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:
-

Servine Lv. 33
-

Audino Lv. 32
-

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)
-

Krokorok Lv. 32
-

Ducklett Lv. 31
-

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

 

[Ishiftyounot]

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.

I'm so glad you did find your log-in, I've always been such a fan of your Recent Happenings posts! I love that you've updated your signature too, the ScVi icons look really good. I find with most games there's always a really cool Pokemon I like but you can't catch until the late-game, so you'd very rarely use them! I like my teams to be complete by the early-mid game so breeding and trading things over works out quite nicely. Using traded experience to offset Slow exp. group Pokemon was also something I'm glad I trialled as it makes playing the games more fun when everything gets relatively equal use! I've never used Bouffalant or Druddigon though, were they any good?

Since my last post I've made it all the way to Nimbasa City, although as per my signature I am currently in Nacrene City again. This part of the game I'm posting about was basically just "beating up Team Plasma" because they're a constant presence in the story! We routed them from Pinwheel Forest to return the skull to Lenora, we ousted them from Castelia City after they stole Bianca's Munna, and then in Nimbasa City we fought the grunts harassing the Day-Care Man (who gave us a bike). In Castelia City we picked up some pretty neat items such as the Exp. Share (weirdly enough I think I prefer the shared version to the item version now), Eviolite, Amulet Coin and most importantly a Water Stone! All the training my team received in Pinwheel Forest and Castelia City got us to about level 22 so Panpour learned Scald, so I saw no reason to delay evolution as the rest of its moves either suck, can be TM'd or I'd prefer other moves.

Simipour's new power has been a great help since then and it got to show its strength in the major boss battles in this area - Burgh's Dwebble, Bianca's Herdier and Cheren's Pignite all fell to the Scald spam! Litwick 0HKO'd Burgh's Leavanny as it should whilst Axew spammed Dragon Rage against Whirlipede to win us our third badge - always nice to see Litwick be useful and Axew has kept up its consistency! Against Bianca I had Servine take down Dewott, Axew fought Pansear and Litwick defeated Munna for a relatively easy win? Cheren was similarly not a challenge with Pidove falling to Tynamo, Pansage getting wrecked by Litwick and Liepard getting taken down by Servine. Everyone's been pulling their weight and I have no complaints, it's a very solid squad. Tynamo and Litwick are probably the weakest team members but they're still doing just fine and benefitting from the Eviolite quite a bit!

The only other major thing I've done is obtaining the Plume Fossil from the Relic Castle, which I headed back to Nacrene City to be regenerated into an Archen. However instead of using it on my team, I've traded it away to my White 2 file in exchange for Liberty, the Level 25 Hidden Ability Braviary you can catch! I had no idea it existed until a few years ago and I don't really like BW2 all that much to replay it, so off I went to catch it and figured I'd use it from Nimbasa onwards (since that's when you'd use it in White 2 anyway). It's seen no battles so far but I'm excited to try it out! I suspect it'll become my most reliable team member for a while.

The Team:

Nettles the Servine, Level 25 ♀
Return, Growth, Leech Seed, Leaf Tornado

Chimpansea the Simipour, Level 25 ♂
Grass Knot, Dig, Bite, Water Gun

Current the Tynamo, Level 25 ♂
Tackle, Thunder Wave, Spark, Charge Beam

Rampage the Axew, Level 25 ♂
Assurance, Dig, Dual Chop, Rock Tomb

Amaterasu the Litwick, Level 25 ♂
Will 'o Wisp, Flame Burst, Thief, Night Shade

Liberty the Braviary, Level 25 ♂
Rock Tomb, Hone Claws, Return, Aerial Ace

 

[zolios]

I'm so glad you did find your log-in, I've always been such a fan of your Recent Happenings posts! I love that you've updated your signature too, the ScVi icons look really good. I find with most games there's always a really cool Pokemon I like but you can't catch until the late-game, so you'd very rarely use them! I like my teams to be complete by the early-mid game so breeding and trading things over works out quite nicely. Using traded experience to offset Slow exp. group Pokemon was also something I'm glad I trialled as it makes playing the games more fun when everything gets relatively equal use! I've never used Bouffalant or Druddigon though, were they any good?

Thank you, I'm glad I'm back as well. Writing these little updates about a playthrough makes it feel more special and memorable imo so I'm definitely enjoying the process all over again. Bouffalant was great and I loved being able to use it from the second gym onward. I don't remember much about Druddigon though since that playthrough was done a long, long time ago and also very quickly, in about a week if I remember correctly since X and Y were about to come out and I wanted to finish my replay of White 2 before then so I could 100% focus on the new games. I've always loved Druddigon and its design so I'm sure I had fun using it, maybe I should use one again in one of my future playthroughs. Btw, I also like the addition of Braviary to your team. I've used one in White 2 back in the day and it was amazing in battle so I know yours will also serve you well in your playthrough.

So I haven't played much recently since I had a week off work and I spent it back in my hometown visiting family and friends. I also didn't bring my DS with me since I knew I wouldn't want (or even have time) to play Pokemon while there. However, since I've been back I did win the last Gym Badge but I'm getting ahead of myself here so I'll recap what happened since my last post.

After beating Brycen I had to go and clear Dragonspiral Tower from Team Plasma and try to stop N from reviving Reshiram. During the battles against Team Plasma grunts my final team member finally evolved. It was kinda like the "anime moment" evolution since it happened when 4 Team Plasma grunts surrounded me and I had to battle them all in a row, Krokorok was my lead and he leveled up and evolved after the first grunt that he barely beat btw so it felt "earned". The other three grunts were much easier to deal with since I had a Krookodile now. I really enjoy these kinds of evolutions that happen at the right moment and the entire situation feels like it was taken straight from the anime.

Anyways, I beat the rest of Team Plasma but was still too late to stop N and he now has a Reshiram so I'll have to look for Zekrom to help me stop him (spoiler alert: it won't help at all since I'll box it right away and use my actual team lol). I then had to mash A like crazy and go through a lot of story with Team Plasma and the Dark Stone but we've all played through these games at least once by now so there is no need for me to go into much detail about this part.

Eventually, I've made it to Opelucid city and had to prepare for my Gym battle against Iris. Only thing of note that I did was buy Blizzard and teach it to Audino just in case since I still don't have any Ice coverage on Swanna and my only Ice move is Ice Punch on Conkeldurr. However Conkeldurr turned out to be enough for most Gym Trainers and only time I didn't use him was when I chose to use Escavalier against a few Deino that a couple of Trainers had. Gym battle against Iris was pretty easy as well and a clean sweep for Conkeldurr. Fraxure went down to one Ice Punch after trying to set up a Dragon Dance. I knew that Druddigon can survive one Ice Punch because of the trainer battles from earlier so I went for Bulk Up first and then two Ice Punches knocked out both Druddigon and Haxorus in one hit. I won my 8th Gym Badge and saved right after getting a Master Ball from Professor Juniper since she waited for me in front of the gym.

My team after defeating Iris:

Cadmus the Serperior (M, Lv. 44): Leaf Blade, Strength, Giga Drain and Coil

Freyja the Audino (F, Lv. 42): Return, Thunderbolt, Blizzard and Work Up

Samson the Conkeldurr (M, Lv. 44): Drain Punch, Ice Punch, Rock Slide and Bulk Up

Belial the Krookodile (M, Lv. 42): Crunch, Bulldoze, Foul Play and Rock Tomb

Artemis the Swanna (F, Lv. 42): Surf, Air Slash, Fly and Feather Dance

Bellona the Escavalier (F, Lv. 43): Iron Head, Twineedle, Slash and False Swipe

Badges: 8

 

[Ishiftyounot]

Thank you, I'm glad I'm back as well. Writing these little updates about a playthrough makes it feel more special and memorable imo so I'm definitely enjoying the process all over again. Bouffalant was great and I loved being able to use it from the second gym onward. I don't remember much about Druddigon though since that playthrough was done a long, long time ago and also very quickly, in about a week if I remember correctly since X and Y were about to come out and I wanted to finish my replay of White 2 before then so I could 100% focus on the new games. I've always loved Druddigon and its design so I'm sure I had fun using it, maybe I should use one again in one of my future playthroughs. Btw, I also like the addition of Braviary to your team. I've used one in White 2 back in the day and it was amazing in battle so I know yours will also serve you well in your playthrough.

I'm glad to hear you're getting back into the process! I am very keen to read any posts you make about other games you may be playing, if you have another game lined up (since you're so close to completing the main story). I hope the Elite 4 / N & Ghetsis fights go well for you!

Since my last post I've gone and beaten Elesa and Clay, whilst taking on the rival fights in-between alongside the Team Plasma story bits. I'll be honest I do think people over-hype the BW story - Elesa comes in and basically has a line or two to Bianca's dad and he completely changes his mind, N hasn't really been that fleshed out thus far and Clay rolls over in the final confrontation with Ghetsis outside the gym with no real point to it? I guess it's better than other Pokemon games but not by a lot. I'm having a ton of fun though and despite my team's late evolution levels they are still mostly pulling their weight? I can feel them struggling bulk-wise especially Litwick and Tynamo but the Eviolite helps, and they're strong enough to 2HKO most things at an equal level!

Simipour and Braviary are my current stand-outs though, which makes sense since they're fully evolved. Simipour just wrecks everything with Scald and I have immensely enjoyed putting Braviary up against every Intimidate user for a free +1 Attack thanks to Defiant! I did replace Return very quickly with Strength though - Serperior could learn it later but I think because she's weaker she'll appreciate Return more, whilst Braviary is a powerhouse and gets STAB either way so Strength is adequate. Axew is still holding its own, especially now it knows Dragon Claw - evolution in 7 levels is incredibly tantalising.

Anywho, onto the gym battles! Elesa was the harder fight because Emolga is a menace every single time I play this game, but Axew was my MVP once more. Rock Tomb was a 2HKO but it was faster after the -1 Speed drop, and both Emolga just kept spamming Pursuit rather than Aerial Ace. Servine got crit-KO'd by Flame Charge from Zebstrika but not before setting up Leech Seed, so Dig from Axew put it low enough that the extra damage sealed the win! Funny how Axew keeps stealing Servine's thunder. Clay was much easier - his Krokorok didn't have Intimidate to make Braviary a menace but we crit-KO'd with Strength anyway, Palpitoad fell to Servine's Grass Pledge (a worthy upgrade to Leaf Tornado but damn do I need Leaf Blade) and Simipour smacked Excadrill with Scald for a simple victory!

The Team:

Nettles the Servine, Level 29 ♀
Return, Growth, Leech Seed, Grass Pledge

Chimpansea the Simipour, Level 29 ♂
Grass Knot, Dig, Bite, Water Gun

Current the Tynamo, Level 30 ♂
Tackle, Thunder Wave, Spark, Charge Beam

Rampage the Axew, Level 31 ♂
Assurance, Dig, Rock Tomb, Dragon Claw

Amaterasu the Litwick, Level 30 ♂
Will 'o Wisp, Flame Burst, Thief, Hex

Liberty the Braviary, Level 30 ♂
Rock Tomb, Hone Claws, Strength, Fly

 

[zolios]

So I've finished the main story a couple of days ago.

After winning the 8th badge last time I quickly backtracked to the Mistralton Cave to get the TM for Rock Slide since I didn't like my Krookodile having a weak Rock Tomb for this final stretch of the main story, especially since I already had STAB Bulldoze that also lowers opponent's speed. After that I flew back to Opelucid and continued my journey to the Pokemon League. The last route before Victory Road and the Victory road itself were pretty uneventful, just a lot of battles that posed no problems for my team at this point in the game. Even the rival fight wasn't very challenging so I already forgot pretty much everything about it other than that I won easily.

I reached the Pokemon League and stocked up on healing items to heal my team between battles since I won't be using any during the actual battles so I'll have to heal a lot after the battles end. As a final change I used a TM for Shadow Ball on Audino and replaced Blizzard so now Audino can hit half of the Elite 4 for super effective damage.

vs. Elite 4

Spoiler: Battles vs. Elite 4

I battled Shauntal first with Audino as my lead because I didn't want Krookodile losing Moxie to Cofagrigus' ability. Audino took a Will-O-Wisp and a Psychic as she set up two Work Ups and then took down Cofagrigus with two Shadow Balls while tanking another Psychic in the process. I then switched out into Serperior against Golurk and beat it with two leaf Blades. Next up was Chandelure and I sent out Krookodile to use Crunch but Chandelure survived and hit back with a strong Fire Blast that Krookodile barely survived in red HP. I went for Bulldoze but Shauntal used Full Restore. That only prolonged this battles for one extra turn since Crunch knocked Chandelure out on the very next turn and gave my Krookodile a Moxie boost that allowed him to defeat Jellicent in one hit with +1 Crunch and win me this battle.

Grimsley was next and this battle was super easy. Swanna took down Scrafty with Air Slash attacks and then it was my Conkeldurr's time to shine. He set up 2 Bulk Up against Krookodile and then swept the rest of the battle with Drain Punch with Krookodile, Liepard and Bisharp all going down in one hit. Caitlin's battle was almost as easy as Grimsley's but I forgot that Reuniclus has Focus Blast so it managed to hit two in a row and knock out my Audino that only did about half health of damage to it in return with Shadow Balls. However, that allowed Krookodile to come in and sweep the rest of Caitlin's team with Crunch thanks to Moxie making him stronger with every KO.

Against Marshal I went with Escavalier first and it would've defeated Throh twice over but Marshal kept using Full Restores whenever Throh had low HP so over time Throh chipped away at Escavalier with Stone Edge and got it to red HP so I switched it out since it didn't deserve to faint in this battle that it pretty much won twice and I used Serperior to finally knock out Throh. I had Serperior set up a few Coils against Sawk and just as I attacked and got it to 1HP (thanks to Sturdy) it managed to crit with Stone Edge and knock out my Serperior. Swanna came in next and used Air Slash to finish off Sawk then another Air Slash to OHKO Conkeldurr and finally one Brave Bird took down Mienshao and we won.

I healed everyone up and went to the Champion Room where N already defeated Alder and reveled Team Plasma's Castle that now surrounded the Pokemon League. I went inside to find N and one of my favorite scenes in all of Pokemon games played out when all of the Gym Leaders came to help against the Seven Sages so that I can go and stop N. After meating N and Reshiram, the Black Stone in my Bag activated and turned into Zekrom that I easily caught and sent to my PC box so that I can battle N with my team.

vs N:

Spoiler: Battle vs N

I led with Audino against Reshiram but Return didn't do that much damage and Audino fainted to two Fusion Flares. I didn't know it at the time but that was when the hero of this battle joined the fight, my Krookodile. Reshiram was faster and Fusion Flare took Krookodile down to only about 1/3rd of his HP left as Bulldoze wasn't enough to KO Reshiram and left it in red HP. N used a Full Restore as Krookodile used Dragon Claw that did less than half HP of damage to Reshiram, just like Bulldoze. I knew Krookodlie couldn't take down Reshiram in one hit despite being faster now thanks to Bulldoze lowering the dragon's speed so I was already thinking about what to do next when Krookodile faints but instead he got a critical hit with Bulldoze and took down the legendary dragon as Moxie gave him a +1 in attack. Vanilluxe was next so I used Rock Slide but it wasn't enough to KO and being in yellow HP since his first turn in battle I knew Krookodile was going down to any hit from the Ice type but Rock Slide flinched Vanilluxe and allowed Krookodile to follow up with Crunch and get the KO. Krookodile came in clutch twice already and he wasn't done yet.

N sent out Klinklang but I soon realized that it was actually a Zoroark when it went for Focus Blast against my Krookodile. But Krookodile already decided that he wasn't going down in this battle so he avoided the Focus Blast as he went for Bulldoze that left Zoroark in red HP and lowered its speed so my Krookodile was faster now. He finished off the Dark type with another Bulldoze. I decided to give him a break after all of that so I used my Serperior against Carracosta for an easy KO with Grass moves. Then a real Klinklang was sent out but I had a Conkeldurr so Drain Punch was more than enough to easily beat the Steel type. Last but not least, my Escavalier took an Acrobatics from Archeops before defeating it with one Iron Head and winning me the battle against N.

vs Ghetsis:

Spoiler: Battle vs Ghetsis

Just like against Shauntal I used my Audino to defeat Cofagrigus with Work Ups and Shadow Balls but Audino did take more damage this time around because of Toxic so Hydreigon was able to finish it off easily with one Dragon Pulse. I sent in Conkeldurr and he survived Dragon Pulse with yellow HP but then healed himself to almost full HP with Drain Punch while knocking Hydreigon out in one hit. Bouffalant is next but the battle goes the same as the one against Hydreigon since Conkeldurr survives Head Charge and gets a OHKO with Drain Punch. I tried the same strategy against Eelektross but it was bulkier than the other two and was doing too much damage so I had to switch into my Krookodile that then finished Eelektross off with Crunch. Seismitoad was next but I sent out Serperior and defeated it with Leaf Blade. Ghetsis' last Pokemon was a Bisharp so I sent my low HP Conkeldurr back in and he manages to survive a crit Night Slash with 12 HP before using Drain Punch for another OHKO and a win against Ghetsis.

Credits roll and I've officially completed the main story of this game but I plan on doing the post-game and rematches against the Elite 4 as well as the battles against Alder and Cynthia.

My team after finishing the main story:

Cadmus the Serperior (M, Lv. 51): Leaf Blade, Strength, Giga Drain and Coil

Freyja the Audino (F, Lv. 49): Return, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball and Work Up

Samson the Conkeldurr (M, Lv. 51): Drain Punch, Ice Punch, Rock Slide and Bulk Up

Belial the Krookodile (M, Lv. 52): Crunch, Bulldoze, Dragon Claw and Rock Slide

Artemis the Swanna (F, Lv. 49): Air Slash, Surf, Brave Bird and Fly

Bellona the Escavalier (F, Lv.48): Iron Head, X-Scissor, Slash and Flase Swipe

 

[Ishiftyounot]

So I've finished the main story a couple of days ago.

...

Credits roll and I've officially completed the main story of this game but I plan on doing the post-game and rematches against the Elite 4 as well as the battles against Alder and Cynthia.

Congratulations on completing the main story Zolios! I hope you continue to post about the post-game and any future games you may end up playing.

I've now finally made enough progress to make a post as I've now beaten Skyla - I took a break over Christmas and only got back to playing this week, which involved me clearing Chargestone Cave -> Route 7 & Celestial Tower -> Mistralton Gym which each take a fair bit of time. Wild to think I'd only now at this point in the game, 10 hours in, I'd only have 4 team members if I caught everything where they're located in-game! I still wouldn't have Axew or Braviary yet.

Anywho, not much to report in that lengthy foray to my 6th gym badge. There's an N battle that's not particularly noteworthy besides my Braviary getting bruised pretty badly by his Ferroseed (I missed Fly and it got to +4 Defense, I was doing more damage to myself than I was to it) but none of the other trainers in the area have been a challenge even without grinding. Skyla was pretty easy - Swoobat was KO'd by Litwick's Hex (boosted by burn from Will 'o Wisp), Braviary was able to take out Unfezant with a +2 Fly after it got a Defiant boost via Leer, and Tynamo managed to 0HKO Swanna with Spark! That was... surprising. I have also taken on the Cheren fight before Twist Mountain - Tynamo fought his Unfezant and won with Spark spam, Simisage was 2HKOed by Litwick's Flame Burst, Liepard fell to Servine's Leaf Blade and Simipour took down Pignite with Scald!

Looking at my previous posts... I can't believe I didn't catch that Simipour had Water Gun still written down! I promise you I've had Scald since level 22, I have not been running Water Gun the entire time! Also I didn't realise Grass Pledge was only 50BP in these games? It got buffed to 80BP in later games it seems, so I actually made Servine worse for the... 4 levels it knew the move. The team is doing well though - Litwick, Tynamo and Axew wish they were evolved but they're coming, hopefully by next post! They're pulling their weight in spite of it all though, and I have my Serperior / Simipour / Braviary as support if some battles are too tough for them. Braviary's accuracy sucks though, it misses every other Rock Tomb and Fly which is insane and I feel like Strength just barely misses out on KOs nowadays. It's still tanky and the AI loves spamming stat lowering moves against it so Defiant helps a lot! If I find a Wide Lens it may be its go-to item going forward.

The Team:

Nettles the Serperior, Level 36 ♀
Return, Coil, Leech Seed, Leaf Blade

Chimpansea the Simipour, Level 35 ♂
Grass Knot, Dig, Bite, Scald

Current the Tynamo, Level 35 ♂
Tackle, Thunder Wave, Spark, Charge Beam

Rampage the Axew, Level 36 ♂
Assurance, Dig, Dragon Dance, Dragon Claw

Amaterasu the Litwick, Level 35 ♂
Will 'o Wisp, Flame Burst, Thief, Hex

Liberty the Braviary, Level 36 ♂
Rock Tomb, Shadow Claw, Strength, Fly

 

[zolios]

Congratulations on completing the main story Zolios! I hope you continue to post about the post-game and any future games you may end up playing.

Thanks! I still haven't decided what I'll play next but my plan is to keep posting in these threads when I finally choose my next playthrough. Until then I'll enjoy reading the updates about your playthroughs.

Anyways, I just wanted to make one last update about my White run since I finally completed everything I wanted to do and I'm officially done with this playthrough.

I went through all of the post game routes, towns and other areas and battled all of the trainers that I found along the way. The only area that I didn't visit was the Abyssal Ruins because I didn't think it was worth my time to explore it since I've done it a few times before and I didn't need any of the items found there for this playthrough. I also caught every legendary available starting with the roaming Thundurus, then Cobalion, Virizion and Terrakion and finally the Kyurem in the Giant Chasm. I then trained my all of my Pokemon against the wild Audino on the route next to the White Forest until they all reached level 66 and my starter Serperior reached level 68. After this big training session I felt confident enough that my team can beat the Elite 4 rematch teams as well as Champions Alder and Cynthia.

I first went to the Pokemon League to rematch the Elite 4 and the battles went well but they were definitely more challenging than the first time around. Caitlin turned out to be the hardest one to beat and the only one that I didn't beat on my first try because I let my Krookodile's HP get to low so her Metagross could take it out with Bullet Punch. I did a better job on my second try by keeping my Krookodile healthy so I was able to beat her. Alder was easier than Caitlin tbh and I beat him on my first try. Volcarona was the biggest threat but it used Overheat to OHKO my Conkeldurr and that lowered its special attack by two stages so Krookodile was able to take its Bug type move and OHKO with Rock Slide.

Last but not least was Cynthia and her overleveled team. Before challenging her I remembered that I had 9 Rare Candies that I collected on this journey so I gave that to my team to give them a few more levels just in case. Thankfully most of her team wasn't a huge problem for my team but I did lose 4 of my Pokemon by the time I got to her last and best Pokemon, the one and only Garchomp. I went with Swanna in hopes of being faster and using Ice Beam despite the 8 level difference between my bird and the OP dragon. Swanna obviously wasn't faster but something even better happened, Garchomp went for Stone Edge and missed while my Swanna's Ice Beam did a lot of damage and also froze Cynthia's ace. Garchomp stayed frozen on the next turn so a second Ice Beam from Swanna finished the battle.

With this playthrough done I'll transfer my team to my "Hall of Fame" boxes in Pokemon HOME and I'll trade over all the legendaries to my main Gen 5 save on White 2 where I keep everything I don't want to transfer up to the newer generations.

My final team:

Cadmus the Serperior (M, Lv. 71): Leaf Blade, Strength, Giga Drain and Coil

Freyja the Audino (F, Lv. 69): Double-Edge, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball and Work Up

Samson the Conkeldurr (M, Lv. 69): Drain Punch, Ice Punch, Rock Slide and Bulk Up

Belial the Krookodile (M, Lv. 70): Crunch, Earthquake, Outrage and Rock Slide

Artemis the Swanna (F, Lv. 69): Air Slash, Surf, Ice Beam and Fly

Bellona the Escavalier (F, Lv. 69): Iron Head, X-Scissor, Reversal and Swords Dance
Honorable mention:

Raindrop the Panpour (M, Lv. 20): Water Gun, Cut, Bite and Rock Smash