!

When you return after leaving the area, you'll find all six brothers in a circle formation, still trying to figure out where their countdown went wrong. They try again, this time counting in a circle starting with Red. However, they don't stop when the circle comes back to Red, confusing everyone as the count continues past six and goes on into seven and eight! Now, the brothers are convinced there may be spies among them! ...I think there's a meme reference to be had here...

===============

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 14

Item: None

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Bite, Sand-Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 12

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Refresh, Return, Lick, Metal Claw

===============

Cipher Peon Resix

 

Slugma Lv. 14, Houndour Lv. 17+

I started these battles by taking on Resix. This is because, after snagging his Houndour with a Premier Ball, I had plans to make it a permanent member of my team!

-----------------------

 Houndour Lv. 17+ [0/5]

Item: None

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Shed

------------------------

I actually wanted to get a Houndour with Flash Fire as Early Bird is unfortunately a useless ability in XD since Calling can still cure sleep just like in Colosseum. Unfortunately, I forgot to check my ability before saving as I was actually pretty excited to start getting into the meat of the game! It's okay, though. I honestly doubt I'd get much use out of Flash Fire anyway. Most of the more powerful pokemon in this game are going to be Shadow Pokemon.

================

Cipher Peon Blusix

  

Horsea Lv. 11, Goldeen Lv. 12, Spheal Lv. 17+

 

Spheal is a Shadow pokemon that knows a new move: Shadow Wave! This is a 50-power Shadow Attack that hits both opponents! That unfortunately means its power is split down to 25 for each opponent, so it'll usually do less damage than Shadow Blitz, but being able to hit both opponents with a super-effective attack is still pretty strong if you're focusing purely on raw damage output! Its other move is Shadow Mist.

================

Cipher Peon Browsix

 

Hoothoot Lv. 14, Baltoy Lv. 17+

 

Baltoy's moves are Shadow Blitz and Shadow Mist.

===============

Cipher Peon Yellosix

  

Chinchou Lv. 11, Electrike Lv. 12, Mareep Lv. 17+

 

Mareep's moves are Shadow Blitz and Shadow Shed.

==============

Cipher Peon Purpsix

   

Grimer Lv. 11, Koffing Lv. 10, Tentacool Lv. 10, Gulpin Lv. 17+

 

Gulpin's moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Hold

==============

Cipher Peon Greesix

     

Lotad Lv. 8, Oddish Lv. 9, Cacnea Lv. 9, Shroomish Lv. 9, Pineco Lv. 9, Seedot Lv. 17+

 

Seedot's moves: Shadow Wave, Shadow Hold

An interesting note about this Seedot is that it being Level 17 means that it's already above the level necessary to evolve into Nuzleaf (14), so no matter what, this one will always be one level away from evolution.

==============

By the time I was finished with all six of these battles, Houndour was ready for purification already! So...

Credit to projectxd001 on Tumblr

I made a detour all the way out to the Relic Stone to purify him.

----------------------

 Ally (Houndour M); Lv. 18

Item: None

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Ember, Roar

==============

Now, in my session, I did actually continue past this point, however I actually kind of regretted doing so. I think this is a very natural stopping point right here. I originally intended to cover my entire session in this post, but due to the lost initial draft, it's getting pretty late now. I basically had to write this entire section twice, the first time in much more significant detail. 

I will mention that you can also rematch all of these Hexagon Brothers as many times as you like.

    

On the second battle, if you've already snagged their Shadow Pokemon, it'll be replaced with a new pokemon that's more on par with the levels of the rest of their team. That is, except for Greesix who now simply lacks a sixth pokemon. These new pokemon are Numel Lv. 14, Beldum Lv. 11, Slakoth Lv. 14, Magnemite Lv. 12, and Zubat Lv. 10.

Next time, we'll take a look at what's going on inside the Cipher Lab and maybe we'll be able to rescue Prof. Krane!

[Aura]

Now that we've finished up with the Hexagon Brothers, we can now turn our attention toward the interior of the facility! The west entrance, if you recall, originally led into The Under Subway which linked this location to Pyrite Town in Colosseum.

 

Unfortunately, this area is only a dead-end and any remnants of the Under Subway have been completely covered up. But, there are some items that can be found here basically for free! I suppose that means Prof. Krane thankfully couldn't have been taken much further!

Cipher Lab -- Interior

Credit to projectxd001 on Tumblr for all images of the interior of Cipher Lab

Welcome to Pokemon XD's first dungeon! Where the Cipher Lab was a dungeon explored really late in Colosseum, it's available much earlier here!

  

As you can probably guess, the interior of Cipher Lab is filled with all kinds of Cipher Peons as well as Cipher R&D, this game's counterpart of the Researcher class. Naturally, the presence of these shady characters means lots more Shadow Pokemon to snag!

The environment here is mostly unchanged form Colosseum, it's almost nostalgic!

Though the environment is similar, the path you take isn't so much. Many doors are locked or made one-way.

In fact, the only direction you can actually go from the start is the elevator that takes you straight to what was the end of the dungeon where you faced off with Ein in Colosseum! In Ein's place this time is a generic Researcher who's really just trying to do his job.

=================

 

Cipher Peon Nexir & Spinarak Lv. 14+

 

Spinarak's moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Mist

--------------------------

 

Cipher Peon Solox & Numel Lv. 14+

 

Numel's Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Shed

This Numel also came with a Charcoal which I immediately gave to Ally who would be getting more use out of it.

---------------------

In the corner of this area, you can find a revive in a chest.

=================

As we emerge from the stairs, we can overhear a conversation from a nearby room.

It looks as though Prof. Krane is being interrogated for information! We can recognize Naps, but this girl appears to be his boss. This duo are trying rather desperately to resolve things peacefully with Prof. Krane without having to use force. Compared to the brutal methods of Cipher in Colosseum, this comes as quite a surprise. As they speak, they drop the codename "XD001," which is apparently some sort of prototype in a series of further-improved Shadow Pokemon which Cipher is trying to perfect before making more Shadow Pokemon in the same vein. Apparently, some sort of error in this prototype has caused the pokemon to "drop a ship," which seems to heavily imply its correlation to the disappearance of the S.S. Libra. It seems the mystery of Cipher's motivation is starting to come together. Perhaps they had XD001 attempt to steal the S.S. Libra in order to turn the pokemon on board into Shadow Pokemon. From the information gathered in the intro cutscene, this must mean XD001 refers to none other than that scary-looking Lugia we saw lift the Libra out of the sea...

Naturally, Prof. Krane refuses to comply with their demands and the girl tells off Naps for being too rough with his "invitation," and blames him for Prof Krane's lack of compliance. It looks like we'll need to get there before things escalate further!

---------------------------

 

Cipher Peon Cabol & Carvanha Lv. 15+

 

Carvanha's moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Hold

Carvanha is also holding BlackGlasses which went right onto Family to boost the power of Bite.

---------------------------

 x 3   

As you explore around the halls of the lab, you'll run into a variety of useful items including some Super Potions, an Ether, Great Ball, and Full Heal!

Eventually, you'll arrive at a conference room where R&D members seem to be having a chat, discussing how Master Greevil is coming to verify that everything is proceeding well in light of the recent screw-up with XD001. The two scientists shudder and discuss how terrifying Greevil is before being alerted to our presence. 

-----------------------

 

Cipher R&D Klots & Shroomish Lv. 15+

 

Shroomish's Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Mist

------------------------

Upon defeating Cipher R&D Klots, he'll leave behind his ID card which we can use to access the next area of the lab!

The other R&D won't do anything to stop us since he says he's not actually a trainer.

In the same room, you can also grab another Great Ball!

==================

As we reach the room with Prof. Krane and Naps, it seems Krane has already been having a heart-to-heart with Naps, teaching him the many reasons creating Shadow Pokemon is wrong. However, while Naps has started to feel conflicted about his position, he claims there's nothing he can do to help Prof. Krane. Both of them are shocked to see us enter the room and Naps immediately springs into action to get revenge on you for snagging his Teddiursa.

===================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 19

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Sand-Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 18

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Refresh, Return, Lick, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndour M); Lv. 19

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Ember, Roar

----------------------

 Gulpin Lv. 17+ [0/5]

Item: None

Ability: Liquid Ooze | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Hold

---------------------

 Spheal Lv. 17+ [4/5]

Item: None

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Shadow Wave, Shadow Mist, Water Gun, Mud-Slap

---------------------

 Baltoy Lv. 17+ [4/5]

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Mist, Mud-Slap, Psybeam

==============

Cipher Peon Naps

-----------------------

 

Murkrow Lv. 18 & Rhydon Lv. 18

                

                

This was an incredibly awkward lead. Murkrow's pursuit made it near impossible for any of my pokemon to retreat, but Rhydon was also a strong threat as well. Not to mention, both of these pokemon are pretty tough to battle early game like this if you're unprepared! I tried to have Friend and Gulpin take out Rhydon since he was probably the biggest threat to my team, but its defenses were too high even with Shadow Blitz and Metal Claw together! I'd underestimated the strength of Murkrow's Pursuit even without retreating and Rhydon kept hitting Gulpin with Mud-Slap which consnequently reduced its accuracy. Unable to retreat as long as Murkrow was out, I decided to turn my efforts to defeating Murkrow but it was unfortunately a bit too late and Murkrow was able to take Friend out.

                

                

Since Rhydon was now low on HP, I was pretty comfortable bringing Ally out next to finish the job against him with Faint Attack. Plus, Ally resisted Murkrow's Pursuit!

-----------------------

Slakoth Lv. 18

                

                

I wasn't afraid of anything this Slakoth could do to me, so I focused my efforts on taking out Murkrow as quickly as possible so that I could freely switch Gulpin out with its reduced Accuracy. (I should note that, a new mechanic has been added in XD where calling a pokemon that isn't Asleep or in Reverse Mode will cause its accuracy to increase by one stage! This makes X Accuracy a completely useless item, but it does make things a bit more convenient in situations like this! However, it does waste a turn and in this moment, I think I would've rathered have that coin-flip chance of getting the extra damage to take out this Murkrow.

----------------------

Beldum Lv. 18

                

                

With Murkrow out of the way, I could finally retreat! Though at this point, it probably wasn't really worth it. I had Ally go for Ember against that Beldum while retreating Gulpin into Family.

                

                

From here, Beldum went down to just one more Ember while Family finally started attacking that Slakoth.

               

                

It wasn't long before Slakoth went down as well.

=================

After defeating Naps, he retreats to report to his boss, Lovrina. Prof. Krane tells us he was impressed at how much you've grown already and joins your party, telling you he needs to get back to HQ ASAP.

Before leaving, though, you can grab a Leaf Stone from the chest in this room. This is actually very significant because, with it, you can evolve Greesix's shadow Seedot all the way to Shiftry as soon as you purify it if you want! It's not a bad idea, either, because Seedot comes with some pretty powerful moves once it's purified!

As you can probably expect, on your way out, you end up bumping into Lovrina who absolutely is not accepting the idea of Prof. Krane going home. This looks like a boss fight to me!

Now, here's the thing... There is a healing machine deeper in the lab that I could've gone to in order to heal up, but I actually kinda figured the game would let me revisit the PC. The Healing Machine at the entrance to the building was more convenient for me to go to, so I absent-mindedly made my way there while... obviously knowing there was a boss fight that way. Contrary to what you might expect, you don't actually get an option to turn around once this cutscene starts playing. You're locked in and have to battle! This meant I had to take on this battle with a weakened team!

================

Cipher Admin Lovrina

-------------------

 

Luvdisc Lv. 20 & Beautifly Lv. 19

                   

                

What an unfortunate matchup here. I decided to focus my efforts on taking out that Luvdisc before it could do too much damage to Ally, but at its high level, it was surprisingly resilient! Between Shadow Blitz and Faint Attack, I still was unable to take it out! It hit me with Water Gun which did a decent chunk of HP, but Beautifly's Gust was able to finish off Gulpin due to its reduced HP from the previous battle.

                   

                

I brought in Family to finish off Luvdisc while Ally started attacking Beautifly with Ember. I still wasn't quite able to take out Beautifly, but at least Luvdisc went down!

----------------------

Roselia Lv. 19

                   

                

Now this Roselia proved to be a huge pain! No matter what I could do to it, it walled me pretty hard even with super-effective attacks! Family was able to finish off Beautifly while Ally turned his attention to Roselia with Ember. It did a decent amount of damage, but Roselia ended up taking him out with Pin Missile!

-----------------------

Delcatty Lv. 18+

                   

                

Here comes the most dangerous foe in Lovrina's arsenal! Her Shadow Delcatty! In addition, the only pokemon I had in my party to replace Ally's spot were both weak to Grass, so I went for the one who had an attack that might be able to help me take out the remainder of Roselia's HP. I wanted to combine Family and Baltoy's efforts, but I also knew Family wouldn't last long against Shadow Delcatty, so I needed to reduce Delcatty's HP with ThunderShock before we proceeded! I figured Baltoy's Psybeam would be enough to take out Roselia, but Roselia survived with just a sliver of health! To make matters worse, it hit Baltoy with a Mega Drain! Now it'd healed off most of the damage I'd been able to inflict! As expected, Family went down and I was starting to actually get very afraid of that Roselia at this point.

                   

                

My last two pokemon remaining were both weak to Roselia. Roselia knew Mega Drain and could most certainly outspeed Spheal. Thankfully, both of these pokemon were Shadow Pokemona nd Delcatty's HP had already been reduced a bit, so as long as I could get over this Roselia, all I had to do was snag Delcatty in order to come out on top. Roselia was able to survive another Psybeam from Baltoy, but thankfully only used Mega Drain against Baltoy instead of Spheal.

                   

               

Roselia was able to knock out Baltoy, but couldn't recover much HP since Baltoy was already low. Because of that, Spheal was able to take Roselia out with Shadow Wave.

                  

               

Now, it all came down to an endurance round between Spheal and Delcatty. Delcatty was not only an evolved pokemon, but it knew Shadow Rush which is a bit stronger than the typical Shadow Blitz, so it was still able to deal a decent chunk of damage each turn. I threw both of my Great Balls. The first failed, but the second was thankfully able to successfully snag her!

----------------------

 

Delcatty's moves: Shadow Rush, Shadow Wave

Shadow Rush shares a name with the only Shadow attack from Colosseum, but it's actually pretty notably different in this game. Its power has been reduced to 55, but it no longer inflicts recoil damage. The drop in power is probably in response to it now being super-effective against nearly all foes. In addition, with Hyper Mode being replaced with Reverse Mode, its critical rate is also no longer boosted by a special state. In other words, it's really just a slightly stronger version of Shadow Blitz with nothing too special about it anymore. Still, I'd argue it's far more useful and interesting in this form than it was in Colosseum!

================

Upon defeating Lovrina, she grows incredibly upset and retreats from the building, dropping a Data ROM in the process! When we pick up the Data ROM, Prof. Krane asks to see it and gives it a quick inspection before mentioning that it might contain useful information for us. From here, we return straight to the HQ Lab!

=================

Upon returning home, it's announced that the Purification Chamber has been completed! Prof. Krane is impressed that everyone was able to rally around Lily in order to finalize the project and is absolutely delighted to see all this work come to fruition in spite of the attempt to thwart it!

I'm going to go over how this purification chamber works in more detail, but for now, all that's important is that we can use it to purify shadow pokemon just like the Relic Stone! And while exploring the Cipher Lab, we certainly have some Shadow Pokemon ready to be purified!

=================

  Athletics (Spheal F); Lv. 19 

Item: None

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Charm, Aurora Beam, Water Gun, Body Slam*

*Body Slam replaced Mud-Slap on levelup after purification

-------------------------

Seedot, as expected, evolved on level-up after purification!

  Duty (Nuzleaf M); Lv. 19 

Item: None

Ability: Chlorophyll | Moves: Refresh, Giga Drain, Fake-Out*, SecretPower

*Fake-Out replaced Bullet Seed on levelup after purification

---------------------

  Research (Baltoy); Lv. 17

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Refresh, Rock Tomb, Mud-Slap, Psybeam

==============

Next time, we're going to explore the Purification Chamber in a bit more detail and see just how much more efficient purifying Shadow Pokemon will become going forward!

 

[Aura]

As promised, in this post I'll be covering the Purification Chamber in more detail. It's a shorter session today so I figure it's a fitting time to do so. I've already given you the abridged explanation of what this machine is, but now let's get into the nitty gritty because it's actually a little bit more complicated than it sounds on the surface.

When you first enter the Purify chamber, it looks like this. There are 9 empty chambers in which you'll need to place pokemon. Each chamber can hold a "set" of pokemon, a single shadow pokemon and up to four purified pokemon. In order to edit a set, simply select one and select "Edit"

Purify Chamber

This will bring you to the edit menu where you can place pokemon in the appropriate slots. You can place a Shadow Pokemon into the center spot, but as previously explained, you'll need a purified pokemon in the same chamber in order for the shadow pokemon to become purified over time. Up to four purified pokemon can be placed in the outer ring.

You'll notice if you place different types of pokemon in the outer ring, the various meters will go up by different amounts. This is where things start to get a little complicated and the exact details aren't fully detailed anywhere from what I can tell, so some of what I say going forward is speculation.

From what I understand, "Tempo" refers to how quickly the shadow pokemon will be purified while "Flow" is what determines the tempo inside the chamber. I'm unsure how exactly these mechanics differ or why it's necessary to have two separate gauges, but your ultimate goal is to get your Tempo maxed out by increasing the flow in each chamber. In order to do so, type-matchups are factored in!

The shadow pokemon in the center will be directly linked to the first purified pokemon placed in the chamber. If that pokemon is removed, then it will be linked to the next pokemon instead. From there, each pokemon in the outer loop will be linked to the pokemon next to it in a clockwise direction. To increse your flow, you'll want to make sure the type of each pokemon is super-effective against the type it's pointing to. Since Normal isn't super-effective against any type, it's treated as super-effective against other Normal-types.

For example, the above screenshot depicts a set with poor flow. This is because Ledyba, a Bug/Flying-type, is linked to Mareep, an Electric-type. Bug is no relation against Mareep and Flying is not very effective. Therefore, the flow from Ledyba to Mareep is weak.

 ->  ->  ->  -> 

[Bug = Electric] -> [Electric = Psychic] -> [Ground = Water] -> [Water = Electric]

However, if instead Baltoy were in Mareep's place, then the flow from Ledyba to Baltoy would be strong because Bug is super-effective against Psychic! Linking Baltoy to Mareep would increase the flow further since Ground is strong against Eelectric, and linking Mareep to Spheal would increase the flow even more because not only is Electric super-effective against Water, but Spheal is also linked back to Baltoy who it's strong against as well!

 ->  ->  ->  -> 

[Bug > Psychic] -> [Ground > Electric] -> [Electric > Water] -> [Water > Ground]

To my understanding, dual-typing isn't really factored into this equation. The purify chamber only takes one type into account and it will choose the best possible matchup between the sets of types. Though this part is more speculation since I don't really have the pokemon to experiment with at the moment, I believe if you were to have a Water/Electric-type linked with a Water/Ground-type like Wooper, it would still have a strong flow since Electric is strong against water and Water is strong against Ground even though Ground is immune to electric and Water resists Water. I don't have the actual numbers of pokemon needed to test this understanding just yet, but that's my current understanding.

In order to maximize Tempo, you'll need to not only ensure you have a full chamber of four pokemon and a shadow pokemon, but you'll also need to ensure that each link has strong flow! It can be tricky to balance the types in such a way where the last pokemon is strong against the first pokemon in the outer loop, but doing so will greatly help in purifying your pokemon!

Going forward, I'll try to portray Purify Chamber diagrams similar to the ones above, with types color-coded and matchups emphasized by font face and [in]equality signs. That is, Good flow [super-effective] will be represented with bold-faced font and a > symbol, normal flow [neutral] will be represented with normal font and an = symbol, poor flow [not-very effective] will be represented with itallics and a < symbol, and terrible flow [no effect] will be depicted with itallics and a << symbol. 

=================

So, I took some time to do some restructuring. I don't have very many purified pokemon just yet, so we can't just dump all our Shadow Pokemon in here and automate the process. Besides, I honestly do prefer to battle with some of my Shadow Pokemon the traditional style. It feels nice to develop a personal bond with each pokemon. As such, I'm going to make sure all empty slots in my team are filled with Shadow Pokemon whenever applicable.

SET 1: Mareep

[Electric > Water]

SET 2: Spinarak

[Bug > Dark]

SET 3: Numel

 ->  -> 

[Fire > Bug] -> [Bug > Grass] -> [Dark = Bug]

SET 4: Carvanha

[Water > Ground]

=============

Alternatively to this setup, I could've focused on fewer sets at a time and instead focused on getting pretty close to a perfect loop with something like Mareep -> Ledbya -> Nuzleaf -> Baltoy -> Poochyena or something along those lines, but since I'm so limited on purified pokemon at the moment, I think spreadign out to cover my bases is the best idea here.

  

Of course, there are three empty slots in my party, so I'll hold on to these three for now as we go forward! Gulpin, Shroomish, and Delcatty!

==============

As we go to leave, Prof. Krane will ask us to go see Datan, the scientist he tasked with deciphering the Data ROM. He's the guy at the computer on the top floor of the residential area. Jovi energetically jumps in to do it and runs on ahead before anyone can stop her.

If we head up to Datan's room, we'll find Jovi alone, confused as to where he is. If we ask around, we'll find that he apparently went downstaris looking rather dejected.

As a rather funny gag, there is an ONBS broadcast going on right now about a man in Pyrite Town famous for singing "35 years of cranking gears!" a reference to an NPC from Colosseum. The broadcast mentions that these years may be "an exaggeration" and that the real number of years is actually "closer to 5." Just some meta humor, I suppose, considering the time gap between Colosseum and XD is 5 years as well.

We'll find Datan outside of the lab where he confesses the Data ROM was too difficult for him to crack. Prof. Krane overhears this and tells us an associate of his, Nett, might be able to help out. He has Datan return the Data ROM to us and tasks us with going to see Nett in Pyrite Town! It's always exciting to see returning characters and we know from experience just how skilled Nett is with tech! This Data ROM will be cracked in no time!

Prof. Krane marks the location of Pyrite Town on our map so that we can go there ouselves. But we're actually not going to go there just yet, because now that we've cleared Cipher Lab, there's a bit of cleanup to do before moving on with the story. Don't worry, it's nothing too terribly huge, like I said it's a short session today, but there's still a bit to touch on. 

=================

Back at Gateon Port, once Pyrite Town is marked on your map, Chaser Laken will be ready for a rematch with you! She's now added a Wingull to her team, but there's nothing too special about her just yet.

===============

   

Likewise, many trainers in Agate Village also want a rematch with you! These are all optional, of course, and you only really get money and exp for doing it, but I like to stay on top of these sorts of things!

==================

Of course, the main focus of this quick cleanup is our return to Mt. Battle! By this point, Vander's training has finished up and the mountain is once again accepting challengers! It's time to start climbing our way up the mountain once again!

================

Before we begin, let's focus on the lobby area because, as I've previously alluded, there are some very useful tools available here.

Just like in Colosseum, there's a move deleter who will help you delete any unwanted moves if necessary. However, XD also adds a new NPC here: He calls himself the Move Teacher and will teach your pokemon any forgotten moves it could've known by levelup. It'll cost 1000 Poke-Coupons to learn a move from the Move Teacher. He won't be able to teach shadow pokemon, naturally, but you want to keep this guy in mind whenever you have a new pokemon. You never know when they might surprise you with a hidden move you normally can't see.

And then, of course we have the prize exchange. Most prizes return from Colosseum, many of them with a notable price cut as well!

      

For 8,000 PC each, you can purchase BrigthtPowder, a Choice Band, Focus Band, King's Rock, Quick Claw, Scope Lens, or Shell Bell. Most of these items were available for 10,000 PC in Colosseum, so they're a bit more affordable here. Unfortuantely, you can no longer get the Leftovers, here. That is only available in Colosseum.

 

The Mental Herb and White Herb have also both been given a price cut from 8,000 PC to 6,000 PC.

   

The rare Apicot, Ganlon, Petaya, and Salac Berries still share their price of 15,000 PC with Colosseum. The expensive price makes sense, though, when you consider back in the day you could have just bought one and obtained an infinite supply through farming.

    

Most of the TMs return with the same price as the original: TM13: Ice Beam, TM24: ThunderBolt, and TM35: Flamethrower, all for 4,000 PC. TM29: Psychic also returns for 3,500 PC, but TM32: Double Team has been replaced by TM30: Shadow Ball which now costs 4,500 PC.

==================

Well, now that we know what our potential prizes are, why don't we start climbing? By the time we're done with this game, I once again intend to have completed all 100 battles here!

Mt. Battle Area 1

Levels: 9 - 13

Right away, the levels here are significantly lower than those in Colosseum. So, Mt. Battle should be a breeze this time, right? Well, as we return here in future sessions, you'll quickly find that not to be the case. Mt. Battle this time around has actually increased in difficulty compared to Colosseum's Story Mode, believe it or not.

================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 19

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Sand-Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 19

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Refresh, Return, Lick, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndour M); Lv. 19

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Ember, Roar

----------------------

 Gulpin Lv. 17+ [1/5]

Item: None

Ability: Liquid Ooze | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Hold, Sludge

---------------------

 Shroomish Lv. 15+ [0/5]

 

Item: None

Ability: Effect Spore | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Mist

--------------------

 Delcatty Lv. 18+ [2/5]

Item: None

Ability: Cute Charm | Moves: Shadow Rush, Shadow Wave, Attract

================

Area 1 Leader: Vander

Of course Vander was expecting to see us, but as the Area 1 leader, you really can only expect so much from him.

----------------------

 

Zigzagoon Lv. 12 & Machop Lv. 13

                

                

With a ThunderShock from Family, Machop went down. Delcatty's Shadow Rush dealt with Zigzagoon as well.

----------------------

Whismur Lv. 12

                 

                

And Whismur naturally didn't hold up much longer, either.

--------------------

The prize for clearing Area 1 is 200 poke coupons as opposed to the 100 from Colosseum. Instead of claiming your PokeCoupons at the gate between areas, you get them directly from the area leader.

You'll still want to talk to the receptionist at the gate, though. After each area, he'll reward you with a special prize. Usually, it's a TM, but in this case, it's a Macho Brace!

=============

[Don't mind the use of Colosseum in here, screenshots of Orre are hard to come by!]

Mt. Battle Area 2

Levels: 12 - 15

==================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 20

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Sand-Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 20

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Refresh, Return, Lick, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndour M); Lv. 20

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Ember, Roar

----------------------

 Gulpin Lv. 17+ [1/5]

Item: None

Ability: Sticky Hold | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Hold, Sludge

---------------------

 Shroomish Lv. 15+ [0/5]

 

Item: None

Ability: Effect Spore | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Mist

--------------------

 Delcatty Lv. 18+ [4/5]

Item: None

Ability: Cute Charm | Moves: Shadow Rush, Shadow Wave, Attract, Shock Wave

================

Area 2 Leader: Eldof

--------------------

 

Mudkip Lv. 15 & Lotad Lv. 15

                

                   

Delcatty was actually in Reverse Mode at the start of this battle, so I had to spend the turn calling her. Meanwhile, Teddiursa took Lotad out with Refresh.

---------------------

Wingull Lv. 12

                

                   

After calling Delcatty, its heart gauge was reduced to zero and it was ready to be purified! I went for Shock Wave against Wingull while Teddiursa dealt with Mudkip the same way as Lotad. Easy peasy!

--------------------

The prize for clearing Area 2 is 300 PC and TM03: Water Pulse!

================

Now, we could continue further, but there is a massive level spike between Area 2 and 3. How massive? Well, the strongest pokemon in Area 2 was level 15. The very first opponent in Area 3? Level 27! While we could probably make it work, there's no need to push ourselves yet, we'll only make ourselves overleveled.

Instead, I want to return to Agate Village. Since Delcatty is ready to be purified, this is the right place to be. In addition, there's a bunch of rematches to go through here which I already covered before, so we may as well do those, too.

Once convenient aspect of the Purify Chamber I've yet to mention is that it's accessible from any PC! We don't have to go all the way back to the HQ to access it. Anywhere we have access to PC storage, we have access to the Purify Chamber! However, if you want to actually purify a pokemon from the Purify Chamber, you will have to return to the central location at the HQ Lab.

While you can purify pokemon from the Purify Chamber, if I've reduced their Heart Gauge to zero through battling, then I find it more satisfying to purify them with the Relic Stone! So...

------------------------

 Love (Delcatty F); Lv. 21

Item: None

Ability: Cute Charm | Moves: Sweet Kiss, Secret Power, Attract, Shock Wave

---------------------

Now, while in Colosseum, I'd probably stick around Mt. Battle and grind out purifying all my shadow pokemon, I really don't think that's quite necessary here. The Purify Chamber clears out all the dirty work and we're already starting to see the effects of how massively convenient it is! I can hop into the PC, place Love in a set, and pull a pokemon from a chamber to take her place!

And so, I brought Carvanha out! With Carvanha in my party, I went to take on the rest of the rematches. During which, Gulpin was also able to be purified!

-----------------------

 Food (Gulpin M) Lv 19

Item: None

Ability: Sticky Hold | Moves: Sing, Shock Wave, Sludge, Toxic

================

Since we've now purified some more pokemon, that naturally means we'll need to adjust our Purify Chamber a bit more. Shall we?

The first thing I did was bring Mareep into my party.

================

SET 1: Spinarak [1/5]

->  ->  -> -> 

[Bug > Dark] -> [Grass > Water] -> [Ice > Flying] -> [Bug > Dark] -> [Dark = Grass]

SET 2: Numel [4/5]

 ->  ->  -> 

[Ground > Poison] -> [Poison = Normal] -> [Normal = Ground] -> [Ground > Poison]

=============

I'd rather use Numel in battle over Spinarak, so I decided to give the strongest loop I could think of to Spinarak's set. Realistically, though, Numel is already really close to purification, so I don't think this change in tempo is going to matter all that much.

Anyway, I think that about wraps up everything we're going to be doing today. Next time, we'll be heading over to Pyrite Town and exploring what's new there!

[Aura]

Pyrite Town

By far the most memorable location in Orre, I'd say, it's only natural this place would turn up in XD! Since the events of Colosseum, Pyrite Town has gotten a lot more peaceful. Shadow Pokemon no longer litter the streets and the people are more comfortable roaming around. That's not to say the place is totally well-off. It's still mostly in shambles aesthetically and there are still petty thieves and rogues around.

As a matter of fact, you can even battle Rogue Cail right at the entrance of town! Though Cail doesn't seem to be as much of a troublemaker at the moment, he's known to play innocent, so we can only assume he's still up to no good.

When we first arrive, we'll find another of the grown-up kids from Colosseum, Marcia, running past us in a hurry followed by a cameraman begging for her to slow down. She seems to have grown quite reckless over the years, it's interesting how these kids grow!

As we make our way through the town, we'll quickly find some other criminals who are certainly known for causing a lot more problems before...

 

It's Miror B.'s goons, Trudly and Folly from Colosseum! They have a run-in with none other than Officer Johnson who tells them to bugger off before they cause any problems. Thankfully, it seems things are on their way back in order. No doubt, it's because Duking's in charge all over again. But where is Duking? 

Well, talking to the locals, it seems that everyone in town is talking about how Wild Pokemon are starting to be discovered in Orre! After a reading from Fateen the fortune teller which predicted the return of Wild Pokemon in the desert region, Duking had set out in search of wild pokemon around the region! These wild pokemon seem to be the talk of the town at the moment.

If we visit Duking's home, we'll find Silva who is currently in charge of Pyrite Colosseum while Duking is away searching for Wild Pokemon. And in the cave in the back of his home, there's an old lady who makes PokeSnacks!

   x 4 

Of course, there's some items to gather around the town, namely a handful of Great Balls and a Focus Band from the Hotel! I gave this Focus Band to Family since he'll probably struggle with getting KO'd in later battles.

We can find a Worker on our way downtown! This is pretty significant since this trainer class could previously only be battled colosseums in the last game.

    

Duel Square also returns, of course, but it isn't nearly as exciting without the accompanying Shadow Pokemon like in Colosseum. Still, we've got some new trainer classes: The Male and Female Chaser, a Hunter, and a Rider. All trainer classes that return from Colosseum with minimal design changes.

Perhaps the biggest point of interest here is the old Pyrite Building which has been completely remodeled into the central broadcasting station of ONBS! We're not going to be exploring this place just yet, but this is the place the story is trying to nudge us toward.

   

The vending machine just outside the ONBS building allows you to purchase the typical Fresh Water, Soda Pop, and Lemonade as well as the significantly rarer Moo Moo Milk! Moo Moo Milk being an incredibly strong healing item for incredibly cheap, so they're always worth the purchase! Only issue is, in typical vending machine fashion, you can't buy in bulk so maybe the extra cost for a Hyper Potion will be worth it to you for that fact alone.

Across the bridge, we can find an old man who mentions that he was once a resident of The Under. He explains that The Under has been buried in the time since the events of Colosseum. After Cipher had been driven out, the people of The Under began to return to the surface and after the town had been abandoned, it was buried in order to prevent people from using it for criminal deeds ever again. Interestingly, unused text in the game's data does suggest that The Under was meant to return in this game as an empty, abandoned town. Perhaps they simply couldn't fit it into the game's story and just having an empty town with nothing going on isn't really going to be a whole lot of fun. 

===============

Of course, you've probably guessed by now, but our next focus isn't going to be story progression, but Pyrite Colosseum! But before we can do that, after all our exploring today, we've made quite a bit of progress on purifying our Shadow Pokemon. In fact, all of the remaining pokemon we've snagged from the Cipher Lab are ready to be purified!

=================

I first revisted Agate Village to purify the three Shadow Pokemon that remained in my party.

=================

 Vent (Shroomish F); Lv. 17

Item: None

Ability: Effect Spore | Moves: Refresh, False Swipe, Mega Drain, Stun Spore

-------------------

 Pursuit (Carvanha M); Lv. 15

Item: None

Ability: Rough Skin | Moves: Refresh, Water Pulse, Bite, Scary Face

------------------

On purification, Mareep wound up evolving into a Flaaffy!

 Admiration (Flaaffy F); Lv. 19

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: Heal Bell, ThunderShock, Thunder Wave, Body Slam

===============

But that's not all, because we've also had the purification chamber running! The two sets we've had working in the background have made their progress tangible! We can visit the HQ Lab to have them both purified!

===============

 Knit (Spinarak M); Lv. 14

Item: None

Ability: Swarm | Moves: Refresh, Dig, Signal Beam, Night Shade

----------------------

 Relax (Numel M); Lv. 14

Item: None

Ability: Oblivious | Moves: Charm, Take Down, Dig, Ember

==============

With that little detour out of the way, it's time to take on the Pyrite Colosseum!

Just like in Pokemon Colosseum, you can take on Colosseum challenges around Orre! They're slightly different this time around in that your opponents are all at a fixed level. In this case, level 20. Thankfully, you aren't bound by the same level restrictions so you can participate even if your pokemon are overlevel. Unfortuantely, or perhaps fortunately, there's no level scaling, so if you're overlevel you're overlevel. That's a big part of why I want to do this now while it can still be somewhat considered a challenge.

After winning each round of four battles, you'll earn some prize money and a TM! Of course, you can't switch your team out in between battles In order to obtain all the TM's, you'll need to clear four rounds at each colosseum. So, what are we waiting for?

=================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 22

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Sand-Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 21

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Refresh, Return, Lick, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndour M); Lv. 21

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Ember, Roar

==================

Pyrite Colosseum: Round 1

-------------------------

Battle 1: Chaser Resila

   

Resila's team is a cute reference to the Pichu Bros. series of shorts with two Pichu, a Smoochum, and a Teddiursa! Resila's Pichu tries to set up Light Screen to help keep her team from taking too much damage, so it may be in your best interest to stop her from doing so by targeting Pichu with a fast pokemon right away.

------------------------

Battle 2: Sailor Monar

  

Sailor Monar's team is obviously built around the Johto starters!

=============

Battle Semifinal: Chaser Rafert

   

With Friend and Ally, getting thrugh this team was a breeze.

===============

Final: Chaser Jupex

 

Plusle & Snubbul

                

                

Snubbul's Intimidate ability helps to keep it and its friend, Plusle, alive. Focusing our firepower, I was able to get rid of Snubble.

----------------------

Minun

                

                

Minun came next in place of Granbull. To be expected, really. Since Plusle is basically useless without a Minun to pair with. Thankfully, since she didn't lead with this pairing, it's easy to pickoff Plusle.

               

                

From here, it's just a matter of ganging up on Minun until it goes down as well.

------------------------

For clearing Round 1, you earn TM31: Brick Break which I didn't hesittate to teach to Friend in place of Refresh.

================

Pyrite Colosseum: Round 2

-------------------------

Battle 1: Hunter Haxer

  

These three foes were very easy pickings.

-----------------------

Battle 2: Chaser Mestil

   

A bunch of baby pokemon means another easy win!

------------------------

Semifinal: Chaser Novil

  

------------------

Final: Researcher Orill

-------------------------

 

Makuhita & Magnemite

                

                

That Makuhita was a bit scary, so I decided to focus my firepower on it before it could take out Ally with a strong, super-effective attack. It just went for Fake-Out though which bought me another turn to finish it off while Ally instead went for Ember on that Magnemite.

Meditite

                

                

Meditite once again went for Fake-Out, forcing me to deal with it using Jolteon's Bite! From there, Magneton went down easy to an Ember.

----------------------

Your reward this time is TM12: Taunt

===============

Round 3

------------------------

Battle 1: Hunter Nosal

  

Nosal's Rhydon was a bit scary to deal with, but once I got over it, the rest was easy.

-----------------------

 

Battle 2: Chaser Ostix

  

Ostix's party wasn't too rough to deal with, either.

-----------------------

Semifinal: Chaser Tarbil

  

This guy surprised me by turn 1 retreating his Trapinch for his Spoink. Persumably so that he could use Teeter Dance with Spinda and take advantage of Own Tempo... If he was just going to do that, I'm not sure why he would bother leading with Trapinch and not Spoink, especially when it means switching his Psychic-type in against a Dark-type... Regardless, I'd focused on Spinda anyway to avoid such a move in the first place, so the switch into Spoink was an entirely wasted opportunity for poor Trapinch. 

------------------------------

Final: Sailor Tebu

 

Stantler & Snubbul

                 

                

This guy was actually pretty rough to deal with. Things weren't too bad at first, we simply focused our efforts on taking out the bigger threat: Stantler. But, Snubbul was able to take out Family before we could get anywhere.

                 

                

Thankfully, Friend's Brick Break was able to break the ice and finish the job with Stantler!

-------------------------

Hitmontop

                 

                

The scary part came next when he sent out a Hitmontop which was strong against both of my remaining pokemon. It had also reduced Friend's Attack with Intimidate! Still, we were able to combine our efforts and overcome it!

                

                

Now it was just a matter of ganging up on Snubbull until it went down!

=================

The prize this time was TM41: Torment which I also taught to Friend. This will help me disrupt strategies of opponents who are a bit too comfortable spamming the same move over and over again.

By the end of this battle, Ally had reached level 24 and evolved into Houndoom! With this, we've got a much larger boost of power to our attacks which should make the final round that much easier!

==================

Round 4

Battle 1: Chaser Sellis

   

Another pretty easy win against some weak pokemon!

-----------------------

Battle 2: Mitis

  

His entire team revolves around Defense Curl and Rollout, so be prepared to deal with that! Fortunately, that means he's locked into a very predictable strategy... remember Torment?

----------------------

Semifinal: Hunter Tiruk

   

Where Friend wasn't enough, Ally was sufficient. At some point, Ally did get confused to a SuperSonic, so I had to retreat into Family to finish the job against Doduo and Corsola.

--------------------

Final: Researcher Foss

-----------------

 

Bagon & Larvitar

                 

                

Faint Attack took care of Bagon while Brick Break took care of Larvitar. Couldn't have asked for an easier first turn.

-------------------

 

Carvanha & Snubbull

                 

                

While Carvanha had the advanatage over Ally, a Brick Break from Friend kept him in check. Snubbull survived a Faint Attack but quickly went down on the following turn.

================

And the final prize of the Pyrite Colosseum is TM05: Roar! A rather underwhelming reward, I must admit, but we also got some prize money and exp, and the other TMs certainly made up for it as our further powered-up team now has quite a bit of diversity to it!

Now that we've finished up here, we should probably get back to what we were sent here to do in the first place. Let's finally deliver that Data ROM!

[Aura]

ONBS Building -- 1F

There is a lot of history to be uncovered in this building, hence why I decided to save it for this post!

First off the receptionist at the front desk is none other than Megg, Nett's little sister and another member of the Kids' Grid in Colosseum! I actually really like her design here, she's even been given what looks to be a cute little sunhat! Her Shroomish is here, too, standing on her desk with her.

The child near the entrance explains that this building was once called the Kids' Grid Headquarters, but changed to ONBS after the Kids' Grid decided to start broadcasting news to Orre! As we poke around, we'll find many people with all sorts of different bits of information to tell, from types of shows broadcasted on the ONBS network to history of the network itself! We find that Secc, the boy from Duking's home, has assumed the business operations of the network while Nett handles the tech side of things.

We'll also find that the idols Razzle and Dazzle are currently recording for an intro to a show in the nearby studio!

On the second floor, we'll find Secc's office.

Secc welcomes you and, after explaining the situation, he's shocked to hear Cipher was using their desert lab again and agrees that you should definitely bring the Data ROM you've recovered to Nett for analysis. He also gives us a bit more history about this place, explaining that they decided Free Press was the best way to prevent something like the Shadow Incident from occuring again.

As we continue to explore the floor, we'll find a little girl named Kandee who got lost looking for her mother. She'll join your party if you agree to bring her to her mother, at which point you won't be able to leave the building until you reunite the two! It's not too far off, though, so it's not much of an inconvenience.

Other than that, you can also find the room where ONBS news reports are shot! As we walk in, we get to see the recording live, Ancha is reporting on the rescue of Prof. Krane from the hands of Cipher!

The door in the southwest corner is locked, so we can't get inside.

On the third floor, you'll find Kandee's mother. Upon reuniting them, they'll both be extremely grateful!

Speaking to her mother after reuniting her with her daughter, you'll be given a Soothe Bell as thanks. There's a room full of what appears to be junk. This is where props and such are stored for the various shows recorded here. THere's a chest here, but the worker inside won't allow you to open it, telling you it's dangerous in here and asking you to escape.

As we reach the rooftop, we'll find that the entry into Pyrite Cave has been blocked off not unlike The Under. At the entrance to the top floor, you'll find a guy named Datan standing guard. At first, he won't allow you inside because Nett is working, but upon hearing Datan speaking with somebody, Nett asks about it and realizes that you're the one Prof. Krane has sent about the Data ROM and asks Datan to let you inside.

 

I.... didn't photoshop that model of Nett. Up close, honestly, he looks terrifying...

Anyway, Nett and Bitt are both in Nett's office and they've both received word of our daring rescue. Nett doesn't hesitate to get to work on the Data ROM, it's just like old times for him! ...Not that that's really a good thing, I suppose. Anyway, it'll take some time, so he and Bitt encourage you to go meet up with Duking while he's searching for Wild Pokemon.

They point you toward a new location called the Rock Poke Spot! Let's check it out!

=====================

On our way back out, we'll run into two familiar faces.

 

It's Trudly and Folly, of course! And they're complaining about how their faces are too recognizable to get any work done in this place and seem paranoid about their boss' rage. Apparently, they'd managed to attach a sensor to Miror B. so that they can monitor his position and avoid him while he's angry. However, they quickly realize when they receive a summon by email that the boss' wrath is inescapable and quickly hurry off before their life is over!

================

Rock Poke Spot

When we arrive at the Rock Poke Spot, we find that a broadcast is currently underway, this time it's a show following a woman named Pofty as she brings news straight from the action!

Pofty is here with Duking who is as scary-looking as ever! But also as gentle as he's always been as well... and of course a little bit egotistical. He inflates how long he's been looking for these pokespots, suggesting he's been doing it for 15 years even though the reading about it has been within the last 5. He stresses that the details aren't important and asks for some participation from you when he sees you arrive on set. He hands you 10 "Duking-brand Poke Snacks," which we know were made by the old lady in his home... Let's just assume he's being ethical about this business deal. Anyway, he asks that you place some of the PokeSnacks on the plate nearby.

You can place anywhere from 1-10 of the pokesnacks on the plate. These snacks will attract pokemon and the more snacks there are, the longer the pokemon will stay! Since this isn't the only spot, I recommend dropping only 3 or 4 snacks here for now. He also gives you a new P*DA App: The Spot Monitor!

With this Spot Monitor, sensors at each of the three PokeSpots discovered by Duking will react whenever a pokemon is detected at any of the spots. You'll receive a notification and can quickly make your way to that spot in order to encounter a Wild Pokemon!

Duking will also immediately give you the location of the next Poke Spot: the Oasis Poke Spot! Let's head straight there!

Oasis Poke Spot

Arriving at the Oasis Poke Spot, Duking follows shortly behind you, this time with no news coverage. He's surprised to see you here. If you're here, then you must have a strong interest in wild pokemon! In that case, he asks you to help him find three rare pokemon at each spot: Trapinch, Wooper, and Surskit.

To help you with this task, he gives you the location of the Cave Poke Spot located on Mt. Battle. 

I went ahead and dropped three Poke Snacks here at the Oasis before heading out!

Here at the Cave Poke Spot, we'll run into something a bit unexpected:

 

Trudly and Folly are here again! Apparently, they've been on the run since the events of Colosseum along with Miror B. And, shortly after your arrival...

Miror B.

So, too, does their boss: Miror B with some brand new theme music to accompany him! Apparently, he's no longer working with Cipher and is instead the head of his own independent posse of criminals: Himself and his two lackies. He asks that you join his posse, but naturally only expects you to say "no" which is naturally going to lead to a battle!

=================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 25

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Quick Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 21

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Torment, Return, Brick Break, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 25

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Ember, Roar

==================

Wanderer Miror B.

And we've finally arrived at our first battle with a foe that has the most memorable battle theme that's even managed to achieve meme status in spite of the game's relative unpopularity!

-----------------------

 

Lombre Lv. 17 & Lombre Lv. 17

                

                

Right off the bat, he leads with two Lombre which we pick off with relative ease with our newfound power from the Pyrite Colosseum. The second Lombre sets up Rain Dance to make the others a bit more difficult, but we're able to finish them both off on the second turn!

-----------------------

 

Lombre Lv. 17 & Voltorb Lv. 19+

                

                

It's a shadow pokemon! Really, it's only to be expected from someone like Miror B. I focus my efforts on taking out the Lombre first but end up critting it, accidentally hitting the Voltorb with a follow-up attack meant for Lombre! Thankfully, Voltorb is able to survive and I'm able to catch it in a PokeBall!

--------------------

 Voltorb; Lv. 19+

Item: Magnet

Ability: Soundproof | Moves: Shadow Rush, Shadow Panic

I can't help but wonder if Shadow Panic was intentionally named as a reference to Panic at the Disco? Anyway, this is a status move that confuses both foes, making it a powerful support option that can potentially shut down your opponent's turn on such a fast pokemon! Since we've got room on our team, we'll keep it around for now, but it's definitely not a permanent resident.

================

After defeating Miror B., he and his lackies leave the cave but Trudly and Folly accidentally leave behind their Miror Radar! With this, we'll be allerted whenever Miror B. is somewhere within the radar's range! Remember how I said before you'll get an opportunity to snag any Shadow Pokemon you've missed? Well, this is it! Whenever Miror B. shows up somewhere, the Miror Radar will ping you with a notification telling you where he's been found. If you battle him, he'll always have a Shadow Pokemon you've previously failed to snag! It seems this wanderer is wandering Orre in search of Shadow Pokemon who have fled their owners. So, if you're missing any Shadow Pokemon, make sure not to ignroe the Miror Radar when it goes off!

=================

Now that they're gone, we can drop the rest of our Poke Snacks off at this final Poke Spot and go over what pokemon we'll be able to get from this point forward! Each Poke Spot has three different wild pokemon that can appear. A common, uncommon, and rare encounter. Common pokemon have a 50% rarity, Uncommon has 35% and Rare has the remaining 15%.

At the Rock Poke Spot, you can find, from common to rare:

  

Sandshrew, Gligar, and Trapinch!

Their levels all range from 10-23 so they can be pretty low level, be prepared to be very careful in catching these guys!

  

At the Oasis, you'll find Hoppip, Phanpy, and Surskit ranging from Level 10-20.

  

Lastly, here at the Cave, you can find Zubat, Aron, and Wooper ranging from Level 10-21.

Do keep in mind that, if you want to raise a Zubat, it's incredibly difficult to increase happiness in Orre so be sure to give it the Soothe Bell, use it in a lot of important battles, and give it lots of Cologne Massages (Which do increase happiness in this game!) Definitely try to avoid it fainting at all costs, even if you have to do a really bad switch to manage that.

Of course, Duking tasked us with catching the rarest pokemon at each Poke Spot. Our efforts won't go unwarranted.

If we visit Duking in his home, we can trade any of the rare pokemon from each PokeSpot for three pokemon who are even rarer in Orre:

 

For Trapinch, he'll give you Meditite,

 

For a Surskit, a Shuckle,

 

And for Wooper, a Larvitar!

All three of these are very nice trades for pokemon that are otherwise unobtainable in this game. It just feels good to collect them all! Unfortunately, since there's no way to grind out Wild Pokemon and you just have to wait for them to show up at the spots, getting these rare pokemon can be a little bit tricky. Try to keep in mind which spots you no longer need snacks at and be extra careful not to fail at capturing one of them!

There are a few other things that can appear at these Poke Spots, but I'll wait to cover those until they happen.

Anyway, after visiting all three PokeSpots, you'll get an email from Nett who has successfully cracked the Data ROM! He tells you to come over ASAP because he's found information that definitely should be discussed in person... Next time, it looks like we're returning to ONBS!

[Aura]

ONBS Building -- 1F

When we first arrive at ONBS, things have suddenly taken a shocking turn! The music is a lot more tense, Megg is nowhere to be seen and the bodybuilder standing guard outside is now on the ground inside! He tells us a bunch of thugs came in and took Megg hostage before seizing the building!

It doesn't take long at all to figure out who those thugs are as you won't get very far in before a Cipher Peon ambushes you from the roof. It's pretty clear what they're after here. As we explore this first floor, we can rescue many people who are being held hostage by battling with Cipher Peons.

On taking the elevator to the second floor, you'll be surprised to find a cipher peon exiting the elevator along with you! He pressed himself against the ceiling of the elevator in wait just to ambush you and slow you down.

 

Cipher Peon Torkin & Makuhita Lv. 18+

This Peon has a Shadow Makuhita which knows Shadow Blitz and Shadow Shed.

Secc has been beaten down by Cipher and is on the ground in pain. His assistant is looking out for him while you go on ahead to continue fighting Cipher. In the News room, Cipher had cut the power lines for the cameras to prevent any of their attack from being broadcasted. You'll also find a Cipher Peon trying to get an autograph from Ancha.

In the storage room that was previously locked, you can find an Ether! Again, definitely not stealing! Someone just happened to leave it.. in a storage room...

 

Cipher Peon Mesin & Vulpix Lv. 18+

On your way to the next elevator, you'll get ambushed yet again by a Cipher Peon. This one has a Shadow Vulpix which knows Shadow Wave and Shadow Hold!

On the third floor, the placement of this healing machine starts to make a bit more sense! There are a few more hostages we can rescue. Funnily enough, there's a cipher peon struggling to deal with the worker in the prop room who keeps telling him it's not safe for him to be in there.

We can take him out as well and now we can even slip by and grab an HP Up from the chest we couldn't access before.

 

Cipher Peon Lobar & Duskull Lv. 19+

Guarding the stairs is another Cipher Peon. This one has a rather important pokemon for us, however: Duskull! This Duskull is actually going to be the fourth permanent member of my team!

----------------------

 Duskull M Lv. 19+ [ 0/5 ]

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Wave, Shadow Hold

----------------------

I must admit this Duskull was extremely painful to snag because I was so overlevel and most of my weakest moves were either Normal- or Dark-type. I was very worried about KOing it so I just slowly chipped away at its health with Shadow Makuhita and Shadow Vulpix. Normally, I wouldn't play it so safe. If I KO'd it, it's whatever, I could just go and snag it from Miror B. to show off that mechanic. However, since Duskull was going to be a permanent member of my team, this was the one pokemon I wanted on my team ASAP!

Pushing past Lobar, reaching the rooftop, Datan has been shoved aside and there's now a Peon standing guard at the top who we'll naturally need to fight our way through as well!

 

Cipher Peon Feldas & Ralts Lv. 20+

This Shadow Ralts knows the moves Shadow Wave and Shadow Hold.

It also comes holding a TwistedSpoon which you may want to consider taking off of it if you have a pokemon that can make better use of it and don't plan to use Ralts on your team.

----------------------

As we force our way inside, we'll find Nett and Bitt standing against the large Cipher Peon who'd grabbed Prof. Krane in the beginning of the game and Megg who he's holding as a hostage. His demands? For Nett to return the Data ROM and all of its sensitive data. Nett complies with these demands in exchange for the safety of his sister. But that's just a bit too easy, isn't it? Cipher is unfortunately one step ahead of Nett's wit and were privy to the fact that ONBS had made a copy of the data on the ROM. After receiving a message that all the copied data has been wiped from ONBS' servers, the hulking man has the last laugh as he tries to make his exit only to bump into us for a battle!

=================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 27

Item: Magnet 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Quick Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 26

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Torment, Return, Brick Break, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 26

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Ember, Roar

----------------------

 Duskull M Lv. 19+ [ 1/5 ]

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Wave, Shadow Hold, Astonish

----------------------

 Vulpix F Lv. 18+ [ 2/5 ]

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Wave, Shadow Hold, Ember

--------------------

 Ralts F Lv. 20+ [ 0/5 ]

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Wave, Shadow Hold

==================

Cipher Cmdr Exol

------------------

 

Loudred Lv. 23 & Girafarig Lv. 23

                 

                

With a Faint Attack from Ally, Girafarig went down. Duskull focused on building up damage against all targets with Shadow Wave, it's really all he could do.

-----------------

Mawile Lv. 22+

                 

                

I used Faint Attack to weaken Mawile while Duskull continued to use Shadow Wave. Between Mawile's Shadow Rush and Loudred's Seismic Toss, though, things weren't looking too great for Ally. Thankfully, on the second turn, Loudred went for Water Pulse against Duskull instead of Ally, buying me one more turn to weaken Mawile into catching range! Unfortunately, Mawile ended up finishing him off, I suppose it's only natural.

                 

                

Friend took Ally's place and, thanks to Duskull's Shadow Waves, Loudred was certainly in KO range of Brick Break. Meanwhile, I started throwing pokeballs at Mawile to no avail.

-------------------

Raichu Lv. 23

                 

                

Raichu was next and was able to survive a Return! It hit Duskull with a Shock Wave to reduce its HP. On the following turn, I was able to successfully snag Mawile using an Ultra Ball I'd obtained from Friend's Pickup ability!

-------------------

 Mawile Lv. 22+ [ 0/5 ]

Item: None

Ability: Intimidate | Moves: Shadow Rush, Shadow Wave

-------------------

                

                

Immediately following that, Raichu was able to take out Duskull before I could get an attack off.

                

                

I sent out Ralts in his place, but it was really only a formality as Friend's Return took him out shortly after.

================

Even after defeat, Commander Exol is still able to get away with the Data ROM, leaving us completely emptyhanded. Even without the data on hand, Nett is still able to tell us what he was able to gather from it so far. He was able to confirm that Cipher was indeed behind the disappearance of the S.S. Libra, but that they're also planning an attack on Phenac City! This immediately concerns Bitt who mentions that's where Marcia was headed. She was sent to investigate why Phenac's communications systems went down. Perhaps we're about to find out just why that is...

They mark the location of Phenac City on our map and ask us to go warn the mayor of the impending attack! We'll also want to check up on Marcia to make sure she and Camaran are okay and help out however we can!

==============

I should mention that, between all of this at ONBS, my Spot Monitor went off... repeatedly. Yeah, I haven't really voiced my opinion on this mechanic just yet, so let me take a moment to point out that the Spot Monitor and similar mechanics in this game are very annoying and very intrusive. Things would've gone far more smoothly if I could just focus on fighting my way up ONBS as I just described, but this high-tension quest was ultimately bogged down by me constantly running all the way back out of the building and leaving Pyrite Town in order to visit whatever PokeSpot Wild Pokemon showed up at.

The Spot Monitor goes off far more frequently than you might expect. While that might be helpful if you're actively looking for those rare pokemon to trade with Duking, it is extremely detrimental to the (often very serious) story beats of the game. As soon as your Spot Monitor goes off, you have to drop everything to go check on it. If you don't all of your pokesnacks will get eaten and you won't be able to attract any more wild pokemon until you get more. This is especially frustrating at this specific point in the story where you can't actually get new Poke Snacks, so you're limited to the 10 Duking gave you initially. You have to rush over immediately if you don't want to waste them! Once you can buy your own, though, you can thankfully keep all three spots stocked up to ten and give yourself a lot more leeway, but if you want to get all the pokemon in the game, you're still probably going to want to drop everything to visit these spots when the spot monitor goes off.

All in all, I think it's just a really poorly-planned mechanic, especially considering you can encounter these wild pokemon as low as level 10 making them incredibly difficult to capture with how frail they are.

To end this little blurb on a more positive note, the very first pokemon I encountered was a Trapinch at the Rock Poke Spot which I was able to catch! Right off the bat, that's one of the three rare pokemon off our list!

--------------------

 Hold (Trapinch F); Lv. 17

Item: None

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Bite, Sand-Attack, Faint Attack

--------------------

I also was able to catch two others: Phanpy and Aron!

-------------------

 Race (Phanpy M); Lv. 16

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Odor Sleuth, Tackle, Growl, Defense Curl

---------------------

 Defense (Aron M); Lv. 11

Item: None

Ability: Sturdy | Moves: Tackle, Harde, Mud-Slap, Headbutt

---------------------

I did wind up encountering a Surskit as well, nearly knocking out two of the rare pokemon right away, but these things are especially difficult to catch since they'll die if you look at them wrong. Hopefully in the future I'll have better moves for chipping away at these pokemon's HP.

===============

Of course, we've also made some progress in the purification of Shadow Pokemon, so before we do anything, it's important to revisit Agate Village and purify the Pokemon whose heart gauges have been reduced to zero!

----------------------

 Rock (Voltorb); Lv. 21

Item: None

Ability: Soundproof | Moves: Refresh, Mirror Coat, Spark, Swift

----------------------

 Rough (Makuhita); Lv. 20

Item: None

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Brick Break, Refresh, Arm Thrust, Fake-Out*

*Fake-Out replaced Rock Tomb on level-up after purification.

==============

In addition, I also took a visit to the purification chamber since we have one more Shadow Pokemon than we do slots available in the party.

SET 1 Vulpix [ 2/5 ]

 ->  ->  ->  -> 

[Grass > Ground] -> [Fire > Grass] -> [Grass > Water] -> [Ice > Grass]

With all our purified pokemon together, we've now managed to pull together our first ever perfect circuit! With four pokemon with good flow all around, it seems that we cannot improve the flow any further! That said, I've noticed that the flow meter is only stuck at four and there appears to be two more slots. I'm unsure if I'm missing something or if this is the full extent of what we can do at the moment? Regardless, the Temp meter is certainly maxed out, so this Vulpix is going to be pure in no time!

I haven't mentioned it yet, but I think I'd actually suggest sorting the pokemon in your PC by type. You only have 8 boxes and there are 17 types, but there actually isn't a single primary Flying-type pokemon in generation 3, most generic Flying-types like Pidgey and Taillow are actually primarily Normal-type. It's always been an odd design decision, but it's there. So that effectively cuts the types down to 16 which conveniently means you can evenly split your eight boxes into two types per box! By doing this, you can easily complete full circuits in the purify chamber by just looking for pokemon of the types you need! It's actually a lot of fun to mix and match pokemon to see how you can form a perfect circuit. It's like a little puzzle!

 

Of course, Vulpix in the Purify Chamber means we'll be bringing Ralts and Mawile along for now, and Duskull is still going to be a permanent party member, so we only really have two open slots on our team. But, I'm going to say right now that's not going to last very long, either for reasons you'll soon see.

===============

Anyway, next time I think we'll be headed off to Pheanc City to see what we can do about this upcoming Cipher attack!

[Aura]

Phenac City

When we first arrive at Phenac City, the woman at the entrance stops us in our tracks to tell us that we're the millionth visitor to Phenac City and rewards us with a Disc Case!

  

Along with the CD Case, we also get three Battle CDs: 01, 07, and 20!

Immediately after, she turns us around and tells us we absolutely must visit Realgam Tower.

She marks the location of Realgam Tower on our map and forces us back into the world map. Even if we try to revisit Phenac City, the woman will just reaffirm that we have to go there right now. Certainly suspicious behavior, but it seems we can't get into Phenac City just yet...

==================

Realgam Tower

When we first arrive here, we find Trudly and Folly who complain about the Battle CD's they wasted all their money on thinking they'd be able to get rare pokemon only to be disappointed to find out the pokemon just disappear after the battle. They decide to just dump the CD's wherever they can. Perhaps we'll need to keep a look out for them?

Well, since we're forced to come here, we may as well check out what Orre has done with Realgam Tower after the events of Colosseum. If we check around, we'll find that we're not the only supposed "millionth visitor" to Phenac City. If this wasn't fishy yet, it certainly is now...

Before we move on, there's a Protein in a chest out here for you to pick up.

As we make our way inside, we'll find the labyrinth of lifts has been dramatically simplified from Colosseum. We're taken straight to the central gate where we needed the keys from the four Cipher Admins in Colosseum. This time, the gate is just open from the start and there's only two branches to the sides.

There's another chest in this junction dome, this one contains a Carbos! It's a little easy to miss thanks to the perspective, but it's there!

On the right side of the junction is a small pokemon center.

As you can probably expect, the other side of the junction leads to a PokeMart! This Mart is pretty special, though.

        

There are lots of TMs for sale here! These include, deep breath: TM10: Hidden Power, TM14: Blizzard, TM15: Hyper Beam, TM16: Light Screen, TM17: Protect, TM20: Safeguard, TM25: Thunder, TM33: Reflect, and TM38: Fire Blast

There are lots of strong attacks available for purchase and while I typically don't prefer these stronger, less accurate attacks, I will go ahead and say it's gonna be a while before we reach some of the more preferred moves, especially without frequent grinding sessions at Mt. Battle to build up Poke Coupons.

 

With that in mind, I went ahead and bought the TM for Protect and Fire Blast and taught both to Ally. I didn't get Thunder for Family, though, because Fire Blast still has a moderately redeemable 85% accuracy while Thunder is a bit too unreliable for my tastes at 70%. Ally also has Faint Attack to fall back on, which can't miss. Family is helpless if it needs a consistent attack besides Quick Attack which is never going to do much more than a small percentage of HP.

I replaced Ally's moves Charm and Ember with Protect and Fire Blast before moving forward.

Behind the main gate is the central lobby of Realgam Tower. By talking around, we can find that Realgam Tower is no longer under the influence of Cipher and has instead been turned into a tourist destination with games and, of course, the Tower Colosseum being the main attraction. Unfortunately, the colosseum is currently closed so we can't take a challenge there. Not that our levels are nearly prepared for the types of trainers we'd be facing in here, anyway.

We can also find a chest containing an Ultra Ball right here in the lobby.

Our main focus here today are the doors on either side of the lobby. These will lead us to the main attractions that Realgam has to offer!

First up on the left is a minigame called Battle Bingo!

Battle Bingo

Battle Bingo is a puzzle game in which you have to strategically catch pokemon and use them to battle others.

You start the game by selecting a card. Each card comes with a pre-determined starting pokemon which starts with 2 "Entry Points" and you'll also be given two Master Balls which can be used to catch any two pokemon you see fit. Each pokemon you catch will have two additional EP. You'll then need to select one of the tiles and use the pokemon's entry point to flip it over. Each tile is marked either with a type or a '?'. A '?' will reveal a reward, either an third Master Ball or 1 or 2 additional EP to distribute to any of your pokemon. If you flip over a type, you'll find a pokemon of that type, usually with a move of that type as well. Then, the pokemon whose EP you spent to flip over the card will have to enter a battle with that pokemon. Since each pokemon typically only has one STAB attack and no other options, the results of these 1 on 1 battles are usually pretty easy to predict. If you think a pokemon's type will be useful, or if you need more EP, you can catch the pokemon you're battling with a Master Ball to carry on. Once you flip over a tile, the next tile you flip over must be adjacent to the one you just flipped.

Every time you clear a row, column, or diagonal, you'll score a bingo, increasing the amount of Coupons you'll win. You'll also earn an additional EP to give to any of your pokemon to help you continue moving. The ultimate goal is to clear the entire board!

While I'm not going to be doing them all right now, we do have important matters to get back to, I do plan to eventually play through all of the cards here, so you have that to look forward to as part of the cleanup!

=================

Dragonair Card

The first and easiest card is the Dragonair Card. As the name implies, this one has you begin with a Dragonair! This card has a lot of leeway and room for error, so you don't have to stress too hard about committing to the wrong move.

--------------------

 Dragonair (Dragon): EP2

Move: Outrage (Dragon)

--------------------

I decided to start this journey by flipping over the Water tile in the top right corner.

 Poliwag (Water): EP 2

Move: Surf (Water)

I used a Master Ball right away to capture this Poliwag to get me more EP to work with. You're usually going to want to catch one pokemon early on like this because otherwise you'll only be able to flip two tiles.

-------------------

The next card I flipped over was the grass tile just below that one. I flipped it with Dragonair, reducing its EP to 0.

 Chikorita (Grass): EP 2

Move: Giga Drain (Grass)

I followed in the same boat and caught this Chikorita next since I didn't have a solid type matchup.

--------------------

I continued down the column to the next water tile with Chikorita, reducing its EP to 1.

Totodile

               

                 

I battled Totodile with Chikorita since Chikorita has a type advantage over Totodile and took it out with ease.

-------------------

The last tile to flip over in this column was a Fire-type. Poliwag's EP was now 1.

Vulpix

               

               

Unfortunately, with no Master Balls left, I had no choice but to battle this Vulpix even though a Fire-type would certainly be useful for the rest of this card. I ended up taking Vulpix out with Surf, though.

-------------------

After defeating Vulpix, I got my first bingo and earned an EP which I gave to Dragonair, since it would be the most universally helpful pokemon here, resisting the types of all pokemon on the board!

Dragonair (Dragon): EP 1

==============

I decided to flip over the ? tile next to Totodile. I flipped this using Chikorita, temporarily bringing her EP to 0, but the tile contained...

+2 EP

 

Poliwag (Water): EP 2; Chikorita (Grass): EP 1

-------------------

Continuing in this row, I went on to the neighboring water tile. I used Chikorita to flip this one, bringing its EP down to 0 again.

Squirtle

               

               

With Chikorita, Squirtle went down easily enough.

-------------------

Cyndaquil was in the next fire tile which I flipped with Poliwag, bringing its EP to 1. 

Cyndaquil

               

               

He went down easily enough to Poliwag's Surf.

--------------------

With this Bingo, I gave another EP to Dragonair!

Dragonair (Dragon): EP 2

==============

I decided to continue this string by using Dragonair's EP to flip over the next ? Tile, bringing Dragonair to 1 EP

+1 EP

I gave this one to Chikorita

Chikorita (Grass): EP 1

---------------------

I decided to continue clearing this column by flipping the next grass tile up with Dragonair, reducing its EP to 0.

Treecko

               

               

Even though I didn't have a super-effective attack, I did resist Treecko's Giga Drain, so it was still an easy win.

---------------------

Charmander

               

               

Poliwag's EP went down to zero to take out the Charmander under the fire panel.

=============

With the new Bingo, I once again gave the EP to Dragonair

Dragonair (Dragon): EP 1

-----------------

I moved next to the last remaining ? Tile and flipped it using Chikorita, reducing its EP to 0.

I got a Master Ball!

----------------

With this new Master Ball, I used Dragonair's EP to flip over the Fire tile below.

 Torchic (Fire): EP 2

Move: Flamethrower (Fire)

I was finally able to catch a Fire-type!

==============

Clearing Torchic's tile gave me a diagonal Bingo which I used to restore Chikorita's EP.

Chikorita (Grass): EP 1

--------------------

Bulbasaur

               

               

Bringing Torchic's EP to 1, I could make quick work of the bulbasaur hiding in the remaining Grass tile.

=============

With the resulting Bingo, I gave another EP to Chikorita

Chikorita (Grass): EP 2

------------------

Remoraid

               

               

There's not really much more decision making the rest of the way here. Chikorita took out the Remoraid in the next water tile over, providing another Bingo which I used to restore Chikorita's EP.

===============

Roselia

               

               

The next tile up was a grass tile which held Roselia. Another easy win which led to a horoizontal and diagonal bingo! I gave the two points to Chikorita and Dragonair.

 

Chikorita 2EP, Dragonair 1EP

===============

Mudkip

               

               

And the last tile to clear was a Mudkip. Another easy matchup and with that, a blackout! The Bingo card was cleared!

==============

For clearing each card, you'll earn a variable amount of PokeCoupons. In this case, I was able to earn 250 PokeCoupons from clearing the Dragonair card.

 x 2

In addition, on your first time clearing a new card, you'll also be given an item prize. In this case: two Ethers! I will definitely be returning here to do the other cards. Right now, we have two others, but there are lots more to unlock after those. It's definitely not something we want to drop everything and get out of the way right away. This is more of an end/postgame cleanup thing.

=============

We're still not quite done here just yet, because on the other side, we have a Battle Sim System just like the one in the HQ! Here, we can take on more advanced battle puzzles which will test our knowledge of Pokemon Battles much more extensively. The receptionist at the desk mentions that there's been a break in and many of their Battle CDs were stolen... curious... she also complains that, of the remaining CDs, most were purchased by two guys, two guesses who, so they only have a limited selection of Battle CDs.

  

At the moment, we can only purchase Battle CD 2, 3, and 4. But we're not too worried about that just yet. Just like Battle Bingo, these Battle CD's are going to be a huge commitment. I'm only going to do one for now, but there is one in particular I want to use as well so we will be returning here sooner or later, though it's really not too big of a deal.

================

Battle CD 01

Flying Vs. Flying [Single Battle]

 

 

Your Pidgeot knows Double-Edge, Gust, Agility, and FeatherDance. Your foe only knows Fly and your goal is to take him out in only two turns. This one I can see being a little tricky if you aren't familiar with more obscure move mechanics. The move Gust can not only hit foes using Fly, but also deals extra damage when it does! So, if you open up by hitting Tropius with Double-Edge and follow up with a Gust while he's in the air on the following turn, you should be able to win the battle easily!

---------------------

For clearing this Battle CD, you're rewarded with a Super Potion! Each Battle CD comes with its own prize: some far more valuable than others. I'll definitely be sure to cover them all sooner or later, but there are a lot!

================

Well, our trip to Realgam Tower was fun while it lasted, but it's very clear we were sent here to waste our time, so we can't get too caught up in fun and games when there's a job to be done! Next time, we'll make our way back to Phenac City to figure out what's going on!

[Aura]

Phenac City

When we return to Phenac City, we can find that things are certainly off. The man who used to jog with his Castform is now being chased by a Duskull. There are empty buildings, the Mart is mysteriously closed, and the NPCs all have incredibly suspicious dialogue. Even the Pre Gym is very strange, with the teacher's lecture calling pokemon tools and telling her students to use their pokemon's power to destroy their foes. Honestly, you gotta hand it to them for their boldness with this one!

 x 2  x 3

There are some items we can gather from chests as we explore outside including some Ultra Balls!

We came here to warn the mayor about an attack, but it's seeming like we might be a bit late on that. Arriving at the Mayor's office, the mayor is nowhere to be seen and his secretary refuses to allow us upstairs. She complains about how boring housesitting is and that things would be a bit more enjoyable if there was at least some music.

Thankfully, there is one other building with somebody inside, and he happens to have a CD with a song from an idol popular with girls. He seems pretty embarrassed to own such a CD and offers for us to take it if we want it. This building is also worth noting in that, because the Pokemon Center currently lacks a receptionist, the bed in this house is the easiest way to heal our team. As you can guess, this is going to become pretty important soon.

As we return to the mayor's house with the Music CD, we can give it to the secretary who will begin playing it in the CD Player. While she's distracted by the music, we can slip upstairs to the mayor's bedroom where indeed he is nowhere to be found.

It's up here where we'll find a note from the professor hidden from view on the far side of his bed. This note provides that the mayor was already aware of Cipher's plans to attack the city and warns that, even as he wrote this note, it seems key figures in the city are being replaced by doppelgangers. The note is addressed to Justy, the head of the PRE-Gym, but it ends abruptly, implying that something happened to the mayor while writing this... and just as we finish reading, the secretary appears behind us and reveals that, as we've expected, she and many other suspicious individuals are all Cipher members!

===================

 

Cipher Peon Exinn & Snorunt Lv. 20+

This Peon comes with a new Shadow pokemon! Unfortuantely, Friend wound up critting it with Faint Attack, causing it to go down unexpectedly, making this our first failed Shadow Pokemon snag. While it's a bit of an inconvenience, I'm fine with it because it allows me to show off the mechanic I've previously explained about Miror B.! For now, we'll just have to press onward.

 

Cipher Peon Gonrag & Pineco Lv. 20+

As we go downstairs, we'll find another cipher member disguised as a concerned citizen.

 

This time, I did successfully snag the Pineco! It's moves are Shadow Blitz and Shadow Shed.

==================

Back outside, Cipher is aware that their cover is blown, but we need to report this message to Justy ASAP!

    

As we approach the PRE-gym though, not one, but six Justys come walking out the door! And they begin counting off... it's pretty clear exactly who these guys are. They count off this time starting at the far end and making their way back to the one who started the countoff, finally reaching the correct number. After this, they scatter in every direction and we'll need to pick up the slack in challenging them.

As you can probably figure out, all of these people disguised as Justy are the Hexagon Brothers! They're a bit less exciting to battle this time around since they all just have slightly stronger variations of the teams they had at the Cipher Lab, minus the exciting array of Shadow Pokemon, but each one will drop a Battle CD after defeat!

     

For defeating each of the Hexagon Brothers, you'll obtain Battle CDs 08, 16, 19, 27, 28, and 32.

Note: In order to find Yellosix and Browsix, you'll actually need to return to the Mayor's office. These two are actually really well hidden since that's porbably the last place you'd check considering you literally just came from there.

In addition to the Hexagon brothers, you can also clear out the other Peons disguised as citizens, but you don't get anything more than Exp and money for it. There's definitely a lot of them and a lot of ground to cover, so you might end up missing some even if you're trying to be thorough. Make sure you systematically check every corner and talk to everyone you see!

While battling my way through all these foes, Duskull's heart gauge reached zero, so I went ahead and took a trip to Agate Village to have him purified!

-----------------------

 Memory (Duskull M); Lv. 21

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Astonish, Confuse Ray

-------------------------

Pre Gym

As we enter the Pre Gym, it's only natural that Cipher's influence has spread even here. A cooltrainer walks up to us before also revealing herself to be a Cipher Peon! 

--------------------------

 

Cipher Peon Eloin & Natu Lv. 22+

 

Natu's moves are Shadow Blitz and Shadow Shed as well.

------------------------

 

Cipher Peon Fasin & Roselia Lv. 22+

The teacher naturally reveals herself to be a Cipher Peon as well!

 

Her Roselia knows the moves Shadow Wave and Shadow Shed

-------------------------

 

Cipher Peon Fostin & Meowth Lv. 22+

As expected, the Justy standing inside the Pre Gym is also just another disguise.

 

Fostin's Meowth knows the moves Shadow Rush and Shadow Hold.

-----------------------

Even after defeating Fostin, though, he reveals that the elevator behind him leads to where all of the Phenac City citizens are being kept, but that you need the Elevator Key in order to access it. He reveals that he doesn't have it either, so now we're going to have to look high and low for this key!

Now, normally I would keep going from here, but this is actually a pretty convenient stopping point. I know it doesn't look like we got a whole lot done, but there was a lot of battling today! Still, there's also a bit more we did today. As always, I've kind of passed over the pings we got over the course of this session, but while doing all of the miscellaneous battles, the Miror Radar ended up going off! After checking the radar in my bag, I found that Miror B. has been detected in Pyrite Town!

================

Pyrite Town

If Miror B. ever shows up in a location with a colosseum, you'll always find him taking on that area's colosseum. This means if we want to snag that Snorunt we missed, we'll have to take on another round at the Pyrite Colosseum! I'll spare you the details since we've already been through once before, but long story short, one of the opponents in the round will be replaced with Miror B. himself. Miror B.'s own team will actually be random every time you battle him. The pool of pokemon he chooses from will depend on where you battle him, but he'll always have a Shadow Pokemon you failed to snag.

===============

Battle 2: Wanderer Miror B.

----------------------

 

Lombre Lv. 20 & Hoppip Lv. 20

                  

                

Hoppip didn't concern me here, so I focused my efforts on taking out Lombre ASAP. Lombre stopped Pineco from attacking on the first turn with Fake-Out, so Lombre was able to survive a Shadow Ball from Memory. On top of that, Hoppip hit Pineco with a Leech Seed. A little annoying, but as long as I kept Hoppip around, that wouldn't become too much of an issue. This would really only make things easier. Pineco had unlocked the ability to use Spikes with its reduced heart gauge, so I decided to go ahead and start setting those up while Memory finished off Lombre.

-------------------------

Voltorb Lv. 20

                  

                

This Voltorb was a bit more of a threat than I would've liked. For now, I continued setting up Spikes while attacking Voltorb with Memory. Voltorb's Shock Wave did an unfortunate amount of damage, though, and Hoppip's Leech Seed was actually starting to apply some pressure onto Memory and Pineco. (Pineco I wasn't too worried about). I managed to set up one last set of Spikes and Memory took Voltorb out on the following turn.

------------------------

Sudowoodo Lv. 20

                  

                

Sudowoodo was a bit awkward to deal with, but it just went for Low Kick against Pineco. An odd choice of move. Unfortunately, between Hoppip's Bullet Seed and consecutive damage from leech Seed, Memory wound up going down.

                  

                

Out came Friend who took out Sudowoodo with a simple Brick Break.

-----------------------

Snorunt Lv. 20+

And here came the Snorunt that got away!

                  

                

This thing wasn't getting away that easy this time! I picked off Hoppip real quick with a Return, though Pineco ended up going down to Snorunt's Shadow Wave.

                 

                

Out came Family to take the reins. With Family's Quick Attack and Friend's Faint Attack, we were able to chip Snorunt's HP down.

-----------------------

 

And I was eventually able to snag it! Snorunt's moves are Shadow Wave and Shadow Shed!

==================

Of course, Memory wasn't the only pokemon whose Heart Gauge reduced to zero. Since it's the end of the session, I decided to pay a quick visit to Agate Village where I'd purify the rest of the Shadow Pokemon I'd made progress with. It's time for another deep breath!

--------------------------

 Dress (Mawile F); Lv. 24

Item: None

Ability: Intimidate | Moves: Sing, False Swipe, ViceGrip, Iron Defense

-------------------------

 Empathy (Ralts M); Lv. 20

Item: None

Ability: Trace | Moves: Sing, Shock Wave, Reflect, Confusion

-------------------------

 Cover (Pineco M); Lv. 22

Item: None

Ability: Sturdy | Moves: Pin Missile, Refresh, Spikes, Counter

=================

In addition, we've got the Purify Chamber to manage!

--------------------------

SET 1 -- Roselia [ 0 / 5 ]

 ->  -> ->  -> 

[Grass > Ground] -> [Fire > Bug] -> [Bug > Grass] -> [Grass > Water] -> [Water > Fire]

----------------------------

SET 2 -- Meowth [ 0 / 5 ]

 ->  -> ->  -> 

[Normal > Normal] -> [Normal = Dark] -> [Dark > Psychic] -> [Psychic > Fighting] -> [Fighting > Normal]

Normal-types are very difficult to create perfect circuits with since they're only super-effective against themselves. Your best bet is to use a Normal/Flying type to transition the cycle into Flying, but I don't currently have any of those, so that makes things a little bit difficult. Still, I did the best I could with what I had, allowing a single weak link between Delcatty and Poochyena.

====================

Anyway, that's that. Next time we'll need to get looking for that Lift Key! It's gotta be somewhere in Phenac City...

[Aura]

Phenac City

After clearing Cipher out of Pre Gym, the grunt standing in front of Phenac Stadium will finally battle you.

 

Cipher Peon Greck & Swinub Lv. 22+

 

His Shadow Swinub knows Shadow Blitz and Shadow Wave.

Swinub also comes with a NeverMeltIce!

====================

Phenac Stadium

Once you defeat Greck, you now have access to the Phenac Stadium. With the popularity of Realgam Tower, this stadium is no longer operational. The E-Reader room from the Japanese version of Colosseum is no longer accessible, though it is still present in the game's data and even still has the old PC design from Colosseum!

In this game, both doors will actually lead you to the Stadium grounds! It's actually really cool to be able to explore this area like this since it was previously only viewable in-battle. But we don't have the freedom to walk around just yet. Right away, we'll have to fight our way through not one, but two Cipher Peons! If you want any of these Shadow Pokemon for your team, make sure you save ahead of time as there's no healing between them!

-------------------

 

Cipher Peon Ezin & Spearow Lv. 22+

I unfortunately ended up underestimating my Jolteon's Quick Attack when trying to catch this Spearow, so it also ended up fleeing after the battle. But, its moves were Shadow Blitz and Shadow Panic.

If you snag this Spearow, it'll be holding a Sharp Beak!

-----------------------

 

Cipher Peon Faltly & Grimer Lv. 23+

 

I was able to successfully snag Faltly's Grimer, which came with the moves Shadow Blitz and Shadow Hold.

================

After defeating these first two grunts, you're going to want to retreat to heal because you've got some fairly tough battles ahead of you.

As you approach the center of the stadium, you'll find Marcia and Camaran at odds with a gaudy-looking man. This is Snattle, a politician and Cipher Admin who has been promised a position as Governor of Orre by Master Greevil himself. He is currently trying to force Marcia and Camaran to delete the footage they've shot of the scene, but the two are naturally determined to stick to the power of the free press and care not for his selfish ambitions.

Upon seeing us, Snattle sends one of his peons to deal with you.

=================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 28

Item: Magnet 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Quick Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 28

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Torment, Return, Brick Break, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 28

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Duskull M Lv. 27

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

----------------------

 Natu F Lv. 22+ [ 2/5 ]

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Shed, Night Shade

--------------------

 Swinub F Lv. 22+ [ 0/5 ]

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Blitz, Shadow Wave

==================

Cipher Peon Egrog

-------------------------

 

Hoothoot Lv. 25 & Graveler Lv. 26

                

                 

A very awkward start to be sure. I opened up with a Night Shade and Shadow Ball to soften up Graveler, but with its bulk, we weren't getting over it with this matchup. Natu ended up going into reverse mode, so it wouldn't be going down on the following turn either. Even then, Natu ended up getting taken out that turn!

                

                 

Graveler was pretty low on HP by this point, so I just sent out Swinub to finish the job here.

------------------------

Gulpin Lv. 26

                

                 

It wasn't too long before Memory was nearly taken out with Gulpin's Shock Wave. Unfortunately, Hoothoot was able to successfully pick off Swinub's remaining HP.

                

                 

I brought out Friend who could make quicker work of Hoothoot using Return while Duskull continued to deal with Gulpin using Shadow Ball. Hoothoot wasn't going to last long in this setup.

--------------------

Seel Lv. 23+

                

                 

Out came the key player I was zeroed in on here! I quickly focused my efforts on taking out Gulpin so we could focus on that Seel.

               

                 

Swinub wasn't looking to hot, but thankfully all it took was a single Faint Attack and Ultra Ball to snag Seel which is going to be my next permanent party member!

-------------------------

 Seel F; Lv. 23+ [ 0/5 ]

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Shadow Wave, Shadow Mist

I'm gonna be totally honest, this definitely isn't the choice of water-type I have the most faith in, if I were purely going for the best possible team I could build, I'd probably be leaning more toward Spheal. Both of these pokemon are pokemon I've yet to use in this series, but I ultimately decided to go with Seel this time around because I almost always end up using Spheal in XD playthroughs and a big part of this series is an excuse to use a bunch of pokemon I don't normally do. It's also a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy here because Seel is a pokemon I've wanted to use for years but almost never get the chance to do so because there's usually just another Water-type that's more convenient to use. I honestly really tried to fit it on my team in during both Gen 1 and in FireRed and LeafGreen but just couldn't make room for it over other pokemon I also wanted to use for more specific reasons such as version exclusivity or wanting to use my starter. Remember, there's a massive abundance of water-types in the Pokemon world!

=================

After defeating Egrog, Snattle can no longer ignore us. He also won't allow us to slip away to heal which means, you guessed it, there is no healing after battling Egrog. You jump right into the boss fight with Snattle!

=================

Cipher Admin Snattle

-----------------------

 

Lanturn Lv. 26 & Quagsire Lv. 26

                

                 

Another fairly awkward start, but this one definitely could be worse. I started by confusing Quagsire so that I could focus my efforts on getting Lanturn out of here. Quagsire never hit itself in confusion, but it did miss with Rock Tomb against Teddiursa several turns in a row. I'll take what I can get! I spent another turn hitting Quagsire with Torment to slow its assault further while Duskull tried to hit Lanturn with a Shadow Ball. Unfortunately, he ended up going down to a Shock Wave.

                

                 

Out came Houndoom who was able to make quick work of Lanturn using Faint Attack.

------------------------

Lunatone Lv. 25+

                

                 

Snattle's Shadow Lunatone came out next! Friend's Return dealt a solid chunk of damage against Quagsire, so in spite of the awkward type matchups across my team, I was able to put myself in a pretty solid position. The following turn, Ally and Friend both focused their efforts on weakining Lunatone. I was pretty confident Ally's Faint Attack wouldn't do a whole lot, so I also went for Brick Break with Friend. I was sorely mistaken and nearly KO'd Lunatone! Thankfully, it hung on with a little bit of HP remaining. Lunatone set up Shadow Sky which is a bizarre Shadow Attack that actually creates a new weather condition: Shadowy Aura.

Shadowy Aura behaves nearly identical to Hail and even shares a similar visual effect, but instead of striking all non-ice types, the Shadowy Aura predictably only damages non-Shadow Pokemon. Shadow Sky does have some additional effects, however. Namely, it increases the power of Shadow attacks just like Rain and Sunlight.

 

The following turn, I was able to snag Lunatone in an Ultra Ball. In addition to Shadow Sky, Snattle's Lunatone also knows Shadow Wave and Shadow Shed! This is our first case of a Shadow Pokemon that actually knows three different Shadow attacks! 

--------------------------

Castform Lv. 27

                

                 

Unfortuantely, Quagsire wound up taking out Ally by getting a critical with Rock Tomb. Ally was able to hold on with 1HP, but was taken out by the Shadow Sky at the end of the turn.

                

                 

It was now down to just Family and Friend. Thankfully, Family was able to retaliate and take out Quagsire with Return.

----------------------

Metang Lv. 28

                

                 

I hit Metang with a ThunderShock while Family went for Brick Break against Castform. There is one last effect of Shadow Sky related to Castform in that Weather Ball becomes a typeless attack (Like Shadow Rush in Colosseum) and doubles in power. It kind of feels like a missed opportunity that Weather Ball doesn't become a Shadow Attack or that Castform's Forecast doesn't protect it from Shadow Attacks, but I suppose they could only make this weather condition change so much. Regardless, Castform's Weather Ball wasn't enough to turn the tides and he went down to my Brick Break.

               

                 

And now, between Family's ThunderShock and Friend's Brick Break, Metang was unable to hold up.

================

Upon defeating Snattle, Cipher flees the city. Marcia and Camaran thank us and reveal that Camaran recorded the entire battle. The two immediately hurry back to Pyrite Town in order to broadcast the news regarding the situation in Phenac City which should hopefully raise awareness of Cipher's attempt to take over the region while trying to keep things on the down low. It's looking like they've lost their element of surprise! But it's a bit too early to celebrate just yet...

As Snattle leaves, he drops the Elevator Key we'll need to rescue the people of Phenac City.

  

Before leaving, though, you'll want to check the outskirts of this stadium because there are some really nice items to be found! A Water Stone, PP UP, and even TM13: Ice Beam!

===============

On returning to the Pre gym, we can now use the Lift Key to access the elevator where we can reach the training area in the basement where we'll finally find all the missing citizens of the city!

When we first arrive at the basement, Mayor Trest greets us and requests that everyone give you a big thank-you before everyone leaves through the elevator one by one. Back in the main lobby of the Pre gym, Trest invites us to his office so that he can give you a proper reward as thanks for saving the city before leaving. Justy explains to you that he believes Cipher chose to attack the city because rumors were starting to spread about shady characters in the desert yet again.

He marks a new location which I won't actually show here since you're not actually supposed to know what is located there just yet and it's a fairly large discovery! We'll definitely save exploring there for a bit later.

==============

As always, we've got a few notifications to catch up on now that we've finished summarizing the plot progress.

 

At the Desert Poke Spot, I was able to catch a Sandshrew which I named Mess.

 

I caught a Hoppip at the Oasis Poke Spot which I named Mindless

   

At the Cave Poke Spot, I also managed to catch both a Wooper and a Zubat! And that's our second rare pokemon caught! I named Wooper Smile and Zubat Listen.

And for the first time, I also encountered Munchlax at a Poke Spot! And this is what I was referring to earlier when I said there was a chance to get 10 Poke Snacks from a wild encounter! Every once in a while you'll find that the Herb Shop owner's Munchlax will have strayed off and made its way to your Poke Snacks. The old lady will show up and call Munchlax out on it before generously repaying you with 10 Poke Snacks regardless of how many Munchlax ate.

   

She also tells you that she's starting to sell her herbs on the second floor of Gateon Port's Mart and gives you a free sample of one of these four at random: Heal Powder, Energy Powder, Energy Root, and Revival Herb.

Frustratingly enough, I actually wound up running into this Munchlax twice today! Still, I can't complain with such a productive day at the Poke Spots. The only wild pokemon I'm missing are Gligar at the Rock Poke Spot and Surskit at the Oasis. In addition, I'd also like to catch a second Wooper, Trapinch and Surskit for completionist's sake since I'll have to trade one of each away. So, while I could pack up and grab all my poke snacks out of the Cave right now, I think I'll leave them there for just a little longer.

==============

In addition to all of the above, the Miror Radar also went off near the end of the session, pointing me back to Pyrite Colosseum.

     

This time, I fought Miror B. in Battle 3 and his team consisted of Hoppip, Nuzleaf, Voltorb, Ludicolo, and the Shadow Spearow I'd failed to snag a little earlier.

 

I was successfully able to snag Shadow Spearow this time!

==============

As for our routine trip to Agate, I decided to go ahead and visit the move tutor in the cave and teach Family the move Thunder Wave. I realized while looking through the movesets that Jolteon doesn't actually learn Thunder Wave until late levels. I really don't think it's worth waiting that long for such a standard move, so I went ahead and taught it here.

And then we have our purification!

---------------------

 Support (Snorunt F); Lv. 22

Item: None

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Water Pulse, Sing, Bite, Icy Wind

------------------------

 Sniff (Swinub F); Lv. 22

Item: None

Ability: Snow Cloak | Moves: AncientPower, Charm, Mist, Mud Shot

----------------------

 Ponder (Natu F); Lv. 22

Item: None

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Future Sight, Baton Pass, Night Shade, Aerial Ace

=================

But don't think we're done just yet! We still have the Purify Chamber!

-------------------------

 Garden (Roselia F); Lv. 22

Item: None

Ability: Poison Point | Moves: Magical Leaf, Sweet Kiss, Leech Seed, GrassWhistle

-----------------------

 Polish (Meowth F); Lv. 22

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Slash, Sing, Pay Day, Bite

==================

And finally, it's time to set up our Purify Chamber for our next session.

--------------------

SET 1 -- Grimer

 ->  ->  ->  -> 

[Poison > Grass] -> [Grass > Water] -> [Water > Fire] -> [Fire > Bug] -> [Bug > Grass]

-------------------

SET 2 -- Spearow

 ->  ->  ->  -> 

[Flying > Fighting] -> [Fighting > Steel] -> [Steel > Ice] -> [Ice > Grass] -> [Flying > Fighting]

=============

And that's it for Chapter 2! Next time, we'll be doing some cleanup so that we can prepare before moving on to the next part of the story!

[Aura]

Phenac City

With the crisis over in Phenac City, the music returns to its original beautiful and serene self and the town is back to normal! The Pokemon Center and Mart are fully operational. You can even buy Ultra Balls and Poke Snacks here! So make sure you stock up!

Right off the bat, if we return to the Mayor's office as he invited us, he'll give us an Exp Share!

In addition, we can find Battle CD 12 on his bookshelf. We could've found this earlier, but our protagonist suddenly grew a moral standard and decided that now it's not right to take things without permission.

We can also find Battle CD 10 in the southeastern house.

Speaking around with the locals, we can gather more information about the suspicious individuals Justy mentioned. They'll tell us things like how large trucks have been seen traveling to and from the desert area to the north. And with the recent attack from Cipher, many now believe this process might be related to Shadow Pokemon.

If we try to return to the Pre Gym, we'll find that they're currently trying to get everything together so that they can open up again. Justy explains that he'd love to have a battle with you once all is said and done. 

Of course, most of the locals are pretty miffed about their doppelgangers.

You can make a Fun Old Man's day by treating him to a battle. He's eager to battle with the hero who saved the city!

================

Before heading out, we can pay a quick visit to Phenac Stadium again where we'll find a lone cooltrainer who wants to have a battle even though the stadium is empty.

Bulbapedia has conflicting information on this trainer. It says she can only be battled once and can never be battled again for the rest of the game, yet it also lists her as having a Rematch which seems to imply that you can battle her again later on. I'm assuming this just means that her pokemon are higher level if you choose to battle her later on. But, to test this, I decided to go ahead and battle her now and see if I'll be able to rematch her later.

===============

Now, without further ado, why don't we start investigating those rumors of mysterious figures, shall we? It's always been a promising lead so far!

Well, as we try to make our way to the northern part of the desert, we run into an unexpected issue: Our scooter sinks into the sand!

Unable to go any further, we have no choice but to return to Phenac City. It's here that we'll get an email from Nett mentioning a lost pokemon on board the S.S. Libra. Since we can't go anywhere else, we may as well head over and see how we can help with this!

=================

Pyrite Town

As we're passing through, some things are a bit different with Pyrite Town. Namely, if we return to Duking's house, we'll find him in the cave! With this in mind, we can now trade our rare wild pokemon for the rarer ones! While my Wooper is in the Purify Chamber at the moment, I do happen to have a Trapinch on hand...

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 20 

Item: None

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Detect, Confusion

-------------------------

This thing is actually very nice to have! In fact, it was planned to be a part of my main team. But uh... something unexpected happened that may or may not put a wrench in that plan later on. But for now, you can expect Meditite to be hanging around for a little bit! He's got some really powerful attacks that make this trade far better than most in-game trades in the entire series! Shadow Ball is a TM that is otherwise only available at Mt. Battle and DynamicPunch is an entirely exclusive move for him available only through this game! Coupled with Pure Power, DynamicPunch is a rather devastating attack, plus Meditite isn't far off from learning Mind Reader if you need a more consistent hit. Shadow Ball can also help if you need a constant stream of damage and it's not going to be shabby thanks to Pure Power as well! This thing's moveset is already pretty close to a solid endgame moveset! I'd say just replace Detect with Mind Reader and Confusion with Psychic and you're good to go!

Meditite is a pokemon I've considered using since Ruby and Sapphire but he's just never been conveniently available. I actually did originally plan to use him in Emerald before realizing that he was entirely unavailable in Emerald... So I was definitely interested in using the pokemon here and I don't think it's a terrible choice, either, since this is probably where Meditite is his most unique!

-----------------------

Aside from being able to trade for Meditite, Rogue Cail is also available for a rematch! In addition to that,

    

The trainers at Duel Square are all ready for rematches with stronger teams! Don't confuse them with the other trainers like Worker Dobit who will rematch you, but won't have a stronger team than the one you fought before. No sense treading over old ground.

As you can probably expect, going through all these battles along with all that walking around was enough to bring Seel's Heart Gauge to zero which means another purification!

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 25

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

-------------------------

We can explore ONBS and find that everything is in order again. Marcia has immediately gotten to work on her story on Phenac City. In addition, the little girl we found before, Kandee, is now performing on TV! She's singing a cute little song with two Jigglypuff!

When we reach the top, we'll find another little girl with her grandpa. Nett and Bitt explain their curiosity about the pokemon in question, but we'll just have to talk to them to figure out what the big deal is.

The little girl is crying for a pokemon she calls "Bonsly." her Grandpa explains  it was a pokemon he stumbled across in his garden while caring for his Bonsai trees and tells us to ask his granddaughter for a photo.

The picture shows off this strange little pokemon crying. Apparently, this Bonsly was on board the S.S. Libra when it disappeared. We're asked to keep a look out for it, but our current priority is to deal with Cipher. Thanks to Marcia, Nett is already well aware of the rumors about the desert north of Phenac City, but realizes that it must be difficult for you to get there with your scooter because of the deep sand. He suggests you visit his friend Perr and is surprised to find out that you've already met him! That makes things much easier. He sends a message to Perr and tells us to go see him about upgrading our Scooter!

=================

Gateon Port

Finally returning to Gateon Port, there's really nothing all that special going on just yet. As we visit the Parts Shop to find Perr. While we're talking to him, the TV in the room will go off with the broadcast about the News story from Phenac! The story is covered by Secc since it's such an important message to deliver. Perr is impressed by what he saw. He says he knew you were special but had no idea you'd be this great! He'll explain that we need a kit in order to soup our scooter up, but his grandfather has it. His grandfather is of course still over at Dr. Kaminko's place, so it looks like we're on a bit of a wild goose chase!

On our way out of town, we'll bump into Mr. Verich and his bodyguards again. Mr. Verich comments about our success at Phenac City and tells you he's impressed. From a man held in such high regard, that must be a very high compliment indeed! He boards his luxury cruiser and his guards stand watch once again.

Before we leave, I suppose it's worth mentioning that the Poke Mart here now sells Poke Balls and Great Balls.

In the Krabby Club, since Razzle and Dazzle are now at ONBS, we can now see the Krabby Duo perform. It's actually fairly interesting because the Krabby will each shoot their Bubblebeam attack out in the overworld! It's a unique perspective on the move that I actually thought was pretty cool to see.

Upstairs where Mr. Verich was sitting before, we can now find Battle CD 06 which the bartender mentions was left for him since Mr. Verich had no need for it any longer. However, the bartender doesn't battle, so he says we can have it if it interests us.

================

Kaminko's House

It almost feels like we're on some sort of world tour! We return to Kaminko's House and, as you can probably guess...

Yes, we are once again stopped by Chobin who again mistakes us for a burglar.

 

His Magikarp has now evolved into a Gyarados, but it's still mostly the same story. After we take Chobin out, Dr. Kaminko comes out of his home wondering what all this racket is. When Chobin explains our assumed burglary to him, Dr. Kaminko is almost excited by the opportunity to test out his new invention.

There's no explaining our way out of this one, but we can't just run away. He tells Chobin to go inside and fetch his greatest invention yet: the ultimate Robo Pokemon: Robo Groudon!

=================

My Team:

------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 28

Item: Magnet 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderShock, Tail Whip, Bite, Quick Attack

----------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 29

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Torment, Return, Brick Break, Metal Claw

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 28

Item: Charcoal 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Duskull M Lv. 28

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 26

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 23

Item: None

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Detect, Confusion

==================

Robo Groudon Chobin

You may be disappointed to find that Robo Groudon isn't some exciting unique pokemon boss, but rather just a very... bizarre trainer class. As if being inside of a mech suit affects your ability to battle in any way shape or form. Still, it looks pretty cool and Chobin is more than excited to show off what it can do.

------------------------

 

Sunflora Lv. 26 & Gyarados Lv. 26

                

                

There's sadly not a whole lot this underleveled Meditite can do here, but I try to go ahead and build up damage against Gyarados while Love focuses on shooting Ice Beam at Sunflora. Sunflora doesn't quite go down and ends up setting up Sunny Day. Gyarados goes for Bite and nearly takes out Meditite. Another turn, and Meditite does go down but so, too, does Sunflora!

-----------------------

Hoppip Lv. 26

                

                

This matchup is a gimme. Thundershock to Gyarados and Ice Beam to Hoppip is all it takes.

------------------

Tropius Lv. 26

               

                

And one more Ice Beam and Thundershock for the road!

=================

Chobin and Dr. Kaminko are distraught that their Robo Groudon was a failure. Frustrated by this, Dr. Kaminko decides to completely scrap his Robo Pokemon project to Chobin's dismay. Chobin pleads with Dr. Kaminko to at least allow him to keep the Robo Groudon, which Kaminko agrees to since he no longer cares for the useless machine. Chobin decides to take the machine in for repairs. Then, finally, he recognizes you once again and you can enter!

Chobin requests your help in telling your sister to stop wandering around his basement as it's extremely dangerous in there. Of course, knowing she probably won't listen to you, he also requests that you help him keep an eye on his basement every now and then since he's afraid of heights. Afraid of... heights? In the basement?

Weelll, if we go inside and take a right, we can find exactly what this is about.

We can find the basement of Kaminko's Lab! Entering from Chobin's side brings us to this higher catwalk area where we can ride hooks along to color-coded drop-off points.

We can find Battle CD 05 back here. In addition, we can find a chest containing a diary written by Jovi chronicaling her interest in making Kaminko's lab her secret hideout. Once again, this girl is proving to be quite the handful.

==================

If we enter the basement from Kaminko's side, we can take the elevator down to the lower area of the lab where the machines are being constructed. Or, were, anyway. It's down here where we'll find Makan standing by the Robo Kyogre, lamenting the fact that he was told to scrap such a well-engineered machine. Once we speak with him, he'll promptly return to the parts shop and, after a bit of tinkering, our scooter will be upgraded to a hover scooter! With this, we'll be able to glide over the desert sand with ease!

==================

As always, we've got some notifications to catch up on, but this time, not a whole lot actually ended up happening.

 

I was able to catch a Gligar which I named Observe. The rest of the wild pokemon were all repeats, so there's not much to cover there. I was starting to get really fed up with these notifications as they constantly interrupted me while trying to just enjoy my time exploring around. I'm still not a fan at all of the way the spot monitor is handled and it honestly just feels like it gets in the way. I really wish the mechanic didn't heavily incentivize you dropping everything and going straight there. These notifications go off so frequently that it'll turn a 10 minute peaceful stroll into a 30 minute errand run and honestly just kind of stresses me out when I'm just trying to enjoy myself. In fact, I was getting so frustrated by my time being wasted with all of these repeat wild pokemon encounters, the game caught me with a sight I was never expecting to see.

That's right: A Shiny Gligar! Now, I've honestly been figuring I was a bit overdue for a shiny pokemon after all these playthroughs of Pokemon games. Shiny pokemon really aren't a surprise in a marathon like this. If anything, it's an inevitability. With encounter rates at around 1/9000, I'm statistically very likely to encounter one between full playthroughs of five different games. My last shiny encounter completely caught me off guard because it was so early in the game and I honestly wasn't expecting to run into a shiny pokemon in Gen 2 aside from the shiny Gyarados at Lake of Rage. I'd only played through three games so it didn't feel nearly as statistically certain yet. Though, in hindsight, I suppose it was pretty likely.

What makes this Gligar special is the game I found it in. You see, shiny pokemon were obtainable in Pokemon Colosseum, but they were a bit buggy in their appearance. A pokemon's personality values would be re-rolled after snagging in Colosseum. As a result, a Shadow pokemon sent out by an opponent is likely not to be shiny after a snag. Likewise, you may very well snag a regular shadow pokemon that turns out to be a shiny after the fact. To fix this bug in XD, all shadow pokemon are shiny locked, and I do believe this is the first instance of shiny locking in the entire series. At least, in this manner anyway.

If you're unaware of what being shiny locked means, it simply means that a pokemon's shininess--shiny or not--is scripted to always remain the same. Technically, the Gyarados at Lake of Rage is shiny locked as a static shiny pokemon. However, I don't believe there's ever been an instance of a pokemon shiny locked as a static non-shiny pokemon save for event pokemon gifted directly to the player. As we move forward in the series, shiny locking is going to become a bit more prevalent with plot-relevant pokemon or pokemon that would reappear several times.

Anyway, with Shadow Pokemon shiny locked, the only way to catch a Shiny Pokemon here in XD is through the Poke Spots, making legitimate ones incredibly rare! What's more, shinies in Gen 3 are especially valuable since they can't be traded from previous gens and there are no exploits or mechanics to make them more common. Furthermore, outside of Colosseum and XD, a Shiny Gligar can only be encountered in Emerald's Safari Zone. I'd say that makes this an incredibly valuable encounter!

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 16

Item: None

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Poison Sting, Sand-Attack, Harden

--------------------

....buuuut, as much as I hate to say it, it seems the value in this pokemon is only in beauty, and it actually is a very beautiful shiny, probably my favorite yet, this pokemon is almost the bottom of the barrel when it comes to usefulness in XD. There are some pokemon like Surskit that are definitely worse, but it can't be denied that Gligar is an extremely unfortunate case of receiving too little too late in this game. It's learnset is abysmal, just look at the options he has. Gligar's stuck using Poison Sting as his only offensive move until Level 26 where it finally learns Quick Attack. It'll be Level 36 before it learns an actual offensive physical attack. So, okay, it's reliant on TMs, that's fine, I've got plenty I'm not using. So, what are our options? Earthquake? Alright, Aerial Ace? Sounds good, sounds good. How about Toxic and Rest? Fantastic! The stats may not be perfect, but we've got a workable moveset! So... where do we get these TMs? ...Oh, Toxic and Rest are both postgame. That's... fine. We can probably work around that with some other strategy, maybe temporary type coverage or something. Aerial Ace? Mt. Battle, alright! Area... 9... Okay, how about some generic physical moves? Brick Break? Not compatible. Shadow Ball? Nope. He can learn Return! Which... isn't in this game. Not in TM form, anyway. How about Sludge Bomb? Again, post game. Iron Tail? Realgam Colosseum which won't be open until near the very end of the game. 

You know how much of an aversion to evasion strats I have, but I even dabbled in that concept with a build along the lines of Substitute (from tutor) and Double team. Even that wouldn't work because Double Team is also a postgame TM! Plus this Gligar has Hyper Cutter instead of Sand Veil which I would certainly want for an evasive build.

After a whole bunch of back and forth, with trying to figure out what the best moveset I could possibly scrounge together with the frankly absurd limitations of this game, the best I could focus on was giving Gligar Rock Tomb by TM to be replaced with Iron Tail later on to help cover against Rock types, Sunny Day for reasons that will become clear later on in this playthrough, and then use a tutor to learn Double-Edge and Mimic because without these moves Gligar has no STAB options period and he'll need Double-Edge or he'll be stuck leeching Exp with the Exp Share until he's level Thirty-freaking-six (by which point I'll be nearing the end of the game), just so that he can learn one decent attack.

Gligar has no set-up moves aside in his arsenal aside from Double Team. He's so close to being decent if he could just learn Swords Dance from the move tutor in FRLG or Emerald, but that would have to wait until postgame (surprise!) No tutor in XD will teach you Swords Dance. This truly is the best that I can come up with for him. And yes, I'm aware I didn't include Earthquake on that learnset, I hope it'll be clear why that is soon enough if you can't already piece it together. 

So, is that just it? Do I just box this rare shiny and call it a day? Well, not quite. It's not every day that you can get a random shiny, especially one from Orre! It's certainly a privilege I don't want to pass up. I typically have a policy that, if I encounter a random shiny, I always try my hardest to work it into the team. At the same time, I can't really justify replacing any of the pokemon on my team. I've already grown so attached to them all and I don't want to say goodbye to any of them. So, even though I've typically been limiting myself to only six pokemon per playthrough, I think I'm going to bend the rules a little bit and use Party rotation to squeeze some extra screentime out of this little guy. This will cause some additional headache as I constantly juggle my team around at PCs, but I don't think it should affect things too terribly much. By the end of the game, I'd like to have it fit naturally into a slot on the main team, but I imagine it'll probably unfortunately have to sit on the sidelines for the endgame.

 

While we're on the topic of shiny pokemon, though, I'd like to point out a cool observation I've noticed for a while. Every 2D render of every pokemon is actually rendered twice. Once for the regular color and one for the variant. This means that shiny pokemon actually have a different angle in the PC, portraits, and Purify Chamber. I think this makes shiny pokemon just a tad more fun to have! I might even have to squeeze this guy in alongside my team in the Hall of Fame just to flex it a little bit.

===================

Well, long rant aside, there's still a bit more of my session to cover today. And that's of course the purify Chamber.

--------------------------

 Lounge (Grimer M); Lv. 23

Item: None

Ability: Sticky Hold | Moves: Helping Hand, Sludge Bomb, Shadow Punch, Minimize

-----------------------

 Target (Spearow F); Lv. 22

Item: Sharp Beak

Ability: Keen Eye | Moves: Baton Pass, False Swipe, Leer, Aerial Ace

===================

And lastly, we have our Purification Chamber set. With only one Shadow Pokemon, it's obvious how this one is set up:

    

Lunatone -> Ledyba -> Nuzleaf -> Wooper -> Numel -> Ledyba

Rock beats Bug, Bug beats Grass, Grass beats Water, Water beats Fire, and Fire beats Bug. A perfect loop again!

In the interest of time, going forward I'm probably not going to be going into as much aesthetic detail with these cycles. I may even stop repeating these sets altogether and only describe them if I make new ones. I'm making this change now because, now that I have a full team, you'll begin to notice our purify chamber becoming far more important than ever before as Shadow Pokemon continue to pile up. I think it's important to keep these things in check.

===================

Anyway, we didn't get a whole lot accomplished today, but we certainly did make a lot of progress in other ways! A bit too much in some, even! Hopefully tomorrow will go a bit more smoothly and we'll be able to move onward without stressing ourselves out too much. Next time, we'll investigate the happenings in the desert!

[Aura]

We return to Agate Village! This time, not to purify any new Shadow Pokemon but instead visit the move tutor to get Shine on the right track!

While Double-Edge isn't quite available yet, I'll have to check back periodically, though I have concerns it may never be made available until postgame, I have been able to learn the move Mimic from the start. This will be useful for getting Shine to use a wider variety of moves. The move is also more useful in double battles since you can also copy the move your ally used! Mimic will allow me to copy rare moves from other pokemon on my team such as Meditite's DynamicPunch or Shadow Ball. This'll help Shine get some more consistent damage in these earlier levels without having to rely exclusively on Poison Sting.

And now, I think it's time to move on! With our hover scooter we can finally make our way to the northern desert!

S.S. Libra

Here we have the ship that "XD001" dropped into the desert. It's such an ominous sight to see a ship like this stranted out int he middle of the desert, and the music here adds a really somber tone to it all. It makes sense, though, the disappearance of this ship marks the start of everything wrong that's happened so far. It's the last place many pokemon were seen and now there seems to be no sign of life on board at all.

As we make our way into the Hull of the ship, we'll find giant crates of Pokemon Food which we can push around to make pathways for us to walk forward. Youc an drop down from these pathways on any side, and it can be pretty easy to do so on accident so be careful as you walk along or you might have to waste some time pushing crates around.

If you drop down to the chest from the ledge above, you can get an Iron!

We make our way up to the deck of the ship where we find some suspicious characters... (...Ignore Pofty and her camera man in this picture... they aren't here yet.)

 

We find a man named Gorigan along with two Cipher Peons. They're all complaining about having missed one of the pokemon on the ship. We find that these men were indeed gathering pokemon from this ship to convert into Shadow Pokemon back at their lair.

On seeing you, Gorigan has already heard of you and knows he doesn't have time to waste trying to fight you. He tasks both of his henchmen to take you out before he leaves. The peon with the red scarf then tells the one in yellow that he'll leave the battle to him. When the yellow scarf tells him that wasn't what Gorigan said, the red scarf insists that the task at the Lair will be more important to handle and ends up tricking the yellow scarf by spewing off a lot of percentages which he can't keep track of. He reluctantly agrees but can't help but feel like he's been had... which he most certainly has.

We end up battling Cipher Peon Smarton while the red scarf runs off after Gorigan.

-----------------------

It was actually during this battle that Friend reached level 30 and evovled into Ursaring!

Somewhere before this point, Teddiursa had also managed to pick up a King's Rock! I'm glad he was able to find some useful rare pickup before evolving. This is actually only a 1% pickup chance, so it's very lucky to have!

-----------------------

After battling Smarton, he retreats and a man walks out from inside the Captain's Cabin. The man explains that he stumbled across the ship here in the desert and decided to make it his home, heavily implying that this man seems to be homeless. It's actually really interesting to me because I don't believe there's ever been a homeless character in this entire series up until now. I actually think it's pretty sweet, too, that this story doesn't make a big point about this man's homelessness. He's not shown to be some sort of screw-up, nor is he written to be some pitiful source of heroics, both of which are how homelessness is typically used in media like this. Instead, he's just a really chill guy who's just making ends meet. He's even the one to help you out here!

He recognizes you must be tired after that battle and invites you inside to rest. You can actually see a shirt hung up with his laundry in the corner of this room that resembles the shirt worn by the "Glasses Man" trainer class in Colosseum! Perhaps this is implying this man was once a Glasses Man before becoming a Worker? 

Your team is healed up and he tells you he's been hearing all sorts of noises in the lower part of the ship. It often sounds like somebody is crying down there, but it's a rather spooky feeling that he can't shake. I can't blame him, either. With this place's ominous aura and tragic story, the sound of crying would probably sound rather ghostly. We agree go deeper into the ship to find the source of the sound.

At this point, you can't actually leave until you finish this little quest, so you can imagine my frustration when my spot monitor went off here. Oh well, there's really only so much you can do about it.

In this little lobby area, you can find Battle CD 18 on the ground.

You can travel deeper into the hull of the ship from here which will lead you to more Crate puzzles which you can either mostly ignore, or solve to get some really useful items!

  x 2

Here for example, you can find a Fire Stone and two PP Ups!

The next floor down, a Max Ether!

The room over is perhaps the most important of all, though.

 

You can find TM35: Flamethrower and a Yellow Flute! Now, normally I'd teach Flamethrower to Ally ASAP, but Fire Blast has actually been handling pretty well. It only has a 15% chance of missing at full accuracy, so I can't see anything crazy like the move missing twice in a row happening. I certainly wouldn't trust Thunder's 30% chance of missing nearly as much, but Fire Blast might actually be worth it for the extra damage.

At the end of this little detour, we find the source of the noise the Worker had been hearing:

It's Bonsly, of course! If we run up to him, though, he'll get startled and run away to the other side of the room. You'll need to carefully approach him. And when you do...

...You get an email notification, which scares the Bonsly off. It runs out of the room. And we were so close to getting this little guy back to its owner!

After the Bonsly leaves, he'll leave behind a Leftovers, though, which is at least a really helpful held item!

There's also a Luxury Ball in a chest in the corner of the room you may want to pick up as well.

The email was sent from Acri, the novelist we met back at Gateon Port in the beginning of the game. She says she wants to write a novel about us and would like to have an interview with us. Well, we've got nothing better to do now, so we may as well head over. The Worker is glad to hear that it was just a pokemon he was hearing and tells you to try checking places where wild pokemon will gather if you want to see it again. That's right, this is yet another event we'll need to keep an eye on our Spot Monitor for.

As we step outside, though, we're in for a rude awakening.

 

We're approached by three members of Team Snagem. Their leader introduces himself as Wakin while the other two are Agrev and Biden, all of whom were indeed Snagem grunts in Colosseum, though strangely, Wakin was given Agrev's model from Colosseum. I suppose this was to make him more distinctive as a leader. It would admittedly look a bit weird for a generic Snagem Grunt to be the boss over one with a unqiue design.

Anyway, the grunts all point out that ever since losing the Snag Machine five years ago, Team Snagem's fallen from grace. Nobody even seems to know who they are anymore. They resent Cipher for stealing their thunder and resent Wes even more for his betrayal. But, with the Snag Machine on your arm, they know they can be restored to their former glory. You may expect to have to fend them off with a battle, but they're well aware you're a strong trainer and have no intention of handling this fairly. With Team Snagem, all rules are off.

Waken sends out his Gloom and, before you can do anything, he uses Sleep Powder on you! You drop to the ground defenseless and pass out...

================

When you come to, you're back in the Captain's Cabin. The Worker brought you to the bed, but, as feared, your Snag Machine has been stolen! The worker points you in the direction of a strange building in the distance that he saw the men moving towards and marks it on your map. But, if you're familiar with Colosseum's map, you'll notice the location isn't quite where you think it might be...

Obviously, without your snag machine, you won't be able to snag any Shadow Pokemon. But, you can still catch Wild Pokemon! So make sure to keep an eye on your Spot Monitor, maybe you'll even find Bonsly! Regardless, it's definitely imperative that we get our Snag Machine back, so it's off to the location the Worker showed us!

=================

???

This extremely foreboding pyramid past Eclo Canyon is where the Worker saw those Snagem Grunts headed last.

 

Sure enough, right at the entrance, we see Agrev and Biden standing off against... Zook! They get into a scuffle and Zook's Shadow Zangoose dominates the battle once again. And it's not long after these grunts flee that Zook sees us and immediately feels a frenzy of rage.

He goes off on how, ever since he met you, his luck has turned sour. First, Adron humiliated him and Mr. Verich told him off, then his boss somehow caught wind of the commotion and punished him for flexing his Shadow Pokemon by making him stand guard here! Now, he's ready to make you pay!

=================

My Team:

------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Torment, Return, Brick Break, Faint Attack

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 30

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Duskull M Lv. 29

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 28

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 26

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Confusion

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 21

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Poison Sting, Quick Attack, Harden, Mimic

==================

Thug Zook

--------------------

 

Zangoose Lv. 28+ & Doduo Lv. 26

It's painful, but we won't be able to snag Zook's Zangoose just yet since we don't have our Snag Machine.

                 

                

I lead with my natural start. I try to have Meditite go for DynamicPunch against Zangoose and I also try for Gligar to mimic that very same DynamicPunch. Unfortunately, Zangoose outspeeds and completely KO's Meditite in one shot. Oops.

                 

                

I bring out Seel next and unfortunately Gligar's turn is wasted. So, I instead move to copy Doduo's Tri-Attack before Love takes it out with Ice Beam. Again, Zangoose took out Love... alright, that Zangoose is clearly going to be a big problem. I figured Love would've been able to take a hit, but evidently that wasn't the case.

                 

                

I decide to bring out Family next. He should no-doubt be able to take a hit and dish out some pain. And... he gets critted. And taken out in one shot. Okay.

                 

                

Out came Ally who was sent into a Tri-Attack from Doduo... and gets Frozen!! Thankfully, I'm able to defrost and take Zangoose out with a Fire Blast.

---------------------

Carvanha Lv. 26

                 

                

Carvanha took Zangoose place. Can you guess what happens next? If you guessed Doduo's Tri Attack freezing Ally for a second time you would be right! Thankfully, Shine's Tri Attack managed to paralzye Doduo which I don't think I could've asked for a better result there. Another Tri Attack and Doduo went down on the following turn, but Ally was still frosted over.

-----------------------

Seviper Lv. 26

                 

                

This Seviper basically sealed the deal here. Gligar used Tri Attack on it again in hopes of getting a useful status ailment, but with a Water Pulse from Carvanha, Ally went down.

                 

                

Memory took Ally's place but these were my last two pokemon and this matchup was anything but pretty. Memory went for Confuse Ray, but with two Bites against him, there was no turning the battle around.

                 

                

With only Shine on my side and no more Tri Attacks, there was no winning this. What a nightmare of a battle.

-----------------------

Zook ended up winning the battle. I've never had such trash RNG in my life! There were definitely some misplays earlier on, I can own up to that, but I easily could've saved myself had all of that bad luck not happened to both Friend and Ally, my two most important players for this battle. It also just happened that Family was in the PC for now while I trained up both Shine and Meditite, and almost Zook's entire team would've been weak to Electric attacks. But, that's just the way the cookie crumbles, I suppose.

What makes me especially salty about this lost battle is that... you actually don't have to win here. Even if you lose this battle, the story just plays on all the same which means you can't get your cathartic revenge... It's fine, though. You can probably guess that we'll get another chance to battle Zook later. After all, he still has a Shadow Pokemon we need! For now, though, we can't get past the other bodyguards in the area, so we'll have to turn back.

On our way out, we'll get a message from Secc who says he wants to speak with us about something at ONBS.

==================

On our way back to Pyrite Town, though, I wanted to stop by Acri's home in Gateon Port to do this interview. I wanna say right now that this is the most strangely behaved event in the game so far.

If you speak with Acri, she'll ask you a series of interview questions which you can answer with "Yes" or "No." The thing is, all of the questions she asks are true, so if you say "No," you're downright lying to her. She asks you things like "Is it true that you rescued Prof. Krane?" or "Is it true that you saved Phenac City?" These aren't opinionated questions, these are straight facts.

Why do I point this out? Well, I wouldn't blame you for thinking it's best to just answer all of her questions truthfully.

After doing so, she'll be impressed by what she hears and give you an Amulet Coin.

...What you might not know is that the answers you provide change the item you receive. Now, technically the Amulet Coin is the rarest item she can give you, since it's the only one that you can't get by any other means in-game, but it's far from the most useful, I'd say.

  

The other three rewards she can give you, the Mental Herb, White Herb, and Quick Claw, can be obtained by answering "No," one, two, or all three times respectively. While these items can be obtained by coupon exchange at Mt. Battle, the Quick Claw can be incredibly expensive. Personally, I say the Quick Claw is the much more desired item of these four. You can only get this item once, so I strongly recommend making your choice between the Amulet Coin and Quick Claw as the two Herbs are consumables.

================

Visiting Secc's office in ONBS, he'll be shocked to hear about your stolen Snag Machine and immediately get to work researching Team Snagem after summarizing their history with the Snag Machine to you. More importantly, though, he tells you about a lead they'd received about an ex employee who used to work for Cipher but defected and fled from their lair. He voices his concerns that this may be a trap set up by Cipher, but also acknowledges that it's too big of a potential lead to pass up. He reluctantly requests that you go and investigate.

He points you to the direction of Outskirt Stand on the map, so we're off!

===================

Outskirt Stand

The opening area of Pokemon Colosseum returns here in XD! This remote corner of Orre doesn't see much action, but don't let that convince you nothing is going to happen here!

As soon as we arrive, our Miror radar goes off! If we check it, we'll find that Miror B. has been spotted right on top of us! And as we go to step inside... None other than Trudly and Folly step out! They start to have a discussion about their future. One seems to have faith in Miror B.'s plan to control all the pokemon of the world while the other is starting to have some doubts about the lifestyle they're living. It's actually kinda sad, to be honest.

Of course, Miror B. comes out from behind the two and immediately challenges us to a battle on sight!

================

My Team:

------------------

 Friend (Teddiursa F); Lv. 30

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Torment, Return, Brick Break, Faint Attack

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 30

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Duskull M Lv. 29

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 29

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 28

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Confusion

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 22

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Poison Sting, Quick Attack, Harden, Mimic

==================

Wanderer Miror B.

 

Lombre Lv. 26 & Lombre Lv. 26

                

                

Now here is where our luck starts to turn around from that garbage run-in with Zook! Medicham's DynamicPunch lands first try here and I'm able to Mimic it. One Lombre manages to set up Rain Dance as expected to set up Swift Swim for the rest of the team. I take out the one Medicham took out with DynamicPunch on the following turn with Quick Attack.

------------------

Lombre Lv. 26

                

                

Another DynamicPunch lands on the other Lombre and he ends up hitting himself in confusion, taking himself out on the next turn.

--------------------

Nosepass Lv. 25+

Another Shadow Pokemon we have no hopes of snagging on our first encounter. This one will have to wait a little bit as well.

                

                

Another DynamicPunch and Nosepass goes down, too. Lotad manages to weaken Shine with Water Gun, but he holds on with his Focus Band and connects yet another DynamicPunch.

--------------------

Ludicolo Lv. 26

                

                

It's at this point when Lombre is finally able to take out Shine, but it's a bit too little too late for Miror B.

                

                

With Shadow Ball, that Lombre goes down. Ludicolo takes out Medicham as well with a Water Gun.

               

                

Now, the battle mostly just devolves into Love using Helping Hand while Memory uses Shadow Ball. Ludicolo tries to take out Love with Mega Drain, but he just can't do enough damage fast enough to take me out!

====================

Miror B. leaves the area and we now enter.

Inside, we find our source Secc mentioned. This source is Hordel, an ex Scientist who used to work at the Cipher Key Lair. He recounts that at this lair, Cipher was making a massive amount of Shadow Pokemon, manufacturing them like a factory assembling products! He just couldn't work for them anymore and ultimately fled from the lair after swiping one of the Shadow Pokemon. If you speak to him again, he'll entrust his Shadow Toegpi to you to purify it.

-------------------------

 Togepi M, Lv. 25+

Item: None

Ability: Serene Grace | Moves: Shadow Rave, Shadow Shed

Shadow Rave is of course a new Shadow Attack. It's a stronger counterpart to Shadow Wave, this time with 70 power and damages both opponents in double battles.

-----------------------

  

Aside from Hordel, another point of interest here at the Outskirt Stand are the selection of Poke Balls! Aside from Ultra Balls, we can now purchase Nest Balls, Net Balls, and Timer Balls. Nest Balls are alright for catching any wild pokemon you might still need but not good for anything else making them really situational, Net Balls are a bit less situational, but still are only good for catching bug and water-types. There are a decent few of these left, but don't invest too hard into Net Balls. Timer Balls, however, might actually prove very useful for the same reason they could in Orre. They're often already better than an Ultra Ball by the time an opposing boss sends out his Shadow Pokemon, so you'll definitely want to buy more of these than the other two!

----------------------

With nothing else to go on, we start to head out when we get an email from Secc about what he's dug up on Team Snagem. It seems that they're still operating out of their old hideout in Eclo Canyon!

With our new detination in mind, it's time to go get things settled with Team Snagem!

==================

As for our cleanup today, there's actually not much to cover.

I returned to the HQ Lab to purify the Lunatone in the Purify Chamber!

-------------------------

 Stargazing (Lunatone); Lv. 25

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Baton Pass, Psychic, Rain Dance, Rock Tomb

------------------------

SET 2 -- Togepi [ 0 / 5 ]

    

Togepi -> Spearow -> Makuhita -> Meowth -> Delcatty -> Spearow

Normal beats Normal, Flying beats Fighting, Fighting beats Normal, Normal beats Normal, and Normal beats Normal.

I set Togepi up in Set 2 which I readjusted to form a perfect circle. Pretty mcuh any Normal pokemon set is going to look something like this because of the restrictive nature of Normal-type matchups. You can break free from the cycle by transitioning a Normal type into a Normal/Flying, then focusing on the flying type from there, but in general, it's just easiest to stuff the circle full of Normal types if you can.

==================

Next time, we'll head off to the Snagem Hideout and see what we can do to get the Snag Machine back before they remove the modifications made by Prof. Krane and use it to steal pokemon from the innocent again!

[Aura]

Snagem Hideout

The old hideout hasn't changed much at all over the past five years. It's still in the exact same destroyed state as when Wes blew it up and has yet to be repaired. Why? A big part is likely due to Snagem's lack of funding after falling from grace and getting shafted by Cipher.

When we first arrive, we'll get an email from Mayor Trent of Phenac City announcing that the Realgam Colosseum is now open for challengers! We're... not going there just yet. Actually, Realgam Tower is really high level. When I say high level, I mean everything there is Level 40. Right now, my strongest pokemon is level 30. It's gonna be a while before we go there, I think. We'll probably revisit Mt. Battle before then.

The interior is identical to how it was in Colosseum as well. That is, thankfully, with the absence of the obnoxious cycling Cipher Peons dropping from the passageway near the healing machine every time you pass under it.

Naturally, you'll run into a bunch of Snagem grunts in here including Agrev and Biden from before. In this game, a lot of them seem to have a preference for the Oddish line of pokemon. You'll quickly find that Team Snagem seems to be scouting for new recruits. Anybody who enters the hideout immediately gets battled to see how strong they are. Of course, since Snagem no longer has any ties to Cipher, they no longer have any Shadow Pokemon, either, so you don't have to worry about missing any opportunities without the snag machine here.

 

During one of these battles, I actually had a fairly strange event occur. I had Shine mimic Ally's Faint Attack so that he could deal a little bit of extra damage. Well, as it turns out, it ended up leveling up to Level 28 during this same battle where it learned Faint Attack by level up. I deleted Harden for the new move, but I guess the game didn't like my Gligar knowing Faint Attack in two move slots, so Harden actually remained on his moveset until the end of the battle. Normally, if a pokemon learns a move mid-battle, the move immediately gets replaced. I don't know if this is an unintended bug or perhaps a simple fix to a bug that wasn't likely to be discovered in typical gameplay. It definitely weirded me out, though, and briefly had me concerned that I may have bugged the game and either lost Mimic or missed my chance to learn Faint Attack. I'm just glad I didn't run into a bug that would've caused the game to think I already knew Faint Attack, or I may not have even noticed until it was too late!

 x 3

There's a chest near the healing machine with some free Ultra Balls.

Just like in Colosseum, there's a branching path here on the second floor, you can take the staircase up to the third floor which will eventually wrap around to the area on the west side where the original Snag Machine was in Colosseum, or you can head straight to Gonzap's office by taking the staricase in the northeast down to the first floor which will send you in the right direction. Depending on whether or not you want to train up your pokemon first before taking on a boss battle, you may want to choose carefully which path you take first.

Moving up to the third floor, you'll find a grunt currently holding an interview with a Casual Guy which I thought was a hilariously mundane detail to focus on.

 x 2 

Thoroughly exploring this floor will net you two Revives and a Rare Candy! Definitely useful items worth going out of your way for.

Taking the opposite set of stairs back down to the second floor, you'll find the mannequin the original snag machine was stolen from back in Colosseum. It's actually really cool to see this area again, mostly unchanged even after all this time has passed. Even the hole in the wall is still there!

In the cage here, there's a chest containing a PP Up!

Continuing further down, we'll find a chest that's actually locked, preventing access to it, and an alternative exit to the building.

If you took the other staircase from the branch at the second floor, you'll find yourself in the hallway to the right.

Making your way down here, you'll find a chest containing TM29: Psychic which I immediately taught to Meditite. The extra power will definitely help out the lack of Special Attack on this Meditite.

 

The staircase here will lead straight up into Gonzap's Office on the second floor where you'll find Wakin and Gonzap himself. Gonzap has definitely not been slacking over the years, his body is far more muscular than ever before.

This is what he looked like in Colosseum, for reference. He's even grown a beard!

His body is so muscular, in fact, that he can't even wear the snag machine Wakin had stolen from us! Frustrated, and probably a bit flustered by this realization, he starts telling Wakin off for bringing him something so useless. Of course, seeing us enter the room, Wakin immediately steps off to fight the intruder.

================

My Team:

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 30

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Torment, Return, Brick Break, Faint Attack

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 31

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Charm, Faint Attack, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Duskull M Lv. 30

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 30

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 30

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 29

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Poison Sting, Quick Attack, Faint Attack, Mimic

==================

Team Snagem Wakin

---------------------

 

Gloom Lv. 38 & Gloom Lv. 38

                

                

To open up here, I think you'll start to see just how much of a pain this Gligar has been to use even up until now. This first turn, I really can't do much at all except use Quick Attack to slightly chip away at one of the Gloom's HP. Meanwhile, Love went for Ice Beam to focus on one of them. Love's target happened to survive with a little bit of health and used Sleep Powder to put it to sleep while the other one used Giga Drain to weaken Shine. Instead of using Mimic to copy Ice Beam like I'd originally intended, I decided to focus on using Quick Attack to knock out the Gloom that used Sleep Powder before I'd get in an infinite loop of being put to sleep. Meanwhile, I made sure to call Love to wake him up.

---------------------

Mantine Lv. 28

                

                

The following turn, I went for Ice Beam against Gloom. I tried to mimic Gloom's Giga Drain with Shine, but Gloom was able to take me out before I was able to do anything with it.

                

                

Since Family was currently in the PC, Friend was my best bet for taking out that Mantine. This was perhaps a bit of a misplay, though, because I needed to focus on taking out Gloom first. Fortunately, I was able to overcome Gloom with Friend before it could take out Love.

-------------------------

Forretress Lv. 31

                

                

A Return from Friend was enough to send Mantine packing on the next turn.

---------------------

Grumpig Lv. 32

                

                

Grumpig also couldn't last very long against Friend. Meanwhile, Love continued chipping away at Forretress, but that would only prove so successful. Love's HP was getting low and Forretress was spamming Body Slam. 

               

                

I went for Torment, another misplay as I, for some reason, thought this would stop Body Slam from working for the turn. I was sorely mistaken and wound up enabling Forretress to take out Love with ease.

               

                

Thankfully, by this point, Forretress was backed into a corner, so it was just a matter of perserverence which I had plenty of with Friend now leveled up to Level 31 and learning Rest over Faint Attack!

===================

Of course, I think you've caught on to the pattern at this point. After taking out his lacky, Gonzap is now ready to battle us! He starts by asking us to join Team Snagem, which he naturally expects you to decline just like with Wes. Then, he offers to return the Snag Machine to you if you can beat him in a battle. This forces us right into the next battle without healing once again!

===================

Snagem Head Gonzap

-----------------------

 

Electrode Lv. 30 & Nuzleaf Lv. 32

                

                

I definitely could've stood for a more comfortable start, but this wasn't too terrible! Right away, I had Memory go for Confuse Ray against Electrode to potentially stop it from interering. Of course, Memory took a Spark before it was able to get that off. Meanwhile, as should've been expected, Nuzleaf stopped Meditite from attacking with Fake Out. On the following turn, Electrode hit itself in confusion allowing Duskull to get some decent damage on him. Meanwhile, Meditie connected its first DynamicPunch against Nuzleaf, knocking it out instantly!

---------------------

Vileplume Lv. 30

                

                

With Vileplume, Meditite once again went for the kill with Psychic and Memory went for Shadow Ball. Vileplume went down right away as well! Nice!

----------------------

Whiscash Lv. 31

                

                

Electrode managed to connect a Spark with Meditite, weakening it further while Memory went for Shadow Ball to punish the Electrode a bit. Meditite used FocusPunch to confuse Whiscash. Meanwhile, another Shadow Ball on Electrode hurt a bit but not quite enough. Whiscash was able to take out Meditite.

                

                

One more Shadow Ball from Memory and a Return from Friend would send these two pokemon packing.

-----------------------

Skarmory Lv. 32

               

                

It just wouldn't be Gonzap without his iconic Skarmory! ...Even if it doesn't make much sense for him to have a Skarmory now since it was (presumably) snagged by Wes back in Colosseum. Then again, I suppose this one isn't a Shadow Pokemon, so maybe Wes either returned it to him or he caught a new one. Either way, Gonzap does have a Skarmory! Skarmory was able to take out Memory with a mere Aerial Ace.

               

                

This whole battle came down to our last two pokemon. Thankfully, Ally couldn't have been better equipped to deal with this last foe. A Fire Blast later and the battle was over!

=================

After losing the battle, Gonzap surrenders the Snag Machine to you with shockingly little resistance. Wakin is shocked by this as well and tries to convince his boss to reconsider. But, Gonzap recognizes your talent as a trainer. He also recognizes that, though you may not see eye to eye, you do happen to share a common enemy. He figures you'll both have a better chance at eliminating Cipher if you use the Snag Machine. And with that, we can now freely move onward!

Gonzap even gives you a key to the chest back on the first floor that we couldn't open before.

 x 2

Before leaving this room, though, you may want to pick up the two Full Heals in this room.

The Miror Radar did end up going off here, which means we can go take on Miror B. and get another chance at snagging that Nosepass, except he's at... Realgam Tower. As mentioned, Realgam Tower is full of Level 40 pokemon. We don't stand a chance there! We'll have to pass for now.

If we make our way down to the locked chest and use Gonzap's Key, we can find TM30: Shadow Ball! A very useful TM to find, for sure!

================

To close out this post, we've got yet another purification!

----------------------

Nurture (Togepi M); Lv. 25

Item: None

Ability: Serene Grace | Moves: Tri Attack, Follow Me, AncientPower, Helping Hand

--------------------

But there's actually something fairly special about this Togepi!

If you bring him back to Outskirt Stand, you can return him to Hordel in exchange for an Elekid!

---------------------

Zaprong (Elekid M); Lv. 20

Item: None

Ability: Static | Moves: Cross Chop, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, ThunderPunch

----------------------

This Elekid comes with a variety of really cool moves which are really difficult to get onto an Elekid! In addition, I do believe Cross Chop is mutually exclusive to Fire and Ice Punch as well under normal means, which makes this Elekid that much more special!

=================

As for the Spot Monitor? Well, it went off several times over the course of the session today, but I managed to get Munchlax thorugh the majority of them. (I currently have over 50 Poke Snacks). I've pulled all my pokesnacks from the Cave Poke Spot since I already have all the pokemon from there along with two Wooper.

I was actually able to encounter Bonsly again, though! I carefully approached it and nearly scared it off, but it finally stopped running to turn around and approach me cautiously. I was able to grab it and bring it back to its owner! (Unfortunately, this is an immediate warp all the way back to the top of ONBS... with no quick way back down. Just another inconvenience to pile onto these poke spots, unfortunately. I really hope you didn't encounter Bonsly while you had other spot monitor reactions!

Anyway, for returning Bonsly to the little girl, who is delighted to be reunited with her little pokemon, her grandfather rewards you with a Bonsly Card. He tells you this allows you to play a very special, exclusive game of Battle Bingo. He says to show the card to the receptionist at Realgam Tower and she'll know just what to do! This definitely sounds interesting and we'll be sure to use it when we get back to Battle Bingo!

================

Now then, we may have the Snag Machine and everything we need to move forward into the Cipher Key Lair, but I think before heading to the belly of the best to start training up a little bit again, don't you agree? So, next time, I think we're gonnna do another quick cleanup operation before we move on with the story. We'll be revisiting the Pre Gym and exploring the next couple of Areas of Mt. Battle!

[Aura]

Phenac City -- Pre Gym

To start things off today, we're going to be taking on the Pre Gym in Phenac City! Just like in Colosseum, this is almost like a mini colosseum in its own right. You'll go through an endurance round of four trainers with no healing before being given a chance to heal and battle with the leader, Justy. It's pretty straightforward, so let's get into it!

As for my party summaries, this is my first time dealing with party rotation like this, so I think I'm just going to be listing all seven pokemon and putting an asterisk next to any that are in the PC going forward. I hope that isn't too confusing to look at!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 31

Item: Magnet 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Thundershock, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 31

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Faint Attack

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 31

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Charm, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Memory (Duskull M) Lv. 31*

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 31

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 30

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 29

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Poison Sting, Quick Attack, Faint Attack, Mimic

---------------------

*Memory was stored in the PC

 

I went into each of the battles below with Shine and Meditite in the lead.

==================

Cooltrainer Quelor

  

Spoink was easy to take care of with Shadow Ball. Shine was also able to mimic Shadow Ball for the rest of the battle. However, I ended up missing a few DynamicPunches and this was before I realized I wouldn't be healing between battles, so things got pretty awkward already.

----------------------

Cooltrainer Teslor

  

Teslor was where I quickly ran into issues. I missed my first DynamicPunch with Meditite, mimicked it with Shine and missed again. This is where things got iffy. I was forced to watch as this opponent immediately began setting up Double Team. I now knew exactly what kind of nightmare I was set up to suffer through with this lead. Yes, every single team here has a focus on Double Team, meaning this is going to be a long and very fun series of battles. Eventually, using Mind Reader, I was able to take both Furret and Linoone out with DynamicPunch while Meditie and Shine were able to combine their efforts to take out Sunflora with Mind Reader + Shadow Ball and Shine's Faint Attack which can't miss but is also a special attack on a physical attacker...

---------------------

Supertrainer Nopel

  

The cool thing about fighting Kecleon with this lead is that I can simply use Poison Sting to change Kecleon's type, then spam Shadow Ball (mimicking Shadow Ball with Shine as well) for constant super-effective damage against it. We were also able to take out Yanma before it was able to set up any Double Teams, but that left us with Azumarill who we still had to slowly weaken with the same Mind Reader + Shadow Ball and Faint Attack combo.

--------------------

Matron Kalus

  

This was a rather easy one since Plusle and Minun were both pretty fragile pokemon. Unfortuantely, Absol just happened to be a pokemon Meditite couldn't handle on its own, so I had to retreat into Friend to take care of it.

-----------------------

After defeating these four trainers, Justy wants to battle next. He'll give you a chance to heal first if you tell him you don't want to battle right away. In my case, that's a good idea because across all that battling, Meditite has now reached level 32 and Shine has finally caught up with the rest of the party at level 31!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 31

Item: Magnet 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Thundershock, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 31

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Faint Attack

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 31

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Charm, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Memory (Duskull M); Lv. 31

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 31

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 32*

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 30

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Poison Sting, Quick Attack, Faint Attack, Mimic

---------------------

*Meditite was stored in the PC

==================

PreGymLeader Justy

-------------------

 

Sandslash Lv. 29 & Cacnea Lv. 29

                

                

This certainly could've been a better lead for Family, but it also could've been worse, so I opted not to complain. I had both Family and Ally focus on taking out Sandslash which I figured would prove to be the bigger threat of the two. As expected, Cacnea went for Double Team.

-------------------

Gligar Lv. 29

                

                

Still not exactly the best case scenario for Family, but I knew from experience I had next to nothing to worry about with Gligar. Worst case scenario, Faint Attack could save me. So, Family and Ally focused their attention on taking out Cacnea before its evasion got too high.

------------------

Nosepass Lv. 29

                

                

Now, Family had something to do. Ally took out Gligar while Family got to work against Nosepass.

                

                

Shortly after, Nosepass fell to another ThunderShock on the following turn.

==================

  

It was a very simple win, but for defeating Justy, you're awarded with a Lum Berry and TM32: Double Team! While I could use this as an excuse to end off today, there's actually one more thing I'd like to do. I've already mentioned it in the last post, so let's head off to Mt. Battle!

==================

Mt. Battle Area 3

Levels 27 - 29

As mentioned before, there is a massive level gap between Area 2 and Area 3. Don't forget that Area 2 capped out with level 15! These levels are nearly double that! There's a reason we haven't continued up Mt. Battle in a while!

================

Area 3 Leader Taria

----------------------

 

Electrike Lv. 29 & Spinda Lv. 28

                

                

I opened up here by having Ally use Faint Attack to take out that Spinda before it could cause any issues, and I used Memory's Helping Hand to ensure that would be successful. Spinda was out as soon as it hit the field.

-------------------

Furret Lv. 29

                

                

And we rinse and repeat. This time, though, Electrike was able to paralyze Ally with Spark, causing a bit of an issue. But, Furret still went down before he was able to manage that.

               

                

Between Ally and Memory, we took out Electrike and were able to advance further.

-----------------------

 

For clearing Area 3, you're rewarded with 600PC and TM34: Shock Wave from the gatehouse!

==================

Mt. Battle Area 4

Levels: 29 - 31

Of course, in Area 3, we enter the volcano and hover over a stream of lava, just as we did before. This area actually has somewhat of a theme as all of the trainers here are women except for the Area Leader. This is addressed by a few trainers along the way but most directly by the Area Leader himself. There's even an interesting reference in this area as Beauty Nevah mentions that she's heard there's another trainer with the same team as her and asks if you've ever met them. Her pokemon? Chimecho and Cacnea. Undoubtedly, a reference to the Pokemon Anime where, at the time, James of Team Rocket's main pokemon were these two.

================

Area 4 Leader: Boyden

-------------------

 

Wigglytuff Lv. 30 & Anorith Lv. 30

                

                 

This was a very confusing team to battle. Friend used Brick Break to weaken Wigglytuff and Love used Surf to take out them both. What was strange? Anorith used Toxic on his own ally. The only reason I could possibly think of for them to do this is if Wigglytuff knew Facade, but I couldn't think of any reason why you would run such a strategy on a pokemon without Guts. Either way, it certainly made things easier for me!

-------------------

Hitmontop Lv. 29

                

                 

Once again, this matchup played out exactly the same as the last. Anorith used Toxic on Hitmontop, and Hitmontop didn't get a chance to do anything with it before going down. Surf also took out Anorith this same turn, ending the battle before it ever felt like it even began...

---------------------

 

With that, we're awarded with 700PC and TM42: Facade!

It seems clear, now, that each Area Leader's team is built around the TM you'll be rewarded with on your initial clear of the area. That's actually a pretty cool touch! It also gives me an idea of what to expect with the next several areas. Unfortunately, we're going to have to stop progressing here because, going forward into Area 5, we've got another level jump. This time from Level 31 to 35-40. It's not nearly as drastic of a jump as before, but still a jump and I don't wanna get overleveled before we advance in the story. My team is already hovering around level 32-33 and we've got a little ways to go before the next "Chapter" boss. So, I think next time we'll return to storming the Cipher Key Lair and halting the production of Shadow Pokemon!

[Aura]

Cipher Key Lair

With our Snag Machine returned, it's finally time to storm the fortress at the Cipher Key Lair! Of course, standing guard at the entrance is none other than Zook, but we've come prepared this time and I'm more than ready to take my revenge for before!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 33

Item: Magnet 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Thundershock, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 33

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Faint Attack

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 34*

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Charm, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Memory (Duskull M); Lv. 33

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 33

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 33

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 33

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Poison Sting, Quick Attack, Faint Attack, Mimic

---------------------

*Ally was stored in the PC

==================

Thug Zook

--------------------

 

Zangoose Lv. 28+ & Doduo Lv. 26

                

                

With Family, I opened up by using Thunder Wave on Zangoose while Friend took out Doduo with Return.

---------------------

Carvanha Lv. 26

                

                

Brick Break took care of Carvanha while I used Double Kick to weaken Zangoose's HP.

--------------------

Seviper Lv. 26

                

                

I went for Return to take out Seviper while throwing an Ultra Ball to snag that Zangoose!

------------------------

 

And the snag was successful! This Zangoose knows Shadow Rush and Shadow Mist, so nothing too terribly special.

It comes with a Silk Scarf, though, which you may find useful!

---------------------

Friend was also able to take care of Seviper in one shot as well!

----------------------

Relicanth Lv. 26

               

                

And Relicanth was easily outclassed. But, to its credit, it was able to survive a ThunderShock!

==============

Upon defeating Zook, he decides he's better off fleeing to a place far away where Cipher will never find him to avoid punishment.

 

The two bodybuilder guards who were standing in our way before immediately come rushing out of the building to assume their positions again to stop us from progressing into the building. But just when things start to get ugly...

 

Gonzap and two Snagem grunts arrive behind us and come to our aid! Using their Gloom, they put the two bodyguards to sleep with Sleep Powder, buying us time to slip right through! It's nice to have such dirty tactics on our side this time!

===============

Cipher Key Lair -- 1F

And we've now made it inside the Cipher Key Lair! It won't take much poking around to find out just what this building is all about. That machine in the center room? It is a conveyor belt, a part of an assembly line. Its purpose? To package together materials in order to efficiently close the hearts of pokemon en masse in an effort to mass produce Shadow Pokemon from bulk supply! This is why Cipher needed the pokemon from the S.S. Libra and why it was so important for them to reach the wreckage in the desert and transport the pokemon from the ship. Everything is starting to come together and it's not looking good...

 

You probably don't need me to say this, but of course, we've got tons of Cipher Peons to battle through as we explore here. And if you thought the massive number of Shadow Pokemon were just for show...

---------------------

Cipher Peon Humah

 

Paras Lv. 28+ & Growlithe Lv. 28+

That's right, something that was completely unheard of in Colosseum, going forward from here, we're going to start running into trainers with more than one Shadow Pokemon! Remember back when I said the purify chamber was about to become a lot more important real soon? Well, this is exactly why!

 

Paras knows Shadow Blitz and Shadow Shed, nothing too special.

 

And Growlithe Shadow Blitz and Shadow Wave.

------------------------

The first floor is split into four corners of which we can only access three.

 x 3  x 2

There are some nice items you can get by looking around, though you'll have to battle through Cipher Peons to get to them!

Two corners have stairs leading up, but the northwestern corner has stairs leading down. It's this one we'll be taking first!

Cipher Key Lair -- B1F

This leads down into another part of the assembly line. There isn't too much going on here, but there is a chest!

This chest contains TM24: ThunderBolt! I had no qualms at all with teaching this move to Family!

--------------------

Cipher Key Lair -- 2F

The stairs in the other corners both lead you to the same area. A floor filled with narrow corridors through which you'll have to push crates of Pokemon Food in order to navigate. This is handled just like a Strength Puzzle in the main series games and the room is structured in such a way where, depending on where you enter from, the areas you can access are limited.

 

From the western side, you can find a Full Restore and Elixir which you can't reach from the Eastern side. But, on the Eastern side, you can find a healing machine. This is also where you'll need to go to progress further into the dungeon!

---------------------

 

Cipher Peon Gorog & Shellder Lv. 29+

 

Shelder knows the moves Shadow Blitz and Shadow Shed

--------------------

You can get a PP-Up from the center of this room! We can also move onward to the next floor, but I recommend first doubling back because, by doing so, you'll be able to push the crate that was previously blocking the way further south out of the way where you can now freely access the southeastern staircase which leads back down to the 1st floor.

  x 3

Of course, you'll have to battle another Peon in here, but there are some nice items to pick up for basically free considering there's a healing machine right outside!

Cipher Key Lair -- 3F

Up on the third floor, things get a little bit stranger. There are a couple of doors with Sun and Moon patterns on them. You'll need to push crates onto the tiles with the respective patterns to open the doors. Once you solve the puzzle once, the crates will thankfully remain in place, so you don't have to worry about solving it every time you go back and heal.

  x 3

Keep your eyes peeled because the game really likes to hide items wherever it can, but on this floor you can find a Max Revive and 3 Full Heals!

-------------------

Of course, on your way up to the next floor, you'll be stopped by yet another peon.

Cipher Peon Lok

 

Beedrill Lv. 30+ & Pidgeotto Lv. 30+

 

Beedrill comes with the moves Shadow Blitz and Shadow Hold

It also comes holding a free Poison Barb as well!

 

and Pidgeotto comes with Shadow Blitz and Shadow Panic

------------------------

I should probably go ahead and mention that, at some point early in this dungeon, Love grew to level 34 and evolved into a Dewgong!our party is one step closer to being fully evolved!

----------------------

 

There was also a point where the Miror Radar went off and anounced Miror B. was spotted in Pyrite Town, so I was able to more comfortably go and battle him for a chance to snag that Nosepass of his!

 

This Nosepass knows the moves Shadow Mist and Shadow Wave.

-----------------------

Cipher Key Lair -- 4F

The fourth floor seems to be an office/R&D area.

You can find an HP Up in the northwestern area, so make sure to grab that!

------------------------

Cipher Peon Targ

 

Tangela Lv. 30+ & Butterfree Lv. 30+

 

Tangela's moves are Shadow Hold and Shadow Rave.

He also comes with a MiracleSeed!

 

And butterfree? It comes with Shadow Mist and Shadow Rush.

---------------------------

As you make your way over to the stairs, you'll want to go a bit further and check out the east room. In here, you'll find a Cipher R&D who will explain to you pretty much everything we were able to deduce earlier. He'll then battle us. More importantly, though, there's an item on his desk that we're going to want! But as we approach it, we're ambushed by yet another battle! This time, it's Snidle! The one who spoke in complex percentages to trick Smarton back at the S.S. Libra!

 

Cipher Peon Snidle & Magneton Lv. 30+

 

Magneton's moves are Shadow Hold, Shadow Rave, and Shadow Sky!

On top of all that, it also comes holding a free Metal Coat! Yes please!

-----------------------

The item on the desk is a System Lever! This will be important fairly soon...

Cipher Key Lair -- Rooftop

Up here at the top of the facility, there's a strange machine which looks pretty important. We're here to screw things up, so let's make our way there!

Cipher Peon Angic

 

Venomoth Lv. 32+ & Weepinbell Lv. 32+

 

Venomoth knows Shadow Mist and Shadow Rush

It also comes with SilverPowder!

 

Weepinbell comes with Shadow Hold and Shadow Rave, but no held item.

--------------------------

As we make our way up to the central machine, we can first circle around it to grab a chest containing an item that's going to finally make our team start coming together:

TM26: Earthquake! I'll be teaching this one to Friend!

If we approach the Cipher R&D standing near the machine, he'll be speaking to himself about how he needs the System Lever to adjust the voltage. He notes that the levels are dangerously high and that if they were risen even a little bit higher, it could be catastrophic! He then realizes that he left the System Lever on his table. He notices you have it and, a bit slow on the uptake, he takes a few moments to put two and two together and realizes that's not exactly good for him. He tries to battle you for the lever, but he's easy to take out.

We attach the System Lever to the machine and raise the voltage in order to blow the circuits and shut down the power for the building! Things don't seem to go quite so smoothly, though, as the whole place starts to shake violently... we quickly retreat to take cover before the whole machine explodes!

Cipher Peon Smarton comes running out of the door in the central building and is shocked to see what's happened. He knows things aren't going to go well with Gorigan's short temper and he takes out his own frustration on you!

 

Cipher Peon Smarton & Arbok Lv. 33+

 

This Arbok knows the moves Shadow Half and Shadow Rush. Shadow Half happens to be a brand new move which will halve the HP of all pokemon currently in battle including the user. In addition, the user will become fatigued and have to recharge the next turn. It's got a pretty hefty drawback, but can potentially do a lot of damage!

---------------------------

Of course, the real challenge here comes from inside the building. There is one last thing we need to take care of: Gorigan himself. We've gotta make sure this factory is shut down for good and rescue all the remaining Shadow Pokemon! 

Cipher Key Lair -- Gorigan's Office

This office almost resembles a throne room! Very elaborate in design!

Of course, Gorigan is lying in wait right here and is ready to throw a tantrum. 

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 36

Item: Magnet 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 37

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 36

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Charm, Fire Blast, Protect

----------------------

 Memory (Duskull M); Lv. 37

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 36*

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 36

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 36

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Slash, Quick Attack, Faint Attack, Mimic

---------------------

*Love was stored in the PC

==================

Cipher Admin Gorigan

----------------------

 

Lairon Lv. 36 & Sealeo Lv. 36

                

               

Normally I try to keep my lowest level pokemon in the front of the party, but I couldn't resist putting our new move to the test! I led wiht Friend and Memory. All I needed to do? Helping Hand with Memory, and Earthquake with Friend, of course! It's a standard strategy, but one that stands the test of time! Memory has Levitate so he's immune to Earthquake. I'm able to power up Earthquake with Helping Hand to deal even more damage to all my foes! And even if Gorigan manages to take out Memory unexpectedly, I can simply bring out Shine who is also capable of avoiding an Earthquake! It's genius!

Unfortunately, I don't get quite as clean of a sweep as I would like. Gorigan's pokemon are rather bulky. In addition, he, too, shares in the Earthquake strats. His entire team is full of pokemon that know Earthquake and Protect so that his pokemon can swap back and forth in a constant stream of destruction. Fortunately, this also means I'm well prepared and all I have to do is keep spamming Earthquake and Helping Hand!

On the secon dturn, neither Lairon nor Sealeo used Protect, so I was able to hit them both with an Earthquake and take them both out!

----------------------

 

Slowking Lv. 36 & Ursaring Lv. 36

                

               

With these two, it was mostly just the same story.

----------------------

 

Primeape Lv. 34+ & Hypno Lv. 34+

                

               

Two more Shadow Pokemon! By this point, the damage finally caught up to Friend and, with a Shadow Storm from Primeape, Friend went down.

                

               

Would this be enough for Gorigan to regain the momentum of the battle? ...Not likely. Out next came Family who, along with Memory, was able to help weaken both our foes and snag them both!

--------------------

 

Primeape knows the moves Shadow Storm and Shadow Rush. Shadow Storm is a further upgraded variation of Shadow Rave, this time with a much more menacing 95 power!

 

Hypno knows Shadow Down and Shadow Storm. Shadow Down is a status move that harshly lowers the defense of both opponents!

---------------------

Do I feel bad about completely dominating this battle with my strongest combo? A bit, but at the same time, it felt really good to get the combo off so easily, I just had to capitalize! 

================

Upon defeat, Gorigan's immediate response is to blow up the facility with you in it! This went from 0 to 100 real fast!! Fortunately, he is interrupted with a transmission from... Master Greevil! Except, Greevil actually shows his face on camera this time and it's...

As it turns out, "Master Greevil" is one and the same as Mr. Verich! This is actually a far better twist than the one in Colosseum. While they've thrown in some pretty heavy foreshadowing to this reveal and it's still far from subtle, it's still well executed, I'd say! I've been waiting to cover this twist because it's actually one of the more memorable parts of the game that kind of blew my mind as a kid back when I didn't pay much attention to dialogue. It was probably one of the first ever plot twists I'd ever truly experienced!

Anyway, Greevil tells Gorigan to accept his loss and that the loss matters not. Cipher is still one step ahead as they've just finished the final tuning on XD001. Truly, the Ultimate Shadow Pokemon has become completed. Greevil challenges you to just try and stop him on Citadark Isle, an island off the coast from Gateon Port. This island is unfortuantely heavily guarded not just by Cipher, but by nature as well with harsh winds, large waves, and rocky shores, it's an island no typical boat can reach. Gorigan chips in to tell you that even if you could get there, all the remaining Shadow Pokemon have already been shipped there so you'll have to fight through a whole army of Shadow Pokemon to make your way to the top! How many are there? Gorigan won't tell us and immediately leaves the area. Fortunately, he leaves behind a list of Shadow Pokemon manufactured on his desk. We can upload the data to our P*DA only to find...

83 Shadow Pokemon... That's almost double the amount of Shadow Pokemon we've gathered over the course of the entire game so far. Our Snag Machine is going to have to get very busy very fast if we're to snag all of these pokemon up! What's more, looking at this list, there are some pretty hefty snags ahead of us, too, including all three of the Legendary Birds!

================

On our way back out of the lair, we'll find the workers calling out about a thief! When we get to the entrance, this supposed thief is already gone, but the worker mentions that two men stole away the last Shadow Pokemon off the assembly line. These were a man with hair "like a Mohawk" and another with hair "like a Ball"... I don't think there's any mistaking the identity of these thieves. Asking around, we can find that this last pokemon was a Dragonite which does indeed line up with the Shadow Pokemon list. It's looking like we've got at least one more battle with Miror B. ahead of us!

===================

Well, normally, this is where I'd go through and detail all the Purify Chamber shenanigans as well as all the miscellaneous stuff I completed during the session, but there's really not much to talk about. I can't stress enough how much time is wasted with these Poke Spots. I had to have visited each of them 10 times in this one day, walking all the way out of the Key Lair and all the way back to where I was over and over and over and still didn't find one Surskit or even the second Trapinch! My hatred for this mechanic is honestly only growing more and more with every single Phanpy and Gligar I have to KO. 

Because of how much time was wasted today, I didn't want to stress over the Purify Chamber just yet. That's something that'll have to wait for the next day as we go through our "post-chapter" cleanup.

[Aura]

So today, things were a little bit strange... I didn't make much progress story-wise, but I was able to hit a few milestones!

First of all, my Dewgong reached level 46 and evolved into Ikakumon! I didn't mean to overlevel so much, but I couldn't resist the temptation here!

My Meditite also finally evolved into a Nimmo! Just a little bit further and he'll eventually reach his final form!

Lastly, I was finally able to encounter a wild Jibanyan! I immediately brought it to Duking for a trade because what I was really after was what you could get in return for a trade with this thing!

For trading your Jibanyan with duking, you can receive a Blue-Eyes White Dragon! With 3000 ATK points, this thing will be able to attack over almost any opponent on the board and it has all sorts of support to get it out of the party very easily! What's more, it's already fully evolved so you don't even have to raise it up from a White Stone of Legend! It comes with the moves Outrage, Thunder, Double-Edge, and Burst Stream of Destruction, so its moveset is pretty solid even for the endgame!

================

Alright, alright, it's just a silly April Fools Joke, I couldn't resist. I did actually play a bit today, but the day was a little bit hectic so I wasn't able to get as much done as I would've liked. Still, I did make some fairly significant progress, but it's already very late, so I figured I'd just leave you on the note of this lovely little joke post and get back to business tomorrow! Thank you for understanding!

[Aura]

With a whole horde of Shadow Pokemon in our PC now, we've gotta get to work organizing this Purify Chamber! We've got a lot more purified pokemon to work with this time around, so this should hopefully be a bit more managable than it has been before.

------------------------

SET 1: Paras [ 0/5 ]

    

Numel -> Snorunt -> Nuzleaf -> Wooper -> Numel

[Grass > Ground] -> [Fire > Ice] -> [Ice > Grass] -> [Grass > Water] -> [Water > Fire]

Perfect Circle

-----------------------

SET 2: Zangoose [ 0/5 ]

    

Delcatty -> Spearow -> Makuhita -> Meowth -> Delcatty

[Normal > Normal] -> [Normal > Normal] -> [Flying > Fighting] -> [Fighting > Normal] -> [Normal > Normal]

Perfect Circle

-----------------------

SET 3: Growlithe [ 0/5 ]

    

Aron -> Vulpix -> Mawile -> Spheal -> Aron

[Fire > Steel] -> [Rock > Fire] -> [Fire > Steel] -> [Steel > Ice] -> [Water > Rock]

Perfect Circle

----------------------

SET 4: Nosepass [ 0/5 ]

    

Grimer -> Shroomish -> Phanpy -> Swinub -> Grimer

[Rock = Poison] -> [Poison > Grass] -> [Grass > Ground] -> [Ground = Ground] -> [Ground > Poison]

Imperfect Circle [Weak links at Nosepass -> Grimer and Phanpy -> Swinub]

-------------------

SET 5: PIdgeotto [ 0/5 ]

    

Pineco -> Poochyena -> Baltoy -> Zubat -> Pineco

[Flying > Bug] -> [Bug > Dark] -> [Dark > Psychic] -> [Psychic > Poison] -> [Flying > Bug]

Perfect Circle

---------------------

SET 6: Shellder [ 0/5 ]

    

Luantone -> Ledyba -> Ralts -> Spinarak -> Lunatone

[Water > Rock] -> [Rock > Bug] -> [Bug > Psychic] -> [Psychic > Poison] -> [Bug > Psychic]

Perfect Circle

--------------------

SET 7: Beedrill [ 0/5 ]

    

Carvanha -> Wooper -> Gulpin -> Roselia -> Carvanha

[Bug > Dark] -> [Water > Ground] -> [Ground > Poison] -> [Poison > Grass] -> [Grass > Water]

Perfect Circle

--------------------

SET 8: Tangela [ 0/5 ]

    

Sandshrew -> Voltorb -> Gligar -> Hoppip -> Sandshrew

[Grass > Ground] -> [Ground > Electric] -> [Electric > Flying] -> [Flying > Grass] -> [Grass > Ground]

-------------------

SET 9: Butterfree [ 0/5 ]

  

Natu -> Flaaffy -> Elekid

[Bug > Psychic] -> [Psychic = Electric] -> [Electric < Electric] -> [Electric > Flying]

Poor Circle [Bad link at Flaaffy -> Elekid, weak link at Natu -> Flaaffy, and only three pokemon.

-------------------------

Even with using all of my purified pokemon, I didn't quite have enough to fill out all the chambers,  much less with perfect circles. I did, however, come to understand a bit more of the meta behind which pokemon are more valuable than others in the Purify Chamber. Obviously, the best pokemon to use here are ones with lots of weaknesses and lots of super-effective pokemon. Dual Type pokemon can help tremendously with this. But beyond that, I've definitely noticed certain types I found myself looking for a lot more frequently than others, and other pokemon I found myself desperately trying to avoid at all costs.

Poison, Normal, and Steel pokemon are only super-effective against one type: Grass, Normal, and Rock respectively. This pokemon with only these types difficult to use in a perfect circle, and difficult to build a perfect circle around if you have a shadow pokemon of those types. As a result, this makes Grass, Normal, and Rock type pokemon a lot more valuable for completing circles around these pokemon, so you'll want to minimize your use of these types elsewhere in the chambers.

On the flipside, Electric Pokemon only have one weakness: Ground, so it's also important to keep Ground-types around to lead into Electric types. If you're trying to build a circle around a Poison-type, you may want to lead into the Poison-type with a Psychic pokemon instead of a Ground pokemon so you can save your Ground-types for Electric types. However, using Electric types in perfect circles may not necessarily be worth it because Electric is only strong against Flying and Water, two types that have a handful of weaknesses elsewhere (Remember, there are no pure Flying types! All Flying types have a secondary typing which is much more significant when only one typing is taken into account at a time!)

If you can work a mono-type pokemon into a perfect circle then you'll probably want to do so over a dual-typed pokemon. Dual-typed pokemon are incredibly useful for breaking a pattern and freeing up a wider variety of pokemon and introduce new types to the circle. Just make sure you still circle back by the end. 

Normal types are probably the hardest type to work with in the chamber because they're only super-effective against themselves and only Fighting-types are strong against them. The best outs to these circles are Normal/Flying types like Spearow. Fighting types can also break the mold, just remember you have to be able to link the loop back around at the end, too.

This setup here took a lot of playing around, but I was eventually able to pull together what feels like the best I could manage with the pokemon I have. Going forward, all nine of these pokemon will be purified at the same time while I move on to explore elsewhere in the world.

==================

Dr. Kaminko's House

There is one area in particular I want to cover in today's post: Kaminko's House!

Robo Groudon Chobin

When we arrive, Chobin will have just finished tinkering with Robo Groudon and sends us an email inviting us over to challenge it, only to be surprised that we're already there! He doesn't hesitate to battle us right away!

   

His team is mostly identical to what it was before, but his Hoppip is now evolved into Skiploom and his entire team is now Level 37.

On defeat, Chobin will be perplexed that the reclining chair he installed wasn't enough to assure his victory...

===============

My main reason for coming here, though, lies in Chobin's room.

On a bookshelf in here is Battle CD 49 which only appears after you clear out Cipher Key Lair. Why is this one so important over all the others? Well, its reward is an item I really want for my team. It should become clear why I want said item soon, though it may not be immediately clear when we get it.

Also, if we return to Jovi's Diary down in the basement, we can find a few more entries. One of them was written by Chobin who forbids making fun of Robo Groudon, but the next one is written by Jovi again which mentions that only Jovi is allowed to write in Jovi's Diary. In the latest entry, Jovi mentions that she saw Kandee's performance on TV and that she wants to sing on live TV, too. She mentions that she wants her big brother to take her to ONBS. It's kind of cute to imagine Jovi singing on stage like a little idol, actually.

===============

Bringing Battle CD 49 to the Sim room, we can now play the CD!

===================

Battle CD 49: Legendary Pokemon Challenge 1

  

  

Obviously, the challenge here is to overcome seemingly unsurmountable foes with your much weaker pokemon. Right off the bat, Groudon's Drought will bring Sunny Day into play which will also trigger Shiftry's Chlorophyll. As a plus to you, it also increases Jumpluff's speed.

Your Jumpluff knows Sleep Powder, SolarBeam, Aerial Ace, and Protect while your Ninjask knows Shadow Ball, Silver Wind, Substitute, and Protect.

                

                 

Now, this is a really late Battle CD so there's a lot of techniques you would be able to recognize by this point if you were playing through all the CDs in order, but long story short, don't get too distracted by the obvious super-effective attacks. Usually, these attacks will have underwhelming results. It's usually best to take a more defensive approach. You can check the Battle CD to see all the summaries of your pokemon as well as your opponent's to get an idea of what to expect. 

In this case, the key point to note here is that Shiftry knows Explosion and it also knows Fake Out. It's naturally going to use this Fake-Out on the first turn to stop your Ninjask from attacking. So, you're going to want to open up with Protect to stop that and follow up with a SolarBeam from Jumpluff against Groudon. Groudon's first move is variable but ultimately doesn't matter. Worst case scenario, he'll take out your Jumpluff. The Solarbeam will bring Groudon's HP to below a half and a nother would certainly KO it, but it's not likely to survive another turn to get it off. That's fine, though, because from this point forward, all you really need to do is play defensively to bait that Shiftry into Exploding.

                

                

As you juggle between Protect and Substitute, it shouldn't take long at all to bait Shiftry's Explosion. He won't have enough PP for SolarBeam to take you out. Once he explodes, he'll take Groudon down with him while you're hidden behind Protect or Substitute!

=================

After clearing Battle CD 49, you'll be rewarded with TM11: Sunny Day!

Like I said, it might not be immediately obvious why I want this TM so much other than to benefit a single pokemon on my team, but it should become apparent next time as we take on the Realgam Colosseum!

[Aura]

Realgam Tower

Today, we'll be focusing on the Tower Colosseum! I'm gonna be totally honest, I actually did this a few days ago and some details may be a little inconsistent, but a lot happened in that session, so I didn't want to detail it all in one post. Even though it may not look like much, a lot of time gets put into formatting and the like for these posts! I think it's probably for the best to give these colosseums their own posts... not that there are anymore colosseums in the game after this one, but that's okay!

All of the trainers in the Realgam Colosseum are level 40, so we're a bit underleveled for this, however, these levels are still below the highest-level pokemon we'll be facing in the next area of the game, so I don't think it's out of the question to do these here since I don't have much intention to break up the action once we arrive there... that is, except for the wild pokemon, of course.

We've got a lot of big prizes to obtain here, and the rest of my team is right on the cusp of evolution, so let's get going!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 36

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 37

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 36

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Roar

----------------------

 Memory (Duskull M); Lv. 37

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Pursuit, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 36

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 35

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 35

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Slash, Quick Attack, Faint Attack, Mimic

==================

Realgam Colosseum -- Round 1

 

Since they were my lowest-level pokemon, the first two I led with in the colosseum were Meditite and Shine!

-------------------

Battle 1: Bodybuilder Aftin

   

I was leading with Shine and Meditite, so things were a bit awkward. I was able to take out Sealeo with a DynamicPunch and mimic that using Shine. From there, it was mostly just DynamicPunch and Psychic until everything went down. Since his team is all about setting up Defense Curl and Rollout/Ice Ball, so it's pretty easy to deal with them once they're locked into these moves.

---------------------

Battle 2: Casual Dude Feper

   

This guy likes to use Icy Wind to slow your pokemon down. That's really his whole strategy. Shine obviously didn't last long, and neither did Meditite since his DynamicPunch kept missing, but once I brought out Love and Friend, things progressed a lot more smoothly.

----------------------

Semifinal: Cooltrainer Halsion

   

Halsion's team is all about SandStorm! Even though Castform can't learn SandStorm by levelup, Weather Ball does change type into Rock during a SandStorm which actually made it less useful against my leads. While my Gligar suffered from having a severely limited move selection in an already limiting move pool, this Gligar has access to some much better moves: Swords Dance, in particular. I wanted to focus my efforts on taking it out ASAP. Unfortunately, horrors were realized once I took out Gligar and Cacturne took its place. Both my leads were using DynamicPunch and Cacturne's Sand Veil wasn't having any of that. Whittling away at Cacturne's health with Faint Attack wasn't going to work, either, because he happened to know Substitute! Thankfully, after taking out Castform, Dugtrio's Magnitude was able to help clear out Cacturne's Substitute enough for a Mind-Reader DynamicPunch to land and take him out. Dugtrio knew Substitute as well, but he was easier to deal with. I seriously hate evasion teams...

---------------------

Final: Cooltrainer Malex

------------------

 

Swellow & Noctowl

                

                 

With DynamicPunch, I was able to confuse Swellow, and Shine mimicked DynamicPunch on the following turn. Both Swellow and Noctown went for Sky Attack, so it was pretty easy to stop their attacks. Unfortunately, Noctowl was able to get its Sky Attack off and take out Meditite, but now Shine would be capable of confusing it with its own DynamicPunch if necessary.

                

                 

I brought out Family who was able to eliminate most of Noctowl's HP while Shine focused on finishing off Swellow.

----------------------

Murkrow

                

                 

Family continued using ThunderBolt on Noctowl while Shine would try and deal with Murkrow using DynamicPunch. Noctowl did end up going down! And, though Shine missed with DynamicPunch, Family wasn't far behind him.

---------------------

It was after this battle that Meditite finally reached level 38 and evolved into a Medicham!

---------------------

For winning the first round, we're rewarded with TM49: Snatch!

=================

Realgam Colosseum -- Round 2

 

For the second round, I went in with Ally and Love!

---------------------

Battle 1: Fun Old Lady Relza

   

I was leading with Ally and Love this time around, so this was a rather unfortunate and awkward lead. Between Hariyama's Fake Out and Misdreavus' Imprison, Ally was rendered defenseless right away and Love couldn't do much at all against the opposition. I brought out Medicham next who was thankfully able to connect a Shadow Ball before Imprison was used again to seal it away, so Misdreavus didn't last too long. From here, Medicham was able to carry me the rest of the way.

--------------------

Battle 2: Fun Old Man Hebson

   

Hebson's team is a strange one. He led off with a potentially scary combination of Wobbuffet and Shedinja, but immediately retreated his Wobbuffet into Marshtomp. This actually made this fight much easier to handle as I was able to get Friend out and disrupt Wobbuffet's strategies using Torment before it could become a serious threat. Hebson's entire team is built around the moves Counter and Mirror Coat, so you'd better be careful about the moves you use and go for OHKOs wherever you can!

---------------------

Semifinal: Bodybuilder Toko

   

Another really unfortunate lead for Ally and Love... it almost felt like I was being made fun of with such weak pokemon! But once I got Family out, winning was a breeze.

-------------------

Final: Newscaster Arule

 

Nuzleaf & Skiploom

-------------------------

                

                 

Nuzleaf, as expected, opened up with Fake-Out on Love to prevent an Ice Beam against Skiploom. I was still able to take out Nuzleaf with Fire Blast.

-------------------

Torkoal Lv. 40

                

                 

The following turn, I retreated with Dewgong in anticipation of an incoming SolarBeam.

                

                 

I retreated into Shine to take the hit, but Skiploom only ended up going for Stun Spore, so I was able to take it out with a Fire Blast from Ally before it could get its Solar Beam off.

--------------------

Tropius

                

                 

Tropius, too, went down to a Fire Blast after hitting me with Aerial Ace. Meanwhile, Shine went for a Slash on Torkoal who tried for Eruption.

               

                 

Down to just Torkoal, we ganged up on him and took him out with ease.

----------------------

For clearing Round 2, you earn TM19: Giga Drain!

================

Realgam Colosseum -- Round 3

 

This time, I entered the fray with Family and Medicham leading the party!

-----------------------

Battle 1: Supertrainer Agoll

    

This battle was actually extremely awkward for me. Agoll's team is full of tanky pokemon that know Rest and strong STAB moves. It was really difficult to make a dent in her team with my current setup. On top of having a really defensive team, she actually has five pokemon instead of the typical four! However, I was eventually able to overcome the odds, albeit cutting it really close by the end.

By the end of this battle, Memory had reached Level 38 and learned Will-O-Wisp! I replaced Pursuit with Will-O-Wisp! Now, Duskull is supposed to evolve at Level 37. I normally intented to mention when he was about to evolve that I wanted to cancel his evolution for a level so he could learn Will-O-Wisp early, but I never mentioned this because I never actually noticed Memory trying to evolve! I'm not sure if there was a bug that occured when he reached level 37 or what, but I definitely have no memory of intentionally canceling an evolution in this playthrough. Regardless, Memory is now evolved into Dusclops! The end result was no different in spite of this oddity!

---------------------

Battle 2: Casual Guy Axon

    

Axon's team was pretty laughably bad. All of his pokemon opened up with Swords Dance, but none of them could get any hits off to do any damage before going down.

---------------------

Semifinal: Rider Polot

   

I'm not really sure what the strategy was he was going for here, but looking at his moveset now, I see that his team seems to be themed around HM moves. Since HM moves are pretty infamous for being inferior to regular moves, they're all fairly useless.

-------------------

Final: Navigator Bestol

---------------

 

Kirlia & Gorebyss

                

                

ThunderBolt on Gorebyss and Shadow Ball on Kirlia, this first matchup couldn't have gone more smoothly.

-------------------

 

Crawdaunt & Yanma

                

                

I went for DynamicPunch on Crawdaunt and ThunderBolt on Yanma, taking Yanma out with ease but mussing Crawdaunt who just went for Swords Dance.

-------------------

Sharpedo

                

                

DynamicPunch landed this time along with ThunderBolt, ending this final battle! What luck!

---------------------

Your prize for clearing Round 3? TM23: Iron Tail!

This move I immediately taught to Shine over Slash. I've ultimately decided that there's no real need for Double-Edge and this move, so I decided to pass on teaching Shine Double-Edge. Instead, I'll be keeping Faint Attack which can help me at least chip away at the HP of opponents with high evasion. (Ideally, I'll replace this with Aerial Ace, but I've already said how out of reach Aerial Ace is in this game).

================

Realgam Colosseum -- Round 4

 

I entered this round with the dynamic duo of Medicham and Shine!

---------------------

Battle 1: Bodybuilder Piliot

   

Now that Meditite is evolved, he actually outspeeds Shine which is fantasic because Shine can now use Mimic turn one instead of having to squander his first turn with Quick Attack. With two pokemon rocking DynamicPunch, this team of Dark and Normal types didn't stand a chance.

-------------------

Battle 2: Curmudgeon Nistil

   

This one was a little bit awkward, but I focused on taking out Misdreavus who I figured would be the more annoying of the two. Then, it was just a matter of DynamicPunch to take out Umbreon and Exploud. Once Wobbuffet had come out, Medicham soon went down and I was able to bring out Friend for the typical counter.

---------------------

Semifinal: Cooltrainer Hileon

   

Once again, things went pretty smoothly from the start here with Shadow Ball and Mimic. Tentacruel was able to take out Shine, but with Family taking his place, the rest of the battle was easy.

--------------------

Final: Cooltrainer Carben

-------------------

 

Miltank & Grumpig

                

                

Not wanting a repeat of what happened last time I faced a Miltank, I immediately retreated Shine into Friend.

                

                

Thankfully, Medicham's DynamicPunch connected right away, confusing Miltank and leaving it an easy KO for Friend on the following turn while Medicham could focus on using Shadow Ball on Grumpig.

----------------------

Combusken

                

                

Combusken took the place of Miltank, leaving me in a somewhat awkward spot. I decided to trust Friend's ability to take a hit and his Quick Claw ended up triggering, allowing him to take out Combusken without having to worry about speed at all! Meanwhile, Medicham finished off Grumpig as well.

-----------------------

 

Qwilfish & Breloom

                

                

A Return on Breloom and a Psychic on Qwilfish later and the battle was over!

-----------------------

TM22: SolarBeam is our prize for clearing Round 4! And finally, you might be able to see where I was going with Sunny Day.

 

I taught Sunny Day to Shine over Quick Attack, and Solar Beam to Ally over Roar. With this pair of moves, Shine can make himself useful as a support tool for Ally while simultaneously being a bit of a damage sponge. Is it the most exciting role he could have? Certainly not, but it's something that'll make him a bit more useful!

=================

Of course, we've got all those pokemon in the HQ Lab that are now ready to be purified! We've got lots this time so let's get cracking!

-----------------

Control (Paras F); Lv. 28

Item: None

Ability: Effect Spore | Moves: Refresh, Spore, Flash, False Swipe

------------------

Backup (Zangoose M); Lv. 28

Item: None

Ability: Immunity | Moves: Refresh, Brick Break, Counter, Crush Claw

-------------------

Loyalty (Growlithe M); Lv. 28

Item: None

Ability: Intimidate | Moves: Charm, Flamethrower, Bite, Take Down

---------------------

Direction (Nosepass F); Lv. 26

Item: None

Ability: Sturdy | Moves: Helping Hand, ThunderBolt, Thunder Wave, Rock Slide

---------------------

Nest (Pidgeotto F); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Keen Eye | Moves: Refresh, Wing Attack, Steel Wing, FeatherDance

------------------

Tease (Shellder F); Lv. 29

Item: None

Ability: Shell Armor | Moves: Refresh, Take Down, Surf, Aurora Beam

---------------------

Precision (Beedrill F); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Swarm | Moves: Baton Pass, Sludge Bomb, Twineedle, Swords Dance

--------------------

Puzzle (Tangela M); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Chlorophyll | Moves: Morning Sun, SolarBeam, Sunny Day, INgrain

--------------------

Unfortunately, Butterfree still wasn't quite ready for purification since it was in a pretty weak set, but now it was time to restructure the purify chamber to make things go a little smoother!

===============

SET 1: Magneton [ 0/5 ]

    

Wooper -> Numel -> Snorunt -> Nuzleaf -> Wooper

[Electric > Water] -> [Water > Fire] -> [Fire > Ice] -> [Ice > Grass] -> [Grass > Water]

Perfect Circle

-----------------------

SET 2: Primeape [ 0/5 ]

    

Delcatty -> Spearow -> Makuhita -> Meowth -> Delcatty

[Fighting > Normal] -> [Normal > Normal] -> [Flying > Fighting] -> [Fighting > Normal] -> [Normal > Normal]

Perfect Circle

-----------------------

SET 3: Weepinbell [ 0/5 ]

    

Aron -> Vulpix -> Mawile -> Spheal -> Aron

[Grass > Rock] -> [Rock > Fire] -> [Fire > Steel] -> [Steel > Ice] -> [Water > Rock]

Perfect Circle

----------------------

SET 4: Venomoth [ 0/5 ]

    

Shroomish -> Shellder -> Swinub -> Grimer -> Shroomish

[Bug > Grass] -> [Grass > Water] -> [Water > Ground] -> [Ground > Poison] -> [Poison > Grass]

I swapped Phanpy out for Shellder to make this one a perfect circle now!

-------------------

SET 5: Hypno [ 0/5 ]

    

Zubat -> Pineco -> Poochyena -> Baltoy -> Zubat

[Psychic > Poison] -> [Flying > Bug] -> [Bug > Dark] -> [Dark > Psychic] -> [Psychic > Poison]

Perfect Circle

---------------------

SET 6: Shellder [ 4/5 ]

    

Ralts -> Spinarak -> Lunatone -> Ledyba -> Ralts

[Bug > Psychic] -> [Psychic > Bug] -> [Bug > Psychic] -> [Rock > Bug] -> [Bug > Psychic]

Perfect Circle

--------------------

SET 7: Beedrill [ 0/5 ]

    

Roselia -> Carvanha -> Wooper -> Gulpin -> Roselia

[Poison > Grass] -> [Grass > Water] -> [Water > Ground] -> [Ground > Poison] -> [Poison > Grass]

Perfect Circle

================

And that's all of our Shadow Pokemon stored away in the Purify Chamber! Only a matter of time before they're all purified, too! I really love that this game offers an active role even for the pokemon you aren't actively using in your party. It really makes it feel like every pokemon you catch helps! And we're going to need all the help we can get when it comes to purifying the remaining 40ish Shadow Pokemon!

But, next time we're still not quite moving forward with the plot. I want to revisit Mt. Battle and climb a few more areas before we move onto the final frontier! Citadark Isle sounds pretty perilous after all, we should be prepared!

[Aura]

Mt. Battle Area 5

We've got just one more place to visit before we finally move onward with the story! Again, we might be getting a little higher level, but again, the levels in these next two areas are below the strongest trainers in the next area of the game, so I feel justified in battling here first.

Levels: 42 - 43

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 39

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 40

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 38

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Solar Beam

----------------------

 Memory (Duskull M); Lv. 40

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Seel M); Lv. 38

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 41

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 39

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Slash, Sunny Day, Faint Attack, Mimic

==================

Area 5 Leader Calus

-------------------

 

Grovyle Lv. 43 & Combusken Lv. 43

                

                

While I certainly had a good matchup against that Grovyle, it wasn't so much the case for Combusken. I figured Love's Surf wouldn't be enough to take out Combusken when split like this, so I decided to go for Ice Beam on Grovyle and let Ally weaken Combusken a bit with Faint Attack. Grovyle was able to hit Love with a Leaf Blade, and Combusken hit, too, with a Rock Tomb. Love was able to survive, but its Ice Beam wasn't enough to take out Grovyle. The following turn, I went ahead and had Ally hit Combusken with another Faint Attack while Love tried for another Ice Beam, but was unfortunately taken out along with Ally taking a hit from Rock Tomb. I certainly could've selected my moves better, I suppose I overestimated my own abilities. Still, not a fantastic lead.

                

                

I brought out Shine next to go for Sunny Day. Might seem like a bit of a risk against Combusken, but if this trainer had Grovyle and Combusken, it was a pretty reasonable guess she would have Marshtomp as well, and a SolarBeam would certainly help make up for lost ground. Meanwhile, I went for Faint Attack to finish off Grovyle with Ally. No need for Fire Blast when his HP is already reduced.

---------------------

Marshtomp Lv. 43

                

                

To confirm my suspicions, the very next foe was indeed Marshtomp! But with Sunny Day up, that one didn't last long at all! I blasted it away with a 4x effective SolarBeam!

------------------

Mightyena Lv. 43

                

                

Mightyena was yet another fairly awkward foe to run into. I went for another SolarBeam since it was more accurate than Fire Blast, but I didn't quite take it out and Combusken was able to finish off Houndoom with another Rock Tomb.

                

                

I brought out Friend next, who also has great synergy with Shine thanks to Earthquake! With this, I was able to take out both foes!

---------------------

Sableye Lv. 43

               

                

I went for Mimic to copy Earthquake, a major contribution to this synergy, but it obviously was unnecessary because Friend would be able to take Sableye out with one more.

----------------------

Your prize for clearing Area 5 of Mt. Battle is TM39: Rock Tomb as well as 1000 PC!

=================

Mt. Battle Area 6

Levels: 43 - 45

================

Area 6 Leader Hampy

------------------------

 

Castform Lv. 43 & Lunatone Lv. 44

                

                

For some reason, toward the end of Area 6 I started having some pretty trash-tier luck with DynamicPunch. Granted, I certainly didn't expect to use a move like this without expecting to get a lot of misses, even multiple instances of missing two times in a row. The move only has 50% accuracy and that's without factoring in accuracy and evasion changes. Even though 50% is generally considered unreliable, it's still a coin-flip chance! Statistically speaking, I can reasonably expect to connect one in every two shots. Now, realistically speaking, the odds I can certainly expect to be much more dynamic than that. Sometimes I'll get really lucky and connect every single one, other times I might never connect a single one. However, I'd gone through multiple battles toward the end of Area 6 where I'd missed every single DynamicPunch I've thrown between both Medicham and Shine. That is, five times in a row with Medicham and yet three more times with Shine in a single battle. As a matter of fact, in the later half of Area 6, I think the only DynamicPunch I was able to connect was one in this battle... and this wasn't it. I swung and missed against Castform while it was still Normal Type.

Love's Surf did a decent chunk of HP on Lunatone and Castform set up Sunny Day. Not really the brightest choice with this matchup since Sunny Day doesn't reduce enough damage from Water attacks to completely nullify the type weakness against water, meaning Surf would actually do even more damage to Castform now that it was a Water Type. Since Castform was no longer weak to DynamicPunch, I shifted my attention to Lunatone using Shadow Ball to finish it off while I continued using Surf with Love.

-----------------------

Exploud Lv. 45

                

                

One more Surf and Castform would go down. I used DynamicPunch on Exploud honestly just expecting it to miss at this point, yet, I was finally blessed with a single connection! Exploud went down alongside Castform!

----------------------

Solrock Lv. 44

               

                

Solrock couldn't stand a chance against Surf, with its power no longer split, and Shadow Ball, which Lunatone already couldn't handle. It went down to Shadow Ball as soon as it saw the light of day.

-----------------------

For completing Area 6, you're rewarded with 1200PC and TM50: Overheat!

I briefly entertained the idea of teaching Overheat to Ally over Fire Blast since it's stronger and is slightly more accurate, but I figured Overheat isn't that much better to warrant wasting a limited-availability TM over one purchasable at any Department Store. If I just wanted better accuracy, I'd probably end up going for Flamethrower instead of Overheat. And so far, Fire Blast has been able to one-shot just about anything Ally fought anyway. I really don't think the extra 20 power would be all that useful, especially if it reduces my Special Attack for repeated uses.

================

And that is everything! Unfortunately, even still, it seems I'm still looking for another Trapinch and not one, but two Surskit. I can't believe how quickly I caught the first Trapinch and both Wooper but how incredibly long it's taken to find another Trapinch or any Surskit. I did find two Surskit early in the game, right around the same time as Trapinch, actually, but accidentally KO'd both of them! I found them both so close together that I never thought it would take so long to find another. Hopefully we'll get caught up soon...

[Aura]

Uh-oh! As I've mentioned in a public status and in the updated first page, it seems like Bulbapedia has made changes to their site which caused all of the linked images from their pages to break! It's looking like images pulled directly from their archive remained safe, thankfully, so I suppose you can currently look at which images are live and which are broken to get a little behind the scenes glimpse of how I find my images, huh? I'm eventually going to try to make an effort to restore these images, but it probably won't be until I get to shorter updates like for less complex games... Seeing as the Battle Frontier is right around the corner, though, that might not be for a while. These fixes might have to wait until I'm on some simple spinoff title. Thankfully, from this point forward, the images should be mostly back online unless something like this ends up happening again!

Anyway, I greatly apologize for the long wait, but with the semester finally finishing, I should have a lot more freetime to devote to playing! I actually played this session a while back but never actually got around to writing the actual post for it, so my memory of the events may be slightly off from how they actually happened.

================

With all of our cleanup set aisde, I think it's finally time we figure out how to get to Citadark Isle and put an end to Cipher's evil deeds! We were told it was off the coast of Gateon Port, so that seems like a good place to start.

When we first arrive, we can find the "scrapped" Robo Kyogre from Kaminko's House in the water! It was the owner of the junk shop's responsibility to scrap the machine, so let's check in at the shop! As we do, he tells us that he didn't want to scrap the machine because it was actually a really impressive design and scrapping it would be a waste, so he souped it up himself! After telling him our mission, he is concerned about the harsh weather that surrounds Citadark Isle but, if Greevil's luxury cruiser is capable of cutting through the waves to make it there, then surely the Robo Kyogre should be capable as well! So, he allows you to take the robot for the good of the abducted pokemon!

Putting the rest of Orre behind us for now, we climb aboard the Robo Kyogre and sail off to Citadark Isle!

Citadark Isle

This is it, the final frontier of our quest against the Cipher Syndicate! This is one massive fortress of an island. To give you a sense of scale, you can see the protagonist inside the Robo Kyogre in the previous image, right? Well, that machine is stops at that tiny little dock on the south-eastern side of the island. Yes, this place is massive and it's gonna take us a little bit to get through. You can basically consider this the "Victory Road" of Orre. Something Colosseum didn't really have anything comparable to unless you count the Admin rematches, but we're getting off topic here.

Citadark Isle Dock

When you first arrive at the island, you'll be treated to a cutscene showing a whole troop of Cipher Peons getting rallied. It's definitely gonna be a fight to remember!

You can see that Greevil's luxury cruiser is indeed docked here already. Thankfully, they've conveniently left parking space for our robot, too. As we make our way up the stairs, we're ambushed by a navigator who is standing guard.

================

Navigator Abson

 

Golduck Lv. 33+ & Sabelye Lv. 33+

 

Golduck has the moves Shadow Mist and Shadow Rave.

 

Sableye comes with the moves Shadow Blitz and Shadow Hold.

================

If we explore this area, we can find another navigator standing guard over Greevil's cruiser. He won't step out of the way, but he has some funny dialogue where he fawns over Robo Kyogre and asks if he can take a ride in it.

He won't battle you, though, but he will give you Battle CD 31!

-------------------

Making our way onto the island proper, we find an elevator we can't access yet, foreshadowing a shortcut back for later! Considering we're still on the lookout for some wild pokemon, that's definitely good to have! I have yet to mention it, but you can take the Robo Kyogre back to Gateon Port whenever you feel the need, so you don't have to stress about that.

=================

As you first enter the facility, you'll find yourself at a maze of doors. There's also a PC and healing machine right here, so you don't have to go all the way back to heal.

Taking the left side will lead to a dead end where you'll fight with a Cipher Peon who doesn't have any shadow pokemon.

Going around the other way, you'll find Chaser Furgy who does have some shadow pokemon!

 

Dodrio Lv. 34+ & Raticate Lv 34+

 

Dodrio knows Shadow Blitz and Shadow Shed.

 

Meanwhile. Raticate has Shadow Down and Shadow Rush.

===============

 

There are also a couple other trainers, a Sailor and Hunter, but neither have any shadow pokemon either.

There is also a Max Elixir we can find in this maze of doors!

--------------------

When we finally arrive at the elevator at the center of the room, however, you'll be excited to know that we've got more than standard trainer so to deal with as we fight our way to the top of the island...

Lovrina shows her face as she emerges from the elevator! She is furious with you for ruining her plans back at the lab but explains that, thanks to her contributions since, Prof. Krane's assistance was ultimately unnecessary and they were able to complete the experiments on the ultimate, unpurifiable shadow pokemon. Beyond that, she expresses her excitement at the idea that all pokemon in the world can eventually become shadow pokemon and be under the control of cipher forever! Of course, we can't let that happen, so it's looking like a boss fight!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 43

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 43

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Facade, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 43

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Solar Beam

----------------------

 Memory (Dusclops M); Lv. 43

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Dewgong M); Lv. 38

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Meditite M, Lv. 43

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 43

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Slash, Sunny Day, Faint Attack, Mimic

==================

Cipher Admin Lovrina

--------------------

 

Gardevoir Lv. 36 & Gorebyss Lv. 36

Fun fact, this Gorebyss replacing Luvdisc on Lovrina's team here actually had be convinced as a kid that Gorebyss was the evolution of Luvdisc. The two pokemon share a color, typing, and gorebyss' head shape even somewhat resembles Luvdisc, so it's really not too much of a stretch. It didn't help that I had no particular interest in catching one because back then I was concerned with it being too "girly."

                

                

I actually refrained from healing with the Healing Machine this time because, in a previous battle, I'd managed to use Will-o-Wisp to burn Friend. With the guts boost, I was able to easily take out Lovrina's first two pokemon using an Earthquake.

----------------------

 

Roselia Lv. 37 & Farfetch'd Lv. 36+

                

                

Unfortunately, the fun was cut a bit short because suddenly I had a shadow pokemon to contend with. I had Shine focus on weakening Farfetch'd with Slash. Unfortunately, Farfetch'd's Shadow Panic confused both of my pokemon, stopping Ursaring from attacking, thus saving her Roselia who was then able to finish off Shine with Magical Leaf.

                

                

The following turn I brought out Ally and Family. Family could further weaken Farfetch'd with bite while Ally could then take out Roselia with a Fire Blast, but things got a little scary when Farfetch'd set up Shadow Sky. This wasn't so scary on its own, but replacing her Roselia was..

Altaria Lv. 36+

                

                

...another shadow pokemon! I hit Farfetch'd with a Thunder Wave to make snagging it a bit easier. Meanwhile, Ally went for a Faint Attack on Altaria. Farfetch'd went for Shadow Panic while Altaria's Shadow Rave was able to deal heavy damage and nearly take out my pokemon. We barely survived the Shadow Sky. I quickly used an Ultra Ball on Ally's turn to snag Farfetch'd while Jolteon went for Thunder Wave to stun Altaria.

--------------------

 

I was successfully able to snag Farfetch'd with the Ultra Ball. In addition to Shadow Sky and Shadow Panic, it also knows Shadow Break. Shadow Break being a new Shadow Move. It's an even stronger version of Shadow Rush with 75 power and 100% accuracy. 

Farfetch'd is also, naturally, holding a Stick to increase its crit chance! This thing could've potentially gotten a ton of damage off if it was allowed to attack this turn!

-------------------

               

                

Unfortunately, Altaria wasn't about to go down without a fight. Another Shadow Rave took out both of my active pokemon leaving me in an awkward bind. I didn't want to do too much damage, but my options were getting limited.

               

                

I brought out Friend and set up Torment to hopefully slow Altaria's aggression while Memory came in to slowly chip away at her HP with Shadow Ball. Between several failed Snags, Friend ended up succumbing to the assault thanks to her burn.

               

                

Out came my last pokemon: Dewgong. I continued throwing Snag Balls hoping my hubris wouldn't cause me to lose this battle trying to snag every shadow pokemon on the first try. Eventually, I was able to successfully snag Altaria!

-----------------------

 

Altaria knows the moves Shadow Break, Shadow Mist, and Shadow Rave.

It also comes with a Dragon Fang!

=================

You might assume that, if you failed to snag her Delcatty in the beginning of the game, one of her normal pokemon would be replaced by her Shadow Delcatty here, much like with similar rematches in Colosseum, but that actually isn't the case. Recall that, after failing to snag a Shadow Pokemon, it will flee its trainer and end up getting caught by Miror B.! If you want another chance to snag that Delcatty, you'll need to get it from Miror B.! That said, by this point in the game, you've more than likely already had that opportunity.

Now then, normally I would probably press on until I finished up the area. However, my play sessions with this game I've realized have gotten a little bit out of hand recently. I'd like to take it down a notch and slow things down so I'm not dedicating entire days to a single post. This was a boss fight, so I think it's a reasonable area to stop the game for now. We've only explored the first floor and have already snagged a whole team's-worth of Shadow Pokemon! Next time, we'll be making our way further up the island!

[Aura]

Citdark Isle -- B1F

Continuing beyond Lovrina, taking the elevator will bring us down to the next floor where we'll find a massive machine. It seems the researchers here are intentionally manufacturing the intense waves that keep snoopers away.

Of course, there's a few new Cipher Peons to battle here and some items to collect.

 x 5

You can find some Ultra Balls after crossing over the wave machine, they're hidden pretty well against the wall so keep your eyes peeled as you go by!

 x 3

To the left of the elevator at the end of the room is a chest containing three Hyper Potions! There's also a female chaser in here who says she's about to change into her lab coat and warns you not to come back in! ...Oh, Japanese humor...

 x 2

In the room on the other side are two Full Restores! This place really loves piling on the rewards, huh? These are pretty welcome, though, because you might want to use them to keep from backtracking all the way down to the entrance to heal... Of course, I still have my spot monitor going off every couple steps, so it's only so helpful for my case.

Cipher Peon Litnar

Of course, the elevator at the other side of the floor is guarded by a Cipher Peon and this guy's got Shadow Pokemon!

 

Kangaskhan Lv. 35+ & Banette Lv. 37+

 

Shadow Kangaskhan comes with the moves Shadow Mist and Shadow Rush.

 

While Banette comes with Shadow Hold and Shadow Rush.

Banette also comes with a Spell Tag to power up Ghost-type attacks.

================

Citadark Isle -- 1F (Volcanic Chamber)

This elevator leads back up to 1F, this time ont he interior of the mountain into a volcanic chamber filled with molten lava and large steel cubes! These cubes can be pushed into the lava to block the flow, allowing you to free up new places to move. Something about the presence of lava in pokemon games always came off as super intense to me as a kid. I suppose up until Ruby and Sapphire it was a pretty new thing for the video games. The closest thing you had in the main series was the volcanic eruption at Cinnabar Island that happened offscreen. There was the Volcano in Pokemon Snap and I think the Cinnabar Tower had it in Gym Leader Castle but I digress.

When you first enter this area, you'll get an email from Eagun! It's completely blank, though, but it'll quickly be followed up by another one in which Eagun fervently apologizes for the mistake but right before he gets to the point, this email is cut off! He mentioned that this is the first email he's ever sent which we know isn't quite accurate as he's made a very similar mistake in Colosseum. Perhaps he's started to go senile? That's actually rather sad. Regardless, don't be fooled by the similar situation. In Colosseum, Rui encouraged you to go see what he wanted to tell you, but here, he's just trying to cheer you on. If you return to Agate Village to talk to him, he'll just ask if his supportive messages have been getting through to you and his wife points out that he has to sit down with the instruction manual every time he wants to send a message.

x 2

 x 2

Of course, there are some items scattered around the room to reward your sense of curiosity: Two White Herbs and Two Revives.

As you try to enter the passageway to the next part of the floor, another peon bursts out of the door and challenges you to a battle!

Cipher Peon Grupel

 

Magmar Lv. 36+ & Pinsir Lv. 35+

Two more Shadow Pokemon! Whod'a thunk it?

 

Magmar comes with the moves Shadow Rave, Shadow Rush, and Shadow Shed.

 

Pinsir with Shadow Break and Shadow Shed.

================

In the next room over, there's not really much going on. It's a pretty visually imposing room, with a massive lava fall and a path that goes around behind it. There's a healing machine in here, too, so no need to trek all the way back.

If you need the PC? Well, it's right in the next room down, too! You only need to go back for... *sigh* The spot monitor.

Guarding the elevator in this third room is another Cipher Peon. She actually doesn't have any shadow pokemon, though, so you can feel free to just steamroll her entire team.

================

As you take the elevator up to 2F, you'll find yet more lava! You'll also get another message from Eagun who offers up a haiku about... Team Snagem for some reason. I guess this is a translation issue since poetry is infamously difficult to localize across language barriers and directly translating his haiku would make it not work as a haiku in english. But, I have absolutely no clue what this message is in Japanese.

The room itself is a bit of a maze of rocky paths divided by rivers of lava. There's no boxes to block off the lava, though, 

    

Anyway, this floor is filled to the brim with trainers! Most of these trainers don't actually have any Shadow Pokemon, though, so you can just roll right through them and grab the items along the various dead-ends. Most of these trainers I think are supposed to stop you as you walk by, but they seem pretty blind. Perhaps their range wasn't scripted properly? Either way, many of these trainers can just be walked past, but talking to them will initiate a battle. Since they don't have Shadow Pokemon, though, you're only missing out on money and Exp. If you're fine with that, just smile and wave.

In the back of the room are three cave entrances. The easiest one to get to is the one in the middle which leads to a small isolated section of the next room that loops right back around to the right entrance, allowing you to get to the isolated path in the first room.

Inside this isolated section is a chest containing a PP Up!

The chest on the rightmost path contains an Elixir!

 x 2

Next to the Chaser is a chest containing two Hyper Potions.

As for the way forward? Just stick to the leftmost path. Here, you'll end up getting ambushed by a Cipher Peon.

================

Cipher Peon Kolest

 

Rapidash Lv. 40+ & Magcargo Lv. 38+

Feels like a while since we've had shadow pokemon? Well, Kolest has you covered with a Rapidash and Magcargo! ...yay? I mean, Rapidash isn't a bad pokemon by any means, but it's kinda too little too late at this point in the game. Between Arcanine and Houndoom, you probably already have your Fire-type choice by now. And Magcargo? Pfft, don't even joke.

 

Anyway, Rapidash comes with Shadow Down, Shadow Rave, and Shadow Sky.

 

Magcargo comes with Shadow Rave and Shadow Shed.

================

 x 2

Just before the left exit to this chamber is one last chest which contains two Full Restores. 

Pushing further on will lead you to another elevator. This one guarded by two peons ready to battle you back to back in an endurance round! Make sure your team is prepared!

================

 

Cipher Peon Karbon & Hitmonchan Lv. 38+

 

Hitmonchan comes with the moves Shadow Down and Shadow Rush.

------------------

 

Cipher Peon Petro & Hitmonlee Lv. 38+

 

What could you expect from the compliment of Hitmonchan besides Hitmonlee? This Shadow Hitmonlee comes with Shadow Down, Shadow Half, and Shadow Rush.

Hitmonlee also comes bundled with a free BlackBelt! So catch it if you've got any fighting moves you wanna power up, or use Thief to nab it!

================

The next elevator takes you up to 3F which is perhaps the most bizarre area yet. It's home to many floating platforms giving it a very "video-gamey" feel. You can hop onto these platforms when they reach level ground and can't move until they reach the other side of their path. If you take the platform just right of the elevator, you might be confused by the platform ending off in seemingly nowhere. But, if you wait patiently, eventually it'll synch up with a second platform that rises up from the abyss below. Moving over to this second platform, you'll be lowered back down to 2F.

 x 2

In this second isolated area of 2F, you'll find a chest containing two Max Potions. Honestly, with how many amazing items have been just casually given out, I'm surprised this fairly well hidden one doesn't contain something more valuable like an Elixir or something. But, I suppose I shouldn't complain. Max Potions still have their uses!

----------------------

Taking the left platform will lead you down by a spiral-shaped path.

As you make your way down, you'll be ambushed by a peon who doesn't have any Shadow Pokemon.

 x 3

Working your way to the chest at the center of the spiral will earn you three rare candies! But, it's a trap!

On your way out, you'll be ambushed by another Peon who... also doesn't have any Shadow Pokemon and is just as easy to mow through as all the others... Okay, to be fair, I am a bit overlevel thanks to my colosseum visits and the like, but you can't blame me, I had stuff to cover!

----------------------

Continuing further on, you'll have to leave the cave to the south, bringing you back to the exterior! You get a feel for how high we are now. Actually, it doesn't seem quite as high as you might expect... But I suppose when you cosnider that we've lowered ourselves down a bit, the proportions might make some level of sense.

Anyway, there's a free chest out here containing a PP Max! Again, why are items like these being handed out for free, but the hidden chest only has Max Potions??

----------------------

This little cliff on the exterior quickly retreats back into another part of the cave where we can ride a few more floating platforms to get to the next elevator!

================

Citadark Isle -- 4F

This next floor has a rather familiar-looking crane system identical to the one in Dr. Kaminko's Garage. After a bit of wandering around here, you'll find that there are some areas that aren't accessible. If you're familiar with Pokemon level design, you know exactly what that means about the next floor up!

 x 3

The only chest we can access for now contains three Timer Balls, which certainly isn't a bad reward!

================

Once you take the elevator up to 5F, you'll find yourself in a rather flat-looking area with several blue lights along the ground. Before you can explore, though, you'll bee ambushed by another peon dropping from the cieling!

==================

 

Cipher Peon Geftal & Lickitung Lv. 38+

 

We've finally run into another Shadow Pokemon! It's starting to seem like their supply is running thin, and the ever-thinning Shadow Monitor seems to confirm that it looks like we're making a lot more damage than Cipher wants to admit. This Lickitung knows the moves Shadow Panic and Shadow Rush.

================

As we explore this floor, examining the blue lights more closely reveals that they aren't actually in the ground at all, but rather are highlighting pitfalls! Stepping into any of the pitfalls will cause the light to turn off and you'll fall through to the floor below. Most of the time, that's rather inconsequential and you can just make your way back. Though, due to the positioning of the cranes, you may have to exit back to 3F in order to reset the puzzle. But, do you recall that one chest on the isolated platform on 4F? Well, from up here, you can fall down onto it!

Opening the chest reveals a Max Revive! Nice!

 x 2

Another chest obtained in a similar manner contains two regular revives. Not quite as exciting but still pretty valuable!

 x 3

x 4

5F itself also has some more easily accessible chests containing three Max Ethers and four Full Heals.

================

As you approach the elevator, can you guess what happens? That's right, another Cipher Peon!

Cipher Peon Lenden

 

Scyther Lv. 40+ & Chansey Lv. 39+

And indeed, Lenden does bring with her some more Shadow Pokemon for us!

 

Scyther comes with the moves  Shadow Mist and Shadow Rush

 

Chansey is a little bit rough to snag even outside of the Safari Zone! But, if you lack the patience necessary to catch one in FRLG, this is the best place to get one for your pokedex! Ah, but I suppose I'm getting ahead of myself once again. Let's not "spoil" upcoming features! Anyway, your Timer Balls might prove pretty useful here. Chansey comes with Shadow Hold and Shadow Rave.

She also comes with her very own Lucky Punch which doubles her crit chance! A critical Shadow Rave can actually be a little bit scary, even with Chansey's low offensive stats, so watch out for it!

================

Citadark Isle -- Peak

And finally, we arrive at the peak of Citadark Isle! But don't think your journey is over quite yet! You see that mysterious giant dome up there? Yup, we're going to have to climb up there, too! On the bright side, we finally have access to that elevator we've been teased with since the beginning! That is, as soon as we deal with one more pest in our way...

Surprising probably no one, Lovrina isn't the only Cipher Admin we'll be rematching here. Though this one was quite a ways in. Anyway, we run into Snattle up here who is more than a bit miffed about his plan failing, which he blames on the failures of his comrades Lovrina and Gorigan, willingly overlooking the fact that he lost to us just like they did. Regardless, it's clear what he wants this time and there's no getting out of this battle!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 44

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 44

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 44

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Solar Beam

----------------------

 Memory (Dusclops M); Lv. 45

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Dewgong M); Lv. 44

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Medicham M, Lv. 44

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 45

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Slash, Sunny Day, Faint Attack, Mimic

==================

Cipher Admin Gorigan

--------------------

 

Solrock Lv. 41+ & Quagsire Lv. 42

                

                

Right off the bat, I didn't want to risk using Surf on a Water Absorb Quagsire, so I had Medicham use Shadow Ball to trim down Solrock's HP while Love used Ice Beam on Quagsire. The following turn, I went for Surf with Love to further reduce Solrock's HP while Medicham took out Quagsire with Shadow Ball. In the mean time, Solrock managed to set up Shadow Sky. Surprise, Gorigan's strategy is still much the same. Needless to say, we'll want to snag that Solrock ASAP.

----------------

Castform Lv. 42

                

                

I go for an Ultra Ball on Love's turn while Medicham goes for DynamicPunch to take out Castform. The ultra ball leads to a successful snag!

----------------

 

Solrock comes with the moves Shadow Rave, Shadow Panic, and Shadow Sky. Not a fun moveset at all to allow to stick around.

-----------------

Metang L.v. 42

                

                

Metang took Starmie's place. Unfortuantely, Medicham's DynamicPunch missed and Castform was able to get off a Thunderbolt on Love, which Love managed to survive. The following turn, Love went for Surf while Medicham went for DynamicPunch again to finish the deal against Castform. Simple!

-----------------

Starmie Lv. 41+

                

                

And in came yet another shadow pokemon to take Castform's place! Shadow Sky was still in effect, so Starmie was a pretty major threat. Metang got its turn in, but it just went for ThunderPunch which didn't do a whole lot to Love. I was actually at a loss as to how to weaken this Starmie without taking it out. For now, I decided to do a switch into Friend and see if he could bring in a new solution. Meanwhile, Medicham finished Metang off with a Shadow Ball.

-----------------

Scizor Lv. 42

                

                

With Friend out now, I was able to use Torment on Starmie to slow its offensive power and hopefully stall for a bit until Shadow Sky ran out. Meanwhile, Medicham went for a DynamicPunch and made that Scizor wish it never came out of its pokeball!

               

                

Now it was just down to Starmie. Unfortuantely, it managed to take out Medicham with Shadow Storm.

               

                

This led me to bring out Memory and use Will-O-Wisp to chip away at Starmie's HP while Friend used Brick Break to contribute a bit extra. Finally, with a Net Ball, Starmie was successfully snagged!

-----------------------

 

Starmie's moves are Shadow Storm, Shadow Break, and Shadow Mist.

===============

Upon defeat, Snattle runs off crying once again, leaving us with access to the shortcut elevator back to the dock all the way on the first floor of the island. Hopefully this means the Spot Monitor will be less of an annoyance going forward. And speaking off...

 

 

Between all of my constant running up and down this building at the whims of my stupid spot monitor, I was finally able to catch myself a Trapinch and Surskit! With a second Trapinch for my personal collection, I could finally pull all my PokeSnacks from the Rock Poke Spot and focus all of my energy on the Oasis Poke Spot. I actually encoutnered two Surskit, as well, but in my grogginess, I accidentally killed the first one by mashing A to much and slaughtering it with a Shadow Ball when I meant to use Will-O-Wisp... I swear, I thought I was mashing through text because, at the odd angle I was laying down, I couldn't see the bottom-left corner of the screen. I didn't realize how much of the screen was obscured at that angle until I realized I'd just selected a move and never even noticed the move selection menu appear... Regardless, we have our Surskit caught to trade to Duking, so we're technically done catching pokemon, but the perfectionist in me wants a Surskit for my personal collection as well, so we're still on the hunt!

I named Trapinch Lounge and Surskit Hover.

I will go ahead and say that constantly running up and down Citadark Isle, even after my extended break from this game, has really just rubbed in how much I absolutely LOATHE the wild pokemon mechanic in this game. It would be fine if the world was designed around being able to quickly visit the pokespots whenever you needed to, but no. So much of this game is painfully linear so dropping everything to go to a Pokespot usually means having to backtrack through all the progress you've just made, which is incredibly noticeable when that means going back down 5 floors of maze-like rooms only to find a freaking Munchlax has eaten through most of your PokeSnacks and completely wasted your time. This is agonizing. I can't tell you how many Hoppip and Phanpy I had to go through in this session. I was about to rip my hair out. I'm telling you, this stupid Spot Monitor has basically doubled the length of my sessions. Considering all that time is spent walking back and forth pointlessly, that is definitely not a good thing! 

Regardless, just one more pokemon and we can put this whole wretched mechanic to rest for good. Hopefully we can get it before the postgame and it doesn't end up being part of our cleanup operation. 

Anyway, next time, we'll be returning to the Dome atop Citadark Isle to continue bringing the fight to Greevil's doorstep!

[Aura]

Citadark Isle -- Peak

We're getting closer and closer to Greevil! Today, we'll be breaking into that mysterious dome and seeing what kind of place this really is.

As we approach, we'll be met by Ardos, Greevil's bodyguard and the man dressed in blue who helped us against Zook back in the beginning of the game. He confesses that, on first meeting you, he thought you were just an ordinary child and nevere would have guessed that you'd become Ciphers number one threat. Perhaps had he observed how strong we could be, he would've done something about us sooner. As of now, he's impressed that you have the skills to reach Citadark Isle and doesn't actually seem all to convinced he'll be able to defeat you. He instead aims to measure your strength with a battle.

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 44

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 45

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 44

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Solar Beam

----------------------

 Memory (Dusclops M); Lv. 45

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Dewgong M); Lv. 44

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Medicham M, Lv. 44

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 45

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Iron Tail, Sunny Day, Faint Attack, Mimic

==================

Cipher Admin Ardos

----------------------

 

Swellow Lv. 43+ & Alakazam Lv. 44

                

                

I opened up with Love and Medicham. This was a bit of an awkward lead, but I decided to make the most of it. I had Love go for Surf to weaken Swellow while Medicham hit Alakazam with a Shadow Ball. Alakazam hit Love with a ThunderPunch while Swellow set up Shadow Sky. Medicham was able to get his Shadow Ball off and take out Alakazam.

---------------------

Kingdra Lv. 44

                

                

Kingdra came out to take Alakazam's place. Naturally, it was able to take Love's Surf pretty well. I still wanted to weaken Swellow a bit further before throwing any pokeballs at it, so I had Love go for another Surf while Medicham went for DynamicPunch on Kingdra. Swellow wound up using its turn to use Shadow Half which would ultimately help in taking out Kingdra! Unfortunately, it also meant both Love and Medicham were now at half health and under the effects of Shadow Sky. DynamicPunch wound up missing, so Kingdra was able to take out Dewgong before it could get Surf off.

                

                

I brought out Shine and went for Sunny Day to overwrite the Shadow Sky, anticipating that Swellow would begin using Shadow Storm or something along those lines. Sure enough, I was quickly met with a Shadow Break that nearly took out Shine. I finished Kingdra off with a Psychic, though, before it could make its move.

-------------------

Heracross Lv. 44

                

                

The following turn, I used Gligar's turn to throw an Ultra Ball at Swellow while Medicham used Psychic to make quick work of the newly released Heracross. My snag was successful and Heracross went down as well!

---------------------

 

Swellow actually comes with four whole Shadow moves: Shadow Break, Shadow Sky, Shadow Half, and Shadow Mist. It's a new record and actually kind of impressive!

--------------------

 

Electabuzz Lv. 43+ & Snorlax Lv. 43+

                

                

Two more Shadow Pokemon! And Snorlax is a rough one! I opened up with a Psychic against it while Shine tried to weaken Electabuzz a bit. Snorlax ended up going for Shadow End, though, and taking out Shine while inflicting some major recoil damage on itself! If you're not careful, this Snorlax can easily knock itself out!

                

                

I brought out Friend to Torment Snorlax and minimize its opportunities to use Shadow End, as it is a rather low-accuracy move. Meanwhie, I used Psychic to further weaken it. I wanted to snag that Snorlax before worrying about Electabuzz. The following turn, I used Friend's turn to throw a Timer Ball at Snorlax while Medicham continued to weaken it with Psychic. The snag was successful, to the Psychic wound up getting redirectd to Electabuzz!

--------------------

 

With the Timer Ball, I successfully snagged Snorlax who comes with the moves Shadow End and Shadow Shed. Shadow End being the highest power Shadow move at 120 power. Keep in mind, this move is always super-effective! So that power is effectively doubled! It has two major drawbacks, though. One is that it's only 60% accurate and two is that its recoil always halves the user's current HP. It also is unaffected by abilities such as Rock Head that normally protect against Recoil damage.

-------------------

               

                

Now it was just down to Electabuzz! With a mere Ultra Ball, he was comparatively easy to snag.

---------------------

 

Electabuzz, too, comes with four moves: Shadow Break, Shadow Mist, Shadow Half, and Shadow Storm.

================

On defeat, Ardos admits that he simply should have crushed you much sooner and that he made a grave mistake in allowing you to grow so strong. At this point, he has no choice but to entrust stopping you to his superiors. He leaves, allowing us to progress further into the mysterious dome! There is an elevator nearby, but like the shortcut at the beginning of the dungeon, this one is inaccessible. 

================

  

As we step inside the massive dome, we find Eldes and Greevil. This is the room from which they contacted us while we were in the Cipher's Key Lair! Greevil is surprised that we were able to defeat Ardos, but refuses to allow you to come any closer to foiling his plans. Suddenly, a barrier emerges from the ground, blocking your progress any further! With nowhere to go, we have no choice but to retreat for now.

As we do, yet another familiar face emerges from that elevator we couldn't access before. It's Gorigan! And strangely, he claims he's actually started to enjoy seeing you since your paths have crossed so much. It's true that we've seen Gorigan probably more than any other Cipher Admin except for maybe Ardos and Eldes. Regardless, it seems Greevil has given Gorigan one last chance to redeem himself, and that's by defeating you right here and now!

=================

Cipher Admin Gorigan

-------------------------

 

Slowking Lv. 42 & Ursaring Lv. 43

                

                

I immediately led with Earthquake using Friend and went for Sunny Day to weaken Slowking's potential water attacks. Gorigan's Ursaring went for Protect to protect itself while Slowking went for Earthquake and barely did any damage. The following turn, I had Shine go for Iron Tail on the enemy Ursaring while Friend went for Earthquake yet again. This was enough to take out Slowking, but Ursaring still held on.

-----------------------

Aggron Lv. 43

                

                

Once again, I couldn't pass up such a glorious opportunity. I went for Earthquake with Friend while Shine went for Mimic this time to copy Earthquake, since it seemed clear that Friend probably wouldn't be sticking around for much longer. To my surprise, neither of the foes went for protect, so I managed to take them both out!

----------------------

 

Walrein Lv. 44 & Poliwrath Lv. 42+

                

                

I tried to go for Brick Break here to take out Walrein while Shine focused on chipping away at Poliwrath, but neither of these did any good. Poliwrath wound up setting up Shadow Sky and Ursaring only did some of Walrein's health before succumbing to a Double-Edge.

                

                

Out came Family who went for ThunderBolt on Walrein while Shine brought out the sun to remove Shadow Sky. This didn't stop Poliwrath from going haywire with Shadow Storm and knocking out Shine. But, I was able to take out Walrein, so all was good.

----------------------

Mr. Mime Lv. 42+

                

                

Except now things weren't much better with a second Shadow Pokemon on the field! I quickly used Thunder Wave on Poliwrath and tossed a Net Ball at it. The net ball was a successful snag even before the Thunder Wave hit, allowing that Thunder Wave to hit Mr. Mime instead!

----------------------

 

Poliwrath comes with the moves Shadow Storm, Shadow Rush, and Shadow Sky.

---------------------

               

                

Now that it was just down to Mr. Mime, things were a bit more manageable. He was able to take out Friend with a Shadow Storm, though.

               

                

This was a simple fix, though. All I had to do was bring out Memory to soak up some damage while Medicham used Psychic to chip away at Mr. Mime's HP. All the while, I threw Timer Balls on Memory's turn until Mr. Mime was successfully snagged!

-----------------------

 

Mr. Mime comes with Shadow Storm and Shadow Shed.

===================

As expected, on defeat, Gorigan runs off leaving us access to the elevator he came out of. It's through this elevator that we can access a small passage that goes underneath the dome hovering over a giant crater of lava. It's in this passageway where we can find one final Cipher Peon... it's a really strange location for one of these guys to appear, but I guess they couldn't find anywhere convenient to put him earlier in the dungeon?

 

Cipher Peon Kolax & Dugrtio Lv. 33+

 

Dugtrio comes with the moves Shadow Break, Shadow Shed, and Shadow Sky.

================

 

Coming up from the other side of the passageway brings us back into the entrance room of the dome on the other side of the barrier where Eldes and Greevil are. But we're still not quite ready for the final battle just yet. Still, it seems we've got Greevil on the ropes. His witty demeanor is starting to crack and his desperation is truly beginning to show. He is angered by your ability to get past the barrier and penetrate his base and instructs Eldes to stop you at once while he retreats further into the dome.

Eldes expresses his disappointment that he has to battle you in such a way. He claims he's always wanted to battle you since you met at Mt. Battle, but he'd hoped such a battle would've had more meaning. He explains that this battle will be unfulfilling and fruitless, yet his master's orders are absolute and he will spare no effort in taking you down.

=================

Cipher Admin Eldes

------------------------

 

Ninjask Lv. 45 & Manectric Lv. 44+

                

                

The presence of Manectric here seems to clearly indicate a desire to protect his Ninjask with the help of Lightningrod, but thankfully, I happen to have another hard counter to Ninjask in the form of Ally! Unfortunately, Ninjask was able to outspeed even Ally with its Dig attack, so it was able to evade my first Fire Blast. Manectric wasn't so lucky though and took a Bite head-on. Manectric went for Shadow Sky to build up some advantage. The following turn, I read Ninjask's target for Dig and used Protect with Family. Family evaded damage from a super-effective dig while Ally was able to finish it off with a connected Fire Blast. Thankfully, that Ninjask's stat gains never got out of hand. Manectric, on the other hand, hit Houndoom with a harsh Flashing Light-powered Shadow End, taking Houndoom out in a single shot and draining half of Manectric's HP.

Flygon Lv. 45

                

                

Flygon took Ninjask's place. I sent out Medicham to take Ally's. I was worried about Family's well-being against a ground-type, but for now I figured Flygon probably knew Earthquake and wouldn't use it with Manectric out there. So, I kept Jolteon out and used Thunder Wave to make Manectric easier to snag while using DynamicPunch on Flygon in an effort to take it out. (Note: Love was in the PC at the moment, so I couldn't just use Ice Beam here like I would've wanted to!)  I didn't quite finish it, but the confusion caused it to hit itself. The flashing light nearly took it out, but at this point Flygon wasn't much of a concern for me anymore. The following turn, I protected with Family and tossed an Ultra Ball at Manectric for a successful snag!

-----------------------

 

Manectric comes with the moves Shadow End, Shadow Mist, and Shadow Sky.

-------------------------

Salamence Lv. 50+

                

                

Salamence was a terrifying site to behold! Once again making me wish I had access to Love at the moment! Still, I went for Thunder Wave and, to my surprise, it went for Shadow Hold instead of Shadow End, buying me a chance to hit it with Thunder Wave. The following turn, I went at it with ThunderBolt and also threw an Ultra Ball at it. Naturally, it broke out of the ball with ease and threw out a Shadow Rush to take out Medicham.

                

                

It was now time for Friend! Flygon once again hit itself in confusion, leading to its own demise.

-----------------------

Marrowak Lv. 44+

                

                

Another potential Lightningrod user was rough to see, especially considering this one was a Ground-type so I couldn't even hit it with Thunder Wave. For now, I went for Protect with Family while using Friend's turn to hit Salamence with a Timer Ball for a successful snag!

------------------------

 

To my surprise, Salamence didn't actually know Shadow End at all! All it knows is Shadow Rush and Shadow Hold. Good for me, I suppose! This thing could've been a lot more terrifying!

-------------------------

Lapras Lv. 44+

                

                

Yes, you're seeing that right. Eldes still has a fourth Shadow Pokemon! This time, a Lapras. Knowing Marrowak probably had Lightningrod, I decided to take a bit of an odd gamble here. Family wasn't going to last another turn since I'd used Protect already. I figured I didn't have any easy way to weaken Marrowak, so I used this turn to use Thunder Wave on Lapras and toss a Timer Ball at Marrowak at full HP. If I could successfully snag Marrowak, my Thunder Wave would be able to connect and paralyze Lapras! To my surprise, the plan worked!

----------------------

 

Marrowak comes with the moves Shadow End and Shadow Panic.

---------------------

               

                

Now down to just Lapras, Family was able to paralyze it while it went for Shadow Storm. Predictably, this took Family out, but Friend was still able to hold strong.

               

                

Out came Memory next. On Memory's turn, I went for a Net Ball while Friend used Torment to reduce Lapras' damage output and hopefully stall out the rest of the flashing light. Lapras broke out of the first Net Ball, but on the next turn, I was able to successfully snag it!

------------------

 

Lapras comes with the moves Shadow Storm, Shadow Shed, and Shadow Sky.

==============

Upon defeat, Eldes admits that you are far more powerful than he had ever imagined. He lowers the barrier giving you easier access to the PC and healing machines and tells you that, if you truly intend to stop Cipher's plans, then you should go on ahead. Even still, he doesn't expect that you will be able to win against Grand Master Greevil, as Greevil's strength is unparalleled. What's more, let's not forget that XD001, the ultimate Shadow Pokemon, has been completed, so we'll have that to contend with as well.

It's not going to be easy, but we've got our work cut out for us. Next time, we'll be climbing our way to the very top and challenging our only foe remaining: Grand Master Greevil himself!

===================

 

PS, by a stroke of luck, I was finally able to catch a second Surskit! With that, I can finally withdraw all my PokeSnacks and sell them!

[Aura]

Pokemon HQ Lab

Wait, wait, wait, what are we doing here!?!

Yeah... woops. I actually stepped a little bit too far into the final area before realizing... I actually completely forgot about one very important detail before leaving the mainland toward Citadark. We're just gonna pretend I already did this and we're not going to be messing with the purify chamber at the moment. But, I've still gotta explain what's going on.

You might recall that, a while back, Prof. Krane contacted us with an email saying that he has something important to show us.

If we meet with Prof. Krane in the room where we first got our Snag Machine, he'll reveal to us a secret stairway hidden underneath the rug before leading us inside...

It's down here that we can find a top secret room which is presumably where a lot of the R&D was done for the snag machine. In this room, there is an important treasure Prof. Krane wants us to have, and its inside the chest.

As you can probably guess by the general Pokemon formula, this item is none other than the Master Ball that Prof. Krane has saved for just an occasion. He insists that this rare pokeball with a 100% catch rate should absolutely only be used with the snag machine if you are absolutely sure you are doing the right thing. I think we all know what our target for this ball is going to be.

=================

Citadark Isle -- Peak

Anyway, we certainly didn't have to backtrack all the way to the mainland to get our hands on the Master Ball or anything. We definitely already had that in our pockets when we first arrived at Citadark Isle! This is also most certainly our first time progressing past Eldes and there absolutely is no parallel timeline where I got completely wrecked trying to snag a particular shadow pokemon in an Ultra Ball. Not at all...

In the room where you battled Eldes, there is a chest containing a Max Revive. It's not exactly hidden, so you should be able to find it with ease. We can continue exploring the mostly empty room and find not much else. There is a monitor here that seems to be analyzing recordings of Shadow Xatu battling with a Camerupt. This is especially odd because, if you recall, we snagged a shadow Natu but never Xatu... perhaps this is some sort of simulation? Either way, before moving on, you're definitely going to want to prepare your team. Make sure you're fully healed and, a word of warning, you may want to leave an open slot in your party. I decided to leave behind Shine as well as Medicham in the PC, leaving my party with 5 members.

================

As we take the elevator in the southwest corner of the dome, we're taken to the dome's second floor. A massive hollow arena, possibly even a Colosseum. It's here where we're met face to face with Grand Master Greevil with nowhere to run. He finally faces us and lists off all the plans we and ONBS have foiled. But he claims it'll all end here because you're about to witness the start of the next step of his plan.

He explains that creating the ultimate shadow pokemon that cannot be purified is only the beginning of this next step which, he continues, is to create an army of unpurifiable Shadow Pokemon that will carry out his orders better than any human followers could. In other words, his army of Shadow Pokemon would ultimately replace all of Cipher in order to ensure all of his plans are carried out properly as the pokemon would accept only direct orders from him. With this army of extremely powerful Shadow Pokemon, he would be unstoppable. We aren't about to let that happen. Knowing this, he calls in the centerpiece of this army. The dome behind him opens up to reveal the sky and he beckons XD001!

------------------------

Shadow Lugia swoops in from the skies and immediately, we're thrusted into battle against it!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 45

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 46

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 45

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Solar Beam

----------------------

 Memory (Dusclops M); Lv. 46

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Dewgong M); Lv. 45

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Medicham M, Lv. 46*

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 46*

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Iron Tail, Sunny Day, Faint Attack, Mimic

-----------------------

*Medicham and Shine were stored in the PC

==================

Lugia Lv. 50+

               

                

Shadow Lugia finally arrives on the scene! This thing is no pushover! Not only is it a Shadow Pokemon meaning its attacks are always super-effective, it has the strongest 100% accurate Shadow Attack in the game: Shadow Blast, a counterpart to Lugia's signature Aeroblast with a power of 80. It's still weaker than Shadow End, but keep in mind this is also a legendary pokemon. Beyond that, its catch rate is that of a normal Lugia, so it's going to be incredibly difficult to snag this thing.

To start out, I had Family use Thunder Wave and Ally... threw a Master Ball. Yeah, normally I'd give this thing a fair battle and only throw the Master Ball once I'm backed into a corner, but I have my reasons here. 

--------------------

 

Shadow Lugia predictably has four Shadow Moves: Shadow Blast, Shadow Shed, Shadow Down, and Shadow Storm. If you let this thing get even one Shadow Blast off on one of your pokemon, it's probably going down turn one.

===============

As you would probably expect, Greevil is incredibly angry when you successfully snag Shadow Lugia. So much so that he immediately challenges you to a battle with his personal team. This is why I didn't do a full battle with Shadow Lugia. You don't get a chance to heal you and the game doesn't have the courtesy to give you a free heal, either. And this upcoming battle? No easy feat.

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 45

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 46

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 45

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Solar Beam

----------------------

 Memory (Dusclops M); Lv. 46

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Dewgong M); Lv. 45

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Lugia Lv. 50+ [X / X]

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Shadow Blast, Shadow Shed, Shadow Down, Shadow Storm

==================

Grand Master Greevil

---------------------

 

Rhydon Lv. 46+ & Moltres Lv. 50+

                

                

If you thought Eldes had too many Shadow Pokemon, well I think you can already see where Greevil's team is going when he sends out not one, but two right from the word go! What's more, one of them is a Legendary! Now, I'm pretty confident that these legendary birds have increased catch rates just like I was with the Legendary Beasts in Colosseum, but they're still not necessarily easy to snag and we're going to have to be prepared to snag all three of them in this one fight!

His Rhydon probably has Lightningrod to cover for his Moltres' weakness, meaning I won't be able to paralyze Moltres with Thunder Wave to make it an easier snag. With this in mind, I have Ally go for Protect while I retreat Family.

                

                

This should make it clear why I came into the Shadow Lugia fight with an empty slot in my team. Being a Shadow Pokemon, Shadow Lugia resists all of these powerful Shadow Attacks, so he can be a pretty solid wall to hold onto while I try to snag them all. Meanwhile, Rhydon went for Shadow End on Ally rather than Family like I'd expected. Shadow End is a very convenient way for Rhydon to reduce his own HP, so I kind of resigned to allow him to hit Ally with it as soon as he was willing. Meanwhile, I had Ally and Lugia gang up on Moltres to weaken it to a reasonable catching range and started chucking Ultra Balls at it. Without a status problem, though, it was pretty obvious this thing wouldn't be joining me anytime soon. I was mainly just doing this while waiting for Rhydon to weaken itself with Shadow End to make for an easy snag without risk of an unintended KO. Meanwhile, Moltres continually pounded Lugia with a new Shadow attack: Shadow Fire, a Shadow counterpart to Flamethrower. It has 75 power, 100% accuracy, and a 10% chance of burning the target. His goal was obviously to burn Lugia so that it could get some continuous damage off. In the meantime, Rhydon went for Shadow End again on Houndoom and wound up missing. Fair enough, I just used the time to continue weakening Moltres.

The following rounds were increasingly frustrating. Rhydon was just using Shadow Panic and Shadow Hold on us constantly, leaving me using Yellow Flutes and Ultra Balls while Moltres continued to hit Lugia with Shadow Fire hoping for a burn, which it eventually did get. Finally, Rhydon ended up connecting a Shadow End on Ally, dropping its health to half and allowing me to send out Memory.

                

                

From here, I used Will-O-Wisp to afflict Rhydon with a status ailment and, on Lugia's turn, I used an Ultra Ball on Rhydon for a successful snag.

---------------------

 

Rhydon's moves are Shadow End, Shadow Down, Shadow Panic, and Shadow Hold

---------------------

Exeggutor Lv. 46+

                

                

Since Rhydon was successfully snagged, Will-O-Wisp ended up hitting the incoming Exeggutor. I went for Shadow Ball against Exeggutor to weaken it further and in the meantime used Lugia's turn to continue throwing Ultra Balls at Moltres to now avail. Exeggutor, too, went for Shadow Hold to keep us in place. The following turn, I went for another Shadow Ball on Exeggutor but this time also tossed an Ultra Ball his way for a successful snag!

---------------------

 

Exeggutor knows the moves Shadow Storm, Shadow Shed, Shadow Hold, and Shadow End

----------------------

Tauros Lv. 46+

                

                

Unfortunately, my Shadow Ball fell flat against the incoming normal-type Tauros. I'd considered using Will-O-Wisp instead but didn't want to waste the turn in the event that the snag against Exeggutor failed. The following turn, I decided to start switching over to Timer Balls and tossed a Timer Ball at Moltres for a snag while Memory went for Will-O-Wisp on Tauros. Unfortuantely, Memory was outsped and taken out by Tauros' Shadow Rush.

                

                

The following turn, Family rejoined the battle and immediately went to paralyze Moltres. Tauros went for Shadow Sky, so I was also able to paralyze Tauros as well. Even still, Moltres refused to budge even in a Timer Ball and Family wouldn't stick around for much after getting KO'd with another Shadow Rush.

                

                

I was really hoping to have Moltres snagged by the time I brought out Love, but that didn't seem like a possibility at this point. Lugia was running low on HP and I was running out of options for my secondary pokemon as well. Especially up against a Shadow-Sky powered team. I went for Ice Beam against Tauros along with a Timer Ball and successfully snagged it the following turn!

-----------------------

 

Tauros has the moves Shadow Rush, Shadow Hold, Shadow Shed, and Shadow Sky.

-----------------------

Aritcuno Lv. 50+

                

                

Articuno was hit by an Ice Beam on release. I went for another one the following turn while still failing to snag Moltres! What a pain! The following turn, I went for Ice Beam against Articuno, but Love was outsped and taken out with a Shadow Chill, Shadow Chill being a Shadow counterpart to Ice Beam. Or, more particularly, an ice-inspired counterpart to Shadow Fire. It also has 75 power and 100% accuracy but comes with a 10% chance of freezing the target instead of burning. With the power boost from the Flashing Light, Love went down.

                

                

Friend was my last pokemon. I went ahead and threw another Timer Ball at Moltres while using Friend's turn to drop a Max Revive on Family. Yes, I know, this is kind of contrary to my usual method of doing things, but I really don't want to have to awkwardly round up these last few Shadow Pokemon. I have every Shadow Pokemon up to this point and so I don't want to ultimately end up losing this battle trying to snag all of these pokemon. I could theoretically make this battle easier by snagging at least one pokemon each time and intentionally losing so that I could come back with more firepower for the remaining Shadows, but I really want to snag them all on my first try to make things convenient and keep things from feeling especially anticlimactic. This is arguably the toughest battle in the game since we're dealing with a full team of Shadow Pokemon, giving him an obvious advantage, so I don't think using items here is totally unjustified. And, wouldn't you know it, this turn, I was finally able to successfully snag Moltres!

-----------------------

 

Moltres has the moves Shadow Fire, Shadow Shed, Shadow Hold, and Shadow Rush.

----------------------

Zapdos Lv. 50+

                

                

Family didn't last much longer here, which is fine because I would've wanted Jolteon back anyway. Zapdos used its Shadow Bolt, and I'll give you two guesses what this move is, along with Articuno's Shadow Chill from the previous turn to take him out.

                

                

On Lugia's turn, I used a Full Restore to cure its Burn and heal it all the way to keep it alive. Meanwhile, a Thunder Wave on Jolteon to slow it down. Unfortuantely, both Articuno and Zapdos outsped it and took it out by ganging up. Rest in peace.

                

               

Things weren't looking so hot for me here. I still had two Legendary Birds at near full HP and I was just a lowly Lugia. If I was going to make this work, I had to use my Max Revives carefully. First, in order for Family to survive, I'd need Shadow Sky to run out, so I stalled for some time with Lugia, meanwhile using Shadow Blast on Zapdos who probably had the most threatening move against me of the two. Once the darkness from Shadow Sky faded, I used my Max Revive to bring Family back out!

                

                

Since Lugia was the only pokemon out at the start of the turn, Articuno and Zapdos could only target Lugia. So, Family got a free chance to hit Zapdos with a Thunder Wave. The following turn, Articuno hit Family with a Shadow Chill but Zapdos spent the turn setting up Shadow Sky again, buying Family another free turn! Family ended up going down the following turn, but I was able to throw some Timer Balls at Zapdos until Shadow Sky ran out again. I used my final Max Revive, a regular Revive wouldn't allow Family to survive a hit. This time, I went for Thunder Wave against Articuno. It was stopped by the paralysis while Zapdos went for Shadow Sky. This allowed me to weaken Articuno with ThunderBolt. Then, Family was taken out.

                

               

I had no choice now but to put my trust in Shadow Lugia. With one more Timer Ball, I was able to snag Articuno!

------------------------

 

Articuno knew the moves Shadow Chill, Shadow Shed, Shadow Sky, and Shadow Rush.

-----------------------

               

               

Now, it was a simple 1v1 between Shadow Lugia and Shadow Zapdos. Items were off the table now. I used Shadow Down to reduce Zapdos' defense and weakened it with Shadow Blast. Another Shadow Blast, a critical hit, nearly KO'd it, but thankfully left it with some health! With one more Timer Ball, I was able to snag Zapdos and finish the battle!

----------------------

 

Zapdos knows the moves Shadow Bolt, Shadow Shed, Shadow Sky, and Shadow Rush.

----------------------

And with that, Greevil has been successfully defeated!

================

Upon defeat, Greevil is devastated to have lost everything.

Adros enters the arena and is shocked to find that we have successfully defeated his master! He immediately runs to Greevil's aid and insists that Greevil detonate the island with you on it. That way, Cipher can continue to survive and return from this failure. He nearly convinces Greevil to do so until Eldes arrives on the scene.

Eldes demands such foolishness to cease. Insisting instead that Cipher admit defeat. Ardos argues with him, demanding that they escape so that Cipher can live on for another day, but Eldes insists such an action is not only desperate but cowardly and dangerous as it would kill countless people and pokemon. Cipher has already been defeated and we have shown Cipher that attempting to conquer the world through power alone is simply not possible. We were able to use our love for pokemon to win Shadow Lugia over and turn it against Greevil. As long as such love for Pokemon exists in the world, Shadow Pokemon will never be able to take over.

He no longer refers to Greevil as "Master," but instead "Father," revealing that, in fact, he and Ardos are actually Greevil's sons. He finally manages to convince the two not to blow up the island and to admit defeat. With that, we leave the base on Citadark and arrive back at the dock. The thick clouds begin to clear out and the artificial waves settle, leaving Citadark Island looking surprisingly beautiful as we leave for the mainland once again and it's here that the credits roll!

 

Ah, what an incredible game XD is. I did take a very cynical approach to a lot of the level design choices throughout the game, but that was mostly due to my frustration with one particular mechanic which I've explored thoroughly throughout this playthrough. Considering you never actually have to interact with the wild pokemon mechanic barring the initial tutorial means you can't really judge the rest of the game based on it. It's an optional mechanic, so you can easily ignore it. It's just a bad mechanic that arguably shouldn't be in the game at all. But, it's a means to get a handful of pokemon that are otherwise unobtainable in the game, so I imagine a lot of people still appreciate its inclusion, even if it could've been handled better.

But now that we're here at the credits, let's look back on some of the positive things! This game has gained a bit of a reputation as a sort of babied down version of Colosseum. As I said near the beginning, I think this is due to how the game starts. You start and end at a lower level than in Colosseum, and the beginning of the game has you running around doing errands like the momma's boy that you are. Coming off of the badass intro of Colosseum, it's easy to see why fans of Colosseum would be immediately turned off by this. But, make no mistake, as this game does at times get even darker than its predecessor and ways that you may have been surprised to see. I think the darkest thing that happened in Colosseum, aside from Pokemon being transformed into Shadow Pokemon, was Duking's Plusle being abducted and held hostage as a means to control him during the events of the game's story. This game, however, actual people are held hostage, others are physically beaten up, and in one instance an entire city has all of its citizens abudcted and trapped in the basement of a local public facility while being replaced by doppelgangers assuming their identity in a plot straight out of some horror movie! Not to mention, this iteration of Cipher threatens to outright kill the protagonist in a deadly explosion not once, but twice! This is all not even factoring in all the implied death and destruction that isn't actually addressed by the game. Do you really think everyone survived as the SS Libra was lifted out of the ocean? There's no telling how many crew members turned up missing after the attack.

I really do love this game and still do. It one-ups Colosseum in almost every way aside from maybe the protagonist's design. Really, though, the XD Protagonist does really just look like a younger version of Wes but with red hair and blue eyes. The design inspiration isn't exactly subtle, to the point where I'm actually surprised there's no direct tie-in with him. I love that there is a much wider variety of pokemon available to use, and since the game starts at a lower level and you get access to the Relic Stone much earlier, you actually get to experience a stronger sense of growth over the course of the game. Shadow Pokemon also feel a lot more threatening here than they ever did in Colosseum. The only reason Colosseum's Shadow Pokemon were any sort of threat was because you had to keep them alive in order to snag them. Here, they were a threat regardless. Not only do you have to keep them alive, but their Shadow attacks are always super-effective against your non-shadow pokemon. For this reason, it's often a good idea to carry Shadow Pokemon of your own even after getting access to the purify chamber, just to have something to protect yourself against strong Shadow Pokemon.

If I had to criticize this game on anything, it would probably have to be the depiction of certain characters that seems rather unfaithful to Colosseum. Duking in particular comes to mind. He always came off to me as an honorable man who would never leave his town or allow any sort of criminal activity to go on under his nose without a carefully planned threat. And after the events of Colosseum, even that would be harder to accomplish. The Duking here in XD feels a little bit out of character. He just up and leaves Pyrite in search of Wild Pokemon allowing criminals to sneak right back into town here. What's more, he goes out of his way to steal credit for others' work. It's played off for laughs, but to me, it kind of makes this version of Duking a little insufferable.

Still, there is a lot of faithful continuity with Colosseum. I love that the Kids' Grid evolved into ONBS over time and is devoted to preventing something like the spread of Shadow Pokemon from ever happening again by raising awareness of criminal activity and not allowing their voices to be silenced by anyone who threatens them. It's also just cool to see all these kids all grown up. And Miror B.? Who wouldn't appreciate his presence here? Even though he has a much more minor role this time, it's still exciting to battle with him!

As for the story twist, I think it's a really good one. Greevil is described as this terrifying man you do not want to anger while Mr. Verich is described as a kind and generous patron who helps the locals around Gateon Port graciously. So the reveal that the two are one and the same is genuinely baffling until you finally meet Greevil face to face and see that terrifying look in his eyes. I think it's a far better plot twist than the one in Colosseum.

Of course, all of this praise is on top of a lot of the returning positives from Colosseum with very few of the negatives. It's fun just to snag a whole bunch of Shadow Pokemon from the game's villains and use them to your advantage and the game's central mechanic makes trainer battles much more challenging as you can't just mindlessly tear through your enemies and instead have to carefully weigh your options to maximize damage output without risking taking out any Shadow Pokemon your foe may be using against you. Especially with weaker Shadow Pokemon, this can be easier said than done.

===================

Now then, what's up next? Should we continue on to the next game? Revisit Emerald? Colosseum? Oh no. You know the drill, of course we're still not done with XD! There's lots of content we've yet to cover! From postgame content to Battle CD's to the remainder of Mt. Battle, we've got our hands full. So next time, we'll be doing just that. So, next time, we'll begin the postgame of Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness!

[Aura]

Pokemon HQ Lab

We may have defeated Cipher once and for all, but you already know as well as I do that the end of the main story isn't the end of the game. There is lots we've still yet to do. We now have 82 Shadow Pokemon. However, checking our Shadow Monitor, we're reminded that there is still one more Shadow Pokemon we've yet to come across--The Shadow Dragonite that was stolen from the Key Lair. If we're to purify all of these Shadow Pokemon, we'll need to track that last one down. Other than that, though, we have every single Shadow Pokemon! We've just gotta get to work on purifying them all. The purify chamber will be a big help in that! 

In addition to Shadow Pokemon, we also have two more trades to make with Duking: Surskit and Wooper. We need to finish up Mt. Battle, and upon starting up our save file and waking up the next day, we receive an email from Eagun talking about how he came here to tell us about a place called the Orre Colosseum! That sounds like yet another colosseum we'll have to clear out.

As you can see, we've got quite a checklist of stuff to do, so today, we're going to take some time to prepare for what's to come. In order to do that, we're going to focus on updating our purify chamber! Really exciting, I know, I know, but this was actually a rather time-consuming task as I made some observations while setting up the purify chamber that had me genuinely confused about how the Tempo mechanic worked. It took about two hours of experimentation to finally understand exactly what was going on since, I repeat, there's no detailed guide on how exactly this works as far as I could find, so all this information I've gathered is entirely through my own experimentation and observation. Consequently, while this means most of this information I'm about to share was compiled on my own using only information available in-game as a source, it also means there may be some errors in my understanding. However, I do believe I have a much more thorough understanding of how this system works so sit down, shut up, and turn off your phones because I'm aboutta learn ya a thing 'er two about the Purify Chamber! There's gonna be a quiz, so take notes!

(I apologize for the low quality here, these are photos taken by my phone of my own screen)

So, there are three meters visible here. On the left, there is a Tempo meter which shows how fast your Shadow Pokemon will be purified. I don't fully understand how this works, but I'm going to assume that after x amount of steps, a Shadow Pokemon's heart gauge will be reduced. Since Tempo affects the rate at which this happens, I'll refer to this as a "beat," and assume that the tempo affects how many steps it takes between beats. Again, the functional aspect of these meters is entirely hypothetical as I do not have the tools necessary to accurately test these mechanics.

On the right side, there's the heart gauge of the Shadow Pokemon, which should be self-explanatory, the pokemon's type, and the Flow meter. The Flow meter, I believe, affects how much of the Shadow Gauge is depleted per beat. 

Now, let's talk about maxing these meters out. Tempo is simple enough. Just fill out your purify chamber the way we've been talking, and your Tempo will max out really easily as long as you have what I've previously called a "perfect circuit". However, I've come to understand that there's nothing necessarily "perfect" about this, because I'd been completely neglecting the Flow Meter. Up until now, I'd assumed that Flow maxed out at four segments, but it was always odd to me that there was that empty space nagging at me that there was more I wasn't understanding. That is, until I put my new wave of Shadow Pokemon in there and saw that suddenly some of them had some extra, smaller sections at the end which drove me into a frenzy of research.

You see, just having advantageous type match-ups all the way around will get you four segments in your Flow meter. Functionally, this is all you really need to know, so it seems to be all most people bother learning. But, doing this, you may have noticed what I did. Every once in a while, you might see an extra sliver appear at the end of the meter. As I've come to understand, this is the result of what I've now come to refer to as a truly "perfect circuit." Going forward, I'll be referring to a circuit that only takes type matchups into account in order to max out tempo as a "clean circuit". A "perfect circuit" now refers to a clean circuit with one extra quality: The same type doesn't show up more than once in the circuit. This fact significantly changes what I previously thought about the value of specific types. Now, it's more important than ever to keep your options open. You want to start your circuit with a pokemon that has many weaknesses, like a Grass- or Bug-type. That way, closing the circuit at the end is very easy. I often find myself choosing a pokemon that's weak to the type of the first pokemon, a pokemon that's strong against the first pokemon, and then filling the gap between them with a pokemon that's weak to the second and strong against the last. 

If you recall, I've previously claimed that dual-type pokemon and pokemon that are strong against themselves are very valuable, with Normal-types being some of the most valuable as they're only strong against themselves. I've since come to realize that this isn't necessarily true as these pokemon make forming a clean circuit difficult or, in the case of pure Normal types, even impossible. Instead, I've found that the most valuable pokemon are single-typed pokemon with many weaknesses and many strengths. The types that came up a lot while I was filling out my Purify Chamber sets were Rock, Grass, Bug, Fire, Water, Ice, and Flying. Each of these types are weak to multiple types and strong against multiple types. Types I tried to avoid like the plague were ones that either only had one weakness like Electric, or one advantage, such as Poison and Steel. That's not to say that these types are useless, they may be able to fill in some gaps, but their usefulness in the Purify Chamber is extremely niche. Placing a pure normal-type anywhere in the set is like multiplying an equation by zero. Since Normal is only strong against Normal, it is impossible to create a perfect circuit around Normal types. Consequently, in cases like the Shadow Raticate in the above example, this means some Shadow Pokemon by nature are just doomed to exist in a clean circuit at best since they are pure Normal types. For these, I recommend keeping the set as pure-Normal as you can in order to avoid wasting pokemon that could be useful in other perfect circuits like Fighting- and Flying-types. 

Dual-type pokemon have their uses for type coverage and connecting the dots, but you don't want to rely too much on them because they do introduce an extra sixth type that can't show up anywhere else in the circuit, even if it's a secondary type that isn't being utilized! For this reason, try to use dual-type pokemon only when necessary!

Once you have a perfect circuit set up, you'll have a flow meter with four large segments and a fifth, tiny sliver at the end. This is the best that one circuit can be on its own, however, the more perfect circuits you have in the purify chamber...

Each perfect circuit will actually communicate with other perfect circuits, allowing the circuit to flow even better! In this example, I have eight perfect circuits. Sets 2 and 9 are only clean and not perfect because they're purifying Normal-type Shadow Pokemon. However, you can see here that, in addition to the four large segments from type matchups within Set 1, we also have eight small segments at the end with room for just two more!

That's going to conclude our lecture, so now let's focus on the gameplay aspect of what I did! Starting with the pokemon from the key lair I purified!

================

Attraction (Magneton); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Sturdy | Moves: Refresh, Double-Edge, Rain Dance, Thunder

-----------------------

Energy (Primeape M); Lv. 34

Item: None

Ability: Vital Spirit | Moves: Helping Hand, Cross Chop, Focus Energy, Reversal

-----------------------

Guard (Weepinbell M); Lv. 32

Item: None

Ability: Chlorophyll | Moves: Morning Sun, Magical Leaf, Sludge Bomb, Sweet Scent

---------------------

Nightlife (Venomoth F); Lv. 32

Item: None

Ability: Shield Dust | Moves: Refresh, Silver Wind, Substitute, Psychic

----------------------

Soothe (Hypno F); Lv. 34

Item: None

Ability: Insomnia | Moves: Baton Pass, Psychic, Meditate, Shadow Ball

----------------------

Sights (Butterfree F); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Compound Eyes | Moves: Morning Sun, Psychic, Sleep Powder, Aerial Ace

----------------------

Stance (Arbok M); Lv. 33

Item: None

Ability: Intimidate | Moves: Refresh, Sludge Bomb, Glare, Bite

=================

With our new friends off the assembly line, I revamped all of my sets and this is what I wound up with:

Set 1: Golduck [Water]

Vuplix [Fire] -> Pineco [Bug] -> Nuzleaf [Grass/Dark] -> Sandshrew [Ground] -> Vulpix

Perfect Circuit [+8]

Set 2: Raticate [Normal]

Delcatty [Normal] -> Meowth [Normal] -> Zangoose [Normal] -> Spearow [Normal/Flying] -> Delcatty

Clean Circuit

Set 3: Magmar [Fire]

Spinarak [Bug/Poison] -> Ralts [Psychic] -> Makuhita [Fighting] -> Nosepass [Rock] -> Spinarak

Perfect Circuit [+8]

Set 4: Dodrio [Normal/Flying]

Shroomish [Grass] -> Shellder [Water] -> Swinub [Ice/Ground] -> Grimer [Poison] -> Shroomish

Perfect Circuit [+8]

Set 5: Sableye [Dark/Ghost]

Hypno [Psychic] -> Gulpin [Poison] -> Hoppip [Grass/Flying] -> Surskit [Bug/Water] -> Hypno

Perfect Circuit [+8]

Set 6: Altaria [Dragon/Flying]

Roselia [Grass/Poison] -> Carvanha [Water/Dark] -> Phanpy [Ground] -> Growlithe [Fire] -> Roselia

Perfect circuit [+8]

Set 7: Farfetch'd [Normal/Flying]

Venomoth [Bug/Poison] -> Tangela [Grass] -> Spheal [Ice/Water] -> Baltoy [Ground/Psychic] -> Venomoth

Perfect Circuit [+8]

Set 8: Pinsir [Bug]

Poochyena [Dark] -> Lunatone [Rock/Psychic] -> Gligar [Ground/Flying] -> Primeape [Fighting] -> Poochyena

Perfect Circuit [+8]

Set 9: Kangaskhan [Normal]

Pidgeotto [Normal/Flying] -> Paras [Bug/Grass] -> Wooper [Water/Ground] -> Flaaffy [Electric]

Clean Circuit [Perfect potential]

================

Let me tell you, setting up Perfect Circuits is actually a lot more puzzling than you expect. There's a lot you have to pay attention to and, in normal gameplay, your options are pretty limited. It's also probably not really worth all the effort as you'll probably just save more time in the end just setting up clean circuits and going about your business. Still, I'm not sure why, but I find setting up these circuits a lot of fun and it really lets all of your pokemon serve a purpose, even if they're not on your actual team and I think that's pretty cool!

Anyway, next time, we'll head out of the purify chamber and finally see what Eagun had come to see us for. But I don't think we're quite ready for the next colosseum just yet. Instead, we'll head over to Pyrite Town and do our remaining trades. Maybe also track down that missing Dragonite...

[Aura]

Pokemon HQ Lab

Now that we've got our Purify Chamber up to date, let's finally go see what Eagun wanted! To find him, we'll step outside of the HQ Lab and see him standing right outside, waiting for us! He tells us he panicked and sent the email before it was finished, but decided to go ahead and tell us in person! But first, he wants to battle!

================

Myth Trainer Eagun

--------------------

 

Pichu Lv. 45 & Pichu Lv. 45

                

                

He opens up with two Pichu and, again, I think you can probably take a wild guess on what the rest of his team will look like just from this. One Pichu opened up with Rain Dance, but both of my pokemon ganged up on the other to take it out before it could attack. Unfortunately, Family was paralyzed almost right away due to Static.

------------------------

Pikachu Lv. 50

I didn't actually know this, but both of Eagun's Pikachu are holding a Light Ball, so if you bring in a Pokemon with Thief, you can get one from each Pikachu for free! But I didn't do that, stealing from the elderly is wrong!

                

                

That Pichu wasn't bothering anyone, so I had Family and Ally focus on the rotating second position to take out this Pikachu as well!

----------------------

Pikachu Lv. 50

                

                

Another Pikachu with the same fate.

------------------------

Raichu Lv. 55

                

                

Now things were a little bit tougher. Raichu is more bulky than its predecessors and would take two turns to finish off. This gave it the chance to hit Ally with a Brick Break. Up until now, Pichu had continued trying to hit Family with ThunderBolt which just wouldn't work since Family obviously has Volt Absorb! Kinda funny, really. Ally survived the Brick Break and we were able to finish off Raichu on the following turn.

----------------------

Raichu Lv. 55

                

                

Another Raichu came along. Ally was stopped with its paralysis, slowing my attack. I went for Fire Blast this time but ended up missing. Raichu hit Ally with another Brick Break and Pichu finally switched over to Ally! Ally survived but was paralyzed by the ThunderBolt. I went for another Fire Blast, but naturally wasn't able to get the attack off before being pummeled to death.

                

                

Memory came next. I hit Raichu with a Shadow Ball bringing its health low. It went for Brick Break on Family. The following turn, I had Memory take out that Pichu while Family went for another Bite to finish off Raichu. Unfortuantely, I was stopped with paralysis again. By this point, it was personal. Family was running low on HP and wouldn't be able to take another hit, but I'll be damned if I let Family go down to this Raichu due to paralysis!

               

                

I had Family go for Protect while Memory used Confuse Ray. I could've ended the fight here, but I felt Family deserved the glory! Unfortuantely, Raichu KO'd itself in confusion the following turn, so Family couldn't quite get the KO.

================

After defeating Eagun, he tells us about the ultime colosseum of the region where only the toughest trainers in all of Orre gather!

He points us to our final map location! While the Orre Colosseum was in Pokemon Colosseum, this is the first time it actually shows up on the world map. Previously, it was only available through Colosseum Mode! However, just like the Orre Colosseum in Colosseum, I think this place is asking a little bit too much of us at the moment. I'm actually going to put this off as one of the last places we'll be visiting. Instead, we're going to focus on that last Shadow Pokemon: Dragonite!

==================

Pyrite Town

Before we forget, though, let's stop by Pyrite Town and do our trades with Duking!

------------------------

 

By trading our Surskit with Duking, we can get our hands on a rare Shuckle!

 

And by trading Wooper, a Larvitar!

---------------------

 Shuckle M; Lv. 20

Item: None

Ability: Sturdy | Moves: Substitute, Toxic, Sludge Bomb, Encore

A pretty solid moveset for a Shuckle, though I'd probably replace Sludge Bomb with something more defensive. You're not going to do much damage at all with an offensive attack on a Shuckle. 

---------------------

Larvitar M; Lv. 20

Item: None

Ability: Guts | Moves: Sandstorm, Dragon Dance, Bite, Outrage

This moveset's a little strange, at least, for Gen III. Dragon Dance and Guts increase physical attack, but both Bite and Outrage are Special attacks, at least until Gen IV... Maybe that's what they were going for? That said, given that this is Gen III, I'd think this thing should at least know Earthquake or Rock Slide to take advantage of the attack boosts it can get. It also doesn't really benefit much from the Sandstorm on its own... It's probably the most exciting of the three pokemon to get, but its moveset isn't quite as ready-for-battle as the others. Still, rarity is enough to make this thing an exciting prize!

===============

Gateon Port

If we return to Gateon Port, our Miror Radar will go off once again! If we check it, it'll tell us Miror B. is somewhere in the area! Talking to the locals, may will mention seeing a strange moving Pokeball at the top of the lighthouse... I think that's all the information we need. To the top of the Lighthouse!

[Note: This will only happen if you've snagged 82 Shadow Pokemon! If not, you'll have to snag the remaining ones! You might have to wander around a bit until the Miror Radar goes off to find Miror B. Elsewhere!]

===============

As we reach the top of the lighthouse, some familiar funky music will be playing. As soon as we step out of the elevator, we'll be met by quite a silly site, too.

   

Miror B. and a bunch of his Ludicolo are groovin' along to the music while his two lackies Trudly and Folley praise him endlessly. There's also an old man off to the side who complains that all this music is giving him a headache. More importantly, this man has something we need, so we're not going to let him get away!

As we approach him, he complains that, because of us, his Shadow Pokemon is the last of its kind and he'll battle us!

================

My Team:

-------------------

 Family (Jolteon M); Lv. 46

Item: BlackGlasses 

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: ThunderBolt, Bite, Double Kick, Thunder Wave

------------------

 Friend (Ursaring F); Lv. 46

Item: Leftovers 

Ability: Pickup | Moves: Return, Brick Break, Torment, Earthquake

----------------------

 Ally (Houndoom M); Lv. 45

Item: King's Rock 

Ability: Early Bird | Moves: Faint Attack, Protect, Fire Blast, Solar Beam

----------------------

 Memory (Dusclops M); Lv. 46

Item: Quick Claw 

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Helping Hand, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray

------------------------

 Love (Dewgong M); Lv. 45*

Item: Mystic Water 

Ability: Thick Fat | Moves: Helping Hand, Surf, Safeguard, Ice Beam

------------------------

 Medicham M, Lv. 46

Item: TwistedSpoon 

Ability: Pure Power | Moves: Shadow Ball, DynamicPunch, Mind Reader, Psychic

----------------------

 Shine (Gligar M); Lv. 46*

Item: Focus Band 

Ability: Hyper Cutter | Moves: Iron Tail, Sunny Day, Faint Attack, Mimic

-----------------------

 Lugia Lv. 50 [X / X]

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Shadow Blast, Shadow Shed, Shadow Down, Shadow Storm

---------------------

*Love and Shine were stored in the PC

==================

Wanderer Miror B.

--------------------

 

Ludicolo Lv. 57 & Ludicolo Lv. 57

Miror B. just wouldn't be Miror B. without a full team of Ludicolo, right??

                 

                

Now, due to the bulky nature of Ludicolo and their pretty high levels, this fight is actually rather difficult for me in my current state. So, I'll be bringing Shadow Lugia into this battle. These Ludicolo have some really powerful attacks, plus there's basically no stopping their Rain Dance. To open up, I focused my efforts on taking out one of them with a Shadow Blast and Return. The other one unfortunately set up Rain Dance, though, so we weren't quite safe.

-----------------------

Ludicolo Lv. 57

                 

                

And here's where the real danger becomes immediately apparent. Both of these Ludicolo ganged up on Friend with powerful water-type attacks that were further strengthened by the Rain Dance. Thankfully, a Hydro Pump missed but a Waterfall alone dealt more than half my HP! I was able to get a Return and Shadow Blast in to nearly KO a Ludicolo before getting taken out.

                 

                

Memory came out and went for Confuse Ray on the Ludicolo that still had full HP while the other one went down to a Shadow Storm, allowing some chip damage on the confused one as well. The confused one also hit itself, buying me a free turn!

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Ludicolo Lv. 57

                 

                

I went for Confuse Ray on the new Ludicolo and Shadow Blast on the first! Unfortunately, neither was enough and Memory went down to a Hydro Pump.

                 

                

This was now Medicham's time to shine! With a DynamicPunch, I was able to bring the new Ludicolo's HP down low. Unfortunately, it survived and caught me off guard by hitting Shadow Lugia with an Ice Punch! I went for a Shadow Storm to take it out while Medicham used DynamicPunch to finish off the other. I ended up missing with DynamicPunch and that weak Ludicolo still managed to survive the Shadow Storm, too! Thankfully, it did KO itself the following turn, and my DynamicPunch was able to connect as well! But that wasn't until after Shadow Lugia was taken out with another strong hit.

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Ludicolo Lv. 57 & Dragonite Lv. 55+

                 

                

Yup, that's right, a Dragonite came next! Things were a little scary at this point. The rain had finally stopped, though, so I could get a Fire Blast in with Ally. Medicham went for DynamicPunch again to confuse the Ludicolo. I connected the DynamicPunch and Fire Blast was able to connect as well before Rain Dance. Dragonite took out Medicham, though, with a Shadow Rush.

                 

                

Since Ludicolo was low on HP now, I decided to trust its fall to confusion. Meanwhile, I focused my efforts on Dragonite with a Faint Attack from Houndoom and a Thunder Wave from Family. My back was against the wall, so I needed to catch that Dragonite quickly! I tossed a Timer Ball at it for a failed Snag attempt. It went for Shadow Rush against Family, but thankfully, I protected. Ludicolo did indeed take itself out in confusion.

                

                

The next turn, I figured Dragonite would target Family again, so I just went for a Timer Ball on Ally's turn and a ThunderBolt on Family's turn. To my surprise, the snag attempt was a success, so I was thankfully able to walk away from this battle just a few turns away from defeat! What a lucky day!

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This Dragonite knows the moves Shadow Down, Shadow Rush, Shadow Shed, and Shadow Storm

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On defeat, Miror B. announces the next plan for Team Miror. Operation: Run Away! He immediately scurries off toward the elevator. With the elevator taken, the Ludicolo as well as Miror B.'s lackies immediately realize they've been left behind and hussle off to the stairs to catch up to their boss.

As Miror B. reaches the bottom of the elevator, he finally discovers the tracking chip in his hair and breaks it, finally stopping the signal from the Miror Radar, making it a useless heap of junk now. That's fine, because we now have all 83 Shadow Pokemon snagged! Next time, we're going to go around the world and see what else has changed since Cipher's defeat!