[Gen 4] "Useless" Pokémon Challenge - SoulSilver

Welcome! In this Challenge, I'll play SoulSilver with Pokémon that are usually considered useless. To make it simple, I can only pick Fully evolved Pokémon with total status equal to 450 or less than it.
I'll consider fully evolved any Pokémon that can't evolve before the post-game, or that requires trade to evolve, cause I won't do it anyway. E.G.: Sneasel is a fully evolved.

I was told Aipom, Lickitung, Piloswine, Tangela, and Yanma can evolve before the postgame, but I'll keep them on the list. I'll be allowed to use them as long as they don't evolve.

This is the list of Pokémon I can pick:



Everything's explained, so let's begin!
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My first Pokémon after the starter was Hoothoot. I defeated Falkner with Hoothoot and a Ratatta.
Now my team is:


Hoppip (Meow)
Bold: +Def -Atk


Hoothoot (Doctor)
Modest: +Sp. Atk - Atk


Dunsparce (Quetzal)
Naive: +Spd - Sp. Def

It was luck to find the Dunsparce, so it was luck too it came with a nature that decreases a status that was useless anyway. The boost on Speed makes this status less terrible, though I think it would be more useful to have a boost on Sp. Def.


I'm accepting suggestions, if someone want to make.

Aipom, Lickitung, Piloswine, Tangela, and Yanma can evolve before the postgame. They need to learn a certain move to evolve (Double Hit for Aipom, Rollout for Lickitung, and Ancientpower for the others). For Piloswine, you need to go to the Move Reminder and give him a Heart Scale, but the others can learn their move if you level them up enough.

FeraligatrMaster said:

Aipom, Lickitung, Piloswine, Tangela, and Yanma can evolve before the postgame. They need to learn a certain move to evolve (Double Hit for Aipom, Rollout for Lickitung, and Ancientpower for the others). For Piloswine, you need to go to the Move Reminder and give him a Heart Scale, but the others can learn their move if you level them up enough.

Click to expand...

I didn't know it. I thought they kept all the gen 4 evolutions out of the main game.

Well, I won't change things. I'll allow myself to use these Pokémon as long as I don't evolve them.
It makes sense to me because a lot of them were classic one stage Pokémon in gen II.


Well, until now I defeated Bugsy. I thought it would be easy, but that Scyther gave me a lot of trouble.
My team is the same.

Whitney wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Meow (who's now a Skiploom) poisoned Miltank, then I sent Doctor out (now a Noctowl). Miltank infatuated Doctor, preventing it from attacking for many turns, but Miltank's HP was going down because of the poison. When it was very low, Doctor landed an attack, knocking Miltank out. My win!

Doctor (Noctowl) is my team's best guy. If it's unabale to battle, I have to stall.

I can say now that I defeated the rival with a Dunsparce.

Morty is the coolest gym leader. It's a shame you can defeat him easily if you have a super effective move.

Which way should I go from Ecruteak? East or west? Where can I get the Good Rod? I don't wanna google it, it feels like cheating.

I decided to go west, like I always do.

My team now is: Noctowl, Skiploom, Dunsparce

I got the Good Rod, so I caught a Qwilfish. The next gym battle was against Chuck. I won easily with Noctowl's Confusion. The battle against Jasmine was harder. Lawyer, the Dunsparce had the best chance against her steel-type pokémon, with its Rock Smash and Dig. I used the other pokémon to weaken the enemies, and then I sent Dunsparce to give the final hit. Fortunately, Dunsparce outsped all her Pokémon. But it was a tense battle, and I had to use a lot of Super Potions and two Revives on Dunsparce. The last Pokémon, Steelix, received Leech Seed and was put to sleep by Jumpluff, then Dunsparce finalized it.

Current Team:

Noctowl
Dunsparce
Jumpluff
Qwilfish

Well, thanks to battling the trainers at Mahogany's Gym, I battled Pryce with less one Pokémon in my team. Lawyer (Qwilfish) had no HP, but it set Toxic Spikes, that helped me beat Seel and Piloswine. Meow (my Jumpluff) almost defeated Seel with its Mega Drain, but it didn't resist the ice attacks and then Pryce used Hyper Potion on Seel, making its effort useless. Quetzal (Dunsparce) surprised me with its strong Return, and defeated Seel and Piloswine. He was already weak and was defeated by Dewgong, so I had only Doctor (Noctowl) left. Its Special Defense was amazing, and it received few damage from the Aurora Beams though they were super effective. Dewgong abused of Rest, but I had Roost to heal me too. I kept using Shadow Ball, and it reduced the enemy's defense a couple of times, then I finished it. Pryce's wise words at the end will stay with me. (you'll have a long time with your Pokémon - enjoy it!)

I think I'll catch one more Pokémon, but I don't know which.

Noctowl
Jumpluff
Dunsparce
Qwilfish

I finally went to Blackthorn to battle for the last badge. The battle was surprisingly easy. I defeated Gyarados and the first Dragonair with Dunsparce. It was the first time I felt Dunsparce was strong.
Then Claire sent Kingdra, that made Dunsparce faint. Noctowl killed it, and was defeated by the last Dragonair. I revived Noctowl and it quickly finished Dragonair that was Badly Poisoned (thanks to Qwilfish's Toxic Spikes), and the battle was over.
But I couldn't get the badge yet. I had to go to the Dragon Den to make a test and then get it.

Next, I got invited to Ecruteak to battle the Kimono Girls. After dying twice to the girls, I won at the third attempt on a very difficult battle. When I was there, the kimono girls' young sister entered and anounced Lugia was seen. I went to Whirl Islands behind the kimono girls, and met Lugia. I acidentally made it faint. Well, I can battle it again, so no problem.

Before going to the last routes, there were some places to explore (and level up). The first was Mt. Mortar areas above the waterfall.

Then I went to Tohjo Falls and made my way to Kanto. After passing through the victory road I fought my rival for the last time. I struggled in the beginning, because I had only Jumpluff, Dunsparce and Noctowl but after defeating his Sneasel and Magneton, the rest of the team was defeated easily by Noctowl.

Then finally the Elite Four. Will was easy because of Noctowl's Shadow Ball. Koga went on a similar way, with Qwilfish's Rollout, that defeated his three bugs. I sent Onix against Crobat. It took a little time to defeat it, because Onix attack is low, and Crobat raised its evasiveness a lot, but I had the type advantage and a lot of defense, so it was just a matter of time. Onix defeated Muk with a couple of Earthquakes and Koga lost. Bruno intimidated me because he was giant and I was just a ten years old.

Bruno was the most difficult foe until now. In the beginning the battle was easy with Noctowl taking down his Pokémon. But then his Hitmonlee made it confused, and then defeated it. I sent Jumpluff, that defeated it, and put Leech Seed on Machamp, the last foe. But machamp defeated Jumpluff, and I sent Qwilfish. Thanks to its higher speed, Qwilfish managed to land two Waterfalls in a row, taking Machamp down. Bruno lost. Nothing too hard until now.

Then I headed to battle Karen. Ok, this time I had som trouble. Noctowl defeated Gengar, but it used Destiny Bond an took it with it. I changed to Qwilfish, that received a lot of damage from Houndoom, but took it down. I revived Noctowl to defeat Vileplume. I sent Onix against Murkrow. Onix won, then I sent noctowl against Umbreon to dispute the victoy. Fortunately, I won.

Then Karen said what resumes this run: Weak Pokémon and strong Pokémon are just the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled trainers should try to win with their favorites.

Well, I had only one revive and two pokemon fainted. I chose Dunsparce to stay fainted. I think it would be the less useful in the last battle.

Then it was time to battle Lance. To resume, he simpy obliterated me.

I knew my team wasn't prepared to battle him. I knew I should had picked Piloswine instead of Onix. But I chose the weakest of the two to stay true to the challenge. Onix and Qwilfish had rock attacks to deal with the flying types, but they couldn't beat Lance's Pokémon before being beaten. Now it's time to think of a better strategy, a decent one.

I came up with two strategies. The first would be catching a Swinub, evolving it and raising to level 40. The second would be raising all my team to outlevel Lance's. But I don't have patience to do any of these. So I'm quitting the challenge. But there's no reason to be sad, I had so much fun.

I found out that Dunsparce with Return is actually good. I fell in love with Noctowl even more. It's so good, it shouldn't be in this challenge. And I like Jumpluff and Qwilfish very much now. They did amazing things.

Karen's words are resonating now. I quit the challenge but I'll keep playing the game. See you!

My team at the end of the challenge:


(Doctor) Noctowl LV 47
Air Slash
Psycho Shift
Extrasensory
Shadow Ball


(Meow) Jumpluff LV 46
Leech Seed
U-Turn
Worry Seed
Giga Drain


(Quetzal) Dunsparce LV 43
Dig
Rock Smash
Return
Roost


(Lawyer) Qwilfish LV 44
Toxic Spikes
Revenge
Waterfall
Rollout


(Rocky) Onix LV 43
Curse
Rock Throw
Payback
Earthquake