Conquering Arven

When I last left Pokemon Violet, I did so with my tail between my legs. After a long battle, I’d been brutally beaten by Arven, the guy I had fought beside along the Path of Legends. His level 60 team kicked the ass of my team, and I was kinda put off.

This time though, I came prepared. I didn’t have a full level 60 team, but fuck it, with three Pokemon at level 60 or higher, plus better counters, I had faith this time.

I started off with Riff the Lycanroc, my idea to beat Arven at his own game and use Stealth Rock from the very start. His Greedent hit hard with Earthquake, but Lycanroc managed to survive one, used a couple of Rock Throws, then got switched out. Ringo the Meowscarada stepped in to kill the Greedent, but was quickly switched out to Normal the Toxapex.

Now, Normal the Toxapex is a Toxapex with the Normal Tera Type. This is absolutely useless, but Toxapex is a Water/Poison type, so it’s somewhat useful against the monstrosity that is Scovillian, a weird chili pepper Grass/Fire type. Toxapex did great, even with Scovillian using Psychic twice against it, and also despite the fact that Toxapex was somewhat under-leveled. I kept my Toxapex against the next Pokemon as well, Garganacl, which is a pure rock type.

Garganacl didn’t last too long. While Riff the Lycanroc’s Stealth Rock didn’t do much to it, Toxapex’s Liquidation did nearly kill it. However, I wanted to switch Ringo the Meowscarada in, because she was at full health and Toxapex was nearly dead. So I did that, Garganacl used Stealth Rock (annoyingly) and Ringo finished off the weird rock Pokemon with a Flower Trick. A 100% accuracy, never-missing attack that always crits is stupidly strong.

Arven’s next Pokemon, Toedscruel, which TOTALLY isn’t a regional version of Tentacool, totally, was up next. Stealth Rock didn’t do much to the grass/ground type, but Flower Trick did. It took three to kill it though, since grass made it no longer super effective. However, by now, I didn’t want to swap Meowscarada out because of Stealth Rock. This was doubly worrying because the next Pokemon was Cloyster, and it had ice moves, which Meowscarada would be weak against.

Luckily, I didn’t have to worry about that. Stealth Rock actually hurt the Cloyster, and Meowscarada killed it with a single Flower Trick. Not before it managed to get a move off though, which left Meowscarada at half health.

Finally, we had Arven’s Mabostiff, the Pokemon we had been working so hard to save. It was a Dark type, and also had Dark Tera Type too. It immediately terrastallized. Meowscarada was low health though, and even though she managed to get off a Play Rough (a Fairy type fast move I keep as a coverage move), it wasn’t quite enough, and Arven’s Mabostiff took Meowscarada out with its own Play Rough.

Lucario though came in clutch right at the end. I could have used Tinkaton, but I wanted to guarantee that Arven’s Mabostiff would die. It only had like 10 health left, and one Aura Sphere was enough to end it. Even with Terrastallizing, it wasn’t going to last long against the shiny level 75 Lucario I’d gotten as a gift. This was actually the first time I’d used the Lucario, and I’d had to do a lot of work to make it obey me. So, thankfully, it actually did listen, did that Aura Sphere and won me the battle.

With Arven defeated, I finally finished the Path of Legends. However, Arven told me that we’d need two more people before we could go to Area Zero. Which means I need to finish both Team Star and Victory Road. Luckily, I only have the Elite 4 left to fight, but I have a LOT of work to do before I can finish Team Star. I don’t have anything good for the Fairy, Fighting or Poison bases I need to battle.

It was a tough battle, but not nearly as bad as the first time. Although, to be honest, I did do pretty well the first time, getting him down to his last couple of Pokemon even though my Pokemon were 15-20 levels lower than his. This time around, I did look up what his team was, and I did power up Pokemon that were useful.

And now, my team is more rounded. Lucario has gone back into the box, as has my poor Flaffle the Houndoom, who, although being good, already has her types covered elsewhere in my team. Replacing them are my newly evolved Garchomp and new addition Sizzle the Salazzle, who covers Flaffle as a fire type. Going forward, I think I’m going to have a much better time, since I’ve got more bases powered, and more offensive Pokemon with better moves. Unless I go up against a particularly strong ground type…

Anyway, just Elite Four and Team Star left to go, and I can FINALLY see what’s inside that damn crater…