[Gen 8] Cherrim's Journey to Find A Cherrim (and Catch Every Yamper)

Hello and welcome to my journey through the Galar region! I've been looking forward to these games since day one, so I'm glad to finally be able to play my copy of Pokémon Sword. :)

I'm not here for the drama surrounding this game, I just have two goals: catch every single Yamper I encounter and find a Cherrim to put on my team. (I saw Cherubi in a trailer so Cherrim must be somewhere, even if I have to train one.) Other Pokémon I would like to train are Galarian Weezing and maybe Polteageist. Oh, and Grookey, my starter, of course! But I'm open to anything! I've been avoiding leaks and just want to use what tickles my fancy, so we'll see what my team ends up as. :D

I preordered Sword on my Japanese Nintendo account, so it unlocked at 10am my time this morning, a little early for my region. I've played a couple hours and now I'm taking a break to pet my cat, do a bit of work, and make this thread. :)
I accidentally stayed up until 4am last night so I'm very overtired and might have to nap later, but I still woke up for release! At 10:01am, my game unlocked and let me in. :) I thought the opening was pretty neat, being from the announcer and not the Professor as usual, but I also distinctly felt like the game really lacked for not having voice acting. You could hear the crowd but what should have been a booming, excited voice was just... silence, lol. But it was neat, and I really like the entire setup and framing of the beginning of the game, this included. :D

I think for the most part I'm going to do these logs in shorter point form, kind of like tweeting. Especially since half of these are probably just going to be tweet compilations, more or less. So without further ado...!

• The Switch in your room knows what colour joycons you have! Mine are pink and grey, so that's what they are in game! Neat!
  
  
• Despite picking Grookey when the starters were first announced and then miraculously still loving Grookey's evolutions the most of all of them when they leaked, I had a moment of weakness and almost picked Sobble when it burst into tears during the starters cinematic. BABY....
• Thankfully Hop picked it!!! Which I actually love a lot since it means he's picking the Pokémon that's good against his brother's signature Pokémon.
• And then for the first time I felt Something for Scorbunny when it looked around a little sad over not being picked. ;__; Again, thankfully Leon welcomed it and now it has a fire Pokémon senpai in Charizard. I think for me this was the ideal setup for all three.
• I really loved how they did the first rival battle! I felt a flash of unfairness when he had two Pokémon, but Wooloo went down pretty quickly and I like that you automatically level, giving you the super effective move against your rival's Pokémon. Good game design!
• Hop and the entire Galar region confirmed a genwunner
  
  
• i stan the terrible wooloo that just wants to get out of the village and see the world but then just got lost and terrified instead. mood.
• My first two wild Pokémon battles were with Pokémon I'd never seen before!!! I did a very good job avoiding leaks, I think! It was really exciting. :D
• The little creeping animation you do when walking slowly through tall grass now is adorable.
• WOOLOO ;__; i love them so much
  
  
• I noticed Mystery Gift was in the menu so I searched for one and got Meowth. I assume this is the gigantamaxing Meowth?? I boxed it bc Galarian Weezing aside I'm not here for Kanto this time around t b h. I'll give it a try just to see it later in the game, maybe.
• the clothes shopping BEGINS.............................. my trainer is adorable, but I hope I can change her hair to brown soon. I went with the pinker skin to match my skintone but i means i look like a greying old lady. cute glasses until then tho!!!
  
  

  
  

  
• YAMPER ALERT YAMPER ALERT!!! I named him Zelos, after my friend's corgi. (Yamper Count: 1)
  
  
• Sonia's room at the professor's house has yamper stickers on the dresser!!!
• Caught another Yamper on my way back from seeing the Professor!!! I named this one Kanoa, after another friend's late corgi. (Yamper Count: 2)
• Hop: *challenges me to a race*
  Me: *immediately takes an hour long break to write this post*

My Team
I'll only list Pokémon that I'm actively using right now. Maybe later I'll find icons for them??

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army!

Good evening, everyone! It's about half an hour until SwSh releases in my timezone for real but I'm lying in bed, two floors away from my console, hoping to drift off soon. I assume I'll still be writing this update by the time it releases so I can celebrate the hype with everyone but if by some miracle it doesn't take me that long then I will happily conk out earlier. My five hours of sleep did not do me any favours today. Tomorrow will be better, I'm sure of it!

I'm so excited for everyone to get their copies, though. :D Overall I've been having an absolute blast with the game, even though I don't think I've made much progress. (Well, much progress in the actual game. My quest is going quite well thank you.)
So! Right now I am on my way to the first gym. I took a train to the Wild Area, wandered on through it, and then participated in the opening ceremony in... the.... big city........ (Hello and welcome to Cherrim Can't Remember Proper Nouns Even If Her Life Depended On It) and did the rival battle on the way out.

• I think it's really cute how you and Hop just sit across from each other on the train and look at your phones, but are still clearly talking, iirc? It was cute and realistic!
• I cannot BELIEVE the train was halted for a flock of Wooloo... and then the employee's response was just "It wouldn't be very decent of us to try to drive off those Pokémon just because we happen to want our train to run here, now would it?" I mean, sure, but you guys have a business to run! Just send a Yamper out to herd them! I'll lend you one of mine!
• Once I made it out into the Open Area, I promptly set up camp and proceeded to spend................... a very long time playing fetch with Yamper. That said, please watch this video of me playing fetch with Yamper, if only for the amazing Janna cameo.
• While I'm linking videos, here's an NPC just disappearing into the ether but still giving me stuff.
• "Hi! I was walking along and this fell on me. Would you like it?"
  > You obtained a bag of Precooked Burger!
• Okay, Wild Area is cool and all but at this point I just desperately wanted to get to a place with a hair salon so I could stop being a premature grey lady and get a proper haircut. Also it was raining literally everywhere I went and it was just dull and dreary... I wish they'd hard-coded in better weather for your first visit... :(
• Made it to the city! Sonia told me to make a trading card so I did. I think it will be very rare and sought-after!!!
  
  
• As an aside, can I mention how much I ADORE the environment design in this game? The routes are nothing special so far, but there are so many little DETAILS everywhere, like the fountains in Motostoke that come in multiple heights to accommodate various sizes of Pokémon! (Yes, I did just look up the name Motostoke.)
  
  
• Your girl found a hair salon! Can I get a hell yeah!?!?!??!? My cut was an easy choice but I wavered pretty hard on the colour. Pink is available! I dunno if more colours unlock later or not, but it was so hard to resist the pink. However, I really like when my trainer looks like me so... I went with the dark brown. And WOW does her hair ever look like me. But... then I went to check the makeup options just to see what they were and... well, I couldn't resist the pink contacts, apparently! Updated trainer card time! :3c
  
  
• With that I figured it was time to advance the plot a bit, so I went up to register for this whole gym thing. And then they made me pick a number!?!?!? I'M NOT READY.... I was waffling between 11 (my favourite number) and 421 (Cherrim's number) so I polled everywhere and got mixed results. I went with Cherrim's number, though, since I can't use my usual "Cherrim" monicker in a Pokémon game, so I have to get that representation in elsewhere!! As soon as this guy said this line to me tho, I knew I'd picked right. ;w;
  
  
  
  
  
• Also can I just say that "Budew Drop Inn" is an adorable name and I love it.
• Is it just me or are these the statues you'd find at the front of gyms in Red/Blue/Yellow? Neat!
  
  
• After that I decided it was quite enough plot and went back out into the wilds. However, because I need to spend all of my money on fashion, my Pokémon will only eat cup noodles. It's sad, but it is a sacrifice they all make for my happiness. u_u
  
  
• Zelos does... kinda... want curry tho.
  
  
  
  
  
• I can't say no to a corgi, so I made my first curry!
  
  
• At this point I started wandering around the Wild Area trying to catch Pokémon but I swear to god I could not manage to catch ANYTHING. No matter the level, no matter how damaged or status effected, literally nothing would stay in my Pokéballs. I still don't understand why. It was SO frustrating. I'd usually give up after 3-4 tosses on things and finish them off.
• ...so I wandered back to Route 2 and caught another Yamper. I named her Ridley, after one of my friend's dogs! The only other corgi I know is also a boy, so I'm saving his name for the next male one. (Yamper Count: 3)
• Did some more clothes shopping. I was missing my hat but HATED the default green one on my outfit, so I went and bought some more that I can accessorize with as I go.
• I went to try to catch a Vanillite but I wasted 10 Pokéballs on it before I ran away in disgust. Why can't I catch anything in Wild Area? What the hell!?
• Went back to get another Yamper in my frustration because at least Yamper loves me. Can I just say I love how convenient fly/quick travel is, especially given how early you get it? It's great. This Yamper is named Cleo, after another one of my friends' dogs! (Yamper Count: 4)
• I decided I was gonna move on with plot so I fought my rival on my way out of...... *checks up in post* Motostoke, but then had another change of heart and went back into the Wild Area. For some reason this time I had better luck?? So now that's about where I am, slowly filling out more of my Pokédex. I really want a Vanillite, but that's my goal for the morning.
• Grookey evolved!!!!
• Here's my current look! I'm very happy with it!
  
  

My Team
I'll only list Pokémon that I'm actively using right now. Maybe later I'll find icons for them??

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army!

I slept in late today so I'm not as exhausted as last night as I start this, but I also didn't update at all today so I might have more to write. Maybe not? I made lots of progress today but I don't think I have as much to say, hmm.

Today was a whirlwind of excitement and disappointment, the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. I've made progress in my quest to Catch A Cherrim but alas it may be a long and arduous journey. I've made ample progress in catching every Yamper, though, as you are about to see.
Today I did two gyms and am ready for the third, but I'll save that for the morning. I am severely struggling with not having enough room to train all the Pokémon I want to train.

• This morning I did my first raid battle and it was... not at all intimidating. I wish I'd done them yesterday LOL. I got a Silicobra from it and named her Bessssie. (She was on my team all day but then I had my team crisis and now she is in the box. :<)
• Clowe evolved into Corvisquire and oh my goood I had no idea he was even a pre-evolution of Corviknight. He's really cool! I think I might keep him longer than I intended.
• I caught a Vanillite who I'd intended to be a sixth member of my team, but Bessssie was really bringing her A-game after I caught her, so I boxed Roxas. I've trained multiple Vanillite in the past, anyway. It may be a top favourite but it's time for something new!
• Made it through the mines and oh dear these are fields of Yamper, aren't they. Caught another male one so I named him Hero and now I have officially named a Yamper after every corgi I know. (Yamper Count: 5)
• Oh, there are a lot of corgis here. I was running away from an Electrike and bumped into another Yamper. I realized I knew another corgi from a certain TV show so now I've named a Yamper after every corgi. Hello, Cheddar! (Yamper Count: 6)
• EXCUSE ME??? Galarian Meowth isn't just a big fluffy cat, that's just a gross floppy beard???? Yikes! No thank you!!!!!!!!!
• I'm getting awkwardly overlevelled at this point, so I decide to just head to the gym now and come back to this route later.
• Milo noticed me during the opening ceremony? aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa buff grass trainer senpai
• Just a note: I would die for Sonia's Yamper. He is such a good boy!!!
  
  
• I wonder what all the monuments that say different types on them are for???? Interesting. :thinkrim:
• HERDING WOOLOO AS THE GRASS GYM CHALLENGE! GYM YAMPER!!! AAAAH!!
• I swear to god this gym was made for ME. Many hard working Yamper, adorable Wooloo, AND a grass gym with a cute buff gym leader who also has pink hair? Well, damn, Pokémon!!!! u got my number!!!!!!!
• Okay, got my first gym badge and now back to the previous route to finish it u—
• Oh god (Yamper Count: 7)
• There's so many (Yamper Count: 8)
• This is amazing but (Yamper Count: 9)
• It might be too much (Yamper Count: 10)
• Thanks for the name suggestion of "Barkingham"!!! (Yamper Count: 11)
• Oooh! Choob evolved into Drednaw! Maybe now it will win me over a bit more.
• Anyone want a video of Thwackey being REALLY BAD at fetch?
• Rotom Bike aaaahhh!! I forgot this was a thing, lol. I have to question this guy just... giving me his bike tho.
• oh.
• I.................. hm.
• "Yamper.... evolved...................... into something terrible so i shut off my game immediately and now he's back to Yamper. I have to do some soul searching. I'm having a crisis." was my note for this part of my playthrough.
• I had to redo the rival battle here but it was worth it. Gave Zelos an everstone while I worked out my feelings.
• God, I really, really hate Yamper's evolution! It has a cute face I guess but like WOW what an absolute downgrade. y'all mad about dexit and sleeping on this glaring issue. holy ****.
• Anyway, Yamper really needs the stat boost it would get from an evolution and is already falling behind my team so... with the water gym coming up, I decided that would be his last hurrah.
• Here is a vid of Yamper dynamaxing against Nessa's Drednaw. (This was the first and only time I dynamaxed him OOPS...)
• And winning the battle! My good sweet boy. ;o;
• Janna tried to evolve during the gym but after the heartbreak that was Yamper, I cancelled it after looking up Wooloo's evolution. Sorry Janna, but you have to stay cute.
• I found a neat water Pokémon called Arrokuda so I switched that in instead of Drednaw who I still wasn't really feeling.
• At around this point someone accidentally spoilt me on how to get Cherubi, which is from berry trees. First day playing, I had been cautious with them because I wanted berries for curry. But today I tried shaking them to completion a few times and each time I'd only gotten the squirrel Pokémon, so I thought that was the only one you could get. So of course everyone else who's playing got Cherubi first try sOB. I went around to every berry tree I could find and shook them but every time (like, 7-8 times!!!) it was just the squirrel. I'm so sad!!!! Will do the rounds again in the morning, I guess. :'(
• GALARIAN STUNFISK GALARIAN STUNFISK GALARIAN STUNFISK. Janna was never meant to be a permanent team member so... she has been honourably retired. Welcome to the team, Boopy. I love that it looks kinda like a bear trap! I just!! I always loved Stunfisk and I love this one a lot too!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• I got out of the cave and immediately ran into a Hatenna who seems really cute and a lot of people seem to like it and its evolutions so I caught one. Aaand... this is where I sent Yamper to play in the box and lead the Yamper army. He was a very good boy and I am proud of him!!!
• Oh god there's Koffing, too. Okay well... Arrokuda you were... cool for that cave, I guess... but I'm gonna need Galarian Weezing.
• Just did my first surprise trade and sent an extra * to someone named Mac for... a Wingull. Okay, well, I hadn't caught one yet so I guess that's fine. :s
• Yo, I'm caught up! So the rest of this entry will be written in realtime how exciting is that huh.
• Hey, now that I have a fast bike, I wonder if I could survive going into the other part of the Wild Area? I could... look for more berry trees, since none of mine are ready to respawn........
• MOM HOLY ****
• aaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHH!!!
  
  
• This was the most harrowing Pokémon battle of my LIFE. He wouldn't let me catch him while his HP was in the yellow and it was hailing so I was terrified to get it to the red. I eventually did, though, and he would NOT use leech seed on my second Pokémon (first one that he had used it on fainted) to get some kickback and I'm 90% sure he was at 1HP when he finally let me catch him in a (pink!!) Heal Ball. I could cry I'M SO HAPPY!!!!! He's male, too, just like I needed him to be!!!
  
  
• Cherubi is a higher level than I might have liked (meaning he will evolve as soon as he levels, which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I love Cherubi a lot too, you know? I'll stop here for the night so that I can make it not night in my game tomorrow and get some camping in with him before he evolves. :D
• Despite how this post started out, I think I made some really great progress on my goals today!!!

My Team
This team is an absolute mess but it might be my final team, with occasional swapouts for better type matchups.

Honourable Mentions
Adding this section to my post so I can mention Pokémon that were on my team for the duration of a post but weren't in the final lineup by the end. I love them all very much!!!!!

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army! (I'm largely naming them after friends' dogs, so tell me your dog's name and they will join my Yamper army!)

Midday update because a lot has happened and I don't wanna be up late again trying to write out updates lmaooo. It's maybe not much, but in terms of my journey's goals (Catch a Cherrim and Catch Every Yamper), well, you'll see. :))))
I've only done one gym battle and traversed the Wild Area to the next city but it sure feels like I've done a lot, so I'm updating. Also guess who realized this is a lot better if she just... reuploads videos to youtube and embeds them? This girl. Watch my cute vids.

• Started off my playtime today by sleeping at the inn to make it day in the game and then immediately heading out to camp with Lauriam.
• Look at his cute little face when you throw the ball!! :O!
  
  
• Aww, baby, you don't have to be scared of Winston. :'(
  
  
• WINSTON GIVE HIM SPACE! that was his ball!!!
  
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• Then I tossed the ball but Lauriam and Meredy got into a fight about who's the better pink Pokémon and poor Friskers couldn't bring it back.
  
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• they really got the nuances of britain down pat
  
  
• Okay, so at this point I realize the next gym is Fire and I've just replaced my water type with a second grass type. Not my best moment, so I figure, okay, let's give my old party members a Zelos-esque send-off. I boxed Lauriam, Keiyo, and Friskers because they could get hurt in this gym and swapped in Bessssie, Erry, and Choob (Silicobra, Arrokuda, and Stunfisk—can you tell I'm trying to make the effort to use nicknames now sob).
• Bessssie basically solo'd the catching part of the gym and Erry evolved during the gym and she and Choob absolutely thrashed the gym leader. 8) Good job, everyone!
• It was really sweet for the three gym leaders to send you off, aww! I really loved that scene. :') And I love the characters in this game!!!
• Mission! Accomplished!
  
  
  
  
  
• I evolved him in an area of harsh sunlight so I was kiiiind of hoping that would affect him elsewhere (like in the party or at the campsite) but alas, still defaults to overcast form. It's fine, I do love overcast form! But since weather effects are so localized now and even affect the camp (which is always so dreary because it's ALWAYS RAINING EVERYWHERE), I had really high hopes. Oh well!
• I'm sure it's just awkward pathfinding, but just before this, Lauriam had "told" me he was kind of scared of Clowe (Corvisquire) and look at the wide berth he gave him when we played fetch lmaooo
  
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• Okay, moving on, we should get to the next town so I can update my look. It looks huge, so it MUST have a boutique.
• Oh no, I found a section of wild area full of yamper...... welp........... (Yamper Count: 12)
• They've surrounded me....
  
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• NO!!!!!! The one on the right in the video above used Roar... ;_; I'm so sad... The Yamper that wanted to stay free....
• Caught the next one though. (Yamper Count: 13)
• The next one tried to roar too, but it didn't work. This one is Lily, named after user Dragon's dog! (Yamper Count: 14)
• Okay, just the one more in this patch of grass, I think. (Yamper Count: 15)
• Oh, another one spawned in (Yamper Count: 16)
• oops the next patch of grass also has yamper..... (Yamper Count: 17)
• A Pikachu!!!!
• Another Yamper... I'm running low on Pokéballs.... (Yamper Count: 18)
• Ahhh a Bounsweet!!! I always wanted them to meet but I was so mad about them not putting Cherrim in the Pokémon Sun dex that I never bothered bringing one in.
  
  
• ...Lauriam destroyed it with a critical hit so uh, I didn't catch that Bounsweet but I think he was just looking out for me because look at this Bounsweet! We were meant to be! She followed me around!! ;__; I named her Sweetums and caught her in a pink Heal Ball.
  
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• Okay, so we rush up to the next town and I bought more Pokéballs since I had literally 2 left by the time I made it to the Pokémart, lol. I saw that boutique on the way in tho!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• The selection was a bit... mismatched, I felt? But I still spent basically everything from my 150k savings on clothes OOPS........... I didn't add a whole of new stuff to my current look but I mixed things up enough that I'm pleased. Reppin' my grass types now that they have imbalanced my team and I made my eyes blue again, disappointed there weren't other hairstyles. And that's where I've stopped!
  
  

My Team
Midway through typing this I decided Boopy is a stupid name and renamed Stunfisk.

Honourable Mentions
The MVPs of the third gym!!!

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army! (I'm largely naming them after friends' dogs, so tell me your dog's name and they will join my Yamper army!)

I didn't update at all yesterday and now I have a massive update to write but if I don't do it, I'll abandon this journal here and I don't want that!!! :rowlyikes:
Did lots of stuff today! A bunch of evolutions, lots of raiding, and a gym. Technically, as I write this, I've also updated my look, but there's already too much!!! So that will just be in the next one, oof. I hope you guys are ready for the rest of this journal to be 90% Cherrim pictures because that's what my playthrough has turned into and no one should be surprised.

• Oops I accidentally ended up at that same patch of grass I was at before and it was thunderstorming again so there were more Yamper out (Yamper Count: 19)
• Did a raid and one was standing next to me after it unloaded (Yamper Count: 20)
• And another one spawned and ran up to me... I mean... I couldn't not, right? (Yamper Count: 21)
• Lauriam levelled and now I'm worried he's too strong to safely fight Yamper... (Yamper Count: 22)
• I found a Ditto raid!!! I made it private and invited people on PC's server to it, but only one could make it in the end. It was easy and now I have a Ditto!!
• Went looking into others' raids and found someone who had a Cherubi raid!!!!! I got in and now I have another Cherubi. :) She's level 20 and very sweet and I named her Dahlia.
• Okay now we're doing a few group raids together. I found a gigantamax Sandaconda and we went in as a group of four and on the first turn it just ANNIHILATED Lauriam SOB. and then when I came back it attacked me again but this time he hung on with 2HP and did like a quarter bar of damage right back to kill it. take that. T_T I named it jerkface.
• LMAO THIS INTELEON HAD NO CHILL look at it fetch i'm dying
  
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• I dynamaxed Cherrim for the first time!!!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The prophecy has been fulfilled!! pretty sure i photoshopped this like 15 minutes after the direct that had dynamaxing in it
  
  
• I'm getting increasingly frustrated with how Meredy can't take ANY hits but also can't really dish out damage. She's not even a glass cannon, she's just glass. I thought evolving would help but... she may not be long for this team. >_>;;; Still one evolution to go, though...
• Me n Cherrim: dream team
  
  
• This isn't related to anything it's just a cute pic
  
  
• Clowe stepped up and not only solo'd Bea, but one-shotted every single one of her Pokémon!!
• ...And then evolved right after the fight!!!!!
  
  
• So did Winston!
  
  
• Yamper likes meeeee ;__;
  
  
• I thought I'd have war flashbacks when I got to Glimwood but I actually loved it? Great aesthetic and the music wasn't the same 6 chimes from the livestream (and was actually great).
• LOVE Ballonlea but decided to bail and do some raids with people in the PC Discord instead of taking on the gym right away. It was fun!!
• We tried to camp together afterwards but none of us could find each other at all... Apparently this is an issue?? :(
• I could still see randos tho so I hung out in a few camps and hell yeah this guy knows what's up
  
  
• I cooked with him and we made a curry together!!! That's so exciting! I hope I can see my friends in camps soon, I wanna cook together for our Pokémon... T_T
• Did another gym! Opal said I wasn't pink enough so I basically solo'd her trainers with Lauriam in sunny form. >:( Not pink enough!?!??
• I was literally sitting there thinking about maybe retiring Friskers bc I already have a steel type and he just wasn't bringing enough to the table this run when he one-shot critted one of Hop's Pokémon that had just been hyper potioned who about to take him out. I can't do it now!!!
• Meredy still on thin ice, but she evolved!!! So I'll give her a little longer now that she's got her full stats. If I do take her out of my party, though, I'll def keep her levelled up and respec her moves as a raid buffer and cleric. 'v'
  
  
• Really wondering wtf to do about my "Cannot Deal With Fire" team. At least I finished that gym but I'm already thinking ahead to Leon's Charizard... @__@ Hmm... I will have to sit down and look at my team and look at what's available. I could really, really use a fire type and maybe I could at least train one up and cycle things in and out of my party like I do while raiding.
• Okay is anyone else obsessed with checking your Pokémon's "memories" with the Pokémon Centre guy? I'm crying... CHERRIM YOU KNOW YOU'LL ALWAYS BE MY #1!!!!! Just because I currently have an army of Yamper doesn't mean they've outclassed you...
  
  
  
  
  
• I leave you all with footage of my beloved cat Jude playing with Cherrim. My life is complete. It's all downhill from here. (I kept missing him actually batting at the screen to grab the toy bc he'd always do it right as I stopped filming rip.)
  
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My Team
At some point Keiyo evolved too but I don't have a screenshot and this post now spans like three days of progress so I don't remember when it was. OOPS.

Honourable Mentions
Was a jerk and unfairly targeted Cherrim but let me catch him first try as an apology.

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army! (I'm largely naming them after friends' dogs, so tell me your dog's name and they will join my Yamper army!)

Yikes, this is my 32,000th post on PC.
Didn't get a whole lot of game time in today, but that's okay because it means this update won't take 400 years to write. :rowlyikes: I did not catch any Yamper today. :'( Also apologies for tense, I tried to, like, write this in realtime so sometimes it's as-it-happens present tense and sometimes it's in past tense like everything else. You can't control me!!!!

• First up: new look!!! I love snow and winter and this town is one of my new favourites in the series. So I had to update my clothes for it!!
  
  
• I really liked the detective sequence in one of the hotel rooms, lmao.
• THE HOTEL DOES HOUSEKEEPING WITH TRUBBISH omg
• I'm still very confused by Hop coming out of the Rock gym and telling me he lost??? Is he just done now? Wtf. ?_?
• Rock type gym tho..... I think it is Lauriam's time to shine >:) I was so sad that he'd missed the water gym.
• Oh dear I'm like 6 levels above the first Pokémon. OOPS.
• sat there on shuckle and maxed out special attack with growth and Lauriam is unstoppable now. >:D
• So, his Coalossal used its fire dynamax attack on the first turn, but Lauriam held in there. The fire move also, of course, changed the battle field to harsh sunlight, so Lauriam got to deliver the final blow on the next turn in sunny form. IT WAS VERY SATISFYING!!
  
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• We won!!!!
  
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• And stills because we are just adorable and no one can stop me.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I'm low key making plans to start a second save so at this point I'm kinda feeling like I wanna rush the endgame. Hmm.
• Very much rushing this winter route. I love snow, but #TooMuchWater. I'd much rather explore it in full later, lol.
• But I got the water bike, at least! Maybe I'm actually just itching to go explore the wild area with it.
• Okay, I'm sorry Meredy.............. I think it is time. Swapped her out for a Sizzlipede, although it was very tempting to go for a Litwick. But I've trained like 3 in the past and even if it'd be a great fit for my team right now, let's try something new. I haven't named her yet but if she's a good fit when she's trained up, maybe something will come to me. :)
• Oh my god look at Lauriam losing a footrace to Friskers slkdjfhdlg FRISKERS IS A FLAT FISH
  
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• After this they kept playing together in camp and it was really cute and I'm cry
• Okay, time for more raids B)
• Yessss, got gigantamax butterfree!!!
• ...And then tried for a gmax Drednaw and no luck u_u
• Polteageist raid!!!!!!!!!! I got him!!
• Okay I got so terribly lost on the ice route that I just gave up and walked to the next town from Hammerlocke lmfao.
• Okay Spikemuth... this can't be league-legal, can it? :thinkrim:
• Centiskorch's Leech Life is insanely powerful, damn!!! (I guess it evolved somewhere? Oops, forgot to cap that.)
• Friskers was the MVP of my gym fight. He took down three Pokémon. I'm sorry I considered removing you, Friskers!!! How can I take away Lauriam's bff and my gym mvp!!!
  
  
• I look like such a straight-laced nerd next to everyone in this town lmfaooo
• .......MARNIE'S HIS LITTLE SISTER??? Okay no wonder this town's getting away with this
• I surprise traded a stufful and got a bounsweet!!!!
• friend!!!!!!!
  
  
• Started this entry with a new card and I'll finish it with one, lol. I am never using any other card background ever again oh my god!!!
  
  

My Team
Literally nicknamin' Centiskorch as I type.

Honourable Mentions
bye meredy

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army! (I'm largely naming them after friends' dogs, so tell me your dog's name and they will join my Yamper army!)

Hi!!! I haven't forgotten about this. I've been keeping my notes, I just... started that second playthrough and focussed on that once I got to the 8th gym because I had an existential crisis of "oh god I'm almost done and I don't want it to end" and then put it off more because I knew I'd have to write this entry before going into the endgame lest I accumulate too much for one update and then never update again.
As I spoilt above, this entry brings us to the final gym!!! And then comes the endgame!!! aaaaaaaaa. This entry again probably suffers from a mix of present and past tense because I wrote these notes as I played and I'm lazy and just copy/pasting most of them, rip.

• I appreciate that the adults in swsh keep being like "no, you kiddos just do your gym challenge. leave this weird stuff to us :)" As a kid it would have pissed me off but now that I am an adult, I appreciate them being responsible.
• I mean, I'm sure I will butt in as the protagonist soon enough but I've been shooed away twice now and it's very good.
• Okay, thinking about catching an ice type to bring into the Dragon gym with me because I have nothing good for it.
• ...I caught a Sneasel and levelled it up with candies but... it didn't learn any good ice moves? wtf.
• But then going through my TMs and TRs, I found a good fairy tm that Winston can learn so uhhh,,, I'll just rely on him this time around, I think, lol.
• Okay wait no nevermind I saw Fletch's frosmoth in a raid and HAD TO HAVE ONE so bye sneasel
• Snom (my new best friend) evolves through friendship so soothe bell + low level pokemon, here we come!
• I'm lowkey chaining Combee as my method of levelling
• Okay played with her a lot in camp and she's so cute ;_; and so slow... it takes her like the whole day to cross the camp to see me. BABY.
• After a bunch more Combee, I went back to camp and while I was playing with Snom, Lauriam ran up and gave me a berry. ;__; Sweet boy!!!
  
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• IT WASNT JUST ME, LAURIAM AND FRISKERS ARE ACTUALLY FRIENDS this is so cute i could cry oh my goooddd ;_; i had no idea you could talk to two pokemon at once if they're standing next to each other??? kinda wanna see what meredy and lauriam say together since they fought all the time LOL
  
  
• takin a nap together bc they're bffs
  
  
• k no i lied Lauriam and I are best friends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Lauriam and Friskers had a fight :'(
• I... tossed the ball again and Lauriam got rly excited and did a few laps and in classic tortoise and the hare, right before he got to the ball, Snom made it. I felt really bad when Lauriam sulked off but he wandered over to Friskers who??? cheered him up??? oh my GOD they're so sweet. ;__;
• Snom is now landing critical hits on Combee every other fight. Baby, chill, they're like level 8 and you're level 40. (I think she wants to evolve, because she has now max happiness but they give like no exp so she's still a way off.)
• what do you call it when you lowkey start shipping your pokemon
  
  
• Snom is evolving! I should find a name for her lmao. But beating up Combee hasn't really given me any indication of who she is yet. y_y
• I helped a friend who was restarting his file so now I'm holding onto some Pokémon... including a shiny, lmao, so my shiny count is now 1 but it's not even mine, rip.
• Trading him one of his Pokémon back. Guess what he's giving me in return. (Yamper Count: 22)
• Got a second Ditto so I'm trading it to my friend who needs one. They traded me a Yamper named after a childhood dog. ;w; (Yamper Count: 23)
• "Lauriam the Great Friend"?? CRYING!!!!!!!!!
  
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• I bumped into a Vanillite and was gonna catch it bc it was one of the glowy aura ones aND IT USED EXPLOSION?????????? BABY NO!!!!!!1 why do you even know that ekjhsslkdfhkdgd
  
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• I was showing my mom Yamper and brought Zelos into camp to play fetch and he got completely stuck by Winston and Frosmoth's ridiculous hitboxes LOL
  
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• Okay this is from my other file where another Erica is playing through in Japanese with a different Cherrim (and totally different team otherwise) but... please look at how tiny Joltik's portion is. ;__;
  
  

My Team
Sits here and gives Frosmoth a nickname as she types this, again, despite not touching this file for days UHHH.... idk i don't even like frozen but i did rewatch the original this week and ig the sequel came out let's just do the obvious

Honourable Mentions
Cynders is briefly boxed and ok sneasel u tried i guess

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army! (I'm largely naming them after friends' dogs, so tell me your dog's name and they will join my Yamper army!)

Alrighty, the disclaimer here is that I JUST BEAT THE GAME!!!!!!! But I'm looking at my notes and I can tell I'm gonna have to split this into two entries because good god my notes are long. Spoilers ahoy in the next couple posts.
I think this entry is gonna cover the final gym, the semi finals, and the finals. aaaaaaa here we go!

• I love my team but gosh these double battles as the 8th gym challenge are killin me. My team on my other file is so much more balanced, I forgot just how poor I am against like... fire. (rip me @ the second trainer)
• I did bring Lauriam and Friskers out for the battle tho. I just wanted them to fight a battle together and my whole damn team is weak to fire so might as well bring a Cherrim into a fight where the opponents have Drought /shrug (They won with no casualties!)
  
  
• The gym battle itself was good! Not at all what I expected, but my team weathered (HA) through it just fine. I barely used Elsa so that was definitely overkill lmfaoo. Especially since there weren't... many dragons. Oops.
  
  
  
  
  
• Anyway Elsa is boxed now and Cynders is back n_n
• The train scene redux was cute ;;
  
  
• Oh, I thought it'd drop me at the city but I guess they make trainers hoof it half of the way. okay.
• mutual feelings. (also damn, hikers have such good winged eyeliner)
  
  
  
  
  
• omg i saw a galarian darmanitan for the first time today. confused my poor mom who was telling me something and I blurted out "what the **** is that???"
• i dont think i registered that the cameraman in the interviewer/camera guy double battle pair is named "Cam" first time i ran into them hahaha
• Gosh, I really, really loved the hill leading to Wyndon.
  
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• ok finally made it to london wyndon where's the boutique
• This is unrelated to what's going on but it suddenly occurs to me that when I wasn't allowed in the tall grass because I didn't have a Pokémon, I had a Rotom in my phone. Is it just a jerk who has no interest in fighting for me?
• oh wow i didn't like any of the fashion in the boutique here :'(
• I have to admit I'm really disappointed with Wyndon. I expected a huge city, esp based on its scale on the map, but this doesn't even feel any bigger than the other cities I've been to. I was definitely expecting something as big as Lumiose City
• brb buying out the entirety of the stock at the very first boutique as a show of support for being the only one with amazing selection!!! >:/
• Well... here is my final look before I head into the championship!
  
  
• Bork!
  
  
• Okay, switched up some of my moves with TRs to prepare for the final battles aaa
• I am very overlevelled oops
• Oh no it heals you between fights, I really AM overlevelled
• I looooved the music for the Hop fight omg
• Beat him with dynamaxed cherrim :>
  
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• I feel like I missed something because I don't totally get how they're angling in the bad guys at the end here but oh well
• lol the guy I have to get the key off of is named Eric. ERICA VS ERIC LET'S GO
  
  
• Marnie and Team Yell cheering me on was so cute
• I don't understand why all this is happening!!! If we aren't allowed at the tower, why even tease us with a key? Just... don't let us go at all. If we are allowed at the tower and his assistant specifically doesn't want us there, maybe the game makes sense but then... we have phones, just call your brother and ask him, Hop.
• Oh my god I didn't need the reward THAT bad it was only 4k and i've bought all the clothes I want in this country, please keep your house downpayment
  
  
  
  
  
• The battle music against all these employees is... uncomfortably upbeat?
• I do like that we seem to be fighting people from all the pokejob companies now. down with capitalism!!!
• "we work for the flying company" (sends out steelix and stunfisk) no wonder they need my pokemon to work for them
• Yeah, Leon, I also don't understand why whatever this is can't wait for after this battle
• Oh, the finals sound awesoooome!
• It's mean they won't let you see the brackets at the start. @_@
• lol, okay, Nessa was easy for this grass team, next is Bea... but I only have one move on my whole team that's reliably good against fighting types. Let's see how this goes.
• *quietly tells clowe in the waiting room that he has to solo this whole thing*
• ...which was easy with a few setup hone claws
  
  
• I did enjoy beating Raihan's drought Torkoal with sunny Cherrim. :) Winston handled most of the rest and Friskers took down his gigantamax!
  
  
  
  
  
• Time for........................ the Champion Battle!
  
  

My Team
I didn't know where I would be splitting this so I'm omitting levels this post since I don't know what they were.

Honourable Mentions
Thanks for doing like one single battle during the 8th gym Elsa

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army! (I'm largely naming them after friends' dogs, so tell me your dog's name and they will join my Yamper army!)

Starting this entry immediately after the previous one, but prob not finishing it right away. So, I beat the game about an hour ago and I can't get over how much I loved it. The pacing was a little weird and I hear there isn't much endgame to speak of, but I haven't had this much fun with a Pokémon game in years. I really enjoyed Pokémon X when I played it, but it hinged a lot on the fact that everyone I knew was playing it together at the same time. This was comparable in terms of outside hype, but based on content? God, I just loved it so much!!!

The gyms were just such a lovely balance between the old gym format and the weird trials from Sun/Moon. The gym battles felt so, so epic. You really felt like you were in the stadium with thousands watching when the music picked up and the crowd started chanting. I haven't felt so involved in ages. Raiding is also immensely fun. I haven't done it as much lately, mostly because I lagged behind everyone on the Discord and couldn't participate as they did the 5* raids that unlock in the endgame, but every raid I do is just so much fun. I'm excited to get back to them now!

So far my only real complaint is that they didn't lay hints for the Big Bad very well, even though it was obvious from the start who it was going to be (just bc capitalism tbh, haha) and so that whole section fell a little bit flat. Like, I could follow it mostly fine, but I felt an extra scene or two showing Rose's desperation or what he was building up to would be helpful as well as... I guess a little bit more to explain why we kids immediately went "Oh, the legendary sword and shield must be the Pokémon we saw in those woods in our backyard". Like, I the player knew it because I recognized the legendary from the box right at the start, but I felt the leap in logic was a bit far in-game. Oh, and I was very disappointed with the fashion after the first town. It started out so strong, giving you a ton of customization at the start to make your trainer your own, which I greatly appreciated, but after that everything was just... eh. I think I liked my initial look the most out of basically all of them that I had because everything else was me desperately trying to find at least one piece I liked from new boutiques and trying to accessorize around it while secretly just kind of missing the pink skirts from the beginning.

I don't know if this game will hold up past the "everyone is playing at the same time" hype I had, but I had an absolute blast playing it and hope to keep playing for a few more months yet. Ideally I'd like to complete the Pokédex and do some shiny hunting, but we'll see if I have the patience for that, ahaha.
I mentioned it above but I assume you all skipped the wall of text. As should be obvious from the last entry... spoilers in this entry!!! I won't be spoiler tagging anything so continue at your own risk. (I assume everyone but Tyler has beaten the game by now anyway, though.)

• ...well that was a rude interruption!
• anyway i knew rose was bad from the start. no one can own that many companies and not be evil.
• I still don't understand why the champion is looped into anything. esp one as dumb as Leon (bless him but he doesn't seem the brightest). Wouldn't it be easier to just do whatever you want without telling the strongest pokemon trainer in the world any of it??
• Half my team (Weezing, Stunfisk, Corviknight) exists in the Slumbering Weald, lol. I subconsciously picked Pokémon close to home, aww.
• don't you sass me
  
  
• Oh it's gorgeous....
  
  
  
  
  
• Raihan: "We got everyone evacuated!"
  me: *walks into Pokémon Centre*
  everyone: *still there......*
• Okay I'd heard people talking about how good the Chairman Rose battle music was.... hhhhhh it's amazing. Soundtrack when? This will be the first one I genuinely look forward to.
• I feel bad Dynamaxing in the fight against Rose when they JUST told me up above that too much dynamaxing might blow the place up but in my defence: i'm 10
• oh man the whole eternatus sequence was soooo cool
• Leon's Charizard leaping back to protect Hop and I :'( The adults in this game are great!!! I fully believe Leon would be in sync enough with his Charizard that it would just know that Leon's wish would be for it to protect his little brother and his friend. Because we're still just little kids in all this, even if we're plenty capable.
  
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• I like to think, since Lauriam was the first in my party, he just kinda jumped into battle for me. (Do I headcanon that my Cherrim is out of his Pokéball with me at all times even though Gamefreak won't give me this reality I deserve? Yes.)
• But then Stunfisk jumped in for him bc I went ahead and looked up Eternatus's typing and lol Cherrim is not doing well against a Dragon/Steel.
• .........But neither did Stunfisk because oof that flamethrower. :( Winston saved the day.
• Omg, it's a raid... They incorporated the raid mechanic for this!!! That's awesome!!!
• I'm glad someone knows wtf is going on because I sure don't
  
  
• Anyway Lauriam hopped back in for the proper fight and did absolutely nothing of value but look cute. We still won!
  
  
• Catch! (Is it safe to assume this is a guaranteed catch? As soon as I picked premier ball I had a brief "oh no" because usually legendaries have such a low catch rate.)
  
  
  
  
  
• We saved the day...! Although I really wish the whole "Dark Night" had been longer or we'd been able to see its effects on other towns. (Was I supposed to go wander around to see that or...??)
  
  
• "@Cherrim sorry to bother you but i think you are the best person to ask this, do you have a extra cherrubi?" Of course I do. Did a trade. (Yamper Count: 24)
• Alright, now it's time for the final battle.
• Have I ever mentioned how much I love seeing speech bubbles of support pop up like this? It really feels like people cheering from the sidelines.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I'm so not ready for this aaaaaa
  
  
  
  
  
• Alright, so, as I'm sure everyone has noticed (except this guy what the hell), my team is... terribly unbalanced.
  
  
• Four of my Pokémon are weak to fire, with only Winston and Cynders being the exception—and neither of them are a counter to fire types! Couple that with the fact that earthquake has basically been my only real way to deal with fire types all this time and... well... Leon's Charizard is basically the hardest opponent I've had this WHOLE game.
• But the rest of the fight wasn't easy in the slightest... Cynders was able to deal with Aegislash and Lauriam made quick work of Seismitoad (the only one shot of the whole match), but after that I was basically on edge the whole time. I taught Earthquake to Keiyo so I let him take on Cinderace and that was easy enough because it just used Acrobatics for some reason. Winston was able to take down Haxorus but sustained a lot of damage in the process, so I had to swing Corviknight for Dragapult... and it got a critical hit in (in my final attempt), so I scrambled to defeat it otherwise (and already forget how I managed).
• As expected, his Charizard absolutely WRECKED me. I had to try this fight three times, bringing a different Pokémon in to dynamax each time. I just had nothing that could deal with it that wouldn't take too much damage in the rounds before! But I managed to save Friskers for the fight and we prevailed!!!!
• I was hoping his ability would kick in and make him fire type (or anything that would remove his steel typing) but I guess it didn't so I still have no real idea how that works oops.
• Anyway he managed to survive the first hit and a Max Geyser weakened Charizard's fire attacks with rain conditions so... I was able to win with a guard, a max potion, and a couple more rock tombs hhhh. (And a very clutch "Friskers avoided your attack because he loves you so much" skdjflsdfjk)
  
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• I'm the new Champion! I won!!
  
  
• I love my face here, I think I look basically exactly how I felt irl finally pulling that off.
  
  
• "Your Champion, Erica!"
  
  
  
  
  
• I love how enthusiastic and gracious he is even though he lost!!!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• I was ready to complain that they didn't give you a screen with your winning team before the credits, à la hall of fame, but they replace the starting screen with it!!!
  
  
  
  
  
• fin.
  
  

My Team
*looks at every Pokémon but Clowe (who is still valid and I love him)* nice.

Honourable Mentions
good doggos and even though leon's charizard gave me so much trouble, it DID save my life so i could do that battle in the first place.

Dishonourable Mentions

Corgis
Please let me know if you have any nickname suggestions for my corgi army! (I'm largely naming them after friends' dogs, so tell me your dog's name and they will join my Yamper army!)