[Gen 4] SGR's Casual Plays - DP/PE/PL #1

Hello guys, welcome to a series where I log all of my casual plays (meaning no challenges, there will most likely be randomized Pokemon runs.) I will be doing numbered threads per generation so this is the #1 thread for the 4th gen. I will be logging it in sessions, and not after specific points, so there is no set event that I will be ending a post at, it will just be whenever I decide to stop playing for that session.

I will be playing through Platinum for this thread, since I've never actually played through it before. I played a lot of Diamond, but never finished Platinum.


Decided to start of with Chimchar, due to the fact that I've never used it, and the lack of Fire types in this gen. I then caught Shinx and Starly straight after doing the catching tutorial. I then caught Psyduck at Oreburgh Gate, which was a little bit of a pain to train until level 9 when it gets Water Gun, due to it's low stats and slow XP group. After that though, it became a lot more bearable to use and it managed to sweep through Roark's gym.

I then did the Team Galactic event at Florama and the Powerplant, which evolved my Chimchar, Shinx and Starly. Eterna Forest was a breeze, while the next gym battle with Gardenia was mostly easy, besides the Roserade with knocked out my Staravia forcing me to knock it off with Monferno.

I then did the Galactic hideout event, got the bicycle and an Egg from Cynthina, which I forget if it's just a Togepi or not. The last thing I did before I decided to take a break was to explore Wayward Cave, and catch a Bronzor.

CURRENT TEAM​

Psyduck - Level 22

- Rock Smash
- Water Pulse
- Water Gun
- Confusion

Monferno - Level 21

- Cut
- Flame Wheel
- Ember
- Mach Punch

Staravia - Level 21

- Endeavor
- Double Team
- Quick Attack
- Wing Attack

Luxio - Level 21

- Tackle
- Leer
- Bite
- Spark

Bronzor - Level 20

- Hyponsis
- Imprison
- Confuse Ray
- Extrasensory

Once I caught the Bronzor, I decided to grind everything up to Level 25. This took, quite a long time. During this time, the egg hatched and is was indeed Togepi which I boxed. Thankfully, the grinding was worth it because Fantina was hard because of her Mismagius. I was able to be it first try, but thats only because of the grinding. I took out Barry and then made my way to Veilstone, and grinded everything up to Level 30.

This took a while as well, but it didn't feel as long as the first time. Maylene was another trainer i'm glad I took the time to grind to. Staravia knocked out most of the gym, however Lucario with it's Steel type made it so that it knocked out 3 of my Pokemon and took me using Super Potions repeatably so it could run out of Force Palm PP before I could finally knock it out. I then took out Team Galactic with Dawn, got Fly and went to the next Route where I got Rhyhorn and grinded it out to level 30, where I decided to stop for the night. I also took note of a found Houdoom for next playthough's as that is a Pokemon I want to use in the future, and I didn't realize Platinum fixed the problem with the lack of Fire Types.

CURRENT TEAM​

Psyduck - Level 31

- Rock Smash
- Water Pulse
- Blizzard
- Shadow Claw

Monferno - Level 30

- Cut
- Flame Wheel
- Fire Blast
- Mach Punch

Staravia - Level 33

- Aerial Ace
- Steel Wing
- Take Down
- Wing Attack

Luxray- Level 31

- Tackle
- Thunder
- Bite
- Spark

Bronzor - Level 30

- Hypnosis
- Grass Knot
- Confuse Ray
- Extrasensory

Rhyhorn - Level 30

- Scary Face
- Rock Blast
- Stomp
- Fury Attack

Crasher Wake was next, and after grinding everything up to Level 35 and evolving Psyduck and Bronzor, it was time to take on the gym. It ended up being the hardest gym battle so far, being the only one to knock my team out, due to a mixture of forgetting about Wake's Quagsire, and quite a few critical hits against me. The 2nd try proved sucessful however, so I took on the Team Galactic event and got the Potion from Cynthina.

The route going to Celestic Town was quite tough as well as it took only my overpowered Luxary paralysed and low healthed to get through it all. This is because the amount of trainers especially ace trainers and me not wanting to backtrack. I finally made it there, defeated Cyrus and got Surf which I taught to Golduck.

I then moved to Canalave, and used the Iron Island event to train everything to level 40 (and Rhyhorn to Level 42). Everything evolved and I decided to do the trade for Rhyperior. I decided not to take the Riolu since I already had my full team. Byron was easy since I had a good Water and Fire type.

I took care of every Galactic admin on the lakes and went to Snowpoint to fight Candice. This was again easy since I had Infernape, but it did take me a few Pokemon to finally finish off Froslass. I then did the long story of finishing off Galactic at Veilstone and Mt Coronet, and caught Girantina with the Master Ball because I don't really have any other use for it. I took on the route next to Sunnyshore, where I decided to finish for the night since I will need to do some grinding before the gym and E4.

CURRENT TEAM​

Golduck - Level 46

- Rock Smash
- Surf
- Blizzard
- Shadow Claw

Infernape - Level 46

- Cut
- Flame Wheel
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat

Staraptor - Level 45

- Aerial Ace
- Steel Wing
- Close Combat
- Fly

Luxray- Level 44

- Crunch
- Thunder
- Bite
- Spark

Bronzong - Level 45

- Future Sight
- Grass Knot
- Gyro Ball
- Extrasensory

Rhyperior - Level 45

- Strength
- Rock Blast
- Rock Climb
- Stone-Edge

I was going to grind everything up to level 50, however after realising that this place was not suitable for most of my Pokemon, after my Rhyperior I just said stuff it and decided to take on the gym as is. Volkner wasn't too much of an issue, a couple of revives and he was beaten.

Jasmine then gave me Waterfall, and it was on to the Victory Road. Honestly, I thought it would be a lot harder, since I only remembered the amount of HMs you needed. The fight against Barry was also easier than I thought since I didn't think you could heal up at the Pokemon Center beforehead.

The Elite 4 was a different story. The E4 itself was fine, what I expected but wow, I now know why so many people claim Cynthia is the hardest champion. I didn't remember how hard she was when I fought her as a kid but she managed to knock me out the first time after wasting a lot of Full Restores and Revives during the battle. I finally beat her the 2nd time, however that was after finishing my LAST Full Restore. It wasn't her Garchomp that was her biggest problem. It was her Lucario. Aura Sphere was a punish. Turned out Golduck was the best way to tank it and so it was most used Pokemon in the battle to revive and heal all other Pokemon. I then eventually went on the offensive with it, and finally knocked it out. Infernape then knocked out Spiritomb for the win. If it had taken 1 more hit, it would have been over. So finally after 30 hours of gametime (though not in reality, speed ups were used), I finally beat Platinum for the first time. My signature should feature the trainer cards of the latest run of a generation that I've done, and it was a nice team to have my first card. Bronzong was a bit of a disappoint however, since it only has 1 good stab move, and is mostly a defensive Pokemon which really doesn't suit my playstyle at all.

FINALTEAM​

Golduck - Level 55

- Rock Smash
- Surf
- Blizzard
- Waterfall

Infernape - Level 51

- Cut
- Flame Wheel
- Fire Blast
- Close Combat

Staraptor - Level 52

- Aerial Ace
- Steel Wing
- Close Combat
- Fly

Luxray- Level 53

- Crunch
- Thunder
- Bite
- Spark

Bronzong - Level 50

- Faint Attack
- Grass Knot
- Gyro Ball
- Extrasensory

Rhyperior - Level 51

- Strength
- Earthquake
- Rock Climb
- Stone-Edge