Welcome back everyone! When we left off, Professor Rowan was instructing me to run directly towards the giant explosion over at Valor Lake. Great plan professor, send the kids in first. But before we head off to our death, there are a few places I remember passing that I couldn’t explore before. Now that I have strength and surf, it’s time to go check some of them out before I die.

First stop on the list is Oreburgh Gate. We passed through here way back on the first day, and at the time we just ran right through it. I remember there’s a whole subfloor to the cave that I’ve never explored and now seems like a good time to go check it out. There isn’t a whole lot to explore down here, but there were some cool ramps you could use to jump over rocks on your bike. There’s also some water you can surf across to reach a small area on the west side of the floor. Not much over here, but there was an Earth Plate which almost makes this worth the trip.

Next up, let’s check out the Ravaged Path on Route 204 north of Jubilife City. Again, this was a path we just ran through earlier. On the west side of the cave is water filled path you need to surf across to get to the rest of the cave. This one wasn’t very interesting. There was a water pulse TM as well as a luck incense, but I guess I wasn’t missing much before.

I guess it’s time to head back to Pastoria city and see if I can find that guy who has the HM05 Defog. I’m going to feel really stupid when I find out he’s right at the entrance and I just never talked to him… And he was right at the entrance, I just never talked to him. How did I not talk to him? He was immediately right of the entrance. I could have sworn I talked to him before. Oh well, I have it now, and I might as well hunt for some of the other Pokémon in here. Though the only new Pokémon of note I caught was a Marill. It was still worth the trip.

We’re getting closer to Valor Lake now, so how about going for a swim before the end. I couldn’t surf the last time I was out this way, I wonder if there is anything interesting hiding in the water. There were a few decent trainer battles, but otherwise not a lot of interest hiding out here in the water. The only other thing I can think of is to use the Vs Seeker in the restaurant to milk some quick cash out of the rich people before I go. Unfortunately, Professor Rowan as apparently psychic and yelled at me saying it wasn’t allowed. Nothing left to do now except see what’s going on at Valor Lake I guess.

It’s gone, just completely gone. The bomb was so massive that all the water was just completely blown out of the lake. The only things left are all the team galactic grunts and dozens of Magikarp. Everyone hates Magikarp and think they’re weak, but I think this is just more proof of how awesome they really are. There was a bomb that went off here that was so massive that it drained the lake and it was felt on the complete opposite side of the region. But here in the lake are a bunch of Magikarp alive and well, just slightly annoyed that they’re not in water anymore. They don’t even seem damaged in any way. That’s just so impressive how they can seem to survive virtually anything.

In the center of the lake is a cavern, which at one time apparently housed one of the 3 Legendary Pokémon of this region. Now, the only thing waiting for me is Galactic Commander Saturn. It would seem Team Galactic has already captured the Pokémon, and has plans to do the same back in Lake Verity outside my home town. But he won’t let me off without a fight, not that he posed much of a threat to me. One more Galactic Commander defeated and one step closer to bringing down this whole corrupt organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But there’s no time to celebrate now, we need to fly back home and help dawn back at lake verity. This is where my whole adventure began, back when I first picked Piplup as my starter. Now it’s full of Galactic Grunts as well as Commander Mars. I’ve already beaten her back at the Valley Windworks, and she hasn’t improved much since then. Unfortunately, we seem to be too late and she’s already managed to capture the legendary Pokémon from this lake. I’ll have to rush over to the last lake and help out Barry. What happened to us each protecting one of the lakes? At this point it seems like I’m going to be doing all the work AGAIN!

Anyway, I quick fly back to Celestic City and into Mt Coronet to head up to the final lake. Upon entering the lower levels of Mt coronet, I seem to find myself lost in yet another thick fog. I know I went and got defog, but I haven’t taught it to anyone yet. It doesn’t seem to matter though as it’s a straight path from the entrance to the exit. Maybe some other time I’ll come back and check out what was hidden in that thick fog.

And here it is the snowy north of the Sinnoh region. I’ve been waiting for this since I first started. I just knew there had to be a snowy area somewhere in this region. As much fun as it is to be playing in the snow, it does cause battles to be a bit of a pain with all the hail falling after every turn. I was able to capture a Sneasel and a Snover on my journey though, so everything turned out better than expected. I even came across a cabin with an old lady in it…Though she mysteriously disappeared the next time I entered. I hope she’s ok.

Running through the snow, I eventually came to the acuity lakefront, but first a stop over at Snowpoint city to heal up my Pokémon. We’re down to the last of the 3 lakes, but it seems that’s going to have to wait until next time, it’s just too warm and cozy inside this Pokémon center to step back outside into the cold.

So thank you for following me this far, and I’ll see you again next time when we go help Barry out of another crisis.

Current Pokémon:

Pachirisu	Cherrim	Drifblim
Level: 42	Level: 43	Level: 45
Empoleon	Rampardos	Bibarel
Level: 43	Level: 45	Level: 40

Play Time: 36h 43m

Badges: 6

Pokédex Entries: 116

It’s time once again for my Pokémon art gallery. Today, we’re finishing up on the novice lessons.

First up, we have the fire lizard starter Charmander. I love Charmander’s design, and on my first playthrough it was hard for me not to pick him. But I’ve never regretted my decision to go with Squirtle instead.

Next up, we have the Pokémon series mascot Pikachu. I don’t think he really needs much more introduction than that. You’d have to have been living under a rock for the last 20 years to not recognize that face.

 

So there we have it, the final lessons of the novice art courses. Starting next time we’re at the apprentice level for some more detailed work. Come around again next time to see more art or more likely to see if we can finally take down team galactic. See you then.

We left off with the instructions to go check out the library, but before that we really need to train some more. All my Pokémon are a bit under leveled right now. I headed back into the Hearthome City Gym, but apparently none of the Junior Trainers will fight me now that I’ve already beaten Fantina the Gym Leader. So I’m going to head back to Celestic Town and check out Route 211 to the west. There weren’t a lot of trainers, and before long we were right back into Mt Coronet. I couldn’t explore much because I can’t use strength outside of battle yet, so I guess I’ll have to go to the library like I was told.

A quick flight back to Jubilife City and just a short surf from there over to Canalave City. Almost as soon as I enter the town, my rival Barry challenges me again to a match. Once again he barely poses any threat at all. After taunting me to challenge the gym, I went to the library like I was told, but nothing special seemed to happen. There were a few books on the 3rd floor that told some interesting myths and legends of the Sinnoh area, but nothing spectacular. Maybe it’s just not time yet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still need to train, and I heard people talking about the Gym Trainers using the nearby Iron Island to train, so I’m going to go do the same thing. There isn’t much actually ON the island, instead it contains an abandoned mine which many trainers use as a training ground. the mine is full of trainers as well as a few Pokémon which give pretty good experience, my favorite of which being Steelix. He was introduced back in Gen 2, and I always wanted one, but because of the need to trade evolve him I never managed to get one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

About half way through the mine I happily came upon a trainer named Riley. Along with his Lucario, he made training so much easier. He joins me in my training, turning ever fight into a double battle, as well as healing my Pokémon after every encounter. With his help I was able to train my Pokémon easily twice as fast as I would have without him. I do feel kind of bad that I had to knock out his Lucario when I wanted to catch a Steelix. He would have killed it if I didn’t. Thankfully he didn’t hold it against me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the deepest part of the mine were a couple of team galactic grunts. I have no idea what they could possibly be doing down here, but together with Riley we kicked their asses. After our fight it would seem even they didn’t know why they were down here in the mine either, and they quickly left. In gratitude Riley gave me a Riolu egg he was carrying with him and left my party. Looks like my training is over, but I’ve done enough, I got everyone up to level 40. I wasn’t expecting the Riolu, but I’m happy to have him. Having my own Lucario would be great, but starting at level 1 would take quite a while to become useful. So it looks like she’ll be going into the computer box for now.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With my team nice and leveled up, it’s time to challenge the Canalave Gym. I’m a little confused with the theme of this Gym though. It claims to be a steel type gym, but nearly everyone has an Onix, a rock type. Some also have Steelix which is good, but then one trainer has only a single Azumarill, a water type. What are they even doing in the steel gym with a pure water type? The layout was also pretty unusual with multiple lifts forming a somewhat complex multi level maze.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I finally make it to the leader Byron, he drops the fact that he’s actually Roark’s father. I think that’s the first time that I’ve fought family members in two different gyms before. He might be better than his son, but after all that training, my Empoleon was able to solo his entire team without much trouble. This earns me my 6th badge, the Mine Badge, and finally allows me to use strength outside of battle.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting for me outside is Barry again, and he has some big news for me apparently. He brings me to the library, and there on the 3rd floor are Dawn and Professor Rowan. They tell me about a legend of Pokémon living in the lakes around Sinnoh. Between Dawn, Barry, and myself we each have to investigate one of the lakes. I of course get tasked with Lake Valor all the way across the country. That means I finally get to see what kind of sick experiments are going on over there. Our conversation is cut short however as a large earthquake hits and we all leave the building to investigate.

Go see what that is. I’ll stay here until you return.

 

Outside we learn that it wasn’t an earthquake at all, it was some kind of explosion over at Lake Valor. The same Lake Valor I was just sent to investigate. Not a single word was said to stop me either. Do I even need to mention that I am NOWHERE NEAR THE LAKE! It’s on the complete other side of the country. I’d to travel past at least 4 cities and pass through a mountain to get to the lake miles and miles away from where I am now. And it just had an explosion so big we mistook it for an earthquake. The best course of action is obviously to send the 10 year old to investigate this literal Earth shakingly huge explosion.

Before another word of protest can be said, Barry runs off on his own to investigate what happened. I’ll have to run after him to my doom as well, but I want to live for at least one more week, so I’m going to stop here for now. Come back next week when we go running head first into certain death!

Current Pokémon:

Empoleon	Cherrim	Drifblim
Level: 42	Level: 40	Level: 40
Pachirisu	Rampardos	Bibarel
Level: 40	Level: 42	Level: 40

Play Time: 32h 20m

Badges: 6

Pokédex Entries: 104

Now time to explore another entry from the Pokémon Art Academy.

First up is #001 Bulbasaur. The first starter of the first game and national Pokédex #001, this grass type starter is perfect for beginners. I’m not sure why people seem to dislike picking him as a starter. Personally, whenever I have all three starters in my party, I end up actually sending Bulbasaur and his evolutions into battle more often than the other two.

Next we have a bit of an oddity with Victini. Introduced in Pokémon Black and White, I was actually very upset to find out I had missed the event needed to acquire him. I didn’t even hear about it until it was already over. That’s not why he’s an oddity though, I think he’s interesting for being the only Pokémon to have an entry # of 000 in its regional Pokédex.

So, another week down. Join me again next time as we run off to our death!

Welcome back! When we left off, we were having a nice stay at Hotel Grand Lake. Turns out this is a decent place for some trainer battles. There are lots of pretentious rich people with lots of money when you beat them. Seriously, I can’t stand these high society people. There was one couple having a date and when I overheard the following conversation. Rich Boy “Are you enjoying the food? My father is the head chef here so order whatever you want.” Rich Girl “Oh yes, it’s so wonderful! (I don’t have the heart to tell him, but my father OWNS the hotel).” If I ever become rich, I hope I never become that self-absorbed.

After pocketing my winnings, it’s time to get back onto my adventure and head off to Pastoria City. As soon as I enter the town, there’s another Team Galactic Grunt standing around like he’s ready to cause some trouble. From what I overheard of his talking to himself, it sounds like he’s about to plant a bomb somewhere. But he doesn’t pay me much attention because I only have 3 badges. I’ll have to keep an eye on him, but for now, it doesn’t seem like there’s much else I can do about him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I know I should probably head off to face the gym leader, but Pastoria City is also home to the Great Marsh! If you don’t know, the great marsh is similar to the Safari Zones from the older games. You pay to enter and have an opportunity to catch some rare Pokémon. The catch is that you can’t fight them, you can only throw special Pokeballs at them, food to keep their attention, or mud to make them easier to catch. I also heard a rumor that someone in the Great Marsh will give you the HM05 Defog. So I thought it would be worth it to take a little time off to hunt around for a while. I never did find the guy who gives the HM05 Defog, I thought I talked to everyone, but I must have missed him. I’m going to feel really stupid when I find out he’s right at the entrance or something. What I did find and manage to catch were a Carnivine and a Croagunk, along with a few other Pokémon. Not a bad haul.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s time to challenge the Pastoria Gym and face off against the gym leader, Wake. Oh, I’m sorry, Crasher Wake. He dresses in what looks like a luchador mask and a wrestling outfit. So naturally, he’s a water type user. Hey, it he’s having fun dressing like a masked wrestler, than let him. The Pastoria gym in general was pretty easy. Between Pachirisu and Cherrim, no one stood a chance. The layout of the gym was a little confusing though. There are buttons scattered around that raise or lower the water level in the gym. This would in turn raise or lower floating platforms as well as allowing you to walk across previously sunken platforms. You’ll have to do this to navigate the gym’s mini maze and eventually face Crasher Wake himself. After an entertaining battle, Crasher Wake was defeated and awarded me with the Fen Badge as proof of my victory.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that I have 4 badges, we should probably check up on that Team Galactic Grunt on the edge of town. It’s a good thing too. He again mentions having a bomb, and now runs off towards Valor Lakefront. Something bad is going to happen and we have to stop him. Unfortunately, as soon as the grunt runs through the town gate, our rival Barry decided to confront us again. Why now? This is quite possibly the worst possible time for a battle with you, that guy is running away with a bomb. There’s no avoiding it, we’ll just have to end this quickly so I can catch up to that grunt. After that last gym, Barry didn’t stand a chance. To just add to his annoyingly bad timing, after his defeat, he even mentions the grunt that got away and encourages me to chase after him. THANKS! That’s what I was trying to do in the first place. The chase is on as the grunt runs past the Hotel and on his way to the Lake. I caught up to him a few times and he just went on about something big going on at the lake. He doesn’t want to fight, and instead just keeps running away from me. That is until he becomes too tired to run anymore and finally challenges me. He is pathetically weak and is forced to limp away in defeat afterwards. He must have gone into the lakefront, because I can’t find him anyway. And of course I still can’t enter the lakefront because of their experiments.

I’m not the only one disappointed by the blockade to the Valor lakefront. Another trainer named Cynthia is trying to get in and seems concerned about the experiments too. She notices me and remembers me from when we met before. Sadly I can’t say I share the same memory. When did I meet her before? It must have been right at the beginning of my adventure when I had too many new things going on to remember everyone. Anyway, after our brief conversation, she gave me some secret potion to cure the group of Psyducks blocking the path back on route 210, and then she heads off on her own adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess I know where my next destination is. I could backtrack that whole way, but I think it would be better to push forward through Route 212. This has the added benefit of letting me pass through Hearthome city again. Maybe NOW Fantina will actually challenge me. Anyway, Route 212 seems a bit dangerous. It’s constantly raining and the mud is so deep you’ll occasionally sink up to your neck. Thankfully there are warning signs telling you to “Struggle and Squirm” until you free yourself. Thank you Nintendo for giving advice that would kill you in real life. The latter half of the route is also home to the Pokémon Mansion. There isn’t much to do in the Mansion, but it does have a private garden in back which is a good place to catch a Pikachu or a Pichu if you want one.

Back in Hearthome City and still no, Fantina will not battle me. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?! So it looks like we keep going to heal those Psyducks. They seem pretty happy to be cured and run off. Immediately after, Cynthia shows up again to thank me for curing the Psyducks, and then asks another favor. If you were coming this way anyway, why couldn’t you cure them? Whatever, what’s your new request? Turns out she wants me to deliver an old charm to her grandmother in the next town. Again, that seems like something she should do, but sure, I’ll do it. It’s where I was heading anyways now that they Psyducks are gone. But why was I so stupid? Why didn’t I spend more time trying to get the HM05 Defog? This path is almost a complete white out from all the fog. I can barely see a thing. I’m lost and this is certainly where I’m going to die. I thought it would just be a minor annoyance like the rain is, but this is REALLY annoying. By some unknown magical forces, I managed to make it to the next town and I don’t plan to EVER go down that route again. I don’t care what might be hidden in that fog, I don’t care.

Now that we’re in Celestic Town, we should go find Cynthia’s grandmother and give her the old charm. I think I found her, but she only mentions a weird man in a space suit by the ruins. Wait, weird man in a space suit? OH COME ON! Team Galactic is causing trouble here too. What is wrong with these people? Anyway, I beat the snot out of yet another grunt, forcing him to run away in shame. The old woman then does introduce herself as Cynthia’s Grandmother, and tells me to check out the ruins. She also gave me the HM03 Surf and tells me I need to beat Fantina before I can use it. FINALLY! That must mean I can fight her now. Inside the ruin, there’s some nice carvings of the legendary Pokémon, but otherwise not much of interest. Outside however is that same mysterious guy I met back in Mt Coronet. He introduces himself as Cyrus, and tells me to inform him if I find something with the power to help him create a new world. What a Psycho. I can’t wait to challenge him and bring down his whole Team Galactic organization.

 

 

 

 

 

 

One more trip back to Hearthome and I can finally face Fantina. Her gym is set up very strange. There is an elevator ride to a platform with a very easy question and 3 doors representing the different answers. Behind the correct door is another elevator to another question and repeat a few times until finally I make it to Fantina. I’m guessing behind the wrong doors were junior trainers, but the questions were so easy I made it to her without having to fight any of them. That’s actually kind of a problem, I’m a bit under leveled to fight her and the junior trainers really would have helped. Fantina uses ghost type Pokémon, and she was a few levels higher than me, so this one was a pretty big struggle. Credit really has to go to Cherrim and her Leach Seed attack. I might not have been able to get many hits in, I was too busy healing and just trying to stay alive. But with leach seed, her Pokémon just slowly died while I stalled for time. She admits defeat and hands me the Relic Badge, my 5th badge. Took long enough before she would fight me, I’m actually really happy now.

Outside Cynthia is waiting for me, I think she’s stalking me now. She tells me I should probably head over to Canalave City and Visit the Canalave Library. I don’t know what I’m supposed to be looking for there, but it’ll have to wait for next time.

Current Pokemon:

Cranidos	Cherrim	Prinplup
Level: 29	Level: 32	Level: 30
Pachirisu	Drifblim	Bibarel
Level: 31	Level:30	Level: 35

Play Time: 25h 16m

Badges: 5

Pokedex Entries: 91

And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for, my Pokemon Art Gallery!

First up is my happy little Pachirisu. I really love this guy, and he’s just so damn cute. This one was obviously done with the tracing lines still on.

Next we have an Inkay. It’s weird, I always thought it was a water type because it’s clearly based off a squid. But no, it’s a Dark / Psychic type. Kind of cool how I learned something new about the pokemon from the art game. This one was actually done with a new technique in the game using reference shapes instead of straight up tracing.

And last, tremble in fear from the awesome might of Ditto, Destroyer of Worlds!!!

Thank for joining me on my adventures! I hope you’ll be back next time when we go to the library. Doesn’t that sound like a fun adventure? The library?

After a week as a berry farmer, I’m excited to get back on the road and continue my Pokémon adventure. I’m not really sure which town I’m supposed to go to next, and I can see on the map there’s a fork in the road coming up, let’s see what happens.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My dilemma was solved for me pretty quickly when I finally got to the fork. The path north is blocked by a group of Psyducks. I’m not sure why I can’t just battle and capture the Psyducks, but apparently these are special road block Psyducks. So it looks like we’ll be heading east, but not before checking out this little cafe at the crossroads. They apparently only serve milk, and I was warned that some of the customers might get a little rowdy and challenge me to a Pokémon duel. Fair enough, everyone is always challenging everyone to a Pokémon duel. What I wasn’t expecting was for the WAITRESS to also challenge me. What kind of service is that?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heading east from the café onto Route 215, I really wish I had brought my umbrella. It seems like it’s always raining on this route. Curiously I encountered a lot of Ponyta and Geodude on this route. Shouldn’t they both be practically dead from the rain? Unless they weren’t attacking me, they were trying to beg me for help. My god, I’m a monster! Just have to push on, there’s no way they were looking for help, they were attacking me, it was self defense.

Pushing away my possible moral dilemma, I finally reach Veilstone City. Speaking of moral dilemmas, Veilstone happens to be home of the Gaming Corner and all of those slot machines. You’ve got to love pushing gambling into a kid’s game. I wasn’t actually planning to play much, I’ve never been very good in the game corners, but I got a lucky streak going. These slot machines are a lot nicer than the old ones. Somehow I activated a Clefairy bonus round which just kept going and going. I started with the 60 coins I think it was that random people gave me, and by the end I had 1742! Still not enough to buy anything good, but that’s enough for now, I should quit while I’m ahead.

Besides, I didn’t come here to gamble, I came here to get my next gym badge and that’s what I’m going to do. This one is going to be the easiest one yet, a fighting gym. Fighting types are weak against flying types, and nearly useless against ghost types. SO FEAR MY FLYING GHOST POKEMON DRIFLOON!!! BWAHAHAHA!!! Ahem, sorry about that. In all seriousness though, it was pretty easy with my Drifloon and even easier when it evolved into Drifblim. Really the hardest challenge was the sliding wall puzzles needed to get to the gym leader.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the Gym Leader Maylene wasn’t much challenge. She sure put up a good fight, but my Drifblim was just too much for her. That’s just one more Gym down, and one more badge for me, the Cobble Badge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Sooner do I leave the gym do I bump into Dawn. Apparently Team Galactic is causing even more trouble. Dawn dropped her Pokédex and some Team Galactic grunt picked it up and won’t give it back. We need to go teach them another lesson. Not just for Dawn, but because I heard a rumor the HM02 Fly is stored in the warehouse they’re using, and I NEED IT!!! So together, Dawn and I kick some sense into a few Team Galactic grunts at the front door. Dawn is happy because she got her Pokédex back, so she left. That means I’m going to have to storm this whole place by myself. I’m going to rush in there and beat up every member inside until they give up the HM02. Or not, it’s right inside the door with no one to fight. The only person inside was a grunt who politely asked me to leave because I’m not a member. Fair enough, I got what I came for. You gentlemen can carry on with whatever it is you’re planning.

That just means I need to press on again to the next town. It looks like we’ll be heading south along Route 214 until we get to Lake Valor. Then there’s another fork in the road. Sounds like fun, except when I got to the lake, it was blocked off. I guess someone is doing an experiment in the lake. Ok, so I’ll press on to the fork and another road block. The path East is closed off because of a black out. Really? The town has a black out so they send someone to push people away? That must be one hell of a black out.

That only leaves the path south open to me, which leads directly into the Hotel Grand Lake on the Valor Lakefront. It’s a nice enough little resort, with lots of paths that seem to require the rock climb ability which I don’t currently have. I’ll have to come back here later. In the meantime, I think I’ll just rest here for a bit before heading on to the next town and the next badge.

So, thanks for following me this far. Join me again next week when we head off to Pastoria City for the 4th Gym Badge.

Current Pokémon:

Prinplup	Pachirisu	Cranidos
Level: 30	Level: 29	Level: 26
Drifblim	Cherrim	Bibarel
Level: 30	Level: 27	Level: 25

Play Time: 20h 36m

Badges: 3

Pokédex Entries: 73

And now to showcase my art for this week. First up…

Here we have the cute little Togepi. Drawn with tracing lines of course.

Then we have the shadowy Gengar. Drawn free hard. I think maybe i made him too skiny, but still not too bad.

Once again, thanks for following me this far. I hope to see you back again next week!!