Timber Dragon

Team Updaets Wayward (M) Species: Braviary Nature: Impish/Somewhat of a clown Ability: Defiant Alternate names included MuricaBirb and Bandit Keith. So, it looks like we got our replacement for Fearow for a generalized physical attacker. Staraptor is coming up next, though that'll probably be more of a Brave Birber. Hawlucha (F) (can't think of a nickname yet) Species: Guess Nature: Careful/Likes to fight Ability: Limber (subject to change) Stat-wise, a Hawlucha is only a few pegs better than a bird like Fearow... maybe the key is in the moveset? Oh well. I'll find a use eventually. Kiki v.2 The birds: Karma finally got me back. I can tell that it's karma because I'm facing off against Samson. Whenever I thought of this fight, I thought I'd be cute and do a little joke where I have Talonflame sweep everything, go lol jk, and do another attempt for real, Talonflame-less, to prove to the universe that I'm not cheap. Except it didn't go that way at all. Talonflame couldn't sweep anything. She didn't even get past Hariyama. Samson is more mindful of his weaknesses than Kiki is. While I could certainly sweep him, the field effect plus his own bulky Pokemon make it just as likely for him to sweep me. So, when things went well, I was destroying him. But when things went poorly, boy did they go south fast. This might be the first gym battle where where we're both as likely to OHKO each other. There are so many aspects about this fight that needed to go perfectly, or the whole thing falls apart. On her initial move, Talonflame's Acrobatics needs to deal enough damage to Hariyama to make Samson use a Hyper Potion. If he doesn't use a turn healing, then Aromatisse -- who will be sent out after Hariyama inevitably OHKOs Talonflame with Smack Down -- will be OHKO'd with Heavy Slam, and then everything falls apart from there. When Aromatisse faces Mienshao, Poison Jab cannot actually poison him nor can it be a critical -- the former makes me waste a turn when fighting Lucario (see below) and that can lead to bad news, and the latter is a OHKO. When Blaziken faces Lucario, Blaze Kick will take it down to one HP due to its Focus Sash. This is actually beneficial because Samson will spend another turn healing, giving me a chance to heal any damage Aromatisse sustained against Mienshao. Blaziken will face Samson's Blaziken, in what's essentially a punchy firey cock fight. Ideally Sky Uppercut will OHKO Samson's Blaziken, but with the field effect's randomness there aren't any guarantees. Hawlucha is the roadblock here. Swords Dance + Acrobatics + the field effect might as well be instant death. Aromatisse NEEDS a OHKO if Swords Dance takes effect, or the whole battle is pretty much over -- no Pokemon I have can survive that kind of brutal setup. Conkledurr is a somewhat lesser roadblock, and can KO Aromatisse with Poison Jab. Braviary luckily does good damage with Sky Drop, but that depends on the High Striker roll. Luckily Braviary finishes it off, wrapping up his debut battle. ....... Dude? We need to talk. It's funny, really. For all this talk about Talonflame being so overpowered that it's not even implemented in Reborn yet, mine has been pretty lackluster so far. Demolishing Kiki was her shining moment, but she had no comparable moments before then, nor after -- not even against Samson. If anything, my Aromatisse is the one who tends to save the day alongside Blaziken (who's a starter so of course he'll be OP) and occasionally Porygon2. But Talonflame's been, at best... backup. That's it. Not a sweeper save for Kiki, not even a primary front-liner like some of my other birds. Just a specialized mon who gets in an Acrobatics or two, then faints, because great Arceus that thing cannot take a punch. Maybe I'm missing something here. Maybe Talonflame is more OP competitively, when it has proper items or TMs, in a team that compliments its strengths and gives it a designated role. But with the resources currently available to us in Reborn, and in this particular run, I'm not impressed. I wouldn't be this disgruntled if Talonflame wasn't known as this godly firebird that'll wreck everything and laugh at you over a cigarette. Maybe the claims were exaggerated or I'm just not using it right because I suck (it wouldn't be the first time). I dunno. All I know is that Aromatisse saved my butt far more than Talonflame ever did. Y'know, I kinda miss the cigarette that Charlotte holds in her vs. picture The birds: Charlotte's fight went a little something like this, but with Yang's little sister Ruby there to be the meat shield while Yang does all the awesome stuff. The whole battle mainly boiled down to keeping Blaziken healthy while he hit stuff with Blaze Kick or Flare Blitz. Charlotte's field effect is so potent that Fire-type attacks do big damage even to other Fire-types. Combine that with Charcoal and two Bulk Ups, and Blaziken was a one-birb show... out of necessity. No one in the flock was capable of dealing heavy enough damage to Charlotte's team, let alone surviving long enough to do so. No, not even Talonflame. Especially not Talonflame. Lightweight, I tell ya. The good news is that Charlotte gives you the Flamethrower TM, which I immediately teach to Talonflame. Now she has use as a Fire-type instead of an Acrobatics slave -- Flame Charge was not doing its job.

If not for the pseudo legendary thing and its late final evolution, I was gonna say Dragonite for the starter. My reasoning is that it's one of the first mons I think of when I think Dragon-type, and like many other starters, it gains a secondary typing on its second or third evolution. But yeah, Haxorus probably works better as a 'starter' Dragon-type. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it, I hadn't realized that three-stage evolutions aren't as common as I thought. Fancy that.

You can catch a Braviary and a Hawlucha over in Route 2 for some good Flying-types.

Ooh I kinda like the regressed reflexes explanation. They're probably okay with a normal sanctioned six-on-six battle, but the instincts to get out their Pokemon immediately probably dwindled overtime, especially considering how helpless Sigmund must've made them feel. It might not explain why Shelly didn't seem to do anything either, but that can be passed off as her being naturally meek and not used to dealing with people who actively mean her harm.

It's not so much that I'm babysitting those orphans as it is I'm babysitting orphans who are supposed to be high-ranked gym leaders and should theoretically be able to handle themselves when random Meteor mooks come knockin'. Like seriously, Charlotte I could understand because she was so close to the entrance and probably got taken by surprise, but when those kids got ambushed in the Underground Railnet, I'm skeptical that no one but Cain thought to take out a Pokeball and defend themselves, even if the Pokemon they chose was a panicked, random decision -- anything would've been better than standing there and getting manhandled. No one even thought to run, except for Cain. See, this is why I like Cain. Say what you will about his constant double entendres, but Cain does the most things out of any character besides the protagonist. And hell, during the raid at Tanzan Cove, around that time Charlotte explicitly said that the player character isn't up to her rank. So why in the name of Arceus's butt did she and the others hide behind the PC? Because it was too risky to let Sigmund and his mooks catch them? Based on their rank, I figured those kids could destroy anything Sigmund could throw at them. See, maybe I'm missing something and the circumstances are more justified than I think, but whether it's justified doesn't matter to me -- if these gym leaders are supposed to be strong, then the story is doing a pretty poor job putting them in situations that would let them demonstrate that strength.

Team Updates Timber Brightcrest (M) Species: Dragon Empoleon Nature: Brave/Quick to flee Ability: Defiant (subject to change) Yeeeah, not sure how 'brave' and 'quick to flee' go together. Maybe it's seeing the value of a tactical retreat? Anyhoo, WHOOOOO I have so been looking forward to this guy. In fact, if I'd planned ahead better, I'd have requested Piplup instead of Magby (which is still totally a bird gaiz). He hasn't seen much action yet, mainly sponging off my team through Exp.Share, but WHOOOO a defensively-oriented bird who unlike Mandibuzz will also be able to hit hard. Goodnight Luna The birds: So, I haven't wrecked a gym leader this badly since Kiki. Her Honchkrow with Brave Bird + Moxie put a huge dent in my first attempt, so lesson learned. Next attempt, Blaziken Sky Uppercutted Bisharp and Tyranitar, and Aromatisse was sent in to handle Malamar. Since I needed to guarantee that Honchkrow would go down immediately, I set up two Calm Minds and OHKO'd Malamar with Draining Kiss, also restoring any damage he'd taken to near full health. When Honchkrow appeared, it luckily used Dark Pulse rather than Brave Bird (though Aromatisse would've survived either way), and a buffed Moonblast took advantage of its squishy defenses -- something I know all too well with my birbs, especially my own Honchkrow. Since Aromatisse was already buffed, I figured, hey why not let him handle the rest of the team? Well, the resulting sweep probably added Luna to the list of things that Karma will get back at me for one day. Okay. So. Aromatisse. wut I don't think I gave this bird the props he deserves. When I first got him I didn't think much of him. He didn't seem all that spectacular. I figured he would just be a random Fairy-type that might come in handy from time to time. What I did NOT expect was for Miasma to save my ass on many many occasions. In fact, he technically proved his worth the second I got him up to speed and used him against all those Electric-types in the orphanage. He's turned out to be such a backbone that he's rarely left my active party. Even when I don't count on him to sweep, I can count on him to hold the fort long enough for me to do something useful. From taking down Solaris's Garchomp, to his stall against Noel's Clefable, to decimating Luna, and being a general brute forcer when the situation called for it, Miasma has become a true teammate. A real bird-that's-not-really-a-bird-but-looks-enough-like-one-for-the-purposes-of-this-run fluffy pink Fairy fighter, destroyer of dragons and darkness. You rock, Miasma. Continue making this run less infuriating than it could be. Taking care of some pre-Agate business So! With Luna out of the way, it's time to head for post-Agate areas, which means a long while before we get to head back to Reborn proper. It's a loooong point of no return with four gym leaders and many tough bosses, and no access to the Department Store. So before I venture out to the Great Beyond, I'd like to grind for cash so I can save up for cool Department Store thingies. The ones that'll eat into my wallet is the full set of Power EV items and EV reduction berries. Speaking of EVs, I'll take a quick reassessment of how my flock's doing in that department and adjust if necessary. I'm by no means an EV trainer, but if a bird has all these EVs in special attack when they're supposed to be a physical attacker, then that's a problem. The flock In terms of pre-Agate Pokemon, if there was a bird I wanted to add to my flock, I probably already did it by now. I know that I missed a few (Noctowl, Pelipper, and Swellow at the top of my head, but there are more), but honestly they're not all that great. Or, they can be useful with some proper setup, but by the time I'll have access to appropriate TMs or items, I'd have already caught better birds like Braviary, Hawlucha, and Staraptor that don't need those kinds of specialized setups to be useful. And some of my birds are already falling behind, or will in the near future. Swanna will most likely be phased out for Empoleon as my primary Water-type, with Golduck possibly taking her place as backup in the future. Fearow is being used less and less and will probably give way to Braviary or whoever as a generalized physical attacker. And poor Pidgeot has been collecting dust in my PC since level 28. I wish I could use all my cute birds, but the reality is that some of them are not keeping up and certainly won't be able to handle post-Agate content with the resources currently available. Post-Agate is a significant milestone of sorts, so here's a recap of my team: Primary birbs: Will-probably-be-retired/Actually retired birbs: Backup/Misc. Birds

For non-Perish Song strategies, it's also possible to tie a good Fairy-type to an Air Balloon and Moonblast it to death. That's what I did with Aromatisse in my bird-themed run. Of course, that only works if you actually have been leveling a Fairy-type, but if you have, it means you don't need to go out of your way to beat Garchomp besides a quick trip to the department store.

I've never used Mandibuzz either, and admittedly she hasn't seen much action until recently, but so far she's been useful for being one of the few defensively oriented birbs I have. Needing badges for HMs wouldn't be so bad if the circumstances where you need them weren't so urgent. Kids are captured and need rescuing ASAP? Nope, gotta climb a volcano, beat a gym leader, stop the volcano, and beat another gym leader so you can actually use the HM that you really desperately need. Entire town is potentially starving? Nope, gotta fight a gym leader first and then actually get the HM from someone else. Someone fell down a waterfall and someone else dived down to rescue her? Nope, gym leader time. It kinda makes me wonder how long the people you need to help are waiting for you to finish your business. Even Titania gets pissed at you because you took so long. NotArceus The birds: Like with Steelix and PULSE Abra, I have Perish Song Murkrow ready to kamikaze if it comes to that. And just like Steelix and PULSE Abra, it didn't come to that. I was fully prepared to do Perish Song; from the beginning I'd decided that if there was any fight where I'd need to use it, it's this one. The field effect and the fact that it's a freakin' Arceus makes the fight stacked against you, and really, a lot of the fight depended on luck. First off, Judgement's type changes at random thanks to the field effect. That means if a Judgement became a type that Blaziken was weak to or even neutral against, it's a OHKO and the initial barrage is over, which would throw off the rest of the fight. Sometimes the RNG decided to use Shadow Ball instead, but it could've just as well been another Judgement. Blaziken leads with a Fighting Gem (I probably could've just stuck with his normal Black Belt, but whatever). Judgement luckily was a type Blaziken resisted, knocking his HP to the reds but not KOing him. He gets in a Double Kick and Speed Boost increases his speed, allowing him to get in another Double Kick before fainting. Talonflame is equipped with a Flying Gem and with her priority to Flying-type moves, gets in a boosted Acrobatics. It's minor damage all things considered, but everything helps. NotArceus uses Shadow Ball instead of Judgement, letting Talonflame barely survive and allowing her to get in a second Acrobatics before NotArceus uses Judgement. Honchkrow is next, equipped with a Dark Gem, and getting in a Sucker Punch. Again, it's minimal damage, but everything helps. Porygon2 is the sacrificial birb this time -- I noticed that NotArceus tended to use Focus Blast on him over anything else, so since there was no point to survival, I use its turn to revive Blaziken. Aromatisse's turn is used to heal him fully, and of course, Judgement OHKOs him. Blaziken is back on the field. Like in the opening, Judgement just so happens to be a type that Blaziken resists. He gets in two Double Kicks thanks to Speed Boost, and that gets the finishing blow to the bubblegum god. Like I said, the whole fight boiled down to luck. Arceus is tough even in a normal playthrough, but against a bunch of birds? I love my speedy kick chicken. Well, I love all my birbs, not matter how much I heal-sacrifice them BUT IT'S FOR A GOOD CAUSE DAMMIT. Anyway, I beat Arceus without Perish Song, so there. Radomus The birds: Y'know, Psychic and Rock are a weird combination to have to deal with when the Pokemon in question actually aren't Rock-type themselves. Mandibuzz will be a star player here. In addition to being immune to the Psychic/Rock chess battering ram, she's bulky enough to hopefully able to survive some of the non-Psychic moves Radomus has, and the field effect boosts her Feint Attack's power. I open with Mandibuzz and Talonflame while Radomus leads with Gallade and Reuniclus. Talonflame is today's sacrificial bird. With Gallade being part Fighting, he needs to go down ASAP, and Acrobatics does just that. Unfortunately, with her 4x Rock weakness, a single Psychic will destroy her so she just needs to hold out for however long she can. Metagross is sent out, but they both gang up on Reuniclus and take it down. Unfortunately, I probably should've focused on Metagross instead because Strength also has the additional Rock-type damage. Since Metagross had previously hit her with a Meteor Mash, it's a KO. Welp. Aromatisse is sent out and I use his initial turn to revive Mandibuzz. Radomus sends out Slowking, and it and Metagross gang up on Talonflame, fainting her. Porygon2 takes her place. Tri Attack deals decent damage against Slowking, but Slowking and Metagross gang up on Porygon2 and KO it (I'm sensing a pattern here). Mandibuzz is sent back out. I use Aromatisse's turn to heal her while Mandibuzz finishes off Slowking. Metagross OHKOs Aromatisse with Meteor Mash. Really bad timing because Malamar is sent out, and Aromatisse would've been effective against it. Honchkrow is sent out to be a placeholder while I revive Aromatisse. This time Mandibuzz focuses on Metagross, who's a bigger problem than I expected. Honchkrow barely manages to survive a Meteor Mash (luckily it didn't use Strength). He and Mandibuzz KO Metagross with Dark attacks while Malamar just kinda squids around. Said squid finishes off Honchkrow with Super Power. A recently-revived and weakened Aromatisse is sent back out while Gossip Gardevoir is sent in. This is what I was hoping for, because no one in my team is readily equipped to deal with Fairy-types -- the best I can do, as usual, is brute force. Aromatisse uses Calm Mind while Mandibuzz uses her turn to heal him. Gardevoir... gets a critical with Moonblast and OHKOs him. Swanna is the last of my team. She uses her turn to revive Aromatisse AGAIN before getting KO'd by Psychic. Aromatisse gets a Calm Mind while Mandibuzz focuses on keeping him healthy. Gardevoir and Malamar both focus on Aromatisse (Jesus, people!) who barely survives and OHKOs Malamar. Now they're both (sorta) safe to wail on Gardevoir and she faints. Phew! And speaking of Psychic-types... Team Updates! Okay so I need some suggestions here. After spending how long riding my bike back and fourth atop the ctrl alt delete place thingy you fight Arceus, I caught two birbs: Xatu and Sigilyph. Psychic bird Other Psychic bird The problem is that they're both Psychic birds and I'm not sure which one to focus on. Now, I could just raise both for redundancy, but that's extra work and I think ultimately, one is the better option than the other. Here's my two cents on the dilemma: Sigilyph -Overall higher stats, so better staying power over the long term. -More useful abilities like Wonder Skin and Tinted Lens. -Seems to have a better move pool that takes more advantage of both its typings. Xatu -Is a cuter birdy. You're probably thinking that this is a joke, but I'm honestly conflicted here.

She may have only had a single on screen appearance, but I'm interested in Lin. Part of it is due to her air of mystery. She's strongly implied to come from Sigmund's orphanage, but we don't know how she got to leading Team Meteor or even what her deal is. All we know is that she's supposed to be really freakin' dangerous. Her profile on the defunct gym leader roster is grayed out, but she's supposed to be a Dragon-type trainer. Not only are Dragon-types generally the strongest Pokemon available, her quotes and demeanor have her obsessed with power. She's the leader of Team Meteor who scares her subordinates shitless, including Solaris, who if you recall once destroyed you with his level 75 Garchomp (or at least that's what the game intends...) Because of the mystery and what kind of unholy power she possesses, Lin manages to be subtly chilling. And honestly? I do not want to fight her. Holy shit, I am dreading when we have to fight her. Her ace is a Hydreigon! I'm already dreading fighting Saphira. You think I wanna see how badly Lin will wreck me?

I'd argue Cain is probably one of the strongest male characters in the game. Yes, he's comic relief but he's also a generally reliable, caring, and proactive character, one who consistently tags along and helps you on your journey -- for comparison, look at Victoria and how much she impeded your progress rather than take measures to help it along. But the orphanage thing is one of my biggest complaints with the story, too. I admit that Pokemon canon is no stranger to kids single-handedly taking down entire organizations and becoming champ in a short amount of time, but the question becomes 1) where they found the time to do that training, and 2) why so many of those orphans just happen to be children who are high-ranked gym leaders and Elite 4 (it's supposed to be inspired by the real world Reborn league, but still). It's hard to consider Noel a prodigy when his friends are only a few years older than him and managed to have attained similar or even higher status. What also gets to me is why no one in the league noticed that Sigmund wasn't letting any of those leaders battle until the player breaks into the orphanage. I understand that maybe the powers that be are busy cleaning up the city, but gym leaders are supposed to be high-ranked VIPs in Reborn. Surely they'd have better tabs kept on them and be expected to touch base with the league from time to time. And if not, surely at least one challenger (if there are so many gym leaders in that building, they'd probably have plenty of challengers at their doorstep) would have seen Sigmund refuse them to battle and perhaps complained to someone. It just strikes me as odd how these high-profile leaders being unable to do their jobs would have gone unnoticed for so long.

Quite a few, considering in the official games I usually got away with using maybe 1-4 good mons, sometimes all the way to the Elite 4. I guess you can say that nearly 80 percent of my roster were unexpected finds. In a normal playthrough, an example that a lot of Reborners probably know of is Kricketune. I think it was mainly put there to help players deal with Florinia and her Cradily, but it was actually a useful battler in general all the way until around Corey. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it got the axe in subsequent episodes just for how powerful Fury Cutter can be. In my bird-themed run, one mon I did not expect to be this useful is Aromatisse. You have no idea how often this fluffy birb came to the rescue for being a heavy hitter in general, and for not being weak to some combination of Electric, Rock, Ice, Ground, and even Water that's a threat to the rest of my team. But yes, Reborn really forces you to use Pokemon you normally wouldn't bother with, even moreso when you're doing a monotype or some other themed challenge, and it is awesome.

Indeed, not everything gets covered by the news, even incidents that would otherwise be newsworthy. The disturbing part is that I don't think anyone is lying. But if it's all true, then it means there was an almost unreal amount of drama and baggage going on among the league. I don't know if there was anything in particular about the league that would draw so many characters like that into one place, but if it's a coincidence, then there were prominent members who died from illness, orphans getting ECT'd by their caretaker, a giant custody battle, amnesia from a car accident, and Fern. It's so surreal that all that could be contained in a place for online Pokemon stuff, of all things. And what's more, did everyone pick their types, or were they assigned to the roster and were told to form a personality/lore around it? That interview with Sigmund probably shouldn't be taken at face value, because clearly at least some parts of it were written 'In Character' (otherwise Gardevoir wouldn't be a Gardevoir, and I don't think people talk like Sigmund does in real life). That's why I'm not sure how much to believe, because I don't know which is fabrication made for the sake of Reborn's lore.

Caregiver by day, mad doctor by night, and Pokemon gamer during snack time? That's an interesting combination. I get the feeling Sigmund's practice was a small, privately-owned thing, because I doubt the head of a larger place would find the time (and honestly, the inclination) to be one of the bigwigs at an online Pokermons thing. By chance can anyone link me that thread if they can find it? And are these interviews archived, or is it information we'd need to bug the ancient folks for? I'm surprised too at how many, like you said, 'misfits' managed to congregate here and become part of the league. And going by the presence of Sigmund, Corey, and El, some league members were adults with their own children (biologically or otherwise). Honestly, I'm torn between my desire to let those guys keep their privacy, and my own morbid curiosity. While it seems unfair to dig into their histories -- which obviously have issues -- I also want to know more about them.

It's in the Underground Railnet in the place with the train track puzzle. Somewhere near the end of the first hall is a darker crack in the wall. Use Rock Smash and you'll enter a small room with the key.

Wait wait wait. So Sigmund was based on an actual dude... who worked at/ran an orphanage and actually used ECT on the kids? And if this is based on real life, does that mean Saphira, Charlotte, and Laura were actually orphans and were for a time were mulling around with their 'caretaker' in the league? It's a little hard to believe and a little disturbing how much I'm learning about Reborn's real origins...

Or if you don't feel like wasting a Linkstone, you can catch a Crustle with Sturdy from the Route 2 puzzle and see what you can do with X-Scissor.

I found the best method for ice cream murder is to just melt it with fire. Ice-types generally don't have great defenses anyway, and if you can get rid of the field effect, just wailing on Blake with one or two good Fire-types worked well for me. The hardest part of that fight for me was Jynx, mainly because one of my two Fire-types was Blaziken.

Le Updates of Teame Carrion (F) Species: Mandibuzz Nature: Careful/A little quick tempered Ability: Big Pecks Finally, a designated defensive birb. Sirius This must be my reward for managing to beat Sigmund at Yureyu, because this Sirius is a much more straightforward fight than either of Dr. Butt's encounters. I lead with Mandibuzz because... she just happened to be in the first slot. Sirius leads with Chandelure. Mandibuzz is bulky enough to survive for a while and strong enough to land good hits in, but a Heat Wave dealt heavy damage and burned her, a Confuse Ray made it worse, and a Shadow Ball finishes her off. Oh well, not bad for your debut fight. Lesse... I have Blaziken, Talonflame, Aromatisse... I'm getting some Shade flashbacks here. In that case, Timber knows what to do! (Not really.) Send out Aromatisse and get in two Calm Minds followed by a Moonblast. Luckily Chandelure sticks with Psychic and Confuse Ray, and Heat Wave misses at one point. Chandelure was already weakened so yay. Yay Manectric. I love Electric-types. Aromatisse is weakened but thankfully he still has enough steam left. Manectric uses Crunch instead of anything more ouchie so it's a KO right there. Bring in Porygon2 for Seviper. If I recall, Seviper has Aqua Tail so Blaziken and Talonflame would be risky, but Porygon2 has Psybeam. Psybeam deals decent damage, but then Sirius recalls Seviper for... Hitmontop. Two Psybeams take care of that nuisance. Seviper comes back and Porygon2 finishes where it left off. Blaziken is sent out for Probopass and its nice 4x Fighting weakness. Blaziken Double Kicks it in its schnozz... and leaves it with, like, 1 HP left. Jesus, Blaziken. Well, Probopass paralyzes him with Thunder Wave. I figure I'd use the chance to heal up Aromatisse, just in case. Sirius heals up Probopass in the meanwhile. Okay, let's try this again. Paralyzed! Can't move. And here comes the Rock Slide fooooor meh damage. Blaziken uses Blaze Kick again, using Probopass's big schnozer like a giant red target, like, "Please kick me!" Healing Aromatisse turned out to be the right call, because Sirius finishes things off with Honchcrow. A Brave Bird does serious damage (it must be the fedora), but Aromatisse survives and KOs it with Moonblast. Phew! A much easier fight than Sigmund's shock-happy team. Steelix I brought along my Perish Song Murkrow in the event Steelix destroys me, but I wanted to see if I could win without resorting to that. It turns out that a team of squishy birbs can take on anything if you just revive them enough. Everyone but Aromatisse could outspeed Steelix. I got in a good hit with Swanna's Aqua Pulse, but where Earthquake couldn't wreck me, Stone Edge (or was it Rock Slide?) could. Blaziken was the best burd for the fight, but Earthquake is a guaranteed OHKO. The fight mainly boiled down to letting Blaziken get in a Blaze Kick, get KO'd, send next birb out and use turn to revive Blaziken (further healing is pointless since most everything's a OHKO anyway), rinse and repeat until Steelix faints. Sometimes I have to wonder how my flock feels when I sacrifice them for the greater good. PULSE Abra Murkrow and Sucker Punch. Pretty good for what's essentially your debut fight, Redrum. That was easy! Noel After I discovered the whole 'Blaziken uses a bunch of Bulk Ups and wrecks everyone' strategy for Noel, I haven't really bothered to find any other way to deal with the kid. That technique might've been passable for when Noel's Swellow had Fire Orb + Guts + Facade = YOU WON'T SURVIVE WITHOUT A MILLION BULK UPS, but just for shits and giggles, I decided, nah. Hell, maybe I won't need to use Blaziken at all! (Well, he's still in my party just in case, because c'mon... this is Noel). I lead with Honchcrow because... actually I don't know. Why did I lead a Honchcrow against a Fairy-tpe? Well, whatever. Honchcrow uses Wing Attack, but then gets paralyzed with Thunder Wave and OHKO'd by Dazzling Gleam. Fire against fire, then. I send out Aromatisse and do a few Moonblasts. I'm kinda surprised Noel didn't use any healing items. I have a feeling this'll bite me later. Oh god, it's the Swellow. THE Swellow. Welp, Porygon2 has Discharge. Swellow uses Brave Bird, ouch. Discharge OHKOs Swellow, ouch. I'm very glad for Swellow's nerf. I am so very, very glad for Swellow's nerf. Porygon-Z... huh. Okay, better get some inspiration, P-Sharp, cuz that's what you'll be one day. We both use Tri-Attack, but unfortunately, Porygon-Z is faster and P-Sharp was already weakened from Swellow. I heal it, but Porygon-Z's next Tri Attack paralyzes P-Sharp and takes a big chunk of its HP. I took a chance, and whadoyaknow, Porygon-Z uses Discharge instead. P-Sharp survives and its Tri Attack finishes it off. Well, I guess we proved who's the better Cyber Birb. Cinccino is probably the most annoying member of Noel's team minus pre-nerf Swellow. I switch Porygon2 for Talonflame -- not taking any chances against this one. (Well, if I REALLY didn't wanna take a chance, I'd have sent out Blaziken instead, but y'know...). Of course, maybe I really should've taken a chance, because Cinccino has Rock Blast. Sorry, Talonflame. Acrobatics did a good job, but it didn't save you here. Aromatisse is sent back out, still weakened but hopefully still okay to battle. He BARELY survives a Tail Slap with 2 HP, and after Talonflame's work, Moonblast finishes the job. For Girafarig I try to heal up Aromatisse, but healing can't keep up with its Psychic. I send out Swanna to revive him just in case. Thunderbolt OKHOs her, as I... kinda maybe totally did anticipate (sorry, Swanna). Porygon2's back out, albeit weakened, but better able to tank its attacks. I keep healing Porygon2 while I wait for an opening, where Girafarig uses Thunderbolt instead of Psychic. Once it's safe-ish (Porygon2 is still paralyzed) it uses Tri Attack. Noel abruptly remembers he has healing items, but Porygon2 is healthy enough where it can keep attacking while being able to barely survive. Girafarig goes down. Aromatisse is back out for Clefable. This matchup became mainly an endurance contest of attacking, (de)buffing, and healing. Clefable's attacks don't necessarily hurt, but between the field effect, Leftovers, Noel's healing items, and Soft Boiled, I was more worried about Aromatisse running out of PP for his attack moves. By the time Moonblast was down to 3 PP, I lost patience and used a Dire Hit. It turned out to be unnecessary because Clefable used other moves instead, but good grief, finally it goes down. See? No Blaziken required. And now that I've proven that I can beat Noel without Bulk Up Blaziken, next time I fight him, I'm using Bulk Up Blaziken. Just because.

I personally fought fire with fire against Charlotte. Her field effect is so potent that Fire-types can deal heavy damage even against other Fire-types. There's also how Water-types are risky in that fight anyway. Even if you neutralize the field, Charlotte's team still has plenty of Electric and Grass moves, plus a Heat Rotom. Unless your Blastoise is very bulky or can reliably outspeed and/or OHKO her team, you might wanna bring in a good Fire-type like Arcanine just in case.

Flying-types might be a better bet in this battle than Psychic-types; they're squishy and Samson's team usually rolls high High Striker whatevers. You can catch a Braviary and a Hawlucha over in Route 2, which are both Flying-type heavy hitters.

With all the mirrors I broke in Serra's mansion, I wonder how many years of bad luck I've accumulated. I wonder if it's related to that karma thing. Team Updates Redrum + Dusk Stone = Redrum with fedora Aya So Aya wasn't a nightmare. Sometimes double battles makes things more simple -- it's easier to take something down fast by having two mons gang up on one. Plus, aside from Aya's Tentacruel, the fight doesn't have any egregious type disadvantages to worry about. The only real threats were Tentacruel for its Water-typing, and Dragalge and Gengar just for raw strength. I led with Fearow and Talonflame (shut up, she gets no OHKOs here; that's with Fighting-types, and Kiki), who quickly finish off Tentacruel. This makes it safe for Blaziken to come out when he needs to, though that also depended on if Nidoqueen felt like using any Ground-type moves (luckily she didn't). Talonflame and Fearow eventually faint after getting some good damage on Dragalge. Swanna and Blaziken are both up next. From there, Blaziken sticks to Blaze Kick while Swanna assists with Water Pulse or Aerial Ace. Aya's team hit hard so I needed to be careful with all that poison. Eventually Swanna fainted and Altaria took her place. Near the end, Blaziken fainted, but Altaria got the finishing blow with Dragon Pulse, stealing the hard-earned exp because that's apparently what my birds do. Dr. Connal hates birds but that's okay, because I hate him just as much Y'know, I never managed to beat Sigmund at Yureyu Building even in a normal playthrough. I would try, many times, but I always wound up taking on Sirius instead. It's a double battle with Cain where two of his Pokemon are weak to Electric, and if all his team fell (which in my playthroughs, they often did), then you're getting double-teamed. It's only gotten worse in recent episodes now that Sigmund has a field effect on his side during this fight. That's why I usually saved the Sigmund fight for Tanzan Cove. So imagine my bafflement when, after a few frustrating attempts, I actually beat him in the one run I did not expect to beat him in. I used Blaziken, Porygon2, and Aromatisse since sending out anyone else would be suicide. The biggest hurdle was getting past Luxray and Raichu. Raichu's Lightning Rod ability in a double battle filled with Electric-types caused many attempts to go south fast, but there was some luck involved with the field effect where their attacks wouldn't hit as hard. Usually Cain drags me down in this fight, but he was actually useful this time around. Aromatisse and Nidoking managed to take down Luxray and Raichu, through Aromatisse fainted soon after. Blaziken took over for the most part while Nidoking helped out, and even Samurott's ridiculously short appearance got in a good Razor Shell. Blaze Kick + Charcoal managed to brute force Electivire, Eelektross, and Rotom. The other hurdle, Lanturn, was fortunately handled by a well-timed Disable from Muk that locked Lanturn's Bubble Beam. With the main threat disabled, Blaziken was safe to Double Kick it in the spleen while Muk lobbed disgusting whatevers at it. Yay! I like it when your partners do useful things. There was a lot of healing involved and some luck involving the field effect, plus a very useful contribution from Muk's Disable, but holy crap guys, a fight that I was dreading is actually out of the way. Yes, an Electric-type battle that I had never been able to manage during a normal run was finally beaten in a run with a bunch of lightning rod birbs. I'm proud of myself gaiz. Now I don't have to feel bad for ditching Heather so I could fight Sirius instead. Bennett and Serra not funhouse of mirrors Hoo boy, I hate this field effect. Needless to say, Blaziken and Talonflame were the star players here, but Fearow and Swanna came in handy against Bennett thanks to never-miss Aerial Ace. I'm glad that most of Serra's team can't do big damage to Blaziken. Most of them spam Signal Beam and Flash Cannon to take advantage of those circus mirrors Serra loves to use, but Blaziken is like a big buff stuffed turkey, so those attacks were mostly just annoyances. The real concerns were missing and taking damage (likely, given Blaze Kick's 90 percent accuracy combined with Serra's evasion boosts) and getting confused from Signal Beam. I equipped Blaziken with Charcoal and put him in the lead. I'd need to be able to sweep what I can; it's too risky to keep any of Serra's team on the field for long thanks to those ungodly evasion buffs, which under normal circumstances are nuisances, but in this battle, missing hurts you unless using a special attack -- which none of my team has that's super effective. Blaziken sets up two Bulk Ups and Blaze Kicks Cryogonal. Luckily Cryogonal couldn't do much damage. Blaziken misses against Jynx and takes damage, but he hits the next time and OHKOs it with a critical (up yours). I heal when Glaceon is on the field -- Blaziken is in the yellows and I need to keep him healthy. Blaze Kick takes it down to the reds. So close. Signal Beam confuses him and that sucks. Not OHKOing Glaceon was actually a blessing in disguise since Serra used up an Ultra Potion, though the next Blaze Kick did the job. Blaziken misses against Vanilluxe and takes damage. Then Vanilluxe's Frost Breath gets a crit (which is a 100 percent crit move, ouch) and now Blaziken has 5 HP left. I'm gonna make my birds too fat to fly with all the ice cream I keep healing them with. Or, in Blaziken's case, maybe I just make him a bigger stuffed turkey... filled with ice cream. You're welcome for the new Thanksgiving recipe. Pffft oh this was perfect. Blaze Kick is running out of PP so I use Double Kick instead. Serra withdraws Vanilluxe and sends out... Aurorus. Double Kick hits it for a glorious 4x weakness to Fighting. I guess even I get to have some luck in this battle. Vanilluxe is back, Double Kick misses and Blaziken takes damage. (Sorta) Mercifully Vanilluxe uses Mirror Shot instead of Frost Breath, which would have fainted Blazikena after that collision damage. Unfortunately, Mirror Shot also lowered his accuracy, sooooo fuck. Thankfully Double Kick connects and faints it. Now it's Frosslass time. The hail that Aurorus had conjured boosts Frosslass's evasion. The item she's holding also boosts her evasion. Blaziken's evasion had been lowered previously, Blaze Kick has 90 percent accuracy, and unlike the rest of Serra's team, Frosslass uses attacks that can actually deal some decent damage. Would hax be on my side? Will my main battler faint and send my plans crashing face-first into a mirror and get all bruised and bloody and get 7+ years of bad luck? Blaze Kick OHKOs her and I win. Yay!