yvette
Heyyyyyyy
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- 16
- Years
- Seen Jul 28, 2023
Preface
Let me preface this by saying... wow, it's been 10 years since I returned to this forum and to the Pokemon community as a whole! I was an immature kid when I first began posting here. Now I'm an adult who has to work every weekday. How time passes. Yet my love for Pokemon has never waned. Specifically, my love for Gen I to IV... though I've played through Gen V games (both Black & Black 2) and appreciate them, I can't help but return to the generations I enjoyed so much as a kid.Why come here and not on other social media like Twitter or reddit? I miss the nostalgia of old hobby forums like this one, and both of these places kind of suck now (lol). Especially reddit in this past month.
Out of all the Pokemon games I've played, HG/SS has always been my favourite for a myriad of reasons. I'll be using this thread to keep track of my Pokemon journey through Johto. How thematic that, upon logging into this old account, the forum theme is The Johto Elite. 😌
Anyway, a few weeks ago I ended up buying a mint-condition DSi, modded it, and began a new journey in SoulSilver a few weeks ago. I bought it so I'd have something to do to pass the time in the train on my work commute every week. Despite this, I ended up playing at home too, out of the blue. Just to give myself a head start for those train sessions. My commute isn't super long and is broken up by short walks/runs to my next stop. Shame I don't have a Pokewalker to make full use of my energy.
I would love to own a legit copy, but they're far too expensive these days. I sold all of my legit Pokemon games back in 2012. I can't believe I thought $40 was too expensive to own these brand new, haha. I got a used copy of HeartGold with a Pokewalker for $25 back then, which was the lowest I could get it for. I still kind of want the Pokewalker, just for the handy pedometer. I heard it's quite accurate (!).
Moving on...
If I get bored of SoulSilver (even though there's a lot to do in HG/SS), I'll move onto other games like Platinum, FireRed or Emerald. My first legit Pokemon game ever was Pokemon Diamond. I put way too many hours into that game. I ended up losing my game cartridge in 2009 or 2010, I think? That really broke my heart. But! I was into modding back then too, and I ended up posting my save file for Pokemon Ranch online.
And the funny part is, I was able to find it very easily. And that Ranch save file has quite a few of my Pokemon from 2007 from my legit Pokemon Diamond cart. I'm considering transferring some of these to my current playthrough, as it'll be fun revisiting all of my 16-year-old Pokemon I spent so much time grinding up.
Man... I wish I had the save files from my Pokemon Red, Pokemon Ruby, Pokemon FireRed & Pokemon Emerald playthroughs from 2004 to 2007... I'd have to say a small prayer & go through every HDD in my house hoping to find a Windows backup that old. The idea of using all my old Pokemon is so exciting to me. At least it is partially possible with my newfound Ranch save!
I am aware of the forum rules around mods/cheats/ROMs and so on. Of course, I will be abiding by these rules. I may mention cheats here and there but I won't be sharing how to obtain these or any specifics! It's just that I sometimes cave in and use item cheats. My experience is mostly single-player, and I am honest to others about how I obtain my Pokemon. I'm not interested in ruining the experience of other people.
Getting into things
Currently I've obtained the 8 Johto gym badges and I've yet to fight the Elite 4 or move onto Kanto. I wanted to begin my journal with a quick recap of my start, to my current position.
My Johto journey began with me soft-resetting for a female starter--a female Totodile, which I obtained fairly quickly. I'm not giving my Pokemon any nicknames for now, as I prefer to give them nicknames closer to the post-game. I find it helps me concentrate more on my immediate goals in-game, since the early game is full of grinding, and HG/SS grinding is way more painful than other games due to the low-level wild encounters.
I didn't begin with any cheats at first, because I wanted to experience a legit start. And by golly, did I. After so many years of not touching a Pokemon game, I truly experienced the true slog of the grind. But that's just how Pokemon is. After having played through so many Pokemon games I'm pretty used to it, so I was prepared to sink hours into grinding up my team to take on my rival, Falkner, Sprout Tower, etc. It was quite fun, actually.
I found the correct passwords to give Primo for the free eggs in Violet City, and ended up putting Slugma on my team at first. Sadly, this Slugma had Magma Armor instead of Flame Body, and I forgot to soft reset for Flame Body. After years of not playing any Pokemon, I completely forgot about abilities!
Throughout the early game, I tried to catch all the female Pokemon I could, because why not? I figured they'd be useful for breeding later down the line too.
My early game Pokemon (post-Goldenrod City) are as barebones as a SoulSilver team can get. I was thinking of sticking with this vanilla team throughout the game. And then I got to Goldenrod and things went awry.
I really wanted to make use of the GTS, and I really, really wanted a Dratini from the game center.
I tried to do Voltorb Flip legitimately, but it would take me too damn long because I suck at that game. I miss the slots from earlier games. I used a cheat to get me the points I needed for the Dratini, and proceeded to spend all the extra points on TMs.
Then I did some research and learned how to get online in Generation IV (not sure if this discussion is allowed so I'll keep it vague). Opening a guest wireless network with zero security just to go online within a super old Pokemon game is truly excruciating! I honestly considered quitting and moving to Gen V, because at least Gen V games are coded for something for something more secure than WEP!! What were the Gen IV devs thinking???
But I do it all for the love of Gen IV, and there's a surprising amount of folks out there trading Pokemon. Love y'all.
I put up my first trade ever in years--a Pokemon which I freaking forgot since it happened a few weeks ago! My memory is so bad--and I received an Eevee in return, from a kind soul. Whichever Pokemon it was, I did obtain it legitimately. I don't trade hacked Pokemon.
Anyway, my experience with the GTS sparked an idea in my head--why not just start another game & trade myself the Pokemon I actually want to raise & build a team with? And that is precisely what I did.
I dumped all of my current Pokemon in my box and hatched a plan to (legitimately!) obtain the Pokemon I wanted, through trade and other means.
My plan was weird, but it worked out in the end.
Over the span of a few days, I put my plan into action (I have too much time on my hands). At this stage, I was still in Goldenrod, yet to beat Whitney.
First, I obtained a Mystery Gift Riolu, evolved it into Lucario, and bred it for a Riolu egg. I wanted a Pokemon with my OT, it just doesn't feel right using an OP event Pokemon to mow through the game. It also feels way better when it's your own Pokemon you've raised from level 1 (trust me).
Next, using a Poketopia Pikachu I had obtained from Mystery Gift (legitimately, mind you... if you consider using an unofficial GTS as such, but it's the thought that counts!!), I bred for a Pichu egg. A Pichu with Volt Tackle, even though I never use that move. 🙃
Finally, I wanted a good Grass-type. I set my sights on Roselia. I know you can get one from the Safari Zone, but that's closer to the post-game. I went on Discord and found a kind soul who traded me a shiny Roselia. I put the Roselia in my box as I didn't feel like using it, and since I now had a Roselia entry in my Pokedex, I decided to send over a level 100 Roserade from my other game's save, through the GTS.
Boy, this was painful. Many, many disconnects later, I had my Roserade over from my other save.
Was I going to use the Roserade? No. I just wanted to breed it. And breed it I did. My level 1 Roselia ended up with some seriously good moves.
And my team was ready. I just had to grind them up to par.
I trained up Riolu, cheated in some vitamins and evolved Riolu into Lucario and beat Whitney.
But my team still felt incomplete. I felt I could replace Onix & Pidgeotto with different Pokemon, not that either of them are bad. I was aiming for Pidgeot & Steelix. But I didn't want to use Pokemon I had already used in previous Pokemon games, and Pidgeot was one of those.
So I had the bright idea to replace Pidgeotto with Togepi. My reasoning: Togekiss is pretty good, right?
I might've seen the level 1 moveset for Togekiss on Bulbapedia, might've gotten too excited and immediately ditched my hardworking Pidgeotto for moves that aren't even obtainable until you get to the Move Relearner in Blackthron City... with heart scales.
I took the chance and began levelling up Togepi too, just in case things worked out.
Mid game
I must've spent a week in Goldenrod, just grinding my Pokemon up to snuff. I had two issues at the time: my Pokemon weren't steamrolling everything in their wake (just yet), and a good chunk of them only evolved with friendship or with a special stone that's hard to obtain in the early game.
(Shame on me, I only learned about the Pokéathlon recently. After all, it's been 10 years since I last touched HG/SS)
I also wanted a Steelix. And I already had a plan on how to evolve him. My Onix was from that one trainer in... Violet City, I think? Who wants a Bellsprout for his Onix. I thought it'd be a good idea to use that Onix in my playthrough. It was rough in the early game, with good old Rocky constantly missing attacks or refusing to listen to me because I over-levelled him.
Even though my RNG with him was bad and he kept missing way too many of his attacks, I still wanted to keep him on my team, but as a Steelix. I decided to use my other game save to evolve him using the GTS glitch.
The GTS glitch is pretty much 16 years old now, and so widely used that I don't feel bad mentioning it here. In fact, I had to pull up a 2008 video filmed on a potato just to recall how it worked. Good times. It felt nice to use a Steelix, as I had rarely ever used this Pokemon back in the day.
I had also caught a Scyther from the National Park recently, so I decided to evolve her into Scizor next using the same method, just in case I needed a Scizor later. Was the female encounter rate always this good in these games?
After a while, I got fed up with the grinding and I really wanted evolutions for Togepi and Pichu already. I spammed them with vitamins and evolved them with 1 Rare Candy each. I didn't want to wait around for massages, and I wanted to save levels for learning moves. Grinding up friendship takes too long in Gen IV. As a kid, I had plenty of time to spare on doing friendship the legit way. Not so much nowadays.
I also cheated in consumable items and held items as I knew it'd take me forever to find the most useful ones. Since I was left with copious amounts of them, I only kept 4 of each held item, around a 100 repels each, and 199 of the consumables (except berries which I didn't bother to add in), and 10 of each TM. And max money, of course.
Karma caught up to me when I realized that I couldn't throw away TMs, and that I had, in all of my stupidity, cheated in HMs I had yet to obtain too. I ended up editing the extra TMs out and keeping the HMs. I just wanted to pick up items again. The "bag is full" message drives me crazy and interferes with gym leaders/some in-game events too. Learned an important lesson there.
Thankfully, I had the foresight to look up movesets before evolving my Pokemon further. After comparing the moveset between Pikachu & Raichu, Togetic & Togekiss (the latter who learns zero new moves upon levelling), as well as Roselia & Roserade, I knew I had to hold off on evolutions.
It was at this time that I also made the decision to shelve Steelix for Dratini. I put a bunch of elemental moves on Dratini to help me with the lack of a Fire- and Ice-type, so it just made sense.
With my team finalized and my heart satisfied, I continued to what was left for me in Johto. I went to Olivine City, then Cianwood City, where I chose to evolve Togetic into Togekiss after realizing that I didn't care for any of Togetic's level up moves--I taught Togetic Psychic, 2 Flying moves and kept Extrasensory--and beat Chuck without issue.
We went to Mahogany Town after that. I did some grinding at the Lake of Rage, caught the Red Gyarados after many wasted balls. So much wasted for a Pokemon that will always live in my box!
I went back to Mahogany Town with no idea how to proceed. I didn't realize the Team Rocket hideout event had been triggered. Eventually I went to the correct house (rather, store), met up with Lance, eviscerated Team Rocket and gained a couple of levels.
I beat Pryce and went to Olivine City, met Jasmine, did her mini-quest and got my 7th badge. Honestly, the lighthouse stumped me for a while. I didn't know you had to walk through one of those sunlit entrances (they look like windows to me) to get to the top. It just wasn't obvious to me how I needed to proceed. I had to consult a walkthrough.
I went back to Goldenrod City and saved Goldenrod Tower. More levels for my experience-hungry Pokemon! I was thankful for any experience I could get them, considering how low-levelled the wild encounter Pokemon can be. It's an uphill battle in this game.
I headed back to Mahogany Town & proceeded through the Ice Path. I spent a lot of time in there just so I could pick up every item I could. When I got to Blackthorn, I once again spent a good deal of time going down Route 45. How weird is it that there's a large river with a waterfall running through this route that you have zero access to? It looks really nice. I wish I was able to Surf on it.
I did some more grinding evolved Pikachu into Raichu at level 37. At level 40, I evolved Roselia into Roserade.
Grinding out Dragonair to keep up with everyone else in their final forms was tiring but worth it. I also had my hopes up for some reason, thinking Dragonair would evolve into Dragonite at level 47. I sure wish that were true.
Still, Dragonair carried me throughout my journey. She put up a good fight against Claire but couldn't live against Kingdra, but Raichu took care of Kingdra easily. I love backup plans.
After defeating Claire, I did my bit at Dragon's Den, yet forgetting to return for the ExtremeSpeed Dratini (lol). I actually remembered to get it just this week, after thinking I had lost out my chance for good. When I went to speak to the elder at first, his only dialogue was about the Silver Wing. After much Googling I realized I had to go back to the gym to speak to Claire and get Dragon Pulse to trigger the Dratini event in Dragon's Den. So weird.
Yes, I did keep you waiting real long there, Claire! Thanks for the TM and the free Dratini, that I don't actually need. Another sucker for the box.
Grinding, catching Lugia
With all 8 gym badges, I headed back to New Bark Town, towards Victory Road on Routes 26 & 27. Which reminds me, I need to go back there to uncover any other hidden areas I haven't seen yet. I feel like I rushed through it. I like to take my time & explore areas as thoroughly as possible so I don't spend time going back to them. Just this weird habit I've always had since I played my first few Pokemon games.
I spent a truly egregious amount grinding my team on Routes 26 & 27... on level 30 Pokemon. Truly arduous, and I am actually going to continue doing this until I get my Pokemon to level 60. Why?
Because I'm a total weirdo. Nah, I just want to steamroll the Elite 4. I know they're rather underleveled as is. I just want the assurance that I can defeat them without blinking an eye.
After a brief bout of grinding, I realized I should go back to the mainland to defeat the Kimono Girls and get Lugia. The experience could really help.
The Umbreon the first Kimono Girl uses gave me a bit of trouble. Holy crap. The rest were easy, but that Umbreon was sure something.
And then I headed to the Whirl Islands to catch Lugia. I've only played Gold & HeartGold so this was fun for me. Catching Lugia was not.
Oh man, the Lugia battle. I spent maybe 30 to 40 Ultra Balls on this thing. I even let my Pokemon faint like 20 times, bringing them back with Max Revives every time Lugia KO'd them, just so I could continue throwing Pokeballs. I hadn't gone in with any kind of plan, just like with Red Gyarados. It was a repeat of Red Gyarados, who also KO'd my Pokemon, until finally being caught.
I was even prepared to use my Master Ball on this thing... what better use? Good thing Lugia was caught after a gruelling amount of time. Master Balls are better suited for Mewtwo, I think.
I gave Lugia a very inappropriate name (old habits die hard) and transferred it to my box, where it will be imprisoned for the rest of eternity.
Even more grinding
I returned to Routes 26 & 27 and continued grinding. With all in-game items on hand, my Pokemon had access to Lucky Eggs, which helped a lot. I honestly wouldn't be able to do it without the increased experience from Lucky Eggs.
After some more grinding (does it every truly stop?), I went through Victory Road, thinking that I'd meet trainers. For some reason, FireRed & Emerald's Victory Roads are ingrained in my head and no matter what I assume every game has trainers in there. I was sad to find out this isn't the case in SoulSilver. Now all I have are these level 32 Golbats to dine on!
It's okay, because Ursaring gives a decent amount of experience with a Lucky Egg equipped. Enough to make grinding significantly easier if I didn't have it. I almost don't know how I'd get through a vanilla playthrough without access to these double-experience items. In fact, I don't want to think about it!!
All my grinding paid off when Dragonair evolved.
At this point I was ready to take on the Elite 4. My Pokemon are all level 50 or above now.
But nope, I still feel I can grind up to level 60 first because.... because. What is with me and grinding?? I have zero issues with battles now and I still feel the need to get up to level 60.
I was bored of my team by now, so I decided to start a new team. A new team not aimed at battle, but at other things. Namely, finding items & catching Pokemon.
I used to love chaining & breeding in Diamond, even though I was real awful at both. I know you can't shiny hunt in HG/SS as far as I'm aware, unless it's through the Pokewalker. Or the Masuda method. Even if it's not for shinies, I still like to breed Pokemon and give them random moves you probably wouldn't care to put on them in the first place. It's fun figuring out all the combinations you can get.
Future plans
Which brings me to more recent happenings. I went back to Cianwood and explored the Safari Zone area and its corresponding route. I caught all the Safari Zone Pokemon I cared for (waiting to unlock objects for now) and began figuring out which Pokemon I want on my non-battle team.
I want:
-A trapper (a Pokemon with moves that prevent other Pokemon from fleeing, ability to put the target to sleep, etc.)
-An item finder (Pickup ability, Covet, etc.)
-An HM user who can double as something else
-Defensive wall to fend off powerful attacks from target Pokemon when trying to catch them
I want a party of six Pokemon for non-combat purposes, with one of these slots free for any random Pokemon. I already know (for the most part) who I want in this team:
-Umbreon (Yawn, Mean Look, 2 other useful moves) as my trapper
-Ambipom as my item finder
-Magcargo as my partial HM user + egg hatcher
-Blissey as my wall
-A damage dealer who doesn't KO (i.e. a False Swiper)
-Free slot!
I am already working on an Umbreon in my other save so I can trade it over to my current one. I'll be levelling it up, sending it over for breeding purposes (for Yawn) and then training up the resulting Eevee legitimately. All my grinding will have to get done at night. I can't believe Umbreon only learns Mean Look at level 57 (!!). What the heck... I'll still do it because I love Umbreon.
Or I'll just dump my Umbreon from my Ranch save to my game and save all that extra time. Haha. That was an Umbreon I raised myself back in the day so I don't feel bad about it.
Other than that, I bred & trained up an Ambipom today. I got lucky with the right ability & Covet.
I had to catch a male Teddiursa, which didn't happen. So after a lot of digging I finally found a female Teddiursa, bred for a male, then found a heart scale and had this Teddiursa relearn Covet. I then dumped Teddiursa & my female Aipom into the Daycare.
I was so worried that the stupid Daycare woman would make Teddiursa forget Covet, and of course she did! Thankfully the Aipom from my first egg had Covet as an egg move, even though Teddiursa didn't have Covet anymore by the time I took him out. I don't know how it worked out but I am thankful that it did.
I also trained up Magcargo, from a level 1 Slugma, and I'm just glad I got that out of the way.
Closing out
Having discovered my Pokemon Ranch save with 398 Pokemon, I think I'll be putting them all in my new game, as a way to relive my Diamond days. It's also way easier than having to use the GTS for everything.
This has been a really long post, but I just had to get everything off my chest into text form.
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