The Monotype Challenge

I chose Oshawott for my starter, since it can learn most of the HMs in the game. I picked up Pansear ASAP and tried to get through the early part of the game as quickly as possible. I had to use these guys for the first gym, and I didn't get my first real team member until I made it to Wellspring Cave. Before facing Lenora, I was able to pick up a Drilbur (named Monty, even though it's female) and a Tympole (named Wart).

Wart stomped N outside of the Nacrene City gym, but that gave me false confidence. Lenora's Pokemon hit hard with Retaliate, but Wart & Monty were able to share the burden and win this fight, thanks in big part to Wart's Confuse Ray.

We had to tread slowly through Pinwheel Forest. The Team Plasma members don't have a lot of Pokemon per trainer, but my team was still small and squishy. I'm happy that White has lots of little areas to rest up between Pokemon Centers, and I'm having to make frequent use of these healers.

I caught a Sandile and named it Crawful, and I trained the whole team up to about level 24. I cleaned out all the story events and the trainers in the Castelia City gym, but I can't beat Burgh yet. His Leavanny is ferocious, and I think I need to train up the team to about level 29 before we take him on again.

In order to beat Burgh, I had to get my team up to level 26, leave Tympole unevolved for a bit, and have tremendous luck. I had to be able to swap in and swap out my Sandile as many times as possible, in order to severely reduce Leavanny's attack power. I also needed good RNG in order to get a crit, avoid getting critted, and miss a couple of attacks entirely. I spent several Fresh Waters, Potions, and Super Potions, too.

Burgh was the last real challenge for a long time. My squad of Monty, Crawful, & Wart steamrolled the next four gyms. They had good stats, good type coverage, and there was plenty of exp to go around, since I was just training three of them. When we got the Lucky Egg, that made it even easier to train these guys. I was able to get a Stunfisk before the Icirrus City Gym, and I named it CheepCheep. I also caught a Golett right after that, and I named it Whomp. I trained those two together for two or three hours, until I had a fully-evolved team. Then it was back in the fast lane.

I was a little worried my team would be underlevelled for the Elite Four & Team Plasma Boss fights, but we were at the perfect levels. We suffered lots of KOs, but I had plenty of medicines to help us recover from the near-wipes. I wouldn't say that I ever had to heal spam in this game, like I had to do in most of the others. I've always thought the difficulty curve of the games became more refined the deeper we get into the new generations.

My first three Pokemon were running a tight race for most of the game, but Monty took a big lead in the final gym and in the Elite Four Battles. Monty the Excadrill was the MVP by far.

I picked Chespin for my temporary starter, because I didn't want my rivals to have it, and I was hoping it would be shiny. It wasn't. I caught Bunnelby early on, and I boxed Chespin ASAP. Since I was gonna have Diggersby on my team, and since I knew I would get a Steelix later on that shares a name with a cartoon rabbit, I decided to keep the theme of fictional rabbit names for the team. I gave Bunnelby the name Babs. I was able to catch a Burmy before the first gym, too, but it only knew Protect at first. I named it Buckthorn. I didn't feel like leveling it up the hard way, so I left it as a level 5 Burmy and focussed on leveling Babs. The gym was tough, but Babs' Take Down made it possible to prevail.

We left the gym and got the EXP Share. Things snowballed pretty fast from here. I was able to get a full team of Ground-type Pokemon before the second gym (granted, it takes a long time to get from the first to the second gym in Kalos). I caught a Sandile (named Buster), a Rhyhorn (named Hazel), a Golett (named Nightshade), and traded a Luvdisc for a Steelix (named Thumper). I tried to keep the team roughly even in level, by keeping the lowest-level guys in the front slot. This was often counterproductive, as these were also the party members that were most likely to get knocked out. In the end, I couldn't keep Steelix from outlevelling the party by nearly 10 levels, even though he stayed at the back of the party for nearly the whole time.

Diggersby was extremely helpful up through the final gym. She had a great TM pool, and she learned STAB Return early on.

Wormadam was useful at a few very particular points in the game where I needed to use Bug Bite, HP Fighting, or Psychic. She had surprisingly decent Bulk, as well. Overall, she wasn't a powerhouse, though.

Rhyperior was a pain to level, but she was a solid tank and a decent physical sweeper later on. Drill Run was a fun move to play around with.

Krookodile was the MVP. Intimidate is one of my favorite abilities in the game, and he had a solid natural learnset, too.

Steelix probably had a lot of potential I didn't utilize. When he did come in, he could take a lot of hits, and he could slowly wear down anything you put in front of him. He had Rock Head as his ability, so he could make full use of Double-Edge without hurting himself. I tended to keep him at the back of the party as a kind of secret weapon.

Golurk was a fairly average Pokemon. He didn't score a lot of KO's in key battles, but he was decent at wearing down threats. It just seemed like almost every Pokemon had some move that could exploit his weaknesses.

- Hit Vilestone, then made my way down to Pastoria to get the fly spot for later, train, and also spam Heart Scales.
- Returned to Vilestone and hit the department store, because I'm too lazy to play the slot machines.
- Fun Fact - Shieldon's Special movepool is REDICULOUS. Fire Blast and Thunder? Yes please!
- Oh, there's a gym here too.
- VS Maylene:
I honestly forget the individual battles, I just know Seneca came up huge despite the type weakness (Fire Fang > Lucario) but Glassworm was the one that actually did shit.
- Flew down to Pastoria and hit that gym next.
- VS Wake
The Fort vs Gyarados - T H U N D E R. I mean, it still didn't OHKO because Fort's Special Attack is awful, but it works! 5-2
Liberty/Glassworm vs Quagsire - Grass attacks are stronk. 4-1
I forget who beat Floatzel, but w/e
- Honestly, what is the puropse of the entire Celestic Town arc? Let's beat up Fantina already.
- Oh, The Fort evolved into Bastiodon here too. This is good, because it increases the base value of his most important stat, SpAtk, by a whole whopping 5 points. To 47.
- VS Fantina
I forget again. I won though, and The Fort was def the MVP.
- Go to the next town, and walk straight to the... Damnit Rabi!
- VS Rabinov
Literally this was a Fort solo.
- And I'm on Iron Island now! Yay!

Images to come when I have time


Icebreaker (Prinplup) (M)
Ability: Torrent
Level: 33
Docile Nature
- Bide
- Pluck
- Surf
- Metal Claw

Seneca (Steelix) (M)
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 32
Sassy Nature
- Sandstorm
- Rock Polish
- Fire Fang
- Thunder Fang

Glassworm (Wormadam-Trash) (F)
Ability: Anticipation
Level: 29
Bashful Nature
- Mirror Shot
- Stealth Rocks
- Hidden Power [Grass]
- Thief

Liberty (Bronzor)
Ability: Levitate
Level: 31
Sassy Nature
IVs: 0 Atk
- Extrasensory
- Hypnosis
- Grass Knot
- Shadow Ball

The Fort (Bastodion) (F)
Ability: Sturdy
Level: 32
Quiet Nature
- Iron Tail
- AncientPower
- Thunder
- Fire Blaaaaast

- Beat up Gladion
- Went to Brooklet Hill
- Overlevelled team had no problems with Wishiwashi
- Ran back to Melemele and caught a Shellder named Spike.
- Battle Royal Dome is a thing
- bought a shitton of Repels and pokeballs at the megamart
- KIAWEEEEE
- Ok yeah Totem Salazzle was a bitch, and I don't exactly remember how I beat it. Oh well.
- Route 8 has a Water Stone on it! Yay!
- Spike evolves into Cloyster
- I go back to Route 1 and catch a ton of pkmn so I can start looking frantically for Ice Stones
- Santa Penguin mugs some helpless ponies until one of them gives me some clay
- Hail and A-Veil TMs. Finally.
- Aurora Veil lets Frostbite solo Totem Lurantis
- Go to Konikoni
- At this point, I decide to grind up to 30 to evolve Diamond and Mountain.
- I trade said two pkmn over to Moon and let my Moon file's Decidueye feather some Snorunts and Golbats. As such, Diamond becomes a Glaceon, and Mountain becomes a Crabominable, and my team is all Ice-typed at last
- The other thing about my team is everyone but Frostbite is fully evolved. It'd be a real shame if...
jk Pelago has an Ice Stone for me ty Pelago!
- Frostbite evolves into Snowslash. Let the REAL fun begin!
- I flip through my TM case to update the new evolutions (specifically, give Diamond the Hail/Veil combo), and I notice that Cloyster can learn Smart Strike. I honestly have never seen a Pokémon other than Kartana able to learn this move.
- Anyway, Plumeria gets rekt by Spike
- Olivia gets rekt by Frostbite
- PLOT
- Hau gets rekt
- PLOT
- Diamond soloes Molyane, a Steel-type user who should hard counter me, because HP Fire is good coverage and Aurora Veil is still broken as hell. IMAGINE WHEN I CAN START SETTING IT UP TURN 1...
- Diamond nearly soloes Totem Vikavolt, but because of ridiculously bad parahax Frostbite had to come in and help.

Images to come when I have time


Frostbite (Alolan Sandslash) (F)
Ability: Slush Rush
Level: 33
Lax Nature
- Leech Life
- Hail
- Ice Ball
- Iron Head

Food (Delibird) (M)
Ability: Vital Spirit
Level: 32
Brave Nature
- Aurora Veil
- Brick Break
- Thief
- Hail

Mountain (Crabomnible) (M)
Ability: Iron Fist
Level: 33
Sassy Nature
- Scald
- Power-up Punch
- Ice Punch
- Brick Break

Diamond (Glaceon) (M)
Ability: Snow Cloak
Level: 33
Timid Nature
- Hail
- Aurora Veil
- Icy Wind
- Hidden Power [Fire]

Spike (Cloyster) (M)
Ability: Skill Link
Level: 30
Quiet Nature
- Spikes
- Clamp
- Smart Strike
- SPEAR OF JUSTICE AND ALSO ICICLES

This is going surprisingly slow. Alolan Diglett is the only Ground-type I have so far, and Kahuna Hala is a real challenge. I might have to level this Diglett all the way up 26 so I can get those Dugtrio stats. I named my Diglett McQueen, and I'm going to be using Pixar as my naming theme this time. The grind is on!

I was right. The only way for Diglett/Dugtrio to survive an All-Out Pummeling from Crabrawler is to kill it before it gets a chance to attack. I had to grind McQueen all the way up to level 26, and I still think the victory was dependent upon a lucky crit.

On Akala Island, I caught a Mudbray and named him Bullseye. I tried to lead with him as much as possible and let him catch up to McQueen, but this didn't go so well. At the time I caught him, he was about 14 levels below her. We made our way all the way up to Mallow's trial, and my team got knocked out. I was going to soft reset and try again…then I realized the last time I saved was before Lana's trial. I had spent probably 2 – 3 hours on this Island, and I didn't feel like making up that progress the hard way. So I just put McQueen at the front of the party and blitzed the island. I'm probably going to leave her as the lead for the rest of the game, unless I have a good reason to rotate a different team member to the front. I feel like there's such a disparity in victory points already that it's extremely unlikely another 'mon could catch up and win the race for MVP, even if I left McQueen at the back of the party, like I did with Steelix in X. I did catch a Barboach (named Dory) as well, but I didn't realize where to get her until I had already beaten Olivia.

This run has been interesting, because I don't normally use the stat-enhancing items in battle, but they've been crucial to survive the Totem Pokemon. Dire Hit allowed McQueen to reduce Wishiwashi down to its solo form. X Defense allowed McQueen to practically shrug off the Solar Blades from Fomantis. I think it's really clever that the game not only gives you these items, but that it gives them to you in a way that doesn't shout "USE ME IN THE BOSS BATTLE."

I actually think my method of leading with my highest-level Pokemon worked out well. This may be the way I play Gen 6 and 7 games from now on. If you have Exp share on, you wind up with the weaker members being roughly the same level as the Pokemon that the common NPCs have, and your ace is around the same level as the rivals/leaders/bosses. The game retains a fair level of challenge at the key battles, but you don't struggle with every random trainer.

Before the end of the game, I wound up catching a Sandygast (named Wall-E), a Sandile (named Syndrome), and a Gabite (named Bruce). The battles where I had to really lean on the whole team were the elite four battles and Guzma. In fact, Guzma was consistently the biggest challenge I faced throughout this adventure. His Golisopod ripped my team apart more times than I'd like to admit.

The MVP this time had to be Dugtrio. After all the grinding I did in the beginning, and after all the battles where I ran her as the lead, there was just no way any of the other Pokemon could catch up to her. Mudsdale was a distant second, and none of the others could even compare. If you're playing mono-ground, you just get your full team way too late in this game.

Start: My adventure started in Aquacorde Town with my friends. I chose fennekin amongst the 3 starter pokemons, but I knew she would stay with me only for a little while. On route 2, I captured a Zigzagoon to act as a future HM Slave. I quickly crossed Santalune Forest and arrived at Santalune City. I went on route 22 and hunted down a Riolu. I quickly found one and capture it. I then automatically banked Fennekin. At that point I only had one usable pokemon, a level 6 Riolu with 4 moves: Foresight, Quick Attack, Counter and Endure. Not a very good pool of move... but it will have to do for now. I will mostly use Quick Attack and Counter.

Building at team: At this point I knew I needed a lot more fighters to overcome the bug gym. My main concern was Viola's Vivillion with Infestation. There was a good chance my lone Riolu would get killed by the infestation on that last fight. So I toiled to fight a few other. After 1h of arduous search, I found 4 other Riolu. The little wolves were especially resistant to capture. I had to waste 2-4 pokeballs on each. When I finally got a team of 5. I trained them in the field up to level 11, my first one was level 12.

The Bug Gym: With my 5 Riolu and about 10 potions in my bag, I slid down the fireman's pole with confidence. I only used one Riolu to fight the challengers on the spider's web. Just before Viola, I restored all my pokemon to full health. The fight with Viola was a little hard but not as hard as I expected. I quick attacked every turn. At the end of the fight, one Riolu has died, one was badly injured. I came out victorious and snatched my EXP Share on my way to route 4.

Route 4: Knowing that a male Ralts can become Gallad. I absolutely wanted to get him. The male Ralts would help me cover my Fighter's weakness with it's psychic type. I originally wanted 4 to compare and chose the best. But after 2 hours of searching and seeing a lot of female Ralts, I only had found 2 male Ralts. One was Modest, the other was lonely, I decided to keep the Lonely as I would concentrate on his special powers.

Lumiose city: At this point, my Ralts was not strong enough to go in battle. My clash with Prof Sicamore involved my 5 Riolu. The fight against his 3 elemental lizards went along something like Quick Attack, Quick Attack, Quick Attack... and Force Palm. It was a bit boring, I was eager to get other fighting pokemons.

Route 5: Yeah, I was running around giddy trying to found Pancham. Running in the purple flower. I've caught 4 and kept the best. I was especially interested in Pancham since he transform into Pangoro on level 32, a fighting/Dark type, which will give me a good weapon against the psychic gym. I took note to capture a dark type like Inkay or Absol later.

Route 7: After watching the fireworks at Parfum Palace, beating down the hulking Snorlax was a piece of cake. I only used Force Palm twice, as they say: "Talk to the hand". I quickly began abusing the free match at the battle chateau to farm money. One pokemon of interest on route 7 was Croagunk, very weak right now but much stronger later as Toxicroak. I was thinking about a special weapon against the Fairy gym.

Connecting Cave: I searched the cave and captured 4 Meditite and kept the best one. He was right now a bit weak. But I simply could not pass the meditating pokemon as he was going to be later Mega Medicham.

Route 8L: I was especially looking for the Crane Kung-fu practicing Mienfoo. I did my usual formula of capturing a bunch and keeping the best. I did my search on Mienfoo, I was kind of disappointed to learn that he only reached maturity as Mienshao on level 50, at the end of the game.

Glittering Cave: I had really no interest in Fossils. My interest here was Machop. I got a good one. I did the mission in the cave and got back to Ambrette town. My interest with Machop was Machoke and eventually the tradable Machamp. I have the intention of using the GTS to trade a Machoke for a Machoke therefore getting my Machamp.

Cyllage City's Rock Gym: I had really no stress entering the gym as rock is weak against Fighting move. I was just wondering how I would fare against Grant's Amaura and Tyrunt. I had some trouble in the actual fights against the challenger and ended up using about 8 super potions. I finally reached the peak of the gym and faced Grant. Amaura was slashed to unconsciouness by Pancham. Fortunately for me, Lucario had gained Bone Rush, I quickly finished Tyrunt with it.

(for some reason screenshots stopped saving later in the run)

-All female team, purely coincidental
-First run I've actually nicknamed all my Pokemon
-Gyarados was the MVP, mostly because of Surf