SPOILERS! Indigo Disk Discussion

[R_N]

While I think that reading does work, there’s still a bit of a snag when it comes to Arven’s (completely) absent parent. The Research Station journals say they “walked out not long after the boy was born,” but the preceding entries indicate that the first Koraidon / Miraidon and a handful of other Paradox mons were brought through before they walked out, because the professor still aims to create a paradise for “we three.”

The Crystal Pool scene has to happen sometime in between Arven’s birth and the first successful activation of the time machine, because it’s where the professor gets the name Koraidon / Miraidon from. You can probably stretch it just enough to fit, but the definition of “not long” is really being put through its paces in the process, since the professor would have received Briar’s Book at the Crystal Pool, discovered the Underdepths and Terapagos, and then built the time machine and got it working in the interim.

To be fair, a lot of the timeline is fuzzy as it is. It kind of sounds like once the professor was able to get the funding to return to Area Zero, things accelerated research-wise by a lot. The first statio nalone goes from set up to "the backers are already worried" from one journal to the next, and then station 2 we've already pulled in Pokemon.
Also want to point out that the time machine was probably always on their mind and their initial forray into Area Zero to "research terastalization" probably also had them experiment with the time machine experiments. Clavell even comments on the machine in passing at the very start of the game, but had no idea they got it working to that point, so he had to have known about their plans (& its hiccups) even while they were working at the academy.

But let me hit you with this possible conceit: what if "we three" isn't meant as 'we are currently, the three of us, together' and more the euphoria of wanting paradise is that the other one comes back. The latter entry is in the midst of everything falling apart so she's able to refer to That Man in more straight forward, bitter terminology.
I've seen similar kind of wording in other works that involve walk out parents. If we can just make this thing happen, then we can be Happy Again

 

[pika pal]

But let me hit you with this possible conceit: what if "we three" isn't meant as 'we are currently, the three of us, together' and more the euphoria of wanting paradise is that the other one comes back. The latter entry is in the midst of everything falling apart so she's able to refer to That Man in more straight forward, bitter terminology.
I've seen similar kind of wording in other works that involve walk out parents. If we can just make this thing happen, then we can be Happy Again

I forget from the dialogue specifics, would the Professor have had the AI built by then, and is it possible they could be referring to them as the 3rd in this conceit? With the other parent having walked out so soon after Arven's birth, perhaps the Professor decides their AI duplicate is a better additional parental figure for Arven than the absentee parent, who evidently didn't have faith in their work but also abandoned their son. Many stories like this a parent abandoning the ambition doesn't also have to leave unconnected family/friends behind, especially when the "featured" Professor's obsession with their work probably wouldn't suggest they would fight harder than an attentive parent.

Unrelated but I also just thought of a missed opportunity if Gamefreak REALLY wanted to (deliberately) get speculation and paradoxical elements going. I'll put this in a hide tag since it's kind of getting into wishlisting/speculation but I don't want to just leave this unposted somewhere while I'm thinking about it.

Wonder if

Imagine if the meeting at the Crystal Pond was with the opposite Professor (I.E. Scarlet players meet a Turo building the Future Machine and Violet meets Sada) and but you still received the "correct" book? So Sada and Turo presumably are working together on a Time Machine, each driven by images in their respective Scarlet/Violet book, and one trades it away to receive Briar's Hidden Treasure book, resulting in finding the energy/secret to get the machine working, but built around the remaining book. The opposite professor leaves since giving up their copy and starting with the other set made them the less fanatical of the pair in their version, and Arven's blase reaction to the book comes down to not recognizing it from his childhood due to the trade and/or parent leaving when he was too young to remember.

Still leaves questions like the fact that both books existing would be a bit odd for the world itself if both are by Heath for the same expedition, but opens a floodgate since TECHNICALLY Arven's parents being both Sada and Turo is never explicitly brought up in any media and just inference by both versions existing, not to mention the conspicuous absence of the other Professor in any capacity if they're not the one responsible for the final boss.

 

[R_N]

I forget from the dialogue specifics, would the Professor have had the AI built by then, and is it possible they could be referring to them as the 3rd in this conceit? With the other parent having walked out so soon after Arven's birth, perhaps the Professor decides their AI duplicate is a better additional parental figure for Arven than the absentee parent, who evidently didn't have faith in their work but also abandoned their son. Many stories like this a parent abandoning the ambition doesn't also have to leave unconnected family/friends behind, especially when the "featured" Professor's obsession with their work probably wouldn't suggest they would fight harder than an attentive parent.

Unless the timeline of the journals is more messed up thatn we thought, the AI explicitly happened much later when people seemed to leave the project and manpower was low.

 

[Coronis]

Doing League Club stuff, I forgot how much I like Miriam as a character, she’s so wholesome. Anyone else?

Also Raifort just called me her puppet lol

 

[Antihaxxer]

Are Iron Crown and Iron Boulder unique in Violet ? Is there some code to exchange against Scarlet paradox ? For Pokedex uses of course ;)

 

[Worldie]

Are Iron Crown and Iron Boulder unique in Violet ? Is there some code to exchange against Scarlet paradox ? For Pokedex uses of course ;)

Yep, they are unique in Violet, same way the other two are unique in Scarlet

 

[R_N]

People brought up the part of the Canyon biome that references BW2's Nature Preserve, but I've seen no one (here, anyway) bring up what I believe is a reference to the SM Demo in the Coastal biome

There's this small island near the plaza that periodically spawns one (1) Alolan Dugtrio positioned so that if yo usee it in most view points it will be facing away from you. It doesn't move around either.

This is exactly how the Alolan Dugtrio worked in the SM demo: yo ucould see it just off the coast of the route ,on a smal lisland similar to this one, facing away from you.


I noticed it right away but wasn't sure it was a coincidence until I swung back around.

 

[Worldie]

Wait until you see the Lion King rock in the Savanna Biome

 

[Coronis]

Hide

So Crispin likes Lacey and Amarys likes Kieran.

And we all know Carmine totally loves Drayton.

Blueberry Academy gotta love it

 

[Worldie]

Hide

So Crispin likes Lacey and Amarys likes Kieran.

And we all know Carmine totally loves Drayton.

Blueberry Academy gotta love it

The Crispin part is funny cause of the chitchat you can see between him and Lacey with her going "oh this again? try again later"

Poor Crispin tho, when you talk to him after the story he's sad cause he has to leave E4 but still happy that they're back to being a friendly bunch, he's so wholesome.
There's also a funny dialogue between him and Drayton where he seems to have figured all of Drayton's role in the story but then when he's about to draw the final conclusion he just goes... "AAAA IM TOO STUPID FOR THIS I GIVE UP", I love him

 

[R_N]

I wrapped up the final trade with Cyrano.

The League Club dialog is all so charming, and the trades are such a cute "final reward". The battles were fun too, of course, fun to see the new members/additions and the high levels.

The trades have lots of fun quirks too. Larry's Dudunsparce has the Flying Tera, Brassius' Sunflora uses Sunkern moves and his Trailblaze TM, Dendra's Meditite has the elemental (& dynamic) punch and Fire tera (because she's HOT BLOODED!!), Jacq's Gulpin is a VE and has an Egg move ,etc etc


Looking forward to coming back after the Epilogue is done.

 

[Coronis]

I wrapped up the final trade with Cyrano.

The League Club dialog is all so charming, and the trades are such a cute "final reward". The battles were fun too, of course, fun to see the new members/additions and the high levels.

The trades have lots of fun quirks too. Larry's Dudunsparce has the Flying Tera, Brassius' Sunflora uses Sunkern moves and his Trailblaze TM, Dendra's Meditite has the elemental (& dynamic) punch and Fire tera (because she's HOT BLOODED!!), Jacq's Gulpin is a VE and has an Egg move ,etc etc


Looking forward to coming back after the Epilogue is done.

Its nice you can keep battling him again for just 10 BP, whereas with the others you need to pay 200 BP to battle each time basically.

 

[Esserise]

I finally got around to catching the Snacksworth Legendaries, and I noticed that Lugia and Groudon are the only two that have a Tera Type that doesn’t match one of their original types - Lugia has Tera Water and Groudon has Tera Fire.

It’s easy enough to see why those would be the non-natural Tera Types they would give those two (Lugia has always been a Water type in spirit and Groudon has its Primal form), but… it just seems a little odd to go off-type for only two of the Legendaries.

 

[Yung Dramps]

People brought up the part of the Canyon biome that references BW2's Nature Preserve, but I've seen no one (here, anyway) bring up what I believe is a reference to the SM Demo in the Coastal biome

There's this small island near the plaza that periodically spawns one (1) Alolan Dugtrio positioned so that if yo usee it in most view points it will be facing away from you. It doesn't move around either.

This is exactly how the Alolan Dugtrio worked in the SM demo: yo ucould see it just off the coast of the route ,on a smal lisland similar to this one, facing away from you.


I noticed it right away but wasn't sure it was a coincidence until I swung back around.

After over a decade Game Freak finally figured out how to improve Unova: Slowly morph it into Alola

 

[pika pal]

After over a decade Game Freak finally figured out how to improve Unova: Slowly morph it into Alola

Now with 50% less pace-breaking cutscenes every time Lillie breathes.

 

[woodgoldtwo]

Hide

I came for a Unova Elite Four remix

I stayed for this absolute banger of a theme


(Lacey is the most difficult by far btw)

 

[R_N]

Gotta say, pretty surprised that despite being event-locked Pokemon that Walking Wake & Iron Leaves are allowed in Regulation F


I figured despite not being mythics-in-name they'd probably still just be left on the sidelines.

 

[Worldie]

Hide

I came for a Unova Elite Four remix

I stayed for this absolute banger of a theme


(Lacey is the most difficult by far btw)

I feel regarding the E4s the difficulty depends a lot on what team you're actually running (assuming you're not just rolling your face with lvl 100s ofc).
Es in my case i more or less rolled over the steel and dragon ones due to my clefable + kommo-o lead, but the fairy and fire ones made me shit bricks, but i've also heard opposing situations.

Still love the designs.

Also Lacey has some questionable definition of "cute"

Gotta say, pretty surprised that despite being event-locked Pokemon that Walking Wake & Iron Leaves are allowed in Regulation F


I figured despite not being mythics-in-name they'd probably still just be left on the sidelines.

I was honestly surprised they didn't just make them catchable with the other new ones...

I don't think Leaves will see any play regardless so not a huge deal, Wake on other hand may actually show up...

 

[R_N]

I was honestly surprised they didn't just make them catchable with the other new ones...

I don't think Leaves will see any play regardless so not a huge deal, Wake on other hand may actually show up...

I mean yes I was also surprised, but when they were relegated to the event shadowrealm and didn't count towards dex completion I just figured "ok they're just being treated as mythics despite not being mythics, I guess"

Maybe they'll be treated normally in Gen 11!

 

[Worldie]

Maybe they'll be treated normally in Gen 11!

I wanted to say "gen 10" since I'd expect them to show up again next gen and probably skip the next one, but then I reminded GF doesn't really do logic...

Lately I've been even wondering what the deal with the Tapus not being here this gen is.
Some people say that it's probably a balancing reason because the future Paradoxes are significantly stronger with terrain factored than the ancient ones with Sun (maybe they just have Iron Hands PTSD), but still feels kinda weird that the ancient ones have 4 enablers (one of which being a VGC staple, and 2 of them being a historically consistent Uber and the new cover legendary) whereas the future ones are stuck with the cover legendary and... pincurchin.

 

[R_N]

If they're in Gen 10 I suspect it will be in the same capacity as all the other Gen 9 legends/dlc Pokemon. A spat of them available normally, others transfer exclusive

Actually Gen 11 will probably just bring UBs back and skip Paradoxes, so maybe Gen 12 will see them normally appear.

 

[doipy hooves]

I decided to seek out the Snacksworth legendaries without reading an explicit guide, barely having the box space to spare. For the most part I would say the clues were pretty intuitive, though the difficulty of actually finding some of the mons varied, and it was a nice excuse to fly around Paldea and find a lot of areas I had never picked up items in. As someone who does not trade very much, I prefer this co-op/quest method of unlocking legendaries from the other version natively, rather than needing to have both mons to unlock the third legendary like the 3DS era kept doing. You still have to engage in multiplayer but you don't have to give anything up personally.

Experiences on legendary locations and battles

At first I found Suicune and Latios by accident just flying around Paldea before deciding to start hunting.

The easiest to find was definitely Solgaleo and the mons next to landmarks. In comparison, Lunala was not where I expected when I was looking around beaches and I thought it might have been a timed encounter but it was just higher up. Necrozma was also relatively vague with how many waterfalls there are and even mentioning Sawsbuck threw me off because its primary habitat in the dex is Glaseado Mountain.

I spent a long while just flying around Glaseado Mountain because there are like 5 mons around there and there are a few ruins that Glastrier and Spectrier are not at. I kept missing Articuno's pond and found Lugia instead following a river.

Finding Groudon was probably the most difficult one than expected because I knew it was in a cave, but I underestimated how big the cave was and how small Groudon's visibility was from its corner so I kept missing it.

Zekrom was another one I kept missing sight of, because I was just flying above every high point on the path between Mesagoza and Artazon and the clue made me think that it was closer to the Mesagoza end. I only found it in the end because I was landing to pick up items.

I didn't realize how far Tagtree Thicket extended so I kept looking for Virizion in the wrong half, and it turns out it was in another corner again.

For the battles, I did bring False Swipe on Ogerpon/Ceruledge used for the most part except against ghosts. I was trying Sleep Powders with Vivillon initially but settled for Nuzzle paralysis and just chucking balls for the most part. Against the electric legendaries I sat there with Clodsire and Yawned instead, though Pressure may have been a problem if SV didn't dump 100+ Ethers in the overworld. For the Hoenn legendaries I did end up bringing Shaymin to Worry Seed them, so against Groudon I didn't have any status to use from my main party, but Vivillon walled it so I could just spam Dusk Balls. The Swords of Justice were probably the most threatening fights with Swords Dance setup and I tried countering with Minun's Charm and Encore a bit for Terrakion, but for the others I just sat with Ceruledge to resist. Spectrier and Glastrier were the most tense with Double-Edge and Thrash before I had put Ceruledge in. Solgaleo was also pretty bad too with two recoil moves but I had Minun encore it into Solar Beam for a while.

Overall while I was able to get through without needing resets, it did make me restock on balls a fair bit, and I actually miss the times of easy legendary catches now before they set them back to 3 catch rates. It says something that the gameplay of catching the legendary birds still feels just like Gen 1 with how you engage with it, except they waste more turns on status in this game. Even though we have critical captures and more specialized balls, it mostly just comes down to the Dusk, Timer, and sometimes Dive Ball if the legendary being in the water actually counts. On the topic, while I had the Galarian birds transferred from Home, the Kanto birds didn't have the captured symbol on them so I don't know if the Repeat Ball would have counted there.

For now I just have the trainer/coach battles left to go through at some point, which is not really that appealing to play through compared to scouring the overworld, but I guess it should end up taking less time than catching the legendaries because they aren't defined by waiting for RNG. It's nice that you have options to fight the rematches directly or also do it for free/randomly in the Ace Tournament pool, unlike Title Defense making you fight 4 unchanging fights first. Apparently Clear Amulet Calyrex-Ice and Specs Kyurem-White are the new sets that can pull off AFK turbo grinding, though you have to sacrifice the Amulet Coin for consistent wins either way.

 

[R_N]

My gameplan for the legends was:
-Quick Ball
-Glare Dudunsparce
-False Swipe Scizor
-Misc Support Pokemon if needed
-The rest of the team to just soak hits while I throw various balls.

For Rayquaza & Groudon it was Worry Seed Exeggutor so I didn't have to deal with Rest
For the Horses it was a ghost type because they can't hit those at all and it meant I didn't have to deal with Confusion and Recoil. I als obrought a ghost to the musketeers but I'm pretty sure Serebii's movelists were wrong and they didn't have recoil at those levels anyway.
For the electrics & ghosts, I brought an Alomomola (with a Focus Sash) to use Soak so I could use Glare/False Swipe

These days I just don't bother with sleep, having to throw it back on just for ~3 turns of throws is such a pain. It was fun pulling out Worry Seed and Soak, at least

 

[AztecCroc]

while I had the Galarian birds transferred from Home, the Kanto birds didn't have the captured symbol on them so I don't know if the Repeat Ball would have counted there.

Regional forms are separate from the base for Repeat Ball purposes now.

 

[Suspicious Derivative]

I have beaten the Indigo Disk, which means that it is time for a review. Since I started the year with reviewing the main game, it felt like a good idea to end the year with another review.

I started playing the Indigo Disk on December 14th and beat the main story on December 18th. I completed Perrin’s new quest on December 26th, and the Blueberry Pokédex on December 27th.

Below are my thoughts. There are lots of spoilers, though I guess it doesn’t matter much at this point as I assume most people have already completed it.

Preparations and expectations

I was really hyped for the Indigo Disk. I enjoyed the main game and the Teal Mask a lot, so I was looking forward to the final part of the game. I wanted to see the end of the story, I was especially curious about how it would go for Carmine and Kieran. Being able to catch all starters from Gen 1-8 in the wild was something that seemed really cool as well, not to mention the fact that the Indigo Disk would be taking place in Unova!

I was expecting something similar to the previous DLCs. New areas to explore, with new Pokémon, new characters, more content and some gameplay improvements. And that’s just what I got, so that’s great.

Just like for the Teal Mask, and for the S/S DLCs, I prepared a new team for the Indigo Disk. I planned the team around the time when the release date was announced, then I obtained the team members and trained them in the last weeks before the release.

This was the first part of the game which I actually started playing on the release date. I started playing the main game a month after the release, and the Teal Mask three days after release. But here, I got started right away.

Now that I have played through the Indigo Disk, did it live up to my expectations? For the most part, yes. It was really fun and enjoyable. There were a few things I think could have been done better, but the vast majority of it was great. It isn’t Torna or Future Redeemed, but it is still really good. DLC is the right way to go for Pokémon, third/alternate versions are hopefully a thing of the past at this point.

Gameplay and content

I like how you can use Miraidon directly here. I guess that’s to be expected since you need to beat both the main game and the Teal Mask to get here, and you can start exploring the Terarium as soon as you arrive. The Blueberry Academy is also nice, it feels similar to the Naranja/Uva Academy in the main game.

The performance of the Indigo Disk was bad as expected, but since the gameplay is so fun, I can tolerate it. That said, it felt like it was even worse than the main game or the Teal Mask. At some points, the game hacked a lot or even stopped for a few seconds, making me fear it would crash again. Fortunately, that never happened.

Before I started on the Indigo Disk, I trained my new team to level 60. Then I arrived at the Blueberry Academy and got into my first battle against Lacey… only to discover that her team was at level 70-72! Making me quite underleveled. Though I still won without too much issues as her team consisted of Plusle, Minun and Excadrill. The last one was a little scary, but it wasn’t too bad.

Down in the Terarium, I noticed that the levels of the wild Pokémon varied quite a bit. Some were in their mid-50s, others in their mid to high 60s. But the trainers were at level 70+. I started by training my team a little by battling/catching wild Pokémon, but I quickly got bored. I didn’t want to do grind anymore, but I didn’t want to be underleveled either! In the end, I gave my team Exp. Candies until they had all reached level 70. Then I could start for real.

My team grew quite quickly though, and after a while, I started getting overleveled. When I fought the final bosses, my team was at 10+ levels above their teams. But I still had trouble against some of them despite being overleveled. In the post-game, my team even reached level 100, so I decided to bench them and bring out my other teams instead in order to give them some good training. I’m really happy about the levels of the wild Pokémon in the Terarium. I love how you can find wild Chansey and Blissey at high levels, as this gives some really good training.

Before playing the Indigo Disk, I had heard that it was going to be more difficult than your average Pokémon game. And that turned out to be true. Only Double battles, high levels, and the opponents use good strategies. I was surprised when I first heard this, but I thought it could be great. After playing through it, I think it a good type of difficulty because the battles are tough, but they are still fair. The opponents don’t cheat, they just use good strategies against you. That’s the best type of difficulty in Pokémon.

Among them were some really unexpected strategies, like a Smeargle with Endeavor and Extreme Speed, holding a Focus Sash! It is almost guaranteed to take down at least one of your Pokémon. In general, I found the regular trainers to be tougher than in the main game or the Teal Mask, but in a fair and balanced way. I won most regular trainer battles without issues as long as I didn’t play stupidly. I learned that a black text box in the Indigo Disk doesn’t indicate that the trainer in question has Pokémon at higher levels, but rather more Pokémon on their rosters, and better Pokémon (like fully evolved ones) and they use even more serious strategies than the regular trainers with white text boxes.

I really like Double battles, I even prefer them over Singles, but I think the game does a bad job at preparing you for all the Double battles in the Indigo Disk. The only Double battles in the main game are at Ryme’s Gym, and there are none in the Teal Mask. Because of this, I found it very unexpected that the Indigo Disk would focus on Doubles due to how few there were in the previous parts of the game. I still like it in the end though.

I like how you get rewards from Councilors from beating trainers in the Terarium, and they even give you BP! Which is really nice. As well as five Ability Patches for beating every single trainer in the Terarium! Crazy, but very welcome.

The map is big, and it was fun to explore. I like how it is separated in four distinct Biomes, each with its own environment. This made it easy to explore since I could just do one area at a time, and keep in mind which specific areas I had already explored within the Biomes. I think it feels very artificial, but since the entire Terarium is artificial, that’s a very good thing. Exploring was really fun, but it took a while to explore the entire map. Exploring the caves was fun as well. Both of them were so unexpectedly big that I almost got lost several times! Makes me wish the game could have separate maps for dungeons, but it still works.

Some quick thoughts on the four Biomes:

My favorite is easily the Savanna. I love everything about it. They tried to capture the feeling of a real savanna, and they totally nailed it! The wild Pokémon found here are just the kinds you can expect to find at a real savanna. Rhyhorn, Pyroar, Zebstrika, Dodrio, Farigiraf, Mandibuzz and more. Not only is it the best savanna I have seen in Pokémon, it is the best savanna I have seen in any video game I have played. It feels like they took the concept of the Safari Zone from Gen 1 and used everything they could from the new generations and the Switch hardware (relatively speaking) to make it as great as possible, which they absolutely succeeded with.

Some specific things I really like:

Wild Trapinch living in the sand pits.

A little Vullaby in its nest, with the mother Mandibuzz flying around and guarding it.

The lion king looking out over his kingdom!

Next, we have the Coastal Biome. It takes a lot of inspiration from Alola, and it shows. They really captured the tropical atmosphere of Alola here. The wild Pokémon help a lot as there are many Alola Pokémon and forms here. The Torchlit Labyrinth was also fun, a long tunnel with many paths that was tricky to explore in full. In the end, the Coastal Biome is definitely my second favorite.

Third is the Canyon Biome. It feels less special than the previous two, but it is still great. I like how they made use of the cliffs and canyons here, exploring everything requires both flying and climbing, and it is fun. I think this would have been very hard to pull off in any previous game, not even Legends could have made it this well. The Chargestone Caverns are fun too, although they are far more open than the Torchlit Labyrinth.

Lastly, we have the Polar Biome. It is really cool (pun intended). I think it is a great area, it really captures the polar feeling. Ice and snow everywhere! As someone who loves snow, I approve of it. There’s another huge mountain here, which is nice. And it features both wild Cubchoo/Beartic and Piplup, referencing both the North and South Poles!

I like how each Biome has a different forms for Deerling and Sawsbuck. And how there are many healing machines placed around the Terarium, it is very convenient. The Central Plaza is also a nice hub for the Terarium.

As someone whose favorite is Gen 5, I love how the Indigo Disk is set in Unova. The music for the wild Pokémon and trainers is from the Unova games, and when you face a wild Tera Pokémon, the music is the special encounter theme from the Unova games! This is amazing and I love it. Plus, there are a lot more Unova references. There’s one area in the Canyon Biome that has the same layout as the Nature Preserve, and in the post-game, there’s a Stellar Tera Haxorus to be found there, a very obvious reference to the shiny Haxorus in B2/W2. Chargestone Cavern is really nice too, an obvious nod to Chargestone Cave. It really captures the spirit of Chargestone Cave and I love it.

I noticed that there are “black holes” in the lowest part of Area Zero, and I think that’s a first for Pokémon. Can’t remember seeing anything like this in a past Pokémon game.

The Indigo Disk lets you do the Elite Four in any order you want, but unlike the main game, it actually tells you in which order you are supposed to do them! So that’s great. I was originally planning to do them in the right order, but then I accidentally screwed up. I battled Crispin first, then Lacey. The game said she was the third strongest trainer in the Indigo Disk, but I misread it as the third strongest member of the Elite Four. I continued by battling Amarys third and Drayton last. Below are my thoughts on the Elite Four trials, and how my battles against them went:

I really liked Crispin’s trial. I never expected Picnics to be an integral and mandatory part of the game, but here we are. I’m not the biggest fan of the Picnics, but I think it was okay here. Trading and gathering the ingredients you needed for the spicy sandwich was fun. My battle against Crispin was tough even if I was somewhat overleveled. I won with 4-0 in the end, my MVP did not live until the end of the battle but it helped me a lot.

Lacey’s trial was my least favorite, but it was still okay. It was a test of Pokémon knowledge, featuring random trivia. I have mixed feelings towards these types of tests as they tend to either be too easy or too hard. I think Lacey’s was leaning towards being too hard as I was unsure about some of the questions. At least you didn’t have to start over from the beginning if you got something wrong. I got everything right on my first try except the question about what Venonat’s radar is. I got the Granbull question right thanks to a trainer standing outside the plaza telling me that Lacey uses Granbull’s tummy as a pillow.

The battle against Lacey was really tough. Prankster Light Screen and Tailwind followed by several bulky Pokémon who got fast thanks to Tailwind, and even bulkier thanks to Light Screen. All of this made things tougher than expected, despite the fact that I was overleveled. I also had three weaknesses to Fairy on my team, and I misplayed a bit. In addition, Lacey got lucky and managed to status three of my Pokémon. Fortunately, my MVP helped a lot in this battle as well, even if it fainted along the way here too. I won with 2-0 in the end. Out of my two remaining Pokémon, one was heavily damaged, the other was at 1/3 HP and Burned. I love how Lacey has Excadrill as her ace Pokémon just like her dad, and how she Terastallizes it into a Fairy-type.

Amarys had a fun trial, it was basically an introduction to the Flying Time Trial. It was really fun and quite easy, even if the controls bothered me a bit. The battle against her was the easiest. I was quite overleveled, and after my previous experiences with Crispin and Lacey, I decided to go all out and use my best strategies to win here. Amarys had a Skarmory with Stealth Rock and Whirlwind like a true Smogon player, but I took it down before it could phase me out, and I had no reason to switch afterwards, making it completely ineffective. I won with 6-0.

Drayton’s trial was the last one I did, and I liked it. Being forced to use Pokémon I had caught in the Terarium in a few battles was unexpected but fun. I put together a team of six I had caught that were at reasonably high levels and gave them some good hold items. Then I battled the three trainers, and it was easier than expected. The trainers only had 2 Pokémon each, all at level 68. I only had to use a Golurk, Skarmory and Flygon, and I won all three battles with ease.

As for Drayton, he wasn’t too hard. Once again, I was quite overleveled. Tailwind made his team fast, but it didn’t help him a lot. I also somehow got saved by some Friendship activations, my Pokémon tanked some hits and lived with 1 HP left. I had played with my team and made several sandwiches during picnics, but I don’t think I had ever experienced a Friendship activation in battle in Violet before. So that was unexpected but cool. I won with 5-0 in the end, my MVP was amazing here.

After the Elite Four, it was time for Kieran. For better or worse, he was quite easy. I was not expecting him to use a Rain-based team. With only one Water immunity on my team, I was expecting it to be tough, but it was easy since he didn’t take full advantage of the Rain. It also seems that the AI ignores Storm Drain, which gave me an easier win. I also got another Friendship activation here. I won with 5-0, my MVP was the main contributor here too.

Then there was Terapagos. It was really hard and defeated several of my team members, but my MVP sealed the deal here as well. Overall, my two hardest battles in the Indigo Disk were against Lacey and Terapagos.

Most of the new music in the Indigo Disk is nice. Apart from the new versions of the Unova themes, I like the theme in the Area Zero depths. It feels like they took the original theme of Area Zero and added an extra layer of mystery to it, which is fantastic.

The Blueberry Pokédex is great. It is a bit larger than the Kitakami dex, with 240 Pokémon (or 242 with Walking Wake and Iron Leaves). It is bigger than both the Isle of Armor dex and the Crown Tundra dex. The hardest two Pokémon to get this time around were Raging Bolt and Gouging Fire. I got them from the GTS, but it was tough as they were at the very top of the most valued Pokémon on the GTS. It felt like no matter what I offered, nobody wanted to trade them to me. I was considering sacrificing one of my own Iron Crown or Iron Boulder, but thankfully, I didn’t have to. I finally got them by chain trading some of the shinies I had caught.

The BBQs and the BP you get from them is a good concept. Many of the quests are simple and quick, and I like how you automatically get a new quest every time you complete one. The rewards you can buy for the BP are really cool too. I like how they brought back the battle styles from Gen 7, and how you can change the music and the design in the League Club room.

Being able to catch starters in the wild is really cool. Starters are usually very elusive in Pokémon games, which is something I really don’t like. But here, you can find all starters from Gen 1-8 in the wild, and infinite amounts of them too! It is amazing and I love it. While similar things have been possible in past games (such as the Friend Safari in X/Y and Island Scan in the Alola games), I think the Indigo Disk has a way better execution. Many of them also make so much sense, like how you can find wild Piplup in the Polar Biome, or Popplio in the Coastal Biome. The only negative was to actually unlock the starters. 12000 BP is very much, and it was really grindy. I did it in the end, but it took a while. Fortunately, it goes quite quickly if you just put full focus on grinding BP.

Some minor things I noticed. Following the Squawkabilly in Paldea, and the Noctowl in Kitakami, the flying taxis in the Terarium use Skarmory! Which is cool. Another thing I like is that there are some differences between regional forms in the Terarium. In the Savanna, you meet regular Exeggutor, but in the Coastal Biome, you meet Alolan Exeggutor! And some Pokémon are found in their regional variants here, such as Alolan Geodude and Grimer, as well as Galarian Slowpoke. There’s also regular Tauros here, as opposed to Paldean ones.

Like with the Teal Mask, there are a bunch of new TMs. I looked through the list of them, but there was nothing that really caught my eye. Not sure if there’s anything that will make a big impact in competitive either. I like how some of the TMs contain completely new moves, some of them seem pretty cool. There are also some unexpected old moves returning as TMs. Like Curse, which hasn’t been a TM since Gen 2! I also like how you can actually buy TMs for BP at the school store in the Academy. This wasn’t possible in the main game or the Teal Mask, so it's a nice addition.

The Flying Time Trial is a fun minigame. At first, the controls made it hard because in my mind, holding the stick up means going down and holding the stick down means going up. But here, it was the opposite! I beat all three modes, but it was tough since I was constantly forced to think about how to use the controls, making me misplay a lot. Afterwards, I learned that you can reverse the controls in the options menu, making them just as I want them to be. I changed the controls, then I tried again, and it went a lot better! Now I didn’t need to think, I could just autopilot through everything. After beating the final bosses, I also tried the super hard course. I beat it on my first try, but it was tough. I don’t think I’ll try the Flying Time Trial anymore in the future, but it was very fun for what it was.

I really like how you get the ability to fly freely with Miraidon after beating the story. That is something I have wanted ever since the base game. Having it makes exploration a lot easier, faster and more convenient. I also used it to fly to the top of the crystal orb in the Terarium, and found some really good stuff there!

Stellar Type is interesting. It isn’t really a “new” type like Dark, Steel and Fairy as it is exclusive to Terastallized Pokémon. Stellar type Tera Blast/Starstorm hits opposing Terastallized Pokémon for super effective damage, and everything else neutrally. I haven’t really used it yet, but I will definitely try it when I train my Terapagos later on.

You get the ability to use Terastal infinitely after beating the main game, which arguably makes it a bit more broken. But I still think it’s okay since it is only useable in the very post-post-game, and it doesn’t really make a huge difference at that point, so it’s fine.

I haven’t done a lot of things in the League Club yet, but I invited a coach once to see how it was. I went for Katy since she was the first in line. I battled her and won, and she gave me some Sweet Herba Mystica afterwards, allowing me to finally complete the quest for Saguaro! That was great. I like the League Club room in general, I will definitely invite all remaining coaches to it in the future. They use Pokémon at high levels (80+) and good strategies, giving some good training and offering a challenge at the same time, which is great. I also like how you can customize the League Club room by changing the design and the music. There are even some bonus music tracks, like the Castelia City theme from the Unova games, and that is awesome!

I have tried the Synchro Machine a few times, and it is pretty cool. You can actually play as one of your Pokémon! I haven’t used it very much though, I just prefer playing the regular way by using my player character.

I have yet to try catching any legendaries with Snacksworth’s candies, but I will definitely catch all that I can in the future. I have also read that you can catch Meloetta, and that is amazing! Yet another mythical that can be caught without an event of any sort, the list of them is slowly getting bigger.

Somewhat unrelated to the Indigo Disk, but I like how there was a re-run of the Walking Wake/Iron Leaves Tera Raid event. I never caught an Iron Leaves of my own last time, I got one from the GTS instead. But now, I decided to try to catch one of my own, and I got it on my first try! I later traded away my previous one on the GTS.

Pokémon

The Indigo Disk brought back many of favorites from previous generations. Notably the following: Venusaur, Blastoise, Dodrio, Hitmonlee, Feraligatr, Lanturn, Bellossom, Kingdra, Porygon2, Smeargle, Hitmontop, Raikou, Suicune, Hoenn Starters, Metagross, Latias, Latios, Magmortar, Porygon-Z, Serperior, Emboar, Zebstrika, Excadrill, Whimsicott, Scrafty, Cinccino, Reuniclus, Galvantula, Golurk, Swords of Justice, Tao Trio, Meowstic, Incineroar, Primarina, Comfey, Minior, Light Trio and Alcremie. Not a whole lot of regional variants were brought back this time, I think the only one was Alolan Exeggutor. Not one of my top favorites, but it is still okay.

As I expected after seeing the leaks, Roserade didn’t make it back. This means that my Roserade from Legends will be stuck there for now. It is the only one of the 19 Pokémon I trained on Legends that is dexited from ScaVio, which feels sad. I’m hoping to be able to send it to some future game instead. On Violet, I will use Kleavor as a replacement for Roserade, taking Roserade’s place on the team it was originally featured on.

Some short thoughts on all the new Pokémon, as well as Walking Wake and Iron Leaves. While they aren’t new as they were available in the game before the Indigo Disk, this is the first time they got a Pokédex entry.

Archaludon
The evolution of Duraludon. It was revealed beforehand, so no real surprise here. Stat-wise, it is a slight improvement over Duraludon in everything but Speed. It has solid Defense and Sp.att, which can make it a powerful and bulky Special attacker. It also has two new Abilities compared to Duraludon. Stamina is useful to boost its Defense, while Sturdy can make it survive any attack at full HP. Electro Shot is a cool signature move, basically an Electric-type Meteor Beam that is more powerful and accurate, and it gets instantly charged in the Rain. I also like Archaludon’s cry a lot. Overall a cool Pokémon.

Hydrapple
The expected yet unexpected evolution of Dipplin. Since the Eviolite worked on Dipplin in the Teal Mask, and since it was Kieran’s ace, it felt obvious like it was going to evolve further. But the way it turned out wasn’t what I expected. We went from a candy apple to a hydra apple? Still, it is really cool. Stat-wise, it is Dipplin but with higher HP and Sp.att, as well as slightly higher Speed. Fickle Beam is yet another cool signature move, with a 30% chance of doubling its base power, making it stronger than Draco Meteor if you are lucky. Hydrapple is also interesting in that it is the only one of Applin’s evolutions which is a three-stage line, as neither Flapple nor Appletun evolve further.

Paradox Legendary Beasts
Like most of the ancient paradoxes, they seem to be the original Pokémon in dinosaur form. These three keep their base type and get Dragon as a secondary type. They have Protosynthesis as their only Ability, which is expected since that’s the case for all ancient Paradoxes.
Raging Bolt is Raikou as a brontosaurus, but it has always looked like a Giraffe to me. Stat-wise, it is a powerful and quite bulky Special attacker, but considerably slower than regular Raikou. Thunderclap is a cool signature move, basically a Special Electric-type Sucker Punch, which is neat.
Gouging Fire is Entei with a big crown… or what it should be called. It’s overall design isn’t that different from regular Entei, but that’s okay. Stat-wise, it seems to be a Physical attacker with good Defense and decent Speed. Burning Bulwark is a new variant of Protect, it is basically a Baneful Bunker that causes Burn instead of Poison.
Walking Wake is a lizard-Suicune on two legs. While Suicune is bulky and defensive Pokémon, Walking Wake is a fast Special attacker with lower bulk, making it my favorite of the three in terms of stats. Hydro Steam is a very cool signature move, getting a power boost in both Sun and Rain.

Paradox Swords of Justice
Just like the other future paradoxes, they seem to be what the original Pokémon would be if they were robots. They all keep their primary typing, but their secondary Fighting-type is replaced by Psychic. Like all future paradoxes, they have Quark Drive as their only Ability.
Iron Crown is the new Cobalion. It seems to be a pretty powerful and decently fast Special attacker with okay bulk. Tachyon Cutter is a really cool signature move, hitting twice and never missing, making it a way better Flash Cannon.
Iron Boulder is our new Terrakion. It is a fast and strong Physical attacker with okay bulk. Mighty Cleave is a great signature move as it is a Physical Rock-type move that is both powerful and 100% accurate! The dream of every Physical attacking Rock-type, and Boulder gets to live it.
Iron Leaves is the new version of Virizion. It is another Physical attacker, stronger than Boulder, but also slower. Psyblade is a signature move that gets boosted on Electric Terrain, which is cool.

On the whole, I like all of the new paradoxes that were introduced in the Indigo Disk.

Terapagos
The new legendary of the Indigo Disk. Pretty cute in its base form, though not on the same level as Ogerpon. It starts in its Normal Form, which immediately changes into Terastal Form as it enters battle, and then into Stellar Form as it Terastallizes. It gradually gets stronger as it changes form, with the Stellar Form being a powerful Special attacker with very solid bulk, but only average Speed. It has three different signature Abilities, one for each form, each with a different effect. Tera Starstorm is a great signature move, basically a more powerful Tera Blast. I think Terapagos is cool, and I’m looking forward to using it myself as I’m going to train it for a future team on Violet.

Those are all the new Pokémon introduced in the Indigo Disk… except not. I have learned that there is yet another Pokémon which is coded into the games, but it isn’t officially available or revealed yet. Since that’s the case, I won’t say anything about it. From what I have heard and seen, it appears that this Pokémon will be featured in the epilogue. Though I can’t help but wonder why it was added to the games ahead of that? Why not just add it when they are going to actually release it, like they did for Walking Wake and Iron Leaves? I don’t get it. But whatever, I guess we’ll see the truth of this new Pokémon soon enough.

Story and characters

I liked the story. While it was not quite as amazing as the main story or the Teal Mask, I thought it was still very good. A solid conclusion to the best story in the series… for now, as the Epilogue isn’t out yet.

I like the concept of going to the Blueberry Academy an exchange student. Director Cyrano was nice, though he didn’t play much of a role in the story. I am a big fan of the Blueberry Elite Four, I like how they all have their own personalities. Drayton is mostly carefree, lazy and tired most of the time, Crispin is hotheaded and energetic, Lacey is cheerful but calm and collected, while Amarys is very serious… yet she also has feelings for Kieran! Overall, a great Elite Four.

My favorite new character is Lacey. A Fairy-type specialist who’s also the daughter of Clay, who is my favorite Unova Gym Leader. Can’t get better than that. Though I wonder who Lacey’s mother is? Though Lacey is not the only one to be related to a Unova Gym Leader, as Drayton is the grandson of Drayden, which is super cool. And all of the Elite Four members are from various cities in Unova, which is great.

We also get to see the return of Kieran and Carmine… and following their story in the Teal Mask, their roles are basically reversed! Kieran has become the Champion in the Blueberry Academy and I definitely prefer this over him becoming an evil team leader, or just evil in general. Instead, he has focused on becoming stronger. He is now a lot more assertive and determined to the point that Carmine is the one who is almost afraid of him! She still cares about him though, but now in a good way as she is seriously worried about him because he is so focused on battles and getting stronger to the point that he doesn’t get enough sleep. Yet at the same time, Carmine is still her old self in some ways. The Elite Four also cares a lot about Kieran, which is great.

I suppose the story can be separated in two parts, with the first revolves around defeating the Elite Four and Kieran at the Terarium, and the second is about going to the depths of Area Zero. It is basically two different stories told right after one another, and that’s cool. There’s not a super huge connection between them, but it works. However, there’s a strong connection to the Teal Mask as the Indigo Disk is basically a sequel to it. This is pretty different compared to the S/S DLC, where the stories in the Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra were completely independent of each other. I think both approaches work, I don’t prefer one over the other.

I liked beating the Elite Four at the Terarium, the story unfolded more and more as I continued, then I finally got to battle Kieran. Going back to Area Zero with Carmine, Kieran and Briar afterwards was cool. Just like with the main game, the story ends in Area Zero. I was surprised to see Kieran catch Terapagos right after it appeared, that just showed just how power-hungry he was.

I liked Briar, she was a bit over-obsessed with Terapagos and the Terastal phenomenon, but that’s a curious teacher for you! I’m glad she wasn’t a villain in the end, that would have been a bad and predictable twist. Just like with the main story, I liked how there weren’t a real villain or antagonist this time around.

At many points during the story, I felt really sad for Kieran. In the Teal Mask, Carmine kept him away from meeting with Ogerpon, and while she had good reasons for doing so, the end result was not good. After that, Kieran got rejected by Ogerpon while the player got to befriend it. This led to Kieran looking up to the player and wanting to become stronger… but he still lost. He then thought he could get the power he wanted through Terapagos, but it didn’t happen… and in the end, he didn’t really want power, but friendship. Fortunately, Kieran became a hero in the end since he helps the player defeat Terapagos, which was nice. He felt useless, but he came out on top in the end! Kieran apologized for his actions in the end, but I really think the player should have apologized to him too. I am a big fan of Kieran and his character arc, my only complaint is that it was a bit rushed in the end.

The theme of the Indigo Disk isn’t as super clear is the theme of the Teal Mask, but my overall impression is that they are telling you that you shouldn’t just pursue strength, there are other things in life that are more important. This is similar to Cheren’s character arc in B/W, and since this also takes place in Unova, it is a nice connection.

I wasn’t expecting the credits to roll after beating the Indigo Disk since that didn’t happen in the S/S DLC, so that was cool. The ending song was also nice.

One thing I have been wondering about is this: where are Carmine and Kieran after the story is over? I haven’t found them anywhere. Maybe they’ll return in the epilogue? I really hope so, I don’t want to see them disappear forever for no good reason.

So that’s it for the main story. But there’s more. First, Perrin’s new quest. I was not expecting her to make a reappearance here, seeing her in the beginning was quite a big surprise. I think she’s a great character, I have grown to like her a lot and I hope she will appear again in the future. Her quest this time around was very short but fun. It took a while before I got around to doing it since it required 200 Pokémon registered in the Blueberry Dex, which I didn’t get until long after I had beaten the main story. Unlocking all these starters took a while… but once I was done, I could do Perrin’s quest. I did it, and managed to find and catch Iron Crown and Iron Boulder. Finding them wasn’t the easiest, but I managed to do it thanks to the hint photos Perrin showed me.

In addition to that, I also discovered that there was an epilogue story with the Team Star bosses at Naranja/Uva Academy in the main game. It was short, but really fun. I liked seeing the Team Star bosses in regular clothes. Eri looked very different without her mask (or is it make-up?). Mela also looked difficult, and seeing Atticus without him covering his face was also a surprise. Giacomo and Ortega didn’t look that different though. Overall, it was a fun little extra story with them.

And that’s my thoughts on the story in the Indigo Disk. It was great. Now I’m looking forward to the epilogue when it releases!

Another new team

Just like for the Teal Mask, I made a new team for the Indigo Disk. Even after my three previous teams, there were a lot of new Pokémon left that I wanted to use, and this was a good opportunity to use some more of them.

Like for my previous team, I set some rules. New Pokémon only, no overlapping types, and the team should have a good balance between Physical and Special. I also wanted to use the few remaining types I hadn’t used anywhere on my previous in-game teams, and I decided that all of the members of this team should be dual-typed, just for fun.

I made sure all team members had good movesets, good Natures, useful Abilities and useful items. I also Hyper Trained them this time around. Since I had heard the battles in the Indigo Disk were going to be tougher than in the main game or the Teal Mask, and since some of the team members had pretty bad IVs, it felt like the right thing to do. I didn’t properly EV-train them, but I pumped them full of EVs though Wings, Vitamins and Mochi before I started, just so their EVs would be maxed out. I mostly focused on putting EVs in the stats they needed the most. In retrospect, I wish I had EV-trained them properly, but it worked anyway. They did not have any special Tera types, just one of their STAB types as usual. I used Paradoxes, but I didn’t use any legendaries. There was one I considered, but I decided to not use it.

I was very surprised when I heard that the Indigo Disk would only feature Double battles, it was totally unexpected. I had already planned the team before I heard about this, and I didn’t want to change any team members. I kept the Pokémon I had planned for the team, but I made some small changes to their movesets. I’ll go over these changes when discussing the team in detail.

The team is named ID:009. Unlike last time, I settled for a short name which contains a slight mystery. If you want to know what it means: ID is for Indigo Disk, and 009 because it is Gen 9.

Here’s a team preview:

I mentioned previously that I had an MVP on the team. But the MVP is not who you think it is.

Here are the full details for the team:

Skeledirge (M) @ Leftovers
Ability: Unaware
Tera type: Fire
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Nature: Quiet (Minted to Modest)
- Torch Song
- Shadow Ball
- Earth Power
- Slack Off

The obvious first member of the team as it was the only Paldea starter I hadn’t used. Fuecoco and its evolutions are my least favorite Paldea starters, but I think Skeledirge on its own is fine, even if it isn’t on the same level as Meowscarada or Quaquaval. It is also a Fire-type, which is great as Fire was one of the three types I hadn’t used on any of my previous in-game teams.

Torch Song for Fire STAB, it is powerful enough and boosts Sp.att, allowing me to attack and setup at the same time, which is fantastic. All three of the Paldea starters have really great signature moves. Shadow Ball for secondary STAB, Earth Power for coverage, which helps against opposing Fire-, Electric- and Rock-types. Slack Off in the last slot to heal if necessary, Skeledirge is fairly bulky so it could often heal if given the opportunity.

Skeledirge doesn’t have the greatest offensive movepool, so there’s not a whole lot of other options. There’s Hyper Voice, but it doesn’t offer any valuable coverage. Solar Beam could be used alongside Sunny Day, but it didn’t feel worth it. It also has Hex which can be combined with Will-O-Wisp for high damage, but I felt that Shadow Ball was better. Snarl and Disarming Voice are other options, but they have too low base power. It also gets a bunch of Physical moves, but it only has 75 Base Attack, which is too low. There are also other support moves like Encore and Yawn, but three offensive moves and Slack Off felt like the superior set.

I gave it a Leftovers to heal itself even more, it felt like a good idea since Skeledirge is a slow and defensive Pokémon. Unaware is the superior Ability, allowing it to ignore opposing stat boosts. I minted it to Modest since it is a Special attacker.

Overall, Skeledirge was great. It was very strong and bulky, it could also set up with Torch Song, hitting even harder afterwards. It was a bit slow though, and would often move after the opponent. But despite that, it was great. It is still my least favorite Paldea starter, but I can appreciate it a lot more now that I have actually used it to great success.

Lokix (M) @ Muscle Band
Ability: Tinted Lens
Tera type: Bug
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Nature: Adamant
- Leech Life
- Throat Chop
- Low Kick
- U-Turn

Bug was another type I had yet to use, so I decided to use one here. But which one? Spidops was out of question, and I decided to not use Rabsca or Slither Wing. The last one left was Lokix. A superhero grasshopper, how cool isn’t that? And a Dark-type too, which is neat.

Leech Life and Throat Chop for STAB, the former also heals, which is never bad. Low Kick for coverage. I was considering Axe Kick or Brick Break, but Low Kick felt like it could be useful to hit heavy targets. U-Turn in the last slot if it needed to make an emergency exit from battles, which ended up being extremely useful at times.

Lokix doesn’t have a lot of other options. Lunge, First Impression and X-Scissor are other alternatives for Bug STAB, but Leech Life and U-Turn felt better. Sucker Punch, Knock Off and Lash Out are other alternatives for Dark STAB, but Throat Chop felt better due to higher base power, consistent damage, and guaranteed success. As for other coverage options, it learns Bounce/Aerial Ace and Trailblaze, but they didn’t feel worth it. It also gets Swords Dance to boost, but I didn’t go with that either.

I gave it a Muscle Band to hold since it is a Physical attacker, powering up its moves a bit. It has an Adamant Nature to hit even harder. Tinted Lens is the superior Ability since it allows Lokix to deal extra damage opponents that resist its moves. I managed to get a HA Nymble from the GTS, thankfully.

Overall, Lokix was great. It was strong and fast, it could heal itself and get out of battle with U-Turn if necessary. It was very frail though, so it was usually at the risk of being defeated if it was up against an opponent it was weak against.

Flamigo (F) @ Life Orb
Ability: Scrappy
Tera type: Flying
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Nature: Timid (Minted to Adamant)
- Brave Bird
- Close Combat
- Throat Chop
- U-Turn

For my third team member, I went with this cool bird. I had thought about using it on my previous team, but since I ended up using Bombirdier there, I decided to use Flamigo here instead.

Brave Bird and Close Combat for STAB, both of them hit hard at the cost of causing recoil or lowering defenses. Throat Chop for coverage, it was useful against Psychic-types. I was originally going to have Roost in the last slot, but after I learned that the Indigo Disk would focus on Double battles, I changed it to U-Turn. Just like for Lokix, it would allow Flamigo to make a quick exit in difficult situations, which ended up being very useful.

Flamigo doesn’t have a lot of other alternatives. It can use various other moves for STAB, but they are considerably weaker than Brave Bird and Close Combat. Another coverage option would be Liquidation, but Throat Chop offers better coverage. It gets Roost as mentioned, as well as Bulk Up and Swords Dance to boost, plus Tailwind for support, but the moves I went with felt like the better choices.

Scrappy is the superior Ability as it allows Flamigo to hit Ghost-types with Close Combat, though it never came into use. However, it was extremely useful for blocking Intimidates. I minted it to Adamant since it is a physical attacker. I wasn’t sure which hold item to go with, I considered many different ones but I ended up going with Life Orb to power up its moves a bit, and I wanted to use something slightly different for once.

Overall, Flamigo was great. It was very strong, but it was frail and quickly got worn down due to the recoil from Life Orb and Brave Bird. It was also slower than I had expected, I thought it would be faster since it has 90 Base Speed. Maybe a Jolly Nature would have been better than Adamant? Hard to say. But it worked fine anyway, and it contributed to victory in many important battles.

Tatsugiri (F) @ Wise Glasses
Ability: Storm Drain
Tera type: Water
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Nature: Modest
- Dragon Pulse
- Muddy Water
- Hydro Pump
- Nasty Plot

This little dragon became the fourth member of the team, although it was the final one I decided on. I needed a Special attacker that didn’t have any overlapping types with the rest of the team, and of the remaining Pokémon that fulfilled those requirements, I settled for Tatsugiri. I went with the Droopy form since I like it the best in terms of design.

Dragon Pulse for Dragon STAB, it is strong and accurate. I was originally going to use Surf and Draco Meteor in the second and third slots, but after learning that the Indigo Disk focused on Double battles, I had to make some changes. I scrapped Draco Meteor completely, and instead of Surf, I went with Muddy Water and Hydro Pump. Which of them I used depended on how much power I needed, and whether I wanted to hit just one or both opponents. Both of them are inaccurate, but for the most part, it wasn’t that much of an issue. They rarely missed, though it was annoying when they did. When I fought the Stellar Tera Garganacl at Area Zero, I used Tatsugiri, and Hydro Pump missed three times in a row! Nasty Plot in the last slot to boost, but I rarely used it. Most of the time, it was better to just attack right away, and Tatsugiri was often strong enough to the point that it rarely needed a boost.

Sadly, this little dragon doesn’t have a lot of other options. There’s Draco Meteor and Surf as mentioned, plus Icy Wind I guess. I suppose it could have been useful to lower the Speed of opponents, but I’m not sure if it would have made much of a difference. Apart from that, there’s nothing else that stands out when I look at Tatsugiri’s movepool.

Since it is a Special attacker, I gave it the Wise Glasses to power up its moves a bit. Storm Drain was the Ability I chose since it gives it an immunity to Water-type moves and draws them in Doubles, allowing it to shield its partner. I managed to get a HA Droopy form Tatsugiri from the GTS after some chain trading. Commander was out of question since I wasn’t going to use Dondozo. This Tatsugiri was originally going to be Timid, but since the extra Tatsugiri I caught to use as a parent for breeding was Modest, I decided to stick with that. And even with a Modest Nature, it was pretty fast.

Overall, Tatsugiri was great. Despite the lack of coverage, it could hit hard, it was fast enough, and it had good enough bulk as well. It was useful in many battles, notably against Kieran. It seems like the AI (or at least Kieran) ignored Storm Drain, as his Politoed kept spamming Weather Ball when I had Tatsugiri out on the field, allowing it to gather many boosts and KO several of Kieran’s Pokémon.

Iron Treads @ Expert Belt
Ability: Quark Drive
Tera type: Steel
IVs: 31/31/31/x/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Nature: Brave (Minted to Adamant)
- High Horsepower
- Iron Head
- Wild Charge
- Ice Spinner

Ground was the third and final type I had yet to properly use on any of my teams. While I used Clodsire as a reserve member on my in-game team, it didn’t really count. I wanted to use a Ground-type for real somewhere. Out of the remaining new non-legendary ones, I didn’t want to use Toedscruel. Which meant that the only ones that remained were three Paradoxes. I couldn’t use Great Tusk as I already had a Fighting-type in Flamigo, so the choice stood between Iron Treads and Sandy Shocks. I thought it over, and in the end, I settled for Future Donphan. It was a also Violet exclusive, which was nice as that meant I could catch one myself instead of getting it from the GTS.

High Horsepower and Iron Head for STAB. I was originally going to use Earthquake, but when I learned that the Indigo Disk would focus on Double battles, I changed it. High Horsepower has slightly less power and accuracy compared to Earthquake, but it only hits one opponent instead of the whole field. Heavy Slam could have been an alternative over Iron Head, but I prefer consistent damage most of the time, and it felt like it would be strong enough. Wild Charge and Ice Spinner for coverage, they give it a Physical BoltBeam.

Iron Treads have a ton of other options, though. Steel Roller is yet another Steel-STAB option, but Iron Head felt better. It also gets Knock Off, Megahorn, Zen Headbutt, Rock Slide/Stone Edge and Body Press for coverage, but just like I did for Flutter Mane last time, I did some very serious coverage calculations and found that Wild Charge/Ice Spinner gave the best coverage in conjunction with its STABs.

I gave it an Expert Belt since it is going to hit a ton of Pokémon for super effective damage. I minted it to Adamant to make it more powerful. Quark Drive is the only Ability it has, though it never came into use.

Overall, Iron Treads was great. It was powerful with great coverage, yet bulky and fast at the same time, having all the good qualities you could ask for. It offered very valuable coverage at times, making it a very solid and useful member of the team.

Scream Tail @ Leftovers
Ability: Protosynthesis
Tera type: Fairy
IVs: 31/x/31/31/31/31 (Hyper Trained)
Nature: Relaxed (Minted to Modest)
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psyshock
- Flamethrower
- Calm Mind

The last member of the team was actually the second one I planned. As always, I needed a Fairy-type. The only two new ones I had yet to use anywhere were Scream Tail and Fezandipiti. Since I didn’t want to use legendaries, I went with Ancient Jiggly. A Scarlet exclusive just like Flutter Mane, so I had to get one from the GTS, but it went easy as I just offered a random shiny and got it immediately.

Scream Tail is really weird since it is a fast and defensive Pokémon with low offenses. That didn’t feel suitable for in-game use, and especially not for Double battles. But what else could I do? Not using a Fairy-type was out of question, and I didn’t want to use an old one or a new one I had already used on a previous team.

Dazzling Gleam and Psyshock for STAB. It doesn’t learn Moonblast, but Dazzling Gleam was pretty good since it hits both opponents in Double battles. I chose Psyshock over Psychic to nail Special walls, which was great because of the high amount of wild Chansey and Blissey in the Terarium. Flamethrower for coverage, it was helpful against Steel-types. Calm Mind in the last slot to boost, Scream Tail doesn’t have the highest Sp.att and I felt that it could be a good idea to boost before attacking, even if it could be risky in Double battles. Boosting its Sp.def even further was also great.

Other options would have been Boomburst, Grass Knot, Psychic, Thunderbolt and Ice Beam, but Flamethrower offered better coverage. It also gets Wish, which is a solid support option. I suppose it can also go Physical since it has equal Attack and Sp.att, but I went with a Special set to keep the team balanced.

I gave it a Leftovers to hold since my plan was to boost before attacking, meaning it would often take a hit before attacking. But when I played, I rarely set up, attacking right away was often the better option. Though the Leftovers was still very useful as Scream Tail often had to take a hit after attacking, which allowed it to recover with Leftovers afterwards. I minted it to Modest to boost its Sp.att even further. It has Protosynthesis like all the ancient paradoxes, and it actually came into use a few times. Notably against Crispin, since he used Sunny Day when I battled him. Scream Tail got its Sp.def boosted by Protosynthesis, allowing it to tank Special hits even better. My Scream Tail initially had a 0 IV in Sp.att, and I realized that I couldn’t go with that, so I Hyper Trained it and the rest of the team as well.

Before I started, I expected Scream Tail to be a burden and a disappointment. A defensive Pokémon with weak offenses, there was no way it was going to be useful, right? But it was the total opposite. Scream Tail was surprisingly good. Amazing bulk coupled with high Speed meant that it could pretty much always act first, tank a hit and usually live with more than 50% HP left, thus allowing it to attack again and again. And even if it didn’t live all the way to the end, it would often contribute enough for the rest of the team to win the battle. To my own surprise, it became the MVP of the team.

It was amazing in three of the E4 battles. It did really well against both Crispin and Lacey, it was also fantastic against Drayton. It was great in the last parts of the battle against Kieran, managing to 2HKO his Hydrapple while it couldn’t do much in return, Earth Power did very little. Scream Tail also landed the final hit against Terapagos. Overall, it surpassed my expectations by far, and it has become one of my new favorites from Gen 9.

Since it was traded, it got more Exp. than the others and was always a few levels above the rest of the team. It was also the first member of the team to reach level 100.

And that’s what I have to say about ID:009. As usual, I checked the defensive synergy of the team just for fun.

And it is pretty good! I have a weakness to all types except Normal and Grass. I have 1-3 resists/immunities to every type, but only one more weakness than a resist at most, which isn’t too shabby. That said, having three weaknesses to Fairy became very notable in my battle against Lacey. Other than that, it was fine.

Pictures

As usual, I can’t keep my thumb away from the screenshot button when I play. Have some images from my journey.

Another new adventure begins! What will we see this time around?

During the first battle against Lacey. I always seem to have the worst luck when it comes to levels in Pokémon DLC.

Hello there! Didn’t expect to run into you again.

Truth be told, I did miss her. Carmine is one of the greatest characters from the DLC.

Never change.

And here’s someone who really changed.

I'm in total agreement here.

During my battle against Drayton. His Archaludon is strong, but I have the advantage in terms of level and typing. Scream Tail won me the match in the end.

Kieran got ahold of a small crystal, which turned out to be Terapagos!

But it turned out that the full power of this little turtle was almost too much for us to handle!

Battling Terapagos. It was tough, but we won in the end.

It is. And I hope some things stay a mystery forever, we don’t need the answers to everything in the world. Both in Pokémon and in real life.

The Terarium as seen from above.

All starters from all regions! Including Paldea because why not.

Blueberry Dex complete!

National Dex complete yet once more. Until next time.

The end… until the Epilogue comes out.

Aftermath

I’m done with the Indigo Disk, but I am not done with Violet yet. Right now, I’m on another break from the game, but I will be back once the Epilogue is out. I’m still quite tired and burnt out on Pokémon, so taking a break from the game for a short while feels like the right decision.

But even after the Epilogue, there are still a bunch of things left that I’m planning to do in Violet, and that is the following:
- Make two new teams. One which will consist of legendary and mythical Pokémon. The four members I have decided on so far are Miraidon, Magearna, Ogerpon and Terapagos. Not sure about the two last ones, but I have some ideas. The second team will consist of my six favorite starters. With all starters available in the Indigo Disk, it felt like a good opportunity. This team will consist of 6 starters from 6 different generations, out of which there will be 2 Grass, 2 Fire, 2 Water, as well 3 Physical and 3 Special. I think it will be amazing and I’m really looking forward to it!
- Train some of my other teams a bit more. I’m done with training my in-game teams and reserves, but I’m planning to train my other teams to level 100. There are also the three teams I have imported from L:A. I’m planning to Hyper Train them, properly EV-train them, give them good hold items and then train them to level 100 as well.
- Catch all legendaries I can get on my own, as well as Meloetta.
- Complete everything that can be done at the League Club. Donate BP to upgrade everything and unlock everything, as well as invite all Coaches to the club and battle them at least once each, maybe also complete the trades with all of them.

That’s all I can think of. Once I have done all of that, I will be done with Violet. Since there are no Battle Facilities, and since I’m not into online/competitive/VGC, I don’t know what else to do once this is done. However, I will not do all of this anytime soon. Once I have played through the Epilogue, I will take another break from the game and then return to it later in 2024.

Will we get a new Pokémon game next year? I hope not, but I guess we will. I have wanted the yearly releases to stop ever since 2010, but I guess that’s just not happening at this point. There are many hints towards a new Unova game, and I have mixed feelings towards that. I sincerely hope that there won’t be any Unova remakes. I could write a long post about why Unova remakes are a terrible idea, but I won’t do that unless they actually happen. If there were to be new versions of B/W and B2/W2, I’d much rather have Pixel Remasters than remakes.

I don’t want to see a Legends game set in Unova either. I think Legends was fine for Sinnoh, but Unova deserves much better. If there’s a new Unova game, I really hope it is Black/White 3 or something else that’s set in the present (or at least after B2/W2), not the past. After playing through the Indigo Disk, I think this is a golden opportunity for Game Freak to finally make a revisit of a past region/generation that takes place in the present and thus moves the franchise forward instead of backward, Black/White 3 or something similar feels perfect for this.

I wouldn’t mind a new Kanto or Johto game either, since that means I can just skip them and focus on playing other Switch games during the year. And no new game next year would be welcome too. Having a longer development time for the games hopefully means better quality in the end.

Now that I have played through the Indigo Disk, I have beaten the entirety of Violet. I think Violet is a better game than L:A by far, but is it better than Sword? Honestly, I’m not sure. They each have their ups and downs. Sword has way better performance, and you can turn off the battle animations. This makes the whole game faster and less of a slog to play, which is nice. It also has actual battle facilities, even if the Battle Tower is nerfed. On the other hand, Violet has a way more interesting world which is much more fun to explore, and a much better story (though I still like the story in Sword) as well as some nice conveniences, like how you can Hyper Train at level 50 and buy Mints/Bottle Caps and all kinds of regular items in regular stores. So I’m not sure. I think both are great and while both of them have some issues, they were still a ton of fun to play. I’m glad I played Pokémon on the Switch since it was very enjoyable in the end.

To summarize, I enjoyed the Indigo Disk a lot. And the game isn’t over quite yet since there’s still the Epilogue to play through, plus all the other stuff I’m planning to do. Regarding the DLC on the whole, I really liked it. Would I recommend it to other players? Yes, but only if you liked the base game and want more after playing it. If you didn’t like the base game, chances are the DLC won’t make it better.

And this is the end of 2023, so Happy New Year everyone! See you in 2024!