Timber Dragon

Nah, until we see pom-pom birb explode, then Electrode seems like a fine choice for Julia's mascot.

ZEL and PULSE Muk Ghosties: I accidentally lead with Trevenant against Glaceon, whoops. Switch to Cofagrigus instead, because why not. Cofagrigus Shadow Balls, Glaceon Mirror Coats, and down goes Cofagrigus, whoops again. Wow this match is sucking so far. Gengar comes out to finish up the Shadow Balling and takes down Glaceon before things went even more south. Guess that's what I get for having a bunch of special attackers, but dem's the breaks with ghosties. Golurk goes against PULSE Muk. Magnitude breaks the field, so when Muk uses Muddy Water (which it does a lot), it gains an Electric-typing that Golurk shrugs off. Some Mud-Slaps lower Muk's accuracy, though I don't know why I'm bothering since Muk will keep spamming an Electric-typed Muddy Water. Anyhoo, enough Magnitudes take down Muk. Golurk stays for Espeon. Espeon uses Psychic, but Golurk hangs in there with 3 HP and Golurk OHKOs it with a field-boosted Shadow Punch. Now it's time for my favorite of ZEL's Pokemon, Umbreon (whooo). Doublade comes out for his usual Fury Cutting action, so far my only offense against Dark-types. He has enough defense to survive a few Feint Attacks, but he doesn't last for long. Gengar comes out and finishes it off. Whoo. Cal Ghosties: Golurk against Infernape. Magnitude gets it down to friggin' 1 HP. Hmph. While Cal heals I use Iron Defense. Infernape uses Swords Dance but the next Magnitude OHKOs it, so whatevs. Typhlosion sets up a Solar Beam and Golurk Magnitudes it. Too bad. Delphox uses Mystical Fire and Golurk 'tudes it. Too bad. Charizard's next. Golurk is getting weak anyway, so I switch to Jellicent despite knowing that Charizard has an Electric-type attack waiting. Charizard instead uses Wing Attack, and I somehow forgot that the field effect weakened Water attacks (apparently I forgot we're fighting atop a volcano), so Brine doesn't OHKO. Too bad. Cal heals again, then uses Dragon Claw, and another Brine faints it. Welp, that was lucky. Magmortar against Cofagrigus, 'cuz why not. Cofagrigus gets in a Shadow Ball, but a Thunder Bolt and Lava Plume faint him. Ohh wonderful and now the field combusts. I really should've stuck to Gengar like my original plan, but noooo I had to be NOT CHEAP and give other mons a chance. Bah, screw it, Gengar. Some Shadow Balls take down Magmortar and I win-- oh, forgot about Blaziken. Shadow Ball takes Blaziken down to low yellows, but a critical Fire Punch finishes off Gengar. Oops. (Oh and it has Speed Boost, wonderful). Send out a weakened Golurk in the hopeless hope he'd tank Blaziken's next attack. He doesn't, and faints. Doublade comes out for a priority Shadow Sneak... and doesn't quite KO it, gets Blaze Kick'd -- critical and boosted by the field -- and OHKO'd to next Sunday. Okayokayokay, Jellicent's back out, though only at around half HP. Welp, Blaziken uses Bulk Up and Jellicent finishes it off with Brine. Yay. Okay NOW I win. Kiki Ghosties: Fighting-types against Ghost-types. How much could possibly go wrong? Lead with Cofagrigus because why not. Well, maybe he'll Mummify everyone and it'll be funny, I dunno. Cofagrigus Will-O-Wisps Machamp after getting past two Rock Slides (the first finched him) and uses Hex for lovely double damage. We both heal (well, Kiki needs it; I'm just paranoid). Rock Slide tends to flinch Cofagrigus and that's annoying. We both heal again, Cofagrigus keeps using Hex, and finally Machamp faints. Gengar is up against Gallade. We both maul each other with Shadow Ball and Night Slash, but Gengar outspeeds it and gets the finishing blow, albeit with HP in the 20's. Kinda ironic how Fighting-type Pokemon would know Dark-type moves. I thought Fighting-types had some kinda honor thing going on and Dark-types were, like, the opposite of honor. Golurk against Lucario. Lucario Calm Minds and Golurk OHKOs it with Magnitude. Too bad for Lucario. He stays for Toxicroak, who gets in a Sucker Punch. Golurk uses Magnitude... 4. Ugh. Another Sucker Punch and down goes Golurk. Cofagrigus is back for Will-O-Wisp, and since Toxicroak outspeeds him, Sucker Punch is useless (haw-haw). I heal Gengar and then faint it with Hex, though Cofagrigus got poisoned with Poison Touch. Hitmonlee faints Cofagrigus with Knock Off, though gets Mummied. Jellicent takes his place because why not. Unfortunately, Medidate + Knock Off is a OHKO. Doublade comes in for the heroic sacrifice of reviving, uh, I dunno, Golurk. Which doesn't help since Knock Off just KOs him too. Gengar with Shadow Ball gets it down to the reds, Knock Off OHKOs him too. Drifblim uses her turn to revive Gengar AGAIN, Gengar comes back and finishes him off. Okay well Gengar is my only ghost left, he only has 56 HP, and I have no more revival items. Then again, Kiki is down to her last Pokemon too, Medicham. Gengar heals, and Ice Punch knocks him down to roughly the same HP as before. Welp. I dunno why I bothered since he outspeeds it and Shadow Ball can OHKO it, and Gengar does outspeed it and does OHKO it. Okay, so some things did go wrong, but whatever, I win.

I edited my original post because silly me got the Ice/Ground relationship backwards -- Ground is weak to Ice. Your best bet instead is a good Electric- or Fighting-type that NEEDS to be able to hit hard or at least take a punch, as Walrein is very bulky. I wouldn't recommend using another Ice-type against it because unless that Ice-type has some other kinds of moves, it won't get past Walrein's defenses especially if it has Thick Fat.

A good Electric- or Fighting-type will take care of Walrein. Walrein is a total butt, I know, but at least the rest of Blake's team is more manageable in comparison.

Haunter with Shadow Ball is so bae. Also, did you notice how freakin' common Dark-type moves are in this game? Because they are and that's rather inconvenient for my ghosts. Shelly Ghosties: Ghost-types against Bug-types aren't too much trouble, but Shelly is still tricky. Off topic, but did you notice how small Shelly's gym looks? How does anyone fight in here? Then again, Pokermans has never been known for accurate building proportions. Some houses don't even have beds in 'em! But anyway. Struggle Bug is an annoyance by lowering special attack, not good for a bunch of special attackers, but teamwork is usually enough to offset the debuffs. Teamwork really was the key here. And I'm not just talking about how I usually sacrifice a teammate so another teammate can get the kill. We're all working together here! Really. Haunter and Litwick lead against Illumise and Masquerain. Litwick burns the field with Flame Burst to get rid of those annoying field effects. It has the side effect of setting everything on fire, but my team will be fine. Well... half of them will be fine. Anorith with Rock Slide was one of the bigger threats, and Wormadam with Psybeam eventually finished off Haunter, but Drifblim, Honedge, and Frillish (who I had finally grinded up to speed) hung in there the best they could with Hexs and Nightshades and whatnots. Eventually Shelly goes down without... TOO much trouble. With Shelly beaten, some wonderful wonderful improvements are finally happening. Evolutionary, Pokeyman-related things, such as Link Stones. With that, it's time for some Team Updates: Crowe's a Gengear now whooooo Babadook's a Trevenant now whooooo Ambrose is a Jellicent now whooooo. Great Arceus look at that glorious ghost 'stache. Cervantes is a Doublade now whooooo Aaaaaand the new guys! Casper Species: Golett -> Golurk Nature: Brave/Likes to thrash about Ability: No Guard (will possibly change to Iron Fist) I can finally take this guy out of the PC. I was strongly tempted to sic him on Julia when I had trouble with her, but I resisted the temptation for HONOR-RELATED REASONS and not because anyone will tsk tsk and wave their finger at me. Anyway, he's one of my few non-special attackers, a physical powerhouse who can take a punch and hopefully dish them out too. GUESS THE GHOST: He's friendly. He's also a ghost. HMMM wonder who it could be? Imhotep (M) Species: Cofagrigus Nature: Bold/Somewhat vain Ability: Mummy Yaaay another tank! And he can hit pretty hard too! Cool beans, cool beans. Also, it's gonna take some time for me to remember how to spell/pronounce Cofagrigus. GUESS THE GHOST: Apparently flesh-eating scarabs are a job hazard in tomb raiding. Augh there was so much grinding to evolve my ghosts and get the new ones up to speed. However it's all in the name of defeating a rival Spooky-type trainer that's probably creepier and more infuriating than my team can ever hope to be. Spookies vs. Spoopies Ghosties: Ghost-types against Ghost-types. Bring it, Shade. There likely won't be any other battle in this game where both sides will so easily be able to destroy each other. I figured that depending on how things went, Shade would either be the easiest gym leader, or the hardest. We're both weak to each other and both take advantage of the Spooky-boosting field effect. We even share many of the same teammates, and that'll be an interesting mirror match. It's a race to see who can beat who faster. Go go ghosts! Gengar against Gengar. Crowe OHKOs 'Corey' with Shadow Ball. Yay. Cofagrigus against Banette. Banette gets priority with a critical Shadow Sneak, which mummifies Banette. Imhotep gets the second OHKO with Shadow Ball. More yay. Trevenant against Trevenant. Babadook's slightly underleveled but he has Feint Attack. Unfortunately, Shade's Trevenant OHKOs Babadook with Shadow Claw. I kinda suspected this (sorry, bro), so I guess Doublade's up. Doublade uses Shadow Sneak for priority and to take advantage of the field effect. It brings Trevenant down to the yellows, but Trevenant's Shadow Claw returns the favor. Shade and I both heal, Shadow Sneak/Claw again, heal again, Shade runs out of potions and Doublade finishes it off. Toljda it'd be a race. Rotom against Golurk. Rotom wastes time with Pain Split while Golurk Shadow Punches it for OHKO #3. Very nice. Doublade against Doublade. Cervantes is still weak from Trevenant, but I gotta keep up the theme, y'know? Shadow Sneak deals decent damage, but Shade's Doublade faints him with Shadow Claw. Golurk is back. He knows Magnitude, but I want to preserve the field effect. Luckily Shadow Punch is enough to finish what Cervantes started. Now the threat I've been worried about, Chandelure. Golurk stays on the field in the hopes he'd do some preliminary damage, but Chandelure is faster and its Shadow Ball faints him in what's nearly a OHKO. Gengar is back with his own Shadow Ball, in what IS a OHKO. Yup. Definitely the toughest gym battle here. I guess I proved who's spookier. It's still Shade. I mean, he doesn't even have legs.

Your team seems like it should be fine against Shelly. Meowstic would have trouble against Bug-types, but I assume she's just there as a placeholder/meat shield. Growlithe and Unfezant would obviously pull most of the weight, but be warned that Masquerain has Icy Wind and Yanmega has Ancient Power.

Rebattlable trainers are a godsend for grinding up new mons, and I actually appreciate how the Grand Hall trainers can challenge you. It can be frustrating at times, but for what's essentially unlimited exp, I like how they at least make you work for it. But what I appreciate even more is that Reborn is balanced in such a way where you usually don't need to go out of your way to grind. This isn't just about the level cap, it's how strategy can take you farther than you think. After all, Reborn is a game where you can beat a level 75 Arceus with a team of 50-somethings.

Corey in the (Gas) House Ghosties: I hadn't realized how well Corey covered his weakness to Psychic until my poor ghosts kept getting pummeled with a bunch of Dark-type moves. I also hadn't realized he has Steel covered, too. Strategies... got derailed. Quite a few times. Yeah, this one had to be the hardest battle so far. I'd have loved to level Frillish to an appropriate level, but the pre-Corey leveling options are so slow that I'd rather see if I can beat him with a team of four ghosts + two meat shields (Phantump hasn't seen much action, and a Poison-type leader isn't exactly a good battle to see what he's made of...). That made Haunter, Drifblim, and Honedge the only MVPs here -- Litwick has special plans. Haunter had taken care of Skrelp just fine in previous attempts, but in latter attempts I switched to leading with Honedge. He spams Shadow Sneak, which gets priority and is his only STAB move. Skrelp's attacks are harmless thanks to the field and No Guard eliminating Smoke Screen's accuracy debuffs, but Venom Drench can be annoying if Skrelp keeps spamming it. It's a matter of endurance and getting Corey to use up his potions. Croagunk with Sucker Punch is the first road block. Drifblim is the only ghost out of the bunch who can take a punch (tee hee). Two Hexs can take it down, but the field poisons Drifblim, so she can't stay out for long. If Croagunk uses two Sucker Punches in a row and if either of them ever get a critical, Drifblim will be KO'd and the fight might as well be over. Skuntank is an even worse road block, what with being Dark-type and being beefy in general. Haunter comes in for a good ol' Curse, but Pursuit hits like a tank (how appropriate for a Skuntank) and it KOs him immediately after. The next step is to stall for as long as it takes for Curse to finish Skuntank off. Drifblim uses the last of her strength for a measly Hex. Frillish is a meat shield who revives Haunter, but after the previous damage added to Curse, Night Shade manages to faint it. Yay teamwork! Haunter takes care of Grimer, whose defense buffs are useless against Night Shade. However, Nidorina with Bite becomes road block #3. Haunter and Honedge whittle it down before both fainting. By this point my only two remaining ghosts are Litwick and Phantump. I wanted to save Litwick for the very end against Crobat, but I have no other mons available and Phantump HAS to say alive while Litwick fights Crobat. I have no choice but to use Litwick. The RNG shows a great mercy when Bite misses, letting Litwick finish it off with Hex. Now it's time for the strategy I've been saving for Crobat. Crobat wastes time with Nasty Plot. Litwick uses Flame Burst. With the Corrosive Mist field effect, the result is pretty much as follows: Pictured: Victory. Litwick and Crobat are both KO'd and Phantump, as the only one standing, is left traumatized. Good job, Litwick. I knew you could take one for the team.

The nice folks at the Request-A-Mon thread will help you out. http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18256 Just to warn you, as someone who's already doing a Ghost monotype run (I've been seeing a few of 'em lately... weird), you'll be having quite A Bad Time if you start off with only two mons. My beginning team was Gastly, Phantump, Litwick, and Honedge, and the early game was still pretty brutal -- Julia was a wake-up call that it'd be some tough going. Buuuut it's probably possible to do it with just Litwick and Honedge. I had a hard time because in my run I banned the use of Swords Dance on my Honedge (King's Shield and Sacred Sword too, when it evolves) to keep from being too cheap. Still, you might wanna request at least one or two other ghosts, if only to be some emergency meat shields. btw, in that thread you can also request the Mystery Egg event to be a guaranteed Frillish, and the Totem Pole event to be a Golett.

MVP is Curse moreso than Minimize. Minimize saved me some headaches here and there, but it's something that's dependent on chance. Curse at least is a guarantee, which is why I abuse it so much. It's very helpful against bosses like the PULSE fights and other problematic mons that I don't have the patience to deal with. Like Chatot. Freakin' nightmare birb. So I forgot that Beryl Bridge is available immediately after you finish Jasper, and I also didn't know that you can do the Mystery Egg event immediately after finishing the police sidequest, so never mind -- I finally have a full team! Team Updates Edith (F) Species: Drifloon -> Drifblim Nature: Modest/Hates to lose Ability: Flare Boost Ideally she'll be a something of a tank doubling as a decent special attacker. She'll also be my only access to anything Flying-typish, and my only mon who'd be able to use Fly besides Giratina (fat chance of getting that one anytime soon) and... Golurk (because yes). I'm counting on her, but at the same time maybe I shouldn't expect too much from a dead hot air balloon. GUESS THE GHOST: Can you guess who Edith is named after? Here's a hint: she's all floaty, spawns cherries, and REALLY likes kids. Ambrose (M) Species: Frillish Nature: Mild/Mischievous Ability: Water Absorb Honestly I really wanted a female Frillish because... there aren't a lot of male ghosts that I can name my team after, SO OH WELL at least he has good stats besides speed. And oh yeah, he's a Water-type and I guess he'll be kinda tanky, maybe. Unfortunately, he's level 5 and after spending so much time on Drifblim, I'm too lazy to bring him up to speed for the next battle. GUESS THE GHOST: He's from the same game as Lizbeth (Litwick), as one of her siblings. And if you couldn't guess where Lizbeth is from, think of Hellraiser/Pinhead... or the guy who made them. Taka, ZEL, and the Tangrowth Orgy Ghosties: Though I have a full team (kinda -- I'm not quite counting my level 12 Frillish yet), this fight is still be augh mainly thanks to ZEL's Umbreon. Or rather, it's having to deal with Umbreon and THEN Tangrowth and THEN that evil Chatot. My first attempt fell apart in the end with Chatot and confusion issues (can't say I'm surprised), so I'm playing a bit more carefully this time around. Haunter paralyzes Lileep with Lick and Litwick uses Minimize. Glaceon is a threat due to Bite, so it needs to go down fast. Haunter and Lileep team up against Glaceon and faint it, though Haunter takes serious damage along the way. I was lucky Glaceon didn't spam Bite, or that would've ended things fast. Espeon's up next. Haunter has been weakened, so I switch him out for Drifblim. Litwick faints Espeon with some Hexs while Drifblim is a meat shield, though critical attacks make her less effective as a punching bag. Again, what else should I expect from a balloon? For Umbreon, I switch out Drifblim for Honedge -- Fury Cutter is the only effective move I have against Dark-types. Umbreon Confuse Rays Honedge soon after, and Litwick's Flame Burst does measly damage. Litwick eventually faints from enough Feint (Attacks). Stupid never-miss moves... they're only fun when I'm using them, dammit. Haunter is back out, though still weakened. Night Shade gets Umbreon down to the reds, though Feint Attack finishes Haunter off. The RNG shows some mercy and allows Honedge to hit Umbreon and faint it instead of hitting himself. I wonder how painful it is for a sword to hit itself? For that matter, how CAN a sword hit itself? I dunno, it's very confusing. It's probably all the Confuse Rays messing with our brains. Anyway, that's ZEL's team down so I get to double-team Taka. Lileep's been kinda standing there all paralyzed and stuff, occasionally belching out Confuse Rays. Drifblim is back in. She's weakened, but I use her turn to revive Haunter while Honedge KOs Lileep. Tangrowth is sent in. Honedge and Drifblim just keep attacking while Drifblim hangs in there like a champ with barely any HP -- I really wish I had better healing items besides Potions. Like, Super Potions are literally around the corner in Beryl Ward. It's like they're mocking me, especially with Taka using Super Potions. I guess the RNG threw me another bone and let Drifblim's Hex get a critical, lowering Tangrowth's HP enough where Honedge can finally faint it. Now the fun part: Chatot! I hate him. Honedge attempts to non-Fury Cut with normal Cut, but Chatter hits Honedge, confuses him, and makes him hit himself (I'm still not asking how a sword is capable of it). Drifblim gets in some Payback though for okay damage. Both ghosts eventually get to low enough HP where Chatter will faint either one of them. I paused to decide who should take the fall. Since Drifblim outspeeds Chatot, I use her to get in some damage while I sacrifice Honedge's turn to heal my high-HP Drifblim for a measly 20. Chatter hits Honedge and he heroically takes the fall. What a trooper. Haunter is back with (you guessed it!) Curse. Chatot finishes off Drifblim, so now I just gotta survive, which... isn't looking good because 1) the rest of Haunter's attacks are all Ghost-type, 2) Phantump is Grass-type, and 3) Frillish is a level 12 wet tissue paper. This does not bode well. Well, Chatot's HP is low enough where any old attack will finish it, assuming Curse doesn't do it. I send out Phantump and Haunter uses Confuse Ray. Admittedly I feel a bit cheap using it, given how infuriating it is when I'm on the receiving end, but Haunter literally has no attacks that can hit Chatot and I have no more healing items by this point -- I might as well do something useful. So Chatot gets confused and... faints itself from confusion damage. Karma's a bitch, ain't it, Taka? With that, I'll be buying some much needed Super Potions. Aahhhh.

This one looks pretty interesting. I had thoughts of doing my own dinosaur-themed (possibly including dragons) run at some point, but besides being busy with other runs, my main hang-up was all the mons who'd be weak to Fighting... and there are a lot of powerful Fighting-type moves that can catch you off guard. Good luck with Kiki and Samson. *shudder* Let's hope the real life RNG takes mercy on you with the randomizer.

I usually do the same thing with Blaziken and Bulk Up. Then I felt guilty for it, and tried beating him another way. I beat him, and now that I know I can beat him without that strategy, I'll just keep using it.

Ahh yes, clown grinding. It takes some trial and error, but my trick for the clown is to have a certain Pokemon in the lead, and just reset until he picks a 'color' that I can handle. You can lead with Ampharos because a lot of the 'colors' lead with mons that're weak to Electric. At the top of my head, Green leads with Hawlucha, Yellow (or Black?) with Sigilyph, Pink with Gorebyss, and Blue is all Water-types. Slap an Exp.Share on a mon you want to grind up, and take it from there. It worked for me, at least. For Samson himself, you might wanna hold off on using Psychic-types. They tend to be squishy and with the field effect, Samson's team hits hard. I also learned the hard way that Samson covers his weakness to Fairy-type better than Kiki did, what with him using some Poison-type attacks and Lucario (well, Kiki had a Lucario too, but whatever). If you feel like grinding up a new mon, in my bird-themed run I found good use with a Braviary with Sky Drop. Muk might also be a good choice with its Acid Armor and a poison stall strategy.

You can fight repeatable trainers in the Grand Hall in Opal. Alternatively you can grind off Unowns beneath the Grand Stairway, in the bottom room with the long staircase, which net you an EV in Atk and Sp.Atk if you care about such things. You might as well grind up to evolve Braixen and Pidgeotto, then give them one or two Common Candies to bring them back under the level cap. It might also be worth it to have any Dark-type in your team and make Pancham level up so it'll evolve too. I also suggest benching Munna for this fight since it's weak to Bug-type. Do you have any other mons in your PC that you think would help? You can also burn the field if you want, but it means Braixen/Delphox and Ponyta would have to pull all the weight unless you want the rest of your mons to get damaged (besides Pidgeotto/Pidgeot, I think).

He's in the Obsidia Ward Pokecenter. Remember the girl who was sad she lost her bae? Well, you found her bae and she rewards you with a fancy sticker.

By chance I found a Trubbish in Obsidia Slums that was carrying a Black Sludge. I've fought many a trash bag during my Reborn career and not one of them held any heal-y goo. This is a treasure that I will treasure by smooshing it onto my Gastly for better health. Yay. Team Updates Crowe's a Haunter now wheeeee PULSE Tangrowth Ghosties: Lead with Gastly and use Curse, then Confuse Ray, then paralyze with Lick. Besides the damage from using Curse, Gastly didn't take a single point of damage. Maybe I'm getting the hang of this ghost thing after all. Fern Ghosties: Lead with Honedge since Litwick would have trouble against Lombre's Water-typing. Honedge takes it down with his usual Fury Cutting action. He levels up and it turns out a Honedge can learn, of all moves, Aerial Ace. I have no idea why, but a flying ghost sword must be pretty damn terrifying. Tempting, but I think I'm okay without it. Litwick handles things from here, because I feel guilty (it wouldn't be the first time I felt sorry for Fern). She handles Servine (luckily Leaf Tornado missed) with Flame Burst, though gets Leech Seeded. This makes Roselia an annoyance when this stacks with Mega Drain. Damage eventually adds up and another Mega Drain will faint her, but in a whim of the AI, Roselia uses Poison Sting instead for pitiful damage, allowing Litwick to get the finishing blow at 5 HP. Flobot Ghosties: Florinia isn't too bad thanks to Litwick, and I always have Honedge's Fury Cutter to fall back on, but I like not having to depend on Honedge TOO much if another ghost can handle it -- I AM technically smuggling around illegal goods with that Honedge, at least until the time it becomes un-illegal'd. Litwick leads with Minimize. Maractus's Sand Tomb hurts and I eventually use my sole Ultra Potion -- ordinary Potions aren't cutting it at 63 HP. Enough Flame Bursts burn it into fainting. I feel its pain. It's currently very hot over here and the mountains are on fire, and That's No Good. I hate hot. For Breloom I use Will-o-wisp. Then I remember that the move that Burn would actually be useful against, Drain Punch, will just go right through my ghosts. Oh well, it's the thought that counts. Litwick gets Spore'd to sleep, twice. I get some healing in in the meantime while letting Burn slowly whittle down Breloom. Minimize also saves me some headaches, and Breloom goes bye-bye. Ferroseed, Cottontee, and Cacnea are easily taken care of, though damage is starting to stack up and Cottontee had poisoned Litwick. When it's Cradily time, Litwick gets in a Will-o-wisp to burn it. It's her last gift before a lucky Smack Down smakcs her down and finally faints her. Haunter saves the day with Curse. Combined with Burn damage, Haunter wraps up the fight with Night Shade. Yay! Curse this Confusion RNG! Ghosties: Taka and PULSE Tangrowth is. Augh. Yes, I am declaring that 'augh' is now an adjective, because that's how irritating this fight was. It's augh. Attempt #1. Haunter leads and spams Night Shade on Lileep. Black Sludge somewhat makes up the difference for whatever damage he takes. Lileep doesn't hit hard, but it makes up for a lack of strength with sheer annoyance in an Ingrain/Confuse Ray combo platter. No seriously, I got the jerk to probably 1 HP and Haunter gets Confused. Haunter's Black Sludge offsets whatever pitiful damage Lileep tries to poke him with, but it's otherwise an exercise in endurance and patience. By the time I FINALLY finished it off amidst all of Lileep's healing (through Ingrain and Taka's items) and Haunter constantly hitting himself, Haunter doesn't have the HP to survive Cursing Tangrowth. I heal Haunter and use Curse, but Tangrowth uses Growth and then a powered up Vine Whip to KO him. Litwick takes his place, uses Minimize (I'm starting to like this move), and then Flame Burst... which ignites the forest. Whoops. Didn't mean to do that, but the field damage combined with Haunter's Curse KO's Tangrowth. Chatot is up next. Unfortunately the field effect doesn't affect Flying-types but does wonders against my own team! Especially Honedge. While Litwick is still on the field, she manages to survive Chatter, but gets confused... ... and hits herself, letting Chatot finish her off. I hate confusion RNG. Just in case you haven't noticed. Honedge heroically steps in, and for his troubles gets pounded by Chatot's attacks and the forest bonfire. Heroes tend to sacrifice themeslves, so I use his turn to revive Litwick. Unfortunately the field effect KO's Honedge before I get the chance to heal her, leaving her vulnerable to Chatter. I take a chance and switch to Litwick despite being at half HP. She survies Chatter with 1 HP, get confused... ... and hits herself. I REALLY HATE CONFUSION RNG Welp, my only surviving ghost is Phantump, who is a bad idea to bring in for various reasons (like the small issue of how the ground is now fire). I use my last revival item on Litwick, Phantump is OHKO'd, Litwick survives Chatter with 3 HP, gets confused, tries Flame Burst... ... and hits herself. I REALLY REALLY HATE CONFUSION RNG AS;IHKLGLSALSE Attempt #1 + 1 Let's try this again. I ain't playin' this time. Haunter Curses Lileep and I heal with my pitiful potions to make up for it. Ingrain can't quite keep up with Curse, so whether or not Haunter gets confused (unsurprisingly, he does), Lileep still takes damage. Once again, Curse on Tangrowth... except for that whole confusion thing. Because Haunter is still confused. Aaaaand Tangrowth uses Growth. Haunter barely survives the next Vine Whip, but at least he successfully lands the Curse. I heal him for however little it counts. Tangrowth uses Giga Drain, but Haunter survives with 1 HP (whooo). For the first time the RNG is on my side -- Haunter manages to use Lick and successfully paralyzes Tangrowth before finally fainting. This time I send out Honedge instead of Litwick. I kinda need my ghosts healthy and it's hard to do that when everything's on fire. While Tangrowth takes Curse damage and Honedge tanks its little superpowered plant attacks, I revive Haunter and heal. Mega Drain deals hefty damage, but its healing still can't keep up with Curse. Eventually Tangrowth faints, with Honedge down to 3 HP. Honedge's last gift is to fully heal Haunter before getting Chatter'd. I was hoping Honedge could tank it somewhat with its Steel-typing, but his Sp.Def isn't that great and Chatot is augh in general, so oh well. Haunter returns for (surprise!) Curse. He goes down immediately after, but his job is done. Litwick is sent out, Chatot hits hard with Chatter, Litwick gets confused, she uses Flame Burst... ... and lands the hit, enough to finish it off after Curse damage. This battle was such augh. Unfortunately I'll have to slog through another one very soon, one involving an Umbreon and Chatot in the same battle. I don't know a stronger word for 'augh' at the moment, but whatever that word is, it'll most likely be what the next fight will be like. aaaaaaaugh. I almost forgot that Reborn hates us.

Yup, you got it! Crowe is a last name and is 'Cole's' ace, so that's a hint. Lizbeth I didn't expect many to get because she's pretty obscure (I think), but she's from a video game. That actually might've been a better starting team than what I picked. Of course, I couldn't resist a Gengar and Aegislash, but hooo boy am I gonna suffer before I get them. Yeah, it's only the first gym and I'm already aware of the late bloomer problem. I actually considered requesting a Misdreavus and/or Sableye to start with, but it felt weird to request a full team. That might've been my mistake. Getting all the way to Corey with only four (weak) mons will be brutal, and I'll probably start over with a full team if it comes to that.

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Vero Cole who had a special gift. "I see dead mons..." It was rather inconvenient. One day, Cole decided that if he was gonna be haunted for the rest of his life, he might as well make use of the freeloading dead things that keep hanging around him -- it was better than wetting himself, at least. He confronted the spirits and, eventually realizing that maybe they were all just a bunch of lonely freaks who needed some friendship, a team was founded that day. Years later, an older Cole decides to challenge the Reborn League. Utilizing the ghosts who once tormented him, he'll haunt his way to victory... assuming his team of spooks don't frustrate him into giving up. So! Following the surprising success (for now) of my bird-themed run, I decided to do a straight-up monotype challenge using a type that I've never really used before: Spooky-type. It's interesting how, despite me loving ghosts, I generally ignored them in Pokermons. I guess that's because there aren't too many to choose from in any given official game, and because other mons of the non-Spooky typing got the job just fine. So, a monotype challenge of a type I rarely if ever used before. In Reborn. I'm sure I'll be fine. i'm gonna die Thanks to the nice folks in the Request-a-Mon thread, my team is as follows: Crowe (M) Species: Gastly Nature: Bashful/Quick to flee Ability: Levitate My planned ace, if the nice rumors I hear about Gengar prove true. Lizbeth (F) Species: Litwick Nature: Timid/Often dozes off Ability: Flame Body I was never a fan of Chandelure's design, but Shade taught me well how badly one can destroy you. Babadook (M) Species: Phantump Nature: Gentle/Likes to fight Ability: Natural Cure Hey look at that, a Grass-type, another thing I almost never use ever. Trevenant looked interesting, though, and seems to be one of the few physical attackers I'll have. aaaaand insert drumroll here Cervantes (M) Species: Honedge Nature: Hasty/Quick to flee Ability: No Guard Yes yes, I know, Aegislash OP as hell, but y'know what? There aren't too many members of the Spooky-type club to begin with, and besides, I'm sure things will be much less cheap with these self-imposed limitations: -Swords Dance is BANNED -King's Shield is BANNED -Sacred Sword is BANNED -Anything else BANNABLE that I can think of is BANNED In other words, the things that make Aegislash, well, Aegislash are forbidden until the time Honedge can be obtained legitimately in the game. In the meantime, Cervantes will have to settle for being a glass cannon who can hit like a truck but shatters when someone pokes him too hard. Unable to freely switch between Blade Forme and Shield Forme without switching out will probably make using an Aegislash tricky. Anyhoo, let's get hauntin'. Early game dead weight seewhatididthere. A major concern that I had, one eventually proven true when fighting Julia, is that my ghosts in their early levels are... not that good. Gastly and Phantump don't learn any useful STAB moves until much later, Litwick has to 'live' with a paltry base stat total of 275 until freakin' level 41, and Honedge at this point is little more than a Fury Cutter slave. Combine that with how I don't even have a full team*, and won't get any additions until after Corey**, and I'm looking at some early game hell. *TECHNICALLY not true -- I do have a Golett, Frillish, and female Snorunt (for Froslass) in the PC, but only because the Request-a-Mon dude who altered my save file didn't know how to alter events like the Mystery Egg and the totem pole, assuming the totem pole can be altered too. **I'm technically not supposed to use those PC ghosts until I'm first able to obtain them in-game, but that's more out of honor... though, I was this close to taking out that Golett and using it to wreck Julia's shit. Still, I'll try my best, and if I absolutely can't handle it, I'll think of something. Probably something cheap. Fern Ghosties: Litwick and Honedge do most of the work -- Gastly and Phantump don't have enough useful moves to contribute much. Lotad smacks Litwick around with Bubble, so I switch to Honedge for some Fury Cutter action. He finishes off Lotad and Snivy, but I feel bad, so when he sends out Budew I switch back to Litwick. Budew Stun Spores Litwick and Litwick Fire Spins it back. Budew wastes time Growthing while Litwick ignites it with Embers and Fire Spin damage. Aster & Eclipse Ghosties: I do not remember the first Aster & Eclipse fight being this dangerous, but then, I never tried haunting them or anyone with a bunch of ghosties before. Magby is the bigger threat thanks to Fern's chosen type, so I wanna take it down first. Elekid's Shockwave deals hefty damage to Gastly thanks to the field, so I try to use my last turn to Curse it. Unfortunately, as I thought, Elekid just finishes it off. Honedge handle things with Fury Cutter while Fern's plants get beat up. Fury Cutter's stacking effect eventually plows through any type or non-STAB issues. With Fern's kinda-sorta help, both Magby and Elekid are taken down. Julia is the real nightmare Ghosties: You'd think that someone who trains ghosts like they're pets would be terrifying, but I underestimated the effects of electricity and caffeine. This was undoubtedly the most trouble I've ever had with Julia in any of my runs. Even my very first run in Reborn. Even the one with the birds. For this, you may wanna cut me some slack when I primarily wound up depending on Honedge's Fury Cutter action. I thought Julia would be pretty straightforward since my team was immune to her more dangerous moves like Sonic Boom and Explosion, but that just meant she got to rely on her Sp.Atk-raising Charge Beam. There's also how I wasn't going in with a full team, and a not-so-stellar one at that. I spent time grinding up my team, but the most important part was getting Litwick to level 20 so she can learn Flame Burst. Getting past Helioptile was the biggest problem thanks to Mud-Slap decreasing my team's accuracy, which seriously wrecked me when the RNG was in a bad mood (and it happened a lot). Once past Helioptile, the rest of the fight is generally smooth up until Electrode. I could usually whittle it down to low HP, but enough Charge Beams to raise its Sp.Atk and no one on my team could survive -- no one. On my final attempt, I lead with Honedge since No Guard will render any accuracy debuffs from Mud-Slap pointless. Fury Cutter does the trick, though Honedge does paralyzed. He beats Helioptile, Blitzle, Emolga, and Voltorb #1 this way, but two Super Potions (better be worth it) and enough damage later, and Voltorb's Aftermath finally finishes him off. Litwick takes his place, and she needs to stay healthy to handle Electrode. I use Minimize... actually two, due to a misclick, but it wound up helping tremendously. Unfortunately, since Honedge had Fury Cutted everyone, Julia saved her healing items for Electrode. Some lucky hits finish Litwick off. Gastly is out, and all those Charge Beam buffs will probably OHKO Gastly or get close to it. VERY LUCKILY, Charge Beam misses and Gastly gets the finishing hit in with Night Shade. So that's the first gym down, and I'm sincerely hoping Julia isn't an indicator of how the rest of the early game will go. I'm just hoping they can survive long enough until I can get those first Linkstones. See, that's another thing with all these ghosts: a lot of them need evolutionary stones to evolve to their final forms. I was lucky enough to get two free Dusk Stones in my inventory, but Corey and Shelly are most likely gonna drive me crazy. That's what I get for hanging around with a bunch of dead things, I guess. Oh, and fun fact! My Pokemon will all be named after ghosts from movies, games, etc. See if you can figure out where I got their names from. Name names, post pictures, write poetry for all I care. You get a Like if you do... or something. I dunno. I just like ghosts, okay?

Will someone get to my Ghost monorun eventually? I've been waiting on it a few days now...

I admit that it surprised me when, after spending some time grinding off repeatable trainers, I noticed I had like 50K more money than I had before. That alone puts an end to the hobo jokes, although, why would you want to be a hobo? It sucks. I remember in a previous playthrough before an extended hiatus that I'd spent so much money on healing items and desperately need more to have any hope of fighting Radomus, but didn't have the funds to do so, that I might've been stuck. Having too little money is more dangerous than too much. Really, I thought that the repeated trainers already gave rather low sums of money, besides the super rich doubles battle couple. It's just that we grind off those trainers so much that the funds add up overtime. But I don't think it makes the game easier, just more convenient -- it saves needless backtracking for trips to the Pokecenter. And most of my funds just collect dust anyway. Money is only useful when you have stuff to buy it with, and really, what're we buying? Potions and some Department Store gear? Healing mid-battle is always a risk, especially if your opponent is faster, so it's not like a large supply of potions are a never-faint-again solution.

Pffft I never use Grass-type. If I ever need anti-Water-type things then I just stick with Electric. You can get a Mareep or a Tynamo for that, but for now Emolga should be okay (though you might as well get a head-start with something that won't be outclassed eventually). Fearow might serve you better as a Flying-type than Unfezant, whose stats don't really compliment its move pool. It can last you for quite a while until Route 2, where you can catch a Braviary. Honchkrow is another good Flying-type that's also a Dark-type, but the Dusk Stone to evolve it with doesn't come until later. I don't know of other Dark-types at that point in the game off the top of my head, but I like to use Drapion. The Move Relearner is the lady in Onyx Ward who dropped her house key. Unfortunately you don't find the key until after Yureyu Building, in the Underground Railnet.

It's not a popularity contest, it's about balance (or finding an appropriate place to put them -- it'd be weird to put, say, desert Pokemon in the middle of a large city). Certain Pokemon are currently unavailable because they can be too strong for that point in the game, rendering other Pokemon redundant. For example, during the times when Gyarados could be obtained before the 2nd gym, no one bothered to use any other Water-types because Gyarados is just that strong. There was no point to other Water-types being there with Gyarados around, not to mention Gyarados is very strong in general, allowing you to get through many battles through brute force alone. Reborn forces players to use Pokemon that they otherwise wouldn't have. You need to utilize the Pokemon you have available to you. The game is balanced in such a way that you don't need a dream team (especially one with three legendaries) to win. If anything, I'm dreading the time when we'd need that kind of power just to survive.