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Remember those things I said I would do last time? Lets do none of them. We're back in the Pokémon catch reward house/the house of the mysterious old lady who gave us the beacon objective (supposedly if you save here, it tell's you this place is "Phaedra's house"?). The old lady is gone, but if we talk to the place she used to be...
: I knew you were different from the others... Now surely, you have what it takes to defeat the Champion. Good luck, young one.
No clue how she's talking to us when she isn't here, but.
We're finally checking out the 150 catch reward. We're way over that number now. Checking it causes a pipe to appear in the center of the room.
: It undulates like a throbbing vein.
I ain't no chicken.
Through the pipe is a long tunnel with distortion world music playing. Just long enough that it feels mildly uncomfortable. On the other side is...
Distant Light.
Is that who I think it is?
Let's go and
ignore him. We have fishing to do!
Some incredible finds here! Primarina is a final form starter with a decent fairy/water typing and Liquid Voice as an ability (turns sound moves into water type moves); I don't think Snore is accessible so you can't do Rest/Snore shenanigans, but water type stab hyper voice is really good. Milotic is a good tank with access to healing and an ability that gives it defense when statused; it also learns Surf, a move we've been denied basically the entire game (though we can't swim on water even with it, but you can do shenanigans with water absorb teammates). Tapu Fini is a legendary, that we can just catch. I have never used them and I'm unsure how good Misty Terrain is, but I mean, they're a legendary, they're probably good. Lastly, we have Dracovish, a pokemon banned to Ubers for having access to both Strong Jaw (powers up bite moves by 1.5) and Fishous Rend (a move that's 170 power if the user moves before the target). They don't have great speed though, which is the tradeoff when our opponents are all going to be higher leveled than us from this point on and speed needs to count.
Let's talk to red!
: Though I couldn't defeat you in the heart of your infection... This place is safe from your corruption.
: The Perish Song plays. Your days are numbered. I will not allow your escape.
...Huh?
Who are you? (I mean, obviously you're Red, but.)
: Wait... Your eyes... You're not the monster.
Yup!
: Incredible. I thought I was the last.
quote:
If we had picked the other option:
>No, you gave up. I won't.
: Given up? Once those words would have lit a fire. Now, I'm beyond petty pride.
: It will be nice to have a little company, waiting for the end.
quote:
I tried to be thorough, but I missed some dialogue on my first go through, and had to load a prior save to get dialogue choices I missed. That's what these quote boxes are for!
This dialogue and him asking if you're a wanderer both only play once, for obvious reasons. "We've never battled" gives the same response as "Who are you?", but if we had chosen "I'll return later"...
: I want you to know something.
: I don't hate you. You're simply trying to survive.
: I envy that spark of hope. It may be the last one in the world.
: Please, don't challenge me. If we fight here, I'll have to snuff it out.
He will then realize we're not who he thinks we are and it'd continue as normal.
Okay, so we have a lot of questions we can ask. Let's go through them in order. You mentioned a monster?
: It can take on many forms. I assumed you were it, because it can still move.
: A steel infection roots the other trainers in place. They stare ahead, moving only to attack a wanderer.
: We are not made from flesh. We cannot be infected.
Huh. Okay, so what even is this monster?
: ...I'm not sure how to describe it. It's a never-should. Something that shouldn't be.
: It might be a mangled first attempt at creation, elder to the eldest firstborn?
: It might be the failed product of a foolish experiment.
: Whatever it is, it is a virus within reality. It twists and changes, warps and breaks.
What do you mean, it's afraid? It sounds very powerful.
: Yes. It knows its time is nearly up. It hopes desperately to continue the Perish Song, to delay the doom a little longer.
: But the Champion defends the statue to the Dreaming Daughter.
...Oh. So that's why the Champion is in his tower.
: The creature will perish along with the world. It is too strong to defeat in battle. This is the only way.
The dialogue goes back to the first branch here.
Okay, how can I kill it?
: Defeat it in battle, or destroy the island itself. I tried to defeat it, but it is far too powerful. Ony here can I contest it, outside the reach of it's infection.
: ...Make your peace. This will all be over soon.
We're starting to get some real concrete answers here; the world seems to be ending as a last ditch attempt to kill whatever this thing is.
So why are you here?
: This is the home of the Eldest Firstborn. Only it's presence protects this little corner of the Cradle Isle from infection.
Keen-eyed viewers may have noticed an Arceus in my party on my previous save.
: It could infect the isle fully, allowing it to spread to the bones of the world. Then it could never be drowned.
Okay, but I want the Champion to stop reigning forever. That seems like it'll stop the world from ending.
: ... No. There's no point.
The world is going to end, my dude!
: I know. It's necessary.
: Without a dreamer, the world has no future. The Seamother's wrath will drown us all.
: The dark chorus delays her, but they cannot sing forever. When the Perish Song ends, she'll destroy the world and begin anew.
quote:
>He killed the dreamer.
This one is on me, I forgot to check these options the first time. I had the option to, but just forgot.
: Yes. He gutted her like a fish. But he had a reason beyond petty power.
This line replaces the "I know. It's necessary." line, and it continues as above.
Is ensuring this thing dies worth sacrificing everyone??? Do you really want the world to end?
: Of course not. But this world is broken. It's been corrupted.
: You must see this world is wrong. Glitched.
: We need to... Reset it. Turn it off. Begin again.
Sorta leaning on the meta here, but I'll read it as more euphamism than literal.
: I'll gladly die to purge the world of the foul creature.
quote:
One last one I missed!
>I'll find a way. I always do.
: I once thought the same. I overcame every obstacle. I found secrets and hidden paths.
: But the monster does not operate by our limitations. Within the infected places, none can match it. It has infected all of Cradle Isle, save for this most remote corner.
: Only here can we surpass it. And only here might it escape.
Our last main option.
Your fatalism offends me. It's kinda dumb that you're willing to sacrifice everyone just to kill one thing.
: Heh. I assure you, I loathe it more than ever you could. But you have not faced the monster. I have. It killed my closest friend.
: Now the Eldest is the only thing protecting this place from infection. If you catch it, the monster may escape the drowning world.
Stop me... unless you're too weak?
: ...Fine. I envy your determination. But if you cannot defeat me, you'll never defeat it.
: Show me the strength of your resolve. Come at me with everything you have.
Music - Champion (It's red's theme from HG/SS)
Red is the highest leveled fight outside of the Champion. Though he's crippled by only having 5 mons, 2 of which aren't fully evolved, he is still not a threat to be taken lightly.
Of course, I start off the fight with a misplay. Both Ivysaur and Squirtle are special attackers, yet I'm wasting Garchomp's turn with a physical attack.
Garchomp takes the fall for that mistake.
Okay, so that squirtle is a menace; let's fake-out it so we can guarantee a kill...
Another misplay! Squirtle was not the threat that needed to be stopped here. Pride Ditto goes down.
At least Squirtle goes down to a single Play Rough.
Snorlax comes out, and KO's Celebi after tanking a confusion. Snorlax is by far the biggest threat in this entire fight, and victory depends entirely on if my team is still standing after it goes down.
Marowak goes down to Ivysaur, leaving us with only two mons left.
We need to regroup here.
First off, a Seamother's tear to get a Metagross. If XD Gale of Darkness's opening taught me anything, these guys are really strong.
New team! Two Rotom forms for versatility, Pelipper is here to neuter Fire Punch (and eventually Charizard) with Drizzle, Metagross and Dracovish are here to be big guns, Mimikyu because taking a free hit is incredibly useful.
Let's try a different option. I want to test my skills, because clearly if I lost to you I have no business fighting the Champion.
: I can respect that. But we should not weaken each other with pointless battles.
And from there it goes back to "stop me if you can".
Ivysaur takes out Fridge Rotom immediately. Not a great start!
Motor Rotom at least gets a tailwind off and tanks a supereffective Blizzard from Squirtle, so this is still salvageable.
A decent chunk gets taken off of squirtle by Giga Drain (healing Rotom back to near full in the process), while Pelipper takes off a third of Ivysaur's health while Ivysaur is still recharging.
Squirtle brings Rotom back down low; due to double battle mechanics Rotom took less damage this time because Blizzard also hit Pelipper.
Squirtle goes down next turn, but unfortunately Pelipper is taken out by Ivysaur.
Rotom manages one last hurrah with an icy wind to slow down both of the opponents, before falling to Snorlax's Rock Slide.
Metagross finishes off Ivysaur with Bullet Punch, while Fishous Rend brings Snorlax to low health.
And then things start falling apart. Hurricane oneshots Dracovish, while Metagross gets an unlucky freeze from Ice Punch.
A combination of Play Rough and Metagross thawing out to use Hammer Arm takes out Snorlax, but things aren't looking good for me. Metagross is liable to just die from Charizard, and Mimikyu is squishy without their disguise (even with Focus Sash).
I figured Fridge Rotom here was the best bet to revive for some reason, so it's time to use another revive.
Mimikyu gets 1-2 punched by Lapras and Charizard before it could get it could even move, and I spent Metagross's turn reviving expecting them to be the one to go down.
And the newly revived Rotom goes down. Metagross is almost certainly going to faint next turn.
So I run away, because the fight is lost at this point and I don't want to lose another day. And then I took a break from playing for a week because I felt very demotivated after losing two fights and wasting a revive on a failed attempted.
I boot up the game a week later with a different idea; a whole team of dancers. On my first catch I get lucky and get a second light ball.
...And then I get lucky again while catching the remainder. At this point I have 3 Light Balls and I'm figuring, okay, might as well get a whole time of Light Balls.
Pro gamer tip: You basically have infinite healing with Bo-Peepachu if you're willing to put in the legwork. Just go into some thick tall grass for the chance for a double battle (the starting area is probably best due to low levels and unlikeliness to be statused), and have Bo-Peep Pollen Puff your teammates. You can theoretically do this at any point after you catch them, though obviously it's easier after beating steelfather when you can set your opponents to level 1 and be useless.
So. I have a fainted Stunfisk in the lead with a Dusclops. Stunfisk has static for a 50% chance to force an electric type encounter, and Dusclops has Frisk (can reveal held opponent items) and knows Trick (can swap items with an opponent).
I run around the Farmland for an hour. Farmlands is the only place in the game where A: a Pikachu variant can be found, and B: no other electric types are on the route. This guarantees Bo-Peep 50% of the time we encounter something.
The reason we have Dusclops? To be able to detect which Bo-Peeps we run into are holding a Light Ball, and to steal the Light Ball without wasting time catching it. This is the most efficient way I found to farm Light Balls. It's... probably not necessary, but. I really, really want to win this fight.
Meet the trouppe! Named for varying speeds of tempo, they vary between +Speed, Neutral Speed, and -Speed, two of each. This is important, cause I need whichever Idolachu moves first to be the one buffing, I cannot be dealing with speed ties.
I need all the help I can get. Wasn't that one of the options when adopting Cubone?
: There's no point. Even with the full power of the Eldest, I couldn't defeat the monster.
And once again for the final time, stop me if you can.
Let's do this.
To start off, we double Quiver Dance. Because each one copies the other, both are now at +2 in speed, special attack, and special defense. They are now quite beefy, especially against the two special attackers in front of us.
CASE IN POINT. They just shrugged off a Super Effective Earth Power from a mon 20 levels higher than them. Jeez.
One more Quiver Dance for the road, and then I baton pass the low HP Idolachu (switches out Idolachu but transfers the buffs to whoever switches in, which will be another Idolachu).
The Idolachu who switches in immediately gets brought down to low health, so the Baton pass wasn't as useful as I'd hoped.
However, both Idolachu have +3 stats, so I can Fiery Dance with the first Idolachu and get the other one to copy it to take out Ivysaur...
And then Baton Pass the second one out of danger.
Ugh. Blizzard freezes one of them though.
That's okay though, because Dancer still activates even if the user is statused.
Snorlax takes out one of the Idolachu though; as a physical attacker they don't care about buffed special defense. Unfortunate.
The next Idolachu comes in, and by dancing is able to get the buffed (but frozen) Idolachu to still attack Snorlax and bring them to low health.
Squirtle gets another freeze off on the other Idolachu, and to add injury to insult, Snorlax KO's both with Rock Slide. We're down 3 Idolachu now, but we still have 3 left and Snorlax is both low and the only remaining threat.
A quiver dance/revelation dance combo finishes off Snorlax handily.
Charizard gets one shot because of it's electric type weakness, and Squirtle follows afterwards.
Lapras gets sent out to get owned. We win these.
Whew. Red is... Red is tough. I steamrolled them my first playthrough and I'm not sure how.
: Your resolve was stronger than mine.
Eh, doubt. I fell asleep on posting an update for a month. It can't be that strong.
: I think the monster has something new to fear. I'm sorry I tried to stop you. I hope I didn't weaken you too much.
I mean, you wrecked my shit, but eh. Worst case I lose the 0 day run and have to spend a day reviving my entire time.
: The monster wants you to sacrifice yourself. Don't. If you refuse, it will reveal itself.
: Just don't lose.
: One last look...
Hell yes, give me.
You know, the gamefreak leaks had some interesting Arceus lore according to a friend. Apparently the shards of the egg Arceus was born from became giants, who fought Arceus, and Arceus used their power after defeating them to shape the world. The plate descriptions when picked up in the Sinnoh games mention that the power of defeated giants infuse the plates; it's crazy what that might actually mean with the context of the leaks..
Either way, we have the plates, which are a necessity for who we're about to catch.
There he is! But first.
A detour to Skyspear Cavern to fight a trainer we left alone.
Even battered and weakened, Idolachu still kicks ass (though one of them faints here).
Arceus knows Perish Song, and I am not risking failing the catch because it decides to self destruct.
Woo. I don't know if I'll even use them or not! I didn't take a screenshot, but they know Judgement, Spacial Rend, Recover, and Perish Song.
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