There’s no time to introduce this update, we have a thief to stop!
Correction, actually, there is some time to lose. Now that we’ve beaten Roxanne, we can go beat up the Cutter and get the first HM of the game.
Aaaaand that’s me forgetting to heal. But no biggie. This should be fine.
This scares me, though. Ninroth looks grotesque. But it’s also half-Nincada, so it goes down to Kristine’s Bites quite quickly.
Winning the battle nets me HM01, Cut, which I teach to Kristine. There are some trees to cut coming up!
We get the same-old spiel that anyone who played Gen 3 will be used to.
Before we head into the cave to deal with the Magma Grunt, though, we have some battles and items to sweep up.
First up we have these two rich kids who have… oh, it’s that sort of game, is it? This sort of juvenile joke is the kind of thing that instantly pegs the game a few ranks down on the leaderboard of ‘good games’.
Let’s murder them.
Murder: Check.
Next up: these two… somethings. While they’re not stupid jokes, they are stupid fusions. Murder round 2?
Murder 2: check.
Anyways, back to business.
In typical Infinite Fusion-fashion, the Grunt decides that his Poochyena is useless. This, paired with the fact that he has Briney’s Peeko along with a pair of DNA Splicers, leads to an obvious conclusion.
I like Poochgull. The lil’ dog ears are cute on the Wingull body and I like the colour scheme a lot. I would have liked this fusion for myself, I think—I’d bet that Pelipper/Mightyena is a very decent mid-game Pokémon to have.
Anyway, Poochgull goes down in two Gusts.
Once we get the Devon Parts from the Grunt and he scarpers, Briney comes along to find his beloved Pokémon now fused. He attempts to unfuse, but uses a DNA Reverser instead.
Discovering that Peeko likes being fused, he just leaves them that way. Which is… if I’m right… effectively stealing the Grunt’s Poochyena?
Back in Rustboro, we complete the quest in the usual way. Crucially, one of the rewards here is the EXP. All, which is kind of a godsend in a Nuzlocke that has a ton of Pokémon to train and no easy way to just hack in a bunch of Rare Candies.
Yes, I could swap-train and grind like a normal person, but I’m a 32-year-old with a life to live. Let me live that life.
Anyway, the quest we’re given actually comes with a bit more intrigue this time. We overhear a phone call to the Space Station in Mossdeep City and discover that something dangerous has either happened or is about to happen. Then, we get the usual quests to deliver a letter to Steven in Dewford and the Parts to Slateport.
As we’re about to leave to meet up with Briney…
Rhystie stops us, apparently on her own League challenge! This turns into a challenge. Naturally.
She leads with a Slugma, against my beautiful Daphne. Water Gun takes it out in two turns, but not before the Slugma gets a Yawn off, putting Daphne to sleep. I should have switched her out for something else.
Second is… this thing. Not gonna lie, I do kinda fuck with Treemer. Mixing a Treecko with a Wailmer feels like it should count as abuse.
And Treemer kinda fucks me up a little. It seems stuck using Absorb and Mega Drain, so I swap to Moira and finish her off with a Wing Attack.
With that, the battle is over—quite a short one. But we get a nice evolution
Not much has changed here, huh? I do like that Marshfly is more of an elegance upgrade over a bulky power upgrade.
Before she leaves, Rhystie teaches us how to put Hats on our Pokémon. It’s a simple process—you just select a hat (or whatever accessory you actually want to use) and then move it along the sprite to place it. It’s such a cute little idea.
Daphne has a hat.
Let’s continue on. At the entrance to Petalburg Woods, I spy a cuttable tree that leads behind the Flower Shop.
Here we get a quest to catch an Oricorio for this Flower Lady.
Upon showing the new catch to the lady:
Ohhhh this will be incredibly valuable. Sitrus Berries, as you probably know, are almost certainly the most useable, strongest healing berries in the game. With how easy it is to plant and harvest berries using benches, this should make survivability in tough battles a bit easier.
Later, in Petalburg Woods, I explore the parts of the forest behind some Cut trees. I pick up a Miracle Seed and also find this odd looking patch of light.
Well that’s new.
I debated whether or not this would count as Petalburg Woods for the sake of this Nuzlocke, but I decided, hey, it’s for fun, and whatever I get would be fused with the Whismur from the last update. What’s the worst that could happen?
oh shit i like zorua
o shit i have zorua
That’s all the exploration done with this update! Now we have one little task to do before we press on to Dewford.
I am excited for this.
I should not have been.
Whisrua gets named Gaz and we press on.
That’s mah name.
And next time, we’ll be exploring this lovely seaside town, doing some spelunking, and maybe even taking on the gym!
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