Nasty Plot! Strategy Archive & HeartGold/SoulSilver Blog

HeartGold Update: Gyms 1-4

**DISCLAIMER: This post makes no effort to be spoiler-free. If you wish to avoid spoilers, don't read this!

Well, yesterday was pretty much a day filled with HeartGold.  I'm currently parked in Mahogany Town with four badges, so halfway through Johto just about. I'm overall pleased with the game so far, but there are some weird quirks I'm not quite understanding or feeling here. So let's get a general gist of a roundup:

Beginning

The beginning is really quite slow-paced, but it was slow in GSC, so it was to be expected. The Running Shoes as soon as you enter Cherrygrove was a nice touch, especially now that you can toggle it and not have to hold down B to run. You're also given a few free Potions to work with for the Mr. Pokémon errand, which really come in handy. The Apricorn Box is a great addition for inventory conservation/clutter, (and so are the rest of the key items in general) although it's definitely taking time getting used to the slower menu navigation. The first encounter with Silver, who is no longer ???, was a bit awkward... but at least it makes sense, somewhat. I named him Cesario.

Violet City

I decided the day before release that I was going to go with a mono-Water team, although I started with Chikorita as I dislike Feraligatr and Chikorita is my favourite starter of the three. Much to my disappointment, Poliwag is no longer available in the grass and must be fished or encountered by Surfing. So, that meant Chikorita had to do for Sprout Tower (which is now mandatory) and Falkner.

Vixie
Lv15 Chikorita (Lynn)

vs. Falkner!
Lv9 Pidgey
Lv13 Pidgeotto

I had heard reports of the Pidgeotto spamming Roost, which turned out to be true, but the fight was really quite a letdown. It turns out that Roost isn't nearly as annoying as Mud Slap was, and Razor Leaf was still doing a good 30% with Poisonpowder to help the assailing. Gust didn't hurt that much, either, despite the type advantage over Chikorita. Oh well.

Now I was ready to start building my team, starting with Poliwag (now fishable with Old Rod! encounter rate of 5% woohoo) and Wooper.

Summary

• Chikorita had a field day in Sprout Tower; Received TM70 Flash
• Received HM6 Rock Smash
• Falkner was too easy; Received TM51 Roost
• Traded Bellsprout for Onix
• Fished up a Poliwag in Violet City
• Caught a Wooper outside Union Cave

Azalea Town

Yawn, Slowpoke Well; yawn, Team Rocket. They're still easy as ever, although there's some new faces amongst the ranks, specifically named executives instead of anonymous. Mind that there was no executive in Slowpoke Well in the original, though; Proton simply replaces the last grunt and adds a Zubat to his fantastic repertoire of Koffing. Here's a pleasant surprise: actual Slowpoke encounters on the main floor! And thus the third addition to my team.

Did I mention the Azalea Town music is fantastic? I'm really liking all the city remixes so far.

Vixie
Lv18 Poliwag (Superior)
Lv12 Wooper (Baikal)
Lv12 Slowpoke (Caspian)

vs. Bugsy!
Lv17 Scyther
Lv15 Metapod
Lv15 Kakuna

Okay... this battle was actually pretty tough. Surprise, surprise; Bugsy actually opens with Scyther. Why? To put it bluntly, U-Turn. U-Turn hurts, especially if it uses Focus Energy or softens you up with Leer prior to. (If you remember Fury Cutter being bad, U-Turn is seven times as powerful on the first blow.) Fortunately for me, Superior was faster and put it to sleep with Hypnosis. She didn't manage to take Scyther out before getting U-Turned, but she did inflict a good deal of pain, enough to trigger the Sitrus Berry and then some. Baikal used Mud Shot to take out Kakuna, but then also fell to U-Turn immediately after. Caspian took the time against Metapod to use Curse six times in order to survive an inevitable U-Turn, and managed to take them both out with sorta-strongish Tackles.

(Trivia: Bugsy's Pokémon are all female this time. Does this perhaps hint at an internal conflict for the young Gym Leader after all?)

Cue fight with Cesario before Ilex Forest, nothing particularly special. The Farfetch'd catching minigame is a bit different this time around and is admittedly pretty annoying with the high encounter rate in Ilex. There are two Farfetch'd to catch now, and the second one was sorta hard for me. I hear other people saying both were easy, though... so whatever.

Summary

• Rocket Executive Proton was too easy.
• Caught a Slowpoke in Slowpoke Well.
• Bugsy put up a good fight; Received TM89 U-Turn
• Cesario is a hypocrite
• The Farfetch'd were sort-of annoying; Received HM1 Cut
• Caught and put an Oddish in daycare because I love Oddish
  • Daycare has been lamed up *cry*

Goldenrod City

Mm. I wasn't as pleased with Goldenrod as I had been with Violet and Azalea. The city feels almost completely different now with the different tone (compared to the original Goldenrod track) and décor. I guess it fits Whitney better, at least. Speaking of Whitney, I think we all remember the nightmares we used to have over her Miltank. Fearing the worst, I made sure to defeat every trainer in the Goldenrod area to get as much training as possible before challenging her.

Vixie
Lv20 Slowpoke (Caspian)
Lv20 Poliwag (Superior)
Lv20 Quagsire (Baikal)

vs. Whitney!
Lv17 Clefairy
Lv19 Miltank

Well, this is strange... they raised Falkner's and Bugsy's levels... but they lowered Whitney's. Anyway, the battle proved to be quite a disappointment all-in-all... Caspian almost took them both out by herself, though a critical Stomp forced me to bring Baikal in to finish the cow off with Rock Smash. All three of my Pokémon are female, so Attract was not an issue.

The biggest disappointment to me was the disappearance of the Game Corner. I knew the slots were going to be replaced with Voltorb Minesweeper, but I didn't think they were going to replace the entire establishment. The Game Corner music just doesn't fit some old guy's private residence... not to mention the elemental beams are still 10,000 coins (thanks DPPt) plus you can't even buy coins anymore! Looks like I'm going to have to import Ice Beams from Emerald and Platinum... *grumble*

Summary

• Goldenrod City was sort of deflating...
• Hooray for GTS and the fun drawing on the Dept. Store rooftop
• Bring back the Game Corner ugh
• Whitney was pretty much a joke; Received TM45 Attract
• Juggler Irwin was my favourite phoneable NPC in GSC; he's still there!
• Received Kenya from Webster
• Traded Drowzee for Machop
• National Park has gorgeous music
• Caught Sudowoodo and obtained the Berry Pots

Ecruteak City

Also a bit of a disappointment, although the city itself and music are just fantastic. Tin Tower appears to have been renamed Bell Tower, and the Kimono Girl mini-quest has been reduced to just fighting a single Team Rocket grunt... The Itemfinder Dowsing MCHN is great, even better than the one in DPPt -- you can scan even while walking. Eusine is back for another round of Suicune hunting, so I'm curious to see how that will turn out.

Vixie
Lv22 Poliwag (Superior)
Lv22 Quagsire (Baikal)
Lv22 Slowpoke (Caspian)
Lv20 Spearow (Kenya)

vs. Morty!
Lv21 Gastly
Lv21 Haunter
Lv23 Haunter
Lv25 Gengar

The Gym got a little funkified since the olden days, but the concept is... more or less the same. It's certainly spooky, though. Morty, in a sense, got a bit scarier also now that Shadow Ball comes off Gengar's gargantuan SpA vs. mediocre ATK. In fact, one Shadow Ball took out about 80% of Baikal's HP. Fortunately for me, my temporary companion Kenya saved the day -- his Gengar's only other attack move is Sucker Punch, which has only 5 PP and is easily avoided by not attacking. So if you're having issues with Morty... just about any Normal-type can wall his Gengar. The Gastly and Haunters are pretty weak as it is, though the Hypnosis+Dream Eater one can be pretty irritating.

(to be continued...)