- Got Mawile
Mawile @ N/A
Level: 5
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Astonish
N/A
N/A
N/A
Not a great first move to have, as you'll see.
- Too easy. Torchic could barely damage Mawile and it kept flinching.
- Mawile learned Fake Tears
- Idiotically ran into the first trainer match without realising I had no way to damage his Zigzagoon... I lost
- Wasted PP and used Struggle and Potions to beat all the trainers leading to Rustburo City
- Caught 5 Zigzagoons and got King's Rock
- Mawile learned Bite, which meant I could finally heal at a Pokemon Center
- Nearly died against a Machop, but managed to win with flinch hax
- Mawile learned Sweet Scent
- Easy. Used Fake Tears and Bite to beat both Pokemon quickly and took little damage from Rock Tomb.
Mawile @ King's Rock
Level: 19
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Astonish
Fake Tears
Bite
Sweet Scent
Fake Tears and Bite work well together at this stage in the game. Mawile's moves have bad coverage and this is the only reliable method I have of dealing significant damage on Dark and Steel Pokemon.
- Went to Dewford Town and through Granite Cave
- Mawile learned Vicegrip
- Machops in Dewford Gym took a lot of HP
- About as hard as I expected. Lost three times so I used my Pickup Rare Candies and Mawile learned Faint Attack. Lost another two times, but finally won thanks to flinch hax.
Mawile @ King's Rock
Level: 26
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Astonish
Fake Tears
Faint Attack
Vicegrip
I was happy to get Vicegrip, because now I can hit Dark Pokemon for neutral damage. I wasn't sure if Faint Attack or Bite would be preferable, but I chose Faint Attack in case I come across an annoying evasion booster.
- Went to Slateport City without healing and nearly got killed by a Machop
- Trained at beach house and Trick Master's house
- Mawile learned Rock Tomb (TM)
- Quite easy. Combusken's Ember did way less damage than I expected and went down with 2 Rock Tombs.
- Mawile tried to learn Baton Pass, but I didn't want it
- Got Mach Bike, beat all available trainers and got Macho Brace
- Faint Attack OHKO.
- All Mawile's moves are resisted by Magnemite and Magneton and I got confused twice, but all moves landed anyway. I leveled before Magneton and learned Crunch, which did a lot of damage after Fake Tears.
Mawile @ Macho Brace
Level: 36
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Rock Tomb
Fake Tears
Crunch
Vicegrip
Even though Crunch is drawing off Mawile's 55 base S.Atk, it still does decent damage. Especially when used with Fake Tears, which I am only keeping for Steel Pokemon. Rock Tomb and Macho Brace are purely to give Mawile a better chance against Flannery.
- Mawile learned Strength (HM)
- Battled all trainers between Mauville City and Fallarbor Town
- Mawile learned Iron Defence
- Continued battling until I returned to Rustburo City
- Rock Tomb missed twice allowing Numel to get crit Ember and Magnitude 10
- Mightyena's Intimidate stopped Strength from OHKOing any of Maxie's Pokemon, but neither Mightyena or Golbat did any damage and Camerupt's Ember did much less than I expected.
- I was contemplating using my Pickup Rare Candies before this battle, but I decided to see how well I did before I used them. Both Slugmas were OHKOd by Rock Tomb and Torkoal 2HKOd. Torkoal used Overheat which almost OHKOd me, but Flannery didn't even attempt to heal when Torkoal was on low HP.
Mawile @ Macho Brace
Level: 46
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Rock Tomb
Iron Defence
Crunch
Strength
Fake Tears is not as useful as it was early on, so Iron Defence took its place. Strength has a higher base strength than Vicegrip and seems to OHKO anything that doesn't resist it.
- Mawile tried to learn Stockpile, but I didn't want it
- Mawile tried to learn Spit Up, but I didn't want it
- Mawile tried to learn Swallow, but I didn't want it
- Got the Gogoggles and trained in the desert
- Revisited the Trick Master's house
- Norman was a joke. I resist all of his Pokemon's moves except Focus Punch, which is awful with Traunt and I had Iron Defence just incase.
Mawile @ BlackGlasses
Level: 48
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Rock Tomb
Iron Defence
Crunch
Strength
Mawile's EVs maxed so I replaced Macho Brace with BlackGlasses to make up for it's low S.Atk on Crunch.
- Got Surf and battled all ocean Trainers from Routes 105-109
- Trained at the Abandoned Ship and New Mauville where I was constantly being paralyzed
- Mawile learned Ice Beam (TM)
- Crit Mach Punch from Breloom took significant HP and almost killed Mawile
- Worked my way up to the Weather Institute
- Beat Team Magma easily and left Castform
- Strength OHKOd all three of May's Pokemon.
- Continued on to Fortree City
- Parafusion-hax prevented Mawile from attacking for 4 consecutive turns
- Got Devon Scope and battled some trainers
- Ice Beam OHKOd all of Winona's Pokemon except Pelipper with a crit on Skarmory.
Mawile @ BlackGlasses
Level: 60
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Ice Beam
Iron Defence
Crunch
Strength
I taught Mawile Ice Beam for 2 reasons. Winona was the first one. I could have used Rock Tomb to take care of her Pokemon, but I wasn't happy about the 80 accuracy. I also had my doubts that Rock Tomb could even 2HKO Skarmory.
- Battled all the trainers on the way to Lilycove
- As per usual I OHKOd all of May's Pokemon.
- Trained at Mt. Pyre
- Zigzagoon evolved through doubles matches
- Trained at Magma Hideout
- Beat all trainers on routes 124 and 125
- I wasn't sure about this gym. Obviously my Pickup/HM slaves wouldn't be any help here and I could only attack one at a time. I OHKOd Solrock with Crunch first to avoid Fire Blast. Suprisingly Lunatone survived a Crunch and got a Hyper Potion to help it last for 3 turns, which it wasted by only targetting my Zigzagoons.
Mawile @ BlackGlasses
Level: 70
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Ice Beam
Iron Defence
Crunch
Strength
No changes from last time other than a higher level. This set has been working well for me.
- Got Super Rod and caught a Sharpedo
- Trained on route 126, route 127 and Seafloor Cavern.
- Mightyena was a bit of a nuisance. Intimidate kept me from OHKOing and Swagger caused Mawile to hit itself in confusion twice. Once Mawile snapped out of confusion, sweeping with Strength was easy.
- Trained on routes 128-134 and the Trick Master's house
- Caught Wingull and flew to Sootopolis City
- 2HKOd Groudon with Ice Beam and lost a lot of HP from Fire Blast
- Wallace was harder than I expected. All of his Pokemon, save for Luvdisc, were 2HKOd and chipped away at my HP with Water Pulse. Luckily Mawile wasn't confused and I won without a whole lot of trouble.
Mawile @ BlackGlasses
Level: 78
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Ice Beam
Iron Defence
Crunch
Strength
Once again, nothing changed other than the level. I haven't been able to find any good items for Mawile to hold and by this point in the game, I doubt I will find one.
- Trained in Victory Road
- Used my Pickup Rare Candies on Mawile
- OHKOd all of Wally's Pokemon except Magneton who used Supersonic, but Mawile didn't hit itself in confusion at all.
- Deposited my HM slaves
- Mightyena's Intimidate kept Strength from OHKOing Mightyena and Shiftry, but they both failed to do much damage.
- Crunch OHKOd four of Phoebe's Pokemon. Sableye was 2HKOd, but Shadow Ball did little damage.
- Mawile learned Brick Break (TM)
- Brick Break OHKOd all of Glacia's Pokemon.
- Drake is the main reason I taught Mawile Ice Beam. OHKOd all of his Pokemon.
- I knew I couldn't OHKO Skarmory, but it used Spikes and I 2HKOd with Ice Beam. I 3HKOd Metagross with Brick Break, but Metagross could have also 3HKOd Mawile with Earthquake. Luckily, Steven didn't use a Full Restore. If he did, Metagross would have cost me the battle. His other four Pokemon were OHKOd with Ice Beam or Brick Break.
Mawile @ BlackGlasses
Level: 100
Nature: Hasty
Ability: Intimidate
Ice Beam
Iron Defence
Brick Break
Strength
The only reason I kept Iron Defence was for Steven's Metagross, but I forgot to actually use it, which was a stupid move, because a crit from Metagross would have cost me the battle. I taught Mawile Brick Break after Phoebe so I could use Crunch on her Ghost Pokemon. I kept BlackGlasses on Mawile even after it forgot Crunch, simply because I didn't have any helpful items to make it hold.
Mawile was an interesting Pokemon to use in a solo run, because I've never really showed any interest in it before. Its movepool sucks, even with TMs. It can't learn a Steel move outside of Iron Defence so it gets no STAB at all. Its stats are also pretty bad, but my Pickup slaves were very generous with Rare Candies, which meant I could KO most threats simply by being over-levelled. Overall, the run was pretty fun and I'll probably do another one if I can.
Finished!