DB's Pokemon Y Nuzlocke - Day 5

Welcome, reader, to Day 5...ish of my Pokemon Y Nuzlocke challenge! Yeah, it's been awhile. Nearly two months, in fact. Nevertheless, I will keep doing these until I finish my challenge, successful or not. So without further ado...

I go into Glittering Cave because I have no choiceto explore its depths. A Fighting or Steel type would be really helpful for the upcoming gym right about now... The cave has Machop, which I could trade and trade back again to evolve it from Machoke into Machamp, and Ferroseed in the back though it REALLY hates fire. (you would too if you were Grass/Steel) But does the cave give me a Machop to try and catch?

Nope. Solrock, a Rock/Psychic Pokemon with Levitate. (Levitate renders the Pokemon immune to damaging Ground moves such as Earthquake as well as all entry hazards except Stealth Rock) And rather than let the next to worthless Sun-shaped space rock kill Pan with its Psywave and Fire Spin, (traps and hurts for several turns) I have her take it down, thus denying me of getting anything from this part of the cave. Fine. There's still the back, I might still be able to get myself a metal durian of a Pokemon...

After a bit of poking around and training, and returning to the outside in order to make use of the Ranger girl's generous healing services, I go into the back and - whoa. Who is this dude? And why is he decked out in the most annoyingly bright red suit, hair, and shades they could possibly find? ...I see. This is a Team Flare grunt. And they apparently think their obsession for the fiery red color is fashionable! How cute, yet utterly wrong. One butt whooping later, and I can tread deeper into this part of the cave...and face another Team Flare grunt. Well, props to Team Flare for keeping the female grunts in pretty much the same awful suit... Seriously, Team Galactic from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum had better fashion sense even if they did use the Wurmple line way too much.

I press on, and Serena joins up to help take down the Team Flare losersgrunts. This one is much tougher as we're up against Scraggy and Croagunk, Dark/Fighting and Poison/Fighting respectfully. Serena isn't of much help, but my boy Snoozer manages to nab the win! With them out of the way, we check up on the researcher in the furthest part of this cave. Turns out he was so engrossed in his research that he didn't even notice Team Flare. And also, he's just dug up a pair of fossils: the Sail Fossil, (revives into Amaura, a Rock/Ice type with Refrigerate, which turns Normal moves into Ice moves) and the Jaw Fossil. (revives into Tyrunt, a Rock/Dragon type with Strong Jaw, which boosts the power of biting moves) I pick the Sail Fossil, but I sadly don't have plans to revive it.

You know how I was going on about how a Fighting or Steel type would be really good? Spoiler alert, Grant, the gym leader in Cyllage City, uses both fossils. Tyrunt is neutral to Water and Grass and Snoozer doesn't take physical hits that well.

You know how I was optimistic about getting Ferroseed? Glittering Cave decided I wasn't good enough for that either. I encounter Woobat, and Pan demolishes it with Bite. So in the end I got nothing for my troubles here. I go back outside and do some of that training thing on the back of a Rhyhorn and return to Ambrette Town, where I receive the Aerodactylite! Completely useless to me, but whatever. Of yeah, and I'm informed that I should go to Shalour City to figure out the mystery of the Mega Stones. We'll get there eventually, but first I need to get to Cyllage City and earn the badge there.

I go through the aquarium and past a golden Magikarp statue, then talk to a Fisherman who gives me the Old Rod! I could catch a Luvdisc and trade it for an NPC's Thumper the Steelix - oh wait. No, I can't. I've already caught Drifloon on Muraille Coast and if I catch Luvdisc in Cyllage I can't then trade it for Thumper because of the 'one Pokemon per area' rule I've imposed on myself. Well this looks kind of bad...

Did I mention I'm back out on Muraille Coast? (Route 8) I poke around, and this Swimmer (F) gives me the Dowsing Machine. Nice! I poke around with it and find a couple items, then battle the few trainers along the way. In one battle, Sara nearly bites it from a Bubblebeam courtesy of a Tentacool, but thankfully endures to finish the poisonous jellyfish off. Gluttina even helps by absorbing the Toxic Spikes that had been scattered, being a Poison type and all.

Finally, I make it to Cyllage City. One of the first things I do is go heal up at the Pokemon Center, then - Ooh... Bike shop! I go into there where I find I'm the 100,001st customer, which means I get a bike if I can answer a not-so-skill testing question. Do bikes come in more than one color? Well considering I can see both available colors I should hope so. With the correct answer, I get a Bicycle in yellow. After, I go picking up what goodies are lying around. About midway up the hill, I meet Grant who gives me HM 04 Strength and the information that I need his badge to use this move outside of battle to push heavy boulders around. Good to know. I also purchase a dozen bottles of Soda Pop and acquire a Destiny Knot (if the holder becomes infatuated, the opponent falls in love too. Also has an incredibly useful role for breeding) as well as TM 21 Frustration, TM 44 Rest, and TM 88 Sleep Talk.

As is, I really don't like my odds against him right now. Which means some training is in order. So I head north to Menhir Trail (Route 10) to train. Of course, I had forgotten about what I could possibly catch on this route, and am reminded by a pleasant surprise - Eevee! It's a somewhat difficult battle, but eventually I catch it. I nickname him Sly and then head back to the Pokemon Center to check out what I've caught. Sly is Relaxed, yet quick tempered, (rather contrary isn't it?) and being Lv 19 still has Baby-Doll Eyes. I've got lots of choices for which Eeveelution to go with here. (not that I'd use the Grass type Leafeon or the Ice type Glaceon, those come way too late) This includes the newest Eeveelution, the Fairy type Sylveon, as I originally said I could use Pokemon Amie with Eevee for this. And that is exactly what I do. I switch Gluttina for Sly, (Snoozer has Yawn by now) get Sly's affection up to two out of five hearts, (the minimum requirement) and then go train at Menhir Trail again. Thankfully, as an Eevee he has Run Away to flee from battles that might turn ugly if I were to stay and fight. (Hawlucha comes to mind being a fast Fighting/Flying type) I get him to Lv 20 and he evolves into Sylveon, learning Draining Kiss immediately after! Of course, now he has Cute Charm which has a 30% chance to infatuate a female opponent that makes physical contact and attracts female wild Pokemon to battle. (it would all be male if the user was female)

I'm suddenly feeling a fair bit more confident about my upcoming gym battle!

Sly: Lv 20
Snoozer: Lv 20
Pan: Lv 21
Sara: Lv 21
Charles: Lv 21
Chesna: Lv 21