Geodude - Update #2
- So I decided to go to Mahogany and snatch ourselves a Hidden Power. Like I alluded to before, our Hidden Power is Flying which is physical this generation.
This should help us deal with Chuck, without many issues.
- Since I was here already, I did the Rocket Base subplot. Nothing of note happened there besides me getting Earthquake and having a small heart attack when I saw the rival show up when I hadn't saved in a while.
Thank God he doesn't battle us here.
- After that we make our trip to Olivine and drop by the tower. Nothing very interesting happens there, battle-wise. This is going to be a bit of a recurring theme with these runs - either a battle is almost impossible, or it's very easy.
- Getting to Chuck, we discover that EQ can one shot a lot of stuff, making the Hidden Power manipulation possibly unnecessary, which is actually great stuff. It means the solo is easier to repeat.
The real problem here is that Poliwrath can surf and OHKO us. Thankfully, we do have access to a solution right now! Or rather, in the time that takes us to get to Goldenrod and come back since we don't have Fly yet.
And in that round trip I managed to ping some five trainers I had avoided before. uggh.
Anyways, back to Chuck. We have two problems:
* Poliwrath outspeeds us
* Even if it didn't, we can't OHKO it.
The answer to that comes in two bottles. Use an X Speed and an X Attack in front of Primeape and this should be gone without a problem. We have a giant defense so we can tank even a crit Karate Chop from Primeape.
I tried to see if the Hidden Power would let us shave off that X Attack, but it won't.
Used items: 2
- Pryce let me get a Rollout streak going on. He really shouldn't have.
- The rival in Goldenrod is ... tough. Basically, I need to have a Bitter Berry as my held item or Golbat will likely confuse me and my plans will be all gummed up. Now, I'm a few attack points away from being strong enough to OHKO either Golbat or Feraligatr, and since I'm outsped, Feraligatr will 2HKO me before I kill it.
I tried using a few vitamins and the box trick, but that wasn't quite enough. So I was forced to use an X Speed and switch Tackle for Return. With this, I was able to OHKO Golbat, tank the Water Gun and then OHKO everything else.
I tested it multiple times and it seems to be a consistent victory, so I guess I'm happy enough with that. I really wish I could have done this without items but only one item is pretty good.
Used items: 3
- After that we have Clair ...
So, we're outsped by her Pokemon. Geodude can tank a Surf - if she doesn't roll high - but that's not enough. So, you might think "Hey, just use an X Speed" and that is enough to get rid of two of her Dragonairs - and presumably the third - but we can't OHKO Kingdra.
So, this battle
is possible if we use an X Speed against Dragonair - and again, if it wasn't a high damage roll - and then kill it. Now we use 10 Hyper Potions to stall Ice Beam. Then, you use an X Attack, and kill both Dragonairs and Kingdra with Earthquake.
That would, however, increase our item usage by 12 and be PP stalling which is just ... uggh.
Thing is, we are at a very bad situation here. Right now, we're at level 50, which is actually kinda low for a solo run.
Ideally, we'd like to be able to tank the Surf - but a Geodude with perfect DVs and max stat exp can only tank a Surf at level 80. We have neither of those, so our projected level would be around the 90s.
But wait, if we're leveling up that much, then surely we'd outspeed the Kingdra - and given our massive attack, by that point we'd likely be able to just OHKO it, right? Well, we'd need to get to around level 70 (with about 12000 speed stat experience or 105 Sneasels) to be able to outspeed.
So, we might be able to stomach the extra X Speed, but is it possible to gain enough attack without using the X Attack? Since that X Attack is the only reason we need to PP Stall. As it turns out, the magic number here is 148, while we have 119. To get to that number with our DVs we'd need to max our attack stat exp. (about 34,554 points or 276 Heracrosses) and get to level 58.
So in the end, it seems that the PP Stalling strategy is the lesser evil here. But since we need to level up some to make the strategy a bit more consistent anyways, I decided to go from level 50 to level 55.
And then, it turns out that I am a dumb-dumb, because I forgot to consider that when I leveled up not only would I consistently tank the Surf, but the Ice Beam would also do less damage. At level 55, Ice Beam is a 3HKO which means we only need to heal once before using the X Attack. So in total we only use 3 items this battle.
Used items: 6
- We managed to get to level 60 by the last rival fight which was enough to OHKO Feraligatr, tank Surf and survive the chip damage dealt by his Pokémon.
- And now, the Elite Four:
vs. Will
We need to use an X Speed because when Jynx comes in, she will OHKO us with Ice Punch. Giving Geodude a Bitter Berry will shut down any Confuse Ray business the Xatu lead will do, but we can't OHKO Slowbrow or Exeggutor. While they're not exactly threats to us, it's important that we only take, at most, two Psychics between Xatu, Exeggutor and Slowbro.
It's technically a luck based strategy, but it's easy enough to try for that, and I'm okay with it.
Used items: 7
vs. Koga
A fairly straightforward battle as far as things goes. The only thing to pay attention to is that Crobat will spam Double Team, so, it might be annoying to KO it, but even with Toxic I managed to consistently do it.
vs. Bruno
This is a tough cookie and needed a bit of testing to finalize but as it turns out we can do it without an item in a consistent fashion: just use Defense Curl twice at the beginning of the battle.
As long as nobody crits, this should be enough. Since Machamp uses Cross Chop, this is still luck based to a certain extent but there's an 80% chance it will miss or not crit, and those are odds I can live with.
vs. Karen
She's a bit annoying since we're speed tying with the Umbreon, can't OHKO it, and sometimes it will use Sand Attack. But really, the only point of failure here is missing against Vileplume. Outside of that, as long as you don't have horrendous luck you should win.
If she really gives you grief, start with a Guard Spec, but personally I don't think it's necessary. Also, give Geodude a Bitter Berry to hold to get rid of Confuse Ray shenanigans.
vs. Champion Lance
Lance's impossible. Right now, at least. Lance leads with Gyarados, outspeeds, OHKOs us with Surf - and it will always go with Surf - and in this generation there's no Focus Sash or X Sp. Def. While we can prevent a 2HKO from becoming a defeat by PP stalling or counter-sweeping, we can't stop an OHKO.
We need to grind. After some calcing and testing, it turns out that we need to have at least 88 Sp Def to tank a Surf and at least 178 Attack to counter KO Gyarados with Return.
So we grind to level 71 - and gain one level battling our way to Lance. The elites were even easier than they were before.
As a sidenote, by the time we get to that level, we could have done Clair without any items. I'll still consider them, but if you do this solo, keep in mind that battling more trainers until that point and/or preparing your grinding might save you a few items.
I didn't even bother calcing the speed to outspeed Gyarados since I didn't think it was actually possible, but hey we're level 72 against a level 44 Pokémon. Which means, to my surprise, we outspeed Gyarados and OHKO. We don't OHKO the Dragonites though, and they're immune to our strongest move. But as long as the first Dragonite misses with Blizzard twice, which is frequent enough, we're practically home free.
Just spam Return, and heal if your health gets too low. I needed to use two Full Restores but that was it. We're officially the champions of Johto.
Used items: 9
Jawbreaker the Geodude
Level 73
- Return
- Defense Curl
- Rollout
- Earthquake
I'm actually pleasantly surprised - I don't think we'll have any more almost impossible battles in the future and considering the only reason we're even at our 60s right now is that Lance decided to lead with Gyarados is probably a good sign.
That said, we'd probably need to get to that level to deal with Misty and/or Erika anyways so it's not like it's a huge loss, I suppose.
In Game Time: 20h 46 min
Items used in-battle: 9
Badges: 8/16
Geodude - Update #3
- Surge, Sabrina, Janine, Brock and Blaine. The biggest issue here was that I'd forgotten to get the radio card back in Johto, so I needed to get the Magnet Train up and running again.
- For Erika, replace Return with Fire Punch. This should be enough to OHKO Tangela. It wasn't enough to deal with Jumpluff, but we could comfortably tank that Giga Drain, so we just 2HKOd it. After the battle feel free to swap Fire Punch back for Return.
- As for Misty, we need an X Speed to outspeed Starmie - who'll otherwise KO us. We can safely set-up in front of Golduck.
Used items: 10
- As predicted, Blue was complicated, but far less so than Lance or the rival: We needed an X Speed and an X Attack to deal with Gyarados.
Used items: 12
Jawbreaker the Geodude
Level 79
- Return
- Defense Curl
- Rollout
- Earthquake
In Game Time: 23h 39 min
Items used in-battle: 12
Badges: DONE
Geodude - Post Mortem
Geodude was probably a good example of how this will be for most Pokémon - a string of easy battles until there's one impossible battle or two. But I will mention that I was pleasantly surprised at how the game went - yes, we needed to grind but considering Geodude's terrible special bulk and quad weaknesses the fact we only needed to do it twice is actually pretty good.
Gyarados is Geodude's worst enemy, so instead of trying for Hidden Power Flying early on I really should have gone for Hidden Power Electric. Something to keep in mind for other Rock/Grounds at least, since we usually outspeed Gyarados a few levels before we can manage to OHKO it.
I tested later out of curiosity and it turns out that Lance can indeed be beaten without items - at like, level 95 - so, there's that if you're into no items, grindy, runs. I mean, Geodude can learn Protect, Swagger and Double Team so you could just hope for hax - enough to stall out the water move at least - but I really don't like those type of strategies.
I think Geodude is a solid B-tier, like it's surprisingly good at dealing with grass types since they're usually pretty slow and also Poison, but it really can't deal with things like Starmie or Gyarados without being very overleveled. Since Graveler and Golem don't have any big differences between movepools, I'm confident in saying that they'll play more or less the same - maybe Golem can take a hit better and could be moved up to A-tier but that's a big if.
Next Steps
As for the next run, Delibird ought to be interesting enough, as recommended by Janp.