Recap: We foiled Team Magma’s plans, made it to Lilycove, raided the Safari Zone, and grinded our main team of six to level 50!

We had some ties this time, so we’ll be doing a lot today! Looks like we will be adding Groudon, Lugia, Shedinja, and Flaaffy to our Pokemon roster. We’ll also be decorating our Secret Base and visit Slateport!

As for our team, the six in Saphire’s party already will remain! There was only a one-vote difference between Commando and Delcatty, but the Hitmonlee seems to have captured enough hearts to keep him in the main team.

You are on FIRE with these names!

Articuno’s name will be Zelos, I find it unique. Funny enough, I kept calling Gengar Pidgey in my head as well, but Pippi is a more appropriate title. Swablu as Bag DJ is officially my favorite name ever. Golem shall be Oichi and I actually do like Zoey for Delcatty. Snubbull will be Wendy and Ariados’s new name is Lola. All very fitting titles for the Safari Zone Bunch!

I wanted to post this screencap of HetalianEevee’s comments regarding the questions I had about parts of the game I didn’t know much about because this person described everything so eloquently that I actually understood it. I’ve never been able to grasp what EVs were before, but now I finally get it. See, I was never a strategic player. I was an itty bitty child when Red came out and I only played up to the third generation of Pokemon before I ‘grew out of it’ (then fell back in as an adult), so the only thing I ever paid any attention to was levelling everybody until I could conquer the game. I find it pretty interesting now that I’m an adult that there were actually more in-depth aspects to the games that I completely missed. So, in case any of you readers have any confusion regarding those things, here is a great explanation. Thanks, HetalianEevee!

I completely forgot where Saphire’s Secret Base was. I borrowed Zelos from the PC and made her fly us around all of Hoenn to try to find it. All I could remember was it was a tree surrounded by water…

Anyway, Zelos flew us everywhere and we bought a bunch of stuff for the base. I warn you, I’m not a fantastic decorator. Not in real life, and not in video games.

Here is Saphire’s cozy furnished base!

In this half of the room is a nice little sitting area where you can marvel at Saphire’s collection of dolls, or sit on a fluffy cushion and pretend you are in front of a fire. On the desk up there is a Lotad doll that was given to us by Lanette, and next to it are replicas of Kyle and Bag DJ. The Torchic doll was purchased just to match the fire-y feel of the decor.

The other side has a mat that pays homage to Meadow’s seductive beginnings using Attract and Covet almost explicitly. We also grabbed a doll that looks like Zoey’s pre-evolution to honor her arrival. The PokeBall decor matches the relaxing feeling over here. The soft blue color goes well with the pink and will make for a romantic mood when Archie comes by.

These are all of the PokeBalls we have to catch Lugia, Groudon, Flaaffy, and Shedinja with. I was foolish to believe this batch would be enough.

We return to Team Magma’s Hideout to find it empty and swarming with Pokemon. We immediately run into Lugia and weaken him to the perfect amount of HP before learning he knows Softboiled. Great for when we catch him, bad for weakening him.

He runs out of PP for all of his moves and winds up Struggling to defeat us, but all that does is make him faint himself.

We had thrown practically everything at that Lugia, so now we have to go restock. We head to Lilycove and buy enough Ultra Balls to bring our total to 50. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to buy anymore, as I didn’t want to spend all of Saphire’s money if I didn’t have to. I did this before remembering the ‘Metagross Method’ (think back to the Metagross disaster chapter), which consists of reloading the game over and over until a Pokemon is caught with the same amount of balls you saved with.

Don’t look at me like that, are you telling me that not one of you saved the game right before a Legendary Battle, turned off your Gameboy, and restarted the process because you knew it might take several tries to catch it??

We return to the hideout only to realize Lugia has run from us. We can’t find him anywhere.

Maybe because a MUTHERFUCKING MEWTWO was chasing them away!!

You know what this means, right??

Oh my god I’m a kid all over again — sitting in the movie theater with my stuffed Mew, stuffed Mewtwo, and stuffed Pikachu watching Pokemon: The First Movie and freaking out the whole time because my tiny body can’t handle the epicness emitting from the screen.

He is caught by an Ultra Ball and I fight the urge to call all of my childhood Pokemon buddies and scream “I FINALLY CAUGHT HIM” into the phone.

If you’re curious, I never nabbed myself a Mewtwo. I don’t know why. I always wanted to, though, so this was as big a moment for me as when Ninja was caught.

LXCW is the name of my first-ever Mewtwo. We HAVE to think of something epic for him.

Unfortunately, my nostalgia-trip cost me almost all of the Ultra Balls I just bought…

Another trip to the Lilycove Department Store sucks all of our cash away. I figured if Mewtwo took a shitload of Ultra Balls, then Lugia and Groudon would take just as many — if not more.

I was very happily wrong! Lugia did not use up all of the Ultra Balls. Admittedly, we did have to use the Metagross Method many times to get him, but it’s okay. We still have plenty for the other Legendary.

TUIJK gets sent to the PC to wait for Saphire to train him.

Groudon-hunting doesn’t take hardly any time at all. There is a swarm of them right outside of Fortree City. We accidentally kill a bunch before we start throwing anything.

He doesn’t take many tries to catch, thank goodness. The only issue we had with getting him was not killing him.

His nickname is GMYE.

Shedinja were lurking in the same area as Groudon. I was surprised when one Ultra Ball snatched this little guy up immediately. I’m so used to getting frustrated and throwing 50 at a time that I’d forgotten non-legendaries can be caught easier.

BNHBE, welcome to Saphire’s large group of Pokemon!

Flaaffy was another one-throw catch at full health.

Oops… Flaaffy is the first Pokemon without a crazy nickname…

Doesn’t mean we can’t name her ourselves, though! Can’t let her feel left out!

Geez, look at all of these Pokemon! I’ve never filled up a BOX before!

Time to test out the newbies!

TUIJK is up first.

All I can say is he is fucking bad-ASS. I taught him FLY so he had another offensive move and while playing around, he leveled up and wanted to know Water Gun, so I set it over Reversal (because hopefully our HP won’t ever be low enough to use it). I had so much fun fighting with him that I wasn’t paying attention to how quickly he was leveling up. I didn’t even mean to grind him, it just happened.

I stopped once he got to level 45. Look at those STATS! LOOK at them! They are AMAZING! That DEFENSE! GEEZ!

I absolutely love him. I am very happy you voted to catch him.

He also caught the Pokerus.

I have high hopes for you, LXCW!

I was very quickly disappointed.

It’s his moveset. It’s just all-around terrible. I would have taught him a TM to try to replace the shitty moves with good ones, but I had either sold or used them all. I considered an HM, but thought to hold off until I leveled him up a little. My patience ran incredibly thin, however, and I didn’t get the chance to level him up once. He just couldn’t knock anyone out. Every move was either not very effective or flat-out couldn’t be used against the opponent’s type. I would be happy to go buy him better moves at Lilycove, but all of our money was spent on the Ultra Balls.

For now, LXCW will have to spend some time with his buddies in the PC. If we induct him into our team, I’ll find a way to make him unstoppable.

Ohhh no, GMYE, your moveset doesn’t look much better…

Another unfortunate roll for GMYE’s random moveset. He can’t bring anybody’s HP down enough to win a battle. It’s another situation of either teach him HMs or buy him TMs. He didn’t level up any during his practice, but I didn’t really spend a whole lot of time on him. His lack of offense was off-putting to me.

What about our little ghost friend? He seems promising!

…Nope. Nevermind.

I understand the perks of Shedinja and was excited to catch one for myself, but if he goes down to a simple sandstorm then I’m not sure I’m willing to raise him…

I will if you want me to, but otherwise, he’s gonna be a PC pet.

Come on, Flaaffy, you’re last to go. Show me what you’re made of!

I taught her STRENGTH in place of Lock-On because she held up really well in battles and I thought she might have a chance to make the cut. Poor thing wound up facing TONS of Pichu who Fissured her right back into her Ultra Ball. When she did get a chance to fight, she was actually pretty decent. STRENGTH took wilds down in no more than two hits. I was impressed. I think if we were to add her to the group she would eventually be a really good asset to the team. I believe she has more potential than the others anyway, save Lugia.

Zip gets put back in our party and we head to Slateport.

I know I need to find Cpt. Stern, but I have forgotten where he’s at. I try out the museum first and spend $50 just to discover I was wrong. I did get to talk to this guy.

He wants Saphire to tell him something about herself and this is her intelligent answer.

Saphire sees a large crowd of people watching Cpt. Stern being interviewed. Guess we’ll just interrupt that…

Saphire chases off Gabby and Ty and starts to talk to Stern. Suddenly, a mysterious voice from nowhere catches everybody’s attention.

Saphire and Stern go inside the building to see what all the commotion is about.

Archie does not look happy to see his girlfriend…

Guess this means we’re breaking up…

Wait a moment, is Archie telling us to follow him to his hideout for some private romantic time? There may be hope for this relationship yet!

To Lilycove!

Saphire uses Ninja to surf through the waters of Lilycove to get to the blatantly obvious hideout for Team Aqua.

I put Tiger in the front of the party because I want a Tyranitar, damnit. He eats up all of the experience throughout the building and shares double battles with his long-time best friend Meadow.

The Aqua Admin seems way too happy to have lost…

Aww, so this means no romantic happy time for Sarchie?

Or would it be Arphire?

I’m making up names for SaphirexArchie ship. It’s very, very late where I am.

Before we leave the hideout, Saphire makes her way to this lovely pile of PokeBalls.

Two of them turn out to be Electrodes, but the other two were items.

A Nugget and a Master Ball!

Hey-ooooo!

You guys, what should we use this on?? Should we save it for a randomly-appearing Legendary? Do we want it for Rayquaza or Kyogre?? I am at a loss. With all of the Legendaries we’ve been running into lately, this Master Ball could be used for practically anyone.

Saphire attempts to follow Archie to sea but gets caught by trainers on the way.

Our glorious duo can handle anything thrown at them. Best friends forever!

Edge and Commando get a turn as well.

I know who I’m using this on. Tiger is level 54 right now. SURELY 55 is when he evolves.

Huzzah! Tyranitar, here we come!

Finally!!!

Those STATS!!!

Hard to believe he started out a level 2 Larvitar so long ago.

I’m getting attached to these Pokemon. It’s crazy. I’m actually getting emotionally attached.

And with that, we make it to Mossdeep City!

This guy gives us a Super Rod.

His TV is playing our interview from back at Slateport.

I feel like the reporter is mocking us…

Asshat with sunglasses is here. He tells Saphire of something strange going down at the Space Center.

But is now the time to concern ourselves with it??

You have another decision or two to make.

We just added 5 new Pokemon to Saphire’s group. Do we want to switch someone out of our team of 6?? I leave this in your hands. I am torn between keeping everyone where they are and switching things up, to be honest, so I trust your judgement, my friends!

Current nicknames:

Lugia = TUIJK

Mewtwo = LCXW

Flaaffy = Flaaffy

Groudon = GMYE

Shedinja = BNHBE

Click link below to pick 6 Pokemon for Saphire’s team —–vvvvv—–

Choose 6 Pokemon from this list!

Click link below to tell Saphire what to do next —–vvvvv—–

The top 3 voted responses will be done next time!