My frustration at the first event being a Charizard raid locked behind the post-game has subsided…I'll have to get in on the Delibird raids though, I'm growing to love the little Santa and will definitely be using it in my next Gen II/IV play!
In my Violet save I'm about to go battle the Titan in the mine area. I've defeated 2 Gyms (Grass, Electric), 1 Titan (Klawf), and 1 Base (that fire car shocked me when it turned out to be a Pokémon! First time I've lost a battle in about 5 years in-game, nearly had to evolve one of my precious first stages to get past it!), I think I've explored everywhere I can in the South-East of the map. When I left Mesagoza I ended up working my way out to the coast, laughing hard when I just threw my Pikachu into the water and it just kinda bobbed there doing breast stroke whilst Thunderbolting Gyarados to death (and picked up a Palafin which I bred in a Dive Ball with Bounce) covered everywhere I could get back to the player's house, then covered basically every accessible inch around Artazon, Levincia…all the way out to Zapapico. But only used the path N of there as a shortcut back into the mines. Once I've done this Titan and Raid, might double back and go West from Mesagoza, maybe use some new Pokémon.
My team:
- Alejandro the Sprigatito (named for Antonio Banderas in The Mask of Zorro). Loaded Dice plus Bullet Seed wrecking the region!
- Jamóna the Oinkologne (didn't initially want to evolve it, did so after sweeping the 2nd gym with Bulldoze and Trailblaze, knowing it'll be the first to be dropped from my team)
- Jeanne the Charcadet (bred a decent nature, named for Joan of Arc as she's a knight who is on fire…still less grim than many Ghost Pokémon origins! Will evolve it into the Violet exclusive Fire/Ghost one)
- Finizen (forgot to think of a name)
- Pikachu (the event Fly one, never really appreciated Yellow Forest back when HGSS was new, so having one with Fly and Surf is fun! Mostly used to Thunder Wave wild Pokémon though as I prefer to focus on new ones).
EDIT: Oh, and I caught my first Gen IX Shiny! Blue Voltorb stands out quite well, so it was going to be hard to miss. Saved first though which is good as it used Selfdestruct the first 3 times! Gave up and used a Quick Ball after that.