Part 7: Dreamchaser Stargazer
It has been two weeks since my last update, but now, it is finally time for another one. I wanted to post this yesterday, but it became too late and I was tired, so I decided to wait until today. I have played a lot since last time, and many things have happened, so this will be a long post. I’ll go over everything, but not in chronological order.
First of all, my last berries had finished growing. I got 5 Micle Berries! Don’t think I’ll plant any more berries now as I don’t have more Mulch to get rid of, and I’m not exactly in dire need of more berries either.
Next, the team I have been training. There’s a lot to say about it. First of all, this is what the team members look like right now:
They have grown a lot. But none of them are done yet. I’m planning to go back to them and train them even further in the future.
Since I’m going to make seven teams, I have decided to give a name to every team, because it is more fun that way! This team has been named Stargazer’s Dreamchasers.
In order to hopefully make this somewhat interesting, I’ll share the details for the team, as well as some short thoughts on both the team members and the team on the whole.
Cloudsday
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Adamant
- Dragon Claw
- Pluck
- Fly
- Dragon Dance
Cloudsday could have gone either Physical, Special or mixed, but since it has an Adamant Nature, I decided to make it a Physical Dragon Dance attacker. Since I still had the Dragon Claw TM, I decided to make use of it here. Pluck for secondary STAB, it rarely got to steal any berries though. I wanted to use Earthquake, but since I didn’t have the TM, I couldn’t. I considered Steel Wing as well, but decided to not use it. Fly was mainly for the HM, but I used it in battles occasionally if I needed a slightly stronger Flying-type move.
Overall, Cloudsday was pretty good. It has solid bulk which gives it plenty of opportunities to boost, Natural Cure is also a great Ability. That said, it was pretty weak and slow before boosting, so dancing was pretty much necessary most of the time. It didn’t have the best coverage either. But it worked.
Neon Blue
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Lonely
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Silver Wind
- Rain Dance
I decided to make Neon Blue a Rain Dance sweeper since it has Swift Swim, and the Rain gives Surf a boost as well. Sadly, it doesn’t get a whole lot of good coverage options outside of Ice Beam. I considered U-Turn, but went with Silver Wind in the end. Not the most useful move, but better than nothing. A Lonely Nature is far from optimal, but it is at least not a major hindrance. Though I really wish it had been Modest.
Overall, Neon Blue was unfortunately pretty weak. Surf hits pretty hard during Rain or if it is super effective, but other than that, it had a hard time scoring KOs. Ice Beam even failed to OHKO a Noctowl at 10 levels lower! That said, it is pretty fast during Rain, and it was sometimes surprisingly fast outside of Rain too. It was also bulky enough to take at least one hit, allowing it to set up Rain. Not the best, but still okay.
Earthfly
Ability: Speed Boost
Nature: Sassy
- X-Scissor
- Aerial Ace
- Dig
- Swords Dance
Earthfly's moveset is pretty obvious. Dig is an excellent move since it allows it to hit Electric-, Fire-, Rock- and Steel-types for super effective damage, while also dodging the opponent’s move and getting a free Speed Boost at the same time! It doesn’t have to worry about being hit by Earthquake or Magnitude thanks to being a Flying-type. Dig feels like it was a move made for Ninjask. I considered Baton Pass, but decided to not go with it, and I think it was for the better. Earthfly is really fast, so a Sassy Nature made no difference. It benefits from the Sp.def boost while the lower Speed makes no difference as it will outrun everything anyway, and if it doesn’t, it will after it has gotten one or a few Speed Boosts.
Overall, Earthfly was great. It could potentially set up and then sweep entire opposing teams as long as it got the opportunity. Strong enough STABs, solid coverage, and Aerial Ace allowed it to bypass any evasion boosters, which was nice. It was ironically also the best Pokémon I had against Volkner, since it could use Swords Dance and then sweep him with Dig (unless it got paralyzed by Raichu’s Static).
Axel
Ability: Immunity
Nature: Lax
- Return
- Close Combat
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance
Axel also has a pretty obvious moveset, no explanations needed. I’m glad it learns Close Combat through level-up, and since I had the Shadow Claw TM, I decided to use it. I had Slash in the first slot for a while, but changed to Return once our friendship was magic enough. A Lax Nature isn’t optimal, it made its defenses very lopsided, giving it good Physical bulk but making it weaker to Special moves. Adamant or Jolly would have been better, but I can’t do anything about that.
Overall, Axel was solid. It has great coverage, it is pretty fast, very strong and it gets even stronger after a boost. If it can set up 1-3 dances, it can sweep opposing teams. However, it was notably slower than some really fast Pokémon like Espeon and Alakazam, they would often outspeed it and deal heavy damage or OHKO it before it could move. It was still great though, easily one of the better members of the team.
Babian
Ability: Vital Spirit
Nature: Bashful
- Close Combat
- Low Kick
- Assurance
- Rock Slide
Babian is a standard Physical attacker. The reason it has both Close Combat and Low Kick is for the PP. Close Combat alone only has 5 PP, which felt too low. Assurance to hit Psychic- and Ghost-types, Rock Slide against Flying-types. There are other options though, I thought about teaching it an Elemental Punch through Move Tutor, but decided not to. A Bashful Nature makes no difference, which is okay.
Overall, Babian was pretty good. It is quite strong and fast, but the lack of boosting hurts since that means it needs to be able to KO opponents directly. If it can’t, it will have to take a hit afterwards. It also has to be careful after using Close Combat since the defense drops means it will take even more damage. It grew slower than the first four members of the team, which isn’t too strange since it belongs in the Medium Fast Exp. group. Pretty good, but not the best.
Stargazer
Ability: Intimidate
Nature: Lonely
- Waterfall
- Ice Fang
- Secret Power
- Dragon Dance
Stargazer wasn’t used that much since it was at a much higher level than the others to begin with. For the most part, it was mostly used as a win-coin against high-leveled opponents. The moveset is obvious, I got rid of Flail for Secret Power in order to have consistent damage, and Water+Normal offers excellent coverage. I guess I should have used Return for even more power, but I didn’t. A Lonely Nature is actually pretty good since it boosts Attack, and the Defense drop isn’t too bad since it has Intimidate.
Overall, Stargazer was really great. It could often set up and sweep if necessary. It has only grown 10 levels since I caught it, but even so, I noticed that it leveled up considerably slower than the others, which is to be expected since it is in the Slow Exp. group.
Regarding hold items, the team members weren’t holding any specific individual items when I trained them. I just rotated between the Lucky Egg, Luck Incense and Amulet Coin. The latter two ended up giving me a lot of money, I even maxed out my money without noticing. I’ll keep a closer watch on it from now on and spend some on vitamins, coins or other useful stuff whenever it is close to being maxed.
I have beaten the Elite Four three times with the team. The first time was tough, it had been so long since I last beat them in Platinum and I had forgotten many of their movesets and strategies. The most notable being Aaron and his Yanmega with Double Team. Well, I learned something from it at least. The second and third times went much better.
As for the team on the whole, it is very unbalanced. It has a very heavy bias towards Physical as I only have one Special attacker. It also has four setup sweepers and one weather sweeper, and all team members are mostly offensive, none of them are particularly geared towards defenses. Their defensive synergy isn’t very good either.
The team has three weaknesses to Electric but not one single resistance, giving me a huge weakness to Electric-type users like Volkner. It also has three weaknesses to Rock, but only one resistance. Plus unresisted weaknesses to Flying, Psychic and Dragon.
The team was pretty fun to use, but also difficult at times since it was so unbalanced, and some members of it were pretty weak. While training, I was thinking about obtaining my members of future teams with useful Natures, maybe good IVs, and then EV-train them as well. But I have decided not to since that would take much longer, and all of this is just for fun in the end.
That’s it for Stargazer’s Dreamchasers… for now. Their journey isn’t quite over yet, but it will be put on hold for the moment (they will be on vacation!). The most important thing I learned from using them is that my future teams must be more balanced. I will also try to keep having a Flyer and a Surfer on every future team, just because of the great convenience it offers.
How did I train the team? The main way was through rebattling various trainers with the Vs. Seeker. When the team got to level 60 and above, I added the Battleground, Rival rematches on weekends and the daily trainers in Pokémon Centers. When they were in their late 70s, I battled the Elite Four for the first time. There were also wild Pokémon at high levels, but I found myself using those less and less often the higher the team got.
I made a list/document for when the daily trainers in Pokémon Centers can be battled. Mostly for personal reference, but I thought I might share it with everyone else as well. It can be found here. I just put together the data from Dragonflycave and Serebii. If anyone uses this list and finds any mistakes, message me and I’ll fix them.
With my first team done (for now), I should get started on the next. But first, I need six new team members. Before we get to that though, there are some other things I should talk about. You don’t know what I did last Saturday, so let me tell you all about it.
The real Lake of Rage.
I don’t know who came up with the idea of finding Feebas through this annoying method in R/S/E, and I don’t know who decided that the concept should be kept for D/P/P, but it was. I’m glad they scrapped it in future generations (except BD/SP which appears to have kept the way it worked from D/P/P). Either way, I wanted to catch a Feebas for this challenge. Previously, I have only caught Feebas once in Gen 4, which was on Diamond, and it must have been in 2008. Now, it was time again.
I decided to start from the bottom of the lake and fish three times in every square, which felt like it should give me good enough odds. Unfortunately, doing this was extremely boring and monotonous to the point that I had a hard time keeping my concentration and focus. I probably fished 2 or 4 times in several tiles. In addition to that, I have never liked the fishing mechanics in Pokémon. I definitely prefer the regular overworld encounters. Along the way, I decided to train my team a bit against the wild Gyarados and Whiscash I met, to make it less of a waste of time. Three of my team members grew several levels, which was great. I also caught a Whiscash at level 51, which I named Cashwish. To be trained later on.
I expected this to take a while, but unfortunately, it took even longer than that. After over three hours of playtime (with breaks in-between) and after having fished in every water tile in the 9 bottom rows of the lake, I still hadn’t found a single Feebas. I must either have fished in a Feebas tile without finding one, or accidentally missed a tile containing Feebas. Either way, this was getting frustrating, and I was considering giving up… but I really didn’t want to. My patience isn’t infinite, but I can be really stubborn at times. Since I had set out to catch a Feebas, I decided to keep going, but change my approach a bit. I decided to “restart”, by going up to the top of the lake and start from there instead. I also decided to only fish twice in every tile, and to not defeat any of the wild Pokémon I met, just to save time. This felt a bit more efficient, and after a while, my efforts bore fruit. On the first tile I fished in on the sixth row, I finally found a Feebas!
The Feebas spot.
I’m glad I fished twice in every spot, since this was my second encounter in that spot. Obviously, I caught this Feebas. And with that, I should be done, right? Nope. I continued fishing until I had caught four more Feebas. One unwritten rule I have had for this challenge is that I must keep the first Pokémon I catch of every species, but I decided to make an exception for Feebas. The reason is that I wanted my Feebas to have a good Nature. As everyone knows, Feebas evolves through maxing out its Beauty stat, which is partly tied to its Nature. I didn’t want a Nature that lowers Sp.att/Beauty since I don’t know if it will be possible to evolve it then.
I went to a Pokémon Center to check the Natures of the five Feebas I had caught. They were Careful, Timid, Rash, Brave and Naive. Timid or Rash are obviously the best, and I went with Timid since it is the most useful from a battle perspective. I know from experience that you can evolve a Feebas which has a Nature that’s neutral regarding Beauty. This Feebas is Female and at level 10, so it will need a lot of training later on. I went to the Name Rater in Eterna City and named it Essa. I’ll get back to it soon.
This whole Feebas ordeal took me over four and a half hours of total playtime. Was it worth it, or was it just a huge waste of time that could have been spent on something better? I don’t know yet. The future will tell. I feel like I had some really bad luck with finding Feebas. Maybe I used up all my good luck when I found Lucky Lax earlier, which I didn’t even want.
In addition to this, I have caught some other Pokémon that will be trained in the near and far future. First, some swarming Pokémon: a Doduo at level 2, named Threehead, a Snubbull at level 18, named Snowball, and a Makuhita at level 48, named Fightbag. Those will all be trained later on. I also caught 2 Snorunt. One Male named Jack Frost, and one Female named Snow Queen. Both at level 33. To be trained sooner and later.
Next, here’s what I did yesterday. The swarming Pokémon was Zigzagoon on Route 203. I want one. Since it is right next to Sandgem Town, I go out and immediately run into a Zigzagoon at level 3. I catch it and name it Zigzagzug. It has Pickup, which is great since that’s the Ability I wanted.
I continue by catching more Pokémon. I fly to Fight Area and head out to Route 226. Here, I use the Poké Radar in the grass since there’s a specific Pokémon I want from it. But it takes a while before I finally find what I want: a Togepi at level 49, which I catch and name Jetblade. I catch it in a Luxury Ball. Afterwards, I fly to Resort Area where I immediately withdraw Jetblade and give it a Soothe Bell since I want it to evolve ASAP. While I’m here, I might as well visit the Ribbon Syndicate. I go there and let Jetblade get a massage in order to raise its Friendship a bit.
Next, I head up to Route 229. There are some Pokémon I want to catch here. My first encounter is a Pidgey at level 50. I catch it and name it Pi D. Geot. I then meet an Illumise at level 49, which I catch and name Light-Down. Then, after a while, I finally find the third Pokémon I want from here, a Volbeat. It is at level 49, I catch it and name it Mindlock.
After that, I fly to Oreburgh City and head out to Mt. Coronet. It is the landmark for the Sinnoh region, and just like it divides Sinnoh in two, it has divided the fandom as well. Some fans hate it, others like it. Personally, I am a huge fan. I love the music on the upper levels, the snow, and being able to explore it on the outside makes it feel more like a real mountain rather than just another generic cave. Either way, the only two Pokémon I have caught from here so far have been Essa and Cashwish. I want to get one more, but not through fishing this time. I make my way to one of the higher floors and start looking for Pokémon. After a while, I find what I want, a Medicham at level 37. I catch it and name it Psykick.
With this, I have caught enough Pokémon for the time being. Let’s do some evolving instead! I fly to Veilstone, and while I’m here, I might as well give Jetblade another massage. I head to the massage-giving woman and let her give Jetblade a massage. Then, I go to the Pokémon Center where I withdraw Snow Queen and Essa. I have one Dawn Stone in my bag, which I use on Snow Queen, and it evolves into Froslass. Next, I head to the Dept. Store basem*nt. I have never been a fan of the Poffin making minigame, I’m glad Platinum added the option to just buy Poffins. You can also buy berries here, which is nice. Plus Lava Cookies! I buy one just for fun. Then I buy several Dry-Sweet Poffins which I give to Essa. Once its Beauty is maxed out, I leave and Fly to Survival Area (I have Cloudsday in my party). I head out to Route 225 with Essa in the lead, and Cloudsday beats two wild Graveler (though they technically beat themselves as the first one used Explosion, while the second one tanked a Dragon Claw and then KO’d itself with Double-Edge). This gives Essa some experience, enough for it to grow a level and evolve into Milotic!
With this done, I can finally assemble my next team. I fly to Sandgem, where I deposit Cloudsday, and withdraw Ironix, Mindlock and Psykick. Along with Essa, Snow Queen and Jetblade, those will be my next team.
Now this is a team. Will it work? Will it be fun to use? I sure hope so.
Why those six? First, experience groups. Milotic and Volbeat are both in the Erratic group, while Togepi (to be a Togekiss) is in the Fast group. Froslass, Steelix and Medicham are all in the Medium Fast group. That means none of them should be too annoying to train. Compared to Stargazer’s Dreamchasers, this team will be more balanced, since it is going to have 2 Physical attackers, 1-2 purely Special, one mostly Special, and one that will probably be Mixed, but I might make it either full Physical or Special, haven’t decided yet. Their defensive synergy is also better.
Out of these Pokémon, Volbeat is the only one I have never trained before, but it has also been a very long while since I last trained a Steelix. Unlike Stargazer’s Dreamchasers, this team does not have a high-leveled win-coin, so I need to be careful and avoid strong trainers early on.
This team needs a name, but I haven’t come up with one yet. I’ll think of one while training them. I also need to improve their movesets through TMs and maybe MTs, which will be the first thing I do before I start training them. And give them some vitamins to boost their power levels!
With that, it is back to some training. Before I start, I need something to give me energy. Maybe some music? Have a Hyperdrive horse remix. I posted a remix by Foozogz earlier, but you can never have enough of his music.
I also mentioned that I should post my playtime whenever I reach a milestone, so let’s do that now. Here’s my current playtime:
I have clocked in over 100 hours on this file now, and my playtime is at 105:41, which means that the time for this challenge is 29:41. I have been playing for almost 30 hours! How long until it is done? Time will tell.
Pokémon obtained in this part:
None
Caught but not complete:
Threehead, level 2
Zigzagzug, level 3
Jack Frost, level 33
Fightbag, level 48
Light-Down, level 49
Pi D. Geot, level 50
Cashwish, level 51
In training:
Essa, level 11
Snow Queen, level 33
Psykick, level 37
Ironix, level 44
Jetblade, level 49
Mindlock, level 49
On hold:
Earthfly, level 90
Axel, level 90
Cloudsday, level 90
Neon Blue, level 90
Babian, level 90
Stargazer, level 90
Levels: 56/100
Even if I didn’t add any new levels in this part, I still made some great progress with the challenge. Once again, it will probably be a while before the next update. Maybe two weeks, maybe more, maybe less. I had hoped to be done with this challenge sometime during July, but as things are looking now, it will take longer than that. Either way, this will be my last update for June.
