[Challenge] Same Types Are Bad (STAB) Challenge

StenirRPG · Nov 7, 2024

Jeez. I tend to write a lot at times, but this was quite the read. I'm still mostly doing the standard monotype runs, so I haven't had a chance to come back to do this again, but just reading all the potential pain points, I find myself worried about doing all the types in Paldea. Of course, a great read - I look forward to hearing how more of the run goes for you!

Devalue · Nov 10, 2024

StenirRPG said:
Jeez. I tend to write a lot at times, but this was quite the read. I'm still mostly doing the standard monotype runs, so I haven't had a chance to come back to do this again, but just reading all the potential pain points, I find myself worried about doing all the types in Paldea. Of course, a great read - I look forward to hearing how more of the run goes for you!

Eh. Would not consider it that bad unless you care about Pokemon fainting. Stacked a lot of restrictions on top of choosing different strategies. Chose Pokemon with weak starts too. Sees an easily available Swords Dance TM near Titan Bombirdier. Spots an Iron Defense and Body Press TM in Titan Orthworm's region.

Progresses even if you lose most rival fights. Never needs to battle the harder, black text box trainers. Remembers no remarkable, normal text box trainers in the overworld. Leaves only Iono and apparently Katy as possible early stumbling blocks. Could face problems elsewhere if you have very few Pokemon or are not appropriately leveled, of course.

Do not forget the back-up strategy of EV training, also. Costs a mere 10000 for a Power item in Mesagoza. Collects cash easy-peasy if you set up a picnic on one of the shinies on the ground (not one of the Pokeballs). Personally managed fine without doing that, partially due to waiting until later to EV train. Maxes out a stat in just 28 fights, if you battle a Pokemon that gives 1 in that stat.
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Update 2: Atticus to the end

Team:

Names (in order): Club, Baton, Knuckle, Scepter, Nightstick, and Sap

Resumes at Atticus. Led with Sap. Noticed Skuntank favoring Sucker Punch. Set up the full Spikes x3 and Stealth Rock versus it, then outsped it with Mud Shot (thanks to a -1 from earlier). Correctly predicted Revavroom going for Bulldoze. Switched in Nightstick for a killing Drill Run on Revavroom and Muk. Left the Starmobile in the red before switching to Sap (to suck up Toxic Spikes), then to Baton for the match-ending Dig.

Whines a bit about trainers. Looked for trainers for experience. Beat one up on the road to Medali with a level 29. Took the other road leading east. Met a level 38 Corviknight there on a regular trainer. Dealt with a worse spike in a level 48 Grafaiai Tera Pokemon near Atticus. Ran from that, to be fair. (Believes you can run from trainers too. Always forgets that.)

Hit level 36 on everyone. Evolved everyone else remaining on the team: Sap to Glimmora, Club to Skeledirge, and Scepter to Slaking. Relies on Baton way more to suppress Truant now. Went on a short hunt for a Brick Break TM for Scepter too.

The Larry fight: Performed the full Spikes and Stealth Rock setup against Komala. Switched in Baton to pass Lingering Aroma on. Did not trigger because of Comatose, which was frustrating. (Looked ahead. Will not trigger on Titan Great Tusk or Titan Dondozo.) Spread it to Dundunsparce instead. Sent in Scepter, who handled Dudunsparce and Staraptor.

Fought Nemona right afterward. Welcomed the experience. Enjoyed watching enemy Pokemon come in at 2/3 health and badly poisoned. Comboed well with Baton's Dig.

Glanced at Scepter's Attack stat: about 170 versus almost everyone else in the mid 110's. So strong.

Laughs at a Blissey trainer. Switched in every Pokemon for the experience. Gained health overall. Healed Baton by maybe 60 hitpoints. Missed every Take Down except a critical against Scepter for 13 damage.

Missed maybe three Rock Slides with Nightstick across the game so far, despite always holding a Wide Lens. Has definitely not done 300 Rock Slides (or even 50, probably).

1% Rock Slide miss #4 versus the Ryme double battle gym challenge.

The Ryme battle: Chose Nightstick and Baton as the leads. Handled the Banette and Mimikyu fine. Learned something new about this fight: stat boosts for Ryme too. Handed out an omni-boost to Ryme once. Ties the boosts to certain actions, like super-effective moves and Terastallizing. Had very little of either. Sent out Club once, focusing on Snarl and totally forgetting it was a Ghost gym. Did not last long. Went fine besides that.

Remembered just before the battle that evolutions meant new TMs. Revisited everyone's movesets. Taught Earth Power to Club, Seed Bomb + Zen Headbutt to Baton, Drain Punch to Scepter (kind of a waste of Brick Break, but oh well), and Flash Cannon + Energy Ball to Sap. Avoided teaching Bulk Up to Scepter. Wants to not use buffing moves heavily. Would have taught Curse to Baton, though...if it did not require materials from Terarium Goletts. Seems kind of weak on an Oinkologne anyways.

Snapped a good shot of the Emotional Spectrum Training workout. Brought the perfect Pokemon to this.

[PokeCommunity.com] Same Types Are Bad (STAB) Challenge

Barely managed to keep everyone at 45 for the Tulip gym battle. Favored being at the correct level for that over Titan Great Tusk. Ended up being a simple fight, as planned. Led with Baton. Infected Farigiraf with Lingering Aroma. Switched Scepter in. Whacked everything with Throat Chop. Took a good amount of damage (~40%?) and a Special Defense drop from Gardevoir's Psychic. No damage on Scepter besides that.

One-shot the first phase of Great Tusk with Sap's Energy Ball. Needed two for the second phase, oddly.

Dealt with Grusha next at level 48. Laid down Stealth Rocks and a full set of Spikes with Sap before hightailing it out. Bullet Punched Frosmoth down. (Forgot to re-teach Knuckle Fire Punch for the battle.) Grew a little frustrated from a lack of contact moves. Infected Cetitan with Baton's Lingering Aroma, which laid the groundwork for Scepter to enter. Roasted both Cetitan and Altaria with Fire Punch.

Largely fought trainers up for experience until now. Reached the grinding promised land: the area around the Fairy Base. (Technically could have visited here as early as before Katy.) Gulped down an Encounter Power: Normal power sandwich with the shiny Shinx. Beat up a field full of level 44ish Chanseys and Blisseys.

Next up: Team Star Ortega. Lured Azumarill into losing its Huge Power to Lingering Aroma. Tossed in Scepter to punch some fairies. Worked for a time. Racked up some Attack drops from Dachsbun's Baby-Doll Eyes. Swapped Scepter in and out twice. Evidently never spread Lingering Aroma to Dachsbun, somehow. Called in Club to wreck the Starmobile for the win.

Battled more Chanseys to 56. Dominated the Titan Tatsugiri battle. Weakened Dondozo with Feather Dance to be a non-threat. Suffered zero damage on the Tatsugiri part with Nightstick between two Rock Slide flinches, a Muddy Water miss, and Tail Whip support from Greedent.

Headed to the last Team Star base for a Fighting-type boss. Worried about this one. Lacked a lot of good options. Taught moves good against Fighting types on Pokemon weak to Fighting. Brought Dazzling Gleam on Sap, who is weak to the High Horsepower on the Starmobile.

Swapped around to lay down the full hazard setup on Eri. Suffered a poison on Nightstick in the process, unfortunately. Defeated Toxicroak, Passimian, and Annihilape with Sap's Dazzling Gleam. Could not quite finish everyone. Swapped around to bring Nightstick in on Lucario's Dark Pulse. Spammed Feather Dance on the Starmobile while it spammed Shift Gear even harder. Tossed in Baton in hopes of disabling the Starmobile's Stamina. Nope. Took off a solid third of its health with Zen Headbutt, which was a lot more than expected. Brought in Scepter for a Play Rough, followed by Club for a finishing Hyper Voice. Won without anyone fainting. Could have gone really wrong, though, given the...7 Shift Gears the Starmobile did? Looked into its stats. Weighs in at 95 Attack, which is equivalent to a level 38 Revavroom with 0 IVs and EVs. Might not be that threatening, actually.

Entered the Elite Four at 61. (Forgot to put the level cap at 1 under the Champion, which is 62.) Forgot to stock up on healing items for the time between fights. Remembered having a ton. Was not wrong: 72 Hyper Potions, 50 Revives, and 36 Full Heals. Never mind. Probably bought zero healing items this entire playthrough, for the record.

Rika battle: Led with Baton. Evaporated Whiscash with Seed Bomb. Missed the one-shot for Dig versus Camerupt by a hair. Finished it with Nightstick. Made an error after that. Sent in Sap to take the incoming Stone Edge and deliver a one-shot Energy Ball. Forgot about Donphan's Sturdy, however. Did not live the follow-up Earthquake. Cleaned up with Knuckle. Bullet Punched Dugtrio to half health. Set up Sandstorm, leading to a Sand Veil miss next turn. Kept Knuckle in for Clodsire, despite knowing it would likely faint (and did). Finished the fight with Baton. Took some unnecessary faints in there. Oh well.

Poppy battle: No good leads here, so Club. Defeated Copperajah and Bronzong, at the cost of Stealth Rock and plenty of damage. Let it faint versus Corviknight, not wanting to risk an Iron Defense. Sent in Scepter to make sure it did not set up. Handled Magnezone with Baton's Dig. Managed to survive Tinkaton's Gigaton Hammer. Switched to Scepter to end the fight with Fire Punch. Eh. Not bad, given the iffy matchups.

Larry fight: Chose Nightstick for the lead-off spot. Finally had a decent matchup to use an entry hazard on. Took out Tropius and Altaria before handing it off to the Baton -> Scepter combo. Brought down Starpator and Oricorio. Felt kind of unsure, going against Flamigo while confused. Ignored confusion three times total without hitting itself for the deathless win. Definitely would have fainted if it did. Ended the fight at 30 hitpoints.

Hassel fight: Picked Nightstick again for the opener. Missed enough kills by a hair to want at least Stealth Rocks. Somehow outsped Noivern. Dropped Noivern down to 1 hitpoint with a single Rock Slide, only proving the point. Tried to use Baton for Dragalge. Was not keen on that after getting paralyzed on the switch-in. Yawned it before sending in Sap to take the incoming Sludge Bomb. Clicked Dazzling Gleam to defeat Dragalge, Haxorus, and Flapple. Thought Sap could not be hurt by Glaive Rush, for some bizarre reason. (Might have been the Fairy moves and kind of looking like a Fairy type. Realizes this is the no-STAB challenge, also.) Definitely fainted to that. Handled Baxcalibur with Knuckle's Fake Out, two Bullet Punches, and the damage from Toxic Spikes.

Champion Geeta fight: Wanted nothing to do with Espathra's nonsense. Led with Scepter to Throat Chop it before it acted. Predicted Avalugg's Body Press by switching to Club. Fully expected Earth Power (with Soft Sand) to one-shot Avalugg. Came nowhere close. Was saved a lot of damage by the Champion picking Avalanche over Crunch and Earthquake. Used the usual Baton -> Scepter switch against Kingambit. One-shot everything from there, up to Glimmora. Took two Drain Punches for that. Cleared that easier than any of the Elite Four.

Currently at level 63-64 after the Geeta fight. Headed straight to Arven. Debuffed Greedent with a Feather Dance, followed by Stealth Rocks. Did a lengthier switch of Nightstick -> Baton -> Club -> Scepter to avoid a Body Slam paralysis on the switch-in. Swept everything from there.

Only now remembered to fix up some natures via mints. Turned Club into a Modest nature, Knuckle into an Adamant nature, and Baton into an Impish nature. Kept some of the more defensive natures largely intact, just to keep that consistent.

Challenged Clavell next. Left it off the level cap list. Still has a no-joke, full team of six at 60-61. Countered Oranguru's Yawn spam with...Yawn, on one of its Reflect turns. Twice. Led to all the hazards and Scepter on the field with Lingering Aroma (and one turn of the enemy's Reflect). Basically repeated the Arven fight with Scepter sweeping.

Penny next, at level 64-65. Stuck Sap up front for one turn of entry hazards before turning it over to Nightstick. Traded a lot of blows with Umbreon (at -2 Attack). Grew a little irritated at Baton getting paralyzed on Jolteon's Thunder. Happened an awful lot to Baton this playthrough. Pulled off several Digs successfully, despite that, including one each versus Jolteon and Flareon. Yawned Vaporeon to give Knuckle the floor. Punched down both Vaporeon and Leafeon, but at the cost of going to -2 from Baby-Doll Eyes. Switched to Club to take the Moonblast, followed by Scepter for the Shadow Ball. Followed up that intelligent play by choosing Throat Chop instead of Fire Punch on a Fairy type. Sighs. Repeated the dance...only to fail to knock out Sylveon because of Baby-Doll Eyes. Performed the switch combo a third time to score the long overdue knockout.

Candied up to 66 on a few Pokemon for the last Nemona battle. Selected Scepter to lead to punch Lycanroc in the face. Outsped Lycanroc before the Stealth Rocks came out, as hoped. Predicted Pawmot's Close Combat by switching in Club. Cost two Earth Powers and a good chuck of health to beat Pawmot. Picked Scepter to Drain Punch Orthworm. Did not defeat it, shockingly. Suffered a pretty nasty Body Press for the trouble. Performed the usual dance to Club to take the Body Press and finish it. Matched Knuckle against Goodra. Won with some damage for its troubles. Predicted wrong versus Dudunsparce as it chose Coil. Lost a ton of health on Nightstick as a result, partially due to a crit. Decided to set up Lingering Aroma for Scepter. Was not happy with Scepter's 132 hitpoints to take on Meowscarada. (Hits really hard with Terastallized Flower Trick.) Outsped Meowscarada, fortunately, and one-shot it with Fire Punch. No faints, although a very close call with Nightstick at 3.

Do the credits roll now? ...Nope. Did not plan to go to Sada, but whatever. Finishes this up quickly enough. Sets that level cap at 67. Are hazards viable here? ...Yes. Good.

...Hold on. Did Nemona's Pokemon give zero experience in that last fight? Weaaaak. Spent a few more candies to get one more level after going through all the fights before Sada.

Sada fight: Led with three Feather Dances against Slither Wing. Set up the full Spikes x3, Toxic Spikes x2, and Stealth Rock hazard spread. Realized about now that Lingering Aroma was straight useless. Complicated matters. Handed it over to Club to deal with the defanged Slither Wing. Screamed at it with Hyper Voice to bring it down. Pitted Knuckle against Brute Bonnet, which was an easy win. Tanked Scream Tail's Play Rough by sticking Sap in. Lost about half its health from Scream Tail's Zen Headbutt. Let the poison finish the job as Nightstick ate the Zen Headbutt. Switched once more to let Knuckle deal with Flutter Mane (who has no Fairy moves, thankfully). Smashed it between the hazard damage and a single Bullet Punch. Saw no good options for Sandy Shocks, so Baton. Dropped to 58/270 between the switch-in and being outsped. Swapped in Scepter for the final Pokemon: Roaring Moon. Suffered an unfortunate crit from the switch-in +1 Dragon Claw, going down to 110/284. Clicked Play Rough for the win...and missed. Sighs. Fainted on the next Dragon Claw. Fine, whatever. Dispatched Roaring Moon with Fake Out, Bullet Punch, and the Toxic Spikes damage.

Might be the first time Scepter fainted since evolving into Slaking. Brings down the mood a little to end on that note. Oh well. Had to pay the piper on Play Rough eventually. Hit a good number of those. Likely ended above 90% accuracy.

Smiles at how Koraidon's Battle Form is supposed to be some big deal. Stood up. Matches Pawmo's evolution to Pawmi, in a sense. Defeated the opposing Koraidon in the scripted fight and watched the (unskippable) credits roll.

Squeezed the whole team into the frame for a final (bad) picture.

Team thoughts

Overall: Decent? Was not that impressed by entry hazards, relative to the standard buffing strategies with Swords Dance, Body Press, Nasty Plot, and so on. Felt harder to set up too. Often had bad match-ups for the hazard setters.
Club (Skeledirge). Useless for most of the playthrough. Chose it for its final typing without looking deeply at the moves. Learns very few good moves outside of its STABs. Helped towards the end with cleaner switches, though. Took some attacks that others did not want to deal with.
Baton (Oinkologne). Eh. Existed mostly to enable Slaking. Shared a typing too, which was not ideal. Managed to do some damage (and Yawns) from time to time. Was really trash at the start. Improved to "okay" after evolving. Learned lots of different move types, at least.
Knuckle (Hitmonchan). Pretty good. Dealt good damage. Played well with Toxic Spikes. Appreciated the priority, particularly without doing sweeping strategies. Would have been better with Drain Punch and Mach Punch, of course. Still fared well.
Scepter (Slaking). Excellent. Felt like the team's powerhouse after evolving into Vigoroth. Only improved with the evolution. Essentially cost two team slots instead of one, however.
Nightstick (Bombirdier). Alright. Felt better all-around than its stats would indicate. Might have been the Feather Dances...or more likely, the 30 IVs in every stat (or most?) for being a Titan. Helped to have STAB-like damage on Rock Slide too, undoubtedly.
Sap (Glimmora). Feels hard to rate. Focused mainly on entry hazards, which were not always a good idea. Did very little to Starmobiles and nothing to Titans. Seemed to do good damage when it did attack. Faced a lot of super-effective attacks on late-game trainers, come to think of it. Would not think that to be an issue, given only four weaknesses (Water, Ground x2, Psychic, Steel). Looking at the leads for the Victory Road trainers, though:
- Rika: Earth Power with Whiscash
- Poppy: High Horsepower with Copperajah
- Larry: None on Tropius
- Hassel: None on Noivern
- Geeta: Lumina Crash on Espathra
- Nemona: Earthquake on Lycanroc
Three quad-effective moves and a turn two death sentence. Involved the Steel and Ground trainers, to be fair.

Spoiler: Final Team

[Challenge] Same Types Are Bad (STAB) Challenge

StenirRPG

Devalue