Here we are, my last update for Gen 5. Jeez, that took quite a while.
Badge #7 wasn't too bad, since by that point I have an Escavalier and a Crustle that can do some damage with Steel and Rock, respectively. Gym was kinda fun. I like Gens where you absolutely have to face every trainer in there.
Dragonspiral Tower was more of the same. At this point, enemies aren't hitting as hard, but since all of the trainers are Plasma, what do you expect?
Moving quickly on to Badge #8, I go after it very quickly. Now, here's where I start to realize the problem I was anticipating is much larger than I thought. My Bugs are very much glass cannons. They can certainly deal a good amount of damage, but they take way more damage in return. I didn't have a problem getting through the gym without completely blacking out, but I did have to revive a few times.
I wanted to speed through that because, let's face it, what's considered the end-game is brutal for Bugs. I quickly got through the Elite Four, especially the Dark and Psychic battles. While I anticipated issues with the Bug and Fighting masters, I found myself very quickly running out of money trying to keep up with Revives and Potion.
It didn't help that I didn't pick up the Amulet Coin.
So, what I found is that I reached N around level 50...and couldn't make it through. Now, it's not like it was impossible. At first, I found myself trying to spam attacks. Then I switched to starting with Accelgor and using Yawn/Protect (assuming I lived to Protect). Getting through N required me getting to level 55 to even have some level of survivability. I lost to N probably 25 times before getting some level of luck. The easy spot was Zoroark - every time I saw the Klinklang come out, I'd use a Bug move just in case it was the Zoroark, and it always way. Granted, I was spamming Bug moves anyways. Carracosta was a good one to save Leavanny for, but everything else was just a crapshoot.
But Ghetsis required so much more to deal with. Since this happened about 12 hours of gameplay ago (due to lots of grinding), I am referring to my notes on the battle in which I finally beat Ghetsis. This was the basis that I told my wife (she does play, too):
"Cohagrigus knocked out my Accelgor, since I was whittling it's HP down with Giga Drain. I shot off one final Yawn before it went down. Then I managed to get it knocked out because of Galvantula. Ghetsis threw his Hydreigon at me, but I got a crit with Galvantula, so it went down in one shot. Bisharp went down to two Electro Ball, and it did Night Slash so didn't do much damage to me. Then I remember Eelektross coming out and me having to throw a couple mons at it, but it went down. I got down to Bouffalant and Seismitoad, and it ended up being a matter of spamming Leaf Blade until he finally went down."
Cofragrigus is a painful Pokemon for Bugs. Levanny knows Shadow Claw, so there was at least a little bit of possibility there to help do damage. But there were so many times that it tried to Toxic me, so my thought became throw out Accelgor, and the first three turns go Protect -> Yawn -> Protect. If lucky, I put it to sleep and can start some level of onslaught. Seismitoard and Bouffalant are meh, and Hydreigon was a weird crit with ElectroBall (which I'd be doing, although I later realized Discharge is more powerful). I got tired of the low damage of Bulldoze, even though it would let me outspeed some Pokemon, so I began looking for other options. Final count on Ghetsis? About 15 tries.
A bit later, credits have completed, and I figure I would test out going after the Elite Four again...yeah, I knew I didn't stand a chance to get through all four of them, but if it was possible to do an Elite Four Grind, I'd do that. Unfortunately, it sort of looked like this:
1. @Level 55 for team - Attempt Dark battle - knock down two mons but lose all 6
2. @Level 57 for team - Attempt Dark battle - knock down two mons but lose all 6
3. @Level 60 for team - Attempt Dark battle - get through it but have lost 5 mons and wipe on Psychic
4. @Level 65 for team - Attempt Dark battle - get through it but have lost 3 mons and wipe on Psychic
Between each of those attempts are a smattering of attempts, but every time I needed to level, I would go fight the Level 47 to 50 Audino on the right side of Opelucid City. This is why my current time on the clock is 34:36.
Over those attempts, I slowly built up money, and kept flying to Driftveil to pick up Revival Herbs. I ended up stockpiling about 50 of them, and then did the same with Hyper Potions. Around Level 66-67, I attempted and got through Dark and Psychic. When I got to Metagross with Caitlin's Psychic team, I focused 100% on having Escavalier spam Iron Defense. It helped get through the remaining Gothitelle and Bronzong when also using Hyper Potions. Musharna, at the start, was a Yawn/Protect. Caitlin's team was the worst because my Bugs have very little in the way of Special Defense.
Then I went after Ghost. The only real run killer here is Fire Blast on Chandelure, which always seemed to come out second and get 100% accuracy on Fire Blast. On the last run, Cohagrigus went down to Shadow Claws, then Chandelure came out. I Protect'd, nullifying the Fire Blast. More Shadow Claws (next Fire Blast missed). From there, I brought in Galvantula and used Volt Switch. Down goes Chandelure. I don't know if the logic will still try to bring in Golurk, but it did so when I switched to Accelgor, I was happy. I used Yawn...got hit by Earthquake and barely survived. One Protect later and I bring Leavanny back with a Revival Herb, then switch and it's time to spam Leaf Blade. Golurk goes down to it, then Drifblim comes out. I heal up Galvantula, but I know my Leavanny is going out from Acrobatics. Galvantula gets enough Discharge off to knock out Drifblim, then Froslass comes out. I mean, at this point, it's just bring Leavanny back, when I get knocked out bring out Crustle for some Rock damage. Yeah, you see where the rest of this is going.
The Fighting master of the Elite Four was stupid easy - just take the entire first couple of turns to use Iron Defense on Escavalier, then spam Iron Head. Eventually, when I got low enough, I switched to using Reversal. Escavalier is the MVP for sure for this run.
After the pain of getting here...I wanted to take a break. Get something to drink. Catch up on the post writing.
Here we are at the final battle for Black: Alder.
My team going in:
Twilight the Scolipede @ Level 67
Rarity the Escavalier @ Level 74
Fluttershy the Galvantula @ Level 70
Rainbow the Accelgor @ Level 67
Applejack the Crustle @ Level 67
Spike the Leavanny @ Level 67
Alder...hilariously...was easier. Only took me two attempts. First attempt, Accelgor just beat the crap out of my team, until it went down, then Volcarona decides to join the party.
The second attempt was a circle of Revival Herbs. I attempted to Yawn the Accelgor in order to have the chance to set up my Crustle with Shell Smash. I did manage to pull that off, and then got two Shell Smashes in before Alder's Accelgor knocks me down to like mid-20s on HP. I used Rock Wrecker to ensure it went down. Out comes Volcarona...and does Quiver Dance. Okay, cool. Have a Rock Wrecker to knock you out as well. Next is Bouffalant, and I go down to Megahorn. I use Galvantula to deal with it, and then comes Druddigon. I'm down a good portion of my health, so I Revival Herb Accelgor. I go down and switch to Accelgor, and use Yawn. I survive with a sliver of health, and my next turn is spent using Revival Herb on Crustle. When I go down, Druddigon is asleep and I switch to Escavalier. I have three uses of Iron Defense left, so I spend them all. Then, I spam Reversal. Slowly, over the next five turns, my health drops to below half, and then even more. Druddigon goes down in those five turns, and then Alder's Escavalier comes out. More reversals, with my health dropping more and more. To end the run, Vanilluxe is sent out and a Reversal knocks it down to...what has to be 1 HP. I could barely even make it out.
(As I told my wife: "That's basically exactly how the second half of Gen V has been.")
Vanilluxe used Flash Cannon and brought me down to around 28 HP...and another Reversal and I've won.
Last words:
Honestly...the things I'm learning are that I'm focusing way too much on dealing damage and not taking it. For some Pokemon where the types have a nice bulk to them, that might have helped, but Bugs are not Bulky. Accelgor can't take a physical hit (40 base defense), only Escavalier ends up having anything over 80 for special defense, and everything like Rock just hits so hard. Late game was a lot of moves like Rock and Fire to my face, which just isn't nice. What I have to ask myself is this: What would have been different if I put those 63 points from Attack or Special Attack into the defensive stats?
This run has, however, left me with the goal of doing Rock runs after I complete the Ultimate Bug. Turn the tables on the enemies.
Next up for me is Gen 6. (I'll go back and do Gen 4 after the rest are done.)
Phew. I played way too much in the last couple of days. Gen 5 is fairly straightfoward in knowing where you have to go, so it's easy to want to just keep playing and playing and playing and...
