TKGriffiths

I second Goldeen, you wouldn't think it but it's an absolute tank with only one weakness and well balanced stats. Early game it gets Horn Attack and Water Pulse which are relatively powerful and eventually it gets Waterfall, Megahorn and Facade which have good coverage and high base power. Soak is also a useful utility move, you can weaken any pokemon by removing its STAB boost and it could also remove bonuses from field effects or introduce new vulnerabilities.

I chose Torterra, very bulky and reliable. Great level-up movepool including Earthquake, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Leaf Storm. Learns Nature Power by TM which is insanely useful early game to turn field effects to your advantage. Also learns Flash for some reason which was lucky for me, none of my other team members could learn it.

I did suspect it was progress related, I just like to complete all areas as much as I can before I progress the story. Was afraid I missed this area so I wanted to check. Thanks!

I've heard about it but....where is it?! I found a steel beam that leads to a Rock Climb wall in the area next to the meteor base where Giant Steelix came from, that seems to be a dead end. Is it down there somewhere? It is possible I missed an area down there it all looks very similar. The area on the right with all the ledges just before route 1 is inaccessible, it looks like I can make my way east there but there's an unmovable rock in the way. Maybe I need to progress further in the story? I've just been told to go to 7th street if that helps.

Arbok is a very good support pokemon. Intimidate + Black Sludge means it tanks a lot of hits and it has good support moves in Glare, Acid Spray and Screech. Bite is great early game for paraflinch until you get Crunch, and eventually Coil + Gunk Shot will be a deadly combo. Nidoking's Sheer Force Earth Power + Sludge Wave are extremely powerful STAB moves. I haven't got many good TMs yet but it will learn a lot of good ones, I have Surf in mind but Ice Beam/Fire Blast/Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball/Focus Blast etc are very good coverage options too if they become available.

The guide didn't answer the question to my satisfaction, please stop going on about it. I'm not interested in egg move changes from episode to episode, I'm interested in Destiny Knot/Power Items mechanics from episode to episode which the guide fails to cover. That guide is probably ideal for anyone wanting to know about breeding in general but not what I specifically wanted to know. I'd close the thread if this forum allowed me to do it, SkyRunner and Luna gave me what I wanted.

I already explained that there were many conflicting answers about it which is why I needed to ask. I didn't know whether that guide or the other posts were most accurate, given how the game mechanics could change episodically. Why should I take a chance when I can simply ask the question. That's what this forum is for. You refusing to answer my simple yes/no question to insist I trawl through that guide for an answer that isn't even clear is a bit annoying tbh. I learned more from Luna's post than that entire guide regarding what I actually wanted to know.

I know how breeding works all I wanted was confirmation of how up to date this game's mechanics are. There were conflicting answers about Destiny Knot/Power Items in other threads, maybe they were talking about previous episodes. Thanks.

Do Destiny Knot and Power Items work? Previous threads I've read say they don't but they're from 2014 so I can't trust them.

I don't think they're in too many battles but I agree they're definitely not intuitive, I have to constantly look at the field effects page to see what's actually going on. Like why does Electric Field boost Charge's stat gain, but not Charge Beam? Why does Grassy Field nerf Surf and Muddy Water but not other water moves? Why does Heat Wave/Searing Shot burn the Grassy field but not Flamethrower/Fire Blast? I'd almost say there's too much going on and that the field mechanics need to be simpler to understand.

Why isn't Nidoking on the list? When I saw Nidoran was available with a Moon Stone in bag it was a real 'aww yiss' moment. Good base stats, Sheer Force, Earth Power/Megahorn as level up moves, it learns a good few TMs. Lack of poison STAB without TMs is a problem, though Double Kick and Horn Attack are usable early game.

I understood it would be damage of multiple types, I just didn't understand that it acts as a single chunk of damage rather than the base attack plus some extra damage from the field. I thought it would work kind of like weather or entry hazard damage but yeah it's exactly the same as Flying Press. Ironically I breezed through the gym second time around by doing exactly what the game is trying to discourage you from doing - levelling up a few pokemon rather than the whole team evenly. I'm fairly sure I could have done it with just my starter, it tore through them with Rose Incense-boosted Razor Leaf. I only switched in Goldeen vs Emolga though I'm sure my Ekans/rest of my team could have dealt with that if needed.

Your suggestions aren't cheap they just aren't relevant, I don't think you understood what I'm complaining about. Julia being a difficult boss isn't cheap, the problem is that so far in the game you've fought nothing but cannon fodder like any other pokemon game. Until this ridiculous sudden spike in difficulty without any accompanying mechanisms to deal with said spike. Yes a level 20 kricketune/goldeen solves the problem. Any level 20 pokemon would solve the problem, since my current underlevelled, unsuitable, underpowered team can easily make it to her final pokemon every time. At which point the level 20 pokemon steps in and kills Electrode. The issue is there isn't any way to get a level 20 pokemon without hours of grinding against wild pokemon. I didn't know the electric field changed the move's type completely, I thought it just 'added' some extra elemental damage on top (similar to the mechanics of flying press being multi-type). That isn't clear from reading the 'field effects' page so thanks for that.

Well I've started another playthrough, I really did want to carry on with that team but I wasn't prepared to spend the hours grinding. I'm still going for another Intimidate Arbok because it was very effective getting Glare/Bite early on. Tbh when I first saw those wild Goldeen (before even considering the gym) they really appealed to me because of the relatively high base power Horn Attack, the only reason I didn't pick one up was because my starter was also a water type. That won't be an issue this time.

If you read my post you'd understand that my issue isn't with the gym's difficulty, it's the lack of SOLUTIONS to that difficulty unless you've metagamed and planned everything out beforehand. Which isn't how a game like pokemon should be played. Lightningrod doesn't make you immune to Sonicboom/Explosion. Maybe you can exploit the stupid A.I which maybe isn't intelligent enough to know not to spam electric moves once the first one get absorbed. But again, if you're abusing the A.I just to progress in the game you know something's wrong. I doubt Kricketune can wreck anything unless it's overleveled, and it definitely can't survive Explosion. Lol nothing has the bulk to take more than 3 Sonicbooms or an Explosion. And say I did pick up these pokemon, what will they be level 5? How am I supposed to level them up without hours of grinding against wild pokemon? It's just poor design that you're trying to justify by saying 'well you should have done x and y earlier'. And please don't patronize me by pointing out obvious things like taking an electric-immune pokemon to the electric gym, the problem is much deeper than that. I was going to base this playthrough around a core of Empoleon/Arbok which cover each other's weaknesses well except Ground, which I would cover with a suitable ground resist when/if I came across one. The rest of my team at the moment was Trubbish, Stunky, Igglybuff, Whismur. So it's not as if I didn't shop around. The game up until the gym was very easy so I just leveled up my team evenly because I was vaguely aware of a level cap. Which basically left me with a team of underleveled pokemon with bad moves, and no way to realistically improve either.