Pokemon Variants

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Here's another Pokemon solo I did for the Smogon forums some time ago.  It isn't as good as the Jigglypuff playthrough of Fire Red, but some of you might like it. . .


Pokemon X Solo: Defying Destiny


To start off, I picked the dark-haired female trainer and named her Paloma. I always play 6th and 7th generation Pokemon games in Spanish to maintain my language skills, so I thought I'd give her a Spanish name. Why Paloma? I had the telenovelas "En nombre del amor" and "Aventuras en el tiempo" on the brain, and both those shows had Palomas. Her rivals would call her EQUIS. I had to include a reference to the version I was playing, and the robot played by Wendy González in "Aventuras en el tiempo" was named Equis. . .


Pokemon X may have its flaws, but you can't criticize its selection of Pokemon. There was a wide variety to choose from before the first major city. I'll try to list them here by family:


Starters: Froakie, Chespin, Fennekin
Bugs: Scatterbug, Weedle, Caterpie, Burmy
Birds: Fletchling, Pidgey
Normal: Bidoof, Zigzagoon, Azurill, Bunnelby
Monkeys: Panpour, Pansage, Pansear


I was so overwhelmed that it took me a while to pick the one I wanted. I caught several Pokemon while paralyzed with indecision. It seemed my destiny was clear when Paloma caught a shiny Pikachu in Viridian Forest Santalune Forest ("Bosque de Novarte"=Novarte Forest). But Pikachu was too popular for my tastes and would be a bit too similar to my Pachirisu playthrough. My true solo Pokemon is. . .*drumroll*



DUNSPARCE!


Dunsparce is the ultimate troll Pokemon. It looks like an awkward snake with wings, so it'll always be fun to see on the battlefield. But that's not all. Dunsparce can come with the ability Serene Grace that doubles the chance of secondary effects happening with attacks. For example, Rock Slide is twice as likely to cause flinches. Combine this with its 100% accurate paralysis move Glare, and you'll have a lot of fun. Serene Grace is "Dicha" in Spanish, or "Good Fortune". A much more appropriate name for a luck-based ability!


Dunsparce's Initial Stats


HP: 26
Attack: 10
Defense: 13
Special Attack: 12
Special Defense: 12
Speed: 9

Nature: Modest (Modesta)
Characteristic: Likes to eat (Le encanta comer)


La Chica Nuria in Santalune Forest was Dunsparce's first victim. (Unless you count a random wild Pansage.) Or would have been, if her level 2 Weedle hadn't poisoned Dunsparce! Rollout wasn't quite strong enough to beat both Weedle and her level 4 Bunnelby before succumbing to gradual damage.


Death Count: 1 (On the first trainer battle too! That's a bad omen. . .)


Dunsparce had better luck in the next attempt. Weedle failed to inject venom with Poison Sting, and Dunsparce used the same Defense Curl and Rollout combo that helped OG PUFF in the Fire Red solo.


After the fight, Nuria said "I had forgotten that Potions can also be used in combat. What a head I have. . ." (If I see an expression that sounds weird in English, I'll be sure to include it in my translation.) Pokemon X has a Spain Spanish script, which sounds funny to me. One thing that struck me is that the preterite indicative is barely used at all. Present perfect is preferred.


Joven Edu was another miserable fight. His Scatterbug wasn't too much trouble other than using String Shot constantly. ("Delay Shot" in Spanish). Rollout ("Unroll" or "Unwind") missed more than a move with 90% accuracy should. Fletchling was another matter altogether. Even though it was two levels lower than Dunsparce, it abused Growl to reduce Dunsparce's already subpar Attack. I used Rage, hoping for Attack buffs when Fletchling Tackled me, or at least a critical hit that ignored debuffs. By the end of that battle, Rage ("Fury") was down to 9/20 PP! Edu used the classic expression "a mucha honra" to indicate how proud he was of his Pokemon after he was defeated.


Now that all the trainers in Santalune Forest were defeated, the only place left to go was north.

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: Joven Richi Should Have Been the Gym Leader


Dunsparce mugged a couple of Preschoolers without too much trouble. Then he met La Estudiante Sarita. Her level 6 Bidoof had weirdly high Defense for something this early, and its Tackle could deal significant damage to Dunsparce. It took 2 Potions to get through this fight, and Dunsparce won with only 6 HP left even with that.


El Estudiante Isaac had all 3 elemental monkeys at level 3, which were defeated with a Defense Curl and Rollout combo.


Santalune City (Novarte City) had several noteworthy places. The first was a hiker who offered to trade a Bunnelby for a Farfetch'd. The Pokemon Center offered X items, which was extremely early compared to Fire Red.



La Patinadora Ruth was waiting outside the Gym with her level 7 Zigzagoon, but its Growl couldn't stop the Defense Curl and Rollout momentum. She gave me the Skates (Patines) after Dunsparce's victory. These were sort of a replacement for the Running Shoes from earlier games.


One man at the trainer's school gave me 3 X Attacks and 3 X Defends for free. No wonder Pokemon X has a reputation for being easy: characters give you powerful stuff early on.


Joven Richi inside the Gym had a level 10 Ledyba, which should have been easy to defeat with a 4X Rock weakness, right? Wrong! Dunsparce must have been cursed. Ledyba's Supersonic confused Dunsparce (55% chance), and my solo Pokemon then whiffed 2 Rollouts in a row. He hurt himself in confusion after getting a critical Rollout, and then had to snap out of confusion to finish off the overgrown ladybug. Dunsparce ended the fight with 10/35 HP thanks to Comet Punches.


The other trainers weren't too bad, and used Spewpa, Kakuna, and Combee. (At least that Combee was female and could become Vespiquen one day. . .)


Violet (Violeta, another "Aventuras en el tiempo" name) was the Gym Leader, and was a photographer in addition to being a Bug specialist. Her first Pokemon was a level 10 Surskit that was clearly designed to counter players who expected a clean sweep with Fennekin or other Fire types. It was Bug/Water, and used Water Sport (field effect that weakens Fire) and Bubble on Dunsparce. Its first move was Quick Attack. Surskit was perfect setup bait for Defense Curl and Rollout.


Violeta's star Pokemon, a level 12 Vivillon, only had time to Harden once before being crushed by Rollout's momentum. It's sad when a random trainer's Ledyba was tougher than the Gym Leader's whole team! The reward for winning was a TM for Infestation ("Harassment"), a Bug type trapping move. This was useless for Dunsparce, but at least he gained some easy experience.


Dunsparce Stats

HP: 45
Attack: 18
Defense: 22
Special Attack: 20
Special Defense: 21
Speed: 15

Moves

Rage (Furia)
Defense Curl (Rizo Defensa)
Rollout (Desenrollar)
Pursuit (Persecución)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: My Saint is Leaving Me for Heaven


After rolling over Violet's Bug Gym, Dunsparce headed east to Route 22 and began beating up the local trainers. Most weren't memorable and were easy experience fodder. La Chica Elsa (the one with a Flabebe) said "Me importa un rábano los combates", which literally means something like "battles matter as much to me as a radish". This sort of expression seems to be common in Spanish, and there's a variant involving "bledo" (amaranth) too.


Violet's sister Alexa (Alexia) blocked the path north to Lumiose City until I got the 1st badge. Her Spanish dialogue contained one of my favorite expressions in the game: "Perdona, que se me va el santo al cielo y ni siquiera me he presentado". If you're going with a literal translation, this is "Forgive me. My saint is leaving me for heaven and I haven't even introduced myself". It's the equivalent of "I'm losing my train of thought".


Route 4 to the north of Santalune City was a garden with a huge fountain in the middle. The trainers there were mostly preschoolers, roller skaters, and gardeners who were easily defeated. Jardinero Romerales said "Mi técnica está más pulida que la plata de ley", or "My technique is more polished than the silver of the law". I had no idea what "silver of the law" meant until I got home and looked it up. "Plata de ley" is the phrase used for "sterling silver".


Professor Sycamore's assistants Dexio and Sina appeared at the south entrance to Lumiose City and handed over a TM for Return. A 102 base power Normal move for Dunsparce? No wonder everyone talks about NPCs handing out overpowered stuff for free! Well, it might not be 102 power yet because Return varies based on the hidden "friendship" stat. Since this is a solo playthrough, Dunsparce will fight every battle and gain friendship quickly.


Lumiose City was difficult to navigate, mostly due to the awful camera that switched directions every time I tried to move. If not-Paris had a top-down perspective, much fewer people would have complained about it. Much of the city was blocked off because of a blackout, so the only option was to go to Professor Sycamore's lab and then head southwest.


Professor Sycamore was much more lenient than Professor Oak, so he let his aides give prizes based on the amount of Pokemon seen rather than the number of Pokemon caught. He was also willing to give away a Kanto starter if I could beat his level 10 team of Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander. With the help of Return, the fight was easy. Bulbasaur got in one Vine Whip. Squirtle took 3 hits since it used Withdraw to buff its Defense on the first turn, and managed to strike with Water Gun. Charmander was the hardest because of its Smokescreen accuracy debuff. It also used Ember and Growl.


I chose Squirtle because Squirtle was such a good HM mule in my Fire Red solo. Sycamore gave me an unnecessary Blastoise Mega Stone too. The Kalos games are the only generation that has Mega Evolutions in the main story, and Sun and Moon probably had a good reason to restrict them to the postgame. Mega Evolution gives Pokemon a huge stat boost and possibly a new passive ability, but only for the duration of the battle. Another restriction is that only one Pokemon on a team can Mega Evolve. (All you Smogonites already know this, but some of my Realms Beyond viewers haven't played some of the later Pokemon games, and I plan on posting this playthrough there.)


Before going to the southwest exit of the city, I explored some areas of the city. One person in an office building asked me if "septentrional" meant "norte", and if "meridional" meant "sur", and I answered "Sí". "Septentrional" and "meridional" are old-fashioned words for "north" and "south", and have mostly been replaced in modern Spanish with "norte" and "sur". This whole conversation was so distinctively Spanish that I wondered what that character said in English or Japanese.


Paloma was kicked out of one shop for not being stylish enough. I'll assure you that my player character is stylish enough for anyone in Kalos, and Dunsparce will bludgeon anyone who disagrees!


Another shop in southern Lumiose City was a Furfrou groomer. Furfrou is a gimmick Normal type poodle that can have many different hairstyles. GameFreak must have wanted to show off their fancy new 3D graphics at the time. Vivillon has many variant colors that people trade online too. (Then again, GameFreak already did this sort of thing with Spinda spot patterns in the Hoenn games.)


A woman in another building gave me the Quick Claw, an item that randomly gave Dunsparce a chance to go first if he had lower Speed. For lack of any better hold items to use, and because it fit Dunsparce's theme of luck, I made sure to equip it.


The actress Diantha and Lysandre talked about making a "beautiful world". This was about as much development as Diantha would receive for the entire game. Diantha is usually cited as the most forgettable Champion for a reason.


I played around with the Pokemon Amie minigames a bit while in Lumiose City. It's similar to the Affection stuff in my Butterfree solo in Moon.


One man in the southwestern gate house gave me the first O Powers. O Powers are an ingame gimmick for X and Y that give stat buffs when applied, but only for a few minutes. Supposedly, O Powers are similar to a feature in Black 2 and White 2, but I never played those games.


On Route 5, Benigno (i.e. the "fat dancing kid" who's more memorable and likable than the main rival) challenged me with a level 12 Corphish. This Water type didn't have any tricks to deal with Return and died quickly. I was surprised to learn that his name is "Tierno" in English. No wonder they changed it, because "tierno" means "tender" in Spanish!


The next stop was Camphrier Town (Pueblo Vánitas). Its castle was mostly empty, but one guy in there told me to go to Route 7 to the west. There was a house with what must have been a giant computer, and one person inside gave me a Thief TM. I couldn't go past Route 7 because Snorlax was blocking the path much like it did in Kanto.


Dunsparce wouldn't have to fight through a bunch of ghosts and Team Rocket members like OG PUFF, though. All it took to get a Poke Flute was completing an annoying minigame involving cornering a Furfrou in the Parfum Palace gardens.


Route 6 had a "shorts kid" just like the old Pokemon games. Joven Manolito said "Correr y cortar el viento vestido con mis pantalones cortos. ¡Es mi pasión!" before fighting me with a level 12 Venipede and a level 12 Scraggy. In English, his dialogue reads "Running and cutting the wind dressed in my shorts. It's my passion!" (Anyone with the name "Manolito" makes me think of the Mafalda character with brush-like hair.)


Mochilero Fabio's Bunnelby taught me that Quick Claw does NOT have priority over Quick Attack.


An NPC outside of Parfum Palace (Palacio Cénit) said it was built in "el año catapún" (or possibly "catapum"). This expression is odd even to many Spanish speakers, as I found out while looking up the phrase on the WordReference forums. It supposedly came from a song popular in the 1920s called "Polichinela".


Looking around Versailles Parfum Palace led me to a valuable item in front of the fireplace: the Amulet Coin. This would double my prize money if equipped. I probably won't need it for a while because Pokemon X is generous with money, but it's nice to have it if I'm running short on cash.


Parfum Palace celebrated Xana and Paloma's capture of the Furfrou by holding a fireworks show. The game called fireworks "artifical fire" in Spanish, which sounds funny to me.


The Snorlax was only level 15 when it woke up, and all it did was buff its Special Defense with Amnesia. This didn't protect it from Return at all.


A special building known as the Battle Chateau (Bastión Batalla) was located on Route 7. It had the gimmick of noble titles that would be granted upon defeating the trainers inside. By the end of this part, Paloma became a "Vizcondesa".


The Battle Chateau was also the only place I've seen where anyone uses the formal "usted" pronoun. This informality must be a Spain Spanish thing, because I think I heard a random character call Ulfric Stormcloak "tú" in Skyrim once. Mexican telenovelas maintain a sharp distinction between "tú" and "usted", while the Colombian show "Yo soy Betty la fea" has Betty call her brother "usted" for reasons I don't understand. Regional variations are difficult for any second language learner!


The last notable battle I fought was a Doubles match with Kalm (the bland male rival) as my partner vs. Tierno and Trevor (Trovato). Tierno had his Corphish as before, and Trevor sent out Pikachu and Flabebe. Return beat all the opponents, while Kalm's Fletchling had weak attacks. I saved before exploring Connecting Cave (Gruta Tierraunida) and took a break from the game.


Dunsparce Stats

Level 23 @ Quick Claw (Garra Rápida)

HP: 84
Attack: 34
Defense: 42
Special Attack: 39
Special Defense: 39
Speed: 28


Moves

Return (Retribución)
Defense Curl (Rizo Defensa)
Ancient Power (Poder Pasado)
Pursuit (Persecución)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: Implausible Roadblocks


Where we last left off, Dunsparce was about to go into Connecting Cave. It turned out the place was much shorter than I remembered, and wasn't anywhere near as long as Mt. Moon or Rock Tunnel from OG PUFF's Kanto adventure.


After that was the two-part Route 8. At first, I could only walk on the cliffs at the top of the mountain to go to Ambrette Town (Pueblo Petróglifo) on the southwest coast of Kalos. None of the trainers were worth mentioning here.


Kalm and Paloma investigated the local fossil lab in Ambrette Town, and were told to find a scientist in Glittering Cave (Cueva Brillante) who could help them. One woman in town wanted to see a Pokemon with more than 147 Speed. Why that specific? I have no clue.


One NPC gave me the Rocky Helmet, an item that inflicts damage when hit by a contact move. This is sometimes combined with Ferrothorn's Iron Barbs ability in multiplayer to give physical attackers serious headaches. It would still be useful for Dunsparce even without competitive minmaxing.


After a slow ride on a tank control Rhyhorn, Paloma and Dunsparce arrived at Glittering Cave. The abysmal zoomed in 3D camera struck again. The cave itself was mostly a straight line, but there were several branching paths with items. Occasionally, wild Pokemon would appear in the darkness, such as Machop and Solrock. I ran away from most of those fights except for the Solrock, which was too fast to escape.


Team Flare waited for me in the section of the cave with the normal camera. There were also mine carts, so I was dreading a mine cart puzzle similar to the one in Dragon Quest 5. Fortunately, they were only there for decoration. Team Flare was even less competent than Team Rocket. Their Houndours and Zubats succumbed to Return, no matter how stylish their trainers may have been.


The final battle in the cave was a Double Battle with Kalm as an ally. I hit one Grunt's Croakgunk with Return, while Kalm's Espurr used Light Screen. This Special Defense buff was pointless, because the other Grunt's Scraggy smashed Dunsparce with Brick Break and dispelled it. Another Return finished off the Scraggy, and Kalm and Paloma finally got to meet the scientist.


I was given the choice of an Amaura or a Tyrunt, and I went with the former. Not that it mattered, since it was a solo run anyway. The developers were generous enough to put an Escape Rope in the final room, though I already had a few. One thing I noticed was that different characters had different color text boxes. For example, Kalm had a blue text box when he talked. Was this purely to show off graphics, or was it meant to be a substitute for the different Japanese speech patterns that wouldn't translate well?


Now that I got the fossil, I could walk north past the beach on Route 8. Before I finished that subplot, an NPC was blocking the path while looking for something she lost. She gave me the Itemfinder (Zahorí, or "Water Diviner") as an apology of sorts.


Cyllage City (Ciudad Relieve) wasn't too remarkable, except for the bike shop and artificial cave Gym. Paloma chose the green bike and went through several houses and the hotel. The hotel had two NPCs that gave me both the Rest and Sleep Talk TMs. If you ever wanted to sleep through the main story while selecting your moves randomly, Pokemon X is the game for you! (That may be an idea for a joke playthrough one day. . .)


But before confronting the Gym, I decided to go north to Route 10 and fight the trainers near the menhirs. Turista Aida had a surprising team for this point in the game. Her Skiploom outsped Dunsparce and made him snooze with Sleep Powder. But Dunsparce had a secret weapon: Ancient Power. Ancient Power is an odd 60 base power special Rock attack that normally has a 10% chance of buffing most stats except for HP, accuracy, and evasion. With Serene Grace, this can reach 20%, making using a 5 PP move to roll for buffs a viable tactic. Dunsparce's increased stats allowed it to kill Azumarill and a rival Dunsparce with Return without a fuss. For whatever reason, the tourist had many letters replaced with "z" in her Spanish dialogue. Did other languages give her an accent too?


Turista Aline was another random trainer with a surprisingly decent team. She lead with Drifloon, a Ghost/Flying type that I could only harm with Ancient Power. Then she sent out Hippopotas, who could survive one Return and Yawn. Combined with Hippopotas's automatic sandstorm ability, this became annoying quickly. Her final Pokemon was a Pachirisu that Charmed away Dunsparce's Attack stat. More Returns finished off the squirrel.


Geosenge Town (Pueblo Crómlech) didn't have much for me to do at the moment. A tour group of backpackers blocked the eastern exit, and the western ruins hadn't opened yet. The only thing left to do was to return to Cyllage City and get the 2nd badge. One thing that makes me wonder about Pokemon X's development is the large gap between the first and second Gyms. It's not like the rest of the game has this sort of pacing.


Cyllage City's Gym had a Rock theme, because the developers love that type. At least they didn't go with the cliche of making it the first Gym (see Kanto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh). There was at least a diverse range of Rock families for the trainers to pick from.


Entrenador Promesa Pol had a Dwebble that hit 5 times with one Rock Blast, and his Relicanth knew Yawn. Rock Smash debuffed their Defense to a low enough point where even a Normal type could fight them effectively.


Another trainer whose name I've forgotten had the Rock/Psychic duo Solrock and Lunatone. Dunsparce learned Glare ("Dazzle") earlier, and having a 100% accurate paralysis move helped a lot in this fight. One Ancient Power buffed Dunsparce, and his opponents lost turns when they were fully paralyzed.


Montañero Samuel had a Nosepass and an Onix. Ancient Power's secondary effect kicked in again while fighting Nosepass, while Rock Smash was the trick to finishing off the rock snake.


Gym Leader Grant (Lino) used both fossil Pokemon from Glittering Cave against me, and I was only a few levels higher too. Dunsparce didn't have the advantage of Fire Red sequence breaking, and was in the 1,000,000 EXP to level 100 group rather than OG PUFF's 800,000.


I probably could have finished off Amaura quickly with Rock Smash thanks to its 4X weakness to Fighting, but I wanted Ancient Power buffs. Four uses got me nothing. Amaura attacked with Rock Tomb and Take Down, and Grant healed it once with a potion. After beating Amaura, Dunsparce gained a level and replaced Rock Smash with Dig. Tyrunt was a very unlucky fight. Dunsparce flinched 3 times in a row from Bite! I was justified using a Super Potion after that, and even then, Dunsparce barely held on with 9/110 HP. Dig combined with Rocky Helmet damage defeated the mini T-rex. Grant gave me a Rock Tomb TM when I won, much like Fire Red Brock.


After that, it was a good time to save and take a break.

Dunsparce Stats

Level 31 @ Rocky Helmet (Casco Dentado)

HP: 110
Attack: 45
Defense: 55
Special Attack: 52
Special Defense: 52
Speed: 36


Moves

Return (Retribución)
Dig (Excavar)
Ancient Power (Poder Pasado)
Glare (Deslumbrar)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce Mini-Update: Return of the Death Count


This was a much shorter play session, so the update will be brief.


Dunsparce fought several Team Flare Grunts who were now investigating the menhirs on Route 10. Paloma caught a glimpse of one of them going to the northwestern ruins in Geosenge Town, but she couldn't do much about that now. Doing all this triggered an event flag that removed the backpacker tourists who were blocking the way east. But there was a much more dangerous foe ahead. . .


Korrina! (Corelia in Spanish)


The Gym Leader of Shalour City tried to cut Dunsparce's journey short by siccing 2 level 25 Lucarios on him! For those not accustomed to the later Pokemon games, Lucario is a Fighting/Steel type that's powerful enough to be a multiplayer staple. Sending them out vs. a Dunsparce before the 3rd Gym is rather cruel of GameFreak! One advantage of linearity is that enemy levels can be scaled accordingly. Dunsparce didn't have the luxury of traipsing around the region mugging bikers like OG PUFF did, so he was only level 32 at this point.


Both Lucario's had Power Up Punch, a mediocre power Fighting move that also buffs Attack by 1 stage. So there was no way Dunsparce could get through this match with X Defend doping. I used Glare to paralyze the first Lucario, then attacked with Dig. Lucario was bulky enough to require two hits to KO. Then the second Lucario came out and used Power Up Punch. Just as I was about to finish it off with a Dig, it used Feint (Amago) for the KO.


Death Count: 2


Take 2 required a bit of luck and a Super Potion. Paralysis made the second Lucario lose a turn and allowed me to heal. The first Lucario used Metal Sound late in the fight instead of an attack. This was the toughest battle of the playthrough so far, and I wonder what'll happen once I get to the dreaded Fighting gym. . .

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: The Cave of Despair


After defeating Korrina, Dunsparce realized that there were only going to be more Fighting types to come. There weren't nearly as many in Kanto as there were in Kalos. To get to Shalour City (Ciudad Yantra) and the next Gym, Dunsparce had to fight his way through Reflection Cave (Cueva Reflejos).


Many of the trainers in and around the cave would qualify as boss fights for this variant. Luchadora Mariona on Route 11 used a single level 28 Mienfoo. Its Force Palm hit hard and paralyzed Dunsparce with its side effect. Dunsparce lost 2 turns to paralysis, and not even Super Potions could save him.


Death Count: 3


I went back to town and bought Hyper Potions, then returned and fought Mariona again. This time, I managed to hit Mienfoo with Return. Mienfoo's 2nd Force Palm got both a critical hit and the paralysis effect, but it died to Rocky Helmet's recoil damage.


Luchadora Diana's Throh was a judo master that used. . .Vital Throw. This was a base 70 Fighting move with negative turn order priority. I miscalculated the amount of damage that I would do with Return and ended up leaving Throh with a small amount of health left. It KOd Dunsparce with Return, and it was knocked out at the same time from Rocky Helmet recoil.


Death Count: 4


Round 2 with Luchadora Diana went more smoothly, especially with Glare and healing potions. Her second Pokemon was a Karate Chopping Hawlucha that was weaker than Throh, but still a threat. Return ended up defeating the luchador bird.



Entrenadora Guay Gilda's Doduo and Helioptile had low Defense and could be killed with Return, but the Fairy type Granbull required a different tactic. Its Intimidate ability debuffed Dunsparce's Attack, and it used Charm to lower it further. Thank goodness Ancient Power used Special Attack! Rocky Helmet helped too.


Karateka Bruce had a level 28 Sawk that used the relatively weak Fighting move Double Kick. Double Kick also had the dubious advantage of activating Rocky Helmet damage twice. Return worked as usual. (You can assume that I use Glare on any dangerous Pokemon that isn't immune to paralysis.)


Entrenador Guay Eugenio had an Absol with Taunt that disabled Glare for a few turns. Its Bite caused Dunsparce to flinch once. His second Pokemon was a Pinsir that knew the Fighting moves Brick Break and Vital Throw. It was pure Bug, so it didn't get the same type attack bonus, but super effective hits were still threatening. Pinsir fainted after hitting itself on the Rocky Helmet. That item gets me a surprising amount of kills!


I considered teaching Dunsparce Coil when it was about to learn it through level up, but decided against it. +1 to Attack, Defense, and Accuracy would help, but not if it means sacrificing type coverage.


Paloma found her way out of the cave at last and made it to Shalour City. I saved and then stopped playing for the night.


Dunsparce Stats

Level 37 @ Rocky Helmet (Casco Dentado)

HP: 130
Attack: 54
Defense: 65
Special Attack: 62
Special Defense: 61
Speed: 43


Moves

Return (Retribución)
Dig (Excavar)
Ancient Power (Poder Pasado)
Glare (Deslumbrar)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: I Am En El Sofá


Professor Sycamore charged Paloma with discovering the secret of Mega Evolution, and now she was finally about to learn about it. But first, there was an obligatory rival battle with Kalm to earn the right to Mega Evolve.


Kalm led with Meowstic, a Psychic type Pokemon whose gender restricts which moves it can learn. Kalm's was male, so it relied more on support moves than special attacks. It used Fake Out to automatically make Dunsparce flinch, and then went with Light Screen to buff the party's Special Defense. Dunsparce's only special move was Ancient Power, which was situational at best anyway.


Next came Absol, which was more threatening. Its Dark type combined with high Attack made its Bites powerful, and they made Dunsparce flinch twice in a row. Sometimes I wonder if Serene Grace also boosts the enemy's secondary effect chance. Whatever the game mechanics may be, I had to use a Hyper Potion and then hit with Return. Kalm's last Pokemon was the Grass starter Quilladin. Fortunately for me, it hadn't evolved into Chesnaught and gained a Fighting type. It used Bite and a Grass move, and I used Glare to paralyze it before opting for Return.


Now that Kalm was defeated, the Gym was no longer blocked. This was dedicated to Fighting types, the worst matchup for Dunsparce. I got lucky with most of the trainers' late 20s to early 30s Pokemon here.


Patinador Marcos's Throh lost two turns to paralysis and was finished off by Rocky Helmet recoil. Patinador Jordi had a Heracross that wasted its first few turns on Counter and the Normal recoil attack Take Down. I don't know how the trainer AI routines work, but they must be pretty bad if they don't use same type attack bonus super effective moves often! Heracross's last move was Brick Break, which left Dunsparce with 6/137 HP.


Patinadora Romina's Sawk used Low Sweep and fainted from Rocky Helmet recoil. Hariyama was her second Pokemon, but it didn't seem to use Fighting moves. It instead Knocked Off the Rocky Helmet and then used the obscure Normal attack Smelling Salts (translated as "Estímulo").


Korrina didn't have her Lucarios to help this time. She led with a level 28 Mienfoo, who used Power Up Punch and then died to Rocky Helmet after a Return. A level 32 Hawlucha appeared and buffed its Attack and Accuracy with Hone Claws. I paralyzed it with Glare and then started using Return. Hawlucha finally attacked with its signature move Flying Press. . .which Dunsparce survived with 1 HP thanks to Affection. Pokemon Amie bonuses don't seem to activate as often for Dunsparce as the Pokemon Moon counterpart did for Firestorm the solo Butterfree, so I was surprised to see this happen. This was all for nothing. A Hyper Potion healed Hawlucha, and Dunsparce's luck ran out when he was hit with another boosted Flying Press.


Death Count: 5


For Round 2, I decided to use an X Attack while the relatively weak Mienfoo was out. This paid off. Hawlucha wasted its time buffing with Hone Claws instead of attacking with Flying Press this time. Korrina's final Pokemon was a Machoke. A lucky Glare made it fully paralyzed for a turn, and Machoke could only watch helplessly as Dunsparce KOd it with a boosted Return.


With all those battles done, Paloma could reach the top of the Tower of Mastery and get the Mega Ring. Now I could Mega Evolve Pokemon, but I would only use it once. "But Dunsparce can't evolve!", you might say. That's correct, but there was one scripted battle with Korrina's Mega Lucario. I had to use a Mega Lucario of my own in this match. It was a brief Power Up Punch boxing match.


Fans of Pokemon complain about pandering to Kanto Pokemon, but there's some bias towards Sinnoh as well. At least if you count having Lucario be the first Mega Evolution featured, as well as the giant Lucario statue in the Tower of Mastery.


Now that all those pointless cutscenes were over, I could use Surf and go east. One NPC in the gatehouse said "Mi Pokemon is in the Poke Ball. Yo estoy on the couch." in a bit of Spanglish worthy of the show "La rosa de Guadalupe". Does this character mix other languages in different versions?


Dunsparce Stats

Level 40 @ Rocky Helmet (Casco Dentado)

HP: 140
Attack: 61
Defense: 71
Special Attack: 68
Special Defense: 65
Speed: 47


Return (Retribución)
Dig (Excavar)
Ancient Power (Poder Pasado)
Glare (Deslumbrar. I think the Spanish translators used "Glare" as in "solar glare" by mistake.)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: Affection is Overpowered


Before advancing to the next route in northwestern Kalos, I backtracked a bit to push boulders with Strength and look for a few items and trainers with Surf. Not much happened.


Route 12 was fairly uneventful. One girl in a house gave me the Attract TM. Making other Pokemon fall in love was OG PUFF's signature move, not Dunsparce's! Pescador Adrián was the mandatory 6 Magikarp joke trainer. The fight wasn't a total waste of time because Dunsparce leveled up and learned Drill Run. Drill Run is a rare Ground type attack that has 95% accuracy and 80 base power, but has a higher critical hit rate.


Coumarine City (Ciudad Témpera) was an odd coastal city that was split into two parts. To get from one side of the city to another, I had to talk to the monorail operators. Was this because the city was too big to load all at once or something? Many useful items could be found here, including various Incense hold items and the EXP doubling Lucky Egg.


I equipped the Lucky Egg for a little bit, then decided to remove it before fighting another battle. Why? Pokemon X doesn't use the Unova/Alola experience system, so Dunsparce would already gain sufficient experience on his own. Enemy trainers need to have a chance for the game to be interesting, and Dunsparce has better base stats than Jigglypuff. (Although they still range from mediocre to subpar.) I prefer to get through battles with tactics and abusing items.


Kalm waited outside the Gym to challenge me to another battle. His male Meowstic was the same as before. Absol once made Dunsparce flinch with Bite, but he dodged 2 Quick Attacks in a row thanks to Affection bonuses. Quilladin was fully paralyzed after a Glare, and whiffed a Needle Arm after another successful Affection roll. I said before that Affection doesn't seem to do much in X, but I was clearly wrong. Dunsparce benefits from it as much as Firestorm the Butterfree.


Coumarine's Gym wasn't Water like you might expect from the city's name. It was instead a Grass Gym where Paloma swung on vines and climbed ropes. They had a decent variety of Pokemon thanks to Kalos's generous distribution.


Silvio sent out a Ferroseed, causing Dunsparce to take recoil damage from its ability Iron Barbs. Dunsparce's Rocky Helmet had claimed many victims, and now it was payback time. Drill Run was the most effective move, so I used it a couple of times. Ferroseed switched out to Carnivine right before the final blow. For anyone who knows Pokemon AI, this is very unusual! I paralyzed Carnivine, but this was pointless because one Return knocked it out anyway. (Carnivine has to be one of the most obscure 4th generation Pokemon. Who'd have thought it would appear in a 6th generation Gym?) Lombre got a token Fake Out flinch, then died to Return.


Pokemon Ranger Helen had the Bug/Grass variety of Wormadam, and it seemed to know Hidden Power Fighting. I know this because it was the only type that could be super effective against a pure Normal type like Dunsparce.


Another trainer had a Gloom and an Exeggutor. Gloom used Stun Spore, which Dunsparce evaded because of Affection. Gloom just barely survived a Return, so I finished it off with Ancient Power in hopes of getting the buff. It worked. A +1 Attack Return killed Exeggutor in one hit.


Ramos (Amaro) was one of the older Gym Leaders in the series. I guess he reminded me of Pryce from Johto. He led with a level 30 Jumpluff, a fast Grass/Flying type infamous for its status ailment attacks. What did Ramos do with it? Why use Acrobatics for minimal damage, of course! The second Acrobatics missed because of an Affection roll. Return wasn't enough to KO it before Ramos used a Hyper Potion, so I used Ancient Power.


The next Pokemon was a level 37 Gogoat. For whatever reason it used Bulldoze, a Ground type move that lowers Speed, instead of a physical Grass attack. After paralyzing it, Dunsparce started hitting it with Return. It only took 2 to beat Ramos's strongest Pokemon. Ramos's final Grass type was a level 31 Weepinbell. Maybe he couldn't afford a Leaf Stone to evolve it? Weepinbell used Acid right before being murdered by Return. Dunsparce did very well in this fight and survived with 95/157 HP. Clearly I don't need to use the Lucky Egg.


Dunsparce Stats

Level 45 @ Lax Incense (Incienso Suave, "Soft Incense")

HP: 157
Attack: 69
Defense: 79
Special Attack: 77
Special Defense: 74
Speed: 54

Moves

Return (Retribución)
Drill Run (Taladradora)
Ancient Power (Poder Pasado)
Glare (Deslumbrar)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: Eiffel Tower Gym


Defeating Ramos's Gym allowed me to go southeast to the rocky Route 13. But first, I ran a few errands. This included getting the traded Farfetch'd from Santalune City to use as an HM Mule for Fly and Cut. The Farfetch'd's nickname is a pun for Spanish speakers: "Sr. Puerró". It means "Mr. Leek", but the stress on the last syllable is a reference to Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot. I think the trainer who gave it to me was even named "Poireau" to ensure I couldn't miss the joke.


Dunsparce needed a nickname for this playthrough to be complete, so the Name Rater dubbed him HUBRIS. The whole affair of rejecting a shiny Pikachu in favor of a random Dunsparce is an act of hubris towards the RNG.


On Route 13, Paloma learned that the Lumiose City blackout wasn't due to natural disasters or plugging in one too many dancing Santas. It was Team Flare siphoning electricity in order to power up a super weapon. You'd think the Kalos police or army would intervene in a case of terrorists cutting off power to a major city, but no, the Pokemon world has to rely on a kid with an implausibly high level Dunsparce. Come on, Kalos! At least Unova had its Gym Leaders fighting Team Plasma at the end of SeeNoEvil the Simipour's quest!


Team Flare used mostly mediocre or terrible Dark and Poison types. These included Houndoom, Golbat, Scraggy, Croagunk, and Liepard. None of them could stand up to Dunsparce's Returns and Drill Runs, including the administrators wearing Star Trek visors.


Now that Paloma and her Dunsparce saved the Kalos region from its ineptitude, Lumiose City's central and northern portions opened up. The 5th Gym was in the Eiffel Tower Prism Tower. As you might expect, it had an Electric theme. Pokemon X added several new traits to various types, and Electric received an immunity to paralysis. One of Dunsparce's most important moves was now useless.


However, Electric types tend not to have a wide selection moves, and their defenses are usually poor. Despite the lack of paralysis, HUBRIS defeated the trainers with relative ease. None of them except for the Gym Leader thought to bring more than 1 Pokemon. Dedenne the Electric/Fairy was possibly the worst attempt to clone Pikachu yet. Raichu was a little better, but was still weak to Drill Run. The level 36 Ampharos was the bulkiest one, but even that couldn't take two Drill Runs.


Gym Leader Clemont (Lem) put up a better fight than his minions. He led with a level 35 Electric/Flying Emolga that immediately Volt Switched out to a level 35 Magneton. I used Ancient Power against Emolga hoping to roll a buff, but that didn't work. It did take off enough health to prevent it from surviving a fatal blow with Sturdy, in case Magneton had that ability instead of Magnet Pull. One Drill Run missed, letting Magneton set up Electric Terrain. Stupid 95% accuracy! A second Drill Run hit and eviscerated the Magneton with 4X damage.


Next came Clemont's level 37 Heliolisk, a Pokemon with an odd Normal/Electric typing. It's Thunderbolt wasn't too strong even with Electric Terrain's 50% boost. HUBRIS's Drill Run was just weak enough to leave Heliolisk with red health. A second Drill Run led to Clemont healing Heliolisk with a Hyper Potion yet again. The terrain wore off quickly, and HUBRIS could finish off Clemont's star Pokemon with Drill Run.


Emolga returned and started using Volt Switch again. One missed due to Affection evasion. A couple of Returns KOd Flying Squirrelachu, and Clemont conceded his badge and the Thunderbolt TM. Dunsparce can actually learn this move for a change, but I'm not sure I want to replace any existing move with it. Maybe Ancient Power could go, but I plan on teaching Dunsparce Rock Slide later.


Professor Sycamore told me to go to Lysandre's cafe right after I left the Gym, so that will be the next stop for Dunsparce.


HUBRIS the Dunsparce Stats

Level 50 @ Rocky Helmet

HP: 174
Attack: 78
Defense: 88
Special Attack: 86
Special Defense: 82
Speed: 63

Moves

Return (Retribución)
Drill Run (Taladradora)
Ancient Power (Poder Pasado)
Glare (Deslumbrar)

[Herman Gigglethorpe]

Pokemon X Solo Dunsparce: In the Times of Maricastaña. . .


Lysandre had a brief conversation with Paloma and Sycamore in his café about his plans for making the world beautiful by preventing human and Pokemon overpopulation. He might as well have had a sign saying “VILLAIN” flashing over his head.



Kalm challenged me at the beginning of Route 14 to the north of Lumiose City. His team wasn’t too different from before, and still only had 3 Pokemon. What a crummy rival! Meowstic and Absol were similar to before, but Absol preferred Slash to Bite this time. Kalm’s new trick was evolving Quilladin into the Grass/Fighting Chesnaught. To avoid taking any chances, I used Glare. But Chesnaught didn’t take advantage of its new element and simply used Seed Bomb over and over. By the end of the fight, I had to use 1 Hyper Potion, but it wasn’t too bad otherwise.



Route 14 was a rainy swamp with abandoned playground equipment lying around. Paloma’s rivals/friends went to a house where a man told them a ghost story about faceless people. They didn’t buy it. (You’d think characters in the Pokemon world would be less skeptical about this sort of thing because Ghosts are a proven fact. . .)



La Bruja Sarah said "Tú y yo estabamos predestinadas a encontrarnos desde los tiempos de Maricastaña" when she challenged me to a fight. This literally meant “You and I were predestined to meet since the time of Maricastaña”. The first time I saw this quote, I had to look up the reference. Maricastaña was a medieval Spanish folk heroine, but by Cervantes’s time, her name had already become used in expressions to the effect of “When dinosaurs walked the earth”. She had a Litwick that was defeated with Drill Run, and a Haunter which required Ancient Power due to being a Ghost type with Levitate.


Pokemon Ranger’s Robbie Fraxure used Dragon Dance, then. . .False Swipe?! A move that’s used to capture Pokemon because it can’t reduce an enemy’s HP below 1? His idol must have been Ash from the cartoon.


At the end of the route was Laverre City (Ciudad Romantis), a nature-themed place with a Gym inside a tree. Several people there gave me a Gengar Mega Stone and a few other items.


Laverre City’s Gym showcased the then-new Fairy type. For those who haven’t played Pokemon in years, Fairy was designed to counter an overpowered type much like Dark and Steel were in the Johto games. Only Steel resisted Dragon attacks in the previous games, and they otherwise had perfect neutral or super effective attack coverage. Fairy is immune to Dragon, and resistant to Dark, Fighting, and Bug. (Why did they need to weaken Bug? That was already a bad type. . .) Fairy attacks deal double damage to Fighting, Dark, and Dragon types. Fairies are weak to Steel and Poison attacks, which previously had the worst coverage. GameFreak must have really hated the competitive metagame of the past generation to design a new element like this.


The Gym itself wasn’t too hard. I had planned for it by replacing Ancient Power with Poison Jab from a TM. This move dealt super effective damage to most of the Fairies, from Dedenne to Aromastisse to the retconned Kirlia, Azumarill, and Granbull. (Magnemite and Magneton were given Steel types in the second generation, but the sixth generation changed far more Pokemon into Fairies.) Klefki the key ring was Steel/Fairy and therefore immune to Poison Jab, but that was nothing Drill Run couldn’t handle.


Gym Leader Valerie (Valeria) led with a level 38 Mawile (a retcon), which I expected to have Intimidate. It had Hyper Cutter instead, so HUBRIS’s Attack was unaffected. HUBRIS avoided its Crunch with his Affection evasion. Next came a level 39 Mr. Mime (yet another retcon), which was actually female. The translators for the original games must have screamed when they learned Pokemon other than Nidoran would get genders in the second generation!


“Mrs.” Mime’s invisible wall animation with her creepy stare made me realize why people hate mimes. My opponent used Light Screen, which was pointless since HUBRIS didn’t even have a token special attack anymore. One Poison Jab sent it into Hyper Potion range, and a second Poison Jab’s 60% chance poison side effect finished off the mime. Thanks, Serene Grace!


Valerie’s star Pokemon was a level 42 Sylveon, the final evolution branch for Eevee. It used Charm, but the Attack debuff didn’t hurt as much as you’d expect. The first Poison Jab poisoned it, and the second one got a critical hit that ignored the stat drop. Valerie gave me her badge and a Dazzling Gleam TM after being defeated. One of Paloma’s generic friends told her to go north to visit the Poke Ball Factory as soon as she got out of that pesky teleporter maze. (Was Valerie’s Gym meant to be a reference to Sabrina’s from Kanto? If so, it doesn’t make a lot of sense considering she has a different type specialty. . .)



All of Paloma’s friends except for Kalm ran away from a Team Flare Grunt of all things when they visited the Poke Ball Factory. The first Team Flare Grunt inside the building said he was so new, even his coworkers didn’t know who he was. He said “Grunt” would suffice. His Toxicroak was slightly more memorable than he was because it used Swagger to confuse HUBRIS. The confusion only lasted for one turn where HUBRIS hit himself, then he snapped out of it and used a +2 Drill Run to finish it off.



The other members of Team Flare used the usual Poison and Dark types, including several Mightyenas, a Swalot, and a Golbat. Even the Commander was stuck with an unevolved Scraggy (!) and a Houndoom, both of which died in one hit. Caléndula and Begonia were a bit more interesting because they forced a Double Battle with Kalm as my ally. They had a Liepard and a Manectric, and both ganged up on Meowstic with Dark moves and took it out on the first turn. A Drill Run sent Manectric into red health, and then it KOd itself with a Thunder Fang via Rocky Helmet damage. HUBRIS flinched that turn, but a Rocky Helmet kill was worth it! Return finished off the Liepard.


As a reward for saving him, the factory owner offered me a choice of a Master Ball or a Big Nugget. I may be the only player in history who chose the Big Nugget. But then he also gave me a Master Ball anyway. Boo! I want the freedom to make terrible decisions in video games!


On the next update, Paloma and HUBRIS the Dunsparce will go to eastern Kalos and hopefully encounter the Team Flare Grunt who says my favorite Spanish idiom this game has to offer.



HUBRIS Stats


Level 56 @ Rocky Helmet


HP: 195
Attack: 90
Defense: 99
Special Attack: 97
Special Defense: 92
Speed: 72

Moves

Return (Retribución)
Drill Run (Taladradora)
Poison Jab (Puya Nociva)
Glare (Deslumbrar)