Feeling tired, so a shorter post. Beat Pryce, headed to the Rocket Tower, where Petrel's Weezing killed Fable with Explosion (completely forgot about that move >.< ). After defeating my rival and clearing out Team Rocket for good, I travelled towards the Ice Cave, catching Gustaf the Lickitung on the way. He's become a major powerhouse since joining the team and evolving.
On the other side of the Ice Cave, in Blackthorn City, I narrowly avoided any deaths to earn my 8th and final badge, but Clair refused to part with the badge, demanding I enter the Dragon's Den. There, unfortunately, a trainer's Dragonair killed Hovver with a critical hit Thunder.
(Hovver and Silk were/are becoming less and less useful anyway, but its still a big loss, since he had been such a great help).
Got my badge, and saved. Now need to find a 6th member for the team... I have an entire box full of randoms caught along the way, but they're all so underlevelled, I think it's probably better to concentrate my efforts on raising the other 5 to appropriate levels rather than take away experience training someone else who will still end up underlevelled at the end of it. Again, the grinding rule limits my options somewhat.
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Edit: Disaster struck. The Kimono Girls ripped most of my team to pieces. If it weren't for the 15 Lemonades I'd bought prior to the battles, I'd have lost everyone. Espeon killed my Fly Slave (I had to switch into someone, but no-one could reliably take the attack). Flareon critical'd Gustaf with Fire Blast for a OHKO, then Jolteon OHKO'd Silk with Thunderbolt. Neither Herali or Cocora had enough HP to take a thunderbolt, but Wyse did (even with the super effective hit, his SpDef and HP were both high) - Wyse just failed (literally by 1 or 2 HP) to defeat Jolteon with silver wind. I couldn't switch, and even if I healed Wyse, I would have run out of lemonades before I would have died, so I healed Herali instead and watched Wyse fall. Healed, Herali was able to finish Jolteon off. Vaporeon nearly killed Herali too - Herali had 1HP left at the end of the battle.
Now I really don't know what I'm going to do. I have two Pokemon left (Cocora and Herali), and with the no grinding rule, I can't train anyone else up properly. Cocora defeated Ho-oh (wouldn't catch it, too risky AND I don't really want to have to resort to legendaries) but I'm still at a loss. I think this run is over
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Damn, it's over
I managed to make it all the way to Lance with my new team (consisting of Lactia the Miltank, Equatic the Kingdra, Scorro the Gligar, and Sumome the Machamp), and after defeating 4 of his team, with 4 of mine left, I felt I had a chance. Then one of his Level 49 Dragonite's just kept getting critical after critical. I probably would have won otherwise. I only had that Dragonite and Charizard left to go. Very frustrating
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(Wow, this thread died...)
Anyway, started a new run on Platinum. Grinding is allowed this time, but I have to play on 'set mode'. I'm also not allowing dupes. Just beat the first gym. Team consists of Monarquin (Prinplup) and Eleline (Luxio).
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