The Start of a New Pokemon Adventure (Gen 4)

Pokémon Gen 4 Journey Begins

The Generation 4 adventure has finally begun! Very excited to start a new journey and be able to share it with you all. This is also the perfect time for others to start a new adventure in a game if you want!

Documenting the adventure was something I wished I did when I started the Gen 3 save files almost 10 years ago. I had the same idea back then, however, I decided to not document everything because of the time required to do so and I thought no one would enjoy it. But I guess I was wrong. I don’t want to make the same mistake!

Current Save Files as of October 2024:

1. Heart Gold: Starting FRESH.

2. Soul Silver: Keeping file. Have about 70 hours on it. Beat all gym leaders and Elite Four.

3. Platinum: Have a solid team. Currently trying to get shiny Giratina.

4. Diamond/Pearl: Nothing significant in save files.

Gen 4 Long Term Goals:

1. Shinies: Metagross, Giratina, Rayquaza, Umbreon, Charizard, Gliscor, Yangmega, Rampardos. Maybe a few others.

2. Trainer Card in Heart Gold and Platinum.

3. Complete National Pokedex in Heart Gold. I don’t need a complete Living Dex.

4. All Gold Medals in Heart Gold and maybe Platinum.

Start of Heart Gold Save File:

Started the Heart Gold save file on October 5th, 2024. Many people convinced me to shiny hunt the starters so I figured I would spend some time doing so. I was going to give myself 1 week to try and get one and if not, I was going to move on. WELL, on the night of October 6th, a shiny Cyndaquil decided to pop up in a pokeball! I was stunned. This was such a fast hunt I was not expecting it! What a great way to start off the save file.

I decided to EV train the Cyndaquil because I can’t fathom the idea of a shiny not having great stats. It takes a LONG time to get a shiny so it is in my best interest to make it as powerful as I can!

After doing some research, I found that in the Sprout Tower in Violet city, Ghastly and Rattata spawn. Rattata will give Cyndaquil speed EVs and Ghastly will give special attack. All I had to do was make it to that tower without defeating many other Pokémon and I can EV train effectively. In the earlier routes I defeated some Pidgeys and Rattatas since they give Speed EVs. I did have to beat a Totodile which gave an attack EV however not to worry. That only wasted 1 EV which does not affect much.

I made it to the Sprout Tower successfully without defeating any other Pokemon that would give me unideal EVs. I then began the LONG grind. This was incredibly time consuming because I didn’t use vitamins or a macho brace. Because of that, I had to defeat 255 Rats and 255 Ghastly…  This was the longest EV training I have ever had to do and probably will ever have to do. Looking back I could have transferred a macho brace from Soul Silver to this game, but I felt it would be cheating. I think I needed to suffer anyway!

I was quite positive I miss counted several EVs however this wasn’t something I was too worried about. If I EV train both Speed and Special Attack to the maximum (255 EVs) then I won’t have to worry. By doing this I technically am wasting 6 total EVs. However, only 4 of those contribute to any stat change, and since I had to defeat a Totodile, that EV was wasted anyway. The final EVs were 255 in Speed and 254 in Special Attack. This leaves 6 unused EVs however that is acceptable to me. The Speed and Special Attack are still maxed out with EVs or at least close enough to be unnoticeable.

Now that the EV training is complete. I can progress through the rest of the game! Be sure to stick around for the next update. Hope you are enjoying playing Pokémon as much as I am!

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