0.) Disclaimers
1.) Gym 1: Rock Me, Amadeus
2.) Gym 2: Punch Me, Paulie
3.) Gym 3: Shock Me, Sir Old Guy
4.) Gym 4: Burn, Baby, Burn
5.) Gym 5: Normal is Boring
6.) Gym 6: Fly-girl
7.) Gym 7: Twin Terror
8.) Gym 8: Washed Out
9.) Wally (Doesn't) Win

0. Disclaimers
First - I'm playing at 3x speed. That's it. I tried 4x, but was not able to wrap my mind around it, so I restarted at 3x. Running Shoes and Bikes are now overkill. Call it my tribute to The Flash (series, not the movie, no offense).

Second - I started with Spheal. It's more likely to encounter them (as evidenced by coming across twelve of them in a row when I finally got to the point I could "officially" gnab them). The caveat here is that I think this run would be much worse if starting with Snorunt. At the start, both Snorunt and Spheal start with Powder Snow, but I get an extra boost with Spheal: Water Gun. But not only that, Ice Ball becomes a game breaker.

Finally - This is going to be relatively quick, because there's only two Ice families in the game. And I use one Spheal for the majority of the game until right before the seventh gym, so it'll get really boring to go through it in detail, so I'll try to just give the highlights. Do know that I do fight all the trainers in the gyms, though I don't always fight the ones on the routes (mainly because my level was just getting too high).

1. Gym 1
Best move was spam Water Gun, for obvious reasons.

2. Gym 2
I picked up Ice Ball by this point, which I had forgotten acted like Ice Rollout. As soon as I realized this, I knew I had an option for Brawly.

I tried to use Ice Ball against one of the Trainers earlier, and that one had a Meditite which had Detect. I could not get Ice Ball earlier, so I just used the almighty Water Gun.

3. Gym 3
Ice Ball. All the way. Heal up at the PC when out of PP. At this point, I was a Sealeo.

4. Gym 4
All Together Now: Water Gun.

5. Gym 5
Ice Ball. Worked way too well here.

6. Gym 6
I'm now a Walrein...because I'm just too high level. Aurora Beam on everything for a change of pace.

7. Gym 7
Before Gym 7, I go and fetch me a Snorunt, and start leveling it up. I dump off my HM teammates, then start the battle with Tate and Liza. This was going to be the worry one, but I forgot to grab Revives, but this worked out in my favor. I used Body Slam from Walrein in the hopes that it would Paralyze (no luck), while Snorunt was trying to use Crunch. Snorunt got knocked out, which gave me the opportunity for Walrein to spam Surf. A couple of uses of Surf later, I'm won the battle.

8. Gym 8
By this time, Snorunt has now become Glalie, and I'm focused on using Crunch as much as possible, which surprisingly does quite a bit of damage (let's just say that I used a bunch of Calcium to up Glalie's Special Attack before doing all the leveling). It took me a while to remember how to do the third level of the ice puzzle in the gym...honestly, it might have taken longer for that than the gym battle.

9. Final Wally
Aurora Beam on everything. Magneton takes a couple of hits, as does Gardevoir. Others are one shot (crit on Delcatty was nice). And thus I reach the League. Going to try to be a bit more descriptive for that in the next post, and it might be quick at this point.

1.) Elite Four: Sidney
2.) Elite Four: Phoebe
3.) Elite Four: Glalie
4.) Elite Four: Drake
5.) Champion

1. Sidney
- Start with Walrein. Surf on Mightyena. OKHO.
- Cacturne coming out, so switch to Glalie. Use Ice Beam. OHKO. Glalie to 49.
- Sharpedo coming out, so switch back to Walrein. 2x Body Slam. It paralyzes on the first.
- Absol coming out, so switch to Glalie. 2x Ice Beam to knock it out.
- Shiftry coming out, so leave Glalie in. Ice Beam OKHO for the Win.

2. Phoebe
- She's Ghost, so start with Glalie. Glalie also has Blackglasses on.
- Dusclops out, 2x Crunch to knock out.
- Banette out, get burned, 2x Crunch to knock out. Glalie to 50.
- Sableye out. Get attracted, end up going down to a bunch of Shadow Ball. Walrein's Aurora Beam cleans up.
- Banette out, 2x Aurora Beam for knock out.
- Dusclops out, 5x Aurora Beam for knock out (stupid Sitrus Berry). Walrein to 57.

3. Glacia
- Leave Glalie to start, and I have a nice L50 Glalie versus a L50 Glalie.
- Her Glalie goes down to a Crunch and two Headbutts (second crits).
- Both Sealeo, back to back, go down to Body Slam from Walrein.
- Glalie goes down to Crunches.
- The Walrein goes down to Body Slam.

4. Drake
- Shelgon down to Ice Beam. OHKO.
- Flygon down to Ice Beam. OHKO. Glalie to 51.
- Salemence's Flamethrower takes Glalie out.
- Ice Ball takes out Salemence after I revive Glalie.
- Glalie OHKO's the remaining Flygon and Altaria after Walrein goes down.

5. Champion
- Skarmory's out first. Max Elixir on Glalie.
- A couple of good hits but Glalie goes down to Steel Wing.
- Walrein uses Ice Ball and takes out everything in quick shots other than Aggron and Metagross.
- It becomes spam Surf and Full Restore, but I do end up defeating both relatively easily.

On to Sinnoh.

1.) Slow Start
2.) Jubilife
3.) Oreburgh City/Gym
4.) Windworks
5.) Eterna Forest
6.) Eterna City/Gym
7.) Solaceon Town
8.) Veilstone City/Gym
9.) Pastoria City/Gym
10.) Celestic Town

1.) Slow Start
Well, this was an interesting start. Given the choice between Snover and Sneasel, my best bet is Snover. So, Sneasel it is. Gonna make life horrible for myself going up against the Fighting gym, I know. But that's half the fun.

The challenge with getting a Sneasel for me is that my family has two switches, but one is my primary and the other is my secondary. As per how Switches work, anyone on the primary switch can use anything I buy and download, but only I can use it on my secondary. And, unfortunately, my wife is the only one who has made it to having a Sneasel...and she's also playing BD, so we can't trade because of the "you can't both be trying to trade from/to BD - no no". So, I found a level 1 Sneasel through Home, traded for it. It has Ice Punch, but I will be avoiding using that and just writing over it. I can always get it down the road if I want to use the TM for it.

So, how does a level 1 Sneasel fair at the start? Well...I want to try and focus on HP and Attack EVs, so I'm avoiding Starly and just focusing on Bidoof and Shinx. At both level 1 and 2, I'm too weak to go after the Shinx on Route 202, so I stay focused on Route 201's Bidoof. It only takes a single Bidoof for each level up, so at L3 I attempt a Shinx, and I can do some damage. My goal was level 5, and as soon as I hit it, I move on. Given that I have the Experience Boost due to a different trainer ID on Sneasel, I don't want to go crazy with leveling, so my plan is to just hit the trainers in my way, avoid randoms, and only fight battles to level one level at a time when I hit a roadblock. It's a bit of a way to getting either Snover or the ones in the Grand Underground.

2.) Jubilife
By the time I get to Jubilife, I'm already level 8. Which is about where I'd be anyways. You know how I like to train. I deliver the Town Maps, then take down the two kids and their Abra. Almost gets me to level 10. Just a hair shy of it. I wanted Work Up just in case it's beneficial to me. I get the Poketch, and it's time to move on, as my first test shows up.

The first rival team isn't that bad. A total of seven Scratches later (three on Starly, four on Chimchar), and I've won the battle. In the cave, I pick up Rock Smash, and teach it to Sneasel.

3.) Oreburgh City/Gym
Here comes the pain - 17 attempts. Sounds like a lot, right? Well, guess what...Sneasel doesn't have my trainer ID so I'm stuck fighting the Obedience...or rather, disobedience. I go after all of the trainers in the gym, and it takes a while, but I eventually get through them. The real issue fighting Roark is his Geodude. It knowing Rollout stinks, but I eventually fight through it and knock it out (i.e., the RNG gods let me have a little luck). I'll be stuck until I reach Eterna City with going up against the disobedient Sneasel.

4.) Windworks
No real big issues here - having Rock Smash helps. I'm surprised I got through without any hassle.

5.) Eterna Forest
I probably should have done the dual fights as dual fights, but the two that have Abra basically were a bad idea to do separately. I got knocked out to the second of the two, so I just had to run back and attempt again. Second time, no issue since I remembered to heal this time. I was just so focused on getting to Eterna.

6.) Eterna City/Gym
I go and get the Explorer Kit, because I can get Smoochum at this point, although it's rare. I spend about an hour popping my head in and out and finally find one. I stick Sneasel into the PC, because it has outlived it's usefulness for the moment. I manage to one shot everything up until Gardenia. I can sleep her Turtwig to allow me to not suffer damage from Razor Leaf, but it took a bit for her Roserade to be able to be taken down. I have to get a few levels until I can withstand a hit and then I also have to be able to put it to sleep. Then, no issues.

7.) Solaceon Town
When I finally make it to Solaceon Town, the first thing I do is go into Home and grab one of my Ditto and it is time to make a new team member - Sneasel-Ditto gives me my own Sneasel. But I chose to thank that first Sneasel by giving all of the team names that start with the letters "Sn".

8.) Veilstone City/Gym
One shots all around with Confusion from Smoochum. Had I not looked and saw I could catch Smoochum, I would have still been trying this with Sneasel, which would have been very bad. Lucario requires the Sing/Confusion combination, but I do pull it off. I was more stressed out going in then I was going up against the leader.

9.) Pastoria City/Gym
Crusher Wake. What a jerk. Sneasel doesn't have a Dark move yet, and Floatzel has some pretty nasty moves. I knew I could one shot it with Grass Knot on my-now-Jynx (which I taught it to deal with Quagsire). But I keep getting hit with Bite and flinching. I have five attempts in a row where Bite hits, but then I get one that I get Grass Knot off and I take the win.

10.) Celestic Town
My next step is Celestic, and I immediately go into the Grand Underground to get two more for my team: a Glalie and a Swinub. Swinub gets a quick level to become Pilowsine, and then I hop back to Pastoria to teach it Ancient Power.

4.)
5.) Team Galactic Cleanup
6.) The Final Gym
7.) Victory Road
8.) Elite Four and Champion
Sorta 9.) Next Up: Gen 5

1.) The Next Teammate
I went and bred a Snorunt, got 5 mons with Pickup...and then spent two hours trying to get a Dawn Stone. That took a while...and, hilariously, I picked up six Dusk Stones along the way, but I did get it. I use it on my level 1 Snorunt and now I have a nice brand new Froslass. I wanted this before doing the Hearthome Gym so I could let it gain some levels while I fought all of the trainers.

2.) Hearthome City/Gym
So, that's exactly what I did. Got all the answers wrong and fought everything. Sneasel finally learns a Dark attacking move...and it's Beat Up. Oh yay. Helpful? Sure. But I end up letting Glalie, who has Bite, have some of the fun. No issues here in the gym.

3.) Canalave City/Gym
My Mamoswine made this super easy. I gave it Bulldoze from the Department Store and then just let loose. If it had Levitate, I'd obviously switch up my choice of 'mon, such as for Bronzor. Bronzor required me to swap over to Glalie or Sneasel for Bite and Beat Up. I was expecting this to be more of a pain point than it was, but I guess because of all the setup I had done to get my time evolved, it was just a minor inconvenience at best.

4.) Snowpoint City/Gym
Heading north to Snowpoint gives me the opportunity to pick up my final team member, Snover. My team is finally complete, and will be fully evolved in about ten levels. Was surprised I was able to get this varied of a team (/Ghost, /Grass, /Psychic, /Dark, and /Ground is quite the mix). Having Fighting moves such as Focus Blast on Jynx or Low Sweep on Sneasel is just awesome for the Gym, though I wish I could Pickup a Razor Claw. Oh well, at least I'll have it for the Elite Four.

5.) Team Galactic Cleanup
The best way to word this is really just cleanup. Between the Galactic Building in Veilstone and Mt. Coronet, it's just a matter of having enough Hyper Potions for healing and Revives for those rare cases where they outdamage my ability to heal. Which, two, was rare. Oh, and then I threw a Master Ball to catch a Dialga, and despite Birch wanting to congratulate me, I was just like "yeah, thanks, gramps, off to the next gym" and Escape Rope'd out.

6.) The Final Gym
Mamoswine just beats the crap out of this gym. I had a few scares, such as the Surfing Raichu, but nothing that couldn't be handled.

7.) Victory Road
I didn't realize I had ran out of Revives, but I was already on the second floor when I did come to the conclusion. I decided I was kinda of just stuck and resolved to move forward. It's like I'm desparate to get that Razor Claw or something.

8.) Elite Four
Oh dear god. This took some planning, and I even got my son to help me work through the whole thing. I could go crazy with words, but if you want to see the resulting outcome, I've uploaded two videos. One is for the Elite Four by itself (Flint was quite a fun time for example), and the other is the first and only attempt for Cynthia.

I don't normally make videos, but I wanted to show the fruits of the labor to my son, so I'll share them with you. Here's highlights: Bertha is easy with Grass Knot on Jynx and Abomasnow.

Our thoughts were mainly: Ice really needs to be resistant to more than just itself. It's been mostly focused on what other types it gets paired with more than how strong Ice is on its own. Heck, it probably should have been called Glass for how much of a Glass Cannon it can be at times. Of course, we started going down the rabbit hole on how to attempt a fix, but then I had to get back to writing this post!

The Elite Four Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peQBlXzuex4

The Champion Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQtF--wW-kg

Sorta 9.) Next Up: Gen 5
Only three this time: Vanillite line (my starter), Cubchoo line, and Cryogonal.

Help.

Umbreon (♂) | Dark | Level 19
Moves: Bite, Tackle, Attract, Sand Attack
71 HP / 33 Atk / 51 Def / 29 SpA / 51 SpD / 31 Spe
Ability: Synchronize| Nature: Naughty | Item: Blackglasses

Mightyena (♂) | Dark | Level 20
Moves: Bite, Poison Fang, Dig, Howl
59 HP / 43 Atk / 38 Def / 35 SpA / 32 SpD / 35 Spe
Ability: Intimidate| Nature: Quirky | Item: None

Shiftry (♂) | Grass/Dark | Level 20
Moves: Giga Drain, Secret Power, Refresh, Fake Out
67 HP / 41 Atk / 32 Def / 42 SpA / 32 SpD / 46 Spe
Ability: Chlorophyll| Nature: Timid | Item: None

Houndour (♂) | Dark/Fire | Level 19
Moves: Faint Attack, Ember, Charm, Roar
51 HP / 29 Atk / 17 Def / 39 SpA / 21 SpD / 31 Spe
Ability: Flash Fire| Nature: Naughty | Item: Charcoal

Carvanha (♀) | Water/Dark | Level 16
Moves: Bite, Water Pulse, Scary Face, Refresh
41 HP / 35 Atk / 14 Def / 27 SpA / 12 SpD / 29 Spe
Ability: Rough Skin| Nature: Lax | Item: None