[Challenge] The Professor Oak's Challenge

[Sniwott]

WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF POKÉMON!​

In this challenge, you are tasked with obtaining every possible Pokémon before each gym, as Professor Oak is getting too old to continue his dream of documenting every known Pokémon! This challenge isn't really a difficult one, but rather a more grindy and tedious one. The goal for this is to try and do it all as fast as you can, trying to optimize your in-game time as much as possible! It also helps to get you to use Pokémon that you wouldn't usually use!

CORE RULES​

1. You must get every single Pokémon before each gym/island kahuna/noble Pokémon. It's not enough just to get your starter, Pidgey, Rattata, both Nidoran, Caterpie, etc. in Kanto before fighting Brock, for example, but you have to get them to their highest evolution stage possible. In the example I mentioned, that means getting Venusaur/Charizard/Blastoise, Pidgeot, Raticate, Nidorino, Nidorina, Butterfree, and whatever other Pokémon you can get your hands on at that point of time.
2. You are only allowed to use one game copy if it's a game that has an alternate version, and you are not allowed to trade for Pokédex entries, evolutions, or version exclusives.
3. You are not allowed to use glitches or hacking to get more Pokémon or rare candies, all of the grinding has to be done by hand. Any rare candies you get from the ability Pickup or any that you find that are hidden are allowed, however. It is also allowed (and advisable) in eligible games to use the experience share, Poke Amie to get an exp. boost, delay your Pokémon's evolution to get an exp. boost, and/or reset for better rng to help you go faster, whether that be resetting for a low encounter rate or getting more rare candies from Pickup. At the end of the day, most of the progress you will make is how much time you spend grinding encounters!

OPTIONAL RULES​

1. You can turn off the exp. share in the games that have it along with banning the use of rare candies if you so please.
2. If you really want to make Professor Oak happy, you can use another game to get your missing version exclusives and trade evolutions you wouldn't be able to get with just one game! Do note that you can't abuse this to trade over any and all evolved Pokémon needed to fill out more dex entries quickly as that defeats the entire purpose of the challenge.
3. In certain games, there are Pokémon you can get by using a unique feature, for example the island scan in the generation 7 games. Though they don't count towards your Pokedex completion, you can feel free to add a little bit more to your challenge by requiring the usage of those features to obtain Pokémon you wouldn't normally be able to otherwise.
4. If you'd like, there's a lot of different variants you could do with this challenge! From a 'capped' variant based on the gym leader/island kahuna/noble Pokémon's highest level to a 'type' variant where you unlock more new types to catch for each of the major fights that you win, there's a lot you can do! As long as it works with the Professor Oak's Challenge core rules, it's fair game if you'd like to spice the challenge up a bit!
5. You can also add any other additional game exclusive features into your run that may help with your challenge, such as dexnav chaining in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

ELIGIBLE GAMES​

Any and all of the main series Pokémon games are eligible for this challenge! The same goes for the spinoffs, rom hacks, and even non-Pokémon games! As long as there's an important checkpoint of sorts that doesn't stop you from collecting as many things as you can that goes towards game completion, you can do a Professor Oak Challenge in that game! Focusing on Pokémon, this setup does work even on games like the Mystery Dungeon spinoffs and Colosseum/XD, where each section is differentiated by the major battles (i.e., fighting Skarmory in Red/Blue Rescue Team and fighting Miror B. in Colosseum, for example).

FINAL WORDS​

If you'd like to participate in this challenge, then feel free to reply with your username, which game you'll be playing, any optional rules/variant you'll be playing with, and make sure that you update your progress with your in-game time after every section so we can all know how fast you were! This challenge also requires you to do the post-game, as more often than not, there'll be a Pokémon or two, usually a legendary, that you can only catch after becoming the champion/beating the game.

As an example, I'll update this thread with how my first completed run went in Omega Ruby, and I'll be updating… eventually as I work through my Yellow, Platinum, and X Professor Oak's Challenges! As a little spoiler, I've gotten past pre-badge one (which is considered the collecting before you fight the first gym leader) in both Yellow and Platinum.

Username: Sniwott
Game: Omega Ruby
Optional rules: No dexnav chaining

Happy grinding!

 

[Sniwott]

Wow, didn't expect this to get added to the challenge list so quickly, nice!

Anyhow, I will post once a day how each section of my Omega Ruby run went, how I tried to optimize my time as much as possible, and anything else I think would be interesting to talk about, as well as my mistakes. Of course, I might just forget to post daily, but rest assured it won't be long before every section gets posted. Let's get started, shall we?

Sniwott's Hoenn Adventures; The Quest For Completion, Part One​

The very first section of any and all Professor Oak Challenges are always the hardest, as more often than not, you'll have to grind up Pokémon that evolve at level 30+... while fighting low level wild Pokémon. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire are no exception to this.

Before fighting Roxanne, you have to get a fully evolved starter, a Gardevoir, Slaking, and even Exploud, despite it evolving at a whopping level 40. Luckily, since this is a generation 6 game, there are plenty of ways to make it easier on yourself.

With that little pre-amble out of the way, I'll now take you through my route while also pointing out major mistakes and anything else worthwhile.

I started my game, going through the beginning to get to pick my starter as fast as I can, and when presented the choice, I decided to go with Torchic. There's not really a major advantage to picking one starter over another in this game since they all end up fully evolved by level 36, though you could make an argument for picking Treecko since it's the only Hoenn starter that gets False Swipe, if you'd like to use it to help catch Pokémon. At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter.

After picking Torchic, I go through the motions up until I finally get my Pokedex and Poke Balls, and the challenge can finally begin proper. I head north and catch all the available Pokémon, being Wurmple, Poochyena, and Zigzagoon. I opt to catch the Poochyena that your rival points out to you that has an elemental fang move, as that Poochyena is at a higher level than any other you can find in the wild. I also ended up catching 5 different Wurmple, since I need both Beautifly and Dustox for my dex. I felt that was faster and easier to hope for the right evolution and reset if I got a repeat than to catch the cocoons from Petalburg Woods since they have a pretty low encounter rate there. I also didn't bother getting a squad of Zigzagoons for Pickup as I feel it's not that useful in gen 6 and on for this kind of challenge due to the Pickup table.

After those catches, I went up to Route 103 and caught a Wingull, quickly going back to Oldale and then west to route 102 to get some more encounters. I get Seedot, two Ralts, one of which is male, and Surskit. Surskit was pretty annoying to find since it's a one percent encounter, so it took a bit to find one. I ended up getting a Surskit that popped up on the dexnav, catching it immediately and heading to Petalburg City. Keep in mind I'm not chaining my encounters to get higher leveled Pokémon for this challenge.

After watching the Beautifly... fly, I go into the gym to find my dad and Wally, and after helping out Wally, he gave me an upgrade to the dexnav, unlocking Super Training and Pokémon Amie. These are very important for this challenge, and now that I got them, I immediately go into Pokémon Amie to boost my Torchic's experience gains by 20 percent, by getting two hearts of affection on it. I quickly do that by feeding, petting, and playing with my Pokémon in that order repeatedly until my Pokémon does an animation where it's happy and lots of hearts come out of it. I do the same to one of the Ralts, my female one in fact. It's definitely more worth it to do this only to the really high level Pokémon, preferably three stage evolutions as to not waste too much time as you can get heaps of experience quickly in this game thanks to a certain move...

Anyhow, after playing with my Pokemon, I went west to Route 104 to catch a Tailow, heading into the Petalburg Woods soon after. In the woods, I also catch a Shroomish and two Slakoth, before fighting the team Magma grunt and finally getting the experience share, which is a huge help for this challenge. I caught two Slakoth since there's an in-game trade for a Makuhita in Rustboro, which I will soon get to. I take the opportunity to use Pokémon Amie to boost the experience gain of one of my Slakoth before moving on.

In Rustboro, I head straight to the Pokémon Center to go to the pc and have Torchic, both of my Slakoth, Surskit, my female Ralts, and one of my Wurmple in my party. Afterwards, I go to the cut master's house to get the hm for Cut, then go do the trade with my extra Slakoth to get Makuhita in my dex. Finally, to complete all the catching for this section, I head to Route 116 and get Skitty, Nincada, and Whismur. Now this is where the grinding begins! I did make sure to battle every trainer along the way with Torchic so I wouldn't waste time backtracking for them.

To begin, I focused on getting Surskit leveled up first, up to level 9 where it learned Sweet Scent! This is a very crucial Pokémon and move for this challenge, as horde battles are the best way to get tons of exp. With that, I keep using Sweet Scent to enter a horde battle, using Surskit's Bubble to do damage to all 5 Pokémon, rinse and repeat until I had to go back to the Pokémon Center to heal up or use a different Pokémon with an attack that hits all 5, assuming they had it. All in all, the grind wasn't too bad, more tedious than anything. Sometimes Surskit couldn't one-shot the hordes, and it took until about level 14 or 15 for Bubble to start knocking all 5 out. Can't quite remember as this run started all the way back in 2020 and ended in 2021 hah. All the grinding was done on Route 116, for the record.

Soon enough, I got my first evolution, which was Wurmple. It ended up evolving into Cascoon, which means it would then evolve into Dustox. Not long after, I got the aforementioned Dustox, and head straight back to the Pokémon Center to heal up my team and put Dustox away in the box. Before interacting with the pc, I make it easier on myself by saving, so I could soft-reset back there if the next Wurmple I grabbed also evolved into Cascoon so I wouldn't lose time. Lo and behold, it took until the fourth Wurmple I caught to finally evolve into Silcoon, so I could then get Beautifly, my preferred evolution.

I then head back to the Pokemon Center once again to heal up and put Beautifly away, grabbing Whismur as that is the highest evolution level of this section, and I'd like to finish that grind for it as soon as possible. To help speed up the process, I also play with Whismur in Pokémon Amie to get more exp. By this point, Torchic finally evolved into Combusken... in spirit. You can stack the Pokémon Amie exp. boost with another exp. boost, by cancelling the evolution. This is useful for three stage evolution families, as it's overall less grinding and more time save, even though you have to cancel the evolution every level up. I waited all the way until Torchic was level 35 to actually evolve it into Combusken, so the next level it would be Blaziken. This is what I do with just about every three stage evolution family.

With that out of the way, I don't think I need to spend any more time describing exactly every detail from now on and will just focus on the major mistakes/interesting stuff so as to not bore everyone. Speaking of major mistakes...

When Surskit finally evolved into Masquerain, I messed up by not teaching it Air Cutter, which it learns upon evolution. This ends up losing me time in the next section, so I'll explain in more detail later, but for now, this was still a bad mess-up. Luckily, I had Ralts which learns Disarming Voice, along with the second one... after I got some evolutions so I could put it in my party. Masquerain also still had Bubble, so at least I could still oneshot the hordes.

After more than 10 hours of in game time, I finally had everything needed for the section, except for the stone evolutions. By this point with my high leveled Pokémon, they all had their evs maxed out so I could do the secret training, getting the opportunity to get the stones themselves. I needed a moon, dawn, and leaf stone for Skitty, male Kirlia, and Nuzleaf respectively.

During that grind, I actually found a shiny, a Zigzagoon in fact, in a horde. It was before I started to grind up Zigzagoon for Linoone, so I ended up evolving my shiny for the Linoone!

Spoiler:

With everything said and done, pre badge 1 of my Omega Ruby Professor Oak's Challenge was complete, with an in-game time of 12 hours and 19 minutes!

Spoiler:

 

[Sniwott]

Sniwott's Hoenn Adventures; The Quest For Completion, Part Two​

I easily destroy Roxanne with my Blaziken, allowing me to move on to also destroy the team Magma grunt that's keeping Peeko away from poor Mr. Briney. After a lot of nonsense and jibber-jabber, I'm able to sail away with Mr. Briney to Dewford. Upon setting foot on the dock, I rush straight to the fisherman who gives you the old rod so I can start fishing for new Pokémon. I get Magikarp and Tentacool, then I head back to Mr. Briney and go all the way back to Petalburg City, so I can fish for a Goldeen. After successfully catching it, I high tailed it back to Dewford and go to Granite Cave, catching Zubat, Abra, and Geodude, and now it's time to evolve them all!

Overall, it wasn't too bad, but remember when I said that I made a mistake by not teaching Masquerain Air Cutter? It hurt my in-game time as there was less power points I could use overall, which also meant I had to head back to the Pokémon Center more frequently. Not only that, but for whatever reason, when my Masquerain had the opportunity to learn Air Slash at level 32 (which I hit during the last section, wasn't a big time loss cause there were other Pokémon with horde hitting moves), I have no idea what I was thinking, but I taught it over Bubble, which meant two things; I wasted a tiny bit of time teaching the move when I didn't need it, and I also lost my way of hitting all 5 Pokémon in the hordes, so I lost a team slot making sure I had a Pokémon that actually could hit all 5 during this section, with my Pokémon of choice being Pelipper with, ironically enough, Air Cutter. At the very least, I kept Zubat in my party the whole time, as I need Crobat for this section, and it's a friendship evolution, so it makes it simpler to gain friendship points since I had to walk around a bit, and nevertheless I did some extra running around next to Granite Cave so I could speed up that process a bit.

Besides that mistake, I was also very silly and made yet another mistake, which probably cost me about 20 minutes of in-game time... Now that I have a gym badge, I unlocked trainer rematches, which are helpful for getting some more money for Poke Balls and some experience, though horde battles are still the dominant experience gain. With that knowledge, I decided to waste my time and do some trainer rematches, particularly the fishermen surrounding Granite Cave, so I could level up Goldeen... Needless to say, that wasted time. At least it gave me a lot of steps to speedup Golbat's evolution, but it was still a time loss all in all. This section was very sloppy.

On a more positive note, I ended up finding two shinies while doing hordes! A shiny Makuhita and a shiny Zubat. Obviously didn't evolve either of them (though it would be cool) since I already had Hariyama from the last section, and I spent a lot of time with the Zubat I had already caught, which was only a few levels away from evolving into Golbat and had plenty of friendship points, so to the boxes they go. I just barely got the shiny Zubat too, as Goldeen was a horde battle away from evolving, so close call there.

Spoiler:

Excuse the horribly blurry image here, Zubat just moves around a lot haha.

Spoiler:

After Goldeen evolved, I went back to the Pokémon Center in order to heal up and box all my Pokémon except Masquerain and Crobat. I went to the Dewford gym and solved the "puzzle," making it to Brawly and saving before the battle.

Spoiler:

 

[Sniwott]

Sniwott's Hoenn Adventures; The Quest For Completion, Part 3​

After thusly beating up Brawly, I go back to Granite Cave so I can deliver a letter to Steven, rushing back to the boat and sailing to Slateport Beach, avoiding every trainer along the way so as to not waste time. Arriving in the city, I go to the shipyard and find out that Captain Stern is at the museum, so I head straight over there. I make sure to get the Thief tm from the Magma grunt before going upstairs, finding Stern, and beating some more Magma grunts.

With the parts delivered, I go to the marketplace to buy the Rose and Sea Incenses, since I have plenty of money for them. I also go talk with the lady in the Pokémon Fanclub to get the soothe bell, showing her my Crobat who has more than enough friendship for her to give it to me. I attempt to leave Slateport but get distracted by Lisia, who ropes me into a contest, which I easily won with Crobat. She gives me a cosplay Pikachu, which I take solely for the dex entry.

I finally leave Slateport, letting me catch a plethora of new Pokémon. I get two Oddish, Electrike, Minun, Magnemite, Gulpin, and Voltorb. I can also thankfully get Plusle, with the use of hordes, and I start training up some of the Pokémon while I try to get one, since it's a five percent encounter rate. Once I got everything, I go to beat up May before moving on to Mauville City.

There's plenty of places to go, but I prioritize getting the mach bike from the shop, which allows me access to some new Pokémon. The acro bike will also come in handy later. I then go to the Poke Mart and buy the tm for Bulldoze, as that's a horde hitting move I can use to speed up the training for a Pokémon in the section along with the next, which I'll mention when it's time.

I ignore everything else for now to go all the way back to Granite Cave, in order to catch Aron and Mawile. Remember that I just talked about Bulldoze? I teach Aron it and put it in my party since it evolves at level 42, the highest of this challenge so far. After those catches, I head back to Mauville and go west to Route 117 to get the final catches for this section. I get a female Marill, female Roselia, Volbeat, and Illumise. The grind can begin!

I go ahead and make sure to get the breeding out of the way, giving my Roselia the Rose Incense and my Marill the Sea Incense, breeding both of them with a compatible male partner so I could get Budew and Azurill. While waiting for the eggs to spawn and hatch, I make sure to continuously grind, which was pretty uneventful, as this time I don't get any shinies and made no major mistakes.

Aron did a great job with the hordes as Bulldoze was more than capable of knocking out 5 at once. I made sure to prevent its evolution until level 41 and I played with it in Pokémon Amie. Everyone else wasn't too bad to level up, and soon enough I get everything I need, making sure to get some more evolution stones from the Super Secret Training. I also went to Verdanturf to buy some luxury balls for future friendship evolutions before going to fight Wally and saving in front of Wattson.

Spoiler:

 

[Sniwott]

Sniwott's Hoenn Adventures; The Quest For Completion, Part Four​

Allow me to start this off by saying that by this point, my new Sweet Scent user is Vileplume, so that will stay on my team for the time being instead of Masquerain, since Vileplume has a horde hitting move in Acid, so I don't need to waste a team slot anymore!

Wattson doesn't stand a chance, so after I kick his butt, I hightail it all the way back to Granite Cave yet again to get Nosepass, since I can now use Rock Smash out of battle. I teach Exploud the move and soon enough get the north-pointing rock, before getting back to Mauville so I can head north and smash the rocks that were blocking my way previously.

I go west since I don't have the goggles yet, and I catch a Machop and Numel in the nearby grass. I also got Strength from May which will be good later on.

I went to the Fiery Path and suffered for a good half hour thanks to Grimer being a mere five percent encounter rate Pokémon in Omega Ruby, which would be Koffing in Alpha Sapphire's case. Anyhow, I also got Torkoal and Slugma along with the aforementioned Pokémon. I get Secret Power from some guy before moving on, and later on Route 113 I can catch Spinda, Skarmory, and Sandshrew. Before continuing to Fallarbor, I get the soot sack and proceed to run around in the soot, getting filthy as I try to get enough to obtain the black flute. It boosts the levels of wild Pokémon you can find anywhere from one to four levels higher, and the effect stays as long as you stay on the route, and it works with hordes, so there's plenty of experience I can get now thanks to it.

Now I get to Fallarbor and start the Cozmo stuff, going to the center to heal up and going to the mart, buying a surplus of dusk and quick balls to help with the catching.

On Route 114, I catch Swablu and Zangoose, missing out on Seviper since it's a version exclusive. I rush to Meteor Falls and also catch Solrock, encountering team Aqua and dealing with that before being allowed to go back to the cable car on Route 111, which lets me go to the Jagged Pass, where I fight team Magma, which was very easy.

After chasing away Maxie and his goons, I go south into the grass below and get a Spoink. Finally, I head to Lavaridge and get the egg from the old lady, and soon after it hatches into Wynaut, and now I have every Pokémon need and can start evolving!

By far this was the easiest section, thanks to the Spinda hordes and occasional Skarmory hordes (as it's the best exp spot currently). The black flute level increase was also great. I quickly get every evolved Pokémon I need, and even a shiny Spinda to boot! I saved in front of Flannery after my last Pokémon, Numel, evolved.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

 

[Sniwott]

Sniwott's Hoenn Adventures; The Quest For Completion, Part Five​

Flannery got stomped by Camerupt, and I finally get the go-goggles from May, as well as an offer to go straight to Petalburg City so I could get my fifth gym badge. Of course, I politely declined as I still have business in the area. I go to the desert nearby, and catch Baltoy, Trapinch, and Cacnea, and I headed to the northeast of the desert to pick up a fossil, with a choice of the Root and Claw fossils. I picked the Root fossil as Lileep gets a horde hitting move, so I can speed up training for this section.

Here's where I make a pretty substantial blunder, I have to go back to Rustboro so I can revive the Root fossil I just got... Instead of going back to Lavaridge and jumping over the ledges over to the right, which would overall be a shorter trek to Rustboro, I decided to bike all the way back. This was pretty big, and I lost like 15 minutes if I remember. I suppose either way I'd have to bike back to Route 111 to do the Spinda/Skarmory hordes as they are still the best source for experience, but at the same time it was a silly time loss. I didn't utilize May's offer either, so even more of a silly time loss, probably another 10 minutes lost.

Anyhow, that's the whole section, so overall a quicker one than the last, so it's time to evolve! I use Pokémon Amie on Trapinch and delay its evolution until level 44 to speed it up, and I get yet another shiny Spinda, so I have two of the most unique shinies out there now!

I go through the gym, battling every trainer needed until my last Pokémon, Vibrava, evolves into Flygon, and then I rush to Norman and save in front of him.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

 

[Sniwott]

Sniwott's Hoenn Adventures; The Quest For Completion, Part Six​

Father had no idea what was coming to him, getting destroyed by my newly evolved Flygon. After leaving the gym, I get the hm for Surf, which is immediately useful for me to get some more encounters. I stop by the Center to get Pelipper out of the box, my candidate for Surf, before going to route 118 again, surfing across the water in order to talk with the fisherman on the other side (I guess that's why the Pelipper crossed the sea). I get the good rod from him and get to fishing after activating my black flute, nabbing Carvanha. I do a biking trip back on the land where I previously was, going back to Petalburg City and fishing for Corphish, then heading to route 103 for Wailmer. I make sure to save before fishing, as Wailmer only has a five percent chance of being found, so I didn't bother with the black flute for this catch, or any low percent encounter for that matter. I had to reset quite a bit before actually getting it, catching it and moving on all the way back to the Winstrate's house, fishing next to it for Barboach.

I then go back to Rustboro, going north to surf up to an area where I catch a female Jigglypuff and grab some kelpsey berries. I do super training quickly so I can evolve it to Wigglytuff, then go to the daycare and breed it so I can also get Igglybuff, leaving Wigglytuff in the pc after an egg was made, along with putting Vileplume in so I can hatch the egg, as I'm not really going to need it for this section.

I also trade in 2 of my fishing encounters and put Magneton and Nosepass in my party so I can get those evolutions out of the way. I can now go to New Mauville despite not being able to enter the doors, but the area still counts, so I use 2 of my rare candies I found to quickly evolve the Pokémon I just mentioned, going back to the Center and replacing them with my 2 fishing encounters from earlier.

After all is said and done, I go back to route 118 and find Steven again, who asks me to help him with saving a legendary, pretty early but cool as heck. We fight team Magma together, and Latios wants to join, so I let it for an easy dex entry. After leaving the small island I was whisked away to, I go to the grass and catch a Kecleon, which takes a bit as it's another five percent encounter.

I go east to stop by the Berry Master's house, stealing- I mean, borrowing, his entire berry stash, rushing back to route 118 so I can head north to route 119, probably my favorite route in this game. I look for Tropius, getting it pretty quick before heading up to the weather institute, fighting through team Magma to get Castform... after I went back to the pc on the bottom floor to make room for it. I thusly slam it into the pc to rot, leaving the institute and preparing for the next rival battle.

The battle was quick, and I get rewarded with the hm for Fly, so now I can have easy travel from place to place... Once I beat Winona. I immediately teach Pelipper it anyways, before taking a pit stop to Fortree's Pokémon Center, making an open space as Igglybuff finally hatched by this point. I leave the slot open, going back to route 119 and heading to the bottom floor to get fishing for Feebas. I was playing at nighttime, so I go to the rock that's south of the river to increase my chances of finding it, saving before doing any encounters. I reset over every Feebas until I catch one with a special attack boosting nature, finally getting it after 8 failed Feebas as that particular one had a rash nature. I use the berries I legally obtained to make some good beauty boosting Poke Blocks with the Poke Block maker I got yonder ago. I force feed them to the ugly fish, saving before using yet another rare candy I found to level it up to make sure it had a high enough beauty stat to evolve into Milotic.

I stuff my now beautiful fish in the pc and put one of the fishing encounters I had boxed from earlier into my party, going east of Fortree to get my last encounter for the section, Absol, and I get the Devon scope from Steven so I can enter the Fortree City gym when I'm ready, and now I can start evolving all the Pokémon I didn't evolve already, and lucky for me I only have four more to evolve!

Getting Wailord was a pain as it evolves at level 40, but at the very least I kept it in my party the entire time, and I played with it in Pokémon Amie after catching it so I could evolve it even faster. Luckily, it didn't take all that long with battling every trainer in the immediate area, and soon enough everyone evolved, Wailmer being the last of the bunch. I save in front of Winona, happy with no major mistakes but saddened by no shinies.

Spoiler:

 

[Sniwott]

Sniwott's Hoenn Adventures; The Quest For Completion, Part Seven​

Winona got trashed, and now I have access to flying outside of battle, so now I can have an easy way to get everywhere I need to be. I continue on, blazing past route 120 and making it to route 121. I take the time to visit the Safari Zone as I'm passing my way by, where there'll be even more Pokémon to catch. This was actually my first time ever bothering with the safari zone in this game, so little fun fact there.

In the southeast area, I meet an old friend in Pikachu, and catch a female one so I can actually evolve it, as well as breed for a Pichu. I also get Doduo and Psyduck, as well as a Girafarig in the tall grass in the area. In the southwest area, I get my hands on a female Xatu, so I can breed for a Natu. I then fumbled around as I had no knowledge that you needed the acro bike to access the other two areas, so after realizing that I quickly leave and fly to Mauville to switch bikes, flying back and entering for some more Pokémon.

In the northwest, I catch a Rhyhorn and a Heracross, moving to the east to get the final encounters, those being Pinsir and a female Donphan, to, say it with me, breed for a... Phanpy. I also decided to evolve Pikachu there and then after getting a quick thunder stone from secret super training, putting the Pokémon I need to breed into the conveniently placed pc to make room for evolutions.

Leaving the Safari Zone once again, I head south and surf to Mt. Pyre, where upon entering, I can catch Shuppet and Duskull. Heading up the mountain, I also catch Meditite and Vulpix, going even higher up to encounter team Magma yet again, stealing the red orb and escaping, but not for long! I make the smart choice and save before going into the nearby grass, as this time I'm going to need a female Chimecho to breed for a Chingling... I've said those words a lot, huh?

It takes quite a bit, as Chimecho is a mere five percent encounter in these games, though it was even lower in Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. It also has a 50/50 chance of being a female, so I get stuck waiting for a good twenty minutes to finally find one, soft resetting after every five encounters. This wasn't even the worst part of this section...

I go to Slateport, dropping by the market to get a pure incense for Chimecho before going to the ferry harbor to find team Magma stealing a submarine from poor old Captain Stern. I fight them and obviously win, causing them to escape and for Stern to take me to Lilycove. I went north to fight May, before getting back to business and heading east, surfing to the hideout and kicking butt everywhere I went. I made sure to get the Master Ball before beating Courtney, allowing her and the rest of team Magma to escape yet again... I'm really bad at that.

With the barrier out of the way, I go further east, and even north, to find the fabled Shoal Cave, and at the time of playing, it was high tide, which meant that I could only catch Spheal. I left the cave after doing so, saving and quitting the game to change my clock to a time where it would be low tide, going back in the game and cave to find two Snorunts, one of which was female.

After all was said and done, I dash to Mossdeep City, finding the final fisherman I needed to care about, who gave me the super rod, which means the worst part of this section (for me at least, with my luck) has begun. I start by flying to Lilycove, saving my game before doing any encounters. I fish up a Staryu after roughly five minutes, kinda lucky as this is yet another five percent encounter Pokémon. I, of course, reset if I didn't get it within a threshold of five fishing encounters.

I fly back to Mossdeep in order to surf south to route 128, where I find a plot of land to stand on and start fishing. I get a Luvdisc, saving my game to prepare for the final five percent encounter of this section...

It took me, no exaggeration, HALF AN HOUR!!!! to find a Corsola. It got so bad that I lowered my threshold of resets for this catch as I was getting frustrated, now resetting after every three encounters. Eventually it decided to get hooked, of course, but it still stands that it was awful hah.

To end the catches for this section, I head west, all the way to Pacifidlog Town, before fishing for Horsea, who thankfully does NOT have a five percent encounter rate. Now onto evolving and breeding!

Just about every Pokémon was ready to evolve, so it really didn't take more than an hour to evolve everything in part thanks to the black flute, and I relieve myself by leaving the breeding for last, hatching what I needed and rushing back to Mossdeep in order to face off with Tate and Lisa, saving in front of them and mentally preparing myself for the next section... More on that soon. :)

All in all, not bad, no major mistakes but no shinies either. The luck really dried out... no way I don't get another shiny before the end of the challenge, right?

this was such a bad picture im sorry-

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