It’s going to be quite a short one today, I think! We’re going to take on Celadon Gym and, assuming we don’t lose the entire Nuzlocke right there and then, we’ll take a look at what Cycling Road has in store for us. Without further ado, let’s head to the gym!
Just past the entrance to the sewers we find, of course, the gym. As usual, there’s a pervert outside it.
Gross.
Seeing as I can’t sacrifice this egg to be scrambled into an omelette, it looks like we’re going to take the time to hatch it and make it our next team member. In addition, we’re taking Tiny and Phantom out for a bit. Depending on the level scaling of the gym’s trainers we may take them elsewhere to grind them up a bit, but they should be useful Anti-Grass fighters.
As you can see, Celadon Gym looks quite a bit different these days, it’s more of a maze trainers. Notably, the Fresh Water Guy isn’t here, probably because of the strict women-only rule.
Our first trainer here, and we can already see Erika at the top-right there.
Martine has some pretty cool-looking Pokémon, but they don’t last long against Valefor’s strong Sky Attacks.
I think this fusion design is extremely neat.
Uh, after her display in the sewers I am doubting that very much.
As you might have seen, the trainers in this gym already have a good 10-12 levels on Tiny and Phantom, so I’m going to take some time to grind them up against some weak trainers.
As that process happens, Tiny gets a nice evolution.
Vulsian sounds… super gross. But looks quite nice. She has a nice moveset of Flamethrower, Confuse Ray, Will-O-Wisp and Hex, which I really like. And seeing as she’s ready for it:
This beauty just got semi-permanent status on the team along with Valefor and April May. Seriously, that design is gorgeous. Also, being named after my childhood cat means I really don’t want her to die. This may turn out to be a bad decision.
Let’s take Tiny for a whirl.
Hey I had a Gastly with your name.
Tina has two Grass/Ground Pokémon to try and catch Fire-types off guard, but Tiny makes very short work of them.
I’m making my way around the outer ring of trainers before taking on the ones inside.
This trainer’s Exeggcute/Oddish fusion goes down so quickly to Flamethrower that I didn’t even manage to take a screenshot of it.
Aren’t you all lucky I managed to get a shot of this one though? Gosh, each of those heads really conveys a very specific and negative emotion don’t they?
Zubat fusions once again proving to be utterly ungodly.
Yeah until they hit level 100.
Even when not-very-effective, Tiny is two-shotting these monsters.
Even her other moves prove useful in these fights.
This is Pokémon abuse, through and through.
This trainer is completely optional, being in her own little corner of the maze. She may actually prove a nuisance to some trainers too!
This first Pokémon is quite bulky and isn’t actually part-Grass, meaning your usual methods aren’t guaranteed to be that effective.
Unfortunately for him, he gets burned on the first Flamethrower, making his Slam attack almost useless.
Growlsaur is quite weak, but I am loving that design. Like a cross between a puppy and a firepit.
Captain Ike comes out to save some of Tiny’s PP and manages to one-shot this stoner who grows her own weed.
The next two Ghibli-rejects go down quickly to the Captain’s awesome Attack power.
Onto the last normal trainer and the only 100% necessary trainer to fight. She’s also my favourite trainer in the entire game.
Oh yes, here it comes.
BE STRONG CLARENCE
AH FUCK, CLARENCE
Beautiful.
Time to face Erika.
Blah blah blah, the usual stuff.
We’re still on three Pokémon per Gym Battle.
Captain Ike and Phantom have powerful Flying-type moves, and Tiny of course is my Fire-type powerhouse.
I’m glad I went for Captain Ike first, as Tanler is quite the trap for people who would lead with a Fire-type.
I lead with Confuse Ray and then intend to use Wing Attack to bring it down. It has high defence, so it’s taking a while.
Not helped by the fact that Erika has Hyper Potions. Tanler’s preferred method of attacking is the Rock-type move Smack Down. While this does hefty damage to Captain Ike, it also temporarily removes his Flying-type, making him able to survive those moves a bit easier.
I try a Flamethrower to attack Tanler’s less amazing Special Defence stat. I don’t know whether it was this or my complacency, but disaster strikes.
A powerful Smack Down smacks the life out of Ike.
Tiny comes in with the revenge-Flamethrower.
And this nasty surprise is the next Pokémon. Really, I should have switched to Phantom here, but I have faith in Tiny.
Golbell’s Water-type move of choice is Aqua Jet, a priority move that hits Tiny really hard, but is a physical move. Will-O-Wisp hits on the first attempt, making Aqua Jet a very survivable move with some healing.
Hex is my strategy here. It’s a Ghost move that deals double damage when the enemy has a status effect (such as Burn). I probably would have been better off using Flamethrower anyway for the STAB but I am a fan of move synergy.
The second foe goes down handily.
Not only is this sprite atrocious, but this fusion is a nasty one. It has high Special Attack, and its Ability is Flash Fire. My attempt at seeing how Flamethrower fares against it leads to Rapiossom taking no damage and boosting its own Special Attack. A crit Giga Drain follows.
RIP Tiny. Phantom has to come in and thanks to her fantastic Speed, manages to put the murderer to sleep with Sleep Powder.
Fly comes in clutch, as Rapiossom wakes up next turn and attempts to use Flame Burst, which probably would have finished Phantom off. A critical hit takes out the hula horse in one blow, and we win the fight. It’s a pyrrhic victory, however.
We get the ability to use Strength outside of battle, and level 50 traded Pokémon will now listen to us. Two things that we don’t find useful right now.
Slightly less useless is this TM, which is for Solarbeam. I imagine with the right setup, Erika’s Rapiossom possibly has a Sunny Day/Solarbeam moveset.
And with that, Celadon Gym is complete, and we have two casualties to deposit into the PC.
Tiny really could have been a very good long-standing team member, and I’m gutted she’s gone so early into her story. We have really bad luck with cat Pokémon don’t we?
Captain Ike is the real devastating loss though. With such high Attack, Speed and decent bulk he was poison to become a real well-rounded member.
In anticipation of taking on Koga’s gym next, we’re taking Citizen Snips and Ketchup out of the Box. They should both be very useful in a Poison-type gym.
Before we end the update we’ll just take care of Cycling Road, but before that we have this beefy boi to get rid of.
Playing the Poké Flute rouses the Snorlax from its slumber. To be fair, I’d also attack someone who woke me up from a lovely nap.
We already have a Pokémon from Route 16, though it would have been nice to catch this guy merely to nab his Leftovers, a very useful item.
The gatehouse has a cool little secret.
Bianca is here!
Castelia Cones heal status effects. Nice! We get five of them!
Route 17/Cycling Road has also changed a bit. We can now buy Fast Balls here. Also, clock the money we have! I love the Amulet Coin so much.
Cue Ball: …by the rules.
He says this, but his sprite still features a motorcycle.
Phantom proves useful once more here with a well-used Leaf Blade.
This will be sold, as per.
The wild Pokémon for this route is this quite uninspiring addition to the team.
Welcome, Verity.
Cycling Road has been given quite the lick of paint in this game, and it’s a lot more interesting to explore. That being said, the majority of the rest of the update is just fighting trainers and gawking at their fusions.
As to be expected, many Poison and Fighting types among the teams used here.
While Citizen Snips is strong, his main weakness is his very serious lack of Speed, which means many Pokémon go first in battle and he gets worn down bit by bit. In addition, he often takes on status effects like Poison and Burn since he can’t reliably take out his foes before they can stick him with them.
He is nice to have though. The concept of a hypnotist crab is just so pleasing to me.
Roost is nice. Valefor relies on it quite a lot at this point in the game.
Um, no thanks?
What’s particularly heartbreaking is that Jamal’s first Pokémon was a Vulpix. RIP Tiny.
This dude’s been living under a rock. The absolutely horrible Warmeleon he has manages to burn Citizen Snips, which is really frustrating as he relies on physical moves.
Lots of trainers on this route.
That is one problematic name.
Noticing some new additions to the route yet?
This guy goes down to a few Sky Attacks. These half-Poison fusions prove quite bulky and make me slightly anxious about Koga’s gym.
Here we see that Citizen Snips is just not too great when it comes to one-shotting enemies. Even with super-effective moves, he’s gonna need a few levels before he can safely be used in battle without a lot of healing support.
Some properly contentious names in this update, huh?
A switch-in to Phantom proves her the MVP of the update as a crit Leaf Blade decimates the Starape.
We find a HP Up on this ship which is like, okay, I guess.
And yet you’ll try it anyway. Wobape goes down to its own moves as it scratches Valefor and takes Rocky Helmet damage. Valefor sits there, Roosting.
This guy explains that they’re out here expanding the land. Sounds familiar!
He gives us the TM for Bulldoze, which is quite nice. Could prove useful in the near future.
We’re coming up to the end now!
Valefor is rocking Petal Dance now, and it handily takes care of this. Oh, that poor Shellder.
No!
Very awesome design. Love everything about it.
A move tutor here with a pretty useful move for competitive Pokémon. I think I prefer Crunch for those who can learn either, though.
And that’s that. A comparatively short update after the last few, but no less full of progression.
Post-Update Summary
Two losses in exchange for a gym badge is a hefty price, but we still have plenty of powerful team members to see us through the next challenges the game has to throw at us. At the moment, we have a few options for progression: while the classic route would be exploring the new routes opened up to us to train our team and catch a bunch of new Pokémon, we do need to decide whether we’re taking on Koga or Sabrina next, and we need a strategy for tackling Silph Co. In addition, we have the Safari Zone to explore and HMs to collect. It’s going to be an exciting few updates!
New Pokémon
Route 17: Verity the Spearow
New Fusions
Vulth (Vulpix + Meowth) evolved into Vulsian (Vulpix + Persian)
Vulsian (Vulpix + Persian) evolved into Ninesian (Ninetales + Persian)
Death Counter
Asterius the Meowlett
Yuri the Togebra
Istwo the Esduo
Tiny the Ninesian
Captain Ike the Gyarabat
Curated Critiques 