[Challenge] The Solo Challenge

[transwiththeplans]

Username: Transwiththeplans
Partner Pokemon: Aerodactyl
Challenge: Single
Game(s): X
Previous Progress: Yes

As of today, Aerodactyl has solo'd Viola, Grant and Korrina.

...but not without some embarrassing losses to a Dwebble, a Lunatone, and a bunch of crits. Grant also took a while, had to do some grinding up to level 30. I also got screwed with the lack of a good defense boosting nature, so that's fun. ;_;

I'm glad the rest of the region loses to Aerodactyl

 

[SP458]

I've decided to resume my solo Dratini run... with an update!

Koga and its army of Jugglers have just been defeated by my Dragonair. Routes 12 to 15, Silph Co. and Saffron Gym are next.

Spoiler:

Dragonair Lv.53
164 HP / 129 Attack / 105 Defense / 111 Speed / 114 Special
- Body Slam
- BubbleBeam
- Thunderbolt
- Ice Beam

 

[Duck]

Since actually playing games in the 3DS is ... slow and I'm not close to my gaming PC let's try something faster in the mean time. Here's an Ultimate-ish, since I'm not comitting to the potentially impossible challenges of the 3DS only games (and I don't have a Switch / can emulate it, so if Galar is needed it wouldn't be an Ultimate anyways)

Username: von Sternen
Partner Pokemon: Porygon
Challenge: Ultimate-ish (four Singles for the purposes of the list)
Game(s): Red, Crystal, Sapphire, Platinum
Previous Progress: No

Edit: Kanto done.

Spoiler:

- Started the game with Virus the Porygon.

- Beating Brock was a bit annoying since I only have normal moves, but Conversion made Porygon become Rock type so it couldn't really do a lot back either. After a long war of attrition, I won.
Badges: 1/8

- At level 23 - just as soon as we reach Cerulean - we get our first special move, Psybeam. It's far from ideal but it means we can start using our humoungus Special stat. Misty's Starmie was tricky but nothing Virus couldn't handle.
Badges: 2/8

- Blue on the other hand, was trivial. Both times. So was Lt. Surge. And to make things even better, Surge gives us Thunderbolt, which will be very useful.
Badges: 3/8

- Gen I's policy of making almost every grass type Grass / Poison made Erika fall down rather easily. And with Celadon we basically won the game since we get Psychic and Ice Beam. We've also reached our low 40s so we learned Tri-Attack which finalizes our moveset.
Badges: 4/8

- Both Giovanni and Lavender Tower Rival were pretty easy to deal with.

- Koga's trainers were harder to deal with than Koga itself - they had Psychic Pokémon with high special.
Badges: 5/8

- Sabrina went down to a string of tri-attacks, although Alakazam does outspeed which might be problematic for the E4 later on.
Badges: 6/8

- Blaine and Giovanni were very easy. I didn't even heal or use a potion between them.
Badges: 8/8

- Lorelei and Bruno were trivial, but Agatha was troublesome since Gengar outsped and did some damage. Almost killed me. Lance was pretty easy.

As for Champion Blue, it was a bit more complicated than I expected - Alakazam and Arcanine outsped me and Venusaur could tank an Ice Beam. I managed to kill everybody without using an item but it could have gone south if the AI was a bit better.

And this shows the power of turbo, about 2 real-life hours became 13 in-game hours.
Either way, this was peak Porygon - offense and defense were the same thing, the TMs were very easy to get, and so on. Let's see how things go in the next generations.

Edit: Johto done

Spoiler:

- Started the game with Malware the Porygon.

- Silver was pretty easy.

- Since we get Psybeam a lot earlier this time around, Falkner, Bugsy, Whitney and Morty went down pretty quick.
Badges: 4/16

- The only reason Chuck wasn't a breeze was because of Hypnosis and Conhax :c
Badges: 5/16

- Instead of going straight to Jasmine, we go to Pryce because in this gen Steel resists Psychic moves. After the whole Rocket base thingy, Pryce died relatively quickly. Piloswine survived but a lucky Tri-Attack burn handled that.
Badges: 6/16

- I only won Jasmine because Iron Tail missed a lot, lol. In hindsight, I should have given Porygon a paralyze cure Berry - or just caved in and healed the paralysis - but it all worked out in the end. Thank Pryce for his TM.
Badges: 7/16

- Funnily enough, two five years old in the Dragon Den were more annoying to deal with than Claire - they managed to freeze me and almost killed me.
Badges: 8/16

- Rival the last but was pretty easy but like always, Magnetons give me problems.

- For the first time in quite a while the Elite Four actually was difficult.

Will was pretty easy, but Koga could sometimes poison and just stall until I died. If Bruno survived a Psybeam, he'd just destroy me and Karen did cheap tricks like Sand Attack and Curse. Still, losing again and again got me enough levels to push through.

Lance was as easy as always though. Icy Wind (with NeverMeltIce) was enough to kill 2/3 of his team and Tri Attack killed the other 1/3

- A small sidequest later, I get to Vermillion and just Psybeam Surge to death.
Badges: 9/16

- After that we hop over to Saffron, get Psychic and beat Sabrina.
Badges: 10/16

- And to wrap up this session, we just Icy Wind Erika to death.
Badges: 11/16

- One jaunt down the Rock Tunnel later, we get to Cerulean and Misty is relatively easy.
Badges: 12/16

- While Koga was a bit troublesome, Janine went down easy. A lot of levels and Psychic made sure of that.
Badges: 13/16

- Brock went down to an Icy Wind barrage.
Badges: 14/16

- Some lesser souls might have qualms about beating a homeless' old man last Pokémon. Not I. Blaine was destroyed.
Badges: 15/16


- And it was on the last battle of the run that my lack of Thunderbolt actually bit me in the ass. Without Thunderbolt, Gyarados survives and Pidgeot is a range. And since a lot of Blue's Pokémon actually can outspeed me, things can get complicated.
Luckily the AI goofed on my second attempt and I won.
Badges: 16/16 - Game end.

I thought the lack of the BoltBeam core was going to hurt but it was actually pretty OK? Apparently the 35 extra BP on Ice Beam were just overkill. To be fair, if I ever got truly desperate I could get Thunder pretty easily, if slowly. It just felt like such a waste of time.

So here we go, onwards to Hoenn.

 

[Duck]

Making a post for Hoenn's first update because Trojan deserves it. The moral of the story here is that if you want to do a Porygon / Porygon2 solo run, go for ORAS and get Download.

Spoiler:

- Started the game with Trojan, the Porygon.

- Like always, Psybeam came in clutch for Gyms 1 and 2.
Badges: 2/8

- I was a bit worried about May, since I gave her Torchic. But it turns out I just speed and OHKO Combusken, so there's that. Let's see if this will happen again with Blaziken.

- When we reach Mauville, we could just say gg. If I'm willing to spend a lot of time playing the roulette, which has almost guaranteed payout in the long run, I could get Thunderbolt, Psychic and Ice Beam. But given Malware's performance back in Johto and the fact we can get pretty much all of these TMs later on, let's see how things go.

- Wattson's Magnemite and Magneton actually needed a little bit of strategy! Having Trojan hold a Cherri berry we can get rid of the first Thunder Wave, and after that we need to use Recover to last in battle.

It still wasn't working - I was resetting so I didn't just keep getting free experience. In the end, it was for naught, I needed to leave and battle the trainers in the cicling road before coming back and having a chance.

It's still not enough. Which means we have to grind it out, and cave in and use items.
This will be the hardest gym in the game, possibly the hardest trainer. While Steel types are a pain, Magnemite and Magneton in particular are even more so and Steven doesn't use them.

Badges: 3/8

- Flannery took two tries but wasn't anything particularly special.
Badges: 4/8

- Remember when I said Wattson was going to be the hardest enemy? I was wrong. You see, the only ability Porygon has in Gen III is Trace. Norman leads with Slaking.

But wait, it gets worse. After Porygon kills the first Slaking, Norman sends the second. Thing is, Porygon is loafing around that turn since it just attacked. His Slaking, is not.

Which means Porygon needs to take an uncontested Focus Punch to the face.

After some calcing it turns out I need to use Sharpen to get Porygon to Att+6, while wearing the Silk Scarf to both survive a Focus Punch from full and be able to OHKO Slaking, since we can't PP Stall for 20 turns. All of that using items.

And as it turns out, Vigoroth was speed tied to my Porygon so an extra item was needed.

Conclusion: Slaking without Truant is already bad, Slaking with Truant on your Truant turn is even worse.

I sincerely doubt Steven will be worse than this. On the good side, we get Surf, which means Ice Beam!
Badges: 5/8

Trojan the naive Porygon, Lvl. 46
- Tri-Attack
- Sharpen
- Recover
- Psybeam

Edit: Hoenn finale.

Spoiler:

- After collecting Ice Beam and Thunderbolt things proceed at a very fast pace. I did forget Psybeam so I was slightly afraid of May but it turns out Ice Beam could OHKO Combusken so, welp. Winona was destroyed.
Badges: 6/8

- I used a Magikarp to battle Tate and Liza, it was pretty easy. The Pokemon were 2HKO each.
Badges: 7/8

- Kyogre was a 2HKO, lol. Wasted his one turn using Calm Mind.

- Wallace wasn't very problematic given Thunderbolt. Now to the Victory Road and getting our hands on Psychic.
Badges: 8/8

- Victory Road was only notable in that I ran out of PP, and needed to use an Elixer :c

- Sidney was pretty easy to get past. Phoebe was a bit annoying because of Pressure, but thankfully I had a handful of Leppa berries. Glacia's only issue was that I needed to stall things so she didn't send Walrein when Hail was out. Drake was pretty straightforward, lots of Ice quadweaknesses there.

- Steven was complicated. I was forced to use items, I also made a couple of misplays but in the end, I had a bit of luck by my side and managed to win by the skin of my teeth.

Trojan the naive Porygon, Lvl. 66
- Psychic
- Ice Beam
- Thunderbolt
- Recover

 

[Janp]

I kinda forgot about signing-up and updating one solo run I did back in August. After I finish my Professor Oak Challenge in Fire Red, Mew was the only Kanto Pokémon I've never used in any challenge, so I decided to do a quick Mew solo run.

Username: Janp
Partner Pokemon: Mew
Challenge: Single
Game(s): Fire Red

And I finished it in about 2 days, since there was nothing that could stop Mew. Well, Brock did try, but in the end, the mythical powers were too much for him to handle. I experimented with few movesets and in the end settled with Psychic, Shadow Ball, Ice Beam (for Lance) and Calm Mind. E4 fights were all about setting it up and sweeping the floor with anything they could sent against me.

Here's Hall of Fame:

Also look at my good boy:

 

[Pluckles]

So I have a question. I have two runs that are completed, but I never signed up for. Is it possible to count those as completions for the sake of completion?

 

[Janp]

So I have a question. I have two runs that are completed, but I never signed up for. Is it possible to count those as completions for the sake of completion?

I think so. If you look at my post above, you can see that I've done exactly that.

 

[Pluckles]

Yea, kind of figured. I was doing things like asking people on my discord for challenges, and they were telling me what to play. I guess I'll write it down and see what anyone says.

Pluckles
Game: Gold
Pokemon: Pichu


Pluckles
Game: Brilliant Pearl
Pokemon: Wooper

 

[ilyPokemon]

First Pokemon challenge. Let's hope for the best!

Username: ilyPokemon
Partner Pokemon: Venusaur
Challenge: Single
Game: Fire Red
Previous Progress: No

 

[Panda280]

Username: Panda280
Partner Pokemon: Swampert
Challenge: Single
Game(s): Emerald
Previous Progress: No

I know it's an easy solo challenge, but I love Swampert! Beware of Steven's Cradilly and that female trainer at the bottom of mt chimney. I missed rock tomb. That shroomish leech seeded me, and since it took two attack to faint it, I had to to rely on dire hit to make sure I didn't lose the battle.

Swampert in Sapphire
https://imgur.com/52zEJdJ
My image didn't come up.

Muddy, Torrent, Calm, lv. 61 @Mystic Water
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Ice Beam
-Rock Tomb​

 

[BlissyMKW]

On today's episode of "I love doing runs with mons that get no moves..."

Username: BlissyMKW
Partner Pokemon: Dunsparce
Challenge: Single
Game(s): Gold

Starting with only Rage as an offensive move was a double edged sword because if you got careless, you'd run out of PP, which did happen to me. Once I beat Falkner, Mud-Slap became an addition to the set for a while, but I had already planned on using Dig long term. Miltank almost ripped pour Dunsparce to shreds and I lost to the Elite Four once because Karen's Gengar used Curse, then Destiny Bond on my Dig and killed my Dunspace. With an X Speed, I could outspeed the Gengar, but I also ended up deleting Screech for Thief.

I also had an encounter with a shiny Nidoran F...but because I was abusing the speedup button, I didn't realize it until after I ran from it and encountered a regular one.

Overall, Dunsparce was, as expected, pretty awful. He struggled to kill certain things like during Blue and Red and the lack of moves means Glare + Headbutt was the best strategy I had, alongside some X Item use to make up for poor stats.

Segments (Dunsparce) Lv. 80 @ Leftovers
Moves: Headbutt, Dig, Glare, Thief​

Magcargo might be the next one on the list. Another slow mon with poor stats, but unlike Dunsparce, gets completely owned by Misty and Ground types.

EDIT: I did Magcargo. It wasn't fun, and I actually did have to rely on X Items and Sunny Day to get past Water types in the lategame. I also had to make use of Amnesia. It is pretty nice that Magcargo learns Flamethrower by level up, which did help quite a bit.

Escargoon (Magcargo) Lv. 81 @ Quick Claw
Moves: Sunny Day, Flamethrower, Rock Slide, Amnesia​

 

[typhlosion575]

Username: Typhlosion575
Partner Pokemon: Infernape
Challenge: Ultimate)
Game(s): Platinum (8/8), Soul Silver (16/16) + beat Red, Black (8/8), White 2 (8/8), Y (0/8), Omega Ruby (0/8), Moon (0/8), Ultra Moon (0/8)
Previous Progress: Yes (Platinum)

Platinum was done on my DSi back in 2015, but going forward, all other games will be done on emulator. As an added challenge, I will be doing all of them on randomized roms, with the levels increased for added difficulty. Hope this is ok.

 

[SteCisGreendog]

Username: LonelyYtBoy
Partner Pokemon: Aron
Challenge: Ultimate
Game(s): Emerald (0/8) | FireRed (0/8) | Platinum (0/8) | SoulSilver (0/16) | White (0/8) | Black 2 (0/8) | X (0/8) | Moon (0/8) | Ultra Sun (0/8) | Shield (0/8)
Previous Progress: No

Pre-planning notes: brainstorming this solo challenge yesterday was what made me rejoin PokeCommunity and I am putting all my chips on the table with this one. My end goal isn't so much as to defeat the Champion as I intend to defeat every kind of Pokemon in every applicable generation at least once (386 in Gen III, 493 in Gen IV, and so on...) just to prove my partner can do it.
It's still in the planning stage as I know how to record all the Pokemon my partner can encounter in Gen III - using I Made A Website's Pokedex Tracker - but not so sure about the others. Also research the poke I may not actually get the chance to battle (like the mythicals) but I'll cross that bridge when I get near to it. For now I'll start off with Emerald and think about adding the other Gen III versions after seeing some results from Emerald and FireRed. I'm so stoked.

 

[Janp]

Okay, since this is the Spotlight Challenge now, let's do a Christmas-themed run:

Username: Janp
Partner Pokemon: Smoochum
Challenge: Single
Game(s): Fire Red

 

[Explorer of Time]

I'm going to join up too! Once I finish up my Type Mastery Challenge in my Monotype thread, I'm eventually going to want to play a Ghost Ultimate Challenge there... but Kanto has only one Ghost line, so I may as well do a solo challenge instead for Kanto's only Ghost.

Username: Explorer of Time
Partner Pokemon: Gengar
Challenge: Single
Game: Yellow*

*I used the Universal Pokemon Randomizer to change my starter to Gastly, let Haunter evolve into Gengar at Level 37,and update the crit rate and type chart to Gen 2's mechanics. No other changes were made.

 

[Kostucha]

Solo Challenge my beloved

Username: Kostucha
Partner Pokemon: Delibird
Challenge: Single
Game: Platinum

This is probably a bad idea

 

[Explorer of Time]

Pokemon Yellow
Solo Gengar - Master Trainer Genji
Update 1 (Pallet Town -> Pewter Gym)

First update! This is pretty easy so far since Gastly's immune to Normal, and has Night Shade and Confuse Ray to hit Normal types. The only trainer to even hit it was Blue with his Spearow, using Peck. That battle actually came close to beating Gastly because I was underlevelled and had to use both my potions, though. Brock went down super easily since Geodude only knew Tackle and Onix never used Bide. I taught Bide to Gastly right after the battle, but it probably won't stay for long since it's a terrible move for a solo run.

EDIT: Also, when Oak caught my Gastly, it still made Pikachu's "Pika" cry, and Oak referred to it as a Pikachu once. I'm headcanoning this Gastly as the ghost of a dead Pikachu.

Solo Pokémon:

Gastly | Ghost/Poison | Level 15
Moves: Lick, Night Shade, Confuse Ray, Bide
Stats: 39 HP / 19 Atk / 17 Def / 32 Spe / 38 SpC

 

[Explorer of Time]

Pokemon Yellow
Solo Gengar - Master Trainer Genji
Update 2 (Route 3 -> Cerulean Gym)

Wow, it was really fast to go through the next gym with only one Pokemon. Then again, Kanto does have shorter routes between cities. I evolved my Gastly into Haunter when fighting my rival in Cerulean, then fought Misty and beat her easily. Both times, I kept my opponents' Pokemon constantly confused, and used Night Shade or Lick to KO them. No moveset changes, though. Haunter still has the only four moves that are available right now, and I'm planning to ditch Bide ASAP once I can get another TM it can actually learn.

Solo Pokémon:

Haunter | Ghost/Poison | Level 26
Moves: Lick, Night Shade, Confuse Ray, Bide
Stats: 71 HP / 40 Atk / 36 Def / 61 Spe / 72 SpC

 

[SteCisGreendog]

Username: SteCisGreendog
Partner Pokemon: Aron
Challenge: Ultimate
Game(s): Emerald (8/8), FireRed (5/8)
Previous Progress: Yes

Ah, this thread exists. :> Emerald was started in the summer and the challenge was completed, but I stopped short of an ultimate challenge of my own by beating the Hoenn Pokédex with my solo Aron (still got 30 more different Pokémon to KO on Battle Frontier). I debated about continuing that but settled on beginning a now solo run on FireRed. So far I'm up to Silph Co. in Saffron City. My solo's Struggle could only get me so far.
I do document my solos in the Travel Log - in my signature below. It's part of the ultra ultimate goal of beating every single Pokémon with my beloved Aron.

 

[Explorer of Time]

Pokemon Yellow
Solo Gengar - Master Trainer Genji
Update 3 (Route 24 -> Vermillion Gym)

Another easy and uneventful update. My Haunter evolved into Gengar, and I went up Nugget Bridge, got the S.S. Ticket from Bill, then headed down to Vermillion and the S.S. Anne, evolved my Haunter into a Gengar there, and easily 2HKOed Lt. Surge's Raichu with Body Slam. Surge did nothing but use an X Speed on his first turn which was useless because he still got outsped on the second turn.


Gengar got three new moves: replacing Bide with Hypnosis via level up before it was even used once, replacing Lick with the vastly stronger Body Slam as soon as it evolved in the S.S. Anne, and replacing Night Shade with Thunderbolt right after I beat Lt. Surge. Three of its attack moves are likely going to stay on its final moveset, but I plan to replace Hypnosis with Psychic once I reach Saffron City. (I don't like low-accuracy moves, and I want to keep Body Slam to cover the Champion's Exeggutor, which has a high Special and is the only Pokemon in Gen 1 to resist both Psychic and Thunderbolt.)

Solo Pokémon:

Gengar | Ghost/Poison | Level 39
Moves: Thunderbolt, Body Slam, Confuse Ray, Hypnosis
Stats: 116 HP / 73 Atk / 68 Def / 106 Spe / 121 SpC