Session 1
This first session is just a rapid fire blast of catches.
Starter: aipom. Barbra, female, adamant. I asked my Tumblr followers and nearby family members for starter choices, then put them all into a random picker wheel. My sister’s pick won. Out of all the choices aipom was the one I was hoping the least to get. I made her name it and I hate it. Off to a great start.
Route 101: zigzagoon. David, male, bashful, caught at level 3.
Route 102: wurmple. Luna, female, bashful, caught at level 3.
Route 103: hoppip. Jessica, female, jolly, caught at level 4. My sister named this one as well. After a Twilight character. She didn’t tell me that until after I entered the name.
Route 104: pidgey. Makus, male, relaxed, caught at level 5. Yes, I misspelled Markus. Yes, the pokemon renamer guy is just in Oldale. I’m deciding to live with my mistakes.
Ran around back and forth for a little bit to evolve Luna so as to avoid a double catch. She evolved into silcoon and will soon become a beautiful butterfly, I guess.
Petalburg Woods: ledyba. Dot, female, lax, caught at level 5. If I’m remembering its stat spread and move pool correctly ledybe/ledian is one of the worst mons in the game.
Barbra OHKO-ed the Team Aqua grunt’s wailmer with a single dizzy punch, so it looks like the dev wasn’t lying about this fancy aipom being broken early game. Makus did not learn a 4th move until level 13 so things still aren't looking good for the team overall.
Rustboro Wishing Well: bulbasaur. Terry, male, mild, caught at level 1. Starters generally have good stats, so I was happy for this one.
Route 116: pichu. Cha Cha, female, lonely, caught at level 6. You can tell this is the point where my sister left the room because I’m no longer giving my catches boring human names.
Rusturf Tunnel: snubbull. Pupper, male, docile, caught at level 8. A fairy type with intimidate! Now that might be useful against Brawly.
Roxanne was an absolute breeze. I had Barbra buff herself with one victory dance and then she OHKO Roxanne’s entire team. It’s a shame she’ll be of zero use against Brawly.
Dewford: trapinch. Chomper, female, hardy, caught at level 10.
Route 106: vulpix. Tricky, female, modest, caught at level 10.
This is where I ran out of steam. Next session will be Granite Cave and Brawly, so I promise things will get interesting soon.
Session 2
Before I start I have a small confession to make, this session write-up has been done for a while and I got distracted by Legend’s ZA. Editing boring, new pokemon game fun. And then I just kept forgetting to post it. But anyways getting back on track now.
First thing upon getting back to it is the wishing stars everywhere are taunting me. So many possible actually good pokemon that’d be interesting team members. It’s previously given me a dratini and a bulbasaur, so what else could it holding for me? Let’s be real, probably a caterpie.
On to the cave catches.
Granite Cave Floor 1: geodude. Whatever, male, naive, caught at level 9. There’s cool stuff in this cave but it’s whatever, I guess.
Granite Cave Floor 2: aron. Dino, female, careful, caught at level 10. It’s not like the past Dino had any time to shine.
Granite Cave Floor 3: zubat. Batto, male, mild, caught at level 10. Honestly, zubat is seems better than pidgey so it’s the box for Makus.
While running around in the cave Terry evolved! Now no one is leaving this goddamn cave until we’re all up to level-- Wait there’s a guy in Petalburg that sells those EXP candies? And the candies don’t level you past the current cap? Okay, I can do my grinding the old fashion way somewhere else. I am SICK of this cave.
I very carefully considered my team going into Brawly, then fed all of them candy until they hit level 19. Here’s what I eventually settled with.
Lead with Pupper: He doesn’t have a fairy move yet but has intimidate, knows charm, and does decent damage with headbutt.
Luna: She has crazy high special attack, and the fact bug types aren’t particularly useful meant I wouldn’t feel all that bad sacrificing her if need be.
Batto: Is better than pidgey.
Terry: Starters have solid stats, and Terry can hit ‘em with the leech seed + sleep power combo to hang on a little extra.
Cha Cha: Thrown in after I learned that pichu evolves via leveling instead of friendship. I figured Brawly probably wouldn’t have any electric counters, and Cha Cha could outspeed his team for at least one good hit.
Barbra: The starter goes down with this ship with a hail Mary technician boosted bullet punch.
The very first turn went perfectly. Pupper not only flinched makuhita but also got it down to the red, forcing Brawly to use up his potions. Even after four bulk ups a critical hit vital throw wasn’t enough to take down Pupper, letting him get the KO in the end. Now for that run ending heracross. I sent out Luna hoping to get at least one gust and my jaw dropped as it was a 2HKO. And then Luna, my beautiful Luna, leveled up and learned air cutter just to OHKO Brawly’s meditite.
For her brave and loyal service Luna has been placed in the box. If I fail this run as well the story will be that my trainer retires to live with her in peace. While I was there I also swapped out Pupper, and brought on Dino and Tricky to prepare myself for Wattson. His magneton ace and self-destructing voltorb have always given me trouble in normal playthroughs, so given how my first fight vs Brawly went I’m very worried about whatever this hack has given that old man.