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Spotlight period: December 1st, 2022 to February 28th, 2023
The Budget Challenge
Feeding and training Pokémon isn't cheap, you know? All that power needs to come from somewhere, there's the Pokecenter tax, and so many other pitfalls that novice trainers might quickly find their wallet running dry come tax season if they don't pay attention!
So let's do the fiscally responsible thing and plan out our expenses!
The Rules
To begin with, pick a budget! We have four options for our financial planning course today: Small (400), Medium (450), Big (500) and Custom (your choice).
You're taxed the sixth part of the Base Stat Total of each Pokemon you used by the end of the fiscal year rounded up - typically after you're done with the gym challenge, trials and any tournaments - and make sure to use the most up to date table! Although that might not apply if you're in a "hacked" region, so be sure to look for the right table in those situations.
If any of your Pokemon mega evolved at any time during the fiscal year, it'll be taxed by the Base Stat Total of the mega evolved form and not the base form, so be sure to keep that in mind when you stop to file your taxes.
E.g.: Let's say you start with a Bulbasaur and keep using it. If you never evolve it, you'll be taxed 53 points (318 / 6), but if you evolve it and use Ivysaur in at least one battle, instead of being taxed 53 points, you'll be taxed 68 (405 / 6) instead. And if it made all to Venusaur, you'd be taxed 88 (525 / 6) if it never Mega Evolved, or 105 (625 / 6) if it did.
The IRS recognizes that you might sometimes be forced to capture (or be gifted a Pokemon) for travel reasons, to deal with some pushy people, to perform a trade, to combat in double battles, or just to actually be able to capture a Pokemon of your choice. Those Pokemon do not count towards your tax total, so long as you use them in battle the least amount of times possible!
That said, you absolutely must have a taxable Pokemon before beating a gym (or a trial for my Alolan readers)!
While the police might care about things like "hacking / trading to get an evolution" or "smuggling Pokemon from outside the region" and stuff like that, the IRS doesn't, so long as you file your taxes the right way (and pay the 50 point smuggling tax per smuggled Pokemon. Yes, they tax illegal stuff. It sounds weird but it ends up being a lot easier and cheaper than serving the full sentence).
The Forms
Code:
Name: Your username
Game: Which game will you be playing
Budget: Which budget course will you be taking, if custom, please say the cutoff mark
Team: We encourage you to pre-plan your team, to make sure you don't blow your budget, but it's not needed. Just remember to declare all your used Pokemon at the end!
Here's an example:
Code:
Name: Shooting Star
Game: Scarlet
Budget: Small
Team: Quaxly, Nacli, Charcadet, Tinkaton, Pawmot, Flamigo
Endpoint
Well, most trainers stop for the year after beating the Elite Four, The Champion's Tournament or something equivalent to that.
But feel free to stop wherever you want! After all, some want to climb the Battle Facilities, some want to beat reclusive hermits, some want to beat or capture strong legendaries (as a reminder, they won't be taxed if you don't use them in battle).
And of course, some might want to do contests and not care about battling at all, or want to capture a certain Pokemon, or just beat a certain trainer.
This looks like an interesting challenge. I had a hard time building my team. I wanted to use the smallest budget possible, but also use it as much as possible. I started by picking up my possible team members without looking up their BTS and tried to build a valid team with them. My first attempt put me at 386 budget, with the next one to about 420. So I mixed them together and got exactly to 399. Sadly, I couldn't get 6 members, but it might add some difficulty to only have 5 members.
Name: Panda280
Game: ROWE - Open World Emerald
Budget: Medium
Team: Calculate on the way
Pokemon ROWE - open world emerald
I want 400, but I worried some Pokemon might have their stat change, so I will pick 450 instead. I played on normal difficulty. I will try to aim my budget under 400.
Fortree
Spoiler:
There were many starters. I chose skiddo because I love this line. I don't know why it is in the starter option, but I'll never let it off my team. I started in fortree city. However, because I accidentally enable gym shuffling, the gym leader was tate and liza. I went out to catch some pokemon, but I can surf? That was surprising. I thought this game is kind of like metroidvania randomizer. Maybe you get surf from the gym leader in fortress city, so you can use it to travel to Mauville city to challenge the gym there. I caught barboach while surfing in the lake. I've never used a barboach before because of swampert. This will be interesting. The heatran cave in ORAS is in this game. That's where I caught another member of the team, zubat. I think I'm going to only evolve zubat to golbat. Anyway, Tate and Liza kept defeating me, so I decided to make my way to Mauville City and defeated more the trainer. Then, I teleported to Fortree City by speaking to a flight attendent NPC in this game. Tate and Liza was quite challenging still. I beat them and teleported to Mauville City
Tax = 88.5+78+75.83 = 242.33 Under 400
Skiddo 350 58.33 to Gogoat 530 88.5.
Barboach 288 48 to Whishcash 468 78
Zubat 245 40.83 to Golbat 455 75.83 {to crobat 535 89.16}
Mauville and Rustboro
Spoiler:
I wanted a magneton, but I encountered morpeko on the way to the powerplant. I decided to pick magnemite. Despite its high BST, mageneton has a steel type. Since I beat tate and Liza, Morpeko's dark type wouldn't be as helpful. I challenged Mauville City gym, it was Watson. He had a rotom heat, but Barboach has amnesia, so it didn't cause much trouble. I found rattata and illumise on the way. I wondered should I catch them. Raticate BST is not much, but I think I only can fit one more member left. I made my way to rustboro city, then I wanted to see Prof Birch and May, so I made my way there without looking at the gym leader. They were removed. I managed to check the Petalburg City town gym. It was flannaery. The trainer was a bit high level, so I went to Dewford to look at other gym leader.
Tax = 88.5+78+75.83+77.5 = 319.83 Under 400
Skiddo 350 58.33 to Gogoat 530 88.5.
Barboach 288 48 to Whishcash 468 78
Zubat 245 40.83 to Golbat 455 75.83 {to crobat 535 89.16}
Magenemite 325 54.16 to Mageneton 465 77.5 {to magenezone 89.16}
Morpeko 436 72.66
Last member and almost tax evasion
Spoiler:
I made my way to the cave first. Granite cave was no longer dark! I have never seen the cave look like this. I found a sableye. I looked at my tax, I can only fit one pokemon with BST<401. Wait, that's it? How come I spend so much already? I had no choice, but to add sableye onto the team (BST=380)....I should have planned my team better. I overspent on Skiddo (To gogoat). I thought maybe I do not evolve my skiddo, so I can mega the sableye, but I calculated again and again. And, it turned out I miscalculated. 400-319.83=80.17. 80.17x 6 = 481! I can fit in Pokemon with BST<481! Mega Sableye is 480. I can evolve my skiddo and also mega evolve! Yayyy! I tried to work out how I got to <401, maybe I accidentally used crobat and magnezone BST and add them into the calculation instead of golbat or magenemite. Anyway, that seems to be the final team! I'm quite happy! I thought I have to switch my magenemite with morpeko or remove zubat to save some money, and not reported that. Anyway, all is well! Don't arrest me please, I still under budget.
Tax = 88.5+78+75.83+77.5 + 80 = 399.83 Under 400
Skiddo 350 58.33 to Gogoat 530 88.5.
Barboach 288 48 to Whishcash 468 78
Zubat 245 40.83 to Golbat 455 75.83 {to crobat 535 89.16}
Magenemite 325 54.16 to Mageneton 465 77.5 {to magenezone 89.16}
Sableye 380 63.33 to mega sableye 480 80
Dewford and Lavaridge
Spoiler:
The dewford gym was just brawly. The trainer was fine. Sableye handled them all. However, Brawly fight was more difficult. Especially, his hariyama and his hawlucha. I beat hariyama, but I can't seem to make it past his hawlucha at all. I decided to grind more. I teleported to Rustboro city to check out the gym leader. Het was Norman. Then, I teleported to Mauville city to get to Lavaridge Town. The gym was roxance gym. Zubat evolved to grobat on the way, and I equipped it with an everstone i found in granite cave. I battled some trainers, then I went back to challenge brawly and won. It still took 2 tries. I'm starting to worried about how difficult the final gym and the elite 4 will be. I hope I can beat them with this team. I made my way to slateport city to play some random 3v3 battle. They gave me an eviolite. This will come in handy. I didn't do another match, but I will in the future. I battled the trainers at the beach, and all my pokemon evolved. Skiddo to gogoat, magenemite to maneton and barboach to whishcash. Then, I went to lavaridge and battle roxance. She didn't pose much of a threat, but I thought I was going to sweep her with my dragon dance whishcash, but it got knocked easily due to the sturdy. It was still easy. 4th gym badge obtained. Next, I wanted to find the Sablenite. I went to Fallarbor Town and checked in other the place. I can't find it. I was thinking of beating flannery, but I decided I want to beat her last because that's where I stop playing emerald kaizo. (Technically, it's norman, but I thought everything was going to become easy after her)
Mossdeep and Sootopolis
Spoiler:
After an eternity of playing and not playing, I teleported to fortree city and make my way to Lilycove and then to Mossdeep city to challenge the next gym leader. It was juan. He was pretty easy. I think I was overleveled for this fight. I also have magneton and gogoat, which completely destroyed his team. I went to sootopolis city to check the gym leader. It was winona. I explored the cave of orgins and found a sablenite! I thought I can mega evolve my sableye, but it seems I need a keystone first. I decided not to defeat Winona because I didn't want to defeat her in the sixth order like in the vanilla emerald. I went to battle Norman. He was harder than Jaun, but my bulk up Gogoat made it easy. I challenged Winona next. My golbat was really behind than other team of my pokemon. I was not sure whether to evolve it or mega evolve my sableye. I decided to evolve my golbat instead because my sableye did quite well on its own. I defeated Winona, and she gave me a mega ring....of course. Next up is flannery. And, wow, the level gap started to show. I was around 50-54, and she was 60-61. I knew she'll be difficult, but at least I can grind unlike in emerald kaizo. (I forgot to mention this, but at some point after I got the sableye, I found out the ROWE's pokedex shows all the pokemon stat). Suprisingly, my crobat is a special attacker. Its special attack IV is 18, but it attack IV is 0. It's strange though, crobat special attack is higher than I expected. I double check with the pokedex, and....its base atk and spcial atk are the same?! Wait, that means its total base stat is 555! Will that fit the budget? I'm not going to fit under 400. 88.5 + 78 + 92.5 + 77.5 +63.33. That's 399.83. I'm still under the budget. yes! After many attempts, I beat flannery. That was close, I almost went over the budget. I'm going to double checked again with ROWE's pokedex. Okay, so
Skiddo 350 58.33 to Gogoat 530 88.5.
Barboach 288 48 to Whishcash 468 78
Zubat 245 40.83 to Golbat 455 75.83 to crobat 535 89.16 (Rowe change it to 92.5)
Magenemite 325 54.16 to Mageneton 465 77.5 {to magenezone 89.16?? (Might change)}
Sableye 420 70
Wait, Sableye is 420, not 380!!!!!! What!?? That means I'm over the budget! Oh man, I thought I was going to fit under 400. Anyway, I think I still going to beat this challenge, but under the 450 category. I was thinking of finishing the game before I made this post. However, wally suddenly showed up with level 70 team against my level 60 team. I will need to grind a lot. I think I am going to mega evolve my sableye since there is no way I can keep my tax under 400 now. I hope I can beat the game with this challenge. Thanks for reading!
Name: Panda280
Game: ROWE - Open World Emerald
Budget: Medium
Team:
Gogoat 530 (89)
Whiscash 468 (78)
Crobat 555 (93)
Mageneton 465 (78)
Mega Sableye 520 (87)
Final Tax: 425
Ok, this is the final part. I managed to beat wally, barely. He was a double battle match. I hope the elite 4 is not double battle. I made my way through victory road. Again, the cave feels so nice to walk through when everything is revealed to you. Unfortunately, the elite 4 was double battle. The elite 4's pokemon was around 70-80. Sydney was fine, but Pheobe, though, she took me several tries. Glacia was a nightmare. I can still remember it. Although my magneton has flash cannon and sturdy, it is too slow, and it was a double battle. The only supereffective move on my team was rock slide by whishcash.
I decided to grind until I got to level 90, and challenged Glacia again. I attempted to use dragon dance on whiscash, then sweeped her team with rock slide, but she sent in cryogonal, outspeeded my dragon dance whishcash, used freezes dry and ko it. After so many save state later, I was able to safely max atk and spd my whiscash, thanks to confuse ray prankster sableye (I use hidden ability capsule I bought in Oldale town. They sold it in this game!). That took so long! Onto drake, he was bit difficult. However, since his dragalgae has draco meteor, it sp atk droped and did not hurt my team as much. I left dragalgea alive until it he sent in his last pokemon, and beat him. Finally, Wallace. I lost a few time, but because I have mageton and gogoat, it was not that difficult. However, I was running out of max revive and max potion, which was so worrying. Wallace surprised me by sending out mega swampert. I knocked out croba, so I sent in my whiscash. Swampert did not consider Whiscash as a threat, and took out my other pokemon instead. Whiscash was able to knock out mega swampert with 3 liquidation and fainted. I won against Wallace, and with that I completed this budget challenge!
The division by 6 was more about team size than the number of stats, but I suppose that's the easiest way.
Some alternative ways, if you want:
- Double the special and then divide (assume same SpA and SpD)
- Use Gen 2 values for SpA and SpD and Gen I values for everything else
The division by 6 was more about team size than the number of stats, but I suppose that's the easiest way.
Some alternative ways, if you want:
- Double the special and then divide (assume same SpA and SpD)
- Use Gen 2 values for SpA and SpD and Gen I values for everything else
Likes the method of doubling Special, then dividing by six. Benefits from it on offense and defense. Makes sense to double-count it. Jacks up the cost of Special-based Pokemon, though.
(Stats in this order: HP, Atk, Def, Speed, SpAtk, SpDef. Yes, kind of weird. Always rounded up tax numbers.)
Affords a cheap Hitmonlee, thanks to the Special double-count. Works both ways.
Accepted the horror of Pikachu versus Brock. Did not want the speedrun all-star (Nidoran Male). Played with Mankey enough. Leaves Butterfree (the back-up plan in Hitmonlee's place for 65), Nidoran Female, Rattata, and Pidgey.
Name: Kostucha
Game: Sapphire
Budget: Small (400)
Team:
Swellow (76)
Swalot (78)
Grumpig (79)
Cacturne (80)
Whiscash (78)
(391 total)
Tried composing the team of pokemon I've never used or used very little. Let's see how it goes.
- Started the game
- Picked up Pato the Quaxly and beat Nemona
- Got Ratón the Pawmi and Flamingo the Flamigo
- Finished the tutorial at the school city
- Managed to get Champiñon the Nacli and Gremlin the Tinkatink
- After a lot of research and skulking I finally found Soldado the Charcadet
- After that I kinda just roamed for a bit, hoarding items, which is a nice feeling in a Pokémon game, although I fear it might lose its novelty in the future
- While wondering I did break two stakes which I think might unlock some legendaries? I might defeat / capture them at the end if I find more.
- I beat the Dominating Klawf (I think they're Titans in English? I'm playing in Spanish) with the help of Nacli's Ground Teratype and just spamming Mud Shot (I think). I did get a scare when Anger Shell happened but Nacli's bulky enough and the AI was going easy enough that I suppose it wasn't that much of a problem. Badges: 1 / 18
- After that I decided I should probably go back and beat the first gym. I liked the little gym test thing and I thought the gym leader design was super cute. She was very easy though, just spammed Ember with Charcadet (well, I did WoW the Teddiursa but it was mostly Ember). Badges: 2 / 18
- Pawmi evolved, which is nice.
- I thought I should do something Team Star second but the Dominating Bombirdier was in the way to that, so I dealt with it. I was going to use Pawmo but the newly gained Fighting type meant it died before it could too much damage. Nacli was still rather tanky and dealt with it easily enough. Badges: 3 / 18
I guess my next steps will start Team Star and keep working on Titans. The Koraidon boost is nice and I want the puppy to get better.
Update 1
Chose "Luca" for the protagonist, after Luca Pacioli. Was a famous accountant. Named the rival "Auditor".
Hmph. Tried to pick Eevee. Was shoved aside by Auditor. Cost too much for the team, apparently. Accepted Oak's trash (Pikachu). Named it "Write-off".
First battle: Crit with Write-off. Get critted by Eevee. What a start to battling. Notes 10/18 hitpoints to be yellow health, also.
Oh yikes, that Chansey overworld sprite. Interprets its mouth as a nose, and its arms as its mouth. Looks like some giant, nasty dog. Appreciates the animation of Pikachu jumping on the counter in the Pokemon Center to get healed.
Oak: "How is my old Pokemon?" ...Do you mean this Pikachu you caught literally one minute before handing it over?
Beat Auditor west of Viridian City with Write-off at level 8. Never attacked with Eevee in the ~7 rounds to take it down.
Pulled off three straight criticals in Viridian Forest (not all in the same fight). Bases criticals off Speed this generation. Should be interesting. Kept that in mind when picking Pokemon.
Grinded up to level 15 for Brock. Faced a tough move choice: Tail Whip or Double Team? Needs Tail Whip to even dent Geodude and Onix. Deals with Generation 1 evasion, on the flip side (66% hit chance for 1 Double Team versus 75% elsewhere). Expected Tail Whip to ultimately help more. Deals pathetic damage otherwise.
Nearly got the full Generation 1 experience there: critical hits ignoring stat changes and no action during Bind. Only lacked the Generation 1 miss chance to complete the trifecta.
Appreciates Write-off suppressing the critical urge for the gym a bit. Pulled off another triple crit during the trainers east of Pewter City.
Uh. Found a Sandshrew on the first encounter, and the highest level possible (10) to boot. Missed two Sand Attacks on Write-off. Says 100% accuracy on the move. ...Did it just get double Generation 1 miss chance'd? Is this Pokemon cursed? (Looked it up. No. Imposed a 1/4 chance of missing status moves on the AI. Weird.)
Named it Default. Chose Sandslash for fun more than power. Handles okay as a Ground-type, though. Notes zero Ground moves in its level-up moves, annoyingly. Picks up Dig in Cerulean City, at least.
Grabs Slash at level 17, however. Learned it against a Hiker in Mt. Moon. Unleashed a string of four straight criticals against them. Sirslash evolution when?
Defeated Auditor at Nugget Bridge without any issues. Caught a Bellsprout in the route ahead. Nabbed three more after seeing a combined 8 DVs between Attack, Defense, Special, and Speed on the first. (Did not use the first one in a fight. Should have compared Sandshrews too. Rolled poorly there. Too late on that one.) Decided to take the all-arounder, rather than the one with maximum Special + minimum Speed. Named it "Nominal".
Tried out the Generation 1 special while training Nominal: Wrap + PoisonPowder. Deals poison damage on every turn of immobilization. Improves with Toxic. Ultimately prefers a Sleep + Growth set, however.
Leveled up to 21 for Misty (already had 22 on Write-off.) Evolved Nominal in Weepinbell. Should be an easy win.
Yeah. Underestimated the trainer experience from the route up north. Helped to evolve too, of course.
Evolved Default into Sandslash on the Rocket Grunt just afterwards. Spiked up further in power with the Dig TM from said trainer. Ought to enjoy this power while able. Chose pretty late Pokemon for the other three slots.
Speaking once again of power spikes: those crits. Ripped up trainers north of Vermillion with nine consecutive criticals on Default's Slash.
Rolled over Auditor on the SS Anne. Held several levels over everything on their team.
Faced Lt Surge next. Wanted to do Pikachu versus Raichu. Forgot to put Write-off back in front.
Went up and back through Rock Tunnel. Exited with no Digs or Vine Whips left. Throws so many low level Pokemon at you. Ran from the wild encounters too.
Demolished more pointless trainers. Made it to Celadon. Offers such cheap TMs at the Department Store. 1000 for a TM? Entered the store with 66677 Pokedollars on-hand. Might want that Reflect eventually. Bought Nominal's Leaf Stone for later.
Cannot decide on Razor Leaf or a Growth + Mega Drain strategy. Criticals with Slash ridiculously often. Could go nasty with Sleep Powder, Double Team, Growth, and Mega Drain. Requires being able to set up. Looked ahead. Seems grim on that front. Lacks both Leftovers and debuffs. Hates living with 10 PP too. So, Razor Leaf.
Back on the topic of cheap TMs: the roof vending machine TMs. Remembered Ice Beam up here. Did not recall Rock Slide or Tri Attack. Finds it interesting that no one learns Rock Slide by level-up. Congratulations to Default for a good new attack, at any rate.
Decided to count Default's Slash crits at the Rocket Hideout. Ignored type match-ups. Just hit Slash. Critted on all 20. Hmm. floor((65 + 76) / 4) * 8 = 280. Either criticals or gets Generation 1 miss'd. Broke the critical hit chance so hard in this game. Swapped back to the others for experience.
Blah blah blah time for Erika. Planned to let see how far Default would get with Dig. Decided on Nominal instead. Fared really well against all the gym trainers. (Only did that for experience. Overleveled, thanks to having a team of three. Levels 36, 35, and 33 versus Erika's 32, 30, 32.)
Lists Weepinbell first on Serebii. Was surprised to see Tangela first. Was caught off-guard by that late Super Potion too. Wonders if the AI changed their move after the switch, also. Shrugs.
Breezed through Saffron City on the way to Lavender Town. Did not think you could challenge the Fighting Dojo until after Sabrina. Appears not. Fought an actual even-level battle with Default. Won Discount the Hitmonlee (at a respectable level 30). Will be utterly useless against the upcoming ghosts, but whatever.
Scratch that. Met Auditor at the Pokemon Tower. Used Discount for fun. Easy peasy.
How good is Discount? ...Oh wow. 15 (maximum) in Hitpoints and Defense. 13 in Special and Speed. 7 in Attack. Nice.
Grabbed the Poke Flute. Beelined to the Super Rod, then headed off to Cycling Road for Fellowship the Doduo. Caught four and picked the best-looking one.
Does not end there, however. Skipped past all the trainers to also fish up Luxury the Staryu south of Fuchsia City. Opted for the Staryu with better Special and Speed over Defense. Pins a lot of hopes on Luxury. Powered it up immediately with Thunderbolt and Ice Beam. Wandered through the Safari Zone for Surf. Evolved it into Starmie as well.
Fun sidenote: Saw a Chansey along the path to Surf. Chucked a ball. Caught it in one ball.
Finally assembled the full team. Went off to train everyone. Suffered two faints on Luxury. Occurred once against a higher level Dodrio who crit the first attack on a five-hit Fury Attack. Causes all five hits to crit. Happened a second time versus a Mirror Move Thunderbolt.
Discovered a new bit of weirdness: "not very effective" Fighting moves on Pidgey. Hits for neutral damage. Displays the message because of its second typing.
Almost challenged Koga (levels 44-50) with a team of 35-39s. Unlocked Silph Co since last going through.
Grumbles at some Zubat. Had a Generation 1 miss against it. Used Confuse Ray against Fellowship. Hit itself three times straight. Fine. Sent in Luxury. Hit itself three times straight too. Nonsense. Must be the luckiest Zubat in existence.
Ends this update midway through Silph Co. Just learned Razor Leaf on Nominal. Evolved it to Victreebel. Marks the last evolution on the team.
Spoiler: Team
Write-off the Pikachu
Level: 37
Stats: 84 HP/59 Atk/41 Def/88 Speed/55 Special
Moves: Thunderbolt, Quick Attack, Agility, Thunder Wave
(Keep those stats in mind when looking at the others.)
Nominal the Victreebel
Level: 38
Stats: 124 HP/98 Atk/73 Def/72 Speed/94 Special
Moves: Razor Leaf, Growth, Acid, Sleep Powder
Default the Sandslash
Level: 40
Stats: 132 HP/96 Atk/105 Def/71 Speed/61 Special
Moves: Dig, Slash, Rock Slide, Sand Attack
Fellowship the Dodrio
Level: 37
Stats: 102 HP/103 Atk/69 Def/89 Speed/57 Special
Moves: Drill Peck, Growl, Fury Attack, Fly
Luxury the Starmie
Level: 37
Stats: 99 HP/74 Atk/77 Def/108 Speed/95 Special
Moves: Surf, Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Tackle
Discount the Hitmonlee
Level: 39
Stats: 104 HP/109 Atk/63 Def/88 Speed/47 Special
Moves: Double Kick, Meditate, Strength, Jump Kick
That was a pretty good playthrough. Pokemon were fun to use and it was quite smooth-sailing with a few hiccups up until the league. I didn't feel like grinding so I just powered through E4 with Leech Seed/Yawn/Calm Mind and a bunch of healing. Also it took me up until the champion fight to realize that stockpile doesn't raise defenses in Gen 3 :P
Forgot to mention some of the usual rules: limit 3 items per battle, no Revives or X items in battle, and Set mode.
Explored more of Silph. Met Auditor in there. Was happy to see an even level fight instead of all the trainers 10 levels below. Ended the first four with Luxury (Starmie). Finished Jolteon with Default (Sandslash).
Picked up Earthquake along the way. Matches Dig's power in this generation. Gave it to Default anyways. Prevents the enemy from using status moves or X items for free. Might should have kept it for the explodey Poison gym, but oh well.
Rolled over Giovanni, thanks to wasted turns on Guard Specs. Suffered zero damage.
Looks at all the levels on the upcoming gyms. Levels 44-50, 50, 48-54, and 50-55. Currently has a team of levels 38-40. Cleaned out all the trainers outside the gyms too. Will be a ride. First up: Koga.
...Came to the Poison gym, right? First trainer: Hypno. Next trainer: Drowzee and Kadabra. Only found one Poison Pokemon between all the gym trainers: Arbok (a few times). Made 13 different lines of of Poison-types. How are you this bad?
Spoiler: Koga log
Turn 1: Default: Earthquake (90%) / Venonat: X Attack
Turn 2: Default: Slash (critical, the rest)
Turn 3: Default: Earthquake (85%) / Venonat: Psybeam (119/139)
Turn 4: Default: Slash (critical, the rest)
Turn 5: Default: Earthquake (80%) / Venonat: Sleep Powder (miss)
Turn 6: Default: Slash (critical, the rest)
(Level up.)
Turn 7: Venomoth: Double Team / Default: Rock Slide (miss)
Turn 8: Venomoth: Double Team / Default: Rock Slide (miss)
Turn 9: Venomoth: Leech Life (113/142) / Default: Rock Slide (miss)
Turn 10: Venomoth: X Attack / Default: Rock Slide (miss)
Turn 11: Venomoth: Psychic (critical, 1/142, -1 Special) / Default: Rock Slide (miss)
Turn 12: Default: Switch to Fellowship (Dodrio) / Venomoth: Toxic
(Poison damage to 102/108)
Turn 13: Venomoth: Double Team / Fellowship: Drill Peck (miss)
(Poison damage to 90/108)
Turn 14: Venomoth: Psychic (32/108) / Fellowship: Drill Peck (miss)
(Poison damage to 14/108)
Turn 15: Fellowship: Switch to Luxury / Venomoth: Leech Life (critical, 61/107)
Turn 16: Luxury: Surf (miss) / Venomoth: Leech Life (28/107)
Turn 17: Luxury: Surf (critical, 70%) / Venomoth: Leech Life (critical, 0/107, heal to 40%)
Turn 18: Default: Hyper Potion (heal to full) / Venomoth: Leech Life (critical, 125/142, heal to 45%)
Turn 19: Venomoth: X Attack / Default: Earthquake (the rest)
Cannot recall ever being in a dirtier match than that. Eight straight misses. 4 out of 6 criticals for Venomoth. Was the level advantage not enough? (No.)
Really should have used Fellowship (Dodrio), also. Was just in a "Poison? Use Ground" mindset, despite seeing all Bug/Poisons. Shrugs.
Hit up Sabrina's gym right after. Appreciated all the trainers with Psychic Pokemon in the Psychic gym...until all of the Channelers with Ghost Pokemon. Ties in with the anime, at least.
No problem, even at 8 levels below. Did not expect Luxury to outspeed everything. Receives Luxury's final move from this: Ps--wait, Psywave? Not Psychic? Sighs. Fine.
Flew to Celadon City. Dropped 69000 Pokedollars, 1000 at a time, for coins for...also not Psychic. ...Serebii? Hello? Says TMs 23 (Dragon Rage), 29 (Psychic), and 15 (Hyper Beam) for Generation 1's Game Corner. Shows 23, 15, and 50 (Substitute) on Bulbapedia (all versions) and in-game.
Where is it actually? Saffron City, for free. Was not too annoying to actually get, at least. Taught it to Luxury.
Where next? Sees nothing worthwhile in Seafoam Islands. Might as well beat up trainers. Needs experience on Nominal (Victreebel) and Write-off (Pikachu) the most anyways.
Why are the trainers level 27-30 in the water? Beat a level 50 Venomoth for this. Hates these level 5 Tentacool interruptions too.
Mentions canceling evolutions at the Cinnabar Island Pokemon Center. Imagines that being too late for basically every Pokemon, minus some outliers like Dragonair.
Cleared the Pokemon Mansion. Appreciated some wild, higher level Pokemon there (although less the critical Quick Attacks). Successfully failed every quiz in Blaine's gym for experience. Continued without stopping with Luxury at level 44, a full 10 levels under Arcanine.
Simple. Also surprisingly faster than a higher-level Rapidash. Next up: Viridian City. Spoke to the person in the front. "Yo! Champ in making! Even I don't know VIRDIAN LEADER's identity." ...On the statue right next to them: "VIRIDIAN CITY POKEMON GYM. LEADER: GIOVANNI". Uh...
And finally, Giovanni. Levels 50-55 versus Luxury's 46 (and levels 41-45 on the rest).
To the Pokemon League, then. Oh, and a quick audit. One-shot the first four. Handled the rest no problem.
Oh! A shocking switch by a trainer in Victory Road. Replaced Dewgong with Chansey (versus Luxury).
Wandered around Victory Road for quite a while. (Saw several steps ahead. Missed dragging a boulder across the map to place on a switch.) Why is the entrance to Indigo Plateau so gaudy? Erected over a dozen statues in a haphazard manner, declaring themselves the highest Pokemon authority.
Looked at the levels: 53 to 65. Nah. Grinded everyone up to 50 (from 43 up). Was kind of miserable, especially with Write-off struggling versus anything but the 15% Golbats. Handed out 1 Rare Candy to everyone except Luxury to make 51. (Saved the remaining three for after the first battle. Was almost at 51.) Could have probably avoided the whole grind and juiced Luxury up to 58 to demolish everything. Wanted to give the others a possible chance.
Stocked up on items. (Cleaned out the PC first. Filled it to the brim.) Time for Luxury to shine. Paid a fortune for this thing, and for good reason. Brings Surf, Psychic, Thunderbolt, and Ice Beam to the table.
Spoiler: Lorelei
Turn 1: Luxury: Thunderbolt (55%) / Dewgong: Aurora Beam (119/134)
Turn 2: Luxury: Thunderbolt (the rest)
(Level up.)
Turn 3: Luxury: Thunderbolt (95%, paralysis) / Cloyster: Super Potion (heal to 50%)
Turn 4: Luxury: Thunderbolt (the rest)
Turn 5: Luxury: Thunderbolt (65%) / Slowbro: Surf (101/136)
Turn 6: Luxury: Thunderbolt (the rest)
Turn 7: Luxury: Surf (50%) / Jynx: Thrash (77/136)
Turn 8: Luxury: Surf (the rest)
Turn 9: Luxury: Thunderbolt (45%) / Lapras: Body Slam (42/136)
Turn 10: Luxury: Thunderbolt (45%) / Lapras: Body Slam (5/136, paralysis)
Turn 11: Luxury: Switch to Write-off / Lapras: Hydro Pump (11/116)
Turn 12: Write-off: Thunderbolt (critical, the rest)
...What is the critical hit chance for Luxury? (115/2)/256 = 22.46%. Scored zero in ten hits. Places it at a 7.86% chance of not getting any for Luxury. Not a great start, but not super terrible.
Congratulates Write-off on doing something, also.
Saves the Rare Candies again. Will probably level on the first opponent. (Maybe second, given Onix.) Expects one-shots across the board.
And last, the final audit. Definitely went over budget on their team (537, using the double Special method). Five Special Pokemon of out six? Such typical behavior of these tax types. Relies on Default for Jolteon, at minimum. Might need the others earlier, depending how Alakazam goes. Levels 51 + one 56 versus 61-65s.
Concludes this challenge. Wound up being too easy (after the first gym). Should have picked a lower budget. Did not know how things would shake out, though, with low game familiarity and stat differences.
Individual Pokemon thoughts:
Write-off (Pikachu): Was not that strong, even with early Thunderbolt. Expected nothing from it, in fairness. Never ended up needing Thunder Wave or Light Screen.
Default (Sandslash): The surprise of the playthrough. Performed really well. Starts rough with only Scratch. Takes off with getting Slash, Dig, and an evolution in short succession. Appreciated someone with good physical bulk.
Nominal (Victreebel): Okay. Could not make good use of Growth with criticals being what they were. Lacks Leech Seed for Wrap/Toxic to really work its magic. Dealt respectable damage, particularly against other Grass/Poison types (relatively).
Fellowship (Dodrio): Not as strong as expected. Not terrible, by any means. Usually just fell a bit short of damage. Racked up fewer criticals than expected too.
Luxury (Starmie): Looked amazing between moveset and stats. Expected a dominant showing at the Elite Four (especially Lance). Lived up to the hype. Was happy to use Starmie once again, also.
Discount (Hitmonlee): Never had a good chance. Dealt with Psychics and Ghosts quite a bit. Ran across very few Normal-type Pokemon. Feared anything Special-based, such as Lorelei. Fired off some good Hi-Jump Kicks with no fear, on the plus side (1 damage miss recoil).
Was quite a trip replaying Generation 1, also. Remembered some shortcomings beforehand, like the dominance of Psychic types and repetitive enemy Pokemon. Had forgotten about other bad things: really limited bag space, out-of-control criticals, going to the menu for HM moves, terrible level-up movesets, the huge experience shortfall, a set trainer Pokemon order, and locking Pokemon into a super effective status move. Mentions the positive of good sprites and fairly low HM usage. Is not eager to replay this generation again, though.
- I went for Anan (dark Star guy, don't know if he's also Anan in English) next and he was interesting enough. Not particularly hard because Flamigo is too stronk but I like his general vibe. Badges: 4 / 18
- After that I moseyed-on over to the grass gym. I like the challenge and how it encourages people to walk around the city and see what's going on. I also liked that it was raining during the gym fight and the gym leader had Sudowoodo. It both makes sense thematically and is good coverage. Badges: 5 / 18
- From there, I went to see Mela. There, I found the rain a bit disappointing. I mean, it was useful since I was going to make it rain with TMs anyways, but Drought Torkoal that wasn't cockblocked would really set the terrain and kick the difficulty up a notch a little bit. Badges: 6 / 18
- I then went to do the Orthworm, which I hated because it wouldn't just settle down and fight me, but was easy enough, I suppose. I enjoy seeing the puppy getting better so it's worth it in that regard. (Also, love the bigger jumps). Badges: 7 / 18
- And then I did a collab with Iono - or rather, e-Nigma, which is literally a Batmain villain name, but you do you Spain - at 3 AM at the dark web (not clickbait, gone wrong). Honestly, the gym trainers were harder because my main offensive core for them was Nacli with Mud Shot and they kept spamming charge. Badges: 8 / 18
I guess my next steps will be to continue with Team Star and finish the Titans.
Oh God, it's already January. That means I was chilling at Team Rocket HQ for more than 5 month. Yeah, I quickly started and got all my Pokémon without any problems and the run went fairly easy. Morty's Gengar was annoying to deal with as always, but nothing out of ordinary. I was lucky and got Metal Coat on my first Magnemite encounter.
But then, I got to the Team Rocket segment and lost interest in the game. Not because of this challenge, I just hate this Team Rocket segment. Whole Team Rocket is a pushover in this game and it only prolongs the game with unnecessary battles. And so, my character just stayed there, while I was slowly picking up a motivation to get past it.
Once I did, I quickly beat the rest of the game and decided to beat Red.
Overall, it was great run. I don't feel like the limit to 5 party members mattered that much, because I had some strong Pokémon on my team. Ampharos basically solo'd most of the game by himself. If there was something he couldn't beat, Quagsire usually took care of it. I've barely used Noctowl after Morty. It was good in early game, but then there weren't really that many Pokémon Noctowl could take on. Miltank was nice tank and I usually used her to heal up my party. But she had quite a punch. And finally Scizor was fine. Setting up Swords Dance meant it could cut through anything the game had to offer. Combine it with his speed, he saved me few times in this run.
In the end, it was nice to do a casual challenge run like this. I should return to it soon. I'll just sign up for another run ocne I decide my new team and game...
- Got Duck the Quaxly
- Beat Nemona
- Helped Koraidon at the beach
- Beat Arven
- Did the busywork at school and unlocked Koraidon
- Got Flamingo the Flamigo
- Got Capitalism the Gimmighoul
- Got Puppy the Maschiff
- Got Salt the Nacli
- Beat Katy, the Bug Gym Leader
Salt dealt with Nymble pretty easily (although he got rather hurt), Flamingo dealt with Tarountula.
Puppy intimidated Teddiursa, Gimmighoul hurt it and then Flamingo cleaned up.
I need to get better moves for Gimmighoul, or evolve it already.
Badges: 1 / 18
- I almost let Duck evolve by accident. I need to get the Everstone for it soon.
- Duck made quick work of the Titan Klawf.
Badges: 2 / 18
- Beat Brassius, the Grass Gym Leader
Flamingo dealt with Brassius pretty handily.
Badges: 3 / 18
- I got Puppy the FireThunder Fang combo and with Bite and Hone Claws it's a perfect killing machine and the goodest of girls <3
- Then I backtracked to Mesagoza because I realized I can get an Everstone there
- Puppy dealt a bunch of damage to Titan Bombirdier and Salt cleaned up.
Badges: 4 / 18
- Flamingo destroyed Giacomo.
Badges: 5 / 18
- Beat Nemona
- Salt evolved
- I lost to Iono so I went to get materials for some TMs and I decided to just go around the region and rob some Gimmighouls so Capitalism could evolve.
- After that Iono went down rather easily. Just trading Pokemon.
Badges: 6 / 18
- Salt dealt with Torkoal and hurt Revavroom enough for Duck to clean up.
Badges: 7 / 18
- After hunting for materials for some TMs, I dealt with the Steel Titan.
The only reason Flamingo didn't OHKO it was because the game forces a break so it can get Herba Mística.
Badges: 8 / 18
- Puppy evolved during the Water Gym "Challenge". She's still a puppy though because all dogs are puppies, regardless of age.
- Gholdengo with Charge Beam obliterated Kofu.
Badges: 9 / 18
- After some Chansey grinding, Capitalism finally got a useful move and I managed to beat that cheater Atticus. (Fun fact: The CPU has infinite PP)
Still, I do appreciate how gender Atticus' design is.
Badges: 10 / 18
- Beat Larry, my sweet little blorbo. Flamingo and Mabosstiff did most of the work.
Badges: 11 / 18
- Beat Nemona.
- I did some History classes, I love Ms. Raifort design but I find hilarious that her hair just moves by itself.
- Salt evolved.
- I have concerns about the safety of Montenevera concerts, but I liked the basic concept of the gym, and the design of Ryme.
While I don't like the overall art directing, I really enjoy individual character designs.
Also, I like Doubles gym, Pokemon should have more Doubles in general (maybe even a Doubles only mode).
Capitalism and Puppy made short work of the gym.
Badges: 12 / 18
- Suffered a bit, but managed to get rid of Titan Great Tusk.
When Arven showed up the AI mostly focused on Arven so Quaxly actually did most of the work here.
Badges: 13 / 18
- After that I trekked to the one place I hadn't gone yet, Alfornada.
Apparently there's an entrance there that I just missed (or I possibly got to the entrance and just failed to make my way properly).
Either way, I should have enough upgrades to get there now.
- Beat Nemona again.
- Capitalism dealt with Tulip #cancelled like the booty guru she is
I have to say that Tulip does seem like the type of person who'd have the Karen ostrich, doesn't her?
(But props to her to be able to balance herself on one foot and on heels, that's hard)
Badges: 14 / 18
- Capitalism and Salt swept Grusha.
I will say that Frosmoth was a wasted opportunity. Ice Scales Tera Steel (or anything really, even Tera Ice) would make Grusha a lot harder.
And since they're the last gym leader, I feel like it'd be appropriate.
Badges: 15 / 18
- After some heartache I dealt with Ortega, the major problem was dealing with its cheating Starmobile.
And once again, I appreciate the teenagers having very gender designs.
Badges: 16 / 18
- I was afraid since I don't really have anything appropriate to deal with Dragons, but Dondozo is Water type so I just spammed Charge Beam.
Tatsugiri on the other hand, that was a bit more complicated.
Dragon Pulse did a lot of damage. Still, I managed to get through that.
Badges: 17 / 18
- Even though I knew there was zero chance they'd kill the dog, I'm happy that it's better all the same.
Arven deserves it. Poor child of divorce.
- Finished the history classes and got the shrines marked.
- Ground a bit to prepare for the final badge.
- Capitalism defeated most of Eri's Pokemon and then it was a team effort to deal with the cheating Starmobiles.
Badge: 18 / 18
- Since it happened to already be dark, I went to battle Cassiopeia already so I wouldn't have to wait later.
I'm not sure how Clavell had breakway shorts with pants underneath though. Ortega should take notes.
Either way, she let Capitalism set up and from there it was GG for her.
Still, it was a cute end to the story. Very predictable, but a cute end nonetheless. Operation Starfall complete
- They really gave Arven the most Doofenshmirtz backstory possible, huh?
I was half expecting him to say Sada and Turo weren't there for his own birth.
Either way Flamingo destroyed him, bless his soul.
Operation Legendary Path complete
- I actually forgot to buy items before storming the Elite so I thought it was going to be a bit dicey, until I realized I had like 35 PP restoring items.
For the first time ever, health might be the bottleneck instead of PP.
- vs Elite 4 Rika
- I had Gholdengo up first (which is bad) but it baited a safe switch for Flamingo who killed Whiscash safely
- Then Quaxly killed Camerupt while also tanking a Future Sight Whiscash had set up.
- Donphan killed Quaxly but Mabosstiff dealt with it and Dugtrio
- Lastly Salt and Flamingo dealt with Clodsire
- vs Elite 4 Poppy
- As it turns out, letting Capitalism set up is a terrible, terrible idea. It will sweep you.
- vs Elite 4 Larry <3
- Same as above, it's very hard to stop Late Stage Capitalism.
- Except you know who can stop it? That's right, motherpsyducking Flamigo the GOAT. One more reason Larry's got my heart.
- Flaming made the other Flamigo kill itself by recoil because Flamigos are the GOAT.
- vs Elite 4 Hassel
- Puppy dealt with Noivern
- Salt dealt with Dragalge
- Puppy dealt with Haxorus and Flapple
- Flamingo killed Baxcalibur netting us the win
- Sidenote: I appreciate how the E4 types are the Titan types. The Titans were on the easier side so the challenge is appreciated.
- vs Top Champion Geeta
- I started by setting up Nasty Plot Capitalism and killing Espathra
- Geeta then sent Avalugg, which was destroyed.
- Then she sent what she should have sent last turn: Kimgambit. I decided to keep Capitalism in to mantain strength.
- A Flash cannon wasn't enough and Capitalism got weakened, letting Salt come in and deal with Kingambit
- Alas, I forgot about Reflect so I sent in who I should have sent before: Flamigo
- Flamingo quickly dealt with Gogoat after Kingambit.
- Puppy dealt with Veluza
- And last but not least, Glimmora. I let Puppy in to see what it would Tera into (Rock) and after Glimmora got some chip in, Flamingo cleaned up.
- Sidenote: Glimmora should have been the setup and Kingambit the ace, but I guess GF realized how much harder that would be, lol.
- vs Champion Nemona
- Once again, Nasty Plot Capitalism kills the lead of Lycanroc
- And then Orthworm, and Dudunsparce, and Pawmot.
- Goodra barely survived though. Still, Puppy cleaned it up quickly enough.
- Flamingo came in to deal with Skeledirge, see, it learned Throat Chop like 8 badges ago specifically for this Pokémon.
It's not even SE after Terastal, it just shuts down the Torch Song ramp.
- Flamingo dealt enough damage before dying, that it ended as it began, Quaxly triumphing over Skelerdige.
Operation Victory Road complete
- They're really going all in with the Doofening huh? Sada acknowledged everyone except Arven, even after he explicitly talked to her, that's rough.
(Yes, I've been spoiled the twist, I know she's actually an AI but c'mon. That's not even neutral detachment from an AI, that's deliberate).
- Sidenote: I love how the 3 Stooges almost left me behind. The bags just materialized themselves into existence as soon as we reached Area Zero though ...
Why weren't they included in the cinematic?
- Sidenote: "Sada has a Time Machine." sleep. "So how's your family like?" that's the real muk. ~ The 3 Stooges
I love the characterization dialogue for all the wrong (as well as the right) reasons.
- vs. AI Professor Sada
- Capitalism took out Slither Wing and Flutter Mane, but lost to Brute Bonnet.
- Puppy took out Brute Bonnet, but retreated against Scream Tail.
- Duck took one for the team to let me get Capitalism up to snuff to continue the sweep, since Fairies are scary.
- Capitalism killed Scream Tail and Sandy Shocks but didn't managed to kill Roaring Moon, only wound it.
- Puppy came in and finished the job.
I will say though that I was expecting Bullydon to be the ace, not Roaring Moon. Bit of a missed opportunity there.
She didn't even Terastal.
- vs. Paradise Protection Protocol (AI Sada Reprise)
- Ah, there's the Bullydon.
- Since the only option here is to use Koraidon, this doesn't count for the challenge, obviously. It's barely even a battle.
- With this the game is over. Credits Roll. Ed Sheeran is playing for some reason.
But let's go for the whole nine yards here.
Rematch the Gym Leaders and become the Academy Ace too.
Also, shout out to Corey out there in the credits, living his childhood dreams <3
- vs. Gym Leader Katy (Reprise)
- Flamingo dealt with Lokix
- Puppy dealt with Forretress
- Then Flamingo came in to deal with Heracross and Spidops
- Puppy dealt with Ursaring
So more or less nothing really changed from the first battle, I guess.
(I do like the confirmation of multiple teams theory and the connection between her and Kofu though).
- vs. Gym Leader Brassius (Reprise)
- Flamingo dealt with Liligant, Tsareena, Breeloom and Arboliva before being shut down by Sudowoodo.
- Puppy cleaned up.
More or less the same again. Not a lot of strategy (or coverage).
- vs. Gym Leader Iono (Reprise)
- Salt dealt with Kilowattrel, Bellibolt and Electrode, before falling to Luxray.
- Capitalism killed Luxray and weakened Mismagius so Puppy could clean up.
Iono had easily been the hardest gym leader before but I suppose most of it was just having mukty coverage and stats back then.
She was still very dangerous, but nowhere near as hard as it was then.
- vs. Gym Leader Kofu (Reprise)
- Capitalism sweep
Gholdengo is just cracked I guess. (Setup tactics are also kinda cracked for the main campaign, I suppose).
- vs. Gym Leader Larry (Reprise)
- Flamingo dealt with Oinkologne
- Capitalism dealt with Braviary, Dudunsparce, Komala and Staraptor
- vs. Gym Leader Ryme (Reprise)
- Puppy and Capitalism were just too much for Ryme to handle
- vs. Gym Leader Tulip (Reprise)
- See above
- vs. Gym Leader Grusha (Reprise)
- I needed to use a few more Pokemon but realistically it was the same old.
- And from there on, it's Academy Ace time.
- vs. Aren (Reprise)
- Capitalism set up and started killing stuff.
- I forgot Mycelium Might overwrote Good as Gold, so Flamingo came in after Toedscruel dealt with Capitalism.
- vs. Jacq the Instructor
- Salt faced against Arcanine
- Duck dealt with Mudsdale
- Flamingo dealt with Lurantis
- Puppy dealt with Slowbro
- Salt destroyed Swalot
- Puppy mangled Farigiraf
- vs. Dendra the Instructor
- Capitalism beat like half of her team and then Flamingo came in and beat the rest.
- vs. Top Champion Geeta (Reprise)
- Capitalism dealt with Espathra and Avalugg
- Flamingo killed Kingambit and Gogoat
- Puppy killed Veluza
- Flamingo came in to kill the last Pokémon of the game.
Challenge end
- In celebration, I let Quaxly evolve. So what if the IRS is gonna get pissed? I'm the champion. I'm the ace, they have no power over me. Mwahahahaha
The Team
Spoiler:
- Capitalism, the Gholdengo [Lvl 73 @ Wise Glasses] ~ Good As Gold
Shadow Ball / Charge Beam / Nasty Plot / Flash Cannon
The MVP, but given how hard it was to get it in the first place, it had the moral obligation to be the MVP, lol.
- Flamingo, the Flamigo [Lvl 74 @ Clear Amulet] ~ Scrappy
Wing Attack / Throat Chop / Close Combat / Roost
The real workhouse that's constantly been good since Day 1. Easily become one of my favorite Pokémon.
- Salt, the Garganacl [Lvl 72 @ Quick Claw] ~ Purifying Salt
Iron Defense / Recover / Earthquake / Rock Slide
I should have gotten this Body Press :x
Oh well, it sucked for most of the journey, then it became more of a tank than a wall.
I could have used it better if I felt like stalling.
The second workhouse. It gets perfect coverage and it kills things well enough while also being bulky.
I love this puppy.
- Duck, the Quaquaval* [Lvl 75] ~ Torrent
Acrobatics / Aqua Jet / Aqua Cutter / Work Up
Really more of a mascot because I like Quaxly but it was actually useful ish during the late game.
More of a priority finisher than anything with real staying power but it was an important niche nonetheless.
*Quaxly at Lvl 74 before evolving at the end of the challenge
