The time has come at last, ladies and gents. Time to bury the hatchet with the plot. Trust me, this won't be nearly as lengthy as the last one...I hope.
Episode 4 - Crazy, 2 Kids, and Over 40, it's the Chronicles of Lusamine
So after the absolute trainwreck that was the Grand Trial, it was back to Ula'ula Meadow to grind up new team members. Naturally, one of them was Shades, who I got from the Haina Desert. Due to my dreadful team synergy and extreme common weaknesses in both the party and PC, options were limited. I had originally settled for Megatron, my Beldum...but he died during grinding because STAB Bug Buzz hurts. I had to go with the Lillipup I caught back on Akala Island, and grinded him, along with everyone else on the team, to at least Lv. 40.
About an hour or so of killing Ariados, Ribombee, and Oricorio, we're off to the Aether Foundation. Let me just put this one in short terms to save time, folks. Every trainer in that place got wrecked, Guzma included. It wasn't until I faced Lusamine herself that things got a bit dicey. Lead Clefable was already a huge red flag, and even worse since it had Magic Guard, so burning it was useless. The real problem with her team was her Lilligant. It had Own Tempo, and I knew that after it didn't get confused from Petal Dance. What did I do? Switched in Buzz Buzz thinking "oh, he can take a hit." That was a mistake, and it led me to realize my team's second biggest flaw. Everything on my team can't take special attacks well, and Petal Dance is a special attack. We can all guess what happened next. Buzz Buzz got slaughtered. Other than that, I think we're going to have one hell of a time during the second battle with Lusamine.
So after some story bits and Lillie's clothes change, we head off to Poni Island, the place where I need to pray to Arceus I get some amazing encounters, because I sure need them at this point of the run. First thing was first, and that was getting the free gift Aerodactyl as a new potential member of the team. I'm going to scout out a couple of other catches when we get them and choose then who I add to the team.
By the way, the Aerodactyl has a -Attack nature because of course it does. It is Lv. 40, though. Hmmm...
But let's remember that gift encounters don't count as my first encounter, so I'm still free to fish at Seafolk Village and find myself a Wailmer. Finally, a Water type that isn't Wingull or Tentacool...or Luvdisc, but the less we talk about that abomination, the better. Sadly, the Wailmer in question is a bit low leveled, but having Bus the Wailmer as more power in the PC won't hurt. Let's go and get some more mons.
Fun fact: up until this point, I have not run into a single Gumshos or Yungoos as my first encounter...until now. Gumshoos has come to me. I wanted good encounters, not garbage. It seems Poni Island won't be kind to me either. And of course, bad defenses. That's just great. On another subject, holy level spiking. Lusamine's team was all at Lv. 41, but now all these regular trainers have Lv. 43+ mons out of nowhere. What gives, game? I know this is the last island, but that's no excuse to screw me like that. Just you wait until I find my grind bait Oricorio patch and grind up the squad.
Ancient Poni Path means another encounter for me, and boy oh boy, do we got a big one. Granbull is the encounter of the moment. Once again, bad Special Defense, but a pure Fairy type with Play Rough and high Attack. Sadly, I got Quick Feet instead of Intimidate. TMs are an option, so I'll consider using The Bully.
By this point, I'm convinced this game hates me. I'm milking every encounter chance I can get, sure, but I got a Lv. 43 Magikarp on Poni Breaker Coast. A LEVEL 43 MAGIKARP! Like, seriously? I might just go and Rare Candy it right away to have a semi decent mon, but that's beside the point. On the bright side, neutral nature and it evolves into a Water/Flying type, something that could help me deal with Hapu coming up since her Mudsdale has the Z-Crystal. Anyway, let's hit up more story and be on our merry way. Can I just say that the way Machamp holds your character is still really awkward, because it is. At least it helps with pushing stuff.
Oh right, that story. Forgot about that for a sec. Yeah, Hapu's a kahuna now. Congrats to her. Can't wait to destroy her team. Anyway, time to slide on over to Exeggutor Island to get an encounter and a Sun Flute for plot related reasons. But in the meantime, forced encounter makes Alolan Exeggutor my first encounter. Unfortunately, it officially just made the final trial 9001x harder by Wood Hammering Frozen to death. Ultratree, you're a stizh. Now, let's get on with the story, and then I need to pick out two new team members to grind up.
This game interrupts progress way too often, I swear. Anyway, after our 40 billionth interruption, we got the Sun Flute and headed back to Seafolk Village. Now it's decision time. Who will join the squad in Frozen's place and in our empty slot? After thinking it over a while, I chose to add The Bully and Blue Shrimp to the team. Now, it's time to prepare for the final Grand Trial, Vast Poni Canyon, and the final trial.
So I'm right. This game hates me. Muddy Water Gastrodon in the rain killed The Bully during grinding. Since I know Hapu has a Gastrodon, I chose to take Ultratree temporarily. So, let's go take on that Grand Trial...is what I would say if there wasn't a random barricade of Team Skull grunts. This game just can't have enough getting in my way, I swear. This one isn't even hard. They're seriously just here to get in my way and it's annoying. That aside, let's get the Grand Trial over with.
So let me just say something. This game is unfair. The Grand Trial was easy, but during Vast Poni Canyon, during that double battle with the Ninetales and Sandslash, I thought I could kill them both with a Rock Slide, but Shades seriously got frozen first shot from Ice Beam, and then got double teamed because Icicle Spear strikes again and killed him. I've considered it for a while, but now I think it may be true. I think it may be impossible for me to win, mostly due to the few encounters I have left. I scouted them on Serebii, and there's almost nothing good left for encounters. I'm not giving up, though. I'm just annoyed that my recent chain of deaths have been due to stupid reasons.
Now, enough beating myself up for the game's trolling antics. After some more battles, Lillie coming out of nowhere to heal me, that painter chick giving me yet another useless item (Farium Z), and more near death experiences, we come to our second to last encounter because legendaries are banned. Sadly, it's just a Machoke. Eh, it's something. The final trial was nothing special either. Clanging Scales hit like a truck on Master Derp, but with Blue Shrimp taking hits like a champ, the final trial was clear. Our personal final trial, though, is that Lusamine battle.
So can I just say that I hate how her entire team gets a stat boost right off the bat? It's cheap and I hate it. It made her Clefable even harder to kill since it was already bulky, could swallow special attacks, and also had both Cosmic Power and Moonlight. It took a while (and a lot of setting up with both Smokey and Blue Shrimp), but I dealt with it. Mismagius got destroyed, simple as that. Same case with Bewear. It got absolutely destroyed.
The problems begin with Lilligant. First, it gets a Special Attack boost, which is stupid, or as Guzma would say, "Y'all are stupid." So, imagine that and Petal Dance put together. A 120 power STAB move on a base 110 Lilligant with a Special Attack boost. Even with higher Special Defense than the rest of my team, it still instakilled Blue Shrimp. Sure, I know the attack wasn't resisted, but still. Smokey's Special Defense sucks and she lived solely because it was resisted. Then there was Milotic, which was pretty much just a battle of "get a Special Defense drop and it'll die faster" with Master Derp. With that (and catching a legendary I can't use), we've covered the entirety of the story. All that remains is the not Victory Road mountain. Seriously, Vast Poni Canyon is more of a Victory Road than Mount Lanakila.
Massive grinding will be happening before Elite Four, naturally. So next update will be the end of the game. Let's hype ourselves up for a potential victory, folks!
Team Ruby
Master Derp (Slowbro) Lv. 50 @ Mystic Water
Nature: Naive
Ability: Own Tempo
Moves: Psychic, Slack Off, Shadow Ball, Scald
Smokey (Torkoal) Lv. 51 @ Heat Rock
Nature: Impish
Ability: Drought
Moves: Rock Slide, Flamethrower, Heat Wave, Shell Smash
Bloodhound (Stoutland) Lv. 49 @ Nothing
Nature: Docile
Ability: Sand Rush
Moves: Crunch, Rock Tomb, Wild Charge, Aerial Ace
ORAS doesn't have great grinding spots for Pokemon you're trying to push into the 60's range.
I can agree with you there. I did a Little Cup Challenge on OR and grinding up for lategame was a nightmare. Dexnaving Pelipper and stealing Lucky Eggs off of them softens the blow a little with grinding, but that isn't exactly an option in a nuzlocke, sadly.