Board 8 > Ol Punny plays Pokemon Soul Silver for the first time *SPOILERS*

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Team Rocket Elite posted...

Pidgeotto actually has higher everything except Defense compare to Onix.

Sure, but Onix is also a pokemon that you won't even have a chance to own for at least a few hours if you're playing at a casual pace. There are a couple other trainers in between, but the first place you can find Wild Onix in R/B/Y or FR/LG is Rock Tunnel. That gives it at least a bit of a cool/intrigue factor.

Meanwhile, you can literally have both Pidgey and Spearow before even really learning what a gym is in any Gen 1/2 game or remake. Granted, Pidgeotto not so much unless you grind excessively or are playing Yellow, but it's still 'available'

Should they have given Faulkner a Delibird instead? :P
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MalcolmMasher posted...

Should they have given Faulkner a Delibird instead? :P

Honestly, Flying is just sort of a shitty type for a first gym because of how many potential pokemon aren't considerations for mega early game. If they moved it later, he could've had stuff like Skarmory, Gligar, even Togetic or Aerodactyl in addition to the Delibird you mentioned. As-is, the best options for replacing one of his pokemon would probably be a Zubat or Farfetch'd, honestly.

(And the only reason I mention Farfetch'd is because it's a gen 1 pokemon. If it were a gen 2 like the others I mentioned, there's no way it'd be included on a first gym leader's team I don't think)

I wasn't hyped on Dunsparce, but considering Ruth's run in Easy Allies' Silver Squad playthrough, I respect it!

Flash is not necessary to progress in HGSS (although it might be for the legendary...I only recently played HG so I don't know about that). All the other uses for Flash are strictly "sidequests".

And yes, Gyarados probably would make a good HM slave, you'll want Waterfall on Grater.

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I mean, they could have given him a Noctowl or at least a Hoothoot to show off some gen II Pokemon.

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Plus Farfetch'd is pretty bad, so it's still balanced as an ace for the first gym leader.
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If the goal is to give him something less pedestrian, I think I have to reject Zubat. >_> Farfetch'd makes sense, though.

Johto's gyms don't share any types with Kanto's, which is clearly deliberate, and early GSC gyms favor Fire > Water > Grass instead of Grass > Water > Fire, which I also think is deliberate but will admit is not as clear cut. But, if my assumptions are right, GameFreak had limited options. Steel and Ice would yield the desired results typewise, at least on paper, but at least in GSC neither had the breadth to be a solid early game gym.

Edit: Although, upon reflection, reversing the type usefulness probably is coincidence. All the types that are weak against Water or Grass showed up in Gen 1, so Fire being the most useful type overall in Gen 2 gyms is a foregone conclusion, and after that it's not weird at all that it's also the most useful type early on.
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Steel as an early gym in Gen 2 would've been so awful. So many things only have STAB and Normal moves, and with the lack of early Fire types you'd be really screwed if you didn't pick Cyndaquill, and even then it takes forever to actually learn a Fire move.
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Mewtwo59 posted...

with the lack of Fire types

FTFY.

At least Crystal gave you early doggo. Should've been like that in all of Gen II.

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Either Growlithe or Vulpix was route 36 in Gold and Silver. They put Growlithe on route 35 in Crystal, but if you can get to route 35, then you can get to route 36.
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Mewtwo59 posted...

Either Growlithe or Vulpix was route 36 in Gold and Silver. They put Growlithe on route 35 in Crystal, but if you can get to route 35, then you can get to route 36.

No, that's the thing. Crystal added a patch of grass on Route 36 near Violet City and Ruins of Alph that you could access. In Gold/Silver, this grass didn't exist and you couldn't access the rest of the route because of a certain tree.

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Mewtwo59 posted...

Either Growlithe or Vulpix was route 36 in Gold and Silver. They put Growlithe on route 35 in Crystal, but if you can get to route 35, then you can get to route 36.

Crystal added a patch of grass to the segment of route 36 that's reachable from Violet.

A patch of grass that appears to have been removed from HG/SS in addition to not actually being present in Gold/Silver

Oh. Totally forgot about that since Crystal is the only Gen 2 game that I've replayed.
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Steel couldn't be the first gym due to the lack of steel types. The Pokemon with the lowest Attack/Special Attack stat would have been Skarmory at base 80 which would have hit like a truck at that point in the game.

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Mareep's line is such a gen 2 team mainstay. A definitive in-game Pokemon.

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For some reason it isn't catchable in Crystal. Probably Crystal's biggest flaw.
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I think the optimal first gym type would be one that doesnt give any massive advantage to any one starter
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I beat the bug gym

man that dude had a fucking Kakuna and Metapod in his team

what the hell is wrong with Johto

Bellsprout Evolved into Weepinbell!

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I'm now in the forest

but its filled with Lvl 5 bugs and oddishes

why is this after the 2nd badge?

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theres a guy teaching headbutt

huh, thats new

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Punnyz posted...

I'm now in the forest

but its filled with Lvl 5 bugs and oddishes

why is this after the 2nd badge?

yeah, this never made any sense

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I spent like an hour or so trying to catch an abra

I caught a drowzee so I was like, okay, I can use his hypnosis

Drowzee's fatass is WAY too slow for it

so basically I had to use Ford's thunder wave to slow abra down, and I had to rely on him being fully paralyzed

that didn't happen for a long time

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I'm surprised Flaaffy outsped it. That thing is pretty slow.
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Honestly, my Abra catching strat was usually "throw a great ball turn 1 and pray", though I rarely carry electric types/stun spore super early and usually had worse luck with sleep skills

I caught a teen leveled pidgey and Nidoran. on top of the abra I caught, old habits are dying hard >_>

I'm really trying not to revert to Kanto tactics

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I decided to train Togepi. Doesn't he eventually evolved into a bird thing? Yeah, he'll be my bird for the team

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So I started dicking around Goldenrod City for a while and I left.

I tried going north and I found the national park. I tried going Northeast but I'm blocked by a wood Pokemon. They said the florist can help me out. I went back to the florist and she said she'd give me a sprinkler if I beat the gym. I didn't even realize there was a gym here

I proceed and beat the crap out of everyone there. My Togepi is now sufficiently leveled up enough that he's solo'd the gym. Other than the miltank that had a fight at the end. Speaking of Togepi, he actually evolved right before I fought the gym leader. My little baby is all grown up. I thought it was fitting that my normal type cute Pokemon thrash all the other normal cute Pokemon. Now I have the third badge

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Does paralyzing affect the catch rate? Is sleeping better?

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Yes to both.
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I tried going to Lakerage but there's nothing there. I mean, there's a Red Gyarados but I can't do anything about it

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If I had remembered bellossoms existence, I would have went with those instead of Bellsprout

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every town I visit, the gym leader is out

I don't know what to do

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You need to go to the Burned Tower in Ecruteak
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I thought the remakes gave sufficient direction on that one, but I guess I'm misremembering?

no one in the game told me to go do that so I guess not

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I'm thinking about teaching my Onyx the attack dig. Since he's essentially my ground type for this play through. I usually have a Nidoking in my red playthrough. But I remembered dig is a very valuable TM. So I'm a little hesitant to do so.

I quickly looked up a little guide and saw that he doesn't learn any ground attacks until level 40. And I don't even know if that includes the Steelix evolution. And I sort of need a ground attack now

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I suddenly feel better about not having bellossom on my team. My justification is that I used to play Red version. Bellsprouts we're not in Red, so I'm still exploring something new with this. And second, bellossom involves with the use of a stone. Again, I looked up a little guide and these Stones don't seem to be available anytime soon. At the very least post joto.

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It looks like the leaf stone is also post Johto. Nevermind LOL

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I took a look at my Pokedex and it looks like the only place to get Oddish is that crappy ass Forest. So it'll be on level five. But at the same time I could probably level him up within an hour. Jesus Christ, I'm going back and forth so much on the issue that I'm getting whiplash

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Bellossom and the Oddish line are my favorite Pokemon so I fully support this endeavor.

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I went and caught an oddish >__>

It just now blew me away I Haven't named any pokemon after Jojo characters

Since she'll be an eventual Bellossom

I named her Midler

http://www.fightersgeneration.com/characters2/midler-stand3.gif

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OH I ran into a Tauros!

They were DUMB rare in Red AND even more so because they were only in the Safari zone

I had to exploit the cinnabar island trick to get him

They were bad ass as fuck but the draw back was they were end game.

Are they still bad ass here? or was that dum gen 1 shenanigans

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God damn it, see? Falling for Red version stuff again

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I named him El Toro Fuerte

well, El Toro F. for short

I feel like my nicknames are going underappreciated


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3ds gotta charge

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My oddish is Defiant and has a Lax nature

did I just get the worst Oddish possible?

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Ehhhh worst possible, no, but that's not great.

In game it shouldn't really matter too much but Oddish is an easy catch if you wanted a different one.

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Considering Oddish doesn't get Defiant and that Defiant doesn't even exist in HGSS I would say that Oddish is fairly odd. >_>
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Ilex forest is so fucking far away thoughhhh ughhhhh

at the same time this is literally the first time I've paid attention to that shit so I guess it doesn't matter

I probably am carrying crappy pokemon as we speak

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"Strongly" defiant

if that makes any difference

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