[Challenge] The Zodiac Challenge

- Picked Chikorita as my starter, totally random.
- Did all the necessary actions: got running shoes and map, got pokedex and egg, fought rival SILVER, returned to Elm and got poke balls.
- Caught a female Geodude at route 46 and named her LARA. Boxed Chikorita.
- Caught a female Hoothoot at route 29 and named her OLIVIA.
- Completed the Sprout Tower and got TM Flash.
- GYM #1: LARA had an easy time and crushed the pigeons from Falkner.
- Got the egg back from Elm's assistant. Hatch it and showed it to Elm. Received Everstone and gave it to LARA.
- Defeated Team Rocket at the Slowpoke Well.
- GYM #2: Bugsy's bugs were powerless against LARA and OLIVIA.
- Saved the game at 3h14m.

Current team:

LARA, Careful (f) @Level 17.
Rock Head. Everstone
- Rock Throw
- Rock Smash
- Magnitude
- Tackle


OLIVIA, Adamant (f) @Level 17.
Insomnia. Shell Bell
- Peck
- Uproar
- Hypnosis
- Reflect

- Beat Silver without any problems and received HM Cut in Ilex Forest. Caught an Oddish for HM Slave.
- Started flipping Voltorbs in Goldenrod. Surprisingly, I didn't need much time before I had enough coins to get a Dratini. Named her ANN.
- Caught a Nidoran at Route 35 and named her NICOLE. She evolved later in Nidorina.
- GYM #3: Whitneys Clefairy was easy, two Double Kicks from NICOLE where enough. Against Miltank it gets a bit harder. Miltank keeps spamming Stomp, which makes both NICOLE and LARA flinch most of the time. NICOLE faints and LARA needs 2 Superpotions (so did Miltank), but in the end we won.
- Got rid of the Sudowoodoo and made it to Ecruteak. OLIVIA evolved into Noctowl, which looks pretty cool, flying behind me.
- Beat the grunt in the danceschool and receive HM Surf.
- Save the game at 6h25m.

Current team:

LARA, Careful (f) @Level 21.
Rock Head. Everstone
- Rock Throw
- Rock Smash
- Magnitude
- Headbutt


OLIVIA, Adamant (f) @Level 20.
Insomnia. Shell Bell
- Peck
- Uproar
- Hypnosis
- Reflect


ANN, Sassy (f) @Level 20.
Shed Skin. -
- Headbutt
- Dragon Rage
- Twister
- Thunderwave


NICOLE, Brave (f) @Level 21.
Rivalry. Poison Barb
- Fury Attack
- Double Kick
- Tail Whip
- Poison Sting

-Went to the Burned Tower, met Eusine and Morty and fought an easy battle against SILVER. The 3 dogs fled the tower.
- GYM #4: I thought this fight would be way harder, but OLIVIA had absolutely no problem with any of Morty's Pokemon. Her Insomnia and Ghost-immunity, combined with Hypnosis and Confusion, were simply too much for Morty to handle ;).
- Used Repel to pass route 38, since I'm not sure yet if I will catch something here.
- Reached Olivine and got the Good Rod. Surfed with ANN to route 41 to fish.
- Caught a female Chinchou at route 41 and named her CHLOE.
- Whallan suggested to catch the last one at route 38, so I went back.
- Caught a male Raticate at route 38 and named him MICKEY.
- Saved the game at 7h57m.

Current team:


LARA, Careful (f) @Level 23.
Rock Head. Everstone
- Rock Throw
- Rock Smash
- Magnitude
- Headbutt


OLIVIA, Adamant (f) @Level 26.
Insomnia. Shell Bell
- Peck
- Confusion
- Shadow Ball
- Reflect


ANN, Sassy (f) @Level 21.
Shed Skin. -
- Headbutt
- Dragon Rage
- Twister
- Surf


NICOLE, Brave (f) @Level 21.
Rivalry. Poison Barb
- Fury Attack
- Double Kick
- Dig
- Poison Sting


CHLOE, Gentle (f) @Level 21.
Illuminate. -
- Spark
- Surf
- Confuse Ray
- Flail


MICKEY, Relaxed (m) @Level 16.
Guts. -
- Hyper Fang
- Bite
- U-Turn
- Focus Energy

- I did some small side quests first:
* Went back to Ruins of Alph to find a Moon Stone and evolved NICOLE.
* Caught about 15 Geodudes to find another Everstone. Attached it to CHLOE.
- Because of reasons I decided to go west, to Mahogany and Lake of Rage. Battled the Red Gyarados and met Lance.
- Defeated Team Rocket in the Mahogany Hideout and made the poor Electrodes faint.
- Thought I would be too underleveled for the Gym, so went back east.
- Climbed the Lighthouse in Olivine and met Jasmine and her sick light bulb.
- Surfed to Cianwood, ran into Suicune and battled Eusine. Picked up SecretPotion
- Gym #5: Thankfully this is not a Nuzlocke, although I probably would have grinded more if so. Chucks Primeape was easy; Reflect and 2x Pluck from OLIVIA did the trick. Another Pluck against Poliwrath made me steal his Sitrus Berry, so everything seemed to be going well. Then Poliwrath downed OLIVIA, and also CHLOE and NICOLE. ANN almost KOed Poliwrath with her Dragon Rage, but left a few HP. In the end it was MICKEY that saved the day.
- Got HM Fly from Chucks wife and gave it to OLIVIA.
- Saved the game at 12h01m.

Current team:


LARA, Careful (f) @Level 26.
Rock Head. Everstone
- Rock Blast
- Rock Smash
- Magnitude
- Headbutt


OLIVIA, Adamant (f) @Level 28.
Insomnia. Shell Bell
- Pluck
- Confusion
- Shadow Ball
- Reflect


ANN, Sassy (f) @Level 26.
Shed Skin. -
- Headbutt
- Dragon Rage
- Twister
- Surf


NICOLE, Brave (f) @Level 28.
Rivalry. Poison Barb
- Body Slam
- Double Kick
- Dig
- Bite


CHLOE, Gentle (f) @Level 30.
Illuminate. Everstone.
- Spark
- Surf
- Confuse Ray
- Take down


MICKEY, Relaxed (m) @Level 26.
Guts. Soothe Bell.
- Strength
- Crunch
- U-Turn
- Scary Face

- Flew back to Olivine and fixed the light bulbs of the Light house.
- Gym #6: Although I was a bit underleveled, especially compared to Jasmine's lvl35 Steelix, this was an easy one. LARA simply took care of the Magnemites and CHLOE only needed one crithit Surf to down Steelix.
- ANN evolved in Dragonair.
- Gym #7: Again, not many problems. We could cover all of Pryce's weaknesses, although I did need to heal CHLOE twice (Spark is pretty weak on her...).
- Went through the whole routine at the Goldenrod Radiotower. Bye bye, Team Rocket.
- Made it to Blackthorn and thought about challenging Claire, but realised against the Gym trainers already that I needed some grinding and other moves. Got Draco Meteor for ANN and, after smashing a lot of rocks for a Heart Scale, got Sword Dance for MICKEY.
- Gym #8: This was pretty much a team effort. MICKEY proved quite valuable with his boosted attack, ANN with his dragon attacks, CHLOE discharging, OLIVIA being a good wall and NICOLE avalanching. Only LARA did not get used, simply because I did not need her.
- Defeated the Kimono Girls in Ecruteak and Ho-oh on top of the tower.
- Fought my way up to the League and grinded until I saw myself become strong enough to beat the Elite4.
- E4 #1: This was all MICKEY, starting of with a Sword Dance, just to Crunch through all of Will's Psychic types.
- E4 #2: More of a team job. OLIVIA used Fly to beat Ariados. LARA used earthquakes to beat Koga's Muk. ANN used Fire Blast to beat Forretress. CHLOE used Discharge to beat Crobat, and again LARA used Stone Edge for Venomoth.
- E4 #3: Battling Bruce was surprisingly harder. OLIVIA did very well, using Extrasensory and Fly against the Fighters, but that wasn't enough. NICOLE, ANN and a few potions were needed. CHLOE, of course, had no problems with Onix.
- E4 #4: Karen, against expectations, was easy again. Umbreon was a bit of a drag first, walling everything, but NICOLE could eventually beat it. Also, Karen's next monster, Houndoom, was no match for her Earthquake. Murkrow got ko-ed by LARA's Stone Edge, and Vileplume and Gengar could never even damage OLIVIA.
- E4 Champion Lance: The hardest of all. I really needed some strategy, potions and luck here. His starter, Gyarados, was not too hard for CHLOE, but his Dragonites were a pain. I needed everyone to beat them, plus a revive for NICOLE. Her ability to NOT get ohko-ed, plus Avalanche, eventually did the trick. Charizard then got beaten by LARA's Stone Edge, and Aerodactyl by CHLOE's crithit Discharge.
- JOHTO LEAGUE CHAMPION!!!
- Saved the game at 27h10m.

Hall of Fame team:


LARA, Careful (f) @Level 48.
Rock Head. Everstone
- Stone Edge
- Rock Smash
- Earthquake
- Double Edge


OLIVIA, Adamant (f) @Level 48.
Insomnia. Shell Bell
- Fly
- Extrasensory
- Shadow Ball
- Reflect


ANN, Sassy (f) @Level 45.
Shed Skin. Soothe Bell
- Draco Meteor
- Dragon Rush
- Fire Blast
- Waterfall


NICOLE, Brave (f) @Level 46.
Rivalry. Poison Barb
- Sludge Bomb
- Earthquake
- Focus Blast
- Avalanche


CHLOE, Gentle (f) @Level 48.
Illuminate. Everstone.
- Discharge
- Surf
- Signal Beam
- Charge


MICKEY, Relaxed (m) @Level 47.
Guts. Amulet Coin.
- Strength
- Crunch
- U-Turn
- Sword Dance

The challenge is very interesting, and I will probably try this on a different game in the near future. The team is reasonably balanced, with some being stronger than others. The fact that I chose not to evolve my NFE's made them a bit fall behind, but still important in many situations.


- LARA. Strong with good STAB moves, important all the way through. The low SP.DEF. made it lose quite some battles, however.

- OLIVIA. Even though her attacks weren't that strong, she made up for that by her high defences. Very useful teammember.

- ANN. Quite a pain to train, and not that strong and useful. Probably better in the late game as a Dragonite.

- NICOLE. Won quite some important battles, with a well balanced move pool. Her attack isn't that high, so battles always seemed to last a bit longer. Avalanche was a good fit to her.

- CHLOE. Her Water and Electric STAB moves are very useful, so she got used quite a lot. Her stats are very low, however, and sometimes that's a pain. Also, the ability Illuminate, is pretty annoying.

- MICKEY. The biggest surprise. Not only since he was not planned and just the first encounter, but he finished the job where others failed. Combining Sword Dance with Crunch or a STAB Strength can be very lethal.

So, I finished the first part of this game, and for some it would mean the end of this challenge. For now, I'm gonna take a small break from this one, but one day, I will surely finish this by beating Red.

To be continued...

Finished the Wally scene and here is my current team

1. Ichiro The Poochyena - Level 9
2. Jade The Ralts - Level 9

So I defeated Roxanne and caught my 1st HM Slave - Slakoth (I hope its allowed and I won't use it for any battles)
My Current Team

1. Ichiro The Poochyena - Level 15
2. Jade The Ralts - Level 15

HM Slaves
HM Slave-1 The Slakoth

I won't go through all the details like with the last updates; we all know how the storyline goes...

Anyway, I managed to beat all the Gymleaders in Kanto (Blue was quite a challenge) and challenged the E4 again. I knew they would be harder now, but could not remember their teams and levels. I failed the first few times, but after grinding my while team to level 65 and getting some new moves, I managed to beat Lance.

So, final challenge is Red. And this turns out to be the biggest indeed. Again, I have to grind, because I fail miserably thrice (bloody Lapras). But, when everybody is trained to level 70+, I challenged Red for the last time.

- Pikachu is easy, one earthquake from NICOLE is enough.
- Lapras faints after being poisoned by NICOLE and electrocuted by CHLOE.
- Venusaur and ANN dance around for a bit, throwing Sleep Powders, Dragon Dances, Sludge Bombs and Full Restores around, but then ANN wins with Wing Attack.
- Snorlax is always a drag. ANN does quite some damage, but then faints to Blizzard. OLIVIA sets up Reflect, but then faints to Blizzsrd. LARA sets up a Stealth Rock against Snorlax and then faints to Blizzard. NICOLE's Superpower hits, but she then faints to Blizzard. MICKEY manages to Sword Dance/Return and wins.
- Blastoise gets hurt a bit by Stealth Rock and ko's MICKEY. CLOE survives a Focus Blast and gets to hit Discharge twice in a row due to paralysis and ko's Blastoise.
- Charizard is at 1/2 HP when he enters due to Stealth Rock. I heal CHLOE, he uses Air Slash. We are now both down to our last Pokemon, with ~1/2HP left. He is faster and uses Flare Blitz, leaving me with 15 hitpoints, hurting himself as well. CHLOE finishes it with Surf.

I finished the game at 63h33m.

The winning team:


LARA, Careful (f) @Level 70.
Rock Head. Everstone.
- Stone Edge
- Rock Smash
- Earthquake
- Stealth Rock


OLIVIA, Adamant (f) @Level 70.
Insomnia. Shell Bell.
- Fly
- Psychic
- Shadow Ball
- Reflect


ANN, Sassy (f) @Level 70.
Inner Focus. Charcoal.
- Dragon Claw
- Wing Atrack
- Fire Punch
- Dragon Dance


NICOLE, Brave (f) @Level 70.
Rivalry. Poison Barb
- Poison Jab
- Earthquake
- Super Power
- Rock Climb


CHLOE, Gentle (f) @Level 71.
Illuminate. Everstone.
- Discharge
- Surf
- Signal Beam
- Ice Beam


MICKEY, Relaxed (m) @Level 72.
Guts. Amulet Coin.
- Strength
- Crunch
- Return
- Sword Dance

I started my journey and picked charmander, eternally screwing everyone over. Except it won't evolve past charmeleon... Anyway I scratched up Rui(My rival, his chinese name is rui)'s squirtle and named my charmander senheng. I moved on to viridian city and some guy shouted "白癡孩子把這個包裹給橡樹教授" quite loudly in my ear. "擰掉 " i said in return. Charmander blinded him and I stole the parcel. When I opened it inside was a pokedex and a town map. Score. When I went into a forest, The Viridian one, a nd through a series of long and arduous events everyone died except me

It was hard and it took around over 35 turns, but I beat brock. He is a major ****. Seriously.
Anyway I went to my fav part of the game, the part were there is a whole meme. I do like shorts. They are comfortable and easy to wear