Demon Pigeon

I’d like to begin by apologising to you, and our readers, for this letter being a day late; I’ve had a pretty ridiculous week. With that out of the way, let’s get serious.

This week’s action is centred on the S.S. Anne, a fabulous luxury cruise ship that hosts exclusive parties for Pokémon trainers. The party was last night and we weren’t invited. Remember what I said about the game starting you off with childish touchstones like videogames and schools before moving on to exciting adult locations? Well, that. Have you ever been on a cruise, Noel? I once went on an exchange student trip to Norway when I was studying in Gothenberg. I got drunk on a lager called Hell, danced in some horrible floating Eurodisco until the early hours, and woke up in pitch darkness to the sound of a Swedish on-board announcement that I – in my affected state – mistook for an angelic herald guiding me to the afterlife. That brief period before she repeated her message in English and I realised I was not, in fact, dead was one of the happiest moments of my life.

Unlike you, I took the time to explore the ship and fight every last trainer on board. Usually I explain this behaviour by saying I don’t want to have to deal with unexpected trainer fights when I return to work on my Pokédex, but the S.S. Anne features no wild Pokémon, and sails its way out of the game once you collect your Cut HM. I suppose I just like to explore the ship and meet the people? They’re an odd bunch, and this is your only opportunity to talk to them. Also many of them have items hidden in their rooms.

Case in point: If you found your way to the ships galley, one of les chefs tells you that he saw an odd ball in the trash. If you search the bins in the back of the room you may find a free Great Ball! Great Balls are twice as effective as regular Poké Balls and cost €600 in the shops – and I don’t think they’re even available yet, so it’s a nice find. Have I explained how catching works? It’s mostly very obvious, but here’s a quick run-through: Different pokémon have different base catching rates (common species like Rattata are high, unique rarities like Articuno are low) and factors such as lowering their health and inflicting status effects like Sleep will make them more submissive. Be warned – some status ailments (such as Poison and Burn) will do damage each turn, and may kill your quarry before you can capture it.

I’m glad to hear that you’re starting to diversify your Pokédex. As I said, the early stages of the game feature very a limited range of available pokémon, but around this point the world begins to open up – it’s not surprising that you’re now starting to find your stride. Here is a free tip: The grassy meadows east of Vermillion City are home to Drowzee, a Psychic pokémon with a strong, Sleep-based learnset who was often a staple of my Pokémon team in high school.

If you want to find out where to catch other pokémon, you should consult the Pokédex that Professor Oak gave you at the start of the game. Basic information about every species of pokémon you encounter in battle – whether wild or trained – is logged within its databanks, including their location on the world map. The really juicy stuff is added once you catch them: biographical information about their lifecycles and behaviour. Some of them are great. Keep an eye out for Cubone over the next couple of weeks!

It’s over all too soon – if you had any unfinished business, it’s too late! This ship of lost souls departs from the world, never to return. Loss. Death. Regret. Do you feel it? A pale shadow of a distant loved one. Photographs of people you once met, like the screenshots on this page. Dark shadows are beginning to appear within our innocent world of sunlit forest walks and ginger beer. Does this sound like symbolic mumbo-jumbo? Try saying that once we reach Lavender town.

Back on dry land, you should learn from this experience. Talk to people. Make the most of your relationships while you still have the chance – you never know where it may lead! You should look around Vermillion City again before you leave – for one thing, you should drop in on the Fishing Guru, and silver-tongue him until he lets you get your hands on his old rod. You can use rods to fish in sea and river tiles, and while you won’t catch anything great right now, the later upgrades will allow you to catch a wide range of Water pokémon.

In order to access Lt. Surge’s gym, you must teach Cut to a pokémon. That’s the real lesson learned during this chapter of the game – some moves can be used outside of battle, and can open up new areas of the world map. You’ve walked past many Cuttable trees so far on your quest, and if you go back and explore these areas again you never know what you might find! That’s a very Nintendo bit of design that I would talk about a lot more on my blog, but instead I’ll just submit the above picture as my ‘Demon Pigeon-reading Pokémon trainer of the week’. Also, a warning: TM moves can only be taught once, and can be deleted (at your requst) when your pokémon learns a new move; HM moves can be taught any number of times, but can never be forgotten. A common practice for adventuring trainers is to set aside one or two pokémon to use as Swiss army knives, and load them up with HM moves so the rest of their party can focus on a stronger set of battle moves.

As for Lt. Surge himself, I was surprised that you beat him using your Pidgeotto – Flying pokémon are weak against Electric attacks. The easy way to win is to take a pokémon like Geodude or Onix, who are immune to his pokémon’s Electric attacks and have high resistance to their Normal-type secondary moves. I resorted to catching a Bellsprout, in order to use Cut without soiling my Charmeleon’s moveset, but in the gym battle I stuck with my Butterfree and used Sleep Powder and Supersonic’s confusion effect to pacify his pokémon while I beat them down. Not a one-hit walkover like the previous gyms, but an exercise in threat management. Something to bear in mind if you ever find yourself at a distinct type disadvantage.

This has been quite a short chapter, but we’re in for a long haul next week – there is very little I can tell you, other than that we will be talking the scenic route. Send me a tweet once you’ve earned your next badge.

Happy hunting!

Owen

Worth waiting for? I should coco! The Pokémon Letters express rumbles on and it shows no signs of stopping, not even for your paltry little dormitory town. Join us next Friday (hopefully) for more animal husbandry high-jinks on the rails. Prepare to get trained, bitches.

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