[Event] Proof of Affinity - Valentine's Day Challenge 2022 [time to play!]

Cube's 1909803574893806th adventure through Kanto, but this time it's not Fire Red or any hack based around it
Partner: Eleanor aka Bestie on Pokémon Platinum

Part 4:
Phew

This was a difficult segment. Or more like a bit tedious than difficult, since I had to grind quite a bit. I went back to route 23 to catch an Abra (two actually, the other one was to get Mr. Mime), and then went to grind and grind and grind. Had to bring Pidgey, Zubat, Weedle and Abra to evolve and get to a high enough level to be able to challenge Erika. And everybody knows how uncomfortable it is to level up an Abra and a Zubat.

Rock Tunnel was a pain, because of the amount of Rock Types there were, and my team was honestly not the best for that. I had to use the Dig TM in Squeaky, and even then, the real MVP there was Kadabra.

After reaching Celadon, I got the tea from the Celadon lady and made my way to Saffron to challenge the Dojo and get Hitmonchan and well... everyone was like 10 levels above my team lmfao. I did get Hitmonchan anyways tho.

Erika wasn't difficult. I had the Fly HM for Pidgeotto, and even without the bird I still had Golbat's Wing Attack.



As for this segment's pairs:

♥ Batty, Golbat, lvl. 24 (Size, Ability) → Gastly; color, Purple
♥ Windy, lv. 25 (Color) → Staravia; type, Normal-Flying
♥ Stingy, Beedrill, lvl. 10 → Quagsire size, 1.4 m
♥ Maggy, Kadabra, lvl. 26 → Kirlia; moves in common: Teleport, Confusion
♥ Squeaky, Raticate, lvl. 23 (moves, stats, gender) → Eevee; type, Normal
♥ Punchy, Hitmonchan, lv. 25 → Luxray size, 1.4 m

Section 8: Raihan

Regained movement control after beating Piers. Started a stopwatch then. Entered the gym challenge building 38.72 seconds later. Views that as a slow time. Wandered through the tunnel between cities for a cutscene first. (Turned back after stopping the timer. Found two cutscenes then. May or may not have been necessary.)

Heard back from Snoomy once again. Compared newer catches. Shared a lot of color similarities.

1. Root (Bellossom) + Oslo (Politoed) on Color (Green)
2. Integer (Indeedee) + Baku (Typhlosion) on Nature (+Special Attack)
3. Diameter (Dubwool) + Columbus (Gligar) on Base Stats (Best: Defense. Worst: Special Attack)
4. Logarithm (Steelix) + Boise (Magneton) on Ability (Sturdy)
5. Skew (Scizor) + Manila (Jynx) on Color (Red)
6. Polynomial (Drakloak) + Lima (Victreebel) on Color (Green)

Discovered a team flaw during the gym challenge. Stacked the deck with high physical defense Steel types. Contains four Fire weaknesses as well. Performs quite poorly versus a sun trainer with double Flamethrower. Managed to only lose Integer (Indeedee).

Strategy for Raihan: Reach +6 Defense on Diameter. Stack as many Quiver Dances as possible in that time. (May need to Strength Sap once.) Knock out Gigalith with Body Press. Plans the final two turns interchangeably:
A. Strength Sap and Body Press on Duraludon.
B. Giga Drain on Sandaconda and Body Press on Flygon.

Limited Leftovers to only one. Gave Safety Goggles to Diameter. Negates Sandstorm damage. Will not bother recording that damage.

Brought Logarithm along as backup. Stomps this purely physical gym like Diameter does. Chose Root for style points more than anything.

(Gigalith's Sand Stream)
Turn 1: Flygon: Breaking Swipe (164/172 and 155/171) / Dubwool: Cotton Guard / Bellossom: Quiver Dance / Gigalith: Body Press (at Dubwool, 153/172)
Turn 2: Flygon: Breaking Swipe (150/172 and 137/171) / Dubwool: Cotton Guard / Bellossom: Quiver Dance / Gigalith: Stealth Rock
Turn 3: Flygon: Breaking Swipe (148/172 and 121/171) / Bellossom: Quiver Dance / Dubwool: Body Press (at Gigalith, 100%) / Gigalith: Fainted
(Level up to 50 for Diameter and 48 for Root)
Turn 4: Bellossom: Giga Drain (at Sandaconda, 100%, heal to full) / Flygon: Breaking Swipe (150/176 and 157/175) / Dubwool: Body Press (at Flygon, 100%) / Sandaconda: Fainted
(Level up to 49 for Root.)
(Gigantamaxed Duraludon)
Turn 5: Bellossom: Strength Sap (heal to full) / Duraludon: Max Knuckle (at Dubwool, 140/176) / Dubwool: Body Press (100%)
(Level up to 51 for Diameter.)

Tossed them aside easier than expected. Laughed at Gigalith's 9 damage super-effective Body Press. Issues special dialogue for Duraludon coming in alone, also. Added surprising bits of polish here and there. (Probably remarked on that during a different challenge too.)

Assembled all the badges. Deals with Sword's plot and Leon to finish it off.

Proof of Affinity - Update #6-End

What a wild ride this challenge was, it was pretty fun trying to figure out logistically how to make the most of each team. Towards the end we had all the hard pairings done, letting us build better teams for League.

Final segments went pretty well, visited PWT a few times to get some items and proceeded to destroy the end game with my team (mainly Mienshao/Weavile).

Segment 6:

Team:
The Pairs:


Segment 7:

Team:
The Pairs:


Segment 8:

Team:
The Pairs:


Segment 9:

The Pairs:


Hall of Fame:

Total pairs: 54 53
Due to a small mistake we tried to pair Ampharos with Kadabra on color yellow, later to realize that Kadabra is Brown in Pokedex despite being mostly yellow, oh well. We still managed to make five 9-pairings (from Pikaboo's team - Corviknight, Crustle, Cinderace and from my team - Stoutland, Emboar) and one 8-pairing (Ampharos) which I'm very happy about 😊

Eleanor's adventures in Pokémon Platinum - gym 5
Partner trainer: Cubeth on Leaf Green

And this is where we end it! I've honestly been a pretty meh partner with being away for exams and whatnot but we got pretty far anyways... I'm definitely proud of my partner though ♥
Quick update for me where I present you the final team after beating Crasher Wake - had to try this challenge twice because of a wrong strategy on my part but the second time things worked out: basically, I had to make sure to preserve Luxray as much as possible and avoid Intimidate, because that's the only Pokémon on my team that can deal with Wake's Floatzel at all... oops!

It's definitely been a fun challenge though! Working in pairs is definitely meant to be the biggest draw to this challenge, more than even finding the right Pokémon or whatever, and that check box has definitely been ticked!

The pairs are...
♥ Cube, Haunter, lv. 33 (Color) → Gengar
Type, Ghost/Poison
♥ Java, Tropius, lv. 30 → Golbat
Gender, ♀
♥ Colossus, Gabite, lv. 24 → Pinsir
Stats: highest is Attack, lowest is Special Attack
♥ Chromium, Gardevoir, lv. 32 (size, moves) → Mr Mime
Type, Psychic
♥ HEX, Bronzor, lv. 24 (Color) → Blastoise
Stats: highest is Special Defense, lowest is Speed
♥ Binary, Luxray, lv. 36 (Moves, Stats, Color, Size) → Pidgeot
Caught level (5)

Obligatory image:

Cube's 1909803574893806th adventure through Kanto, but this time it's not Fire Red or any hack based around it
Partner: Eleanor aka Bestie on Pokémon Platinum

Part 5:
Perhaps the lenghtiest segment so far, and actually quite difficult as well. I had to get the Silph Scope or whatever from Giovanni in the Game Corner, where I also got a Pinsir. Until that part, it's all good. Going through Lavender Tower was also pretty easy, even if I lagged a bit leveling up the Gastly I caught. Still, pretty easy to get through, I got Haunter just after reaching the top.

Now Silph is a different thing. Still having Wartortle at that part of the game is honestly, pretty shitty, so training that one was a bit annoying because I had to take care of it not dying while battling the Team Rocket Grunts. It doesn't help that most of them use poison types, so I had to go back to the pokémon center alot. In the end I used all of my rare candies to evolve it as soon as I got the Card Key because I didn't want to go back to another route to rematch some trainers. Blue's Silph battle was difficult, I was really underleveled and it took me a second try to beat him and get Sans the Lapras. Giovanni was pretty easy, tho.

Sabrina's Gym wasn't hard, except for Sabrina herself. Again, I was underleveled by like 8 levels or something against her Alakazam. It also took me two tries to beat her.



Also, Golbat evolved after Sabrina's battle. Except that she didn't actually evolve bc Kanto Dex, so I'm sad.



As for this segment's pairs:

♥ Spooky, Gengar, lv. 35 (Color) → Haunter
Type, Ghost/Poison
♥ Batty, Golbat. lvl. 30 (Size, Ability, Color) → Tropius
Gender, ♀
♥ PINSIR!!!!, Pinsir lv. 30 → Gabite
Stats: highest is Attack, lowest is Special Attack
♥ Mimien, Mr. Mime, lv. 36 → Gardevoir
Type, Psychic
♥ Shelly, Blastoise, lv. 37 (Ability, Size, Color) → Bronzor
Stats: highest is Special Defense, lowest is Speed
♥ Pidgeotto, lv. 30 (Color, Type) → Luxray
Caught level (5)

Section 9: Leon

Resumes at Wyndon and the Champion Cup.

"I feel like Challenger Deva has a balanced team, but he doesn't have any way to decisively win, you know?" Could not be more wrong.

Pared down the tournament fights to brief descriptions. Trod the usual Cotton Guard and Quiver Dance setups multiple times. Outlevels these jokers by five levels or so.

Marnie: A slow Diameter (Dubwool) solo. Dealt with Liepard's Torment the whole way. Opened up a chance for Toxicroak's Toxic. Tried to win without items. Burned a Pecha Berry in the end. Ignored a Spark paralysis from Morpeko.

Hop: An eight turn Diameter solo. Almost one-shot Dynamaxed Rillaboom the first time. Healed it up with a Full Restore. Dropped it from full health that time.

Sighs. Deals with grabbing the key to Rose Tower next. Get your unevolved level 47s out of here.

Hopped on the elevator up Rose Tower with Hop. Recalls the reason for viewing Dubwool as a weakling. Accomplishes nothing against a bevy of Steel types.

Oleana: Demanded someone else here. Shies away from forcing Diameter to deal with Froslass and Salazzle. Applies to Root (Bellossom) with Gigantamax Garbodor and Salazzle too. Recorded this one.

Turn 1: Drakloak: Phantom Force / Froslass: Icy Wind (miss)
Turn 2: Drakloak: Phantom Force (100%)
Turn 3: Drakloak: Phantom Force / Salazzle: Poison Gas (miss)
Turn 4: Drakloak: Phantom Force (100%)
Turn 5: Drakloak: Switch to Diameter / Tsareena: Acrobatics (183/199)
(Leftovers heal to 195/199)
Turn 6: Dubwool: Cotton Guard / Tsareena: Acrobatics (188/199)
(Leftovers heal to full.)
Turn 7: Dubwool: Cotton Guard / Tsareena: Acrobatics (195/199)
(Leftovers heal to full.)
Turn 8: Dubwool: Body Press (100%)
Turn 9: Dubwool: Body Press (100%) / Milotic: Fainted
(Gigantamaxed Garbodor)
Turn 10: Dubwool: Body Press (70%) (Garbodor's Weak Armor) / Garbodor: G-Max Malodor (192/202, poisoned)
(Leftovers + poison to 177/202)
Turn 11: Garbodor: G-Max Quake (something weak) / Dubwool: Body Press (the rest)

Commends Polynomial (Drakloak) for the good showing. Helps to be Adamant (by mint), Choice Banded, EV-trained, and at a ~3 level advantage...but still, good job. Stands at a mere 410 base stat points. Falls under the 420 base stat points for middle evolutions of Galar starters.

Plowed through gym leaders next. Held a steady 7-8 level advantage for most fights.

Bede: Quiver Dance with Root. Healed with Strength Sap simply to look fresh at the end of the battle.

Nessa: Cotton Guard with Diameter. Spent two Body Presses each on Golisopod and Pelipper.

Bea: Cotton Guard with Diameter. Snapped a screenshot for this.

Missed the one-shot by a sliver, much like with Rillaboom. Survived Machamp's critical G-Max Chi Strike. Rolled better on the next Body Press with a one-shot (after a Full Restore on Machamp).

Raihan: Cotton Guard with Diameter. Thanks Torkoal for choosing Solar Beam instead of Lava Plume.

Rose: Cotton Guard with Diameter. Wishes to report a sheep on a rampage.

Blasted through all these trainers. Still only reached level 63 on Diameter with the Exp Charm.

Received one final letter from Snoomy, on his way to the Pokemon League. Discovered that Pokemon have genders (usually).
1. Axis (Zoroark) + London (Gyarados) on Gender (Male)
2. Radical (Toxtricity) + Etsaste (Girafarig) on Gender (Male)
3. Ellipsoid (Klefki) + Boise (Magneton) on Color (Gray)
4. Polynomial (Dragapult) + Oslo (Politoed) on Gender (Female)
5. Diameter (Dubwool) + Dublin (Heracross) on Gender (Female)
6. Root (Bellossom) + Baku (Typhlosion) on Gender (Male)

Closed with the double 9-pair, of course.

Strategy: Send in Root. Quiver Dance to +6/+6/+6. Hope for no criticals. Completes this without items, ideally. Fed them several PP Ups, particularly for Moonlight.

Moveset:
- Giga Drain. Not a great move for Leon's line-up. Resists it on Aegislash, Dragapult, Haxorus, and Charizard. Learns only Normal, Grass, Poison, and Fairy attacks on the special side. Gobbles up some health from it, at least.
- Sludge Bomb. Debated between this and Moonblast. Suffices for blasting Haxorus to pieces. Cares more about hitting Charizard hard than Dragapult.
- Quiver Dance. The crux of the moveset.
- Moonlight. Realized something unfortunate about Aegislash. Swaps its stats with its stances. Squashes Strength Sap's potential. Should be able to handle Sacred Swords with a full Defense investment. Geared this Aegislash towards Special (Quiet nature). Also thought about Ingrain for such a long fight. Prefers Moonlight's immediate recovery. Stays out of critical Shadow Ball/Flash Cannon range easier.

The back-up team member strategies:
- Polynomial (Dragapult). Run wild with Choice Banded Phantom Force or Dragon Darts (probably the former).
- Diameter (Dubwool). Smokes Haxorus. Helps little elsewhere. Cannot deal with the enemy team's speed and heavily Special-based lineup.
- Ellipsoid (Klekfi). Loaded them with dual screens, Prankster, and Light Clay.
- Radical (Toxtricity). Debilitates an opponent to assist in setup. Usually leads with a Pokemon like this. Wants the solo. Carries Nuzzle and Eerie Impulse, notably.
- Axis (Zoroark, disguised as Radical). Another setup option with Nasty Plot. Reversed its nature from Naughty to Calm with a mint. (Lacks Timid mints.)

Leveled everyone to 65 for Leon. Settle in for a long battle log.

Turn 1: Aegislash: King's Shield / Bellossom: Quiver Dance
Turn 2: Bellossom: Quiver Dance / Aegislash: Shadow Ball (188/233)
(Leftovers heal to 202/233)
Turn 3: Aegislash: King's Shield / Bellossom: Quiver Dance
(Leftovers heal to 216/233)
Turn 4: Aegislash: King's Shield (failed) / Bellossom: Quiver Dance
(Leftovers heal to 230/233)
Turn 5: Bellossom: Quiver Dance / Aegislash: Sacred Sword (191/233)
(Leftovers heal to 205/233)
Turn 6: Aegislash: King's Shield / Bellossom: Quiver Dance
(Leftovers heal to 219/233)
Turn 7: Bellossom: Giga Drain (55%, heal to full) / Aegislash: Sacred Sword (194/233)
(Leftovers heal to 208/233)
Turn 8: Bellossom: Giga Drain (the rest)
Turn 9: Bellossom: Giga Drain (70%, heal to full) / Dragapult: Flamethrower (209/233)
(Leftovers heal to 221/233)
Turn 10: Bellossom: Giga Drain (the rest, heal to full)
Turn 11: Bellossom: Sludge Bomb (100%) / Haxorus: Fainted
(Level up.)
Turn 12: Bellossom: Sludge Bomb (95%, poison) / Mr. Rime: Freeze-Dry (207/237)
(Leftovers heal to 221/237. Fainted Mr. Rime via poison damage.)
Turn 13: Bellossom: Giga Drain (100%, heal to full) / Inteleon: Fainted
(Gigatamaxed Charizard)

Acknowledges Charizard's clear type advantage and Gigantamax capability. Assumes a battle against just Root, however. Bears nine links to Snoomy's team. Matched Lima the Bellsprout's type as a little Oddish. Measured the same size as Canberra the Wooper. Speeds up under the sun with Honolulu the Hoppip. Began at similar power levels as Moscow the Raticate. Bears a similar affinity for special attacks as Boston the Tauros. Wielded some of the same attacks as Concord the Paras. Lives with similar strengths and weaknesses as Hanoi the Drowzee. Sports a similar shade of green as Oslo the Politoed. Expresses the same gender as Baku the Typhlosion.

Connects further from branching links to even more Pokemon. Gains strength from all those past interactions. Faces not one Pokemon. Faces 51 Pokemon bound together by 54 bonds of affinity.

Does not end there, either. Recognizes the traits of others within you. Shares Manila's color, Lima's height, Amsterdam's strengths/weaknesses, Diameter's nature, Root's gender, Scalene's starting level (probably), former mono Fire type with Degree, and Baku's stronger fire attacks in a pinch. Knows your game already, fire lizard.

Turn 14: Bellossom: Sludge Bomb (49%, poison) / Charizard: Max Airstream (177/237, +1 Speed)
(Leftovers heal to 191/237. Poison damage to Charizard.)
Turn 15: Bellossom: Sludge Bomb (the rest)
(Level up.)

No items. No Dynamax. Equal level (to Charizard before the fight). Earned the right to dab over Charizard's body.

High-fives on that poison. Pushed Charizard out of green health. Might have been the least problematic Leon fight out of four playthroughs. (Remembers Hawlucha faring similarly well, though.) Thanks Aegislash for being incredibly tame. Struggled with a constant barrage of Shadow Balls dropping Special Defense before.

Closes this out with a cropped version of Sword's updated title screen.

Chapter 5: Putting up a Fight​

You thought I was done with bundling sections together? WRONG! Here's Section 5-9 because I forgot to keep updated! They're gonna be quite short and only contain the necessities so. . . sorry about that 😅


Section 1: Departure

I think we all know the drill about now. Ecruteak is now behind us for now. I wonder if I'll have to come back, definitely not for some magical fire bird that somehow re-enters at the end of the game that's for sure.

Section 2: Olivine City

So now we head for the harbour at the heart of Johto, Olivine. The track over to Olivine was quite eventful but surprisingly didn't have a large variety of Pokemon to catch. However, the 2 pokemon we did catch, Boise the Magnemite and Boston the Tauros became staples to my group and I warmed up to them immediately. Before I even take a step into Olivine, I run into Dave. Luckily, he's not willing to fight and walked off. I decided to not stay here for too long and make a straight dash to the neighbouring city. I really didn't want to stay there longer than I needed to to be honest, it was incredibly dark

Section 3: Cianwood City

After an incredibly long swim across the ocean, I had reached Cianwood. Immediately, this majestic figure caught my eye, this so called beast called Suicune. It definitely seemed recognisable as that beast I saw in Burnt Tower. Before I could even take a step towards it, it fled and I was ambushed by this trainer called Eunice. Luckily, he was fairly easy and I managed to fend him off with my Sudowoodo and Raticate! Afterwards, there wasn't really much to do except challenge the gym. . . except for the pairings. Once again, me and Devalue reached our gyms and saw pairs in our teams


Section 4: Chuck

Honestly, the fight was quite easy. Seoul used confusion. However, this fight was exponentially slower from the amount of hacks from the Poliwrath and the excessive paralysis from Body Slams. Oh well, we still beat it. Now to head back to Olivine

Chapter 6: Steel Your Heart​

Section 1: Olivine. .. again


Back in Olivine we go and the rumor around town is that the Ampharos in the light tower was ill, which was the reason why the surrounding area was so dim. After climbing up the lighthouse, I met with this Ampharos and the gym leader of the city, Jasmine. I was told that I would need to get secretive potion from over in Cianwood. . . so back I went to Cianwood. Granted, the journey was much easier with the addition of Fly but it still took effort. After giving the potion over to the Ampharos, Jasmine decided to return to the gym and was ready to fight. . . such an eventful section. Anyways, back to the pairs we go!


Section 2: Jasmine

Again. . . not that difficult. Heracross used Brick Break and Quagsire used Mud Bomb. Some healing here and there and that was the battle. It's gonna get a lot harder going forward, especially with Claire ever so closely approaching

Chapter 7: Ice Ice Baby​

Section 1: Going on a Safari!

I was ready to storm into Mahogany Town and recieve my second to last badge. However, I had heard there was a safari zone that was opening up to the public which means more pokemon! In here, I managed to find Oslo the Poliwag, Etsaste the Girafarig (Yes, I know it doesnt completely match my naming theme but there arent any palindromic capital cities) and Budapest the Abra. After that short detour, I then made my way over to Mahogany town.

Section 2: Mahogany Town

After entering Mahogany Town, I heard of a commotion that was occouring in the routes north of the town. Rushing over there, I found a red Gyarados splashing and thrashing in the center of the Lake. Now, I've never seen a red Gyarados so I had to catch it, naming him London. Afterwards, I made it back to Mahogany and heard of more commotion. . . It's like this town can never be calm. The group of thugs I had seen long ago called Team Rocket were holding their base in a house disguised as a gift shop. I stormed through it with this strange guy named Lance, the supposed champion of Johto. I had come across almost the whole group of Team Rocket barring the Leader. Finally, I broke into what I believe is their Power Source made up of Electrode and took them all down. Now that that's over with, the next gym has now opened up and I can get the second to last badge. . . but first, the pairs!

Root the Bellossom and Hanoi the Drowzee on Base Stats
Coordinate the Falinks and Baku the Typhlosion on Colour
Diameter the Dubwool and Moscow the Raticate based on Typing
Fibonacci the Armaldo and Dublin the Heracross based on Height
Integral the Luxray and London the Gyarados on Ability
Axis the Zoroark and Boise the Magneton based on Base Stats​

Section 3: Pryce

This gym was a lot more difficult but was mostly down to the Piloswine as it's typing was a very unique one that countered a large amount of my pokemon. However, Dublin managed to take care of that whilst Boise took over the rest!

To be Continued

Chapter 8: Dragon On​

Root the Bellossom and Oslo the Politoed on Colour
Integer the Indeedee and Baku the Typhlosion on Nature
Diameter the Dubwool and Colombus the Gligar on Base Stats
Logarithm the Steelix and Boise the Magneton on Ability
Skew the Scizor and Manila the Jynx on Colour
Polynomial the Drakloak and Lima the Victreebel on Colour​

Chapter 9: The Final 4​

Axis the Zoroark and London the Gyarados on Gender
Radical the Toxtricity and Estatse the Girafarig on Gender
Ellipsoid the Klefki and Boise the Magneton on Colour
Polynomial the Dragapult and Oslo the Politoad on Gender
Diameter the Dubwool and Dublin the Heracross on Gender
Root the Bellossom and Baku the Typhlosion on Gender​

---

So, computer issues made posting a bit hard but I finished this yesterday (I even posted on Discord).

Basically, it went exactly as you'd think it'd go.

Teams


The Pairings - #5


Total Pairings: 30

The Pairings - #6


Total Pairings: 36

The Pairings - #7


Total Pairings: 42

The Pairings - #8


Total Pairings: 48

The Pairings - #9


Total Pairings: 54 53

As it turns out, I did an oopsie and mixed up the colors on the final segment so we ended up with 53 instead of 54. Still, we did a good showing and I'm OK with this result

I probably wouldn't do this challenge again, but it was interesting enough.