Username: Devalue
Partner Pokemon: Glalie
Challenge: Single
Game(s): Black
Previous Progress: No
Settled on Musharna originally. Realized a huge problem: utter helplessness versus Dark. Learns only Psychic damaging moves by level-up, and Nightmare. Okay, maybe the TMs, then? Waits until just before Gym 4 for Rock Tomb (Desert Resort) or Return/Frustration/Gyro Ball (Nimbasa City) to be able to hit a Dark type. Makes any Purrloin fight before that (such as N) incredibly terrible.
Only picks up a few other "good" TMs before postgame as well: Charge Beam (around Gym 6), Shadow Ball (before Gym 8), and Hidden Power (see 100 Pokemon). Could have started with Secret Power or Swift as an egg move, admittedly. Shrugs. Feels weird to do that. (Missed that as an option until now too.)
Decided on Glalie to mess around with Moody. Always locked Moody behind hidden abilities. Noticed it was an option here. Went for that.
Typically avoids items in-battle, if possible. Will be reticent to use them. Hopefully avoids X items entirely. Definitely bought some when first able, however.
Has not played Unova since the games released, also. Wanted to run through them again. Finally got around to it.
Randomed into the male trainer. Chose Tepig as the starter. Avoids dealing with Emboar later.
Picked between six different Snorunts.
Went back and forth between #1 and #3. Chose the Brave-natured #3 on total IVs (111 to 105). Hated to have #1's bad Attack. Expects to use that a fair bit (basically any non-Ice move). Looked up Hidden Power on its own to be sure it was not postgame. Heard people suggest 115 Pokemon. Likely only gets Hidden Power for
maybe N and Ghetsis, in that case.
Named this Snorunt "McMurdo" after an Antarctic research station.
N fight: Starts out rough. Received two Special Attack drops. Took 6 Powder Snows (with one freeze) to take down the Purrloin two levels higher. Dodged a few attacks, at least.
Bianca fight: Was not prepared. Wanted to go to the Pokemon Center to get more Powder Snows (at 10/25). Fished for Special Attack buffs while Double Teaming. Took a lot of damage. Burned 1 Potion.
Cheren fight: Reached +6 Special Attack, but -3 Accuracy. Kind of tells you how that went. Froze Oshawott for several turns, at least. One-shot the Pokemon after it (after missing once). Learned the first physical move (Bite) from the battle.
Cress (Gym 1) fight: Where is the level advantage? Came in at level 12 (versus level 12 Lillipup and level 14 Panpour). Tied the Lillipup's Speed. Knew about Work Up beforehand. Prioritized defeating it over Double Team + Moody boosts.
Recorded some Moody boosts:
- +2 Defense / -1 Attack
- +2 Special Attack / -1 Defense
- +2 Attack / -1 Defense
Took a -1 Special Defense. Healed to 33/37...and then died to a critical Water Gun.
Attempt 2: Same idea.
- +2 Special Attack / -1 Defense. Uh oh.
- +2 accuracy / -1 evasion. Went down to 21/37 on a single +1 Bite.
- +2 accuracy / -1 Special Attack. Not appreciated.
- Aaand fainted to another critical.
Leveled to 13 on maybe ten level 4-5 wild Pokemon (for half a level). Breaks the speed tie with Lilli--+0 Speed on the level. Siiiiighs. Learned Icy Wind, though. Half credit.
Attempt 3: Led with Icy Wind to break the Speed tie.
- +2 Attack / -1 Special Defense
- +2 Special Defense / -1 evasiveness
- +2 Attack / -1 Special Defense (again)
Continued for maybe two more turns beyond that. Ended the fight without taking damage (1 Work-Up by Lillipup, 2 by Panpour). Appreciates the pretty solid boosts for the gym battle, if nothing else.
Cheren (2) fight: Reached +6 Special Attack in maybe five turns. Not a fan of these surprise fights.
Asks this wild encounter rate to calm down. Moves like two steps sometimes.
Remembers Audino giving good experience, but not this good. Earned a little over 500 experience for one. Guesses maybe one-fifth of that for a normal Pokemon.
Passed on Protect. Opts for Double Team for Moody boost fishing. Faces possible Work Ups, Swords Dances, and so on. Views Double Team as a defense buff for the entire battle.
...Fainted to a gym trainer Herdier after missing six straight Icy Winds (at -2 accuracy for most of that). Died on the inevitable critical. Knew it would cause problems eventually. Burned three Potions too (not very strong, but still). Won on attempt 2 at 48/60 hitpoints and three attacks.
Lenora (Gym 2) battle: Enters with a level advantage this time (23). Chose Oran over Chesto, despite knowing about Hypnosis.
Moody boosts:
- +2 Speed / -1 evasiveness
- +2 Special Defense / -1 Attack
- +2 Special Defense / -1 Speed
- +2 Accuracy / -1 evasiveness
- Tumbled to 7/62 health from a single Take Down at -2 Defense (from Leers) on this turn. Almost finished off Herdier from recoil.
- +2 Attack / -1 Speed
- +2 Defense / -1 Special Attack
- Healed to full, then promptly fainted to Retaliate (unsurprisingly).
Should have gone for flinch nonsense. Might have been outsped on that, though (+0 Speed).
Attempt 2. Better boosts this time, please.
- +2 Special Attack / -1 Defense. Currently at -2 Defense after a Leer.
- (Dodged Take Down) +2 Speed / -1 accuracy
- +2 Speed / -1 Special Attack
- +2 Special Attack / -1 evasiveness
- Switched to damage. One-shot Herdier. +2 Attack / -1 Special Attack. Come on.
- Failed to one-shot regardless of that Special Attack drop. Dodged Hypnosis. +2 Attack / -1 evasiveness.
- Miss and miss. +2 something / -1 evasiveness.
- Finished with Icy Wind.
...0 damage once again. Notices a distinct feast or famine outcome.
Nearly repeated the gym trainer Herdier kerfuffle on a different Herdier. Missed three straight Icy Winds. Dropped down to -4 accuracy on one turn before getting a +2 to accuracy.
Predicts a death to Bide + accuracy drops at some point. Missed Icy Wind twice on the first turn of a Bide. Could have easily been on turn 2 instead.
Boosted Special Attack on turn 1 on just about every gym trainer in Burgh's gym. Knows what will not happen on Burgh.
Burgh (Gym 3): Noticed an increasing level advantage. Cannot recall how large. May have been level 27-28?
- Went straight for damage. Was not happy about the turn 1 critical Poison Tail for about one-third of McMurdo's health. +2 Speed / -1 accuracy
- +2 accuracy / -1 Attack
- +2 Special Defense / -1 Defense. Sent out Dwebble now. Bad timing on that defense drop.
- Hovered just above half with one Smack Down. +2 Evasiveness / -1 Special Defense
- +2 accuracy / -1 Special Attack
- Ended the turn at 5 hitpoints. +2 Special Attack / -1 evasiveness
- Lemonade time. +2 Speed / -1 evasiveness. Excellent timing on that Speed.
- Dwebble down. +2 Special Defense / -1 evasiveness
Effectively won from there. Two-shot Leavanny. Burned through all of Burgh's items.
Passed on Ice Fang during the battle. Would be better than Icy Wind. Means no special moves, however. Dislikes that idea with Moody. Hated to drop Bite or Headbutt. Helps versus Water and Fire types. Wants Double Team as an option. Worst case scenario: Would have replaced it with Ice Beam...eventually (at the Move Reminder as Glalie).
Slapped the Eviolite on McMurdo. Could have used that before the gym. Better late than never.
Bianca (2): Thank you for calling before this 4 on 1. Oh, wait. Level 18. Never mind. Became a little bit irritated from missing a -1 accuracy bit, then getting confused. Investigated those buildings for vague memories of a (Wide?) Lens, not an Eviolite.
Why are there so many trainers with Water types in the desert?
Cheren (3): Um, not in the desert, please. Oh well. Laughed at Pansear's 4 damage Incinerate. Not too tough overall.
Yikes. Fought a Darumaka trainer. Sat at the other end of the spectrum of fire damage. Ate a Fire Punch (+0 Defense) for 50-60 hitpoints (out of 82). Might have fainted without the Eviolite between that and constant sandstorm chip damage.
Obligatory Dress Up image.
N (2) ferris wheel battle: Received possibly the worst Moody luck to date. Dipped to -1 Attack, -3 Special Attack, and -2 Accuracy at one point. Collected a lot of defense boosts, on the positive side.
Elesa (Gym 4) battle: Did not record McMurdo's level here. Guesses level 35.
- Hoped to take out Emolga. Volt Switched to Zebstrika before the Icy Wind landed. Not too surprised. +2 accuracy / -1 Defense. Not great.
- +2 Defense / -1 accuracy. The reverse of last round. Sure.
- Left Zebstrika at 1 hitpoint. +2 Defense / -1 accuracy
- Guzzled a Lemonade while in red health or near it. +2 Defense / -1 Special Attack
- +2 Attack / -1 Special Attack. Does not appreciate -2 Special Attack with neither Emolga down yet.
- Delivered a Crunch critical in back-to-back rounds. One-shot Zebstrika this time. +2 Special Defense / -1 accuracy.
- Smashed the two Emolgas in a round each.
Okay-ish Moody boosts this time? Appreciated the defense boost for Flame Charge. Fell to -2 accuracy after Zebstrika went down, thankfully.
Cheren (4) battle: Cannot go anywhere without a surprise battle. Risked fainting to a critical and was not punished. Still needed to heal, however.
Weathered the Herdier twins. Presumes them to be rough, particularly for physical Pokemon.
Dislikes Clay. Blames you for Team Plasma getting away. Claims to be "honest". Understands why Lacey went to Blueberry Academy. X's Clay too.
Clay (Gym 5) battle: Enters at level 40. Cannot quite evolve yet (42). Plan: Rack up some boosts on Palpitoad. Knows well enough to fear Excadrill. Cannot really set up on Krokorok (Swagger, Torment).
- One-shot Krokorok. +2 Defense / -1 Special Defense.
- Oh...hi, Excadrill. Good timing on that Defense buff. Took 24 damage from Rock Slide and flinched. +2 Special Attack / -1 accuracy. Neh.
- Dealt only 60% that +2 Icy Wind. Not impressed. Hone Claws for Excadrill. +2 Evasiveness / -1 Speed. So much for that Icy Wind debuff.
- Dodged Slash and took down Excadrill. Easy street from here.
Only suffered damage from the one Rock Slide. Fairly good Moody boosts.
Stops here on the cusp of evolving. Thoughts on Black so far:
- Was Gym 1 overleveled, or is that just Snorunt's experience curve making it feel bad? Did not expect to be underleveled in a solo, even early on. Felt bad to farm such low-level Pokemon too.
- Does not like the wild encounter rate. Needed to increase the minimum number of steps.
- Feels refreshing to face actually threatening Pokemon on the gym leader.
- Why are the TMs so bad? Bought Return. Recalls nothing else good. Received better TMs in Sword/Shield (not TRs).
- Enjoys the sidestory between Bianca and her dad. Resolved that a little too easily, maybe, but even so.
- Seems pretty good so far, despite some of the negative things said above. Cannot quite pinpoint why. Perhaps the steady progress or paying a lot of attention to Moody?
Gengar | Ghost/Poison | Level 48
