Autumn Zephyr

You know those moments when you're wandering about, minding your own business, and all of a sudden you get this epiphany out of nowhere? I just had one, and it's one that very likely changes one of my votes for when I get around to actually submitting those: Araquanid gets Entrainment by level up. And both of its Abilities kinda screw over one of the Gym Leaders that it's around for. Granted, Wide Guard's probably still a better option for one of them, but it's still a nice thing to have in your back pocket, methinks. How did I not think of that before? Don't worry yourself too much over the upload schedule- mental health is an important thing to keep up with, and I, for one, am capable of waiting if need be.

What did the Rose Incense ever do to deserve such a horrid nerf?! #IncenseLivesMatter Fun fact: of the four pokemon that have the word 'dew' in their English names, budew is the only one that isn't a Water Type. (The others are dewgong, dewott, and dewpider)

...My ears are ringing... There are too many 'splosions 'round these parts... Oh, um, right, review time! Er, who needs training montages when you can have 'the results of the training' montages instead? It's a much shorter stream! ...And it kinda figures that Fern's budew is still just that while Yuuka's flourishing under our care. Even his own pokemon don't respect him! I spotted a semi-important name among the Meteor Grunts this time- hadn't expected them to show up so early, ya know? I'm keeping an eye another one, though- I'm curious to see if that minior will stay green for the rest of the game, or is randomly generated every time. ...Either Victoria has a surprisingly low amount of stamina, or she forgot that she was given the Running Shoes back at the Grand Hall. Anyway, it seems we're headed towards the Dang-Character-Limit-is-a-Problem Ward next time! Oh, and before I forget: Current death toll: 6 (Unchanged from last update)

Aside from how Crawli reacts to you in Terajuma, I don't think it does? He and his Rangers shouldn't be blocking your way into the forest anymore due to their trouble at home, so I guess said Rangers wouldn't be hanging out in the gate either? Or the old man that shows up in front of the sign in front of the cave afterward? Mostly minor NPC stuff, basically.

I don't think you're ready~ For Grape Jelly~! All those awesome stats~ Will make you jelly~! No, I didn't just rhyme something with itself, what are talking about? Ahem. It is a bit unfortunate that it was Grape Jelly's Sp. Defense that lost the IV lottery rather than his Speed, and his HP's a little lacking as well, but having 3 25+ stats ain't nothing to scoff at either! Tatertot looks to be pretty decent, especially since her lowest IV is in the offensive stat she'll eventually stop using. I hear that krikitune is one of the Reborn SuperstarsTM, so I'm curious to see how well she lives up to the rumors. And, oh dear... one of Yuuka's guaranteed 31's went into the wrong offense... Granted, the 29 Sp. Attack Ivs are pretty close, but that's still unfortunate. Having the One Correct Ability should help make up for a little bit, at least. And lastly, Cherry Pie's looking like quite the mixed bag. Her IV counts hit both sides of the spectrum! Unfortunately, she got a low one in Sp. Attack, so maybe it'll be better to put her in a more supportive role? The line does get Worry Seed and Morning Sun naturally... Aromatherapy, on the other hand, is unfortunately an Egg Move for cherubi, so her skillz as a cleric are gonna be a tad limited... And lastly, we have Swordsman the igglybuff! With a name like that, it's only naturall that they'd have a low Sp. Defense stat! Wait, that one's at 0? On a pokemon with naturally low defenses? Oh. Oh dear. At least Competitive is a really nice Ability? I guess we could call this batch of pokebuddies 'Yuuka and Co.'s Farm-Fresh Produce', huh? I mean, even potato plants flower, so it isn't too far out of character, right? ...Did that old woman just say that Ally Switch has negative priority? That, uh, doesn't exactly seem very helpful. The move's original purpose was to transfer pokemon to a more advantageous side in Triple Battles (which no longer exist), and it's competitive usage is to throw off enemy aim to avoid taking SE attacks on key pokes in Doubles. Having the move go last seems kinda... pointless, especially since the Field Effects don't care where in the battle you are... Did I miss a key detail or something? ...I forgot that Team Meteor had a Rocket 'Motto' ripoff. Seems a lot more streamlined now that I know what they're actually up to now, though- it'd seem all over the place and unfocused back in the day! I've said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating: if Fern's supposed to be the epitome of "swag", then boy an I glad that I ain't got none! Spoilers for later in the game, to those whom have this as their first journey: Current death toll: 6 (Unchanged from last update) Edit: Whoops! I didn't expect to double post!

This may have something to do with the fact that budew has an extra requirement to evolve compared to most other Friendship evolutions: it'll only evolve in daylight hours. So if your trying to level it up at night, you're kinda doing it wrong (but would be on point if it were a chingling)! Can confirm that budew on its own is a surprisingly tough little beastie, though. I had a lv. 16 one with a -Sp. Attack Nature successfully whittle down Gardenia's Lv. 22 roserade in my last run of Diamond- you don't get much more humiliating takedowns than that, no? Response to the actual episode coming when I actually watch it. Kinda needed to got distracted by goofy-looking plant toddlers...

...I didn't think of that (odd, coming from the someone who transferred Surge Surfer this way when they did it), but it is a marvelous idea. Shutting down the one Type they're guaranteed to get bonuses on will really slow Rick's progress down a bit!

One of my reactions upon ready Iolia Valley's Field Effect Readout (Dark Crystal Cavern) was "oh, so this is where necrozma will be", though that was without taking the expansion on its extraterrestrial nature in USUM into account. While the devourer of light may not be in Iolia Valley specifically (on account of being in the OP's extradimensional realm), it's almost certainly going to be fought in that Field- Prism Armor, Prismatic Laser, Photon Geyser, and Power Gem all get buffed by it (as does Moongeist Beam, but I doubt we'd be fighting it in Dawn Wings mode), so it'd be a bit of a waste otherwise! I'm not too sure I agree with landorus just being in the desert randomly, though. He isn't just some earthy looking jaguar thing with an odd cloud motif- he's a fertility deity. And what are deserts known for? Their infertility! If he is in the desert area, he'd specifically be in a spot with plenty of greenery- perhaps even in one of the mirages, since we know those have a divine touch to them already. If Agate City really is related to Orre's Agate Village somehow, celebi's more likely to be there, methinks. Agate Village- its Relic Stone especially- is one of the only two locations that are specifically tied to the time travelling onion fairy (unless the Ranger games had something?), and we're pretty much guaranteed not to see Ilex Forest in this game.

>Doubles against Amaria *Has 2011 flashbacks* No more tsunamis, please...! ...Okay, I wasn't anywhere near Japan when those hit, but one of my old pairs of glasses lenses were, so... Of all the things to expect to have to sign a 'this company isn't liable if you experience any negative side effects of radiation exposure' form for, eyewear wouldn't exactly be that high up on most peoples' lists, ya know? I still haven't voted yet, myself, on account of not being sure how to answer some of the points quite yet, but Amaria's Gym is one of the points I know what my answer will be on.

...I had no idea his field changed in transition to V10 (it was Electric Terrain when I fought him), but my word if that isn't a unexpectedly effective change! I never would've seen that coming... My recommendation would be to train up the Shadow Alolan muk- it is of the Type the Field is intended to benefit most (Poison), without having the tradeoff of being weak to Alolan Raichu's Psychic. Combined with its generally high Special Defense, it should be able to hold its own quite well for this fight. If it has the Alchemy Ability, be sure to be careful not have it pick up Protean off your greninja while his raichu's around- you don't want to lose your Psychic immunity early, after all! Keep arcanine around, of course- it should be able to mess up his magnezone pretty badly, which solves the biggest problem with your team for this battle (since all Water moves become Poison here, which magnezone is immune to). Think about reteaching it Outrage, at least temporarily- he's got a Dragon on his team, and quite a nasty one at that, so being able to savage it is a handy skill indeed. In a similar vein, it might be worthwhile to visit the Move Realearner to get teach your swampert Hammer Arm, since this is one of the few fights where Earthquake doesn't help you. Swap out Mud Sport for it, and you should be good to go. I'm sure others can offer more advice, but that's what I can offer with what I know. Good luck, young challenger!

I usually use non-team members for HMs not named Surf (or Fly in the main games- I wouldn't do that in harsher games like Reborn and Rejuv). This did result in me playing through my most recent Diamond run without two of my team members, but them's the breaks sometimes. Addendum: I nearly forgot that I had my chesnaught alternate between Strength and Rock Smash for a large part of the game since he had a "free" move slot and they can be overwritten in this game anyway. I finally settled down when I got the TM for Brick Break (finally giving the guy some Fighting STAB), but Strength did come in handy against a few more Gym Battles than I initially anticipated.

The important thing to note is that the path names are significant: in the Zekrom Route, the tale unfolds in a more ideal manner, whereas the Reshiram unveils more backstory- truths, if you will- at the cost of making the story even rockier than it was before. Since you specify that you'rem a story-driven player, I think the Reshiram Route will be more interesting for you.

He just asks if you remember what he said back in Iolia Valley, with the choices being a wrong answer, the right answer, and simply admitting that you don't. Really, the most spoilery part of the situation is simply that he's there.

It's just a Relationship Points thing, as far as I'm aware. Haven't beaten that dungeon's boss yet myself, but I doubt that it will amount to any more than that. Edit: Accelgor'd by Seki

Aaah, no, I meant the ekans, not you! I legitimately haven't got a clue as to what the recording-file-doohicky shenanigans even mean, so I guess I'll take your word for it. I was wondering whether Stunfisk's sprite showing up in the corner was something the game did itself or not, though- I don't personally play with the borders, so my curiosity was piqued there!

And thus, the quest begineth! What shall guide our spiky headed hero along their journey: ambition? Vengeance for the fallen? The simple desire to get somewhere less smelly? Why, they're probably a tad too stunned to know the answer themselves at the moment! Stunfisk looks pretty solid as he is, and JAwesome... actually doesn't look very awesome, to be honest. Guess that's the way the snakeskin crumbles sometimes, huh? It seems we got lucky with the unruly pokemon sidequest, though- having Zargerth show up this early is certainly more useful for us than snubull would've been! Spoilers for later in the game, to those whom have this as their first journey: Current death count: 6

A) Yes, the Telluric Seed is used up when it triggers. And yes, this specific detail gets used against you in a later fight... B) Starly is only available through the Mystery Egg in the Jasper Ward (only accessible if you rescued all the officers) at your current point of the game. You do have access to pidgeotto (Jasper Ward) in any case (pidgeot if you level it past the cap and Common Candy it back down), as are vivillon and fearow (both in the Beryl Ward).

The Seed in Question is the Telluric Seed, which boosts the user's Attack by one stage and applies Spiky Shield to them for the first turn that they're on the field. With that in mind, Flamethrower probably won't be too helpful in this fight (though it'll be useful afterwards until it can pick up Flare Blitz). If you have no way to prevent Rain from being set up before you can combust her Field somehow, you aren't necessarily out of luck in terms of stealing it from her. If you have a Heart Scale on hand, it might be worthwhile to reteach your ampharos Electric Terrain over at the Onyx Ward (note that you'll need to find the lady's misplaced House Key to access the service) so that you can deny her anorith access to its Telluric Seed. It's almost certainly better to go the other way, however, since Faking Out her illumise will buy you the time you need for your growlithe to set it aflame and she has no way to put out the flames once they're active.

My gut reaction is actually to give it Nature Power in the fourth slot: this gives you Energy Ball (90 BP, chance to lower Sp. Def. if the target survives) while you Grassy Terrain is active, while still letting you benefit from the Field Effects when Grassy Terrain fades/ the enemy takes back control (every move it turns into gets something from the current Field Effect, if there is one). Arguably, you could get away with swapping Grassy Terrain with Nature Power, take Alistair's suggestions, and slap a Grassium-Z onto it, seeing as Bloom Doom sets up Grassy Terrain on use. This isn't without drawback, though- it uses up your one Z-Move a match, the Terrain only lasts 3 turns, and Nature Power becomes slightly redundant during that time. That's my take on the situation, at least.

No, no, it knows Rock Climb! All three forms learn the move at Lv. 45. Rockruff itself is a standard encounter on Route 2- and I believe the one I caught was high enough of a level to come knowing the move already.

...I'm surprised nobody mentioned lycanroc until now, actually. Huh. On that note, any rockruff can evolve into its Dusk form in Reborn- you just need to be sure that it's somewhere between 5:00 pm and 5:59 pm when it happens! I imagine this one's natural access to Rock Climb will come in handy quite a bit towards the end... Slakoth is in the Obsidia Park as well, but unlike buneary is post-restoration only. Makes sense to me- the thing does stats that are quite similar to Groudon's, and while Truant isn't the greatest Ability in the world, it does serve as a perfectly valid excuse to use the otherwise-ignored Giga Impact! Having used slaking back in Gen. 3 (when Hyper Beam was Physical and hilariously looked like it was coming out of its nose), I can assure you that it hits every bit as hard as it sounds it does. Oh, and with that, we're past the 50 pokemon mark! ...Good thing there are so many Gym Leaders in this game, huh?

I feel like you missed the opportunity to request Yuuka's Mystic Square outfit with a lurantis so that they could be p(l)ants buddies, Seki, but maybe that's just my punny side showing... >_>; On that note, might I make a request of my own and bog your glorious art process down even further? If so, I'd like to see what you can come with for a piece that includes lurantis and dewpider- the two Alolan pokemon that simultaneously exemplify, and invert, their real world counterparts! Feel free to turn me down if your workload's feeling to great, though- those who came before me do take priority, and none of us want your work to suffer, after all~! In any case, keep up the good work!