dondon151

Wasn't Azurill already a limited event? You had to trade a Growlithe for it, unless that doesn't count as a limited event. If limited event means strictly choosing between 2 possible Pokemon, I suspect that the player has to choose between Togepi and Azurill.

The move tutor requires the House Key to access, which isn't accessible until you've unlocked the puzzle portion of the Railnet. By that point Blaziken should be ~L50. Even without the move tutor moves before then, he still has Double Kick and Blaze Kick with Bulk Up for set-up. Blaziken either needs to be by himself in S rank or have an even higher tier to himself; he's clearly the best Pokemon in the game and a cut above the rest. The problem with these viability threads is that you're going to get a bunch of players claiming that some mediocre Pokemon is S/A tier with supporting evidence that amounts to "this Pokemon does well in this one situation." I think if you want to do this in a more systematic way, limit the discussion to Pokemon available at a certain time first so that you don't have to deal with ranking hundreds of Pokemon at once. A good starting point would be just ranking the 18 starter Pokemon according to this tier system. After that we can move on to ranking the Pokemon obtainable in Peridot Ward. The benefit to this method is that players just starting out the game are obviously the most curious about the viability of Pokemon that are most immediately available. You (meaning the TC) also have to stipulate how we should weigh factors such as egg moves and old breeding mechanics. Some players will assume that egg moves should be a given, and some may even assume that TMs can be bred. Others (like me) think that breeding is too much of an investment to be seriously considered in these rankings and Pokemon should be judged only by their level-up movepool and available TMs.

Thanks for your helpful suggestions,

When people claim "it's not that hard," they usually say it from the perspective of hindsight after they have figured out a strategy to overcome whatever challenge you've asked about. Obviously the challenge doesn't seem hard when the person knows the solution already. It's like if you had all the answers to a test and then claimed that the test wasn't "that hard." That said, there exist strategies, both specific and non-specific, that Amethyst can't cover with only 4 moveslots per Pokemon plus a field effect, and the AI isn't capable of adaptation. A Pokemon game can only be so difficult.

So I asked this earlier and I forgot where I asked it because I didn't look for a response. I suppose I'll word it as a suggestion: next time there's a status thread (i.e., episode 16), the total completion % should just be updated in the thread title, which should eliminate 90% of the "X% hype" posts without the need to issue a direct warning against the people who make such posts.

I used Swoobat in the first iteration of the speedrun route. It has strong traits, but the problem that I had with it was that it basically required Calm Mind to sweep, so any battle in which I had to use it to keep its level up would take longer. It's also not the best at setting up because its durability is terrible. The change to the move tutor also hurt it a bit because normally I would catch Woobat at L20 and use a Heart Scale to relearn Confusion. I've since switched to Diggersby in the route, but I'll switch back to Swoobat if Diggersby ever gets axed. Diggersby is also way more fun to use.

I don't see the point of introducing oneself on a forum; if you make good posts, you'll develop a good reputation, and if you make bad posts, people won't give a shit about what you say.

Kirlia evolves into Gardevoir at L30 and by then will have Calm Mind and Psychic; game over.

In addition to this, I just want to point out that one person's perception of a particular opponent's difficulty isn't an accurate representation of that opponent's difficulty on the whole. Many gym leaders in Reborn are profoundly weak to specific strategies (which is kind of a good thing) and players will naturally have or not have Pokemon who can dip into those strategies as they play through the game. Most people claim that Noel is difficult, for example, but I have never beaten Noel in more than 8 turns. Does that mean that Noel isn't difficult? It probably doesn't.

I don't know why so many people want old Serra back; a battle that you can barely strategize around due to heavy proliferation of luck-based elements is terrible design. RPGs always appear to get easier as they progress because player options expand and they get more tools to deal with potential threats. If you wanted to maintain earlygame difficulty, you'd also have to limit player options, and a huge component of the fun of playing RPGs (but Pokemon in particular) is the wealth of options available for the player to choose from. Reborn is still doing this with TM availability; currently there are few good TMs available and the game sacrifices customization in favor of difficulty that's a product of the player having more limited options. I'm of the opinion that this makes the game slightly less fun overall.

Wait, what? I could've swore that if you fight Sigmund, you still fight Sirius. I am definitely picking Sigmund over Sirius in Yureyu next time...

Quick suggestion to Amethyst: why not include the progress % in the thread title?

Meganium does get Leech Seed; it's by egg move, though.

Or some save hacking.

Gengar, Weezing, Claydol, and Mismagius resist ground and fighting without being weak to rock, which usually complements those types. Flygon to a lesser extent. Most grass types also resist ground without being weak to rock. I forget if all of these Pokemon are currently available.

There is not much reason to use Meowstic-F. Its level-up movepool is overrated; Charge Beam at L28 is meaningless because it's the first TM that you get. Shadow Ball at L31 comes approximately 8 levels before when you get the TM for Shadow Ball. Signal Beam provides coverage against dark types, but it's not going to do very much without STAB and coming off base 83 SpAtk. Meowstic-M, on the other hand, has Prankster with a whole bunch of good support moves learned by level up. You can have a Meowstic-M with the right moves and never level it up and it'd still do just fine.

Using either of these Pokemon without Calm Mind is extremely sub-optimal. Also a lot of users are selling short Alakazam's special bulk. It's strong enough on the special side to take most special attacks and it's fast enough to get up a Calm Mind before it can get hit, so with some form of healing between Recover and Ice Creams, Alakazam is easily capable of setting up with Calm Mind and sweeping. Run Psychic / Calm Mind and then pick two from Shadow Ball, Grass Knot, Reflect.

Combusken can solo Julia. This might be contingent on her Electrode not using Explosion, though.

So this is actually a legitimate concern and I'm disappointed to see everyone else dismissing it because the TC didn't "explore enough." The fact that some main series Pokemon games do this (usually only the older ones) doesn't suggest that it's an acceptable game design choice, because this would just be a form of an appeal to authority fallacy. It helps that the older main series Pokemon games have comparatively less to explore than Reborn; if you missed Rock Smash in Reborn, you will have no idea where to possibly backtrack and look for it. Rock Smash's location is somewhat unintuitive because there's a gap between when you obtain it and when you first need to use it. In the case of R/B/Y Surf, you cannot progress from Fuchsia City without the move, so its location is intuitively within Fuchsia City. In the case of Rock Smash, you go under the Grand Stairway, defeat Shelly, maybe knock off a Lapis Ward gang, rambo through the orphanage, and then suddenly you need to use Rock Smash. There are many players who don't fully explore their surroundings because they are interested in progressing through the game, not in looking in every nook and cranny for little details that usually will not help the player at all. It takes less time for me to look up a guide than it does for me to talk to enough NPCs and search in enough ensconced areas to figure something out. Unlike solving puzzles, neither is very mentally engaging. EDIT: I know that everyone here loves Reborn and appreciates the dev team's efforts (as do I) and would jump to the game's defense with little provocation, but it's supremely unhelpful to deflect constructive feedback on the game with comments such as "well you're playing the game wrong."

Froakie is not an overpowered starter. Azumarill is so much better than any of the water-type starters.

I'm wondering what that last 7% in field effects is; is it just something that hasn't been gotten around to, or is it something particularly tricky?

Is it still a tall grass Pokemon or is it an interactable event?

I OHKO'd the poor guy with Flail Diggersby @ Focus Sash.

Arcanine is already obtainable.

Iron Fist doesn't boost Close Combat. Iron Fist is not a very good ability for Chimchar; it boosts Mach Punch by 20% and that's about it. It's probably slightly better than Blaze until Infernape learns Close Combat.