Sapphire Gems

--Sanabai 8 Soruji--

This post is all about Pokemon Sapphire, because many things happened there recently and especially today. They are:

1. Gracie (my Meditite), Failou (my Marshtomp), and Deatheater (my Shuppet) all evolved. So now I have Medicham, Swampert, and Banette! If I hadn't told you already, those are three of my best Pokemon there. The othr three are Apple (Raichu), Omar (Roselia), and Sora (Shelgon). And some of my Pokemon learned interesting attacks as well. Failou learned Muddy Water. Deatheater learned Faint Attack. Sora learned Dragonbreath.

2. I've been working on a Contest Team. I did this in Ruby: I had a team of five Pokemon, each specifically meant for a certain type of contest. Then I started to work their way through the different Contest Halls. My job wasn't finished there, and I lost the game... But now, in Sapphire, I'm beginning to do the same thing. In fact, this team I'm working on will probably be a BIG improvement on the Ruby one, because I did a little research beforehand. I looked at combos in contests and what Pokemon can learn the moves in that combo. Then I looked at other moves as well. Eventually I came up with a list of Pokemon to get for each contest type. Here's what I came up with:
-Cool Pokemon: Razukata the Absol
-Beauty Pokemon: Warutenki the Castform
-Cute Pokemon: Kawaine the Skitty
-Smart Pokemon: Asachiwa the Meditite
-Tough Pokemon: Rokanth the Relicanth
Getting each of the above Pokemon was frustrating as well as time-consuming, because I tried to look for Pokemon with a nature that would favour the contest type they're designated for. So the Absol had to be Lonely, Adamant, Naughty, or Brave. The Castform had to be Modest, Mild, Rash, or Quiet. The Skitty had to be Timid, Hasty, Jolly, or Naive. The Meditite had to be Calm, Gentle, Careful, or Sassy. The Relicanth had to be Bold, Impish, Lax, or Relaxed. Well, fortunately Meditite's a pretty common Pokemon, so all I had to do is search for one in Mt. Pyre and keep catching them, restarting the game if it's the wrong nature. Pretty soon I found a Calm Meditite.

But, the others were HARD. There's only one Castform in the game (the one you get from the Weather Institute), and Absol, Skitty, and Relicanth are really rare. But luckily, I already had those four Pokemon (though they were the wrong nature), and they were all female. So I had to breed them and hatch all the eggs they made. Also luckily, I had "husbands" for all of them, three of which are in my best Pokemon team. So the partners were Absol and a male Slakoth I had, Skitty and Apple (Raichu), Castform and Deatheater (Banette), and Relicanth and Failou (Swampert).

Skitty didn't take too long; I ended up making five eggs before hatching a Jolly Skitty, and fortunately Skitty eggs don't take that long to hatch. But Relicanth was a bit harder; Relicanth eggs take WAY longer to hatch; probably the longest of any Pokemon! But still I only had to make five eggs before I hatched a Lax Relicanth. And Absol was the hardest yet. Absol eggs take a mediocre time to hatch, but that wasn't the difficult part. The first six eggs I hatched were all the wrong nature, so I gave up for a while and moved on to Skitty. After Skitty was done, I tried Absol again, and I made another six eggs. None of these were the right nature either!! Finally, I waited a little longer for Absol and Slakoth to make a thirteenth egg, and that one turned out to yield a Brave Absol. Whew!!

The above breeding processes led to some interesting results: Kawaine (the new Skitty) knows Thunderbolt and Iron Tail as a result of having a Raichu as a father. Razukata (the new Absol) knows Faint Attack (that's one of its Egg moves) because my Slakoth knew Faint Attack. Warutenki (the new Castform) got Shadow Ball from his Banette father. Rokanth (the new Relicanth) knows Take Down because both his parents knew it, and Surf from his father Swampert. Also, now I have a bunch of Absol, Relicanth, Castform, and Skitty eggs to trade with people, and most likely they'll know all those moves mentioned above!

Also, the Slakoth mentioned above grew from level 20 to level 35, so in a couple of levels I could get him to become Vigoroth and Slaking. And the mother Absol (which is nicknamed Rakurusou) grew from level 27 to level 41, so now she kind of takes turns being one of my Best Pokemon. In fact, she was involved in the other big accomplishments I made here...

3. I got the Mind Badge! Yes, when all my best Pokemon reached level 40, I entered Tate and Liza's gym. The battle with them wasn't too bad. First I started with Omar (Roselia) and Failou (Swampert). In the first turn, Failou used Surf on Solrock and Lunatone. (I love Surf--it attacks both opponents at once!) Omar would have used Magical Leaf on Solrock, but Lunatone was too fast for him--it KO'd him with a Psychic attack before he could do anything... :( Then I sent out Deatheater (Banette). On the next turn, Liza and Tate used a Hyper Potion on Lunatone. Solrock used Psychic (I think) on Deatheater, and afterwards Deatheater used Curse on Solrock. (I had been planning to Curse one of them.) I wished Tate and Liza had healed Solrock instead, because Failou's Surf attack KO'd Solrock that turn, so that Curse was a waste of time. Anyways, on the next turn I switched Deatheater with Rakurusou (Absol). Failou was going to use Surf again, but Lunatone put him to sleep with Hypnosis before he could do that. Then, Rakurusou used Future Sight on Lunatone, and Lunatone used Psychic on Failou. Luckily Psychic didn't do that much damage to him--after two of those attacks he still had a little more than half HP left. Anyways, on the nest turn Failou woke up and used Surf, bringing Lunatone down to a little less than half HP. Then Lunatone used Hypnosis on Rakurusou! Anyways, this continued for a little while--Lunatone sometimes used Calm Mind, and there was even a point where both of my Pokemon were asleep. And Liza and Tate used a couple more Hyper Potions as well. Finally, one turn Lunatone was at full health, and both of my Pokemon were awake. Tate and Liza had just used Hyper Potion on Lunatone, so Lunatone didn't attack that turn. Rakurusou used Bite, and Failou used Surf, bringing Lunatone down to about 1/4 HP. After that, Future Sight hit, and it KO'd Lunatone!!

Thank you Failou and Rakurusou--you were a big help. I knew I made the right choice of adding Rakurusou to the team! Anyways, now my Gyarados can finally use Dive as a field move, and I got a Calm Mind TM. (But Gracie, my Medicham, already knows Calm Mind...) But my biggest acomplishment with this gym battle was being able to use Dive, and it really proved Rakurusou worthy of being on the Best Pokemon Team.

4. The Kyogre Quest

After the gym battle, I took advantage of using Dive. The first thing I did was catch Relicanth, who I bred as you will see in #2. But I also made my way into the Seafloor Cavern on Route 128. It wasn't too bad--I faced a bunch of people from Team Aqua, and even the administrator Archie in the end. I only had four of my best Pokemon with me then (Failou, Omar, Apple, and Sora), because I had to bring my Gyarados and Machop as well. You need Surf, Dive, Strength, and Rock Smash to get through this cave. Failou knows Surf, Gyarados knows Dive and Rock Smash, and Machop knows Strength. Anyways, Archie's Pokemon were Mightyena, Crobat, and Sharpedo. Sora (Shelgon) beat Mightyena with a couple of Dragonbreaths, though Mightyena's Crunches got her down to about 1/4 HP. Crobat was tricky because he used Confuse Ray on Apple (Raichu). Apple's first attack (Thunderbolt) succeeded, but after that he hurt himself in confusion for a couple of turns. Luckily, Crobat's Wing Attack was not very effective, though Apple ended up with pretty low HP. After that, Archie used a Super Potion on Crobat, but by that time Apple had snapped out of confusion and KO'd Crobat with abother Thunderbolt. Sorry Archie, your potion didn't help! Sharpedo was easy, anyways--my Roselia KO'd him with one Magical Leaf attack. (Wow, he has high Special Attack--well maybe because he has a Modest nature.)

Of course, after that, Archie's Red Orb glowed, making Kyogre cause a giant rainstorm and head to the Cave of Origin. I immediately went to Sootopolis City, where I bought three Net Balls and five Ultra Balls. I already had one Net Ball and one Timer Ball in my bag as well, so I was well-stocked! Anyways, then I took my best Pokemon (except Gracie, because I could only bring six) and went into the Cave of Origin. I didn't need to use Flash even though the cave was dark--the path through there is pretty straight-through; it's not a maze. At the end was Kyogre, so I saved the game beforehand...

On the first try, Rakurusou went first. Kyogre was faster and used Ice Beam, and Rakurusou used Future Sight. Then on the second turn Rakurusou was KO'd with another Ice Beam. After that I sent out Apple. Then he used Thunderbolt, and Kyogre used Body Slam. Apple used Sweet Kiss to confuse Kyogre. Kyogre hurt himself a few times, but he eventually KO'd Raichu with Hydro Pump. Then I sent out Omar. Omar used Grasswhistle to put Kyogre to sleep, then used Leech Seed after that. When Kyogre's HP was in the red, I used the Timer Ball--and it failed. Kyogre lost more HP from Leech Seed. I threw a Net Ball--and it failed. Kyogre then fainted, so I restarted the game...

On the second try, Omar went first. Kyogre was faster and used Hydro Pump. Even though it was not very effective, it KO'd the poor Roselia! After that I sent out Apple. Apple's first Sweet Kiss missed, but Kyogre just used Calm Mind. The second Sweet Kiss hit, and Kyogre hurt itself in confusion. The next turn, Apple used Thunderbolt, which only did 1/4 HP damage because of Calm Mind. Then a funny thing happened. Kyogre used Body Slam and paralyzed Apple. Then Kyogre got paralyzed from Apple's Static ability! Anyways, after that Apple was too paralyzed to move, but luckily Kyogre's Hydro Pump missed. After a few more Thunderbolts, Kyogre had a little less than 1/4 HP left, but soon after Apple was KO'd. Then I brought out Sora. Luckily for the first couple of turns Kyogre just used Calm Mind, so Sora was able to bring Kyogre's HP into the red by using Cut then Headbutt. Since Kyogre was still paralyzed, I threw an Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre used Calm Mind. I threw another Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre KO'd Sora with Body Slam. Then I sent out Failou. I threw another Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre KO'd Failou with Hydro Pump.

I sent out Rakurusou. I threw another Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre used Calm Mind. Then I threw my last Ultra Ball. It failed. Kyogre KO'd Rakurusou with Hydro Pump. After that, I sent out Deatheater, which was my last Pokemon. Figuring the battle had lasted a long time, I threw my Timer Ball. It failed. Kyogre used Calm Mind. (Whew, I guess it was out of PP for Hydro Pump.) Then I threw a Net Ball. It wobbled once, twice, three times... And it stopped!

I CAUGHT KYOGRE!!!

Kyogre was the first Legendary Pokemon I captured without a Master Ball. (The Snorlax in FR/LG doesn't count.) I nicknamed the Kyogre Orca, and I found that it had a Sassy nature. But that was a big accomplishment--now I have a level 45 Kyogre on my team.

More news coming soon.