Fresh off the success of the Ultra Sun version, it's time for our heroine Minidex to move to Kalos and expand the known literature with information on a new region. Since Dexit alone isn't that big of a handicap here (in particular, there's no equivalent to the totems here, in which there is a compelling reason to be strong enough to beat certain battles in exactly one turn) the journals will supposedly be more willing to publish the research if it was obtained by a more hands-off approach, so here are the restrictions.
Badge Checkpoint 1--No Catchy Titles This Time
In the opening sequence in the character's room, while they're still in pajamas and haven't talked to the mirror to get dressed, you get to see your character holding a Pikachu 3DS which they apparently held onto in bed. Did the battery die overnight? No telling. And we never see that system again for the rest of the game, so wave it goodbye while we have the chance.
XY stand alone as the only games in which you have to go all the way to the next town just to get a starter (it helps that route 1 is so short and completely barren) so off we go, I guess. The professor has left three starters to divide among five "upstart" trainers, however that's supposed to work, but for some reason the newcomer to the region gets first choice and, after trying several permutations of the opening sequence, it seems that the best way to start is by picking Chespin. Trevor adds onto this by giving me a Pokedex (boooooooo!) and Tierno somehow thinks it's a good idea to have a love letter from the professor to my mom go through two liaisons. Whatever, guess we have to take one more trip back home to drop that off, but first Shauna is there to challenge me with Froakie. This is a complete non-event of course, two Vine Whips and it's over. It may not have a side effect like the other two starters' moves, but what it does have is an extra 5 power. Cool! Level up to 6.
Now I can go back home and drop off the letter to receive a Town Map in return (funny, it looks like it's already been marked off with the places Mom wants to visit on a honeymoon or something, after getting remarried?) and set out for real. Back in Aquacorde, there's one store that sells nothing but Potions, and another store that sells nothing but Poke Balls (and still throws in the same Premier Ball bonus if you buy enough); neither of those are Repels nor do they go out of stock if I buy there, so I have to leave them alone entirely.
Yes, this means that by rule I have no legal source of Poke Balls when I enter route 2 and encounter the forced Pidgey two squares deep into the grass, so I'm unable to catch it and have to run away. Right after that comes the catch tutorial, which as usual doesn't count as "seen" for the Pokedex so I don't have to take Fletchling or Bunnelby, at least not yet. What I do have to take is the battle with Youngster Austin at the end of Route 2; the Zigzagoon is nothing to divert Chespin from its thus-far-successful plan of "just click Vine Whip" and be able to enterViridian the ALL NEW Santalune Forest!
Regardless of any self-imposed rules, it's not possible to buy Repels until I both a) reach a Pokemon Center and b) have at least one badge, so the unavoidable grass patches here have no better plan than saving right beforehand, and either rushing through and hoping I make it to the other side, or saving every couple steps as a foothold. At first, 100% of the encounters are unsafe, a figure that drops to 94% after the area's one mandatory battle: Lass Anna and her Pikachu. Far from the US/UM situation where we could keep the Pokedex mercifully Pikachu-free for the entire game, here it's the fifth required species...and still not one I have any interest in tracking down for myself, especially not at these odds where any other encounter forces a reset.
On the other side of the forest we have route 3, where there are a couple trainers who can be avoided as long as we take a few steps into the grass, nothing debilitating. Sneak aside there and I can get to Santalune City, home of the first Pokemon Center, first Gym, and of course a trade for Farfetch'd! Who could say no to that? Well, that last one anyway...as much as you might want to see Farfetch'd, it really doesn't mesh with the goal here (not least because I don't even have the Bunnelby registered to be able to trade for it, since we know the catch tutorial doesn't count). So instead I have to go right to the gym, except there's a blockade there with someone in rollerskating gear. Why here and not, say, the Shalour Gym? Who knows. They won't let me enter the gym until I beat them and get the rollerskates, but all they have is another Zigzagoon so that isn't really a problem.
Inside the gym itself, it's a pole slide down to a giant spider web. Against all appearances, you can actually press Up from the center of the web here and climb back up the pole--that way you're not trapped in the gym if you get poisoned or something. There's one mandatory gym underling here right before the end of the path, using Kakuna and Combee, and what a chance for Chespin to break from its "just click Vine Whip" routine to show off its new move: Rollout. That goes about as well as you might expect. A similar deal for Viola, whose Surskit manages only a pointless Water Sport and weak Quick Attack on the first two turns of Rollout, and her signature Vivillon has Infestation but it's not enough as Rollout 3 goes "CHOO! CHOO!" Or maybe that's a stray Pikachu who snuck in somehow. At least I have the badge.
Oddly, despite the nominal weakness to the featured type, Rollout means Chespin is actually the only starter with a decent chance of getting through the Viola battle with what little experience is available before it when playing mandatory-battles-only (so the starter ends up at level 10 to start the battle). Froakie just doesn't have enough oomph before the chip damage from Infestation adds up, and Fennekin happens to be weak to Surskit's Bubble which isn't good for longevity. More on that a bit later.
Badge Checkpoint 2
While I can buy Repels now, there's no mandatory grass on Route 4 so no need to just yet. What is waiting is Alexa at the start of the route with the Exp. Share, which isn't doing anything right now while I still have a team of one, and at the end of the route is a sight for sore eyes: Dexio, the spokesman for Dexit! He and his buddy Sina, visibly several years younger than when we met them at Heahea City in Alola, seem overly excited about the discovery that Fairy type exists, and--oh yeah, would I come to the lab that's up ahead in Lumiose City. There's more to see around the city than that, like...construction workers claiming the laughably bad excuse of a power outage for why I can't go further (what, you think I can't see that animated billboard in perfect working order on the building right behind you?) Also Restaurant le Nah, but that's both an optional area and a place where the only activity to do there involves seeing Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour, so I'll have to pass.
Oh well, guess I'm going to the lab to meet Professor Sycamore, a man who's apparently driving a hard bargain to try and become my stepfather. As if to further that point, he challenges me, and not the other kids, to a battle. This is fortunately a battle that it's okay to lose, and by wiping against his lead Bulbasaur, I get to avoid seeing Charmander or Squirtle. This is followed up by some words that do absolutely nothing to endear him to me: "It'd be fantastic if you took another Pokemon with you!" Says you, perhaps! Oh well, my choice has already been made. In order to keep the Dexit rule alive, I have to double up on grass starters by picking the Bulbasaur for myself (remember, Fennekin or Froakie would have had a harder time even getting this far in the game with these rules, if I wanted to avoid the type redundancy that way). It's not all bad, though: as usual in Dexit rules, neither of these starters will be allowed to evolve at all, but a nice thing about grass starters is that one of their main weapons is Leech Seed, a move that doesn't care about offensive stats at all. Having two of them means two chances to make something work there, and if (as I expect) later on in the game there's not going to be room for both of them to persist on the team, hopefully I'll have plenty of time to examine their relative merits and decide which one's more worth keeping around in that capacity.
After that unpleasant venture, I get to meet Diantha and Lysandre, decline a battle against Calem because if it's going to let me say no with no further consequence then of course I'll take that, pick up the Quick Claw from one of the random office buildings around here, and stop in a Pokemon Center. Now it's finally worth buying a few Repels, and this center also sells TMs. The only one that really looks appealing right now is Bulldoze, but money is going to be a lot more scarce this time than it was in the last run, and I can't even afford the P10,000 pricetag by now. Oh well, maybe I'll get to come back later. Oh yeah, while I'm here I also want to deposit Chespin in the PC.
The only other path out of Lumiose right now goes to Route 5 and Mr. Bonding, who gives me the first (useless) O-Powers. First Sycamore, now this...Minidex is really starting to get creeped out by her decision to move to Kalos. Being ambushed by a Lucario immediately after setting foot onto the route isn't helping much, but at least Korrina comes to retrieve her unleashed pet and there's no battle or anything else that involves registering it to the Pokedex yet. No, the battle has to wait a few more steps, when Tierno shows up and wants me to face off in a dance contest against his Corphish. Even with Chespin boxed, the new Bulbasaur in the family doesn't have trouble winning that on its own, and shortly afterward we find the reason for leaving Chespin in the PC: a pair of Double Battle trainers who let me pass by unharmed by virtue of having only one Pokemon. The rest of the route is a simple uphill skate with only avoidable trainers, and just a couple patches of grass to run through.
At the top of the hill, we have... Camphrier Town, the start of a saga that's heavy on story but light on battles. The Shabboneau Castle caretakers direct me to Parfum Palace, but don't bother to pick up a voucher for an admission ticket and make me pay my own way instead (hey, at least it's a one-time purchase, nothing forbidden about it!) so I can chase down a Furfrou, watch the fireworks show to follow, and slip out of there with the Poke Flute, Cut HM, and conveniently concealed Amulet Coin that was hiding among the rubble. Around there there's the notorious double Furfrou battle, but this being the run it is, I have a novel approach to making them not a problem: just don't battle them at all! The camera angle makes it less convenient to dodge both the line-of-sight trainers and shaking bushes when coming back down route 6 (and therefore toward the screen), but far from impossible.
Now that I have the Poke Flute, it's time to do the only thing anyone ever thinks of when a Poke Flute comes to mind: waking up Snorlax! (What, wasting a turn in TPP? Who ever gave you an idea like that?) Because this is a mandatory battle, I might as well catch it and have at least something that isn't a grass type: after putting up Leech Seed and siphoning that huge HP stat to offset whatever it throws our way, it takes three Poke Balls to get a catch to stick (a pretty favorable result against Snorlax, in fact, considering I'm stuck with only the gift balls and the ones I can find loose on the ground).
Further down the route, there's the day care (meh), and the Battle Chateau which is of course a huge NO. Chateau and the postgame facility Battle Maison really should have been switched; everything we can ever access in the Chateau spans only a single floor. Even more offputting, the bosses of the Maison are called "Chatelaines" (like a chateau), not "Maids" (like a maison). But enough about that, because there's another battle coming up, and it's a pretty interesting one.
This is a friendly little multi battle, me and Calem against Trevor and Tierno. (Shauna was evidently a healthy scratch; the coach refused to give any comment in the press conference.) My teammate starts with Fletchling, and the opponents have Pikachu and Corphish which are both already tagged. In order to win this battle, I have to eliminate Trevor's Pikachu to get to the Flabébé waiting behind it. But that's not the whole story: as is common in friendly battles, it's okay if our team loses--though in the process of losing, Fletchling will have to be defeated in order to reveal a second-stage starter (so Braixen in this case). This then represents a true fork in the road: over the course of the battle, I'm forced to see either Flabébé or Braixen, but can choose which one. (Obviously, if both Pikachu and Fletchling faint over the course of the battle and it's not the last turn, that's no good and I have to reset, since that causes both to be seen.)
From a long-term planning perspective, there are other battles against Calem where the starter is still second-stage (including at least one at the Tower of Mastery that's a must-win, so no bailing out before Braixen ever comes out), but I can continue to avoid Flabébé forever. so ultimately I want to lose this battle. That means Chespin leads off and starts aiming Rollout at its teammate Fletchling, in a move that somehow doesn't cause permanent dissolution of the friendship. Before the Rollout gets big enough to swallow up Braixen, he decides to aim an Ember at Corphish (probably a resigned gesture of "What does my move matter if it's going to be 3v1?") and somehow lucks into a burn. Corphish doesn't have anything gated behind it so I can afford to let that faint, the only problem is that Pikachu takes ages to wear down Snorlax at 1v1, with both Thunder Shock and Quick Attack hitting for just a few damage each while I waste time by throwing Poke Balls (which don't get consumed, doing so in a trainer battle) and confusing the trio of traveling partners that much more. But it's all for the Pokedex's sake.
After that most curious of battles, I can keep going through to Connecting Cave, and this is definitely a spot for a Repel. Then waiting on the other side...it's Sina and Dexio again, here to "upgrade" my Pokedex with information on the new area. This, at least, feels like a genuine upgrade, enabling something that's never been possible in the course of normal play in any other game in the series. I can open up the Pokedex, click on Coastal, and see those sweetest of words: "SEEN 0, OBTAINED 0". It probably won't last, but it's worth a keepsake photo or two.
The cliffs portion of route 8 has a bunch of grass, and the Pokemon here are all new (they're in the "Coastal" section, after all, where I want to hang onto that zero). Worse, my highest level is still Snorlax's 15, and over a third of the wilds that can show up here match that 15 which means they ignore my Repels. Time for a bunch of saving, then, until I can make it through this mess of a route. This leads all the way down to Ambrette Town, home of...an aquarium, and a fossil lab, and the second straight town with no gym at all.
Looks like we have to go down Route 9 to investigate the fossil situation, but the gatehouse to that route already provides something interesting: Rocky Helmet, an item that wasn't available at all in Alola until the postgame Battle Tree. I expect that item availability will do as much to shape the kinds of battle strategies I can make use of as Pokemon availability will, and at least somebody on the team will be taking the Helmet for quite a while.
The good news about route 9 is that riding on Rhyhorn isn't sufficient cause to trigger Pokedex Seen (just like it doesn't do so for the Rhyhorn in front of my house). The bad news about route 9 is that all the Pokemon that can randomly pop up while riding over the spikes are at least level 15, which means Repel does absolutely nothing for me right now. Time for a bunch of slow progress, saving every few steps on this already-slow method of transportation. They call it Rhyhorn "racing"? Think again.
As if that wasn't enough, there's ugly news about route 9 as well, which is that it leads directly tothe dead end of...Glittering Cave. I can say, with absolute confidence, that whoever designed Glittering Cave did not have Dexit runs in mind. It doesn't take long to see that this is going to be a terrible section of the run and there's not a whole lot I can do about it.
In the first section of the cave, encounters take the form of black clouds, and the room consists entirely of one-square-wide corridors. If there is a cloud on the path, there is no way to go around it to dodge the encounter, the only choices are to go through it and accept the battle, or turn back around. As far as I've gathered from the inevitable testing, there are nine preset locations where these clouds can show up, and it seems that on any entry to this section of the cave, exactly five of them are populated so they really contain the clouds. Traversing the entirety of the path I need to go through here, start to finish, takes me through four of these spots--which, if I've modeled this accurately, means I can get through with no encounters and keep a Coastal Kalos tally of 0/0 but only if the five chosen spots are exactly the spots that are on the side paths, an eventuality that should have odds of 1/126. Saving inside the cave doesn't change which spots are active, so I can't use any footholds here: if I get anything other than the perfect combo of spots, all I can do is reset (if I accidentally run too far and collide with a cloud) or run back to the entrance of the cave, and cycle out and back in to reset the locations.
I figure that all this running to reset the cave, if nothing else, will at least rack up happiness points so I'll be able to get more use from the Return TM, especially on Snorlax. But when I finally get it to pay off, and reach the next doorway with zero cloud encounters, Snorlax's happiness has still only risen enough to make Return about the same power as the Tackle it already has. What a waste.
As if that section wasn't bad enough, my team levels are currently 15-14-13, with two of them being grass starters, and the next challenge is to take down our first introduction to Team Flare grunts who are sitting at 18-20, with a type lineup that--coincidentally, I'm sure (as if the name "Team Flare wasn't a big enough clue)--is rather unfriendly to grass starters! Time to make use of my ace up the sleeve: Super Training!
This feature was in fact available as soon as I picked up my starter, allowing me to sculpt custom EV spreads on everyone without spending money and without having to couple it with experience point gains, but now's the first time it really helps to close a glaring power level gap that comes from playing minimum battles so far (and losing two of them). After the introductory Scatterbug/Spewpa courses (which provide Defense EVs), I have to complete each of the level 1 courses (4 EVs each) with someone, not always the same someone, before I can unlock level 2 courses, but it takes quite a few extra EVs before these barely-trained Pokemon are dealing enough damage with their shots that they can actually, plausibly threaten the level 2 courses and start getting 8 at a whack (plus whatever extras the postgame punching bag might give). Yet another time-consuming task, but at least I'm making slow, definite progress there, unlike the process of repeatedly running in and out of Glittering Cave just for another shot at a winning lottery ticket.
After enough training to really feel those muscles develop, it's time to get on with the actual battles. The first grunt has Houndour and Zubat, but it's not all that bad. For one thing, Houndour at level 16 or above forgets Ember to replace it with Bite, and doesn't regain another fire move until Fire Fang at 28. Additionally, while attacking either of those with grass is a terrible idea, they're both weak to Rollout, and after one Bite gets a flinch in exchange for some Rocky Helmet damage, Houndour for some reason decides to start Howling, and there's no stopping the Rollout train from there.
Second up is a lineup of Gulpin and Electrike. This Gulpin happens to have Liquid Ooze, making Leech Seed a terrible idea against it, but I can fight back with abilities of my own: Snorlax has Immunity, and can Amnesia up in its face while taking no risk of a poison chance from Sludge or Poison Gas; Gulpin for some reason never decides to cancel out those Amnesias by using Acid Spray, because it sees "Sludge is the more powerful move" and never gets the memo about its side effect being a complete blank if that blank is due to an ability, rather than typing. Similarly, Snorlax has Defense Curl to offset Electrike's physical moves, but at a slower pace, and really Bulbasaur should be coming in to resist the Electric moves. I have Nature Power by now, and it becomes Power Gem in caves...nothing really exceptional, but a higher power than the other moves, and not contact so there's no risk of tripping Static.
Finally, we arrive at a double battle, where Calem comes along to face a pair of grunts using Scraggy and Croagunk. My teammate has seemingly completely disavowed Fletchling, and now leads with Espurr, who seemed well-positioned for Croagunk but really just likes to waste a turn setting a useless Light Screen when both opponents have physical Dark moves. The back line consists of the starter and an Absol; because I chose to lose on route 7 and therefore already have Braixen seen, there's no need to play a dubious game of Protect-the-Espurr here. (Players who started with Froakie may see Absol come out second due to the low power of Quilladin's moves as an alternative, but if he has Braixen or Frogadier, that will always be preferred to come out before Absol with their more powerful moves.)
I start out with Leech Seed on Scraggy as that seems like the harder foe to bring down, and Calem's level equality with the opponents really bridges the gap here, with Psybeam obviously being a OHKO on Croagunk. Even so, Snorlax ends up coming out and having to take a Brick Break from Scraggy while I wait for the Leech Seed to tick down, and despite the 5-level disadvantage and a big fat 0 in the Defense IV roll (emphasis on the big and fat), all that Super Training is enough to survive the hit and retaliate with...uh, Tackle. But with Braixen helping out, it's still a win, and the start of that time-honored tradition: pressing B to cancel evolution.
Now that Team Flare has been defeated and...hasn't left, they're all still standing right where they were, whatever. I can still talk to the scientist who decides to let me choose a fossil! Only this time it's not a Helix/Dome choice, I have to pick either Jaw or Sail. I'll take Jaw here just because of the prospect of a relatively early dragon, even though I can't use it for anything yet.
There's even an Escape Rope right by here so I can leave the cave without having to play for that 1/126 chance that the path is clear again on the way back out! Although...I do want to go back to the narrow corridors section, and reset a bit. If I can get three specific spots clear, which has slightly better odds of 1/21, then I have a clear path to backtrack to the Shadow Claw TM before popping the Escape Rope just so I'm never tempted to come back here again. Sure, Snorlax can't actually learn this move (despite already having a weaker Ghost move in Lick), but maybe someone along the way can.
Unlike the original games where Escape Rope went directly to the last used Pokemon Center, here it only drops me off at the entrance to the cave. This means I still have to go back through Route 9, but at least by being level 16, Repels do block out 30% of the encounters, so there's an actual purpose to using one and the trip back to Ambrette hopefully won't take as long.
I have to go down through the aquarium to get a pointless Old Rod and proceed through the beach section of Route 8, which is at least much friendlier than the cliffs. From there I can get to Cyllage with no grass patches at all and only a couple easily dodgeable trainers; I can even keep going to route 10 where there are about three mandatory grass tiles and still no mandatory trainers...yet. But that's a dead end for now, it's back to Cyllage to pick up a bike and...look around.
One of the places I can get from here, at the top end of the bike track, is a back door into Connecting Cave. And because I've now seen Zubat because of the Flare battles, and unlike in Alola there are HMs that exist here and will actively need to be accounted for at some point...hey, why not Zubat with the aim of reserving it for Fly use later on? Obviously it's no good in the upcoming gym, but by getting it now, it'll at least be able to siphon a half-dose with Exp. Share and maybe not fall far behind. Plus, for once I'll have a team member that isn't 7:1 male-biased in its average gender ratio.
But it turns out...all of Grant's underlings are optional. Which means I have to skip them all, by rule. Which means...I'm stuck with a trio of level 16s and a freshly caught Zubat at 15, against a pair of level 25 fossils. If I really want to, I could go back to route 10 and get a Houndour (Y players would get Electrike instead), which can start at a level as high as 21, but from there the only way I would be able to grind is with more catches, with finite ball supplies, where anything in Coastal Kalos other than Houndour/Electrike is a reset. I'd rather not.
The one good thing to offset this level chasm is that we have EVs and they don't. Still, Amaura has an obvious OHKO against everybody except Snorlax with Refrigerate-boosted Take Down, so I'm rather constrained with who I can lead out. Without a KO available, Amaura flails about seemingly at random, fishing with Aurora Beam and even using Thunder Wave when it's obviously much faster than Snorlax already (so all it accomplishes is the FP chance). Meanwhile, Rock Smash isn't typically a very strong move, but between the double weakness, defense drop on the first hit, and EVs, it manages to get a 2HKO through the 9-level disadvantage and bring out...Tyrunt.
Tyrunt takes less damage from Rock Smash as it lays down a Stomp, then next turn tries to finish Snorlax off with Bite...but wait, here comes Quick Claw to let Snorlax put in a second Rock Smash before it falls, adding up to about 50% damage--good work. Now I just have to send Chespin out, use Growl twice to survive two hits while Tyrunt attacks into the Rocky Helmet both times, and because of all that prior damage, two rounds of RH chip leave Grant in healing mode. This means a free opportunity to use Leech Seed. With two Growls and Leech Seed now going, I can afford to switch straight to Bulbasaur without needing to sack off Zubat, survive another hit, and add even more chip damage with Poison Powder. Just one more turn and I can switch back to Chespin who survives Stomp with 2 HP left, sticking it to him with one last Rocky Helmet trigger, and ending the battle. Guess it wasn't that bad after all.
It was possible to get through route 10 with no mandatory trainers before. That's no longer the case now, as after beating Grant, the Flare grunts show up again at strategically placed choke points along the route. The solution, then, is not to go into that route anymore: if you already went through it earlier and visited the Pokemon Center up in Geosenge as your most recent one, a wipeout drops you off there after teleporting past the entire route. Even if I stop by the Cyllage center just to deposit some of my team members in the PC and never go to the counter to heal, that's no good: Cyllage still counts as my most recent center in that case and the whole operation is blown. However, there is still a PC I can easily get to: the one at the fossil lab! While I'm here, I might as well cash in the Jaw Fossil for a Tyrunt, just in case it comes in handy later (if nothing else, it's three levels higher than the rest of the team to be a bit of Repel insurance), then I can deposit everyone except the 2-HP Chespin so the process of wiping out won't take as long (and so that the money lost will be keyed to level 17 again, instead of 20 like it would be if I kept Tyrunt in the party).
Now I just have to track down a Zubat again (30% in Connecting Cave...this'll probably be one of the main annoyances throughout the run, wilds in XY are so diverse that almost all areas will probably have a majority of wilds off limits at any given time if I'm actually trying to look for something). Take one hit, black out, and magically come back to consciousness in Geosenge! Pokedex-wise, all this really accomplishes is skipping Golbat temporarily, but it's something. And now we can probably use another rest right away.
After 2 Gyms
Central Kalos Seen: 19 (Owned: 4)
Coastal Kalos Seen: 4 (Owned: 1)
Current Team -
Chespin L17 (Leech Seed/Growl/Vine Whip/Rollout)
Bulbasaur L17 (Poison Powder/Rock Smash/Leech Seed/Vine Whip)
Snorlax L17 (Rock Smash/Defense Curl/Amnesia/Lick)
Zubat L15 (Protect/Astonish/Bite/Wing Attack)
Tyrunt L20 (Rock Tomb/Stealth Rock/Bite/Charm)
- The Dexit Rule: At every point in the game, the Pokedex "Seen" count must be kept as low as possible, until it becomes mandatory to see certain species as a prerequisite for further progress in the storyline. If holding true to this rule requires traveling with a party of only one Pokemon so that double battle trainers don't challenge me at all, or wiping out against trainers that are acceptable to lose to so they never get to send out their backline Pokemon, so be it.
- All avoidable trainers must be skipped, and wild Pokemon can't be defeated for experience. Wilds can still be caught, which does give experience starting in this game, as long as they are mandatory encounters and/or a species that I've already been forced to see earlier in the game (and, of course, assuming that my Poke Ball supplies hold out to have some left). If I run into a wild encounter by chance that I haven't seen yet, too bad, that violates rule #1 so reset back to the last save point.
- No buying anything except the various types of Repels (for convenience) and any non-replenishable purchases that can only be made once (for example: TMs, clothes). Even purchases made in other currencies such as Battle Points or Poke Miles are subject to this restriction.
- No items obtained by means such as Rock Smash rocks, the Pickup ability, or Thief against wild Pokemon may ever be used.
- Super Training may be used, but the courses on page 4 and 5 can't be played because completing those gives items as rewards.
- No Pokemon can ever have its affection meter filled beyond 1 heart. (There's no need for a Sylveon exception here because I can already guarantee Eevee itself will never be met throughout the game.)
- No O-Powers may be used except Encounter, Stealth, and depending on how big the level gap gets along the way, I might eventually give Exp. Points the green light as well.
- The "Set" option will remain active for all battles, like the opponents and PVP battles always adhere to.
- No multiplayer or online connectivity at any point, to include trades or importing things from Pokemon Bank.
Badge Checkpoint 1--No Catchy Titles This Time
In the opening sequence in the character's room, while they're still in pajamas and haven't talked to the mirror to get dressed, you get to see your character holding a Pikachu 3DS which they apparently held onto in bed. Did the battery die overnight? No telling. And we never see that system again for the rest of the game, so wave it goodbye while we have the chance.
XY stand alone as the only games in which you have to go all the way to the next town just to get a starter (it helps that route 1 is so short and completely barren) so off we go, I guess. The professor has left three starters to divide among five "upstart" trainers, however that's supposed to work, but for some reason the newcomer to the region gets first choice and, after trying several permutations of the opening sequence, it seems that the best way to start is by picking Chespin. Trevor adds onto this by giving me a Pokedex (boooooooo!) and Tierno somehow thinks it's a good idea to have a love letter from the professor to my mom go through two liaisons. Whatever, guess we have to take one more trip back home to drop that off, but first Shauna is there to challenge me with Froakie. This is a complete non-event of course, two Vine Whips and it's over. It may not have a side effect like the other two starters' moves, but what it does have is an extra 5 power. Cool! Level up to 6.
Now I can go back home and drop off the letter to receive a Town Map in return (funny, it looks like it's already been marked off with the places Mom wants to visit on a honeymoon or something, after getting remarried?) and set out for real. Back in Aquacorde, there's one store that sells nothing but Potions, and another store that sells nothing but Poke Balls (and still throws in the same Premier Ball bonus if you buy enough); neither of those are Repels nor do they go out of stock if I buy there, so I have to leave them alone entirely.
Yes, this means that by rule I have no legal source of Poke Balls when I enter route 2 and encounter the forced Pidgey two squares deep into the grass, so I'm unable to catch it and have to run away. Right after that comes the catch tutorial, which as usual doesn't count as "seen" for the Pokedex so I don't have to take Fletchling or Bunnelby, at least not yet. What I do have to take is the battle with Youngster Austin at the end of Route 2; the Zigzagoon is nothing to divert Chespin from its thus-far-successful plan of "just click Vine Whip" and be able to enter
Regardless of any self-imposed rules, it's not possible to buy Repels until I both a) reach a Pokemon Center and b) have at least one badge, so the unavoidable grass patches here have no better plan than saving right beforehand, and either rushing through and hoping I make it to the other side, or saving every couple steps as a foothold. At first, 100% of the encounters are unsafe, a figure that drops to 94% after the area's one mandatory battle: Lass Anna and her Pikachu. Far from the US/UM situation where we could keep the Pokedex mercifully Pikachu-free for the entire game, here it's the fifth required species...and still not one I have any interest in tracking down for myself, especially not at these odds where any other encounter forces a reset.
On the other side of the forest we have route 3, where there are a couple trainers who can be avoided as long as we take a few steps into the grass, nothing debilitating. Sneak aside there and I can get to Santalune City, home of the first Pokemon Center, first Gym, and of course a trade for Farfetch'd! Who could say no to that? Well, that last one anyway...as much as you might want to see Farfetch'd, it really doesn't mesh with the goal here (not least because I don't even have the Bunnelby registered to be able to trade for it, since we know the catch tutorial doesn't count). So instead I have to go right to the gym, except there's a blockade there with someone in rollerskating gear. Why here and not, say, the Shalour Gym? Who knows. They won't let me enter the gym until I beat them and get the rollerskates, but all they have is another Zigzagoon so that isn't really a problem.
Inside the gym itself, it's a pole slide down to a giant spider web. Against all appearances, you can actually press Up from the center of the web here and climb back up the pole--that way you're not trapped in the gym if you get poisoned or something. There's one mandatory gym underling here right before the end of the path, using Kakuna and Combee, and what a chance for Chespin to break from its "just click Vine Whip" routine to show off its new move: Rollout. That goes about as well as you might expect. A similar deal for Viola, whose Surskit manages only a pointless Water Sport and weak Quick Attack on the first two turns of Rollout, and her signature Vivillon has Infestation but it's not enough as Rollout 3 goes "CHOO! CHOO!" Or maybe that's a stray Pikachu who snuck in somehow. At least I have the badge.
Oddly, despite the nominal weakness to the featured type, Rollout means Chespin is actually the only starter with a decent chance of getting through the Viola battle with what little experience is available before it when playing mandatory-battles-only (so the starter ends up at level 10 to start the battle). Froakie just doesn't have enough oomph before the chip damage from Infestation adds up, and Fennekin happens to be weak to Surskit's Bubble which isn't good for longevity. More on that a bit later.
Badge Checkpoint 2
While I can buy Repels now, there's no mandatory grass on Route 4 so no need to just yet. What is waiting is Alexa at the start of the route with the Exp. Share, which isn't doing anything right now while I still have a team of one, and at the end of the route is a sight for sore eyes: Dexio, the spokesman for Dexit! He and his buddy Sina, visibly several years younger than when we met them at Heahea City in Alola, seem overly excited about the discovery that Fairy type exists, and--oh yeah, would I come to the lab that's up ahead in Lumiose City. There's more to see around the city than that, like...construction workers claiming the laughably bad excuse of a power outage for why I can't go further (what, you think I can't see that animated billboard in perfect working order on the building right behind you?) Also Restaurant le Nah, but that's both an optional area and a place where the only activity to do there involves seeing Pansage, Pansear, and Panpour, so I'll have to pass.
Oh well, guess I'm going to the lab to meet Professor Sycamore, a man who's apparently driving a hard bargain to try and become my stepfather. As if to further that point, he challenges me, and not the other kids, to a battle. This is fortunately a battle that it's okay to lose, and by wiping against his lead Bulbasaur, I get to avoid seeing Charmander or Squirtle. This is followed up by some words that do absolutely nothing to endear him to me: "It'd be fantastic if you took another Pokemon with you!" Says you, perhaps! Oh well, my choice has already been made. In order to keep the Dexit rule alive, I have to double up on grass starters by picking the Bulbasaur for myself (remember, Fennekin or Froakie would have had a harder time even getting this far in the game with these rules, if I wanted to avoid the type redundancy that way). It's not all bad, though: as usual in Dexit rules, neither of these starters will be allowed to evolve at all, but a nice thing about grass starters is that one of their main weapons is Leech Seed, a move that doesn't care about offensive stats at all. Having two of them means two chances to make something work there, and if (as I expect) later on in the game there's not going to be room for both of them to persist on the team, hopefully I'll have plenty of time to examine their relative merits and decide which one's more worth keeping around in that capacity.
After that unpleasant venture, I get to meet Diantha and Lysandre, decline a battle against Calem because if it's going to let me say no with no further consequence then of course I'll take that, pick up the Quick Claw from one of the random office buildings around here, and stop in a Pokemon Center. Now it's finally worth buying a few Repels, and this center also sells TMs. The only one that really looks appealing right now is Bulldoze, but money is going to be a lot more scarce this time than it was in the last run, and I can't even afford the P10,000 pricetag by now. Oh well, maybe I'll get to come back later. Oh yeah, while I'm here I also want to deposit Chespin in the PC.
The only other path out of Lumiose right now goes to Route 5 and Mr. Bonding, who gives me the first (useless) O-Powers. First Sycamore, now this...Minidex is really starting to get creeped out by her decision to move to Kalos. Being ambushed by a Lucario immediately after setting foot onto the route isn't helping much, but at least Korrina comes to retrieve her unleashed pet and there's no battle or anything else that involves registering it to the Pokedex yet. No, the battle has to wait a few more steps, when Tierno shows up and wants me to face off in a dance contest against his Corphish. Even with Chespin boxed, the new Bulbasaur in the family doesn't have trouble winning that on its own, and shortly afterward we find the reason for leaving Chespin in the PC: a pair of Double Battle trainers who let me pass by unharmed by virtue of having only one Pokemon. The rest of the route is a simple uphill skate with only avoidable trainers, and just a couple patches of grass to run through.
At the top of the hill, we have... Camphrier Town, the start of a saga that's heavy on story but light on battles. The Shabboneau Castle caretakers direct me to Parfum Palace, but don't bother to pick up a voucher for an admission ticket and make me pay my own way instead (hey, at least it's a one-time purchase, nothing forbidden about it!) so I can chase down a Furfrou, watch the fireworks show to follow, and slip out of there with the Poke Flute, Cut HM, and conveniently concealed Amulet Coin that was hiding among the rubble. Around there there's the notorious double Furfrou battle, but this being the run it is, I have a novel approach to making them not a problem: just don't battle them at all! The camera angle makes it less convenient to dodge both the line-of-sight trainers and shaking bushes when coming back down route 6 (and therefore toward the screen), but far from impossible.
Now that I have the Poke Flute, it's time to do the only thing anyone ever thinks of when a Poke Flute comes to mind: waking up Snorlax! (What, wasting a turn in TPP? Who ever gave you an idea like that?) Because this is a mandatory battle, I might as well catch it and have at least something that isn't a grass type: after putting up Leech Seed and siphoning that huge HP stat to offset whatever it throws our way, it takes three Poke Balls to get a catch to stick (a pretty favorable result against Snorlax, in fact, considering I'm stuck with only the gift balls and the ones I can find loose on the ground).
Further down the route, there's the day care (meh), and the Battle Chateau which is of course a huge NO. Chateau and the postgame facility Battle Maison really should have been switched; everything we can ever access in the Chateau spans only a single floor. Even more offputting, the bosses of the Maison are called "Chatelaines" (like a chateau), not "Maids" (like a maison). But enough about that, because there's another battle coming up, and it's a pretty interesting one.
This is a friendly little multi battle, me and Calem against Trevor and Tierno. (Shauna was evidently a healthy scratch; the coach refused to give any comment in the press conference.) My teammate starts with Fletchling, and the opponents have Pikachu and Corphish which are both already tagged. In order to win this battle, I have to eliminate Trevor's Pikachu to get to the Flabébé waiting behind it. But that's not the whole story: as is common in friendly battles, it's okay if our team loses--though in the process of losing, Fletchling will have to be defeated in order to reveal a second-stage starter (so Braixen in this case). This then represents a true fork in the road: over the course of the battle, I'm forced to see either Flabébé or Braixen, but can choose which one. (Obviously, if both Pikachu and Fletchling faint over the course of the battle and it's not the last turn, that's no good and I have to reset, since that causes both to be seen.)
From a long-term planning perspective, there are other battles against Calem where the starter is still second-stage (including at least one at the Tower of Mastery that's a must-win, so no bailing out before Braixen ever comes out), but I can continue to avoid Flabébé forever. so ultimately I want to lose this battle. That means Chespin leads off and starts aiming Rollout at its teammate Fletchling, in a move that somehow doesn't cause permanent dissolution of the friendship. Before the Rollout gets big enough to swallow up Braixen, he decides to aim an Ember at Corphish (probably a resigned gesture of "What does my move matter if it's going to be 3v1?") and somehow lucks into a burn. Corphish doesn't have anything gated behind it so I can afford to let that faint, the only problem is that Pikachu takes ages to wear down Snorlax at 1v1, with both Thunder Shock and Quick Attack hitting for just a few damage each while I waste time by throwing Poke Balls (which don't get consumed, doing so in a trainer battle) and confusing the trio of traveling partners that much more. But it's all for the Pokedex's sake.
After that most curious of battles, I can keep going through to Connecting Cave, and this is definitely a spot for a Repel. Then waiting on the other side...it's Sina and Dexio again, here to "upgrade" my Pokedex with information on the new area. This, at least, feels like a genuine upgrade, enabling something that's never been possible in the course of normal play in any other game in the series. I can open up the Pokedex, click on Coastal, and see those sweetest of words: "SEEN 0, OBTAINED 0". It probably won't last, but it's worth a keepsake photo or two.
The cliffs portion of route 8 has a bunch of grass, and the Pokemon here are all new (they're in the "Coastal" section, after all, where I want to hang onto that zero). Worse, my highest level is still Snorlax's 15, and over a third of the wilds that can show up here match that 15 which means they ignore my Repels. Time for a bunch of saving, then, until I can make it through this mess of a route. This leads all the way down to Ambrette Town, home of...an aquarium, and a fossil lab, and the second straight town with no gym at all.
Looks like we have to go down Route 9 to investigate the fossil situation, but the gatehouse to that route already provides something interesting: Rocky Helmet, an item that wasn't available at all in Alola until the postgame Battle Tree. I expect that item availability will do as much to shape the kinds of battle strategies I can make use of as Pokemon availability will, and at least somebody on the team will be taking the Helmet for quite a while.
The good news about route 9 is that riding on Rhyhorn isn't sufficient cause to trigger Pokedex Seen (just like it doesn't do so for the Rhyhorn in front of my house). The bad news about route 9 is that all the Pokemon that can randomly pop up while riding over the spikes are at least level 15, which means Repel does absolutely nothing for me right now. Time for a bunch of slow progress, saving every few steps on this already-slow method of transportation. They call it Rhyhorn "racing"? Think again.
As if that wasn't enough, there's ugly news about route 9 as well, which is that it leads directly tothe dead end of...Glittering Cave. I can say, with absolute confidence, that whoever designed Glittering Cave did not have Dexit runs in mind. It doesn't take long to see that this is going to be a terrible section of the run and there's not a whole lot I can do about it.
In the first section of the cave, encounters take the form of black clouds, and the room consists entirely of one-square-wide corridors. If there is a cloud on the path, there is no way to go around it to dodge the encounter, the only choices are to go through it and accept the battle, or turn back around. As far as I've gathered from the inevitable testing, there are nine preset locations where these clouds can show up, and it seems that on any entry to this section of the cave, exactly five of them are populated so they really contain the clouds. Traversing the entirety of the path I need to go through here, start to finish, takes me through four of these spots--which, if I've modeled this accurately, means I can get through with no encounters and keep a Coastal Kalos tally of 0/0 but only if the five chosen spots are exactly the spots that are on the side paths, an eventuality that should have odds of 1/126. Saving inside the cave doesn't change which spots are active, so I can't use any footholds here: if I get anything other than the perfect combo of spots, all I can do is reset (if I accidentally run too far and collide with a cloud) or run back to the entrance of the cave, and cycle out and back in to reset the locations.
I figure that all this running to reset the cave, if nothing else, will at least rack up happiness points so I'll be able to get more use from the Return TM, especially on Snorlax. But when I finally get it to pay off, and reach the next doorway with zero cloud encounters, Snorlax's happiness has still only risen enough to make Return about the same power as the Tackle it already has. What a waste.
As if that section wasn't bad enough, my team levels are currently 15-14-13, with two of them being grass starters, and the next challenge is to take down our first introduction to Team Flare grunts who are sitting at 18-20, with a type lineup that--coincidentally, I'm sure (as if the name "Team Flare wasn't a big enough clue)--is rather unfriendly to grass starters! Time to make use of my ace up the sleeve: Super Training!
This feature was in fact available as soon as I picked up my starter, allowing me to sculpt custom EV spreads on everyone without spending money and without having to couple it with experience point gains, but now's the first time it really helps to close a glaring power level gap that comes from playing minimum battles so far (and losing two of them). After the introductory Scatterbug/Spewpa courses (which provide Defense EVs), I have to complete each of the level 1 courses (4 EVs each) with someone, not always the same someone, before I can unlock level 2 courses, but it takes quite a few extra EVs before these barely-trained Pokemon are dealing enough damage with their shots that they can actually, plausibly threaten the level 2 courses and start getting 8 at a whack (plus whatever extras the postgame punching bag might give). Yet another time-consuming task, but at least I'm making slow, definite progress there, unlike the process of repeatedly running in and out of Glittering Cave just for another shot at a winning lottery ticket.
After enough training to really feel those muscles develop, it's time to get on with the actual battles. The first grunt has Houndour and Zubat, but it's not all that bad. For one thing, Houndour at level 16 or above forgets Ember to replace it with Bite, and doesn't regain another fire move until Fire Fang at 28. Additionally, while attacking either of those with grass is a terrible idea, they're both weak to Rollout, and after one Bite gets a flinch in exchange for some Rocky Helmet damage, Houndour for some reason decides to start Howling, and there's no stopping the Rollout train from there.
Second up is a lineup of Gulpin and Electrike. This Gulpin happens to have Liquid Ooze, making Leech Seed a terrible idea against it, but I can fight back with abilities of my own: Snorlax has Immunity, and can Amnesia up in its face while taking no risk of a poison chance from Sludge or Poison Gas; Gulpin for some reason never decides to cancel out those Amnesias by using Acid Spray, because it sees "Sludge is the more powerful move" and never gets the memo about its side effect being a complete blank if that blank is due to an ability, rather than typing. Similarly, Snorlax has Defense Curl to offset Electrike's physical moves, but at a slower pace, and really Bulbasaur should be coming in to resist the Electric moves. I have Nature Power by now, and it becomes Power Gem in caves...nothing really exceptional, but a higher power than the other moves, and not contact so there's no risk of tripping Static.
Finally, we arrive at a double battle, where Calem comes along to face a pair of grunts using Scraggy and Croagunk. My teammate has seemingly completely disavowed Fletchling, and now leads with Espurr, who seemed well-positioned for Croagunk but really just likes to waste a turn setting a useless Light Screen when both opponents have physical Dark moves. The back line consists of the starter and an Absol; because I chose to lose on route 7 and therefore already have Braixen seen, there's no need to play a dubious game of Protect-the-Espurr here. (Players who started with Froakie may see Absol come out second due to the low power of Quilladin's moves as an alternative, but if he has Braixen or Frogadier, that will always be preferred to come out before Absol with their more powerful moves.)
I start out with Leech Seed on Scraggy as that seems like the harder foe to bring down, and Calem's level equality with the opponents really bridges the gap here, with Psybeam obviously being a OHKO on Croagunk. Even so, Snorlax ends up coming out and having to take a Brick Break from Scraggy while I wait for the Leech Seed to tick down, and despite the 5-level disadvantage and a big fat 0 in the Defense IV roll (emphasis on the big and fat), all that Super Training is enough to survive the hit and retaliate with...uh, Tackle. But with Braixen helping out, it's still a win, and the start of that time-honored tradition: pressing B to cancel evolution.
Now that Team Flare has been defeated and...hasn't left, they're all still standing right where they were, whatever. I can still talk to the scientist who decides to let me choose a fossil! Only this time it's not a Helix/Dome choice, I have to pick either Jaw or Sail. I'll take Jaw here just because of the prospect of a relatively early dragon, even though I can't use it for anything yet.
There's even an Escape Rope right by here so I can leave the cave without having to play for that 1/126 chance that the path is clear again on the way back out! Although...I do want to go back to the narrow corridors section, and reset a bit. If I can get three specific spots clear, which has slightly better odds of 1/21, then I have a clear path to backtrack to the Shadow Claw TM before popping the Escape Rope just so I'm never tempted to come back here again. Sure, Snorlax can't actually learn this move (despite already having a weaker Ghost move in Lick), but maybe someone along the way can.
Unlike the original games where Escape Rope went directly to the last used Pokemon Center, here it only drops me off at the entrance to the cave. This means I still have to go back through Route 9, but at least by being level 16, Repels do block out 30% of the encounters, so there's an actual purpose to using one and the trip back to Ambrette hopefully won't take as long.
I have to go down through the aquarium to get a pointless Old Rod and proceed through the beach section of Route 8, which is at least much friendlier than the cliffs. From there I can get to Cyllage with no grass patches at all and only a couple easily dodgeable trainers; I can even keep going to route 10 where there are about three mandatory grass tiles and still no mandatory trainers...yet. But that's a dead end for now, it's back to Cyllage to pick up a bike and...look around.
One of the places I can get from here, at the top end of the bike track, is a back door into Connecting Cave. And because I've now seen Zubat because of the Flare battles, and unlike in Alola there are HMs that exist here and will actively need to be accounted for at some point...hey, why not Zubat with the aim of reserving it for Fly use later on? Obviously it's no good in the upcoming gym, but by getting it now, it'll at least be able to siphon a half-dose with Exp. Share and maybe not fall far behind. Plus, for once I'll have a team member that isn't 7:1 male-biased in its average gender ratio.
But it turns out...all of Grant's underlings are optional. Which means I have to skip them all, by rule. Which means...I'm stuck with a trio of level 16s and a freshly caught Zubat at 15, against a pair of level 25 fossils. If I really want to, I could go back to route 10 and get a Houndour (Y players would get Electrike instead), which can start at a level as high as 21, but from there the only way I would be able to grind is with more catches, with finite ball supplies, where anything in Coastal Kalos other than Houndour/Electrike is a reset. I'd rather not.
The one good thing to offset this level chasm is that we have EVs and they don't. Still, Amaura has an obvious OHKO against everybody except Snorlax with Refrigerate-boosted Take Down, so I'm rather constrained with who I can lead out. Without a KO available, Amaura flails about seemingly at random, fishing with Aurora Beam and even using Thunder Wave when it's obviously much faster than Snorlax already (so all it accomplishes is the FP chance). Meanwhile, Rock Smash isn't typically a very strong move, but between the double weakness, defense drop on the first hit, and EVs, it manages to get a 2HKO through the 9-level disadvantage and bring out...Tyrunt.
Tyrunt takes less damage from Rock Smash as it lays down a Stomp, then next turn tries to finish Snorlax off with Bite...but wait, here comes Quick Claw to let Snorlax put in a second Rock Smash before it falls, adding up to about 50% damage--good work. Now I just have to send Chespin out, use Growl twice to survive two hits while Tyrunt attacks into the Rocky Helmet both times, and because of all that prior damage, two rounds of RH chip leave Grant in healing mode. This means a free opportunity to use Leech Seed. With two Growls and Leech Seed now going, I can afford to switch straight to Bulbasaur without needing to sack off Zubat, survive another hit, and add even more chip damage with Poison Powder. Just one more turn and I can switch back to Chespin who survives Stomp with 2 HP left, sticking it to him with one last Rocky Helmet trigger, and ending the battle. Guess it wasn't that bad after all.
It was possible to get through route 10 with no mandatory trainers before. That's no longer the case now, as after beating Grant, the Flare grunts show up again at strategically placed choke points along the route. The solution, then, is not to go into that route anymore: if you already went through it earlier and visited the Pokemon Center up in Geosenge as your most recent one, a wipeout drops you off there after teleporting past the entire route. Even if I stop by the Cyllage center just to deposit some of my team members in the PC and never go to the counter to heal, that's no good: Cyllage still counts as my most recent center in that case and the whole operation is blown. However, there is still a PC I can easily get to: the one at the fossil lab! While I'm here, I might as well cash in the Jaw Fossil for a Tyrunt, just in case it comes in handy later (if nothing else, it's three levels higher than the rest of the team to be a bit of Repel insurance), then I can deposit everyone except the 2-HP Chespin so the process of wiping out won't take as long (and so that the money lost will be keyed to level 17 again, instead of 20 like it would be if I kept Tyrunt in the party).
Now I just have to track down a Zubat again (30% in Connecting Cave...this'll probably be one of the main annoyances throughout the run, wilds in XY are so diverse that almost all areas will probably have a majority of wilds off limits at any given time if I'm actually trying to look for something). Take one hit, black out, and magically come back to consciousness in Geosenge! Pokedex-wise, all this really accomplishes is skipping Golbat temporarily, but it's something. And now we can probably use another rest right away.
After 2 Gyms
Central Kalos Seen: 19 (Owned: 4)
Coastal Kalos Seen: 4 (Owned: 1)
Current Team -
Chespin L17 (Leech Seed/Growl/Vine Whip/Rollout)
Bulbasaur L17 (Poison Powder/Rock Smash/Leech Seed/Vine Whip)
Snorlax L17 (Rock Smash/Defense Curl/Amnesia/Lick)
Zubat L15 (Protect/Astonish/Bite/Wing Attack)
Tyrunt L20 (Rock Tomb/Stealth Rock/Bite/Charm)
