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-   -   Challenge The Monotype Challenge v8, Tera Edition (https://www.pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=489918)

Reginald Cosmic April 6th, 2023 7:44 PM

Wait. My Ground type run was counted? I thought I was disqualified cuz I started it months before joining the forum. I would like to specify that the run followed all rules established, and I re-read the rules tonight to make sure before I wrote this. The only caveat is that I started the challenge before I joined the forum. Again, none of the rules were broken; I just didn't expect it to be considered valid since I started it quite a while before my account for this forum was created.

Also, I'm not sure how to do quotes, but the Hall of Fame erroneously lists my Ground type run in Pokémon Sapphire Version as Ground twice instead of listing the specific game I was playing.

So, anyway, I've started a Water Type run for FRLG. Dihydrogen monoxide is very lethal! A friend on another site suggested naming each Pokemon after a Sonic cartoon, but "Underground" is too many characters, so I'll use the name "OVA" instead. I named myself "Sonic," and I named my Rival "Mario." I will update this after I teach Brock a lesson in humility.

EDIT: Actually, um, I might take up the commitment of a Game Mastery Challenge for Ruby/Sapphire. Can I hack in any "regional Dex" Pokémon of my type for my starter? Like, even if it would make the run a lot easier? For example, Chinchou as a hacked starter is the only choice for an artificial starter [that I know of] where the first gym wouldn't be an absolute nightmare in an electric-type mono run, but there's no electric-types before the first couple of gyms, and it doesn't break any of the other rules. In other cases, can I just catch a Pokemon before the first gym and box the actual starter (outside of the water, ground, fire, fighting, and grass routes)? For example, can I just catch Zigzagoon in the Normal-type run instead of hacking it. One last thing I'll say is that I need to complete the first gym in a Flying mono type run in Sapphire before I absolutely commit myself to this challenge. (I will absolutely regret it when I challenge the Hoenn League with only two ice-type Pokémon.)

Explorer of Time April 7th, 2023 9:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10620168)
Wait. My Ground type run was counted? I thought I was disqualified cuz I started it months before joining the forum. I would like to specify that the run followed all rules established, and I re-read the rules tonight to make sure before I wrote this. The only caveat is that I started the challenge before I joined the forum. Again, none of the rules were broken; I just didn't expect it to be considered valid since I started it quite a while before my account for this forum was created.

Also, I'm not sure how to do quotes, but the Hall of Fame erroneously lists my Ground type run in Pokémon Sapphire Version as Ground twice instead of listing the specific game I was playing.

Yep, it's counted, since you followed the rules prior to joining the thread. The Hall of Fame's fixed now, thanks for notifying me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10620168)

So, anyway, I've started a Water Type run for FRLG. Dihydrogen monoxide is very lethal! A friend on another site suggested naming each Pokemon after a Sonic cartoon, but "Underground" is too many characters, so I'll use the name "OVA" instead. I named myself "Sonic," and I named my Rival "Mario." I will update this after I teach Brock a lesson in humility.

Before I add you to the challenger's list for this, if you decide on it, I'm going to need to know if you're playing FireRed, LeafGreen, or a romhack of either of them. For either run, I'll also need to know whether it's Standard Mode or Free Mode.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10620168)

EDIT: Actually, um, I might take up the commitment of a Game Mastery Challenge for Ruby/Sapphire. Can I hack in any "regional Dex" Pokémon of my type for my starter? Like, even if it would make the run a lot easier? For example, Chinchou as a hacked starter is the only choice for an artificial starter [that I know of] where the first gym wouldn't be an absolute nightmare in an electric-type mono run, but there's no electric-types before the first couple of gyms, and it doesn't break any of the other rules.

Normally, you can only hack in a Regional Dex Pokémon as your starter if you can't find a Pokémon of your type or Pokémon that evolves into your type before the first gym (Dragon, Electric, Ice, Rock, or Steel in Ruby and Sapphire). In such a case, you could hack in any unevolved non-legendary in your Regional Dex, which would include Chinchou.

However, there's one exception where you can hack in a starter Pokémon even if you can catch one of your type before the first gym. If there's a Pokémon in your Regional Dex of your type that you can't catch until the postgame, you can hack it in at any time you want. That being said, the only Pokémon that fits this criteria in Ruby and Sapphire is Beldum, since every other non-Legendary Pokémon is obtainable before the postgame.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10620168)
In other cases, can I just catch a Pokemon before the first gym and box the actual starter (outside of the water, ground, fire, fighting, and grass routes)? For example, can I just catch Zigzagoon in the Normal-type run instead of hacking it.

That's exactly what you're supposed to do, and the intended way to play.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10620168)
One last thing I'll say is that I need to complete the first gym in a Flying mono type run in Sapphire before I absolutely commit myself to this challenge. (I will absolutely regret it when I challenge the Hoenn League with only two ice-type Pokémon.)

You actually can double up or triple up on some Pokemon species, if you want to. There's no rule forbidding you from catching multiple Glalie, for example. After all, it's what Glacia does. I'll make that clearer in the next revision of the rules.

Reginald Cosmic April 7th, 2023 1:31 PM

Thank you for such a thorough reply. There are a couple things I should clear up because it was very late at night when I edited that post.

The crossed out text is an edit and my way of saying "Actually, um, maybe I won't do this mono water-type run of Pokémon Leaf Green Version." The template was there (albeit without formatting) before I edited my post, but I think I'd rather save it for another time, perhaps to break up the 16 playthroughs of Ruby/Sapphire (17 counting the one that's already done).

I downloaded a program to replace one of my starter Pokémon for the challenge (leaving the rival's Pokémon unaffected), and now I kind of wish I hadn't cuz (hoo boy) Beldum only learns Takedown, and that recoil damage frightens me. If I can't just switch train it with the official starter, I guess I'll hack in a Natu and catch Ralts the old-fashioned way, right?

Actually, wait, I just re-read your post, and... um, well, this is awkward... where do I hack in the Beldum? Not "when," where? I think it'd be awkward if I made it appear from random encounters in the grass. Can I just trade over the Beldum that Champion Steven gives me in the post game of the Ground type challenge and call it a day? There's nothing special about that Beldum's IVs that would cause a problem with the rules laid out in post 1, correct? Maybe I'm forgetting something about limitations on trading post game Pokémon.

I'll officially enter (with the proper challenger info) when I complete Roxanne's gym with the flying-types and... Oh, yeah, Wingull is available before the first gym, isn't it? That would neutralize the challenge from the gym. I guess I'm really doing this, aren't I? All right, I'll boot up the ROM and start soon.

Explorer of Time April 7th, 2023 2:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10620318)
Thank you for such a thorough reply. There are a couple things I should clear up because it was very late at night when I edited that post.

The crossed out text is an edit and my way of saying "Actually, um, maybe I won't do this mono water-type run of Pokémon Leaf Green Version." The template was there (albeit without formatting) before I edited my post, but I think I'd rather save it for another time, perhaps to break up the 16 playthroughs of Ruby/Sapphire (17 counting the one that's already done).

I downloaded a program to replace one of my starter Pokémon for the challenge (leaving the rival's Pokémon unaffected), and now I kind of wish I hadn't cuz (hoo boy) Beldum only learns Takedown, and that recoil damage frightens me. If I can't just switch train it with the official starter, I guess I'll hack in a Natu and catch Ralts the old-fashioned way, right?

Actually, wait, I just re-read your post, and... um, well, this is awkward... where do I hack in the Beldum? Not "when," where? I think it'd be awkward if I made it appear from random encounters in the grass. Can I just trade over the Beldum that Champion Steven gives me in the post game of the Ground type challenge and call it a day? There's nothing special about that Beldum's IVs that would cause a problem with the rules laid out in post 1, correct? Maybe I'm forgetting something about limitations on trading post game Pokémon.

I'll officially enter (with the proper challenger info) when I complete Roxanne's gym with the flying-types and... Oh, yeah, Wingull is available before the first gym, isn't it? That would neutralize the challenge from the gym. I guess I'm really doing this, aren't I? All right, I'll boot up the ROM and start soon.


I'm a little confused, are you playing a mono-Psychic or mono-Flying run? It doesn't really make sense to hack one into a mono-Flying run since you can't use it in trainer battles, it's useless for breeding in RS, and other Pokemon available before Metang have the same HM compatibility.

I've played a mono-Psychic run of Ruby before, and Beldum is actually decent in the early game, you just need to backtrack to Pokemon Centers more frequently in-between battles. Ralts is available very early on, and will be extremely useful in the early-game, but it needs another Pokemon to fight Dark-types in the early game, and Beldum can do that pretty well.

Trading over your Beldum from another game is fine for your mono-Psychic run, as is making it appear from random encounters or switching out your starter. When hacking, I usually use PKHex, since it's the easiest method of adding new Pokemon to your party, but cheating devices are fine for hacking in Pokemon too, they're just more complicated to use correctly. The method of hacking doesn't really matter so long as its IVs are random, it's not any stronger than another party member you have, and it doesn't have any moves it's not supposed to.

Explorer of Time April 7th, 2023 2:45 PM

One more thing, since this discussion about RS monotypes reminded me of a few things like Ralts not being able to hit Dark types without TM moves, I've added a few new clauses into today's update of the rules to avoid stuff like that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Explorer of Time (Post 10595498)

8.3



8.3: Moved the rule about trading or hacking unobtainable Pokemon in the regional dex to the Standard Mode rules, since Free Mode has its own separate rules on the topic.

Required that the player have reached the point where they could've caught a Pokemon in their counterpart game before trading or hacking version-exclusives. As this rule would affect in-progress challenges, runs started before 4/7/2023 are allowed to trade or hack version-exclusives at any point in time.

Made mutually-exclusive Pokémon, like some fossils, tradeable or hackable under the same restriction.

Allowed keeping Nincada unevolved until a second Ghost-type is obtained, if the player's first available Ghost-type is Shedinja.

Added a clause allowing trading or hacking in a Pokémon if the player's party is completely unable to damage a Pokémon without Struggle, or delaying the start of the challenge if players can't trade or hack.

Clarified that using multiple Pokémon of the same species is allowed.


Reginald Cosmic April 7th, 2023 2:56 PM

I'm going to do them ALL eventually is why I asked. I'm doing Flying right now, but eventually, I will be doing a mono Psychic Type run. I just wanted to ask ahead of time because it's a big commitment, you see. It's going to be done over many months, maybe a couple years.

Also, I was about to have a fight or flight response cuz I remembered that in the mono Ground-type challenge, I abused Pickup as long as I could by catching four Zigzagoon. I did not use them for anything in-battle, which follows the "non-battle purposes" clause, but in the moment of realization I was like, "OMG, I used Zigzagoon for pick-up items! That doesn't count, right?!"

Explorer of Time April 7th, 2023 3:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10620334)
Also, I was about to have a fight or flight response cuz I remembered that in the mono Ground-type challenge, I abused Pickup as long as I could by catching four Zigzagoon. I did not use them for anything in-battle, which follows the "non-battle purposes" clause, but in the moment of realization I was like, "OMG, I used Zigzagoon for pick-up items! That doesn't count, right?!"

Don't worry, you're fine. So long as they aren't involved in trainer battles, it's completely OK to use Zigzagoon for pickup in any run.

Reginald Cosmic April 7th, 2023 4:18 PM

I might regret this, but I'm in! I wanna be a Big Shot in this thread and conquer the Hoenn region!

User: Reginald Cosmic

Type: All (Currently on Flying-Type)

Games: Ruby and Sapphire (on Game Boy Advance)

Challenge Type: Game Mastery Challenge

Standard Mode

This is going to be a long-term goal. Expect periods of time where I take a break from the challenge to play other games (so I don't get sick of it and quit).

Explorer of Time April 7th, 2023 6:42 PM

Pokémon Colosseum (Standard Mode)
Mono-Water - Aqua Admin Walter
Update 3 (The Under -> Shadow Pokemon Lab)


Another update, and this time covering two Cipher admins. I fought Venus very soon after Dakim, snagging Suicune and purifying it immediately with a Time Flute. Then, I did a lot of grinding for Poke Coupons to get TMs, and completed both the Pyrite and Under Colosseums for more TMs despite the level difference. Most of the Shadow Pokemon Lab was easy because I was overleveled, and though Ein's Lanturn and Raikou were scary because they had Thunder, neither actually got a chance to use it more than once. I got lucky with Ice Beam and froze Raikou, and snagged it with an Ultra Ball. Can't use it, but I need to catch and box it to fight Fein at the end of the game.

I don't really like using Legendaries all that much, but using Suicune is the only way to get a full team of six Water-types in Colosseum. I taught it Reflect and Rain Dance, giving it a couple setup moves, kept Surf, and taught it Ice Beam like most of the rest of my team. It's the only Pokemon on my team that could learn Reflect, so that gives it a useful niche that the rest of my team can't do. Aside from a possible Reshiram in the last two battles of Black, this is going to be my only legendary in my Type Mastery Challenge.

Every Pokemon save Qwilfish learned Ice Beam, a strong alternative to whatever Water-type moves my team knows. In addition, Feraligatr learned Brick Break, giving it a strong physical Fighting move, Quagsire learned Earthquake, a strong ground move that counters Electric-types very well, and usually worth the hit my other Pokemon will take, Octillery learned Psychic and Flamethrower, two strong moves in types I don't otherwise have, Mantine got a whole new moveset focused around status conditions, and Qwilfish learned Sludge Bomb and Shadow Ball to better fit its role as a physical attacker. Unless my Suicune somehow gets to level 81, my whole team has its final movesets.


Team

Spoiler:
https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/feraligatr.png Feraligatr (♂) | Water | Level 51
Moves: Surf, Ice Beam*, Brick Break*, Rain Dance
154 HP / 119 Atk / 114 Def / 94 SpA / 109 SpD / 102 Spe
Ability: Torrent | Nature: Timid | Item: Black Belt*

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/quagsire.png Quagsire (♂) | Water/Ground | Level 50
Moves: Surf, Earthquake*, Ice Beam*, Amnesia
174 HP / 97 Atk / 96 Def / 71 SpA / 78 SpD / 56 Spe
Ability: Damp | Nature: Jolly | Item: Quick Claw

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/octillery.png Octillery (♀) | Water | Level 50
Moves: Bubblebeam, Psychic*, Ice Beam*, Flamethrower*
152 HP / 122 Atk / 89 Def / 107 SpA / 97 SpD / 69 Spe
Ability: Suction Cups | Nature: Jolly | Item: Twistedspoon*

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/mantine.png Mantine (♀) | Water/Flying | Level 50
Moves: Water Pulse*, Ice Beam*, Confuse Ray*, Attract*
145 HP / 56 Atk / 87 Def / 90 SpA / 171 SpD / 84 Spe
Ability: Water Absorb | Nature: Careful | Item: (None)*

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/qwilfish.png Qwilfish (♂) | Water/Poison | Level 50
Moves: Surf, Sludge Bomb*, Shadow Ball*, Toxic
133 HP / 105 Atk / 88 Def / 73 SpA / 82 SpD / 107 Spe
Ability: Poison Point | Nature: Gentle | Item: Poison Barb*

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/suicune.png Suicune (⚥)* | Water | Level 51
Moves: Surf, Ice Beam, Reflect, Rain Dance
167 HP / 85 Atk / 131 Def / 126 SpA / 134 SpD / 106 Spe
Ability: Pressure| Nature: Modest | Item: Mystic Water*

*denotes new Pokemon/moves/items

Reginald Cosmic April 7th, 2023 7:20 PM

I guess I could've named myself Lance since I'll be a Flying-Type Champion. [Cackles like a maniac] I named myself Skye and picked Mudkip as my unofficial starter (since Grovyle is weak to the flying-type).

Spoiler:
So I'm going to fast forward through the beginning of the game. I know; I love this game too, but there's no need for me to recap all the stuff that happened before the challenge started. Okay, so after I saved Professor Birch's life (or maybe he just overreacted) and subsequently defeated his daughter in a Pokémon battle, I was given Pokéballs.

Actually, this is a bit of a gray area that may or may not be worth an asterisk in the rules. Technically, I could catch a Whurmple as my first Pokémon, but there's no way to tell if it will evolve into Silcoon and then Beautifly (a Bug/Flying type) or a Cascoon and then Dustox (a Bug/Poison type) without some external app, so I ignored the Whurmple line for a little while.

This next thing has nothing to do with the challenge, but it'll be important later (trust me). I caught four Zigzagoon and named them after Ed, Edd n Eddy and side character Nazz. (I caught a female one by accident and felt it was too much of a bother to go back, so I ended up just using all four until I caught a Silcoon). They're not really for battling, so they're just gonna hang out in the party a little while. After all, you don't have fun by saying no to fun experiences. (Big Shot Reg does not condone using this advice in regards to harmful experiences like drug abuse or hazing other people.)

So after sneaking past all but two of the Route 104 trainers, I helped Wally catch his first Pokémon, which was a ... shoot, what was it? I kind of wasn't paying attention. Eh, I'm sure it won't be a problem for me to deal with later.

So after Norman shut piehole, I was finally allowed to catch my first Pokémon. I'd hoped to run into Taillow first, but I ended up with WIngull. No offense to Wingull fans, but it feels like an tenth of the trainers in Hoenn have a member of that line (albeit, it's not as bad as Meditite). So I caught a Gentle Wingull with Keen Eye and named it Wilbur (after one of the Wright Bros.) and then I caught a Jolly Taillow (which happened to be female, thus ruining my Wright Bros. motif) with Guts, which I named Earhart (after Amelia Earhart). I trained up a bit, including going back to Route 102 to battle the trainers I missed. Then, I headed up to Petalburg Woods to show some bug-types who's boss.

This researcher looking stooge comes up to me talking about Shroomish, and then we both get ambushed by a jerk who says his name is Team Aqua Grunt, and I figure "Gosh, my Wingull sure could use some free experience." So instead of beating his Poochyena into submission with one Wing Attack from Earhart, I use Wingull's Supersonic (and I'm very glad that move isn't Psychic-type) and managed to beat it with a few Water Gun attacks. He retreats of course, and the researcher hands me a Great Ball. I caught a Silcoon on my way up north, but I probably won't train it until I find an old-school Experience Share.

I planted some berries and watered them with a Wailmer pail, then I skipped the double battle with the twins (which is apparently mandatory in Emerald if you have more than one Pokémon). I killed a bunch of Magikarp, and at this point, I was torn cuz I want a Gyarados with Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Earthquake, and Surf, but I'm growing attached to this Wingull. Anyway, I made it to Rustboro and made sure to collect a premier ball from the Devon workers' house, and I also grabbed the Quick Claw from the school teacher.

After defeating the trainers near Rusturf tunnel (something I normally don't do out of habit), I walked into the gym. The gym trainers weren't strong at all, so I got a little prideful in challenging Roxanne without healing up first. Her Geodude fainted from one water gun, but then I soon realized that Nosepass's status as "not f***ing Ground-type" made it more resilient than anticipated. It used Rock Tomb on me right away, leaving me with very little HP. I use Water Gun again but no luck on getting a crit. It uses tackle, and Wingull is down. I tried using a Quick Attack with Earhart, but Roxanne used a potion. What can I do...? Good thing I brought plenty of Revives and Super Potions. Yeah, babyyy, the Pickup ability from Zigzagoon is amazing in Ruby/Sapphire! So I used a revive, and Taillow tanked a Rock Tomb like a beast, and I was able to use a Super Potion on Wingull. I sent out Wingull after Taillow fainted, and I start spamming Water Gun. Roxanne was able to use one more potion before losing to me. I was in the yellow when her Nosepass finally collapsed, but I still won the gym badge fair and square! I'm looking forward to that fighting-type gym. [Does the Omega Flowey laugh]

Reginald Cosmic April 7th, 2023 11:51 PM

This post covers from right after the first gym to right after the second gym, which in Ruby/Sapphire isn't long. It's sort of one of the only times where you do two gyms almost back to back (unlike X/Y and from what I've heard Diamond/Pearl).

Spoiler:
I don't feel like doing a full story recap, so I'll try to rush through most of this. If you want the full plot, there are plenty of better places to experience it.

So I beat the Team Aqua Grunt into submission, and I get roped into helping Devon deliver the stolen goods to Slateport... also, I gotta deliver a letter to Champion Steven in Granite Cave near Dewford.

So before I can catch my Zubat, I run into a couple of Abra and use Taillow's quick attack to knock them out because they always teleport away before I can catch them on normal playthroughs. The Hiker who gifted me HM05 is probably like, "Dude, why'd you kill that Abra?" They say how are you doing, and you have to say fine, but you're not really fine, but you just can't get into it cuz they would never understand.

So I killed a couple Zubat due to being over-leveled, and I ended up settling a female Zubat and naming it Luna. What's this? Modest Nature? Your attack is lowered, and your special attack is raised... in Gen 3... where Crobat is exclusively a physical attacker? [Starts smacking the Zubat with a rolled up newspaper] Bad Zubat! Bad!

Zubat: "Forgive me, Master!"

Me: Never!

Narrator: Some grinding later...

Me Cruising through the Fighting type gym: They see me rollin'! They hatin'! [Defeats all three gym trainers without losing a single hit point]

Brawly: Oh, gosh, it's happening! I am not mentally prepared for this.

...

Machop: [Uses Bulk-up once and immediately faints after]

Makuhita: Hi, I hope you're having a great day! Don't forget to get plenty of rest and eat a balanced breakfast.

Me: What a brave young man, but someone's got to teach him the ways of the world. I guess little old me will have to do!

Makuhita: [Survives the first Wing Attack from the now level 20 Taillow, uses Bulk Up, and receives a Super Potion healing from Brawly] Okay, maybe with my higher attack and defense I can--

Taillow: What do I do now?

Me: Hit him with Wing Attack.

Taillow: Now he's crying...

Me: Hit him with a Wing Attack AGAIN!

Gosh, I was brutal with this post... but we're not done yet. After I grabbed the Knuckle Badge out of Brawly's hands, I went fishing on Route 106 and fished up a Magikarp which will grow into a mighty Gyarados named Cloud. Let's see what nature it is. "Serious" [Drops to my knees and starts crying like I've just reunited with my best friend after 3,000 years] Serious nature Magikarp in a premier ball! The dream is real.


StenirRPG April 9th, 2023 9:57 AM

I'm on my phone and away from my desktop (about 90 miles away) so I'm not going to have the usual update setup so I'll keep it brief. For consistency, I will post a picture of my final stats. But here's the rest of Pokemon X with Fire types.

Gym 5 - Some of my team kept getting paralyzed, but nothing real big of a problem. I am still a little leveled above the gym, but I have sort of locked in on a team of Charizard, Talonflame, Houndoom, Delphos, Flareon, and Pyroar. I decided not to get any more of the available Pokemon unless I felt there was a need.

Gym 6 - Another one of the spam hardest attacks to get through.

Gym 7 - Spam Dark moves. Win. Defeat all trainers...as usual.

Gym 8 - Fire moves are overpowered here. Easy.

Team Flare being between Gyms 7 and 8 is a nice boost to experience.

As for Elite Four...Steel is easy. Fire is relatively easy to push through. Dragon was fun once I had Flareon start using Last Resort.

Water was a pain. I taught Grass Knot for use against Barbie. Wing Attack, Fly, Acrobatics as much as possible. The Gyarados was horrible. I had to outlast Waterfall with Revives but eventually (after a few hours of trying things) I just used endless Revives until I got a few clear shots to take down Gyarados.

The champion battle was fairly easy. Aurorus gave me a chance to bring everyone back after it was hit with a few Mystical Fires. Still using a lot of Flying moves to deal damage. This was definitely much easier than dealing with Water.

Final pre-credits battle with Az was straightforward.

I'll say this felt much easier, probably due to how the XP share works. Looking forward to the next gen. I'll post stats as soon as I can when I return home.

Explorer of Time April 9th, 2023 3:42 PM

Pokémon Colosseum (Standard Mode)
Mono-Water - Aqua Admin Walter
Update 4 (Realgam Tower -> Realgam Colosseum)


A short update today, covering Realgam Tower and Realgam Colosseum! None of the admins gave me much trouble except for Ein, whose Thunder/Rain Dance combination was mildly difficult. However, Gonzap's Hariyama was unexpectedly hard and fainted half my team. The first four Realgam Colosseum trainers didn't give me too much trouble. Sten fainted a couple Pokemon, but they got healed up before fighting Nascour. Nascour himself was kinda difficult, but sadly I didn't have a chance to record the fight.

I ended up using my Master Ball on Metagross to win the battle, since I remembered that I could just refight Evice without going through the rest of the Colosseum if he beat me the first time. Which he did. I did snag Tyranitar before going down, though. The second time, he led with Slowking and Slaking, immediately using Skill Swap to take away Truant from Slaking and give it to Slowking. Slaking fainted several of my Pokemon, but once I brought it down, I could just focus on one of his Pokemon since Slowking still had Truant from Skill Swap and for some reason never used it on one of my Pokemon, and Suicune, Mantine, and Octillery worked together to beat the rest of his team.

I may have beaten Colosseum, but since it's a shorter game, I still have to go through nearly the entire postgame to have it count for my Type Mastery challenge. Expect one more update for this challenge run.


Team

Spoiler:
https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/feraligatr.png Feraligatr (♂) | Water | Level 53
Moves: Surf, Ice Beam, Brick Break, Rain Dance
162 HP / 125 Atk / 119 Def / 98 SpA / 114 SpD / 107 Spe
Ability: Torrent | Nature: Timid | Item: Black Belt

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/quagsire.png Quagsire (♂) | Water/Ground | Level 54
Moves: Surf, Earthquake, Ice Beam, Amnesia
189 HP / 107 Atk / 104 Def / 78 SpA / 86 SpD / 61 Spe
Ability: Damp | Nature: Jolly | Item: Quick Claw

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/octillery.png Octillery (♀) | Water | Level 52
Moves: Bubblebeam, Psychic, Ice Beam, Flamethrower
158 HP / 128 Atk / 94 Def / 111 SpA / 102 SpD / 72 Spe
Ability: Suction Cups | Nature: Jolly | Item: Twistedspoon

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/mantine.png Mantine (♀) | Water/Flying | Level 53
Moves: Water Pulse, Ice Beam, Confuse Ray, Attract
154 HP / 62 Atk / 93 Def / 97 SpA / 183 SpD / 90 Spe
Ability: Water Absorb | Nature: Careful | Item: NeverMeltIce*

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/qwilfish.png Qwilfish (♂) | Water/Poison | Level 52
Moves: Surf, Sludge Bomb, Shadow Ball, Toxic
138 HP / 110 Atk / 92 Def / 76 SpA / 86 SpD / 112 Spe
Ability: Poison Point | Nature: Gentle | Item: Poison Barb

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/suicune.png Suicune (⚥) | Water | Level 53
Moves: Surf, Ice Beam, Reflect, Rain Dance
176 HP / 90 Atk / 137 Def / 132 SpA / 140 SpD / 111 Spe
Ability: Pressure| Nature: Modest | Item: Mystic Water

*denotes new Pokemon/moves/items

Infer12 April 10th, 2023 12:13 PM

I'm going to try to do a monotype run of XD. Never played the game before but it looks like such a fun way to play through a pokemon game and use some of my favourite mons!

User: Infer12
Type: Dark
Game(s): XD: Gale of Darkness
Challenge Type: Single Challenge
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode

Infer12 April 11th, 2023 2:02 AM

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark
Update 1 (Pokémon HQ Lab -> Cipher Lab)


This will be my first monotype run ever so I hope it'll go well. Hopefully won't run into too strong fighting & bug types!

Started the game and named myself Dusk. I did all the early game stuff: searched for my sister, got the snag machine, saw the professor get kidnapped and went to Gateon Port
to get the machine part. I also caught the Teddiursa from Spy Naps for Pickup and to use it until I get 2 dark types. At Gateon Port, I evolved my Eevee into Umbreon and caught
Poochyena at the top of the lighthouse. I now have 2 dark types so let the monotype run officially begin! The trainers at Gateon Port were pretty easy so before long I headed to
Agate Village to use the Relic Stone there to purify my pokemon.

Poochyena's Heart Gauge was completely empty from the trainer battles leading up to the Relic Stone so I could immediately purify it. (that Pikachu almost wiped me out though
with thunderbolt but Umbreon pulled through). Then I went to Mt. Battle to talk to Vander who pointed me to Cipher Lab in the middle of the desert.

At the Cipher Lab, I battled the Hexagon Brothers from who I caught 2 dark(-ish) types: Houndour from Resix and Seedot from Greesix (who will get dark type upon evolving). I used
Houndour in the battles against the other brothers (again not too difficult) and used 5 vivid scents on Seedot so I was able to purify both of them. I continued my infiltration into
Cipher Lab and my Seedot evolved into Nuzleaf. Cipher Peon Digor gave me some trouble as he had a Machop & a Makuhita. He managed to knock out Houndour & Umbreon with
low kick and arm thrust but Nuzleaf's giga drain saved the day! After the battle Poochyena evolved into Mightyena. I then got to the room with the healing machine where I fully healed
my team.

My Team:
Spoiler:
Umbreon LV 18
Tackle/Pursuit/Bite/Sand Attack

Mightyena LV 18
Dig/Heal Bell/Poison Fang/Bite

Houndour LV 18
Faint Attack/Ember/Charm/Roar

Nuzleaf LV 18
Giga Drain/Refresh/Bullet Seed/Nature Power

Reginald Cosmic April 11th, 2023 5:18 AM

This post will have two "spoiler" boxes (assuming this all fits in one post). I think a lot of you know why. I knew Wattson would be a challenge, but I didn't expect it to be as grueling as it was.

Everything between Gym Leader Brawly and Gym Leader Wattson
Spoiler:
It's been a few days, so hopefully I'm able to remember this well enough without leaving out key details.

After catching Cloud the Serious-nature Magikarp, I realized that I didn't have any Pokémon that could learn HM move Flash, so I had to sail back to Mr. Briney's cottage. I settled on a Lotad to serve as an HM Pokémon. After returning to Dewford, I went through Granite Cave, and ... I don't think much of anything happened. I delivered the letter to Steven, and he was kind enough to give me a TM for Steel Wing. (I haven't actually used it yet because I'm afraid of wasting it.) I think one of my party members fainted at one point during this trek through the dungeon, but it wasn't too difficult.

However, before venturing onward to Slateport, I returned to the Devon office and picked up an old-school version of the Exp. Share from Mr. Stone. I gave it to Luna the Zubat right away, but I used it on Cloud the Magikarp later.

I started battling all the trainers on the beach south of Slateport, which included the trainers at the Soda Pop store. A toddler handed me a Soft Sand. I'm not sure at this time if I'll end up using it in a Flying-type run, but it would be pretty boss to hand it to Cloud when he becomes a Gyarados with Earthquake.

Oh, right, I am going to box Wilbur the Wingull at some point. I'll wait until (probably) Cloud learns Surf as a Gyarados. While I'm talking about the team, Silcoon probably isn't going to evolve into a Beautifly any time soon. I will tell you now that I've already boxed it at present. What did I nickname them again? [Checks notes] Oh, right, I named them "Haga" after Insector Haga from the (English translated) Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist manga.

I go to the museum in Slateport, and I beat up some Team Aqua Grunts, and the leader comes out, tells me I'm standing in the way of greatness, refuses to elaborate, and leaves. I then give the Devon goods to the Captain. (Side note: I think this was my first time seeing the road block that prevents you from leaving Slateport without meeting Aqua Leader Archie.)

I head north of Slateport and challenge trainers along the way. I did the first challenge from the Trick Master, but this one wasn't much of a puzzle. I just used my Zigzagoon's "Cut" move in the over world multiple times. It took a long time to defeat the double battle against a Plusle and Minun, but it wasn't exactly hard. It just took a while.

I got somewhat paranoid about challenging Rival May, so I thought I'd do some grinding in Granite Cave, but then Earhart the Taillow evolved into a Swellow. I ended up beating Rival May pretty efficiently.

So, I know this is an anti-climax, but when my previous post gave a comedic set-up for Wally having a Gardevoir, it slipped my mind that the player originally battles Wally in front of the Mauville gym. Whoops. Yeah, I one-shotted Wally's Ralts without an ounce of remorse. Then I ended up traveling west of Mauville to Verdanturf to visit Wally and also get some experience for the electric-type gym. I also got just a little bit of experience on the route just east of Mauville.

So I head into the Mauville Gym, take care of the trainers... and realize quickly I'm not ready to defeat Leader Wattson. I went back to Cycling Road with the newly acquired Acro Bike, and it's at this point that I realize Magnemite and Magneton are 4x resistant to Flying-type attacks. Wing Attack has consistently been my strongest move up to this point, so I am in trouble. Even after Cloud evolved, it wouldn't help given Gyarados's early game learnset of Tackle and Bite (Magnemite resists dark-type moves in Gen III). I end up having to use strategy to beat Wattson.


Gym Leader Wattson:

Spoiler:
Okay, so Wattson has three Pokémon: a level 22 Magnemite with Thunder Wave, Thunder Shock, Sonic Boom, and Supersonic; a level 20 Voltorb (which I didn't know had self-destruct until after starting this post); and a level 23 Magneton with FREAKING SHOCKWAVE which never misses. This must have felt cathartic to the dude after all the times I've annihilated his team with a Marshtomp.

It was hard enough getting past Magnemite once, but when I saw Magneton's Shockwave, I knew I had to get ruthless. I ended up doing something I've never done before: buying X Attacks in the hopes of using them in bulk against a formidable foe. I also bought three dire hits (not knowing that only one of them can be used at a time).

The plan was to use Double Team at least twice (probably three times) to get Magnemite to miss, so I could use all six X Attack items and one dire hit on my level 25 Swellow (which would level up before fighting the evolved Magneton). The plan is for me to one-shot every member of his team thanks to a critical hit on Magneton. This became much more complicated though.

1) Magnemite will always go for Thunder Wave immediately and make multiple attempts if the move misses due to my Pokémon's raised evasion, which is useful for the "Double Team" setup.

2) Sometimes Magnemite will continuously use Thundershock (which has a lot of power points by the way), which... is less encouraging because one use of Thundershock depletes more than half of Swellow's HP, and X Special was not available at the Mart in Mauville.

3) Sonic Boom deals exactly 20 hit points of damage every time (a half Dragon Rage if you will), but I didn't know that until I'd done like 20 attempts at Wattson. Sonic Boom is the damaging move I'd want to see in this fight because I won't need to heal until I see two of them.

4) The 4 Full Restores from the Zigzagoon's "Pickup" ability really came in handy. I was able to wait until Swellow was at low HP before I had to heal even after Swellow suffered paralysis. That said, the 20 or so Super Potions were nice to have as well.

All right, so I did all the setup, which was quite nerve-wracking because it felt like this fight was gonna have to go perfect for me to win. I use Quick Attack on Magnemite, and ... it survives with barely any HP? What? That didn't happen before. Wattson heals, and the same thing happens with Quick Attack again. Then I used one more Quick Attack and finally defeated the Magnemite. (Note that I'd only done this four or five times before this attempt because I usually lost to the Magnemite trying to do all this setup.) I defeated the Voltorb in one hit. Then, Magnemite suffers a critical hit from my Swellow's Quick Attack, and ... it hangs on with about 1 HP? What? Then it happened: the miracle. Swellow survived Shockwave with 1 HP out of 74 HP! Yeah! Wattson used his second Super Potion, but I again knock Magneton down to about 1 HP with two more uses of Quick Attack before Swellow gets KOed from Shockwave. I'm really nervous about which Water/Flying-type to send out at this point. I need to out-speed this guy. Cloud the Gyarados flexes its Intimidate ability before defeating the Magneton with a simple Tackle. I'd won! I'd overcome adversary, and I was so proud! Dang, that was hard, but it was satisfying to overcome!


(I realize now this message wasn't really that long, but it felt like it in my head as I was typing it.)

Infer12 April 11th, 2023 1:05 PM

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark
Update 2 (Cipher Lab -> Pyrite Town)


I continued my way through Cipher Lab and caught Carvanha from Cipher Peon Cabol. After getting the ID card to access the elevator, I battled Naps to free the professor. The battle wasn't too hard but Rhyhorn did deal a lot of damage and took my Carvanha out. Dig from Mightyena came in handy before it knocked out another mon. I also found a leaf stone to evolve Nuzleaf after it learns fainth attack at LV 31. Cipher Admin Lovrina was kind of a pushover, Nuzleaf and Houndour sweeped her with giga drain and ember. I picked the Data Rom
up that Lovrina dropped and brought the professor back to the lab. Once there, I purified Carvanha in the now completed Purify Chamber.

I then went to Pyrite Town so Nett at ONBS could decode the Data Rom. I battled the trainers in town and defeated the first 4 trainers at Pyrite Colosseum to get the TM for Brick Break that I taught to Nuzleaf. With that done, I delivered the Data Rom to Nett and went to the Rock Poké Spot to look for Duking. I fought Mirror B at the Cave Poké Spot and demolished him
with Mightyena's poison fang. Luck was also with me as my first encounter there was Wooper but you'll see later why I caught him.

Returning to Pyrite Town, ONBS was overrun by team Cipher who were looking for the Data Rom. As I made my through the building Houndour evolved into Houndoom. At the top
I battled Cipher Cmdr Exol. Loudred and Mawile fell easily to ember and brick break but Girafarig and Raichu posed a problem. I didn't expect Girafarig to have shock wave so it immediately took down my Carvanha. Raichu just hit like a truck but dig saved me again.

Before I went to Phenac City I traded Wooper for Duking's Larvitar. Did you guys know it comes with DRAGON DANCE and OUTRAGE at LV 20!? Crazy! Anyway, that does give me a full
team of dark types (or will be). I also cleared area 1 and 2 of Mt. Battle.

My Team:
Spoiler:
Umbreon LV 24
Quick Attack/Pursuit/Bite/Sand Attack

Mightyena LV 24
Dig/Heal Bell/Poison Fang/Bite

Houndoom LV 24
Faint Attack/Ember/Charm/Roar

Nuzleaf LV 26
Giga Drain/Refresh/Bullet Seed/Brick Break

Carvanha LV 24
Water Pulse/Refresh/Crunch/Scary Face

Larvitar LV 20
Dragon Dance/Outrage/Sandstorm/Bite

Explorer of Time April 11th, 2023 3:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infer12 (Post 10621248)
Did you guys know it comes with DRAGON DANCE and OUTRAGE at LV 20!? Crazy!

I did, actually. I was planning to do a Dark monotype of XD as my own next run well before you came along just now. I don't plan on keeping Outrage for long in my own run, though.

Infer12 April 11th, 2023 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Explorer of Time (Post 10621269)
I did, actually. I was planning to do a Dark monotype of XD as my own next run well before you came along just now. I don't plan on keeping Outrage for long in my own run, though.

You really should, it's been so much fun! And now that you say it, I'm also probably gonna ditch Outrage. I kind of forgot dragon is special before the split.

Infer12 April 13th, 2023 1:10 PM

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark
Update 3 (Pyrite Town -> Phenac City)


I rebattled some trainers at Agate Village, Gateon Port and the Pokémon HQ Lab for the extra exp. Carvanha also learned icy wind from the move tutor in Agate. Then I went to Realgam Tower, being sent there from Phenac City and completed a couple of battle CD's. In Phenac City, I discovered that Cipher members had replaced the people living there. To save the city I battled them and the Hexagon Brothers but didn't run into much issues there. The battle against Cipher Admin Snattle was another story. At first Quagsire was quickly disposed of by Nuzleaf's giga drain but then Lunatone was sent out and the combo of its shadow sky, shadow wave and Lanturn's shock wave took out 4 of my mons. I did manage to knock Lanturn out and catch Lunatone but Castform's water pulse K.O.'ed Larvitar so I only had Umbreon left at a quarter health. After reviving Houndoom, the both of them knocked out Castform and Metang ok fast but I cut it close. With that done the city was saved.

My Team:
Spoiler:
Umbreon LV 28
Quick Attack/Pursuit/Bite/Sand Attack

Mightyena LV 28
Dig/Heal Bell/Poison Fang/Bite

Houndoom LV 27
Bite/Ember/Charm/Roar

Nuzleaf LV 27
Giga Drain/Refresh/Bullet Seed/Brick Break

Carvanha LV 28
Water Pulse/Icy Wind/Crunch/Screech

Larvitar LV 28
Dragon Dance/Outrage/Rock Slide/Bite

Reginald Cosmic April 13th, 2023 2:15 PM

Explorer of Time, when I get around to the Fire-Type run, I need to buy Flamethrower TMs at the Game Corner. Can you please direct me to a thread on how to do that in accordance to the rules?

Explorer of Time April 13th, 2023 3:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10621763)
Explorer of Time, when I get around to the Fire-Type run, I need to buy Flamethrower TMs at the Game Corner. Can you please direct me to a thread on how to do that in accordance to the rules?

If you're emulating, you can use PKHeX on your save file. Use it, open your .SAV file, then click on the SAV tab in the upper right. Then, click on the "Block Data" button in the bottom half of the new screen. Click on the number to the right of "coin" and change it to any number up to 9999, then save your game and buy the TMs. Repeat as necessary if you need to spend more than 9999 coins. Alternatively, you could click into the "Items" tab below Block Data, click the TMHMs pocket, and give yourself the TM35s (Flamethrower) directly, but this will cause problems if you're playing a romhack that expands your bag size. Don't do either option until you actually have the Coin Case, though.

If you're playing on real hardware, using a cheating device like a GameShark would be acceptable as well, but I don't know how to do it safely so I'd recommend against it. If you can't do this, either, Ruby and Sapphire are two of the easier games to grind money in if you need to get them completely legit, since you can rematch Rich Boy Winston or Lady Cindy with a Pokemon holding the Amulet Coin starting after the fifth gym, and get enough money to outright buy coins for your TMs at a half dozen or so rematches per TM. If you switch to another Pokemon with Thief, you can steal a Nugget in each match too. (Trainer's Eye trainers like these two have a 31% chance of being rematchable after each 255 steps on their map, so just use the Mach Bike on Route 104 to speed that up.)

A third alternative to avoid that accursed gambling minigame, is to just trade in Pokemon holding TM35s once you get your Coin Case, if you have another save file that already has enough money to buy more.

Reginald Cosmic April 13th, 2023 3:46 PM

That's helpful. I'll make sure to follow the advice about waiting until I get the coin case first. Thank you.

Side note: I thought I was in the minority for not liking the slots mini-games. Like, "Bro, just hand me the TM for Flamethrower/Ice Beam/Thunderbolt/Shadow Ball/Iron Tail." (These the TMs at the Rocket Game Corner, which I think is a little different, but that's a lot of really useful TMs hidden behind a steep in-game paywall.)

Can I use this on my current Flying-type run now that I have the coin case? I plan on getting the Thunderbolt TM from Wattson's "New Mauville" side quest, but it'd also be nice to have Ice Beam on Gyarados before [checks notes] the Abandoned Ship. That's like, after Gym 7. What the H?

Explorer of Time April 13th, 2023 4:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10621771)
Can I use this on my current Flying-type run now that I have the coin case? I plan on getting the Thunderbolt TM from Wattson's "New Mauville" side quest, but it'd also be nice to have Ice Beam on Gyarados before [checks notes] the Abandoned Ship. That's like, after Gym 7. What the H?

Absolutely.

Ahri April 13th, 2023 5:03 PM

User: Ahri
Type: Bug
Game(s): Red/ Soul Silver/ Alpha Sapphire/ Platinum/ White 2/ Y/ Moon/ Shield
Single / Ultimate: Ultimate (up to Sword & Shield as I don't own Scarlett and Violet yet)
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode

Reginald Cosmic April 13th, 2023 6:01 PM

Why did PokeHex direct me to a site pretending to be Microsoft? I know enough about computers that I recognized the trick of putting "microsoft." before the actual domain to give the illusion that it's the real Microsoft domain. I downloaded .NET from the real Microsoft, but I'm very much worried about downloading malware after opening the executable.

Explorer of Time April 13th, 2023 6:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10621790)
Why did PokeHex direct me to a site pretending to be Microsoft? I know enough about computers that I recognized the trick of putting "microsoft." before the actual domain to give the illusion that it's the real Microsoft domain. I downloaded .NET from the real Microsoft, but I'm very much worried about downloading malware after opening the executable.

After checking it on my own, the .NET link is actually from Microsoft. The domain is dotnet.microsoft.com, which means microsoft.com is the actual domain and the dotnet part is cosmetic. If it were microsoft.(othersitename), it'd be a fake. I've used this program several times and it's completely safe.

Reginald Cosmic April 13th, 2023 7:34 PM

I don't have an explanation. I swear I thought it said microsoft first (before the domain), but I was quick to close the tab, and Firefox doesn't store my downloads reverse-chronologically. Nonetheless, I've edited the file to where I'll 4,000 coins, and it appears to be working. The coin case says I have 4,000 which is what I want, and none of my Pokémon have turned into "bad eggs" (although now that I've said that, I think that might be a relic from 2009 YouTube). I still have the original save file in case something goes horribly wrong, but I don't think anything's going to go wrong. TL;DR Thank you, and sorry for doubting you.

Infer12 April 15th, 2023 2:06 PM

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark
Update 4 (Phenac City -> Pokémon HQ Lab)


I did quite a lot today but don't really have much time to write so I'll keep it brief.

- Tried to go to S.S. Libra but scooter got stuck in sand
- Makan at Gateon Port upgraded my scooter after I found him at Kaminko's House
- Grinded for Poké Coupons at Mt. Battle to get flamethrower for Houndoom (Carvanha, Nuzleaf & Larvitar evolved)
- Found Bonsly at S.S. Libra but Team Snagem stole my snag machine after putting me to sleep (I found the tm for flamethrower there so the grinding was pointless 😅)
- Found out about the Snagem Hideout from Hordel at Outskirt Stand (also battled Mirror B)
- Cleared out Snagem Hideout and found the tm for Psychic which I taught to Umbreon (fighting coverage!)
- Defeated Gonzap and got my snag machine back
- Infiltrated the Cipher Key Lair with Team Snagem's help. Found the System Lever and used it to short-circuit the Lair, making it unable to produce Shadow Pokemon. (found earthquake for Pupitar)
- Defeated Gorigan and Mr. Verich reveals himself as Greevil, Cipher's Boss. He's hiding on Citadark Isle.
- Got the master ball from the professor
- I can now use the newly completed ROBO Kyogre to reach Citadark Isle

I kind of overleveled by accident by grinding for Poké Coupons at Mt. Battle so the battles were pretty easy. The levels are catching up though so I think Citadark Isle will be more of a challenge.

My Team:
Spoiler:
Umbreon LV 40
Quick Attack/Psychic/Bite/Confuse Ray

Mightyena LV 36
Dig/Heal Bell/Poison Fang/Bite

Houndoom LV 40
Bite/Flamethrower/Charm/Roar

Shiftry LV 41
Giga Drain/Faint Attack/Fake Out/Brick Break

Sharpedo LV 40
Water Pulse/Icy Wind/Crunch/Slash

Pupitar LV 40
Dragon Dance/Earthquake/Rock Slide/Bite

Reginald Cosmic April 15th, 2023 10:55 PM

I'll provide a full synopsis tomorrow, but I wanted to ask a question now and get it over with.

Norman handed me the TM for Facade, and I said, "Yeah, I'll be sure to chuck that in the trash," but then, I realized Facade is going to be really useful.

The move Facade has 70 base power, which isn't much, but it's doubled 140 if the user is poisoned, paralyzed, or burned. Now we're gonna put a pin in that for a second. Swellow has the ability "Guts." Guts boosts attack during poison, paralysis, and burn, and importantly, Guts bypasses the rule about burned Pokémon losing half their physical attack. Swellow is also a Normal/Flying-type, so Facade gets the Same Type Attack Bonus (or STAB as you likely know). Silk Scarf also boosts normal-type attacks by 10%. You following me? That's 140 base power times 150% physical attack stat times 1.5 because of STAB times 1.1 from the Silk Scarf. That comes out to... [checks calculator] 346.5 power (rounded up or down). Swellow might just nuke Glacia's team for the Hell of it! She's gonna scream out "I'm losing to a bird!"

Oh, right, the question! Um, how do I burn Swellow? Is it possible to encounter a Vulpix on Mt. Pyre, wait around until it uses Will-O-Wisp, and then just be super careful about healing Swellow at the Pokémon Center?

EDIT: I've done something I've never done before. I looked into the math involved in damage calculation, and I checked my IVs with PokeHex to save myself from having to do even more math. Anyway, assuming Swellow goes in at level 55 with Guts in full effect, I would be very close to defeating Glacia's Walrein in one use of Facade. (As far as I know, the Elite Four members do not have Pokémon with EVs or IVs, so I used an even 100 for Walrein's defense.) It's 178.9 damage out of 179, but that's assuming for a perfect 100/100 for the "random" aspect of the Gen III damage formula.

Level = 55

Power = 77 (that's 70 x 110% for Silk Scarf)

A = 156 (that's 104 x 150% for Guts)

D = 100 (assuming I'm correct in my assumption that Walrein will not have IVs or EVs).

Burn is ignored, and DoubleDamage is in effect.

Note: The attack stat (before Guts) at level 57 is 107, and that still might not be enough. I want to one shot each and every member of her team!

Infer12 April 16th, 2023 9:56 AM

Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark
Update 5 (Pokémon HQ Lab -> Citadark Isle)


I finally arrived at Citadark Isle and I began to make my way through the island. I was still a bit overleveled for the normal trainers so they were easily defeated. I did swap my Mightyena for the Shadow Sableye I caught from the first trainer there. I purified it with the help of vivid scents and taught it shock wave. The real difficulty came with Greevil's bodyguards. First Ardos: Alakazam's elemental punches & Kingdra's Hydro Pump took out half of my team so that it was only my Umbreon, Houndoom & Sableye against his Shadow Electabuzz & Snorlax. His Snorlax used Shadow End to K.O. Houndoom & Sableye but Houndoom's flamethrower did knock out Electabuzz before fainting. Umbreon then knocked out Snorlax with Psychic but he only had a 1/4 of its health left! Then Eldes: Ninjask surprisingly did a lot of damage as its Silver Wind was STAB and super effective. Its Salamence & Flygon came on the field at the same time and knocked out 4 of my mons but with icy wind speed drops I managed to knock them out. In the end I only had Sableye against his Lapras and with the combo of confuse ray and shock wave I won the battle.

At last I confronted Greevil. I caught Shadow Lugia with the master ball. (I'm obviously not gonna use it) The battle against his team of six Shadow Pokémon was rough! Rhydon, Exeggutor & Tauros went down to a super effective water pulse, flamethrower & brick break but did K.O. half my team with Shadow moves. My Pupitar came through against the birds. I set up with 3 dragon dances while healing with items on Umbreon's turns. He knocked out Zapdos & Moltres in 1 hit with rock slide but it missed Arcticuno. It knocked out my Pupitar, bye bye stat boosts! I revived Pupitar with a max revive and luckily Articuno targeted Sableye instead of Pupitar, knocking it out, but in turn I won the battle with Rock Slide.

Only 1 pokemon left but I did complete my first monotype run! This was so much fun, I think I'm gonna do The Type Mastery Challenge next, we'll see.

Final Team:
Spoiler:
Umbreon LV 49
Quick Attack/Psychic/Bite/Confuse Ray

Sableye LV 48
Shadow Ball/Faint Attack/Shock Wave/Confuse Ray

Houndoom LV 50
Bite/Flamethrower/Charm/Shadow Ball

Shiftry LV 49
Giga Drain/Faint Attack/Fake Out/Brick Break

Sharpedo LV 48
Water Pulse/Icy Wind/Crunch/Slash

Pupitar LV 50
Dragon Dance/Earthquake/Rock Slide/Bite

Infer12 April 16th, 2023 11:02 AM

I can't help myself! I really want to start another monotype run and the Type Mastery Challenge is calling my name. I'm going to start with fighting type in Alpha Sapphire.

User: Infer12
Game(s): Crystal (Fire), Sapphire (Psychic), Ruby (Ground), Emerald (Grass), Leafgreen (Ice), Diamond (Flying), Platinum (Steel), White (Bug), White 2 (Electric), Black 2 (Poison), X (Ghost), Alpha Sapphire (Fighting), Omega Ruby (Water), Sun (Fairy), Ultra Moon (Rock), Solar Light & Lunar Dark (Normal), GS Chronicles (Dragon), Insurgence (Dark)
Challenge Type: Type Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode

Explorer of Time April 16th, 2023 2:40 PM

Pokémon Colosseum (Standard Mode)
Mono-Water - Aqua Admin Walter
Update 5 (Snagem Hideout -> Outskirt Stand)


One last update for my Colosseum challenge, covering the entire postgame. Most of the battles were pretty easy, but Somek, Agnol, and Fein all fainted four of my Pokemon in their respective boss battles.

Now that that's done, I'm going to take a page from the Valentine's Day challenge I did recently and rate each party member on a scale of 1-10, in terms of how much I enjoyed using them.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised that, even despite the extremely limited selection of Pokemon, I was able to find a role for all six available Water-types in Colosseum. Feraligatr was the MVP of the challenge, with both Surf and the Special Attack to make use of it, Ice Beam and Brick Break for coverage, and Rain Dance to set up stronger Water moves across my whole team. 8/10.

Suicune functioned as a stronger, but less versatile version of Feraligatr, with better setup since it could learn Reflect. That being said, it didn't have a way to hit other Water-types for neutral damage, and Water-types were ironically a major thorn in my side because I couldn't learn any Grass or Electric moves on my whole team to hit them super-effectively. I'd rate it 5/10, and if I had more options it would probably be the one to be replaced.

Quagsire was an excellent check against Electric Pokemon, which were the type my team was weakest against. However, it was quadruple-weak to grass, very slow, and the doubles format made it so Earthquake would hit any Pokemon it teamed up with that wasn't Mantine. Still, hitting two Pokemon, often for super-effective damage against a type that threatened the entire rest of my team, was often worth it. 7/10.

Qwilfish, while not the strongest member of my team, was unexpectedly good. As my best physical attacker, and part-Poison Pokemon that had access to STAB Sludge Bomb, it covered my team's Grass weakness really well, and its high speed made it the best possible Toxic user in my party. 9/10.

Octillery was fragile and slow, but it did offer me some coverage options with Psychic and Flamethrower that I couldn't get anywhere else on my team. Its mono-Water typing wasn't spectacular, though, since I already had two better ones in my party, and it was brought down heavily by Colosseum's lack of access to the Surf HM. 5.5/10.

Finally, Mantine gave me the excellent Confuse Ray, which I comboed with Attract, giving me two good status moves to make up for Mantine's lackluster attack movepool. Like Octillery, it didn't get access to Surf but would've been much better with it. It also had a terrible attack stat that couldn't take advantage of its part-Flying typing. Thankfully, it had an amazing Special Defense and its part-Flying type helped it avoid Quagsire's Earthquakes, and it along with Qwilfish made Grass-types much easier to deal with than they were in the early game. Thus, even with the downsides, it's still a 6/10.

I'm going to take a short break from playing Pokemon for a while so I can finish up Golden Sun: TLA, then come back and play my mono-Dark run of XD. I'll still be checking the thread daily, though.

Team

Spoiler:
https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/feraligatr.png Feraligatr (♂) | Water | Level 65
Moves: Surf, Ice Beam, Brick Break, Rain Dance
201 HP / 160 Atk / 148 Def / 124 SpA / 143 SpD / 135 Spe
Ability: Torrent | Nature: Timid | Item: Black Belt

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/quagsire.png Quagsire (♂) | Water/Ground | Level 63
Moves: Surf, Earthquake, Ice Beam, Amnesia
224 HP / 131 Atk / 124 Def / 92 SpA / 102 SpD / 79 Spe
Ability: Damp | Nature: Jolly | Item: Quick Claw

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/octillery.png Octillery (♀) | Water | Level 61
Moves: Bubblebeam, Psychic, Ice Beam, Flamethrower
187 HP / 156 Atk / 112 Def / 132 SpA / 120 SpD / 86 Spe
Ability: Suction Cups | Nature: Jolly | Item: Twistedspoon

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/mantine.png Mantine (♀) | Water/Flying | Level 61
Moves: Water Pulse, Ice Beam, Confuse Ray, Attract
177 HP / 75 Atk / 108 Def / 112 SpA / 212 SpD / 103 Spe
Ability: Water Absorb | Nature: Careful | Item: NeverMeltIce

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/qwilfish.png Qwilfish (♂) | Water/Poison | Level 62
Moves: Surf, Sludge Bomb, Shadow Ball, Toxic
171 HP / 139 Atk / 112 Def / 95 SpA / 107 SpD / 137 Spe
Ability: Poison Point | Nature: Gentle | Item: Poison Barb

https://play.pokemonshowdown.com/sprites/gen3rs/suicune.png Suicune (⚥) | Water | Level 64
Moves: Surf, Ice Beam, Reflect, Rain Dance
214 HP / 120 Atk / 170 Def / 167 SpA / 172 SpD / 142 Spe
Ability: Pressure| Nature: Modest | Item: Mystic Water

*denotes new Pokemon/moves/items

Infer12 April 17th, 2023 12:59 AM

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (Standard Mode)
Mono-Fighting
Update 1 (Littleroot Town -> Route 109)


To make the game a little harder, I'm adding some extra rules: level limit at gym leader's highest level pokemon and only 3 items can be used per battle.

- Got Torchic and named it Vulcan (I'm going for a roman/greek gods theme)
- Had a Tackle/Scratch battle with Brendan and had to use a potion
- Caught a male Ralts and named it Apollo (only took 15 min which is pretty good for a 2% encounter)
- Caught a Shroomish and named it Demeter

Gym Leader Roxanne
Spoiler:
- 2 Absorbs knocked out Geodude but 2 Rock Tombs brought Shroomish to 1 hp 😅 (I was faster at first but Rock Tomb lowered my speed)
- Switched to Torchic, healed Shroomish with potion but Rock Tomb from Nosepass K.O.'ed Torchic
- Used Leech Seed with Shroomish on Nosepass
- We traded Tackled and Absorbs until I knocked out Nosepass
- Got Stone Badge and TM for Rock Tomb


- Caught Makuhita and named it Bacchus
- Trained in Granite Cave and Torchic evolved into Combusken (finally some fighting types!)

Gym Leader Brawly
Spoiler:
- Took out Machop with combo of Peck and Ember with Combusken after he healed it with a potion
- Machop only used Leer and Bulk Up
- Took out Makuhita with 2 Confusions from Ralts
- Makuhita used Sand Attack so I took no damage this battle
- Got Knuckle Badge and TM for Bulk Up


- Mr. Briney took me to Route 109

My Team:
Spoiler:
Combusken Lv 16
Peck/Ember/Rock Tomb/Double Kick

Ralts Lv 16
Disarming Voice/Confusion/Double Team/Lucky Chant

Shroomish Lv 16
Mega Drain/Headbutt/Stun Spore/Leech Seed

Makuhita Lv 13
Bulk Up/Force Palm/Rock Tomb/Fake Out

Infer12 April 17th, 2023 11:01 AM

I want to evolve my ralts into gallade in Alpha Sapphire. Can I use super training to get a dawn stone? Otherwise I have to wait until victory road.

Explorer of Time April 17th, 2023 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infer12 (Post 10622678)
I want to evolve my ralts into gallade in Alpha Sapphire. Can I use super training to get a dawn stone? Otherwise I have to wait until victory road.

Yes, absolutely. Using Super Training, whether for items or EVs, is totally fine.

Reginald Cosmic April 17th, 2023 3:55 PM

The full update from right after Wattson's defeat all the way through the 5th gym leader

Spoiler:
I began by healing the team since my Swellow fainted during the epic battle against that monster Wattson. The team consists of Earhart the Swellow (level 26), Wilbur the Wingull (level 18), Cloud the Gyarados (level 21), and Luna the Zubat (level 18), and also, I was carrying around two Zigzagoon named Ed and Edd (for Pickup). Sorry, Eddy. Ed already knew Cut, so I taught it Rock Smash, so I could proceed north.

I ran into reporter Gabby and cameraman Ty with their Whismur and Magnemite. I couldn't one-shot them with Swellow and Wingull, but this Magnemite was much easier to deal with in comparison to Wattson's. I'll go ahead and tell you that when I looked at the TV, they said I was "ruthlessly strong," but Gabby didn't deliver her monologue about not being able to launch a single attack, or that she lost confidence in herself as a trainer. I don't remember what other things she can say. I'll look it up on Bulbapedia later.

Luna evolved into Golbat on the north side of Route 112. What was that cave called again? Oh, well. I messed around in Route 113 for quite a while, and it wasn't just because I wanted to collect ash for the Blue Flute, the Yellow Flute, and the Red Flute. Skarmory is a 5% encounter rate on this route (kind of like Pikachu in Viridian Forest). The first time I encountered him, I thought he was a legendary like Articuno. Skarmory kept using "Sand Attack" which had no effect on Wingull thanks to Keen Eye. I eventually caught Skarmory in a Pokeball and named him Hendrix in honor of Jimi Hendrix and his song "Scuze Me While I Kiss the Sky." I was very thankful Skarmory had Sturdy instead of Keen Eye because Steel beats Elite Four Glacia's ice-types. (This was before I realized TM move Facade is better than the Steel Wing strategy by an order of magnitude, but we'll get to that.)

I don't remember when, but I did teach Skarmory "Steel Wing" by means of the TM given to me by Steven Stone instead of teaching it to Swellow and letting Skarmory learn it by level up. It was a tough decision.

I start heading towards Meteor Falls, and my newly acquired Skarmory stared at me like "No rush, Skye, Professor Cozmo is just getting mugged by Team Aqua! [/Sarcasm]" I ran into Lanette who had a very tidy office. I'm absolutely not saying that because she was the saint who told Bill to [hyperlink blocked] himself for making the PC storage system in Kanto such an inconvenience. What was I saying? Oh, right, I caught a Swablu who will one day be a mighty dragon/flying-type Pokemon. I named it "Seto Kaiba" because of it's blue and white color scheme and the dragon typing.

I did eventually make it to Meteor Falls, but Aqua Admin Matt decided it was a bad idea to fight me, and Team Magma Leader Maxie told me something about Land, but I wasn't listening.

I went back down to Rustboro, and... did I mention the Exp. Share from Mr. Stone prior to Route 109 and Slateport? I meant to. Anyway, I wanted to use the Rusturf tunnel, but there was a boulder in the way, so I used Ed's Rock Smash, and this guy in a Karate outfit looked like he was about to cry tears of joy. He was so happy, he gave me HM04 for Strength. Apparently he's dating Wally's cousin, so I went ahead and visited Wally. I also checked on my Golbat's friendship while I was in Verdanturf.

I think this was around the time I did the second challenge from the Trick Master. It was a cop out if I'm being honest; all I did was press some switches in a set order.

I rode the Cable Car to Mt. Chimney and defeated a Team Aqua Grunt, Team Aqua Admin Matt, and Aqua Leader Archie. Archie's Mightyena was tougher than I thought. I eventually scored a Knock-Out with Golbat's Wing Attack, but confusing Mightyena didn't do anything to help. Gosh, this music was good. I sent out Hendrix to defeat his Golbat, and at this point, I was wishing Gyarados had Thunderbolt already. I had to send Wingull out to heal up my other party members. Swellow, now refreshed, finished Golbat with a critical hit, and then Archie sent out Sharpedo, which I defeated with my (also refreshed) Golbat's Wing Attack. Archie retreated and stupidly left me the Meteorite. I took the Meteorite back to Professor Cozmo, and he gave me TM27 Return, which I soon taught to Swellow.

So at this point, I decided "Enough is enough! I've had it with this Game Corner's Tyranny!" So I hacked my 20 coins into 8,000 coins to get the TM24 "Thunderbolt" and TM13 "Ice Beam" for Gyarados. I would give Gyarados the Kaiju moveset of Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Flamethrower/Surf, but I decided, "Man, Earthquake on a Gyarados sounds rad!" Maybe I'll change my mind later when I actually get Earthquake (which will be a while), but I think I'll do Thunderbolt/Ice Beam/Earthquake/Surf. Now that I'm thinking about it though, maybe I could use the Kaiju moveset until I get Earthquake.

I go through Jagged Pass to Lavaridge, and along the way, my Wingull evolves into Pelipper. Unfortunately, it won't get a lot of action after this because I don't need two Water/Flying-type Pokemon on a team consisting of five Pokemon that can learn Fly and one Pokemon (Gyarados) who can't.

I arrive in Lavaridge, and I get a Charcoal from this nice man in the vitamin store--you know, the store where they sell vitamins so bitter, it makes your Pokemon's friendship go down? Yeah, that's a detriment to my favorite TM move Return (not to mention Golbat's friendship evolution introduced in Generation 2).

So this time at Lavaridge Gym, I actually remember to face the very first Gym Trainer before the Gym Leader. I take out the Fire/Rock-type Slugma with Gyarados's Thunderbolt (because I like to flex that rock-types aren't actually resistant to electric-type attacks unless they're dual rock/ground-type), but the Kecleon are surprisingly hard to kill by comparison. I know how to get super effective damage on them of course by doing stuff like, for example, using Thunderbolt or Ice Beam right after Wing Attack, but I was sticking with Gyarados for most of this. Also, Luna evolved into Crobat in this gym: very nice!

Flannery's first Slugma wasn't much of a challenge, especially after it was paralyzed by Thunderbolt, but Sunny Day did scare me a bit, and it just had to survive long enough to poison my level 26 Gyarados AND receive a Super Potion on top of that. I used Dragon Rage to finish it off. The second Slugma put up more of a fight since it knew a rock-type move for fighting my level 26 Crobat, even though it ... kind of just used Flamethrower? Does poison resist rock? I used Wilbur the Pelipper against Flannery's Torkoal, and it actually pressured me into having to use one of my two Full Restores (because Body Slam paralyzed Wilbur). It used Overheat which would be very strong, but it lowers the user's special attack by two stages, so it's useless, and I ended up scoring the win by using Water Gun one more time. Flannery hands me the Heat Badge and the useless TM for Overheat.'

I walk out of the gym, and now Rival May comes out of ... What the Hell was she doing in the vitamin shop? Come to think of it, her name is never on the Winning Trainers list at the gyms. Has she beaten a single gym leader? Well, anyway, she hands me the Go Goggles for the desert, and I'm finally allowed to challenge Leader Norman.

Now that I can use Strength in the overworld, I go and get the TM for Toxic, which I will teach to Luna the Crobat later.

(I'm going to skip the stuff with the desert cuz it's uneventful. I didn't even bother with any fossils.)

I challenge the Trick Master, and it's switches again, but this time, it's a bit more eventful. Still though, nothing much gets in my way.

So I enter the Petalburg Gym. I go through the speed room, the defense room, and the strength room. I was trying to get Skarmory to a higher level at this point, so I kept him up front for most of it.

After defeating all of the Cool Trainers, I finally challenge Leader Norman. He sends out Slaking the LAZY Pokemon... with 670 base stats. Slaking is too tough to get into the 600 club with the Pseudo Legendaries. I begin the fight with Cloud's Thunderbolt because its worse stat is special defense, but I then realized that Dragon Rage is the way to go. Unfortunately, Norman healed, and I was like, "Damn it, I knew he could heal on TRUANT's "loafing around" turns." What a weasel! So I used a Super Potion on Gyarados, and Norman's Slaking knocked me right back down, so I stupidly forgot about Truant and used my Full Restore instead of just healing with Super Potion twice. The good news is Norman didn't use a second Hyper Potion on Slaking. The bad news is I still gotta be a Vigoroth and ANOTHER SLAKING. Vigoroth and Skarmory were kind of at a stalemate cuz Vigoroth can only deal "not very effective" damage with Faint Attack, Facade, and Slash, and using Skarmory's Swift was taking too long, then Norman used another Hyper Potion, and I healed too. This went on for a while. Looking back on this gym battle footage I recorded is making me want to grab a snack cuz I'm bored. It goes down after quite some time before Skarmory finally defeats Vigoroth. I send out Earhart the Swellow (at level 28, close to level 29) to finish the job. I started spamming Return because I know this Slaking has Focus Punch, which will cause the user to flinch if the user is hit with something. Norman went for this twice, and I managed to defeat Slaking in four uses of Return.

Norman asks me to go next door to Wally's parents, who gift me HM03 Surf. They sure are thankful Wally has a great friend like me.

...Wally ran away, and no one knows where he went...

Whoops.


The "Man, this update is long. I aint' reading all that!" version:

Spoiler:
* Proceeded north towards Fallarbor Town.

* I caught a Spinda, and I eventually taught it HM move Strength.

* I caught a Skarmory and named it "Hendrix" in honor of "Scuze Me While I Kiss The Sky" by Jimi Hendrix

* I went down to Rustboro and shattered the rocks in Rusturf tunnel in exchange for HM04 (Strength)

* I defeated Aqua Leader Archie at Mt. Chimney and returned the meteorite to Professor Cozmo for TM move "Return" which I taught to Swellow

* I defeated Flannery

* Rival May gave me the Go Goggles, so I battled some picnickers in the desert, but I didn't bother with the fossils.

* I did the both challenges of the Trick Master

* I challenged all the Cool Trainers in Norman's gym.

* I defeated Gym Leader Norman


Infer12 April 19th, 2023 2:51 AM

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (Standard Mode)
Mono-Fighting
Update 2 (Route 109 -> Petalburg City)


Rival Battle Route 110:
Spoiler:
- Guessed correctly that Shroomish would lead so Ember from Combusken 2HKO'ed it
- Switched into Ralts and 1HKO'ed Marshtomp with Magical Leaf
- Knocked out Slugma with Fake Out + Rock Tomb from Makuhita


- Ralts evolved into Kirlia from rival battle
- Got Dawn Stone from super training
- Kirlia evolved into Gallade (Gave it TM for Bulldoze, Power-Up Punch & Aerial Ace)
- Trained everyone to lv 21

Gym Leader Wattson:
Spoiler:
- Makuhita lead vs his Magnemite
- Both lost a turn to Fake Out & Thunder Wave paralysation
- Switched to Voltorb with Volt Switch
- After a Force Palm from me, Volt Switched back to Magnemite and KO'ed Makuhita
- Switched Combusken in and KO'ed Magnemite with Ember
- Switched to Gallade
- Swept rest of his team with Bulldoze
- Got Dynamo Badge and TM for Volt Switch


- Caught Machop and named it Mars
- Shroomish evolved into Breloom
- Makuhita evolved into Hariyama
- Taught Gallade Night Slash & Close Combat!!! with the move relearner in Fallarbor Town
- Battled Team Aqua at Meteor Falls
- Chased them to Mt. Chimney

Aqua Leader Archie:
Spoiler:
- Machop lead vs his Mightyena
- 2HKO'ed it with Low Sweep
- Switched to Hariyama against his Golbat
- It used Confuse Ray and I got a hit in with Rock Tomb
- Hit myself in confusion + Wing Attack knock Hariyama out
- Machop switch-in gets taken out by Air Cutter (didn't do anything, so stupid of me!)
- Gallade finished it with Night Slash and 1HKO'ed Sharpedo with Close Combat


- Trained everyone to around lv 28
- Machop evolved into Machoke

Gym Leader Flannery:
Spoiler:
- Machoke lead vs her Slugma
- Dig knocked out Slugma while it set up Sunny Day
- Torkoal comes out and sets up 2 Curses while I use Dig
- Another Dig dodges Torkoal's Overheat but the next one hits just as the sun fades 😅
- After the 3rd Curse, Flannery uses a hyper potion (I used Knock Off)
- Torkoal takes out both Machoke & Hariyama (In between, I switched Breloom in and out to use Leech Seed)
- Combusken KO'ed Torkoal with Rock Tomb + Leech Seed damage
- Gallade KO'ed Numel with Close Combat
- Got Heat Badge and TM for Overheat


- Trained everyone to around lv 30 (in the desert + trainer rematches)
- Machoke evolved into Machamp

Gym Leader Norman
Spoiler:
- Gallade lead vs his Slaking
- 1HKO'ed it with Close Combat (He used Yawn)
- Switched to Machamp against his Vigoroth
- 2HKO'ed it with Wake-Up Slap
- 1HKO'ed the last Slaking with Gallade's Close Combat
- Got Balance Badge and TM for Retaliation


My Team:
Spoiler:
Combusken Lv 30
Flame Charge/Incinerate/Rock Tomb/Double Kick

Gallade Lv 31
Aerial Ace/Night Slash/Close Combat/Psycho Cut

Breloom Lv 30
Mega Drain/Force Palm/Mach Punch/Leech Seed

Hariyama Lv 30
Belly Drum/Vital Throw/Rock Tomb/Fake Out

Machamp Lv 30
Dig/Wake-Up Slap/Bulk Up/Knock Off

Morzoelin April 19th, 2023 6:27 AM

User: Morzoelin
Type: Ghost
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Single
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode

Looking through the challenger list, I apparently started an Ultimate run in the past but I don't have a type listed and don't remember what I was doing so I just want to abandon it.

Also what is an Elite 4 viable pokemon?

Explorer of Time April 19th, 2023 10:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Morzoelin (Post 10623121)
User: Morzoelin
Type: Ghost
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Single
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode

Looking through the challenger list, I apparently started an Ultimate run in the past but I don't have a type listed and don't remember what I was doing so I just want to abandon it.

Also what is an Elite 4 viable pokemon?

Your Ghost-type challenge has been added and your Water-type ultimate challenge has been removed.

An Elite 4 viable Pokemon is just any Pokemon strong enough to defeat one of the Elite 4's Pokemon. The reason you need at least two of them is to stop people from soloing the League with only one Pokemon, since this forum has a separate challenge thread for solo challenges.

Reginald Cosmic April 19th, 2023 10:35 PM

Note: I'm still doing the Flying-type run. Don't worry. I'm just planning out the Ice-Type run to get myself mentally prepared.

What do you guys think about this setup?

Walrein #1: Surf, Blizzard, Hail, Toxic* (Modest/Quiet nature)

Glalie #1: Crunch, Hail, Blizzard, Light Screen

Walrien #2: Earthquake*, Strength, Ice Beam*, Rock Tomb* (Adamant/Brave nature)

Glalie #2: Crunch, Ice Beam, Shadow Ball, Flash

HM Pokemon: Spheal (Waterfall/Dive/Rock Smash) and Wingull (Fly)

An asterisk (*) indicates a move that must be taught by TM.

I realized as I was finishing posting this that... no, a hailstorm does not guarantee Blizzard will hit in Gen III, according to Bulbapedia. This is still useful for Glalie ... or at least it would be if Ice Body was in Gen III. I honestly might only keep three non-HM Pokemon in my party. On the bright side, I am guaranteed thick fat on my starting Spheal, which means fewer resets needed to get one that can beat Flannery's gym.

For the nature of the two Walrein, I'm thinking I really should invest the time in getting a Modest nature starter Spheal, but if I can't, I might do Quiet nature. Something similar can be said about the physical attacker: Adamant is prefered, but I might go with Brave.

I'd like to hear from you guys though. Should I absolutely make my starting Spheal a modest natured one? Should I only use one Glalie, so I can focus on training only three Pokemon? Let me know.

Morzoelin April 20th, 2023 7:55 AM

Pokémon Violet (Standard Mode)
Mono-Ghost
Update 1


OK so first I want to say that I know switch games are expensive and Scarlet and Violet are the newest games so not everyone has played them. That said to keep my updates short and to avoid spoilers for those who haven't played all of my updates for this run will be in spoiler tabs.

Spoiler:
Started the game choosing a male character and naming my self Jessie. Walked downstairs and triggered some cutscenes then ran to my neighbors house.
I met my neighbor and new friend/rival Nemona and chose Fuecoco as my starter (Fuecoco's final evolution is Fire/Ghost). Named my starter Kremy then fought Nemona.

Kremy made short work of Nemona's Sprigatito. After winning I got a sandwich from my mom and Nemona and I headed towards school. I heard a sound, fell off a cliff, and met Miraidon. Went through a cave and then headed up the hill where I met Arven in front of the lighthouse. I beat Arven in a battle and got Miraidon's pokéball as a reward.

After the Arven fight I autobattled Kremy to level 10 then headed to the gates of Mesagoza. On the way there i caught a Lv. 6 pom-pom style Oricorio and named her Do Not Use (After you get 3 gym badges you can buy nectars at which point I'll switch her to the Sensu Style). Battled Nemona at the city gates and just barely won. Entered Mesagoza and did some shopping on the way to school.

Saw someone getting bullied and stepped in fought some Team Star grunts and got the Tera Orb from Nemona but didn't use it. Made it to school finally. Introduced myself to my homeroom then went to the cafeteria where I met Arven again and got my phone hacked by someone named Cassiopeia. Went to the Staff Room where Nemona told me about the Gym Challenge and Pokémon League. Got called to the Director's Office then Nemona showed me to my dorm.

Finally I slept in my bed and triggered a couple of cutscenes and started my "Treasure Hunt" allowing me to truly explore Paldea.

I left Mesagoza from the west gate and turned left heading south. I trained up Kremy a little bit then when it turned night I caught my first true Ghost type a Lv. 21Gastly. I named Gastly Spite and then used him to catch a Lv. 18 Misdreavus I named Luna. Spite was caught at one level to high and wouldn't listen so I put him in Box 1 and moved Luna to the head of the party. Kremy evolved into a Crocalor.

I climbed a tower and caught a Lv. 10 Gimmighoul and named it Treasure. Made it to Cortondo and headed straight for the gym. Completed the Gym Test and challenged the leader Katy. Luna swept Katy's team with ease earning myself the first gym badge. I healed up at the Pokémon Center then called a flying taxi back to Mesagoza.

My team so far:

Lv. 19 Misdreavus NN: Luna
Lv. 17 Crocalor NN: Kremy
Lv. 11 Gimmighoul NN: Treasure
Lv. 13 Oricorio NN: Do Not Use

Notes: As I now have two actual ghost types I will not be using Kremy until he evolves into his final stage and become a ghost type.
Because Oricorio is not ghost type I have not used her and she is only in the party to gain experience from Exp. Share and save me from having to use candies on her later when I change her form.

StenirRPG April 20th, 2023 11:16 AM

Ultimate Fire Run
Sun / #1 / The First Few Islands

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

1.) Through the First Island
2.) Through the Second Island
3.) Through the Electric Trial and Getting My Final Team Member


The full read:
Spoiler:

1. Through the First Island
- Start out with Litten.
- Hate the fight with Ilima. The Smeargle really stinks. Got lucky on my fifth attempt after doing a little bit of grinding.
- Pick up Growlithe on Route 2.
- First Trial: Litten leading the way, Growlithe just soaking up experience.
- Pick up Oricorio, and then trade in a Red Nectar to make it the Fire variant. And then I train it up for the Fighting Grand Trial...
- ...which is stupid easy with all the flying moves from Oricorio, who takes down the entire team on the first try.

2. Through the Second Island
- I pick up Eevee, but then immediately box it as I am not planning on using it right now (though, I might in the future if I need to).
- I basically had to spam Oricorio's flying moves to get through the Water Trial, for obvious reasons. Oricorio is a beast in this run.
- Grass Trial allowed me to continue building up Oricorio and Litten. I'm not going out of my way to focus on Growlithe, since I am not planning on using it as part of my final team unless needed. In hindsight, I probably should have boxed it, but I wanted the option to use all three. But, of course, the Totem was easy enough. I brought Litten in at the end, and the fun began as Sunny Day went off and Fire Fang was an easy answer to win.
- Entering Wela Volcano Peak nets me a Magmar (from a SOS with a Magby, but boxed), a female Salandit (party), a Fletchling (party), and a Cubone (party). Fairly easy Fire type challenge, especially after grinding Cubone a little bit with it's ground moves.
- I get a lot of evolutions done here: Litten to Torracat, Fletchling to Fletchinder, Cubone to Alolan Marowak. I still have my Growlithe in the team, but once I get to the next island, that's getting swapped out.
- Alolan Marowak then happily thrashes Olivia's team with ground type moves, even though it doesn't have STAB any more on them.

3. Electric Trial
- After the fun at Aether, we end up on the third island, and the Electric Trial...which is also a pseudo-bug trial given the Pokemon involved. So, FIRE FIRE FIRE.
- I progress a little to allow me to get to the Power Plant, where I get the final member of my party, Turtonator.
- Time to save, as I'm tired. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Team Stats:

Morzoelin April 21st, 2023 4:26 AM

Pokémon Violet (Standard mode)
Mono-Ghost
Update 2


Spoiler:
My team so far:

Lv. 19 Misdreavus NN: Luna
Lv. 17 Crocalor NN: Kremy
Lv. 11 Gimmighoul NN: Treasure
Lv. 13 Oricorio NN: Do Not Use

Having arrived back in Mesagoza after getting my first badge I headed out of the city's east gate. Following the main path to Artazon I challenged some trainers along the way. Deciding to do some Tera Raids for Exp. Candies the first one I came upon had a Greavard. I entered the one star raid and caught Greavard which I then named Titania (Titania is the queen of the fairies and it was a fairy type tera raid).

Placed Treasure in Box 1 along with a Charcadet I caught. I continued on my way to Artazon until i saw the Stony Cliff Titan. A few hits from Luna was all it took to beat the Titan since it only used moves that had no effect on her. Arven showed up and we fought the Titan again. The second time it only dealt minor damage to Luna instead focusing on Arven's pokémon. Defeating the Titan a second time we entered it's den a retrieved the Sweet Herba Mystica. Arven made some sandwiches and I fed mine to Miraidon wich powered him up and made him remember how to move faster. (I get why they did it but not being able to dash on Miraidon from the start is stupid)

Parting ways with Arven I head down the path finally arriving in Artazon. I complete the Gym Test and challenge Gym Leader Brassius. I lead with Titania to get her some experience and with a bit of luck she powers through his first two Pokémon. I switch to Luna and terastalize before spamming Astonish and beating his Sudowoodo. With Brassius defeated he gives me my second badge and head to the Pokémon Center.

My current team:

Lv. 21 Misdreavus NN: Luna
Lv. 18 Greavard NN: Titania
Lv. 22 Crocalor NN: Kremy
Lv. 16 Oricorio NN: Do Not Use

Notes: The rules say if using a Pokémon not of your type but that evolves into your type you have to evolve it as soon as possible. Since I decided not to use Kremy till he evolves into the ghost typing I've resorted to giving him all my Exp. Candies (excluding rare candies) so that's why he's my highest level despite seeing no battle in this part of the run.

Reginald Cosmic April 22nd, 2023 2:54 PM

I'm not the owner of this thread, but I believe you misunderstood the clause on "Pokemon that evolve into your chosen type." As far as I'm aware, Mudkip is completely allowed during a Ground-type mono run of Hoenn. The actual restriction is as follows: you're not allowed to press B to prevent its evolution into Marshtomp to teach Mudkip Hydro Pump by level up. Another example would be Nidoking in a ground-type run of Gen I or Gen III Kanto. If you're using a Nidorino on this run, you have to use the Moon stone from Mt. Moon on it as soon as possible. I can't think of a reason you wouldn't want to evolve Nidorino right away, but that's an easy example off the top of my head.

(This does not work backwards, so a Nincada is not allowed to evolve into Ninjask and Shedinja in a mono Ground-type run because those Pokemon are not Ground-type. You have to keep pressing B on Nincada's evolution or find an everstone.)

Explorer of Time April 22nd, 2023 7:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10623958)
I'm not the owner of this thread, but I believe you misunderstood the clause on "Pokemon that evolve into your chosen type." As far as I'm aware, Mudkip is completely allowed during a Ground-type mono run of Hoenn. The actual restriction is as follows: you're not allowed to press B to prevent its evolution into Marshtomp to teach Mudkip Hydro Pump by level up. Another example would be Nidoking in a ground-type run of Gen I or Gen III Kanto. If you're using a Nidorino on this run, you have to use the Moon stone from Mt. Moon on it as soon as possible. I can't think of a reason you wouldn't want to evolve Nidorino right away, but that's an easy example off the top of my head.

(This does not work backwards, so a Nincada is not allowed to evolve into Ninjask and Shedinja in a mono Ground-type run because those Pokemon are not Ground-type. You have to keep pressing B on Nincada's evolution or find an everstone.)

This interpretation is correct, but I believe Morzoelin mentioned that he wanted to wait until his Crocalor evolves to use it, which is perfectly reasonable given the party-wide EXP share.

Reginald Cosmic April 22nd, 2023 8:01 PM

I just looked at his second update and thought he got confused, so I thought I'd say something. I have no objections to playing the challenge that way.

I did have a question in regards to my Game Mastery Challenge. I'm just asking for advice here. It applies to more than just the ice-type, but I want to use that as an example cuz it's simple to understand. Spheal will be my only mon until just before Gym 7, and Spheal and Sealeo are (of course) weak to electric-type attacks. Ergo, if I run into a battle I'm not prepared for (let's say a trainer's Pikachu), and Spheal faints, I'm pretty much going to have to reset to my last save point because I feel like using a revive on Spheal while Zigzagoon is on the field is cheating. I mean, the rules don't say that explicitly, but I personally would consider it cheating, at least for myself, to use items while an HM "slave" (that is not of my chosen type) is in battle. Ergo, I'm going to have to save constantly. I'm just trying to think if there's any way to avoid this. Does it really boil down to "every mistake could result in a total wipeout" until Shoal Cave? (In case you can't tell, I am TERRIFIED of Wattson's Magneton for the Ice-Type run.)

I'm currently between Gym #6 and Gym #7 in the Flying-type run. I will probably update after the Team Aqua HQ dungeon.

EDIT: I've never really done breeding before. Can I catch a (male) Numel after Wattson, hand it an Exp. Share, wait for it to evolve into a Camerupt, set my (male) Camerupt on a romantic date with my (female) Spheal, and wait for an egg to fall from the sky and stump the Daycare man as to where it came from, and hatch the egg to find a Spheal with Rockslide? While I'm on the topic, can I produce [coughs violently] I mean, "find" as many of these eggs as needed until I get an Adamant nature Spheal who knows Rockslide? (I think it'd be easier to run around with five eggs at a time as opposed to just one.) Oh, one more thing: Since I'm already going to have to hack in a Spheal as my starter, can I make sure it's female? (I know gender was determined by the physical attack stat or something like that in Gen II, but as far as I know, gender does not affect combat in Gen III, right?)

Explorer of Time April 22nd, 2023 9:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10623997)
I did have a question in regards to my Game Mastery Challenge. I'm just asking for advice here. It applies to more than just the ice-type, but I want to use that as an example cuz it's simple to understand. Spheal will be my only mon until just before Gym 7, and Spheal and Sealeo are (of course) weak to electric-type attacks. Ergo, if I run into a battle I'm not prepared for (let's say a trainer's Pikachu), and Spheal faints, I'm pretty much going to have to reset to my last save point because I feel like using a revive on Spheal while Zigzagoon is on the field is cheating. I mean, the rules don't say that explicitly, but I personally would consider it cheating, at least for myself, to use items while an HM "slave" (that is not of my chosen type) is in battle. Ergo, I'm going to have to save constantly. I'm just trying to think if there's any way to avoid this. Does it really boil down to "every mistake could result in a total wipeout" until Shoal Cave? (In case you can't tell, I am TERRIFIED of Wattson's Magneton for the Ice-Type run.)

Correct, you aren't supposed to use an HM slave not of your type to revive your Pokemon. If your only Ice-type faints, you'll have to either reset or let your HM slave faint.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10623997)
EDIT: I've never really done breeding before. Can I catch a (male) Numel after Wattson, hand it an Exp. Share, wait for it to evolve into a Camerupt, set my (male) Camerupt on a romantic date with my (female) Spheal, and wait for an egg to fall from the sky and stump the Daycare man as to where it came from, and hatch the egg to find a Spheal with Rockslide? While I'm on the topic, can I produce [coughs violently] I mean, "find" as many of these eggs as needed until I get an Adamant nature Spheal who knows Rockslide? (I think it'd be easier to run around with five eggs at a time as opposed to just one.) Oh, one more thing: Since I'm already going to have to hack in a Spheal as my starter, can I make sure it's female? (I know gender was determined by the physical attack stat or something like that in Gen II, but as far as I know, gender does not affect combat in Gen III, right?)

Yes to all of these. Picking a female Spheal is fine, as is training a male Numel for egg moves (just don't have it fight in a trainer battle), and breeding for as many eggs as you want.

Reginald Cosmic April 22nd, 2023 9:49 PM

That second part's a relief to hear. Is the "fast forward" feature on the emulator allowed for breeding purposes? I'm gonna be hatching a lot of these little guys, so without that, it's going to take a very long time to get an Adamant-nature Spheal with Rockslide.

Explorer of Time April 22nd, 2023 10:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10624005)
That second part's a relief to hear. Is the "fast forward" feature on the emulator allowed for breeding purposes? I'm gonna be hatching a lot of these little guys, so without that, it's going to take a very long time to get an Adamant-nature Spheal with Rockslide.

Sure, that's fine.

Infer12 April 27th, 2023 11:34 AM

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (Standard Mode)
Mono-Fighting
Update 3 (Petalburg City -> Lilycove City)


- Did all the optional surf stuff (Sea routes around Dewford, Abandoned Ship & Route 115)
- Machamp learned Dual Chop after defeating Team Aqua at the Weather Institute (will be so useful for Altaria)
- Almost 1HKO'ed Brendan's 'full' team on Route 119, easy win!
- Hacked in Galladite after receiving Mega Bracelet from Steven Stone (also got Blazikenite from him)
- Trained everyone to lv 35

Gym Leader Winona
Spoiler:
- Hariyama lead vs her Swellow
- KO'ed Swellow with Fake Out + 2nd Rock Throw (1st one missed after Double Team)
- KO'ed Pelipper with 2x Rock Throw (hit me with Aerial Ace)
- Switched to Combusken into Skarmory
- Brought it to Sturdy with Incinerate after it Sand Attacked me
- Used hyper potion on Skarmory while I boosted my speed with Flame Charge
- KO'ed Skarmory with Incinerate
- Switched to Machamp into Altaria
- KO'ed Altaaria with Dual Chop after para from Dragonbreath activates Guts
- Got Feather Badge and TM for Roost


- Combusken evolved into Blaziken
- Caught Heracross in the Safari Zone and named him Jupiter
- Defeated Brendan for the last time in Lilycove (Mega Gallade demolished him!)
- Caught Meditite on Mt. Pyre and named her Minerva
- Found Medichamite on Mt. Pyre
- Meditite evolved into Medicham (learned Thunder- & Ice Punch from move relearner)
- Swapped Hariyama with Medicham
- 1HKO'ed Matt's Sharpedo twice with Mega Medicham: on Mt. Pyre & in their hideout
- Cleared out Aqua hideout (also found the Master Ball)

My Team:
Spoiler:
Blaziken Lv 40
Flare Blitz/Blaze Kick/Rock Tomb/Double Kick

Gallade Lv 38
Aerial Ace/Night Slash/Close Combat/Psycho Cut

Breloom Lv 39
Mega Drain/Sky Uppercut/Mach Punch/Leech Seed

Machamp Lv 39
Dig/Wake-Up Slap/Bulk Up/Dual Chop

Heracross Lv 39
Brick Break/Chip Away/Aerial Ace

Medicham Lv 38
Thunderpunch/Ice Punch/Zen Headbutt/Hi-Jump Kick

StenirRPG April 28th, 2023 8:11 PM

Ultimate Fire Run
Sun / #2 / Finishing the Trials

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

1.) Through the Third Island
2.) Through the Paradise
3.) Through Saving Lusamine


The full read:
Spoiler:

1. Through the Third Island
- Welcome to the Thrifty Megamart...or what's left of it. Ghost trial wasn't hard with Incineroar's Darkest Lariat. Only Steel move I have is a status move, so I am basically just throwing everything I have at the Totem Mimikyu until it goes down.
- From there, the next stop is Po Town. I feel like a broken record - fight everybody, gain some XP and money. Fight Guzma, who is a breeze with my Flying moves on Talonflame and Oricorio. I'm actually happily surprised that Oricorio is still viable at this point.
- The fight with Nanu actually would have been a lot easier if I would have remembered that I taught Leech Life to Incineroar. Yeah, sort of face palmed on that one.

2. Through the Paradise
- This actually took two trips. I didn't stock up on Revives, and I should have done even more grinding before coming here. My team feels like plexiglass cannons that already have a slight crack in them. They can sort of hold up to damage, but not much - Turtonator eventually starts to rack up KOs, but I have to be careful using Shell Smash.
- After stocking up on Revives, I'm able to finish the rest of the run through the Aether Paradise, though I wish I had been making a list of when free heals come. Nothing like "Okay, so time to Revive and use some Potions" and then Wicke coming in with "let me heal you up".
- I finally run out of the Potions that I bought when my mom gave me all the starting money. Yeah, I started doing this during the Rock run - spend it all on Potions the first chance I get, and ride it out from there. Sort of giving myself a side challenge - how far can I make those last.

3. Through Saving Lusamine
- The next big challenge is fighting Hapu...and once again it comes down to my Flying team members. Dugtrio is an easy KO with some Fire moves. Flygon is just a pain no matter what. Gastrodon is the biggest challenge due to Muddy Water. Mudsdale is actually the second easiest in the group - can't do much to Flying types. I struggled against Gastrodon the most - I was down to my last Pokemon in Talonflame when I pulled the victory. I knew it was gonna be a challenge, but I feel I'm a couple of levels lower than where I need to be as opposed to the thought that I've got a bad team.
- One laughing point - thought I was gonna be sneaky with Dragon Claw on Turtonator and take out the Totem Kommo-o. Then I remembered it's faster. Feel free to play the Price is Right sound effect when they fail on a game.
- The fight to free Lusamine starts easy enough, and just continues from there. I swap Salazzle to the front, Toxic + Venoshock to take out the Clefable. Milotic starts to go down from the same, but then I end up losing Salazzle so have to throw in Incineroar. Darkest Lariat through the rest of the team slowly knocks her out.

4. What's Next
The finale of the Ultimate Fire Run, of course. I'm definitely planning my next type already, and it's gonna be: Ice! Less of my choice and more of my wife and daughter, who both have Lapras as their favorite and want to see how much of a pain Ice will be for me. But, we'll get to that pain soon. Very soon.

Just time for the Elite Four of Alola, the final Hau fight, and the Champion. Then some credits, and it all starts over again!


Team Stats:

StenirRPG April 29th, 2023 8:14 PM

Ultimate Fire Run
Sun / Final / The Final Battles

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

1.) The Elite Four - Fighting
2.) The Elite Four - Flying
3.) The Elite Four - Ghost
4.) The Elite Four - Rock
5.) The Champion



The full read:
Spoiler:

1. The Elite Four - Fighting
Between the flying moves of Oricorio and Talonflame, this was easy. A nice place to grind to get those last few levels to make it through.

2. The Elite Four - Flying
Rather easy fight. Skarmory goes down to Fire moves. Charge Beam from Turtonator can do some damage (more if I can get it out when Mandibuzz comes out, since all those moves are Physical and Iron Defense makes those weaker). Rest are just kinda use what you can, make it through.

3. The Elite Four - Ghost
Lots of Darkest Lariat usages, and then just other strong moves to do some cleanup as we went through. Dhelmise being Ghost is nice since I have more selection, and same goes for Froslass being Ice. Palossand kinda stinks here because of Earth Power, but that's the only real worry.

4. The Elite Four - Rock
Once Incineroar picked up Outrage, this was easier. However, I switched over to Turtonator for my usual set up and had no problems after that.

5. The Champion
Urgh. Eighteen attempts, and then finally the win. Incineroar starts off with Outrage, which takes out Lycanroc due to a miss from Stone Edge. Thankfully, it doesn't get Stealth Rock up. Any time it does, I automatically count it as a loss because Braviary becomes Whirlwind central. Snorlax is out next, and I let the last hit of Outrage go through, then switch to Turtonator. I do the full setup through Iron Defense and Shell Smash (+6 Atk, +6 Sp Atk, +6 Def, +6 Speed, -3 Sp Def), and just start firing off Charge Beam. I want to avoid using Overheat unless Ninetales comes out. One Full Restore later, and Snorlax does go down. I pop a Leppa Berry one use of Charge Beam before. Braviary comes out, and I use Charge Beam - this thing has required two uses before now, but this time it OHKOs it and I am finally through that. Ninetales comes out next (I would have rather had Primarina out next), so I go ahead and use Overheat. Now I'm at +4 Sp Atk, so when Primarina comes out next, I use it. The HP of Primarina is high enough to not trigger the Full Restore, but Turtonator goes down to Moonblast. I have Salazzle come out and use Venoshock, knocking it out. Only Magnezone left, and a Fire Burst from Salazzle before she goes down and a Fire Fang from Incineroar end the match with a victory.


Team Stats:


Signing Up For the Next Ultimate Run:

User: StenirRPG
Type: Ice
Game(s): Red, Silver, Sapphire, Brilliant Diamond, White, Y, Sun
Challenge Type: Ultimate
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

Reginald Cosmic April 30th, 2023 12:24 PM

Good luck with the ice-type run of Sapphire. You're gonna need it. (It's good to know I won't be suffering through that run alone.)

StenirRPG April 30th, 2023 1:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10626038)
Good luck with the ice-type run of Sapphire. You're gonna need it. (It's good to know I won't be suffering through that run alone.)

If I read the Hoenndex correctly, I'll only have Snorunt->Glalie and Spheal->Sealeo->Walrein. And it looks like I can access Spheal just slightly before Snorunt, so that'll be my starter. I'm not used to more than one of the same 'mon; in fact, I've sort of actively avoided it until I knew I had no choice, with the thought that I would only use it when I had to. But from what you posted as your thoughts, I may have to rethink that.

Reginald Cosmic April 30th, 2023 2:38 PM

I don't know how to do the quotes on this forum, so I'll just say the last paragraph is in reply to StenirRPG

I took a(n unofficial) break from the challenge for a few days. I just got to doing other things (like talking to friends on Discord), but I went back and did some more yesterday. In regards to the current Flying-type run, I will update this thread on the rest of the gym badges soon (since I already got all eight badges), and then I'm gonna take on Victory Road, do some grinding, and then beat the Hoenn Elite Four. I'm really hoping I can get that burn on my Swellow for "Guts" on Mt. Pyre without too much trouble. (It's helpful that a burn doesn't work like poisoning in the overworld.) After that I will be doing the Psychic-type run.

I have a bit of an announcement to make. I currently have plans to start a YouTube channel where I talk about these monotype challenges. I mean, this is already something big I'm doing, so I feel like it'd make some subjectively good uploads on YouTube. The channel hasn't been set up yet (not that I'm allowed to link to it here), but I've started scripting the videos, and it's been a lot of fun coming up with jokes to tell and ideas on how to make the channel work (not that I'm going to stand in front of the camera and do skits and storylines or anything like that). So for the sake of not giving away too many jokes here (and because some of you might find it boring to hear me talk about Hoenn 17 times), I will probably cut down on the full-blown recaps of how I beat everyone once I get done with the Flying-type challenge.

@ StenirRPG I'm very curious which one of us will beat the Hoenn Ice-Type challenge first. I still want to cover the Psychic-type run before I do Ice, but you got two whole games to get to. I guess it'll be a race. That said, I probably won't be looking at your full posts (just the "TL;DR" things) for the sake of going into the challenge blind (for the YouTube channel and all), so umm, you know, it would be really nice if you kept doing the "In this post" sections, so I can keep up with updates AND do this challenge without too much help. (I'm already using Bulbapedia.) I hope this isn't a weird request.

StenirRPG April 30th, 2023 3:02 PM

Not a problem - I plan on still doing that. A lot better than how I used to post. There's always the struggle with how much info is good info - I try these days to keep it solely to where I pick up certain Pokemon, and any many trainers. So, Rivals, gym leaders/trials, or anything that just throws me under the bus. Sometimes it's just a small blurb (like my flying types knocking out Hala easily during the Elite Four run), and sometimes it feels like such a crazy ride that I need to be more specific about what happens.

I try to do them super blind also, only focused on getting a list together of the earliest spot I can pick up the Pokemon in a run.

Definitely keep me informed about the youtube channel - after all the ones I've done, it'll be great to also see other people going through the challenges. They definitely tax your brain in a different way than a solo run or a standard run does.

For the quote, there's a button on the bottom right of each post that says "Quote" that you can click. Does get a little more than that if you are quoting multiple things, but a single quote is easy enough.

Reginald Cosmic April 30th, 2023 4:32 PM

Quote:

Definitely keep me informed about the youtube channel - after all the ones I've done, it'll be great to also see other people going through the challenges. They definitely tax your brain in a different way than a solo run or a standard run does.

For the quote, there's a button on the bottom right of each post that says "Quote" that you can click. Does get a little more than that if you are quoting multiple things, but a single quote is easy enough.
Is this the quote function? I still don't know how to quote a specific reply because I only have a "respond" button that seems to do nothing. Bah, it's a mystery I'll solve later.

I'm glad to have someone interested in the channel. I'll probably send you a message when I embed the first video into a post in the appropriate forum. (I'll have to check the forum rules to make sure I don't get in trouble.) I will probably end up having to create "filler videos' and only upload an actual new challenge update weekly. In simple terms, I'll upload the big video for the month where I cover the whole challenge, which is a lot of work (by the standards of just being a hobby and not a full-time job thing like some YouTube users), and then I'll do three videos where I show off footage of the full battles with some rehearsed commentary. This will NOT be a full-on Let's Play. I just need all the help with the algorithm I can get.

So to say something a bit more on-topic, I was wondering if anyone here does the Trick House dungeons during these runs. I do it for experience, and also because it fills me with a bit of nostalgia. I love the idea of the Trick House even if the execution needed some work.

StenirRPG April 30th, 2023 4:41 PM

That is indeed the quote function. Interesting that it shows up as respond. Sounds like you definitely have a plan, though!

Reginald Cosmic April 30th, 2023 10:11 PM

The "respond" button does nothing and is not the "quote" button. I had to copy and paste your message between (QUOTE) and (/QUOTE) with the appropriate brackets. I might ask in the appropriate forum why I don't have the option of quoting a user's post.

I feel like just providing a quicker update instead of describing the actual gym fights, so here's a compromise between something super quick and basic and something elaborate.

Spoiler:

* I did some side quests like New Mauville and the trick house (and surfing to and from Dewford)

* I began my journey to Fortree

* I caught Tropius and named it Eden (after the Garden of Eden because I think Dante's Purgatorio says that's between Earth and heaven)

* Eden had a Adamant nature, which is not what I was planning, and I had to decide if I'd go through the effort and resetting for a different one.

* I said "Screw it" and checked its stats with PokeHex, and HOLY CRAP, it's got perfect IVs of 31 in physical Attack and physical Defense.

* So Team Aqua gets in my way at the Weather Institute, and I decide to take them down.

* Give the Mystic Water to Cloud the Gyarados at some point, at least until I got the Magnet from the Trick House.

* May challenges me to a battle, loses, and gifts me the HM for Fly.

* Do some training before battling Winona.

* Winona's Skarmory caught me underprepared, then I remembered steel doesn't resist electricity, so Gyarados takes it down pretty easily.

* Now I'm going to fast forward this recap to Lilycove

* Beat May again

* Defeat everyone in Team Aqua, though I think I unfortunately let one of the HM Pokemon experience battle due to Matt's Mightyena's Roar, but I didn't use a move or anything.

* Let's keep fast forwarding

* Beat Tate & Liza

* Use a Spheal for HM move Dive, which means doing the quest at the Abandoned Ship

* Go to Seafloor Cavern

* Get TM for Earthquake

* Beat Archie into submission

* Kyogre awakens thanks to the Red Orb

* Archie flees with Maxie in shame

* Go to Sootopolis and capture Kyogre. Gyarados was the MVP in saving the Hoenn region, but I used all my Ultra Balls and barely caught it in a Great Ball before it started using struggle

* I find it amusing how capturing box art legendaries kind of trivializes the conflict cuz I could've defeated Kyogre 40 or 50 turns earlier than I did. Archie's lying in a corner crying during all of this.

* I battle the water-type trainers locked in Wallace's basement.

* I start kicking butt against Wallace, but he sends out Milotic.

* Milotic heals too much

* Like way too much.

* They really should've limited Recover's PP to just 5 way earlier.

* I spent 15 minutes spamming Thunderbolt and even had to dip into the PP-restoring berries cuz I'm saving the ethers for the Elite Four

* So after Milotic goes down, I have one other Pokemon to beat: Seaking, I think?

* Well, anyway, I got the last of the 8 gym badges. Very nice.

Infer12 May 4th, 2023 7:42 AM

Pokémon Alpha Sapphire (Standard Mode)
Mono-Fighting
Update 4 (Lilycove City -> Ever Grande City)


- Fought all the trainers on the sea routes so everyone was around Lv 43
- Challenged Mossdeep gym and 1HKO'ed Lunatone & Solrock with Seed Bomb from Breloom and a crit Night Slash from Mega Gallade
- Went to Seafloor Cavern and defeated Archie (Mega Blaziken swept him with Double Kick & Rock Slide)
- Defeated Primal Kyogre with Mega Medicham's Thunderpunch (Origin Pulse missed!)
- Challenged Sootopolis gym and swept with Seed Bomb from Breloom
- Cleared Victory Road and defeated Wally (Mega Blaziken swept again, I'm thinking mega's are kind of OP, they trivialized a lot of the late game fights
so I'm going to put some restrictions in for X and Omega Ruby, does anyone have some suggestions?)
- Trained everyone to Lv 55
- Elite 4 was again pretty easy with the right mega (none of my team got knocked out and had to use no items in battle)
- Steven was also not very hard until Mega Metagross, he took out 4 of my mons (Mega Blaziken got him to red with Flare Blitz)
- Breloom's Effect Spore paralyzed him so Medicham could take him out
- Became the Champion and defeated Brendon after the credits

Final Team:
Spoiler:
Blaziken Lv 58
Flare Blitz/Flamethrower/Rock Slide/Sky Uppercut

Gallade Lv 58
Rock Slide/Night Slash/Close Combat/Psycho Cut

Breloom Lv 55
Seed Bomb/Sky Uppercut/Mach Punch/Leech Seed

Machamp Lv 55
Earthquake/Cross Chop/Bulk Up/Dual Chop

Heracross Lv 56
Close Combat/Megahorn/Earthquake/Night Slash

Medicham Lv 56
Thunderpunch/Ice Punch/Zen Headbutt/Hi-Jump Kick

StenirRPG May 4th, 2023 11:14 AM

Ultimate Ice Run
Red / #1 / A Slippery Start

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

1.) Brock
2.) Misty
3.) Lt. Surge
4.) Erika
5.) Rocket Hideout
6.) Koga
7.) Blaine
8.) Silph Company


The full read:
Spoiler:

1.) Brock
So, we start with a Jynx. The reason for this is that Jynx is the earliest one you can pick up, via a trade in Cerulean. The downside with this is that Brock is a pain in the butt. I manage to eek out a victory at level 15, but it was close. I decide to skip out on sleeping the Geodude, and just power through as best I can, but I spent quite a bit of time in Viridian Forest fighting Kakuna to build up my defense. Double Slap against Brock does help a little on the Geodude, at least.

2.) Misty
Misty is a little bit of a pain, because my first two attempts were just barely not enough to knock out Starmie. So, I opt to do the entire cape section and get the S.S. Ticket, and this is enough to get me to level 28 and take out her team.

3.) Lt. Surge
Wasn't much of a pain here - I get Dux for Fly/Cut, and I complete the entire S.S. Anne. Every battle. Every item. This means Lt. Surge is stupidly easy.

4.) Erika
I have Ice Punch now. Simple.

5.) Rocket Hideout
I get Body Slam in here, so between Body Slam and Ice Punch, this is stupid easy. Still fighting everything. I also remembered that I needed to go get Psychic, so I quickly did that and taught it to Jynx.

6.) Koga
Before reaching Koga, I pick up the Super Rod and fish up a Shellder. Then I go immediately evolve it, which kinda sucks because I don't get to learn any level up moves. Oh well. I teach it Bubble Beam and Ice Beam via TM.

I do a lot of switch training, but Cloyster is still weak enough that Jynx is still my main for taking down Koga. Lots of Ice Punch...but also Psychic where I can.

7.) Blaine
Now that I can use Surf, I go and get it, and give Surf to Cloyster. I fly back to Pallet Town, surf south to Cinnabar. I grab a Ponyta, then trade it for the Seel named Sailor in the Lab. I do some training in the Pokemon Mansion to get some levels - Seel has the boosted exp, so while I'm getting the Key, I'm also getting some nice levels. Seel evolves here very easily (you get it at 30, and it's only 4 levels away). Then time for Blaine.

WATER ALL OVER THE PLACE. Heal a few times. That's about it. Cloyster was my focus for leveling here.

8.) Silph Company
This is easy enough - I went out twice, mostly to dump items into storage and a quick heal up. After defeating my rival (very easily, I might add, with Jynx), I pick up my final team member, Lapras. Unfortunately, it only starts at level 15, so a lot of switch training in the near future. Giovanni, as you might expect with my team having lots of Surf...super easy.

A.) Next Up
Sabrina's gym, then Giovanni's gym, then some final training to even out levels, Victory Road, and the Elite Four/Champion fights.


Team Stats:
Spoiler:

Please note that as this is Gen 1, the Special stat is just displayed in the Special Attack column.
https://i.ibb.co/NNC1nsQ/pokemon-ice-1-1.png

Reginald Cosmic May 4th, 2023 12:46 PM

Goodness gracious, you've accomplished a lot the past several days, huh? I guess you're likely gonna beat me to the Ice-Type challenge. Of course, I suppose this wasn't actually a race (I was half-kidding earlier), and it might be a good idea for me to do the ice-type challenge comfortably (as opposed to forcing myself to plow through). Maybe I'm not making much sense here. In any case, good luck!

StenirRPG May 4th, 2023 6:27 PM

Ultimate Ice Run
Red / #2 / Sliding into Home Plate

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

1.) Sabrina
2.) Giovanni
3.) Elite Four - Lorelei
4.) Elite Four - Bruno
5.) Elite Four - Agatha
6.) Elite Four - Lance
7.) Champion


The full read:
Spoiler:

1.) Sabrina
Fought everyone in the gym. Kept switch training Lapras. For the actual battle with Sabrina, I used Jynx so any Psychic hits were resisted.

2.) Giovanni
Fought everyone in the gym. Probably don't need to say that anymore. A bit of last minute training on Lapras gets it to 30 at the end of the Gym. It's a Ground gym, although some of those Fighting types kinda hit pretty hard.

Preparing for Elite Four:
I train at Pokemon Mansion to get Lapras up to level 46 so my entire team is at 46, other than Jynx who is still at 50. I teach Thunderbolt to Lapras. No other real changes to moveset from TMs, though Lapras also is granted Ice Beam and Hydro Pump (instead of Surf). Final moveset is as listed in the image for team stats.

3.) Lorelei - Lapras using Thunderbolt
4.) Bruno - Lapras spamming Hydro Pump, then Cloyster using Surf
5.) Agatha - Jynx using Psychic.
6.) Lance - Everybody using Ice moves after Gyarados goes down to Thunderbolt. And hilariously, it missed the first Hyper Beam.

7.) Champion:
Pidgeot - down to 2x Ice Beam from Lapras
Gyarados - down to Thunderbolt from Lapras
Rhydon - down to Hydro Pump from Lapras
Alakazam - down to Strength from Lapras + Body Slam from Jynx
Exeggutor - down to Ice Punch from Jynx
Charizard - down to Surf from Dewgong

And there you have it...that...wasn't that hard at all. Time consuming at the start but easy enough to collect everyone for my party and train them up. Decent move pools all around, with some good coverage. Ice types seem to be bulky but with a bit of power behind them. I like it. Looking forward to the next gen.


Team Stats:
Spoiler:

Please note that as this is Gen 1, the Special stat is just displayed in the Special Attack column.
https://i.ibb.co/dgDPD3p/pokemon-ice-1-2.png

StenirRPG May 4th, 2023 6:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10627166)
Goodness gracious, you've accomplished a lot the past several days, huh? I guess you're likely gonna beat me to the Ice-Type challenge. Of course, I suppose this wasn't actually a race (I was half-kidding earlier), and it might be a good idea for me to do the ice-type challenge comfortably (as opposed to forcing myself to plow through). Maybe I'm not making much sense here. In any case, good luck!

Nah - I actually got a little bit of a head start knowing about Jynx being my first 'mon, but I also had a few days off. No worries about racing it. Sometimes, you can get through it easily...and other times, not so much. After three full ultimates under my belt, I know better than to expect anything is going to go according to plan.

RedHead! May 5th, 2023 9:34 AM

I'd like to sign up! I may expand this to an ultimate challenge eventually, but I'd like to take it one game at a time for the moment haha

User: Redhead!
Type: Flying
Game(s): FireRed
Challenge Type: Single
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

Reginald Cosmic May 5th, 2023 11:09 PM

I'm gonna type the final update on the flying monotype run hopefully tomorrow. I'm actually really not sure how to handle the psychic-type run since Ralts can't deal with dark-type Pokémon like Poochyena for the first couple of gyms. The rules say I can hack in Beldum, but I'm a little on the fence about it. I mean, it becomes a pseudo-legendary after all. I feel like when I get around to the YouTube video for it, the few comments (if there are any) will berate me like, "Why'd you hack in the pseudo-legendary?" I plan on giving myself a Bagon in the dragon-type run, but since you can't catch a dragon-type until after the first three gyms, I don't think that one will get too many complaints. I guess I'll hack in Natu instead.

Kostucha May 6th, 2023 12:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10627597)
I'm actually really not sure how to handle the psychic-type run since Ralts can't deal with dark-type Pokémon like Poochyena for the first couple of gyms.

You can get past early game with Ralts, all you need to do is get rid of all your move PP (preferably on other wild pokemon before an upcoming battle) so you get down to struggle. It's a typeless move so you can use it to deal with dark types. You'll gain a lot of levels during the process so the recoil damage will be minimal but make sure to have lots of potions still.

Reginald Cosmic May 6th, 2023 1:58 AM

That sounds like a nightmare, though I guess maybe it'll be okay as long as I only have to do it twice. (I think that Youngster on Route 102 is avoidable.) Just doing it once against the Grunt's Poochyena wouldn't be so bad, but doing it three or more times would just be too much. Doing it twice is kind of borderline. Initially I was going to say no outright, but I really don't want Beldum to be the only thing brought up in the comments. Plus, I didn't know Struggle had 50 Power. All this time I thought it was a really weak move like Gen III Rock Smash or something, but 50 power isn't too bad that early in the game (especially for a move that is always 1x effective). I'll think on it.

Kostucha May 6th, 2023 2:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Reginald Cosmic (Post 10627627)
snip

It's really not that bad, especially if you can use the speed up function, I've done it many times in various scenarios. Also you don't have to do it more than once if you just keep on struggling as long as you keep a steady supply of potions (that's actually a decent strategy in some solo runs with weaker pokemon). Definitely better than using a pseudo in a run.

Reginald Cosmic May 6th, 2023 2:43 AM

I don't always show up to the early rock-type gym with a Ralts, but when I do, I spam the move Struggle to assert my dominance.

Explorer of Time May 6th, 2023 10:48 AM

One thing you may need to know is that Ralts doesn't learn a move that does damage until level 6 in RS, when it learns Confusion. It can only be caught at level 4, meaning you'll need to either use Struggle a lot to level it up twice, use another Pokemon to level it up, or catch some Zigzagoon to get a pair of Rare Candies with Pickup.

Reginald Cosmic May 6th, 2023 11:33 AM

Quote:

One thing you may need to know is that Ralts doesn't learn a move that does damage until level 6 in RS, when it learns Confusion. It can only be caught at level 4, meaning you'll need to either use Struggle a lot to level it up twice, use another Pokemon to level it up, or catch some Zigzagoon to get a pair of Rare Candies with Pickup.
I was well aware of that, but using Mudkip until Ralts is level 6 is not the same problem. Does that make sense? I think most people would agree that waiting until Ralts learns Confusion to officially start the challenge is acceptable (since it's not a "just a Ralts" challenge), but if I hacked in Beldum or even Natu, it'd at least raise some eyebrows (even if those people don't leave a comment).

Side note: I already caught the Ralts, and I was so excited it was female cuz I've played with a male Gardevoir in a casual run before.

I will issue that final update for the Flying monotype soon. I just felt like answering this question now since this thread has been pretty lax on "double posts."

Infer12 May 6th, 2023 10:17 PM

Pokémon Diamond (Standard Mode)
Mono-Flying
Update 1 (Twinleaf Town -> Veilstone City)


Extra rules:
- No items in battle
- Set mode
- Level cap (Highest lvl of gym leader or elite 4)

- Chose Piplup so rival uses Turtwig
- Caught Starly on Route 201
- Caught Zubat in Ravaged Path
- Taught Zubat Hidden Power Grass (got lucky with the type, don't know what I would've done otherwise for Roark)
- Starly evolved into Staravia (Go, Intimidate!!!)

Gym Leader Roark:
Spoiler:
- Geodude & Onix went down easily to HP Grass
- Zubat took Cranidos to yellow and Staravia finished it off with a couple of Wing Attacks (Cranidos only used Leer on Staravia)


- Caught Drifloon at Valley Windworks
- Caugth Murkrow in Eterna Forest
- Caught Magikarp on Route 205 (slapped exp share on it)
- Zubat evolved into Golbat

Gym Leader Gardenia:
Spoiler:
- One word: Wing Attack!


- Magikarp evolved into Gyarados (2x Intimidate!!!)
- With coin case acquired, hacked in Psychic & Thunderbolt for Drifloon, U-turn for Golbat
- Drifloon evolved into Drifblim

Gym Leader Maylene:
Spoiler:
- Meditite & Machoke went down to Psychic (also set up 1 Stockpile)
- Got Lucario to red and took it out with Gyarados's Dragon Rage


My Team:
Spoiler:
Staravia Lv 26
Wing Attack/Return/Quick Attack/Double Team

Golbat Lv 26
Wing Attack/Confuse Ray/U-turn/Bite

Drifblim Lv 28
Psychic/Thunderbolt/Hidden Power (Water)/Stockpile)

Murkrow Lv 26
Wing Attack/Night Shade/Assurance/Haze

Gyarados Lv 26
Dragon Rage/Bite/Hidden Power (Electric)/Return

Reginald Cosmic May 7th, 2023 2:44 PM

1 Attachment(s)
It's been a while since I gave a proper update about the Flying-type run, so here's the finale:

Spoiler:
* Sidney was a pretty balanced fight. I ended up using everyone a little bit.

* The MVP against Phoebe was Luna the Crobat with her Shadow Ball, but she ended up fainting before the end.

* Glacia's first four Pokémon went down to Swellow's "Guts + Facade" combo, then I switched in Skarmory (because I don't do Set mode), and it said "Nope" to Sheer Cold thanks to its ability Sturdy. That ain't surviving Sheer Cold. I mean it took no damage from Sheer Cold. I healed Swellow with a Hyper Potion (though this was actually before Sturdy came in handy), and then I did a little bit of damage to Walrein with (I think) Steel Wing. Skarmory went down after that, but then Swellow finished the job with one more Facade.

* Drake was a pain, but Cloud the Gyarados really pulled through with Ice Beam.

* Steven Stone was a genuine challenge this time. Swellow fainted before it could use Facade at one point, and of course, when I used a Revive (not a Max Revive), it didn't retain the burn, so I just ended up using Return. Gyarados was the MVP, but Tropius dealt the finishing blow to Metagross with Earthquake. Good stuff!



Flying-Type Champion! In your face, Lance!



I will create a different update for the Psychic-type run.

Spoiler:
I got two badges so far.

Reginald Cosmic May 7th, 2023 7:36 PM

Update for the Psychic-type run of Pokémon Sapphire:

The short version: I have two Gym Badges, and yes, I use Struggle a lot.

The long version:

Spoiler:

* I picked the girl and named her Caitlyn

* I got the Mudkip and saved Professor Birch

* I have mixed feelings about Rival Brendan being a bit sexist. It's nice that he has a character arc in ORAS, but since he is forgotten about after Route 110 and is then abandoned completely after Lilycove, it's a little weird. Also I didn't know his theme music in the overworld was different. It's cool, but it's so weird hearing it differently after all this time.

* I found Ralts in Route 102 unexpectedly quickly. I think it was 6 to 8 encounters on that route. Dang!

* Thank goodness it's a female Ralts.

* Ralts, stay in the Pokéball. I only got 6

* I named Ralts "Caroline H" after Caroline Herschel (the sister of astronomer William Herschel)

* I did some switch training with Mudkip, so Ralts could learn Confusion at level 6. I also caught some Zigzagoon named "Moe," "Curly," and "Larry." Side note: I checked out of morbid curiosity, and Curly apparently has a base 70 Ground-type Hidden Power.

* I almost immediately start wasting Growl's PP for the sake of getting Struggle. I also used a PP Up I got from one of the Zigzagoon on "Confusion" during this process because I realized this didn't take quite as long as I was told.

* Besides Youngster Allen (I think) and his Poochyena on Route 102, I didn't challenge everyone. The kid with a Seedot who knows Bide was skipped, etc.

* When I get to Petalburg Forest, I had to use the last Confusion on that Bug Catcher's six Whurmple. He came out of nowhere. Jerk!

* I beat the Team Aqua Grunt's Poochyena, but then this Bug Catcher went out of his way to ruin the run with his Nincada who knew a bug-type HP-restoring move (Leech Life, I think). I had to restart from before the first Aqua Grunt, and then I had to avoid him.

* I avoid everyone on the north side of Route 104 except the Fisherman.

* I battled the Youngster and Lass on Route 116, but I didn't want to battle the other Bug Catcher's Nincada. I also didn't battle the Hiker's three Geodude.

* After some failed attempts, I came up with a strategy for Roxanne, which involved selling some items from Zigzagoon's Pickup (eg, Full Restore isn't really that useful early game) to buy more potions and four X Defend. I used two of the PP-restoring berries on Ralts to use Double Team and STAB confusion. I'm level 13 for this battle thanks to a rare candy. This whole battle was nerve-wracking cuz at any point I could get one-shot by a critical "Rock Tomb"

* Time to beat the Route 116 hiker and save Peeko from that Team Aqua Grunt.

* Go sailing to Dewford

* Catch an Abra named "MarieCurie"

* Beat Brawly with level 18 Ralts.

* Go back to Petalburg for the Exp. Share.

* Destroy the trainers I missed earlier including that double battle on Route 104.

* I hope I remember to destroy that Route 102 Youngster's Poochyena sometime way later.

* Catch Flash HM Pokémon Lotad

* Deliver the letter to Steven

* Go to Slateport

* Get TM for Thief

* The first Grunt goes down, and Abra evolves into Kadabra

* The second grunt has a Zubat, and I kind of goofed here. I switched to Kadabra after the Zubat went down to Ralts's confusion, so Ralts didn't evolve in front of the goons. More importantly, I ran out of PP for Thief unexpectedly (which could've been avoided by using Kadabra's Confusion), and it was nerve-racking getting rid of all Ralts's PP to use Struggle. At least I didn't have to use Growl 40 times, but this was not easy. I just made it look like I was toying with them.



Infer12 May 8th, 2023 8:17 AM

Pokémon Diamond (Standard Mode)
Mono-Flying
Update 2 (Veilstone City -> Canalave City)


Gym Leader Crasher Wake:
Spoiler:
- Gyarados & Floatzel went down pretty easily to Drifblim's Thunderbolt (She took a Bite from Floatzel like a champ)
- Quagsire could do nothing to me (only ground/normal moves) so I KO'd it with a couple of Psychics


- Golbat evolved into Crobat
- Picked up Shadow Ball for Drifblim and Surf for Gyarados en route & in Celestic Town
- Staravia evolved into Staraptor

Gym Leader Fantina:
Spoiler:
- My Drifblim took hers out with Thunderbolt (her Aftermath did a lot of damage) but was taken out by Mismagius
- Crobat KO'd it but Psybeam took it to red
- Gengar didn't go down to 1 Bite so used Poison Jab on my Crobat?!
- Another Bite takes it out


- Did some Surf exploration
- Taught Flamethrower to Gyarados (not ideal but might be useful for steel & ice gym)
- Cleared Iron Island

Gym Leader Byron:
Spoiler:
- Staraptor couldn't do much to Bronzor so I switched to Crobat
- Got 1 Bite off but he switched to Steelix, U-turned into Gyarados
- Aqua Tail KO'd it and got Bastiodon to red
- Bastiodon set up 2 Iron Defenses and healed so I switched to Drifblim
- Knocked it out with HP Water after a spdef drop from Shadow Ball
- Ko'd Bronzor with Shadow Ball


My Team:
Spoiler:
Staraptor Lv 39
Aerial Ace/Return/Quick Attack/Close Combat

Crobat Lv 38
Wing Attack/Confuse Ray/U-turn/Bite

Drifblim Lv 39
Psychic/Thunderbolt/Hidden Power (Water)/Shadow Ball

Murkrow Lv 38
Wing Attack/Night Shade/Faint Attack/Fly

Gyarados Lv 39
Aqua Tail/Bite/Flamethrower/Ice Fang

Reginald Cosmic May 8th, 2023 3:28 PM

This update's pretty short, but I got the third gym badge in the Psychic-type run of Pokémon Sapphire Version.

Spoiler:

I defeated Rival Brendan on Route 110. I didn't know Kadabra's Confusion was that much stronger than Kirlia's Confusion. Kadabra learned Psybeam pretty quick, but then Kirlia learned full-blown Psychic like 15 levels earlier than Kadabra/Alakazam, so yeah.

I fought everyone this side of Rusturf Tunnel except the trainers north of Mauville. Then I defeated Wattson which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be (especially with Kirlia's Calm Mind).


Now I gotta find a way to trade evolve Kadabra.

Reginald Cosmic May 10th, 2023 1:45 PM

I got a little crazy one day and played the game for five hours or probably longer. Here's the update.

In this post, I collected gym badges 4 through 6.

Full Story:
Spoiler:

* Spent a long time getting MarieCurie to evolve into Alakazam (on mGBA), but I did it.
* Beat the Winstrate Family
* Traveled to Fallarbor Town, beating the trainers along the way (plus I caught a Sandshrew for HM move Strength)
* Traveled to Meteor Falls
* Caught two Lunatone, but I only used one of them and only through Flannery's gym
* Went back to Petalburg and used Rock Smash in Rusturf Tunnel to get Strength
* Defeated Team Aqua on Mt. Chimney
* Got the TM for Return from Cozmo for later
* Caught a Spoink, but I ended up not using it.
* Beat Gym Leader Flannery
* Catch a Baltoy in the desert and name him "Wegener" after the scientist who discovered continental drift.
* Beat Gym Leader Norman
* By this point, I'm dominating the game with a Gardevoir and an Alakazam
* Beat Team Aqua at the Weather Institute
* Defeated Rival Brendan who says I'm decent despite me using only one of my Pokémon (Gardevoir) the whole time I was clobbering him
* Arrive in Fortree
* Go South to Mt. Pyre before the Gym Leader
* By this point, I have two Pokémon with Hidden Power above 60 Power. First, I taught Hidden Power (Ground) to Baltoy for a STAB Ground-type attack that's stronger than Mud Slap. Alakazam has Hidden Power (Ice), which is very convenient for birds when Gardevoir runs out of Thunderbolt PP.
* Eventually make a trip through Route 123 and arrive back in Fortree.
* Beat Winona. Her Skarmory was tough, but I came out on top with Thunderbolt. MarieCurie's Hidden Power (Ice) one-shot her Altaria by the way.
* I gotta go to the Trick Master's house, catch some two more party members at the Safari Zone, and then I'm gonna proceed through Mt. Prye's interior, exterior, and summit.

Infer12 May 11th, 2023 6:12 AM

Pokémon Diamond (Standard Mode)
Mono-Flying
Update 3 (Canalave City -> Pokemon League)


- Defeated Saturn & Mars at the lakes
- Went through Mt. Coronet to Snowpoint City

Gym Leader Candice:
Spoiler:
- KO'd Snover & Abomasnow with Gyarados's Flamethrower
- KO'd Medicham & Sneasel with Staraptor's Aerial Ace & Close Combat
- (Ice types are defensibly so weak)


- Found a dusk stone at Galactic HQ and evolved Murkrow into Honchkrow
- Went to Spear Pillar and defeated Cyrus

Gym Leader Volkner:
Spoiler:
- Raichu & Luxray went down easily to Earthquake from Gyarados
- Staraptor & Drifblim took care of Ambipom & Octillery with Close Combat & Thunderbolt


- Caught Mantyke (& Remoraid to evolve it) at Sunnyshore City
- Mantyke evolved into Mantine
- Bred it with Golduck for one with a Calm nature & Water Absorb
- Cleared Victory Road

- Defeated Aaron with Honchkrow & Gyarados
- Defeated Bertha with Mantine & Gyarados
- Defeated Flint with Drifblim & Staraptor
- Defeated Lucian with Honchkrow & Staraptor

Champion Cynthia:
Spoiler:
- KO'd Spiritomb with 2x Night Slash from Honchkrow
- KO'd Milotic with Honchkrow's Night Slash & Drifblim's Thunderbolt
- KO'd Roserade with Drifblim's Psychic
- KO'd Gastrodon with Mantine & Crobat
- KO'd Garchomp with 2x Ice Beam from Mantine (he missed Dragon Rush 2x in a row)
- KO'd Lucario with Earthquake from Gyarados


Hall of Fame:

Infer12 May 12th, 2023 6:06 AM

I want to change some of the games for my type challenge (I can play the same game more than once, right?)

Black 2 (Ice), Platinum (Poison), Leafgreen (Water), White 2 (Dark)

Explorer of Time May 12th, 2023 10:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Infer12 (Post 10629270)
I want to change some of the games for my type challenge (I can play the same game more than once, right?)

Black 2 (Ice), Platinum (Poison), Leafgreen (Water), White 2 (Dark)

Yes you may. I'll update your games on the challenger's list.

Reginald Cosmic May 12th, 2023 12:18 PM

Update: I finished all the gyms in my Psychic monotype challenge.

Spoiler:

* I caught a bunch of Girafarig and Natu at the Safari Zone.
* I picked the Girafarig with Hidden Power Fighting (with a base power of 68) and named it Leonardo (after Leonardo da Vinci)
* I picked the Natu with Hidden Power Dragon (with a base power of 66) and named it Hawking (after Stephen Hawking) though this one is female
* I'll be skipping over the Trick House stuff in this post
* I went to Mt. Pyre, no troubles
* I caught Aristotle the (female) Naughty Nature Meditite who knows Hidden Power Dragon with a PERFECT base power of 70, so you can bet your butt I'm using it against Elite Four Drake
* I beat everyone in Team Aqua's HQ
* I went to Mossdeep where I got the Super Rod
* I returned it Lilycove where I fished up a Staryu to teach Surf, Dive, and eventually Waterfall to
* I beat everyone in the Mossdeep Gym, including Tate & Liza, though Liza's Lunatone took a while to KO
* I visited Sootopolis City and Pacifidlog Town
* I battled just about everyone west of Pacifidlog Town
* I haven't done the Abandoned Ship yet by the way
* I let Archie awaken Kyogre in Seafloor Cavern
* I caught Kyogre with only a few Ultra Balls, but I won't be using him for obvious reasons
* I defeated Gym Leader Wallace, which wasn't too difficult this time aside from one KO


My team:
Spoiler:

* Caroline H the Gardevoir (Female, Bold, Trace, level 45) - Psychic, Thunderbolt, Calm Mind, Light Screen
* MarieCurie the Alakazam (Female, Rash, Inner Focus, level 43) - Psychic, Hidden Power Ice 61, Reflect, Calm Mind
* Wegener the Claydol (Genderless, Careful, Levitate, level 41) - Earthquake, Shadow Ball, Strength, Ancient Power
* Leonardo the Girafarig (Male, Lax, Inner Focus, level 40) - Return, Confusion, Hidden Power Fighting 68, Rock Smash
* Hawking the Xatu (Female, Brave, Early Bird, level 39) - Hidden Power Dragon 66, Aerial Ace, Fly, Giga Drain
* Aristotle the Meditite (Female, Naughty, Pure Power, level 35) - High Jump Kick, Brick Break, Hidden Power Dragon 70, Calm Mind)

StenirRPG May 14th, 2023 6:04 PM

Ultimate Ice Run
Silver / #1 / Why Does Gen 2 Hate Stones

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

1.) Gym 1: Flying
2.) Gym 2: Bug
3.) Gym 3: Rollout
4.) Gym 4: He's Dead, Jim
5.) Gym 5: A Fi(s)t of Fury
6.) Gym 6: Steel E Dan


The full read:
Spoiler:

1.) Gym 1: Flying
My starting 'mon this time is Swinub. I thought about starting with Shellder as it's technically the first one you can pick up, but you can't evolve it until Kanto so it would just be a Water run the whole way until Ice Path anyways. So, I instead decide to look at Lapras, but you can only get that using Surf on Fridays. So, my choice was down to whatever was in Ice Path, which in Silver is Swinub, Jynx, and an additional Delibird (which isn't in Gold, hence why I chose Silver). The way I play, I take whatever has the highest % of showing up and use that.

Swinub it is, with it's 40% (over Delibird's 20% and Jynx's 5% [gulp]). Here's the problem with Swinub: as an Ice/Ground, in Gens before the split, it's gotta try and ride the line between being Physical (due to Ground) and Special (due to Ice). And it's base attack is 50 while base special attack is 30. To top that off, I'm pretty certain my Special Attack is a low DV roll. So, what do I get to start with? Powder Snow. With low Special Attack. Well, I thought about restarting, but I haven't done that yet in these runs, so I'm not going to start now.

Thankfully, Sprout Tower is easy XP given Bellsprout's natural weakness to Powder Snow. And then the first gym is just as easy. Because bird no like winter.

2.) Gym 2: Bug
I am so thankful that I got Mud-Slap as a TM, because it's perfect to have added to Swinub's moves. May be weak, but it helps getting through Union Cave. My moves sort of stink for going up against Team Rocket, but I muddle through. The fight with Bugsy isn't that bad, either. The Scyther is weak to Ice, so that's a nice bonus. This is rough (as you'll see from the moveset at the end of this post how bad it is for this run in Gen 2).

3.) Gym 3: Rollout...Or How I Beat A Cow
Mud-Slap. That's how I won. I got the Clefairy out of the way, and then spammed Mud-Slap and Potions agains the MIltank. Third try, I managed to break Rollout's buildup and won.

4.) Gym 4: He's Dead, Jim...Or It's Ghost, Jim, But Not As We Know It
What a silly reference. Morty wasn't that bad. I went ahead and headed over to Olivine, picked up the Rod, went into the docks, and picked up Shellder. Spent some time leveling up. After that, came back and got Surf and taught it. Time to spam it for the fun of it. Between that and Mud-Slap (because no abilities in Gen 2 means NO LEVITATE MWA HA HA), a nice win against Morty. It's still rough. I'm not breezing through the run, per se, but I don't really have many options if I lose to trainers when I need to progress other than grinding.

5.) Gym 5: A Fi(s)t of Fury
Okay, so first, I forgot that you can't get Fly until after, but I went back and picked up Kenya anyways. Then, I went over to Mahogany Town thinking I could go get Jynx and Delibird. Then I realized, well, no, can't do that until after doing the whole Team Rocket shakedown. But at least I got Mahogany out of the way. Then I got to Cianwood and forgot Strength. So, I was all over the place.

Meanwhile, I grinded Swinub up so it became Piloswine, because the first two attempts at Chuck ended in defeat. And I'm still Mud-Slapping. This is getting old, honestly.

6.) Gym 6: Steel E Dan
Jasmine wasn't much of a problem - I use Mud-Slap to one shot the Magnemite, then continue doing the same on Steelix until Iron Tail knocks me out. Shellder is resistant to Iron Tail right now, so I Revive Piloswine and use a Super Potion. For the rest of Steelix, I use Surf. I swap in Pilowsine for the remaining Magnemite to OHKO it like I did the first.

And...that's basically where I am now. Time to do the Rocket Stuff. There were more options in Gen 1 for TM usage, but unfortunately I am very much missing those in this run, so it's a boring run in a way, but also kinda frustrating. I mean...look at my current moveset and compare when I would have got those moves. Urgh.


Team Stats:

Reginald Cosmic May 14th, 2023 6:28 PM

I was about to break down and ask you if you'd had time to anything done for Pokémon Silver when I saw this post. Good gracious, that current moveset fills me with dread!

I might take a short break for a couple of days. I've had fun, but I fully expect to do grinding to level 50 again. I'm just not mentally prepared for all the grinding on Victory Road again, and it's mostly because of Whirlwind, Roar, and Protect.

In the future, I probably should share movesets and stats in update posts. I was planning to do that after the Elite Four for the current Psychic-type run. However, since Gen 3 has abilities and natures (in addition to held items returning from Gen II), I wasn't sure how to fit them all in one screen shot. I was thinking I'd have to share two screen shots, but the solution seems so obvious now. I just have to make a second table below the first one in the same Microsoft Excel worksheet. It would look nicer if it was all one table, but it'd be too wide to display it all on my laptop's screen.

StenirRPG May 15th, 2023 4:41 AM

You could always do a table that has the first column be the headers, and each Pokemon has their own column. That might be better, depending on what all you want to share data-wise. I mainly share it just to show progression, rather than as any actual tracking. Mine is a google sheet that I just update manually - though I did program it to color-code the moves based on their type as of Gen 9. That would have been a pain trying to color the cells every time it adjusts.

My mom's been here for the weekend, so while I'm playing host I haven't had much time. Besides, with that moveset, who'd want to spend more than an hour at a time.

As to the moveset itself, I could teach some moves from TMs, but I have sort of put myself into a mode where I hold off on using TMs until the Elite Four unless there's a scenario that basically demands it - such as teaching Mud-Slap to Swinub. In later Gens, when TMs become reusable, it's a little different of a mindset. What sucks so far is that I can't teach Dig to even Piloswine. Would have been so useful. Makes me almost want to make a new challenge where you poll the userbase for 4 additional TMs, and then you adjust a Pokemon to allow those moves...just to see the hilarity of it all. "Scyther used Dig" would be great. But, of course, that's getting close to just having everything know Metronome.

PaperLink13 May 15th, 2023 9:02 AM

I've done several monotype runs by now but didn't think to check official rules. Oh well, at least they were fun.

Reginald Cosmic May 15th, 2023 1:10 PM

1 Attachment(s)
Quote:

You could always do a table that has the first column be the headers, and each Pokemon has their own column. That might be better, depending on what all you want to share data-wise. I mainly share it just to show progression, rather than as any actual tracking. Mine is a google sheet that I just update manually - though I did program it to color-code the moves based on their type as of Gen 9. That would have been a pain trying to color the cells every time it adjusts.
Warning: Nerdy stuff about graphs in spoilers are abound.

Spoiler:
I thought that solution would not work under the assumption the table would be too tall to view on the same screen (with a screen shot that's easy to read of course). However, now that I'm thinking about it, this might actually work. The problem was that "Hidden Power Dragon 70" took up a lot of width, making the whole column wider. (If it didn't make the whole column wider, the data would be truncated--in simple terms, shortened.) However, now I realize that since the entries in each cell would still read left-to-right, this might balance out in such a way that everything would fit on one screen.

Also, the moves will not be color coded. (No offense to you or anything.) I'd rather color code it by party member, so it's easy to follow along from left to right when the viewer is looking at six party members or possibly more (eg, HM move Pokémon). I also will not be doing this to easily convey Hidden Power is dragon-type as opposed to normal-type because there's a lot of similar-looking shades of blues, and people with poor color vision will have a hard time. Below is an attached screenshot of the current table (missing the levels as I haven't beaten the game yet) because it's been a while since I've had to export anything in MS Excel.


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