[Challenge] The Monotype Challenge Returns

[FactoriesFarAway]

Pokemon Y Bug Monotype – Part 3 – Badges 4 & 5

Spoiler:

Badge 4 has the smallest distance from Badge 3, so there was little to talk about. I just fought the trainers around the area, and Ramos himself was super easy as you can imagine, given he's the grass type leader and his main Pokemon is Gogoat, who was about as high levelled as the lowest level Pokemon on my team. It was a little sad, if anything, as I have no reason to be massively overleveled. I was just fighting all the trainers I came across, which I'd done in previous games and hadn't left me overleveled. I know it's the Exp. Share's fault.

I expected Clemont to be more difficult, but following Ramos, I was done for the night as my 3DS battery was low after playing for 6hrs in one day.

Clemont in the end turned out to be fairly easy to deal with. His Emolga was a bit of a pain as it kept Volt Switching, but his Magneton went down easy for Close Combat from my Heracross and his Heliolisk with Dig (though I could've also used Close Combat, but I forgot it was part normal type as I've barely played the last two generations). After those two were down, his Emolga went down to a Rock Slide from my Crustle.

After this, I planned to spend a lot of time in Lumiose City to finish exploring everything I hadn't yet, but that's for next time.

Team so far:

Gardenia (Vivillon) ♀ Lv 44 | Calm | Shield Dust @ Amulet Coin
Moves: Return, Bug Buzz, Draining Kiss, Psybeam

FabCrab (Crustle) ♂ Lv 42 | Calm | Shell Armor @ Metronome
Moves: Rock Slide, Shadow Claw, X-Scissor, Poison Jab

Louise (Illumise) ♀ Lv 40 | Impish | Oblivious @ Rocky Helmet
Moves: Power-Up Punch, Zen Headbutt, Thunderbolt, Return

Scolipede (Scolipede) ♀ Lv 43 | Quiet | Poison Point @ Black Sludge
Moves: Dig, Rollout, Poison Jab, Steamroller

Boss (Heracross) ♂ Lv 39 | Calm | Swarm @ Leftovers
Moves: Aerial Ace, Shadow Claw, Dig, Close Combat

Butterfree (Butterfree) ♀ Lv 35 | Jolly | Compound Eyes
Moves: Psybeam, Gust, Silver Wind, Poison Powder

Pokemon Y Bug Monotype – Part 4 – Badges 6 & 7

Spoiler:

First off, I explored Lumiose City fully to find… Nothing useful. Then I headed to Laverre Town to fight Valerie. She was super easy, her Mawile going down to a Dig, two Steamrollers and another Dig on my Scolipede, her Mr. Mime going down to Shadow Claw on Heracross, and her Sylveon going down to a Poison Jab on my Scolipede.

Then I had to do the Pokeball Factory part, which honestly, I completely forgot was even a thing. Likely because it has nothing memorable about it. The Team Flare Admins have cool designs, but their Pokemon are so underwhelming.

Dendemille City, Frost Cavern and Route 17 may as well not exist. They just exist to bloat the game up more, but they don't really add anything of interest, as far as I'm concerned.

In Anistar City, I fought Calem who had four Pokemon at this point in his journey in addition to his Jolteon and Delphox only having 3 and 2 moves respectively for some bizarre reason (why did they make him so bad?) and Olympia who was a complete and utter joke though you would expect that given I have a mono bug team. Her Sigilyph getting one shot Crustle's Rock Slide, her Slowking to Heracross' Megahorn and same with her Meowstic.

After this, I went to all the Boutiques in Kalos currently available to me and bought an outfit I believe was fitting of a bug type trainer (mostly consisting of greens and earth tones), as I had way more money than I could ever need, and cut and coloured my hair.

It won't be long until we get our final team member, which is exciting, too!

Team So Far:

Gardenia (Vivillon) ♀ Lv 53 | Calm | Shield Dust @ Amulet Coin
Moves: Quiver Dance, Bug Buzz, Draining Kiss, Hurricane

FabCrab (Crustle) ♂ Lv 52 | Calm | Shell Armor @ Metronome
Moves: Rock Slide, Shadow Claw, X-Scissor, Shell Smash

Louise (Illumise) ♀ Lv 51 | Impish | Oblivious @ Rocky Helmet
Moves: Bug Buzz, Zen Headbutt, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam

Scolipede (Scolipede) ♀ Lv 53 | Quiet | Poison Point @ Black Sludge
Moves: Dig, Rollout, Poison Jab, Steamroller

Boss (Heracross) ♂ Lv 51 | Calm | Swarm @ Leftovers
Moves: Aerial Ace, Shadow Claw, Megahorn, Close Combat

Butterfree (Butterfree) ♀ Lv 47 | Jolly | Compound Eyes
Moves: Psybeam, Gust, Bug Buzz, Quiver Dance

Pokemon Y Bug Monotype – Part 5 – Team Flare & Badge 8

Spoiler:

First thing I want to say is I regret saying in my analysis that Yanmega likely wouldn't learn any of its good moves until after the game had finished, and any of the negativity I said about Ninjask, because it's looking very likely all of my Pokemon will be in the 60s or some maybe even 70s by the time I finish the game. I had no idea this was the case with Kalos, and if I did, I'd have been more inclined to possibly pick them up, but I think my party would've still been better off without them purely because of their typings. I'm similarly glad I didn't pick Scyther up, as it would've been severely underleveled as I assumed.

Team Flare continues to be completely unremarkable aside from their cool designs, though to be fair my final battle with Lysandre was by far the toughest fight in this game due to all of his mons having something good against bugs. If I was using Yveltal, it would've been so easy it's silly, but of course, that's not an option here. It was the first time in this playthrough I was actually worried I'd black out, nonetheless.

Next, I picked up Durant on Route 18 which was an easy find due to being a 90% encounter in a bush, and then headed to Couriway City where I fought Sycamore who has the 3 fully evolved Kanto starters. Too little too late really – I had something good against all of them by this point.

Then on Route 19, we faced Shauna, Tierno and Trevor who once again, are totally laughable. I don't know what it is with this game and making the rivals this easy. 7 badges into the game and they have 3 Pokemon each. Wow. I also found out none of Tierno's Pokemon have 4 moves. Uhm, why Game Freak? This is worse than Ruby/Sapphire rival where half of his Pokemon aren't fully evolved the final time you fight him, which was thankfully fixed in the remakes. Though I do like the touch that every one of Tierno's Pokemon has a dancing move. There's so many more potential dance moves though that he could've used if they'd have actually decided to give him a full party. What I find bizarre too is that you're healed after Tierno's battle but not after Shauna's, not that it made a big deal, just an odd choice.

Wulfric was just… dumb. I remember someone in the PokeCommunity Discord asking me "how do you deal with Ice types in the bug monotype?" to which I said they're not really an issue at all, they're one of the easiest to deal with because of the sheer amount of weaknesses they have, and this fight reiterated that. Almost every one of my Pokemon had something good against Wulfric, so this fight was disgusting easy, especially given I just picked up Durant too.

Team So Far:

Gardenia (Vivillon) ♀ Lv 61 | Calm | Shield Dust @ Amulet Coin
Moves: Quiver Dance, Bug Buzz, Draining Kiss, Hurricane

FabCrab (Crustle) ♂ Lv 61 | Calm | Shell Armor @ Metronome
Moves: Rock Slide, Shadow Claw, X-Scissor, Shell Smash

Louise (Illumise) ♀ Lv 58 | Impish | Oblivious @ Rocky Helmet
Moves: Bug Buzz, Zen Headbutt, Thunderbolt, Dazzling Gleam

Scolipede (Scolipede) ♀ Lv 61 | Quiet | Poison Point @ Black Sludge
Moves: Dig, Double-Edge, Poison Jab, Steamroller

Boss (Heracross) ♂ Lv 59 | Calm | Swarm @ Leftovers
Moves: Aerial Ace, Shadow Claw, Megahorn, Close Combat

Durant (Durant) ♂ Lv 54 | Impish | Swarm
Moves: X-Scissor, Crunch, Iron Head, Dig

Pokemon Y Bug Monotype – Part 6 – Elite 4 + End (final part)

Spoiler:

I made my way through an uneventful Victory Road. I don't even want to talk about the Calem battle at the end, it's an embarrassment. After getting to the end though, I was ready for bed.

The next day, I went and picked up all the TMs I wanted which I was missing, which required a trip through Termina Cave… and I forgot to buy repels. Pain.

I then headed to do the Elite 4 who were as you'd expect, easy. The toughest trainers so far except for Lysandre, but still not difficult. The hardest of the bunch was Malva as you'd probably expect, and the easiest was the water type guy, if you're not including Champion Dianthe who was a total joke. The vast majority of the Elite 4's Pokemon were weak to ground and rock, both types I had covered by multiple Pokemon.

So let's talk about the good of this game first, given this was my second play through ever. I loved the environments, and there was several I'd completely forgot about, and the dex variety is so good it's almost overwhelming. The ending of the game was honestly beautiful, and I'd completely forgotten about it. The negatives though… everything was so easy and I don't think keeping the Exp Share off the entire game would've helped subside that either, and at times it felt some routes and areas only existed to bloat the length of the game. The rivals are the worst example of the game being made easier and dumbed down. They had Pokemon who in theory should've been good against mine, but their movesets were awful.

To explain the date in the screenshot, my DS date is a week ahead from messing around with the clock for HGSS. No, I'm not a time traveller from the future.

Now to talk about this team specifically, I think they were all really solid. Except… Illumise. I don't think Illumise was useless, don't get me wrong, but it was just incredibly lacking my comparison to the rest of my team. The negative nature didn't help, but Crustle and Heracross functioned fine in spite of that. I could've replaced Illumise with just about any bug and they'd have performed a better job, but I felt I needed to use it as I didn't in Gen 3. On the other hand, Durant was awesome, Crustle continues to show how good it is, Scolipede hits hard in a generation dominated by fairies and Heracross was of course fantastic, so it's hard to choose a favourite this time. Even Vivillon performed better than I expected.

I also apologise on getting a bit slack with naming my Pokemon. I'm just not very creative, and often forget about naming them. And I want to clarify, I got rid of Shell Smash and Quiver Dance in exchange for better coverage. In most cases, the AI wasn't going to give me chance to set up.

So now for the final team screenshots:

Scolipede:

Spoiler:

Durant:

Spoiler:

Heracross:

Spoiler:

Illumise:

Spoiler:

Vivillon:

Spoiler:

Crustle:

Spoiler:

Pokemon Y Bug Monotype FIN!
​

 

[FactoriesFarAway]

I've hit a wall where I can't really progress fast in any of my bug monotypes, since for the 3DS games, my 2DS battery life is terrible and needs charging every few hours. I can't charge and play as I'd have to sit on the floor to do that, which doesn't sound great. And Platinum, I'm kind of walled in it at the moment, so I'm grinding on the daily trainers, and I'll probably do that every day for a few days before I progress. I can play the DS games on my DSi whilst my 3DS in charging, and I can also play on emulator for GBA. So I'm going to introduce this as a side challenge that I'll be concentrating on less than bug but will still update, and make it my "main" one after I'm done with Bug.

Forum User Name: FactoriesFarAway
Game(s): FireRed, Soul Silver, Omega Ruby, Platinum, White, Y, Sun
Pokémon Type: Fighting
Single/Ultimate/Free Mode?: Ultimate
Edit: Switched Black 2 to White so I don't have to trade for Throh and Sawk. Just... Cress tho. yikes.

Once again, going to try fitting every new Pokemon added in that generation/region to my team, unless there's too many in which case I'll just pick 6 of them like I did in Ruby. If there's too few, I'll fill up the party with whatever I want, much like I did with Y Bug Monotype.

Pokemon FireRed Fighting Monotype – Part 1 – Badges 1 & 2

Spoiler:

No introduction/analysis section as there's nothing to really introduce or analyse. My decision between Hitmonchan/Hitmonlee will be brought up at the time. I have no way to get both without hacking or trading, which I'm not going to do. I will be using both in SoulSilver instead.

This playthrough, I started with Bulbasaur and named my character Bruce and my rival Jackie. This is so the rival gets Charizard, a flying type. Though picking Squirtle and giving him Bulbasaur would've resulted in him getting a Poison type, which also resists my fighting mons, but Flying is strong against fighting also, hence why I did that.

The first fighting type I picked up was Mankey as it's the only one available for almost the first half of the game. It kind of destroys early game, frankly, as it's filled with normal types and isn't exactly walled by Poison and Bug types since it has access to some decent normal type moves.

Brock as you can imagine was a total pushover. I picked up a Paras in Mt Moon for Cut/Flash.

Once I reached Cerulean, I didn't feel I'd be in a position to fight Misty, so I did literally everything else first, including S.S. Anne before fighting her. I was level 35 and evolved by the time I was done with her fight, making her very easy to deal with too.

For now, everything is going to be pretty easy to deal with, with my massively overleveled, +Atk Primeape, but we'll be getting new fighting dudes soon enough, taking a bit of the experience gain off of her.

Team so far:

Porky (Primeape) ♀ Lv 35 | Lonely | Vital Spirit
Moves: Scratch, Fury Swipes, Cross Chop, Karate Chop

 

[FactoriesFarAway]

Pokemon Sun Bug Monotype – Introduction/Analysis

Spoiler:

Now that every other game is done except Platinum, screw that game, it's time to move on to Sun! I've technically only played Sun once, but I've played Ultra Moon as well, so I have more experience with Alola than I did with Kalos.

For Pokemon Sun, I will be using the four newly introduced bug types. 3 of them are really interesting to me, and the fourth, not so much.

Ribombee unique typing makes it super interesting to me, Vikavolt is insanely strong despite evolving right near the end of the game, and Golisopod is an absolute beast. I used Golisopod in my first playthrough of Ultra Moon and I love him already. Unfortunately, however, Araquanid shares its type with Golisopod and is honestly pretty inferior to it, meaning it'll likely be reduced to a special wall, but I want to give it a fair chance nonetheless.

This leaves two slots open in my party, and here I shall discuss those last two slots. If Heracross, Scolipede or Crustle were available in this game, I'd count them out of contention as they've all been used twice, but they're not, so that doesn't need to be considered. I'd suggest reading what I said about these Pokemon in Y where applicable, because I didn't want to repeat myself again.

Once again, I can't trade, so no Scizor, and the only version exclusive bugs are the Ultra Beasts. With that said, there's a lot less bug types to go over than in Y.

Butterfree is definitely a better contender in this game. It's found early, evolves early, has less Pokemon compete against, as Alola only has a couple of other Bug/Flying types to offer (not including Ledian, who I refuse to even recognise as a real Pokemon at this point), and learns moves earlier on than it did in gen 6. Everything I praised about it in gen 6 is more important in this generation because of these qualities. It received a buff in Gen 6 making its special attack actually pretty good too. The rest of stats are still mediocre, but it's much better in general than it was in games prior to this. Unfortunately, I still feel it's outclassed by Masquerain in a lot of ways.

Ledian is the worst bug type available. I explained why last time. Just check my Y post. I'm not going over it again. Nothing of importance has changed.

With buffed Leech Life and a super effective STAB against Fairy types, Ariados isn't too bad in this game, but it still faces many of the problems it has in previous games such as the lack of a great level up movepool and fairly poor coverage by comparison to other bug types. Its abilities are pretty poor to boot. It's not awful, but other Pokemon will offer you more. Definitely more viable than it was in X/Y though, due to you getting it much earlier.

Masquerain received an amazing buff to its Special Attack in this game, is available fairly early, and its issue of not learning good moves early is almost entirely alleviated in this game. It has access to some amazing TMs that really coincide with its great Special Attack in this game, and dare I say it, is actually one of the best special attacking bug types the game has to offer. Much like what I said with Butterfree, this game is not filled to the brim with Flying bugs, so it doesn't have much to contest in that regard. Masquerain has come a long way, and this is one game where it actually benefits from not being a water type, as I'd have little reason to use it if it were.

Parasect is not good. I'm going to just flat out say it. It learns barely any good moves through level up in a generation where a lot of Pokemon gained really good level up sets, its TM capacity is laughable as almost all of the physical moves it can learn are normal type, and has no moves which make use of its Grass subtyping. Additionally, Effect Spore is decent, and Dry Skin is really good if you have a team built around it... and I could, given the team I'm using, but I'm not going to. In fact, if I was doing a mono grass run, Dry Skin would be a deterrent as I'd be more likely to run Sunny Day with other grass types. It's not quite as bad as Ledian as at least its stats are decent, but Ariados basically does everything it can do better. Its only niche is its access to Spore.

Pinsir is extremely good. Its picked up early mid game, has great stats, learns Brick Break and X Scissor early and learns TMs for Earthquake and Rock Slide. Hyper Cutter is an insanely good ability. There's little to criticise about this Pokemon in this game, beyond wishing it had access to more moves.

Scyther, once again, despite its amazing stats and ability, is gotten very late. I don't know what it is with this Pokemon, but Game Freak seem to have it out for the poor dude, because it'd be more than capable if received earlier.

Out of these, the two other mons I decided to pick up were Masquerain and Pinsir.

Pokemon Sun Bug Monotype – Part 1 – Ilima's Trial

Spoiler:

Oh my Lord. How long does the beginning of this game go on for? I'm beginning to understand again why Sun/Moon left a bad taste in my mouth, with how chocked full of tutorials it is. It ruins a really good idea, in my opinion. In addition to the constant cutscenes at the start, I spent at least 30 mins looking for a Grubbin which thankfully is Modest, making a lot of the early fights difficult but it'll pay off in the end. I chose Rowlet as my starter, but it doesn't really matter in this game because I'll have something to deal with whatever Hau picks. Him having Popplio at least makes early game tougher as Fairy resists Bug.

I also picked up Caterpie and Ledyba on route 1 for the sake of having them, and may go back and pick up Spinarak once it becomes night time in my game, even though I don't plan to use it. In games with the Exp Share, there's no point in not having a full team whenever possible.

The trainer school fights were surprisingly tough, especially the girl with the Pikipek, but it wasn't anything sadistically hard, unlike…

The Ilima fight. I want to die. People complain about games post gen 5 being easy, but for bug types this battle against Ilima may be one of the toughest in the entire series. For the point in the game he's at, Smeargle is really tough, and it has Ember to boot. I think what move it has depends on what starter you chose, so if I'd have picked Popplio this fight would've been a total joke. But no. In the end, I had to buy an X Special Defend and an X Defend and use them on Grubbin as soon he sent out Smeargle. There was no other way I'd beat this guy. The only fight in the series so far I'd say that was harder than this Ilima one was Steven in RSE, and I'm not exaggerating.

After that, I picked up Ribombee on route 2. By comparison to the Ilima fight, the trial itself wasn't even a problem, mainly because Gumshoos really isn't that strong. I've also kind of lucked out with natures this time around as opposed to the flurry of awful ones last time.

I have 3 hours of playtime almost and I'm barely into the game. I want to cry. I'm already fed up with this game and I'm not even off the first island.

I want to clarify before I show the team that I taught Ledyba Brick Break since it only had 3 moves and I figured it'd be useful against the trial. I realise its Attack stat sucks, but I thought it might help and I wasn't losing anything in doing it.

Team so far:

Rhombu (Cutiefly) Lv 12 | Gentle | Shield Dust
Moves: Absorb, Fairy Wind, Stun Spore, Struggle Bug

Butterfree (Butterfree) Lv 12 | Timid | Compound Eyes
Moves: Tackle, String Shot, Confusion, Gust

Ledyba (Ledyba) Lv 11 | Rash | Early Bird
Moves: Tackle, Supersonic, Swift, Brick Break

Grubble (Grubbin) Lv 14 | Modest | Swarm
Moves: Vice Grip, Bug Bite, Mud-Slap, Bite

​

 

[xSmokeMusicx]

I just finished a mono-Normal type challenge on my last run through or soul silver. My team when I beat the elite 4 was:
Noctowl lvl45
Miltank lvl45
Tauros lvl43
Kangaskhan lvl41
Garafarig lvl39.
HM slave red gyarados used as a sacrifice to heal
Elite 4 took several tries but finally got it

 

[Aleimon Thimble]

The Ilima fight. I want to die. People complain about games post gen 5 being easy, but for bug types this battle against Ilima may be one of the toughest in the entire series. For the point in the game he's at, Smeargle is really tough, and it has Ember to boot. I think what move it has depends on what starter you chose, so if I'd have picked Popplio this fight would've been a total joke. But no. In the end, I had to buy an X Special Defend and an X Defend and use them on Grubbin as soon he sent out Smeargle. There was no other way I'd beat this guy. The only fight in the series so far I'd say that was harder than this Ilima one was Steven in RSE, and I'm not exaggerating.

Interesting, I would not have expected that. Like Gen 6, I have only played through Gen 7 once, and I do remember it being too easy for me even with Exp Share off... however, I think it has an extremely weird difficulty curve. It might be the case that the early game is actually tougher than the end game. But I do not have enough experience with Gen 7 to know for sure.

 

[FactoriesFarAway]

Interesting, I would not have expected that. Like Gen 6, I have only played through Gen 7 once, and I do remember it being too easy for me even with Exp Share off... however, I think it has an extremely weird difficulty curve. It might be the case that the early game is actually tougher than the end game. But I do not have enough experience with Gen 7 to know for sure.

I'll say my fully educated opinion when the entire thing is done, but so far, I'm currently in Lana's trial and the early game in Sun is awful for bugs. It's not quite as bad as having to grind to level 20 before Roxanne in Ruby or having to beat Lenora with a Whirlipede that doesn't obey me in Black, but it's up there.

There's a required double battle before Lana's trial that consists of a Rufflet and Vullaby, and for this point in the game, those two Pokemon are powerful and are super effective against my entire team. There's also a couple of optionals who have Growlithe and an optional with a Carbink and all of those battles were insanely tough with this team. The Carbink one I just flat out skipped after attempting twice and failing, though this Pokemon shouldn't be a problem now I have Dewpider.

It's also worth considering X item spam isn't really as viable in this game as X items received a significant price increase to the extent where you can't really afford a ton of them early. I tended to buy 20 of each except for X Accuracy and Dire Hit once I hit a department store just in case I needed them, but here it's just too steep of an investment when I also need to buy healing items and repels.

I'd imagine the difficulty will drop as time goes on and I get better TMs and items, but right now, this game is packing a punch. It wouldn't be difficult with a well-rounded team, don't get me wrong. But without one, it's tough.

 

[FactoriesFarAway]

Pokemon Sun Bug Monotype – Part 2 – Lana's Trial

Spoiler:

The battle against Hala was fairly easy as I had both Butterfree and Cutiefly in my party. A lot of the regular trainers in the area were way tougher. I mentioned it in my previous post, but there were some trainers with Pokemon that were super tough to deal with on both the first and second island.

The game makes you fight Hau really often, even when his team has barely changed, and it's a little overkill. The only fight I actually struggled against him in was the second one, as my party was filled with bugs under level 5. But the third and fourth Hau fights are so similar they may as well be identical. Technically, yeah, his Popplio is evolved, but I'd actually call the fourth fight easier as once again, this gen 6/7 issue has come up where for some reason, Game Freak thought it was apt to give Hau's Pikachu 2 moves and his Brionne 3 when they both had a full moveset in the last fight. In the third battle he has stat lowering moves, but in this fight the fourth they just scrapped them. Bizarre.

Enough complaining about the rival's terrible movesets, and let's talk about Lana's Trial. Before the trial I picked up Dewpider, then turned my clock to night and picked up Surskit. At this point, Grubbin had evolved to Charjabug and Ledyba to Ledian. I moved Charjabug to the start of my party and it basically destroyed Lana's trial. Probably the only super easy fight in this game so far, as even Hala didn't go down that easily.

Team so far: (Yes, my entire team is female. It's entirely coincidental. And yes, I will give them names later.)

Rhombu (Cutiefly) ♀ Lv 20 | Gentle | Shield Dust @ Silver Powder
Moves: Absorb, Draining Kiss, Silver Wind, Struggle Bug

Butterfree (Butterfree) ♀ Lv 18 | Timid | Compound Eyes @ Sharp Beak
Moves: Stun Spore, Poison Powder, Psybeam, Gust

Ledyba (Ledyba) ♀ Lv 18 | Rash | Early Bird @ Fightinium Z
Moves: Reflect, Light Screen, Swift, Brick Break

Grubble (Charjabug) ♀ Lv 21 | Modest | Swarm
Moves: Vice Grip, Bug Bite, Spark, Bite

Surskit (Surskit) ♀ Lv 17 | Lax | Swift Swim @ Waterium Z
Moves: Bubble Beam, Quick Attack, Sweet Scent, Water Sport

Dewpider (Dewpider) ♀ Lv 17 | Relaxed | Water Bubble @ Waterium Z
Moves: Infestation, Spider Web, Bug Bite, Bubble Beam

Pokemon Sun Bug Monotype – Part 3 – Kiawe and Mallow's Trials

Spoiler:

So this was a combination of an incredibly easy trial and a rather tough one. I'll have you guess which is which, you'll probably be wrong.

Kiawe's fire trial was the easy one. In fact, I one shot the Salazzle with Z-Bubble Beam on my Dewpider.

After that, I headed towards Mallow's trial area, and picked up Wimpod right before it. Dewpider evolved into Araquanid after some battles on the route.

Mallow's trial on the other hand was actually quite difficult. Don't get me wrong, the Lurantis itself wasn't the issue, I'm not that bad. It was the Castform it spawned. Sunny Day meant it wouldn't go down easy to Bubble Beam, and Fire type Weather Ball swept my entire team with ease. Admittedly, it took 2 attempts to get this fight down, and I had to get rid of the Castform ASAP. Once the Castform was down, Lurantis itself wasn't a problem. After the trial, Surskit evolved into Masquerain

After the trial, I picked up Pinsir. And yes, my team is still all female. Again, entirely coincidental. And I will name them, as soon as I figured out where the heck the name rater is in this game.

Team so far:

Rhombu (Cutiefly) ♀ Lv 24 | Gentle | Shield Dust @ Silver Powder
Moves: Absorb, Draining Kiss, Silver Wind, Struggle Bug

Grubble (Charjabug) ♀ Lv 25 | Modest | Battery
Moves: Acrobatics, Bug Bite, Spark, Crunch

Masquerain (Masquerain) ♀ Lv 22 | Lax | Intimidate @ Waterium Z
Moves: Bubble Beam, Quick Attack, Air Cutter, Water Sport

Araquanid (Araquanid) ♀ Lv 23 | Relaxed | Water Bubble @ Waterium Z
Moves: Bite, Spider Web, Bug Bite, Bubble Beam

Wimpod (Wimpod) ♀ Lv 21 | Hardy | Wimp Out
Moves: Struggle Bug, Sand Attack

Pinsir (Pinsir) ♀ Lv 21 | Hasty | Hyper Cutter
Moves: Seismic Toss, Harden, Revenge, Vital Throw

Pokemon Sun Bug Monotype – Part 4 – Olivia battle + Sophocles and Acerola's trials

Spoiler:

Before the Olivia battle, Cutiefly evolved into Ribombee. The Olivia battle itself was not very difficult, I had Pinsir who had fighting type moves.

I was legitimately really scared about the Sophocles trial as half of my team was weak to electric. In actuality, the trial was fairly easy as I taught Rock Tomb to my Pinsir. Once again, before the trial Wimpod evolved into Golisopod.

Before heading to Acerola's trial though, I met Guzma for the first time who was really easy to deal with, with my Masquerain's Air Slash.

Acerola's trial was super easy as I'd taught my Golisopod Shadow Claw.

I'm not expecting a lot, if any difficulty from the rest of the game now. The fights I was actually a little scared about are done. The next major trainer is Nanu who I guarantee will be laughably easy, and with Ribombee the dragon trial should be the same. Nothing Team Skull has should be particularly worrying either. I figure Sun is going to be a game where it started off challenging and got easier, so a similar difficulty curve to Ruby (except for Steven being really difficult). The only trainer I'm somewhat worried about going forward is Kihili, honestly.

Team so far:

Rhombu (Ribombee) ♀ Lv 35 | Gentle | Shield Dust @ Silver Powder
Moves: Psychic, Dazzling Gleam, Silver Wind, Pollen Puff

Grubble (Charjabug) ♀ Lv 35 | Modest | Battery
Moves: Acrobatics, X-Scissor, Spark, Crunch

Masquerain (Masquerain) ♀ Lv 34 | Lax | Intimidate @ Waterium Z
Moves: Bubble Beam, Silver Wind, Air Cutter, Water Sport

Araquanid (Araquanid) ♀ Lv 34 | Relaxed | Water Bubble @ Waterium Z
Moves: Bite, Aqua Ring, Leech Life, Bubble Beam

Golisopod (Golisopod) ♀ Lv 35 | Hardy | Emergency Exit
Moves: Shadow Claw, Brick Break, Leech Life, Sucker Punch

Pinsir (Pinsir) ♀ Lv 34 | Hasty | Hyper Cutter
Moves: Seismic Toss, X-Scissor, Rock Tomb, Brick Break

​

 

[FactoriesFarAway]

I'm only properly getting to read your monotype ultimate , I've skimmed over it until now as I said, and I have a few things to comment on after fully reading it (nothing negative, don't worry, haha)

I was worried about his Quilava but for some reason he kept spamming quick attack like a noob. So no fire attacks.

He did this to me too despite the fact that he'd have had the fight in the bag if he didn't, as I only had Ledian and Ariados on me at the time. I don't understand what's with Silver's AI in this fight and why he chooses to do this even though I know he has Ember in his set. I looked it up to make sure.
Edit: I've come to two possible conclusions as to why he chooses to do this. 1. His AI realises your Pokemon has higher special defense than physical defense, so uses the move correspondent with their defense stats or 2. His AI sees Quick Attack as stronger because it has the same base power and priority. Neither of those could be right, that's just my guess.

trained our butts off on wild Stantler, who give a good amount of EXP at this point in the game

I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for the tip.

We then freed the Legendary Cats (don't you tell me they're dogs, they are clearly based off of a lion, a cheetah and a tiger).

I have been saying this for longest time and I'm glad someone finally agrees, though I'd argue that Suicune is more similar to a panther than a cheetah.

I always wondered why a lot of the gym leaders don't even use Johto Pokemon (Faulkner, Bugsy, Morty, Chuck)

This is an interesting question. On Morty & Chuck's part, it makes sense. The only new fighting types are Hitmontop which Bruno uses, and Heracross, which is x4 to Flying, and the only new ghost type is Misdreavus. Though the fact that they didn't give him Misdreavus at all is weird, but then again you oddly can't even get it in Johto in the original games, which might be why. Thankfully this was fixed in HGSS, but Morty's team wasn't. I can't defend Falkner or Bugsy though, there was so many other options for them.

 

[Kimborelli]

Kimbo's Mega Monotype Challenge
Type 1: Bug Game 1: Part 1: Bolder and Cascade Badge ​

No team explanation, please be aware the whole Bug Run is a 6 pokemon run, as I can trade in Pinsir this gen which would have been the exception to the rule. Team nicknames are based on species of Butterfly for this run.
Start a new game, pick Bulbasaur, so Gary picks Charmander. Power through the early game till I can catch pokemon. Caught both Cabbage the Caterpie and Duke the Weedle. Trained them both around Route 1. Whilst training both of them evolved into Metapod and Kakuna. Started going through Viridian Forest and they evolved into Butterfree and Beedrill. Went back and beat Gary using Duke to sweep.
Got to Pewter City, went straight to the Gym. Defeated Brock by using Cabbage to defeat Geodude, poisoned Onix, fainted, then Duke stalled the poison out. Gym badge 1 got.
Headed out to Mount Moon. Started walking through. Caught team member number 3, Monarch the Paras. Got through Mt Moon and arrived in Cerulean City. Defeated Gary using Cabbage. Did Nugget Bridge and spoke to Bill before taking on the gym. Defeated Misty, using Cabbage against Staryu, and Monarch to defeat Starmie.

TEAM[/FONT]

Duke the Beedrill @N/A
Level 20/Impish/Male/Swarm
Twineedle /Poison Sting /Fury Attack /String Shot

Cabbage the Butterfree @N/A
Level 20/Quirky/Female/Compound Eyes
Confusion /Tackle /Poison Powder /Sleep Powder

Monarch the Paras @N/A
Level 21/Quirky/Female/Effect Spore
Bullet Seed/ Leech Life/ Scratch/ Stun Spore
​

 

[jdthebud]

Update on Ultimate Poison Monotype Challenge:

Update #2 on Y.

• Boxed Buzz, then went through Route 10 to Geosenge Town, defeating the Flare Grunts on the way.
• Defeated Korrina's Lucarios and finally got access to Route 11.
• Did a bunch of Horde Encounters with Sweet Scent until I finally nabbed Rex the Nidoran♂, who has his Hidden Ability.
• Went through Reflection Cave, where Rex evolved into Nidorino, and Count evolved into Crobat!
• Arrived in Shalour City and visited the Tower of Mastery, where I defeated Calem.
• Took on the gym, and Korrina was easy with Countess and Rex.
• Got the Mega Ring from Korrina, then moved on through Route 12 to Courmarine City.
• Got the Good Rod, then backtracked to Route 8, where I caught Seaweed the Skrelp.
• Trained Seaweed up a bit on the water trainers in the area, then went back to Coumarine City.
• Took on the gym, and Ramos was as easy as expected with Countess dominating the battle.
• Went to the Power Plant in Route 13 and cleared out Team Flare.
• With the power restored to Lumiose City, I was able to explore the North Boulevard and take on the gym.
• Prior to the fight against Clemont, I used a Moon Stone on Rex to evolved him into Nidoking!
• Rex then took down Clement with Bulldoze and Poison Jab.
• After taking with Lysandre, I defeated Calem on Route 14, then caught Draken the Skorupi!
• Next I used a Shiny Stone on Thorn to evolved her into Roserade!
• We battled out way up to Laverre City, and Phibia evolved into Toxicroak!
• With my full poison team assembled, Valerie was quickly disposed of.
• I am now saved in Laverre City.

Screens:

Spoiler:

Team Toxi:

Draken the Adamant Skorupi, ♂ - L36 @ Amulet Coin
Ability: Sniper
Moves: Bug Bite, Dig, Poison Jab, Strength

Countess the Serious Crobat, ♀ - L37
Ability: Inner Focus
Moves: Acrobatics, Fly, Bite, Confuse Ray

Rex the Naive Nidoking, ♂ - L38 @ Poison Barb
Ability: Sheer Force
Moves: Poison Jab, Thunderbolt, Bulldoze, Cut

Seaweed the Bold Skrelp, ♀ - L38 @ Eviolite
Ability: Poison Point
Moves: Sludge Bomb, Thunderbolt, Surf, Aqua Tail

Thorn the Modest Roserade, ♂ - L38 @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Natural Cure
Moves: Giga Drain, Petal Dance, Venoshock, Dazzling Gleam

Phibia the Lonely Toxicroak, ♀ - L37 @ Black Belt
Ability: Dry Skin
Moves: Poison Jab, Bulldoze, Low Sweep, Sucker Punch

Boxed:

Buzz the Hardy Beedrill, ♀ - L20
Ability: Swarm
Moves: Poison Sting, Thief, Twineedle, False Swipe

​

 

[limeemil]

Forum User Name: limeemil
Game(s): Fire Red, Soul Silver, Alpha Sapphire, Platinum, White, Y, Ultra Moon
Pokémon Type: Dragon
Single/Ultimate/Free Mode?: Ultimate

Been a while since I've done one of these so why not do one now with my favorite type? I will try to go for the extra goals as much as possible this time around.

 

[Kimborelli]

Kimbo's Mega Monotype Challenge
Type 1: Bug Game 1: Part 2: Thunder and Rainbow Badge ​

Spoiler:

Headed down to Vermillion City, getting the Dig TM as I did so, realised I need some HM slaves as I cannot Surf, Cut, Flash or Fly (or don't want to on my team). Got to Vermillion, cleared out the route to the east, took on the SS Anne, whilst doing this Monarch evolved into Parasect. Got to Gary, who I was sweeping with Duke until he sent out Charmeleon, who wiped out Duke & Monarch, before Cabbage finished the job.
Got Cut, went through Diglett's Cave, got Flash, took on LT Surge's Gym. Swept with Monarch. Headed back up to Cerulean, then east to Rock Tunnel. Raced through, got to Lavender Town, then raced to Cerulean City. As I am now level 30 I traded for a Pinsir (I traded the gift Eevee) , and got Admiral the Pinsir . Went back to the route I rushed through to get my newest Team Member so I could level him up. Took on the Gym and swept Erika with Duke.

TEAM[/FONT]

Duke the Beedrill @N/A
Level 32/Impish/Male/Swarm
Twineedle /Aerial Ace /Secret Power /Brick Break

Cabbage the Butterfree @N/A
Level 31/Quirky/Female/Compound Eyes
Confusion /Thief /Poison Powder /Gust

Monarch the Paras @N/A
Level 31/Quirky/Female/Effect Spore
Bullet Seed/ Leech Life/ Dig/ Spore

Admiral the Pinsir @N/A
Level 24/Calm/Male/Hyper Cutter
Vicegrip/Seismic Toss/Bind/Focus Energy

​

 

[adzpower]

Pokemon Y Grass Monotype Ultimate Challenge

Gyms 7, 8 + Pokemon League

Spoiler:

So its been quite a while since my last update, and there is a reason for that, I've been procrastinating from playing this game, why? Because I am so BORED.

So I'll be quick, we easily destroy Olympia, defeat Team Flare also easily and then the last gym leader who's name I can't remember was once again a breeze.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

We get to Victory Road, obliterate Calem one last time and head into the League.

There were a few challenges, the fire type trainer was a little hard but I had taught Lotus Surf so she wasn't too challenging.

The steel trainer was pretty hard, he walled me a lot, but we got there in the end, Drasna was a joke, and Siebold well he's a water trainer so that's the end of that.

Diantha aka the worst champion was a total pushover, I'm embarrassed for her tbh, after that I breathe a sigh of relief as this terrible game comes to an end, oh, what's this? A victory parade? Okay, let's get this over with so I can turn the game off…..wait, a battle with AZ? WHY?! JUST LET ME FINISH THIS BORING, BLAND GAME ALREADY! AND WHY IS NO-ONE QUESTIONING WHY A 3000 YEAR OLD MAN IS STILL WALKING AROUND?!

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Aaaaaah, finally the end credits, goodbye Kalos and good riddance.

 

[limeemil]

Started my challenge officially today with my Fire Red run. A bit of a slow start seeing as Dratini's early-level moves aren't that great.
Made training a bit of a hassle (especially when Wrap misses five times in a row).

My progress:

Spoiler:

- Started my run and picked Bulbasaur as my starter
- Defeated my rival Green
- Delivered Oak's parcel and received the pokédex.
- Acquired Dratini since there are no dragons available until Celadon City
- Reached Pewter City
- Grinded Dratini to lv. 15 for Twister
- Defeated Brock and received the Boulder Badge

My team:

Spoiler:

Dratini Lv.16
Shed Skin
- Twister
- Thunder Wave
- Leer
- Wrap

 

[adzpower]

Pokemon Pearl Grass Monotype Ultimate Challenge

Start + Gyms 1+2

Spoiler:

So we finally made it to Sinnoh! And I have to say the first 3 hours or so I've played have been more fun than the entirety of my Y playthrough believe it or not, its been very relaxing.

So of course Blossom picks Turtwig, he's sassy, our naming theme this time are trees, so I call him Ash (not an anime reference), it was the only tree I could think of that kind of goes with his future ground typing, Ash is kind of related to ground plus its a tree, so win-win.

We make our way up the route and into Jubalife, no problems here, then go north and catch a Budew, I call her Hazel, she's serious. I actually wasn't going to catch a Budew, since its annoying to evolve I was going to wait untl I could just get Roselia, but its pretty far away and I don't want Ash to get too massively over-levelled.

We take out our rival who I named Fern, mainly because Fern is a plant and also his starter will eventually be InFERNape, see what I did there? We get to Oreburgh, fight through the mine and take our Roark, laughably easy with my two grass types, I do have bad pictures of beating him and Gardenia but for some reason my laptop keeps failing to download them from my email so I'll have to update once I've fixed the issue.

We fight some Galactic grunts and get to Floaroma, we feel right at home here with all the flowers, we clear the windworks and finally get us some honey! This will be pivotal as we need to start the tedious honey tree grind for Burmy and Cherubi, by the end of today's run I think I manage to slather about 6 trees, so we've got a good shot of getting them.

Mars wasn't difficult and we head up to the Eterna forest, we team-up with Cheryl and get through it unscathed, I am very aware that Hazel must evolve before level 19 as I want her to learn Magical Leaf, a really helpful move that never misses. So I am purposely keeping her out of the action as by the time we get out the forest she is already level 17. Even though I didn't want Ash over-levelled, that's kind of what happens now, we take on Gardenia and after a few Curses Ash takes down her team, we then clear the Galactic base, I was worried about Skuntank but it was for nought, we employed the same strategy as we did against Gardenia and it went down easily.

Here's a bizarre moment, I go to leave Eterna after beating the base and getting the bike and a guy keeps stopping me, telling me I must go down the cycling road first, very non-sensical and frustrating as at this point I need to go and slather the tree by the forest that you need Cut to reach, so I go down the cycling road avoiding most of the trainers, slather the tree just outside it and then have to go down to Oreburgh and make my way back up through Floaroma to get to that tree, very strange decison-making there game freak, I'm sure this doesn't happen in Platinum.

So yeah that's where were at, I wanted to plow ahead and get the bike so we can ride around raising Hazel's friendship, now we have that we can do that whilst waiting for the honey trees to start shaking.

Roark's defeat:

Spoiler:

Gardenia's defeat:

Spoiler:

 

[alisaie]

Water Monotype Challenge - First Update

Black | Marko

So I decided to take a break from my Heart Gold because although I'm close I really don't feel like dealing with the game on emulator right now (oh why does HGSS have to be so expensive still). So onward to Unova for the time being! Skipping Hoenn for now because I have a solo run I need to finish first and skipping Sinnoh because I've yet to get my Shiny Piplup rip. So anyways I decided to do the run with BW instead of BW2 because there is one Pokemon that I want to use on my team that I wouldn't be able to get in BW2. If you're concerned for me about the beginning of the game for a particular reason well, you'll see if you read on.

The journey begins in my room with Cheren and Bianca where we get to choose our starter. I, of course, chose Oshawott who is the first member of my part! Named him Pancake after I beat both of my childhood friends. So off Pancake and I go onto Route 1 where I don't bother to catch any other Pokemon even though Bianca asked me to. Why would I if there are no water types I can pick up.

That said, there isn't any until after the first gym which is well... Cilan because I chose a water type. I went into this game expecting Cilan to be utter hell because Oshawott is the only water type and I figure Pansage was just going to demolish me. However, that ended up not being the case! I grinded Oshawott to level 17 where it evolved into Dewott (didn't take as long as I thought though it was still brutal grinding that out) and Cilan was actually fairly easy. Used Focus Energy while he had Lilipup out and after I took that out all it took was two tackles (second one was a critical) to take out Pansage! One hurdle down!

So after that was over and done with I continued my trek and went onto the next town where Lenora was. I skipped a few trainers for the time being and went to the outside of Pinwheel Forest so I can catch my second member, Donut the Tympole. Leveled Donut and Pancake a few levels before going in an taking on Lenora. Now, we all know how hard Lenora can be sometimes and thankfully she was actually really easy! Used Focus Energy on Herdier and one Critical Razor Shell took the puppy down. Then one more Critical Razor Shell took down Watchog after and badge get!

Then after what seemed like years and many Audinos later I finally found a Panpour I liked. Enter Poptart the Panpour who was actually the only female I found while looking so I guess that's all I was waiting for. With Poptart finally on the team we go on and continue to beat up Team Plasma in the forest and get back the skull that they stole from the museum. Then of course after getting to Castelia City I beat Team Plasma again after they stole Bianca's Munna.

Once that was over and done with I actually went back to Pinwheel Forest to grind off Audino again this time to level up Panpour. Leveled her up to 31 so she learned Acrobatics to deal with Burgh and his Leavanny. Worth it too because his gym battle didn't even take two minutes. Set up on Whirlpede with two Work-Ups, then demolished it with Scald, Leavanny with on Acrobatics, and one more Scald did the trick for Dwebble.

Now me and my team are in the desert making our way towards Nimbasa City! Elesa is the possible last hurdle my team has to make before it's smoother sailing but we're pretty overleveled so I don't think she'll be an issue at all. But I suppose we will find out next time!

Pancake (Dewott) ♂
Relaxed | Torrent | Level 32 @ Mystic Water
Revenge, Razor Shell, Fury Cutter, Focus Energy

Donut (Palpitoad) ♀
Serious | Hydration | Level 31 @ Amulet Coin
Aqua Ring, Mud Shot, Uproar, Muddy Water

Poptart (Panpour) ♀
Hasty | Gluttony | Level 32
Acrobatics, Bite, Scald, Work Up

HM Slaves

 

[xemnahort]

Hey its been a while. You probably assume I'll be continuing my poison run since its the only one to have even touched gen 2.
GUESS AGAIN!
I decided to drop my Flying run for this!

Forum User Name: Xemnahort
Game(s): Red 2/8, gen 2 0/16, gen 3 0/8, gen 4 0/8, gen 5 0/8, gen 6 0/8, gen 7 0/?(I don't remember how many)
Pokémon Type: Electric
Single/Ultimate/Free Mode?: Ultimate

and I've already started so here we go

Named myself Odin.
Got a Charmander.
Lost the first rival (Loki) fight for the first time since starting monotypes.
Ran to Viridian Forest.
Captured first mon, a Pikachu named Thor.
Challenged Rival to a rematch... it went better.
Captured a Spearow.
Beat up everyone in forest and grinded to 16 for Quick Attack.
Challenged brock... ran out of PP for Quick Attack against Onix and proceeded to use every other move til I could use Struggle... and then ran out of Potions.
Considered all options then decided to return to forest, use up all Thunder Waves and Thundershocks and left 15 Growls.
Challenged brock again and with a combo of Quick Attack, Struggle and Potions beat him.
Blitzed through mt. moon grabbing all items and fighting sparingly.
Reached Cerulean proceeded to barely beat Loki.
Reached Bill after struggling (not the move just the action this time) past another damn Onix.
Ran to vermillion to pick up cut, rest, and the bike voucher.
Beat Loki without too much trouble this time.
Traded Spearow for a Farfetch'd.
Beat Misty and got the Bike.
Ran back to Vermillion and then thru Diglett cave to get Flash.
Relearned I needed 10 mons to get Flash so I caught a few.
Got Flash and taught it to Thor.
Ran back to Cerulean and proceeded toward Rock Tunnel.
Avoided as many fights as possible though one trainer poisoned me so I ran around til Thor fainted and used a rare candy to revive him.
Reached Lavender Town and headed to Celadon.
Obtained second mon, an Eevee named Raijin.
Bought 2 thunderstones but have yet to use them.
Now training Raijin to learn Bite before evolving.

Thor (Pikachu) lvl 34
Raijin (Eevee) lvl 26

 

[FactoriesFarAway]

Pokemon Sun Bug Monotype - Part 5 - From Po Town Team Skull Takeover to Champion (Finale)

Spoiler:

Edit: I'm finally home so I can add any details I missed out plus pics!

First of all I'd like to apologise for shoving half of the game into the final part. Weekends are super busy for me, I don't have time to update and only had 1-2hrs to play every day. Right now I'm typing this all out on my phone on the bus as otherwise I'm not going to have time to type this up until I get home in quite a number of hours. This has really been my only time to update in quite a few days. I'll add any images when I get home.

So when I left off I'd just beat the ghost type trial and was heading towards Po Town. The second Guzma battle was my first realisation that without using the Pokemon Refresh feature, I was a little underleveled. The level discrepancy between the major AI trainers and I only increased as time went on. This Guzma battle wasn't particularly hard though.

Nanu however, I treated as a joke fight and didn't take seriously at all, messed around and let a few of my pokemon faint before realising a few of his pokemon actually had super effective moves against me and I should take it more seriously. Had I not messed around it would've been easy, but I inadvertedly put myself in a needlessly risky position. I didn't white out though, with that said, just wasted a few healing items.

Aether Paradise had nothing of note until the third Guzma fight. Woo boy he toughened up. I still beat him first try but I wouldn't be lying if I told you he was harder than I expected he'd be.

The first Lusamine battle was also tougher than I expected, mainly because most of her pokemon are fast or bulky. Mismagius especially was annoying.

Then we headed to Poni Island. Again Hapu wasn't too difficult, but tougher than I expected. Her Mudsdale mainly being the issue due to how bulky it is and how hard it hits in return.

The Dragon Trial itself was silly. Fairium Z on Dazzling Gleam one shot... Uh, I've completely forgotten the name of the Pokemon. The dragon totem. I haven't played much gen 7. (I looked it up. Kommo-o.)

Then the third battle against Lusamine gave me a run for my money. Way tougher than the first one and much tougher than I expected due to all of her Pokemon having stat boosts. Still did it in one try though.

Now it was time for the Elite 4. Hala and Acerola were super easy, but Olivia and Kihili were actually quite tough and I needed quite a lot of healing items to beat them. Olivia was definitely the harder of the two, but I did them both first try.

Now Kukui. Wow. He was actually really difficult. I must've reset on him 4 or 5 times. Why? He sets up STEALTH ROCK first turn. It completely crippled me, given all of my team took at least 25% damage from it. And his Incineroar was awful to deal with. But eventually, after a few attempts and using up all of my Max Revives, I did it. I'm glad I saved those Max Revives as it would've been awful otherwise.

After that, the ending of the game goes on forever. Seriously. It must be like almost an hour of cutscenes and gameplay before the credits kick in.

I'll post screenshots of my team and stuff when I get home done, but to summarise: I didn't like my team this time around at all. They were all super slow which led them to dying half of the time before they could even get a hit in, and Golisopod's ability was more of a hindrance than a help most of the time. I vastly overestimated how good Masquerain was going to be with its stat increase as it didn't fix how many weaknesses it has (I feel Ariados may have been the better pick up, ultimately), and Charjabug evolved so late that it barely got a chance to shine as Vikavolt, even if Vikavolt itself was really good. Araquanid was better than I expected and filled in a gap of not having a decent water type until Golisopod evolved, and Ribombee was decent too due to being the only decently fast team member. Pinsir was always lagging behind the rest of my team in terms of level despite me keeping out front most of the time I had it, as not only did I get it last, but it also has slow level growth. If anything, this puts into perspective how bad of a pick up Scyther would've been, as it would've suffered the same problem but to a worse degree. My favourite team member despite my complaint about it was Golisopod though. I had a decent amount of fun with Sun in the end, but this team was definitely my least favourite aside from my Platinum one. I also didn't name my Pokemon in the end because I was away from my PC and had no way of looking up where to find the name rater.

Final team:

Golisopod:

Spoiler:

Masquerain:

Spoiler:

Pinsir:

Spoiler:

Vikavolt:

Spoiler:

Ribombee:

Spoiler:

Araquanid:

Spoiler:

Pokemon Sun Bug Monotype FIN!​

 

[limeemil]

Pokemon Fire Red Dragon Monotype Ultimate Challenge

My progress:

Spoiler:

- Traversed through Mt. Moon and had my first run-in with Team Rocket
- Entered Cerulean City
- Grinded a bit in order to teach Dratini Dragon Rage for an easier early game
- Defeated my rival, Green
- Went north of Cerulean city to save Bill and get the S.S. ticket
- Decimated Misty's team with Dragon Rage
- Acquired the Cascade Badge and TM03 Water Pulse, which I immediately used on Dratini

Current team:

Spoiler:

Dratini Lv. 26
Shed Skin
- Twister
- Dragon Rage
- Water Pulse
- Thunder Wave

 

[FactoriesFarAway]

Pokemon Omega Ruby Fighting Monotype - Introduction

Spoiler:

So I'm starting my Omega Ruby Fighting Monotype. Why? Because I'm at my partner's house right now and I didn't bring Platinum with me so I can't finish the last leg of my bug monotype challenge until Wednesday or Thursday, and I'm definitely not trekking an hour back home just to get my cart. Same deal with my Fire Red Fighting monotype - it was on emulator, on my PC, at home. I brought my 2DS with me, with my Sun cartridge, which also has Omega Ruby installed onto the system, so I only have a choice between those two games right now. Given I just played through Sun, I'm going with Omega Ruby. Am I going to be able to finish it before Wednesday/Thursday? I don't know, but if I don't, I'll just continue it when I'm done with my other ongoing challenges.

Omega Ruby is the first instance of me actually using the starter in a challenge, in this case, Blaziken. I'm also going to be using the other three fighting types introduced in gen 3. Hariyama, Medicham and Breloom, which thankfully, have no type crossovers.

As there's so few Fighting types in the Hoenn dex, there's not going to be any analysis as such for the last two team members. The only other fighting types available are Machamp, Heracross and Gallade.

Heracross is a definite pick up as it's the only one of the 3 with a unique type. Machamp is not possible for me to get in this game as I don't have a second 3DS or game to trade with, but I do have a way to trade in the DS games, so it's very likely I'll be using it in both of the gen 4 titles instead. So my last Pokemon is going to be Gallade. My fear is that it'll be incredibly similar to Medicham, however, but we'll see how it goes.

I am only going to go for the Slakoth for Makuhita trade in Rustboro City if I find a Slakoth whilst looking for Shroomish. Otherwise, I will just catch one in Granite Cave.

Also, 4% encounter Ralts that has to be male (so essentially a 2% encounter) sounds incredibly unfun, so RIP me.

Pokemon Omega Ruby Fighting Monotype - Part 1 - Badge 1, Roxanne

Spoiler:

So before I start, I want to go over a couple of things I found out when I researched it. The only guaranteed Dawn Stone in the game is in Victory Road, meaning Kirlia has the niche of being a NFE Pokemon with low stats being Fairy type unlike Medicham, for most of the game. Additionally, Meditite isn't gotten until quite late in the game, with Mt Pyre being the earliest location. I could've sworn you could get it earlier than that, but apparently you can't. I did keep a naming theme this time around until... well, you'll see.

I also want to add that I got very lucky, as most of my Pokemon actually have attack+ natures this time around.

I chose Torchic as my starter, and of course, the first thing I had to do was grind for the 2% encounter rate male ralts and surprisingly... it didn't take that long. 30-45 minutes at most. I encountered 2 female Ralts before it. In the meantime, I caught in total 8 (I believe) Zigzagoons, and restocked Pokeballs. I was specifically looking for Zigzagoons with Pickup to take up the other slots in my party whilst I grinded for encounters. I figured if I was going to take a while so why not?

I replaced one of the Zigzagoons with the male Ralts, and put him to the front of my party. By this point, from just grinding on wild encounters, my Torchic was already Level 12.

Once I reached Petalburg Woods, it was time to search for my third party member, Shroomish. In the meantime, I somehow found 2 Slakoth despite it having a 5% encounter rate, so I caught one, for use in a little bit. I then swapped out another Zigzagoon for Shroomish.

I fought all of the trainers up to Rustboro City to level up my current Pokemon, then swapped one of my Zigzagoons for Slakoth. I spent a while looking for the trainer in Rusboro City who does the Slakoth for Makuhita trade, and then traded with him to receive my fourth party member, who unfortunately, will be our last party member for a very long time, and he's stuck with his traded name.

After fighting the trainers on Route 116, Torchic evolved into Combusken. It was now time to face the gym. The gym itself was just... super easy. I led with Shroomish who utterly destroyed Roxanne. I just figured this was worth updating as there is lots of party members right at the beginning of the game to note.

Team so far

KickinChick (Combusken) female Lv16 | Blaze | Brave @ Oran Berry
Moves: Rock Tomb, Peck, Ember, Double Kick

BlazinBlades (Ralts) male Lv12 | Trace | Docile @ Oran Berry
Moves: Growl, Confusion, Double Team, Disarming Voice

ZoominShroom (Shroomish) female Lv15 | Effect Spore | Naughty @ Oran Berry
Moves: Mega Drain, Headbutt, Stun Spore, Leech Seed

Makit (Makuhita) male Lv 14 | Guts | Brave @ Oran Berry
Moves: Tackle, Fake Out, Force Palm, Rock Tomb

+2x Pick Up Zigzagoon