Platinum Steel monotype update: HOLY CRUD!
I wasn't able to get any good snapshots of what i've been doing but basically:
- Cleared Orebrugh Gym quite easily with Piplup Napoleon taking on 2 of Roark's Rock/Ground types in Geodude and Onix, with just Bubbles because...
- I had to use Onix Elizabeth against Cranidos because of its part ground typing and Cranidos even with the water weakness can still pretty much beat Piplup 1v1 by outspeeding it.
- I'm never training an Onix ever again for any other playthrough of another game. That god-awful attack stat pretty much makes him useless in training.
- getting out of Orebrugh and to Eternia gave Napoleon a powerboost in terms of an evolution, along with Peck.
The real tough part was at Eternia, which was surprisingly harder than i thought it was going to be:
- The best part is that we finally got a legimate steel type in the field near Eternia. Bronzor. We named Bronzor
Notre Dame
- Training Bronzor in prepping against Gardenia's Roserade was another pain. Its the same deal with training Onix... having to deal with non-existent offensive stats despite having WAY BETTER MOVES to work with. Even with Extrasensory, a STAB psychic move it actually learns wasn't enough for it to deal real damage against anything.
- VS Gardenia. Dear lord! Even with the venerable Steel/Psychic typing, the fact that all three of her pokemon have Grass Knot and Magical Leaf is a problem. Her Turtwig wasn't much of a problem but we had to make sure that we didn't KO it otherwise the moment it set up Sunny Day, Gardenia's Sun powered Cherrim would easily destroy our team. YES EVEN WITH BRONZOR! Cherrim was the hardest SOB to take down on her team because of it outspeeding whatever i have on my party, even when we were already levels ahead of it and not even powered by sun (if it was Sun Powered, it would completely demolish our team,
I'm dead serious). Not to mention that thing has leech seed which pretty much means that Bronzor and its non-existent offensive stats will not last long against it. It was a good thing that Napoleon's Crit Pecks worked on taking Cherrim down otherwise we would be there forever. As for Roserade, with Bronzor's having Extrasensory to deal damage, our only real worry was Random crits out of nowhere. Roserade being a pokemon with end-game stats and faced at this relative time in the game is still a pretty daunting challenge especially after getting past that Cherrim...
- I didn't enjoy Gardenia's challenge at all. 2 Super Potions and Roserade having a Sitrus Berry? against a team with barely any synergy with moves and offensive stats? (Prinplup having no form of good offensive against STAB Grass Knot and Magical Leaf, Bronzor having non-existent offensive stats to make use of Extrasensory to deal damage with).
Now on our way to the Galactic Building!
Team:
Napoleon the Modest Prinplup, lvl26 (Peck, Bubblebeam, Growl, Metal Claw) - Torrent
Elizabeth the naive Onix, lvl20 (Rock Throw, Bind, Screech, Tackle) - Rock Head
Notre Dame the Impish Bronzor, lvl23 (Extrasensory, Confusion, Confuse Ray, Hypnosis) - Levitate
*Prinplup evolves into a /Part Steel type later on
*Onix evolves into Steelix later on. The "hack" I'm using for my rom of platinum simply removes all Trade Evolutions in the game, including the ones that need a held item. Onix will evolve soon when it gets the Metal Coat later in the game.
*Bronzor is obviously the legitimate steel type that we got before the 2nd badge.