3rd Gen Recent Happenings Thread

[RedJirachi]

I've been playing Leaf Green recently. Gotten through Mt Moon. Rattata has proven to be pretty useful early in-game, and now it has Hyper Fang. It and Pikachu have proven pretty useful at this time. I think I might get Bellsprout

 

[Mhov]

Today I've finally reached a pretty big milestone for my living dex. I'm pretty much done with the gen 3 games I have.
I played through Sapphire, Fire Red and Emerald. I could get a few more Pokemon in Fire Red by playing through it two more times, but I'd have to trade several boxes full of Pokemon and that's too tedious in my opinion.
As of now I have almost every Pokemon in gens I, II and III. The missing Pokemon I can catch in gen IV.

 

[RedJirachi]

Defeated Lt Surge, and am now making it through Rock Tunnel. I have that Bellsprout in my team. Right now the most useful Pokemon on my team is Raticate, because of its speed, Run Away ability and Hyper Fang. Diglett is my strongest Pokemon on the team. I think I might drop Pikachu for Vulpix soon.

 

[WishIhadaManafi5]

Just fired up my old copy of Fire Red tonight to do some soft resetting for a shiny Articuno. Glad it's still working well. It's a hoot just playing this game again.

 

[RedJirachi]

I am up to four badges in Leaf Green. I am using Pickup to both gradually level up Pokemon, and to get plenty of valuable items to sell at a later date. Fortunately Pickup wasn't nerfed at that point. My team right now is Wartortle, Pidgeotto, Pikachu(surprisingly useful even un-evolved), Vulpix, Weepingbell and Hitmonlee. When the Elite 4 is in sight, I'm going to get Articuno as a replacement for the Pidgey line

 

[Ishiftyounot]

It would appear I have a ton of time to play games recently, given I'm starting a third playthrough now, this time in Emerald! I needed something to do in my uni breaks given a change of circumstances and bringing my old DS to uni with Emerald seemed neat. So let's begin!

Unlike most playthroughs I've been doing (Let's Go and USUM monotype) I've decided to wing the game and just have fun using some cool Pokemon I see as I'm playing through Hoenn, seeing as it, Kanto and Alola are the only regions I haven't conquered yet (notice the pattern?). My first team decision came when picking my starter, a tough choice between Mudkip and Treecko. In the end I figured Swampert would be fun to use and so chose Fishboi as my starter. We beat the Zigzagoon attacking the professor, trained to Level 6 before Tackling May's Treecko to death and moving on towards Petalburg City. Dealing with Wally was irksome, especially given I didn't notice any Lotad, Seedot or Ralts to capture, as those were my top choices for the area. Nothing that really stood out though, until I found a Tailow on Route 104. I caught it, named them Birdboi and trained them in the Woods (Wurmples give good exp, surprisingly).

Made my way to Rustboro Town (experiencing Instagram issues which affects my art meant I played this game a lot this evening, since I got hooked) and took on Roxanne, where my Mudkip evolved into Marshtomp! Saved Peeko and got the goods, did dull dialogue, beat May again (boy is Wingull annoying). Headed to Dewford Town, caught a Makuhita since I felt like it and so Punchboi was caught (and trained to Level 17). Challenged Brawly, where Tailow more than pulled its weight and swept all but the gym leader's own Makuhita, which was beaten by Marshtomp. I then saved the game.

Emerald Team:

Fishboi the Marshtomp, Level 18 [Tackle, Growl, Mud Shot, Water Gun]

Birdboi the Tailow, Level 18 [Wing Attack, Growl, Focus Energy, Quick Attack]

Punchboi the Makuhita, Level 18 [Tackle, Vital Throw, Rock Tomb, Arm Thrust]

 

[JohnLynch]

Pokemon Sapphire
I've officially finished this game. It took a lot of battles, stocking up on consumables each time. I think in total I might have fought the Elite 4 up to 50 times. It was the easiest way to get my pokemon leveled up to overcome the threat. By the end my most powerful pokemon were level 50 (Blaziken and Minun) while my weakest pokemon were 45 (Tropius and Sandslash). My final team were: Blaziken, Aggron, Sandslash, Wailord, Tropius, Minun

In order to defeat the final Elite 4 member I had to teach Aggron and Wailord ice moves.

Journeying through Victory Road was actually quite difficult. I got lost a few times, although at the start of the journey my starter did evolve into it's final form. While also battling the Elite 4 Lairon evolved into Aggron which certainly helped defeat the Elite 4.

Now that they're defeated I have the postgame to do. I'll be doing it while also resuming my HeartGold walkthrough. Alas due to the start and stop nature of my playthrough I've missed out on any idea as to where the heck to go for the legendary pokemon that are remaining. The only one I have is Kyogre. I also don't have my fossil pokemon revived either. At the moment I'm evolving my remaining pokemon into their final forms in the Elite 4 to get as much of my Pokedex filled as possible. I've already evolved 7 pokemon (largely bugs, but also Mightyena, Ralts into it's final evolution and Shroomish). Once I finish evolving them I'll see if any of my pokemon have false swipe and start catching the rest. Hopefully I'll find the legendary pokemon while I do that.

 

[Ishiftyounot]

Lots of progress since my last post! Been way too busy to post it though. I moved up through Slateport, battled Team Aqua, took on May below Cycling Road (Swellow saving my team versus Grovyle) and destroyed Wattson with Hariyama and Marshtomp. Made my way up to Fiery Path and caught a Koffing randomly, trained it up and made my way to Fallabor Town. Defeated Team Magma at Mt. Chimney, continued down to defeat Flannery. Except Flannery almost beat my entire team, only Hariyama made it by the end due to Attract shenanigans. Swellow was feeling rather weak by now so I added a Cacnea (again, randomly) to the team and trained them against the trainers in Norman's gym. He was also challenging to defeat, but this time Marshtomp saved us from failing. Decided to make progress on the New Mauville road and caught a Magnemite which I taught Thunderbolt, and trained everyone to Level 31.

Emerald Team:

Fishboi the Marshtomp, Level 31 [Strength, Growl, Dig, Surf]

Punchboi the Hariyama, Level 31 [Vital Throw, Arm Thrust, Rock Tomb, Fake Out]

Gassyboi the Koffing, Level 31 [Shock Wave, Thief, Tackle, Sludge]

Pricklyboi the Cacnea, Level 31 [Absorb, Feint Attack, Secret Power, Leech Seed]

Magnetboi the Magneton, Level 31 [Thunderbolt, Spark, Sonicboom, Thunder Wave]

Honorable mentions:

Birdboi the Swellow, Level 29 [Wing Attack, Steel Wing, Endeavour, Quick Attack]

 

[JohnLynch]

So I discovered today that Pokemon FireRed USA cannot transfer to a Pokemon HeartGold cart (AUS). So the 151 pokemon I've caught in my living dex on FireRed is going to forever stay on FireRed. It's the gen 3 jump all over again

But it's simply motivation for me to catch as many pokemon in Sapphire as I can (I checked and I can transfer). I won't be looking to create a living dex in Sapphire. I'll do that (to a degree) in HeartGold and Platinum. In Sapphire my goal is to complete the Sapphire dex as much as I can without trading (as I have no GBA or second DS and no link cables). According to the internet I can get 181 pokemon registered in my pokedex in Sapphire. I currently have 77. So definitely a ways to go.

The first thing I did was reorder my PC boxes. I sorted every Pokemon into two categories: Fully evolved and needs further evolving. I then booted up HeartGold and started transferring them across. I was able to transfer 24 pokemon.

I then went on to search for Rayquaza and the Regimon and Latios/Latias (whichever one I get in Sapphire). Latios/Latias is simply a wandering one based on the tv report. Rayquaza and the Regimon however I have no idea on where they are. Looking at the map though I see that Pecidilog town is past the Elite 4 and so it could perhaps be somewhere around there. I fly to the base of the Elite 4 and start exploring the water areas and dive areas. I find the old Team Aqua base but nothing else. However after further exploring I find a cave. This is the Sky Pillar (for some reason I thought it was a route that was literally in the clouds). I finally get through the very frustrating dungeon after working out I had to fall down a highly specific bit of crumbled ground. It took me 2 goes to defeat Rayquaza (it confused itself to death the first time). When I saw it was level 70 I was a bit worried, but it turned out my level 53 Aggron was more than sufficient.

After that I explored the route with the water currents. I tried the north half and got to the other side without getting to all of the islands. I then went the southern route and streamed passed a dive spot. Took me 5 tries in total and in that dive spot I found the last cave. When I saw the braile codes I instantly knew what they were because I remember seeing them in my Pokemon Sapphire manual when I first purchased it 16 years ago. So I got my phone out and got a braile alphabet and saw that the first room was just the alphabet itself. I then went to the back wall and translated "Dig Here" which I did.

I slowly translated the first two passages before googling the rest. The challenge was gone (I'd correctly identified how to do it). The rest was just grunt work and I wasn't interested in spending an hour translated the pasasages. So I googled it and saw I need a wailord first and a relicanth last. Well I bloody well don't have a relicanth. So I'm going to have to hunt one down. I also haven't seen a trainer have one so I have no idea where to look (although based on other games I've played I've got it stuck in my head it's a water pokemon). Fortunately there's quite a lot of pokemon I need so it won't be the only thing I'm hunting down.

 

[Ishiftyounot]

I'd made it to Fortree City and beyond in Emerald before I came to the conclusion that I wasn't enjoying using my team, and that it was too late to start training new team members. I learnt that day that randomly picking your team members for standard playthroughs just wasn't for me, but perhaps with things like nuzlockes I might learn to break from the planning pattern. Who knows?

Still, didn't want to quit on Emerald entirely, and I had a break from uni work so I restarted and went back at it! Picked Mudkip once again because Swampert is my favourite starter, and made my way through the early game. Initially I was going to use Slaking, and not use Gardevoir or Exploud, but after catching and training Slakoth the grind was becoming unbearable. Truant + requiring obscene amounts of exp. compared to the rest of the team at that point (mainly just Mudkip and Shroomish) was driving me nuts, so I replaced Slakoth with Whismur after Rustboro City, and went and caught a Ralts to train as well. Naturally, having 4 team members left me woefully under-levelled for Roxanne, but Mudkip one-shot both Geodude with Water Gun and Shroomish stalled Nosepass to death with Leech Seed, Stun Spore and Absorb.

I defeated the Team Aqua Grunt once again, received the PokeNav, destroyed May with Whismur and continued to Dewford Town. Trained my team to Level 16 in Dewford Cave, where Mudkip evolved, and spoke to Steven in order to go back and collect the Exp. Share from Rustboro City again. Ralts crushed Brawly with ease, except for Makuhita where I sacrificed Shroomish to get a Stun Spore + Leech Seed off on it before spamming Confusion to wreck its day. Made my way to Slateport and caught an Electrike before saving! Somehow need to get Electrike to the same level as my team, although with the Exp. Share on it might be alright until Mauville City.

Emerald Team:

Mudboi the Marshtomp, Level 18 [Tackle, Mud Shot, Mud Slap, Water Gun]

Shroomboi the Shroomish, Level 18 [Mega Drain, Tackle, Stun Spore, Leech Seed]

Psychicboi the Ralts, Level 18 [Confusion, Growl, Double Team, Teleport]

Soundboi the Whismur, Level 18 [Pound, Uproar, Astonish, Howl]

Voltboi the Electrike, Level 12 [Tackle, Thunder Wave, Leer, Howl]

 

[JohnLynch]

I've caught and evolved a number of Pokemon since my last post. My pokedex has gone from 77 to 109. I've methodically been working my way through uncaught pokemon in my pokedex, catching ones that can be caught and evolving the others using EXP Share to get the other pokemon evolved. The most notable pokemon I haven't caught is wishcash. But I did get a corsola and luvdisc in my search for it.

In looking for pokemon I found New Mauville Power Plant. This was one area I had completely missed in my playthrough of Sapphire. I searched Mauville for a way into the power plant, got it and then went in and turned the power plant off. In the process I got magneton, magnemite and voltorb.

I have found latios a few times now by complete chance. Unfortunately I haven't found the masterball yet so I still haven't caught it. I absolutely hate wandering pokemon. I wasn't a fan of the FireRed one and I'm annoyed by this one. Fortunately I haven't wasted the master ball yet (due to not having it). Next Up: Staryu.

 

[Spock]

I'm doing living Pokedex 150 on FireRed. I'm pretty close and have all the LeafGreen exclusives and option monsters, but some of these level ups are ridiculous - who thought it was a good idea to bump Kabuto down to Level 5?

 

[JohnLynch]

Next Up: Staryu.

I've gone from 109 to 134 pokedex entries. Some notable acquisitions were staryu which I mentioned in my last post. It wasn't particularly difficult. What was difficult was pikachu. I had to get it in the safari zone. It took me 3 visits before I finally found it. I instantly transformed it into a Raichu and then checked to see where dittos are acquired in Sapphire. Turns out they're not. So I need to catch a female pikachu so I can breed a Pichu for the dex entry. I tried two more times before giving up in frustration. I absolutely love and hate the pokemon safari both simultaneously.

Other interesting notes is that I searched every single town and city for a master ball. During this time I found the fossil restorer and turned in my fossil. One small walk around the building later and I had Anorith.

I've also been grinding against the Elite 4 to get my pokemon fully evolved so I can migrate them into HeartGold. Two such pokemon are Armaldo (the fossil pokemon I completely fluked into getting) and Cacturne. Both of these have been added to my HeartGold run against the Kanto League. Grinding can be a very monotonous part of completing a dex. But it's good to see that I'll get more from these pokemon then merely another dex entry.

I cannot find the NPC that has the masterball and I have searched in every settlement in Sapphire. So either I'm missing some island where the town/headquarters is hidden or they've hidden the master ball somewhere else. Regardless I'm not willing to look up a guide to find it so I'm now at a dead end with that. With that exercise in frustration complete I went looking for other potential ways to capture Latias. I knew there'd be abilities to stop Latias leave so I did google to see who had that and saw Wobuffet did. So I captured one for myself in the safari (while looking for pikachu) and now I need to level it up to a point where it can stand up against Latias.

 

[KyogreThunder]

I cannot find the NPC that has the masterball and I have searched in every settlement in Sapphire. So either I'm missing some island where the town/headquarters is hidden or they've hidden the master ball somewhere else. Regardless I'm not willing to look up a guide to find it so I'm now at a dead end with that. With that exercise in frustration complete I went looking for other potential ways to capture Latias. I knew there'd be abilities to stop Latias leave so I did google to see who had that and saw Wobuffet did. So I captured one for myself in the safari (while looking for pikachu) and now I need to level it up to a point where it can stand up against Latias.

In Ruby/Sapphire, the Master Ball is located in Team Magma/Aqua hideout near Lilycove, but the entrance is sealed once you beat Tate&Liza.

 

[Ignition]

Finally got around to playing Sapphire. Was going to finish Black but man the level jump for the champion is terrible. Maybe later.

Started up the game, met Birch and May, and chose Torchic. Then I went towards Petalburg and caught a Lotad along with 2 Zigzagoon for Pickup and HM support on my there. Met (technically reunited) Norman and Wally.

Went through Petalburg Forest and had my first run in with Team Aqua. Went to Rustboro and collected the Quick Claw. Went east to battle the Trainers and catch a Whismur. Then I proceeded to challenge Roxanne’s Gym. Lotad evolved into Lombre right before we faced her and soloed the Gym. Once I got Rock Tomb, I went south to Petalburg Forest to collect the Tiny Mushrooms and Miracle Seed for Lombre. Then I went back to chase after Team Aqua.

Once I got the PokèNav as thanks, I asked Briney to take me to Dewford. I collected the Silk Scarf and Old Rod. Before challenging Brawly I faced the Gym Trainers and the Fishermen for some EXP. While doing this, Torchic evolved into Combusken. Combusken solo’s the Gym and I get Bulk Up before heading to Dewford Cave. Since Zigzagoon couldn’t learn Flash, I decided to just blitz through the cave without Flash. Through my blind stumbling, I caught my 4th team member: Aron. Once I met Steven and got Steel Wing, I left the cave and asked Briney to take me back to Rustboro so I could get the EXP Share to give to Aron.

Once I went back to Dewford, I went to Slateport. I battled the beachgoers and got 6 Soadpop. Then I went to deal with Aqua before departing north. I battled the trainers on the route before Mauville including May. Whismur tried taking on Shroomish but Stun Spore+Leech Seed+Mega Drain wore it down. Before it fainted, I swapped in Combusken and KO’d it with Ember. I then swapped in Lombre to deal with her Marshtomp. Finally, Whismur came in and finished Numel. I battled my way through the routes east/west of Mauville before saving.

Team:
Combusken @Quick Claw (lvl 20)
-Ember
-Double Kick
-Scratch
-Peck

Lombre @ Miracle Seed(lvl 19)
-Absorb
-Astonish
-Fake Out
-Nature Power

Exploud @ Silk Scarf (lvl 20)
-Pound
-Astonish
-Uproar
-Howl

Aron @ EXP. Share (lvl 20)
-Metal Claw
-Headbutt
-Tackle
-Iron Defense

 

[PokeMon2.0]

I’m restarting FireRed Version right now, since I found my old GameBoy Advance SP. I chose Squirtle as my starter. I ended up getting a female Squirtle. I chose the name Red. My rival is named Blue. I walked away, when Blue decided to battle me. He sent out his trusty Bulbasaur, which used Tackle as I used the same move. I knocked out his Bulbasaur with a critical hit Tackle after 2 Tail Whips. Squirtette turned out to be a Relaxed nature. My first Pokémon encounter that I could catch turned out to be a Rattata. I ended up catching her, named her Squeak. She is Mild nature. Training her is going to be fun. I went to Route 22, where I found a Mankey. I named her Primrose. She is Naive nature. I found a Spearow as well. Her name is Birdney. She is Gentle nature.

 

[Vahnstad]

I'm playing Pokemon Fire Red for the third time (and hopefully my last time). During my first playthrough i used Zapdos, Mewtwo, Vaporeon, two others (Donphan probably) and a Charizard, and during my second one a Vileplume, Charizard, Golduck, Electrode, Dragonite and one other.

Now my team is:
Raichu lvl 46
Charizard lvl 43
Hypno lvl 38
Nidoking lvl 33
Dugtrio lvl 32
Vaporeon lvl 26 (planning on training this one more)

Now, i have to fight for the fifth gym badge and than go to Saffron, fight for the sixth badge, and than try to catch Zapdos while training Dugtrio in the Power plant, than Surf, and in Mount Ember training with Vaporeon.

 

[Vahnstad]

I'm playing Pokemon Fire Red for the third time (and hopefully my last time). During my first playthrough i used Zapdos, Mewtwo, Vaporeon, two others (Donphan probably) and a Charizard, and during my second one a Vileplume, Charizard, Golduck, Electrode, Dragonite and one other.

Now my team is:
Raichu lvl 46
Charizard lvl 43
Hypno lvl 38
Nidoking lvl 33
Dugtrio lvl 32
Vaporeon lvl 26 (planning on training this one more)

Now, i have to fight for the fifth gym badge and than go to Saffron, fight for the sixth badge, and than try to catch Zapdos while training Dugtrio in the Power plant, than Surf, and in Mount Ember training with Vaporeon.

Before the sixth badge,

Raichu lvl 51
Hypno lvl 48
Charizard lvl 44
Dugtrio lvl 36
Vaporeon lvl 34
Nidoking lvl 33

 

[RedJirachi]

Prepping for Koga. However I'm first doing the lengthy task of getting a Chansey with a Lucky Egg. Long it may be, but anything to alleviate level grinding. I've decided to replace Pidgeot with Dratini/Dragonair for a challenge and a huge payoff by the end.

Addendum: It's taking too long without payoff. I'm just going to level up Dragonair as long as possible while Exp sharing. I'm going to do this to evolve a bunch of Pokemon for dex purposes, and with 4 Pickup Meowth I am going to get as many Rare Candies and Nuggets as possible to buy whatever I want

 

[TwilightBlade]

I don't play the Generation 3 games that often, but I recently bought a used copy of FireRed and the PC had some interesting Pokemon stored in it like this MYSTRY Mew and this WISHMKR Jirachi among other things. I was never able to get my hands on a legit Jirachi in any of my other Generation 3 cartridges, so the fact that I now have one is a huge milestone for me. I played through more of the game and realized that Navel Rock is accessible in my copy of the game because apparently the previous owner got the Mystic Ticket somehow and that's pretty awesome even if the Ho-Oh and Lugia were already caught by the time I got there.