I'll be pretty busy tomorrow (well, technically today as it is 1am), so I decided to really work on some story progression today, though I admit I couldn't help but go off and explore a lot. I started my day by looking at my team and deciding it might be a good idea to get a Pokemon that would be a little more effective against the bug type gym leader, as I decided I wanted to take her on first, so I spent forever looking for my fourth team member, a Wattrel. Then when I found the Wattrel, I kept getting ones that had natures that decreased speed, its best stat. So I eventually settled for one that decreases its special attack, its second-best stat, because I had caught five I had no interest in catching more. I named her Gale. Before leaving the area where I caught the Wattrel, I saw something blue out in the water. It swam over, and I realized it was the dolphin Pokemon, Finizen. At the time, I still wasn't sure I wanted it to be on my team, but I went ahead and caught him anyway and named him Slushie. Also, while I was looking for my bird, I ended up finding another one of those weird door things, this one a different color than the first. After catching my little bird, I went back to Cortondo to challenge the gym. the Gym test was very easy, but also hilarious, and the gym leader herself was pretty easy too. I do love that whenever you accomplish a story bit they take a little picture.

Then, I made my way over to the East side of Paldea, where I went to help out Arven. I made a little oopsie and Terastalized in the first phase of the battle, not realizing there was a second one, but it worked out fine and we defeated the big Klawf. Arven whipped us up a couple of sandwiches using the Sweet Herba Mystica and I couldn't resist it when Koraidon begged for mine, so I gave it to him and it ended up giving him the power to run faster. Using this newfound power, I briefly went back to some earlier routes to try and jump to some spots I couldn't reach to get items. After this little detour, I went to Artezon and took on my second gym, beating it with ease. Seeing that Team Star's fire crew was close by, I decided to go take them on. Man, Mela was tough, but later I realized that the game intends for you to take her on second, as there is another Team Star leader with lower levels. I was able to defeat Mela though, and man, I was not expected to be interested in the Team Star plot, but I actually like it, almost as much as I like the Path of Legends plot.

After taking out Team Star, I switched back to the west side and decided to take on the Sky Titan I learned about while I was looking for Wattrel. I took out the Bombardier with relative ease, seeing as Maple had just recently evolved into Dachsbun, and had learned Play Rough really early on. I won't say much but oh my gosh Arven baby!!!! I love him and I will protect him at all costs. Koraidon regained the ability to swim after eating my Bitter Herba Mystica Sandwich, so in celebration, I decided to go to the place I've been the most excited to see since the game was revealed, the big lake on the Northwest corner of the map. Unfortunately, I couldn't stay long because I kept getting harassed by Veluza, but I got a hint of the music there and man, I definitely think it's going to be one of my favorite areas to go back to in this game. I also found a Girafarig while looking around.

I then went to take on Team Star's Dark Squad and Giacomo, which was a breeze compared to Mela because of the levels (though I'm sure having Maple helped). Then, I finally decided I wanted to head toward the third gym, so I made my way to Levincia. Shortly after arriving, I noticed that the mass outbreak spawns had changed because it hit midnight, and there was a mystery Pokemon one on the right corner of my map. Determined to try to get to it, I made my way through Paldea, taking every path I could find just to try to make it over there, and getting lost several times along the way.

During one of these times, I ran into a group of Cufant., and noticed one of them was more yellow than the others. This whole day I have been playing, worrying I've been missing shinies because the Pokemon are just so small and I am running past them too fast. I really wish they made a sound or had some sort of permanent overworld sparkle like the Let's Go ones had. And if not those, I wish they would at least sparkle once when you had them in the camera frame. I have no idea why they decided to take out the sparkles in general, it is really ard to with some of the designs (Like Tadbulb, whose shiny hardly changes and he's freaking tiny so it's hard to see the small change there is). After catching my shiny, I decided to take a different route toward the mass outbreak. While carefully navigating myself through a forest of high level Pokemon, I spotted a brown Falinks. I had to do a double take, like wait is that brown? Sure enough, it was a shiny Falinks. Dang, Galar is getting the love this morning. I was really worried I wasn't going to be able to catch it, seeing as I was 20 levels below i. But Maple pulled through, slwoly bringing down it's HP to a point where I could throw an ultra at it. I caught him first ball. With that, I decided to give up on my quest for that outbreak (especially since there really looked like there was no way to get there. The cliffs were too great, and I had to take down a high level Team Star base to get through the main path. So, I flew back down to Levincia, and will be taking on the gym tomorrow.

Team:

Azalea the Floragato (Level 31)
Blob the Clodsire (Level 31)
Maple the Dachsbun (Level 31)
Gale the Killowatttel (Level 30)
Slushie the Finizen (Level 30)
Madam the Girafarig (Level 31)