The one Trial Guide in SM was replaced by two Ace Trainers in USUM. They haven't changed their dialogue, this mostly just makes Victory Road look closer to other games'- where Ace Trainers typically stood in front of Victory Road and/or the League itself.
Gladion's still waiting for us here, so we still need to consider our team.
Sue will be taking point in dealing with Crobat. Just as long as you've got a Rock type, you're good- Sue's decent Defence is a bonus.
Robin can contribute in a few ways, and with the right setup, might even get to play with Moxie, too. Always nice to have an option like that.
Genevieve will slow things down, and will also be nice for Silvally's Water Memory.
Justy is actually incredibly good at dealing with Lucario. Ghost and Ground? What options does Lucario have to handle that?
Zossie still needs some EXP, but her time will come. Her time will come.
Chip drew the "finish whatever job needs to be finished" card. Priority is so amazing.
Gladion's still pulling this overdramatic trick.
Opening dialogue is the same the whole way through, aside from the obligatory "Z-Rings are now Z-Power Rings".
Gladion's improved significantly from his SM self. His IVs have been adjusted to flat 30s across the board, and he actually has dual-EVed Pokemon this time (in true Gladion fashion, all of them are invested in Spd and whatever their Attacking stat is). Still Serious Natures, though, and his biggest flaw has not been fixed.
Crobat is still running Cross Poison and Acrobatics, with no improvements. Still walled by anything that resists both Poison and Flying.
Also, because it's hailing on Mount Lanakila during the 6-12 PM period of the day, Noah and Ailey will be fighting Gladion in permahail. You can avoid this by playing at some other time of day, but why not?
27 damage. So much for your newfound Atk investment.
Unfortunate. Oh well, it's not like I don't have time for this.
Well, OK, this is happening, but still.
Another reason for having Sue deal with Crobat was to force Lucario out next. Lucario has the same kit as he did in SM- Aura Sphere, Metal Claw, and Quick Attack- but has decided to invest in its Physical Attack. He also doesn't even have the Z-Crystal anymore. I didn't think Gladion's Lucario could get any worse... almost makes me want to fit a Lucario on one of the rotations for postgame just to show you what a good one can do.
Oh, and yes, he does have his Zoroark. Since there are two Pokemon it could potentially be, it's worth checking. The level is always a clue- level 55 for the things that aren't Zoroark.
Metal Claw is Lucario's only option, and that tells us a lot about how well that would've worked.
Yeah, tell me how well that works out for you.
No Guard Dynamic Punch is fun.
Now then... we get to my main error in this fight. I expected Silvally to come out in response to Justy, as a Water type.
Yeah, nah, Gladion thought Zoroark would counter a Ghost type just as well. Night Daze, Hyper Voice and Grass Knot for the moves, this is the only Special Attacker Gladion has. And hey, hold on, Genevieve hasn't attacked yet, why is the Illusion already broken...?
Oh.
...Why is it always Black Hole Eclipse?
That will be problematic for Silvally proper...
(Also, wow, that's a shot of a falling hailstone right in front of the camera there.)
Robin, this is your job now. Let's home this works out well...
Yep, it did. Normal coverage not working out so great for Zoroark there, is it?
Right, Robin, can you carry that Atk buff to victory?
The real Silvally is still carrying the same kit: Multi-Attack, Crush Claw, Crunch and X-Scissor. The new Water Memory makes that Multi-Attack a Water move now- offensively, Fire Silvally has the better spread, but Water's not far behind. The main hiccup to Bug/Dark coverage is Steel, which both Fire and Water hit. The Grass Silvally is the one that's going to have real problems.
Robin's actually really carrying. Look at how much HP it has after the Hyper Voice.
Plenty of HP left for the Multi-Attack. Sadly, the Atk buff was not enough to make up for the lack of SE. Clearly all that bulk is still good for something.
Zossie, take some EXP.
Perfect. Eviolite is awesome, no notes.
The main reason for the visit to Zossie is for some extra chip thanks to Hail.
Aqua Jet is NVE and Silvally has some bulk, so I was worried about not finishing the job with Aqua Jet. The extra EXP on Zossie is just a bonus.
You've certainly got a lot better since SM. Still need to fix your kits, though.
Gladion still praises our Pokemon and our journey, but he will change up his dialogue
Rather than talking about how Lillie's going to look after Lusamine, Gladion instead tells us that Lillie has gone to Mahalo Trail. You really would think that seeing Gladion tell us this would be a prerequisite to seeing Lillie, or even finding Necrozma, but I guess not. After Ilima was a weird trigger, though.
This is a change from Gladion telling us about Lillie gushing over us- now Gladion's the one praising Lillie (if in a bit of a backhanded way). It's not even like Lillie is contemplating the injury Nebby took. Well, OK, she's thinking about Necrozma's pain, but she's still making a valiant assumption that we're going to track down Necrozma in the first place.
Or even that Necrozma ran away to our dimension. It had its choice of Ultra Space Wilds to hide in.
Ooh, nice. PP Max is definitely appreciated over the Max Elixir. PP Max is more likely to matter.
The way you say that with that smile, you're not exactly discouraging the idea you genuinely like that kid.
This ending bit is still the same. Are you sure we're not friends?
Now, see, this is a more accurate level of hype for the Pokemon League. This is just an Alolan regional, not a position on an international scale.
USUM's entrance to its cave is right in front of the elevator, and the camera angle has changed. A neat detail I discovered by playing SM and USUM one after another- this is genuinely the same cliffside between games, USUM has just carved a new hole in the wall.
Glalie (Ultra Sun): It freezes its prey and chews them whole. However, it prefers to eat Pokémon like Vanillite that are already frozen.
Snorunt has been replaced by Glalie, and the levels have been increased to 47-50 (48-51 in the back half), but the tables are otherwise identical. They're also identical between Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon (outside the Sandshrew/Vulpix and Drampa exclusivity), with no weird level adjustments in there.
This still means Ray and Ailey aren't going to benefit much from Repels.
The Escape Rope is still here, but we can see that skipping right to the Ice Stone is blocked by some rocks. This gives me the same sort of vibes to seeing the caved-in BW Victory Road in B2W2, except while B2W2 was mostly an original Victory Road that only saw BW's at the very end, this one is built on top of SM's.
The first cave here is nice and chilly, and has four Trainers total- two Aces, a Veteran, and a Worker.
The combination of their high level, high payouts, and relative ease to hit all four in one go is a perfect opportunity to pop a Rotom Prize Money for ourselves. With this, even the Worker is giving 12k for victory- the Aces are up to around ~27K!
The experts here in Victory Road, you'd expect to have some real training. They do have a bit of a restraint around here, though- Seth's two Pokemon are both Physical attackers, and the only investment they have is a 30 IV in Atk.
Scyther (Ultra Sun): Its two sharp scythes are more than just weapons. It uses them with dexterity to dress its prey before eating.
There's a few new Pokemon we can see around here, many of them in the postgame and others being evolutions of Pokemon I'm not using. First on the list is Scyther, the Bug/Flying pre-evolution of Scizor. I say pre-evolution, but Scyther/Scizor is a sidegrade- they have the same BST, Scyther has just moved some of its Speed into Atk/Def for Scizor. It says a lot about the excellence of Bug/Steel, and the weakness of Bug/Flying, that this is results in a net improvement.
Nemo is loving this matchup. I am amused by getting hit by high-crit moves with Nemo.
The other Pokemon Seth uses is Malamar, a Pokemon quad-weak to Bug that carries high-crit moves.
This fight was designed to be swept with Nemo.
The dissonance between the opening line and the ending verbosity. Although hanging out with your now-fainted Pokemon sounds like an idea.
Keep at it. I'd also say try not to lean into the Night Slash spamming? Your type diversity only gets you so far here.
Not that Bug/Flying/Dark/Psychic is an award-winning palette.
Kailee here has two somewhat bulky Pokemon with some slightly unfortunate typings for me. I'm going to make my job easier and save her for last- I'd like the EXP from the other Trainers first.
There's a bit you can slip in between here- doesn't really look like it, but there is.
Alonsa's the one who brought kits- EVs, Natures, and moves.
Lickitung (Ultra Moon): It licks filth clean with its tongue. Whatever it licks always stinks afterward, so whether it's really clean is... questionable.
Pity that's a Lickitung she's putting that effort into. Lickitung is a pure Normal type with a BST of 385 and no stat higher than 90- it's an RBY mon that didn't get an evolution until DPPt. 30/15/30/15/15/15 IVs, 252 EVs in HP/Def, a Timid Nature (+Spd/-Atk), and the moves Power Whip, Rollout and Chip Away.
In hindsight, I have no idea what I was doing calling its investments a sign of good quality.
...OK, I know Usagi doesn't have STAB on Jump Kick. I now know I'm Jump Kicking into a fully EVed bulk. But Usagi, it's a Lickitung.
Her failure to two-shot gives strong consideration to benching. The only reason I'm not is because Usagi has upward potential postgame.
Returning, before I knock myself out with a missed Jump Kick.
Goodra (Ultra Sun): It's very friendly toward people. If you grow close to it, Goodra will hug you with its sticky, slime-covered body. Don't get mad.
Here's the cuddle dragon to make everything better! Goodra is the final stage evolution of Goomy and Kalos's member of the 600 club, and it specialises in bulk- particularly, Special bulk, although its Physical bulk is decent. Although Goodra's nominally a Special Attacker, Alonsa has invested Physically, with 30/30/15/15/15/15 IVs, 252 EVs in HP/Atk, an Adamant Nature, and the moves Aqua Tail, Power Whip and Outrage. Goodra has 100 Atk, this isn't a horrible decision. I'm judging her more for doubling up on, of all moves, Power Whip. 120 BP, 85% accurate Physical Grass, could you ask for a less useful coverage move?
Shade also missed her oneshot, but since she doesn't have to worry about Def EVs, it wasn't as embarrassing a miss. Despite her STAB.
Plus I also got a second Atk drop. Helps even more because this is a Physical Goodra.
Moss wants to learn Scary Face? Moss already has Scary Face!
...It's not really useful to us.
Glad you're enjoying yourself. Did you do the Island Challenge?
There's a little cubby here, and one that offers something that we really missed in USUM- the local copy of the Poison Jab TM. SM got their copy before Po Town, and the absence of Poison Jab causes the stock of Poison types to drop dramatically- a particularly bad time due to Ribombee demanding good Physical Poisons. Thank goodness USUM has Iron Head as an option instead, but still.
Right, now it's your turn, Kailee. Like Seth, all that Kailee has going for her are singular 30 IVs.
Shiinotic went in on Def. Didn't help her against Moss or Ivy.
Honestly, even if you did want to go for a Physical Poipole, why would you use Fell Stinger for the job? That's what Beast Boost is for. Not that Poipole is likely to Beast Boost its Atk, though.
Now, Clefable was who both Ray and Ailey were worried about. 30 IV in Sp. Atk, it would otherwise be milquetoast for both Trainers.
Ailey is pushing Zossie out of her comfort zone, hoping she can pull off the win and get some more EXP for herself.
Clefable carries Metronome.
Fortunately, she drew one of the bad moves- and a move Zossie resists. This is a good time to mention Zossie forewent the Eviolite.
Against something like Clefable, Zossie wants a little extra oomph.
That wasn't too bad, right? Zossie's getting ready for a proper spot on the team.
Ray, meanwhile, got Minimize and Cute Charm.
This happened. A lot.
It had all the time it wanted to Metronome its way to extra moves, and even called a Legendary move! Thankfully, Moongeist Beam is Ghost type, so Wiingo is naturally immune.
Still, I had to have Candy finish it. Thanks to seeing it has Cute Charm and not Magic Guard, the sandstorm should finish it off.
But yeah, it's a good thing Ray saved Kailee for last, there's no way that Roto Prize Money would still be active for the fourth Trainer.
I dunno, fighting Minimise opponents never strikes me as a good way to gain any experience in how to fix the problem. Perfect accuracy is too niche to bring to everything.
I also kinda feel like the "this is how we evolve" would be cooler if she had an unevolved and/or a Pokemon we've never seen evolved before now.
Before I forget (which I did), there's a Rare Candy up here. This is near the little entry point you have to use to get to Alonsa.
Short Machamp puzzle up here- a staple of Victory Roads past. You want to push this one first- there's something kinda funny I think not doing this causes, but we'll need to see the geography up there to talk more about it.
This is the shortest shortcut ever- we can now get right up here without passing by Kailee. It's actually kinda substantial, but seriously, was it that necessary?
Ovid is, apparently, one of the people who built the Victory Road. He has no investments, and presumably, his Pokemon is more practical than capable of doing battle.
Or at least it would be if it wasn't a Relicanth. What's Relicanth doing on a construction crew? It's got no arms!
Or Sp. Def, but that's a separate issue.
You know, that does raise the point that Victory Road has a ton of Trainers for something that just got built. Why all the Trainers stick around inside Victory Road in the other games remains a question, but it does present the funny image of all the Trainers just filing in as soon as it opened to look around.
Right, this point. The Kantonian Victory Road had a puzzle where, because of the way you pushed a Strength boulder, you had to choose one of two items on the ground. Those two items up there are arranged the same way as that puzzle, and if you push this boulder north, you'd probably have to redo the puzzle.
I say that, but I don't see how you can push the boulder to get the north item without pushing this one east.
The two items in question. One of the items in RBY was a TM (Sky Attack in RBY, Dragon Claw in FRLG). I feel like this is more of a choice element, but the fact it's much easier to reset the boulder here compared to RBY means that, even if you couldn't cheese it, the choice thing is kinda just flavour.
The cave's done, but there's still more Mount Lanakila to go. This isn't where the elevator is.
Hidden item on this rock.
These Black Belts are Sparring Partners, and challenging one to a battle will get you into a fight with the other for Doubles. It is possible to skip right on by, if you time it so you walk between them while they're looking away from the path.
Oh, you guys are from the Fighting Dojo? You don't have the names FRLG gave you lot (Hideshi, Hidoki, Mike, and Aaron.) The Sparring Partners, like most Black Belts we've seen thus far, are running 31 Atk IVs, 252 Atk EVs, and Adamant Natures. As funny as "all in on Atk" is as a strategy, I do notice this makes them better than the Ace Trainers.
Both Sparring Partners have three Pokemon total, but because they are separate Trainers internally, you must defeat a specific one to get the third one to come out. For this pair, it is the Mienfoo that is hiding the third Pokemon.
Consilia and Shiva have this, easy.
Consilia also tried to learn Future Sight, which joins Moss's Scary Face in "moves that don't fit in my kit, but it's amazing that it's implied the Pokemon doesn't already have them."
Third mon was a Machamp.
If Bewear went down in one hit, what hope does Machamp have when there are two aimed at it?
One kinda nice thing is that Shiva also isn't taking Hail chip for being an Ice type.
...I will sheepishly admit I saw her not take damage and thought it was a Dry Skin thing at first. No idea what my brain was running on.
I was faster, mainly. I don't imagine Consilia and Shiva were looking forward to getting hit by your Fighting moves, resisted or not.
I dunno, an Icy mountain seems like a good place to train. Everything here's weak to Fighting, and Saffron City just puts you next to the Psychic type Gym Leader again.
Try talking to Hala for that. He might be happy to arrange something for you.
Looks between the two of you He's not saying "osu". Objectively, he's not.
...Well, that's frightfully inconvenient. Crabominable's gigantic fists are covering up the identity of his doubles partner!
There we go. Hawlucha is the opponent that needs to be defeated for the third Pokemon to appear.
Also, there can only be one Hawlucha. We've come a long way since a Black Belt's Hawlucha was considered superior to ours.
I'll be honest, I always think Crabominable is likely to take hits. Especially when it's a Dazzling Gleam coming from a Florges. I guess that's part of the reason it doesn't actually work out as you hope.
Pangoro is hiding behind the Hawlucha.
A bit of an unfortunate choice, since it's weak to Fighting and doubly weak to Fairy. Don't think there was much of a better option here.
Please stop putting words in your friend's mouth. It's very undignified for both of you.
After battle, meanwhile, they do at least seem like they're on the same page.
This is probably the most significant room in the new Mount Lanakila, and considering the geography of the room, I suspect that this caused the redesign to the place in-universe.
This is where Necrozma has crash-landed following the events of Megalo Tower. Putting a Legendary on Victory Road was first done with Moltres in RBY, but aside from a callback with Terrakion in BW, they never really went back to this one. They sorta settled it as Victory Road being "your team is now finished, fight your way through this final gauntlet", and legendary battles don't really fight using these rules. With that said, of all the places Necrozma could've gone for a proper "catch me" battle, it didn't exactly have much choice if it wanted to be caught during the main story. After the Altar of the Moone, we're out of places visited for the plot of SM.
See ya.
I will come back for Necrozma before I'm done here in Mount Lanakila, don't worry about that. But mainly, I find legendary battles to not really fit my aims when using my main battling teams. While one might reasonably expect Necrozma to be Ray's legendary, given the circumstances, I just don't like Necrozma on multiple levels. Both from a Watsonian perspective (I bonded with Nebby too much to appreciate Necrozma attacking and consuming it) and a Doylist one (Necrozma tore a hole in the story, and even the attempts to accommodate it don't work because they're expected to conform to the original story's pacing), Necrozma just kinda feels wrong for me to raise. Ray will have to wait until postgame for his legendary slot to be filled.
(Even if I wanted to use it, it turns out Necrozma is caught at level 65, which is just a bit too high to still fight the final bosses fairly.)
It took me a while to notice this path casually- even on my 3DS XL, that path mouth doesn't look traversible. I did kinda see a path back there, but I thought it was accessed through some other route.
I wasn't missing much.
Anyway, after entering this cave just past there, we find...
The Ice Rock.
This room is identically laid out to Mount Lanakila in SM, just infested with Trainers now (and with the loop caved in). I don't actually feel 100% confident on where you have to be in Victory Road to evolve Eevee into Glaceon, but for safety's sake, I would recommend doing so in this exact room.
...Does that mean you have more Pokemon than the one you're using to fight me? I'd believe it, especially since your choice isn't exactly what I'd bring to a snowy mountain.
Emolga (Ultra Moon): As it flies, it scatters electricity around, so bird Pokémon keep their distance. That's why Emolga can keep all its food to itself.
Emolga is the Unovan Electric-type rodent, and the first one to gain a sub-typing (Flying). Electric/Flying can be a bit of an annoying type to hit, but it's weak to Ice and Rock. Do watch out for Static, though.
Peren's Emolga has no investment, as one might expect from a non-expert Trainer. Nothing here by the slightly annoying type, Ability, and statline.
And even then, Agility.
Justy had the correct type on both offense and defence here.
Good for you, buddy.
...So, uh, did you get here the same way as everyone else, or did you climb the mountain your own way, like the Black Belt in SM?
I'm actually going to go right to the end on Mount Lanakila real quick. Just need to pick something up before I'm done. And that leads us past this surprisingly pessimistic ace for someone on Mount Lanakila.
Vanilluxe (Ultra Sun): It blasts blizzards from its two mouths. It can create snow anywhere, so it gets a lot of love from skiers and snowboarders.
Her lead is the final stage of the Vanillite line, Vanilluxe. She doesn't seem to pack Snow Warning, though, or indeed, anything other than a 30 IV in Sp. Def. I don't mean to sound rude, but I can see where the "I keep losing" issue is stemming from. Special Defence...
OK, credit where credit is due, it took that Physical hit well.
Problem was, instead of using its Ice type to deal SE damage to Sue, it instead manually set Hail.
Remember, Vanilluxe has the Snow Warning Ability.
Ice Body isn't going to save you.
Mismagius has a 30 IV in Speed, which is a shade more useful.
Until it turns out that she uses said Speed on the move Astonish. You remember that 30 BP Phyiscal Ghost move we barely gave the time of day when we first got it before level 10?
I am mostly surprised you got this far. And possibly impressed.
No, that's gambling, and even they consider the position fallacious, despite the fact it actually has a possibility of working that way there.
This teamup is sufficiently worrying that I went all-in on making sure my entire team could handle it, rather than doing what I normally do and carrying my counters to multiple trainers at once.
Breon and Kaimana are a mandatory Doubles match with five Pokemon total- and since Breon is a Veteran, his three Pokemon are actually good at their jobs. Mainly, though, these five Pokemon are all typically good enough to not necessarily need the investment- although Breon certainly appreciates it.
This is their lead setup. Vikavolt is Kaimana's, so all it has is 30 Sp. Def, while Breon's Glalie has 30 IVs and 252 EVs in Sp. Atk/Spd, a Modest Nature, and the moves Freeze-Dry, Dark Pulse, Blizzard, and Ice Shard. Most people think of Glalie as Physical and Froslass as Special, but both are equally competent in both roles. The problem with this Glalie is that to call Glalie competent at any role is to flatter it to extreme lengths.
I don't think this lets Justy pierce Levitate, but it's the thought that counts.
Hawkeye handily defeats Glalie in a single High Jump Kick, while Golurk lags behind with his Fire Punch.
That was a Zap Cannon- good thing that missed, although the odds were not in his favour.
Tyranitar (Ultra Sun): It wanders through the mountains seeking opponents to fight. If it finds an opponent that's not worthy, Tyranitar ignores it and wanders on.
Tyranitar is the Rock/Dark evolution of Larvitar, and Johto's member of the 600 club. Famed for its ferocity and being the representative of the kaiju genre in the series, Tyranitar's high Atk, appreciable bulk, and medicore Speed certainly help it carve out its niche- that of the Sand Stream user. Breon's has 30 IVs and 252 EVs in Atk/Sp. Def, the Adamant Nature, and the moves Earthquake, Crunch, and Stone Edge. With Sand Stream's +50% bonus to Sp. Def for being a Rock type, it would be unwise to attack it Specially.
Its natural Physical bulk isn't exactly that much stronger than its Special bulk, and it's quad weak to a super-Physical type in Fighting. Tyranitar has recently seen competition in the niche of "set Sand Stream" from "weaker" Pokemon like Hippowdon and Gigalith, and when you see what Hawkeye just did to it, you understand where the former is coming from.
Justy finishes the Bisharp, leaving the sole damage I've taken thus being Sandstorm chip. On one of my party members- Justy is immune.
...I don't think I overprepared, but I do think this team is a little more exploitable than it appeared. To be fair, the resource I used to scout the Pokemon on the teams (ie, not the datamine) was unclear on where Kaimana's Pokemon ended and Breon's began.
Forretress (Ultra Sun): When something approaches it, it fires off fragments of its steel shell in attack. This is not a conscious action but a conditioned reflex.
Their final Pokemon are the Sandstorm-immune Bisharp and Forretress. Forretress is the Bug/Steel evolution of Pineco, and a formidable defensive wall noted for not exactly doing a great job attacking back. Kaimana has given it a 30 IV in Atk. Breon's Bisharp, meanwhile, is going all in on Atk/Spd, with its 30 IVs and 252 EVs assigned there, an Adamant Nature, and the moves Iron Head, Night Slash, X-Scissor and Aerial Ace.
It's not that much faster than Tyranitar- it's actually slower than Glalie! Hawkeye handled this readily, and indeed, most Fighting types could do a good job handling this fight, especially if they have 140 Speed to outspeed Glalie. 129 to outspeed Bisharp and its Aerial Ace will do, particularly with Glalie's kit being only of moderate assistance on Fighting types.
Forretress, meanwhile, will always have the Sturdy Ability to take one hit, although when its plan for its free action is Iron Defence, it's not exactly winning awards. If you have a solid Fire type, Kaimana's easy enough too. Moss probably could've done it, but with her Dark type, I was a little wary.
Let us end this little charade.
Breon, you need a better counter to Fighting. Kaimana... you're not terrible, but you might need a bit more than Bug.
I'd look forward to the rematch, but...
Anyway, this room is all the same as the original. I'll save the climb for when we're done, I'm only doing this for one visit to Madam Memorial.
In order to evolve, Zossie must level up while knowing the move Dragon Pulse. It is not the only Pokemon to evolve by knowing a move they must be taught via Move Reminder, but it is one that is defined by having to wait for the Move Reminder to gain this move.
While I was here, I gave Usagi High Jump Kick early, in the hopes that using it well might prevent Usagi from being benched before she achieves her true destiny. Usagi isn't due to learn this until level 66.
Right. The east route from the Ice Rock is blocked, so we'll have to go south.
Oh, hi, Miss Veteran! Three Pokemon, hopefully Zossie will evolve from this..
Pyroar (Ultra Moon): The temperature of its breath is over 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit, but Pyroar doesn't use it on its prey. This Pokémon prefers to eat raw meat.
We saw this guy early thanks to my miscalculations with the Photo Club, but here's Pyroar's introduction to the vanilla USUM game. Normal/Fire type, and while it's mainly a representative for that particular type combination, it does enjoy its access to Hyper Voice as part of its team position. This one has 30 IVs and 252 EVs in Sp. Atk/Spd, a Timid Nature, and the moves Hyper Voice and Flamethrower. Clearly, it hopes to win on STAB alone. Pyroar's coverage isn't terrible, as it happens, but nor is it great.
Outspeeding Usagi wasn't something I particularly enjoyed seeing. Since it's angled for Speed, it's not too surprising, but still.
Failing the KO, on the other hand...?
Literally the only reason Usagi didn't hit the bench over this is because she still has upward potential. From a practical perspective, though, I can't see her getting use in serious fights until then.
To add insult to injury, Usagi was almost KOed in kind.
Ah, Milotic. This one's running Hydro Pump and Blizzard off 30 IVs and 252 EVs in Sp. Atk/Sp. Def, as well as a Modest Nature. Ella may not be running a lot of moves, but she knows which ones work.
As she proves on poor Genevieve. Grass/Electric Physical coverage is hard to come by.
I don't actually remember why I switched to Shiva (other than it being an excellent Claydol counter), although the fact Shiva has not taken any switch-in damage hints I was switching to Shiva before Ella did. With the Dry Skin Ability, it would be a good way to get a free switch on what one would assume would be a Hydro Pump had Milotic stayed, but still.
OK, perhaps "great" was an overstatement. Sp. Def investment on a bulky Pokemon is no joke.
Fortunately, the offensive prowess of Claydol is.
That's Claydol dealt with. Now for the problem I had already.
I went with Chip. High Atk, resistance to Water, and likely to go first?
Now seemed like the opportunity to perform Head Smash.
No need to worry about recoil when you're finishing off an opponent, you're at full health, and it's the end of the fight!
I understand said "dangers" by not using it how?
...Never mind, the question answers itself.
You. You get it. Being friends with Pokemon requires understanding the situations in which they are good, putting them in those situations, and avoiding the opposite. You may think sending your Pikachu in against a Ground type is "showing faith in your buddy to overcome the odds", but your Pikachu probably won't feel the same after that Earthquake.
We are now at the Icium Z point.
This item is still here, and it's still a Full Restore. It's also now a dead-end, thanks to the redesign in geography.
These are still here, too, with the geography exactly as you remember it.
Eurgh. This guy has something weak to Poison, and I would like to show off Zossie's evolution against him. Unfortunately, Ella did not evolve her.
Fortunately, it turns out that while he is looking south, there's a gap in his vision to exploit.
And there's a Hiker out here at the former entrance to fight for the last bit of EXP.
There's also a PP Max down here now- with the rock falls, there had to be a reward for coming this direction. In Sun, this was the grass that was glitched to have the Moon version's low encounter rate (although it did still have Vulpixes and not Sandshrews, it's not that broken.)
While I support your desire for Mount Lanakila to not be perverted by Kukui's League, you should take that up with him and not me. I just work here.
He carries a Gigalith, although he does not seem to have found one with Sand Stream, leaving the weather with the ambient hail of this time of day. It doesn't have any other investments, but this is a Hiker- that is to be expected.
This turns out to be a mistake.
"I survive hit with Sturdy."
"I set Stealth Rocks."
"I faint to hail damage." Wait what
...Huh. She gets that naturally. Ah well, Tutors mean we can get that earlier.
And yep, Zossie evolved with that last bit of EXP.
I mean, Mount Lanakila is a speedbump to me. That sounds about right. Anyway, we were saying about Zossie?
Naganadel (Ultra Moon): One kind of Ultra Beast, it fires a glowing, venomous liquid from its needles. This liquid is also immensely adhesive.
Codenamed UB Stinger, Naganadel is a Poison/Dragon type, and is more than ready to carry Poipole to the leagues of "inherently effective". Admittedly, only two of its stats got significantly changed- its Sp. Atk and Spd. That doesn't matter, though, because those stats are now 127 and 121. Zossie starts fast and powerful and Beast Boost only means she gets even more so after scoring KOs- or you could reinvest her so she Beast Boosts Speed and count on Nasty Plot for your damage. I prefer the Sp. Atk version, because I'm more worried about failing the KO than failing the outspeed. It's also worth noting that, as a Dragon type, Naganadel gets Draco Meteor- so she can Beast Boost + Nasty Plot her way out of the consequences of that if she has to.
Naganadel is the only UB with a base stat that is not a prime number: 121 is not prime. It is, however, a prime power (its only divisor other than 1 and itself is 11), which leads to two main theories on how this error happened. #1, it was a genuine mistake (prime powers are common false primes). #2... Naganadel is the only final-stage UB to have a BST of 540, instead of the standard 570. If you added the missing 30 points to its Speed, you would get 151, a true prime number. There is a non-zero amount of people who suspect this is not a coincidence, but a balance patch. I don't necessarily disbelieve this theory, but I think it's more likely that, if Naganadel got +30 BST, it'd probably invest it so its Sp. Atk and Spd are both 139.
I mean, it's still Zossie.
Although, one funny thing to point out: Since it's now neutral to Fairy, I don't expect Naganadel could've done what Poipole did and finished off Ribombee. That's something to contemplate in horror.
For... some reason, Naganadel's evo move is Air Cutter, when it has Air Slash in its Reminder set. Just a waste of a Heart Scale, really.
Worst part is, I don't wind up sticking with Air Slash either.
Anyway, your turn, Minty. I want to show off my rare, freshly-evolved Pokemon from another dimension.
Florges is not in itself rare, although Minty is using the White flower variety- in USUM, this can only be acquired through SOS.
OK, while yes, Florges is weak to Poison, it's also a premier Special tank and I'm a Special Attacker.
I should probably Nasty Plot.
...You know, halving the damage of Dragon Pulse is only a good idea if you can actually take damage from Dragon Pulse.
Zossie, welcome to being a powerhouse.
We'll see if the Ultra Recons are willing to give you a Poipole. They only let me have the one.
...Seriously, this actually made it hard to come by Poipoles on the GTS, since most Poipoles were evolved into Naganadels for the dex entry and Poipole is the only UB you can only get one of.
Anyway, what can we find on top of Mount Lanakila?
Remember the Vulpix we helped on Route 8? As a reward for saving it- and only if we do so- we can now play with it in its new home on top of Mount Lanakila. This is the healthiest place for an Ice type, admittedly, although this is unfortunate placement.
It also turns out there's a ton of unlockable Pokemon to play with that I've been missing- the major ones are a Mimikyu outside the Megamart once you have Mimikium Z, Togemaru and Sevenjabug after Sophocles's Trial, and a Meowth on Route 17 for beating Team Skull.
On the other hand, considering the most substantial thing we can do with them is play peek-a-boo...
Well, it might be nice to hear your perspective. Not sure I'm feeling any better, but...
...The Battle Royal Dome? Iki Town? Mount Lanakila before the new installation?
And nobody thought twice about this.
Yeah, uh, do this right outside Tapu Bulu's home, why don't you? Hey, if you look off the other side of the mountain, you can see what he did to the Thrifty Megamart.
To be fair, he has tried his best with the whole "not spoiling the scenery" thing, but I never saw what it was before to judge there.
On the backs of a sheer disinterest in making sure that this place is in compliance with the wishes of Tapu Bulu, the Alolan people, or really anybody whose name isn't Kukui.
Sometimes you really have to wonder whether Pokemon is being optimistic about its worldbuilding or it's genuinely writing things that are problems. Considering Game Freak's usual philosophies, I imagine we're being invited to believe what's being written is supposed to be strictly positive, but also sometimes I wonder "positive for whom".
This guy, up here, is a "route trainer", but he's the route trainer to end all route trainers. He is found only in USUM, and he will invite us to battle him only once we have battled everyone else.
Thankfully, he'll also tell us where to look to find all the ones we haven't yet defeated. Without one of these, we really could be left up the creek without a paddle hunting down all of them and praying.
This is an incredibly fortunate result to get. Poni Plains is a postgame location, and to see that the only Route Boss we have not yet seen is that one means I got all the rest of them.
The PP Max is still here, but Hau seems to have taken a leave of absence. What was all that bravado about challenging me to one last battle in this game, buddy?
Of course, the X Items available from the Pokemon League are the same as in any other. This is just a nice, convenient place to buy some.
Oh, and of course, remember to buy Potions. Even if you're not using them in battle, you need loads.
...All right, I will. I refuse to like it, but how else am I going to complete the Pokedex if I don't do it...
What are you, even, a Linoone?
Necrozma (Ultra Moon): Light is the source of its energy. If it isn't devouring light, impurities build up in it and on it, and Necrozma darkens and stops moving.
Necrozma, in its base form, is a pure Psychic type with a 600 BST. Much of it in Special Attack, with the rest of its stats hovering around 100- except Speed, which is down at 79. Like Ultra Beasts, it has a set of prime numbers for BST, but unlike Ultra Beasts, it cannot be caught by Beast Balls, instead using the normal variety- the same is true for Nebby. Necrozma's fairly terrible in this state, not really establishing a core identity with its movepool and having a pretty shallow set of Special options. It's usable, like most Legendaries are, but it was clearly begging for some kind of buff in the Ultra games.
Without light, Necrozma's Ability is Prism Armour. You may notice this as the same Ability that Dawn Wings and Dusk Mane had, and it works to establish Necrozma as at least a good tank.
Necrozma is a massive level 65, and knows the moves Photon Geyser, Power Gem, Night Slash and Iron Defence. It's not the worst thing in the world, although without investment or an aura, it's a far cry from its Ultra boss battle, despite gaining levels since then.
In USUM, and USUM only, it has a catch rate of 255, making catching it with paralysis and a decent effort at lowering its HP child's play. This is unusual for legendaries the game forces you to catch- they typically keep it only at 45. And Necrozma's not even a mandatory catch either!
One walking catastrophe, logged in the Pokedex.
As a fun fact: Necrozma is holding a piece of this, so if you send it to your PC, you can acquire this before it goes in your bag. Ultranecrozium Z is Necrozma's Z-Crystal, and it behaves... strangely. When held by a Dusk Mane or a Dawn Wings Necrozma, you can click it and activate Ultra Burst, transforming your Necrozma into Ultra Necrozma. Only on a subsequent turn may Ultra Necrozma perform the signature Z-Move that becomes available, Light That Burns The Sky. You can even use Ultra Burst and then have a different Pokemon perform a Z-Move.
Colress? Well, Colress is a fitting man to meet at this exact juncture, even if the cause is more than a bit strange.
Oh, Necrozma was pathetic. It was Ultra Necrozma that was the terrifying foe.
This might actually be the the 2.0 version of what Lusamine was supposed to use on Necrozma, although this is something that doesn't obviously appear to be applicable to that purpose.
Given this follow-up comment, it seems more likely that the only commonalities between the 1.0 and the 2.0 here are a few lines of code and the fact that Necrozma's power is influenced by it.
The N-Solariser will allow you to fuse a Necrozma and a Solgaleo into Dusk Mane Necrozma. The resulting creation will use Necrozma's IVs, EVs, Nature, and moves, but will attempt to learn Sunsteel Strike on creation. The N-Solariser can only be used on one Necrozma and Solgaleo at a time- even if you trade in an unfused Necrozma from another game, you may only possess one Dusk Mane Necrozma at a time.
Both Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon receive both it and the N-Lunariser, which does the same thing but for Lunala, Dawn Wings Necrozma, and Moongeist Beam. The slightly weird implementation harkens back to the way the DNA Splicers work- the splicers are implied to be a tangible object that Kyurem requires to perform Absofusion (this is the actual name for the procedure) and fuse with a Reshiram or Zekrom. Since you can only acquire one DNA Splicers, you can only acquire one White Kyurem or Black Kyurem per file. The existence of two separate items here allows us to acquire both Necrozma forms.
Why can we only make one of each at a time? I presume the item is storing the IV, EV, Nature, moves, and other Pokemon data somehow and attempting to create more than one fusion would risk the integrity of this. Most competitive formats have a thing called "Species Clause", which forbids the presence of both Dawn Wings and Dusk Mane on your team no matter how you went about putting both of them in your party.
This is referring to us meeting Nebby back at the start of the game, not the Lillie event where we acquired the final form.
Yup. Properly.
Necrozma is going in the box and thinking about what it did before I let it near a Solgaleo or a Lunala. And Nebby is off limits.
As a happy little coincidence, Colress was involved in Team Plasma when they were getting up to their shenanigans that involved "creating a Kyurem fusion form". The fact that Colress is responsible for creating a way to control the Necrozma fusions is not entirely accidental, although it is worth mentioning that the DNA Splicers are not his invention.
May we battle again someday, Colress.
Rotom has a comment on Colress, but only now. It won't replace your current objective once he has said it once.
Colress is ostensibly a Steel-type user, but he finds a place for a Rotom of his own on his team. I assume Rotom's affection for the man is an acknowledgement of thus.
Huh, it's still Bold. What are the odds? Anyway, Pokemon I am going to use.
Moss's bulk continues to have impressive numbers, but strangely unimpressive results. There's a reason it's VGC that adopted Incineroar and not Singles. I'm not even entirely sure on the kit, honestly!
You should feel damn lucky that there exist options for you. Seriously...
Hawkeye is fast and he hits hard. We do not demand anything different, but at the same time we demand the world of him.
FINALLY! MOONBLAST! She's too niche to fit on the team for the final bosses, but in regular areas, she might actually be able to carry her own weight now.
Shiva is also accurate now. Although she's still absolutely frail for Physical hits. Special bulk isn't too bad, though.
Still exactly as we remember her. Shade, like Usagi, is counting on her upward potential, although Shade has a useful Ability and typing that establishes a place for her on the right team.
Genevieve just hits really hard. Ampharos is a favourite of GSC playthroughs, and it turns out she still holds up all these years later.
Chip: A non-indicative name that does tell us his team role. I'm not sure how amazed I am that Ridley wound up the better Water.
Pictured: The better Water. I think this run has given me a newfound appreciation for Gorebyss, or at least has shown me it's possible to use one at all. In that regard, perhaps I was just expecting Gorebyss to be a Dancing Bear and not an actual powerhouse.
Nemo is good. I can't say much better, but I also can't say worse. Bug is surprisingly good in the right hands, if you know what those might be.
Nemo's main problem is standing next to Sue- despite Nemo being stronger, it's just clear Sue is better. Something about this moveset just promises better results.
Xatu is much better when there are actually things to Magic Bounce away. Main story just hasn't really been doing that sort of thing.
Phantom Force is a move that takes two turns to use, but grants semi-invulnerability on the first turn. It pierces Protect, making it better than most such moves, but the fact it is Justy's only Ghost STAB is an indictment. We haven't seen nothing yet.
Poison Jab for Fairies is a brave ask. Maybe if she gets a Moxie Boost or two before they become a problem.
Zossie is now online and ready to shoot Poison, Fire, or "Dragon."
As for our benches...
Callie was not the problem here. The problem was that the game clearly knew, on some level, that Callie was going to be a problem, and everything packs Bug and Fairy. It's hard to Topsy-Turvy Mimikyu, Kommo-o, Necrozma and Ribombee when they're all ready for it.
I really needed to bench you sometime. And even then, I still gave it some main team treatment. Who knows, I might find her use case again.
Remember Nephenee? Remember when these numbers were good? Good times...
Frankly, I'm not even 100% sure what happened to Neo. I'm not sure she would've been much help, but I have noticed a bit of a Fairy-shaped hole around here.
Another Pokemon I never got around to naming, at least Jellicent did something against Mimikyu. Even if that something was just "look pretty".
...You joke, but considering Gorg is weak to Bug and Fairy, I don't actually think it'd be much help on Totem Ribombee. Maybe Sand Stream would give Nemo an extra turn or two, but really, Gorg was barely a team member. Still, maybe he'll come back for the postgame.
Next time: Three fights, and a lot of stats.
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