We're joined by Greg Leatherman this week, who told us he was inspired to pick up Pokémon Unite for the first time after he heard our first episode featuring Bree van Durr and Chef Greenring. He fell in love with the game and has been playing ever since all thanks to us! Anyway, he's on to learn from an actual Expert and Veteran what it takes to go toe-to-toe in the Aeos Islands. Notes: Give Master Greg a follow on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, @whitewing and Instagram @lysander03!

Well, we've played pretty much all the Pokémon games out there so it's about time we gave something else a shot. That's right, EXP. Share is a Palworld playthrough podcast now*. Your favorite podcast titans tried out winter 2023's hottest survival game/Pokémon rip off, and palled around with their Pals in Palworld for a few hours. What we thought about it might surprise you! *We'll be back in Aeos Island for Pokémon Unite next week with our pal Greg Leatherman, don't you worry.

What are the odds that Josh Fjelstad, Brooklyn podcaster, would be friends with a renowned slug scientist, who studied at KNOWN medical school, Cornell University and studied THINGS including SLUGS once? Pretty low, honesty, but here we are. We’re joined for our finale in ol’ Hisui by friend of the show and friend of the us, Mike LeVine. And YES, he does have a PhD and NO it’s NOT in slugs. This is it for our little sweeties Doug Farmer and Soren though! So long, slug-lovers!

We weren't given Waterfall so this isn't really a waterfalls episode, but it's got that feel, doesn't it? With Palkia and Dialga safely behind balls Soren and Doug are largely left to their own devices, which gives Doug plenty of time for soul-searching. And by soul I mean slug.

I guess, uh… I guess we’re done here, folks. Honestly, kinda came out of nowhere but seasons over and show is over and our souls are locked in old Hisui forever thanks to the actions of Doug Farmer and Soren. Let’s at least get one last Fur Affinity Check in for old time’s sake, right? Please tell our families we loved them. And tell Melli we hated him.

After quelling the final Frenzied Noble, we think we'll be hailed as heroes and Doug Farmer & Soren will get statues in their honor erected across the land. Instead all hell breaks loose, the simulation breaks, and immediately Commander Kamado places all the blame for everything at our feet. Banished from Jubilife, we're forced to subsist on dwindling potato mochi supplies and a shadow network of allies. Most of our "friends" like Warden Lian and Mai offer nothing but barely kind words, until a Trainer Banger swoops in and takes us under her motherly wings.

We’ve got one more frenzied beast to quell, and whoo doggy is she a big one. But first we have a whole long checklist to take care of including tracking down some mythical beasts with the help of some light cheating, chasing down an errant Braviary and its emotionally challenging warden, and filling out bellies with enough potato mochi to block us up for days. Someone get Doug Farmer a bran muffin or something.

A Bug Pioneer joins us on the journey through HI-SU-IIIII, hailing from another strange, exotic, and faraway shore: Jersey. You can probably figure out where she wormholed in from. Fortunately, she's here just in time to take down the Frenzied Lord Electrode, and more importantly, support Josh in preventing Tanner from ramming through some pretty outlandish new "slugs" for Doug Farmer's team. Notes: Thanks for joining us, Erica, whose handsome dog you can find on Instagram @erica_h!

Welcome to the Cobalt Coastlands, Bug Pioneers. There's plenty of East Sea Shellos to go around, so grab a Leaden Ball, hop on your Basculegion, and enter bullet time—we've got some slugs to hunt. Our problematic faves, the Miss Fortune Sisters, are back and up to more mischief this week, stealing beautiful little 'mon and turning them into frenzied, raging monsters that we'll have to put down, Survey Corps-style.

Doug Farmer and Soren may not know how they got to old Hisui, but they certainly know what they're doing now that they're there, and what they're doing isn't very nice. Members of the Survey Corps live by the 3 C's: Catalogue, Capture, and Kill (It's a dialect thing, it doesn't translate well.) – and these two do so with such ruthless efficiency that they're accidentally wiping out whole evolutionary lines. Next in their sites: A lovely, frenzied ballerina Lilligant that can't be allowed to see the light of modern Sinnoh.

It's a new year and it's a brand-new game (to them) neither of the boys has ever touched—a truly open world, unknown & unexplored new land called Hisui. Except wait it does seem to have some striking similarities to the world they explored in the last game. We'll have to get to the bottom of that. And who better to do it than through Josh & Tanner's definitely completely original and in no way related to previous characters in the EXP. Share universe? Meet your would-be champions (or whatever they do here in Hisui) for our jaunt through Pokémon Legends: Arceus, as we navigate new mechanics, new trainers, and their first challenge of getting a Kleavor to settle down. Notes: Featuring "Celtic Fantasy Music with Nature Ambience" by Coya Music and "Almost Heaven" by Freesound Music

Welcome to the lawless Aeos Islands, where the rich come to get richer, younger, and more beautiful as the poor and destitute of the Pokéworld grind it out in the brawling pits, harvesting rare Aeos energy to power the ruling class’ abhorrent experiments with the laws of nature. Meet Bree van Durr, a lofty figure brought low, washed up on the fabricated shores with a Gothic Horror Mewtwo in tow. She’ll have a long path to travel if she ever hopes to take on undefeated Pokémon Unite champion Neon Greedent Evangelion and his thankless personal chef, Greenring.

Crystal Ball foresees a long trek ahead, and her soothsaying powers once again do not disappoint. She and Shadow Josh spend some time at the Canalave Library hoping to beef up on the Legendary Gulpin Egg—or so they thought. Instead, they're railroaded into having to go investigate all those multi-tailed lake freaks and once again, bail everyone out of a bunch of trouble they got themselves into. AND climb a mountain.

The #GrimSeason comes to its end. Will Crystal Ball & Shadow Josh suffer any further losses at the Pokémon League? Will either one play through all the postgame, or simply give up? Join us as we finish BDSP and share all of our thoughts about it.

We decided to get out ahead of some pretty labored metaphors while we’re paying our quarterly taxes and getting out ahead of our waterfalls this season, you know, like a Basculin swimming upstream. Okay, now that I’m seeing it written out I see Josh’s point. We went to Canalave City and took on Byron in Canalave Gym. We crushed him.

What a leg! Really, so much happened this week, there’s almost not enough time to cover it all, and there’s certainly no room to get into all the specifics here in the episode description. These things have a character limit, you know. We could probably get into the boss battle atop Team Galactic HQ or the lake spirits freeing Dialga/Palkia from Cyrus’s freaky Red Chain, but there wasn't really anything else notable or humbling or humiliating that happened to Tanner or anyone else this week worth mentioning here.

After a particularly dark chapter in the #GrimSeason last week, our heroes/antiheroes are blessed with a short and relatively painless jaunt. That's thanks to Cynthia, who comes out of nowhere with "Secret Medicine" that takes care of the Psyduck blockade up on Route 210. She also makes Crystal Ball & Shadow Josh meet her grandmother up in Celestic Town, who needs an Old Charm for some reason. After that, they finally get to take on the Hearthome City Gym Leader, Fantina, and maybe dust off the Super Contest Contest? Featuring: "Memorial Day (Alex Productions)" by Breaking Copyright.

Crystal Ball chose to take the road less traveled this week by bee-lining down the Valor Lakefront and right into the hungry battlefields of the Seven Stars Restaurant. Shadow Josh, on the other hand, stuck to the rivers and lakes that he’s used to—by taking what may or may not be the prescribed route down to Pastoria City. Either way, both… creatures made it to take on Crasher Wake, but it was pretty brutal for one of them. #GrimSeason Featuring: "Santeria (Sublime)" by CC Karaoke.

Traversing like a fifth of the map this early on in a Nuzlocke is no small feat, and regrettably some small feet on someone's team didn't make it through the other side of Mt. Coronet pass. But, we didn't let that stop us from enjoying the jaunty music and wind in our hair careening down Cycling Road—at least that buoyed our spirits enough to weather fighting some dad impersonating a Pichu's mom or the freak with three Mr. Mimes. Oh, and Maylene's fearsome Lucario. The #GrimSeason continues down a dark path. Notes: Featuring "Sea of Love (Cat Power)" by FakeyOke.

Some of us tried our best but we STILL didn’t succeed this week, but that’s okay, because we’re taking the long view as we look ahead to, well, a very easy gym in Eterna City. The road was a little rocky along the way, and not like ice cream, like difficulties. it wasn’t nice. We didn’t have a nice week. #GrimSeason Notes: Featuring "Longview (Green Day)" and "Fix You (Coldplay)" by CC Karaoke.