{"id":161,"date":"2007-07-15T22:21:03","date_gmt":"2007-07-16T03:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/161"},"modified":"2016-06-17T14:29:00","modified_gmt":"2016-06-17T21:29:00","slug":"pokemon-tpk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/archives\/161","title":{"rendered":"Pok\u00e9mon: TPK"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Exploring the Safari Zone yielded the two HMs that I was missing.  In fact I really only needed one of them, as I had acquired in a trade a pok\u00e9mon with the Strength skill.  But the other one held the secret of Surf, which allows a swimming pok\u00e9mon to carry its trainer over water. This is a pretty big deal, because it opens up the few remaining unexplored corners of the map.  Choosing a random direction, I found myself at the Seafoam Islands.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in this game, when you enter a new area for the first time, you immediately start encountering new types of pok\u00e9mon.  I picked up several new specimens in the water, and another in an island cave.  Every single one of the new finds is a species that can evolve with experience, so it&#8217;s clear that I&#8217;m going to have to spend some time XP farming.  An exploration into that cave shows that the random encounters are around level 30, the highest level I&#8217;ve seen yet, which makes it the ideal place for this.  I go back to the nearest pok\u00e9mon center <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_161_1('footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_161_1('footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_161_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> The pok\u00e9mon centers are like your base camps.  There&#8217;s one in every town, and you can access your stored pok\u00e9mon and alter your party roster there, as well as heal your wounded pok\u00e9mon for free.  <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_161_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> and pick out some water-resistant pok\u00e9mon in in the 20-30 range that I want to advance.  Blenkinsop I leave behind.  He doesn&#8217;t need the exercise.<\/p>\n<p>My first few sallies go according to the usual formula: I wander around looking for stuff to beat up until my own guys are significantly hurt, then fall back to the pok\u00e9mon center for healing.  But the center is inconveniently far away.  What I really want to do is find a way through the cave, in the hope of finding a route to Cinnabar Island, where the next Pok\u00e9mon Leader lives.  I figure there&#8217;s got to be a pok\u00e9mon center there, like in every other town I&#8217;ve been to.  So I start delving deeper.<\/p>\n<p>The caves contain a puzzle involving pushing boulders around to ultimately block a stream so you can get across it without being carried away by the current.  There&#8217;s a little bit of <em>Sokoban<\/em> action involved, but mainly there&#8217;s a part where you push a boulder down a series of holes to successively lower levels, then climb back up to the first level, then push another boulder down a different series of holes.  All the while fending off level 30 pok\u00e9mon.  By the time I finished this, a couple of my pok\u00e9mon were down for the count &#8212; pok\u00e9mon never really die in this game, they just fall unconscious until you revive them &#8212; and the rest were at least somewhat hurt.  But it was a long way back, so I kept going.<\/p>\n<p>Reaching an unexplored level, I spied a little bird sitting on a rock.  I did what you always do on seeing something novel: I walked up to it and pressed the A button.  It turned out to be Articuno, one of the three Legendary Birds, each unique.  It&#8217;s level 50, and quite capable of wiping out anything I have with me in a single blow. So do I flee?  Goodness no.  This is a one-time encounter! If I flee, I&#8217;ll never get another chance to catch Articuno.<\/p>\n<p>I suppose I should have used the unescapable Master Ball at this point, but it didn&#8217;t even occur to me.  Instead, I had my first TPK <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_161_1('footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_161_1('footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_161_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> Total Party Kill <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_161_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> in quite some time, and switched the Gameboy off without saving.<\/p>\n<p>A TPK in <em>Pok\u00e9mon<\/em> isn&#8217;t as bad as it is in most games.  It doesn&#8217;t end the game, and the only consequence is that you get sent back to the last pok\u00e9mon center with half your cash gone. If I had less cash, I might be willing to accept that price. My pok\u00e9mon had gained a lot of XP in that last adventure, after all.  But I&#8217;m saving up for a porygon.  The porygon is a pok\u00e9mon that can only be obtained from a Team Rocket casino as a prize.  It costs 6500 coins, where coins are either obtained from slot machines (the only game the casino runs) or, if necessary, purchased outright from the casino, 1000 units of money <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_161_1('footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_161_1('footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">3<\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_161_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\"> I don&#8217;t think the monetary unit in this game has a name! Strange that I never noticed this before. <\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_161_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> for 50 coins.  Now, the slot machines have a skill element &#8212; it&#8217;s one of those things where pictures go whizzing by very fast and you press a button to make them stop.  But this is difficult enough for me that I&#8217;ve pretty much given up on the prospect of ever winning 6500 coins, and have decided to just pay 130000 moneys for them.  Which I&#8217;ve been very close to being able to afford for a while.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, now that I&#8217;ve checked, I see that I now actually have enough.  Next stop: the casino, where my wad of cash will no doubt help to fund Team Rocket&#8217;s nefarious activities well into the next year.  And then: exploration without fear of death!<\/p>\n<div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_161_1();\">&#x202F;<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_161_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_161_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_161_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">References<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_161_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> The pok\u00e9mon centers are like your base camps.  There&#8217;s one in every town, and you can access your stored pok\u00e9mon and alter your party roster there, as well as heal your wounded pok\u00e9mon for free.  <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_161_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> Total Party Kill <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_161_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_161_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_161_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8593;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\"> I don&#8217;t think the monetary unit in this game has a name! Strange that I never noticed this before. <\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_161_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_161_1').show(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_161_1').text('\u2212'); } function footnote_collapse_reference_container_161_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_161_1').hide(); jQuery('#footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_161_1').text('+'); } function footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_161_1() { if (jQuery('#footnote_references_container_161_1').is(':hidden')) { footnote_expand_reference_container_161_1(); } else { footnote_collapse_reference_container_161_1(); } } function footnote_moveToReference_161_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_161_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } } function footnote_moveToAnchor_161_1(p_str_TargetID) { footnote_expand_reference_container_161_1(); var l_obj_Target = jQuery('#' + p_str_TargetID); if (l_obj_Target.length) { jQuery( 'html, body' ).delay( 0 ); jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Exploring the Safari Zone yielded the two HMs that I was missing. In fact I really only needed one of them, as I had acquired in a trade a pok\u00e9mon with the Strength skill. But the other one held the secret of Surf, which allows a swimming pok\u00e9mon to carry its trainer over water. This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[142],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rpg","tag-pokemon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3463,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/3463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wurb.com\/stack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}