Pokemon Ruby: The Delcatty Solo Run, part 1: Five days of kitty-ness

 

 

I’m changing my run report format for once, going for a day-to-day record of my run’s highlights. Without further ado, let’s get started!

 

Day 1: Bred a bunch of Skittys in my Emerald cartridge, hatched the eggs to check Natures, reloaded save from a couple of minutes ago, and sent the fittest kitty of the bunch to my Ruby cartridge — still comfily nested in her egg. A bit of running around later, I was the proud Trainer of Sakura, a lv.5 Skitty with a Rash Nature; not very useful in the early stages, but bound to work miracles in the late ones. Thanks to an extra trade, the Dawn Stone also landed in my inventory, ready to be used at will.

 

 

I reached Rustboro and Roxanne’s Gym with the crappiest Move pool — namely Tackle, Double Slap, Tail Whip and Attract. Attract was basically useless due to Roxanne’s ‘Mons being female, and Tail Whip was pointless due to said Mon’s propensity to use Defense Curl and Harden. I had to make do with Tackle and Double Slap, as many X Attacks and X Defends I could purchase with my meagre funds, a hefty dose of luck and the patience of a saint. Oh, and grinding, obviously; I didn’t even stand a chance until lv.18. 

 

 

Day 2: Sailed to Dewford Town to engage Brawly, who turned out to be nearly as tedious as Roxanne. I knew this from my Skitty run and from basic Type matching, mind you; but playing it was actually a whole other can of worms. I was still levels away from Faint Attack, a Move that wouldn’t have changed jack sh*t anyway as far as Brawly’s Fighting ‘Mons were concerned; and so, I threw in the towel and used the Dawn Stone on Sakura. That gave me the necessary extra oomph to overcome Brawly, and I could sail unhindered towards new shores and easier Gyms. 

 

 

Day 3: Blazed through Gyms like wildfire! Overlevelling did the trick at first, and then my awesome revamped Move pool took over. I got Return right before Gym n°4 in Lavaridge, Ice Beam after Gym n°5 in Petalburg City, Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball after Gym n°6 in Fortree City — and the face of my run was changed forever. Once again, I knew what to expect from my Skitty run; but it’s always a blast to play it. 

 

 

Day 4: Gyms n°7 and n°8 were mere formalities thanks to Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball — awesome Move pool is awesome! I polished off Victory Road unhindered, and reached the Pokemon League at lv.80. That wasn’t enough to my taste; so I ran around a bunch with a small army of Zigzagoons to reap enough Rare Candies to reach the big 100. Then I realized I had forgotten to pick up the Silk Scarf in Dewford Town; I made a quick detour to retrieve it, pondered if I should get a Spell Tag from Mt. Pyre as well, and decided to abstain.  

 

 

Day 5: It’s show time, baby! I invested a small fortune in Battle items before entering the arena — only to discover that I didn’t need them after all. One clean hit was enough to get rid of most opponents; and none of them required more than two hits to bite the dust. What about Steven’s Metagross, I hear you say? Well, that was the most glorious and beautiful run-wrapper of them all: Steven’s Metagross was sent home crying with a splendid critical hit. Glorious, I’m telling you!

 

 

My run clocked in at 12 hours, which is still a tad too long for my taste. Not only that, but I kinda soiled the experience by not letting my Sakura evolve right from her first step out of the egg. Now I’m wondering: what if I tackled the same run, only with a Delcatty armed with a Lucky Egg? How much could I shrink my running time? I’m totally gonna do just that, dear fellow gamers; and so, stay tuned for the second part of that Delcatty solo run experience!