Lottery Challenge - playtesting report
I have been playtesting the Lottery Challenge with the 35 challenge elements in my previous post. I decided on Soul Silver, since I haven't played it in a while. The first number I got was number 5, which means I could not heal outside of battle during the entire game.
Since the first rule was probably one of the easier ones, I was a bit scared of the next rule that might come up, so I decided to just catch as many different usable Pokemon as possible before the first Gym. I caught Hoothoot, Geodude, Gastly, Wooper, Bellsprout and Mareep, trained Gastly a bit in Sprout Tower, also trained Geodude until it learned Rock Throw, and went to Falkner. Geodude destroyed him, so the first badge was mine. The second number I got was number 8, outlawing Ghost, Dark and Psychic type Pokemon. Sadly, I had to box the Gastly.
I decided to train Mareep and Bellsprout, since my remaining team of Cyndaquil and Geodude was pretty weak to Water. With these four and the Togepi egg I traversed Union Cave. The 'no healing outside of battle' rule didn't really bother me too much. With Mareep, Cyndaquil and Geodude in my team the second Gym was pretty easy, so I defeated Bugsy and got my third challenge element, number 23. Now I could no longer use stat changing moves, so I had to overwrite Growth on Bellsprout, Smokescreen on Quilava and a couple of others as quickly as possible. Luckily, I didn't make the mistake of actually using the moves until I could delete them not much later.
I got through Ilex Forest and reached Goldenrod, where I sadly could not capture Abra or Drowzee since they were outlawed by Element 8. I did capture a Poliwag and a Zubat in Ilex Forest, and I decided to train them both, first with the Day Care and then on their own. I added them to my team and challenged and defeated Whitney when everyone was around level 20 (Quilava, Flaaffy, Geodude, Bellsprout, Poliwag, Zubat). Geodude was the MVP here with Selfdestruct finishing off Miltank. I got element number 17 after this Gym, one of the more forgiving ones – no more duplicate Pokemon. No problem.
After this I managed to get one of the rarest encounters in the game, a Yanma on the route above Goldenrod. Naturally I captured it, as well as a Scyther in the Bug Catching Contest. They were both put in the Day Care before I continued my journey. Bellsprout and Zubat evolved around the time I captured Sudowoodo. Upon reaching Ecruteak, I was going to train a bit in Mt Mortar before challenging the Gym, but after beating one or two trainers there I decided that it was against the spirit of the challenge, so I challenged Morty with a slightly underleveled team. Golbat did a lot of work with Bite, but still fell to Gengar. Eventually Flaaffy's Thunder Wave combined with slowly whittling down its HP was successful. I rolled element number 22, outlawing status inducing moves, so that was the last time I used Thunder Wave. Poliwag's Hypnosis also had to go. Since Weepinbell was now almost completely useless, I just dropped it completely and continued with my team of 5.
I tried to check if I could somehow enter Blackthorn early to reach the Move Deleter, but got stuck in Mahogany (I didn't remember the exact storyline tbh). The Red Gyarados was also still off-limits. Naturally, I went west to Olivine and then Cianwood, trained my team a bit in the Lighthouse and around the Whirl Islands, and challenged the Cianwood Gym. After beating Chuck, the game dropped the bomb on me. Element 12: can no longer evolve Pokemon. That's not something you want to see with a level 29 Flaaffy, a Poliwhirl that longs for a Water Stone, a Graveler that wants to be traded and a Golbat holding a Soothe Bell on your team. In fact, since my fifth member was Quilava, I was either going to be stuck with all middle evolutions or I would need to overhaul my team completely. Interestingly, with elements 8 and 12 now active, this is almost a full Christian Challenge, except I can still use Ghost/Dark/Psychic moves and I don't have to care about the more obscure rules.
The first thing I did was Fly back to Goldenrod and pick up Scyther from the Day Care. Scyther without Swords Dance was going to be a bit sad, but Technician-boosted moves could still do some damage even without stat-ups. It had Agility, which was illegal, so I gave it U-Turn with a TM instead. I also picked up Yanma, even though it kind of sucks without evolving, but I didn't really have anything better at that point. I decided to drop Flaaffy and Quilava, since they were going to be useless without evolving and they were my weakest team members already, having almost no good moves.
When I was grinding Scyther on the water routes near Cianwood, it occurred to me that I had captured Tentacool, but not Tentacruel, so I could add one of those to my team without having to evolve it. The highest leveled ones could be obtained south of Violet, with a maximum of 36, so I Repelled with my Golbat (level 28) in front. It took some time, but I found a lv 36 Tentacruel eventually. I removed Poliwhirl from my team for it. Tentacruel had one illegal move, Barrier, which I replaced with Surf right away.
With Tentacruel now on my team, I figured Jasmine should be doable. She was. Graveler destroyed both Magnemite, and Tentacruel killed Steelix who would have been problematic otherwise. I rolled Element 27, so I must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion. Fair enough. Sadly, I can't use my Tentacruel right now until I get another Gym Badge, since Mahogany's Gym only goes up to level 34. Afterwards, I can use it again as long as it doesn't reach level 41, the level of Clair's Kingdra. For the League, I can go up to level 49, since Lance has a level 50 Dragonite.
With Tentacruel temporarily illegal, I decided to capture some new potential team members in the new area near the Safari Zone. Steelix is a very rare encounter in the cave there, but I decided to try it anyway, and it appeared after 30 encounters, which is pretty nice. Tauros showed up pretty much immediately in the grass. I couldn't actually enter the Safari Zone, since Baoba wants me to catch a Geodude, which is illegal due to Element 17, so I continued with the storyline.
I captured the Red Gyarados in Lake of Rage and an Electrode in Rocket Hideout, which was easy. My new team now looked like Scyther/Gyarados/Steelix/Electrode/Tauros/Golbat. With this team I decided to take on Pryce, which wasn't easy but I succeeded. The thing was that I had been grinding Electrode a bit, but forgot I wasn't allowed to used Screech, so I had to reset to a point before I ever used the move. Afterwards, I couldn't be bothered grinding again, so I beat Pryce with a slightly underleveled team. I got Element 28, which means I could no longer use Pokemon below 3 feet. This was inconsequential, since all of my Pokemon were pretty tall.
After the seventh Gym, it was time for some Team Rocket pounding. Steelix started to level like a madman, being resistant or immune to almost everything the Rocket grunts could throw at him, and somewhere in Goldenrod he caught up with Scyther at level 34. Tentacruel rejoined the team instead of Tauros, who had been underwhelming and underleveled, and Scyther and Steelix caught up with him at level 37 by the time I had destroyed the Rocket bosses. I traversed the Ice Path and beat the final Gym, the only battle in the game I struggled with since I had neither the best answer to Gyarados nor to Kingdra. In the end, I beat Clair third try using my Electrode with Charge Beam, who could two-shot Gyarados even while underleveled. My final Challenge Element was number 25, Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power.
Since Charge Beam was now illegal and Electrode was already underleveled, I dropped him in the box. I caught a decently leveled Miltank (lv 35) on Route 47, in the waterfall area to replace him. I replaced Rock Throw with Rest on Steelix and removed Pursuit for Roost on Scyther, both to remove illegal moves and to make element 5 (no items outside of battle) a bit easier on me for the League. I traversed the route to Kanto and Victory Road, grinded a bit, taught the final moves (Hidden Power Fire for Tentacruel, Focus Punch for Miltank, and Ice Fang and Earthquake for Steelix, not bad) and started the League with Tentacruel, Steelix, Scyther and Miltank at level 44. I hadn't trained Gyarados after the last Gym fight, partially because he's not that great if Dragon Dance is illegal and partially because he provided a lot of redundancy type-wise and Tentacruel is a better fit for my team since it's Special Attack oriented. Still, he entered the League alongside my main team, just like Golbat who had been demoted to Fly slave some time ago.
The League was actually surprisingly easy, I didn't have as much trouble with it as with the final two Gyms and beat it first try. I did have to be a bit creative with healing since I couldn't heal between battles, but I had 5 Max Revives (exactly enough) to use during battles. I also had healing moves on Scyther, Steelix and Miltank, allowing me to start battling Lance at almost full health. Both Tentacruel and Steelix carried multiple Super Effective moves to make short work of Lance.
Rule list for this challenge (in order of appearance):
5. Can no longer use items outside of battle to heal your Pokemon
8. Can no longer use Psychic, Ghost or Dark type Pokemon
23. Can no longer use stat changing moves such as Growth and Growl
17. Can no longer capture duplicate Pokemon
22. Can no longer use status moves such as Toxic and Spore (secondary effects are fair game)
12. Can no longer evolve Pokemon
27. Must keep all levels below the level of the ace of the next Gym or the Champion
28. Can only use Pokemon with a height above 3 feet
25. Can no longer use moves with less than 60 Base Power
Final team:
Scyther (Christian) lv 46 @ Shell Bell – Wing Attack, X-Scissor, Night Slash, Roost
Steelix (Styro) lv 45 @ Wide Lens – Earthquake, Iron Tail, Ice Fang, Rest
Tentacruel (JellyBelly) lv 45 @ Choice Specs – Surf, Blizzard, Poison Jab, Hidden Power [Fire]
Miltank (Queen Moo) lv 44 @ Silk Scarf – Body Slam, Zen Headbutt, Focus Punch, Milk Drink
Gyarados (Albinodos) lv 33 @ Wacan Berry – Strength, Waterfall, Ice Fang, Rock Smash [illegal]
Golbat (Sonia) lv 28 @ Yache Berry – Confuse Ray, Fly, Bite, Wing Attack
Evaluation of the challenge:
+ Lots of suspense after each Gym battle
+ Challenging, but not too ridiculous
+ Rewards variety and creativity when team building
- Sometimes difficult to track which rules to follow, making mistakes fairly likely
- Not all Elements are equal and some combinations could be almost impossible (but I guess that's why it's a Lottery)
All in all, I had a lot of fun. I might tweak some rules a little bit before I open an official topic here, but overall I feel that it works well enough. If anyone else wants to try it already, feel free to do so. :)