[Event] ♥ Wind of Change - Valentine's day 2023 Challenge Event ♥

Janp · Feb 16, 2023

Wind of change in Pokémon Ultra Moon

PART 1

Okay, I could finally start my challenge.

I was a little bit worried about Popplio's Fairy-type restriction, but all of Popplio's starting moves have BP of 40, so I can use them with no problems. I quickly got past the tutorial section, but I still managed to find a new thing about these games. When you go to sleep, Meowth will wake you up and will give you Awakening. These games are more than 5 years old and I'm still finding new small details on each playthrough.

Also for my nicknaming theme, I decided to pick Italian words. I named my Popplio "Informazioni" and while I can't speak Italian, I think this word means "Thank".

Anyway, I quickly got past the tutorial and caught Pichu. I named Pichu "Comprare" and I think it means "You" in Italian. I grinded up a little bit and got Comprare to evolve to Pikachu before I reached Trainers' School. And it's good thing that I did that, because Emily was pain to deal with even in 2v1 match. I had to debuff her Rowlet's attack and even then, I had to heal every other turn.

After that, I had pretty smooth run. Ilma was surprisingly easy, but I also had to use Charm on his Pokémon to make sure I can beat him. Totem Alolan Raticate went down quickly, thanks to the Disarming Voice. Which took down both Totam Pokémon and it's companions at once.

Message to my Scrabler: This is my character:

I'm trying to go with rock/punk look, so you can base your next choices on that. Also don't be afraid of picking Pokémon outside Alola's regional Dex, I can easily hack them in.

Team

Informazioni, Relaxed Male Popplio
lvl 14, Torrent
- Water Gun
- Aqua Jet
- Baby-Doll Eyes
- Disarming Voice

Comprare, Relaxed Female Pikachu
lvl 13, Static
- Thunder Shock
- Charm
- Quick Attack
- Electro Ball

Kostucha · Feb 16, 2023

Wind of Change - Update #2

Second segment is over. Normally I'd be stoked to have a Beedrill on my team but the poison restriction makes it nigh unusable. I'm hoping it gets a little better after I get access to toxic spikes but even then I don't have high hopes since due to electric restriction it's very unlikely Beedrill will ever return to the battle. Currently it's sitting in the back with an exp share like a dead weight, too bad the toxic tm is so late...

The other two pokemon are doing great, Azu has destroyed every gym leader so far with rollout so no issues there.

Team:

Spoiler:

Kostucha · Feb 16, 2023

Wind of Change - Update #3 (5/8 gyms)

let's just say It's been rough. At least with such team Rotom gets to fight every few fights or so which is nice.

Note to Scrambler: I see the chaos you've bestowed on me and I'm all for it, but I'd request a little bit of foresight when assigning pokemon. Like if I wasn't blind and had noticed the Ampharos replacement, Beedrill would have been almost completely unusable in the previous segment :P I like a proper challenge but I don't like carrying dead weight.

Team:

Spoiler:

_confused_piplup_ · Feb 16, 2023

I have got the third medal. It wasn't as easy as before, but not even that hard. I have a nice team. Whitney was a little harder because of her usual combo, but luckily I could add my third pokemon to the party before battling her. It was a female Gastly. It was level 4, so I had to do some levels up, which wasn't bad. Because of poison type restriction, it can't attack a pokemon not affected by a status condition, so I just used her to switch strategically my pokemon and with a bit of luck Miltank was defeated. Geodude is really strong ngl. I am pretty satisfied with my team rn.

Duck · Feb 16, 2023

I started the game and did the usual story beats, until I got my starter. After that I hacked Clefairy in. I didn't do Cleffa because 1) it's a baby and 2) grinding friendship in SwSh isn't hard so I'd be able to functionally get Clefairy in a very short amount of time.

I copied the IVs and nature from the starter (Grookey) but did select Magic Guard as an ability because if I were catching I could just keep doing it / resetting until I got that ability. (Although in the interest of transparency, I didn't even need to manually change anything since Grookey was ability 2, it just so happens that ability 2 on Grookey is the same as ability 1).

After that I beat Hop, did the Weald thingy and the Magnolia thungy and continued until I reached the Wild Area. Once there, I did a cheeky sneak to the high level area to nab a Moon Stone and evolve Clefairy.

After that I get to the Isle of Armor and do the basic plot until I get the Experience Charm and unlock the Cram-o-matic, where I get a Life Orb, and then I go back and move the plot along.

On Route 3 I capture Gossifleur and then I just generally saunter to Turfield.

And then I just destroy Milo, because you see, Clefable gets Cosmic Power and Stored Power. Stored Power has a listed 20 BP so it's always OK to use when you're a fairy type but it can get a very, very, high effective BP.

Which means that as long as the first Pokemon of a trainer can't kill me relatively quickly, Clefable can set up to Def, SpDef + 6 and then just spam Stored Power (with Disarming Voice as a safe alternative for most Dark types).

I didn't even really use Gossifleur this segment since there was only one moment where using it made sense (and even then Clefable could have handled) but I'm glad I have it handy since having a grass type for next gym will probably be a good thing.

Thoughts so far:
- Clefable is broken and I love it
- Gossifleur exists~~, I think. I'm not entirely sure.~~

Current badges: 1

Janp · Feb 17, 2023

Wind of change in Pokémon Ultra Moon

PART 2

Well, this will be a quick update. I hacked in level 5 Snorunt and named it "Fine", which I'm most certain in means "for" in Italian. I barely used it, because of Ghost restriction, but it actually helped me a little bit with that one trainer with Cottonee. It beat both Informazioni and Comprare, so I was glad I had one more Pokémon on team.

I also had pretty fun battle with Soliera and her Furfrou. It crit Comprare with Headbutt, so I sent out Fine. I've used Double Team to make sure I can survive, while Furfrou used Sand-Attack. We spent several minutes just trying to hit each other, but in the end, I came out on top.

I got to Hala and the battle was fairly straighforward. I had to use Rotom Boost, because Hala's Machop's Revenge chipped away huge chunk of my HP, and then spammed Disarming Voice on everything. In the end, Informazioni evolved in Brionne.

Message to my Scrambler: Thanks, I'm enjoying the run so far.

Team

Informazioni, Relaxed Male Brionne
lvl 17, Torrent
- Water Gun
- Aqua Jet
- Icy Wind
- Disarming Voice

Comprare, Relaxed Female Pikachu
lvl 15, Static
- Thunder Shock
- Charm
- Quick Attack
- Electro Ball

Fine, Sassy Female Snorunt
lvl 16, Ice Body
- Icy Wind
- Leer
- Double Team
- Ice Shard

BlissyMKW · Feb 17, 2023

Before I begin, due to how both the Pokemon I have available can be caught at Floccesy Ranch, I opted to use the randomizer to change one of the starter options simply to save time having to grind two Pokemon instead of just one. However, I chose hard mode for this by picking the least favorable option.

Current Restictions: Normal - After Level 20, can only alternate between attacking and status moves in battle. This will not matter right now since I start at Level 5, but will likely be a problem later down the road.
Steel - No items in battle from the bag. Simple, but also means I can't bail myself out of a bad situation with heals.

Anyway, starting out, we go through our usual song and dance. Hugh will later unleash his rage all over the place, but for now he's fairly harmless, depending on how you look at it. Anyway, before we move on, I will say I did turn on "Run without Running Shoes" for the sake of speed, even though you get the Running Shoes fairly early on.

With that out of the way, Snivy got the Thanos Snap and got replaced with another snake Pokemon, Dunsparce. It's...not great, but it actually has moves this gen, unlike Gen 2. Before beginning to type this, I will admit I didn't know Dunspace got Rollout at Level 4 in B2/W2. I only gave Snivy the snap because I thought Emboar would be a more threatening opponent in the lategame. I also did savescum for Serene Grace, mostly because Run Away is borderline useless, and Dunsparce will need every edge it can get because of it's low stats. I'm running under the assumption I'll be stuck with this thing the whole game, and I know the possibility of my shuffler changing things up on me is possible, but for now, let's run under the assumption I'll be stuck with my current team for the foreseeable future.

Anyway, back to business. He literally crit me with Tackle on the first turn. I think that's just an omen for things to come. Overall, he wasn't too bad, since all it took was 2 Rollouts. I was playing it safe by using Defense Curl turn 1, though, but I have a -Speed nature and we speed tie. With that aside, I am free to move on to the next town.

Wading my way through Patrats, Purrloins, and Alder's textboxes, we arrive at Floccesy Ranch, home of my second Pokemon...and another rival battle already. After numerous Lillipup encounters, I found my target, a Riolu. Like with Dunsparce, I did not do my research beforehand and thought this thing got Force Palm earlier than it does. It does not. Level 15 in B2/W2. I also got Inner Focus, so rip Steadfast Lucario. Before fighting Hugh again, despite the fact I could just use the exact same strategy I used the first time on him, I decided to grind up a bit just to get Anubis, my Riolu, caught up in level. We still have the gym to worry about, after all.

Hugh 2 went about as well as you'd expect. I grinded to Level 8 and nuked Tepig with two Rollouts. With that little distraction out of the way, a quest to find a missing Herdier begins, which ends in getting a free TM and being sent on our way back to Alder. I beat up a couple of children's monkies...which sounds really weird when you think of that out of context. Anyway, it's time for the first gym, where we will probably obliterate everything in it.

After an introduction and a free Fresh Water, we're off to the races. The first trainer was mowed down by Rollout while the second got hit with the old Quick Attack and Counter combo deal we have going right now, only for a limited time because Counter isn't totally reliable once we start fighting more special attackers. A quick trip to the Pokemon Center later, and it's time for the showdown. Because Dunsparce needs experience, I led with her against Cheren's first Pokemon. I could get away with Rollout all over this team, but...I missed the Rollout that would've killed and got hit by a crit +2 attack for my punishment. Dunsparce didn't die, so I finished off Patrat with Pursuit. Guess it goes to show you that you can't rely on moves like Rollout or Ice Ball...ever.

Lillipup was pretty touch and go. Quick Attack did little damage, and Tackle did a solid chunk of damage. As a gamble, I tried Counter on turn 2, which nearly finished it off, and Anubis lived on 6, allowing me to win with Tackle. Truly, the power of gambles won the day today.

As I am not allowed to make any more progress, that will be all. Next time, we will move past Aspertia and it's general area into Virbank City, and with it Audino grinding to make my life infinitely easier.

The Squad

Segments (Dunsparce) Lv. 11
Nature: Relaxed
Ability: Serene Grace
Moves: Rage, Defense Curl, Rollout, Pursuit

Anubis (Riolu) Lv. 13
Nature: Lax
Ability: Inner Focus
Moves: Feint, Quick Attack, Endure, Counter

Current thoughts: No strong opinions yet, due to Riolu's potential to get good. Dunsparce, however, actually gets moves this gen, so it'll be a bit more reliable than the Gen 2 solo run. Since I'm forced to use a status move after Level 20, Coil will be nice when it eventually comes along.

Devalue · Feb 17, 2023

Spoiler: Gyms 6 and 7: Winona + Tate & Liza

Current thoughts: Kind of middling on Zephyr (Xatu) :t178:. Did nothing wrong. Simply never really needed it yet. Might come in handy against Drake and Steven, though.

Holds roughly the same view on restrictions as before. Definitely do not pick Dragon. Deletes all of Zephyr's :t178: moves. Leads to fishing for Heart Scales.

Duck · Feb 17, 2023

We get the bike, Gossifleur evolves and then we trounce Nessa: Edelgoss is just super effective and can Dynamax, while Clefable is a wall and can learn Magical Leaf. She never had a chance.

It took me a while - a 5% chance purple Pokemon in a place full of other purple Pokemon and with a bunch of weather effects on screen, super easy to find - but I managed to get a Toxel - apparently the game messes with the catch rates for the worse before you complete the story 🙃

Toxel evolved into Low Key Toxtricity, which is marginally worse than Amped, but oh well, at least it has the good ability. I'll take that.

Kabu was whatever, I guess. Toxtricity was OK although OK feels a bit underwhelming after Clefable but it happens, ya know? Still, it dealt with Kabu's two first Pokemon while Clefable killed the centipede and that's that.

Thoughts so far:
- Clefable is still as good as always
- Toxtricity is OK. It'd be better with some better moves but that comes later. When we start getting the fun stuff like Hyper Voice or Overdrive, it'll get a lot better.
- Eldegoss exists, although it'll probably get boxed soon enough since it's just ... not that useful in general? It has a meh type, has a movepool shallower than one of those inflatable toddler pools and just isn't that cute / cool to me?

BlissyMKW · Feb 18, 2023

I don't know who my shuffler is, but the fact they picked out one of my favorite Gen 2 mons tells me they're either secretly a mind reader or it was dumb luck. A large part of me wants to assume the latter. On another note, for once I actually did check and see what moves this thing gets before starting, so I have a general idea of how I want to go with this.

Current Restictions: Normal - After Level 20, can only alternate between attacking and status moves in battle. While this won't be a problem now, post Roxie is when this will likely begin to go into effect since I'm not grinding beyond Level 19 before Roxie.
Steel - No items in battle from the bag. Will likely become more problematic as we progress due to stronger opponents.
Electric - When switching out in battle, I must choose the next Pokemon in the list in order. This does make the arrangement of my team more of something to think about, and I can't just mindlessly switch in whoever I want now.

So, coming back to the game after...whenever it was I did the first update, which I think was yesterday, the team is looking a little beat up after the fight with Cheren. Anubis has 9 HP and Segments is only Level 11, so we're probably going to be using Segments more until we reach Virbank City and I can abuse the speedup button while I beat up Audinos for big experience. On the way out, however, we are interrupted by Bianca and Cheren. We get the C-Gear, which I'll always have off since it's nearly worthless, but I do like how you can call Bianca anytime to check on happiness progress. It's a nice feature that's readily available...but we'll never have it so close at hand ever again after this game, which is a real shame.

Anyway, before we head off towards Virbank City, it's time to go back to the ranch one last time to collect my third team member, a Mareep who will eventually evolve into an Ampharos. As per the rules, I must name it Amphy. What, no, not this challenge's rules, my own personal "Gen 2 nostalgia" rules. We're naming it Amphy and that's the end of that. Speaking of which, it is nice to have a special attacker on the team now, even if Ampharos is pretty lacking in the speed department. According to Serebii, Mareep also apparently has a 10% encounter rate, but when I was grinding before, I didn't encounter a single one. Same case with Pidove. Grass is weird sometimes, man.

Now, the current problem is...this thing is Level 5 while the rest of my team is above Level 10. Switch training it is, then. As per usual, we will smash through all the trainers in hopes of getting some levels. Amphy got caught up, Anubis is one level away from Force Palm, and Segments...exists, I guess. The receptionist lady basically tells me "lol you only have 3 mons, you suck, have some Great Balls" and we're on our way. Of course, the moment I walk in, I get to be a third party to family drama, but we'll cross that bridge later. For now, Audino grinding awaits.

A while later and maybe a visit to Virbank Complex to beat the trainers there and we are set. The whole party's Level 18, Anubis still hasn't evolved, and it's gym time. Since Anubis won't be doing much here, I mainly used her in the complex to get some experience, since this gym will likely be the Amphy and Segments show. Now, before getting into the gym, I wonder how Game Freak failed so hard in future games when it came to the sheer lack of voice acting when they showed in this game it was very much possible. I'm going to save my...dislike for Sword and Shield out of this and just get to the battles.

While the first two trainers were no real threat, there's still Roxie herself to worry about, and since she's still mad at her dad, she intends to take out her frustration on this lowly challenger. Anyway, in all my infinite wisdom, I forgot to give my Pokemon the Pecha Berries, since the "no items from the bag in battle" rule doesn't apply to held items...I think. Either way, I didn't really need them. I went into this thinking Roxie had 3 Pokemon, but I must've been thinking of Challenge Mode. Koffing went down easy to two Thundershocks and Whirlipede got taken out by a combo of Amphy's Thundershocks and old reliable, Rollout, once Amphy's HP got low. With that, we are two badges down, but Segments is one level away from being hit by it's restriction.

For now, cue the part where we skip over Pokestar Studios talk and move onto the part where we fight Team Plasma. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't hate Pokestar Studios. In fact, it's one of my favorite side activities in this game. It's more that I had a bad experience with learning if you can't save the game, you're softlocked. But enough about that, we got grunts to smash. Being earlygame Plasma grunts, all of their mons are weak to Fighting, which are easy pickings for Anubis. Since she'll be pretty hard to use in the next gym, best to get her any experience I can. With that aside, it's off to Castelia, where right away, I have an encounter with my worst enemy: a clown. Clowns are evil, but this one gave me a free bike and probably wants to rip my soul out of my body in secret.

Anyway, with the power of bikes, I went around and took care of the Battle Company and proceeded with the plot in order to meet Colress, the best character in the game (in my opinion). While exploring Relic Passage after taking care of the plot in the sewers, Anubis evolved into Lucario...mostly because I was playing at 6 AM, so that's nice. Would've been a bit more useful earlier, but that's fine. The gym, however, is beginning to highlight the fatal problem with Segments via the Normal restriction. She now essentially has Traunt, where I have to waste one turn not attacking unless I use Rollout, which locks me in until it misses. Even worse, Segments is the only Pokemon on my team that can take out all these Bug types easily.

Burgh was...a lot less easy than Roxie was. I thought he led with Dwebble, but no, he leads with Swadloon, so I had to waste a turn switching from Amphy to Segments. Rollout dealt with Swadloon, but then I triggered Sturdy on Dwebble...twice, because Burgh used his Hyper Potion. Because of having to use Screech the next turn on Leavanny, I had little option but to switch in Anubis only to get crit right away by Razor Leaf. Anubis was able to take care of business, ending up at low HP again like she seems to always end up. Either way, that's 3 badges obtained.

At least next time I get more Colress, so that's something to look forward to.

The Squad

Segments (Dunsparce) Lv. 23
Nature: Relaxed
Ability: Serene Grace
Moves: Ancientpower, Screech, Rollout, Pursuit

Anubis (Lucario) Lv. 23
Nature: Lax
Ability: Inner Focus
Moves: Return, Quick Attack, Force Palm, Counter

Amphy (Flaaffy) Lv. 22
Nature: Brave
Ability: Static
Moves: Take Down, Charge, Thunder Wave, Thundershock

Leftovers and Scope Lens are being passed around as needed.

Current thoughts: The current elephant in the room is Segments. Having to waste every other turn on Screech and having less than fantastic stats is slowly going to make Segments fall behind even further, especially with the Electric restriction in mind. I currently have no problems with Amphy and Anubis so far aside from Amphy being slow and it'll be a long time before I get Thunderbolt. I don't know why I still have Counter, though.

As a final note, even though I did use the randomizer to change Snivy to Dunsparce, I didn't turn off trade evolutions. Meaning I can't get mons that require trade to evolve, like Kingdra, Conkeldurr or Slowking.

Devalue · Feb 21, 2023

Spoiler: Wallace and Elite Four (Final)

Time for scores.

Ratings
Ranks likes this:
0: Pure experience sponge
2-3: Not really useful.
5: Not a detriment, but not a huge help either.
7-8: A regularly contributing party member
10: Overcame major odds.
(and a +/- 1 for things like restrictions and favoritism)

Octillery: 7. A reliable Pokemon. Had some nice early range of attacks. Became a Surf machine (in battle and out) as that overtook the other options.

Knocked off 1 for its restriction. Made other Pokemon feel simpler. Forbid most buffs and devalued debuffs at the same time. (May not have had these tools regardless, admittedly.) Likens it to seeing "Auto Attack" and "Switch" as your battle options.
Camerupt: 9. Surprisingly decent. Punched holes in things really well (in the second half, anyways). Learned more than one worthwhile move. Expected its poor Speed and iffy bulk to let it down constantly. Beat up Groudon alone. Helped for Tate and Liza. Earned an extra point for that kind of stuff. Wants precisely these kind of experiences with neglected Pokemon.
Electabuzz: 9. Started good. Ended good. Found plenty of use for a fast Pokemon with decent damage against most major Pokemon. (Restored its Thunderbolt PP twice during the Elite Four. Ought to tell you something.) Occasionally tossed out a paralyze or Light Screen. Added an extra +1 for its restriction. Introduced a fun planning step. Improved the playthrough.
Heracross: 7. Good and effective. Lost a bit for being Brick Break: The Pokemon. Guesses a huge portion of its used moves was just Brick Break. Tossed out some Secret Powers (and late Earthquakes) when grinding, perhaps, but not often beyond that.
Xatu: 5. Screen bot. Did it help? Yes. Felt difficult to really leverage its support between screen duration, the Electric restriction, and the Ice restriction. See: Reflect -> Light Screen -> Switch. Knocked a lot of turns off Reflect already. Rarely needed Psychic attacks too.
Glalie: 3. Never had a chance to do much. Forced it out early in matches (not necessarily due to its own fault, just competent enemy teams). Lacked damage while taking too much too. Saw a lot of Water types or Pokemon with Fire, Rock, or Fighting moves.

(Total: 40)

Edit note: Considers it very difficult to have, say, a full team of 8's. Naturally favors some more than others.

Scrambler guess: Explorer of Time. Mentioned wanting to give reasonings. Decided to take some guesses on those. (Lists these for fun, regardless if that scrambler guess is correct.)

Octillery: An early answer for Roxanne. Can be tough to survive a gym battle with two Pokemon at a type disadvantage. Picks up tons of good moves at level 22, along with an early level 25 evolution. Makes it a good early-game pick.
Camerupt: Covers Octillery's weaknesses. Roasts Grass. Handles any Electric types (see: Wattson later) with a well-timed Magnitude. Was not too hindered by the Fire restriction either, given Water already in effect. Swaps to a Water resistance with Octillery also.
Electabuzz: Not as sure about this one. Probably chose it to help with Water-types. (Did not teach Bullet Seed to Octillery when given the chance.) Learns Thunder Punch really early, making it immediately decent. Brings some speed too.
Heracross: A clear Norman answer. Brandishes a nasty Brick Break. Might have been competing with Machamp for the spot? Could have been chosen for the Bug restriction.
Xatu: Offered less guidance on this. Presumes a means to get dual screens (and/or Wish?) without getting stuck with the Psychic restriction. May have been simply aimed for a lesser-used Pokemon with new types too.
Glalie: Cannot decide between Phoebe counter, Drake counter, or both. Learns a strong Dark move without being Dark. Mentioned Drake being a potential problem twice.

Looked closer. No good status moves for Girafarig or Granbull. (Technically considers Charm alright, although less helpful in this game's context.) Noped out of Steelix's Ground and Steel restrictions. Considered Tyranitar too good or overused. Already has Fire, Water, and Flying types. No to Poison and Dragon. Leaves Glalie.

_confused_piplup_ · Feb 21, 2023

5th badge update:

It's been pretty fun so far. The team is pretty good and the several restrictions give space for strategies. My zubat evolved into golbat after I have got the fourth badge and a level later it evolved into Crobat, which was really helpful. I didn't expect it at all. Today I could finally catch Butterfree, which comes with a very useful moveset, especially with the combo of poison type restriction. The fourth gym leader wasn't hard, while I had a little bit of difficulty with the fifth, even though I won second try. In general it's going pretty smooth for now.

Explorer of Time · Feb 22, 2023

Pokémon Platinum QoL 1.6.3
Winds of Change - Young Couple Valery & ???
Update 2 (Ravaged Path - > Hearthome Gym)

My second update!

Noctowl has been amazing, seriously amazing. Thank you so much for picking it! It soloed both Gardenia and Fantina, the former by spamming Pluck, the latter by putting her Pokemon to sleep with Hypnosis and using Pluck and Confusion to take them down. Mine has Insomnia, which is a great ability that prevents it from falling asleep. Its attacking moves aren't the strongest yet, but with both Hypnosis and Reflect, it has a lot of utility and doesn't need strong offense. The Flying restriction is much more fun than the Ground restriction that both my other Pokemon have, and I'd be totally fine having more Pokemon with it or with other mandatory switch-out restrictions. They're a lot of fun.

Grotle was good early on, but its usefulness is rapidly fading. I do absolutely appreciate having it for the first three gyms and your selection of it was not a failure, so don't feel bad. It's a physical attacker, but it lost its last STAB physical Grass move recently, and will lose Curse when it evolves into a Torterra. While I wish I could keep it with the moveset it had around level 22-26, the Ground restriction prevents that and I don't see a use for it much longer.

In contrast to Grotle, Onix got much better now that I have the TM for Earthquake, which gives it an excellent STAB Ground move in its TM slot, and synergizes amazingly with Noctowl. Onix didn't start off great, but it's getting much better and is no longer the load it was before the first gym. While its type coverage won't be that great until the 40s, Earthquake makes it amazing at fighting anything that doesn't resist Ground and will keep it useful for quite a while.

Recommendations for new Pokemon: Because this QoL hack doesn't have a way to bypass the Surf field move, I'm going to need a Pokemon that can learn Surf either now or at the next update. This need not be a Water-type, and preferably wouldn't actually be a pure Water-type because the Water restriction would mess with my movesets and potentially make some moves I'm required to know unusable. Now that I have Earthquake for Onix, I'm fine ditching my Grotle for a new Pokemon, since with the loss of its last physical Grass move, its moveset is just going to get worse from here on out.

In general, I really like the restrictions that involve switching (or not switching) out Pokemon, like Fighting, Flying, Rock, Bug, and Electric, but I don't like the restrictions on movesets, like in Ground, Water, Ice, and Dragon. Ghost would also be hard to level if I have more than one, because this game only gives me a single Exp. Share, so probably avoid that restriction too. The others, I don't have much of a preference for one way or the other.

Team

Spoiler:

Kostucha · Feb 22, 2023

Wind of Change - Update #4 (7/8 gyms)

Slowly pushing through with my atrocious team. Both Forretress and Mr. Mime become more viable as they pick up better moves; Maractus is surprisingly quite powerful and Synthesis helps a lot with the Grass/Steel restrictions clash; Beedrill got more utility now that I learned infatuation also counts and Forretress picked up Toxic Spikes; Ledian exists I guess.

Note to Scrambler: Go wild

Team:

Spoiler:

Janp · Feb 23, 2023

Wind of change in Pokémon Ultra Moon

PART 3

Ehm... I was waiting for my new team for few days and then Loomie pointed out that I'm not at the point of getting new Pokémon. For some reason, I forgot that I don't get new Pokémon every segment, but every other segment.

So I quickly beat Lana and Kiawe's Trials. I had super-effective Pokémon, but they still gave me some troubles. I had to spam Double Team and healing to beat Araquanid:

And only after beating Araquanid, I realized I could have evolve Pikachu in Raichu by getting Thunderstone from the breeding hut.

Kiawe's Trial was easier, but Totem Alolan Marowak called Salazzle, which proved to be bigger challenge than Totem Alolan Marowak itself.

In the end, I got a new look:

Now I'm waiting for my team.

Team

Informazioni, Relaxed Male Brionne
lvl 24, Torrent @Waterium Z
- Bubble Beam
- Aqua Jet
- Icy Wind
- Disarming Voice

Comprare, Relaxed Female Raichu
lvl 24, Static @Magnet
- Psychic
- Double Team
- Quick Attack
- Electro Ball

Fine, Sassy Female Snorunt
lvl 24, Ice Body
- Icy Wind
- Bite
- Double Team
- Ice Fang

_confused_piplup_ · Feb 25, 2023

7th gym update:

The sixth gym was harder, but in the end it went all right. The main problem was thunderbolt from the magnemites. I soon caught gyarados which was really useful even for the sixth gym. Then, I realized there was red Gyarados and so I caught it and replaced the older one. The 7th gym wasn't hard, but I wish I played a little better tbh. Anyway, yeah, it's going really smooth for now.

Explorer of Time · Feb 26, 2023

Pokémon Platinum QoL 1.6.3
Winds of Change - Young Couple Valery & ???
Update 3 (Route 209- > Pastoria Gym)

Five badges, this time.

I seriously, seriously, can't thank my scrambler enough for the Gyarados and especially the Rotom. Both have been even better than the Noctowl and they're perfect for this stage of the game, and easily strong enough to take all the way to the Pokemon League.

I chose Fan Rotom (which is still Electric/Ghost in Platinum) as my Rotom's form, and it's very, very strong. It ended up sweeping Crasher Wake's team, 1HKOing both Gyarados and Floatzel with Shock Wave, and 2HKOing Quagsire with Ominous Wind. It also came very close to sweeping Maylene, and only failed because it missed two consecutive Air Slashes Its STAB attacks don't have very high base power yet, but its high Special Attack makes it very powerful, and I love its Ghost/Electric typing, which combines excellently with Levitate. The type restriction is very interesting, especially with two of my Pokemon also having Flying restrictions.

Gyarados is also very strong, but not quite as good as Rotom. It has very strong stats and is an excellent physical attacker, and has excellent coverage, with a Ground, Ice, Dark, and Normal move giving it perfect neutral coverage and the ability to hit eleven types super-effectively. That being said, it has a glaring 4x weakness to Electric, which my Noctowl is also weak too, but its offense more than makes up for it.

Onix is still terrible and faints if a special attacker or grass/water type looks at it wrong, but I'm getting very close to obtaining a Metal Coat and evolving it. It'll still be a one-trick-pony for quite a while though, as its level up moves are still crap and have no synergy with the rest of my team. One thing I do like about it is that all my other Pokemon are Flying-type or have Levitate, which lets Onix spam Earthquake in double battles no matter what the circumstances are. That being said, it's outclassed as an Earthquake-user by Gyarados right now.

Noctowl is pretty much the same as last time. Still good, only with Air Slash replacing Pluck to take advantage of its better Special Attack.

Advice for my scrambler: My thoughts on the type restrictions from last update still apply, and I don't have any major changes there. I absolutely love Noctowl, Gyarados, and Rotom, so if you want me to switch out another Pokemon, Onix is by far the best choice. Given that you picked Steelix when we had very few options available, and that you've exceeded my expectations with every choice past the first gym, I completely trust you to pick a Pokemon I'll have more fun with.

Team

Spoiler:

BlissyMKW · Feb 26, 2023

Returning from the abyss of hardcore slacking, my suspicions of my shuffler being a psychic only grows. I foresee many fainting Audinos in my near future. At the very least, we get more Colress time, and I can't complain with that.

Current Restictions: Steel - No items in battle from the bag. Starting to become more threatening of a restriction due to harder battles, but otherwise is fairly harmless compared to some other restrictions.
Electric - When switching out in battle, I must choose the next Pokemon in the list in order. Like Steel, not totally soul crushing, but does create complications, especially as our team grows larger
Fire - No non-Fire status moves, which means only Sunny Day and Will-o-Wisp are allowed, as those are the only Fire type status moves in the game. Pretty sure this mon learns neither by level up, so this is just "no setup moves."
Ground - This Pokemon's moveset behaves similar to a wild Pokemon, with it's oldest move being replaced by it's newest one. One TM/HM, tutor move, or Move Relearner move must be on at a time and isn't affected by this rule. This one is...odd, because the Pokemon in question learns Dig and Earthquake by level up, both of which are also TMs. I'm assuming I can swap out my "safe from deletion" move as long as it matches the criteria (like Dig/Earthquake).

Now, before we continue with our adventure, we must send someone away. Segments, you are the weakest link, and therefore will be removed from the squad. You carried us through the earlygame, but I'm sorry, your restriction kinda sucks and makes you worse than even a Slaking. At least Slaking has the giant Attack stat to make up for Traunt, while Segments has...Rollout, I guess. Sure, Elesa might be a bit harder since I currently have no good Emolga checks, but the shuffler has made his or her judgement. I don't make the rules, I just follow them. So, goodbye Segments. You have served us well.

Anyway, now that we've completely sidelined Segments, let's spend some quality time with Colress. Truly a magnificent man, am I right or am I right? Anyway, he wants to meet us on Route 4, which is lucky, because I got some business in Route 4. Since Segments is gone, we need to replace her, and I need to get a fourth Pokemon. Luckily, Route 4 will provide all that I need, a Darumaka and a Sandile. After getting them, it's time to make the prediction of many fainted Audinos a reality in order to level them up so they're up to speed. With that done, and all the trainers except the breeder (I fought her once) out of the way, it's time for some quality experimenting with Colress...and a battle. N gets foreshadowed and now it's off to Desert Resort to collect items and blast trainers to oblivion.

During my sweep of all the trainers, my hatred for Hustle has reignited. Literally, I honestly think I'd be better off with Klutz or another useless ability over Hustle, especially since Darumaka has next to no defenses so it gets taken out in 2 hits by just about anything. I know the defenses problem isn't going to get any better any time soon, but at least once it evolves, it'll just punch everything so hard defense won't mean anything. However, Level 35 is still a long ways away, and I likely won't get it until around Skyla if I'm lucky. Anyway, the team has been leveled up, got some extra Potions that I can't use in battle, so now it's time for the "not the gym" gym, because Elesa's not at the real gym yet.

Anyway, speaking of Elesa's gym, I like the new gym. I sure like it more than Clay's, but we'll get to that. It's literally just a runway with battles. No puzzles, no frills, just go forward and blow up Electric types. Nice and simple, the way I like it on occasion. Since Shades can use Dig against anything not named Emolga, he'll be the star of our show. While Shades cleaned up the trainers with ease, I came in expecting Elesa to be a bit harder to handle because my team is underleveled, but...it was easier than I thought, mostly because of critical hits. Anubis led against Emolga because I taught her Rock Tomb, but Emolga just Volt Switched out of there for Zebstrika, who got a taste of Rock Tomb and a Speed drop. After that, it stood no chance. One Force Palm, then a crit Force Palm later and it was gone. Shades did what he did best and took out Flaaffy, only to get paralyzed in the process, and because of the Electric restriction, I had to use Shofu to beat Emolga. Yeah, it got crit and one shot, but Static happened too because of course it did. Overall, a very easy battle. Clay, on the other hand, likely won't be so free. After all, almost this whole team is weak to Ground and Amphy is borderline worthless in Clay's gym.

With our badge and Volt Switch TM in hand, it's off to fight grunts and hear Hugh's tragic backstory about his sister's Purrloin. He also made the grunts feel his rage, which I think is the first time he uses that line. Anyway, with that out of the way, the one thing standing between me and Driftveil City is a heartbreaker, and his name's Charles. His team, however, wasn't much match for my team. On the way, I caught a Ducklett as a user of Fly and potentially Surf if I don't get a Surf user later because I don't actually remember if Surf is required in this game. At this stage, I'm going to assume it is, because it usually is. After arriving in town, I bare witness to some Plasma on Plasma violence...well, one sided violence. Before we can go to Clay, we need to...handle this Team Plasma case.

Rood wasn't much of a threat and Amphy evolved in the deal, and Hugh's still being Hugh. I have no reason to take the Zorua, so I didn't. Anyway, it's time for fun with Clay's gym. Oh boy. So I lost against Clay on the first attempt. Leading with Anubis was a bad idea because of Intimidate, and because almost my whole team is weak to Ground, while Shades took out the Krokorok after Anubis went down, I got swept by Sandslash, partly because Amphy gets hard walled by Ground types. Attempt 2 went slightly better. I changed leads to Shades for a Krokorok ditto, but he got a Defense drop with Crunch and that pretty much paved the way for Sandslash to come in and sweep my entire team on it's own again. Held items are clearly the key to winning this one.

Attempt 3 was better. I tried to deal with Krokorok with Ground Gem Dig, but Intimidate makes that...hardly an option. Even with that, I don't one shot it. He was a bit more harmless, but still did a decent hit. Sandslash, however, continues to prove to be my bane as once again the stars align for this thing to win. The new plan was to sac Shofu and Amphy to get Shades back in to Intimidate and then Mud-Slap, but luck is not on my side. Sandslash is still strong even at -1, and then it crit Anubis with Bulldoze. Back to the drawing board.

The fourth attempt went back to a strategy I used in the second attempt, and that was give Leftovers to Shades and screw with Krokorok's accuracy with Mud-Slap and use Dig for the big damage. With Krokorok down, I did what I did in attempt 3, which was sac Shofu to get Amphy in. Unlike my previous tries, I put Return on Amphy instead of Volt Switch so I don't get walled and had a Quick Claw for the chance of going first. 2 turns of confusion and surprisingly no Bulldoze this time and Amphy was able to bring down Sandslash. Last was big boy Excadrill, who outspeeds my whole team. For some reason, he never used Bulldoze, but he did land almost all his attacks even after a Mud-Slap and took out Shades. Anubis managed to come in and finish the job, and after 4 tries, we finally beat Clay.

If Clay was this bad, I don't want to imagine how the next gyms will go.

The Squad

Anubis (Lucario) Lv. 31
Nature: Lax
Ability: Inner Focus
Moves: Return, Bone Rush, Force Palm, Rock Tomb

Amphy (Ampharos) Lv. 30
Nature: Brave
Ability: Static
Moves: Confuse Ray, Electro Ball, Thunder Wave, Return (might put Volt Switch back on)

Shofu (Darumaka) Lv. 30
Nature: Calm
Ability: Hustle
Moves: Fire Punch, Facade, Fire Fang, Thrash

Shades (Krokorok) Lv. 31
Nature: Adamant
Ability: Intimidate
Moves: Mud-Slap, Embargo, Crunch, Dig

Press F for Mud-Slap soon. Items are also still being passed around as needed.

Current Thoughts: We are very weak to Ground, and Clay took full advantage of that. We're also very lacking in special attackers, with the only one I have being very slow. Shades made himself at home very soon after he got raised up and alongside Anubis, they're keeping this ship afloat. Shofu on the other hand, because of Hustle, is more a determent than a help because of that looming chance of missing and dying always hanging over like a knife suspended by a single wire. No strong thoughts about Amphy other than "he's slow, but we can deal with it." We get Surf soonish, so getting Thunderbolt will be in the cards, but that Ground weakness is still a big concern. We're also very quickly entering the realm of "big plot time" so big battles will be a lot more commonplace coming up, but barring the Ground problem, the team should (in theory) be able to survive Kyurem White and Ghetsis just fine...

In theory.

Kostucha · Mar 4, 2023

Wind of Change - Final Update

I'm finally done with this nightmare. This is the big story segment of W2 which means many miniboss and boss battles aka praying to RNGesus that my team doesn't get wiped every battle. Most of those battles required at least a few attempts and careful planning but also some luck in the form of getting a Bright Powder proc or somehow hitting through confusion (I swear Cryogonal's Confuse Ray is impossible to hit through, I've never been wiped by a Cryogonal until now, many times too).

Overall it was a fine run with a roller coaster of emotions. I stopped enjoying it by the end when even trainer battles forced me to run back to a healing point every time with occasional whiteouts if a trainer had access to a fire type move. I'm happy it's over.

Scrambler guess: Blissy of Janp, but probably the latter. The initial pick threw me off but a curated harder experience that I got by the end is what I could expect from him

Hall of Fame:

Spoiler:

Team and thoughts:

Spoiler:

Explorer of Time · Mar 6, 2023

Pokémon Platinum QoL 1.6.3
Winds of Change - Young Couple Valery & ???
Update 4 (Valor Lakefront - > Snowpoint Gym)

Seven Badges, this time!

I got some better non-STAB moves for Noctowl, switching out its moveset for a more special-attacker oriented set, teaching it Hyper Beam and a couple decent non-STAB Special moves. It's the weakest link in my team, but even then it's still quite good.

Gyarados learned Surf for HM stuff. I probably should've taught it Aqua Tail and caught a Pelipper for HMs up until now, but it's not that big of a difference because its still very strong anyway. It's still great and I want to keep it.

Rotom got almost a completely new moveset, along with a new Heat form. Thunderbolt and Shadow Ball are much better STAB moves than Shock Wave and Ominous Wind, and Overheat gives it a much-needed counter to Steel types and a "last resort" move. It's still my absolute favorite.

For Drifblim, I got really lucky with its Hidden Power, and got Fire with a base power of 64. It also has Air Cutter, Shadow Ball, and Thunderbolt. If you're thinking it looks a lot like Rotom, you're right! Normally, I don't like having Pokemon fill the same niche to quite this extent, but with Rotom's Electric restriction, I can have a second Pokemon with mostly the same moveset at different ends of the party to ensure that one of the two is always quickly accessible.

Finally, I got Gallade. The Fighting restriction is very interesting, and fun, to combine with the Electric restriction. Gallade is an excellent physical sweeper, and has my only Grass and Fighting moves, and has Swords Dance to boost its attack even further if I get the chance. It is very fragile, especially since I can't heal it with anything other than its held item, which means I don't get to set up Swords Dance often. Its moveset and restriction work utterly perfectly in this challenge.

Bosses: Gallade swept Byron with Brick Break, but Candice was tougher. Gallade 1HKOed Sneasel with Brick Break, then hit Froslass with a Psycho Cut before fainting. Drifblim was sent out next, was hit by a Blizzard, but barely survived and hit back with a Shadow Ball, fainting it. I healed with a Hyper Potion, while Candice sent out Abomasnow and inexplicably used Wood Hammer, anticipating a switch-in that never came. I had Drifblim use Hidden Power (Fire) to nearly KO Abomasnow, but it barely suvived and retaliated with Avalanche. However, Drifblim's Aftermath KOed Abomasnow. Finally, I sent out Gyarados against Piloswine and used Surf twice to win the next badge.

Saturn and Mars were also both harder than expected. Mars managed to get FIVE consecutive flinches with her Golbat's Bite.

Advice for Scrambler: In the Discord thread, Devalue mentioned possibly putting Giratina in a party as a last resort Pokemon, under the Ghost restriction. Whether you're Devalue or not, please don't do that. I don't mind weaker legendaries like one of the Lake Trio, but Giratina's just too strong of a Pokemon and would overshadow the rest of my team. As before, the same restriction preferences in my second update still apply.

I only have a week to train up a replacement team member, so I'd like to keep my whole team, unless the newest Pokemon can already be caught at a high level. If you decide otherwise, pick Noctowl. The others are just so amazingly good and you did a perfect job picking them all.

Team

Spoiler:

[Event] ♥ Wind of Change - Valentine's day 2023 Challenge Event ♥

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Janp

Wind of change in Pokémon Ultra Moon

PART 1

Team

Kostucha

Kostucha

_confused_piplup_

Duck

🦆 quack quack

Janp

Wind of change in Pokémon Ultra Moon

PART 2

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BlissyMKW

Rawr

Devalue

Duck

🦆 quack quack

BlissyMKW

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Devalue

_confused_piplup_

Explorer of Time

Advocate of Ideals

Kostucha

Janp

Wind of change in Pokémon Ultra Moon

PART 3

Team

_confused_piplup_

Explorer of Time

Advocate of Ideals

BlissyMKW

Rawr

Kostucha

Explorer of Time

Advocate of Ideals