Beating Cyrus and Getting Rid of Team Galactic

So last time in Pokemon Platinum, I beat the gym and was ready to tackle the final of the three Lakes – Lake Acuity. I didn’t really tackle it though. There was no battling to be had. Instead, my rival actually turned out to be a nice, normal guy and I was sent to the Team Galactic base in Veilstone City.

This scene gave me a flashback to Metal Gear Solid 2.

Once there, I fought through the place, listened in on a speech given by Cyrus to his grunts, and then fought and beat Cyrus. Even with all these battles, it still sort of feels like I’m falling behind in levels, though. I freed the three legendaries Team Galactic captured and then I had to follow Cyrus to Mt. Coronet, where I caught him summoning the two greater legendaries. These two, in turn, summoned Giratina, the final legendary. I have to say, the word “legendary” lost all meaning in Pokemon Platinum.

In any case, this opened up a new area where there were no random battles, but I had to fully explore it with Cynthia’s help in order to finally beat Cyrus and move on with the story. It took me a while to get through it, but I didn’t mind, because this “shadow dimension” looked amazing. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, whoever said that Pokemon games don’t advance enough between sequels has no idea what they’re talking about.

Awesome use of limited resources.

It’s hard to explain, but the area is basically a 3d maze, with the floors becoming walls and walls becoming ceilings at random. I can’t find the words to describe it, but suffice to say, it looks really, really cool.

Anyway, I got all the way to Giratina, beat Cyrus and then had the chance to catch the legendary. Since Ash didn’t catch any legendary whatsoever and it really makes no sense to do so in the anime, I just beat it instead. Sure, I could go with “adding it to the collection”, but there’s no collection to speak off, since I’ll be switching to the next game soon.

Preparing for the Electric Sunyshore Gym

In any case, the Team Galactic part of the game was now beaten, so it was time to go to the final gym at Sunyshore City. Again, it still looked like I was behind in levels, so before I challenged Volken and his electric gym, I decided to do some training. I took the opportunity to fully evolve my brand new Infernape and Torterra and I gave Gible the Exp. Share so he can catch up with the rest of the team.

Ash get’s three fully evolved Pokemon in his final team.

Oh, did I mention that? After the last gym, it was time for Gliscor to be replaced by Gible. In the anime, Ash leaves Gliscor behind similarly to how he did it with Charizard. It still technically belongs to him, but he rarely ever uses it.

Once I hit the level range between 45 and 50 with my three combatants meant for the Sunyshore Gym, I went in. About 15 minutes later, I gave up on the rule to only use Pokemon Ash used in the gyms. It’s just not meant to be. Volkner’s Electivire just swept through everyone. I even had to use several Revives in order to finally beat it with Torterra.

Where to get HM07 Waterfall in Pokemon Platinum?

With that out of the way, I thought I was stuck. To get to Victory Road, I need waterfall and, while I had the badge I needed in order to use it, I did not have the HM yet. A couple of seconds later, I remembered this game isn’t exactly complex. The HM was given to me by a girl on the northern shore of Sunyshore City.

This is where you get the Waterfall HM.

The Victory Road

I took the route north, fought some trainers and entered the Victory Road. I think I fully explored the first two rooms, but I ended up finding the exit before fully exploring the final room, so I got out thinking I could heal and go back. The thing is, before I could heal, my rival attacked me. With most of my Pokemon at zero PP and with very little health, I had to use a lot of medicine to get through this fight. Still, the alternative was to restart back at entrance Pokemon Center, so I felt it was worth it to waste the items. I beat him, healed, stocked up on items and saved my game.

A wasted move slot fur just three such obstacles.

A Remark

I really, really hate the HM system and I’m glad the Black and White sequels are reducing its effect for a bit. It forces you to use mostly useless moves and stop you from fully enjoying the best part of the game – assembling a team. A good example is Waterfall in this game. You don’t need it in any other area of the game except the Victory Road. What’s worse, it’s not like you can teach it to a temporary Pokemon, since you need it once to enter the place, once mid-way through and once at the exit to reach the League building. Even worse, if you want to grind at the Victory Road, you need a team member with waterfall to get back into the cave after healing up at the League building.

Maybe they should turn it into a passive skill or something.

Last time in Pokemon Platinum, I played for about ten minutes at night, just to level Gligar to Gliscor. What I didn’t mention in the edit of my last article, though, was that I also allowed the game to troll me a bit while I was at it. You see, there is a guard at the entrance to Canalave City. When you talk to him, he says he’s thirsty.

Damn you, game!

Pokemon veterans know what happened here. I went back to the Veilstone department store and bought one of each of the three drinks from the vending machines at the top floor, hoping I could give it to the guard. Turns out, I can’t. What the guard says is just flavor. That’s about five minutes of my time “wasted”.

The Steel Gym of Canalave City

In any case, when I started my proper session today, I went for the Canalave gym, but before I could enter it, I nearly got my ass kicked by Barry, or Gary, which is how I named him for some strange reason. I really should start thinking more when I’m starting the game. Gary certainly isn’t Ash’s rival during the Sinnoh seasons. I barely beat him, with only one Pokemon left conscious, so it was clear I was severely underleveled now.

Where to get HM04 Strength in Pokemon Platinum?

Luckily, I had a chance to do some training by going to the nearby Iron Islands before challenging the gym. The Iron Islands are where you get the HM Strength in Platinum as well as a place where you get some extra items and a lot of extra experience. It’s a cave filled with mostly rock types and Golbats, with some Steelixes near the bottom. About half way through, you can get a companion so at that point, training is extremely easy. I got everyone except Buizel close to 40 before I got out. With this added experience, the Steel gym was much easier to beat, mostly thanks to my Chimchar and his newly learned Flamethrower move.

Team Galactic was also at the Iron Island cave.

The Pokemon that really took the victory, though, was Gliscor. Byron’s last Pokemon was Bastiodon and he swept through both Buizel and Chimchar with ease. Since Ash only used those two and Gliscor, it was basically up to Gliscor, even though it was doing barely any damage to Bastiodon. For some reason, though, Bastion outright stopped doing damage to me, using mostly Taunt and Metal Defense until the battle was over. It took me a while and I nearly ran out of PP, but eventually, I burned through the Full Restores and the large amount of health Bastiodon had.

Byron is actually Roark’s father. Makes since, since both names are awesome.

Next up, I needed to visit the three lakes to deal with Team Galactic. Lake Valor was first and there, I beat Commander Saturn with relative ease. After that, it was Lake Verity, where I fought Commander Mars again. Finally, I needed to go north to Lake Acuity, but I never went there before, so it was a lengthy trip. Since I now beat the sixth gym, I used the opportunity to evolve Staravia to Staraptor, which means an Everstone freed up, so I gave it to Buizel.

The Ice Gym of Snowpoint City

Before I could reach Lake Acuity, I had to get to Snowpoint Gym to get the badge which unlocks the usage of Rock Climb in the wild, so that’s where I went next. I gained a few more levels on the way north, so it wasn’t too hard to beat the ice types in the gym, mostly thanks to my new Staraptor. Abomasnow was the only one of Candice’s Pokemon that gave me any trouble, but I dealt with it via some item usage.

Ice gym means there will be sliding puzzles.

This means I now have a total of seven badges and I’m finally ready to go to Lake Acuity. Next time in Pokemon Platinum, I intend to get to the League.

Where to get HM08 Rock Climb in Pokemon Platinum?

By the way, I got HM08 Rock Climb completely randomly, by stumbling into it on Route 217. It was on the western side of the route, slightly behind one of the houses there, as a regular item pickup. I’m glad I ran into it because I would have hated going back and getting it after Snowpoint.

I tried to be smart, so I flew to Hearthome City as soon as I loaded up Pokemom Platinum today, hoping to take a shorter route to Pastoria, but it turns out that route was closed. I had to go back to Veilstone, south past Valor Lakefront and then east to get to Pastoria.

Pastoria Gym

At first glance, Pastoria seems like one of those tiny little towns you get between gyms in Pokemon games, since it’s nature themed, but it’s actually a mid-sized city with a gym of its own. The gym’s type was water and for once, Ash wasn’t a complete idiot in the anime, so he used his Pikachu, Buizel and Turtwig. Of course, he is completely incompetent, since neither Turtwig nor Buizel evolve up to this point, so I still had some trouble clearing the gym, mostly due to the Aqua Jet move Crasher Wake loved to use.

Crasher Wake is… different.

I got through the gym and then another Team Galactic sequence started, where I had to chase a grunt all the way back to Valor Lakefront, only to have him run away anyway. Then I met Cynthia again, who gave me some medicine for the Psyducks north of Solaceon Town. This opened up a route towards Celestic Town, where I went next.

Where to get HM03 Surf in Pokemon Platinum?

Once there, I got another “cut scene” after which I finally fought Cyrus for the first time and then I got HM03 Surf, which I’m able to use immediately, thanks to the badge I got in Pastoria.

Where to get Razor Fang

Since I’m now five gyms in, Gligar and Turtwig are finally supposed to evolve. Turtwig was not an issue here, so now I have an awesome new Grotle. The issue was Gligar. First of all, he needs to hold an item in order to evolve – the Razor Fang. Lucky for me, I got one on route 214. It’s a secret item found in one of those tall grass areas on the route. Being secret, you need to use the dowsing machine to find it, or you can just search the only clear area in the large tall grass square surrounded by a fence, with a trainer inside.

The generation of Pokemon Platinum limits the areas you can explore more often.

Other than holding the Razor Fang, Gligar also needs to level up at night. The issue with this is that it was still the afternoon when I ended my session, so I will be doing a quick grind when the night is finally here, just so I can get that evolution.

Grotle down, Gliscor to go.

EDIT: As promised, I quickly loaded up Pokemon Platinum and leveled up Gligar by one level, just so I can get the evolution. I have a Gliscor now!

While I was doing all of this, I got back to Jubilife city, where I acquired a couple of brand new Poketch apps and then I went further west, towards Canalave City. As soon as I got there, I saved my game and that was it for today.

Last time, I got all the way to Hearthome City, got invited to the Contest hall and then I saved and quit the game. I also managed to catch all the Pokemon Ash caught in Sinnoh, though I can’t use one of them yet.

Hearthome Gym

This time, I gave the Hearthome Gym a shot. In the anime, Ash gave his new Buizel a chance to shine, but also used Chimchar and Pikachu in the battle. The gym type was Psychic this time and the trainer in charge was Fantima. Her trainers weren’t giving me much trouble, but I had she managed to beat me several times before I finally got her. I even grinded for a level or two.

If your child produces this sound, it’s time to see the doctor.

HM04 – Defog Sucks

Beating her gave me the ability to use the Defog HM in the field, but I didn’t have it yet. All I could do was to move on to the next city, to that’s what I did. Before I got to Solaceon Town, though, I paid a visit to the Lost Tower, which is the Pokemon graveyard of Platinum. I got all the way to the top, only to find out I needed Defog to get the prize.

The Solaceon Ruins are basically a maze of stairs.

Finally, I got to Solaceon Town and then went to the Solaceon Ruins, where I got Defog, as well as a Thunderstone, a Fire Stone and a Water Stone. I also fought a bunch of Unkowns, but I didn’t even try to catch any. During all of this, Buizel started trying to evolve so I’ll probably edit my save and give it an Everstone before my next session.

I got back to the lost tower to get the prize -some held items. Finally, I moved on and after a lengthy route and a lot of trainer battles, I finally got to Veilstone City, where a fighting gym was waiting for me.

Veilstone Gym

A couple of annoyances here. First of all, I had to use Staravia, Chimchar and Buizel. Chimhar was behind in levels by now, and Buizel wasn’t that tough either way. Staravia had the type advantage, but the issue here is, I have yet to see a flying Pokemon which is actually tough and can handle more than two or three hits, and Staravia is no exception.

Maylene is tiny, but tough.

Basically, Maylene’s Lucario was kicking my ass, hard. It would easily one shot both Chimchar and Buizel and even kill Staravia before I could harm it enough. That’s just the first annoyance, though. An even bigger annoyance is that, in order to get to Maylene, I have to go through a lengthy sequence of puzzles. I had to do this every time, on every single one of my attempts, meaning every failure was more annoying and tedious than the last one.

HM02 – Fly Rules

I ended up getting Staravia up to around level 35 before I finally managed to beat this gym. During my training, I got all the way south to the Valor Lakefront and even beaten most of the trainers there. Eventually, though, the badge was mine.

Looker is constantly late to the party.

About five minutes later, another awesome thing was mine. I stormed the local Team Galactic warehouse and got my favorite HM – Fly. I can now go anywhere, but my next stop is Pastoria City.

Last time in Pokemon Platinum, I got to Eterna City and saved my game. Aipom, Turtwig and Pikachu were ready for the gym and I already caught a Buizel to replace Aipom once Gardenia’s Gym was beaten.

Eterna Gym would have been easy if I could have used Chimchar, but since Ash was being an idiot in the anime, I had to be an idiot to. Luckily, Pikachu knows Iron Tail, so at least I had some advantage, for a while. I beat the gym, got HM01 Cut and was able to tackle the Team Galactic building, finally.

Whoever says the graphics in Pokemon didn’t improve is a liar.

I know you’re supposed to figure out the correct route to get directly to the boss, Commander Jupiter, but I decided to clear the whole place for the experience. The boss actually managed to beat me twice, so I ended up going back to Eterna Forest to clear the Old Chateau and get some experience there. Clearing the haunted house was more than enough to beat the annoying Skunktank and finally move on. The next part is something I had to google, so it gets a title of its own.

Where to get Exp. Share in Pokemon Platinum?

You get at the southern exit of Eterna City, from professor Rowan’s aide. He’s in the building that connects the Cycling Road to Eterna City and he gives it to you if your Pokedex contains at least 30 (I believe) seen Pokemon. So you don’t have to catch thirty, just see them.

I’m not sure why I haven’t used Exp. Share before. It makes no sense not to if it’s available.

I decided to take the Exp. Share and use it to avoid annoyingly grinding Buizel. While I was at it, I also dropped of Aipom at the Pokemon Center, since it belongs to Dawn now, and I got the Bicycle from the store owner, whom I rescued from the Team Galactic building.

Also, I forgot to mention that Cynthia came by when I got the gym badge and gave me an egg to carry. I accepted the egg, just for kicks, but whatever hatches, which I think is a Togepi, I won’t be using.

Above and Below the Cycling Road

Next up was the Cycling Road. There wasn’t much to do on top of it other than fighting lots of trainers, which I naturally did. Once I got through it and healed up at Oreburgh City, it was time to go below the Cycling Road, onto Route 206 and into the Wayward Cave.

I hate the concept of Flash. It’s a useless move that you’re forced to use.

I went to the correct entrance first and went all the way through the area without Flash, primarily because I thought that’s where I can catch my Gible. Of course, that ended up being completely wrong. I got some items, guided Mira to the exit and got some experience, but overall, I don’t think it was worth the time or the annoyance. Here comes another heading because I had trouble with it.

Where to Catch a Gible

The Wayward Cave has two entrances. One is visible, while the other’s view is obstructed by the Cycling Road. This secret entrance leads to a Cycling Course in the basement level of the Wayward Cave, where Gibles are actually quite common. This is where you catch one, not in that hellhole of the ground level. You don’t even need flash.

Gible grows in to an amazing Pokemon, as long as Ash doesn’t have anything to do with it.

Moving On

Next up, I went to Route 207 and into Mt. Coronet, where I met Cyrus again. Then I got through and to the other side, where I remembered I need to go back to Route 206, below the Cycling Road, to catch a Gligar. I went all the way back (so annoying), grinded for a bit (even more annoying) but eventually, I caught one. This means one thing.

No more Pokemon catching.

There will be no more catching Pokemon in Pokemon Platinum. I got every single one of my team mates, so now it’s just a matter of getting to a point where I can start using them. Gligar will be in my team for now and Gible will replace him eventually, though with a slight delay.

I got back through Mt. Coronet, through Route 208 and finally got to Hearthome City, where I saved my game. Now I have to beat three gyms without any of my Pokemon evolving. I saved my game and that was it for now.

Before the Oreburgh Gym

As I already said in my previous posting, I had to get to Sandgem town in Pokemon Platinum, to be able to properly form my starting party with PokeSav. I started out with Pikachu, Aipom, picked Turtwig as my starter and also added Chimchar.

My rival is extremely annoying in this one, but at least he’s not a complete brat.

I then made my way towards Jubilife City, where I talked to Dawn and met Looker, the “bonus” character of Pokemon Platinum, who introduced me to the game’s bad guys, Team Galactic. Soon after, I was introduced to the concept of Poketch Apps, made by the Poketch Company. I talked to the three clowns to get my first few apps, the most important one being an app that shows all my party Pokemon and their health on the lower screen. Well, technically, it shows them on my right screen, since I’m playing on a wide screen monitor, so the screens are placed side by side.

Next up, I had to go east, via route 203 and through a cave, to finally get to Oreburgh City, the location of the first gym. I got there soon enough, but then I realized I made my first mistake. I forgot to catch a Starly. I went back through the cave to catch one on route 203 and then went back to Oreburgh and to route 207 to train.

Ash and the Oreburgh Gym

The thing is, I decided to try and stick to the Pokemon Ash used in gym battles, so I had to train up my Pikachu, Aipom and Turtwig. Sure, a well-trained Turtwig could definitely sweep the rock gym, but Ash preferred using Pikachu for the bigger part of the match, so I had to get him to a higher level to. It took me quite a while to train, since I can’t fast forward as quickly on an NDS Emulator compared to the older generations, but eventually, I got most of my team to level 15 and evolved Starly, as I was supposed to before I even got to Oreburgh City.

Roark was easy to beat, even if I did use Pikachu in a rock gym. Aipom barely made it, but he made it.

The gym battle was easy, as expected. I cleared the trainers with Turtwig and then switched to Pikachu at the start of the boss battle. He defeated the first Pokemon, then I switched to Aipom as Roark was sending his second Pokemon, Onyx, into battle. Aipom didn’t do much, so I switched him with Turtwig mid-battle via Baton Pass. Turtwig handled Onyx and then Pikachu dealt with Roark’s last Pokemon, Cranidos with a single hit from Iron Tail.

Floaroma Town and the Valley Windworks

I got the first badge, so now I needed to go all the way to Eterna City. I went back to Jubilife City, where I got my next Poketch App and then went north, fighting team rocket with Dawn along the way and soon arriving at Floaroma Town. This is where I had to deal with Team Galactic, at the nearby Valley Windworks, which didn’t take long. The only trouble I had was with a high level Purugly, which managed to faint one of my team members.

Floaroma Town was nice and relaxing, even with Team Galactic in the way.

With the Valley Windworks cleared, I went further north, but took a short stop near a house where I could rest and heal, to catch a Buizel in a nearby grass patch. In the anime, Ash trades his Aipom for Dawn’s Buizel after the gym at Eterna City, so I thought I might as well get one now. I won’t be using it until Aipom is safely stored in my PC, of course, but this saved me some time and gave me a chance to train some more. I finally went through Eterna Forest and got to Eterna City. When I got there, I saved my game and that was it.

During all of this, only Starly evolved and that was before Oreburgh City. For now, I’ve been following the anime as well as I could, so there aren’t many differences, other than my Pokemon’s move sets, which really can’t be followed at all, without cheating. Whenever I’m able to learn a new move or obtain a TM, I make sure to check which moves that Pokemon uses in the anime and act accordingly, but other than that, there isn’t much I can do. My next evolution won’t happen until after the fifth gym, but at least now my team is full, so I’ll have plenty to do until then.

With the choice of my next game in the “follow Ash” Pokemon challenge being between Pokemon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum, I decided to go with Platinum, mostly because I’m assuming it’s the most polished and full-featured of the three. As with Pokemon Ruby, I decided to do the research beforehand and make a proper plan of attack.

How to Follow Ash in Pokemon Platinum

Ash’s Pokemon in the Sinnoh Region

Other than Pikachu, Ash primarily uses six (or seven, depending on how you look at it) other Pokemon. These are

• Starly/Staravia/Staraptor
• Turtwig/Grotle/Torterra
• Chimchar/Monferno/Infernape
• Aipom
• Buizel
• Gliger/Gliscor
• Gible

The Starly, Turtwig and Chimchar line are heavily used and Ash gets all three of these before the first gym. He also brings in Aipom from his earlier journey during the Johto Battle Frontier. He then trades his Aipom for Dawn’s Buizel between the second and third gym which is also heavily used from that point on.

Other than these three, he catches a Gliger, which soon evolves into Gliscor, but is also left behind in a similar fashion to Charizard sometime after the seventh gym. Additionally, he catches a Gible, but barely uses it and it doesn’t evolve.

Ash’s Pokemon in Pokemon Platinum

This means I’ll end up with a Staraptor, Torterra, Infernape, Pikachu and Buizel as my final team in the Sinnoh League, called Lily of the Valley Championship, or something like that, by the way.

The procedure is simple. I’ll edit my save to start with Pikachu and Aipom, while also Picking Turtwig. Right after the beginning, before I get to Oreburgh, I’ll catch a Starly and add a Chimchar to my party as well. Basically, I’ll have all the members of my team before the first gym and replace one of them right after the second gym. After the seventh gym, I’ll go below the cycling road to catch a Gible and I might train it for a bit, but I don’t think I’ll be using it to much.

I think Aipom is the first Pokemon Ash trades away for good.

This time, I’ll also try to only use the moves the Pokemon in the anime learn after evolving to their proper forms. This might feel unclear, but I’ll explain it in the following paragraphs.

Pikachu

Moves

• ThunderSchock
• Thunderbolt
• Quick Attack
• Volt Tackle
• Iron Tail
• Thunder
• Electro Ball
• Agility
• Double Edge
• Tackle
• Leer

I already gave up on Tackle, Leer, Double Edge, ThunderShock and Agility from the previous games, so I won’t even try to learn these. Thunder, Thunderbolt, Quick Attack and Iron Tail carry over from the previous games, but I’ll probably lose Thunder in favor of Volt Tackle. I think Pikachu only learns Electro Ball in Black and White, so I’ll have none of that.

Also, I will rearrange his individual and effort values in this game, since I feel they were all wrong in Ruby.

Starly – Staravia – Staraptor

Moves

• Gust
• Wing Attack
• Quick Attack
• Aerial Ace
• Brave Bird
• Close Combat

Starly evolves to Staravia before the first gym, which is awesome. Once it evolves, it learns Aerial Ace and Brave Bird, so I wont even try using it before that. I will learn it, of course, but I wont use it if I can avoid it. Sadly, I’m going to need Fly, so I’ll sacrifice a move slot for that. Once it evolves into Staraptor, it finally learns Close Combat.

Starly evolves extremely early, so that’s great. Flying types are quite good in general.

Staravia evolves to Staraptor between the Canavale and the Snowpoint Gym.

Turtwig – Grotle – Torterra

Moves

• Tackle
• Razor Leaf
• Bite
• Synthesis
• Energy Ball
• Rock Climb
• Leaf Storm

Rock Climb is a HM in platinum, which means I don’t lose a slot to it for once. Other than that, Turtwig’s move list in the anime doesn’t fit with the game very much, so I’ll have to be creative. It learns Rock Climb after evolving to Grotle and Leaf Storm only in its final form.

I’ll pick this one as my starter. It evolves after Pastoria for the first time and right before Sunnyshore for the second time.

Chimchar – Monferno – Infernape

Moves

• Ember
• Flame Wheel
• Scratch
• Dig
• Fire Spin
• Flamethrower
• Mach Punch
• Flare Blitz

This is sort of sucky, because he’s only able to use a fighting move after evolving to Monferno, which happens after the seventh gym, but it’s still a pretty awesome fire type, so I’ll deal with it. He will use Flare Blitz only as Infernape, and I’ll probably have to sacrifice a slot for Rock Smash.

It’s supposed to join my team before the first Gym. It evolves twice, both after the Snowpoint Gym, which is gym number 7.

Aipom

Moves

• Scratch
• Swift
• Focus Punch
• Double Team

These are the four moves Aipom knows while with Ash, but I’m not sure I’ll even be able to learn all four before abandoning it in favor of Buizel. Aipom will be with me only until after the Eterna Gym.

Buizel

Moves

• Water Gun
• Aqua Jet
• SonicBoom
• Water Pulse
• Ice Punch

Buizel will be simple to handle, once I give it an Everstone.

This one will be straightforward, since it doesn’t evolve. I’ll pick three out of these five moves and add Surf to the list. I might have to sacrifice another slot for Waterfall to.

Gliger – Gliscor

Moves

• X-Scissor
• Sand-Attack
• Steel Wing
• Screech
• Fire Fang
• Giga Impact
• Stone Edge

He only uses the first three attacks as Gliger, so I’ll hold on with the rest of them until after it evolves. I’ll have to abandon it after the Snowpoint Gym, sadly. I’m supposed to catch it right after Eterna and let it evolve sometime after Pastoria.

Gible

Moves

• Dig
• Draco Meteor
• Dragon Pulse
• Rock Smash

Gible evolves into an awesome Pokemon, but sadly, this doesn’t happen in the anime. Instead, even though Ash actually catches it, unlike Larvitar, it remains heavily underused (i.e. not at all) in battles. I’ll catch it and keep it in my party, but I probably won’t train it at all.

This one has a huge amount of potential, but it never reaches it in the anime.

Then again, Ash does use it in the League battles, so I might have to train it anyway.

How is it Overall?

Well, on the positive side, I won’t need to make any hard choices on which Pokemon to use in Pokemon Platinum. On the negative side, I might have some trouble in the final areas. Still, it’s nothing some grinding won’t cure. Other than having two starters and the Gyms and locations being slightly out of order in the anime, it’s quite possible to follow Ash throughout Pokemon Platinum or Generation IV in general very accurately.

Well, you also need to “transfer” Pikachu, but that’s probably a given.