Monochrome_Complex

Ugh man serra was a nightmare. Spent the last hour and 20 minutes trying to beat her, finally did due to quick claw finally activating on roserade against frosslass. glaceon and ninetales were easy-peasy, one nature power from roserade took them out. Sandslash was the first big problem, mainly because he outspeeds everything and icicle crash hits hard, not to mention he resists grass.  I would have to get meganium to trick his AI by setting up screens, dying, then sending out sawsbuck as sandslash would use brick break which would put sawsbuck into yellow(or red on a better roll) but allow her to KO with jump kick.

frosslass. uggggggggh this is the entire reason I kept losing. Outspeeds everyone unless I could set up sun on sandlslash which wouldn't even work half the time as cherrim would either get OHKO or flinch to icicle crash. Roserade could KO her instantly with nature power but frosslass could also do the same on a crit or good roll that would bring roserade down via hail damage. I had to resort to giving her quick claw and hoping it activates against frosslass, which after many failures it finally did.

jynx and aurorus screwed me over a couple of times via their evasion bonuses, which sucks. One time I was a petal dance away from victory. That one hurt.

So far she was probably the hardest leader, alongside shelly if not more. From hardest to easiest at this point it'd go Serra > Shelly > Kiki > Corey > Shade > Julia > Aya > Florina.

You know serra gave me trouble on my flying run too. I think she's  noticeably harder with monotypes,  well provided the type you're using isn't SE against her.

Yay got deerling. Gonna EV train her( bit boring to do but it's always worth it) and hopefully her jump kick serves me well enough against serra's sandslash when I get there.

Both corey and aya ended up being not as hard as I expected, so hoping serra's match goes as smoothly, and not like shelly's lol. I think nature power turns into mirror shot on her field? That'd be pretty boss if it does, as it'd make ninetales much easier.

WOOO!!! Beat aya first try!!! 

I lead with meganium and ludicolo, setting up light screen and hydro pumping nidoqueen out of commission. I still took heavy damage though due to toxipex's merciless sludge wave. Next salazzle went up, and ludicolo was able to move first but I went for bubble beam instead which didn't KO. Salazzle sludge waved which KO'd meganium and toxipex's sludge wave finished off ludicolo but also KO'd salazzle who was in the red.

next I sent out cherrim and jumpluff, while aya sent out drapion. I didn't get to set up a reflect so I figure I'd have to hamper drapion somehow so he wouldn't pose a threat, so jumpluff stun spored him while cherrim set up sunny day for the Special defense/attack  boost via flower gift(underrated ability).  Well drapion did use knock off first but both he and jumpluff survived another sludge wave from tox, who was becoming quite an issue, i'd argue he was the hardest thing about this fight. I had jumpluff use acrobatics which did about a third and had cherrim heal via morning sun, but yeah man screw toxapex. I kind of forgot what happened next few turns but eventually cherrim got KO'd via toxix spikes for something, which jumpluff wasn't affected by. drapion was paralyzed. I remember toxa being one hit away from a kO though.

Next step was crucial. I sent out roselia and had her set up growth for +2 boost and was going to finish off toxapex but aya healed him. Eventually I did via acrobatics and giga drain but not before jumpluff got hit and taken down to like 3 HP.  

Venusaur was a piece of cake. One acrobatics + venoshock finished him off, but drapion kO'd jumpluff the same turn. Alas, jumpluff had an excellent performance.

I sent out gourgeist, and aya sends out her last, dragalge. Dragalge uses dragon pulse on roselia but light screen is still up so it barely deals anything. I used giga drain on on dragalge forgetting its 4x resist so it deals just a little and have gourgeist use trick or treat on it. Dragalge no longer having a 4x resist takes massive damage from +2 giga drain next turn and I have gourgeist use shadow sneak before to ensure it's finished off. Drapion ended up getting fully paralyzed like twice and really all he managed to do to roselia was use knock off once. He was a sitting duck basically.

Overall the battle went surprisingly well, especially once toxapex was out the picture, who was her biggest threat thanks to merciless. trick or treat FTW.

I thought the shiny stone was in Bysbsion grotto but the sun and dawn stone are instead <_< Where is the shiny stone? 

I was quite lucky reborn finally decided to spawn rain, as cal would've been a lot harder if it hadn't. His fire attacks were dealing barely anything  and he couldn't trigger the burning field, thankfully. Still took time to take down turtonator and magmortar though. 

Kiki gave me some trouble. Some of it was bad luck but I didn't have an answer to Lucario and his calm mind set ups would make him hard to KO and hit like a nuke. Didn't help Kiki kept healing him. Medicham was a problem too, as it would 1-2 KO everything with ice punch, while outspeeding everyone except jumpluff, who ended up winning it for me with a  stun spore and two paralysis triggers. Overall it took about 5 or 6 tries.

Taka was harder this time, as his team seems better designed to fight against grass types. Gligar's acrobatics deals a good chunk even behind a reflect, klefki is difficult to take down with just grass types, and chatot of course is chatot. Only one that wasn't troublesome  was the palm tree, thanks to jumpluff. Took one attempt but I barely won.

Solaris garchomp took 3 atttempts I believe? 1st time was a failed quick claw activation so I just reset, 2nd attempt I got roselia to land toxic and he was down to like a sliver of health where one more turn could've done it but solaris used a full restore lol. 3rd attempt I lead with focus sash shiinotic instead, used spore, then spammed strength sap and turned big bad garchomp into a wimpy garchump. One strength sap is enough for shiinotic to survive earthquake, and after that it was switching around, setting leech seed and screens and letting him suffer a slow and agonizing defeat.. Strength sap is a legit move.

Cain wasn't too bad, since it was raining and ludicolo has swift swim so nidoking wasn't an issue like last time. Muk is still annoying though, and he somehow landed 4 gunk shots straight.

Next is aya, urf. Not looking forward to this fight...actually if I was smart I'd do it before the rain goes away.

Wish granted, it's indeed raining. Finally have lotad haha. oooh and it'll be raining against cal too  huh? teeheehee it's probably best I do the apophyll arc now.

i swear it better be raining during my next reborn session.

I totally forgot the move power trip existed lol.

Beat shade. Had to equip gourgeist with a ghost gem to ensure shadow sneak KO'd gengar and doublade was a bit of a hassle but otherwise the match went smoothly. Keeping his team off the short cicuit field makes it far more manageable. With grassy terrain cherrim was able to 2HKO undisguised mimikyu, who I paralyzed earlier with jumpluff so he was able to outspeed him too. Shade is easier than shelly that's for sure. 

Took nearly an hour but I finally beat her. Shelly is no doubt one of the hardest leaders in Reborn period.  Illumise's  rain dances are extremely annoying as anortih, easily shelly's most dangerous pokemon aside from yanmega, gets swift swim off it and becomes near impossible to outspeed at this point of the game unless you're packing a SSer of your own.  Turns out my key to winning was leading with roselia and cherrim, having roselia set up a growth to take advantage of the field boost, and cherrim to use sunny day to cancel out illumise' rain. This also creates a rainbow field which is key, as nature power becomes a buffed aurora beam and with +1(as masquierain leads with struggle bug) roselia can OHKO both masquerain AND Yanmega(she can survive at least one air cutter, even a critical from full health). lso cherrim improves special defense while in sunny mode which is pretty nice, I'm surprised at how useful he's been so far.  Keeping the rain off the field makes anortih so much more manageable, and illumise will keep spamming rain dance so long as you keep changing the weather unless one of your mons is in critical health which causes her to use struggle bug. Anorith outside rain is slow and gets one shot by roselia's giga drain. Araquanid looks tough but isn't really, a strong physical attacker can cut him down pretty easy, I used leavanny. For the fireflies I had jumpluff clean up via acrobatics.  Easily one of the hardest fights thus far,  but if you play your fields correctly and keep freakin anorith out the rain it's a winnable fight. 

Was roselia always this beastly? I used to think it was a novelty mon back in the day (pre gen 4) but it's an early game hero and MVP so far. It's easily the best grass/poison type early game.

Also I have a leaf stone now, but who to use it on? Gloom, pansage, or should I save it for nuzleaf? I think I'll go with the last...

About to take on shelly with a monograss team. RIP me.

MK11 roster leaked, woohoo!!! 

HOLY ZEN I BEAT COREY FIRST ATTEMPT.

Like

dudeeeee. I didn't even need ferroseed. I didn't even use all 6 pokemon!!!

I got super lucky as he totally messed up and  switched in crobat early as I was about to KO skrelp. Gloom was able to paralyze him with stun spore AND tank a venoshock, while hitting him with nature power. Nature power is a must in this fight, as the special defense debuff off acid spray plays a crucial part in allowing your grass STABs to KO(like petal dance is 120 BP, so with a -2 special defense drop most of corey's mons are going to take heavy damage, if not outright kO'd. Skuntank was the biggest pain aside from crobat, and it took the combined efforts of Leavanny and meganium to take him down. Thankfully meganium can take a flamethrower or venoshock with little issue, but the poison damage does add up so you can't dwaddle. Cherrim kicked some butt this fight too, taking out both mereanie and croagunk. 

OOh I wonder what the mystery egg's gonna be this time..hoping it's cottonee haha

Huh the ZEL/Taka fight was surprisingly easy. Exeggcute is so much less bothersome than lileep was, as it can hardly do anything. except use barrage and bullet seed, which barely do any damage. The tricky part was getting rid of glaceon,.I had to have parasect use spore to put it to sleep and have it along with bayleef whittle it down. Thankfully they were able to KO it before it woke up. Espeon was a piece of cake, as Leavanny one shot it. with bug bite. Umbreon took multiple bug bites but still pretty easy. With only exeggute left ths gave me ample chance to have cherrim set up sunny day and have roselia set ups growths to max out offense., then switching cherrim back for leavanny. Chatot didn't stand a chance to a +6 giga drain and Tangrowth wasn't a big deal this time since he kept using acid spray on leavanny, who  could use protect to stall him out.  I'm pleased at how smooth this fight went.

Team scorbunny. Though the water one looks neat too.

Grookey though? Not too much a fan.

Also pokesocc-er okay football confirmed? Neato. I like the PC designs too.

Okay first fight with taka was easy, as roselia just swept his entire team. Set up 3 growths and even tangrowth was able to be 2-shot. 

I never knew there was an egg right after taka, first playthrough I actually picked it up!...and it's friggin stantler lol. Nah.

Small detail but totes appreciated, I love how the wallpapers in reborn are custom tailored to the region itself and not just copy/pasted from the actual games. 

Gotta love how fern gave a challenge,  yet Flobot was a pushover and clean sweep. Cherrim sets up sunny day -> roselia sets up growths -> total destruction.  The growth/sunny day combo is your friend early game haha.

2 badges down! 

Grass monorun has me hating fern's change in starters more than ever. Screw dartrix.

also bellsprout SUCKS. Vine whip is its bread and butter for like, ever.

UGH PULSE  Tangrowth is SUCH a massive pain in grass monorun.  Must have taken like 8 attempts and a ton of luck, plus me having to grind up cherubi to learn sunny day. I basically had to have cherubi set up sunny day, have roselia put it to sleep with grass whistle(ha dat 55% accuracy), then pray it doesn't wake up next turn so I can set up growths,  put it to sleep again once it wakes up, hope acid spray never criticals whenever it does wake, and I had to get a crit of my own on at least one of my +6 mega drains. Roselia was only able to do it due to a lucky streak of 3 turn sleeps, a crit, and surviving a +2 tangrowth(due to his own growth)/-2(off a previous acide spray) acid spray with only 1 HP. What a wild ride.

Bayleef was useless in this fight, as it has a -attk nature so its cut was dealing scratch damage.  

RIP once I get to taka haha. Though I should have meganium by then and more than 3 pokemon.

Started a grass monorun, with chikorita as starter. Just beat Julia! That oricorio is a devil lol.

Beat Hardy!!! It took about 5 attempts, his pokemon are quite fast and hit very hard. Protect/detect/etc are your friend, as on his field his pokemon get hurt when they miss an attack. I "really" wish I had megaswampert for this fight as I feel he could've wrecked house with some rain set up but alas. I didn't have wide guard either, nor could I tutor iron head to Steelix <_<. It was a bit of a struggle and I had to come back with swampert at a slightly higher level as waterfall wasn't KOing megadactyl initially. Donphan ended up being MVP for the fight(qf)uick claw + scary face helped slow down a lot of his blitzers, allowing megacham to finish them of and of course togedamaru changing the terrain helped a bunch. The main issue was his pokemon outspeeding everyone. and archeops being a right pain. That dusk lycanroc is gross too, but off the rocky field it doesn't hit as had and tsareena was able to survive a rock slide from less than half HP by like 5 HP, then finish it. I kept gigalith in since it's the only slow mon on his team and donphan knocking off its choice band made it not too big a threat. I won't say he was the hardest gym leader, somewhere around serra or aya's level. Easier than Titania(well kind of, I think his pokemon handle better outside their native field) but harder than amaria or radomus for sure.

PS Lumi is adorbs.

Hardy calling shelly "shell bell" is just the cutest thing. 

I ship em.