[Gen 3] Type Expansion Challenge

[IceMetalPunk]

So, I had this idea for a challenge that would involve both randomness and strategy, difficulty and opportunity. So I decided to do it! I call it the Type Expansion Challenge, and here are the rules I'm setting for it:

Rules

Spoiler:

1) You begin with the primary type of your starter Pokemon determining the only type you may catch. Dual-type 'mons can be caught as long as any one of its types is the same as your starter's primary. Any wild 'mons who don't match the type must be killed or run from--you cannot throw a ball at them.

2) Each time you beat a gym, you may add one new type to your list; you can now catch Pokemon of that type as well using the same guidelines as rule #1.

3) Static Pokemon--that is, 'mons you encounter in the overworld or those which are given to you by an NPC or event--present a unique opportunity. If their primary type is not on your list, you may add it to your list--but if you do, you must remove another type from your list. Doing so means you can no longer catch Pokemon of the removed type, and it also means any 'mons you have which no longer match any types on your list must be released into the wild as soon as possible, and cannot be used until that happens. This rule is optional and only applies if the static 'mon's primary type isn't already on your list. Also, fossils do not count as static 'mons for this rule, so you can't add a fossil's type to your list like this.

4) If a Pokemon faints, it's dead, and you must release it or perma-box it. This is not a Nuzlocke challenge, but this is the only rule the two challenges have in common. If your party is empty, you can still catch more 'mons to refill it, but only if they match at least one type on your list.

For added fun, I'm playing this in a randomized Ruby ROM. Because random is always more interesting :) I did set it to keep same-power Pokemon in each area, though, so I don't think I'll be running into a Mew anytime soon :P

I've played a little of this, so this first post will include my first status update:

Party

Name: Crush
Level: 8

Name: Petri
Level: 9

Name: Slick
Level: 10

Location
Petalburg Woods

Badges
(None yet)

Allowed Types

Journal Entry
I chose Squirtle as my starter, thus I've locked myself into water types until I beat Roxanne. Luckily, the RNG gods are smiling upon me: I've built a small team of Crush the Squirtle (level 8), Petri the Lotad (level 9), and Slick the Wooper (level 10). I've just arrived at the entrance to Petalburg Woods before saving and ending the session for today. I'm planning on getting everyone up to level 14 or so before taking on Roxanne, and if I'm lucky, I might find some more water types before then. While training up Lotad and Wooper, I had a few run-ins with Shroomish, which I don't really have an answer to. They weren't a serious threat, but with all water types, grass types can be a pain; I'm already suspecting that after Roxanne, I'll be adding fire types to my list. Of course, if I don't find any fire types, I'm SOL with that...but I'm getting ahead of myself. To another day!

 

[IceMetalPunk]

Day 2: Sadness Ensues

Party
​

Name: Crush
Level: 13

Name: Petri
Level: 12

Location
Rustboro City

Badges
(None yet)

Allowed Types

Journal Entry
So, good news and bad news. The good news is, in this session of grinding, I got Crush up to level 13 and Petri up to level 12. I also found a Shell Bell, which I gave to Crush. And I got the TM for Vice Grip (TMs and all items are, of course, randomized), and taught it to Petri.

Now for the bad news: some trainer's stupid Lotad critted Slick with an Absorb and OHKO'd him :( I guess I shouldn't have kept him in knowing that Lotad has Absorb, but I thought he'd survive at least one hit...nope. Poor Slick is now in my death box in the PC. And I didn't encounter any other water types to replace him, either. So now I'm debating going into Roxanne's gym with a two-on-two battle, or running back to where I found Slick and trying to find another replacement water type. But in the meantime, I'm calling this session for today. Lesson learned: don't trust a Lotad. Sorry, Petri, no offense.

 

[ジュナイパー]

Wow, I really like this one! And yes, Randomizers are always more interesting.

Name: Lugarugan
Game: Randomized Pokemon Black

Is it okay if I add an extra rule for myself?

• You may only catch 1 Pokemon per Route, and it must be the first encountered Pokemon of a type that I'm allowed to have.

 

[IceMetalPunk]

Wow, I really like this one! And yes, Randomizers are always more interesting.

Name: Lugarugan
Game: Randomized Pokemon Black

Is it okay if I add an extra rule for myself?

• You may only catch 1 Pokemon per Route, and it must be the first encountered Pokemon of a type that I'm allowed to have.

This is the Challenge Log subforum, which (if I read the rules right) is for logging personal challenge runs rather than starting a challenge for others to join. I'm not sure if the mods would be okay with you joining up like that... but if they're okay with it, then I'm okay with it! :) And sure, you can add that extra Nuzlocke-style restriction, but with the type restrictions in full force at the start, I'd be surprised if you make it very far like that :P

 

[IceMetalPunk]

Day 3: Success!

Party
​

Name: Crush
Level: 16
Holding: Shell Bell

Name: Petri
Level: 15
Holding: Quick Claw

Name: Vitamin C
Level:6
Holding:Oran Berry

Location
Rusturf Tunnel

Badges

Allowed Types

Journal Entry
I didn't have much time to play today, but man, did I make progress! As if to make up for the sadness of my last session, today was all good news. I trained my team up to level 14 to face Roxanne, not realizing Lotad evolves at level 14, so now he's a Lombre! And then fighting the trainers in her gym brought both 'mons up to level 15. During the battle with Roxanne, Crush reached level 16 and evolved into a Wartortle, so now both my previous team members are stage 2 evolutions :)

And, of course, I defeated Roxanne and got myself the first badge, which lets me add a type to my allowed list; I chose fire. I'm wondering if I should have chosen Rock instead; after all, my randomized TM reward from Roxanne was Mega Drain, but the way randomizers work, since it's Rock Tomb originally, only a rock Pokemon can learn it still... then again, the only way to make it STAB would be to find a Root Fossil, so maybe it's not that important after all :P

I headed to Rusturf Tunnel and just walked in circles to try and find a new encounter. Since the randomizer is set to an "area 1-to-1 replacement", and Rusturf usually only gets one Pokemon (Whismur), I'd also only get one Pokemon. It turned out to be a Marill. I was hoping for a fire type, but another water type is okay, so I caught it just to expand my team. It's only a level 6, though, so next session I'll have to train it up before I continue making progress; wouldn't want it to die so soon after catching it, right?

Bonus Info: For those curious about the nicknames I picked, here's the explanations: Crush comes from the sea turtle in Finding Nemo. Petri comes from the fact that the lotus on the heads of the Lotad line remind me of petri dishes. Vitamin C comes from the fact that Marill always reminds me of that intro scene from one of the old Pokemon movies, where all the 'mons are jumping and running happily, and Marill is there, and the song "Vacation" by Vitamin C is playing. And Slick (may he rest in Poke-peace) was just because his Pokedex entry said that Wooper is covered in mucus, so...yeah.

 

[IceMetalPunk]

Day 4: Fire, I Welcome Thee

Party
​

Name: Crush
Level: 18
Holding: Shell Bell

Name: Petri
Level: 18
Holding: Quick Claw

Name: Vitamin C
Level:18
Holding:Silk Scarf

Name: Salty
Level: 18
Holding: (Nothing)

Name: Lipinski
Level: 7
Holding: (Nothing)

Location
Dewford Town

Badges

Allowed Types

Journal Entry
So, I started this session by planning just to grind up Vitamin C on Route 116 so she'd match the rest of the team's levels... and then I ran into a Slugma. Having recently added fire to my list of allowed types, I had to catch him. Especially this early on, with so few types, I think the best strategy is just to catch every allowed Pokemon and sort out the team later; better to have too many 'mons than too few, right? So enters Salty the Slugma. And I must say, having water/grass coverage from Lotad and now fire/rock coverage from (ultimately) Magcargo will be great for a type-restricted challenge like this.

There were a lot of Togepi on Route 116, and did you guys know that metronome is very annoying? Because it is. Also annoying: Diglett with Arena Trap who spam sand attack. Yeah.

So then I continued with the game progression and made my way to Dewford Town. Knowing that Brawley's ace is level 18, I grinded (ground?) up my team in Granite Cave to level 18, which is when Vitamin C evolved into Azumarill--so yay! I also got to try out her defense curl / rollout combo, and holy crap is it effective. My and while I was there, guess who else was in Granite Cave? Surskit, a part-water type. Like I said, beggars can't be choosers here, so I caught it. It's only level 7, though, so I'm going to have to do even more grinding now.

Oh, yeah, and I did get the Old Rod, but all I caught were Ralts. A pure psychic type, so I couldn't catch him. Oh, well.

Overall, a productive session once more! I don't know if I'm going to get Lipinski up to level 18 first, or just battle Brawley with the rest of my team and train him later. Probably the latter; we'll see what my mood is next session. But one major problem I'm having: none of my team can learn Cut or Flash. If this trend continues, I might need to grab me some HM slaves soon...ugh.

Bonus Info: Surskit's Pokedex entry says she can walk on water "as if it were skating". So, of course, what better name than an homage to Tara? As for Salty...well, let's just say if his name ever meets his body, there are going to be some slug guts everywhere...

 

[Sydian]

You might wanna be careful about that Surskit; Masquerain is Bug/Flying and loses the Water typing, unfortunately. :( Unless the ROM your using updates types or something, then ignore me, haha. Times like this, I wish I had an emulator because this challenge looks fun.

Also, I love that Slugma's name is Salty. lmao

 

[IceMetalPunk]

You might wanna be careful about that Surskit; Masquerain is Bug/Flying and loses the Water typing, unfortunately. :( Unless the ROM your using updates types or something, then ignore me, haha. Times like this, I wish I had an emulator because this challenge looks fun.

Also, I love that Slugma's name is Salty. lmao

Yeah, I'm not doing much with Lipinski. She's mostly just sitting around for GP until I add Bug or Flying to my list. And honestly, there have been so many wild Bug types and so few wild Electric types that I think I might add Bug after I beat Wattson next session (read the journal entry below to see what I mean). Also, look into Visual Boy Advance; it's the emulator I'm using, and it's free.

Anyway, onto the journal!

Day 5: Pearls and Peril

Party
​

Name: Crush
Level: 23
Holding: Shell Bell

Name: Petri
Level: 24
Holding: Quick Claw

Name: Vitamin C
Level:23
Holding:Silk Scarf

Name: Salty
Level: 23
Holding: (Nothing)

Name: Lipinski
Level: 7
Holding: (Nothing)

Name: Oogen
Level: 14
Holding: Deep Sea Scale

PC Boxed Pokemon

Name: Gall
Level: 14
Holding: (Nothing)

Name: Mastake
Level: 13
Holding: (Nothing)

Location
Mauville City

Badges

Allowed Types

Journal Entry
This entry is a bit different. I took notes on important events as I played, and I'm just going to copy/paste them here, rather than trying to remember everything that happened afterwards. Come on the journey with me!

So Brawly had a Chikorita and a Togepi. The Chikorita was fine, but remember how I said Togepi's Metronome is annoying? Yeah, turns out the only thing worse is Yawn + Metronome. At one point, he Metronomed into a Doom Desire! I'm so lucky it ended up failing. I was trying to get Vitamin C's Rollout combo going, but it missed like 4 times in a row, then was cut short by confusion. I finally won by getting that Rollout to finish. Ironically, I got Doom Desire as the reward TM. But since no one can learn it, it's just sitting in my bag, useless.

I added Electric to my list (so Water, Fire, and Electric). [Future note: I didn't know it at the time, but that would turn out to be a bad idea; there don't seem to be any wild electric types *anywhere* :( But, I chose it, so I'm sticking with it.]

Petri tried to learn Fake Out, but I'm not a fan of a move that only works on the first turn, so I passed on teaching him it. I did teach Lipinski Flash, though, because Granite Cave in the dark was getting to be frustrating. I found Silver Powder in that cave...it made me think I should have added Bug-type after Brawly's gym. >_< In the cave, I caught a level 11 Clamperl and named it Oogen. I can't evolve it since I can't trade, but team-building is a thing! Then I got Sleep Talk from Steven...too bad I didn't have that when I fought Brawly and his stupid yawning Togepi. I haven't taught it to anyone yet, and I don't know if I will.

I got to Slateport, and a random Slateport beach trainer's Sunkern Mega Drained Oogen...but she survived with 2 HP! What a trooper! I headed to the Fan Club and got the Soothe Bell; that's apparently not randomized.

I got Iron Tail from the Team Magma grunt in the museum; waiting for a Steel type before teaching it to anyone. Then I defeated the other two grunts there and delivered the Devon Goods.

Route 110 had just Meowths and Shedinjas, with the occasional Nidorina...but I found a Master Ball on it!

May had a Geodude, so I wanted to train up Oogen, figuring the type advantage was enough...then Geodude's Rock Throw dropped Oogen to 1 HP! But she survived! TROOPER, I TELL YOU.

Then I found a wild Shelgon...and cried that Dragon is not on my list :( I had to burn it to death with Salty's Ember and Flame Body.

In Mauville City, I found a Deep Sea Scale. I can't trade to evolve Oogen, but it doubles her special defense, so I gave it to her to hold.

After getting Rock Smash, I taught it to Salty, replacing Yawn...because I stupidly thought it was Rock-type, not Fighting-type, and was planning ahead to Magcargo. >_< Oh, well... [Future note: having a Fighting move is still quite useful anyway, and I never used Yawn that much, so it's not too bad after all.]

I got a Mach Bike, even though the emulator has a faster speed-up button. Because reasons. (Mostly because Cycling Road.)

I trained up at the house on Route 111, during which Crush learned Bite. I replaced Withdraw with that. I sold the Macho Brace they gave me; maybe a bad decision? I don't see it being too useful in this challenge, and I got 1,500 Pokedollars for it.

Then I grinded up on Route 117. I want my four main 'mons (Crush, Petri, Vitamin C, and Salty) all at level 23 before taking on the next gym. During one trainer battle...well, Vitamin C just took out every member with 1 hit each. That Defense Curl + Rollout combo is just insanity when I manage to get it off :D . During grinding, I ran into a Quagsire and caught it. His name is Gall, but he's not part of the party yet. Then I ran into a Quilava...and accidentally used my Master Ball on it instead of a regular ball. >_< Everyone, say hi to my big Mastake. (Nah, I love him, I just didn't want to waste my Master Ball on him...)

I figured since I was grinding, I'd grind up Oogen as well. During that, I accidentally got Petri up to level 24 (he had to save Oogen from certain death). So I decided not to focus on Oogen for now, leave her at level 14, and end the session, with plans to take on Wattson next time.

Bonus Info: Oogen's name (which I've pronounced alternately as "oo-ghen" and "oo-jen") comes from the word "oogenesis", because the inside of a Clamperl reminds me of a textbook diagram of egg production in ovaries. Nerdy as hell, yes, but also true. Gall's name is because his derpy expression reminds me of the Happy Gallbladder from the Awkward Yeti webcomic I often read. And Mastake...well, his name should be quite obvious.