>>36636346Cerulean Cave affirmed my decision in making this part of the 100%Locke. Between Sam and Cindy's catches, and general trekking through the cave, I learned newfound fear of explosions. Between Electrode that outsped all my mon, Dodrio trying to punch holes in MERLON and having to chance Turn 1 Ultraballs on Graveller since they also blew up, I had a lot of close calls for fighting wilds exclusively.
I came to a compromise regarding Mewtwo; I'd attempt to catch him regularly, and only use the Master Ball if one of my Pokémon died. Hitler opened with EMDEN. 3 of them would die immediately to a Psychic, and I didn't want to use ADOLF as the vanguard. Cue Crit Psychic. Needless to say, Master Balled he was.
CHUKLEROOT opened for Chukter. I feared the Swifts into MERLON's bad defense. Mewtwo's Recover meant I had to play my luck, throwing balls when weakened enough, and praying for Special lowers. Constant back-and-forths later I ran out of healing items, and was forced to go into MERLON for his own Recover. Eventually, it seemed like MERLON actually had a stable progression, however, all it took was a single crit Swift, and the magician was put down.
Sam lead with SKYNET, in hopes of Paralysing him, though he almost terminated SKYNET in a single blow. Begrudgingly, I chanced FISHDICKS, who had a similar Spec stat with bulkier HP. A big part of what made these fights seem possible was Mewtwo's batshit AI, Recovering at inappropiate times, trying to stack Barriers, and alternating Swift and Psychic. Our fish dog put a valiant fight, punching through Mewtwo's Special with repeated crits and making his Swifts useless via Acid Armor, but like fate, a crit Psychic ended him.
I was apprehensive of even trying for it with Cindy, but self-imposed rules are self-imposed rules. That being said, I won't make excuses and admit I sorta served ALICE up in a platter, painful as it was. I couldn't afford to lose GREG or OLIVER, and I have plans for the latter and JAN anyway.
