[Challenge] The Monotype Challenge v8, Tera Edition

[Explorer of Time]

Can everyone see the team stats spread in the spoiler tag? The forum freaked out there a minute.

I can see them, yes.

 

[Kostucha]

Pokemon Platinum Game Mastery - Electric

Oh would you look at that, more progress on that nearly a year after. Hopefully I can finish a couple more of those before I move on to other things again 😁

Overall it was a fun little run. In hindsight I should've gotten Jolteon for the faster E4 threats, namely Gliscor and Garchomp, but I pulled through with some excessive healing on the latter.

Spoiler: Hall of Fame

Spoiler: Team

Pikachu, Calm, Static, lv.59, @ Miracle Seed
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Grass Knot
- Nasty Plot

Pikachu, Careful, Intimidate, lv.58, @ BlackGlasses
- Spark
- Return
- Crunch
- Swagger

Pikachu, Calm, Magnet Pull, lv.58, @ Magnet
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave
- Tri Attack
- Flash Cannon

Pikachu, Adamant, Motor Drive, lv.59, @ Soft Sand
- ThunderPunch
- Earthquake
- Brick Break
- Fire Punch

 

[StenirRPG]

Yup, can see the stat spread. I've noticed sometimes it take a bit before it loads images. Mine are hosted externally on imgbb, so that might be why mine do that sometimes, but I can see the values.

I hope I didn't cause a trend of "Spreadsheet Screenshot"! :D

Congrats, EoT!

Additional thought a couple hours later so edited it...going nuts training up for Gen 2 E4...have we ever thought about something like a Monotype Challenge discord for this thread? I'd love to chat and bounce ideas off each other as we work through runs without necessarily filling this thread up with insane levels of chatter. Unless that's a no-no, but you never know what you might miss.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Additional thought a couple hours later so edited it...going nuts training up for Gen 2 E4...have we ever thought about something like a Monotype Challenge discord for this thread? I'd love to chat and bounce ideas off each other as we work through runs without necessarily filling this thread up with insane levels of chatter. Unless that's a no-no, but you never know what you might miss.

I'd personally rather keep things on the forum, though it doesn't need to be on this thread specifically. If you're interested, I can create a separate thread for discussion of Monotype Challenge stuff that you don't want to post in here, and it'd be completely fine to put "insane levels of chatter" there.

Part of the issue is that I don't like Discord as a platform, even though it isn't the absolute worst corporate social media network. I'm typically a very slow writer, and the fundamental design of Discord makes it very difficult for me to carry on conversations there, since slower writers get constantly drowned out by faster ones and referencing anything but the absolute newest posts gets very difficult very quickly.

The other part of the issue is that moderating a Discord server would be significantly more difficult than moderating a forum. Discord is a frequent target for scammers, hackers, and other criminals in a way that PokeCommunity isn't, and I do not have the technical expertise necessary to protect users from them on my own.

 

[StenirRPG]

All valid points. I could also be thinking worst case about the whole "insane levels of chatter". I was thinking about it because I was very stuck on Will's Jynx, then on Karen's Houndoom, then on Lance's Charizard. I'll be doing a writeup complaining about all that within the next day, but I keep feeling like I was missing something. Just didn't want to go all "here's what my team looks like, what are my options".

I did luck out and eek out a victory, but it was dang close. Of course, Gen 2 gonna be Gen 2, right?

It may just be me who might find that beneficial, so I wouldn't worry about any further thoughts on it at this point. Thank you for entertaining the idea.

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Grass Run
Gold / FIRST AND FINAL / My Name's Arbor and I'm Kenough

In this post (i.e., TL;DR)

Spoiler:

1.) Planning Ahead
2.) Gym 1
3.) Gym 2
4.) Gym 3
5.) Gyms 4 through 7
6.) Gym 8
7.) Endgame

The full read:

Spoiler:

Gen 2 is a slightly more relaxed start to the game, but if you look at my times below from Gym 8 to Endgame, it's ridiculous. I spent about a third of my time playing Gen 2 just trying to train up for the Elite Four. Basically, the game is not kind at the end because of three Pokemon: Will's Jynx (fast and spams Ice Punch), Karen's Houndoom (which spam's Flamethrower), and Lance's Charizard (which does the same).

One note - Leaf Stones are not available until postgame (thx Gen 2), so while the rules do allow me to hack them in, I told myself if it wouldn't be possible before postgame then I wouldn't do it. That is, if Chikorita needed a Leaf Stone to evolve, I wouldn't evolve it; a Gen 1 Pokemon that could theoretically be sent back to Gen 1 and get a Leaf Stone evolve there (Weepinbell and Exeggcute in my case) would be allowed. So, when you see me talk about Exeggutor or Victreebel at the end, just knows that's what I ended up doing.

-- Planning Ahead --
Before I start, I look at the various team members I get throughout the run (listed here as their final versions): Chikorita (Meganium), Bellsprout (Victreebel), Hoppip (Jumpluff), Oddish x2 (Bellossom and Vileplume), Paras (Parasect), Exeggcute (Exeggutor), Sunkern (Sunflora), and Tangela.

For the first gym, I can have Chikorita and Bellsprout. I get Hoppip, Paras, and Oddish before Gym 2 (you can get into Ilex Forest, if you didn't know, as long as you don't complete the Rocket stuff in the well - the rival doesn't show up then). Exeggcute can be picked up in Ilex Forest, Sunkern in National Park, and Tangela all the way in Route 44.

Based on that, Tangela arrives just way too late to be of any use. Victreebel is a good physical attacker, Bellossom > Sunflora in my opinion, so I basically excluded Vileplume, Sunflora, and Tangela. That leaves me with my chosen team of

- Chikorita/Meganium
- Bellsprout/Victreebel
- Hoppip/Jumpluff
- Oddish/Bellossom
- Paras/Parasect
- Exeggcute/Exeggutor

Good to plan ahead, and thankfully they all show up before Gym 3.

-- Gym 1 --
Welcome to Gust = Flying, because I get hit a lot with it. I tried Faulkner with Chikorita and Bellsprout, and lose. So, I was close enough to evolving, so I choose to go ahead and evolve to Bayleef, and this gives me enough bulk to make it through.

-- Gym 2 --
I pick up Hoppip on the way to the next gym, and train it up quite a bit before pushing through the cave. It's definitely my fastest 'mon, but it doesn't get much in the way of attacking. By the end of the game, I'll end up using it solely to apply statuses through Leech Seed and Poison Powder. A decently effective combo.

I head into Ilex Forest and pick up Oddish and Paras, then complete the Rockets In The Well segment of their plotline. Then, Bugsy. Which Sucksy. I had to go train for a small bit of time to be able to make it through that Scyther, but with some luck on Stun Spore and Sleep Powder, I make it through. Helps that Hoppip evolved to Skiploom already, too.

-- Gym 3 --
Oddish evolves to Gloom, and I pick up a Sun Stone in the National Park Bug Catching Event. I also pick up Dig and teach it to Paras. A good backup for Gym 4 if needed.

Gym 3 was relatively easy, even with Rollout Miltank. Since it's Gen 2, I'm fighting every trainer no matter how lame their team might be, just for the extra experience. Got stay ahead of that horrible end game level curve. More on that later.

-- Gyms 4 through 7 --
This section always feel condensed. Exeggcute with Confusion basically is how I get through Morty. Spamming Grass moves is how I get through Chuck. Leech Seed and Sleep tactics are how I get through Jasmine. As for Pryce, well, that was just easy even though he's Ice. All three of his Pokemon are easily defeatable by Grass (one is Water, another is Water/Ice, and the final is Ice/Ground, so super easy to just spam best Grass moves until win).

I pulled a dumb and ran back to do the end of the Rocket plotline before Gym 7, only to remember Elm lets you know it's time to do that AFTER completing the Gym and leaving. So, had to head all the way back...and it was at this point, I realized...I didn't have the Fly HM. Oh well, I'll just run around.

-- Gym 8 --
I honestly expected way more trouble with this. Turns out it's just another "do as much damage as possible, but watch out for that random Ice Beam Dragonair"...and then Grass attack the Kingdra. At this point, I'm getting into the habit of Jumpluff out first, use Leech Seed, use Poison Powder, Headbutt, use Synthesis as needed. Once Jumpluff goes down, it's all about move spam. There's not much I can do or plan around at this point, really.

-- Endgame --
Okay, so, I complete Gym 8 just under 28 hours, and I complete the game just under 42. That's literally a third of my playing time just focused on the Elite 4 and Champion. Let's knock out two of the four quite easily. Koga is easily taken down by Exeggutor spamming Confusion. Bruno is the same.

Like I mentioned earlier, Jynx is my first problem, which only manages to consistently go down after Parasect learns Slash. At that point, Jynx using Ice Punch isn't enough to knock out Parasect, so I can get off Spore and then heal up and start using Slash. Before then, everything was basically getting OHKO'd by Ice Punch.

The next problem is Karen's Houndoom. Jumpluff is faster, but my first few attempts don't make it past. I ended up cheesing it a little by hitting it with Leech Seed, letting it KO Jumpluff, reviving Jumpluff, switching when I go down to Flamethrower, and using Poison Powder. No guarantee both will hit, so I had to try it a few times. I finally make it past when both Leech Seed and Poison are on Houndoom, which allows me to switch over to Meganium to stall it out (only 'mon I have that has the bulk to survive Flamethrower...though a crit does OHKO so that's always fun to have to reset for).

The final is Charizard...and I end up going to the tried and true method of...Leech Seed and Poison Powder. Yeah, super Cheese at this point. But, it works, and gets me through. Urgh. That was...painful...or a test of how long I can play in one session before needing to stop and take a break. But, hey, Gen 2 done. I'm away from the horrible level pacing. I mean, look at that chart comparing previous runs to this one...About 20 levels lower than the average.

Team Stats:

Spoiler:

You'll have to excuse the fact that Moonlight is identified as Fairy. I didn't want to go crazy with gen types and all that, so it is currently just pulling the most recent type for each move.

 

[Raven Valt]

It's been a hot minute since I posted here, Ghost Mono Type for Emerald is done :D

Spoiler: Ghost

 

[GhostMadison7]

I like the idea of being able to casually chat/discuss strategy somewhere, I agree about not using Discord, maybe a thread as speculated?
And I hope you all are doing well/better
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This rom hack actually makes good use of the Exp All, grinding is sooo tedious before it lol, anyways-
Just beat Viola who was not as bad as I worried lol given the fact that I had two dual Grass-types on my team and I didn't have the nerf patch. She has a full team of kitted out mons with calculated IVs, held items (before even I can get any), strategic movesets with moves they can't have at the time, and a buffed Ledian and Dustox.
In the end, it only took 2 attempts thankfully, had my single Jigglypuff, Profiterole, left who learns Rollout and does great damage with Round, that and Leech Seed from my Grass duo helped a lot!

Also I uh found a full odds shiny Skitty, so so sad I can't use her why isn't Skitty Normal/Fairy but wow, why do I always find random shinies when I'm not hunting lmao
At least I get to add two more faeries to my team, including a soon to be Togekiss~! Once it evolves from friendship sigh

Team:

Spoiler: Party

• Madeleine
  • Female Petilil, Grass/Fairy
  • Lvl 15
  • Own Tempo
  • Moves:
    • Mega Drain
    • Fairy Wind
    • Leech Seed
    • Growth
• Beignet
  • Male Cottonee, Grass/Fairy
  • Lvl 15
  • Infiltrator
  • Moves:
    • Mega Drain
    • Fairy Wind
    • Leech Seed
    • Stun Spore
• Profiterole
  • Male Jigglypuff, Normal/Fairy
  • Lvl 16
  • Fur Coat
  • Moves:
    • Round
    • Rollout
    • Play Nice
    • Disable
• Chouquette
  • Female Azurill, Normal/Fairy
  • Lvl 15
  • Huge Power
  • Moves:
    • Aqua Jet
    • Bubble Beam
    • Charm
    • Water Sport
• Macaron
  • Male Togepi, Fairy
  • Lvl 12
  • Serene Grace
  • Moves:
    • Extrasensory
    • Metronome
    • Charm
    • Sweet Kiss
• Dacquoise
  • Male Ralts, Psychic/Fairy
  • Lvl 11
  • Synchronize
  • Moves:
    • Confusion
    • Disarming Voice
    • Double Team
    • Teleport

Spoiler: PC

• Brioche, Fennekin
• Croissant, Skitty ✨

Side notes: Catching Ralts with teleport was exhausting, and I barely encountered any Togepi despite being 10% like most the encounters, even found an HA Super Luck one. Also holding off on catching a Flabébé just cause I want a blue or white one lol

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I have mixed feelings about a separate thread or Discord server, but I also don't understand why keeping it all in this thread would be a bad idea. Is it just the fear of two people going back and forth for 20 posts?

 

[GhostMadison7]

I have mixed feelings about a separate thread or Discord server, but I also don't understand why keeping it all in this thread would be a bad idea. Is it just the fear of two people going back and forth for 20 posts?

I think so yeah. More like clogging the thread with so much discussion that posts about run updates would be hard to keep track of and drowned out. But it may not be an issue idk whatever you guys think is best

 

[Explorer of Time]

Well, I have a thread here for you to use for discussion if you want to. If it turns out to not be used much, I can just merge it back here.

 

[Sakura_H]

Hi everyone.
As a newbie here, it's good to find a community here for monotype challenge. I've done some mono-grass challenges for official games before, and now I want to put myself into challenges for some romhack games. For the first time challenge here, I will take one of the difficulty hack - Radical Red.

I've played Radical Red several times before implementation of Gen 9 (non-monotype play). I tried to play it again after Gen 9 but it seems a little bit boring to use similar pokemon again and again. Taking challenge probably makes this run fun (and much more difficult).

Well, I hope it won't be too difficult and I could finish it. Good luck to me

User: Sakura_H
Type: Grass
Game(s): Radical Red [Normal & Minimal Grinding Mode]
Challenge Type: Single
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard



A Quick Question: As a romhack player, I'm not pretty sure which games are eligible under Eligible Games Rules 8. Should I assume that all games being found in PokeCommunity Showcase are eligible, such as Pokemon Unbound, Pokemon Inflamed Red? MegaMoemon FireRed would be fine too under Rules 5, although they changed all sprites?

 

[Explorer of Time]

A Quick Question: As a romhack player, I'm not pretty sure which games are eligible under Eligible Games Rules 8. Should I assume that all games being found in PokeCommunity Showcase are eligible, such as Pokemon Unbound, Pokemon Inflamed Red? MegaMoemon FireRed would be fine too under Rules 5, although they changed all sprites?

It's fine to assume that anything that's posted on Pokecommunity itself is eligible, including Radical Red, Unbound, MegaMoemon FireRed, and Inflamed Red. Games and hacks that break our own rules get removed by the fangame/romhacking subforum mods as soon as they're caught.

Offsite hacks/fangames are, in general, fine, unless they happen to contain porn, bigotry, or plagiarized assets, or are monetized in some way and aren't by Nintendo itself. Relic Castle, back when it was around, had pretty much the same standards as us, so anything downloaded from there should be fine too.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Welcome, new member! [Throws confetti]

 

[Sakura_H]

Pokemon Radical Red (Standard)
Mono-Grass: 1st Update (Pallet Town - Pewter City: Falkner)

I started the journey and moved forward a little bit. I had added a few rules/clauses for my gameplay as usual:
- no item during battle except all poke balls and held items: It's not really matter as RR got no-item-clause for all trainer battle already. Well, I also don't use items for wild battles then.
- battle all trainers and optional boss and mini-boss: There are some optional bosses in game, such as Johto gym leaders. Yes, I won't avoid any battles to them. Some of them are even harder than the regular gym leaders.
- nickname all grass pokemon I caught: It's like one of the rule in Nuzlocke to strengthen the bond. Well, it may not be too important but I like it anyway.

Spoiler: Main Progress

- Start as female player (Leaf), and name rival as Green (just as usual)

- Choose starter: Sprigatito
The main reason for choosing Sprigatito as starter was it was cute.
Well, the main reason is probably Meowscarada got the highest speed among all 9 grass starters. And grass/dark seems to be important to my team. Most grass/dark pokemon are either legendaries, or look to be a little weak. It should be fine for not using Protean in mono-grass, I hope so.

- Catch some grass pokemon and battle Green (twice) and Brendan
Up to now I got total 6 pokemon as follows:
Sprigatito (Starter), Smoliv (Route 1), Oddish (Route 22), Budew (Route 22), Morelull (Route 22), Toedscool (Virdian Forest)
By far these battles are good especially battle to Brendan. Honestly he was too weak compared with Green at Route 22. Brendan's pokemon were even at lower level than Green's.

- Battle to the first mini-boss: Lass Anne
I must say she was the first difficult battle I faced and I lost first time. She used Stufful lv12, Audino lv12 and Clefairy lv10 (even at higher level than Brendan). Audino actually got no attack with only wish, swagger and yawn, but she was a very bulky stalker to me. The main problem was Stufful with aerial ace and all my pokemon cannot withstand flying attack. After the first lose, I levelled up all the pokemon to level cap (lv15) for the battles.

- Catch some more Grass pokemon
What I'm doing was catching all grass pokemon as far as I can. They may not be useful now but maybe good later. I also run back to Pallet Town Route 21 for catching some. These pokemon includes:
Seedot (Route 1), Deerling(Viridian City), Applin(Route 22), Capsakid(Route 21), Lotad (Route 21), Shroomish(Viridian Forest), Sewaddle(Viridian Forest), Pumpkakoo(Viridian Forest), Bramblin(Viridian Forest), Phantump(Viridian Forest), Skiddo(Pewter City), Exeggcute(Pewter City), Hoppip(Pewter City), Poltchageist(Pewter City)
In most cases I will find all dual type pokemon, except some I don't like it. One exception was Snover at Viridian City. I liked Snover but grass/ice dual type seems not to be useful for mono-grass run. And the counter rate was too low. Well, if I found I needed an grass/ice pokemon, I will catch it later.

- Battle Falkner at Pewter Museum
Well, I got some mistakes here. I thought he got Emolga as my past experience, but I don't know he changed his team upon updates. His team was Rufflet lv12, Flittle lv14 and Wattrel lv14. I knew it should be hard against a flying team but his first pokemon rufflet already made me in a hard time. Well, I lost anyway.
I levelled up all pokemon again anyway and the main focus of the battle was:
- Lombre with Aurora Beam: I need to ensure her speed passing all Falkner's pokemon. It's fine for Lombre to withstand a few flying attacks.
- Nuzleaf with fake out: Fake out is always good. Its defense and sp defense are both fine to withstand flying attack too.
- Bramblin with shadow sneak: priority +1 attack was always good, and it damages flittle effectively no matter how she got speed boost and calm mind. It also got rollout if I really need it to counter the birds.
Well, after the harsh battle time, I won against Falkner.

- Go back to Pewter Town home to change my customization
That's the most silly thing I've did. I haven't checked the updates documents until Falkner changing his pokemon. And now I knew they update with clothes changing at my home. Well……
I started walking from Pewter Town Museum back to home, and I changed myself from Leaf to Marnie. Yeah, the game got Marnie customization. I can continue my journey later as being Marnie.

Spoiler: Current Party

Sprigatito @
Ability: Overgrow
-Quick Attack
-Bite
-Razor Leaf
-Tail Whip

Deerling @
Ability: Sap Sipper
-Camouflage
-Seed Bomb
-Jump Kick
-Take Down

Bramblin @
Ability: Infiltrator
-Defense Curl
-Rollout
-Shadow Sneak
-Bullet Seed

Lombre @
Ability: Swift Swim
-Aurora Beam
-Bubble
-Absorb
-Growl

Exeggcute @
Ability: Chlorophyll
-Hypnosis
-Psybeam
-Leech Seed
-Stun Spore

Nuzleaf @
Ability: Early Bird
-Razor Leaf
-Fake Out
-Nature Power
-Growth

 

[GhostMadison7]

Wanna say congrats EoT on mod, and congrats to Kostucha, StenirRPG, and Raven Valt on the completed runs! Finally, welcome Sakura_H to the thread and gl on the run
-------------------------------------------------------------
Small update, no new badges, some story stuff. Just got the Poke Flute from Parfum Palace, Snorlax got the Leech Seed/Yawn combo, easy. Trained my team to around lvl 20 with some much needed evolutions and got a white Flabebe :D. Never realized how many Fairy types are stone/friendship evos a bit annoying early game, at least my Azumarill carries. Togetic doesn't get Air Cutter in gen 6 sigh, and I swear 90% of these mons just don´t get good fairy moves via level up besides dang Fairy Wind

Team:

Spoiler: Party

• Beignet
  • Male Cottonee, Grass/Fairy
  • Lvl 22
  • Infiltrator
  • Moves:
    • Mega Drain
    • Disarming Voice
    • Leech Seed
    • Stun Spore
• Profiterole
  • Male Jigglypuff, Normal/Fairy
  • Lvl 21
  • Fur Coat
  • Moves:
    • Round
    • Return
    • Rollout
    • Stockpile
• Chouquette
  • Female Azumarill, Water/Fairy
  • Lvl 23
  • Huge Power
  • Moves:
    • Aqua Jet
    • Aqua Tail
    • Return
    • Charm
• Macaron
  • Male Togetic, Fairy/Flying
  • Lvl 19
  • Serene Grace
  • Moves:
    • Extrasensory
    • Metronome
    • Charm
    • Yawn
• Dacquoise
  • Male Kirlia, Psychic/Fairy
  • Lvl 20
  • Synchronize
  • Moves:
    • Confusion
    • Disarming Voice
    • Double Team
    • Teleport
• Tarte Tatin
  • Female Flabébé, Fairy
  • Lvl 1
  • Natural Cure
  • Moves:
    • Tackle
    • Vine Whip

Spoiler: PC

• Brioche, Fennekin
• Croissant, Skitty ✨
• Madeleine, Petilil
• Incubator, Magby

Notes: I don't mention it, but I spend on average 10 hours just hunting for a Pokemon with a good nature/ability Flabébé alone took like 20+ egg hatches lmao, and half the time I just end up with a neutral nature and leave it at that. 3 of my mons are Calm when I would rather Bold, Timid, or Modest