Let's Play Pokémon HeartGold, Episode 2: A Sprout of Training

Day 2 - Saturday, March 27th 2010


Welcome back to Let's Play Pokemon HeartGold! In the last episode, we started off the game with our Cyndaquil (named Bernard), and caught a Hoothoot named Howl-Owl.

Also, crap. I looked at the version exclusives list again of HG/SS and found that HeartGold doesn't have Teddiursa - and I wanted to use one on my final team. Luckily, it has Porygon2, Growlithe, and a bunch of other stuff.

It was 11:30 at night on the night I posted Episode 1. I decided I would train Howl-Owl off-(not a)screen. I just leveled him up to Level 4, and get my butt handed to me by Pidgey. Bernard gets to Level 8, so I can be happy about that much. I fought some trainers on Routes 46 and 31, including some bug catchers. While cycling through the grass blades, I came across something I hadn't yet encountered - a Level 3 Bellsprout.

I had Bernard just sort of tackle it down to 4 HP, then caught it within one Pokeball! Team member acquired. I was planning on using a Grass type, more along the lines of Cacturne or Sunflora, but Bellsprout's good too. It was male, so I couldn't name it Bella (so far, females seem to run away from me), so I just went the cheap way and named it Sprout. I leveled it up to Level 6, but it still only had one move, and that was Vine Whip. It's not very effective, but luckily while training Sprout, the game kept being nice and giving me Sentrets.

After getting a few Apricorns, I saved the game and went to bed to re-fuel my IMAGINATION tanks. That name took so much thought.

Next morning (today), I woke up and got Howl-Owl to Level 6, and he learned Hypnosis! It worked for about 4 PP, then started missing every time. Huzzah. Oh, well. I go to the farther side of Route 31 and fight Bug Catcher Wade, who starts with two Level 2 Caterpies, then a Level 3 Weedle, then another Caterpie. I kill one with Hypnosis, then just vine whip the rest to death. Bernard came in for a Tackle and was poisoned by the Weedle, but luckily, on my way through the grass trying to find another Pokemon Center to heal, it said the poison wore off, and Bernard was left with a whopping 1 HP left!

Once I get through the grass that I can't walk two seconds in without encountering a Metapod (think I might come back for one later), I reach one of those "front door and back door and there are two people in it" buildings. Inside, Lyra and her stupid Marill find me, and she gives me the Vs. Recorder, then leaves. Oh, yeah, and during that trainer fight, Bernard got to Level 9.

So, I head out the other door of the building and I'm in... Violet City? I wasn't expecting to be here. I thought this would be much later in the game. But, I found what I was looking for there - a Pokemon Center. I heal up, and go into a random cabin. A guy in there asks if I want to trade Bellsprout for his Onix. While I'm sure an Onix will come in handy, I'll probably find one with the Pokewalker anyway, once I get that stuff set up. I may come back later if I ever need one.

I look for some grass in the area to see if I can acquire a fourth team member (might be nice to get a Poison type), but I do find a large building that looks like the fighting dojo from FireRed. Except, there are no Hitmonchops in this one. There's just old men. I realized I had entered the Sprout Tower. Again, wasn't expecting that to happen.

I'm stopped by a trainer there, and he has nothing but Level 3 Bellsprouts. I could've gone for a mirror match, but Bernard will be evolving at Level 14, so I figured to just keep him around. Plus, he looks all funky and shiz. Bernard, after defeating the trainer, grows to Level 10, then learns Ember. Sweet Jesus, yes! Ember will be VERY helpful.

So, I keep going through the Sprout Tower and fight a couple more oldies, find a Potion, a Paralyz Heal, an Antidote, and an X Accuracy, Bernard reaches Level 11, and I find out that all the trainers have Level 3 Bellsprouts, and that's it. And they all die to Ember in one hit, so I was able to blast through them all pretty quickly. Which means it should only be a matter of time until Ember starts missing like crazy, like with Hypnosis (I cannot wait until I find another sleep move).

I get to the top of the Sprout Tower after being randomly encountered by two Rattatas, and see a line of old men trainers going up a pathway to what I am assuming is the boss, whose name escapes me. I didn't wanna deal with that yet, and my DS's power was going dangerously low, so I figured now would be a good time to leave off. I went back to the Pokemon Center to restore my HP and PP, then saved the game.

That's the end of Episode 2! Stay tuned for the next episode, where we'll be doing some more stuff in Violet City, and hopefully beating the boss and evolving Bernard! See you then for that!

Game Time so far: 2 hrs, 11 mins
Thanks for reading!