We're going to start this update back in Lush Jungle, to catch some of the new species to find here. There's a lot going on in here, but comparatively fewer Pokemon in the kerfuffle.
In USUM, there is a visible encounter in this grass, not found in SM. It does complete clockwise laps of this area, and unless you remember it's there, odds are you'll hit it trying to pass by. I start with it because both of the encounters from it are relevant.
Steenee (Ultra Sun): It's protected by its hard sepals, so it plays with bird Pokémon without worry. They peck it relentlessly, but it doesn't care.
Starting with the pure-Grass type Steenee, found 70% of the time in these rustling spawns. Steenee is the evolved form of Bounsweet, and replaces Bounsweet entirely on the encounter tables here in Lush Jungle for USUM- since all the levels for USUM Lush Jungle have been bumped up from 18-21 to 19-22, all Pokemon found here are at or surpass Bounsweet's evolution level of 19. As Grass types go, I maintain that Bounsweet's line is better than Fomantis's, mainly for the key Ability that Bounsweet gets. Move-wise, they both have issues, but this is more about Grass as an offensive presence than their respective choices (they both have relatively early access to a strong physical Grass STAB move). Ray will be taking her, mainly because Bethany already has Oatchi.
The Bounsweet family's Abilities are Leaf Guard (prevents non-volatile statuses during sunlight) and Oblivious (blocks infatuate and Taunt). Go for Oblivious, because it turns into the signature Ability on evolution. Its HA is Sweet Veil, which blocks Sleep for not only it, but its ally in Doubles. My suggestion remains, pick Oblivious.
Oranguru (Moon): Deep in the jungle, high in the lofty canopy, this Pokémon abides. On rare occasions, it shows up at the beach to match wits with Slowking.
The 30% encounter in Ultra Moon is given to the Normal/Psychic type Oranguru, a new species to Alola. Lore-wise, much ado is made about it having the capacity to order other Pokemon around like a Trainer, and this is reflected in its signature move Instruct, which allows it to order its teammate to perform the last move it did again, as an action separate from its teammate's normal action that turn. Unfortunately, the great tactical benefits bestowed here are not entirely reflected in Singles. Oranguru is a not-half-bad Special tank with decent Special Attack and mediocre Speed, but it relies heavily on setup. It has the moves it needs, the real problem is whether the game will offer the opportunity. I wanted to use one here (since I picked both Sun and Violet, I've been on the wrong side of its version exclusivity), but it doesn't fit on Noah's team.
Its Abilities are Inner Focus (blocks flinching) and Telepathy (in Doubles, will not take damage from moves that target all Pokemon on the field, like Earthquake, when used by its teammate). Inner Focus is the one to choose for Singles, but both reflect that this is a Pokemon that really wants to appear in a Doubles match. I would mention its HA (if only briefly, because it's Symbiosis and also only works in Doubles), but Oranguru and its version counterpart are the only wild new-to-Alola Pokemon that cannot be obtained with HA in SM. It can call for help, but only Trumbeak appear. Bonkers, but Oranguru can deal.
Passimian (Ultra Moon): Berries are its weapons as well as the staple of its diet. The one that can throw a berry the farthest is the boss of the troop.
Its counterpart in Sun and Ultra Sun (it can be found as a 5% encounter using the normal tables in both games) is Passimian, a Fighting type. Whereas Oranguru was passive and increased the effectiveness of its teammates, Passimian is aggressive and receives buffs from its teammates. This makes it a much better pick for Singles play, having high Atk, pretty good bulk, and a decent Speed score. Its natural learnset is a bit weak for Fighting moves, but it gets Acrobatics and other things in TMs, so it's pretty covered on that front. I probably would've used it myself, but Bethany did just pick up Lord Huggington, and Ray's already got Fighting covered with Fist Jr. Noah would've loved it, though, and I was almost considering having him borrow one for use. He ultimately picked something else, though.
Passimian's only Ability is Receiver, its signature Ability that is its only major flaw in Singles. When its ally faints in a Doubles match, Receiver will change to be whatever its teammate had (with obvious escape clauses for any Ability that would demand Form changes, like Forecast or Schooling). Useless in Singles- despite my continued misplaced belief it works if it switches in after a faint. Like Oranguru, Passimian cannot access its HA in normal play. Unlike Oranguru, its HA is Defiant (gains +2 Atk whenever its stats are lowered), so I am much more upset by this fact.
Like Tauros and Miltank, Oranguru and Passimian are on the same page in the Pokedex. Your guess is as good as mine, but as version exclusives, this is probably worse for the page's purpose as "clues for where the rest of the missing spaces are".
Lush Jungle has three rooms in which encounters can be found, and in SM, each has its own separate encounter tables. The central room is the only one that spawns Bonsly, the north-west room is the only one that spawns Bounsweet, and this north room is the only one that spawns something hitherto unseen.
In USUM, they apparently have two tables, with the north-west room being the odd one out. Looking at the tables, I couldn't tell you what the difference is. Every Pokemon first found here in SM is still here in USUM, though, and at no worse rates either.
Pinsir (Ultra Sun): It gets into territorial disputes with Vikavolt. For some reason, it apparently gets along well with Heracross in Alola.
Pinsir is a pure Bug type all the way from RBY, and this thing really has fought tooth and nail every step of the way. It didn't learn a single Bug move back then, and it wasn't until DPPt that X-Scissor was finally shoved in there, in between the six Fighting type moves. It got a friend in the Bug/Fighting type Heracross that it started being version-exclusive with, but all this really proved was how much of an utter wannabe Pinsir was at doing Heracross's job. SM allows it a respite, and it is the only one of the pair available in the main story. It has high Atk, high Def compromised by middling HP, and moderately decent Speed. Noah decided to use it as his Fighting type, and time will tell whether Pinsir or Passimian was the way to go.
Pinsir's Abilities are Hyper Cutter (makes it immune to Atk debuffs) and Mold Breaker (ignores Abilities when making its decisions). Hyper Cutter probably befits it best, but Mold Breaker allows it a few advantages here and there. Its HA is Moxie, which gives it +1 Atk whenever it lands a KO. This thing is awesome in the right hands, and whether those are Pinsir's is a bit of an open question, but if you can set it up, Pinsir can knock 'em down.
In all areas of the Jungle, one can find the pure-Fairy Comfey at a 5% encounter rate. Comfey was a Pokemon I was so excited to use from the pre-release, because the idea of a live lei was just that cute, but unfortunately, Comfey suffers immensely from its stats and something we're going to start seeing now. It's got high defences (higher in Special), but low HP. It's got good Speed, but its Sp. Atk isn't carrying strong offenses. But the real killer is in its kit. It learns Leech Seed at level 4 and Draining Kiss at level 7, but unless you catch one at level 18, both moves are overwritten and cannot be acquired for the rest of the game unless you're willing to breed a new one and raise it from scratch. Without Draining Kiss, it doesn't have Fairy STAB until really late. USUM also gives it access to Giga Drain, but it took away the level 18 ones with Draining Kiss. Finding Pokemon screwed over by having key moves overwritten in their learnsets is going to become a bigger and bigger problem as we progress, and many of the best Pokemon we have yet to find either lucked out or wanted TMs anyway.
Comfey's Abilities are Flower Veil (prevents allied Grass types from suffering stat debuffs) and its signature Ability Triage. Triage gives +3 priority to all moves that heal it, and it's the one you want as a result. Crucially, "healing" counts draining, which is why I highlighted Draining Kiss and Giga Drain: They totally count. Leech Seed doesn't, so missing out on it isn't the worst, but Leech Seed is still good enough to justify resenting its absence. Its HA is Natural Cure (cures non-volatile statuses on switch out), which is at least usable, but hardly covers for Triage.
At night-time only, USUM can find Hoothoot in here. (The daytime spawn is Trumbeak, Natu are found elsewhere). At levels 19-22, they will immediately evolve on their first level up, and they can call for help from said evolution. It has high HP and Sp. Def, with middling Sp. Atk and Spd and low Atk and Def. SM itself gave it a key buff- an extra 10 points in Sp. Atk- but that didn't boost it out of the "middling" range. Its moveset is filled with Psychic moves, but it remains a Normal/Flying type despite its clear wishes. Its damage options aren't terrible, around mid-level-30s, but its stats won't carry it there with what it has to work with. There's no one problem with Hoothoot: It has all of them.
Its Abilities are Insomnia (immune to sleep) and Keen Eye (immune to accuracy debuffs). Neither is great, although Insomnia is funny considering you originally obtained them by shaking them out of trees while they were sleeping. Its HA is Tinted Lens, an Ability that doubles the damage of any move considered "Not very effective". Handy, but it doesn't really want to stay in on any of the types that Normal, Flying and Psychic find themselves NVE on.
...Whoops, nice little foreshadowing for next update there. But at certain times during the day, Lush Jungle will experience overworld rain. This is the first instance of a recurring mechanic that gets incredibly annoying, particularly since I'm not 100% sure on all the overworld weather timings- I just know Lush Jungle usually gets rain in the 5-6 PM hour. It is time to talk about weather-based S.O.S. calls.
- Weather-based S.O.S. occurs on an area-by-area basis. Only some areas will have weather S.O.S. turned on, and weather will otherwise not cause new encounters even in areas where weather naturally occurs- so no, I didn't skip anything in Brooklet Hill.
- Weather-based S.O.S. occurs based on what the weather is at the time the S.O.S. call is made- so Cloud Nine to negate weather negates weather calls, and changing the weather with a move or an Ability will change the tables while that weather is in effect.
- There are three weather tables: Rain, Hail and Sandstorm. Each area with weather S.O.S. has a table for all three weathers, although they usually only have a unique find in one of them. For Lush Jungle, that's Rain.
- You have an 11% chance of a weather spawn each call. 10% will be devoted to the new weather spawn in the area, while 1% will be left over for Castform. If the weather isn't the area with the defined find, that 11% is entirely for Castform.
While it would be theoretically possible for me to pick up Castform here, it's so annoying here, and so much easier elsewhere, that I'll be saving picking up my own until then. Suffice it to say it won't be making many teams on its own merits, or lack thereof.
What I am here for is Goomy! Goomy is the first stage of a psuedo-legendary line, like Bagon and Larvitar, and thus suffers from all the same pitfalls they do. The line maintains a pure Dragon typing throughout, and in its final stage, has titanic Special Defence, respectable Speed, strong offenses on both fronts, and middling Speed. It's my favourite psuedo-legendary line by personal preference, but I'm not suffering through the Goomy stage all the way until 40 for it.
Goomy's Abilities are Sap Sipper (raises Atk by one stage when hit by a Grass move, renders it immune to such) and Hydration (cures non-volatile status ailments in rain). Hydration plays to its strengths best, particularly since it already resists Grass, but either has its perks. Its HA is Gooey, which reduces the Speed of anyone that makes contact by one stage. Probably its best choice, although each of the three have their own niches.
I was using Parasect because I thought chaining off the Paras line was the cleanest way to get through this. Goomy had a nice little laugh at my expense when I went in for the Spore. Oh well, Hydration would've had the same result.
Leafeon (Moon): The younger they are, the more they smell like fresh grass. With age, their fragrance takes on the odor of fallen leaves.
While I was catching Pokemon in the north area of Lush Jungle, Eevee evolved into Leafeon- which it does when levelled up in the presence of the Moss Rock here in Lush Jungle. Leafeon invested in Defence, Attack and Speed, producing a rather adorable physical sweeper with some slight numbers issues. And also, unlike the two new physical Grass types we can catch here, Leafeon doesn't get its strong STAB move until level 45. Being an Eeveelution, its coverage isn't impressive either.
Leafeon's Ability is Leaf Guard, blocking non-volatile statuses in sunlight. With HA, it switches to Chlorophyll, doubling Speed in sunlight. I much prefer Chlorophyll, but they both play to their respective sets.
Poke Finder spot in this bit of the west side. There's a lot of conditional encounters here: You can get Comfey, Goodra, Paras/Bounsweet in the daytime, Morelull/Fomantis at nighttime, and Kecleon in USUM.
What's more likely, you reckon: Finding the Goodra in the Poke Finder, or finding a Goomy naturally? At least Alexis gave us Goomy's Seen entry.
In SM only, this tree that had the Mago Berry in the Trial will still produce Fomantis. It exists, but it's not great.
So much litter. Not much of it good. USUM gets a Max Revive, I guess...?
Also in USUM, there are these two litter items. I love this nonsense. I don't think it works as well in reverse, though.
We've got a few things to pick up in USUM, starting with this bickering family. We can now acquire Passimian and Oranguru, so Ray and Ailey can show them to solve their issues.
Note: Unlike with jobs, you have to have the ape on you.
That got both of them cheered up.
And then we get quite possibly the funniest exchange, that exists in both games: Trying to explain these puns in-universe.
He tries. So, so hard. I remain no better informed about how Oranguru was named in-universe, but this is exactly what I'd expect on the subject from someone who presumably doesn't live in a world with orangutans.
The Passimian story still references Berries, although they have nothing to do with their name came from.
...I can only wonder how they translated this joke.
Either way, this kid accepts the story at face value. And won't question it until adulthood, when nobody else knows this story. If the other kids don't just accept the story themselves.
Another one for the pile.
...Good luck with that, kiddo.
OK, considering the incident the Pokemon anime got into because of dressing Ash up to disguise himself as a Passimian, perhaps I should be careful about that one.
I guarantee you, it won't be enough.
Ah, right, don't have Goomy yet on this file. I'll have to pick it up in a while yet, but at least the lady can tell us how to acquire one.
Anyway, it's been a day... or a week... so let's go help out the little Vulpix again.
Good to hear. Wasn't hoping to hear I needed to buy more.
Oh, that? I can handle that, no sweat.
Who wants walkies?
I'm not 100% sure why this happened, but I get the impression she's being a lot more sarcastic to Ray here. Just a hunch.
They literally faded to black, did the walkies in the background, and just teleported back. I'm glad to not be on a fetch quest, but still.
I'll take its kyun for it.
Most of it by people other than me, I take it.
I now have the 75 Boxed Pokemon needed for Isle Evelup 3 and Isle Avue 2. The other games were similarly advancing on their respective next stages. I don't really care about Avue 3 in any real time-sensitive manner, so I'm pretty content with 75. Even then, I want Isle Evelup to level up all the Pokemon in my Pokedex.
Zipping all the way to the Dimensional Research Lab, who else should we find but Lillie and Nebby? Their business with their mystery friend... "concluded" (she hasn't figured out why she didn't find the guy), she's coming over to the lab for other purposes.
And as we approach, she desperately attempts to get Nebby to listen to one of her commands, as if she were in a real battle.
Cosmog does legitimately know Splash, she's not just picking a move out of thin air.
Even Nebby knows that wasn't going to happen.
I am both flattered and confused.
This line actually serves as a pretty significant insight into Lillie's whole "fear of Pokemon battles" bit, particularly with how little the game is going to care about it in the near future. It's not so much that she's learned Pokemon battling has a legitimate societal value (that plot arc was in BW), but rather her aversion was almost entirely on the back of specific traumas relating to the injury of Pokemon she cares about, and challenging this helps "solve" her issues.
Throwing in a mention of Hau in there to try and make this sound slightly less romantic.
Lillie sees the things we have- confidence, security, efficacy- and wants to have them for herself. As usual, the surprise is not that she wants these things, but that she feels particularly like she has been denied these things.
Nebby: "...I am a semi-sentient ball of fluff. I don't think I have the capacity to understand a word you just said."
He does, however, notice us.
"...How much of that did you hear?"
I heard enough.
Indeed. We've not talked to you since before Lana's Trial. Well, OK, we've checked in on you since, but you kept repeating that you didn't get to see your friend because of Team Skull...
Lillie knowing full well we heard more of her little "pretending to be Bethany" session than she wishes we did, so she's trying her hardest to distract from the topic.
Hm, let's see... Oatchi, Kasplashle, Flambebe... Yeah, piece of cake.
Nope. I'm excited for more, honestly. And I know Ray's even more so.
Lillie sorta expected that reaction. I wonder how this impacts her perception of us in regards to her fantasies.
My little panda knows what's what.
And she heads ahead into the Dimension Research Lab.
I dunno, you don't really fit in my pockets. Although that might be more the doing of your little Rotom wings.
...Weird thing to occur to you, but I suppose I understand where that's coming from. He's talking about the Mythical Pokemon Hoopa, a Pokemon that appeared in ORAS. It had the power to create rings to teleport whatever it wanted, wherever it wanted, whenever it wanted, and its favourite trick was to make portals through which Legendary Pokemon were to travel, for whatever whims it wanted. This was how the Generation 6 games were able to acquire all the classic Legendaries, and probably ought to have been the first serious sign that some Pokedex trimming was in desperate demand.
Going up to...
Yeah, uh lady, there's a second floor here, what's on that? 3F is the only one we're visiting, though.
The Dimensional Research lab plays this theme. I always thought it was a classic song, but no, it's original. I think it's supposed to be stylistically similar to the music tracks in BW, though.
We're immediately roped into the next scene, introducing us to a new plot-relevant character. Well, I say "new"...
Professor Burnet is a nostalgia character, and she's relevant to the B2W2 games- hence why I thought the Dimensional Research Lab theme was a nostalgia track. Although if you don't recognise her, I don't blame you...
She comes from the Pokemon Dream Radar companion game, an Augmented Reality shooter based on finding rare Pokemon in the Interdream Zone and sending them to B2W2. It was half "we just released the 3DS, we need tie-in games to show off the new features" and half a showcase of the new Therian forms for the forces of nature.
I used to play a lot of this game, but I don't remember recognising her without being told either. Part of that's her new Alolan tan.
Her switch from dreams to dimensions is mostly glossed over, while her marriage to Kukui could actually qualify as ambiguous. While there is no question the two are happily married, there's a non-zero argument whether they married before or after Dream Radar. The anime shows them in the process of getting married, which supports the idea this is a fresh marriage, but it's not like Dream Radar gives you a good look at her left hand...
As Kukui's wife, Burnet has a role in the Lillie arc- and in fact, she may have contributed more to it than Kukui. The reason she didn't run her own introduction was because she was busy listening to Lillie's story about us.
Hopefully it's not embellished too much.
By saying "as Kukui's wife, Burnet is important", I implied that Burnet herself wasn't contributing anything here. I stand by my phrasing, but this reasoning will steer you wrong. Burnet started the Lillie plot. Kukui's the hapless spouse following on for support. We just didn't see it that way because Lillie stays under Kukui's feet, not Burnet's.
Burnet realises she was about to tell a story without one of the major characters around, and asks what the deal is with that before she gets much further.
"What, it's not like I put a leash on him." Although I will say that not inviting him to this does somewhat suggest an active disinterest in keeping him in the loop.
...
Meh, he probably doesn't care too much beyond just "I care about Lillie and want the best for her". This business seems beyond his wheelhouse.
Those are some expectations. Ignoring whether I think he can- are you sure you want to set yourself up for the possibility? No matter whether he succeeds or fails here?
And what could be worse than Hau walking into the room at that exact moment? ...Dang, Kukui's got the right expression there. Also Lillie and Burnet appreciating the joke in the background, too.
Kukui hurriedly assuring Hau of the nice comments and brushing over the whole "eh, not my problem" bit. Not that I imagine he'd be too offended.
...Also, how did he know we were here? Maybe he just knows Burnet because of Kukui and wanted to drop in on her now that she's in?
Now that Burnet's here, it's her chance to show off her new expertise some.
Wondering "why Ultra Sun and Moon?" Ultra was a major adjective this whole time. This is our introduction to the Ultra Dimension content in SM, although you may start thinking about how the Ultra Recon Squad ties in here...
"Sometimes portals to another dimension appear. It's just a thing that happens." Strangely, they seem to favour Alola. I'm sure there's no reason for that.
As if the weird interdimensional portal with unknown trigger conditions wasn't bad enough, odds are it spits out dangerous Pokemon.
You know. Vacation spot.
Yes, Nebby, very serious subject matter.
...Say, you wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you? ...Didn't think so.
Now, the reason Burnet brought up the legends of the fearsome Pokemon was because they served as likely proof of the existence of the other dimension- that there was a place for these Pokemon to come from.
I feel like this is the least important question posed by those myths, but OK.
Burnet. We are talking about the Pokedex. I can't imagine a less reliable source.
For once, I think Hau's got the right idea what the most important part of this conversation is.
That's the sort of thing it takes to be a "fearsome Pokemon". Normal things are capable of pulling off the feats that these things can. The difference is, we can't tell them to stop.
Ultra Beasts, in comparison to Pocket Monsters. If there's one thing about the Ultra storyline I wish had been ironed out slightly better, I wish they actually tied in the name "Ultra Beast" to "Pocket Monster" somehow. Presumably, they didn't like the idea of calling them "Ultra Monsters" and coming up with the new Ultramons, although the terminology they use for Ultra Beasts does maintain a palpable sense of the otherworldly. Almost as if normal nomenclature can't encompass them.
Good to know my tax prayers are being put to good use.
But also very concerning.
That is, at least, a satisfactory enough asterisk on the story. Although all legends have a nugget of truth, and I'm scared to know where the nugget of truth is in that legend.
Kukui is busy researching Z-Moves, Burnet's got him covered on the real plot-important stuff.
By which she means actual, tangible books on the shelves.
The sheer entitlement on this thing. Of course we'll poke around in Professor Burnet's research. I mean, you like Kukui, what's so different about the missus?
The book behind Burnet's desk mentions the Interdream Zone that was Burnet's original research project, although the protagonist demonstrates absolutely no interest in the topic.
...Nothing else to share, Burnet?
In USUM, you can check her photo frames and see she's got her honeymoon pictures on the desk.
Palkia's HGSS Pokedex entry. Palkia is the governor of space within the world of Pokemon, and travelling in and out of wormholes (the normal kind) is its bread and butter. If I were using Palkia's Pokedex to support the existence of alternate dimensions, though, I'd show preference to its original Pearl entry:
It is said to live in a gap in the spatial dimension parallel to ours. It appears in mythology.
Now you're stretching things, Burnet. This is Giratina's HGSS Pokedex entry, and the Distortion World was an actual, tangible place that has been explored. We- that is, Dawn and Cynthia- travelled there. We left Cyrus there, even. Whether or not it is an alternate dimension is a different matter, but it has little, if anything, to do with the Ultra phenomenon.
Bronzong's Platinum Pokedex entry. Funny how they're all Sinnoh Dex entries, huh? Bronzong is an otherwise ordinary Pokemon based on the dotaku bells of good harvest that the Japanese pray to, with traits of the mythical Bell of Mugen. Its ability to summon rain, although reflected by its access to the move Rain Dance, has no more interdimensional power than any other Pokemon's ability to summon rain (which I can buy from a corner store for the equivalent of five hundred quid), and much like the infamous claims of Magcargo having a body temperature of 10000 degrees Celsius, I'm taking it with a grain of salt.
One thing I will comment on, though, is that Palkia, Giratina and Bronzor can all be acquired from the Dream Radar. Perhaps there does exist a link between the Interdream Zone and the Ultra phenomenon for Burnet to wiki walk her way down.
Once again, this is the extent of the subject of the Interdream Zone. There's stuff about that in BW, but not as much as I'd like. I imagine there was more in that Pokemon Dream World, back before 2014.
Transient services are bleh.
Mohn is a new character to SM, he's the guy that did the research on Ultra Wormholes. Funny how he's got the same name as the guy who runs Poke Pelago, huh.
...Better not touch it.
...Huh, you can? I wonder if I can exploit that to be able to get Bethany to fight Ailey or something...
v
In USUM, this guy will give you a Zoom Lens if you have Pokemon in your Battle Box. It's mainly a feature to get rid of organising your party clunk before you play in serious battling against other real people, the feature is relatively useless in the main story.
He's also really judgemental about you if you're not using them? Like, good grief, am I not allowed to not want to go online?
(He also goes on for longer than he does in SM about how good Battle Boxes are.)
Hau has already decided to forget this conversation ever happened. Probably.
He changes his line in USUM, and although it's definitely a better line, it's still somewhat odd to me.
Kukui casually blocking the elevator like this is a sensible idea.
Our progress is in talking to Lillie about her relationship with Burnet.
Read that a little bit more closely. This is a lie. She is describing the circumstances that led to her being found unconscious on the beach, which we know, as the player, is because of Nebby teleporting her in the opening cutscene. It's curious that, as open as she is about the Nebby situation, she's still not telling us where she came from...
I'm not sure if Burnet knows the real story, or whether she got fed a similar shortened version. Considering Burnet's attentiveness and reaction, I suspect she knows the real story, but she may also just be hyped to have access to Cosmog and the fact it's probably relevant to her research.
Burnet: "Kukui, you babysit her, I'll do the complicated study."
Kukui: "Sure thing, dear!"
In the face of everything standing in her way there.
That is not a normal thing to say about just a particularly generous researcher. That's something that requires not being close to your own mother.
...I would like to know where she is, come to think of it.
That's where the conversation ends. Sadly, you can't ask Burnet about her feelings on the topic- or indeed, get anyone else to react.
I think everybody in this conversation is on a different page of conversation here.
Now, as best we can, is the time to ignore everything that just happened and focus on finishing up our Akala Trials.
...Hm, wonder how it stacks up to Marowak and Lurantis.
...So how does one ask a kahuna to conduct a Grand Trial? Do I just knock on the door...
This warning is removed from USUM. Honestly, a lot of the warnings SM makes about Team Skull seem more exaggerated than even the villain teams people were nervous about, like Rocket, Plasma or Flare.
I'd like to stay, but this is trip is kinda done for me, and also I'm not sure my questions would even be answered anyway.
Hau changes to the other line he says in USUM too. Really, it just kinda emphasises how Hau's line is so disconnected from both of the other threads this conversation is on.
Sounds kinda overwhelming, in my experience. I mean... a place called Bethany?
They have this cut to the sky, but it took me a bit by surprise. You're not missing much, though- I caught the actually interesting thing to see here.
What was that, and why was it there? Only wrong answers can come of asking that question...
Hau comes out and shoves his foot in his mouth confirming he didn't see anything.
At last, we will be intended to travel through Diglett's Tunnel. Should be a lot less strangely high level now.
Even Hau knows you might've overlooked the tunnel before now.
Off he goes to Royal Avenue. Fortunately, it's only a short walk from this part of Heahea City, but still, they do remember the malasada joint isn't in Heahea, right?
Since we've already been in this part of Heahea City and visited Diglett's Tunnel, we know why it is out of operation. Now, however, we can do something about it.
Hilariously, if this is your first time visiting Diglett's Tunnel, the earlier "the Diglett are making a ruckus, you can't come this way" message is still there, but she'll immediately follow up with this. A little odd, that.
Either that or she's just decided this'll work out fine for us either way.
Hala, if you might recall, did sumo in his spare time. In Olivia's spare time, she manages a shop.
I am uncertain whether or not they intended for the shop's merchandise to be a surprise.
OK, you can shut up.
This guy only exists in SM, strangely. I'm not sure if they added in a Route Boss elsewhere or just wanted to trim Route bosses.
Now, Diglett's Tunnel is a bit more of a maze than most, and while you shouldn't get too lost, there are a lot of branching paths. First step is to go right, this one's the dead end.
The Trainers that may be fought inside Diglett's Tunnel are all Workers, a regular Trainer class since DPPt. These ones also happen to be the only Workers in the game. Workers use a lot of Rock, Ground or Steel types, and/or anything based on something you would expect to see conducting manual labour. They have a very working-class x40 payout, and they are all male. It wouldn't be until SwSh that they added female ones.
Hi, Diglett. No surprises we see one of you.
I continue to be impressed with Huggington's Defence when it takes numbers like this in response to attacks that don't even need Fluffy to be included.
I'll give you that one. Seems rude not to.
...I'm not 100% sure how that works, but OK. I'm sure the Diglett know better than I.
Freebie one of these. Unfortunately, a worker and a special ball for catching Larvitar in USUM is all you're getting.
There's a surprising amount of hidden items here, some I'm sure I missed.
Including an X Attack south of these rocks. If I cared about it, I would've looked for it.
Now this is an example. The Fire Stone may be used to evolve Growlithe into Arcanine, or Eevee into Flareon. If you did not find one in Poke Pelago or choose the Fire Stone in the Nursery in USUM, this is your first one.
Flareon (Sun): When it catches prey or finds berries, it breathes fire on them until they're well done, and then it gobbles them up.
Flareon is the worst of the Eeveelutions, and that's almost entirely in its stats. It has chosen to specialise in Atk, Sp. Def, and Sp. Atk, making it a Physical Fire type that's struggling more than usual at learning the moves it needs to meet the bare minimum at that. Until XY, its strongest STAB move in its base 130 attacking stat was Fire Fang (65 BP). It finally learned the 120 BP Flare Blitz, something many fans were begging for for seven years... only to promptly remember that Flareon's HP is terrible and it's not surviving long enough to get off two. When your competition in Eeveelutions includes standard-bearers in their respective niches and your competition in Fire types includes Arcanine, forgive me for calling it as I see it.
Its Ability is Flash Fire, boosting the power of its Fire moves by 50% if hit by a Fire move. Good for an immunity, but also this won't save it. Its HA is Guts (ups Atk by 50% if suffering a non-volatile status condition), presumably because one of its better physical options is Facade, but this doesn't work as well as the devs probably planned. As a Fire-type, it's immune to Burns, and most Guts users plan to be Burned, since this ultimately gives them the fewest problems when performing their sweeps. B- for creativity.
Anyway, there's an event as you get started with earnest, with the two Aether goons Olivia was talking to before we first arrived. The fact they're still here is more impressive in the files that have visited Diglett's Tunnel early, less so when you're just arriving.
Sounds like this place doesn't have its ducks in a row, then. These kahunas can be real jokers.
"Who let the civilian in here?"
"Olivia."
"Of course..."
This is your first mandatory encounter with the Aether Foundation, and it actually uses their other theme. We're taking this time to learn what it is Aether is up to, and this goes by remarkably quickly, over the next few updates. In hindsight, I wonder if they couldn't have nudged one of these scenes up somehow.
In any other game, this would be because this is necessary for their sinister goals in some way. In this game, it was probably an "accident", albeit one that was caused by behaviour anyone with a functioning brain could've seen would've caused issues.
They also introduce us to Team Skull, as if we have not been dealing with them since basically the point we arrived in Alola.
Again sounds rather suspect there. These are apparently their tunnels, guys.
Eh, Repel or just use Oatchi. I'm good.
This one's a visible item. It's also right next to a narrow path down- this one's just a Trainer for now.
Well, OK, there's also a visible Diglett and a rock we cannot do anything with now. Things to remember for later.
For now, we've got some holes to dig into a team.
Roggenrola and Mudbray here.
I dunno about tears, but considering I was using Kasplashle to take you out, I think you've got enough scalding hot water to fill a few holes.
...That OK with you?
Nugget in this box, and also a Zygarde Cell next to it.
Depends on the work. Brute force approaches can work, it's almost always a question of scale. Most of the time, a better approach exists. But when it doesn't, and you have the resources, brute force can get you there if you care about getting there more than you do how.
His mon is a Machop. Incidentally, all the Workers have different Pokemon in USUM- Jeff has two Diglett, but Frank and Vaclav get Archen and Shieldon. Eagle-eyed readers may notice these were the two Fossil Pokemon Scientist Tyrone used in SM, but changed in order to show off the new ones. Egalitarian.
Well I mean... he's not wrong. The source of my power is math.
Just south of Vaclav is the mouth of the cave, but I might as well do this before we move along.
Such a zealous approach, but I think you'll realize I've got the kind of chutzpah to accept.
Wow, we really don't have a ton of Zs...
Well, hello, Greg. Greg has nothing to set him apart from other Black Belts, apart from the fact that his title as a Route Boss means he has set IVs and EVs. Also, uh... little hard to see with the textbox up, but he's got a Z-Ring.
Hariyama (Sun): Although they enjoy comparing their strength, they're also kind. They value etiquette, praising opponents they battle.
His Hariyama, the evolved form of Makuhita, carries with it little more than what it needs. 31/31/31/15/15/15 IV spread, 252 EVs in HP and Atk, an Adamant Nature, a Fightingium-Z, and the moves Force Palm and Knock Off. There's going to be a lategame boss with numbers not too different from this. So, you know, bring your A-game.
The worst part is, I had Oatchi on me. This is five-second foreshadowing, and something you might recall from when we fought Hala.
We are about to take an all-out pummelling, all right.
Sam does not have that all-important Fighting resist. Times like this I wish I had Razzly, for sure.
Guess we're making do with Murphy. He may not have the Resist, but he's got the bulk.
Not enough bulk. And that's a an unpleasant status ailment to be hit in the face by.
...One wishes. Probably could, but it'd be a close thing.
And Murphy loses its action.
Oatchi was the real counter in this team, but it was not a switch-in.
30% chance of paralysis. Fairly respectable there. And now Oatchi has to run up it.
And it also lost a turn to paralysis.
...Razzly has Shield Dust. The things that come to mind after the fact.
I at least got a good hit in.
He may not land the razzle-dazzle, but Lord Huggington has one trick worth trying: Fluffy.
It was not a necessary test. Hugginton outsped. Base speed wise, Stufful and Hariyama are matched, so this was much closer than it probably seemed.
It'll be far too long until we get a Flying, Psychic or Fairy Z-Move. I don't usually like just spamming neutral Z-Moves, though, so I wasn't seeing me using one.
I can see why USUM cut you. I can see they still have a Black Belt with a Z-Power Ring, but I don't know which one.
Way ahead of you. Thanks for the rare-ish item.
Healed up and back to the south end of the tunnel, and who else but those Team Skull Grunts messing with the Diglett. Nobody to blame but yourself for that one, boneheads.
Only by breeding, it turns out. You can get it from Passimian, Sneasel, and added in USUM, Houndour. None of these Pokemon are available on Akala Island in the Moon games.
Beat Up is a Physical Dark move that attacks multiple times, based on the number of Pokemon remaining on your team. Its Base Power is calculated as [Base Attack]/10 + 5: So if a Pokemon used Beat Up with Lord Huggington in reserve, it would have 12 BP, while it would be 9 BP with Razzly. Can't make it too tough, you're going to be landing six of these.
Hey, free EXP is free EXP. I could use some after that Hariyama's drubbing.
Do you mind, Hau? I'm kinda busy being... actually, you know what, I'm technically being assaulted by a street gang, this is the exact situation I want to see you in.
Even Hau's like "yeah, this is an excuse for a neat battle, not a dangerous situation."
At least they're happy to oblige.
...Hello Team Skull! I've been wondering where the instances of encountering the evil team with a friend in tow resulting in a Multi Battle went. Which is a shame, because even back when Doubles were introduced in Gen 3, getting into a Multi Battle with a male and female Grunts usually has a cool dual pose to show for it. Now granted, some of the time, "cool pose" pushes it, but they do at least try to co-ordinate.
The Fomantis is replaced with an Ekans in USUM, which makes this battle easier, frankly. Fomantis covers Salandit's weaknesses, Ekans goes down right with it.
Because of the way the textboxes work, you get caught in a freeze frame for the first text box, and they won't actually send the Pokemon out until you advance to see the second. I love the still frame Bethany has in this situation.
Hau has three Pokemon in SM, and leads with Pikachu. In USUM, he has all four of his Pokemon from Paniola, and leads with Eevee. You may use all of yours- strangely, Emerald had the first Multi Battle and they did force you to only bring three of your own, and they simplified it later.
This also happened to lead to a Multi Battle in DPPt where your teammate had six Pokemon total too. To be somewhat fair to them, you still lose if you're down, even if your teammate can still play.
I notice both Pikachu and Eevee tend to prefer the Salandit, so maybe you should be attacking the other one. Air Cutter might be your best pick for SM, although there's nothing special to say about Ekans in USUM.
Got a bad shot for the actual Bulldoze, but we've taken out two Pokemon. Unfortunately, it was Pikachu, but at least this actually helped my cause of showing off details.
Also, had this been a pre-XY game, it would also have given me Hau's share of the EXP. Yeah, strangely, the EXP formula is calculated as if your partner is also entitled to a share. I assume they still are, but the new EXP formula means we don't care, he's not stealing from us.
It hurt, but it's still a physical attack on Murphy. He'll live.
As alluded to back in Paniola, Hau has already acquired his new Eevee, which he will use against us in his next battle against us. Of course, this is not news to USUM, who already encountered it.
Don't discount Adaptability. Not that it would've survived the Stomp from Murphy, but gotta give Eevee something.
That is way too much edge for you two. Then again, perhaps not necessarily.
I don't care whether or not you are trying to take over the world, you still need better Pokemon than your bosses give you.
Hau just having fun with the poor Grunts. I'm not sure they agree, though.
Hau really admitting he feels much safer when we're pulling the weight.
Nice. Max Ether is, I believe, a full PP restore to a single move.
Yup. I always confuse it and Elixir (restores 10 PP to all moves). Too rare to actually use for their intended purpose, really.
USUM making the weirdest assumption about what analogies he thinks will be useful here. "You know that item that's appeared since RBY that's named after an item found in other RPGs? It's just like the brand new RNG mechanic you barely pay attention to!"
Sadly, he is not adding Diglett to his team. But he is going to be standing here for a while.
First of all, wait until we actually get to Konikoni City (there's even a cutscene for doing so you could be calculating based on). Second of all, Olivia's shop is marked on your map, it's the one with the literal event flag on it.
Also, cool bit, there's Dugtrio wandering around on the outside of the cave sometimes in here in USUM.
Route 9 is one of the smallest routes in the series. I can't even say it's the smallest, because Kanto Route 23 exists. But if the camera were a bit further zoomed out, I could probably catch the whole thing in one shot.
As you leave Diglett's Tunnel in USUM, you are met with another nostalgia NPC here for a brief cameo and some slight foreshadowing.
This man's codename is Looker, and he is a member of the International Police.
The games thus far have implied that he's a Kalos native, with him speaking in a broken manner in the Japanese Sinnoh region and American Unova region, but speaks naturally in the French Kalos. This wasn't maintained for Alola, sadly.
He isn't mentioning he's on the Global Police yet, though. He was a lot less circumspect in Pt, which made him come off a bit incompetent, but he became much better as his job as the series went on. So presumably, he's now promoted to "understands the meaning of the word 'sécurité opérationnelle'".
OK, there's a bit of that "are you speaking the same language as I am?"
He drops a hint at which shop is Olivia's, not that the signs help too much here. It's a bit hard to tell which shop you need until you enter it, at which point you'll know you're in the right one.
Neatly, these are references to the evil teams Looker engaged with in his past appearances. In his first appearance in Platinum, he was sent to investigate Team Galactic- although since he was a brand new addition to an already written game, he didn't accomplish much except arrest a brand new Galactic Admin in a postgame setpiece. In the original BW, he likewise only helped in the postgame, formally arresting the Six Sages of Team Plasma after we dealt with N and Ghetsis.
All we have to deal with is a street gang who are too incompetent to correctly vandalise the things they try to vandalise, and do far more harm failing than succeeding.
Not Team Skull. This is a neat bit of foreshadowing to a sequence of this game's postgame plot, although Looker once again fails to contribute to it.
Ironically, he's actually more important in SM.
Goddammit, man. Also, where were the free items in Platinum?
This is where USUM's freebie Thunder Stone was moved. If you're raising a Pikachu and didn't pick the freebie Thunder Stone in the Nursery, you're waiting until now for Raichu.
...Now, granted, Zapple is still a Pikachu, but still.
Bye-bye a-go-go.
...Wait, hold on, no, that was the other one...
While I appreciate the effort to meet Pokemon on its lore, I do think you're forgetting the importance of battling Pokemon. Also the importance of eye contact, but that's in both Pokemon and our own world.
The police station here is mostly the same as in Hau'oli, but this place is rather more important in USUM. I'll be showing that next update, though, it extensively involves Konikoni City and I'd rather not let this drag on too long.
You can't talk to McGriff the Granbull, but you can check in on this Snubbull.
Doing so just gets you scolded by the cop for interrupting valuable donut time.
Oh, this just made your role in USUM that much funnier...
Our first battle-able Police Officer! Unlike in their prior appearances, Police Officers can challenge you at all times of the day. Although this was still well-before the most well-publicised instances of police brutality and their reckoning as an office, I notice SM has already gotten a headstart on toning them down. In their older games, Police Officers often battled you in a sort of "shoot first, ask questions later" way while on duty. This guy just happens to be a guy in uniform on his break and bored.
Growlithe in SM, Herdier in USUM. Two classic police dogs.
Weirdly, not a Snubbull between them, even though Snubbull is in Alola. Perhaps because you can't find it until the fourth island yourself.
Both pack Intimidate, which causes poor K9 some issues.
Just short...
And now I'm Burned, too.
I missed the move being called, but oh boy was this a nasty one- what he just used was a move called Reversal, a Physical Fighting move that increases in power the lower the user's HP. Because of Burn, K9's Bite missed finishing off the last of his HP, leaving me taking a 120 BP Fighting move.
Which is SE on the poor dog.
Oh well. If you can't win with the cute dog, you win with the law breaker.
While I'm sure this is a philosophy that would be welcomed among critics of the police system, I do have to wonder if you're not being too lax here. I mean, even if Team Skull is so weak that civilians can be expected to fight them off without breaking a sweat, surely they at least challenge the claim of "peaceful" here?
Ah, hello, a nice little reference to Olivia's shop ahead of time. She's a jewelry saleswoman, and while most of her merchandise is out of our age (and spending) bracket, she does have a few pretty rocks to sell us, including Evolutionary Stones.
Of course, we're going to her for some other kind of rocks.
This is the south exit of Route 9. Yes, if I ran a small distance north, I could see the police station (or at least Haruki) from this sign.
Alola actually has two places for the deceased: Hau'oli Cemetery in Melemele, and this more ancient Memorial Hill on Akala. I get the impression that the former is the one people are buried in today, while the latter is a burial site used in the distant past.
This one seems to be more for tourists than for grievers.
Some of these Trainer Tips signs really could've been found sooner. I'm not sure how, though, although I suspect SV's School was a huge help here.
...Yay?
One more Fisherman on the south shore, and one that's clearly spent too long in his own head.
Chinchou in SM, Chinchou and Tentacool in USUM. It gives him a good "I resist both Grass and Electric on separate Pokemon" vibe in USUM, while he's mostly here to show you Chinchou's dex entry.
Are you OK, man?
And a tutorial at the end of it, to kinda make it come off extra weird. Corsola's the rare find here, but in SM, this one doesn't seem to Bubble (despite Mike's comment). USUM can get a bubbling spot, but the Luvdisc become more common, not the Corsola.
...Sure.
As we approach Konikoni City, we see a particularly Japanese archway for the Alola region. This isn't even the Japanese-themed town.
Next time: Konikoni, the city of merchants.
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