[Discussion] The Monotype Discussion Thread

[Explorer of Time]

Just a quick note here that though I do have my fourth badge in Platinum, I'm going to wait until the fifth badge to write an update. I already explored everything up to Route 212, so the only thing left to do before the Pastoria Gym is fight a couple Galactic Grunts at the warehouse and my rival in Pastoria outside the gym. Maylene's gym battle itself was also very easy and not worth writing an update about; Scizor swept her whole team single-handedly, 1HKOed her Meditite and Machoke with Technician-boosted Aerial Ace, and 2HKOed Lucario with Brick Break.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I am considering taking a break from Gen 3 in favor of newer games like Pokemon Violet and the two DLCs for Sword. That said, I spoke to a friend the other day about starting a Ghost Monotype playthrough of Ultra Moon for my first full playthrough of the game. (I have played through the first Totem Pokemon challenge.)

I had some questions regarding the Ghost Monotype run of Ultra Moon:

1) Did I read this right? Mega Evolution is locked to the post game?

2) How difficult is it to get the Purple Nector for Oricorio (Sensu Style) without hacking?

3) Is the TM for Thief available before the fight with Totem Alolan Marowak? Bulbapedia led me to believe it is, but I'm not sure if there's something stopping me from grabbing it. I think it'd be really funny to teach my own Alolan Marowak (Cubone?) Thief and go "This is mine now!"

4) So with Decidueye, Oricorio (Sensu Style), Alolan Marowak, Palossand, and Mimikyu on my team, which would be more useful for the final slot: Sableye, Froslass, or Jellicent? I've never used the former or the latter, but Sableye is not useful in RSE from my experience. I feel like Mega Sableye could be cool to use if I'm wrong about the availability of Mega Evolution.

I will be using an emulator for this because I want to make sure I can record all necessary footage for 3DS games before I commit to some gauntlet challenges for HGSS and ORAS (as opposed to Emerald, DPP, HGSS in that order). I got smart and saved all the necessary files for emulating the 3DS titles, but I'm not 100% sure if the footage will turn out that good.

 

[Explorer of Time]

With the caveat that I have not played Ultra Moon yet and may be wrong about some things, here are my answers.

1) Did I read this right? Mega Evolution is locked to the post game?

That is correct. Even if you trade in mega stones, all Gen 7 games won't let you mega evolve before the postgame unless you're using a romhack that allows it earlier.

2) How difficult is it to get the Purple Nector for Oricorio (Sensu Style) without hacking?

It's a regular item in Poni Meadow, which is a very late-game location. I would either trade it in (if you're using real hardware) or hack it in using PKHeX since it takes such a long time to obtain.

3) Is the TM for Thief available before the fight with Totem Alolan Marowak? Bulbapedia led me to believe it is, but I'm not sure if there's something stopping me from grabbing it. I think it'd be really funny to teach my own Alolan Marowak (Cubone?) Thief and go "This is mine now!"

I believe so, but you will require Tauros Charge for it. That being said, I'm pretty sure you also get that before Totem Alolan Marowak.

4) So with Decidueye, Oricorio (Sensu Style), Alolan Marowak, Palossand, and Mimikyu on my team, which would be more useful for the final slot: Sableye, Froslass, or Jellicent? I've never used the former or the latter, but Sableye is not useful in RSE from my experience. I feel like Mega Sableye could be cool to use if I'm wrong about the availability of Mega Evolution.

If you plan to continue into the postgame, Sableye would probably be more useful there since you can get its Mega Stone from the Battle Tree, but otherwise I'd go with Froslass. Jellicent is too slow and not otherwise strong enough to make up for its slowness. I'm planning to use a Froslass myself once I get around to my own first playthrough in Alola, with a similar team to yours but swapping the Oricorio and Marowak-A for a Drifblim and Chandelure.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I realized after posting this that the post game with Oak's grandson (yes, I'm picking him over Trainer Red) and Team Rainbow Rocket are gonna be less enjoyable with a Monotype team (especially a Ghost-type one), so being real here, I might chicken out. but my final team for my first playthrough will definitely have two ghost-types in Decidueye and Alolan Marowak.

I actually might drop Oricorio in favor of having both Froslass and Sableye. I kind of want to do this one by the books (emulation aside), so my friend from my previous post won't berate me for using PKHex. "What's wrong with Drifloon?" I already got Palossand murdering people; I don't need another liability! "Why is Palossand okay with you, but not Drifloom?" I like sand castles, and Palossand has Sludge Bomb for Fairy-type coverage.

I put this revised team with Froslass and Sableye into a team builder online, and I think it covers all 18 types. The only type I don't have a defensive resistance for is Flying (which is worsened by Froslass coming so late in the game). That said I don't think it'd be worth it to ditch Froslass or Sableye in favor of Oricorio because practically speaking, does it really matter having a Flying-type resistance if I don't have any moves for flying-types until Froslass. (Boy, it sure would've been fun to see the opponent use Dragon Dance or Swords Dance and watch my Oricorio use it also before using Baton Pass.)

I'm curious what you think I should teach Mimikyu besides the appropriate Fairy-type and Ghost-type damaging moves. I think Toxic (assuming the TM is available before post-game) would be nice. I kind of wish Bulbapedia would come out and say when items like TMs are locked to the post game.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'm curious what you think I should teach Mimikyu besides the appropriate Fairy-type and Ghost-type damaging moves. I think Toxic (assuming the TM is available before post-game) would be nice. I kind of wish Bulbapedia would come out and say when items like TMs are locked to the post game.

I'd personally run a Swords Dance build with Play Rough, Shadow Claw, and Shadow Sneak as attacking moves.

Mimikyu, despite its looks, is a physical attacker, and STAB Ghost moves can hit anything that's not a Dark or Normal type for at least neutral damage. Shadow Claw gives you the best STAB Ghost damage, while Shadow Sneak gives you a priority move that can help KO things that are faster than you, especially if you've already used two or three Swords Dances.

Play Rough is your only option in Gen 7 for physical Fairy damage, and it can hit Dark-types for super-effective damage and every Normal-type except Pyroar for neutral damage. It does have only 90 accuracy, but if you give it a Mimikium Z, you'll get its exclusive Fairy-type Z-Move that has 100% accuracy for emergencies where you absolutely need a Fairy-type hit that turn.

If you want an alternative move to one of these four, Mimikyu can inexplicably learn Wood Hammer via the move relearner, and can also learn Leech Life (which was heavily buffed in Gen 7) via a TM in Akala Outskirts. Swords Dance itself isn't obtainable until late in the game in USUM (it was moved from Malie City to Poni Meadow). If you want an alternative stat-boosting move, you can teach it Bulk Up via a TM, obtained by exchanging a Coba Berry in Royal Avenue. (You can get a Coba Berry from Poni Wilds or from beating Medicham in the Ultra Space Wilds Cave World, but both are also lategame.)

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I'd already deduced that it was a physical attacker, but I couldn't think of what to teach it besides Play Rough and Shadow Claw. I completely missed the fact that it could learn Swords Dance. Whoops. I kind of wish there was a better selection of moves for Mimikyu (like a physical Electric-type move for those flying-types or something). The 1st Swords Dance doubles attack, so (if I may approximate the math a bit) Shadow Sneak would be more powerful than a first-turn Shadow Claw (meaning without the Swords Dance). I definitely want the one that has 70 base power and a high critical hit ratio (moreso than 40 base power with +1 priority). However, Wood Hammer isn't necessary with Palossand's Giga Drain and Decidueye's "Leaf Blade" and "Spirit Shackle" (and yes, I want to use its signature move in this run). I have enough grass-type moves, but I really wish I had something to learn Thunderbolt. Too bad Gengar is locked behind trading.

I'm realizing now that Mega Sableye is slower than Slowbro. I didn't know that. It has excellent defenses in that form, but ... I don't know, man, that 50 HP base stat. Anyway, Sableye (mega evolution in post game aside) doesn't look like it's gonna do it for me, so I guess I'll add that Drifloom to my team after all since it learns Thunderbolt (for those pesky flying-types) and is a mixed attacker. I just wish it had better defenses, but the HP value is quite high, so I guess it'll work. I just wish it didn't abduct children (according to the Dex).

EDIT: I realized after posting this that Froslass can learn Thunderbolt, though since TMs are reusable in Gen 7, it wouldn't be such a bad idea to teach it to Drifblim also. I devised this team, but I'm not entirely confident with some of the choices, moreso with Drifblim and Froslass. Should Psychic on Drifblim be replaced with Fly? If it wasn't for Phantom Force being physical, I'd just make sure Drifblim has a modest nature. I also feel having more than one two-turn moves (Fly and Phantom Force) on a single Pokemon is asking for trouble. (Side note: I was shocked Froslass is a mixed attacker.)

Decidueye with (if possible) adamant nature: Return, Spirit Shackle, Leaf Blade, Brave Bird

Drifblim: Thunderbolt, Phantom Force, Psychic, Calm Mind

Alolan Marowak with Thick Club stolen from the Totem Alolan Marowak: Shadow Bone, Bonemerang/Earthquake, Flare Blitz, False Swipe (TM for False Swipe for catching Pokemon)

Palossand with (if possible) modest nature: Shadow Ball, Earth Power, Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb

Froslass: Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Wake Up Slap, Light Screen

Mimikyu with (if possible) adamant nature: Play Rough, Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak, Swords Dance

I considered Sucker Punch for Decidueye, but then I remembered Sucker Punch is like First Impression in that it is useless if not used immediately upon sending out the Pokemon. I'd rather use my favorite TM move Return.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Decidueye with (if possible) adamant nature: Return, Spirit Shackle, Leaf Blade, Brave Bird

There's not much point in having Return if you're already running a STAB Ghost move; it doesn't give you any more coverage that Leaf Blade and Brave Bird won't hit, and Spirit Shackle will do slightly more damage for all the types that Neutral and Ghost will hit for normal damage. It can already hit everything but Pawniard/Bisharp for neutral damage so I'd pick a utility move for its fourth move; Swords Dance and Light Screen are both good choices but it's really up to you. (Though if you pick Swords Dance, Jolly or another +Speed nature would be a little better.)

Drifblim: Thunderbolt, Phantom Force, Psychic, Calm Mind

Why would you run the physical Phantom Force on a Calm Mind build? Switch it out for Shadow Ball.

Alolan Marowak with Thick Club stolen from the Totem Alolan Marowak: Shadow Bone, Bonemerang/Earthquake, Flare Blitz, False Swipe (TM for False Swipe for catching Pokemon)

Earthquake is better than Bonemerang because of the higher accuracy, unless you're specifically trying to 1HKO a Pokemon with Sturdy. Also remember that you can reuse TMs freely, so you won't need False Swipe when not catching Pokemon. Since your Marowak already has perfect neutral coverage, you could give it Will-O-Wisp since your team doesn't have any status users so far.

Palossand with (if possible) modest nature: Shadow Ball, Earth Power, Giga Drain, Sludge Bomb

This looks good to me, but Iron Defense is also an option if you want a more physically defensive moveset. You can lose Giga Drain and still get perfect neutral coverage, and you still have Decidueye for Grass moves.

Froslass: Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Wake Up Slap, Light Screen

This is a good moveset, but you may want to switch out Light Screen for a different move if you give Light Screen to Decidueye.

Mimikyu with (if possible) adamant nature: Play Rough, Shadow Claw, Shadow Sneak, Swords Dance

I personally prefer Jolly over Adamant for Swords Dance builds. You already get lots of attack so Speed is more important.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Before I reply to all this, a genuine question: Do you get anything for filling up the Dex in USUM? I know it's mostly Gen I and Gen III Kanto where Oak will actually give you better stuff for every 10 or 20 in the Dex (including HM05, which is mandatory unless you know what you're doing in Rock Tunnel). That's why I added False Swipe cuz I thought there was an incentive for filling up the Dex. (That said, I might catch some Mon for the Dex just to read the Dex Entries and then box them.)

Return on Decidueye: It's my favorite TM in the franchise, and it's best when given to an early Mon (and Drifblim is running a special moveset). I really should add Light Screen or Swords Dance in its place, but it's really tempting to want to win while (at least occassionally) using my favorite TM move.

Drifblim as a whole: I was honestly just trying to use moves that I hadn't used before regarding Drifblim's "Phantom Force," but... Is Psychic on Drifblim a good idea in the first place? I feel like it'd be helpful against Poison-types (which are only weak to Ground- and Psychic-type moves), but... Gosh, Gen 7 is really throwing me for a loop after playing Gen 3 so long. I guess I should stick to my guns and go the "special attacker" route.

Alolan Marowak: I addressed this already, but I'll go into more detail. I thought it was a good idea to catch Mon (then box them) for Dex rewards, but I'm not sure if Kukui and Oak's cousin Samson actively incentivise the protagonist like that. There's also a constant non-zero chance that somewhere in the run, I'll find a shiny of some kind. (I think Gen 6 was the one where they increased the shiny chance from 1 in 8,192 to something more realistic for the 3DS games.) Even in the event that I get stuff for completing the Dex, I might have to let this go and use Will-O-Wisp. That said, if Samson Oak is the type of professor who expects me to intern for him for free (which is probably the case), I will definitely get Will-O-Wisp.

Palossand: I might use Iron Defense. I'll see how I feel when the time comes, but that sounds reasonable.

Froslass: If I were to teach Decidueye Light Screen, should I teach Froslass Shadow Ball for STAB (even though the whole team is Ghost-type) via reusable TM, or should I teach it a status move like Thunder Wave. I feel like Hail would only be useful if I worked the entire team around it, right?

Mimikyu: I agree with the Jolly nature idea (assuming I get lucky enough to catch one with a Jolly nature). I'm actually really happy with this Mon's planned moveset with Swords Dance because the ability "Disguise" tells the opponent "No, that didn't count" for the first damaging hit, so unless the opposing Mon starts spamming Dragon Dance or uses Reflect, I basically get a free Swords Dance.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Before I reply to all this, a genuine question: Do you get anything for filling up the Dex in USUM? I know it's mostly Gen I and Gen III Kanto where Oak will actually give you better stuff for every 10 or 20 in the Dex (including HM05, which is mandatory unless you know what you're doing in Rock Tunnel). That's why I added False Swipe cuz I thought there was an incentive for filling up the Dex. (That said, I might catch some Mon for the Dex just to read the Dex Entries and then box them.)

AFAIK, you can get a Lucky Egg for catching 50 Pokemon, but only in the postgame. You can also get the Shiny Charm for completing your regional dex, but you'd need to trade for version-exclusives for that. False Swipe, being a Normal-type move, is also useless for catching almost any Pokemon you can use in an actual trainer battle, since you're doing a mono-Ghost run.

Return on Decidueye: It's my favorite TM in the franchise, and it's best when given to an early Mon (and Drifblim is running a special moveset). I really should add Light Screen or Swords Dance in its place, but it's really tempting to want to win while (at least occassionally) using my favorite TM move.

Return will still be useful for you while your starter's still a Dartrix, but you really should give it something else since Ghost-type moves fill basically the same niche as Normal-type moves and your team, being Ghost-types, can use those better than Normal-type moves.

Drifblim as a whole: I was honestly just trying to use moves that I hadn't used before regarding Drifblim's "Phantom Force," but... Is Psychic on Drifblim a good idea in the first place? I feel like it'd be helpful against Poison-types (which are only weak to Ground- and Psychic-type moves), but... Gosh, Gen 7 is really throwing me for a loop after playing Gen 3 so long. I guess I should stick to my guns and go the "special attacker" route.

Psychic's a decent move and Drifblim only has three special attacks that can hit with a high base power without a drawback. You could also teach it Hidden Power (Flying) as an alternative, but it's much harder to get and you already have Brave Bird on Decidueye. Acrobatics, though a physical move, could also replace Psychic if your Drifblim is holding a consumable held item or none at all, especially if it has Unburden as an ability.

Alolan Marowak: I addressed this already, but I'll go into more detail. I thought it was a good idea to catch Mon (then box them) for Dex rewards, but I'm not sure if Kukui and Oak's cousin Samson actively incentivise the protagonist like that. There's also a constant non-zero chance that somewhere in the run, I'll find a shiny of some kind. (I think Gen 6 was the one where they increased the shiny chance from 1 in 8,192 to something more realistic for the 3DS games.) Even in the event that I get stuff for completing the Dex, I might have to let this go and use Will-O-Wisp. That said, if Samson Oak is the type of professor who expects me to intern for him for free (which is probably the case), I will definitely get Will-O-Wisp.

Samson Oak only gives you a couple Apricorn balls, not something worth catching Pokemon for.

Froslass: If I were to teach Decidueye Light Screen, should I teach Froslass Shadow Ball for STAB (even though the whole team is Ghost-type) via reusable TM, or should I teach it a status move like Thunder Wave. I feel like Hail would only be useful if I worked the entire team around it, right?

Status move, and I'd pick Thunder Wave. The rest of your team can do STAB Ghost damage better than Froslass can, so it's a little redundant to run Shadow Ball on her. Hail is actively detrimental to you, don't pick it. If you really want Froslass to get more evasion, Double Team would be better.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Something I think I neglected to say in the last post: Earthquake seems pretty late game if I read Bulbapedia correctly, so I'm gonna be running Bonemerang for like the first 3/4 of the game and then immediately swapping it for Earthquake.

I'm actually not 100% sure what you mean by "perfect neutral coverage" in the previous post, and now I'm actually really confused because I completely forgot about Brick Break (fighting-type move) to deal with Dark-type Pokemon, especially since it comes very early on in Verdant Cavern. I feel like that should be the last move on Marowak (the others being Shadow Bone, Earthquake, and Flare Blitz). I know I have Wake Up Slap on Froslass, but that Pokemon is a lot later in the game afaik.

I guess using Return on Dartrix until it's fully evolved is a nice compromise. I will probably give Decidueye Leaf Blade, Spirit Shackle, Brave Bird, and Light Screen, and then give Froslass Thunder Wave instead of Light Screen.

I want to actually really want to use Acrobatics on Drifblim because of the wow factor of doing what my neanderthal brain considers a combo (seeing my Drifblim use a berry, activating unburden, and then the next turn, using "Acrobatics" with its power doubled), but it's hard for me to justify it because it seems gimmicky to rely on hoping that my Pokemon uses a Sitris Berry or a Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst, or Aspear Berry. I might stick with Psychic for that reason. I'm actually really disappointed now that I've realized the Flying Gem combo doesn't exist outside of Gen 5 because my friend made it sound awesome.

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'm actually not 100% sure what you mean by "perfect neutral coverage" in the previous post, and now I'm actually really confused because I completely forgot about Brick Break (fighting-type move) to deal with Dark-type Pokemon, especially since it comes very early on in Verdant Cavern. I feel like that should be the last move on Marowak (the others being Shadow Bone, Earthquake, and Flare Blitz). I know I have Wake Up Slap on Froslass, but that Pokemon is a lot later in the game afaik.

Perfect neutral coverage means that you can hit every other Pokemon in the game for at least regular damage, i.e. you're never stuck with only Not Very Effective attacks.

Brick Break is a great choice, agreed.

 

[Explorer of Time]

While grinding in Victory Road for the league today, my Bronzong caught Pokérus. This is the second time I've gotten it, and rarer than encountering a full-odds shiny. That being said, I've only encountered one full-odds shiny (an Oddish in Sapphire a long time ago), while I've encountered the Pokérus twice, the other time being in Pearl as a kid. This time, I had the foresight to infect my unused Pokemon and store them in the PC so that I can get it on other Pokemon later, if I want.

 

[StenirRPG]

Because I've been using AI to help guide me in certain things at work, I decided to look at possible team setups throughout X and Y for my Dark run. I'm doing X, which removes Liepard and Tyranitar from consideration, but what do you think about the following end results? haha

So, my rules were as follows that I gave to AI:
- I have to pick up the first six Pokemon.
- From there, I ask it to evaluate who I would swap with.
- Then, I ask it whether it makes sense to swap.
- If it says swap, I'll do it.

Just to add a new spin lol

So, this is what it did, because I just wrote down all of them in Dex order, not necessarily in the order you can get them. Just to see what it would do (I'm using the final evolution here):

- Start with Greninja, Crawdaunt, Sharpedo, Pangoro, Scrafty, and Absol.
- swap out Scrafty, swap in Malamar
- swap out Crawdaunt, swap in Krookodile
- swap out Sharpedo, swap in Houndoom
- swap out Absol, swap in Umbreon
- swap out Malamar, swap in Skuntank
- swap out Skuntank, swap in Drapion
- swap out Umbreon, swap in Mightyena
- swap out Mightyena, swap in Bisharp
- swap out Drapion, swap in Honchkrow
- swap out Pangoro, swap in Weavile

At this point, it basically said the remaining two (Zoroark and Hydreigon) appear so late it might not make sense to swap.

So, at this point, the team would be Greninja, Krookodile, Weavile, Houndoom, Bisharp, Honchkrow. I ask it to evaluate against the Elite Four and Champion, and then decide if any last minute changes need to be made from ALL available Dark types.

It suggested swap Weavile for Zoroark and Honchkrow for Hydreigon.

I think this is an interesting challenge, given that there are a total of 18 Dark evolutionary lines in X, and I can only end up with 6.

The final evaluation was as follows...who is ready for this level of insanity?


Using your final team of Greninja, Krookodile, Zoroark, Houndoom, Bisharp, and Hydreigon, let's analyze potential issues you may encounter with each Elite Four member and the Champion in Pokémon X:

Elite Four Members
1. Siebold (Water-type Specialist)

• Key Pokémon: Greninja, Clawitzer, Barbacle, Gyarados, Starmie
• Potential Issues:
  
  • Type Vulnerability: Both your Krookodile and Houndoom are vulnerable to Water-type attacks. Gyarados can also set up Dragon Dance, becoming a threat if it gets multiple boosts.
  • Starmie's Speed: Starmie is fast and can deal significant damage with Psychic or Water moves, threatening Greninja and Zoroark.
  • Greninja: Your own Greninja could be a double-edged sword if not managed well; Siebold has a Greninja that may outspeed or deal a lot of damage if it uses Ice Beam or Hydro Pump.

Strategy: Focus on taking out Starmie quickly with Dark-type moves from Hydreigon or Bisharp. Use Krookodile and Houndoom to handle Gyarados, making sure to manage turns carefully to avoid Water-type hits.

---

2. Drasna (Dragon-type Specialist)

• Key Pokémon: Dragapult, Altaria, Noivern, Garchomp
• Potential Issues:
  
  • Ice Vulnerability: While Hydreigon and Zoroark can hit hard, Garchomp's Ground moves can threaten your whole team, especially Greninja and Zoroark. Noivern can also target weaknesses with Flying-type moves.
  • Dragapult: Dragapult is very fast and may outspeed your Pokémon before they can strike.
  • Altaria: If it Mega Evolves, it can become quite bulky and resistant to many attacks from your team.

Strategy: Use Weavile for its Ice-type moves effectively against Garchomp and Altaria, but be aware of its fragility. Managing your turns, switching to resistances, and striking hard against Drasna's team can turn the tide in your favor.

---

3. Cynthia (Fairy-type Specialist)

• Key Pokémon: Gardevoir, Togekiss, Florges
• Potential Issues:
  
  • Fairy Weakness: All of your Dark-types are weak to Fairy-type moves. Gardevoir can be particularly threatening with moves like Moonblast, which would terrify your team.
  • Florges' Bulk: Florges can set up and recover with moves like Wish.
  • High Special Defense: Togekiss may resist or avoid moves from hydreigon and Zoroark easily.

Strategy: Use Houndoom for Florges or other Fire-type moves, while Hydreigon can handle Gardevoir as long as it avoids Fairy moves. Target Gardevoir first as its big threat and take it down ASAP with strong, fast attackers like Zoroark or Greninja.

---

4. Shauna (Steel-type Specialist)

• Key Pokémon: Aegislash, Bisharp, Lucario
• Potential Issues:
  
  • Aegislash's Ability: Aegislash can take hits with King's Shield and set up instead, potentially sweeping with powerful Steel moves.
  • Fighting Types: Lucario can take out much of your team due to its coverage moves (Fighting and Steel).
  • Dark-type redundancy: Bisharp's dark moves can be dangerous if you aren't switching in and out effectively.

Strategy: Be sure to capitalize on Aegislash's weaknesses by attacking with Fire-type moves from Houndoom, while using Zoroark as a potential attacker that can disrupt if set up defensively.

---

Champion Diantha

• Key Pokémon: Gardevoir, Tyrantrum, Hawlucha, Goodra
• Potential Issues:
  
  • Gardevoir's Moonblast: Again, Gardevoir is a significant threat with Fairy moves against your Dark-types.
  • Tyrantrum: This Pokémon can hit hard with Rock moves that are a threat to everyone except Krookodile.
  • Goodra's Bulk: Goodra can take hits and finish out opponents.

Strategy: Focus on removing Gardevoir first with strong moves from Hydreigon or Houndoom using Dark or Fire moves. Use Krookodile to handle both Tyrantrum and Hawlucha effectively.

General Recommendations

• Status Effects: Consider moves that can inflict status effects, such as Toxic or Thunder Wave, to help stall and weaken the opposing Pokémon.
• Focus on Coverage: Prioritize moves that hit hard against the opponent's weaknesses in your lineup.
• Leveling Up: Ensure your Pokémon are leveled sufficiently for optimal effectiveness.

Conclusion
Overall, your team can handle the Elite Four and Champion with proper strategy and careful management of matchups. Planning around weaknesses, targeting significant threats strategically, and utilizing each Pokémon's strengths will be key to your success in these battles. Good luck, and if you have more specific questions about strategy or movesets for your Pokémon, feel free to ask!

 

[Explorer of Time]

Because I've been using AI to help guide me in certain things at work

I sincerely hope you're verifying its output with a trustworthy non-AI source. LLMs are not in any way reliable. Case in point: its entire Elite Four analysis is riddled with errors.

- Start with Greninja, Crawdaunt, Sharpedo, Pangoro, Scrafty, and Absol.

Crawdaunt and Sharpedo are not among the first six Dark-types you can catch. You need a Good Rod for them and you don't get that until Coumarine City. You can catch both an Inkay and Sandile before the second gym.

- swap out Umbreon, swap in Mightyena

Mightyena is so much weaker than either Umbreon or Absol that there's little reason to do so. (Also, it forgot Sableye, but it's weak so I wouldn't pick it in the first place.)

It suggested swap Weavile for Zoroark

There's no real reason to use Zoroark on a mono-Dark team since its signature ability is much less useful when your whole team shares its type, and it has no dual-type. I would use Drapion instead since it resists all of Dark's weaknesses and can hit Fairy-types with STAB Poison damage.

Using your final team of Greninja, Krookodile, Zoroark, Houndoom, Bisharp, and Hydreigon

I disagree with Hydreigon as well. In a monotype team, you need to cover your type's weaknesses and your team is very weak to Fighting as it is. I would replace it with Malamar. That being said, if you really want both Hydreigon and Malamar, you have the option of replacing Greninja or Krookodile as well.

EDIT: I'd use the following Pokemon. Pokemon I'd keep until the League are bolded.

- Start with Froakie in Aquacorde Town
- Catch Pancham and Scraggy at Route 5
- Catch Absol and Inkay at Route 8
- Catch Sandile at Route 9
- Replace Scraggy* with Houndoom after beating Grant
* Scrafty is better than Pangoro in the long run, IMO, but if you drop them both as I suggest then Pangoro is better because it evolves earlier
- Replace Absol with Stunky at Route 11
- Replace Skuntank** with Skorpui at Route 14
**May be still a Stunky if you're underleveled after beating Clemont
- Replace Pangoro with Pawniard at Route 15
- Final team Greninja, Malamar, Krookodile, Houndoom, Drapion, Bisharp

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

Note: I think the three of us know what I mean by "generative ai," so I'm not going to clarify the intricacies of "the ai in CPU characters in fighting games" versus "asking an ai to write your midterm paper for you (even though your professor said not to)" and everything in-between. (Also, I'm using lower case "ai" because AI looks like Al with this font.)

I'm biased against generative ai of any kind, but are we really doing this? Doesn't this kind of remove the human aspect of team planning, etc. and turn it into "grind until you're strong enough and then select the right moves and get lucky with the opposing computer player."

To be clear, I'm less against ai when it's used for data anaylsis as opposed to creative jobs (shading artwork, writing scripts, composing music, etc.) that should be done by humans who need money to survive in modern society. I am not trying to start a fight about what ai you're using at your job because I feel like it was decided by a higher-up anyway. I still kind of take issue with using ai to help with a Pokemon challenge. I don't want to make too much of a fuss, but it feels weird to me.

 

[StenirRPG]

Anything I do at work with AI is always done in a testing environment, and even that doesn't happen unless I find documentation backing things up. And nothing ever goes to the live environment unless I let it run for a week at minimum.

Like, AI, in my mind, can certainly regurgitate information...as to actually going through and doing research, looking up what's available, etc. I also like how it said Hydreigon up against Gardevoir...like...have you heard of weaknesses?

AI needs to do some better homework. But it was an interesting read, at least. I also haven't mapped out when I can get what, so I just let it run with what it thought the order was.

Of course, this is GPT3. I use Claude and Gemini at work. Meh. Was a fun thing to do on a Friday while I try to get my Pupitar up in level so it can be really used. Takes forever.

But as someone who also composes music, I'm happy AI isn't anywhere near my level. Don't wanna be replaced...not yet anyways lol

Interesting question - I'm allowed to use Pupitar because it's heading towards Tyranitar. I just beat the E4 before it fully evolved. Does the success still count as I did use it, even though I beat the game with a non-Dark (still had like 10 levels to go)

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'm biased against generative ai of any kind, but are we really doing this? Doesn't this kind of remove the human aspect of team planning, etc. and turn it into "grind until you're strong enough and then select the right moves and get lucky with the opposing computer player."

I'm also biased against generative ai of any kind, but said ai's advice is so useless as to be counterproductive to any actual team planning. Most of the advice it prepared for StenirRPG was straight up useless or blatant misinformation; among other things, it insisted that Dark is weak to Psychic, claimed Cynthia was part of the Kalos Elite Four, wanted to swap out basically every Dark-type in the game for no apparent reason even when doing so would weaken the team significantly, and mangled every single League team. It only even got the potential team members right because Stenir told them all to the AI in the writing prompt. This thing isn't going to replace actual Pokemon team building strategists any time soon, and fundamental flaws with the very concept of LLMs mean that it's never going to get good enough to give reliable advice.

Interesting question - I'm allowed to use Pupitar because it's heading towards Tyranitar. I just beat the E4 before it fully evolved. Does the success still count as I did use it, even though I beat the game with a non-Dark (still had like 10 levels to go)

It still counts; I'd personally prefer that it's evolved first, but it's understandable if you don't because it evolves so late and Johto's level curve ends earlier than usual. There are only three Pokemon that players are likely to bring to their games' final battles in this situation, and Pupitar is one of them. (The other two are Dragonair and Shelgon in mono-Flying runs)

I've had to make this ruling exactly once before and it also involved a Pupitar, I believe in Infer12's mono-Dark run of XD: Gale of Darkness.

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I'm not sure if this is worth sharing, but for anyone doing a SM or USUM monotype challenge run, it might be worth collecting ten PokeDex entries early on because you get 10 Ultra Balls. I like having my team in Ultra Balls as opposed to Great Balls because the Ultra Balls looks stylish, so I see this as an absolute win.

Pokémon Sun & Moon - Pokédex Rewards

www.serebii.net

 

[Reginald Cosmic]

I spent 45-60 minutes trying to catch an Modest-nature Drifloon with Unburden. It's more time-consuming than it sounds: I'm resetting after each failure to conserve Ultra Balls for a later team member (depending on when the game gives me Ultra Balls), and I kind of regret doing it to this degree (instead of catching one, saving, then save scumming for a 2nd one so as not to trigger another Dex Entry screen) because of the unskippable "Registered" screen in addition to all the other stuff you skip through when you catch a new Pokemon. So far, I've only been lucky enough to have a SpATK+ Speed- Drifloon with 99 total IVs (25 SpATK and 16 Speed). I'm tired, but I'm gonna keep going.

 

[MachoPony]

If you're just playing the default games with no kind of romhack or modification. any nature and IVs works fine as long as it's not negative to a crucial stat. i got a Relaxed Seismitoad in my run of White and it's honestly fine.