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Friendly reminder to @DragonEye (Violet) and @Celèste1 (Platinum): Please jot down your in-game adventure logs in this thread. Dunno about the other players, but I'm curious.
Welp, this sure is quite a long chapter. Why? Because this is where the peak of Flare shenanigans ensues for some reason. It all started from the Lysandre Labs gauntlet:
Round 1: Lysandre. Corrin and Alear one-shot his Mienfoo and Murkrow respectively. I think he was hoping for Shez or Alear to face his Gyarados, but Corrin shattered that hope with two rounds of Thunderbolt. Shez did come out eventually, but that's against his Pyroar instead of Gyarados. Still annoying because Shez kept flinching from the lion's Dark Pulse, though.
Round 2: Aliana. Her Mightyena was easier to deal with this time around without the ever-annoying Roar -- Shez practically OHKO'd the thing. Her Druddigon was no match for Alear's Play Rough either.
Round 3: Celosia. Kris soloed this fight big time because both her Manectric and Drapion were weak to Mud Shot. Not without Drapion's Acupressure being annoying, however.
Round 4: Bryony. Alear did a Play Rough on her Mightyena while Byleth's Superpower downed her Bisharp in one fell swoop.
Round 5: Mable. It's a Shez solo this time, mainly because he was a little too... well-prepared against Mable's Houndoom and Weavile.
And finally, round 6: Xerosic. While his Crobat's Air Slash flinched Corrin every other turn, the latter managed to maximize her Thunderbolt usage whenever she's not flinched. Then there's Malamar who'd quickly taken down by Shez's X-Scissor. So yeah, note to self: get Byleth away from bug-type attacks.
And then this happened at Geosenge:
Kiran's next mission was to nip this particular flower in the bud which means capturing Yveltal was in order. Not without two rounds of Lysandre fight, however.
Pre-Yveltal: Lysandre's Mienfoo and Murkrow may have evolved, but they're still no match for Corrin and Alear. Just like last time, I had Corrin's Thunderbolt electrocute his Gyarados. And unlike last time, Robin's Surf swept his Pyroar away instead of Shez's Razor Shell -- or even Rock Tomb for that matter.
Post-Yveltal: Mostly the same as the pre-Yveltal fight above but now Lysandre's Gyarados traded its flying type for the dark one via Mega Evolution. I had to use two of my Hyper Potions before said Gyarados downed Corrin big time. But lucky for her, Mega Gyarados was already at the red zone after her Aftermath kicked in, thus allowing Alear to finish the dragon-serpent-fish thingy off.
So now the journey continues. I gathered as many TMs as possible (even if it meant exploring Terminus Cave -- Zygarde can wait), did friendly spars with Professor Sycamore and a certain trio of friendos, randomly checked my berry plants (I've been doing some berry farming on the side since I first arrived at Camphrier), and pushed forward, eventually reaching Snowbelle. However, I needed to find its gym leader, Wulfric, in Route 20's direction. So here I am, looking for the man to tell him I'm there for his gym badge.
Speaking of Snowbelle gym, let's just say that both Fodlanese mercenaries Byleth and Shez dominated the fight. Thanks to Byleth's Flamethrower, Wulfric had to waste his Hyper Potions on Abomasnow. Shez's Brick Break should've been a one-shot hadn't Wulfric's Cryogonal confused him first. And finally, back to Byleth, his Superpower 2HKO'd the gym leader's ace, Avalugg.
Next chapter: The Final Gauntlet. Also known as the Elite Four and Champion.
I'm almost done training for the Elite Four, which hasn't been as tedious with grinding as it normally is. Hopefully I'll have the challenge completed tonight or tomorrow.
Quick update: I'm about to tread the Victory Road and want to train my main team along the way, so I want to distribute HM moves across the team instead of using HM slaves this time around. Robin (Dragalge) already has Surf and this is how I plan the rest:
Waterfall to Shez (Barbaracle) because he's more physically-inclined -- may revert to Razor Shell once I reach the Pokemon League;
Strength to Kris (Diggersby), replacing either Return or Super Fang; and
Rock Smash (technically not HM move but still) to... whoever can learn it (I'll figure it out later).
That said, I need y'all's opinions regarding point #2. Which move should I ditch for Strength: Return or Super Fang?
Quick update: I'm about to tread the Victory Road and want to train my main team along the way, so I want to distribute HM moves across the team instead of using HM slaves this time around. Robin (Dragalge) already has Surf and this is how I plan the rest:
Waterfall to Shez (Barbaracle) because he's more physically-inclined -- may revert to Razor Shell once I reach the Pokemon League;
Strength to Kris (Diggersby), replacing either Return or Super Fang; and
Rock Smash (technically not HM move but still) to... whoever can learn it (I'll figure it out later).
That said, I need y'all's opinions regarding point #2. Which move should I ditch for Strength: Return or Super Fang?
I'd say Return - it's a little drop in power (102 to 80) but still a solid option and Super Fang gives you a guaranteed 50% against anything not Ghost Type I think, so might help with something being especially annoying.
Shifts more in Return's favor. Avoids the 90% accuracy of Super Fang too.
Drops Super Fang, given the two choices, due to accuracy. Prefers to remove Brick Break over both, though. When does Brick Break do more than Return AND Earthquake? Not Normal types (about the same damage, assuming max 102 power Return). Not Steel or Rock types (because of Earthquake). Might be just things double-weak to Fighting, like Weavile.
Shifts more in Return's favor. Avoids the 90% accuracy of Super Fang too.
Drops Super Fang, given the two choices, due to accuracy. Prefers to remove Brick Break over both, though. When does Brick Break do more than Return AND Earthquake? Not Normal types (about the same damage, assuming max 102 power Return). Not Steel or Rock types (because of Earthquake). Might be just things double-weak to Fighting, like Weavile.
Since Rock Smash is a TM in Gen 6 rather than an HM, you don't need to actually permanently forget it during Victory Road. Just replace another TM move on a Pokemon that has one, then teach it the TM move again when you're done.
Leans a little more towards keeping Super Fang. Pumped up Haxorus a little. Gave it 25 to all IVs (which is maybe what Diantha would have). Kept Kris's 3 level advantage.
1.4% chance of 3 Returns defeating Haxorus versus the 90% chance of Super Fang + 2 Earthquakes (not including criticals).
Is in a weird spot where the stronger Kris is, the weaker Super Fang is. Essentially bypasses any Attack drops on Kris (likely only Intimidate from Gyarados, which is not likely) or any Defense boosts. Might do alright against Scizor. So...maybe keep Super Fang?
Also, one point in Brick Break's favor: Aurorus. Actually has screens to break. (Still only matches Earthquake's damage, though. Means putting Kris in front of an Ice type as well.)
Since Rock Smash is a TM in Gen 6 rather than an HM, you don't need to actually permanently forget it during Victory Road. Just replace another TM move on a Pokemon that has one, then teach it the TM move again when you're done.
I'd say Return - it's a little drop in power (102 to 80) but still a solid option and Super Fang gives you a guaranteed 50% against anything not Ghost Type I think, so might help with something being especially annoying.
Leans a little more towards keeping Super Fang. Pumped up Haxorus a little. Gave it 25 to all IVs (which is maybe what Diantha would have). Kept Kris's 3 level advantage.
1.4% chance of 3 Returns defeating Haxorus versus the 90% chance of Super Fang + 2 Earthquakes (not including criticals).
Is in a weird spot where the stronger Kris is, the weaker Super Fang is. Essentially bypasses any Attack drops on Kris (likely only Intimidate from Gyarados, which is not likely) or any Defense boosts. Might do alright against Scizor. So...maybe keep Super Fang?
Also, one point in Brick Break's favor: Aurorus. Actually has screens to break. (Still only matches Earthquake's damage, though. Means putting Kris in front of an Ice type as well.)
Also, let's say I'm ditching Return for Strength just to get through the Victory Road and I have a separate HM slave for flights to and from the move deleter's place (Dendemille in my case) once I reach the League. Should I keep Strength for E4 and Diantha or should I go back to, well, Return?
Quick update: I'm about to tread the Victory Road and want to train my main team along the way, so I want to distribute HM moves across the team instead of using HM slaves this time around. Robin (Dragalge) already has Surf and this is how I plan the rest:
Waterfall to Shez (Barbaracle) because he's more physically-inclined -- may revert to Razor Shell once I reach the Pokemon League;
Strength to Kris (Diggersby), replacing either Return or Super Fang; and
Rock Smash (technically not HM move but still) to... whoever can learn it (I'll figure it out later).
Prefers Surf's extra damage over a (respectable) 30% burn chance, personally. Already runs Toxic on it for status as well. Definitely not Waterfall. Lacks both the Attack and the speed for flinch chances.
Managed some impressively bad IVs, also. Wonders what the odds of that are.
...Needs to know now. Generated 100,000 sets of IVs. Totaled up to 37 or less in 587 of them, or 0.587%. So, a bottom 1% Dragalge. The Joey's Rattata of Dragalges (which was all 0 IVs, by the way). Nods. Impressively bad. Stuck the 0 IV in Attack too, at least.
Managed some impressively bad IVs, also. Wonders what the odds of that are.
...Needs to know now. Generated 100,000 sets of IVs. Totaled up to 37 or less in 587 of them, or 0.587%. So, a bottom 1% Dragalge. The Joey's Rattata of Dragalges (which was all 0 IVs, by the way). Nods. Impressively bad. Stuck the 0 IV in Attack too, at least.
Pokemon Black
Secret Delibird - Rich Boy Noël
Update 6 (Chargestone Cave -> Mistralton Gym)
Another update, and another badge. This time, I explored Chargestone Cave, Route 7, and Celestial Tower before making my way to the next gym, and finally evolved Blaziken, Staraptor, and Sawsbuck along the way.
Blaziken learned Fire Punch via the move reminder after evolving in the gym, and also learned Shadow Claw via TM. Staraptor learned Close Combat after evolving on Route 7, and I used both my PP Ups on it since it only had five PP to start with. Gliscor replaced three of her moves with Bulldoze, Night Slash, and Screech, though the latter isn't going to stay long since she'll learn Swords Dance in three levels. Finally, Sawsbuck learned Energy Ball and evolved in Celestial Tower, though it will also not stay long as it will learn the physical Horn Leech to replace it.
But before I could do any of that, I had to beat Bianca in Driftveil City. Gliscor swept everything but her Musharna with Acrobatics, then got put to sleep by Hypnosis after bringing Musharna to slightly over half its HP. I switched in Porygon2 into a Psybeam, and KOed it with two Signal Beams.
I also fought N in Chargestone Cave, and Starmie unexpectedly swept his entire team without help. It 2HKOed Boldore wit, 1HKOed Joltik, and 2HKOed Klink with Scald, taking minimal damage from a Charge Beam from Klink. Ferroseed was a little trickier, and Starmie confused it and 3HKOed it with Scald despite not being very effective. Ferroseed hit Starmie with a three-hit Pin Missile that brought it down to near half HP, but wasted its other attack move on a near-useless Metal Claw for some reason.
Skyla was also quite easy. Gliscor 2HKOed her Swoobat with Night Slash while it uselessly set Amnesia, and did a little bit of damage with Heart Stamp. Gliscor then 2HKOed Swanna with Acrobatics, but she nearly got KOed by Bubblebeam. She got one last Acrobatics in against Unfezant before getting KOed by Air Slash, and I switched to Staraptor and finished Unfezant off with a critical Return to win the battle.
Now, to Iccirus Town. But before that, I'm going to get the Surf HM along the way, and backtrack for a lot of surfable areas, most notably the P2 Laboratory behind Nuvema Town that has the evolution item I need to evolve Porygon2 into Porygon-Z.
Team
Spoiler:
Blaziken (♀) | Fire/Fighting | Level 36
Moves: Fire Punch, Shadow Claw, Rock Smash, Bulk Up
Stats: 105 HP / 112 Atk / 59 Def / 81 SpA / 60 SpD / 67 Spe
Ability: Speed Boost | Nature: Adamant | Item: Rocky Helmet
Sorry for not updating earlier. I'm preparing for my phd exams and couldn't find time for writing updates. So I decided to beat the game first. I also wanted to use Aerys II more and kinda made an unofficial move to use it in every Gym mocing forward. I'll quickly go over the major battles, but to be honest, I'm bad at describing my runs...
I quickly got my last 2 team members and challenged Norman. I knew my team wasn't bulky and strong enough to beat Norman's Slaking. Luckily, the worst Pokémon on my team had an awful move that came handy. I once again used Aerys II's Dragon Rage and won. Well, I had to finish the final Slaking with my other Pokémon, but thisGym also goes to Aerys II.
Moving on, Maegor I evolved right on time to face Winona. Well, he lost to Altaria's Earthquake straight away and had to use Aerys II to finish things off.
By the time of Tate and Liza, my whole team evolved at least once. The battle was surprisingly short, with Aegon I one-shotting both Solrock and Lunatone.
One fun detail I discovered before facing Wallace - you can run away from the battle with Kyogre. Wallace battle was okay, I mostly used Aegon I and Aerys II again.
Now, I wanted to write about E4 fights, but... I don't remember any interesting details from any of them except for the Steven battle. I only know I barely used Armaldo and beat most members using my dragons, only using other Pokémon to finish off the final Pokémon of the given E4 member.
I tried to sweep Steven with Rhaenyra, because I thought that Dragon-type moves are physical in this gen, meaning they would get a boost through Dragon Dance. Yeah, this was a rookie mistake. My only physical move was Fly. And I run out of PP by Aggron. So I used Aegon V to finish the fight with few Earthquakes.
The challenge concludes Saturday, January 18th, 8:00 PST, which is only one week from now! There will be no further extensions, so make sure to beat your games on time.
DragonEye and Celèste1, I haven't recieved any updates from either of you since we started. Could you tell me how far you are in your games, please?
<Cue the YouTube video "Ducktales 2017: Glomgold Gloating to the Sound of "All I Do Is Win" by DJ Khalid ft. Ludacris, Snoop Dogg, and those other 2 guys, EXTENDED TO THE FULL VERSION Wow, you guys, that's great!">
[Raising my blue-tinted sunglasses] Guess who's the undefeated champion of the Hoenn League! [Makes it rain PokéDollars] I WIN!
Cha-La Head-Cha-La
I almost forgot to mention that I caught my final party member Shenron the Bagon at Meteor Falls, which is also where the TM for "Dragon Claw" is. I caught him at Level 35, so he ended up evolving into Shelgon immediately, and I didn't have to do a lot of grinding before the Elite Four. That said, I was kind of concerned about Shenron's defenses because he would have significantly lower EVs compared to the rest of the team, so I did buy some vitamins at the Lilycove Department STore--Iron, Zinc, HP Up, and just for good measure, Protein. I think it was in a ratio of 2:3:2:1, but I don't 100% remember.
--
All right, so before we get into the battles with the Elite Four, I should probably share a couple of highlights from Victory Road as well as the final team prior to challenging the League.
Final Battle! Wally
Wally caught me by surprise because in Ruby/Sapphire, he's the final obstacle before exiting Victory Road for the League, but in Emerald, they decided it was a d--- move to make him last, so instead he's your first opponent on Victory Road. This kind of made me mad in the moment. I wanted to do an undefeated run, so after failing to K.O. his Altaria with Shenron the Shelgon, I had Bulma the Gardevoir use a couple Calm Mind, so I could sweep his team. I'm not sorry.
There's No Running from a Trainer Battle
There was also those two sneaky Cool Trainers who think they're slick hiding beneath the bridge just before the exit, the ones that aren't in Ruby/Sapphire. One of them sent out a Slaking, and I was like, "Ah, jeez, how many healing items do I have? Oh, dear!" Then the other one's Pokemon used Skill Swap to take away Slaking's Truant ability. Then before I could even finish off the Slaking, the other one sent out their Slaking, and I soon realized this was a strategy of having two Skill Swapped Slaking in the same battle. I don't want to do a turn-by-turn analysis, but it was intense. Because I had exhausted most of my Hyper Potions and Full Restores (and admittedly forgotten about my Lemonades), this double battle was Elite Four levels of difficult.
Notes: I gave this thing a King's Rock. I probably should've given it a Charcoal against Glacia, but the King's Rock did come into play at some point during the battle against Elite Four Phoebe (I think).
--
I actually beat the game on Thursday the 9th, but I was feeling a little tired that day, so I didn't write the final update. Then yesterday, I had an impromptu invitation to join someone in Lethal Company, so I had to conserve my socializing energy for the livestream I had planned that night. I did record footage of the run for a couple of reasons, but the important part is that I'm reviewing the footage to give a better summary of the battles against Elite Four Glacia, Elite Four Drake, and Champion Wallace.
Note: I might've overdone it with purchasing Hyper Potions, Full Restores, Full Heals, and Revives. I don't want to say exactly how much I bought for each, but it was overkill.
Elite Four Sydney
I'm not going to give a huge analysis on Sydney because I had multiple counters for him.
I did send Gyarados out right away, which resulted in both sides cutting the other's Attack with Intimidate. Gyarados nearly knocked out this 1st mon of the League with Return, but the Mightyena survived even after it used Double Edge and dealt itself recoil damage, which meant it would heal. He sent out his ace Absol second, which I found a bit odd.
Elite Four Phoebe
Okay, I'm not going into play-by-play here either, but this is where the actual challenge of the Elite Four comes in. I didn't have any Ghost-type moves, and the only Dark-type move I had was Shu the Mightyena's Crunch, so I mostly just brute forced it with moves that weren't super effective or "not very effective." There were some moves from Pheobe's team that caught me off-guard. For one thing, one of Phoebe's Pokemon had Grudge, and I didn't recognize the move, so I ended up losing all of Dragon Claw's PP on Shenron the Salemence. I still had Dragonbreath which is useful for the high paralysis chance. This was a bit more challenging than Sydney, and I had to use a few elixirs and ethers afterwards because of Pressure, but it wasn't anything my team couldn't handle.
Elite Four Glacia
Oh, expletive, here we go again.
Spoiler: Elite Four Glacia
I thought Glacia would send out Glalie first because of Ruby/Sapphire, so I sent Shenron the Salamence out first. I switched into Bulma the Gardevoir as Sealeo set up Hail. Gardevoir took chip damage from the Hail and then one-shot Sealeo with Thunderbolt. I switched into Salamence for Glalie, but its Flamethrower didn't K.O. Icy Wind coupled with Hail knocked Salamence down to 12 HP out of 168 Max HP. I decided to use Flamethrower again, and it worked. I sent Bulma / Gardevoir back out and selected Thunderbolt. The foe Sealeo held on and attacked, but it was Double-Edge, so the recoil knocked the enemy out. Now at this time, I got confused and sent out Yamcha the Ludicolo with Giga Drain which was a complete mistake on my part since the opponent was not part water-type (not the Ludicolo's fault so won't affect the score at the end).
I guess the Hail had stopped at this point, so when I sent Gardevoir back out, Glalie set Hail back up. Glalie attacked first with Shadow Ball (which surprised me), so Gardevoir went down to the red with 19/151 HP. Thunderbolt only did about 2/5 of Glalie's HP, albeit I got a nice paralysis in, so I started sweating a bit. The hail knocked Gardevoir down to 10 HP, and I did use Psychic this time (since I should've used it for STAB in the first place), but Glalie held on with about 5-8% of its HP and knocked Gardevoir out with Shadow Ball. I sent Shu the Mightyena in, and then I was like "Crap, I should've sent in Golem," but I decided to select "Crunch" anyway. Glacia used a Full Restore (obviously). Crunch only dealt 1/5 of Glalie's HP of damage. The pelting hail and Glalie's Ice Beam knocked Shu down to 40/137 HP. Shu used Return since it's physical, but Glalie still had 40% of its HP left. I selected Shadow Ball to sacrifice Glalie for a clean switch into Golem. Shu fainted from Ice Beam. I selected Brick Break as Golem, and Glalie naturally outsped Golem. Yep, Tenshinhan went down in one shot before Brick Break could be made useful. At this point, I'm really panicking. I sent out Krillin the Gyarados. Krillin used Dragon Dance to raise its Attack and Speed by 1 stage. Glalie set up hail again (which is something I wasn't expecting since I didn't know Hail had stopped). Krillin used Return to take out Glalie (though it probably would've been safer to use a 2nd Dragon Dance on this turn because of what's to come in this fight). Critical hit too.
Glacia sent out Walrein. Krillin used Return to knock Walrein down to just under 50% HP. Walrein tried Sheer Cold which missed. Then Walrein used a Sitrus Berry to heal, which had me upset. I didn't want this thing to heal with a Full Restore after the next turn, so I had Krillin used another Dragon Dance to raise its Attack and Speed. Walrein tried another Sheer Cold but missed. Krillin was at 2.0x Attack and 2.0x Speed, so Return finished off Glacia's Walrein. Phew, that was pretty rough!
Elite Four Drake
Drake also put up a compelling fight, but he wasn't as tough as Glacia.
Spoiler: Elite Four Drake
Drake sent out a Lv 52 Shelgon, so I decided to flex by sending out Shenron the Salamence. Shelgon used Protect to block my Dragon Claw, but on the next turn, Dragon Claw knocked Shelgon out. Shenron went up to Lv 51 (168/168 HP -> 171/171 HP). Now Altaria (the species) doesn't have the best defenses, so I use another Dragon Claw, but this thing survived with about 1/3 of its HP, which surprised me. Altaria used Dragon Dance, and I was like "Oh, crap, it's gonna outspeed." It used Dragonbreath which knocked Shenron down to 92/171 HP, and I used Dragon Claw to knock the foe out. It worked of course.
I sent out Yamcha the Ludicolo for Flygon because I thought it would be using Sandstorm like in Ruby/Sapphire. Oops, I forgot that Drake only has one Flygon here now. Flygon used Earthquake with a critical hit, so Ludicolo only had 71/151 HP by the time it used Ice Beam, but thankfully, it one-shot Flygon. I think this was the part where Yamcha the Ludicolo leveled up to Lv 48.
Next up was Kingdra, so I sent Shenron the Salamence back out. (Dragon-type attacks are Kingdra's one weakness since Water resists Ice, and Dragon resists Electric and Grass.) Shenron used Dragon Claw, which knocked Kingdra down to about 25% of its HP. The foe Kingdra used Dragon Dance. Oh, dear. Kingdra used ... Body Slam? I guess it could've paralyzed my Shenron, but it didn't, so Shenron knocked it out with another Dragon Claw.
When Drake sent out his Salamence, I sent out Tenshinhan the Golem. I'm looking at the footage, and I can't remember I actually intended to make use of Golem in this fight. In any case, I used Hyper Potions on Yamcha and Shenron while foe Salamence used Dragon Claw (knocking Tenshinhan down to 32/142 HP, which was MASSIVE damage) and then Crunch to finish him off. I sent in Yamcha and selected Ice Beam. Foe Salamence outsped with Dragon Claw which was... super nice cuz I was afraid Drake would use Fly and knock out my Yamcha the Ludicolo. Salamence survived with about 8% of its HP and used a Sitrus Berry. Oh, BROTHER! After Drake used a Full Restore, I used Ice Beam and knocked Salamence down to about 15% of its full HP. Drake used another Full Restore. (Hoo boy!) and another Ice Beam knocked it down to about 5% HP. This time foe Salamence used Dragon Claw, which did knock Yamcha down to 15/151 HP, but thankfully, I dealt the finishing blow with Ice Beam. Glacia was a lot harder to defeat, but Drake was no slouch either.
Champion Wallace
All that was left was Champion Wallace.
Spoiler: Champion Wallace
Having never beaten this version of the Hoenn Champion fight before, I was a little nervous. I was prepared to see his Wailord set up Rain for the rest of the team, and I was semi-familiar with his team, but I had never beaten Wallace as a Champion myself. I sent out Bulma the Gardevoir. I selected Thunderbolt, so Wailord was immediately in the red (about 10% full HP) when it used Rain Dance. I selected Thunderbolt again as Wallace used his 1st Full Restore. This time it left Wailord in the yellow with about 20% of its full HP. I finished it off with another Thunderbolt from Gardevoir. All right, so Tentacruel was weak to Psychic and Electric, so I used Psychic for STAB, and ... It outsped with Hydro Pump, and it took Gardevoir down to 66/151 HP?! Hoo boy! Tentracuel unfortunately only lost about 2/3 of its max HP also, so it came down to speed, and I ended up losing Gardevoir to another Hydro Pump. I prepared to use a Max Revive on Gardevoir, but first I had to deal with this Tentacruel, so I sent in Krillin the Gyarados which resists Water and ... Okay, Tentacruel actually had Clear Body to stop Intimidate from working, but whatever. Now I wasn't too worried, so I used the Max Revive on Gardevoir right away. Tentacruel used the obscure (at least in this Gen) TM move Sludge Bomb, and Gyarados was down to 115/172 HP. I set up with Dragon Dance just to be safe, and Gyarados tanked another Sludge Bomb (61/172 HP remaining), and then I hit Tentacruel with a super effective Earthquake. Tentacruel went down of course.
Next up was Wallace's ace Milotic, so I ordered Gyarados to use another Earthquake. Milotic went down to about 45-49% HP (in the yellow, so at most 49.99% HP), and Gyarados ate an Ice Beam, which knocked it down to 12/172 HP. Milotic ate its Sitrus Berry. I probably should've healed with a Hyper Potion, but instead I used an Earthquake to knock Milotic down below 10% HP, and Gyarados went down to another Ice Beam.
All right, Bro, get dunked on! Bulma was sent back out, and it Traced the foe Milotic's Marvel Scale. Wallace healed, and Gardevoir used Calm Mind. Milotic outsped with Surf, and Gardevoir set up a 2nd Calm Mind. Milotic used Surf, and Gardevoir used Thunderbolt. Milotic lost about 80% of its HP, so I set up another Calm Mind while Milotic used another Surf. 42/151 HP remained. My special attack and special defense were both at 2.5x their normal levels, but I healed with a Hyper Potion just to be safe in case another of Wallace's party members tried to pressure me into switching out. Milotic used Surf. I have 125/151 HP left. I go for Thunderbolt, but I eat another Surf. 96/151 HP. Milotic goes down, and Gardevoir levels up to Lv 51. I actually did opt to replace Teleport with Hypnosis here.
Wallace's Ludicolo was next, so I used Psychic, but the foe Ludicolo held on with 5% of its HP. Foe Ludicolo used Double Team. Champion Wallace used Full Restore. Gardevoir used Psychic and one-shot the opposing Ludicolo. I decided not to switch my Gardevoir out. Whiscash ate the Psychic and was one-shot. Wallace's last Pokemon was Gyarados, which immediately used Dragon Dance, and I one-shot it with Thunderbolt.
I did it! I beat the Pokémon Emerald! I put Champion Wallace in his place! I am the Hoenn League Champion!
All right, time to wrap this up by giving each party member a score:
Bulma the Gardevoir gets a 10/10. If this was Ruby/Sapphire, I would give it a lower score because it wasn't that useful in the Elite Four with Glacia as the obvious outlier, but it was super cool sweeping the 2nd half of the Champion's team thanks to Calm Mind. Gardevoir was really only a pain to grind with when it didn't know Confusion. After that, it was mad useful with Confusion, Psybeam, Shockwave, Thunderbolt, and Psychic (not to mention Calm Mind). It was useful and fun from beginning to end, so it gets a 10 out of 10.
Shu the Mightyena gets an 7/10 because it surprised me. It was a lot of fun to use throughout the adventure, but it was a pain to use at the beginning of the game when it was just a Poochyena. It surprised me for sure, but I don't think it ever became as useful as the other members of the party.
Yamcha the Ludicolo gets a 7.5/10 "Not Enough Water" because it was super useful in the early game before it fell off around Wattson before it got Surf. It ended up being really useful again from that point through the end of the game. If this thing learned any damaging Water-type move prior to Surf, it'd probably be a 8.5 or even 9, but it really struggled from Gym 3 to Gym 5.
Tenshinhan the Golem gets a 6.5/10. Golem surprised me with its physical Attack output because I'd previously written off the Geodude line due to the multitude of weaknesses. It was really powerful from Gym 5 through the Seafloor Cavern, but it didn't have such useful type match-ups against the League including the Champion, which is why its score is the lowest out of the team. (It was also disappointing that Brick Break was never actually useful in this run.)
Krillin the Gyarados gets an 8/10. Yeah, it wasn't super useful until it learned Earthquake, but it was just a lot of fun to use.
Shenron the Salamence gets a 7/10 because even though it's super strong, even though it's super useful against the League, even though nobody in the league has a single Pokemon that resists Dragon-type attacks, it kind of sucked that I couldn't catch this thing until after Gym Badge #8. I would give it a 7.5 or 8 if I was allowed to use it by the 7th gym or something.
Spoiler: Scrambler Guess
My guess for who my scrambler is would be Arcaneum because they've mentioned several of these Pokemon before on the forum. I also get the impression from the team that they took the goal of making a good team super seriously, which kind of matches with how they've been pretty active in this thread (liking posts and updating frequently).
Okay, I'm here with my team rating. I'm rating every Pokémon based on this run, not my previous (dis)like of the Pokémon.
9/10
Sceptile was solid Pokémon throughout the whole run. Especially once it learnt Leaf Blade. It was great against Team Aqua, that my team would struggle otherwise. It was also nice for finishing fights.
6/10
Gyarados was not as bad as I thought it would be, but I had to really force myself to use it at first. When your best attack is Dragon Rage for majority of the run, there is something wrong with you.
10/10
Now this was the MVP of the run. Especially as Aron, because it tanked hits and let my other team members heal. As Aggron, it also packed a punch and I found myself leading with it for most of the run.
7/10
Altaria was fun to use and brought nice was to deal with Fighting-types. Her Sing was missing and I stopped trying to use it later. I should have teach it something else.
8/10
Super lategame Pokémon, since I don't think it evolved in Flygon until Victory Road and I don't think I used it as Trapinch or Vibrava that much (aside from grinding). Flygon cut through E4 almost on its own and went toe to toe with Steven's Aggron and Metagross.
3/10
Armaldo on the other hand... was certainly a victim of my Gyarados rule and the fact that I had Pokémon that did exactly the same thing Armaldo is good at, but better. It's a shame, because I like Armaldo a lot, but it was the odd outsider on this team. I barely used it since getting it and I don't think there was a moment, in which Armaldo would be a perfect Pokémon to use.
And as for my scrambler guess:
I think it's someone, who is not regular at challenges. Let's say DragonEye.
Pokemon Black
Secret Delibird - Rich Boy Noël
Update 7 (Twist Mountain -> Iccirus Gym)
I went and got the Surf HM at Twist Mountain, soloing Cheren's battle with Gliscor. She 2HKOed every single one of Cheren's Pokemon, getting Taunted by Unfezant and surviving a Revenge from Dewott, Fake Out and Assurance from Liepard, and Flame Burst from Simisear.
After getting Surf, I immediately backtracked south to get the Dubious Disk and evolve my final team member, Porygon-Z. It also learned Nasty Plot via the move relearner and Thunderbolt via TM. Blaziken also learned Acrobatics and Brick Break via TM, temporarily losing her held item until she learns Brave Bird at Level 49. Gliscor finally learned Swords Dance via level up, while Starmie replaced all its attacking moves with Surf, Thunderbolt, and Flash Cannon via TM or HM. Sawsbuck learned Horn Leech via level-up as well, replacing its Energy Ball with a physical move of the same type.
Along the way, I also fought Cobalion, who was 3HKOed by Starmie with Surf, and Virizion, which Gliscor 1HKOed with Acrobatics. At the end of this segment, I fought Brycen, and Blaziken outsped and 1HKOed his whole team with Fire Punch.
Only one gym badge left to go, and then I'll have a clear shot at the League. But first, I'll have to deal with the last Team Plasma Grunts at Dragonspiral Tower and Relic Castle.
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