Previously on Pokémon FireRed:
Chapter 18: Come On And Safari With Me
Speaking of which...I think I decided I want to train up a bunch and stop Team Rocket once and for all before I even think about challenging another gym. I've barely leveled since Celadon besides, and the gyms tend to be significantly stronger than the last.
I suppose I can make a detour from my training while I'm here anyway.
[[Nilbog Notes: The Move Deleter wasn't here in the original Red and Blue. He was created in Gen 2 to remove HMs and other newer moves from a Pokémon you intended to trade back to Gen 1. Since then, his main function is to delete HM moves to help with your moveset.]]
[[Nilbog Notes: And this is the evidence that tells me that the intended sequence is to go down Cycling Road and hit Fuchsia and then come up the other side (in addition to, y'know, Cycling Road being downhill). The Good Rod is better than the Old Rod and not as good as the Super Rod, so it only makes sense that we are intended to grab the Good Rod first in Fuchsia. But Kanto does allow you to sequence break, and as I said before while I prefer going the intended route I do always like picking up the Super Rod quickly first, especially where we'll be going.]]
This clearly seems like a new development. Did it occur to you that something specific may be wrong? Hmm, but what? I know I'm forgetting something important...let me think on it.
[[Nilbog Notes: You actually can't get all the items and dialogue in one shot, even what I'm about to show you can't be done in one and I still missed a few things. If you can only afford one trip, follow the path I'm about to lay out to the prize house and don't sidetrack.
Also, Time is measured by number of steps taken (600 max), and the bike not only decreases faster but it's easier to take a wrong turn going fast so it's usually better to walk if you want to conserve steps.]]
All right, there's a grass patch next to the only path outward...
The Safari Balls have an increased catch rate over regular Pokéballs, but some Pokémon will still have trouble. Throwing Bait will make a Pokémon less likely to run away if a Ball fails, but it ironically increases the capture difficulty. Throwing Rocks will do the opposite - enrage a Pokémon so it's more likely to flee but will be easier to catch. In theory, each Pokémon has a strategy of Bait vs Rock to get it into a prime spot to get caught...
...in practice however, it's almost always better to just lob Balls at everything every turn and hope you get lucky. Even if the thing runs away, you'd likely had a better chance throwing balls indiscriminately than trying to play the Bait/Rock game that as far as I'm aware nobody has completely cracked yet.]]
What's with the look? He's a Rhyhorn that has a horn on his nose. It's a perfectly normal and wholesome nickname.
[[Nilbog Notes:
Rhyhorn
#111
Rock/Ground
"Its massive bones are 1000 times harder than human bones. It can easily knock a trailer flying."
Rhyhorn was almost my Rock/Ground pick for this run, but I decided against it when I set certain rules. I've always kind of dug the evolution line until Gen 4 added an ugly and unnecessary third stage. We're not going to meet its main evolution Rhydon in the wild, so I will take this space to mention that Rhydon was one of if not the first Pokémon designed, and many of the generic Gen 1 overworld sprites were based on it.
I feel I have to justify the nickname, as while I don't think there's anything wrong with it I rarely if ever name my Pokémon in that adult of a manner (unless the opportunity is too good to pass up - be thankful I can't catch a wild Muk in FireRed). Well, it's to honor how I began nicknaming Pokémon in the first place. You see, in the late 1990s, there were a pair of Pokémon Battle simulator games on the Nintendo 64 called "Pokémon Stadium", and a big draw is that you could upload your team from the games with a peripheral that connected to the controller (you could also trade and store Pokémon and items, meaning all those link-cable-less kids with multiple versions suddenly had ways of completing their Pokédexes). There was a little-known but very cool feature to this that Pokémon's colors would alter slightly based on their nicknames, whether it be darker or lighter shades of the same basic colors or something extreme. One time, as a joke, I named a Rhyhorn "Horny" just to see what would happen, and it loaded into Stadium colored hot pink. From then on, I nicknamed every single Pokémon I ever caught, even in games released after and incompatible with Stadium.]]
[[Nilbog Notes:
Nidorino
#033
Poison
"An aggressive Pokémon that is quick to attack. The horn on its head secretes a powerful venom"
If you missed the Nidorans prior to Mt. Moon, you can find both them and their first evolutions here. It's funny to notice here for the first time how much the FR/LG sprite of Nidorino matches the original 1998 art for R/B that I've been using for these little Pokédex segments; I don't think I've seen another sprite in any of these games even attempt to match these specific versions of the original 151.
And no, I have no clue why the opening to Red and FR/LG is a Nidorino fighting a Gengar.]]
[[Nilbog Notes:
Dratini
#147
Dragon
"Long considered a mythical Pokémon until recently when a small colony was found living underwater"
The original and, in Red and Blue, ONLY Dragon Type line. It was meant to be a strong and unique sort of boss type, resisting the Types of all four starters (and yes, this is the one and only time I am referring to Pikachu as a "starter" due to Yellow Version) and weak only to itself (with Gen 1's only damage-dealing Dragon move doing set damage regardless of type and stats) and Ice Type (which is a relatively rare and defensively weak Type even to this day.)
I have always been extremely fond and enamored of Dratini and its first evolution, but I kind of really don't like its final evolution in spite of its popularity. Also, these things take forever to gain experience and evolve later than any other Gen 1 line. But man are they worth it to have on your team if you have the patience. Because of them, there has been a tradition of each Gen having its own 3-stage, slow to level, late-evolving, usually (but not always) Dragon type with base stats above most of its peers.]]
Okay, that was very lucky, so I'm going to try and backtrack with my remaining time and see if I can find some more of those items...
[[Nilbog Notes:
Tauros
#128
Normal
"When it targets an enemy, it charges furiously while whipping its body with its long tails."
One of four Pokémon in the Safari Zone with a 1% encounter rate in the grass. It's a bull. It's popular because it's got decent stats and a surprisingly wide movepool. That's...that's about it.]]
[[Nilbog Notes:
Goldeen
#118
Water
"Its tail billows like an elegant ballroom dress, giving it the nickname of the Water Queen"
It's a koi/goldfish with a horn. Alongside Magikarp, the quintessential fish Pokémon to people who grew up with Gen 1, despite never being all that popular in the grand scheme of things.]]
All right, time's almost up, let's see what else I can catch in this grass at the last minute!
[[Nilbog Notes:
Ugh Cesario used these...wait, these aren't eggs! You're using coconuts!
Venonat
#048
Bug/Poison
"Lives in the shadows of tall trees where it eats insects. It is attracted to light at night."
Okay, cards on the table. I don't care what Nintendo or Game Freak says, this thing was clearly supposed to evolve into Butterfree and its evolution in the games was supposed to be the final Caterpie evolution. I mean, come on! It's got the same eyes, same mouth, same hands, same feet, same antennae, same body color, everything! They were switched at some point and nobody noticed because everyone was pretty much duct-taping code together on Red and Green just to make everything run without blowing up. You will never be able to convince me otherwise.]]
[[Nilbog Notes:
Exeggcute
#102
Grass/Psychic
"Often mistaken for eggs. When disturbed, they quickly gather and attack in swarms."
I mean, seeds are essentially plant eggs, right?]]
Now to give the Warden a very special delivery.
Okay, time to move on for now.
In any case, the Exp. Share we have here is most useful if you catch a low-level Pokémon (like say, some of the ones we saw in the Safari Zone) and want to catch them up quick without switch-training.]]
All right, the last thing to do before I set off to train is look through these binoculars.
***
[[Nilbog Notes: No changes to the team this week besides two new moves, but here they are anyway:
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