Weenie Challenge

[CeruleanSpirit]

This thread give a special place to weak pokemons, proving that the underdogs can win too. Beating gym leaders and the end game elites with weakling might pose a special kind of challenge. The rules are quite simple:

Weenie 400 Challenge​

Rules:
1. All pokemons you use in battle must have a maximum total base stat of 400. You can check the base stat of a pokemon on https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/. Search for Base Stats and look at the total. If a pokemon evolve to a form above 400, you can't use it in battle any more. You may however stop it's evolution to keep it.
2. Catch all the pokemons in-game. No trade allowed. Only pokebanking out is allowed, not into the game.
3. No Mega-evolution allowed.
4. No hacks or cheats!
5. The weenie challenge is accomplished by reaching the end game of one game.

Variants:
- For an even harder challenge, try a weenie 350 challenge, max 350 base total. For an even bigger challenge, try weenie 300. You may also go for easier, say weenie 420.

 

[CeruleanSpirit]

Well, I will try the Weenie 400 challenge on Pokemon Omega Sapphire, kinda bling. I still don't have any idea how I will beat Steven or the Elite 4 with little pokes. Any tips?

 

[BlissyMKW]

Well, I will try the Weenie 400 challenge on Pokemon Omega Sapphire, kinda bling. I still don't have any idea how I will beat Steven or the Elite 4 with little pokes. Any tips?

Pray for luck and a half. I did a Little Cup Challenge on Omega Ruby, and even after Dexnaving Lucky Eggs for my whole team and grinding to the extreme (sort of. I got lazy and only two of my mons hit 55 by the end of the run), I still had to abuse healing items and pray for luck on both Drake and Steven. I seriously only won after tons of tries because I learned that Steven's Mega Metagross had Giga Impact and gave me a chance to win.

But anyway, I'll give this challenge a shot. Red gives me a lot of choices, so I'll start there. My only restriction is that I have to choose Bulbasaur as my starter (because Ivysaur's BST is below 400 in Gen 1, so I can at least evolve it once) and I can only use mons I have not used before, so I still have choices.

So, to put it in other words, I'll put a little spoiler of mons that aren't starters that also match the rules that I'm restricted from using. Anything on this list or their evolutions are banned for me.

Spoiler:

Seaking (Solo run)
Seadra (Solo run)
Rhyhorn (because I used Rhydon in another challenge)
Staryu (Starmie is banned, but I did a Starmie solo, so this is banned too)
Onix (Pokemon Bronze Nuzlocke)
Dodrio (Emerald Randomizer Nuzlocke)
Graveler (The curse of never having Golem)
Dugtrio is god tier fast for Gen 1 standards, so for the sake of challenge, it's banned
Nidorino (Bronze Nuzlocke. Nidorina is fine, though)
Arbok (Same challenge as Rhydon)
Machop (Little Cup Challenge)
Dratini (Little Cup Challenge)
Pikachu (Little Cup Challenge)
Diglett (Little Cup Challenge, but since I banned Dugtrio, this hardly matters)
Gastly (Little Cup Challenge)
Growlithe (Also Little Cup Challenge)

Just about everything else is fair game, but I'll likely only have a team of 4 because I hate having full teams of 6 in challenge runs that aren't nuzlockes. Naturally, if I start early, I'll edit my post with my first update.

 

[CeruleanSpirit]

Actually, having done some homework on how to do this. I have found out that some people were doing solo run with weak pokes:

One Bidoof run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUQTCeIxaS0&t=310s
One Patrat run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJoB-cCQevw
One Sentret run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq4-ZhYAYPo
One Magikarp run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVKeTsmQxa4

Magikarp has to be the worst pokemon out there since it has a total base stat of 200. Still it has been a fun challenging tradition for japanese players to barrel through new Pokemon game with just one magikarp.

So the Weenie 400 challenge can't be that bad. About the only restriction is a max total stat of 400, anything else is fair game. Abuse restorative items and use TMs wisely. If your ivysaur gen1 total base stats is <= 400, it's good.

I will stop my fighting monotype run of Pokemon Y to start this one.

 

[metroid711]

Man, thats a lot of stage 1 evolutions that can be used.
Alright, ill go ahead and give it a shot.
I'll be doing it on fire red

Ooh, i need to get myself a porygon in this, cause it might be the best way for me to make it through this.
Welp, time to grind at the game corner

in fire red porygon is literally the strongest mon thats below 400

 

[moon]

Man, thats a lot of stage 1 evolutions that can be used.
Alright, ill go ahead and give it a shot.
I'll be doing it on fire red

Ooh, i need to get myself a porygon in this, cause it might be the best way for me to make it through this.
Welp, time to grind at the game corner

in fire red porygon is literally the strongest mon thats below 400

Just hopping in here to remind you that you can use the Edit button at the bottom of your post instead of posting again and again with little time in between :) Keeps threads less messy!

 

[metroid711]

Just hopping in here to remind you that you can use the Edit button at the bottom of your post instead of posting again and again with little time in between :) Keeps threads less messy!

eh sorry

 

[Disturb Not The Harmony]

After some thought, I'm going to attempt Red with Weenie 300, using post-Gen-1 BSTs.

Thoughts on Gen 1 Weenie 400, Weenie 350, and Weenie 300:

Spoiler:

Weenie 400
Kanto's actually not so bad for 400-BSTs, because Kadabra comes RIGHT at 400 and there are multiple strong Pokemon below that, such as Weepinbell and Graveler. Early on, you get Butterfree, which can carry you with Confusion until you get the rest of your team. (The only real issue is Porygon, who costs 130,000P... ouch. Unfortunately, it's the best Thunderbolter available.)

The major obstacles to victory are Lorelei's Lapras and Lance's (and Rival's) Gyarados, which is why a T-Bolter helps a great deal. Choosing Bulbasaur helps nullify Rival's otherwise-fearsome starter, as Charizard can get locked into Gen-1!Rage and has a 4x Rock weakness for Graveler to exploit.

Weenie 350
Staryu is basically the best Pokemon of the category, with a diverse movepool and 340 BST. Gastly is a close contender with its own movepool, its ridiculous Special and Speed, and useful immunities -- it should probably be the T-Bolter. Aside from that, you're in for a lot more pain, because even Butterfree is over 340.

Drowzee is probably your best Psychic because its goal is to block Alakazam. The importance of blocking Alakazam cannot be understated in Gen 1.
Diglett may be your best option for Ground, painfully flimsy though it is, due to its high Speed and early availability.

You'll again want Bulbasaur to weaken the enemy starter. Early, your team will probably be carried by Bulbasaur with Clefairy/Geodude backup. Clefairy is pretty tough in the early game, so that will probably carry you to Drowzee and Diglett.

Weenie 300
The absolute biggest issue, of course, is the absence of a starter!

The cheapest way of getting past Brock, based on a run of a No-EXP hack, is to get two Pidgeys to Sand-Attack level and burn one apiece on each of his Pokemon. Then Growl down with available Pokemon (in this case, a Pikachu), switch before KO, and Tail Whip and bash down with Rattatas. RNG-dependent, but better than having to grind for ages.

Past him, it's not so bad. Spearow can be employed for Peck, and Geodude squeezes in at exactly 300. From there, you use Pikachu for Misty and get Diglett for Surge.

You do hit a wall past, say, Celadon, because it's increasingly hard to pass the Gyms with 300 BSTs. Explicitly, you can only use Pikachu, Sandshrew, Poliwag, Bellsprout, Geodude, Dratini (56000P|92000P), Vulpix, Horsea, Meowth, Ekans, Ditto, Paras, Nidorans, Jigglypuff, Diglett, Spearow, Rattata, Pidgey, Zubat, Metapod, Kakuna, Magikarp, Caterpie, and Weedle.

I will personally go with Red, despite the much smaller pool, because spending nearly 40K less on Dratini means a lot more leeway cash-wise.

Final team is probably something like
Poliwag: Surf | Psychic | Amnesia | Hypnosis
Dratini: Thunderbolt | Thunder Wave | Wrap | Surf?
Pikachu: Thunder | Thunder Wave | Body Slam | Swift
Diglett: Dig | Rock Slide | Sand-Attack |Slash
Bellsprout/Ekans: Toxic | whatever

Dratini has that weird moveset as an attempted Lorelei/Gyarados-killer, with Pikachu for backup. The Poison-type is solely to shipwreck the AI for Lance's Dragons. There is no coherent strategy for Alakazam, save attempting to land Thunder Wave, Hypnosis, or Sand-Attack and going from there.

If I get too bored with the Elite Four grind, I can always break out X Items. X Speed x 30 and [Gen 1] X Accuracy x 5 could probably sweep the E4 for the measly sum of 15250P, because Pokemon can't attack on the same turn they wake up in Generation 1 and a fully boosted Poliwag would have a 100%-accurate Hypnosis with 270 effective Base Speed. Obviously I want to avoid this unless I'm verging on giving up the challenge otherwise, but it's a safety valve if I end up completely stuck.

 

[UkiTheMaid]

(( Edited my post to avoid double posting ))

As promised, I started the challenge tonight! Imma be using Pokemon Red ++, because even though a ROM hack, it's essentially just Pokemon Red "fixed" to look and feel nicer, and it'll make my life easier (run button and all that jazz). Also, I'll be avoiding all "additional" things the hack brings to Red (like Wonder Trading), and will try to play it as vanilla as possible.

Although, since I dunno if the ROM hacker changed the base stats of the Pokemon to follow Gen II onwards or if they left they unchanged, I'll be using the Gen II onwards base stats table to avoid "cheating" without meaning to, lol! (although, if this hack is still "against the rules" of the challenge, feel free to tell me and/or delete this post!)

Played the game for a while, nothing too eventful happened, this is the team so far!

Here's hoping they achieve great things!

 

[UkiTheMaid]

Double posting for the win! Played this run a lot today, passed the first gym and Mount Moon without any real issues, here's hoping things continue fine! Here's an update on the team:

 

[Disturb Not The Harmony]

Thread revival is allowed.
See a challenge that's a little old, but you still want to participate? Feel free to post in it!

Okay, I promised I would do a Weenie 300 attempt and never followed through, so here it is.

This was... more than a little rough. Not ashamed to admit I had to save before each Elite Four member and reload multiple times...

Running notes:

Spoiler:

Chose Bulbasaur for mentioned reasons.

The encounter RNG was extremely strange. I encountered nothing but hordes of
Nidoran Males while I was looking for an early Spearow, and I ground my early
team up a fair bit without finding a Pikachu. Then I looked up the odds on
Bulbapedia (5%) and got it on my next encounter. Er... huh.

Pikachu will be an important weapon against trash mobs because it will be
my only Pokemon not to be B-button dependent. I take one look at this and add Jigglypuff to my roster.

Not much to say about Mt. Moon: caught Jigglypuff and used it as a pseudo-Water with TM12.

Geodude's stats are technically superior to Diglett's, but that bulk will likely not take it very far,
which is why I'm siding with the mole.

Cerulean Rival took a few tries, but landing Sleep at the right time nerfed him to shreds.

Misty fell to Thunder Wave + Wrap.

My end team will be something like Poliwag, Dratini, Pikachu, Diglett, Ekans, and Jigglypuff. As such,
I need to hurry to Celadon and Fuchsia, since I can only get them there.

Lots of healing items in Rock Tunnel. This team is... really not rated for heavy usage. And it's only
midway through the game! Fun! :D At least Gyarados was a chump.

I run through the Game Corner mostly without issues, though many, many healing items are used, and
the ability to constantly exit via Diglett comes in real handy. Pokemon Tower is super-easy due to
Dig spam; the hardest part is letting go of the Turbo button after battles to prevent Diglett from
evolving.

After Pokemon Tower, I take a weird route alternating between Silph and Fuchsia. I need as much EXP
as I can get my grubby hands on, and I still need cash for Dratini, because gambling is for chumps.

The game is actually not so bad so far. Yes, I have to go back to a PokeCenter after a battle or two,
but, between Pikachu-powered parahax and Diglett's ludicrous physical power with Dig, I can handle
Trainers... which surprises me.

I get Dratini and... ugh, the one from Celadon is level EIGHTEEN?

I take advantage of technically not being limited to Weenies outside battle to fill the Pokedex.
I have 15 entries. This is going to be REAL fun. Still less painful than switch-grinding weenies.

Up to 22.

While I was gathering cash for PokeBalls, Koga obligingly blew up his own Weezing while Diglett was
underground. This sort of silly nonsense is why I picked Diglett over Geodude. Geodude has the bulk,
but Diglett's speed enables high stupidity like that.

27. 30. *some time later* 46!

And that's EXP All, and man does it have a lot of text. oh well.

Silph Rival is surprisingly easy, as Pikachu has naturally learned Thunder. That did impressive things
to his roster.

Some time later, I beat up Blaine with Diglett, then proceed to Sabrina. Finally, I conclude with Erika..
What do you mean, that isn't the normal order?

So the game's easier than I thought at this point. Pikachu is surprisingly effective once it unlocks
Thunder, and Diglett is a cut-down Dugtrio, which is to say it can sweep everything with SOME difficulty.

I suffer first wipe of the run to some very unlucky rolls in Viridian Gym, and go off to buy more
items. Giovanni himself is surprisingly easy: I solo him with Diglett. Does that make me the
real Ground Pokemon master?

Rival took two attempts, which was basically just because I needed his Alakazam to open with a derpy
Barrier rather than an actual attack.

Made it through Victory Road. And let us be frank: there is not a chance in heck that I can make it
through on the first attempt, with the august crew of a L31 Poliwag, L25 Dratini, L46 Pikachu,
L47 Diglett, and L35 Jigglypuff. Plus, I am out of money, and the healing items I have are not enough.

I take back what I said - I did just manage to clear Lorelei by burning through all my Revives. Bruno-
Bruno was just soloed by a L31 (now L33) Poliwag. Never mind.
Agatha, surprisingly, took a few tries. Mainly it was a matter of having Arbok not attack Diglett.

Pikachu snarfed six Rare Candies (L46->52) before Lance because I attempted him several times and died to
damage ranges. Aerodactyl went from always surviving to dropping in one Thunder.

Amusingly, Diglett oneshot Alakazam on a critical. Rhydon dropped in two Surfs from a L33 Poliwag,
proving it is Rival's worst. Exeggutor... took some very annoying PokeFlute spam until a Toxic went
through... Gyarados fell to a Thunder, and Charizard took down Pikachu, but then locked itself into
Rage and succumbed to Diglett's Sand-Attack spam followed by Slashes.

Champions:
LORD PIKA the L53 Pikachu (got 6 Rare Candies)
Thundershock | Swift | Thunder Wave | Thunder

Basically one of the two MVPs of the run. Without it, I COULD NOT have passed Lance. He was literally doable based on whether Thunder OHKOed Aerodactyl or not.

SHOVEL KNT the L49 Diglett
Dig | Earthquake | Slash | Sand-Attack

To my utter shock, OHKOed Champion's Alakazam on a critical. Aside from that, it pretty much provided damage for the vast majority of the run, rapidly taking over from the *intended* anti-Fire units and rampaging throughout the game. The difference between it and Dugtrio was pretty much that it could NOT take a hit under almost any circumstances, causing multiple reloads in Elite Four.

PUFF PUFF the L36 Jigglypuff
Strength | Sing | Water Gun | Body Slam

A good Pokemon and surprisingly effective in places, but I never figured out what to do with its TM load-out. While Sing's accuracy is awful, Sleep is so stupidly overpowered in Gen 1 that it actually mattered...

POLYNOMIAL the L34 Poliwag
Surf | Psychic | Body Slam | Hypnosis

Much less effective than I expected it to be, though that might have been because I got it so late. Since it soloed Bruno, I suppose I shouldn't knock it... Again, Sleep is overpowered. Pity its offensive stats were so inadequate that it blew most of its PP chipping through its targets. Seriously, by Gen 1 standards, a full third of its BST is Speed!

TINY the L27 Dratini
Thunder Wave | Wrap | Surf | Agility
It was supposed to be a lot more important, but my kamikaze Elite Four grinding run turned into an actual Championship run. Oops. Funny Gen-1 AI manipulation note: due to typecharts, Pokemon that know Dragon Rage will be locked into it against Dratini! Useful for actually surviving a run against Gyarados and landing Thunder Wave...

SDRAWKCAB the L28 Ekans
Wrap | Glare | Toxic | Bite

I'm really not sure what to say. Against normal opponents, it was such a deadweight I seriously considered leaving it in the PC. For its intended purpose, though - namely, exploiting Gen 1's busted AI - it fully lived up to my plans, taking out Lance's Dragons and Champion's Exeggutor without sustaining a single bit of damage. Exeggutor was more crucial than I had realized, because the usual living joke could have actually swept my zero-Defense team with Stomp. So, er... not an MVP in the same sense as Pikachu and Diglett, but an Honorary Mention?

Well, that was an extremely interesting run, and I am not about to attempt it in Gen 2 because I'm pretty sure the improved AI would wipe the floor with me, and personally I once beat the Johto E4 with nothing but a horribly-overleveled Poliwag and am not keen on repeating the experience. Great challenge, though. I'm gratified to discover that Pikachu really can shine if you give it proper care and attention. :)