[Challenge] The Monotype Challenge v8, Tera Edition

[Pebblycone]

I am back from the grave!

Life happened and I haven't played much Pokemon in the last few years. But recently Ive had a little extra time on my hands and I wanted to FINALLY complete my Ruby version Bug type run! I had literally gotten all the way to the Elite 4 before my break.... Thanks Explorer of Time for bringing all the details over from the old threads, you legend.

Took me a few tries to get through the Elite 4 and Champ all in one go, but I did it! My final team:
Bailey | Beautifly| Lvl 62
Bianca | Ninjask | Lvl 62
Bow | Shedinja| Lvl 60
Benji | Volbeat | Lvl 66
Brielle | Sunskirt | Lvl 65
Bala | Heracross | Lvl 69

Will put some thoughts/how the final battles went below:

Spoiler:

I was pretty please with the different move-types I was able to teach my all Bug team. For example Volbeat had Shockwave, Beautifly had Psychic etc. Heracross, who was my last addition to my team I believe, was a game-changer! The moves I was able to teach (Earthquake, Brick Break) plus its awesome stats really made it necessary for the E4 and Champ. Shedinja was very fun to use, with its Wonder Guard ability, and even though I could not use it for most of the E4 pokemon, it ended up being the MVP for Champion Steven.

A quick run down of the final battles:

Sidney was first - Ninjask was able to tank a bit for the first few pokemon, but Beautifly was the star here as Signal Beam 1 hit KO'd most of the pokemon

Phoebe was a huge struggle thanks to the Confuse Rays. Some runs Id have so much confusion unluck! I had taught Ninjask Shadow Ball which came in handy a little, but I ended up using a variety of my team to get through this one.

Glacia was definitely the easiest of the 4 - Heracross' Brick Break 1 shot the whole team, although I also got away with bringing out Shedinja at the end, as none of Walrein's attacks could affect me.

Drake was quite the slog. I had taught my Sunskirt Ice Beam which did help, but it couldnt tank enough of the other pokemon. Heracross came in handy again, having much higher defence to tank some of the attacks. Beautifly did a great job with some Psychics to finish the battle.

I think I had to revive 4/6 of my Pokemon before the final Champion battle -

I had forgot to swap my Pokemon, so I lead with Sunskirt. I tried Ice Beam which did not do much damage, however it froze the Skarmory! Which got me a super easy KO. I dont remember who dealt with the Claydol, Cradily, or Armaldo, but by the time I got to Steve's last 2 Pokemon - Metagross and Aggron - I realised I had won the battle. Shedinja, who was side benched the whole E4 except for 1 Pokemon, could not be hit by any of the attacks (including lots of scary attacks like Hyper Beam, Meteor Mash etc). This made Shedinja a huge asset in the end.

Not sure if Ill do a Bug mono-type again soon as the struggle at the end was real lol BUT I defs would consider another monotype challenge.

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Gold / #A / Kanto

Just a quick update, because, as we know Kanto is relatively easy.

Here's the order I went:
Lt. Surge -> Sabrina -> Erika -> Janine -> Get Power Plant going -> Get Radio Card/Expansion Card -> Brock -> Blaine -> Misty -> Blue.

Along the way, I get a Houndour (now a Houndoom), a Ponyta (now a Rapidash), and a Slugma (now a Magcargo).

Both Misty and Blue were only successful due to Smokescreen tactics. Blue required using all of Smokescreen PP to make it through...on my 15th try, no less. My team is currently mid-40s, except Magmar who is early-50s. As I'm nowhere near the levels needed to take on Red, I'm going to move on to Hoenn and get started on Emerald. I'll keep playing Gold in the background, and once I'm able to report on beating down Red, I'll include a quick side-blurb.

EDIT: Beat Red.

- First out was Pikachu. I had Typhlosion out and using Rollout to knock it out over time. Of course, I got Charm'd, but still, ended up working.
- Next out was Espeon. Houndoom easily took it down.
- Third out was Blastoise. Back to Typhlosion. Welcome to setting up 6xSmokescreen. If I get knocked out by Surf, I just switch over, Revive, and hop back until I get all set up. Used about 10 Revives in the process. Then Rollout took it out.
- Fourth was Snorlax. Just had to completely outlast it with Magcargo. At the end, once all the Rest uses were gone, I used Smog to poison it to help it go down faster.
- Fifth was Charizard, and two normal Rock Throws and one crit Rock Throw took it out.
- Finally, Venusaur. So, I wish I had lots of Fire moves. If only, right? Oh, wait...

All in all, Gold was fun. Clock'd in with a time of 29h18m. MVP goes to the small patch of grass south of Pallet Town with an abundance of Tangela. Good training spot.

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Emerald / #1 / First Three Gyms and Teammates

Emerald only has five Fire Pokemon I'll end up with: Torchic, Numel, Torkoal, Slugma, and Vulpix. Torchic is the only one I have until I defeat Wattson, then I can pick up everything other than Vulpix (which I won't get until Mt. Pyre).

Needless to say, I blow through the first gym with ease. Lots of using Ember.

Second gym...well, that takes a little bit of brute forcing it. First time I screw up and didn't heal at the right time, so I got knocked out. Second time, I was more careful about watching my health.

Third gym...I figured I could spam Ember. The better play turned out to be Double Kick, because when I get paralyzed, if one Double Kick gets through, both do. And while one Ember is better than one Double Kick, both Double Kicks are better than a single Ember.

From there, I use Rock Smash to get north of Mauville, and cut left to get Numel in Route 112 and the into Fiery Path to eventually (after fighting twenty back to back Numel) pick up Torkoal and Slugma. By this time, Combusken is level 32, and my new team members are 15. I want them to reach ~20 before moving on, so I head back to Mauville and head west on the route to Verdanturf. After about forty minutes, time to end the grind as Slugma is 19 and the others are 20.

My current team

Spoiler:

Torch, L32 Combusken
HP 92 / Atk 63 / Def 54 / SpA 66 / SpD 47 / Spe 46
Ember / Double Kick / Scratch / Rock Smash

Numel, L20 Numel
HP 58 / Atk 32 / Def 25 / SpA 35 / SpD 23 / Spe 212
Ember / Tackle / Growl / Magnitude

Torko, L20 Torkoal
HP 63 / Atk 40 / Def 61 / SpA 46 / SpD 33 / Spe 13
Ember/ Body Slam / Fire Spin / Smokescreen

Slugm II, L19 Slugma
HP 49 / Atk 24 / Def 20 / SpA 31 / SpD 22 / Spe 13
Ember / Smog / Rock Throw / Yawn

 

[Explorer of Time]

The opening post has been updated again with the new Legendary rules, as well as a few other changes mentioned in the changelog. (Technically it was updated a couple days ago, but I forgot to post about it.)

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Emerald / #2 / Fourth Through Seventh Gyms

In this post (i.e., TL;DR)

Spoiler:

1.) Complete Fourth Gym.
2.) Complete Fifth Gym.
3.) Complete Sixth Gym.
4.) Complete The Magma and Aqua Stuff To This Point.
5.) Try Seventh Gym.
5a.) Try Seventh Gym again. And again.
5b.) Cry.
6.) Complete Seventh Gym.

The full read:

Spoiler:

Step 1: Flannery was, to be honest, the first challenge, but only because of one Pokemon: Numel. Numel having Magnitude is just rather bad news. Thankfully, just a little bit of grinding gets me past it.

Step 2: I remember Norman being a pain, so I decided that the best thing to do is just fight all the trainers. It's sort of become somehting I don't need to justify because it's just par for the course in monotype runs. This probably would have been easier had Slugma evolved, but that's a level 38 evolution and is a bit of time away.

Step 3: Okay, Winona just stinks because of Pelipper. This is the point that I got everyone to L38. So, I now have Blaziken, Magcargo, Camerupt, and Torkoal. I debated on seeing if I could get to Mt. Pyre and get Vulpix, since I already have a Fire Stone and can evolve it. Having my whole team would be beneficial going forward, but once everything was evolved, I didn't have much trouble. Perish Song stinks on Swablu, but once you get past Pelipper, the most I can do to aid myself is use Smokescreen.

Step 4: This is just going through the motions, including picking up Vulpix. Since I don't want Fire Spin, I go ahead and evolve it as soon as I get it.

Step 5: Claydol is a threat because of Earthquake. I try this repeatedly, then decide after probably two or three hours of attempts, I'm going to go get the Macho Brace (that I missed) and then also go after some Special Defense EVs west of Fallabor Town. I get up to level 43.

Step 6: Completing the seventh gym is something I only finished this morning. I completed the sixth gym three days ago, so let that tell you what needs to happen going forward. Slowly, building up what EVs to focus on and when over each new run. So, by all accounts, I had to use some moves I wasn't used to using and I didn't think I was going to win. I used, item-wise, one Revive and twelve Hyper Potions.

Here was the strategy: On the first turn, I throw out Torkoal and Ninetales. Ninetales is fast enough to go first, so I use Will-O-Wisp on Claydol. If it doesn't hit, I restart. It needs to hit to burn and make Earthquake do much less damage. Torkoal uses Iron Defense - Claydol always uses Earthquake on its first turn against me, while Xatu just uses Calm Mind. From there, the second turn is Confuse Ray on Xatu and Amnesia. Then I use Iron Defense twice and Amnesia twice. Torkoal is in a nice spot, while Hyper Potions keep it alive. When Confuse Ray drops, I use it again. My goal is Claydol to go down, but in the meantime, I use Smokescreen as much as possible on Claydol. Eventually, it does go down and out comes Lunatone. I'm less worried about what my second Pokemon in, but I do use three Smokescreens on Lunatone. This gives me a chance to bring Ninetales back, fully healed up. I can then take out Xatu, which prompts Solrock. Three more Smokescreens on Solrock, and then it's just down to spamming Flamethrower until I win. I got a burn on Lunatone, which actually is what took it down. Then Solrock is just like "uh oh" and I finally get the badge.

Sort of ready to be done with Emerald, but I know I have one more Gym to go...

Team Stats:

Spoiler:

Torch, L43 Blaziken
HP 139 / Atk 118/ Def 81/ SpA 112 / SpD 82 / Spe 85
Blaze Kick / Double Kick / Slash / Rock Smash

Numel, L43 Camerupt
HP 124 / Atk 100 / Def 76 / SpA 113 / SpD 83 / Spe 49
Ember / Rock Slide / Earthquake / Magnitude

Torko, L43 Torkoal
HP 125 / Atk 84 / Def 127 / SpA 100 / SpD 78 / Spe 27
Flamethrower / Amnesia / Iron Defense / Smokescreen

Slugm II, L43 Magcargo
HP 109 / Atk 60 / Def 112 / SpA 83 / SpD 95 / Spe 38
Flamethrower / Strength / Rock Throw / Yawn

Vulpi II, L43 Ninetales
HP 126 / Atk 70 / Def 76 / SpA 87 / SpD 108 / Spe 114
Will-O-Wisp / Confuse Ray / Imprison / Flamethrower

 

[Explorer of Time]

Pokémon Colosseum (Standard Mode)
Mono-Water - Aqua Admin Walter
Update 1 (Phenac City -> Pyrite Cave)

This is my first monotype of Colosseum, and, if I succeed, will be the first monotype of Colosseum listed in the Hall of Fame. I picked the Water type, which has two Water Pokémon available before Pyrite Colosseum, Croconaw from Bluno in Phenac and Quagsire immediately after from a Duel Square trainer in Pyrite Town. Getting through Pyrite Colosseum was easier than expected, but getting through the Pyrite Building was very difficult, with Hunter Toti actually managing to beat me twice. Thankfully, once I made it to the top, I was able to snag three more Water-types in quick succession. Miror B. was much easier than I expected, with two of my Pokémon starting in Hyper Mode and critting his most dangerous Ludicolo right off the bat. His other Ludicolo didn't play intelligently either, and I defeated them all pretty easily.

I am snagging all the non-Water Shadow Pokémon I find as well, since I want to eventually fight Fein at the end of the game, but I box every one of them as soon as I possible catch them, and I'm not planning to make an effort to purify the ones I don't care about.

Because I can't purify any of my Pokémon until I get to the Relic Stone (which is only four or five trainers away), I couldn't level up my Pokémon at all, nor change any of their movesets. Thankfully, all of them except Remoraid have fairly playable movesets and are at reasonable levels, and the level curve is very gentle up through where I've gotten to. The Purification clause didn't come close to needing to be invoked.

Team

Spoiler:

Croconaw* (♂) | Water | Level 30
Moves: Shadow Rush, Scary Face, Bite, Surf
80 HP / 54 Atk / 54 Def / 42 SpA / 51 SpD / 44 Spe
Ability: Torrent | Nature: Timid | Item: Mystic Water

Quagsire* (♂) | Water/Ground | Level 30
Moves: Shadow Rush, Amnesia, Slam, Surf
105 HP / 58 Atk / 56 Def / 41 SpA / 47 SpD / 30 Spe
Ability: Damp | Nature: Jolly | Item: (None)

Remoraid* (♀) | Water | Level 20
Moves: Shadow Rush, Lock-On, Psybeam, Aurora Beam
47 HP / 33 Atk / 19 Def / 27 SpA / 24 SpD / 36 Spe
Ability: Hustle | Nature: Jolly | Item: TwistedSpoon

Mantine* (♀) | Water/Flying | Level 33
Moves: Shadow Rush, Supersonic, Bubblebeam, Take Down
93 HP / 34 Atk / 54 Def / 55 SpA / 111 SpD / 51 Spe
Ability: Water Absorb | Nature: Careful | Item: (None)

Qwilfish* (♂) | Water/Poison | Level 33
Moves: Shadow Rush, Minimize, Poison Sting, Surf
87 HP / 67 Atk / 57 Def / 45 SpA / 53 SpD / 68 Spe
Ability: Poison Point | Nature: Gentle | Item: Poison Barb

*denotes new Pokemon/moves/items

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Emerald / Final / The Final Gym and Elite Four

In this post (i.e., TL;DR)

Spoiler:

1.) The Final Gym.
2.) Victory Road.
3.) Elite Four
4.) Champion

The full read:

Spoiler:

Step 1: Well, I get up to Juan, and then decide to fall down and fight everyone, because Water > Fire and I want to limit the number of times I have to reset. In the end, the only consistent way I got through this was a mixture of Toxic from Ninetales and Amnesia/Iron Defense/Smokescreen from Torkoal. In hindsight, I think it would have been smarter to put Toxic on Torkoal. I do way too much bouncing around between these two (i.e., this isn't the last time I have to use this technique). I hate the walrus, but once I manage to get past it with Toxic, I don't have much trouble. Okay, Whiscash was a bit worrisome, I'll admit.

Step 2: Victory Road was rather simplistic, but I end up coming back here to do a LOT of training after my first attempt the Elite Four. Wally wasn't much of a problem.

Step 3: Now the fun begins.

- Sidney (Dark) is easy enough using Blaziken. Double Kick for the non-Grass types, and Blaze Kick for them.
- Phoebe (Ghost) is just spam moves until you win.
- Glacia (Ice) is not that bad...if you can make it PAST THE WALRUS. Have I hated on Walruses enough this post? Toxic for the Walrus, and Fire for everything else.
- Drake (Dragon) is someone I don't take any chances on. I know Kingdra is gonna suck, so I just go ahead and fully set up Torkoal, though this time I've swapped out Smokescreen for Double Team instead. So +6 SpDef, +6 Def, +6 Evasion. Should be good, right? Well, I'm using Heat Wave to do damage, and when it burns, I just use my stage boosting moves to waste time. I'm wanting to save as much PP as I can.

I hate to admit it, but I go through mid-50s to the Champion. But I ended up grinding to 58-60ish in Victory Road before coming back. I have a few Rare Candies, so I even out my levels at 60 before the final fight.

Step 4: Champion.

Why do we need two big Water battles? Like...I know Hoenn is 158% Water, but c'mon. This battle takes a few tries, but I do get it.

Confuse Ray on Wailord first to lessen the chance of Water Spout, and then switch to Toxic. Confuse Ray runs out immediately so I use another one. I use one Flamethrower to try and beat the damage threshold where Wallace will Full Restore. After that, I switch over to Torkoal and set up. My plan is to run Torkoal out, and hopefully get past both Whiscash and Gyarados. Those are my two trouble spots. Toxic does take Wailord out, and Wallace sends out Ludicolo. I use Heat Wave a few times before Burn occurs, then I go back to finishing my setup.

You can see where this is going. This has become my "Slow Burn" tactic. Heat Wave to hopefully burn, and then finish set up. If set up is already complete, use Heat Wave until burned, then just do whatever to not use up valuable Heat Wave PP. Torkoal, however, does not make it through the battle - it falls to Toxic from Milotic, which I'm fine with since I'm ensuring everything is ready for the final onslaught. My choice: Torch, who has been with me from the beginning. Sky Uppercut nets me the win, and I have finally completed Emerald using just a mono Fire team.

Let's be honest, Emerald is rough. Even worse with Fire. I am not looking forward to an eventually Ground run! Had I not chosen Emerald, I probably would have not had much of a problem with the Champion, due to it being Steven. But I don't know, honestly.

Good news is I feel like I'm choosing moves less of a one-by-one mindset, and trying to think more cohesively about my setups.

Final Team Stats:

Spoiler:

Torch, L60 Blaziken
HP 194 / Atk 165 / Def 113 / SpA 154 / SpD 114 / Spe 117
Blaze Kick / Sky Uppercut / Slash / Rock Smash

Numel, L60 Camerupt
HP 169 / Atk 140 / Def 105 / SpA 157 / SpD 116 / Spe 69
Eruption / Earthquake / Rock Slide / Magnitude

Slugm II, L60 Magcargo
HP 149 / Atk 86 / Def 155 / SpA 115 / SpD 133 / Spe
Flamethrower / Strength / Rock Slide / Body Slam

Torko, L61 Torkoal
HP 177 / Atk 122 / Def 179 / SpA 140 / SpD 112 / Spe 37
Heat Wave / Amnesia / Iron Defense / Double Team

Vulpi II, L60 Ninetales
HP 172 / Atk 98 / Def 105 / SpA 120 / SpD 150 / Spe 158
Will-O-Wisp / Confuse Ray / Toxic / Flamethrower

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Shining Pearl / #1 / Five Gyms Down

In this post (i.e., TL;DR)

Spoiler:

1. Get Starter
2. First Gym
3. Second Gym
4. Third Gym
5. Fourth Gym
6. Fifth Gym

The full read:

Spoiler:

1. Get starter: Well, imagine that. Fire type starter. Chimchar. Cool.

2. First Gym: Although the first gym is Rock, it wasn't hard. By the time that I reach the first gym leader, I've already evolved into Monferno and have access to Mach Punch and Power-Up Punch. I take the first two Pokemon out with Power-Up Punch, and then use Mach Punch to quickly knock out the Cranidos for the win.

3. Second Gym: Well, before even getting to the second gym, I get access to the Grand Underground. There, I can pick up two new Pokemon: Houndoom and Magby. I can't get Houndour, so I've got a full evolved 'mon ready to go. Magby turns out to be a decent powerhouse, and kinda mows down the second gym with ease.

4. Third Gym: I was able to get Ponyta just south of Eterna City, so that's my entire team for the run collected. I've noticed the gym leaders are quite a few steps more powerful than the trainers in their gyms, so I have to keep in mind that while Magby can basically smash through the trainers (eventually evolving to Magmar), it can't really be expected to survive much during the leader battle. I end up just using Monferno and focusing on Power-Up Punch and then using Mach Punch at the end.

5. Fourth Gym: This is obviously going to be a problem spot because it's Crasher Wake and water. I ended up leveling Monferno up until it evolves to Infernape, and getting everyone else to level 30 (or 33, depending on what level they were when they started). Magmar starts out by doing as many Thunder Punches as possible, which does get us to the final pokemon, the Floatzel. Magmar does go down, but then I spam Bite (Houndoom) and manage to eek out the victory.

6. Fifth Gym: It's a ghost type gym. I Bite my way through all of the trainers and the first two Pokemon of the gym leader. Mismagius, at the end, does take out Houndoom, but then it's just a matter of spamming attacks until I get through.

Team Stats:

Spoiler:

Chimc, L37 Infernape
HP 116 / Atk 97 / Def 68 / SpA 108 / SpD 55 / Spe 101
Feint / Power-Up Punch / Flame Wheel / Close Combat

Hound, L35 Houndoom
HP 109 / Atk 70 / Def 48 / SpA 90 / SpD 74 / Spe 86
Fire Fang / Smog / Beat Up / Bite

Magma, L37 Magmar
HP 103 / Atk 91 / Def 62 / SpA 90 / SpD 65 / Spe 79
Thunder Punch / Lava Plume / Confuse Ray / Fire Punch

Ponyt, L35 Ponyta
HP 92 / Atk 81 / Def 49 / SpA 55 / SpD 58 / Spe 82
Stomp / Agility / Flame Wheel / Flame Charge

 

[Explorer of Time]

Pokémon Colosseum (Standard Mode)
Mono-Water - Aqua Admin Walter
Update 2 (Agate Village -> Mt. Battle)

Another update, but it's a short one. After reaching Agate Village, I purified all my Pokemon, evolving my Croconaw into a Feraligatr and, soon after, my Remoraid into an Octillery. Both are much stronger, now, with Feraligatr being my strongest Water attacker, and Octillery becoming much stronger than it was as a Remoraid. That being said, it still isn't quite up to the level of the rest of my team. Only three types resist Water, which my whole team has decent STAB moves for, so the loss of Shadow Rush hasn't hurt me too much, but it has made dealing with those three types a little bit more difficult. I also have two Pokemon that can set up Rain Dance, which is helpful since my whole team is part-Water and knows a Water move.

Dakim was a pushover, with Feraligatr and Quagsire sweeping his non-Shadow team members with Surf. Entei did faint a few Pokemon, but only because I was trying to catch it; my first try, it actually fainted itself with Shadow Rush. Afterwards, I stuck it in the PC box where it'll stay for the rest of the game.

Team

Spoiler:

Feraligatr* (♂) | Water | Level 38
Moves: Surf, Bite, Slash*, Rain Dance*
114 HP / 86 Atk / 84 Def / 67 SpA / 79 SpD / 71 Spe
Ability: Torrent | Nature: Timid | Item: Mystic Water

Quagsire (♂) | Water/Ground | Level 38
Moves: Surf, Mud Shot*, Slam, Amnesia
131 HP / 72 Atk / 71 Def / 52 SpA / 58 SpD / 37 Spe
Ability: Damp | Nature: Jolly | Item: Quick Claw

Octillery* (♀) | Water | Level 34
Moves: Bubblebeam*, Psybeam, Aurora Beam, Rain Dance*
101 HP / 81 Atk / 59 Def / 70 SpA / 64 SpD / 45 Spe
Ability: Suction Cups* | Nature: Jolly | Item: EXP. Share*

Mantine (♀) | Water/Flying | Level 37
Moves: Bubblebeam, Wing Attack*, Take Down, Supersonic
104 HP / 38 Atk / 61 Def / 63 SpA / 124 SpD / 58 Spe
Ability: Water Absorb | Nature: Careful | Item: Silk Scarf*

Qwilfish (♂) | Water/Poison | Level 37
Moves: Surf, Take Down*, Minimize, Toxic*
97 HP / 75 Atk / 63 Def / 51 SpA / 60 SpD / 76 Spe
Ability: Poison Point | Nature: Gentle | Item: (None)

*denotes new Pokemon/moves/items

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Shining Pearl / Final / The Final Gyms and Elite Four

In this post (i.e., TL;DR)

Spoiler:

1.) The Sixth Gym
2.) The Seventh Gym
3.) Finishing off Team Galactic
4.) The Final Gym
5.) The Elite Four

The full read:

Spoiler:

1. The Sixth Gym
It's a Steel-type gym, so for the most part, this was easy. Didn't really have any trouble here.

2. The Seventh Gym
Ice-type gym, so similar to the Sixth Gym, I didn't have much of a problem. I did have to do the leader twice, because the first time I didn't heal up. Oops. I'm still finding that I'm using Power-Up Punch / Flare Wheel as a powerful combo.

3. Finshing off Team Galactic
I'm so happy I remembered where to go for everything here, and it's very easy. I chalk that up more to the fact that I only have four Pokemon in my team and they are always in the party.

4. The Final Gym
I get paralyzed a few times, but I had more trouble with the gym puzzle and getting myself turned around than fighting the gym leader. Easy enough.

5. The Elite Four. Okay, let's handle this mess one at a time. Bug - should be easy. Ground - should be hard. Fire - should be meh. Psychic - should be meh. Champion - you would assume would be hard. The challenge here was actaully Ground and Psychic, but one by one, here we go.

Aaron, Bug-Boy: Heracross is the worst. It's fast, and when I first got there in the late-40s/early-50s, I was unable to outspeed. So, I keep attacking it trying to level up. I did, however, reach a point that Infernape was faster, so I was able to use 6 Power-Up Punches so when I used Flare Wheel, it would take them all out. Hooray for a nice grinding spot. Victory Road is too dangerous with all the Onix and Graveler to trust. It became very consistent to get past Aaron around level 55.

Bertha, Ground Lady: Gave Infernape Grass Knot, which easily takes out most of them. The winning run, I got lucky as Whishcash's Hydro Pump missed, meaning I didn't have to do revive tactics to get Infernape back out. Grass Knot can pretty much one shot everything except the Whishcash, though it was inching closer to it. It's not consistent until Hydro Pump misses, and the other times I have to burn through Revives to get back up and running.

Flint, Fire Fanatic: I just used Power-Up Punch to build up my attack power, so when Lopunny comes out, I easily take it out. Also helps when I get to his Infernape, where I can Close Combat and one shot it. If I can get past Bertha, I can pretty much get past Flint.

Lucian, Psychic Master: This battle only became consistent after giving Houndoom Sludge Bomb and leveling it up to learn Nasty Plot. Set up on Mr. Mime, then push through with Flamethrower and Sludge Bomb. I wasn't expecting to get through Bronzor, even with +6 SpA, but I easily did.

Cynthia: Two tries at this one, and I'm actually surprised I got through it. I started with Houndoom on the second attempt, using Nasty Plot while fighting Spiritomb. Then Flamethrower and/or Sludge Bomb as far as I can. I get through Spiritomb enough, managed to somewhat survive through Gastrodon, but then lost to Milotic. I stalled for two turns when switching to Infernape - first to use an X Attack (the only one I had, since I wanted to only use what I found this run as opposed to the Bug run where I went crazy buying Battle Items), and the second to heal up. Then I used Power-up Punch and that took out Milotic. Lucario comes out, and I use Flare Blitz to take it out. I heal up through the entire 10 PP of Roserade using Sludge Bomb, alternating between Full Restores and Hyper/Max Potion as needed. Once I outlast, I keep using Power-Up Punch until I'm at +5, healing as needed. Roserade goes down before I can max out my attack, but I guess 3.5x will have to do. Out comes Garchomp - I just use Close Combat hoping I can survive Earthquake. The first attempt I lost to it, but this attempt, Garchomp used Swords Dance. I count my blessings as it OHKOs the Garchomp, netting me the win.

MVP: Power-Up Punch. It strengthens itself. It strengthens Mach Punch, Flare Wheel, Flare Blitz...anything in the physical category.

The Look Ahead:

Spoiler:

So, planning to start on Black later today, and my list shows these are the Fire types available in that game:
1. Tepig -> Pignite -> Emboar
2. Pansear -> Simisear
3. Darumaka -> Darmantian
4. Litwick -> Lampent -> Chandelure
5. Heatmor
6. Larvesta -> Volcarona

Definitely going to get interesting. Good thing I get to avoid using a /Fighting start...er....well, hooray.

Final Team Stats:

Spoiler:

Chimc, L73 Infernape
HP 222 / Atk 190 / Def 135 / SpA 214 / SpD 107 / Spe 204
Grass Knot / Power-Up Punch / Flare Blitz / Close Combat

Magma II, L63 Magmar (yeah, I could have evolved it)
HP 173 / Atk 159 / Def 112 / SpA 155 / SpD 113 / Spe 144
Thunder Punch / Fire Blast / Flamethrower / Fire Punch

Hound II, L63 Houndoom
HP 193 / Atk 129 / Def 91 / SpA 163 / SpD 135 / Spe 166
Flamethrower / Sludge Bomb / Nasty Plot / Crunch

Ponyt III, L62 Rapidash
HP 178 / Atk 169 / Def 109 / SpA 117 / SpD 122 / Spe 174
Smart Strike / Agility / Flame Wheel / Fire Blast

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Black / #1 / The First Six Gyms

Yeah, you read that right. There's something oddly fun about Black/White after remembering B2W2.

In this post:

Spoiler:

1. Through the First Gym
2. Through the Second Gym
3. Through the Third Gym
4. Through the Fourth Gym
5. Through the Fifth Gym
6. Through the Sixth Gym
7. Ending the first few days

The full read:

Spoiler:

Segment 1: Through the First Gym
Started with Tepig, and very quickly got reminded how many stupid battles with Cheren, Bianca, and N there are going to be in the game. My first real challenge, however, is the first gym leader, because in this generation they do the whole "first gym leader is of the type you are weak to" routine. Normally, I would get a Pansage here, but that wouldn't help me out. I ended up just leveling Tepig up to evolve to Pignite, and then just blasted my way through.

Segment 2: Through the Second Gym
The second gym wasn't hard at all - I have a /Fighting after all. I can't access the inner part of Pinwheel Forest yet, so I can't get Pansear. Just have to wait until after the win and then go in and gnab it. Thankfully, it was the first Pokemon in the rustling grass, so that made it easy to catch and start working on. Very quickly, I memorized that Pignite is a physical attacker and Pansage is a special one. Good to keep these things in mind to play to their strengths.

Segment 3: Through the Third Gym
The third gym isn't far off at all, but I am able to head out to Route 4 and pick up my third team member, Darumaka. Hilariously, the physical strength of this one monster starts carrying me immediately, outdoing any perceived strength of Pignite. As the third gym is a Bug-type, I just let Darumaka level up. Heal as necessary and continue.

Segment 4: Through the Fourth Gym
Here's a roadblock I didn't anticipate - my team hits hard but gets hit hard. N wipes the floor with me a few times, but eventually I make it past through dumb luck. Elesa, the fourth gym leader, became a problem as I kept getting paralyzed. I finally got a good attempt where I was doing a lot of damage with my moves, and even used Arm Thrust to multi-hit for some good damage. Thankfully, that was the winning run - I would have hated having one of those attempts that starts out amazing but quickly goes south.

Segment 5: Through the Fifth Gym
Cold Storage is nice cause I'm fire and there's a lot of Ice-types around. However, the fifth gym is one of those "blaze through the trainers, hit the roadblock at the leader" ones. My first attempt goes decent, as I barely manage to get to the Excadrill before I get taken down. I go spend some time leveling up on the next route, getting both Darumaka and Pignite up to 35 and 36, respectively, to have them evolve. I have not yet evolved Pansear, because I want it to learn Crunch at 43 before I use the Fire Stone on it. The next attempt against the gym leader goes over well, with a nice Belly Drum from my Darum (Darmanitan), which allows it to hit way harder than before.

It's also this point that I spent about twenty minutes at the vending machine, buying out their stock of lemonades. Hey, 700 for a Super Potion that restores 50 HP, or 700 for two lemonades that each restore 80...you be the judge.

Segment 6: Through the Sixth Gym
A quick jaunt through Chargestone Cave, fighting what I can, and then out the other side. I go ahead up to the Celestial Tower, partly because I have to for plot reasons, but partly because I get my fourth team member, Litwick. I decide to finish the levels on Pansear (which is holding the Lucky Egg) while giving the Exp. Share to Litwick. It starts at 27 and I need to get it to 41 to evolve, but I am a little more focused on Pansear. A few levels later but also a couple of hours later, and I have a Simisear with Crunch. Time to take on the 6th gym - which I fly through, pun intended but also one I feel is bad enough to apologize for. Defense Curl + Rollout was my choice for taking them all out, and it worked wonderfully, even though I know having Emboar out in a flying gym was not the safest of options.

Segment 7: Ending the First Portion]
I got to Iccirus City, and decided to call it for the day. Twist Mountain was fun to traverse, and Litwick is closing in on 41.

Team Stats:

Spoiler:

Tepig, L40 Emboar
HP 148 / Atk 123 / Def 64 / SpA 95 / SpD 52 / Spe 79
Rollout / Defense Curl / Arm Thrust / Heat Crash

Panse, L43 Simisear
HP 125 / Atk 93 / Def 64 / SpA 100 / SpD 73 / Spe 109
Natural Gift / Crunch / Fire Blast / Acrobatics

Darum, L38 Darmanitan
HP 133 / Atk 110 / Def 47 / SpA 38 / SpD 55 / Spe 96
Fire Punch / Belly Drum / Fire Fang / Headbutt

Litwi, L38 Litwick
HP 95 / Atk 32 / Def 53 / SpA 69 / SpD 53 / Spe 31
Inferno / Will-O-Wisp / Flame Burst / Hex

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fire Run
Black / Final / The Final Gyms, Elite Four, and Stopping Team Plasma

In this post:

Spoiler:

1. Gym 7
2. Gym 8
3. Elite Four
4. N
5. Ghetsis

The full read:

Spoiler:

Segment 1: The Seventh Gym
This gym was nothing but Litwick gaining levels. It's an Ice gym and I was just OHKOing everything. Easy.

Segment 2: The Eighth Gym
This was one a lot more item usage to keep my team healthy, and I struggled through it. Eventually, I do get through it, but Fire is rough against Dragons.

Segment 3: Elite Four
This was a couple resets on each for some decent luck. But here's the basics of it:

Ghost - Use Shadow Ball or Hex, or use Crunch.
Dark - Arm Thrust
Psychic - Shadow Ball or Hex, or use Crunch
Fighting - Spam whatever you can, but also used a combo of Belly Drum/Fire Punch/Sitrus Berry to get through it a little easier.

Segment 4: N
This battle ticks me off - I purposely lose so I can get rid of Reshiram. Sure, I'd love to use it. But I can't. Sad face. I first face the battle at an average level of 48. Any guesses on what level it takes before I eek out the win? 50? 53? Nope. 55. I spent about four hours training my Pokemon to all be level 55.

I use the Will-O-Wisp/Hex combo to take out a good portion of the team, but then I have to switch to my Tepig to finish the battle. Arm Thrust for Fake-Klinky. Heat Crash for everything else. The biggest pain here wasn't actually Zekrom. It was Archeops - that thing is fast and I couldn't manage to get anywhere until that point.

Segment 5: Ghetsis
I lose the first fight so I can save and not have to redo the N fight.

I tried various combinations in this fight - using Shadow Ball as much as possible, trying Rollout, and so on. In the end, I got through it by giving a Sitrus Berry to Darum, using Belly Drum at the very start of the battle. Cohagrigus used Toxic, giving me a round to use a Full Restore while it wasted a turn using Protect. Fire Punch there and on Bouffalant. Headbutt on Seismitoad. Fire Punch on Bisharp. Headbutt on Hydreigon. Fire Punch on Eelektross. All OHKO once Belly Drum was set up.

Yay. Battle complete. A bunch of yapping, and then...CREDITS!

MVP for the run:
free Lucky Egg

Final Team Stats:

Spoiler:

Tepig, L55 Emboar
HP 201 / Atk 172 / Def 88 / SpA 130 / SpD 70 / Spe 108
Rollout / Defense Curl / Arm Thrust / Heat Crash

Panse, L55 Simisear
HP 158 / Atk 121 / Def 83 / SpA 128 / SpD 93 / Spe 139
Natural Gift (Aspear Berry) / Crunch / Fire Blast / Acrobatics

Darum, L56 Darmanitan
HP 193 / Atk 167 / Def 68 / SpA 55 / SpD 79 / Spe 144
Fire Punch / Belly Drum / Dig / Headbutt

Litwi, L56 Chandelure
HP 147 / Atk 76 / Def 116 / SpA 201 / SpD 116 / Spe 111
Shadow Ball / Will-O-Wisp / Flame Burst / Hex

Heatm, L 56 Heatmor
HP 178 / Atk 111 / Def 98 / SpA 137 / SpD 92 / Spe 82
Slash / Flamethrower / Flame Burst / Bug Bite

 

[Explorer of Time]

Segment 4: N
This battle ticks me off - I purposely lose so I can get rid of Reshiram. Sure, I'd love to use it. But I can't. Sad face.

Um... you actually could have, since N's legendary is the only Pokemon in a mainline game that triggers Standard Mode Rule 3. I even specifically laid it out in BW1's game-specific rules, too.

 

[StenirRPG]

Um... you actually could have, since N's legendary is the only Pokemon in a mainline game that triggers Standard Mode Rule 3. I even specifically laid it out in BW1's game-specific rules, too.

So I could have! Jeez, I don't know how I missed that. I'll have to remember it when I swing back around for Dragon! I do try to push myself a little more on theory-crafting with each new type, but I'll have to be sure I re-read all the rules before starting a specific run!

I feel dumb, but at the same time, I'm happy I found a way through the final battles.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Wait. How would a Dragon mono type challenge even work in games like FRLG and DPPt? You guys have discussed hacking your starter Pokémon, but would you just hack Bagon and Trapinch into FRLG? (I think Kingdra requires trading with a Dragon Scale.)

EDIT: I know it'd be unorthodox to do one just for Gen III Kanto, but it's not impossible that someone whose favorite type is dragon would want to do a run through all the regions.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Wait. How would a Dragon mono type challenge even work in games like FRLG and DPPt? You guys have discussed hacking your starter Pokémon, but would you just hack Bagon and Trapinch into FRLG? (I think Kingdra requires trading with a Dragon Scale.)

EDIT: I know it'd be unorthodox to do one just for Gen III Kanto, but it's not impossible that someone whose favorite type is dragon would want to do a run through all the regions.

In Standard Mode, which is what most people do, you're restricted to your regional dex. This means that for a Dragon monotype of Kanto, you'd be stuck using the Dragonite line only, and if you traded or hacked in a starter, you'd have to pick a Dratini. But, there's no restriction on catching and using multiple Pokemon of the same species, meaning a player of a Kanto Dragon monotype could catch between two and six Dragonite for their party. (The challenge requires at least two since Solo challenges belong in a different thread.) The same goes for the Garchomp line in Diamond and Pearl. (Platinum has a second Dragon, Altaria)

Evolving Seadra into Kingdra is technically allowed in FRLG, but it can't be done without romhacking or save editing before the game ends because of stuff involving the FRLG National Dex, which not everyone can do.

If you do want to just hack in Bagon and Trapinch and any other non-Legendary Dragon you want into FRLG, Free Mode allows that as part of its less restrictive ruleset.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

That makes sense. Thank you. (Sorry for the short reply.)

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I finally decided to do a Water-Type Mono Run of Pokémon Leaf Green Version (Slowbro for life! Booooo, Golduck!)

I'm amazed no one has brought this up yet, but in Gen I Kanto and Gen III Kanto, they don't just hand you HM05 for Flash. If your regional PokéDex has nine or fewer species in it, Oak's aide (aid?) will just stare at you like "You seriously couldn't find ten species of Pokémon?!" A friend told me not too long ago that Flash isn't really required because you can treat it like a maze with a finite number of ways to get lost. (In order words, if you "hug the wall" as he put it, you'll eventually find your way out). I really don't like Rock Tunnel as is, but I don't see a clause for this, so... eh, I guess I'll live.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'm amazed no one has brought this up yet, but in Gen I Kanto and Gen III Kanto, they don't just hand you HM05 for Flash. If your regional PokéDex has nine or fewer species in it, Oak's aide (aid?) will just stare at you like "You seriously couldn't find ten species of Pokémon?!" A friend told me not too long ago that Flash isn't really required because you can treat it like a maze with a finite number of ways to get lost. (In order words, if you "hug the wall" as he put it, you'll eventually find your way out). I really don't like Rock Tunnel as is, but I don't see a clause for this, so... eh, I guess I'll live.

It's right there in the very first rule of the core rules.

1. You may only use Pokémon of your chosen type, or that evolve into your chosen type, in trainer battles. You may still catch Pokémon not of your type for non-battle-related purposes, such as breeding or Pokédex completion.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I have no excuse; I skimmed right over it! I thought it'd be in Gen I & III specific rules, but it was in rule no. 1 the whole time. I feel like such a fool!