[ROM Hack] Pokemon Blaze Black - Mono-Water Randomized Team Run (Completed)

Pixel Art Background by ansimuz

Hello! It's been quite a while since I've been active on PokeCommunity and decided to come back with a new challenge run, as I have quite a bit of down time while waiting for replies for the job applications I sent out. The title is very confusing but, it's essentially combining a Monotype (Mono-Water as you can tell by all the blue), Scramble, and "New Team Each Town" run. The game of choice will be Drayano's rom hack Pokemon Blaze Black, as I have yet to complete the game so why not add a some spice to the mix with a challenge run.

Rules

General Rules

• Only Water-types allowed
• Pokemon that either permanently form change or evolve into a Water-type are allowed, and can be used even when they don't have the Water-typing yet (they must evolve / form change ASAP)
• Legendary Pokemon will be used, unless they are considered Ubers which will be banned (with the exception of Manaphy)

Run Specific Rules

• After beating each Gym Leader, I will randomly generate a team of 5 Pokemon to use to beat the next Gym Leader / Pokemon League
• The 6th Pokemon will be hand-selected by me to patch any potential problems of the generated team. If the team of 5 I generated lacks any major problems, the 6th Pokemon will be randomly generated
• To prevent certain Pokemon from seeing a ton of usage, any Pokemon used on the current team will be taken out of the randomization pool for the next Gym but, will be put back in for the Gym after
• Each Pokemon may only be selected as the 6th Pokemon once during the entire run. In addition, all Pokemon on the current team may not be selected as the 6th Pokemon for the next Gym
• All Pokemon that meet the criteria and that can be caught before each Gym Leader will be thrown into the randomization pool, which will gradually expand as I acquire more badges

Hardcore Rules

• Set Mode
• No over leveling, every Pokemon on my party must be the same level as the next Gym Leader's highest leveled Pokemon. However, over leveling during boss fights is okay
• No consumable items (potions, x-items, revives, etc.) will be used in battle, held items are okay

Progress

Badges

Current Randomization Pool

Banned Pokemon

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Update #1

- My journey begins on a beautiful Autumn night, as we head upstairs to open the gift Professor Juniper gave us to begin our adventures
- Obviously, my pick was Oshawott. In this game, most Pokemon got updated and/or additional abilities, with Oshawott in particular getting Vital Spirit in addition to Torrent (though, I crossed my fingers for a plain vanilla Torrent Oshawott)
- After that, I quickly found myself battling Cheren and Bianca. I was able to barely beat Bianca but, lost against Cheren because Snivy has Contrary (which I totally forgot) so my Leer actually helped it
- Got through all the prologue dialogue, and receive the Bicycle soon after
- On Route 1 I caught myself a Bidoof and made sure it had the Moody ability. There are legit 2 options for Water-types before Cilan, those being Oshawott and Bibarel so the whole randomized team part of the run will have to come after Cilan
- Made it to Accumala Town and I meet N for the first time after Ghetsis's speech, afterwards he challenges me to a battle

Vs. N

• Bidoof didn't do much against Nincada since it got 2 Defense drops from Moody and got chunked by Bug Bite, I swapped in Oshawott to tank a Bug Bite and KO it with Water Gun
• Mankey uses its turns spamming Leer and gets taken out by 3 Water Guns from Oshawott
• I reset Oshawott's stats by switching in Bidoof who tanks a Scratch at low HP, then send Oshawott back in to take out Purrloin with some Torrent-boosted Water Guns

- Received the Running Shoes from my mother and battled Bianca at the end of Route 2

Vs. Bianca

• Bidoof eventually takes out Meowth with multiple Tackles despite some unfortunate Moody stat drops and Bianca healing it with a Potion
• Swapped out Bidoof for Oshawott who gets burned upon switching in by Tepig's Ember, but Tepig gets taken out by 2 Water Guns (though the burn damage and Tepig outspeeding Oshawott made this a lot closer than it needed to)

- Made it to Straiton City and went scavenging around for items, including the important HM01 Cut
- Took a small detour to the Dreamyard to get Pansear from a random lady (I won't be using this Pansear but, if you're familiar with this romhack you probably can guess why I got it)
- Headed inside the Trainer's School to find the Gym Leader(s), only to find Cheren who challenges me to a battle

Vs. Cheren

• Oshawott takes down Starly with 2 Water Guns and tanks a pretty hard-hitting Wing Attack
• Switched out Oshawott for Bidoof, who is able to take Snivy down with Tackles, in addition to some lucky Moody boosts allowing Bidoof to tank Vine Whips very well

- After beating Cheren, the Straiton Gym is finally open for challengers!
- Cilan will be coming in the next update, for now I just battled the gym trainers, healed and called it a night

Current Team

Update #2

- So I was pretty nervous for Cilan's Gym battle because it's essentially 2 vs. 6. The only way I could think of to beat Cilan was to use a Moody Bidoof and hope I get good enough stat boosts to sweep with Rollout. Moreover, the reason I picked up the Pansear was because the 1st Gym will be a Rotation Battle, which means I will need 3 Pokemon or I won't be able to proceed. Keep in mind that Pansear will not attack, it will be sent into the battle for moral support
- With that out of the way... it's time to face Cilan! The battle was pretty easy overall and didn't require me to reset. His Pokemon never seemed to use any Grass-type STAB and would just mindlessly spam boosting moves like Growth for majority of the fight.

Vs. Cilan

• Cilan leads with Snivy, Bulbasaur and Chikorita while I send in Bidoof, Oshawott, and Pansear
• Bidoof boosts up with a Defense Curl and then uses Rollout as it tanks Chikorita's Wring Outs. Cilan rotates back and forth between Chikorita and Snivy who used Growth + Tackle, Chikorita eventually goes down to Rollout as it rotates in
• Bulbasaur gets rotated in but gets OHKOed by Rollout
• Pansage stops Bidoof's Rollout streak with Protect. Snivy gets rotated in and gets taken down by Rollouts despite getting healed by Cilan
• Pansage gets rotated in and doesn't Protect causing it to get OHKOed by Rollout
• Bidoof's Rollout picks up another one shot on Turtwig
• Bidoof's Rollout rampage ends but, it is still able to take down Treecko with 2 more Rollouts as it goes for Leech Seed

- As Bidoof's rampage comes to a close, I receive the Trio Badge and proceed to run some errands for Fennel
- Normally I would have to completely swap out my team now that I have beate. However, Route 3 is blocked off and has some unavoidable trainer fights before the tall grass, so my new team is going to have to wait until then
- Took out the Plasma Grunts harassing a Munna at the Dreamyard (this took a few tries because it was 2 back to back battles, with no healing and I only had 2 Pokemon). Bidoof evolves into Bibarel after the fights and I made my way to Route 3
- Besides the unavoidable twin fight (hindsight, I probably could've deposited one of my Pokemon but, I'd have to solo Cheren), Cheren approaches me right before the tall grass and challenges me to a battle

Vs. Cheren

• Oshawott weakens Staravia with Water Gun but does not survive the flurry of Wing Attacks, Bibarel finishes it with Tackle
• Bibarel takes down Snivy with Tackles after missing a few due to Moody Accuraccy drops while Snivy spams Wrap instead of a Grass-type attack
• Roggenrola goes down to 2 Cuts (Cut is a Grass-type attack in this rom hack)
• Panpour gets one-shot by Cut

- Now with all the obstacles gone, the randomized team portion of the run can officially start! There will be a ton of new Pokemon (because it's early on in game, so Pokemon variation is very high) that will be added into the pool, the Pokemon will be listed below...


- The following will be the team I'll be using until I beat Lenora. Magikarp was chosen as the 6th Pokemon because Gyarados will provide a very beneficial power boost to help with the insane power spike that is Lenora's Gym battle


- Funnily enough, a lot of the Pokemon on the list are actually available after the whole Wellspring Cave debacle. Luckily enough Shellos is not one of those Pokemon but, it's going to solo for now
- The Plasma fights was pretty tough due to similar reasons to the Dreamyard Plasma fights and had me reset a few times. Shellos got lucky with critical hits and the AI targeted Cheren during the Double Battle helped a ton (future Wuzzy here, I thought some NPC needed to tell you about shaking grass like in B2W2 so I could've gotten Totodile and Mudkip with Shellos, which would've made the battles easier)
- I received the Fishing Rod from the little girl and backtracked to catch the remaining members of my team.
- Catching the last 3 members of my team took a few hours since they are rare-encounters in shaking grass and water ripples. Qwilfish took the longest because not only did I have to find a water ripple but, without Surf I had to keep going until the ripples occured on the water's edge. In addition, I was able to consistently find the Water starters I did not need (Squirtle, Piplup, Oshawott) despite all 5 of them having 5% encounter rates...
- With all the painful special encounters out of the way, Mudkip evolves into Marshtomp while battling the Route 3 trainers and I made it to Nacrene City
- After exploring the city, I head towards the Museum / Pokemon Gym only to get stopped by N, who challenges me to a battle
- As you can tell by the battle against Cilan, majority of the boss fights in the game are not single battles. In this case, this fight with N will be a double battle

Vs. N

• I lead with Qwilfish + Magikarp (so it can get Exp) while N leads with Bronzor + Drilbur
• Qwilfish does great damage to Drilbur and Bronzor with Water Gun before falling to Dig + Extrasensory. Magikarp misses the first Bounce but, finishes off Drilbur with the next one
• N withdraws Bronzor and sends in Tympole which gets hit with Marshtomp's Yawn. Tympole misses Supersonic and Marshtomp chips it with Mud Shots
• With prior damage from Mud Shot, Tympole goes down to Magikarp's Bounces
• Bronzor eventually goes down to Marshtomp's Water Guns but, it takes down Magikarp with 2 Extrasensory attacks
• N sends in Zorua and Totodile finishes off Bronzor with Bite. Marshtomp tanks Pursuit and retaliates with Mud Shot
• N sends in Vulpix to use Confuse Ray on Marshtomp but, goes down to Mud Shot + Bites
• Lastly, Marshtomp breaks through confusion and takes down Zorua with Mud Shot with the help of Totodile's Bite

- After the battle, Totodile evolves into Croconaw and I learn more about N's ambition
- With access to the Gym, I decided to clear out the Gym trainers first since most of my Pokemon were close to the level cap
- Decided to explore the outskirts of Pinwheel Forest since a few of my Pokemon needed levels, in the process Magikarp finally evolves into a Gyarados
- Now that my entire team is all grinded up, I'm all prepared to face Lenora but, that'll have to wait for now

Current Team

Update #3

- Lenora is a pretty difficult Gym battle in the fight. Not only do her Pokemon have pretty decent stats and solid movepools at this point in the game but, she also has a lot of annoying utility such as Intimidate, Follow Me, Hypnosis, etc. at her disposal. Since this fight is a double battle, Lenora's team having access to these utility moves will make this fight a lot more frustrating
- The fight went pretty well overall. Goldeen and Shellos were able to deal surprisingly good damage with boosts from their respectively abilities but, they were bulky enough to take more than 1 hard-hitting moves like Retaliate and Thunderbolt very well. Qwilfish and Gyarados were also very helpful with Intimidate and in Gyarados's case, having access to Bounce allowed it deal very great damage

Vs. Lenora

• Lenora starts with Stantler + Herdier (for double Intimidate) while I lead with Shellos + Qwilfish
• Qwilfish uses Minimize which lets it dodge 2 of Stantler's Extrasensory attacks, and boosts Shellos's Special Attack with Water Gun. Eventually, Stantler goes down to a few Brines + Rollout
• Lenora sends in Furret which attacks Qwilfish with Thunderbolts (a few of them miss thankfully) while Herdier attacks both of my Pokemon with Bite and Retaliate. Shellos is able to weaken Furret with Brines but, Herdier knocks it out with Bite
• I send in Goldeen and Lenora heals Furret with a Super Potion as Qwilfish's Rollout ramps up in damage, while Goldeen slowly chips Herdier with Water Pulse
• Qwilfish misses a crucial Rollout and Goldeen redirects Furret's Thunderbolt with Lightningrod. On the next turn, Furret uses Follow Me and gets taken down by Water Pulse and Water Gun
• Next up, Watchog gets sent in and attacks Goldeen with a Helping Hand-boosted Crunch with Herdier's help. Watchog is forced to consume its Sitrus Berry after Water Pulse and Water Gun deal a number to it and confuses it. On the next turn, Watchog hits itself in confusion, allowing Goldeen to secure the knock out with Water Pulse.
• Bibarel comes in next and while Goldeen and Qwilfish are able to chip both Pokemon with Water Pulse and Rollout, they both get taken down by Retaliate from both of Lenora's Pokemon
• I send in my powerhouses Gyarados and Croconaw to finish the fight. Croconaw takes down Herdier with Bite, while Gyarados deals great damage to Bibarel with Bounce
• In comes Lenora's Bouffalant which does a decent amount to Gyarados with Rock Tomb, Croconaw outspeeds finishes off Bibarel with Rock Smash
• Gyarados and Croconaw chip Bouffalant with Bounce and Rock Smash as it spams Rock Tomb (consuming its Sitrus Berry in the process), eventually one last Rock Smash takes it down

- After beating Lenora and receiving the Basic Badge, I find out that Team Plasma is stealing the Dragon Skull right underneath our noses
- Before heading inside Pinwheel Forest, it's time to generate a brand new team! I didn't get to spend a ton of time with this team due to story events blocking access to the newer routes but, at least this team was able to beat one of the harder boss fights in the hack which should count for something?
- The Pokemon below will be added to the list. In addition, the King's Rock and Water Stone will be available very soon so Slowbro, Slowking, Poliwrath, and Politoed will be added into the pool seperately


- The team I'll be using to face Burgh are as follows. Since Burgh isn't much of a power spike and I'm not at a type disadvantage, all 6 of my Pokemon will be randomly generated


- Grinded the new team to Lv. 20 before pursuing Team Plasma, Squirtle evolves into Wartortle during the grinding session
- Retrieved the Dragon Skull back from Team Plasma and headed to Castelia City. Pinwheel Forest was incredibly rough since most of my team at this point have not reached their power spikes (aka they haven't evolved yet), so the trainer power spikes and the abundance of Grass-types used was pretty tough to handle at this point
- As I enter the gym, I get stopped by Burgh at the entrance telling me that Team Plasma is up and about on the docks
- We rescue Bianca's stolen Munna from some abandoned building and I proceed to battle the Gym trainers at Burgh's Gym
- Afterwards, I explored and battled the trainers in Castelia City. During this time, Slowpoke evolves into Slowking, Remoraid evolves into Octillery, and Tympole evolves into Palpitoad
- Continued to grind my team to Lv. 30 in preparation for Burgh's Gym Battle. During the process, Tentacool evolves into Tentacruel
- Made my way back to the Castelia Gym and called it a day

Current Team

Update #4

- Burgh is up next and honestly, I didn't really register him as a threat since I've never really had trouble with him since you are able to match his power spike at this point in the game. However, he can be tough because he has some hard-hitting Pokemon plus a lot of annoying utility to use in this double battle
- With that said, the fight was harder than I expected. I had to reset once since my team was getting overwhelmed by his Leavanny and Masquerain. The 2nd time around, the battle was very close but, I ended up getting lucky with missestowards the end. Masquerain definitely should've been taken down ASAP because of how Stun Spore screwed me over both times.

Vs. Burgh

• Burgh leads with Masquerain and Vespiquen, while I lead with Tentacruel and Octillery
• Masquerain paralyzes Tentacruel with Stun Spore but breaks through the paralysis and uses Bubblebeam on Vespiquen. Vespiquen switches places with Scolipede with U-Turn which tanks Octillery's Aurora Beam
• Masquerain lands Stun Spore on Octillery but, it's able to dodge Scolipede's Rock Slide and nearly take it out with Psybeam. On the next turn, Octillery dodges Scolipede's Megahorn and tanks Masquerain's Silver Wind before taking down Scolipede with Psybeam
• Burgh sends in Leavanny and Octillery goes down to Silver Wind + Leaf Blade, Tentacruel attacks through paralysis and lands a Venoshock on Leavanny
• I send in Basculin who attacks Leavanny with Headbutt but, gets taken down by Leaf Blade. Tentacruel finishes off Leavanny with Venoshock
• Yanmega comes and deals decent damage with Air Slash and Masquerain uses Icy Wind. Palpitoad uses Muddy Water and Tentacruel uses Venoshock onto Masquerain. Due to the damage from Air Slash and Icy Wind, Tentacruel gets finished off by Yanmega's U-Turn which invites in Heracross to take the Muddy Water
• Wartortle and Palpitoad chips Heracross with Water Pulse and Muddy Water while Masquerain finally misses Stun Spore due to Accuracy drops. Wartortle tanks a Guts-boosted Aerial Ace and finishes Heracross with Aqua Jet on the next turn. Burgh heals Masquerain with a Hyper Potion and Palpitoad chips it with Uproar
• Yanmega comes back in and leaves immediately with U-Turn, sending in Vespiquen to take the Water Pulse. During the next turn, Wartortle uses Protect to block another U-Turn and Stun Spore. Vespiquen poisons Palpitoad with Toxic instead but, goes down to Uproar
• Yanmega returns yet again and takes down Wartortle with Signal Beam. Masquerain misses Silver Wind and Muddy Water nearly takes down Yanmega
• Slowking comes in and is able to dodge Signal Beam and tank Silver Wind, Yanmega goes down to Palpitoad's Muddy Water
• Masquerain eventually goes down to Confusion and Uproar from my Pokemon

- I receive the Bug Badge and got a call from Bianca who wants to battle us on Route 4 (isn't it great that they give you notice now)
- Before that, it's time to deposit our current team and generate a new one! The Pokemon below will be added to the pool. Gorebyss and Huntail will be added seperately since Clamperl's evolutionary items will be available very soon, also Masquerain is a Bug/Water-type in this game which explains Surskit's appearance


- And my new team will be the following... Wooper was chosen as the 6th Pokemon because of all the Water/Ground hybrids, it's learns Earthquake before the level cap of 38. Though I must say, I got extremely lucky rolling this team (I swear it was randomly generated)


- Grinded everyone to Lv. 30 before moving on to Route 4. After the grinding session, Chinchou / Barboach / Wooper evolve into Lanturn / Whiscash / Quagsire respectively. I decided to wait until Lv. 32 to evolve Shellder so it can learn Razor Shell. Frillish is found on Route 4 so, it'll have to wait until I beat Bianca
- Headed towards the Route 4 gate to meet up with Bianca, who promptly challenges me to a double battle

Vs. Bianca

• Bianca leads with Simisage and Munna, while I opt for Lanturn and Bibarel
• Simisage nearly takes out Bibarel with Seed Bomb, while Lanturn paralyzes it with Thunder Wave and Bibarel attacks with Hyper Fang. Munna then finishes Bibarel with Zen Headbutt
• Shellder gets sent in and Electro Ball + Icicle Spear takes out Simisage. Munna continually spams Synchronize which doesn't do anything
• Persian attacks Lanturn with Foul Play but, gets hit with a Thunder Wave. On the next turn, Electro Ball and Icicle Spear knocks it out
• Bianca sends in Pignite while I swap out Shellder for Quagsire since it sustained a critical-hit Psyshock from Munna. Quagsire takes the incoming Arm Thrust very well
• I didn't realize Pignite was Fire/Ground (it's Fire/Dark in BB2/VW2) so I used 2 Thunder Waves on it before realizing my mistake. Though it didn't matter because Quagsire one-shots it with Aqua Tail
• Munna keeps using Synchronize, and gets taken down by Electro Ball and Aqua Tail

- Bianca heads back to Castelia City and I move onward towards Route 4
- I catch the last member of my party, Frillish, and explored the first half of Route 4. I actually found the Cover Fossil here so I should've added Tirtouga to the pool before Burgh, I assumed that I needed to go to the Relic Castle to get the Cover Fossil like in the vanilla game
- As I head up the main road of Route 4, I met up with Cheren who challenges me to a rotation battle

Vs. Cheren

• Cheren leads with Starvia, Boldore, and Kadabra while I lead with Quagsire, Lanturn, and Frillish
• Staravia boosts its Evasion with Double Team but, Quagsire is still able to land a hard-hitting Aqua Tail on it. Staravia attacks with Aerial Ace while Quagsire misses another Aqua Tail but, the sandstorm damage takes down Staravia
• Cheren sends in Servine who rotates out into Kadabra to use... Ally Switch, Lanturn rotates in and paralyzes it with Thunder Wave
• Servine rotates in and deals great damage to Lanturn with Leaf Blade but, it also gets paralyzed with Thunder Wave. Kadabra rotates in and gets nailed with Lanturn's Electro Ball, before taking Lanturn down with Psybeam
• Bibarel gets sent in and Kadabra randomly uses Ally Switch before going down to Hyper Fang
• Cheren's Simipour comes in and rotates out into Servine who takes a critical hit Hyper Fang, forcing it to consume its Sitrus Berry. However, Bibarel gets taken down by an Overgrow-boosted Leaf Blade
• Servine rotates to Boldore as I send in Shellder. Icicle Spear chips Boldore but, Shellder gets one-shot by Power Gem (which surprised me tbh)
• Whiscash gets sent in and I rotate to Quagsire while Cheren rotates to Simipour. Quagsire lands Slam but, gets chunked by Scald. On the next few turns, I rotate in Frillish to use Night Shade while Simipour uses Scald despite Water Absorb, eventually going down to sandstorm damage
• Frillish chips Servine with Ominous Wind (which it learnt just now) but, goes down to Leaf Blade. Quagsire finishes it with Aqua Tail
• Boldore gets rotated in and Quagsire + Whiscash take it down with Aqua Tail and Water Pulse

- I received a call from Professor Juniper to meet her the Nimbassa City gate
- Before that, I took a detour to the Desert Resort to pick up the remaining fossils I might need for the future. During this excursion, Shellder learns Razor Shell and then I evolved it into a Cloyster
- Headed towards Nimbassa City and met up with Professor Juniper and Cheren at the gate
- Team Plasma surprises us in Nimbassa City and I go and help the Day-Care man they were harassing. Afterwards, he thanks us by giving us HM02 Fly
- The excitement within Nimbassa City will have to wait until the next update, all that grinding from earlier kinda wore me out

Current Team

Update #5

- Before I can go anywhere, I'm forced to do the Pokemon Musical with Bianca
- Once I head outside the theater, I witness Bianca and her dad fighting about her Pokemon journey. Though, Elesa is able to bail her out and calm her dad down
- Explored Nimbassa City to pick up a few items, one of them being HM04 Strength
- Headed towards the Nimbassa City gym and ended up on the ferris wheel with N. Once I got off, N challenges us to a double battle

Vs. N

• N starts off with Hippopotas and Maractus while I start with Lanturn and Bibarel
• Lanturn and Bibarel attack Maractus with Thunder Wave and Return, Maractus uses Accupressure while Hippopotas uses Dig
• I switch out Lanturn for Cloyster who takes the Dig, Maractus goes down to Bibarel's Return
• N sends in Golett which gets taken down by Cloyster's Icicle Spear, Bibarel chips Hippopotas with Return as it attacks Cloyster with Crunch
• Icicle Spear nearly takes out Hippopotas and Larvesta lands a critical Take Down onto Cloyster. However, Bibarel one shots Larvesta with a critical hit Return as Hippopotas uses another Dig
• Sigilyph gets sent in and nearly gets taken out by Ice Shard and Return. Sigilyph uses Synchronize and Hippopotas easily takes down Bibarel with Dig due to Moody Defense drops. Due to prior damage from Hippopotas and Larvesta, Cloyster goes down to sandstorm damage
• Whiscash and Frillish are sent in to clean up. Whiscash takes down Sigilyph with Water Pulse as it goes for Synchronize, Frillish's Brine finishes off Hippopotas
• Lastly, N's Gligar comes in who attacks Whiscash with Acrobatics before going down to Water Pulse and Brine

- N tells us more about his goals and then tells us to meet him at the Pokemon League if I want to stop him
- I battled the Gym trainers before going out to explore Route 5, Route 16, and Lostlorn Forest. Afterwards, I grinded my entire party to Level 38
- Headed back to the Nimbassa City gym to challenge Elesa
- Elesa is one of the few single battle boss trainers in the game. I'm a bit nervous because half my team can't really deal with her Pokemon, and her Raichu and Galvantula have Grass-type coverage that I will have to play around. She also still loves to spam Volt Switch, so I will also have to utilize my immunities well to counter it
- Overall, this battle didn't give me much trouble at all. Cloyster was able to do a number on her team due to lucky flinches from King's Rock and having 3 Electric-type immunities proved to be overkill for this match. I definitely lucked out on the team selection but, I could also see Quagsire carrying most of the match regardless

Vs. Elesa

• Emolga attacks Cloyster with Acrobatics but, it gets taken down quickly by Icicle Spear
• Cloyster takes out Ampharos with 2 Icicle Spears, with Ampharos getting flinched due to the King's Rock
• Cloyster lands 2 Ice Shards onto Raichu, with the first one flinching it, before falling to Volt Switch. Manectric replaces Raichu and I send in Quagsire
• Manectric attacks with Flamethrower which does no damage, Quagsire one shots it with Earthquake
• Elesa sends in her Galvantula and I switch out to Frillish to take the incoming Energy Ball. Frillish goes down to Thunder but, it gives me a safe switch-in to Lanturn
• Galvantula mistakenly goes for Volt Switch and Lanturn is able to land a critical hit Bubblebeam. On the next turn, Lanturn sponges an Energy Ball and takes out Galvantula with another Bubblebeam
• Raichu comes back in and lands a Focus Blast and Bubblebeam barely misses the KO. Elesa heals Raichu with a Hyper Potion as Lanturn chips with Bubblebeam
• I swap out Lanturn for Whiscash who is able to tank 2 Focus Blasts but, only gets a measily Magnitude 4 and goes down to another Focus Blast. Quagsire comes back in and tanks a Focus Blast and Raichu goes down to Earthquake
• Lastly, Zebstrika comes in and isn't able to do much with Double Kick before falling to Quagsire's Earthquake

- I receive the Bolt Badge and it's time to switch out the team! The Pokemon below will be added into the pool now that I can go to Driftveil City


- I receive this exciting new team to work with for Clay's gym. While I did have the type-advantage, I opted for Politoed as my 6th Pokemon so I have something to combat the potential weather war in Clay's Gym battle. One thing I did notice was that half my team is 4x weak to Grass and I don't have any reliable ways to combat Grass-types soo... I can already picture myself struggling with certain battles in the future


- Because I'm lazy, I will not be grinding the new team tonight. That'll have to wait for another day! I just wanted to finish up the Nimbassa City events and call it a night ^^

Current Team

Update #6

- Grinded my team and everyone fully evolved except Krabby. Since Krabby learns Crabhammer at level 41, I decided to hold off its evolution until it learns this move (or else it won't get any good Water moves until Waterfall)
- Headed to Route 5 and got ambushed by Cheren, who challenges us to a plain ol' single battle

Vs. Cheren

• Staraptor uses Aerial Ace and tanks 2 of Relicanth's Rock Tombs with the Attack drops from Intimidate. Staraptor uses Whirlwind to force in Politoed and due to Rock Tomb's Speed drops, Politoed outspeeds and knocks out Staraptor with Bubblebeam
• Serperior kept using Slam for some reason, and Politoed is able to paralyze and slowly whittle it down with Bounce which consumes Serperior's Sitrus Berry. Eventually, Politoed misses an important Bounce and goes down to a critical hit Dragonbreath. I send in Krabby who takes it out with Stomp
• I switch out Krabby for Carracosta as Gigalith comes in to set up Stealth Rock. Carracosta uses Shell Smash but, it causes Gigalith's Rock Slide to do more damage than I thought. Carracosta uses Aqua Jet before going down to another Rock Slide, Gastrodon comes in and KOs Gigalith with Brine
• Simipour mistakenly uses Scald and gets taken out by 2 boosted Hidden Power [Electric] attacks but, it paralyzes Gastrodon with Lick before going down
• Alakazam uses Telekinesis and Reflect before going down to 2 of Gastrodon's Brines

- The Driftveil Drawbridge is now open and our party meets Alder along the way. Afterwards, Cheren leaves us to become stronger and I make my way to Driftveil City
- We receive a not-so-warm welcome from Clay who accuses us of letting Team Plasma escape. Cheren and I proceed to go and look for them
- Explored Driftveil City before heading to the Cold Storage. Krabby evolves into a Kingler during this time
- Found Team Plasma hiding in a shipping container inside the Cold Storage. We beat up Team Plasma and Clay comes in to arrest them
- Ghetsis picks up his kids and Clay will now accept us as challengers. Before challenging him, I battled the Gym trainers and then explored Route 6.
- Grinded everyone to level 44 and then headed back to Driftveil City to challenge Clay
- I mean, Clay isn't really much of a threat mainly because it's very easy to change the weather and his team is pretty slow while having common weaknesses to boot. Excadrill can be a problem but it's still very manageable as long as you don't let it freely set up and/or if you change the weather
- Probably didn't need Politoed for this fight but, you can never be too careful. Honestly, Milotic and Carracosta would've wiped his team even without the rain up since Milotic can tank hits well and Carracosta can sweep with Shell Smash + Aqua Jet. Overall, I overprepared for this fight but, it's alright I still got the badge in the end >.>

Vs. Clay

• Milotic one shots Hippowdon with Hydro Pump
• Krookodile uses Torment and then goes down to Milotic's Hydro Pump
• Milotic uses Brine but, Steelix consumes its Passho Berry to weaken its damage and sets up with Coil. Milotic misses Hydro Pump and goes down to a critical hit Earthquake
• I send Politoed in to set up the rain via Drizzle and takes out Steelix with Bubblebeam
• Marowak deals a lot of damage with Earthquake but, it gets KOed by Politoed's Bubblebeam
• Excadrill comes in and Politoed goes down to Rock Slide. Carracosta and Excadrill set up with Shell Smash and Swords Dance respectively. On the next turn, Aqua Jet secures the KO on Excadrill
• Lastly, Carracosta deals decent damage with Crunch and gets a Defense drop but, gets brought down to Sturdy by Seismitoad's Earth Power. One last Crunch easily finishes off Seismitoad

- I received the Quake Badge and it's time to reroll the team. There's technically 1 new Pokemon I can get which is Rotom but, it can't form change until Opelcuid City so it won't be added until then
- The new team I'll be using for Skyla will be... No 6th Pokemon because there isn't really a need for me to due to no type disadvantage. Not sure how this team will fare, 2 of the Pokemon are weak to Flying (Samurott is Water/Fighting in this rom hack) but I'll see soon enough


- Also, I updated all the sprites to fully evolved Pokemon!!
- Like the previous update, I'll be doing all the grinding and catching in the next update so... it's time to call it a night

Current Team

Update #7

- During the down time, I grinded up my party to level 44. All of the current members are now fully evolved except Seel, mainly because Seel is found on Route 6 and I know there is a battle with Bianca there
- Just as I said, I get ambushed by Bianca who challenges us to a plain ol' single battle

Vs. Bianca

• It's actually raining in Driftveil City so keep in mind that this entire battle was fought under the rain
• Anyways, Jellicent deals great damage with Brine and Mienfoo U-turns out into Persian. Persian uses Taunt and Foul Play before going down to 2 Brines
• Jellicent uses Ominous Wind on Jellicent and gets the omniboost allowing it to tank Simisage's Seed Bomb. The 2nd Ominous Wind doesn't quite take out Simisage (getting another omniboost lol) but, Jellicent goes down to Seed Bomb
• I send in Poliwrath to take out Simisage but, Bianca heals it with a Hyper Potion. Poliwrath tanks the Seed Bomb pretty well and takes out Simisage with Body Slams
• Musharna comes in and I switch out Poliwrath with Azumarill who unforunately gets a Special Defense drop from Psychic. Azumarill chips Musharna with Return before going down to another Psychic, Wailord comes in and finishes off Musharna with a critical hit Water Spout
• Mienfoo comes back and somehow Wailord outspeeds it and finishes it off with Brine
• Lastly, Wailord yet again somehow outspeeds Emboar and OHKOs it with another Brine

- After the battle, Bianca heads back to Driftveil City and I head to Route 6 to catch a Seel.
- Made my way to Chargestone Cave and Clay helps us get rid of Galvantula's spider webs blocking the entrance
- Inside Chargestone Cave, the Shadow Triad brings us to N who tells us Team Plasma will be waiting for us further in
- In addition, I met up with Professor Juniper and Bianca inside the cave and she gives us the Lucky Egg! With this, I grinded Seel to level 44, and it evolves into a Dewgong during the process
- Cleared out the Team Plasma grunts and encountered N at the end of the cave. He asks us about our dream and then challenges us to a single battle
- Now this N fight was very hard, and it should be obvious why (really wished I picked a 6th Pokemon just for this fight). Not only does N's Rotoms have access to strong Electric moves but, they also outspeed my entire team bar Poliwrath under rain. It took me a while to actually beat him and it required me to get very lucky with Poliwrath

Vs. N

• Rotom uses Substitute and Jellicent breaks it with Ominous Wind. Jellicent deals great damage with Ominous Wind before going down to 2 Shadow Balls. Azumarill finishes it off with Aqua Jet
• Rotom-Cut comes in and knocks out Azumarill with Leaf Storm.
• Wailord sets up the rain with Drizzle and proceeds to stall out Rotom-Cut with Rest until it decreases its Special Attack with Leaf Storm. Eventually, Wailord goes down to a Thunderbolt
• Poliwrath comes in and sets up with Bulk Up under confusion from Rotom-Cut's Confuse Ray (luckily it never hit itself). Rotom-Cut's Thunderbolt and Energy Ball don't do too much which allows Poliwrath to set up 5 Bulk Ups.
• Poliwrath then finishes off Rotom-Cut and OHKOs the incoming Rotom-Wash with Return
• Poliwrath is then able to finish one shot Rotom-Fan, Rotom-Heat, and Rotom-Frost with Strength (which is a Rock-type move in this romhack)

- With that out of the way, Bianca and Professor Juniper interrupt my conversation with N and we get to know more about his views on relationships with Pokemon
- Bianca and Professor Juniper head back into the cave and I head out to Mistralton City
- Explored Mistralton City and updated some of my Pokemon's movesets since I have access to the Move Reminder and Deleter now
- I meet up with Skyla and Cedric and, I get my Pokedex upgraded our Pokedex. Before we can challenge the Gym, I have to head to Route 7 and up Celestial Tower with Skyla
- Met up with Skyla at the top and she opens the Gym up for us.
- Like in previous updates, I battled all the Gym trainers and then grinded everyone up to level 56
- Headed back to Mistralton City to challenge Skyla. Skyla's Gym battle can be tricky mainly because she challenges you to a Triple Battle and she has a pretty versatile team as well. Her Pokemon have a variety of hard-hitting moves like Brave Bird and Earthquake, and paired with Tailwind support, they can be overwhelming
- With that said, I didn't find this battle very difficult. Dewgong slowing her team down with Icy Wind and Poliwrath tanking the first 2 attacks allowed Wailord to go crazy with Water Spout which dealt a lot of damage to her Pokemon.

Vs. Skyla

• Skyla leads with Braviary, Skarmory, and Mandibuzz while I lead with Wailord, Dewgong, and Poliwrath
• Poliwrath and Braviary sets up with Bulk Up. Due to the Defense increase, Poliwrath tanks Mandibuzz and Skarmory's Brave Birds well enough to survive
• Wailord finishes off Skarmory with Water Spout and the recoil damage from Brave Bird, and Dewgong nearly finishes off Braviary with Icy Wind and procs Defiant
• Skyla heals Braviary with a Hyper Potion and sends in Archeops, which easily went down to Poliwrath's Ice Punch. In addition, Wailord also gets a high roll on Water Spout which takes down Braviary as well. Dewgong uses another Icy Wind and Mandibuzz knocks out Poliwrath with Brave Bird
• Swanna and Gliscor come in next and Azumarill takes down Mandibuzz with Aqua Jet. Unfortunately, Swanna crits Azumarill with Hurricane and Gliscor's Earthquake finishes it off.
• Wailord's Water Spout is able to take down Gliscor despite low-ish health due to a critical hit, and Dewgong attacks Swanna with Icy Wind
• Wailord chips Swanna with Brine and Swanna nearly takes out Dewgong and gets the confusion with Hurricane. Luckily, Dewgong breaks through the confusion and finishes off Swanna with Hidden Power [Electric]

- I receive the Jet Badge and it's time to swap out our current team!
- Now that I have access to Surf, most of the remaining Water-types will be added into the pool, including some legendaries! Manaphy is considered an Uber but, I find that's because of permanent rain + Hydration / Rest / Tail Glow so Manaphy will only be chosen as the 6th Pokemon if there aren't any Drizzle users on the team


- With that, the new team for Brycen will be... Like Skyla, I don't see the need for a 6th Pokemon (made sure to check any potential boss trainers) so the entire team will be randomly generated


- That will be all for this update, all the grinding will be done on a different date

Current Team

Update #8

- N ambushes outside the Gym and starts talking about his ambition of being the hero for Pokemon
- Caught and grinded up my team to level 54 before heading towards Twist Mountain
- Just before the entrance, I encounter Cheren who challenges me to a rotation battle. This battle was absolutely insane, mainly because Serperior completely destroys my team (Swanna and Gyarados take a ton from Leaf Blade/Dragon Pulse and get outsped so they weren't safe switch-ins). It took me a while to beat him just because I'd have to reset if Swanna or Gyarados take too much damage and it's GG if they do

Vs. Cheren

• Cheren leads with Staraptor, Gigalith, and Alakazam while I lead with Gyarados, Gorebyss, and Kabutops
• Gigalith rotates in and tanks Gyarados's Aqua Tail well and sets up Stealth Rock. Staraptor rotates back in and uses U-Turn, sending in Houndoom who gets one shot by Aqua Tail despite Intimidate
• Staraptor comes back in and rotates back into Gigalith, who goes down to the incoming Aqua Tail
• Serperior gets sent in and rotates into Staraptor which deals great damage with Brave Bird. Gyarados uses Bounce and Cheren rotates into Alakazam who misses Charge Beam, Gyarados strikes Alakazam and gets the lucky paralysis. On the next turn, I rotate Gorebyss in who is able to outspeed and finish off Alakazam with Hydro Pump
• Simipour comes in and Cheren switches to Serperior which nearly takes out Gorebyss with Leaf Blade, allowing Gorebyss to chip with Psychic. On the next turn, Gorebyss goes down to Dragon Pulse
• I send in Swanna and rotate into Kabutops while Cheren rotates to Simipour, who tanks Rock Tomb and Flings its Iron Ball. Serperior rotates in and uses Dragon Pulse and Kabutops misses an important Rock Tomb (forgot about Contrary lol, not that it matters because Serperior outspeeds my entire team zzz). Kabutops chips with Aqua Jet before going down to Simipour's Scald the turn after
• Relicanth comes in and Simipour attacks with Acrobatics while Relicanth goes for Rock Tomb. I rotate in Gyarados as Cheren rotates in Serperior who takes it down with Leaf Blade
• Staraptor comes back and goes for the Close Combat onto Relicanth, due to the Defense drop it goes down to Rock Tomb
• Relicanth stays in on Serperior's incoming Leaf Blade but, it's able to chip it with the Rocky Helmet before going down
• Simipour rotates in but goes down to Pluck due to Swanna outspeeding from prior Speed drops
• Serperior returns and goes for Leech Seed and barely survives Swanna's Pluck but, Swanna is able to regain some health with the Sitrus Berry it stole. On the next turn, Swanna tanks Dragon Pulse and finishes off Serperior with another Pluck

- Alder encounters us to give us praise and gives Cheren and I HM03 Surf. I learn more about Cheren's ambition to get stronger and we go our separate ways
- Before heading into Twist Mountain, I flew back to Accumula Town to take a detour to explore Route 17 and 18. In here, I'll be able to find a Phione to finish off my team
- During this time, I was able to catch a Manaphy (both are found on the same route but, I can just breed a Phione) and find HM05 Waterfall
- Bred a Phione Egg and took a few more detours to explore Mistralton Cave, Wellspring Cave and other locations that required Surf to fully explore the area. During this time, Phione hatches from the egg!
- Headed back to Mistralton City to grind up Phione and proceeded onward into Twist Mountain
- Met up with Clay and Cheren within Twist Mountain to talk about Team Plasma, made it to Icirrus City
- Cedric shows up and tells about Dragonspiral Tower before leaving, I explore the city and battled the Gym trainers. After that, I explored Route 8 and the Moor of Icirrus
- Grinded the team to level 63 before challenging Brycen. Brycen really isn't too difficult, especially if you get rid of the Hail to prevent his Blizzard spam. His Pokemon are on the slower side and Ice-types have easily exploitable weaknesses to boot.
- Contrary to what I just said... This battle gave me some trouble. The first attempt I got frozen and I realized that my team is also pretty slow, so his Pokemon like Froslass and Vanilluxe were able to outspeed and fire off their super effective coverage moves (Energy Ball and Thunderbolt respectively). The second attempt went a lot smoother but that was due to some weird AI misplays

Vs. Brycen

• Brycen leads with his Glaceon and Abomasnow, while I lead with Phione and Swanna
• Glaceon uses Earth Power on Phione and Swanna is able to secure the KO on Abomasnow with Hurricane. With Abomasnow gone, Phione is able to get rid of the Hail with Rain Dance
• I swap out Phione with Kabutops and Brycen sends in Froslass. Swanna tanks Froslass's Blizzard and Glaceon uses Earth Power on my incoming Kabutops which nearly takes it out. Swanna's Hurricane is able to do great damage to Froslass.
• Brycen randomly swaps out Glaceon for Beartic and heals Froslass with a Hyper Potion. Rock Slide nearly KOs Froslass, and the chip damage from it + Swanna's Hurricane takes down Beartic
• Vanilluxe comes in and Kabutop's Rock Slide nearly takes down Vanilluxe but, finishes off Froslass. Vanilluxe gets the Weak Armor boost but, misses Blizzard and goes down to Hurricane
• Lastly, Cryogonal and Glaceon come back in and Kabutops is able to deal great damage to both of them with Rock Slide before going down to Glaceon's Earth Power. Cryogonal hangs on with its Focus Sash but, gets flinched allowing Swanna to finish off Glaceon with Hurricane
• I switch out Swanna for Phione and Cryogonal goes for Hidden Power [Electric] on Relicanth before it goes down to Waterfall

- I receive the Freeze Badge from Brycen and I'll be able to capture the last 2 Water-types. Suicune was actually supposed to be available before Brycen but, I kind of misremembered the progression and thought it would be available for Drayden. As mentioned in a previous update, Rotom is available for Skyla but it could not form change until I have access to the Department Store outside Opelcuid City


- And our new team we'll tackle Drayden with will be... Empoleon was chosen as the final team member so I can have a safe pivot into Drayden's Dragon-type attacks


- Got ambushed by Cheren and Bianca on my way out of the Gym, the Shadow Triad also make an appearance and tell us to go to Dragonspiral Tower
- And with that, all the grinding will be done during the down time! Next up is Dragonspiral Tower

Current Team

Update #9

- First off, I like to start that I didn't even know you could get Scald early so I've been using Bubblebeam / Brine on random Pokemon for no reason. Better late than never I guess zzz...
- Anyways, Grinded the team to level 62 and headed towards the Dragonspiral Tower with Bianca and Cedric
- Met up with Cheren and Brycen who helped stall and battled the remaining Team Plasma grunts until I reached the top
- I witness N reawakening Zekrom and tells us to awaken Reshiram if I want to stop him
- Everyone leaves the tower and we meet Alder who tells us to go to the Relic Castle to find evidence of Reshiram
- Headed inside Relic Castle with Cheren to find Alder, battled my way through more Team Plasma grunts and made it to the bottom
- Chatted with Ghetsis and he tells us that the Light Stone isn't here before telling us his goals again. Afterwards, I get a call from Professor Juniper and headed straight to Nacrene City
- Once I arrived, Lenora gives us the Light Stone and I head back to Icirrus City to move onward to Opelcuid City to find out more about how to awaken Reshiram
- Bianca ambushes just as I was going to the Tubeline Bridge and challenges me to a triple battle

Vs. Bianca

• Bianca leads with Mienshao, Musharna, and Persian while I lead with Empoleon, Ludicolo, and Pelipper
• I swap out Empoleon for Slowbro to set up the rain with Drizzle and, it ttanks Mienshao's High Jump Kick well. Persian boosts up with Nasty Plot but, goes down to Energy Ball and Hurricane from Ludicolo and Pelipper. However, Musharna gets a lucky critical hit with Psychic and takes down Pelipper
• Simisage comes in and Ludicolo does great damage with Ice Beam as it sets up with Work Up. Mienshao attacks Ludicolo with Stone Edge and Ice Punch finishes off Simisage
• Slowbro's Psychic OHKOs Mienshao and Musharna fires off Energy Ball onto it which nearly takes it out
• Bianca sends in Milotic and Emboar and Ludicolo chips Milotic with Energy Ball. Milotic's Ice Beam deals decent damage to Ludicolo and Azumarill's Waterfall nearly takes down Musharna
• Unfortunately, Emboar takes out Slowbro with Wild Charge and Musharna finishes off Ludicolo with Psychic
• I send my final 2 team members, Vaporeon and Empoleon. Bianca heals Musharna with a Full Restore and Empoleon dodges Milotic's Hypnosis. Vaporeon is able to KO Emboar with Scald. Azumarill continues to chip Milotic with Waterfall and Empoleon's Scald slowly chips Musharna
• Empoleon dodges another Hypnosis and Empoleon + Vaporeon's Scalds take down Musharna. Azumarill's Waterfall also nearly finishes off Milotic. Next turn, Azumarill takes down Milotic with one last Waterfall

- Bianca leaves us and I head through the Tubeline Bridge and
Ghetsis and the Shadow Triad ambush us to congratulate us on finiding the Light Stone
- Ended up in Route 9 and made it to Opelcuid City to find another Team Plasma rally
- Alder and I meet up with Drayden and Iris and I head towards Drayden's house to learn more about the dragons
- Afterwards, Drayden leaves and tells me to go challenge him at his gym
- As usual, challenged the Gym trainers and then explored Route 9 and the Department Store
- Had to grind a little bit to get everyone to level 66, then headed back to the gym to challenge Drayden
- Between the 2, I'd say Drayden is probably the harder battle mainly because Rotation Battles are generally a lot more unpredictable than Triple Battles (Iris faces you in a Triple Battle in Volt White). Both Gym Leaders are still pretty tough regardless mainly because Dragon-types are hard to cover and there's a lot of strong spammable moves at their disposal like Outrage and Draco Meteor to boot
- From this experience... Drayden was pretty hard. I really could use Empoleon to tank Outrage only if his Pokemon were locked into it since majority of his team carries some sort of Fighting or Ground coverage which would've chunked Empoleon. Also, Ludicolo didn't really do as much damage as I hoped and my initial strategy was to use it as a sweeper which it didn't really accomplish the first time around. The second attempt, as you can see, Pelipper came in clutch with those Tailwinds and Hurricanes

Vs. Drayden

• Drayden leads with Druddigon, Flygon and Charizard while I lead with Slowbro, Empoleon and Pelipper
• Slowbro sets up the rain with Drizzle and I rotate to Pelipper to set up Tailwind as Drayden rotates to Flygon who fires off Dragon Pulse. I rotate to Empoleon who misses out on the Ice Beam KO onto Flygon due to the Yache Berry and it sets up Quiver Dance
• Drayden heals up Flygon as Empoleon goes for Scald. During the next turn, Drayden rotates to Druddigon which tanks Scald but gets burned and uses Revenge
• Flygon comes back in and another Ice Beam takes it out
• Haxorus comes in and Drayden rotates in Charizard who sets up Belly Drum as Pelipper goes for Tailwind. Even with the Salac Berry, Pelipper still outspeeds and KOs Charizard with Hurricane
• Kingdra comes in and rotates into Druddigon who also goes down to Pelipper's Hurricane
• Drayden sends in Salamence who takes the Hurricane but, gets confused and hits itself. Unfortunately, Tailwind peters out and Drayden rotates in Kingdra which takes down Pelipper with Draco Meteor
• I send in Vaporeon and Kingdra uses a random Waterfall as Vaporeon goes for Yawn. Salamence gets rotated in and gets off an Outrage which Vaporeon tanks and finishes it off with Ice Beam
• Haxorus finishes off Vaporeon with Outrage and I send in Azumarill. Azumarill tanks Outrage and lands an Ice Punch. I rotate in Empoleon which goes down to Outrage but, gets off good Rocky Helmet chip
• Ludicolo gets sent in and Drayden rotates in Kingdra to tank the Ice Beam as it goes for Outrage but, goes to sleep from Yawn.
• Ludicolo keeps firing off Ice Beams until Drayden randomly rotates in Haxorus which goes down to Ice Beam
• With Haxorus down, Ludicolo fires off an Energy Ball before going down to Kingdra's Outrage as it wakes up. I rotate in Slowbro to tank the incoming Outrage and takes down Kingdra with Psychic

- I receive the Legend Badge and it's time to generate my final team which will be used for the Pokemon League
- As mentioned in the previous update, there are no new Water-types left so the final team will be... I chose Keldeo as the final Pokemon because I felt like it


- Professor Juniper shows up outside the gym to congratulate us and tell us what she knows about the Light Stone before giving me the Master Ball
- With that, it's time to grind the new team up and make my way towards the Pokemon League!

Current Team

Update #10

- Grinded my new team to Level 65 before heading towards the Victory Road
- While grinding, I actually found a full-odds Shiny Audino on Route 10! (Yeah the screenshot is pretty terrible but, it gets the job done)



- As I make my way through Route 10, Cheren and Bianca ambush and Cheren challenges me to one last single battle before the Pokemon League
- Serperior once again gave me a ton of trouble and this time, it has Contrary + Draco Meteor to give me even more trouble this time around. Also doesn't help that once again, my entire team is outsped by it (along with Alakazam which had Energy Ball) so this battle did throw me for a loop

Vs. Cheren

• Staraptor uses Close Combat but, Carracosta KOs it with Strength
• Carracosta uses Aqua Jet before going down to Alakazam's Aura Sphere. Alomomola tanks Energy Ball and finishes off Alakzam with Waterfall
• Gigalith comes in, tanks Waterfall and finishes off Alomomola. Mantine comes in and finishes it off with Scald
• Serperior comes in and uses Glare on Mantine (was hoping it used Draco Meteor instead). Unfortunately, Serperior attacks with Leaf Blade and Mantine does go down from a second Leaf Blade after Mirror Coat does nothing. With the Rocky Helmet damage, Tentacruel dodges Draco Meteor and finishes it off with Sludge Bomb
• Houndoom sets up with Nasty Plot as Tentacruel goes for Surf which nearly takes it down. Tentacruel tanks the boosted Dark Pulse but, gets flinched and goes down to another. Houndoom uses Will-O-Wisp before going down to Keldeo's Secret Sword
• Lastly, Cheren sends in Simipour who uses Work Up as Keldeo goes for Secret Sword. On the next turn, Keldeo barely tanks a Focus Blast and ends the battle with one last Secret Sword

- Cheren heals up my team and encourages us to help out Alder to take down N and Team Plasma before leaving
- Passed through all the badge checks and entered the Victory Road
- I also want to add, these late game trainers were absolutely insane. My team being on the slower side certainly did not make things easier (and honestly I got wiped a few times but it's alright)
- Made it to the Pokemon League and grinded my party up to level 74 before heading back
- For this update, I'll be challenging Shauntal and Grimsley before calling it a day. The rest of the E4 + N/Ghetsis will be in the next one. All Elite 4 battles will be Double Battles for the record
- First up is Shauntal and she can be pretty difficult to face. While her Pokemon are pretty squishy, they are also fast (her slower Pokemon will benefit from Drifblim's Tailwind) and hit pretty hard
- The battle was very easy overall. Omastar under the rain was able to put in a lot of work with Scald and Power Gem which took care of most of her team. It really was only Jellicent that was the problem but, it lasted as long as it did due to some unlucky misses

Vs. Shauntal

• Shauntal leads with Drifblim and Golurk, while I lead with Omastar and Mantine
• Mantine tanks Drifblim's Thunderbolt and sets up Rain Dance, and Omastar is able to OHKO Golurk with Scald
• Mantine chips Mismagius with Scald and burns it while Omastar nearly takes out Drifblim with Power Gem. Mismagius takes down Mantine with Thunderbolt and Omastar barely survives Drifblim's Thunderbolt. However, Drifblim is low enough to where the burn damage from its Flame Orb (for Flare Boost) takes it down
• Shauntal sends in Chandelure while I send in Keldeo. Omastar finishes off Mismagius with Scald, and Chandelure also goes down to Keldeo's Scald
• Jellicent and Froslass come in and Omastar takes down Froslass with Power Gem before going down to Jellicent's Shadow Ball. Keldeo unfortunately misses Hydro Pump in the process
• I send in Carracosta and Keldeo misses another Hydro Pump while Jellicent lands a hard-hitting Hydro Pump onto Carracosta. Carracosta sets up Shell Smash afterwards
• Jellicent then goes down to Hydro Pump and Rock Slide from my Pokemon to wrap up the battle

- Next up is Grimsley who is honestly not very difficult. Like Shauntal, his team is pretty squishy but the main difference is his
Pokemon have really mediocre speed which allows them to be outsped easily. The main problem would be his Pokemon's access to priority and Liepard's annoying utility moves like Thunder Wave and Charm
- The battle was pretty easy despite a rocky start. I did get pretty lucky with Liepard opting to go on the offensive instead of using its Prankster utility, and Keldeo was able to clean up the rest once Carracosta did its job (which was mainly to take out Liepard before it can paralyze Keldeo)

Vs. Grimsley

• Grimsley leads with Sharpedo and Liepard, while I lead with Carracosta and Tentacruel
• Liepard attacks Tentacruel with Sucker Punch and Sharpedo lands a critical hit Hydro Pump onto Carracosta bringing it into Sturdy range. Tentacruel nails Liepard with Sludge Bomb but, Carracosta misses Rock Slide onto Liepard but does great damage to Sharpedo
• Grimsley heals Sharpedo with a Full Restore and Carracosta finishes off Liepard with Aqua Jet. Tentacruel does solid damage to Sharpedo with Sludge Bomb and poisons it
• Absol comes in and Sharpedo decides to target Tentacruel with Aqua Jet, allowing Carracosta to finish it off with Aqua Jet. However, Sharpedo holds a Rocky Helmet which meant the chip damage was enough to take down Carracosta as well. Tentacruel uses Scald and gets the burn on Absol, allowing it to survive its Psycho Cut
• I send in Keldeo while Grimsley sends in Honchkrow but, it swiftly gets taken out by Keldeo's Ice Beam. Absol also gets finished off by Tentacruel's Scald
• Lastly, Houndoom and Bisharp come in and Tentacruel barely survives Houndoom's Sucker Punch. Keldeo OHKOs Bisharp with Secret Sword and Houndoom tanks Tentacruel's Scald. On the next turn, I switch out Tentacruel for Alomomola and Keldeo finishes off Houndoom with another Scald

- With that, I'll be continuing and finishing my adventures next time!

Current Team

Update #11 Finale

- It's time to finish up the game in this update!
- Next up on the list is Caitlin, who can give players the most trouble out of the Elite 4. She specializes in Trick Room teams but, with the double battle format and 5/6 of her team having Trick Room, she's almost guaranteed to set it up at least once. Hyper offensive teams can also struggle since her team is on the bulkier side so securing 1HKOs will be difficult
- This battle went pretty well overall. Carracosta managed to stay alive for the entire fight, allowing it to fire off multiple Helping-Hand boosted Rock Slides. The lucky flinches stalling out any potential Trick Rooms from being set up also helps since while my team is slow, Caitlyn's team is much slower than mine

Vs. Caitlyn

• Caitlyn leads with Musharna and Sigilyph, while I lead with Carracosta and Alomomola
• Sigilyph misses Hurricane and Alomomola boosts Carracosta's Rock Slide, which secures the KO onto Sigilyph. Musharna luckily gets flinched in the process
• Reuniclus comes in and Alomomola uses Helping Hand to boost Carracosta's Rock Slide but, it misses Reuniclus and nearly takes out Musharna. Funnily enough, both Reuniclus and Musharna used Trick Room which ended up cancelling each other out
• Caitlyn heals Musharna with the Full Restore and Carracosta fires off another Helping-Hand boosted Rock Slide, this time getting a flinch and critical hit on Reuniclus. On the next turn, another Helping-Hand boosted Rock Slide takes down Reuniclus and Musharna sets up Trick Room
• Beheeyem comes in and Carracosta knocks out Musharna with Aqua Jet. Alomomola tanks Beheeyem's Energy Ball and attacks with Waterfall
• Gothitelle gets sent in and Alomomola boosts Carracosta's Rock Slide with Helping Hand which takes down Beheeyem. Gothitelle heals up with its Sitrus Berry and attacks Carracosta with Thunderbolt
• Lastly, Bronzong is sent in and doesn't quite finish off Carracosta with Gyro Ball, allowing it to attack with a Helping-Hand boosted Rock Slide which misses Bronzong but flinches Gothitelle.
• Carracosta finishes Gothitelle off with Aqua Jet and Bronzong randomly uses Rest at full HP while Alomomola chips with Waterfall.
• I switch out Carracosta for Omastar as Bronzong goes for a weak Gyro Ball onto Alomomola. Scald and Waterfall eventually takes down Bronzong to secure the win

- Lastly, it's time to face off Marshal who rocks a very offensive team with some utility sprinkled in. His Pokemon are decently bulky (bar Breloom and Mienshao) and sport some hard-hitting moves to boot. In addition, his team does have utility such as Spore and Icy Wind to annoy you as well
- I was the most nervous about this team mainly because 1/3 of my team is weak to Fighting. Despite that, this battle was tough as heck despite the early luck I had from AI misplays. Conkeldurr and Mienshao were absolute powerhouses against my team, and Conkeldurr was pretty scary due to it being sort of bulky while being able to hit hard

Vs. Marshal

• Marshal leads with Throh and Sawk while I lead with Keldeo and Tentacruel
• Keldeo uses Scald onto Sawk and gets the burn, which causes the incoming Close Combat to do less damage. Tentacruel secures the KO onto Sawk due to the defense drops and Throh does big damage with Superpower onto Keldeo. Due to the Flame Orb, Throh gets burned which activates its Guts ability
• Mienshao comes in and uses Stone Edge onto Tentacruel. Keldeo nearly takes out Mienshao with Hydro Pump, Tentacruel uses Sludge Bomb onto Throh and both Pokemon survive Throh's Rock Slide somehow
• Marshal heals up Mienshao with the Full Restore and Tentacruel and Keldeo take down Throh with Scald and Sludge Bomb
• Breloom is sent in and Mienshao targets Tentacruel with Stone Edge, allowing Keldeo to nail it with a Secret Sword. Tentacruel's Sludge Bomb does not take out Breloom due to the Focus Sash and Breloom takes down Keldeo with a Bullet Seed
• I send in Carracosta who takes Breloom's Mach Punch and doesn't quite finish off Mienshao with Aqua Jet, who then finishes off Tentacruel with Stone Edge
• Mantine gets sent in and Carracosta tanks another Mach Punch before finishing off Mienshao with an Aqua Jet. Mantine also finishes off Breloom with Ice Beam as well
• Lastly, Conkeldurr and Poliwrath are sent in and Carracosta goes down to Poliwrath's Vacuum Wave. Mantine chips Conkeldurr with Scald and it barely survives a Stone Edge
• I swap out Mantine for Alomomola and Omastar tanks Poliwrath's Vacuum Wave and fires off a Scald onto Conkeldurr. Conkeldurr attacks Alomomola with Drain Punch but, it gets chipped by the Rocky Helmet
• Miraculously, Omastar survives Poliwrath's Brick Break and finishes off Conkeldurr with Scald. Alomomola also uses Toxic on it
• Omastar goes down to another Brick Break and Alomomola uses Wish since it can't attack due to Water Absorb. Mantine goes down to Vacuum Wave since it's at low HP and Alomomola just proceeds to stall Poliwrath until it faints from Toxic damage

- With that, I've beaten all the members of the Elite 4 and I can proceed to face Alder or N
- I take the elevator statue down to the bottom floor, climb up multiple flights of stairs, enter the Champion's room and find out the N has indeed beaten Alder to become the new Champion
- I witness the ground shake and N's Castle rising out of the ground to surround the Pokemon League
- N leaves to go up his castle and Cheren runs in after beating the Elite 4 himself and watches over Alder as I go ahead
- The 6 sages ambush us at the entrance but, I get bailed out by the Gym Leaders of Unova and went on ahead
- Explored the castle and found out through Anthea and Concordia that N is innocent, and sort of implied he got manipulated. By talking to some of the Team Plasma Grunts, I find out that some of them are conflicted on whether they want to continue on with the plan
- Made it to the top of the castle and confronted N and Zekrom. In the nick of time, the Light Stone activates and Reshiram pops right out
- N waits for us to capture Reshiram, and then afterwards challenges us to one final battle
- Well this battle was... anti-climatic to say the least. Omastar really flexing the MVP status for the last hurdle of the game

Vs. N

• Zekrom attacks with Focus Blast and Omastar uses Shell Smash to boost up. Next turn Zekrom goes down to Power Gem, ultimately revealing itself to be Zoroark in disguise
• The real Zekrom gets OHKOed by Omastar's Ice Beam
• Magmortar gets taken down by Power Gem
• Aerodactyl misses Head Smash and goes down to Power Gem
• Porygon-Z goes down to Scald
• Slowbro goes down to Power Gem

- N realizes that both ideals can be true and gives up on his goals on liberating Pokemon
- Ghetsis swoops in and belittles N before revealing his true intentions on using N so he could rule the world eventually. Cheren and Alder show up to support us at some point too. Since we know the truth, Ghetsis battles us in hopes to eliminating us
- Another sort of anti-climatic battle though, it could've been different had Ghetsis sent in Genesect earlier

Vs. Ghetsis

• Drapion sets up Toxic Spikes as Omastar boosts up with Shell Smash. On the next turn, Drapion goes down to Scald
• Eelektross nearly survives Scald but, misses Thunder. Ghetsis heals up Eelektross with a Full Restore but, it goes down to 2 Scalds
• Hydreigon falls to Ice Beam
• Dusknoir survives Scald and heals up with the Sitrus Berry, Omastar somehow takes the Earthquake despite having lower defense. Another Scald takes down Dusknoir
• Gyarados goes down to Power Gem
• Genesect survives Scald due to the Focus Sash and takes down Omastar with Thunderbolt. Carracosta finishes it off with Aqua Jet

- Ghetsis reveals he actually did manipulate N's heart but, N was innocent due to Zekrom coming to his aid despite everything
- Cheren and Alder takes Ghetsis away and N journey down memory lane with us before leaving on Zekrom
- With that, that concludes the run! This run was pretty fun overall, being able to use a multitude of different Pokemon surely spiced things up since it forced me to come up with different strategies each time
- I'd say my favorite team to use was definitely the team against Drayden, mainly because of the type-coverage it had (having a Grass/Electric switch in on the same team was definitely nice). I'd say the MVP of the run was definitely Omastar, I mean not only did it help me against N and Ghetsis but, it came it clutch during a lot of the tough Victory Road trainers as well
- Would recommend this sort of run to anyone who's looking for something different, without it being challenging like a Nuzlocke. However, there's a lot of grinding involved so there's definitely that to watch out for (unless you do a type with less Pokemon variety)
- If you've been following this run up to this point... Thanks for reading these walls of texts!

Current Team