[Event] The Infernal Parade [Halloween Challenge 2024]

[Reginald Cosmic]

I solved most of the puzzle, but I'm not ready to declare the team yet. I'm actually not sure I'm allowed to share the team before I declare it because of coaching. That said, I found some combinations that beat the "190 points just for the one ruling" record, but the teams in question would be wicked hard to use because some of them are so late game, and getting Magikarp to turn into Gyarados is always a pain. I also am not 100% sure what that version exclusive is about. I thought for sure it was Slowbro (or Starmie, but you don't get the points for slowness), but Slowbro actually really improves the number of "3 weaknesses to a single type" rulings, so that can't be it (as there's no water/psychic-type found naturally in Gen III Kanto, which would take up one of my two hacked mons). Maybe I'm sharing too much right now.

Is Jynx involved in that "190 points just for the one rule" thing? Jynx is obtainable in-game without the need to hack but only if you trade a Poliwhirl. I'm sure you guys are against coaching, but this is a ruling question. Jynx has so many weaknesses that it'd really help, especially considering you know, psychic types are OP. (I'm really glad someone at 4Kids had some sense and requested that TPCi change Jynx to have a purple face because if this was Gen I, I wouldn't want to use it.)

 

[Explorer of Time]

I thought for sure it was Slowbro (or Starmie, but you don't get the points for slowness), but Slowbro actually really improves the number of "3 weaknesses to a single type" rulings, so that can't be it (as there's no water/psychic-type found naturally in Gen III Kanto, which would take up one of my two hacked mons). Maybe I'm sharing too much right now.

Is Jynx involved in that "190 points just for the one rule" thing? Jynx is obtainable in-game without the need to hack but only if you trade a Poliwhirl. I'm sure you guys are against coaching, but this is a ruling question. Jynx has so many weaknesses that it'd really help, especially considering you know, psychic types are OP. (I'm really glad someone at 4Kids had some sense and requested that TPCi change Jynx to have a purple face because if this was Gen I, I wouldn't want to use it.)

Slowbro is a Kanto Pokemon available in LeafGreen as soon as you get the Super Rod, you might be thinking of Slowking, which is a Johto Pokemon. And yes, it and Starmie were involved in the example Kanto team I built. That being said, they were the last Pokemon I picked and I only did so because a Psychic type would've scored more points with the other team members being what they were.

Though, come to think about it, Jynx would make that example team score slightly more points if it replaced Slowbro/Starmie. Looking over it, I forgot its base stats were just slightly low enough to score in the low BST category. It scores 40 points on its own prior to multi-team-member bonuses. (15 from low BST, 15 from six weaknesses, 10 from its type.)

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I'm pretty confident I've figured out what three or four members of your team was (as in "not the hacked mon which could be anything"), though I can't for the life of me figure out the exact one. I'll save that conversation for another time maybe. Hopefully I'll declare a team tomorrow. (I actually kind of exhausted myself this evening because I kept thinking I was on the verge of figuring it out. Whoops.)

 

[Devalue]

I solved most of the puzzle, but I'm not ready to declare the team yet. I'm actually not sure I'm allowed to share the team before I declare it because of coaching. That said, I found some combinations that beat the "190 points just for the one ruling" record, but the teams in question would be wicked hard to use because some of them are so late game, and getting Magikarp to turn into Gyarados is always a pain. I also am not 100% sure what that version exclusive is about. I thought for sure it was Slowbro (or Starmie, but you don't get the points for slowness), but Slowbro actually really improves the number of "3 weaknesses to a single type" rulings, so that can't be it (as there's no water/psychic-type found naturally in Gen III Kanto, which would take up one of my two hacked mons). Maybe I'm sharing too much right now.

Sees no rules against helping someone out. (Posted that spreadsheet of all the individual points earlier, after all.) Is not treating this as a competitive challenge, personally. Hates to deny someone the experience of teambuilding, though. Considers that half the fun.

Cannot account for what you would feel comfortable with either. Might be able to put together a very high-scoring team. (Figured out one that probably scores 463 with only a 140 type weakness bonus, for example.) Does you no favors if you wipe constantly from the team's low power, though. May also be able to craft a slightly lower scoring team on the surface that makes up for it on move points as well. Should find what you think works well. Is not against giving input, however.

Personally went on the safer side by taking Alakazam and Gyarados. Likely would have scored way higher with a Bug/Rock duo-type team...right? (Wormadam Plant for 73, Dustox for 41, Beautifly for 39, Golem for 51, Sudowoodo for 40, Rampardos for 28. 3 weaknesses to 9 types, two with no resistances for 200 points. Equals 272 + 200 = 472. Probably qualifies for a few more team points too. Edit: Only hacked in one Pokemon. Trades out Rampardos for ...Magcargo? Rhydon? Well, no matter.) Technically misremembered the team weakness for a team type rule at the start. Would not have changed it anyways, or at least not for that team.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

To tell everyone here the truth, I've spent an unhealthy amount of time tonight trying to figure out what team Explorer of Time was referring to. I'm pretty confident at this point that the four not hacked Pokemon were Slowbro (because she confirmed that) and the combination of Gyarados, Golem, and Gengar (eg, extra points for all starting with the letter G). "What were the two hacked mon she thought about?" I got nothing. I think maybe the three Gs were presupposition on my part because I cannot find a combination that gets me to 190 points just based on the defensive type coverage of the team.

For myself? I definitely want one of the hacked mon to be Sceptile. Sceptile is a grass-type so plenty of type weaknesses to get points for "collective responsibility for too many weaknesses to individual types," but it can single-handedly smack Brock's Pokémon aside, hard carry Magikarp until it can evolve, and then earn Misty's badge and TM for Water Pulse. I want Gyarados (because Splash and great stats/movepool among other reasons, albeit Earthquake is always late game in mainline Gen 3 titles). I want Slowbro over Jynx too--I'd get points for being extra slow (exactly 30 speed) and for it evolving after level 35 (as a 2nd stage final form). I also have considered Whiscash as a hacked mon because even though it fears only grass, I'd get points for the 4x weakness, the low attack stats, and the low speed (though maybe not as low as Slowbro's), but that might be too many water-types. Maybe I'll return to my original plan of bringing Dusclops in as a hacked mon (because spooky ghost), but there's better options for points and for the actual playthrough. I thought about chucking a master ball at one of the legendary birds, but then I remembered they're all level 45, so they're essentially locked to the late game (because of the level cap, you know). I also forgot to mention Xatu which would be helpful for getting weakness point bonsues but also would be useful throughout the entire game because of its psychic typing and its movepool.

EDIT: I realized after posting this ... Does Sceptile count for this challenge? Would it need to be something like Swampert (with a 4x weakness) to replace the starter with a different one? I'm not sure. I'll figure out the team tomorrow.

EDIT2: I was optimizing the team for points, and I arrived at Tropius, Claydol, Butterfree (evolves before Level 15), Gyarados, Slowbro, and Exeggutor (which has a 4x weakness to Bug-type attacks). Did I finally figure this out? By accident? I need to put this down and get some sleep.

 

[Explorer of Time]

To tell everyone here the truth, I've spent an unhealthy amount of time tonight trying to figure out what team Explorer of Time was referring to. I'm pretty confident at this point that the four not hacked Pokemon were Slowbro (because she confirmed that) and the combination of Gyarados, Golem, and Gengar (eg, extra points for all starting with the letter G). "What were the two hacked mon she thought about?" I got nothing. I think maybe the three Gs were presupposition on my part because I cannot find a combination that gets me to 190 points just based on the defensive type coverage of the team.

All three of those are completely wrong. I did not use any of them. Three G's... close on the surface but simultaneously very far from anything approaching my example team. I didn't go for a monoletter bonus, and none of my Pokemon's names started with G.

By the way, Marilland's Team Builder is a great resource for calculating weaknesses, for when you decide to build your team tomorrow. I would recommend doing that instead of trying to guess my team; my initial statement was a nudge in the right direction to help you build your own. I'll tell you what I had considered for a potential Kanto team after you submit your application for your own Kanto team.

EDIT: I realized after posting this ... Does Sceptile count for this challenge? Would it need to be something like Swampert (with a 4x weakness) to replace the starter with a different one? I'm not sure. I'll figure out the team tomorrow.

You can hack in Sceptile*, as one of your two hacked-in Pokemon. You do, however, have to replace your Kanto starter to do so.

*Or its pre-evo Treecko assuming you're hacking it in at the beginning of the game, which you should.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I'm a bit embarrassed, but I'm glad I at least have my team mostly figured out. Tropius, Claydol, Butterfree, Gyarados, Slowbro, and Exeggutor sounds good enough for this challenge. Is there a penalty for Butterfree (which willl probably not be very useful towards the late game) disappearing from use -- as long as I knock out just one Gym Leader Pokemon even if it happens to be Brock's Geodude? I will probably make it strictly status moves (except for Toxic because point deductions, though Poison Powder should be a fine replacement) once it gets to level 25, and I'd get at 6 points when it reaches its final stage at Level 10.

EDIT: I was so flustered that I forgot to say I've been using that Team Builder all day. That's how I've been keeping tallies. While I'm editing this, I'll go ahead and say I was (past tense) planning on Treecko, but I'm leaning into Tropius now. I'll tally up the total points before deductions tomorrow, but I really need to stop myself now. This is what happens when I get fixated on something while taking my ADHD medication.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I have caught my Snom and evolved it into a Frosmoth. It's already at the level cap so I can't use it more outside of the Wild Area or it'll get too much Exp and lose me points. That being said, it can wipe the floor with the 1-Star Max Raids and make grinding for Wishing Pieces much faster than it was with Anorith. I expect to catch my Mime Jr. sometime today, at which point it'll be time for me to leave the Wild Area for good.

 

[Eleanor]

After a full week of trying to come up with something, I might as well join the challenge with what I have now! This truly felt like a round of poker, with everyone raising the stakes, and I think I raised the stakes way too high for myself when constructing this team... but I get to use some Pokémon I like and dress up my character once again so, might as well start

Name: Eleanor
Game: Pokémon Y

TEAM:
Torterra (hacked in) - 20
Armaldo (hacked in) - 28
Scrafty (Route 5) - 28
Gigalith (Reflection Cave) - 33
Rhyperior (Glittering Cave) - 51
Aurorus (Glittering Cave) - 61

Type weaknesses: +140 (Water, Grass, Fighting, Steel - unresisted, Ground - resisted)

Other bonuses: Aurorus, Torterra, Rhyperior in the Monster Egg group - +15

Total points: 376

Move bonuses: working on getting Nature Power and/or movesets with no status moves on some Pokémon by level 25!

The idea with this team was to attempt a Sand team, since I really liked the idea of using weather (or certain abilities) to make up for low stats of my Pokémon. I haven't really done that too well here, and trying so hard to have shared weaknesses (for points) arguably left me exposed not to a bunch of not-so-worrying types, but to literally Water, Grass, Fighting and Steel, all well-represented Pokémon types in these games! That said, I'm hoping that some of my better Pokémon will still get me through without too many issues. If I have to lose points on items and Wild Cards, well... so be it! I'm still proud of my total, even more so considering that I'm playing with my first Pokémon EVER (Torterra) <3

 

[Explorer of Time]

Mime Jr. is caught and I'm on my way to the first gym now. Expect an update tomorrow.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'm a bit embarrassed, but I'm glad I at least have my team mostly figured out. Tropius, Claydol, Butterfree, Gyarados, Slowbro, and Exeggutor sounds good enough for this challenge. Is there a penalty for Butterfree (which willl probably not be very useful towards the late game) disappearing from use -- as long as I knock out just one Gym Leader Pokemon even if it happens to be Brock's Geodude? I will probably make it strictly status moves (except for Toxic because point deductions, though Poison Powder should be a fine replacement) once it gets to level 25, and I'd get at 6 points when it reaches its final stage at Level 10.

EDIT: I was so flustered that I forgot to say I've been using that Team Builder all day. That's how I've been keeping tallies. While I'm editing this, I'll go ahead and say I was (past tense) planning on Treecko, but I'm leaning into Tropius now. I'll tally up the total points before deductions tomorrow, but I really need to stop myself now. This is what happens when I get fixated on something while taking my ADHD medication.

You actually got pretty close to my example team, there.

I had Exeggutor and Slowbro specifically, and my two hacked Pokemon were a Jumpluff (a Grass/Flying-type like Tropius), and a Solrock (a Psychic-type like Claydol). I also had Beedrill instead of Butterfree, both Bug-Types, so the only major difference was that I had Parasect in place of Gyarados. That being said, this team is probably better than the one I thought of.

 

[Eleanor]

Update 1 - Eleanor's challenge on Pokémon Y

I went into the challenge being extremely careful of my score and knowing that the stakes were high, but it didn't take long before I just said, "to hell with it". First, I messed up a little on the point calculation and started with a few points less than I originally thought, then I had to use some items in battle and was ready to get a total whiteout before the game blessed me with some truly horrendous AI choices. More in depth:

I started with Turtwig and Anorith and soon realized that Anorith literally has a TERRIBLE level up movepool. I still wanted to give this Pokémon a chance and decided to go for it, but in hindsight, Crustle would have made my life much easier and the difference in points would have been likely worth it regardless. There was also Shuckle, who could have used stuff like Encore at least, but... I didn't want to rely too much on Shuckle to cover some of my weaknesses.

I got to Viola with no big problems, but my team was just not strong enough to withstand Infestation from Vivillon, and I had to use a potion to outlast the damage over time while Anorith whittled down Viola's Pokémon - after Turtwig dealt with Surskit easily enough. So that's already one point gone!

The enormous segment that follows went alright. Turtwig and Anorith were OK to deal with Prof. Platan, soon I found Scraggy in Route 5 and added it to my team (I ended up with a Scraggy with Moxie and decided to just go with it at this point, as long as I'm careful with my switches I should be ok, right?) and arrived all the way to Route 8 without much hassle. And it was here that I met a trainer (skippable no less) with a darn Axew with Dragon Rage who nearly destroyed my entire team. I was ready for the whiteout when, on my last Pokémon, Axew inexplicably decided to not use Dragon Rage and let Anorith overcome the challenge with Scratch. But only after I tried using a potion to give myself at least a sliver of a chance. One more point gone. At least I gained access to Glittering Cave this way, and caught a Rhyhorn there to add to my team.

Ambrette Town has the TM for Nature Power in this game, which I decided to teach to the two team members who can learn it, Grotle and the newly acquired Amaura (revitalized from the fossil also in Glittering Cave). That is, considering the math, 6 points gained for me - as long as I can keep those slots locked in - or 6 points lost, if that doesn't work. I am hoping to get some more points from Scraggy and Rhyhorn only knowing attacking moves by level 25 and up, and possibly Anorith not having any Bug or Rock type move from now onwards, too. Let's hope that works out.

And finally, Grant. This was luckily very easy, Scraggy is proving to be crucial for my team and this occasion was no exception, as it handled both fossil Pokémon with just a single Brick Break each. That's two badges obtained!

Team
Grotle, lv. 24 - defeated Viola's Surskit
Anorith, lv. 24 - defeated Viola's Vivillon
Scraggy, lv. 25 - defeated Grant's team
Rhyhorn, lv. 24
Amaura, lv. 25

Points
Original total: 376
Points lost: 8
Points from moves restrictions: 32
Current points: 400

 

[Explorer of Time]

Pokemon Shield
Infernal Parade - Poke Maniac Haley
Update 1 (Postwick Town -> Turffield Stadium)

I've obtained my first badge and now have a chance to do an update! I started off by hacking in an Anorith and Amaura for my team, just after picking my starter. I chose Scorbunny since it'll lead to an easier Leon battle if he doesn't have Cinderace, and Hop will be easier early-on if I have a type advantage against his Grookey. I battled Hop, easily beat him with Anorith, and traveled to the Slumbering Weald, where I spotted Zamazenta. Funnily enough, even though it's invulnerable to attacks in this battle, Zamazenta can be hurt by hail from Snow Warning. The battle ended before it could be KOed, though.

I caught a Blipbug in Route 1 ASAP, then I made my way to the Wild Area, fighting Hop and beating him with my Anorith again along the way. I advanced to Motostoke and fought Team Yell, then doubled back because my Anorith was strong enough to consistently beat 1-star Max Raids. I spent several hours grinding there for all the TRs and Dynamax Candies I'll need this game, and caught a Snom and Mime Jr. via Wishing Pieces. I evolved Snom immediately by feeding it friendship-increasing berries, but had to box it since it was at the level cap.

Once that was done I beat Hop with Anorith again, made my way through Galar Mine No. 1 (where I 1HKOed Bede's entire team with Fury Cutter), and made it to the stadium. Amaura easily 2HKOed Milo's Gossifleur with Icy Wind, and only took a tiny bit of damage from Round. She was, however, 1HKOed by dynamax Eldegoss's Max Overgrowth. I sent out Anorith, dynamaxed her, and hit Eldegoss with a Max Flutterby and tanked a Max Overgrowth. Both of our Pokemon were at ~55% HP, but I had one more turn of dynamax left so I blocked with Max Guard, then KOed Eldegoss with another Max Flutterby next turn as it shrank back to normal.

I also had some problems with my emulator crashing earlier in the game, which was made somewhat more difficult to debug because my emulator's developers shut down mid-playthrough and took their issues page on Github with them. I think it's something to do with fullscreen and I'm pretty sure that playing in windowed mode fixes the crashes, but I'm not completely sure. If this gets to be a serious problem again I might have to cancel my run and pick a different game.

Team

Spoiler:

Anorith (♀) | Rock/Bug | Level 18
Moves: Fury Cutter, Smack Down, Metal Claw, Iron Defense
Stats: 45 HP / 18 Atk / 26 Def / 18 SpA / 25 SpD / 37 Spe
Ability: Battle Armor | Nature: Adamant | Item: Leftovers | Dynamax Level: 10

Amaura (♀) | Rock/Ice | Level 17
Moves: Thunderbolt, Icy Wind, Ancient Power, Encore
Stats: 54 HP / 22 Atk / 26 Def / 35 SpA / 31 SpD / 21 Spe
Ability: Snow Warning | Nature: Modest | Item: Leftovers | Dynamax Level: 10

Dottler (♀) | Bug/Psychic | Level 18
Moves: Struggle Bug, Confusion, Light Screen, Reflect
Stats: 46 HP / 23 Atk / 35 Def / 23 SpA / 41 SpD / 20 Spe
Ability: Swarm | Nature: Gentle | Item: Silver Powder | Dynamax Level: 10

Frosmoth (♂) | Ice/Bug | Level 20
Moves: Ice Beam, Struggle Bug, Icy Wind, Reflect
Stats: 64 HP / 35 Atk / 29 Def / 60 SpA / 45 SpD / 36 Spe
Ability: Shield Dust | Nature: Hasty | Item: Heavy-Duty Boots | Dynamax Level: 10

Mime Jr. (♀) | Psychic/Fairy | Level 19
Moves: Confusion, Thunderbolt, Encore, Role Play
Stats: 37 HP / 17 Atk / 21 Def / 37 SpA / 40 SpD / 33 Spe
Ability: Soundproof | Nature: Lonely | Item: Expert Belt | Dynamax Level: 10

Points:
Original total: 400
Points lost from TM Use, Segment 1: -15

• Anorith: Iron Defense
• Amaura: Thunderbolt
• Mime Jr.: Thunderbolt
• Frosmoth: Ice Beam, Reflect

Segment 1 points: 385

No Pokemon are over Lv. 25 yet
No items, team wipes, or soft resets in any trainer battle
No Pokemon above Level Cap
Five total TMs or TRs used across all segments
No uses of Toxic or 3+ Attack/Special Attack/Evasion stages
Dottler, Mime Jr., and Frosmoth have not yet defeated a Gym Leader Pokemon
No Wild Card Pokemon have been used
Lunatone has not yet been caught

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Aside from Jumpluff (because I thought everyone hated Jumpluff's stats) those were all Pokemon I had considered when trying to crack your code. I had a feeling you included Parasect with its two 4x weaknesses before I got carried away in trying to make the alliteration rule make sense. (Fun fact: Originally, Bug and Poison type were super effective against each other, so in Gen I games only, Parasect has three 4x weaknesses.) I was also pretty confident you used Solrock, but I prefer Ground-types over Rock-types.

I had planned on declaring the team by now, but it could be tomorrow before I count up the points, figure out movesets, etc. My mother and I took our white Maltese to the vet today, and it was nerve-racking. That said, I will definitely be attempting the challenge this month. Yesterday, I realized my computer can't run Dragon Ball Sparking! ZERO properly, so I had to refund my pre-order. In other words, I have a lot more free time this week and next week, just not on Fridays or on Saturdays.

 

[Eleanor]

Update 2 - Eleanor's challenge on Pokémon Y

It took me just a quick look at what was ahead to immediately question my life choices. And so, in order to win my third badge, I made use of the Wild Card straight away. I caught a Roggenrola in Reflection Cave (finally) but immediately swapped it out of the team in favor of an Azumarill, which resisted Fighting type moves and could fight back with Aqua Tail.
Luckily, Azumarill is both a slow Pokémon (base 50), a weak Pokémon (base Attack and Special Attack under 80), and a bad Pokémon (base Stat under 460), so I get to only pay up (40-35)= 5 points. And Azumarill really isn't that slow, weak or bad, in fact, it's only because of this Pokémon that I won my third badge - and most importantly, the fight in Geosenge with the two Lucario - with no problems.

Ramos was next, and the battle ended up being very scary near the end. Amaura dealt with Jumpluff and Anorith stalled out Weepinbell, but Gogoat was strong and not even my now fully evolved Torterra could keep up with it, because of Grass Knot being extremely powerful on such a heavy Pokémon. Luckily, when all hope was lost, Scraggy hit a Brick Break just before the whiteout. Talk about being scared of your own team...

I might as well add the fifth badge progress here too since that was very easy (of course). Rhyhorn started to become much stronger around this time and I let it deal with Clemont's Emolga, before having to switch against Heliolisk. Torterra handled the remaining Pokémon just fine, despite a Grass Knot scare, and now I can move onto Mountain Kalos ♥

Team
Torterra, lv. 37 - defeated Viola's Surskit
Anorith, lv. 36 - defeated Viola's Vivillon
Scraggy, lv. 37 - defeated Grant's team
Rhyhorn, lv. 37 - defeated Clemont's Emolga
Amaura, lv. 36 - defeated Ramos's Jumpluff
Boldore, lv. 36

Points
Original total: 376
Points lost: 13
Points from moves restrictions: 32
Current points: 395

 

[Devalue]

Badge 7: Candice

Level limit: 42 (Abomasnow)

Beat up Commander Saturn. Walled Kadabra with Algo (Shedinja). Helped out a lot versus the combination of Psybeam and Shock Wave. Discovered the AI may not instantly switch, also.

And Commander Mars next. Considers the only noteworthy thing to be a Hypnosis miss.

Stumbled through Mt. Coronet without Defog (which was simple). Dislikes the snow area already, as far as battling. Cannot send Algo out period because of Hail. Lacks any Ice resistances outside Wonder Guard. Could be a dicey fight versus Candice. Kind of knew that beforehand, though.

Hit level 40 on both Botano (Graveler) and Nycto (Kadabra). Evolved both of them immediately. (Will need to hit up the Move Relearner for Nycto. Learns Calm Mind at 36 as Alakazam, but Role Play as Kadabra.) Glanced at Effort Value progress. Stands around 330 on Pyro (Wormadam Plant), Nycto, and Botano. Jumps up to the mid 400's for Petra (Masquerain) and Geloto (Gyarados). Hit the maximum for Algo.

Quick stat check: 77 Special Attack for Pyro, 89 Special Attack for Petra, 102 Attack for Botano, 108 Attack for Algo, 117 Attack for Geloto, and 127 Special Attack for Nycto. Sits at level 39-40. May be able to guess how well Pyro is doing with Razor Leaf as their STAB move and Psybeam as their other offensive move. Valued it at 70-some points for a reason.

Oh! Learned Silver Wind on Petra. Finally learned a Bug move. Only took until level 40. Could actually prove useful versus the Sneasels and Grass/Ice types up ahead.

Questions this protagonist's morals. Sends you to check on Chrono (the rival) at Lake Acuity. Encountered some Team Plasma guards there. ...Oh well. Should be a-OK. Gym time!

Beat up the gym trainers. Backtracked to grind to 42. Was a little miserable between the spaced out trainers and running on bridges to charge the Vs Seeker. Swears on Razor Leaf missing more times than it crits by a factor of two. Also got bamboozled by a Lopunny with Mirror Coat once. Saw several Silver Wind boosts already too.

Strategy: Wants to set up two Calm Minds. Cannot because of Sneasel and a lack of non-Psychic moves. Doubts Algo (Shedinja) doing anything here with constant Snow Warning. Is Botano going to have a face a fear of plants? ...Probably not. Leads with Petra (Masquerain) here, at any rate. Expects a lot from Silver Wind.

The fight: One-shot Snover with Silver Wind. Knocked Sneasel down to 1 hitpoint. Led to some extra damage. Felt a little unsure about Abomasnow. Decided to stay in until the wheels fell off. (Cannot trust the AI to pick a super-effective move, after all.) Hit it to half on a Silver Wind before going down to an Avalanche. (Is that actually the first time fainting during a gym battle?)

Sent in Nycto (Alakazam). Barely missed the kill with Psychic (largely thanks to Abomasnow's earlier Sitrus Berry). Fainted to a single Wood Hammer, which also took down Abomasnow. Cleaned up Medicham with Geloto (Gyarados).

Relatively rough, but not terrible.

Badge 8: Volkner

Level limit: 49 (Luxray)

Sighs. Name a more iconic duo than hitting yourself in confusion and a 20% miss chance on Rock Blast.

Beat Cyrus and Saturn without much fanfare. Appreciates Algo (Shedinja) for all these Kadabras. Only ever knows Psychic moves.

Has to leave someone behind to climb to Spear Pillar. Dropped Pyro (Wormadam Plant) for now. Sees more potential for Algo.

Ooh, Rock Slide TM. Uh...hm. Made do with Rock Blast. Still hates it. Could upgrade to Stone Edge (which Botano learns naturally later) without losing points. Holds onto the TM for now.

Cleared the Jupiter + Mars double battle with just Geloto (Gyarados). Picked up Dragon Dance during the fight. Immediately used it to +2/+2. Helped break through the Reflect.

Ohhhh. Immediately fights Cyrus (after a heal from Chronos). Thank goodness for leading with Geloto last time. More Dragon Dance? More Dragon Dance. Was a good plan...until a critical Freeze Ice Fang from the opposing Gyarados. Really? Dropped to 15 hitpoints after a follow-up Giga Impact. Stuck in for the recharge turn. (Brought Algo for Gyarados.) Thawed and returned the favor with a critical Ice Fang of its own. Felled it on the next turn, despite a Super Potion from Cyrus. Outsped Weavile and flattened it with a single Aqua Tail. Could not quite finish the job, sadly. Left Crobat in the red. Blew it to bits with Nycto (Alakazam) on the following turn. Still a great comeback performance.

Remembers this Dialga being dumb in Brilliant Diamond. Struggled itself to death twice. Tried weakening it. Ended up killing it by mistake. Pushed it over the edge with the Rock Smash defense drop. Oh well. Lost the opportunity to paralyze from a Roar of Time one-shot on Petra. Was going to be a pain anyways.

Passed the Experience Share over to Pyro (Wormadam Plant), for a change. (Usually belongs to Algo.) Ran to Sunyshore and beat the gym trainers. Foresees plenty of grinding ahead. Is at level 43-45.

Might be the first area Algo (Shedinja) really excelled in. Shrugged off most of the gym trainers' Pokemon (albeit while paralyzed). Walls all the Gyaradoses on the way to Sunyshore now too, with Bite out of the picture. Gobbled up all the experience easy-peasy.

Leveled everyone up to 49 after a good chunk of grinding. Basically only had Gyarados to fight, which was not the easiest for everyone. Added some new moves to the team, such as Pyro's (Wormadam Plant) first special-based Grass move: Leaf Storm. Finally replaced Gust for Air Slash on Petra (Masquerain). Upgraded Rock Blast to Stone Edge on Botano (Golem).

The strategy: Lead with Algo (Shedinja). Should force a switch into Luxray shortly. Passes it over to Botano (Golem) to handle. Walls everything past that with Algo. Apologies, Volkner. Will not be a very interesting fight.

The fight: Tossed up a Light Screen before switching to...Ambipom? What? Does it think Nasty Plot can hit through Wonder Guard? ...Apparently not. Switched to Luxray right after. Bizarre. Tagged in Botano for the Earthquake one-shot.

Sent Algo back in. Triggered something weird within the AI. Switched so many times. Blames some of it on Baton Passes, but not all. Almost worked, too. Thwarted Confuse Ray damage. Paralyzed Algo with Static. Made Fury Cutter kind of bad, not to mention to misses in there. Defeated the last Pokemon with no Fury Cutters left. (Could have done Shadow Sneak versus Octillery. Might have been able to hit Ambipom with a brief confusion before a Baton Pass.)

Edit: Badge image:


Still no changes to the mishap tally since Petra's Hidden Power TM (which was absolutely worth it). Closes out this section by teaching Waterfall to Geloto (Gyarados). Next up: the Pokemon League (and a mountain of grinding to level 63).

Spoiler: Team

Botano
Level: 49
Nature: Careful
Ability: Sturdy
Moves: Stone Edge, Earthquake, Strength, and Rock Smash

Algo
Level: 50
Nature: Brave
Ability: Wonder Guard
Moves: Shadow Sneak, Fury Cutter, Confuse Ray, and Sand Attack

Geloto
Level: 49
Nature: Impish
Ability: Intimidate
Moves: Bite, Ice Fang, Waterfall, and Dragon Dance.

Petra
Level: 49
Nature: Rash
Ability: Swift Swim
Moves: Silver Wind, Stun Spore, Hidden Power (Ground), and Air Slash.

Nycto
Level: 49
Nature: Quirky
Ability: Inner Focus
Moves: Psychic, Psybeam, Calm Mind, and Recover

Pyro
Level: 49
Nature: Calm
Ability: Anticipation
Moves: Psychic, Leaf Storm, Captivate, and Growth.

Spoiler: Mishaps

Details all the mishaps for the entire playthrough here.

• TMs: 1 (Hidden Power on Petra)
• In-battle items: 0
• Whiteouts: 0
• Levels over the cap: 0

Defeated at least one gym leader Pokemon with every Pokemon.

Total point loss:
(1 * -3) = -3

 

[Kostucha]

Couple quick questions:
1. If I were to use a specific Rotom form (for the whole run), can I hack it in in that form already at the start or would I have to wait until later in the game when you gain the ability to do so?
2. Does losing in Battle Subway/PWT count as a full team wipe for negative points?

 

[Eleanor]

Couple quick questions:
1. If I were to use a specific Rotom form (for the whole run), can I hack it in in that form already at the start or would I have to wait until later in the game when you gain the ability to do so?
2. Does losing in Battle Subway/PWT count as a full team wipe for negative points?

I'm going a bit with my instinct on these but my rulings would be...
1. Yes, that's totally fine
2. Yes to that too, what makes me lean towards this is that having the PL rewards being accessible before the League (as it happens in games like B2W2) without any additional risk would put those items on the same level of "ease of use" as pretty much anything you find in the overworld during your save

 

[Kostucha]

Bit of a preface before the sign-up: I thought long and hard about attempting the challenge as intended but then I realized that while building a theoretical 'trash' team was fun, I wouldn't really care to complete a run with it. So I thought, how could I put a spin on this challenge to make it fun while still somewhat challenging to complete, well here's the outcome:

🎭 Name: Kostucha
🎭 Game of choice: White 2
🎭 Declared Team and point count:
- Stoutland (0 points)
- Lucario (0 points)
- Crobat (0 points)
- Sigilyph (0 points)
- Rotom Wash (0 points) (hacked in)
- Gallade (0 points) (hacked in)
Total: 0 points

Sadly you can go infinite with negative points so the next fun goal was to start at 0 points and end on 0 points. Honestly I did not expect it would be this hard to avoid gaining points.
Like at first I wanted to do Platinum but the shared weaknesses made it hard to decide on anything that's fun to use and didn't have legendaries as I wanted to avoid using them.
Then I switched to Black and when I thought I had a team ready, I lost to the alliteration rule with Sawk, Sigilyph, Stoutland as those were pretty much my only options without hacking in more pokemon than rules allow.
Finally when switching to W2 I realized how most usable options share the Field egg group, further limiting my choices.

So uh, yeah, while I can easily avoid extra moveset and evolution points, no point changes also means no TMs, no overleveling and hopefully no team wipes. Looking forward to attempting this :)

 

[Eleanor]

Update 3 - Eleanor's challenge on Pokémon Y

Mountain Kalos now! The new level cap allowed me to evolve nearly everyone in my team, and things were smooth sailing until Olympia. Valerie was a bit tricky - mostly thanks to Sylveon being outright strong - but still manageable with the help of all my Pokémon. I hoped Armaldo could do something more with Metal Claw but that move is just not that strong, so I kind of brute forced the fight. Olympia, on the other hand, was a fight where my strategy worked well and paid off. Gigalith (evolved from Boldore) with Sandstorm (and a Smooth Rock) was able to give half of my team a Special defense boost, which helped a lot against all of Olympia's Pokémon, and also got its first KO of the run on a gym leader's Pokémon (Sigilyph). Wow I'm using a lot of brackets. Torterra to deal with Slowking and badge acquired.

Then, the whole Team Flare base stuff happened, and oh my god Lysandre. Maybe I was a bit stubborn by not picking another Wild Card, seeing that Lysandre had one very evident threat to my team, but... yeah, in the end I didn't do that. While the other fights against Team Flare were ok and Rhydon, now equipped with an Eviolite, started to reach stardom level, Lysandre got me to lose 7 points on items used during battle, and they could've easily been more. All because of that Mienshao with Acrobatics, High Jump Kick and Swords Dance.
For the first battle I started with Armaldo, who I had previously taught Aerial Ace via TM (and that's 3 more points gone), and expected Mienshao to attack, but it used Swords Dance instead and proceeded to nearly destroy my team, until I got lucky with one miss and one High Jump Kick that landed on a Protect from Armaldo. And that was enough to finish it off. I scraped by with the rest of my team, specifically Gigalith, but it was very tough and I lost 4 points in this occasion. For the second battle, somehow... things went better and I only lost 3 points. But still, that Mienshao was very threatening. The only thing that eventually saved me was Eviolite Rhydon actually surviving a +2 High Jump Kick despite being weak to it. Mega Gyarados by comparison wasn't even that terrible - although it has to be said that this matchup also came down to a very tight range on Scrafty and its own High Jump Kick actually landing.

With that done... the rest of the battles were rather easy. Wulfric stood no chance, being an Ice-type master, and while some Victory Road trainers were kind of scary with their fighting-type Pokémon, it was NOWHERE near as dangerous as Lysandre. Even Calem, the rival, has been quite easy throughout the adventure, and I could have decent matches into all of his Pokémon with my team.

And now, the League. Oh, I evolved Rhydon into Rhyperior right before the league. I did get the Protector in order to do that, and since it was behind a breakable wall, I also had to use Rock Smash, which is a TM in this game, on the usual gift Lucario from Korrina... but it really feels like an HM doesn't it? Guess that's -3 points.

Malva was the easiest, thanks to Rhyperior and Gigalith making short work of her Pokémon, but not before the incredible sequence of my Rhyperior getting confused, staying confused for 4 turns and hitting itself all 4 times. So much for having a small brain. Siebold was also relatively easy, with Torterra dealing with nearly all his Pokémon and Scrafty managing to handle Gyarados with the newly learned Head Smash. Drasna lead with Dragalge and tried to use Surf on my Rhyperior, but it survived and hit back for the KO with Bulldoze, and that was probably enough for the Elite 4 to lose all hope because after that it was an Aurorus sweep. Wikstrom was obviously the hardest of the four, not because of Aegislash (Torterra did amazing in this fight) but for the one Pokémon Torterra couldn't handle at all, Scizor, who forced me to use another item in battle. One point lost.

Diantha scared me a little, but in reality, this fight was the redemption arc of my entire team. Hawlucha, the same Pokémon that gave me trouble before and made me use a Wild Card, was literally blown away turn one by Sturdy Gigalith's Explosion. Scrafty was my next choice, and both Tyrantrum and Goodra fell to its High Jump Kick (also thanks to the Moxie boost). The next Pokémon, Aurorus, was finally a good Pokémon for Armaldo to Metal Claw at, and that was its redemption arc - until Gourgeist came in and forced me to switch into Scrafty again, who got the KO with a Crunch after some Aerial Aces. Props to Gourgeist for using Halloween + Phantom Force, tbh. Diantha's final Pokémon was Gardevoir, of course, who swiftly took out Scrafty but got nearly defeated by Rhyperior's Poison Jab (which can be learned with the Move Reminder only as Rhyperior - so I'm glad for that evolution). Now, there was a problem... Gardevoir did survive and Rhyperior couldn't survive a critical hit Moonblast - but Torterra came in to save the day. And the following is just a crazy set of coincidences. Torterra landed Leech Seed, which allowed it to survive two Moonblasts instead of just one with the recovery. Diantha had used a Full Restore on Gardevoir, but the combination of Earthquake and Leech Seed did precisely enough damage to defeat the Psychic/Fairy type in just one turn. And so, this infernal parade had conquered the Kalos League!

yes btw I played the game in german
also that is the 300k dress from the Lumiose boutique and i absolutely need all of you to know that



FINAL TEAM:
Torterra, lv. 67, Overgrow - Starter
Earthquake, Giga Drain, Leech Seed, Nature Power
Armaldo, lv. 67, Battle Armor - hacked in
Crush Claw, Protect, Aerial Ace, Metal Claw
Scrafty, lv. 66, Moxie - Route 5 (horde)
Head Smash, High Jump Kick, Brick Break, Crunch
Rhyperior, lv. 65, Solid Rock - Glittering Cave
Stone Edge, Bulldoze, Hammer Arm, Poison Jab
Aurorus, lv. 66, Refrigerate - Glittering Cave (as fossil)
Nature Power, Ice Beam, Ancient Power, Encore
Gigalith, lv. 66, Sturdy - Reflection Cave
Rock Slide, Stealth Rock, Sandstorm, Explosion

Points
Original total: 376
Points lost: 27
Points from moves restrictions: 32
Final points: 381