Pearl Kingslocke: Episode 5

Rules here.

When we last left off, I was taking a quick training break.  The team now stands thus:

I wanted to train the boys a little bit higher, but with limited Pokémon Centre visits, there’s only so much potions can do; they don’t restore PP (and I’m even running out of money for potions).

The last card I drew was the Ten of Cups, meaning someone else gets to make a new rule for me, and today’s lucky winner is Matt, who offers the following:

No argument from me – the Hierophant is a rough rule to live with at the best of times, let alone combined with Snake Eyes and Torment.  And I like this more restrictive take on the Hermit; it doesn’t actually affect me at the moment because my Pokémon’s natures happen to all boost different stats (Jerry is careful, Brighteyes is relaxed, Andi Site is brave and King Louie is rash), but it easily could in the near future; after all, there’s only one more stat to choose from.  Here are the rules:

And let’s go!

We’re now on route 205 proper, heading north towards Eterna Forest.

See this kid?  This kid right here?

This kid’s Ponyta very nearly kicked my ass.  Now that I don’t have to deal with the Hierophant, I can afford to do just a little bit more levelling in the grass here so my lower-level Pokémon don’t get murdered.  In particular, it would be really nice if Brighteyes had more than one direct-damage move; the torment rule is really killing him.  All three of them have a neat little milestone in the very near future, though.

Well, I was kinda hoping for something in a more elemental vein, but y’know what, it’ll do.  Jerry has also discovered a fun little workaround to the torment rule.  Rollout is a little bit reckless when you have a rule like Snake Eyes in play, but what can I say?  Jerry’s a daredevil.  Jerry lives dangerously.  Also, fun fact that you might not know if you only pay attention to competitive (where Rollout is worse than useless): if you use Defence Curl, then Rollout, it doubles your damage.

Shellos is actually a surprisingly difficult Pokémon to handle with my current setup, even at low levels.  Mud Slap lets them reduce your accuracy while also hitting both King Louie and Brighteyes pretty hard, Water Pulse is a really strong move for this early in the game and they have solid defensive stats and Harden.  On top of all that, Andi can’t safely deal with them because of her garbage special defence and double-weakness to Water.

🎵 Oh, oo-bee-doo/I wanna be like you 🎵
🎵 I wanna walk like you/Talk like you, too-oo-oo 🎵

The true battle of the century: Bidoof vs. Bidoof.

I was actually really frightened for a second here, because this Budew paralysed Jerry with Stun Spore, then got a really lucky string of paralysis turns that it used to power up with Growth, like, four times and then used Mega Drain, which I didn’t realise it would have already at this level – and then still did hardly any damage, because Jerry has the Unaware ability and just doesn’t give a fµ¢£.

OH YOU LITTLE $#!TBAG

Ugh, Machop’s Karate Chop crits really sting in the early-game.  And he was so close to evolving, too!

It’s okay – this is not a Nuzlocke; this is not death; Snake Eyes does not kill you.  It does, however, petrify you, so Brighteyes is going to be unusable until either I defeat the next gym leader, Gardenia of Eterna City, or something else happens to cancel the Snake Eyes rule.

Well, let’s not stand around talking – we’ve gotta move so we can rescue him!

We’ve reached Eterna Forest, and you all know what that means…

The Chariot: You gain two additional “slots” for ongoing rules from Major Arcana cards.  Drawing the Chariot multiple times continues to give you more slots.  These card slots are not lost when your ongoing rules are wiped by the Tower or the World, but an observer can choose to remove them if you draw a 10/Rule Card.

The Chariot doesn’t do anything right now (well, except for me having to redraw the board with extra slots) – but it does mean that we can permanently have more complicated rulesets involving more simultaneous cards from the Major Arcana in the future.  Major Arcana cards don’t normally go away on their own; drawing this when we’re still fairly early in the run is a pretty big deal.

We travel through Eterna Forest with Cheryl and her Chansey, who fully heal our party after every battle (that doesn’t mean we can’t get hit by Snake Eyes, but it does make things a little easier).  All the trainers in this area are in pairs and challenge the player and Cheryl to double battles.  Nothing too crazy happens in here.  There’s another little area you can access from Eterna Forest, the Old Chateau, but we need to have out-of-battle access to Cut, so we can’t go there just yet.

When we leave Eterna Forest, this is another place where it’s technically the same route as before (route 205), but the area’s not contiguous, there are different, higher level wild Pokémon and there are several trainers, so I think we can draw another card here.

Five – Guys: You cannot use your female Pokémon (unless you have no male or genderless Pokémon).  This rule is overwritten by drawing a Six/Chicks, and ends if you draw another Five.  You may catch the first male wild Pokémon you see in this area.

Hmm.  This actually seems like a good thing to me.  Andi may be female, but she’s also still my champion, so she can ignore this rule.  The only thing this does right now is let me catch a male Pokémon in this area.  And that Pokémon is…

It turns out Goodbuoy has a careful nature, the same as Jerry’s, so as long as the Hermit stays in play, he’s a dud (what’d I tell you?  Add a sixth Pokémon, and the chance of a duplicate nature is practically 50/50).  He also kinda overlaps with Jerry as a Water-type with a physical bias.  Still, a Floatzel could be useful much later; this certainly isn’t a bad pickup.

That brings us to Eterna City, which feels like a good stopping point.  Tune in next time, as we explore Eterna City and challenge the gym!