Pokemon Diamond: The Luxray Solo Run

I declare the Pokemon Summer Season 2019 open! Granted, it's a bit early; but getting a quick taste of Valkyrie Drive Bhikkhuni made me realize that what I really wanted was some easy grinding, preferably in a relaxing and mellow game world. And what better series to fit that bill than Pokemon? None, indeed! Follow me now for yet another entry in my ever-growing list of fulfilled — and fulfilling — Pokemon solo runs, dear fellow gamers!

I'm now back to the game that started it all for me when it comes to all things Pokemon: Pokemon Diamond, i.e. my First Ever Pokemon Entry. Although I have the fondest memories of that game, I've not touched it since my first and only playthrough in 2014; as a matter of fact, I've played the whole jewellery trilogy surprisingly little given how crucially important it was for the genesis of my love for the Pokemon franchise, with only four runs under my belt between Platinum, Diamond and Pearl. And it's not like the Sinnoh region lacks viable solo runs material, oooh no precious; heck, there are some 'Mons out there I've been itching to run solo with for years. As one of the two Sinnoh regional cats, Luxray is obviously such a 'Mon — although to be fair, I've already cruised with the electric lynx, along with his fellow Purugly; but that duo run was never completed and thus got lost in the sands of time. I'm now back at it, and for good this time. No more interlopers — here's a pure Luxray solo run for you, dear fellow gamers!

Luxray is special in many regards. For once, he's one of these 'Mons that solely roams his home region and can hardly be found in the wild beyond the game that introduced him. For another, he's one of only a handful of Electric 'Mons introduced in Gen IV, and one of the precious few that boasts pure Electric Type. Last but not least, his looks and Move Pool are weirdly at odds with said pure Electric Type. Not only does Luxray don a gorgeous graphite fur coat as he evolves, but he can also learn two powerful Dark Moves along the way, namely Bite and Crunch; with such attributes, one may expect the Sinnoh lynx to boast a double Electric/Dark Type — only to be thoroughly surprised when Luxray turns out to be pure Electric. There's been some speculation about Luxray being originally intended as a dual Electric/Dark 'Mon, before GameFreak changed him to a pure Electric Type for reasons known to them only; but no matter where the truth lies, I'm rather happy with Luxray's actual Type. Not being Dark means that he only has Ground 'Mons to worry about; and with his offensive stats being quite excellent, he can wreak havoc on the battlefield with his Dark Moves even without the benefit of the STAB. I actually made my Luxray a faux-Dark/Electric 'Mon by slapping the Dread Plate on him early on — not quite good as the STAB, granted, but pretty much the next best thing, especially when there are no Type weaknesses involved.

I'll tactfully describe Luxray's Move Pool as not exactly optimized. The electric lynx can learn only three Electric Moves by levelling up, and those Moves are weirdly chosen to say the least. Luxray first learns Spark at lv.13, a physical Move with 65 power, 20 PP and 100% accuracy — pretty good, especially for a Move learnt so early. Then, a whole 22 levels later at lv.35, Luxray learns Thunder Fang: a physical Move with 65 power, 95% accuracy and 15 PP. Pray tell, why on earth would I replace Spark with Thunder Wave, when the latter is less efficient than the former? And then comes the ultimate trolling, when Luxray finally learns the very last Move of his levelling-up learnset at lv.56: Discharge, a bloody special Move. So you're telling me that I waited so long, only to be handed a Move that doesn't make the most of Luxray's highest offensive stat, i.e. his Attack? And mind you, I was running solo and thus was pretty much bound to reach lv.56 no matter what; but I feel for all the players who leveled up the Sinnoh lynx — which has a medium slow levelling-up rate, en passant — only to be slapped in the face with such an ineffective Move pool. TMs could have saved the day for Luxray; but unfortunately, all the Electric Moves he can learn on that front are special Moves as well. On the other hand, his Dark and Normal Moves are all physical; knowing that, what do you think my Move pool ended up being? Heck, you guessed it: Spark, Bite, Crunch and Return. Way to go and destroy Luxray's potential, GameFreak! Heck, no wonder the poor thing has been vegetating in the depths of the NU and PU tiers ever since his arrival.

When it comes to Diamond and Sinnoh itself, our reunion was not exactly emotional. I was shocked by how graphically primitive Diamond is, especially compared to the lush Gen III: it's like GameFreak forgot how to create textures between Gen III and Gen IV — or, more likely, they couldn't wrap their head around the DS and didn't manage to make the most of its graphical capabilities. Diamond&Pearl's graphical crudity could have been a tad alleviated, had Sinnoh itself boasted more variety in terms of landscapes and vistas; but alas, we're dealing with a dreadfully homogeneous region that sports the same sickly green grass and trees from beginning to end. As a matter of fact, the whole Diamond&Pearl colour palette is a bit off, which doesn't help their case at all. Nor does the indolent pacing, which contrasts violently with Gen III's overall swiftness: everything in D&P is slow and sluggish, from battling to surfing to looking for items — and don't even get me started on the marshes and the snow. It certainly doesn't help that wild areas between towns are so darn huge and take so long to be crossed — a fact not quite compensated by the lenient random encounter rate, which is probably the lowest in the whole series. I rushed through Sinnoh from beginning to end, not ever dilly-dallying along the way; and yet, my run clocked at 15 long, plodding hours.

Despite those letdowns, my Luxray solo run was great fun. I'm glad I could put the electric lynx to the test at long last, and I'm planning to do the same with the other pure Electric Sinnoh 'Mon, i.e. the adorable Pachirisu. Stay tuned for more electrifying Gen IV adventures, dear fellow gamers! Thanks for reading as usual, and drop by anytime!