With the paddock done, our next stop is the other side of all this tall grass. It seemed safer than sneaking past the Madame again-
But I forgot this guy stands in a different place in SM compared to USUM. In USUM, he likes to hang out around that ramp behind me.
I'm trying to!
With Dottie down, I've actually only got two actual team members- the other three are EXP soakers. And Murphy's still at half health.
Fortunately, Murphy was faster. Also, the other guy's Mudbray is Own Tempo, not Stamina.
I did survive one hit.
But not the second. That was way too close. One tough battle can get worse if you try to press on, because you know there's a free healing spot on the other side...
You're doing a swell job with your Mudbray in terms of its health. In terms of its battling potential...
Yeah, sounds like you ought to leave that to the professionals.
Yes, there are more hidden items in here. I'm already sitting on just Sam, I don't want to go nosing around for them.
Sanctuary! The Pokemon Nursery is the home to one of Pokemon's most prominent mechanics in the Alola games, and they give you a free PC next door. Since putting Pokemon in and out of the PC fully heals them, this will serve as a makeshift Pokemon Centre.
That is a conversation. What do you mean hidden powers-
Oh. Hidden Power is a 60 BP Special move that has a typing chosen by your IV spread. Despite being advertised as a Normal-type move, it can never be Normal (although it does turn into Breakneck Blitz as a Z-Move) or Fairy (it was implemented before Fairy types were and they never changed the calculation formula to add Fairy as an option).
Exactly what Pokemon is doing under the hood to implement Hidden Power is absolutely ridiculous, and telling you the mathematical function is to imply there's value in doing so. I will, howver, tell you that the odds of getting each Hidden Power type are not equal. Grass, Bug and Fighting have a 7.81% chance, Dark has a 1.56% chance, and all other types have a 6.25% chance.
The move was introduced in GSC, but it took until Platinum for it to occur to the devs "hey, maybe we should have an NPC dedicated to telling you what type you rolled". Before then, you had to keep hitting things, taking note of what result you got out of "SE/NVE/Neutral" you got, and then narrowing it down. Or you could fight the Pokemon that changed its type depending on what you hit it with that's in RSE.
In order, Dottie, Razzly and Zapple. Looking for a special attacker with the correct IV set to run a specific Hidden Power is one of the bigger issues with setting up competitive Pokemon, especially for Pokemon whose coverage is so poor that Hidden Power is filling an important hole. The move was removed from SwSh, to much chagrin, presumably because the devs didn't know how to make the move make sense from a logical perspective.
The best Hidden Powers for the main story, assuming you're operating on my level of "I actually want to choose them", are Hidden Powers that are super-effective on Pokemon of types that you resist, but your STAB moves don't hit back. In these examples, Dottie has Ice to hit Ground and other Flying types, Razzly has Fire to hit other Bug types, and Zapple has Fire to hit Steel types. Ideally, I'd also like to be thinking about weaknesses in team coverage, but you try keeping a straight head on that when you're running four teams.
...You know, there's only one hint NPC here in this game, and he only gives a hint to one of the more esoteric parts of the process- and also one of the least helpful.
In RBY, there was this location called the Pokemon Day Care, where you could leave a single Pokemon, and they would gain 1 EXP for every step that you took. In the long term, this wasn't one of Pokemon's most fantastic ways to gain EXP (particularly because of the way new moves would be learned that would automatically overwrite existing moves), and GSC buffed the Day Care by allowing you to place two Pokemon at a time, and adding a different mechanic for them to do in the meantime.
Starting in SM, they noticed the whole "gaining EXP" part of the process had gotten extraneous and counter-productive, and decided it would be smarter to just ditch that part and make the Nursery exclusively dedicated to the "secondary" mechanic. Most players thought of it that way long before this point.
Ladies and gentlemen: Pokemon breeding.
Breeding is probably the most complicated mechanic in a series that is like 60% "this is jank, but it makes sense if you know in what order all that jank was put together". You may put two Pokemon in the Nursery and given some time, they will produce an Egg. So then... let's go into some of the specifics of Eggs.
- In order to produce an Egg, you need a male Pokemon and a female Pokemon. The mechanic is complicated enough without adding homosexuality and some species changing sex for viability reasons. The Egg that results will match the species of the female Pokemon, with two main exceptions that I don't believe are available in Alola.
- You do not need the Pokemon to be of the same species to breed. All Pokemon capable of breeding fit into one or two of 13 "Egg Groups", and any pair of Pokemon that shares an Egg Group is capable of breeding. No, you cannot check these Egg Groups in-game.
- The Egg will have the moves normally associated with that species, however, it can be born with moves it should learn at a higher level, or moves it never normally learns at all, if its parents know them when the Egg is generated. This is the main, if not the only reason, to breed.
- Breeding also has an important impact on IVs and Natures- namely, the baby can be made to inherit them from the desired parent. This is the useful function of Everstones (if a Pokemon is holding an Everstone when bred, the Eggs they generate will always have the same Nature).
Since all Eggs hatch at level 1, I will not be using Breeding in any file (except to register pre-evolutions in the Pokedex), nor will "this Pokemon gets a really cool Egg move!" form a basis for my recommendations.
However, all four files do get a free Egg just for showing up! This Egg contains the same Pokemon every time, and nice and conveniently, it's also an Egg every file wants.
There are a handful of ways to hatch Eggs, although the simplest is "walk around with it in your party". It's a mechanic from GSC, were you expecting proper nursing?
She says this, but come to think of it, this might've been a legitimate concern for some players. Eggs never "go off" in any way- you can keep an Egg in whatever condition you like, it will always be viable to hatch. Presumably this is why most Breeders don't mind giving them to kids.
Egg hatching is calculated with reference to the Egg. Each species has a specific count of "Egg Cycles" to complete. After you walk 257 steps, you will reduce the number of Egg Cycles by 1. When the number of Egg Cycles gets to 0, the Egg hatches.
It is not a coincidence that most Day Cares set up shop next to long, uninterrupted roads.
This Breeder outside is the most important NPC in the process- while running back and forward along the straight road, you will pass this NPC multiple times. She is the NPC that will give you any Eggs that your Pokemon have in the Day Care. To let players know there's an Egg waiting, she will fold her her arms and look down in thought- most NPCs that give Eggs will usually just change their facing direction, which only players who already know where to look will catch on to.
Pokemon games have never come out and said "Pokemon produce Eggs the same way most animals do"- they always present the appearance of Eggs as some great mystery. The theory I'm most fond of is that this is because the protagonist (and, to be blunt, most of the target audience) is not yet old enough to openly discuss the facts of life. Although the Egg Group mechanic allows you to breed some species that have no business "doing it" the way their real-life equivalents would...
Back to catching Pokemon to acquire them, the Paniola Ranch has both Tauros and Miltank available for catch, but both are at 5% rates. Somewhat annoying, although slightly (only slightly) mollified by the fact that they will occasionally call for help from the other one on spawn. As a Pokemon itself, Tauros is a pure Normal type that is fast, has high Atk, and pretty good bulk- physical better than special, but not horrible in either. Its only major weakness is being introduced in RBY, and thus having its good stats not as high as newer species can go.
Tauros's Abilities are Intimidate (lowers opposing Atk on spawn) and Anger Point (grants +12 Atk stat stages when hit by a critical hit). Intimidate remains my recommendation, although we saw how badly Anger Point goes for its opponents if Tauros manages to survive triggering it last time. Its HA is Sheer Force, and it has the moves to make some decent use of it, but I just like Intimidate too much to say that's worth it. Of course, it can't go wrong if you do get it.
Miltank (Moon): Most people raise it for its milk, but it's quite tough and strong, so it's also well suited for battle.
Miltank is also a pure Normal type, and is most famous for being the ace of the third Gym Leader of the GSC games, Whitney. In this capacity, it is one of the most dangerous bosses in the series, owing to Miltank's high BST for that stage of the game and how hard it is to raise most of its counters (making them unappealing choices if you don't know she's coming). As a Pokemon, though, it exchanges some of Tauros's Spd and Atk for HP and Def, and ultimately comes off worse in the Ability department. Given the choice, as we are here, I think Tauros really is the superior option, although Miltank's fantastic first impression sure has given her the reputation to compete with it.
Miltank's Abilities are Thick Fat (halves the damage from Fire and Ice type moves) and Scrappy (allows it to deal damage to Ghost types with Normal and Fighting moves). Although the HGSS version of Whitney's Miltank got Scrappy to cut off the plan of using Gastly as a counter, I think Thick Fat might be the way to go- just hit Ghost types with different coverage options. Its HA is Sap Sipper, which makes it immune to Grass moves, gaining +1 Atk if it is ever "hit" by one. Decent enough, I'd guess, but hardly worth choosing over Thick Fat.
Catching Miltank is also an absolute nightmare, since it heals itself for 50% of its HP with the move Milk Drink. As funny as it comes off that it "drinks its own milk".
Miltank have a 100% chance of holding Moomoo Milk. Not as crucial as Leftovers, but still nice to have.
Although Tauros and Miltank are not evolutionary relatives, they are considered "related" enough that the Pokedex considers them to be on the same page. Not that completing pages does anything materially, but still, it's kinda funny. Especially since you get Tauros's page first and it being on the left-hand side implies it evolves.
Mareep (Ultra Sun): Clothing made from Mareep's fleece is easily charged with static electricity, so a special process is used on it.
USUM added Mareep to this grass, the original adorable sheep mon. Mareep is a pure Electric type that doesn't play like the standard Electric type. It's Specially powerful and has pretty neat bulk, but it's slow. Fortunately, paralysing things can mitigate this, but it still doesn't really play to the type's strengths. You can make something of it, though, and many of the Trainers looking for an Electric type in the Johto region did.
Mareep's only standard Ability is Static (opponents who deal contact damage have a 30% chance of becoming paralysed.) This works in its favour, as a bulkier Pokemon, but it's not exactly reliable. Still, though, since it's 40% to find on its own, it's a good way to find the Static you need to go back and catch a Pichu for the Dex completion. Its HA is Plus, which gives it a 50% boost to its Sp. Atk if it is in a Double Battle and its ally is a Pokemon with Minus. Even if this game had enough Double Battles that going for it would be worth it, it would not be worth it in Ultra Sun: Of the three evolutionary families that have Minus, the only one that's available in USUM is an Ultra Moon exclusive found on the third island. Even in Ultra Moon, that's another HA to look for and you have a team of two pure Electric types in the end.
Litter, litter, pieces of the earth mother watching over the Alola region...
At night, you will find a Zygarde Cell here instead of in the corner Bethany found it. These are different Cells. If they want all the cells, both Bethany and Noah will have to come back at the other time period and find the other Cell.
Just south of the Nursery is a hidden item that is incredibly important: the Oval Stone. When held by a Happiny, it will evolve on level up during the day. Although it is a Stone, it not an evolutionary stone (like some other examples we'll see later this update). However, the fact it is called a "stone" means most people confuse it with one. This is not helped by SM making hovering over it in the Bag imply that you can "Use" it on something- you can't.
For some reason, USUM took out the free Oval Stone. If you want Happiny to evolve, you need to wait until an RNG method later or hope Happiny rolls its 50% chance of spawning with one.
North to our stop. South to where I would like to get a little earlier, although we will be stopped by that. But before we go anywhere, there's one really important item I want...
Hello, Amulet Coin. This is an absolutely fantastic item- if a Pokemon is holding this item when you participate in a Trainer battle, the prize money you are awarded doubles. From this point onwards, you can pretty safely assume that any Trainer Battle I do will be under the effects of this item, so I can afford some of those more pricy items.
So you know why I saved the Madame until now? Did you see that prize money multiplier last time we fought a Gentleman? An Amulet Coin used on one of these rich folk basically gives you the same amount of money finding a Nugget does, if not more.
(Well, less, for this one, but still.)
This lady uses Carbink, which can be tough to know the correct coverage for- and the combination of Clear Body, Sharpen and Rock moves means you don't have many options for going around them. It is weak to Grass, Water, Ground, and twice weak to Steel.
So, you know, Murphy eats it alive.
We've only had this guy for like two updates and already he's stolen Woodstock's thunder.
And there's another move to have replace the filler spots. Stomp is 65 BP Physical Normal with a 30% chance of flinch. Murphy is a bit too slow for that flinch chance to come into play, but it's still pretty high BP for those types Ground doesn't cover- Grass, Bug and Flying. Still, it's a move that's gone at the first chance Murphy gets for some other type- probably Rock.
+3000 Poke just for putting the Amulet Coin in that item slot. Not like Murphy needed something with a gameplay benefit.
...Well, as much as that manages a little snort, I'm not sure we're talking about the same kind of growing in each example there.
...Even if you are talking about your Pokemon there, you've, uh... only got one of those.
USUM noticed this weird little mistake and fixed it. Although that does make me wonder if the SM designers were originally going to give him more Pokemon, cut back to one, and that's where the mistake came from.
The Pokemon he uses himself is Sableye- which lets you find it in your Dex so you can track it to Ten Carat Hill, although it's not until USUM that the dex mentions it's an S.O.S. spawn.
Weaknesses or no, it's still frail enough that a good few hits is all you need.
Baton Pass is a Normal Status move that allows a Pokemon to switch out as a normal action, and the Pokemon that it switches out for is granted all the stat stages that the user had already built up beforehand. This is an incredibly powerful move in the right circumstances, although it requires building specifically for it
...That's one way to react to empty nest. I hope your human kids are okay- you don't do that sort of thing unless something happened to them. Or you are that something.
This Breeder looks across the road, and if you step close enough to the fence from the inside, you actually can get the "close to a Trainer" trigger effect. I'm not sure if you can actually initiate battle from the other side of the fence, but did you see the state of my team when I was there?
Her first mon is a Lillipup- pretty simple to take out with anything that takes your fancy.
I went with Razzly. Silver Wind on the first hit, although Draining Kiss did finish that off. She's doing pretty well for something that tiny.
Second mon's a Growlithe, and annoyingly, I'm on the wrong end of Intimidate.
You mean to tell me that Intimidate cost me a oneshot? I thought I was losing the twoshot at this stage of the game! I feel less annoyed.
Especially since its own attack tinked off K9's Rock typing.
Can't deny that one. You've got two beloved puppies in that team.
Chansey (Ultra Sun): It seems that other Pokémon's efforts to take its delicious, nutritious egg away from it caused Chansey to get faster at fleeing.
That fight induced evolution in Happiny, netting us our Chansey. In its original appearance in RBY, it was the among the rarest Pokemon in the Safari Zone, meaning that even when you were lucky enough to find one, you were staring down the barrel of low RNG and odds Chansey would just get up and leave. This rarity has been maintained, although unless you're in a Safari Zone, Chansey no longer flees from encounters you get it into. Instead, it has gained a new reputation: EXP pinata. Chansey has the second-highest EXP yield in the game (first is its own evolution), and Chansey have a 5% chance of holding a Lucky Egg to increase the amount of EXP earned from fights when caught.
Sadly, SM doesn't have Lucky Egg drops anymore, although you can find Chansey from Baby Pokemon you run into on the third island. Weirdly, USUM also replaces those encounters with Happiny- they apparently really didn't want you using Chansey on your team? To be fair, a lot of the bosses have a physical bias...
Pokemon Breeder Amanda is missing entirely from USUM, but she was mechanically replaced by this Rising Star attempting to do some mechanics.
He even has a Lillipup in common. The second one is different, though.
Of course, Ailey picked up Mareep as a team member. I kinda want to see Mareep work, and this is a good game to give it a shot.
Mareep comes with T-Wave, in case Static was a bit too RNG for your tastes.
Not that it'll help much on this.
Fortunately, Genevieve came prepared: Like Pikachu, her Hidden Power is aimed squarely at Steel types- Ground. It's x4 effective, although that Light Screen promises to wear out its welcome.
Losing is the number one cause of failing to win.
Flaaffy (Ultra Sun): In the places on its body where fleece doesn't grow, its skin is rubbery and doesn't conduct electricity. Those spots are safe to touch.
Mareep evolves into Flaaffy at level 15- which means that Genevieve was already ready to go. Mareep can appear at 12-15, so it might take a bit, but yeah, Mareep isn't sticking around long in cute sheep mode.
This is mainly a pretty annoying move. Charge increases your Sp. Def by 1 stage, and doubles the power of your next Electric move. I don't want it on Genevieve, but it has the annoying pattern of Mareep learning it at 15, and Flaaffy learning it at 16. Mareep is probably going to try and learn it twice, and it's not going to be better the second time.
Might want to find a professional on that. Although in Hawai'i, that might be a problem.
Anyway, why am I showing Ailey picking up the Egg now?
Well, the Rotom Dex gives us one of his freebie powers on accepting the Egg- Roto Hatch! We not only get a freebie Egg, but a freebie hatch! No matter whether you want to use Eevee, this thing can be good to have on hand.
This new NPC talks about Eevee. The fact she's behind the counter hints there's a little more to it, though...
Anyway, time to hatch our Egg. An Egg Hatching uses the same music as a Pokemon evolving, and it can be argued to be the ultimate first stage evolution. I'm sure that's more because it was easier on GSC's engine than thematic reasons, though.
Pip, pip, glow, baby Eevee! Each of my kids got a free Eevee Egg, and in addition to the ones they caught from Route 4, there are now eight Eevee running around. Enough to evolve one into every form it's got!
(By the way, this is how much of Roto Hatch I used up on that one Egg. I waited until after the Trainers so I had room to run, but you don't have to be that fussed so long as you get out of battles quickly.
You must have the Eevee you hatched from the Egg in your party when talking to this lady to get her to react. This is pretty worth doing even if you're not using the Eevee, though.
Snorts. Eevee loses its second slot when it evolves, and this one can't hatch Anticipation. Odd time to tutorialise that.
This is why you want to hatch that Eevee Egg. You'll get a freebie Stone, ostensibly to evolve the Eevee, but there's nothing stopping you from taking this stone and using it on something else, either. The Fire Stone is good for Growlithe, the Thunder Stone is good for Pikachu, and the Water Stone is good for two species we haven't seen yet but which I assure you are both well worth a stone.
There will be ways to get these Stones as much as you want later, but the reason you're taking this freebie is to get them early- you'll get them by the end of Akala, although mostly after the third Trial.
Ailey will be using her early Stone to get Jolteon.
Jolteon (Moon): When its fur stands on end, that's a sign it's about to give off a jolt of electricity. Take care, as sometimes lightning strikes next to it, too.
Jolteon is 25 pounds of pure Speed, with the Sp. Atk to back that up with decent results. This guy is probably the best Electric type for the job of "point and fire". Unfortunately, this is not a kind game to Jolteon- it gets T-Wave far too late to be a paralyser for the Akala Totems, it's relying on Thunder Shock as its Electric move until even later, and its coverage is Signal Beam and Shadow Ball. Granted, the latter is true no matter which game it's in, but "is good at Signal Beam" is not high praise in this game. I have no idea why its moveset is all Physical.
Jolteon's Ability is Volt Absorb, which causes it to heal itself for 1/4 HP if hit by an Electric-type move. It's more as a switch-in option than something that really helps it, but it's nice to have an immunity to something. Its HA is Quick Feet, which increases its Speed by 50% when inflicted with a non-volatile status ailment. So, Poison or Burn- and it's a really strange opponent that thinks defeating a Jolteon with gradual damage is the way to go (and one who's probably already outsped.)
Vaporeon (Sun): Its cells are composed of units much like water molecules. It lives close to water and is often mistaken for a mermaid.
Ray picked out the Water Stone, and got Vaporeon instead. Vaporeon has the same stats as Jolteon, except for the part where he's switched HP and Spd around. This turns out to give it a pretty good setup to be a special tank, and with a move it gets around the end of Akala, it should be able to shore up that physical side too. Vaporeon is also pretty good in this game because it has a move that's aimed directly at shutting down Totem Auras. Even offensively, it's not stuck with just Signal Beam and its starting STAB- it also gets Water Pulse and an Ice move called Aurora Beam early. It's a combination of these factors that give Vaporeon not just my recommendation, but also a spot on Ray's team! Not bad for a Water type in USUM.
Its Ability is Water Absorb, which heals it for 1/4 HP whenever it is hit by a Water move. Similar to Jolteon, it's more of a switch-in, although as a tank, Vaporeon loves being healed more. Its HA is Hydration, which cures it of non-volatile statuses in the rain. A very good Ability for tanks, it's not really good enough to be worth going for over something like Water Absorb.
I waited to evolve the Eevee I caught on Route 4 until it hit level 17, so it could pack Swift. This also meant that it got Water Pulse naturally as well as the Water Gun it gets as evolution- absolutely comical.
Anyway, back to playing as Beth. Going south gets you stopped by a pair of Sudowoodo and their kid friend.
Sudowoodo has picked up its old job from GSC as being a gigantic roadblock, similarly to Snorlax having got its job back for XY (rather fitting, then).
In GSC, you chased Sudowoodo off the path by finding a SquirtBottle and spraying some water on him. Lana's been at this for so long that she favours overkill- so we'll need to find ourselves the Waterium Z to "convince" them that standing here is not a good plan.
More litter over on this side. Same encounters, though, despite not being in the enclosure.
Photo Spot on the path, just before Route 5. You can get Eevee, Lillipup, Mareep in USUM, and one of either Espeon or Umbreon, depending on time of day.
Starting right off with Route 5, and it's time to- briefly, be introduced to an old friend:
Actual Double Battles. Unlike classic games, all Double Battles are pure Doubles- there are a small group of Trainer Classes that are two normal Trainers in a trenchcoat, and when they challenge you, they will be in the form of a Double Battle. They do manage a few Multi Battles (where two separate Trainers challenge you at once), but most of them will give us a teammate too.
The Twins are a classic Doubles character, appearing in GSC despite Doubles not being a thing until RSE. This game is a bit of a downgrade for them, though- all games to date gave Twins unique designs, while this time, they're just two Preschoolers. As a matter of fact, unlike past games where they had a unique prize money value, Twins are legitimately calculated as two separate Preschooler payouts.
Twins have always been female across the series. I'm told the idea is because identical twins are more likely to be women than men. I'd like confirmation that that's a true fact first, though...
Each Twin has assigned teams, and if they had multiple team members, they couldn't trade between each other.
Playing in Doubles is rarer in this game than past games for "better" reasons than one might expect: The big thing is that Pokemon sucks at optimisation. As we get bigger and more complicated Pokemon involved in Doubles later on, the more you'll realise that the devs are desperately trying to make the game look like it works. SV's infamous stability issues have always been a problem: it's just been harder to fuck up sprites.
Well, that's a shame...
Despite having dodged the hit, Happiny still flinches in the animation. I imagine it was complicated enough rigging the attack to split in two to worry about those issues.
This was supposed to finish off Happiny, but without the chip damage from Air Cutter, it had a tall order.
It's a little hard to show off Air Cutter being a Doubles attack if you keep dodging.
Still, Snaggletooth did manage cleanup duty.
Good on you, Nico, for trying to teach Isa a little math.
I think you're going somewhere with your Happiny/Igglybuff team. Although I will say your USUM team of Cottonee/Petilil scares me more.
I challenged them first because their cone of vision comes pretty close to this guy's range, but it's mostly just the visual effect. Still, better to be safe.
This guy is interesting- there are four Trainers you can find on Route 5 (counting the two Doubles pairs as a single Trainer each), but he won't accept your challenge even if you do beat them all. There's actually a "north side" of Route 5, and we must defeat the Trainers up there, too, to challenge this guy.
Persian (Ultra Moon): Its round face is a symbol of wealth. Persian that have bigger, plumper faces are considered more beautiful.
Quick stop over with Ray again, this time because Ray is evolving his Meowth at long last. The regular form of Meowth evolves into Persian at level 28, but Alolan Meowth evolves into the Alolan Persian as a friendship evolution. On evolution, it loses the Pickup Ability in exchange for Furfrou's Fur Coat, which can make it a lot harder to deal with than the normal variety. Sadly, not enough so for it to really be the royalty it looks like, but it at least tries.
Notice how the evolution background is green. When a Pokemon evolves into an Alolan form, regardless of whether they already were one, they have a unique evolution design and theme. It's an interesting touch, but it only becomes important in USUM- where it is possible to evolve Pikachu and the other two examples into their classic forms in certain circumstances.
Swift? You have Uproar. Come back when it's Snarl.
...Hau again? Although looking closely... it looks like he does have company.
Now seems like a good time to fill up the party on team members and ensure they're in top condition.
The main path is a straightaway. And only it.
Yeah, uh... this does not like the sort of person you can just "ha ha I so silly" brush off losing against.
The goofiest character and the most serious character, in a conversation together. I don't know who to feel sorry for.
Never mind. I know which one. It's Hau.
Hi Hau. I'm not sure I wanted to be in this conversation.
This guy apparently knows us by name. Not by face, though, which is nice.
...And you know what? I think I want to know why.
And he immediately calls us out for our inability to keep secrets. Dude, "you already know my name" is much scarier than me telling you my name.
Shoutouts to the man who just called us an idiot for confirming our name announcing his own name and how he spends his time.
Gladion's role in Team Skull is a bit interesting. The important people in a villainous team who aren't the head honcho are usually called "Team Admin", but even as early as Gladion's first appearance in the pre-release material, he wasn't considered a Skull Admin: Just a "Skull enforcer".
He's right: Unlike most boss fights that come by surprise, there's no confirmation textbox for this guy. He is ready to battle, and he will battle.
Since he's a Skull enforcer, he has the same "Team Skull intro" as everyone else, with the Skull symbol being painted over, before his unique model animation plays.
...You think you could tone down the edge? By, like, eleventy thousand percent? You're not Owain, your Poke Ball hand is not throbbing.
Zapple can handle this.
Flat 15s but for a 31 in Speed, no EVs Neutral Nature, Bite and Wing Attack. Zubat is really good when it evolves, but it's not great on its own. I'm actually kind of surprised it was so close to a 3HKO, though.
Although I do have to ask why it didn't outspeed.
...Come again? That's a... that's a glitch, right?
Woodstock seems like the way to go here. Let's see if he can take back his tanking crown from Murphy.
Type: Null (Moon): Due to the danger that this synthetic Pokémon may go on a rampage, it wears a control mask to restrain its power.
Yes, that is its name. Type: Null is an absolutely terrifying Pokemon to face, not just this early, but in general. Although also this early- in addition to having an absolutely terrifying BST spread of flat 95s (minus its Speed, which is 59), Gladion's Type: Null has flat 30s in its IVs. Unfortunately, fear of the Pokemon so dangerous that it has to be put in a control helmet to be "beatable by normal Pokemon" stops there. No EVs, no Nature, it only knows Tackle and Pursuit, and it is, in fact, a Normal type. Having no type is possible (pure Flying types that use Roost and pure Fire types that use Burn Up), but clearly they didn't actually want to make Type: Null have a type of Null.
Type: Null's Ability is also Battle Armour, an Ability we haven't seen yet that makes it impossible to land a critical hit. Whatever you do, you have to make it on your own merit.
Having a Normal typing means it does get to enjoy STAB from Tackle.
Now, is "I have STAB from Tackle" something to write home about? I think his Atk stat of 44 is doing more heavy lifting there.
Woodstock is here for one thing and one thing only: Chip. The journey of a thousand cuts begins with a single swarm.
...Joke about the Tackle all you want, we really don't want to be making a habit of being hit by that. Gonna make it hard to fractional damage it to a loss if we're being pummeled that badly.
I knew there was a reason I kept that around.
In addition to losing out on STAB, Pursuit is also resisted by Woodstock. I'm still at a net loss of HP, but I actually have, you know, prospects.
Now comes the time to Bite it. We can't win with Infestation alone, but lest we forget, Woodstock is actually pretty good at Biting.
It did take a few of them to chew through, but not enough.
...No, seriously, what even is that, and why does it have a fish tail and... bird legs?
A testament to how many Bites it really took- Pursit alone brought me that low. Type: Null is not an opponent to take lightly.
But with it defeated, we have managed to win where Hau failed.
To Gladion's over-dramatically posed annoyance.
You remember earlier, how I mentioned that "Team Skull Grunt" is considered its own class, and not "Team Skull: Grunt", like you'd expect? This matters here because the Trainer Class "Team Skull" is unique to Gladion, and his prize money payout changes from fight to fight. For this fight, he pays out x40- a very minute improvement over standard Grunts. The only reason it looks impressive is because Zapple had the Amulet Coin- it would be 720 without.
Stronger opponents, maybe, but also a stronger team. Sorry, man, Zubat is not a threat yet.
You ask him about it either way. I think the only reason it's an option is so Bethany can ask the question.
Gladion nods to Hau and acknowledges that, attitude aside, he hasn't selected a bad team. OK, the Noibat and Eevee he has by now in USUM aren't winning any prizes either, but we'll see who's laughing when they evolve.
But "has chosen Pokemon that are capable of succeeding" is where Gladion's praise for Hau ends.
Below the belt. Remember when Hau said he did "good enough" in Hala's Trial to win his Z-Ring? Gladion fills in the blank there: He didn't win. He may have followed us to Akala, but this kid's Island Challenge is not going as well as ours.
And Hau, bless his heart, absolutely fails to notice the insult in a sentence that is almost nothing but.
Fortunately for Hau's innocence, a pair of Team Skull Grunts show up and decide it's Gladion's turn to be the butt of the conversation- imagine having your unique theme overwritten by the Team Skull Grunt theme.
...Gladion's homeless? Granted, it's hardly like the kids with the happy childhoods have the chimaeras for team aces, running around picking fights for the street thugs.
This is also the first time SM sees a Female Grunt, although she only appears in this cutscene for now.
The male Grunt goes to attack us, but Gladion cuts him, and the music, off before he gets close.
Even Grunt wants to know where he's coming from there.
His dialogue here is kinda... intensely vague? The camera and some degree of context smooths over his actual thought- Grunt, because he is a Team Skull Grunt, is no match for someone who can beat Gladion, so he should save his time and his Pokemon's energy.
Sadly for the Grunts, this is the latest in a long line of nothing, and they were hoping standing next to Gladion would actually be, you know... cool.
Hahaha... I highly doubt that. Lana would have murdered you all.
Considering what she did to the Sudowoodo, I don't think I'm exaggerating.
They're off on that note, hoping they can at least get home before dark. That's one thing failure can never take away.
Right, back to Gladion and needling his buttons. This is the first mention, not only of the Team Skull boss's ideas, but also his existence. These guys are organised enough to have a boss they respect and follow the command of.
And while Team Skull respects his decision, they also disagree with it and make no bones about it. It honestly says more about their respect for the boss that they go along with it rather than toss Gladion out entirely.
While Team Skull accepts his help as an enforcer, they do not accept him as one of their own.
And from the looks of it, that's something that actually bothers the kid.
Not that his face is in range of the camera when he walks off.
I can't argue against that, although I'm not sure that's what I want to take away from that fight. Gladion is what one can only describe as bad news, and I think that applies to literally everybody in that conversation, including himself.
There's only so much Pikachu can do on his own. At least you've got Popplio. I'd hate to see what Noah's version of Hau has to get up to, with Torracat as his starter.
And, by "we're going to beat this Island Challenge", you mean you are as well as us, right? Because it definitely sounds more like you're hoping I am than being prepared for that yourself...
Ha ha, very funny, wiseguy. A brooklet is a word given to "a small brook", when a brook is already the smallest major type of river: We're talking rivers you can walk over. The water in Brooklet Hill will be much more substantial than this. I challenge the use of the word "brooklet".
Also, it took him until USUM to think to even mention Gladion...
...I'd like a list of the places in this game you can Escape Rope out of.
Behind Gladion, before you get to the Pokemon Centre, is another Double Battle, this time against a somewhat intimidating-looking pairing of two Rising Stars into a Rising Star Duo. This is the only Rising Star Duo in the game, though- the lack of Doubles and the game actually getting a little bit creative with what Doubles it does have means there's like no reused Doubles classes. On one hand, I approve. On the other hand, I want Doubles.
Flat 15s, no EVs or Nature, and naturally selected movesets. Despite their boasting, they are not using a combination attack of some sort, preferring instead to have a pair of version exclusives. It's easier to search the GTS for Pokemon you have registered as Seen, so Pokemon games post-DPPt like to include Trainers carrying version-exclusives to help aspiring collectors get benefit out of the GTS.
If the pair of you are sharpened scissors, I am a big rock.
I double-teamed on purpose- I didn't think either of them could oneshot Vullaby, and in this case, I wanted to be sure one of them went down more than I wanted to get rid of both together.
Rufflet is the offensive one, Vullaby is the defensive one. And she is showing it.
...Wow, even tag-teaming didn't take out Vullaby.
Looks at Zapple why do I think this is your fault?
Vullaby went for K9 again, although didn't see success.
Excellent! Zapple's picked up T-Wave, an Electric Status move with 90% accuracy that can apply Paralysis directly onto any opponent- as long as it's not Electric type or immune to Electric moves. It used to be it was the king of paralysis, but those days are long gone.
Pikachu in specific has a better version of this, but it learns it pretty late. I'm going for it, but that might cost me in the long run...
Totally agreed. There's nothing quite like getting the synergy down on a mono-Dark Sandstorm team or Porygon-Z's Discharge paired with Electivire's Motor Drive.
So, when is Rufflet getting Bulldoze? Can it, actually...
...Everything is explained.
And here's the Pokemon Centre just before Brooklet Hill. I've never really noticed before how good they are about slapping a Pokemon Centre right next to every Trial. The least convenient example is either third or sixth, and both of them are more nitpicks than actually inconvenient examples.
Anyway, now that we have a real Pokemon Centre and not just the ranch's PC, let's go poking around those side holes.
Directly north of Paniola Ranch is this Breeder, who has a second Pokemon. You can fight her before Gladion for a last burst of EXP, but I wanted to get him out of the way first for that Centre.
Morelull (Moon): As it drowses the day away, it nourishes itself by sucking from tree roots. It wakens at the fall of night, wandering off in search of a new tree.
Her lead Pokemon is a brand new Pokemon to the Alola region, Morelull. Morelull is a Grass/Fairy type, and seems to have been designed in order to create the kind of Pokemon that's responsible for fairy rings. It's actually pretty neat, and has a cool signature move much later, but sadly, I don't think there's room on any of the teams to include one.
It has the absolutely irritating combination of moves Flash (lowers accuracy by one stage) and Moonlight (heals half of its HP), though. Flash used to be a HM, to light up dark caves, but they were starting to phase that out long before removing HMs proper was a thing. Even in XY, while Flash still existed as a field move, it no longer dispelled darkness in caves.
Had to switch to Snaggletooth just to hit it hard. "Fast" is a little more debatable, but it was good enough.
Second mon is Ledyba. As a generic trainer, Ledyba really isn't anything but bait for whichever of its five weaknesses you've got prepared.
With those two mons, you look like you're building for a team that's annoying rather than tough. I'm not sure if you're failing at that and should go elsewhere, or you should lean even further into it.
I mean, I'd rather you didn't, but that's for my own reasons.
That path of tall grass could, theoretically, spit you out so you're "behind" Gladion for the cutscene. As a result, if you approach it before fighting Gladion, you'll bump into two Skull Grunts who are squatting on the path as a roadblock. I can't tell whether they're lying badly about their appreciation for Hala or are unable to stand back up for other reasons.
Frankly, I'm not sure why that grass route exists- it's not really a shortcut anywhere.
Back over on the west side, while we're clearing Trainers, here's the "counterpart" Trainer to Yuka. Yuka used two Pokemon only available at a specific time of day, and Cory is packing the other one of each.
Paras (Sun): No matter how much it eats, the mushrooms growing on its back steal away most of the nutrients it consumes.
Starting with the equivalent to Morelull, Paras. Unlike Morelull, Paras was around since Day 1, and it uses the semi-unique combination of Bug/Grass. It actually has some decent tricks up its sleeve- mainly the status-inflicting spores, but also those claws give it some extra benefits.
Unfortunately, it is weak to six types, two of which are double weaknesses. Basically anything can pick it off easy. Oricorio is almost custom-built to humiliate Paras.
Unfortunately, having a Spinarak as his backup doesn't improve his situation. Bug/Poison cannot be hit on a double weakness, but it's still a Spinarak.
...So are you training Yuko, or should you? Sounds like she could benefit from your insight.
And the both of you could stand to shore up your strategies, but that's more for a planning thing.
This Berry tree seems pretty unremarkable- Pecha, Cheri, Rawst and Persim Berries, with Lum Berries from big piles, is a pretty normal, and forgettable, yield. However, eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed we don't have Rawst Berries yet. This tree is the only source of Rawst Berries until after the sixth Trial. So, if you pass it up, remember that when you're looking for your Burn Heal.
Now, do you need Rawst Berries? Of course not. But still, it is a Berry you can miss because it's almost too common to go out of your way for.
Now for the litter collection. This is the stuff around Yuko in the east side.
Despite the rock around the "obvious" ramp up to this bit, there's one slightly hidden by the perspective. Wow, Akala really is an active volcanic island... Glad eruption isn't a concern. I hope.
This one's not a TM you can feel too happy with scooping up. Torment is a Dark Status move that applies a volatile status effect that prevents the opponent from using the same move twice in a row. Obviously, the best plan is to use this to disable an opponent who has one killer move and three terrible ones, but most opponents will typically have at least two moves you're trying to avoid.
A one-way ledge to hop down, but the one at the north end of the route? Can't get on top of that one yet.
Incidentally, if you wanted to run in a straight line along the Day Care route, this would be the beginning of your south-bound journey. For now, we are stopped at the Sudowoodo.
Proof that, even after the Breeders, we're still short a few Trainers for this guy.
Fomantis (Sun): During the day, it sleeps and soaks up light. When night falls, it walks around looking for a safer place to sleep.
Fomantis is a new-to-Alola pure Pokemon that can be found at 20% in any grass along this route. This is a physical pure Grass-type, leaning more on offensive moves and lacking many of the status-inflicting utilities Grass is famous for. Unfortunately, it is one of many Alolan Pokemon to suffer from a crippling lack of Speed. When you combine this with its lackluster coverage and Grass being a poor type to find a slow sweeper in, you get a Pokemon that isn't particularly outstanding. It does get Leaf Blade at level 23, though- so it'll hit pretty hard if you try it. Bethany will be passing on it, though.
Fomantis's Ability is Leaf Guard, which prevents it from being inflicted with new non-volatile status ailments during sunny weather. Compare this to Hydration, which automatically cures statuses- this means that if it is statused and then the weather turns to sun, it's out of luck. And then you realise Hydration isn't great anyway. Its HA is Contrary, reversing any stat stages it receives. This doesn't really work for it as well as it works for Inkay, but Contrary is still an amazing Ability, and Fomantis gets some good moves to complement it in a competitive setting.
Island Scan gives a Bellsprout with Acid Spray to SM and a Grovyle with Grassy Terrain to USUM.
Presumably, this NPC is more helpful if you go up this route from the south side. If you're wondering how they roadblock this side, they don't- the trigger for starting Gladion's scene extends such that you can't reach the mouth of the path without triggering it.
In a dead-end on this side is a pretty nifty TM for the upcoming fight, Charge Beam. Charge Beam is a 50 BP, 90% accurate Special Electric move that, after landing a hit, has a 70% chance of increasing your Sp. Atk by one stage. There are a lot of problems with it, though- chiefly the accuracy, followed up by the fact that Electric types usually like to be "get in, get out", a playstyle that hates relying on setup moves. For now, though, it beats Thunder Shock.
Strange. It's not a TM at all in USUM. I guess they got Electroweb and Shock Wave from the Beach tutors, Charge Beam is pretty terrible compared to those.
Heading back to the Pokemon Centre, this lady gives us a helpful reminder of which types are super-effective against Water-types. Grass and Electric are your key strengths, although due to a relative lack of Electric options and Grass having a resist to Water, bringing a Grass type is to your advantage.
And, much like Hila giving us a Machop for Verdant Cavern, we get a freebie Trade for a Grass type right next door!
Lillipup can be found in the grass on this route, too. I caught all my doubles on Route 4 while looking for the Eevee, though.
Bounsweet (Ultra Moon): It tries to resist being swallowed by a bird Pokémon by spinning the sepals on its head. It's usually a fruitless attempt.
Bounsweet is a happy-go-lucky Pokemon I would be delighted to add to the team. It's a pure Grass type, like Fomantis, and it turns out these two encroach on each other's territories rather a great deal. I find Bounsweet to be the far more preferable one, and thus it is the one I plan to use... on Ray's team. I didn't really want to pit Oatchi against another physical Grass (oh yeah, Dartrix is also a thing, what is it with Alola and physical Grasses?), and one of the specific use cases I have in mind works better in USUM anyway.
Bouncee the Bounsweet would also not be making the team anyway, even if I wanted a SM file to use her. While the Adamant Nature and guaranteed 31 IV in Atk is nice, its Ability is Leaf Guard. If you want to use Bounsweet yourself, trust me, you want Oblivious. It turns into something else in its final evolution, and that Ability is the reason (alongside the exact stat distributions) it pulls ahead of Fomantis.
Also, it's worth commenting that while Bounsweet can be made to evolve at level 18, Fomantis is still the stronger Grass type until both reach their final stages.
One of these days you guys won't make me feel bad for it...
Whatever reasons they were, it gave us a level 19 outsider Noibat. If you just want to evolve it for the Dex, this is probably the place to grab it, rather than grabbing a level ~8 one in Verdant Cavern.
In both games, this is the place where you acquire your instance of Bright Powder. Bright Powder will cause opponents' moves to be treated as if they had -10 points of accuracy (so, 100% moves turn to 90%, 90% moves turn to 80%, etc). It's a nice perk, but you really can't play around it- for most moves, you really have to act like they'll hit and be happy they don't.
The scientist is, of course, another job to add to our belt.
He's looking for a Water type from Brooklet Hill. We won't be able to grab this until after the Water trial, but at least it's en route and not a great distance and effort away.
I don't blame him. Feebas is a pain to catch. It used to be worse, in RSE and especially DPPt. They made it catchable through normal methods these days, but they maintained some poor rates...
I'd love to...
Wait, hold on, I don't have a fishing rod. Got a spare?
Bethany: Brings back a Magikarp.
Scientist: "...Not that shabby."
Hey, paying a local expert is what the budget is for.
Now, perhaps he could have asked someone who owns a fishing rod, but...
He wants a Corsola instead in USUM. Strangely, the dialogue for the job has been greatly slimmed down overall, but most of the same ideas are conveyed. The Brooklet Hill stuff is also removed, since Corsola cannot be found there.
Yup. Of course it does- it's a Trial Site, after all.
Yes, game, I get the hint.
Perhaps in response to the redundancy of two "Totem Auras give Def, use Dire Hits", he gives a Super Potion in USUM and suggests preparing with appropriate movesets. I'll try to ignore my Rotom Powers, though.
Morning, huh? Well, the morning hour is defined by 6AM-7AM... in-game time.
Talking to her during this hour gives you a short scene, for flavour and not for an item. Remember, it's 6PM-7PM real-time in Ultra Moon.
(And yes, it's a USUM event.)
A Comfey wanders into the room, and nods at Nurse Joy. She's actually animated laughing- she'll pipe up during the cutscene later, too!
The Comfey then walks up and, in a cut to black, "adds some flowers". I can't even tell if it did.
Comfey is a Pokemon known for its healing efficacy, so having a friendly Comfey come around is good news if your business is healing.
Who's a good lei?
In response, Comfey will actually apply a full heal- as in, a functional one.
At which point the Nurse points out that, good practice or not, she's still the Nurse around here.
I'd just like to remind you you don't charge a fee...
The Rising Star chuckles at the Comfey, though.
True fact: Comfey's viability is based almost entirely around the sheer power of its signature Triage Ability. We'll meet it when we actually get to see a Comfey in battle. Unfortunately for both us and it, that won't be for a long time yet, though.
Next time: I once caught a fish thiiiiis big!
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