Pokemon BDSP: Play Like A Designer Episode 3, Onward to Oreburgh!

Good time zone internet. Hello and welcome to Design Club, the only game design show on the internet where we think of like four things we're going to talk about in the episode while we're getting together to like get ready and then we have to stop ourselves like four separate times to remember that we need to talk about it in the episode and not before. Uh I think we're the only ones that do that. I am your humble host Will, joined as always by my pal Jeff.
Say hi to the people, Jeff.
Hi to the people, Jeff. Hey everybody, I am Jeffrey Zeldman, the studio director of Extra Credits and Extra History and for the purposes of this series, I've also been a game designer for 25 years. So, hence the game designer playthrough and we are going to be playing Pokémon because of fun story, I've played Pokémon Go, but I've never played a console Pokémon game. I've played lots of other games and so Will has been guiding me through
Yeah.
and we have been very careful to not

tackle more concepts than we can per stream because Pokémon is a lot deeper than I thought it was going to be.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, straight up.
Well, and and we had a really great comment um on over on Twitch chat as we were getting ready and getting all of our tech problems sorted out like Jeff not being able to hear Jeff um that someone was going to watch us tackle all of the depth in Pokémon while completely ignoring all of the depth in Pokémon and I think that's why, right? Because it is there if you want it to be, but it's kind of like swimming in the ocean. Right? It doesn't actually matter how deep the ocean is as long as you're swimming on top of it. But there is a lot down there that's really weird. That's really weird, chat. If you ever want inspiration for like weird gribbly alien creatures, you do not need to look to the works of science fiction. Simply look up pictures of things that live in the benthic zone and you will swear that they are aliens. Um

Well, they kind of are.
They I mean they're in a functionally completely different environment than the one that we're used to. So, yes, aliens. But neither here nor there.
Mentioning too why that comment was so good.
Yeah.
Because this is a game designed for people of all ages, but also for people who are say 8 and 10 years old.
Yes.
They have to have with it if they want that audience. And they want the depth. They have to have in some cases also say some of the depth can be ignored because an 8-year-old isn't going to be doing spreadsheet math.
Exactly. Absolutely.
Most 8-year-olds won't be doing spreadsheet math.
I think yeah, there there definitely some 8-year-olds who will, but only for science fair projects. So, I don't think we have any other um pre sort of gameplay stuff. So, shall we shall we get into the game, Jeff?
Yeah. Oh, as a quick note for anybody listening, if you happen to

hear rumbles and jet fighters occasionally,
Yeah.
I live in San Diego. I am some number of miles from the Miramar airbase, um which also might be known as Top Gun if you've ever seen the movies.
Yeah.
And once a year they have an air show here where the Blue Angels come in. And um Blue Angels are badass jet fighter pilots who do performative shows. It gets loud.
Yeah. Yep. Yep. All right, cool. So, if you hear jets, it's not you, it's it's probably bleeding through Jeff's mic. Although I
I have pretty good noise I have a pretty good setup here.
I'll be shocked if stream gets it, but they might. So, good good warning. All right, let us
Like normal airplane you wouldn't hear. Five jet fighters in a flying half a mile over my head.
Right.
They're maybe
They're very low. If you've never seen a Blue Angels show, they are extremely low and very fast.

Um
Yes.
Such is a dangerous combination.
Yeah. That's I mean, that's why. All right, let's get into the game.
All right.
So, we are not right where we left off last time. Um we are in a slightly different spot, and there's a reason for that, which is I promised that last time. So, last time on Pokémon Pearl, we caught this man's. We caught man. And man has a bit of a problem, which is that uh man has a bad nature and a bad ability. Uh I'm actually going to take us out real quick. So, uh there are two possibilities for Shinx. One of them is rivalry. Well, okay. Two asterisk abilities for Shinx. We care about two right now. One of them is rivalry, one of them is intimidate. And um we got a bad nature. This is a quiet Shinx uh who has

increased special attack and lowered speed, uh which is not what you want for a Shinx. So, I said that off-stream I would catch us a better Shinx. And behold,
And the reason for this is we don't want We want to be playing, but we don't necessarily want to be grinding on screen grinding on stream.
Yeah, correct. That's That's not a great use of our time. So, um I caught us another Shinx, here uh here after referred to as man two. Um this Shinx is jolly and has intimidate, which means that it is uh speed up, special attack down, and is much better. And this leads us to sort of our first uh potential uh topic
Actually, Will, can you go back and forth on the stats for me one time since I'm still learning here?
Sure. So, one of the problems is that man two is only level four, so the difference is going to be it it'll be difficult to see.
I wasn't imagining it. His stats are actually lower.
They are actually lower. They will be better in ways that we care about.
Mhm.

Um so uh as uh and that is correct. Uh I'll pull this up. As uh Ardvark points out, the speed difference is only one. That's correct. The um And that is in part because of the nature, right? Man is Shanks or man is quiet. Man two is jolly, right? Uh and yes, man two is a woman, but I needed to We already named it, so I'm just going to name it two. Um So, one of the other topics that we want to talk about is the there's sort of a concept which we're going to be referencing a bunch, and I just wanted to tackle it, which is what makes a Pokémon {quote} {unquote} good, right? So, in this case, Intimidate was really what we were looking for, and there's a bunch of reasons for that. One of them is I want to have access to Intimidate, so we can talk about its role in shaping a team. So, I wanted a Pokémon with Intimidate, and Shinx is an early one with Intimidate, so we can talk about the strategy that goes into switching, cuz

Intimidate's a really clear example of that. Uh and the other one um and then sort of the secondary one is what we care about. Because when I first caught this Shinx, I thought this Shinx was going to be bad, because Shinx
starts with the move Thunder Shock.
Right? And Thunder Shock is a special attack move. So, I thought in my mind uh this Shinx isn't going to be very good, because it has a lowered special attack and has a special attack move. And it wasn't until someone explained to me that Shinx primarily gets physical electric attacks and is a physical uh attacker that um I really understood that Jolly was actually a good nature for this Shanks. And I think this is part of like that there is depth and you could ignore it, right?
Wait. Okay, wait. Wait. Well, I need that explained again cuz I didn't
So, I thought So, Shanks starts with the

move Thunder Shock.
Okay.
The little
normal moves and one
electric
is his special.
The electric is a special Yeah, is is a special type move.
Okay.
attack on this Shanks is lower. And lower
would seem that Yeah.
Correct. And that seems bad, right? Because based on the information we have right now, that doesn't seem great. And it's not until you understand that Shanks gets a bunch of, um, uh, the uh, gets a bunch of physical electric type moves later.
Okay.
So, it required information I did not have to understand that this Shanks is actually quite good. Because if I were
So, wait. How does that actually make it better though?
Um, we don't care about its special attack and we do care about its speed. So, because we don't actually care about its special attack down the line, we can

sacrifice its special attack
Okay. That's what I needed. We don't care even though it's it does an electric special attack, but we don't care because we're not going to be using the special attack.
That is correct.
Okay. Yeah, that makes sense to me. Yeah. By the way, can I tell you what's freaking me out right now?
What?
Look at the colors. So, special attack is blue No, is blue and speed is red.
Yeah.
I'm used to red meaning bad, but red is pointing up.
Yeah.
And special attack is pointing down. Blue to me is a second it follows green on being good.
Right. Yeah, well, that that's also because we've got we've got RPG brain, right? Uh,
what what are the orders of quality? Gray, green, blue, purple, orange.
Mhm.
In that order. Always. No exceptions. Gray, green, blue, purple, orange. That's how it works. Right? Um and yeah, that is that is another um uh cultural difference. All right. So,
Yeah.
that having been said, uh that's where we are. Uh people did

get some levels as I was catching uh Shinx trying to get this one. I only caught a couple um because it took me a hot second to remember that I could check and see if a wild Shinx had Intimidate because it would trigger Intimidate when it started the battle, so I would know. And I caught a couple uh and we leveled a little bit, but nothing terribly relevant.
So, at this point then, are we going to give away man one?
Well, so that's kind of a that's kind of a an interesting question. So, we have uh where's the Poké Center? That's not the Poké Center. This is the Poké Center. Missed the door. Don't don't at me. So,
Wait, you can hack into your buddy's PC from here?
Yeah. So, we have a um we have a

uh a plethora of storage, right? We have all of these boxes of Pokémon that we can store. So, like we don't really need to get rid of them. We're not space is not at a premium here. I think we've got 20.
So, what's the reason to keep him if we're never going to use him?
Uh
Or might we actually use him?
So, remember we keep threatening the egg episode? It's kind of related to that.
later for basically some hanky-panky?
Uh correct. Also, uh Chad is also correct. There is such a thing as wonder trade. Uh wonder trade is a thing. Um wonder trade is a thing where we give away Pokémon and receive a random Pokémon in return.
Oh. Okay, so kind of like Pokémon Go where you don't keep them specifically because they could instead become sweet sweet candy or you keep them if they have a high power or have a bad stats to trade and hopefully get lucky for whoever you

trade them to. There is actually a reason to keep
Correct.
Pokémon here up until you find the thing to do with them.
Though, um the stats are not randomized on trade in main Pokémon games. That's a protection thing to prevent RMT in Pokémon Go.
Okay.
Um This Bidoof is also getting uh socked away for the uh IV IV episode. This Bidoof I got the cut to trainer phase. There is a special intro that you get when Pokémon have a certain level of IV or higher uh and I got that for this Bidoof. So, I caught it uh so we can talk about that uh later on. Um So, we we we don't really need to get rid of them. We could keep them. Uh wonder trade fodder is a thing. Um but yeah.
Is there a reason not to throw him into storage? Like to keep him in our active six? It's just so we have another potential battler if we need it.
Correct. Uh
Okay.
And uh unlike in some previous games,

you can upon catching a Pokémon decide that you would like that Pokémon more than one of the six in your party. I think for a while, I don't remember which gens it was that if you already had six in your party, it would just automatically get sent to your PC and you wouldn't get the option to immediately use them. Um so, leaving an open slot for a Pokémon that's not uh uh particularly useful is this event. Um Okay, so on our um on our route, we are headed off to Oreburgh City, which means we need to cross Route 203. Um and uh we're going to head this way and we're going to get to Oreburgh City and that's our that's our first stop for our uh along our Pokémon journey to get to a gym. So, uh I think we're going to get going.
I remember this route cuz we there were random kids here to challenge us along the way.

I don't remember who we fought and we haven't Apparently, we haven't fought this one yet. I got a nifty Keen Badge from the gym leader in Oreburgh City.
Them's fighting words, I guess.
Th- Those are indeed fighting words. All right.
Last Madeline.
Send out a Starly. That Starly is probably level mm six.
I think it's about to get fired.
Uh correct. So, um because huh, this is a point where we could begin caring about some stuff. Uh I'm going to
Taunt new?
Uh we got Taunt at the end of last episode. Um we actually used it to catch Constantine because uh we taunted it out of being able to teleport away.
Oh, that's right.
Um I'm actually going to swap this in.

Um And the reason that we're doing that is twofold. Uh one is to get better experience and the other is to uh just show off that I have a Choice Scarf with Intimidate because I like it.
So, that happened when it deployed, correct?
Yes.
So, you used your action to deplo- to swap a Pokémon.
Correct. So,
Okay.
we get one turn. Any of the following is a turn. Switching, using a Pokémon move, using an item, attempting to run in situations where you can run, which would just be wild battles. And I'm not worried about Shinx fainting because uh at this level Starly only knows like tackle and we intimidated it.
That wing slap was like a surprisingly like that was like a back end of the

face.
Mhm.
Little Starly has some attitude.
Yep. Uh that's a great question. How did a level five rock weak uh Pokémon beat the beat the rock gym? That's a great question. Next question. We The There is a fair amount of suspension of disbelief and the the amount of like just go with it
level up
is kind of relevant.
Maybe she was just using one of her different Pokémon.
Yeah, the power of God and anime, that is correct.
Oh boy.
Now, interesting to note, Bidoof is unaffected by our intimidate, right? Because Bidoof swapped into us. We did not swap into Bidoof, right? Um And because uh Shinx has already participated, I'm just going to swap into Chimichanga and one

shot this thing.
Chimichanga, I choose you.
But Bidoof might have known surf and then she went to the move deleter and forgot it. Yeah, that seems right.
Dude.
And I crit. Okay, great. Excellent. Yeah, uh-huh. Poor Bidoof. Go to sleep. Only sweet dreams.
Man, Mantine just Did they get two levels this battle? One for each Pokémon?
They got They went from level four to level six. And part of that is how far behind the rest of the team they are, and part of that is that they also participated, right? So, you can see the Chimichanga's getting less XP because Chimichanga's above the level of the Pokémon we're fighting. Mantine's getting over for being below.
I forget, can we name Pokémon later?
Uh there is a way that we will be able to. I don't remember
Okay. But not not easily right now.

Dude, we beat her up and took her lunch money.
That is correct. That is in fact the the the theme of the game.
What's a repel?
Uh a repel, great question. It's an item that we can use to prevent uh low-level encounters. Um
That seems like it will be useful when we're running back through the zone 18 times.
Yeah, that's that's a accurate characterization.
So, it's bug repellent.
Yes. Um I don't believe BDSP is one of them that does it. I While I found some um
Abra.
Can I one-shot you? That's my question. Um
No.
Okay, good to know.
We still get XP if it teleports away,

right?
Nope. You get no
Oh, okay.
Uh
So, it's only there to be annoying.
Uh and to give us a chance to catch Abra, right? Cuz you because you'll always Items go before moves and switching goes before uh
Uh.
Switching and items both go before moves. I don't remember which of them has priority, but you could attempt to catch it, right? Uh yes, that's right. Nova Nova has a very good point. The low-level part is important. Repel doesn't work if your lead Pokémon is lower level than the Pokémon in the area. Um So uh what I could not remember is um there was a period in time in which intimidate in the lead party slot acted as pseudo repel, but I don't believe BDSP is one of them. Oh, look at there. You've got a Pokétch. You're still pretty new trainer, aren't you? It's all good. You're a new fellow friend of Pokémon, so I make a gift of

these technical machines to you. TM TM 98 What's it? Whirl. Each of these TMs contains the move Rock Smash. If you want to use a technical machine to teach your Pokémon a move, that TM will then break. Be very careful about when to use it. I'm also adding a new feature to your Pokétch, rookie trainer. A hidden moves app. Use the Rock Smash on your Pokétch and a wild Pokémon will get rid of boulders on your path. To use this hidden move in the field, you first need the gym badge Oreburgh City. I'm looking forward to seeing your growth. Hm. Use the hidden moves from the hidden moves Pokétch app to remove or bypass obstacles.
I assume we're about to come up to a big obstacle we can't bypass.
Uh yeah. We can't use it yet cuz we don't have the gym badge.
So we have to teach one of our Pokémon Rock Smash, correct?
Uh
What if
Yes, if we wanted to smash these rocks.
Hm.
Uh but we can't
there's the immediate rocks we can't get

by, telling us we're going to come back here later.
Correct. Yeah, with with the the thing.
Hm.
Uh Yeah, you don't have to teach it to something anymore. You just need to have the gym badge.
Mhm, okay.
We trainers will accept challenges anywhere. It's what we do. New challenge by camper Curtis, who's definitely legally not a scout.
Wait, was that a new outfit we haven't seen before?
Yes. We'll get those a couple of times. Oh, no.
Wait, why did we deployed second? Why do we just get intimidated?
Great question. Because at the beginning of battle, right? There's like when we both deploy simultaneously, we both count as having immediately deployed on one another. So, if we both had intimidate, both intimidates would proc.
Got you. So, if we swapped out now, like and then brought Jimmy Chung out later,

their attack down would still be attack down?
No. Once we Once we remove a Pokémon from the field, all stat changes, attack down, attack up, all of those go away.
So, they're um They would essentially reset to zero. And there is a case in which it would be wise to do that. However, in this case, our primary means of attack is a special attack move, which means that we don't care about intimidate literally at all. Right? Because
Got you.
Does that make sense?
Yep. Is it Should we be trying to level up Shinx? Like should we be swapping him in more often?
Uh that's a great question. Um we probably could here. We could do a swap swap. Uh
I'm not saying we need to. I'm just curious again on
It's not bad.
Mhm.

Especially because um what we're doing now is a safe swap. So, the worst thing that could happen is that we swap into something that's like electric type or that that's weak to electric type, right? Because then it could use like a uh some kind of uh electric move, right? And knock a knock out a Pokémon for free, right? So, we like we swap into a water type and then the opposing Shinx uses Thunder. Go with it, chat. I'm using very iconic examples of things that Shinx probably can't learn. Um but uses an incredibly strong electric move and knocks out a Pokémon. Now, we wasted a turn and we wasted one of our six Pokémon for no gain. Probably. Probably. There's actually a case where that's a good idea, but we're never going to get to the place where like that level of strategy ap- applies in a casual play.

And Arbok just said um Pokémon difficulty curve doesn't require grinding.
Correct. I I think that that's that's fair. Um I kind of want Shinx to be in better shape, right? Like it's not we're not going to like seek extra battles. Ah. You've been intimidated. So, Intimidate sticks on their Shinx, right? Even though our even though Manchu swapped out, their Shinx is still on the field. So, the Intimidate is still active on them.
Equivalently, it's a spell.
Yes.
Oh, we cooked his Shinx.
Yeah, 83. Manchu, that's another that's another level.
Yeah.
Yeah, Lightning Rod seeking isn't good, but it is funny. That's correct. Power-Up Punch. Well, let's look at Power-Up Punch.

Okay, so power up punch is a fighting type move. Huge deal. Massive deal right now. Um
It's what area fighting type move wouldn't you say after that?
It's a huge deal. It's a massive deal to get it right now. Um So
And that's because our guy is a fighting type Pokémon?
Will become a fighting type Pokémon. Is not yet one of its evolutions is. Um
Is it it's also I know it's a fire type right now.
Correct.
So that's interesting. So
I remember that I did. Um
Can we give up a normal move for it?
Yes. Uh here's the other reason. Uh yeah, okay. I did I did keep this. If we bring in No, not that. This.

Not my gaming rig. This thing. All right. If we bring this in, this is the type chart. We can see that if the offensive type is fire and the defending type is rock, the upcoming gym, it does half damage. But if you if the outgoing type is fighting and the defending type is rock, it does double damage. So this will be a tool that will allow Chimchar Chimichanga to do more damage in the upcoming gym. Right? This is a what we would call a coverage move. Right? Because fire normally weak to rock, not in in great spot. Rock in fact does double damage to fire, but in a case where we have to power up punch is a way that we can still do damage.
And this is again some game knowledge that since you know we're heading into a rock gym.
Correct. There's a lot of foreknowledge. Again, we could probably brute force our way through the Rock Gym with like normal type moves, but you know.

Um I'm going to say that Power-Up Punch is just better than Scratch.
So, actually, can you put the chart down so we can see what you're over?
Yeah.
Cuz right now There we go. Actually, would we ever Would we ever use Leer now that we have a Shrinks and we have Taunt?
That's a really great question. Um the chat's saying that we probably wouldn't. I think that that's also a fair argument. Especially because one of our powerful attacks doesn't attack their defense, it attacks their special defense.
Mhm.
So. I would say we we could definitely swap out Leer. I think that that's fine.
Yeah, like I Again, this is one where I'm just kind of learning along the way. So, it's cool to me. I hadn't realized I wouldn't have intuitively guessed that you could swatch out swap out a normal move for a special move.
Interesting. Can you say more about why?
Um it's probably my Pokémon Go uh playing.
Yes.
in that you have normal moves and special moves, and you get items to let

you replace a normal move or a special move with another move from the same category. So, they differentiate the categories and the pool for each is its own unique thing and you can't, for example, just get two specials or two normals in that game.
Yeah.
So, that that is to me why I was coming in with that that basic concept, and that's just
Yeah.
because that other game is different.
Yeah.
So, that came in on level up, correct?
Yes, it came in at level 12. And if the fight were going to go uh on, we could learn Power-Up Punch, I believe, mid-fight.
Hm. Um is level 12 or something like does every Pokémon get a new thing at level 12 or is that specific to on a per Pokémon basis?
Per Pokémon basis.
Okay.
Yeah, so each Pokémon has a different

move set acquisition curve. Um and the uh the um the other thing to keep in mind is that we talked about this briefly the other uh one in one of our previous episodes. Pokémon level at different rates. So and and when they level at different rates, their stat their levels are often worth different amounts of stats for a bunch of reasons. So like a level is kind of a universal concept, but the amount that each level does for each Pokémon is not necessarily consistent.
Is Oh, no, another battle. Man, what are these in minor Oh, I get it. Miners in the um mine.
Probably.
Woah. Is that four Poké Balls?
I would check. It's about to be three

Poké Balls cuz Bidou is not a real Pokémon. I know, it was two. We we have five. Cuz she has two.
I just It looked like when it came out there were four Poké Balls over her head.
Mm, that might have been uh brief amount of lag in the capture. Uh yes, chat, the children do in fact yearn for the
for the mines. I need to watch chat better. I'm trying to like watch both this and chat.
okay.
Wait, it wasn't very effective, but you still KO'd it?
Uh no, we were very effective. Its move was not very effective against us, um but it healed a tiny bit.

Hey, Constantine leveled up.
Mhm.
So, is it pretty common that basically you're you have one good lead Pokémon that just cleans it Psyduck?
Psy, psy, psy.
But um just cleans through the opponent's team?
Um in casual Pokémon, yes. In more like challenge run type situations or randomizers, it's less common with some exceptions where you're only allowed to have one Pokémon, which is wild to me. Um
Psy, psy, psy.
This is a great opportunity to swap cuz I don't Yes, Jared has a really good um has a really good thing that we can talk about while we do this, which is um if you hold your starter under evolved until high level, they can learn unexpected moves. Yes,

that is true. A Pokémon's learn set is not necessarily and usually in fact is not aligned with its evolution's learn set.
Hm. By the way, Will, I've been watching um Indigo with my young child.
Mhm.
And some of these concepts is interesting seen through like there is a Pikachu versus Raichu
Mhm.
battle that Pikachu wins because the other kid basically evolved their Raichu as soon as they could.
Mhm.
And so hadn't learned some of the basic moves.
Yes.
And Pikachu used those moves to defeat it.
Yep.
So what you're saying is that carries through here. You can keep it unevolved for a while to pick up a whole extra move set.
Yes.
Oh, psy psy psy. No free ice cream for us.
That is right.

Uh we learned charge. Well, I guess losing is something to commemorate, too. You got lunch money. Uh so yeah, so let's let's talk about that real quick. So anime versus video game canon is definitely a thing which happens, right? And it happens in a bunch of different places. The two probably most obvious examples, I think, for most people in sort of my generation are Pokémon, which has not the best alignment between the anime and the games, but very good, I would say. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. Versus Yu-Gi-Oh! Yu-Gi-Oh! has awful alignment between the games and the show, and that's because they tried to make the game follow after the show, but the way that the show is written doesn't really support a card game at all. Hence, the Pot of Greed being like

anyone with any amount of card game design experience could have told you that Pot of Greed was a bad idea, and as a card in a card game, it is a bad idea. But it's a great idea when you need a plot device to give a player an extra card in hand to pull off some weird convoluted combo that you're trying to hinge an entire episode around. That's why Pot of Greed exists, but it's a bad card, right? For design in that it's broken. Um
Howdy, trainer. If you don't have a single gym badge, other trainers will look down on you like you're a total noob, right? So, I'll show you where the town's Pokémon gym is.
Okay.
Thanks, kid.
You want to make sure we don't look like a total
I'm not following, by the way. This is just This is This is a cutscene, right? Huh? There's someone there.
Is that Will?
It is.
Huh?
Oh, it's you, Jeff. You finally got

here? You're slow like always. You're so slow the gym leader's long gone now. He said he had to go to uh Oh, yeah, the Oreburgh Mine. I got my badge already, so it's no big deal to me, but Okay. You want to challenge the gym, you better go down to the mine and ask him. But, wow, a gym leader is in a different class of toughness. Even I'm feeling run down. Okay. Is that guy in front of the gym your friend? He's sort of pushy and impatient. I feel so called out. All right. So, that's that. Um
So, should we find Yep, a Pokémon Center and heal up our dudes.
That is the first um
Let's see. Is that Joy?
Yep, that's Nurse Joy. One of thousands upon thousands of identical Nurse Joys.

Hope to see you again.
I'm sure you will.
I just It's so funny that she's like, "We hope to see you again." when the situation in which she would see you again is you've been getting beat up.
Or not you. You're the Pokémon that you care for.
Pokémon is a proxy for you. Uh okay, so we need to go to to Oreburgh Mine.
Well, we So, we hit the town and the town has basically said, "I'm sorry, your princess is in another castle."
That's correct. Our Our princess gym leader is in a mine, uh which we've been told by chat we yearn for. Um and so
Ooh, can you read this sign? Oh.
Oreburgh Coal Mine. Beware of busy Pokémon. They can wander around here. I wonder if there's anything I'm just curious. There's like not a Mew behind the truck, right? Anyway.

Do they do that in this game? Hide random cool stuff like making sure you have to go look in every part of every city?
Sometimes.
Onix.
You got it. A wild Onix.
In a gym? What are these miners doing that the first thing that happens is you walk into a busy mine and there's a wild Pokémon there?
Hey Jeff, do you remember earlier when I was talking about a a concept called a suspension of disbelief?
I need
I'm going to need you to turn
I'm calling them as I see them here.
I'm going to need you to turn that switch on. Um let's see how well this does. We could get knocked out, but that's fine.
Power-Up Punch. Whoa. Nice. Super effective.
So, our attack goes up as well, right? Which is why it's good.
And that's just for this battle, correct?
Yes, that is a and until we switch out, right? So, it's for this battle until we switch out.
Wait, why do we get two attacks in a row?
Uh you missed.

Oh, okay. I missed you missing. Rock Polish. Oh.
Uh and now that it's
like a bad move.
Well,
that its speed goes up when it's about to die.
Okay, so that's a really great point. He is huh. The a- the the algorithm that determines the enemies moves isn't smart here. If it was smart, there is a world in which a Onix at this level with good stats and a stab move like rock throw could determine that if it went first and hit with rock throw, it could knock us out in one hit. So, there is a situation in which trying to out speed us and get the one hit KO before it goes down is like a reasonable strategy. I don't think that's what's at play, but I did want to address that there is a world where that would be correct.

Well, wait. I have a question. Aren't we still in a trade off he goes, we go, he goes, we go back and forth like is there if his speed jumped, could he theoretically get another move before we get ours?
Yes, he would get to go twice. He would go after us to in round, uh I think this is round two, and before us in round three because speed and turn order is evaluated every turn.
Oh, that's good to know.
It's not evaluated. I I I see. You're thinking of it like initiative, right?
I'm thinking of it like Magic the Gathering. We take turns.
Yeah, yeah. The in each round, right? When we select our moves
Mhm.
we lock in a move, our opponent locks in a move simultaneously, and then whichever Pokémon operates first in speed order
I got you.
modifies or any randomness goes first and does the
with dynamic speed.
Yes.
A dynamic initiative on a per turn basis.
Yes.
Okay.
Bang.

That wasn't good.
We got the smack down. Super effective.
Get the Pokéball. Yeah. Oh, that's a good point. Boxstock uh correctly pointed out uh rose sharply. Uh it's two stages instead of one.
Dude, Chimichanga is taking a beating.
Yeah, I think we're just going to knock this one out.
I don't know. I kind of feel invested, but
Oh, it does outspeed. Yeah, all right, cool. It goes down. Nice. I would have bet it wasn't actually outspeeding us. That's bad. That's bad.
hear. Are we going to bring in man two to get the intimidate and then try a catch or
Yeah, well, the problem yes. Okay.

So, you were Yes. I think that is the play. We're actually going to swap again. Um but now because it because we brought in a Pokémon because the game said we had to have a Pokémon out, now we're at the same
Yeah, now we're at the same like not speed, but like now we're on the same round, so we're not using an extra turn to bring Shinx in to do the initiative uh or to do the intimidate, and we're not risking Shinx getting hit by a rock move.
Double speed up. Do those stack?
Yes. Uh up to a maximum of, I believe, five stages.
Mhm.
That is ridiculous. Oh, no.

Pichu doesn't care. Uh I am going to tackle at once.
I see if you can get it lower and increase the percent.
Thanks, Trap. I don't know why I thought it was five. They're also not all equal, right?
That was a low hit.
Yeah.
But it puts him closer. Okay. Hey, all right.
There we go. I don't think we've had a Pokémon entirely knocked out before. I think that might be it, but it was also worth a 100 Now, here's the interesting one. Is it Chimichanga's knocked out?
I just saw a no XP for Chimichanga.
here the experience goes to the other two that were in. The boiler roll out. The boy.
Okay, so

rock snake Pokémon.
It's rock ground and weighs 463 lb. It's also 28 ft 10 in. Don't think about how that fits into a Poké Ball that we carry on our belt in either way, but like just know that it's 28 ft 10 in and weighs 463 lb.
That should They're missing a zero. They That should be weighing at that size. Actually, possibly like a 20x there.
Oh god. I hit the wrong button. That's my bad. Uh
What happened?
I I hit the wrong button when we were when it was asking for a nickname. It's very easy to do that. Uh
Oh well, we'll nickname it some other time.
Yeah. Dang. All right. Uh Well, that's not great, but I mean it is an Onix, so that's cool. Uh and it knows bind it knows bind and rock throw and smack down and rock throw. All right, cool.
So, actually, go back a second. Um since I'm still learning this here. Okay. On its stats,

we see that its special attack is up and its regular attack is down, but I saw like what weren't three of the four moves special attacks?
Remember, special attack is not a move that has a type. It's a move that is in the category of the blue circles. A red uh burst category is a physical attack of a type, right? So, type and specialness are separated. So, you can have a normal type
Does this guy have all normal regular attacks then?
Uh yes.
Go over to one of the other so I can see the color difference then if you don't mind.
So, this, the category is a special attack.
So, there is no way to tell until I mouse over it. It's not like they put a little symbol or something on the high level. Like, looking at tackle, leer, thunder shock, and charge,

You have to know until you zoom in.
Okay. So, thunder shock is the only special one?
Correct. Tackle is a physical move, and then these two are uh non-damaging moves.
So, those don't matter based on special attack or attack being up or down.
Correct.
Okay, there we go.
Also, charge is kind of cool. Boost the power of the electric move it uses on the next turn. It raises the user's special defense. Uh okay, we're going to go heal cuz I
we have our first Oh, there was a Poké Ball down there, too.
I couldn't get under the thing before we got jumped by Onix. But also, this is good XP. Uh and good practice, right? Cuz we're going to need to take on a um We're going to need to take on a
a gym leader.
Yep. Yeah, rock and ground are two different types, and it's weird that they are, but

they are, and they have two very different uh They have two very different uh weakness sets. So, for instance
though.
Mhm. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's good. Yeah, right, exactly. Like, if we throw it into a bird, it's a rock. If we can't, it's ground. Correct. So, like, earthquake, ground. Yeah, so we can't go under this to get that.
Is that a Machop?
Machop.
Is that a Machop? Oh, Zubat. Zubat.
Evasion actor and crit are yeah, are all at the three. Um
Oh, what did absorb just do?

Absorb is a grass-type move that lets it do some damage and then heal uh proportional to the amount of damage done. Uh but, since it's a grass-type move, it doesn't really do anything, does cuz we're a fire-type. And I'm just
So, it's basically a life drain.
I'm willing to bet that the not very effective power-up punch won't knock it out and get it
to capture a bat?
Okay. Absorb heals for half of damage dealt. Yes. Couldn't remember. In this case, it's mean one, so it's healing for one.
Oh, it just took it out of red to orange, though.
Correct.
Zubat, get in the ball.
It's funny because Zubat's probably way easier to catch in the in the main games

than it is in Go because it doesn't fly around in a figure eight pattern constantly, so you have to hit it with a Poké Ball. Um Is a poison flying?
Mhm.
Nickname? Do we care?
Um
Zubat's not particularly great. We're probably not going to use it anytime soon.
No, we can just leave it as is though then.
Do you want to see the summary real quick? Yeah, so this is a weird one. Oh, it has it has bashful, so no stat changes and then um it's uh ability is inner focus. It means it can't flinch. Some moves uh have a chance to force a flinch on the opposing Pokémon. That is to say that they skip their turn. It's like a one turn stun. Uh and inner focus says no. No, I shan't.

Okay, so our options here are okay, the boxes are extra storage.
Uh yes. Yeah, the boxes are all of the PC storage.
Wait, we're not going to go check out Machoke?
Oh, I wanted to go the wrong way first. I got this item that I had a feeling would be there. My bad. We'll go do that way.
Oh, it's fine. I was just
Yeah. No, I'm sorry. I always go that that is that is a uh philosophical difference. I always if presented with two choices in a game between a way that I obviously should be going and a way I should under no circumstances be going, I will always go the direction I should never be going first. Um you can in part blame Hollow Knight and uh more recently Silk Song for this because Team Cherry is notorious for putting very important things the wrong direction from where you should be going. This is just a thing.
I feel like I want to write a whole episode about that. I'll tell you why after the fight.

Yeah. Get out of here for the fight.
Oh, dude, that punch looks fierce.
It does. I'm just going to punch a rock.
Defense curl.
So, it's getting a level of defense and we're getting a level of attack every time we power up punch, right? So, like in theory, ooh, we go roughly equal, okay. Huh. That was a lot of damage. That was more damage than I was expecting.
Going to try and catch it?
Yeah, always we're going to try and catch every Pokémon that isn't in the Pokédex. Yeah, I I I think this is this is totally right from Fighter. I play most of the RPGs, Metroidvanias, and Soulslikes, and they've all taught me to go to go the

way I'm not supposed to. Always, right? Always. Yeah, the defense buff and attack buff are theoretically equal, but I did a lot of damage there. Okay, so Star League Constantine Hmm, is Constantine learning a move that's not teleported 10? No. Oh, that's right, because it's under the super effective multiplier. So, this ball of living rock 45 lbs.
It's also only 1 ft 4 in, so
Sure, but better than the 400 lb one that's 28 ft long. That's true. I'm just thinking about like what is the density of our rock that's like a foot like a little more than a foot in diameter that only weighs 45 lb. Abra's entire learn level up learn set is teleport. Okay, that's what I thought. We have to get it to Kadabra.
Maybe it's um

like a coral.
Like a coral?
Or some light rock that's more the full filled with lots of air or basalt. Coral, not Carol. It could be Carl if you wanted to be.
I was Sorry, that's like a multi-leveled meme that's probably too many levels. Uh it's it's like Carl from Walking Dead.
is c o r a l.
Yeah, I know.
Okay.
Coral. c o r a l. Coral. Um and yes, chat, right is default dating back to Super Mario Bros. All right, so let's talk about wrong way stuff while I go uh probably fight this person in a battle that will be boring. Oh.
It's a Oh, wait. Where did the Geodude

come from?
So this is a random encounter. We are in a cave. It is dark. We are likely to be eaten by a Grue and probably encounter many wild Pokémon. Um also uh nice quality of life, you can see next to Geodude's name in the upper right hand corner. You have a little icon that says we've caught it.
Oh, okay. So that little ball up there means you got one?
Correct.
Okay.
Can you catch the Grue? Probably not. Uh I'm going to probably knock this out for some XP. Uh did you want to talk about wrong way design real quick? You had a thought.
Yeah, like part of it's philosophical on the game. Like this one Pokémon, which is about exploration, philosophically through But the world with Poké Balls and other things you can find by looking around still feels on theme and it's not disrupting from the narrative. What actually reminded me of this was um I I started a new Baldur's Gate run like a week or two or something ago, a couple weeks ago. Two weeks ago.
Mhm.
And I just ended Act Two.

And minor spoilers for game that's been out over two years now.
Mhm.
I'm at the end of Act Two you Actually, just before the end of Act in in the climax of Act Two you travel to the Astral Plane or excuse me, to the Shadowfell, which is another plane of reality to find the night song.
Mhm.
And you warp in, you step through this portal, you're in this cool space that kind of looks astral plane-y. You can jump hundreds of feet to go from like bouncy or Actually, that's not the bouncy one. You're looking down this long pathway that winds down to this like big almost coliseum looking area.
Mhm.
And it's very cinematic.
Mhm.
The music's playing but what they did along the way was like there's 10 or 15 like skeletons and other things sprawled out on the ground

all of which are searchable. And the game's kind of taught you search for stuff as you go. So the scene that should have been you running down while the music plays getting close to this thing that you have to fight pop up is instead this small crawl of you clicking, you know, click to go forward, click on the Oh, okay, I found a dagger. Like, oh, this one's empty. Oh, look, here's two pieces of broken equipment on the ground that are one gold piece each but you kind of feel compelled to pick up.
Yeah.
So they're littering it with kind of the random searchy stuff completely broke the cinematic scene because it's asking the player to do an action that doesn't support the narrative that's going on in the game.
Yeah.
And those always like as much as Baldur's Gate has good in it going for it, they do that in a couple of scenes and it just breaks their like cinematic storytelling. And so it it reminded me again of games that like they should have just not put any

of those there.
Yeah.
Or they could have had one box at the bottom with 25 gold sitting in it, which would have been the total cost of everything, value of everything you would have gotten from picking it up, and let you just experience the scene. Like if they were really worried about gold per minute or encounter spent kind of thing.
Yeah. Okay, so I I have a I have a question. Is it possible that they are trying to serve two different player buy-ins at once?
For Baldur's Gate on that example or for here?
Yes. For Baldur's Gate on that example. So what I mean is there are some players who are very old school in their sensibilities and are very much the first edition we get XP based on number of gold coins we managed to bring back to town style and what they find joy out of is in doing the poke with a 10-ft pole down the hallway checking for traps, methodically searching everybody

for all of the important stuff. Like that is a joy for them, right?
Yeah, but because they're trying to serve
is so much of that in the game.
Sure. Right, it's weird, right? Like I I think it it obviously doesn't accomplish it there, but it is I can see the group of people that they're attempting to cater to.
All right, we're learning rock smash. Fallen boulders need to be smashed to get them out of the way. You can get the badge from the gym in town, you'll be able to do this, too. Of course, you'd have to beat the gym leader first. That'd be me.
Oh, hey gym leader.
You look more like a Steve to me, but you know, okay.
Wait, the gym leader is a Zubat?
No, the gym We haven't fought the gym leader. The gym leader left. Uh
They ran away and it immediately went into an encounter, so I thought this gym leader was a Zubat.
no, that's that you know, that's a fair that's a fair observation.
I don't think it will ever get old watching uh Jimmy John just throw fireballs at her head and things.

Yeah.
Dude, what happened? Go confused.
now confused. So, we have a chance that we will hurt ourselves in our confusion. Um rather than do the move that we've uh chosen. So, I'm just going to swap cuz that gets rid of confusion.
Jimmy John is back.
with a pH, aka Steve.
Oh, attack was not lowered.
Yes, it has uh inner focus, which is uh the other secret side effect of inner focus is immune to intimidate.
Hm. There are lots of electricity.
There are a lot of like except for and in this corner case kind of things. So, for instance, um there's a ability that gives us a

uh Chat, what's the hot body do? There's an ability that has like a battle effect, but its side effect is that it also lets you incubate Pokémon faster when you're walking them as an egg. Flame body, yeah. Flame body has a has a combat effect, right? But its other big uh its other big effect is egg related, right? So, you want one for the egg related thing. Yeah, it gives you a burn if you hit it with a physical attack. So, it's definitely good cuz burns are awful. Um But, the main reason that everyone uses it for egg.
If you If it If it had actually been hot body and you're saying what it What does it do? I was about to make a joke about how it attracts members of the opposite sex, but
Correct. It's like the inverse of rivalry, which is a useless ability.
with it. It attracts members who
Yeah, I'm sure they'll find what they find attractive. Correct.
Yeah.
All right, we found a free potion. Um

How we doing? Yeah, we can keep going. I'm going to try and fight all these people uh first and we can keep talking while I do that. I'm literally just getting us some XP and uh clearing this out so we don't have to come back later. Flame body and also magma armor. Interesting, very good to know. Hopefully we get to the uh I I wasn't sure if we were going to hit the gym today, Chad, cuz I was really not sure how much distracted we were going to be. Um but
Well, this is a pretty straightforward like grind. This is interesting, too. This is a dungeon.
Mhm.
Like we haven't seen a dungeon yet quite in the same way.
Right, it's barely a dungeon, but it's definitely a dungeon, right? It's sort of like the um Oh, we're still faster. Correct.

I just said, you better not be sturdy. Chad, what are What are my sturdy options at this level in BDSP? Do we have any?
Your what options?
Sturdy. It's an ability and the ability is super Oh, I need to talk to you. The ability is super good. The ability says, "If you would be knocked out Uh, in one shot, you are left on one HP instead.
Oh, cool.
Want to hear a little secret? I stuck my Pokémon to work. You didn't know Onix both.
So, why were there five Pokéballs next to his name?
Uh, so there's one filled one and a bunch of blank ones. It's only the filled one we care about.
Machop.
Pretty sure Onix has it.
Chimichanga is almost out of flame.
Which which is which is why we're using burns.
Or, okay.
Uh,

Getting pumped.
Yeah, he's almost out of power.
we capture somebody else's Pokémon?
No, not in this game.
Okay.
There have been games where you can. This is not one of them. Yeah, I know there are others, Fox Dog. I was I was asking about like at this stage of the game. Just so we can
That was like double the kids' lunch money.
Well, yeah, it's an adult. He's got adult lunch money. He's out there getting
should be attacking more adults.
I'll be playing. Met this Mach- these Machop on Route 207. They've now become my most trusted partners. Oh, okay. You don't want to fight.
So, we now know Route 207 as
Machop.
Machop. Onix. So, are we going to get to the gym leader and just have a whole bunch of super weak Pokémon from running this gauntlet?
No, we're going to heal first.
Okay.
Yeah, Colosseum was great.

I think I have Colosseum on the
Oh, you were heading back out. Okay.
I think I have Colosseum on the cube.
So Will, what is money good for? I've seen buying potions and buying more Poké Balls.
Buying TMs at some point, buying vitamins to alter your EVs and IVs. There are some um in-combat items, the X items that cause you to get a major stat buff but are consumed on use and are good for
Okay. So there are actual things to do with your money beyond buying some basic necessities.
Correct. There are more interesting expensive things you can spend money on.
Okay.

It is worth noting as well that better Poké Balls are more expensive. As one might expect.
Speaking of money. Oh wait, this is Oh he's back. Okay. Dude, who's the guy in the glasses?
Howdy, how's it going champ to be? That's what I said to a really impatient boy earlier, too. The gym leader uses a rock-type Pokémon. Well, listen, rock-type Pokémon really hate water, all right? They're also weak to grass-type moves. Gee, they sure have weaknesses but don't think it'll be easy. You don't get to be a gym leader without covering for weaknesses. Going after a rock-type Pokémon with a fire-type Pokémon won't be easy, either. That's all the advice I can get. Thanks for listening. Yeah, speedrunners call X items necessities but that's a different Yes, for that specific group of players attempting to play in that specific way. Yes. You want to go the long way around? Let's see why you do that. Oh yeah, we

can avoid all these fights but why would we do that?
Youngster, was that Jonathan?
Jonathan?
Geodude. Go Chimichanga. So if we hadn't found power up punch, would we have been putting another Pokémon to deploy first?
Yes. We would probably be looking for something that could do work here. Um or we might have just resigned ourselves to doing like the rock on rock fight, which is very sloggy.
Woah.
Yeah.
Well, we're taking damage.
That's correct, yeah.

Oh, that's true. Yeah, the hiker gives you rock smash, so you could teach something rock smash for the gym. Yeah. I understand why you decided to battle with me. You got lunch money.
Lunch money.
What? Chimichanga is evolving.
Woah. Chimichanga. What are you going to become? Ooh.
There it is. Chimichanga evolved into Monferno. Why do I keep trying to hold right stick so we can see more of the Monferno? You don't get to do that in Pokémon.
Monferno.
And now it's a fighting type.
Oh, fire and fighting.
Right. So now, one of the things that we get in addition is we get um

Yeah, that the fighting style punch now has the synergy bonus, if I remember your correct.
Wants to learn Mach Punch. Like yes. The Mach Punch is a priority move.
Oh, okay. Always goes first. Wow.
Uh-huh. So, it's a priority move. And so, I think we're going to forget scratch for Mach Punch because I think that that seems good. I I unless you have strong objections. I don't
Um I I'm going to stick with your recommendations for this. Like is it worth keeping a normal style attack?
I would say no. There aren't I mean we can we can consult the chart.
Well, never mind. He's fire and biting. I says we want to double down on that.
Correct. Lots of Pokémon will begin with like a

move so they can technically be in a fight when they're low level. Right? But you don't keep them around. It's sort of like a How do I want to put this? It's like a training wheels move, right? It's like It's like baby's first wooden sword, right? In a in a more classic RPG sense. That's right. You don't full heal on level up or evolution. That's fine. Oh, he doesn't want to win. Can you challenge a Pokémon gym? Yeah, Magikarp Well, okay. Magikarp splash doesn't count. Magikarp splash is intentionally useless because it teaches you that you have to baby a Pokémon until it becomes a dragon. That you're never allowed to be in the same vicinity as a uh uh electric move. All right. I'm going to do one power punch.

And then we'll with a ooh Mach Punch. So we know we're only going to get hit here once, right? He uses Tackle. Oof. Barely put into the orange.
Yep.
Can we use a potion after the battle?
Probably.
Or yeah, actually isn't needed. Oh, that's a good hit.
we'll we'll see, right? And we weren't afraid there because we know because Mach Punch goes first, we know that it's going to uh have priority over whatever
Onyx.
I think it's a power up and then a
I have a question. Does your power up from the previous fight still work because this is a sequential battle?
Uh so it's all the same battle until we see the victory or defeat screen. So a new poke So as long as our

as long as Chimichanga stays out, they will retain all of the buffs that we've stacked up, which means that it's very good to keep them in because then we can
Right.
power up punch, power up punch, power up punch. And now we're rocking three attack ups and then we're just Mach Punching everything to knock out, right? It's not um we don't have to reset.
That makes sense. Again, I'm just clarifying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, it's a good clarification. Bite.
Yes. By the way, who got Bite?
Uh Shinx.
Mhm.
Uh and I don't think we need either of these, but we'll just get rid of Leer first. Yeah, that's right. Apples and Goo definitely dragons literally based on a myth. Uh dragon literally based on a myth about a fish becoming a dragon, not a dragon. Correct. That is the way Pokémon works.

There's an apple dragon and a slime dragon, but Gyarados, actually a dragon, is not a dragon.
Fun fact, Will. The only perfect perfect Pokémon I've caught in Pokémon Go
Mhm.
is a, um, was a Magikarp that we my son and I evolved into a Gyarados.
That's a really strong That's very strong. Gyarados is Gyarados is one of the very interesting Pokémon in that Magikarp is completely useless and Gyarados is terrifying.
Mhm.
Um, yeah, let's just use a potion. Cuz like we've got money and I'm lazy and I don't want to leave and go to a center.
That feels like a good thing to use for streams.
Yeah, correct.
go buy a whole bunch more potions.
Right. Yeah. And and before, uh, one of the things that we're talking about, right, is in the same way that I

am not, um, going to make everybody sit through trying to catch the correct Shinx, right? In in the same way that we don't want to catch the correct Shinx on stream, saving time when we could be having a good conversation and not doing an entire run back to the
Right.
Welcome. This is the Oreburgh Pokémon Gym. I'm Roark, gym leader. I'm the one trainer who decided to walk proudly with rock type Pokémon. Yes.
Can you real quick make us poof again and take a screenshot here?
Actually, I can, uh, for future reference, I can do that without making us go poof.
Oh, okay. I just realized we should, um, I I have a good thumbnail for today, but we should probably start taking a couple of pictures of fun things along the way cuz I could sub in
Mhm.
very easily. Like, this might be a good cover right here. If we're talking about

saying heading to the gym.
Yeah. Uh yes. Yeah, Dragon Rage was a thing, but Dragon type was a thing and they wanted it to be special. Correct. As the gym leader, I need to see your potential as a trainer and I need to see the toughness of the Pokémon that battle with you.
All right.
And then we get like the cool intro.
Ooh, maybe Actually, if you see a good screen that might be a good screen grab.
Yeah. Um it's going to be hard to catch those that fast.
Okay. If you ever happen to.
Yeah. Uh let's get us out of here. All right, so we have level 12 Geodude. I think we're going to start I think we're going to start powering up until we can't anymore. We do outspeed and that's important. Also, unless uh it Defense Curls, Mach Punch should

Oh, it Defense Curled.
It Defense Curled, which means
But we still did damage while getting stronger and it purely
Correct. So, let's let's talk about this, right? So, we also Trying to remember if Defense Curl has weird priority. I don't think it Um
Well, the other one too is So, if I read this right, we're going to be facing three sequential Pokémon, correct?
Yes. Mhm.
Cuz there's three balls in the upper right. So, and since our buff sticks through fights
Mhm.
like tactically, there isn't really a better thing we could be doing than continue to build our attack while it's purely trying to defend its or increase the defense of the one thing that will be going away soon.
Correct. Now, I also I do want to point out that we would be in a different world if it had rock polished and we were worried about it going first and knocking us out. Right? Then we might want to consider using Mach Punch and forgoing the attack up for the safety of

um
Oh and I see here um
Yeah, no no yeah. Yeah, gym leaders will actively attempt to use the best move for the situation rather than randomly picking between semi-random effective moves like normal trainers or completely random like Yes, gym leaders have a different move selection algorithm than uh
That's cool to know.
And the champion has an even better one in most games. Um and uh that is a frequent thing that is done in ROM hacks and challenge runs is that they just give all of the trainers the best version um which is uh can make things very difficult. Uh but I I think I agree we're power punching here. This should knock. And now we've got another attack up.
Mhm. Fainted. Yeah.

Level up. Okay, so we have two power-ups.
Right.
And you said we could do six or chat said we could do six.
We can have up to six total, yes.
Got you. Question here, do we actually get to use all six of our Pokémon to battle the gym leader's three?
Yes.
Okay.
Yeah, it doesn't with very rare exceptions and I don't think there are any in this game that I'm aware of. You will always get to use Well, actually in a doubles battle you and your partner each get to bring three. That's a weird exception, but normally in a singles battle you get to use all six Pokémon if you bring all six Pokémon and if you the gym leader doesn't have six, that's their choice. Um
Got you. So, we're basically, if we needed to, able to do a two-for-one exchange here. So, this is actually not a particularly big challenge.
Correct. It is not. Um it's sort of a this is this is I think this is more of a uh this is what the form of this will

look like rather than this is going to be an actual challenge.
Super effective.
Oh, and we don't want to switch now. So, this is stealth rock. So, if we swap out the Pokémon that we swap out to will get damaged by the stealth rocks. It's an environmental hazard that's been added to the field. Also, we saw it earlier we did see it earlier, and I neglected to mention it in the moment because we're having a different conversation. Um there is also weather that we need to be aware of. A Geodude did summon or something, I believe it was a Geodude, summon the sandstorm earlier in a trainer fight. Um that is a thing we need to be aware of. Uh however, here we can just Whack. Yes. Yeah, that's correct. Um Yeah, gym leaders are canonically test. They're not bringing their best against you very much on purpose. Correct.
Mhm.

Starley. Ooh. Tell me about double team.
Double team? It's a move that raises evasiveness. It is one of the sort of um It is a move that can be used to great effectiveness to simply not get just don't get hit or hit, right? And by not getting hit you're making your opponent waste resources trying to hit you, and so it ends up being advantageous in your favor. Um And we probably want that instead of growl, I would say. Not that we're ever really going to focus on using the Starley probably. I'm mostly keeping the back of the bench full uh so that we can do weird stuff later if we want.

Okay, she's let's see what do we got here?
Cradily dose. It's a dinosaur.
Dino. So since this is their last one, is there any reason not to just try and one shot it with like a mock punch?
Um I think we're on Well, we could we might be able to one shot with a mock punch. No, like there's not really a particular reason. I mean, we've functionally won. There's no way Cradily dose chews through our entire team. There are cases in other versions of the game where a singular Pokémon could chew through our entire team uh but it's not here.
Oh, you can.
Yeah.
Hm, three level ups.
Mhm. That Miltank used rollout. Fear, new fear.

Uh obviously the gym leader has yet to learn about grinding.
Yeah. I got
Woah.
Yeah, I got serious lunch money for winning. This is embarrassing.
How do you know what it's like to be a gym leader?
Who didn't win every single gym badge. It's not actually embarrassing. This is your job. Your job is to lose. That's the story. You were were and I was weak. That's all there is. According to Pokémon League rules, I have to give you our gym badge since you've beaten me, the gym leader. Here's your official Pokémon League Coal Badge.
Oh.
Aw, yeah.
Did I All of their faces were on there briefly.
Yes, correct. You have a There's like a special case for the for all of the the gym badges and everything. And it's, you know,
Mhm.
You remember Okay, do you remember in Yu-Gi-Oh! This is the second time today I've brought up Yu-Gi-Oh! but do you remember in Yu-Gi-Oh! they had like that star glove thing for like a while? Okay,

so they have like a star glove thing that they're supposed to put like little star chips in that they like wager on each match. It's a really weird conceit, but like it's kind of like that. It's like a visual display of how good you are. It's like a fun little carrying case thing.
Yu-Gi-Oh! is one where I'm also time gapped well. Like I was playing Magic. That came out way later back when I was like in active game dev.
Yeah.
And um It's just like that?
Yep. All right, but you can now use Rock Smash from your Poké Edge. Also, take these two. Obtain TM76s. TM76s in your TMs pocket. TM76 contains Stealth Rock. It's a move that inflicts damage on opponents that switch into battle. And these are the stickers I use. Here, take some.
Ooh, stickers.
The stickers that work uses. The TM will teach its move to a Pokémon instantly, but a TM will break when you use it. So, be certain you want a Pokémon to learn that
So, basically, TMs and stuff are scrolls. They teach your wizard one new spell and then poof.

Let's heal up that damage that happened.
All right, uh we're going to heal. And then we're going to check and see what the what the magical pause screen wants us to do. By the way, this is a pretty standard early game Pokémon team, uh which is starter and these random idiots I found on the road and they're all so cute and I want to bring them with me but I'll never actually probably use them in battle.
But Sphinx was the only one it sounds like exception because Sphinx is has a worthwhile bringing thing.
Yes. Um it's also worth noting that Onix could see some use and Constantine will probably see some use once it turns into Kadabra and stops being just a space filler. Um
Right. And then that's going to get us the teleport.
Correct. Well, it's currently got teleport but once it turns into Kadabra it'll have a um

uh psychic move suite that'll be good.
Hm. Oh, actually so could that can could that can Constantine teleport us around the map right now?
No. Uh Constantine will only teleport us to our last Pokémon Center visited.
Oh, okay.
It's an emergency bailout.
But it would still like if we'd been if we'd gone further into the gym, we could have just used that as a go home.
Mhm. Okay, so now we've got to go smash things with Stealth Rock. Uh and I believe there were things we could smash with Stealth Rock in here. Also this. Oh, am I am I allowed to do that right here? Okay, never mind. Thought I could smash this rock. Oh, it's got to be Super Potion. Neat.
Oh, I like Super Potion.

Can you smash the machines?
No, we can't we can't rock smash the machines.
Good.
That would be cool. That's right, we have to duck under it get there. Oh yeah, that's an X Defense which might have been useful but probably not. I will say for me a lot of those items do fall into like mega potion territory.
Which is
Um the uh too good to use under any circumstances. I will hoard these like a dragon and then even and then in the final battle you'll be like, "But why didn't you use it?" And it's because uh uh I there might be another final battle. Uh
There are so many games where I find myself at the end with a backpack full of full of expendables or excuse me consumables.
Right. And and I think um Expedition 33 does a really good job of solving that problem.
Hm, what do they do?
Uh it So in 33, here is the mark, y'all.

Behind the gun. Um in 33, instead of being a uh like a like a consumable that you need to manage permanently, it's a you can increase the number of a thing that you refresh every time you go to a save point. So it's kind of like Estus Flasks, right? Except you have them for all kinds of things, for healing, for revival, for energy, giving you a key.
That's cool cuz the Souls idea of basically refillable flasks is an interesting one.
Mhm.
I've seen actually other games too that put limits on your consumables. And as you approach it, that kind of gives you the sense of, "Oh, I should start using these otherwise I'm going to be wasting them because I won't be able to pick up more."
Yes. Uh the
ways different game design methods of saying you should actually use these.
The uh Final Fantasy VII remakes also do that with potions where

you have a certain number that you can hold and if you try and pick up extras, it just heals you immediately.
Mhm. I like those as solutions because it helps remind players that these are things that can be used.
Mhm. Okay, so we've got some cool stuff. You can get heal balls and net balls. Net balls are more effective when we're trying to catch water or bug type Pokémon specifically, but they're a thousand each.
What were What were the heal balls again?
Heal balls.
up the Pokémon when you catch them.
Correct. So, if we catch one with a heal ball, it'll immediately be um full health. I don't know if it gets its PP back or not. I think it does.
I'm kind of blocking it. Can you go up to the regular Pokéballs? I want to see Uh Okay, so it does show there on the inventory that I'm blocking on the screen. We have 26 of those.
Yes.
We have zero heal balls.
Correct.
Like if this was me, I would be like picking up one or two of the different things. I'd be like, this is a Pokémon I might

want to use immediately, therefore a heal ball.
Yep. I think we're going to get like three or four net balls.
Mhm.
Uh and then we'll buy 10 heal balls. They'll probably be all the heal balls we ever need, but like it's fine. We got a premier ball because I bought 10.
Was it 10 at a time or does it count them up if you bought 10 one at a time?
It's 10 It's buying 10 at a time. It's not like a punch card, although it probably should be. Yeah, correct. I We don't have uh enough to be buying 10 net balls all at once.
Yeah.
Um Oops. I did not mean to go to that house. I didn't
Give me 10 seconds here. I have a cat attempting to scratch a thing. Be right back.

Uh yes, we will be covering to answer a question that I didn't get to at the time. Yes, we will be covering trades and trade evolutions and the whole mechanics behind that when we're ready to level up Constantine at a minimum and we've already got that covered cuz I've got plenty of mods who will just trade and trade back um to you know, accomplish that. Yeah, that that is uh-huh. Yeah, we are in a Meowth don't call the furniture mode. That is correct. Um we'll probably wrap up here in a second. I know we can go onwards from here, but this seems like a good a good spot for us to to begin wrapping up.
This is

And we're going north. I think. Good job. I was just saying I think this is probably weirdly a good spot for us to wrap up. We've we've completed our first gym. We've got our first badge. We've got our first hidden move that we'll be able to use in a bunch of places to smash rocks. Um
So let's do a quick Pokémon review. What do we Let's see. Currently slotted
Oh, I accidentally triggered a rival fight. Amazing. I'm so good at this game. Hold on. Whoops, Jeff you got the gym badge, huh? Eternicy is the next place with a gym that gives away badges, right? Yeah, I went to route 207, but you can't go through it without a bike. Made my team battle and toughen them up so it wasn't a waste. So I'm going back to Jubilife City. Next up, the Eterna gym badge. 10 seconds before I dash. 9 Ah, who's got time to count? Okay, great.

Now we can do our Pokémon review and next time we know what we're doing. This is not uncommon by the way to have like just a moment where it's just something happens you're like, oh, that's what I'm supposed to be doing now. Onward. It's part of that whole suspension of disbelief design for kids thing. We were just like, oh, yeah, I guess that's fine.
It's actually it's a quality of life thing, too. Like, there could have been a quest marker or other things that popped up, but it's a hey, here you go. You're kind of on rails, even though it they do they make they do a good job of making it not feel full rails while being on rails, somewhat on rails.
Yeah. All right. So, we have Monferno uh who's doing all right in the stats department and is reasonably fast. Um and we've got Mach Punch, Power-Up Punch, Ember, and Taunt as our move set. Pretty good. Uh we have the boy uh who is naive by nature and simple and is doing his best.

Uh we have Starley who is also similarly occupying space in the team. We have Constantine who is just just chilling like a boss until we
Yeah. All right, go right Starley after this one second. Yeah. Sure. This was the one though we liked because it was the speed was fast and it had Wing Attack, right?
Correct. So, it's currently slower than Chimichanga, but mostly because it's lower leveled. Um but yes, we also have when we were using it early on, we were using it for Quick Attack and Wing Attack.
Oh, that was a Quick Attack, yeah, too.
So,
Okay.
uh it still has potential. We just aren't using it right now, especially because it's not useful against this gym. And I think that's another thing that happens a lot, too, is Pokémon get rotated as they are or are not useful in a particular gym or against an upcoming area, right? So, for instance, if that had been a water dungeon or a grass dungeon, right? We would have had a very

different need to fill when we went into the mine.
Right.
Um we do have Shanks who is who is getting there. Um we have three useful moves and also tackle. Uh and this this is our intimidate user. Uh and then we have an Onix who knows some moves and is reasonably defensive. Uh special defense a little lacking, but that's okay. Um and we might consider doing something with Onix at some point, but Onix is also very level.
So on the rotate out and then once we can wrap it up, say we get to the next one and we're like, "Oh wow, one of the Pokémon we've caught is particularly good here." It's also going to be cuz it's been sitting in our storage, it's going to be like level five or six or something.
Yes.
So that is the other one too that we need to know enough ahead to swap it ahead of time to get the quick catch-up mechanic.
Uh yes, there is a catch-up XP mechanic that does cover um

some amount of the gap, right? We saw that lower level Pokémon earn more XP from higher level Pokémon that are fainted. Right? So we can just grind against wild Pokémon and that's okay. Um But yes, it is advantageous to know what is going to happen in the future so that we get uh so that we're not spending forever grinding, essentially.
Are there caps? Like if we're Chimichanga's 15, if we brought in a level five Pokémon and did a battle, could our five like turn into a seven in one fight or is it like one level per fight?
No, no limit.
Okay.
Um they can get significantly high.
Uh Okay, so that's good then because theoretically like if Chimichanga is still grinding through one two-shotting things, we could throw in four or five equivalently useless low-level Pokémon and just watch them all shoot up.
That's correct.
Okay.
Yeah.
It is a spectator sport.

Yeah. I think that that that that is a fair way to put it.
It's interesting because like cat catch-up is a really interesting mechanic and just looking at how they solve it with characters out of rotation. Cuz again, like I've just been playing Baldur's Gate 3 recently and they use milestone XP. Actually, they don't quite, but it's close enough.
Mhm.
Actually, no, excuse me. They don't use mile They use party-based XP, but everybody gets the XP.
Right. It's It is a weird system, but
Yeah. So, if you're not using Will
Yes.
just to call out Will since I'm talking to Will.
Yes.
Though, he uses it He has a different spelling.
Yes.
You could still go grab him and even though the last time you used him was level five and you're now level 10, you can just He is level He has the XP for level 10 and you can just hit level up five times and
Yes.
he is good to bring into your party.
Yes. Yeah, the the game has not quite reached that level of affordance yet.

There are rare candies and you will find that in some It's very interesting. In some challenge runs, it has become standard and um reasonable even to hack in additional rare candies to older games to prevent the need to grind because grinding is not necessarily the most fun thing. So, like in challenge runs, those are used frequently. There aren't that many easily accessible ones in most of the main phase games in the main series games, um but you can get them and they will level stuff up. Um to help prevent that grind, but they've also done a lot to make the grind more approachable.
Yeah. Well, I mean, I've already seen on like that um the Sphinx one coming in from beginning to end, the Sphinx is still lower level.
Yeah, it's 13 now and it was just
decidedly closer. It was four when we started.
Mhm.
So. I think that does it for this episode of Pokémon. We've we've taken on our our

first like little mini dungeon. We've made it to Oreburgh. We got our first badge. Uh and I think next time things are likely going to get more interesting. It It's kind of weird. I find that the first gym is sort of like a intentionally pretty boring. It's usually rock.
Mhm.
Um not a very exciting type and it's usually very straightforward because they're establishing what the formula is for gyms so that they can mess with that formula later. Right? But because every Pokémon game might be your first Pokémon game, they have to establish what the formula for gyms is so they can break it. Um
It's also mildly canonical. In Pokémon Indigo, the first Pokémon anime, the first gym that Ash goes to where he fights Brock is the gym the rock gym.
Yeah. Yep. Absolutely.
So, they are sticking to their roots.
That is very true. All right. Uh we'll be back next week with a show on something. I don't know what yet. We haven't decided next week.
Yeah. We've got

And probably in a couple weeks for the next Pokémon.
Correct.
We're doing one to two a month.
Yeah, we're we're we're aiming not to overdo it but we're aiming to sort of keep moving forward so we don't forget where we were last time. Uh
Yeah.
So, uh we'll be back next week. I think all that remains is for Jeff to say bye to the people.
Bye to the people. Thanks for watching, everybody.
See you.