This will be the longest part. I wanted to get as much of the story elements out of the way as possible, as well as grinding on all trainers available to me, before fighting the gym leaders. I will be picking up my last two party members this part though, and more importantly, renaming Cu. Unfortunately, there's only 5 bug types available to use per game in gen 1 and their remakes, due to Scyther/Pinsir being a version exclusive. The following parts, with the exception of the last few, should be fairly short with that considered though.
Continuing on with my bug monotype run, however, the first thing I did was actually pick up paralyze heals this time, and then pick up the bike ticket. Not only does this mean faster movement, but it's basically a requirement for getting my past two Pokemon as fast as possible. It was a good thing I bought the paralyze heals, as I was immediately paralyzed by the first picnicker on route 9. Below said Picnicker was a TM for Aerial Ace. Everyone in my party could learn it, so I decided to leave it for now and decide later.
Butterfree learnt Gust which I taught over Tackle. Not a particularly great move to learn at this point in the game, but still better for him than Tackle. Route 9 and 10 were pretty trivial, but I used several potions throughout Rock Tunnel mostly due to silly choices I made. I fought every trainer in each area, or at least I believe so in the rock tunnel. Admittedly, I got slightly lost which I have no excuse for with how many iterations I've played of gen 1 and how many times.
After reaching Lavender town, it was finally time for Cu to get an actual name, and I decided to give him one befitting of royalty. Well, he's named after a species of butterfly.
Immediately leaving Lavender town for now, I headed for Celadon, ignoring all the trainers on the way there for now except the one required one, and picked up the tea, then went into the game corner to complete Rocket Hideout. In there, Barry B. learnt Pursuit, which I taught over Poison Sting. Even with STAB in consideration, Poison Sting just isn't very good and isn't worth keeping.
Due to only having 3 Pokemon, grinding early to beat the early objectives and fighting almost every trainer in the game up to this point, I was nearly 10 levels overleveled here, so this whole dungeon was fairly easily, that was until…
Giovanni. And yes, I took the screencap late because I forgot. Giovanni was tricky. Well, his first two mons weren't. They went down with Bullet Seed. His Kangaskhan? That thing hit hard. Both Emperor and Barry B. died to its Mega Punch, and I managed to take it out with Mush just about. Now we have the Silph Scope, it's time to meet with our good old rival again, Buggly, in Lavender Tower.
I forgot to take a screenshot of defeating Buggly, but it was a fairly simple fight. His Charmeleon and Pidgeotto still aren't hitting hard enough to really be a problem. What was a problem, however, was Gyarados. This may be the first Pokemon I've seen so far other than Magnemite where I haven't had a clue how to go about it. His Gyarados took down Barry B, but I don't really need him for Lavender Tower, and Emperor finished him off. I'm definitely going to have to use X items to deal with Gyarados later on though, which is not something I've really had to abuse yet due to how overleveled I am.
Lavender Tower was a fairly simple sweep with Emperor, who learnt Psybeam during that time. I taught it over Confusion. It was about time he learnt a better psychic type move, honestly.
Unfortunately for Cubone's mother, she couldn't stand a chance against Emperor, with her only attacking moves being ground type!
Now, thanks to this item, we have free reigns of mainland Kanto, making me able to pick up my other two mons! Well…
Actually, as it turns out, I had enough money to straight up buy Pinsir from the Game Corner, instead of screwing around in the Safari Zone. Whilst that took away most of my funds, money isn't exactly hard to come by in this game if needs be, and I have a ton more trainers left to fight anyway. I wanted to name her Spike, but Spike isn't much of a girl's name, so Spikette it is.
I immediately taught her Rock Tomb, though it's pretty weak at this point in the game. It was still better than most of her current moveset. With a few more levels and some better moves at her array, Spikette should be the strongest of the bunch. It is also worth noting, however, that he will level up the slowest of all of them.
Now time to deal with Snorlax, head down to Fuschia, and pick up my last Pokemon! Snorlax was not a problem, but before leaving for Fuschia, I decided to pick up a dozen Lemonade from the top of Celadon Dept. Store.
I made my way down the cycling path, fighting a few trainers along the way, Spikette gaining a few levels, but after reaching Fuschia, it was time to catch my final party member
And here she is, with a fairly good nature to boot. Her names not very fitting right now, but should be soon enough.
For now, it's pure grind time. From this point on, I went to grind on every non-gym or Silph Co. trainer in mainland Kanto, with the exception of the trainers I had left to fight in and around Cycling Path, which I'll do when I pick up Fly. I'm not going to talk through all of that, and I'll only post changes that happened during that time:
-Spikette learnt Revenge over Bind
-Mothra learnt Leech Life over Foresight
-Mothra evolved into Venomoth and learnt Gust over Leech Life
-Spikette learnt Brick Break over Revenge
With all of that done, I ended up in Saffron City, picking up the Psychic TM, leading me check my TMs. I taught Psychic to Emperor over Psybeam as Mothra learns it later anyway. In the end, I decided to teach Aerial Ace to Barry B. over Fury Attack. Nothing else in my TM case was worth teaching other than those at those.
I swept through the fighting dojo for more experience. Again, this was fairly trivial as at this point all of my mons were between Lv 34-38, and Aerial Ace in particular made it very easy. I still planned to deal with all of the trainers in Silph Co. before tackling the next Buggly fight.
First thing I did in Silph was pick up the Card Key, and then cleared every room, starting from the lowest floor, one by one. I accidentally taught Slash over dig, when I meant to teach it over Scratch, on Parasect. Oh boy…. This will make Blaine a tad more difficult (though I do have another, superior idea anyway). At least Pinsir learns Earthquake later on, right? Mothra learnt Psybeam over Confusion too.
After beating all of the trainers in Silph Co, I quickly realised I was not in a position to be fighting Buggly yet, due to my decision to let him have Charizard. So for now, I figured I should get Erika out of the way.
After heading back to Celadon, I swept through Erika's gym trainers who at this point were a total joke.
Erika herself, my mons were all nearly 10 levels above her strongest, Vileplume, meaning the entire thing was just a bloodbath. I got Giga Drain though, which I taught to Mush over Bullet Seed. We have half of the badges in our hands, and the next one should be fairly easy too!
TEAM SO FAR
Emperor (Butterfree) ♂ Lv 39
Nature: Rash
Moves:
-Psychic
-PoisonPowder
-SuperSonic
-Gust
Barry B. (Beedrill) ♂ Lv 38
Nature: Quirky
Moves:
-Aerial Ace
-Twineedle
-Brick Break
-Pursuit
Mush (Parasect) ♀ Lv 38
Nature: Gentle
Moves:
-Scratch
-Slash
-Giga Drain
-Spore
Mothra (Venomoth) ♀ Lv 38
Nature: Timid
Moves:
-Psybeam
-Supersonic
-Gust
-PoisonPowder
Spikette (Pinsir) ♀ Lv 39
Nature: Bashful
Moves:
-Vice Grip
-Rock Tomb
-Brick Break
-Seismic Toss
Ch'Ding (Farfetch'd) (HM Slave) ♂ Lv 7
Nature: Adamant
Moves:
-Peck
-Sand-Attack
-Cut