[Challenge] The Monotype Challenge Re:Returns

User: Panda280
Type: Fairy
Game(s): Shield
Single / Ultimate: Single

Hour completed: 12:17
For some reason, I thought it's a good idea to play in another language. I picked french because fairy type was introduced in France. Here is the French name of my Pokemon. Try guessing which one which. Answer is in [ ] and at the bottom.
Galopa ♀ 54
Charmilly ♀ 56
Angoliath ♂ 61
Sorcilence ♀ 52
Rubombelle ♀ 55
Fluvetin ♂ 54

Milo, Nessa and Kabu


Allister and Opal


Melony, Raihan, Hop and Oleana


Bede and the Elite 4 -ish


Chairman Rose (Highlighted Part of playthrough)


Eternatus and Leon


Final Thought and Final Team

Pokemon Gold: Mono-Ground
Veteran George, Update 10 (Route 15 -> Viridian City):

Another massive update, this time with the other half of Kanto!

First off, I went up through the east coast of Kanto on my way back to Cerulean. After fixing the Power Plant, I challenged Misty as my next gym leader since she was already there. First, I sent out Quagsire and had it Amnesia three times. Afterwards, it managed to KO her Golduck, Quagsire, and Lapras, though my own Quagsire went down to her Lapras's Perish Song just as I had almost KOed Starmie. Starmie then 1HKOed three of my Pokemon with Surf, but inexplicably started constantly trying to use Recover when I sent out my Piloswine, which eventually KOed it.

After beating Misty, I went and battled the Snorlax blocking Diglett's Cave. I can't use it... but I can use its held item, a Leftovers. There's nothing left for me to use a Master Ball on except a potential shiny or a Larvitar I can't even fully evolve. So. I threw my Master Ball at it, took away its lunch, then immediately released it. Total waste of a Master Ball, but it was worth it. Earlier on, I considered using it on Ho-oh for the Sacred Ash, but it's a one-off item and the Leftovers would be useful for longer. I did not, however, catch Lugia, which I intentionally fainted with my Sandslash, mostly using Toxic.

Upon arriving in Pewter City, I led with my Quagsire again. It fainted Brock's Graveler and Kabutops, but fainted to his Omastar. I switched to Steelix, which took out the other half of his team without issue.

At Mt. Moon, my Nidoking swept my rival's team by itself, again. This thing is pretty much custom-built to fight him, being able to hit every single one of his Pokemon super effectively and only being weak to his Alakazam.

Afterwards, I went down to Seafoam Islands to beat Blaine. Quagsire swept his whole team relatively easily.

Blue was very tricky, especially with the level gap. I led with Quagsire and used Ice Punch against his Pidgeot, but it Whirlwinded it away and brought out my Nidoking, then he switched to his Alakazam before his Pidgeot fainted. Nidoking fainted Alakazam with a critical Shadow Ball, and Rhydon with Surf, but then fainted to his Gyarados. Gyarados then fainted my Golem and Quagsire while I revived my Nidoking, which KOed it with a Thunder Punch while it was recharging from a Hyper Beam. Nidoking finished off Pidgeot, but was then KOed by Exeggutor with Solar Beam, and my Steelix met the same fate, but weakened it enough for my Sandslash to KO it. Sandslash finished off the match by KOing Blue's Arcanine.

I'm not going to grind up to fight Red. The level gap is way too steep and I want to move on soon. That being said, I have one, last trick up my sleeve that might allow me to beat him at this level. It will be stupid, tedious, expensive, and include the most utterly cheap tactics I've ever used in a Pokemon game, but the alternative is spending ten more hours grinding at Mt. Silver and I have so many better things to do with my time.

Current Team:

Ultimate Rock
Johto/HeartGold #2 / FINAL

Going after the Rocket Hideout in Mahogany Town was the next best thing to do. As with all Rocket Hideout events, it's not hard and gives you quite a number of battles to train up. I decided to set off every alarm so I could fight the two back-to-back trainers repeatedly to get some extra fights in. Once that was done, it was on to the Ice Gym, which I thought was going to be a breeze. Well, it was until I got to the battle with Pryce. His Seel and Dewgong are easy enough to get by, but the Pilowsine was a beast to get through. The accuracy drops seem to happen much more than they should, but it's enough that it's a STAB Ground move that it quickly overwhelms my party. It takes until my third attempt to just give in and start trying to spam my best non-Rock type moves. True, I thought I could sneak some damage by since it would be against an Ice/Ground, so at least Rock would be 1x Effective, but the thing with Rock moves is they are powerful at the cost of accuracy...and Mud Bomb is just making a mess of that. Eventually, I break through and succeed.

I take the opportunity to head back and take down Jasmine. Slugma is just over level 32 at this point, so I'm still stuck with Ember (Lava Plume doesn't come until 38). That would be a great help. However, I do manage to work my way through with Shuckle's help. I'm not certain I realized how many use cases this Pokemon actually has, and how many times it has saved a battle. I still have it with Rest/Bide/Constrict/Wrap, but it does work quite well, especially if paired with a couple of X Defends to ensure I'm not getting 3HKO. That's the magic number for Bide, I've realized. Either I OHKO a Pokemon using Bide, or I'm running the risk of a knockout with three hits (2 for Bide, and 1 following my actual attack from Bide). It's become a sort of last resort, and it worked well enough against Jasmine's Steelix.

At this point, I've got my final team: Pupitar, Shuckle, Corsola, Sudowoodo, Graveler, and Slugma. I will let Graveler become Golem when Pupitar becomes Tyranitar, which won't happen until much later. Slugma evolves moving through Ice Path on my way to Blackthorn. I quickly make it to the other side, but then I decide Ice Path is the perfect place to level up. I go ahead and level everything up to 38, because that's when Slugma evolves. It also learns Lava Plume. How nice, but it came a little late. Anyways, as with all gyms, I make quick work of the trainers, but just like a few recent gyms, Claire seems to be a pain. I was close the first time, but I went ahead and just tried it a second time and made it through. X Items to the rescue, eh?

From here, I can't just go straight to the Elite Four, but have to do the whole Ho-oh thing...and OMG do I hate the Kimono girls. Why? VAPOREON! I keep losing, but I have to pass this so I'm stuck...until I realize they are giving me lots of cash from each battle. Makes me wonder if this was done on purpose to get you ready for the trek to the Elite Four...so I spend a little time farming up money and stocking up on Hyper Potions, Revives, and LOTS of X Items. The experience is also nice.

When I can finally travel to the Elite Four, it's fairly easy-going...until Silver shows up. Silver is the final roadblock, and it becomes "The Shuckle Battle" (not because it was the only thing not KO'd, just because I threw it out and let it keep fighting until it would lose). And it wins. So, I'm onto the Elite Four.

Will is kind of a pain, but I have Pupitar, so Dark-type moves are the best here. The first Xatu stinks because of Me First. It keeps hitting me with moves before I can. Then Confuse Ray comes in to make things worse. Once I make it past that Xatu, it's relatively smooth sailing.

Koga is, as I figured, boring because of his Pokemon. They are either easily taken down by a Rock move or a Ground move.

Bruno was always going to be the problem, because of his Fighting-type focus. I'm worried about Pupitar, because of it's Dark/Rock typing, so it becomes my last resort, even after Shuckle. It turns into a battle of spamming my most powerful attacks that aren't Rock, and I eek out a victory on the fourth attempt.

Karen was an interesting battle. Umbreon was easy enough with Sudowoodo since it has Rock Smash to help take it down. Vileplume takes out Sudowoodo, so I throw out Magcargo which takes it out in return with a single Lava Plume. Houndoom comes out and I get a single Ancient Power through before being taken down by a critical Dark Pulse. From there, I use Graveler to use Magnitude and that takes out the Houndoom; Rollout takes out the Murkrow, and then Graveler drops to Gengar, but Corsola finishes the battle with Rock Blast.

Lance becomes a challenge that takes me about 20 attempts to pull off. I need things to not crit :/

The attempt that I won started with Sudowoodo, and using 4 X Defend, 4 X SpDef, 4 X Attacks. I use them in that order, and then start with the Rock barrage. Gyarados? Simple, The three Dragonites? Easy. The Aerodactyl? Gets a good hit in and nearly OHKOs me, but then I knock it out. Now, the funny part occurs - I use a Hyper Potion to heal myself up to full when Charizard comes out. It misses Fire Blast, because, why wouldn't it at this point for dumb luck. Then I realize I'm out of everything except Rock Smash (which I'm worried won't knock it out) and Faint Attack. So, I throw caution to the wind and use Faint Attack. It takes it down to 1/3 HP. Then Charizard lands Fire Blast, and I think it'll be time to switch, but nope - Sudowoodo survives with 1...single...HP. I use Faint Attack again...and take the victory.

Thus I have achieved Hall of Fame status.

This morning, I gave Lt. Surge a quick whooping, and attempted Sabrina, but I quickly lost Pupitar (it's now level 53 so it's close to evolving, at least). I don't have to keep going, since I've already seen credits, but I may come back to it from time to time just for the fun.

JOHTO/HEARTGOLD COMPLETE!

Now, I'm onto Omega Ruby. However, the first Rock-type I can get isn't until Granite Cave. The two options there are a 5% Geodude or a 30% Aron. So, I asked my wife to make an Aron egg in her OR/AS game, as it's more likely to get that and it changes up the "Geodude being the first" mentality that I'm getting tired of) and as soon as possible, I will trade it over and hatch it. I will end up picking up Mudkip just to have a good HM slave. From there, we'll see what becomes available!

Pokemon Gold: Mono-Ground
Veteran George, Update 11 (Route 28 -> Mt. Silver):

Well... uh... I did end up beating Red after all. It took me 36 Revives and a lot of TMs, but I beat him. Primarily through Sandstorm, which did 1/8th of a Pokemon's max HP per turn in Gen 2.

First off, Red sent out his Pikachu, but immediately switched to his Venusaur. He kept spamming Solarbeam, which gave me openings to use Sandstorm and slowly wear down Venusaur's health. The final blow ended up being a Fire Punch from my Nidoking, though.

Espeon 1HKOed my Pokemon 15 times, while I spammed revives to stay in the fight, then I sent out my Piloswine and hit it with Toxic, which ended up fainting it.

Charizard fainted several of my Pokemon, but I used a Max Revive on Quagsire, managed to get Amnesia up three times, then wore it down with Sandstorm.

I was hoping Red would send out Blastoise next, but he sent Snorlax out, which Body Slammed my Quagsire enough to faint it and made it so I had to waste my Amnesia setup. My Steelix used Screech three times while weakening it with Sandstorm, then finished it off with Iron Tail.

Blastoise ended up being the hardest of all Red's Pokemon. Every Surf that didn't get deflected by Protect ended up being a 1HKO, and I just had to wait him out with Revives. I tried using Toxic with Piloswine several times, but my Quick Claw never activated and I had to wait until Blastoise was down to Whirlpool and Rain Dance to Toxic it.

Finally, Red sent out his Pikachu, which went down to a single Earthquake from Quagsire after missing with Charm. The Pikachu was honestly a huge letdown, even with the type advantage. At least evolve it into a Raichu or something.

I still have the rematch against my Rival in Indigo Plateau to do, which I can only do on a Monday or Wednesday, but that should pretty much be a sweep with my Nidoking, so I'm just going to conclude the updates here.

Current Team:

Final Update for Leaf Green

Unfortunately, due to an unexpected loss of data, I am forced to end the Leaf Green run with defeating my rival as the champion. Stay tuned, however, for the Soul Silver run!

User: cyndaquilepicness
Type: Bug
Game(s): Soul Silver
Single / Ultimate: Single

Ultimate Rock Run
Omega Ruby / #1

Opening is fairly straightforward - pick up Mudkip, push through as fast as possible to Wally catching Ralts, and then being able to trade for my Aron egg. My wife caught two Aron and bred them together. The side effect of this is that, when it hatched, it has Harden, Mud-Slap, Headbutt, and Metal Claw. So, this takes me to level 10-12 for learnset. Thankfully, it hatches at level 1 and I spend some time grinding up on the Poochyena for some Attack EVs. I decide to go ahead and fight through the first Gym at level 11, but I knew I wasn't going to have any issues because of Metal Claw. I finished the first gym at level 12.

Over the past 9 runs I've done, I put together a spreadshee to let me track EVs and see what my IVs are and, for lack of a better way to define them, rank my IVs on a scale from 0-100 as far as percentile goes. I may through caution to the wind, but it's helped me make some hard decisions on which ones are better suited. I know I'm going to have a few options by the end of the run, but I know I want to end up like this:

1. Aron -> Lairon -> Aggron (Steel second type)
2. Lileep -> Cradily (Grass second type)
3. Solrock (Psychic second type)
4. Kabuto -> Kabutops or Corsola or Relicanth (Water second type)
5. Aerodactyl (Flying second type)
6. Magcargo (Fire second type)

That's some really nice coverage. I do have another option with Geodude -> Graveler -> Golem or Rhyhorn -> Rhydon. I want to try and avoid that, for obvious weakness-based reasons.

However, I'm going to take what I can get until I have the choice to make. So, next thing to do is go after picking up a Geodude. I have to wait until after I get the Dynamo Badge to get Nosepass in Granite Cave, since I have to be able to use Rock Smash. I'm very worried about the gym in Dewford. Aron is 4x weak to it, and Geodude is 2x weak to it. I hope I don't have to spam Mud-Slap to lower accuracy just to get through it, but it'll definitely be a challenge.

Alabama the Aron
L12 / 36 / 26 / 30 / 15 / 15 / 13 -- Harden / Mud-Slap / Headbutt / Metal Claw

Before all that, I gotta go save an idiot from losing his job due to the Devon Parts being stolen...

Soul Silver Update 1

Gyms Completed:
Faulkner

Current Team:
Bunga - Quilava
Slave: Sentret

After getting my starter and going through the whole song-and-dance routine where I fight my rival (whom I named Cypher) and get Pokéballs, I caught a Pidgey to use as a Fly slave later on, and a Sentret that I'm trying to evolve into a Furret so it'll be a better HM slave (while complying with the monotype rules of course). I made it to Violet City, trained in the Sprout Tower, and fought Cypher again. I then went through the Violet City Gym, fought the two trainers, and after beating the second one, Bunga evolved into Quilava. I fought Faulkner and beat him with Bunga, getting the badge. I went into the Violet City Pokémon Center after getting the call from Professor Elm, and called it a day.

Ultimate Rock Run
Omega Ruby / #2

Getting the Devon Parts back was easy enough, and the trip to Dewford was nice and relaxing. All ten seconds of it. But, once I'm there, I go hunt for a Geodude, and realized I should have started with a Geodude. I forgot that I can't actually get down to where Aron is right now, because everyone's blocking the way, but it is what it is, and I'm almost certain that I would have had to completely over-level just to fight Brawly. Here's how I won with a L17 Geodude and a L17 Aron. (It took a while to catch Geodude - the rate is rather low for them to appear.)

I knew I was going to have to sacrifice Aron, so I went all out on using as many Mud-Slap as possible. I got the first one off, and it made Karate Chop miss, then another one and this time Karate Chop connects. However, I get a third one off, right before Aron drops to a final Karate Chop. Okay, so I'm dealing with Machop with an Accuracy of -3...Geodude comes out and I do nothing but spam Defense Curl until it's at Defense+6. I do have to stop for a Potion, but honestly, it doesn't do more than 5 damage to me. Once I'm good at ready, I go ahead and use Rollout. Machop is just above half health when this starts, so it takes two hits, which is what I was hoping for. Defense Curl + Rollout finishes off the Machop, and then OHKOs the Makuhita when it comes out since it's now on turn three. Hilariously, I was chanting in RL "Don't miss, don't miss, don't miss" when Makuhita came out. And with that, I managed to pull off fighting a gym where I was basically fighting an uphill battle.

Getting ready to see what's next on my "availability" list, I came to realize that Aerodactyl and Kabuto/Kabutops are locked behind Mirage Spots, so they are currently out of the question. However, I know the next few I'm going after, and in the order I'm getting them:

- After completing the third gym, I'll be able to use the HM move Rock Smash outside of battle, meaning I can return to Granite Cave and do some Rock Smashing to get Nosepass.
- Going through Fiery Path, I'll then be able to get Slugma, which'll evolve into Magcargo.
- In Meteor Falls, I'll pick up Solrock.
- In the desert around Route 111, I'll be able to pick up the Root Fossil, which will give me Lileep, which'll evolve to Cradily.
- In the Safari Zone, in the northwest area, I'll be able to get Rhyhorn, which'll evolve to Rhydon.

I'm looking forward to trying to add in Nosepass, Cradily, and Solrock into my team. Newcomers always welcome to shake up the status quo.

The quick jaunt through Slateport was very quick. Drop off the stuff to the captain, beat up Team Magma, and then quickly be thrown a Pokeblock holder and Contest Pass...and then head out towards Mauville. There's only two trainers on the route before I get to where May is, and both were uneventful with the exception of a Minun swapping items with me...giving my Aron a little health boost from the Oran Berry. May starts her battle with Slugma, which I cry because I don't have it yet, and my Aron is weak to it. I got one Mud-Slap off, then a single hit from Sulgma takes me down to 5 HP. Time to switch to Geodude. Slugma must have thought I would leave Aron in, and used Rock Throw. Geodude gets off a Mag7 and takes out Slugma. Wailmer's out next, which just is the greatest thing when Geodude is out. However, Wailmer uses Astnoish, so I hit a very weak Mag4. Water Gun then takes me out. I bring Aron back out and attempt to heal up, only for me to realize Wailmer's Water Gun is going to do even more damage. It starts Rollout, so I take the opportunity to get a Potion in, then a Mud-Slap. It misses Rollout, but then hits Water Gun, knocking me out.

Neither Aron nor Geodude are a level away from a new move, so my second attempt is going to be starting with Geodude and setting off Defense Curl/Rollout. This happens to work on the this attempt, mainly because Wailmer decided it wanted to try Rollout and Grovyle wanted to use Quick Attack. If that didn't work, it would have been time to grind. But, thankfully, just some more trainers and then I'm at Mauville. I save and call it a night.

User: Panda280
Type: Rock
Game(s): Crystal Dust
Single / Ultimate: Single

I played on a roms hack version based on the adventure in Pokemon Crystal by DoMoreAwesome and team.

Hour: 14:57 - Completed on 21/8/22

Note


Final Team

Ultimate Rock Run
Omega Ruby / #3

Wattson was straightforward, but I was stuck with just my Aron and Geodude for it. I really hoped that I could get Nosepass so I had a third team member, but unfortunately, I need Rock Smash for that, which needs the third badge to be able to be used. Wattsoon is super easy since none of his Pokemon can prevent ground-type moves, as their abilities are Sturdy, Soundproof, and Magnet Pull.

However, post-third Gym, I can pick up most of the remainder of my party. Head back to Granite Cave, and I can pick up Nosepass. Heading north of Mauville, I'm able to pick up a Slugma on the way through Fiery Path and then a Solrock in Meteor Falls. The last one I want to pick up, Lileep, isn't accessible until after I defeat Flannery.

Not a lot to say about the battles with Team Magma. Even Maxie isn't much of a pain if my team is leveled well. Nosepass was taught Rock Smash, and that turned out to be pretty good against any Dark types I might have to fight. Talking to the lady who can restore your health on the way down towards Lavaridge is nice, as I wanted to train a little on the way down in preparation for Flannery's gym.

Which, unfortunately, turned out to be unnecessary. Slugma takes a Magnitude and goes down. Numel takes two but goes down. Torkoal also takes two, and goes down. Was actually stupid easy. I always worry when taking Rock up against Fire, just because I'm used to Fire being Special-based and Rock types not really having nearly as good Special Defense, but had no real issue here.

Thus, upon leaving the gym, I get the Goggles so I can get out into the desert. I tell here I don't want to head to Petalburg yet, go and get Lileep's fossil, and then accept so I jump back. I rush up to Rustboro, getting my final party member, Lileep. I decide to go do some training on Whismur for HP and Spinda for Special Attack. I know Lileep is a special attacker, so I decide to just push through on some last minute training and finish that up.

Then I go and start the fifth gym, and I take on every battle...except for the fact that it's boring. Every battle up to Norman is "click Rollout and do something else". The Zangoose in the crit-hit room sucks, but Lileep finishes it off with a nice Giga Drain to get some health back. Doesn't matter much, since I go back out and heal up.

I miss my first attack against the first Slaking, and get a Yawn for my trouble. I see how tanky Slaking is, because I do get a Mag6 off and it barely does 20% damage. I do manage to survive through the sleep and fire back with a couple more Magnitude and take it out two turns later. Vigoroth gets a Rollout to the face, but apparently I didn't notice that I had been hit with a Yawn before reaching this point, so I'm back asleep again. Vigaroth uses Encore, which forces me to use Rollout, but that's good because it ends up being exactly what I needed to three shot Vigoroth and one shot Slaking.

I may have the fifth badge now, and there's lots happening to this point, but still lots to go!

Alabama the L35 Aron - Rock Slide / Mud-Slap / Iron Head / Iron Tail
Georgia the L36 Graveler - Defense Curl / Magnitude / Dig / Rollout
Louisiana the L31 Lileep - Acid / Brine / Giga Drain / Ancient Power
Nebraska the L33 Nosepass - Discharge / Strength / Rock Smash / Rock Slide
S. Carolina the L34 Slugma - Clear Smog / Lava Plume / Ancient Power / Rock Smash
S. Dakota the L36 Solrock - Cosmic Power / Rock Slide / Psychic / Embargo

Ultimate Rock Run
Omega Ruby / #4 / Final

Simple run down of everything at this point. There are a few stops between the Petalburg Gym and that at Fortree, but it's mostly just extra experience in preparation for the Flying gym. Which, as you can expect, is super easy from my Rock type moves. The next thing I do is push straight to Lilycove, mostly for the department store, where I stock up on a bunch of Hyper Potions and Revive.

The run up Mt. Pyre is quick because I skip all the trainers and just go after Maxie, or at least try to. Stupid grunts. Anyways, a quick run back to Slateport to watch the sub get stolen, then the jump back to Lilycove thanks to Captain Stern. The Team Magma Hideout doesn't have anything really worth mentioning. I mean, the fight with the five grunts at once was fun, since many of my moves can hit all of them in one shot. I wish that happened more often.

I head down to Mossdeep, where the next Gym is. I end up deciding who my MVP is for this run: Solrock. Solrock lets me breeze through the trainers here thanks to Cosmic Power. Spam that a few turns, and then go for the attack. Liza and Tate would actually be more of a challenge if they each had more than one Pokemon.

Once I get out, what I would call the endgame begins - head to Seafloor Cavern, then to Sootopolis City, then to the Cave of Origin. It's a lot of just surfing around. Couple of battles here and there, but I generally avoid trainers. I'm not too worried about Water types right now since the sunlight basicall sizzles all the Water moves and they don't do anything. When I get down to the bottom of the Cave of Origin, I decided to catch Groudon, but it takes eight attempts and chucking a crap ton of Ultra Balls at it before I get it. The benefit here, again, is that Solrock has Levitate. That plus Cosmic Power means I can just sit there and take very little damage from Groudon while I go after the capture.

With that being done, time for the final gym and it's a relative doozy because it's Water, right? Hah, yeah, I went straight in to Wallace and he was a pushover. Cradily is a decently high level by this point, so it can spam Giga Drain to take almost anything out. Only Milotic gives it problems, so I get it down to about 2/3 health before using Giga Drain and lucking out on my third attempt to win. I honestly thought it would be more of a pain, but Cradily sweeps them fairly easily.

With that, I head straight over to Victory Road. I fought what I could, using my Revives and Hyper Potions as needed. I didn't deviate, deciding I wanted to go straight after the Elite Four. But Wally is in the way and...oh, he's done. I start off with Magcargo, which I can use Fire and Rock moves to decimate everything. Gallade was the only one to knock anything out (Magcargo), but a quick switch over to Aggron takes it out. Time for the Elite Four.

Sidney's up first. I start with Golem, and a Mag10 followed by Mag8 takes out Mightyena. Shiftry knocks me out, but Magcargo responds with Lava Plume, only for Sharpedo to come out next. Magcargo goes down, so Aggron comes out and I manage to take the rest of Sidney's team out. Revive and Potion as needed. First try win.

Phoebe was simple - Aggron the whole way through, but if I need to do any clean up, Cradily will be more than happy. I just had to avoid using Solrock because of it's part-Psychic typing. Revive and Potion as needed. First try win.

Glacia took two attempts. The first attempt I lost trying to use Fire from the get-go, with Rock as a backup. Unfortunately, it turns out my Magcargo has a Special Attack IV of 1 (lol - explains a lot). The second attempt finds me using Solrock with 6 Cosmic Power, and then spamming a mixture of Rock Slide and Stone Edge to get through. Way simpler. Revive and Potion as needed.

Drake also took a couple of attempts, but it starts the same - Solrock to do as much damage as possible. It can take out Altaria, and it can get through the first Flygon (the one with Supersonic) about half the time. Kingdra ends up needing Aggron to knock it out with Iron Tail, then my winning attempt required Cradily to use Brine a couple of times on Flygon. Finally, the Salemence was taken down by Aggron. It was close - Aggron had around 50 HP, and the rest of my team had fainted. But, it was enough to win. Revive and Potion everyone to full.

Three attempts on Steven resulted in a win, but that was honestly pushing it to be 5-6 levels below (or more). Skarmory and Solrock took each other out on the final attempt, prompting Claydol to come out. I had anticipated Aggron, but Cradily ended up taking both out. Armaldo takes out Cradily, but my Aggron takes it out in turn, and then also takes out it's Cradily. When Metagross comes out, the one move I just never found something better to replace it with ended up saving the run: Mud-Slap. I got two Mud-Slap off before going down. Then, it was just a matter of doing as much damage as possible before Magcargo was the last Pokemon left. A Lava Plume goes after Metagross misses...and it drops to 10% HP or so. Another Lava Plume attempt...and it goes through due to another Metagross miss, netting me the win and the end of the Hoenn Omega Ruby run!

Post credit May battle for the heck of it. Solrock's Stone Edge against Swellow, but it U-Turn to Magcargo. I still OHKO. Wailord out into a Stone Edge, but it's Surf knocks me out. Bring out Aggron and use Iron Head to faint Wailord. Raichu comes out and puts up a Light Screen, but I slam it with Iron Tail to crit and take to probably 1 HP. I get Thunder Wave for the Paralysis on Aggron, which sticks. Then a Thunderbolt, only for me to knock out Raichu with Iron Head. Swellow is back out so I use Rock Slide which takes it out. Sceptile is the final one. It Mega-Evolves and uses Leaf Blade. Iron Tail nearly one-shots it, but itll get another Leaf Blade. I get stuck with Paralysis again, so I swap to Magcargo, if only to finish both Steven and May the same way - Lava Plume.

MVPs for this run are definitely Cradily and Solrock. Earned some rest tonight. Tomorrow begins Brilliant Diamond's Sinnoh run!

Hall of Fame:
S. Dakota the L55 Solrock - Cosmic Power / Psychic / Rock Slide / Stone Edge
Nebraska the L50 Nosepass - Discharge / Strength / Rock Smash / Rock Slide
Alabama the L52 Aggron - Rock Slide / Mud-Slap / Iron Head / Iron Tail
S. Carolina the L50 Magcargo - Clear Smog / Lava Plume / Ancient Power / Rock Smash
Louisiana the L55 Cradily - Acid / Brine / Giga Drain / Ancient Power
Georgia the L46 Golem - Defense Curl / Magnitude / Dig / Rollout

User: AlexaMichelle
Type: Ice
Game: Leaf Green
Single/Ultimate?: Single

No encounter for a long long time, so replacing my starter with a Jynx

So... Ehm... I'm not sure how to say this, but I accidentally did a Electric Monotype in Fire Red. I was on a long train trip and decided to fire up Fire Red on my mobile. And after few minutes, I got Pikachu and spontaneously decided to do Electric Monotype. And I beat it fairly quickly. And this all happened about a month ago, so I might have forget some details. But first, let's properly sign-up:

User: Janp
Type: Electric
Game(s): Fire Red
Single / Ultimate: Single

And here's Hall of Fame:


Now, let's talk about the run. As I said, my first Pokémon was Pikachu. And to be honest, the whole run was almost just Pikachu/Raichu solo, because it had the best attacks and stats and was on appropriate level all the time. Battle with Brock was hard. I had to rely on Tail Whips to be able to even hit his Pokémon and since his Geodude had Defense Curl, this took a while. Misty on the other hand was easy. Lt. Surge too. My Pikachu was faster than his whole team and Thunderbolt hit hard, despite being not-very-effective move. At this point I got Voltorb, but barely use it only to heal Pikachu or use Selfdestruct to get rid of annoying foes. And let me tell you there were bunch of them. There is quite a few Hikers with Geodude and Onix, but also a lot of trainers with Grass-types that resist Electric-type attacks. And most of these Grass-types are located in Erika's Gym. Before I faced her, I quickly got Eevee and evolved it in Jolteon. To be honest, it was probably the most useless Pokémon on my team. I had to teach it Pin Missile and Double Kick to make it at least a little bit usable, but was trash, when compared with other Electric-types. I should probably mention that I didn't want to grind for Thunderbolt, so I never got the TM. Made the whole run more fun, since I had to rely on other Electric-type moves too. The journey after this point was pretty straightforward. I beat Sabrina and Koga, got Surf and could finally get rest of my team. I also find it funny that basically all Electric-types in Kanto can be caught in this one location. After visiting Power Plant, there was nothing that could stop me. Zapdos was such a needed counter to Geodude line and Onix. Electabuzz and Magneton also helped a little bit, especially in E4 battles.

So, it was fun run. I mainly used Raichu for vast majority of the game, only sometimes switching it for Electabuzz or Zapdos in the late-game. I should probably continue and do Electric Monotype in other gens too.

Ultimate Rock Run
Brilliant Diamond / #1

I'll try to be more brief this run. Rock is going to be very rough in this Gen - Gyms 2 (Grass), 3 (Fighting), 4 (Water), and 6 (Steel) are all super effective against my team. And, as it turns out, I can only get Geodude, Onix, and Rhyhorn naturally. The rest are from fossils, but there's a catch that I didn't realize at first: you can only get the Sinnoh fossils before getting the National Dex. If I had done any sort of research before, I would have probably chosen Pearl instead, because of the fossil available there. Here, I get Cranidos. In Pearl, I would have picked up Shieldon.

I started with Piplup, quickly rushed over and got a Geodude in Oreburgh Gate. Then I picked up an Onix in the Oreburg Mine. How to defeat Roark? A few failed attempts and then Onix learns Dragon Breath at level 12 and that, being a special-based attack, is enough to get the win.

From there, the next goal is to get to Eterna City ASAP to try and get into the Grand Underground. Nothing seemed to get in my way, even Team Galactic. Well, I finally found one problem spot in the forest - the double-battle with two Abra. They basically can one-turn knock out both of my team, because they both use Grass Knot. Even Sturdy can't help me. Then I realized I could fight the battles one-on-one, and that got me through.

When I got to Eterna, first stop was to work on getting the rest of my team. I spent about 90 minutes after getting the fossil for Cranidos to continue trying to farm for the other ones, before coming to the realization that was it. Hooray for the run back to Oreburgh to get my final team member (Rhyhorn was a rare spawn in Spacious Caves).

From there, it was just a bunch of trying to level up Cranidos, since my thought was that it's the only member on my team that isn't 4x weak to Gardenia. Hilariously, I was able to blast my way through all of the trainers in the gym. Gardenia, however, has all three of her team spamming Grass Knot. I evolved Geodude to Graveler just to have more speed, but that alone wasn't enough. At the end, it took about twelve or thirteen attempts before winning. I won because Onix learned Screech, and my Cranidos and Rhyhorn were able to eventually get through Cherubi and Turtwig. Onix comes out and uses Screech, then gets taken down the next turn to Grass Knot, because Roserade moves faster. Graveler comes out and is able to one shot it via Bulldoze thanks to the screech, netting me the win. I wasn't too happy with the luck required to pull this off, but I am almost certain it would require way too much leveling to get past it in other ways.

Will this be the run that requires way more thought than I've had to do so far?

After Gardenia:
Big Mac the L26 Graveler
Apple Pie the L24 Onix
McDouble the L21 Rhyhorn
Salty Fries the L20 Cranidos

Alright, MonoIce run in Leaf Green is completed!

<once I've made enough posts, I'll edit in the hall of fame picture>

So, as I said in the sign up post, I switched out my starter for a Jynx, and about half the game was a Jynx solo run. That was pretty easy since Jynx hits hard early game and overlevelled quickly despite me trying to avoid optional trainers. The way the rest of the game went was mostly catch a new mon, solo with that until it's up to the rest of the team at which point I'd catch a new poke. So I got Shellder first (having to hack it in at an appropriate level after getting the super rod because I forgot it's a Fire Red exclusive) and then got Lapras from Silph Co. and then got a Seel from Seafoam Island and used it to solo Blaine and Giovanni. All the team were early level 50s by victory road and then I spend a long time grinding them up to just over level 60 to give myself a fighting chance. The biggest roadblock was Loreli since my highest damage moves in Surf and Ice Beam were resisted by most of her team. The exception was Psychic from Jynx who helped a lot in that fight, and the final mon Slowbro was felled with some Perish Songs shenanigans from Lapras. The rest of the league was felled quite easily, even my rival Warming despite forgetting to heal beforehand.

Overall MVP was Jynx who hit super hard and soloed a good chunk of the game, but Lapras put in good work as well. Cloyster and Dewgong were useful but I still think I could've got through the league without them.

A fun challenge, but the small team size and variety (three Water/Ice types!) meant that there wasn't a high amount of strategy, more just hitting things hard with the most powerful move.

Hello, I would like to sign up for this challenge!

User: Forever_Kiara
Type: Grass
Game(s): Fire Red
Single / Ultimate: Single

Ultimate Rock Run
Brilliant Diamond / #2

This post covers through the Veilstone Gym (#3) through arriving at the Elite Four. I had too much fun and apparently couldn't be bothered to put it down and post.

Gym 3 - Relatively easy, even though it was Fighting. My worry here was originally going to be the Lucario, but then I remembered I'm not a lowly Bug Catcher this run and all of my team can use Ground-type moves. So, that was a first try clear.

Gym 4 - The Water Gym took about ten attempts, but then I finally gave up and went back to Veilstone and purchased a dozen or so X Sp Def and came back. This allows me to survive the water attacks using my Graveler and to win with two uses of Rollout (as is, I had to use two "cycles" of it, not two turns).

Gym 5 - Well, I realized I couldn't fly back to Hearthome because, hilariously, I skipped getting Dawn's Pokedex back. So, I attempted to see if I could get further in the game, but I can't because the events to trigger the leader coming back until after that is taken care of. How nice. So, I quickly jump over and get the Pokedex back for Dawn, then can do all the events to trigger the Ghost gym to be available.

This Gym (#5) isn't bad - Rampardos has Assurance, a Dark-type move, but also has Rock type moves for any of the Driblim-line that show up. I managed to get through all but one trainer in the gym and the leader before heading back out to heal up. I decided to go ahead and fight everybody to ensure I had more experience, since I tend to skip a lot of trainers along the way in the standard routes. But, wasn't much of a battle, to be honest. Assurance as a Physical type move with a Rampardos with pretty good attack against a Pokemon that has a weakness to it? Moving on.

Gym 6 - Steel Gym. Trainers? Easy. Leader? Urgh. When Bronzor come out, I always use Smack Down since I never know if they have Levitate or not. Next turn - a Ground move. Only other option is Rampardos and Assurance, but meh. That's part of what I'm learning - the gym trainers in BDSP are relatively tame compared to the leaders. I use Graveler, spend a few turns using 3 X Sp Def, and then use 6 Defense Curl to make it through. Still took a few attempts to pull it off, but I think that's more of a level issue than anything.

Gym 7 - Ice. The only thing that sucked in this one is that the first attempt was ended due to a Mega Drain onslaught. The second attempt was successful, but it was kinda wonky in that I set up more X Sp Def to protect against Mega Drain, only to be met with Earthquakes. Basically a spam for Rock moves.

Gym 8 - Electric. Stupid straightforward. Ground moves. Rock moves. Headbutt. Assurance. Just random moves and I still make it through. Does have a fun puzzle.

Victory Road - Straight shot to the Elite Four. A couple of trainers along the way, but nothing much.

My team before attempting the Elite Four:
Salty Fries the L61 Rampardos - Headbutt / Assurance / Zen Headbutt / Head Smash
McDouble the L57 Rhydon - Drill Run / Smack Down / Guard Split / Hammer Arm
Apple Pie the L58 Onix - Screech / Stone Edge / Bulldoze / Iron Tail
Big Mac the L58 Graveler - Earthquake / Defense Curl / Stone Edge / Rollout

Ultimate Rock Run
Brilliant Diamond / #3 / Final

I went and stocked up on X Attack, X Defend, X Sp Def, and Dire Hits. Then I stocked up on Full Restores, Revives, and the rest to Hyper Potions. Let's do this...and yes, I still believe it's kinda cheap that I'm relying on the X items for this since they go two stages on BDSP. But, hey, it's official game mechanics, so, I'm using it.

So, Graveler can make it through relatively easily when it comes to Aaron. I mean, Rollout + Defense Curl takes out most of them without much thought. Shoulda called Graveler "Ron Popeil", cause I just "set it and forget it".

When it comes to Bertha, I switched to Rampardos, loaded up on X Def, X Atk, and used a Dire Hit. Heal as needed, then attack like there's no tomorrow. Simple and sweet.

On to Flint, and it's the same thing. Load up Graveler on X Sp Def, X Atk, Dire Hit, a couple X Def (because Infernape), and then spam Earthquake.

Lucian is the same thing, but with Rampardos. Load up on X Sp Def, X Atk, Dire Hit, ignore X Def (which nearly cost me the final attempt, but I got lucky as Hi Jump Kick missed twice in a row so didn't have to do much there as Medicham basically knocked itself out). Headbutt on Mr. Mime and Alakazam, Assurance on basically everything else.

Cynthia. Rampardos first, then swap in as needed. X Sp Def -> X Def -> X Atk -> Dire Hit. Spiritomb down to Assurance, a couple Headbutt for Gastrodon, Assurance on Lucario, Heabutt on Roserade, and two Assurance on Milotic (I may not have noticed, but I didn't see any damage from the Flame Orb it has when it first activates), and then one final Assurance to knock out Garchomp to win the run.

I think what I'm going to do in the future is only allow using X Items on my Pokemon in one of two cases: 1) I have less than 6 Pokemon (since I don't do duplicates) or 2) I lose to a battle 5 times in a row. I think the reason I ended up having to do it here is because of a couple of reasons. First, the only other Pokemon I could have brought in would have be Bastiodon, which might have helped a little, but only because of the Steel typing, which is the whole typing issue when it comes to Rock. Up until now, much of my teams are Rock/Ground. Rampardos was nice because it was just Rock, meaning Grass and Water were only 2x instead of 4x. Problem is, I would still get slammed hard by things like Steel moves. Rampardos is also able to be hit by Electric moves, even though the other three were not. Also, I would have needed to evolve Graveler to Golem (which I could have) if the last attempt didn't work. Onix can't evolve to Steelix because it loses Rock as a typing, and Rhydon couldn't evolve because, according to everything I read, I wouldn't have been able to get the Protector item until post-game.

Since there's a lot of overlap with Ground, I look forward to doing a comparison between the Rock and Ground runs.

Final team:
Salty Fries the L71 Rampardos
McDouble the L65 Rhydon
Apple Pie the L65 Onix
Big Mac the L65 Graveler

Looking to Gen 5 and White 2 now. From my research, the first Rock type I can theoretically access is Roggenrola. I looked at the different options when it came to my rival's team, and I feel that if I take "Snivy", my rival will be the most painful he can be. So, looking forward to starting that!

User: The Smooth Lefty
Type: Physic
Game(s): Sapphire
Single / Ultimate: Single

Going to give this a try. Will post updates as I go