The Limited Progression Challenge

I'm kinda troubled with the first gym, I can't beat it without hacking or insane grinding to level 34. I don't want to grind that far just for the first gym, or I could hack in TM Steel wing, so I actually stand a chance in the gym. But that would be hacking! What should I do?

What is your current team? Do you have everyone already? Also, I just beat Brock again, didn't train much this time. Current levels: Volt - L12, Tonguetyd - L11, Phantom - L10, Dragyn - L10, Blaze - L10, Starried - L10

My planned team is: Staraptor, Drifblim, Togekiss, Gliscor, Yanmega and (Vespiquen or Mothim, whichever I find first on honey tree)

But since I can't hack in or trade in my pokemon I currently have only a level 17 Staravia, the next pokemon becoming available ir Drifloom and Burmy or Combee, but that's after the first gym.

Ah, ok, i can see the problem. I haven't played DP in a while, so I'm unfamiliar with Staravia's learnset, the only suggestion i have is to grind up a few levels...just remembered i have the guide,i will check for anything helpful

edit: did you try hidden power? You may get lucky with it

This is Platinum, so I didn't get Hidden Power before the first gym, only Return. It's levelup moveset contains only normal and flying type moves, unless I train it to level 34, where staraptor gets Close Combat. But level 34 is insane, and then it would be a sure lose after the second gym.

Ah, I didn't realize they swapped Hidden Power for return in Platinum (haven't played that in ages either). It's looking like the only option is grinding up stupidly high, either that or spam its normal moves + potions, it's costly, but worth a shot. If you do choose potions, I would save beforehand, just in case...

Edit: Cleared the first room of Mt. Moon, solely using Volt to train him up for Misty (I decided he is the most logical one to lose here). I also caught a Clefairy for use as a HM Slave, I'm gonna use my Moon Stone on it to evolve it into Clefable. Also, can HM slaves be used to use out of battle TMs, such as Teleport? If so then Ariala (Clefable) will be for Teleport, Strength and Flash. I will be heading back to Route 1 and catching a Mew for use as an HM slave for Fly, Cut and Surf. So this is my current team (I will add Mew in now to save editing in a minute):
Volt - L19, Tonguetyd - L11, Phantom - L10, Dragyn - L10, Blaze L-11, Starried - L10
HM SLAVES - Ariala - L8 (Teleport, Strength, Flash), Mewzel - L0 (Cut, Fly, Surf)

Also, I just remembered I caught a Pikachu in Viridian Forest...I'm not gonna use it for anything (may evolve it for Pokédex space) but when it popped up I was like "THATS RARE! GO POKÉBALL!" then remembered I was in a challenge...

Thanks for the help! And yes, I would recommend losing Voltorb against Misty, it's not the best pokemon ever.

So it was using X attack, X defense, dire hit and a few potions that brought Roark down!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2IV7g64Ias

Then I continued to floaroma town, got myself some Honey, changed my laptops time to activate honey tree, then soft resetted for a female Combee and I found one! :D
Then we beat the galactic people and saved the kids daddy, and I set the laptops day to friday, so I could get a Drifloon! :D

Just found out that in gen 1 voltorb doesn't learn a single electric move naturally...so I'm gonna be using sonicboom and tackle against Misty + co. I'm now in Cerulean City, gonna head straight to the gym this time...actually, I'll beat Green first due to everyone except Volt being seriously underlevelled atm. I'm gonna record Misty, and every Gym from now on. You didn't really miss much with Brock, it was a rather boring in and out battle, his trainer gave me more trouble than him. I have some screencap software already, but I can't do sound very easily, as my laptop (well the laptop I'm borrowing till mine is fixed) doesn't have Stereo Mix.

Edit: Beat Green, then headed off to the Gym, nearly forgot to start recording...video is currently compressing or something, so I'll upload it when it's done

Edit 2: Oh yeah, and I released Volt (recorded it too, its with the Misty fight)

Edit 3: File got corrupted cos I stopped it during compression (oops) so Misty is also unrecorded...Lt. Surge should be though! With SOUND!

Maybe you should've kept Volt, since next gym you can get the Thunderbolt tm? Whatever, it happened already, so I'm too late. I grinded up a little bit before continuing, now heading for eterna city. I'm kinda in doubt on who to lose though, since all 3 can solo Gardenia. I currently have Staravia, who I want to keep since Staraptor is awesome and I tend to let the fully evolved ones go, which he isn't yet. I never used Drifloon or Vespiquen before and both seem interesting, so I'm kinda leaning towards Vespiquen...

Also, my desmume emulator keeps randomly getting insane lag! Which is really annoying, do you know how to fix this?

Vespiquen would be the better choice in my opinion, as a bug its not gonna be as helpful later on, but then again Drifloon is a bizzare Pokémon to use, as you basically only get stockpile + some moves that use stockpile. With Drifloon being ghost type, you get some protection from normal etc (and as Drifloon doesn't have ghost moves from what I remember). Keep Staravia definately, it is pretty useful later on

Edit: I've never had a problem with DeSmuME lagging, but apparently it does happen, try No$GBA, that seems to have less lag problems, but seems to not be as good as DeSmuME...its worth a try though, only other thing i can think of is close as many windows as possible, that stopped my VBA lag problems (yeah, i get lag emulating original game boy, but not DS, madness)

Lol, my vba works perfectly fine! And idk, but Drifloon comes with Astonish and gets Ominous wind and Shadow ball later on, also Thunderbolt by TM, so it's a good pokemon! I'll let Vespiquen go I think, but not happily.. :(

I think I have problems with VBA cos I have sound boosts and stuff...anyway, on a more related note, as Misty's recording messed up, I did a recording of Nugget bridge with my stupidly underlevelled Pokémon, its quite funny tbh. It's currently compressing, and has sound! It's mainly a test for the Lt. Surge recording, but also some light comedy after losing Volt.

Edit: Currently uploading to YouTube, it should be live in about...half an hour?

Edit 2: It still isn't uploaded, had to restart the upload, however I just beat Lt. Surge, its been recorded and is currently uploading (should be quicker as it's only 2 minutes or something).

Edit 3: Stopped the upload last night as our internet had some major slowdown. Restarted it this morning, and it is currently 60% uploaded, will post a link when it's done

Edit 4: It's finally uploaded! I didn't upload Nugget Bridge for now, I may upload it at a later date. Lt. Surge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTfhNt3yHOg enjoy. Will be continuing this challenge shortly...in like half an hour or something

Okay, I beat Gardenia, with Vespiqueen, wasn't really difficult for a Bug/Flying type. :P
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUU_bZzirs

Then we went off to beat the team Plasme people, the boss put up a very difficult fight, but we managed to win it! Then we received the Togepi egg from Cynthia, time to hatch!!
So now I have a Togepi and I caught a Gligar, now i'll be training them :)

uh oh, you are catching up to me! I need to beat more Gyms!

I would've beaten the 3rd gym if not for my laggy emulator -.- I did the other games in a few days.

I could have easily done this by now if I didn't have to revise at the same time :/

Edit: Did a quick recording test with my new setup http://youtu.be/MKB0f4OsIc8 uploaded much quicker, and is 360p, rather than 240p. It is sped up to make it shorter and has no sound, figured that as it was just a test, video quality was most important.

Edit 2: Spent most of yesterday doing recording tests and mass level grinding. Finished off the grinding this morning, and now everyone is Level 30, with everyone except Dragyn fully evolved. Will be taking on Erika later this afternoon, and releasing another Pokémon (probably Tonguetyd as whilst it is really strong, I don't think it's going to be as useful later on, but we shall see). Photos of everyone evolving on my flickr. RSS feed for the album here

Edit 3: Just beat Erika, recorded it and...when she gave me the TM I got the message *glitchblock*ERROR and then the EMULATOR crashed :S thats some pretty strong TM you have there Erika, I shall use it wisely. But anyway, luckily I save stated beforehand so i haven't lost anything, and I still have the recording, so maybe I'll upload it, dunno, maybe I'll just upload after I beat her, as the error is the odd bit, the fight was quite quick.

Edit 4: http://youtu.be/iBVWM1gxVX8 gonna try again in a bit

Edit 5: Ok, so I never tried it again, and spent the weekend with family, so i haven't even played it since i got that error...will try in a bit, but I'm not recording the battle this time, as I can only record after 3 and I want it done before then

My challenge is currently dead, since I need to grind Togepi and Gligar and neither of them gets good moves, so I can't even reliably beat wild pokemon without having to heal after every single battle...

My challenge is pretty dead too, that thing with Erika put my off a little, and I've been getting quite into my Solo Run of Platinum (its so much nicer playing these games on the 3DS than a laptop). Still, I might get in some training today, I want to get this out of the way so I can start on my Ultimate No Catch Challenge.