The 719 Challenge

Vs. Lorelei

With my team I had no really good strategie against her, but I managed it somehow (Venusaur and Charizard did very good here)

Vs. Bruno

Very easy, Blastoise for the Onix(s) and Pidgeot and Butterfree for the Fighting Types

Vs. Agatha

Ratticate Shadow Ball did a lot of damage to her Ghosts. Unfortunately her Gengar hit me 8 times with Hypnosis before he finally missed (there were also some Sludge Bomb crits which made this fight harder than it should be

Vs. Lance

My only option: Blastoise Ice Beam (Venusaur Toxic/Leech Seed Stall Gyarados)
In the end I won with Blastoise left, all other Pokemon fainted (did not use any Revive in this battle)

Vs. Gary

The easiest fight, Blastoise Ice Beamed Pidgeot and Surfed Rhydon, Alakazam survived Ratticate's Shadow Ball in the red and defeated it with Psychic, Pidgeot Return critted Alakazam (as he healed it), Charizard Blast Burned Exeggcutor, Venusaur Fenzy Planted Blastoise and Blastoise Hydro Cannoed Arcanine (I tought them the moves just for fun, I thought it is funny if the 3 Starters have their representive Move)

Hall of Fame:

Beaten Giovanni at the Rocket Hideout in Celadon

-Beat Brock w/ starter

MISTY (Badge #2)
I got my Electrode in a trade. Though it did not obey me, it [eventually] knocked her Stars out.

SURGE (Badge #3)
I also traded for my Marowak, which Bone Clubbed his Pokemon.

ERIKA (Badge #4)
When I got my Exeggutor from a trade (I actually traded for all of them), it knew Psychic, which was good enough to whip her Grass types.

KOGA (Badge #5)
I taught Marowak Earthquake, and that made it able to sweep Koga easily.

BLAINE (Badge #6)
Marowak played against Blaine also, Earthquake all.

SABRINA (Badge #7)
I used the whole team to take her down, starting with Electrode. I taught Toxic to all of my Pokemon (most underrated move in the WHOLE GAME), and her trusty wizards eventually fell to Tox damage.

GIOVANNI (Badge #8)
Exeggutor beasted through this Gym with Solarbeam and Psychic. There was no chance for the Rocket Leader.

LORELEI
Electrode was the star in this fight, Thunderbolt dropped everything in two hits.

BRUNO
Exeggutor Solar'd the Onix and Psychic'd the Fighting types.

AGATHA
I used Marowak (who knew Fissure) and Gengar (Psychic and Tbolt) to bring her down. It took two X Speeds for Marowak to catch up with her Ghosts, but once Fissure was ready, it took down the Gengars.

LANCE
I made the mistake of forgetting to grab TM13 Ice Beam, but Thunderbolt and Toxic did just fine. I packed plenty of Hyper Potions to stall until the pseudo-Dragons died.

CHAMPION RIVAL
Led with Electrode, who dropped Pidgeot and Gyarados before switching out. Marowak Fissured Rhydon, Arcanine and his Exeggutor. Next, Gengar and my Exeggutor finished him off with their Psychic attacks.

So that's that.

I picked Bulbasaur as the starter since it's Grass type and fought the first rival battle, then hacked in a level 6 Tangela - Hardy nature and random stats - and off we went.

In case anyone was wondering, a base 10 physical attack on a Pokemon with better Sp Atk is not good. Luckily enough, with support from Ingrain and Sleep Powder, Constrict can eventually chip away at the level 2 and 3 Pidgeys and Rattatas on Route 1. The only real problem came when we encountered our first Sand Attack abusing level 5 Pidgey. Tangela was never in any real danger - good defense and Ingrain keeps it pretty healthy - but by the time it was over, it had taken 22 uses of Constrict to faint that Pidgey.



Not surprisingly, I'm going to hang around Route 1 and maybe Route 2 until Tangela gets up to level 10 and gets Absorb, and even with that, the forest is going to be a bit of a chore. I foresee lots of running away.

Trying to sort out how I'm going to get the rest of the team together. It's going to require lots of trading. If I can catch an Abra on Route 24 or 25, I can trade it for Mr.Mime, but if not (as is likely), I'll have to get it from the Game Corner. And I'll probably have to get Scyther from the Game Corner too, since the only other choice is the Safari Zone. For Jynx, I'll have to wait until I get the Super Rod, then catch a Poliwhirl to trade for it. Seaking (or more accurately Goldeen) is the only one I can catch relatively early, and even that has to wait for the Good Rod. Electabuzz I can catch outright, but not until I get to the Power Plant.

Should be interesting though. Once we get over this first hump of having nothing better than Constrict and get through the forest okay, I figure Tangela should be solid at least through the first two gyms, and that'll put me in Cerulean City with a chance to catch an Abra and at least add Mr. Mime to the team.

I think I'll scale the pics down a bit next time around...

Viridian Forest was the purest hell with a low level Tangela all by itself. I ended up sneaking past most of the trainers and running from everything named Weedle, and slowly chipping away at the things I did fight. And making lots of trips back to the PC.

Brock's gym though, as I suspected, was a breeze - we just demolished the Grounds.

Then it was on to Mt. Moon, which was navigated by the simple expedient of running from Zubats. Many, many zubats.

By the time we got into Cerulean, Tangela was level 20. I debated back and forth, and finally went north first to face my Rival at the foot of Nugget Bridge. His Charmander destroyed Tangela with a couple of Embers, and since those Embers were each taking more than half of Tangela's HP, I figured it wasn't worth trying it again at that point, so I went to Misty's gym instead. And, predictably, Tangela blew through there too. She leveled up to 22 along the way, and I went out and ground a bit to get her to 23, then went back and faced Rival again. It still took three tries, but finally, mostly through successfully Sleep Powdering Charmander, we beat him. Then went over Nugget Bridge and on to Route 25, to hunt for an Abra. It took four tries before we got one Sleep Powdered and caught, but at least we had one. I considered it for a minute, then stuck it in the Day Care to level up while we went off to Vermilion City and the S.S. Anne. Fought all the trainers, with lots of breaks to rest in between. The problem at this point wasn't health - along the way, Tangela leveled up to 31 and picked up Mega Drain, so was overleveled enough to handle most things anyway and was using a health replenishing move at her main attack anyway. The problem was PP - for attacks, she only has Mega Drain and Thief, and each only have 10 PP. The other two moves are Sleep Powder and Poison Powder. Since she's almost always using neutral attacks at best, it takes a while, and a lot of PP. But we got it done, then went off to face Gary, who was just that much more of a hassle, since his Charmander had become a Charmeleon and still has Ember, and Tangela still has crap Special Defense. She was overleveled enough though that it would've taken three Embers to faint her, and she got Charmeleon asleep before that. Then, armed with the Cut HM, it was on to collect my Mr. Mime.

We went back by the Day Care, and swung by the PC and picked up Bulbasaur, who's going to function as an HM slave, probably for most of the game. Then we went through Diglett's Cave and made the trade - my now level 17 Abra for Mimien - the Mr. Mime.

The first thing we did then was to go back through Viridian Forest and the rest of the early routes and fight all the trainers that Tangela had had to sneak past. We eventually made our way back to Vermilion City and challenged Lt. Surge. Mimien had leveled up to the point that he picked up both screens, then Magical Leaf (the latter didn't accomplish anything though, since he's on a team with an overleveled Grass anyway). He handled most of the gym, with Light Screen to soften the Electric attacks and repeated, and often NVE, Confusions. Since we had a few levels on the gym, it wasn't that tough, and whenever he was in a pinch, I'd just switch in Tangela and demolish them with a massively overleveled and usually NVE Mega Drain.

And when it was all over, I checked to make sure that this was a wise decision (and nobody other than Electabuzz can use it anyway, so it was) and put Shock Wave on Mimien in place of Magical Leaf. Then we made our way back up Underground Path and back to Cerulean City, and that's where I'm saved at the moment - at the entrance to Route 9, ready to set off for Rock Tunnel.

started game.
named self amie.(French theme FTW)
Picked bulbasaur as starter(wanted to get it over asap)
did tutorial stuff
Hacked in dratini, (named her Dragun(french for dragon) boxed my bulbasaur.
Keep losing to wild pokemon(Not even in the forest yet!)

Got to the forest after grinding.
Lost to bug catchers' metapods(not enough pp)
got through.
got to lv 11.
Continue grinding.

LOTS of stuff happening, so just the highlights:

Mimien rebelled by the time we got to Rock Tunnel, and started playing the disgruntled outsider thing. "Mimien turned away." "Mimien disobeyed orders." By the time we got to Lavender Town he was completely useless.

Spent a couple of hours in the Game Corner in Celadon (I had to relearn the tricks to winning at slots) and bought a Scyther, then used it to utterly demolish Erika's gym, which guaranteed obedience from pokemon up to level 50, so level 36 Mimien was useful again. Went down to the Doduo Corral (that's what I call it at least) on Route 16 and got the Fly TM and a Doduo to put it on, and flew to Lavender Town.

Breezed through the tower (avoided a lot of the trainers, since Mimien really didn't need the levels), got the flute, went out to Route 12 and woke that Snorlax first so I could go down and get the Super Rod. Flew to Viridian, caught a Poliwhirl, then to Cerulean and traded for Zynx, then took her back to the tower to fight the rest of the trainers and grind a bit and catch her levels up.

Then lots of back and forth and to and fro, and finally made it to Fuchsia and caught a Seaking, and was almost immediately reminded of why I've never used one in-game for more than a few minutes. Seriously - I'm trying to be generous since I committed to this team, but man... that's a terrible pokemon.

Beat Koga's poison-gym-full-of-psychics, then it was off to Saffron, but only after a quick side trip to the Power Plant to catch an Electabuzz and complete my team. Blew through the Silph offices and demolished Gary (and I have to admit that it was sort of cool to faint his Charizard with my Seaking, even if Seaking had 9 levels on him and it still took three Surfs to do it). Crushed the Fighting Dojo with Scyther, then blasted through Sabrina's gym. Then it was back to Pallet Town and we surfed down to Cinnabar Island, which is where I'm saved right now.

I've been trying to keep everyone pretty close in levels, and at the moment, they range from 43 to 46. And the team again, for anyone who might've made it this far - Tangela, Mr. Mime, Jynx, Scyther, Seaking and Electabuzz.

Mansion, Blaine's gym (Seaking crushed him, and that's a phrase I would've never thought I'd write), detour to the Sevii Islands, Victory Road and onward.

Lorelei was kind of a hassle - Dewgong, Cloyster and Slowbro all went down to Electabuzz' Thunderbolts, but he didn't quite get Lapras. He took it down a good ways below half while it Surfed him down to about 1/3. I (unwisely) gambled on fainting it even after the Sitrus Berry heal and left it with a sliver and it fainted Electabuzz. Mimien mopped it up though with Shock Wave, then we chipped away at Jynx, in between awakening whoever she put to sleep. Nobody had a really good attack against her, but Scyther was the only one who was weak to her and had to stay out. IIRC, Seaking took her down with a Horn Attack.

Bruno was a breeze. Zynx opened against him and took out his Onyxes, then hit his Hitmonchan down to just a sliver of HP and it fainted her with a Mega Punch. Scyther came in and mopped up.

Agatha was okay. Zynx took out the first Gengar, Arbok and Golbat, but then fell to the second Gengar's Sludge Bomb. I switched in Mimien who took another Sludge Bomb but held on, and countered with a Psychic. I crossed my fingers and set up another Psychic (the first Sludge Bomb had done just about exactly half his HP worth of damage), but Gengar used Shadow Ball instead, for an easy KO. Then I just chipped away at it, Scyther first, then Seaking. Then the Haunter came in and I took the turn to revive Zynx and sacrificed Seaking, then switched Zynx in. Haunter hit with a Hypnosis and I took the next turn to awaken Zynx, expecting it to waste a turn on Dream Eater and instead it Cursed, so Zynx crushed it easily with a Psychic on the next turn.

Lance was mostly easy. Electabuzz took out Gyarados, then Zynx took out the first Dragonair and put a dent in the second one, and Seaking (who has Ice Beam) finished it off. Then Seaking went down surprisingly easily to an Aerodactyl Ancient Power (granted she was at only a bit more than half HP). I switched in Electabuzz and got off one Thunderbolt while it took an Ancient Power that knocked it down to about 1/3. I debated a bit and Max Revived Seaking and sacrificed Electabuzz, then Seaking Surfed the Aerodactyl away. Then Dragonite. Seaking hit it with an Ice Beam, but only knocked it down by about a third, while taking over half to an Outrage. I Max Revived Zynx and sacrificed Seaking, then Zynx one-shotted the Dragonite on the next turn.

And Gary. Pidgey went down to Electabuzz, then Tangela tanked an Earthquake and took out Rhydon with a Giga Drain, then Charizard came in and I switched in Seaking and they went at it. Fire Blast took about 1/3 from Seaking, while Surf took almost half from Charizard, so it was just a matter of holding out long enough. Then Exeggutor came in and Scyther crushed it. Then it was Alakazam. Pretty much everyone ended up involved in that fight, and it looked bleak until Mimien got up a Light Screen, then it turned finally. I deliberately brought Electabuzz in to deliver the final blow, and then he one-shotted Gyarados for the victory.