Progress Report

With Electrium Z and Steelium Z both in hand (prizes after the trial), I was on my way.  First stop would be a pokemon center to heal up.

As I was out the door, Molayne called me back and handed me the mask of the Masked Royal.  He told me to take it to Professor Kukui because he had left it behind.  (Lol)

I ended up battling all the trainers on the Hokulani Mountain trail in order to challenge the veteran trainer at the top.  Just like the Ace Trainers on the previous islands, this trainer had a Z-Ring of his own.  He had with him an Absol which used the move Z-Black Hole Eclipse.
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I think it might be appropriate to take some time to reflect and note a few important bits of progress.  I have had Bagon off training in the Pokepelago training facilities for the past few islands.  Bagon, remember Bagon?  And how I spent hours trying to get him to spawn?  Well he's a level 50 Salamence now and he's unstoppable.  I used him a few times in wild pokemon battles, but he's a bit too much for my current team, considering that my quad is all barely level 30 or less.  Back to the box with this one--to be called upon only when I need him.

Trumbeak evolved into another great pokemon: Toucannon.  It's no secret amongst the people who know me in the real world that my favorite animals are all birds.  While the ordering is always a bit suspect, my top five favorite animals include the crimson shrike, the cardinal, the blue jay, and the toucan.  That my silly woody-the-woodpecker Trumbeak would evolve into a Toucan pokemon has made me the happiest pokemon trainer this side of Johto.  The icing on the cake is that it's quite strong!  It even learned a new move in Beak Blast.

Ori-chan the Oricorio is still in her Akala Island forme, but I plan on changing that whenever I find the local nectar of Ula'Ula Island.  She's a reliable special attacker and a good support pokemon for my team.

My meanie, Mareanie, is performing quite admirably as well.  It's bulky and it's always reliable in battle.  I'm running "Protect", "Payback", "Toxic", "Toxic Spikes" right now and it's been working well.  Hopefully it learns a recovery move sometime soon.  That's the logical next step for such a bulky stall pokemon.

There isn't much to add about Sylveon given its tight performance in basically every trial match that I have ever had.  I hope that it learns some move that would give me an answer to steel pokemon though.  The only damaging moves that it has right now are Draining Kiss (fairy) and Swift (Normal) and, while I probably wouldn't want to leave it in against Metagross or Gengar, it would be nice to have it learn something that could at least hit such a pokemon...does it learn Dark Pulse?  (Editor's note: No, it doesn't.)

Crabrawler can be relied upon to deliver a strong blow and to eradicate anything that doesn't resist Fighting.  Even neutral hits seem to cause massive damage.  Its ability is Iron Fists (which increases the damage of punching moves), so I'm hoping that it will learn Fire Punch or Hammer Arm eventually.

Tsareena, as mentioned before, is my hard-hitting physical support pokemon.  It is walled out by anything "bug" or "flying", but even against these, I can count on it to survive and put up a Reflect or a Light Screen for the teammates.

Sassy Sally...well...things have been a little tough for this one lately...as I mentioned before, its Z-Inferno Overdrive can be a force to be reckoned with...when some crazy bullshit doesn't happen to ruin the moment.  Right now, I can count on Sassy Sally to throw around big damage and to die on a fairly consistent basis.  It's strong and it's fast, but until it evolves into that sexy Salazzle it might have to be part of the "let's see what happens" crew.

Pako Pako may be under leveled compared to the rest of my rotating squad, but thhis is circumstantial to the plot of the game.  I've had more use for the other pokemon recently and it just so happens that Brionne has fallen behind.  Make no mistake though, when I need something dead, Pako Pako always gets it done.  It's a bulky pokemon that hits hard with nearly perfect coverage in Scald, Disarming Voice, and Hidden Power Fire.
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I made my way to the bottom of the hill and finally on to the garden where Kukui would be.  Little did I know that waiting for me there would finally be the main man, the head honcho.

The boss of Team Skull.

Current Squad:

Brionne/Pako Pako/lvl 26
Crabrawler/Ppunches/lvl 28
Salandit/Sassy Sally/lvl 28
Oricorio/Ori-chan/lvl 27
Tsareena/Bouncee/lvl 30
Sylveon/Star Fighter/lvl 29

On Rotation:
Toucannon/Pip Pip/lvl 30
Mareanie/Meanie/lvl 26


Pokedex: 154 caught

Vs. Lurantis

Against a Bug and grass type, there is no shelter from my team.  Go Team Foul Wing!

Vs Lurantis: The Hedge Trimmers

I led with Sludj as I always go, spreading poison to Lurantis--and then to its ally partner Trumbeak.  The fact that the mantis pokemon summoned Trumbeak should have been my firs cue that the battle was going to be longer than I expected, but I didn't get the memo.

See, my squad is so strong against grass that I actually started writing this post before I even started the battle.  The original transcript read simply as:

"It was easy and I won easily."

I could not have anticipated that the pokemon would have Synthesis.  Stalling does not work, at the most fundamental of levels, against an opponent that can heal itself. Grimer was able to injure the two, but Lurantis healed itself and Trumbeak took out my lead.  

I switched to the more direct approach.  I sent in Sassy Sally and used the Fire Z-move "Inferno Overdrive".  Against a bug/grass type (even a bug/grass type that is several levels higher) this would be an easy KO.  Apparently however, Lurantis is only grass-typed, and so Inferno Overdrive mortally wounded it.

And then Lurantis just healed itself.

Solar Blade is basically Lurantis
calling upon Divine Intervention.

Obviously this wasn't working; I wasn't losing yet and none of its moves were hurting my pokemon much, but I couldn't keep this up.  Its second ally summon pokemon, castform, had used Sunny Day--thereby making Synthesis doubly effective.  I turned my attention towards the castform and took it out handily enough--but lost Sassy Sally in the process.

I sent in Ori-chan and ate a move called Solar Blade.  Seemingly, this is a two-turn charge move like Solarbeam, but dealing physical damage.  I used Feather Dance and Feather Dance again, then baton-passed out to Trumbeak.  The Feather dances were to weaken that Solar Blade attack.  The baton pass was to ensure that Lurantis' move would target Ori-chan before it switches out so that Trumbeak would enter the battle undamaged.

I knew I had the eventual win at this point.  Trumbeak has Pluck, Flame Charge, Roost, and Work Up.  I could boost my attack and speed and heal off the damage I took with roost--and then take out Lurantis with one attack.  

I'm not going to lie, I felt pretty good about myself after this win.

VICTORY!!

2-0

Vs. Kahuna Hala

Prepared with the knowledge that I would be battling a Fighting Pokemon master, I assembled my most reliable squamates for the task.

Battle Team 2: The Fighting Frenzies

Vs. Kahuna Hala

...and apparently I also brought Slowpoke along for some reason.

I was unsure of whether or not the team I had selected would be over or under leveled.  I prefer to keep the game on the challenging side, so I didn’t want to take in, for example, my level 17 Oricorio with Air Cutter.  Or-chan is a little bit too strong for what I anticipated the Kahuna’s pokemon would be—somewhere in the 16-17 range.

I approached him back at Route 1 on the Melemele outskirts.  As a matter of fact, our battle arena was the very same stage where I had fought his grandson Hau and his Litten at the festival of our Lord and Savior the Kamen Rider Space blah blah Tapu Koko.  Indeed, it was the very stage where I had met and befriended Pako Pako.

With a weird sort of nostalgia coursing through my thoughts, I started the match.

Trumbeak vs. Mankey is the sort of battle that normally wouldn’t get even a footnote in any battling tactics analysis.  Even if Mankey is the same level as Trumbeak, level 14 in this case, it just plain can’t compete.  Trumbeak took one hard Karate Chop critical hit, but held on to defeat both Mankey and Hala’s second Pokemon Makuhita.

The Makuhita was able to weaken my lead, Pip Pip, to identically 1 HP, but Kahuna Hala now only had one pokemon left compared to my five remaining healthy switch-ins.  For the future, I need to remember to only bring in three pokemon per gym match to make it a fairer fight.

His third pokemon was a Crabrawler.  It knew the Fighting Z-Move “All Out Pummeling”.  Unfortunately for the Kahuna, Crabrawler wasted this move immediately against my 1 HP Trumbeak in the most spectacular sort of overkill that I have ever seen.  The animation for this move is insane and over the top and to see it strip off exactly one point of health made me make a ridiculous squeaking noise.

After I lost Trumbeak, I sent in Pokey for an admittedly boring exchange of Yawns and Confusions.  I won the match four turns later.

The Red Card Trainer

I'm on my way towards my first Grand Trial.  This will be my first major certification.  With the Verdant Cave Challenge completed, I will be allowed to battle the Melemele Island Kahuna, Kahuna Hala.  This is the very same person who gave me my Popplio at the start of the adventure.  Apparently he uses Fighting Pokemon: I've already started considering the team that I will be bringing into battle with him.

I couldn't get very far down the Seaward Cave path (it was full of Zubat and Diglett anyways), so I resigned myself to recovering Nebby as I was originally asked to do about two thousand hours of playtime ago.  Along the way, I caught another new favorite pokemon of mine, Crabrawler.
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I knew from the first time I saw him that this pokemon would make my short list of new "bests".  It's obviously based on the coconut crab--one of the largest currently extant terrestrial arthropods.

As a matter of fact, I just looked it up: it is the largest.

This is a creature known for its huge size and tough shell; it lives its entire life on land.  Indeed, it would be at risk of drowning if it were ever completely immersed in sea water.  While the creature varies in colour and size, it is often identified by its deep hues of blue and purple.  It's easily one of my favorite animals.  Well, one of my favorites that isn't a bird...because I have a weird thing for birds.

Crabrawler is a pure Fighting-type pokemon.  I'm glad that it isn't Fighting/Water.  I can already hear the legions of kids that are right now encountering this pokemon and thinking "Hey it's a crab, why isn't it a water pokemon?"

Hopefully (and this is a stretch) these same kids will look up this critter and learn a little something along the way.  And then they all become Biologists and grow up supporting the sciences.

Sorry, lost my train of thought.  At any rate, I let Rattata retire to that great dusty box slot in the sky in order to welcome my new friend.
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On my way back to the Kahuna, I fought my rival, Hau.  This time he had Pikachu and Litten.  After the match, I allowed Rai Rai to evolve into Pikachu and Pip Pip into Trumbeak.  I really like Trumbeak.  Yes, the design is cute, but the real reason I like it is because it does this silly cartoon thing in one of its idle animations wherein it purses its lips and makes like it's blowing a raspberry.  Fucking hilarious.

In Pokemon Sun and Moon, there are Ace Trainers scattered around the Alola Region who specialize in using specific items from the competitive scene.  Once I had defeated all the trainers on Route 3, the Ace Trainer there agreed to battle me.  He used Rockruff and Slowpoke and they each held an item called Red Card.  I have battled competitively in the recent past, but I haven't actually ever come across this item, so this was a pretty good learning experience for me.  Red Card apparently forces your opponent to switch out their pokemon for a random replacement if they target you with a super-effective move.

And I fell for it every clit-rubbing time.

I did manage to defeat the Ace Trainer in the end (his Slowpoke actually made this a fairly tough match with all the yawn-ing it was doing) and got, as my reward, my own Red Card.

File that under "save for later".

Current Squad:
Popplio/Pako Pako/lvl 16
Crabrawler/Ppunches/lvl 13
Trumbeak/Pip Pip/lvl 14
Pikachu/Rai Rai/lvl 14
Misdreavus/Missy/lvl 14
Growlithe/Growlie/lvl 14

On Rotation:
Oricorio/Ori-Chan/lvl 17
Grimer/Sludj/lvl 13
Slowpoke/Pokey/lvl 14
Yungoos/Chompy/lvl 13

Pokedex: 40 caught