#the other gym leader i got was burgh. somehow even with bug he can get me

[silvermeww]

things that are short term that i'm not into:

stomach hurty. it does not like this stupid mocha

less than 30 mins til next class

it's bio. it's going to suck

and i JUST finished that annoying lab report that makes no sense whatsoever (i hate bacteria so much. why. i also hate evolution, which one of my professors pronounces it as eeveelution and i had to stop myself from laughing)

in the library there is a massive bug flying around

i've been stuck here since 7:30

i only slept for 5 hours

okay i've already finished the class at this point and dang my stomach feels worse. what did i drink, knock-off mocha?? poison?? i never felt this bad drinking something in a long, long while (if ever)

never trust cafes in uni again. back to the vending machine rip

much more interesting things about pokemon that i'm going though:

after trying out pokerogue a week or so ago, i'm somehow more than halfway the whole thing. for my first pokemon-adjacent game (well, more fanmade than anything), i'm doing decently well. yeah i cheat by restarting before i die but i'm pretty sure everyone does at this point lol.

it's actually interesting that most of my opponents (as gym leaders/bad guys) are unova/kalos respectively. where is my character and why are they inbetween these two regions??

it's so much more funnier when you know that at least half my team is weak to fire. i don't know how they're surviving. team flare keeps bringing out fire types and i hate that my first gym leader was chili aka his monkey that knows incinerate. + i 'basically' died so many times to xerosic aka one (out of TWO??) of his vilillon know hurricane that somehow smashs my team and one (again out of two) of his malamar knows superpower = all but two of my team is hella weak to that move.

even more funnier that i keep oneshotting wild pokemon that i want to get. talonflame? mimikyu (which always survives the first attack but dies in the next no matter what i do)? that stupid manetric (that i found twice at least??) that oneshots ME if i give it a chance and try to catch it when it has like 5 hp left?

i feel like the game knows what xy does to me because right after surviving another flare grunt i face LYSANDRE?? of all people?? i was so lucky that i healed them all up as much as my saved up money would allow bc hrngg i hate that 7 foot man. so many deaths between him and xerosic. hate this french guys fr (the scientist is still the worst though. all he does is reinforce my fear of vilillon and malamar)

i love how i managed to sweep a whole area with my magnezone. it was a fairy cave with a bunch of fairy + water types. flash cannon + zap cannon go brr

talking about magnezone, i keep forgetting that discharge will mess up anyone else on my team in a double battle (kept killing my poor squawkabilly whose a beast with aerial ace but sucks in defence + weavile who is weak to say too many things to be alive rn and yet still tanks with triple axel and rock smash). kind of the same issue as my previous ace rillaboom, who fell from his pedestal due to wood hammer and its stupid recoil damage (i replaced it dw but he’s still very behind compared to the rest of my team). this game is really teaching me about how moves work and their viability in games as opposed to anime

im pretty sure that fairy cave took me to johto cause all of a sudden i got pryce. why?? and his mr ryme (which is female?? also wow hello gen 8 with my gen 2 gym leader) knows double kick aka i'm DEAD pls

anyways weavile carries my team along with magnezone, squawkabilly is largely backup if i'm stuck with fighting types (plus any pesky grass and bug), my comfort furret that used to be my real comfort sentret hold sucker punch and echoed voice just in case but is really just There lol, persian i used to really rely on when it had fake out + feint but power gem is super useful (and i hold hope that i can use pay day in excess in the future), and rillaboom has knock off (used to be really useful) and is mostly there to smash through water types. i did not choose this team, this team chose me at this point heh

honestly not doing this for competitive stuff so i don't have any qualms about refreshing the page before the game puts me at the start again, but where does everyone get their legendaries?? and how on earth did i oneshot my rival's shiny rayquaza with triple axel HELP

all in all, pretty good progress. rn around 160?? middle of nowhere. giving me major mezase vibes with the fact that i have no idea where i am. my rival is confounded as i am about oneshotting his recent team with weavil, only my bird is female, and somehow all of those fire-type moves and pokemon are just gone. and i never knew how awesome sturdy can be until my magenezone is just,, living after an earthquake. with 1 hp. and oneshots that abomasnow afterwards with flash cannon. anyways everyone should give them so much love especially since i raised it from a wee magnemite with, like, thunderwave or smth. it literally only had status moves at the start.

also how come all of my rare eggs are just starters?? in the game where all starters are already avaliable from the start?? + one shiny sneasel but AFTER i already have my main one. btw does anyone care for 3 torchics lol

[jaybug-jabbers]

Bug Run 5: Bugs In The Big City

Gen 5 is the Bug Generation, without a doubt. It introduced 18 new bug types, more than any other gen, and many of those species are absolute favorites. The list includes the first-ever Mythical Bug, Genesect, and the unique Fire/Bug Volcarona. Gen 5 had the first new bug Gym leader since Bugsy in Gold/Silver, and introduced some amazing staples such as Quiver Dance. Truly, Gen 5 was a grand time to be a bug.

Gen 5 also happens to be my second-favorite pokemon generation. I have been anticipating this run for quite a long time.

A quick review of the challenge run rules!

1.) The team must be bug types only. HM slaves required for progression are the exception but will never be used in battle (even just to switch in to faint). Also, all the bug pokemon on the team must come from this generation.

2.) No healing items used during battle (unless the foe uses them first, and then you may only match the items one-for-one). Held items are allowed.

3.) No over-levelling. Pokemon should be at roughly normal levels for a given area and not be at a higher level than the maximum-levelled pokemon in a gym leader’s team. Again, this is so pokemon can win on their own merits.

Now that we’re clear on the rules, it’s time to strap in with my starter, the squishy little Green Bean, and get started on my grand adventure!!

Despite my better judgment, I did choose Snivy before promptly dumping him in my PC, sealing my fate to fight a rival with a fire starter. Considering my own starter would be 4x weak to fire, this might be described as Fucking Dumb, but fear not! The elemental moves don’t kick in until a bit later in the game!

And besides, I picked up a Venipede in the dark grass on Route 20 quickly enough, so my team now consisted of two squishy grubs. Tremble before us!

The first gym is the adorkable Cheren in our hometown, but it isn’t really anything to get worried over. Skipping over to Virbank takes a little more effort, but my team hits level 20 each by the time we face her and it’s still manageable. Green Bean just clocks Koffing out with a bunch of Tackles (and uses a handy Pecha berry) and Tonka takes care of his fellow brethren with a Screech and some Rollouts.

I call bullshit, though, Roxie. What drugs are you giving your poke to get it to evolve before mine?

After this gym and a few more Team Plasma shenanigans, we take a boat to the big city, Castelia. I enjoy exploring the city at my leisure. They did a great job with this city and I feel like it’s way easier to navigate than the city in X/Y, honestly.

It also has a lot of fun details like this little nod to older players. Anywho, in the process of my travels among the city and its glamorous sewers, Green Bean evolves into Swadloon and then, the very next level later, into his magnificent final form, Leavanny. So I guess Bean’s been enjoying his adventures since his friendship maxed out so fast!

Next is kicking the pants off Burgh and making snide remarks about his anatomy. I have to hand it to Burgh, though– his gym looks fucking beautiful. I adore the cocoon aesthetic and whatever the hell pool of rainbow madness is going on up here in his art studio, and the music is great too. Heck, I even love his outfit and chunky butterfly belt buckle. It’s just a shame he’s so easy to beat. You need to step up, man, represent our bug brethren better.

Soon after, we pass through the Desert Resort and pick up our next team member, the rock hermit crab Dwebble. I forget to take a picture of him freshly caught, but rest assured he is both smol and adorable. His typing and moves are a great asset against Flying types.

The gym after Burgh is in Nimbasa, which has been moved to a fashion show since Pokemon Black/White. Elesa’s pokemon spam Volt Switch rather obnoxously, but Green Bean resists the move and sort of just took the hits while using Razor Leaf. Why Razor Leaf? Because Static is annoying. Lucky she got a crit on Emolga to help speed things along. Elesa’s ace, Zebstrika, has Flame Charge, which I don’t need to tell you is scary for a Bug/Grass type. Somehow, though, he took the hit??? Back to more Volt Switch shenanigans and Elesa used a potion in there somewhere, so I got to potion Green Bean back up and let him finish things off.

Things were running pretty smoothly. On the way out of Nimbasa, we ran into Charles, who apparently is a heartbreaker, which he is keen to repeatedly mention. After we break him, Tonka has a little surprise for us.

Giant murder centipede horse is finally here! Love this thing.

Our next major landmark is to pass through Driftveil City, but I’m actually content to make a side-trip before heading right to the local gym. There are some electric caves nearby that beckon us.

I don’t know how Nest Balls exactly work, but I had a few so I tossed one. I kind of dig their color scheme. Anyway, our bug collection has now grown to four. Well, I also grabbed a Karrablast on the way to the caves, but I won’t be using it on this run. I can’t evolve him on my emulator in any legitimate way, so it wouldn’t really be worth the effort of training him.

After training my new little electric tick a bit, I head for the Ground-type gym. Obviously Zippy won’t be much use in this particular gym, but don’t fear! She’ll prove her worth later on.

For this gym, I had to strategize a little. Pangea took care of Krokorok with a couple Bug Bites. The ace, the steel mole, was a worthy opponent. I screeched twice with Tonka before going down to Rock Slide, then came in with Green Bean and landed a critical hit with Razor Leaf. It went down in one. Finally, Sandslash was easy pickings for Green Bean. Our levels were on par with his team, as usual.

The next gym was Flying-type. Honestly, not that big of a deal after Pangaea and Zipzap evolved. One Rock Slide took out Swoobat, then a couple Screeches on Skarmory before Rock Sliding it to death (although Crustle barely survived the Steel Wing, ouch). Her final was Swanna, but one Electro Ball took that out. Water/Flying gives a pretty big weakness, after all. My team was at levels 34-37.

The Professor wanted me to move on to the next town after I defeated the gym, but I actually had a little backtracking I wanted to do first. It seems I got a little too hasty in my eagerness for progress and left something important behind.

So I finished exploring the ghost tower in the area, then backtracked through Chargestone Cave, finished off some trainers and such in there, before returning to Driftveil. There was a little cave entrance I needed to take. After lots of wandering … . . .

We found what we were looking for. It was a quick and easy capture, on my second Dusk Ball. It helped that I had my Crustle out front to deal with the fire moves.

After that, we were finally ready to move on. And we had built ourselves a team of five by now:

These bug runs are supposed to be a challenge run, but to be honest, with this team, things haven’t been all that difficult. Everyone’s quite the powerhouse. Truly, gen 5 is the Era of Bugs. We have one final member to add on, but that won’t come until much later. So for now, this is the crew, and I think we’re pretty well set here.

I’ll leave this post for now! This was meant to be the halfway post, but I think we’re a little past halfway. Ah, well! Still more game to come.

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Feb 15, 2019.