Not using all 6 slots

[Turn-it]

Have you ever gone through a region with less than 6 pokemon? It just occurred to me that until unova was discovered, I was always playing and beating the game with 6 pokemon. In white I didn't like this gen of pokemon so I only played with a select few and I ended up beating it with 4 and I think that's including an HM slave. (And I don't mean as a challenge just regular playthrough.)

 

[Sydian]

I've done it, but I don't really like it haha. Long ago, I tried to solo FireRed with a Venusaur, and it got boring so I added 5 random Pokemon to the team just to have 6. I did a duo run in Pearl once, which I did enjoy, but I still wanted more Pokemon. And I did a triple run in Ruby which was okay, but once again, felt like I was missing something. Obviously I only have less than six when it's a part of a challenge, haha. Never on normal playthroughs though.

 

[Jobrjo]

Except when I went solo with my Charizard, no. Why would I limit myself unnessecarily? I prefer not.

 

[Zephele]

The only time I've done this is when I was doing a single Pokemon challenge. Otherwise, I usually fit in 6 Pokemon into my team by the time I reach the end of the game. Even when I've used an HM slave, (as frustrating as it was to do) I just rotated it with another team member if I needed it...

 

[Killjoy]

I often do, yep! I guess I kinda like a spot open just in case I want to add someone else. Usually when I fill up all 6 spots I realize that that those are the Pokémon I'll be using for the rest of the game.

Except with BW where you get so much XP that you can just train more than 6, or switch off whenever you want

 

[Elite Overlord LeSabre™]

No, never. They give us six slots, so I'm going to take advantage of all six of them. Even if it means HMs have to be spread out over my party members... that's why they have Move Deleters after all. It simply wouldn't feel right for me not to use a full team of six.

Even in White I somehow cobbled together a team of six Pokemon, granted three of them did share an Ice weakness which I didn't like but still, it was a full team of six lol

 

[Turn-it]

No, never. They give us six slots, so I'm going to take advantage of all six of them. Even if it means HMs have to be spread out over my party members... that's why they have Move Deleters after all. It simply wouldn't feel right for me not to use a full team of six.

Even in White I somehow cobbled together a team of six Pokemon, granted three of them did share an Ice weakness which I didn't like but still, it was a full team of six lol

To me that's impressive because in the fifth gen, I was so dissatisfied with the pokemon I struggled to find pokemon I liked and I still couldn't fill all slots...

 

[mikey]

Nah, I always use all six slots. I just feel weird if I have slots open... lol.

 

[Ian Watkins]

I never use all six slots for my team, I usually just have five team members.

 

[Kano Shuuya]

I always use 6, and sometimes even then I have a hard time not wishing I could more like 10 of those suckers. XD;

 

[Clark]

I sometimes use less than six, especially when... the game ends up being kind of difficult. The first time I tried to get through Fire Red, for instance I ended up with a severely underlevelled team of six not-so-great Pokemon. So I retsarted and, with a balanced team of three, did just fine. Less Pokemon means more experience per team member. In my experience using three or four Pokemon generally makes the game go a lot smoother without having to stop and grind. The first few times through a region I definitely like to use a full team of six, though. I'd only consider dropping a few slots once I've used lots of the region's Pokemon already.

 

[Turn-it]

I sometimes use less than six, especially when... the game ends up being kind of difficult. The first time I tried to get through Fire Red, for instance I ended up with a severely underlevelled team of six not-so-great Pokemon. So I retsarted and, with a balanced team of three, did just fine. Less Pokemon means more experience per team member. In my experience using three or four Pokemon generally makes the game go a lot smoother without having to stop and grind. The first few times through a region I definitely like to use a full team of six, though. I'd only consider dropping a few slots once I've used lots of the region's Pokemon already.

That's exactly what I did in Unova. My pokemon all hit level 50 I think by the seventh gym leader!

 

[Pumpking]

I always did that, always (until the last 2 years anyway). Just played through with my starter and HM slaves pretty much all the time.

 

[skyluigi2]

I'd find it impossible not to use all six slots.
Most of the time I end up spending ages deciding on which Pokemon to switch in and out of my party...
Sometimes I wish there were more than six slots!

 

[Hikamaru]

I always use all 6 slots cos that way I have more variety.

I don't think I'll ever attempt using less than 6 to make room for an HM Slave.

I will always train less than 6 until I get to a point where there's more Pokemon available.

 

[InfernoHo-Oh]

Unova was the only region I filled all 6 slots intentionally haha.
Normally I use 4 or 5 Pokemon :)

 

[Asuf]

Always finished with six Pokemon, I would make sure I filled in that last slot before taking down the elite four... I did however do a couple of solo runs on ROM's but I grew bored quite quickly.

 

[Yoshikko]

The only time when I've done this intentionally is sorta when I always had one slot open in my team for when I needed my HM Pokémon or my flyer. I suppose that's not quite the same but I did only have 5 teammembers I battled with so yeah.

 

[Brendino]

On pretty much every game I've started, I run with a team of 6. More often than not, though, I really only train 3 or 4 of them, and the others are just filler or HM slaves. Because of this, I look back at some of my first Hall of Fame entries for old games, and see Pokemon I know I've used, and a couple of random Pokemon of a decent level to round out the party.

 

[Jellicent♀]

I do this quite often, actually. I don't necessarily like a full team of six. It just get's a little annoying to have to sit for hours making sure they're all at least strong enough to take on the Elite Four. With one to four Pokemon, I can make sure they're ready super easy.