Pokemon Ruby: The Flygon Solo Run

 

 

Getting an extra serving of Gen III, just because I can! I became fully aware of the Flygon line’s existence as I was cruising through the Desert on route 111 and stumbled upon a Trapinch right as my Repel stopped working. The thing is, I always cross the Route 111 Desert on Repels; and this was probably the first time ever I encountered a wild Trapinch in Hoenn. My curiosity aroused by this creature, I looked for its evolutions on Bulbapedia — and the rest is history. 

 

 

My little Bloodstone — which, to quote Wikipedia, is an “opaque green jasper with red inclusions of hematite” — boasted an Adamant Nature, which I deemed perfect as the line’s learnset is overwhelmingly physical. I cheated a bit by sending the Dragonbreath TM from my breeding Emerald cartridge, along with the Lucky Egg; but apart from that, I dutifully stuck to the line’s normal learning path. Scroll down to ckeck the evolution of my move pool — and let’s pause to appreciate the subtle irony of a Mon wielding Earthquake while being totally immune to Ground Moves thanks to Levitate.

 

It should surprise no one that my run was a blazing festival of one-shooting, with little to no obstruction. I reached the Elite Four at a measly (by my standards) Lv. 90, which didn’t prevent me from mopping the flour with basically every Trainer and Mon. In a nutshell: I one-shot everything bar Dusclops, Claydol, Cradily and Armaldo. I spent the whole showdown spamming Flamethrower and Dragon Claw, using Earthquake solely for Sealeo and Walrein and not using Return at all. Strange fact: Steven sent Metagross in third place, which I didn’t even know was possible — didn’t do anything to help his case, though.

 

A couple of other queer things happened during that run. First, my team of Zigzagoons picked up an uncannily low number of Rare Candies — roughly ten over the whole run, which is definitely the lowest performance I’ve seen on that front. Incidentally, I also gave them names this time around; and I couldn’t help but feel paranoid about a causal link — even though I was probably just unlucky, and we were dealing with a coincidence. 

 

 

Secondly, and more sinisterly: as I booted my GBA one fateful day, the cartridge informed me that I had erased my save data, and presented me with a New Game opening screen. I felt the blood drain from my face, and stood there frozen for a couple of seconds — before using the tried-and-tested trick of rebooting my GBA. This time, my save file appeared as normal, and I uttered a giant sigh of relief. A bit of research revealed that this is a documented occurrence; it might be due to connectivity issues, or to the cartridge just plainly getting old and starting to fail. Well, be it; I’ll write another day about the obsolescence of all pieces of kit, and the impermanence of gaming as a whole. For now, I’m sailing towards new and exciting runs, of Pokemon or else. Take care, dear fellow gamers! 

 

Pokemon Sapphire: The Delcatty Solo Run, Part 2: Harder, better, faster, stronger

 

 

Let’s cruise again with Delcatty, baby! A bout of pre-trade breeding in Emerald landed me a Skitty with a Quiet Nature, which was tailor-made to make the most of Delcatty’s late-game move pool. This time around, I also had the Lucky Egg at my disposal; and I was gonna use it, as it was part of the point of redoing that whole run. I didn’t only send the Lucky Egg to my Sapphire cartridge, mind you; I also sent a Moon Stone, as I wanted to make that run a full Delcatty run. Of course, that choice came with the massive sacrifice of renouncing any new moves until I could get my paws on TMs; but I was ready to risk being stuck with Tackle for eons, for the sake of stat boost and satisfying my scientific curiosity. 

 

 

And so, my Cherry Pie got to evolve as soon as he stepped out of his shell. You read that right, dear fellow gamers: my feline lone ranger was male this time around, which significantly reduced the hassle against Roxanne. Both of her female ‘Mons made the fatal mistake of using contact moves and became infatuated with my adorable kitten, wasting a couple of turns as a result. Factor in the oomph granted by that early evolution and a couple of Battle Items, and you get the easiest Cat-vs-Rock battle of all times.

 

Fun fact: these two Infatuated each other during the fight. Love can bloom on a battlefield indeed! 😂

 

As I wanted to keep things smooth and easy, I decided to apply a trick I had recently discovered, namely to skip Brawly’s Gym. My initial plan was to tackle it after Norman’s Gym, during that long swimming stretch between Petalburg and Slateport; but surprise surprise, I discovered that my deadbeat Dad won’t engage me if I don’t have four Gym Badges! How dare you make demands of me when you barely qualify as a father, old man? Anyway, as Mr. Briney was still lounging in Slateport, I had to backtrack all the way there to sail to Dewford. After all these vexations, it was only fair that I made mincemeat of Brawly, before going at Daddy with a vengeance and mopping the Gym floor with him as well. 

 

 

This time, I wanna talk about my early move pool. My former Skitty Run reports may have given the impression that I went from zero to hero, but reality is more nuanced: I went through a subtle yet palpable increase in power over the first half of the game, despite being unable to learn anything through levelling-up. Beating Wattson brought Shock Wave into my arsenal; and on my merry way to Fallarbor, I snatched Secret Power on Route 111. Going through the normal evolution route for Gen III Skitty (i.e. evolving after getting the Moon Stone in Meteor Falls) would add Faint Attack, Covet and maybe even Double Edge to that pool and make it even more efficient and varied.

 

 

I won’t expand on the second half of my run, which was a complete one-shooting festival; let’s jump straight to the elite Four showdown, and find out if the Lucky Egg worked its magic! Let’s end the suspense here: alas, my kitty didn’t hit the big 100. Not only that, but I had to rely on a bunch of Rare Candies to crack the 90 mark! The Lucky Egg is awesome; yet Gen III is no Gen VI, and you still have to fight every single Trainer in Hoenn to unlock your lone ranger’s full potential. 

 

 

Anyway, the Elite Four is always a cakewalk with a Delcatty armed with Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Ice Beam and Return. Sidney: one-shoot his whole team with super-effective Shadown Ball. Phoebe: one-shoot her whole team with super-effective Shadow Ball. Glacia: one-shoot her whole team with more than effective enough Return. Drake: one-shoot his whole team with super-effective Ice Beam. Last but not least, our boy Steven: take down Skarmory with Thunderbolt and Claydol with Shadow Ball, get rid of Aggron, Cradily and Armaldo with whatever works, and eradicate Metagross with Shadow Ball. And reap your well-deserved laurels for cruising with the most unassumingly badass kitten of them all. Skitty is a true Gen III hidden gem, a ‘Mon that is designed to fit its turf perfectly and treat you to a delicious sense of progress as you scale Hoenn. 

 

 

Skitty’s empowering prowess makes me wanna tackle a variety of Gen III challenge runs. Like, how about a Skitty run using only Double-Edge? Or an early move pool Skitty run? Let’s shelve these ideas for a more masochistic time, dear fellow gamers; and see you soon with more gaming goodness!