Monochrome_Complex

OMG end of a legend. Xenoverse is awesome, though I still haven't finished the other postgame stuff. 

Also, maybe a spicy take, but Scovile ruined  Scovillain for me to when I saw scovillain I was disappointed.  

TBH I think water has a harder time than grass. First two gyms are water unfriendly and early Reborn is notorious for having the player rely on poverty mons. Fire is generally the safest choice but watch out for rainy days lol, I've had playthroughs where early game was harder because it wouldn't stop raining.   Grass can also learn the nature power tm and nature power is pretty good in this game.

Don't choose totodile or piplup, they're some of the worst starters in the game. I choose tototile once and he was a disappointment, probably my worst starter pick. Piplup idk I just don't see what it has going for it. I'll go over the others I used(somewhat)

Torchic is good but TBH I think people overrate it a bit. I never used it in Reborn but I did use it in Rejuvenation and it wasn't as good as it's hyped up to be. It's very susceptible to choking due to blaze kick and HJK having less than perfect accuracy and  Blaziken not being that all fast until speed boost hits. I don't find it particularly bulky right off the gate either, it feels like you kinda have to build your team around it snowballing with speed boost/bulk ups and sweeping while praying it doesn't whiff. Plus I've found it kinda tricky to switch into at times due to the high damage from major fights as a result of field bonuses, so it's not uncommon for Blaziken to already be in yellow before it even gets to do anything.  Early game its moves aren't amazing either and I remember relying on double kick for longer than I would have liked. It's good but don't fall for the hype of it being a god that makes the game easy mode, it's not.

Infernape I found more consistent than Blaziken much of the game. Blaziken has a higher ceiling but is less consistent and takes longer to reach that ceiling IMO. Only thing is lategame I feel Infernape suffers the power creep a bit as it's just too squishy and the lategame blitzkrieg strats you encounter  really highlight how not fast enough Infernape is. But I do think it's still quite good, just beware that it can't be your crutch lategame.

Incineroar was pretty sick actually. It's slow but intimidate is ever useful and it not only hits hard, but can take  hits itself both special and physical which is very valuable especially playing on set mode where you don't get free switch ins and HAVE to eat damage sometimes. On a trick room team that low speed becomes a boon and can deal with otherwise super threats like ace's delphox and aegislash. I actually had a pretty good experience using Incineroar, cause he can be useful just weakening or softening up enemies and not just hurting things.

Charizard I used on a flying monorun, I remember it actually being very good early game due to dragon rage and pretty strong later on with sun support, just note that being flying it won't get field bonuses(or drawbacks) as much as others. Oh and rocks will ruin its day lol. Another thing is that similar to Bliazken its preferred moves aren't 100% accurate, so this can be problematic and cost you fights on occasion. 

My only semi-complete playthrough of reborn(welll didn't do postgame fully)  I used Emboar, and it wasn't as bad as I was led to believe. While I won't pretend it's a top tier mon, it's no slouch either and can actually be a pretty effective wrecking ball with proper support. I used trick room and gave it an assault vest with I think HP and attack investment and it was actually pretty killer, Emboar's speed and meh defenses are its biggest weaknesses, but its high HP means that with say screens up or some damage mitigation support  it can actually soak up enough hits and put its hard hitting flare blitzes into action. I do feel like Emboar doesn't last too long in fights though since it hurts itself with flare blitzes and wild charges, but in those times when I needed to hit something hard Emboar came through more often than not and did its job. 

Tyhplosion IMO is a railroaded Charizard, sacrificing the flying typing and some versality for raw power in eruption. Eruption is great in Reborn due to its field interaction on grassy field which combined with flash fire can turn typhlosion into a living nuke. Only thing is this makes Tpyholosion a bit predictable and limited, and before you get eruption you have to deal with a somewhat boring movepool pre-evolution . But even without eruption typhlosion can still hit reasonably hard, but eruption destruction is what makes Typhlosion memorable IMO. That said I should note that you can get a cyndaquil around mid-game and it might be preferable forgoing cyndaquil as a starter and just going for that one as it'll be easier to optimize due to having more resources to do so. 

I used delphox only once, but I enjoyed it. It's not the powerhouse to sweep you matches but it's versatile in how it can be supportive or offensive. I find it fun to use because of that.

I said water was the worst type to start off with but I feel there's two(maybe 3 including popplio) exceptions. First is mudkip because of the ground typing, and swampert just being generally good. 2nd is froakie because protean(and ONLY cause of protean) and lategame being a very useful mon as it's fast with a good tm learnset. I say tm learnset because its natural level up movepool is....ehhhhh not the best. Just not that many strong attacks and a bit gimmicky even. TBH froakie is just okay early on, as its too squishy and its moves are too low powered, but I feel once you get better tms and moves greninja becomes very good.

Decidueye I remember being pretty solid.  I would say Incineroar is better but Decide is not bad at all, however lategame matchups are very unfavorable towards it. Honchkrows just eat it for breakfast and they're all over the place lategame. Actually honchkrow might be one of the biggest menaces' in Reborn come to think of it lol.

chikorita gets a bad rep for being the worst but I don't feel it is? I think the screen support early on is helpful and it gets nature power to take advantage of fields. I used it in a grass monorun a while back and while I never finished it Chikorita was very useful during it especially early game. That said there's definitely better starters to use and lategame it's just too weak offensively and the power creep hurts it, but I don't think it's deserving of worst starter rep.

I used Venusaur and it was so long ago I don't recall much, but I remember it being solid. Could take a hit, good support moves, sludge wave compatibility for field control, chlorophyll, I think it's a fine choice. 

I've heard Primarina is good, I used her in rejuvenation  but she was great there.

I'd say go for any but for a first time player I'd avoid squirtle/chikorita/totodile/piplup/snivy.

I'm the opposite myself, I think Magma gang just has more fun personalities and are more memorable. For glory baby.

Why didn't tyranitar run superpower???? That totally cost him the fight :/

Hustle is such a bad ability. Ugh all that missing, the power boost isn't worth it if you can't even hit most of your attacks. You'd need an accuracy booster to make it worthwhile, like gravity support or hone claws.

the 2nd to last fight was good, pretty close match.

Wow final match was super close. Kind of won on a good roll it looks like? It was just enough damage to bring

Oh yeeaah angie! She's been the hardest leader for me so far this playthrough. I spent like 7 hours fighting her.

Ah remind me again which fight that was? I'm guessing the Mt Valor one?

Yeah it works surprsingly well. I used one along with a Sudowoodo with study/counter and  kicked Garchomp's butt lol.

Wow niiice. I didn't have any weather control  at the time or rapid spinners/defoggers, so the speed drops and rain were kinda rough to deal with lol.

Those two are good. But poison touch feels like punishment lol. I would've taken magic guard instead.

Ah yeah you are. How was Crawli for you? He was giving me issues lol, I had to unbench Vivillion and grind him up so I could actually win lol. But it was a good last hurrah for vivillion's career I guess. 

Which chapter is this again? On my playthrough right now I just got to Grandream. I think you're on Terajuma still?

Which character and game are you referring to?

LOL I think I first discovered it doing a grass monorun. I had roselia use nature power and when I realized how much damage she was doing after the initial acid spray, I was like, "okay, I can DO this!" I honestly don't remember how I won that fight but I remember acid spray being a big part of it.. 

Joltik becomes so useful later for because of sticky web. I kept it until endgame switching it out occasionally when going up against trick roomers.

trubull will be useful for corey's gym because of acid spray, which will let butterfree do good damage with psybeam.

Yes it's very good, my only complaint is that the cast is a bit TOO large and hard to keep track of somewhat, but it's a real joy to play. They got gen 8 pokemon now right? After  I finish my ep 13 playthrough, I'm going to do a fresh run on rejuv.

Also Venam best girl.

I was already in there for around a good 3 hours and enjoyed the first 2 gem puzzles, then the 3rd I did but hoped that was he last, then not even 10 minutes later a bigger one pops up and I'm kind of just over them at that point. Itried doing it but was so tired I just closed the game lol. Maybe I'll do it tonight, I do want to try and figure it out on my own since I was able to figure out the previous ones.

Congratulations! A-slash is an underrated hero you'd say? Seems like it was really good for your playthrough.

Yeah I lead with galvantula and hypno so I wouldn't lose power to granbull's intimidate, plus it allowed me to set webs and psychic terrain with Hypno. Emboar's flare blitz OHKOs like half of adrienne's team and he's beefy enough to withstand a dazzling gleam and earthquake. Cloyster is one of my favorite mons to use only thing is his special defense is terrible so he doesn't actually last too long in this fight if adrienne's pokemon aside from Megawile and Granbull attack him. 

The winning strat I used for arclight was to have muk use momento on luxray to give Cloyster time to set up shell smash and sweep. 

Hmm I think I do have it off because I don't remember that message. I could've sworn I changed my sig already because I realized all the images broke. I hope I did at elast <_< Sorry about not responding ICSW

Ahhh okay that's kinda neat.

I didn't know an actual random came on here doing that, I'm guessing on the discord?  I thought the dude was just a jab at general chuds who usually complain about this sort of stuff in general. 

Oof! Sounds painful, which part gave you the most trouble and how did you finally beat it? OHHH wait I remember your team had trouble dealing with ground types and Solaris tyranitar and Garchomp both have earthquake.

OOOOH they got gen 8ers in there now????!!! Daaaang gonna have to do a new run on Rejuv after finishing Reborn.

I do remember some of those lategame fights being hell though. That Gardevoir fight <_< the ferrothorn....the ground leader...Narcissca even. Ah do I really want to relive that again?

Without a doubt, yes lol.

He either gives me a tough time or he doesn't. So far this playthrough the gym leaders that usually give me difficulty I manage to deal with in 1-3 attempts(shade/corey/aya/serra) but the ones I usually don't struggle on have actually given me the most trouble(Julia/radomus/luna/samson) though in Luna's case it was mainly Jubjub bird causing grief since I didn't have anything that could 1v1 it and come out on top.. 

How well I do against samson always comes down to whether my team is equipped for field- boosted Hawlucha.. Honestly his field is maddening and you're just better off removing it entirely by changing it something not obnoxious lol. 

OOf Terra, she's one of the hardest leaders in nearly every playthrough for me. Her Garchomp is worse to deal with than Solaris' lol.