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You know, we've been in (and out of) the Queen's Garden for 2 updates, probably should round up the goobers here. Presenting the long awaited Wild Pokémon availability collage: Queen's Garden edition!
Woo, look at them all! As a Scolipede fan, Centiskorch's design appeals to me, but I've never used one. I might have caught a couple of Chanseys with the intent of maybe doing bullshit later. My only familiarity with Toxicitry is through their pre-evo Toxel, which I found some cute fanart of and used as a banner on my youtube. I get the impression Ribombee is good based on what I've heard from people and seen in OFS's Reborn LP? Arbok I've never used, but I mainly remember them from the Pokémon manga. Yanma/Yanmega I remember for being a terror on a certain rain team in Reborn; it's kinda weird how knowing Ancient Power was an evolution requirement for a couple mons in Gen 4. Lickilicky I mainly remember from the 10th Pokémon movie. You can catch another Forretress here if your free trial of SpinToWin has run out. Toxapex is an incredible stall mon thanks to it's signature move that's just protect but it poisons pokemon as well. Toucannon caused some hefty damage when I tried to catch it so they're probably okay. Crobat is probably still as good as it's always been. Nothing to say about Venomoth other than I faintly remember them from Pokémon Ranger, but that might have been Venonat.
We also find our last cosplay Pikachu, Dr Pikachu, which, well.
Our first one Instructs us into helping it escape residency the sad way.
Toxicitry gets a bit in the way of finding another, but find another I manage. And then another because I want one to keep.
Poison Electric, the same typing as Toxel. Ability is Power of Alchemy (when an ally faints, steal their ability), and comes with Parabolic Charge (hits all targets, heals half the damage inflicted), Simple Beam (turns target's ability into Simple, which doubles all stat changes), Sludge Bomb (good poison attacking move), and Instruct (forces target to use the last move they used again). There's some tools here, but I'm not seeing anything degenerate immediately; maybe stealing sturdy and using Parabolic Charge to become more unkillable?
The important thing, however, is that this is our last costume pika, so we're heading back to Skyspear Summit.
Skyspear Summit actually got a visual overhaul in one of the updates; it now has this pretty background!
You can use the telescope inside the rest house to get a better picture of it.
Back in the weird cave, we have all 5 pikas. Time to sacrifice.
: This Pikachu wears its partner's cap, dyed red to commemorate the many enemies they faced together.
Okay so Redcap Pika is one of two mons who are contenders for "strongest Pokémon in the game", and it should be clear why. Look at that ability. Any time a battle starts with Redcap on the field, or any time Redcap Pika is switched in, its ally will get an attack and special attack increase, for free. This ability on it's own is incredible, but it doesn't stop there. Volt Tackle, Pikachu's signature move, is here to deal massive screwoff damage at the cost of recoil, but there's also a new move: Sky's Vengeance. A priority move that always crits. In practice, that's 75 damage pre-stab that always pierces any raised defense stats and always goes first. There's also the stats on Pikachu; they're comparible to a legendary bird in terms of stats, and that's before you give them Light Ball. They're quite possibly the strongest support mon in the game, and can hold their own really well.
But wait! We're not done yet with the new Pokémon; we haven't got the fishing encounters for Queen's Garden!
No collage this time; we have the middle and final stages of Mudkip's evolutionary line, we have Emperor Palpitoad, we have big scary water spider that's probably really good, we have the final ingredient for the Treasure Keeper statue, and lastly, a surprise tool that will help us later.
Yoink!
While checking out the statue reward, I notice this new menu option. Before I could only rename gift Pokémon, but now we can rename Pokémon at will as of one of the latest updates. From this point onward, I will be taking nickname requests within reason if you want certain mons to have nicknames.
Our reward is a Salamence. Not a special Salamence or anything; just a Salamence. That's not a bad thing; Salamence is really good! In fact, we will be getting its mega stone later this update.
Okay, so I have a strategy for the ditto trainer, but we'll need to catch another Galarian Weezing for it since our first one fainted in the Nitra Mine battle and I don't have any convenient Shreds of Hope to revive it (and don't feel like wasting a Memory of Triumph).
For this strategy, we need Weezing to have Neutralizing Gas and only useless moves; as well as a partner mon who is weaker and also only has useless moves, so for that we have Swablu.
I don't have a funny skin pun, so lets just get right into it.
The ditto seem to prioritize whoever's in the second slot; ideally I want them to steal Weezing just on the offchance things go south. As soon as they take Weezing, we swap out Swablu for Darkrai.
Skin-Taker has a bunch of X items that she will use to try and sweep your mons, but unfortunately she's wasting them on a mon who is actively sabotaging her. Meanwhile, we set up in preparation to wipe her team.
She wises up somewhat and tries to switch one of her dittos out, right into a Dark Void I threw out. I don't know why I opted to do it but I guess it worked out?
Neutralizing Gas ensures that Dittos can't transform on switch in with impostor, forcing them to spend a turn to use transform manually. Unfortunately for them, this means they're stuck with Ditto speed and Ditto defenses until their turn, and unfortunately for them Darkrai is faster and harder hitting. Her team of 6 dittos falls in no time. Some people consider this fight harder than the actual boss of this area attempting to fight it legit; thankfully you don't have to fight it legit.
Focus Band behind the crystal we're after; it's better than nothing, but gambling on a chance to survive isn't great.
This door is locked until we beat the trainer guarding the Crystal.
There's an optional trainer here as well; he's guarding the Salamencite, and I want it.
I think this is the only Rocker in the game? Neat sprite, not sure what he's meant to be doing.
He only has a Garchomp and a Tyranitar; they both opt to focus down Gliscor and bring them to low health. Garchomp thankfully goes down to a combined Earthquake + Aura Press though.
Opted to use a healing item here to keep Gliscor alive just in case; Tyranitar goes down the same turn.
Score. Mega Salamence gets a cool ability in Aerilate which both turns Normal Type moves into Flying Type and buffs them.
Well, I don't have access to Double Edge, but Headbutt is a good enough alternative.
Here's the team. Salamence is going to be our sweeper, and Redcap Pika is here to help with that. Gliscor is here because Flying/Ground is a good typing against the boss; Sapphire isn't great here but no harm in bringing them. Darkrai is, well, they're a level 40 legendary, they're good. Lastly, our surprise tool: Drizzle Politoed. This boss has a gimmick and Politoed is here to deny them that gimmick.
: Even as the world fades, my garden flourishes.
Because they look nice?
: No. A sunset is beautiful and worthless. Sunsets can't be sold, or used to elevate my status.
Oh, I don't think I like you.
: They are fragile, and need the perfect conditions to grow. What do they call flowers that grow anywhere?
: WEEDS.
Okay, on one hand, you have a point. The lack of things such as EXP or free healing have made me appreciate things that I normally don't, such as potions or high levelled mons. On the other hand, you're greedy and I don't want you to have a point.
This would be where I'd fight them but I wanted to see what happens if you just turn around and leave.
: Enjoy my garden's pleasures.
She just lets you leave. The fight only starts if you pick a fight.
Let's pick some different options. Saying they have no real value causes her to "..." you and immediately fight you, skipping all the talk. Let's agree with her and say it's cause they're rare.
: Exactly! Orchids are rare.
She continues from where she normally does after specifying they're rare.
If you don't share, we'll die.
: We'll all die eventually... As the void devours the island, my garden grows more special. But this crystal's power will hold back the void longest. I'll be the last light in a shadowed sea. Nothing could be more perfect.
: ...You'll never understand.
: ...
Music - Elite Battle (Firered/Leafgreen champion theme)
Oh god she's crazy.
The Queen of Orchids uses a Sunny Weather team; half her team is fire mons whose fire moves benefit from the Sun's increased fire damage, and the other half benefits from a combination of Chlorophyll increasing speed in the sun and Solar Beam having no drawback in sunlight.
Redcap Pika isn't staying in for long; they're only here to give Salamence an attack buff because I needed a filler mon in one of the slots to switch out on the first turn.
Ninetales comes out first to ensure the weather is set via Drought, and Salamence's intimidate goes off. This doesn't really apply to the fight because most of her team is special attackers; moral support Intimidate I guess?
The only reason I brought Politoed is so I can make it rain and cancel the sun. This neuters most of her team while it's up.
Flamethrower barely dents Salamence with both the rain and their dragon typing. They then immediately switch out because Salamence's intimidate activated their Eject Pack and I guess it doesn't activate immediately on battle start? 
Getting a Dragon Dance off with Salamence to buff them up and make them faster. Unfortunately, Vileplume's sludge bomb hits like a truck, and Salamence is now in bad shape.
No point in hoarding these; if any time is a good time to use them, now is.
Salamence one shots Vileplume; I now know that her grass types are very dangerous and need to be wiped out on sight.
Politoed surives a Giga Drain like a champ, which is good because that Ninetales is still alive and I'll need to set up rain again.
Hey, speak of the devil, there they are! I need to switch in Politoed to set up Drizzle again, so first I need to swap them out. Might as well bring in Redcap to boost Salamence's attack some more.
Another grass type eliminated; she only has one more of those left. Redcap also takes a Sunlight-boosted Flamethrower like a champ, taking less than half health from it.
There we go, the rain is back.
Salamence unfortunately gets burned KOing Volcarona, so I'll need to Full Heal them to get rid of that attack drop. Ninetales decides that the low HP Politoed was a perfect target for Overheat; Politoed was going to faint either way, but with this Ninetales has also neutered their attack.
A turn passes, with me Full Healing Salamence and getting blocked by Protect.
Ninetales, what are you doing. That barely tickles.
There we go. Only Ninetales and her last Pokémon left! Gliscor also gets a nice meaty Earthquake hit on Ninetales.
The Queen's last mon is another Drought user, this time Torkoal.
Torkoal takes half damage from Salamence's attack, before healing back some of it with their sitrus berry.
Ninetales gets off one last spiteful burn on Salamence before fainting. Only Torkoal is left.
At this point I've already won; Torkoal is a very slow Pokémon and even if it KO's Salamence and Gliscor, I still have 3 other mons more than capable of taking it. That doesn't stop Heat Wave almost KOing you from being scary though.
I opted to play it safe and Full Heal Salamence before going for the kill. Don't want to gamble with the lowered attack not being enough to KO.
And with that, our first major boss is done! That might not sound like a lot, but once you knock out your first the others tend to follow in short succession.
Before checking out the crystal, lets see what's in the cave she was guarding.
A Seamother's Tear and the TMs for Grass Knot and Energy Ball! Grass Knot deals varying damage, with it dealing more damage the heavier the target is; and Energy Ball is just a generically good powerful Grass move.
Huh. Is one of them the Queen of Orchids?
We also get a new Shadow Card if we have a Blank Card on us!
It's a pretty good card. No real bad side; just a bunch of highish numbers on all sides.
Alright, with that out of the way, let's check out the crystal.
:sickos:
Hell yeah I'm using that!
Skipping past all the level up move prompts, our entire party is now level 40. Politoed even got revived because of the level up.
We have 6 and a half boxes full of Pokémon. All of them are usable now. We now have an entire army at our fingertips.
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