Pokemon SoulSilver – Catching Cut, Mountain Training, and Making Girls Cry

She's a cryer.

Every time I’ve beaten a gym so far, 3 hours have passed. So I’ve currently got about 9 hours on the game. When I woke up at 4:45 or so today, I went and asked my brother how far he was – like me, he had just beaten the second gym and rival encounter – except he had only been playing for about 2 and a half hours. Obviously I am the slowest gamer ever, though I still beat Whitney before he could. By the way, my bro is naming all of his Pokemon after Gurren Lagann characters, and named his rival ‘Rossiu’.

There’s not as much to report on this time, because not a whole lot happens between the second and third gyms – not enough that it should have taken me so long to get there. The reason being, after the minigame in the forest wherein you have to bring the Farfetch’d back to the random guy in order to get the Cut HM, I became aware that none of my party could learn Cut. Well, BOSS NIGGA could, but I didn’t want to stick him with that shitty attack forever. My brother told me that he’d caught a Paras right there in that forest and taught it Cut to pass. However, after 10 minutes of walking around, I could only find Weedle. This wouldn’t do. (Later, though, the first Pokemon I ran into in the forest after cutting down the tree was a damn Paras.)

I started running around the fields and caves by the town catching random Pokemon (a Weedle, Ekans, Spearow, maybe 1 more) and naming them all ‘PLZKNOWCUT’. Finally, I caught a Rattata (same name) and found out it could learn cut. And when I went to fish it out of the PC I was sternly reminded OH YEAH, I ALREADY HAVE A RATTATA, NAMED OLD NANCY. Somehow, I’d already forgotten all about her. I pulled Old Nancy back out, taught her Cut, and headed down the road.

Pretty much the only thing of worth along the way were a bunch of trainers which were sufficient in training my Ghastly, Fuuko-chan. She became about one-hundred times more useful upon learning Nightshade, and has finally earned her place as a main-stay team member. I also let my Togepi, Railgun, learn Headbutt from the guy who teaches it to you in the forest. This was the perfect addition to a repertoire that increasingly makes Railgun my team’s best bruiser.

I hung around Goldenrod for a bit just having fun. This town is so cool in this game – in the old Silver it was just a mess of generic houses that always seemed really strange and meaningless. Now it’s really the bustling city it should have been! I tried my hand at the Voltorb Flip game which I could not win at – this is the worst Minesweeper clone ever! I hastily moved along, then, to Whitney’s gym. This gym didn’t have any crazy contraptions, though the raised floor sections were at least interesting to look at. Making quick work of all the minor trainers, I headed for the gym leader I was dreading most – Miltank master Whitney.

DUDE I SWEAR TO GOD THAT'S THE SCHOOL UNIFORM FROM EF

The tone was set, too, by my brother who, in spite of having stronger Pokemon than I did, was having his ass handed to him for about 30 straight minutes. We decided to have our fight simultaneously once I reached her.

It was an intense battle. The first match was her Clefairy against my Onix, Rocky. The retarded Clefairy stupidly used Mimic to copy Rocky’s Rock Throw and used it several turns in a row to no effect. I meanwhile slammed Clefairy with blow after blow to within an inch of her life, but that’s when Whitney got tactical. She healed up Clefairy and then used Metronome to get Blizzard – a 1-hit K.O. for Rocky (my brother had been joking too, about the Clefairy’s ‘convenient metronome’ which kept getting attacks directly hitting his Pokemon’s weaknesses lol). I next sent out Railgun and had it use Yawn, an attack that guarantees your opponent to fall asleep, but only after their attack on the next turn. I pounded away with Headbutts as Clefairy passed out and eventually brought the beast down.

Next was the nightmare, Miltank, but I was ready with the strategy I had brewing. I sent out Fuuko-chan to fight it and immediately used Curse. Because Fuuko-chan had already lost half of her HP from the move, Miltank’s Stomp killed her in one hit, but it was no matter – the deal was done. Because of the Curse effect, as long as I was able to survive until the match was over, Miltank was guaranteed to die.

I sent Railgun out once more, and began with my same plan from the Clefairy match. It was a tough run, too, because it turned out that Miltank was equipped with a berry that would insta-heal her from Sleep effects as soon as they took effect, but I still kept Railgun ticking with super-potions. Whitney’s attempts to keep Miltank healed were to no avail – I eventually got it to go to sleep and the effects of the curse and my constant Headbutts brought the giant to it’s knees. For perhaps the first time ever, I beat Whitney on my first try! Meanwhile my brother lost again, exclaiming that ‘next time I see a cow, I’m going to punch it!’

Current Team:

Fuuko-chan (Ghastly) lvl. 17 – Attacks: Hypnosis, Lick, Curse, Night Shade <- A massive force and excellent suicide bomber

Railgun (Togepi) lvl. 18 – Attacks: Headbutt, Yawn, Extrasensory, Metronome <- Unexpected tank from hell!

Rocky (Onix) lvl. 18 – Attacks: Rock Smash, Tackle, Rock Throw, Rock Tomb <- Still a hugely powerful tank and team leader

BOSS NIGGA (Totodile) lvl. 17 – Attacks: Scratch, Bite, Water Gun, Rage <- As always, a terrifying force

FIZZBITCH (Hoothoot) lvl. 13 – Attacks: Tackle, Upoar, Peck, Hypnotise <- Still just hanging around till I find a replacement

Old Nancy (Rattata) lvl. 7 – Attacks: Tackle, Cut, Quick Attack, Focus Energy <- Knows Cut.