Jess

I hadn't thought of that! But unfortunately Quick Claws are sold on 8th floor of Dep. Store and I couldn't access it at that time. Also, I wanted to save my Focus Sash cause there are things I hate much more than Garchomp afterwards! And most of them are located in Terra's confounded PC...

Oh God, is THAT a Moody Bidoof? xD

Show Victoria who's the best! Go full fighting mode! (And don't make it the Victoria way, "oh, let's put in a Togekiss to cover our weaknesses, why not'' like a crybaby xD)

Thank you! Breed Dwebble with a Counter Sudowoodo, it does the trick. My other plan to defeat Garchomp was Vespiquen's Destiny Bond, but I was too bored to train her up to level 53, plus, I didn't want to waste a Focus Sash this way! Ariados is soo underrated! So glad yours is proving itself to be a star too! Don't be afraid to ask me if you need any help

CHAPTER 12: Forbidden allies and death by dragon After defeating Kiki and (not) getting our badge and TMX Strength, we are off to Azurine Island to rescue Cain, who has gotten himself in trouble! We disembark from Amaria's boat, explore the swamp around and (after getting ourselves a Yanma and a Shelmet), we go straight to the rescuing part! Well, not exactly straight to that, I trained up my Yanma first. Modest Nature, awful stats and I don't care at all, she is adorable! I will name her Ecstasy! Now she is a Yanmega! I find Cain's earring, good, he is here, damn bad, he is kidnapped. I stroll around, acquire suicidal thoughts by running into Foongus in my effort to get items, and eventually find the weird place, that apparently serves now as Meteor hideout! I deduct that since Aster and Eclipse outnumber us as we go in, and challenge us to a battle! My team at that moment was: Fiery Wings, the Vivillon (Male) Naive/Compound Eyes (Item: Insect Plate) Bug Buzz Psybeam Draining Kiss Aromatherapy Affection, the Leavanny (Female) Quirky/Chlorophyll (Item:Metronome) X-Scissor Leaf Blade Fell Stinger Slash Kindness, the Masquerain (Male) Naive/Intimidate (Item: Sea Incense) Air Slash Bug Buzz Stun Spore Hydro Pump Ecstasy, the Yanmega (Female) Modest/Speed Boost (Item: Hard Stone) Uproar Detect Wing Attack Ancient Power Valor, the Forretress (Male) Careful/Sturdy (Item: Dread Plate) Protect Bug Bite Payback Spikes Braveheart, the Butterfree (Male) Timid/Tinted Lens (Item: Insect Plate) Psybeam Silver Wind Tailwind Bug Buzz VS ASTER/ECLIPSE So, Aster and Eclipse start with Solrock and Lunatone and I send in Fiery Wings, my Vivillon and Affection, my Leavanny. Both my Pokemons outspeed the slow Levitating rocks. Leavanny aims for the weak (defensively) Lunatone and takes it down with a Leaf Blade and Vivillon targets the weak (in Special Defence) Solrock and destroys it with Bug Buzz. Then, Rhydon and Milotic come in. I switch in Kindness, my Masquerain in the place of Fiery Wings, while Affection easily takes down Rhydon with another Leaf Blade. Masquerain loses 60% of its HP by a Hydro Pump from Milotic though. Aster and Eclipse then send in Magmar, who gets outsped by Kindness and loses 90% of its HP to a Hydro Pump, while Affection takes down Milotic as well with yet another Leaf Blade. However, Magmar takes out my Masquerain with Fire Punch. Electabuzz comes in as well, and I send in Braveheart, my Butterfree. In this turn, Magmar is healed to full health, then Leavanny with a Leaf Blade (boosted 3 times by Metronome) OHKO'es Electabuzz and Magmar gets down to 40% of its HP as well by a neutral (thanks to Tinted Lens) Bug Buzz. In the next turn Magmar gets healed to full HP again, then faints to a combined Bug Buzz by Braveheart and Leaf Blade (with 4 Metronome boosts) by Affection. Easy victory, no debut for Ecstasy yet... Battle summary/tip: Just don't give them time to attack, if you do, well, you're screwed if you only have bugs (tough loss on my first try). After moving even deeper in the hideout (ty Aster for the info), I switch my Valor for my Royalty and my Affection for my Passion at the PC, then heal and I'm ready for the next battle. Royalty, the Vespiquen (Female) Bold/Pressure (Item: Hard Stone) Heal Order Air Slash Toxic Power Gem Passion, the Larvesta (Male) Timid/Flame Body (Item: Metronome) Ember Bug Bite Take Down Flame Charge VS TAKA Taka challenges us, since he is holding Cain captive and plans to blow up Pyrous Mountain-volcano with a PULSE-augmented Camerupt, which he also holds captive! We gladly accept our colleague's enemy's challenge! Taka starts with Klefki and I start with Passion, my Larvesta. I start using Flame Charge with passion (pun intended), as Klefki sets up 3 (yes, 3, Jesus Christ) layers of Spikes! My Speed goes through the roof, Taka heals, but eventually, the 5th consecutive Flame Charge (now dealing double damage due to Metronome) , takes out Klefki. Then, Cradily comes in. I keep my Larvesta in, in hopes of dealing as much damage as possible. Good thing is I have wasted Taka's healing items. I use Flame Charge again, and deal only half of Cradily's HP. I think that training my Larvesta in Special Attack was a bad idea. But I'd be too bored to do it later on. Oh well, Passion dies to an Ancient Power and I send in Fiery Wings. Just one Bug Buzz is enough to finish Cradily. After that, Chatot comes in. The devil. I send in Ecstasy, my Yanmega. In the mind games that follow (will it Chatter me or Nasty Plot me?), I choose not to use Detect, but Ancient Power instead. And indeed, it uses Nasty Plot, but JESUS CHRIST, Ecstasy is not messing around. In her debut, Ancient Power OHKO'es Chatot and gives her a +1 in every stat! Then, Gligar is sent in by Taka, and immediately loses 75% of its HP to an Uproar. Then, it uses Acrobatics, but (ty Ancient Power boosts), Ecstasy survives with red HP, and Uproar finishes the job. I am already in love with this thing. She is lovely! Taka gives us info about the plans of blowing up Pyrous Mountain with Camerupt, I save Cain and we sail back to Apophyll Beach... There, Cain pushes a Meteor down a cliff (lol), we team up with Victoria who follows us after Kiki tells her to, and we defeat Meteors, climbing up Pyrous Mountain... At the summit, we find Cal, Taka and Solaris next to each other, facing Cain. Cal claims that he couldn't stop them and has been "defeated" (come on, then why you are next to them like buddies?). Besides that, impatient Cain got himself outnumbered and got defeated too! So, we have to clean up his mess, together with Victoria... The leader, Taka's dad (!), aka Solaris claims that he won't need more than one Pokemon to eliminate us! Here, let me introduce you to... (DRUMS SOUNDING) Protection, the Crustle (Male) Jolly/Sturdy (Item: Hard Stone) Counter Rock Slide Stealth Rock X-Scissor VS SOLARIS Solaris sends in his infernal Garchomp (have I mentioned how stupid this Pokemon is, design, concept, etc etc), uses Earthquake, Protection lives with Sturdy, Counter OHKO'es Garchomp (ty 252EVs in HP). Easy. But battle is "inconsequential", Kiki comes up the mountain and tries to destroy PULSE Camerupt with a High Jump Kick by Medicham. Cal orders his Magmortar to catch Medicham, and proceeds to toss it in lava, revealing his betrayal, in front of Victoria's stunned eyes. Then, Solaris uses his (not fainted? damn revives) Garchomp and decapitates Kiki, leaving everyone in awe. Cal has a change of mind, destroys in guilt the PULSE with a Blast Burn from... Magmortar? (wtf, since when this pokemon can learn THAT?), and makes Solaris and Taka to leave, aborting their failed (thank God) mission. We have saved Apophyll, but the price is steep. Kiki is dead, and Victoria sends Cal away violently. Then all of us (Cain, Victoria and us) go back to Apophyll, mourning for the loss of a truly inspirational leader... Well, we need a break after that... We'll see what we have to do in the next episode! Till then, enjoy everyone!

Mienshao dies in 1 hit by almost everything anyways, I'd pick the 26 HP. Need to outspeed everything you can.

And I chose Bug as one of the options because I saw your post abour bug monotype run I find it really fun Thank you, I'm glad you enjoy it! I'll keep it going, I honestly didn't think people would find it interesting at first, but I was wrong! I'd suggest Fairy for your run, but that would be ideal when Gen VII comes, so that you get Popplio as a starter. So, I will suggest Steel! Piplup, Pineco and Wormadam-Trash Cloak should be enough to win the first Gym... Won't be easy though... Good luck no matter what you choose!

Well, I have neither Magnezone nor Gardevoir, so... Twice the toughness of the challenge!

Bug isn't as hard as you think, I can prove it

My treasured baby in my shiny run. She always hits her Hurricanes, and confuses like 70% of times. Pure star.

Thank you both! That Anorith was the devil incarnated, in my Shiny run I took care of it with Sudowoodo and Rock Slide and in my first run with Frogadier and Water Pulse. But let's face the truth, this thing was designed to murder Fire/Flying/Bug types. Especially in rain, only people who have experienced it (with teams even slightly weak to it) can understand the amount of destruction it delivers.

Thank you Detective Divergent! Currently, the playthrough is at the point where I was keep saying to myself "Jesus Christ, learn Quiver Dance already! And why on Earth do Bugs get almost no good Flying moves???" Only my Vespiquen and my Masquerain knew any Flying type attacks, and they aren't the fastest things ever... Masquerain managed to be speedy enough to help with good Nature, IV and EVs, but I still mostly had to get my ass saved by Tailwind from Butterfree. I had also gotten rid of Gust on Butterfree and Venomoth, cause, let's be honest, even when supereffective, it just scratches any opponents... My hopes were entrusted to Vivillon who would have Quiver Dance and Hurricane (combined with Compound Eyes) by level 50!

Currently I am wandering around the renovated Reborn City. Still haven't invaded Devon and fought Adrienn. But yes, I had posted the Ciel fight before starting posting my full playthrough. I will copy that here for completeness when the time comes . And I will probably record on a video the stuff I haven't done yet and upload it like that.

CHAPTER 11: Try punching skydancing bugs... After restoring our team to full health, I go to Kiki's room, and meet with her and Victoria. Kiki doesn't seem to be in the best shape though... Anyways, I inform them that I defeated Cal, so Kiki says that she will wait for me in the Academy's courtyard to have our battle. So, I decide to go and switch around my team firs.... GOD DAMNIT VICTORIA! She follows us and tells us that Kiki is dieing so we should abandon our friends that are kidnapped in order to leave Kiki leave happily the last of her days not fight Kiki, to respect that she is in a bad condition. Victoria is so illogical sometimes, it drives me crazy. Mostly because she always picks the ostrich approach. "If we push our head in the sand and not see the problem, the problem doesn't exist anymore". so, long story short, we have to fight Victoria first and defeat her, in order for her to let us challenge Kiki. VS VICTORIA Because Victoria is annoying as hell, I had no chance to change my team. So, I had to beat her with the same members I used to defeat Cal. She sends in Scraggy and I send in Forretress. I proceed to Protect, the dumbass uses High Jump Kick and loses 50% of its HP. Then I set one layer of Spikes, as Scraggy starts using Brick Break. Soon, I have set 3 layers of Spikes and lost about 70% of my Valor's HP. I decide to switch in Fiery Wings, my Vivillon which easily tanks one Chip Away and in the next turn finishes Scraggy with Draining Kiss, getting back to full HP. Heracross comes in and I send in Kindness, my Masquerain, which outspeeds Heracross and OHKO'es it with Air Slash. Emboar comes in, loses 25% of its HP due to Spikes and gets the Cal treatment, OHKO'ed by a Hydro Pump by Kindness, who still has the momentum from the previous fight. Hariyama comes in and I send in Royalty, my Vespiquen. Knock Off deals respectable damage, a bit over half of Vespiquen's HP. Air Slash combined with Spikes damage gets Hariyama to low yellow HP, forcing Victoria to heal with a Chocolate Ice Cream, while another Air Slash actually cancels her healing. Another Ice Cream and another Air Slash bring Hariyama to red this time. In the next turn Vespiquen survives (barely) another Knock Off, who was weakened because it had already Knocked Off my item, and knocks down Hariyama with a final Air Slash. Finally, Victoria sends in her Gallade, who takes Spike damage. I switch in my Vivillon and a Bug Buzz brings Gallade down to about 30% of its HP. Vivillon nearly faints to a Psycho Cut, which leaves it in red, but in the next turn Fiery Wings outspeeds Gallade again and easily finishes it off with another Bug Buzz. Victoria is defeated, comes to the conclusion that "It's for the kids, right?" and allows us to challenge Kiki. VS KIKI The team I used versus Kiki was the following. Since the Flying Special Attacks stir up the sand and reduce accuracy, it was important to increase my chances of not missing. This would be done, at least for one more turn, by equipping some of my Pokemon with White Herb. Alternatively, the use of Metronome proved to be a godsend, since it helped me finish Kiki's mons way faster, before Accuracy debuffs ruined me. Kindness, the Masquerain (Male) Naive/Intimidate (Item: Metronome) Air Slash Bug Buzz Stun Spore Hydro Pump Valor, the Forretress (Male) Careful/Sturdy (Item: Dread Plate) Protect Bug Bite Payback Spikes Royalty, the Vespiquen (Female) Bold/Pressure (Item: White Herb) Heal Order Air Slash Toxic Power Gem Braveheart, the Butterfree (Male) Timid/Tinted Lens (Item: Mind Plate) Psybeam Silver Wind Tailwind Bug Buzz Happiness, the Ariados (Female) Hardy/Sniper (Item: Spooky Plate) Sucker Punch Pin Missile Night Shade Shadow Sneak Generosity, the Venomoth (Male) Hardy/Shield Dust (Item: Metronome) Giga Drain Signal Beam Sleep Powder Psybeam So, Kiki leads with Machamp, I lead with Kindness, my Masquerain, Intimidating Machamp's Attack down to -1. Original plan was to lead with Forretress, but in that case, after setting Spikes, I was unable to switch into ANYTHING, because Rock Slide annihilated all my bugs (and my Forretress can't even scratch Machamp). So, I had to take a different approach and pray (a bit). So, Kindness Air Slashes Machamp and gets it to yellow HP! Machamp uses Meditate, raising drastically its Attack, now to +2 again. My Intimidate did a great work at baiting the Meditate, giving me an extra turn to take the multihanded beast down! Kiki Ultra Potions Machamp up, but a Metronome boosted Air Slash, which connects despite of the -1 Accuracy, knocks Machamp down. Then Kiki sent in her Toxicroak, to whom I replied with Valor. My Forretress' purpose is, what a surprise, to set 3 layers of Spikes. Which is easily done, because for some reason Toxicroak keeps trying to hit Sucker Punches on Forretress. As soon as 3 layers are down, I use Protect, which saves me from a Strength. Then, I tank a Strength and attack Toxicroak with Payback, just to scratch it as much as possible. Toxicroak wastes another Sucker Punch as I use an Ultra Potion on my Forretress, then uses Strength again, followed by my Payback. Assuming that I have gotten the pattern running and Toxicroak will guess that I'm going to attack again (and use Sucker Punch), I switch in Generosity, my Venomoth. Indeed, the mind games work, Toxicroak uses Sucker Punch, wasting all the move's PP and granting me a free switch. In the next turn, Venomoth outspeeds and finishes Toxicroak with a Psybeam. Kiki continues with her Hitmonlee (25% HP Spikes damage, blahblahblah) and I send back in my Valor. Forretress first tanks a Fake Out (Hitmonlee consumes its Normal Gem and boosts its Speed with Unburden, perfect...) and ,ofc, it flinches. In the next turn, I use Protect and Hitmonlee loses 50% of its HP after its High Jump Kick gets Protected, getting it down to 25%. Kiki heals (her second and last Ultra Potion) and I send in Generosity again. A Knock Off hurts quite a lot my Venomoth, but Sleep Powder puts Hitmonlee to bed. Then, it remains asleep for 3 turns and a sequence of Psybeams (God bless Metronome) take down the Hitmonlee. Gallade follows and I send in Happiness, my Ariados. I Shadow Sneak the Gallade, which, combined with the Spikes, gets it down to just about one third of its HP. However, it uses Strength and OHKO'es my Happiness... However, Braveheart comes in and finishes Gallade with Bug Buzz. Kiki sends in her Lucario, which I considered to be the biggest problem to deal with! It takes neutral damage from Flying/Psychic type attacks, hits like a truck and my Larvesta is still eternities away from evolving. I decided to try and take it out with brute force, hoping I'd be lucky! I sent in my Vespiquen, the only mon I had who could do damage AND tank more than one hit of this thing simultaneously. After Lucario suffered 25% of its HP as Spike damage, I started Air Slashing it. Lucario's Psychic only dealt about a third of Vespiquen's HP, while Vespiquen's Air Slash dealt also about a third of Lucario's HP. White Herb restored Vespiquen's accuracy as well. So, in the next turn, Lucario used Calm Mind, but another Air Slash brought it to red HP. Now my Vespiquen was at -1 Accuracy and Lucario at +2 Sp.Attack and Sp.Defence. I select Air Slash again, Lucario goes for Psychic, my Vespiquen survives barely, Air Slash connects through the ashen cloud and the -1 Accuracy and kills Lucario! Finally, all that remains is Medicham. I send in my Masquerain, to utilize the Intimidate. Medicham takes Spike damage, then gets hit by an Air Slash, barely survives and my Kindness survives with about 30% of its HP (ty Intimidate). In the next turn, I am about to celebrate, but now I miss Air Slash due to the -1 Accuracy and Masquerain faints to another Ice Punch . I then send in my Generosity, the Venomoth though and seal my victory with a Signal Beam. Then, as Kiki beckons us to give us her badge, she collapses, in front of everyone. Her power has left her, and she asks us to go, after arguing with Victoria. Of course, we get no badge, but as we are about to leave, Victoria calls us and suggests that we go to Azurine Island, since Cain never reached Apophyll Academy, even though he started before us. Azurine Island is the only place he can possibly be at. What to expect when you surf on a Muk. So, we decide to take Amaria's boat and go search for him at the Azurine Island... In the next time! Till then, enjoy everyone!

Ohhh, I forgot, you can evolve Burmy to sand cloak Wormadam at the cave in the Rhodocrine Jungle! This is after Florinia as well though. I don't think you can get sandy cloak before Florinia.

If you don't do the same with Gundham Tanaka, so that I can do a solo rodent run, I am not bothered. Looks great! Planning to do other Danganronpa characters as well? It seems quite troublesome and time consuming...

Thank you! I was stunned at how well it went, even though it looked like I was getting completely overpowered for the biggest part of the fight! I will keep updating it, since my run has some even more incredible highlights... I tried to get a sandy cloak Wormadam, but couldn't find the place to evolve it till I got to Apophyll Beach... How on earth did you get it before that . Vivillon is an absolute star throughout my run! A really underrated pokemon that can be one of the best Quiver Dancers if used properly. I really recommend it. Since bug types are the weakest category (stat-wise), catch every bug you can. You never know when they will come in handy! And gather some Heart Scales... (i mean many of them,lol) Some times, the Move Relearner might save you from impossible battles with just one move! Edit: The biggest surprise of my run has probably been the Tailwind Butterfree, my Braveheart... Tailwind has literally saved my ass a thousand times. How can things that fly be that slow, please GameFreak/Nintendo...

@Karamo My suggestions might look weird, but I have noticed that you have no Grass types. I'd honestly suggest a Sawsbuck and a Gogoat. Give Sawsbuck Megahorn, Horn Leech, Double Edge and Jump Kick and you have a fast sweeper with great coverage. Especially if you train a Drought Ninetales too, in order to have a Special fire type sweeper or a bulkier set of the fox with Toxic, then you will be able to fully utilize Sawsbuck's Chlorophyll. Gogoat is an alternative for a tanky hard hitting Grass type. Give him Horn Leech/Seed Bomb/Leaf Blade, Milk Drink/Synthesis, Earthquake/Bulldoze and Aerial Ace/Bulk Up/Double Edge /Leech Seed and you have a really versatile tanky mon that can either be used as a defensive wall (especially in Grassy terrain with its defence boosted by 50% by Grass Pelt ability) to stall out, or a sweeper that hits like a train if it sets up with Bulk Up. Just consider them

@Ice Cream Sand Witch Ah, thanks a lot for that! I asked you because I am posting my bug monorun in Team Showcase section. However when I played I had no clue how to take screenshots, since I was playing on Windows 10, and F8 just increases volume... (fml) So, I was taking rough notes of my battles. I was also taking rough notes of strategies I can follow pre-battles. So, for Cal my initial plan was to outspeed his Infernape with my Masquerain. But it proved impossible, so I used my Vivillon, who actually outsped Infernape somehow (still weird due to their base speed stat). But pokemonshowdown speed calculations show that a naive vivillon (43 level) with 28IV and 252EV speed outspeeds jolly infernape (36 level) even if it has 31IV/252EV in speed. So it does make sense! I really didn't want to lie in my playthrough, so this inconsistency helped me realize that I had mixed my actual battle notes with my pre-battle strategy scribbles. Thank you! BTw, you're free to have a look if you want

Thank you for that! Do you know about natures too? Are they random? And what about the EVs? Finally, @Ice Cream Sand Witch if it isn't too much of a trouble, could you check Cal's pokemon at Pyrous Mountain stats? I am still dumbfounded by how my Vivillon in my Bug Monorun, even with Naive nature and 28IV/252EV in speed, managed to outspeed his Infernape... Edit: Maybe the level advantage between 43 and 36 did the trick, but I am still surprised!

CHAPTER 10: Through Fire and Water After the events of the previous episode, the city of Reborn has nothing else for us to do, so, to advance with the story, our hero takes Amaria's boat and sails to Apophyll Beach... There, after defeating Grimer fishermen and trainees of martial arts around, we decide to enter Apophyll Academy. We are told that Kiki, the sensei is giving a lecture right now, so we go to the training grounds and listen to her talking about life priorities, in parallel with sand, stones and water, which I find really interesting! She is indeed a good teacher! After that, Victoria and I explain her that I am not actually a new student, but I need the TMX for Strength in order to save our kidnapped friends. Kiki agrees to have a battle with us, but only after we pass a trial, in the form of climbing Pyrous Mountain and defeating Cal, who is apparently an ex-Fire type Gym leader, one of Kiki's best students and Victoria's crush. I will be honest, Pyrous Mountain sounds like the most hostile place ever created for my Bug friends... And I am not looking forward to my battle with Cal. Hell, even defeating Magcargos to solve Pyrous Mountain's puzzle results to a few casualties, mostly because my Kindness, my Masquerain, proves to be too kind and missed like a trillion Hydro Pumps in the process. Then, I had to use 2 more bugs just to take down one Magcargo, because the only one who could cope after that was Vespiquen with Power Gem and Leavanny with (neutral) Leaf Blades. So, literally my idea of Hell... Eventually though, we got to the peak, where the weather decided not to help me, and kept refusing to rain. "To hell with it", I thought and went to give it a try during a normal day. With my luck, it was more possible to get sunny weather in the next couple days, than rainy weather! So, Cal turns out to be an old friend of Shelly, but he did something and hurt her... They both live in the shadow of their brothers. Cal particularly chose Fire types to defeat his brother, Blake, who specializes in Ice types. So, after Cal goes on a loooooooooooong (yawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwn) talk about his life as a failure and his choices, he decides to battle us and not let us waiting any longer! Can't you just cover for us and tell Kiki we defeated you? Is this whole massacre necessary? PREPARE TO GET WRECKED, CAL! VS CAL OK, this battle was obviously going to be hard, so we needed to have some strategy. The fact that I had replaced Water Sport on my Masquerain with Stun Spore (ages ago) wasn't really helping the whole "strategy" part. But again, Even with Water Sport, Masquerain would probably die. Wasting one of my few pokemon with coverage against Fire just to set Water Sport would be pointless, since I'd be unable to even scratch Cal's pokemon after that. The team I decided to use, was: Valor, the Forretress (Male) Careful/Sturdy (Item: Dread Plate) Protect Bug Bite Payback Spikes Fiery Wings, the Vivillon (Male) Naive/Compound Eyes (Item: Mind Plate) Bug Buzz Psybeam Draining Kiss Aromatherapy Braveheart, the Butterfree (Male) Timid/Tinted Lens (Item: Mind Plate) Psybeam Silver Wind Tailwind Bug Buzz Kindness, the Masquerain (Male) Naive/Intimidate (Item: Sea Incense) Air Slash Bug Buzz Stun Spore Hydro Pump Royalty, the Vespiquen (Female) Bold/Pressure (Item: Hard Stone) Heal Order Air Slash Toxic Power Gem Happiness, the Ariados (Female) Hardy/Sniper (Item: Spooky Plate) Sucker Punch Night Shade Pin Missile Shadow Sneak Cal starts with Infernape and I start with Forretress. Quite stupid, depending on his typing, but I have hopes (not really, but Valor has Sturdy, how bad can it go?). So, Infernape goes for Swords Dance and Valor sets one layer of Spikes. Infernape uses Flame Wheel, Valor survives with Sturdy and sets a second layer of Spikes. Valor has already exceeded my expectations, but I have to check Infernape, because he is quite dangerous with +2 in his Attack. I let Valor die to a second Flame Wheel, hopelessly trying to get a third layer of Spikes. Then, I send in my Ariados, in hopes of weakening the Infernape with Happiness' priority moves. Shadow Sneak only deals roughly a fourth of Infernape's HP, then my Ariados gets OHKO'ed by another Flame Wheel. A great start, promising as hell! I decide to send in my Vivillon. Fiery Wings has a Naive nature, 28 IV in Speed, 29 IV in Sp.Attack, and 252 EVs in Speed and Sp.Attack. Infernape isn't THE fastest pokemon out there, so I have hopes of outspeeding it... AND INDEED! Fiery Wings performs a miracle I did not really expect, outspeeds Infernape, and, gets it to red HP with a super effective Psybeam. Infernape also gets confused, miraculously! It proceeds to hurt itself in confusion and, with +2 in its Attack, Infernape is taken down. One gone, five to go... EDIT FOR CLARITY: (sorry for editing it, a long time passed since my battle and my notes weren't the easiest thing to read! Since I didn't know how to take screenshots, I was taking rough notes of my fights at a piece of paper, and they are a whole mess! I mixed up my strategy pre-battle scribbles with the actual battle notes. That's why I falsely thought originally that my Masquerain outsped Infernape (was the original plan to kill it), pardon my bad memory and my bad notes!) Cal sends in his Charizard, and I reply with Royalty, my Vespiquen. Charizard takes no damage from Spikes unfortunately... And it also outspeeds my Vespiquen, big time! Charizard uses Thunder Punch, dealing 60% of Vespiquen's HP, but Royalty uses Power Gem, bringing Charizard to red HP. Cal uses his first Ultra Potion, another Power Gem, again down to critical HP. Cal wastes his second and final Ultra Potion too, just to lose 90% of his Charizard's HP by another Power Gem. In the next turn, a Fire Fang by Charizard Knocks down my Vespiquen too... I send in Fiery Wings, my Vivillon, who outspeeds Charizard and knocks it down with Psybeam. Two gone, four more to go now... Cal decides to send in Magmortar, and I keep in my Fiery Wings. I hope that my Vivillon's nickname will help him face this field, and this monster and win! It is a shiny Vivillon after all, and it's literally on fire! Magmortar is not very fast either, it gets outsped by Vivillon, who uses Psybeam, taking out about 35% of its health. After Spikes damage, Magmortar now only has 50% of its HP. But then, a Lava Plume annihilates my Fiery Wings, burning him to a crisp... Then something weird happens! Lava Plume sets the field on Fire, turning it into a Burning Field! Perhaps many would think that I am doomed now, but this is actually a gift to me, since Water Type attacks aren't weakened in this field, like they are in the Superheated Field! But, since I doubt that my Masquerain can outspeed all of Cal's pokemon, I send in Braveheart, my Butterfree. The small level advantage and EV training help my Butterfree outspeed Magmortar and use Tailwind, boosting my team's Speed. However, it also gets burned to a crisp by another Lava Plume. Please mercy. Now I have only Kindness, my Masquerain left, and Cal still has a wounded Magmortar and 3 more badass fire type starters. I have precisely three turns of Tailwind left (Tailwind lasts for 4 turns, including the turn it was used in, so effectively for 3 turns) to finish his mons and snatch the victory. I use Hydro Pump without hesitation or fear of missing (crossing my fingers the whole time), since it is my only hope. First Hydro Pump connects and knocks down Magmortar. Three down, three to go. Cal then sends in his Delphox. 12.5% of its HP dealt by Spikes, Hydro Pump connects, Delphox goes down. Two more. Cal sends in his Typhlosion, to my great relief, since it is much faster than Blaziken. Masquerain is much more likely to outspeed Blaziken without Tailwind rather than Typhlosion. Same process here, Typhlosion gets damaged by Spikes, Hydro Pump connects and takes it down. Tailwind expires, and now it is a 1v1 between Kindness and Cal's Blaziken. Cal's Blaziken faces my Masquerain. It takes Spikes damage, losing 12.5% of its HP. I choose Hydro Pump, praying for the best. AND THE MIRACLE HAPPENS! Masquerain outspeeds Blaziken, Hydro Pump connects and I watch in awe the HP bar of Blaziken dropping till it empties of all its HP points! I have made an incredible comeback and defeated Cal! In my first try (well, second, took one try to realize my initial plan of outspeeding Infernape with Masquerain wouldn't work, so I soft resetted that)! I cheer a little bit, use my Escape Rope cause fuck climbing down Pyrous Hell-Mountain. Plus, my Bugs need Nurse Joy before they literally die after this massacre! I immediately go heal at Apophyll Academy's Pokemon Centre, and mentally prepare myself to go inform Victoria and Kiki about my triumph... But not today. I will save this for the next time! Till then, enjoy everyone!

If I may suggest something, Oddish learns Moonblast at Lv.43, which can not be learned as Gloom or Vileplume. It proved to be especially useful to me against Kiki and Sampson during my first run. It also comes in handy when you want to check Dragons. I'd suggest Giga Drain, Toxic, Moonblast and Nature Power. If you feel like it, you can trade Nature Power with Moonlight for extra sustain and make a tankier build. I put 252 EVs in Sp.Atk, about 200 in HP and the rest in Speed (I think). As for Victreebell, I used it in my second run (the shiny run), and used Knock Off, Leaf Blade, Leaf Storn and Venoshock/Nature Power (when I got the TMs-or Stun Spore, which may come in handy as well). Even though I put 252 in Attack, Leaf storm helped to check pokemon that have amazing Defence but weak special defence. Nature Power seems odd-ish (pun intended), but it helps you abuse the fields as well.

I was considering starting with a Snivy on literally every single run I've had, but never did, because I absolutely wanna tear my eardrums off and become deaf every time I listen to Serperior's cry.

Sounds like a convo between Aster and Eclipse! xD

CHAPTER 9: Buzzing on Ice, ft. Deliverance So, after defeating Shade, I go back in a hurry to the Underground Railnet the prevent the inevitable... I find Victoria, wandering aimlessly (no surprises there), wondering what to do. Cain informed her of the whole situation, and she tells us (she has already told Cain) that in order to clear the debris, we need Strength. The HM (or TMX) for Strength is owned by Victoria's teacher (or Sensei) at Apophyll Academy, Kiki. However, we will also need the fifth badge, which we must win by the Poison Gym leader, Aya, Cain's sister. That is because Corey never consider giving us the badge before commiting suicide, which made the incident twice as tragic and sad. So, we head immediately towards the Coral Ward, where Cain dumps us without giving us the key to get into Byxbysion Wasteland (seriously, I don't get it, how much time would it take to just hand it to me, he gave it to FUCKING FERN!) and surfs on his Muk (!) towards Apophyll beach. When we turn around and try to leave, Amaria comes out of the mysterious locked warehouse and informs us that she has traced the source of all the pollution of the Azurine Lake. That is, the Blacksteam factory, at West Peridot Ward, which we are going to invade and sabotage Team Meteor's (?) operations. So, we start walking (again) at exactly the opposite direction compared our actual destination and meet up with Amaria outside the Blacksteam factory. She uses Waterfall and Ice Beam to create an ice ladder to the roof of the Blacksteam factory, with the assistance of her Lapras, Deliverance (who is level 80, Jesus Christ). This immediately reminded me of this However, our assumption was correct that Team Meteor was behind this. This was clear since we saw the first couple Meteor Grunts, who got annihilated by Lapras, making me think "Am I really necessary here?". In the next room though, we got to face about 20 Grunts, Amaria asked if I trusted her, I replied "Damn straight, who wouldn't trust a Lv.80 Lapras AND KINGDRA, HELL YES!, so she opens me a passage through the Grunts and faces them all on her own. I am led towards Solaris, Team Meteor's leader (so far?), who sends us to the prison, after a small talk... There, we met a whole bunch of Pokemon, stolen by the Daycare plan in Obsidia. The guard is dumb enough to give us advice on how to escape, so I use a bunch of the caged pokemon to help me escape. Of course, I wake up the arrogant guard and fight him, just for the fun of it. After storming through the place and defeating a few grunts quite easily, we reached the main room, where Solaris, accompanied by ZEL, "invited" us to see their masterpiece... A PULSE Muk, pouring all its technologically augmented filth into Azurine Lake... Then, while I had my back turned at Solaris, he calls his Garchomp and tries to execute us with Dragon Rush (, why such violence)... Thank God Amaria intervenes, using Ice Beam by Atlantica, her Kingdra and freezing solid the confounded ground-dragon-landshark that can fly... errrrr this abomination anyways, you know what I mean. Then, Amaria faces Solaris in a battle, while ZEL is called to battle me... The team I used was: Valor, the Forretress (Male) Careful/Sturdy Protect Bug Bite Payback Spikes Passion, the Larvesta (Male) Timid/Flame Body Ember Bug Bite Take Down Flame Charge Happiness, the Ariados (Female) Hardy/Sniper Sucker Punch Spider Web Night Shade Shadow Sneak Affection, the Leavanny (Female) Quirky/Chlorophyll X-Scissor Leaf Blade Fell Stinger Slash Generosity, the Venomoth (Male) Hardy/Shield Dust Giga Drain Signal Beam Sleep Powder Psybeam Fiery Wings, the Vivillon (Male) Naive/Compound Eyes Bug Buzz Psybeam Draining Kiss Aromatherapy VS ZEL Zel begins with Glaceon and I with Forretress. The procedure is known, we need 3 layers of Spikes. For some weird reason Glaceon tries to hurt me with Ice Shard and Bite, both of which do nearly no damage, and the 3 layers of Spikes are set without a problem. A few Bug Bites hurt Glaceon quite a bit, and when it is at red HP, knowing that ZEL will heal, I switch in my Venomoth and put Glaceon to sleep. After that, it remains asleep for 2 turns, so consecutive Signal Beams bring it to red again, wasting the second and final Ultra Potion of ZEL. Venomoth tanks relatively easily an Icy Wind and brings Glaceon to half HP with another Signal Beam, then, anticipating the Mirror Coat I switch in my Larvesta. My guess is right, Mirror Coat fails, and 2 Flame Charges by Larvesta bring Glaceon down. Espeon follows, so I switch in my Vivillon. Things are easy here. Spikes damage, then EV training works, my Vivillon outspeeds Espeon and finishes it with a Bug Buzz. Same process with Umbreon, but here Vivillon Bug Buzz'ed, then had to tank a Faint Attack to finish the kill with Draining Kiss, restoring quite a respectable chunk of its lost HP. Finally, PULSE Muk comes in and it immediately takes Spike damage, losing 25% of its (respectable) HP. This thing has Protean and 4 attacks, Electric, Ground, Water and Poison typed. I want to bait the Muddy Water, so I send in my Larvesta. I immediately switch in my Venomoth, which tanks the Muddy Water. Everything goes as planned. My Venomoth doesn't miss the Sleep Powder and PULSE Muk is asleep, locked at Water typing. I switch in my Leavanny and easily finish it with a critical Leaf Blade. ZEL is defeated, Solaris calls him weak and calls for retreat, but won't leave without giving a parting gift to Amaria who wreked his sorry-loser ass first... His Tyranitar uses Superpower on her, injuring her... However, Amaria, even though she is in considerable pain, is standing even after Team Meteor abandons their ravaged base, invites us to her place at Celestinine Cascade and then (to thank us for our help) gives us the key to her Warehouse in Coral Ward, and her private boat key, before departing as well! I HAVE A BOAT! Time to go back to Coral Ward and sail with our brand new boat towards Apophyll Beach... Something is telling me that our kidnapped friends will wait us for quite a long time... Till the next chapter, enjoy everyone!