POKéMON Black 2 & White 2 announced (2)!

[Talon87]

No, I think those odds are only the regular odds, not the scripted event odds and the regular odds.

If you've played the game, caught it, and didn't release it, go and check your own gender. I'll bet it's male. Because GameFreak is just weirdly mean like that.

[Talon87]

So, I would like an answer to this question before proceeding but haven't been able to find one online. Figured I'd ask you knowledgeable fellows.

Step 1: Approach Cobalion / Virizion / Terrakion from far away. He sees me approach and cries out.
Step 2: Walk right on up to him and click the A button. He growls again and the battle commences.

I know from experience that if I save before Step 1 happens, the nature is randomly generated each time I battle and capture him. But what I would like to know is if merely approaching the legendary and letting him see you (i.e. doing only Step 1) is enough to lock his nature in as well.

Afraid that it would be, I circumnavigated Cobalion without letting him see me. However, there is no similar option with Virizion as far as I know. You pretty much have to let him jump down from that bluff and cross your path if you want to make your way to Opelucid City. But if I can simply walk right past the deer after he's seen me, without initiating a fight, and his nature will be random each time from then on whenever I try to capture him, then excellent, I will do exactly that. If, however, his nature is locked the moment he sees me, then *siiiiiiiiiiiiigh* I guess my White 2 story mode adventure is on partial hold again while I muck around with trying to capture a Virizion (and while I'm at it may as well go back and get Cobalion too) with good nature, IVs, and (if it matters) the right Hidden Power. (Thank God you don't care, Terrakion. T_T )

Can anyone help answer this question? No guesses please. Only answers based on personal experience (yours or others').

[Whimsy]

You can SR between seeing them roar and challenging them if you want a better nature IVs for them yes.
(I've already challenged each one to get their dex entries, and to test whether this works)

[Talon87]

Thanks for the info. May end up putting it to use here shortly.

First though, I tried my hand at getting a good Jolly or Timid Virizion on my first try. Instead what I got was quite possibly one of the worst Virizions I could've gotten. An Attack IV of either 1 or 0. A Special Attack IV of either 1 or 0! (Rash Nature.) A Defense IV of 10 or lower! A Special Defense IV of around 5 to 8. Even the Speed IV -- his best of the main five -- is nowhere near great, though it's probably at least in the 20s.

But hey: at least I got him in a Premier Ball.

*turns off DS*

I'll try again but if I get another failure I'll probably save after he hops down, trusting your feedback, and press on with the game.

P.S. His Hidden Power? HP Psychic. So bad. So very, very bad.

[Talon87]

Village Bridge: So, rediscovering Village Bridge's theme song has me wondering where exactly it ranks on the list. I feel like it's just beneath White Opelucid City's and Lentimas Town's theme songs, but it's probably my third favorite song that I can now recall of the generation.

The singing style and song both remind me somewhat of The Boom's "Shima Uta". (Great song if you don't have an allergic reaction to Japanese; would definitely recommend clicking it and allowing it to play in the background for the next five minutes if you've never heard it before. Or you can watch the music video and read along with the song lyrics.)

Virizion: Gave up. Will deal with him and Cobalion later. But before I gave up, I did capture two or three additional Virizion ... the last of which:

1. was Jolly
2. had Hidden Power Ice
3. had an Attack IV of 5 and a Speed IV of 1

That last one was really depressing. ^^; So close! Would've likely kept it had its Speed IV at least been 16, but it was 1, man. 1. Coupled with an Attack IV of 5. Argh. (Odds of Jolly Ice = 1/30 * 1/17 = 1 in 510. Odds of lightning striking twice in the next ten attempts = too slim for me to bother calculating.)

Shingen: So, my Electabuzz is still an Electabuzz ... even though I said I'd evolve him if I hadn't found an Electrizer by Level 40. He's currently Level 48. The thing is, Electrizers are apparently extremely hard to come by in Generation 5. I have avoided looking up where exactly you get your one in BW2 since I would like to be surprised, but the fact that I still haven't found one despite reaching Opelucid saddens me; and I also gleaned (perhaps incorrectly?) that there is only one to be found in the game and that's it. Any other Electrizers you may want have to come from Join Avenue. And unfortunately, my Avenue is already full and the only Antique Shop I do have is the one which specializes (eventually) in selling Magmortizers and Reaper Cloths and such. Which is cool and all for the people who want those, but in the mean time it leaves me in a bit of a bind. Because, see, I don't want to use my Electrizer on a not-properly-EV-trained Electabuzz if a) it's going to be easier to just retrain a new one than to try and fix this one via Join Avenue witchcraft and b) there's only one in the game. But if any of you happen to have spares -- and I don't mean one or two, I'd feel guilty if that were the case, I'm talking five, ten, fifteen, twenty -- and would be willing to trade me one in exchange for a shit item (so basically it'd be a gift ), that'd be kind of you and I'd like to please do that some time soon. (Today [Tuesday, August 6], maybe?) If not, I entirely understand. It's just ... vexing, since I'm really not a fan of Electabuzz and do rather like Electivire.

[Whimsy]

So. I love and hate my luck.
Anybody who listened to my nonsensical ramblings in the PASBL TO knows that I'm hunting decent versions of my whim pokemon. And I have just started with Hippopotas.
I have got the best spread. THE BEST SPREAD. 31/31/31/22/31/26
Look at it. LOOK AT IT. IT IS BEAUTIFUL.
only problem is... she hasn't got Slack Off due to the way I obtained her.
So I have to make this girl a mother and attempt to replicate this luck, somehow.

[Red Panda]

If the father holds a power ___ they will get the IVs of the thing said item boosts. Also, just took on Skyla. Here was my team at the time:

Level 32 Zoroark
Destiny Knot
-Snarl, Night Slash, Fury Swipes, Foul Play

Level 31 Swoobat "Silvia"
No Item
-Calm Mind, Heart Stamp, Air Cutter, Fly

Level 30 Lopunny "Lupa"
No Item
-Work Up, Quick Attack, Return, Jump Kick

Level 30 Dewott "Lutra"
Eviolite
-Surf, Razor Shell, Revenge, Return

Level 30 Scolipede "Mortus"
Leftovers
-Bug Bite, Poison Tail, Return, Screech

Level 31 Cincinno "Duster"
Silk Scarf
-Tail Slap, Rock Blast, Bullet Seed, Sing

Blew through the gym. Lutra took down Skarmory, Zoroark Swoobat, and Zoroark and Duster for Swanna.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by redpanda15

If the father holds a power ___ they will get the IVs of the thing said item boosts.

Right ... but they'll get the dad's. So why would he wanna do that? Whichever parent is holding the item passes on their own copy of that stat, not a 50/50 shot at either parent's copy.

[Kindrindra]

@red: Well, actually the gender isn't important, either parent can pass IVs with the Power items.


That said, in Gen V, three IVs are passed down from the parents in total. Power items just guarantee what one (or two) of those three will be.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Kindrindra

@red: Well, actually the gender isn't important, either parent can pass IVs with the Power items.

Right, but he specified the dad here because it was specified that the Hippopotas was female. Still, I believe he has the wrong idea if he thinks the dad will somehow ensure that the mother's IVs are passed along if he wears a Power item.

[Red Panda]

I read wrong. I thought it was a boy, not a girl. My bad.

[Talon87]

Electirizer: My adventure was more or less tabled until I got one of these. Each morning I'd start it up and do some of the daily things (Driftveil's Heart Scale, a small handful of Hidden Grottos, Route 5's EV-reducing berries, ...), each evening I'd start it back up and do some of the others (Join Avenue, ...), and occasionally I'd do a Pokémon World Tournament battle just because. Eventually, Acio contacted me with an offer for a free Electirizer trade, enabling me to continue on with my adventure. Thanks, Acio!

The story from there: Disclaimer: I talk about Story Mode characters and events until the next blue bolded section header, so if you haven't played BW2 yet, please skip ahead to there. So I go ahead and challenge Drayden. That was a pretty cool gym setup he had there. (Man, what is it with GameFreak always making these superior gyms in the sequels? Why can't you guys just get it right the first time? ^^; ) The adversaries were pretty darn tough, with Shingen always either just barely OHKOing with Ice Punch or else just barely not; that stated, you know you're in a comfortable position when you're complaining about not getting OHKOs against seventh gym opponents. Drayden was powerful, but sadly the A.I. was kinda dumb: Drayden would use Dragon Dance in a desperate attempt to outspeed my Electivire. While Electivire is by no means what we think of when we think of fast Pokémon, and while my Electivire hasn't been properly EV trained, he is pretty darn fast ... and it just so happened that even after Drayden would use Dragon Dance, my Electivire was still the faster of the two. ^^; So I pretty much 2HKOd everything Drayden had, going 1a) Ice Punch, 1b) Dragon Dance, 2a) Ice Punch.

What happened next -- with Team Plasma's attack on Opelucid City -- was one of the coolest and most surprising things I've seen in a Pokémon game in a long time. I'm not sure if it'll leave the same impact on me that discovering Cinnabar had exploded did back in 2000 (I doubt it), but I'd say it quite easily ranks up there with anything that happened in Gens 3 or 4. I knew to expect the glaciation, obviously -- we all did, we'd all seen the trailers for BW2 -- but I didn't expect it would happen quite as it did. And the song change! Oh, the song change! That's what really sold it, I think.

Following this we head off to Humilau City, which I'd never seen before since the anime kind of cheated. (They had Marlon's gym just sort of be in the middle of a route.) Interesting to look at it, not a fan of the song myself. Anyway, I ended up doing all of Route 22's stuff before anything else, so that was sort of funny then for later. ^^; Then I went and beat Marlon. (His gym was pretty easily swept by Leavanny and Electivire, with most of the effort being allocated to Leavanny since it was her turn to gain levels.) Then I listened to Hugh and reinvestigated Route 22 ... but somehow missed that Terrakion was there. ^^; Saw the Plasmas still insisting I should check out Route 21 first. So I did. Got stuck there once I came upon that Crustle. UGH! WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO!? Called Hugh. He insisted I go back to 22. So I did. And this time I noticed Terrakion. Approached him. Got the Colress Machine from Colress. Returned to Route 21. (Oh my God! All this back-and-forth nonsense!) Caught the Crustle. And then ...

It was time for Plasma Frigate, Take 2! One thing I like about BW2 when it's doing it right (and I'd call the Plasma Frigate a great example of doing it right) is that it makes me do caves which I hate so much but it dresses them up and makes them unrecognizable to me as caves. It just feels like a lot of story-driving fun to go through something like the Plasma Frigate; and it just feels so free and open to go through something like (later on) Route 23. I'm not claustrophobic or anything, but I dunno, maybe when it comes to video games I'm ... claustrophobic in the "hate" sense of -phobic? ^^; 'Cause I really, really fucking hate caves and forests in Pokémon games. Hate 'em with a burning passion. The longer they are, the more I hate 'em, the more I want to avoid going into 'em, and the more I can't wait to get out of 'em. But the Plasma Frigate? Didn't feel that way at all about it. Route 23? Don't feel that way at all about it. BW2 makes these "wolf caves in fun place sheep's clothing" feel fun.

Anyway, time to really bust out that spoiler tag just in case anyway should happen to glimpse this. (Opelucid, I figure you shouldn't have been reading anyway. But this next one ...)

Spoiler: show

Finding Kyurem in the base of the Plasma Frigate was not a surprise in the slightest. Been expecting that since the moment Cheren noted that the boat felt cold back at the PWT.

(Edit note: whoops, the spoiler tagged bit above actually wasn't what I was originally going to put here. The big surprise comes later. hahaha ^^; [/rusty memory already])

The Shadow Triad are pretty damn fearsome. It's kind of a shame that their powers are never really explained. Are they ninjas? Are they telepaths? Are they more powerful than Pokémon? (And if so, then how come they even bother with Pokémon battles?) It's pretty funny how powerful the story requires them to be given how it uses them as a sort of deus ex machina plot device to remove the successful heroes from the Plasma Frigate every time. First at the PWT, now here near Route 21. Anyway ... time to head back to Route 22.

Route 22's cave was okay but it was still a cave. Not a fan of caves. ^^; Thankfully it was a pretty darn short one -- huge area, yes, but mostly restricted to long, linear corridors. As we press on into the Giant Chasm ...

Spoiler: show

Rood is just awesome. I love what they did with this guy. In BW1, he and the other sages were largely forgettable. In BW2, he and Zinzolin really stand out, their names now having the potential to be engraved in my mind the same way that Iris's or Cheren's are. Anyway, I liked how he was trying to appeal to his former comrades ... and then when it didn't work Hugh lost his patience and was like, "Yeah, enough of this. -_-; IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME! " hahaha Oh, that Hugh.

On we go into the Plasma Frigate for a third time. And this time comes the spoiler I really wanted to make sure got spoiler tagged.

Spoiler: show

Finding Ghetsis is not only still alive and not in Interpol custody but is right here on the frigate? Not a huge surprise, although I'll admit it was an ever so mild one. (It's kinda felt like Zinzolin was the boss of New Team Plasma this entire time.)

Finding out that Colress is actually working for Team Plasma (and according to some is even the supposed leader of New Team Plasma)? In-narrative it was a huge surprise given how generally nice, helpful, and supportive he's been to the player this entire time, but out-of-narrative it was no surprise at all since we all pretty much called this the moment we saw him in CoroCoro magazine scans for BW2.

No, the thing that surprised me most about this arc was ...

... that Hugh's little sister's Purrloin was in the custody of one of the three Shadow Triad members. That was what surprised me.

Sadly, fanart spoiled me ages ago that she had already evolved into a Liepard, but I thankfully managed (SOMEHOW) to avoid any spoilers about who her owner was. My top theories were:

• random Plasma grunt
• Colress
• Ghetsis
• she'd already been freed

Never in a million years would I have expected that she was in the hands of a Shadow Triad member. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell shit. Good luck getting her back, Hugh.

... what? :o You mean you're giving her to us!? :O

... what!? You mean you don't need her anymore!? Screw you, Shadow Triad jerk! IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!

The scene afterwards was honestly one of the most real and strangely adult scenes in the history of Pokémon. Hugh says (paraphrased), "All this time, I've been tirelessly searching for Purrloin. And now I've finally found her but ... *Liepard growls at him* ... I don't know how to feel. I need some time to think." While my analogy might be a touch extreme, it kind of reminds me of a conservative Protestant parent whose child gets abducted at around age 3 or 4, and then that parent tirelessly searches for their child for the next twenty years, and then one day they find their child again ... but now she's 24 years old and is a hardcore liberal atheist. How is that parent supposed to feel then? Happy? Sad? I dunno, man. Probably confused. Probably very, very confused and not sure what to think. And that's kind of what we saw replicated here, on a much tamer scale ^_^; , which Hugh and the Liepard. It's still pretty damn heavy material to be placing in a kid's game though. And I love you for it, Game Freak. Thank you for thinking of us adult fans!

So anyway, once that was dealt with, you all know what comes next:

Spoiler: show

I give chase, following Ghetsis into the Giant Chasm. There he summons Kyurem and threatens to glaciate me! When suddenly ...

"FUSION FLARE!"

Out of nowhere comes the one guy we've been expecting this entire time. (I mean, c'mon: without you we can't have our box cover legendary! ) N. The green-haired young man has arrived to rescue us from his adoptive father, and then yeah you know what happens next I don't need to repeat it here.

The fight against Kyurem-W surprised me in three ways:

1. I'll admit I was surprised that I couldn't capture it. Relieved, as I didn't want to have to deal with soft resetting for a good nature and good IVs, but surprised. Didn't we have to capture Zekrom when Zekrom showed up? I was expecting a similar thing to happen here.
2. HOLY SHIT THAT THING IS FAST AND POWERFUL. KO'd my half-dead Samurott in one blow.
3. And yet paradoxically hmm never mind you're pretty easy. Electivire was able to dispatch with it pretty darn easily. Dragonbreath dealt ~1/5th HP damage, then I used Thunder Wave. Followed this up with a Low Kick ... that ended up OHKOing if I recall correctly. If I'm mistaken, then we certainly 2HKO'd it. Either way, Kyurem-W wasn't so scary after all. And our levels were, at the time, I want to say 4 to 5 levels above its.

The part with Ghetsis losing his cool about having been bested by no-name children not once but twice now was simultaneously funny and sad. There was definitely some pity mixed in there when the Shadow Triad showed up and said "Uhh ... we'll take care of Lord Ghetsis from here. Come along now, Father, ..." and teleported away with him.

Not sure if it impacts the story or what Hugh's answer would've been had I said "No", but I told him "Yes" when he asked me "Is it finally over?" I personally was thinking "No", but at the same time I had been burned a few times by answering "No" at other points in the game (where the text a No nets you sucks for my personal headcanon) so this time I didn't even dare answer honestly and just went with "Yes." But I dunno, if any of you know the answer to this question, I'd be interested to here what difference (if any) it makes if you answer Hugh "No."

After this, it was time to head on west for Route 23 and Victory Road!

Route 23, which should be called Victory Road: So yeah. When I reached Route 23, I dunno, but I just felt from the grandeur of it and everything that this was BW2's Victory Road. And I fucking loved it. When I saw it, I was like "FUCK. YES. THIS IS WHAT I WANT ALL VICTORY ROADS TO BE LIKE FROM NOW ON." Sure, it was long. And sure, it had quite a few trainers along the way. But it felt so open and gorgeous! That rich blue gentle river! Those luscious green shrubs and moors! That pleasant gray cobblestone path! Those occasional high-rising cliffs which would intersect your line of vision! This was just gorgeous, gorgeous stuff. It was a pleasure navigating this area. (And I'm still not quite done yet! Gotta try and finish that maze to the west, the one with the restricted access to some boulders.) But boy was I sad when I then discovered ...

Victory Road: ... that Route 23 wasn't really Victory Road. ^^; And that I had only just arrived at the real one. After talking with {person} here, I decided to save and fly back to civilization to do my daily chores. So I haven't crossed the bridge yet with what appear to be the gym badge pillars (which I assume will prettily light up as I cross ). Anyway ... last but not least ...!

Current Team:

• Samurott (F, Tomoe), Level 63, Shell Blade | Surf | Revenge | {False Swipe or Return}
  • Surf is my only Special Attack move on the entire team ^^;
  • I kept Shell Blade because I like it for flavor moreso than either Aqua Tail or Waterfall. *shrug*
  • Swords Dance was not learned because of False Swipe needs every now and then
• Leavanny (F, Tokiwa), Level 61, Swords Dance | Slash | X-Scissor | Leaf Blade
  • Slash is there just for now because, again, flavorful reasons. Return's clearly the better choice, and she actually had both it and Slash until it came time to learn Swords Dance.
• Electivire (M, Shingen), Level 61, Thunderpunch, Ice Punch, Low Kick, Thunder Wave
  • Thunder Wave is there as my team's only way of making captures somewhat easier. (No sleep, no other paralysis to be found.)
  • Low Kick is likewise there for lack of a superior Fighting move to replace it with for the time being.
  • Finally, while I'd love to teach him Fire Punch to give him that sweet, sweet Fire, Ice, and Electric coverage, I just don't want to part with ten of my only twelve Red Shards to do it. ^^; [/miser]
• Cinccino (F, Okatsu), Level 61, Tail Slap | Rock Blast | Wake-Up Slap | Return
  • don't have Bullet Seed yet because ...
  • have generally preferred having double Normal STAB during Story Mode (in the form of Return and Tail Slap) and the extra PP that that represents
  • and as for Wake-Up Slap, it's just one of those things where I'm holding onto it stubbornly because once Cinccino forgets it, she can't ever get it back. Obviously I'll want to replace it with U-Turn or Aqua Tail eventually ... but maybe not on Okatsu. Maybe on her daughter.

That's it. That's my proud team of four. Beyond that, I do have some friendly helpers though, who most recently have been:

• Drifblim (F), approx. Level 36, Fly | Cut | Stockpile | Hex
  • Fly and Cut for HM needs, obviously
  • Stockpile and Hex because I didn't want to deprive her of these if I could help it
• Mienfoo (F), approx. Level 36, Strength | Force Palm | another Fighting move | another Fighting move
  • my third Strength HM slave this run.

I don't ever use either Drifblim or Mienfoo in fights. They're just there for HM purposes. I'll probably box them before challenging the Elite Four. We'll see.

I really was hoping to EV train this Relaxed Solosis I have with some decent IVs, but Fate's just been cruel to me on this front, I guess. I still can't access Route 8 and apparently Route 8 is the best place in the game to grind for HP EVs. (Lots of Stunfisk and Palpitoad there, I've read.) As it is now, though, even if the game were to give me access to Route 8, I'm not sure if Solosis would be able to gain levels from other Pokémon quickly enough to catch up with the rest of the team.

Which brings us to a funny point I wanted to note. MY ENTIRE TEAM IS ABOVE LEVEL 60! ;_; Is this normal for BW2 Story Mode? ^_^; 'Cause like, I swear I didn't grind them for levels or anything. All I did was:

1. judiciously rotate who was in the lead slot (usually shuffling people out once they caught up to the current leader, and then shuffling the current leader back in for 3-5 levels worth of gain once everyone had caught up to him/her)
2. attach the Lucky Egg to the leader
3. never ever switch out if I could help it, thus ensuring maximum experience point gain

So sure, that obviously contributed! (No duh!) But like, that's all I did. No grinding with Audinos. No grinding for levels period. (The only time I ever ground in this game was back when I EV trained Minccino. That was it. And that was for EVs, not experience points.) So I'm wondering, is this normal? Guess I'll have to find out once I challenge the Elite Four.

*in before they all have Level 75 Pokémon*

And no! Nobody spoil anything like that. I'm almost there. Just wait for me.

[Red Panda]

I find your pokemon to be ridiculously higher levelled. I'm at the 7th gym and my team is in the 30-35 range. But I still have no trouble with higher level foes, so i don't know. I have a habit of being under levelled though.

[Whimsy]

On the contrary, I found myself at the 7th Gym with level 40/50 mons. Maybe it is because I did the entire game in Challenge Mode, but I do feel that they've upped the finishing level boundary. Whereas in BW1 You were in the 50s when it ended, here you are in the 60s.

So, no Talon, your team is at a pretty normal level for this section of the game. I should know - when completed it my highest level Pokemon (Samurott and Excadrill, if anyone cared) were level 62.

[Red Panda]

I finished White with my highest being a Level 49 Zebstrika and Sawsbuck. My lowest was a Level 45 Stoutland.

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by redpanda15

I find your pokemon to be ridiculously higher levelled. I'm at the 7th gym and my team is in the 30-35 range. But I still have no trouble with higher level foes, so i don't know. I have a habit of being under levelled though.

Dude, my team was in the Level 30s before I even had a Lucky Egg. ^_^; Pretty sure I mention my levels in an earlier post and they were at or near the 30s. Let's find it ...

In this post I mention that my Electivire is at Level 48 -- I can tell you that at the time he was the lowest leveled of the four -- and we're ready to challenge Drayden. So that's one gym behind where you say you are now yet a full fifteen, possibly twenty levels ahead of you. Still though, this would be post-Lucky Egg acquisition.

Here's my post when I arrived at Lentimas Town. My levels then, as you see, were in the upper 30s and lower 40s. Roughly 10 levels ahead of where you are right now, and only having just gotten my sixth gym badge. (I also wouldn't have had the Lucky Egg for very long at this point since you get it from Professor Juniper either right before or right after Chargestone Cavern.)

--> Here we go. Here's my team pre-Chargestone Cavern. <-- I'm not exactly sure whether this is before or after challenging Clay but I assume it's after. My Levels here range from 33 to 35, so juuuuuuust about where you are, maybe a smidge ahead. This would be with only five gym badges, though, not seven, and without any Lucky Egg shenanigans. (My item of choice for the leader up through this point would have been the Amulet Coin.)

So yeah, I dunno what you're doing wrong or what I'm doing right that would produce such disparate results, but I guess here are my questions for you:

Q1. Do you avoid trainers whenever you have the opportunity to avoid them? I do not. I obsessively seek out every single trainer there is in an area and fight them, soaking up the experience points.

Q2. Do you put a higher-leveled Pokémon in the lead of your team, attach an Experience Share to a lower-leveled Pokémon, and fight that way? I do not; and this method is no longer nearly as healthy for team growth as it was in Gens 1-4. I wonder if you're doing this, especially since Gen 5 sort of (stupidly -.-; ) encourages it when its NPCs talk about Exp.Share. Because of how Gen 5 rewrote experience point awards, it's no longer smart to lead with a high-level Pokémon and plop an Exp.Share on a lower-level one. You're basically setting 25% upwards of 49% of your experience on fire when you do this. And that's because the higher-leveled Pokémon won't gain shit from those fights. Anyway, if you don't do this, I apologize for pursuing this line of reasoning. On to Question 3.

Q3. Do you swap out teammates often? I do not. Supposedly Gen 5 "fixed" this. This was more of a problem in the older games, where it was much harder for new additions to a team to catch up with the others. The same experience system tweaks I mentioned above were supposed to make it so that you could swap people in and out with ease and feel little or no level pinch. But I dunno. This could be what's doing it to you. Me, my team basically consists of a starter, a second-route-in-the-game capture, a second-gym-city capture, and a mid-game capture. Oshawott, Sewaddle, Elekid, and Minccino, respectively. I was done building my team (for lack of satisfying options for me personally) by the fourth gym badge. If you weren't, then I dunno, maybe this explains things.

Q4. Did you ever use the Lucky Egg? ^^; I assume this is either the biggest or the second biggest culprit. I did; judging from your levels I'm going to guess that you did not. Problem is, the Lucky Egg only helps to explain how I grew from the upper 30s to the low 60s in the time frame that I did (between Chargestone Cavern and Victory Road). It doesn't explain away why my levels were already as high as yours by the time I beat Clay. To find that answer, we've probably got to turn to one of the three questions above or else to some fifth, unasked question.

Originally Posted by swampertforever

On the contrary, I found myself at the 7th Gym with level 40/50 mons. Maybe it is because I did the entire game in Challenge Mode, but I do feel that they've upped the finishing level boundary. Whereas in BW1 You were in the 50s when it ended, here you are in the 60s.

So, no Talon, your team is at a pretty normal level for this section of the game. I should know - when completed it my highest level Pokemon (Samurott and Excadrill, if anyone cared) were level 62.

Yeah, I think my team's far more normal leveled than redpichu's. Mine, I feel like I might have overshot by 5-10 levels (but you're telling me I didn't). His, I feel like wtf happened!? ;-; it's missing growth hormone or something. I have no idea how you can even reach Drayden with a team of Pokémon all in the low level 30s. (Well, I have a few guesses, but none of them are kind. ^_^; )

[Red Panda]

Well, to be more specific, I have not beaten Drayden yet. I'm in Opelucid City right now.

Q1: I don't avidly avoid trainers. I'll battle the ones I have to, and some of the ones I don't. In gyms I battle every trainer, even though there are usually a few you don't have to.

Q2: Nope. My system is by Level, then HP. So, right now, my Zoroark and Cincinno are both at level 35, but Cincinno has more health, so he is put in the last slot. I shift the team basically every level so that they are never more than a few levels apart. Most of the game they are within one to two levels of each other.

Q3: I usually predetermine the team before I start playing. I only dropped one pokemon, and that was a Sewaddle because Venipede was better IMO. But I haven't dropped anyone else.

Q4: After the flying gym, for example, Scolipede didn't go up a single level, so I used the Lucky Egg to help him catch up. But I don't use it otherwise. But two out of six of my team(Swoobat and Lopunny) have the ability Klutz, rendering it useless for them. And using it on the other pokemon would make it harder for those two to keep up.

If I go through a gym, and the trainers are giving me trouble, I will go level each pokemon 3-4 levels. That only happened on Elesa, and the evolving of Buneary to Lopunny allowed me to beat her. But I haven't met any real resistance otherwise. And if you think I'm he kind of person that lives off of Super Potions and Revives, you are wrong. I hardly ever use them, and that's only if I'm at a GL and I don't feel like going back to the Pokemon Center to heal.

[Kindrindra]

Klutz doesn't effect growth items such as the Lucky Egg and Power items.

[Red Panda]

Oh. *Assigns Lucky Egg to Lopunny*

[Talon87]

I've got a post I want to write once I get Internet access again on my computer, but for now I have a pressing question which I couldn't find certain answers for online: in Pokémon White 2, when is Reshiram's nature set?

(not safe to click unless you've beaten the Elite Four and investigated a certain blocked path nearby)

Spoiler: show

Is it:

1. when you fight Kyurem-W in the Giant Chasm?
2. when you fight Reshiram in N's Castle?
3. when you revive Reshiram at Dragonspiral Tower?

A I think we've ruled out, but I need to know whether it's B or C. If it's C, then I'll go ahead and keep the Light Stone I just received and save my game. But if it's B, then I'll not want to save just yet ... and assuming the Reshiram I have is shit, I'll not only reset but will avoid this entire quest for the time being.

So yes. Please let me know whether it's B or C and how certain you are. Preferably you've confirmed it yourself, especially if you're saying it's C. Thanks.

[Kindrindra]

I'm fairly certain it's C, as I myself tried to SR to get a good nature.

[Talon87]

If you did it, then what's there to be fairly certain about? ^^; Wouldn't you have to be positive? You're sure you saved between B and C and then soft reset at least once before C, checking the nature of your captures? Thanks for your help so far -- now for the remainder of your answer! :p

[Kindrindra]

Well, I'm fairly sure because I can't be completely certain without double-checking, and I kinda New Gamed my B2... ;^_^

That said, google seems to agree with me, so... I guess there's that?

[Talon87]

Originally Posted by Kindrindra

Well, I'm fairly sure because I can't be completely certain without double-checking, and I kinda New Gamed my B2... ;^_^

That said, google seems to agree with me, so... I guess there's that?

Google claims both B and C, and neither very strongly. This is why I need solid testimony from someone who actually knows what they're talking about because they tested it themselves.

[Emp]

I decided to check for you because I've done the N quest but haven't gotten around to catching Zekrom.

Spoiler: show

When you reach the top of Dragonspiral Tower you get prompted to use your Dark Stone. I saved before this point rather than after it. Both times I used the dark stone and caught Zekrom it had a different nature.

So whilst this does answer your question, I'm not sure and not quite willing to risk seeing whether its nature is set once you use the dark stone or once you interact with the legendary.