There she is, dear fellow gamers: the shining star of my Crystal run, the 'Mon I never though I'd ever run solo with. To say that Venonat and Venomoth are rare is a gigantic understatement: half of the cannon entries don't host them at all, and the other half makes you jump through ridiculous hoops to even catch a glimpse of them. The only region where they can be found with relative easiness is Kanto; but alas, they appear so late there that a solo run featuring them was simply out of the question. Or was it? We already know the answer, of course; yet that was not the case when I started playing Crystal. My first foray into the game featured Rattata, in what I envisioned as a giant, epic 'Crappy Route 1 'Mon' solo run. Alas, the thrill was missing: despite my Rattata's honourable battle prowess, I was kinda bored and plodded through Johto. As I had just set foot in Ilex Forest for a bout of grinding one quiet evening, the battle animation triggered; and time — and my heart — stopped when a Venonat appeared on the screen. I couldn't believe my eyes: what was that elusive creature doing here? I ran to Bulbapedia and confirmed the unthinkable: in Crystal, and only in Crystal, Venonat had a 30% chance of appearing at night in Ilex Forest.
That was the most unexpected and delicious gift from the RPG gods ever, and it led to an instant ditching of my Rattata run. I started a new game, rushed to Ilex Forest, and recruited an adorable Venonat I fittingly named Murasaki. My heart bursting with the giddy happiness of the Trainer that managed to catch the 'Mon of their dreams, I started leveling up my cute little bug for the trials to come. Not the easiest of tasks, that: my Venonat was a weak debutant, and I had to backtrack to Route 32 to even have a chance to survive battles. The many Bellsprouts roaming the area made my grinding smoother and faster, along with the conveniently placed Pokemon centre; and once Murasaki hit lv.12, I went and raided Slowpoke Well. Cleaning the place of the Rockets was a challenge that required several tries, but I finally triumphed. Once that hurdle was overcome, I knew that my Venonat's epic solo epopee had started for good, and that I'd pretty much be on a roll from then on. Or nearly so — but more on that later.
When it came to Move pools, I didn't entirely leave things to chance as usual. The Veno line boasts an excellent leveling-up learnset, with the powerful Psychic triad Confusion, Psybeam and Psychic and the self-healing Bug move Leech Life — all Moves I learnt and made the most of. However, I wanted more: my beloved Return to replace the crappy Tackle, and Sludge Bomb to take advantage of the STAB and indulge (at last) in wielding a kickass Poison Move. A quick search on Bulbapedia revealed me the location of those TMs (which I'd totally never have found myself), and they quickly turned my already powerful Venomoth into a weapon of 'Mon destruction. The final touch came with the obtention of Giga Drain in Celadon City, which came to replace Leech Life right on time for Kanto's late stages.
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| Made you my b*tch too, just like your pal Blue ♪ |
So, how did little Murasaki fare through two Regions, 16 Gyms, one Elite Four and two Champions? Pretty well indeed, if I say so myself. She had the trajectory of a typical Bug 'Mon, i.e. starting painfully weak and slowly but surely growing into a powerhouse. Even after my initial grinding bout, I kept struggling for a while: the Azalea Gym was a pain because Bugsy's Scyther was stupidly sturdy and resistant to my best attacks, and I had to postpone Goldenrod City's fight against Whitney as much as I could because her Milktank was just too infuriatingly strong. It was pretty much smooth sailing after that, with only the random strong Fire 'Mon to worry about — nothing that Murasaki's stellar stats and Battle Items couldn't take care of. One-shooting soon became our bread and butter, making that run pure delight all the way through. I know of someone else who should be delighted about that run; and that's faithful reader Kumiko, who's a great fan of the Veno line. Here's to you, my fellow Bug 'Mon lover: the Venomoth run both of us never though would happen! And to all of you fellow Pokefans who appreciate the subtle charms of Bug 'Mons: rest assured that this is not my last run featuring one of those lovely creatures indeed. Take care — until next time!
Kumiko11 November 2019 at 12:39
*Squeeeeeee*
I've been so busy with work (darn Christmas season is already killing me) so I
could only check the blog today, and oh my gosh, I'm so darn happy. My baby! My
beautiful baby finally getting some recognition. Especially since this is THE
most ignored gen. 1 pokemon by GF, seriously. We see the ugly rock with arms
almost every gen in early game, but lord forbid we get to see one of the few
gen. 1 bug types (not throwing shade on Zubat cause I actually like it, though
I wish we'd see Woobat a little bit more. Roggenrola is so much better than
Geodude though, I don't care about the gen. 5 hate, it should have replaced
Geodude in later games).
This baby was a beauty even late game in gen. 1, so I'm not surprised he did
well in gen. 2. This is almost enough to get me to play Crystal....I need to
look up if you can find Venonat early in Crystal Clear, depending on where you
start, but information on that game's inner stats is scarce since the project
has to be so underground so Nintendo doesn't find it.
If you ever get the Let's Go games, Venonat is available before the second Gym.
Having it hop behind me was a great joy. Too bad I've taken to played my switch
docked with my PS3 controller, but Let's Go does not accept pro controllers
because of it's dumb gimmicky motion controls. Boooo. And I just hate taking
out the joycon from my switch now. I might actually have to invest on one of
those gimmicky Pokéball Plus controllers, but I don't know if they're
comfortable, and they're still so darn expensive.
But since you only play handheld mode, that mode is pretty good. Catching
Pokemon with the gyro controls is pretty darn easy compared to waving the
joycon around. But it's a sad pity that GF makes a good game agaisnt all odds,
then ruins it all by forcing gimmicks down your throat. What is this, the wii
era?
Looking forward to see what's the next bug you pick. My second favourite bug,
Volcarona, is also always late game, though that's because that Pokemon is
stupid powerful. It also only evolves at level 59, though since Laversta is
always found at levels ~40, that's not too bad. Your best bet is to hatch it in
white and black after you get surf...which needs the 6th Gym. Yeah...
I also like Durant, but it's also super hard to get, and not in gen. 7 at all.
GF should just make a game that lets you pick any starter already. If you ever
hack your DS, you can just use a randomizer to pick the starter you want. That
should open a world of possibilites for you.
Isleif15 November 2019 at 15:31
As far as I'm
concerned, that Venomoth run single-handedly justified my purchase of Crystal.
If you get the opportunity to play it, you totally should. ^^
I have a number of bugs lined up for future runs; and you'll be happy to learn
that Volcarona is one of them. I'll cruise with that splendid creature even if
it's the last thing I do; it's just too beautiful to let it slip. The Bug/Fire
typing is very promising, and the late evolution is perfect for a solo run. Can't wait for it! ^^
Kumiko16 November 2019 at 23:25
I forgot how
cute the back sprite for it was during the GBC era too. Just look at those
little noodle arms! I might actually give vanilla Crystal a go. It had the
first female protagonist after all, and it's all set up and ready to go on my
PS classic. Maybe the graphics scale good with a plasma TV, you never know.
I am very happy to hear about Volcarona indeed, and very curious about how
you'll pull that off. Since you have several 3DS', I'm gonna guess trading.
If I may add other bug type runs, Galvantula and Crustle are also very good.
God, gen V was so good for the bug type. Which is good, since Pokemon gives bug
types less love than Digimon does its poop digimon most of the time. Sword and
Shield only added 3 bug pokemon, though admitedly, their typings ARE very
intriging (and another beautiful moth too). Too bad I've heard such bad things
about those games' performance alone, I'm even more reluctant to get them now,
even used copies.
Isleif19 November 2019 at 08:10
"I forgot
how cute the back sprite for it was during the GBC era too. Just look at those
little noodle arms!": amen to that! I have to admit that I was a mite sad
when Murasaki crossed the evolutionary Rubicon and lost her round and fluffy
cuteness. On the other hand, that gives me the perfect excuse to replay Crystal
again and attempt a Venonat solo run with no evo. ^^
You're right in assuming that my future Volcarona solo run will involve
trading. I mean, Larvesta always appears so late that there's just no other
way. Now it's just a matter of choosing the setting: Black/White or Ultra
Sun/Moon? Or maybe I can recruit a Larvesta in Black/White, breed it and send
it to Black/White 2? Now that would be the best option. I'll just let my gaming
instinct run the show, as always.
Thanks for the bug advice! ^^ I'll look into it, especially if it involves Gen
V. As for Sword and Shield, well... If things go as planned, I should get a
Switch Lite for Christmas, along with Pokemon Shield. So maybe my first playthrough
of 2020 will feature one of those new bugs! ^^ Ah, who am I kidding? It's gonna
be Galarian Ponyta first, for sure. Unless it appears late, of course; I'm not
quite ready to buy Sword and a backup Switch Lite right now.
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