The Monotype Challenge

-Welcome! This is the journal for Ephraim225's Poison Monotype run of Pokemon Red. I'll be writing in it as I go. I decided on Poison type because it's no doubt the worst in Gen 1 since it has dozens of weaknesses and no strengths. They can only get super effective hits against Tangela and Parasect, and they are weak to the two best types in the game. This'll be a real treat eh?

-I'm using Red because it has two poison types that Blue doesn't: Oddish and Ekans. If I played Blue I'd be trading that for Bellsprout, and Bellsprout is bad.

-Started with Bulbasaur. Worth noting that he's the only poison-type starter in the whole series. Named myself VENOM and the rival PECHA.

-NO encounters in Route 1? 0_0 Oak's Parcel delievered.

-I got encounters on the way back though. Bulbasaur reaches Level 7 and learns Leech Seed. He's actually the worst starter ever in Gen 1 because his movepool is ♥♥♥♥. Fire Red fixes it...mostly.

-Rival fight on Route 22: Most people are unaware, but if you beat this guy and then go back to Oak, you get 5 free Pokeballs. Saves on money. Assuming you don't blackout and lose half your money anyways. This is not an easy battle either, since with only one Pokemon you could fall victim to Sand Attack spam by Pidgey, and if the rival has Squirtle, then he's able to use Bubble since the starter is Level 8 - the other two don't get an elemental move before that.

-Anyhow that takes Bulbasaur to Level 13, and he learns Vine Whip. Took him long enough!

-At any rate, I capture Nidoran (M) in Route 22 and Weedle in the forest. I could've sworn Nidoran (F) was also on that route, but eh. Nidoran is probably the best Pokemon I've got at the moment. Weedle at least gets a bug-type attack - he's one of two Pokemon in the game to get one.

-Went through the forest. Bulbasaur evolved to Ivysaur, and Nidoran learned Horn Attack at Level 8. I might have grinded too much...Brock's a cakewalk, but since when is that news?

-Say what you will about Route 3 - Weedle jumped straight to Beedrill in nothing flat here. Also: Poison is super effective against Bug? What the?

-Mt. Moon up next. I have no idea what purpose a Zubat could possibly serve but I'll catch one just in case.

-Early on in here Beedrill learns Fury Attack at Level 12. PIERCE THROUGH THE HEAVENS

-Struggle is more effective than Leech Life?! Also I poisoned a Magnemite. This is hilarious to me somehow. A Moon Stone is picked up here - should come in very handy. Neither fossil is usable in this challenge, so we praise Helix and reach Cerulean.

started game and chose fennekin
Beat chespin with ease
Taught how to catch a pokemon
Entered santalune forest
Caught a lvl 2 (m) weedle
Caught a lvl 2 (f) caterpie
Trained them both making them evolve,
eventually, into beedrill and butterfree
Boxed fennekin
Breezed past viola with butterfrees confusion and beedrills fury attack
Went to route 4 and caught lvl 8 (f) combee
Caught lvl 8 (m) ledyba
Trained everyone up
Reached lumiose city and received lvl 10 (f) squirtle from prof.
Boxed squirtle
Now heading towards camphrier town.

Butterfree (f) lvl 15
Beedrill (m) lvl 14
Combee (f) lvl 13
Ledyba (m) lvl 13

Liek - Marshtomp LVL 33
Nature: Serious
Ability: Torrent
Moves: Surf/Mud Shot/Mud-Slap/Take Down
Item: Quick Claw

Balboa - Graveler LVL 30
Nature: Relaxed
Ability: Sturdy
Moves: Magnitude/Rock Throw/Strength/Rock Smash
Item: Soft Sand

Fuji - Camerupt LVL 33
Nature: Relaxed
Ability: Oblivious
Moves: Magnitude/Ember/Amnesia/Take Down
Item: Charcoal

Sandy - Sandshrew LVL 24
Nature: Rash
Ability: Sand Veil
Moves: Slash/Cut/Dig/Sandstorm
Item:

Velma - Trapinch LVL 20
Nature: Naive
Ability: Hyper Cutter
Moves: Feint Attack/Bite/Sand-Attack

Dusty - Nincada LVL 21
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Compound Eyes
Moves: Leech Life/Fury Swipes/Flash/Cut
Item: Everstone

-Route 24 rival fight: Pidgeotto was annoying. It took effort from Ivysaur and Beedrill to beat but they both got a level from it. Ivysaur learned Poisonpowder at Level 22 which I guess is good. Abra is up next. It only knows Teleport, so I send in Zubat just to humilate it. Charmander is then sent in. ALL OF ITS ATTACKS MISS. Seriously.

-Nugget Bridge is next, and the second trainer has Nidoran (F) so I can check where it appears...WHAT?! Route 22?! Why couldn't I find one?! Geez!

-The bridge doesn't make for interesting battles, though Nidoran (M) gets Poison Sting at Level 14 here. I avoid as many trainers as possible just in case I need the Mew glitch to get an HM slave or more items. Anyways once I get the S.S. Ticket I then realize I should go back a route and capture Ekans. Wrap is an evil move, but Ekans needs to be fast to make the best use of it.

-Cerulean Gym time. While I was in here Beedrill learned Focus Energy at Level 16...for all good that does because the move is glitched in this generation. Misty isn't too threatening. If there's one good thing I can say about Fire Red, it's that the difficulty is much better there.

-After that I advance to Vermillion...oh hey Oddish is on this route? I'll take that. I can't turn it into Bellossom, sadly, but I'll make due.

-S.S. Anne next. Only thing noteworthy here is the rival. It took until Level 30, but Ivysaur FINALLY learns Razor Leaf. See, the other starters get better moves sooner. Bulbasaur's advantage is early evolution which isn't as good.

-I get HM01 and use it on Oddish. Even Cut is a better move than Absorb.

-Okay, what kind of sadist makes a ten-year-old dig through trash?! That's really the only challenge too - Surge himself just gets Tackled to death.

-A detour is taken to get a Nidoran (F). During this, I also get HM05, Ivysaur evolves to Venusaur, and Nidoran (M) evolves to Nidorino. Nice payout. I could have captured a Nidoran (M) and traded it, but that'd be just silly.

-Okay, nobody can use Flash, so I have no choice but to capture a temporary Abra. No I am NOT going through Rock Tunnel with no Flash, are you nuts?

-I caught it on my last ball. Geez.

-Unrelated but still amusing: "Go, my super BUG POKEMON!!!" *sends out unevolved level 20 Weedles and Caterpies*

-Oh wow. In Rock Tunnel I got an encounter at the same time I entered a trainer's vision range.

-Rock Tunnel done. Now that we're in Lavender Town I should mention that to get a Gastly would mean going through the Game Corner. I hate that place. So yeah, assuming nobody minds, I'll be using the PokeDoll glitch, it's funnier that way. Oh, I better get a Leaf Stone while I'm at it.

-Speaking of which, the only notable Game Corner prize is Nidorina. Someone really likes Nidoran.

-Celadon Gym time. Due to the weird relation Poison and Bug have you might expect Zubat to do well here. Welp, I left him in the PC actually so it doesn't really matter.

-So I looked up Nidorino's moveset...if I evolve him now, he'll get Thrash and nothing else. But if he stays as is he'll get Double Kick at Level 50. Well...I don't feel like waiting that long, and Nidoking gets Earthquake as a TM, so here goes. Nidorino evolves to Nidoking with a Moon Stone. He then gets Thrash at Level 23.

-This gym's abuse of statuses annoys me. Let's fight Erika now. Nidoking...gets put to sleep after Thrashing and then wastes the rest of its turns. Venusaur then sweeps. Sigh.

-Pokemon Tower rival fight: WHIRLWIND DOESN'T WORK IN TRAINER FIGHTS, GENIUS. Sadly Exeggcute does the same thing Victrebell did: inflicts sleep after Nidoking Thrashes, thus locking him into wasting turns. Gen 1, everybody. I then use multi-hitting attacks on Charmeleon...which causes its Rage to build. EYE'M A GENIUS! Lucky Venusaur can still sweep them all with Tackle. He had only 10 HP left though, and I forgot healing items XD

-That Ghost sprite is still horrifying. Trainers here are annoying due to Ghost type's immunity to Normal. Most of my attacks are Normal or Poison at this point, but Venusaur has Razor Leaf so it's all good. Rockets are still worthless so getting the flute is an easy affair.

-Next I go to Cycling Road. I don't have a bike actually, but that isn't a problem ;) I got HM02 as well. Even though I'm fairly sure nothing I'm allowed to use can use it.

-Okay now I wish I had gotten the bike, Safari Zone's music is awful.

-I...Ekans can learn Strength. That makes NO SENSE. Sadly only Nidoking can get Surf...but having an elemental move is helpful.

-Time to fight the Fuschia Gym trainers and WHAT ONE OF THEM SWITCHED POKEMON WHAT?! Jugglers...switch Pokemon? And somehow my turn comes before this. Um. Oh and one of them "dropped his balls" ahahaha

-Hey Koga! You probably shouldn't waste time trying to poison Poison-types! You also shouldn't waste turns on X Attacks! Oh, and Selfdestructing on your last Weezing probably wasn't a good idea either! You know. Just saying. THIS IS THE MAN WHO JOINS THE ELITE FOUR IN GEN 2.

After getting that Pancham, I went back to Route 4 and battled the trainers there to get her levels up, then I used Honey to find a Scraggy that I named Bobblehead. I beat the trainers on Route 5 then made it into Camphrier Town.

I got TM46 for Thief, checked out Shabboneau Castle and headed to Route 7, then 6 to the Parfum Palace. I saved the owner's Furfrou, then battled Tierno and Trevor, who were a bit shakier than I expected them to be. Before battling any trainers I went through Connecting Cave to Route 8 so I could catch myself an Absol, which I named Cataclysm. On my third try (which is the limit i'm putting as far as resetting for natures/abilities goes, three tries), it not only had an Adamant nature, but also a 31 Attack IV, which is pretty awesome. :D

The trainers on Routes 6, 7 and 8 weren't much worth writing home about, except the ones with the Furfrou which had Cataclysm, Polina and Frogger doing the work. And maybe one with an Axew and Dragon Rage, although she was dumb and used Assurance twice in a row on Bobblehead and left her at 1 HP. So when I got to Ambrette Town, I went to Route 9 and caught myself a Sandile that I named Raider, although i'm not gonna use it seriously since i've already used a Krookodile in two of my XY challenges this year alone (my Ground Monotype and my Red Mono-Color, although it wasn't in my final team in the latter). But he's still there for Intimidate and death fodder. After beating Team Flare in there, I went back to Ambrette Town.

Going through Route 8, I battled a couple trainers, then headed to Route 10 where I caught two new Pokémon: an Eevee named Circulation and a Houndour named Nyx. I did some biking and massaging for Circulation's happiness and did a bit of training. The trainers in the Cyllage Gym had a few that...weren't hard, so much as it is they took a little while.

For Grant, he paralyzed Polina with Amaura before dying to Karate Chop, then Tyrunt took around 2/5 with Rock Smash and lowered Defense before I brought in Cataclysm to kill him with Bite. Man, having a Pokémon with 130 Attack before the second Gym sure is cool. B)

So I got the Cliff Badge and decided that's where i'll leave it off.

(F) "Frogger", Level 25
Nature: Naughty
Moves: Lick, Return, Round, Water Pulse

(F) "Polina", Level 22
Nature: Lonely
Ability: Iron Fist
Moves: Karate Chop, Return, Rock Smash, Swords Dance

(M) "Cataclysm", Level 24
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Super Luck
Moves: Bite, Rock Smash, Swords Dance, Quick Attack

(M) "Raider", Level 20
Nature: Docile
Ability: Intimidate
Moves: Cut, Sand-Attack, Thief, Torment

(M) "Circulation", Level 21
Nature: Jolly
Ability: Run Away
Moves: Bite, Quick Attack, Refresh, Return

(F) "Nyx", Level 22
Nature: Hardy
Ability: Flash Fire
Moves: Bite, Howl, Roar, Thief

Storage:
(F) "Bobblehead", Level 21

-Next is Silph Co., which is an annoying maze IF you don't know where the Card Key is. If you know where it is, you can avoid nearly every fight here. Side note: Hyper Potions cost 1500 in this game? Huuuh.

-Silph Co. rival fight: Welp, Pidgeot finally wised up and learned Wing Attack, which nearly my entire team is weak to. That's a bad start. Thankfully it YET AGAIN decided to spam WHIRLWIND in a TRAINER BATTLE. This took longer than it should have because it used Sand Attack a few times too, but hey.

-Exeggcute and Gyarados get knocked out by Razor Leaf spam after that. Alakazam managed to knock out Venusaur, but I have Revives, so take that, confusion spammer. For fun I decide to take out Charizard with Nidoking - I couldn't use Earthquake if I had it, but Nidoking has Surf. Wow...no way could I get away with that in Fire Red.

-I then come to a peculiar realization: Giovanni trains Ground-types. I have two moves that are effective against that. UH-OH. Okay, Nidoqueen vs. Nidoking is amusing, and maybe kinda tough due to the level difference, but come on, you're a freaking mob boss and THIS is the best you can do?

-The Fighting Dojo doens't interest me. Somehow I still have the gym's teleporter maze memorized...Or I just kept walking left, whatever you want to believe. This is the big one: Psychic is the best type in the game. Surely Sabrina will wreck me several times.

-SHE HAS A VENOMOTH. YOU'RE A PSYCHIC TRAINER AND YOU HAVE VENOMOTH. HOW CAN GENWUNNERS EVEN--IT'S TRYING TO POISON ME!? I don't care if it has Leech Life, this is the dumbest thing ever.

-Alakazam gets credit for knocking out Venusaur a lot. Maybe next time a no-items challenge is in order. Also, why isn't Psywave super effective on me?

-Sabrina gets her last laugh...I CAN'T REMEMBER THE WAY OUT OF HERE

-I detour back to Pallet Town next. To get to Cinnabar Island you can either go through a horribly annoying dungeon or Surf south of Pallet Town. Seafoam Islands has nothing for me in there - no trainers, no boss, a legendary I can't capture...so yeah, we're skipping it. What I CAN capture, however, is a Tentacool along the way.

-You know, since we're here and all, why are there Ponyta in the Pokemon Mansion...?

-Hey, is that a wild Level 37 Weezing? SWEET! I was just lamenting how lazy I am when it comes to leveling up. MINE!

-Here's a first: a trainer that challenges you ONLY when talked to. He moves around so it's a bit of a fake-out.

-Oh hey, Venusaur learned Growth at Level 43. I guess that's cool. I mean, that dungeon was still annoying, but hey.

-Cinnabar gym...la la la answer all the questions correctly because I'm lame~

-Oh wow. Blaine's Growlithe falls victim to the Agility AI bug I'm sure you're all very familiar with. Ponyta and Rapidash get Surfed to death because they spam Tail Whip. I guess they were setting up for Arcanine, who has Take Down. I used a lot of Hyper Potions, but hey, Blaine has Super Potions, so this is totally fair. Totally.

-Viridian gym time. Now, based on what happened in the previous Giovanni fight, you probably already have an idea what happens here.

-Uh...interesting. Dugtrio used Dig, then a Guard Spec., THEN Dig inflicted damage. A 3-turn attack instead of two.

-How. How does a Level 38 Nidoking OHKO a Level 50 Rhydon with Surf. That's...wow.

-One fight naturally leads to another, so it's time for a re-match with PECHA. The Agility AI bug strikes again with Pidgeot. The rest of them get beaten up like mad. As usual Alakazam and Charizard are the only challenges here, and that's mostly because of the level difference. I gotta say though, Nidoking sure has come a long way.

Got a placeholder starter who was boxed at the nearest opportunity. A Chespin who was named Korrel and helped me capture my first true team member. It took a lot of bunnelby but I found the one I wanted. I named her Tiel and proceeded on. Originally in my head I was gonna placehold my final bird decision with a Pidgey... I decided against it and moved it. I proceeded through the forest without incident. Once out, I trainer dodged a little to drop off the Chespin and incorrect Bunnies. I then returned to the grass to find a Bidoof. YOU HEARD ME. A BIDOOF. And actually I didn't. It was literally my first encounter on the route. Rolen was the name the little... thing... recieved. I took time to catch it up to Tiel then battled the trainers I skipped. Afterwards I got the skates and proceeded to route 22. It took about 3 encounters with the very pokemon in question to get my next member. A Litleo I VERY ORIGINALLY named Kiara. After catching her up as well I went into the first gym... I'm already underleveled. This is already only going to end in good things. But I won! :D

Tiel Level 12
Lonely | Takes Plenty of Siestas
Pickup
Tackle | Agility | Double Slap | Quick Attack


Rolen Level 11
Timid | Likes to Thrash About
Unaware
Tackle | Growl | Defense Curl


Kiara Level 13
Quirky | Likes to Thrash About
Unnerve
Tackle | Headbutt | Ember | Work Up

-Now for Victory Road. This place has a sick love affair with random encounters and boulder-pushing puzzles. I also got an encounter and trainer battle at the same time again.

-A Cooltrainer not only wastes time on X Attacks but also has an Arcanine with Ember, that is, not Fire Blast.

-Why are there Venomoth in here?...actually who cares, I'm capturing it.

-There's a Cooltrainer with a Victrebell that also switches out. I use Growth to power up Razor Leaf...and then realize crits in Gen 1 ignore all debuffs, boosts, what have you. Dammit Gen 1!

-I...my Oddish knocked out Victrebell and jumped four levels. It went straight to Level 17 and learned Stun Spore. All because it wouldn't stop trying to poison Oddish. YOU CAN'T-- nevermind.

-Caught a Golbat as a last-minute addition to my team. I do not care for Moltres of course.

-Elite Four time. Lorelei is the only real threat to a normal run, but for a mono-poison challenge...she's even more worthless. Dewgong has Rest. Which is a Psychic-type move. He's going to spam that. Cloyster then falls to Razor Leaf, because they're still weak to Grass, I don't know why Slowbro is here but it wasted its one turn on Amnesia, Jynx uses...THRASH?! Wow. I forgot how lousy Lorelei was. Lapras has Blizzard, making her the only threat here! ARRRGH

-Bruno...well, the fate of the two Onixes should be obvious. Bruno then wastes many turns on X Defends WHEN I'M USING SURF! A SPECIAL MOVE! I also think it's cute that healing items apparently don't have priority over regular attacks?...Gen 1.

-Okay. Agatha. This should be hard...WHY ARE YOU SWITCHING TO GOLBAT AND SPAMMING HAZE. YOUR GENGARS ARE SPAMMING DREAM EATER. YOU'RE LOSING. TO. VENOMOTH. I mean Venomoth has Psybeam, but...but...

-Lance. Nothing I say about him will redeem the other three. You know what happens already.

-Okay, actually, Aerodactyl and Gyarados are legitimate threats with the way Hyper Beam works. I'm out of items. One fight remains. This could be bad. Good thing Rare Candies can revive the dead in this gen.

-Final battle. Pidgeot and Alakazam get confused by Golbat and attack themselves. I am thankful I picked that guy up. Rhydon drowns, what'd you expect? Exeggcutor...spams Hypnosis. Literally all I have to do is use the PokeFlute until Hypnosis fails, and then have Golbat use Wing Attack. Gyarados decided to spam Leer against Venusaur, thankfully. If it had used Hyper Beam I'd be gone.

-Charizard. Welp, this guy has Fire Blast, Fire Spin, and Slash. He knocked out everyone. Everyone, that is...EXCEPT NIDOKING! He decides to Rage against Nidoking, but it's not enough, leaving him open to Surf! Two turns later, he's down! And...what happened to the music? Oh that's right, I BEAT THE POISON MONOTYPE CHALLENGE!