It is up, yes. OP should be updated with your entry.

Update 2

Gyms Completed:
Brock
Misty

Current Party:
Magnus - Charmeleon
Slave - Rattata
Slave - Pikachu

The first thing I did was go through Mt. Moon and the rest of Route 4, leveling up Magnus some. After struggling to defeat Misty, I trained Magnus on the Nugget Bridge, Route 24, and Route 25, acquiring the S.S. Ticket on the way. The extra levels, plus a strategy using Smokescreen, ensured my victory against Misty. I went through Routes 5 and 6, leveling up Magnus a little more on the trainers, and reached Vermillion City, coming to a stop there.

Update 3

Gyms Completed:
Brock
Misty
Lt. Surge

Current Team:
Magnus - Charizard
Slave - Rattata
Slave - Pikachu

I went into the S.S. Anne and fought the trainers there, including Kene. I acquired Cut, and thus was able to access the Electric Gym. Due to Magnus being somewhat highly leveled, I was able to beat Lt. Surge fairly easily. After beating Lt. Surge, Magnus evolved into Charizard. I then had to catch a bunch of Pokémon I will not use so I could get Flash. After doing that, I got a Bike, and went through Route 9, Route 10, and Rock Tunnel. I made my stop in Lavender Town and saved, calling it a day.

I have had a number of personal RL setbacks, and now that I am in a place where I can truly work with them, my Diamond does NOT want to work. Sometimes, when I have it in my 3DS, it doesn't recognize it. Other times, it does, then when I load up the game, it doesn't seem to want to load up my file. I was debating on getting a new copy of it or not...but I'm going to give it one more chance and just delete the file to start over. Also, even with the "here's what you last did", it doesn't really give you enough info if you stop playing for a long enough time.

I'll be starting through the next 24 hours, and hopefully, this time, I'll not have any setbacks and can complete Gen 4. I still plan on keeping the same names and trying to only get really good 'mons.

Can't be a good trainer if I don't take care of myself. So sorry - was not intentional!

Diamond / Bug
New Run, 1st Update

Got what is turning out to be a Kricketot with mid-range HP and SDef, higher Def, but crap everything else. Picked it up at level 3 and can I reiterate how painful Bide is as a first damage move? Well, I guess better than having to Struggle.

By the time I get to Roark, I've been focusing on Starly and Shinx, as they give me Speed and Atk EVs, and that's what I'm after. I didn't do the full 252, just enough to get me to level 14 for Leech Life. This means, instead of Level 14 as I was in my previous run, I'm now level 17 when I first get into the gym. My previous tactic was spamming Fury Cutter against everything there, but this time, I find using Bide gets me through the first trainer with a loss of less than what one potion heals. A combination of Bide and Leech Life take me through the second trainer. Leech Life was actually doing a respectable amount of damage against the Onix (slightly more than 20%, it took a fifth hit to take down the like 10% remaining). Not bad. Fighting Roark definitely required me to heal up at the PC.

Geodude comes out, and I give the new path of Bide a try. Geodude hits two Rock Throws...well, I guess I easily knocked out the Geodude. Two turns and I'm down from 55 to 19 HP. Onix comes out, and hits a Rock Throw while I heal - interestingly, while Geodude would take 3 turns to knock me out, it would take about 8 for Onix. I heal up again while Onix does Screech. I'm at 47/55. I risk another Bide. Another Screech, and then a third.

Then he lands a Rock Throw after I fire off Bide and takes me down to 5 HP. Another Rock Throw and I'm out.

So, after a first attempt, I know Bide is a viable strategy, even though it feels a little cheesy to do it. However, this time around, I had been working a little on my EV from the get go, so I'm going to try the Fury Cutter version now. I get three Fury Cutters off, meanwhile being taken down to 5/55 HP, again, and then Roark pops a potion even though my next Fury Cutter knocks out the Geodude. Great...but this is a silver lining - I level up to 18 and remove Growl so I can learn Sing.

First turn against Onix was dumb - I missed Sing but got a Screech against me. Second turn, however, Sing hits and I manage to get two standard Leech Life hits and then one crit Leech Life. Roark uses a potion and Onix wakes up...and then knocks me out. Urgh.

This just shows me that the previous run might have had a better IV Kricketune, but also that the battle was by no means 100% on my side. This is going to be an uphill fight, since I haven't even made it through the second of Roark's three Pokemon. Only time will tell what level I need to make this consistent.

Update 4

Gyms Completed:
Brock
Misty
Lt. Surge
Erika

Current Team:
Rusty - Flareon
Suki - Ninetales
Magnus - Charizard
Slave - Rattata
Slave - Pikachu

I went to Route 8 and managed to catch a Vulpix, who I nicknamed "Suki". After making it to Celadon City, I went to the Celadon Mansion and acquired the Eevee, nicknamed him "Rusty", evolving him into Flareon after buying two Fire Stones from the Celadon Department Store. I taught Rusty Dig and Return, and went through the tedious process of acquiring enough coins from the Rocket Game Corner to get the TM's for Flamethrower and Shadow Ball to teach to Rusty. I went and fought everyone in the Rocket Hideout, getting the Silph Scope. I trained more at the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town, and I evolved Suki with the other Fire Stone I bought from the Celadon Department Store after she learned Flamethrower and Safeguard. After getting the Pokeflute, I went back to Celadon City and fought Erika, beating her fairly easily. I went to Route 16/Cycling Road, acquired Fly, beat the Snorlax blocking my way, and went through Cycling Road. I made it to Fuchsia City, and went through the Safari Zone until I got both Surf and Strength. I saved in the Fuschia City Pokemon Center and called it a day.

Diamond / Bug
New Run, 2nd Update

Roark is horrible with his Rock Throws. Geodude does so much damage (18 on average out of my 55) but Onix does barely half of that (averaging around 8). The runs where I got only one hit of Rock Throw from Geodude meant I would make it to Cranidos, but two Rock Throws only get me to Onix. I tried a few more times just with Fury Cutter, but it always seemed to miss right at Cranidos. The attempt that I finally one was where I used Sing to put Geodude to sleep and then started up Fury Cutter - Geodude stayed asleep through two Fury Cutters, then woke up and traded Rock Throw for Fury Cutter. Then Roark likes to throw a Potion, and by that time I'm 4 Fury Cutters strong. Geodude goes down, and then it's just a matter of "can I get lucky enough to not get a miss" for both Onix and Cranidos. Both will go down to a 5th stage Fury Cutter. I, unfortunately, don't really have another option. I thought about teaching Rock Smash to Kricketune, but I realized very quickly that wouldn't be the best idea because it leaves me open for too may attacks.

I went ahead and started working on an expanded collection. Previously, before the second gym, I had picked up a Combee (which evolved to Vespiquen), two Wurmples so I had one Dustox and one Beautifly, and a Burmy that evolved to a Steel-type Wormadam. This time, I'm collecting all that, but also adding in the hunt for Heracross and a male Burmy so I can have Mothim. Here's where I currently sit after two days of honey trees shenanigans.

[X] Kricketot - [X] Kricketune
[X] Wurmple - [X] Silcoon - [X] Beautifly
[X] Wurmple - [X] Cascoon - [X] Dustox
[X] Burmy F - [ ] Wormadam
[ ] Burmy M - [ ] Mothim
[X] Combee - [X] Vespiquen
[ ] Heracross

I'm going to give it the rest of the week while I train up the others in Eterna Forest with Cheryl's help. If I don't get a Heracross by that point, I'm going to move on and just keep trying.

Update 5

Gyms Completed:
Brock
Misty
Lt. Surge
Erika
Koga
Sabrina

Current Team:
Rusty - Flareon
Magnus - Charizard
Suki - Ninetales
Slave - Rattata
Slave - Pikachu
Slave - Lapras

After going through the Safari Zone and acquiring, among other things, Surf and Strength, I decided to do some training at Silph Co. in Saffron City (which I passed through at some point), acquiring a Lapras in there, which will be what I'll use for Surf. After beating Kene (the rival) and Giovanni, as well as acquiring the Master Ball, I went back to Fuchsia City, and fought Koga's gym. After beating Koga, I promptly went to Saffron City, did a little extra training in the Fighting Dojo, then fought Sabrina's gym. I beat Sabrina's gym, and saved in the Saffron City Pokemon Center, calling it a day.

Diamond / Bug
New Run, 3rd Update

After four days of searching, I managed to get a male Burmy (for Mothim) and a Heracross. Mothim came about fairly quickly, but Heracross took until this afternoon to finally show up.

With that behind me, and a nice save to ensure I didn't lose them all, it was time to train. I got everyone up to around level 20, so the Burmy's would evolve and everyone would be ready for the gym in Eterna. It's nice having Cheryl around to heal me up after every battle, but her Chansey is so dumb when it comes to fighting and, since my Burmy were both level 8 when I caught them, I needed Chansey to knock out enough Pokemon to get them to level 10 for Tackle.

I'm up to like 16 hours just with all the grinding and such.

Well, Gardenia's gym wasn't a problem at all (a bunch of simple moves knocked them out, but my Hidden Power on Burmy turned out to be super effective against them so it was even easier...but I'm still calculating that at this point), and it let me evolve my female Burmy into Trash Wormadam. Yay, Bug/Steel. At this point, I have my selection for the remainder of the game:
- Heracross
- Wormadam (Trash)
- Mothim
- Vespiquen
- Dustox
- Kricketune
- Beautifly

Decided after the last of that grinding being done and the second gym out of the way, it was time to call it a night.

User: Morzoelin
Type: Water
Games:
1. Leaf Green+ (Kanto)
2. Soul Silver (Johto)
3. Emerald (Hoenn)
4. Platinum (Sinnoh)
5. Black (Unova)
6. X (Kalos)
7. Ultra Sun (Alola)
8. Shield (Galar) (Optional)

Ultimate Challenge

Good luck, Morzoelin!

Diamond / Bug
New Run, 4th Update

I'm learning very quickly that moving between towns is just a pain in the butt, but it's relatively meh.

Since I know that Bug and Fighting don't play nice with each other, and that third gym is Fighting, I go out of my way to grind a bit more. I pushed a little bit on Wormadam trying to figure out what Hidden Power it has...if I calculated it right, it should be Dragon. My Mothim also knows Hidden Power, and I believe it has a Flying type version, which should prove useful in the gym if the going gets tough. After clearing out the gym of trainers, it's time for the battle against Maylene.

Going into the battle, I have the following at my disposal.

Trash Wormadam (Verizon) - L30 - Mirror Shot / Tackle / Hidden Power Dragon / Confusion
Vespiquen (T-Mobile) - L28 - Gust / Power Gem / Sweet Scent / Heal Order
Dustox (Cellular) - L25 - Gust / Psybeam / Moonlight / Tackle
Heracross (Hera-Cox) - L25 - Aerial Ace / Horn Attack / Brick Break / Cut
Mothim (Mint) - L27 - Tackle / Gust / Hidden Power Fly / Confusion
Kricketune (Cricket) - L27 - X-Scissor / Sing / Fury Cutter / Leech Life
Beautifly (Spring) - L26 - Mega Drain / Stun Spore / Morning Sun / Gust

From this point on, it's going to be a "who is the one being left out" since I have 7 but can only take 6. Without looking at the gym leader's team, I'm focusing solely on what I know. I want Heracross in there as clean-up, since Aerial Ace is overpowered. I also want Mothim in there because I think that Hidden Power Fly will be awesome. If I trained correctly, it's got a power of 57, so it's almost 50% more powerful than Gust. I'm taking Trash Wormadam with me as a final backup. I also have chosen to take Vespiquen, for a mixture of Gust and it's Flying typing, meaning 1/4 damage from Fighting. It also has Heal Order. For the same reason, Dustox is coming along (the 1/4 damage from Fighting).

That means I'm down to choosing between Kricketune and Beautifly. On one hand, I look at Beautifly and think to myself, yeah, it's another Bug/Flying. But I don't feel like it has survivability. I feel X-Scissor is a better option from Kricketune.

So, I decide my order will be as follows: Vespiquen to start, and Kricketune second to last, with Trash Wormadam bringing up the rear. In the middle are the other three, able to be pulled out as needed. Well, here we go!

First up is Meditite. Vespiquen takes a Confusion that does barely anything, and then retaliates with Gust. It takes Meditite down far enough that next round is a Hyper Potion while Vespiquen Gust's again. Gust continues to be the choice on the third round, but it gets met with Detect. Same on the 4th round. Then I get a Drain Punch (not effective), and take it down with Gust. Finally. Just delaying the inevitable.

Next up is Machoke, and I leave Vespiquen in. Gust takes it down to like 45% health, and Vespiquen takes a little damage, but next round Machoke decides Foresight is the best move. So, Machoke goes down to a second Gust. This lets my Vespiquen go to level 29, which is nice.

Now for the fun: Lucario. I forgot the leader had this. Metal Claw is round one choice and does about 35 damage (granted, it was a crit). Ouch. I use Gust on it and probably do 15%. I know I'm not getting much more, so I tank a Force Palm and test Power Gem for the heck of it. Got Lucario to 80%. I trade another small bit of damage for another Gust, so Lucario's sitting around 65% right now. But Vespiquen is met with a final Metal Claw and goes down.

I decide to bring out Dustox. I throw Psybeam at it...triggering the berry it has. Darn. But the Metal Claw Lucario used took me down to 41/72. Back to Gust. Next turn, I get a break - Metal Claw misses. At this point, it's almost "spam Gust, good luck". Next turn, another Gust, but Lucario uses Force Palm and takes me down to 2 HP on Dustox...but then goes down to another Force Palm the next turn.

It's time to bring out Heracross. I decide to use Brick break, and it takes the remaining 40% health Lucario has out. I almost used Aerial Ace (dumb moment). Heracross lets me take the win, but Vespiquen is MVP for this battle.

Third gym badge got!

I save the game and take a break. Game clock says 29h38m. Hooray.

This is a day I was sort of half expecting, but half not - I started up my game this morning, and was met with a message that my save data was corrupted and has been deleted. I'm assuming it's a problem with the cart, since I already had it act up previously. Guess I get to start again! I'm debating on whether to buy another Diamond or dig for my Platinum that I'm almost certain I have somewhere. Urgh. Gen IV is starting to drive me nuts.

Or maybe, if I'm crazy, would the switch remakes still count as Gen IV, even though they are more in-line with Gen 8 mechanics?

Edit: I've decided that I'm going to figure out the best course of action for Gen 4, but for the moment I'm going to start at Gen 5 and keep going.

Started Gen 5 Bug on the 17th. Because I can't get any Bugs until Pinwheel Forest, which is after the second gym, I had to rando to switch the grass starter out. The choices in Pinwheel are Sewaddle and Venipede. I chose Sewaddle because I knew I'd be facing some Fire mons as the first gym, and Sewaddle has a 4x weakness. I knew I would not be getting another until Venipede, so first two gyms, Sewaddle was all I had.

The side benefit is that friendship should go up, so Leavanny shouldn't be hard to get, right?

Okay, so, interestingly, by the time I reached the first gym, I was about level 14 already. Mostly because I trained on Patrat and Lillipup for a bit. I actually trained more simply because the Cheren fight in the school took me a couple of attempts. Luckily, turns out Patrat and Lillipup boost attack EV, so I ran with it since I was going to be stuck using Tackle (but then again, Bug Bite uses my attack, so even more of a benefit).

Took three attempts, but I managed to win the first gym. After doing all the other stuff and getting to the next gym, I'm around level 18 at this point, and I attempt it. Fighting all of the trainers there made me nearer to 20, and that was good because I took on Lenora with a Swadloon. A bit more defense, but hey, spamming Bug Bite is nice.

Two badges down, and I'm finally able to pick up Venipede...who sucks with just Poison Sting. I went ahead and trained up until I learned Poison Tail. Much better move for sure. Then I figured I might as well take advantage and leveled it up until it evolved into Whirlipede.

Off to Castelia and time to do the Bug gym. Did the run around for the Team Plasma stuff, then it was just a matter of fighting my way through all the trainers in the gym and then taking on Burgh. Wasn't too much of a problem. Just a few heals here and there, and was rather easy. I believe I took on Burgh with my Whirlipede to start, but then I ended up having to swap to my Swadloon to finish taking out Leavanny. Whirlipede, unfortunately, took a lot of damage from Smack Down, and fainted, but the cool thing is that after winning, my own Swadloon leveled...and also evolved to Leavanny.

At this point, I know I can finally get Dwebble in the Desert Resort...but I forgot about the back to back battles of Bianca and Cheren. Bianca wasn't much of a problem at all. Cheren...on the other hand...that stupid Pignite. I lost twice because Flame Charge is dangerous to my bugs. I decided not to throw out Leavanny first because of the 4x weakness, so I knew I had to make it past Pignite with my Whirlipede. Because Pidove comes out first, I take the time to set up Iron Defense to max, hoping it would do enough to let me survive Flame Charge. And it went to doing barely 8 damage. The only fear would be a crit, which Pignite did a few times.

Well, in the end, I did end up pulling it off, and then ran straight to get my Dwebble. Then I stopped for the night and that's where I am. Might do some training today just to strengthen them all.

I let my daughter choose the naming convention (gen 4 was and still will be the phone providers when I get back to it). She choose My Little Pony names...so, here's my current team:

Spike / L27 Leavanny
Twilight / L26 Whirlipede
Applejack / L22 Dwebble

I might get them all to L30; Dwebble will be close to its final evolution, and Whirlipede will become Scolipede. But I'm thinking that I'm at 8 hours of playtime and first post, so I might stick with that. No need to "bug" everyone with every gym battle.

I hate posting so much, but it's been a few days and I've made quite a big of progress in my Black Bug run, and I'm sitting at 15:53 on the clock...so, time for the update over the second 8 hours.

Through Badge #4
1. I got stuck fighting Elesa, but not any other trainers in her gym. You'd think it would be relatively just a matter of wearing each other down, but she has two Emolga, and they both have Aerial Ace.
2. I figured I would level Dwebble up, and while it learned Bug Bite at 23, the biggest benefit turned out to be Rock Slide at 29. So, I got them all to 30.
3. Another attempt of Elesa let me spam Rock Slide on her Emolga to get them out of the way. It wasn't enough to knock them out in one shot, but another level or two might have done it. Still, got the badge in the end.

Side note: I also played singles in the Subway for a while to pick up the Power Bracer and Power Lens. That'll help me train a little more towards what I'm wanting. With each costing 16 bp, I needed 32, so it took a while.

Through Badge #5
1. With the next badge being relatively close, I jaunted over to Driftveil City and quickly did the next sequence of dealing with Plasma.
2. Dwebble was one level from evolving, so I went ahead and got everyone to 34.
3. I went onto Route 6 and picked up a new party member: Rarity the Karrablast, I did a little leveling, but I decided I would go ahead and switch train through the gym.
4. Since Krokorok is first and Palpitoad second, I put Leavanny out first. Bug Bite for Krokorok and Razor Leaf for Palpitoad are easy knock-outs.
5. Excadrill ended up taking out my Leavanny, but I got two good Razor Leaf hits in. Too bad neither crit. Then Applejack (Crustle) took it down.

Through Badge #6
1. Chargestone Cave just goes on and on and on, but I was able to get another party member, Joltik. Gen 5 has some interesting secondary types for their Bugs.
2. I lost a lot of my Pokemon during the trek, and ran low on Super Potions because I forgot to get some after the fifth gym battle, but at least I was smart enough to heal and save.
3. Before fighting N, I decided to teach Bulldoze to Crustle, which added a new type to my arsenal: Ground. It's not STAB, but it's a weakness covered.
4. When I fought N, I was down to Leavanny and Crustle. Leavanny was up first, although Crustle would have been a better choice. Razor Leaf for Boldore, and then Bug Bite against Ferroseed.
5. Once Leavanny was down, it was time to spam Bulldoze. Which got me the win and the ability to exit the cave.
6. With the heart scale, I decided to see what other moves I could learn for each of my bugs. Turns out, the best thing to do was take Scolipede and have it replace Bug Bite with Megahorn. MEGA...HORN.
7. Then I went ahead and followed Skyla up and rushed my way through the Celestial Tower. Lost a lot of my team before reaching the Nurse. I know after the gym, I'll need to do some more training.
8. Did the gym, focusing on getting Joltik high enough (it was 32 going in) to evolve (which happens at 36). I had one rare candy, which I used the moment I hit 35.
9. Although Electro Ball is a decent enough Special, having such a small amount of PP for it just kinda sucks. I didn't want to use Volt Switch unless it was the final Pokemon I was fighting since I didn't want to switch off.
10. Skyla wasn't too hard. Swoobat sucked, though. I did manage to take it down with Galvantula, but I wanted to play it safe so right before Swoobat fainted, I used Volt Switch to swap over to Crustle. It knows Rock Slide.
11. It turned out to be a good idea, because Crustle almost went down to repeated Air Slash from Unfezant...and I know Galvantula would have. But a final Rock slide knocked it out. I healed up Galvantula and then swapped over, using Electro Ball to do the nice 4x damage, netting me the sixth gym badge.

So, what's next? Well, I believe the remaining Pokemon I can get are Larvesta->Volcarona, Shelmet, and Durant. Once I get those three added to my team, I'll have everything I can get. But, the Celestial Tower kicked my butt while the Flying gym wasn't that bad for my bug team. Where I found myself being 3-5 levels higher than trainers, now I'm lucky to be 2-3 higher. Skyla's team was around 35. I'm thinking I should probably attempt the next gym no earlier than 40.

Current Team:
Spike / L36 Leavanny
Twilight / L34 Scolipede
Applejack / L37 Crustle
Rarity / L32 Karrablast
Fluttershy / L36 Galvantula