[Challenge] The Nuzlocke Challenge

Obtained Oshawott based on Trainer ID. Named Him Mochi.
Caught Purrloin on Route 19. Named her Riley, after my irl cat.

Oshawott - Mochi - Male - Starter - Alive
Purrloin - Riley - Female - Route 19 - Alive

So, Bugsy. Yeah, this didn't go well.

It started off according to plan. I threw out Whit first, knowing that Bugsy would kick off with a U-Turn from Scyther. I was correct, and Scyther was replaced by Metapod, but Whit took a worrying amount of damage, even with his resistance to Bug moves. That was when I knew the battle was going to be more difficult than I thought. That having happened, once Metapod was down, I threw out Pavel to weather the U-Turn this time before dealing with Kakuna. Scyther, again, did an astonishing amount of damage, and poor Pavel was poisoned by Kakuna before she went down. Then, it was time to deal with Scyther.

I threw Whit back out, hoping that Scyther wouldn't try U-Turn again. She didn't; instead, she did a huge amount of damage with Quick Attack. Worried, I sent out Kiba, but Scyther knocked her health down to dangerous levels in a couple of attacks. Racer landed an attack, but the same happened to him. Desperate, I threw Pavel back out. He held off a Quick Attack, but then disaster struck. With his health above the halfway point, I thought he could survive one more U-Turn before I'd have to pull him out. I was wrong. U-Turn hit hard, and my faithful Geodude was lost.

I screamed; I literally screamed as Pavel fell. Furious, I did the only thing I could - I sent out Artax, my most defensive Pokémon.

The battle was hard, and incredibly close, but finally Artax prevailed, defeating Bugsy and earning me the Hive Badge. But the damage was done; Pavel was gone.

I was devastated; my third-caught Pokémon was gone. I almost quit right then out of grief. However, I had a duty to the rest of my team to carry on, and I was determined to complete this run; so I pulled Terra out of the box and set about levelling her up. Finally, with her at a reasonable level, it was time to head out to Ilex Forest, where I chased down the missing Farfetch'd and got Cut. During this, I ran into my catchable Pokémon for the area - an Oddish. *Headdesk*

I ran back to Azalea to pick up Tori, who I taught Cut in order to get through the forest. That done, I headed through the trees and off to Route 34, where I found a Drowzee. Not bad!

Making it to Goldenrod, my first step was to pick up the Bicycle and Radio Card before setting about training. Whitney was next; I needed to be on top form if I wanted to win.

The time spent training was pretty uneventful; apart from a bunch of trainers along Routes 34 and 35, my time was spent fighting Drowzee and Rattata along Route 34. Given the pain in the backside that Whitney is, my aim was to level up to at least 20 before attempting the battle. Apparently also knowing what was coming, both Whit and Tristan learned the ever-useful Reflect. This gave me an idea for how I would take on Whitney...

Shortly after this, half of my team decided to step things up a notch, with Terra evolving into Quagsire, Whit evolving into Noctowl, and Racer evolving into Raticate in quick succession. Artax, surprisingly, also tried to evolve into Togetic, but I held him back for the time being; with Togetic being part Flying-type, he would take super-effective damage from Rollout, which would ruin my plan. He can evolve after the battle.

With everyone levelled up, it was time to wage war on the Miltank...

The battle against Whitney was joined. She sent out Clefairy; I sent out Whit, as per my plan. First step was to set up a Reflect, while Clefairy decided to turn a Doubleslap into a Tripleslap for only a little damage. Hypnosis missed, of course, so I changed my strategy and launched an Uproar, doing a lot of damage to Clefairy and baiting Whitney into using a Super Potion. A worrying moment came when Clefairy used Metronome to pull off Power Gem, of all things, but Whit was able to hold on and continue Uproar. The next Metronome brought an ineffectual Astonish, and Whit calmed down, allowing for the preemptive Miltank strategy. Whit set up another Reflect while Clefairy Metronomed Accupressure to raise her defence, then he used the next turn to Peck Clefairy to death. One down, one to go, and step one of the Miltank plan was complete.

As the dreaded cow came into battle, I threw Artax in, hoping that Miltank would be baited into locking into Rollout. She wasn't, and used Stomp, but did little damage due to Reflect. Miltank used Attract next, and I had a moment of worry, but Artax kept his priorities straight and used Yawn. At that point, I pulled him out and sent in Tristan, who took a Stomp with little trouble. Miltank fell asleep, but immediately used her Lum Berry to wake up. Reflect wore off, so Tristan set it up again before I threw in Terra. Terra landed a Headbutt and Mud Shot, lowering Miltank's speed, before I had to pull her back again. Worried about Miltank's high attack, I decided to ruin it with Artax, who used Yawn again. Attract hit again, but my little Togepi ignored it and used Charm. When Miltank fell asleep, Tristan took over with a barrage of Razor Leaf.

Upon awakening, the annoying cow pulled another trick out of her sleeve: Milk Drink. Annoyed, I used Poison Powder and reapplied Reflect. What followed was a long struggle for dominance, with Miltank healing every bit of damage my team did to her, before I finally healed up Terra and sent her out in order to avoid Attract. With Charm in effect, my Quagsire soaked up every Stomp Miltank landed on her, before she landed a Mud Shot to slow her down. Finally able to outrun Miltank, I took the risk and had Terra launch a Mud Bomb - and Miltank went down. Victory!

Plain Badge in hand, I picked up the Squirt Bottle and prepared to move out - team intact and raring to go. Next up, Sudowoodo!

After our victory against Whitney, the team and I started out to Ecruteak City. Being Thursday, it was Bug Catching Contest day, so I took the opportunity to find a Bug-type for my National Park catch. I was hoping for my own Scyther, despite the bad memories of Bugsy's one, but I found a Pinsir instead. Oh well, I quite like Pinsir anyway.

Down on Route 35, I took time to level up Whit, and found my first Pokémon of that route: a male Nidoran, whom I named Jonathan. Then I made my way back through the park to Route 36, where, for some reason known only to my revision-addled brain, I ran into the grass instead of heading straight to Sudowoodo. I ended up running into a Growlithe - the Pokémon I was hoping to find on the next route - only to realise that that meant I wouldn't be able to catch Sudowoodo. I am a complete and utter idiot. Yes, I'd rather have a Growlithe than Sudowoodo given the choice, but still, I really shouldn't do this after spending all day studying.

Anyway, I caught my accidental Growlithe, and, because I've played way too much Dragon Age recently, named him Leto. Then, getting past Sudowoodo, I continued out to Ecruteak. On the way, I found a Spinarak on Route 37, and Kiba gave me a present in the form of a Shiny Leaf!

In Ecruteak Pokémon Centre, I met up with Bill before heading back to Goldenrod. I delivered the Mail to the dude on Route 31, before meeting up with Bill again and receiving Eevee. Justin is back!

With that, I decided it was time to rejig my team - Artax was about to evolve, which would give me three Flying-types and three Normal-types in the roster. Therefore, I decided to box Whit and Racer for the time being to allow Justin and Leto to join the crew.

I spent the next while levelling up Justin, during which both Artax and Kiba evolved. Things are going OK for now. Hopefully they'll stay that way.

Upon starting the game, I found myself in Aspertia City, a typical protagonist home town that caught me a bit off guard nonetheless. I had kinda expected Nuvema Town. As usual, there was no father in sight, but instead of a professor, I was told to meet Bianca to get my first Pokémon. Feeling a bit nostalgic from a play through of Pokémon Black, I went to find her, meeting Hugh along the way. Apparently he's my childhood friend, who already had a Pokémon. How unfair.

Bianca didn't recognize me, but I didn't blame her. I had changed quite a lot. Like before, she let me choose between Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott. Since I had chosen the grass snake before and I don't really like Emboar, I went with Oshawott this time. I decided to call him Sam. I was happy to see that his special attack was raised by his nature, although that came at the cost of his speed. After receiving the Pokédex, Hugh immediately challenged me to a battle. Even though it was very close, Sam managed to beat his Snivy. And you tell me you've had it for a long time ever since it hatched from an egg? You disappoint me, Hugh. But I like your battle theme, so you already made a damn good impression.

Bianca then showed me around the Pokémon Center, ignoring my protests that I already knew everything about it. I was a bit astonished that she handed me 10 Poké Balls when she was done, but of course, my hope that there would be no chatching tutorial was quickly crushed.

After buying some potions just to be on the safe side, I joined Bianca on the first route to watch her catch a Purrloin. When she was gone, I took some steps into the patch of grass, only to get a sense of déjà vu when a female Purrloin appeared on the exact same tile. I caught her and called her Lily. It turned out that she had a nature that reduced her speed, as well.

As I was training my two quasi-Slowpokes, I also found a few Patrat in the grass, including one with blue eyes. Yes, I had just found my first ever shiny Pokémon, not counting the red Gyarados from Silver back in the day. Barely daring to weaken him, I quickly threw some Poké Balls. It took two attempts, before I could officially call him mine. I named him Bluebell.

Continuing on the route, I was surprised again when a great encounter theme started and Alder jumped down a cliff in front of me. Of course, he was alright. He may have sprained his ankle, but the height wasn't too great. After a bit of rest he would be fine. He took me to the next town, ushering me into the Pokémon Center so he could limp ahead without making me wait too long. Very considerate.

Catching up to Alder, he promised to train me, but first I had to find Hugh to give him a map from his sister. What was it with those rivals, always dashing up ahead? On the way, I battled a few trainers and caught a cute little Sewaddle and called her Betty.

Since a random hiker blocked my way, I figured Hugh had to have headed to the Floccesy Ranch. There I found a strangely sad looking Azurill and called her Mimi. I would have preferred a non-baby Pokémon, but at least it was the first Pokémon on my team with a useful nature, reducing its special attack and raising attack and Huge Power to go with it. I am actually quite satisfied with my team at this point, even though Lily is a bit frail and too slow for her kind and with Azurill's evolution I'd have two water Pokémon on my team. I'll probably just carry her around to raise her friendship a bit. But for now it would do and they were all determined to prove their worth by surviving not just a few heart-stopping moments when their enemies decided to land one critical hit after the other, sending Lily to 1-3 HP more than once and nearly killing Bluebell in a single hit.

Well, now that the important things like catching Pokémon were out of the way, I returned to searching for Hugh. It didn't take long to find him and again he challenged me to a battle. His Snivy had grown quite a bit, but Lily, Bluebell and Betty worked together to take it down. Our fight drew the attention of the ranch's owners, who told us that their Herdier was missing. For some reason, Hugh got really angry at this and stormed off to look for it. Alright, Hugh, what is it that you're not telling me? You seem to be pretty obsessed with something and I'm not sure it's good for you. What exactly are you looking for? Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough. For now, I'll take a break at this point.

Before I was going to look for the Herdier, I decided to train up the team a bit, since the owners of the ranch standing right next to the patch of grass kindly offered to heal my Pokémon whenever I wanted. Unfortunately, what had worried me before came true, when a wild lvl 6 Lillipup landed a critical hit Tackle on Lily. With her terrible defense, she didn't survive the hit. I sent out Betty who revenge-killed it, gaining a level and learning Bug Bite in the process, but the damage was done. My team was short one member. Killed by a Pokémon that (kind of) shared part of her name. Oh the irony.

Now extremely cautious, I continued the training. While I was at it anyway, I trained Mimi after all. A decision that quickly turned out to be a real pain, since Bubble did absolutely nothing and even the Aqua Gun she learned a bit later was practically useless. When she had almost caught up to the rest of the team, I followed Hugh to search the ranch for the missing Herdier. I found it being cornered by a team Plasma member. Apparently they abandoned their old ways to become ninjas. I can't blame them. Their old outfits were kind of ridiculous. Not as bad as the Galactics, but still...

The nameless grunt ranted about being lost and then being found by a child. In a fit of rage, he smacked the TM for Frustration right at my face. Uh... thanks I guess? Isn't it usually Thief, though? Not that I'm complaining. After the Herdier was reunited with his masters, I immediately put the TM to good use, teaching it to Mimi. I think that's the fist time I actually taught any of my Pokémon the move Frustration. But right now it's still a STAB and she was really in the need of a physical move, which meant that she just became semi-useful. Even more so when she learned Charm a bit later on her own.

Well, now that the business on the ranch was done, I ran back to Alder. Instead of training me himself, he instead sent me to battle two students, one of whom shared my real name. I'm still a bit stumped. I think I've never seen it as an NPC name. Though that didn't save her from being beaten into the ground. Alder then sent me on my way, hinting that the gym in my hometown was open now. Alright, looks like that's my next goal.

Outside, there was a weird man, who gave me a medal box, rambling on about earning medals. Okay, listen. I'm doing a Nuzlocke here. I won't be able to collect your medals without breaking the rules. But thank you anyway. Oh, and I'd like to mention that you have a really dumb name.

As I was running back the way I had come, I was suddenly stopped by a call from above. Alder stood on the same cliff as before and casually jumped down again, only flinching slightly when he landed on his bad ankle again. Wow, what a drama queen. He must've been racing after me and probably climbed up that hill as fast as he could, just so he could demonstrate his cliff-jumping skills again. Well, whatever made him happy. I'll just let him have his moment. And he did give me some berries after all.

I quickly found out everything I needed to know about this gym. Normal type, leader Cheren. This would suck. Normal type gyms were usually hard and I guessed that his strongest Pokémon would be a Lillipup. I feel that these things are pretty overpowered at this point in the game... My suspicion grew when even the other trainers in the gym had one Patrat and a Lillipup each. What a huge variety... I mean, there really aren't many normal type Pokémon. They probably had trouble even finding those two. That they were just the pre-evolutions of the normal type gym's Pokémon from Black and White couldn't be helped. And that Lillipup was already in the first gym of those games as well is really just coincidence... No, but seriously, as interesting as Cheren as a gym leader is, they were really lazy with the choice of Pokémon here.

Preparing my team by giving each of my Pokémon a berry in case of an emergency, I faced Cheren. Even though I possessed his best friend two years ago he didn't promise to go easy on me. Leading with Bluebell, we started off with a Patrat-battle. Since he felt the need to spam Work Up, Bluebell managed to defeat the other Patrat with three Tackles. But now that I knew he had Work Up, I hesitated to send in Betty, whom I intended to send in against Lillipup, because of her good attack and defense stats. Instead, I switched to Mimi first. My caution was justified when the Lillipup landed a Tackle on the first turn that reduced Mimi's HP to half before she could respond with a Charm. Since Cheren then changed tactic to spamming Work Up again, I countered with a few more Charms until I felt that the Lilipup's attack was sufficiently crippled. I switched in Betty to finish the job with Bug Bite. And she did, with a critical hit of all things. So, this part basically started and ended with a crit.

Losing Lily was really upsetting, especially after I took so many cautions with her, always switching her out when I felt she could be in danger. But I guess it would have happened eventually. Her defenses were just too bad. It's still a bittersweet victory, knowing that my first caught Pokémon didn't even survive long enough to reach the first gym.

Sam (M) Lvl. 11
Met at Aspertia City at lvl. 5
Impetuous and silly.
Nature: Quiet
Ability: Torrent
Water Gun
Tackle
Tail Whip
Water Sport


Bluebell (M) Lvl. 11
Met at Route 19 at lvl. 2
Likes to thrash about.
Nature: Bashful
Ability: Run Away
Tackle
Bite
Work Up
Detect


Betty (F) Lvl. 13
Met at Route 20 at lvl. 2
Alert to sounds.
Nature: Quirky
Ability: Swarm
Bug Bite
Tackle
String Shot


Mimi (F) Lvl. 11
Met at Floccesy Ranch at lvl. 5
Good endurance.
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Huge Power
Frustration
Water Gun
Charm
Work Up

Lily (F) Lvl. 8
Met at Route 19 at lvl. 4
Likes to fight.
Nature: Sassy
Killed by a critical hit Tackle from a wild Lillipup.

Day one and I already need to restart. Right out of the gate I picked Bulbasaur (named Thor) as my starter and headed on the road with no potions or berries. I met a bug trainer. Thor faught valiantly making it to the last venipede and was a single move away from victory. Sadly he fell to a rollout due to being under the effects of three string shots. R.I.P. Thor, you will be missed

This is going to be an uncharacteristically short entry because I have to study, but I thought I'd quickly update anyway. The past several days have been all about levelling up my team, among story-related stuff. The first port of call was Burned Tower, where I found a Koffing; I named her Fluorine (chemistry puns FTW). I also met Silver, who was now boasting a Magnetite alongside his usual team. He didn't last long.

After clearing out the trainers, I descended the ladder to meet the Legendary Beasts, who ran off. More importantly, that made the Gym available to me, so I headed there to train up. In the middle of this training, Kiba hit level 23, and, to my astonishment, evolved into Crobat!

Quite honestly, apart from picking up the Strength and Surf HMs, the grind was uneventful. At least, until I was caught off-guard on Route 37 by Entei deciding to put in an appearance, later joined by Raikou.

I'm preparing to take on Morty soon. I'm slightly worried, but with three of my team boasting super-effective moves, I'm hoping it'll go well. And I have a plan, involving Justin - one that's worked on Ghost-type Gym Leaders before...

Another quick update before I crash for the night: the battle against Morty. My original plan for facing him involved Justin and Sand Attack spam, before switching out to Artax and Extrasensory-ing Gengar to death, but that plan was scuppered when I learned just in time that the thing had Mean Look - with Justin knowing only Normal-type attacking moves, there was no way he was going to win that battle. So, I changed things up slightly.

First up was Gastly against Leto. Gastly made the mistake of using Lick instead of Curse, allowing Leto to stay in the battle after he one-shot the ghost with Bite. Morty threw out Gengar, and kicked off with Mean Look - which Leto threw out of the window with Roar. The Haunter that replaced Gengar then laid a curse on Leto, so I pulled him out and sent in Kiba. My Crobat wasted no time in Biting both that and the second Haunter out of the fight, and Gengar was back. Time to execute the plan.

I immediately called back Kiba, and sent in Whit. Gengar used Mean Look, but that was OK - Whit wasn't going anywhere.

With his Insomnia ability and Normal-Flying typing, Whit was immune to anything Gengar could throw at him. Sucker Punch was a slight worry, but I dealt with that with my Noctowl's own Hypnosis. While Gengar snoozed, Whit proceeded to slowly Peck his HP down, setting up a Reflect for when his opponent woke up - just in case Morty came back with a Sucker Punch.

The battle took a while - Whit was four levels lower than Gengar, and Peck was doing little damage, even with Whit's adamant nature. Not helping was Gengar's Sitrus Berry, nor Morty's two Hyper Potions, but finally, Whit triumphed, with only one Sucker Punch landing on him. Fog Badge get!

That done, I headed out to Route 38, where I started battling the trainers and progressing to Olivine City. On the way, I found a Magnemite - the Pokémon I was looking for there! Being a physicist, I called him Maxwell, in relation to Maxwell's equations of electricity and magnetism. Fitting, no?

Tired out from a day of revision, I decided to take a break and hunt for Shiny Leaves - inspired by Kiba's surprising find a few updates ago. An hour later, all six of my team had a Shiny Leaf. Nice!

Updates are going to slow down for the next two weeks, due to exams, but after that, I'll be checking out Olivine Lighthouse! See you then!

• Started the game, chose the guy and named him Clark.
• Kept the rival's name as Hugh, because I didn't want to ruin this by giving him a silly name.
• Got Oshawott as my starter and named him Australia.
• Beat Hugh's Snivy thanks to a critical hit.
• Bought ten Potions from the opening Poké Mart, just so I can make the beginning of the game more bearable.
• Caught a Purrloin on Route 19 and named her Luxembourg.
• Arrived in Floccesy Town.
• Met with Alder and was instructed to go to Floccesy Ranch.
• Beat the trainers on Route 20.
• Caught a Sewaddle on Route 20 and named her Finland (you can tell I don't know much about these cities).
• Caught an Azurill in the Floccesy Ranch and named her Jamaica.
• Decided not to train Luxembourg past the level minimum so I can conserve resources by not using her.
• Beat Hugh in a very tough battle - I had to lower his Snivy's Defense at least two or three times, and Finland survived with 2 HP.
• Beat the trainers in the Floccesy Ranch and found the Herdier.
• Trained with Alder and beat his classmates (thank god he heals me!).
• Did some walking around to get Jamaica's happiness up, then once she leveled she became a Marill...but her gender changed into male!
• Beat the trainers in the Aspertia Gym.
• Jamaica solo'd Cheren thanks to Charm, Defense Curl and Rollout.
• Got the C-Gear.

(M) "Australia", Level 13
Nature: Rash
Moves: Focus Energy (30/30 PP), Tackle (30/35 PP), Tail Whip (30/30 PP), Water Gun (23/25 PP)

(F) "Luxembourg", Level 5
Nature: something neutral
Ability: Limber
Moves: Growl, Scratch (fully healed)

(F) "Finland", Level 11
Nature: Gentle
Ability: Chlorophyll
Moves: Bug Bite, String Shot, Tackle (not listing PP as she is below the level minimum)

(M) "Jamaica", Level 13
Nature: Lax
Ability: Huge Power
Moves: BubbleBeam (20/20 PP), Charm (14/20 PP), Defense Curl (32/40 PP), Rollout (17/20 PP)

None yet!

After some chit-chat with Bianca, Cheren and Professor Juniper and receiving the habitat list upgrade for my Pokédex, I went on my merry way to the Virbank City. There, I got to witness an argument between the town's gym leader and her father, who apparently aspired to be an actor, while also neglecting his duty as a ship captain. Well, that's one way to block the player's path.

At the Virbank Complex I caught my next team mate – a male Pidove I called Horst, because the name sounds so derpy. It would've been nice to know that I would have had more possible encounters in the lower area, but I'm not complaining. Having a flying type on the team is always a plus.

I battled some workers there at the request of their boss and fought a few Audino in the grass to grind and finally entered the gym to take on the next challenge. The other band members turned out to be a breeze, so I wondered if I may have overdone the training a bit. I don't want to be overleveled too much, but I can only guess the approximate levels of the gym leaders, since I don't want to spoil myself by looking them up online.

But Roxie turned out to be someone not to be taken lightly. I chose to lead with Sam since he had just evolved and he should get his chance to shine. First she sent out a Koffing that was quickly defeated with just a few Water Guns. Her second Pokémon was a Whirlipede that gave me more trouble. I switched to Horst for the type advantage, and it seemed to go pretty well at first.

Horst dealt some damage with Air Cutter, though just enough to bring it down in three hits. But that didn't seem to matter, since Roxie just used Pursuit and Protect. That is, until she started using Venoshock. I was immediately glad that Air Cutter was a special attack so I couldn't trigger Whirlipede's possible Poison Point. However, at this point we were both in the yellow, so we both used a Super Potion.

We basically started over where we began, but this time she was smarter. Instead of playing around with the rest of her moves, she just continued with Venoshock. It did decent damage, but Horst would certainly live two hits, albeit with only a few HP left, as long as she didn't land a critical hit. Which is exactly what she did, because my enemies seem to have a 100% crit rate if my Pokémon are at a little over half of their HP!

I'm sorry, Horst. You've only been on the team for a short while. I was so sure that you could do it.
I sent in Sam again, because the rest of the team either had too bad defenses, a weakness against poison or no decent moves. So, keeping the Poison Point and Whirlipede's good physical defense in mind, I went back to using Water Gun. Whirlipede didn't put up much of a fight after being already weakened by Horst and went down with not much resistance. So, I gained my second badge, but at a price. Rest in peace, little bird.

Pokéstar Studios, I decided, is a funny little gimmick. But for now I'd concentrate on my career as a trainer, not as a film star. At least Roxie's father did the same thing and went back to his job as a captain. Before I could reach the harbor, however, I was stopped by a commotion involving Team Plasma. Hugh, Roxie and I chased after them when they fled, but they could escape. Not before dropping a hint about leaving for Castelia City. Alright, it's not like I was going to go there anyway.

Upon reaching the city, I was immediately approached by a clown, who gave me a free bike. Well, thank you! I've already repeatedly pressed Y until now, forgetting that I didn't have a bike yet. This would make things easier. I don't like having to hold down B for running.

I explored the city, battled my way through the various buildings and got a few hold items. But for some reason, Castelia City seems much smaller than the first time I've been there in Black version. Well, I already knew where everything was, and on top of that it is pretty small in comparison to Lumiose City.

Either way, when Castelia was checked off, I checked out the desert area. As I expected, the way to the next route was blocked, but I found some more trainers to fight and a new Pokémon to catch. A female Minccino I called Sally. Since I already had two normal types with Bluebell and Mimi, I placed it in the PC on my next visit at the Pokémon Center.

Well, there was nothing else to do, so I finally followed the main plot into the sewers, where the Plasma grunts apparently hid. I teamed up with Hugh and barely did three steps when two Zubat jumped us. At first I was a bit disappointed, because... well... it's Zubat. But I guess it could replace Horst as the new flying type. (Sorry, Horst, but I need to move on. Besides, I barely knew you after all.) The poison type is a pretty neat bonus and Crobat is awesome. At least it wasn't a Rattata, apparently the only other Pokémon here apart from Grimer. So, Zubat was probably the best thing I could've gotten anyway.

I caught the male one and named him Boris. Unfortunately, his attack stat was lowered in favor of special defense, which resulted in his attack and special attack being the same. Because of that, I taught him Venoshock so he would have a STAB move (oh, the irony), but only after teaching him thief first and stealing a Black Sludge from a Grimer as well as Hugh's Miracle Seed. He seemed to be fine with it, though. Apparently he has a whole lot of them.

Team Plasma was quickly discovered and defeated. It was only then when Burgh showed up. Well, thanks for the help, pal. You're just as useful as in Black and White. But there was another character entering the story: a weird Plasma scientist. Yeah, I've heard about him before, but I was also told that he'd be pretty awesome, so he better not disappoint me.

With Burgh back in the city, I'd be able to challenge his gym now, but first I wanted to see the rest of the sewers. In the Relic Passage I found a Woobat. Yay, more bats. In a flash of uncreativity I nearly called her Kissy, but in the end I settled on Krissy. Not much better, but hey.

Also, there was another exit to Castelia City with patches of grass. I found a Skitty, which makes me think the game may try to force me into doing a monotype locke. No, thank you, I don't need any more normal types. My second encounter was an Eevee. Do I need to mention that I facepalmed? Well, the newly caught Elaine joined her normal type buddy Minccino on the PC, which is also where Krissy ended up a bit later. I actually considered taking her with me for the psychic type, but for now, I'm satisfied with my team. I might get back to her later on.

Speaking of the team, everyone else followed Sam's example and evolved. I'm a bit sad that Bluebell lost his awesome blue eyes. And that he got the ability Illuminate. Just why?! Anyway, Mimi actually tried to evolve earlier, but I stopped it, so she could learn Bounce first. When the time finally came, I realized that she had switched gender in the process, when a female enemy successfully used Attract on her one battle later. Initially I called her Mimi, because she looked so sad for no reason. Well, now she actually has a reason, if the sudden gender change wasn't voluntary.

I'll stop here for the time being. Next time I'll be off to challenge Burgh.

I have returned! My exams are over, and I celebrated by exploring Olivine Lighthouse. The trainers weren't too tough, and I reached the top, where I met Jasmine and a sick Amphy. My next destination, then, was Cianwood City, which meant crossing the sea. A lot of sea. I taught Terra Surf, and braced myself for the struggle.

As expected, the journey was repeatedly interrupted by Tentacool, the first of which I caught and named Jam. Of course, I had to leave Leto out of the battles for fear of losing him, so it fell upon the rest of the team to deal with the constant trainer and wild Pokémon battles. It got to the point where I had to head back to Olivine to heal up before I lost someone. Eventually, though, I made it to Cianwood, with a new Pokémon in tow - Ren, a Mantine.

My first port of call was the pharmacy, where I picked up the Secret Potion. Next I headed back to the sea to level up a bit before taking on Chuck. In the north end of the city, I found a Krabby hiding under a rock; I caught her and named her Kellie. I also ran into Suicune, which triggered a battle with Eusine. He was rather tough, but I was able to deal with him with no casualties.

After boring myself stupid battling Tentacool and Tentacruel, I decided to head out along Route 47 towards the Safari Zone. The trainers there were mostly easy, and allowed Leto to finally get some action. I also found a Seel, called Serra, in the water. Not surprising that I'd find a lot of Water-types at this point in the game, really.

With the trainers exhausted, I decided to level up back near Cianwood. I was aiming for everybody to hit at least level 31, to deal with Chuck; Terra and Tristan would be the linchpins of my strategy, but Artax might be needed for emergency Yawn and Charm application. During this grinding, Justin hit level 29 and learned Bite - immediately evolving into Espeon and learning Swift! No Psychic-type moves yet, which is a pain, but awesome nonetheless.

Finally, with everyone at level 31, I think I'm ready for Chuck. Hopefully it goes well.