Consider this update, for the most part, non-canonical: Both Ray and Ailey got a new Electric type to use as a paralyser, and of course, they're filling out their Pokedexes with some of the new finds, but aside from that, I don't intend to seriously use anything we find in here in a real fight. But there's plenty to find, and we might as well look!
"Return to the Ultra Wormhole" will send us into the Ultra Warp Ride. We'll sit through the tutorial again (although it will always show the Legendary you're using, which might be why), and then we're free to see the full mechanic.
White wormholes are still available in the full mechanic. They're the ones that have new Pokedex entries, so look forward to that.
The four varieties of Ultra Space Wilds- Red wormholes always send you to the cliffs, Yellow ones to the cave, Green ones to the mountains, and Blue ones to the lake. Each world has a pool of five normal Pokemon and a set number of Legendaries, and if we exhaust one world of Legendaries, we will no longer find them there even if we enter the super-glowy wormholes.
The Ultra Space Wilds share a particularly uninviting theme. We're definitely not in Alola anymore.
The normal Pokemon are level 60, and have three perfect IVs. For completeness sake, they are as follows:
In the Red wormholes, we have Swellow, Altaria, Yanmega, Sigilyph, and Swanna.
In the Yellow Wormholes, we have Magcargo, Medicham, Hippowdon, Abomasnow and Crustle.
In the Green wormholes, we have Nuzleaf, Grumpig, Drapion, Audino and Heliolisk.
And in the Blue Wormholes, we have Quagsire, Lombre, Floatzel, Stunfisk and Barbaracle.
Ailey is using Heliolisk as her paralyser.
There are two major notes to make about these Pokemon: 1) They won't call for help, so you can't get Hidden Abilities from them. And 2) They have a weirdly high chance of being Shiny. Unlike most encounters, their Shininess (and Shininess alone) is determined when you enter their wormhole, and the odds of finding a Shiny are 1% (0 rings), 2-10% (1 ring), 3-19% (2 rings) and 16-36% (3 rings).
The odds of finding a Shiny get higher on the scale the further you travel. This increase is linear, and increments every 500 light years after 1000 until it caps out at 5000. Apart from Shininess, there is no advantage to going further into the Wormhole for normal encounters.
Each wild Pokemon has their own drops, the quality of which varies wildly. The drop is fixed to each kind of Pokemon.
The only drop of note is the Wide Lens, which can be found from Swellow and Yanmega. Yanmega is the most reliable way to get one in USUM, since the freebie was cut. Swellow have a chance to drop Charti Berries instead, while Yanmega can also be caught holding a Wide Lens (at 5% odds).
Pretty much everything else is, at best, one of the weakness-reduction Berries, as well as the Grip Claw (Barbaracle), and a few 20% items (almost entirely Soft Sands, with one Poison Barb and Hard Stone).
Raichu (Sun): It unleashes electric shocks that can reach 100,000 volts. When agitated, it can knock out even an Indian elephant.
Marowak (Ultra Sun): It throws bones at Mandibuzz to knock it down. It's thought that Marowak is trying to avenge its parent.
Exeggutor (Ultra Moon): Each of its three heads has its own thoughts. When they want to go in different directions, Exeggutor becomes unable to move.
Ultra Space is actually considered not to be Alola, so attempting to evolve Pikachu, Cubone or Exeggcute while out here will cause them to evolve into their Kantonian forms rather than their Alolan ones. It's a shade too late for any of these forms to have an impact on your teambuilding, and even if it wasn't, these three kinda prefer the options made available to their Alolan forms rather than the originals. After all, regional variants are more of a means of buffing old Pokemon than sidegrading them.
...Weird that Raichu still mentions Indian elephants specifically. SwSh would introduce an elephant Pokemon that Raichu is now mentioned to be able to shock to KO in its Pokedex entries. RBY had a lot of real world references, but they've been working to get rid of those.
At any rate... the Legendaries. We'll be going in debut order, to keep things simpler on ourselves.
Starting with the legendary birds of Kanto. Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres are part-Flying types with an overall generalist build. Their actual legends are the shakiest of the bunch, mostly being known as being particularly powerful representatives of their respective elements, although the second Pokemon movie, Power of One, depicted their capture as unbalancing the weather. You can definitely tell they were the first ones to be designed, and they don't enjoy particularly long legacies. Zapdos will be Ray's paralyser, though.
They didn't even have their own theme for RBY. In USUM, they are unique in using RBY's old theme, which at least stands out. They all appear in Red wormholes.
Next up, the legendary beasts of Johto. A great thunderbolt struck the Brass Tower of Ecruteak City, trapping three Pokemon the raging blaze inside. This fire would be quenched by a sudden downpour, but the Pokemon had perished in the flames- that is, until they were revived by Ho-Oh. These Pokemon became known as Raikou, Entei and Suicune.
In USUM, these first two are version-exclusive- Raikou to Ultra Sun, and Entei to Ultra Moon. Suicune seems to be off being special- figures as much. Their statlines are relatively similar to that of the Birds, but the biases each one possesses feel more concrete- Raikou is fast and has high Sp. Atk, Suicune is bulky, and Entei is trying desperately to pretend like high-Physical-Attack Fire types work.
In this game, they use this theme from ORAS. When they appeared in HGSS, they actually got distinct remixes (Raikou, Entei and Suicune), but they seem to have averaged out to Raikou here. Shame- I liked the Entei version. They appear in Green wormholes.
From the Hoenn region, we have the Legendary Titans, Regirock, Regice and Registeel. Formed by the shaper of continents, Regigigas, they represented the building blocks of our world- ice, magma and stone- and assisted it with its endeavours before being sealed away when the big guy went to slumber. These guys are particularly defensive powerhouses, with Regirock having a titanic 200 Physical Defence, Regice 200 Sp. Def, and Registeel 150 in each. Their mediocre HP, terrible Speed and unimpressive offenses mostly serve to disappoint, although Regirock can pull out the occasional surprise with its 100 Atk.
They have a surprisingly techno theme given their origins, although I think that's a relic of the GBA soundfont and also harkens to their artificial elements. They're not man-made, but they're not far from it. They all appear in Yellow wormholes.
Also from the Hoenn region (this is when the Legendary quantity starts picking up in the series), we have the predecessors to the Dragon/Psychic typing, Latios and Latias. These Pokemon don't have as much in the way of game lore, and I suspect their designs had more to do with the Pokemon Heroes movie on this topic. In-game, they have twin stats, with Latios being the offensive one and Latias the defensive one, a broken item that finally got nerfed (sadly), and are version-exclusive, with Latios being found in Ultra Sun, and Latias in Ultra Moon. The only game they've appeared in where they haven't been version-exclusive is Emerald, which only let you find one- you just got to pick.
Like the Legendary birds, they don't have their own theme, using RSE's wild encounter theme and it's familiar trumpets. Honestly a bit surprised they don't have their own theme, but I guess they wouldn't really have called for one. They are found in Blue wormholes.
From the Sinnoh region, we have the Lake Guardians, Pokemon resting in the centre of Sinnoh's three biggest lakes- Acuity, Verity and Valor- and appear in times of crisis to calm the powerful legendaries of the Sinnoh region. These three are really all part of the same whole- myths claiming they were hatched from the same Egg- and they represent three essential values: Knowledge, Emotion and Willpower. Stat-wise, they are all Psychic types, with Azelf (willpower) being the offensive one, Uxie (knowledge) the defensive one, and Mesprit (emotion) being mixed.
They have a very fey sort of theme, and it kinda surprises me that no attempt was made to fit the Fairy type to one or more of them. Mesprit, especially, was begging for the Fairy type. They are found in Blue wormholes.
Cresselia is a Psychic-type Legendary from Sinnoh, and one that cannot be explained without dipping into Mythical lore. Cresselia is a Pokemon of hope and good dreams, and its wings can dispel the nightmares given by the Mythical Pokemon Darkrai. As such, Cresselia and Darkrai like to share in each other's company- which one is instigating this connection depends on how actively malevolent Darkrai is being written as. In battle, its Levitate Ability and high defensive stats and moves made it a surprisingly potent defensive powerhouse in both the Singles and Doubles metagames.
Because of all the legendaries in DPPt, Cresselia shares the same theme as the next two Legendaries we'll be discussing. A bit of a shame, but they did have to draw the line somewhere. Cresselia is found in Red wormholes.
Found only in Ultra Sun, Heatran is a weird Legendary. It is birthed from the magma underneath the planet's core... and there's nothing further going on with it. Furthermore, while legendaries are near-universally genderless (a small handful have set genders), Heatran is the only one who can appear as both male and female. For that reason, I like to imagine there's a colony of them, forming under every volcano in the world, and they come up so rarely that their power is legendary-like. Heatran's high Sp. Atk and Flash Fire Ability seem to make it a surprisingly potent tank, built on the back of its signature move Magma Storm (100 BP, 75% accuracy Special Fire move that traps opponents and deals 1/16 damage for 2-5 turns) and a surprisingly effective support move portfolio.
Heatran uses Cresselia's theme, and is found in Yellow wormholes.
The Ultra Moon counterpart to Heatran, Regigigas strikes out on its own as not requiring all three of the titans to be acquired. It is said to have moved the continents into place by towing them with rope, but its "monstrous" 160 Atk- admittedly paired with pretty solid defenses and modest Speed- gave it cause to be nerfed by its Slow Start Ability. For the first five turns, its Atk and Spd will be halved, and Regigigas is denied many of the traditional stalling moves to allow it to make its way to enjoying that stat spread. In contrast to its reputation in-universe, Regigigas is considered a gigantic joke, squeezing as much value as it can out of that bulk wherever it could, but often lingering where the weaker Pokemon live.
I'm kinda surprised Regigigas uses the DPPt cover-all legendary theme. You'd think it'd take a loaner of the Titans' theme. It is found in Yellow wormholes.
From the Unova region, we have the Swords of Justice, also known as "what if the Three Musketeers were deer?". Cobalion, Terrakion and Virizion are all Fighting types, and while they share a relative lack of lore aside from mentions of participating in conflicts that threatened Pokemon welfare, they took a more active role in following Rosa to try and join in her in fighting Neo Team Plasma's attempt in destroying the Unova region. I always thought of them as being pretty powerful, but it turns out only Terrakion has an Atk stat above 90.
The Swords of Justice have this pretty cool theme. When you encountered them in BW, there was a sword slashing the screen effect before they appeared, which I mournfully miss. They appear in Green wormholes.
First appearing in BW, and happening to be the subject matter of Professor Burnet's first thesis, we have the Forces of Nature (...no, not those ones). Tornadus and Thundurus are version-exclusive- Tornadus to Sun, Thundurus to Moon- and their lore implies them to have been beings of great conflict, causing calamitous weather whenever allowed too close to one another. They were originally designed to be red and blue onis, only for another Pokemon in BW to have stolen that theming and forced them to change. Tornadus also served an intriguing role as the very first pure-Flying type ever made, and remained that way until Rookidee from SwSh.
Strangely, they share a theme with the Swords of Justice. Guess it was more of a generic BW Legendary theme than it seemed. They appear in Red wormholes.
Now then, people familiar with Pokemon's legendaries have probably noticed a few... absences. That is because all of the Pokemon following this list are what are considered "Special Pokemon"- they won't appear until after you beat Ultra Necrozma, and they are usually the first to be banned from VGC and postgame facilities. While some non-Special Legendaries have challenged that distinction, there's usually a pretty clear power gap.
Starting right off the bat, we have Mewtwo, an artificial clone of Mew. It can more or less be summarised by Dr. Fuji's short description of it when it was introduced to the anime: "We strived to create the strongest of all Pokemon... and we succeeded." 154/130 Special offenses, this thing made Alakazam look like a chump in comparison. It gained Aura Sphere in DPPt, so even Dark types have pause, but this thing isn't quite as good as it used to be. Still, though, it will absolutely tear a hole in your lineup given half a chance, and then probably find itself a place where it won't be bothered so much.
Mewtwo uses a remix of the RBY wild Pokemon battle theme designed specifically for it when it reappeared in XY's postgame. It is definitely an appropriate unique theme for it. Mewtwo can be found in Green wormholes.
The guardians of the twin towers of Ecruteak City, Ho-oh and Lugia form an unlikely duo. Both were originally designed with the anime in mind (Ho-Oh having a cameo appearance in the very first episode, and Lugia being written for Power of One first and then being imported to Silver second), and because their debut games were before the real push for legendaries, they don't really have the stories you'd expect for being the Pokemon on Gold and Silver's boxes. The main thing they get is being principal characters in the legendary beasts' story- Lugia lived in the tower that burned down, and Ho-Oh did the resurrecting. Lugia makes a killer wall in competitive with its HA, though.
Ho-Oh and Lugia did not have unique themes for GSC, but were given unique ones for HGSS they maintained today- Ho-Oh uses the traditional Japanese instruments in a suitably tense arrangement, while Lugia uses a theme more appropriate for its new underwater home. They are version-exclusive, with Ho-Oh appearing in Ultra Sun's Red wormholes, and Lugia in Ultra Moon's Blue.
(Also, weirdly, Ho-Oh has the move Burn Up, which it only gets here. This is the only special move the Wormholes give out.)
Hoenn's "super-ancient" Pokemon, Groudon and Kyogre, were the first Legendaries to become the focal point of the game's story. As a result, they got unique villainous teams who sought to exploit their respective powers to their own ends- Team Magma plotting to use Groudon's powers to drain the oceans and expand the landmass, and Team Aqua plotting to use Kyogre's powers to flood the world. They were the first Pokemon to be able to set the weather just by showing up, but after BW made them redundant for that purpose, ORAS gave them brand new forms that allowed them to set stronger variants of their weathers, and also buffed them to high hell while they were at it. Fortunately, they're not using that against us, but we can use it for ourselves- we just need the Red and Blue Orbs we got from the Hau'oli Department Store.
Groudon and Kyogre use their original theme in this game. They got a remix for ORAS, but presumably they thought that was best kept for when they appeared in Primal form. Groudon appears in Ultra Sun's Yellow Wormholes, and Kyogre in Ultra Moon's Blue.
DPPt's Pokemon of Myth (not to be confused with Mythical Pokemon- a name they originally possessed before they settled on using this term for event-exclusives), Dialga and Palkia were created by Arceus himself to govern time and space respectively. Their power is said to be so great that Cyrus claiming them was supposed to be able to grant him the power to rewrite reality- or at least, it would if the Lake Guardians weren't around to reverse the process. They have some of the meaner statlines one could ask for, and their typings (Steel/Dragon and Water/Dragon, respectively) make for some tricky weaknesses. No tricks here- just pure power.
Sinnoh was famous for its piano, and Dialga and Palkia's theme milks that for all its worth. Dialga appears in Ultra Sun's Green wormholes, and Palkia in Ultra Moon's Yellow.
Given the uncomfortable job of following up Arceus's pet projects, they went with the idea of yin and yang. Reshiram and Zekrom were created when two legendary heroes argued over whether truth or ideals would form the basis for a better world, and split the dragon they fought alongside in twain over it. In the plot of the original BW, N would claim one of them, and challenge you to a battle with you using the other one in order to establish his own cause as either "the truth" or "the ideal" (depending on which version you're in). They have an Atk/Sp. Atk bias between them, and Zekrom kind of relies on its signature moves to be competitive as a result.
Reshiram and Zekrom have the sort of theme that really rallies the blood, befitting their state of conflict. In the original BW, they had slightly different themes- I can't super hear the difference- but following that game, they settled into sharing Zekrom's theme. Reshiram apparently used more of a "flaming" soundfont. Reshiram is exclusive to Ultra Sun and Zekrom to Ultra Moon, with both appearing in Green wormholes.
XY's legendary Pokemon, Xerneas and Yveltal, make use of the power of life and death. Their legends apparently tell that they reincarnate every thousand years, with Xerneas unleashing its life force over its surroundings, and Yveltal leeching the life force over its surroundings. I always remembered Yveltal as being a bit more benevolent, so I'm partial to thinking of Yveltal's role as the Pokemon of death giving him some... natural misgivings, on account of how many legend-writers fear it. It turns out they actually have the exact same statline, which leaves them counting on their typings (Fairy and Dark/Flying) and their signature moves (Geomancy, takes a charge turn, gives +2 Sp. Atk/Sp Def/Spd for Xerneas, Oblivion Wing, 80 BP Special Flying move that heals Yveltal for 75% damage dealt) to distinguish themselves.
They have another pretty cool theme, although one that was probably designed for their appearance in XY's story in particular. Still one of my favourites from XY. Xerneas appears in Ultra Sun's Green wormholes, and Yveltal in Ultra Moon's Red.
If you catch all of the Legendary Pokemon found in Green wormholes (Mewtwo, the Swords of Justice, your legendary Beast, your Tao Dragon, and in Ultra Sun, Dialga and Xerneas), you will receive this message. This basically just means "there's no more Legendaries in here, you can stop looking". You will not receive this message for the other three colours, however- there's more to it.
In order to encounter these last five legendaries, you must trade such that you have both members of a version-exclusive pair. This sounds like an absolutely terrifying ask when playing with friends.
Fortunately, Ray has no compunctions about giving his legendaries over for fodder Ailey found in Poke Pelago. Probably because the way I make trades work causes one file to forget the trade happened.
You will need to trade the Legendary Beast, the super-ancient Pokemon, the Pokemon of Myth, the Tao Dragon, and the Force of Nature.
You'll also need to have both of the legendaries in your party when you're looking. Each Pokemon will also, happily, use the same theme as the Pokemon you need to spawn them.
I was wondering where you got to. Suicune was given special treatment as the box mascot of Pokemon Crystal that was kept for HGSS, (rather than being randomly found as a roaming Pokemon, it travelled to set locations before challenging you as a stationary encounter) Suicune has usually been content to be caught the same way as its brothers thus far when Legendaries reappeared. Not sure what made it so special this time, although its Water typing and bulky statline gave the right to be respected as such. It is found in Blue wormholes.
Rayquaza is the super-ancient Pokemon responsible for controlling the conflict of Groudon and Kyogre, which it can handily do with its Air Lock Ability (which negates all weather effects). This was necessary when Emerald mobilised both Team Magma and Team Aqua at the same time, but when they got buffed for ORAS, Rayquaza inherited a buff of its own- a Mega Evolution upgrading its own "weather" to Strong Winds, negating all weathers- including Groudon and Kyogre's new buffed ones- and also the weaknesses of the Flying type. They, uh, overtuned it. It is found in Red wormholes.
Giratina is the Pokemon of Myth that represents antimatter- in a manner of speaking, most myths prefer to omit it. Since it appeared in the same generation as Arceus and has such a malignant reputation, many like to call it Pokemon's Satan, although the role it plays in Platinum implies it has just as much an interest in the stability of our world than any other Pokemon that lives in it. This Pokemon is a defensive powerhouse in the Ghost/Dragon type, although it can reclass to an offensive Pokemon if it's holding a Griseous Orb. It is found in Yellow wormholes.
Giratina got its own unique for Platinum, fitting its state as being out of this world, and one that did get to follow it this time. Another one of my favourites- the Legendaries wind up being my favourite themes surprisingly often given the context I usually hear them.
Although that silhouette weirds me out...
Landorus is a Force of Nature, but rather than storms, it represents fertility, hanging around farming land. Even in its original BW, it required both Tornadus and Thundurus to spawn, and the only time it didn't was B2W2, where playing Pokemon Dream Radar gave you all three Forces of Nature as freebies. Landorus's role in Tornadus and Thundurus's story is being so powerful that he can stop their conflict cold- and cause them to give each other a wide berth so he doesn't have to do it again. It turns out he does something pretty similar in battle, too- competitive has learned to hate this thing. It is found in Red wormholes.
The remains of the dragon left over from Reshiram and Zekrom's conflict, Kyurem is a Dragon/Ice type that is less than the sum of its parts. It lies in wait at the bottom of Giant Chasm, and Ghetsis awakens it to try and seize the power of N's Tao dragon and reawaken some of its original power. This was the first instance of Pokemon fusion in the series, and it worked largely the same way Necrozma's does now- except the fact that Kyurem's missing parts are Reshiram and Zekrom, something that Necrozma cannot claim of Solgaleo and Lunala, causes the morality of Kyurem's plight to have an extra layer of depth. For reasons relating to the availability of Special moves matching its type compared to Physical, Kyurem has seen the most luck in competitive when fused with Reshiram, rather than fighting alone or with Zekrom. It is found in Blue wormholes.
You only get the messages that you've cleared out the wormholes of Legendaries if you've also snagged these five. While technically true, it is slightly irritating when you enter a glowing wormhole in one of these three colours and don't sense an extraordinary presence without warning.
Now then, before we start going through the White wormholes, a quick pause in Aether Foundation to resupply.
We'll want a few more than three Beast Balls. Not too many- Beast Balls are actually pretty effective- but there are more than three Beasts to find, and bit of a safety net could always come in handy.
I dunno, SM Lusamine seemed to manage fine on her own. Anyway...
Welcome back to SM's version of Ultra Space! Ultra Deep Sea does, in fact, have the same disquieting theme, although it no longer has the courtesy of shutting Rotom up.
You can find Ultra Deep Sea at a 60-6% chance in 0 ring White wormholes, and a flat 2% chance in 1 ring wormholes. You'll probably get it if you go for the first White wormhole you find, but it does kinda make it one of the rarer Ultra Spaces, even if I can't in good conscience call it the rarest.
Shoutouts to getting this 18% spawn. I imagine it was an accident, but that's still on the higher end of Ultra Warp Ride distances I get.
You can see Nihilego drifting around in the background, although they won't take much interest in you.
Until you take a seat on Lusamine's stump.
Part of me wonders if you could actually click on this seat in SM if you were allowed anywhere near it before the event sequence kicked you out.
As you sit, a Nihilego slowly drifts down to try and clamp itself on your head. Not, like, super slowly, but you can tell it's trying to do a stealth.
Ailey catches on in time, though.
Nihilego is not impressed.
The White wormholes allow Ailey to encounter, battle, and catch Ultra Beasts. Each would make their own legitimate choices on my team (although the whole "don't use a bunch of legendaries" thing does get a bit in the way). I ultimately decided against it, on principle and also to help keep this separate from SM's story, but I did consider one of them for Ray's legendary slot.
All Ultra Beasts use this theme. I believe we heard it when fighting UB-01 Symbiont back in Aether Paradise, but it's got a longer life now.
All Ultra Beasts get a free Aura that gives them +2 in whatever stat Beast Boost would raise. For most of them, that's usually set no matter their stat spread- although I imagine a Rash one might get a Sp. Atk Beast Boost.
Full disclosure, Nihilego wasn't the first UB that Ailey caught (that was UB03), but it turns out the screenshot doesn't change that much. Against UBs, all Poke Balls- except possibly the Master Ball- have a catch rate modifier of 410/4096x- or roughly 0.1x. Beast Balls, however, are in the reverse situation- they have this modifier on normal Pokemon, and a x5 catch rate on UBs. Nihilego has a 45 catch rate, otherwise pretty terrible and reserved for things like late bloomers and starters, but a Beast Ball has a 54% chance of catching one with just paralysis. The odds increase to 100% at a mere 36% HP.
Ultra Beasts may not be Pokemon, but Beast Balls figure out how to get them in line with the rules.
Upon catching an Ultra Beast, you will learn its name and have it added to your Pokedex. It is in the Alola section, down at the bottom of the listing.
If you somehow register Nihilego as caught in a file that has not yet visited Aether Paradise 1, the Nihilego that attacks you there will have its name shown. This effect is tied to your Pokedex log, rather than story sequence. Ultimately, fair play, you have to go out of your way to get this to happen.
Nihilego (Sun): One of several mysterious Ultra Beasts. People on the street report observing those infested by it suddenly becoming violent.
Nihilego is a Rock/Poison type with highest Sp. Def, followed by Sp. Atk and not having half-bad HP and Spd. Its Def is made of glass, though, and having a x4 weakness to Ground does not exactly help its prospects. Fortunately, setting its Nature to Modest will get its Sp. Atk boosted by Beast Boost, but Nihilego is a Pokemon built like a tank that actually kinda wishes it could be a sweeper instead.
Some cool bits of UB lore that we'll see more of as we go through the bunch and start getting more examples:
- UBs start their design process based on something invasive. Yes, jellyfish are super problematic in a lot of ecosystems, they kinda overgraze on the things other fish want to eat.
- All UBs statlines have prime numbers- Nihilego doesn't have a statline of 110/55/50/125/130/105, it has one of 109/53/47/127/131/103.
- UBs learn all their moves at prime numbered levels- sadly, this one got forgotten in newer generations, but the prime number thing helped set them apart from most Legendaries and their neatly selected multiples of 5 for stats.
One UB per visit- you can catch infinites of all UBs you find here, but you do have to tread slightly carefully.
Next up, Ultra Desert. This is an Ultra Moon exclusive area, and probably the real most common slot. it can be found 35-80% of the time in 0-ring wormholes, 54-6% of the time in 1-ring wormholes, and 2% of the time in 2-ring wormholes.
This is actually my first time seeing the Ultra Moon exclusive UB areas, and this... this one's surprising, especially considering the UB it houses.
It's also the first Ultra Space Wild area to have a loading zone. There was good reason for it, admittedly.
Ultra Desert is the only Ultra Space Wilds to call on Poke Rides (...which, now that I think of it, it's surprising Poke Ride works outside Alola). There's some rough terrain for Mudsdale to cross, and a Strength puzzle for Machamp to solve. The sole purpose of the loading zone is to allow the player to reset the Strength puzzle in case of failure.
Can't push this rock, though.
This area looks like there'd be a litter item, right? No litter items at all in the Ultra Space Wilds.
Ah, that would be the problem.
You push this rock all the way east, and then this one south.
This rock is the one that goes in this hole.
I was a bit worried about pushing this one up being the wrong answer.
No, turns out I was right.
Also, it turns out Machamp can totally push this giant rock. You go, champ!
Pushing it into its chasm allows us a good shot of UB02 Beauty.
...And she's caught us, too.
They even give her a panning shot, like she was Lusamine or something.
Fortunately, she's content not to attack us until we click on her. I think this actually makes her relatively unique amongst UBs- most attack as soon as they become active.
..."Pheroche" is similar to UB02 Beauty's Japanese name. I wonder if that was a translation thing.
UB02 Beauty (Moon): One of the Ultra Beasts. It refuses to touch anything, perhaps because it senses some uncleanness in this world.
UB02 Beauty is a Bug/Fighting type based on cockroaches, particularly the white colouration following their moulting, and combining it with the traits we don't usually assign to such specimens. It goes all-in on Speed, with stellar attacking stats in both offenses following shortly behind, but has terrible bulk. 71 HP and 37 Defences, this thing is even more physically frail than Nihilego! Its movepool is a little shallow, but it can actually pull off both offensive sets relatively decently. Does wish better Special Fighting existed, though...
Speed aura. With its base, I wouldn't count on an outspeed.
It was mostly using Bug moves on me, though. It should know Triple Kick, but it should be easy enough to handle, especially with UB's high catch rates.
Or that. Imagine using Haze to make catching something easier.
UB02 Beauty's name is Pheromosa, and that name has been immortalised- Pheromosa is one of the fifteen Pokemon in the series to have a real-life creature named after them. In her case, it is because this particular species of cockroach happens to have the long feelers, hooded wings and slender legs that were added to the design to more closely resemble the supermodel. Sometimes reality really is stranger than fiction.
We do have to Mudsdale our way out of here, though.
Instead of the Ultra Desert, Ultra Sun players can find Ultra Jungle at the same odds. This entire location is set going from treetop to treetop designed after flexing muscles.
Combined with the music, this is certainly... one of the Ultra Space Wilds. Ultra Moon is not to be outdone, but that comes with UB04.
I love that one in the background we're not going over.
Ray will be showing off some UBs, too. He'll need to share them with Ailey for the Dex entries.
It's... a bit of a hike to the top tree, but the cutscene starts just a bit before it.
There's an ominous rumbling underfoot, before...
A giant mosquito flexes on us.
UB02 Absorption (Sun): This Ultra Beast appeared from another world. It shows off its body, but whether that display is a boast or a threat remains unclear.
UB02 Absorption is a Bug/Fighting type, same as Beauty, but has specialised much differently. Despite being themed around a mosquito, to the point that its UB nickname is based on its sucking proboscis, Absorption is actually the Pokemon of flexing, and flexes it muscles whenever it is compelled to animate. Strangely, its Atk and Def stats are tied, with a solid HP stat to back up a traditional high high HP/Atk Fighting build, complete with the only-decent Speed and weakness in Special Defence. Absorption is much more fond of its moveset options, though- you've got choices in all sorts of types here.
I imagine the Def aura on spawn is set, but the Beast Boost could really go either way at the whims of the IV spread.
UB02 is named Buzzwole. I am almost 100% certain that name started life as a joke.
Now... the long walk down.
This was the Wormhole that I entered first- Ultra Plant, as seen in both games. The odds of finding it are 2-11% in 0 ring wormholes, 39-71% in 1 ring wormholes, and 54-6% in 2-ring wormholes. UB02 might be the most common, but if you fail to find one of the rarer ones, this is probably your failure state.
This place probably wouldn't be too weird as a normal power plant designed by someone slightly creative, especially with that music. Yeah, the giant cable ties and building into mountaintops is a little weird, but who isn't?
Honestly, I went into this one by accident. Not sure when I was planning on hunting UBs, though.
Down below, you can see UB03s running around gaily- there is no other word for it- on the cords wrapping around the sides of the mountain.
Lightning may never strike twice, but I swear these mountains and cables got zapped like ten times walking up to UB03.
Well then, that's 1.21 gigawatts of power coming directly our way.
UB03 Lighting (Ultra Moon): They've been dubbed Ultra Beasts. Some of them stand unmoving, like trees, with their arms and legs stuck into the ground.
UB03 Lighting (I thought it was Lightning too- it looks like it is in JP?) is a pure Electric type Ultra Beast that has gone all in on cannon. 173 Sp. Atk, with its Atk next-highest at 89. Lighting asks the question "does Speed really matter if I just hit them really hard?" Fortunately, it has just enough coverage that this is actually a question, although 83 Spd is really pushing its luck on its capacity to stick around and get up to mayhem. By Move Reminder, it gets a move that gives +3 Sp. Atk, which kinda makes it overkill by that point.
And here I am with a slightly dented Heliolisk and oh yeah I can't paralyse this one can I?
Even with False Swipe and the Beast Balls, you can't get 100% odds without a status condition on UBs. But you can get close enough to it, and I've got Sleep on some of the Pokemon on this team.
UB03 Lighting's name is Xurkitree, and it reminds us all that electrical cabling is just as invasive as animals can be. Although these ones seem to be trying to fill in as trees.
Catching the UB does not stop the lightning.
Didn't get a good shot with this one, but if there are any skipping Xurkitrees on screen when you click on the wormhole to leave, they stop moving. They pick back up again if you decide to stay, which is just a hilarious implication.
In Ultra Moon, UB04 is found in Ultra Crater. The odds of finding this place are 2% in a 0 ring wormhole, 4-20% in a 1 ring wormhole, 39-71% in a 2 ring wormhole, and 40-10% in a 3 ring wormhole.
I honestly don't think this place is super weird, especially considering the origins of the UB, but the music is certainly trying to win the award for out-weirding Ultra Jungle.
If you don't know what UB04 is based off, the fact that there's a cutscene of one blasting off into outer space like a rocket is certainly awarding it weirdness points.
You cross this weird little extrusion in the middle of the crater.
And... remember there's no litter items here in Ultra Space, right.
Our destination is this glowing... well, it looks like UB04.
It blasts itself out of the crater it's nesting inside.
And has one weird challenge cry.
UB04 Blaster (Moon): One kind of Ultra Beast. Witnesses have seen it burn down a forest by expelling gas from its two arms.
UB-04 Blaster is based on bamboo- specifically, a Japanese folklore tale called The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, which tells of a bamboo cutter who discovers a baby in a bamboo stalk, revealing said baby hails from the Moon. The combination of bamboo and space shuttle fits in quite naturally, and if you're familiar with the legend from Okami, you can actually kinda see the same aesthetic style of depicting the character Kaguya in the "head" of Celesteela.
As a Pokemon, Celesteela is Steel/Flying type, and has a very close race in its base stats- apart from Speed, which is down at 61, all of its stats are between 97 (HP) and 107 (Sp. Atk). This pairs well with its surprisingly solid set of support moves (did you know Leech Seed is in here?) to produce an annoying tank that does well to challenge Skarmory's dominance at the title of "Steel/Flying".
Got an aura of Defence. Probably the most natural expectation, and does make me wonder if the aura is determined by what the Pokemon gets from Beast Boosting.
UB04's real name is Celesteela. Its JP name is テッカグヤ Tekkaguya, really hammering home the Princess Kaguya connection (and its anime appearance actually references the myth more directly), although the translators have decided to not force the players to be familiar with the reference when the story hasn't jumped the language barrier. Fair enough.
Although Celesteela has left something glowing at the bottom of that bamboo stalk.
UB04's home in Ultra Sun is Ultra Forest, which has decided to cut the subtlety and just be as traditionally Japanese as possible.
Complete with some old men in straw hats to complete the aesthetic.
...Wait, Ultra Forest is inhabited?
These folk, who I am not entirely certain are human (that skin tone looks like an artificial one), are "Kartenvoys"- named for the Pokemon they stand with, Kartana. UB04 Blade is the only SM UB to have its name revealed ahead of time.
These two are actually Trainers! They don't have any unique music pieces, and they only fight you the one time.
They also speak exclusively in Japanese. I am told that the Kartenvoys are drawing particularly from the art of kendo swordplay, although trying to cross-reference the things they exclaim proves to be on the trickier side. "Batto", apparently, is a name given to the art of drawing your sword, which is both appropriate and hilariously out of place.
The Kartenvoys use level 48 Kartana. They have 15 flat IVs, no other investment, and no Aura. Nor are they sent from Poke Balls.
Fortunately, I had a Volcarona to make short work of it. Its high evolutionary level made it excellent to bring along.
These are the four parts of the body where Kendo practicioners strike- in order, the head, the wrists, the body, and the throat.
x48 payout, if I remembered my Amulet Coin. Not bad for something that I'm surprised even has compatible currency.
Ippon is, apparently, the term for "win".
"Tachi-ai" appears to more accurately reflect the term called at the opening at a match of kendo. It's also used in sumo!
Second verse, same as the first.
I think this is a term for a close match? Even if that was close, I think that describes a specific position during the match when people are physically close- it has a lot more to do with where your hands and swords are than it does the match's momentum.
I couldn't find anything for Maitta as a kendo word, but in judo and in what is possibly general use, this is an expression of surrender. I would not be surprised to learn that the word would be used in kendo, and if not, I would not be surprised if kendo practitioners recognised and respected it. Even if the hand gesture you use to express it in judo would be weird to do in kendo.
That would be Kartana, in its actual size. 30 cm long, and weighs 100 grams.
And very sharp.
I love the ready pose Ray pulls, even if it's that small.
UB04 Blade (Moon): One of the Ultra Beast life-forms, it was observed cutting down a gigantic steel tower with one stroke of its blade.
Being registered as Seen in the Pokedex gives us its name already, then. Kartana is a Grass/Steel type based on... origami samurai? I think the invasive species theming started to get away from them a bit here. Kartana's Physical Attack stat is through the roof, up at 181 (surprisingly not the highest in the game, but third highest, and the highest in an out-of-battle form), it accompanies that power with 109 Speed and, weirdly, 131 Defence. Not sure where that's coming from, but with 59/31 Special bulk, it's not exactly going to be using it. Kartana has some absolutely amazing moves, but strangely, got stuck with Smart Strike for Steel STAB. Oh well, you've still got plenty else to work with.
You'll probably be able to resist the Grass and Bug moves it has at this level. But that will sting.
Good to have.
Huh, he does acknowledge it. Weirdly, he repeats this even if you return here, and have a new one to fight.
Ugh. This place took ages to track down. The home of UB05, which they don't name for a bit, is found at 1% odds in the 0 and 1 ring wormholes, 5-12% odds in the 2-ring wormholes, and 60-90% odds in the 3-ring wormholes. I only found one 3-ring wormhole, with Ray, and got Ultra Forest instead. I'm so happy I at least found one here (15% odds at that distance, it looks), and will be trading this UB05 with Ailey for the Dex entry so I don't have to deal with it twice.
Like the Ultra Forest, this place is inhabited. Unlike the Ultra Forest, I suspect this man is sapient.
...I have all of the questions nonetheless.
Well, he took that one real easy. Wonder if he can see the wormhole right next to him.
Slash whether he can use that to come into Alola.
...From the sounds of it, I shouldn't be staying long.
Out into the main area... although what it is out there, that's... its own question.
Well then. You certainly are a character.
I'm sure he'll have more to say once I've poked around outside a bit, got my bearings.
What happened here?
There's a lot to explore and click on around here, and I missed a lot of it on my first sweep. I'm almost slightly worried I missed some of it on a more thorough sweep- I couldn't find a script indicating what there was to find.
One thing you can find is this somewhat familiar wall, which is the only thing that Rotom will comment on when you click on it. I was surprised to see him.
In order to get past that low wall in the middle of the place, you'll need to climb up these stairs. That rubble at the bottom looks like it can't be climbed, but it can.
This bridge, meanwhile, just looks non-traversible for more standard reasons. Seriously, how is Ray not shoving his legs through those holes?
Little passage through the side here, with a cupboard to walk over.
Huh. That's weird. I kinda recognise that screen. Looks right out of the tourist bureau. The music also... kinda sounds familiar too...
The next bit is walking through a tunnel on the east side.
Well, someone's gone and done a goof. Although I'm sure those clothes are long gone.
As are those power cables.
In the back, we can see our UB digging into... something back here.
Get close, and you challenge it to a battle.
UB05 Glutton- all mouth.
UB05 Glutton (Moon): A dangerous Ultra Beast, it appears to be eating constantly, but for some reason its droppings have never been found.
UB05-Glutton is a bit of a weird one on the invasive species theming- it's not really an invader. Rather, it seems to be a cross between a Lovecraft monster and a black hole, all-consuming, unstoppable, and never satisfied. Dark/Dragon type, the absolute monstrosity... is absolutely terrible. It has chosen to invest its stats in 223 HP, leaving the only stats it has above 100 being its 101 Atk. With Defences at 53, Speed at 43 and a double-weakness on the table, UB-05 has been compared, occasionally unfavourably, to Wailord.
Yes, this was the Pokemon I was considering for Ray's team as his Legendary, entirely to see if I could get it to work in the main story, at least. Ultimately, I decided against it, but if it was a UB, it would be it or Nihilego, and Nihilego has some issues with the matter of taste. Pun very much intended.
High HP, meh defences, and token attack is very much in line with a
traditional JRPG boss, though. Perhaps if this thing was allowed to be a battle of endurance.
UB-05 Glutton's real name is Guzzlord. Its JP name doesn't really seem to have a gluttony pun, making its use of the word "king" sound even more pretentious for how terrible it is in battle.
...You do know I'm not putting this in the fridge, right, Mr. Glutton?
There's a small pipe you can crawl through just outside where you find Mr. Glutton.
It's a shortcut back.
Our friend here will be happy to stick around and have a chinwag with us about Mr. Glutton the Guzzlord. He has several topics of conversation, many of which require us to have clicked on a certain object in the Ultra Ruins to view. A few of those things, I missed.
I'll save all of them specifically for the conversation, but I also found this to click on, which does not seem to have a corresponding subject of conversation.
Guzzlord...? Oh, you mean Mr. Glutton? His kind have lived on this planet since long before I was even born. They eat anything, and I mean literally anything. Trash, toxic waste, you name it. But their numbers seem to be decreasing these days.
Despite his earlier claim, it seems there's been a community on this planet for some time. Perhaps those last few holdouts have finally left, leaving him alone. Depends on how easy it is to build rockets with Guzzlords stealing all the materials.
Oh, that's a filtering machine to make the dirty water here clean. But one of the pipes broke, so there's a bit of a leak. The water-purity level is still pretty high, so it should be safe to drink for now.
...Poor guy. You sure you don't want a ride to Alola? Your days sound pretty numbered here.
It starts playing videos and music and such if you put it in a bright spot. I've never seen it aside from on the monitor, but I guess that's the colour folks used to call "blue".
Hm, solar-powered. Wonder what destroyed all the blue in the sky, though. Not a problem I'd expect to happen when visited by Mr. Eats-everything.
I heard that back in the day, people would spend a lot of time every day worrying about what to wear. Things are much less complicated now, since the only choice is this suit. Breathe too much of the air around here without the suit, and it can be very dangerous. Uh, actually, you may want to keep breathing to a minimum if you're going outside.
You just now think to mention it? And you, Ray, aren't you wearing an Ultra Recon suit during Ultra Warp Ride? Why do you take it off once you get into Ultra Space Wilds, you dunce?
Oh, those? Each little card is a storage device- they can hold a huge amount of information. All the data in the world could fit on one bookshelf! But the machine used to read them is broken, so they're not much use now.
Oh, I can see a lot of fun to be had with planned obsolecence and the plights of digitising the world in that one. I'm curious what the relocation was going to be, though. If these packs are so efficient, why so many?
You noticed that poster, did you? I found it buried in the rubble and decided to put it up. The people from my grandparents' generation burned most of them, so they're hard to find! Whenever I brought up the power plant, it seemed like the adults didn't want to hear about it, but I like that poster. It's cheerful.
Must've been a nuclear power poster. All of a sudden a lot more of this place makes a lot more sense. All the same, the problem seemed to be less nuclear power and more "Guzzlord ate the safety measures".
In looking up references for this man's dialogue, I found the suggestion that the grandparents burned these posters because they needed fire. I dunno, I'm reading that line and seeing the burnings being more "book-burning" than "no-use-kindling".
They'll eat anything they find, like rubble, waste, whatever. They have a huge appetite, so we couldn't take them to the other planets... Oh! Please, don't mess too much with Mr. Glutton's food out back.
Sounds to me more like your grandparents were trying to keep the Guzzlords here. Wonder if that "food" is bait to lure them away.
Apparently, that sign is from an older era than the rest of the rubble around here. It's a bit sad I can't read all of it, but it's just so rusted... It must have been placed in an area that was rough on metal or something.
...Mate...
This is Alola, isn't it?
Ultra Ruin is, in fact, an alternate version of Hau'oli City, ravaged by the attack of Guzzlord and stripped of all but the barest of essentials- and even that seems more a matter of time. This ties in to a bit in SM about inter-dimensional activity and the plights of what happened when UBs enter worlds that aren't expecting them, but that's in the postgame stretch. Ultra Ruin is a bit of a showcase for what they meant, although to what extent it supports the SM dialogue is up for debate.
(Pikachu, Exeggcute and Cubone will still evolve into their Kantonian forms if their evolutionary requirements are met in Ultra Ruin. Didn't think of everything, clearly...)
Let's take our minds off our own world ravaged by Mr. Glutton and look at someone else's world ravaged by Necrozma!
...Dulse is still repeating the lines he gave before we left.
To leave Ultra Megalopolis, we must talk to Zossie. She will also allow/force us to choose which Beast we want to ride on the way out- more or less the only point to coming back here.
Also this line of text. No, we can never go inside that building, nor do they clear out the caltrops. Frankly, I'm impressed they bothered to let us come back.
There's nothing on Megalo Tower but a long walk back down.
If you did not claim Poipole before leaving, the Ultra Recons are in the lighter part of the area, and will give you the chance to claim it. This is good if you want to use Synchronise to guarantee its Nature or easier savescums for good stats.
Ray'll need this eventually, it's for the Pokedex...
And, last of all, a few of the high scores I got while doing the Ultra Warp Ride. Some of them were legendaries, but a lot of them were just an immediate turn back around.
This one is my highest score. It's not the highest score- but the Tweet claiming someone got past 7000 light years is one of the ones that didn't survive the transition to X and beyond, and I couldn't find anyone taking any more careful track of a higher score with the screenshot to show for it. Still, getting up to 6K was one hell of a surprise, especially considering I'd only really tickled the lower end of 5K before this one, so I caught the Pokemon that was up here in celebration- it was a Shiny Swellow. If anything I caught other than Heliolisk and Zapdos shows up outside this update, it'll be me using it in postgame or something for bragging rights.
The Ultra Space Wilds are surprisingly fun, at least in isolation, but drudging up the one Pokemon you specifically need- especially if it's for a challenge run, like the Articuno I needed for that Ice monotype or a Xerneas in a Fairy-mono- can get very dull very fast. You're reliant on luck to even get the wormhole colour you need to spawn, and the further you go, the less room you have to be choosy about colour or wormhole rarity. Perhaps it was designed as a balancing act, but when you can't even see what your current light year distance is, and the chances of you getting what you need are based on your distance, it really is better just to go further and bite the bullet if you can't find the wormhole colour you need. It sucks, but as esoteric mechanics for rare Pokemon go, it's in the upper-middle class. Oh, the Pokewalker and the Friend Safari show you, it can get much worse.
Next time: Remember how I said Ailey wasn't underlevelled? Yeah, uh, I was wrong.
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