[Challenge] The Monotype Challenge v8, Tera Edition

How do I pick a random nature? I thought there'd be an option for that in PKHex, but I don't see it. My starter Mudkip has a Quirky nature, so can I just pick that, randomize IVs, and change the gender to female? Should I catch a wild female Zigzagoon and let that determine the nature and IVs? Someone's gotta lay down some ground rules here.

EDIT: I actually have a friend who knows how to alter the starters with a ROM editor. Can I do that instead of incurring the "genned mon must be random" rule?

EDIT 2: Wouldn't it be easier for me to use Advance Starter since all I'd have to do is select Spheal under the third starter slot? (This does not affect the rival's Pokemon.)

Reginald Cosmic said:

How do I pick a random nature? I thought there'd be an option for that in PKHex, but I don't see it. My starter Mudkip has a Quirky nature, so can I just pick that, randomize IVs, and change the gender to female? Should I catch a wild female Zigzagoon and let that determine the nature and IVs? Someone's gotta lay down some ground rules here.

EDIT: I actually have a friend who knows how to alter the starters with a ROM editor. Can I do that instead of incurring the "genned mon must be random" rule?

EDIT 2: Wouldn't it be easier for me to use Advance Starter since all I'd have to do is select Spheal under the third starter slot? (This does not affect the rival's Pokemon.)

Click to expand...

I use the random generator at this link to pick a nature, but any method is fine, including keeping the same nature as your wrong-type starter.

ROM editing to alter the starters is fine as well, if you want to do it, but I'm not familiar with Advance Starter so I can't offer technical advice about it.

Advance Starter doesn't require anything technical, which is why I'm using it. You just load the ROM and reselect the starter(s) for the player and for the rival, then you save the ROM. When you play the game, it continues with the adjustments (eg, "Clap Pokémon" instead of "Mud Fish Pokémon" in the basket "select a Pokemon" screen, and the "got item" text where it says "[PLAYER] received the Spheal from Prof. Birch"). I assume you can edit the rival's starter Pokemon, but I don't feel like testing it out.

The first Spheal I got was Bold nature (and female), but I was able to reset until I got a Quiet nature female Spheal. This took about a half hour, so I'm really hoping you say it's legal for the challenge cuz hoo boy!

PKHex says both Pokemon are not legal for competitive play because the executable expects a "0" in the "Met at level _" field, which also happened when I tried to generate the Spheal before the original unedited message I submitted here. I'm not sure if this affects anything because nothing else is broken (and I obviously have no plans to use this Spheal in a competitive setting of any kind). The IVs are random; there's only 1 EV (because of the Poochyena encounter); the ability is Thick Fat because it's the only one Spheal can have in Gen III; the OT is the same as the trainer (eg, no exp boost); the moves are Powder Snow, Growl, and Water Gun (all moves learned by Spheal at level 1 according to Bulbapedia); and Spheal has no ribbons.

Yup, I'm still here. My son's here for the summer vacation so we've been playing things like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity and Kirby Fighters 2 a lot. I've snuck in an hour or two over the week, but then managed to finish up the Gen over the weekend.

Ultimate Ice Run
White / #2 / The Ice Cream Run Ends

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


The full read:


Team Stats:


Switching gears a little and going to Gen 7 and then back to 6. 7 allows me to pick up Crabrawler before the first trial, but Gen 6 will need me to breed an egg (I'm going to need an Amaura egg, but that shouldn't take too long to get, but I wasn't prepared to jump on Gen 6 yet so Gen 7 it is).

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark - Newscaster Blake
Update 2 (Pyrite Town -> Phenac Stadium)

Another kinda long-awaited update, I really should've broken this up into two and done one when I beat Exol at ONBS, but oh well. I evolved my Houndour into a Houndoom, caught a Wooper and traded it for a Larvitar, and got a bunch of new TMs and held items. Umbreon and, especially, Houndoom, both had quite good Hidden Power options, Umbreon with Fighting, which is always helpful, and Houndoom with Electric to give it a great counter to the Water types that threaten it. Umbreon also got a Psychic TM from the coupons I spent playing Battle Bingo. Mightyena learned Swagger and Torment to give it a couple utility options, since it has the worst offensive movepool out of the seven Dark-types available in this game. Shiftry got Brick Break and Shadow Ball, both great offensive moves that I plan to keep. Carvanha learned Ice Beam via the Phenac Stadium TM and Larvitar still has most of its original moveset.

None of the opposing trainers so far gave me too much trouble. Snattle fainted the Carvanha and Larvitar that were weakened by the previous trainer battle, but my Shiftry and Umbreon took down most of his team. I snagged Lunatone (and more importantly, its Hard Stone held item) with my first Ultra Ball after hitting it, Quagsire was 1HKOed by Giga Drain, Lanturn went down to a Psychic and Giga Drain, and Castform to a couple Brick Breaks. My Shiftry fainted from Shadow Sky long after I snagged Lunatone, so I switched to Houndoom and KOed Metang with Ember.

Team

Welp, there's nothing better than disappearing for a long time only to come back with more love for BW/B2W2.....

User: Striscia La Magicienne
Game(s): B2W2
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode

So I might as well show it by mastering them, starting with Steel!

I've been quiet, so I feel the need to break the silence, but first...

Hi, Striscia La Magicienne, I'm Reginald. Welcome to the thread. I'm glad to see another person doing the Game Mastery Challenge. I'm currently tackling Ruby and Sapphire. Good luck!

Now then, this is why I went silent for a week:



I put it in a spoiler because a lot of what I said isn't really me talking about the games. I just don't want anyone to think I'm throwing in the towel with the Game Mastery Challenge already, so I felt the need to say, "Hey, I've just been busy.

Side note: I'm glad Ruby/Sapphire doesn't force you into double battles if you've caught a second Pokémon because it's going to be a while before I get another Ice-Type. I've heard that most double battles being optional is only in Ruby/Sapphire, so it's not the case with Emerald (because of the added double battles throughout that version).

Oh look a bulk update because I'm too lazy to write them out as I complete the runs

Pokemon Platinum Game Mastery - Normal and Ground

Normal

Finished that one a while ago, I don't remember much about the run aside from it being very fun

Hall of Fame:

Team:

Ground

Wrapped this one up yesterday. Pretty smooth run with a couple hiccups at Candice and the League. Steelix was as usual a strong pillar of the team, always a pleasure to use.

Hall of Fame:

Team:

Fire is next on the list

Pokemon Platinum Game Mastery - Fire

Despite the rough start of failing the first rival battle (hence Infernape's nickname), the playthrough was very smooth up until E4. Bertha gave me slight trouble, so I popped all the Rare Candies early (usually I save them until just before the champion's battle) to get up to Flare Blitz and Nasty Plot.

Hall of Fame:

Team:

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark - Newscaster Blake
Update 3 (Phenac Pre Gym -> Cipher Key Lair)

Another Cipher Admin defeated, another update. This time, I fought Gorigan, and my Shiftry and Pupitar managed to predict and outmaneuver his Protects/Earthquake combo attempts and beat all his non-Shadow Pokemon without suffering any losses. However, his Shadow Pokemon ended up taking down half my team together because I was really unlucky with my snag attempts. Not that I can even use them, but I still want them purified so that I can fight Miror B.'s postgame battle out of the goodness of my heart. Gonzap ended up being easier than expected too, but I wasn't able to record much about his battle.

In terms of team updates, I evolved both my Larvitar and my Carvanha. Sharpedo still pretty fragile, but it's significantly faster and better at attacking, though I still can't take advantage of its high Attack since XD doesn't have the physical-special split. Sadly, it's never going to be able to get Surf because XD doesn't have the HM for it. Meanwhile, Pupitar is now somewhat good, mostly because of Rock Slide being excellent in an all-doubles game, and the Dragon Dance move it started with is amazing if it gets the chance to set it up. However, it has a very fragile typing with two common x4 weaknesses, and it won't get its Dark typing until it evolves again at Level 55. I'm stockpiling all my rare candies to make that happen as soon as it hits Lv. 46-49 (depending on when I get the Citadark Isle Rare Candies), but it's still going to take a while. Pupitar also got a Leftovers to hold and the TM for Earthquake.

Houndoom also learned Flamethrower via TM, Umbreon learned Confuse Ray to replace Attract, and Mightyena learned Shadow Ball via TM and Scary Face via level up because I wasn't really using Swagger for anything. However, just like Infer12 did, I intend to drop off Mightyena in the PC as soon as I can snag Sableye at the beginning of Citadark Isle. Intimidate is a useful ability but I just don't have much use for it elsewhere.

Team

HeartGold - Mono Bug

Progress



Team

All right, I got the first two gym badges, so I guess I'll share my progress.



Here's the stats for Ginyu the Spheal:

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark - Newscaster Blake
Update 4 (Realgam Colosseum -> Citadark Isle)

First off, I caught Sableye at Citadark Isle, then went back and leveled it up a little at Mt. Battle, and then challenged the Realgam Colosseum for the SolarBeam TM at the end of the fourth round. I came pretty close to losing the fight against Matron Relza's team of Fighting-Types, but none of the other battles were that difficult. Then, back to Citadark Isle. Once I got the Rare Candies here, in-between Lovrina and Snattle, I fed them all to Pupitar and evolved it into a Tyranitar. Lovrina, Snattle, and Eldes were a little difficult but I made it through fine. Ardos was pretty tough to fight, though, and I was exceptionally unlucky against Gorigan's Poliwrath and Mr. Mime and had to use a Max Revive to survive long enough to snag them.

I snagged Shadow Lugia with the Master Ball, and the rest of Greevil's team in one battle, Moltres and Articuno in their first Ultra Balls. My Tyranitar was very helpful in this battle since it could tank a couple hits from the Legendary Birds. No losses so far, and hopefully I can keep it up in the postgame.

In terms of moveset changes, I finally got to make Shiftry a Sunnybeamer like I wanted, and taught Umbreon and Tyranitar better Dark-type moves. Faint Attack has a niche use to counter Double Team spam, and Umbreon isn't fast enough to take advantage of Bite's flinch chance. Everyone got their held items rearranged, though. (And I just realized that I had Leftovers on Houndoom and Focus Band on Tyranitar for the final stretch in Citadark when I should've made it the other way around. That'll be fixed very soon.)

I still have to do some more of the postgame, though. Since XD is a shorter game, I need to beat one of the postgame bosses to qualify this run for the Type Mastery Challenge. I already have the Miror. B battle unlocked, but I'd like to level up the rest of my team to make them on par with Tyranitar's level first. I'm also going to ascend to the top of Mt. Battle, but I don't think I'll try and win Orre Colosseum this run. That's hard enough without any self-imposed challenges. (I might try Lovrina's round once my team's Level 60, though. The Toxic TM would be nice to have on Umbreon.)

Team

Pokemon XD: Gale of Darkness (Standard Mode)
Mono-Dark - Newscaster Blake
Update 5 (Postgame)

To finish up this playthrough, I did some grinding to get the rest of my team to Level 55 against Resix and Greesix, then challenged Miror B. at Gateon Port, and then went through the last four areas of Mt. Battle. I didn't end up getting Toxic for Umbreon since my team wasn't level 60 until I was already partway through Mt. Battle Area 10. Against Miror B., Shiftry spent a lot of moves using Sunny Day to keep the rain away and Umbreon kept using Confuse Ray to keep all the Ludicolo confused.They usually ended up wasting turns on Rain Dance when they got a chance to move and I just undid it the next turn, and I spent the other turn alternately Solarbeaming one. I snagged Dragonite, purified it, then released all my non-Dark-Type Pokemon since I don't need them for the Purify Chamber anymore. I'd like to imagine that they went to their original trainers from before Cipher stole them.

I got through all the battles on Mt. Battle fine, but I had to start dipping into my Max Revives and Revival Herbs for a couple battles in Area 10, including Battlus. These later battles were some of the most fun fights I've had this playthrough, with lots of interesting teams to fight against.

Everyone but Umbreon got their held items moved around, but the only two new moves were Crunch on Houndoom, and Agility on Sharpedo.

I don't intend to do Orre Colosseum, so consider this monotype run done.

Final team review:

Umbreon was offensively a bit of a letdown, but it more than made up for it with its amazing bulk, with defensive stats comparable to my Pseudo-Legendary and only two weaknesses, even though it had the second-worst nature possible for its role. Confuse Ray made it an excellent partner to another more offensively inclined Pokemon, Psychic gave me some good coverage against Fighting types, and it actually had a decent Hidden Power, too.

Shiftry was, in my opinion, my team's MVP, especially in the late game. It had excellent attacking coverage with Brick Break, Shadow Ball, and SolarBeam, and its ability made it unmatched in speed when it used Sunny Day. It took a little work to get the TMs to get this moveset, but it was excellent once I had it, and the early evolution gave it great stats for the early game even when it didn't have the best moveset.

Houndoom was an excellent attacker, but it was held back later on by being easily the most fragile member of my party, especially with its ground weakness when plenty of Mt. Battle trainers ran Earthquake. When it could hit and 1HKO enemies, it was excellent, but it fainted quite a lot in the lategame. It was much more useful in the early and midgame when there were less things that could 1HKO it, and its Hidden Power was quite useful against Water-types, but it sadly didn't get Crunch until near the end of my challenge.

Sharpedo was a glass cannon like Houndoom, but its Water typing made it a little better defensively, and it was also my team's fastest member. Ice Beam was excellent to have, and early Crunch access made it my best Dark-type attack user. Still, I unfortunately couldn't get Surf, and I had to stick with Water Pulse throughout the game.

Tyranitar took a very long time to reach its full potential, but once it did, it was tremendously strong. Dragon Dance made it even stronger, and Rock Slide was amazing in double battles. However, it didn't synergize well with my team. Sand Stream cancelled out Sunny Day, so I didn't want to send it out when Shiftry was SunnyBeaming stuff, and it hurt all of my Pokemon. And Shiftry was the only Pokemon of mine that resisted Earthquake, so it didn't get used that often. However, Sand Stream did help catch Shadow Pokemon a lot at Citadark Isle, so it ended up kinda having a use.

Sableye was kind of a jack of all trades. It didn't really excel at offense or at defense. However, it ended up being a great counter to Fighting types, which the rest of my team had a lot of trouble with. A second Confuse Ray user was also really useful, and Shadow Ball was a great STAB move.

Finally, Mightyena was... there, I guess. It had a very useful ability but not much else, and everything it could do, another team member could do better.

Next up, Mono-Normal FireRed!

Team

User: Explorer of Time
Type: Water
Game: Sapphire Cross
Challenge Type: Single
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode

While I was out yesterday, I started a secondary playthrough to emulate on my phone whenever I'm away from home. I picked Sapphire since it's my favorite game, and Water as my type since my Colosseum Water run started with my Pokemon at pretty high levels and I want to try the type out with a weaker start. Since I work from home and I don't go out that often, this'll go a lot slower than my primary challenge runs. As with the time I played Ruby, Sapphire Cross is a very barebones QOL hack that lets me reuse TMs and forget HM moves without using the Move Deleter, and technically catch non-Legendary version exclusives but I can't use any of those anyway.

I'm still only in Petalburg, and I have a team of Mudkip/Wingull/Lotad right now.

A bit of an update:



I've been taking it very slowly in the Ice monotype challenge. I'm running out of steam, and I don't want to get completely burned out. I might put the game down for a few months and focus on other goals of mine.

Ultimate Ice Run
Sun / #1 / The First Island...plus some of the second...

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


The full read:


Team Stats:

Pokemon FireRed+ (Standard Mode)
Mono-Normal - Lass Nora
Update 1 (Route 2 -> Pewter Gym)

Time to start a new playthrough! I'm playing FireRed, using Deokishisu's FRLG+ QOL romhack. My starter doesn't really matter much, but I picked Squirtle since I'd like to fight Blue's Venusaur teams later on.

For this run, and this run only, I'm planning on not using any dual-types at all. Kanto doesn't have any Normal dual-types aside from Normal/Flying Pokemon, and I've already used most of those in a Flying monotype of Kanto and want to try something different.

I started off by catching a pair of Rattata from Route 2, did some grinding to get them both up to Level 9, then fought Blue at Route 22. My first Rattata used Tail Whip a couple times on Pidgey and beat it with Quick Attack, then did the same to Bulbasaur. Then, I did some more grinding to get them both to Level 13 and learn Hyper Fang, and challenged Brock. My first attempt was a failure because Onix got a lucky crit at the wrong time. Second attempt, I had one Rattata use Tail Whip a bunch until Geodude was at -2 Defense (which took a long time because it kept spamming Defense Curl), and fainted it. Onix fainted my first Rattata as it was using Tail Whip, but my second got it down to -4 Defense and used Hyper Fang some more to take it down. I did have to use one Potion during the battle, though.



I doubled up on the Rattata for the first gym, but I'm planning to keep only the Lax Rattata around. The Modest Rattata will just stay in the back for emergencies until I can reach the Safari Zone, after which it's getting put in the PC. I'll have more than enough Pokemon once I catch a Jigglypuff and Clefairy coming up soon. I'm planning for my eventual party to be Raticate, Wigglytuff, Clefable, Snorlax, Tauros, and Kangaskhan.

Team

Pokemon FireRed+ (Standard Mode)
Mono-Normal - Lass Nora
Update 2 (Route 3 -> Cerulean Gym)

A short update today. I caught a Jigglypuff in Route 3, and a Clefairy at Mt. Moon. I also evolved a Rattata into Raticate, and got the Thief and Secret Power TMs. I'm waiting to evolve Clefairy and Jigglypuff until Level 33 and 34, when they learn Cosmic Power and Body Slam, respectively, but I already have a pair of Moon Stones for them when that happens.

I beat my Rival by having my three unevolved Pokemon weaken Pidgeotto, then my Raticate finished it off and swept the rest of his team. Against Misty, I had my Jigglypuff put Staryu to sleep with Sing, then Defense Curl and build up Rollout, which eventually 1HKOed Staryu after Misty used a Super Potion, and then 1HKOed Starmie the very next turn.

Next up, Vermillion!

Team

Pokemon FireRed+ (Standard Mode)
Mono-Normal - Lass Nora
Update 3 (Route 5 -> Vermillion Gym)

A short update today. I went through Route 5, the entire S.S. Anne, and the Vermillion Gym. I used the Dig, Water Pulse, and Brick Break TMs on a few of my Pokemon, but I didn't catch anything new. My Pokemon are ahead of the level curve at the moment since I've only been training three of them, and my Raticate soloed both my Rival and Lt. Surge easily.

The next update is going to be a big one, though, since I can catch the other half of my team as soon as I get the Poke Flute, I'll probably have evolved Jigglypuff and Clefairy, and Celadon opens up a lot of TMs to change up my movesets.

Team