[Text Only] Let’s Play: Pokémon Platinum [Nuzlocke Challenge] – Part 4

After training Nimbus, beating all the trainers on Route 203, buying some more potions and pokeballs at the store, and finishing my schoolwork for the day I think it is time to finally move on to Oreburgh Gate. Currently, Numbus is Lv. 10, Sparkrai is Lv.12, and Karen is Lv. 11. Upon entering Oreburgh Gate, the hiker near the entrance gives me HM06 Rock Smash because he liked my Poketch for some odd reason. I mean it’s pink but I kind of like the blue version you get as the boy character better. I defeat the two trainers in this small cave and Nimbus and Karen get Level ups. Now we enter Oreburgh City where plenty of caves and mines are found. If I’m lucky enough to get a few things I may get them but that mostly depends on what Pokémon I am allowed to get here. Immediately after entering some random kid is like “Hey you have no gym badges, you need them to beat the Elite Four so come with me to the gym against your will”. Ok so I may have exaggerated but still you get the point. And who do we find blocking the Gym? It’s Barry who says he beat the gym leader who is no longer hear because he is out helping at the mines and I need to go get him. But before that I’m going to explore the town. I manage to get a free Dusk ball which will help in catching a certain legendary later on and I meet some dude who named his Psyduck “Yellow” because it was yellow … real original my friend. Before I head to the mines I’m going to pick up a Pokémon from Route 207. I am hoping for a Machop or a Ponyta. I really don’t want a Geodude since odds are I’ll be running into them in the mine like a hundred times. And the Pokémon that appears is Machop. This is useful for reasons I’ll show in a minute. I catch it and name it “Machopper”. Dumb name, I know but he won’t be with us for long so I will not bother with stats. Now since I have no gotten a Pokemon inside of Oreburgh itself I’m going to head back inside and do an in game trade where I give my Machop for an Abra (which is a much better deal in my opinion). I’m a little sad that I did not get Ponyta for a nice Fire type but Abra being a strong Psychic type when fully evolved was my second choice. So I trade for the girl’s Abra which is already nicknamed “Kazza” and since it is an in game trade. So, let us look at the stats of our new Abra. It was holding an Oran Berry which will be useful early in the game if I get in a pinch. It is a Lv. 6 Male Abra with a Quiet Nature again (just like Nimbus) which is pretty good because it will raise it’s already high Sp. Attack even more. A drawback is low speed but Kadabra/Alakazam is already really fast (not sure if I will evolve it fully yet). It is also “Highly curious”. So with that in mind it is time to head to the mines and train this thing. Before heading in though I found a heart scale next to a huge bolder outside of the mine! It’s my lucky day :D And the first Pokémon in the Oreburgh mines is a…. Lv. 4 Geodude, just like I expected. Ok, Kazza switch out…. accidently hits run instead of Pokémon …. CRAP! Well a loss is a loss. Further into the mines I battle the miners and their Pokémon to give Karen and Kazza some Level ups and eventually find Roark, the Oreburgh city Gym Leader and Sinnoh Master of Rock type Pokémon. After talking to him he breaks a Rock using Rock Smash and then leaves to go back to the Gym for me to fight him. Yes, weird I know but it is time to head into the gym for the first (and hopefully not last) badge. Well I’m fully healed up and it is time to fight Oreburgh City’s gym trainers before I can get to the leader. With all the trainers down it is time for fight Roark himself for the badge. The team is:

Piplup (Karen) Lv. 14 – female

-Pound –Growl –Bubble –Watersport

Abra (Kazza) Lv.11 – male

-Teleport (that is it’s only move and it does nothing good in battle which makes him useless until it evolves at Lv. 16)

Shinx (Sparkrai) Lv. 12 – male

-Tackle –Leer –Charge

Starly (Nimbus) Lv. 11 – male

-Tackle –Growl –Quick Attack –Wing Attack

With that, let us begin the battle. I lead with Abra for free experience and then switch out to Piplup safely because his Geodude used Stealth Rock and I have plans to switch any more during this fight. Karen sweeps his Geodude and Onix getting up to Lv. 15 in the process and learns Peck (I get rid of Water Sport for this). Now comes out his last Pokemon and star player, Cranidos. This thing has Mold Breaker as an ability so it’s not that bad. He brings Piplup down to 8 HP with Headbutt, but 2 Bubble attacks take it out. That is it, the Coal badge is mine and so is TM76 Stealth Rock. I heal up and head to Oreburgh Gate when someone runs into me. Guess who? Yep, it’s Barry who is surprised I got the badge and tells me Eterna City Gym is the next place to go which is just north of Jubilife City *Yay for backtracking!*. So let us go back there but real quick I want to get my Pokémon from Oreburgh Gate that I never picked up (hoping for Geodude so I can have an HM Slave to use Rock Smash). It’s a Zubat… that is not good. Well I will catch it but I really hope something I have (be it on my team or not) can use Rock Smash. Otherwise this game is over because I missed the Geodude back at the mines and under no circumstances am I allowed to pick up more than 1 Pokémon from an area. And I believe Rock Smash is required to move on… *gulp*… well let’s just catch this Zubat. I get it and name it “Woobat” after the bat Pokemon in 5^th generation that is more or less a rip-off of Zubat (when I get a Woobat in Pokémon White I’m naming it Zubat =P).  I don’t plan to use him but he may be a nice replacement for Starly if it goes down or if I decide to get something more powerful. But I would rather get a Golbat later in the game and level that up since training Zubats take FOREVER because they learn no good moves early on. Ok, back in Jubilife and look its Looker who tells me to pick up a Pal Pad in the Pokemon Center so I can trade and junk like that which I never really do. Ok, now that is over so it is the moment of truth. Does anyone I have so far have the ability to learn Rock Smash? The answer is… no…. not a single one… *double gulp*… Well I have one more shot at this. There is a cave on the next Route and it may have Geodudes. Ok, after further investigation on Bulbapeda, I have 2 options. 1. The Ravaged Path which connects the lower and upper pars of Route 204 has a 20% chance that Geodudes will appear. 2. This is my last resort, evolve Piplup at Lv. 16 (currently 15) and teach it Rock Smash. Well I know I won’t lose the challenge now but having Rock Smash on my starter Pokémon until the 6^th gym in the game is almost as bad of a punishment. For those that don’t know, Rock Smash is a horrible fighting type move. T_T Well before I can get to Route 204 there are these two dudes that look like astronauts chatting with Professor Rowan and Lucas. Time to see what is up. They turn out to be bad guys who want ALL of the Professor’s research findings. Rowan tells them off though and even insults their clothes (which I found really humorous) and sends me and Lucas to fight them in a double battle. Lucas uses Chimchar and I go in with Starly. The seemed to like hitting Chimchar with all their attacks which worked out for me ok (poor Chimchar, you’ll always be my favorite Sinnoh starter). Nimbus gets really close to death but I manage to pull it off without losing him (Thank God for Quick Attack always going first). Then the two baddies spout something off about Team Galactic and run off like chickens. Rowan tells me he studies Pokémon evolution and says that Team Galactic seems to be interested in his findings somehow. They run off and some dude from Jubilife TV comes up to me and gives me the pointless Fashion Caste (for Pokémon Contests) and then runs off. I go into the TV station since it is now open and play the lottery. I lose and then head upstairs to unlock “Mystery Gift” in case I can get a hold of any event stuff soon.  To unlock find the guy who asks for your opinion on TV and tell him “Everyone Happy” and then tell him “Wi-fi Connection” for his second question. That unlocks mystery gift which you will see on the start screen next time you turn on the game. The allows you to take part in many Nintendo Pokémon events (even though they are all over since Gen 5 comes out in a week). Could have sworn there was an old lady here who gave you the TM for Recycle but looks like I’m wrong. I head over to see Mr. Poketch who gives me another app for the Poketch itself since I have a gym badge. It is the Memo Pad which you can use to write things down to remember for later (as long as you don’t switch to another app along the way because if you do it erases the memo….).  I don’t feel like registering myself at the GTS because I don’t use Wifi that much so off to Route 204 to get the next Pokémon… *trainer sees me and wishes to fight*… right after this. Well, that is done and the Pokémon of Route 204 is… Bidoof!? Crap Bidoof is horrible… wait… Bidoof can use Rock Smash >:D I must have this Bidoof for I have plans for him *evil laugh*. Got him! And I shall call him “Slave” because he will be my HM Slave. There we go, Bidoof learned Rock Smash and its purpose has been fulfilled. I fight the trainers on the Route and give everyone some level ups and with that I head into Ravaged Path. Inside I use Slave to Rock Smash around and get TM 39 Rock Tomb and I was right, you do need Rock Smash in order to move on with the game. The Pokémon I find in here is Psyduck and to be honest I was surprised. I catch the female Psyduck and name her Amber (a shade of yellow to make fun of the dude that named his Pysduck “Yellow”). I may use her if Piplup ever goes down because it is another water type and Golduck is not too bad. I’ve used one before. Amber is a Lv. 4 Female Psyduck with an Impish nature and “loves to eat”. The nature is not that great. It raises defense and lowers Sp. Attack but if it comes to it, I’ll give her a shot. Since that is done let us get out of this cave and it is time to fight some more Route 204 (upper part) trainers. But what is this? Karen the Piplup is Lv. 16 and is evolving into Prinplup. This is good but I hate the way Prinplup looks. I was never a fan of middle starter evolutions (except for Grovyle, Quilava, and Bayleef) but this one takes the cake. It did learn Metal Claw though which is an “Ok” Steel type move. Oh well, just 20 more levels until it evolves into Empoleon which is fine by me. Well all the trainers are defeated and we have now entered Floaroma Town (the town south of Eterna). There are a lot of grass and bug type trainers coming up so you can tell we are entering forest territory. Now the events coming up feature a really tough boss fight (for me at least) where I usually white out on more times than 1. And if I do this time it is Game Over and this LP is done. So I’m going to train for the next few hours and get everyone up to Lv. 17-20 so I have a small fighting chance. I am severely under-leveled right now and almost lost a lot of the team more times than once while fighting the trainers. If not for the potions we would have lost Nimbus and Sparkrai. So we will see what happens with that next time and hope for the best. Thanks for reading and have a nice day! (Unless I post more later today which I doubt.)