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Trails of Tera Steel (Kiseki-inspired Pokemon Academy Quest)

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You know, I wont be shocked if Espurr turns out to need more Bond Points then average due to her distrust of humans. Feels like it'd make sense for it to take longer for a Pokémon who was functionally abused.
 
Sakamander said:
You know, I wont be shocked if Espurr turns out to need more Bond Points then average due to her distrust of humans. Feels like it'd make sense for it to take longer for a Pokémon who was functionally abused.
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That's certainly possible, but I figured "I'm going to ignore you until we're friends, unless you're actually dying" also models that, along with being normal for Pokémon who are way more powerful than we "should" have.

Ninjad by the GM.
 
Yeah I can see wanting to avoid Espurr for bond action economy reasons,especially with how temperamental dragons get in the 2nd evo we have two very intensive bond pokemon, but also trauma kitty my friend<3
 
On the other hand, we don't need to split training actions between Roland and Espurr since Espurr is already a 3-badge pokemon, while if we went with the other 2, we would need to either leave them at 0/1-badge or split training actions between them and Roland. With Espurr, we can just focus on training Roland for a while and get him to 2/3-badge by the time we get Espurr to bond 3.
 
[X] Teach It
[X] Buy them. The constant stares are getting to you. -2000 Pokedollars (Lowered from 4000 due to Mela Random Event Roll.)
[X] An Alolan Rattata

...I'm curious about it. At this stage completely unlikely to win but still voting for them.
 
[X] Teach It
[X] Buy them. The constant stares are getting to you. -2000 Pokedollars (Lowered from 4000 due to Mela Random Event Roll.)
[X] A Shuppet

Did initially prefer the Espurr for plot tie-ins and other stuff, though I guess the amount of actions we'd need to do to get the bond level up would be a bit much.
 
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The Pokemon votes are at Espurr - 19, Shuppet - 6 and Rattata - 3, so angsty cat is currently on track to win.

If she does, how do people want to handle the first gym? Personally I'd prefer searching for a 3rd pokemon in week 2 and training them up in weeks 3&4 rather than putting a bunch of pressure on Roland to carry us, but it would be a decision we need to make in Week 2. We wouldn't have enough time to really train them up if we decide in a later week.

Edit: Or of course we could leave our first gym battle to after FE1 and do it in the buildup to FE2?
 
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If Espurr wins I'd say leave the Gym til later. After all Espurr is capable of teleportation, which means once we go to a city with a Gym, and have Espurr actually cooperating we can teleport back to that city and do the Gym on our own time.

But other then that reason, if we're adopting a traumatized stray, and we ourselves are a traumatized stray, just better to focus on emotional needs for a while.
 
Sakamander said:
But other then that reason, if we're adopting a traumatized stray, and we ourselves are a traumatized stray, just better to focus on emotional needs for a while.
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How does Mariana even manage to become a traumatized stray.

Espurr/Renne at Bond 3: "I've realized now, you're like me. In return for your help, I'll help you get your revenge against the people who hurt you."

Mariana: "Hurt me? What?"

Roland: Drak! Drakloak! [She's not been abused, she's just like this.]
 
ArvisPresley said:
"Shut it all, four of you," he scolds. "Look, kid. If there's one piece of advice I gotta give you, it's that you shouldn't be afraid to lose. When I was doing my Journey, it took me 'till the end of my second year to win my second badge. I got my fifth badge in my seventh year and I finally got my seventh badge ten years after I started. Never even got my eight, kept trying at it until the war broke out."

"What I mean to say is that you shouldn't stress yourself you're not moving or progressing fast enough, trust me, Trainers these days shoot up like reeds. Enjoy your youth while you have it, alright?" he finishes. You make a noise of affirmation and stay silent the rest of the way, unsure of what to say.
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Yeah, Old Man Jenkins did tell us that we're allowed to take things slow.

Not rushing for our first gym badge also means we can take our time to find a third pokemon we actually want, rather than settling for the first half-decent pokemon we encounter. Though if we do find someone really good in week 2 I wouldn't pass them up haha.
 
Sakamander said:
If Espurr wins I'd say leave the Gym til later. After all Espurr is capable of teleportation, which means once we go to a city with a Gym, and have Espurr actually cooperating we can teleport back to that city and do the Gym on our own time.

But other then that reason, if we're adopting a traumatized stray, and we ourselves are a traumatized stray, just better to focus on emotional needs for a while.
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I was thinking the same thing, but I'm waiting to see if we have an opportunity to grab a third buddy next week. I'm not super feeling the rest of the list for this particular den (despite Remy the Ratatta being a very good child who deserves nice things), but I always like to keep strategies open until I see what my options are.

I do think trying to solo with Roland is a little unfair to the guy, but on the other hand, he ought to be riding the high of somehow fucking managing to KO Argy for a while.
 
You know, with all the issues Mariana is having, I'm happy that we chose to meet Ostia instead of that more noble-like person from our homeland.

Everyone mistakenly thinking she's basically that other girl's assistant wouldn't have been good for her long term mental health. Could easily be something she could just hide behind instead of confronting her issues.
 
[X] Teach It
[X] Save your cash. You can deal, heh, with the stares from people.
[X] A Shuppet

i know it probably wont win but my goal is to see just how many kids mary can adopt in the shortest amount of time. shuppet will make 3, who could be our 4th?
 
Also, doing some thinking...

Unless Arvis throws a curveball, I think our first Field Exercise is going to be Cortondo. It's one of the two closest Gym cities to Mesagoza (and clearly intended as a possible first Gym design-wise), and the first Field Exercise in Cold Steel is to Celdic, a similar farm-market-breadbasket town.

This means, barring another curveball, Katy and her Bug Types as opponents (and also a Gym challenge where our high PROW should come in handy). Roland and Shuppet are a good defensive type matchup there (although her canon team has a Dark coverage move), Rattata and Espurr aren't. We're lacking in super effective offensive options generally, which could be a problem.
 
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Nerdorama said:
This means, barring another curveball, Katy and her Bug Types as opponents (and also a Gym challenge where our high PROW should come in handy). Roland and Shuppet are a good defensive type matchup there, Rattata and Espurr aren't. We're lacking in super effective offensive options generally, which could be a problem.
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Espurr's trait means she has access to a complex move of every type, meaning she potentially has a supereffective move against every type. Of course we would need to get her to Bond 3, but that trait of hers gives her crazy move coverage.
 
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While I would support exploring/ranger work next week just to see if we find a third, Roland might be able to take the first gym solo with more training. It's hard to tell until we see the gyms in action.

Espurr is going to be more than "9 actions we can use them in gyms ez". They'll have relationship gates, probably will tie into Ostia's storyline (same lab as Argy?) Will probably require us to show loyalty by attacking their torturers for them. Expect a slow arc to get then to trust us, not just an investment of weekends.
 
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On will o wisp, the real upside of burn is the attack reduction. It's such a great move to ensure an easy fight against a physical attacker. I think having the option on our main pokemon is great.
 
[X] Teach it

It will just be useful for attrition or offense later on. Like mentioned, it will also DoT with infestation and will boost Hex's power. A good choice to have if we ever start winning initiative rolls.

[X] Buy them. The constant stares are getting to you. -2000 Pokedollars (Lowered from 4000 due to Mela Random Event Roll.)

Kinda wanna keep the traditional clothing, but I am a sucker for more Pokefashion. I am the type to grind more money, just to buy every article of clothing I can when I play a pokemon game. Other than that, it's also 50% off, so it we're ever going to get casual clothing, this is the time.

[X] A Shuppet

I wasn't sure about getting an Espurr, even this one has to be a big investment. But damn if I don't want the plot 'mon. If we're going to try that first gym, either we need to train or bond like crazy with our mons. Otherwise, we're best left holding off on challenging them for now, at least until we get another mon or Dreepy can solo it.
Espurr has been nerfed, still a good choice to make if one really wants it, but now I prefer Shuppet (mostly because leave is definitely not winning).

Also, of note: we easily could've won that first battle versus Nemomomomomona, if our initiative was better on the second or final rounds we would've nuked that Chimchar. Also, that Chimchar did an absurd amount of damage for a resisted attack, but I suppose that's just how effectiveness works in this quest. By the way, Nemona really did fail her speech check, she's what we would've been if instead of pumping CHRM we pump KNOW, for real.
 
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[X] Save it for Later.
[X] Buy them. The constant stares are getting to you. -2000 Pokedollars (Lowered from 4000 due to Mela Random Event Roll.)
[X] An Alolan Rattata

Honestly, all three of the options tug at my heartstrings, but... I just like the rat :oops: Might have been influenced by hanging out at the Yacht Club Games discord but I just really want the lil' fella

That's it, thanks for comingto my Ted Talk
 
[X] Teach It
[X] Buy them. The constant stares are getting to you. -2000 Pokedollars (Lowered from 4000 due to Mela Random Event Roll.)
[X] An Espurr
 
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