Since I haven't been on here in a while, I have quite a bit to post here! At least in Diamond anyway--I haven't been playing Pearl as much.
So I'm still working on getting all 60 or so of my Pokemon to level 50 before going for my eighth badge. (I've spent over 400 hours in the game so far...) I think about half of my Pokemon are there already.
--MINOR EVENTS--
-Raiha, my Raichu, stole two Poison Barbs from the Tentacruels on Route 223.
-The News Centre in Solaceon asked for a Crobat. For that, I had to catch a Golbat in Mt. Coronet with a Luxury Ball, give him a massage, and level him up to 45 (that's when he was happy enough). Well, at least now I have a level 45 Crobat named Batman with Mean Look.
-Saphira, my Gabite, evolved to Garchomp while training in the same area where Raiha did the stealing. She's now level 49.
-Maude, my Carnivine, used to be a pain to train, with Vine Whip and Wring Out being her only offensive moves. That is, until she learned Power Whip by level up and I taught her Grass Knot by TM. Then she breezed through the water Pokemon on Route 222 and reached level 50. What a comeback. I'm proud of you, Maude!
-I made a bunch of ball capsules (enough to fill all the slots) that I sometimes put on my Pokemon when I train them. I won't describe all of them here, but one has two Line Seals and the message "PWNAGE", another has some Fire Seals and the message "BLAZE", another has varicoloured flower petals, another has confetti and the message "RAH!", etc.
--MAJOR EVENTS--
The GTS expedition.
A while back, I got a Spiritomb from a friend of mine. I bred her with my Drifblim and got ten or so baby Spiritomb (all of who got Shadow Ball from their father). I traded three of the males on the GTS (I wanted to save the females for later) for the following:
-A Munchlax, from a trainer named ヨル (Yoru)
-A Chimchar, with Flamethrower, from a trainer named ほぬか (Honuka)
-A Piplup, with Hydro Pump, from a trainer named Phucker.
All three of these Pokemon were level 1, so I had some training to do. Chimchar and Piplup, or should I say Infernape and Empoleon, were easy to train, and are now level 45 (so they caught up with everyone else). MunchSnorlax is a bit harder to train... At first I trained him in the Old Chateau, and for the longest time his only offensive move was Lick (or Metronome, if it happened to turn into an attacking move). Then I temporarily taught him Strength until he learned Body Slam, and the Rest/Sleep Talk combo. He's getting a bit better with battling, but he's still only at level 38.
The Legendary Expedition.
Originally, my plan was to get all my battling Pokemon to level 50, then capture the psychic trio (Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf), then go for badge 8. But I got impatient and decided to go for the legendaries early. It was no easy task of course (I didn't bother with the Master Ball), but I managed to catch all three of them in one day. Here's how:
The first legendary I tackled (figuratively) was Azelf. I started off with my Darkrai, who immediately used Hypnosis to put it to sleep. The next turn, Darkrai used Nightmare, and over the next few turns, the Nightmare and Darkrai's Bad Dreams ability reduced Azelf to the red zone HP-wise. Then I switched to George, my Sneasel, who False-Swiped it... and then Azelf woke up and KO'd him with Uproar. After Sneasel fainted, I switched to my Raichu (yes, it's Raiha, the thieving Raichu from before), who Thunder Waved Azelf. Then I kept stalling, throwing Ultra/Great/Timer Balls... I must have thrown about 50 balls before Azelf KO'd itself with Struggle. DX So I restarted, repeated the same procedure above... except this time, instead of paralysing Azelf, I switched to my Spiritomb (the same one I used to breed earlier), who was immune to Azelf's Uproar and Confusion, and used Hypnosis to put it to sleep. Then I kept throwing balls, although occasionally I had to use Hypnosis again, or switch out to avoid a Future Sight. Fortunately, this time I caught Azelf after the ninth or so Ultra Ball, while it was asleep.
~ ~ ~
Then I decided to go for Uxie. This time I decided not to bother with sleep, as it was curable, so I immediately had Raiha go in with Thunder Wave. Then she used a couple of Thunderbolts, which got Uxie's HP into the red. I switched to George, my False Swiper. He did his job (fortunately, being a Sneasel, he was immune to Uxie's Confusion), but soon fell asleep by Yawn... So then I switched to Darkrai to stall as I threw balls. After wasting about fifteen Ultra Balls and ten Great Balls, I caught Uxie with a Timer Ball.
~ ~ ~
Now for the hard part: Mesprit. Actually, I went at Mesprit with a pretty good strategy. My party consisted of the following:
-A Staravia with Fly and Defog (for Flying, not for battling)
-A Graveler with Strength and Rock Smash (another HM slave)
-A Floatzel with Surf (one of my battling Pokemon)
-A Pachirisu with Cut (another HM slave)
-George, my False-Swiping Sneasel
-Raiha, my Thunder-Waving Raichu
The hardest part was finding Mesprit, even with the Marking Map. I kept Flying from place to place and walking from area to area... which sometimes took a while. Then I had to use a Repel each time I visited the same spot Mesprit was in, meaning all my Pokemon had to be level 50 or below. But each time I found Mesprit, I did the following: (each number is a separate encounter, and I saved before them)
1. Raiha paralysed Mesprit.
2. Ginny (the Floatzel) did some damage with Aqua Jet.
3. Ginny did some more damage with Aqua Jet, getting Mesprit's HP into the red zone.
4. George used False Swipe.
After those four encounters, I swapped George out for Batman, the aforementioned Crobat. On the next encounter (saving beforehand, of course), Batman used Mean Look, which prevented Mesprit from fleeing. Then I threw a few Ultra/Quick Balls, but they failed. Eventually Mesprit KO'd Batman with Confusion, and then fled. Whoops, time to restart and form a Plan B.
For my Plan B, I searched for Mesprit, and immediately threw a Quick Ball. If it failed, I restarted. I repeated this process, and caught Mesprit on the fifth or so try. Well, at least I only used one Quick Ball in the whole process!
~ ~ ~
So now I have Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf. I call these three the Triforce because I nicknamed them Zelda, Ganondorf, and Link, respectively. (I think I might end up switching the nicknames of Mesprit and Azelf at some point, but...)
And, in case some of you were wondering, yes, I do also have a Sneasel named Fred. But Fred's my battler and is five levels higher than George, and doesn't know False Swipe. (And I have a Buizel nicknamed Ron. Okay, now I'll stop.)
