Pokémon Go: Week 8 + Abyssrium & Viridi

[nanila]

• I didn’t get to poke as many mons as I would have liked in the USA due to lack of mobile data. After the first hotel, our next two temporary abodes were, frustratingly, nested between Pokéstops but not quite close enough to reach them with the provided WiFi connections.
  
• Although I saw the shadow of a Tauros several times, I didn’t manage to catch one.
  
• I did, however, acquire the following new Pokémon, in addition to the Ekans, Growlithe and Pikachu mentioned previously:
  
  • Nidorino
    
  • Diglett (looks like a tiny happy...tombstone?!)
    
  • Persian (mrow)
    
  • Grimer (horrible purple drippy thing, joint least favourite with the Weepinbell)
    
  • Cubone (why so difficult to catch?)
    
  • Second Pikachu (wooo)
  
  
• My 10k egg from the USA hatched into a Pinsir. It’s a very powerful Pinsir, but I’m still a bit disappointed.
  
• I maxed out the Bug Catcher and Psychic medals. It will now be a long time before I max out any more as I just don’t see certain types of Pokémon very often.
  
• I unlocked the “Pikachu Fan” medal, which has now displaced the Rocker as my Most Pathetic Medal Tally. Yay!
  
• Have finally managed to bump up to Level 23. Will be popping a Lucky Egg & using my Spreadsheet of Evolve very soon.
  
• Thanks to the trip to the USA, I can now evolve several Pokémon I couldn’t have before, including the Abra, Ekans, Machop, Mankey, Meowth (although I’ve already caught a Persian) and Paras. I AM EXCITE.

After meeting up with emelbe in Monterey, she kindly helped to enable me to achieve “relax and switch off” mode by introducing me to two new games: Viridi and Abyssrium. Viridi is aesthetically pleasing and very soothing. It’s even more low-key than Neko Atsume, which I didn’t know was possible. You plant a pot full of succulent cacti, water them, and wait. The plants grow at real-time speed, so you only need to check on them once a day. When you start up the game, a short movie showing the growth progress of your plants is shown. A snail slowly and continuously orbits the perimeter of the pot. My pot is called “Subsumed”.

Abyssrium requires more interaction. You grow a coral reef and populate it with fish. It’s a “clicker” game, but a very beautiful one. I’ve now reached the stage where I have nearly all the animals apart from the dugong, which is effectively “beating” the game. I found this walkthrough by Sir TapTap very useful for strategising and acquiring hidden fish. Now that I don’t have to graft to earn new fish, I have a plan to create a garden full of nothing but jellyfish, sun fish, seahorses and turtles, which are the slowest-moving creatures available, and watching it whenever I feel tense.

My reef a couple of weeks ago, just a few bits of coral and fish:


My reef now, teeming with life:



Asfur angel & French angel.


Manta ray & jellyfish in front of a full moon, with fireworks.


Tiger shark above the reef, with fireworks.


Sun fish in front of the full moon.


My reef from above, with the hammerhead shark putting in an appearance.

Comments

[cesy]

There is a nest of Digletts in Battersea Park if you want more.

[nanila]

Yes, yes I do, thank you! I've made a trek to Holland Park for Bulbasaurs, so I look forward this as well.

[cesy]

And thanks for the game recs - those both sound good.

[nanila]

You're welcome. I hope you enjoy them, if you decide to play!

[recessional]

I GOT A FIRE UNICORN.

[nanila]

YAAAAAAY!

(I'm currently walking my Ponyta, because I have 42 Ponyta candies, aaaargh. Only 24 km to fire unicorn!)

[recessional]

Hah, yeah. I am coming to the conclusion that over by the university is where the stops give out Fire Thing eggs: after months and months and months of eggs that were all water, ghost, fairy, etc, I suddenly got two Ponyta hatching one after the other, and just ACTUALLY GOT a Charmander egg (thankfully cutting down a BIT on the 300km necessary to get my dragon *cough*), plus an Ekans etc, and the only thing having changed being that I hit the stops on my bus-ride up to campus . . . .

[emelbe]

I'm so glad you're enjoying!

In Viridi, you get a seedling each week that you can plant or not, too.

I'm nearly full up on Abyssrium though I've gone about it much more haphazardly. I too have an end goal but I'm keeping it to myself for the moment. There will be picture when it's realized.

[nanila]

Sometimes I leave Abyssrium on next to me, just so I can glance at the Calming Reef periodically.

Thank you for reminding me about the seedlings! I had two to collect and plant \o/

I look forward to your Abyssrium finale picture.