On top of the official sign designated this as a no-tourist zone, we have a natural sign scratched into wood. Probably Mallow's doing. Now then, for what is often considered the hardest Trial in the game, what have I packed?
I have had Flambebe in the party almost the whole way through Route 8, soaking up EXP so that it could hit level 24 during the Trial. It's not going to seem like much, but this is going to come in handy later.
Feather Dance cannot be understated. Dottie is sure going to be an ace here.
Honourable mentions to Razzly. This might just be a bit too soon for her, though.
No joke, Lord Huggington is going to be one of the most important members of the team. And it won't be because Baby-Doll Eyes- although Baby-Doll Eyes can never go without praise.
I actually considered evolving Zapple now- literally the only reason I am not is to give it Nuzzle at 29. I think this is a bit of a bold plan, but Nuzzle is just good enough for me to try for.
Woodstock is a surprisingly important choice to remember exists- if you've got a Poison type, now is the time to use it.
It turns out that, in all of mainline Pokemon, there is no better time to say this: Welcome to the Jungle.
We've seen the fae fisher, we've seen the not-very-serious fire-dancer, let's see a cook who has absolutely no business looking for her next big dish in the middle of a jungle.
The lot of you have chosen fascinating careers.
Mallow knows good Trial Stew when she sees it.
Probably because she makes so much of it herself.
My Pokemon are.
My stomach, less so.
Although she claims she knows what she wants to make, she spends a good five seconds or so in a thinking animation between declaring it and actually stating her recipe.
Not saying you didn't know that, but you clearly didn't know you knew that.
...I think I have all of those. Maybe not any Tiny Mushrooms right now, though...
Although everything Mallow is cooking with is a Bag item, her ingredients are considered separate, and Mallow provides us an actual separate Bag to keep them that way.
Although hilariously, we are stated to put the Forage Bag in our Key Items Pocket.
As alluded to, Mallow's Stoutland is going to play a key role in this trial, although as it happens, USUM kinda adapts it out, to a degree.
While on the Stoutland. Pressing B normally just makes you go faster.
Only one of these is actually important to remember, and even then...
Time for this loop to kick back in proper.
Are you OK with anything we find on this Island Challenge, Mr. "Perfect Assistant for an Island Challenge"?
Jungles like this seem like a good place to find a lot of litter items in general, honestly. We'll focus on cleaning this place up outside a Trial, though.
Our first ingredient is in the little alcove just to the west. I'd say there's a reason I'm saying Big Mushrooms...
But no, I just forgot which is which. No, saying the correct one doesn't stop you getting attacked.
Parasect (Ultra Moon): Its poisonous spores are also used in traditional medicine. Apparently, spores produced in Alola are not of very good quality.
The big mushroom has a bug underneath! Parasect is the evolved form of Paras, and a Bug/Grass type. It has one hell of a kit, with Cross Poison (70 BP Physical Poison with a high crit chance), Leech Life, Fury Cutter (...can't all be winners) and Spore (100% accurate sleep move). This Parasect is a wild Pokemon, so random IVs and Nature, but it's always Dry Skin. Now, there's a slight issue with Dry Skin Parasect, one that's given it quite the reputation.
What better time to show off the power of Inferno Overdrive?
Inferno Overdrive summons a giant fireball, one so big it overwhelms the screen.
It then sends that fireball directly at the target, giving off a gigantic explosion.
Parasect's Dry Skin, in addition to its Bug/Grass typing, gives it an almost unmatched x5 weakness to Fire moves.
I think its ashes are on fire.
Somehow, there is still a mushroom to pick here. And a jungle.
Mallow shows up after each ingredient, er... somehow. This might've been more than she needed, though.
And that's just too much information for a different reason.
A big helping for a big Pokemon.
There are three loading zones off the main area, and yes, there is an ingredient in each one. First stop, west.
Cooking is one place where "Berries = fruits and vegetables" really stands out amongst the rest of Pokemon's lore. There's nothing unusual about using fruits and vegetables in cooking, but plenty unusual about the capital B Berries, because those are usually specific ingredients best used in only some dishes.
Ooh, TM over there. Note made of it.
Before we can even start looking in this alcove, our wild encounter leaps into view immediately.
We're going to be seeing a lot of wild Fomantises (Fomantii?) here, and all of them are wilds- random IVs, random Natures, Leaf Guard on the lot of them, and with the moves Razor Leaf, Leafage, Fury Cutter, Growth and Ingrain. Of course, they only have four of these moves- it tends to be they drop either Growth or Ingrain, and you don't typically find Ingrain on the ones you're meant to fight.
Not that any of them would be much help.
...No? Why are you learning that?
There is literally one wild fight left before the Totem. You have no idea how close Flambebe cut this even with favouritism.
70 BP Special Fire. My Inferno Overdrive has gone from 100 BP to 140. Also the 1/16 chip damage to the reinforcements in S.O.S. is cool, I guess.
Back to seizing ingredients.
Mago Berries are supposedly based on mangoes, but I'm not sure if real mangoes have a relationship between twistiness and taste. I never really saw mangoes as all that twisted, anyway.
Dipping through this tall grass and grabbing a present...
Hm. Should be easy to pick out, then.
...They're also super bitter, too bitter for even Pokemon that like bitter foods, and also what are you doing feeding food to someone who is in need of revival?
...Hm...
Yup, that's a sneaky passage to go and get that TM we saw earlier! Grass Knot is a Special Grass move that obeys the same weight rules for calculating BP that Low Kick does. A lot of heavy Pokemon are big on Defence, too, so Grass Knot usually works better- and it's also surprisingly good coverage for Fire types, too- but otherwise it's a fairly standard fare that is either more or less reliable than you think it is- usually the wrong one.
I'm told it's possible to find Revival Herbs elsewhere in this area. This is the only short grass I found. Maybe it's a Stoutland thing.
If you get the wrong Revival Herb, then you get the Ingrain Fomantises. This one is identical to the Mago Berry one.
Mallow continues to absolutely terrify in her ability, or lack thereof, to exist in a kitchen.
Fortunately, she can cook just fine in the out of doors. Wait, no, hold on... not "fortunately", the other one.
This is a very important rock. All mossy and such. We'll have to come back to highlight why, though.
Final stop, off to the east.
Right, so our Miracle Seed is somewhere underground...
I understand the assignment completely.
Dangit, got faked out by the normal kind of random drop from smashing rocks. Of course the ingredient isn't visible to the naked eye.
We needed to look in this visibly tilled earth for our Miracle Seed.
There are, in fact, edible seeds. I don't doubt the idea that this is one of them. But I also would not have doubted the idea Mallow would've used an inedible one.
Told you Mallow didn't need a kitchen. The qualifications are made up and hopefully, all we do is summon the Totem. After that, it's not my problem.
The Big Root is a pretty nifty item that, when held, allows the Pokemon to restore 5324/4096 (30%) more HP than otherwise entitled from any HP-draining move, Leech Seed, Ingrain or Aqua Ring. It won't increase the damage dealt, but if your strategy is making heavy use of these moves, this is a good item to have in your pocket.
Don't worry, we're not shifting the goalposts here...
It turns out there's a reason this one's the last Trial: Lana and Kiawe are helping!
Both items so similar, it wasn't until BDSP that they finally give them different icons in the bag. One's the Marowak item, the other is just for selling.
The Rocky Helmet is an item I love using, but unfortunately, has declined to be available in a reasonable timeframe in this game. We can only get them in the postgame.
In previous games, they usually let you have one around five Badges in. So, level ~30s, but around now seems reasonable.
I think the Rocky Helmet is supposed to be a bowl.
I hope.
And if we're unlucky, we're going to cook up a storm in our tummies.
Sweet, suspicious, Bitter, and presumably flavourless. I... don't know what that adds up to, but I'm sure glad it isn't my dinner.
If you say yes, the Totem fight starts. Make sure you've set yourself up for the fight before now.
They know exactly what theme is appropriate here.
Tip everything in at once...
And then hit them with bones until they turn into food.
Now, this is not to say that Kiawe's Trial didn't stick in people's heads. It did. People did find Hiker David funny. But when it comes to playing Trials for humour, there is no Trial that stuck out quite as much as Mallow's, exclusively for this scene. And the weird thing is, I can't tell if this was supposed to be funny.
Bethany tilts her head down as we pound the ingredients together with the bones, sending bits flying every which way.
Which means the camera is pointed at Mallow's crotch.
Points for it being intentional: They do it four times, and the subsequent poses involve squishier sounds and more ecstatic poses from Mallow.
Points for it not being intentional: They dropped it like a sack of rocks for USUM.
Regardless of whether this was something to be mourned, I'm sure glad it is gone for other reasons: I dislike button mashing minigames. Avoiding the whole "why is this a joke we are making" thing is just a bonus.
I'd call it the mother of all Sweet Scents, but something's telling me this is anything but sweet.
Fitting to summon the biggest Pokemon of them all...
I love how everyone's expressions change as they notice the Totem coming up behind us. Mallow looks so upset to see her.
The protagonist's expressions could use some work, but this one might be the most startling example. Not only did we just come across three examples of proper face changes, but we just pulled off a right-behind-me jump scare.
It looks a lot better done from the behind-Bethany shot.
Lurantis (Ultra Sun): For self-protection, it pretends to be a bug Pokémon. Both of its arms bear keen-edged petals.
Totem Lurantis is often considered the roadblock boss of the Alola games, on par with or even surpassing Whitney's Miltank, and not without good reason. This is a boss set to knockout. 31/X/31/20/31/31 IV spread, an EV spread of 252 HP, 130 Spd, and 64 in both Def and Sp. Atk (...I think the latter is a mistake, but I'm not sure if it's the game's or my resource's), and a random Nature. One of these days those will actually be set. Its Spd score is either 36, 41 or 45, depending on which nature it rolled, and it has 90 HP- the time for Dragon Rage being a reliable 2HKO is already coming to an end. There's a reason it's this point in the game they start giving it to us to begin with.
Remember the first three Totems? Remember how their Auras gave them a +1 bonus to one of their defences, a meagre bonus that didn't protect them from even the attacks they were scared of? Yeah, SM's decided it's done toying with its food. Lurantis's Speed score is now 72, 82 or 90- no matter which one it is, that's outspeeding everything I have.
- Solar Blade is its killer move, a 125 BP Physical Grass move that takes a turn to charge up. If it's still standing the next time you select an action, it probably gets to fire it. There are seven types that resist Grass: Pack at least two of them or this thing will be your doom. It can also call for help from Pokemon that know Sunny Day, and if Sun is up, it doesn't use a charge turn.
- X-Scissor is its main coverage move, an 80 BP Physical Bug move with no bonus effect. Bug makes poor coverage for Grass, but this can give it a few sneaky hits on some of the opponents it expects to be big problems for it, like Grimer or Dartrix.
- Razor Leaf supplements its kit, giving it a move that works in one action, and has a heightened crit rate. Its plan with this is to use it if you try lowering its Atk, to fish for its dangerous attacks.
- Synthesis is a status Grass move that heals it for 1/2 HP. If you're not dealing a ton of damage in one go, this is 10 turns of nightmares, particularly if its backup is present on the field. It will heal 1/4 if you set the weather to something other than Sun, while it heals 2/3 if it is Sun. Don't pack your own Sunny Day users, it won't end well.
- Its hold item slot is Power Herb, a single-use held item that allows you to bypass the charging turn of a charged move. It's the only one available in the main story, but stealing this one for yourself is a bit of a tough call considering its Speed. It gets one free Solar Blade, and that sure startles.
- Its Ability is Leaf Guard, which allows it to block statuses during sunny weather. Since it attempts to create sun during the battle, this will come into play- fortunately, it won't cure any already applied statuses. I can only imagine this fight if it did.
Lurantis does have the ability to stop runs cold, particularly those where Popplio was the starter. Unfortunately for it, the poor synergy of Grass/Bug means that applying the strategies that I have been using thus far will still see success. But that's the thing- my strategies have been overkill thus far. We probably could have defeated Gumshoos, Wishiwashi and Salazzle if we challenged them to a game of raw numbers. I think I did challenge Salazzle to a game of raw numbers. Lurantis is a Pokemon that demands the ability to apply statuses fast, apply debuffs to survive its high damage, and pack Resists, Resists, Resists. Lurantis is what separates the children from those on the path to mastery.
There's a secret to beating SM Lurantis, and that's to know the Summon system. Dottie is the way to go here.
...Not sure what your plan was, but it's sure gone well for you there, hasn't it?
Our first order of business: I don't care how much firepower you have, I'm taking away half of it.
Lurantis's allies are impeccable choices, and many of the shortcomings you saw in Lurantis's kit are supplemented here. Trumbeak has IVs of 10/X/30/10/30/10, no EVs, random Nature, and a kit consisting of Rock Blast, Pluck, Screech and Supersonic. Screech is here to power up Lurantis, while Rock Blast is the nastiest surprise these summons can pull. Grass is weak to five types: Fire, Flying, Ice, Bug and Poison. All of them except Poison are weak to Rock moves. That Rock Blast exists because the game knows full well you're not expecting Trumbeak to know it, and if you lose what you thought was your wincon, well... Lurantis has a healing move.
The advantages to letting Trumbeak come out? No Sunny Day, there's only one of it, and it doesn't have Skill Link. Skill Link Trumbeak here would be sadistic.
Lurantis has chosen now to show off that signature Solar Blade.
Presumably, it delays its first turn to give you a chance of stealing it if you want it.
It summons a massive pillar of light, and sends it cleaving down. Now that's a move stronger than some Z-Moves.
Fun fact: Dottie is still in the green.
And Lurantis is now even weaker. And can't use that again unless it summons its other helper.
But Rock Blast is not a move Dottie is happy taking, and this Trumbeak hasn't taken any Atk downs.
Fortunately, only that one hit was at higher damage. But still... oww.
With that said, I have noticed something... particular about how I can play this turn. Obviously, Dottie is out for the count, and I have nothing left to use it for. It's on 10 HP... which I judge to be enough to survive a hit from the now -4 Atk Lurantis...
Eeyup. That dealt 4 damage. I could totally take another, if that was a reasonable assumption to make.
Baton Pass has the bonus effect that, when you switch out using it, your next Pokemon has all of the stat stages you set up. This allows one to easily overlook a situation in which it has some handy benefits, if the situation comes up. Switching out is a +6 priority action, so anything I send in would deal with Lurantis. But Baton Pass is a zero priority action, which means it follows the turn order. And right now, the turn order is Lurantis > Me > Trumbeak. I want Dottie to take a hit from Lurantis...
And Lord Huggington to take a hit from Trumbeak.
This is a competitive technique called "dry passing", and on the list of reasons Oricorio still knows Baton Pass, it was nowhere near the top. Why would I dry pass when switching should serve just fine?
It turns out, exactly the right situation came up.
Resists, man. Fighting resists Rock, and now I'm sitting pretty with a something cute, Fluffy, and packing a Rock move to hit that Trumbeak with.
Lord Huggington really is the ace of the team.
Rock Blast does not do half damage thanks to Fluffy- it doesn't make contact. That was all Lord Huggington's bulk and the power of Resists.
Lurantis super fishing for crits.
Trumbeak ignoring Pluck to try and get Huggington to do its dirty work.
Nice try.
Also, stop outspeeding, Trumbeak. Benefit of the dry passing was the fact Huggington would have to take several hits before it got its action in.
Wow, Lord Huggington, you really went all out to prove yourself in this match. I suppose this is probably your only good Totem fight, though...
Oof, poor Lord Huggington. I guess when it rolled so many 1/8s, the odds of rolling that 8 were pretty good...
Sorry, buddy. Maybe next Trial.
With that said, we've taken out Trumbeak. That Lurantis is still sitting pretty, and we need to figure out what to do about that.
That was overkill, but considering your Atk, overkill is what you need. But you have also tried using a move with a charge turn against something that knows a status move.
Now is the time to apply the status ailment.
Paralysed, -4 Atk, no backup, and no backup until I deal 1/3 of its HP. Now is the time to set the roast to Flambebe.
As tempting as Flambebe sounds, it's not particularly a defensive mon. But with -4 Atk, it's sure proving that impression wrong.
Now is the time.
Let's use this on something that might actually live a hit.
...Might.
Keep in mind, I invested heavily into making sure Flambebe got to use Flame Burst as its STAB instead of Ember. Picking the right Fire coverage is tricky, and Flambebe is more than just a Lurantis counter, but Fire is an excellent weakness to pack, because Inferno Overdrive is the only SE Z-Move we have. Your Z-Move options are Ember/Flame Burst from Salandit and Magby, Fire Fang with Growlithe and Torracat, and Torracat's Fire Pledge.
The real problem here is, either you use Growlithe (which is probably still unevolved because we don't have a freebie Fire Stone yet), we use something freshly caught from Wela Volcano Park (and if you're not abusing Isle Evelup, something without EVs), or we use a specified starter. Yeah, if you thought Inferno Overdrive would get you the win Hydro Vortex did on Kiawe, you sure thought wrong there. Or you're like me and you came prepared.
Flambebe earned the victory, but only Dottie, Huggington and Zapple working together opened the opportunity for it. Who knows if Flambebe could've managed on her own?
I am feeling on fire.
...
That isn't actual fire, is it?
While the other two are here, they add their own comments on our same progress. I quite like how the way Lana says her line doesn't necessarily indicate whether "the Wishiwashi that I had trained" is a singular or plural.
Mallow comments on her own Trial's difficulty, although whether the devs knew it would've gained the reputation it did was a bit of a crapshoot. Mallow makes a similar, but slightly different, comment in USUM, and that game certainly added a layer of "yeah, we know this is a hard boss".
And with that, we have our Grassium Z. Despite the assortment of status moves afforded to the Grass type on its reputation, none of them really stand out in Z-form. This thing is for Bloom Doom.
I think we've earned it, though. I know Oatchi'll be looking forward to it.
I know grass and flowers aren't really known for being intimidating, but you've gotta have better than that.
The Grass-type Z-Pose involves crouching and then blossoming into a tree. Almost exactly what you expect, and absolutely not what Mallow is selling when she calls for a triumphant call.
There are a handful of lovely candidates, but somewhat sadly, I won't be adding anything from the Lush Jungle to Bethany's team.
And even more sadly, Nest Balls no longer have the power they had early on. The lowest level a Pokemon may be caught in Lush Jungle is level 18, and a Nest Ball used on them has a x2.3 multiplier. Still better than Ultras, but we're quickly approaching the point where that's no longer true.
...You mean it ate? I thought the first thing it did on showing up was take a swing at us.
Mallow eventually decides that she cannot keep away from feeding her food to her friends, and gives the leftovers to Kiawe and Lana. Fortunately, we are spared.
We're continuing the unfortunate phrasings, I see. So the Rare Bone is more than a utensil, then?
...That doesn't sound good...
Both Lana and Kiawe simultaneously regret taking the offered samples.
Huh. I wouldn't have thought any of those ingredients was Spicy. Maybe it's an effect of combining Sweet, Dry and Bitter.
Mallow promptly gets offended that her friends so violently rejected her cooking.
Yeah, I think we can safely put this girl in "not good cook" territory.
The fact she says this immediately after yelling at her friends, and then immediately before running after them, makes it sound like she's asking her friends if they're going to Olivia's Grand Trial. But this really sounds more like a line aimed at us- we're the ones challenging that. The Trial Captains have, presumably, completed Island Challenges in the past.
And as soon as they leave, Kukui comes in to comment on how delicious Mallow's cooking is. Sometimes there is no accounting for taste, I swear...
Kukui gives us another freebie TM as a reward, and this is for a move that's... certainly an option. Smart Strike is a 70 BP Physical Steel move that will hit even the most evasive of foes, although like other such moves, it won't pierce semi-invulnerability. It is a brand new move to SM, and will be available only by TM, but the move's name does not properly indicate how the move works, which hides what the move can be taught to. This was more apparent in JP, where it was called Smart Horn- it can be learned by anything that has a horn. This move can be useful... but as far as I can tell, the number of users of this move available in the Alola Pokedex can be counted on one hand. It's not that good a move...
You really seem to like that line, Kukui.
The way he says this and then immediately removes us from Lush Jungle makes it feel like he's walking us all the way there.
No, he's just putting us here. We'll have to walk to the now-open Dimensional Research Lab in Heahea City ourselves.
Also, some advice about our next Grand Trial. We haven't learned the type specialty yet, come to think of it...
Oh good! Rocks! Olivia's Rock types have an assortment of weaknesses, and Grass is indeed one of them. With that said, all the Grasses here in Lush Jungle tend to be Physical Grasses, and Olivia's lineup in SM is very physically bulky. Look for your specially-focused counters for this one.
We can almost literally hold down on the Circle Pad and go right there.
...As a matter of fact, when taking into account the setup of Heahea City, I think it is is directly south of us, as the Murkrow flies.
Off he goes. We're allowed to stick around here and go fish things out of Lush Jungle.
...I'll get to it... eventually.
Next time: Speak softly and carry a thick club.
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