Part 32: Mt. Ember
Before anything else, let's start with some timed events.
On Kindle Road, in the morning you can find Numel.
Numel, the Oasis Pokémon
Type: Water/Grass
Pokedex: It offers water and tranquility to weary trainers. Herds of them seemingly appear at random.
The retouched sprite has a nice, brighter colour palette.
With that done, if we visit the Spa on a Wednesday, we can find a pokemon here.
Unlike the static overworld encounters we've seen in Johto and Kanto, this one actually swims around a bit, moving like an NPC.
What we find here is the Camerupt the old man talked about last episode. It's shiny!
Camerupt, the Hot Spring Pokémon
Type: Water/Fire
Pokedex: While the warmth and steam coming from its body may look and smell alluring, it is actually deadly.
I catch it, because it's one of the seven shiny pokemon the guy on Navel Rock was asking for.
Alright, before moving on to the regular update, here's some more messages from celadonk.
First of all, I said in my last update that I preferred Wingull's earlier design.
That's interesting you say that. I pretty much just traced an image of a shoebill for the original. The new one is a more cartoonish interpretation of a shoebill-- one that I feel is more analogous to canon Wingull's relationship with real-life seagulls
Mister Olympus wrote:looking within the set of weirder/edgier pokemon this hack has had--like miltank, cubone, delibird, kanto pidgey... spheal feels the most like something gamefreak would actually do, because of its basis in a real animal.
It's funny you name Cubone, because it's actually directly based off of a Game Freak design-- Cubone and Marowak are based on the Lavender Tower ghosts in their LGPE incarnation. Kantonian Pidgey I will make no attempt to defend. I think the concept of a Pokemon with a real life gun is hilarious.
In any case, I think the fact that ROM hackers have the liberty to do stuff that Game Freak wouldn't is what makes the medium of ROM hacks so great. It's a lot less limiting and it's tremendous fun to run wild with our own tastes.
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I got a lot of input on what pokemon to use in my party. More than I can fit in - and then we're not even talking about all the pokemon designs we haven't seen yet.
I'll do my best swapping around pokemon as we go so I can show you all the requests.
Ravenson asked for Gorebyss. Since it's a friendship evolution, I got Kurt to make a new Friend Ball and went looking for another Clamperl. It is most common if you fish on One Island with the Old Rod, but in that case it's at a very low level. Nothing the Exp. Share can't fix.
Since Fool's Gold is based on Pokemon Crystal I can make use of a feature completely unique to Pokemon Crystal, where pokemon get double the friendship points on level up if you train them in the area you originally found them. That, combined with the Friend Ball boost means Clamperl is willing to evolve after only a couple levels.
I do train it up to level 20 before evolving so it learns Egg Bomb. Don't know if I'll keep the move, but it's good to have options.
Gorebyss, the HeatDragon Pokémon
Type: Fire/Dragon
Pokedex: The dragon of the summer solstice. Those who see it know that a heat wave is sure to follow.
Clamperl evolves into Gorebyss if you evolve it by friendship during the morning or day. At night, it evolves by friendship into Huntail.
After some more catching, I end up with this party:
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Swampert, high level and Monsoon/Thunder combo to be able to win battles. He's also my Surf user for now.
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Taigei the Wailord, nickname suggested by NyoroEevee.
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Temeraire the Gorebyss, I named her after the dragon in Naomi Novik's great novel series.
Taigei starts with Signal Beam, Detect, Liquidation, and Heat Seeker, which is only base power 60 but never misses.
I could teach her the water HMs but since they're hard to delete, I won't do so for now. Instead, I replace Detect with the Shadow Ball TM so that I have an answer to psychic types.
I'll decide on Temeraire's moveset once she's leveled up a bit.
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MeepMeep the Blaziken, suggested by several people.
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Carlsbad the Trapinch, suggested by Bismack Billabongo. I don't really get the nickname reference for this one.
For MeepMeep, I decide to teach Earthquake over HiHorsepower, since they're both physical ground moves but Earthquake is slightly stronger. Other than that, he knows Mega Kick and Brave Bird for attacking and Fly to get around.
Carlsbad knows Sandstorm, Magnitude, Energy Ball and Solarbeam. I'll evolve him first and decide how to equip him later.
And finally, Anorith is just there because I need to level it up to add its evolution to my pokedex.
Until Anorith evolves, I'm temporarily switching out Temeraire for Gray. I need Gray until I can find some other False Swiper or Hold Back user.
To continue beyond the Spa, we need Rock Smash. Luckily, since Rock Smash is a TM and TMs are reusable here, I can just temporarily teach it to one of my pokemon, remove the rocks, and teach back whatever they knew before.
Seen from here, Mt. Ember towers into the sky.
Celadonk confirmed that most of the random NPC trainers in Sevii have the same dialogue they had in Sevii in FRLG, so you're not missing out anything by me not transcribing everything.
This trainer has a strong Starmie followed by Tentacruel and Octillery.
By the way, the canon reason that all these trainers have mostly Johto and Kanto pokemon is because they're in a similar situation as myself - being sent here as a challenger after raising a party in their home regions.
Vibrava, the Hypnotic Pokémon
Type: Grass/Psychic
Pokedex: Its formerly green leaves are withering away. Its departure from the ground allows it to explore more.
Hm, as he loses his Ground typing, Magnitude doesn't get STAB anymore. But he gains a psychic typing, and learns a move upon evolving.
Movedex: Potion Brew
Type: Psychic/Status
Effect: 100% accuracy. Either paralyzes, freezes, or burns the target, restores 1/2 of the user's maximum HP, or boosts all the user's stats by one stage.
A chancy move. But since there's zero reason to keep Sandstorm after this evolution, I let Carlsbad learn this. Maybe it'll come in clutch?
More trainers.
After defeating the Fisherman, Anorith evolves.
Armaldo, the Scarab Pokémon
Type: Bug/Ground
Pokedex: Some believe that the spirits of great leaders and poets are reincarnated into this ancient POKÉMON.
It learns Earth Power upon evolution.
Alright, now I can fly back to the Pokemon Center and switch out Armaldo for Temeraire.
The Swimmer only has 2 pokemon, but that does mean they're at much higher level. It's a sensible precaution here to save before every trainer battle, so you can plan out your strategy and retry without wasting a ton of healing items.
In the end I needed quite an elaborate strategy to defeat her with my current team:
I teach DragonBreath to Swampert for some super effective damage (overwriting ThunderPunch).
Then I lead with MeepMeep. If the Kingdra starts with Agility rather than Dragon Pulse, MeepMeep can survive the first turn and knock out about half of Kingdra's health with an Earthquake. After that, I switch out MeepMeep and switch in a pokemon whose purpose is to soak up an attack. Doesn't matter which, almost my entire party dies to a single Dragon Pulse.
I can then safely swap in Swampert, my only pokemon who can survive a few hits from Kingdra. If Kingdra doesn't stall too much with Flashbang, I can knock it out with a couple DragonBreaths.
Once it goes down, the Swimmer still has a Bellossom at level 83. I switch MeepMeep back in, doing good damage with Brave Bird after Bellossom knocks him out. After some more DragonBreaths from Swampert, the Bellossom only has a sliver of health left, but knocks out Swampert.
I let Carlsbad, who luckily is faster than Bellossom, do the final attack and get the experience.
This appears to be the end of Kindle Road and the foot of the mountain. What's this rest house?
Oh, it's like a mini Pokemon Center, but without a PC. It doesn't unlock a Fly location. It's useful though, it means I don't have to backtrack to here from One Island town anymore whenever I need to go heal.
It does get set as the place where the game restarts if my whole party faints, although I rather reset to my last save if that happens.
Mt. Ember - Fool's Gold OST
This song bops.
Grass, and a guy. The guy just has some flavour text about it being bad if the Mt. Ember volcano were to erupt.
Wild Treecko lives here, as well as its evolutions, but Treecko itself is most common.
Treecko, the Newt Pokémon
Type: Poison
Pokedex: Its bright belly warns that it is poisonous. It uses its tail as defense.
Treecko got some minor sprite rework done in 1.3.2.
I catch him at level 61. He has Poison Tail, Slash, Poison Jab, and False Swipe.
This means we have a replacement for Gray now. Treecko's evolutions can also learn Hold Back from TM, but since that TM costs 3500 Game Corner coins I'm keeping False Swipe.
Looking at the rest of his moveset, I opt to keep the 80 power STAB move Poison Jab. There's no point in learning the Sludge Bomb TM, since the further along this evolution line you go, the more focused they become on physical rather than special attacks.
Treecko can learn quite a few other strong TMs: Iron Tail (Steel), Slapshot (Ice), Scale Slash (Dragon), X-Scissor (Bug).
I decide to give him Slapshot and X-Scissor for now, but since they're TMs, I should keep in mind that I can change this at any time. I can also teach him Toxic if necessary.
Fighting the first trainer on Mt. Ember, I realize Sunny Day is always in effect here. And of course, this Exeggutor knows Solar Beam. So does Carlsbad, but he's still much weaker.
The trick is to start with Swampert and have him start a Monsoon. The 5 turns of rain override the Sunny Day, and even after that, Sunny Day never reactivates.
So, using a single Monsoon is enough to protect against Solar Beams for the rest of the fight.
Ninjask, the Fleeing Pokémon
Type: Bug
Pokedex: The waxy protrusions which come from its abdomen help it to escape danger in an instant.
As you would expect, it is very fast. But in this battle, it uses Light Screen, and then a single Brave Bird from MeepMeep knocks it out.
That means Ninjask didn't have time to show off its signature move Bug Bound.
Movedex: Bug Bound
Type: Bug/Physical
Effect: 110 power / 95% accuracy. The user becomes invulnerable on turn one, and attacks on turn two.
I need to reset once to get my bearings. This trainer also has Vileplume and Fearow but with super effective moves they're not too hard to knock out.
And that levels up Carlsbad once more, evolving him into Flygon.
Flygon, the Drake Pokémon
Type: Dragon/Psychic
Pokedex: It has taken up potion-making and has learned some magic tricks. It is seen most often in autumn.
Flygon's sprite also was cleaned up a bit in the new patch. And to match its pokedex entry, if you catch a Flygon directly in the wild they have a good chance of holding an Energy Root.
From a Grass/Ground Trapinch to a Dragon/Psychic Flygon. What a drastic change. Flygon doesn't learn any evolution moves, however at level 53 it would've learned Dragon Pulse. Since Carlsbad is already way beyond that, he missed this move permanently (no Move Relearner in this game).
Now that he is fully evolved it makes sense to look at what TMs he can learn. I replace Magnitude with Psychic.
I decide to get rid of Potion Brew and teach him Shadow Ball instead. Flygon can learn a lot of physical attack TMs but its physical attack is very low so there's no point.
His other two moves right now are Energy Ball and Solarbeam. I'll keep Solarbeam while we're on Mt. Ember, after that I can replace it with something else.
Going up the mountain.
The next trainer has a Breloom.
Breloom, the Kangaroo Pokémon
Type: Normal
Pokedex: It protects its young fiercely. If it detects danger, it will kick the perceived threat with full force.
It learns basically all Fighting and Normal moves that have 'Kick' in their name. I knock it out with a Thunder.
I also knock out the trainer's other pokemon easily enough.
---
If you're wondering why I'm not grinding some levels against wild pokemon, well, the main reason is that they barely give any experience, especially the unevolved ones. Fighting trainers is much more effective. And, you know, beating trainers at this level requires some actual strategy which is a fun challenge.
However, it does mean I'm progressing through the game a lot slower than I was doing in Kanto. That's okay, I'm not in a hurry.
There's a ledge up there we can't cross from this side. The only way forward is past this trainer, down the other ledge, and into the cave.
Southwest of the trainer is another ledge to take us back to the start if necessary.
Blackbelt Clay sends out a Vigoroth to start with.
Vigoroth, the Ringtailed Pokémon
Type: Normal/Grass
Pokedex: Stronger after evolving, it now likes to cause trouble and steal from unsuspecting trainers.
Vigoroth evolves from Slakoth, who we haven't seen yet, starting at level 28. There's a 50% chance Slakoth evolves into Vigoroth. Otherwise, Slakoth evolves into Slaking. Vigoroth cannot evolve further.
The Blackbelt also has both a Kantonian and a Johtonian Meganium.
The Johto Meganium uses a powerful move called Mind Shock.
Movedex: Mind Shock
Type: Psychic/Special
Effect: 100 power. Always hits.
You can't scare me with Psychic attacks. I send out Carlsbad to hit Meganium with a super effective Psychic.
Carlsbad hits Kangaskhan with Energy Ball for good damage, but it manages to get off a Fissure in return. Treecko is able to finish the job.
Making Treecko even more effective going forward.
Grovyle, the Newt Pokémon
Type: Poison
Pokedex: It swings its tail to attack. If the hit lands, the inflicted wound will become infected.
Another sprite that has been cleaned up in the latest patch.
Grovyle learns Swords Dance upon evolution. I skip it, hoping that my simple strategy of "all attacks all the time" keeps holding up into the endgame.
Before I battled this trainer he said he saw some rare pokemon on top of Mt. Ember. After defeating him he gives more details.
It looked like a horse with many legs and no face. I wonder if it was even a Pokemon at all.
Hmmm.
Also, as you can see it's gotten dark on Mt. Ember now, it's night time.
However, the sunlight effect still triggers at the start of every battle. I'm guessing it would've been hard to program this effect to be time-dependent.
At night, Luvdisc is more common on the outside of Mt. Ember. During the day you're more likely to find it inside the cave.
Luvdisc, the Firebreath Pokémon
Type: Fire
Pokedex: The inside of its body is filled with a liquid similar to lighter fluid, which lets it breathe fire.
... It immediately ran away at the first turn. When I found another one a bit later I just threw a Fast Ball at it but it escaped at the first shake and fled again.
Oh well. Since Pokemon share their base stats with their vanilla counterparts, Luvdisc is still one of the weakest pokemon that cannot evolve further.
It does have a signature move, though.
Movedex: Pyromania
Type: Fire/Special
Effect: 200 power / 100% accuracy. Does damage.
That would do great damage if any pokemon other than Luvdisc could use it. On Luvdisc... meh.
Many of the signature Fool's Gold moves I've shown can be learned by one or two other pokemon as egg moves, but for Pyromania there's no such luck. Luvdisc is literally the only pokemon in the game who can learn it.
The cave is a cave.
There are a couple "dead ends" that lead to ledges I can jump down from the other side, shortcuts back to the entrance.
In the cave I find this bat.
Makuhita, the Sonar Pokémon
Type: Dark
Pokedex: It can see fine, but it prefers to use echolocation to find unsuspecting travelers to startle.
Makuhita's moveset focuses on sound-based attacks. I catch him.
I encounter a wild Torkoal. I know MythosDragon asked me to use it, but it decides to use Explosion on the first turn. By now Dankey may be too low leveled to be able to get Sleep Powder off in time and I don't have anyone else who can safely get a status effect on a wild pokemon.
I'll see if I can get lucky and catch one, but if not, well, since we have plenty of choice for pokemon in my party I might skip this one.
Let's go battle this guy instead, shall we?
He starts with Sunflora, then sends out a fish.
Relicanth, the Flowerhorn Pokémon
Type: Water/Psychic
Pokedex: It has IQ higher than any human. Despite this, it still often runs straight into ships and rocks.
A flowerhorn is a kind of fish that looks just like that.
It knows Zen Headbutt and Skull Bash as you might expect.
I defeat it and the Cooltrainer's Snorlax.
And this causes Grovyle's next level up.
Sceptile, the Swordsman Pokémon
Type: Poison/Steel
Pokedex: They spar with their tails to compete for mates. Wounds from its tail cause skin to decay.
Showing both the old and new sprites this time because they're quite distinct.
Gaining a Steel typing now, he also learns Iron Tail when it evolves. I override Slapshot for it.
Okay, now that all my pokemon are at their final evolutions, I can finally start focusing on catching up their levels. That'll take a while. I'll start with Temeraire since she's at the lowest level.
Beyond the trainer we find a lake. No new pokemon here, mostly Marshtomp and Wailmer.
I do find a Charcoal.
East takes us back out, to go west we need to fight Psychic Osamu here, who starts with a very non-psychic Dugtrio.
It knows Fissure, which somehow knocks out my Swampert despite Swampert being a much higher level. What.
Apparently this rule where OHKO moves don't work on higher-leveled pokemon doesn't apply in Fool's Gold.
Well, this is why I save before battles. Fissure still has a good chance of not working and next time it indeed doesn't.
This guy's other pokemon are a varied collection from Kanto and Johto, but since he has 5 of them, none of them are at a particularly dangerous level.
Next up, there's a hiker with a Ludicolo. It uses Glass Shard.
Movedex: Glass Shard
Type: Normal/Physical
Effect: 65 power / 95% accuracy. Sets Spikes on the target's side.
I like these moves that do damage and then have an additional effect that was its own move in vanilla. Monsoon with damage + rain, and Glass Shard with damage + Spikes. I don't like wasting move slots on status moves, but if they're combined with damage I'm much more likely to give them a try.
After this trainer, I find Hariyama, a much less common encounter than Makuhita. I catch it and name it Lugosi, as requested by Ventadour.
That saves me from having to evolve the Makuhita I caught earlier. I won't add him to my party just now, though.
Oh look I caught 'em all.
Having jumped a ledge beyond the Psychic we fought, I'm now in a part of the cave with no easy way out. That immediately makes me much more wary, trainers can do a lot of damage here.
I'm currently directly south of the entrance to the cave.
The only ways to continue are past that Blackbelt or behind that Strength boulder.
Let's save our strength and tackle this Strength puzzle first. The only thing is... I don't have anyone on me who knows the move. I decide to teach it to Temeraire.
Made it out.
Our reward is TM56, Drain Punch. A 75 power Fighting move from gen 4. It steals half of the damage inflicted and heals the user with it.
Swampert is the only one in my party who can learn it, but I don't want to change his moveset.
This path does lead back to the entrance. Fool's Gold is quite reasonable. Other than the Elite Four I've never been stuck behind multiple trainers with no way out.
The only minor annoyance with this section is that if you jump down any of the backtracking ledges to go heal, you then need to walk allll the way back to where you were. No shortcuts to unlock for the way up.
On the way back from healing I encounter a Luvdisc and just chuck an Ultra Ball at it at full health. It works and I catch it. Yippee.
If it's this easy to catch I wonder if they forgot to program the Fast Ball to work on Luvdisc.
I go back to fight the Blackbelt I skipped earlier. He has Nidoking, Sceptile and Golem.
Past him is another water section.
Soon you shall understand the true power of Dunsparce!!
And beyond that, a Firebreather with a single pokemon.
Yep, a level 100 Dunsparce.
RIP.
It doesn't even give a decent amount of experience.
That whole slew of trainers took a while. But it looks like the exit is in sight.
This Super Nerd has 4 strong Kanto/Johto pokemon and also...
A level 11 Pikachu. Sure.
In a short dead end behind the cave's exit, I find a Focus Band, a held item that gives pokemon the chance of surviving a deadly attack with 1 HP.
Out of the cave, immediately another trainer. You didn't think we were done, right?
She starts with a Claydol, who also got a minor sprite touch-up in 1.3.2.
Claydol, the Demolition Pokémon
Type: Steel/Fighting
Pokedex: A favorite among construction workers. The orbs it swings are strong enough to destroy houses.
She also has a Gorebyss of her own. Of course it knows Solar Beam.
After fighting here, jumping down the ledge takes me back to the Rest Stop quickly. The higher road takes us further up the mountain.
Looks like we made it past the grass onto the rocky part of the mountain. I find a Max Revive, then climb up the steps.
We made it to the end of the road. Phew.
Shrine - Fool's Gold OST
The shrine is a lot like the other ones we've seen, with the path up closed off and only a single guy to talk to.
Yo! Welcome to the Shrine of Force!
Here, our Trainers go full force in every battle.
Be prepared to take a beating!
I'll open up the gate for you.
He walks to the back and then back to me.
Go on ahead! Good luck!
Now I can go to the stairs in the back.
... Do I get any kind of heal here or do I have trek back up the mountain every time I want a free heal?
Spoilers: I do not get a heal here.
That.... looks dangerous. Better save.
Can you handle three Trainers in a row?
Hey, a brand new trainer class, the Trainee.
Holy hell what is that?
Zangoose, the Jeering Pokémon
Type: Ghost
Pokedex: Some claim that this POKÉMON is capable of human speech, but there is no recorded proof of it.
I start the battle with Carlsbad to use Shadow Ball, which does good damage but Zangoose survives. Next turn, Frida switches it out and sends in Pelipper, my cue to set up Monsoon-Thunder.
Her last pokemon is a Hitmonchan.
---
The second battle is against Trainee Jean, who starts with Sylveon. Good thing I have Carlsbad in the lead, he knocks it out with a single Psychic.
I bring Swampert out to defeat her Ludicolo but she immediately switches to Hitmonlee.
Two can play that game. I switch in MeepMeep and knock out Hitmonlee with a Fly. During those two turns, Jean just wasted a couple X Attacks on Hitmonlee.
I should keep in mind that Shrine trainers may use X items though. That can get very dangerous if I'm not careful.
Ludicolo actually outspeeds Swampert and knocks him out with a Dust Devil, so I have MeepMeep use Earthquake instead.
The third Trainee, Beren, sends out a Huntail.
Huntail, the SnowDragon Pokémon
Type: Ice/Dragon
Pokedex: The dragon of the winter solstice. Its appearance on the horizon is an omen for incoming snowstorms.
As mentioned before, Huntail evolves from Clamperl by friendship during the night.
I knock it out with Swampert's DragonBreath.
Beren sends out Hitmontop and starts using X Attacks as well. Sceptile is faster and knocks it out with a couple Poison Jabs.
Her final pokemon is this Swampert. MeepMeep Earthquakes it to death.
During these battles, the Exp. Share gets Temeraire to level 41. Nowhere near competitive for Sevii yet, but that means she isn't the lowest level pokemon in our party anymore (that would be Taigei, at level 40. Haven't had a chance to level her up yet).
They open up the path ahead and tell me Athalia is very good.
After healing up I climb the stairs.
A unique sprite. That's gotta be Athalia. There're also stairs further up but they're behind a fence.
The name is Athalia.
I'm the Leader of the Shrine of Force.
I don't mess around and I always go full force in Pokemon battles.
Get ready to get your ass- I mean,
butt whooped, kid!
Unlike Johto, Sevii doesn't have strict laws against swearing.
Shrine Leader Battle - Fool's Gold OST
New song! And a full team of six.
We start with a level 100 Breloom, knowing Mega Kick, Hi Jump Kick, Kindred Kick, and Swagger.
Movedex: Kindred Kick
Type: Normal/Physical
Effect: 45 power / 90% accuracy. Hits twice.
I restart a couple times to try a few strategies and judge how strong Athalia's pokemon are. One thing I learn is that Athalia uses Full Restores when her pokemon are at low health.
Beautifly, the Moth Pokémon
Type: Bug/Fighting
Pokedex: It's difficult to tell how large this POKÉMON is until it is too late to get away.
Moveset: Close Combat, SkitterSmack, Counter, and Poison Jab.
I make use of its 4x weakness to Flying.
Absol, the Valkyrie Pokémon
Type: Flying
Pokedex: After spectating ferocious battles in the wild, ABSOL carries the defeated opponents to safety.
Cool design.
It knows Sky Attack, Swords Dance, Slash, and Slapshot.
Swampert knocks it out with Thunder.
Armaldo knows X-Scissor, Sand Tomb, Metal Claw, and Scale Slash.
I use a super effective Monsoon, which luckily does NOT knock out Armaldo. Because Monsoon's rain effect doesn't trigger if it knocks out the opponent.
I finish it off with a Surf.
Athalia's next pokemon also got a sprite fix-up in the new patch.
Crawdaunt, the Bisque Pokémon
Type: Ghost/Water
Pokedex: It targets the wealthy by masquerading as a high class meal, and jumps out to take its revenge.
Lmao.
Athalia's Crawdaunt knows Crunch, Shadow Claw, Scald, and Liquefy.
I switched to Temeraire here only so I had a safe turn in which to heal Swampert. Swampert easily knocks out Crawdaunt with a Thunder.
And finally, she has a Sharpedo.
Sharpedo, the Horn Whale Pokémon
Type: Water/Ice
Pokedex: This POKÉMON has been the cause of many shipwrecks on account of its aggressive mood and large horn.
It knows Liquidation, Ice Shard, Iron Head, and Swagger.
Another Thunder knocks it out.
I might have gotten lucky here, since Athalia decided to send out a pokemon weak to Water before two pokemon weak to Electric so that I could use the Monsoon-Thunder strat perfectly.
But I have to say, when I first saw that she was rocking 6 level one hundreds, I was thinking that I might have to leave her alone and go train elsewhere first.
Instead, it turned out that with some strategy this battle was perfectly doable, even with several pokemon on my team still severely underleveled.
Athalia's end of battle dialogue:
I'm impressed, hotshot!
This battle gave me $10000. Nice. I'm getting to that rarely seen part of the game where Hyper Potions are sometimes not enough anymore. Max Potions are twice as expensive so I'll take any money I can get.
Not bad.
That's all there is to it!
And the conversation ends. Don't I get anything?
I talk to her again.
...Hah!
You should've seen the look on your face!
You still gotta take on the Totem Pokemon of One Island.
Defeating or capturing it'll be a doozy!
Excuse me? That wasn't part of the contract!
I can now access the next floor. Let me go heal first.
Here on the roof it's eerily silent.
I'm prompted to read out the text aloud. If I say no, nothing happens. If I do:
Come forth, the Totem of might and bravery... GROUDON!
Totem Pokémon Battle - Fool's Gold OST
Groudon, the Courageous Pokémon
Type: Fire/Fighting
Pokedex: It fiercely stands up for those in need. It is often seen as a symbol of bravery in Medieval artwork.
The description of the Totem Battle soundtrack vid spoils that the designs of the Totem Pokemon we will meet are all based around the Wizard of Oz. So there's no point trying to keep that from you. Oh well.
Groudon is level 100, has a base stat total of 700 (of which 250 is attack, oof), and knows the moves Brave Punch, Courage, Fire Punch, and Wild Charge. It can also learn loads of TMs.
Movedex: Brave Punch
Type: Fighting/Physical
Effect: 120 power / 95% accuracy. Has a 50% chance to lower the target's Defense by two stages.
Movedex: Courage
Type: Fighting/Status
Effect: 100% accuracy. Maximizes the user's Attack.
This thing is dangerous.
Knocking it out isn't that hard, however I'd like to catch it, and it has a legendarily low catch rate.
It also tends to knock itself out with Wild Charge's recoil.
You know what...
It doesn't really matter which legendary I use this on, they all have the same low catch rate. But at this point in the game I really like the idea of having a L100 chilling in my PC just in case I hit a roadblock.
Woohoo!
After this I get teleported back to the base of the tower.
Congrats on completing the Shrine of Force!
You're one legit Trainer, huh!
Did you ever doubt me?
The Shrine Guy has closed off the way to the stairs, so there's no way back up to the rooftop. If you don't catch Groudon I don't think you'd get another chance.
Finally back in town, let's take a break.
---
Next time, I will go to Two Island since y'all seem happy to let me do them in order.
I am looking for a nickname for my Sceptile. I'll also keep my Marshtomp in unless we find a good replacement.
If you have more requests for party members, please send them in. But because at this point it's quite the process to get pokemon up to speed, I need to balance this with making progress in the game.
I don't know if I'll be able to take every request into consideration. If I have to choose, requests with a nickname suggestion, and ones that come from multiple people, get preference.
Progress:
- Pokemon seen: 335/433 (77.37%)
- Pokemon seen (including regional forms): 360/475 (75.79%)
- Fool's Gold moves seen: 80/104 (76.92%)
and Unown J 
to have the three forms needed to get the Unown Pokedex mode from the scientist.
here - it turns out that the idea that sunscreen pollutes the sea is based on bad science and the modern recommendation is you should use it no matter what if it's sunny. Skin cancer bad, folks.
Good for him.
I'm not a sillyman
I thought it was pretty clear that it was meant as a fun lil pastiche of Pokemon creepypastas
