CHAPTER 2: CASCOON, CASCOON, SILCOON and A TESTAMENT OF WILL
After busting into an old man's apartment, it was time to search for quite a list of Pokémon. I quickly notice on the Wiki that Trubbish has a 1% chance of spawning, so I'm not going to worry about it here, and Stunky as well since I know they are also in Peridot Alley. The focus right now is Cherubi, Spinarak, Ledyba, Hoothoot, Caterpie, and Wurmple <.< ... The first Wrumple arrives and I really like it, but I know I'm going to need a couple of them to get both Dustox and Beautifly. Not long after a Shiny Ledyba appears... and another... and another..., and oh my lord please no. Yeah I was being swarmed by these things, and they are found in multiple areas in Reborn they will plague me throughout the run not as much as another Pokémon that starts with T, but it's third. I then luck into a Shiny Cherubi not bad.
Having acquired most of the morning Pokémon, I change my system time to night and continue hunting. I catch a few more Wurmples up to four by the time I finish catching all the other night time Pokémon. Spinarak, Hoothoot, and Caterpie is caught without too much trouble. By the way, my friends and I were discussing what Pokémon we used in Generation 1. I told them I kept Butterfree all the way through the game, and my friends asked me why. Butterfree is pretty fast, and has Compound Eyes Sleep Powder need I say more. Also Butterfree is pretty handy Pokémon to have on this run primarily for Compound Eyes to increase item collection rate, and Sleep Powder a very accurate move in the hands of Butterfree and a nice status condition to help capture Pokémon. I'll be using the Ariados later to help deal with a Pesky Land Shark, but that's way later in the run. With four Wurmples in hand I begin leveling each one, and evolving them odds are I'll get one of each no problem. First one evolves into a Cascoon, and that's one down now just need a Silcoon. Second evolves again Cascoon to be expected, but surely the next one will be a Silcoon. The third one evolves; another Cascoon, I'm starting to sweat. The last one evolves... it's a Cascoon. I'm pretty much defeated. At this point I still haven't learned to check where else I can find Pokémon later in the run to counter the early woes. I jump back in to find another Wurmple, and desperately level it up praying to whichever god would hear me out. It's evolving, and finally I get my one Silcoon. All right Bibarel you know what time it is. Nothing too interesting here I find both a Male and Female Burmy for Mothim and Wormadam. I really like Wormdam's Shiny sprite neat concept.
After causing the next extinction event in the Old Man's precious garden I head off to the lake to go fishing. Every time I have to fish I deactivate speed mode because I do not have a fast enough reaction time to keep it on maybe younger me could do it, but younger me thought Drakengard 1 was an easy game on the hardest difficulty. Two Goldeens, 1 Finneon, and 1 Grimer later, and I'm done packing away the Old Rod for what will be a very long time. Now a quick stop in the alleyway. I gather the rest of the crew; Poochyena, Stunky, and Trubbish. All done yup nothing left in the alleys we're good to move on to the event Mons... A Wild Purrloin appeared... Nani? I didn't know Purrloin was here. I totally missed it when looking up the WIki, and it never appeared during my search for the other shinies... YOU HAVE A 21% CHANCE OF FINDING IT HOW DID I NEVER SEE IT TILL I WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE. A bit more searching, and done Shiny Purrloin acquired now we're done.
It's on to the event Pokémon. First one to bat is Pachirisu being cornered by some hooligans honestly at this point every battle is a curb stomp since my Pokémon are around level 18-20, so every fight is going to be a foregone conclusion. About 58 resets later, and Shiny Pachirisu is in the bag. I make a quick stop to nab myself another Bidoof just a normal one this time quick and simple and speed level it by fighting all the fights I avoid up to this point. Pay some money to a dude in an alley to get out of the way, and next up is Espurr... 428 resets... I actually started to give up. I mean in Sword and Shield I have boxes of shinies but you know its like 1/512 so 1200 Mons after I'm still motivated to keep going, but Reborn's 1/100 can be demoralizing. By the way my Espurr was female so just note that... just something I'd like to point out... Blitzle, Joltik and Tynamo all take swings at my determination with 212, 359, and 520 resets really testing my patients aren't you guys. Fortunately those are the worse of it. Pansear takes a good 145 resets, but not too bad. I totally forgot Woobat and Noibat are around here so I go out of my way to catch them too didn't take long. I secure a shiny Igglybuff from a scared old lady, and I'm not giving it back unless she can tell me what color her Igglybuff was. Surskit, Whismur and Gulpin are caught with just 8, 21, and 32 resets; about time I got easy wins. Teddiursa is no where to be found, and I searched everywhere I just can't find it. I'll end up returning and nabbing it later. Heading into an apartment, Shelly asked me to take a Shiny Kricketot with me on the 13th parallel universe. Lastly it's late at night I'm exhausted from spending nearly 20 hours hunting for shiny Pokémon, and I have one to go. I walk in, and begin trading my Plain, Normal, Non-Shiny Bibarel for Greg's Munna. I get it on second try is what I would like to say. No, my dingus smooth brain hits F12 without even looking, and my subconscious tasers my brain to attention to realize I just reset over a shiny. I would like to give you a number of resets, but no it gets worse I reset not once, not twice, but three times over a shiny Munna. I wanted to go to bed 4 hours ago. I gather my brainpower just long enough to nab the fourth shiny that appears, and head off to bed it's been a long day.
Now with everything checked off, and done it's time to progress the plot I post a screenshot to my friends right before I fight Fern, and they remark on what in gods name took me that many hours to get to Fern. It is at this point they realize what I'm doing. Fern doesn't stand a chance six level 20 Pokémon vs his three that are barely out of their teen levels. Quiver Dance Mothim just annihilated him, and I had five more Pokémon that never saw combat. The battles with Team Meteor were pushovers as well at this point my character is jaded the woes and concerns of both my allies and team meteor are but white nose to the cries of a Butterfree coming out of its Pokeball for the twenty thousandth battle in a row. I meet Julia at her gym and Moxie Mightyena sweeps her team. I had Loudred on my team to counter her sonic boom. Pachirisu with Volt Absorb to counter her damage, Kricketune as a back up sweeper, Persian for fake out and revenge killing. None of it mattered Mightyena had it handled. This is a good place to stop for Chapter 2 up next something far worse than what I had to deal with.
NOTES:
*I'll be taking a bit of time in between post. I essentially devoured Reborn over the course of a month with very little sleep, and a whole lot of shiny hunting. So I just need to spend some time doing other things, and catching up on games I didn't bother touching.
*One of the reasons I rushed through the game in one month like this was because I was worried Reborn would be done before I finished the run, and I wanted to finish the run before Chapter 19 came out.