Commander

I mean I did test runs of hardcore in the original release where they all had zero IVs on everything more or less. You don't need it, but having some in the better stats helps. Leaders do have EVs as well but you don't start seeing teams of perfectly spread EVs until Charlotte and only recently in E15 have bosses started packing those (ie Taka). I doubt you'll ever need perfect EVs as it's a lot of work to do for not that much more strength until the very late fights.

Someone actually struggled with steelix? That's a first. I probably could make that thing a level 100 and it still wouldn't be super difficult. Btw, which version are you playing? If it's 1.9, that abra got a 15 level nerf so some things should survive it now. Emphasis on some.

This is actually kind of tough to be honest since the Reborn I played is vastly different than the current one. If I had to pick one of the current ones, I guess I'd go with Noel, but of all the battles I've faced Ep 8 Serra definitely takes the cake hands down. If I did a Reborn run now, I probably would think they all are kind of easy just knowing the field effects and teams that well. For Hardcore, I already know my two hardest fights. The Sigmund cove battle and Solaris on Pyrrous Mountain. Honorable mentions are Serra, Aya, Julia, Corey (Mist), Blake, and Pre-Nerf Pulse Abra, and the triple Maison fight.

Doubles is a pain in the ass to manipulate and unlike Shelly I only have about 60 EVs I can tamper with instead of 300 to help adjust difficulty and override the AI. I spent two months on this project and could honestly tell you it could take a week or two of working on that to get a possible, finicky solution due to how much the AI hiccups. A Calm Mind team would be a good substitute until either A) a trick room is fixed in a later episode or B. the game is finished. If B happens (which I doubt will be needed) I will personally try and code it in. It's just that after each episode release I have to more or less start from scratch in terms of game adjustments. (Trainer data is easy to transfer). As for Bennett, Butterfree is already gone. I'm not sure how you guys will feel about it's replacement, but it should work. He also got a new Mega, but Hera is still there. As for the other news, I defeated Luna, but I probably won't update until I beat Samson (I challenged her with level 60-61 Pokemon and think she's fine in that range). Luna and Samson really aren't going to see too many adjustments (Poor Bisharp though. A good Pokemon, but horrible because everybody knows she has one for a lead). All I'll say is thank god that Umbreon was Dark Pulse spamming.

Well we know what wallpaper I'm using. I really honestly like the look of them. In the official games, I never really cared for them that much, but these look really good.

You can't really choose what you get out of the mystery egg hence the mystery. But anyways good luck because you'll need it considering who the first gym leader is in this game.

Alright, I decided to consider giving Radomus back his singles team fight temporarily due to his AI problems. I just want to emphasize that this WILL NOT be a permanent change and will be reverted back once trick room for the AI works. Unlike Shelly, it is clear Radomus is unable to hold his own without his mean strategy meaning he's kind of easy. I will test it each episode update and once it works like it's supposed to, I will drop the Calm Mind team. This is a very serious situation as there's nothing else I can do to fix the big issue since Radomus cannot outspeed anything with his team. When speed is an issue, it's almost impossible to work around. I want very serious feed back on this and would not like to change Radomus's doubles strategy, but if the fight is really that weak or bad, I don't want to try fighting the AI. This is the one time I will only change Radomus if the poll gap is really big (like around a 10 vote difference between the two).

I'm going to say a big no to that one. If add a TM, another must be gotten rid of. It makes sense for Shade to have Shadow Ball considering most of his Pokemon use it, but only a couple of Radomus's use Calm Mind (I think one) and only one pokemon learns Trick Room via level up. I don't think it's fair for trick room lovers. (is trick room lover himself...and thinks trick room is the second best TM available right now). Quite a few psychic types learn Calm Mind level up anyways so I don't think it's that big of a deal. If I wanted to make Radomus a super hard fight, I would've given him his singles Calm Mind team, but you can't really call him Radomus then. Most people at that point of the game don't have an excadrill which is like saying all the leaders are super easy in reborn after picking Blaziken. I agree he's on the weaker side of leaders due to being screwed of Trick Room, but somehow it works. As for Sigilyph, it'd be more likely to spam Stored Power then try to use any of those moves so...that's a no. AI does not like stall or setting up if you couldn't tell.

Hmm...I might change that Dusknoir into an Eviolite Dusclops but without the berries I don't know how difficult he is. Believe it or not, that Gengar used to outspeed everything but I used Manectric as a test for speed. Electric types are just super buffed in that field while his attacks are on and off buffed. An electric type boss latter really shows how good that field is for electric types. The only one I can really change is Dusknoir as the others I know are staying for sure.

Radomus's team is not bad. If I turned him back into the Calm Mind team from E10, he'd be a nightmare on the field, but this is a fight that will be a lot better when field effect AI is implemented. Still, I think it's the Psychic/Rock that hurts him. It's great for handling bug types, but now fighting types remain unchecked. If I didn't have Curse handling most of the mons, I would've had a hell of a time (that Gardevoir is scary). I like his team and it's definitely fun to fight after the level boost he needed. I may give El the Solaris treatment down the line depending on how important the choices you make are. IIRC I actually beat him on my test run rather easily it was kind of pitiful. It actually is probably going to help more than hurt down the road losing this battle to work on future episode fights. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I also wanted to make an annoucement that 1.9 is out. I'm just going to list all the changes that have occured since 1.8 here.

Honestly, I was actually in the 30 range when facing the Taka and Zel double, but it honestly is not that bad. You rescued all the police so it's basically saying you asked for it. (Normal Corey isn't a piece of cake either, but his level recommendation is 30). Here's the problem with doing the Rain Dance thing. I'm screwing people who opt out of the burning field strategy or fire types on an AI problem that could potentially cripple her even more than regular reborn. Her team is good and a fun challenge imo even without the rain. Think of the rain more as icing on the cake than the most important part of the battle. I'm sure later episodes will eventually fix this issue like trick room. Everything else more or less works fine outside a few hiccups. The other big issue is that she is completely against using it. Literally all I had on her illumise was rain dance and confuse ray at one point and she switched it out instead of doing rain dance. The AI calc is just very picky on when to use rain dance in doubles so even if she just had rain dance, it's possible all she'd do is just switch the Pokemon out for a different one instead of using a move.

I'll just say that you are so lucky I can't get Rain Dance to work. I mean I've tried everything, but she won't do it.

I've used both Nidos and I can honestly say they are both good. Dugtrio is another one I can recommend as almost nothing outspeeds it. Sure it doesn't have the world's greatest attack, but bulldoze can help you out. It saved my life on Charlotte. There's also Flygon who is probably going to be your best bet for a couple gyms down the line. Don't give up now because you've gotten very far. Huh, that's a first. There's a lot that goes on with Shade. Some teams will think he's tough, others might be easy but I do appreciate mentioning something. I still have room to buff him, but I'd like a bit of feedback from people before polishing him again (I'd also fix that Gengar sprite while I'm at it because ugh it looks ugly). That'll probably be a E16 thing or something depending on if another popularity kick goes on. <----------- Is creator of this mod. If he doesn't know what he's doing, we're all screwed. If a certain tm was available like it was (cough Shadow Ball cough) I would've thought Aya was kind of easy, but no matter what, I usually lose about 2-3 pokemon a boss fight or pretty much everything but a single hit point for Solaris. As for Mickey...I don't know how much longer he'll last as he's finally starting to fall. I'll try to keep him, but I think after Charlotte he's going to have to retire. Still 10 episodes is a good run for any Pokemon. And now we continue our adventure: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Episode 9-5: The Gambler vs the Chess Master Okay so highlight of pre Cain would be that some idiot forgot to save their game and had to fight Fern all over again IN THE RAIN! Just imagine tears of fraustration as the Duck tree swept my team. The only thing that could survive is Hudson with 4 HP after an Ice Beam (scald killed). Not really going to do a log of that since the highlight was Ludicolo destroying me. Vs Cain Just a note: This might change but I did a bit to try and buff Cain up a little bit. Anyways, I'll make this a spoiler even though it's not a big one: Pic of Team: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Skipping the El fight since I lost that. The only way I could win is if Judgement was NVE on Blastoise for Mirror Coat and Acreus used Shadow Ball on Gallade letting it KO with Close Combat. I kind of needed to lose since that'd allow me to explore both options on my test on non test run for what I think will be two different battles next episode. Vs Radomus Just imagine this the first two attempts. "Oh Radomus is easy!" (Gets swept twice) So the battle started with Curse (Spiritomb) and Sir Robin using Nasty Plot and Swords Dance and Robin barely survived a Psychic and Strength combo. The next turn Robin outspeed his Gallade (it took me a minute to realize what was up). And A psycho cut and Dark Pulse left both his Pokemon in the red, but Gallade was taken down (they can't do nothing to spiritomb). Nidoking came out next and then this kind of went by fast as my Pokemon were kind of slaughtering his, but he managed to KO Nidoking while trying to hold his ground. Spiritomb was eventually taken down and by then he was down to Gardevoir and Slowing. Thankfully I had an amazing strategy of luck where I had Leonardo (Blastoise) use protect while he mega evolved Gardevoir and the gods were on my side as Discharge managed to paralyze that Gardevoir before Sparky was taken down by Psychic I believe. I sent out my Leafeon who was my last remaining pokemon excluding Leonardo and together they knocked the Gardevoir into the red zone and the Gardevoir hit itself to KO it. If that thing used Hyper Voice I would've been screwed because I don't think Blastoise could've lived it. Radomus also didn't change that much other than fixing Gardevoir and Gallade's natures (they had a hindering speed nature originally). 1.9 will come out soon, but I have to do a couple more quick fixes before I do that. I decided to put Shadow Ball in a certain spot (I'm not telling you where) so that people who missed it can get it. Shade will have Shadow Ball only in the final release in 2.0.

One of the big issues I kind of have is that the EVs are split all across the board for Noel through Luna but that doesn't make them weak. If I'm going to bring any old Pokemon back, it'd be Girafarig, but the new Noel is not bad. The other issue is El who could have just about any normal type (I predict Chansey, Smeargle, Snorlax, Miltank, Ditto, and Mega Kangaskhan will be his team). As for Miltank itself, Licklicky is actually bulkier, but lacks the speed to use its attacks. If that thing had even 40 more speed in BST or this was a double battle, it'd hurt pretty badly. I opted for something I bit faster and stronger, but Miltank could be a backup. Kind of hard to judge against a monotype with a lot of strong pokemon which most of their good moves. I doubt you'll have a hard time with Radomus unless he sets up a trick room due to the neutral damage from Pyschic attacks.

Hmm...I suppose it's how I designed it which would explain it. Most of the leaders got huge amps covering their weaknesses one way or another such as Aya having double blizzards to cover ground weaknesses. Aya also has two leads which I will call the great wall of China in terms of living. It's kind of funny since she is a mixed leader with a bigger focus on revenge killing. But yeah, there will always be the leader you find easy and the leader you find hard, but hardcore's emphasis is on more rounded teams as well as strategies (unlike the main game, I don't make a huge gap between ace and normal Pokemon in terms of power making them sometimes feel weaker).

ROFL this is a regular run, but Corey's team is painful even on a normal run. I suppose it is hard to tell because I tried my hardest to mimic their fighting styles but with a higher tiered difficulty. It wouldn't be reborn if I completely changed up how they fight after all. Anyways, I run like this is still challenging and enjoyable in its own little way.

Dang, I actually didn't change those fights in the update iirc but wow that's kind of a surprise. Serra does have a huge advantage over physical attacks especially with that mirror chip damage. I don't know how the noel fight will go because on one hand you have strong Pokemon, but on the other, Noel has strong threats as well (1.9 probably would give you hell though). Good luck as a few of the upcoming fights are kind of tough. Also, it's been a while since you updated (Yay!)

This confuzzled me for a moment because he's not that much stronger than pre-nerf noel who was kind of hard. My best advice is to get a Nidoking/Nidoqueen as Sludge wave will set the field into a corrosive one...which is important. Yeah rocks are good and all, but now you stopped his attack boosts and healing turns (as well as dent him a little with hazards). The other option is a burning field with Camerupts Lava Plume, but given you don't like fire...that'll be tricky. His lickilicky is quite slow but for a normal run he doesn't punish enough to make up for the lack of speed which is why Sawsbuck too its place. The field is more dangerous than helpful so getting rid of it should be top priority. If that's not enough, you could try a quick claw/miss RNG to dodge that Cincinno's attacks (and I didn't even touch that thing honestly). Good luck with Shelly because she is a wall on her field. Like, I tried making sure someone would have a hard time setting the field on fire type deal since I couldn't get Illumise to use rain dance (I think I might have a temp solution to fix it though as I think I knew enough on doubles AI).

You don't even want to know how many hours I clocked in to fix this Shelly fight. That total alone is about a weeks worth of work. In the official game, most people blow this fight off claiming it's too easy due to the poor AI. The only thing I couldn't do is get Rain Dance to work, but that's only a problem if you change the field. And don't worry, Shelly's team is good. Like really good after the revamp. She's one of those very unique leaders as her strategy is to slowly chip your hp down and absorb your attacks. She's certainly not an offensive leader if you couldn't tell. Vespiquen used to be an attack spammer so I'm so glad it uses its other moves. Again, this fight took a ton of work and effort to create.

I did a test and Noel will rarely ever send out Mega Pidgeot (he originally had two birds which is probably why it doesn't feel awkward to me) until right before Clefairy which is exactly what I want. The thing about Pidgeot though is that it can clear the field back with Hurricane which it probably will do. In a perfect world, I would give Noel Mega Kangaskhan because that's what fits him perfectly, but it's very possible El is going to get one. As for Pyroar, that's my option in case I go with Lopunny because it helps balance his team out. Lopunny is just a little bit stronger than Sawsbuck due to typing. As for Stoutland...I actually kind of forgot about that WHEN I HAVE ONE ON MY TEAM! I suppose it could work if I need something to be adjusted. As for Staraptor, that thing is staying due to it being a hard hitter (you faced it when it had intimidate instead of reckless). Likely this team is going to get changed in a future episode, but I kind of would like people to test this team out before scrapping it since it's kind of fun to face.

Okay so here's kind of a strange little situation with Noel. The poll votes for the Mega were really close (technically Lopunny was the winner by one single vote), but after testing a different one won me over because it was strong, but shouldn't be OP after an insane nerf. I do have two completely different teams designed to make use of the field effect. If this one isn't really enjoyed or not up to par, I will use the other one instead, but it's based on a split physical and special attackers type deal. As for the poll results, I'll tell you what: Since El is a future fight (we will face him) I will come back to this when he is released and then reconsider poll results especially due to an unknown Mega and Pokemon. I like to promote variety which is why I try to avoid dupes to make some Pokemon stand out (I've actually nearly used all Poison types for example). So yeah, don't fret about this as it's not final. I just wanted to amp up the difficulty a bit. The other issue is that I don't have a lot of excess EVs to help with difficulty adjustments here as I try to not take away from evs other than from the non attacking stat (removing Physical for special attackers). With that out of the way let's get onto the Noel episode and as a bonus Fern too! ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Episode 8/9: Field Effects Galore Vs Noel: Pic of team: ---------------------------------------------------- Vs Fern I'm going to put this one is a spoiler too as a couple minor things happened. I realized one of the most hilarious things during a test run. I have no idea how nobody found this out, but Mega Sceptile is actually not part dragon. I managed to fix that for the next release though. I gotta start writing these things down in the bug reporting thread. Still can't believe nobody tried using a fire attack on it until I did. Pic of team after the battle: I'm going to have one last poll up for the final adjustments before 1.9 is released.

I merely skimmed the video, not because I don't like it, but because I do not like any story spoiler...at all. I just did a bit of glancing here and there and it seems pretty good. Also, moving animations. YAY!