This update will mostly be poking around in areas we don't need to be in, but we will have to progress the plot to do them all. And with a boss battle, too!
We're starting in the simplest one of the bunch: The Abandoned Megamart. It is more or less identical to its Trial state, with no items to find, but there is one exception:
There genuinely isn't a back room. Somebody here is gaslighting us, and I'm not sure who. Probably the Mimikyu.
This is where Noah's going to get a Haunter to do the Veler trade. It is, however, one of two Ghost types present in the building in SM- and it also turns out they can call for help from Gengars, if you want one without trading.
Klefki (Ultra Sun): Although it's unclear why it collects keys, giving it a key makes Klefki very happy. However, it apparently only likes master keys.
Klefki is a surprisingly charming Steel/Fairy type, and yes, it is probably the reason you can't find your keys. Klefki is a pretty terrible offensive Pokemon, in spite of its awesome typing, and isn't much to write home about in other regards either. However, it is the definitive user of the Prankster Ability, very much preferring to use status moves, as well as blocking the opponents' with its signature move Crafty Shield. If that's what you're after, Klefki is unparalleled. However, you must catch it at level 31 or lower in order for it to have access to Spikes. Since we're going to be more worried about Trainers than Totems from here on out, entry hazards are a shade more valuable, although never doubt the odd T-Wave on something particularly annoying.
Klefki can only have Prankster (+1 priority to status moves) as its normal Ability. Its HA is Magician (will steal a hold item automatically if it lands a damaging move), which is nowhere near good enough to justify using it over Prankster.
Shuppet (Ultra Sun): It eats up emotions like malice, jealousy, and resentment, so some people are grateful for its presence.
In USUM only, a third Ghost type is added to the encounter tables in Shuppet, the pre-evolved form of Banette. Banette's "high Attack and nothing else" build is paired with Shuppet being horribly screwed by the accessibility, or lack thereof, of the Move Reminder. At the levels they are found here, they have lost access to the moves Shadow Sneak and Will-O-Wisp, forcing it to run Feint Attack until it evolves at level 37 and finally has a claw to use Shadow Claw with. And even then, it's got nothing in coverage, so it better hope you don't have something better at using Shadow Claw. Hint, you will.
Shuppet's Abilities are Insomnia (blocks Sleep) and Frisk (when sent out, will tell you what item your opponent is holding). Insomnia is the better Ability. It is hard to call it helpful. Its HA is Cursed Body (30% chance of disabling a move it is hit with), which is hardly much better. In general, this is a good Pokemon to avoid, it's not adding much.
At a 5% encounter rate in both SM and USUM, one can find a Mimikyu to call your own. We saw its overwhelming power in the Trial, and on our side... well, it's more or less OK. You need to catch it at level 31 or lower to let it have Shadow Sneak, and it can't get Baby-Doll Eyes, but it can get Shadow Claw (and Leech Life) immediately. Unfortunately, it has to wait until level 46 to get Play Rough. which is slightly annoying, but otherwise, you can use it as well as Acerola did.
Its only Ability is Disguise. No HA.
Of course Bethany is using one. What am I, not biased?
There's also a Poke Finder spot here. Gastly, Haunter, Gengar, Mimikyu, and in USUM, Shuppet.
Now then, for the meat of this update, and certainly the part that took me the longest to play: Haina Desert. This area is entirely optional, and it's hard to say any one prize demands to be acquired. It is, however, the only place in the game to acquire five different Pokemon families across all four games.
This kinda makes it sound like this is going to be a psuedo-randomly generated dungeon, like the Mystery Dungeon games. In hindsight, I'm not sure why it's not, but it is just a typical "Lost Woods" kind of dungeon- the loading zones won't make much sense, but if you know what room you're in, you can predict how to get anywhere else with a guide enough practice.
This quest is a little different between games, and I wasn't entirely sure what she was going to do in SM.
I think I had a Fresh Water, but used it up to keep Parasect topped up while catching things in the Megamart. Dangit.
I guess we found a use for this machine.
For giving her the Fresh Water, she gives us an extra set of Adrenaline Orbs. We've been able to buy these for a while, and they are essential if you have any designs on acquiring S.O.S. exclusive Pokemon.
These are correct mechanics (specifically, Pokemon later in S.O.S. chains have guaranteed perfect IVs), but this is surprisingly late to start tutorialising the mechanic. Considering how tricky it is, and how later resources help out, I wonder if this is when we're intended to get started on finding some S.O.S. finds.
Three freebies, worth 900 Poke in a Mart. Considering the Fresh Water cost 150 from the Game Freak vending machine, good bang for our buck, and I think Bethany's actually out right now. Still, where I can, I like to have only one of the kids go looking for S.O.S. encounters and trade around the babies.
Presumably, the Fresh Water was for the Poliwhirl. Can't begrudge it that.
In USUM, she gives you a Fresh Water- and annoyingly, I forgot to see if she still does if you just ask for the normal water. I can't imagine she wouldn't.
This line is really weird, and I think this is a holdover from the JP version that never translated right. In JP, Fresh Water is known as おいしいみず "Delicious Water", and is described in the item description as being mineral water- and when it first appeared in the GSC games, the fact that it comes from Mt. Silver (a mountain in the Johto region) appears in the JP item description text.
I find it really weird that non-Johto regions import mountain water from Johto regularly. I mean, as a luxury purchase, yeah, but most places that sell bottled water source the water locally- you're paying for the convenience, not the taste.
She also gives the Adrenaline Orbs- which is more important in USUM.
This line also got changed slightly, kinda doing work to separate the narrative "this is a place Tapu Bulu has made it hard to navigate on purpose" from the mechanical "this place is not a randomly generated dungeon".
Anyway, Haina Desert is a very special location in series history- it is the first location with non-plot perma-sun. The only other ways to get environmental sun are in Ruby and Emerald, when Groudon is active, and in SwSh's Route 6 and Wild Area.
At night-time, it is instead environmental sandstorm, which comes up more often in series history. I'm told these weather effects aren't strictly day/night, but that's what I found and the margins shouldn't matter too much. Note that Haina Desert has weather-exclusive S.O.S. spawns, but they only trigger in sandstorms (and rain and hail, if you switch the weather). You won't find Castform in sunny weather.
The desert sand is considered encounter tiles, like caves, but there are also a bunch of visible encoutners running around. Trust me, you want to try and get the visible encounters. There's something you can only find in there.
Dugtrio are the only thing in this desert that isn't new, but it's worth talking about because of the fact that there are three S.O.S. exclusive Pokemon in the desert. Fortunately, there's a maximum of two in each game, and I only have to deal with all three because I decided to play four Alola games at once and go for the Pokedex, but still... anyway, Dugtrio found in the desert know Sucker Punch and three Ground moves, meaning that a good Flying type can somewhat reliably S.O.S. chain them. I used Mandibuzz for Ailey and Noah and Mantine for Ray.
The problem with chaining Dugtrio is that one of those Ground moves they know is Bulldoze. If you're not faster and one-shotting reliably (a bit problematic, since they have like 100 Speed), they can knock themselves out and cut your chain short. Still, the other two finds are even worse.
Proof of concept, it's sunny out, so Parasect is taking residual damage because of Dry Skin. Probably should've gone with Effect Spore, but I hate the chance of Poisoning direct attackers I'm trying to catch.
Sandile (Ultra Moon): Sandile's still not good at hunting, so it mostly eats things that have collapsed in the desert. It's called "the cleaner of the desert."
You are far more likely to find Sandile while looking around here- it's 70% both as a random encounter and a visible one. Sandile are Ground/Dark types with two great Abilites, pretty good Physically offensive stats, and non-too-shabby bulk. It's not quite the best at it, but it's almost certainly good enough, and it's choice in typing is pretty neat. I like it a lot, and found some room to squeeze one onto Ray's team. Incidentally, yes, it does wall Alolan Raichu.
Sandile's Abilities are Intimidate (-1 Atk on send out) and Moxie (+1 Atk every time it defeats a Pokemon). I wouldn't say it's quite awesome enough to be a Moxie sweeper out of the box, but you can't really go wrong with either choice. I wound up going with Moxie, actually. Its HA is Anger Point (+12 Atk when crit), which mostly sucks because it's competing with Intimidate and Moxie. Don't go for it, it's not worth it.
Sandile will always be found knowing the move Embargo at these levels, preventing you from using both hold and Bag items. Makes it really hard to keep up an S.O.S. chain, since items play a key role in these environments. There's a reason I go for my chains on Dugtrio.
(Also they have Swagger, which is somehow even worse.)
I wish Bethany had a Smoke Ball. The freebie's a little further on.
The visible encounters all have drops, too- Soft Sand and Big Roots from the Dugtrio, Black Glasses from the Sandile, and Figy Berries from the rare find. Nothing too necessary.
Krokorok is the evolved form of Sandile, and you'll find it in USUM instead of Sandile. Sandile evolves at level 29, which means any Sandile you catch in SM is one level away from evolving, but they can technically spawn at level 28, I guess...
Trapinch (Sun): It can live for a week without eating a thing. It waits patiently at the bottom of its nest for prey to appear.
At a 10% spawn only in visible encounters, one can find Trapinch. This is a strangely pure-Ground Pokemon based on a very peculiar insect, and it evolves into a Ground/Dragon type despite clearly still being a bug. The weird thing is, there is still only one Bug/Ground type to date, and it's one possible form of a rather poor Pokemon that would rather be Bug/Steel. Anyway, Trapinch itself is fairly beloved for being a Dragon type and not a Bug type, although it has a surprisingly odd statline- it has 100 Atk/Spd and 80 flat everything else, making it weaker (but faster) than Sandile. I did not manage to squeeze one onto my team, but not for the lack of trying. Noah's using a different Dragon/Ground type and Ray's got more than enough Rock and Ground types.
Trapinch's Abilities are Arena Trap (prevents grounded Pokemon from escaping) and Hyper Cutter (prevents it from taking Atk debuffs). Its HA is Sheer Force (multiplies the damage of any move with a bonus effect by 5325/4096, in exchange for zeroing the chance of the bonus effect). None of these are terrible choices, but they all turn into Levitate when it evolves. I think it only gets all these unique Abilities because someone on the dev team really likes antlions.
As the Haina desert weather-exclusive find, during sandstorms, we can finally find a Gabite to add to our team. Gabite is a Dragon/Ground type psuedo-legendary (this time from Sinnoh) that went hard in to Atk and Spd, and managed to find room in its BST to actually have a notable HP/Def stat too. It also has the relatively low evolution level of 48, making it a reasonable choice in most games you can get one- that is, if you don't feel bad for the game having to deal with a Gabite. It's even worse in Platinum, since you get it at level 17 and right next to the Earthquake TM. I did not fit it into my team, and that was by design. Although when you see what Noah's using instead, you might question that.
Gabite's only normal Ability is Sand Veil, giving it a 1/5 chance of dodging attacks if it's in sandstorm. The fact that it's one of the first psuedo-legendaries to be judged too powerful for Smogon singles is probably due to this, although its good stats are not helping its case any. Its HA is Rough Skin (direct attackers take 1/16 HP in damage)- considering the aforementioned "surprisingly good Def", not horrible on its own, but most people tend to go with it just because Gabite is not the sort of Pokemon that needs Sand Veil.
Baltoy (Ultra Sun): Depictions of Pokémon similar to Baltoy have been found on the walls of caves where primitive humans lived.
Found only in Ultra Moon and only as an S.O.S. Pokemon, Baltoy is a defense-oriented Ground/Psychic type that suffers because of its starting toolkit and not-greatly-distributed stats. It starts having lost access to Ancient Power and Cosmic Power- the latter which annoys it more- and while it will get Earth Power at 40, it's only 70 Sp. Atk. It comes with Power and Guard Split, unique moves that take the average of its own offensive and defensive stats (yes, both of them) and those of its opponents, but those moves are just a smidge too gimmicky, both for Trainers and Totems.
Baltoy's only Ability is Levitate, rendering it immune to Ground moves. At least it won't get picked off but the Dugtrio's Bulldozes, but its value to Baltoy itself is left as an exercise for the Trainer.
Oh, and it comes knowing Self-Destruct, in case you hate yourself. If you can pack a Pokemon with Damp, do. Nothing worse than spawning one and having it blow up and start you from scratch. Especially since they can call for help themselves, unlike most S.O.S. only encounters.
Golett (Ultra Sun): Its movements are powered by a mysterious energy. It has continued to move since ancient times, so its power may soon run out.
Considering the Ultra Moon dex entry says you don't know how Golett is powered, yeah, I don't think this is something it's worried about. Golett is a Ground/Ghost type with high Atk and moderate bulk that I just love using, and while I've passed up version-exclusives in the past for being in the wrong game, the fact I've figured out trading and Golett is filling an essential hole in Ailey's team means I'm actually going to go to the effort of giving her a Golett to use. Sadly, Golett does have downsides (other than its Speed)- it's too high levelled to know Shadow Punch, and it doesn't really get other physical Ghost moves. Still, though, it's got options.
Golett's Abilities are Iron Fist (+20% power to punching moves) and Klutz (prevents it from benefitting from held items). I don't get what reason it has Klutz, but try not to get stuck with it. Its HA is No Guard (makes moves on both sides guaranteed to hit), which pairs well with amove it starts with, Dynamic Punch- a 50% accurate Fighting move with a guaranteed chance of Confuse if it hits. I think Iron Fist might be the better choice, but Ailey's gonna roll with No Guard.
Side note, why the hell are these two S.O.S. only? Haina already has an S.O.S. spawn in Gabite, and Krokorok is hogging 70% of the encounter tables. On top of that, all three of the choices in S.O.S. starters are annoying to work with, and neither of these Pokemon are quite good enough to justify the rarity. Maybe if they wanted this to come off as "the showcase of mastery of S.O.S.", I'd take it, but really, all I got out of it was frustrated. A hazard of S.O.S. being a mechanic that's not nearly fun enough to be involved in no matter whether you want one happening or not, I guess.
Going east leads you to this small dead end. Nothing unusual, except for the fact we have just stepped out of the west exit of the starting map.
For some reason, the prize here is different between games. SM got the better one.
In USUM, you can find a Hiker here. Ailey couldn't do anything with him at first, and it turns out this is because she forgot to do something earlier.
In order to get him to notice you, you have to have talked to the Stufful on Route 13.
The freebie Fresh Water is immediately used, as we found someone else to offer it to.
Hey, hold it, I'm told too much water is bad for you when in desert dehydration mode!
Fortunately, the player doesn't have to worry about this.
There is no way to find and return the Stufful's Trainer in SM. Considering what his fate might have been if the USUM protagonist didn't show up, that paints a grim picture of what happened in SM.
...I wonder if you have to talk to it, and then go straight to the desert, or if Stufful followed us to the Megamart. I almost like the second one.
Still, we have saved a life, and that is a very nice thing.
Going north leads us to this room with three rocks in the centre.
Go west, and you come out the east exit of the room- except this time this hasn't taken you anywhere new. Also, going east does not lead you west.
North just has a guy, and if you stand in the right place, a preview of a TM on the other side.
This guy can be helped, but not right now. I think. Either way, it's funny when he's saying this during the daytime, since the JP name for sunny weather posits it more as "clear skies".
Going east takes us to this... oasis? It's a patch of greenery, I'll give it that.
It has a Zygarde Cell, anyway.
...Also, weirdly, there's two litter items added to USUM wholesale for Haina Desert. This one's just... here to be here, I guess?
North leads us to a part of the desert where Mudsdale Gallop becomes relevant. Surprisingly, only one item where it is necessary to use it.
Here, the paths you need to take get a little more punishing and exacting. We want to first go east.
This will allow us to find and collect the Z-Crystal for the Psychic type, Psychium Z! This is also the first Z-Crystal we get that doesn't show off the pose ahead of time- we have seen Shattered Psyche off a Route Boss, but he didn't show us the pose. We're never going to see it unless we perform it ourselves, so basically, it involves the protag holding one finger to their forehead, their other hand out, and then straining their muscles as if they are exerting force.
That room was a dead end. If you leave it, you find yourself in the other Mudsdale Gallop room. This one's the one that has the item in the middle of the rocks.
It's 30K Poke.
Heading south from this room takes us to the TM for the move Dream Eater, a move that has potential to be good. It's a 100 BP Special Psychic move that heals the user for 50% of the HP it deals, but it only works on sleeping targets. It's not really good enough to justify trying to put the opponent to sleep just to land this move. However, one thing you can do with it is use it as a base for a 180 BP Shattered Psyche. On the other hand, Shattered Psyche off a Psychic is 175 BP, so...
Heading north from the room with the Comet Shard takes us to the Ruins of Abundance, Tapu Bulu's domain. Lillie intended to come by here at some point with Nebby, but was stopped because waves vaguely at Haina Desert. We can't do anything here yet, but it is, thankfully, now saved as a Fly point.
Oh, I suppose we can grab this.
Going west from the room with the Comet Shard is a Mudsdale Gallop dead end.
USUM put an item in it, but in SM, it's just a waste of time.
And it is such on multiple fronts- if you enter this room and then leave, you spawn in the other Mudsdale ring.
And if you go north from here, you get sent to the Hiker. At which point going south takes us back to the three-rocks room. This is why you want a guide handy.
That's thankfully all our business in Haina Desert, but Ailey still has some business here- this time talking to the lost Hiker.
Seems he's learned his lesson and then some. 10 Fresh Waters isn't much of a reward, but finding that lost Stufful is its own prize.
And yes, the people who were talking about the Stufful are grateful that the worst possible fate was avoided. It's less they're happy it's reunited with its Trainer (there is probably some judgement over his foolishness, but at least they are aware it's foolishness and not malice) and more happy that the Stufful is no longer suffering.
And yeah, thanks for the help, Ray! No offense to Sue, but I'm sick of having her being my best Electric counter.
Going back to Route 15 has us spot some Team Skull Grunts, giving us warning to prepare for a Plumeria fight. In USUM, this fight is a lot more serious than in SM, and you should take that warning seriously.
Since I'm not really planning on needing the whole team, I'm just doing a shot of who I brought. Most of these are self-explanatory, while Keokeo is getting all the EXP she can so she can evolve sooner rather than later.
Acerola also runs up beside us, having presumably been "following us" back to the Aether House.
...Hau, why are they between you and Lillie?
Too long? They don't even count as a speedbump anymore.
There's a sweeping zoom-out here, where the Skull Grunts start rapping in Hau and Acerola's faces, and Hau, Acerola and Plumeria take on different poses. Although poor Hau is not ready for this.
Let's see that in practice, then...
Plumeria, in both games, still has only two Pokemon, and they are the same two Pokemon as last time. Except, well... one of them's slightly different.
Her Golbat has been buffed slightly, but accidentally. Her set is the same- 15/31/15/15/15/31 IVs, 252 EVs in Atk/Spd, Jolly (+Spd/-Sp. Atk) Nature, and the moves Air Cutter, Confuse Ray and Poison Fang. Now that she has Poison Fang, her Atk investment means something, but it's still setup grounds moreso than a chance to go in.
Leading with Haruka, and I've got her evolved now. Had some trading to do since last we saw her, and might as well do this on the way.
We both start taking the chance to set up. I went with Stealth Rock, but I don't know if it helps that much, even if her second Pokemon is weak to them.
Poison Fang is NVE on Rock types, and Haruka has high Def. Although that Bad Poison is going to be doing far more damage if Haruka lets it.
She didn't let it.
The Salandit has evolved into a Salazzle, but remains just as confused about her nature as always. 15/31/15/15/15/31 IVs, 252 EVs in Atk/Spd, Hasty Nature (+Spd/-Def) with the moves Flame Burst, Double Slap, Toxic and Dragon Rage. She sure is getting a lot of use out of that Double Slap for her investments, huh? She's fairly easy walled by anything that resists Fire, and while that covers few things that hit Poison well, a good Rock or Water type will clean house.
I went with Sturm, and this had a funny result.
Corrosion allows Salazzle to poison Poison and Steel types, but it does not allow her to poison Pokemon with immunities to poison granted by Ability. Shields Down is one such Ability, and gives Sturm the last laugh.
Well, it was close.
This? This was hilarious. I like to think, narratively, Plumeria thinks Corrosion means Toxic works on everything, and took it failing on Sturm to be her cue to try again. Sadly, ain't gonna work the second time.
And you are easy prey to any hit.
If I tried the same thing twice and expected different results, I'd feel pretty terrible about myself too.
Plumeria's USUM team sees some... huge boosts. Both Pokemon have flat 30 IVs, and Golbat drops Confuse Ray and switches Air Cutter for Wing Attack, giving it something to inspire fear. But the real buff? Salazzle has had her entire kit overhauled, switching to 252 Sp. Atk EVs and getting the learnset Sludge Bomb, Flamethrower and Dragon Pulse. This is an unresisted combo of moves, and while you can at least resist her dual-STAB with a suite of Rock types and certain combinations of Fire, Water, Ground and Poison types (Whiscash and Tentacruel strike me as the best options here), the team Ailey brought did not manage it the first time around. Had I tried using Golett immediately, maybe, but while most of the team is level 32-34, Justy is level 35 and it felt wrong to deploy it.
Also, Salazzle's high Speed and +Spd Nature give her 141 Speed- there's no real outspeeding her with brute force. ...Mostly.
What you can do is Tailwind on Golbat. You only get three turns, though, so make them count. And you need 71 Speed unboosted to get the outspeed, which is a non-trivial number- don't assume that Tailwind will guarantee the trick works.
I had Consilia use Shattered Psyche on Golbat, so here's Ailey doing the Psychic Z-Pose. I'm not sure how likely we are to see it again, so it's worth getting done now.
As a reminder of Shattered Psyche's animation. It wasn't until I used it that I remembered the guy on Route 5.
For Bethany and Noah, I cannot say the same. For Ray and Ailey, though... that is a fight to take seriously.
Hey, I spend very little time fighting them! If they're taking their sweet time, that's on them, not me.
...Want you to do what now?
I mean, he's already seen us. But I guess he wants revenge for Malie Garden? I feel like I'd say that outright and not imply we've not met him yet.
At any rate, it seems the villains have invited us to do a good old-fashioned villain hideout storm.
...I mean, I don't even know who the Ula'ula kahuna is, might as well get some training in.
I'm not exactly going to begrudge you for that opinion, but you definitely strike me as being much happier if you were just doing an Island Challenge and not getting embroiled in all this stuff. Don't worry, kid, it's much more up my alley.
Acerola's the one to dart in and check on the people in the Aether House. We're not far behind, since Lillie's in there.
You notice how Plumeria said they'd "return the Pokemon"? Turns out Team Skull actually managed to steal a Pokemon in the end! Now granted, it's a Yungoos, but it was still a treasured Pokemon and we are going to try and take this seriously.
OK, clever is pushing it. They attacked the Aether House while it was guarded by Hau, and while Hau is by far the least skilled of the three people here I trust on guard duty, he's not nobody. Plus, it's not like they put active effort into arranging things such that we weren't around, they just timed it right.
That's not going to be the hard part, Hau. Especially for Bethany.
Ailey, OK, she's a little bit worried, but there are worse worries.
On a somewhat related note, though, Team Skull is the first and, to date, only villainous team in the series to have taken exclusive control over a town. Certain villainous team leaders have had particularly valuable social capital through their role in society, but they have never taken it as far as total control. With that said, it remains to be seen what value this control grants.
Our access to Po Town has been limited, not by lack of desire, but by lack of resources. There's something we need before we can get going in that direction.
Well... thanks, I guess? I can think of worse things to give me before I need the utmost of my strength.
I've gotta say, whatever his other faults, Rotom actually managed two good reactions to this scene, one for each game. Now if only he could always be so on-point.
As dark as it is, Hau's taking responsibility for the fact, really, this entire situation is his fault. Which, to me, implies that Hau tried and failed to beat Plumeria's team.
...Hau, you have a Raichu and a Brionne. Now granted, I can see how the Dartrix team might struggle here, but still. That Raichu means business.
...What happened to you before you came to the Aether House?
Team Skull's stated aims when stealing Pokemon are to sell them. If Skull hurts them, it won't be by design.
Although I'm not ruling out stupidity.
Unless Guzma pulls out some insane stat buffs, I should be fine.
Acerola just repeats her information about Team Skull and the guy on Route 15.
Also, there's a Mimikyu in the Aether House now. We'll see if it actually means that.
The kimono-clad man on the beach may be found over here. An odd thing I noticed- he's a proximity trigger in SM, but a talk trigger in USUM. Weird.
OI! This is an amazing-looking beach, if an out-of-the-way one compared to the rest of Alola.
...An uncomfortable line of dialogue to address to the female protag, and an equally weird line to learn his name.
Grimsley is another nostalgia character, the Dark-type expert of the Unova Elite Four in BW and B2W2. He's had an entire uniform change between games, though, the dialogue tag is basically all we've got to go on to know it's the same guy. That and the hair, I guess.
Grimsley's major character gimmick is that he's a massive gambler. As an Elite Four member in a game without a Game Corner, this didn't come up in an actually major way in Unova, but they are going to pay mind to it here.
I know how this game works, Grimsley. You never play the game of a Dark type expert.
Grimsley tosses the coin, and then there's a lingering pause before he unveils the outcome.
There's just something hilarious about the fact that the "Neither" option is not dismissed, but implied to have been Grimsley's intention.
I'm a little surprised they made the Pokemon he planned to cheat us with Skarmory. There are two Dark/Flying types in the Alola Dex, and Grimsley does use Honchkrow in his B2W2 rematch team. Strangely, he has never been shown to use Mandibuzz, despite being a Dark type first found in his region of origin.
If you instead guess that the coin is going to land, Grimsley praises you for your courage in making your choice, regardless of face. He doesn't even check to see if the right face was presented. I appreciate Pokemon's not the sort of game that would make this actually require winning a coin toss, but, you know...?
His "you and your Pokemon are shining brilliantly" and "a loss is a loss" come from his defeat quotes in Unova, where he is rather philosophical about the fact that all battles have a loser, and one cannot be hung up about being that loser.
Grimsley gives us our sixth Poke Ride, Sharpedo Jet. A surprisingly fitting choice, although it turns out that Grimsley uses Sharpedo only in his BW rematch. Sharpedo is not native to the Unova region, which explains why he doesn't use it elsewhere.
Sharpedo Jet is basically the water equivalent of Tauros Charge- which, admittedly, is actually something never seen in a game with HMs. We can break rocks, breaking rocks allows us to open passage to other parts of the water and occasionally finding Stardusts and the like in the rubble. Something he does not mention in his brief tutorial is that you cannot Fish while on Sharpedo's back.
There was actually an odd prototype of Sharpedo Jet in ORAS- if you used Surf with a Sharpedo, you would ride it instead of the shapeless blob you normally do, and it indeed moves faster. No rock smashing, though- there were no rocks to smash in Hoenn.
Your advice has been noted and ignored.
In USUM, Grimsley opens by actually expecting an answer to his question, although this doesn't result in him reacting appropriately
Not even in the ending dialogue. Bit on the weirder side, honestly. He does, however, look back across to the Pokemon Centre on Route 16.
I don't think we'll have to do much "searching". Team Skull seems the sort to rush in and intimidate us through show of arms.
Ah, he does his "if someone wins, then someone else has lost" speech now. We'll see if we get the chance to fight him, though.
Sharpedo Jet is a bit of a weird one to have when it comes to shortcuts. When you press A on the water, I think the Ride you get is the last one you used, so I'd say keep it on Lapras Paddle unless you specifically need Sharpedo Jet. Most of the time, you'll want Lapras Paddle.
But there are a few locations we can backtrack to and find some goodies with Sharpedo Jet.
Starting with this part of Melemele Sea. In USUM, there were no Sharpedo Jet rocks in the way, and there was a Black Belt with a mean Hawlucha here. This time around, there's just a TM.
And what a TM. Rock Slide is 75 BP, 90% accurate, hits both opponents in a Double Battle, and has a 30% chance of landing a flinch. It is, somewhat shamefully, the main "reliable" Rock move for physical units, and most Rock users tend to come out Physical. It's also got pretty impressive distribution.
This is the same tooltip between games.
Proof of concept on the whole "calling Sharpedo just from pressing A". I'm a little torn on whether it's convenient or not.
There's reason to backtrack here in both games- there's some rocks over on the Hau'oli City side that lead into Ten Carat Hill.
A TM for Explosion? Well, if you want it at hand... Explosion is a 250 BP Normal move that causes the user to Faint after using it. In single-player, I think you still lose if the last Pokemon in your party clicks this, although the rules are different in multiplayer matches. I think it changes depending on exactly what kind of match you're doing and I don't have them all memorised, but I feel like you've kinda morally lost if you're counting on Explosion.
Also, you'd be surprised what gets this.
The rocks come back when you reload the room. This is probably the best way to grind for Stardust drops, if you're into that sort of thing.
There are Sharpedo Jet rocks on Route 8, too, but they're just a shortcut of sorts to an "easier" way of getting Wimpod. I don't really think it's that much of an inconvenience to go through the small island with Lapras Paddle, though.
There is one more stop, and that's the Sandy Cave in USUM.
...Oh yeah, we could've got this with just Lapras Paddle. Not super worth it, but it's on the way...
There we are. This is where we can find the freebie Light Clay, an item that causes Reflect and Light Screen to last eight turns instead of five. I've got plenty from Poke Pelago, but if you need some...
Next time: Making an approach to Po Town, and finally finding a use for the Zygarde Cube.
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