Welcome. We have arrived, at long last, in the quaint little port town of Konikoni City. There's a lot to snap up here.
Konikoni's Night theme is not something I heard often until I finally did a Moon run. It's certainly not to be missed.
We are shown a Delibird flying up the street as a bunch of people occupy the streets. Most of these people get off the road at some point, although a fair few are around.
The Delibird stops, and delivers a letter to this Probopass. This is actually plot-relevant, not just flavour.
Here we go, now we can explore the place.
One of these two places isn't even a merchant, ma'am. Although yes, the other one is a bit of an esoteric seller.
Ah, hello, looks like Bethany has found her Fossils!
The Dancer is a practicioner of lomi lomi massage, which is a real kind of traditional Hawai'ian massage (and one the Hawai'ians are rather protective of- with that said, I doubt we'd need to worry about that too much here). This is SM's appearance of a recurring character, a groomer of some kind (usually a masseuse, although the originals were haircuts).
Once a day, they will perform a massage on a single Pokemon (usually specifically your lead), which will raise their friendship stat a significant amount. In SM, that number is either +10, +20 or +40, chosen randomly. These numbers are higher than usual for the series, although because friendship got a shakeup after SM, this would be the last masseuse in the series to date.
I didn't take her up on that offer the first time, but I came back to boost up the Golbat I had for Crobat's dex entry- something I'm mostly doing in the background.
Lovely, that was the +40 session! +20 will give the comment "helped inspire some good, friendly feelings toward you", and +10 gives "feeling a bit more friendly toward you already, I'd say".
The next door lady sells the full suite of Incenses, quite possibly the jankiest bit of inventory cruft in the series. You see, things go like this: When Snorlax was first introduced, it was the only Pokemon in its evolutionary line. Thus, when you bred it, it produced Snorlax Eggs. DPPt would later introduce Munchlax, and the devs decided that, rather than make it so Snorlax simply produced Munchlax Eggs from now on, decided to explain why Munchlax did not yet appear from Snorlax Eggs in prior games. Incenses were their answer: In order for a Snorlax to produce a Munchlax Egg, one of the parents involved must be holding its Incense (for Snorlax, the Full Incense). Without the Full Incense, you will get Snorlax Eggs. It wasn't until SV that they decided to cut this.
- Sea Incense: Boosts the power of Water moves by 20%. Allows Marill to produce Azurill Eggs.
- Lax Incense: Reduces the accuracy of moves targeting the holder by 10%. Allows Wobbuffet to produce Wynaut Eggs.
- Rose Incense: Boosts the power of Grass moves by 20%. Allows Roselia to produce Budew Eggs.
- Pure Incense: If held by the lead Pokemon, reduces the wild encounter rate by a third. Allows Chimecho to produce Chingling Eggs.
- Rock Incense: Boosts the power of Rock moves by 20%. Allows Sudowoodo to produce Bonsly Eggs.
- Odd Incense: Boosts the power of Psychic moves by 20%. Allows Mr. Mime to produce Mime Jr. Eggs.
- Luck Incense: Doubles prize money if the holder is used in battle. Allows Chansey to produce Happiny Eggs.
- Full Incense: The holder will be the last to act in its priority bracket. Allows Snorlax to produce Munchlax Eggs.
- Wave Incense: Boosts the power of Water moves by 20%. Allows Mantine to produce Mantyke Eggs.
Sudowoodo, Chansey, and Snorlax are in the Alola Dex, Mr. Mime and Mantine are in the expanded USUM Dex, Marill and Roselia are found by SM Island Scan, and Wobbuffet and Chimecho are absent from the Alola games entirely. All of these Incenses are replicated by non-Incense held items, although you probably don't recognise two of them- we haven't yet found the Cleanse Tag that the Pure Incense is mimicking (we're about to, though), and the Lagging Tail the Full Incense mimics can only be found on a 5% find from Slowpokes.
And no, the Amulet Coin and Luck Incense don't stack.
Next stall over has something much more rewarding: A nice suite of TMs!
The suite is slightly different between games, although some of these aren't too far away in either direction in the game they're absent in.
- Bulk Up is a Status Fighting move that allows the user to boost its Atk and Def stats by one stage each. Its Z-Move gives it another +1 Atk, which is a pretty fair deal all told. It's a really nice general utility move if the thing you're fighting is packing physical heat, especially if you've got some passive recovery in there too. It's USUM counterpart is really late, though.
- Venoshock is a 65 BP Special Poison move that deals double damage if the target happens to be Poisoned. This is the sort of move that works out to a pretty killer combo with Woodstock and Flambebe teaming up, although Flambebe could probably pull it off alone if she can stick around long enough. There's not much that isn't Poison type that learns this, and fewer that want it.
- I believe we've already seen the Double Team TM in USUM, and SM is the one getting it second.
- Low Sweep is a 65 BP Physical Fighting move that lowers the target's Speed by one stage. It's a weaker move than Brick Break, which we already have, but even on Pokemon that learn both, the utility of Speed control can be just as valuable, if not more so, than the extra 10 BP and screen clearing. It turns out Murphy can get this.
- Shadow Claw is a 70 BP Physical Ghost move that has a +1 critical hit stage. This is an awesome move with some pretty deep coverage, but its problem is in the fact that, for many Physical Ghost types, this is their ceiling. Sure, 70 BP with 1/8 base crit rate is good now, but at endgame... Whether a Physical Ghost type is still carrying depends on what else they've got in their pocket. USUM isn't too far off from getting this.
- Dragon Tail is a 60 BP, 90% accurate Physical Dragon move that has a -6 priority bracket, but on landing, will force the opponent to switch out their Pokemon to something else, not directly chosen by the opponent. It's a very annoying move on both sides, but it can be good for disrupting the opponent's plans if used at the correct time. It's not a move I'm particularly effective with. USUM will have to do a bit of waiting for this.
- Aerial Ace is a 60 BP Physical Flying move that never misses. Angry Bird has had this for a while, but now we can share this, and oh boy can a lot of Pokemon get this. It's based on the Turning Swallow sword technique, and thus can be learned by basically anything that can slash things. SM will get this pretty soon- it basically switched places with Shadow Claw.
- Steel Wing is a 70 BP, 90% accuracy Physical Steel move that has a 10% chance of raising the user's Defence by one stage. It has been distributed to basically all of the Flying types, and exists largely as Ice/Rock coverage on a type that is weak to both. It was probably tailor-made for a specific Steel/Flying type, but it hardly goes amiss on many birds- even if it's not exactly prime coverage. SM will get this soon as well.
- Bulldoze, we've seen plenty on Murphy. 60 BP Physical Ground, lowers Speed on landing a hit, and almost anything with some physical muscle happens to get this. Ground is a powerful type, and there's very few Physical attackers that can't find a use for Ground coverage and/or Speed control. SM will get this soon, but it will wish it had it now for a few opponents we'll see in between.
The Veteran next to the stalls is a friendship checker, and can tell you a rough estimate on their friendship. Like all friendship checkers, she does have an annoying flaw, though.
This is her message for a Pokemon that has between 200 and 254 friendship. Friendship evos, if you recall, occur at 220. There's almost nothing in game that tells you whether or not you are at the requirement to evolve until you try it, this is the closest you get.
Depends on whether or not that counts as knowing.
There's another place to get a haircut here, but that's all it is.
All you get is new flavour text and the implication this Hypno has more say in its grooming than its Trainer thinks it does.
Not helped by this line.
Next stop, the salon, and there's a lot of stuff in here... for girls. It turns out you can count the clothing options for the boys on one hand. I took enough umbrage with this fact that I decided now was the time to commit on Noah's consistent colouring issue.
I'm not playing by Festival Plaza's rules. I have no idea where this came from, but I'm not going to question it.
In order to dye a clothing item in Festival Plaza, you have two options: you can either dye it with storebought dye (only available in the colour of the stall), or dye it with Berries.
I have had Noah preparing some Figy Berries in order to produce the dye I wanted to replicate Noah's red shirt.
And this is about the point that my already rock-bottom opinion of Festival Plaza somehow sunk even lower. Occa and Liechi Berries are found particularly late game, and both of their trees require 72 hours to bloom in Poke Pelago. By the time you've got the Berries you need to dye something Dark Red, there's no game left to use your custom character on. I promptly "found" 100 Festival Coins and bought the storebought dye, grateful that this stall was 5 stars and actually sold it.
Bethany, Ailey, Noah and Ray all found something worth changing into while they were here, at least. We've seen Bethany's design a few times already and she's gotten a little more, yeah, but I don't immediately spring for it. This is around where I'm letting the other three sit for now, though.
Do you even have to ask if they found a way to screw this up? At least this time, the only problems are that the feature is randomly available and doesn't cover dyed outfits. Also it costs FC, but that's a reasonable problem.
I know that plight. Colour-coordinating things that looked good on Beth and Ray was hard enough, and Ailey was a nightmare. Is this because I, personally, have never particularly been great at aesthetic design, or do all black people have to deal with this?
Kinda surprised how two out of three people in this shop are explicitly playing Moon. This is the case in all versions.
This random Hiker is the Bitter Herb salesman. Unlike many, it's kinda implied the reason his herbs cause issues is on him rather than just "medicine is supposed to taste bitter". Still, though, not touching this for multiple reasons.
Next up, the restaurant. There isn't one of these on Melemele, but they appear on every island following.
I'm not going to bother, but I'll tell you it's 1040 Poke for 2 Heart Scales here. My money's just a bit too valuable right now, I've got other things to buy here.
My lawyers advise me to say "maybe".
...In all seriousness, while the Trainer is doing much less physical activity, it's not exactly zero...
Hm... Alola's a melting pot? I know Hawai'i is pretty open to learning new things, but also they're pretty adamant about maintaining their own too. I suppose it depends on how much it takes for you to count something as represented.
Not feeling particularly like praising you on that one.
...Does that mean you're trying less new things, or are you just trying to act like you're not sick of this restaurant because saying anything might not be great in this game might scare away the kiddies?
As nice as that sounds, the other guy's gotta make an effort, too.
Neat. Good for you.
...Less neat. It's also weird you're saying this right outside Mallow's bedroom.
Oh yeah, speaking of, all three of Mallow, Lana and Olivia live here, you can find their bedrooms, and even sleep in their beds. Probably means we could've slept in Kiawe's, but I accidentally landed in the first one I encountered (Lana's).
...Do I want to know what you mean by that one? But yeah, Olivia's shop is this one, with the hammer on the outside. We're gonna save that one for last.
Weirdly, the camera goes all overhead POV in this part of town. There's almost nothing here.
But there is this Black Belt with advice.
...Well, OK, that's not advice. He tells us Rock is a type with a large quantity of weaknesses, but fails to specify which types it's weak to. The full list is Grass, Water, Ground, Fighting and Steel. The fact Steel won the Fairy coverage competition has meant bad things for Rock, who was already dealing with three of these being common types.
Konikoni has another location for the Photo Club. Strangely, this one's also a Fly point, despite being right across the road from the Pokemon Centre.
The Herb Seller has also been moved up the road to here. Why? I dunno.
There's still a weird camera angle change in this corner, but they changed how.
Nothing new here. Mostly.
Just one new NPC who has the weirdest of all reasons to be on vacation. Especially for a female Sightseer.
Also I tried the back room and found this terrifying room. This must be where the Photo Club pictures are taken.
...Let's never come back.
Mostly, it's a bunch of Ghost types to me.
Town sign way back here, of all places. Probably the best spot for it aesthetically, but still.
Oh, dear, poor Office Worker Dugal. This poor man is our first instance of a semi-regular thing in USUM, and because of a glitch I didn't properly catch, I don't actually have his dialogue fully ready.
This is what Ray is supposed to be for, but I didn't realise it was this extensive for Dugal, so I've got a patchwork at best. Fortunately, I think the gist comes across fine. He's got a crush on a girl, and he's having problems trying to make the first step.
And he thinks the answer is to be hit with a Z-Move. There's a few Trainers like this, and they'll be rebattleable once a day until you hit them. Any Z-Move will do, I believe.
It's got IVs. Flat 31s, 252 EVs in HP and Sp. Def, Calm (+Sp. Def/-Atk) Nature, and knows the moves Scald and Iron Defence. Also it's holding Eviolite. Frankly, this thing is a pain to take out without Z-Power, and probably ought to be treated like a boss.
Z-Power go. Both Ray and Ailey used Bloom Doom (Ailey using Giga Drain Crysantha and Ray using Razor Leaf Alena), but because I caught the problem going on because of the problems happening during Bloom Doom's animation for Ailey, Ray's the one who's going to be showing it off.
Ray spreads his legs for the tree pose, strangely. No idea why the Z-Poses would even have gender differences.
Can I just say both of them look adorable with the angry eyes?
Now then, Bloom Doom.
You start by spreading a field of flowers out from around you.
It envelops the opponent, readying a beam of light...
And explodes into a flower cloud.
Right in the solar plexus.
...The hell is that Defence stat, Clamperl?
Fortunately, Ailey still had Magical Leaf to push through. Ugh, it's like pulling teeth...
...I lost a lot of dialogue here. Fortunately, I know why and it shouldn't come up again, I'm just... amazed I didn't catch how bad it was for Dugal. I mean, I caught Bloom Doom acting up...
The reward. It exists, I guess.
At least we get to see his triumphant run off.
And his immediate U-turn. Probably my favourite plot twist in one of these sidequests.
At least he takes it well. As well as a man like him could, I guess.
...Shrug.
More overhead POV on the docks. It doesn't really happen on USUM, because there's a Totem Sticker here.
The house north of Olivia's shop, otherwise unremarkable, is in fact Lana's house.
And she gets a rather full family in the bargain.
I know that feeling. The only game where you can be disappointed to get a Heart Scale...
Really repeating that line. I suppose, if you're following the plotted line and not backtracking, this is how you find Corsola and thus the new Pokemon Mareanie...
If it's anything like my friend's cats, no.
And meanwhile, she's telling us she's hooked a Kyogre and a red Gyarados on a lark.
In the back room, one can find Lana's twin sisters, a literal pair of Twins.
Lana's bed. Somehow type appropriate.
...I love tautologies.
Zygarde Cell up here at night.
And over in this corner, we can find our own copy of the Eviolite item. Eviolite is an incredibly powerful item, but one with a shelf life. This can be given to a Pokemon that has is capable of evolving, but has not yet done so, and will increase their defensive stats by 50% each. There's a ton of Pokemon that really appreciate this, and a good dozen or so that get so good that they kinda start competing with their evolutions. I don't plan to still have anybody at endgame who can use this, but it'll come in handy for a few bosses along the way.
Eviolite was introduced in BW, the games after DPPt introduced a truckload of brand new evolutions to classic Pokemon. Since BW, Pokemon was almost suspiciously reluctant to introduce new evolutions again, and many started to suspect the Eviolite was at fault. Whether or not it was, SV, in its tradition of "actually, maintaining direct continuity with past games is a terrible idea, what were we thinking", added new evolutions and retconned once-considered fully-evolved Pokemon to work with the Eviolite now that they were no longer such. For SV players, Primeape, Dunsparce and Bisharp do not benefit from Eviolite in this game, for what I hope are obvious reasons.
There's a fence stopping us from going to the lighthouse. There's stuff up there, including a really nice TM and a Totem Sticker in USUM. The fact the only thing in the way is this fence gets frustrating. Especially, if the issue is keeping tourists away from the lighthouse, this doesn't seem too effective at that.
North of town is this lady watching some Pikachu, and she has some nice presents for us.
Starting with Pikachu's unique Z-Crystal, Pikanium Z. Separate from the Pikashunium Z we got in USUM, this allows normal Pikachu to use the Z-Move Catastropika, which is based on the move Volt Tackle. The Pikachu with a cap cannot use this.
The difference between Catastropika and 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt seems to be "we wanted to give Ash Ketchum a special Z-Move." Ash's Pikachu has never used Catastropika in the anime. Now, why they needed to give Ash something special from other Pikachu is one thing, since Catastropika has only seen one use case since.
And this line of dialogue is a gigantic ball of misinformation. Volt Tackle is Pikachu's signature move, and for the player to learn it, they must give their Pikachu a Light Ball and breed it- the resulting Pichu will have Volt Tackle as an Egg move. That is... until this game. This lady is, in fact, a Volt Tackle tutor. If we have a Pikachu that we want to teach the move Volt Tackle, we can show it to her and she will provide it.
Volt Tackle is a 120 BP Physical Electric move that does recoil damage. Catastropika is a 210 BP Physical Electric move that does not. I can see why.
No special lines from the Pikachu, though.
Now then, I believe you have something that you refused to tell me earlier.
Honestly, it's 120 BP Electric move. Even running on the -Atk stat, it's probably better than Charge Beam.
Volt Tackle has an interesting place in Game Freak's history. Remember Pulseman? Volt Tackle shares a Japanese name with Pulseman's signature move, Volteccer. It does the opposite of making Pikachu invincible, though.
In USUM, she is replaced by this weird lady. Like Dugal, her dialogue was almost entirely lost because of that glitch Ailey had when she got to Konikoni City, but unlike Dugal, I caught it and swept it up with Ray. Also unlike Dugal, this sidequest was almost designed specifically with Ray in mind. I swear it wasn't intentional, but this sidequest has particularly specific requirements Ray has already met.
She wants our help with something, a bit like a job, but a lot more specific.
Her area of expertise is hair styling, and there's something she wants to see.
Somewhere in the Alola region is a Pokemon with a magnificent mane of curly hair. It is not a Pokemon we have seen yet (well, in battle), but it is a Pokemon we have access to around roughly now.
She wants to sample its hair- so she wants to see the Pokemon herself, not just be shown its Dex entry.
She doesn't actually know what Pokemon she's looking for, so she asks us in the hopes that we can think of what it is we're looking for. Well...
(...What is it about Lighthouse Point and the ladies there not actually specifying what it is they want us to have to receive something from them?)
Dugtrio (Sun): Its shining gold hair provides it with protection. It's reputed that keeping any of its fallen hairs will bring bad luck.
Strictly speaking, I didn't actually have Paul evolved into Dugtrio by the time I got to Konikoni City, but she evolved en route to Olivia's Grand Trial, so close enough. On evolving to Dugtrio, the Alolan Diglett's three hairs expand into three manes of hair reminiscent of surfer bros or rock stars. It is not actually mammalian hair, but rather some kind of metallic whiskers, but the fact remains it is incredibly hard to figure out what was going through the developer's minds when looking at Alolan Dugtrio alone.
...Frankly, it's still difficult to figure out where it came from even in context.
Ailey wound up catching and evolving a Dugtrio for its Dex entry, but it made more sense for Ray to do this quest, since he's using Dugtrio as a team member.
Dugtrio's hair more closely resembles the volcanic rock known as Pele's hair. One can't exactly say that's the straightest rock, but I don't imagine it's vulnerable to the same sources of split ends real hair deals with.
Nice, isn't it?
That's one of her items acquired-
Although forgive me for suggesting maybe a battle item for +2 Crit isn't exactly the most encouraging of reasons to go and catch an evolved form of a Pokemon. Wild Dugtrio do exist, but it'll be a while before we can get them.
My sources tell me it's a day later that she offers the second phase. Ray actually got it to pop up sooner. I'm not 100% sure what he did, but I'll save it for later anyway.
...That's a Hala thing? Kinda surprised you're not citing Olivia in her home city, but... I guess you do have Poliwhirl there.
...It goes to Poke Pelago. I mean... that is an actual tangible place that exists.
I presume this made more sense in games before Pelago, but it's much harder to sell this idea in a game where the Pokemon in my box are literally giving me free money.
Aether mook with a Job for us here in Konikoni City. This is a very unique Job slot in the game.
This job is to show either a Passimian in Sun or an Oranguru in Moon. Fairly standard idea, although we're quite a ways from Lush Jungle here...
Not even any comment about Passimian's habits. Really?
It is, at least, a nice 5K to line our pockets.
Good for you. Now then, let's discuss what it's up to in USUM.
In USUM, they ask to see Natu in Ultra Sun, and Hoothoot in Ultra Moon. That's right- every single one of Bethany, Ailey, Noah and Ray was asked to show a different entry.
They at least comment on Natu and Hoothoot in here. Hoothoot as a clock sure strikes me as intriguing.
...I'd like to see more about Natu when we actually catch one first, though. Although the plot sequence hasn't taken us that way yet, the player can actually go there ahead of time, and Ray did for the sake of doing so.
That is one cheeky Stufful... But I'm with the Collector. I'm not arguing there.
...Odd request, but OK. This Trade exists only in SM- and unlike usual, USUM does not have a replacement of any kind. Hope you haven't been depending on those IGTs, because you'll need something to counter Olivia on your own.
Nice to have a second Poliwhirl, even if evolving it into Politoed is of the annoying persuasion. Gonna need to quickly catch a Zubat from Diglett's Tunnel or Memorial Hill first...
Poliwhirl (Sun): Although it can live on land, it prefers to stay in the water, where it has fewer natural enemies.
All good! Come to think of it, Whirly is our first proper encounter with Poliwhirl, huh? There's a Trainer with one in both SM and USUM, both of which are in the near future. Poliwhirl is a pure Water type still, and it can either be evolved by Water Stone to become Poliwrath, or traded with a King's Rock to become Politoed. Poliwrath has a Fighting subtype and has few moves it really needs from Poliwhirl, so I imagine evolving it into Poliwrath is how they expected it to be a good hard counter to Olivia's Rock types. Politoed, meanwhile, is a Pokemon desperate for its HA, which Whirly does not have, of course.
...OK, I guess she could just have given it to us with the understanding of using Hydro Vortex. Effective, but boring, and only works once in a Grand Trial...
Whirly's a bit all over the place here. The Naughty Nature suggests an evolution into Poliwrath, but its Perfect IV is in HP. Also, being stuck with Damp and not Water Absorb (or even Swift Swim) typecasts it more as a Pokemon that can counter things that explode, rather than a Poliwrath I want to put on the team. Really, though, I guess it depends on what you want to get out of it. IGTs that hold Z Crystals are a bit naff, though.
No second counter here, although with Mallow's Trial completed, we have gotten access to some nice new items.
After Kiawe's Trial (something I never took the time to check in on), we get Adrenaline Orbs for more S.O.S.es (in USUM, infinite S.O.S.es) and Super Repels, for 200 steps of encounter removal. After Mallow's Trial, we get buyable Ultra Balls and Hyper Potions. Now we're cooking with gas.
A second stall was added for USUM, but all it includes is the X Items.
Now then, it is time to explore Olivia's store, and finally acquire some nice items.
...You know, "Nopass" is the least clear way you could call out to us. Come to think of it, where is the "No" is "Probopass"? Was this intended to be a Nosepass earlier in development?
Fortunately, the letter is for us. It'd be weird otherwise, but frankly, it's still weird it was delivered to Olivia's shop in the first place.
Never mind, it's from Olivia, this is probably the best place Olivia thought she'd catch us for this memo.
This letter is required to progress the plot, but there are no roadblocks on the way to the Ruins of Life the player runs into if they attempt to skip it. Olivia just simply will not be present there until this letter is read. With that said, the Ruins of Life is normally supposed to be a Fly point, and if you travel there before reading this letter, it will not be reachable by Charizard Glide after the fact. There are valid reasons for this, but it just highlights how funny the event flags get once you realise why.
Probopass gets a thought bubble, and quickly rushes up stairs. If there was a Nosepass/Probopass switch, I imagine this is why- it's a lot less goofy for Probopass to glide up the stairs than it is for Nosepass to waddle up them.
Probopass passes us a freebie! Hopefully Olivia had this in mind. The Max Potion, of course, will heal a Pokemon to full HP, no matter how high that value is. Presumably, the reason Hypers were nerfed to only heal 120 HP is because most Pokemon, at endgame, still have less than 200 HP, and this lowered the value of Max Potions. While not unreasonable, it does still kinda sting.
Oh, this isn't so bad. Just wait until we get to the next two islands!
...Good luck with that. While I don't doubt that these rocks are a little more magical than the shiny rocks we have in the real world (having Evolutionary Stones will do that), I don't think that is a power they possess.
Olivia is a single woman, although the exact reason why is never enumerated (nor are her feelings on the matter). This isn't the only time it comes up, but it does come under the category of "evidence Olivia and Mallow might actually be lesbians".
The Collector, meanwhile, is just happy to be gathering more minerals.
In USUM, he instead talks about Diance, the Mythical mutation of Carbink. He'll give you some Diancite if you show him a Diancie, although Diancite is completely useless without it. I'll let him keep it.
It's time, at last, to mention all the Fossils one can acquire. Fossils are the remnants of bone or other biological tissue, imprinted into rock by the luck of where a creature died. Pokemon has the technology to resurrect them Jurassic Park style, and also the technology where this isn't a cosmically bad idea. Fossils first appeared in RBY, and every new set of games from RSE onward added two more Fossils to the collection. All Fossils to date have been part-Rock type, and it is unclear whether this is because Rock types are easier to fossilise in-universe, or because the process of resurrection keeps elements of the rock the fossil was contained in.
Alola does not have any new Fossils- Hawai'i is very volcanically active, so even if the complicated process required for a specimen to fossilise occurred, it is very likely the rock in which it was contained has been turned into magma, spewed into lava, and re-hardened into new, non-Fossil-containing rock multiple times between then and now. With that said, unlike previous games (mostly), Alola does allow us to acquire the Fossils from past games during the main story. In SM, to fit in with the theme, they are sold only by a specialist store, although USUM adding them as finds from Poke Pelago does arguably contradict the "Fossils can't form in Alola" theming. I'll allow it.
All Fossils cost 7000 Poke, and this lady sells them on a version-exclusive basis. Fossils have typically been exclusives in some manner, but DPPt is the only time before now in which your initial Fossil was a version-exclusive and not just "you select your favourite Fossil".
Cranidos (Ultra Sun): A primeval Pokémon, it possesses a hard and sturdy skull, lacking any intelligence within.
Bethany's first Fossil is the Skull Fossil, a rather nifty find and one I'm rather fond of in its home game. Cranidos is the only pure Rock-type Fossil, and it goes all in on Atk. On evolution, it has 165 Atk, a decent HP score of 97... and none of the rest of its stats are over 65. Min-max hit this guy hard, but for an in-game run, a Jolly Nature and some Speed investment will get it fast enough to win the coin flip in its home game. Here in Alola, though, too many things are running their own Speed investments to let it prosper.
Cranidos's only Ability is Mold Breaker, allowing it to hit opponents regardless of Ability. Back in Platinum, what you did was you gave Cranidos the move Earthquake (which, because of a short-sighted rearrangement of the game world, you got the TM for it almost as soon as you got Cranidos proper), and you used that to bypass all the Bronzor that make Fire types in such high demand. It could probably pull off the same trick in this game with Bulldoze, but there's so much more variety that the strat itself is more niche. No Fossil is able to acquire HA, because they don't appear in wild battles that call for help.
After selling each Fossil, the lady name-drops which region it came from. SM's two Fossils come from Sinnoh and Unova.
Cranidos is based on a bit of outdated science here. It is based on the dinosaur genus Pachycephalosaurus, a dome-headed dinosaur once thought to have used its domed skull to headbutt things, similar to bighorn sheep and musk oxen. More recent science has suggested otherwise, although the possibility that the head was used to butt things is still on the table, depending on how one defines it. These studies were done in 2012, post-dating Cranidos by 6 years.
To be fair, Cranidos's fragility may actually support this whole issue.
Tirtouga (Ultra Moon): Its hunting grounds encompassed a broad area, from the land to more than half a mile deep in the ocean.
The Unovan Fossil in Sun, Tirtouga, is a Rock/Water type with a bit of chutzpah to it. High Defence and Atk with a moderate special bulk and obviously turtle-slow Speed, Tirtouga stands out as a fairly obvious slight variation on many high Atk/Def Rock types with a crippling x4 weakness (fortunately, not to Water this time, but still unfortunately distributed). Fortunately, Tirtouga can learn two key moves required to circumvent this issue, Shell Smash (gives it -1 in Def/Sp. Def, but +2 in Atk/Sp. Atk/Spd) and Aqua Jet (priority Water move). It's got some good moves and doesn't learn Shell Smash too particularly late, so it's a good Pokemon to have around. USUM gives it a nice extra move, too.
Tirtouga's Abilities are Sturdy (allows it to survive an attack with one HP from full) and Solid Rock (reduces the damage of super-effective blows by 25%). Which one you think works for you depends on what you think is more likely to be stopping Tirtouga from doing its thing.
Tirtouga is considered based on the largest of turtle species, Archeleon, Protostega, and the still-living Leatherback. Whether these are common ancestors is up for debate, but it's not what they're famous for.
Now then, Noah's Fossils. He's got two, and strangely, they're in the opposite order compared to Bethany's- look at that, it's Skull > Cover and Plume > Armour, despite Skull/Armour being DPPt and Cover/Plume being BW.
Fittingly, this means we acquire Archen first. Archen is a Rock/Flying type, and is quite possibly the glassiest cannon Pokemon to ever exist, even beating out Cranidos for the title. Archen has only 140 Atk on evolution, and loses out some HP for slightly better defensive stats, but the real power is in its 110 Spd (and not terrible 112 Sp. Atk). This is considered "balanced" by its Ability, which prevents it from capitalising on that power under all circumstances, but there's only so much one can do to stop it. Archen will be joining Noah's team, giving all three files using classic Pokemon a Fossil.
Archen's only Ability, even counting HAs, is a signature to it, Defeatist. When it is reduced to half HP or lower, its Atk and Sp. Atk is reduced by half as well. Even a crippling blow can still take this Pokemon out of action, unless you have some way to heal it. With that said, its high power and speed mean that you can probably avoid that blow coming simply by using the right moves, and its typing means you can probably take a Fake Out and several other common counter moves without triggering Defeatist.
Archen (Ultra Sun): Once thought to be the ancestor of all bird Pokémon, some of the latest research suggests that may not be the case.
Archen is based on the dinosaur/bird hybrid Archaeopteryx, once thought to have been the ancestor of all modern birds. However, three new bird-like specimens have been discovered- many of them in the early '10s, dating their discovery to in the midst of BW and B2W2's own release. In addition to that, the whole "dinosaurs are in fact more closely related to birds than lizards" thing that is also picking up steam means calling these winged dinosaurs "first birds" is also slightly shakier than it seems on first glance. However, Archaeopteryx was discovered very close to the release of On The Origin of Species (two years afterwards), so it remains an important species in scientific history: It was one of the keystones confirming that evolution was a thing, and although it's not considered "the first bird", its role as a transition between dinosaur birds and modern birds is still scientifically relevant.
The counterpart to the unstoppable juggernaut that is Cranidos, Shieldon is a Rock/Steel type with gigantic Defensive stats (168 Def and 138 Sp. Def), but only 60 HP and its other stats are even lower. Shieldon doesn't learn very many offensive moves, leaning heavily on its role as a wall and support, but it also suffers heavily from not really learning the sorts of moves you want a Pokemon like it learning, and also Rock/Steel being a far less powerful defensive type than it sounds. While Rock has a reputation of being tough thanks to its early appearances in first Gyms forcing you to stop using Normal moves, the fact is this is not the case, and Rock/Steel has two crippling double weaknesses to Fighting and Ground, as well as an unfortunate Water weakness. Shieldon may be a big wall, but it goes down much easier than it should be.
Shieldon's only Ability is Sturdy, preventing it from falling in one hit. This just makes the barrier to being a Shieldon counter even lower, since if everything needs to two-shot, losing half your HP in one blow is about the same as losing 99% of it. Honestly still better than its HA, though, since it at least allows Metal Burst shenanigans or what have you.
Shieldon is based on the ceratopsian family of dinosaurs. Shieldon in particular is more of a ringer for protoceratops, while it evolution takes more inspiration from shields and castles than it does dinosaurs. With that said, this does technically mean that this is the closest Pokemon has so far come to including a triceratops. I'm not 100% sure how much protoceratops used its own head in this way- that seems to be more Pokemon than archaeology.
USUM adds all of the Fossils in Pokemon's history to the set. In order, Ailey has the Kanto, Hoenn and Kalos Fossils in that order here, and this order seems to be reflected for Ray, too. Funny, since they still have the Sinnoh/Unova switch I noticed in SM.
Annoyingly, they're not removed from the listing, so to buy them all, you have to scroll or deal with this line.
Kabuto (Ultra Sun): This Pokémon thrived 300 million years ago. It's said that living specimens can still be seen in a certain region- a rare sight.
Kabuto is the Kantonian Fossil for Ultra Moon, a Rock/Water type that makes a surprisingly decent physical attacker, although it has one key issue in USUM- it learns practically none of the moves that make it such in what one might call decent time. Its evolution level of 40 is sketchy enough, but few, if any, of the moves that make Kabuto great appear in its level up pool before then, and even TMs only give it what might charitably be described as the basics. Add that onto a less favourable stat spread than Tirtouga, as well as lacking a few of the advantages Tirtouga has, and it's hard to recommend Kabuto.
Kabuto's Abilities are Swift Swim (doubles Speed in rain) and Battle Armour (immune to crits). Swift Swim plays more to its strengths, but it of course requires you to be working with rain.
Kabuto is based on the trilobite, and its evolution the eurypterid. Both also have elements of the horseshoe crab, a still-living relative. Trilobites, because of the biological habits making them more likely than many animals to be subject to the evolutionary process, compose one of the most diverse fossil records we have, and euryptids hold a similar record in its field. If the Rock typing was added by the fossilisation and resurrection, I expect its original form would be a Water/Bug.
Lileep (Ultra Moon): It sticks to rocks with its powerful suckers and can't be washed away no matter how rough the surf gets.
Lileep is a particularly defensive Rock/Grass type, with 86/97/107 defensive stats. Obvously, its defences are much lower than Shieldon's, but it's probably got better bulk because of its higher HP. Plus, having 80 offenses allow it to have more of a bite in return. It turns out that it doesn't make an entirely bad option either on the offense or the defence, although its overall middling stats and poor Speed make it pretty bad at specialising in either role. I used it in a mono-Grass Hoenn run (of ORAS) and it was good to me, but this may have given it more advantages than it would have in a more diverse team.
Lileep's only Ability is Suction Cups, preventing it from being switched out by any hostile attempts to do so (like Roar or Dragon Tail). I can't guarantee this is the best Ability for it, but it does work to its strengths. It also increases your chances of hooking something while fishing, which is one of the field effects of all time there.
Lileep is based on the criniod, also known as sea lillies. These are plant-like animals capable of walking about on the ocean floor, although the ancient varieties proved a bit more immobile. The name "Root Fossil" may also be a bit of a mistranslation- as animals, criniods don't really have roots, even the immobile ones. Those "tentacles" seem to come more from sea anemones, although criniods did use appendages like these to find the plankton that they preferred to eat.
Also, although criniods were much more diverse in the past, some 700 species still exist on the sea floor.
Funnily, I got a bad shot on all three of the Fossils that Ray and Ailey are using. Annoying, but slightly funny. Amaura is a Rock/Ice type that comes from a Sail Fossil, and it suffers- a lot- from a bit of a scattershot statline, as well as representing probably the worst dual-type one can have. High HP, supplemented by moderate stats, an only OK-ish Sp. Atk, and pretty plain Speed with which to try much of anything. It has a bunch of Electric moves naturally, because apparently it really hates Flying types, but it can't typically do as much as one would hope. I wouldn't be surprised if a Rock/Ice could make a particularly strong offensive mon, but this one? Not so good. Still, Ray has hopes, and it's a pretty nice-looking Pokemon.
Amaura's only Ability is Refridgerate, which turns Normal moves into Ice moves and gives them a 30% boost. Sounds good in theory, but it doesn't learn a ton of Normal moves that make better candidates for its Ice move than its Ice moves. This becomes even more of an issue when you consider its HA, but this is the Amaura we're stuck with.
Amaura is based primarily on sauropods, with key design notes taken from Amargasaurus. We actually have designer notes on this one: Hitoshi Ariga describes the decision to use Amargasaurus (which has cascading frills down its neck) as being made to distinguish it from the otherwise visually-similar Lapras, Meganium and Deino. All of the ice theming seems to be entirely on Pokemon- I'm not sure if we can say anything about the biomes in which fossilised species lived, other than tracking where the landmass we found it probably was at the time it lived.
It may be said that great power comes from staring at a Helix Fossil for days and days, but Omanyte is a Rock/Water type that manages to come off worse in the argument between it and Kabuto. In theory, Omanyte has great promise, with a high Def/Sp. Atk build that also gets to benefit from Shell Smash like Tirtouga. Sure, no Aqua Jet and less defensive Abilities suck, but it is capable of going somewhere. Somehow, its learnset is worse than Kabuto's. At least TMs allow Kabuto to cobble together something it can use. Omanyte doesn't really get any of its strong capitalising moves, and doesn't even have Power Gem to hit hard with that Rock type.
Its Abilities are Swift Swim (doubles Speed in rain) and Shell Armour (negates crits). Same options as Kabuto, and while the Shell Armour is more tempting, it can still play to Swift Swim's strengths if you're willing to provide the rain it needs.
Omanyte is based on ammonites, a mollusk-like Pokemon that is more closely related to cephalods like octopodes and squids than it is with contemporary mollusks like nautilidae (although its evolution seems to have a few cues from there). Ammonites hold importance in the archaeological world by being strong "index fossils"- they are so geographically widespread, and so limited in timeframe, that you can usually provide a date for a layer of rock by looking around for some ammonite fossils.
Anorith (Ultra Sun): When restored Anorith are released into the ocean, they don't thrive, because the water composition has changed since their era.
Anorith is one funky-looking Rock/Bug type with an equally funky kit. It comes from the Claw Fossil, and carries with it a pretty diverse set of moves, although there's some question of how effective those moves are. It's running the high Atk, pretty good bulk (particularly in Defence) and low Speed build common of Rock types. It's got a bit of a weird weakness list I always struggle to remember, which might be rating it higher than it really deserves (Rock/Steel/Water isn't exactly a great weakness list), but it has some surprisingly good options.
Anorith's only Ability is Battle Armour, granting it immunity to crits. Which may be working wonders on its defensive reputation there, although "don't depend on critting it" is hardly a hard expectation.
Anorith's chief inspiration is Anomalocaris, a weird shrimp-like predator that took some doing to properly identify at first (most of the time, those claws were the only bits we found, and we usually stuck those on other nearby specimens until we found its rightful owners). Anomalocaris has been occasionally considered an apex predator due to its size, although it's likely it wasn't particularly good at piercing the hard shells of the coprolites, preferring its soft-shelled options. Anorith's design is reminiscent of the still-living brine shrimp, too, although its evolution abandons this connection.
Tyrunt (Ultra Moon): Tyrunt is spoiled and selfish. It may just be trying to frolic, but sometimes the ones it's trying to frolic with are gravely injured.
Tyrunt, the king of the dinosaurs. A Rock/Dragon type with a big mouth and a bigger 'tude resurrected from a Jaw Fossil, Tyrunt is a refinement on Rampardos's brute strength to become something with some serious firepower and a not bad survivability to come alongside it. Its Atk has been scaled back to 121, but it now has a usable Defence stat (and a still better Special bulk), and its Speed is enough that one might be able to Jolly it and make sure it actually outspeeds the things it needs. Dragon also compliments Rock well, taking away its key weaknesses to Grass and Water, while giving it new weaknesses it can mostly shrug off, although Fairy is a bit unfortunate.
Tyrunt's only Ability is Strong Jaw, which gives it a 50% boost to bite-type moves. Its only option in the main story is the Dark-type Bite and Crunch, and weirdly, it doesn't get the elemental fangs one might expect from the Move Reminder (it has to have those bred onto it). This kinda hamstrings it a bit, especially when its HA offers it such value, but its stats carry it so well it's hard to complain.
Tyrunt is so obviously based on good ol' Tyrannosaurus, mostly because it's been weird for Pokemon to have Fossils and not have Tyrannosaurus, but the orange bits give it traits of Gorgosaurus and other members of Carnosauria (particularly when it evolves and becomes a much more expansive crest missing from the original Tyrannosaurus). Tyrunt's evolution also came late enough that it takes design cues from the "dinosaurs have feathers" scientific consensus, although it does still take a mostly scaly design.
The sales lady at the front sells the evolution stones Fire, Thunder, Water and Leaf, the same stones available for sale in Kanto's Celadon City. There is no freebie source of Leaf Stones in the game- although there are so few users of Leaf Stones that this isn't a huge problem. Still, if you haven't had luck with Poke Pelago, this is how you evolve Weepinbell (from Island Scan) and Exeggcute (you can catch its evolution in the wild too).
Despite the existence of other Evolution Stones introduced since, Evolution Stone shops like this one continue to lack them. You want multiple Sun, Moon, Shiny, Dusk, Dawn or Ice Stones, you have to rely on RNG with Pelago.
The third merchant sells a handful of hair accessories. Despite being a stone shop, none of them are pretty gem accessories, instead a flower, a bow, and a headband.
Males have no accessories from this shop, and indeed, the merchant is absent entirely if you're playing a male. While I understand males don't exactly have as many hair accessories (if any), I'm surprised they removed her entirely.
Hair accessories work a little weirdly in this game, and not only can you not wear hats and accessories at the same time, the preview won't even show you one kind of headwear if you're currently using the other. You have to take off your hat to browse accessories, and vice versa.
Let's wear a flower for a while.
Upstairs in this building is Olivia's bedroom, of course, and it turns out that she has quite the collection of Stuffuls.
...And that is more about Olivia than I needed to know. She has four Stufful toys, although I'm amazed they're on the floor and not on a shelf.
She also has one real Stufful (that you can play with in USUM). I'm not 100% sure, but I feel like having Stufful and Stufful toys in the same room is a recipe for trying to use the real one like the fake one and getting a royal pounding from a Pokemon that doesn't like normal hugs.
That's our third Zygarde Core. Sina is still calling us with the same routine about "oh, we can use Zygarde Cores to teach moves", assuming we had access to the feature that actually allows this.
Olivia has one of these personality tests on her bookshelf in USUM, and it's certainly quite the question. Getting Mystery Dungeon flashbacks here.
These things are either piercing or vague, depending on your point of view. I think the good luck thing is just flavour text, but considering the whole nightmare of getting coloured outfits in the opposite game, I'm cheating like hell to test this and couldn't even tell you if it worked.
Well, aren't you a judgemental little book?
And there's the spectrum on those. So what's up with number four...
...Instructions unclear, requesting new ones.
And that's how you make the Rock type drowsy.
Bethany went and sold all the selling items she's accumulated from all those Poke Pelago days, and that is a number. That is quite the large number indeed.
At long last, the time has come to buy the hat! Bethany'll be in this for a good while to come, possibly the rest of the game, and it's neat we've already seen it cameo before now.
With that said, the rest of this update is with Ailey.
The police station on Route 9 has a nice, long sidequest as soon as you arrive in USUM, and one that can prove very rewarding, if very tricky.
First question: What are you trying to say?
And second question, what did you just say?
Ditto (Sun): It can reorganize its cells to make itself into a duplicate of anything it sees. The quality of the duplicate depends on the individual.
It's Ditto! Ditto is a Normal type Pokemon with flat 48s in all of its stats, and a terrible moveset consisting of one move. And at the same time, it is also one of the most powerful Pokemon, on and off the battlefield- if a bit situational in both roles. Ditto has the ability to Transform into any Pokemon it sees, duplicating all stats (other than HP) exactly, down to their stat stages. An expertly placed Ditto can return everything a tough boss has been throwing right back to sender. Most of the best uses of Ditto require items not available, though, and that whole "Ditto's stuck with its own pathetic HP" is a bit of a downer.
Ditto's Ability is Limber, making it immune to paralysis. I'm not 100% sure if this is anything other than lore, but it's frustrating to catch one, especially with an Electric type on paralysis duty. Its HA (which these Ditto cannot call for, but the wild Ditto we can find later can) is Impostor, which makes it so that it automatically uses Transform as soon as it is sent in. The main counter to Ditto is that it goes down like a chump without its transformation, and this counters that issue. It's hard to recommend Ditto at all if you must go without this.
Basilissa has found her home on utility duty, using Glare to paralyse things to catch for Pokedex filling, and the ability to both paralyse and be paralysed is incredibly useful against Ditto. And I won't say no to being Intimidated and being less likely to KO in weakening.
Something you'll notice about Ditto is that it does not get registered to the Akala Pokedex. It is not native to this island, although it can be caught here because of this sidequest.
The policeman expresses due surprise that there was a Ditto where he expected to see a human, but does have an idea what just happened.
This is actually a very strange bit of Ditto lore that the series apparently quietly picked up here, but didn't really pick up steam in the mainstream community until the next time they tried it. Ditto, in the games, typically transform only into other Pokemon. In their first appearance in the anime, Duplica's Ditto showed the ability to transform into inanimate objects (like a book), and Ditto has also been seen mimicking things like rocks, but humans? This raised a question many were happier not asking. However, this sidequest is the first time in the series that Ditto were shown being able to copy humans, and actually pull off a convincing disguise while they're at it.
A Ditto with the ability to convincingly transform into humans would later appear in the 2019 movie Detective Pikachu, although perhaps the fact it was a dramatic, climactic reveal and not just a one-off note helped sell the shock that "Ditto can do this at all" and not just "this particular Ditto has been doing its schtick on some very important characters". For similar "we're in the climax of the movie" reasons, it's slightly unclear if that Ditto has been genetically modified to do this, or if its genetics give it other, related powers (such as the ability to transform into multiple things from memory, covering up a regular weakness of the species in most media). Considering this game released in 2017, I don't think unreasonable to assume they might've considered laying a hint this was an actual ability of Ditto here to make the movie's seem less out of nowhere, although whether Game Freak and Legendary Pictures were actually sharing this much detail might be stretching the way each company communicated.
The Ditto are considered an existent priority of the police, but this is less because the Ditto are up no good and more because the Ditto don't tell people they're doing this and cause disruptions to the lives of the people they copy. Good intent does not nullify harm, and I don't even think the Ditto get away with "good intent". More like "lack of malicious intent".
Ditto's requirement to be able to see the thing they want to transform into precludes them from transforming into the dead and buried, although depending on how long their form holds, they may care less once they've actually shifted.
For what it's worth, the Ditto have not prepared anything to prevent their transformations for being disturbed. I suspect they're just seizing opportunities rather than seeking them. Rather bold to take a police officer with the theoretical power to stop them, but, well, it succeeded...
His worries set to rest, he rewards us for a job well done.
Ailey is about to become a very rich woman.
He mentioned "Ditto Five?" There are five of those Ditto running around town, and with this one defeated, each of the other four will appear in Konikoni, one after the other.
And if we're going to do his job for him, he'll be happy to share his paycheck. Equivalent exchange- I'm sure the taxpayers don't mind which person solves their problem so long as somebody does.
He'll tell us where he suspects a Ditto, and it'll be our job to confront them and convince them to stop, the same way we did to his partner:
We don't even need to catch the Ditto, just faint it. If you're into the competitive scene, though, I'd recommend catching all five of them.
Well, I'm sure Roger Clifford might disagree on that...
First one in line: The Herb salesman. The second and fourth Dittos replace functional NPCs, and while they are doing so, the functions are unavailable. You don't have to do that much to get rid of them, though.
Although with a catch rate of 35, "catching one" is a bit of an ordeal. They used to transform catch rate as well as the rest of the things they copy, but it this is no longer the case. A Quick Ball has a 33% success rate, and even a Dusk Ball at 1 HP/Paralyse is running 69%.
A nice jolly encounter there.
Good thing, too, because someone's gone and sold some of your remaining supply.
See ya!
Ditto's inability to speak more than its name carries through even to its transformations, even those of other Pokemon. For most Pokemon, this just gets you an uncomfortable reveal before the same punch to the face either way. For humans, this breaks the disguise pretty fast, since most human interactions are about trying to talk.
The paycheck goes up with each Ditto. Ailey is going to be a very rich woman.
Next up, the restaurant. This one's a bit of a buggy one...
The Ditto is the chef here, and because of the way this room is designed, this can cause a few issues.
After defeating the Ditto, the chef comes running up behind you through the aisle. He is adamant about reaching his set position, but if you're standing in it, he might wind up running into you. Fortunately, this isn't a softlock, but it is very irritating to watch (and lasts for so long you might think it one.) The other two here in Konikoni are outside, so the people approaching you have a bit more room to walk into.
I can only imagine the Ditto walking up to him, laughing, transforming into him, and walking off.
Of course, none of the replacements are even aware of the Ditto doing the replacement, so the Ditto didn't do it to his face, but it's still an amusing thought.
...Also, who are these doors made for? You're a little stocky, but nowhere near "stuck in door" concerns.
He just makes a perfect copy of the recipe instead. Hopefully not out of its own body.
Restaurant dinners really are just getting more and more expensive...
I'd consider it more a case of the Ditto not being here than Ditto doing the relaxing. Then again, it doesn't seem like the city seems too aware of DItto until they get hit by one.
Aww, this one's all modest! ...Weird, I would've gone with timid.
See what I mean about how much easier it is for the lomi lomi lady to walk up behind us when she's got the whole street to work with?
Not even explaining where she went that time. The Ditto saw her pause for a moment and took its chance.
Not unusual, really, when you think about it. Although there is one thing to say on the subject...
When you're not looking at the massager, it's free to go back to Ditto.
...Also, wait, the lady does lomi lomi on people? We can only get it on the Pokemon...
24K for catching one Pokemon. One bottom-catch-rate Pokemon, but one Pokemon nonetheless.
This one's the most peculiar one, mainly because, at the point you unlock this quest, Olivia is missing, and with good reason. She's gone off to the Ruins of Life, and the Ditto have free reign to do whatever.
But also, because Ditto can't really do Kahuna duties, there's not much they can actually do. What chaos can you cause when you're in the body of someone who doesn't exercise their power through actions?
When you confront this timid Ditto, there's a short cutscene in it. Not really sure why- maybe there's an Olivia event if she's not tied up in the plot. Somehow I doubt it, and I usually do this before solving that anyway.
This is all the cutscene composes of.
Let's go show our work to the chief.
Surprise? Olivia hasn't had anything particularly tragic to expose that sense of melancholy in her life lately, and I never took her for the type to express in that manner either. She's more of a woman of action.
You talk to your kahuna way too little for a figure of authority in your community.
Still, one last fat paycheck. That's 100K Poke in all.
And a new hold item! The Focus Band will provide the user with a 10% chance to survive a hit that would otherwise have finished them, at 1 HP, regardless of current HP. The odds usually won't turn out in your favour, but it's one massive buff to hit if it does.
You won't have need to worry about them again. They're all safely on my Poke Pelago.
By "act weird", I think this just means "responds to situations in an animalistic way." Little hard not to when you can't speak, but also they are still animals.
...They can communicate with humans. They remained so low-key because they were able to respond to the stimuli provided by humans.
As he follows this train of thought, the camera zooms in slowly on his partner in a meaningful manner.
No, this means nothing. The policeman is still a man. I like to think the zoom in is because "mate, you didn't notice I was a Ditto today." It also kinda sets up the Detective Pikachu plot point, where part of the reason Ditto was so powerful was because nobody realised that the important, suddenly mute man with a new pair of sunglasses was a Ditto.
Now then, what can one do with five new Ditto?
The Ditto Five will always have what the competitive community considers the five most important Natures, as well as a perfect IV in the stat that each nature boosts. These support Ditto's powerful non-combat role... the ultimate breeder. When I first covered breeding, I mentioned the existence of 13 Egg Groups. I was being slightly coy here- Ditto is the sole member of a 14th Egg Group, "Ditto". Ditto cannot breed with itself or any species that cannot produce Eggs at all (usually for being Legendary), but for any other species- including Pokemon that can only be encountered in a single sex, or with no sex at all, Ditto will produce an Egg matching the species of the other parent. If all you need is a baby, and you don't want to fuss around with all this Egg Group and compatibility business, use Ditto. Ditto will solve all your problems. These Ditto can be used with the Everstone to give most players a reliable way to get a Pokemon with the perfect Nature (and even halfway-decent odds of a perfect IV in one of the stats it needs) for its ultimate setup.
Next time: We meet an admin of both Skull and Aether.
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