Storyline Walkthrough
The critical path, beat by beat: mulch → gyms → E4 → champion → post-game. Nearly every beat past Badge 1 is gated — this page is spoiler-heavy by nature. Flip "show all spoilers" up top if you've finished the game.
Pattern
gym → side thing → gym → side thing → gym → endgame. The story plays its stakes completely straight; the world is the clown.
The game opens inside a moving truck — the family is moving to Mulch Town. The siblings (the players) share a bedroom with bunkbeds. Mom downstairs is a heal spot; she mentions, once, that she registered everyone with the league when the family moved. Paperwork is destiny.
Mulch TownPlywood reads his intro script (poorly). Starters go to registered residents — the siblings are on the list. His assistant quit, so the CreechDex needs field verification: that's the job. Pick a starter from Empanda / Platypuddle / Fernolin. There's a guy in the corner — ignore him for now, or don't.
Prof. Plywood's LabAsh arrives moments late, mouse on his shoulder, confused. He's NOT on the list (nobody filed his paperwork), so Plywood literally cannot give him a starter. His mouse came free with a backpack.
Mulch TownAstrxlol refuses challengers: the cafe's bean shipment is stuck at a Litigious checkpoint over an import form. Fetch-quest through Route 2 — your first grunts and the freight office. The villain mechanism is taught before badge 1: the gym opens because you un-stuck somebody's paperwork. See the bean quest guide.
Route 2 CheckpointBeat five baristas/regulars to fill your loyalty card, then Astrxlol. Reward: the Grounds Badge + TM Fresh Pot, and Cut becomes usable. Ash arrives just after, baffled the arc is "already done," and challenges you on the next route (Ash Fight 1).
Grounds ZeroGrunts try to seize a player's starter as "unlicensed." Your first real Team Litigious fight, and your first forced retreat. "You'll be hearing from us."
Route 3Meet Tamale Man — Litigious has had his ID "processing" for eleven years; he's massively overleveled from years of trying to leave. The checkpoint grunt who keeps dragging him back is basically his friend now. Fossil dig spots open here, and the Original's rumor seeds. The villains stop being funny for exactly one town. An optional superboss waits in the folding chair.
ColombiaComedy recovery, on purpose. Get "seated," beat the waitstaff between tables, then Jmango. Reward: the Hooters Badge (expired coupon) + Surf, which opens Liability Bay.
Femboy HootersIn about Tamale Man's file; out with three things: the Catching License Act draft, the PRIOR ART file (Litigious knows the Original exists and plans to "acquire the asset," plus blueprints for a "derivative work, wholly owned" — the Knockoff exists on paper before you see it), and the fossil revival machine (the unpaid intern revives your Colombia fossils). You also recover the kid's confiscated bike, Evidence (Bicycle). Ash Fight 2 is outside.
Litigious Field OfficeYour competitor licenses are still processing, so you're DQ'd to the losers' bracket. Fight up to grand finals vs Dragywagy, trigger the BRACKET RESET (beat him twice), win the title, and hand it to him anyway. He gives you the 2nd Place Trophy — the engraving was already done. Fly unlocks. Ash, deleted by Dragywagy in winners' round 1, is found at the wall for Ash Fight 3.
LAN CenterThe Catching License Act passes "pending legal review." A Subpoenix finds each player wherever they stand and drops a notice (simultaneous in co-op). The notices are seizure orders for the players' parties, effective on ratification. Buried in the Act: any credentialed party may contest ratification via formal league challenge — and credentialed means three badges. They never imagined anyone qualifying. Your badge case is legal standing.
Capital GainsLitigious moves on Colombia's dry caves to grab the Original first. Beat the expedition through the grunt gauntlet (the co-op switch gate opens — see puzzles). You reach the Original; it looks at you and vanishes. The grunts shrug: once the Act ratifies, the Knockoff becomes the registered "original" and the real one becomes, legally, the counterfeit.
Suspiciously Quiet CaveFile rooms; the stamp ends Tamale Man's eleven years; the Knockoff glimpsed in containment; and the executive floor reveal: the partner portraits match the Elite Four portraits one-to-one. The league IS the firm. You enter the hearing knowing it's rigged.
Tort TowerOn the E4 steps, Ash holds up all three badges (ground out offscreen through pure spite) and challenges you for the right to go in first. Full team, mouse as ace, purely personal. The loss completes him.
Capital GainsFour hearing sessions, then the Named Partner. The Original waits in the antechamber and is catchable pre-champion. Whoever caught it can lead with it against the Knockoff. See Elite Four & Champion.
Tort TowerThe Act dies on the steps it passed on; files unstick region-wide; Colombia's chair sits empty with a husk on the seat. Post-game opens: the Ash rematch (at peace, full power), the truck at the Docket (Prior Art opens it → Diadrawz), co-op-gated encounters, night spawns, the Gated Community and Offshore Account, and — once the shared dex is complete — the Greg reveal.
The DocketThe Reveal
The CreechDex's flavor text is one tired guy's ongoing documentation — his life visibly collapsing across the entries. That guy is Greg. He was Plywood's lab assistant; writing the dex was his job; he wrote his own entry, in third person; his conclusion was that the line between creecher and guy is fake, so he put on face paint and stood in the corner.
Completing the shared dex requires catching Diadrawz under the truck, which unlocks the final entry — it derails, signs "-Greg," then adds one more line: "Wait... is that a zipper?" The corner scene is the payoff. If Greg is in a player's party, the scene comes to him; otherwise it plays at the lab corner.