nonsensei

And I'm finally done with the last 2 fights: Geara3 & Saki. This was quite a ride, but I enjoyed poking around with 'mons I don't usually even consider. Anyway.. I've been looking for a chance to use Crest Ariados ever since I obtained it, but either had trouble setting it up or the fight was not cut for it. Using my Aevian Parasect to get rid of the otherwise pretty deadly Obstagoon, then using his Aevian Parasect to set up entry hazards on to set the stage for Crest Ariados. Since Dragapult isn't affected by Sticky Web due to Clear Body, I also needed Toxic Spikes. Drapion with Lum Berry to ensure it waking up on Clefable, so it would heal first after KOing Drapion, letting Crest Ariados use Swords Dance due to his mega Gengar actually living Sniper crit Throat Chop otherwise. Then letting Crest Ariados sweep through almost his whole team. And the final fight. I tried soooo many things here. Super-buffing Toxapex, then Salazzle, using Focus Energy strats, trying to get Crest Ariados to somehow work until this finally worked out. I needed to avoid one Stone Edge crit in the beginning to set up a layer of Spikes to counter Crest Bastiodon with Sturdy. Then Salazzle KOing Durant & chipping away Genesect's HP. 2HKOing Aggron with my 2 Nidokings, the latter also cleaning up Genesect. Nidoqueen barely living to Counter mega Metagross which proved to the bottleneck of the fight to me. I use Super Fang to weaken Bronzong & Aevian Parasect cleans up. If that Shadow Claw hadn't procced crit, I would still have killed Bronzong with a Gunk Shot & barely, but still survive Bastiodon recoil.

Nearing the end, I managed to defeat Clear & Hazuki, leaving me with only 2 fights left. Scolipede is on a damn roll. I needed to maintain the Factory Field in order to prevent Naganadel getting Magnetic Rise from seed which meant not letting Stantler use Earthquake or Porygon-Z Discharge. In the end, Scolipede did the majority of work, only Baton Passed to Drapion to avoid Red Card activation & chipping Beheeyem's HP. Then changing field with Bulldoze which also helps keeping Naganadel's Beast Boost in check & got my seed boosted Aevian Milotic to continue the shield break while further decreasing speed and finally had Aevian Parasect clean up. Perma Trick Room & negative speed EVs. Really? Anyway, I used Plus/Minus Toxtricity duo in the beginning to KO the birb & dealing some damage to Aevian Chandelure (that crit was not needed, but I had 3 runs in a row where a crit procced on it. Weird.) The rest of my team had Iron Ball on them to secure lower speed than her fking negative EVs. I love how I changed to Alchemy on Alolan Muk to get def increase & still got OHKO'd. Dragalge is one hell of a beast in this battle, though. Adaptability & Dragon moves getting 2x boost, boi. Amoonguss just there to prevent stuff moving for the one turn they live.

Finally got to MC's school route, so Zetta4, Masked Individual (the one with full team) & the fight with Ariana. This wasn't too hard, despite his team being pretty strong. Not too much synergy with field. I'm mostly using immunities to my advantage. The biggest issue was probably his fully EV maxed Silvally which is pretty bulky, but I let poison chip its HP away until Nidoking could OHKO it. That Sucker Punch mindgame was fun around the end with mega Absol. This one didn't give me too much trouble, but it's another fieldless battle. That said, that Swellow was annoying. I didn't really need that crit on Hippowdon since it doesn't have Assault Vest. After that, just Aevian Parasect & Scolipede doing their job. This.. was actually tough even without the field stuff going. It took me several approaches to get her until I deployed Red Card, again coz her Altaria was actually tough nut to break. Victini also proved to be a major pain & it wasn't easy to set Toxic Spikes up on Blaziken as against Toxapex, it just passed speed which got me into plenty troubles, but something frail just dies to it without making a dent, leaving Focus Sash still an issue. So yeah, it was fun to experience a tougher battle without elaborate fields to make your life miserable for once.

I'm on a roll, so got 4 fights done: Angie+Cera, Lorna2, Madelis4 & Cassandra. Putting the playlist link, instead as usual for 3+ fights. Angie+Cera: Angie returns! And her battle didn't change much, so I had a pretty easy job with this one since I already had a working strat from last time, just improved 'mon pool. Lorna2: Someone's Trick Room is getting nope'd hard. But really.. praise Sludge Wave that I finally got access to. And that's really all there is to it. She's screwed if she can't set Trick Room up. Madelis4: Florges was just asking to set Salazzle up on it for a sweep. The start was a bit awkward, but her Cincinno is actually bulky enough to tank a Megahorn from Scolipede. And luckily, Florges tries to heal first, so I used my chance to buff up. Cassandra: Look, it's another one of my favourite: Lycanroc! (Though, there are lots of other threats here.) The worst part is that I couldn't even send Aevian Parasect against it coz I needed it to avoid losing a 'mon against Shadow Bisharp. Luckily, Qwilfish can make a decent dent on it while lowering atk & it just Life Orb suicided afterwards. Mega Mawile falls to the good ol' Sucker Punch mindgames against Corrosive Salazzle. Unlike Madelis', this Cincinno doesn't live Scolipede's Megahorn, so RIP. Finally, making her Aevian Milotic use Recover to safely pass speed to Nidoking who finishes the fight.

Finishing up chapter14, I got Venus, Isha & Melia4 in my pockets. That Tauros was super annoying. I ended up using Life Orb on Crobat to OHKO it with Acrobatics. But then the A.I. goes switching out, so first had to deal with Steelix. After that, Aevian Parasect just destroys the remaining of her team. I didn't have much trouble with this fight since I released Giratina previously. The biggest issue was that Probopass, but putting Toxicroak back on team solved the issue (even if I didn't end up needing it for the kill). Pretty much just having the right match-ups here. Melia finally gets a field she can make use of. Go to 1:25 if you don't want to witness the epic showdown between Toxapex & mega Snorlax. Her Aegislash on this field is a goddamn monster that demanded at least one sacrifice since I couldn't OHKO it. Then there's Mimikyu who I ended up using a seed against.. and it still murdered my Drapion. And Aevian Milotic just had to miss at the end which had Scolipede get one more to the Hydreigon kill count. That always ends up being Scolipede's task.

To be fair, before the cutscene with the choice, she did say sorry, but that (obviously) wasn't enough for Karrina. That's fine up to that point, but Karrina was dead set on her revenge from the beginning. Karen realised that & in that case, what else is there to say? And yes, she's not exactly an unimportant character as she's still an E8 member. Not saving her evidently pushes you closer to a bad ending. It's not even necessarily a question of morally right or wrong.

Alright, another 2 fights done with one major concern out of the way, namely Ryland. And somehow got through the question marks, too. That took a lot of struggle, but the moral is: praise the sun! Luckily, his Nidoqueen tries to set Toxic Spikes up which is literally useless against me. I was worried that crit in the beginning changes something, but fortunately, it didn't. I have no idea why Gliscor didn't straight attack Gengar, but I ain't complaining. Afterwards, setting sun up again, so my Chlorophyll Venusaur with timid nature barely outspeeds his Excadrill. And that balloon on Salazzle at the end saved the day. This was stressful. Lots of question marks. This fight is full of RNG factors with crits & misses which can change the result of every single run, leaving me without any specific strategy to come up with. So I kinda just grabbed my first successful attempt, enjoy me thinking for sometimes a minute or so, trying to read the A.I.'s next move in the 836th unfamiliar scenario. The basic idea was that I let my partner do the work with all the seeds & whatnot while I provide support. At the end, I really should have gone for Megahorn instead of Rock Slide to KO the weakened Aegislash, but I was on negative brains by the time I reached there.

Entering the Zone Zero parts, the dreaded Ryland fight is not far off, but first Eli+Sharon3 & Lorna1. Sucker Punch mind games, anyone? This was surprisingly tough nut to crack. Well.. their initial two, mostly. I had Salazzle relearn Toxic, so I could get rid of them both at once with Heat Wave. That said, it sometimes didn't go for Sucker Punch which was rather annoying. The rest was oddly smooth sailing compared to the struggles I had with those two. Trick Room time, so I bring out my slow 'mons which result in using a not too diverse team. I even got confused which Muk is which coz the shiny is special bulk while the other is atk trained. I get rid of her Aromatisse ASAP, so it doesn't set both screens up. Then slowly taking out Aevian Lapras & putting FusionRock to sleep, so it doesn't have a chance. I had a cold sweat when I saw Trick Room run out, but apparently, my other Muk was faster than Darmanitan, so it worked out.

Today's progress is a lot of diving. I got Karrina2, Neptune & Aya who I totally forgot about, oops. Last time Karrina was underlevelled & had no field, but she was somewhat of a challenge this time. I mostly had trouble with her Incineroar & in the end, had to add a Qwilfish to my roster. Her Fearow is somewhat scary, but not too hard to outspeed & rather squishy. And Nature Power is OP on this field. Sweet, sweet watery fields. I love (to pollute) them. Underwater battles are very annoying by default, but become much easier to manage if you change the field. Murkwater is homeground to me, so once that was done, I could sweep through her team. So, I levelled back my 'mons to 80 since this fight is available in the last chapter. The amount of curses I cast in my head on every single Lycanroc user... I once again used Qwilfish & decided to just give it a seed to counter hers. That Z move, though.. it destroyed a full on special wall Tentacruel. Her team in general is quite devastating if you let them do their thing & I kinda did. The end is sort of all over the place for that reason, but I was happy to get through that goddamn Lycanroc & didn't feel like retrying.

And I finally return to the post Souta parts. Done with chapter13, so Ren5, Novae4 & Adam up next. I'm going oddly passive on this one for myself, but Ren also seems keen on killing off his 'mons, so I just help him a bit. Okay.. this was just dumb. Screwing over the A.I. so bad with Toxapex & Scolipede. Anyway, this fight was honestly quite annoying with all her speedy 'mons until I found that strat. I especially hate on every single Lycanroc I have to fight. Damn those things. So Adam tells us he only lost coz of that cursed Inverse Field. And damn right he is. (Or at least, it definitely didn't make my job any harder.) I finally got access to Gengar & Aevian Parasect. I was planning to do some Hex/Venoshock sweeping with Gengar after setting up Toxic Spikes, but Aerodacytl would have stopped me, so in the end, I didn't even get a chance to use it. RIP Adam.

Got around to finish the revisit of act1 battles: Aelita2 & Geara+Zetta. Since it's directly after Angie & without field, I left my 'mons at lv50. I decided to get Tentacruel go full def up since her team is mostly physical, but I didn't expect it to be this effective. And at the start, Hidden Power Ice is still being useful. I initially thought Crobat doesn't have access to Tailwind, but it seems gen8 dex fixes that which opened up a way for me. In the beginning, Skuntank's Sucker Punch helped quite a lot, KOing Aerodactyl before it could attack & causing significant damage to Typhlosion before it could use Eruption. I had to use a seed for def up on A.Milotic to safely get rid of Dragonite while saving Crobat from KO to get Silvally. And yay, finally Sludge Bomb available. (Also, somebody explain me how the hell Shell Trap is supposed to work coz it clearly didn't go off on Dragonite.)

Phew.. I managed to get through Angie. So here comes Madelis+Grunt & Angie battles. Playing around with Murkwater, again. And that alone was basically enough to sweep through their teams. Venoshock just murders most stuff on this field. Oh, boi... this battle is tough even if you alter the field. Luckily, as long as you got a 'mon active with Wide Guard, the A.I. will mostly refrain from using multi-target moves after the first attempt which means no Cold Truth or Blizzard to change back to the Frozen Dimension. Since I needed Toxapex's constant presence, Regenerator didn't have a point, so I changed it to Merciless to be able to deal some damage with it & bypass potential Aurora Veil. Had to use a seed on Salazzle to outspeed Mamoswine in order to destroy the field & KO the initial two. The rest is just reaping the results.

There's a move relearner in GDC in the shopping district in the right stand & I'm not quite certain at which point, but egg moves become available in it, so you can stay lazy. And you can get A-Marowak by evolving Cubone at night.

I made a big mistake on Valarie fight. No idea why I thought Tentacool is available in Akuwa Town, but it is not. Of course utilising debug mode to skip catch/breed/train stuff (that I recently learnt how to use) would backfire on me. Major oopsies. Anyway, the strat itself is still available, just with Muk. And the flow of the fight turned out to be similar on a ridiculous level. Same order of 'mons, same moves used, heck, same 3 rare candies used, just for learning Acid Armor in this case.

Aaand done with the next 4 fights of Rorim B.2, Ren4, Crawli & Sam+Alex. Only Angie remaining & the revisit of Geara+Zetta fight for a less "hax" approach. (Oh, there's Madelis aaand, Aelita..?) Rorim B.2: Didn't have much trouble with this. Tailwind & rain can be a pain, but the former doesn't last long, the latter is only really an issue on Ludicolo. And I got a Scolipede to make up for speed differences, too. Ren4: No more screwing around with Swalot like last time. Instead, I screw around with Toxicroak absorbing water attacks. It really came in handy to prevent a few unnecessary casualties. Crawli: Destroying the key of Crawli's strat with a single Feint.. and the noble sacrifice of Crobat. The fight is much easier without the annoying entry hazards. That, and Tentacruel can actually single-handedly tank his team (-Galvantula) with an Acid Armor & its passive heals. Well, if he doesn't land a crit. Sam+Alex: I swear these guys gave me more trouble than their boss. The first few tries, I was trying to just mow them down, but eventually went back to the Tentacruel tank approach since it works here as well, just a tad bit slow.

I can see the issue people have with his sudden change in attitude, he basically turned from an evil jerk to just a regular jerk. Boring. But as mentioned, it definitely is related to that shadow disappearing after getting lego'd back together. And I'm sure the story will soon enough tackle that matter which will probably make it more understandable & acceptable. They even retrieved a piece of that thing from Angie to analyse, after all.

Getting close to the end of act1. This time, I got Geara2, Zetta2 & Novae3. Geara2: How convenient you get a Ducklett egg in Akuwa Town to pass Defog... As usual, that Marowak hurts, so slowing it down in order to have Nidoking still outspeed it with -2. Then getting rid of the annoying entry hazard with Crobat which makes the rest of the fight much easier. Zetta2: Dealing with that constantly critting Hitmonlee with Unburden is the biggest issue here. I relied on Skuntank's Aftermath to weaken it, then Nidoking could KO it. Once I got rid of that, the rest of his team wasn't too hard. Novae3: Switches. Switches everywhere. I didn't really need to stall Lycanroc, Tentacruel could OHKO it with Surf just fine, but I was kinda traumatised by flinch proc from Zen Headbutt 5 fights in a row... Some misplay at the end against Passimian, but I sometimes forget fight type isn't resistant to poison & I wasn't sure if Flamethrower could KO it.

Chapter5 done, Nim2, Madelis2, Neved & Valarie fights incoming. Didn't have much trouble with these. Nim2: What happened to the background? RIP Nim, though. Falling into the usual targeting Scolipede mistake, but it goes to the extremes here. Madelis2: Cave field helps a lot here with boosted Rock Tomb to get rid of her Houndoom & Crobat, so I didn't really have too much trouble. That Fletchinder is.. you probably know. Neved: Toxapex makes its "first" appearance & is majorly useful fending off that 2 Blizzard, so Hawlucha lives to actually deal some damage. Overall, not too difficult with 12vs6 & still not up against properly EV trained stuff. Valarie: I think Water Surface is my favourite field now... So you go back to Akuwa Town, catch a Tentacool, train it, then feed it 3 Rare Candies to overcap & learn Sludge Wave, evolve it afterwards & level back. Then profit. Or at least, I do. Murkwater even gives her water stabs poison sub typing, making my job pretty easy.

Ren & Narcissa incoming. Phew.. pretty tough ones. As for Ren, this isn't exactly how I planned this fight, but it works. Corviknight at this point is pretty annoying for me, so my only chance was relying on sleep & Hidden Power Fire. Then Swalot wearing his team down unexpectedly well. Then just pew-pew. In Narcissa's case, Ariados with Insomnia saves the day by taking care of the otherwise pretty annoying Drifblim.. and for some reason, Chandelure, too. I'm getting lucky with flinch procs, but I had my way around Dusclops by putting it to sleep with Venusaur before it uses Rest. Then weakening Aevian Mismagius, so Crobat wouldn't be stopped by its Focus Sash.

Another 5 incoming in playlist format: Amanda2, Marianette, Aelita1, Eli & Shanon Sharon2 & Geara1. Amanda2: There's nothing really stopping me from setting up Ariados for a sweep besides that confusion, so there it goes. RIP Amanda Marianette: This battle gave me trouble even on normal mode due to still not getting any extension to my 'mon choices since start, so I played safe & used a seed. Luckily, Toxic Spikes works, so Seviper with Venoshock made a perfect sweeper after a bit of set up. Aelita1: nothing too hard here, but I love this theme & Aelita is my favourite character besides Flora. (yes, Flora, go ahead & cast stones at me) Eli & Sharon2: Not exactly difficult, just the mascots(?) of Team Xen, but they put a proper fight. I just leave Durant running around as it keeps spamming Dig on my poison types which gives me more opportunities to target the other side than it hurts me. Geara1: The A.I. just loves to focus on Scolipede despite having Protect. Setting up Toxic Spikes in the beginning, then removing Marowak right away as it is pretty strong at this point with damn Thick Club. Then the rest is just business as usual.

Good job. Stealth Rock really makes things a bit easier, especially on Dragonite which would otherwise be pretty much impossible to OHKO with its Multi Scale.

I'd suggest using Elemental Seed on Talonflame instead of wasting a turn using Tailwind. Hit Pidgeot with Hurricane, then a Crobat with Brave Bird is hopefully enough to clean it up.

Yeah, the Pokemon Hospital in Hope District gives you the opportunity to change IVs at will (and 10k money for each), but that will be only available around the end of chapter 14.

The rooms back in the Gearen Lab. I don't think you can go back to Gearen in this part of the story, unfortunately. The Power items can be obtained in the training rooms for each stat. And you gain access to the rooms by buying the Cards for them in the AP shop. The rooms are pretty helpful since each 'mon there gives 12 EV points by default for the stat the training room is for, making the process much faster, so make sure to use them when you get the chance. You can learn more about EVs in this article: https://www.serebii.net/games/evs.shtml It's a bit long, but pretty easy to understand, but a real quick summary of EVs are that they're extra points for the stats of your Pokemon that you can gain defeating other Pokemon. Each stat can have a max of 252 EV & the total EVs you can get is 510 which means you can basically EV train 2 stats. And once you gained the EVs, you can't modify them except with some berries used to decrease them, so you will probably have to use those berries on your previous Pokemon if you want to EV train them. You can get those berries from the Lost Camp side quest once you got first upgrade.

If you grabbed the Power items from the EV training room, you can EV train at whichever Audino trainer with your 'mon holding the Power item (Power Bracer for atk & Weight for HP, in this case). With Power items, you will get 8 extra EV points for each defeated 'mon to the stat the Power item increases. So defeating 32 'mons will get you to max EV. If you bought Exp. All, you don't even need to use the 'mon you're training, it will still get the EV points. Well, on a side note, Audinos will give you 2 EV points for HP by default, but it shouldn't be an issue in this particular case. As for IVs, that's a pretty tedious work with breeding... you can probably skip that part & still get a favourable result. Buuut uh-oh.. if you don't have anything from Gigalith line, then I don't think it's available at GDC arc. That said, you can find something with high atk stat, learning Nature Power & get a similar result, hopefully. And to confirm, do you have the TM for Nature Power? If you don't, you're kinda screwed on this strat as it was obtained from the guy with the bus on route2 by showing him some 'mons.