5th Gen Recent Happenings Thread

[Ishiftyounot]

I got bored of playing Ultra Moon (maybe one day I'll beat an Alola game) but I still need something to play on my lunch break at work, so at the suggestion of my partner I've started playing White! My short foray so far into the game has already made me really nostalgic - whilst I started with DPPt/HGSS I think BW was when I really engaged with the online community and the lead-up to a new game release. I still remember where I was when I first got to play the games, I remember watching the original trailer for the anime and seeing Ash use all 3 starters, I remember that I used to draw the starters over and over again and can still recall their Japanese names from when that was the only information we really had about them... It was amazing! These are also the only games where I've used all 3 starters to beat the game on separate teams - I've done it in Kanto too but that was via Let's Go which is kind-of cheating.

Anywho, I have made it up to the Striaton Gym, which I beat rather handily. I chose Snivy for my starter as it's my favourite of the trio and mine was a female (like Ash's) so I named her Nettles. We fought Bianca and Cheren and won handily, made our way to Route 1 to catch a Lillipup and a Patrat, headed to Accumula Town to beat up N, proceeded on to Route 2 to catch Purrloin, beat Bianca again, ran straight to the Dreamyard to obtain Chimpansea the Panpour (our second team member), beat Cheren at the Trainer's School, headed to the gym and took on Chilli! Snivy took down Lillipup with Growth-boosted Tackles, and Panpour spammed Water Gun to beat Pansear. Easy win!

The Team:

Nettles the Snivy, Level 13 ♀
Tackle, Growth, Vine Whip, Wrap

Chimpansea the Panpour, Level 12 ♂
Scratch, Work Up, Lick, Water Gun

 

[zolios]

I'm currently replaying Pokemon White but I'm doing it super slowly and just enjoying the game and the nostalgia it brings me. I started this playthrough almost two months ago but I only got my 5th Gym Badge from Clay a couple of days ago. Good news is that I finally settled on what my final team will be for this playthrough and I already caught all the members, still need to evolve most of them to their final stages as I continue to progress through the game.

I started with Snivy since it's my favorite Unova starter and it's been years since I last used Serperior on my team. I also picked up the Dreamyard Panpour and used it until recently when I finally caught the Water type that I actually wanted for my team. Panpour line is definitely my least favorite of the elemental monkeys but Panpour was still nice to have and very useful early on so I consider it the honorary 7th member of this team.

After getting the first Badge, I caught an Audino for my team since I wanted to use one for the longest time but never did for whatever reason. Fun fact about me is that my first ever shiny (not counting Johto's Red Gyarados) was a shiny Audino during my first ever playthrough of Unova sequels (Black 2) back in January of 2013. I didn't add the shiny to my team back then since I already had my team planned out but I've wanted to use an Audino ever since in honor of that shiny and now, almost 12 years later, I'm finally doing it lol.

Timburr was next. I've used this entire evolution line competitively over the years and I enjoyed using them a lot. Timburr was great back in the day when I played Little Cup a lot, Eviolite Gurdurr was A TANK in lower tiers and Flame Orb+Guts Conkeldurr hits like a truck. So I thought that it was finally time to use this evo line in a playthrough team as well since I have multiple consoles and Gen 5 games so trade evolutions aren't an issue for me like back when Gen 5 was new.

The next Pokemon I chose to catch and add to my team was a Sandile. I've probably done at least 10 different Unova playthroughs so far across all 4 Unova games but I've never used Sandile evolution line on my team until now. It's not like I dislike them, they are awesome and I love them actually but it just never felt like the right time or the right playthrough to use them until now.

I needed both a water and a flying type on my team so that I can traverse the region easier and there is a Pokemon in Unova that is both, so I caught a Ducklett. I've used Swanna once before but not in Unova (it was in Kalos, Pokemon Y) so I wanted to use it once more and this time in its native region.

Last but not least is Karrablast. I've loved Escavaliers since the moment I saw it and I've wanted to use it for the longest time and now I'm finally doing it. Bug/Steel type combo is amazing and Escavalier also has a crazy high attack stat so it'll be fun using it for the rest of this playthrough.

Team right now as I'm entering Mistralton City:
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Servine Lv. 33
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Audino Lv. 32
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Gurdurr Lv. 32 (I'll evolve it after Skyla since it can take hits better as Gurdurr with Eviolite, just in case I need it since my team doesn't have much for the flying types)
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Krokorok Lv. 32
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Ducklett Lv. 31
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Escavalier Lv. 30

 

[Ishiftyounot]

It's so nice to see someone else playing these games and talking abut how nostalgic it is for them! I like the team too, Audino and Escavalier in particular are very unique choices. I have also made moves towards completing my final team, although most of my favourite Unovan Pokemon are caught late in the game and I'd barely get to use them in the story (although I do intend to progress past the credits and clear the post-game + Alder as I've never done it before). To remedy these late additions I bred them in my White 2 file and traded them over! So now I have a Tynamo, Axew and Litwick on the team. The latter two had some "OP" moves like Dragon Claw and Flame Burst (at least for the early-game) so I swapped them out for weaker alternatives, which was a mixed bag.

Litwick has an awful level up moveset early on - I'd missed Ember so I was relying on Will 'o Wisp (the only move I kept) + Smog + Minimize + Fire Spin until very recently. You'd think it'd be perfect to grind on Audino because you're immune to Normal but no, because they have Refresh meaning you can't really grind them down with status and Fire Spin has iffy accuracy! It also isn't great against any of the Normal types found early on because they all get Bite (Patrat/Watchog gets Crunch at this stage of the game), and then the Fighting types (well Timburr) you'd also think were easy wins get Rock Throw. Ironically Purrloin are the safest things to fight and even now they get Pursuit so that's less true! Luckily we now have Flame Burst for some solid Fire STAB, so there's something.

Axew meanwhile is incredibly strong because I stupidly though Dragon Claw would be a stronger move than Dragon Rage? Consistent 40HP is way better than 80BP STAB move, it two-shot Lenora's Pokemon and won me the second badge without issue and made mincemeat out of everything else. It's surprisingly sturdy too, it tanked a Retaliate at -2 Defense from Lenora's Watchog (it wasn't boosted from Herdier's defeat though so take that how you will). So far it's my best Pokemon!

Tynamo, Servine (evolved whilst grinding in the outskirts of Pinwheel Forest) and Panpour are all solid but unremarkable. Servine is my reliable team tank and now it has Leech Seed to aid in that, Panpour is beginning to feel weak but Scald is coming and Tynamo is... well, it's Tynamo. It's fast enough and strong enough to do the job, and can take a hit if needed. Not a ton of Flying or Water types yet to feast upon but I'm sure it'll see use soon!

The Team:

Nettles the Servine, Level 20 ♀
Tackle, Growth, Leech Seed, Leaf Tornado

Chimpansea the Panpour, Level 20 ♂
Rock Smash, Work Up, Bite, Water Gun

Current the Tynamo, Level 19 ♂
Tackle, Thunder Wave, Spark, Charge Beam

Rampage the Axew, Level 20 ♂
Assurance, Rock Smash, Dual Chop, Dragon Rage

Amaterasu the Litwick, Level 20 ♂
Will 'o Wisp, Flame Burst, Thief, Night Shade

 

[zolios]

Thank you for the kind words Ishiftyounot, seeing your post in this thread actually motivated me to post about my playthrough. I forgot my password and didn't log into the forums for like a year at least but then I randomly found my login info in an old notebook recently so I logged back in and this was one of the first threads I checked since Gen 5 is my favorite and I was in a middle of my Gen 5 playthrough anyways so I wanted to see if anyone else was playing. I love your signature btw, I would like to do something similar for mine but I'm too lazy at the moment lol. Also like your team so far and the fact that you traded over some late game Pokemon to have them early. I did the same thing a couple of times before, like trading over a Bouffalant Egg after the first Gym in Black or a Druddigon in White 2, and it was super fun to have these cool Pokemon for pretty much the entire playthrough.

My playthrough is progressing nicely and I've won two more Gym badges since my last post, I actually just beat Brycen last night. Brycen was super easy to beat with my team but Skyla was a big challenge just like I predicted her to be. I made a great call by not evolving my Gurdurr and giving him Eviolite since I had to rely on him and his Rock Slide to beat Skyla's last Pokemon. My team really struggles against Flying types but I don't want to change any of my Pokemon at this point and I've gotten a few nice moves since the Skyla battle that should help me do better against the Flying types in the future. For example my Audino now has Thunderbolt.

After getting my 6th Gym badge I evolved my Gurdurr into a Conkeldurr and while it was on my White 2 game I gave him 2 great move tutor moves as well before trading him back, so now it knows Drain Punch and Ice Punch. My Ducklett and Servine also evolved along the way so now Krokorok is the only one that still needs to evolve but that'll happen very soon as well.

My team after defeating Brycen:

Cadmus the Serperior (M, Lv. 40): Leaf Blade, Strength, Leaf Tornado and Coil

Freyja the Audino (F, Lv. 39): Return, Thunderbolt, Echoed Voice and Work Up

Samson the Conkeldurr (M, Lv. 39): Drain Punch, Ice Punch, Rock Slide and Bulk Up

Belial the Krokorok (M, Lv. 39): Crunch, Bulldoze, Payback and Rock Tomb

Artemis the Swanna (F, Lv. 39): Surf, Air Slash, Fly and Feather Dance

Bellona the Escavalier (F, Lv. 39): Iron Head, Twineedle, Slash and False Swipe

Badges: 7