By the Book Challenge! (Ruby/Sapphire Only)

[ColourCodedGB]

[FONT=&quot]If you're a stickler for what's considered "fair" in the story mode of Pokemon, Ruby and Sapphire are likely your ideal games. The way the initial Hoenn games are structured allow for a pretty great set of rules that would seem fair in the Pokemon universe. It's how I always play Ruby and Sapphire, and I hope you too can now enjoy a more strict, more challenging, but ultimately fair set of rules to make Ruby and Sapphire a more enjoyable experience. We're following League rules here, so welcome to "The [FONT=&quot]By the Book[/FONT] Challenge!"

This set of rules applies only to the GBA games Pokemon Ruby, and Pokemon Sapphire. Due to various differences in Gym Leader teams, movesets, and abilities, Pokemon Emerald, Omega Ruby, and Alpha Sapphire are not permitted for this challenge.

Rules and Restrictions

Rules About Gym Battles and Elites[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Gym battles must be fought with the same number of Pokemon as the Gym Leader. Furthermore, any Pokemon used in a victorious Gym Battle becomes a permanent member of your team. This requires the player to think ahead, and not have an easy win with a temporary team member. In addition, none of the player's Pokemon can be higher leveled than the strongest Pokemon of the Gym leader you are about to fight. For example, none of your Pokemon can be above level 15 when you fight Roxanne since her strongest Pokemon Nosepass is at Level 15. [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]The Elite Four require you to bring six Pokemon with you, since the Champion has six Pokemon. During the fights against the initial Elite Four, you are permitted to use all six of your Pokemon despite them only having five. Upon entering the Elite Four, none of the player's Pokemon can be above level 58, the level of Steven's Metagross.[/FONT][FONT=&quot] Unless you're certain you can defeat the Elite 4 and Champion, avoid saving in-between elite fights in-case you cannot defeat them, and have to re-enter the fights with a level 59 Pokemon. [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Before fighting a Gym Leader, you must fully heal your team at the Pokemon Center, and deposit the Pokemon you are not using for the fight in the PC. The latter prevents the temptation to bend the rules, and the former prevents early advantages from abilities like Guts and moves like endeavor. Only bring the Pokemon you intend to use in battle! Once you have defeated the gym leader, you may take the rest of your party back out of the PC. Making an extra trip to the Pokemon Center to switch your Pokemon around if your original strategy didn't work is considered the "League Walk of Shame" There are no penalties for this other than your own personal torment.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Every Gym Battle and Elite Four Trainer has two healing items in Ruby/Sapphire. League Rules state that you are not allowed to have more than two healing items either. The challenger (you) is permitted to use status healing items such as berries, and PP restoring items such as ethers in addition to healing items, but even with all of your options, you are only allowed two items. Each of your Pokemon can also have a hold item going into the battle.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]General Rules[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]The game MUST be played on the "Set" Battle Mode![/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Hoenn Region Pokemon Only! [/FONT][FONT=&quot]You are not permitted to take Pokemon that originated from the Kanto or Johto regions. The rule is set in place for balancing the challenge's difficulty.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Regular trainer battles, Rival battles, (May, Brenden, Wally) and team Aqua/Magma battles have no specific rules other than that revives are banned, and must be played on the "Set" battle mode.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]HM slaves are permitted, but are never allowed to battle for any reason. Should one ever get sent out via Roar/Whirlwind etc, you should try to get it knocked out. Should it get roared back out of battle again there's no real need for concern and we can let it slide, but just don't let it happen again young man![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Things That are Banned![/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]Trading is banned[FONT=&quot] with the exception of evolving Clamperl. Don't do any funny stuff while trading though. Don't trade any items to your game, do not spread Pokerus from ano[FONT=&quot]ther save file[FONT=&quot], [FONT=&quot]or[/FONT] any other thing you can think of to gain some sort of sn[FONT=&quot]ea[/FONT]ky advantage[FONT=&quot].[/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]
  [/FONT][/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Record Mixing is banned! I'm still not sure if there are any real benefits to it, but I'll just say it's banned to be safe.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Abusing the ability Pick Up is 100% forbidden. If you use a Zigzagoon as an HM Slave, you must toss every item they pick up, no exceptions. This is to prevent Game Corner abuse and King's Rock abuse early on. [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]X-items/stat enhancing berries are banned in all battles throughout the game. [/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Revives of any kind are banned in-battle at all times! They ARE permitted outside of battle, including in-between Elite battles.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Shroomish and Breloom are banned if you pick Treecko as your starter Pokemon. (More info below in the difficulty settings)[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Legendary Pokemon are banned for obvious reasons.[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]The move "attract" is banned[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Evasion moves are banned.
  [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]There are two modes of play for this challenge. Regular Mode, and Hard Mode. [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Regular Mode: [/FONT][FONT=&quot]This mode is all the rules stated above, and your Starter Pokemon is either Mudkip or Torchic. This is the easier way of playing the game, and is a good starting point for those new to this set of rules.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]HARD MODE!:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] This mode is selected when you pick Treecko as your starter. All of the above rules are still in place, with the additional rule that the Pokemon Shroomish and Breloom are banned for balancing reasons. This is a very difficult way to play the game, and will probably require several attempts to get past the first three gyms. Stats matter, natures matter, items matter, and by the time you get to the elite four EVs will probably matter too. This mode is the thinking man's way to play Ruby/Sapphire, and is more suited to those very familiar with the games. I have completed it multiple times, so be assured it's consistently winnable should you do the right things. Think of this mode as a Pokemon RPG Puzzle Mode. There isn't a ton of wiggle room until you get past Flannery. (Though she's the least of your concerns)[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Sign up forms should look like what is seen below! I will be signing up straight away, so use my sign up as an example.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Username: ColourCodedGB[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Game: Ruby[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Difficulty: HARD MODE![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Winners of the two modes will be listed in this post![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Champions: Normal Mode:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

Spoiler:

None:

[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Masters: HARD MODE![/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]

Spoiler:

[FONT=&quot]ColorCodedGB[/FONT]

[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I hope you'll join me in this challenge! I assure you it's been very well play-tested over the years I've been doing it. :)[/FONT]

 

[ColourCodedGB]

I've been playing this without many breaks since I submitted the thread to be accepted, so I've already made quite a bit of progress. I figured I'd post an early update to give you a bit of an idea of how the game can be exciting in this mode of play.

The Journey so far!

Spoiler:

Picked Treecko as my starter for Hard Mode. I hyped up Hard Mode quite a bit in the first post, and it's pretty punishing early on if you don't have some idea of what you should be doing, so think of this update as a Dragon Warrior style guidebook for the first parts of the game.

Fought a bunch of wild Pokemon to get Treecko to level 11.

Captured a Brave Natured Slakoth in Petalburg Woods after doing all the intro stuff. It's worth pointing out here that the reason Treecko is considered a separate category is because he's really THAT useless. He doesn't learn Leaf Blade until level 29, and when you follow this challenge's rules that means he won't learn it until after you've defeated Flannery. Since Grovyle is so weak, any other teammate you capture early on should not only be able to dish out some damage, but should be able to support Grovyle. Slakoth may be a bit annoying to train, but he has amazing support moves that become even better once he evolves, and he can also pack a whallop. There are other options that are acceptable such as Whismur, but Slakoth is by far your best choice for a second party member to take to Roxanne in hard mode.

Once Treecko and Slakoth were both at level 15, I went to fight Roxanne.

Treecko easily knocked out Geodude as expected, and when Nosepass was sent out I switched to Slakoth. Nosepass may seem scary, but he hits about as hard as a flea, so slakoth could just tank his attacks until I got Nosepass in a loop of using Harden thanks to Encore. Treecko was sent out to drain away his health, and evolved into Grovyle at the end of the battle.

I set sail for Dewford an picked up the silk scarf for Slakoth.

While training/looking for a good Mawile to use, Slakoth evolves into Vigoroth at level 18, just in time to fit to fight Brawly whose highest level Pokemon is level 18.

Finally caught a Mawile I was happy with. It has a neutral nature, and has the ability intimidate.

Deposited Mawile in the PC, and took my level 18 Grovyle and Vigoroth to fight Brawly.

Brawly is the first major roadblock of hard mode, as his Machop is quite a lot tougher than you'd expect. It can knock your Grovyle around pretty good if you didn't take the time to get a Treecko with good stats, and is a potential game resetting roadblock if you aren't ready for him. Thankfully Vigoroth makes this fight much more possible despite the weakness to fighting, as he has pretty good bulk and has his fantastic support moves. He should also know Slack Off at this point, which is a really great recovery move that can help you get around your lack of healing items in this challenge. He alone won't be able to fight this fight though, so be prepared to switch out to Grovyle when the time comes.

After a skillful battle, Brawly is defeated and I obtained the TM containing Bulk Up. Now's a good time to mention that TMs are very important in this challenge, and should be heavily considered before using. While you won't find yourself in a totally helpless situation should you sell or waste one, you may have had a much easier time if you considered your choice a little more.

I withdrew Mawile from the PC, taught it Rock Tomb, and head off towards slateport where the true battle begins.

After beating up team Magma, it was time to go fight May. Many people may have noticed that this rival fight is often one of the hardest fights in the entire game if you aren't ready for it, even in a regular playthrough. With all three of my Pokemon weak to Combusken's Fighting or Fire moves, some tactics were needed. I got pretty lucky that I was able to get Combusken in a loop of using Focus Energy thanks to Vigoroth's Encore, but you may have to come up with a strategy of your own. This is a fight where you'll just have to be on your toes and improvise as the fight goes on.

At long last we arrive at Mauville City, where the hardest fight of the entire challenge is. Wattson is an absolute beast, and I hope you saved all of the cheri berries you could find because you're going to want them all for this fight. This is also the first gym where you will absolutely have to use at least one healing item, so make sure you picked up some soda pop or super potions. Your Pokemon can be as high as level 23 for this battle, and you'll want your whole team to be at that point. Grovyle learns screech at level 23, which is one of the only reliable ways to do decent damage to Magneton with the options you have available to you at this point. If you haven't taken Makuhita with you, you'll most certainly want to teach something Rock Smash for super effective damage. With the aid of cheri berries, Vigoroth's support moves, Grovyle's Screech/Rock Smash, and whatever help your third party member can give, (which you must have a third Pokemon for this fight as the rules state) you should be able to win. How you use those moves is up to you though, as this is an incredibly unpredictable battle that requires you to be at your best and improvise with the cards you're given.

Was able to deafeat Wattson on my second attempt, and now the challenge will become a lot easier. (at least until the Elite Four.)

EDIT! Update #2! Now that the hardest parts of the game are over, I'm free to explore, teach some much needed moves to my Pokemon, and work towards catching some new Pokemon. I'm always trying to test new combinations when I do this challenge, so I decided to wait until after Flannery to add any new party members. I often capture a spoink at this point, but I'm trying something different this time. The journey continues in the spoilers below!

Spoiler:

Obtained the Secret Power TM and taught it to Grovyle. At long last Grovyle knows a somewhat decent move!

Obtained the Strength HM and taught it to Vigoroth. He now has a much needed stronger physical attack.

Did some leveling up and defeated Team Magma at Mt. Chimney.

Fought Flannery with Vigoroth, Mawile and Grovyle. Thankfully Vigototh is now awesome enough with strength that he can carry this whole battle by himself. Heat Badge Obtained!

Got the GO-Goggles from May and head towards the desert to capture a Baltoy. Capturing Baltoy was actually a lot tougher than I thought due to it knowing selfdestruct. Any time I used yawn on Baltoy it would just selfdestruct, so I had to encounter it with Mawile out front to trick it into using a different move, immediately switch to Vigoroth and use encore to prevent it selfdestructing, use yawn, switch back to mawile, have it fall asleep, damage it with Mawile and then toss the great ball. It was a fun fight, and it kind of makes me wish capturing Pokemon was a little more strategic like this in general than tossing a ball and hoping it works. Thankfully it had godly stats, so I didn't have to capture another one and kill the buzz of the battle.

Grovyle FINALLY learns Leaf Blade!

I then went to fight Norman with Grovyle, Mawile, and Vigoroth. This was probably my favourite gym battle so far as it still required quite a bit of strategy, but went very smoothly. Vigoroth's support moves were less useful here than you'd think, so it came down to Mawile's bulk and the use of fake tears, plus the use of Vigoroth's massive power to win the day. Grovyle even got to help quite a bit with a couple of powerful leaf blades to the Slakoth family's crippling special defense stat. Of course he still can't take a hit, so he was knocked out pretty quickly.

Surf is obtained, and now a whole bunch of chores pop up. collecting rare candies, vitamins, and TMs obtainable only after getting surf takes a while, but is well worth it. Unfortunately I can only level up my four Pokemon twice each before the next gym, so managing experience and dodging trainers is a big concern at this point. I picked up the Ice Beam TM from the abandoned ship, the Focus Punch TM near the Kelpsey berries, the Sludge Bomb TM in Dewford, and finally had enough money to buy the Psychic TM from the Game Corner. Mawile learns Focus Punch and Sludge Bomb, and Baltoy learns Ice Beam and Psychic.

After beating up Team Magma at the Weather institute and beating up May's Pokemon again, I can go get the stupid goggles or whatever from steven and fight winona.

Winona was a pretty close fight, but only because it was my first attempt and didn't have a great battle plan. Baltoy's Ice Beam took out Altraia, Mawile's Rock Tomb took out Swellow, and Grovyle and Vigoroth had to take out Pelipper and Skarmory. Skarmory was pretty tough, but Grovyle's Leaf Blade managed to land a really lucky critical hit thanks to its high critical hit ratio. Feather Badge Obtained!

Current Team:

Grovyle/Astroturf: Level 32 (Female)
Pursuit, Rock Smash, Leaf Blade, Secret Power

Vigoroth/Bearsloth: Level 32 (Female)
Strength, Yawn, Encore, Slack Off

Mawile/Haircut: Level 32 (Female)
Rock Smash, Focus Punch, Rock Tomb, Sludge Bomb

Baltoy/Spinny: Level 33
Ice Beam, Psychic, Ancientpower, Selfdestruct

 

[Kieran_90]

[FONT=&quot]Username: Kieran[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Game: [FONT=&quot]Sapphire[/FONT][/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Difficulty: [FONT=&quot]Normal, then I'll run hard afterward.
[/FONT][/FONT]

 

[DyingWillFlareon]

Treecko really isn't that useless that it makes choosing it harder.... In fact most people reccomend it....
Edit: Wait nevermind your playing Ruby, not Sapphire, so you'd be fighting Team Magma's Fire Types not Team Aqua's Water Types, huh?

Name: DyingWillFlareon
Game: Sapphire
Mode: Normal with Torchic

 

[ColourCodedGB]

Treecko really isn't that useless that it makes choosing it harder.... In fact most people reccomend it....
Edit: Wait nevermind your playing Ruby, not Sapphire, so you'd be fighting Team Magma's Fire Types not Team Aqua's Water Types, huh?

Admittedly the "hard mode" portion of the game really ends after Flannery, but she's the least of your concerns. This is a quote from a conversation I had with someone about why Treecko is so bad early on while following these rules.

Treecko and Sceptile aren't really the problems here. The problem is that Grovyle is a giant pile of garbage. He can't learn any decent attacks until you get the Secret Power TM, and he can't take many hits at all. Flannery isn't really a big issue since you can get better Pokemon at that point to help you out. Your biggest concern with Treecko is managing to get past Wattson. Wattson is a really unpredictable and difficult battle, and if you don't have Combusken's double kick or Marshtomp's mud shot, there really aren't any great options for fighting his Magneton. Grovyle's resistance to electricity doesn't even really matter since Magneton can very quickly immobilize you with thunder wave and supersonic, and his Shock Wave still hits pretty dang hard. Being resistant also doesn't matter since Magneton can just use Sonic Boom which at that point in the game will knock about 1/3 of Grovyle's health off. In the originals all you really have to work with are support moves from vigoroth, the very slow and frail Makuhita, and the fact that Grovyle can learn screech at level 23 and get the rock smash HM. If you take Treecko, I think you'll be in for a shock at Wattson. Brawly is quite a bit harder than you'd expect too, as Grovyle and his terrible physical defense gets horribly messed up without proper support from a teammate. Don't forget too that you'll have to fight May's Combusken before you get to mauville. Pretty much the "hard mode" portion is just managing to follow the rules and get past Wattson. The challenge becomes quite a bit easier after that, but it really is that difficult early on.

I don't think anyone who attempts hard mode will quite understand how useless Grovyle is until they try it for themselves. Sceptile eventually really pays off once you can get the Sunny day and Solarbeam TMs, but until then he's pretty bad.

I've also completed my hard mode challenge! I'll admit I haven't played these games in a fair while, so I totally forgot that the champion has FOUR Full Restores. I'll probably have to adjust the rules for that, but I still beat him with only two healing items. I'll post the final update in detail in a little while.

Final end of game update!

Spoiler:

With winona defeated, this allows me to level up to level 42 before the next gym battle. As a result, Grovyle, Vigoroth, and Baltoy all evolve at Level 36!

When to mt pyre to beat up team magma and collect some items. After many detours for battles and items, I arrive at their lilycove base and beat them up there. Picked up the Master Ball while there.

The ocean awaits! I'm struggling to figure out who I can take as a fifth Pokemon at this point, because I wanted to add extra difficulty by not taking a water type on my team. My only real option this late in the game was Glalie, so I picked up a Snorunt in Shoal cave, and fed him all the rare candies I had collected throughout the game.

Liza and Tate are the next gym leaders, and the whole purpose of Mawile besides some help with early gyms becomes clear. Liza and Tate can be a really difficult battle if you don't have a good duo for your double battle strats, and Mawile and Sceptile for some reason seem to work really well together here. If you play your game correctly, The two of them can knock out both Solrock and Lunatone within a couple of turns. Mind Badge Obtained!

I go beat up Maxie one last time, and have Sceptile beat up Groudon with a Solarbeam. Didn't bother to capture it.

Before fighting the last gym I pick up whatever Rare Candies are left and evolve Snorunt into Glalie. Glalie is essentially just a filler Pokemon, and if I were to use this team again I'd probably swap it out for a Walrein. It's worth noting here that since none of my main fighters knew Surf, I was forced to take a zigzagoon with me to the gym battle since you can't go to the gym without surf. I seem to always learn something new for this challenge whenever I play it. XD

At long last Sceptile pays off! With the use of Sunny day and Solarbeam, Sceptile destroys the entire gym by himself. We're on our way to the league! or are we?

Stopped off at Meteor falls to pick up my final Pokemon, a Modest natured Bagon. After much training, he evolves into Salamence, and I can head towards victory road!

Go through Victory Road and beat up Wally. The Pokemon League is right in front of me, though at this point none of my Pokemon are anywhere near level 58. I decided I'd give it a shot anyways, and was surprised at the results.

ROUND 1: Sidney!
Sceptile manages to take out most of this guy's team with the Sunny Day Solarbeam combo. Mawile helps take out Shiftry with Sludge Bomb, and Slaking helps out with some powerful Brick Breaks.

ROUND 2!: Phoebe!

Pheobe was always one of my favourite elite members. It was cool to see a ghost type elite member with a variety of Ghosts unlike Agatha, and Pheobe was always super cute to me. :3

Anyhoo, Sceptile's Sunny Day and Solarbeam take care of dusclops, and everyone gets a chance to help out during this fight. Slaking got to hit some hard Shadow balls, Mawile and Glalie got to use crunch a couple times, Claydol helped out with sableye, and Salamence got to shoot off a flamethrower. A lot of switching was happing due to confusion moves, and avoiding certain attacks. Overall a clean fight.

ROUND 3!: Glacia!

FireRed Lorelie will alwyas be the loveliest Elite Four member in my mind, but Galcia is a bigger force to be reckoned with. Mawile gets a rare chance to shine in these fights by using focus punch on Glaie while it sets up hail. by the time Glacia had full restroed Glalie and I knocked its health back down, the hail had stopped. Glacia's first sealeo usually goes for hail and ice ball, so it allowed me to switch out to Sceptile and safely set up sunny day and solarbeam. Solarbeam manages to take out both sealeo and Walrein in one shot, which is awesome since her Walrien can be a nightmare. Slaking and Salamence finish off the last Glalie with Brick Break and Flamethrower.

ROUND 4!: THAT GUY NOBODY REMEMBERS! Lance? Drake? Something like that. : /

I was totally ready for this guy, and he still gave me a bit of an unexpected fight since my guys were so low leveled. Salamence had Dragonbreath, Sceptile had Dragon Claw taught to him through tm, and Glalie and Claydol both knew Ice Beam. If I was higher leveled I could have one shotted everything, but as it was I had a tiny bit of trouble. Still beat him first try though.

Round 5! The Champion Steven Stone!

This guy is one of the main reasons I love Ruby and Sapphire so much, and dislike Emerald. This guy is an absolute beast, and he'll mess you up good. Typically a hard hitting surf can put him in place pretty well, but fighting this guy without that is a whole other experience. I got really close on my first attempt, but got knocked out by Meteor Mash. On my second attempt it was an incredibly fun and hectic battle that really made the whole game worth playing. I can't even begin to remember what all went on during the fight because it was so intense and things kept changing drastically every turn, but I'll tell you that if Salamence didn't happen to burn Metagross before being knocked out, it would have survived the turn, got hit with a full restore, and I'd have had no hope of winning. Claydol finally found a purpose and was extremely helpful taking out Aggron, since all steven's Aggron could do to it is use Dragon Claw. All six Pokemon managed to do something amazing at some point in the battle, including Sceptile who managed to set up sunny day and solarbeam since Glalie managed to freeze steven's claydol. That didn't get to be abused too much though, as he sent out cradily against sceptile that would have clobbered it with Sludge Bomb had I kept him out. Stuff like that happened the entire battle, and in the end I managed to knock out Armaldo with Slaking and Sceptile to win the battle.

Final Team Hall of Fame!

Sceptile/Astroturf [Level 47] (F)
Moveset: Sunny Day, Leaf Blade, Dragon Claw, Solarbeam

Slaking/Bearsloth [Level 45] (F)
Moveset: Strength, Brick Break, Shadow Ball, Aerial Ace

Mawile/Haircut [Level 44] (F)
Moveset: Focus Punch, Sludge Bomb, Return, Crunch

Claydol/Spinny [Level 46]
Moveset: Ice Beam, Psychic, Toxic, Selfdestruct

Glalie/Vulcanammo (He looks like the vulanammo robots from Descent) [Level 47] (M)
Moveset: Ice Beam, Water Pulse, Crunch, Facade

Salamence/Endgame [Level 51] (M)
Moveset: Flamethrower, Earthquake, Iron Tail, Dragonbreath.

It was a really fun run, and I intend to go through the normal mode next. Now that I have my Adamant Beldum, I'm going to EV train it and evolve it to Metagross. In order to make the most of it though, I'll have to play through Sapphire to get some of the TMs I wasted during this run, which gives me a great excuse to take Mudkip on my next run so I don't need to use some of those powerful TMs.