Ice Day 2: Luck of the Shamrock Shake

Current location: Saved in Camphier so I can check on my Berries and just used the Name Rater... I have three badges, just got Kyoko the female Lapras at L30 (currently on Water Pulse, Body Slam, Rain Dance, Perish Song) and Byakuya the Amaura... is LEVEL 38. Holy grinder indeed. The moveset is Nature Power, Bulldoze, Aurora Beam and Ancient Power.

So I ended up using a stray Zangoose I caught out of a horde fight for Strength, and had it serve as the meat shield. Turns out I only needed the shield for one fight... random fact: Nature Power in Grant's gym? Power Gem. Read: 70 power special Rock STAB. Surprisingly effective. Aside from that bloody Relicanth, but an AI glitch had it Yawn instead of ending the fight with Rock Tomb. Even Grant was a two-shot, as NP->Power Gem one-shot the Amaura, and Aurora Beam finished off Tyrunt in one.

I ground up a bit on Route 10 in anticipation of the dreaded Double Lucario fight of doom, and when I got to Geosenge Byakura was L29. I battled Korrina the first time... and it was a 2HKO. Whoops. I reset here, but was in loss position a couple more times before I finally figured out the strategy... and even then, I needed some luck. With the meat shield ready, here's how it went:

- I used two Rare Candies I had to put Byakura at L31
- I equipped the Rocky Helmet
- The first Lucario used Metal Sound, I used Bulldoze. I'm now outrunning it.
- Second Bulldoze, Metal Sound again.
- Third Bulldoze finishes, 2nd Lucario enters.
- This Lucario elects to Power-Up Punch and loses health due to Rocky Helmet, then gets Bulldozed to about half and a speed drop.
- One last Bulldoze puts Lucario into critical, and the 2nd PUP faints because of the Rocky Helmet.

Route 11 and the Reflection Cave present another problem for the runs: Black Belts. Bonus points if they show up in a Brains and Brawn. And I couldn't bring down the Machokes fast enough, so much so that I had to resort to using Fletchinder to induce suicide burns and let Byakura clean up. It apparently worked, though - because at the end of Reflection Cave Byakura was L35.

I beat the Rival handily (though Frogadier took three Ancient Powers) to go to L36, and only had to use Fletchinder one last time for the Burn trick before I fought Korrina. I walked into the Korrina fight at L37, a few hundred EXP away from L38. Here's how it went:

- Mienfoo went down to one NP->Tri Attack (remember, STAB due to Refrigerate) and Byakura levels
- Hawlucha comes out, is still faster, and Flying Press... IS SURVIVED WITH 34 HP. I honestly thought that was the finish, but I forgot that Flying Press multiplies Fighting (4x) by Flying (1/2) so it was only SE instead of hyper-effective. Oh, Tri Attack finishes.
- Machoke comes out. Tri Attack... puts him critical, Power-Up Punch finishes.
- Fletchinder comes in, I Revive on the Hyper Potion, and Peck does light damage before Rock Tomb finishes
- Back to Byakura, and Tri Attack ends the fight.

And after the MegaEvo tutorial, we have me soft-resetting for a quality Lapras - only to find that the only things changing are the HP (by 1 point, mind) and gender. It was always Docile, Water Absorb, and the stats were identical otherwise. Good to know if you're ever going to try this insanity yourself.

Now, to decide how I'm going to train Kyoko - both Attacks and screw Speed? Max Speed and split Attacks?, get to Aurorus... and then grind Kyoko to the point of equality.