Crikey Breakdown

 My Pokemon Scarlet Starter Breakdown

Intro:

As I stated in a previous post, I've chosen Fuecoco to be my starter Pokemon. Fuecoco will eventually evolve into Skeledirge at level 36. Skeledirge is a Fire/Ghost Pokemon that ranks as the fifth best ghost Pokemon and the fifth best fire Pokemon based on total base stats. What a great Pokemon to build a team around, right?! In the remaining post, I'll provide a breakdown on how I plan to build my "Crikey" to get me through the story mode. The breakdown will include details on optimizing his base stats, selecting his ideal move-set and selecting the best items for him to hold in battle.

Body:

Base Stats

Fuecoco will eventually evolve into Skeledirge, therefore it is important to understand the base stats of the final evolve to have a long term vision of Crikey's potential. 

Source

I'm going to keep it simple with Crikey. His best base stats are in HP & Special Attack. Therefore I plan to build Crikey as a bulky special attacker by optimizing on those two stats as best I can. 

One important way to optimize base stats is to train the Pokemon's Effort Values. Effort Values can be improved by giving your Pokemon vitamins. The vitamin "HP Up" would increase the HP stats & Calcium would increase the Special Attack stat. However, I think it will be easier and less costly to acquire Power Items. The Power Items can be purchased at the Delibird Presents shops around Paldea for ₽10,000. I'll need to buy the Power Weight & Power Lens items to optimize the HP & Special Attack stats as best I can. Since the Power Weight & Power Lens items enable +8 EVs in the respective stat when winning a battle, Crikey will need to win 32 battles while holding each item to gain a maximum 252 EVs per stat. Since a Pokemon can have a maximum of 508 EVs total across all stats, this would leave 4 EVs, which I would assign to his Special Defense.

I will need to use Crikey in battle before acquiring the necessary Power Items. Since you can't choose your opponents in battle during the story, Crikey will be defeating Pokemon that will increase undesired EVs. For example, if Crikey were to face off against a Rookidee early in the game, he would yield 1 EV in his speed stat.

Therefore, it might be necessary later in the game to remove the unwanted EVs in certain stats (e.g. Speed or Attack) by using berries. For example, in order to remove the unwanted EVs in the speed stat, Crikey would need to eat a Tamato berry. This would reduce his speed EVs by 10. Below is a handy chart about which berries reduce EVs in which stats:

Below is a list of where the berries can be found throughout Paldea:

• Pomeg Berry --> East Province Area 2
• Kelpsy Berry --> East Province Area 2
• Qualot Berry --> East Province Area 1
• Hondew Berry --> East Province Area 2
• Grepa Berry --> East Province Area 1
• Tamato Berry --> East Province Area 1

Moves

As one can see below, Fuecoco evolves to Crocalor at level 16 but stays a pure fire Pokemon until level 36: 

Source

For this reason, the most important moves while Crikey is Fuecoco & Crocalor will be the following learned special attack fire moves:

• Fuecoco starts out with Ember (Power 40)
• Crocalor learns Incinerate (Power 60) at level 17
• Crocolar learns Flamethrower (Power 90) at level 32

Fire moves are critical due to the Same Type Attack Bonus (i.e. STAB). For example, Ember will have the power of 60 instead of 40 because STAB amplifies the power by 50%. Flamethrower will have a power of 135!

At level 47, Skeledirge can learn Fire Blast with a power of 110. However, it only has an accuracy of 85%. Therefore, I'll likely stick with Flamethrower as my Special Attack of choice.

Once Crikey evolves into Skeledirge at level 36, he only needs two more levels before he learns his most power Special Attack ghost move. At level 38, Skeledirge learns Shadow Ball with a power of 80. STAB amplifies the power to 125!

Fire & Ghost provides great coverage for one another. See the weakness chart below:

For example, Fire is weak to Rock, Fire and Water, but Ghost is not. Ghost is unusable to Normal and weak to Dark, but Fire is not. Therefore, it does not seem necessary to give Crikey another coverage attack move.

Instead, I'd prefer to use the combination of Yawn and Protect. Crocalor learns Yawn at level 15 and Protect is a TM that can be created from the TM Machine as soon as you gain access to the Poke Center.

These two moves will be a devastating combination. Crikey can first use Yawn to make the opponent drowsy, enduring an attack in the process. In the next move, he can use Protect to stall and wait for the opponent to fall asleep. This will setup Crikey to finish his opponent off with either of his STAB moves: Flamethrower or Shadow Ball.

The final move-set I'll be striving for will be:

• Yawn Status --> make opponent Pokemon drowsy
• Protect Status --> stall to make opponent fall asleep
• Flamethrower Special Attack --> hit with STAB move
• Shadow Ball --> hit with STAB move

Item

The best early item, in my opinion for Crikey will be Charcoal. Charcoal can be purchased at the Delibird Presents shops around Paldea for ₽3,000. Charcaol is an offensive item for Fire Pokemon, which boosts fire attacks by an additional 20%. Including the STAB, Flamethrower will be increased from a power of 135 to 153.

The Life Orb would be another good offensive item for him later in the game. It increases all attacks by 30% but at the cost of doing damage of 1/10 his max HP after the attack.

However, I think that I would prefer a defensive item to help Crikey endure hits while he sets up the Yawn. Leftovers is a great defensive item. It restores 1/16th of the holder's max HP every turn. Leftovers can be obtained in Medali (for free) or purchased at the Delibird Presents shop in Cascarrafa. The price tag is pretty steep at ₽20,000, though.

Shell Bell is also an intriguing option and could fit well with the opening move Yawn strategy. The holder of Shell Bell gains 1/8th the damage in HP dealt to the opposing Pokemon. Since, Crikey will be doing massive damage to the opposing Pokemon after they are put to sleep, this item could be a better way to heal Crikey than with Leftovers.

Conclusion:

After having written this breakdown of Crikey, I'm more excited to use him than ever! Eventually, one could put the finishing touches on his build by changing his Nature to Modest and maxing out his IVs with bottle caps. This would further enhance his stats and make him an even more dangerous Special Attacker. Below is what the best version of Crikey could look like:

Watch out Paldea! Fear the Croc!

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet - I'm Hyped

Pokemon S&V - Why I'm Hyped

Intro:

Yay! The new Pokemon game has been released and for the first time I bought both versions of the game: Scarlet & Violet. I'm super hyped about the game and look forward to start playing on Wednesday with my son. Here are the five aspects to the new game that I most look forward to experiencing.

Body:

Team Building Around Starter Pokemon

More new Pokemon have been released for this game than ever before! In total, there will be 103 new generation 9 Pokemon in the game. Nine of those new Pokemon species will be related to the three starter Pokemon:

1. Sprigatito
2. Fuecoco
3. Quaxley

My son has already communicated pretty clearly that he's into choosing the cute grass type cat Pokemon Spiragatito as his starter.  Based on feedback from the Pokemon community, this seems to be a solid choice. 

I'm choosing Fuecoco over Quaxley as my starter Pokemon. He's a super cute crocodile that breathes fire. I'm going to name him "Crikey" because it is close to "croc-y" and "crikey" is what I imagine an Australian saying in the Outback if they were to come across a crocodile that breathes fire.

Once a starter Pokemon has been chosen, the fun really begins. You get to strategically capture Pokemon who you think will compliment your starter as you battle your way through the story of the game. 

I'm going to build a party around Fuecoco that includes only the new generation 9 Pokemon. A generation nine Pokemon that I'm pretty excited about is Lechonk. Lechonk is a cute piggy Pokemon who evolves differently depending on the gender. This video offers an interesting breakdown on what gender might be best to capture and train for your party.

I'm not sure of how my son is planning to build a team around his Sprigatito, but there are plenty of interesting ideas out there. I look forward to seeing his decisions and making my own.

Trading Pokemon With My Son

Last Christmas, my son got his own Nintendo Switch. Therefore, I thought it would be fun to buy both Scarlet and Violet. My son wants Violet and I'll play with Scarlet. This will allow us to collect the Pokemon that are exclusive to each game and trade with each other.

In Shield & Sword, we had the Shield game and traded with friends who had Sword. But it was a bit difficult sometimes to organize the trading and we were often more enthusiastic about the trades then our friends. 

It should be fun to trade with an equally enthusiastic Pokemon partner this time around.

Co-Op Play

Game Freak developed a new co-op feature for Pokemon Scarlet & Violet. Not only will players be able to trade Pokemon and engage in Pokemon raids together like in Sword & Shield, but we will also be able to:

• explore each others world
• enter the battle stadium and fight together
• have picnics

This will be the first time that we'll play co-op together on our Nintendo Switches. It will be amazing.

Exploring Paldea

This should be the first true "open world" Pokemon game. At least, that is how Game Freak has been marketing it and the Pokemon community has been hyping it. While it seems there have been some technical issues with the open world from the initial game reviews,  I'm still really excited to experience a Pokemon game in a similar way to Zelda BotW. 

It should be really fun to explore the new Paldea region and get a bit lost in this Pokemon universe.

Competitive Play

Once we've managed to explore Paldea, defeat the story and devour the after-game content, it will be challenging to participate in online competitive play. We will be able to follow the so-called meta-game with team building trends on Pikalytics, watch YouTubers like Wolfe & Cybertron showcase cool competitive teams, strategies and battles by the best competitive players in the Pokemon community.

We can either use rental teams from others or try to build our own teams based on Pokemon that we breed and train. It should be a stimulating way to enjoy the game, after the game.

Conclusion:

Mentioning only five aspects to be excited about the game is challenging. There are countless other aspects that have been left out, such as:

• learning more about the Terastal Phenomenon and Tera Raids
• following the new story with the game
• analyzing the characters and their unique personalities
• enjoying the creativity of the Pokemon and the artwork

However, the five things mentioned in the post are what I'm most looking forward to and what I'm pretty sure will give me the most joy in experiencing this game over the next months with my son. I can't wait until Wednesday!

Welcome to Blog & Paldea

 Welcome Post & Blog Purpose

Intro:

Welcome to the new blog. This is a blog that was inspired by the release of the new Pokemon game. My son and I have been really excited about the release for the past weeks. We have spent many hours getting deep into the Pokemon universe in generation 8 with Shield & Sword. 

There are three main purposes of this blog. Firstly, the blog should be a fun a way to exchange about the new game. Secondly, the blog should be an entertaining way to dive deep into the new game together. Lastly, the blog should be a platform for us to practice and enjoy the process of reading and writing. 

Body:

Communicating

My son and I can be apart from each other for either days or weeks at a time. My son isn't really old enough to start using email and communicating via messenger also isn't ideal for the type of in depth communication I have in mind. 

Therefore, I hope that this blog can serve as a more ideal communication platform for us. I can collect and document interesting things about the game in various posts and then share those posts for my son to read via messenger.

This should be a fun exchange of thoughts, ideas and stories related to the game. 

Deep Diving

What my son and I have learned from playing Pokemon Shield & Sword is how much depth there is to the universe of Pokemon. We are in constant discussion about the following Pokemon questions:

• What is the best Pokemon?
• What is your favorite Pokemon? 
• If you could have any Pokemon move, what would it be?
• What is the best Pokemon Generation?
• Is breeding Pokemon weird?
• Why do Pokemon need to have a gender?

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet will offer us more opportunities to continue our discussion about these fascinating questions referenced above and likely dive into other topics and questions that the new open world of Paldea will offer us.

Reading & Writing

Online video content has taken over. Kids, including my own, are consuming YouTube Shorts & TikTok content way too much. This type of content is often poorly structured, extremely random and highly chaotic.

This is one of many reasons it is critical for me that my children get more practice writing. The process of writing is highly beneficial in providing structure to one's thoughts and ideas. It is also important in stimulating creative ideas.

Therefore, I will attempt to write posts on the universe of Pokemon that showcase the wide-range of writing themes and styles that are available. The posts should offer not only content that will be fun to read, but also offer some inspiration on how to enjoy the process of writing.

Conclusion:

The hope is that this blog can be a fun way for me and my son to exchange about a topic that we are both passionate about. In addition, it should hopefully show that reading and writing don't need to be a chore. I look forward to trying this out and seeing what comes from it. 

Ideally, after four of five posts from me on this blog, my son will have his own blog to publish content to. I can imagine that his blog will be more than just a Pokemon blog, since he has other interests such as Japanese Anime. If there is overlapping content, however, it will be enjoyable to engage with each other's posts moving forward.