I tackled that run with a single purpose: to pave the way for future trade-related Breeding in my dedicated Ultra Sun cartridge. Of course, this was also a perfect opportunity to discover a kickass Gen VII ‘Mon — preferably an early one. Lucky me, Grubbin was ready for the recruiting on Route 1! A Bug ‘Mon with a three-stage evolution and a never-played-before Type: what was not to love, seriously? The Vikavolt line turned out to be one of the most interesting Bug lines ever created since the dawn of the series. It’s not just the creature’s double Bug-Electric Type, mind you; it’s also its ridiculously huge learnset and its ever-changing Stat distribution, which made for constant surprises and delights.
First, them Stats. The Vikavolt line boasts highly unusual Stats for a Bug ‘Mon, but also overall. It starts with well-rounded Stats as Grubbin, then drops Speed in favour of high defensive Stats and sky-high Attack as it evolves into Charjabug. Stellar Attack for a mid-evolution Bug ‘Mon is already unusual enough, but there’s more: upon evolving into Vikavolt, Charjabug gets a complete reversal of its offensive Stats. Its Attack plummets and crashes, while its Sp. Attack goes through the roof and beyond. This means two things: first, the Vikavolt line rocks at one-shooting (and I totally made the most of it); second, a drastic Move pool overhaul had to be planned as my Foudre crossed the ultimate evolution stage. Which leads me to…
Second, them Moves! The plan was simple: to go all Physical with Grubbin and Charjabug, and all Special with Vikavolt. It was easy enough to pull off at first, and Foudre boasted two perfect sets of Physical Moves: Spark, Bug Bite, Bite and Vice Grip as a Grubbin, and Spark, X-Scissors, Crunch and Acrobatics as a Charjabug. A super-heavy Bug ‘Mon wielding a Flying Move — let that sink in. Pokemon logics for the win! Anyway, things became hairy as soon as Foudre became a Vikavolt. She learnt Thunderbolt upon evolving, which was neat enough; but I had to sweat to put together the rest of my 100% Special Move Pool, let me tell you that. I had to scour Alola to get my paws on Flash Cannon, Energy Ball and a Ground-Type Hidden Power; but the worst offender by far was bloody Bug Buzz. I obviously wanted a Bug Move, because STAB; and it so happens that Bug Buzz is part of Vikavolt’s levelling-up learnset. But wait, there’s a catch: Vikavolt learns Bug Buzz at lv. 31. Foudre was beyond that level when she evolved; and so, a Move Reminder intervention was mandatory to gain access to that Move. Do you know where the Alolan MR is? At the Pokemon centre of the game right before the bloody Elite Four, that’s where. (Insert murderous eyes) But hey; better late than never, right?
Anyway, it’s not like those Move diversions prevented my Foudre from one-shooting every living thing. I’ll say it: the Vikavolt line is one of the most badass Bug lines ever created. It starts off strong, and only gets stronger with time and evolutions. Interestingly enough, I still had a couple of tough-as-nails fights — most notably the Fire Trial and the showdown against bloody Necrozma, which required grinding and a hefty dose of strategizing and luck. Look, I said it before, and I’ll say it again: Gen VII is savage. It’s slow, it’s hard, and it’s borderline unfair when it pits your team leader against two ‘Mons in Trials. I deem it the hardest Gen out there, period.
Playing UltraSun after my recent discovery of Gen VIII made me realize how much of a transitional game the former is. With its morally ambiguous story and its villain team that’s not really a villain team after all, Gen VII’s last entry is very much a harbinger of Sw&Sh. Another instance of Gen VIII foreshadowing is Ultra Sun’s sluggish pace, which I could very much have done without — all the more so as unlike Sw&Sh, US doesn’t include uber-fast candy-based levelling-up.
With that said, my current Pokemon adventures come to an end, dear fellow gamers. I’ll dive into the series soon enough, though: the Gen IV remixes are on their merry way, and I’ve not touched that Gen for a whopping two years. I’ll gladly mop the floor with you again, Barry! See ya soon with more gaming goodness, dear fellow gamers, and take care!
Really nice. Vikavolt is my favorite Pokémon in the Gen VII and really brings me joy to see someone actually managing a solo run with it.
ReplyDeleteI still find it hilarious how the Pokédex entry talks about "speed" and "acrobatics" when it clearly has such low Speed stat (case in point: your Vikavolt's lowest stat is Speed). Of course, considering that the Pokémon design team and programmers didn't communicate, it's understandable (eve if baffling).
And maybe the zigzagging stat growth of your Vikavolt has to do with its nature and EV gain? I always try to grind some Speed EVs for my slower Pokémons so they don't lag behind too much (specially if they are on the frailer side), for instance.
Glad you liked that run, mate! It was honestly a bit of a bore at times, because of the roadblocks and because of Gen VII's sluggish pace; but it remains a great experience overall.
Delete"And maybe the zigzagging stat growth of your Vikavolt has to do with its nature and EV gain?": actually, no; it's built up in the Vikavolt line. If you check the Bulbapedia pages for Charjabug and Vikavolt, you'll see clearly that massive offensive stats reversal. This is actually one of the points that motivated me to try a Vikavolt run; I though this would be a pretty interesting situation to deal with, even though I had clearly not anticipated how tedious the move pool change would be. Oh, well; it was fun anyway, and I regret nothing ^^