3rd Gen Two Trainer Stars Obtained! Going for Gold!

[ColourCodedGB]

Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire are my favourite Pokemon games, but I've never gotten the Gold Trainer Card in it. The Battle Tower always seemed too scary for me as a kid, and I never liked the contests until recently.

For those unaware, these are the requirements for the Gold Trainer Card in Ruby/Sapphire.

Deateat the League Champion
Complete the Regional Hoenn Pokedex.
Defeat 50 Trainers in a row in the Battle Tower
Get Five Portraits in the Lilycove Museum

Obviously I've already defeated the elite 4 and booted out the champion. That's the first star. I actually have two cartridges of Ruby, and two cartridges of sapphire, so I have plenty of resources available through other copies. The way the games are set up allow you to very easily trade your mudkip on a fresh file over to a completed file, evolve it to swampert, trade it back, and plow through the game quickly for TMs, legendaries etc. You can even skip a majority of the trainers, so by doing this I was able to plow through sapphire, get Kyogre and Latias, and trade a bunch of TMS over to Ruby within about 3 hours.

I've never gone for any of this extra stuff, but I'm going for it this time! I'm going to get that gold trainer card, and fully complete this game! Why am I so sure at this point? Because I've already completed the hardest part. I've already won fifty battles in a row at the battle tower!

It's worth noting that I'm only using options that are available in Ruby/Sapphire. I don't own FireRed, LeafGreen, or Emerald, so I'm going with what you'd have available to you when these games first came out. It's actually pretty fun, and I was able to squeak out 53 Battle Tower wins with a Metagross, Claydol, and Slaking. I've also already completed the Master Rank Cool Contest and got my first portrait! Having three GBAs and multiple ruby/sapphire copies is a dream because it makes berry blending better in every single way possible. No A.I helpers ruining berries, and when you do it yourself you can use the handy dandy Pokeblock generator tool online to figure out combinations of berries to make pokeblocks way better than you could ever make just by yourself with computer helpers.

Not really sure why I'm saying all this, I guess I just wanted to share with you. I've still got a bunch of Pokemon to catch, and some contests to win, so I'll keep the thread updated as I progress towards the final goal!

 

[Ivysaur]

Good luck! I never managed to get past 45 battles in the Tower, did everything else though (also by having all three games and two GBAs, haha).

Keep us updated! :D

 

[ColourCodedGB]

A bit of an update!

I challenged the battle tower again with a slightly better team of Pokemon, since I wanted my Metagross to get that ribbon he was robbed of. I had Gargantula (Metagross) Stallion (Kingdra) and Spinny (Claydol). Claydol was actually a not particularly helpful party member during the main game, which I had just happened to EV train. While he wasn't much help at the elite four, he saved my neck in the battle tower about 28 times in situations where Kingdra and Metagross were in trouble. While not as much of a powerhouse as the other two, he was absolutely necessary. It felt like something that might happen in one of the manga arcs or something, where a useless Pokemon becomes invaluable in another setting. This time through I got to battle 58, and got the ribbons for my three battle tower Pokemon.

I'm also well on my way to completing the regional Hoenndex and getting my third trainer star! I figured I'd do this before the contests in case I end up obtaining some contest viable pokemon while completing the pokedex. I've gotten all of the hard stuff out of the way, so mostly what's left is just a bunch of evolutions and silly Pokemon I haven't gotten yet. I still need the following 43 Pokemon.

Torchic, Combusken, Blaziken
Lombre, Ludicolo
Shiftry
Kirlia, Gardevoir
Masquerain
Nincada, Ninjask, Shedinja
Seaking
Azurill
Skitty, Delcatty
Sableye
Machoke, Machamp
Manectric
Magneton
Camerupt
Magcargo
Skarmory
Cacturne
Seviper
Lunatone
Cradily
Anorith, Armaldo
Kecleon
Dusclops
Absol
Psyduck, Golduck
Phanpy, Donphan
Heracross (the last potentially difficult one)
Rhydon
Walrein
Gorebyss
Regirock, Registeel

I should have the next star the next time I update. :)

 

[Pendraflare]

That's pretty cool. I completed the Hoenn Pokédex in Emerald before I wiped it, but never got portraits in the Lilycove Museum or went for the Battle Tower. It wasn't until the later games that I ever did much with it.

 

[ColourCodedGB]

I've completed the Pokedex and obtained the third trainer star!

Completing the Pokedex in any Pokemon game other than the original Red/blue is a really horrible quest. Even though there are only 200 in the Hoenndex, that's still a LOT of level grinding at the elite four for hours at a time. My level 100 Salamence could 1 hit ko the entire elite four and champion by himself, and even with battle animations off and the game put on "set" battle mode to cut out some text, each elite 4 gauntlet was about 9 minutes. It got horribly boring by the the end of it, and was not fun at all. Rhyhorn, Walrein, Cradily, and Armaldo were all a really long struggle to get to the 40s where they evolve, Thankfully I had already gotten Salamence and Metagross for other things prior to completing the Pokedex, so they weren't an issue.

I've also now completed all five contests with a high enough score for the portaits! Fourth and final trainer star obtained!

The contests are weird because there was plenty of potential to make them a great part of the game, and sometimes they're actually quite fun. However there are just too many aspects about them that are frustrating, most of all the days of prep-work just to compete in them with a high scoring Pokemon. The cute contest is by far the hardest one, and was the last thing I had to beat to get four trainer stars. Thankfully Blaziken turned out to be a pretty great contest Pokemon and got me portraits for both the beauty and cute contests.

So there! I've finally gotten a golden trainer card in Ruby/Sapphire. I wish there was a little more fanfare for it, (you know, a little more than none) but I'm glad I've finally done it. In my life I've captured all 151 on Red/blue as a young kid, caught all 250 in Gold/silver as a young kid, and recently gotten a five star trainer card in black 2, and a golden trainer card in Ruby. What can I say? I love Pokemon. :)