Completed Event Running out of time - GT 2023 Pokémon Challenge

PHEW

Current rules:
- Your Pokémon cannot evolve during this segment.
- If you used Water-type Pokémon in any of the previous segments, you can only use Pokémon caught during this segment. Otherwise, you can't use TMs for the rest of the game.
- You can only use Grass and Normal-types for the next segment (global rule).
- You can only use Fighting and Fairy-types for the next segment, or in alternative, only Normal-types (global rule).
- You have to put at least one Flying-type Pokémon on your team for this segment.
- You must use Explosion or its variations at least once during each segment's final battle (if you have no way to have a Pokémon of yours learn these moves, you can ignore this rule).
- You have to put a Fairy-type Pokémon (or Pokémon that turns into a Fairy-type in later gens) on your team until the end of the game. It has to use Explosion or any of its variants (or if it can't learn any, then it has to use the strongest attack it currently knows) in each Gym Battle. It's not affected by any other rule.
- As long as you have a Grass-type Pokémon on your team, all Sinnoh Pokémon are unaffected by Global Rules.
- You have to put at least one Dark-type Pokémon on your team for this segment.
- At the end of your next segment, you can permanently box / release up to 4 Pokémon who battled against the last Gym leader / Kahuna / Captain you faced and obtain 10 Challenge Points for each.
- You can only use White and Black Pokémon during this segment. If you can't, you have to use Gray Pokémon during this segment.
- Consider the number of badges you own: subtract 3 from that number, then consider all the areas of the game that are accessible to you if you still were at that number of badges. You can only use Pokémon you can find in those areas, or their evolutions.
- As long as you have at least 100 000 Poké Dollars, any Pokémon that knows HP-draining moves is unaffected by any of your rules.

I DID IT I finished the run unlike last year :)

It turns out I assembled a pretty meh team to go into this final segment, but I managed, mostly because of some Pokémon just being very good on their own right. Oops. Team plasma was mostly fine, Colress didn't give me any particular issue, but some luck was needed to get past Kyurem-White with no problems. And here's the thing - if things go right, Lucario destroys it easily. If things go wrong, your whole team dies. Guess that's what happens when you're trying to finish a challenge and you're so massively underleveled :sadwick:

Ghetsis was yet another instance of this, but Lucario pulled through once again. This led me through a relatively uneventful Route 23 and Victory Road (never thought I'd say that, but that's what happens when you speedrun stuff I guess). Once I got to the league I did some basic shard hunting to give my Pokémon some semi-decent moves from tutors (can't use TMs...) and just went for it with a lot of healing items. Nothing says I can't use them right? Well my conscience does but... I'll be fine this time.

I started with Marshal, who was kind enough to let my Claydol (the new bomb) set up a bunch of Cosmic Powers. With some decent potion spam, it got to a point where there was nothing he could do, as Claydol (slowly) proceeded to Extrasensory everything in sight. First Elite 4 down and possibly the only good moment for Claydol!

Caitlin was swept in similarly unfair ways by Zoroark, who can still trick the AI just like that time I did the Ultra Moon challenge thing... I mean of course, that game is more recent than White 2 anyways. Only at the end I had Eelektross (yess) come in to finish off Gothitelle, who managed to survive a Night Slash in the red.

Shauntal was fun. That was another Zoroark sweep if not for the last Pokémon, Chandelure, which was just fast enough and bulky enough to stop the threat and run through the rest of my team. I should've played it better and just paralyzed it with Whimsicott but I made a bunch of rushed decisions and by the end of it, my team was completely wiped out if not for the fact that I revived Zoroark just in time. It came in, was fast enough, and finished off Chandelure.

Grimsley wasn't that bad. Lucario did most of the work, with Swanna and Whimsicott sort of handling Krookodile. It's always fun to have Inner Focus because the AI just does not think about it and so was the case with the lead Liepard. :)

Iris... well. She starts with Hydreigon, against which I have to try and fulfill my rules. Things go well because I lead Whimsicott, use Stun Spore immediately, then proceed to hit two Hurricanes (now my strongest move) before fainting. I think I've done enough damage for Claydol to come in and use Self-Destruct for the KO... which happens, fulfilling another rule, but no KO. Actually, that's the perfect Full Restore range. I scramble around with my team until I can paralyze Hydreigon again and use Lucario to finish her off. Druddigon comes in and I'm kind of lost again. I try to read a switch but nope, Swanna gets decimated by Rock Slide. I once again have to use Lucario, who now knows Ice Punch, to deal with Iris's Pokémon. Third is Aggron, against which I have a decent check in Eelektross. With some healing and Drain Punch spam (another tutor move), Aggron goes down. Haxorus is next actually, and I have to be careful around Dragon Dance, but I am able to get off a Stun Spore from Whimsicott, who I revived in the meantime, as well as another Hurricane for good measure. Then it's time for Lucario to use tutored Ice Punch and hope for the best - finally Haxorus is down. Lapras only takes one Close Combat, but that left me vulnerable to Archeops's Acrobatics, and Lucario goes down too. At that point I only had like, Zoroark alive, which I sent in just as sacrifice so that I can try to revive Lucario. I should've probably tried to paralyze Archeops with Whimsicott instead, because Lucario is still kinda frail, but... the stars align, because Lucario survives an Acrobatics on 6 HP and hits back with Ice Punch right into Defeatist range. Iris is apparently without any more healing items, so I can heal Lucario and attack again to ensure victory.

I have to say, Lucario was really what got me this far. It's a great, versatile Pokémon that you can get at the start of the game and with some very useful typing, especially for this game. It's unsurprising that in my first playthrough of this game when I was still a pre-teen I had Terrakion carry me through most of the League and beyond - and Lucario is just a less powerful version of that in a way or another. Zoroark was also pretty good but without TMs it really turns more one-dimensional, like a buffed Mightyena I guess.
Whimsicott was pretty nice, I generally like having Grass-types around, but once again it felt a bit one-dimensional as a Pokémon (especially if I think about this Pokémon now). It's that I had to use it as my "Fairy" Pokémon for the challenge, but otherwise I could've probably swapped it for a different Grass-type. Swanna was more useful before the League and almost never appeared in the Elite 4 and Champion fights but I think the reason is more like... stats aren't that good by themselves - this Pokémon just doesn't work well at a level disadvantage.
Claydol and Eelektross were just painfully slow and, being new recruits, didn't really have the EVs that make your Pokémon (usually) hit pretty hard during a normal run. Those are Pokémon I'm kind of interested in because I never really used them and also for roleplay reasons, Hikaru will likely use them - if you know you know but they're just not great in game... and Eelektross especially really suffered from the no TMs rule. I'm also negatively surprised by their bulk... maybe it's another EV or level problem but they were just not taking attacks that well. This meant my strategy eventually turned into slowing the opponent down with paralysis or using Tailwind with Swanna... and then using glass cannons to hopefully get through battles quickly, something that I think I could've done MUCH better with a different set of Pokémon. But oh well, we gave these Pokémon a try :catlove:

I sacrifice everyone but Lucario and Zoroark since they were good bois and get some more points for team klinks

My team now:
- Swanna, lv. 41 - from driftveil drawbridge
-- Fly, Surf, Tailwind, Rain Dance
- Claydol, lv. 26 - from volcarona's room in relic castle
-- Cosmic Power, Self-Destruct, Earth Power, Extrasensory
- Whimsicott, lv. 53 - from route 4 (trade)
-- Hurricane, Stun Spore, Giga Drain, Energy Ball
- Eelektross, lv. 55! - from chargestone cave, lowest floor (so you need badge 5 but 8-3=5)
-- Drain Punch, Thunderbolt, Crunch, Thunder Wave
- Zoroark, lv. 48 - N's Pokémon from Driftveil
-- Night Slash, Foul Play, Taunt, U-Turn
- Lucario, lv. 42 - from floccesy ranch
-- Ice Punch, Close Combat, Aura Sphere, Swords Dance

Here's the hall of fame records (from the in game PC):
 
Okay, it's time to finish this event. Thank you all for participating. It was fun to run it. And thanks Loomie for all the help and support.

So, the final results are...
Apricorns: 1330
Gears: 1350

Team Gears wins! Congratulations. It was really close. But thanks to Mewtwolover beating their game the fastest, you managed to grab our achievements for beating the game the fastest. Team Apricorns can thank Devalue and wolf for finding Celebi and getting their team some bonus points and closing the gap.

Now, Team Gears wins 300 GT points thanks to this. And Team Apricorns gets 295 GT points.

But that's not all. If you wish to continue and finish your run, I think there are two possibilities: You can make a thread in Travel Journals and continue there. After you finish each segment, ping me and I can roll your new rule. Or you can continue on your own without posting it and reach out to me in PM. Either way, there won't be any more Global rules, since quite a lot of them are about interactions between players and there will be no map.
 
This was a fantastic event! I'm really glad you two hosted it!
 
This event was, and is, quite fun, even though I haven't had the time to do more than half of it.

I've already made a thread in Travel Journals to continue my challenge, and I vow to see this thing through to the end!
 
I know this is technically completed, but as I finished my next segment and not sure where to put it, here goes:

Finished segment 7

Spoiler:


Finished segment 8

Spoiler:


Finished segment 9

Spoiler:
 
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Also finished my next segment, I have my own Travel Journals thread for it but might as well put it here too:

Explorer of Time said:
Blaze Black 2 Redux
GT 2023 - Ruin Maniac Horatio
Segment 5 (Route 16 -> Driftveil Gym)

I had permaboxed four of my team members to get Team Gears some points, so I had to spend a lot of time training up replacements. I kept the Gardevoir I have to keep along anyway, and the Charmeleon I couldn't easily replace. For the other four, I picked up another Jumpluff with Prankster because it was by far the best member of my team, got a Mudkip from the guy who gives you a Hoenn starter and trained it up to a Swampert to help me beat Clay, and, since I was accidentally given knowledge of my next segment's rule, a Claydol and Butterfree to minimize training time for the next segment. I would've picked Claydol even without this rule, since this romhack makes it AMAZING by giving it Psyshield Bash. I pprobably would've skipped Butterfree without this foreknowledge, though.

Most of the battles along the way to Clay weren't too hard, with the exception of Charles both on the way to Driftveil and the rematch in Driftveil itself, since I'm not used to Triple Battles and lost three times while I got the hang of things. Rood was a little tougher than expected but I still beat him my first try.

To start off the battle against Clay, I led with Gardevoir, had him use Psyshock a couple times against Nidoqueen, and fainted it before it could set up Stealth Rock.

Clay switched to Nidoking, and I quickly used my strongest move, Future Sight, once to fulfill Towards the New Future before Gardevoir fainted. I switched to Butterfree, put Nidoking to sleep, and it fainted from Future Sight.

Clay responded by bringing out Krookodile, which outsped Butterfree and 1HKOed him with a Rock Slide. I brought out Swampert and 1HKOed it after he lost nearly half his health to an Earthquake.

Clay then sent out a Seismitoad, and I switched to Jumpluff while he wasted an Earthquake, and took it down with two Mega Drains.

I missed with Sleep Powder against Clay's Claydol and it hit back with an Ice Beam, taking Jumpluff down. I switched back to Swampert, barely survived a critical Psychic, and 1HKOed Claydol with Aqua Tail.

Clay's Excadrill fainted Swampert, then I returned with my own Claydol, which damaged it with Scorching Sands, then it 1HKOed Claydol with a Swords Dance X-Scissor. I sent out my last Pokemon, Charizard, which outsped it and won the battle with a Blaze Kick. (The Fire Lash in its team entry replaced Blaze Kick as a level up move right after the battle).

I then deposited my Charizard, Swampert, and Jumpluff in the PC. I hope I get Charizard and Jumpluff back in Segment 7, but Swampert's probably staying boxed this time.

Team

Spoiler:
Click to expand...
 
Again, finished another segment.

Explorer of Time said:
Blaze Black 2 Redux
GT 2023 - Ruin Maniac Horatio
Segment 6 (Pokemon World Tournament -> Mistralton Gym)

I had to box only half my team this time, leaving behind Charizard, Jumpluff, and Swampert, but I was able to keep Gardevoir, Butterfree, and most importantly Claydol. I caught a Snover and evolved it into an Abomasnow right after my victory, and then, after the Plasma Frigate, went back and got a Dewgong for my fifth Pokemon. I waited until Celestial Tower for my sixth Pokemon, Banette, and had to face my rival in a 5v5 battle without her, which was kinda difficult and I lost it my first two tries. Aside from that, my only losses were against the first two of the back-to-back three trainers in the Castelia back alley that have really good teams in this romhack, but thankfully I don't have to refight the ones I beat and could just come back for rematches with a healed party. Aside from my Rival and these three, I've suffered no losses.

I do plan on saving Guitarist Tina for later, since she has a great Triple Battle team of all the Kanto and Johto starters, and I am not good at Triple Battles, so I'm planning to wait until sometime next segment, or possibly the segment after if I get a difficult restriction.

I started off the battle against Skyla with my Dewgong, and he fainted her Skarmory after it set Stealth Rock.

She sent out an Archeops, fainted my Dewgong, and I switched to Claydol, and maxed out its defenses by Psyshield Bashing it six times to KO it, then took down Swanna and Drifblim with a few Rock Slides. I had to use a few healing items, mostly status-restoring but also two Moomoo Milk, because Skyla got really lucky with status RNG and burned and froze Claydol multiple times.

I had to switch out, 'cause Towards the New Future, and tried having Gardevoir use Future Sight, but it fainted first on the first try. I switched to Butterfree and used a Revival Herb in Gardevoir, letting Butterfree faint in the process, but it got confused by Hurricane and fainted, so I tried AGAIN, sacrificing Abomasnow this time, and successfully Future Sighted it, and fainted it the next turn. Future sight technically didn't DO anything, but I did USE his highest-power move, which is all I needed to do to validate this victory.

Team

Spoiler:
Click to expand...
 
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