Timber Dragon

Honestly, the 'beat a Pokemon waaaaay higher-leveled than you' bosses -- along with the gym leaders and level cap in general -- taught me a valuable lesson in Pokemon that the official games never could: levels aren't everything. Strategy often trumps brute force. It's proven in both the mandatory fights like Steelix and PULSE Abra, and the optional 'unwinnable' ones like Garchomp and Arceus. You don't NEED to win the optional ones, but boy do you feel like a badass if you do. Yes, Ditto Arceus is one of the more frustrating bosses imo, but you do not need to rely on Perish Song strategies or whatever to take it down. The field can easily be altered by anyone who knows certain Dark-type moves, or shattered completely with Earthquake or Bulldoze (fun fact: get in two more Earthquakes after that to get in an instant OHKO). Or if you don't have the means to alter the field, you can use it to your advantage instead. Or you might not even need to bother with the field at all if you just so happen to have a good setup. And if you truly honestly cannot get past Arceus, you ARE allowed to progress if you lose by siding with El (though I personally never side with him). Reborn gives you so many options to get past a fight; sometimes the hard part is just picking one.

Oh snap, it just occurred to me that we'll actually be able to FISH in Reborn's waters now without pulling out Grimers or possibly Meteor corpses. That's gonna take some getting used to.

Aya can actually do useful things when the AI feels like it. For perspective, during my Ghost monotype run, on one attempt Aya's team was swept before I could even take down four Pokemon. In the last attempt, she hung on through the whole battle with only her Dragalge... though that's because they kept pounding my team instead for some reason. So yeah, partner usefulness kinda depends on luck sometimes. Delphox can Will-O-Wisp Golurk to cut down on that attack power. Phantom Force can get annoying since it'll keep disappearing, but Empoleon may be able to outspeed it and attack it. If not, you could use an X Speed if you have one available. If not, well, hope either Empoleon is faster, it doesn't use Phantom Force that turn, or Aya does something smart. Magmortar has a Life Orb. It'll be painful but it's possible to stall it and let Life Orb damage do its thing, while still getting in a hit or two to speed up the process. All of its attacks are special, so if Gardevoir sets up a Calm Mind or two or five, then it might be able to tank a few hits. Though, with all those Calm Minds, Gardevoir would probably destroy most of their team in a few hits anyway. You'd just need to keep it safe from physical damage. You could play it even safer and have Ampharos use Thunder Wave.

At first I thought that all this attention given to Aegislash meant we would finally be getting an Aegislash for ourselves. Then I found it suspicious that Ame would seemingly be so generous, and then I read further and realized we'll most likely be on the receiving end of that Aegislash. Now I am sad and afraid.

I gotta admit, I certainly underestimated Titania's potential for girliness. Almost makes you forget she Aegislash'd a bunch of Meteor grunts. ... though, considering how metal a lot of the original fairy tales could be, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.

The funny thing with a field that dampens Ground-type moves is that both Steel- and the Fire-types that would counter them would both benefit from it. It'd sure be interesting to see what sort of crazy field effect would handle a weakness that both sides share. Though, the same effect that would dampen Ground-type moves would probably also dampen Fighting-types -- sand is soft and unstable after all.

I can picture Titania having a Scizor, but for some reason she strikes me more as a Steelix or Aggron type of gal -- and they might even be Mega'd just to mess with us. She'd probably want some extra coverage for her Fire weakness, so Steelix/Aggron could help out Excadrill with that. (Empoleon is another possibility, but I don't think she'd be caught dead with a... not-too-ferocious-looking mon.) She already has her Fighting weakness covered with Aegislash and Skarmory, but she could also bring a Metagross in there.

Yeah, in the end I wasn't completely sure how I wanted that mage-themed one to go. And since a lot of the choices were Psychic-type, and I just got done with the Ghost monotype, I figured I'd scrap it for now and do a run I had considered before but didn't go through with because I wasn't used to working with such a limited amount of available mons. But now here I am! I considered using Eevee, and even made a status asking for input, but most of Eevee's evolutions were too ambiguous to work for this run. I figured I'd stick with the ones that make you say unambiguously 'This is a doggie.' The Abra line has some fox-like traits but I don't think someone could take one look at it and go 'That's a doggie.' Smeargle is also a possibility, but with those stats I don't know what I could possibly do with it. Maybe make it a breeding slave. Ditto probably needs a friend. Team Updates Uh-oh. I did not expect this guy to evolve so soon. Pokemon friendship is weird. Anyway, he's a little too strong for this point in the game, so for now I'll hold off on using him if I don't really need to. You may ask why, if I didn't want Lucario this early, I didn't just cancel the evolution. Weeeell the truth is I'd wanted Swords Dance. But then I realized I also didn't want such a strong move on such a strong Pokemon that I'm technically not even allowed to have this early, but by the time I decided that, I'd already made progress and didn't feel like restarting to an earlier save. Chances are I won't give Lucario Swords Dance until I can legitimately get him in the game... which is all the way in Ametrine. Dammit, I just HAVE to be honorable, don't I? That's a lie. I just don't want folks thinking that I'm cheap. PULSE Tangrowth Do that a bunch more times until you win. Moving on! Moar Team Updates Ability: Static Speshul Move: Flame Burst Fun fact: I haven't seen Bolt yet. Maybe I should go do that. Ability: Sand Rushh (subject to change) Speshul Move: Fire Fang Fun fact: Come to think of it, I don't remember watching Lassie much either. Well, I must have. I do remember an episode where she has to rescue someone from a field of landmines... huh. Lassie might've been more metal than we thought. Florinia

Holymotherofgarbodor you actually did it. With two Pokemon. Holymotherofgarbodor it was possible and you definitely proved us wrong. Looks like Ninetales and Espeon were smart choices after all. They covered each others' weaknesses, Will-O-Wisp or buffs helped with what they couldn't normally handle, and Drought + Solar Beam is a potent combo that I hadn't noticed before (mainly because I rarely use Grass-type anythings). And Calm Mind is, once again, OP. btw, Arceus's Judgement did what it did because the Crystal Cavern randomly makes certain moves like Judgement deal random type damage. It's actually in the Field Effect manual. And now you know. Anyway, gg

I love Trubbish and Garbodor and fighting Mr. Bigglesworth breaks my heart a little. The wasteland probably hasn't been changed because in-universe, everyone was probably too busy rebuilding the city itself to worry about the gigantic pile of filth nicely kept away by a wall, and out-of-universe because a giant map like that is a beast in itself and Ame already has her hands full remodeling the whole freakin' city. Besides, if the wasteland got cleaned up, it wouldn't really be the wasteland, would it? Just a giant, not-disgusting land that Ame would need to figure out what to do with. Ooo! They could clean it up and make it a Safari Zone of sorts and maybe that's where we'll get our Dratini! </wishful thinking>

They're guardians for Mr. Bigglesworth. I kinda wondered that myself. I just didn't question it too hard because, y'know, Poison-type leaders and all. I guess it's for the same reason Corey gassed his own home and Julia hijacked a power plant: home turf advantage.

Go get that Kricketot from the apartment in Peridot, evolve it, and wreck Florinia with Fury Cutter. Seriously, Kricketune is, like, custom-built to take down Florinia, and it's a decent battler in general until around Shelly. If you'd rather use the mons you already have, Litleo could probably pull a lot of the weight while Pancham (after some leveling) could handle Cradily. Poison stalling with Stunky and/or Arbok is also an option, but just beware that Breloom heals poison damage and Ferrothorn is obviously immune to it.

Lucia Canidae was named apparently because her parents predicted their daughter's future obsession -- and it's not much of a name at all. Deciding that the remaining, oh, give or take 710 other Pokemon weren't doggie enough for her, she challenges the Reborn league with the power of all things bark and woof. I almost feel sorry for her. So! Seeing as my bird-themed and Ghost monotype runs somehow weren't enough, I decided to do yet another custom run based on a new theme: canines. I say 'canine' because there are only, like, three Pokemon that are actually dogs in the strictest sense, and I'm not that insane (yet). The Pokemon available to me are as follows: -Growlithe/Arcanine -Vulpix/Ninetales -Snubbull/Granbull -Houndour/Houndoom -Poochyena/Mightyena -Electrike/Manectric -Riolu/Lucario -Lillipup/Herdier/Stoutland -Zorua/Zoroark -Fennekin/Braixen/Delphox -Furfrou Wow, lookie at that: four Fire-types, three Dark-types (Houndoom pulls double duty there), two Normal-types, one Fairy-type, a Husky that ate a lightning bolt, and a punchy steel wolf/jackal thing. The blurb in the intro there was not kidding about our heroine narrowing her scope a little. And now for the current doggies! They're already evolved or on their way to evolution because I forgot to take any pre-Julia screenshots. (Spoiler: I win against Julia. Shh!) Ability: Magician My starter, and I request a suggestion for another name because otherwise I would have to keep him as constellation or else name him after a JRPG'd Nick Wilde. Ability: Intimidate Mightyena #1. Is very intimidating. Ability: Moxie Mightyena #2. Has lots of moxie. Ability: Inner Focus (subject to change) Special request granted by the lovely folks at the Request-A-Mon thread. Is mainly there so I would have something besides my starter and a Mightyena army to fall back on. I just chose Riolu in specific because you get it so late in the game that it seems kind of a waste, so I figured, oh well might as well be cheap! Now, by the power of bark and wolf, let the run begin! Er, well it already has at the time of this writing but shut up All hail the Mightyena army

Fun fact: I finished and recorded this thing, like... two weeks ago. I was just too lazy to upload it and write about it and stuff. Not bad for the final post of this run until ep 16 amirite? Yeeeah. Anyway. Here ya go. Ciel Froslass is a heavy hitter, but between Archeops, Talonflame, and Noivern's Heat Wave, it's risky for her to stay on the field. FORTUNATELY she also happens to be super speedy and critical hit Frost Breath is enough to one- or two-hit KO whoever she faces. Talonflame is a bit of a stall point. Jellicent and Dusknoir put up a good fight, but they can't quite keep up with field-boosted Acrobatics combined with constant healing. Chandelure eventually saves the day. Again. Froslass takes out a good chunk of Altaria's HP, but she'd already been weakened by Gliscor previously and Earthquake KOs her. ... Proooobably wouldn't have happened if I'd used Chandelure's final turn to cure Froslass's paralysis instead of burning Gliscor, making me waste a turn curing Froslass while she's on the field and letting Gliscor get in a free Acrobatics, but shut up. I am a Pokermons master. Fortunately my ghosts are immune to Hyper Voice and Sing, Altaria's two biggest threats, and Gengar can avoid Earthquake with Levitate. Altaria's Mega Evolution also happens to gain the Fairy-type, making it vulnerable to Venoshock, which Gengar has. Gengar is pretty much untouchable. Looks like my choice for this one is clear. Pokermons. Master. Look, Mega Altaria is weak to Steel too, 'kay? 'Kay. So! With that, this run comes to a hiatus until ep 16 comes out. My order of priority is my normal game and my bird-themed run, then this one, and theeeen a new canine-themed run! Because apparently three runs aren't enough.

... Huh, well look at that, you're actually handling yourself pretty well here. Calm Mind OP, and Will-O-Wisp is very effective in countering your duo's lower physical defenses. And you even got past Garchomp! ... after ten tries, but still. Yeah, the Air Balloon trick is a pretty common strategy to get around Earthquake -- hooray for AI exploits. True facts. I mean, look at Saphira -- she's gunning for Sigmund's blood. Speaking of which, I'm not 100 percent clear on the story branches at Yureyu. I know that Sirius still takes Anna's amulet whether you fight him or Sigmund (if you fight Sigmund, then you just skip Sirius's battle, but the scene mostly plays out the same I think), and that whoever you don't fight at Yureyu will later be fought at Tanzan Cove, and I thiiiiink maybe that will also effect who gets captured and how, which will obviously affect some dialogue.

Interesting challenge, but I kinda have to agree with Commander. Reborn isn't so forgiving that you can handle the whole game with just a team of two. It might be possible with certain Pokemon with certain setups, but I have no idea what those could be and I doubt you'll get far with the two you picked (both are special attackers and somewhat frail in physical defense). Even a full team of six mediocre Pokemon would probably serve you better than two pretty-good-but-not-THAT-great mons. Even ignoring stats, sticking with only two severely limits the strategies available to you... which is kinda necessary to survive in Reborn. With this team you could prooooobably make it at least past Shelly without much trouble (Ninetales would have to pull all the weight while Espeon gets wrecked by Bug-types), but after that I really have no idea how this'll work out. If you can get past Kiki then I'd be pretty impressed, but the post-Agate content will probably put a stop to this if it doesn't sooner.

Back in the day, I hadn't appreciated how well-balanced Cynthia's team was. All this time I thought she was only hard because I swept most of the game with nothing but an Empoleon and Staraptor, and her actually good team stonewalled me. I would like to say that this taught me a lesson in having a well-balanced full team of six, buuuut... Funnily enough, it was her Milotic rather than her Garchomp that tended to give me the most problems (though Garchomp was no slouch either). Friggin' Aqua Ring.

;-; It's been a weeeeeek plz I don't wanna have to rely on nothing but my starter and a Mightyena army for the early game.</sad>

Link Stones are usable items. Equip the Protector or whatever and use the Link Stone, and it'll work the same as though you're trading.

Unfortunately the clown is the best grinding spot. What I do is just keep resetting until I get a 'color' that my team can handle. A lot of his leads are weak to Electric-type (Blue, Yellow, Pink, and I think Black at the top of my head). Yellow seems to be one of the more manageable teams so as long as you get some momentum going for leveling, you should be fine. It can be a pain at times but the clown is really your best bet.

Haha, yeah, Mega Altaria is a butt. You might as well switch out Manectric for Magnezone, and Noctowl I would've phased out loooong before getting as far as you did. Since M.Altaria becomes part Fairy-type instead of Flying, it's actually vulnerable to Poison-types, so that's an option (and it also means Dragon-types are pointless unless they have other good moves). Strong Fairy-types are also a good option. I was able to two-shot it with Sylveon, and in another run, OHKO it with Aromatisse + Calm Mind.

In case anyone misses it, someone did some work for us. http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=22371

Very bae stuff here. I'll sure be glad to see more of my moves look like actual moves. Some of my favorites are Blast Burn, Thunder, Retaliate, the Mega/PULSE Evolution (such a clean transition) and Explosion (love the little ash face effect). ... though Acrobatics looks kinda hilarious if your Pokes aren't airborne...

Anything meaty enough that preferably resists Fire-types will be able to tank. You could catch something on Route 3. I like the Druddigon suggestion up there since it's sturdy enough, though it might not be able to last through the whole fight. You could also catch, say, a Graveler or whatever, but I wouldn't send it out until after you get past Typhlosion and Darmanitan since they have counters for Rock and Ground (plus you'd need to waste a Link Stone if you wanted to evolve it into Golem).

Set up a Bulk Up or two with Blaziken, have a tank out on the field to keep Blaziken healthy, and go wreck Charlotte's team using her own field effect boost.