All the Pokemens

[Aura]

Postgame Part 42: Happy Outlook

We continue with our postgame adventure! Last time, we obtained the  Secret Slab from a prospecting mission with Honchkrow and explored Lush Prairie, a dungeon we found the location of through Spinda's Juice Bar.

 

When checking in at Spinda's Cafe, I was excited for a moment because I'd received a Challenge Letter! But it turns out there are generic ones, too. This challenge is from Masquerain from Midnight Forest. I'm not sure if this works like an outlaw mission where the challenger attacks you at the start of the map, or if it's more like those boss outlaw missions where the floor changes to a boss arena. Jirachi's felt like it just as easily could've been an exception rather than a rule.

Anyway, before we get into dungeon exploration today, I once again wanted to do some jobs. This time, I wanted to draw attention to this particular one in Dark Crater that's been sitting in my Job List for quite a while. It's another prospecting mission, this time for a Mystery Part!

 

It was a little scary escorting an Ekans through Dark Crater, but we managed to make it work and got that  Mystery Part! I've already talked a little bit about what this item is, but just like with the Secret Slab, I'm gonna hold off a bit to discuss it at length.

 

Meanwhile, we also rescued Meowth and Bonsly from the dungeon.

And, we got a new recruit!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Devil (Hippowdon M); Lv. 33

Item: None

Ability: Sand Stream | Moves: Yawn, Take Down, Sand Tomb, Crunch

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

Upon returning to the guild, we've already gained enough points to be promoted to Master * Rank! This is the first of four new ranks added to Explorers of Sky.

 

This promotion doesn't come with any storage expansion or item rewards. Instead, we're given a new dungeon! Now you can probably see what I meant when I said there was actual incentive to worry about my rank this time around compared to Rescue Team. In order to explore every dungeon in the game, we'll need to reach the highest possible rank in the game! Anyway, for reaching Master * Rank, we've earned the privilege of exploring Oblivion Forest. Sounds like a future update! But for now, let's focus on our plan.

With preparations made, we set out for Happy Outlook!

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

Happy Outlook

The music that plays here is random each floor. It can include Northern Desert, Miracle Sea, Treeshroud Forest, and Deep Dusk Forest

This is yet another random dungeon unlocked from Spinda's Juice Bar! As per usual, in Explorers of Time and Darkness, this dungeon has to be unlocked through an Escort Mission from the Bulletin Board. In both cases, it can only be unlocked after graduation, and in Time and Darkness, you must be at least bronze Rank. Though you have to try to graduate from the guild without having reached Bronze Rank.

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle, and  Lockon Specs,  No-Aim Scopes,  Insomniscopes,  Scope Lenses,  Curve,  Detect,  Patsy,  Persim,  Power,  Racket,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist, and  Zinc Bands,  Def.,  Pass,  Pecha,  Sneak, and  Warp Scarves,  Heal, and  Joy Ribbons,  No-Slip and  No-Stick Caps,  Iron Thorns,  Silver Spikes,  Sticks,  Gravelerocks,  Graveleyrocks,  Geo, and  Gone Pebbles,  Blue,  Brown,  Grass,  Green,  Orange,  Silver,  Sky,  White,  Black,  Clear,  Gold,  Gray,  Pink,  Purple,  Red,  Royal,  Yellow, and  Wander Gummis,  Cheri,  Oran,  Oren,  Pecha, and  Rawst Berries,  Blinker,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Hunger,  Reviser,  Reviver,  Sleep,  Slip,  Stun,  Totter,   Via, and  X-Eye Seeds,  Max and  Mix Elixirs, and assorted  TMs.

In Explorers of Darkness only, you can find  Weather Bands.

Meanwhile, Explorers of Time is the only version where the TMs for  Avalanche,  Dark Pulse,  Skill Swap, and  Stone Edge can be found here.

                 

In addition, this dungeon has Kecleon Shops selling Tier 2 evolution items on the odd-numbered floors starting with floor 3.

Traps:  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Gust,  Mud,  Pitfall,  Poison,  Pokemon,  PP-Zero,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky, and  Warp Traps

Monster Houses are a present threat throughout the dungeon.

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

Happy Outlook [B1F - B3F]

Pokemon:  Metapod,  Oddish,  Persian,  Chikorita,  Togepi,  Togetic,  Sunkern,  Seedot,  Skitty,  Gulpin,  Turtwig,  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny

As per usual, I don't see any of these enemies giving you any trouble by the time you've graduated from the guild, so there's reallly no need to worry about them.

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

Happy Outlook [B4F]

Pokemon:  Metapod,  Oddish,  Persian,  Chikorita,  Togepi,  Togetic,  Sunkern,  Seedot,  Skitty,  Gulpin,  Turtwig,  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny,  Mime Jr.

Mime Jr. joins up on the 4th floor.

It's cloudy on this floor!

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

Happy Outlook [B5F - B9F]

Pokemon:  Metapod,  Oddish,  Persian,  Chikorita,  Togepi,  Togetic,  Sunkern,  Seedot,  Skitty,  Gulpin,  Turtwig,  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny,  Mime Jr.,  Meowth

On the 5th floor, Meowth begins to appear!

It's Cloudy again on the 7th floor.

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

Happy Outlook [B10F - B11F]

Pokemon:  Metapod,  Oddish,  Persian,  Chikorita,  Togepi,  Togetic,  Sunkern,  Seedot,  Skitty,  Gulpin,  Turtwig,  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny,  Mime Jr.,  Meowth,  Blissey

Blissey begins to appear starting on the 10th floor.

 

And, once again, it's Cloudy on the 10th floor! On the 11th floor, I ran into a Kecleon Shop but I didn't have any interest in the items he was selling, so I had to pass it up. Sorry to anyone who might be looking for any of these! You'll find it with enough persistence! Keep trying!

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

Happy Outlook [B12F]

Pokemon:  Metapod,  Oddish,  Persian,  Chikorita,  Togepi,  Togetic,  Sunkern,  Seedot,  Skitty,  Gulpin,  Turtwig,  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny,  Mime Jr.,  Meowth,  Blissey,  Chansey

On the following floor, its pre-evolution Chansey also appears.

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

Happy Outlook [B13F - B14F]

Pokemon:  Metapod,  Oddish,  Persian,  Chikorita,  Togepi,  Togetic,  Sunkern,  Seedot,  Skitty,  Gulpin,  Turtwig,  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny,  Meowth,  Blissey,  Chansey

Mime Jr. is gone on the 13th floor.

 

It was on the 13th floor where I had to pick off an outlaw and... let's just say this is my first chance to show off the sheer power of the newfound Helping Hand+Agility Combo. Magmar didn't stand a chance against the four of us.

On the 14th floor, it's Cloudy again.

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

Happy Outlook [15F]

Pokemon:  Metapod,  Oddish,  Persian,  Chikorita,  Togepi,  Togetic,  Sunkern,  Seedot,  Skitty,  Gulpin,  Turtwig,  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny,  Meowth,  Chansey

Blissey disappears on the 15th floor.

You'll also probably want to explore this floor thoroughly for a special room like this one that always contains a  Reviver Seed.

Unfortunately, in my case, a Happiny somehow happened to coincidentally wander in and pick up that Reviver Seed.

 

Naturally, because wild pokemon have the IQ to use held items in these postgame dungeons, Happiny was able to revive itself with the Revvier Seed, causing it to drop a  Plain Seed instead. That's incredibly unfortunate.

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

Happy Outlook [16F]

Pokemon:  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny,  Chansey

On the 16th floor, only a handful of pokemon remain. This is the first floor with 14 or fewer pokemon, so it's the first floor where all of these pokemon are guaranteed a chance to spawn. It's also the only floor where that's true for Chansey.

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

Happy Outlook [17F - 19F]

Pokemon:  Exeggcutor,  Sunflora,  Cacturne,  Budew,  Happiny

Chansey is gone on the 17th floor.

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

 

Finally, on the 20th floor, there's a single  Deluxe Box.

This Deluxe Box can contain: A  Reviver Seed, a  Blue,  Grass,  Red, or  White Gummi, or a  Sitrus Berry.

Once we've claimed our reward, we step onto the Warp Zone and complete the dungeon! And that's it for today! Next time, we're once again on the grind to pick up the last couple of dungeons that remain. There's only one more dungoen we can unlock through the Juice Bar before I'll resort to a Wonder Mail code for another dungeon we can only access from a random mission at Spinda's Cafe similar to Star Cave. We've also got the remainder of dungeons tied to ranking up in the Master Rank. Then I think we'll do some initial cleanup involving some major recruits, and finally start talking about the elephant in the room that's been looming over us since the postgame began: Zero Isle. We are already drawing closer and closer to the end of this game, but let's not underestimate just how much content there is left to cover. Between just the remaining dungeons, we have at least 11 more updates ahead of us. At at least one or two additional miscellaneous updates, too. Then there's a little bit of extra content to cover outside of these postgame dungeons. See you soon as we continue to make those numbers smaller!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 43: Mt. Mistral

We're back with our postgame adventure! Last time, we explored Happy Outlook. This time, we're kind of back on the grind to unlock just one more dungeon from juice. That means we're going to have to start today's update off with a few more trips through Marine Resort where we'll be hunting down gummis for our team!

While exploring through marine Resort, Manaphy wound up reaching Lv. 46 and I allowed him to learn Water Pulse over BubbleBeam. It might be a bit less powerful but it has more PP and a chance of confusion from a range. I think it's a solid addition! It'll also be linked with Tail Glow, so it's going to get powered up every time he uses it, too.

 

After a single trip through Marine Resort, we had three monster houses that totaled up to all these gummis! That's more than we could possibly carry in the beginning of the game!

 

 

 

Of course, as always, we've got a large selection of new recruits joining our team while going through this process.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Art (Smeargle F); Lv. 14

Item: None

Abilities: Own Tempo, Technician | Moves: ThunderBolt

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

Shower (Buizel F); Lv. 12

Item: None

Ability: Swift Swim | Moves: Water Sport, Quick Atack, Water Gun, Pursuit

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

Appetite (Lickitung F); Lv. 48

Item: None

Abilities: Own Temp, Oblivious | Moves: Rollout, Me First, Refresh, Screech

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

Chops (Kabutops F); Lv. 40

Item: None

Abilities: Swift Swim, Battle Armor | Moves: Endure, Aqua Jet, Mega Drain, Slash

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

Yoom (Igglybuff F); Lv. 14

Item: None

Ability: Cute Charm | Moves: Charm, Defense Curl, Pound, Sweet Kiss

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

Cookie (Krabby F); Lv. 11

Item: None

Abilities: Hyper Cutter, Shell Armor | Moves: Bubble, Vice Grip, Leer, Harden

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

Trap (Trapinch F); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Hyper Cutter, Arena Trap | Moves: Bite, Fury Cutter

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

Stone (Geodude F); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Rock Head, Sturdy | Moves: Tackle, Defense Curl

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

 

And finally, after several trips through Marine Resort, we eventually unlocked the last of these Juice Bar dungeons: Mt. Mistral.

With our preparations made, it's time to set out for what I suspect to be the final "normal" dungeon.

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

Mt. Mistral

The music here is random on each floor. Songs that can play include: Sealed Ruin, Craggy Coast, Dark Crater, and Drenched Bluff.

This is the last of the dungeons unlockable through the juice bar, though because these are unlocked in a random order, that doesn't mean it's the most difficult--far from it. As I've already alluded, that role already belongs to Destiny Tower--there's a reason I haven't exactly jumped with excitement to go there, yet. Anyway, in Explorers of Time and Darkness, you'll of course have to explore this dungeon via an escort mission available at Bronze Rank and above. As you can probably expect, we're once again a bit overlevel for this dungeon, but that's just to be expected this late in the game, really.

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle, and  Lockon Specs,  No-Aim Scopes,  Insomniscopes,  Scope Lenses,  Curve,  Detect,  Patsy,  Persim,  Power,  Racket,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist, and  Zinc Bands,  Iron Thorns,  Silver Spikes,  Sticks,  Gravelerocks,  Graveleyrocks,  Geo, and  Gone Pebbles,  Apples,  Big Apples,  Grimy Food,  Blue,  Brown,  Grass,  Green,  Orange,  Silver,  Sky,  White,  Black,  Clear,  Gold,  Gray,  Pink,  Purple,  Red,  Royal,  Yellow, and  Wander Gummis,  Cheri,  Chesto,  Oran,  Oren,  Pecha, and  Rawst Berries,  Blinker,  Doom,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Eyedrop,  Quick,  Reviser,  Reviver,  Slip,  Totter,  Via,  Violent, and  Warp Seeds,  Ginseng,  Max and Mix Elixirs, and assorted  Wonder Orbs.

In Explorers of Darkness only, you can also find  Weather Bands here.

Don't let the presence of  Ginseng go over your head. That is probably what this dungeon is most known for. Where we've only been able to get Ginseng in very limited quantities throughout the majority of the game, and it's only ever been available as a buried item, it's just laying on out in the open in this dungeon! Granted, this dungeon is a bit high-level for the earliest point you can unlock it, but to just have such a powerful item simply lying around seems ludicrous to me! Anyway, if you're really wanting to power up some moves or you've regretted using the Ginseng you were given throughout the story so early, you can feel free to explore this dungeon as much as you feel is necessary.

                 

There's also a Kecleon Shop selling Tier 2 Evolution items on Odd-numbered floors starting on the third floor.

Traps:  Chestnut,  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Gust,  Mud,  Poison,  Pokemon,  PP-Zero,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon,  Trip, and  Warp Traps

Monster Houses are a present threat throughout the dungeon, so tread carefully. You'll also want to bring a  Key for the sealed chamber below.

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

Mt. Mistral [1F - 19F]

Pokemon:  Pidgeot,  Fearow,  Venomoth,  Aerodactyl,  Jumpluff,  Swellow,  Flygon,  Staraptor,  Mothim,  Drifblim,  Mismagius,  Gliscor

This dungeon has a little bit of everything I've specifically noted as potentially devastating: You've got birds that love Agility and Double Team, bugs who attack the whole room with Silver Wind, Ghosts in the walls, Drifblim's Aftermath, Mismagius's Hypnosis and Confuse Ray, Aerodactyl's Pressure, even Jumpluff's Poison Powder and Leech Seed can get fairly annoying if it comes up at a bad time. And as you can probably tell by the floors, none of these guys are going anywhere. These are the enemies you'll be dealing with throughout the entire dungeon. And there's few enough that you can run into any of them at any point, no 14 species rule to help. Thankfully, we're high enough level to where we really don't have to worry much at all about this stuff anymore. But even still, I can see this dungeon being pretty scary if you got access to it as early as Bronze Rank or Spinda's Cafe.

 

 

The third and sixth floors were rainy while the 5th and 8th floors were Foggy.

 

On the 15th floor, you'll want to explore thoroughly for the Sealed Chamber containing  Grass Silk, which is an exclusive item for all Grass-type pokemon that boosts their Special Attack by 5 and Special Defense by 3.

At the 14th floor, Fog reached Lv. 55 and tried to learn the move Nightmare. If he still had Hypnosis, this would be more or less an objective improvement over it. But for the same logic that drove me to replace Hypnosis for Confuse Ray, I'm not getting rid of Confuse Ray for Nightmare. Pretty much anything I'd want to put to sleep at this point has the Nonsleeper IQ skill. Theoretically, this is more useful for bossfights, but objectively Confuse Ray is just going to be more universal in the things it actually works on.

 

And, of course, we got some new recruits along the way as well.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Sonic (Aerodactyl M); Lv. 38

Item: None

Abilities: Rock Head, Pressure | Moves: Roar, Agility, AncientPower, Crunch

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

Swell (Swellow F); Lv. 37

Item: None

Ability: Guts | Moves: Quick Attack, Wing Attack, Double Team, Endeavor

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

Moth (Mothim M); Lv. 38

Item: None

Ability: Swarm | Moves: PoisonPowder, Psybeam, Camoflauge, Silver Wind

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

 

And with that, the dungeon is completed! We weren't lucky enough to stumble across a Ginseng just yet, but maybe in a future run? Anyway, though the dungeon itself was rather unceremonious, this is a pretty huge milestone for our coverage of Explorers of Sky! This is the last basic dungeon in the game, or so it appears, anyway. I can't really say for sure until we've done every dungeon. But at the very least, the next few dungeons all have pretty major gimmicks to them. Think Wish Cave, Purity Forest, and Meteor Cave. We've got some tough challenges ahead of us. I'm not going to make any promises about my ability to cover it all in my gameplay, but I think by use of Savestates throughout the project, I've been able to save myself enough sanity to hopefully be able to at least attempt each of these dungeons. But we'll have to wait and see how I'm feeling about them in the long run.

Anyway, there is technically one more normal dungeon, I suppose, but it requires a very specific job. I'll see if I can get it to appear at Spinda's Cafe. But I think our next approach is going to be a sort of round 1 cleanup, going back and doing rematches with all of the bosses we've yet to do so with--We've got lots of recruitments ahead of us. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 44: Dial D for Dialga

We continue our postgame adventure! Sorry for the brief break in updates! A handful of unexpected things came up that took my time away from making our next update, but I'm back now! It's time to start making a dent into the first round of cleanup. Just like in Rescue Team, I fully intend to recruit all of the easy static boss recruits. Thankfully, these are much more numerous here in Explorers. Most static bosses are, at worst, 50%. But this time, we're going to be focused on a particular one that's arguably a little bit overdue. But before we get into recruiting Dialga, we've got some missions to cover!

 

I took a quick trip through Crevice Cave to rescue Numel, Kabuto, and Hitmonchan.

 

And with this trip came some new recruits.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Biribiri (Delibird M); Lv. 41

Item: None

Abilities: Vital Spirit, Hustle | Moves: Present

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

Theft (Sneasel M); Lv. 12

Item: None

Abilities: Inner Focus, Keen Eye | Moves: Leer, Taunt, Quick Attack, Screech

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

Helix (Omanyte M); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Swift Swim, Shell Armor | Moves: Constrict, Withdraw

===========

 

Anyway, if you recall, way back when we first started the postgame, I mentioned that you could speak with Lapras at any point to return to the Hidden Land for a rematch with Dialga. But only you and your partner can go together. It is a sacred land, after all.

 

If you agree to go, you'll then be taken straight into the Hidden Land dungeon. Unlike most dungeon revisits, we still can't recruit any pokemon across these dungeons. You do get the waypoint in the middle of these dungeons, however.

 

I was surprised, however, to find that you don't get access to the Kangaskhan Rock outside of Temporal Tower after clearing Hidden Highlands. You're just given a prompt asking if you'd like to proceed to Temporal Tower, then you're dropped right in. I went in with only the safety net for the first dungeon. I had no idea this was going to be two dungeons back to back. I suppose these dungeons are easy enough for us now that we're so high level and really don't have to worry about the enemies. But if we'd come here ASAP at the start of the postgame, I can imagine this being quite worrying.

As we return to Temporal Pinnacle, we find ourselves face to face with Dialga once again--but this time, he's of sound mind. So there's nothing to be afraid of!

 

Dialga concludes the only reason we would return tot he top of Temporal Tower is to issue a challenge to him!

 

 

And so, Dialga accepts our challenge with the promise that he doesn't plan to hold back!

===========

 

Team Flight

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

Skye (Jolteon F); Lv. 67

Item:  Insomniscope | Exclusive:  Evolve Charm,  Eevee Card,  Eevee Tail,  Yellow Silk

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Helping Hand+Agility, Shadow Ball, ThunderBolt

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

Icarus (Lucario M); Lv. 65

Item:  Scope Lens | Exclusive:  Pledge Rock,  Valiant Rock

Abilities: Inner Focus, Steadfast | Moves: Drain Punch, Aura Sphere, Metal Claw, Endure

===========

Vs. Dialga (Rematch)

The fight against Primal Dialga was fairly straight-forward for us. And this time, it's even moreso. We're much better equipped for... pretty much everything. And, unlike Rayquaza in Rescue Team, Dialga doesn't get any stronger in his rematch for some reason. So, this fight is practically free for us at this point in the game.

 

Between Agility, Helping Hand, and Drain Punch, Dialga only lasted moments. He was completely outclassed from the moment the battle began, poor guy.

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

 

And upon his defeat, Dialga asks to join our team!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Time (Dialga); Lv. 48

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Metal Claw, AncientPower, Dragon Claw, Roar of Time

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

And that's that! I apologize that today is a short update after such a long wait, but this was two dungeons in one, plus a few missions. I think it's a reasonable stopping point. I suppose the logical next step is going to be to revisit Shaymin Village. There's still a little bit more we need to touch on surrounding Sky Peak. So, see you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 45: Thanksgiving

We continue with our postgame adventure! Right now we're in a bit of an in between period where we're searching around the world to pick up on some things we could've done at any point up until now. Last time, we revisited the Hidden Land to rematch and recruit Dialga. Now, it's time we finally revisit Shaymin Village. Maybe we can get Shaymin to join us?

 

Shaymin Village

We don't see Shaymin anywhere in Shaymin Village... well, not the Shaymin, anyway. Man, it's not confusing at all that they just use the species name for character names. Anyway, it looks like our best chance of finding him is revisiting Sky Peak. Thanks to Drifblim's Gondola, we can skip straight to the 6th Station Clearing, but we'll need to carefully make our way up.

Once we're up at the 6th Station Clearing, it's time to progress forward. This is essentially an 18-floor dungeon but with waypoints every 4 or 5 floors, so it's really not a challenge at all. Honestly, we probably should've done this right away, but I wanted to hurty to the chance to evolve my starters to get the most gameplay out of them that I could.

 

We pass through the 7th and 8th Station passes and are reunited with Ampharos!

 

 

Ampharos catches us up on what happened with Sneasel: He simply disappeared the next day, but Ampharos suggests he must've recovered his strength, so there's nothing to worry about. He was treated and he's an explorer, after all, so I agree that there's really nothing to worry about. But it seems that, when he left, Sneasel left something behind for us, which Ampharos goes to retrieve.

 

It's a  Sky Gift! As we've previously established, these items are useless when opened yourself, but when received as a gift...

There's an item inside! In our case, it was a  Reviver Seed!

 

Moving right along, the 9th Station Pass is strangely still all ominous and foreboding like it was before... You'd think the last floors would be reworked a little bit after the initial pass through, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Maybe this area just can't be recovered the way the summit was? Maybe it'll take a long time and a large collective effort to keep the environment clean...

Sky Peak Summit

As we reach the Summit, we find Shaymin waiting here for us!

 

 

He's happy to meet us here again and begins telling us all about how special this place is to him and how you can just forget all of your problems. He also notes the oddity that everyone who comes here is always able to just be open. It really must be a special place for him.

 

It seems that our adventure with Shaymin has left a lasting impact on him. And he asks us to let him join our team!

 

Naturally, we agree!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Gratitude (Shaymin); Lv. 55

Item: None

Ability: Natural Cure | Moves: Magical Leaf, Leech Seed, Synthesis, Sweet Scent

Unfortunately, I don't feel quite as strongly about making room for Gratitude on my team as I did for Manaphy. I think the IQ skills Fog provides are far too useful to pass up. But if you want to use him, and I can understand if you would, you can come back here to recruit him immediately after clearing Sky Peak for the first time. There's no need to wait as long as I have.

Anyway, Shaymin is in the A IQ Group with Paras.

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

You might think we'd be kicked out of the dungeon after this, but no, Sky Summit Peak is a calm, quiet area where you're free to roam around like any other hub world.

You can even get that beautiful view all over again by stepping up to the ledge.

 

Once we're done and ready to go, we can head back to Shaymin Village by leaving the way we came... But we're not quite done yet! There's a little bit more I'd like to cover around Shaymin Village that I promised I'd talk a bit about the first time!

First of all,, there's this Shaymin here near the entrance to the Mountain Path. This one will give you a  Gracidea! If you're familiar with our coverage of Platinum, then you can probably hazard a guess as to what this item is used for. From what I understand, you can get as many as you want from this Shaymin here. But I believe you can only get one at a time.

 +  -> 

Though not quite an evolution, the Gracidea can be used on Shaymin in a dungeon to transform him into his Sky Forme! I imagine this will alter his stats slightly, but the main difference is the addition of the Flying type and his ability changing from Natural Cure to Serene Grace. The two pokemon do have different learnsets, though, and I'm not sure how Mystery Dungeon handles it. I'd prioritize trying to level Shaymin up in his Sky Forme as much as you can because any Land Forme-only moves he misses can always be relearned, but Shaymin will revert to his Land Forme whenever he reaches a Waypoint or leaves a dungeon. Also, in the main series, Shaymin's Sky Forme will also revert if it gets frozen, though it's a rare quality to ever encounter since a Sky Shaymin taking an Ice attack generally just results in a KO. I can't say whether or not this quality is translated into Mystery Dungeon or overlooked.

Anyway, we still aren't done with today's update, because there's one last aspect of Shaymin Village I want to touch on. It's small and insignificant, but it's technically new content in Sky, so I wanted to touch on it anyway.

 

If you recall from my initial coverage of Sky Peak Mountain Path, I mentioned that  Sky Gifts can be obtained as regular items. As it turned out, it was pretty difficult to track one down. Even with Goggle Specs, I explored every floor from the start of the Mountain Path and got every item all the way up to the 6th Mountain Pass before I finally found one of these Sky Gifts. I didn't find any at all across both my initial run through and my revisit to the peak. So, the Goggle Specs are definitely recommended if you're seeking these out.

 

While searching for a Sky Gift, I naturally came across a handful of other new recruits as well.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Skull (Skuntank M); Lv. 40

Item: None

Abilities: Stench, Aftermath | Moves: Slash, Toxic, Night Slash, Flamethrower

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

Rage (Primape M); Lv. 42

Item: None

Abilities: Vital Spirit, Anger Point | Moves: Assurance, Rage, Swagger, Cross Chop

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

Dam (Bibarel F); Lv. 42

Item: None

Abilities: Simple, Unaware | Moves: Hyper Fang, Yawn, Amnesia, Take Down

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

Anyway, thankfully, once we've found the Sky Gift, we aren't committed to seeing the dungeon through to the end, even if we don't have or want to use an Escape Orb. We simply have to make it to the next clearing and then double back to return to Shaymin Village.

 

So, now that we've found a Sky Gift for ourselves, how do we send it to someone? Well, there are actually a couple of ways to do this. But the most immediately available is to bring it to Shaymin's Delivery Service. This kind Shaymin will happily work with Pelipper here to deliver your gift to anyone you want!

 

You can send the Sky Gift to any of your guildmates.

Honestly, of everyone at the guild, I think Bidoof is probably the friendliest. So I decided to send the gift to him! Now, we'll have to wait a little bit before we see a response from this, so we're just gonna have to get along with our adventure. Now then, next time, I think it's high time we pay our old friend Palkia another visit. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 46: See You Later, Space Cowboy

We're back with our postgame adventure! Last time we revisited Sky Mountain and got Shaymin to come back with us as part of our team! Now we've got just one more story-related rematch... and that's arguably the most important of them all. It's time we revisit our old friend Palkia! I'm sure he'll be happy to see us again.

But before we get ahead of ourselves, I should mention that our egg hatched into a Hoothoot!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Hoo (Hoothoot F); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Insomnia, Keen Eye | Moves: Tackle, Growl, Foresight, Night Shade

===========

I also swapped a  Lucario Fang,  Lucario Card, and  Pledge Rock for a  Ravage Ring; a Lucario exclusive item that allows him to absorb damage from Psychic attacks. It's a bit of an odd coverage item since Lucario doesn't actually take super-effective damage from Psychic attacks, most of these items cover one of your weaknesses. But draining attacks of a certain type is better than taking neutral damage! Anyway, I was okay with this swap because I had a second Pledge Rock already and I've been leaving the first tier items behind in favor of the extra storage space recently--I'm at the level where the extra help from the stat boosts really isn't all that noticeable anymore.

Anyway, with those details out of the way, it's time to get to the main subject of discussion!

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

Spacial Rift (Revisited)

Now that we're revisiting Spacial Rift in the postgame, I should mention that we can now bring any pokemon we want into the dungeon rather than just being alone with your partner--this isn't a repeat of Temporal Tower. More importantly for completion, you can finally recruit the pokemon here!

 

So, naturally, we got a couple of new recruits along the way!

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Minion (Sableye M); Lv. 48

Item: None

Abilities: Keen Eye, Stall | Moves: Punishment, Shadow Claw, Power Gem, Confuse Ray

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

Tropics (Tropius F); Lv. 50

Item: None

Abilities: Chlorophyll, Solar Power | Moves: Magical Leaf, Body Slam, Synthesis, Air Slash

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

 

At the end of the dungeon, we come face to face with Palkia once again!

 

 

Unfortunately, we don't meet him on quite as friendly of terms as with Dialga. Palkia will fiercely defend his territory, and as the being that controls all space, it does track that his personal space would be far more important to him.

===========

   

Team Flight

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

Skye (Jolteon F); Lv. 69

Item:  X-Ray Specs | Exclusive:  Evolve Charm,  Yellow Silk

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Helping Hand+Agility, Shadow Ball, ThunderBolt

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

Mana (Manaphy); Lv. 50

Item:  Lime Bow | Exclusive:  Tidal Cape,  Blue Silk

Ability: Hydration | Moves: Ice Beam+Acid Armor, Tail Glow+Water Pulse

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

Icarus (Lucario M); Lv. 67

Item:  Scope Lens | Exclusive:  Pledge Rock,  Valiant Rock

Abilities: Inner Focus, Steadfast | Moves: Drain Punch, Detect, Metal Claw, Aura Sphere

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

Fog (Haunter M); Lv. 58

Item:  Detect Band

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Psychic, Dark Pulse+Confuse Ray

===========

Vs. Palkia (Rematch)

Anyway, you already know exactly how this battle is going to go down.

 

We all gather up to brutally ravage Palkia after loading up with my extremely OP Helping Hand+Agility combo. Pretty much nothing can stand up to this unless maybe if it can one-shot my team. Unfortunately, Palkia didn't even get the luxury of trying since, by the time his turn came around, he'd been paralyzed by ThunderBolt.

 

And, you know the drill. Upon defeat, Palkia wants to join your team!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Space (Palkia); Lv. 48

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Water Pulse, AncientPower, Dragon Claw, Spacial Rend

If there is a single pokemon you want to train up for the entirety of a long-term playthrough, it's Palkia. First of all, this monster of a pokemon is the only pokemon in IQ Group J which is by far most well-known for being the only IQ group that gets the skill Absolute Mover. It also comes with a lot of preservation skills like PP Saver, Concentrator which recovers PP each floor, and Energy Saver which reduces Belly consumption. Unfortunately, Palkia doesn't get the Trap Avoiding skills, but throw some Goggle Specs on him and you won't have to worry about it. More importantly, bring a pokemon like Haunter with him and you'll have access to Trap Seer to expose those traps without Goggle Specs! Of course, this is all with massive investment into IQ. You're not going to get access to these IQ skills without a significant amount of grinding--but for long-term play, it's well worth the investment!

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

 

And with that, Palkia is impressed by our skill! He commends our strength and agrees to join our team!

And that's the end of our dungeon! By the way, I mistakenly crossed the names of X-Ray Specs and Goggle Specs in the previous post. I made that realization a bit too late, but I'll try to correct the mistake soon. It was X-Ray Specs that I used to search for Sky Gifts, Goggle Specs wouldn't help all that much in that endeavor.

Anyway, that's it for story-tied rematches! But we're not quit edone... we've still got a decent chunk of the Seven Guardians we've gotta catch up on! So, see you soon when we go to revisit the ones who didn't join us.

[Aura]

Postgame Part 47: Heating Up

We return to our postgame adventure! Last time, we revisited Palkia at Spacial Rift to recruit him! And now our tour of legendary rematches will continue! But first...

 

Remember that Sky Gift we sent a little bit ago? Well, it seems we've gotten a response from Bidoof! A package was left for us at Spinda's Juice Bar.

 

Bidoof thanks us for the gift and shares with us a gift of his own: A  Life Seed!

So yes, as it turns out, sending a Sky Gift to a guildmember is a cute way of essentially just opening the gift for yourself. But it's wrapped in the flavor of a thank-you response to a gift instead!

Items that can be obtained by sharing Sky Gifts include:  Joy,  Life, and  Reviver Seeds,  Sitrus Berries,  Calcium,  Ginseng,  Iron,  Protein,  Zinc,  Gold, and  Prism Tickets.

These are all really powerful items, so it's definitely good to seek these Sky Gifts out whenever you're at Sky Peak! A bit of a shame Wonder Gummis aren't included, too.

Anyway, we're done with recruiting bosses from the main story, now. So it's off to the bosses from those Seven Treasures dungeons! We already have Groudon and Articuno with us, so no need to revisit Shimmer Desert or Mt. Avalanche. The first on our list, then, is Heatran at Giant Volcano! Ironically, this is also the first Seven Treasures dungeon we explored!

===========

Giant Volcano

This dungeon is only 20 floors, so it shouldn't be too much trouble, though we do hurt a bit with the lack of Walrein's Blizzard to protect us from Camerupt's Earth Power--especially with two of our pokemon weak to Ground.

 

Anyway, we continue right along and recruit some new pokemon!

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Ember (Chimchar F); Lv. 5

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Scratch, Leer

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

Neigh (Ponyta M); Lv. 17

Item: None

Abilities: Run Away, Flash Fire | Moves: Growl, Tail Whip, Ember, Flame Wheel

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

 

Unfortunately, we receive the same spiel upon as always when we revisit the guardians of the Seven Treasures.

And, just like with Palkia and Dialga, these bosses aren't any tougher than the first time around, either. Which makes sense since you can recruit them even on your first try.

 

On defeat, they'll actually drop their treasure again, too! Say hello to a second Fiery Drum! Unfortunately, there's no advantage to collecting them all, so you may as well pass any duplicates to friends or sell them to Kecleon.

But, this time we were lucky enough to get the recruit! We can't expect to get so lucky every time, but for now, this is a great start!

===========

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Eruption (Heatran); Lv. 49

Item: None

Ability: Flash Fire | Moves: Metal Sound, Crunch, Scary Face, Lava Plume

===========

Anywyay, this is a short update, but I think this is an important pace to go. Some of these dungeons can get quite long and it's very likely we'll have to explore one or two of them multiple times. Next time, we'll revisit the World Abyss to recruit Giratina. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 48: To the End of the World

You know the drill by now, we're continuing on with recruiting the Seven Guardians! Last time we recruited Heatran from Giant Volcano. This time, we'll need to travel back to the depths of World Abyss to recruit Giratina. So, let's not waste any time!

===========

World Abyss

Revisiting this dungeon actually gave me a bit more of a headache than I'd anticipated. I probably should've taken Hail off the bench for a little bit because Nidoqueen's Earthpower was a nightmare I'd failed to address with my current build. I really hope I can get that Blizzard TM for Manaphy soon... Also, I think I'd underestimated how long this dungeon was because I was pretty short on belly by the end of it. I've gotta be careful with how many Apples I'm bringing into the next few dungeons...

While exploring the dungeon, Skye reached Lv. 71 and tried to learn Thunder. I had to pass on this one. ThunderBolt isn't as strong but it just seems like the objectively better move with the ability to damage multiple opponents and attack around corners. No, I don't really have any intentions of replacing it with a single-targeting attack anytime soon...

 

 

And as per usual, we also got a handful of new recruits while exploring the dungeon.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Fireworks (Electrode); Lv. 42

Item: None

Abilities: Soundproof, Static | Moves: Charge Beam, SelfDestruct, Swift, Magnet Rise

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

Chirp (Pidgey M); Lv. 42

Item: None

Abilities: Keen Eye, Tangled Feet | Moves: Agility, Wing Attack, Roost, Tailwind

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

Howl (Poochyena F); Lv. 15

Item: None

Abilities: Run Away, Quick Feet | Moves: Tackle, Howl, Sand-Attack, Bite

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

Swollen (Swellow F); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Guts | Moves: Wing Attack, Double Team, Endeavor, Aerial Ace

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

 

Of course, we run into Giratina at the end of the dungeon, so we prepare for battle!

Vs. Giratina (Rematch)

Of course, as per usual, this fight is a total joke.

 

Unfortunately, though, we did end up having to use a Reviver Seed against him. Not because he got a dangerous attack on us, but because he used an IQ skill to counterattack Icarus's Metal Claw, causing massive damage. I suppose not every win can be for free. Yikes.

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

 

Of course, Giratina leaves behind another Rock Horn, which we have no need for since we already have one, so we'll just be turning this one over to Kecleon. I'm not really sure why these guys guard these things if they can just make them infinitely like this.

 

We didn't actually make it on our first try, but after a quick bit of save scumming, we were able to recruit Giratina on our second attempt!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Opposition (Giratina); Lv. 48

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Ominous Wind, AncientPower, Dragon Claw, Shadow Force

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

And that's the end of our exploration! But since we've just recruited a pokemon that's quite special in Pokemon Platinum, I wanted to take an extra moment to discuss that the Giratina we just recruited is in its Altered Form. And obviously, in Explorers of Time and Darkness, that's all Giratina is. But Platinum introduced an Origin Forme, and Explorers of Sky introduced Shaymin's Sky Forme which was also from Platinum. So it stands to reason that there must be a way to transform Giratina, right?

Well, in Platinum, this required the Griseous Orb. So maybe it involves an item like that? Well, no, though that would've been a really cool idea for a new plot thread involving Giratina and Arceus. Without the Griseous Orb, the only other way Giratina could assume its Origin Forme is in the Distortion World... and that's sort of the logic this game follows. Yes, unfortunately, you can't freely change Giratina between its Atlered or Origin Forme. Rather, it assumes its Origin Forme only in certain dungeons. Specifically, Sky Peak Mountain Path, Star Cave, and Destiny Tower.

If you bring Giratina to one of these dungeons, its forme will change, and it will gain the Levitate ability. But it'll only remain in its Origin Forme until you leave the dungeon. Notably, these dungeons are all new to Explorers of Time. Likely to avoid conflicting with the fact that Giratina could be brought into any dungeon in its Altered Forme in Explorers of Time and Darkness.

Anyway, that's it for now. Next time, we've just got a couple more Seven Treasures dungeons to revisit! Then we're back to exploring new dungeons! ...well, actually, there is one more dungeon I forgot to revisit before doing this. But we'll go ahead and finish this up first. Anyway, see you next time as we head out for Sky Stairway!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 49: A Ray of Sunshine

You know what we're up to right now, so there's no need to waste much time. We've got two more Seven Treasures dungeons we need to revisit to recruit the treasures' guardians. The next one on the list is Sky Stairway where we'll be paying a visit to Rayquaza! But it's a 50-floor dungeon, so we'd better come prepared!

=========

Sky Stairway (Revisited)

Once again, there's really nothing new to talk about. We're just going through old dungeons again. I'm sorry these aren't the most exciting updates, but once again, I want to pace myself while going through this game. Especially as we transition into the more difficult parts comparable to the ones that got me to the peak of frustration in Rescue Team.

 

 

As per usual, the climb up the stairway brought us many new friends.

===========

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Vire (Gliscor F); Lv. 30

Item: None

Abilities: Hyper Cutter, Sand Veil | Moves: Quick Attack, Fury Cutter, Faint Attack, Screech

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

Stonewall (Rhydon F); Lv. 33

Item: None

Abilities: LightningRod, Rock Head | Moves: Fury Attack, Scary Face, Rock Blast, Take Down

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

Shelly (Shelgon F); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Rock Head | Moves: Headbutt, Focus Energy, Ember, Protect

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

Scream (Misdreavus F); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Confuse Ray, Mean Look, Psybeam, Pain Split

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

Missile (Skarmory M); Lv. 28

Item: None

Abilities: Keen Eye, Sturdy | Moves: Fury Cutter, Feint, Air Cutter, Spikes

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

Copy (Ditto); Lv. 28

Item: None

Ability: Limber | Moves: Transform

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

In addition, Mana also reached Lv. 54 and tried to learn the move Aqua Ring. It can boost her rate of healing which can help keep her alive, and I can link it into another move to make it so it doesn't waste a turn. Even still, I don't think it's worth removing any of the moves she currently knows. Plus, it's made a bit redundant if I bring the Tidal Cape with me.

===========

 

Anyway, when we finally reach the peak, we have to face off against Rayquaza!

 

Vs. Rayquaza (Rematch)

And the battle is over very quickly. But that doesn't change the fact that it took four tries to recruit this bastard. It's really frustrating that they made these bosses a flat 50% recruitment chance that can't even be boosted by the treasures you earn from them!

 

Of course, he leaves the Sky Melodica.

More importantly, he returns three attempts later to join our team! This makes me relieved I've resorted to save state abuse because fuck having to do this whole 50-floor dungeon four times just to recruit one pokemon. Though, to be totally fair, I guess this is much better than the experience of trying to recruit Rayquaza in Rescue Team. There's a reason I never tried for that one.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Orbit (Rayquaza); Lv. 49

Item: None

Ability: Air Lock | Moves: Dragon Claw, Dragon Dance, Crunch, Fly

Rayquaza is in the same IQ Group as Azurill and most bird pokemon, making it incredibly self-sufficient. Not only that, its Dragon Dance is an incredibly powerful move, especially when exploring solo. It can even learn Blizzard by TM! And to make matters even better, its Air Lock ability works like the Cloud Nine ability I so highly praised Psyduck for way back when.

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

Anyway, that's it for today! We've got one more Seven Treasures dungeon to go, so see you next time for our revisit to Mystery Jungle!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 50: From Me to Mew

Before we get into today's main adventure, we've amassed a handful of missions. Since I've now filled up a our accepted jobs list, I wanna take some time to clear these four from Midnight Forest, first. With any luck, we might stumble across a Kecleon Shop with a Link Cable to evolve Fog, too!

 

Our first mission here was a Challenge Letter from Masquerain. He's teaming up with a Girafarig and Stantler! But these guys don't look like too much of a problem.

And, sure enough, with a few Agilities, some steps forward, and a couple of ThunderBolts, the three enemies were downed in seconds. THat was a simple enough mission.

 

We also rescued a lost Torchic, captured the outlaw Misdreavus, and tracked down the thief Treecko to recover Swablu's stolen Warp Seed.

 

Of course, we've also got a few more new recruits along the way.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Spots (Ledyba F); Lv. 14

Item: None

Abilities: Swarm, Early Bird | Moves: Comet Punch, Reflect, Light Screen, Safeguard

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

Horn (Beedrill F); Lv. 31

Item: None

Ability: Swarm | Moves: Pursuit, Toxic Spikes, Pin Missile, Agility

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

Autumn (Nuzleaf M); Lv. 30

Item: None

Abilities: Chlorophyll, Early Bird | Moves: Growth, Nature Power, Fake Out, Torment

===========

And that's it for that exploration! I was able to find two Kecleon Shops selling evolution items, but unfortunately none of them were selling Link Cables, so Fog's going to have to go a bit longer without evolving.

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

Upon returning, we gained enough points for a promotion to Master ** Rank!

 

With this promotion, we've unlocked yet another dungeon: Treacherous Waters!

Also, our Challenge Letter was immediately replaced by another; one that is far more interesting: A challenge from Mewtwo at Sky Stairway! It might take a while for us to prepare for this one. I was not expecting to see this one all of a sudden, but I suppose it only makes sense! Anyway, this request is significant as it's only available in Sky. In Explorers of Time and Darkness, Mewtwo was a version exclusive for Explorers of Darkness and required a special Wi-Fi distribution to be obtained in Explorers of Time. I don't believe any Wonder Mail code would make up for the gap.

With that out of the way, it's time to get going on our real adventure for the day: To recruit Mew from Mystery Jungle!

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

Mystery Jungle

We're in for another 50 floors of fun! Thankfully, I find this dungeon to be a lot more tame than World Abyss, so it's a bit less frustrating to have to navigate in the event it does take you multiple attempts to recruit Mew.

We actually only got one new recruit during this exploration.

===========

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Pouch (Sunkern F): Lv. 18

Item: None

Abilities: Chlorophyll, Solar Power | Moves: Mega Drain, Ingrain, GrassWhistle, Leech Seed

===========

 

Of course, at the end of the dungeon, we've got our rematch with Mew ahead of us.

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

Vs. Mew (Rematch)

...whoops, he's gone.

 

Thankfully, this one only took one attempt to recruit, so even if I weren't using Save States, this wouldn't be a whole thing like Rayquaza was.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Origin (Mew); Lv. 46

Item: None

Ability: Synchronize | Moves: Mega Punch, Metronome, Psychic, Barrier

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

And that's it for the Seven Treasure dungeon revisits! Also, last time I mentioned that there was one dungeon with pokemon we needed to revisit. That was actually false, there are two dungeons that completely slipped my mind. Sorry! But next time, our focus is going to be on revisiting Aegis Cave for a handful more new recruits. Youc an probably guess who. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 51: Back to Hell

Moving right along, this time we're going to be revisiting Aegis Cave. If you recall, we fought four different Legendary Pokemon in there. But also, if you recall, I had some choice opinions about the dungeon. And, sure enough, this took much longer than I ever would've liked. Hence the long wait for this update.

 

Aegis Cave

And sure enough, while I had a vague hope that the stone markers would be gone already since I've already cleared them, of course, they do return, so I'll have to go and collect those Unown Stones all over again. And yes, this took an obnoxiously long time.

 

 

 

 

 

Gathering the 12 stones needed took a long, long time. Four hours, to be exact. That included several trips through the Ice cave. During my rapid descent into madness, I, of course, got a large number of new recruits... mostly just a bunch of unown.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Justice (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Draq (Golbat M); Lv. 45

Item: None

Ability: Inner Focus | Moves: Air Cutter, Mean Look, Poison Fang, Haze

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

Equality (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Destiny (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Friend (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Insight (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Nicities (Unown): Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Brother (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Greatness (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Victory (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Kinship (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Unity (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Awe (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Hell (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

Quiet (Unown); Lv. 43

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Hidden Power

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

After several hours of just looking for a single R-Stone, I eventually made the discovery that the in-game recruitment list actually does list each Unown form separately. Up until now I've just assumed it would only generically list "Unown." This is a big help as this list will tell you whether or not Unown R is capable of spawning on the floor. Even still, knowing this won't make it spawn any more frequently. It took an impossibly long time to find Unown R here. Ideally, you'll want a setup where R is present and as many letters as possible immediately before it, such as N, O, P, and Q are absent. The way the 14 species rule works, this will give R a disproportionately larger spawn rate on that floor. It seems like R specifically has a really low spawn rate, though, because even on floors where it could appear, I very rarely actually encountered it even while stalling out for as long as I could. Eventually, though, I finally found an R Unown and it finally dropped its Unown Stone!

 

After the long trip, I decided I wanted to take a break and put off the rematches with the legendaries on another day. Thankfully, you can bring the Unown Stones with you. And you'll probably want to hold onto any duplicates you get along the way, especially if you're playing on legitimate hardware because if you fail to recruit any of these legendaries, you'll need to redo these again.

In addition, I brought the Icy Flute and Rock Horn thinking they would help with the recruitment rates for Regirock and Regice. However, as it turns out, I somehow missed the fact that these recruits are just like the guardians of the Seven Treasures. So no, you don't need to bring these items and they're completely useless once again. I don't understand why the devs hate the player so much.

 

Anyway, an egg we received from one of the missions we completed last time hatched into a Budew! And as you can tell by the nickname, I wasn't exactly in the best mood at this point. Poor guy didn't deserve this.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Dumb Plant (Budew M); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Natural Cure, Poison Point | Moves: Absorb, Sleep Powder, Pin Missile, Spikes

===========

With the Unown Stones gathered, we start our push! With the I-, C-, and E-Stones, we open the way to Regice's Chamber.

 

And in preparation, I replaced Skye's X-Ray Specs with Icy Flute.

 

And so, our fight with Regice begins!

...aaaand it's done.

 

Upon defeating Regice a second time, there's a 50% chance that it'll return to pledge its services to you. If you do not get it on your first try, then it's back to grinding for Unown Stones for a third time in a row. Fuck. This. So. Much.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Frost (Regice); Lv. 46

Item: None

Ability: Clear Body | Moves: Icy Wind, Curse, SuperPower, AncientPower

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

 

Thankfully, since we already have the stones we need, we don't have to dabble in the Rock or Steel caves. We can just jump right into the Regirock and Registeel Chambers respectively.

 

We continue into Regirock's Chamber and make quick work of it as well. With some luck, I recruited it on my first try, too! Fantastic!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Landslide (Regirock); Lv. 46

Item: None

Ability: Clear Body | Moves: Rock Throw, Curse, SuperPower, AncientPower

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

 

 

We repeat the story with Registeel and, again, thankfully, I was lucky enough to get this one on the first try. Of course, had I failed this recruitment, I can only imagine how disheartening it would be to have to go back through the dungeon to find more Unown Stones to get back to it.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Meteor (Registeel); Lv. 46

Item: None

Ability: Clear Body | Moves: Metal Claw, Curse, SuperPower, AncientPower

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

After clearing Registeel's Chamber, we have to push our way through the Aegis Cave Pit to reach Regigigas's CHamber.

 

As we arrive at the final chamber, we're met once again with the same swarm of frozen pokemon guarding the treasure of Concealed Ruin.

 

Though the fight comes with an intimidating amount of enemies, all the pokemon involved go down like paper just as they did before, even easier, really.

 

And thankfully, unlike the others, this one is a 100% recruitment rate. After you defeat Regigigas once, you'll automatically recruit it!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Gaia (Regigigas); Lv. 49

Item: None

Ability: Slow Start | Moves: Confuse Ray, Knock Off, Dizzy Punch, Fire Punch

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

And that's it for today! Sorry for the wait, but this dungeon is absolutely garbage and I don't plan to do this ever again. At least not anytime soon. If we ever reach a point where a remake is released of this game, though, we'll likely have to cover that one day, too. Hopefully this dungeon will be improved, though. At the very least, I'd suspect the Legendary Golems would become 100% recruitment rates. But man, these Unown Stones are a goddamn nightmare. I genuinely felt like I was going insane going four hours without getting a single R-Stone despite having found almost a whole second set of stones of the other letters without even looking for them. And I was using X-Ray Specs to track all the Unown as they spawned in! This is by far the worst dungeon in the game, and I'm confident saying that even over the game's ultimate challenges. At least those dungeons will come with a sense of thrill and excitement as you near the end, even if failure is incredibly disappointing.

Anyway, next time there is one last pokemon we need to revisit. Another like Shaymin that I somehow managed to forget about before the Seven Treasures. So next time, we'll set out for Miracle Sea! See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 52: Mew Who?

So, things go a little bit differently today than I was intending. To start with, I wanted to draw attention to this job I got recently! The reward is a Blizzard TM which I've been looking for ever since I decided to start bringing Mana along. This is quite a ways into the dungeon, though, so it's going to be a bit of an ask. Even still, I think it's more than worth the effort. It looks like we'll be pretty much going through the entirety of Bottomless Sea again anyway even though we recruited Kyogre the first time around.

 

Of course, we've got new recruits here!

===========

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Tsunami (Gyarados M); Lv. 42

Item: None

Ability: Intimidate | Moves: Ice Fang, Aqua Tail, Rain Dance, Hydro Pump

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

Flu (Horsea F); Lv. 11

Item: None

Abilities: Swift Swim, Sniper | Moves: Bubble SmokeScreen, Leer, Water Gun

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

Star (Starmie); Lv. 43

Item: None

Abilities: Illuminate, Natural Cure | Moves: Rapid Spin, Recover, Swift, Confuse Ray

===========

 

It isn't too rough reaching the 42nd floor and rescuing the Sealeo in question!

And with that, we receive our Blizzard TM! But not only are we about to get Blizzard for Mana, but Skye, also, has reached a very important milestone.

 

I happen to still have those two Joy Seeds saved up for this very purpose: Skye has just reached Lv. 76 during that last exploration, so I can now use these Joy Seeds to bump her level up to Lv. 78 where she'll be learning her final move: Discharge. With this, she has a room-wide attack o fher own! This was the whole reason I wanted to evolve Skye into Jolteon in the first place and, I have to admit, I had no idea it would take so incredibly long to reach this point. But, we're finally here! Honestly, had I known this was going to take so long, I definitely would've brought Pachirisu along and evolved Skye into something like an Umbreon or Vaporeon instead. But regardless, this is how things played out and I don't really have much control over that. Let's use this newfound power to carry us through the rest of the game! Or, at least as much as we're allowed to.

Anyway, I also used the TM to teach Mana Blizzard over Ice Beam.

 

One last addition I made was that I used my Ginseng to power up Skye's Discharge. Now this attack will be doing even more damage to absolutely destroy bosses, likely even being able to handle Ground-types! Just gotta watch out for pokemon with LightningRod or Motor Drive.

 

Lastly, I needed to re-link some moves. I decided to link Discharge in with Agility and Helping Hand. Honestly, Helping Hand isn't all that necessary and I might find more use in replacing Helping Hand with a move like Pin Missile. But for now, this is set really drives home just how OP Agility is. Before anyone even gets the change to move, I'll be able to unload four Discharge+4's into every single pokemon in the room, each with a chance of inflicting paralysis to boot.

I also swapped the moves Tail Glow and Acid Armor were linked to, figuring Blizzard would probably benefit more from being pre-empted by Tail Glow than Acid Armor since it'll be damaging all enemies in the room.

One more detail that caught me by surprise is a new mission type this late in the game! This is a Treasure Memo, a type of job that you can only get from bottles washed ashore on the beach! Up until now, I was under the impression that these things just stopped spawning after Team Raider showed up as I hadn't seen a single one since, but this proves me wrong! Anyway, this mission type doesn't tell you what dungeon it's set in. You have to sus it out based on the mission description. In this case, I suspect the dungeon in question is Concealed Ruins. I'll take the time to explore this task sooner or later, but it's a bit more involved than a typical job, so we'll have to put it on the To-do list for now.

 

That said, because we got this new Job so quickly, we're going to have to clear up space in case any other interesting jobs come up. That means we're going to have to put off what we were originally planning to do today in favor of taking on this challenge letter we received from Mewtwo last time at Sky Stairway! That means another quite long excursion into another dungeon. So, off we go to Sky Stairway!

===========

 

 

And of course, more new recruits come along with this one, too.

===========

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Hailfire (Gabite M); Lv. 33

Item: None

Ability: Sand Veil | Moves: Take Down, Sand Tomb, Slash, Dragon Claw

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

Fall (Leafeon F); Lv. 33

Item: None

Ability: Leaf Guard | Moves: Sand-Attack, Razor Leaf, Quick Attack, Synthesis

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

Schnoz (Probopass M); Lv. 33

Item: None

Abilities: Sturdy, Magnet Pull | Moves: Magnet Bomb, Block, Thunder Wave, Rock Slide

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

History (Claydol); Lv. 30

Item: None

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Psybeam, Rock Tomb, SelfDestruct, AncientPower

=========

We also rescued a lost Tentacool along the way.

==========

 

And finally, we have our fated encounter with Mewtwo on the 40th floor as promised!

===========

   

Team Flight

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

Skye (Jolteon F); Lv. 79

Item:  X-Ray Specs | Exclusive:  Evolve Charm,  Yellow Silk

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Dischrage(+4)+Agility+Helping Hand, Shadow Ball

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

Mana (Manaphy); Lv. 60

Item:  Lime Bow | Exclusive:  Tidal Cape,  Blue Silk

Ability: Hydration | Moves: Tail Glow+Blizzard, Water Pulse+Acid Armor

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

Icarus (Lucario M); Lv. 75

Item:  Scope Lens | Exclusive:  Pledge Rock,  Valiant Rock

Abilities: Inner Focus, Steadfast | Moves: Drain Punch, Aura Sphere, Metal Claw, Endure

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

Fog (Haunter M); Lv. 68

Item:  Detect Band

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Shadow Ball, Psychic, Dark Pulse+Confuse Ray

===========

Vs. Mewtwo

It's the Ultimate Pokemon Mewtwo! But... something about him doesn't feel so "ultimate"...

 

As you can probably expect, attaching Discharge to Agility is incredibly overpowered for these boss fights. And Mewtwo goes down by the time I'm even fully set up with Agility and ready to use Shadow Ball, the move I actually intended to use against him. That's just the beauty of this combination of moves, though. It's a shame that Mewtwo didn't actually get much of a chance to... exist. Oh well.

That's that for our revisit to Sky Stairway!

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

 

Upon returning to the guild, it seems we've impressed Mewtwo with our power! He wants to join our team, just like Jirachi! How could we turn down such a rare opportunity?

===========

Mutation (Mewtwo); Lv. 80

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Mist, Me First, Amnesia, Psychic

===========

In addition, the points we got from completing this mission were enough to promote us to Master *** Rank!

 

With this promotion, we've gained access to yet another new dungeon. But once again, we've still got some catching up to do with some old dungeons.

It might seem like we're shooting through these ranks, but our next promotion is going to take a lot longer to reach. So we'll have to sit back at this rank for quite a while.

Anyway, that's it for today! We're almost over the hill with this grind of revisits and rehashes, I promise it won't be much longer before we start exploring new dungeons again! But we've still got a little further to go! See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 53: Finding Phione

We're finally down to the last dungeon we need to revisit! Another one I kind of forgot about before diving into the Seven Treasures dungeons again. I do apologize that the last handful of updates have probably been quite underwhelming, both being spaced out so far apart and being so short with very little to actually talk about. It's all due to my poor foresight on how I wanted to handle things in this game, in all honesty. I've just found myself so consistently disappointed with how long I'd have to wait to get all of the things I wanted from the beginning that I wanted to put everything off until I could get to this point. The primary reason I was excited to start with Eevee in the first place was because I knew I'd be able to evolve into Jolteon and learn Discharge. I had no idea it would take so long to get to this point and by now there's very little chance to actually showcase how powerful that technique is. I held off all of these revisits until this point to show off this very fact, but even after evolving Skye I still hadn't realized that it would take until Lv. 78 for her to actually learn Discharge. Not only that, but I also had to suffer a bit of a downgrade when I chose to bring Manaphy along in place of Hail. I was starting all over again on IQ for that party member and I didn't even have Blizzard! Thankfully, Agility and ThunderBolt were able to make up for the lack of a room-wide attack, but now that we're at this position, I really feel like I can take on just about anything the game could possibly throw at me! But now I'm starting to realize the opposite problem. I'm so overpowered for all of these things that none of it really matters. And when I get into the actual challenging dungeons, it's still not going to matter because my level will be reset to 1 anyway.

That said, as I promised last time, we're about to be over the hill of rehashed content. This is the last dungeon revisit before we can start actually exploring new dungeons again. And as you're probably familiar, we've got quite a lineup of dungeons to begin exploring! We've still got the ultimate maze in Marowak Dojo we've never touched, then there's the three dungeons we've unlocked from the Master * Ranks, then the Zero Isle dungeons, and finally there's Destiny Tower which we unlocked from Spinda's Juice Bar. Oh, and there's one more dungeon that's unlockable in a similar manner to the Seven Treasures dungeons for us to explore, I'd like to wait and see if we can get that one to appear naturally before forcing it via Wonder Mail.

Anyway, without further ado, let's get over this final hill, shall we? It's actually a very short trip this time in contrast to the last couple of gameplay ventures, hence why I'm starting this post in the same day. Something I haven't done in quite a while. Anyway, we're going to be revisiting Miracle Sea, where we went to search for the Phione Dew we needed to cure Manaphy's illness.

 

Miracle Sea

The first part of Miracle Sea was almost entirely uneventful. I kinda forgot how short this dungeon was relative to the 40-50 floors we've been exploring recently. After only 18 floors we'd already arrived at a waypoint, something else I'd almost completely forgot what it was like to reach. Free HP and PP recovery partway through the dungeon is always welcome. Though I've gotten so used to playing conservatively with PP that I really didn't need it at all. But I'm thankful nonetheless! This isn't a luxury I'll have forever.

In Deep Miracle Sea, we stumbled across a single new recruit.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Amoray (Huntail M); Lv. 47

Item: None

Ability: Swift Swim | Moves: Baton Pass, Dive, Crunch, Aqua Tail

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

 

As we reach the Seabed, we find a school of Phione just like before! At least one of them seems to recognize us and wants to join our team! It's a bit of an awkward scene because there is absolutely no dialogue at all. Which is especially odd given how important these little guys were in saving Manaphy's life. Regardless, this is another free recruit like Shaymin--no boss fight necessary! Which is probably a good thing because I would just feel bad having to nuke this whole room of Phione with Discharge.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Phone (Phione); Lv. 40

Item: None

Ability: Hydration | Moves: Charm, SuperSonic, Acid Armor, Bubble

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

Phione is one of the most head-scratching pokemon in existence and that holds true even here. The only reason you would ever use this thing over Manaphy is the simple fact that you like its design more. These two pokemon are functionally identical, but you get Manaphy for free. Granted, you can technically get Phione sooner than Manaphy returns, as you can come back here at any point after your initial visit to recruit it. But that involves exploring this entire dungeon again while you get Manaphy for free just completely ignoring Phione. But if you really want Manaphy-in-spirit before you can actually get Manaphy in the flesh, I suppose you can come back to Miracle Sea immediately after recovering the Phione Dew and use it throughout the postgame. It just seems like a lot of wasted effort when you're very likely to already have a well-trained Water type by this point.

Anyway, that's it for our revisit to Miracle Sea! I told you there wasn't much to cover. I probably could've paired this with the previous post after all, but I figured Mewtwo deserved his own spotlight. Anyway, that's it for that! Next time, I think it's finally time we revisit Marowak Dojo! It's been a while and I'm sure we're more than prepared for whatever challenges await us there! See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 54: Final Maze

We're finally over the hill of revisiting old dungeons! Which means, by proxy, we're back to exploring new dungeons! And what better place to start than one of the dungeons that have been eyeing us in the face since we started the postgame? That's right. Today, we're exploring the Final Maze in Marwak Dojo.

As per usual, you want to make sure not to have any items or money on you before going forward. It's a maze just like any other in Marowak Dojo, so it still follows the same rules. All items in your current inventory will be deleted and, while you're allowed to bring money in, there's no reason to without any Kecleon Shops inside. Any items you gather inside you're free to keep, but any items you bring in are gone the moment the dungeon begins.

 

Final Maze Entrance

To enter the Final Maze, you'll need to go inside this opening that revealed itself way back when we first graduated from the guild. Inside, there's a mysterious cavern with a strange light inside of it... It's very pretty, but Marowak warned us that it there was great danger back here, so we'd best be on our guard.

To enter the dungeon, simply approach the glowing light in the center of the chamber and it'll take you there.

 

Of course, as I mentioned earlier, yo0u want to make sure you don't have any items in your inventory before entering or you're in for a spot of trouble.

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

Final Maze

Right away, this dungeon doesn't seem like it'll be all that bad. It's pretty much just all of the mazes explored so far combined into one. But as you progress, you'll quickly realize this is a lot more of a challenge than just getting through a few floors. This is our first endurance challenge. The dungeon is 48 floors long and populated with all the pokemon from the other mazes! Not only that, but the pokemon here are stronger than they were in the other dungeons as well, with levels ranging from 40 to 50. Hence why it might not be the best idea to explore this dungeon asap. That said, since you enter with your pockets empty, there's nothing to really lose and everything to gain. So I suppose you can consider this a solid training opportunity as well!

Another way this dungeon differs from the other mazes is that the pokemon in here can actually be recruited! You'll also actually lose items from your inventory if you get KO'd. So don't be reckless if you have rare items!

In Explorers of Time and Darkness, this dungeon also provides a special purpose, though that purpose isn't present here in Sky making this dungeon admittedly significantly less exciting.

Items:  Poke,  Apples,  Blue,  Brown,  Grass,  Green,  Orange,  Silver,  Sky,  White,  Black,  Clear,  Gold,  Gray,  Pink,  Purple,  Red,  Royal, and  Yellow Gummis,  Cheri,  Chesto,  Oran,  Pecha, and  Rawst Berries,  Max Elixirs,  Blast,  Blinker,  Heal,  Pure,  Reviver,  Sleep,  Stun,  Totter,  Violent,  Warp, and  X-Eye Seeds, assorted  Wonder Orbs,  TMs, and  HMs, and finally,  Link Boxes.

A few things to note here: Since you can't bring items in and this dungeon is quite long, you'll find yourself relying a lot more on items like Gummis, Berries, and Seeds to fill your belly. To optimize the amount of distance you can travel, try to cherish your food items for as long as you can until your belly is empty and your HP is low so you have to eat to keep going any further. Since items like Seeds and Berries don't fill your belly much, this will make it so you aren't constantly shoving Heal Seeds down your gullet and running on empty halfway through the dungeon. 5 belly might not seem like much, but you'll be surprised how quickly you can recover HP before you get hungry again. IQ skills that reduce belly depletion and moves like Synthesis or Recover that restore your HP are also incredibly helpful here. If you're lucky enough to find an Apple, cherish it. That 50 Belly is a godsend that will save you from wasting a lot of really nice Gummis.

Another detail, this dungeon is an exception to the typical rule. TMs like  Avalanche,  Dark Pulse,  Skill Swap, and  Stone Edge are also available here in Explorers of Sky! Normally they're only available in Explorers of Time, so pay extra attention to those TMs you find on the ground if any of these moves are interesting to you. The only other way to get these TMs is through Lottery tickets and Mission rewards.

Lastly, every  HM is available here. Just like the above TMs, HMs are only available as mission rewards and through Lottery Tickets at the Recycle Shop. While HM moves are often questionable in their usefulness, especially since this game doesn't lock any dungeons behind them, these are significant in that they don't get consumed when used. It's nice to have splashable moves to just throw onto any pokemon that can benefit from them. And unlike in the main series, they're easily replaced, too. Of course, do note that these are Gen IV HMs only, moves like  Flash and  Dive are normal TMs in this game.

There are no traps or monster houses, so there's no fear of that. Just make sure to conserve your belly as you get greedy for items.

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

Final Maze [B1F - B48F]

Pokemon:  Machop,  Magnemite,  Doduo,  Omanyte,  Kabuto,  Spinarak,  Mareep,  Misdreavus,  Swinub,  Houndour,  Phanpy,  Magby,  Poochyena,  Shroomish,  Mawile,  Meditite,  Bagon,  Staravia,  Skorupi,  Carnivine

As mentioned above, every pokemon that appears throughout the other mazes appears in this dungeon at significantly higher levels. The biggest threats here are Doduo and Skorupi who both have multi-hit moves that can really punish you if you find them at a bad time when employing the belly conservation strat I outlined above, Swinub who can unexpectedly hit your team with Blizzard, Omanyte, Kabuto, and I wanna say Bagon can all stall you out with Endure and similar moves, but the biggest danger of all is Misdreavus who can hit your team with Perish Song and end your whol run abruptly. Having a leader with a room-wide attack is a must for this dungeon. Otherwise you could be done for completely before you even know what hit you.

 

On floors 23, 29, and 40, you'll notice the tileset is diffent suddenly. For all other floors, the tileset is the same as the first floor. What's up with this? Well, the answer lies in Explorers of Time and Darkness.

In those versions only, the pokemon  Jirachi,  Suicune, and  Moltres can be found on each of these floors respectively. So if you're playing the original games, you'll want to stop what you're doing on these floors and hunt these guys down. Of course, due to the 14 species rule, they aren't guaranteed to be able to appear. Check your Recruitment list to see if they're available before trying to hunt them down or move on! Worth noting, these aren't boss fights or automatic recruits like most legendaries and mythicals we've encountered so far. Suicune and Moltres have a base 30% recruitment rate while Jirachi has a base -12% recruitment rate. Since there are no legendary treasures associated with Jirachi's type, you'll want to bring a high-level pokemon with at least a  Friend Bow and ideally the Fast Friend IQ skill, too. Manaphy gets it! Again, there are some better items than the Friend Bow ahead, so you may not want to stress over recruiting Jirachi in Explorers of Time and Darkness just yet.

 

While exploring, Mana reached Lv. 61 and tried to learn Dive. Needless to say, I passed on it. This move is extremely situational and borderline unusable in nearly every dungeon. I also got a new recruit! I probably already had a Kabuto, but I already know I have several duplicate recruits anyway, so what's one more?

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Shield (Kabuto F); Lv. 50

Item: None

Abilities: Swift Swim, Battle Armor | Moves: Aqua Jet, Mega Drain, Metal Sound, AncientPower

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

After 48 floors, the dungeon rather unceremoniously comes to an end. But we made it!

 

Marowak is surprised to see us return in one piece! Finally, someone has conquered the Final Maze!

 

Marowak gets quite emotional over this triumph and decides to share his grandfather's treasure with us as thanks for conquering the dungeon. And that item is...

A  Brown Bow... identical to the held item we got for free at the beginning of the game. Okay, technically, I suppose it's quite likely you may have lost your initial bow at the start of the game, and this is quite a nice Held Item if you don't have anything else you want a pokemon to have, it's a solid stat boost over something like a Defense Band, but it's not exactly super exciting. Oh well, I suppose the real reward is whatever you were able to recover along the way through the dungeon. Maybe you can make some good use out of those HMs!

 

Marowak tells us that his grandfather would've been overjoyed to hear this news, so that explains why he'd give us something so sentimental. I do think it would probably be better treasured by him, but I suppose it's rude to turn down a gift like this? Anyway, that's it for now! Next time, we'll start turning our attention toward the dungeons we've unlocked through reaching higher ranks! See you soon!

[Aura]

 

Postgame Part 55: Oblivion Forest

We're finally back in business! We've unlocked a handful of dungeons by ranking up our Exploration Team. Now it's time to check these new dungeons out! Starting with Oblivion Forest! But as you can see, there's a bit of a catch. This dungeon has some special rules in place, similar to the Marowak Dojo. All items except for the first 8 in your inventory will disappear, as will any money you try to bring with you. Beyond that, you can also only bring a party of two pokemon. Lastly, rescues are impossible in these dungeons, so you'll need to be careful about what you bring with you.

And so, here are the items I decided to bring! Restricting yourself to only one page of items means you have to compromise on a lot of the things you normally bring for security. These are the items I decided to bring, though in retrospect it may have been smart to leave the Gravelerocks and one of the Reviver Seeds for an Escape and Cleanse Orb, but it's whatever. I also decided to bring Skye and Icarus alone since they've already been through so much of the game together, I figured it would be nice to see them exploring together now that they're in peak form.

Without further ado, let's head into Oblivion Forest!

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

Oblivion Forest

The music in this dungeon is random each floor. Songs that can play here include: Murky Forest, Quicksand Cave, and Mystifying Forest.

This tileset used in this dungeon was also used in the Final Maze, I forgot to mention an interesting bit of trivia about this tileset in that it was actually a tileset that was unused in Rescue Team. Supposedly, it was a tileset that was intended for use in Purity Forest but was left unused in the final game for some reason. But, it finally saw the light of day here in Explorers!

Anyway, this dungeon is only available in Explorers of Sky and is unlocked by reaching the Master * Rank which, in turn, is only reachable after graduating from the Guild, cementing this as a post-game dungeon. It's fairly short, only 15 floors, so you don't have to worry too much about things like hunger or PP. Even still, you never fully know what to expect, so you don't want to be reckless! As mentioned above, you can only bring 8 items in, no money, and only two party members including the leader. You cannot be rescued from an exploration in this dungeon, so don't take unnecessary risks!

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle Specs,  No-Aim Scopes,  Insomniscopes,  Curve,  Detect,  Persim,  Power,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist, and  Zinc Bands,  Gold,  Heal, and  Joy Ribbons,  Munch Belts,  No-Slip Caps,  Pecha, and  Warp Scarves,  Apples,  Gravelyrock,  Black,  Blue,  Brown,  Clear,  Gold,  Grass,  Gray,  Green,  Orange,  Pink,  Purple,  Red,  Royal,  Silver,  Sky,  White, and  Yellow Gummis,  Cheri,  Chesto,  Oran,  Oren,  Pecha, and  Rawst Berries,  Blinker,  Doom,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Eyedrom,  Joy,  Quick,  Reviser,  Sleep,  Slip,  Stun,  Totter,  Via,  Vile,  Warp, and  X-Eye Seeds,  Max and  Mix Elixirs, and assorted  Wonder Orbs

I'm not totally certain if it's new or not, but the  Munch Belt was a rather special item in Rescue Team, only obtained from Munchlax. It does the same thing here, it gives you a solid boost to your Attack and Defense, but empties your belly faster which, to me, is just a bit too much of a tradeoff, especially in a game where you can't just switch leaders on the fly.

Traps:  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Grudge,  Gust,  Mud,  PP-Zero,  Random,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon, and  Warp Traps.

It might be a surprise this late in our coverage of the game, but there are some new traps to be found here!

The  Grudge Trap is only in Explorers of Sky. It's sort of like an advanced Summon Trap. It warps all pokemon on the floor to you and gives them all the Grudge Status, which means that if you use a move to KO them, that move's PP will be reduced to Zero. As you can imagine, this can be a pretty devastating trap to trigger.

The  Random Trap is another Sky-exclusive trap and is simultaneously what you expect it to be as well as a lot more dangerous than you'd expect. The part you'd expect is that it takes on the effect of a random trap when stepped on it, meaning you need to watch out for the effects of all possible traps if this thing is present, not just the ones available in the dungeon. But beyond that, this trap also affects every pokemon in the active party, not just the one that stepped on the trap. Depending on the effect that is selected, you could be looking at a devastating blow to your PP. If you step on one, stay calm, work out the best way to resolve whatever effects it causes, and most importantly carefully manipulate your teammate's movements to ensure they avoid the trap themselves to avoid even more devastating effects.

Monster Houses are a present threat throughout the dungeon, and they can be fairly devastating if you don't have an answer to them.

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

Oblivion Forest [B1F - B14F]

Pokemon:  Beedrill,  Parasect,  Poliwhirl,  Pinsir,  Ledian,  Scizor,  Heracross,  Ninjask,  Crawdaunt,  Torterra, Carnivine,  Abomasnow,  Tangrowth

There are lots of dangerous pokemon in this dungeon! Beedrill, Ledian, and Ninjask have Agility, while Ninjask has Speed Boost which can make it a problem if it's around for too long. I'm uncertain if Parasect can have Spore or if it's bound to its four most recent moves at its level, and same story for Ledian and Ninjask with Silver Wind, but you probably don't wanna take any chances with that. Pinsir has Guillotine which will one-shot you if it lands (thankfully Crawdaunt isn't high enough level to have it), and Abomasnow has Blizzard and Snow Warning which can be pretty annoying. Be prepared for the worst! Especially when paired with some of the dangerous traps in this dungeon!

 

The default weather is Foggy on Floors 3 and 5, and Cloudy on Floors 8 and 9. But Abomasnow's presence will often make the weather Hail anyway.

Also, on the 10th floor, a Monster House has a 20% chance of spawning without any items, so be on your guard even if the room appears to be empty!

Finally, on the final floor is a  Deluxe Box for you!

The box can contain a:  Wonder Gummi,  Joy,  Life, or  Reviver Seed, or  your leader's lowest-tier exclusive item! Perhaps you may want to consider taking on this dungeon's challenge with a variety of leaders to get their exclusive items? I really don't think it's too terribly worth it, but I suppose you can use them to help swap for rarer exclusive items!

 

Anyway, once you've claimed your prize, it's off to the Warp Zone to end the dungeon! And that's that! Next time, we'll continue down this list of newly unlocked dungeons by heading off to Treacherous Waters! See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 56: Treacherous Waters

We're ready to explore another dungeon! This time, it's Treacherous Waters! We actually got a Bulletin Board mission here so that's all the more reason to make our way there! Just like Oblivion Forest, Treacherous Waters only allows you to bring 8 items and no money.

Here are the items I decided to bring. Perhaps a Big or Huge Apple might be in order for the later dungeons to be extra safe. But for now, this covers most of our needs. This dungeon's a bit longer than Oblivion Forest, so come prepared.

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

Treacherous Waters

The music in this dungeon is random each floor. The songs that can play include: Dark Hill, Sealed Ruin, Dark Crater, and Deep Dark Crater

This is the second of the secret Sky-exclusive dungeons unlocked by promoting to ranks beyond Master Rank. This one is unlocked by reaching Master ** Rank which is only possible after graduating from the guild.

You can only enter this dungeon with a maximum of 8 items in your inventory. All items past the 8th slot, and all money, will disappear when you enter the dungeon. You can also only bring one partner, everyone else will automatically be sent to the Assembly before entering the dungeon. This dungeon is slightly longer than its predecessor, being 20 floors instead of 15. Though I personally found the selection of pokemon here to be a lot less dangerous than in Oblivion Forest, so I wouldn't say it's objectively harder. Even still, it isn't without its threats.

I didn't mention it last time, but because this is a dungeon where you're only allowed to bring one partner, you're also not allowed to recruit any pokemon here. Same can be said about Oblivion Forest, too.

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle Specs,  No-Aim Scopes, Insomniscopes,  Curve,  Detect,  Persim,  Power,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist, and  Zinc Bands,  Gold,  Heal, and  Joy Ribbons,  Munch Belts,  No-Slip Caps,  Pecha, and  Warp Scarves,  Apples,  Gravelyr Rocks,  Black,  Blue,  Brown,  Clear,  Gold,  Grass,  Gray,  Green,  Orange,  Pink,  Purple,  Red,  Royal,  Silver,  Sky,  White, and  Yellow Gummis,  Cheri,  Chesto,  Oran,  Oren,  Pecha, and  Rawst Berries,  Blinker,  Doom,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Eyedrop,  Joy,  Quick,  Reviser,  Sleep,  Slip,  Stun,  Totter,  Via,  Vile,  Warp, and  X-Eye Seeds,  Max, and  Mix Elixirs, and assorted  Wonder Orbs

Traps:  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Grudge,  Gust,  Mud,  PP-Zero,  Random,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon, and  Warp Traps

Monster Houses are an ever-present threat throughout the dungeon.

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

Treacherous Waters [B1F - B6F]

Pokemon:   Gastrodon*,  Kingler,  Tentacruel,  Slowbro,  Staryu,  Dragonair,  Corsola,  Octillery,  Wailmer

*Gastrodon's  East Sea form is only available on Odd-numbered floors while its  West Sea form is only available on Even-numbered floors. Both forms are functionally identical, only visually distinct.

Definitely watch out for Kingler! It knows Guillotine! Other than that, Corsola has Earth Power and Slowbrow, Tentacruel, and Octillery come with their usual concerns. Wailmer can also be fairly annoying wasting time with Bounce. Make sure to turn off your partner's attacks if they're adjacent to a midair Wailmer, they will still try to attack even if their attack obviously won't land. PP Conservation is very important in a dungeon like this.

The weather is rainy on the 5th floor

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

Treacherous Waters [B7F - B12F]

Pokemon:   Gastrodon,  Tentacruel,  Slowbro,  Staryu,  Dragonair,  Corsola,  Octillery,  Wailmer,  Pelipper

On the 7th floor, Kingler takes its leave and is replaced by Pelipper.

The weather on Floors B7, B10, and B12 are all Rainy.

On the 9th floor, there's a 20% chance for a Monster House to spawn without items, so be careful and expect the unexpected!

 

I was lucky enough to stumble across a Secret Bazaar on the 12th floor, gaining access to a total refresh on my PP and Belly, just when I was about to pop a Max Elixir, too! Good thing I found it when I did!

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

Treacherous Waters [B13F - B15F]

Pokemon:   Gastrodon,  Tentacruel,  Slowbro,  Staryu,  Dragonair,  Corsola,  Octillery,  Wailmer,  Pelipper,  Kingler

I'm not really sure what the point of the disappearance was, but Kingler is back on the 13th floor!

On the 14th floor, we captured the outlaw Lunatone!

Itemless Monster Houses are once again possible on the 15th floor, too.

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

Treacherous Waters [B16F - B19F]

The tileset changes to a much more arctic aesthetic on the 16th floor. But we've got a little bit further to go in these chilly waters!

Pokemon:  Golduck,  Swampert,  Lombre,  Glalie,  Walrein,  Empoleon,  Garchomp

With the change in tileset, the pokemon are completely different, too! I have absolutely no clue what Garchomp is doing here, he doesn't seem to fit in any way, shape or form. Maybe he's trying to learn to survive Ice attacks? Anyway, it's normally raining on the 16th floor, but Golduck will nullify it with Cloud Nine if one spawns, so it's not likely you'll experience much rain there. However, if the rain is active, it can trigger Lombre's Swift Swim. You'll also need to watch out for Glalie and Walrein because of Blizzard, and Glalie also knows Sheer Cold. Thankfully, there's nothing as devastating here as Lapras's Perish Song, which was what I was most worried about dealing with when I first came to this dungeon. Thankfully, Lapras doesn't seem to spawn at all!

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

Finally, on the 20th floor, there is a lone  Deluxe Box.

This box can contain a:  Wonder Gummi,  Joy,  Life, or  Reviver Seed, or your leader's second-lowest-tier  Exclusive Item.

 

Once always, after claiming our prize, we make our way to the Warp Zone, and that's it for today's excursion! That wasn't so bad, but admittedly, the Secret Bazaar right where it was was a huge boon for my ability to get through the dungeon so effortlessly. I definitely think it'll be a good idea try and squeeze in an extra Max Elixir into my bag just in case for the next dungeon.

[Aura]

Postgame Part 57: Suite Life of Suicune & a Gambling Problem

Well, with some unfortunate luck, we happened to receive a Challenge Letter for Treacherous Waters right after finishing the dungeon! Maybe if we had waited just one more day to do this dungeon, we would've been able to take on this challenge at the same time! Oh well, hindsight is 20/20. And honestly, for all I know, you might not be able to get a Challenge Letter like this for a dungeon you haven't completed. The only exception we have to that suggestion is Jirachi's Wish Cave which is already a special case, anyway.

Anyway, it looks like our plans for today are going to see another brief interruption. So, today, our focus will be on recruiting Suicune instead! If you recall, Suicune was only available in the Final Maze in Explorers of Time and Darkness. Well, this is how you get one here in Sky!

 

So, we made preparations, once again adjusting the items we're bringing, and then diving right back into Treacherous Waters!

 

Anyway, the fight was just as brief as you'd expect, although I did run low on PP for Discharge, so I actually had to approach him directly! That's a point up from most boss fights, frankly, and only due to the lack of a PP refill before the fight.

Oh well, on defeating Suicune, we take our leave of the dungeon. That was fairly quick and uneventful.

 

When we return, Suicune, of course, asks to join our team. We can't say no!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Borealis (Suicune); Lv. 65

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Leer, Mirror Coat, Ice Fang, Tailwind

===========

But that's a bit too quick to be just a single post, right? I think so, so we're going to do a little bit extra today. All this time, I've been intentionally hoarding every item I can and my storage has only just now started reaching 1000 items and it's absolutely filled with junk. I think you can probably guess where I'm going with this.

A while back, we gained access to a new kind of Prize Ticket: A Prism Ticket, the highest tier possible. And now, we're going to invest hundreds of items at once into these tickets and see what kinds of fantastic items we can get! Along the way, I'll take the chance to finally go over exactly what items you can get from these tickets.

With each ticket, there are three possible results: a win, a big win, and a loss. Sometimes you'll get a fakeout where it's made to look like a big win, but it's actually just a loss. I've highlighted each of these outcomes before. As the tier of ticket gets higher, your chances of losing decrease and your chances of winning increase. A Prize Ticket has a 65% chance of losing, 30% chance of winning, and 5% chance of winning big. For a Silver Ticket, those chances are 55%, 40%, and 5% respectively, while a Gold Ticket has a 50%, 40%, and 10% respectively. Finally, the Prism ticket has a 40%, 45%, and 15% chance. So the Prism ticket actually has higher odds of winning than losing! But not only are the odds different, but each ticket also comes with different prize pools.

Prize Ticket Prize Pools:

Loss (65%):  Heal Seed,  Oran Berry,  Scanner Orb,  Radar Orb

Win (30%):  Power Band, Special Band,  Zinc Band,  Def. Scarf,  Eyedrop Seed,  Max Elixir,  Big Apple,  Silver Ticket,  Cleanse Orb

Big Win (5%):  Silver Spike,  Twist Band,  Joy Ribbon,  Gold Ribbon,  Sitrus Berry,  Reviver Seed,  Joy Seed,  Any Standard Gummi,  Gold Ticket

Though the prizes here might not look all that exciting, bear in mind that this is available since near the very beginning of the game. Many of these are staple items and resources you might be lacking early on. In addition, note that you can also potentially win a Silver or even a Gold Ticket, meaning you have access to those prize pools before those tickets are even directly available!

Silver Ticket Prize Pools:

Loss (55%):  Oran Berry,  Max Elixir,  Prize Ticket,  Rainy Orb,  Escape Orb

Win (40%):  Silver Spike,  Heal Ribbon,  Joy Ribbon,  Gold Ribbon,  Twist Band,  Special Band,  Reviver Seed,  Vile Seed,  Pure Seed,  Violent Seed,  Huge Apple, the TMs for  Focus Punch,  Water Pulse,  Calm Mind,  Roar,  Toxic,  Bulk Up,  Hidden Power,  Taunt,  Light Screen,  Safeguard,  Return,  Dig,  Brick Break,  Reflect,  Aerial Ace,  Tormet,  Facade,  Secret Power,  Rest,  Thief,  Roost,  Focus Blast,  Fling,  Endure,  Drain Punch,  Will-O-Wisp,  Embargo,  Payback,  Recycle,  Rock Polish,  Avalanche,  Thunder Wave,  Swords Dance,  Psych Up,  Captivate,  Dark Pulse,  Rock Slide,  Sleep Talk,  Natural Gift,  Dream Eater,  Grass Knot,  Swagger,  Substitute, and  Trick Room,  Invisify Orb,  Spurn Orb,  Foe-Hold Orb,  All-Mach Orb,  Foe-Fear Orb,  All-Hit Orb,  Foe-Seal Orb

Big Win (5%):  Scope Lens,  Pass Scarf,  Weather Band,  Friend Bow,  Sitrus Berry,  Ginseng,  Protein,  Iron,  Calcium,  Zinc,  Nectar,  Joy Seed,  Huge Apple,  Gold Ticket, TMs for  Dragon Claw,  Water Pulse,  Ice Beam,  Blizzard,  Hyper Beam,  Light Screen,  Giga Drain,  Safeguard,  Frustration,  Solar Beam,  Iron Tail,  Thunder,  Return,  Dig,  Shock Wave,  Flamethrower,  Sludge Bomb,  Fire Blast,  Aerial Ace,  Torment,  Facade,  Secret Power,  Rest,  Steel Wing,  Skill Swap,  Overheat,  Energy Ball,  False Swipe,  Brine,  Fling,  Charge Beam,  Endure,  Dragon Pulse,  Will-O-Wisp,  Explosion,  Shadow Claw,  Giga Impact,  Rock Polish,  Flash,  Stone Edge,  Avalanche,  Thunder Wave,  Gyro Ball,  Swords Dance,  Psych Up,  Captivate,  Dark Pulse,  Rock Slide,  X-Scissor,  Sleep Talk,  Natural Gift,  Dream Eater,  Grass Knot,  Swagger,  Substitute,  Trick Room,  Dive,  Wide Slash, and  Vacuum-Cut, HMs for  Cut,  Fly,  Surf,  Strength,  Defog,  Rock Smash,  Waterfall, and  Rock Climb

Perhaps you can see now why I don't usually list all of the TMs and Wonder Orbs when covering dungeons. Individual dungeons tend to have TM and Wonder Orb lists that completely dwarf these. Anyway, we start to get into some really big items here with stat boosters, including some pretty rare ones like Nectar and even Joy Seeds, as well as those TMs that are normally only available in Explorers of Time. This is probably the main way to try and get your hands on them. You'll notice a trend going forward where a lot of the previous ticket's Big Win prizes become th enext tier's standard win prizes. Also notice that one of the consolation prizes here is actually a regular Prize Ticket, while a regular Prize Ticket can actually net you a Silver Ticket as a prize. You could theoretically be stuck in an infinite loop of winning the opposite ticket over and over again, humorously. Alternatively, some really good luck could result in a Loss with a Silver Ticket netting a Prize Ticket with a Big Win and bumping you up to a Gold Ticket! So don't write yourself out just because of a loss!

Gold Ticket Prize Pools:

Loss (50%):  Oran Berry,  Max Elixir,  Silver Ticket,  Cleanse Orb,  Escape Orb

Win (40%):  Scope Lens,  Pass Scarf,  Weather Band,  Friend Bow,  Sitrus Berry,  Ginseng,  Protein,  Iron,  Calcium,  Zinc,  Nectar,  Joy Seed,  Huge Apple,  Gold Ticket, TMs for  Dragon Claw,  Water Pulse,  Ice Beam,  Blizzard,  Hyper Beam,  Light Screen,  Giga Drain,  Safeguard,  Frustration,  Solar Beam,  Iron Tail,  Thunder,  Return,  Dig,  Shock Wave,  Flamethrower,  Sludge Bomb,  Fire Blast,  Aerial Ace,  Torment,  Facade,  Secret Power,  Rest,  Steel Wing,  Skill Swap,  Overheat,  Energy Ball,  False Swipe,  Brine,  Fling,  Charge Beam,  Endure,  Dragon Pulse,  Will-O-Wisp,  Explosion,  Shadow Claw,  Giga Impact,  Rock Polish,  Flash,  Stone Edge,  Avalanche,  Thunder Wave,  Gyro Ball,  Swords Dance,  Psych Up,  Captivate,  Dark Pulse,  Rock Slide,  X-Scissor,  Sleep Talk,  Natural Gift,  Dream Eater,  Grass Knot,  Swagger,  Substitute,  Trick Room,  Dive,  Wide Slash, and  Vacuum-Cut, HMs for  Cut,  Fly,  Surf,  Strength,  Defog,  Rock Smash,  Waterfall, and  Rock Climb,  Invisify Orb,  Spurn Orb,  Foe-Hold Orb,  All-Mach Orb,  Foe-Fear Orb,  All-Hit Orb,  Foe-Seal Orb

Big Win (10%):  Mobile Scarf,  Dodge Scarf,  Friend Bow,  Sitrus Berry,  Life Seed,  Joy Seed,  Nectar,  Ginseng,  Protein,  Iron,  Calcium,  Zinc,  Wonder Gummi,  Prism Ticket, TMs for  Dragon Claw,  Water Pulse,  Ice Beam,  Blizzard,  Hyper Beam,  Protect,  Giga Drain,  Iron Tail,  ThunderBolt,  Thunder,  Earthquake,  Psychic,  Shadow Ball,  Shock Wave,  Flamethrower,  Sludge Bomb,  Fire Blast,  Attract,  Steel Wing,  Skill Swap,  Overheat,  Energy Ball,  False Swipe,  Brine,  Charge Beam,  Dragon Pulse,  Silver Wind,  Explosion,  Shadow Claw,  Giga Impact,  Flash,  Stone Edge,  Gyro Ball,  Stealth Rock,  Poison Jab,  Flash Cannon,  Dive,  Wide Slash,  Vacuum-Cut,  Link Box

This is where we start getting into some really valuable prizes! Not only do we still have all those fantastic stat-boosting items now even in the regular win category, but you can even earn Mobile Scarves and Friend Bows here! Wonder Gummis are also the best source of IQ boosting we have! And the fact that you can win Prism Tickets from Gold Tickets also means that, if you're incredibly lucky, you can even get Prism Ticket rewards as early as this shop is opened! How awesome is that? You can also win other Gold Tickets from a standard win which is, admittedly, a bit silly. Seems like it should be a consolation prize instead.

Prism Ticket Prize Pool

Loss (40%):  Hunger Seed,  Max Elixir,  Huge Apple,  Gold Ticket,  Escape Orb

Win (45%):  Twist Band,  No-Stick Cap,  Sneak Scarf,  Dodge Scarf,  Friend Bow,  Sitrus Berry,  Vanish Seed, and TMs for  Bullet Seed,  Earthquake,  Flamethrower,  Silver Wind,  Explosion,  Shadow Claw,  Giga Impact,  Gyro Ball,  Stealth Rock,  Flash Cannon,  Wide Slash, and  Vacuum-Cut

Big Win (15%):  Mobile Scarf,  X-Ray Specs,  Weather Band,  Miracle Chest,  IQ Booster,  Sitrus Berry,  Life Seed,  Joy Seed,  Nectar,  Ginseng,  Protein,  Iron,  Calcium,  Zinc,  Wonder Gummi,  Link Box

The prize pool for the Prism Ticket is much more condensed around the most valuable items possible. Though its selection of TMs are a bit odd, I'm not sure why they chose to value Flamethrower over Blizzard or Ice Beam, for example, but these Prism Tickets provide access to lots of especially rare items, and it's much less diluted with "junk" like Gold Tickets were. Among these, there are some new items you might be able to notice.

 Miracle Chest

The Miracle Chest is a held item that boosts any Exp gained by 30%.

 IQ Booster

The IQ Booster is a very handy held item that boosts the holder's IQ by 1 on certain floors of certain dungeons. While this is essentially random as far as you'd likely figure out in regular gameplay, it is specific floors of specific dungeons that trigger the IQ booster. You can look up each dungeon on Bulbapedia to see which floors in each dungeon will activate it. With how long it can take to train a pokemon's IQ, this item is a really nice one to have for pokemon like Palkia, Manaphy, or Haunter who have really big long-term goals to strive for.

After trading in all of the junk in my storage, I was able to fill my inventory with Prism Tickets--over 5 pages of them!

Across all of these, I was able to obtain two  Sitrus Berries, two  Life Seeds, a  Joy Seed, a  Protein, and a  Miracle Chest. The rest of the rewards were less enticing, mainly just TMs or duplicate held items. But these items are definitely nice to have!

We also received an egg from a Skorupi while using these items at the Juice Bar. So many we'll indirectly get a rare pokemon, too?

Anyway, to send things off, I wanted to take a bit and clear up some more mission space. We've got three missions in Foggy Forest, so let's go ahead and get them over with, yeah?

 

We recovered Trapinch's stolen Radar Orb from the thief, Banette, rescued Kricketune, and captured a Hypno who had absolutely no hope of escaping us.

And along the way, picked up a new recruit as well.

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Cherry (Cherubi M); Lv. 14

Item: None

Ability: Chlorophyll | Moves: Tackle, Growth, Leech Seed, Helping Hand

===========

And that's it for today! Yeah yeah, we really didn't do too terribly much today, but we had that Suicune mission blindside us! Next time, we'll try again to go and explore the Southeastern Islands! See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 58: Storming the Islands

We return to our postgame adventure! Sorry for the wait between updates, I'm a bit sick at the moment, so I've been slowing down on a lot. But we're slowly working our way back up!

 

Before we get into what we're doing today, thanks to our massive recycling efforts, we've unlocked the final dungeon available through Project P: Zero Isle Center. If Destiny Tower is the ultimate challenge for players at any point in the game, Zero Isle Center is the ultimate challenge period.. This dungeon is designed to be incredibly difficult and I'm not confident we'll realistically be able to complete it within the confines of this series. But, we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there. I won't rule it out just yet! But I won't rip my hair out over it, either.

Anyway, today we'll be making our way to the third dungeon we've unlocked through our rank: the Southeastern Islands. I wasn't actually paying full attention, assuming this dungeon's special rules were the same as the last two, but it's actually a bit more restrictive. Just like before, you can only bring 8 items and no money, but unlike before, you can also only have one pokemon in your party! Yikes...

I was a bit surprised to find that I was alone in the dungeon when I entered and, as I would soon find out after using Discharge in a Monster House and watching it hit an Electrike 12 times because of LightningRod... Skye does not seem to be the right choice for this dungeon.

 

And so, I started over and tried again. This time, we're bringing Mana along on his first solo adventure! Knowing Mana would be needing to attack a lot, I made sure to bring a healthy supply of Max Elixirs and Reviver Seeds.

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

Southeastern Islands

The music that plays in this dungeon is random each floor, with songs including: Random Dungeon Theme 3, Waterfall Cave, and Beach Cave

As mentioned above, this dungeon is unlocked through reaching the Master *** Rank after graduating from the guild, making it Sky-Exclusive once again. Complete lots of missions and you'll eventually get access to it! Like the other two dungeons prior, this one has some restrictions I've also outlined above. You can only bring 8 items with you and you're not allowed to bring any poke. A new restriction we've yet to see is that you're also only allowed to bring a lone leader into the dungeon. No supporting party members at all. Make sure to choose a pokemon that can cover its weaknesses fairly well. I decided to go with Manaphy for a couple of reasons. Mainly, his ability to cross water can help him get away from danger. He's also the only other pokemon I have trained up that has a room-wide attack. Well, there's Hail, too, but she's been out of commission for a while now. I think Mana's already surpassed Hail. Though there is something to be said about Hail having STAB Blizzard. Still, Mana's been on our full team and this is his chance to show what he's capable of!

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle Specs,  Insomniscopes,  No-Aim Scopes,  Curve,  Detect,  Persim,  Power,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist, and  Zinc Bands,  Gold,  Heal, and  Joy Ribbons,  Munch Belts,  No-Slip Caps,  Pecha, and  Warp Scarves,  Apples,  Gravelyrock,  Black,  Blue,  Brown,  Clear,  Gold,  Grass,  Gray,  Green,  Orange,  Pink,  Purple,  Red,  Royal,  Silver,  Sky,  White, and  Yellow Gummis,  Cheri,  Chesto,  Oran,  Oren,  Pecha, and  Rawst Berries,  Blinker,  Doom,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Eyedrop,  Joy,  Quick,  Reviser,  Slip,  Stun,  Totter,  Via,  Vile,  Warp, and  X-Eye Seeds,  Max, and  Mix Elixirs, and assorted  Wonder Orbs

Since you're going to be exploring alone, you might find yourself relying more on those Wonder Orbs and Seeds you pick up to help cover your ass against dangerous enemies. Make sure to keep them in mind!

Traps:  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Grudge,  Gust,  Mud,  PP-Zero,  Random,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon, and  Warp Traps

Of course, Monster Houses are an ever-present threat throughout this dungeon. So watch out for those.

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

Southeastern Islands [B1F - B24F]

Pokemon:  Mankey,  Magnemite,  Hypno,  Exeggcute,  Xatu,  Ampharos,  Umbreon,  Murkrow,  Girafarig,  Hitmontop,  Elekid,  Gardevoir,  Hariyama,  Aron,  Electrike,  Plusle,  Minun,  Grumpig,  Absol,  Gallade

Some of the particularly dangerous enemies to deal with throughout this dungeon included Hypno, who I found myself missing against a lot more than other pokemon for some reason and I'm not sure if it's just an odd coincidence or not. Every time I'd encounter one I'd miss three or four attacks before I'd finally hit it. Every other pokemon I'd maybe miss once or twice at most. I'm not sure what it was. Anyway, Murkrow knows Perish Song so be wary of that! Also, Gallade surprised me by being able to travel over water! Although in retrospect, I believe it just had the IQ Skill All-Terrain Hiker. Still, it definitely caught me off guard! I mentioned before that Electrike's LightningRod makes Electric attacks like Discharge useless in Monster Houses. Hariyama and Grumpig have Thick Fat, giving them protection against Mana's Blizzard, and Absol has Pressure which is always a nuisance. So yeah, the pokemon are pretty scary in this dungeon. But which ones are particularly threatening is especially important knowledge.

And that last point is because exploring alone is quite different from exploring with a team. This isn't the first time it's come up, but being alone means you don't have AI partners constantly getting distracted attacking enemies or getting stuck on corners. This means you're a lot more agile, so combat is much less mandatory. And that's a good thing because you don't have teammates to delegate combat to. A more cowardly approach to dungeon exploring while alone is much more incentivized. So taking advantage of the dungeon's darkness and waiting for enemies to slip by before you advance can help save a lot of headache with resource management. The X-Ray Specs I'm wearing provide a lot of assistance to that end. Not only does it help me sus out where rooms are, which can potentially lead me right to the stairs, but it also helps me to know which directions enemies are going so I can choose the opposite directions. Of course, confrontation is inevitable. That's why it's so important to conserve your PP and items as long as you can! And be mindful of those Orbs you pick up! If you have a Stairs Orb and you find yourself cornered by a Hypno, Absol, or any pokemon you can't take out easily, use that Orb and get them out of your hair! Paired with the X-Ray Specs, you can even watch where they warp to and see exactly where the stairs are on the floor! Isn't that clever? Efficient use of items is key to clearing a dungeon like this!

But don't think it's free just because you've got some good items, oh no. Those traps are devastating and a Grudge Trap can completely ruin your day. And you've got 24 floors to endure! You're bound to stumble across something bad. No teammates means no assistance getting enemies off your back which means getting surrounded is entirely a possibility. Perhaps a Warp Seed or two might be in order to help with these situations.

Again, I must reiterate that I am abusing save states. These sorts of challenges are where I feel like these Mystery Dungeon games push things too far and I've said my piece during my coverage of Rescue Team that I find it only makes the game exceedingly stressful rather than tense or exciting. Especially when I'm trying to stay on track with a marathon like this thread.

 

On floors 4, 8, 12, 15, and 24, the weather is completely random. (It was Rainy on the 4th floor and Sunny on the 24th, I just forgot to take screenshots on these floors)

 

Finally, on the 25th floor, there's a nice peaceful treasure room with three  Deluxe Boxes for your picking!

Each of these boxes can contain: A  Wonder Gummi,  Joy,  Life, or  Reviver Seed, or  Second-Tier Exclusive Item for your leader's species.

Once you've stepped onto the Warp Zone, you've completed your exploration! Hooray! But now we're sort of at an impasse. You see, we don't have the last dungeon in this set unlocked yet but I'd like to clear it before moving on to the Zero Isle dungeons. So, we might have to take a little while to grind up to the next rank doing missions. The only problem with that is... well, the gap between Master *** Rank and the final rank is significantly higher than any other. When you reach Master *** Rank, you're only a quarter there to the next rank. The other ranks so far have only been 3000 points apart which is why it's felt like we've barreled through them all. I guess that makes the final of these dungeons quite exclusive, but I don't really feel right using it as a final send-off for the game as it doesn't give me the impression of an ultimate challenge the way Destiny Tower and Zero-Isle Center do. Perhaps we'll just have to wait and see, but in the mean time, there is one more fairly standard dungeon we've yet to explore that I think might fit right at home with our journey to unlock that last dungeon... so, see you soon for that!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 59: Labyrinth Cave

Before we get into what we're doing today, we're gonna need to free up some space in our Job List. Thankfully, we've got quite a stack of jobs in Treeshroud Forest that need some doing. So...

We took out a Jumpluff thief and recovered Tropius's stolen  Big Apple,

 

Recovered a lost  Pecha Berry and  Sleep Seed,

 

And we arrested the outlaws Grimer and Ralts.

 

This is a main story dungeon, so these jobs were fairly easy points toward our next rank, something we really can't afford to sleep on too much. We also got a new recruit!

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

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Tropo (Tropius M); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Chlorophyll, Solar Power | Moves: Leer, Gust

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

Anyway, with five job slots freed up, let's go check out today's agenda!

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

I've mentioned the Wonder Mail feature before as have I alluded to today's dungeon. I was hoping to get the job by normal means by this point, but I think it's important to cover it before it becomes too late.

 

In the Wonder Mail S menu, you can freely send and receive Wonder Mail with your friends! Wonder Mail can be obtained through Wireless Communication or, back when the DS still had online support, Wi-Fi. I can imagine this was probably heavily exploited to get lots of rare items early on. But the most timeless and accessible option is the Password system, and that's what we'll be needing today.

We'll enter this password to get the specific job we're after. Once again, this is a Wonder Mail S password. As per usual, if you're playing Explorers of Time and Darkness, you'll need a regular Wonder Mail password.

Quote

78SR -H2M P0+4
Y6FY 1&Y+ #R9S

Once you enter this password, you'll receive this special mission! Despite the low difficulty rating, you'll have to have cleared Chapter 10 where you met Dusknoir and your exploration team rank must be Bronze before you can accept this job. In Explorers of Sky, this job is normally accepted from the client at Spinda's Cafe. But in Time and Darkness, you'd instead obtain the Wonder Mail password from the DVD for the promotional special for Explorers of Time and Darkness. If you're knowledgeable about this special, then you're probably aware that this job mirrors the plot of it.

The special itself is actually freely available on YouTube if you want to watch it. The official Pokemon YT Channel uploaded this in order to promote Super Mystery Dungeon. I'm sure you could probably find the Japanese version if you looked for it, too. Anyway, it's essentially a reimagining of the beginning of Explorers of Time and Darkness, following team "Pokepals" as they explore Labyrinth Cave searching for a Gabite Scale for a Shinx's sick sister.

You'll probably recognize some familiar voices from the Pokemon Anime or other 4Kids projects. The biggest example is Grovyle who's voiced by Dan Green, the man who's probably most famous for playing Yami Yugi in Yugioh. I thought this was ironic because, for some reason, my head always envisioned Dusknoir as having a voice like Dan Green's. Some other curious changes are that the protagonist, Piplup, is a bit more standoffish toward their partner. Wigglytuff's Guild is also a lot more intimidating. They spend less time setting up the characterization of these characters for the sake of getting to the excitement of the adventure, which is fair, I suppose. It's not like this was an entire anime series, so they only had so much time to work with. But hey, they did end up making a follow-up to promote Explorers of Sky focusing on the events at the Rainbow Stoneship and Grovyle's sacrifice... a really, really odd place to focus on given how massive of a spoiler it is for the main story.

Anyway, instead of their first task being to retrieve Spoink's lost pearl, the new recruits are assigned the task of retrieving the Gabite Scale as their first official job. Labyrinth Cave is built up to be quite a foreboding dungeon in the special, so perhaps it'll be dangerous in the game, too? Pft, a C-Rank mission? Not likely. Somehow, even these fledgling explorers who've never gone through a dungeon before were able to defeat a boss that wiped the floor with Team Razor Wind. I guess that says more about Team Razor Wind, though, than anything else.

Anyway, before we go back into the game, I wanted to show off the save file icons here! You've got the icons for all the major story events, they're all straight-forward, except the item at the end is representative of having obtained all of the Seven Treasures. We've got Shaymin from Sky Peak, Scizor from having rescued him from Crevice Cave and obtaining the Secret Rank, Manaphy from seeing him off at the beach, Regigigas for defeating him at the bottom of Aegis Cave, and finally, Darkrai for having defeated him at Dark Crater.

Once we've entered the Wonder Mail S Password, the mission will show up in our Job List!

 

By accepting the job posting, we learn the location of the new dungeon! Let's just say Team Flight is a little bit more prepared for this battle than Team PokePals. But, funnily enough, I think I do have a Lv. 5 Piplup and Chimchar recruited if I really wanted to recreate the squad from the special. I think I even have a Sunflora! At the very least, I know I have a Sunkern I could evolve into one, but I digress.

Let's get on with this dungeon!

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

Labyrinth Cave

The music in this dungeon is random on each floor. The music that can play includes: Chasm Cave, Sealed Ruin Pit, Quicksand Cave, and Concealed Ruins

This dungeon is available through the job request described above. It's designed to be playable fairly early on and, like other dungeons that become available around that time, it feels balanced to be playable from even earlier on. As you can imagine, we're not exactly going to be challenged by this one.

Items:  Poke,  Apples,  Iron Thorns,  Silver Spikes,  Cheri,  Oran, and  Pecha Berries,  Max Elixirs,  Blast,  Heal, and  Reviver Seeds, and assorted  Wonder Orbs.

Worth noting, this dungeon has a fairly limited selection of items, so it's a good place to look for Max Elixirs and Reviver Seeds!

In Explorers of Darkness only, you can find  All-Hit,  Foe-Fear, and  Foe-Hold Orbs.

There are no traps in the dungeon making it a very straight-forward experience, but Monster Houses are an ever-present threat.

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

Labyrinth Cave [B1F - B9F]

Pokemon:  Nidorina,  Nidorino,  Golbat,  Machop

None of the pokemon in here are a threat, especially without traps present. They're all below Lv. 10, so by the time you've cleared Ch. 10, you should be able to deal with everyone here with standard attacks. In addition, none of these enemies are particularly rare, either, so recruiting them isn't really all that big of a flex, either. You're not coming to this dungeon for the recruits.

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

On the 10th floor, you're kind of just awkwardly sprung into a boss fight with Gabite. There's no dialogue at all.

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

   

Team Flight

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

Skye (Jolteon F); Lv. 83

Item:  X-Ray Specs | Exclusive:  Yellow Silk

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Discharge+Agility+Helping Hand, Shadow Ball

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

Icarus (Lucario M); Lv. 79

Item:  Scope Lens | Exclusive:  Pledge Rock,  Valiant Rock

Abilities: Inner Focus, Steadfast | Moves: Drain Punch, Aura Sphere, Metal Claw, Endure

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

Mana (Manaphy); Lv. 63

Item:  Lime Bow | Exclusive:  Tidal Cape,  Blue Silk

Ability: Hydration | Moves: Tail Glow+Blizzard, Water Pulse+Acid Armor

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

Fog (Haunter); Lv. 70

Item:  Detect Band

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Psychic, Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse+Confuse Ray

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

Vs. Gabite

As you can probably imagine, to call this a bossfight is a bit of an overstatement. Granted, if you did this dungeon as early as you possibly could, maybe Gabite would be a bit more of a threat, but he's only Lv. 33, so there's only so much he can do. Team Pokepals could beat him at Lv. 5, granted with some help from Sunflora, but even still, it should be obvious that we've got nothing to worry about.

Sure enough, he couldn't even hold up to the initial wave of Discharge as I set up Agility. Poor guy

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

 

 

Upon defeating Gabite, we're treated to another cutscene. Once again, though, despite Gabite having implied dialogue, it's only parroted by the narrator. I really wonder why they didn't just give this Gabite his own dialogue. Were they really so pressed for time to include this dungeon? It really doesn't seem all that hard to write up a few extra lines here. Anyway, just like in the special, Gabite is impressed with our strength and decides to give us something.

 

That item is, of course, the  Gabite Scale needed for our quest! There's no recruiting Gabite here, but on revisiting this dungeon, you can actually earn more Gabite Scales for personal use, though it's not worth the hassle. They're essentially just Heal Seeds. The only difference as far as I can tell is that Gabite Scales fill your belly by 1 extra point. Isn't that a game changer?

And that's it for our exploration of Labyrinth Cave! A Very short dungeon we could've explored a loong time ago, before even defeating Dialga. We just never happened across the quest for some reason. A bit of a shame, because maybe the Gabite fight would've been more interesting had we fought him earlier in the game. Oh well, we're continuing to climb the ranks! Now there are no more dungeons to distract ourselves with, so I guess next time we're hitting up the grind to gain access to the last dungeon we've yet to unlock. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 60: Rumbling Raikou

We're back! I've been slowly grinding away at those promotion points. It's gonna take quite a while to reach the final rank. I'm honestly considering just using a cheat code to skip the grind, but for now, there's still a bit more I can accomplish. Namely, as you can probably infer from the title of this post, Challenge Letters! I believe this is the last possible special challenge letter that we're missing. But for now, let's just focus on what's directly in front of us. You can probably tell that I decided to focus on the Treasure Memo we picked up a few updates ago. As you can tell from the screenshot, if you can't quite piece together what dungeon it's from, the game does keep track of which dungeon it is, and will place it in the proper order. So, even though it doesn't explicitly say it's in Concealed Ruins, you can see that it's listed between a Concealed Ruins mission set on B15F and a Concealed Ruins mission set on B27F. So if you weren't able to figure it out from the caption, it should be clear that this Treasure Memo is set in Concealed Ruin.

This is the last type of Job in the game, so I figured it was worth it to try and cover how they work.

To prepare for this job, I actually made Fog our leader. Reason being, Haunter's mobility can be really helpful for Treasure Memo missions. If you don't have a pokemon like Haunter, then a Mobile Scarf or a Mobile Orb can do the trick as well! Alternatively, a Warp Scarf can make ends meet, too.

 

Just getting to the floor of the correct dungeon is only the first part of the puzzle. When you actually get there, you'll find yourself in a special floor with some sort of navigation puzzle. In this case, there are a series of water tiles you need to traverse. If you don't have any items to help you get through, you can also search for Warp Traps, as those will appear throughout the floor as well.

According to Bulbapedia, the puzzles can be a lot rougher than this at higher ratings. You might have to walk through walls or even use multiple Keys! I'm not sure if the chamber remains the same every time, or if the dungeon influences the type of puzzle in any way. But if you get down there and find you need keys, you might want to bring a handful of them next time you return just to be safe.

Traverse the obstacles presented and you'll find a  Treasure Box. Collect it to complete the mission!

 

In addition, we also took on Abomasnow's Hideout, took out a Kadabra thief, and rescued Lunatone from the dungeon. Quite a busy day!

 

When we return from our Treasure Memo mission, since the mission doesn't have a client, we report the results instead to Chatot who's shocked to hear about the secret treasure! He makes a joke about the guild taking the treasure off your hands but then tells you to keep it as the reward for completing the task.

I'm not sure if you can find a list of items for what items you can get from these, but this one held a  Joy Seed so I imagine items like  Sitrus Berries and  Life Seeds are also on the table.

 

 

During our adventures, we got a handful of new recruits!

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Sissel (Sceptile F); Lv. 1

Item: None

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Pound, Leer, Absorb, Quick Attack

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

Hound (Mightyena M); Lv. 48

Item: None

Abilities: Intimidate, Quick Feet | Moves: Assurance, Scary Face, Taunt, Embargo

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

Severity (Seviper M); Lv. 24

Item: None

Ability: Shed Skin | Moves: Lick, Bite, Poison Tail, Screech

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

Shoomer (Shroomish F); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Effect Spore, Poison Heal | Moves: Absorb, Charm, Fake Tears, Helping Hand

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

Upon returning to Spinda's Cafe one last time, I was met by a Grotle delivering a challenge letter from Raikou.

Sure enough, he's found exactly where you'd probably expect him to be, as well: Southeastern Islands. That means we've gotta prepare for another quick run through. Thankfully, he's only about halfway through the dungeon so it shouldn't be too difficult to get to him.

 

In preparation, this time I'm going in with Icarus alone instead of Mana. I figure if I'm fighting Raikou, I probably don't want to come alone with a pokemon like Manaphy. And even though he lacks a room clearing move, Icarus's Endure can help a lot with Monster Houses. So, with our items set up, we head out for the Southeastern Islands!

The experience was pretty straightforward. A little bit of annoyance with certain enemies, a lot of avoiding conflict. And, of course, Grudge Traps being a major thorn in my side.

But eventually, we make it to B13F where Raikou is waiting for us!

 

And it takes a whopping... two turns to KO Raikou. Okay, three counting the turn I used Endure. So yeah, not exactly the most challenging boss fight in the world.

But that's that! A very straightforward challenge, and the last special Challenge Letter we currently have access to. You can probably figure out by now that the last Challenge Letter is Entei's, but it's locked behind the last of these special dungeons. We're just gonna have to keep pushing forward!

 

Of course, Raikou joins our team after the challenge, just like the other special ones!

===========

Team Flight New Recruit

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

Lightning (Raikou); Lv. 65

Item: None

Ability: Pressure | Moves: Spark, Leer, Reflect, Extrasensory

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

Quite an underwhelming moveset, to be honest. But hey, it's a legendary like any other! Okay, well, not quite any other... maybe I should just stop talking for now. Next time... well, I'm not entirely sure what we'll be doing next time. It's probably gonna be a pretty boring update as we catch up on our grind. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 61: Gengar&R

It's been a hot minute since I've made an update on this thread. As promised, between holiday festivities and the job hunt, I've been grinding things out in Explorers of Sky in my free time. I still haven't quite reached the final promotion to unlock our next dungeon, but that's okay with me because I've made quite a lot of progress in the in-between. Team Flight has grown quite drastically since you last met them!

All I've really been doing is just day after day of completing missions, trying to save up as many high-ranking jobs in the same dungeon as I can before clearing them all in one fell swoop, collecting items, recycling, and boosting stats and IQ along the way. I'm not joking when I say the grind to the final promotion is much harsher in Explorers of Sky than in Explorers of Time and Darkness, even though the requirement for Master Rank in Time and Darkness was significantly higher than even Master *** here (77777 vs 25000). But I am nearing that final promotion, so we've got a little further to go!

Anyway, the first thing I wanted to address is what you see in the image above: I got another Treasure Memo quest! With this experience, I can confirm that the secret room will always have the same layout until you complete the mission. So you don't need to bring a bunch of Keys with you just in case, though it may take several attempts if you're not as well prepared as you could be.

 

In this particular one, I needed the ability to traverse water to get to an optional stack of Poke, I needed the ability to pass through walls to get to the actual treasure, and I needed a  key to open the door to the treasure. Thanks to a  Mobile Scarf I'd obtained from an exploration of Marine Resort, I was able to clear each of these obstacles. Though, I can confirm that there are impassible walls here even for the Mobile Scarf, just like with Sealed Chambers, which means you do need to actually deal with the obstacle course you're presented with and can't just march through the walls. It also means there's no getting around the mandatory  Key. I didn't have a Key on me the first time, so I had to come back, which is why I know these floors do indeed stay consistent even if you leave the dungeon and return.

Other than that Treasure Memo, the rest of the jobs I completed were mostly generic ones. Mainly Outlaw boss fights since those are generally higher ranked. But in general, they all start to feel the same at this point in the game. Nearly every fight is resolved as easily as layering a few Discharge and Agility. As high level as Skye has gotten, even Ground-types rarely survive the initial wave of Discharge. And if they do manage to hold on, they're not surviving the ensuing barrage of Shadow Ball.

 

Naturally, we had a solid chunk of level-ups which means a few more attempts to learn moves: Mana tried to learn both Rain Dance and Heart Swap, but I passed on both. Neither of them just seemed to pair well with her moves or the team's needs. I'll stick with the linked moves she already has.

My main reason for wanting to make this update when I did was because, as you might guess from this post's title, I was able to get my hands on a  Link Cable through these many missions! And you know what that means!

 

Yes indeed, it was finally time to let Fog evolve into a Gengar! Now my entire squad is fully evolved!

Here is the current standing of our team! As you can see, they've all grown substantially! And in more than just level and stats, too!

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

   

The new and Improved Team Flight

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

Skye (Jolteon F); Lv. 98

Item:  X-Ray Specs | Exclusive:  Yellow Silk

Ability: Volt Absorb | Moves: Agility+Helping Hand+Discharge, Shadow Ball

Skye is already almost Lv. 100 thanks in no small part to her  Evolve Charm. Though her IQ has grown a lot and she's gotten some substantial IQ skills that have been quite helpful. Exp Elite has boosted her Exp Gain even more, though it'll soon be obsolete with one more level-up. But by far the best addition is Multitalent which increases the PP of all her moves by 5. That's tremendously helpful considering she was often lacking in stats. Right now, I'm trying to focus a lot of my gummis on her so that she can get All-Terrain Hiker soon. I can't really say how close I am to that end. But pretty soon, Gummis and stat-boosting items are going to be the source of stat growth she can accept!

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

Icarus (Lucario M); Lv. 92

Item:  Scope Lens | Exclusive:  Pledge Rock,  Valiant Rock

Abilities: Inner Focus, Steadfast | Moves: Drain Punch, Aura Sphere, Metal Claw, Endure

Icarus has probably changed the least since we last touched base. He's learned a few new IQ skills. Clutch Performer helps him avoid trouble if he's ever caught with his pants down after Endure drops at a bad time. And though it doesn't affect him much as a partner, Extra Striker can effectively double the power of his standard attack by occasionally allowing him to chain two standard attacks together. He also has Counter Basher which allows him to occasionally counterattack enemies that hit him, another perfect addition to his endure-centric moveset.

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

Mana (Manaphy); Lv. 79

Item:  Lime Bow | Exclusive:  Tidal Cape,  Blue Silk

Ability: Hydration | Moves: Tail Glow+Blizzard, Water Pulse+Acid Armor

Mana has grown substantially stat-wise. I'm pretty confident letting him roam off on his own a lot more now. He's reached the IQ skill Deep Breather, too, which is a tremendous help in keeping him active since he likes to waste PP with Water Pulse a lot. That 1 free PP each floor really does mean a lot for a long dungeon. Now he's on his way to learning Haggler which is more of a Leader's skill, but it can help him score better prices both for buying and selling at Kecleon Shops in dungeons. Sadly, I'm not sure I really havre much use for such a skill at this stage of the game. Trap Buster follows that, but the real treasure for Mana is Fast Friend, but we're still quite a ways from that one.

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

Fog (Gengar M); Lv. 88

Item:  Detect Band

Ability: Levitate | Moves: Psychic, Shadow Ball, Dark Pulse+Confuse Ray

Fog is perhaps the most substantially changed out of everybody here. Not only has he evolved and grown a lot stat-wise, but he's also obtained lots of extremely powerful skills including Trap Seer which makes him an incredibly valuable pokemon to lead with. It may even be worthwhile to use him instead of Skye as the leader. But the IQ skill that's even more useful than that is Map Surveyor which shows you the entire floor's layout on the map! It doesn't reveal the location of the stairs, but paired with Stair Sensor which points you in the general direction of the stairs relative to your starting position on the floor, you can often narrow the possibilities down to two or three rooms, saving lots of time jumping from room to room. Paired with the X-Ray Specs, I can even watch the enemies' movements and plan mine to try and avoid confrontation and conserve PP. This has been a lifesaver and has truly made this grind a lot less painful, especially for dungeons that take me to the deeper floors of Sky Stairway or Bottomless Sea.

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

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, we've also gotten lots of new recruits as well across our several explorations!

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Picky (Swinub M); Lv. 14

Item: None

Abilities: Oblivious, Snow Cloak | Moves: Odor Sleuth, Mud Sport, Powder Snow, Mud-Slap

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

Balloon (Quilfish M); Lv. 43

Item: None

Abilities: Poison Point, Swift Swim | Moves: Revenge, Brine, Pin Missile, Take Down

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

Bella (Bellossom M); Lv. 15

Item: None

Ability: Chlorophyll | Moves: Sweet Scent, Stun Spore, Mega Drain, Sunny Day

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

Cut (Scyther F); Lv. 20

Item: None

Abilities: Swarm, Technician | Moves: Focus Energy, Pursuit, False Swipe, Agility

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

Onion (Bulbasaur M); Lv. 10

Item: None

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Tackle, Growl, Leech Seed, Vine Whip

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

Node (Voltorb); Lv. 13

Item: None

Abilities: Static, Soundproof | Moves: Charge, Tackle, SonicBoom, Spark

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

Oxygen (Leafeon F); Lv. 33

Item: None

Ability: Leaf Guard | Moves: Sand-Attack, Razor Leaf, Quick Attack, Synthesis

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

Beaux (Beautifly M); Lv. 29

Item: None

Ability: Swarm | Moves: Stun Spore, Mornign Sun, Mega Drain, Whirlwind

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

Drill (Beedrill F); Lv. 31

Item: None

Ability: Swarm | Moves: Pursuit, Toxic Spikes, Pin Missile, Agility

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

Knowledge (Nosepass F); Lv. 42

Item: None

Abilities: Sturdy, Magnet Pull | Moves: Block, Thunder Wave, Rock Slide, Sandstorm

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

Ivy (Ivysaur M); Lv. 45

Item: None

Ability: Overgrow | Moves: Double-Edge, Worry Seed, Synthesis, SolarBeam

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

Shiver (Snorunt M); Lv. 14

Item: None

Abilities: Inner Focus, Ice Body | Moves: Leer, Double Team, Bite, Icy Wind

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

Buoy (Azumarill M); Lv. 45

Item: None

Abilities: Thick Fat, Huge Power | Moves: BubbleBeam, Aqua Ring, Double-Edge, Rain Dance

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

Weather (Castform M); Lv. 40

Item: None

Ability: Forecast | Moves: Rain Dance, Sunny Day, Hail, Weather Ball

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

Gun (Remoraid M); Lv. 26

Item: None

Abilities: Hustle, Sniper | Moves: Psybeam, Aurora Beam, BubbleBeam, Focus Energy

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

Chinchin (Chinchou M); Lv. 44

Item: None

Abilities: Volt Absorb, Illuminate | Moves: Signal Beam, Discharge, Aqua Ring, Hydro Pump

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

Esca (Magcargo F); Lv. 49

Item: None

Abilities: Magma Armor, Flame Body | Moves: AncientPower, Amnesia, Lava Plume, Rock Slide

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

Vent (Quilava F); Lv. 48

Item: None

Ability: Blaze | Moves: Swift, Lava Plume, Flamethrower, Rollout

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

But of course, new recruits didn't just come from dungeon exploration, either.

 

We also recruited a few new teammates through quest rewards...

 

...as well as hatched a couple of eggs!

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Corra (Corsola F); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Hustle, Natural Cure | Moves: Tackle

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

Tally (Taillow M); Lv. 1

Item: None

Ability: Guts | Moves: Peck, Growl

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

Slump (Slowpoke M); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Oblivious, Own Tempo | Moves: Curse, Tackle, Yawn

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

Coon (Wurmple F); Lv. 1

Item: None

Ability: Shield Dust | Moves: Tackle, String Shot

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

Helm (Kabuto M); Lv. 1

Item: None

Abilities: Swift Swim, Battle Armor | Moves: Harden, Scratch, Aurora Beam, BubbleBeam

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

Woo! That was quite a doozy to write up. Yeah, my ulterior motive with making this catch-up post right now, aside from sharing that Fog had finally evolved, was just to make sure this list of recruits didn't get any longer before my next update. Next time, I'm certain we'll have reached that final rank! We're already not far off! See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 62: Inferno Cave

After what feels like forever, we've finally gathered up 100000 Rescue Points which has promoted us to the Guildmaster Rank!

 

Once again, there's no storage boon with this promotion, but as I've mentioned time and time again, you do get access to a new dungeon! Inferno Cave, the last of these special dungeons tied to Sky-exclusive ranks! It takes a lot of dedication to get to this point, so surely, surely, it'll be well worth the wait, right? Right?

 

Of course, in the last few jobs we did to reach this promotion, we recruited a few more pokemon.

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

Team Flight New Recruits

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

Sean (Seadra M); Lv. 43

Item: None

Abilities: Poison Point, Sniper | Moves: Agility, Twister, Brine, Hydro Pump

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

Queen (Nidoqueen F); Lv. 43

Item: None

Abilities: Poison Point, Rivalry | Moves: Double Kick, Poison Sting, Body Slam, Earth Power

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

 

Now, it's time to prepare for our exploration of Inferno Cave. As you can probably expect, this is dungeon follows the same rules as Southeastern Islands. Only the leader can go, you can't bring any poke, and you can only bring up to 8 items with you. In my excitement to explore a new dungeon, I made the amateur mistake of forgetting to bring Max Elixirs. But hey, Reviver Seeds are basically Max Elixirs. Anyway, I decided to stock up on extra Apples because I wanted to bring Fog for a spin this time. Not only are his newly developed IQ skills incredibly useful, especially when he's alone, but his ability to walk through walls will do wonders for escaping conflict!

So, without further ado, let's bring Fog into Inferno Cave and see how things go.

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

Inferno Cave

Of course, the music in this dungeon is random each floor. Songs that can play include Limestone Cavern, Deep Limestone Cavern, Steam Cave, and Upper Steam Cave.

We had a water-centric dungeon where we fought Suicune, and a dungeon filled with Electric pokemon where we fought Raikou, so it's only natural this one would be a volcanic dungeon and we'll probably be able to receive a Challenge Letter from Entei here, too. Needless to say, though, this is going to be the most difficult of the four dungeons tied to rank, it's 30 floors and full of Fire- Poison- and Ghost-types which means lots of getting attacked through walls and getting burned. Naturally, there's a lot of lava, too, which can get in the way of shortcuts you try to make with Gengar... /cough.

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle Specs,  Insomniscopes,  No-Aim Scopes,  Curve,  Detect,  Persim,  Power,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist, and  Zinc Bands,  Gold,  Heal, and  Joy Ribbons,  Munch Belts,  No-Slip Caps,  Pecha, and  Warp Scarves,  Apples,  Gravelyrock,  Black,  Blue,  Brown,  Clear,  Gold,  Grass,  Gray,  Green,  Orange,  Pink,  Purple,  Red,  Royal,  Silver,  Sky,  White, and  Yellow Gummis,  Cheri,  Chesto,  Oran,  Oren,  Pecha, and  Rawst Berries,  Blinker,  Doom,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Eyedrop,  Joy,  Quick,  Reviser,  Sleep,  Slip,  Stun,  Totter,  Via,  Vile,  Warp, and  X-Eye Seeds,  Max and  Mix Elixirs, and assorted  Wonder Orbs

Traps:  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Grudge,  Gust,  Mud,  PP-Zero,  Random,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon, and  Warp Traps

Though it technically is a more difficult dungeon, the fact that this is locked behind such an egregious grind means you're likely much better equipped to handle its challenges than its predecessors when you first unlock them. Indeed, the traps here may as well not even exist with Fog on our side. Thanks to Trap Seer, he's more or less entirely immune to them unless he willfully steps on them a second time. Even if such a case is necessary, Trap Buster can also give him a chance to destroy the trap without triggering it, too.

Anyway, of course, Monster Houses are an ever-present threat which is something Fog will have to be wary of since he does suffer from not having any room-wide attacks like Skye or Mana. And unfortunately disappearing through the walls only helps avoid some enemies, as Ghost-types can still chase us through.

You'll also want to be careful on later floors. Just like Southeastern Islands, the pokemon reach pretty high IQ and can surprise you with some dangerous IQ Skills that can sometimes cause them to double attack among other unexpected tricks that can be quite devastating. Tread carefully!

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

Inferno Cave [B1F - B8F]

Pokemon:  Gulpin,  Gastly,  Numel,  Cranidos,  Magmar,  Drifloon,  Shuppet,  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron

As mentioned above, by the time you unlock this dungeon, you're probably quite high-level like I am, so you're probably not going to struggle with any of these pokemon stat-wise. Still, the usual confcern are present. Also like I said before, Fog can avoi dmost of these enemies by disappearing through walls, but the Ghosts are particularly dangerous since they can relentlessly haunt him and afflict status conditions, too. Drifloon's Aftermath can also be problematic if you're trying to get to certain items or in a monster house. So be wary of that as well. Of course, the same solo dungeon strats that worked for Manaphy apply here, you just gotta be a bit more careful since a lot more pokemon have ranged attacks.

The weather is Sunny on B5F, but random on B7F.

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

Inferno Cave [B9F - B10F]

Pokemon:  Gastly,  Numel,  Cranidos,  Magmar,  Drifloon,  Shuppet,  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron,  Swalot

Starting on B9F, Gulpin is replaced by its evolution, Swalot.

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

Inferno Cave [B11F - B13F]

Pokemon:  Magmar,  Drifloon,  Shuppet,  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron,  Swalot,  Camerupt,  Haunter,  Rampardos

After the 10th floor, Gastly, Numel, and Cranidos are all replaced with their evolutions Camerupt, Haunter, and Rampardos.

The weather is sunny again on the 11th floor.

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

Inferno Cave [B14F]

Pokemon:  Drifloon,  Shuppet,  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron,  Swalot,  Camerupt,  Haunter,  Rampardos

Magmar is gone on the 14th floor.

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

Inferno Cave [B15F]

Pokemon:  Shuppet,  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron,  Swalot,  Camerupt,  Haunter,  Rampardos,  Drifblim,  Magmortar

On the 15th floor, Drifblim and Magmortar take the place of their predecessors, Drifloon and Magmar. The weather is random here, too.

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

Inferno Cave [B16F - B18F]

Pokemon:  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron,  Swalot,  Camerupt,  Haunter,  Rampardos,  Drifblim,  Magmortar,  Banette

Banette takes the place of Shuppet on B16F. On B17F, the weather is random again.

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

Inferno Cave [B19F - B20F]

Pokemon:  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron,  Swalot,  Camerupt,  Haunter,  Rampardos,  Drifblim,  Magmortar,  Banette,  Torkoal

Torkoal begins to appear on the 19th floor.

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

Inferno Cave [B21F - B29F]

Pokemon: Pokemon:  Vulpix,  Rapidash,  Typhlosion,  Noctowl,  Misdreavus,  Aggron,  Swalot,  Camerupt,  Rampardos,  Drifblim,  Magmortar,  Banette,  Torkoal,  Gengar

On the 21st floor, Haunter is replaced with Gengar. The weather is Sunny on B21F but random on B24F and B28F.

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

 

Finally, on B30F, there's a single  Deluxe Box. This might seem like a really disappointing prize, but inside is an  IQ Booster which, as I've emphasized before, is an incredibly useful tool for long-term play... I'm just not sure how useful it is at this point in the game. I mean, I kind of had to go out of my way to make sure this wasn't the last dungeon I did, and by this point there are only a few more IQ skills I even still want. But, I shouldn't look a gift horse int he mouth. If you're looking to 100% this game by getting all the recruits and whatnot, this item will help you boost Manaphy or Cresselia's IQ faster while you grind it out at Marine Resort.

Once we've claimed our prize, we take our leave and we're done! That's it for these special new rank-tied dungeons exclusive to Explorers of Sky. Next time, we finally address the elephant in the room. I don't think there's any more putting it off. It's time to start exploring Zero Isle. See you soon in that endeavor.

[Aura]

Postgame Part 63: Zero Isle North

It's finally time to pay a visit to these Zero Isle dungeons we've had unlocked since we first defeated Dialga and to finally address the question of why we've been going out of our way to avoid these dungeons this whole time. The first of these dungeons is on the Northern part of the island.

 

 

This is the longest dungeon we've explored yet, so it's important to come prepared. There are also some really powerful pokemon here, so though we've gotten quite used to being drastically overleveled, it's going to be a good idea to bring some  Reviver Seeds with us. I'm also bringing the  Mobile Scarf and 10  keys. You might not need to bring this many Keys with you, but this is what you'll need to open every Sealed Chamber in the dungeon.

Before entering the dungeon, you're warned that you won't gain any Exp and you won't be able to recruit any pokemon inside, either. But, you're free to bring as many items and teammates as you want this time.

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

Zero Isle North

The music in this dungeon is random on each floor. Songs that can play include: Beach Cave, Mystifying Forest, In the Nightmare, and Random Dungeon Theme 1

Welcome to the first of the Zero Isle dungeons! Zero Isle North, along with its counterparts on the other compass directions, are available in all versions as soon as you graduate from the guild. But don't expect to be able to beat them right away unless you've done some serious grinding and item hunting in preparation for Temporal Tower. These are some of the toughest dungeons in the game! It's clear to me that these dungeons are designed for you to dip in and push yourself just deep enough to clear whatever missions have been assigned there before dipping out. There are 10 Sealed Chambers inside, so odds are you'll stumble across at least one even if you're not seeking it out. So bringing some Keys with you is always a good idea. More importantly, you've got 75 floors to endure ahead of you, so you'd better make sure you have an Escape Orb and plenty of resources to get you through!

Items:  Poke,  Geo Pebbles,  Gravelerocks,  Gravelyrocks,  Cheri,  Chesto,  Oran,  Oren,  Pecha,  Rawst, and  Sitrus Berries,  Calcium,  Iron,  Protein,  Zinc,  Max and  Mix Elixirs,  Blast,  Blinker,  Doom,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Eyedrop,  Life,  Pure,  Quick,  Reviser,  Sleep,  Slip,  Stun,  Totter,  Via,  Vile,  Warp, and  X-Eye Seeds.

Exclusive to Explorers of Darkness are  Hunger and  Violent Seeds.

As you can see, the items available here are a huge incentive to at least visit this dungeon. Where Marine Resort is great for seeking Gummis and boosting your IQ, this dungeon is fantastic to help boost the stats of your weaker teammates. You'll find a handful of stat-boosting items both on the floor and in Kecleon Shops.

Traps:  Grimy,  Mud,  PP-Zero,  Seal,  Sticky,  Summon, and  Trip Traps.

There is less variety of traps here, but notice that some pretty dangerous ones are included within the small pool. You'll likely be seeing Grimy, PP-Zero, and Seal Traps a lot more frequently than usual. Monster Houses are present throughout the dungeon as well, and since you don't get Exp here, they're a bit less of a boon than usual. But at the very least they tend to come with a lovely helping of Gummis!

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

Zero Isle North [B1F]

Pokemon:  Persian,  Alakazam,  Machamp,  Electrode,  Kabutops,  Smoochum,  Yanmega

Early on, the dungeon might not seem so scary. You do have Smoochum and Perish Song to worry about, but the pokemon here are only around Lv. 50 so even if you're just coming off of the end of the main story, you're likely to be able to hold your own well enough here.  But as you progress through the dungeon, you'll find the pokemon progressively get tougher and tougher to the point where they'll OHKO you if you aren't properly prepared. Make sure to bring an Escape and Cleanse Orb just to be safe, though!

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

Zero Isle North [B2F]

Pokemon:  Persian,  Alakazam,  Machamp,  Electrode,  Kabutops,  Smoochum,  Yanmega,  Slowbro

Slowbro joins the fray on the second floor.

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

Zero Isle North [B3F]

Pokemon:  Persian,  Alakazam,  Machamp,  Electrode,  Kabutops,  Smoochum,  Yanmega,  Slowbro,  Omanyte,  Fearow,  Seedot

On the third floor, Omanyte, Fearow, and Seedot join up. Fearow has Agility to watch out for. Paired with Smoochum in Monster Houses and you've got a terrifying force that can nuke your team if you don't dispatch these enemies quickly.

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

Zero Isle North [B4F]

Pokemon:  Persian,  Alakazam,  Machamp,  Electrode,  Kabutops,  Smoochum,  Yanmega,  Slowbro,  Omanyte,  Fearow,  Seedot,  Magcargo

Magcargo begins to appear ont he 4th floor.

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

Zero Isle North [B5F]

Pokemon:  Persian,  Alakazam,  Machamp,  Electrode,  Kabutops,  Smoochum,  Yanmega,  Omanyte,  Fearow,  Seedot,  Magcargo,  Shellder

On B5F we have our first leave as Slowbro makes room for Shellder.

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

Zero Isle North [B6F]

Pokemon:  Fearow,  Seedot,  Shellder,  Golbat,  Tentacruel,  Hitmonlee,  Hitmonchan,  Rhydon,  Mr. Mime,  Jynx,  Ditto,  Noctowl,  Xatu,  Heracross,  Houndoom,  Exploud,  Wailmer

On B6F we have our first dramatic shift in the available pokemon. Since only 14 different pokemon can appear on any given floor, not every pokemon is guaranteed a chance to spawn on each floor. Check your recruitment list to see wha tyou need to watch out for! Most significantly here, Smoochum may be gone, but Jynx is still here to cause the exact same issues.

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

Zero Isle North [B7F]

Pokemon:  Seedot,  Shellder,  Golbat,  Tentacruel,  Hitmonlee,  Hitmonchan,  Rhydon,  Mr. Mime,  Jynx,  Ditto,  Noctowl,  Xatu,  Heracross,  Houndoom,  Exploud,  Wailmer

Fearow disappears on the 7th floor.

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

Zero Isle North [B8F - B9F]

Pokemon:  Shellder,  Golbat,  Tentacruel,  Hitmonlee,  Hitmonchan,  Rhydon,  Mr. Mime,  Jynx,  Ditto,  Noctowl,  Xatu,  Heracross,  Houndoom,  Exploud,  Wailmer,  Camerupt

Camerupt joins the fray on the 8th floor in place of Seedot which means now you've gotta watch out for Earth Power. Thankfully, it's never quite strong enough to know Fissure here.

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

Zero Isle North [B10F]

Pokemon:  Golbat,  Tentacruel,  Hitmonlee,  Hitmonchan,  Rhydon,  Mr. Mime,  Jynx,  Ditto,  Noctowl,  Xatu,  Heracross,  Houndoom,  Exploud,  Wailmer,  Camerupt,  Electivire,  Magmortar,  Diglett

Electivire, Magmortar, and Diglett emerge on the 10th floor in place of Shellder. Diglett can be pretty annoying if a Sandstorm shows up on floors with random weather thanks to Sand Veil. And don't worry--this is going to be a lot more pronounced the deeper we get into the dungeon.

 

More importantly, though, this is where our first Sealed Chamber is. Inside is  Brown Silk, an exclusive item for Ground-type pokemon that boosts their Attack and Defense by 5 and 3 respectively.

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

Zero Isle North [B11F - B12F]

Pokemon:  Camerupt,  Electivire,  Magmortar,  Diglett,  Butterfree,  Beedrill,  Vulpix,  Magmar,  Ariados,  Azumarill,  Shedinja,  Hariyama,  Plusle,  Minun,  Feraligatr,  Octillery

On the 11th floor, we get another new wave of enemies! It looks like we've got a bit of a break here. Shedinja and Octillery are the only particularly threatening new pokemon, Beedrill can be trouble as well in a bad position. Most of the biggest threats from before are gone, but Camerupt is still lingering around so do be wary of that one.

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

Zero Isle North [B13F - B15F]

Pokemon:  Electivire,  Magmortar,  Diglett,  Butterfree,  Beedrill,  Vulpix,  Magmar,  Ariados,  Azumarill,  Shedinja,  Hariyama,  Plusle,  Minun,  Feraligatr,  Octillery

On the 13th floor, Camerupt takes a leave giving you a real breather for a little longer.

On the 13th floor is the second Sealed Chamber. Inside is  Sky Silk, an exclusive item for Flying-type pokemon that boosts their Attack and Defense by 5 and 3 respectively.

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

Zero Isle North [B16F]

Pokemon:  Diglett,  Wartortle,  Venomoth,  Dewgong,  Drowzee,  Krabby,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Eevee,  Corsola,  Breloom,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise,  Torkoal,  Armaldo,  Bronzong,  Togekiss,  Porygon-Z

And we've got another wave of pokemon! This time it looks like the break is over because we've got quite a handful of scary pokemon here. Pinsir has Guillotine, Breloom has the terrifying Mind Reader and Dynamic Punch combo, Torkoal has Heat Wave. Dewgong, Venomoth, and Porygon-Z are high enough level that their most dangerous moves aren't in their last 4, but I'm still not sure how wild pokemon moves are selected, so that doesn't necessarily mean you don't have to watch out for Silver Wind, Sheer Cold, and that dreaded Discharge and Agility combo that plagued us as Temporal Tower. Beyond all of those issues, at this point, you're now dealing with Lv. 70+ pokemon, and some of these guys have some pretty powerful attacks. This might be where you really start to notice you're unprepared if you try to come here right away.

There is another Sealed Chamber here, hiding  Clear Silk, an exclusive item for Ice-types that boosts their Special Attack and Special Defense by 5 and 3 respectively. But note that this item is in the center of a ring of water: We need a means to travel across this water to get this item. Thankfully, my mobile Scarf was perfect for that! Alternatively, we could position Mana or Fog in front of the entrance, set them to "wait there" then navigate to the opposite side and set them to "let's go together." That'll make them try to walk in a straight line toward you and pass over the item. It's really irritating not being able to just switch leaders on the spot like in Rescue Team, but this will help you in case you get caught off guard by this.

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

Zero Isle North [B17F - B19F]

The tileset changes on B17F! We're off the beach and now on a grassy field!

Pokemon:  Wartortle,  Venomoth,  Dewgong,  Drowzee,  Krabby,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Eevee,  Corsola,  Breloom,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise,  Torkoal,  Armaldo,  Bronzong,  Togekiss,  Porygon-Z

Diglett is gone now, leaving only the new wave of pokemon.

There's another sealed chamber on B19F. Somehow for the next couple of chambers I only took screenshots of the outside and not the inside and I genuinely have no idea why or how.

Anyway, inside this one is a  Deluxe Box. Once again, you'll need to be able to cross water to get to it.

This box can contain a:  Freeze Veil,  Thunder Veil,  Fire Veil,  Wonder Gummi, or  Reviver Seed.

The three  Veils are exclusive items for Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres respectively. Each of them allow the pokemon to endure at 1HP. It's not at all something to rely on, but it can potentially save you. Probably not something I'd bother dedicating an inventory slot to, though. You're probably better off just bringing a Reviver Seed.

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

Zero Isle North [B20F]

Pokemon:  Wartortle,  Venomoth,  Dewgong,  Drowzee,  Krabby,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Eevee,  Corsola,  Breloom,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise,  Torkoal,  Armaldo,  Bronzong,  Togekiss,  Porygon-Z,  Forretress

Forretress joins the ranks on B20F.

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

Zero Isle North [B21F - B22F]

Pokemon:  Forretress,  Ivysaur,  Mankey,  Golem,  Haunter,  Sudowoodo,  Drifblim,  Slaking,  Raichu,  Magneton

And the enemies are flushed out once again! This time we've got some ghosts! Drifblim can be particularly annoying thanks to Aftermath, especially in Monster Houses, and especially without Exp. It's like a triple Middle Finger when these things drop into Monster Houses and blow up all the items on the ground. The other pokemon here aren't too terribly scary. Raichu can make things ugly with Agility, though.

There's another Sealed Chamber on B22F. This one contains another  Deluxe Box in a ring of water.

This box may contain a:  Shadow Veil,  Revive Robe,  Eclipse Robe,  Wonder Gummi, or  Reviver Seed.

The  Shadow Veil is an exclusive item for Spiritomb that prevents its moves from being Sealed.

The  Revive Robe is an exclusive item for Deoxys that increases the PP consumption of moves used by enemies, alongside its own Pressure Ability. Frankly, this seems incredibly situational. I can't imagine many scenarios where Deoxys would even fight you like that.

The  Eclipse Robe is an exclusive item for Darkrai that can cause pokemon that attack him to fall into a Nightmare.

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

Zero Isle North [B23F - B24F]

Pokemon:  Forretress,  Ivysaur,  Mankey,  Golem,  Haunter,  Sudowoodo,  Drifblim,  Slaking,  Raichu,  Magneton,  Wobbuffet

Wobbuffet joins up on the 23rd floor and we all know all the different ways these things can be annoying. Try to take them out quick before they get the chance to set up Destiny Bond! And don't underestimate them! Pokemon at this point in the dungeon are around Lv. 80! Don't expect to just one-shot them if they have their Counters up!

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

Zero Isle North [B25F]

Pokemon:  Forretress,  Ivysaur,  Mankey,  Golem,  Haunter,  Sudowoodo,  Drifblim,  Slaking,  Raichu,  Magneton,  Wobbuffet,  Honchkrow

Honchkrow joins up on the 25th floor!

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

Zero Isle North [B26F - B28F]

Pokemon:  Slaking,  Raichu,  Magneton,  Wobbuffet,  Honchkrow,  Horsea,  Bayleef,  Qwilfish,  Carvanha,  Lunatone,  Mime Jr.

Y'know, I'm convinced that they just put pokemon like Horsea and MIme Jr. into dungeons like this as a scare tactic. You're supposed to see their unevolved forms and be scared when you can't even one-shot them. But know that, at least in Mystery Dungeon, size doesn't matter. Treat these guys like you would any other enemy. Anyway, we've got another new wave of enemies with Horsea, Bayleef, Qwilfish, Carvanha, Lunatone, and Mime Jr. Nothing much to say about these.

On the 26th floor is another Locked Chamber. This one holds  Orange Silk surrounded by water. You guessed it, that's an exclusive item for Fighting types that boosts their attack and defense by 5 and 3.

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

Zero Isle North [B29F]

Pokemon:  Slaking,  Raichu,  Magneton,  Honchkrow,  Horsea,  Bayleef,  Qwilfish,  Carvanha,  Lunatone,  Mime Jr.,  Claydol

Claydol joins up on the 29th floor. That means we're back to worrying about Earthpower. And at these levels? It's a lot more terrifying, especially when you're weak to it! Even though Skye is Lv. 100 she's still at risk of getting one-shot by these powerful STAB attacks! As a slight tradeoff, Wobbuffet quietly takes its leave, but I'd gladly deal with more Wobbuffet over something that can wipe my team at a bad time. Yeesh.

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

Zero Isle North [B30F]

Pokemon:  Raichu,  Magneton,  Honchkrow,  Horsea,  Bayleef,  Qwilfish,  Carvanha,  Lunatone,  Mime Jr.,  Claydol,  Staraptor,  Electrode

Slaking is gone on the 30th floor and is replaced by Staraptor. Perhaps he just didn't want to deal with Staraptor constantly yelling at him to take advantage of Agility. Electrode also returns here.

On the 30th floor, there's yet another Sealed Chamber. This one holding  Green Silk which boosts the Attack and Defense of Bug types, of course.

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

Zero Isle North [B31F - B32F]

Pokemon:  Claydol,  Staraptor,  Electrode,  Nidoran M,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Quilava,  Charmeleon,  Remoraid,  Mawile,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Mantyke

Oh god, and now we've got Absol getting involved. Pressure is a huge annoyance in an endurance dungeon like this. Try to avoid conflict with these guys at all costs--but also don't bother trying to run away from them. They know Perish Song. Avoid them where you can and, where you can't, get rid of them quickly to minimize the damage from Pressure.

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Zero Isle North [B33F]

Pokemon:  Claydol,  Staraptor,  Electrode,  Nidoran M,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Quilava,  Charmeleon,  Remoraid,  Mawile,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Mantyke,  Kingdra

Ooh boy, Kingdra means more Agility. We've got dangerous forces here, and the levels are rapidly approaching 90 already. Tread carefully.

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Zero Isle North [B34F]

Pokemon:  Staraptor,  Electrode,  Nidoran M,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Quilava,  Charmeleon,  Remoraid,  Mawile,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Mantyke,  Kingdra

Claydol takes its leave on B34F, thankfully. No more room-wide attacks for a little while.

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Zero Isle North [B35F]

Another terrain change! Now we appear to be in a mysterious cave.

Pokemon:  Staraptor,  Electrode,  Nidoran M,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Quilava,  Charmeleon,  Remoraid,  Mawile,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Mantyke,  Kingdra,  Delibird

Delibird joins here, nothing too scary.

There's another Sealed Chamber here with  Iron Silk which boosts the Attack and Defense of Steel-types.

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Zero Isle North [B36F]

Pokemon:  Staraptor,  Electrode,  Charmeleon,  Remoraid,  Mawile,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Mantyke,  Kingdra,  Delibird,  Nidoking

Alright, Nidoking is one pokemon I'm genuinely afraid of. After encountering one at a bad angle, one was able to instantly KO both Skye and Icarus with Earth Power and there was nothing we could've done about it. I think it's mainly a combination of STAB Earth Power combined with our type disadvantage, Icarus's Erratic Player IQ skill, and Nidoking's Rivalry ability. It's a recipe for total disaster. And even worse, he resists Discharge so it's not like I can just reliably take him out from a range even if I'm willing to use my most valuable asset. This is a dangerous, dangerous foe. We are not so overlevel anymore. Indeed, Zero Island is designed to be challenging no matter how far along you are.

Oh, and Nidoran, jigglypuff, Weezing, and Quilava are gone here.

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Zero Isle North [B37F - B39F]

Pokemon:  Staraptor,  Electrode,  Charmeleon,  Remoraid,  Mawile,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Mantyke,  Kingdra,  Delibird,  Nidoking,  Manectric

Manectric joins up on the 39th floor. That's right, now we've got Lightningrod to worry about. Gimme a break, man.

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Zero Isle North [B40F]

Pokemon:  Electrode,  Charmeleon,  Remoraid,  Mawile,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Mantyke,  Kingdra,  Delibird,  Nidoking,  Manectric

Staraptor is gone on B40F! That's one less agility user. But, frankly, that's the least of our problems here.

Anyway, there's a Sealed Chamber on this floor, too. And in here, there's 6! Count 'em, 6  Joy Seeds! All you need to get them is to cross that water. This is quite a reward and can do wonders for your Exp grind. I'd go ahead and dump them into someone in your active party because clearing up six inventory slots and holding them to the end of the dungeon seems like a bit of an ask. So, I dumped them all into Mana to help him catch up with the rest of the team.

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Zero Isle North [B41F - B49F]

Pokemon:  Venusaur,  Charizard,  Blastoise,  Dragonite,  Meganium,  Typhlosion,  Feraligatr,  Walrein,  Metagross,  Shellos,  Lumineon,  Octillery,  Skarmory,  Tyranitar,  Sceptile,  Blaziken,  Swampert

On the 41st floor, we have a total wipe of all pokemon in the dungeon! With this whole new wave, you're now dealing with every final-stage Starter evolution from the previous gens, the Psuedo-legends Dragonite, Tyranitar, and Metagross, and a few other odd ones including Walrein, Shellos, Lumineon,  Octillery, and Skarmory. Feraligatr and Octillery return from prior floors. Of course, Tyranitar's presence means you're likely dealing with Sandstorms a lot down here.

On the 45th floor, you can find another Sealed Chamber containing a  Friend Bow. If there is only one Sealed Chamber, I highly recommend skipping this one. The Friend Bow is easily outclassed by another item you can get in this same dungeon. In the long game, this item is essentially useless. But that's the last of the Sealed Chambers. Now all that's left is the final push toward the end of the dungeon!

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Zero Isle North [B50F]

Pokemon:  Octillery,  Skarmory,  Tyranitar,  Sceptile,  Blaziken,  Swampert,  Hippowdon,  Drapion,  Tangrowth,  Mamoswine,  Cloyster,  Swalot,  Glalie,  Salamence,  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank

Wow! Suddenly we've got a lot of different pokemon, and a lot of scary pokemon. With Tyranitar and Hippowdon both, you might be dealing with a lot of Sandstorms. We've mentioned before how that can make Diglett annoying, so with these Sandstorms much more consistent, you can imagine Dugtrio being a lot more annoying. Mamoswine has both Blizzard and Earthquake. Gallie's got Blizzard and Sheer Cold, Hippowdon and Dugtrio both have Earthquake and Fissure. Cloyster has Protect and Spike Canon. Ursaring's got Hammer Arm. Lanturn has Volt Absorb making it immune to Discharge. And on top of all of this, the levels are all 90 across the board at this point. So even if you're at Lv. 100, STAB attacks from just about any pokemon can be devastating. At this point, this dungeon is very scary to navigate. But we've still got some ways to go.

Beyond all of that, IQ has been rising as we've gotten deeper in this dungeon, too. So you're going to start seeing pokemon double-attacking per turn and counterattacking a lot.

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Zero Isle North [B51F - B54F]

Pokemon:  Hippowdon,  Drapion,  Tangrowth,  Mamoswine,  Cloyster,  Swalot,  Glalie,  Salamence,  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank

Hey, look at that almost all o fthe friendlier pokemon you'd rather see are gone. Tyranitar is out of the picture, meaning Hippowdon's the only one bringing Sandstorms. But that's, frankly, the least of your worries.

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Zero Isle North [B55F - B60F]

Pokemon:  Hippowdon,  Drapion,  Tangrowth,  Mamoswine,  Cloyster,  Swalot,  Glalie,  Salamence,  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank,  Mismagius

We're gonna add Mismagius to the mix now, doesn't getting confused from the walls just sound like a Whale of a time? How about all your PP being spited away? Hopefully you've still got Max Elixirs!

Though this screenshot is on the 61st floor, the tileset changes again on the 60th floor to this much darker cavern. Quite fitting to how scary this place really is!

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Zero Isle North [B61F - B63F]

Pokemon:  Cloyster,  Swalot,  Glalie,  Salamence,  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank,  Mismagius,  Weepinbell,  Vespiquen,  Skuntank,  Carnivine,  Gallade

Some of the troublemakers are gone on the 61st floor, but a few new ones join in here. Vespiquen is another PP-eater and Skuntank's Memento can tank your stats, and Aftermath is a bitch, too.

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Zero Isle North [B64F]

Pokemon:  Cloyster,  Swalot,  Glalie,  Salamence,  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank,  Mismagius,  Weepinbell,  Vespiquen,  Skuntank,  Carnivine,  Gallade,  Masquerain

On the 64th floor, Masquerain gets added to the roster. Just another Room-wide attacker as an additional fuck-you.

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Zero Isle North [B65F]

Pokemon:  Swalot,  Glalie,  Salamence,  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank,  Mismagius,  Weepinbell,  Vespiquen,  Skuntank,  Carnivine,  Gallade,  Masquerain,  Gengar

Cloyster is gone! But now there's Gengar, another Ghost in the walls. By this point, you're likely running low on resources. Don't stop and smell the roses! Get to the stairs!

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Zero Isle North [B66F - B70F]

Pokemon:  Swalot,  Glalie,  Salamence,  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank,  Weepinbell,  Vespiquen,  Skuntank,  Carnivine,  Gallade,  Masquerain,  Gengar

Mismagius is finally gone now, so there's once again only one ghost to worry about in Gengar.

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Zero Isle North [B71F - B74F]

Pokemon:  Arbok,  Vileplume,  Dugtrio,  Poliwrath,  Muk,  Starmie,  Lanturn,  Ursaring,  Miltank,  Weepinbell,  Vespiquen,  Skuntank,  Carnivine,  Gallade,  Masquerain,  Gengar

Glalie is out of the picture now alongside Swalot and Salamence, but there's still so many dangerous pokemon here that it hardly matters. And the rmoval of Swalot and Salamence frankly just means the density of trouble pokemon is even higher.

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

Zero Isle North [B75F]

And finally, finally, we reach the depths of the dungeon. We're finally safe and can reap the rewards of our journey. And these rewards are certainly well worth the effort if you don't like genning Wonder Mail codes: Two  Wonder Gummis, a  Wonder Chest, and the only reason you would ever come this far: a  Golden Mask.

The  Golden Mask is the item I've been alluding to as far back as the Seven Treasures. This item boosts the recruitment by 20.1%. That's only 0.1% higher than the boost from the Seven Treasures items, but that difference is significiant! We'll cover why in our cleanup, but more importantly, the Seven Treasures only work for their corresponding type while the Golden Mask works with pokemon of any type, so long as their recruitment rate can be adjusted. This item is your best friend when recruiting every type of pokemon, or any specific pokemon you may still want, and is outright required for one pokemon in particular. If you remember our coverage of Rescue Team, you probably know exactly who that might be.

 

Anyway, after collecting our prizes and making our way to the goal, we're finally done with the first Zero Isle dungeon... and good lord was it a scary experience. And this isn't even close to the scariest. Next time, we're off to Zero Isle East. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 64: Zero Isle East

We continue along the final stretch of our coverage of this game! And today we're covering the beginning of the end of our lives. There's not really too much to talk about ahead of time, I think things will flow better if I wait to go over our preparations for the section detailing the dungeon. So, let's just dive right in!

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

Zero Isle East

The music here is random each floor, possible songs include: Chasm Cave, Lower Brine Cave, Craggy Coast, and Steam Cave

 

This is the first "real" Zero Isle challenge, the first to actually apply its namesake rule: Upon entering this dungeon, you only have a single pokemon and it's reduced to Lv. 1. I'm not sure exactly how the game handles pokemon like Walrein who have more than 5 Lv. 1 moves, but Hail tried to learn Water Gun after leveling up once, so I suppose they allow you to choose among these moves that way? Regardless, Hail was able to start with Powder Snow which was the primary reason I chose to bring her, though there was a secondary reason I was hoping I would come across. Maybe you can guess it.

Anyway, this level reset works just like it does in Rescue Team's Level Reset dungeons. Your stats and moves are reverte to what they were before after you leave the dungeon, so any stat-boosting items used in the dungeon will only last for the duration of the individual dungeon run. Your IQ is also reset, so unfortunately no Stairway Sensor, Map Surveyor Gengar.

This particular dungeon does allow you to bring 16 items, which is fantastic, and you can even bring as many party members as you want, though I chose to go solo because, frankly, I don't have the energy to spare babysitting three teammates sharing a single braincell among them while also managing my inventory for an endurance challenge. You're also allowed to bring as much money as you want, but don't be overly cocky doing so. In a dungeon like this you're often just one mistake from being buried where you stand.

 

These are the items I decided to bring along: A couple of Max Elixirs and Huge Apples to help carry me along, but I can't emphasize the Gravelerocks enough. These are a godsend in the early parts of the dungeon. Fixed 20 damage does wonders when even your strongest attacks only do around 15 damage. Unfortunately, I never had the foresight for this, so I've consistently sold Gravelerock stacks at 99 to reduce clutter in storage. Hindsight is 20/20. If I ever play this game again, I'll make sure to save more Gravelerocks specifically for these dungeons. I also brought the Wonder Chest because I thought it might help me offset Walrein's fairly slow Exp growth. You might think it would save time if I used Snow the Spheal instead, but sadly, Spheal actually doesn't level up any faster than Walrein. I believe the most recommended pokemon for these dungeons is Jynx because she starts with Powder Snow as well as Lovely Kiss, but I don't have Jynx so Hail is the closest I've got. She also starts with Powder Snow, as well as Crunch which is pretty solid, so that sounds like a good start.

You'll also notice I'm bringing four Keys. That's right, we've got some sealed chambers in this dungeon, too. So better come prepared! Though there is a chance you can find Keys in the dungeon itself, so you may feel less pressured to actually bring them with you.

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle, and  Lockon Specs,  Insomniscopes,  Scope Lenses,  Bounce,  Curve,  Persim,  Power,  Racket,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist, and  Zinc Bands,  Def.,  Pass,  Pecha, and  Warp Scarves,  Gold,  Heal,  Joy, and  Plain Ribbons,  Munch Belts,  No-Slip, and  No-Stick Caps,  Iron Thorns*,  Silver Spikes*,  Sticks*,  Gravelerocks*,  Gravelyrocks*,  Geo Pebbles*,  Apples*,  Big Apples*,  Grimy Food*,  Cheri*,  Chesto*,  Oran*,  Oren*,  Pecha*,  Rawst*, and  Sitrus* Berries,  Blast*,  Blinker*,  Doom*,  Dough*,  Dropeye*,  Eyedrop*,  Heal*,  Joy*,  Life*,  Pure*,  Quick*,  Reviser*,  Reviver*,  Sleep*,  Slip*,  Stun*,  Totter*,  Via*,  Violent*,  Warp*, and  X-Eye* Seeds,  Calcium*,  Iron*,  Protein*,  Zinc*,  Max*, and Mix* Elixirs,  Keys, and assorted  Wonder Orbs and  TMs.

* Only in Explorers of Time and Sky for some reason, these items are not available on B20F. Outside of Sky-exclusive items, they can still be found on B20F in Explorers of Darkness. This only differs on B20F and you're unlikely to notice this in typical gameplay.

In Explorers of Darkness only, you can also find any color of  Gummi, as well as  Hunger Seeds.

Traps:  Chestnut,  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Gust,  Mud,  Poison,  Pokemon,  PP-Zero,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon,  Trip, and  Warp Traps.

And to reiterate, there are four Sealed Chambers in this dungeon. While you can pick up  Keys in the dungeon proper, you may want to bring four with you just in case if you want to open other chambers. Otherwise, feel free to poke ahead to see what each chamber has and if it's worthwhile to you.

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Zero Isle East [B1F]

Pokemon:  Dewgong,  Shellder,  Corsola,  Kabuto,  Azumarill

Right away, you'll find out this dungeon doesn't hesitate to rub in your face just how weak you are. You might be Lv. 1 but this is no Beach Cave you're dealing with. All of these pokemon may be roughly your level, but each one might take several turns to KO, and that's assuming all of your attacks hit. Man, I'm already missing being able to just steamroll all the pokemon I see. But those days are more or less behind us, sadly. Among these, Dewgong is the one to watch out for the most. This thing just takes turn after turn to KO and it will destroy your PP. However, getting a KO on Dewgong does net you a solid chunk of Exp that can shoot you up a good number of levels.

As I mentioned above, after reaching Lv. 2, I learned Water Gun. This is supposed to be a Lv. 1 move for Walrein, so I suppose this is how the game handles pokemon with more than 4 Lv. 1 moves. So don't panic if you didn't get the four moves you wanted! Maybe you'll get them with a level or two?

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Zero Isle East [B2F]

Pokemon:  Dewgong,  Shellder,  Corsola,  Kabuto,  Azumarill,  Slowpoke,  Yanma

Slowpoke and Yanma both join up on the second floor. Yanma looks fragile compared to the other pokemon, but I found they're quite rough.

Anyway, if you're worried about your damage output, it really isn't a bad idea to wait by the stairs and KO a bunch of enemies Aegis Cave style to grind up some Exp. But odds are you're never going to be totally comfortable with your level. You might be better off pushing onward and hoping to find stat-boosting items on the ground. Just make sure you've got some Max Elixirs and Food items to keep you company while you burn your time away. The time limit in these Zero Isle dungeons is a lot longer than Aegis Cave, so you can spend quite a while just grinding Exp if you really want. Just mind your HP, PP, and Belly!

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Zero Isle East [B3F]

Pokemon:  Dewgong,  Shellder,  Corsola,  Kabuto,  Azumarill,  Slowpoke,  Yanma,  Mankey,  Tentacruel,  Voltorb,  Spearow,  Seedot

On the 3rd floor, we've got new family with Mankey, Tentacruel, Voltorb, Spearow, and Seedot. They try to be sneaky with these relatively weaker pokemon, but the levels are slowly creeping up! Make sure you're staying on top of KOing enough enemeis to stay at a competitive level!

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Zero Isle East [B4F]

Pokemon:  Kabuto,  Azumarill,  Slowpoke,  Yanma,  Mankey,  Tentacruel,  Voltorb,  Spearow,  Seedot,  Heracross

Dewgong, Shellder, and Corsola are gone. Heracross now steals the show as the scariest pokemon in the room.

Mind the fact that this screenshot is from B5F, it's Cloudy on both B4F and B5F.

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Zero Isle East [B5F]

Pokemon:  Kabuto,  Azumarill,  Yanma,  Mankey,  Tentacruel,  Voltorb,  Spearow,  Seedot,  Heracross

The only reason B4F and B5F couldn't be paried together was because Slowpoke has to ruin everything by leaving here.

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Zero Isle East [B6F]

Pokemon:  Spearow,  Seedot,  Heracross,  Primeape,  Golbat,  Ditto,  Hoothoot,  Natu,  Houndour,  Wailmer

Lots more pokemon join the fray on B6F as many take their leave. Up until now, Ditto has always been a very "whatever" pokemon. But when it uses Transform, for some reason it ends up using Struggle to attack which is actually a really deadly attack at low levels. Be very careful around these guys. Houndour can also be pretty scary. They're not too bad to deal with on their own, but the real danger is that they can burn you. And at low levels, you don't have nearly enough HP to just "walk it off." A burn at a bad time could spell the end for your run if you don't have any Rawst Berries. Of course, you saw how many Reviver Seeds I brought with me: These are essentially every healer in one. So if I burn to death, I can simply take a Reviver Seed and not only be cured of the burn, but also at full HP, PP, and Belly, too. Shoot, you may as well just bring 14 Reviver Seeds and brute force your way through the dungeon.

 

I found a Kecleon Shop here, but this was where I made the tragic realization that I forgot to bring a significant amount of money. I only had what I made off of whatever I gathered and sold from the previous exploration. Sadly, I had to pass on this Iron. But I was able to snatch up another Max Elixir! Also, after reaching full health, I ate a Sitrus Berry to increase my max HP by 2. Major PSA: Remember that Sitrus Berries only extend your max HP if used when you're at full health! Otherwise they just fully heal you, which sucks because that's just what a regular-ass Oran Berry can do effortlessly.

Since I was already starting to struggle to get KOs, I decided to start grinding up again down here. Along the way, I leveled up and learned Ice Ball! I didn't stick with this move long when I first got it on Hail early in the game, but I think it'll find much more use in this dungeon. At the very least, it's a fourth move capable of KOing enemies! And the potential for saving resources by potentially KOing a pokemon in a single turn by hitting them several times is too good to pass up. Even if I will be missing a lot more frequently than with Crunch or Water Gun, there are boons and I can't really look a gift horse in the mouth.

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Zero Isle East [B7F]

Pokemon:  Seedot,  Heracross,  Primeape,  Golbat,  Ditto,  Hoothoot,  Natu,  Houndour,  Wailmer

Once agian, the only reason B7F couldn't be paired with B6F was because Spearow decided to leave.

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Zero Isle East [B8F]

The tileset down here changes to that of a cave.

Pokemon:  Heracross,  Primeape,  Golbat,  Ditto,  Hoothoot,  Natu,  Houndour,  Wailmer,  Mr. Mime

Mr. Mime joins on B8F in place of Seedot. These were particularly dangeros for me because they have Magical Leaf! Yikes! Steer clear!

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Zero Isle East [B9F - B10F]

Pokemon:  Golbat,  Ditto,  Hoothoot,  Natu,  Houndour,  Wailmer,  Mr. Mime,  Venonat,  Hitmonlee

Venonat and Hitmonlee join in on B9F. Hitmonlee replaces Heracross as the new king of the hill, but Venonat can be a devastating support unit for him, too, with SuperSonic and Disable being a dangerous combo.

On the 9th floor, I used a TM I'd picked up to replace Water Gun with Water Pulse. The extra damage is much needed, as is the range and the ability to confuse is a huge boon as well.

Floor 10 has random weather, in my case it was foggy.

 

But more importantly than that, though, there's a Sealed Chamber on this floor. Inside this chamber you'll find a  Joy Seed which can be a big boon, but I recommend saving it until after you level up naturally so that you don't waste any Exp you've already gained.

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Zero Isle East [B11F]

Pokemon:  Mr. Mime,  Venonat,  Hitmonlee,  Magneton,  Beedrill,  Vulpix,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Slugma,  Chansey

Another chunk of pokemon fall off in favor of a new posse. Vulpix and Slugma are scary for the same reasons as Houndour, only Slugma's a bit more prone to burning you thanks to Flame Body. And I probably don't need to tell you why you want to steer clear from Beedrill, but it rhymes with Leery Attack. If you find a Chansey, though, count yourself lucky! That's a huge gift of Exp! Just don't underestimate its ability to stay in the ring. Hit it hard and fast! With Physical Attacks!

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Zero Isle East [B12F]

Pokemon:  Mr. Mime,  Venonat,  Hitmonlee,  Magneton,  Beedrill,  Vulpix,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Slugma,  Chansey,  Krabby

It's Krabby! Frankly, I don't think there's much else to say. It is Krabby, tho.

 

The weather is always foggy here. And I was lucky enough to find another Sitrus Berry! Rock on!

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Zero Isle East [B13F]

Pokemon:  Venonat,  Hitmonlee,  Magneton,  Beedrill,  Vulpix,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Slugma,  Chansey,  Krabby,  Magmar,  Pineco

Mr. Mime is now replaced with Magmar and Pineco. Magmar brings more Flame Body for you while Pineco can really mess things up with SelfDestruct and Protect. If you're looking at Bulbapedia, though, you might be noticing the levels begin to plateau a bit here. Up until now, the levels have been correlated to the floors the pokemon have been found on. Not so much now! And Thank God for that because I don't know what I would do if level shere got as high as 40. Those had better be Magikarp!

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Zero Isle East [B14F]

Pokemon:  Magneton,  Beedrill,  Vulpix,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Slugma,  Chansey,  Krabby,  Magmar,  Pineco,  Wartortle,  Omanyte

Wartortle joins the fray here and Jesus Christ if there is any enemy I recommend running away from it's these little fuckers. I don't know what drugs they're on, but they barely take any damage from my strongest attacks and absolutely refuse to go down! I try to use Warp Seeds, Slumber Orbs, anything I can get my hands on just to get these guys to stay away because any attempt to KO them is just a ton of wasted PP. Omanyte aren't even remotely as problematic.

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Zero Isle East [B15F]

We've got another new tileset! We're deeper in the cave and it looks like there's lots of Sapphires in the walls! Cool!

Pokemon:  Beedrill,  Vulpix,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Slugma,  Chansey,  Krabby,  Magmar,  Pineco,  Wartortle,  Omanyte,  Graveler

Graveler joins here and they should be really easy to pick off.

 

More importantly, there's another Sealed Chamber here! Judging by the size, you might be worried if you haven't come prepared to cross any water. But don't worry, it's just an oversized room. Inside is a free  Treasure Box.

This box may contain a(n):  Edify,  Charity, or  Hope Robe, or a  Wonder Gummi.

The three  Robes are exclusive items for the Lake Guardians Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf respectively. They'll allow the pokemon to warp to a random location if it gets hit at a low HP... not... sure how great that is. Sure, it can help them get out of danger, but it could just as easily put you much further away from where you were trying to go. Chances are if you were fighting something while low on HP, it was probably in your way as you were traveling to where you wanted to go. I would definitely pass on any of these. But that Wonder Gummi can be quite a powerful item!

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

Zero Isle East [B16F]

Pokemon:  Krabby,  Magmar,  Pineco,  Wartortle,  Omanyte,  Graveler,  Haunter,  Eevee,  Togetic,  Shroomish,  Bronzor,  Plusle,  Minun

We've got more new pokemon! Now we're starting to introduce the Ghosts! And we all know how much fun these guys can be. They're not easy to run from, so be sure you can damage them! Shroomish's Effect Spore is also something to watch out for, as is Eevee's Helping Hand and Togetic's Magical Leaf. Bronzor can also be a pain to take out for every reason you can probably guess, though I strangely still found them easier to dispatch than Wartortle for some reason.

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

Zero Isle East [B17F]

Pokemon:  Magmar,  Pineco,  Wartortle,  Omanyte,  Graveler,  Haunter,  Eevee,  Togetic,  Shroomish,  Bronzor,  Plusle,  Minun

There's nothing new here pokemon-wise, but Krabby is gone.

The weather is random once again on this floor. A sandstorm in my case.

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

Zero Isle East [B18F]

Pokemon:  Wartortle,  Omanyte,  Graveler,  Haunter,  Eevee,  Togetic,  Shroomish,  Bronzor,  Plusle,  Minun,  Scyther,  Pinsir

Scyther and Pinsir join in place of Magmar and Pineco. These guys can be a bit scary, too, but it's not actually all that bad. By this point in the dungeon, I was fairly comfortable taking out most of my enemies except for the ones I've complained about. That's partially thanks to the fact that none of the pokemon have exceeded, or will exceed, Lv. 15 for a few more floors.

I found an Iron here! Every bit helps!

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

Zero Isle East [B19F]

Pokemon:  Graveler,  Haunter,  Eevee,  Togetic,  Shroomish,  Bronzor,  Plusle,  Minun,  Scyther,  Pinsir

Wartortle and Omanyte are gone! I'd say this leaves Haunter and Bronzor as the biggest threats, but don't underestimate Scyther and Pinsir, either.

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

Zero Isle East [B20F]

Pokemon:  Haunter,  Eevee,  Togetic,  Shroomish,  Bronzor,  Plusle,  Minun,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Rhyhorn,  Shedinja

We've now replaced Graveler with Rhyhorn and Shedinja. Shedinja being a very scary pokemon if you're unprepared! If nothing else, you should hopefully have something in your inventory you can pop to either damage them or shoo them away.

The weather is always foggy on this floor.

 

There's a Sealed Chamber here to look for. If you're wondering why the floor looks different, I used a  One-Room Orb which destroys all the destroyable walls on the floor. This makes it easy to find the chamber and kill all the enemies in the floor with an attack like Powder Snow!

Anyway, inside this Sealed Chamber is  Royal Silk which boosts the Offensive stats of Dragon-type pokemon by 5 each. Quite a powerful item, for sure.

And once again, for some reason, a very strange subset of items are not available on this particular floor and this floor only in Explorers of Time and Sky, but not in Explorers of Darkness. It's a very baffling oddity to be sure.

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

Zero Isle East [B21F]

Pokemon:  Plusle,  Minun,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Rhyhorn,  Shedinja,  Ivysaur,  Drowzee,  Sudowoodo,  Lunatone,  Anorith,  Drifloon,  Mime Jr.,  Electivire,  Porygon-Z

We're passed the midway point and breaktime is over. The kiddie gloves are coming off and now we're starting to see some scary pokemon that take an even scarier amount of hits. Brace yourself because this is what you've been spending the first half of the dungeon prepping for. Haunter dips just in time for an even worse ghost to appear. Electivire is terrifying, simply put, and Porygon-Z's capable of coming at you with Agility. You do not want to be on its bad side. Thankfully, Anorith is a pretty nice diluter, as is Mime Jr. Nothing beats Sudowoodo at that role, though, as it stands completely still as long as you don't distrub it.

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

Zero Isle East [B22F]

Pokemon:  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Rhyhorn,  Shedinja,  Ivysaur,  Drowzee,  Sudowoodo,  Lunatone,  Anorith,  Drifloon,  Mime Jr.,  Electivire,  Porygon-Z

Plusle and Minun are out now, which just makes the actually threatening pokemon appear more frequently.

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

Zero Isle East [B23F]

Pokemon:  Rhyhorn,  Shedinja,  Ivysaur,  Drowzee,  Sudowoodo,  Lunatone,  Anorith,  Drifloon,  Mime Jr.,  Electivire,  Porygon-Z,  Pikachu

Pikachu takes the place of Scyther and Pinsir and provides a very disappointing Exp yield. They're really not worth your time unless they're pestering you with Quick Attacks and Thunder Waves. Try to avoid them.

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

Zero Isle East [B24F]

Pokemon:  Rhyhorn,  Shedinja,  Ivysaur,  Drowzee,  Sudowoodo,  Lunatone,  Anorith,  Drifloon,  Mime Jr.,  Electivire,  Porygon-Z,  Pikachu,  Illumise

Illumise begins to appear on the 24th floor.

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

Zero Isle East [B25F]

Pokemon:  Ivysaur,  Drowzee,  Sudowoodo,  Lunatone,  Anorith,  Drifloon,  Mime Jr.,  Electivire,  Porygon-Z,  Pikachu,  Illumise,  Murkrow,  Makuhita

On the 25th floor, we've got Murkrow and Makuhita replacing Rhyhorn and Shedinja. Murkrow aren't a problem, but these Makuhita are monsters. They take so many hits so easily and they can dish out a lot of pain, too, between Fake Out and Arm Thrust. Thick Fat also protects them from Powder Snow and Ice Ball. And they resist Crunch, too. Get them the hell away from me. I'd gladly take Shedinja back instead!

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

Zero Isle East [B26F - B28F]

There's a new tileset on B26F. The weather is also random here and, in my case, it's hailing! Which is fantastic because that means I get the benefit of my  Safe Scarf! Since I've been struggling to deal with certain enemies at this point, I definitely think I should capitalize on this and try to grind out some levels with this speed advantage.

Pokemon:  Pikachu,  Illumise,  Murkrow,  Makuhita,  Bayleef,  Baltoy,  Nidoran M,  Chansey

And sure enough, we've got some more dangerous foes here, too. Bayleef in particular can be pretty scary. But not so much when we've got this speed advantage. Of course, Nidoran can ruin our day with Poison Point which I simply do not take very kindly to. Unfortunately, my grinding session did end up getting cut a bit short due to Poison Point, but you can't win 'em all as they say. But it is a good idea to try and grind out somewhere around here if you can because we're approaching the last leg of the dungeon and the levels are starting to spike again!

Also, Chansey begins to appear again here! Unfortunately, she seems to be quite rare because I never ran into a single one.

The weather is random again on the 28th floor.

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

Zero Isle East [B29F]

Pokemon:  Illumise,  Murkrow,  Makuhita,  Bayleef,  Baltoy,  Nidoran M,  Chansey

Pikachu is gone on the 29th floor.

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

Zero Isle East [B30F]

Pokemon:  Murkrow,  Makuhita,  Bayleef,  Baltoy,  Nidoran M,  Chansey,  Camerupt,  Absol,  Nidoking,  Meditite,  Medicham

Now that we're on the last leg of the dungeon, they're starting to let loose with some of the more threatening pokemon in the game. Thankfully, Camerupt and Nidoking are moreso just for the inimidation factor. They don't actually have access to the moves that make them so infamous. The worst Camerupt has is Magnitude and for Nidoking it's Double Kick. But Absol, though, it might not have Perish Song, but Pressure is all it needs to be a nuisance.

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

Zero Isle East [B31F]

Pokemon:  Nidoran M,  Chansey,  Camerupt,  Absol,  Nidoking,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Quilava,  Remoraid,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose

Another set of pokemon leave and another one joins. This time we're trading Makuhita for the even more annoying Zangoose and we're throwing in another Misdreavus! So those are some fun options. Let's not forget the occasional Smokescreen from Quilava. Fun times indeed.

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

Zero Isle East [B32F]

Pokemon:  Chansey,  Camerupt,  Absol,  Nidoking,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Quilava,  Remoraid,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose

Nidoran is finally gone! It's kind of odd that it stuck around so long with Nidoking there, but I guess Meditite and Medicham have been hanging around for a while, too, so I suppose it's not all that strange.

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

Zero Isle East [B33F]

Pokemon:  Camerupt,  Absol,  Nidoking,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Quilava,  Remoraid,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose,  Kingdra,  Weezing

Kingdra and Weezing join the fray on the 33rd floor. Once again, Kingdra kinda lacks what made it scary, so all it really has going for it here is its lack of a weakness.

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

Zero Isle East [B34F]

Pokemon:  Camerupt,  Absol,  Nidoking,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Quilava,  Remoraid,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose,  Kingdra,  Weezing,  Electrode

Electrode joins up on the 34th floor.

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

Zero Isle East [B35F]

Pokemon:  Nidoking,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Quilava,  Remoraid,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose,  Kingdra,  Weezing,  Electrode,  Horsea,  Octillery,  Delibird,  Carvanha

It looks like we're finally getting a bit of a break, as Absol is removed from the pool and nothing that replaces it really fills its role. If this dungeon really wanted to be evil, we'd start seeing Aerodactyl right here. But things still aren't quite free. We've still got Misdreavus and Zangoose to watch out for. Delibird's Present can also be extremely dangerous, too, if you're unlucky.

 

But it's here where we'll find our final Sealed Chamber containing two  Joy Seeds! At this point, you can probably carry these items to the end of the dungeon. And if you went through all the effort carrying a key all this way, you'll probably want to do just that.

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

Zero Isle East [B36F - B37F]

Pokemon:  Remoraid,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose,  Kingdra,  Weezing,  Electrode,  Horsea,  Octillery,  Delibird,  Carvanha,  Butterfree,  Loudred,  Manectric,  Torkoal,  Wynaut

As we draw closer to the end of the dungeon, the wild pokemon's levels gradually creep toward their peak at Lv. 21. But as you can see, we're over the majority of the dangerous pokemon. Misdreavus and Zangoose are still the biggest offensive threats, and Wynaut can be annoying to fight off. But you're almost there! Just keep pushing!

 

The weather is random again on B36F.

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

Zero Isle East [B38F]

Pokemon:  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose,  Kingdra,  Weezing,  Electrode,  Horsea,  Octillery,  Delibird,  Carvanha,  Butterfree,  Loudred,  Manectric,  Torkoal,  Wynaut

Remoraid is gone on the 38th floor.

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

Zero Isle East [B39F]

Pokemon:  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Zangoose,  Weezing,  Electrode,  Horsea,  Octillery,  Delibird,  Carvanha,  Butterfree,  Loudred,  Manectric,  Torkoal,  Wynaut

And finally, Kingdra slips away on the 39th floor.

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

 

And finally, we've arrived at the final floor! Here, we can claim our ultimate prize!  White Silk, which boosts the Attack and Defense of Normal-type pokemon by 5 and 3 respectively, and a  Deluxe Box which may contain either a  Life Seed or a  Joy Seed. I'm gonna be honest, after how much effort and concentration this dungeon took, this is an incredibly underwhelming reward. I get that this is arguably the easiest of the Zero Isle dungeons since you don't actually have to go in, but I genuinely believe this was harder than Zero Isle North just because I couldn't come in with any IQ Skills and movesets I wanted to cover all my bases. And I did actually rely on some savestate abuse to work my way through the dungeon. Perhaps I could've prepared a little better or let some more Reviver Seeds go, but this was definitely the scariest a dungeon has ever been. I've never been a fan of these level reset dungeons as they require a certain degree of resource management and risk taking that I just find incredibly difficult to wrap my head around. But if you're into that sort of thing, maybe this would be a good dungeon to come to in order to sneak some Joy Seeds into storage? I can't say I fully support such an endeavor but hey, the more the merrier.

Anyway, good lord covering this dungeon gave me a stark reminder of why i was so stressed out covering Rescue Team at the end. I can't believe I used to try and beat these dungeons and write up the update in the same day, and I was trying to maintain a regular daily schedule. That's rough. But we got through in the end! Anyway, that's two Zero Isle dungeons down! Only three to go! Up next is probably gonna have to be Zero Isle West. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 65: Zero Isle West

We're slowly crawling toward the end of this game's coverage one dungeon at a time! Up next is Zero Isle West. Once again, let's just jump right in to avoid redundancy with talking about it here in the intro.

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

Zero Isle West

The music that plays in this dungeon is random each floor and can include: Random Dungeon Theme 1, Sealed Ruin Pit, Mystifying Forest, and Miracle Sea.

Zero Isle West is a more challenging counterpart of Zero Isle East. Here, your level is once again reduced to 1, meaning all your stats are returned to their default values, but this time you're not allowed to bring any items with you, only money. Other than that, though, this dungeon is the same kind of challenge. But since you're not allowed to bring any items at all, you'll be relying that much more on items you find in the dungeon.

I made sure to bring a large helping of cash from the bank before visiting. I made the mistake of forgetting to do this last time and had to pass on a Protein. This time, I'm gonna make sure I'm well prepared.

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle,  Lockon, and  Whiff Specs,  Insomniscopes,  No-Aim Scopes,  Scope Lenses,  Bounce,  Curve,  Detect,  Patsy,  Persim,  Power,  Racket,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist,  Weather, and  Zinc Bands,  Def.,  Dodge,  Pass,  Pecha,  Sneak, and  Warp Scarves,  Gold,  Heal,  Joy, and  Plain Ribbons,  Munch Belts,  No-Slip, and  No-Stick Caps,  Iron Thorns*,  Silver Spikes*,  Sticks*,  Geo Pebbles,  Gravelerocks,  Gravelyrocks,  Apples,  Big Apples,  Grimy Food,  Cheri*,  Chesto*,  Oran*,  Oren*,  Pecha*,  Rawst*, and  Sitrus* Berries,  Blast*,  Blinker*,  Doom*,  Dough*,  Dropeye*,  Eyedrop*,  Heal*,  Joy*,  Life*,  Quick*,  Reviser*,  Reviver*,  Sleep*,  Slip*,  Stun*,  Totter*,  Via*,  Violent*,  Warp*, and  X-Eye* Seeds,  Calcium*,  Iron*,  Protein*,  Zinc*,  Ginseng*,  Max* and Mix* Elixirs,  Keys, and assorted  Wonder Orbs and  TMs.

*Items marked with asterisks are oddly unavailable on floor B20F only in Explorers of Time and Sky. They are available on all floors in Explorers of Darkness where applicable.

Additionally, in Explorers of Darkness only, you can find any basic color of  Gummi,  Hunger Seeds,  All-Hit,  Decoy,  Foe-Fear,  Foe-Seal,  Invisify,  Luminous, and  Mug Orbs.

Obviously, since you can't bring any items in with you at all, you're going to be relying heavily on Max Elixirs and Apples you find on the ground. Additionally, any of the equippable items will be much more signficiant than usual. Just like in Zero Isle East, stat-boosting items are very much desired, as are TMs. Keys are also a very significant item to seek out. There are hidden chambers in this dungeon but, as you can't bring items with you, it'll take a bit of luck and probably several attempts to open every Sealed Chamber, and several more to get every possible reward from them. Once again I must stress that these dungeons are designed to be infinitely replayable.

Traps:  Chestnut,  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Gust,  Mud,  Poison,  Pokemon,  PP-Zero,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon,  Trip, and  Warp Traps

One last difference between this dungeon and Zero Isle West is that Monster Houses can begin to appear starting at B14F. This can be a blessing and a curse. You can get lots of Exp from them, but they can also be a huge tax on your PP, so its best to avoid them if you're lacking on Max Elixirs.

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

Zero Isle West [B1F]

Pokemon:  Kabuto,  Shellder,  Piplup,  Corsola,  Farfetch'd,  Voltorb

This dungeon kind of takes it a bit easier on you for the earlier floors. Of course, since we can't bring any held items with us, that means no Max Elixirs or Wonder Chest to help us through getting a head start on our levels early in the dungeon. So for now, let's just focus on dungeon progression.

If you want to unlock any Sealed Chambers in this dungeon, I highly recommend searching the entirety of B1F until you find a  Key. One will always spawn on the first floor of this dungeon since you're otherwise not guaranteed to be able to open any of the hidden chambers. You might find several others along the way, but this is the only one that's guaranteed to spawn.

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

Zero Isle West [B2F]

Pokemon:  Kabuto,  Shellder,  Piplup,  Corsola,  Farfetch'd,  Voltorb,  Yanma,  Castform

On the second floor, Yanma and Castform join. As per usual, don't underestimate your opponents just because they look weak in a dungeon like this. You're probably the weakest pokemon in the room. Don't be afraid to use the items you find! It's better you use them than just drop them when you find a better item to replace them with.

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

Zero Isle West [B3F]

Pokemon:  Shellder,  Piplup,  Corsola,  Farfetch'd,  Voltorb,  Yanma,  Castform,  Slowpoke,  Tentacool,  Cubone,  Spearow,  Seedot,  Nincada

On the third floor, Kabuto is the first to disappear, with Slowpoke, Tentacool, Cubone, Spearow, Seedot, and Nincada taking its place. Just like in Zero Isle East, the levels match the floors early on, so these pokemon mostly lack their most dangerous attacks. Even still, don't underestimate how much damage a simple STAB attack can do.

The weather is also Cloudy here.

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

Zero Isle West [B4F]

Pokemon:  Corsola,  Farfetch'd,  Voltorb,  Yanma,  Castform,  Slowpoke,  Tentacool,  Cubone,  Spearow,  Seedot,  Nincada,  Teddiursa,  Magby,  Staryu

Shellder and Piplup are the next to go, making room for Teddiursa, Magby, and Staryu. Magby comes with the baggage of Flame Body, so be careful attacking it. Especially this early on.

The weather is cloudy here as well.

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

Zero Isle West [B5F]

Pokemon:  Farfetch'd,  Voltorb,  Yanma,  Castform,  Tentacool,  Cubone,  Spearow,  Seedot,  Nincada,  Teddiursa,  Magby,  Staryu,  Porygon2

Corsola disappears on the following floor along with Slowpoke. We're also jumping right into Porygon2 which is a scary thought. This one's got Agility, so be careful!

The weather is Foggy here on B5F.

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

Zero Isle West [B6F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Spearow,  Seedot,  Nincada,  Magby,  Staryu,  Porygon2,  Golbat,  Venomoth,  Kadabra,  Omastar,  Hoothoot,  Xatu,  Azumarill,  Swinub,  Houndoom,  Marshtomp,  Wailmer,  Prinplup,  Glameow,  Stunky,  Grimer

Suddenly we've reached a pretty dramatic shift and there's a large variety of pokemon that can potentially appear! Even still, none of these new additions stood out as particularly dangerous, just with their innate annoyances. In the shift, a few pokemon disappear from the list, too: Farfetch'd, Voltorb, Yanma, Tentacool, Cubone, and Teddiursa are all gone.

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

Zero Isle West [B7F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Seedot,  Nincada,  Magby,  Staryu,  Porygon2,  Golbat,  Venomoth,  Kadabra,  Omastar,  Hoothoot,  Xatu,  Azumarill,  Swinub,  Houndoom,  Marshtomp,  Wailmer,  Prinplup,  Glameow,  Stunky,  Grimer

There are no additions on B7F, but Spearow leaves the nest.

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

Zero Isle West [B8F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Staryu,  Porygon2,  Golbat,  Venomoth,  Kadabra,  Omastar,  Hoothoot,  Xatu,  Azumarill,  Swinub,  Houndoom,  Marshtomp,  Wailmer,  Prinplup,  Glameow,  Stunky,  Grimer,  Hitmonlee,  Rhyhorn,  Camerupt,  Mr. Mime

We're starting to get into some of the more dangerous enemies now. Hitmonlee is always scary to face. Be safe! This is around where you might start to notice enemy levels starting to desynch from the floor count, though. So you can start to catch up if you're falling behind.

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

Zero Isle West [B9F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Porygon2,  Golbat,  Venomoth,  Kadabra,  Omastar,  Hoothoot,  Xatu,  Azumarill,  Swinub,  Houndoom,  Marshtomp,  Wailmer,  Prinplup,  Glameow,  Stunky,  Grimer,  Hitmonlee,  Rhyhorn,  Camerupt,  Mr. Mime

Staryu disappears on B9F.

Unfortunately, I wasn't paying attention and ended up missing it, but this is the floor where you can find a Sealed Chamber holding  Pink Silk inside it. This boosts the Attack and Defense of Poison-type pokemon by 5 and 3 respectively. Fog could technically benefit from it, but he only knows Special Attacks and is really good at evading damage altogether, so I'm not sure it's really all that necessary to stress over.

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

Zero Isle West [B10F]

Pallet Change! We're out of the Crystaline Cavern and into a dense forest.

Pokemon:  Castform,  Golbat,  Venomoth,  Kadabra,  Omastar,  Hoothoot,  Xatu,  Azumarill,  Swinub,  Houndoom,  Marshtomp,  Wailmer,  Prinplup,  Glameow,  Stunky,  Grimer,  Hitmonlee,  Rhyhorn,  Camerupt,  Mr. Mime,  Skorupi,  Electivire

Skorupi and Electivire show up on B10F in place of Porygon2. Some more scary faces you'll need to tread carefully around and attack from afar when you can't run away. Remember to use items like Warp Seeds to get away if you need to!

The weather is also random here. In my case, it was Sunny. Of course, this can affect Castform and his attacks, so watch out!

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

Zero Isle West [B11F - B12F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Stunky,  Grimer,  Hitmonlee,  Rhyhorn,  Camerupt,  Mr. Mime,  Skorupi,  Electivire,  Butterfree,  Beedrill,  Nidoran M,  Vulpix,  Parasect,  Chansey,  Kabutops,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Octillery,  Blissey,  Shedinja,  Plusle,  Minun,  Grumpig

The amount of pokemon in this dungeon is like a Hydra. For every pokemon that leaves, it seems like two more take its place! On the 11th floor, many pokemon disappear. Golbat, Venmoth, Kadabra, Omastar, Hoothoot, Xatu, Azumarill, Swinub, Houndoom, Marshtomp, Wailmer, Primplup, and Glameow all disappear and are replaced with Butterfree, Beedrill, Nidoran, Vulpix, Parasect, Chansey, Kabutops, Feraligatr, Spinarak, Octillery, Blissey, Shedinja, Plusle, Minun, and Grumpig. Chansey and Blissey are both major blessings. KO them if you can find them! That's a lot of Exp you don't want to waste! If one of these guys can spawn on the floor, you may want to even hover around a bit if you have the resources to do a little bit of grinding.

The weather is Foggy again on B12F.

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

Zero Isle West [B13F - B14F]]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Grimer,  Skorupi,  Electivire,  Butterfree,  Beedrill,  Nidoran M,  Vulpix,  Parasect,  Chansey,  Kabutops,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Octillery,  Blissey,  Shedinja,  Plusle,  Minun,  Grumpig,  Togekiss,  Drifloon

Some more pokemon disappear on B13F and are replaced with Togekiss and, more worryingly, Drifloon. As always, tread carefully.

It's on B13F where you'll find the second Sealed Chamber. This one contains  Gold Silk which powers up the Special Attack and Special Defense of Psychic types by 5 and 3 respectively.

And on B14F, the weather is Foggy again.

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

Zero Isle West [B15F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Grimer,  Skorupi,  Electivire,  Butterfree,  Beedrill,  Nidoran M,  Vulpix,  Parasect,  Chansey,  Kabutops,  Feraligatr,  Spinarak,  Octillery,  Blissey,  Shedinja,  Plusle,  Minun,  Grumpig,  Togekiss,  Drifloon,  Trapinch

Trapinch joins on B15F. That doesn't really mean much, though. It's only really significant if you run into it on a Sandstorm floor.

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

Zero Isle West [B16F - B17F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Togekiss,  Drifloon,  Trapinch,  Wartortle,  Venonat,  Dewgong,  Cloyster,  Hypno,  Kingler,  Rhydon,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Eevee,  Aerodactyl,  Furret,  Sneasel,  Miltank,  Larvitar,  Armaldo,  Bronzor,  Porygon-Z,  Ekans

Remember how I said something along the lines of "If they really wanted to be evil, they'd put Aerodactyl here?" huh, isn't that cute? Thankfully, they aren't guaranteed to be able to spawn, but even still, these guys are really annoying and you want to stay away. Porygon-Z can also be dangerous thanks to Agility, and now we've got Bronzor and Wartortle who love to soak up damage. Cloyster and Sneasel also have Multi-hit attacks and Miltank has some powerful STAB attacks, too. Quite the sudden difficulty spike, huh?

The weather is random on B17F, which means you may also have to worry about Sandstorms. That's not at all a fun time.

 

But it's here that you can find a Sealed Chamber holding a  Deluxe Box.

This box may contain a:  Havoc Robe,  Life Ring,  Heart Brooch, or  Eon Veil.

The  Havoc Robe is an exclusive item for Mewtwo which further reduces the PP of moves used against him, stacking with Pressure.

The  Life Ring is an exclusive item for Mew which prevents status conditions.

The  Heart Brooch is an exclusive item for Latias which may give it the Invisible status when attacking.

And the  Eon Veil is an exclusive item for Latios which may boost its speed when attacking.

Some of these are really powerful items, so be sure to seek them out!

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

Zero Isle West [18F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Togekiss,  Drifloon,  Trapinch,  Wartortle,  Venonat,  Dewgong,  Cloyster,  Hypno,  Kingler,  Rhydon,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Eevee,  Aerodactyl,  Furret,  Sneasel,  Miltank,  Larvitar,  Armaldo,  Bronzor,  Porygon-Z,  Ekans,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise

On the 18th floor, Meditite, Medicham, and Illumise join up.

And weather seems to be random here, too, since it was Hailing. Unfortunately, no Safe Scarf for me to profit with boosted speed. Even still, immunity to the Hail damage is still pretty nice!

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

Zero Isle West [B19F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Trapinch,  Wartortle,  Venonat,  Dewgong,  Cloyster,  Hypno,  Kingler,  Rhydon,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Eevee,  Aerodactyl,  Furret,  Sneasel,  Miltank,  Larvitar,  Armaldo,  Bronzor,  Porygon-Z,  Ekans,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise,  Tentacruel,  Lunatone

Once again, a couple more pokemon join the fray with Tentacruel and Lunatone while Togekiss takes its leave.

It was here that I found a TM for Ice Beam. It might've been a bit of a mistake, but I decided to replace Crunch for it so that I could have a stronger ranged Ice attack. In hindsight I think I should've gotten rid of Ice Ball instead, because I did suffer a bit only having Ice and Water attacks. But ultimately, this wasn't a fatal mistake and I was able to make it pretty comfortably to the end.

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

Zero Isle West [B20F]

I didn't get a screenshot on this floor, but the tileset changes to a more generic brown cave tileset here.

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Trapinch,  Wartortle,  Venonat,  Dewgong,  Cloyster,  Hypno,  Kingler,  Rhydon,  Scyther,  Pinsir,  Eevee,  Aerodactyl,  Furret,  Sneasel,  Miltank,  Larvitar,  Armaldo,  Bronzor,  Porygon-Z,  Ekans,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise,  Tentacruel,  Lunatone,  Pineco

Pineco joins up on the 20th floor.

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

Zero Isle West [B21F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Ekans,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise,  Tentacruel,  Lunatone,  Pineco,  Ivysaur,  Growlithe,  Poliwhirl,  Haunter,  Magmar,  Ditto,  Sudowoodo,  Smoochum,  Beautifly,  Breloom,  Cranidos,  Pikachu,  Magnemite

Just when I was starting to think thist list of pokemon was getting quite hefty, a lot of them drop off here. Unfortunately, Drifloon decides it wants to stick around for just a while longer. Thankfully, Aerodactyl is gone. So I suppose it's a good trade. We run into more Ghosts here though, with Haunter. Also Smoochum, but Smoochum was mainly dangerous for Perish Song before. Still, she knows Powder Snow, so you still want to try and get rid of them quick. Pikachu can also be deceptively dangerous, but doesn't yield much Exp, so you're probably best just trying to avoid them altogether.

 

There's a Sealed Chamber on this floor containing  Gray Silk which boosts the Physical Attack and Defense of Rock types.

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

Zero Isle West [B22F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Meditite,  Medicham,  Illumise,  Tentacruel,  Lunatone,  Pineco,  Ivysaur,  Growlithe,  Poliwhirl,  Haunter,  Magmar,  Ditto,  Sudowoodo,  Smoochum,  Beautifly,  Breloom,  Cranidos,  Pikachu,  Magnemite

Ekans is gone on B22F. I'm... not entirely sure that changes much, but I guess that makes all the other pokemon slightly more common.

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

Zero Isle West [B23F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Tentacruel,  Lunatone,  Pineco,  Ivysaur,  Growlithe,  Poliwhirl,  Haunter,  Magmar,  Ditto,  Sudowoodo,  Smoochum,  Beautifly,  Breloom,  Cranidos,  Pikachu,  Magnemite

Meditite, Medicham, and Illumise are now gone on B23F.

And it's here that I found a TM for Water Pulse, which I naturally taught immediately over Water Gun since that was starting to fall behind in terms of damage output.

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

Zero Isle West [B24F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Lunatone,  Pineco,  Ivysaur,  Growlithe,  Poliwhirl,  Haunter,  Magmar,  Ditto,  Sudowoodo,  Smoochum,  Beautifly,  Breloom,  Cranidos,  Pikachu,  Magnemite,  Machamp,  Probopass

On B24, Tentacruel disappears in favor of Machamp and Probopass. Machamp, of course, can be quite scary to run into. You don't want to be on the receiving end of its Karate Chop as an Ice Type, I assure you.

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

Zero Isle West [B25F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Lunatone,  Pineco,  Ivysaur,  Growlithe,  Poliwhirl,  Haunter,  Magmar,  Ditto,  Sudowoodo,  Smoochum,  Beautifly,  Breloom,  Cranidos,  Pikachu,  Magnemite,  Machamp,  Probopass,  Slowbro,  Skuntank

On the following floor, we can start running into Slowbro and Skuntank and we all know how fun Skuntank can be. It thankfully doesn't have Memento, but it does have Fury Swipes to stress over, so watch out.

 

Here, there's yet another Sealed Chamber. This one holds another  Deluxe Box.

The box may contain a:  Terra Ring,  Searing Ring,  Nether Veil, or a  Wonder Gummi.

The  Terra Ring is an exclusive item for Groudon which raises its Attack Speed in Sunny Weather, which is essentially its default state thanks to Drought. With this, Groudon will only ever be slower than +1 speed if the weather has been changed.

The  Searing Ring is an exclusive item for Heatran which heals it between floors.

The  Nether Veil will occasionally trap foes it attacks with a constricted status.

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

Zero Isle West [B26F - B28F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Pikachu,  Magnemite,  Machamp,  Probopass,  Slowbro,  Skuntank,  Golem,  Horsea,  Noctowl,  Ariados,  Ampharos,  Wobbuffet,  Scizor,  Skarmory,  Carvanha,  Torkoal,  Banette,  Grotle,  Honchkrow,  Mime Jr.,  Magnezone,  Baltoy,  Dugtrio

I'm noticing there are a lot of cases of this dungeon having stronger versions of pokemon from Zero Isle East. It's not quite consistent enough to be a rule of thumb, but we're seeing the evolutions of a lot of pokemon we only saw in earlier forms there. Anyway, B26 is another wave of new pokemon. Wobbuffet is the main one to watch out for, but there's a new ghost in town in the form of Banette and Torkoal's Smokescreen can be annoying, too.

 

The weather is random on B26F and B27F. Cloudy and Rainy in my case.

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

Zero Isle West [B29F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Pikachu,  Magnemite,  Slowbro,  Skuntank,  Golem,  Horsea,  Noctowl,  Ariados,  Ampharos,  Wobbuffet,  Scizor,  Skarmory,  Carvanha,  Torkoal,  Banette,  Grotle,  Honchkrow,  Mime Jr.,  Magnezone,  Baltoy,  Dugtrio,  Makuhita

On B29F, we swap out Machamp and Probopass for Makuhita. We already know why Makuhita is scary to face here, so there's no need to dwell on that.

 

More importantly, there's another Sealed Chamber! This one contains  Purple Silk which boosts the physical attack and defense of Ghost-type pokemon. Not too terribly useful since Fog only has Special attacks.

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

Zero Isle West [B30F]

As we enter the last stretch of the dungeon, the venue changes to that of ancient ruins. And, as you can probably expect, we'll be running into tougher enemies while the enemies we face start to reach closer and closer to their cap at Lv. 21.

Pokemon:  Castform,  Drifloon,  Pikachu,  Magnemite,  Slowbro,  Skuntank,  Golem,  Horsea,  Noctowl,  Ariados,  Ampharos,  Wobbuffet,  Scizor,  Skarmory,  Carvanha,  Torkoal,  Banette,  Grotle,  Honchkrow,  Mime Jr.,  Magnezone,  Baltoy,  Dugtrio,  Makuhita,  Snorlax,  Dragonite,  Rampardos,  Muk,  Electrode

We've got another set of new pokemon, this one surprisingly not bumping anything off the list just yet. Snorlax and Dragonite love to soak up damage, of course, and Rampardos is quite scary, too. Electrode blows up... you know the drill by now.

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

Zero Isle West [B31F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Baltoy,  Dugtrio,  Makuhita,  Snorlax,  Dragonite,  Rampardos,  Muk,  Electrode,  Arbok,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Seadra,  Mr. Mime,  Quilava,  Heracross,  Monferno,  Rhyperior,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol

At B31 we've got another new wave of pokemon. This time, some of the previous pokemon do get bumped off. Mr. Mime returns with a vengence as he's brought a lot of his dangerous friends. Zangoose, Misdreavus, Monferno, Absol, they've all got things to fear. Be careful and try to avoid confrontation where you can! You may be running low on resources at this point! At the very least, Drifloon is finallyg one, so we only have one ghost to worry about.

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

Zero Isle West [B32F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Dugtrio,  Makuhita,  Snorlax,  Dragonite,  Rampardos,  Muk,  Electrode,  Arbok,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Seadra,  Mr. Mime,  Quilava,  Heracross,  Monferno,  Rhyperior,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol

Baltoy is gone now, leaving more of the more dangerous enemies to go around.

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

Zero Isle West [B33F - B34F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Dugtrio,  Makuhita,  Snorlax,  Dragonite,  Rampardos,  Muk,  Electrode,  Arbok,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Seadra,  Mr. Mime,  Quilava,  Heracross,  Monferno,  Rhyperior,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Crawdaunt,  Kingdra

Crawdaunt and Kingdra join on B33F.

There's another Sealed Chamber here on B33F, but I'm unfortunately all out of keys. Inside, though, you would find  Black Silk which boosts the Special Attack and Special Defense of Dark-type pokemon.

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

Zero Isle West [B35F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Dugtrio,  Rampardos,  Muk,  Electrode,  Arbok,  Jigglypuff,  Weezing,  Seadra,  Mr. Mime,  Quilava,  Heracross,  Monferno,  Rhyperior,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Crawdaunt,  Kingdra,  Ledian,  Delibird,  Exploud,  Bronzong

Another subset of pokemon disappear on B35 in favor of Ledian, Delibird, Exploud, and Bronzong. Among these, I'd say Bronzong and Ledian are the only ones to worry about, though, again, don't underestimate the potential devastation that is Delibird's Present.

The weather is random here, too. In my case, it was rainy again.

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

Zero Isle West [B36F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Muk,  Electrode,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Crawdaunt,  Kingdra,  Ledian,  Delibird,  Exploud,  Bronzong,  Nidoking,  Lickitung

Nidoking and Lickitung join in place of some more absentees on B36F. But we're getting closer and closer! Don't forget to use your items! You don't want to end up getting KO'd right now and losing all your progress!

The weather is random again here, and it's raining again for me!

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

Zero Isle West [B37F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Muk,  Electrode,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Crawdaunt,  Kingdra,  Ledian,  Delibird,  Exploud,  Bronzong,  Nidoking,  Lickitung,  Manectric

Manectric joins the chase on B37F.

Down here there is one final Sealed Chamber. Once again, I don't have a key for it, but inside lies two  Joy Seeds and two  Wonder Gummis.

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

Zero Isle West [B38F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Muk,  Electrode,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Kingdra,  Ledian,  Delibird,  Exploud,  Bronzong,  Nidoking,  Lickitung,  Manectric

Crawdaunt dips out on B38F.

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

Zero Isle West [B39F]

Pokemon:  Castform,  Muk,  Electrode,  Charmeleon,  Misdreavus,  Remoraid,  Zangoose,  Absol,  Ledian,  Delibird,  Exploud,  Bronzong,  Nidoking,  Lickitung,  Manectric

Finally, Kingdra is the last pokemon to go at the very end.

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

Zero Isle West [B40F]

And once we reach the depths of the dungeon, we find more treasure! Here, we get an  Amber Tear, and a  Deluxe Box.

The Deluxe Box may contain a:  Joy Seed, or  Life Seed

The  Amber Tear is... completely useless to us. It's a weaker version of the Golden Mask, boosting recruitment by 15% instead of 20.1%.

Yeah... okay, so the rewards from Zero Isle East and West have been less than impressive. And I'm gonna be totally real with you, the rewards from Zero Isle South are also less than ideal. But I think the real treasure from these dungeons are from the Sealed Chambers. Anyway, keep in mind that you can technically do this dungeon as early as when you first graduate from the guild. And I do feel like I may have oversold the difficulty of these dungeons a little bit. It might not actually be too terribly hard to do these dungeons with less optimal pokemon. I could see a world where one would go for these dungeons as soon as they're available to get the Amber's Tear early and start recruiting rare pokemon ASAP. Or to get some of those exclusive items early on. Obviously, this dungeon is completable far before you'll ever be prepared to complete Zero Isle North. But I think because they list Zero Isle North, and you have Team AWD warning you about how tough the dungeons are, most players will likely feel deterred from even trying the rest of the dungeons after getting their butts kicked in Zero Isle North.

Anyway, once we've claimed our loot, we move onto the Warp Tile and finish the dungeon! That's it for today! We've only got two more to go, and only one more dungeon that's shared with Explorers of Time and Darkness. That means our next dungeon is going to be what is considered to be the ultimate challenge of the original games. Where Zero Isle North is Time and Darkness's ultimate test of strength, Zero Isle South is Time and Darkness's ultimate test of Endurance. Yup, yup, yup. We've got a fun one up ahead. Will I be able to make it to the end? Honestly? Only time will tell. We'll need to knock on wood, but nothing in this game has truly tested my patience the way Rescue Team has. Hopefully that persists as we move on to the last dungeons in the game. See you soon!

[Aura]

Postgame Part 66: Zero Isle South

The end draws even nearer as today we'll be covering the final dungeon that's shared with Explorers of Time and Darkness. As mentioned before, where Zero Isle North is Time and Darkness's ultimate test of strength, Zero Isle South is their ultimate test of endurance and the most challenging Zero Isle dungeon in the game. At that last bit I'd argue is true even here in Explorers of Sky, if I'm honest. Just by nature of the difficulty of its gimmicks. Once again, let's jump right into the dungeon to talk about it.

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

Zero Isle South

The music in this dungeon is random each floor. The songs that can play include: Drenched Bluff, Upper Steam Cave, Sealed Ruin, and Brine Cave

Welcome to the ultimate challenge of Explorers of Time and Darkness and the most challenging of the Zero Isle dungeons: Zero Isle South! As you can probably guess, this dungeon not only doesn't allow items or poke and reverts your level to 1 and your stats and moveset to their defaults, but it also only allows the leader to enter. In addition, this dungeon is not 40, not 60, but 99 floors long. You've gotta get by through a very long dungeon while entering with the bare minimum possible. You've got quite the challenge up ahead.

Items:  Poke,  Gaggle,  Lockon, and  Whiff Specs,  No-Aim Scopes,  Insomniscopes,  Scope Lenses,  Bounce,  Curve,  Detect,  Patsy,  Persim,  Power,  Racket,  Special,  Stamina,  Twist,  Weather, and  Zinc Bands,  Def.,  Pass,  Pecha, and  Warp Scarves,  Gold,  Heal,  Joy, and  Plain Ribbons,  Munch Belts,  No-Slip, and  No-Stick Caps,  Iron Thorns*,  Silver Spikes*,  Sticks*,  Geo Pebbles*,  Gravelerocks*,  Gravelyrocks*,  Apples*,  Big Apples*,  Grimy Food*,  Blinker,  Dough,  Dropeye,  Eyedrop,  Heal,  Joy,  Life,  Pure,  Quick,  Reviser,  Reviver,  Sleep,  Slip,  Stun,  Totter,  Via,  Vile,  Violent,  Warp, and  X-Eye Seeds,  Calcium,  Iron,  Protein,  Zinc,  Ginseng,  Max and  Mix Elixirs,  Keys, assorted  Wonder Orbs and  TMs.

Items marked with asterisks are not available on B20F. This time, this is true for all verisons, even Explorers of Darkness.

Also, they weren't included on Bulbapedia, but I'm pretty sure I ran into Berries throughout the dungeon and I know for a fact I found some Sitrus Berries. I'm not sure why they're excluded from Bulbapedia's list, but it's possible that all the berries are available here in Sky only--perhaps in an effort to make this dungeon easier compared to the new ultimate challenge dungeons? Anyway, it's possible these items are also not available on B20F.

Since you're not entering with any items or money, of course, the food and support items are much more important than usual. I definitely recommend saving as much Poke as you can and hoarding some valuable items to sell at Kecleon Shops along the way. Ideally, you're going to want 5000P going into B90F unless you're okay with genning extremely rare and valuable items using Wonder Mail. And yes, the presence of Keys in this dungeon does imply Sealed Chambers. There are only three this time, and with so many floors, you're likely to find enough keys to open them all, but you may have to go searching a bit. You are always guaranteed at least one will spawn on the first floor, though.

Traps:  Chestnut,  SelfDestruct,  Explosion,  Grimy,  Gust,  Mud,  Poison,  Pokemon,  PP-Zero,  Seal,  Slow,  Slumber,  Spin,  Sticky,  Summon,  Trip, and  Warp Traps

As you go deeper in the dungeon, the gentler traps like Chestnut, SelfDestruct, Gust, etc. begin to phase out making the more dangerous traps like PP-Zero and Sticky much more prominent. Be careful as you navigate these dungeons.

Furthermore, after B5F, monster houses are a threat throughout the entire dungeon. It's likely you'll face off against several, so make sure you're prepared to deal with them. Carry items and Orbs to protect yourself because odds are you're gonna be too underleveled to rely exclusively on room-wide attacks to protect you.

Finally, before we transition into the next section, I wanna emphasize that I'll be covering this dungeon a little bit differently. Usually, I'll break the dungeon down based on the pokemon available on each floor, only grouping floors together if the same pokemon are available. However, in these longer dungeons it seems the devs are intentional about ensuring there's at least 1 change nearly every floor which would make covering a 99-floor dungeon that way into a really long post that takes a long time. So instead, I'm going to only be focusing on groups of pokemon on the floors they're introduced in and I'll note which pokemon disappear on each floor, but I won't be listing out every pokemon available. This might become the new standard just for my sanity. It's kind of a nightmare having to list every single floor just because all but one pokemon disappear on one floor and then that straggler disappearing is the only thing to change on the next floor before a new wave of pokemon is introduced on the following floor. The biggest issue that makes me want to make this change now is that, while writing up the previous post, I actually started to run into issues with embeding images because I was trying to embed so many into a single post. This should dramatically reduce the amount of images I'm embedding and hopefully allow the whole post to run a lot more smoothly.

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

Zero Isle South [B1F]

New Pokemon [B1F - B3F]:  Pidgey,  Jigglypuff,  Shellder,  Seadra,  Staryu,  Starmie,  Chingling

[B1F - B4F]:  Cleffa

This dungeon starts off feeling very similar to the others. You're underlevel and you're going to struggle even to fight against some of the weakest enemies you're going to face. The enemy's levels will correlate to the floor of the dungeon they're on early on but this will slow down as you get deeper down.

 

While exploring this floor, I leveled up a few times, learned Water Gun, and obtained some  Lockon Specs.

As mentioned before, there's a Key on the first floor, so I recommend seeking it out if you have any invested interest in the Sealed Chambers.

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

Zero Isle South [B2F]

New Pokemon [B2F - B3F]:  Bellsprout,  Wurmple

[B2F - B4F]:  Caterpie

Wurmple and Caterpie's String Shot can actually be quite scary early on, as can Bellsprout's Wrap.

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

Zero Isle South [B3F]

New Pokemon [B3F - B5F]:  Exeggcute,  Chinchou

[B3F - B6F]:  Glameow

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

Zero Isle South [B4F]

On B4F, the tileset changes to a more generic dark cave.

New Pokemon [B4F - B6F]:  Poochyena,  Gulpin

I wouldn't recommend trying to waste your energy on Poochyena unless you're confident you can OHKO it. Just because of Run Away.

On this floor, I was lucky enough to find a  Warp Scarf. If you remember my coverage of Rescue Team, you know how useful this item was in conserving my belly stat while exploring long dungeons like this one. This lone item probably made this whole dungeon a lot more painless than I was anticipating.

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

Zero Isle South [B5F]

New Pokemon [B5F - B7F]:  Nidoran F

[B5F - B8F]:  Rattata

Nidoran brings Poison Point to the table, so try not to get too close. And Rattata's another Run Away pokemon, so don't try to go after it if you can avoid it.

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

Zero Isle South [B6F]

New Pokemon [B6F - B8F]:  Cubone,  Larvitar

[B6F - B10F]:  Togepi

Cubone is a very scary opponent to come face-to-face with down here. While it doesn't have Bonemerang, its Bone Club can still do a sizeable chunk of damage. Larvitar isn't quite as scary.

Here, I found a TM for Rock Slide! Not typically the most useful move, but it's another attack! I'll certainly find myself using it more than I do Encore, so I decided to learn it for now.

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

Zero Isle South [B7F]

New Pokemon: [B7F - B8F]:  Zigzagoon

[B7F - B9F]:  Clefairy,  Elekid

[B7F - B11F]:  Diglett

Diglett can be a nuisance with Sand Attack and Astonish, but it's not actually too terribly bad. Elekid's Quick Attack and Thundershock, though, won't hesitate to make themselves known. Zigzagoon is once again another Run Away pokemon, so try to avoid them.

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

Zero Isle South [B8F]

Another new tileset! This part of the dungeon is a bit more colorful with a smooth, cratered blue floor and redder walls.

New Pokemon [B8F - B9F]:  Aron, 

[B8F - B10F]:  Machoke,  Weepinbell,  Ninjask

We've got some new friends! Aron soaks up a lot of damage so try to avoid them. Likewise, Machoke dishes out a lot of damage, so try to avoid them. Weepinbell doesn't have much to work with, but Ninjask has Speed Boost which can potentially make it problematic.

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

Zero Isle South [B9F]

New Pokemon [B9F - B10F]:  Hoppip

[B9F - B11F]:  Wobbuffet

[B9F - B12F]:  Spearow

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

Zero Isle South [B10F]

New Pokemon [B10F]:  Metapod

[B10F - B14F]:  Weedle

[B10F - B15F]:  Electivire

Yikes! Electivire is definitely scary to see. Soaks up a lot of hits, has some range with Quick Attack, and can dish out some real pain with ThunderShock and Low Kick.

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

Zero Isle South [B11F]

New Pokemon [B11F - B13F]:  Tentacool,  Ralts

[B11F - B14F]:  Eevee,  Marill

None of these pokemon are particularly dangerous, though Tentacool's SuperSonic can be quite annoying. By this point, enemy levels are starting to fall behind the floor count, so this is where you might start making up some lost ground. O fcourse, Electivire's the main threat across these floors.

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

Zero Isle South [B12F]

New Pokemon [B12F - B14F]:  Dustox

[B12F - B15F]:  Baltoy

Baltoy and Dustox join up on B12. Baltoy's Mud-Slap is something to watch out for, but it's also got Confusion and, later, Psybeam. So watch out!

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

Zero Isle South [B13F]

The tilseset changes here to a blue crystaline cave.

New Pokemon [B13F - B14F]:  Meditite

[B13F - B16F]:  Volbeat

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

Zero Isle South [B14F]

New Pokemon [B14F - B17F]:  Hypno,  Natu

[B14F - B18F]:  Lanturn

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

Zero Isle South [B15F]

The weather is random on this floor, it was raining for me.

New Pokemon [B15F - B16F]:  Exeggutor

[B15F - B17F]:  Geodude

[B15F - B19F]:  Stunky

None of the new pokemon here are particlarly scary, but do watch out for Exeggutor's Hypnosis and Barrage. Especially if you're unlucky enough for the weather to be Sunny here.

 

I actually wound up eating two Sitrus Berries on this floor. A very nice boon to my health, for sure. Every little bit helps in the long run.

 

And this is where we finally find our first Sealed Chamber. This one contains a  Glittery Box.

This box may contain a:  Wish Mantle,  Chronos Veil,  Time Shield, or  Wonder Gummi

The  Wish Mantle is an exclusive item for Jirachi which restores HP between floors.

The  Chronos Veil is an exclusive item for Celebi which restores 1PP to each of its moves between floors. This is an incredibly useful item for long dungeons, as you can probably imagine.

The  Time Shield is an exclusive item for Dialga which halves all damage he receives. Pretty straightforward, there.

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

Zero Isle South [B16F]

New Pokemon [B16F - B18F]:  Scyther,  Hoothoot

[B16F - B20F]:  Bronzor,  Porygon-Z

[B16F - B21F]:  Snubbull

I found a TM for Protect here, decided to replace Rock Slide this time. This will be a great defense against Monster Houses.

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

Zero Isle South [B17F]

New Pokemon [B17F - B19F]:  Sudowoodo,  Skarmory,  Armaldo

[B17F - B20F]:  Slakoth,  Plusle,  Minun

[B17F - B21F]:  Beedrill,  Grimer

And now we've got our first large set of new wave of pokemon! I don't think I need to say much about any of these guys anymore. Let's just keep going.

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

Zero Isle South [B18F]

New Pokemon [B18F - B20F]:  Linoone

[B18F - B25F]:  Oddish

We've got Linoone and Oddish up next! Be careful of Linoone's Headbutt or Oddish's PoisonPowder or Stun Spore. These can be devastating when you're underleveled!

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

Zero Isle South [B19F]

New Pokemon [B19F - B21F]:  Sentret

[B19F - B22F]:  Swinub,  Swalot

Some more new pokemon on B19F! Be wary of Swinub's Powder Snow! Thankfully, you do narrowly miss having to worry about Endure.

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

Zero Isle South [B20F]

New Pokemon [B20F - B22F]:  Tentacruel

[B20F - B24F]:  Sunflora,  Abomasnow

Abomasnow joining means it's likely going to be Hailing for a while.

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

Zero Isle South [B21F]

The weather is random here once again, in my case it was Cloudy. Also, a new tileset begins here. We're now in a cave tileset with softer colors.

New Pokemon [B21F - B22F]:  Castform

[B21F - B25F]:  Shroomish,  Beldum,  Drifloon

Drifloon's always gotta join the ranks to be annoying and ruin everything. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to stick around for too terribly long. Castform is likely to upset whatever weather you do have going here.

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

Zero Isle South [B22F]

New Pokemon [B22F - B25F]:  Ledyba,  Spinda

Ledyba and Spinda are here! Hold your applause!

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

Zero Isle South [B23F]

New Pokemon [B23F - B28F]:  Farfetch'd

And Farfetch'd joins the hunt on B23F, too.

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

Zero Isle South [B24F]

Once again, the weather here is random. Snow for me, which is quite the blessing!

New Pokemon [B24F - B28F]:  Growlithe,  Poliwag,  Trapinch

More pokemon joining up here!

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

Zero Isle South [B25F]

New Pokemon [B25F - B28F]:  Voltorb

Voltorb joins up on B25 and it's not quite ready to SelfDestruct, but SonicBoom and Rollout can be quite destructive.

 

There is another Sealed Chamber on this floor. This one holds a  Treasure Box.

This box may contain a:  Bolt Fang,  Flare Fang,  Aqua Mantle,  Rainbow Veil, or  Wonder Gummi.

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

Zero Isle South [B26F]

New Pokemon [B26F - B30F]:  Yanma

[B26F - B32F]:  Meganium,  Spinarak,  Mime Jr.,  Dugtrio

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

Zero Isle South [B27F - B28F]

The weather is random on B28F!

New Pokemon [B27F - B30F]:  Teddiursa,  Dustox

[B27F - B33F]:  Monferno

Dustox returns on B27F! Monferno and Teddiursa join as well. Be careful of Monferno's Mach Punch and Fury Swipes.

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

Zero Isle South [B29F]

New Pokemon [B29F - B33F]:  Grotle,  Rhyperior

Neither of these guys are too terribly scary. Though Rhyperior's Fury Attack and make things potentially dangerous.

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

Zero Isle South [B30F]

The tileset here is one resembling Waterfall Cave.

New Pokemon [B30F - B34F]:  Electrike,  Honchkrow

[B30F - B35F]:  Grimer

Grimer returns here along and it's joined now by Electrike and Honchkrow!

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

Zero Isle South [B31F - B32F]

New Pokemon [B31F - B33F]:  Ampharos

[B31F - B35F]:  Nidoran M,  Gligar

[B31F - B36F]:  Stantler

Normally my this point in the other Zero Isle dungeons, the enemy levels would be nearing their cap at Lv. 21 by now. The pace is a bit slower here since it's a 99 floor dungeon and we're only steadily approaching the half-way point. So pokemon here might still be lagging behind a little bit in the level department.

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

Zero Isle South [B33F]

New Pokemon [B33F - B39F]:  Electabuzz

Electabuzz joins up on B33F. He's not quite as intimidating as Electivire, but you can't knock him for trying. Anyway, Elecabuzz will be hanging around for a little bit.

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

Zero Isle South [B34F]

New Pokemon [B34F - B38F]:  Castform,  Magnezone

Castform is back meaning you might face some upsets in the weather. But Magnezone joins the fray here as well. 

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

Zero Isle South [B35F]

New Pokemon [B35F - B39F]:  Doduo

[B35F - B40F]:  Drifblim

Of course, Drifblim is joins up to fill the void that's been missing since Drifloon left... a void I'd frankly rather keep empty.

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

Zero Isle South [B36F]

New Pokemon [B36F - B40F]:  Poliwrath,  Snorlax,  Manectric

[B36F - B43F]:  Tauros

[B36F - B48F]:  Gloom

A handful of new pokemon join the fray on B36F including Snorlax and Tauros who are both scary in their own rights, both in terms of damage output and bulk.

It was here that I reached Lv. 13 and made the big mistake of replacing Protect with Ice Ball. I really should've just dropped Ice Ball, but in my head, I figured it might come in use by KOing enemies unexpectedly and that it would be better to avoid situations where I'd need to rely on Protect. I severely underestimated the fact that, as you get deeper into the dungeon, it'll take several turns to KO enemies that can one-shot you. This decision to get rid of Protect was a terrible one and I don't recommend you do the same.

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

Zero Isle South [B37F - B38F]

New Pokemon [B37F - B39F]:  Cacnea

Cacnea joins the fray here. Not much to say about it.

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

Zero Isle South [B39F]

New Pokemon [B39F - B42F]:  Murkrow,  Heracross

[B39F - B43F]:  Breloom

[B39F - B44F]:  Weavile

And now we start to get into pokemon with the Pressure ability, and a lot of Countering. Not a fun party to hang around. Let's try and avoid confrontation while we slip away toward the stairs, huh?

Anyway, while we would be around Lv. 21 for a while now at this point in the other dungeons, we're only just now reaching that Lv. here in Zero Isle South. This is where the dungeon is only starting to get serious. So hopefully you're well prepared for the challenges that will come!

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

Zero Isle South [B40F]

New Pokemon [B40F - B45F]:  Cacturne,  Skorupi

Cacturne and Skorupi join up on B40.

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

Zero Isle South [B41F]

New Pokemon [B41F - B46F]:  Granbull

[B41F - B48F]:  Gyarados

[B41F - B49F]:  Skuntank

Granbull, Gyarados and Skuntank join up here. And we're finally starting to see levels that surpass the levels we saw in the other Zero Isle dungeons. Skuntank still has Fury Swipes here, but by this point I found myself trying to avoid combat as much as I could.

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

Zero Isle South [B42F]

New Pokemon [B42F - B46F]:  Ariados,  Skiploom

Ariados and Skiploom come along next, but there isn't too much to worry about with them.

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

Zero Isle South [B43F]

New Pokemon [B43F - B46F]:  Dunsparce

We've got Dunsparce on B43F!

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

Zero Isle South [B44F]

The tileset changes here once again. This time, it's an autumn forest!

New Pokemon [B44F - B49F]:  Nincada

Nincada is the only new addition here. Once again, pretty invisible.

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

Zero Isle South [B45F]

New Pokemon [B45F - B52F]:  Probopass

[B45F - B55F]:  Muk

Muk brings with it the typical annoyances of Stench. Not much else to say about these new guys.

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

Zero Isle South [B46F]

New Pokemon [B46F - B50F]:  Golbat

We've got Golbat! It's got Confuse Ray now so you'd better watch out.

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

Zero Isle South [B47F]

New Pokemon [B47F - B49F]:  Bagon

[B47F - B50F]:  Nidorina,  Nidorino

[B47F - B52F]:  Magmar

More new guys! Magmar can be a little scary between Flame Body and Fire Spin. Be careful fighting it. But none of these guys are too terribly scary.

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

Zero Isle South [B48F]

The weather is random here again, and this time it's Sunny for me! That... really just means a lot of Chlorophyll which isn't actually good...

New Pokemon [B48F - B52F]:  Tangela

Tangela happens to join in here to take advantage of the Chlorophyll the Sun here is benefitting. Good for them, I suppose.

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

Zero Isle South [B49F]

New Pokemon [B49F - B54F]:  Illumise

Illumise joins up here. Again, not much to say that hasn't been said already. Just keep going.

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

Zero Isle South [B50F]

New Pokemon [B50F - B55F]:  Arcanine

We're officially at the midway point! We've got just a little further to go! Don't tap out yet when you've come so far! But do know that it's only going to get tougher from here.

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

Zero Isle South [B51F - B52F]

New Pokemon [B51F - B54F]:  Fearow

[B51F - B55F]:  Forretress,  Shuckle

[B51F - B56F]:  Electrode,  Hitmonlee,  Hitmonchan

We've got another wave of enemies here! Forretress and Shuckle are tough and take lots of hits. Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan both are as well, plus they can dish out a lot of pain, too. Then you have Fearow with Fury Attack, Mirror Move, and Pursuit all prepared to punish you if you don't take it out quick. Thankfully, it doesn't have Agility.

The weather is random on the 52nd floor, it was Cloudy for me!

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

Zero Isle South [B53F]

New Pokemon [B53F - B57F]:  Magby

[B53F - B59F]:  Numel

Magby and Numel join up here. Nothing major going on, though.

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

Zero Isle South [B54F]

New Pokemon [B54F - B59F]:  Castform

Castform appears on B54F, so expect some fairly erratic weather patterns.

Here, I found a Ginseng and used it to power up my Powder Snow! I could always do with more power there!

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

Zero Isle South [B55F]

New Pokemon [B55F - B60F]:  Drapion

We start to run into Drapion here.

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

Zero Isle South [B56F]

New Pokemon [B56F - B60F]:  Mightyena

[B56F - B61F]:  Magcargo

[B56F - B64F]:  Ditto

We already know the challenges presented by these guys.

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

Zero Isle South [B57F]

More random weather here. This time, it's Cloudy!

New Pokemon [B57F - B62F]:  Dragonair

[B57F - B64F]:  Rapidash,  Torkoal

We've got more new pokemon here. These Fire-types are more than welcome thanks to my Water Gun.

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

Zero Isle South [B58F]

New Pokemon [B58F - B64F]:  Rhyhorn,  Swablu

Rhyhorn and Swablu join up down here. Neither are too terribly difficult, though.

I did find a Life Seed here to boost my HP that much further.

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

Zero Isle South [B59F]

New Pokemon [B59F - B63F]:  Kricketune

It's a new pokemon in Kricketune! Its Sing and Fury Cutter can be a bit scary, but it's nothing too major.

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

Zero Isle South [B60F]

New Pokemon [B60F - B64F]:  Arbok

[B60F - B65F]:  Snorunt

[B60F - B67F]:  Piloswine

[B60F - B69F]:  Dugtrio

Dugtrio returns on B60 along with some new friends! Piloswine now comes with Endure and Icy Wind for some ranged attacks, Snorunt comes with Protect. Dugtrio itself comes with Magnitude making it significantly more dangerous than before. But, that danger can backfire and damage all of its allies, too.

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

Zero Isle South [B61F]

The weather is random here on B61, this time that means it's Cloudy!

New Pokemon [B61F - B63F]:  Furret

[B61F - B68F]:  Lairon

Furret and Lairon join up here! Nothing too terribly dangerous, but pokemon at this point are around Lv. 25 so if your level isn't up to par, you're likely going to want to avoid these tough attacks.

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

Zero Isle South [B62F]

New Pokemon [B62F-B66F]:  Metang

Metang joins on B62, it's never been a particularly dangerous pokemon, but I'm staying away from pretty much everything as much as I can at this point.

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

Zero Isle South [B63F - B64F]

New Pokemon [B63F - BB67F]:  Pineco

[B63F - B68F]:  Shieldon,  Wormadam

Now we've got Pineco, Shieldon, and Wormadam. Pineco thankfully doesn't have SelfDestruct or Explosion, but Wormadam has both Protect and Bug Bite. Bug Bite can be especially annoying since it can eat food items out of your inventory, including Sitrus Berries, Max Elixirs, even Pure Seeds you might be trying to save up for the end of the dungeon. Try to take them out from a distance if you can't avoid them altogether.

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

Zero Isle South [B65F - B67F]

New Pokemon [B65F - B69F]:  Aerodactyl,  Shelgon

[B65F - B70F]:  Pupitar,  Zangoose,  Purugly

[B65F - B79F]:  Vileplume

B65 is one of those Checkpoints where they suddenly start throiwng a bunch of annoying shit at you that's gonna be lingering for a while. Aerodactyl's Pressure is going to pester you while it's around, try to avoid contact with it and use items to get rid of it as much as possible. Shelgon and Purugly can take an abnoxious amount of damage, Zangoose hits hard and far, and Vileplume has those annoying status conditions. Tread carefully on these floors.

On B66F, I took another Siturs Berry to push my maximum HP even further. We're looking good in the HP department! But HP can only help so much if our Defenses are still lagging behind.

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

Zero Isle South [B68F]

New Pokemon [B68F - B73F]:  Glalie

Glalie comes at you with Protect to stall you out. Yup, we've got another one.

I found an Iron on this floor and gave my Defense just another small boost!

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

Zero Isle South [B69F]

New Pokemon [B69F - B73F]:  Luxio,  Bastiodon

Luxio and Bastiodon join the fray next. Bastiodon is more or just Shieldon but with higher stats while Luxio doesn't really have anything special going on.

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

Zero Isle South [B70F]

New Pokemon [B70F - B74F]:  Venomoth

[B70F - B75F]:  Masquerain,  Slaking

[B70F - B79F]:  Castform

Castform returns on B70F! Venomoth doesn't have Silver Wind, but it does have Psybeam along with Stun Spore and PoisonPowder, and Leech Life, too, to add an extra layer of annoyance. Slaking has some powerful moves, but Truant does make it a lot easier to deal with.

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

Zero Isle South [B71F - B72F]

New Pokemon [B71F - B75F]:  Mothim

[B71F - B77F]:  Magcargo,  Magby

[B71F - B79F]:  Koffing

Mothim and Koffing join on B71F where Magcargo and Magby both return. Much of this is without fanfare, but Koffing now knows SelfDestruct, so watch out around them!

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

Zero Isle South [B73F]

New Pokemon [B73F - B79F]:  Golem,  Rhydon

Golem joins here and it knows SelfDestruct as well, so take care around it! It also knows Rollout and Magnitude, so it can be a bit rough, no pun intended. Rhydon on the other hand has Rock Blast which is far more terrifying. But, both of these guys are easily dispatched by Hail, so not much to worry about in that regard.

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

Zero Isle South [B74F - B75F]

New Pokemon [B74F - B76F]:  Nidoqueen

[B74F - B78F]:  Parasect,  Duskull

[B74F - B79F]:  Mamoswine

[B74F - B80F]:  Magmar

Lots of new pokemon joining in on the fun on B74F, including the return of Magmar! Alongside Magmar are Parasect, who does know Spore now, Duskull, a ghost capable of attack from range with Shadow Sneak and confusing you with Confuse Ray, and Piloswine, who still gets Endure. Thankfully, Nidoqueen doesn't have Earth Power or this would be a real shit show.

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

Zero Isle South [B76F]

New Pokemon [B76F - B80F]:  Prinplup,  Floatzel

Prinplup and Floatzel are found here.

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

Zero Isle South [B77F]

New Pokemon [B77F - B79F]:  Nidoking

Once again, Nidoking is all intimidation factor. Its Double Kick is the worst it's got. But even still, everything's pretty high level at this point, so don't push your luck.

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

Zero Isle South [B78F]

New Pokemon [B78F - B82F]:  Gorebyss

And then there was Gorebyss.

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

Zero Isle South [B79F]

New Pokemon [B79F - B82F]:  Porygon2

And Porygon2, and yes, Porygon2 comes with Agility, Recover, and Psybeam. So prepare for a headache and a half.

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

Zero Isle South [B80F]

The tileset on B80F shifts to that of the desert. And with this shift in venue comes another shift in the pokemon you'll be facing.

New Pokemon [B80F - B85F]:  Grimer,  Camerupt,  Magmortar

[B80F - B86F]:  Mismagius

What's that? This dugneon doesn't have enough ghosts? Well would ya look at that? You're absolutely right! Why don't we throw Mismagius in there just to add a dash of fun to the mix, huh? And now we've got Magmortar who likes to surprise you with a ThunderPunch every now and then. Y'know, just because. By the way, levels at this point in the dungeon are starting to approach Lv. 30 in case you're curious. We are nearing the end of the dungeon, after all.

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

Zero Isle South [B81F - B82F]

The weather is random again on B81F. That means Hail for me.

New Pokemon [B81F - B86F]:  Garchomp

Now we've got Garchomp getting involved and we all know how fun that guy is. In all seriousness, though, a pokemon with a quad-weakness to Ice is actually quite welcome down here.

I reached Lv. 19 thansk to a Monster House down here and tried to learn the move Body Slam, but I passed on it. While it would be nice to have a move that isn't weakened by Cloudy weather, and the Paralysis chance is nice, Crunch is far stronger all around and that is much more important in the here and now.

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

Zero Isle South [B83F]

New Pokemon [B83F - B87F]:  Shuppet

Now we're starting to run into yet another Ghost! Try to conserve your PP as best you can by avoiding fighting them, because Misdreavus and Shuppet will wring you dry.

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

Zero Isle South [B84F - B85F]

New Pokemon [B84F - B88F]:  Ponyta

Once again, we've got a pokemon that feels really out of place. For some reason you run into Ponyta way down here when Rapidash was much further up. But whatever, I'll take an easier pokemon. At this point, pokemon with Run Away are something I'm thankful to have.

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

Zero Isle South [B86F - B88F]

New Pokemon [B86F - B90F]:  Ledian,  Lunatone,  Solrock,  Lucario

[B86F - B92F]:  Dusclops

[B86F - B98F]:  Weezing

Down here we've got our next wave of new pokemon. Ledian's got Silver Wind which has the potential for some serious devastation. Lucario is also extremely dangerous, but it's version exclusive to Time. Of course, it's here in Sky, too. It knows Bone Rush, so try to take it out quick and don't bother trying to run from it. I don't need to explain to you why Dusclops is annoying, plus it's a Ghost and, as mentioned before, it can walk through walls in this game unlike Rescue Team. Lunatone and Solrock both know Rock Polish, which just makes for fun times all around in that department. Lunatone has Hypnosis to add insult to injury, too. Then you have weezing who, of course, has SelfDestruct.

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

Zero Isle South [B89F - B90F]

More random weather down here, it's Snowy now!

New Pokemon [B89F - B94F]:  Castform

[B89F - B95F]:  Metagross

Now we've got Castform's return once again alongside Metagross. Castform's presence may cause the weather on B89F to become erratic.

But now that we've arrived at B90F, you might recall at the start of this post I mentioned you would want 5000P before you reach this point. Well, the reason is that, it isn't guaranteed, but if you find a Kecleon Shop way down here, there's a chance you could find one of two incredibly rare and incredibly useful held items: The  Tight Belt, and the  Trap Scarf.

Both of these items are version exclusive to each other, but both of them are in Sky. Of course, as I alluded to before, you can always gen these with Wonder Mail, but if that feels like cheating to you like it does to me, then this is the only place these items are available: In Kecleon Shops on B90F - B98F of this dungeon. If you ask me, these items should be in a much more guaranteed spot like on the final floor or in Sealed Chambers... But hey, surely we'll get something even more valuable in those spots, right? It's gotta be really exciting imagining what we could find here that could top the Golden Mask... Well, for now, let's just carry on.

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

Zero Isle South [B91F - B92F]

New Pokemon [B91F - B95F]:  Hippowdon

[B91F - B97F]:  Empoleon

[B91F - B98F]:  Altaria,  Bronzong

Hippowdon is likely to bring a Sandstorm which Empoleon and Bronzong can easily capitalize on with their Steel typing, as well as Metagross. Thankfully, Lucario, Lunatone, and Solrock are all gone by the time he comes around. Same with Garchomp and the other pokemon with abilities that benefit them in the sand.

By this point, the pokemon have reached their cap at Lv. 30. So all pokemon going forward are at their strongest. Tread carefully and, if you either can't afford the Tight Belt or Trap Scarf, or you simply aren't interested in them, then use your items! Luminous Orbs, Stairs Orbs, Pure Seeds, everything you have! Skip as much of these floors as you can to avoid dangerous run-ins!

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

Zero Isle South [B93F]

New Pokemon [B93F - B98F]:  Tropius,  Roserade

Tropius and Roserade join the fray on B93F. We're still not quite done introducing new ones!

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

Zero Isle South [B94F]

New Pokemon [B94F - B98F]:  Crawdaunt,  Claydol

Crawdaunt and Claydol next. Claydol's got AncientPower and SelfDestruct. Crawdaunt's Protect and Knock Off can be annoying. BubbleBeam can also spot you from a long way away.

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Zero Isle South [B95F - B98F]

New Pokemon [B95F - B98F]:  Scizor

The final new pokemon down here in the depths of Zero Isle South is Scizor. Admittedly a little bit underwhelming. But it does have Agility and Fury Cutter, so be wary of those.

 

No, I didn't forget about that third Sealed Chamber, it's just all the way down here. Once again, I used a One-Room Orb to find it easily. Make sure you don't skip B96F if you've been saving a Key all this way. Inside this last Sealed Chamber, there's a  Miracle Chest.

The  Miracle Chest is a superior version of the  Wonder Chest. It's a held item that boosts Exp gain by 30% rather than the Wonder Chest's measly 15%. Essentially, it's two Wonder Chests in one! But... I probably don't need to explain to you why that's an incredibly underhwelming reward for me now. But hey, surely that final reward must be worth it, right?

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Zero Isle South [B99F]

Well, between you and me... no. Not even close. Down here on the 99th floor of the single most difficult dungeon in Explorers of Time and Darkness is... a single  Deluxe Chest.

And what can that chest contain? Why, a  Joy or  Life Seed, of course. Good... lord... that's really what I just spent these last few hours of my life building up to, isn't it? That's disgusting. I know they wanted these dungeons to be infinitely replayable or whatever so they didn't want to put a big one-time reward down here... but that's it? Really? At least put a bunch of Wonder Gummis and other Stat-boosting items down here. Why a single Deluxe Chest? I suppose the devs must've seen Zero Isle North as the true "ultimate challenge" of those games since it essentially requires you to be Lv. 100 to reach the end. And the rewards there really show it. But this dungeon is undoubtedly more challenging since there's no way to just cheese the challenge and win or loss is heavily decided by fate while strategy is still highly relevant because just fluking your way past 99 floors is incredibly unlikely. I'm really not sure what I would put here, but this definitely isn't it. There's almost no incentive to actually finish this dungeon other than keeping the items you've picked up along the way if you aren't lucky enough to find an Escape Orb. The whole dungeon almost feels like one massive troll.

But anyway, that's the last of the Zero Isle dungeons that were in Explorers of Time and Darkness, and by extension, the last dungeon from Explorers of Time and Darkness as well. The only thing remaining for Story mode are our true ultimate challenges exclusive to Sky. Next time, we truly finish off Zero Isle by bravely venturing into Zero Isle Center. See you soon!