On Suddenly Jumping Back Into Pokemon Violet After Not Playing for Ages
The other day, aabicus popped me a message, saying that you could get a shiny Lucario in Pokemon Scarlet and Violet by entering the code “SH1NYBUDDY”. For some reason, Pokemon codes are allergic to the letters i and o. Either way, I thought a free Lucario was pretty cool, and I opened up Pokemon Violet. After about three different updates because I hadn’t used my Switch in a while, I finally got my shiny Lucario, only to realize two things: firstly, it was level 75 so it wouldn’t obey me, and, secondly, I already had a Lucario in my party. Not a shiny one, but a Lucario nonetheless.
I’d completely forgotten about my party.
Actually, I’d completely forgotten about most of the game. All I recall was that I’d got my underleveled team’s ass handed to it after trying to fight Arven and his team of level 60 Pokemon. My team at the time were anywhere between level 35 and 45, apart from my Meowscarada, who was level 49. I wasn’t particularly happy with my team at the time anyway, so I decided maybe I’d spend some time looking to swap things around. Except I’d just jumped back in and was pretty damn lost and had no idea where I was.
There was one thing I needed to do though. I needed more gym badges. That level 75 Lucario wouldn’t answer to me but, luckily, I was actually near a gym and it was actually one I could fight. I just needed to work my way out of this cave. While doing so, I caught a Shellgon, an Umbreon and a Sableye, the latter of which would be useful for this gym. Two seconds later, I realized I could just use the map to fly to the nearby Pokecenter. All of which I had unlocked a while ago, apparently.
So I went to the gym, did the stupid gym test, killed a bunch of Bannettes which were hanging around, accidentally murdered a ton of Sinistea while trying to catch one, then went and did the gym battle. My team mostly consisted of dark types, but I had Sableye as a ghost type and Tinkaton as a fairy/steel type because why not. Of course, half the gym leader’s team were fricking FAIRY TYPES. Sableye got one-shot by Gardevoir, and Tinkaton ended up doing most of the battle thanks to being a steel type. The one time my Houndoom was ready to go, and I couldn’t use it. Typical.
That badge didn’t help much though. Level 50 was now my new maximum. And I kinda needed quite a few different types. I still lacked a water type and a decent ground type, so I needed to rummage around my boxes and find something to level up. After a while, I found a Gabite which I planned to level up, and I stumbled into a Toxapex, which terrastalized into normal type for some reason. But even then, I still needed Pokemon for an upcoming Ice gym AND I needed to level my team up some more, since they were all still below level 60, what I needed to fight Arven.
Unfortunately, it was around then that I made a bad discovery. My goal in Pokemon Violet had been to go into the massive crater, to Area Zero. I thought originally that I just needed to beat Arven and I’d be able to continue onwards to Area Zero. Nope, I was wrong. In order to progress, I also need to beat the Elite Four AND defeat the Team Star bases. At that point, I decided “fuck it”, I’m just going to stick to catching Pokemon and slowly leveling my team up.
This annoys me. I thought the whole point of Scarlet and Violet was finding my ‘treasure’ and taking whatever path I want. But it turns out the path I want requires me to do the entire fucking game, despite it being labeled as its own path.
On the plus side, I’m still not 100% happy with my team, but I think it’s getting there. Tinkaton has proven her worth, and Toxapex has proved to be pretty useful. Houndoom is being used more as a fire type than a dark type, since Meowscarada is also a dark type. Lycanroc has been my main rock type and I haven’t found a better one, but he’s okay. Gabite is currently my weak spot, but that’s because he’s under-leveled. Once he evolves, he’ll be fine.
Still, if I ever plan on seeing Area Zero, I have a LONG way to go…