Wulfric Gives Me the Cold Shoulder (heh, heh)

I was getting sick of Skrelp constantly dying, so I took advantage of all the grass and fairy types present in the forest to get him some easy training.  five levels and about ten super potions later, Skrelp evolved into a terrifying atrocity called Dragalge, a Poison/Dragon type.  Dragalge is not only an awesome-looking pokemon, but it is an absolute tank with its special attack and defense.  I look forward to using him...just not against the next gymleader.  Dragon types are definitely allergic to Ice types.

The forest itself was a bit of a puzzle--and it gave off a severe "Altering cave" (from firered version) vibe what with its maze-like room structure, but I found Wulfric at the end and convinced him to return to the gym.  Imagine if the real world was like this--like if you had to find and convince a teacher to come to school or a lawyer to come and steal all your money.

In preparation for my eighth gym battle I decided to make things extra-challenging for myself and to only carry three pokemon with me into the match--the same number that I know Wulfric will use.  I don't know what pokemon he will have--just that my three-pokemon squad will have to take him on alone.

Gymkiller Squad # 8: The Three Icebreakers

I was unsure of whether to take Gardevoir or Scrafty.  Scrafty is strong against Ice types with his fighting moves and his huge defenses, but Gardevoir is something of a juggernaut of my team: she has never been defeated.

PLUS: If I know anything about this game and Nintendo in general, there MUST be some Ice-Fairy that they are about to unveil in this battle--and the only thing Scrafty fears more than fairies is dying alone.
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Gym Attempt #1: Wulfric opens with Abomasnow, who is a complete mismatch against my Flareon.  Flareon takes out Abomasnow with only one Flame Charge, but now it is hailing, which means I will have to end the match quicker than I had hoped.  His next pokemon is Avalugg.  Avalugg is apparently a monster of physical defense, because Flare Blitz, the strongest physical fire move in the game, does barely 50% damage.  Also, Avalugg has the ability: Ice Body, which heals it during hail.  Drat.

Avalugg then takes out both of my remaining pokemon handily, but not before I find out how small its special defense is after I nearly take it out with one Psychic delivered by Gardevoir.  Hmmm.  Maybe we can deal with this after all...

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Gym Attempt #2: After removing his Abomasnow, Flareon is once again battling Avalugg.  I still haven't seen his third pokemon, so this is a little unnerving--it COULD be Articuno...probably not.

Avalugg is now using Curse while Flareon is being worn down by hail.  And Wulfric uses a hyper potion...I decide to send-in Gardevoir before Lucario this time to try to pick it off with Psychic, but she dies with one boosted Avalanche.

However, Lucario is able to take-out Avalugg with one Aura Sphere, and Wulfric's final pokemon is Cryogonal (luck is on my side), who dies with one Power-Up Punch in its big, stupid, snowflake face.

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.46
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.45
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.47
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.46
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.45
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.45

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Lucario, Dragalge

Less for Story, More for Fun

Since I haven't really had the time to breathe much on this game over that whole "end-of-the-world" Team Flare marathon thing, I decided to take a bit of a vacation. No, not a vacation from pokemon, a vacation from story progression.  Dummy.

I spent a day or two trying to figure out the new breeding system and another several days beefing-up my pokedex and training a few interesting pokemon on the side (more on that later). 

My noteworthy misadventures include testing out new nicknames for my squad.  I really wanted to rename Greninja "Jean-Claude Vanne Frog" or "Jean-Frog Vanne Damme" or "Frog-Frog Vanne Frog" but those nicknames are too long for the game to accept, so I switched it back to Froakles. 

In my incessant screwing-around I evolved the Fletchling I caught way at the start of the game.  I have been using this Pokemon to FLY around and it just made it to level 20.  It evolved into a Pokemon called Fletchinder which is a Fire/Flying type.  Holy shoot, did I drop the ball on that one!  A Fire/Flying type would have been incredibly useful this whole time! 

Skrelp still hasn't evolved and its weakness is starting to show.  I know it will evolve eventually (its pokedex entry specifically states that "Skrelp hide themselves while they build up power for their evolution"), but it is currently level 45 and it can't stay alive enough  in battle to defeat any foes.  I'll keep him a little longer because that pokedex entry is very enticing, but if he reaches level 50 and still hasn't evolved, he's out.  I'm not going to screw around with a weak pokemon that I don't really care about all the way up to level 55 (like I do whenever I try to train a Dragonite).

Pikachu similarly has the survivability issue, but it outspeeds almost every pokemon it fights so it always moves first--and it always either KO's in one hit or massively cripples an opponent.  As a matter of fact, Pikachu is probably the strongest pokemon on my squad.  While Venusaur and Hippowdon can shrug off hits like they are nothing, Pikachu kills everything.

I don't know how it happened, but my squad has actually developed from a motley crew of misfits with little synergy to an amazingly strong bunch of competitors--akin to something like a force of nature.  Sure my pokemon die often--but they consistently defeat foes up to ten levels higher than myself.  I think for my next gym, I will only carry-in three of my pokemon...to make it a true challenge...

And then I realized that gym 8 is an Ice gym...

Current Squad:

GRENINJA/Froakles/lvl.45
VENUSAUR/Venus/lvl.44
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.45
SCRAFTY/Scrappy/lvl.44
HIPPOWDON*/Leviathan/lvl.43
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.41

On Rotation: Lucario, Pikachu, Skrelp, Garevoir, Haunter

Team Flare at the Power Plant

With my fourth badge in hand I decided to take a moment to analyze the motley crew I call a pokemon team.  I found that the only real weak link was Floette--who has failed me as a special wall and also as a special attacker/supporter--so I tossed her out.  Team down to 10!  Woo Woo!

At this point, I felt that I hadn't fulfilled my necessary time quota of fucking-around-while-between-gyms so I went fishing all over the world with my newly acquired Good Rod.  This is when I came across Skrelp, a new Poison/Water type pokemon, who I caught and added to the team.  Back to 11. Damn.

I may not have gone with this guy so quickly, but his pokedex entry says something about building power while waiting for his evolution.  This seemed fairly auspicious to me so I can't wait for the grand unveiling of his "true power".  I bet he evolves into Garchomp.

Aaaand speak of the devil, I just caught Gible. 

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Route 13 is introduced as the "Badlands" and rightly so: it is a desert inhabited by Dugtrio, Gible, and Trapinch who actually burrow around underground towards you whenever you walk around in the sand.  After catching all of these ground types and trying to figure out if Dugtrio's pink mouth is actually a pink nose, I found a Team Flare member hanging-out near the Power-Plant.  He didn't outright TELL me where the Power Plant key was hidden, but be definitely sent me in the right direction if you know what I mean...

I expected the Power Plant to be a puzzle dungeon, possibly like the Mahogany Town Team Rocket base from Silver version--a maze-like structure with electrode traps running generators.  Instead, it was a gauntlet of 10 Team Flare members exclusively carrying Golbat and Houndoom (okay, maybe there was a scraggy in there somewhere too).  PikaPi keps getting itself knocked-out after causing massive damage on turn one, so my high-risk, high rewards strategy-thingie is safe, but he learned Thunderbolt recently so we'll see how much longer I wait to evolve him into Raichu.

The battle with the two Team Flare Admins went by without a problem and for my efforts, Kirlia evolved into Gardevoir.  After the match, Team Flare disappeared from the Plant, and somehow this magically turned the lights back on in Lumiose City, which is nice since it allows me to return to that mess of a city, but the implication is that the mere presence of Team Flare ruins technology.  An odd take on the villain dynamic: are they villains because they like to be the bad guys or are they villains because no one ever invites them to their birthday parties because they don't want the lights to turn off?

Current Squad:

FROGADIER/Froakles/lvl.29
IVYSAUR/Ivy/lvl.29
FLAREON/Hotfoot/lvl.29
SKRELP/Toxie/lvl.30
SCRAGGY/Scrappy/lvl.29
AERODACTYL/Scarydactyl/lvl.29

On Rotation: Gardevoir, Pikachu, Hippopotas, Lucario