Boltund

Episode 4;

https://pokemon.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003866487

Poliwag plays through Sword again Episode 4 | FandomEpisode…pokemon.fandom.com

Ok, let's actually beat Bea this time. However, before I swapped in my hoot hoot and Corvisquire as I'll probably never use them otherwise.

(Hootoot proceeds to get shredded by a take down from a gym trainers stufful. Yikes)

Koffing later will o wisped bewear and runerigus exchanged brutal swings with it for a bit before I simply had quag stave off the last few hits and finish bewear off with aqua tail. Definitely never using a Johto Mon ever again that's not powerful like ttar or heracross for a while.

Hootoot rare w...also apparently all of these fighting types have a brutal swing to counter runerigus so far. Yikes.

Anywho runerigus shadow claw was just enough for me to swap Corvisquire in to finish it off...after the silly duck got 2 detects off somehow. (I wish runerigus had shadow sneak...)

You vs the she tells you not to worry about. Weirdly didn't attempt to learn anything, oof. And I misclick peck over air slash on the last gym trainers Hitmonlee so koffing had to finish it off. The Hitmonchan that came after was dealt with via quagsires yawn and (briefly ( rain dance boosted aqua tails.

(Wow Hitmonchan is frail, going to yellow after 1 rain boosted aqua tail from quagsire,not an offensive oriented Mon).

Anywho for Bea I kept my low level noctowl up front, for I wanted to test how OP dynamax is in terms of getting around level disadvantage.

Surprisingly noctowl outspeeds hitmontop but payback one shots me, taking out my dmax with it. Oh well. Thwackey, you're up.

(2 razor leafs barely take out hitmontop, who's above even my level 30s).

Anywho next is koffing vs pangoro. Pangoro has night slash but I'm trying smokescreen strats. It didn't work.

Pangoro goes for work up as I switch in runerigus, who's shadow claw doesn't do much. The same thing happens twice. I end up sacking runerigus to bring thwackey back in at full HP, at least I ridded mold breaker.

Quag barely lives the+2 night slash to get a yawn off, but the damage is already somewhat done. I set up the rain and delete pangoro with aqua tail... barely. Strangely quag outspeeds the Sirfetch'd and gets an aqua tail off before falling...but my last Mon is a super under levelled Corvisquire. It barely lives a brutal swing the first round and gets destroyed the second round.

Sorry I swapped you out boltund, guess I'm gonna mostly use gossifleur for poke jobs from now onwards, I can't let that happen again. That said,what happens if you white out in galar at the final gym ba-

...and I'm back. Huh.

Well that's a fair trade. That said after healing once I go for dynamax with boltund (again) and simply electrocute hitmontop. Pangoro barely takes 1 max lightning to get a work up, but the e terrain boost is too much for it as my dmax runs out. Boltund also defeats Sirfetch'd thanks to para hax.

Weirdly enough apparently max moves don't make contact so my attempt to give Machamp wandering spirit failed, and runerigus had to be sacked off for it.

For some reason I attempt to fake out Machamp, but it doesn't get flinched and gets it's focus energy boost. Oh wait. Boost. Koffing has clear smog.

So long crits! (Koffing is sacked off here soon afterwards)

Boltund manages to beat Machamp tho, with spark nonetheless. I'm never ditching this dog ever again.

Huh, maybe that explains some of the damage done.

Wait this is what Avery wears! Mind...blown! (Klara's attire is also there too, didn't know that)

Next I went to deal with bede. Luckily I have liepard, who's assurance tears through his duosion as it sets up light screen.

Surprisingly liepard is lower level than hatterm and manages to chunk it to half with assurance before d gleam takes her out. Ouch. Runerigus is able to live a psybeam and finish it off with shadow claw.

Runerigus is well worth the pain, due to gothorita here needing 2 fake tears to probably take it out but it got defeated by shadow claw and brutal swing. That said it's sp. Def is -4 so I'm gonna use bol-

Never mind I sent in quag instead. Muddy water easily get Ponyta to red before psybeam confuses quag. She beats Ponyta with mud shot.

Wait rillaboom doesn't get another grass move until it evolves from thwackey? Yikes.

Oh, that explains rusted weaponry from zacian and zamazenta...how long have they had those?

I catch impidimp and add him to the team in place of runerigus (because I want to try grimmsnarl out for real at some point, though I replace liepard with runerigus soon after becuz I was growing attached to the runestone)

Yep, that's a ghost alright. (I wonder why it's always hiding in the rock)

...well that didn't take long. When grimmsnarl though? 42? Uhh, ok? Anywho opals gym gimmick should be easy to overcome. (And I have koffing)

Defensively or offensively? (I clicked poison (offensively), and koffing got a free work up)

Smogon UK branch be like. Also weirdly it didn't learn strange steam upon evolution, opting for double hit instead. And I didn't know weezing had high physical attack because koffing so far had been using the special move sludge (bomb) ND clear smog.

Anywho it was rather uneventful on the most part, weezing was able to mostly tear through every gym trainer, even confusion couldn't stop her.

For the weezing ditto I just dynamaxed and used the opposing weezing to get 3 max oozes.... though a wrong question got my speed lowered by +2, and Togekiss...live on 1hp and defeated a weakened weezing , but that's fine. Rillaboom was able to finish Togekiss off.

Jokes on you mawile, quagsire is a special attacker! Mawile fell to muddy water, and quag now has to battle the gmax cake....and gets deleted by it instantly. What.

It's safe to say boltund has become my pseudo ace... though the gmax alcremie defeats her on its last d max turn.

Rillabooms drum solo has to come in clutch. Well deserved too considering how much I've been shunting it as of late.

Hmm...a new guts fighting type in the wild area. There goes timburrs niche...

Anywho I attempt a snover raid...but instead of taking a Vulpix, I end up accidentally grabbing liepard instead, who still helps take snover down. Obviously I don't think I'm gonna use it but at least it's a different option. Boltund again later helps me catch a mareanie, but I think I just need another ground/rock/steel type to get around Gordies sandstorm besides quagsire (too seemingly passive) , runerigus (a bit slo. and maybe diggersby (severely under levelled).1

Found one...but I'm too weakend to catch it. Quag and runerigus it is then. I'll see if I can beat Gordie next week.

Episode 3

https://pokemon.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003866267

Poliwag plays through Sword again Episode 3 | FandomPart…pokemon.fandom.com

Becuz Bea is next, I replace liepard with Corvisquire before talking to bede, oleana and rose.

Ok, I admitedly want to gigaton hammer whoever designed roses casual look. It's just weird and not what I learnt about attire in school. Dudes a CEO, he should have been setting a good exam-wait...

Not quite sure if solar power works like that...

Leon is apparently complaining about oleana nagging at him. Evidently they keep implying she's a jerk before we actually fight her.

SWSH writers, what were you thinking? Did I really have to go here with only 3 BADGES just for story reasons? Why? (Or was it something Hop suggested? I dunno)

Well that's an empty vault. I wonder if someone looted it like it was a Fortnite building in the past. Maybe it's a vault of knowledge here instead, because not everything valuable is gold after all or something.

Umm...I guess they're whispering and screaming somehow?

Corvisquire Fury Attack just ain't gonna cut it here. Quagsire defeated it in 1 mud shot though.

Koffing used 2 sludges on linoone but it just wouldn't go down, but she barely survives a +1 night slash. Clear smog forces another hone claws, allowing a sludge ko for the w. Meanwhile Boltund defeats the second grunt.

Bedes bad mouthing of Hop is so gonna earn him a retaliate from my team to his face.

I hear G Yamask, but considering...runerigus' complex Evo method....maybe not.

I reached the metronome trainer and koffing got circle thrown into vanillite. I attempt to slow down Clefairy...

It got 2 meh moves, then a SE one on the time vanillite missed icy wind.

Icy wind ko for the win (Clefairy is that frail? I couldn't tell)

That said I had quag tackle clefable instead. Only 1 4x weakness is probably more ideal.

Apparently we were speed tied as clefable sets up the sand...on a ground type. Metronome RNG today, jeez...

Roar of time?! Quag obviously falls to that, but clefables speed is already super low so thwackey could defeat it with double hit.

Helioptile will b my encounter here. Unfortunately it has dry skin instead of solar power....and quag accidentally defeats it. Impossible Evo method it is.

64-8 is definitely more than 49. Can it...?

(Several minutes of finagling later...)

All it took was 1 sash and a few attempts at messing around with wild area mons. Now let's get back on the road. (I had to pick up the pace here because ... runerigus)

At stow on side I triggered hop battle number...4? I lost count.

Quag had a bad MU into cramorant...so I swapped to boltund... though it went for dive. Hmm..

Well it got stopped but gulp missile still got triggered. One yawn later, boltund manages to defeat cramorant, but gulp missile still activates, and on accident I leave her in against silicobra, as I intended to swap to vanillite, but it went for dig when I brought vanillite in.

I then eat dig with koffing as well as brutal swing, and also use will o wisp to burn the snake.

Koffing was slower but 4 sludges (not sludge bomb weirdly) finishes the job.

Next up is the starter showdown between thwackey and drizzile.

Drizzile did try sucker punch and round but thwackey still defeats him.

Next up I guess was toxel so I swap to runerigus. (I guessed correctly)

Runerigus apparently didn't know she got basically parting shot (twice!) hit as 2 shadow claws finish toxel off.

Wait beas name is based on bean? How did I not know?

Anywho I'm gonna fight her tomorrow...becuz runerigus took up time I could have spent getting here.

Part 2:

https://pokemon.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003865035

Poliwag plays through Sword again Episode 2 | FandomEpisode…pokemon.fandom.com

Fine, I'll send only mons of that type next time. (A after a team reshuffle I sent timburr, Pancham and Scraggy off to a fighting type job. Hope they do well).

Hmm now for a leaf stone... though maybe later becuz stone Evos.

No Hop they aren't my fans. I'm not Marnie. (I wish I had such a squad)

This was me just messing around to see how high shuckles sp. Def goes, after 3 fake tears from swirlix gloom ohkos with giga drain.

"sand... distortion realm?" (I'm not sure if I can say that word ..but sand tomb is metal(

Koffing was rather hard to catch, she didn't didn't have neutralizing gas but with quags help I could determine it was levitate, which could come in handy.

Anywho I think a marnie battle was coming up so I swapped my lead from boltund to swirlix (who I can't evolve)

Anywho I made a mistake and brought a fairy to a poison type (croagunk), so I had to swap to quagsire to tank a poison jab. Interestingly quag outsped to land a mud shot twice before taking a revenge (or is it payback) on the first one and taking out the frog in the next one.

There, a much better MU. Swirlix draining kisses away scraggy, and on morpeko I use fake tears as it hunger switches and tank a bite.

Somehow it lived at -2 sp def (a second bite did flinch me) and a super potion nearly thwarts swirlix but luckily morpeko was in dark mode so draining kiss easily takes it out.

Anywho, now it's time for kabu, for this is call up diggersby because clodsire sure can't get through it all alone... probably.

For this challenge I decided to play dirty and take out my "partner" and yawn all 3 mons. (This Vulpix did will o wisp me though)

For sizzilipede I seemingly get struck by fake out by salandit (haha fake out before worlds?) and just yawn the centipede.

For litwick I just yawn...but quag is still burnt so litwicks hex defeats it. Diggersby missed mud shot on my "partner" sizzilipede and gets trapped by fire spin, but quags yawn takes effect. I fail to catch litwick as it gets defeated by bite (RIP).

I just ko the wild sizzilipede with bulldoze (after a fake out), but get burnt. Ouch. I then just decide to attempt to catch it.

But wait.

I have flail... though becuz of the burn that wasn't enough to save diggersby (oof). Koffing finished the centipede off.

Now for kabu himself. I revive quag and diggersby, thinking about using either of them against his team of fire types, and quag is lead against his Ninetales...which doesn't have drought.

Luckily, quags only attacking move is the special mud shot. I wish I had brought timburr to this for a free guts boost. Quag shakes off an ember and fire spin to take out Ninetales with 3 hits.

Next is Arcanine, luckily I didn't swap to the physical oriented diggersby. Also becuz I'm already burned he can't will o wisp me...but he does have bite. Quag gets double flinched so I have to switch.

I went for bull doze as he fishes for burn. Argh. Luckily I'm able to take him out in the next few hits.

As he g maxes (which the localization calls super dynamax, I wish it was sometimes cough max airstream too OP) I cure quags burn at the cost of diggersby, but I dmax boltund instead due to boltunds higher level.

Boltund manages to defeat centiskorch barely...good girl!

Anywho before I wrap up I caught a liepard (sadly no prankster), the rest of the encounters I forgot to acquire (oh well). I'll go take on bea tomorrow...maybe without liepard.

Episode 1:

https://pokemon.fandom.com/f/p/4400000000003864847

Poliwag plays through sword again, Episode 1 | FandomSo finally got around to doing that galar replay…pokemon.fandom.com

I had lots of time to "record" this one, so it's gonna be super sized and fast changing.

So I stopped before the wild area last time, and j think I'll probably have 1 encounter here per gym(I'll probably have way too many mons to try, but the more the merrier). Right now I'll just catch one Mon and do 1 raid, and I'll make it so that if I fail the encounter I pick/roll it's expended.

...and these stronger than what I have and don't let me catch them don't count as encounters...becuz I can't catch them. (Also Onix easily took out grookey with the hail support...ouch)

Y'know what, why not. On my old playthrough Vanilluxe only came on board in the late game, so it would be cool to see what it can do (also it has snow cloak...I don't remember what my Vanilluxe had as a vanillish but when it fully evolved it did Gai n snow warning, did it also have snow cloak?)

This can't be that bad. Also yay full team of 6... hopefully. (I've never failed a max raid before, but I think there's a chance it could happen)

Helping Hand powered Max Overgrowth! (It still survived...)

Interestingly one of my partners had a focus sash qwilfish, I've never seen that before.

Gotcha!

Wanted huge power, but you can't win em all. This will do.

...I wonder how many times I'll make curry... considering I have a tendency to...use all my ingredients

Could be worse

Yeah...I think I'll consider each area of the wild area 1 area to catch a Mon in. Also this Oddish really wanted in so I caught her. I've not used vileplume or bellossom before so this is intriguing. Still, I'm only do 1 max raid capture per visit of the wild area.

Anywho, onward to motostoke!

Well,I guess that makes sense, I think I'll use it on grookey while Oddish can be more for support...ish? (I'm not good with singles support beyond webs and hazards)

7->Rowlet Nat Dex number (722)

6->Poliwag Nat Dex number (060)

8->Clodsire Nat Dex number (980)

I was tempted to use 060 again, but I wanted to actually try this time.

....well that's easy. Is the first Marnie battle up next? (Nope)

I'm a YKW fan, so I read this as "Night of the Enma" becuz of the first character used. It's probably not intended though since this is the darkest day we're talking about.

"Research too much?" I'm not gonna tell him about Smogon and vgc and whatnot then.

He isn't even facing me. Yikes, they made team yell all the more rude as a result.

I intended to take out Zigzagoon here with razor leaf, but it missed and let it use Lick on grookey and get the para hax. Luckily all the consequences were just slow down and a razor leaf did take it out soon enough. The next grunts Nickit also fell to razor leaf (though it did get 1 quick attack in).

The Nickit in the double battle survived, but it was put in range of wooloos tackle to ko.

Next battle I'm using someone else though.

Also this part is surprisingly quicker than SVs intro segment for some reason, yeesh where did that go wrong?

NGL, I miss Galars spectacle regarding the gyms. I guess that's what it's going for with dynamax being so spectacle oriented admittedly.

I wonder what the lineups like after the main story. Maybe in a SWSH remake/sequel that only Miraidon and friends would know about?

Neat, though I think I'll hold back on flying to the slumbering weald since I'll go there again later, maybe I'll find someone cooler there.

Ok so my bunnelby doesn't have huge power, but my Oddish has chlorophyll. Interesting.

Anywho I'm here becuz I'm doing bop battle number 3, and swap into yamper to train.

Apparently yamper is slower than wooloo, so a nuzzle helps her take out the sheep with swift... eventually becuz hop uses a potion. If only I had nasty plot/j

Out comes sobble... I get a nuzzle off...

But it eats swift with ease so I swap into Oddish, and take it out with giga drain.

Yeah, when he sent in rookidee I swapped Oddish into vanillite and instantly froze the bird with a single icy wind. After it scored that crit. Now that's cold.

3 female grass types! 3! On 1 save file! Yikes. (Also it has regenerator....so if Oddish was similar to Venusaur, than gossifleur here is amoonguss...by a long stretch because I don't think it has spore, rage powder etc.) all because I walked into one by mistake. I could have gotten tyrouge (and by extension a Hitmon) instead.

(Except maybe budew here) I hope get some different mons as opposed to doing a mono grass run.

...yeah I need to really cut back starter usage, but at least I'm getting closer to rillaboom (sorta)

I wonder what's in there. It's probably filled with koffings.

Sadly, diggersby didn't learn anything cool upon level up. He did learn bulldoze shortly before evolving though.

An NPC had to help me with this. That's a new low...

In the mines, a timburr decided to join our merry band, and I decided to temporarily replace diggersby with her.

Does she have guts? Yes apparently. Short of a flame orb I kept the poison status Oddish inflicted to use it, considering according to a recent papasea vid kabu likes will o wisp I have a counter to that.

That said, between catching her and getting to bede, my potion supply went dry, luckily a random PokeBall had super potions to alleviate this, so I can take him on at relatively full power now.

Solosis nearly defeated thwackey with endeavor after she missed double hit the first time, but luckily she managed to land the second time and take it out with a razor leaf soon after solosis confusion didn't take her out.

On gothita I swapped to vanillite and used icy wind, but that trigger competitive...and avalanche fails due to gothitas Psy beam melting him. I send yamper in next but bite doesn't do anything, so she nuzzles gothita before getting 2 shot by psybeam. Rookidee finishes gothita off

I'm done fooling around, so I had rookidee exchange plucks with confusions from hattena, and rookidee barely makes it out. Yikes.

That's a well deserved evolution, Corvisquire. I should have maybe had you or thwackey handle all 3 but I want the others to try and shine too.

Outside tuffield I catch an electrike,another Mon I've never used before. I could maybe use it for Nessa later.

Have we cracked the code after 5 years? I don't think so, but maybe it's already cracked and I simply didn't know.

Anywho, after sending my other boxed in mons on a poke job to help them train and not get cramped (I set a whole day...maybe not the best idea but alright), I take on turfield. I have a flying and an ice type, but since Ice is very weak I'm gonna try to beat Milos gym with only vanillite.

Uh I didn't bring potions. Let see if max hailstorm can allow me to sweep. Vanillite has snow cloak so that's also something else that can hopefully help.

My giant ice cream manages to 1 shot gossifleur (wow ice is really a good offensive type), it's probably the fastest I got to the galar gym leader dynamax mode.

Eldegoss outspeeds me... And lives max hailstorm. Challenge failed becuz 2 Max strikes takes out my ice cream. I decide to use yamper to para hax...

Eldegoss gets fully paralyzed and eats a swift, so I throw another one at it and it crits me. A leafage nearly takes yamper out (yikes), so I swap to Oddish anticipating one....and eldegoss gets para haxed.

Finally! (Oddish also upgraded from mega to giga drain too)

I went to use my max raid attempt, and saw this wandering quag. Could I catch her? Yes. So I did. I also caught a pancham while searching for a raid... becuz the nearest one was a wooper.

Since there's no rowlet, this will have to be a substitute owl. (Who knows, maybe it can do stuff diggersby and Corvisquire can't separately).

On route 5 I catch a swirlix as yamper learns a decent electric moves (spark). Since the run is about using different mons, I swap out Corvisquire for swirlix.

When I ran into the team yell grunts, timburr took out the 1st ones Zigzagoon and 2 hit a thievul with low kick (when does she evolve into gurdurr?)

I forgot I had swirlix here to take this down, oops. Thwackey still handled it with ease.

Vanillite is so small he could legitimately be a baby pokemon.

Now for hop battle ...4?

Avalanche after 2 double kicks easily kos wooloo. Against Corvisquire though, I swap to yamper as vanillite has been doing a lot of fighting to this point and isn't in a good spot rn, and she takes out the crow in 2 sparks. Drizzile then tries to bind yamper, but gets paralyzed by spark....but survives getting hit by 2. Maybe inteleon isn't that frail if it's pre evos aren't frail.

Unfortunately a super potion thwarts an attempt for nuzzle disrespect ko, and bind+water pulse defeats Yamper, thwackey finishes drizzile off.

Well, and that finally puts the "Bead" vs 'Bee-day' debate to rest.

As for the gym, swirlix took out all the gym trainers, but I decided to have yamper take out nessas mons, because she's kind of been...there. Thwackey will take out drednaw via 4x weakness.

(I also KOed arrokuda with nuzzle...and thwackeys dynamax cry is so creepy...)

... retaliate in Chinese is so hardcore, yikes.

I got this scraggy in galar mine 2. He has both shed skin and a shed shell, interesting. Now timburr has competition...not. I'll maybe use scraggy at some point down the line....

I should have used him against bede...yikes swirlix to the rescue...?

It lives on 1hp...nvm thwackey knock off sweep it is....nope it got stopped by hatenna psybeam. Quagsire did help beat it.

Vanillites Avalanche failed to defeat galarian Ponyta, and he got defeated by it luckily yamper managed to hang on and survive, evolving into boltund after that at long last.

And I think that's where we're gonna wrap up. It's gone long enough, feel free to comment suggestions on what to do next and I'll see if I can do them.