Chim-chimney, Chim-CHERRIM Cher-roo!

My last Pokemon I bred was Roserade, part of a Sunny Day team idea. Next step, I needed a Pokemon that added the Sun part of the equation.

Cherrim is another one of those Grass-type Pokemon I’ve never raised. In Double Battle, I can see how it would be pretty excellent – its ally gets Attack and Special Attack boosted 150% during Sunny Day. (Thus mandating its held item, a Heat Rock.)

Its goal is to stay alive as long as possible, helping its ally’s attack. To that end, it’ll use Synthesis, just like Roserade did. Aromatherapy is a decent Egg move, wiping out special conditions. Sunny Day is a given. I need an attack ability – while I have Solarbeam on Roserade, I’m almost guaranteed to get Sunny Day + Solarbeam.

A brief problem crops up – I don’t have a Cherubi in my Platinum game. I fly around, putting Honey on a bunch of trees, and will need to come back in 8-12 hours. In the meantime, I can level up the male parent to get Aromatherapy. This turns out to be a level 43 male Roselia! From my last experience, I have some spare ones lying around at level 22…to level up, I usually go battle the furthest-west Trainer on the beach (Route 222, two Gyarados).

Fortunately, the honey trees are generous. I manage to get a good range of Pokemon, including several Cherubi and even a female Combee (female Combee = 1/8 chance, necessary for Vespiquen). I take the female Cherubi + male Roselia and put them in daycare, hoping for a Bold-natured one. It’s completely random, but I end up getting a female one about 4 eggs in. If you want a lot of candidates to pick from, you need a consistent way of getting Bold. I ended up switching the mother out for the Bold-female-child+Everstone. Bang! 5 kids with Bold, one of them with really solid IVs.

The rest of it is pretty basic EV training from there – 10 Zincs (I hate training for Special Defense), 26 Bidoof, and 16 Geodude. Power Weight and Power Belt (combined with Pokevirus) makes each of those defeated Pokemon worth 10 EV. Arriving at the final moves - Solarbeam and Sunny Day TMs were lying around, Synthesis was a Move Tutor pickup, and Aromatherapy came from the father. Heat Rock came up in a previous mining trip in the Underground.

Overall, this was a lot less awkward than Roserade’s need for Tangela or the time spent on Black Sludge. Ah…now I just need to figure the remaining parts of my team – ooh, Castform!