[Challenge] The Monotype Challenge Re:Returns

[TheHumanCleric]

Forum User Name: TheHumanCleric
Game(s): Shield
Pokémon Type: Ice
Single/Ultimate: Single, Ice is basically not viable in any other game.

Technically I've already started this, but I thought I'd share my progress somewhere.

 

[Duck]

Since it's been a while since I last did a Monotype, and as far as I can gather, "All mon available" / Difficulty hacks don't count for Ultimates, let's start with an easy-ish type:

Forum User Name: von Sternen
Game(s): Fire Red, Crystal, Alpha Sapphire, Platinum, Black 2, X, Sun
Pokémon Type: Water
Single/Ultimate: Ultimate

Edit: FireRed - Update #1

Spoiler:

FireRed
- Started game. Named myself as Sternen and the rival as Blau
- Got the free Potion
- Was subtly shamed by my mother to just move out and let her have a warm bed for a change
- As I started to leave that podunk town, I was stopped by Oak who gave me a going away gift: Squirtle

Pepsi the female Squirtle
Nature: Quiet (+ SpA, - Spe)
Ability: Torrent

Torrent isn't exactly a surprise, but it's still a solid ability, if situational.
While the speed loss isn't nothing, it's also far from a bad tradeoff, so I'm happy with the nature.

- Beat Blau into the ground. The first in many battles to demonstrate the Water type superiority.
- Did the fetch quest for Oak, collecting every free sample I could along the way.
- Got the Town Map since Daisy clearly likes me more than Blau
- Cleaned up the Viridan Forest Trainers using the magic of Special attacks
- Then I turned back and beat Blau a second time. I was a bit afraid because I thought Bulbasaur would already have a Grass move, but either he didn't have one, or the AI just chose not to use it. Weird.

- Cleaned up the Pewter Gym Trainers using the magic of STAB Super Effective Moves™ and even managed to get Pepsi to evolve.
All around winning.

Badges: 1/8

- Bought the Magikarp at Rt. 4

Coca-Cola the male Magikarp
Nature: Bashful (Neutral)
Ability: Swift Swim

Neutral natures aren't bad, so I'll happily accept that.
As for abilities, not like it ever mattered for Magikarp.

- So I was switch grinding on the trainers in Mt. Moon to get Coca-Cola up to speed, and while there was a few close calls with some scientists, we managed to get through without a lot of troubles.

The main troubles were that one hiker with Onix that managed to bind Magikarp, and that final scientist that managed to poison both Magikarp and Squirtle. Oh well, the hazards of switch grinding in the Set battle mode.

- I chose the Helix fossil because praise Helix, not that I think I'll use it since it's only revived at like Cinnabar at a very low level. Not sure I'll have the patience to raise it.

- Misty went down really easily, just spammed Bite with Pepsi. And with that I managed to get Coca-Cola all the way to level 15, and be able to grind by itself, so neat. Well, for some Pokemon.

Badges: 2/8

- After a long grinding session - including using a Rare Candy to get through that last level - Coca-Cola evolves into a mighty Gyarados.
Which promptly proved its worth by neatly dealing with Bulbasaur - even if it got Sleep Powdered, the fact it's not weak to Grass was worth enough in my eyes.

Now if only it actually got a Flying move ...

Team:
Pepsi the Wartortle
- Bite
- Tail Whip
- Water Gun
- Withdraw

Coca-Cola the Gyarados
- Bite
- Water Pulse
- Tackle
- Splash

 

[Duck]

Second and final update of FireRed. Onwards to Johto! And to spice things up, I think I'll retire every line that get to champion status as we go.

Spoiler:

- Went through the Nugget Bridge and helped Bill.
- Played hero and since the police decided to be useless, got Dig out of it which should be important to deal with Lt. Surge
- Cleaned up the S.S. Anne and defeated Blau once again
- Lt. Surge was a bit of a complicated fight, since Evasion hax was a thing and Raichu hit like a truck. But with a strategic sacrifice of Coca-Cola so I could heal Pepsi (who had Dig), we managed to get the win.

And that's with us in the 29-30 level range, about 6 levels higher than its ace. Yikes.

Badges: 3/8

- Got the bike
- Went down Rock Tunnel
- Got some Tea from a nice Old Lady
- Got Sprite the Eevee from the teacher in the Celadon Mansion, which immediately evolved.

Sprite the male Vaporeon
Nature: Gentle (+ SpDef, - Def)
Ability: Water Absorb

The nature isn't great, but since this gen all our weaknesses are special it's not the worst either.
Unfortunately, Vaporeon suffers from stone evolution syndrome - it has a terrible moveset. Thankfully, the Game Corner and the Department Store are here to help us deal with that.

- After that, Sprite just killed everything in the Game Corner and the Gym. Including Erika. Turns out she can't handle a Vaporeon with Ice Beam.

Badges: 4/8

- Started to climb the Lavender Tower and beat Blau. He even managed to make Pepsi evolve again, because he's just such a nice and supportive friend <3

- After that, I made a beeline for Silph Co., got lost there and beat Blau again. Then I got Dr. Pepper the Lapras

Dr. Pepper the female Lapras
Nature: Mild (+ Spa, - Def)
Ability: Shell Armor

Pretty ok, but like most things in Gen I, the only thing saving it is the Game Corner.

- After a lot of grinding, I decide to just get going and finish with Giovanni. I'll get Lapras up to par by paving the way to Fuchsia.

- And that I did. After hiking down the Safari Zone I got Surf (yay) and Strength (meh).

- Dr. Pepper just killed Koga with Psychic. lol.

Badges: 5/8

- After a quick trip back to Saffron, Gyarados just murderized Sabrina with Return. Venomoth actually took the hit too, so I am somewhat impressed.

Badges: 6/8

- Unsurprisingly, neither the Pokemon Mansion nor Blaine were complicated. All of Blaine's mon died to Surf.

Badges: 7/8

- One uneventful Sevii Islands sidequest later, we make our way back to Viridian and destroy Giovanni one and for all.

Badges: 8/8

- Since I have four Pokémon now, I'm more or less riding the level curve. (Which is rather novel, I usually use less Pokémon, so I have a tendency to be overleveled). While I'll probably need to grind a bit before the Elite Four, Blau was pretty easy to deal.

- Victory Road was done, the usual items were bought and while I was going to grind, I didn't really feel like putting in the time, so let's see if I can do it without the level advantage.

I'm entering with a team at level 53-54 which is par with Lorelei but about 10 levels under Blau's ace.

vs. Lolerei
- Dr. Pepper enters, I use two X Specials and an X Speed and let Tbolt sweep the way for me

vs. Bruno
- Pepsi enters and manages to deal with most of the opponents, waste Bruno's items but falls down to Machamp
- Coca-Cola tried to set-up but wasn't enough, Sprite came in and cleaned up

vs. Agatha
- Dr. Pepper enters, I use two X Specials and an X Speed and just swept. Psychic dealt with the ghosts and Arbok, while Ice Beam destroyed the Golbats.

vs. Lance
- Dr. Pepper enters and just exploits weaknesses to destroy most Pokemon. Gyarados went down to Tbolt, the Dragonairs to Ice Beam and Aerodactyl to Surf. Sadly, Aerodactly managed to weaken Lapras and let Dragonite kill Dr. Pepper before it could fire that delicious quad weak Ice Beam
- So Sprite did it for her. Lance kept dragging it out with his Full Restores but he kept getting at low health, in the end he sent a Hyper Beam to kill Sprite.
- Which left it wide open for Pepsi's Ice Beam. I love the Ice Beam TM, it's been one of the run's MVPs.

vs. Champion Blau
- Dr. Pepper kills Pidgeotto with an Ice Beam, and Blau switches Rhydon in
- I try to set up a lot with Coca-Cola and when I'm ready to start sweeping, Blau get's a crit :T
- Dr. Pepper comes back in, and kills it but Venusaur drops by and start being ... annoying. It keeps spamming Solarbeam, but thankfully it never used Sunny Day. It kills almost everybody, so I'm forced to use a Revive in-battle (I was trying to avoid that)
- At the end Dr. Pepper manages to kill it, and I just alternate between healing it and killing stuff. At the end of the day I managed to beat Blau, using 1 Revive in-battle and being about 8 levels under its ace. I'm fine with that. Not to mention that if it weren't for a stupid crit, I probably wouldn't have even needed that Revive.

Either way, Kanto is done.

Final Team Analysis:

Dr. Pepper the Lapras (MVP)
- It's a beast. With the deliciously OP moveset of Thunderbolt / Ice Beam / Psychic / Surf and its great defenses it was dealing massive chunks of damage to most Pokemon. It actively made me wish there was a fifth moveslot to put Calm Mind in there, but to be honest, I only really felt the need to get the boosts in the Elite Four battles.

I almost didn't use it, but I'm glad I did because it came in clutch when my strategy just kinda flunked.

Coca-Cola the Gyarados (Most Underwhelming)
- I know it's nowhere near its true potential in Gen III but ergggh, it started out great and just kinda leveled out in the end. It was still useful and more on less on par with the rest of the team but it really needed that level advantage to shine.

I tried using a fancy strategy with Dragon Dance but a lot of Scary Faces and a crit nipped that in the bud. Oh well.

Sprite the Vaporeon (Most Average)
- It was just ... average. It essentially wanted to be Dr. Pepper but couldn't quite match it. It wasn't bad it just ... kinda paled in comparison to Dr. Pepper I guess.

Pepsi the Blastoise (Most forgotten)
- By the end I kinda forgot it was there to be honest. It didn't have any interesting types to help, it had a pretty meh movepool, or even a good niche in general. The more Pokemon I got, the less useful it became, I guess.

Edit: Johto came and went, let's try ... Platinum this time around

Spoiler:

- Got Gin, the male Totodile.

- Did the fetch quest and beat up my rival - Silber.

- Did Bellsprout Tower and killed Falkner pretty quickly
Badges: 1/8

- Gin evolved!

- Went through the Union Cave, and got Vodka, the male Slowpoke.

- So, fun fact, Vodka came in with Curse and Tackle. Bugsy starts the battle with a cocoon.
So, to answer your question a Atk, Def +6 Slowpoke isn't enough to kill Scyther, but it was nice effort anyways.
Gin cleaned up after Vodka and we got the Hive Badge.
Badges: 2/8

- Beat Silber.

- As it turns out, setting up on Clefairy means the murdercow isn't an issue at all.
Badges: 3/8

- Beat the Kimono girls and got HM Surf.

- A combination of Confusions and Bite nabbed me Morty's badge.
Badges: 4/8

- Got Whiskey, the female Corsola.

- Beat Chuck, got a lucky freeze out of Ice Punch and Poliwrath was no more, lol.
Badges: 5/8

- Jasmine was ... brutal. Iron Tail Steelix hits like bricks and the Magnemites were super effective.
Managed to get the win at the end anyways.
Badges: 6/8

- Cleared out the Rocket base in Mahogany without many issues.

- Pryce was annoying because of his Rest tactics, so Vodka set up and just Shadow Balled them to bits.
Also, it evolved, so yay!
Badges: 7/8

- Beat Silver once more and cleaned up the Rocket plot. I could get Suicune, but what's the point?

- Beat Claire and dealt with her whining. Dragonairs hit surprisingly hard, but nothing an Ice Punch to the face won't fix.
Badges: 8/8

- After dealing with the Victory Road we finally get to the Elite Four. This time we're at level 45 which is about Bruno's average level and only 5 levels lower than Lance's ace.

vs. Will
- Gin kills everything until his last Xatu appears. By now Gin is the red zone and while I think it could outspeed and kill with Ice Punch, switching to Vodka and letting it clean up is preferrable.
- Vodka just spams Shadow Balls and tanks Xatu's hits like a boss.

vs. Koga
- Whisky comes in and kills Ariados and Foretress, but gets bogged down by Muk's evasion tactics.
- Vodka came in and cleaned up with Confusion (and yes, I am sighing that Confusion is the best Psychic move available to me at the Elite Four)

vs. Bruno
- Vodka came in, cursed a lot and confused everybody. Until Onix came, then it surfed.

vs. Karen
- I let Whisky go in and bait all the Sand Attacks and Confusions from Umbreons, which is more or less did.
- Gin came in and killed a weakened Umbreon, and then just proceeded to kill everything else.

vs. Champion Lance
- I started off with the wrong foot because I forgot to switch Whisky and Gin's positions - oops.
- After that I let Gin get a couple of X Attacks, X Specials and X Speeds, after that it just killed everything in sight. Ironically enough Gyarados was the hardest Pokemon because everything it resisted almost everything I had.

I forgot to take the screenshots but yeah, Johto's over.

All in all this time around I felt everybody was OK. Corsola was lagging but I kinda expected that from it to be honest, and it was a very good wall / softening agent.

I might have to ban X-Items in Elite Four matches (or at least limit them to like one per battle) since setting up in front of Lance was ridiculously easy.

 

[Duck]

Platinum's first update.

Spoiler:

- Started the game. I'm Sternen and my rival is Barry.
I actually really like that name, would definitely be in the list for any future kids if I lived in an English speaking country.

- Got Durian, the male Piplup.

Durian, the male Piplup
Nature: Naughty (+ Att, - SpD)
Ability: Torrent

Less than ideal nature, but it's not the worst. Will probably come in hadny at some point or another anyways.

- Beat the rival. Got to Jublife and then I beat the rival again.

- Durian evolved, and I beat Roark. I will say that getting Screeched by Onix made the Cranidos be a very tense battle.
Badges: 1/8

- Beat the execs at the Valley Windworks.

- So, as it turns out Gardenia needed some strategy.

vs. Gardenia
- Durian started by serving a Growls, getting an X Attack, X Defend and X Special Def.
Even with all that and chugging Super Potions pretty much every other turn I almost died.
And Prinplup was about 5 levels over Gardenia's ace.
Lovely.

Badges: 2/8

- The other admin was actually surprisingly easy. Skuntank took a lot of Bubblebeams but beating it was relatively straightforwards.
Perks of being overleveled, I suppose.

- Fantina was actually complicated. While Brine made dealing with Mismagius very easily, Haunter made me use a Super Potion to not die.
So far Platinum has been a pleasant challenge.
Badges: 3/8

- And then there was Barry. If it weren't for the AI switching Staravia into Grotle, I might have had a very bad time.
As it turn outs, I managed to scrape by.

- The good side is that we got the Good Rod, so now we can backtrack to Eterna and finally get a Barboach.

Rhubarb the male Barboach
Nature: Serious (Neutral)
Ability: Anticipation

Now to get it up to par with Durian.

Team:
- Durian the male Prinplup (Lvl. 35)
- Rhubarb the male Barboach (Lvl. 17)
Badges: 3/8

Edit: Platinum's second and final update

Spoiler:

- Rhubard and Durian both evolved.

- Nothing particularly exciting happened until Maylene. Which happened to die pretty quickly.
Badges: 4/8

- Beat Barry in Pastoria. This time things went a lot more smoothly.

- Beat Waker. While I didn't have anything that hit him for decent damage, he also didn't so it mostly came down to attrition.
Badges: 5/8

- Did a bunch of plot stuff and finally got Surf, which means we get to get our last party member!

Blackberry the male Tentacruel
Nature:
Ability: Liquid Ooze

- After grinding - which was pleasantly less than expected - beat Barry in Canavale. As it turns out Rhubarb is faster than Torterra and can OHKO it with Ice Beam. So that's nice to know.

- Byron was very easy - Surf and EQ made short work of pretty much everyone.
Badges: 6/8

- Beat the two lake execs.

- Candice was so easy I had actually forgotten to place her on my notes. Oops.
Apparently Flash Cannon aka Byron's TM is just too OP for her
Badges: 7/8

- I could futz around Mt. Coronet to get a Feebas but frankly, I don't want to deal with having the grinding and baking necessary to evolve it.

- Distortion World is an interesting enough place, so on one hand I wish we had more stuff like that, but on the other hand these maze sections can be kinda ehhh. Specially since wiping to Cyrus means you have to do it all over again.

vs. Cyrus
- The trick was setting up Barrier a lot on Houndoom before getting to Gyarados. And even then I only survived my third attempt without items because the AI was stupid.

- Giratina (and I just now realized this was the first mandatory legend I faced in this string of games) was a lot easier. Falling down quickly to the power of Ice Beam. Even if it did get an Ominous Wind boost that made it take three attacks instead of two.

- Can we take a minute to appreciate Volkner's gym design? Pretty cool. Falkner went down to EQ in a string of OHKOs, but I gotta appreciate the man's sense of style.
Badges: 8/8

- One quick Victory Road later, we have our final battle with Barry. And it was actually pretty tense.
Snorlax killed our momentum and after that we more or less scrape by, I only barely won without using any items.

- Now onto the main event:

vs. Aaron
- Pretty standard. Pokemon A kills until killed, then other guy comes in and continues the killing.

vs. Bertha
- Rhubarb dealt with half her team, and then Blackberry cleaned up.

vs. Flint
- Rhubarb came in and killed pretty much everything except Infernape.
- Blackberry tried to deal with it, but Infernape managed to survive with a sliver of health and KOd it
- So Durian came in and surived a final Flare Blitz that self-KOd the monke.

vs. Lucian
- I wipe. For the first time in this run, I don't have something with Bite or Crunch to deal with those pesky dark types.
Which means, it's time for items.

- E4 v2

After a short repeat of the Aaron, Bertha and Flint battles we come back to Lucian:
- I use a couple of X Speeds to make sure I'll outspeed some troublesome Pokémon like Alakazam and ... I get three critical hits laughing in the face of the Reflect, Mr. Mime set up lol. Levitate Bronzong was a bit complicated but I managed to whittle it down until only Espeon was left.
- Durian took care of it quite handily.

vs. Champion Cynthia
- So from the start I thought of using items here because Garchomp is a very complicated beast and I am underleveled for this battle - I entered the E4 at level 59 the first time and 60 the second.
- So Blackberry came in, got one X Speed and one X Special Attack - and was killed by a Spiritomb crit.
- And then Durian came in, Cynthia sent Garchomp. It used an EQ, Durian lived and counter-killed with an Ice Beam.
- She sent Roserade, so I was forced to use a Revive on Durian to prevent the defeat, and it was still for nothing as it managed to KO me with a crit Energy Ball in the end.

The good thing though, is that we learned things.

- Third time's the charm - E4 v3

vs. Champion Cynthia
- This time, I managed to set up properly and just destroy most of Cynthia's team, except for Lucario.
- Durian managed to soften up Lucario but it was Rhubarb that deal the final blow and made us Sinnoh Champion.

Team Analysis:
- They were all pretty cool. Empoleon started to lag behind in the end but they all played a big part in the end.
I can definitely see why people say Platinum is a hard game - the Elite Four was kinda brutal.

 

[transwiththeplans]

Forum User Name: Transwiththeplans
Game(s): Sword + Expansion Pass
Pokémon Type: Ice
Single/Ultimate: Single

A week or so ago, I saw a video on the WORST types to use for each region, monotype wise. To my shock, I saw that Rock was the worst type. Now...I submit THIS as evidence of Ice being the most challenging Monotype.

Under the game of "Sword", using Ice types starts at being fun and exciting, but then you realize you have to deal with Nessa, Kabu, Bea, Gordy, Chairman Rose and Leon. Oh, and Nessa and Bea again toward endgame. On paper, this sounds hard. That's because it is. And I love a good challenge. Here's the rules I must adhere too;

>Limited use of grinding
>Limited use of items in game
>Careful strategy
>Choose Grookey so rival has Sobble and Leon has Scorbunny

Team Options:

At the front of my team will always the Hail setter. There's a few, with Abomasnow, Vanilluxe and Alolan Ninetales. For the start of the game, I'll have to use Abomasnow (or transfer in an egg of a HA Vulpix). Abomasnow sounds like a good edition, but then you remember it's 4x weakness to Fire. Ninetales sounds a little bit better, but then you remember the 4x weakness to Steel. That's going to be a large problem throughout my run, so, I'll have to persevere somehow. I decided to go with Alolan Ninetales in the final team because it's fast and it can easily be obtained by doing the Diglett Finding challenge on the Isle of Armor.

Alolan Sandshrew poses an interesting ability- Slush Rush. I could use it as an early game fast Pokemon before I possibly replace it with a HA Arctozolt from the Crown Tundra dens, but I think I'll stick with Sandshrew for now.

There are two new Ice variants available; one is Darmanitan, a surprising but not welcome addition. He has a strong ability in "Gorilla Tactics", which is a Choice Band ability. It does have a fast speed tier as well. If I really wanted to make an effort, I could try to find the HA Darumaka so I could have Ice / Fire stab, but I digress. The second shocking addition is Mr. Mime's regional evolution, Mr. Rime. Mr. Rime has…abilities, I guess. 80/75/100 bulk is pretty bad, though. I suppose I could always slap an Evolite on the prevolution, but the loss of HP does not seem worth it. Pooling 252 EVs into defense will yield me…around 127 at Level 50. Mr. Rime will also answer my problems with Bea, but then again, we have other, faster Pokemon that could help "cheese" some results.

Froslass is a Pokemon I have long admired. I used one in my Omega Ruby run, and I believe it yielded some good results. I can't remember. A speed tier of 110 is nothing to scoff at, meaning it could either run a very supportive set, or just troll opponents. Snow Cloak is also a fantastic ability to use w/ Hail on the field. If I were to give this Pokemon a "concrete" moveset at the moment, I'd choose something along the lines of Destiny Bond, an Ice Stab move, Double Team and a good support move to either help defend the team more, or just attack.

There's also three new ice types within the ranks; Arctozolt, Eiscue and Frosmoth. Arctozolt seems like a good Pokemon. 90/90/80 defenses sound pretty good to me, especially one with 100/90 offenses. However, the speed is what really holds it back…yet gives it a niche over a Pokemon like Rotom. Rotom is delegated to one low PP move, Blizzard, whereas Arctozolt gets moves like Thunderbolt, Ice Beam, Bolt Beak, Icicle Crash, Freeze Dry and Wild Charge. However, it doesn't have Levitate, but instead Static or Volt Absorb or Slush Rush, which is available in the Crown Tundra. There aren't many Electric types in the region, sadly, so how often I'll utilize this is unknown.

Frosmoth is another fun newcomer; Snom might just be my mascot for this run, just because it's sooooo damn cute. Anyways, Frosmoth is a unique Ice / Bug type, with a large special side, but low Speed, but that can be fixed by Quiver Dance. A concrete moveset at the moment would be Quiver Dance, Ice Beam, Bug Buzz and Giga Drain. At the the time of writing this, I have one on my team, thanks to the recent Raid event.

Now, for the possible gamebreaker; Eiscue. I can't lie, Eiscue is…pretty ugly looking. But, we can look past that; he's an ice Mimikyu with a free restore under Hail, but only under physical attacks. While that sounds bad…it's actually pretty good. Eiscue gets Belly Drum, Liquidation, Icicle Crash, Dive…while he may not get STAB, you have to realize something else; once that stupid Ice Head is broken, his speed goes from 50 to 130. That's one of the fastest speeds in the main game, and Pingu over here could kill you fucking dead with a Liquidation at 6+, Gigantamax Charizard. If he does somehow manage to do so, I will never live it down.

There has been one ice type Gigantamax confirmed; Lapras. While I do not know if you can obtain a Gigantamax Lapras in the main game (and not post), I will be pleasantly shocked if that is the case. If that is the case, I will dedicate time searching for this thing. Lapras has always been a more quiet favorite, and it's G-Max move of setting an Aurora Veil and attacking does sound appealing. It is currently in the Max Raid events, so I could possibly pick that up as an answer for Kabu and Gordie.

I just beat Milo, with a combo between Slush Rush Sandshrew and Snow Warning Vulpix.

It is honestly all down hill from here.

 

[ShyRayq]

There has been one ice type Gigantamax confirmed; Lapras. While I do not know if you can obtain a Gigantamax Lapras in the main game (and not post), I will be pleasantly shocked if that is the case. If that is the case, I will dedicate time searching for this thing. Lapras has always been a more quiet favorite, and it's G-Max move of setting an Aurora Veil and attacking does sound appealing. It is currently in the Max Raid events, so I could possibly pick that up as an answer for Kabu and Gordie.

G-Lapras only appears in normal raids in Pokemon Shield, and only in 5-star raids, so pretty late in the game. However, if you have the DLC, you can feed a Max Soup to a Lapras to get a G-Max Lapras.

 

[transwiththeplans]

Incorrect- in the Wild Area updates, you can catch a Lapras w/ G-Maxing capabilities- at One Star.

...sadly I'm not lucky enough for that,,,

 

[Duck]

Black2's first and final update - this one definitely felt like a slog.

Spoiler:

- Started the game. As usual I named myself Sternen and picked the water starter. I'd forgotten this game did text speech at the top of the screen which is kinda gross.

Hydrogen the male Oshawott
Nature: Docile (Neutral)
Ability: Torrent

I can work with that.

- Beat the rival battle in Floccesy. The AI is really bad, when I got to red health it just started spamming Leers. I mean, I knew he was dumb because of his dialogue, just didn't know he was bad battler as well.

- After the Great Herdier Overreaction of 2020, we made our way to Cheren. Gotta say, his design for this game is pretty cute. Still pretty easy to beat.
Badges: 1/8

- Hydrogen evolved.

- A dumb crit made Roxie take two tries, but she was otherwise unremarkable.
Badges: 2/8

- Why does this game have this eternal cutscenes? Also, screw Pokestar Studios.

- Since the only water types I can get so far are Azurill and Psyduck (one of which I want to save for a later gen and the other is just kinda meh) I'm kinda soloing Burgh. which is troublesome because of Swadloon and Leavanny. And as it turns out, Leavanny can OHKO me with Razor Leaf. And even if Razor Leaf misses, Return is a 3HKO at best.

After EV training / grinding on the desert, we evolve Hydrogen and are ready to face Burgh once more. While it wasn't close, he still managed to get me to yellow health. I really don't want to think about how Elesa is going to be.
Badges: 3/8

- The answer was ... tense but OK, apparently. Static is very annoying and if I got fully paralyzed at any point, I most likely would have lost or needed to use an item, but luckily I wasn't so it was just straightforward use of Return.
Badges: 4/8

So grind we go.

- Happily enough, Ducklett was easy enough to find on Driftveil bridge. Grinding it to Samurott's level, was not.

Oxygen the female Swanna
Nature: Modest (+ SpA, - Att)
Ability: Keen Eye

Very good ability / combination for Swanna. I have high hopes for this baby.

- Clay was exactly as easy as you'd assume it to be.
Badges: 5/8

- Shortly after we got Surf and our last team member, which we promptly gave a grinding session to get it up to par with the others.

Fluorine the male Jellicent
Nature: Adamant (+ Att, - SpA)
Ability: Cursed Body

This is ... a less ideal ability, but still a pretty cool Pokémon.

- The level curve is starting to catch up to us, which is nice. Skyla managed to KO one of my Pokémon but was otherwise unremarkable.
Badges: 6/8

- Plot stuff which is still boring. According to Bianca, Drayden wrestles with his Pokémon which is quite the image.

- Since Ice Beam is locked away in the Giant Chasm, this battle was annoying but manageable.
Badges: 7/8

- Ironically enough, Zinzolin was pretty tough. Ice and Water types have been consistently a pain in the ass in these runs and Zinzolin only use Ice types.

- Marlon is a himbo and I'm living for it. He was also relatively easy - thank God for Air Slash flinch hax. Would have been even easier if I'd remember to put Fluorine up front.
Badges: 8/8

- Once again Zinzolin was annoying. I was hurt from the rest of the frigate so it managed to kill me. I destroyed him on the second try.

- Colress even more so, forcing me to use an item since he had a lot of bulky electric types. Shout out for Fluorine since he tanked a lot of SE moves.

- Also, I love the new aesthetic Ghetsis has going on. Very cantankerous goth chic. The cane is a very nice touch too, if a bit anime.

- The way past Kyurem-Black was basically playing "pass the revive" to PP stall out Fusion Bolt. Shout out to Fluorine that actually managed to survive a Fusion Bolt from full health.

- Thank god my team was fully healed before Ghetsis or things would have gotten ... desperate. I managed to scrape all the way to Drapion and lost because of a critical hit :c

- The second time around I barely won, but I did win and that's all that matters.

- Annoying details: You can't fly from the Giant Chasm cave even though you just saw N fly away. The most logical conclusion is that Zekrom just phased through the roof.

- Victory Road was annoying and started to show how Samurott is kinda meh. So was last Hugh, but nothing unmanageable.

vs. Shauntal
- A combination of Expert Belt Shadow Ball with Fluorine and Mystic Water Surf with Oxygen were enough to seal the deal.

vs. Marshal
- This time Oxygen held the Expert Belt and Fluorine held the Mystic Water.

vs. Caitlin
- She managed to take out Fluorine earlier on the battle, but Oxygen did more than enough damage for Hydrogen to mop up the lone survivor.

vs. Grimsley
- I managed to set up Swords Dance and Focus Energy on Liepard and soloed the rest with the help of a few Full Restores.
That Focus Energy was for nothing since I didn't get a single crit but whatever, he's done for.

vs. Champion Iris
- Oxygen started in strong by 2HKOing Hydreigon, then Iris sent in Thunderbolt Lapras which was solidly walled - admittedly with the help of items - by Fluorine.
- Hydrogen served as a nice sacrifice as I healed them both against Druddigon, so he wasn't completely useless, I guess.
- Archeops, Aggron and Haxorus were easily dispatched by Oxygen.

I really don't like Unova, I guess. This was a more difficult run than I expected, but it didn't feel like fun hard - the game restricted most of my options for huge swathes of it. I will say that I did enjoy using most of these Pokémon though.

Oxygen was a great sweeper and Fluorine was a great wall - one that actually managed to stare down Kyurem and sometimes not die.
Hydrogen was kinda trash though, it had terrible coverage.

Anyways, with that out of the way we're past the halfway point and done with all the 2D games - here's to hoping the 3DS will be gentler than Unova!

 

[transwiththeplans]

Update- successfully beat Kabu.

Let's review- caught a Lapras w/ the Gigantamax Factor, dug up a few Ice and Dawn stones from the digging bros, caught an Amaura and named it after a Scottish Doctor...and Kabu took three tries.

Fuckin hate critical hits. I will also NOT be using Eiscue- too few...things to work with. Icicle Crash is also an egg move, so...fun. Now, onto Bea. I think I have a strategy for that...

 

[Duck]

Pokémon X - First update:

Spoiler:

- Started the game, this time my name was Étoiles - for that ~ french flair ~

- Got Earth, the Froakie.

Earth, the male Froakie
Nature: Naught (+ Att, - SpD.)
Ability: Torrent

Unfortunately we can't get that deliciously broken ability of Protean, but it's an OK ability I guess.

- I beat Shauna - and felt bad doing so, she's cute and nice :c - and did that annoying early game plot stuff.

- I have to say, I love the little artwork of different trainers that are shown before battle.

- I don't particularly grind, but I do battle most trainers which means that Viola was pretty easy. Defeating her not only nabbed me a badge but also an evolution, so nice.
Badges: 1/8

- After a short trek down Parterre way we get to Lumiose City and get our second partner: Squirtle. Now, I didn't want to use Pokémon I already used before but this would be Mega Blastoise and Blastoise was kinda meh in Generation I.

Jupiter, the male Squirtle
Nature: Hardy (Neutral)
Ability: Torrent

Could be better, could be worse. We can make it work.
And since this is an actual 3DS - which means no turbo - this seems like a sensible place to stop, for now.

Team:
- Earth, the male Frogadier (Lvl. 18)
- Jupiter, the Squirtle (Lvl. 10)

 

[TheHumanCleric]

Pokemon Shield, Ice Type Monorun, Update 1

Progress

Spoiler:

Alright, update number one, I think I'll post an update whenever I complete two gyms and since I just beat Nessa, that'll be now!
I started by naming my trainer Nicholas, since Saint Nick and Christmas stuff. It made sense at the time I suppose. Picked up a Scorbunny and spedrun the opening segment of the game until I caught my first real team member - a Snover. The eventual Abomasnow should be helpful with setting up hail at the start of every fight and grass type moves will be a godsend in the early game. I also swiftly caught a Snover, a female one so I'm aiming for a Froslass. I also caught a Shellder which is great at the moment as it doesn't have the ice type until it evolves, meaning I can counter fire, fighting and steel moves really easily.

The first two gyms haven't been challenging, Milo was simple thanks to Snover and Shellder while nearly every one of Nessa's mons were one-shot by my dynamaxed Snover. I'm not too looking forward to Kabu, although hopefully Shellder can do enough to beat it.

Spoiler:

TEAM
Snover, Level 23, Snow Warning, Powder Snow, Seed Bomb, Ice Shard, Leer
Snorunt, Level 23, Ice Body, Powder Snow, Crunch, Ice Shard, Double Team
Shellder, Level 22, Skill Link, Tri Attack, Whirlpool, Rock Blast, Supersonic

 

[CelloX]

Is it ok if I list my bug shield monotype I already completed?

 

[Duck]

Water monotype - X's second update

I reset the game, got Froakie and Azurill first gym and then as it turns out, Huge Power (Azu)marill is way too strong for most gym leaders.

Iris the female Frogadier
Level 34
- Aerial Ace
- Rock Tomb
- Water Pulse
- Quick Attack

Jupiter the male Azumarill
Level 38
- Aqua Tail
- Dig
- Return
- Rollout

Badges: 3/8

 

[Valroxen]

Forum User Name: Valroxen
Game(s): Fire Red, Heart Gold, Emerald, Platinum*, White, White 2*, X, Ultra Moon, Shield
Pokémon Type: Flying
Single/Ultimate: Ultimate :3

Really excited to take on the challenge tbh, I tried to Monotype Moon w/ Dragons a while back but the Totem Lurantis completely stopped my Bagon and Dratini and I threw in the towel. I considered different types (basically between Bug or Flying) but in the end I decided Flying would be interesting but not completely over the top for each region, might take on Bug for a harder challenge after if this is a success.

*1: This might changed to the D/P remakes if they're announced and depending on how long it takes for me to get around to it.
*2: Not sure if this is required for the challenge but I'll probably do it anyway because I want to xD

 

[Silksong]

Forum User Name: Silksong
Game: Storm Silver
Pokemon Type: Ground
Single/Ultimate: Single

I've been going for Nuzlockes lately, so I think it'll be nice to get back to a good ol' fashioned monotype. I usually like to pick a type that isn't used by a gym leader/E4 member, and in Gen 2 and their remakes the only such type is Ground! Plus, I've been wanting an excuse to try out Storm Silver. :)

 

[Valroxen]

Pokemon Fire Red Flying Monotype - Update 1

Well my journey has finally begun :3
So naturally I did the basics when starting: Welcomed by Oak, girl character, name Alyssa, rival name Blue because I couldn't think of anything smart etc etc.

So we arrive at the first choice: The starter!
Luckily this was a pretty easy decision for me because Charmander will become a big boi Charizard some day, making him my first member of the team. I named him 'Icarus' as a sort of reverse reference as he's fire and gains wings instead of burning them up xD.
After this Blue challenged me to a battle where I swiftly kicked his ass, then did the basic collection stuff like the Town Map, Pokedex and my first set of Pokeballs.

The good thing about this Flying Type run is that I get a lot of Pokemon very early on, so I moved to Route 1 and caught my second team member: Sarah the Pidgey. After a little bit of training we added yet another member on Route 22, adding Kira the Spearow onto the team aswell. Finally the team was rounded out for the early game by catching a Jules the Caterpie in Viridian forest, where after some team grinding evolved into Metapod.

On the way we also fought Blue again on Route 22, where Icarus faced his Pidgey and unfortunately fell, where Kira then had to clean up from and then also took out his Squirtle as well.

From here Viridian Forest was a breeze, with Sarah, Kira and Icarus equally Pecking, Gusting and Embering everything in sight. Even Jules got in on the action and gained EXP from the Metapod's that knew nothing but Hardening, which ended up helping him fully evolve into Butterfree right at the end of the forest.

Unfortunately that was my stopping point arriving in Pewter city, so next time we'll really be up against it with our first proper difficult fight against Gym Leader Brock.

Team:

Jules - Level 10 Butterfree - Tackle, String Shot, Harden, Confusion
Icarus - Level 10 Charmander - Scratch, Growl, Ember
Kira - Level 11 Spearow - Peck, Growl, Leer
Sarah - Level 10 Pidgey - Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust

 

[Valroxen]

Pokemon Fire Red Flying Monotype Update 2

So picking up right where things left off, after arriving in Pewter City I took a look at the gym, beating the first training before quickly realising I'd be swiftly under levelled for Brock. To prepare I decided 13 was where I'd go to and so I did some grinding in Viridian Forest where Jules learnt Poison Powder and Icarus learned Metal Claw, moves that would prove pivotal in the battle itself.

Gym 1: Brock
To begin the fight Brock led with Geodude, which I went with Jules as I wanted to save Icarus for the main event. I went for Confusion which luckily for me did both half HP and managed to confuse it, which didn't really matter because it broke through but then used Defence Curl instead, allowing me to finish the job with another Confusion.

Next up was the big show, Onix. I was genuinely terrified by this thing considering its power and strength, so I knew I had to be smart with my approach. First I decided to stay in with Jules as I knew I could out speed and go for Poisonpowder, so I could stall it out if I needed too and because of Butterfree having Compound Eyes as its ability this was no issue landing it either. It landed and Jules was swiftly deleted from the battlefield with a OHKO Rock Tomb which was expected. Next up I sent in Icarus and decided because I'd still need to live a Rock Tomb the best course of action would be to Growl first and go from there, to my surprise Onix opted for Tackle instead of Rock Tomb which did pitiful damage, I then growled it another 3 times all of which he replied with Tackle. From there it was smooth sailing as he was severely weakened from the Poison and Icarus finished him off with a Crit Metal Claw.

Boulder Badge obtained! (1/8)

After that I tried to leave Pewter City before being interrupted by the greatest gift: THE RUNNING SHOES!!!
With my new found speed I powered on through the next route, with Jules adding Stun Spore to its arsenal but I quickly reached Mt Moon. I then picked up two new members for my team: inside the Pokemon Centre I spent $500 on Magikarp which I named Tornado (named after one of my favourite Twister ads/Vinesauce clips) and then catching a Zubat in the cave that I named Rhaidan and just like that I had a full team of six!

Plowing through Mt Moon was pretty easy, I trained up Rhaidan a little bit but mainly focused on the old team. Despite the rock Pokemon we managed quite well, mainly thanks to Icarus evolving into Charmeleon and then Jules adding Sleep Powder for yet another status move to use (this was my plan for Jules from the start because Poison/Sleep will be vital for dealing with roadblocks). We also fought our first batch of Team Rocket grunts, as well as snagging a Helix fossil and not before long we were already at Cerulean City.

I dealt with Cerulean pretty much the same way as I did Pewter City, I went into the gym, fought some of the gym trainers before quickly realising how under levelled I was and then going to train. Heading up north, I ran into Blue again which caused me no problems really and blasted quickly through his team and the moved onto Nugget Bridge. While these trainers caused me no trouble, it did end up leading to Sarah evolving into Pidgeotto and upping the strength on my team even further. From there it was easy going, beat the Nugget Bridge, slapped the Rocket grunt, struggled to level up Rhaidan, got the SS ticket from Bill and suddenly we were ready for Misty!

Gym 2: Misty
This fight was.... a little bit more shakey than the last. To begin I lead with Sarah to deal some heavy damge to hopefully remove the Staryu before it did much damage, unfortunately Quick Attack was a 3HKO and on the second Water Pulse I ended up confused and low health, so I opted to sack Rhaidan so I could heal up Sarah and maybe confuse it with Supersonic. Misty then used a Super Potion as well as Harden, and while Supersonic missed the main thing was the Super Potion so it was all okay, I opted for Jules after due to the Harden weakening the power of Sarah's attacks where Staryu swiftly went down thanks to the Sleep Powder and Confusion combo attack.

Next up, Starmie. In typical me fashion I kept Jules in and used Poisonpowder to start whittling it down, Water Pulse did quite a lot of damage and I knew Jules couldn't do much else with Psybeam so I swapped her out into Tornado, so that the Poison could chip its health down more and this worked a treat. After Tornado went down, I went into Kira to try and finish the job in one Secret Power, and while it didn't kill, the Poison damage was enough to knock out and get us the win.

Cascade Badge obtained! (2/8)

Finishing the session off, I battled another Rocket Grunt, got the TM for Dig and fought a few more trainers before rushing myself to our next location and our toughest challenge yet...

Vermilion City, home of the Electric Gym.

The Team
Jules - Level 19 Butterfree - Confusion, Poisonpowder, Sleep Powder, Stun Spore
Kira - Level 19 Spearow - Secret Power, Peck, Pursuit, Leer
Icarus - Level 20 Charmeleon - Ember, Metal Claw, Smokescreen, Dig
Sarah - Level 19 Pidgeotto - Gust, Quick Attack, Sand-Attack, Tackle
Rhaidan - Level 15 Zubat - Leech Life, Astonish, Supersonic
Tornado - Level 8 Magikarp - Splash

 

[Silksong]

SS Ground Run Part 1: Beginnerings

Progress under the thing.

Spoiler:

Alright, booted up my totally legitimate copy of Storm Silver to start the run! Chose to play as a boy, named him Fritz, and started my journey!

I ended up picking Cyndaquil from Prof. Elm. I figure I'll keep the whole super-effective thing with my rival's starter, and Feraligatr is much more fitting in my eyes than Meganium. After finishing up our trip to Mr. Pokemon's house, I stopped up north at Route 46 to hunt for my first few team members! Storm Silver has some fantastic encounter variety, and it includes a couple of Ground-types in addition to the vanilla Geodude on this route.
--------------------------------------------
Pokemon Get! x3 Combo!

Phanpy. Codename: Dumbo.
Geodude. Codename: Dooder.
Numel. Codename: Maui.
-------------------------------------------
After starting off my team, I boxed my Cyndaquil (and the gift Eevee you get very early on in SG/SS) in Cherrygrove, then headed up north to make my way to Violet City. Had some trouble against an Idol with three Cute Charming female Pokemon against my all-male team, but other than that it was smooth sailing. Then, after reaching Violet City, we hung a left down to Route 32 to pick up another member of our team. Our first girl! She's pretty cute, I think, plus she came with Water Absorb, which is exactly what I needed to deal with all those pesky water-types coming up after the Gym Battle.
-------------------------------------------
Pokemon Get!

Wooper. Codename: Noni.
-------------------------------------------
Then came Sprout Tower. Ho boy. Numel's Ember was actually able to handle the grass types, but every Hoothoot hit every Hypnosis, which was super frustrating. Luckily, with Geodude's resistance to Air Cutter (which also crit a fair bit) and some strategic potion use, we made our way through the tower, triumphantly defeating the elderly Elder Li. After such a harrowing journey pre-gym trial, I was a bit nervous for what was about to come. For those of you who don't know, Drayano's hacks introduce a level of difficulty that the games we know and love could never hope to touch, save trainers like Cynthia and Steven Stone. Falkner would have a full team of six, with some type coverage and a particularly nasty Fighting/Flying Farfetch'd that could decimate my Geodude if I wasn't careful.

So I used Phanpy, and he absolutely annihilated Falkner thanks to my 3000 IQ Defense Curl/Rollout strat.​

-------------------------------------------
Badge Get!

Zephyr Badge! S-Tier Strats!
-------------------------------------------
Winning Team:

Dumbo, Lv. 18 :: Dooder, Lv. 15 :: Maui, Lv. 15 :: Noni, Lv. 15
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

And that's where I ended for the day. Tune in next time to find out if I can steamroll Bugsy just like Falkner. I think we can do it boys.

 

[Valroxen]

Pokemon Fire Red Flying Monotype Update 3

Now that I had arrived in Vermilion City, there was still much to do before the Gym battle itself. For starters I explored the City, starting by picking up the Vs Seeker from the Pokemon Centre, something that would greatly help any grinding I'd need to do, then found a girl that was trading a Farfetch'd for a Spearow and while I do want a Farfetch'd, I hadn't caught another Spearow and I wanted to keep Kira and finally I listened to the Fan Club President witter on about his Ponyta so I could get a Bike Voucher.

My next stop was Route 11, for some grinding because I have two important fights coming up: Blue on the SS Anne and Lt Surge in the Gym (that latter of which terrifies me). After battling all the trainers on the Route the team had grown quite a bit: Rhaidan had finally learnt a good attacking move with Bite (unfortunately its Special in this Gen so its still pretty weak) and also Kira began evolving!..... of which I swiftly stopped. Following the training I then took a trip back to Cerulean City, first catching myself a second Spearow called Fodder and trading my Bike Voucher in. Next I took Fodder to the trainer (which funnily enough was called Elyssa) and got another Flying type to the adventure, the awfully nicknamed: CH'DING the Farfetch'd (seriously why is there only ONE Farfetch'd in the whole game lol). Finally it was time to prepare the team for the Blue fight fully, and by that I mean just leveling up Tornado and that I did, putting the VS Seeker to good use on Route 6, taking on the same Pidgeotto's until young Tornado evolved into Gyarados, also learning Bite to give him an actually decent attacking move along side the Water Pulse TM.

Once aboard the SS Anne I swept all of the decks taking each trainer and grabbing items along the way, Rhaidan also managed to evolve into Golbat and learn Wing Attack and the squad was finally taking shape into being something real strong. So now it was time for the duel of the century, a battle so long, tough and strategic it would shake history forever. Alyssa vs Blue, who would come out on top? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I swept him with no effort. Well then. After that it was smooth sailing, grabbing HM Cut from the Captain and then teaching it to CH'DING so I could get into the gym, replacing Tornado because what's worse in an Electric gym with a Flying Squad, a Water/Flying type. The gym trainers were low effort and the puzzle I nailed first try, so all that stood left was the Lieutenant himself, a fight that terrified me.

Gym 3: Lt. Surge

Voltorb was up first, and we started with luck on our side. I lead with Kira because I wanted to save Jules and Icarus for the Raichu, the Voltorb out sped but opted for Screech instead of attacking, working in my favour as I managed to Paralyze it with Secret Powder, allowing me to go first and finish it off.

Pikachu up next, its low level meant it was nothing special, so I just blew it away with another Secret Power from Kira.

Finally the sole reason I was scared of this fight: Raichu. I opted for the Jules poison strategy again, which would have worked had I not misclicked and gone for Confusion in my quick panic. I was then Paralyzed with Thunder Wave, as suddenly my good luck against Voltorb came back to bite me, with Jules getting fully Paralyzed all three time before the Raichu finished her off with Shock Wave. Next up I tried doing some chip damage with Sarah using Quick Attack, and while it damaged it, it was basically nothing and Raichu drew blood again with Shock Wave. For whatever reason I figured maybe Kira could outspeed the Raichu and go for Secret Power again, despite the fact I still was yet to evolve Kira and took another unnecessary blow in the battle. Finally I decided to grow a brain and sent out Icarus, praying for Shock Wave to do less than half which to my surprise it actually did, to where in one quick Dig we managed to take it out and win a very tension filled fight.

Thunder Badge obtained! (3/8)

Since we still needed CH'DING in my party to use Cut for a bit, I decided to make the most out of it and head through Diglett's Tunnel to get some stuff from Viridian and Pewter City to help me. I collected the Old Amber from the Pewter museum for another flying option later in the game, met with one of Oak's aides for the Flash HM and while looking for other things stumbled across the Move Tutor for Dream Eater, now I checked just of curiosity who could learn it and low and behold a new strategy emerged: Jules could learn it! So I replaced Psybeam with it, as it would combo well with the almost perfect accuracy Sleep Powder thanks to Compound Eyes.

After finished up I headed all the way back to Cerulean City and onto Route 9 and 10, where Rock Tunnel quickly approached. Changes once again happened quickly to the team, with Kira finally reaching Level 25 and learnt Aerial Ace, meaning I could finally allow her to evolve into Fearow. Along side that I also replaced Stun Spore with Flash on Jules as someone had to make the sacrifice, as well as Tornado re-joining the party for CH'DING whilst we took on Rock Tunnel. This however was also a breeze, with Tornado ripping through hoards of Geodude, Graveler and Onix with Water Pulse and catching up to the squad fast, with Icarus also learning Rock Slide from the move tutor inside.

By the end of the session I had arrived in Lavender Town, given Blue another beatdown alongside all the Trainers inside Pokemon Tower and after the stress of Lt Surge, it was nice to know our next Gym Battle would be the easiest one of the run.

The Team
Jules - Level 24 Butterfree - Dream Eater, Poisonpowder, Sleep Powder, Flash
Kira - Level 25 Fearow - Secret Power, Aerial Ace, Pursuit, Leer
Icarus - Level 24 Charmeleon - Ember, Metal Claw, Rock Slide, Dig
Sarah - Level 24 Pidgeotto - Gust, Quick Attack, Sand-Attack, Whirlwind
Rhaidan - Level 24 Golbat- Wing Attack, Bite, Supersonic, Astonish
Tornado - Level 26 Gyarados - Water Pulse, Bite, Dragon Rage, Tackle

Box
CH'DING - Level 12 Farfetch'd - Peck, Sand Attack, Leer, Cut

(I forgot to take a SS of the Team before I kept playing some more so am sowwy :( )

 

[Lordecoxinha]

Forum User Name: Lordecoxinha
Game(s): Black
Pokémon Type: Dark
Single/Ultimate: Single