Such a neat view of Lush Jungle in the USUM camera angle. Anyway, what's the plan this time, then?
Sadly for any cobra fans in the audience, this is probably going to be Basilissa's last hurrah. The next few Totems are going to have a better plan for paralysis than what we've seen thus far, and while her Intimidate is still valuable, it's not quite enough so to justify her stats.
Decided to give Sky Drop a chance. I mean, it's a powerful Flying move they've given us before a Grass boss. I think they expected us to try it.
Torracat-with-Firium Z is a usual wincon for Lurantis, wanted to try it out. Even though I did have the Flyinium Z, wasn't sure Hawkeye wanted it.
Really, Neo is here for Tickle and Encore, in the event I find this a desirable strategy. I don't really expect it, but it might turn up.
I dunno, boss, something about the whole "high Speed, high power, Bug move user" thing kinda makes Smoochum seem a bit of a non-starter. It'll be better once the paralysis kicks in.
...Everybody say hi, Anorith! Anorith is a Rock/Bug type Fossil, and while I thought that Rock part was going to get it removed from the lineup, I didn't find enough better alternatives, and also there's a valid reason to have Steel coverage that was otherwise missing from my team. So not only is Nemo going to show up sooner than I had planned, but he's also going to be used for more than just EXP soaking.
USUM Mallow actually asks if you're ready first- and also alludes to her high difficulty beforehand. Don't worry, devs, Marowak was enough that I don't think Lurantis is going to be too much tougher...
Unlike Lana and Kiawe, Mallow's Trial has been significantly shaken up, with the rules and the solutions being changed considerably.
The theme of the Trial is still "gather ingredients for Mallow's cooking", but they've also changed the ingredients, so they've changed the recipe while they're at it.
Just three this time, and one repeat ingredient. This one seems like it'll be sweeter.
"And also you'd probably lose track of the items you found with your own hard work and that would just be sad."
Now, remember how Mallow followed us around and commented on each ingredient? They've fiddled with this slightly, and now Mallow is taking us to each ingredient. The fourth ingredient absent from this dish is the one that appears in the main area- we're going to be visiting each of the back areas.
As we enter the west area, we scare away some Fomantis, and this is going to be the big thing that sets up the theme of this Trial.
There will be Mago Berries here, and we'll be taking one of them and then moving on.
This Trial has changed from just hunting for items to one about intuition. We can actually avoid fights entirely- but only if we take the ingredients that don't disrupt the wildlife.
We're given free reign here, told to find a Mago Berry, and then left to figure out which.
There are three total: One right next to Mallow here.
And two in the far west. Each has a different scent- these won't change from run to run, though.
If you don't want to fight, the Mago Berry you want is this one, the one with no sweet scent.
Also some normal litter items here and there.
After picking up every ingredient, Mallow will remind you that choosing incorrectly will cause you to be attacked later, regardless of whether or not you have. This is mainly to conceal the surprise of whether you got it right until after it's too late to change your mind.
Once you have committed to leaving, the camera remains in the area.
The Fomantises are happily chewing on their Mago Berries. This proves a) they're not -Spd and b) no one wanted that sour one.
Next up, the Revival Herb in here has been exchanged for some Honey on these bushes (bushes I'm fairly sure are new...).
Kiawe and Lana are still helping, and they actually show up sooner to distribute some hints. Kiawe, here, is telling us that Pokemon are more likely to be investigating sites that have multiple flowers.
Perhaps moreso, considering the fate of this Honey...
...So it's not the Thick Club you whacked me over the head with?
There are four flower options, and this is a case of a branching route: One of these flowers will give no encounter, and one of these flowers has a different encounter to the other two.
The encounter-less flower patch is this one, the one with "few" flowers in the south-west.
The one with a unique encounter is the one from the "tons" of flowers in the middle.
Also lucky enough to happen across this while clicking randomly. Nifty.
Onward we go!
That's them happy, too.
Our final stop is to the east, for the Big Root.
This one is the easiest of the bunch, although it does require some more careful attention than you might expect. All we need to do is not touch the real Sudowoodo.
The difference between the real ones and the fake one is pretty vast, because I think they're different kinds of models, but you do have to be on your toes... mostly.
They added an extra clue to help you out here. One of these trees doesn't feel like it's terrified of us being so close to its personal space.
Litter up here...
And a Lana cameo, surrounded by her dream: Sudowoodo to torture.
Apparently she doesn't have the highest opinion of Mallow including her in the Grass Trial. Not too surprised on that one.
No, I was wondering how close you'd let me to the other loading zone. That close, got it.
There's no Miracle Seed here, but the black splodge of freshly dug soil the Miracle Seed was hidden in in the SM Trial does have a goodie here. Really, I'm more surprised it's still here.
Taking my real Big Root now.
I don't think we're actually given another chance to back out after this point, so this may be your chance to save.
All the other Sudowoodo get up and start walking around, but one stays where it is.
At this point, her checkup on our ingredients is actually for a purpose.
She puts them in one at a time this time, and with a bit of a pause between taking it and putting it in the pot. Remember how they kept saying "Pokemon would attack you later"? Yeah, they're not going to attack until now. If you invoke the ire of a wild Pokemon, it will attack you just before the ingredient they wanted goes in the pot, and you must do all the encounters before the Totem, with no chance to Bag item.
Since we let the Fomantis have their Mago Berry, we can ignore that.
As previously mentioned, they dropped "Press A to pound" like a hot coal, and the fact that Mallow almost kinda deliberately pauses to stir her nightmare broth feels like an acknowledgement to the player that there used to be something here that they conspicuously don't have this time.
(Also, in addition to removing "Press A to pound", they took out the unique music track that played during that "minigame". Not that I mourn it, but it is a tangible omission.)
All present and accounted for...
Oh yeah, can't forget that one. Guess this mess isn't entirely on us choosing all the naff ingredients.
Bold claim, game. I can practically smell the pong of a dish that comes out like that.
Even the game gets on this accusation.
At least glad they kept this joke.
Although Ailey is no better at her reactions than Beth. Lurantis got a worse callout, but at least managed not having an awkward freeze-frame.
Totem Lurantis is the first Totem that both Bethany and Ailey will be fighting! Ilima's Totem escaped being counted on a technicality, but there will be four boss fights against what looks like the same opponent. USUM has tinkered with her kit, though, but the real surprise is waiting for us in the summons- Lurantis has ditched Trumbeak and her second option entirely (whoops, Beth forgot to show it. Don't worry, Noah does), and the replacements have some meat to them.
- Lurantis's Atk IV has been fixed at 31, her Nature fixed at Bold (+Def/-Atk), and if she had 64 EVs in Sp. Atk incorrectly assigned back in SM, they have been correctly set for Sp. Def this time. I'm still doubting they ever were on the wrong numbers in SM, but that's what it says in my notes, and finding numbers on in-game opponents' IVs and EVs is hard enough.
- She's dropped Razor Leaf for Low Sweep, a 65 BP Physical Fighting move that lowers Speed on hit. Honestly, this seems aimed at Steel types, although it has the nice effect of making it that much harder to claw the Speed advantage out of her grasp. Many of the Pokemon who are good at tanking her Grass/Bug combo aren't startled by Fighting coverage, though.
Who else? Basilissa takes point. Part of the reason I went for the pure pacifist approach is because Basilissa does not have the power to take out the wild encounters.
Free -1 Atk, and a Pokemon resistant to Grass, Bug and Fighting ready to start us off.
It was even a neat 7 damage taken. Basilissa's problem is a little bigger than her bulk, though- she doesn't get a Physical option again without TMs, not even for her Poison typing. It's a little hard to sell yourself with just Glare.
Not that it's a terrible thing to stake your claim on.
Kecleon has taken the job of Trumbeak as Lurantis's first summon. It has the IVs 30/10/30/10/30/10, a Jolly (+Spd/-Sp. Atk) Nature, no EVs, and the moves Sunny Day, Ancient Power, Dizzy Punch and Screech. Although it still has a Rock move to punish Grass's weakness, it's leaning much harder on that 70 BP STAB move with a 20% chance of Confuse. Sure, it will stop being STAB after you hit it with something, but that's a hit you're not landing on Lurantis.
Oh, yeah, can't forget Sunny Day. The big downside of Trumbeak was that it didn't enable Lurantis's shenanigans. Kecleon fixed that, and while it lost Trumbeak's dedicated Confuse move to make room, Dizzy Punch has it covered on that. Odds are probably just as good in practice.
I think I like both of you as statues.
It's always a bit of a relief to see that message when it's not happening to you...
Our first encounter with harsh sunlight! Part of the problem with sunlight is represented here- most of the good Abilities to increase your potential in sunlight are found on Grass types, because they're all flower power themed, but Grass types are weak to the Fire moves that are also boosted. Water types getting boosts in rain are the same Water types using the Abilities that benefit from rain. That said, Solar Beam (and now Solar Blade) are unpleasant to hit by no matter whether a Grass type or a Fire type is firing them.
Look at this. I was probably better off using Screech.
At least that got rid of Kecleon's STAB.
Continuing to flail against the type chart there.
Although that can't be good for Basilissa's long-term health.
So much for Crunch helping.
Yow, taking away your STAB didn't stop you...
It's worth noting that, if Lurantis clicks Solar Blade in sunlight, it doesn't consume its Power Herb. It only consumes its Power Herb if that's the only way to get the move out this turn.
It's also worth mentioning that attack knocked Basilissa out. Since it has, Kecleon's Dizzy Punch is still declared, but it fails to do anything due to lack of targets.
Hawkeye is here! And by my last count, that is a Dark-type Kecleon there.
Not dealing with your shenanigans right now, sir.
...Or yours, apparently.
Right, let's see what this looks like in action.
...Very empty.
But that damage is still a thing of beauty. And not even a oneshot this time.
Looks like it is allowed to use a move going second (wasn't a guarantee). Paralysis robbed that one, though.
Comfey (Moon): Baths prepared with the flowers from its vine have a relaxing effect, so this Pokémon is a hit with many people.
You. Now here is a summon sent from my nightmares. Comfey is a Pokemon that was almost built to be a summon in this fight, and although they've held back slightly, they put together a kit that comes pretty damn close to being the worst thing ever. Flat 30 IVs and a Timid Nature, for high Speed and being hard to beat (it's pure Fairy). Sunny Day, of course, Magical Leaf to hit you with, Floral Healing, to heal Lurantis for 1/2 its health, and Floral Shield, which will increase Lurantis's Defence stat by one stage. If you happen to be a Grass type too, Floral Shield works on you, but that's small comfort. And the real clincher is its Ability. Flower Veil is not the Ability it's busted with, and it's so useless in most situations you probably forgot what it does. It prevents Lurantis from having its stats lowered while Comfey is on the field. You better be in wincon mode when Comfey appears, or else you won't know the meaning of the word.
I think this qualifies as wincon. Comfey isn't able to do anything to help Lurantis if it's currently in the sky, and Lurantis can't use its own Synthesis either.
Too little too late.
A little bit of evidence to the whole "Doubles were probably largely absent for a reason" thing- it took a few seconds for the game to go "...so what's supposed to happen now?"
That. That was what was supposed to happen.
Now then, all that remains is getting rid of the lei.
And this is why I brought Nemo. Strictly speaking, Hawkeye isn't a bad option, if it uses its Flying moves, but I didn't have Comfey's set at hand and was (reasonably) scared of the existence of a Fairy move.
Now what did you think that was going to do? Two wasted turns there, one while Nemo was on the field!
Even with SE, that's a 3HKO. Perhaps going for STAB was the better option here...
This is neutral damage on Nemo and a resist on Hawkeye, too.
That's the sort of damage we're dealing with. I can live, but...
There were prettier wins.
...With what appendages is Nemo using to celebrate a Totem win? I'm surprised it stands on its two claws.
Sure did.
Mallow even has a different reaction based on whether or not you did the pacifist option. I think this really justified that decision, even if it was a decision that was based more around Basilissa's lack of power than a real sense of kindness.
This line is still the same, but changing the Totems appropriately. There is one comment worth making, though, and it's a line about a non-English translation. If you are playing the game in French, Lana's line here is "Et elle n'a fait qu'une bouchée de Tarenbulle..." For anyone who's familiar with French, you might have noticed something slightly problematic in there- "elle" is a feminine pronoun, and it is being used to describe the player (she's saying something like "and she made short work of Araquanid"). They forgot to change that to a male pronoun if you're a male character. Really, I'm more surprised she defaulted to female- and I'd like to know what this line was in SM that they missed it.
Yeah, they ramped up that description of how hard her Trial is.
Fire and feathers. That's how you deal with Grass.
This pose from Mallow demonstrating the Grass Z-Pose. I have to leave that one up.
She just suggests this for the sake of doing so this time around.
This time around, Mallow is feeding her friends for the sake of not leaving leftovers. Better, but nothing they're looking forward to.
Kiawe throws out the weakest excuse and weakest delivery he possibly could. Mallow is already upset about this.
I haven't decided whether this is more or less tactful than what Kiawe tried. Mallow's tune has been changed, at least.
This is probably the line that most pings me on "Mallow's a bad cook"- this writes a backstory where Olivia keeps being tactful about Mallow's skill, and Mallow never thinks about toning it down as a result. I prefer to think of this as a sapphic thing, but knowing Olivia, she might also have the stomach to actually be able to handle Mallow's munchies.
Really, the best way to explain the dissonance between Mallow being a good cook and Mallow being a bad cook might be justified as "Mallow cooks meals for Pokemon's tastebuds and doesn't think about humans having different needs".
Which, considering "Pokemon tastebuds" include "Grimer", may not necessarily exclude the possibility of Mallow still being a bad cook.
Kiawe shakes his head at this suggestion.
Olivia's on the other side of the island and she can smell that.
Kukui's dialogue is mostly the same, but I wanted to highlight this line. Olivia's USUM Grand Trial makes Grass types a worse option than this line suggests. His Smart Strike TM got better, although the Pokemon that can get it did not.
Anyway, Noah's turn.
Crobat (Ultra Sun): Its fangs are so sharp, if it bites you in the dark and sucks your blood, you won't notice any pain or realize you've been bitten.
Dang, Ethel, you glowed up fast. Now in full Crobat form, Ethel is still not fast enough to outspeed Lurantis, but she's fast enough to outspeed pretty much anything else. Now that it's running Cross Poison and Acrobatics as her STAB, she's gone from a bit deadweight to a bit of a powerhouse, and her typing is absolutely amazing for Lurantis: She dual resists all three of Grass, Bug and Fighting. The best counter you have to Lurantis's shenanigans is this surprisingly tanky bat.
Arsena's gonna be trying to do the thing Flambebe did. She has the Flame Burst. Oh hey, Clear Smog is an option, too, if I need it. That assumes she can survive, with that bulk.
Lavos Spawn wasn't even a good idea- it's weak to Bug, and its good moves are no good here. Oh well, at least it gets some EXP for evolving.
PRNDL is getting rid of Trumbeak. It's pretty good at handling Lurantis's offenses, too, plus it's guaranteed to do something.
At least this time, I knew going in Daj was a long shot. Air Cutter might be nice, but it's not going to be something to count on.
Eunie's gotten loads better now that she has an actual magical Ghost move, but beyond that, I dunno. Maybe if she evolved.
Proof of concept, going for the Tiny Mushroom first still gets you attacked by the biggun.
Shiinotic (Sun): Forests where Shiinotic live are treacherous to enter at night. People confused by its strange lights can never find their way home again.
And in another proof of concept, as a Sun/Moon divide, the Parasect Bethany found is instead a Shiinotic for Noah.
Double weak to Poison instead of Fire, but still got a double weakness nonetheless. Its moveset is Astonish, Mega Drain, Ingrain and Sleep Powder- I'm getting a distinct sense that whoever designed Parasect's set put in more effort. I think Shiinotic's is literally a level up set.
This is a bit of a hilarious Rotom textbox- this shows up as Mallow is preparing the dish- if you go right from talking to her to fighting Mallow, you are never actually in a gameplay state to trigger it. You can, however, see it on the bottom screen while Mallow is talking, and can trigger a gameplay state if you refuse Mallow for the time being.
This also lets you talk to Lana and Kiawe, not that they have anything to say.
Oh, and a side note, but after the fact, I found Mallow's "come crawling back after losing" line:
Looks like you bit off more than you could chew in my trial, huh? Lush Jungle's totem is tough, it's true. Lurantis is a tricky opponent. Remember that Fire- and Flying-type moves are super effective against Bug and Grass types. And don't forget to factor in the effects of the weather! If the sun is shining brightly, some Grass types can regain HP or use powerful moves from out of nowhere!
Nothing too special, but aside from the delightfully timed cooking pun, she also mentions Lurantis's power some more. It looks like this is a USUM thing, though.
Noah, your turn.
PRNDL lead. In addition to dealing with Trumbeak, it also has the job of setting paralysis turn 1.
And tanking that X-Scissor like a champ. Not even half health.
Landed.
...You mean Lurantis is still the fastest thing on the field with paralysis up? More likely I just missed.
There we go, that's the entirety of PRNDL's job done.
This is one of the moves of all time here. Mirror Shot is a 65 BP 85% accurate Special Steel move that has a 30% chance of lowering accuracy on hit. None of these numbers are impressive on their own, and they're certainly not impressive together, but it does qualify as Special Steel STAB for PRNDL, so on the kit it goes...
Looking forward to when you get Flash Cannon, buddy.
And PRNDL also absorbs that Power Herb. Doing all of the fight's dirty work.
It attempted one last action, but was unsuccessful. Shame, that.
Sometimes you need the Purplecoat.
Of all the Poison moves, Cross Poison is probably my favourite one to click. It's not the most effective Poison STAB option- that honour is usually bestowed upon Poison Jab- but something about the animation just clicks with me every time.
Lurantis can breathe in between charging to call for help.
Castform (Ultra Sun): Although its form changes with the weather, that is apparently the result of a chemical reaction and not the result of its own free will.
Castform is a weird Pokemon that makes a good in-universe barometer. A pure Normal type under most circumstances, it transforms into a Fire, Water or Ice type if exposed to Sun, Rain or Hail, respectively (I don't know what's weirder- the fact it doesn't have a Rock form for Sandstorm, or the fact they never decided to add one later). Obviously, Castform carries Sunny Day, able to apply it once you've dealt some damage to Lurantis proper. Its IVs are 15/X/30/30/30/15, it has a random Nature, and its moveset is Sunny Day, Water Gun, Headbutt and Weather Ball. Weather Ball is a 50 BP Special Normal move in normal circumstances, but is rated at 100 BP while a weather is in effect- and changes type to suit the weather. That's the equivalent of a STAB Ember-based Inferno Overdrive. Don't underestimate it because it looks small and harmless.
I give a shot to taking that Castform out.
Not like the Lurantis is scaring me here...
Sunny Castform (Ultra Sun): This is the form Castform takes on bright days. In an experiment where Castform was placed in front of a heater, it didn't change to this form.
Castform's ability to change types with the weather is governed by its unique Ability, Forecast. It's worth noting that, unlike many such Abilities introduced in SM, Castform does actually respect the idea of suppressing its Ability- if you somehow remove the Forecast Ability, it transforms into Normal form regardless of whether the sun is up.
You can do some damage to yourself, thank you.
...Or not. Meep.
Right, I know what needs to be disposed of first, and that's you. You're the one Ethel is scared of.
It's nice when it doesn't realise it's got Weather Ball under its hat, isn't it?
Lurantis is helpless under the overwhelming power of a Poison/Flying type with good bulk. And this one only needed favouritism to get to 23!
And that's the end of that battle. Didn't even drop to low enough HP to eat the Mago Berry and unleash the power of Acrobatics.
Although it didn't do anything, Lavos Spawn evolved. That'll be nice for catching things later, I suppose- it turns out, however, that its replacement is already on the way.
Noah down. Now then, let's see what Ray has to work with.
Oh yeah. Right. The only thing Theodore has that a freshly acquired Totem Marowak does not is 50 EVs in HP and Atk and the Thick Club that Paul acquired during Kiawe's match.
Theodore is legitimately on the team, by the way, but do you get the impression that you don't need to see the rest of the team here?
Angry Bird is packing the Flyinium Z, for either Supersonic Skystrike or Z-Mirror Move. The fact that my Z-Move is Plan B says so much.
Intimidate, Scary Face, Tauros would be a pretty worthy opponent on its own merits.
Agnes wishes. She's mostly here for EXP.
Honestly, I feel like Penny's pretty filler even on a team that doesn't have Theodore.
I'm... kinda amazed how similar Veeka and Theodore's numbers are. Theodore's Defence is significantly higher enough that it has the edge in neutral bulk, but wow...
Ailey was very careful to select the correct ingredients to not disturb the forest.
Ray is... less careful.
He even took Honey from the tons of flowers, triggering the unique encounter.
Oh, I feel so bad about how this is going to go down...
The penalty for choosing an incorrect Mago Berry tree is a level 17 Fomantis, carrying the moves Razor Leaf, Leafage, Fury Cutter and Growth.
It does not last long. It probably wouldn't have lasted long had anything in our first slot been SE on Grass. Well, OK, maybe Basilissa.
Sorry about that. Less sorry about what I did to the Fomantis.
The penalty for choosing the bush with "tons of flowers" is a level 21 Comfey, with Vine Whip, Draining Kiss, Leech Seed and Sweet Kiss. If you picked one of the other flowers, you get a level 21 Fomantis with Razor Leaf/Fury Cutter/Ingrain/Growth instead. The Comfey is 100% the more dangerous foe, although it's probably not insurmountable by your lead. It will probably make a non-zero dent in you, though.
Of course, for Leech Seed to make that dent, I need to let the Comfey survive.
This seemed to be a bit more than it could handle. Wasn't entirely expecting that, but ultimately not surprised.
I'm more amazed stealing Honey didn't summon a swarm of Combees.
Sudowoodo (Ultra Sun): It's so popular with the elderly that there's a magazine devoted to this Pokémon. Fans obsess over the particular length and angle of its arms.
The final penalty you can get is a level 24 Sudowoodo, the evolved form of Bonsly and a pure Rock type. Carrying the Sturdy Ability and the moves Rock Throw, Rock Tomb, Wood Hammer and Flail, the odds that whatever you were planning on hitting Lurantis with can survive this unscathed are pretty low indeed. Thank goodness finding the Big Root is so easy, otherwise Lurantis might've been more difficult than she seemed on first glance.
Theodore outspeeds and uses Bonemerang, hitting it twice for SE damage. Despite being non-STAB, Thick Club was enough to break past Sudowoodo's defences and oneshot.
I think this was around the point I suddenly realised what cosmic horror I just unleashed on the poor defenceless wannabe chef.
I can't tell if that works or just make them look adorable.
Since Ray's collected the more-desirable and thus presumably tastier bits, I'd like to imagine Mallow's secret spice is the thing that causes this all to go pear-shaped.
Right then, time for the Lurantis herself.
It's a battle of wills between two literal titans and- yeah, I think we both know Theodore's probably winning this one in one hit if he clicks Fire Punch.
Ghost resists Bug, because the type chart was decided on during "everyone pick on Bug" day, so Theodore probably didn't notice that X-Scissor.
At this point, I decided to toy with Lurantis. I know Theodore can win this, actually doing it would prove nothing.
Might as well see a Burn properly applied. Lurantis's already pathetic attacks are reduced even further and I haven't even touched its Atk stat stages.
Kecleon. Theodore's gonna handle him before he leaves, though.
"Is that the best you got?"
"... ... ...Yes?"
Now, when I was selecting what to put in my top slot while waiting on Shadow Bone, I decided on Smack Down for reasons I still don't entirely understand (other than "it lets me use Bonemerang on Flying types"). For further reasons I don't understand, I decided to have Smack Down set up a Bonemerang SE hit on Kecleon, when Fire Punch would've accomplished the same result.
As a result, Theodore just took a STAB hit to its inferior defences.
Honestly, it's a bit of a testament to how much of a perfect counter Marowak is that it took me being this bone-headed to put myself in a situation that put me at half health.
Literal single digit damage.
At the very least, the part of my plan that involved "hitting Kecleon where it hurts" worked. I just overlooked the reverse operation.
Now then, that's enough completely and utterly humiliating the boss for one day.
Let's see what Plan B would've been like.
Lurantis has already used its Power Herb. Remember that. This is going to be the dumbest idiocy.
Lurantis, because Theodore has not done anything to hamper her Speed, goes before Angry Bird. This plays to Angry Bird's advantage, of course.
Because now I can Z-Mirror Move Bloom Doom off the back of a 125 BP move (this results in a 190 BP Bloom Doom), and one that even does physical damage! Sure, it's resisted (I would have preferred to Mirror Move an X-Scissor, but good luck getting her to click that move), but that wasn't even necessarily the important part anyway.
...Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be a beautiful glowing kaboom! My assumption for what's happening here is that the Solar Blade Lurantis started using was targeted at Theodore, because Theodore was the target on the field when Lurantis decided "I'm going to use Solar Blade". Although Solar Blade hit Angry Bird, it didn't count as the last attack targeted at Angry Bird.
At the very least, Angry Bird does get the Atk up. That's nice.
...
Oh, come on. You just decided to use X-Scissor on me after all? If I had known that, I'd have waited!
Oh well, Angry Bird had this covered.
Veeka desperately tries to pretend the 80 BP Physical Dark move its added to its kit of "surprisingly powerful moves to have at level 25" allows it to bathe in the same light that Theodore and Angry Bird just bathed in.
And the worst part is, it wouldn't have been the worst option...
Mallow does compliment you for "fighting your way through all the Pokemon" if you did fight things other than the Totem. I do prefer the pacifist outcome, but I usually trigger the first two Fomantises anyway for those last bits of extra EXP before the Lurantis. You never know when you're one level off...
Looks over shoulder.
Ray: "What, like it's hard?"
I stand by the common assertion that most people make about Totem Lurantis: Totem Lurantis is a wake-up call boss. But the reasons for her success are, in part, because Pokemon is not a series that often encourages using teams cognizant of debuff options, and the first three Totems in SM reinforced that approach. You could beat Gumshoos, Wishiwashi and Salazzle just by playing normally. Lurantis, meanwhile, is a matchup that requires understanding the mechanics enough to have an active counter-strategy, because once she's set up, she can knock down anything you brought that isn't 100% prepared to take on the job of a Grass counter. Flambebe, Hawkeye, Ethel and Theodore made her look like a joke, but that's the thing: Hawlucha is grossly overpowered for this point in the game as a general Pokemon, Crobat requires active effort to acquire in time and mostly won the fight on account of the perfect type matchup, and Totem Marowak is an Ultra-Sun exclusive that I'm not 100% convinced the devs were aware you could get before Lurantis. Even Salandit, who has the double resist, is very squishy and greatly appreciated Dottie softening things up. If she wasn't level 24 and relying on Ember, as a lead, it's highly likely that she would only have dealt a significant-but-not-gamechanging amount of damage before being overwhelmed by Lurantis's high speed and power, not the least because she'd have to deal with Trumbeak and/or Castform, on top of being a fresh join and probably not having EVs unless you put real time (in both senses of the word) into Poke Pelago EV training.
So yeah, this was easy, but only because I knew it was coming and made sure every team had something to fight back with.
Next time: Hey, wasn't Lillie in this game?
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