sound of silence

Ice shard would be a good idea to get archeops into defeatist range while also being useful for noivern. That being said, I did forget about cryogonal, which would be quite useful if you can get it to outspeed her gliscor, as her only other physical attacker is archeops who you just shouldn't go up against at all. Steelix could be worth bringing for that actually, since another thing that may help you is that archeops has a choice band for an item which mean once it selects an attack, it will keep using that attack only. Of the three you listed, definitely cryogonal, though if you can get a lapras with ice shard, I'd be using that. Avalugg will only be useful if you have Trick room support while Aurorous has way too many weaknesses to ciel's coverage moves/too slow. As for EV's and egg moves, check out the on the hunt section of the forums to learn about that. I wouldn't bother learning about egg moves yet though since you can't get back to the daycare without an earlier episode of reborn anyway, making breeding useless at this point in time.

To add to Luna's advice, Mismagius should hold a cheri/lum berry if you have it, as it will make setting up against her togekiss possible as it tends to use thunder-wave the moment a non-ground/electric type is present. Make sure to keep it somewhat healthy as her noivern has the infiltrator ability and can hit hard with dragon pulse. I'd also ditch arcanine for this fight as unfortunately most of ciel's team either resists fire attacks or is just too bulky to care about it. I would consider adding a rock type pokemon to your team, as Talonflame is a nuisance otherwise. Any is fine, though I'm partial to gigalith because it learns Stealth Rock without the quad water and grass weakness that Golem has. Also like the sudowudo suggestion though you don't need to be that gimmicky. . If nothing appeals to you about that, catching a chinchou from the dive spots in the various ice mountains would do nicely (also good for paralysis though I think Ciel has full restores at this point). Of the ice types listed, I'd also give some thought to using froslass if you still have a dawn stone to spare (and being able to find a female snorunt), as you need speedy ice types for this gym. Unfortunately it'd really only be good for this fight. Otherwise pick a tanky ice type such as walrein or lapras as you need special ice attacks to beat gliscor, while being bulky enough to take on her altaria.

Spiritomb gets a mention from me on this playthrough. If you want a way to get an easy win against randomus, set up nasty plot and smite everything in your path with dark pulse. The priority attacks also help a ton. Was very lucky to get pain split on it from its event which was a nice way to get another early tank of a pokemon. Infiltrator also helps against screens which become common after Aya. Also a great killer of all those tauros on Route 1 as they cannot touch you due to only having normal/psychic attacks. Also decent against boufflant but megahorn is a bit more problematic. Hoping to see it pull its weight against Samson soon.

But I wanna use OP things cuz the AI gets to and stuff and its not fair!!!!1! I suppose its understandable As for the whole type theory, given gravity is extended, I'm assuming the ground type is the one that changes its match-up to something far more favorable with flying.

Knew I forgot one part of the conditions required, thanks.

So I've currently got the correct conditions to acquire eevee (a windy day, in chrysolia forest), but the tree is not moving from where it normally does to access the cave. Do you have to have beaten Serra or resolved the tanzan meteor base before it becomes available? I wasn't aware of that to be a feature. Posting this in on the hunt since I think this is more a hunting issue rather than a bug at this point.

Will this item also work for tailwind? Otherwise love the item.

The following should help you. -Put an air balloon on lucario. This will guarantee you a kill on excadril, who cannot hurt you too badly otherwise. -Same for empoleon. I'd also give it icy wind from the circus tutor over hydro pump for this battle as you'll need it for rawrchomp. -Bronzong needs to be subbed in for magnezone, who is useless in this battle. Bronzong's psychic attacks get buffed by the field, and if it still has heatproof (I'm asuming it did so you could beat charlotte), it should handle nidoking. I would also use a heart scale to teach it metal sound, which is stupidly OP on terra's field (it will reduce both special attack and special defense on the glitch field, making her special attackers easier to beat. -For metagross, remove hammer arm and replace it with grass knot. It will be used to beat quagsire with that. Strategy -Lead with bronzong, and deal with nidoking. -Air balloon lucario deals with excadril -Claydol should just be hit with escavalier until it goes down. -Hippowdon can be dealt with by whoever you desire. Just make sure if you're using empoleon, that the penguin OHKO's hippo before it can hit you back. -Metagross deals with quagsire. -For garchomp, lead with empoleon and use icy wind. It'll pop your air balloon in the process, but icy wind will have reduced its speed. Once that happens, have everything left standing just attack it until it goes down.

The field has been changed from the icy field to the icy mountain for EP15, so EQ does not work anymore. You need fire moves to melt the field, though the steel types are a better choice I think, given you need 2 fire pokemon to make melting the field a worthwhile choice.

I used several pokemon with intimdate to lower its attack to -6, then used leech seed from a bulky grass type. This works best if you have a pokemon with protect as well, or a low level pokemon with the ability sturdy.

Scolipede is a decent choice too, as I find protect to be quite useful for an extra turn of T-spikes stalling or for using certain moves in double battles such as surf or discharge. T-spikes of its own and a decently strong megahorn are also useful for cleaning up late game, though the lack of high BP poison STAB moves is a real shame. Also like the venomoth suggestion. Particularly if you're still to come up against the big top arena battles (enough speed EV's and a cheri berry might even let venomoth put in work against Ciel)

Except none of the early game water types you can get with the sole exceptions of lightning rod goldeen and protean froakie outperform mudkip's line because of the ground typing. Seriously do people even read the bit where the special move power doesn't matter because your typing allows you to mitigate half the early game problems water types have or can actually be beneficial due to certain field effects (see the wasteland nerfing EQ), or due to the higher defence of some ground weak pokes (doublade on shade's team comes to mind) or the fact muddy water gains 1.5 boosts on most fields you battle on from shade to kiki? Half the early leaders can't even tank mud shot or mud bomb because they're hilariously weak to begin with or do nothing to marshtomp/swampert in return. I swear some people are seriously thick, having no concept that the early game is designed to shit all over every other water type you can pick (outside of froakie and catching goldeen), thinking that there are no field effects or anything. Swampert doesn't need EQ until it gets to serra, which by then it can acquire with the use of a common candy afterwards. Saying that its special movepool isn't helpful ignores the entire aspect of reborn that separates it from the main franchise: the fields. Or better yet, asides from goldeen and froakie, name me one water type that is even remotely useful in the following part of reborn: the start of the game until you get past the yureyu building. If people are too daft to understand how good an extra boost to your attacks are that doesn't consume items or waste turns, then I don't know how you're getting through the game ignoring the benefits of good typing or potential terrain boosts.

The only reason ever to use X-Items is when you really want to use something that is otherwise too weak beyond a certain point of the game. This very much applies to samurott and probably quite a number of other pokemon. X-items don't teach you how to battle properly, offering a cheap cop-out to have a pokemon sweep or perform where it quite simply shouldn't otherwise, as opposed to properly building a team of pokemon that can actually do the job of getting past said chokepoint. Asides from that complaint, once you get to Luna (possibly even before that), due to the large increase in base move power granted by field effects, the only thing that is allowing you to get an X-item + various boosting move off over 2 turns without getting KO'd are -Exceptional bouts of AI stupidity -Accuracy issues from the moves of the AI -Screens/Memento/Encore support Betting on either of the first two options is an extremely stupid way to battle, though I begrudgingly concede that it is sometimes necessary to get past certain opponents in reborn. The last option is reasonable if only due to the existence of Meowstic-M, but having to give up an entire team slot AND get through two turns relatively unscathed (depending on how much priority your opponent has) is asking way too much without relying on the AI to mess up. Nothing in this list should ever be ranked based on X-items, period. If I can't convince that samurott is not what people think it is, so be it, but please return the mudkip line to where it rightfully belongs as it is capable of being a clutch pokemon even if you do have to wait a long time before getting EQ. Despite the poor special attack for its special moves, they are quite capable of dealing damage enough to take down the foes it needs, or gaining boosts from the fields to bring the power of the attack back up to acceptable levels. It also performs admirably in the double battle formats due to a large amount of spread attacks + naturally learning protect.

I'll let point 1 slide as it was a dumb idea to compare bulky tanks with sweepers, so we'll try and focus on the argument that swampert is more useful throughout the game than samurott is. As for your X-item comment, No. Just no. X-items are a stupid argument because just about any pokemon in the C ranks or higher become much better with an X-item. This is not exclusive to samurott. Secondly, they do not mitigate the fact samurott is pathetically slow for a sweeper. Rather, it enforces the fact that to get any sort of good use out of it, you need serious investment, whereas while swampert would kill for leftovers or the tm for rest to be added, it can still do it's job of tanking hits and KO'ing what it needs to. As for your last comment, I'd recommend replaying the game up until about shade's gym. Maybe then you will realise razor shell is not helpful because you are constantly up against opponents where a mono-water type is a really bad idea. Swampert's ground typing at least ensures it is quite capable where samurott is otherwise a poor choice (julia's gym, corey's gym, the orphanage, shade's gym). Whereas those situational boosts you get with swampert's moves actually do help it to be usable during the course of the game.

-Dragon Dance >>> Swords dance for reborn. Samurott is far too slow to utilize swords dance in a way that would ensure a sweep. -You get totodile at level 32 for starters, and even then the clown at agate circus makes grinding a non-issue -You're ignoring the special STAB's getting boosted by the field effects, or the ground type being rather excellent early to mid game, asides from florinia and shelly which both pokemon are useless against (I may concede dewott to be useful if you grind the speed EV stat considerably, but even then the chance of hax and lack of STAB make fury cutter hard to get going against florinia when you have the type disadvantage) The crappy special STAB's hit quite hard against the appropriate trainers where you would get the most use out of it, while razor shell gets nothing. -Swampert is quite capable of KO'ing opponents with proper investment, that is blatant hyperbole. I don't know what opponents you're expecting to KO with samurott frequently but once you get to samson, I'll take bulk over lousy speed and no bulk easy thanks. Samurott is only useful if you are lucky enough to set up mass fury cutter spam against florinia, acquire facade for corey, Serra, Randomus due to megahorn access and maybe Charlotte if its not being blasted off the face of the earth due to lack of bulk and poor speed. Swampert can 6-0 Julia, minimize damage taken from corey's poison spam. Attack with considerable power VS both shade and kiki due to muddy water gaining a 1.5 boost. It does very well against aya other than venusaur by dint of actually being able to tank sludge waves and mesh well in the doubles format. It breaks Serra's annoying field, it does well against Noel. It puts in effort against randomus due to resisting psychic from the field giving psychic rock typing. Breaks Luna's field as well as being great against both bisharp and tyrannitar. Has enough bulk to take down at least one of samson's mons. Great against charlotte. Great against Terra and can at least tank something from ciel. No way is Samurott more useful. Swampert back to A- thanks. Also Barbaracle needs a rank still. Edit: Samurott is useful against Luna. Just remembered how slow that team is. Also Totodile does outclass samurott once you can get it due to being the better sweeper from the speed boosts from dragon dance. Speed or bulk are major components in reborn, and a poor halfway compromise between the two (AKA samurott) does not cut it.

Really would disagree with switching swampert and samurott around. Samurott is badly outclassed by feraligatr once you get the chance at the totodile event, while swampert remains useful throughout the game. The special ground moves are actually helpful if you want to do any sort of meaningful damage against Aya due to the wasteland field (while being able to tank sludge waves), and by the time you get to serra, you only need to invest a few common candy to grab EQ and keep it obedient. Swampert can do a fair bit of damage with its special movepool, especially against noel by using sludge wave to corrode the field, and then using the corrosive field to spam field boosted muddy water (which conveniently gains poison typing to be SE against that clefable). Reborn really isn't about what works usually and I think that is the major distinction not being taken into account for swampert. Muddy water gains quite a number of boosts in the early to mid game, especially against shade and kiki, which more than makes up for having to use the special attack stat. Additionally, with energy ball typhlosion not being a thing anymore, swampert can fare a lot better against charlotte, as she has little grass coverage other than volcarona, and even then if the field is on fire, the grass coverage is nerfed, while you can spam EQ. Rock slide and protect are also major selling points, especially protect. Being able to grab that move for doubles battles or stalling out some more leech seed/t-spikes damage is really underrated, or so I found in my first playthrough. I do not see at all how samurott is useful until you at least get to Serra where resisting frost breath is a major selling point, only to risk your physical moves incur crash damage from the field. Swampert is useful against every leader except for florinia and shelly, possibly serra if any of her pokes have freeze dry, either by breaking the field, or grabbing easy bonuses from the field due to its level up and TM movepool. Change swampert and samurott back please.

No rank for Binacle and Barbaracle? Although its hard as hell to find, and needs heart scales before it becomes useful, I think Barbaracle could easily be b+ minimum. As the second earliest poke in reborn to get shell smash, it is an offensive juggernaut with a great natural movepool, complemented by its ability to learn nature power. Tough claws gives several of its attacks an extra power boost, and when combined with the incredible number of field bonuses, especially those that are physical contact moves, Barbaracle is insanely powerful. Has the capabilities to sweep Noel and Serra if you can get the shell smash boost off, while being incredibly useful for just about every gym by dint of swapping moves around, even for type disadvantages such as samson and terra. It is slow without the smash boost, and will consume items required to get the sweep (anti-status berries, balloons, heart scales for move changing) but the incredible amount of power multipliers you can rack up with it, nature power access, and general usefulness throughout the game due to water type sweepers being even harder to find (See azumarril) or require a lot of time spent breeding (see crawdaunt), it is a water type well worth babying and searching for.

As someone who used primeape in my current run, you're wrong about mankey. It's capable of tanking a few smack downs from cradily, while a combination of focus energy + karate chop guarantees critical hits meaning cradily's stockpile spam is useless against it. Anger point is okay because of leet hax from AI, while defiant is also nice (triggered a defiant boost against corey, and while I was lucky with no accuracy issues afterwards, primeape took out half his team with boosted facade). Machop can't be added before Serra anyways as it too easily ruins the whole mirror arena thing with no guard. Also you don't need makuhita for corey. Still too op with guts + facade. shelly isn't a good match-up for anything other than primeape due to speed of her bugs and by the time you get to shade its all aboard the scrafty bandwagon.

The only thing that might be worth axing in episode 16 would be makuhita from the slums as even with a limited movepool it really eclipses every other fighting type at that point of the game right up until you can acquire heracross. Even then it gives the stag beetle a run for its money. Hell, even when you can acquire conkeldurr and lucario, hariyama is still stupidly good. Otherwise I agree with placement of pokes as is. Its really hard to balance some typings as there are just an insane number of grass,electric and poison types that are good early on, only to become utter rubbish or face serious competition late game. Despite the necessity in changing bulbasaur to chikorita, I'm rather worried bulbasaur will see no usage once we can acquire it unless someone is running a sun team. Same applies for oshawott unless the super rod is REALLY late game (although I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case given where we can supposedly find a certain pokemon but not actually find it at present...oh and the whole thing about those OP gen 1 water types.) Taking the elekid example, I mean, if I saw that early game over say, tynamo or blitzle, I'll give you three guesses which one I'm using, and considering the advent of getting an egg move/tutor move on some pokes from their events, there would be 0 reason not to use anything other than elekid. If anything, electabuzz is good enough for ciel for togekiss alone, although poor magmar is all I can say at this point.

Hmm, Aster and Eclipse's final double battle took me quite some time to overcome (There are not enough curse words for how useless Aya is in this match) Charlotte in Episode 14 was a nightmare which I only beat by sheer luck (what hidden power does her Rotom-Heat have anyway?) Taka's fight in the water treatment plant is okay up until you realise how insanely difficult gliscor is to kill without an ice type attack on the Short Circuit Field. THAT drove me nuts many times and has me incredibly grateful for the icy wind tutor up at the circus.

Whether you need to EV train or not depends on how good you are with the pokemon franchise. I consider myself reasonable, but there have certainly been times I wished I put some more speed EV's into some pokemon (Ciel and Kiki especially) It will probably become more necessary as we get closer to the end game though, as the game is very punishing for moving second without a very bulky team or one that abuses TR/tailwind

The reason I say X-items are a poor strategy is that they don't teach you how to battle. They may get you through the game at a tricky stage, but you don't really learn anything from doing so, in regards how best to beat a gym leader or a fight on a tricky field. I'm probably not explaining this too well, but go ahead and use them if you must. Onto your team issues I really don't know what you are doing with some of your move choices, and I'm also wondering how you managed to get rhyperior at this point of the game as I recall the protector can only be found by using waterfall at the end of episode 15, but damned if I can remember. Firstly, Solrock needs trick room. Get rid of wonder room for that move. That will at least help you with some of samson's pokemon by fixing your team's poor speed and allowing you to move first Secondly, Dustox has long outlived its usefulness here. Samson has enough power and coverage to flatten that bug several times over, and it won't get much better for it from here. See if you can find a hawlucha from route 2 and replace it with that. Fortunately a good portion of samson's team is frail so I'm not going to tell you to replace your rock type pokemon, as trick room will help fix that issue, as well as the field bonus to some of your attacks. This will probably fix most of your issues with samson provided you can activate trick room as soon as possible without getting solrock KO'd in the process of doing so.

Thanks guys. I've ran out of patience and got a ditto that was at least above 20 in everything but HP and SpDef (15 for both of those stats). Just wondered since I can barely be arsed soft resetting for other pokes let alone this blob.