Heya everybody,
picked up the game recently, mostly because I can't play Pokemon Go on my lovely iPhone3 (not really). Like it a lot, love the challenge... at least I did until now. The subject of my anger and confusion is Samson, Fighting-Type gym leader and master of great Big Top annoyance. The thing is, I don't think he's that strong, at least compared to the other gym leaders I've already fought. In fact, I have a pretty good typing when it comes to battling Fighting-Types, with 2 Faeries, 2 Psychics and a Flying-Type in my arsenal (more on my team later).
Due to the sheer number of cool Pokemon available, I always lack behind in levels, which usually just requires a bit more grinding to get back up to speed before challenging a new gym, picking the proper team and kicking their butt. The situation would probably be the same here (my average level is about 58, with his Pokemon starting at 63 and only going up from there)... but then story happened. I usually used the trainers in the Grand Hall for reliable and relatively fast experience, which is currently not possible due to story-related events. Training against the wild Pokemon is completely unreasonable if I wanna ever finish the game.
I know there's one clown you can challenge repeatedly for shards, thing is, even he kicks my butt a bit too hard to reliably win against him. I also can't prepare for those battles since his team is constantly switched up. So I'd effectively now need to train my Pokemon to train my Pokemon... Trainception if you will. Anyway, enough of that, here's what I got to work with:
Meowstic (56, Prankster, Light Clay) - Psychic, Psyshock, Light Shield, Reflect
Arcanine (61, Justified, Charcoal) - Flare Blitz, Flamethrower, Close Combat, Strength
Slurpuff (59, Unburden, Meadow Plate) - Play Rough, Draining Kiss, Energy Ball, Cotton Guard
Honchkrow (60, Insomnia, None) - Dark Pulse, Night Slash, Wing Attack, Roost
Mawile (57, Initimidate, None) - Play Rough, Iron Head, Sucker Punch, Rock Smash
Ampharos (61, Static, Zap Plate) - Discharge, Signal Beam, Power Gem, Thunder Wave
And on the bench we have:
Vileplume (56, Chlorophyll, Big Root) - Giga Drain, Nature Power, Cut, Sleep Powder
Muk (57, Stench, None) - Gunk Shot, Sludge Wave, Mud Bomb, Acid Armor
Alakazam (50, Synchronize, Twisted Spoon) - Psychic, HP Fire, Calm Mind, Recover
Dusclops (52, Frisk, Spell Tag) - Shadow Ball, Shadow Sneak, Strength, Will-O-Wisp
Gastrodon (54, Sand Force, None) - Mud Bomb, Muddy Water, Recover, Rock Smash
(Wish I could get rid off some of those HMs... but yeah, currently not possible)
There are several more that are just sitting around at 30 - 50 that I've used during my playthrough (all hail the shiny Weezing that destroyed our lord and savior Arce... I mean Ditto).
My question is: How? I'm pretty much stuck, can't move forward or backwards. Is this doable without much training? Am I missing something?
I don't claim to be the greatest Pokemon player on earth, but by god, I made it this far, and I'm not gonna bow down just yet, because I do enjoy this more than I thought I could when I first read about this.
Any help is greatly appreciated, sorry for the wall of text.
So long,
Spoon