- 379
- Posts
- 9
- Years
- Age 33
- Seen May 25, 2023
Hey, JaDe here! And welcome to Part 5 of Genwunner No More!
Part 4 ended with me arriving in Azalea Town, learning about Team Rocket's plot to sell Slowpoke tails, and trying to decide whether I should bring Shelly (Togepi) or Cottonball (Hoppip) back into my party. After a coin toss, it looks like Cottonball will be getting a second chance today. I go to train Cottonball up to where the rest of the team is, and realize it doesn't have a single offensive move... Fantastic. Cottonball finally learns Tackle at level 10, and I've never been happier about Tackle.
Once Cottonball is up to level with the rest of the team, I go explore the tiny Town of Azalea, and I gotta say there is not much going on here. The 2 relevant things I learn about the town are: the Bug Gym is being blocked by a Rocket Grunt so I'll have to defeat them before facing the Gym Leader, and that a guy named Kurt can make some type of special Pokéballs. It sounds like visiting him is the only thing to do now. Apparently he's one of the 2 people in town wealthy enough to own a house.
When I go to talk to Kurt, he immediately tells me about Team Rocket's plan, then rushes out the door to stop them. So I'm obviously going to follow him.
I get to the Well and see that he's already taken care of the Grunt that was blocking the entrance. After entering the Well though I find out he fell so of course it's up to me to finish off the rest of Team Rocket. Your poor back, boohoo. At least you don't have an evil gang cutting of your tail and selling it for food.
The first Grunt I run into only has 2 Rattata at level 9, no match for my level 15 team. The next Grunt has a Zubat and Ekans, levels 9 and 11 respectively, but they're still no match for my guys. Take that you Jesse wannabe. Wait a minute, if that's true, then why is it such a big deal for them to do this? Eh, whatever, onwards!
It looks like I'm getting close to the heart of the conflict; I see Grunts and Slowpoke all around. The first Grunt has 3 Pokémon, but the first Rattata is only level 7 now, and 2 Zubats at level 9. Maybe if you didn't bring such weak Pokémon you'd actually stand a chance.
As I go to step in front of the final Grunt, I have a wild encounter. It's just another Zubat, but it reminds me that I'm in a new location so once this is all done I will try to catch something new here. The "boss fight" here is against a single Koffing, level 14. Rhodey makes quick work of it, and then he tries acting all tough after losing to a kid.
Once all of the Team Rocket members flee, Kurt's back is miraculously healed. Don't try and fool me Kurt, I see exactly what you did. Using some sort of teleportation ability, he takes us back to his house and tells me I'm a hero and gives me a lure ball. I can now get Pokéballs from him with apricorns, but it'll take a day.
With Team Rocket defeated, the Gym is now unblocked, but the town also seems to be overrun by Slowpoke... Maybe Team Rocket was actually doing them a favor... Anyways, before I go to the Gym I still need to try and catch something in the Slowpoke Well. Something that also caught my attention earlier is the boulder that can be moved with Strength, although that will have to be addressed at a later point. After running into about 5 different Zubat, I finally see a Slowpoke. And just my luck, Rhodey's tackle is a crit hit. So long Slowpoke. I guess I'm going to train a little bit more before I head back to the Gym.
Not that I'm going to catch it, since I've already been on Route 33, but oh my gosh, a shiny Spearow!!! On the way to level 19, Kansas and Cottonball both evolved! What an exciting training trip. Now that everyone is at or near level 19 (except Rocky, you unruly little...) I am going to head into the Gym and use the Gym Trainers as my final round of training. Feathers will be my lead here, since Flying is super effective against Bug.
So I feel that I wasn't very descriptive with the last Gym and barely did any screenshots, so going forward I will try to highlight the Gym battles more. Before I head to the Gym though, I need to bank some of my party. I'm only bringing 3 Pokémon, and so I'm choosing Feathers, Kansas, and Rhodey. Up first in the Azalea Gym are twins Amy and May, clever. Peck makes short work of their Spinarak and Ledyba, we didn't even break a sweat.
I let Kansas lead for the next few battles, just to spread out some of the final bits of exp. Neither a Caterpie nor a Weedle will slow down Kansas. One of the Trainers has already heard of my heroic battle with Team Rocket, but that won't make me go any easier on them. They only had a Paras, which really didn't stand a chance against Kansas' Scratch.
With just 1 more trainer remaining, there's no need to heal up the team, so I plow on. The final Trainer has 3 Pokémon, and since Kansas is about to level up I will spread the battle up between them. Kansas takes out yet another Weedle with a devastating crit hit, and then finishes off a Kakuna in 2 moves. This is just enough exp to raise him to level 19, so now it's Feather's turn to finish up this battle as well as the Gym leader. She's up against a Beedrill now, but with Peck she isn't scared. Although Peck is super effective, it does take 2 rounds to finish off the Beedrill. And with that, I'm on to face the Gym Leader.
Well Bugsy (super lame name btw), I'm going to have to change your phrasing to "almost never lose". Starting off with a Metapod, not the most fearsome Bug type... And it doesn't even use its signature Harden, how disappointing. 2 Pecks is all it can take before we're on to a Kakuna. Essentially the poisonous equivalent to Metapod, 2 Pecks is all it can stand too. Finally, we are up against Scyther. Although it has Quick Attack and is able to get a few attacks in first, Scyther could only make it through 3 Pecks before fainting.
And with that, I easily acquire my second badge, the Hive Badge! With the Hive Badge, Pokémon up to level 30 will obey, so Rocky will finally listen to me and I can get him trained up with the rest of the team. I can also now use Cut, although I haven't found that HM yet…
I'm going to end Part 5 here in the Gym. Thank you so much for reading! Part 6 will definitely start off with some grinding for Rocky. If you have any advice or things you'd like to say, tell me down in the comments. Thanks again and I'll see you soon.