Ultimate Bug
Brilliant Diamond Post #4
Urgh. My clock currently says 31h, but I made it to the Elite Four just after 20h. In short, I am now the champion.
But...let's at least go everything. First, the battles against the best of the best of Galatic at the top of Mt. Coronet are...relatively easy...though Cyrus can suck. Three of his Pokemon are part-Flying, so it's just a matter of pushing through repeatedly until I finally got lucky enough to make it through. Even the next gym is relatively simple. Was a nice break after the run up Mt. Coronet. The entire gym was relatively easy enough.
However, after the rush through Victory Road, I get to the Elite Four in the high-50s. This turns out to be the pain point. Why? My successful run that got through Cynthia ended with my team being about 73. So...what happened in between the first run and the last run?
The simplest way to break this down is what are the painful Pokemon in each of the Elite Four's team?
Aaron: Heracross
Bertha: Hippowdon
Flint: Infernape
Lucian: Bronzong
I did some grinding in the Grand Underground via Celestic Town, where I can fight a bunch of Dark/Psychic type Pokemon. It's always nice to see Girafarig and, every so often, an Absol or two. In the meantime, I was attempting to get some Heart Scales, because my end goal was to teach Scizor Wing Attack and Beautifly Air Cutter. I was going to use one to swap Bullet Punch for Metal Claw when it came to Scizor, but after getting the Heart Scale, I tried to turn it in and went "oh, that might be good for Heracross". Also, while I was trying to get Heart Scales, I got myself a nice bonus: a Claw Fossil, which gives me an Anorith. I get the Lucky Egg from the Grand Underground and buy a bunch of vitamins to boost some Attack and Defense, but then it's all about grinding.
So, by the time I am ready for another attempt (after some money grinding from the duo east of Celestic that grant me 26k with the Amulet coin so I can restock Revives and Max Potions), my team is in the low 70s. After each battle, I use Revives and Max Potions as needed.
For Aaron, it's a matter of plopping Scizor out there and spamming Wing Attack. Drapion is the only one not weak to it, so I use Bullet Punch once to offset in the hopes of avoiding a Full Restore, and then a couple of X-Scissors end the battle.
For Bertha, plopping Beautifly out there with Giga Drain is key. It rips through the first four, other than Golem, on which I take a risk and use Air Cutter to try to break the Sturdy issue, and survive with just a few HP from Stone Edge. Next turn is a massive Giga Drain to get me a lot of HP back. I had thought of starting with Giga Drain, but I had made it here before and knew it had Sturdy so this setup gets me more HP out of the battle. Hippowdon does take down Beautifly due to Ice Fang, but it took a lot of damage from Giga Drain. I opt to bring in Dustox, as it's my fastest. A quick Psychic and Hippowdon is gone.
For Flint, this is the worst to try and get through. I start with Vespiquen and begin spamming Power Gem (and I have a Hard Stone to help boost it). Two hits takes out Ponyta, though the two Flame Charges don't do much. I'm barely above half HP, only for Lopunny to come out. I have lost multiple attempts to this Fire Punching Lopunny. This time, however, Attack Order hits once normally and then crits on the second attempt, knocking out Lopunny. Sweet. I take the next turn to Max Potion since it's Steelix. I spend a few turns using Air Slash, but Vespiquen does go down. I swap in Dustox, and start using Bug Buzz, and two turns later, I'm at 1 HP (due to the affection system, I think, since it didn't want me to be sad)...and Steelix is down. Infernape comes out, and I'm like "oh great, here we go". I get outsped and down goes Dustox. I bring out Beautifly and get off one Psychic to do some decent damage before it also goes down. I bring out Scizor and use Double Team - which sounds weird but it was a shot in the dark. I survive again with 1 HP so I'm not sad and I use a Max Potion. The next turn, I do another Double Team, and I manage to evade Fire Punch and get my evasion to +2, which is insane. At this point, I use Wing Attack, dealing a lot of damage and knocking out Infernape (after getting another Fire Punch to the face and surviving with 4 HP). Finally, here comes Drifblim. I Max Potion and it's just a matter of using Wing Attack until I win.
(You might ask why I didn't use my now Armaldo...I would have, since it does have Brine, but it's only high-50s right now so I'm planning on using it as more of a backup plan. Won't be that way in the endgame during the refights.)
For Lucian...it's just a matter of Kricketune using X-Scissor...then X-Scissor...then X-Scissor...then maybe a Max Potion or two. Bronzong is one of those Pokemon I caught a lucky break on, because the Pokemon before, Girafarig, was near death so I used Fell Stinger to knock my attack up to +3. From there, I decide to go ahead and use Fury Cutter and a couple of turns later, I'm through Lucian. Lucian can hit hard so I kept Dustox out of the line of fire...well, the line of Psychic.
Okay, Cynthia is up next. I've lost this battle multiple times due to two Pokemon: Milotic because of stupid Recover, and Lucario because it's Lucario. I saved before and tried multiple ways to get through this, but even though I'm at 72ish for my team (other than Armaldo), my best bet is to power through and break through Lucario as fast as possible. If it can get off enough Nasty Plot, I can't win. So, I use Spiritomb to set up six Double Team on Scizor, and then start using X-Scissor. That takes it down. Gastrodon comes out and it's a few hits to knock it out with X-Scissor, and I'm running low so take the opportunity to use an Ether. Next is Roserade, which is a OHKO with Wing Attack. And, finally, Milotic comes out. This turns into a twenty-some turn back and forth until it runs out of Recover after repeatedly hitting me with Scald (I think it hit three times, but that still seems insane with +6 evasion). Finally, I take it out. Out comes Lucario, and...one, two, three Wing Attacks takes it out. I do get hit with Aura Sphere twice. No avoiding that, but a Max Potion later, Garchomp tried to Earthquake but missed. At this point, I tried to use X-Scissor only to realize I'm out again. I have one Elixir, and I decide it's now or never, so I use it on Scizor. I keep firing off X-Scissor, and after Cynthia uses the last Full Restore, I bring Garchomp down to less than a quarter HP. So, what do I do? I end the run in some level of style using Bullet Punch to take it out.
And that's where I'm at. I need a break. That was painful. However, I have one more thing to do before the Ultimate Bug run is done - the refights against all gym leaders and the Elite Four. I'm hoping I won't have to get up to 100, but who knows at this point. I know they are at about the level I'm at now. Prayers are welcome for this last leg.
One of the Monotype Guys