Aphelli

It’s almost certainly Anna who took the most tinkering. El was a bit difficult as well, but given that I eventually 6-0’d him… Heather has no counter for a Scarf Weavile lead and it’s smooth sailing if one disregards RNG.

I still don’t know how I managed to beat B&L (so they’re the only ones I can’t consistently beat with my E4 team) but I remember far less tries than El or Anna. 

Lin 1 was difficult, perhaps as much as Anna (but my strat was less consistent, and I think, more reliant on many items). Lin 2 definitely took less tries but crucially relied on one convenient crit on Clefable and an insane amount of Revival Herbs for Arc-PULSE, so it may have been the most difficult of the lot. 

At this time, Roxanne only had two Pokemon: Nosepass and Geodude. With an early access to Rock Polish and Magnitude, Geodude could easily sweep Julia's entire team, even Electrode. The peppy cheerleader was already enough of a pushover on a normal run, it was even more the case on this one. I know it wasn't supposed to happen because Geodude can only be found after you defeat Corey, but I still found it pretty hilarious and satisfying at the same time.

This fight was a 3VS6 battle. Onix joined the crew in Peridot Ward shortly after Roxanne got her first badge from Julia. All of her team consisted in Pokemon who had Sturdy as their ability. Graveler made his mistress able to get rid of Breloom without difficulty using Self-Destruct. Afterwards, Roxanne stalled Rini's Cradily pretty effectively with Onix spamming Curse, then swept the rest of the opposing team with Gyro Ball. Ironically, Florinia may be the Grass-type Gym Leader of the region, only two of her mons were taught Grass attacks: Maractus and Breloom. This battle was longer than the one against Julia, but it still was enjoyable, forcing Roxanne to use more tactical approaches.

Well, as Roxanne kept making her way in Reborn while kicking some Meteors out of Jasper and Beryl Ward, her team kept growing with Relicanth and Carbink joining her as her new fighting partners. It was at this very part of the game that the young teacher of Rustboro City chose to EV-train her rocky family. Carbink was taught how to use Nature Power and it turned out to be a good asset for Roxanne's team, even on the offensive side. The PULSE-Tangrowth in Rhodocrine Jungle gave her a harder time than Corey to be honest. She had to use items to boost Relicanth's attack and kill the PULSE Pokemon in one hit. The fact that Roxanne was fighting in the rain helped a lot, which made me laugh a little bit because it was totally unforeseen from a Rock-type trainer. Her only regret was to think Rest could be more worth the learn than Thunder Wave for Nosepass since she thought it could tank easily tough opponents while holding a Chesto Berry to wake up instantly: she was wrong, don't do that! Corey didn't resist very long though. She stressed a little too much when she saw Crobat coming out after she took Skrelp down, so she had Graveler unleashing full power with Self-Destruct. Crobat was OHKOed and the field was terminated. After that, Roxanne could make good use of her favorite move, Rock Tomb, to beat her opponent in two hits. The last remaining Pokemon of Corey was Nidorina. Nosepass gave it the final blow by using Power Gem.

Roxanne managed to be victorious in one attempt if I remember well. This was made possible thanks to Carbink who set Stealth Rock at the start of the fight, and thanks in large part to Relicanth too. This robust guy outspeeded everything in the rain thanks to Swift Swim, so Yanmega, Masquerain and Anorith could hardly last long as soon as they came out on the field. Meanwhile, Graveler evolved into a Golem. Rock Polish combined with Sturdy helped a lot in this fight too. Four Roxanne's Pokemon out of five were physical attackers so the Sp. Atk reduction from Struggle Bug could hardly be a thing to worry about. Generally, any Pokemon of Shelly who was able to OHKO Roxanne's teammates were all defeated very quickly. As I said, Sturdy was Roxanne's most precious survival tool and decreasing the speed of the enemy with Rock Tomb softened Shelly a little too much in my opinion.

This was the first Gym Leader Roxanne fought with a full team. Amaura was the sixth minion of her rocky army. She managed to defeat Shade's Dhelmise thanks to Amaura and her Aurora Beam. Another key element in this fight was Carbink able to learn Gravity. Thanks to it, Golem could beat Gengar, Rotom and Doublade to the ground without too much trouble. But the victory against Shade's ace, Mimikyu, was not due to Golem's Earthquake, but thanks to Carbink's Nature Power! If used on the factory field, Nature Power turns into Gear Grind and it could hit Mimikyu super effectively. Even with a double attack boost, it wasn't enough for Mimikyu to kill Carbink in one hit. The course of this fight was very unexpected and it made Roxanne love this Jewel Pokemon even more!

As Roxanne kept travelling, she eventually reached the Apophyll Academy. She also realized that another advantage granted by Gravity was that it increases the accuracy of moves by 5/3, which turned out to be a massive game changer to make moves like Rock Tomb or Zen Headbutt never miss. Relicanth served Roxanne very well, but he was quickly defeated by Hitmonlee who had Unburden, even after Carbink set Reflect. Once again, Golem was the juggernaut of the band cause he was able to hit almost any Pokemon like a truck with Earthquake. In fact, Kiki's Pokemon were dangerous in terms of brute force, but they could almost never survive one Earthquake, which was more practical than anything else for Roxanne. She just had to look out for Toxicroak because it had Sucker Punch. I think Medicham was the last Pokemon of Kiki during this battle. Just because she still had members in my team and because she wanted to have some fun, Roxanne exceptionally told Golem to use Explosion to conclude the fight.

Thanks to Amaura able to set Misty Terrain by using Mist, this fight was hands down the second shortest battle of Roxanne's adventures. For a short time, the decrease in base power that was suppposed to be applied to Earthquake in the wasteland was ignored, so once again, Golem smashed almost any encounter in his way. Relicanth defeated Venusaur with Zen Headbutt while holding a Psychic Gem. Roxanne's only regret was to not have Flying types in her time at this moment. Because yeah, allies who like taking collateral damage don't exist.

Roxanne was pretty lucky in the Mirror Arena. She kept Amaura unevolved until she reached level 50 so the tiny dinosaur could learn Ice Beam. Golem and Onix did pretty well at this moment with a pretty accurate use of Rock Tomb. But in reality, the star of this match turned out to be Nosepass and his Power Gem. As a reminder, special moves that are single-target and noncontact have a chance to reflect off the field if they miss. It was time to shine for the Compass Pokemon. Roxanne might be used to the brutal force of her Pokemon, she wanted to keep the place clean. No mirror was broken at the end of this battle.

Even today, Roxanne still has bad memories of Noel and his Cinccino because she had no Pokemon able to outspeed this Scarf Pokemon. She had no choice but relying on Carbink's utility move: Reflect. After that, she sent out Golem to defeat Noel's Porygon-Z but it was not without the sacrifice of Aurorus who had to take Cinccino down shortly before. With Cinccino and Porygon-Z out of the game, Onix ended up carrying the rest of the fight on his back against Noel's Bewear. Curse, curse, heal, and repeat... It was one of the most unsatisfying battle for Roxanne, even though she managed to snatch victory from the hands of the young prodigy.

Oh, by Jove! Now this was a fight that required strategizing! A lot of strategizing! The road to set up a checkmate against Radomus was full of obstacles, but at the end of the day, Roxanne finally earned the Millennium Badge. To do so, she had to remove all of Radomus Trick Room setters as soon as they appeared. It was a hard fight. I don't exactly remember how Roxanne defeated the Trick Room setters but since she's a lover of precious stones, all I remember is that she used gems to boost the strength of her Pokemon attacks. A normal gem was used to strengthen Golem's Explosion once Slowking made his appearence on the field and Aurorus held an ice gem to defeat Radomus' Reuniculus. Onix still had not evolved at this point because Roxanne had no Metal Coat on her to make it happen, so this made the fight even more difficult to handle. However, Nosepass being the king of the board allowed it to attack first, even under the effect of Trick Room. The fact that the Compass Pokemon knew how to use Pain Split made teamwork easier as he fought alongside strong attackers. Metagross was probably the deadliest Pokemon to take down in this battle because it had the same privilege as Roxanne's Nosepass: attacking first as the king of the opposite side of the board. Golem had to be revived to end the battle in Roxanne's favor.

This time, Onix has evolved into a Steelix. As opposed to the trial set by Radomus, this encounter was more like a walk in a park (And not the type of park that is invaded by some mutant Tangrowth with vines that sprout out of the field, I must make that clear). Luna's team couldn't fight Roxanne at full strength because the crystals that surrounded the area were all destroyed by Golem's Earthquake as soon as the fight started. Consequently, the battle took place pretty fast with Golem alternating between Earthquake, Rock Polish and Stone Edge. It was eventually overwhelmed by Luna's Weavile and her priority move: Ice Shard. Steelix then dealt alone with the rest of Luna's team, spamming Curse freely because none of Luna's teammates, except Umbreon knew how to use special attacks. The repeated use of Gyro Ball that followed led Roxanne to an easy win, even if she used some healing items to keep her giant fellow in shape. Shortly after earning the Eclipse Badge, Roxanne went back to the Yureyu Power Plant and finally made Nosepass evolve. Afterwards, she headed to Agate City with a team full of all grown up Pokemon.

The strategy used against Samson was pretty similar to the one established against Kiki in the Apophyll Academy. Except this time, Earthquake was boosted by the Big Top Arena and Carbink was taught Trick Room by Roxanne. Some gems were given to Golem and Steelix to boost their attacks: a Ground Gem for Golem's Earthquake and a Steel Gem for Steelix's Gyro Ball. Carbink was able to set both Trick Room and entry hazard with Stealth Rock while it faced Samson's Conkeldurr, so no one could protect itself with a Focus Sash when Golem started sweeping the rest of Samson's team with Earthquake. That means not even Lucario.

The thing I love with Reborn is how the fiercest adversaries you meet can get turned into pushovers depending on the Pokemon you're fighting with. It hurts me to admit it, but Charlotte suffered this fate. The Gym battle in Calcenon City was the easiest for Roxanne and the strategy put in place against the queen of sass was actually very straightforward. Carbink used Trick Room while Golem destroyed both Charlotte's Typhlosion and Darmanitan with Earthquake. Because it was levitating, Rotom was taken down by Golem's Stone Edge while Charlotte's other Pokemon was beaten in one hit by Relicanth's Head Smash. Needless to say, the final outcome was fairly predictable.

Despite Roxanne being at a disadvantage against Ground type, she still had some tricks to break through the defenses of Terra's Pokemon. Golem was able to deal with Nidoking without trouble but Sandygast and Quagsire were dangerous roadblocks because of the pseudo-immunity granted to them by the synthetic seeds. To prevent this to happen, Roxanne's best hope was to tell Aurorus to use Mist so she could temporarily replace the Glitch Field with a Misty Terrain and finish Quagsire off with Freeze-Dry. During this fight, timing was pretty important because Roxanne had to anticipate the end of Trick Room and Mist to prevent her Pokemon to be caught for speed by slower opponents. Probopass with Pain Split made some parts of this fight quite interesting too because he had the opportunity to lure some adversaries and encouraged them to use weaker moves as Probopass was actually regaining a large amount of HP the next turn and survive. By the way, this strategy was very appreciable when Roxanne had to disable more defensive PULSE-Pokemon as well as defeating Gargantuan Steelix.

I tend to consider this fight as a single version of the battle against Charlotte. All of Ciel's Pokemon were focused on speed so Carbink could easily trap them with Stealth Rock and Trick Room. Aurorus swept Ciel's team entirely because Roxanne had made her forget Ice Beam and taught her how to use Hyper Voice instead. The thing is, Hyper Voice increases considerably in base power if used inside of the Big Top Arena. Combined with the bonus granted by Refrigerate and the inevitable damage inflicted by Stealth Rock, Ciel could hardly do anything against Roxanne's tactics, which led to the victory of the Rustboro Gym Leader.

As Roxanne's adversaries, in particular Team Meteor, were becoming stronger, the Rock-type Gym Leader had to toughen up too. Until now, her team only consisted in six members: Probopass, Golem, Steelix, Relicanth, Carbink and Aurorus. When she headed back to the city where reconstruction was undertaken by Adrienn, Roxanne had to train more seriously. This even came to the point to revive Pokemon from the fossils she had gathered around the region. After incessant training sessions, Roxanne managed to kick what was left of Team Meteor out of the city, but this wasn't made possible without the cost of Ame's life. She also managed to beat Adrienn in a double battle, using what turned out to be one of her most important new members: Aerodactyl. The Fossil Pokemon fought alongside Golem at the start of the Gym battle. Tailwind combined with double Rock Slide made things more stressful for Adrienn who could hardly escape such an overwhelming strategy. Even Mawile was not safe because of Golem's Earthquake that was boosted with one of Roxanne's gems. Steelix's Gyro Ball was enough to stifle the rest of xyr team and Roxanne earned her 14th badge without too much trouble.

To win this fight, Roxanne opted for the following strategy: fighting Titania with her own weapons. Magical seeds were given to both Golem and Steelix who could both respectively set up with Rock Polish and Curse for one free turn. Doing so was the best answer to give for Tania's Excadrill who ended up setting Sandstorm for some reason. Mega-Scizor could hardly make a dent into Roxanne's defenses and started to feel quickly vulnerable as soon as Steelix began to use Screech. This battle may have been won faster if Steelix knew how to use Earthquake instead of Bulldoze, Roxanne's style was still enough to earn, even for a short amount of time, the respect of the pragmatic redhead.

For this battle, Amy was fought in Doubles. More of Roxanne's fossil Pokemon were used to get the win this time. Armaldo, Rampardos, Cradily and Bastiodon were assisting Aurorus and Probopass. Just like the previous fight, this one required seeds to be given to Roxanne's teammates, so the latter could protect themselves against their natural weakness if pulled underwater. Bastiodon and Cradily opened the show by using respectively Wide Guard to ignore Surf and Seed Bomb to remove Seismitoad from the field. Cradily was bulky and so strong that she was able to deal with Amy's Primarina with only one use of Seed Bomb. Meanwhile, Vaporeon dragged Roxanne's team underwater with Dive and the second half of the battle unfolded into the depths of the arena. When they were sent out, Aurorus and Rampardos had to strike one opponent at a time to beat it. Freeze-Dry and Head Smash were both pretty effective and Probopass made good use of Pain Split in the very end of this fierce fight when he faced Deliverance, Amaria's Lapras.

Honestly, it was delightful to see two rock type specialists fighting each other at the summit of Agate City. Besides Gigalith, the rest of Hardy's team was going to taste its own power. Both Roxanne and Hardy had an Aerodactyl that could mega-evolve, but only one thing differentiated them: Roxanne's was jolly while Hardy's was adamant. The first to land its attack was the one to survive. Even after one of Hardy's Lycanroc took out Roxanne's Aerodactyl with Accelerock, Carbink popped up on the field and used Trick Room, so Roxanne could handle the rest of the battle at ease. Also, among the fossil Pokemon revived by the representative of Rustboro Trainer's School, Roxanne also had an Armaldo who knew how to use Aqua Jet. Combined with Golem's Earthquake, it was the best answer to Hardy's faster Pokemon. Fighting rock with rock made this battle one of Roxanne's best moment in Reborn!

To snatch the victory from Saphira's dragon claws, Roxanne had to put her trust in two key elements of her team: Carbink for twisting the dimensions and Tyrantrum for slaying the dragons. Roxanne's Dragon type Pokemon was holding a Life Orb to maximize the damage done with Dragon Claw and Head Smash, Dragonite's worst nightmare. Stealth Rock cancelled the effect of Focus Sash, so Haxorus and Salamence couldn't survive Tyrantrum's tantrum. Also, thanks to the offensive boost granted by Life Orb and the speed reversal of Trick Room, Dragon Dance was not even needed to sweep Saphira's team entirely. Watching the first Gym Leader of Hoenn defeating the last Gym Leader of Reborn so fast was very surprising. That easily was one of the most thrilling experiences I had on this game so far!

When the moment came for Roxanne to challenge the Elite Four, she decided to take the following Pokemon with her: Probopass, Golem, Cradily, Carbink, Aurorus and Aerodactyl. As soon as Heather's Crobat popped up on the mountain field, Roxanne still had a very accurate idea of how to defeat the little wind maiden: outspeeding her team with Aerodactyl's Tailwind then finishing the second part of the fight with Carbink's Trick Room to always land a hit first. Aurorus was able to handle Mega-Salamence pretty easily with one use of Hyper Voice and Golem was pratically a wrecking ball with Stone Edge. Even if this attack wasn't very accurate, the fact that Carbink had intensified the gravity allowed Golem to never miss his targets. Because of her weaknesses to Ground and Rock attacks, Heather was probably the easiest member of the Elite Four that Roxanne had to fight.

Reaching the second stage of the League, Roxanne was about to prove her worth against Laura and Bennett by fighting them both in the same battle. That being said, the young teacher of Rustboro City was only half-surprised at the annoucement of this last information, firstly because she already had heard from some people in the Pokemon Center located at the entrance of Charous Hall that each member of the Elite Four had to master two different Pokemon types and all of them had to be challenged in a 6V6 battle. Consequently, Laura and Bennett had to fight with three Pokemon each, which wasn't enough to scare Roxanne since she had already been through much more than that. However, the latter quickly noticed that the garden field maintained by Laura's watering system was a great way for the young couple to exploit their Pokemon's full potential. Laura and Bennett's Pokemon were either faster than normal or could tear through Roxanne's teammates in merely two hits. Roxanne had only one way to turn the tide of victory in her favor: doing as much damage as possible in minimum time. And for that, Aerodactyl and Golem were the best answer to Laura and Bennett, mainly because those two knew moves that allowed them to gain speed (Tailwind and Rock Polish). Then, the activation of Weakness Policy granted Golem immense strength in addition to his speed boost. Surprisingly, Carbink didn't even had to interfere in this battle. Of course, without Aerodactyl's Rock Slide to make the enemy flinch, it could have been different!

The blind guardian of Reborn's buried secrets. The particularity of this fight was that it perfectly underlined the drawback of using too many scarfed Pokemon: they become too predictable. Because of that, it wasn't too hard to anticipate Dragonair and Ditto's moves. Carbink was the perfect element of Roxanne's team to start this battle against Elias because not only could it set Trick Room and Stealth Rock before to faint, but it also was able to take down a foe Noivern in one hit thanks to Moonblast. Strong enough to apply the same treatment to Kommo-o, Carbink was probably the most appreciated surprise of this fight. The rest of Elias' team could be faced easily by either switching out when Dragonite was about to land an Earthquake, by telling Golem to use Rock Polish, or simply by abusing of Aurorus' Hyper Voice. Just note that Aurorus was the only Pokemon in Roxanne's team to use Z-moves during the whole league challenge.

Even if Anna had a pretty solid team, unfortunately, none of them could last very long in this fight. Aerodactyl was able to take down A-Ninetales in one hit thanks to Iron Head. Roxanne herself was flabbergasted by the strength of her own Pokemon, especially Golem who was mighty to the point of destroying Mega-Metagross and Nostra with one use of Earthquake. For Anna's fairy Pokemon, even Sylveon, none of them was bulky enough to survive Probopass boosted Flash Cannon. When Anna's last Pokemon was defeated, Roxanne began to realize that despite her low ranking in the Hoenn League and the lack of recognition that Rock-type Pokemon deserved, she had all the features to actually become Reborn's new figurehead!

This battle was not easier than those that have occurred before it, which was pretty ironic since Lin was fought in a fieldless battleground. The problem was, the lack of field was largely compensated with the effects of PULSE2 that were applied on each of "Lin's Pokemon". In the end, all of them turned out to be stolen Pokemon. Except one. To summarize, it was pretty hard to beat Lin's Pokemon in one hit, even Ninetales and Garchomp who are supposed to be doubly weak to Steel and Ice moves. This fight required the Trick Room strategy as well as some healing items. Because hey, Lin used some before Roxanne did, so the latter had no complex to bring herself down to the same level, and even more if it meant ensuring Reborn's safety.

Here it comes! The final battle of Pokemon Reborn! Just so you know, Roxanne didn't have the opportunity to meet child Lin because of her hate against Dr. Geezer and his obsession with ECTs. The fight started with Aerodactyl trying to make Lin's Mismagius flinch but to no avail. One use of Power Gem was enough to terminate one of Roxanne's most precious fossil Pokemon. She avenged her loss by sending out Probopass. Besides Hidden Power Fire, all of Probopass' moves had their use. For example, Lin's Clefable was 2HKO by Probopass' Flash Cannon and Pain Split was Roxanne's secret weapon to minimize the power of Pulse-Arceus. Also, Gravity HAD to be used in order to temporarily turn the New World Field into a Starlight Arena, so Golem could take care of Lin's Celesteela by using Eartquake twice and Stone Edge was sure to land on Honchkrow, whether it was used by Golem or Cradily. By the way, Aurorus' Z-move allowed it to freeze and burst all of Hydreigon's heads in one blow. Even if she didn't shine all the time during some battles, this big girl was and still is a force to be reckon with, and it was mostly made possible thanks to Refrigerate. And then came Arceus... this beast was both the coolest and the most horrifying thing to beat for Roxanne since the start of her career as a Pokemon trainer. But even during this period when she repressed Groudon alone during the Hoenn crisis, the rocky trainer had means to defend herself while protecting the civilians. History was about to repeat itself here. But this required some differences in terms of strategy. As I said, Probopass was Roxanne's best asset to lower the health of Arceus effortlessly, mainly because he had Pain Split and he used it to regain full health turn after turn. Even after Arceus used Moonlight, it was just another opportuinty for Probopass to force Arceus to keep up the fight on an equal footing. Then came the moment when Roxanne revived her fainted Carbink. When arceus was too low in health and "too fast to catch up with Roxanne's mons", Aurorus came out and shut down the fallen god with Hyper Voice. Afterwards, nothing remained of the sacred power of the beast slayed by Roxanne. This term of "beast" could apply both on Pulse-Arceus and Lin herself who literally exploded and shattered into pieces into the depth of the limbs below. Not only Roxanne's challenge was over. After all of that, Reborn was safe again. And everything that was left from this nightmare weaved by Team Meteor had disappeared completely.

Am I to understand that Roxanne ended up in the Lin route because she battled Sigmund at Yureyu? I have very little idea of what the Anna route looks like.