After finishing up at the S. S. Anne it sailed away, leaving me to scurry off back to Cerulean City and then to Rock Tunnel, which is always far longer than I remember despite only having two levels. The main problem here was, once again, Vine Whip's PP. When
Random learnt Dragon Rage things were a little better, but
Fly and
Opera were pretty much completely useless. I managed to use them whenever I could though, to prevent
Random and
Bulbapedia from levelling up too far ahead of the other two.
When I got to Lavender Town I took on Murdoch again, who has a really weird collection of pokémon in this battle. Kudos to him for getting his hands on an Exeggcute and a Gyarados that knows Hydro Pump.
Random soloed his Pidgeotto and Exeggcute, then
Opera and
Fly finished off the others, to catch up with the rest of the team on level 29.
Fly learnt Wing Attack and
Opera learnt Rest, so both were likely to become immediately more valuable.
I made my way through to Celadon City, along Route 8, which has a wonderful number of easy trainers who give good amounts of experience, so that helped the team out as well. Upon arrival in Celadon City, I promptly sold almost everything of worth I had to avoid having to gamble too much in the Rocket Game Corner in order to afford the Substitute TM I have to teach
Random. I'm still a good 3000 pokédollars off being able to afford it though, so that can wait a while. The Oddish that I'm rolling with cut me a route to the woman with the Fly HM, so I taught that to
Fly, which can evolve after it next levels up. That does mean I'll be stuck only using Fly until I beat Blaine, but
Fly really needs the higher stats at the moment, so it'll be worth it.
Team as things stand, from least valuable to most:
Opera the
Jigglypuff
Level 30
-Sing
-Pound
-Disable
-Rest
The addition of Rest has definitely improved
Opera's fortunes, but everything else apart from
Bulbapedia has got substantially better as well, so she stays bottom of the pile for now. Rest, along with my Full Heals, means that I can afford to take all the hits. Pound as her only attacking move is definitely what's holding her back, but it's only four levels until Body Slam, and then I can make some decisions about whether I want Double-Edge over Disable or not.
Fly the
Pidgey
Level 29
-Quick Attack
-Sand Attack
-Wing Attack
-Fly
Fly's movepool has improved, but it hasn't done anything for me since the S. S. Anne really, apart from KO the few things that didn't wall it when going through Rock Tunnel, a job that any of the other team members were capable of anyway. Because of that, it drops down behind
Random in terms of how valuable it's become. It's going to evolve into Pidgeotto next level though, and that should help.
Random the
Gyarados
Level 30
-Body Slam
-Bite
-Tackle
-Dragon Rage
Not quite MVP yet, but it'll be there soon. Dragon Rage helped when
Bulbapedia's Vine Whip ran out of PP passing through Rock Tunnel, and
Random was once again brilliant against my rival in Pokémon Tower. Generally, if an opponent isn't really fast and packing an Electric move,
Random will destroy them. Body Slam is such a good move in Generation 1.
Bulbapedia the
Ivysaur
Level 30
-Tackle
-Leech Seed
-Poisonpowder
-Razor Leaf
Hasn't changed much since the last update, as it's only just learnt Razor Leaf. It was good at defeating Onix in Rock Tunnel, and got rid of some Geodude as well. I can't see it being much use when beating Rockets in the Game Corner or defeating Erika, so it may well lose its place on the pedestal come the next update.