Pokémon General Thread

I restarted my Platinum. I'm gonna liveblog my second playthrough.

Pokemon Platinum Liveblog Part 1
Time played: 0:00 - 0:39

• The intro starts off. That music is awesome and I feel nostalgic.
• Professor Rowan decides to be the tutorial guy. I ignore him.
• For the first time ever, I choose the female trainer. I give her the canon name, Dawn, and name the rival Hector.
• Things start out normally, but then Hector bursts in on Dawn in her room. What if she'd been changing and he'd challenged her to a battle? Clearly this guy has no respect for anyone.
• Hector threatens Dawn with massive debt if she doesn't comply with him whims. And people say Unova was the America region.
• I head downstairs, where I find Dawn's mother so focused on watching TV that she fails to notice how phallic her daughter's hat looks. Good parenting.
• Anyway, Hector leads me out of my hometown, explaining his plan to run really fast and avoid wild Pokemon. Professor Rowan quickly shows up to put a stop to it.
• Oh look, it's Lucas. He swiped the Prof's bag when he wasn't looking, but now that Professor Rowan is their he is forced to return the bag. He makes up a story about the Prof forgetting his bag, but we all know the truth. Also, Lucas seems really odd and out there.
• I get to choose my starter. For the first time ever, I choose the Grass starter. Hector snags Chimchar, and challenges me to a Pokemon battle.
• Easiest rival battle ever. (Not exaggerating.) Hector has his Chimchar use Leer every single turn. He never attacks. My Turtwig takes him down and gets to level 6.
• Hector is shocked that he lost. The Prof and Lucas depart.
• Dawn's mom tells her to go and thank Professor Rowan for the Turtwig. Also, she gives her some running shoes, which grant Dawn the power to run. However, the guy who wrote the instruction manual is a dolt. "Press the B Button to run"? Sure, that would work on the off chance that the person who bought these shoes was being controlled by a person from another dimension, but what if any other person in the Sinnoh region wanted those shoes? They'd spent hours trying to figure out what this "B Button" was! As a matter of fact, why do shoes even need an Instruction Manual? They're freaking shoes!
• Hector wants to head to Lake Verity and get Professor Rowan a legendary Pokemon. Little does he know that the dreaded roaming Pokemon is at that lake. He'd probably never be able to catch it!
• I talk with Hector for a little bit. He mentions the Champion, and says that he will defeat them. How does he expect to defeat Cynthia if he doesn't even understand concepts like attacking, again? I can't help but imagine him using Swords Dance over and over while her Garchomp rips through his Pokemon.
• We head to the lake and Cyrus leaves literally one second before the legendary Pokemon reveals its presence. Jerk or not, you have to feel bad for the guy.
• Hector runs off to Sandgem town to mooch Pokeballs off the Prof. I take the time to train Turtwig up to level 8 before leaving the lake. Also, Turtwig has an Impish nature! Awesome!
• I head towards Sandgem town and discover that there was a guy standing just off to the right when I met the Prof and battled Hector. Why didn't he ask the Prof for Piplup? Does he not like free stuff?
• On the way to Sandgem Town, I level Turtwig up to level 9 and it learns Absorb. This move is weaker than Tackle and uses Turtwig's inferior Special Attack stat. Unlike the other two starters, I'll have to wait until level 13 for my first good STAB move.
• I reach Sandgem Town, where the Prof lets me name my Turtwig. I name him Rumbler. However, the Prof keeps referring to Rumbler as "TURTWIG", even though he has a name. Also, a have to wonder how the on-screen text sounds pre-Gen V. Does everyone just talk normally only to scream out the names of their Pokemon mid-sentence? Like, "I'm travelling with CHARMANDEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRR, who I received from Professor Oak."
• I also get a Pokedex, which somehow has the data for all the Pokemon I've seen, even though I haven't seen them since before I got the Pokedex. What gives? Did someone else have this Pokedex and get killed by a Chimchar, Starly, or Bidoof? I want answers!
• The Prof gives me a TM. Lucas is incredibly surprised that the Prof has TMs, and has the hilarious (to him) mental image of a younger Prof battling. Um, Lucas, everyone who isn't stuck to one spot for their entire life battles. It's just the way the Pokemon world works. Also, why didn't the Prof tell Lucas about his TMs? Was he afraid that Lucas would swipe them or something?
• Lucas shows me the Pokemon Center and the Pokemart. Man, Pokemarts have a monopoly on Pokemon products. They're like Wal-Mart: they secretly control the government.
• I buy some Pokeballs from the Pokemart and catch a level 2 Bidoof to be used as one of my two HM Slaves. (With Tropius and Bibarel, I can cover all eight HMs with just two Pokemon.) I'll have to get Bidoof to level 15 if I want to have use its maximum HM Slave potential, but I won't need to worry about that until I'm far enough that I can easily get it there from wild Pokemon. For now, I just deposit it in the PC. I won't be needing that Bidoof until after I beat Roark.
• Now its time for Dawn to head home to Twinleaf town, and tell her mom that she's moving out. Dawn's mom can rent out Dawn's room without any guilt now.

And that's all for Part 1. I'll get Part 2 written after playing through more of the game. Also, I'll provide links to each of the past parts of my liveblog with each new update.

Beat up the Elite Four again on the way home, will be fighting Iris in a bit.

Bit of a borderline case, but I don't wanna go in the other thread:

Could someone link a list of all known Mega forms, if such a thing exists, and without pictures? Or maybe PM it to me. I don't want to see any pictures and spoilers shouldn't be posted here directly, but I'm just curious about which mons got the treatment. No new mons got Mega forms, right?

I PM'd a list to you.

Mega Medicham

Dude you have no idea how much I want.

Pokemon Platinum liveblog Part 2!

Part 1, for those too lazy to scroll up a few posts.

Time Played: 0:39 - 1:34

• Okay, so I head back to Twinleaf. It's not like Sandgem town was the start of an adventure or anything.
• When I get back, Dawn's mom kicks her out of the house under the pretenses of sending her daughter off to adventure into the unknown. I wonder what she did to Dawn's father. He's probably in the dinner she mentioned making.
• Oh look, it's Hector's mom! Apparently Hector left behind a very important package which Dawn's mom decides that Dawn must deliver to him. I'm screaming at Dawn, "Don't do it! It's probably drugs!" Alas, while I control Dawn, she cannot here me. She has no clue what problems her innocence could bring.
• I head back to Sandgem. On the way I catch a Starly (nickname: Riot) and a Kricketot (nickname: Kricko). I don't plan on adding them to my name team, but I might as well hang on to them for now. Also, I get Rumble (Turtwig) to level 10.
• I get back to Sandgem Town and head off to Route 202. Time to catch a Shinx!
• Oh wait, Lucas is there. He ignores the fact that Dawn has a new Starly and Kricketot in her team and decides to teach her how to catch a Pokemon. Which she has already done. Three times.
• He catches a Bidoof. Poorly. Then explains that he did a bad job. How is this supposed to educate Dawn on something she already knows how to do? Is it supposed to be an example of how not to catch Pokemon? He also forks over 5 Pokeballs. Strange, I expected him to try to steal Dawn's hat or something.
• Okay, I think Lucas is the one who's on drugs. He has the laid back attitude of a stoner, and not only did he steal the Prof's briefcase, the Prof also worried that he would raid the TM drawer. Clearly he doesn't get enough pay to satisfy his problem. Nice of him to fork over those Pokeballs, but now that I think about it, he probably stole them from his sister's cupboard.
• I catch a Shinx and name it Delux. Nothing interesting here, I just spend a while training it until it reaches level 8.
• First trainer battle! I take down a Starly and get Delux to level 9. Unfortunately this kid's dad must be either a miser or a Communist, because when Dawn searches his pockets, she only finds 80.......whatever the hell the currency is in the Pokemon world. Tauros skulls?
• I beat up another young trainer, but she also only possesses 80 Tauros skulls. That's not even enough to buy a berry!

Well, that's all for now. Next time, I'll go to Jubilife City and probably make that drug trade.

Okay, been ages since I've played a Pokemon game since the 3DS came out like a month after B&W and I've wanted to save myself so I don't get bored of it anytime soon. So mega hyped for X&Y and delighted that I get to play it a day early at a pre-launch event in GAME. Couple of quick questions though.

• When evolving by stone, does it matter when? Obviously evolved pokemon may not learn certain moves that their younger versions do, and they level up slower, but beyond that? Is there any impact on base stat total or anything like that, or am I as well just evolving as soon as I get the stone?
• When breeding using a Ditto, do I absolutely need a female of the mon I'm using, or is a male fine? This is for starter breeding really, since I'd rather not spend hours at the start of the game resetting for a female if I don't need to.

Are you a bad enough Trainer to save Gamestop?◊

That's it. I'm wearing my Team Rocket shirt when I pick up the game...

... Unless they have a midnight release, in which case I'll bring my flashing Pikachu shirt.

Ditto can breed with any pokemon regardless of species or gender, with the exception of legendaries (Manaphy being the exception) and "Baby" pokemon such as Phione, Igglybuff, Rufflet, Vullaby, etc.

edited 9th Oct '13 4:19:37 AM by DRCEQ

Rufflet and Vullaby can breed. They're not baby Pokemon by the games somewhat arbitrary classification. Phione, too.

There's a list on bulbapedia, but the relevant part is that all starters can breed just fine.

I know the starters can breed, I'm just checking that I don't need to hold out for a female one in order to do that (I'll reset for a good nature, but gender is too much if I don't need to)

@Gamestop: Cute, but shouldn't that be Team Flare? :P

No, you don't need a specific gender to breed with Ditto. It just transforms itself into the supplied pokemon.

Yep. The only things that can't breed with Ditto are baby Pokemon, Legendaries besides Manaphy, and Nidorina and Nidoqueen.

Cool, thanks, good to know. Any idea about my evolutionary stones query?

If a Pokemon has learned all the level-up moves you want it to know, there's no reason not to evolve it. That includes Stone evolution.

As a warning: If you want Egg moves from a Ditto parenting bit, then you'll need a male that already has the move(s) you want.

edited 9th Oct '13 7:54:37 AM by Pulse

Beyond the lack of better moves, no, nothing fundamentally wrong in evolving early.

edited 9th Oct '13 7:55:36 AM by demonfly

I think the move relearner should be able to teach your Pokemon moves its prior evolutions could learn.

edited 9th Oct '13 7:59:44 AM by CassidyTheDevil

That's cool, thanks, just checking if there was any BST implications of evolving at a different time. I didn't think there would be, since any deficit caused by evolving later would presumably be met later (i.e. one could use a Fire Stone on Eevee at level 98 and get a really big stat boost at levels 99 and 100 to bring Flareon up to the latter's true BST) but I'd rather check such things first.

24 hours before I get to play the games! Thank you pre-launch event!

Pretty sure your stats recalculate with your evo's BST when you apply the stone. So you could evolve Eevee at level 100 and get full Flareon stats.

edited 9th Oct '13 8:19:06 AM by Adannor

Be careful with the stone evolution. As an example, Clefairy has Cosmic Power on its level up list, but not Clefable, so the latter can't learn (or re-learn) Cosmic Power unless it evolved with it. Check stone evolutions for their level up lists before you evolve them to be sure.

Thy next gym is...◊

Moves are the only thing at "risk" when evolving. Stats will be the same whether you evolve it ASAP or at level 99. Level up rate doesn't usually differ between evolutionary levels in the same line.

It never differs.

Moveset changes are the only downside to evolving, yeah. Well, aside from changes to type or stats, but those are more intuitive.