We're treated to Temporal Spire from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon as the music for Ranger's refuge. Right away we're blocked with a forced item pickup, so I'm sure it's important.
We get the running shoes; tells us how to run or that we can toggle auto-run mode. It lets us go fast in the overworld, blah blah, basic stuff.
Wait, what?
Okay so Salt and Shadow is a nonlinear game. You can go anywhere you want; provided you can beat whatever trainers are blocking your path. This means that lategame areas or item pickups are blocked by strong trainers to keep you out. But it'd be really unfair to just throw you against a really tough opponent and force a party-wipe with no warning, right? So the game's solution is that you can run from most battles in the game with few exceptions if you feel like you're going to lose the battle. Running gains you no progress at all, but it's useful if you want to re-evaluate your options.
We will be making use of this very shortly.
: The weak will be weak, the strong will be strong.
LP title drop! Seems like this champion is a big deal. Sharp eyed readers might have noticed this last update in fact; in a normal pokemon game beating a level 11 alone would probably level up a level 5 pokemon by one or two levels instanty, yet our levels stayed the same. There is no EXP in this game. The game does not want you to grind. Currently, our only option for getting stronger is catching higher leveled pokemon. Guess that's why all the pokeballs, huh?
: You DON'T need to damage Pokemon to catch them. I just caught a high-level Pokemon at full health! I thought I was a goner for sure, but I just threw the ball, and avoided losing my team! Damaging them or inflicting status effects helps, but even at full health, catching succeeds about 30% of the time. At least... for the species I've encountered so far. Will return to report more soon.
Speaking of pokeballs, seems like they've been buffed! Given what we know about exp and some other things we'll be covering in this update, we'll be catching a lot of Pokemon, so this is a very helpful buff.
Free great ball, very nice.
Heading inside the right house, we have an old lady facing the wall and a few pokeballs on the sides.
: You must have been carried here by the Shadow Beneath the Waves. But the old beast's quest is pointless. The Legends will never return...
: There are just two Crystal Beacons left. One Beacon is SOUTHEAST, in the depths of the FEVERTHORN JUNGLE. The other is WEST, at the Peak of SKYSPEAR MOUNTAIN. Both contain power, but our one-time heroes will never share it willingly. There isn't much time left. One way or another...
Okay creepy grandma. Guess we have a goal! Two crystal beacons.
The balls at the side are pokedex rewards. We won't ever actually get a pokedex, but pokemon we've caught before will have an icon next to them.
We can also check how many we have by either interacting with these or viewing our trainer card, as it helpfully points out. Our reward counts are 10, 25, 50, 75, 100, and 150. Another reason to chuck a ball at anything we haven't caught yet.
Back outside, we can find some hidden great balls on this rock, and some potions right below it.
: DO NOT READ UNAUTHORIZED MATERIAL. Have a blissful day!
Definitely getting some vibes from this place.
Inside the left building we can find a PC. They can store pokemon, just like in the official games. There's one key difference though: storing a pokemon in them does not heal the pokemon.
: Its chassis bulges in rhythm to a distant heartbeat. The screen compresses space into a perfect abyss. Is it alive? Are the pokeballs its eggs?
oookay then.
More potions on the table. You can never have too many of those.
: They burst from the ground like weeds.
Have you tried weedkiller? Whether it's a weed or a computer, I think it'll fry it regardless!
Checking the drawers up here, we find lore and a pearl. Does the book just say "The Wanderer" over and over, or were there real names at some point?
And here, we get to the main gimmick of the game: the day system. We have a limited amount of full party heals; between 12 or 13 to be exact (depending on whether you can have 0 days left or not). We can trade a day to fully heal, and if we lose in battle we're forced to take that trade. In other words: this game has a lose condition. If we run out of days, I assume it's a nonstandard game-over. I haven't actually run out of days to know for sure, however. Nothing is stopping us from savescumming if we're really in trouble, but this does mean that we have to be careful with the damage we take; we can heal with items so long as the pokemon hasn't fainted, but once it's fainted, our options are very limited for reviving it.
This is yet another reason why we'll be catching a lot of pokemon; as the game's thread says, revives are limited, but the wild is an endless source of replacements. Between this and the no exp it might seem like there won't be much room to get attached to mons, but I wouldn't worry about that; the game has some tricks up it's sleeves.
Saying no here will net us this response. Using the bed is very tempting, but it's always better to push on until no hope remains for that day.
Heading up the stairs outside the house, we find even more pokeballs. We're up to 50 now; eventually we'll use one!
: If you see a real book, DO NOT PANIC.
Getting some real vibes from the champion (or whoever is leaving these behind).
Hidden Baton Pass TM in the bush. TMs are reusable here, which is nice!
: WARNING: Some of the battles ahead are impossible. There is no hidden item or cunning strategy that will change this fact.
Okay but did you know that Leon's Charizard is unbeatable?
Anyways yeah north of here is the champion's lair. Whenever we're strong enough, we can go up there and kick some rear end.
Of course, first you have to make it past this guy.
Needless to say we aren't beating this guy at this point. He even has intimidating gym leader music to make sure you know he's a threat. Time to make use of that running from trainer battles mechanic! There are some goodies up there to get if we can get past him, so ideally we want to beat this guy whenever we get the chance.
Energy powder and 2 potions. Energy powder is basically a super potion with a different name; I think it lowered friendship but that only realy matters if we get a friendship move (which I have not encountered at all in this game).
To the west of Journey's End is Sorrow's Path, and to the east of Ranger's Refuge is the Deepwoods.
And to the south is the Shrine of Silent Gods, which is just a continuation of the hub area. There's a hidden item in this screenshot that I remember having something good but for some reason I forgot to grab it while recording; I'll make sure to get it next time.
In the middle of the shrine are 3 statues and a cubone.
: It hoped the firstborn would carry it away.
Obviously, yes.
I like the last option here. It's very heartwarming. I don't know if the other 2 options do anything different, and I don't have the heart to find out.
: Slowly, haltingly, it decides to trust you.
Resisting the temptation to call it Sans.
I'll be honest, I didn't use it much in my playthrough. Other pokemon I had just seemed more appealing so I didn't have an opportunity to get attached, even though I'm sure Marowak is good. Maybe that'll change here?
Our first statue. The game doesn't elaborate on whether it's a sacrifice or you're doing a fusion dance to create a new mon, but effectively this is a multiple pokemon trade for one really good mon. In general, the statue mons are excellent. We don't have either a Celebi or a Mareep though.
: Activate the icon on the map to get even more information.
I didn't think to show it off here, but checking the map tells you where to find the ingredient pokemon. Celebi is listed as a question mark (it's in deepwoods, to the east of here), while Mareep is in the Farmlands, which is west of here.
Pidgeotto and Xatu can be found in Skyspear Climb, also west of here.
Honchkrow and Houndoom can be found in Skyspear Summit and Skyspear Caverns respectively, both of which are... also west of here. You might also notice that Celebi is an ingredient in all 3 of these. We cannot get all 3 of these statues in one playthrough. If you guys have a preference as to which one we get based off the limited information, let me know. The levels attached don't mean that much, they're really only a sign of how early we can get them.
To the west of the shrine is the Dragon Cave.
I don't know of any good reason not to say yes here.
This is a really good find just sitting here in the open. Overheat is a 130 power move with it's only downsides being the PP cost and it lowering your special attack (forcing a switchout in most cases). There's actually a really cool quirk with TMs in this game that I'll explain when we get another TM in this update.
I also casually run into a wild level 9 dragonair.
I attempt to weaken it with mimikyu, but get thunder waved and miss a turn in return.
So rather than mess around further I just chuck one of my 50 balls at it and catch it first ball. The book wasn't lying about those buffed catch rates!
: He sacrificed the world instead.
I'm beginning to think this champion guy is kinda a dick!
This guy blocks us from continuing further in this cave.
That's 33 levels of nope in a 5 level bag! I'm out of here. The encounter rate is also really high for this cave it feels like, and yet I kept only getting dragonairs despite me knowing there's non-dragonair pokemon in here.
Leaving the cave, some guy has replaced the cubone we adopted.
Hell yeah, archeology!
: well... We all have some kind of drive within us still, right? Even those Guardian types.
[nod]
: pottery! And other artifacts of past civilizations, you know. Anyways, if you find any Ashen Shards around, bring them to me, will you? I'll share my findings with you in return.
: According to the inscription, it was supposed to soothe wild Pokemon... or something.
Yes. Give me that.
That's immediately getting registered for quick use.
This is a wild pokemon toggle! So long as this is enabled, we won't encounter wild pokemon. The game respects your time; dealing with wild pokemon spam is not what this game is about. It's even diegetic, which is a cool touch. (And no, despite it being a flute, it doesn't change the music or play annoying sounds or anything. You aren't sacrificing anything by using this).
Heading south of the shrine, we have a beach. It's dark because we're still in the shrine area and the area transition is a step or so south.
: It isn't one of the Firstborn. It's a NEW Pokemon. It's a blue wolf with a golden crown, steel in its jaws. Where did he get it? Only the Seamother can birth new Pokemon.
Okay so for context, the Pokemon being talked about here is Zacian, the box art legendary of Pokemon Sword. She is one of 4 Pokemon with the dubious honor of being relegated to Anything Goes, the highest tier of ban in the Smogon Banlist; the others being Arceus temporarily in Gen 4, Mega Rayquaza, and Calyrex Shadow. Why is she banned? First of all, her speed and attack are already excellent; she has the 25th highest attack and 12th highest speed of any Pokemon in her crowned form (which only requires her to hold a specific item). That's really good, but that's not enough to get you banned. However, she also has an ability in her crowned form that increases her attack by one stage when she enters battle; this means that in practice, she doesn't have the 25th highest attack of any Pokemon, she has the highest attack of any Pokemon, and the ability to outspeed all but like 11 Pokemon total (not counting pokemon holding speed-increasing items). To add to this is an amazing type combination in fairy/steel, which offers really good type coverage and is weak to very little, on top of her having very respectable defense as well. She is a contender for possibly the strongest Pokemon out there, with her only realistic competition being Mega Rayquaza, a Legendary pokemon who can Mega Evolve without holding an item.
Believe me when I say that Zacian was probably the weakest link on the champion's team. The game isn't lying when it's hyping up it's champion.
But enough about that, the champion's a ways away. We find a Fire Punch TM here, and here's where I'm going to talk about a cool thing with TMs in this game. TMs, in addition to being able to be learned by the usual pokemon, can be learned by ANY pokemon who shares the same type as the TM. Any fire type pokemon can learn Fire Punch now. This can give options to a lot of pokemon who normally don't have the movepool to back up their strengths. This means the TMs you find have a lot more mileage than they normally would!
There's also a shop down here. I opt to buy some paralyze heals and some potions for a rainy day. Money is very valuable, because potions are your main way of healing off scratch damage you normally wouldn't care about.
: permanent guard. Fire-type Pokemon are considered a dangerous threat, and catching them is forbidden. The Champion will reign forever.
Oooh, I'd like me some fire types.
Unfortunately these chuckleheads are guarding the entrance.
Level 15s. I could probably take them with my new dragonair, but I opted to run to prevent the update from being bloated.
So, where to now? We have a few options. We can do Deepwoods, Sorrow's Path, explore the beach more, or maybe take on the flamekeepers and get a fire type pokemon.
Possible encounters:
Shrine of Silent Gods:
27.5% Clefairy (Lv 3-7)
16.5% Chikorita (Lv 3-7)
16.5% Cyndaquil (Lv 3-7)
16.5% Totodile (Lv 3-7)
11% Jigglypuff (Lv 3-7)
11% Swablu (Lv 3-7)
Dragon Cave:
46.2% Dragonair (Lv 5-9)
15.4% Deino (Lv 6-9)
15.4% Drakloak (Lv 8-10)
15.4% Goomy (Lv 6-9)
7.6% Pupitar (Lv 8-10)
DimiPZC f*cked around with this message at 06:16 on Jun 26, 2024
