Pocket Monsters, Dear Readers! - Let's Play Pokémon Platinum

Oh man, user submitted pokemons. I think we should breed a tricked out male combee for him! Actually vespiqueen doesn't seem too bad. She has great defense stats, but some unfortunate typing

Actually I may put the tangela I just bred up for this. How do you plan to handle the user submitted rankings?

How are you going to handle things like mechanics discussion in this LP, by the way? I can chip in with some comments about the way things work internally if you (or other people) are interested; there's actually a lot of depth going on behind the scenes.

I planned on accepting any reader submitted Pokemon, and then handling them with team composition voting, along with a bit of my own influence and vetoing. Like the starter will probably stay in the party the whole way, because that's just how it is. Then depending on how the readers feel about this, 2-3 slots for Pokemon in the Platinum Sinnohdex, either caught by me or submitted by readers (since this is a Platinum LP, it should mostly have Pokemon that are normally in it) and then 1-2 slots for any other Pokemon, and 1 last slot for an HM slave as needed.

I hadn't really planned it out exactly, I figured I'd probably just wing it as I went along. Probably just gloss over typing, since I'm assuming most people reading this will at least have a rudimentary understanding of Pokemon, and then I'd go into and EV explanation sometime. Like maybe around the Eterna Forest/City area, because I actually did some EV grinding there when I replayed Diamond almost 2 years ago, since it was perfect for my Gastly that I just caught, and I had just started learning about EVs/IVs, and it was easy to do while I was working.

You can feel free to chime in with some stuff if you'd like, as I don't know everything about all those mechanics. Like I know of them, but I mostly only have a basic knowledge of EVs, IVs, and a few breeding tricks.

If you're doing just a basic run through EVs IVs and breading really won't matter. That's all post-game mostly stuff.

Here's hoping you catch a shiny Pokémon.

Also, do you have any preferences as far as user-submitted Pokémon go or can we breed up whatever the heck we like? Because you need a Xatu.

Ha, and you say I play too many video games. Just because I'm wearing a pair of Nikes doesn't mean I'll run faster.


Oh god, another of your "great ideas"? This should be good.


Ha! If a legendary Pokemon was still there, don't you think someone would have caught it by now? It was probably spotted there once or was a hoax in the first place.

...Ugh, fine, I'll go check it out with you. Let's go get this over with.


You really do believe everything you read, don't you? If you keep this up and I'm going to have to call PokeMythBusters.

(And yes, it really does say that the lake is the home of a legendary Pokemon, but I forgot to screenshot it.)


Oh great. Some weirdo in a silver jumpsuit is talking to himself.


For once, I agree with you.


Or it could have been some other random Pokemon.


What do you mean we don't have anything? What are you talking about?


Well crap, I should have realized that before you. How embarrassing.

But not as embarrassing as how much of a shameless leech you are.


It all just goes in one ear and out the other with you.



You have no idea. He can't even take a piss without wetting the front of his pants.

Damn right he's happy! Every Pokemon I've met has loved me, I'm like a Pokemon Whisperer.


Whoa there, you might have convinced Lucas to drink your Jesus Juice, but I'm not going to.


Oh. Is that all?

Yea, sure. I'll go do your job for you.


Y'know, I'm just gonna take that at face value and try not to think about about what you do when you're with a Gardevoir or Lopunny.


(Alright, let's take a look at Geonardo. Rash nature raises Sp.Atk and lowers Sp.Def, and since the Turtwig line has significantly higher Attack than Sp. Atk, this is a less than ideal nature. But we'll roll with it, since this doesn't really matter much at all unless you're into competitive battling.)

After we leave Prof. Rowan comes out and gives us a TM. TM stands for Technical Machine, and it's a single use item that can teach a move to a Pokemon, provided they're capable of learning it. He gives us TM27, Return, a move which increases in power when your Pokemon is more friendly with you. Then Lucas gives us a tour of the town, and recommends that I go home and let my mom know what I'm doing so she doesn't worry.


OK mom, you've been watching too many cop and


Because it's dangerous to go alone?


Thanks for volunteering me mom! It's not like tracking him down will be a colossal pain because he won't stay in one place for very long.


Oh I know, I was just thinking I might do an explanation of it there since it's convenient.

I don't have much of a preference, breed up whatever! I've never used a Xatu before, so I'm fine with using one, but it'll be up to the readers to vote it onto the team.

So hey, can I send you a Tropius to turn into a key team member?

IF YOU SAY NO I WILL BAN YOU ok not really

I've got a super special egg for you if you'd like it. Let's just say that Snubbull was the middle bit of the chain in passing this specific move around...

You can munch my banana beard.

Sure, I'll take em both. Tropius is even awesome enough that I'll be willing to have two grass types on my team.

The boy is going to be mauled by a Garchomp someday.

I've actually got a Natu egg from an aborted theme team just sitting in my PC if you want it.

I've nor played nor really looked at any pokemon games since Red/Blue. So this should be interesting.

My question is: which pokemon do you plan to use along the way (until you get to your ideal set of 6)? Because I'd like to see some competitive Porygon action.

I am going to find a Manaphy egg just for this LP. You better like it, mister!

Spoink is the best Pokemon.

No, second best. But Spoink is definitely going on my Gen V Fresh Start Team (TM).

Tropius was my favourite HM slave with cut, fly, and strength.

Porygon2 (yes, not even a PorygonZ) is actually on the team I use competitively on simulators (I haven't built it ingame yet, although I may do at some point). Not massively useful for the ingame, but it can do some hilarious things to many of the Pokémon other human players tend to use (mostly by messing about with Trace).

Had to look up what Trace did, which led to looking up other abilities to fully understand. Nice though. I always liked using Conversion to mess with my friends' psychic types.

Wow, just from 5 minutes on bulbapedia, Pokemon has grown insane. A respectful request: can you explain some of the mechanics that we old geezers might not know so well?

Here's my understanding: Pokemon now have individual passive abilities. For example, if you hit a Pikachu with a physical attack, you have a chance to be paralyzed. Pokemon also now have "natures", which lead them to have slightly modified statistics (for example, a Pokemon will develop with a higher attack rating than standard but a slightly slower speed). Then there are IVs and DVs, which have further to do with a Pokemon's development but I have no idea how those work but they're tied into breeding and then breeding has to do with inheriting movesets and...

Most of that stuff is only relevant if you're only interested in competitive battling. or wasting a hell of a lot of time

There's a few other things. The only other battling element that I know of is that attacks are now decided as physical or special on a move-by-move basis, rather than by the move's type. So, for example, Poison Sting is a physical move, while Acid is special. The biggest effect this has is for Pokémon like Hitmonchan, who get the array of elemental punches, and now have the stats to use them decently.

As far as overworld exploration, they seem to change up the selection of HM moves so as to try to not make HM slaves a total waste of a slot. Flash is now a TM move. Unfortunately, while they did good with Rock Climb, they still screwed up worse than Flash with Defog. Seriously? I just don't even bother with Defog.

There's also contests, which are the Pokémon equivalent of a dog show. These were added in Ruby/Sapphire, and they use the moves you taught your Pokémon to earn the admiration of the crowd and judges. I won't get into the fine details here because I can't remember them, but I can say that each Pokémon has five stats for contests: Cool, Tough, Smart, Beauty, and Cute. Each of these can be raised by snacks, and contests are divided to prefer certain moves (a contest of Coolness obviously favors Coolness, but using a Cute or Smart move will be not approved, I think).

IVs: A hidden value that determines the Pokemon's stats. They are set when the Pokemon is generated and cannot be changed. If the Pokemon was bred, it will inherit some of its IVs from its parents; otherwise they're completely random. IVs are the reason that, say, my Sandshrew and your Sandshrew might end up with slightly or entirely different stats even if we catch them at the same level or raise them exactly the same way. There's no way to find these out specifically in-game, although a guy at the Battle Frontier will tell you in general terms how good your Pokemon's are. Can be safely ignored unless you're into hardcore tournament play.

EVs: The other hidden value that determines Pokemon's stats. Every time a Pokemon wins a fight, it gains between one and three EVs in a particular stat, depending on the species of Pokemon it beat. For every 4 EVs in a stat a Pokemon earns, it gains 1 additional point in that stat at level 100, up to 510 EVs total, and something like 255 EVs in a single stat. You can safely ignore these as well in the main quest, but if you're interested in Battle Frontier or even specifically raising Pokemon for Link Battles, you'll want to pay attention to them.

The Effort Values are the ones I pay more attention to, honestly. It's not too hard to figure out the positive stat gains once you realize stats like Attack and Speed tie to liking spicy and sweet food respectively, and Heart Gold and Soul Silver's are easier to figure out because the gaining and losing stats are highlighted in red and blue.

Individual values, though? I ain't touching that crap 'til there's a better (in-game) way of explaining it.

Also worth noting is that in gen 4 they added little hints in the Trainer Notes on a given Pokemon that tell you what its highest IV is. "Proud of its power" for attack, "Highly curious" for special attack, etc.

Natures: Permanent 10% boost to one stat and a 10% decrease to another stat, some natures don't change any stats. Affect what kind of berry the pokemon likes, for example a pokemon with a nature that boosts SpAtk will prefer dry berries. If you have a pokemon with synchronize in the front of your party, you have a 50% chance of finding wilding pokemon with the same nature as your synchronize pokemon. When breeding pokemon if you give the mother an everstone to hold the child has a 50% chance of having the mother's nature.

Effort Values (EVs): When caught/hatched a pokemon has 0 EVs. When a pokemon defeats another pokemon it gains anywhere from 1 to 3 EVs in a specific stat. For example magikarp gives 1 speed EV, while Gyarados gives 3 speed EVs. A pokemon can have a maximum of 510 EVs with 255 in a single stat. Every 4 EVs correlates to 1 point in that stat at Lv 100 (that's why you want to get 252 EVs in a single stat instead of 255). A pokemon infected with pokerus will gain twice as many EVs as normal. A pokemon holding the macho brace will gain twice as many EVs (stacks with pokerus). The "power" items from the battle frontier give a pokemon 4 additional EVs in a specific stat whenever it defeats another pokemon, regardless of the EVs the pokemon gives. Vitamins (protein et al) give a pokemon 10 EVs in a specific stat maxing out at 100 EVs, once a pokemon has 100 EVs in a stat and you try to give it a vitamin for that stat it will not work. Certain berries will decrease a pokemon's EVs by 10, if the stat has greater than 100 EVs the berry will drop the stat to exactly 100 EVs.

Individual Values (IVs): Determined whenever a pokemon is encountered/hatched. Range from 1 to 31 for each stat. Each IV correlates to 1 point in that stat at Lv 100. Cannot be changed. The random number generator can be manipulated to get better IVs. IVs are passed down when bredv producing a child with more IVs. If a pokemon is given a "power" item when bred it will pass down the IV correlating to the power item, only in heart gold and soul silver. The IVs of a pokemon determine the type of the move Hidden Power. There is a NPC that will tell you what type Hidden Power will be for a specific pokemon in heart gold and soul silver.

Bacially, Natures are easier to manipulate than EVs which are easier to manipulate than IVs. If you're playing through the main game the only one you may want to worry about is nature and even disregarding nature you can make it through fine.

But Spoink can't stop bouncing, or it'll die.

And just look at it! You want to cuddle it forever, but if you even try, you'll send it into a lethal cardiac arrest and literally cuddle Spoink to death

So after passing through Sandgem Town, we find Lucas, who is waiting for us.


I already know how to catch Pokemon, but I let him run through his little spiel because he's been waiting around all this time for me.

(I like that they have him use the Pokemon that didn't get chosen, little things like that are great. I had forgotten to take screenshots of the rest of the tutorial, but he weakens it to about half health before catching it, and then after the battle he explains that he should have lowered the health even more, and that status effects, such as sleep, can make it easier to catch as well. Then he gives me 5 Poke Balls and heads on his way.)


That fight was way too close for comfort because that Starly got a lucky crit in.


We head back to town, and after healing at the Pokemon Center, we go to the store and buy some Poke Balls. (In Gen 4, when you buy 10 regular Poke Balls at once, you get a Premier Ball, which is basically a fancy looking regular Poke Ball.) Then we take out another trainer on the way to Jubilife City, getting Geonardo to level 9 and he learning a new move.


Oh, hey Lucas. I, uh, haven't caught any. I was more focused on getting here, and besides, all I encountered were Bidoofs anyway.


So you're saying quantity over quality? I'm disappointed in you, Lucas.

Then Lucas mentions seeing Tezuka going into a Pokemon school, and on the way there we stumble upon this fruit loop, darting back and forth between those lampposts.


Yea, seriously dude. Did Zenigata teach you how to be an Interpol agent?

Shady Man: ...Heh. You claim that you were only making conversation, do you? But, I know better not to believe that. No, no, no. You recognized right away that I was someone extraordinary. That is why you spoke to me, is it not? Your power of observation is fearsome! Quite admirable, you are! Now that my cover has been blown, let me introduce myself. I am a globe-trotting elite of the International Police. My code name, it is Looker. That is what they all call me.

Looker: Now listen my friends, it is wrong to take what belongs to others. Unfortunately, there are apparently those who do not heed those words. In Sinnoh, in fact, there are criminals stealing the Pokemon of others. I have, therefore, been on the lookout for characters arousing my suspicion. Also, I have a request. If you were to see me again, I ask that you not talk to me, for I am on duty. ...Actually, yes, yes, you may speak to me. You must. Not because I am lonely, no, no! You must inform me of bad guys! You must inform me of any happenings!


Cool. But first, I'm gonna go catch another Pokemon!


Well, you're not a Shinx, but you'll do because I'm tired of looking.


(A Quiet nature means +Sp. Atk and -Speed, so this is a pretty awful nature for Starly, who relies on Attack and Speed.)


Yea, your mom wanted me to give you this package.


Sweet. Your mom must have packed two of them on purpose.


Oreburgh City, huh? I guess that's my next destination as well.


Let me guess, that's your O-face?


Well, I guess I could use a watch, and since all I have to do is find some stupid clowns, I guess I'll do this.

Finding the three clowns is easy, and after answering their simple questions, I return the prize coupons to the Pokemon Watch guy.

Alright, from left to right, we have the watch, calculator, pedometer, and our Pokemon's HP.


After a bit of grinding to get Maverick up to level 7, we head east to Oreburgh.


Of course I did, how about you?


Bring it.


Your poor little Starly couldn't handle Geonardo. I'll show you what a real Starly is like!


That's how it's done, Tezuka.


Sorry Tezuka, this won't be the last time you lose, because you'll never lose to me.


I bet you picked those Pokemon just to be annoying, didn't you.


Maverick takes out his Zubat, reaches level 9, and gets himself a new move.




Battle montage! Alright, now that I'm finally all caught up, we have some options on how to proceed.

I can go back and catch Bidoof, Shinx, and Abra before moving on, and I can also catch Zubat, Psyduck, andGeodude in the cave to Oreburgh City. I'll also be able to catch Onix, Machop, or Ponyta in the areas around Oreburgh. So if you want to add some of those Pokemon to our team, post about it, and provide some nicknames too!

A couple questions:

What is the difference between Starly and Pidgey? Seriously, they seem to be the exact same thing.

Who does this "Bidoof" character think s/he is using Hyper Fang? That's Rattata's move. That was the best part of using a level 100 Raticate when battling friends (I frequently got laughed at, but Hyper Fang kills rather quickly).

Also, I vote for Zubat (I am an irrational Zubat fan though, so take that rec with some salt) and Onix (again, an irrational rock fan).