Okay, slight change of plan.
I did some thinking about it and decided the better approach would be for me to move on.
I won't take on gyms until I feel like I have the right levels for it,
but I can at least get the story moving more and maybe find some places where it will be more efficient for me to grind at.
I'm still not going to hand over the Exp. Share to Billy until Sredsa, Annie, and Finger get some extra levels.
If the level discrepancy continues to be an issue, I can just train him individually.
- Started travelling from Fallarbor to Mauville.
- My "Game Boy" froze and I lost about five minutes worth of progress. Darn.
- Gary picked up a Super Potion.
- On my way back, I decided to battle the Winstrates because I apparently didn't do that before.
- I found it funny when the grandma said she would smack me for making her granddaughter cry.
- I was invited into their house, where I can now talk to the family members.
- The mother gave me a Macho Brace. I feel like I should remember what this does.
- All four of them elude to another kid, who they say is stronger than any of them and that he's probably challenging the Pokemon League champion.
- Got to Mauville. Now time to head down Route 118 and 119 to get to Fortree City.
- Okay, weird. The map is showing a part of the Route that is absolutely a beach going into water as just land. Guess I'll go explore the desert?
- I found a Stardust just within the bounds of the desert.
- There's a picnicker in the desert with a sandstorm going on. That can't be good for the quality of the food.
- The trainer battles and wild Pokemon seem to be in the low and mid 20s for levels.
It's probably a good thing that I took the time to do some grinding.
- Oh, right, the desert is technically just part of Route 111.
Going through the desert is shorter than going around it.
- I found two fossils. I can take one and the other will sink into the sand.
I should figure out what the difference between the Root and Claw Fossils are first.
- Thanks to the magic of Bulbapedia, the Root Fossil will let me eventually get Lileep, which will evolve into Cradily.
The Claw Fossil will result in an Anorith, which evolves into Armaldo.
- Only looking at the Pokemon and their typings, I think I'll go with the Claw Fossil,
even though I think they would both be interesting picks and have their roles already taken by a current member of my team.
- Wait, I remember there was that fossil nut that was somewhere near Fallarbor.
Guess I'll head back there and see what he has to say.
- Fossil guy says Devon's doing the cool shit with the fossils.
That's over in Rustboro. Guess I'll go to Rustboro.
- Gary picked up a Protein.
- Made it to Rustboro and entered the Devon Corporation building.
- After figuring out that I had to talk to the scientists on the second floor, I managed to talk to the one that does the fossil resurrection research last.
This gave me the opportunity to observe that most all of the other scientists were working on very silly sounding contraptions and none of their work was going well.
- Handed the scientist the fossil. He said it would take a while before it was ready.
That's understandable. I don't think I'd be much faster at creating a living being from a fossil.
- It occurred to me that I might need to talk to Mr. Briney to get to my next destination.
- He wasn't at his house, so he's probably still at Slateport.
- The only option he gave me was to go to Dewford.
- (Multiple Internet searches...)
- FUCK!
- I forgot all about the first damn gym that I passed back in Petalburg. I have to do that now.
- Since I decided it was okay to look this up, I also saw that it was the Normal-type gym and that the opponents I would be up against were level 30-ish Pokemon, two of which are Slakings.
- Most of my Pokemon aren't there yet, but Annie is a Breloom, so this is basically an even fight.
- Oh, right, Norman is the protagonist's father in this game. I'm not used to Pokemon player characters having dads.
- First battle went so badly in the first three moves that I just reset.
- Second battle worked. Annie managed to take out the first two with Leech Seeds and Mach Punches.
The second Slaking was too strong. Annie did manage to get a Leech Seed down and Slapkins was able to finish up.
Annie learned Counter just after Norman's second 'mon was down.
- Got the gym badge and Facade (TM42).
- Wally's parents want to give me "something" (Surf, I had looked this up because I couldn't figure out why I didn't have this yet).
- After going to the Pokemon Center to heal Annie, I talked to Wally's dad. He gave me Surf (HM03).
- I will finally be able to use Surf on the map with water that needs to be surfed all over the damn place.
- Taught Slapkins Surf.
- Okay, now I can get to Fortree City. Cool beans.
- According to the map, I can now Surf over a patch of water on Route 103 as a shorter way to get from Petalburg to Mauville.
- The first Tentacool I ran into in the water on Route 118 was level 33 and it almost took out Annie.
- While running up from the beach, I ran into Steven. He asked if I raise different types of Pokemon or all of the same type. He didn't wait for an answer and ran off. Works for me, I guess.
- Found a Hyper Potion on the ground.
- There was a house on Route 119 with a guy standing outside it.
He explained that he thought flying worked by hanging onto a bunch of birds somehow, but that he learned there was an HM move for it.
- I entered the house and there were six Wingulls flying around it.
That's really fucking funny. Good job to whoever on the staff came up with that one.
- Gary picked up a Full Restore.
- There was a kid hiding under a box disguised as part of a rocky wall. Good one, game.
- He got his Ninjask set up, so it was able to Fury Cutter my whole team.
Fucking great. Nice to see that the thing I realized was good actually is good. Asshole.
- My save was all the way back on Route 118. I guess that works for me.
- Gary may have lost all the stuff he picked up between now and the alternate timeline that no longer exists through no fault of his own, but that hasn't stopped him from finding an Ultra Ball.
I can always count on Gary.
- Decided to fight the news people (Interviewer Gabby & Ty) on the beach that I had ignored before.
- Sredsa got to level 25 and wanted to learn Swords Dance. Hell yeah! Swords Dance!
Time to have the full god damn kitchen for Sredsa to be able to cook.
- I mostly used Sredsa and Annie, but the particularly annoying Magnemite was giving me trouble, so I had Slapkins finish it off.
- Another interview! How do I feel about the battle? "Here I come"
- Woah, I went a ways to the left where the grass gets tall and it started raining.
Not sure if that's something special or just a normal part of how this area works.
- Wait, no, it wasn't doing it the first time I went through there.
EDIT: I think I just imagined it not happening.
- The rain carries over to the battles! It must be a special weather thing. I didn't know this game had those.
- After some trainer battles, I went back to get healed up. I don't want to get fucking wiped for no reason again.
- Gary picked up a Full Heal.
- I found a spot to use the "Acro" part of my Acro Bike.
- Battled a trainer with just a level 28 Breloom. I had Annie in the lead spot and she was level 29.
Turn one, the opponent's Headbutt got Annie to flinch.
Turn two, another Headbutt, but no flinch. Annie was able to successfully use Counter.
Annie finished the fight with Mach Punch. It was a very close battle.
I mean, I would have won with at least one of my five other Pokemon, but the ditto was the important part.
- Annie is level 30 now!
- Got back to the spot with the little shit that did me in before. Saved, moved Sredsa into the lead spot, and initiated the battle.
- Two Double Teams, two Swords Dances, and a whole lot of Fury Cutter took out his whole team. Sredsa really needed the experience.
- Made it to the Weather Institute. Some Team Aqua grunts are blocking a bridge. Guess I'll check out the institute.
- "We're Team Aqua! We appear when anything rare is found!" I guess Team Aqua is composed of scalpers?
- Wow, the Weather Institute is full of Team Aqua members. Who would have guessed!
- Worked my way through the grunts to confront Aqua Admin Shelly.
- After saving the scientists/crew, one of them tried giving me a Pokemon as thanks, but I don't have room. I'll go back for it after I've reached the next town.
- Nevermind, there's a PC in one of the rooms on the first floor.
> Received: CASTFORM [M] (Lv. 25 Castform)
- Interestingly, I'm listed as the original trainer for this Pokemon.
- Moves are Powder Snow, Rain Dance, Sunny Day, and Hail.
- Hey, he could be useful for setting up boosts. Also, an Ice attack could be really helpful. I'm excited to have this Pokemon! Probably won't end up using him, though.
- Decided to give Billy the Exp. Share back.
- I got ambushed by May. I did not heal Annie back up because I thought I could make it to the next town.
- Actually, I saved about 37 seconds before this happened. Hooray for resets!
- Sredsa managed to take down Grovyle with not quite full health and a five level deficit.
- Received Fly (HM02) after the battle. I can't use it to travel until after I've beaten the gym at Fortree City.
- Aw, hell nah. There's a tree that's clearly a cardboard disguise. I'm about to get jumped again.
- Oh, there's another one, but I can avoid it.
- I made it to Fortree City!
- Gary picked up a Nugget.
- Fortree looks like a cool town. All of the houses are tree houses, with a bunch of bridges connecting them together.
- An invisible force is blocking the path to the gym.
Okay, there's a lot more to write now that I actually have things moving again.
I can't believe I was running around in circles just because I couldn't remember that there was a gym in the third town that I wasn't able to go through the first time I passed it.
Maybe linear stories and progression don't work with an open level design, or maybe I just lost my mind a little.
Either way, my Internet searching got me back on the right path.
When I got to the Petalburg Gym and faced Norman, I severely underestimated the power of Slaking.
I think I only won the second time around because I had luck on my side.
Considering her level disadvantage, Annie really gave them hell.
Had Slapkins not been as high of a level, I don't think I would have made it through that.
Five gym badges, three to go.
Finally getting to see more of the map, I'm really appreciating the variety of environments the game has.
There's a lot of beaches and islands, so places like the volcano towns (Fallarbor, Lavaridge) and Fortree feel fresh when reaching them for the first time.
It keeps the game from feeling too same-y with the scenery.
I didn't bring it up earlier, but the music has been fantastic throughout.
Some of my favorites have been the desert music, the song that plays on Route 113, and the battle music for both Team Aqua and Rival (May, in my case) battles.
Pokemon seems to have a consistent track record of great music, even back to its earliest days on the original Game Boy hardware.
I'm not familiar enough with the Game Boy and GB Color arrangements to say that from personal experience.
Back to the happenings, that one trainer with the Ninjask really did piss me off.
I was playing stupid, I let him get set up, and I paid the price.
On the bright side, I know for an absolute certainty that Ninjask is a good pick and I was right to keep Sredsa in my main party.
Thanks to looking up the next gym leader, I know it's the Flying-type gym.
Thanks to the Pokemon type charts that I look up all the damn time, Annie is basically not usable for this gym battle due to both Fighting and Grass types being weak to Flying.
I didn't have any good answer to a Flying type, but thanks to the Weather Institute, I have the Castform with the Ice-type attack and three moves that can cause weather conditions.
Rain will be useful for boosting Water-type moves to give Slapkins an advantage.
Hail will be useful in case Castform is put in the not-unlikely position where Slapkins isn't able to take out all four of them.
That's pretty much my only hope of taking on this gym with the Pokemon I have in their current states. Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire - Gyms - Serebii
I'm going to end up grinding for more levels.
Slapkins only has a small level advantage, no type advantage, and a type disadvantage in his Ground-type moves being useless for this gym.
Annie's enormous type disadvantage basically keeps her out of the fight.
Sredsa, while not as hurt by typing, is still only level 26, which would result in her getting immediately stomped out.
My next best bet would realistically be Finger, but he's also still at 26.
I think if I level up Castform and Finger at the same time using the Exp. Share and get them to about 30, I'll be in alright shape to take the gym on.
Afterwards, I'll do a lot of grinding to just get more levels for Billy.
Or will I? I'm trying to only look things up about this game when I have some reason to do so.
I scrolled down more on the gym leader page, and Winona looks to be the last gym leader before a large jump in levels, from the low 30's to the low 40's.
Given this and the fact that I've got to keep making progress, I'll need to focus my efforts on the Pokemon that I'll be using to take on those gyms.
From what I've seen, that should amount to Slapkins and Annie only.
I'll need a more full party for the Elite Four... I would think?
I'm not looking that up until I've beaten these last three gyms.
