Commander

Finally! You have no idea how painful this whole sections was. Grinding. Lots and lots of grinding. To The Cal Zone! Banned Types Additional Bans: N/A Level Cap: 36 ...That sounded better in my head. Anyways, I ended grinding a few new members since Nidoqueen, Jumpluff, Granbull, and Vanillish aren't going to have any use in this section. I trained up a Dugtrio, but that was it before storming Blacksteam Factory. The factory was kind of boring and I was just grinding up my mons. The Zel fight was a little anticlimatic because Pulse Muk kept trying to spam Muddy Water on Dugtrio (just think about it and you'll understand). It was a hard fight but Manectric, Croagunk, and the others knocked 'em out pretty easily. Apophyll was kind of boring too. I did a lot of training and prepping for two completely different leaders (in fact, I have two completely separate teams for each leader). Grinding took forever. When I got done grinding, I faced Cal with a team (it had Granbull and Gothorita who aren't shown on the list) and he whooped me with Magmotar alone. I then had to grind up Grumpig and Hypno to bring some Sp Def into the mix I got beat so badly. I was sure I saved so I reset, but it turn out I didn't save in the past 2 hours so I said screw it and hacked my levels and EVs back to where they were (I might've given Grumpig like 10 more Def EVs than what it originally was, but oh well!) Now let's get onto a hot battle: My team Creeper (Hypno) Lv 36 Ability: Forewarn -Headbutt -Psybeam -Hypnosis -Disable Trinity (Dodrio) Lv 36 Ability: Tangled Feet -Accupressure -Double Hit -Pursuit -Pluck Barksalot (Stoutland) Lv 36 Ability: Scrappy -Retaliate -Crunch -Ice Fang -Take Down Pearls (Grumpig) Lv 36 Ability: Thick Fat -Psybeam -Confuse Ray -Power Gem -Magic Coat Rinoa (Luxray) Lv 36 Ability: Intimidate -Bite -Charge -Thunder Fang -Swagger Glenn (Toxicroak) Lv 36 Ability: Poison Touch -Mud Bomb -Sucker Punch -Venoshock -Drain Punch Summary of Battle: OML you should've seen how bad this guy kicked my butt. It makes Correy and Shade look like they were showing mercy. Fire moves hit so hard and there are so few checks I can use at this point in the game (unlike Charlotte). Hypno managed to put Infernape to sleep and this is the first time he didn't use Flame Wheel, but instead wasted his Ultra Potions and used Mach Punch, then Close Combat. Next came Charizard who Luxray took down rather easily with Thunder Fang (thank the heavens it was a Physical Charizard). Magmortar came out and I hit it with Grumpigs confuse ray. It never hit itself and Power Gem barely did anything to it. After sacrificing Luxray (idk why he used Solar beam on the switch) I healed Hypno at an attempt to put the thing to sleep, which failed miserably. with its last bit of life, I healed Grumpig back up and finally KO'd his ace. Delphox came out next which Barksalot did a big chunk of it using Crunch before being finished off by Mystical Fire. Glenn then finished it off with Sucker Punch. Typhlosion came out next and it...just spammed solar beam while Grumpig slowly killed it. Cal was having an off day today. His last Pokemon was Blaziken. Dodrio outspeed it and hit the thing with Pluck (leaving him in the red) and barely survived a Fire Punch. Speed Boost made it outspeed killing Dodrio right afterwards. I then prayed Toxicroak could take a hit, but it was one-shotted by Blaze kick. I then had no choice but to send Grumpig back out with his mere 40 HP. I prayed he would do something stupid...and he did. Pearls survived a Double kick and ended the fight using Psybeam. Thoughts on the battle: I know this is supposed to be a miniboss, but this run makes him deserve his own little section. Honestly, this is the hardest challenge I've faced yet because his team is good and his field effect makes them better. My advice is to not run up there and treat him like the rival battles because he whooped me so hard. I know I "cheated" my way through this, but I barely won so I'll take the win and run to Kiki. Additional: I know Toxicroak is technically illegal, but he literally is not usable until Charlotte due to his typing so I made a little exception. And I needed it.

Eh, I can't correct everything or toughen up the leaders every single time because you wouldn't be learning everything. What I gave you I wouldn't consider "hard core" but more of a higher challenge (trust me, I could make Julia much, much harder). I guess it's kind of the best of both worlds because I'm not so great at RPG maker (I'm still trying to figure out the EV thing) so if you need help making a team tougher, go ahead and PM me, but getting feedback from other people is going to be helpful too (especially if they say leader xxx is too easy or too hard).

TBH Shade can't get much better than Slapping an Aegislash, Eviolite Dusclops, Giving Chandelure IVs, and Corey Shadow Ball. Trevenant could be given a Sitrus Berry or replaced by Spiritomb (with Leftovers), but that's about it.

The problem is that you also have the static sprites in their that are dominant which pretty much cancel any of the gif Pokemon. delete them and it should work. I know Amethyst is working on an animated pack for the next episode, but I highly suggest NOT using them in reborn in its current state. I haven't tested reborn in its currents state but Ep 13 crashed a lot for me with them in previous releases. They were available back in Ep VII and it really slows down your game (and crashes once in a great while...usually in the PC). Yeah, they were kind of neat tbh, but I've learned to live without them. It's honestly not worth the hassle.

I haven't tested the fight yet so I'm basing this on the log of her Pokemon and moves. I'll just get onto my thoughts before testing this thing. (I'm working on a project of denerfing the leaders so that'll eat away some time). But here we go on Julia:

Yeah, Solaris's team is actually pretty good in a singles match (I tested it in a 1v1). That Excadrill would've been a nightmare for me if I didn't abuse the glitch. Mandibuzz is the strongest on his team imo when you put him in singles. THAT. THING. WILL. NOT. DIE! I was honestly just thankful this was on the easy side because I didn't want to relive the whole F12 on Solaris's Garchomp back then.

The game is as hard as you make it. All leaders can be swept with something or manipulated to own them if you really wish.

I know Wash did some X-League battles that are up on youtube, but there are also some logs laying around of the original season of showdown (I'd have to search for it again on the site). But yeah, some of the leaders like Sigmund had really cool strategies (he used Discharge to boost his Pokemon's attack). ...I think my save is the only ones where Radomus ever uses Trick Room. Of course, I generally wind up using Pokemon slower than him so...you can imagine the results. But yeah, he's going to take time to get up there with the others (though I think his team is really cool). As for Serra, her days as the OP Hax Queen are gone due to Gen VI weather (thank god!). Believe it or not, it actually wasn't too hard to shift Pokemon from their older teams back on.

If you really want to get one of those few Pokemon that badly, you'll have to search around for episode ten (I know it's on the site somewhere, unless the user took it down). I don't promote this as it can cause your game to corrupt and ep 15 is the only one to implement the back-up saves.

I just created my own death sentence, haven't I? But yeah, I messed around with Serra's team making it this: As for grinding, it's way better than it was before (though I do have a little complaint about the rebattable trainers in the grand hall being a little too high). The wild Pokemon being higher levels made grind less tedious, though it still takes a while. I think it took about 3 hours to grind a new team of six for Shade though that was mostly because I had to keep healing from all the Klinks. The lower level cap is also a saving grace because the leaders lowest is about 3 above the wild pokemon around.

I have to agree with Kurostone on a lot of his points. I briefly mentioned the AI is crap, has been, always will be. The AI just works enough for what it needs to be so I guess that's that. But field effects are kind of the thing that helps improve the Leader difficulty (and yes it does help). Reborn is still a heck of a lot harder than main games so I can't complain too much. I'm still probably going to play with Serra and make her broken as hell again though.

I'm not doing anything that hasn't been on their teams before (also I picked Spiritomb because that's the Pokemon I shook my fist at the most against Shade). I need to finish my run before I tamper with anything so that'll come first. You also have to remember this is a machine running them, not some human.

Alright, I'm kind of looking into all the leaders and there's only a couple that need drastically changed (from what I can do) so here's what I plan on doing (note, none of this is official and can be shut down at any time): Julia Florinia Correy Shelly Shade (Skipping Kiki through Aya for the time being) Serra Radomus I can't really say anything about the others as it's been a very long time since I've faced their teams (my info is only current to EP 11/pre changes for any new leader). Another issue with leaders being so "easy" is because you're not letting them use their field effects properly. If you let them do that, they are as difficult as the pre-field effect leaders. All I'm going to do is tweak the leaders so they're a bit harder or close to the original difficulty while still letting the field effects to their thing.

Hmm...I'll try to tinker with the teams a bit and see if I can give them that challenge like the EP 10 version of the leaders while combining them with the field effects. I know some if it is being experienced with the game, but there have been nerfs and I'll see if I can de nerf them without going Hax Queen insane. And no, it's not going to be a challenge mode if you're wondering.

Believe it or not, the run isn't as hard as it looks (I think Correy was the only insane fight so far). And as Pyrr said, the AI is all kinds of screwed up. Shelly's AI needs help (her Illumise used Dazzling Gleam when Struggle Bug would've been much better). I will say the AI wasn't too great back in the day either (though Radomus was a hax god...he switched to Gallade in on a bite! The new AI wouldn't even know what that means). But if I had to be honest, Julia needs a buff in levels (nvm she was always like that), Florinia is pretty good as she is (her AI seemed okay), Correy is pretty spot on in Corrosive Mist (his AI is crazy though Crobat and Nidorina could use a smudge of help), Shelly has an amazing team (heck of a lot better than her Singles one), but the AI screws her over a bit, and Shade needs to drop Doublade for Dusclops or Spiritomb because it's the one Pokemon that has no idea what it's doing (his AI is also a little bit screwy but not by much). I'm not sure how any of the other leaders fair, but the essentials update horribly screwed up the AI. (Normal trainers could have super effective moves, but probably would use the move that was not very effective instead when it first released).

I doubt it. Reborn is about using unusual Pokemon you wouldn't normally use early in the game so throwing those back would just screw the balance up. They should stay the same as Reborn since this seems mostly like a vamped up version of leaders you face.

Let's see where it is. Oh here: http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=15004 It's kind of hard to determine a leader's difficulty until you fight them at full force. I'd try a challenge like that before whining about a leader being too easy. Based upon that ruleset restriction, I found everyone up to Shade to be both challenging and fun (not to mention a fear of Maractus). My only complaint is Shade's Doublade. Banette does its job better and there's no Spiritomb to tank hits (I miss Spiritomb). I can't say anything about Serra, but I'm glad Luna was knocked down that many levels. Her levels were way too high at that point in time and I feel like there was a 15 level gap between hers and my strongest. Radomus just needs help entirely (though he's difficult in Singles). I know Ame and her team addressed his Trick Room problem before. IMO Serra would benefit more in Doubles while Radomus would in singles even with the Gen VI changes. You're supposed to lose to Garchomp so I don't think a field effect is needed there. As for Aya, it needed to happen. I'd rather her be on the easy side then to face the original Aya again (I swear to god Sludge Wave had 100% chance of poisoning at the time).

Agreed, but for a different reason. I'm not trying to bash Jan or anything, but I hate fake moves because they really aren't needed. As for the team, let's get it started. I'm a pretty good battler so that might be a little too hard (nerfing is always easier than buffing). Just remember when designing teams, you have to make sure to use that field effect instead of ignoring it and using fake moves to make them harder. Edit: I'd also advise keeping his levels back to the 30-35 range instead of upping them. You have a lot more Fully evolved Pokemon which already is more challenging. Edit 2: Those changes are designed for the corrosive mist field. If you want me to give advice on the Corrosive Field team, let me know.

Sorry about the delay, but I had a lot of stuff holding me up. I also had to train up a bunch of new team members. Anyways, let's get onto shade: The Darker Shade of Shade Banned Types Additional Bans Level Cap: 35 Eh, I don't really know what color to make it since Black won't work. Anyways, I pretty much dropped the current team off to take back Jumpluff, Semisear, Driflim (temporary), Vanillite, Croagunk, and Granbull which was an okay team altogether. After a long session of grinding, I broke in to Sigmund's lair house and fought a whole bunch of Orderlies. Well more like Shelly fought the orderlies and I used it to gain experience (since my levels were 28-30). Blueberry died pretty every fight so that ice cream didn't get too much experience. After going through that Ordeal (is that a pun?), I did a couple little sidequests. The first was the Pangoro fights which all ended in Blueberry killing them (don't ask me how a terrible Ice type beats an high leveled fighting type) mostly thanks to Jumpluff who is a complete boss. (Seriously, I love this thing for its Speed and Sleep Powder). There also was the Aqua Boss battle which Jumpluff and the electric types took care of. Kind of hard, but way easier than I remember. So let's get to the team (a few oldies are back): My team: Queensly (Nidoqueen) Lv 35 Ability: Sheer Force -Bite -Double Kick -Toxic Spikes -Body Slam Hane (Jumpluff) Lv 34 Ability: Chlorophyll -Acrobats -Leech Seed -Sleep Powder -Bullet Seed Blueberry (Vanillish) Lv 35 Ability: Ice Body -Mirror Shot -Taunt -Acid Armor -Ice Beam Snukie (Granbull) Lv 35 Ability: Tangled Feet -Bite -Headbutt -Rock Smash -Heal Bell Scorch (Pansear) Lv 35 Ability: Blaze -Flame Burst -Acrobatics -Bite -Yawn Tiki (Floatzel) Lv 35 Ability: Swift Swim -Pursuit -Aqua Jet -Fury Cutter -Swift Summary of the Battle: This is like the Correy battle all over again. It's also kind of awkward to thinking about how Corey had to face his own Pokemon in battle. I had to reset quite a bit until Correy didn't hit my Nidoqueen with a crit for three turns. When that happened, I used one of my scarce Hyper Potions while he healed and then spammed Bite which 2KO'd Trevenant on the switch and then KO'd Correy when he came back in. Next came Bannette which I potion spammed against with Granbull (I only have 10 of those things so I couldn't do that much). I can't remember whether or not it KO'd Granbull, but I know it went down pretty quickly from the poison. Next was Doublade who was destroyed by Scorch's Flame Burst. Then came Rotom. Hane pretty much took the thing down after a long fight. I tried to avoid this, but it managed to use Discharge changing the field effect. Unfortunately, I ko'd it before it could change back breaking one of my rules. Hane kind of Leech Seed and Bullet Seeded while he hung on for dear life. Fortunately, only Chandelure remained who wasn't affected too badly by this incorrect field (I wanted to keep it in the Short-Circuit field the whole fight). After slowly picking my team off one by one, it was KO'd by the poison leaving only Queensly left making me the victor. Thoughts on Shade: He definitely got nerfed (and slightly buffed) quite a bit. Banette was a good trade for Dusclops because that thing was scary, especially if it got a crit. I do miss Spiritomb because Doublade wasn't really doing or adding anything but I really like the rest of his team. He doesn't use the field effect quite like the previous leaders, but he sure knows how to put up a fight with that boosted Shadow Ball/Claw. Everything is pretty tame except Chandelure. Nidoqueen is the only Pokemon on my team that wasn't one shot by this thing and Jumpluff was the only thing that outspeeds it. Correy pretty much outspeed anything I have (it tied with Hane who has a plus nature in speed plus a few EVs). Baz if you're reading this, good luck against this guy in you Mono-psychic run. Too bad Girafarig is unavailable at this point. I'd also like to take a minute to say Vanillite sux and you shouldn't use it until it fully evolves. The thing has been nothing but deadweight up until now.

Actually we can And it looks like my obsession with Steel Swords is going to come in handy. It also looks like carrying a variety of weapons is going to be key strategy in this game. If you spam a brave sword and an enemy is nearby, you're pretty much a goner. I wonder how they're going to fix Clerics because with infinite weapons, they can be broken as hell (combined with a dancer).

I think the elephant in the room we need to address is the Pokemon battles. The Player vs Player battles have been a hassle and ended up creating this situation. First off, I don't think doing another tournament is a good idea, but if it has to be done, I'd say skip as many battles as possible and allow people to draft up an outcome of the battle instead of having everyone do every battle. Being able to end a battle at any time would pick them up faster and prevent us from getting caught up in too many of these messes. As for the whole players in and out, the answer is in itself. Obviously there's going to be an abduction, but remember that Kenny being killed is going to be revealed sooner or later. This will make the school feel unsafe for a lot of people and either they or their parents will force them to withdrawal. Nothing too serious has happened to make the school have to close down, but there will be plenty of tension going around. If anyone wants to drop back in, the school will allow them back otherwise, we'll assume they've been moved out. That's pretty much all my thoughts up til now. I'm really busy, but I'll get to posting Thursday night (or maybe tonight).

You have to forgive me. I'm in a mix of summer classes and not being very motivated so forcing myself to stay up late and write something is getting more and more difficult. I'm also kind of waiting to see who else is missing before posting because like Strat said, I don't know if this RP is dead or not.