fox's pokemon playing blog

[foxfolk]

Okay it's about time I actually post on here! I've been lurking for a while, since I joined right about when I started a new job, but working full time will never stop me from that Pokemon grind. Since I've got a lot going on concurrently, I'll break it down!

My big project right now is my very first attempt at a ribbon master! Specifically I'm taking a Meowstic (male) from his home game of X up to Violet! It's pretty slow going since I don't have a ton of time and I've never interacted with a lot of the pieces of ribbon mastering before, but it's been a lot of fun to dip my toes into it. Here's his current progress!
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As for what I'm working on right now, I'll break it into "Actively Working On" and "Planning".

Active:
In Pokemon X I'm working on the Battle Maison! I've been doing a lot of trial and error to get a team that works, especially because Meowstic isn't a super strong guy, but I think I've mostly figured it out! I need to get some light clay and reset his EVs to train him better, since he was just a part of my regular playthrough so he's not trained well. Once I've got that sorted, I've got him setting up screens and trick room for a Snorlax running Belly Drum and Return to sweep most things I run into. I've got a mega Lucario in the back to sweep anything else up as needed. Once I can clear that it'll be on to Alpha Sapphire!

In Alpha Sapphire I'm currently working on a regular old playthrough, since I hadn't actually played in several years and my save had my deadname on it. I'm about a third of the way through, since I've mostly been picking at it on my commute to work, but I'm being reminded of all the quality of life things in some of the older games that I miss today (two screens really just makes things like DexNav work so much more smoothly). My main goal in this game will be the contest ribbons and the money ribbons!

In Sword I've just started a second playthrough (thank goodness for being able to have multiple runs on switch games). I won't actually be using this save for ribbon mastering, but there's one specific thing I want out of it- Glastrier! In my main save I have Shadow-Rider Calyrex, but I'm putting together ideas for a competitive team with Meowstic and I need Calyrex-Ice to make it work. I also just haven't played Sw/Sh in a while, so I might as well replay it rather than trading for it. Maybe I can shiny hunt some legendaries along the way.

Planning:
As for things I'm planning, it's a lot of "actually acquiring the games I need"! Specifically, I don't actually own most of the Switch games, since I played them when I worked at a library that borrowed them out! So while my Switch has the save data, I need to actually get my hands on Legends Arceus and play BDSP for the first time! (I also need to get Let's Go, but that's not for the ribbons mastering, I just want the mythicals available in it and I never finished playing it.) I'm also planning to replay Sun, because it has the same deadname issue as X and AS did. As for Violet, I don't have much I need to do there, but I can always start building that competitive team with the guys I have available. I've been practicing with other competitive teams as well, since I've never gotten into competitive before!

Finally, I've got a few things going on in the background that aren't relevant to this ribbon master but will be if I decide I like it and want to do more! For a variety of reasons I don't have most of the games I played as a child, which also happen to be some of the more expensive ones now. By sheer luck I have copies of Ruby, Sapphire, and FireRed, but I didn't have my lost copies of Pearl, Black, or Heartgold. So I've been working on that! I got used copies of Platinum and Black! The Platinum game didn't have much on it, but the copy of Black had four hundred hours and a pretty stacked PC, so I'm postponing resetting it for my own playthrough until I mod my 2DS to have Bank and transfer them out/into Home. I want to find a good way to memorialize this guy's playthrough as well, since it's astonishing that he sold me 400 hours of his life for 90$. I still need to get my hands on a copy of HG/SS and eventually B2/W2, but I'm less worried about those because I have a solidly working "digital" copy of HG and don't actually need B2/W2 for ribbon mastering, I just never played them in the first place!

If you've read all the way to this point, thanks bunches! I love to yap about my playthroughs so that's likely what I'll be doing plenty of here. Please yap with me!

 

[recarmdra]

Ooh, a ribbon master journey...!
Good luck on your journey! I hope you're able to clear the Battle Maison soon!

the copy of Black had four hundred hours and a pretty stacked PC

That's incredible! I'm curious as to what you've kept/will keep from that save file, if you're planning on keeping anything.

I've never attempted anything like this before, so some of it does fly over my head, but its super interesting to read. Rooting for you!

 

[foxfolk]

Ooh, a ribbon master journey...!
Good luck on your journey! I hope you're able to clear the Battle Maison soon!


That's incredible! I'm curious as to what you've kept/will keep from that save file, if you're planning on keeping anything.

I've never attempted anything like this before, so some of it does fly over my head, but its super interesting to read. Rooting for you!

I know right!! When I saw the boxes I thought it must be hacked, but it seems to just be a legitimately wild save! I know I want to keep the legendaries off it, but I need to comb through it a bit more to find guys that seem like they had more sentimental value, like a cherished starter or a shiny that seems special. I'll certainly be sharing what I do keep once I've got it all figured out!

 

[terashards]

ANOTHER RIBBON MASTER JOURNEY IN BULBABLOGS LET'S GOO

i would love to see your meowstic but the linked attachment is broken for some reason? perhaps it was too big of an image? maybe try downsizing it and reuploading...? but anyway!

i love your battle maison team! personally, most of the time while i'm getting ribbons, i tend to use a team without my ribbon master until the last second where i can switch them onto the team for the final battle, but this is just because i've done this a lot so i prioritize being able to reuse the same pokemon instead of building a new team every time. i do feel like i miss out on some of the experience by doing it this way sometimes and i will often train up my ribbon masters and try to get them to be useful for something in the final set/final battle as a result. building a whole team around your ribbon master instead is awesome. good luck with training your meowstic! i assume since you mentioned the light clay item that it's a double screens set? :0 (i assume this information was in the original photo but alas LOL)

i hope your AS and sword playthroughs go well! i feel you with missing the double screens for pokemon dexnav my beloved...

when it comes to violet, if you can spare the money and time, i'd really recommend grabbing the DLC and beating it as well, because teambuilding gets a lot easier with the quality of life stuff in the DLC. in particular, it becomes much easier to change a pokemon's tera type (something relevant to any competitive team that actually functions properly) and there is also... a "lottery" machine in the DLC that will easily get you all sorts of items, including "treasure" items to sell for large chunks of money.

and god i love digging through secondhand pokemon save files. i've found some really incredible pokemon that way. don't forget to check the PC's hall of fame data because you will be more easily able to seek out pokemon they used on their playthrough that way! especially because gen 5 is the only gen since gen 3 to not have a ribbon for beating the elite four :/ (or you know, any ribbons at all) and on that note if you do find any pokemon with the (strangely unfinished) ribbon menu visible you know they are a transfer from gens 3/4 immediately so that might be cool to look for as well. if you find anything cool you gotta let us know

 

[foxfolk]

ANOTHER RIBBON MASTER JOURNEY IN BULBABLOGS LET'S GOO

i would love to see your meowstic but the linked attachment is broken for some reason? perhaps it was too big of an image? maybe try downsizing it and reuploading...? but anyway!

i love your battle maison team! personally, most of the time while i'm getting ribbons, i tend to use a team without my ribbon master until the last second where i can switch them onto the team for the final battle, but this is just because i've done this a lot so i prioritize being able to reuse the same pokemon instead of building a new team every time. i do feel like i miss out on some of the experience by doing it this way sometimes and i will often train up my ribbon masters and try to get them to be useful for something in the final set/final battle as a result. building a whole team around your ribbon master instead is awesome. good luck with training your meowstic! i assume since you mentioned the light clay item that it's a double screens set? :0 (i assume this information was in the original photo but alas LOL)

i hope your AS and sword playthroughs go well! i feel you with missing the double screens for pokemon dexnav my beloved...

when it comes to violet, if you can spare the money and time, i'd really recommend grabbing the DLC and beating it as well, because teambuilding gets a lot easier with the quality of life stuff in the DLC. in particular, it becomes much easier to change a pokemon's tera type (something relevant to any competitive team that actually functions properly) and there is also... a "lottery" machine in the DLC that will easily get you all sorts of items, including "treasure" items to sell for large chunks of money.

and god i love digging through secondhand pokemon save files. i've found some really incredible pokemon that way. don't forget to check the PC's hall of fame data because you will be more easily able to seek out pokemon they used on their playthrough that way! especially because gen 5 is the only gen since gen 3 to not have a ribbon for beating the elite four :/ (or you know, any ribbons at all) and on that note if you do find any pokemon with the (strangely unfinished) ribbon menu visible you know they are a transfer from gens 3/4 immediately so that might be cool to look for as well. if you find anything cool you gotta let us know

Augh not the image! Oh well, I'll just describe the Meowstic then lol. Yeah he's running screens, as well as trick room! I used to have him running psychic and dark pulse and was trying different items to get some decent damage output, but I've found it's way more worth it to just have him set up and get out of there. It's definitely a challenge, especially since I haven't actually done much with battle towers and their equivalents before, but it's a super fun challenge!

Ooooh thanks for the information about the violet dlc! I was thinking about getting it for Meloetta anyways (I <3 mythicals) but knowing there's QOL stuff in there will definitely make that a higher priority. And the tips for finding important pokemon are very welcome, especially with how full their boxes are I could spend a while just combing through them. I'll probably write up a little post about that save and anyone I end up keeping from it before I reset it!!

 

[Mialentia]

Good luck on your ribbon mastering! I actually am in the very early stages of my own ribbon master journey (caught a Zubat in XD to give ribbons to) but I got heavily sidetracked and it's now been on hiatus for several months lmfao. Doesn't help I'm not the biggest fan of XD.

Also I just wanna say seeing this blog gave me a heart attack because I know someone else named Fox whose favorite Pokémon is Espurr and who happens to use they/them pronouns, lmfao /silly. Small world!

 

[foxfolk]

Good luck on your ribbon mastering! I actually am in the very early stages of my own ribbon master journey (caught a Zubat in XD to give ribbons to) but I got heavily sidetracked and it's now been on hiatus for several months lmfao. Doesn't help I'm not the biggest fan of XD.

Also I just wanna say seeing this blog gave me a heart attack because I know someone else named Fox whose favorite Pokémon is Espurr and who happens to use they/them pronouns, lmfao /silly. Small world!

Thank you!! Good luck on your journey as well- may ever slow grind be filled with the sweet nectar of success.

And wow, what a small world!!! Maybe I'll have to meet them so we can team up >

 

[foxfolk]

Wowow I forgot to update this for a bit! Luckily I've been picking away at this ribbon master in a way that doesn't lend itself to a big update yet anyways, but I'll let you guys know what I've been up to!

My biggest thing right now is "starting a bunch of stuff to hyperfocus on!" I picked up the flu from my job, so I was home for a few days this week with no energy for anything. Luckily for me, I recently picked up copies of Shining Pearl and Legends Arceus pre-owned! Unfortunately the Switch games don't come with the fun of snooping through someone's old file, but I've been having plenty of fun ripping through the SP game. I'm almost finished with the main story! (As a little side note, I was really excited to finally play SP since Pearl was the first game I played that I have actual memory of! A ton of my favorite 'mons originated in Sinnoh, and it's the game I would most consider "my" Pokemon game within the system. Playing the remake has brought up a lot of nostalgia, memories, and feelings from that era that have me really happy I got it.)

I've mostly been picking away at my X and AS files sporadically, slowly but surely making my way through them. My team for the Battle Maison has settled into what I think will work, so now it's just a matter of actually getting through it. I fell off AS a bit as I'm not really in love with my team, so I think I was to rework it before I continue the main story (I think I'm about halfway through?)

The most exciting (and simultaneously disappointing) update I can give is on the old Black file! I spent a bit of time combing through it, but it seems like the previous owner traded out a lot of their most beloved Pokemon. There was specifically a level 100 Roserade in the Hall of Fame record that was traded from someone else that I was hoping to continue the legacy of, but it's nowhere in the party, boxes, or daycare. I couldn't find anyone else from their Hall of Fame records either. It's bittersweet, since I'm happy they kept the Pokemon that were important to them, but it does mean I'm struggling a bit to find a good legacy!

This is certainly not to say I don't have any options, though! Outside of the legendaries and mythicals (which are all missing parts of their sets), there's a lot of interesting storytelling in the boxes! I can see that this person was either shiny hunting or breeding for stats, since there's a few species with a ton of them in the box. Though again they took their successes with them, I could take one of the "rejects" to give it a new life! In this case, I would probably take a Porygon, since that seems to be the one they spent the longest hunting. I also have the option to take a Cyndaquil, since there's a bunch of them as well, or the single Togepi that's still at level 1!

I'd love to hear opinions on this, since I'm finding myself in a bit of decision paralysis around it haha. Hopefully my next update has a bit more substance!!

 

[terashards]

I fell off AS a bit as I'm not really in love with my team, so I think I was to rework it before I continue the main story (I think I'm about halfway through?)

when in doubt, dexnav hunt for a specific egg move... at least for me, the effort to get the pokemon and then using a special move most of that species doesn't have helps me get attached :3

I'd love to hear opinions on this, since I'm finding myself in a bit of decision paralysis around it haha.

also hmm, is there anything special about any of them? like egg moves or good natures or anything? that would probably influence my decision. just based on species alone i'd go cyndaquil though, it'd be cute to keep it unevolved into legends arceus and then get a hisuian typhlosion out of such an old hatch lol

i'm glad things are going well for you, it sounds like you're making good progress (just the stuff that isn't directly connected to obtaining ribbons so less to update on LOL)

 

[Mialentia]

Seconding the Cyndaquil choice! It's the fanciest out of all of these. Plus, no need to worry about friendship or trade evolutions.