[Challenge] The Lampent Challenge - don't get too attached!

[Eleanor]

This has been a Spotlighted Challenge. Here's how it works.

Spotlight period: September 1^st to November 30^th, 2023

Time to bring back the 2020 Halloween Event as a regular challenge~

The Lampent Challenge

What's this all about? Well, it's a challenge that will make you shuffle your team and catch Pokémon for the entire duration of your run, for their life force will be continuously drained by Lampent, Chandelure and whatever else is coming after it. You'll get to box your starter without even reaching its final stage, you'll get to catch that one Pokémon at the end of the game and make it work, you'll get to work with underleveled companions and still make your way through the hardest battles. That's the goal, at least.

I organized this event after about one month of being promoted Challenges mod, and I'm quite proud of how it turned out and how much people (me included) seemed to enjoy it. Now though, it's about time I revisit the ruleset and create a regular challenge thread for it, so that anyone can play along at their own pace and without random rules ruining their day...

Rules:
🕯️ Every Pokémon you catch can only gain a certain number of levels while in your possession. That's called Level Limit, and it is 10 levels (Normal Mode) or 15 levels (Easy mode).

For example: if you get your level 5 starter, and its level limit is 10, it means you can only use that Pokémon until it reaches level 15. Once it's level 15, you'll have to box it as soon as possible.​

🕯️ Dupes Clause is a thing! You can only catch 1 Pokémon from each evolution family during your run, unlike in the event. This is raised to 3 in Easy Mode.

This makes for more planning, for sure (careful not to catch that Gible in Platinum's Wayward Cave, you may want a Gabite from Victory Road...) and is an incentive to be more creative with your Pokémon teams!​

🕯️ Some technical stuff: no hacking or trading new Pokémon in the game, use that Regional Pokédex to the best of your abilities! Trades are fine if you only use them to evolve your own Pokémon though... like Graveler into Golem and so on. Oh, and please don't exploit glitches to get new Pokémon either, thanks~

🕯️ End points? That would be beating the Elite 4 and Champion of each game (for Johto games, it's ok to just beat Lance for the first time). If you want, though, you can keep playing and see how it goes~

Why Easy and Normal Mode, you may ask? Because each game is different, and some can be harder to work with than others! In some games it can be hard to find Pokémon at a specific level, in others the variety of available Pokémon is not enough. Plus, there may be people who feel heart-broken about not being able to evolve their Starter, or who want a more forgiving first approach, so... here we are! I'll just say this: if you try Easy Mode and enjoy it, please consider trying Normal Mode too!

How to sign up:
I'll need to know...
🕯️ Forum name:
🕯️ Game of choice:
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode:
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any:
And that's about it, really.

Champions:
🕯️ Kostucha - Sapphire
🕯️ Janp - Sapphire
🕯️ Devalue - Scarlet

 

[Eleanor]

Meanwhile, just to reassure you all... I'll sign up myself~
🕯️ Forum name: Eleanor
🕯️ Game of choice: Sword
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal Mode
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: Set Mode

I'll also say that I've already reached Hammerlocke in this save! How did it go? Well...

Eleanor's Galar Adventure, log #1
Sword is quite interesting... there's a huge variety of available Pokémon since the start, but the Exp. All might actually work against me. Add in the dupes clause and that explains why I haven't been catching that many Pokémon! Honestly, I just started Sword because I could still play on my Switch, but I have to admit I'm pretty curious to see how this challenge works on different games, like Platinum, Black and White, or even Alola games...

For the record, I picked the girl and named my character Isabel (taken from a list of names I had laying around for years and originally made for my fangame that never was). Gave her blue hair the first chance I got ^^'

I started things off with Grookey (a tribute to my fellow Challenges mod, Janp) and added in a small lv. 7 Skwovet that could get me through Route 1 and 2. No problems there, really. When I got to the wild Area though, I started looking for replacements already, and found three Level 15 Pokémon. Conveniently, that's when I have to box my Grookey too! They were Oddish, Hoothoot and Mudbray, and they really went to town with... most of the trainers up to Turffield. Even Bede didn't really stand a chance.
Oddish swept Milo thanks to the Dynamax Poison move and that was the first badge. Didn't even need to evolve him~

Team vs Milo: Hoothoot, lv. 15→19, Oddish, lv. 15→20, Mudbray, lv. 15→19
(for reference, the first level is the one at which I caught these Pokémon!)

Oh, for the record, I decided not to catch any Pokémon from Dynamax Raids, since their level tends to be higher than most Pokémon, and I've also avoided most of the high-level Pokémon roaming the Wild Area.

Second Gym came right around the corner but I had to eventually replace my Gloom and my Noctowl, who were close to level 25. I probably went overkill with their replacements and got myself a Raichu and a Shiftry (yes, fully evolved, there's stones in the wild area), then I taught them a lot of reminder moves (kind of OP without the need to get Heart Scales, uh?) and swept Nessa without the need to Dynamax my Pokémon at all. Oops...

Team vs Nessa: Shiftry, lv. 16→22, Raichu, lv. 16→21, Mudbray, lv. 15→23, Arrokuda, lv. 23→23

With Mudbray boxed soon after this, I added a Bunnelby from the Wild Areas and a Sudowoodo from Motostoke Outskirts to my team. They were both quite high level but, as I predicted, it was my newly evolved Barraskewda who would put in most of the work against Kabu (Dynamax Water moves making it rain is very good in this gym hehe). Diggersby, well... I learned my lesson, without Huge Power, he's pretty underwhelming. Just strong enough to do some nice damage against Kabu's Gym Trainers and Marnie's Pokémon, though. Speaking of Marnie, I added another Wild Area encounter to my team just for her, a Cutiefly, but... I think she'll be useful against the next Gym regardless, so why not~
Oh, obviously, before Kabu, Shiftry and Raichu had to go as well.

Team vs. Kabu: Barraskewda, lv. 23→27, Diggersby, lv. 28→29, Ribombee, lv. 27→30, Sudowoodo, lv. 27→27, Sizzlipede, lv. 25→25

Oh yeah, that Sizzlipede ended up in my team because I decided to catch it during the Gym Trial. Now she's a powerful Centiskorch ready to do all she can before she gets inevitably boxed ♥

 

[budube]

🕯️ Forum name: Cubeth
🕯️ Game of choice: Sapphire, been meaning to play that a while back.
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: Set Mode, not repeating types until the pokemon of said type reaches the level cap... I will probably regret that last one

 

[Janp]

🕯️ Forum name: Janp
🕯️ Game of choice: Sapphire
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: If a Pokémon faints, its level limit will decrease by 1, SET mode

 

[Eleanor]

Eleanor's Galar Adventure, log #2

Second update coming in! I have to admit I skipped over most of the trainers on Route 6 and Glimwood Tangle, deciding to focus on farming items from Dynamax Raids instead. I got to Stow-on-side pretty quickly and got myself some new team members right before the fight with Bea, then beat Hop easily enough with said members and made it all the way to the Gym Leader. As I predicted, Ribombee made short work of nearly all the Pokémon inside the gym... she just happened to go down to G-Max Machamp's hits. What I remember clearly about the fight was how I got Barraskewda in for her last moment of glory, dodged a G-Max move with Dive and ended the fight right after!

The new members? Oh, they're just a Runerigus and a Heliolisk, both caught on Route 6 with levels somewhere around 30. I just had to replace Diggersby even if he was not even close to his level limit, sorry not sorry...

Team vs Bea: Ribombee, lv. 27→35, Centiskorch, lv. 25→33, Barraskewda, lv. 23→32, Sudowoodo, lv. 27→33, Heliolisk, lv. 29→33, Runerigus, lv. 32→33

So, as you can tell, we have already three Pokémon due for replacement. Plus, even Sudowoodo isn't that useful right now because of that terrible speed stat... the replacements came as soon as the Gym let me catch higher level Pokémon - Bronzor in the wild area, Shiinotic (Lulu!) in Glimwood Tangle, and then two more wild area encounters, a Ninjask and a Hugsire! I've already used Bronzong and Shiinotic in my previous Sword challenge (2021 Valentine's day) but I'd never used a Ninjask ever, so I'm happy I got the chance.

I made a rather big mistake by feeding my Bronzor way too many Exp Candies than it needed to level up once (so that it would evolve) and went straight to level 38 but, at least, that made Opal a piece of cake (literally, her G-Max Alcremie is basically that) and allowed me to progress all the way to Circhester. That's where the next clothing shop is, so it's very important.

Team vs Opal: Bronzong, lv. 33→39, Runerigus, lv. 32→38, Quagsire, lv. 30→35, Shiinotic, lv. 34→36, Ninjask, lv. 30→33, Heliolisk, lv. 29→36

By the time I made it to Circhester, I found myself with nearly the whole team in need of a replacement. After beating a bunch of trainers I had to say goodbye to Heliolisk, Runerigus and Hugsire (in this order) and that meant trying to find some replacements in the areas around Circhester - or the wild area, but that turned out to be pretty useless at this point. Shiinotic and Bronzong ended up being the only Pokémon I was able to keep using against Gordie, but luckily, I was able to nab just the perfect Pokémon to counter his Coalossal: a Gastrodon! If you remember the 2020 Halloween event, you'll know that I used two of them in my run, and while I won't be allowed to do it again, you bet I'll take at least one! It already comes with Earth Power and Muddy Water, too! As for Heliolisk's replacement, well... this is going to be fun. At level 40, this girl has 18 Speed :)

Team vs Gordie: Bronzong, lv. 33→42, Falinks, lv. 40→42, Gastrodon, lv. 41→42, Shiinotic, lv. 34→41, Hippowdon, lv. 38→39, Pincurchin, lv. 39→40

This is where I stopped playing for now. But this is also where I'm granted the ability to... surf on my bike. That's a lot of new potential Pokémon to catch! We'll see what happens~

 

[budube]

Cuber plays Hoenn, but it's only the water part and not the weather war, part 1:

I'm not gonna waste time telling how the story starts, everyone knows how Hoenn games begin. The only thing you have to know is that I chose Mudkip as my starter. Water Type, Lvl. 5 and didn't really add any pokémon until I reached Petalburg Woods, where I caught a Shroomish Grass Type, Lvl. 5, which was completely unnecesary because I forgot how horribly easy Sapphire and Ruby were compared to Emerald and I'm used to playing the last one.

Team against Roxanne: Mudkip (KIP) Lvl. 5 -> Lvl. 14, Shroomish (MISH) Lvl. 5 -> Lvl. 13

I haven't boxed any pokémon yet, but I will most likely have to box KIP before reaching Dewford, either because of the dupe type clause (might as well get a Wingull for Brawly) or because it will reach Lvl. 15 soon. In any case, KIP did really good for his only segment, he soloed Roxanne, but it's to be expected from the best starter in Hoenn :femme2:

I also have to make some big decisions next segment, Brawly is gonna be tough.

 

[Eleanor]

Eleanor's Galar Adventure, log #3

After thinking over it a bit too much probably, I went straight into Spikemuth and dealt with Piers with most of the Pokémon I already had. The only new addition I got was a Mantine for Piers's Scrafty (Air Slash!) and that's really it. Ended up letting Mantine get KO'd and finishing every other Pokémon with Falinks, including Skuntank, maybe the Pokémon that scared me the most in his team (I had Gastrodon anyways). Oh, by the way... Pincurchin? I think I used her against Hop's Corviknight and Inteleon but that's about it.

Team vs Piers: Mantine, lv. 39→42, Hippowdon, lv. 38→42, Gastrodon, lv. 41→46, Pincurchin, lv. 39→44, Falinks, lv. 40→47

I once again spent some time in the wild area for no real reason, but I did get a Hattrem there, and that definitely made my life easier against some of Raihan's Gym Trainers. But as for the leader himself, you know who really helped? The Avalugg I got myself from just outside Spikemuth! And of course, Gastrodon - she and Falinks took down Duraludon without the need to Dynamax!

Team vs Raihan: Avalugg, lv. 44→47, Gastrodon, lv. 41→49, Hatterene, lv. 44→45, Hippowdon, lv. 38→44, Dhelmise, lv. 42→44, Falinks, lv. 40→49

Oh, props to Dhelmise for being surprisingly useful against many Route 10 Trainers. I've stopped right around there, checking the Lake of Outrage two days in a row now and trying to get new Pokémon for when I have to, you know, complete the game... but I'll say it now, it shouldn't be too hard. High level Pokémon are maybe too easy to come across in this game ^^'

 

[Eleanor]

Eleanor's Galar Adventure, log #4

Oh, this is where things get difficult. I started off the Tournament eventually, trying to use a team that would carry me all the way to Leon, and during this process I got myself a Noivern, a Galvantula, a Corviknight and a Golurk from the lake of Outrage. This proves once again that it's probably way too easy to get high level Pokémon in this game...

it's also true that this doesn't necessarily save you! I got through the tournament alright, and since most of the opponents are specialized in a single type, it's easy enough to get through them with a single Pokémon doing most of the work. The problems started with Oleana, who proved to be very tough and with an ace Pokémon I had no real answer to (except Golurk, but I was careless and didn't preserve its health...) but luckily, the rest of the tournament was fine.

I eventually made it past Rose too once he started the Darkest Day, but wow was it difficult! My team was not well equipped against Steel-types, and by the end of the battle I was left with just Corviknight on red health! I'm not even sure how that was possible, really. During this process, I boxed Hatterene and Avalugg, sadly...

Now, Leon. Oh my goodness...

It turns out all Pokémon in the Wild Area become level 60 after you beat Rose - that I actually didn't know, since in my previous run I did everything back to back. But now, I was able to get more Pokémon to help me out! Not before getting totally destroyed by Leon, though. My original team going into this was Abomasnow, Noivern, Galvantula, Chandelure, Golurk and Weavile but even with as much luck and predictions as I could get, I could not get past Charizard. Well, it should be obvious why, that team has a very large weakness to fire! And so, that sent me back to the drawing board. Some more Dynamax Raids, and I tried again.

Golurk dealt with Aegislash, but only with the help of a Soft Sand - that was enough to KO the enemy in one hit despite the Shield form. Seismitoad came in and Maractus took it down, before switching out against Cinderace. I brought in what is probably the savior of this run, Coalossal, and eventually defeated Cinderace, then switched out against Haxorus and had Noivern deal some damage and use Tailwind. This way, Weavile could clean up and even go first against Dragapult, hitting it with a Fling - throwing a Rare Bone to secure the KO because no, I can't teach Weavile Night Slash yet. I dealt with Charizard using another new catch, a Rotom-Wash, but Coalossal was still in the back just in case.

Now I'll give you the team recap...

Team vs Leon: Rotom, lv. 55→59, Coalossal, lv. 50→59, Golurk, lv. 56→64, Maractus, lv. 60→61, Noivern, lv. 55→62, Weavile, lv. 47→58

Notice anything strange? It appears I just overlooked one detail, and while catching Pokémon or getting more exp in general, Weavile definitely got more levels than it should've. Also my fault for not really caring about the level limit anymore, since most of my Pokémon were from the Wild Area... but Weavile was from Route 10. But now the game saved! I can't retry without Weavile!

Honestly, I don't think the battle would've gone that differently with Weavile at level 56 - I had Tailwind up and I gave it Fling to make sure it would work. But is that really honorable enough for Challenges? It's really up to you to decide if I completed that challenge or not.

Oh, and just in case, I'm starting another run with these rules. Time to fire up my White cartridge and see how that goes - having nothing but Unova Pokémon with this kind of ruleset will definitely be a hell of a ride ♥



In the meantime, Isabel says hi

 

[Sheep]

🕯️ Forum name: Sheep
🕯️ Game of choice: LeafGreen (getting too nostalgic for FRLG ;__;)
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: N/A

Exciting!!

 

[Eleanor]

Eleanor's Unova Adventure, log #1
Oh well...
🕯️ Forum name: Eleanor
🕯️ Game of choice: White
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal Mode
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: Set Mode

It was kind of unplanned, to be fair, but I was very curious to see how feasible this challenge was on all sorts of games... and I happened to have my White cartridge all clean and ready to go for another run, so here I am! I enlisted the help of Isabel's friend Irene (I'm just going with names that start with I hehe) and made it through all the dialogues the game has to offer, until I could get my first Pokémon!

I wasn't sure who to choose, but I went with what, at least in my opinion, would evolve into hardest Pokémon to face in a battle... and that is Oshawott! This meant that Cheren would get Snivy and Belle would get Tepig. Just like when I first started that game back in 2011 or so... aw, the memories! I did not catch any friend for my female Oshawott Dakota is that you? because I have a feeling that both Watchog and Stoutland can be obtained sometime later in the game... and that meant facing N's Purrloin all by herself. That wasn't too hard, luckily, because I got her to level 7 beforehand and let her learn Water Gun.

That wouldn't fly against the first Gym Leader, though, and so I quickly got to the Dream Yard and obtained a gift Pansear. With just those two Pokémon though (Oshawott dealing with the first Lillipup and Pansear taking out Pansage), I was able to conquer my first Gym badge! A similar fate to what Cheren and his Snivy went through, whereas Bianca was handled by Oshawott alone.

Team vs Cilan: Oshawott, lv. 5→13, Pansear, lv. 10→12

At this point, I went back inside the Dream Yard to look for Munna, dealt with Team Plasma, and... caught a Munna of my own. I looked up where it can be found and this is the only place in the game, so I may as well! This adds a nice, new member to the team... right before it turns back into a duo when Oshawott reaches her level limit on Route 3. Sad.

At this point, I'm not keen on catching more Pokémon at all, perhaps still too scared of not having enough options later on. Luckily, I can solve most of my problems by catching just one. I speedrun Route 3, nearly risking a total wipeout when I battled the last person on the route with basically all of my Pokémon already on red health. Not sure how, but I still won without using items in battle.

I quickly moved past Nacrene and into Pinwheel Forest, looking far and wide in the Dark Grass on the outside area for my next catch. And wow, was it hard to catch! I had to waste something like 10 Great balls, and on the second attempt (first one resulted in a team whiteout of all things) I was able to get myself a Throh! Seeing as the upcoming Gym Leader is Lenora, a well-known obstacle for many runs, I felt like I had to make this investment - all while saving Timburr for later. I can safely say it was worth it though!

I battled Lenora three times, because for some reason my game froze after my first two fights and didn't let me save. At least, nothing was corrupted and I could try again! Throh, equipped with a Chesto Berry to protect himself from Watchog's Hypnosis, made short work of Lenora all the three times (with the help, or rather sacrifice, of my other team members taking the Intimidate and powered-up Retaliate).

Team vs Lenora: Munna, lv. 10→18, Pansear, lv. 10→15, Throh, lv. 17→18

I dealt with Team Plasma in the forest, trying to skip encounters and trainers (nearly everything I can find here is catchable in Lostlorn forest) and skipped past the whole Castelia City too: my next objective was, in fact, Route 4's Darumaka! With that new catch essentially replacing my Pansear, who is way too close to the cap to be that useful against Burgh, I was ready to fight for my third badge! And... yeah, it arrived more easily than expected.

Munna, who was still level 19, got a nice Psybeam hit against the leader's Whirlipede before going down - a glorious finale for her short adventure. I sent in Throh against Dwebble, and he took it down rather easily with the newly learned Revenge. Now up against Leavanny with nothing but Fighting-type moves, I tried a different strategy - just for fun - before eventually swapping in Pansear or Darumaka. And so, I clicked Bide. It ended up working perfectly, as Leavanny kept attacking with Razor Leaf and dealt just enough damage for Bide to KO it in just one hit right after. Very satisfying, I laughed for a good while when it happened!

Team vs Burgh: Munna, lv. 10→19, Pansear, lv. 10→18, Throh, lv. 17→23, Darumaka, lv. 16→19

As of now? I've just gone back to Pinwheel Forest and got myself a Sewaddle, because I have the feeling it may be useful in the desert, and have already evolved it into a Swadloon while on my hunt for the Exp. Share (lots of trainers over there, including someone with three Basculin that gave Sewaddle so much experience). Not sure what my plans will be next, as I'm really not looking forward to Elesa and her Acrobatics strats - I may as well get an Emolga while we're at it - but, I can only keep going! Bianca and Komor are next up on my list of trainer battles, too.

 

[Sheep]

Sheep in Kanto!! pt 1

Picked Squirtle as my starter, even if he'll only be around temporarily. The battle with rival GARY went well - though he was dangerously close to beating me because of crit luck! In the end I took the victory and pressed on to Viridian Forest.

Going through the forest, with the level restrictions, I had to be careful with who I battled. Avoided as many trainers as I could to keep Squirtle around lv. 11 when I exited. Immediately went to heal and ran into Brock's gym, without even battling the first trainer. :') Sorry, I have a level cap to maintain! Fortunately Brock himself is 4x weak to water so taking him down was no issue. Squirtle got from lv. 11-13 in this battle.

Before going on to the cave I looked around for a Caterpie that was as high level as I could find. After at least 10 minutes of running around I couldn't find anything over lv. 5, so I picked one up at that level and slowly (and very painfully) trained it up to lv. 10. Squirtle would've definitely overleveled by the time I hit the Pokémon Center before Cerulean Cave, so I needed something to help me get through these trainers. Butterfree is cute and I missed using it, so why not! With Confusion I went through some of them, making sure to avoid a few along the way as to not overlevel. Squirtle helped out a little bit and was lv. 14 at this point too. After healing, I went into the cave and - again - had to be choosy with which trainers I battled. But in the end I exited the cave with the following team:

Squirtle lv. 5 -> lv. 14
Butterfree lv. 5 -> lv. 14

You can easily see I'm not ready for the next rival battle yet. Tried just to see, but he whooped my butt easily lol. Currently raising another team of mons I got here that I really, really hope will help me get through him and Misty.

Badges: 1

 

[Aslan]

Yay this sounds fun, I'll give this a go :D

🕯️Forum name: Aslan
🕯️Game of choice: Pokemon Y
🕯️Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal
🕯️Optional Rules, if any: Set Mode

 

[Ettenmoor]

I probably won't get to this for a little while since I'm currently doing a different nuzlocke that I'm recording for youtube, but this sounds interesting, so I'd like to do it at some point.

🕯️ Forum name: InsaneBlathers
🕯️ Game of choice: Leafgreen
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: Nuzlocke rules + Litwitck stays on my team the whole time but I'm not allowed to use it, essentially limiting the team size to 5.

 

[Kostucha]

🕯️ Forum name: Kostucha
🕯️ Game of choice: Sapphire
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: Set Mode

Looks like this one will require some planning

 

[Aslan]

Pokemon Y - Update 1

So I was able to start on this yesterday! I haven't played Pokemon Y in years so.. feels like I'm experiencing the game for the first time all over again. Having a lot of fun with it so far :D

• Started the game and called my character Sophie
• Since I could only use the starter until they hit Lvl 15, I decided to pick the starter that was best for the first gym and chose Fennekin (Lvl 5)
• Nicknamed my Fennekin 'Sylvester'
• Defeated the rival's Chespin without an issue and proceeded onwards
• Caught a Panpour (Lvl 4) in the forest which I nicknamed 'Momo'
• Caught a Bidoof (Lvl 3) as a potential HM slave and nicknamed it 'Bobby'
• Skipped a few of the fightable trainers as I was afraid of overleveling Fennekin
• Defeated the girl at the front of the 1st gym to get some rollerskates
• Spent the next 10 minutes skating around because I forgot rollerskating was in these games and it was exciting
• Entered the gym, hadn't found the time to train the other two
• Defeated the gym leader without issue due to Fennekin's Ember! By the end of it, Fennekin was Level 14
• Received the EXP share, luckily there was a toggle so I switched it off immediately
• Decided to start preparing for the next gym and caught a Level 8 Budew which I nicknamed 'Rosie', had the chance to train 'Rosie' and some of the other members of my party a bit before saving!

Badges: 1

Level changes:

• Fennekin: 5 --> 14
• Panpour: 4 --> 7
• Bidoof: 3 --> 4
• Budew: 8 --> 9
  

 

[Ettenmoor]

Litwick moment

 

[_confused_piplup_]

Forum name: _confused_piplup_
Game of choice: Pokémon Diamond
Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal

Ok, so basically I started today but I m pretty sure I'll give up because of lack of time and will lol. It's quite a crazy mode on diamond tbh. I narrate u my adventure so far. My starter was obviously piplup and i got it to level 15 to beat the 1st gym leader. I didn't catch any other pokemon because of the restriction rule. I mean, in pokemon diamond there are quite few pokemon, if u consider u can't catch them more than twice. Also, u gotta spare the good ones for the League because at the end there's Cynthia...
So, i could get my 1st medal, i had to catch a bidoof as a MN slave and i also caught zubat because it's a veeeeery strong pokemon for a 4th gen run. My last run on Platinum was so successful thanks to crobat, basically. It's a good pokemon for the 2nd gym too. But here it comes the real NIGHTMARE. Zubat comes with two moves: leech life and supersonic. You can't do much with those moves, because they're not strong, because zubat wasn't so bulky and last but not least, enemies just spam roar, making leech life even worse. So, i had to go back to the first route and it took really much much much time to gain two levels with zubat. At level 9 it learns astonish, but guess what? Many of the pokemon that u find at that point of the game are normal type, so it was useless. I had to avoid some trainers because my zubat level 11-12 still couldn't beat a level 6-7 starly. The struggle was real. However, it was such a good pokemon for the 2nd gym that I couldn't give up. The worst part of my game was against Mars. She has a zubat and a purugly, which is really really really strong. I couldn't do much with my zubat and bidoof. So I caught a buitzel and i had to level it up almost to the maximum. I could finally beat Mars and my zubat was at level 16. I had to put it into the box to use it later. The next part wasn't too hard, if not the fact that my buitzle got it 10 levels, so i had to box it. I basically had no more useful pokemon on my team and i couldn't use zubat, otherwise It could have reached level 17 and i couldn't have used it for the 2nd gym. I caught a pachirisu, a ponyta that could have been useful and a meditite for the third gym. I had to level up pachiarisu to beat the girls in the second gym before the gym leader and that was quite painful as well because despite pachirisu is found at level 11 it only has quick attack as a good move and the pokemon u find in those places are quite hard to defeat. after finally getting to level 13, it learns spark and leveling up a bit more i manage to get to the gym leader and that's the time when i use my zubat. My strategy worked perfectly and with some potions and some sacrifices (pachirisu sorry lol) I could get the 2nd medal. I had to box zubat and i went on. Thanks to pachirisu, meditate and bidoof I could defeat Jupiter. That's quite a funny story. Jupiter was basically defeating me and my i didn't really level up my bidoof. I just have it for MN, so it was still level 9. Jupiter kinda destroyed all of my team but i was about to defeat her. She only had Skuntank in the red. So bidoof was my last pokemon and idk how but after 4 times using rock smash he managed to defeat Skuntank and got to level 11 or 12. That happened because of skuntak having two non attacking moves and maybe some luck. And here I stopped.

Current Team: Pachiarisu, Meditite, Ponyta, Bidoof

Boxed Pokemon: Piplup (<3), Buitzel, Zubat.

EDIT: I messed this up lol. I misread a rule. I thought I could catch a pokemon twice in normal mode. My run would still be good for the easy mode, but it's kinda meaningless. Really cool challenge tho

 

[Kostucha]

The Lampent Challenge in Sapphire - Challenge Complete

Usually there were some useful pokemon around each gym, so it was just a matter of catching pokemon at highest level possible and training them up. Had a bit of a rough time against Champion, because I was afraid of overleveling my team and went a bit underprepared.

Pokemon used:

Spoiler:

Mudkip lv. 5-15 ---------- (Roxanne)
Taillow lv. 8-18 ----------- (Brawly)
Dustox lv. 6-15 ----------- (Brawly)
Geodude lv. 8-18 -------- (Wattson)
Makuhita lv. 11-21 ------ (Wattson)
Roselia lv. 13-23 --------- (Team Aqua segment)
Azumarill lv. 13-23 ------ (Team Aqua segment)
Torkoal lv. 16-19 --------- (Team Aqua segment)
Numel lv. 22-27 ---------- (Flannery)
Machoke lv. 22-31 ------- (Norman)
Skarmory lv. 16-26 ------ (Norman)
Magneton lv. 26-36 ----- (Winona)
Lunatone lv. 33-43 ------ (Winona)
Bellossom lv. 31-40 ----- (Wallace)
Dodrio lv. 29-31 ---------- (Team Aqua stuff)
Wailord lv. 43-49 --------- (Tate & Liza - End)
Crobat lv. 44-51 ---------- (League)
Aggron lv. 44-49 --------- (League)
Medicham lv. 44-53 ---- (League)
Sableye lv. 44-50 -------- (League)

Hall of Fame:

Spoiler:

That was a fun, let's try this in another game

🕯️ Forum name: Kostucha
🕯️ Game of choice: Platinum
🕯️ Easy Mode or Normal mode: Normal Mode
🕯️ Optional Rules, if any: Set mode

 

[Eleanor]

Eleanor's Unova Adventure, log #2

It's been a long time since my last update but all I got to show you is one more badge. Well... oops!
At least it's a nice badge, one I was quite scared of: Elesa and her double Emolga strategies. I'm not sure if I played this that well but hey, I have four badges now, and a considerable area of Unova opens up to me now.

Cheren and Bianca on Route 4 were easy enough with Swadloon by my side, but with Munna and (eventually) Pansear out of my team due to the level limit, I had to find some new members. Of course, the new areas that were unlocked provided me with said new encounters... I perhaps got even too many, but it shouldn't be too bad. I walked into Ninbasa gym with a new Sigilyph and Maractus (Desert Resort exclusives, I won't be able to get them again), a Whirlipede and a Petilil (Lostlorn forest encounters), and perhaps the most important encounters of them all - Liepard (Route 5) and Audino (Route 5 shaking spots). Those two are Pokémon I can find again, yes, but I'd rather use them up now for Elesa. Case in point... they surely did well thanks to their fully-evolved-Pokémon stats!

Whereas Elesa's fight was, as predicted, very reliant on just... bulk and raw stats, with Audino tanking hits for a while, using Secret Power to fish for paralysis, and actually getting Elesa to use her potions - and then Liepard and Whirlipede (with Eviolite) to finish off Zebstrika, N's fight... oh, that was way more chaotic. I admittedly did some bad choices but ended up with just one or two standing Pokémon - and once again I had to use Throh's Bide to deal with N's own Sigilyph. Glad that worked... ^^'

Team vs Elesa: Audino, lv. 21→27, Throh, lv. 17→25, Whirlipede, lv. 21→24, Maractus, lv. 20→21, Sigilyph, lv. 20→20, Liepard, lv. 25→25

In the box: Petilil, lv. 22→22, Swadloon, lv. 16→24, Darumaka, lv. 18→21

 

[Duck]

So, I guess I'm thinking of doing a run right now of Let's Go Pikachu - the only reason I haven't signed up proper is because of some doubts regarding the mechanics in LGP/E which makes you catch Pokémon to grind, and you need to get chain captures to find rare encounters.

I was planning on treating Pokemon caught for those purposes as just filler and not count towards the quota if I don't use them in battles and box them immediately, since I'd be able to just train / find them normally in other games. Would that be allowed?