Determining the Gym-type

How to train Zubat?

Terrance put down his food, and the others followed suit, looking at Chisana.

"Have you been thinking about this all along?" Terrance asked, noticing the surprise and realization on Chisana's face.

"Yes, I've been thinking about it the whole time."

Ever since receiving some inspiration from Terrance, Chisana had been pondering how to train Zubat. Whenever he stopped, he felt strange, unable to calm down.

"But let's eat first." Seeing that everyone had stopped eating because of Chisana, Terrance smiled slightly.

"Otherwise, the food will get cold."

Realizing they had gotten sidetracked by unrelated topics, which resulted in hardly any of the food on the table being eaten, everyone started digging into their meals again.

...

...

After dinner, Chisana immediately sought out Terrance, eager to share his thoughts.

Although surprised by Chisana's speed, Terrance calmed himself to listen.

"I was inspired by you, Brother Terrance, and Beautifly!" Chisana said excitedly. "Beautifly uses its strengths to enhance and compensate for its weaknesses, forming a complete growth strategy."

"While my approach is to maximize Zubat's strengths and abandon its weaknesses."

Playing to strengths while avoiding weaknesses?

Terrance was slightly startled. This was a simple concept, yet one that many people struggled to grasp. He was curious to hear more of Chisana's thoughts.

"You mentioned in the information you gave me that the biggest characteristic of Zubat's Supersonic is that it can disrupt the minds of living beings and create confusion. Additionally, whether it's Zubat or its evolved form, Crobat, they all have a characteristic, which is that they can rely on Supersonic to distinguish direction in the darkness."

"Zubat has no eyes, so Supersonic is an incredibly important move for it. However, after evolving into Golbat and Crobat, they develop eyes. After reading through the information you gave me multiple times, I've been thinking: if a Zubat is caught by a Trainer, it probably won't maintain its nocturnal habits, right? Once it evolves into Golbat and grows eyes, it will likely rely less on Supersonic. During the day, its eyes could replace Supersonic as its primary means of navigation."

Terrance nodded, agreeing with Chisana's deduction.

Because when Zubat lacks eyes, it relies on Supersonic, but after evolving and developing eyes, it is captured by Trainers and often engaged in daytime battles, thus depending on eyes. This is a continuous process of replacement.

"But vision is always limited!" Chisana continued. "I was thinking, what if Supersonic could completely replace eyes, even after evolving into Crobat? Then even during the day, Zubat could have a way to observe everything around it. And if these special sound waves are trained, maybe they could even predict an opponent's movements or the direction of their attacks. This is the inspiration I got from Beautifly's air currents..."

"Lastly, since Crobat's feet evolve into wings, even though landing becomes difficult, it allows for more agile flight and movement. Paired with Supersonic, very few Pokémon would be able to land an attack on Crobat—just like your Beautifly, Brother Terrance."

Seeing how thoroughly Chisana had analyzed everything, Terrance nodded to himself. His efforts in preparing the detailed information about Zubats hadn't been in vain.

If Beautifly could use its Airflow Perception to avoid danger, then Zubat could also potentially use Supersonic to predict danger, perhaps even more effectively.

"Brother Terrance, how about it?" Seeing Terrance nod, Chisana felt recognized and was very happy.

"Your idea is good, but once Golbat has eyes, how will you prevent it from instinctively using them and instead rely on Supersonic to sense everything? That's something you'll have to figure out how to train."

Terrance didn't shower Chisana with praise. Although the idea was feasible, there were too many challenges ahead. Making Supersonic more useful than eyes was a major hurdle in itself. The evolution of a Pokémon is a leap to a higher form of life, and the emergence of eyes has its reasons. Chisana's goal of turning Zubat's instinctive Supersonic into a detector and reach a very skilled level where it can predict the course of battles and enemy actions. This is not something that can be achieved with just words.

Even Beautifly's training took three years of hard work, including grueling training in sandstorms.

"I'll do my best!" Chisana said confidently.

"But you haven't finished yet, right? This approach may bring out the full advantages of Zubat after its final evolution, but what do you plan to give up? What are the weaknesses you're talking about?"

Terrance pressed further.

Chisana thought for a moment and then said, "Moves..." But he shook his head, realizing he hadn't figured it all out yet.

"I want to focus on Supersonic and give up moves that don't suit it, then train some that can work well with Supersonic in battle."

As Chisana shared his ideas, three potential move sets for Zubat immediately popped into Terrance's mind. But he didn't offer any suggestions to Chisana, as there were still many possibilities to explore. Chisana had already done an excellent job by thinking this far. As long as he wasn't hindered by "resource-based" obstacles or couldn't handle the difficulty of training, there was still a chance of success.

At that moment, Terrance once again realized the benefit of having breeder knowledge. Not only did it help him quickly understand a Pokémon, but it also allowed him to come up with various training strategies. With Terrance's guidance, Chisana could now avoid many of the pitfalls that rookies face and grow quickly.

"Maybe in three years, Chisana could become a Top Coordinator too?" Terrance smiled at the thought.

Having received Terrance's approval, Chisana's path became even clearer. He decided it was time to revisit the move and Pokémon data Terrance had given him to further refine his training concept. Excusing himself, he returned to his room.

Terrance didn't go to bed early. His mind was occupied with thoughts about the Gym.

There were countless prerequisites for opening a Gym, and plenty of issues afterward such as venue and maintenance issues, battle rules, gym requirements and so on.

Like Terrance is thinking now. Besides having its own unique style, a Gym needs to have a signature type, which is a requirement for every gym!

For example, the Gym Leader in Rustboro City specialized in Rock-type, Dewford Town's Gym Leader specialized in Fighting-type, and Sootopolis City's Gym Leader specialized in Water-type. Every city's Gym is like this, so if Terrance wanted to establish his own Gym, he had to decide on a specific type.

Terrance didn't dwell on this for too long, as he already had a clear idea.

Bug-type!

He would declare that his Gym is Bug-type Gym. The main issue was that the Pokémon on his team were too diverse, with no strong focus on any particular type. So, Bug-type was undoubtedly the best choice for Terrance.

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