Seel The Deal

Gogoat, Gogoat, and more Gogoat. Aside from our lord and savior (Gogoat), keep an eye out for stuff like Shroomish, Snivy, and Bulbasaur in the late game. Mid game is a tad barren for good grass 'mons it feels, but you can still make use of Tangrowth, Roserade and Shiinotic from earlier in the game. As for Flying, Swellow, Noivern and Crobat are some of the best offensive powerhouses, and the latter 2 are pretty tough to take down too. Noctowl is a good screens setter with a surprisingly vast offensive movepool (but relatively weak stats), and some other weird picks like Sigilyph and Altaria have their niches.

I actually don't think full physical is the way to go. Arcanine works best in Doubles and even without EV investment, missing out on Heat Wave there is a huge mistake. Flare Blitz/Heat Wave/Close Combat for necessities, and then the last slot can be any of Thunder Fang, Crunch or Extreme Speed. If you do want to go full physical anyway, then Heat Wave can be replaced by Extreme Speed and the last slot becomes a choice of 2 moves. As for items, Assault Vest once you get it is amazing. Boosting a bulky Pokemon's effective Defense and Special Defense by 50% immediately on switching in is super strong and lets you get away with some really, really dumb stuff. The only real alternatives are Leftovers and Charcoal/Flame Plate since everything else has too big a downside.

Ninetales is also her ace, meaning she sends it out last. Proper management of her team will make it a 2v1 scenario, and at that point the sun is irrelevant.

Lycanroc when properly EV trained is faster than all of Charlotte's mons, which lets you essentially just spam Rock Slide and win (though I doubt Lycanroc quite OHKOs Ninetales or Rotom like Archeops does), but if you're not looking to EV train then Gigalith's defenses are a more reliable choice. Mind you, there's nothing really stopping you bringing both If neither works for you, Walrein is an amazing choice for this gym, you can change the field and set Rain on turn 1 and then spam Surf, with Thick Fat making up for not being resistant to Fire.

For Hardy, I just sent out Steelix with a seed, spammed Curse and let my other 'mons die as fodder while Steelix became invincible. the original plan was to have Swampert also spam Curse but uhhhhh it died turn one

That's not really a great way to think about it? It's like saying Amaria's Mega Swampert isn't a threat because you can bring Shedinja. More relevantly, it's like saying Dragonite isn't a threat because you can use Destiny Bond and be done with it. If Conkeldurr ends up being Saphira's bane then so be it. SOMETHING is gonna be good against her, otherwise it wouldn't be a good battle, right? And Tyrantrum does have things going for it. It has more open moveslots, a different typing that better abuses the fields offensively, and hits MUCH harder thanks to Head Smash and having room to run Outrage (and, potentially, Choice Band).

Cofagrigus is an amazing offensive Trick Room setter (and arguably one of the best Ghosts in Reborn), with amazing physical defense, good special defense, terrible speed, decent special attack and access to Nasty Plot. Reuniclus is an option, with Regenerator, very high Special attack, and access to Calm Mind and lots of good special moves. Typing is underwhelming, though - pure Psychic isn't great. If you want another Grass-type to replace Exeggutor, you could consider Gourgeist. Great support movepool and even better bulk than Cofagrigus. Bronzong's already been mentioned as a very nice setter, but I'd like to mention that it also gets dual screens AND stealth rock so it's very customizable. Aromatisse is noteworthy as not only the sole viable Fairy type Trick Room setter, but also the only one that's immune to Taunt and Encore. It's not great otherwise, but it's worth a mention.

At least one Scarf user is practically guaranteed, as Naganadel would outspeed any other possible Dragon besides Noivern (as long as it's above level 94) and uh, Mega Sceptile lol. Garchomp would be the best user of this, since it also covers Steel types that don't mind a Fire attack (Empoleon, Aggron, Bronzong etc), and has moves to abuse the Cave field; however, Garchomp is already the ace of two major trainers, so it's more likely we'll see Flygon or Kommo-o. Mega Charizard X would make sense as the mega given the Dragon's Den field boosts, the neutrality to Fairy attacks and Charizard's resemblance to a dragon even in its base form. Noivern seems likely as not only does it outspeed Naganadel and, so long as it's level 97 or higher, Weavile, but it also works in the Cave field (one Hydro Vortex away) with Boomburst. That being said, Ciel has one of these already, so we'll see. Dragonite is already confirmed and is more than likely her ace. You can bet your ass it's running Roost and there's a decent chance it's running Dragon Dance too, so that leaves Dragon STAB and the obvious Fire coverage. It's not impossible that we see Earthquake or something, I just don't think it's all that likely. Apart from this, it's a matter of coverage and field abuse. Dragalge covers fairies, but its Hydro Pump is weakened in the Dragon's Den. Turtonator shares a typing with Charizard X and is slow, relatively weak, and specially frail. Goodra... just doesn't seem like something Saphira would use. Kingdra, same problem as Dragalge but without the benefits. So who else can get in? - Tyrantrum is a great Dragon Dance user and abuses both Dragon's Den and Cave fields to their fullest extent with Strong Jaw + Fire Fang, Head Smash/Stone Edge/Rock Slide, and Dragon Claw/Outrage. - Salamence is set apart from Dragonite with higher speed and sweeping potential, but doesn't abuse the field nearly as well. I'd mostly expect to see this one if we get bamboozled and Charizard actually isn't the mega. - Hydreigon is the single hardest-hitting 'mon Saphira could possibly use besides based Drampa, though I don't think this is likely to appear as it's Lin's ace and the two of them aren't exactly best buds. - Haxorus might make an appearance as the least noteworthy 'mon on her team. Hits hard, at least. - Whichever of Flygon and Kommo-o didn't get the Scarf slot. Let's keep in mind too - not all her 'mons need to have a direct counterplay to Fairy types, and it's okay (and probably a good thing, from a game design standpoint) for some to be very vulnerable to them. Most good Fairy types are under base 80 speed, and of those that aren't, which ones hard enough to OHKO bulky Dragons? Don't say Ribombee. Not to mention, Saphira has the level advantage too. I'd be more worried about covering field changes (while still retaining the ability to abuse Dragon's Den), which would mean dealing with Rock and Ice types. I'd be super disappointed if Saphira didn't have any Rock counters because it would be far, far too easy to Hydro Vortex and let monsters like Rhyperior, Aggron, and especially Minior go to work. That's just my take on it, anyway. I wasn't considering themes super hard (come on, Ciel had a hunk of rock and a ball of fluff as two of her most threatening 'mons) but didn't want to ignore them outright. A different take might try to craft the perfect battle team, or carefully consider which 'mons make sense given Saphira's character and ties to other characters, or try to cover as many field effects as possible. I'm sure we'll all be wrong anyway, but that's the beauty of it, isn't it?

Ludicolo and Shedinja both meme all over Amaria if you want an easy out. Other than that, try changing the field, and make sure your fast 'mons are floating or flying in some way so they don't have a speed penalty (Air Balloon can work). Greninja, Metagross and Flygon are all not great choices for this fight, I'd invest in a Grass type, or an Ice type with Freeze Dry + Blizzard (for changing the field, Vanilluxe gets both, sets Hail on switchin, and has very high Special Attack)

You could probably handle the one catch per area (if a player's captured pokemon is from an area, disable balls in that area, or something along those lines - then disable releasing pokemon, and have a dedicated death box) and nickname rules too, although it may not be desirable to do the latter. Dupes clause could probably be enforced in a similar way to one catch per area. Still nothing stopping a player from resetting if something goes wrong though. Honestly though, just having one single "Nuzlocke mode" is either too restrictive or does too little to be worthwhile. Too many variations on the challenge nowadays. Might've worked 20 years ago...

It's not an option. Nuzlocke is a self-imposed challenge, some fangames make it an option (Reborn will in the future in some way, I believe) but usually you still have to impose certain restrictions on yourself to make it a "full" nuzlocke experience

I've also seen people say they can but don't have to skip duplicates, though I'm not certain how much benefit there really is to that, and most people just end up skipping dupes anyway.

also, lots of people for Reborn-style fangames in particular limit themselves to one wild AND one event/trade/gift per uniquely-named area, so as to not either get too few or too many event encounters. other optional rules include: - all Shade/Anna relationship points - set mode - no items in battle - one I personally use is to not use Torchic as a starter, since it runs over half the gyms in the game singlehandedly

You could find a higher level one in the Lapis alleyway I believe. If Nidoking isn't OHKO'ing with Sheer Force, you can also get into EV training and/or equip it with an Earth Plate (found from mining) or Soft Sand (wild Diglett/Dugtrio).

Swoobat shouldn't have too many problems setting up Calm Mind if you take out Nidoqueen turn 1, which Nidoking should be able to do handily with Earth Power. After a Calm Mind or 2 Swoobat should be basically unstoppable, bar any shenanigans from Drapion who's ALSO an easy OHKO for Nidoking (or you can just Air Slash it). Leaving Toxapex until the very end can be helpful too, since it effectively turns the battle into a 2v1. If you want to train up some new 'mons, then the combination of a field-changing move and Dugtrio's Earthquake is devastating as well. Pair it with something that beats Venusaur and you've got yourself a sweep.

Apart from the advice Lorane gave, I'd just like to suggest some new movesets: It's a bit of work, but you can breed Close Combat onto Arcanine for a powerful option against Rock types. This makes both Bulldoze and Iron Head somewhat redundant, giving you room to run Crunch and then either Heat Wave for doubles, Fire Fang as a more reliable physical STAB, Thunder Fang for Water types, or Extreme Speed like you have now. Cincinno starts to lack in raw power in the late game, so giving it some utility moves might not be a bad idea, to abuse its massive speed stat. Knock Off is a great start, but consider replacing one of Rock Blast or Bullet Seed with Encore to lock opponents into status moves and give yourself free turns. Sing is also an option, but smart use of Encore makes it mostly obsolete, and its accuracy leaves something to be desired. If you go full physical on Lucario, I'd recommend a set with Close Combat, Meteor Mash, Extreme Speed and Swords Dance. Close Combat should OHKO anything that doesn't resist after a boost, Meteor Mash hits Fairy types, and Extreme Speed is for anything faster than Lucario. Full special, you could run a similar set with Aura Sphere, Flash Cannon, Nasty Plot and either Agility or a coverage move like Dark Pulse or Shadow Ball. Mixed is also an option but isn't the strongest IMO; you lack either coverage or power, or both if it's not built just right. The most I'd do with a mixed set is run Hidden Power Ice on a physical set to deal with something like Gliscor or Garchomp that might live an unboosted Ice Punch.

I'd just explore, make sure you didn't miss any major quests or event 'mons (clear out Aventurine Woods, finish the frankenstein quest down on 7th street, etc). If you do that, you shouldn't even really have much reason to go back until you're given the chance anyway. Some notable things you might have missed (spoilered just in case):

- Destiny Bond + Quick Claw - Perish Song + Prankster - 3x Bulldoze/Earthquake/Magnitude + Sturdy - Paralysis -> throw bodies at it until it dies - PP stall with Ghost (lures Shadow Ball) + Normal (lures Focus Blast + Judgement) - Toxic - Strong, fast/specially bulky EV trained attackers e.g. Noivern (Boomburst, Super Fang), A-Raichu (Psychic), Ampharos (Power Gem), Medicham (High Jump Kick, this should OHKO cleanly if you land it) These are all the ways I've either seen done or done myself, though there may be more. Tanking strats aren't really a thing because Judgement is field boosted super hard and it has perfect neutral coverage, but overpowering it is entirely possible with a well raised set of attackers near the level cap, and outsmarting it is doable in a number of ways.

Well, beyond just in-game RNG rolls, there's also what moves the opponent uses and what 'mon they target in Doubles - so I guess just "RNG manipulation" doesn't really cover it, more of a "battle sandbox" would be needed. Hmm, field effect alteration... not quite the same, but now I'm imagining a run where the field effect changes every turn. Would be very possible to mod I'd assume, and although it probably wouldn't be super difficult it would be pretty chaotic and silly and would be very entertaining to see

I started a run a while ago (never finished, didn't have the motivation) where every battle had to be completed in 6 turns or less, and additional "soft" rules for using as few 'mons as possible and not overleveling. The early game is pretty whatever with stuff like Kricketune and Mightyena existing but later battles take quite some strategy (although I never finished the run, I did plan out a large chunk of it - special mentions to mixed Blaziken and intentionally not max speed Dugtrio for making their appearances). Although there is one battle which may not be doable at all, but ehhhhhhhhhhh I also have to wonder: if there were some external tool to manipulate the RNG, would a Worst Luck Possible run be at all doable? Given the standard rules for that run you'd have to consider: - Nuzlocke = variable encounters, so your only guaranteed powerhouse early on is your starter (Kricketune can't use Fury Cutter without an X Accuracy!) - Chance-based field effects are brutal (e.g. Aster+Eclipse under the stairway, your Rock attacks are useless and theirs are most likely super effective + guaranteed crits and flinches) - No "suicide cheese" like DBond Murkrow, as WLP rules state you can only make sacrifices if there is no way to prevent a death - Similarly, rotations aren't as strong because you can only swap 'mons if it would prevent a death Mind you I imagine some of the rules would be toned down for a Reborn version, plus there are some advantages e.g. early anti-crit ability with Turtwig, early Lucky Chant users, lots of early bugs with Shield Dust etc. Still would be a brutal experience, and very likely not possible to fully complete - but seeing how far you could go would be interesting.

Reborn: The attack on Agate City. Felt good to wipe Meteor off the map there, even if shit hit the fan with Lin afterwards. Rejuvenation: Haven't played through all the way and don't plan to anytime soon, but for now probably the help quests. They're a nice way to encourage exploration and reward the player for it at the same time, and that's a design choice I can get behind.

Well, what does Whimsicott do besides set Tailwind? It doesn't get Rain Dance or Sandstorm (for Swampert/Excadrill respectively), it doesn't get Taunt, its only offensive niche is the highly unreliable Prankster Nature Power, so... Light Screen + Charm? Memento, if you want that in one slot? If you run a hyper offense that could work, but Togekiss is generally outclassed by faster Flying types that can abuse stronger moves without setup like Brave Bird and Hurricane on those archetypes. You could run Sunny Day on Whimsicott, but then you'd have to wonder why you're spending two slots on Togekiss and Whimsicott on a sun team that already gets to abuse huge threats like mixed Growth Venusaur, Charizard, and Mega Houndoom. I'd recommend Scizor (benefits from Tailwind itself immensely, replacing strong priority with doubled speed; resists Ice and Poison and smashes Rock types) or Gliscor (it's another Flying type BUT, it only shares the Ice weakness, it's very effective against Rock, Electric, Steel AND Poison, it's one of the bulkiest 'mons you can get your hands on, and gets Swords Dance naturally for a double dance set; unfortunately it has to rely on Bulldoze and Aerial Ace/Sky Attack for dual STAB (or Acrobatics, if you're willing to forgo the insane survivability boost from Toxic Orb and use a Flying Gem instead)). It's worth nothing, though, that Togekiss can totally run Tailwind on its own. It wouldn't work for a pure support set with Heal Bell, but Nasty Plot sets could pull it off with an attack combo of Air Slash and Aura Sphere, and support sets not running Heal Bell and Thunder Wave can make great use of it. (That being said, I don't think Heal Bell is any good outside of competitive play; when the name of the game is balanced offense you don't see too much crippling status flying around - mostly just 10% burn/para chances from stuff that kills in 2-3 hits anyway.)

Really there's nothing wrong with max speed Togekiss, keep in mind it has a massive base 120 special attack and will absolutely tear things apart even before Nasty Plot, and that its natural bulk will let it live weaker SE hits and strong neutral ones more often than not. I wouldn't recommend Thunder Wave with max speed though, better to go with Aura Sphere or Flamethrower as coverage to hit Steel types, as Thunder Wave's main use is for bulkier setups to outspeed for flinch hax. I will say though, max HP has a lot of merit as a Wish user, with a set like Wish/Thunder Wave/Air Slash/Protect, Roost, Flamethrower, etc. I don't recommend dual STAB for a defensive set, as then you either give up utility or coverage against Steel types. Your choice at that point to invest in defense or special attack for the other 252 EVs (wouldn't recommend special defense myself, it's pretty overkill). Offensive Togekiss goes really well with a Sticky Web user like Galvantula and appreciates teammates that deal with Electric and Poison types like Excadrill (who ALSO happens to be almost as good with webs as it is with sand) or Nidoking. A core like that would be able to cover most of your team's offensive needs, with a few rare exceptions like Gliscor. Alternatively, a Tailwind setter can give it the speed it needs against faster teams, but most Tailwind users share its Flying type so you have to be wary about what partners you choose. Defensive Togekiss prefers partners that have good type synergy, so something that's bulky, benefits greatly from Wish support and a Fighting resist, and resists Steel, Ice or Electric, and Rock is ideal - something like Steelix or Mega Aggron would be good.

I'm not saying you have a problem with Fairy types, but that you could use one to patch up a Dragon weakness

Golem can be replaced by Rhyperior very soon, or Alolan Golem right now, and both are pretty much straight upgrades. Other than that you have a complete lack of Dragon resists so a Fairy type like Sylveon, Clefable (soon) or Ribombee could be good to invest in; alternatively, a Steel type like Aggron or Steelix would be a good addition.