The Monotype Challenge v8, Tera Edition

[Explorer of Time]

Just adding a bit of clarification for thos who may not be aware. You *can* enter the Terrarium before finishing the main stories for the base game and the Teal Mask, but it's not going to be easy. You get the invitation to study at Blueberry Academy shortly after arriving in Kitakami, but the Pokemon and trainer levels don't scale based on main game completion like the Teal Mask does, so the initial trainer battle you have to win to gain entry to the Terrarium requires you to beat Pokemon in the low 70s. You also can't complete much of the story until the main game and Teal Mask stories are finished, but you can still explore the Terrarium, catch Pokemon, and complete Blueberry Quests. I wouldn't recommend trying to enter the Terrarium until your team is a fairly high level, but it can be accessed.

Lacey's team? Bulbapedia's telling me that you can progress in The Indigo Disk even if you lose your fight. Since letting new players catch level 70 Pokemon early in the game would be quite obviously game-breaking, I'm going to restrict catching Pokemon from the Terrarium to players who've beaten either the main story or at least one BB League Elite Four member.

Fighting battles and getting items from the Terrarium should still be OK, though.

 

[Elder Trainer]

Lacey's team? Bulbapedia's telling me that you can progress in The Indigo Disk even if you lose your fight. Since letting new players catch level 70 Pokemon early in the game would be quite obviously game-breaking, I'm going to restrict catching Pokemon from the Terrarium to players who've beaten either the main story or at least one BB League Elite Four member.

Fighting battles and getting items from the Terrarium should still be OK, though.

I've never lost that battle, so I wasn't aware of that. The rule is fair though. In any case I wasn't planning to go to the Terrarium that soon, still want to complete the other story-based tasks first.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I'm not sure if I should post this because it's up in the air what'll happen. I'd like to focus on games besides Pokemon over the coming months, so I will probably need to limit my time spent playing mainline Pokemon games (except for Pokemon Violet, which I definitely need to finish) to one day a week. I'll continue checking the thread here, but I don't know how active I'll be. I'm still participating in the Game Mastery Challenge, but I don't know how long it'll take for me to complete that. Nothing's for sure right now.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'm not sure if I should post this because it's up in the air what'll happen. I'd like to focus on games besides Pokemon over the coming months, so I will probably need to limit my time spent playing mainline Pokemon games (except for Pokemon Violet, which I definitely need to finish) to one day a week. I'll continue checking the thread here, but I don't know how active I'll be. I'm still participating in the Game Mastery Challenge, but I don't know how long it'll take for me to complete that. Nothing's for sure right now.

Totally fine and I completely understand. The thread will still be here when you're ready to return. I hope you enjoy your other games, whatever they are.

 

[Pluckles]

Alright, so this is gonna be a long text dump. I beat the game and this is update #1 for the Fairy mono run. Well, I'm going to try to break it up into sections so that it's a bit shorter. Welp, here we go!

Spoiler: Start of the game --> Brassius

So with the start of the game, I chose Quaxly because it felt like giving Nemona Fuecoco would be harder in the end, which it was. So after quickly rescuing Miraidon and going to South 1, we caught quite a few mons (to the point where we almost had a full team, I believe. We grabbed a Fidough(Houndoom), Igglybuff(Bellibolt), Azurill(Dewgong), and Ralts(Gothitelle). After soundly beating Nemona, we make our way to the school, spend a night, then head to South 2.

At South 2, we picked up a Tinkatink(Marowak) and Eevee(Liepard). Since I didnt actively grind it to be a Sylveon as soon as possible, I didnt use Eevee in any fights until it fully evolved.

I want to just mention, that in my other runs, I was fighting every single trainer. Well, that became stupidly tedious, so I stopped doing that. So I went to West 1 and picked up a Flabébé(Exeggcutor) and... ran into my first shiny of this challenge. Infact, I ran into several more, but more on that later. Anyways, I ran into a Mankey, but no fairy = not on my team, so I immediately destroyed it. MOVING ON!


I evolve Azurill into Marill, then I whipped Katy into shape, grabbed my first badge, and move on to South 3. In South 3, not much happened. Didn't even change the team, or level up and beat that crab down. Now to Brassius.

The team kind of just stayed the same. They didnt really evolve, and couldnt use Eevee, so I just stuck with the same guys, and with our Tinkatink, the grass gym was manageable.

Spoiler: Bombirdier --> Giacomo

This was also a kind of easy part of the game. Kind of. Bombirdier was honestly no problem. Just a bird being hit by Disarming Voice over and over. We did get our Ralts to Kirlia, Igglybuff to Jigglypuff, Marill to Azumarill and Flabébé to Floette, so we did have some mid Evo power spikes.

Giacomo was kind of more difficult, with his Pawniard. I had to rely on Tinkatink to just brute her way, then debuff the car with my entire team to just whittle him away. Overall, no one lost, so we doing good!

Spoiler: Iono --> Orthworm

Before moving on to East 1&2, we quickly went to South 4 to pick up a Hatenna(Blissey). Then we head to Levincia, fight our rival, beat her to a pulp, and start prepping for Iono, who can definitely be a pain. We pick up a Mimikyu(Pikachu) in East 2, and then go to Pokemon League to grab a Baton Pass TM. As soon as we get there, two Fidoughs run right up to me, and one is a little different...

Yes, a shiny Fidough for our fairy run, which made me so happy! So we sadly replace the Fidough we had, named this one Boltund, and continue forward with Iono.

Iono was, as always, a pain. I made some Dig TMs and taught some of them that, and just kind of tried to whittle her away. We beat her, but Mimikyu was the last fighter standing. Oof.

Mela wasnt as difficult. With an Azumarill having Aqua Tail and in the rain, she was a straight up sweep.

Orthworm almost gave me trouble. But with our Tinkatink evolving to Tinkatuff, she easily tanked anything he threw at her, and was able to solo it with ease.
Oh yea, and finally got a Sylveon and Wigglytuff during that time. They didnt contribute much though.

Spoiler: Kofu --> Larry

By now, we have a bunch of final stage mons. Finally have a Gardevoir and Dachsbun, which helped us to beat Kofu with ease, honestly. that early 30 Evo spike hits hard.

The we go to Lagtree Thicket. As we're leveling up for Atticus, well... look.

Shiny #3 of the run. But like the Mankey, we sent it to Hell for being the wrong typing!

Atticus is our natural counter. Or I would say that, if it wasnt for Tinkatuff. Completely negating Skuntank by wasting Sucker Punch PP, then being immune to the poison moves, we beat it soundly. Then with careful switching to predict the poison or ground move coming, we got through all up until Revavroom quite safely. But that car had other plans, and kept destroying by outspeeding. It finally took Gardevoir and like, -4 speed and -6 attack to defeat it, her being the lone survivor.

Larry was a mixed bag. Didn't have a way to stop the Yawn, and Dudunsparce's Drill Run would mess up Tinkatuff, so had to do lots of switching to keep everyone alive. Then lots of Charms + Baby Doll Eyes to force that Staraptor to hit like a noodle. We got our badge though!

Oh yeah, and grabbed a Dedenee(Pachirisu) from West 3.

Spoiler: Ryme --> Grusha

With 11 badges down, we turn to Ryme. We went back and grabbed a Impidimp(Machamp) and evolved it into Grimmsnarl. We also have a Tinkaton, Klefki(Garbodor) from Glaseado Mountain, and evolved the Hatenna to Hatterene. With that, we get into the double battles. With stacked teammates, it was a pretty easy win, but accidentally let Klefki die at the end. Oops.

Iron Treads is not much to talk about. Infact, I didn't even level up my team after Ryme. Went straight into it and won easy.

Nemona was there to meet us in Alfornada, and we had a quick battle. Once again, not leveled since Ryme, and just kinda swept her. Underwhelming.

Tulip was also kind of easy. With our Grimmsnal, he took care of the Espathra and Farigiraf that had no Fairy moves, and used Mimikyu and Tinkaton to blast Gardevoir and Florges. Was maybe the easiest fight we've had.
Before leaving, I picked up a Shiny Stone and finally evolved our last member, Florges.

Lastly, Grusha. Once again, not much of a fight. Klefki and Tinkaton kind of destroyed everything by themselves, so there was nothing for me to really worry about.

Spoiler: Ortega --> Tatsugiri

Close to endgame! Ortega first. Just like the previous battle with Grusha, Tinkaton and Klefki kind of ruined everything and made me worry for nothing.

Eri and her fighting types made me worry. With countless Steel, Poison and Ground moves, she really had a counter for every single mon I had. It literally came down to, once again, debuffing her car and I even had to Tera my Tinkaton, because I just needed that much damage or I would have wiped. It was such a close fight. But squeaked by, that's for sure.

And having a team full of fairies, Tatsugiri was not a problem at all.

Spoiler: Clavell & Elite Four

Clavell was first, as he has the lowest level of the endgame fights. Actually lost quite a few mons to him, maybe it's because of carelessness? But definitely won't make that mistake again.

As for Rika, she was easy. Azumarill and Florges with grass moves kind of just dealt with everything.

But Poppy on the other hand, she is my counter. I though I was doing well, by giving Azumarill Superpower, along with a few ground moves like Dig, Bulldoze, and Mystical Fire to Gardevoir. And it was still an iffy fight. If i didn't OHKO, then I definitely lost something that fight. Had 2 deaths overall, and everyone else was in red.

Larry wasnt as hard as Poppy. Dedenee took charge of the fight, with the occasional switching to lower the attack of the Staraptor and Flamigo. Victory was obtained.

Hassel was an easier fight this time Round, obviously. His Baxcalibur still did decent damage with his Glaive Rush, but we pulled out of that deathless!

Lastly, Geeta. I had a soft counter for everyone on her team, and was feeling kind of confident. I didn't lose any mons at all, even the scary Kingambit. But my Qzumarill was over the cap, so I decided to sit him out, and wish I had her for Glimmora. Ended up losing two because I couldnt kill fast enough. But in the end, still squeaked a win.

Spoiler: Arven, Penny & Nemona

Last rival fights.
Arven wasn't too much of an issue. Although, I thought that Hatterene could OHKO the Mabosstiff, but apparently I was wrong and she died in the process. Tinkaton cleaned up her mistake like it never happened.

Is there really anything to say about the Penny fight? Her Eeveelution team is just wack, and caused no trouble for us. NEXT!

Before fighting Nemona, I decided to fight wild Chanseys for xp and I found not 1, BUT 2 SHINIES. We killed for that sweet xp, and moves on.






Nemona. She wasn't too tough. Her Skeledirge, I thought I had a good counter for it with Baked Body Dachsbun, but apparently a single, non-boosted Shadow Ball straight up kills. So I had to do some switching and using Fake Out from Grimmsnarl and Tinkaton just to get it low enough to beat it. I mean, I won?

Spoiler: AI Turo

Worst fight. Like, seriously. This is the second time I have underestimatedthe speed of his Iron Moth. And its strong enough to OHKO nearly everything I have. So after thinking about it. I went with Klefki and started with a Light Screen. After getting a safe switch in into Dachsbun, I used Dig to beat it out.
Then the Iron Jugulis came out. I switched to Azumarill, as it had the most resistances, and just hoped I didnt get burned or flinched while I whittle it down with Play Rough.
Next was Iron Hands. A simple Dazzling Gleam killed it.
Iron Thorns was next. With a STAB move, Iron Thorns was faster, so he tried to use Stone Edge, but it missed and I dug into the ground with my Dachsbun. I was able to hit the Dig and come back up before he used Earthquake. Then I did it again, and the same result happened. He had a sliver of health, and so I went for an Ice Fang, but it missed and he missed his Stone Edge. I missed Ice Fanag AGAIN, and he Earthquakes me to death. I finish with Tinkaton.
Iron Bundle was next. A simple, nonSTAB Giga Drain from Hatterene actually OHKOd it.
Lastly, Iron Valiant. I forgot this thing had Brick Break, so my plan was to use Reflect. Well, my screen got broken, and Klefki was two shot, it was crazy. I then brought out Gardevoir, but it was too squishy and died to a single Poison Jab. I just said whatever, brought my MVP Tinkaton in, Gigaton Hammer was all it took to win us the game. She is the GOAT!

Spoiler: Final Team

Overall, kind of a fun run? Not as difficult as the bug run, but still had its moments. Tinkaton was definitely MVP ever since it was a Tinkatink, and I would catch another in a heartbeat. I guess it's time for run #4.


User: Pluckles
Type: Water
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

 

[Elder Trainer]

Just thought of another question: is completing S/V's epilogue required? I'm playing on a profile that doesn't have a connected Nintendo Online account, so I can't download the Mythical Pecha Berry to activate it.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Just thought of another question: is completing S/V's epilogue required? I'm playing on a profile that doesn't have a connected Nintendo Online account, so I can't download the Mythical Pecha Berry to activate it.

The Pecharunt event? No. The official challenge ending for SV is defeating Professor Sada or Turo at Zero Lab. (Technically, only Sada/Turo's first fight, the one with the team of six Paradox Pokemon, is required, since the second battle doesn't let you use your actual team.)

You can certainly play the DLC and Pecharunt event if you want, but neither is required to mark your run in the thread's Hall of Fame.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Totally fine and I completely understand. The thread will still be here when you're ready to return. I hope you enjoy your other games, whatever they are.

I don't expect to leave the thread long-term, but (at least, depending on what happens), I won't be doing huge updates. I had been sporadically posting huge updates (depending on what was happening IRL), but now I think it'd be best to limit myself a bit. I've played a lot of Gen 3 lately, and I need to spend some time playing other games on my backlog.

I also want to do this gauntlet challenge where my friend came up with some rules (and I sometimes have to come up with completely new teams), so when I do get to play Gen 3 Pokemon, a lot of my time will be spent on that.

I don't want to overshare about personal issues here, but I think it'd be good for me (with my depression) to limit myself in this way. Lately, I've felt overwhelmed by all the games (new and old) I want to play, and my bad time management skills, so maybe limiting mainline Pokemon games to one day a week will serve as a good first step.

 

[Elder Trainer]

Got a lot done since my last update, so I'm going to do more than one post with my progress, though not necessarily back to back. This post will cover badge 7 through the end of the Team Star storyline.

I arrived in Alfornada and, after another victory over Nemona in battle, I participated in the ESP test and, afterwards, defeated Tulip for the 7th badge. Next, I defeated the final Titan, a Tatsugiri who started off letting a Dondozo do the dirty work for it.

With the final Herba Mystica in hand and Mabosstiff healed, Arven and I were ready to wnd our quest when I received a call from Professor Turo. He asked us to return to the lighthouse, which Arven reluctantly agreed to do. Before joining him, I decided to check a couple of other tasks off my list, starting with defeating Grusha in Glaseado for the final badge.

My next order of business was defeating Ortega of Team Star, which was not as tricky as I expected. I met up with Arven after that, and had a video chat with the professor where he asked us to come to Area Zero. As that was where Mabosstiff received his injury, Arven was not too happy about the thought of going back, but since he knew I was going myself he decided to go regardless, but not before battling me to see if I was ready. The battle was tough, but I managed to pull through. Arven suggested we find someone to help us in Area Zero, and then ran off for now, our Herba Mystica quest completed.

I turned my attention to becoming Champion and traveled to the headquarters of the Elite Four. After passing a verbal exam given by Rika, I was challenged in a string of battles by the Elite Four. After succeeding against the four of them in tough battles (Krookodile was definitely my MVP here), I challenged Geeta for the rank of Champion-and won! After winning, Nemona challenged me to one more battle in Mesagoza, where I defeated her once more.

With the champion path completed, I turned my attention back to Team Star, where Eri was the remaining boss to defeat. I succeeded after another tough battle, and after it was done I was informed by Casseiopeia that she had been the one behind Team Star the whole time! She challenged me to a battle in the academy schoolyard, but as I approached the academy entrance I encountered Director Clavell in his Clive disguise. After he revealed himself, he claimed he was Casseiopeia the whole time and challenged me to a battle. I defeated him, and he explained he was not Casseiopeia after all. He explained that he was trying to keep me safe, but recognizing I would be ok he allowed me to proceed. At the schoolyard, Casseiopeia revealed herself to be the new student, Penny. After defeating her in battle, Team Star was disbanded, but Penny was reunited with her friends, and Director Claville arranged for them to turn their bases into Pokemon training centers as a form of community service.

Upon going into the Entrance Hall the next day, I met Director Cyrano, the head of Unova's Blueberry Academy. He invited me to participate in his school's student exchange program. I accepted the offer, but told him I had things to finish before I could begin. The director said he would wait until I was ready.

After closing out everything with Team Star, I decided it was time to return to Kitakami, where events would prove to be even more memorable than I expected.

 

[Pluckles]

Water only run > Complete

Spoiler: Badges 1-6

We actually can start with one of the main starters in this game, the duck. It did give Nemona the fire croc, but it would make it easily manageable later on. So we beat her up multiple times, grabbed a bunch of water mons in South 1, and head off to the first gym.

With Katy, we did have two mons, Wingull and Quaxly with flying moves, so it was an easy fight.

Klawf Titan was also quite manageable, as, well... we had a ton of water to make the rock crab soggy.

Brassius was a bit different. As I did try to beat it with only Wingull, it sadly wasn't enough because of the rocks from Sudowoodo. But with Chewtle being a bit speedy we were able to outspeed and get the third badge.

With heading to Bombirdier Titan, we start to get some evolved mons like Quaxwell and Gyarados. The most important is probably Gyarados, who enables us to start doing Intimidate switch strats later on, so it helped with the Titan and we finished it off with Chewtle.

Giacomo was also a bit easy. With access of Intimidate Gyarados, an evolved Azumarill and a funny little Barboach, we were able to beat him down with ease.

Iono was probably a bit tougher than everything else so far. Despite catching a Shellos, catching and evolving a Cloyster, and evolving Chewtle to Drednaw, this was still a hard fight. Having to do a lot of switching from our two ground buddies, we were on the ropes. Infact, if Mismagius would have just kept hitting Charge Beam, Iono would have won. But for some reason, she used Confuse Ray, and we fought through the confusion, and was able to knockout Mismagius and get our 6th badge.

Spoiler: Badges 7-12

Mela was probably the easiest fight. Drizzle Pelipper kind of just solo'd with the rain and Water Pulse. Not much Mela could do.

I felt that I didn't really need to level up, so I just went straight to Orthworm Titan and demolished him. With a Intimidate strats and with being tanky with Vaporeon and Azumarill, it went down fast.

The water vs water battle against Kofu was not much to talk about. Having a Rotom Wash, along with Storm Drain Gastrodon kind of shut down all of his mons. I'm the better water trainer!

Atticus is always a problem, but not this time. Wiscash and Gastrodon, Tauros Aqua and Gyarados, along with a few Mud-Slap users, this was simply a breeze.

Larry was also kind of easy? With finally having Quaquavel and our Tauros, we had no shortage of fighting types, and cleared it with ease.

After destroying Nemona, we went to Ryme to do our favorite double battles. I made a mistake with the Toxtricity. I thought with my boosts, I could outspeed and kill, but the Discharge killed two of my mons in an otherwise sweep. But it's fine, I had backups to finish off the fight.

Spoiler: Badges 13-18

Like Orthworm, I went straight to Iron Treads Titan and just got it over with. It wasn't an issue with our water bois.

In this run, we've picked up a lot of water types, so you'll see them in the fights, like Tulip. We actually use a Bruxish and Clauncher which usually don't see a lot of play, and use their specific abilities (Strong Jaws & Mega Launcher) to do as many OHKOs as possible.

Grusha was also easy. We started with Drednaw to beat the Frosmoth quickly, then switched in Slowbro to just set up with Iron Defense and Amnesia(just in case), and then just Body Press the rest of his team. Final gym badge is obtained!

Ortega was yet another so-so battle. Having things like Toxapex with Baneful Bunker + Poison Jab + Merciless just swept through the Star Base. ezpz

Eri was also easy, with a similar start as Grusha. Iron Defense + Amnesia + Stored Power. It being so bulky, and having Leftovers, it could just survive everything, even being slower than everyone.

Last but not least, Tatsugiri Titan was a breeze. We survive the water and dragon moves, and had Azumarill just kinda roughly play all over that sushi fish. We also caught our own Tatsugiri and Dondozo.

Spoiler: Clavell + E4

Clavell was an easy fight, yet again. But I made a mistake and put out Gyarados and it got crit by the Meowskarada. But easy otherwise.

Rika was also an easy fight for the E4. We just naturally counter her with all our water mons.

Poppy was also a cakewalk. With all the fighting and Ground types we had, she was also a breeze.

Larry was much harder to deal with. Like, I had Rotom Was, Cloyster and Drednaw, but his move coverage was really good to go against my team, and we had a lot of sacrifices. But in the end, we barely squeaked by.

Hassel was kind of the same. We had a lot of trouble with the fast and strong Baxcalibur, and had to sacrifice mons to reduce its attack via Charm and Intimidate before finally beating it.

Geeta was easy for everything, but the Glimmora. I used Tauros to kill it, but it survived at 1hp, and then it killed the Tauros. Then, I threw in Gyarados, and it was faster and killed it in one hit. I underestimated the stupid rock plant, and threw in Quaquavel who could tank a hit and win us the battle.

Spoiler: Rival battles

Going straight into the Penny battle, it was not an issue. I don't think any type will have any trouble with the Eeveelution battle, honestly.

Arven also wasn't a problem. Capable of OHKOing all of his mons with ease.

Nemona wasn't an issue, but the Pawmot almost beat my counter in one hit, which was scary. But it didn't become an issue, and Nemona was swept away by my waves.

Spoiler: Professor Turo

For once, The Iron Moth was actually not an issue. We took advantage of the low defense and used Whiscash to OHKO it. We proceeded to OHKO the Iron Bundle, Iron Thorns. But then Iron Hands was actually bulky enough with its massive HP pool to survive and become a threat. I had to make a risky switch to Cloyster and do Ice Shard to go first and finally KO it. The Iron Jugulis was also no problem with Cloyster.

As for Iron Valiant, I just decide to start sacrificing everyone and bring its attack down with Intimidate and switchouts. We finally brought in Slowbro to finish off the fight and winning us the run.

Overall, I liked the secondary coverage of this run. And there was a lot of mons I at least used once (everyone except Luvdisc and Alomomola). I didn't bother getting a Surskit, because it evolves out of a water type. I think if I had access to some of the DLC mons, like Ludicolo, then it would have made a few of the fights way easier. But still had fun with it.

I think I might actually start keeping track of what mons I use in fights, to see how important they are in a run.

Spoiler: Final Team

User: Pluckles
Type: Grass
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fairy Run
Sun / FIRST AND FINAL / I'm Out of Order? This game's out of order!

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

Spoiler:

-- Melemele
-- Akala
-- Ula'ula
-- Poni
-- Endgame

The full read:

Spoiler:

Well, I was likely Fairy for most of the run, but then I had some trouble near the end. But let's go in order, shall we?

-- Melemele
-- Pokemon Caught: Popplio (Starter), Cutiefly (R2), Cottonee (Meadow), and Carbink (Ten Carat Hill)
The start of the game isn't all that difficult. I don't have to hunt for a starter, or specifically rando or trade on in, because Popplio. Yes, because Popplio. I sorta rush through the opening, but I ran into one issue at the start with the battle again Ilima. The Smeargle knows Leafage, and two hits from that take me down on my first attempt. After thinking about it, I realize there's a good option available to me: Echoed Voice, which is in Hau'oli City. So, I pick that up and teach it, and then just spam it the entire battle. That's enough to get me through and on to Route 2 to gnab a Cutiefly. After a little bit of training, I kinda blow through the first Trial. I head through the Meadow, picking up a Cottonee. Decent for now, but I come to soon realize this game has a lot of Fairy-types with Grass moves. A lot.

So the battle with Hala goes about how you'd expect. I sorta just spam Disarming Voice as it was fun to do so. After that, I go hunt for a Carbink. This thing is a tank. I love it. Probably my second favorite Fairy.

-- Akala
-- Pokemon Caught: Eevee (R4), Igglybuff/Jigglypuf (R4), Morelull (Brooklet), Comfey (Jungle)
I sort of get a false start with an Igglybuff. The thing has some power behind it but I try my darndest to get it to evolve. I eventually just caught a Jigglypuff instead and replaced it, but it will forever live in Box 1. Eevee, however, is a little easier to deal with - a few quick battles and affection boosting, and I've got a Sylveon. Having something in a final evo stage is a little challenging to avoid using all the time, especially when you have the Always On Experience Share. I somehow manage it, but you'll see my levels at the end and you can decide how well I did for yourself.

I was surprised there was a chance to catch Morelull in Brooklet, so I took it as a sign it could be leveled up for a good set of Grass move users for the upcoming Trial. Had no problem making it through. Swinging around to the Fire Trial, nothing new, but I did end up just calling it good and using Brionne against the Totem. I had my Carbink on standby since it just seems to learn nothing but Rock moves.

Grass Trial was actually relatively easier than I imagined. Maybe it's because at this point I had locked in on a stable team of Jigglypuff, Brionee, Cutiefly, Carbink, Sylveon, and Morelull. Can't wait for some evolutions.

End the Island with a Rock Trial? Sure this ought to be...oh, it's over due to all the grass moves I have? shrug

-- Ula'ula
-- Pokemon Caught: Cleffa (Mountain), Klefki (Megamart), Mimikyu (Megamart), Alolan Vulpix (Tapu Village)
It always feels like this Island is super short. I was worried about the first real battle at the Observatory with the Steel fight. A couple of blasts from water moves cut through the battle, but it feels awkward that most of my team is 2x weak and some are 4x weak to Steel (Carbink is, and once picked up, Vulpix/Ninetales is as well). Painful. No big issue with the Vikavolt fight - still one of my favorite Pokemon designs. I picked up the Vulpix before doing the Ghost Trial, and I already knew I was going to keep that on my team - I loved it during the Ulti-Ice, so why not keep it around here? Also, it gives me some more coverage. I get the evo stones for Jigglypuff and Cottonee, though Cottonee ends up staying in the Box. My team has swapped around now to become Primarina, Ribombee, Carbink, Sylveon, Wigglytuff, and Shiinotic. This is where it will stay the rest of the game.

Kinda just push through the rest of the island at this point. Though, it is nice to do a 1-2-3 OHKO against Nanu. That was fun. My wife said I was sounding like Mr. Owl. A-one, a-two-hooh...a-three.

-- Poni
-- Pokemon Catchable But I Didn't Bother: Granbull (Poni)
This island felt a little longer due to the Canyon, but it was nice to not have such a painful battle against Hapu. With grass and water moves a-plenty, it was smooth sailing. Even the following Trial with the Dragons was easy. Just the Canyon takes a bit to get through. Then Pokemon: Cutscene Edition kicks into high gear.

The only real other thing of note is Lusamine's Wigglytuff in Ultra Space. That thing is such a dang tank.

-- Endgame
Okay, E4 time. I have an easy battle with Hala due to fighting. Ghost turns out to be easier than Rock or Flying, mainly because I can tackle the secondary types instead of Ghost fairly easily. Rock starts out with Yawn, which I hate so I return the favor with Shiinotic's Spore. This allows me to Full Heal to clear my own and continue the onslaught of Grass moves. I know Kukui has that Magnezone, which is going to be trouble if the Steel "trial" battle was any indication. To me, this screams save those Water moves. Flying turns out to be the hardest of the four E4. I really want to Quiver Dance combo with Ribombee, but it's just so defensively weak that it doesn't make much sense (but oh will this work out in my favor shortly).

Kukui...okay, one by one, here's the result. Put Lycanroc to sleep to start getting ready. I get a Giga Drain off before Kukui switches out to Magnezone...and now I'm worried. It goes for Thunder Wave, and I do Spore. This allows me to switch in Primarina and, amazingly, take it down during a three turn sleep. That was lucky. Next is Decidueye, and I just spam Moonblast until I go down. Ninetales is in and Ice Beam for the knockout. Braviary is next, which I wasn't sure why...but Tailwind. Tailwind makes it go super fast and do a lot of damage. It uses Whirlwind and pushes me back to Shiinotic...so I say, okay then...and Moonblast it again. Fun move. That does take it down, and out comes Snorlax. This is where the fun begins. I spend 6 turns spamming Strength Sap. Awesome move. HP restore at the value of the opponent's Attack, but then it lowers Attack 1 stage? Snorlax very quickly can't do much damage to me. I swap over to Ribombee, and turn a few turns of potions amongst turns of Quiver Dance into a great setup. From here on out, it's OHKO the rest of the way. Lycanroc at full health? Take a Dazzling Gleam on +6 SpAtk to the face. Ninetaless? Take another. Win. Sweet.

With that and the final little mini-battle against the Tapu out of the way, only two more games left to go. I'll be doing BD next, but I'll need to move a Pokemon in from Home. And that will be Ralts (it has a 30% chance in the GU compared to Togepi's 10%, so it wins out). Only gonna have 6 at most for that run. Oh boy.

Team Stats:

Spoiler:

 

[Pluckles]

Grass only run > Complete

Imma try to highlight the tough parts of the game from now on, as this is a lot to type out on mobile. I'll still add pics showing my team during the specific fights.

Spoiler: Badges 1-6

The first 6 Badges were pretty easy. Getting a VERY EARLY Scovillain was very crucial for 4/6 Badges, allowing me to sweep or just overpower the fight. Didn't even lose any mons on Iono, which was fantastic.

Spoiler: Badges 7-12

For this portion of the game, there were two difficult fights - Mela and Atticus. Both for very obvious reasons (WEAKNESSSSSS). For Mela, lots of Mud Slaps and Mud Shots were used to make the car slow and missing, as we slowly whittled away at it. For Atticus, it was way too close. I only barely won because the sun activated Chlorophyll and made me faster than the car, and was able to use our MVP Scovillain to win the game. Other than that, all the other fights were fine and went smoothly.

Spoiler: Badges 13-18

Overall, the only issue we had was Grusha and Eri. Grusha, I made an error on that fight, thinking I could OHKO the Cetitian with Scovillain, but it has Thick Fat and lived. Oops... Luckily, I was able to beat it with using Mach Punch Breloom to outspeed and beat the Altaria.
Eri is just always a pain. A lot of counter moves, and hits hard. I had only a Rotom left and it was pretty low. Luckily, it missed a Combat Torque and we barely managed to get by.

We also found a shiny Slowpoke, while leveling up at Casseroya Lake. We know what happens to it...

Spoiler: Elite Four

Rika and Poppy were the two easiest to fight. With tons of grass and Ground moves, we easily sweep them (although the Camerupt was a bit scary..).

Larry was a pain. With not really having a good counter for flying types, I had to rely on sun + Chlorophyll to outspeed and do as many OHKOs as possible. But still lost half my team.

Hassel was tough. I didn't have a good counter, other than Abomasnow and Rough Play Meowskarada. And that Baxcalibur was way too fast and hit way too hard. I only had a Choice Scarf Toedscruel left and this was probably our toughest fight in the entire run.

Geeta was... well, Geeta. Not much to talk about here at all, honestly. Still surprises me how fast her Glimmora is.

Spoiler: Rivals

Clavell himself wasn't an issue, and neither was Penny. Although, the Flareon crit with Flare Blitz, OHKOing my Toedscruel, but it also knocked itself out.

Arven was also no issue. Abusing the Chlorophyll sun strat is really good, especially with how high of a SPA stat Scovillain has.

Nemona was a bit of an issue. Pawmot is fast, and has Ice Punch. And then Goodra is bulky and had Ice Beam. I finally had to settle with OHKOing Lycanroc and Pawmot with Choice Scarf Toedscruel, and kind of hoped and prayed that Meowskarada could OHKO with Play Rough crit. We still lost two mons that run, but still ended up beating her.

Spoiler: Professor Turo

Overall, this was a battle that was half easy and half difficult. I had counters to everything that he had, but some of them, it wasn't enough to OHKO (Discharge on Iron Jugulis, Earth Power on Iron Hands). Even Earth Power on Iron Moth didn't OHKO, and I took a hit taking me below half, so it messed up my plans for Iron Valiant. In the end, I ended up bringing Jumpluff and doing Tailwind + Sunny Day, sacrifice it for Tropius to come in and do Air Slash. He takes one Poison Jab, and we land the second Air Slash and beat the professor. Grass run, complete!

Spoiler: Final Team

Overall, I think the grass run had a lot more moments where I was ready to pull my hair out. Way too many weaknesses throughout the game, and having to do some type fights multiple times made this run a bit difficult. I think if I actually took time to do EV training, it may be better. But I've been intentionally not doing that (along with nature mints) just to give it that bit of difficulty, so I can't complain. Either way, fun run, and ready to move onto the next!

User: Pluckles
Type: Ice
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

 

[MachoPony]

Another sabbatical. so many other games to play lol. but i finished Johto, not done with HG yet though. Still have Kanto left. Then i might go back and finish the sevii islands and league rematch in FR.

Johto complete!

Heartgold ground mono pt 5.

Spoiler:

Rocket Radio Tower, mostly Graveller, learned Earthquake. Also Rhyhorn and Quagsire
swept Petrel.

Beat Silver with Rhyhorn taking out Golbat and sneasel and Quagsire the rest. got healed by Feraligatr's water gun.

Beat Arianna and Archer pretty easily mostly with Rhyhorn and Steelix

Went through the Ice Path to Blackthorn, south of Blackthorn caught Gligar, also caught Phanpy and went back for Cubone in the safari zone
Trained everyone up, Marowak and Donphan added replacing Sandslash

Graveller evolved to Golem by Level

Got through the gym
VS Clair 1
Baited intimidate, swapped in Golem to 4 hit Rock Blast and KO gyarados. stayed in to bait the hydro pump, swapped to Quagsire to neutralize it, bad luck with accuracy and sleep meant hyper beam and dragon pulse finished it.
hoped for a miss but it hit 4 back to back hydro pumps to knock out my other mons and finished off Rhyhorn with a dragon pulse.
Attempt 2:
Baited intimidate, swapped golem, 4 hit rock blast. Baited hydro pump. yawn.
This time, swapped between Steelix and Quagsire to run her out of Hydro Pumps then Quagsire put her Kingdra to sleep, slowed it down, swapped out to reset accuracy as it hit hyper beam on Steelix, Quagsire got a free switch and Earthquake knocked it out
Quagsire handled Dragonair 1 while Donphan did some damage but got 2 shot by dragon pulse leaving Marowak to finish off Dragonair 2

Did the dragon test, got my final badge

Lost to Kimono Girls

Attempt 2 almost lost but managed to win in the end with only Marowak surviving on 18 hp

Beat Ho-oh easily

Went towards the league

VS Silver
Rhyhorn took out Sneasel, Golem took out Magneton, Quagsire put Feraligatr to sleep and finished it with earthquake and a few mud shots.
Golem one shot Haunter with a 2 hit rock blast, almost one shot Kadabra through reflect but it survived, missed 2 straight rock blasts, disables eq then psybeam, took a 2nd psybeam and finally hit a rock blast to finish. bad confuse hax took out Rhyhorn but steelix finished Golbat. did some training. Rhyhorn evolved into Rhydon
VS Will
Never before have i been haxed so much. hit myself like 4 times over the fight, spent 4 turns sleeping. Got him down to his last xatu but it
took down rhydon after confusehax
Attempt 2
that darn slowbro. Curse AND Amnesia, just for the sake of being annoying.
Golem took down Xatu again, with much yawns, mud shots, surfs Earthquakes and stone edges Quagsire and Rhydon finally took out Slowbro burning Will's full restore.
Jynx missed Lovely Kiss and was one shot by Steeix iron tail
Steelix stalled out reflect and hit a heavy iron tail before being crit down.
Marowak took a psychic, hit headbutt, looked like I was going down again. Marowak was just above half Rhydon and Quagsire were weak and Golem couldn't take more than 1 psychic plus he had xatu in the back but then marowak took a psychic and hit a crit headbutt for the KO
then Golem broke through confusion and 3 hit rock blast finished Xatu
VS Koga
I should do my research, so he doesn't lead Forretress, he leads Ariados, so after swapping Quagsire for Steelix, a battle of attrition and a full restore Steelix won.
Quagsire three shot Forretress with Surf. it set up 2 layers of toxic spikes.
Golem took a psychic and knocked out Venomoth with 3 hit rock blast. then one shot Muk with Earthquake. finally
crobat used double team but rhydon still hit stone edge for the one shot.
VS Bruno
Not as hard as i thought. Hitmontop went for dig, Donphan one shot with earthquake

Quagsire took a couple of ice punches and put hitmonchan to sleep then 2 shot with earthquake.

Hitmonlee haxed Donphan with confusion THREE TIMES and finished it leaving Marowak to dodge a swagger and retaliate with a
crit Bonemerang one shot. Karma. Machamp then one shot with a crit cross chop.

Quagsire hit yawn, got revenged then KOd by cross chop.

Thankfully with machamp asleep Golem could 2 shot with earthquake

Golem then took onix low, he full restored, then double edge + earthquake took out
onix for the win.

VS Karen
So. annoying. so Steelix sets up curses in front of Umbreon, slams with iron tail and she swaps to Houndoom, I predicted this and hit rock tomb to almost knock it out. Quagsire took the flamethrower. then a dark pulse and surf KO Steelix slammed Vileplume with 2 iron tails taking a stun spore + petal dance to KO
Now this is the annoying part. Gengar kept spamming spite instead of knocking out Marowak who literally couldn't hurt it. finally she knocked it out with 2 focus blasts, got it with like 4 leers.

a focus blast took out Rhydon but a miss meant she was out of it. so i missed rock blast she spited again and suddenly i have no PP for rock blast and can't hit it.

so i swap in Donphan. Assurance at like -4 def was a clean one shot then rollout 2 shot murkrow. she healed umbreon, 3rd rollout knocked it low. she healed again, 4th rollout knocked it out.
VS Lance
Gyarados was a problem solved by yawn + swap steelix + curse + rock tomb brings in charizard, missed air slash and golem takes it out with rock blast.
Dragonite incoming i assume is the blizzard one so i swap in quagsire, take the hit and yawn it. take the KO so i can safely bring in rhydon, Stone edge doesn't kill, he doesn't heal so my turn is wasted leering. then he wakes up and critical hit blizzards me.

Golem dodges a blizzard and sets up a rock polish before double edge takes out dragonite 1

Golem levels up and swaps rock blast for stone edge. which doesnt one shot dragonite 2 but after healing, a 2nd plus a double edge does.

Dragonite 3 lives a stone edge, hits dragon rush, miss stone edge on heal hits a 3rd, takes another dragon rush and finally double edge ko
i'm out of stone edge but i bring in donphan who takes a crit aerial ace from aerodactyl hits rollout, takes another aerial ace and finishes with a crit rollout.

Team:

Spoiler:

Bro(Quagsire) LV48
Surf
Yawn
Mud Shot
Earthquake

Rock 2(Golem) LV49
Earthquake
Double Edge
Stone Edge
Rock Polish

Dino(Rhydon) LV47
Hammer Arm
Tail Whip
Strength
Stone Edge

Snek 2(Steelix) LV48
Iron Tail
Curse
Crunch
Rock Tomb

Bones(Marowak) LV47
False Swipe
Bonemerang
Headbutt
Leer

Nelly(Donphan) LV48
Earthquake
Rollout
Assurance
Take Down

In box:

Amy(Sandslash) LV32
Cut
Strength
Defense Curl
Poison Sting

Pinchy(Gligar)LV24
Faint Attack
Quick Attack
Fury Cutter
Knock Off

 

[Pluckles]

Ice only run > Complete

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Spoiler: Badges 1-6

This was actually an interesting start to the challenge. No Ice types are found before the first Nemona battle, so we intentionally lose the battle. THEENNNNNNN, we went on a trip.
First, I went to every Tera raid to see if I can find 1 of 3 ice types at 1 star. While doing this, I also make my way to Glaseado Mountain for an Ice Stone. We ended up finding the stone, and a Snom in a raid near the Fairy Base. We use the Ice Stone to evolve the Eevee in SA2 to a very early Glaceon, which kind of punishes the first few gyms with sheer raw stats.

Katy, Klawf, Brassius and Bombirdier were all basically solo'd by Glaceon. At 20, we evolve Snom through sheer power of Friendship, and was very pivotal in the destruction of Giacomo.

Before getting to Iono, we took another trip to Glaseado, found another Ice Stone, found a Water Stone, and got both a Crabominable and Cloyster through Stone evolutions, and took them to Iono. With the use of Snowscape, and support moves like Struggle Bug, we beat Iono with ease.

Spoiler: Badges 7-12

Mela was, of course, a pain. Having Cloyster being neutral to fire damage, and with Rain Dance, we do make it out all right in the end.

Atticus was a pain, yet again. I don't have too many ground moves, other than Drill Run on Cloyster, and he was actually the last mon standing in that victory over Atticus.

Spoiler: Badges 13-18

After beating Iron Treads, and having to Tulip, I ran into a shiny Yungoos. It's cute... but not ice. so... ded.
From here on out, I end up using Avalugg a lot for the defensive wall + Body Press combo, which works so damn well. I end up losing no one up until Eri. In fact, I almost lost to Eri, if she didn't throw and kept spamming Autotomize on my last mon(Frosmoth). I barely squeaked by, the pic doesn't do it justice.

Spoiler: Elite Four

This time around, Rika gave me quite a bit of trouble. Almost everything knew a rock move, and either they were faster, or had Sturdy, so I end up with a few deaths, but still with a clear.

Poppy was easy, using Avalugg for most part.

Larry was like Rika, and gave me trouble with all the fighting moves they had. I also didn't really have a special tank either, so Oricorio snuck in a few kills.

This is the first Hassel fight that we went deathless due to Cryogonal. It was fast enough and strong enough to OHKO most of the mons.

This is probably the most deaths on Geeta I've ever had. Her Glimmora was faster than a lot of my mons, and I didn't have a special tank that could survive the Tera Blast.

Spoiler: Rivals

Clavell came before the E4. Overall, not a hard fight, and swept him easily.
Same with Penny, no issues.

I tried to make Eiscue work on Arven, but its just too slow and specially weak, so it just dies without soing anything. Otherwise, an easy fight.

Nemona wasn't terrible, except for Torch Song Skeledirge, so I had to sacrifice 3 mons as I whittled it down until my Baxcalibur could take a hit and kill it to beat her.

Spoiler: Professor Turo

For the second time, I've done a clean battle with Turo without losing any mons. I had to beat the threat, Iron Moth, with a Drill Run Cloyster. Then I had to switch in Abomasnow for the snow, then switch back in Avalugg to beat Iron Thorns while healing with Leftovers and Ice Body. I switch out Avalugg for Baxcalibur to fight the Iron Jugulis. Afterwards, the snow stops and I redid the snow eith Abomasnow and put in Avalugg again to use Iron Defense + Body Press to beat Iron Hands and Iron Bundle. Even the boosted Iron Valiant couldn't make a dent through the Def and hp of Avalugg, and we were able to win deathless!

Spoiler: Final Team

The early game (up to Atticus) was probably the easiest I have ever done in these mono runs. Which is surprising, since ice sucks defensively. I also didn't had to prep a lot just to do the early fights, because the list of usable mons were so limited (more than half of the encounters were in Glaseado Mountain). Either way, let's get onto our next type.


User: Pluckles
Type: Fire
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

 

[Elder Trainer]

It's been a busy couple of weeks, but here is my next update. I am going to put as much here as possible so as to avoid having to split up the rest of my playthrough too much.

I returned to Kitakami and met Kieran at the first two signposts, following him to the Dreaded Den, which the townsfolk generall avoid. Kieran requested a battle, and I won handily. Afterward, Kieran invited me to attend the local Festival of Masks that night. After meeting him at his house and defeating Carmine again, we proceeded to head to the festival.

After beating Carmine's score in Ogre Oustin, I met a strange child, who ran off after Carmine approached and left behind an ornate mask. It was deduced that the child was actually the ogre that had been described in stories as having terrorized the village in past and had taken the lives of three Pokemon who had been dubbed the Loyal Three due to their attempt to stop its rampage. Kieran stumbled on us during this, and at Carmine's urging lied to Kieran about what had happened. Shortly after, we left the festival.

The next morning I showed the mask to Carmine and Kieran's grandfather, who explained that the ogre, Ogerpon, was actually a peaceful Pokemon and the Loyal Three were malicious thieves who had tried to steal a set of masks owned by Ogerpon and a man she had traveled with. They were killed after taking the man's life and Ogrepon lashed out in response. It was noticed that the mask had one of its gems damaged, so while he figured out how to repair it, I tracked down Kieran to continue our assignment.

I battled and defeated Kieran at the final signpost, and we took the last photo. The next morning, I met up with Carmine at her grandfather's, and he explained that he could use a crystal cluster found at the Crystal Pool to repair the mask. Carmine and I went to the Crystal Pool, where we battled a wild Milotic that attacked us and acquired a crystal cluster it dropped.

When we got back to Carmine's house, her grandfather told us that Kiran had taken the mask to Loyalty Plaza. He returned it after I defeated him in a battle, but a frustrated punch aimed at the Loyalty Three's memorial shrine somehow revived them! They ran off to Kitakami Hall and took the masks, which were given to them freely. They were also fed mochi that increased their size.

Feeling that something was happening, I went to the Dreaded Den and found Ogrepon surrounded by the Loyal Three. I battled one of them, Munkidori, saving Ogerpon just as Kieran and Carmine arrived. The Loyal Three fled soon afterward.

We asked around Mossui Town about the Loyal Three's whereabouts, and discovered where they had been spotted. While Kieran stayed beheind,d Carmine and I tracked down and defeated the Loyal Three and got Ogerpon's masks back. After obtaining the final mask, w returned to Mossui Town at Kiran's urging, where the townsfolk apologized to Ogerpon for how she had been treated and told her she would be welcome anytime. We escorted Ogerpon back to the Dragon's Den, where she decided she wanted to go with me. Kieran, wanting her himself, challenged to a battle to be her trainer. I won, and after defeating Ogerpon I captured her in a Poke Ball.

The next morning I met Carmine at Loyalty Plaza and battled her with Ogerpon in my party. After winning again, Ms. Briar called and said Carmine needed to return to the Community Center. Shortly afterward, it was announced that they and Kieran needed to return to Blueberry Academy, but I felt worried: Carmine had mentioned Kieran had not left his room since the day before. Still, Carmine and I said good-bye for now, and I returned to Paldea.

Prior to returning to Kitakami, Arven had called to have me meet him in Area Zero, explaining he had recruited others to help us. Upon arriving, I found that he had gottten Nemona and Penny to help, and along with Miraidon we descended into Area Zero. Miraidon fearfully retreated into its Poke Ball upon landing, and at the professor's urging decended deeper downward, unlocking four research stations along the way and encountering strange, robotic-looking Pokemon.

With the final lock opened, we made it to the bottom of Area Zero and were attacked by more of the strange Pokemon we had encountered before. While Arven covered for me, I made it to the professor's lab, and discovered that the whole time I had been communicating with an AI duplicate, the real professor having lost his life protecting Miraidon from a more hostile example of his species before mine escaped from Area Zero.

AI Turo and I descended to the time machine chamber from whence the strange Pokemon had come from, and I was asked to turn off the tine machine using the Violet Book, which Arven gave me earlier. The AI warned me that he would attack me once the book was in place, and sure enough he did. I defeated his team just as the others arrived, but the time machine overrode the AI's programming in an attempt to stop the time machine. The AI professor sent out the hostile Miraidon, but the system locked all Poke Balls not registered to the professor himself.

Suddenly I had an idea. I sent out my Miraidon who, with my encouragement, battled the AI's and won after Terastallizing. Free to move on, the AI used the time machine to go on his own adventure, and my friends and I decided to have one of our own.

I will leave it here for now, but I will finish up soon.

 

[Pluckles]

Mono Fire > Complete

I was kind of thinking to myself whether I should play Scarlet for this, or not. One - I would get access to Armarouge and Blaze Breed Tauros, and two - Sada is harder to fight with having an entire sun team, due to Protosynthesis. But in the end, I decided to just stick with Violet, and just beat all the types in one game.

Spoiler: Badges 1-8

We lost the Nemona battle, js. It's hard to do with a single Fuecoco. I couldn't use Fletchling, as its not a fire type yet, Oricorio because no red nectar, and I couldn't find a Houndour glitches outside of Inlet Grotto. So we just lose this battle and expedite the progression.

Katy was too easy, even with doing the same strat as the grass run and getting a VERY early Scovillain. Even found a under the level cap Oricorio as backup, just in case.

Klawf, once again, not an issue with our two headed plant. Razor Leaf goes brrrrr.

Brassius was also easy, just like Katy. I think you can solve everything in life with a Chlorophyll boosted Scovillain.

Bombirdier was a bit more trouble. Had to Feathedance to -6, and then tank hits as Numel to get through it. No reliable way to take down flying types yet.

For starting regarding Giacomo, look at the first three fights lol...

Iono.... you know the drill.... Sun, Go fast, Flamethrower goes brrrrr

Mela was also easy, with the flash fire mons we had access to (Houndoom and Flareon) and with the Torkoal setting sun for us, we plowed through the base.

Orthworm is an afterthought, nothing happened other than Flamethrower OHKOs.

Spoiler: Badges 9-18 (I miscounted...)

Kofu could have been a run killer. With his gym being in an area where sandstorm are always up, and I can never put up the sun, it was very dangerous. So with just throwing fodder at the Crabominable, we finally got the win, barely squeaking by.

Atticus wasn't an issue. Having Camerupt to do good damage, Oricorio and Rotom to dodge the ground moves, and Salazzle being immune to poison, this was a clean sweep.

Larry wasnt an issue. Set up the sun, and Torch Song all the way to victory.

Ryme would have been a clean sweep too, if I didn't underestimate the Phantom Force from Houndstone. We had a good setup of Torkoal with Lava Plume hitting everyone, and Houndoom with Flash Fire getting boosted, and using Incinerate. But that damage killed off Torkoal, so wasn't a clean sweep.

Iron Tusk wasn't an issue, but weird how the screenshot was from the side instead of the front.

With proper switching, and going for physical vs special attack, Tulip was no threat.

Grusha... yeah...

Ortega wasn't an issue yet again, but it took a while to kill because the Salazzle didn't really have good special attack, so wasn't really hitting that hard.

Eri was a pain yet again. It all came down to the car vs my croc. I took a hit of High Horsepower, and finally killed with a crit Flamethrower.

Tatsugiri was fine. Dragon Pulse Salazzle and Scovillain for the Dondozo. Easy.

Spoiler: Clavell + E4

Clavell was fine. Bad switch in killed my Arcanine, but we got through it nonetheless.

Rika's entire team hurts. The only one I couldn't kill comfortably was the Camerupt. But we still managed to squeak by.

Poppy was kind of a similar boat, but much better. Ended up going for solo Torkoal, using Choice Scarf Flamethrowers to kill as much as I can. Surprised I soloed with him.

Larry was a similar situation, but with Skeledirge instead of Torkoal.

Hassel saw a lot of deaths since his Baxcalibur can get boosted from fire moves, and I didn't really have a good way of killing dragons. Had to sacrifice a lot just to get my faster mons to do chip damage and kill.

Geeta was Geeta. I DIDN'T underestimate the power of Glimmora. I underestimated the speed. That, and my Oricorio constantly missing Icy Wind kinda made this a tougher battle than it ought to be. But we won! woo...

Spoiler: Rivals

Penny is your standard Penny fight. Nothing difficult, and went deathless.

Arven is of similar boat. I mostly used Torkoal with Iron Defense and Body Press to get through the fight. After a few switch ins, I sacrificed it to get the sun, and brought Arcanine to finish the battle.

Nemona was a clean sweep for our bulky Torkoal. Iron Defense, Body Press and Rapid Spin to outspeed everything and just slammed into them. Easy win.

Spoiler: Professor Turo

This was a sketchy fight. Camerupt got flinched on the first Air Slash, and then took another hit to be in the red. I wanted to use it for later, but it was too low and slow at that point, but we killed Iron Moth.

Iron Bundle came in, and we started with Torkoal. I got lucky, as it went for Snowscape and then Water Pulse, so it never killed me and I did 2 Body Presses.

Iron Jugulis came in. I used Coalossal to do as much damage as it can before dying, and finished it off with Arcanine.

Then, Iron Thorns. I sacrificed Camerupt to try to outspeed, but it wasn't even close. Then I used Coalossal and Torkoal to finally somehow get the kill.

But Iron Hands came out. I forgot that he was still there... But with a sun boosted Fiery Dance, I was able to kill it without any issue.

Iron Valiant was last. With only having Arcanine, Flareon and Volcarona, I wanted to be cheeky. I sacrificed my Arcanine, laying down an Intimidate and hitting with Extremespeed before dying. Then, with my Focus Sash Flareon, I wanted to Flail it to death. But.... Brick Break didn't do enough damage, and my Flail barely did less than half before dying. I brought in Volcarona and... just Tera Fire and Fiery Dance, after taking a Poison Jab, and we successfully beat the game.

Spoiler: Final Team

Overall, fun run. Doing weather based teams like the Ice and Water run, are pretty fun to do. Theses games do have too many ground moves on every single mon, which is annoying. But otherwise, was a fun run. Onto the next run before my holiday is up!

User: Pluckles
Type: Fighting
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

 

[MachoPony]

Pokemon Fire Red Ground Mono: Finale
So i did end up going back, doing the sevii islands and rematching the Elite 4

Spoiler:

Went to one island, found and beat the rocket grunts. Found the Rub and returned it. Found swinub on 4 island, forgot it existed lol, Mamoswine would have helped in Johto but hey, i've still got Kanto to go in HG so it's not too late. Boxed Graveller and trained up Swinub into Piloswine.

Helped out Lorelei, then beat up the grunts on 5 island.
Went to Six island, found the Sapphire and learned the 2nd pass, got into the warehouse on five island.
Beat the grunts, the admin was a solo sweep for Nidoqueen, taught Nidoqueen the sludge bomb TM from the warehouse, also finally used my earthquake TM on piloswine.

After returning the Sapphire to one island I trained everyone to level 70 (Lance's ace is 72) and headed into the Elite 4 one more time.
VS Lorelei
Sludge bomb was a clean 2 shot on Dewgong after a lucky poison.
Cloyster took a shock wave from Nidoking, then hit ice beam, she healed, low again and a third shock wave finished it.
Piloswine dodged a Lovely Kiss and one shot Jynx with Earthquake
Lapras outsped and one shot Piloswine but Rhydon outsped and got a 4 hit rock blast for the one round KO
Nidoking surfed Piloswine, dodged blizzard and finished with a second surf.

VS Bruno
Nidoking 2 shot Steelix with Surf, dodging a rock tomb.
Nidoqueen hit a crit Sludge Bomb on Hitmonlee for the OHKO
She then hit 2 sludge bombs, got earthquaked twice by machamp for a KO then nidoking hit surf, didn't kill. he healed, surf twice more then down to EQ, Marowak took 2 cross chops and 2 bonemerang finished off Machamp
Rhydon dodged a move and hit Earthquake to one shot Hitmonchan before 2 shotting Steelix with earthquake, taking an iron tail.

VS Agatha
I hate Levitate
Rhydon took a psychic, hit rock blast to low, she healed, hit rock blast again, psychic, rock blast finally knocked out Gengar
Piloswine took a giga drain from Arbok and one shot with Earthquake.
Crobat dodged 2 blizzards but got hit by a third to finish off Piloswine, Dugtrio missed the kill with slash and got confused and hit himself twice. so Marowak had to finish Crobat.
Nidoking hit surf before being 2 shot by Misdreavus, Nidoqueen finished with Sludge bomb
I don't like using healing items but i had to. healed rhydon as marowak ate a psychic, ate another one and leered, then a third for the KO.
Rhydon came in, hit a 3 shot Rock blast at -1 def to one round the Gengar.

VS Lance
Oh dear.
So Nidoking hits gyarados for half with shock wave, dragon dance, earthquake one shot. Rhydon takes an earthquake and rock blasts for the kill.
Kingdra spams dragon dance in the face of Nidoqueen who gets it low, then he heals, paralyzes it, and finally takes a +3 hyper beam and sludge bomb finished it off.
Piloswine took a flamethrower and one shot Dragonite with blizzard
Sent in Dugtrio as fodder to heal up Rhydon. hyper beam meant Rhydon had a free turn and one shot with rock blast.
Piloswine immediately fainted to Outrage but Rhydon took one, hit rock blast. confusion, persim berry snapped dragonite out of it, he healed, brought low again. Outrage takes out Rhydon, Marowak takes an outrage and finishes with Strength

VS Blue
Last one. i had a strat
Crit aerial ace from Dugtrio one shot heracross
Blastoise is the big threat as usual. This time i was ready. Piloswine dodged a hydro pump and got up light screen, then crit Earthquake to burn one of his full restores before htting another heavy earthquake and fainting to hydro pump.
Nidoking hit low with shock wave, he set up rain dance, then a second shock wave didn't quite do it and light screen wore off so hydro pump killed. Nidoqueen finished it with Sludge bomb.
Dugtrio hit earthquake, took a psychic and finished alakazam with another earthquake. Exeggutor finished it with giga drain after eating an aerial ace.
Nidoqueen hit it low with sludge bomb as he set light screen, he healed but sludge bomb was a 2 hit KO anyway.
Tyranitar survived a superpower and one shot back with earthquake. he healed, Rhydon took it low with Earthquake, he healed, rhydon KOd with Crit earthquake.
Rhydon after intimidate barely missed the OHKO with Earthquake on Arcanine but it took an iron tail and finished it off with a second.

Run MVP: Nidoqueen.
What do you want me to say? While both nidos had great movesets, her natural bulk, body slam and superpower came in handy more often and while neither tended to OHKO, she took some insane hits back. her HP at the same level as Nidoking was over 40 points higher.
LVP: Graveller
It's just not good enough, even if I used the randomizer to evolve it into Golem, It would have been severely outclassed by Rhydon. Too slow, not bulky enough, only real advantage over Rhydon was earlier Earthquake. even Onix had some use around the midgame.

Final Final team

Spoiler:

Charlie(Nidoking) LV71
Shock Wave
Surf
Dig
Fire Blast

Liz(Nidoqueen)

LV72
Body Slam
Dig
Superpower
Sludge Bomb

Wack(Marowak)

LV70
Bonemerang
Strength
Brick Break
Leer

Molez(Dugtrio)
LV70

Earthquake
Slash
Aerial Ace
Growl

Dozer(Rhydon)
LV72

Rock Blast
Earthquake
Double Edge
Megahorn

NubNub (Piloswine)
LV70

Blizzard
Earthquake
Light Screen
Reflect

Box:
Snek(Onix)

LV35
Dragonbreath
Dig
Rock Tomb
Bind

Rock(Graveller)
LV55

Rock Blast
Earthquake
Explosion
Magnitude

 

[Pluckles]

Mono Fighting run > Complete

Welp, here we go.

Spoiler: Badges 1-6

This run had a lot of available fighting types before the first gym. Including evolution lines that didn't have fighting type in its first stage, there were a total of 11 to catch, which is a lot early on. I couldn't use them all, because of slight level difference, or because they weren't fighting type, but still had a lot to choose from.

Early Flamigo made Katy and Brassius Botha very easy fight, and having fighting types in general made Klawf a walk in the park.

As we go to Bombirdier, We get a Pawmo, which was our first capture, and evolve it fully into a Pawmot. Pawmot at this stage makes things so busted. Giacomo was just as easy.

Having an entire fully evolved team (and Falinks), Iono was of no issue, and currently deathless.

Oh, and found two shinies. A Rookidee before even getting any Badges, and a Nymble as we were heading to Giacomo.

Spoiler: Badges 7-12

Did you know, that getting Gallade upon evolution gives him so much coverage. And with Sharpness, he demolishes Mela and her base. Then with getting Lucario, he becomes our one and only special attacker, and went to tackle Orthworm, and easily demolishes him.

Pawmot makes quick work of Kofu and his water mons.

Still a bit of trouble here, with poison and what not. I took time to grab the Earthquake TM, slapped it on Hariyama, brought Lucario and just went in and hoped for the best. We survived, but Lucario and Crabrawler were the only ones left.

Larry, 100% no issue. Our natural prey. Ryme was also not an issue, with the amount of dark moves we learn, and having Pawmot be our Volt Absorber. ezpz

Spoiler: Badges 13-18

Iron Treads, no issue. So many counters to it.

Tulip had one death, that was me just overestimating my Gallade damage. Shouldn't have died there.

Grusha was easy. And even with fairy being our counter, it was still an easy fight for some reason. It wouldn't use fairy moves for some reason, and we got out deathless.

Eri was also kind of easy. The Revavroom tries to set up with Shift Gear until it's +6 speed for speed control, so we just smacked it with Gallade until it dies.

Tatsugiri was also not an issue. Mostly used Lucario and Gallade for this.

Spoiler: Clavell + E4

Clavell was easy. I lost Flamigo only because of the Brave Bird recoil against the Meowskarada, enabling a double KO.

This was probably the least amount of deaths in the E4. Rika and Poppy was easy, went deathless.

I lost 2 to Larry, because I didn't have a proper counter to Oricorio, and since we don't have many special tanks, they just kind of die to it.

Hassel was something similar. Other than Crabrawler, I didn't have a good counter for his mons, so I just kind of bashed my head to just get through that Baxcalibur.

Geeta, this time, was deathless. Stupid Glimmora.

Spoiler: Rivals

It's quite surprising that the fighting types actually get really good coverage moves. and with their high attack stats, I was able to go through all three of the Rivals without having a single death. ezpz

Spoiler: AI Turo

After thinking about it a whileI finally made a team to fight turo. I think the Assault Vest on Hariyama helped to not get swept by the Iron Moth, as I Fake Out + Earthquake it, and taking minimal damage as it, for some odd reason, uses Fiery Dance instead of Air Slash.
Pawmot was pivotal for killing a lot of mons. With a high attack, and being the fastest member on my team, it could OHKO the Iron Bundle and Iron Jugulis. Lucario was able to handle the Iron Thorns with him being our only special attacker. As for Iron Hands, I had to just do as much damage as possible with Hariyama and Pawmot.

Lastly, for the Iron Valiant, I started with the Intimidate with Tauros. Then switch to Gallade to tank a hit. Switch back to Tauros for a second Intimidate. Switch into Hawlucha to do 2 Feather Dance to get it to -6. Lastly, switch to Pawmot to do a Fake Out, Double Shock and Close Combat to win the game, deathless Turo.

Spoiler: Final Team

Overall, this was maybe the easiest so far. Getting a lot of fully evolved mons early game and good coverage moves, it was a really fun run. I'll post the next run, but it may take longer to clear, not sure.


User: Pluckles
Type: Poison
Game(s): Violet
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

 

[StenirRPG]

Ultimate Fairy Run
Brilliant Diamond / FIRST AND FINAL / I'm Out of Order? This game's out of order!

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

Spoiler:

-- First and Second Gyms
-- Third and Fourth Gyms
-- Fifth and Sixth Gyms
-- Seventh and Eighth Gyms
-- Endgame

The full read:

Spoiler:

-- First and Second Gyms --
This was a very rough start. I traded over a L1 Ralts that had the right starting moves from Home, which very quickly turned into a problem when going up against the first gym leader. Well, the entire first gym. I spent until about the 12th hour just trying to level it up so it could survive. I needed to evolve it to overcome the disobedience. But while that got me through the first gym on my seventh attempt, I knew I was going to be stuck with this for quite a bit of time. The battles in the Valley Windworks also stunk a bit, because of, you know, it not listening to me and constantly going to sleep. Being evolved did help, but I know I will be picking up a different Ralts shortly.

When I finally get access to the Grand Underground, I go after a new Ralts and a Togepi. These I end up spending some time training (after boxing the original Ralts, which I decided it was better to box at this point so I wasn't constantly fighting the potential disobedience. I have to get into the early 20s to get through the second gym, which I would have thought would feel rough, but at the same time, after having a disobedient Ralts/Kirlia for the start of the game, this was way better.

-- Third and Fourth Gyms --
I picked up a Cleffa in Mt. Coronet one morning, and then taught Kirlia Thief. Spent a few hours trying to get a Moon Stone, and it paid off, so I was set at this point for evolving. I did make one mistake, which was not picking up a Mime Jr. around Solaceon Town, so I'm down one team member for a bit. That doesn't really hurt me since the third Gym is Fighting...which is basically spam Fairy moves. I also pick up some Dazzling Gleam TMs at the department store, and use them on my team. I also use a Grass Knot TM on my Clefairy in preparation for the water gym. I haven't made it a Clefable yet, because I want to level it up to leanr Moonblast, which is more powerful than Dazzling Gleam.

Before the fourth gym, I make a quick detour into the Great Marsh and pick up a Marill near the entrance. Clefairy gets a lot of KOs here with Grass Knot, and my Fairy moves do a nice chunk of damage.

From the fourth gym on, I don't make much of a change to my moveset. Gardevoir has Thief/Dazzling Gleam/Life Drew/Psybeam (which will end up be swtiching out for Psychic before Gym 7), Togekiss has Air Slash/Dazzling Gleam/Ancient Power/Yawn, Azumarill (it evolved immediately after a single level up, which was nice) has Slam/Bounce/Aqual Tail/Play Rough, and Clefairy has Grass Knot/Moonlight/Meteor Mash/Dazzling Gleam (which will be swapped out for Moonblast before Gym 6). The only other Pokemon I could have had in this run was Mr. Mime, but I don't realize I can catch it as Mime Jr. until just before Snowpoint Gym.

-- Fifth and Sixth Gyms --
I love doing the fifth gym, because I still fight all the trainers, and they have some lovely quips about how bad you must be at math. I really want to go "Well, I'm not that bad at math, since I'm taking all your money". This gym is one of those spam-best-moves Gyms.

I don't have as much trouble in the sixth gym as I thought I would, given that it's Steel. I do get that upgrade on Clefairy to have Moonblast, and then I evolve it. Clefable is now a powerhouse, but, interestingly, it won't be the one that goes nuts with getting levels. There's always one that seems to be way higher than the others in levels when I finally reach the end. Now, don't get me wrong, the sixth gym isn't a cakewalk, but I figured I would have to try the gym a few times to make it through. Maybe it's because I was on a plane when I was fighting the gym, I don't know, but I was very careful, trying to think through what might be the mest moves to make more than usual. Whatever it was, it paid off.

-- Seventh and Eighth Gyms --

Not much to say at this point. Both of these Gyms are just spam-best-moves.

-- Elite Four --

1. Aaron
Not much of a problem - I just throw out Togekiss and use Air Slash, except where Ancient Power is 4x effective, then I use that. OHKOs all around until Drapion. Drapion requires two turns to win.

2. Bertha
I swap over to Clefable, and Grass Knot OHKOs Quagsire, 2HKOs Whiscash (only because of that stupid Berry it holds), 2HKOs Sudowoodo because it's bulky, 2HKOs Golem because of Sturdy, and then I decide to save my remaining Grass Knots and just use Moonblast on Hippowdon to take it out in two turns.

3. Flint
This can be a rough battle, but here's what I ended up doing. I start with Togekiss, using up my remaining Ancient Powers to get through Rapidash. Steelix prompts a swap to Clefable, and I use Grass Knot to take it down. Lopunny is next, and I do my best with my Fairy moves, but Clefable goes down so I swap over to Togekiss to help take it down. Drifblim comes in next, and I remember it doing Minimize set up to then use Baton Pass into Infernape, so my goal is take it out. I miss only once, but I hit the rest to take it out, and Infernape comes in, which means I swap to Gardevoir, and use Psychic to clinch the victory.

4. Lucian
Mr. Mime goes down to two uses of Meteor Mash from Clefable, then Alakazam does the same. Girafarig takes a couple Moonblasts, then Medicham goes down to just a single Moonblast. Bronzong is tanky to most of my moves, so I do what I can to survive and barely pull through. This isn't hard as much as it is just getting lucky on damage rolls.

5. Cynthia
Spiritomb falls to Moonblast. Roserade coming out prompts a swap to Togekiss for a OHKO Air Slash. Gastrodon being next prompts swap back to Clefable for 2HKO Grass Knot. Lucario takes two uses of Moonblast. Milotic was a pain, but I remember it has that Flame Orb, so I have Gardevoir use Thief to get it before it can trigger Marvel Scale. While that ability increases Defense, I don't want to take any chances because Azumarill is built with physical moves. Plus, I've had burn push Milotic into Full Restore range, and I want to control it better. A couple uses of Psychic puts it just above that, and then I take it out. With only Garchomp left, it's just a matter of a couple of Moonblast/Dazzling Gleam and it's down, winning the battle.

Team Stats:
I've started adding some "splits" to better help me keep remembering my progress. I've split the game into nine segments, usually 8 gyms + "endgame". This is mostly so I remember what moves I had when doing certain fights, but I think it's interesting to see the level curve required. I am a numbers guy, after all. Knowing that I basically needed level 70 on average for Elite Four helps for future runs.

I did do some fun things with the spreadsheet - the moves all keep their type coloring, I added a progress to level 100 bar that changes color to match the type listed, I set what game I'm playing and the splits update accordingly, and splits track the average level progress for my team (which also color matches the type selected). It's all good fun, right? I know I go way too hard on showing data, but as I get better, I want to ensure my tracking gets better also. Only thing I think would be overkill is showing my stats at each split.

Anyways, on to Y and the hopefully quick completion of Gen 6 and Fairy Ultimate!

Spoiler:

 

[Elder Trainer]

Finally have the time to finish my reporting on my monotype run. There's not much left, so this should be the last post I need to make for it.

Some time after returning to school I was called to the director's office, where he thanked my friends and I for stopping the impending Paradox Pokemon calamity. He gave me a Master Ball, as he had given the others. Geeta arrived shortly thereafter, and Nemona had the idea to have a school-wide tournament for the students and staff. She asked Geeta to participate, but the Top Champion said her duties prevented her from doing so. She had an idea though: if I were to complete her inspections of the region's gyms in her stead by battling the gym leaders again, she would have the time to participate in the tournament. Eager to help, I agreed.

I defeated the gym leaders again, and competed in and won the tournament. Finally feeling I was ready to head to Blueberry Academy, I spoke to Director Cyrano and traveled with him to begin my time as an exchange student. Once there, I met Lacey, a member of the school's Elite Four. We battled each other at the director's urging, and after a tense battle I won. We then entered the school's primary attraction: the Terrarium, an artificial environment for Pokemon with four separate biomes, with different environments to suit various species. Lacey and I went to class in the coastal biome where, as part of an assignment to catch an Alolan form Pokemon, I captured an Alolan Muk. Class ended afterward, and Lacey had to go to do something elsewhere.

Carmine called me then and asked me to meet her at the Central Plaza, where she challenged to me to a battle. I won despite her now having a Tera Orb of her own. The sound of Kieran's voice caught our attention, and after watching a tense exchange between him and another student Carmine explained he had undergone a total personality change, becoming more confident but harsher with an obsession with becoming stronger. He had defeated the Elite Four and become the school's champion as a result. Drayton, the previous champion, approached and invited me to join the School's League club. We continued our discussion in the cafeteria, where a surprised Kieran and the remaining members of the Elite Four voted on me taking the Elite Four challenge. The vote was 3-2 in favor, with Kieran providing the tiebreaking vote. After registering for the challenge, I completed the Elite Four's tests and defeated them in battle (for Drayton's, I caught a Rhyhorn, Vibrava, and Excadrill, evolving the former two into Rhydon and Flygon respectively).

With the Elite Four defeated, I challenged Kieran and defeated him. There was no time to reflect on my victory, as a message over the intercom called for Carmine, Kieran, Drayton and I to go to Ms. Briar's classroom. Once there, we were asked by Ms. Briar, as well as Geeta, who had come to the school with Rika, to investigate a troubling situation that was occurring in Area Zero. Drayton declined, but the rest of us agreed to help. Geeta gave me an Indigo Disk that had been brought from Area Zero, hoping I could find a use for it. Afterward, the four of us heading to Area Zero were on our way. Once there, we made our way to the lower depths, were the professor's lab was once again locked. Using the Indigo Disk, I unlocked the door and changed the destination of the lab's elevator to a location even further down than where the time machine was located. In the lower depths, we found clusters of crystal blocking the way, along with Pokemon with a Tera type we had never seen before. Defeating the Pokemon caused the clusters to disappear, and we eventually made it to the lowest point in Area Zero.

Inside a crystal chamber, we found a green gem that Ms. Briar identified as the slumbering form of the treasure of Area Zero, a Pokemon called Terapagos. Kieran pulled the gem free, causing Terepagos to awaken. It started to approach me, but a frantic Kieran caught it in a Master Ball. Kieran sent Terapagos to battle me, but to his dismay I still managed to win. Hypothesizing that Terapagos was not showing its full strength, Ms. Briar suggested that Kieran Terastallize it. Doing so proved to be a big mistake, as the now fully powered Terapagos proved to be too dangerous in its strongest form. Kieran tried to call it back, but it resisted the recall beam and the Master Ball was destroyed. I battled it alongside Carmine until her Sinistcha fainted, then with the proper encouragement Kieran joined in until, after a tough battle involving taking down three Tera barriers, we managed to weaken Terapagos enough for me to capture it. Crisis averted, we headed back to Blueberry Academy, where Kieran apologized for his behavior and asked if we could start our friendship over. I happily agreed, and with that my journey came to a close.

I had fun with this run, though I will say there were parts were I had a tough time. Still, maybe I will do another run in the future someday.