Cassandra

Hey, everyone! So, I just finished episode 5 of Desolation after being intrigued by the Darkrai quest in Reborn's postgame referencing the project a few months ago, and as I usually like to do, I made my first playthrough an Ice monotype. In creating this thread, I would primarily like to reach out to fellow monotypers and ask for their input based on their own runs, given that – spoiler alert – I am not happy with how I handled a lot of the early game; as a secondary goal, I would like to document my own game experience. Now, Desolation seems like a fantastic choice for an Ice monotype at first glance, given that Spheal is a possible starter, which allows you to obtain your monotype starter fully legitimately and get started right away. However, the issue arises when you consider that, unless I overlooked something huge, Spheal is literally the only Ice-type obtainable before freaking Silver Rise, with an intermediate period that notably forces you to 1v6 a certain Fire-type gym leader who likes setting his field on fire; and it's not like Spheal is fast enough to viably go for a sweep to counteract the fact that, even assuming a clean OHKO for every Pokemon of his, field damage has a neutral opponent lose 62.5 % of its HP either way. I am fairly certain that this fight is impossible with just Spheal, and if some madlad actually manages to do it, they have my undying respect. Either way, I went for a bit of a cop-out by using Debug mode (which I had blindly imported from Rejuvenation – luckily, I did not break the game, or at least not to my knowledge) to gift myself a special Ice-type starter in lieu of the normal starter obtained just before Connor (a selection which, of course, does not include any Ice-types), and I chose Amaura, given that Aurorus is one of the Pokemon not yet available as of E5 and might as well be my signature Pokemon at this point. Even then, facing Connor with just these two Pokemon was by no means a trivial matter, and neither was 2v6-ing Aderyn with Sealeo and Amaura, a fight for which I relied greatly on Ancient Power boosts from the latter. The part until Silver Rise is what I would really like to refine in retrospect – as soon as I had a full Ice-type team, I had more room to strategize, which allowed me to rely less on a 10 % boost chance and more on actual planning. Tristan was still a fair challenge thanks in large part to his Mega Lopunny, which, to my great chagrin, carried Drain Punch to heal itself up if I did not manage to take it out in one hit; Emily was also somewhat difficult, owing in large part to me not having any Rapid Spin users to dispatch with her Sticky Web (although I could have done something like train up an Avalugg or another Alolan Sandshrew, though a lack of Ice Stones would not have allowed me to evolve it, if things had gotten really out of hand), which allowed Pokemon like Electivire to outspeed my party and wreak havoc. The last three gym battles were definitely on the easier side by comparison – in fact, I beat all three on my first try –, which reminded me a lot of how I experienced the mid-game of Reborn. In my experience, Ice is a monotype that is kinda tricky in the beginning but will reward you as soon as you get the obligatory avalanche of type choices in a snowy area, giving you a lot of space for team synergy and some pretty good Pokemon that will easily carry the mid-game (the one exception to that being Rejuvenation's Intense difficulty, where mid-game opponents like Crawli and the Zetta/Geara Doubles fight will still make for a considerable challenge) and hold up well even into the late game. So yeah, I would be interested in the experiences of other monotypers, most especially ones who have found themselves in a similar predicament of only having like one or two Pokemon for a while. How did you approach Connor and the early game more generally? I would love to read your responses.

Your experience regarding Water-types is interesting, and it is largely in line with what I can remember and what I expected. Grass-types are weak to a lot (making them easier to counter) and not that common in the game, and Electric-types are a bit more common (especially in conjunction with the Factory Field/Short-Circuit Field, which I remember being a bit of an issue), but they are also often fairly manageable for reasons we have discussed at length earlier in this thread. It is thus not surprising that the game post-Florinia will get a bit easier, especially given the ridiculous number of team options the Water type gives you. Shell Smash is possibly the best boosting move in the game, so something like Omanyte or, of course, the ever-broken Cloyster will trivialize a lot of Singles battles. When in doubt, Sharpedo is probably also a great revenge killer (though I never used it). I know this is very late in the game, but I presume that the powerhouse that is Mega Swampert will also pull a lot of weight. Also, don't worry about using items or using Switch mode – much like Akontistes, I also fight on Set mode and without items, but given the sheer speed with which you blaze through eighteen vastly different monotypes, I believe a bit of leeway in this regard is very much acceptable. So first of all, I think I interacted with that friend you mentioned on Reddit yesterday (in this thread, to be specific), and it was rather enlightening. The idea that Ice is a bit easy is something I have become more and more convinced of the more other monotypes I've tried, to be honest, which I found a bit difficult to acknowledge because I thought it was a fair challenge (probably around the middle of a ranking) but not a huge one, but given struggles I had with other types and how smoothly so much of my PULSE2 run went so far, I feel inclined to view Ice as definitely being one of the easier monotypes (though me being used to the type definitely plays a part in that). To your point about switching team members up from time to time, I consistently ran the same team starting a bit after Shade all the way up until city restoration (and I am continuing into the late game with just one permanent replacement that became possible post-restoration), and on my first postgame run with an Ice-type team, I did not make any modifications to my team up until I got access to Kyurem very much near the end (though my downright moronic decision to ditch Jynx made a few battles harder than they needed to be), so it is definitely possible; changing up team members as necessary is most certainly more strategically salient, though. Your elaboration on the Grass type really makes me feel that its wide array of strategic options is among its greatest strengths; Grassy Terrain is also a very powerful strat allows you to nullify field disadvantages, though I think Grassy Terrain is probably the least broken of the four terrains, if only because the Fire-type boost can be a double-edged sword (especially if the opponent carries Heat Wave). As for Whimsicott, I agree with you that Doubles is the format in which it really shines; I found it super hard to decide on just a few support moves given all that this Pokemon has access to, but I liked running Memento to make it less hopeless in Singles, allowing it to soften up the opponent with a priority move if weakened. Mega Sceptile has always felt like a bit of a joke to me in comparison to Mega Swampert or Mega Blaziken, carrying a near useless ability (wow, it takes 0x rather than 0.25x damage from Electric-type moves! That permits some very niche Doubles shenanigans at best.) and gaining arguably the worst STAB type in the game upon mega evolving, meaning it cannot even make use of its stellar Speed and Special Attack. Its uses above regular Sceptile are definitely extremely niche, but the latter's expansive movepool definitely makes me feel like I discounted it a bit prematurely. And yeah, our appreciation of Jumpluff certainly is a point of agreement – brute-forcing things with Leech Seed, Sleep Powder, and Substitute was my response to a great deal of intense Rejuvenation's insanity.

Very interesting perspective all around! As an overall question, I would be interested to hear about your usual team, given that you mentioned a whole bunch of team options; did you switch out a lot, if I may ask? I have seen people do this (including the aforementioned Xes from Reddit, who did this super elegant Grass monotype employing very specific strategies with just the right team constellation each and every time; none of my monotypes even begin to approach this level of strategic sophistication), but personally, I have found this sort of thing rather tedious, which is why I started restricting myself to training six Pokemon at a time. Your insight into Grass-type team options is extremely valuable, and as someone who did their Grass monotype on Rejuvenation (meaning no Serperior and no Ferrothorn), there were a few I certainly failed to consider. Jumpluff is an absolute beast that is incredibly valuable in the early game in particular, getting an incredible movepool and a good amount of Speed (which the Grass type is a bit strapped for outside of Serperior, Sceptile, and Whimsicott, the latter of which I would also like to hear your view on – personally, I really enjoyed getting those Prankster Tailwinds and Mementos on my recent Fairy monotype). I have never seriously considered Sceptile as a team option, given that, while it is speedy, its stats are rather mediocre. However, I believe you raise a good point as to its versatility courtesy of its expansive movepool, and I just learned that it has Unburden, which is probably the single most broken ability in the game in conjunction with the seeds (would have been very helpful against a certain Flying-type gym leader from Rejuvenation who opens with an Unburden Hawlucha that gets eight turns of free Tailwind thanks to its seed and has a habit of sweeping my Grass-type teams, but I digress). Meganium is a super underrated team choice in my view, being able to provide extremely valuable support. All in all, your experience made me curious to try my own Grass monotype on Reborn; maybe I will do so once I wrap up this PULSE2 Ice project I am doing right now, which is proving a real hassle to document – I was busy for like six hours straight yesterday collecting all the battle clips, putting them together into videos, cropping them as necessary because the game window just ends up in the top left corner of a black screen for whatever reason (even when I go full screen), and then creating a somewhat structured write-up outlining my mid-game experience. I seriously respect people like the aforementioned Xes who do this stuff for all their monotypes.

I mean, I agree with you that the outright boosts of rain (and also other weather conditions) and terrains like Misty Terrain are probably roughly equivalent and somewhat tricky to compare, but what I keep coming back to and what I feel makes terrain effects so crazy is that they override the existing field (with the exception of the Underwater Field and the New World – I am writing this for like the tenth time, so I am going to assume that this caveat is generally understood for the purposes of this discussion and be a bit sloppy in saying that terrain X overrides the field of the battle), creating a new field effect that the enemy is unlikely to gain solid footing on. Rejuvenation has a different system where moves like Misty Terrain do not outright override the existing field effect, instead existing on top of that field with their most basic benefits accessible (I don't quite understand the exact mechanics, to be honest, but what I've gathered is that things like power boosts to moves of a certain type are available, whereas more advanced stuff like seed activation does not work – unless, of course, the existing field already activates the seed in question) – I think the reason they put this mechanic in place is that Grookey with Grassy Surge would otherwise have mown through most of the game, making it an utterly busted starter, and as a result, I would not consider terrains in Rejuvenation to be OP. Users of Swift Swim (or the corresponding abilities like Sand Rush, Slush Rush, or Chlorophyll) are definitely a little bit busted, though their offenses only receive limited boosts (Water-type and Fire-type moves for users of Swift Swim and Chlorophyll, respectively, and none at all for Sand Rush or Slush Rush users) and the generally mediocre stats of a Pokemon like Kingdra limit its sweeping potential. By contrast, if you have a sweeper X that maybe doesn't like the existing field very much, it can (possibly with screen support) easily switch in after a terrain change, set up, and sweep the opposing party – that is what I think makes terrain moves so powerful, and it doesn't have any counterpart in weather strategies of any sort. Not to mention the possibility of further terrain changes that can seriously turn the field against the opponent if the terrain did not already do enough in that direction – Grassy Terrain + Heat Wave (which I think is not a possible combo for monotypes in particular, but the point still stands) will, for instance, turn the field into a Burning Field and make the opponent actively take field damage for a few turns, which, especially for teams weak to Fire, basically means the fight is over unless they happen to be carrying specific moves like Tailwind to terminate it. Either way, I look forward to hearing about your Water-type experience when you're finished! Truth be told, it's been so long since my own Water-type run (almost all of which I did in E18) that I'm not sure I will be able to talk all that much about specifics, but I definitely think the PULSE Tangrowth battles have become trickier in the transition from E18 to E19, going from a single opponent fought thrice to three different installments that actually synergize fairly well with their respective fields; I suppose I was spared from that. Either way, I finally took my last exam for the semester yesterday and am now post-restoration on my PULSE2 run, and it's mostly been smooth sailing, especially compared to the early game, which was actually rather tricky. As expected, the added difficulty from the EV boost eventually diminishes, and the fights against Charlotte, Terra, and Ciel (though I obviously had a type advantage against the latter two, and Ciel in particular is probably the easiest leader overall, so that doesn't tell us that much) have largely mirrored their normal game counterparts in terms of difficulty. Samson is the last leader that was really noticeably more challenging, which I think was largely due to the fact that my team is very weak to Fighting (only Jynx and Alolan Ninetales are not, and both are rather frail on the physical side anyway; by contrast, Aurorus and Alolan Sandslash are both 4x weak to Fighting) and not all that naturally speedy either. In that situation, PULSE2 really made a difference because it did not allow me to pick off Hawlucha with an Ice Shard or oneshot Mienshao with Dazzling Gleam (I was too lazy to breed Moonblast onto Ninetales, and that really came back to bite me because the disparity in base power was actually the difference between a OHKO and a 2HKO after Life Orb damage from a prior move here). Not that it was nearly as bad as some of the early-game stuff, but it definitely took multiple attempts.

The reason I don't feel it is analogous is that no one forces you to play defensively after using Misty Terrain – you can completely turn off the enemy's field boosts for a really long time, which gives you ample time to set up or just spam Pixilate-boosted attacks or field-boosted Moonblast or whatever else comes to mind. Rain doesn't do a thing about offensive pressure of the enemy, with the one exception of Fire-type moves (and as to your final point, a frailer sweeper would probably still get trounced by whatever non-Fire-type moves a Fire-type opponent carries). And while physical Steel-type moves remain an issue not remedied by Misty Terrain (just as rain does not solve the issue of Grass-type moves or Electric-type moves tearing through a team), I would argue that the Fairy type has more than enough counterplay to that. The status condition aspect can definitely obstruct strategy, but that works both ways, so I would not view it as a disadvantage per se. Good luck on your remaining runs! I would really be interested in seeing your final ranking, though I understand that it is challenging to reasonably assess everything in hindsight because later runs will naturally appear easier than earlier ones once you have the routine and experience.

Actually, story time – I devised a seed strategy for Crabrawler that made it pretty much invulnerable to whatever Cradily threw at it, allowing the former to build up consistent pressure with Power-Up Punch. And literally on the next attempt, Cradily died after hitting itself in confusion several times, so I did not even get to implement that plan of mine. I felt kind of cheated, but I also didn't want to do more Recover stalling, so I ultimately just took the badge. If you want to see that fight (as well as some others), you can follow this link. As a rain user myself, I disagree with your argument about it rivaling Misty Terrain – rain is probably the most powerful of the weather conditions (though my experience with sun is admittedly rather limited), but it is miles behind the terrains. I mean, if you're running a Water-type team, you're not likely to have much of an issue with Fire-types anyway, let alone find yourself in a situation where a Fire-type only gets to attack you with their STAB moves that are weakened by the rain and also potentially resisted anyways. Hydration + Rest is a powerful technique that can definitely become the jump-off point for a sweep with something like Curse given the right timing, no doubt about it, but it does have its limitations – first of all, you can definitely get set up on depending on the set you're running, and since the strategy is wholly reliant on weather (except on a few fields like the Water Surface, of course), opposing weather will completely neuter it. That means something like Alolan Ninetales (which you see a fair amount in the late game, presumably in part because of how much the developers like it, even outside of dedicated hail teams) is a hard counter to that strategy. Granted, terrains can also be superseded by other terrains, but a given player is much more likely to run opposing weather (if only because it can handily be summoned by abilities and is accessible to a larger class of Pokemon than terrain moves). And then, there is the issue of timing – like, if you think of a typical Singles battle, you will have to bring out a Drizzle user before going for any Hydration strategies, and even if you switch in your Hydration user right away, that is one turn down. Assuming a 3HKO from your opponent, you will then have to go for Rest right away, and since every use of Rest takes another turn, time will be running out before you know it. Also note that unlike hail with Aurora Veil, or sandstorm with the Special Defense boost to Rock-types, or even sun, which allows Fire-types to take Water-type moves more easily, rain doesn't really provide any obvious defensive utility outside of Rain Dish and Hydration. I see your point that the Fairy type's defensive issues lie much more on the physical side, though I would argue that Intimidate users can remedy the issue and that both Steel and Poison are pretty mediocre types offensively, yielding secondary types to make up for it. Note that Fairy is also one of two monotypes to have the ever-powerful Aurora Veil, which definitely gives a lot of breathing space in that sort of situation. I have also swept like a billion Fairy-heavy teams with Bullet Punch and Iron Head, though, so I definitely see where you are coming from. Lovely! If you'd like, we can also correspond about this project in DMs for now. Also, just as a little side note, I get a sinking feeling that your view of Abomasnow is right on the money; not that I particularly disagreed with it earlier, but I suppose I was a little bit biased because a lot of my experience with Abomasnow came from Radical Red, which is a ROM hack that overhauls the battle mechanics to make virtually every fully evolved Pokemon viable in one niche or another via sweeping changes to stats, movesets, abilities, etc. Abomasnow is actually a super powerful mega in Radical Red because it has its Speed increased and gains Slush Rush as a mega ability, allowing it to set up hail and then swiftly dispatch with a lot of opponents. But Abomasnow is just not at all impressive in Reborn in particular (thanks in part to moveset issues, to be fair; apart from not getting Aurora Veil, it not learning Giga Drain is a huge letdown, given that I did not pick a Grass-type starter and cannot make use of the Rhodochrine move tutor), and it definitely isn't pulling its weight amongst my current team of Alolan Ninetales, Alolan Sandslash, Jynx, Aurorus, Mamoswine, and the aforementioned Abomasnow. I really wanted to try using it, but I think I am gonna replace it with Sneasel or something at some point, or maybe it (rather than Mamoswine, which is what I originally intended and which is actually proving more useful than I anticipated) will lose its spot to Walrein (which I want to use because I really want to try out a Curse set, and also because me barring Cloyster for being too OP is going to have me want a Water-type in its place).

Well, I only got to Radomus since I wrote the message above yesterday (owing largely to technical difficulties, given that I am recording all major battles for the purpose of documentation and am absolutely hopeless with this sort of thing), but so far, the mid-game has been pretty similar to what I am used to (there is definitely an added level of difficulty, but I guess I got so accustomed to it that I don't notice it anymore) – I see what you are saying about the smaller impact of PULSE2 on the early game because of the way stats are calculated (being almost perfectly proportional to level, which, given the game's practice of rounding down fractional values, obviously means EVs and IVs don't do as much for lower-level Pokemon), but I would argue that this is far outweighed by the fact that the player cannot conceivably EV train until after Corey (and scrapping together enough money to get all the power items plus breeding stuff for natures/IVs before Shelly is also a tall order, so realistically, you will be able to do minor EV training before Shelly and implement a fully fledged breeding/training regime sometime between Shelly and Kiki; actually, I always do IV/nature/moveset breeding because I am a perfectionist and like seeing nice perfect numbers on the summary tabs of my Pokemon, so I have no idea what the game would be like without that.), which makes the added bulk the opponent gets all the more tricky to deal with. Like, I struggled so much trying to break through Florinia's Cradily because of its ability to recover off any damage taken; PULSE2-enhanced bulk that can be increased further with Stockpile is nothing to sneeze at when your Pokemon are Delibird, Vanillite, and Crabrawler. I shudder to think what I would have done without my type advantage; like, what could a Water-type team even have done here? I suppose I could have overleveled Seel by a whopping nine levels and used Sheer Cold on that Cradily ... oh yeah, and another consequence of early-game PULSE2 mode is that all your opponents will have fully invested in their Speed, meaning that all but the fastest of your team members will be outsped by Pokemon you never would have expected to do that. Like, I definitely took way longer for almost every single major battle before Shelly than I did for any battle since. Julia was simple enough, but only because Swinub completely walled half her party; leading up to Florinia, PULSE2 Tangrowth was tougher than expected, and so was Victoria; Corey is a freaking nightmare, and Ace before him is also rather tricky; and then, there are two pretty challenging fights and Cal and Shelly to round it all off. I see what you are saying about terrains, but I would argue terrains are a lot more powerful than any kind of weather. As different as the four types of weather are (I am not counting Strong Winds as a weather effect here because it cannot be summoned in battle and is a lot more one-dimensional on all fields except for Mountain and Snowy Mountain), they generally have a handful of effects benefiting select Pokemon with the ability to make use of them – things like chip damage on foes, accuracy or power boosts to some moves, defensive benefits (be it Aurora Veil, the Special Defense boost from sandstorm, or recovery from abilities like Rain Dish), and increased power/Speed for some Pokemon. All these benefits occur on top of the field given, meaning that the opponent (unless they are running a specifically weather-related strategy, and even then, fields like the Water Surface activate abilities like Swift Swim regardless of weather) can generally go about their strategy uninterrupted. Terrains, by contrast, have very similar effects (though they are often more far-reaching, given that terrains are fields of their own and come, for instance, with their own seed effects), but with the added benefit of just overriding any existing field; that would be like any type of weather just automatically turning the field neutral, which would trivialize virtually every battle with the weather teams I have run. Misty Terrain can be destroyed by Acid Downpour (which is not a Z-Move I personally see all that much strategic utility in, though you may disagree – Poison is just not a good offensive type in general, and Steel-types will completely wall you and have you waste your Z-Move if things go badly) and a handful of other Poison-type moves that you rarely encounter (like, who would use Poison Gas for any reason other than destroying a potential Misty Terrain?), but all that does is change the field to Corrosive Mist (which your opponent will likely not be able to take advantage of in any big way unless they come specifically prepared to fight on that field) for the remainder of those five or eight turns. The mist can also be blown away by a move like Tailwind, but then again, all that does is change the field back, and in any case, Misty Terrain can just be brought back again. While I agree that things being too powerful is not a valid reason to exclude them from strategic consideration, I think Electric Terrain/Grassy Terrain/Misty Terrain/Psychic Terrain are kind of a matter of their own because of how completely they alter the game. It's like saying that any battle is easy because you can just spam X items and healing items and sweep the opponent with a single Pokemon – I mean, yeah, that is technically true, but part of what I personally (at the very least) consider to be the Reborn experience is not using items in battle. I get that everyone has different ideas in this regard – some people don't do EV training or IV breeding for their runs, which are strategic dimensions I quite like having access to, for instance –, but terrain moves are such a far-reaching overhaul of the game mechanics (neutralizing the dimension of fields, which is very much fundamental to Reborn, completely for eight turns) that I view them similarly to items in battle. That project sounds really interesting, and actually, I have been getting into monotype teambuilding from more of an NPC perspective recently (as in, what my teams would look like if I were some kind of opponent along the lines of a gym leader fighting on a field of my choice), so I would love to contribute!

Hey! Apologies for my late response, but as I said, I had quite a few exams coming up that kept me busy for a while, so I didn't play a whole lot of Reborn during this time. The one thing I did do is my own Psychic monotype, and though I would not say it was as much of a cakewalk as you described it as, I definitely think it was on the easier side. Male Meowstic was the absolute MVP of my playthrough because guaranteed screens just make so much easier, I definitely see what you were saying about Medicham (Choice Scarf Medicham is freaking insane), and other than that, I was fortunate enough to get a shiny Metagross that I really enjoyed using, and this was my first time using a Z-Lovely Kiss Jynx set, which definitely paid off. One point at which I just laughed is when I beat Saphira by countering her hyperoffense with my own in a very creative way employing Tailwind from Sigilyph; sometimes, the easiest leaders are actually the most fun because you can try out the most outlandish strategies against them. I find it rather interesting that you had such an easy time with Fairy, given that I, as someone with much more of an affinity for Fairy-types, did struggle a bit in the mid-game. But then again, I never made use of Misty Terrain because I found it a bit too broken for my taste (I know I am repeating myself, but I am very much not a fan of Reborn's terrain mechanics; being able to just casually override all but two fields for eight turns and completely neutralize the opponent's strategy is freaking insane), and most of the really OP Fairy-types (like Azumarill, which you mentioned and which was also a huge offensive staple for my party; I assume you got it from a Mystery Egg, which I was unfortunately not lucky enough to do, but Alolan Vulpix is a good option as well, so I am certainly not complaining) are only available post-restoration, which means the oxygen kind of runs out in the mid-game. Both Whimsicott and Mimikyu were also crucial late-game members for me, so I suppose we went for a very similar strategy after all (not to mention the ever-powerful Mega Mawile). I also find your Poison-type experience extremely interesting, given that I am planning to do my own Poison-type run very soon. For now, though, I am doing something a little bit different – another Ice monotype (given that I did most of my last one on E18), but with PULSE2 active, which adds quite a bit of challenge to the early game (and also, I think I am barring Cloyster because it trivializes so many late-game Singles battles in particular). I just beat Aya on that run of mine, and the time before I could EV train myself was definitely trickier than the regular game (interestingly enough, Corey is scary as hell on PULSE2 mode because the added bulk of his party allows him to make use of the residual damage to the fullest, especially if your monotype gives you zero Poison- or Steel-types to work with at this stage of the game; Dewgong's Sheer Cold was a lifesaver here because it allowed me to ignore those defensive buffs), though everything after Shelly has so far been largely smooth sailing.

Well, that Mismagius has the same stats as regular Mismagius, so it isn't super broken, though I certainly see your point about how it could be. It's interesting that you think Tinted Lens (I presume) is a better ability on Sigilyph, to be honest – I like not receiving indirect damage and freely being able to Cosmic Power up, but that might just be a matter of personal preference. Yeah, Speed is a huge issue on Grass monotypes – I actually had Jumpluff as a member for a very long time because it could offer speed in a way few other Grass-types could, which was crucial for dispersing with checks. Serperior is insanely powerful, but it is only available late in Reborn, and Torterra is certainly a whole lot more useful in the early game. Whimsicott was actually an important supporter for my Fairy monotype just now, so I'm not sure I agree with you writing it off, though (it is also available after Samson if my memory doesn't deceive me, and though you aren't able to breed and get the most out of it for another few badges, that is still not that late). I completely agree with your point about the lack of a real final team constellation I was happy with, and I had the same experience in Rejuvenation (Ludicolo is almost mandatory for some of the mid-game fights, but it isn't pulling its weight the vast majority of the time). As for your recounting of your Psychic monotype, I will get back to you as soon as I have finished my own, but your team certainly looks very solid. And yeah, I see your point about the puzzles kind of becoming very time-consuming in comparison to the battles over time, as I have frankly been feeling the same way. I actually like the ice slide puzzles and especially the gem logic puzzles on Victory Road (I actually did them again a couple of times even though I could have just used the shard), but for me, it is stuff like Radomus's gym puzzle (I don't know chess, so that one is a bit tricky for me) that I have to look up all the time. Well then, good luck on your Normal-type run! Normal is another type I don't know much about, so I am curious to see what you have to say in a couple of days.

You misread my comment – I wrote Magic Guard, not Wonder Guard. You know, the ability with the effect of negating indirect damage, such as damage from entry hazards, status conditions, and Life Orb recoil. Yeah, Wonder Guard would be a bit crazy. Also, well, I am still a bit disinclined to agree with putting Grass that low, but when I look back at some of the strategies I pursued against the Ice-type leader in Rejuvenation, for example (I literally just soft-reset until I got super lucky with sleep turns – largely because most of my team would just be one-shotted by field-boosted fully accurate Blizzards under hail), I get the sinking feeling your evaluation may be fair. Your points about Psychic as a monotype are really interesting – Trick Room is another one of these strategies I find a little bit cheap, but it definitely is a huge point in the monotype's favor. I think I'm gonna do Psychic next as well because there are a few interesting team options I have in mind ... In that case, props to you for your persistence! Are you actually gonna do the postgame on all eighteen monotypes? I would really be interested in what you have to say on that afterwards. I do eventually intend to do all eighteen monotypes as well, though there are a few I don't really have a drive to try out myself, so we'll see if I get the motivation to do all of them. However, I don't think I will do the postgame on all eighteen – there are five story paths in Anna Smiles, Lin R-Determination, Lin R-Regular, Lin Z-Regular, and Lin Z-Hell, so it seems opportune to tie them to different monotypes. I did Lin R-Determination on the Ice monotype, I am currently in the process of finishing Anna Smiles on my Fairy monotype, I will do one of the remaining paths once I do a Steel monotype, and well, the other two will be assigned to two other monotypes I really end up enjoying. The postgame is, after all, very extensive. Either way, I would also be curious what you think after going into the postgame blind with a regular, non-monotype team; but that is probably quite a few weeks into the future.

I see what you're saying, but this wasn't really the case in Insurgence – most of these so-called Delta Pokemon (which are, again, different versions of their normal counterparts) had the same stats as their regular forms but different types, abilities, and movepools, which allowed for new strategies without necessarily making them OP or anything like that. A favorite of mine is an Ice/Fairy version of Mismagius that has Magic Guard and is therefore just kind of begging to be given a Life Orb. Some of the new megas are a bit busted (Mega Froslass is kind of crazy, for example), but I would argue that some of the regular megas are also sort of like that (Mega Salamence, for example). Fakemons can certainly lead the game to be somewhat unbalanced, but they don't have to. Rejuvenation has its fair share of regional forms of known Pokemon, one of which you will encounter if you go through the postgame in Reborn (actually, there is, I think, a way to get it earlier using a password, which you might have appreciated because it might have helped with your Grass-type run – it was certainly very useful in mine), and they can certainly provide good and interesting options for monotypes. I kind of like them, I suppose, but this is mainly a matter of personal taste, I would say. As for your experience with monotype Grass, I was surprised to hear you had as rough a time as you did, largely because I had myself forgotten how much I struggled with that monotype. In fact, I wrote the following on Reddit back then, which was not exactly how I had the run in mind but, now that I look back at it, fits well with your description: If you're interested, this was my full description of how I handled most of V13 of Rejuvenation (the part I had completed at that point) with a Grass-type team. And if I look back at some of the strategies I used to get past a few key obstacles (mainly the Ice- and Flying-type leaders), I am inclined to very much agree that Grass is an extremely challenging monotype. Your Psychic monotype experience is extremely interesting as well! Actually, I haven't been starting any new monotypes these past few days, and I have instead been going through the postgame with my Fairy monotype (I did Lin R-Determination with my Ice monotype, and I wanted to also experience the Anna Smiles route in particular, so I chose to actually do the postgame as well on Fairy, which is another monotype I really enjoyed). Still, when I do embark on a new monotype, I was thinking of doing either Dark or Psychic, and I am still not sure which one to pick. So yeah, maybe I can add to your account in a couple of days. Lastly, let me just say that I think it's impressive how fast you are with these monotypes! Maybe I am just slow because I never skip dialogue even when I know exactly what they are going to say next, but you are definitely a lot faster than me.

Hey! Apologies for my late response – the reason I did not respond any earlier is that I did not feel like I had anything to really add. Your point is certainly fair – part of the reason I like the field effects is that they add quite a bit of strategy, ensuring that battles are not quite as repetitive as they otherwise would be (the only fangame outside of Reborn/Rejuvenation that I have played is Insurgence, where I really noticed that battles were a lot less interesting. The many additions like new versions of Pokemon and new megas still made building teams enjoyable, but it is definitely not a game I would play through many times over with all sorts of different monotypes.). But obviously, once you have established the core of your team, you may do some tweaks around the edges, but there is definitely a lot of recipe-like action inherent to it. I guess my dislike for Reborn's terrain mechanics stems from the fact that they completely remove the strategic dimension of fields for eight turns, which is why I don't like using them and did not use them in the Fairy monotype I just completed; however, I see your point, and I think I somewhat agree with you. Speaking of which, I just completed my Fairy monotype, so I would like to expound on my previous statements. Overall, the run went roughly as I thought it would, with the mid-game being unexpectedly rough but the rest certainly being manageable. The late game is fairly friendly towards Fairy-types, and the availability of the beast that is Mega Mawile certainly is part of the reason why. Now, I was really stupid and missed the ability to get the Mega-Z Ring before Titania (apparently, you have to speak to Arclight before the Devon incident?), and because I lacked Mega Mawile, the battle was quite a bit rougher than it probably would have been otherwise. Titania was still easier than on my Dragon monotype, but considerably harder than she was on my Ice monotype, so I guess, in the grand scheme of things, the type disadvantage made the gym battle tricky but not impossible (I think Titania is really one of the hardest leaders period, and this has been my experience over all my runs; you can try sweeping her, but good luck with that, given that half her team has seeds that just protect them from damage for a turn, and in that timespan, the brutal field-boosted attacks should speak for themselves.). So yeah, here's my advice for your Fairy-type run: Should you want to use Mawile on your team, make sure you get the ability to mega evolve right after returning to the city; it will make Titania about a thousand times easier. Because here is my big takeaway from this Fairy monotype: Mega Mawile, particularly if backed by Aurora Veil, is a freaking beast that can easily 1v6 a whole lot of teams, which I only really came to understand after this playthrough. Alolan Ninetales (which I ran maximum Special Attack with Nasty Plot on, rather than, as I am used to, maximum HP) and Mega Mawile are one hell of a combination, particularly in Doubles, and they were certainly my offensive core this time (along with arguably Primarina, which I eventually replaced with Azumarill). The rest of the team was mainly there to tie up the loose ends – revenge-killing, Destiny Bond, and support not already provided by Ninetales. Either way – Fairy is definitely one of the easier monotypes overall, and part of the reason is that it is one of only two monotypes to have Aurora Veil as a viable option (given that Alolan Ninetales has access to Snow Warning and Aurora Veil combined; since Reborn uses Gen VII mechanics, that combination is actually unique. In Generation VIII, it is joined by Abomasnow and Aurorus, which adds Grass and Rock to the pool, but honestly, I know from running monotype Grass in Rejuvenation that Abomasnow is far from the reliable Aurora Veil setter that the blistering Ninetales is.), which benefits a myriad of slower Fairy-types with great offensive prowess, from Mawile to Azumarill to Clefable. It gives you a fair share of useful fully evolved Pokemon early on that can really make a difference and ensure the match-ups against Corey and, to a lesser extent, Aya are a lot less daunting than they appear at first glance. Unfortunately, the oxygen sort of runs out eventually, and with a lack of really good new options in the mid-game and declining viability of the aforementioned early partners, the period from Radomus to Ciel is probably the hardest part of the game even with a Ninetales to guarantee Aurora Veil protection. You get a lot more breathing space (to extend this metaphor) after returning to the city, with options such as Clefable, Gardevoir, Mega Mawile, and Mega Altaria; Titania is absolutely painful, but if you do make it past her, you are largely in for a smooth ride with some sporadic complications. Oh yeah, and the Fern battle on Victory Road is the worst thing ever – seriously, I was stuck there for way longer than I was against any of the Elite Four or the Champion. So, that was basically my analysis, which I thought I would write now that I have things fresh in mind. I would have loved to do something similar for my Ice monotype, for instance, but since I started that one on E18 and only finished it on E19, I would not only have missed the minor battle-related changes, but also have lacked the precise memory because most of it has been some time ago. Still, I would really like to analyze future monotypes of mine in this fashion as well.

Fair point! I feel like walls need some way of boosting their typically somewhat lackluster offenses, though, or they could themselves be set-up fodder, particularly if weakened. Luna's Umbreon has never been that scary for me (I struggled more against Luna than I ever have not even a day ago, but her Umbreon was the least of my problems – Defiant Bisharp, speed demon Weavile, and Tyranitar were a lot more threatening.); it is shut down hard by any Poison- or Steel-type, absent of that, weather will drastically diminish its healing powers, and absent of even that, Moonlight's 5 PP will run out before long. I actually set up on her Umbreon after she sent it out with my Alolan Ninetales and proceeded to sweep the rest of her party, turning the match around after being severely down courtesy of Bisharp and Weavile, who had just ravaged through a lot of my team – case in point, I guess. As for Excadrill, since Sand Stream only works upon switch-in, you just have to override it later – in the case of Hardy, for instance, Gigalith might have set the weather out of the gates because it is so slow, but I just switched in my second hail user on my Ice monotype, which took care of that angle. Or, alternatively, I could have just had someone use the move Hail. Excadrill is the biggest threat in fields that make sure Sand Rush is activated automatically regardless of weather, like the Ashen Beach and the Desert Field; this is actually where the Ground-type leader of Rejuvenation is fought, and that was a very tricky one for my Fairy monotype. The same is true for Alolan Sandslash or Ludicolo, though the fact that both of their fields can be changed so as to make them lose their benefits makes them just a bit less threatening in my book. Mawile, unfortunately, is just held back by atrocious stats, though I am willing to grant that its typing and movepool might make it more useful than I give it credit for. I really wanna use Mega Mawile later on because I like Mawile a lot, but I don't think it is that viable just yet. Also, I am completely with you that Shiinotic is very useful on the margins, and Spore is wonderful to have; it is not a strategy that works in most cases, however, and the many weaknesses provided by the Grass typing on top of compounding the Poison-type weakness makes me doubt that it will retain a permanent spot on my team in the long-term. I think Prankster Whimsicott will be able to provide much more for my team, honestly (in fact, that thing has such a vast movepool that it will be hard for me to decide on just four moves; priority Memento or Endeavor to punish switch-ins against a weakened Whimsicott and gain momentum will definitely be very useful, for example, as will Tailwind or Leech Seed). Oh yeah, and trust me, I know exactly what you are saying as a Grass monotyper myself (albeit one who did intense Rejuvenation). Grass is a pretty crazy monotype, although I think Grassy Terrain remedies that issue towards the late game of Reborn in particular. If I may give you some advice – don't sleep on Leavanny (Sticky Web, for example, is great because a lot of offensive Grass-types are not that speedy by themselves) and Jumpluff. The latter in particular carried me through so much with its speed and movepool and Sleep Powder and everything – I would not have beaten Angie in a million years without it. Angie is not the actual Ice-type gym leader in Rejuvenation, but she does use an Ice monotype team, and defeating her is necessary to earn the Ice-type badge, so for all intents and purposes from a battling point of view, she is the Ice-type leader, and she is fought in Doubles on the Frozen Dimensional Field. The Dimensional Fields are a class of fields in Rejuvenation typically associated with a central antagonist of the story, and as the name suggests, the Frozen Dimensional Field is, well, frozen. Among other things, it doubles hail damage, boosts Ice-type moves, and the Elemental Seed doubles speed. I beat her pretty handily in my Ice monotype because I could just exploit the field for myself, but I got a really nasty surprise in my Grass monotype. That battle was the freaking worst because the field-boosted Blizzards commonly knocked both of my Pokemon out (and her Ninetales had the Elemental Seed, so it could literally outspeed everything I had), and some of her more offensive members like Mamoswine (which also had a lovely seed) and Beartic (Slush Rush abuser par excellence) could literally one-shot everything I had. At least in Rejuvenation, Grass gives you far too little team diversity to cover the nasty weaknesses to Ice, Fire, and especially Flying, which makes the corresponding gym battles absolutely insane (well, Fire wasn't that bad because Rejuvenation's Fire-type leader is very easy to outflank by terminating her field, which there are many ways to do, yielding Sky Field, Snowy Mountain, Cave – hell, if you're creative, you can even get the battle on a Water Surface or an Underwater Field. Flying was similarly insane to Ice, though.). Oh yeah, and I think you misunderstood my point slightly – I was not talking about whether to take fields in general into account, but specifically terrains, and I suppose the terminology could be confusing because a lot of people (myself included) sometimes use the terms interchangeably. In the specific case of my last comment (and for the rest of this comment), however, the term terrain refers to four specific fields – Grassy Terrain, Electric Terrain, Misty Terrain, and Psychic Terrain – that, in Reborn, can be summoned via the moves of the same names or via Grassy/Electric/Misty/Psychic Surge for up to eight turns (with an Amplified Rock). Crucially, these terrains override any existing field except for the New World, which essentially counters almost any opponent's whole strategy by moving the game onto your turf completely. Look at how I defeated Aya at first, for example – should the possibility of pulling that kind of strategy be considered for the purposes of this ranking? As I said before, I am of two minds on that issue.

Hey, no problem! Take your time. Anyway, I agree that revenge killers and sweepers reaping field benefits can be extremely threatening, but I am not exactly convinced a defensive playstyle is the most effective way to counter that. My judgement may be clouded by my current Fairy-type run (more on that later – I have some experiences to share), which has a lot of decent defensive options but few offensive ones, but from my experience, walls (particularly ones that have been weakened and assuming the battle is fought in Set mode – I guess this was never spelled out in the thread, but personally, I just always have Set mode on by default, which is one of many habits I picked up from intense Rejuvenation) can actually leave you a lot more vulnerable and serve as set-up fodder for scary sweepers. The alternative for me is to come prepared and/or try getting rid of the advantage as early as possible – if Terra's Excadrill doesn't get to use Sandstorm, it cannot ravage with Sand Rush either, and if you use Blizzard even once against Amaria, Ludicolo's terrain advantage is moot. I guess Titania's Alolan Sandslash is a necessary evil (it obviously wasn't a huge hurdle in my Ice monotype – in fact, I loved that she fought on a weather she got zero benefits out of except Aurora Veil (and actively took damage from, in fact), and being able to set up with my own Sandslash and knock two of her team members out of the ballpark right away gave me an edge that I desperately needed later on. That is not to say Mega Scizor in particular wasn't brutal, but it did make the battle much less of an active nightmare than it was on my Dragon monotype or than I suspect it is going to be on my Fairy monotype, where I dread facing her not just because of that Sandslash.) unless you carry your own weather, though. Also, I think the alternative to relying on walls isn't to use complete glass cannons, given that a lot of offensive Pokemon can offer decent defensive capacity as well (I like to come back to Mega Altaria from my Dragon run, which, apart from Dragon Dance, also had sizable bulk even without investment. In terms of Ice-types, I am mainly reminded of Cloyster, who can tank even super-effective physical moves from unboosted opponents decently well, and Aurorus, whose special bulk is not to be underestimated.). Walls can be helpful, but in my view, they also have to pose some kind of offensive threat unless you want to risk having the next opponent set up on you. As for Freeze-Dry (and apparently, the correct spelling is hyphenated – at least, that is what Bulbapedia says), I see what you are saying – I preferred just changing the field to Icy Field, and given that Water-oriented teams are not exactly known for packing a lot of Heat Waves, it usually stayed that way. On that basis, someone like Cloyster or Sandslash could, depending on the exact opponent, often just take them out by sheer field and stats boosts. I agree that Water-types can be an issue (though it is not something I encountered in Reborn), and that is also one reason I have an affinity for Aevian Ampharos, which is a new Ice/Electric-type from Rejuvenation (basically, a bunch of existing Pokemon got alternate forms similar to the Alolan or Galarian ones; once you play the postgame, you will encounter a character from Rejuvenation and actually get an Aevian Misdreavus from her) with two extremely useful abilities in Filter and Cotton Down; personally, I usually preferred the latter, given that it penalized revenge killers remarkably well and was super useful against the most insanely speedy bosses. And just as a quick note, that tier list isn't actually mine – I just saw it on the subreddit and thought it was interesting to share based on what we already discussed in this thread. As for my Fairy monotype, I am currently right in the mid-game (I just beat Luna, in fact, who was surprisingly a huge roadblock in spite of my type advantage), and it is quite a bit harder than I anticipated. Not thanks to any inherent features of the Fairy type, mind you, but mainly because of some specific issues regarding how the monotype is set up in Reborn. You get a lot of early-game options, including a good starter in Popplio and a good Mystery Egg between Alolan Vulpix (which I guess you could also pick to be your starter, but I already did that for Ice, so I went with Popplio instead; I am very glad I got it as a Mystery Egg in hindsight, though), Azurill, Cottonee, and Togepi, which makes the early gym battles (including Corey, by the way) quite manageable; however, the number of new Pokemon just flattens out over time, and most of your options are just not particularly viable mid-game options. Right now, my team is mostly carried by Alolan Ninetales (who is both an indispensable supporter courtesy of Aurora Veil and my primary offensive threat – and look, I love Alolan Ninetales and all, but it is certainly not meant to be a sweeper just because Nasty Plot makes it mildly threatening) and, to a lesser extent, Ribombee and Primarina; the rest is pretty much deadweight. Look, I like annoying physical attackers with Strength Sap Shiinotic and all, but that seems like more of a meme strategy that doesn't work in the vast majority of cases by now, and I really just have Clefable and Whimsicott to patch up my team in the immediate future, both of whom will not be that useful without a breeding apparatus and with essentially random natures. The really good options are mostly saved for the late game – Mega Altaria is available immediately after the city restoration (I think? I heard that the Mega Z-Ring is available earlier in E19, but I still waited until after Titania to get it in every playthrough so far), and so is Gardevoir (though I doubt that one will make a significant difference; I think I just want one for my team because I love Gardevoir's shiny sprite), so that is something, I guess, but Mega Mawile (which is crucial against the Steel-type matchup) is only available in Teknite Ridge (at least before Titania if the Mega Z-Ring can indeed be obtained that early), and Azumarill (which I can see being brutal in conjunction with Aurora Veil) can actually be obtained only after Hardy. Fairy has a good early game but becomes quite tricky in the mid-game; the late game, I assume, gradually gets better again as you get some of the options withheld from you for such a long time. I used to think Fairy was a pretty easy monotype based on my Rejuvenation experience, and I still maintain that Fairy is most certainly up there with Steel as one of the best types in battle, but a Fairy monotype in Reborn is definitely harder than I thought (as much as it pains me to admit that); you ranking it seventh is probably fair (I might have ranked it fourth or fifth before – just out of the blue, given that I didn't do most monotypes, and would drop it a bit after what I experienced). Still, I did give myself a bit of a handicap in that I did not use Misty Terrain – I first tried it out against Aya, beat her on my first try without any real strategy to speak of (I wrote down some of my more detailed thoughts on that here), and decided after some deliberation that it made Reborn far too uninteresting because the terrain mechanics are just so broken and can completely obliterate an opponent's strategy, though Misty Terrain is certainly more useful against more specially oriented opponents like Aya than against someone like Luna, who would take more damage from Moonblast but not suffer that many negative effects otherwise. If you allow Misty Terrain, which I've heard is also probably the most broken of the four terrains, I definitely think Fairy is easier than how I feel about it right now. This, of course, begs the question of whether or not terrain strategies should be factored into the ranking, and I am honestly of two minds about the topic. On the one hand, I feel weaker types like Grass or Electric gain a lot strategically from them, and since the game considers these strategies to be perfectly valid, that additional restriction seems a bit far-fetched; but on the other hand, just using the same exact strategy time and time again to just get rid of an opponent's field for eight turns seems so contrary to how I think of playing Reborn (which includes adapting and creating your own strategy based on a field effect) that I can't help but find it super cheap. It's a bit like saying that a team consisting of Cloyster (just as a stand-in for any decent sweeper) and all Destiny Bond users otherwise could completely sweep most of the game – like, yeah, probably, given that Cloyster can almost certainly get rid of at least one party member, and the others can handle the rest; however, it doesn't feel like a strategy you get anything out of.

Your approach to teambuilding is really interesting because it is quite different from mine – particularly in Reborn/Rejuvenation, where you often get pretty crazy field-boosted attacks thrown your way, I don't particularly place a lot of value in defensive qualities alone, given that it is very difficult to wall a lot of opponents even if you have your corresponding wall ready to go. I usually try to build my team around an offensive core of 2–3 Pokemon, only to then fill the rest of my party in accordance with what they can offer specifically to that group. The final party of my Bug monotype in Rejuvenation (which I did just before delving into E19 of Reborn), for instance, was largely built around Frosmoth/Volcarona/Ledian, and, for instance, I found Araquanid useful because it could set up Sticky Web (benefitting Ledian and pre-Quiver Dance Frosmoth, who are both at a mediocre speed tier, in particular) and shut down Fire-types, Scizor could complement the somewhat lackluster defense of the remaining party and deal with Flying-types in particular, and Yanmega could revenge-kill threats unaffected by Sticky Web when things got rough (thank god Stealth Rock isn't that common in Reborn/Rejuvenation). This is how I create most of my teams, to be honest. In light of that approach, Jynx may not neatly fit into the category of a sweeper (too slow and not that powerful either) or a support Pokemon (too frail), but it definitely offers quite a bit in terms of team composition and is quite versatile, which rarely makes it dead weight. As for Abomasnow, I assume you meant Freeze-Dry, right? Yeah, definitely – though, to be honest, I usually find it too bothersome to add Freeze-Dry to my party movesets because it isn't a very powerful move and is only useful specifically for countering Water-types. Thing is, designated Water-type trainers are already eminently beatable with an Ice-type team because one use of Blizzard (or Dive + Blizzard for the Underwater Field) will move things onto your turf, so I found that Water-heavy teams never posed much of an issue to me. As for your Dark-type case, seems fair enough! And your explanation as to why Electric is so difficult definitely seems plausible – what Mega Scizor is to Ice, (Mega) Garchomp is to Electric. Add to that that most Electric-types have a pretty narrow moveset, and you are pretty much screwed unless you happen to go for very specific team options like Rotom-F. I am currently using a Dedenne on my Fairy monotype (the one I started in E19 of Reborn), and getting completely walled by any decent Ground-type is absolutely just incredibly frustrating. Given that Earthquake is also probably the single most common coverage move for a whole lot of physically oriented non-Ground-types ... yeah, my naive estimation may have underestimated just what a massive liability that Ground-type weakness is. At least, say, Fire-types can often learn Grass-type moves to compensate for this weakness, whereas Electric-types may not have a ton of options outside of Hidden Power Ice/Grass/Water. Lastly, your case for leaving out the postgame in terms of both practicality and fairness is one I fully agree with – I only added postgame discussion insofar as it pertained to the tier list, which explicitly incorporated it.

Alright, so, I am going to start with some minor points and gradually move on to more central ones, culminating in another discussion of monotype difficulty that has given me a lot to think about (and hopefully, it will do the same for you). So, Jynx was actually a permanent member of my Ice-type team for a very long time, and though I ditched it just before the League, I think that was an unwise choice on my part. Weavile, which I replaced it with, is nice and all, but it didn't have the strategic synergy with the rest of my team that Jynx had. Jynx is really held back by its lackluster Speed (if it had a base stat of, say, 115 instead of 95, it would be a lot better), but heavy investment and a Timid nature do help remedy the issue somewhat, and Jynx is a great choice in Doubles in particular because of its access to Lovely Kiss. A Double Battle strategy I sometimes ran during the mid-game was to lead with Aurora Veil, put one side to sleep with Lovely Kiss, bring out a sweeper, and then go for a sort of dual sweep with Nasty Plot Jynx on one side and another Pokemon on the other, the idea being that Jynx should at least be able to outspeed and put to sleep (if not take out) one side and its partner could handle the other. A variation of this strategy allowed me to beat Hardy on my first try, for example (Alolan Sandslash did most of the early work – taking out Mega Aerodactyl, among other things – and the beast that is Curse Avalugg against an entirely physically-based team cleaned up the rest. Jynx was crucial in setting things up here.). And if I had kept Jynx for longer, it would have made Laura and Bennett (which was actually the hardest of the six Elite Four/Champion battles for my Ice monotype) a lot less daunting, and that's not even talking about some of the psychotic post-game Double Battles (the Darkrai quest in tier 5 comes to mind ...) that Jynx would have made a lot easier. So yeah, I think Jynx is a lot better than you give it credit for, being able to spread status whilst also potentially becoming an offensive threat with Nasty Plot. Its bulk is indeed pitiful, but Aurora Veil can remedy that issue a bit. I agree that Abomasnow is a very niche pick – one weakness of the Ice-type that I am fully willing to grant is that it has far too few megas to choose from. Mega Abomasnow is very slow, has a ton of weaknesses, and because Reborn uses Gen VII movesets, its movepool is also a lot worse than in Rejuvenation (where I did actually put it to good use – both as a permanent Ice-type pick and as a niche pick for specific battles on my Grass monotype); among other things, I think it doesn't even get Aurora Veil. Its mega ability is also very disappointing, given that its Mega Stone prevents it from holding an Icy Rock (meaning its use as a hail setter if you are inclined to build a team around hail diminishes, and you will probably need a second weather setter). Abomasnow is good at countering Water-types, but that is essentially it. Mega Glalie is decent enough, has a fair Speed tier with Jolly nature, and does have good offensive presence (wreaking havoc with a field-boosted Refrigerate Return against Elias was super satisfying, for example), but it doesn't even remotely hold a candle to the megas other types offer (like Salamence for the aforementioned Dragon type, for example). Once it becomes available in Rejuvenation, I think I will go for Lapras as my mega pick (Rejuvenation turns all G-Max forms into megas), which actually has excellent stats that make a Dragon Dance set viable (which I am super excited to try out) and a good movepool (though unfortunately a pretty useless ability for hail teams). As for your changes to the ranking, I think they are fair – I wanted to ask (without necessarily suggesting a change – I am too inexperienced for that) why Dark is so high, given that I also don't see that much overarching strategy for that type (the synergy with a lot of fields is definitely a major point in favor of it, though). I am going to trust you on Fire and Fighting, given that they are probably the last monotypes I am going to try because I just don't care that much for either type, but Ground and Water both have clear defensive and offensive qualities, a plethora of options, and obvious weather plays that probably make them some of the easiest monotypes. Something similar goes for Flying (which a previous commenter has already spoken about), Fairy, and Steel, and your reasons for bumping Steel down a bit are definitely understandable (I heard that some fights – like the Lumi/Eve fight on the Inverse Field – are insane with a Steel monotype. I did my Steel monotype in Rejuvenation, which actually has a gym battle on the Inverse Field against the Rock-type leader that was obviously really hard because Steel just suddenly became the worst type by a mile with a whopping ten weaknesses, and the seed applying Normalize to the user and turning it into a super-effective titan against me was the bane of my existence, so it could be worse, I guess.). Obviously, since that is what I have been arguing for, I also agree with you putting Ice higher and Dragon lower. I really appreciate your willingness to discuss the rankings and alter your list accordingly, by the way. What I really wanted to get into, though, is something that transpired on the Reborn subreddit (where I am more active than on this forum) today – someone posted a tier list of monotype runs that is very different from what we (as in, the collective of commenters in this thread) came up with, and it inspired a lot of rather intense discussion. OP made five different tiers – basically the same, slightly harder, moderately harder, much harder, and almost impossible compared to a normal playthrough. I would like to make some comments about this – just to add a bit of confusion, though, the almost impossible tier is at the top, and so, for the purposes of commenting on that tier list, higher means harder, and lower means easier (which is, of course, the opposite of the rankings in this thread). Ice is in the much harder tier, which I actually initially thought was fair – based on the main game, I would rank it as being moderately or even just slightly harder (in other words, one or two tiers lower than where OP put it), but one crucial difference between this thread and the tier list linked is that the tier list takes both the main game and the postgame into account, and because Ice gives you very few new team options throughout the postgame (there are no Ice-type UBs, and Kyurem is a beast, but it can only be acquired in Tier 6 – in other words, almost at the end), I thought it was fair to put it a bit higher in terms of difficulty. Some commenters have convinced me that it should be lower, however, echoing my observation that the main game is pretty favorable towards Ice-types. One of them even argued that Ice should be ranked basically the same, but I don't think I would go that far – that would put it on par with Steel, Water, and Fairy, which I think are certainly quite a bit easier and which have a lot more post-game options going for them. It is interesting how much views of Ice as a monotype diverge, though – one commenter also mentioned being stuck with their Ice-type run. I think moderately harder would be more fitting, and I would be open to slightly harder (note that more than half of all types are in the bottom two tiers – in other words, ranking Ice slightly harder would put it in the middle in terms of difficulty). Dragon is in the slightly harder tier, and I think we can both agree that it should not be anywhere near that (at least from what we have experienced). What looks to me like a decent postgame would probably keep it below the almost impossible tier, though. Electric is in the slightly harder tier as well, which is in stark contrast to you ranking it dead last. I am not as hopeless with Electric-types as I am with, say, Fire- or Fighting-types, but I have no monotype experience with them either, so I will not weigh in one way or another. Still, as a lackey, it seemed counterintuitive to me that a monotype with just one weakness (albeit arguably the most common attacking type) and the absolutely broken Electric Terrain would be that bad. Could you elaborate on that a bit? Grass is in the almost impossible tier, which, especially considering the postgame and Grassy Terrain, I certainly disagree with. Grass is definitely on the harder side, but not among the two most challenging; I think ranking it fourteenth as you did it is more accurate. Psychic is deemed basically the same in the tier list, which, while I have no experience in this area, I could imagine being a perspective with some merit. Psychic comes with Psychic Terrain, which overrides all existing fields except the New World (this is my billionth time saying that I think Reborn's terrain mechanics are broken, I guess), and it also gives you Light Screen/Reflect very early on, a lot of decent fully evolved choices that can ravage through the mid-game, and a plethora of choices that allows for diverse strategies. I can personally attest from non-monotype experience that Magic Guard Sigilyph is an absolute beast if it is able to set up Cosmic Powers (which, with Light Screen and Reflect, is certainly realistic), for example. I was certainly moved by some of the tier list, as well as the comments that ensued; definitely feel free to check it out. It is actually really interesting that two discussions of monotype difficulty conducted independently from one another could yield such different results. Note, however, that two independent rankings both had Rock near the bottom and Fairy, Fighting, Flying, Ground, Steel, and Water near the top, which suggests that these perspectives have a lot of merit.

Yeah, I somewhat agree – I do feel that intense Rejuvenation is a step above Reborn in terms of difficulty, and I probably would have suffered a lot more without Frosmoth because it just provides so much support and offensive prowess in one. Your point about dual coverage is perfectly valid (though most of the options are, I would argue, pretty viable – Delibird may not be, and I am sort of agnostic on Rotom-F and Crabominable, but Alolan Sandslash, Jynx, Alolan Ninetales, Mamoswine, Cloyster/Walrein/Lapras, Froslass, Aurorus, Abomasnow, and Weavile are all members I have found extremely helpful on at least one run), but I also think they do a good enough job covering the Ice type's weaknesses, with the unfortunate exception of Mega Scizor (I have zero experience with Galarian Darmanitan because Rejuvenation also doesn't yet have it, but it might be of use in that regard). Particularly with options like Cloyster, which, when endowed with Rock Blast, has an offensive combination only resisted by a handful of Water-types, I don't feel like extensive STAB type coverage is crucially important. As for openings, my most common opener in this past run was actually probably Aurorus, which was much more effective than it had any right to be; unlike Ninetales, which is pretty passive (at least if you, like me, opt for a bulkier spread so it can play support more effectively), Aurorus has a good offensive presence and hazard access, though it also comes with two 4x weaknesses that can be a nasty surprise. Regardless of what happened, though, eight free turns of hail were always a very helpful start. Aurora Veil is definitely something I was somewhat over-reliant on, and fields such as the New World that did not let me set it up were not exactly my favorites. I usually tried setting up Aurora Veil just before going for a sweep, and at that point, I did not really care what happened to Ninetales. Cloyster especially is far less vulnerable to priority attacks with Aurora Veil up, which was crucial for the post-game. Opposing weather can definitely be annoying (as it can be on any weather-based team), which I guess I was not that bothered by because I had two hail users, meaning my weather would usually prevail in these situations (I personally never struggled with Cloud Nine, though, because it is such a rare ability). As for Dragon-types, Mold Breaker Haxorus is, of course, a way of circumventing Sturdy that I didn't think of – still, it doesn't help against Focus Sashes. And while Dragon-types are often comparatively resilient, the lack of viable support (such as the aforementioned Aurora Veil) means that bulk cannot really be put to good use when faced with often insane field-boosted attacks. I intentionally did not make any exact comments on the ranking – between Reborn and intense Rejuvenation, I have first-hand experience with seven of eighteen types, which would make a ranking consist of mostly conjecture on my part. For reference, I have done Ice, Dragon, Water, Steel, Fairy, Grass, and Bug; my opinions are as follows: Water, Steel and Fairy should probably be somewhere on the high end, and as a quick sidenote, I would also put Fairy higher still, especially with the broken terrain mechanics of Reborn. I would have both Ice and Bug somewhere around the middle (Ice is probably the most fun monotype in my view, but it is obviously more challenging than Water or Steel), and I would be open to putting Grass in that ballpark as well (I did monotype Grass in Rejuvenation, which doesn't have the terrain mechanics of Reborn that allow Grassy Terrain to just override any existing field). Dragon is probably well-placed.

The appreciation is mutual – and as a further admission of bias, while I may be a fellow Steel-type enthusiast (my favorite type is either Fairy or Ice, and Steel would probably be my number three), both Fire and Fighting are types I have never particularly cared about and only made occasional use of on different monotypes, meaning that I have a pretty poor grasp of both. Your point of stat totals is definitely fair, though they certainly don't tell the whole story (which I am sure you are aware of; Bug is abysmal by Base Stat Totals but is probably on the easier side in terms of monotype runs, for example) – Frosmoth carried me through most of my Ice monotype (and a fair portion of my Bug monotype) on intense Rejuvenation, and though it obviously isn't available in Reborn, I would still like to use it as an example of a Pokemon there is more than meets the eye to. First of all, its Ice Scales ability literally doubles (or, I guess, by the way that stat calculations work, more than doubles) its Special Defense stat, and a fantastic support movepool with options such as Tailwind, Wide Guard (especially crucial in Doubles gyms with Rock Sliders and Heat Wavers going off), and Defog (not that helpful against Stealth Rock, but very useful against Sticky Web users) plus very early Quiver Dance access made it an offensive and defensive staple of both monotype teams I had make use of it. Ice is the only type to get its own weather that will damage literally all other types outside of a handful of Overcoat and Magic Guard users, for example, and in my most recent monotype run through the postgame of Reborn, I relied on hail even more than I normally do and actually had two hail users in my party. Blizzard and Subzero Slammer are also fantastic moves to have in Reborn, as it allows for the transformation of some unfavorable fields (for instance, after getting rid of her pesky terrain with Subzero Slammer, all of Saphira's team except for Mega Charizard X went down handily, which made her one of the easiest leaders to me even though I could definitely imagine her becoming a problem with the Dragon Dance boost and all; Amaria's strategy is also almost completely nullified through one use of Blizzard.). I think Ice does a decent job covering for its weaknesses in these kinds of strategic areas, though I will grant that this makes it more support-reliant and less flexible. As for Dragon, I feel the Dragon type is just very one-dimensional. You get little more than offensive options (like, I actually ran a rain team on my Dragon-type run, and not having any direct weather setters meant I was extremely reliant on Goodra), and though Dragon Dance is a fantastic boosting move, brute-forcing it without any support options can also be very tricky, and priority or Sturdy/Focus Sash users can ruin everything. And lastly, Dragon-types get very little field synergy – the Dragon's Den is great but cannot be summoned and will be destroyed by Subzero Slammer or two uses of a move as basic as Surf, the boost on the Fairy Tale Field is more than compensated by the power boost for Fairy- and Steel-type attacks (which made Titania even more of a nightmare on my Dragon-type than my Ice-type run), and I guess you have the Big Top Arena, which boosts Dragon Dance, but that is basically it. These are problems Ice doesn't have – sure, while the abysmal defensive typing also somewhat relegates you to offense, options like Cloyster allow you to ignore Sturdy/Focus Sash, Aurora Veil makes you a lot less vulnerable to priority if you do try to sweep a whole party, and so on and so forth.

Fair enough – Mega Scizor is definitely a major roadblock, and there is no bulletproof recipe against it. Cloyster can deal with it after setting up, but if Scizor gets a free turn through any means (either through bad timing or through a seed), the battle is essentially lost. A favorite addition of mine from E19 is the Defense boost Ice-types receive under hail on the Icy Field and the Snowy Mountain, which dramatically improves exactly these kinds of match-ups; still, that is a fairly niche context that won't help you one bit against, say, Titania. I disagree with your claim of a lack of options, though – I might just have a different approach to monotype runs in that I usually just stay with one fixed team, and though I do add new team members once they become available, I don't generally have members in rotation; when I struggle with a battle, I try to do tweaks around the edges by changing things like held items. Still, while Ice is, I think, the rarest type and therefore doesn't have quite as many options as other types, it definitely has enough options for me to try out quite different team constellations over multiple Ice monotype runs in Reborn and Rejuvenation (certainly enough for it to remain interesting to me). The addition of Aurora Veil (which a lot of monotype teams do not have viable access to) also somewhat compensates for the inherent frailty of the typing in my view. You probably have a much better grasp of the bigger picture than I do, given that I have done barely over a third of these monotypes between Reborn and Rejuvenation. Given that Ice is probably the monotype I have the most experience with right now, the fact that I am so used to strategizing within this paradigm may cloud my judgement – everything is easy when you're used to it, after all. Still, I think the late game of Reborn in particular is very friendly towards Ice-types, and I can definitely say from personal experience that I found Dragon a lot harder.

I haven't done most of these monotypes, but I also did not find Ice that tricky, to be honest – you get a lot of decent mid-game options after the third badge (though things are sort of rough beforehand), and though Titania is pretty challenging, the rest of the late game is largely smooth sailing. Ciel, Adrienn, Amaria, Saphira, and even Hardy are eminently beatable, although the postgame (which I only beat using my Ice monotype as of now, so I have no real sense as to whether or not it was easier or more difficult than using other types) did give me a few difficulties. Dragon works somewhat well late in the game, but the pure suffering that is the early game kind of has me agree with the ranking. Water was ... alright, I guess. It definitely gives you a lot of options, but I found myself switching around my team so much that I did not feel like I was doing a proper monotype run. I am more used to trying to build an all-around decent team with only some slight modifications in, say, movesets for specific battles.

Hey, everyone! So, I just finished the postgame on my Ice monotype, and it was a blast! I truly did not expect the postgame to be so extensive and to see so much more of these characters. Talking to the implicated in the Nightclub after dealing with an Anomaly was always a nice touch, not to mention the lovely epilogue with the Agate City party in the alternate timeline. Thing is, though – I only went down one route, namely, the Lin route, and though I could experience another side of the story by reverting to a previous save and altering the one decision I made that set me onto this track (that being giving Blake the Ruby Ring), I don't really feel like going through a substantial portion of the game again with essentially the same team, so I thought I would start from scratch with a different monotype. Which is why I thought it would be interesting to ask fellow monotypers what their experiences were. To all the monotypers who have played through E19, I would love to know the type and general strategies you employed, as well as how you view the experience in hindsight and whatever else you may feel like sharing in this regard. As for me, doing an Ice monotype was a lot of fun! I ran a fairly simple hail team oriented around Aurora Veil, ultimately finishing with Alolan Ninetales (Aurora Veil support and fast Blizzard), Aurorus (extended hail, occasionally Stealth Rock; also surprisingly useful in the New World), Alolan Sandslash (obviously really quick under hail and quite threatening after a Swords Dance), Cloyster (all-around fantastic setup sweeper), (Mega) Glalie (which I initially added for more immediate prowess in contrast to my other offensively oriented party members), and White Kyurem (which I added late in the postgame because I thought it would be interesting to use, and also because Fusion Flare can be used to disperse with certain pesky Steel-types). Weavile and especially Avalugg also proved quite useful earlier on in the game; in hindsight, I would probably swap out Mega Glalie for Jynx, which has sleep to offer (which can come in handy, especially in Doubles). Still, I am pretty happy with this team in general, and I was pleasantly surprised by Aurorus in particular, which I thought would go down fairly quickly in most fights but which actually proved to be remarkably useful support, also allowing Alolan Sandslash to wreak havoc as soon as it went down with hail that lasted more than a measly five turns. Blizzard and/or Subzero Slammer is always a good thing to have in Reborn, and so the circumstances rendered me able to take advantage of and/or change up a fair number of fields to a point where I could take advantage of them. At least in my view, Ice is just a very enjoyable monotype to do, and I definitely recommend the experience to those so inclined! This is the point at which I would l like to read your perspective, however, dear reader: what do you have to share about your monotype runs? I look forward to reading your responses.

I just finished the main game for the first time (albeit certainly not the last), and honestly, I am deeply impressed – Reborn has a myriad of amazing characters, and I really like the way this final installation of the main story further developed quite a few of them. A great storyline combined with lovely puzzles really had me hooked over the course of the past few days, and I am really looking forward to seeing how things will shape out in the post-game. Among my favorites were Laura and Bennett (both their relationship after the Glass Workstation incident and the encounter with the both of them at the league), Aya sort of freeing herself rather than remaining a helpless damsel (prompted by the always-appreciated literary commentary of Titania), Shelly gaining a degree of self-confidence after being burdened with stuff no one her age should be, and the exchanges between Blake and Cal. I am like two seconds away from writing fanfiction incorporating the events from episode 19 right now, hindered solely by my excitement to see the rest and by the problems I have with choosing one specific topic out of everything I just saw to write about. Seriously, fantastic work – my most sincere thanks for hours of high-quality and actually rather thought-provoking entertainment (for free, no less) go out to the entire team of developers.

Hey, everyone! So, I just finished episode 18 of Pokémon Reborn, and after spending 70+ hours on the game, I thought it would be remiss of me not to engage with this experience as well as the medium in more detail. Above all, I have to say that I am immensely grateful for the opportunity I had to play this game (completely free of charge, no less!) – the way in which it masterfully handled darker/more mature themes and provided a much more serious challenge than the traditional franchise impressed me rather deeply. In the following piece of writing, I intend to outline aspects of the story and the battle design I was appreciative of, explain how I personally interacted with these elements, and overall just tell the creators that I really enjoyed what they brought into existence so far. That’s the TL;DR of this post – you’re probably not missing that much if you quit reading now. I am used to writing rather long and structured analyses with a gradual argumentative progression that culminates in one conclusion or another; however, this post will be much more personal in that I have nothing drafted and just intend to wear my heart on my sleeves while writing it, seeing where my figurative pen takes me. I might clean it up before ultimately posting it, removing irrelevant tangents and potentially linking similar points; however, it will likely be more of a rambling meant to get out my ideas, rather than any sort of well-thought-out piece. Note that I was not sure of which forum to post this content in, being a new user and all; however, I thought that discussion of aspects of the game and personal experience falls under a broad umbrella of creative writing. In case my categorization is deemed inappropriate, I am happy to oblige and take down the post. Societal Outcasts and Family Relationships What probably captivated me the most would be Reborn’s setting and phenomenal cast of characters – the manner in which it very openly centers a ruined and downtrodden city/region without shying away from addressing issues such as financial precarity and social conformity. I will have to admit that I was, at first, a bit irritated by the fact that everyone seemed to be everyone’s brother, so to speak. It was slightly baffling to me that all gym leaders and reputable trainers came from a select few families, which I guess makes sense when you consider the position of power they occupy in a world of Pokémon and how influence and power is often passed on. Nevertheless, I would say that the experience was maybe a bit alien to me, especially in relation to the Pokémon games that we are all very much used to, where most major characters don’t have that much of a relationship with one another (at least not one that predates the story) and a lot of gym leaders in particular are really much more of standalone figures that maybe play a bit of a role while you are near their respective city but then just completely fade from the story. That being said, I absolutely adore how their web of familial connections and interpersonal relationships is used to flesh out the figures further, and the fact that pretty much every single major encounter ends up being of consequence to the plot is incredible. The level of detail involved in drafting the characters and their role in the story is simply breathtaking. Their experiences sure are exemplary; however, they are often times illustrative of broader themes of the game, putting faces on abstract points about the dehumanization of the mentally ill or the function of community as both a vital structure of support and a crushing prison (among other things). Now, my favorite character of Reborn would easily be Serra. On the one hand, her character most certainly resonates with me on a personal level, as she is exactly what I imagine I’ll be like in around 20 years – once I’ve graduated from the university I am about to attend and settled into a certain form of employment (and a certain mode of life), only to lose much of the flexibility and freedom of my current life in favor of the entrenched structures that govern my livelihood. Experiencing much of the struggles of this period of life whilst lamenting the fragility of what I have in face of a rapidly changing world, I can only imagine what I will be like at her age. Her gym with its mirror theme as a symbol of both her past under the observant inspection of the public eye and the instability of life was an absolute delight to go through. Seeing my take on her, it will likely not surprise the reader to hear that the little adventure after the battles at Glass Workstation – obviously something fresh in my mind right now – was such an enjoyable experience that I just closed the game and loaded my save to go through it again, and Serra was certainly a huge part of that. I loved her interactions with Radomus (partly because Radomus is probably my third favorite character after Serra and Cain because of the manner in which he exemplifies a life in the moment without much orientation (e. g., the concept of “barely hanging on”), and I kind of ship Serra and him, so I had to contain my urge to start writing romance fanfiction between the two of them) and how they highlighted the merits and flaws in her outlook on the world. The prior vision in the stars of a torn and broken Serra, as well as her extended “family,” so to speak (including Anna and Noel – actually, I only caught that the second time around because I had foreknowledge of the fact that they would be revealed as Radomus’s children), was a powerful image. And yet, her life philosophy is anything but nihilistic; though she displays signs of resignation and an acute awareness of just how transient life is, she is rather deeply committed to shaping her own future and take on a more active role, a spark most clearly ignited with regards to her son’s actions. Speaking of whom, Bennett is a character I have rather mixed feelings on. He seemed like a charming and ambitious young man early on, only to completely lose any sympathy I had for him after behaving the way he did towards Luna – which really just revealed an astounding degree of egocentrism. I vividly recall him following us when we were about to challenge her, which ended in Luna stating that she held no ill feelings towards him and did not resent him for what he had done – and I was like, “Good, now go away.” But even though he had just been complicit in mistreating her, he had to force his feelings of love onto Luna and insisted on doing so even when she was very clearly uncomfortable and even fled so he could not follow her. There are few scenes in the game that inspired this sort of very visceral annoyance in me – even though plenty of characters obviously did things that were way worse (Sirius or El, for example), the familiarity and attachment we feel towards the characters involved just made this seem so much more reprehensible to me. And yet, Bennett seems to realize how unlikeable he came off in that affair in particular, and despite his antagonistic role at Glass Workstation, his interest in self-improvement and his admission of past mistakes really made me quite excited when he faced Laura (obviously, the Elite Four member he helped get fired so as to usurp that position for himself) head-on. I’m looking forward to seeing how their relationship develops in the future. In the end, I guess my view of him is mainly characterized by curiosity, especially with regards to his relationship with his mother. Obviously, his behavior may be traced back towards his upbringing in some way – maybe his mother’s own struggles and semi-acquiescent attitude meant he lacked vital support in his formative years. And while I’m discussing the subject of parenting, Cain and Aya, as well as their parents (who we also received some really interesting details about), are, in some ways, prototypes of children experiencing troubles within their family alongside a generally pessimistic attitude permeating Reborn, and they choose to deal with them in different ways that reflect their diverging personalities – Cain feels a desire for freedom and shies away from serious attachments (partly because of his rather unpleasant experiences at home), traveling around the region and adopting a somewhat eccentric manner of self-presentation as a result. By contrast, the much more introverted but no less vulnerable Aya is inclined to have everything stick to her, feeling partly at fault for what ended up unfolding and believing herself to be a toxic person out of a misplaced self-assignment of blame. Honestly, I just really like both of them, as well as their relationship with one another that originates from the fact that, while Cain’s actions genuinely hurt the young woman, she still cares for him and feels a degree of intuitive sympathy (in addition to the aforementioned guilt she assigns to herself). I would like to talk a bit more about that walk in the stars, though, which I think just did so much in developing and fleshing out certain characters. I really liked the part about Cal and Blake, to the point where I really hope we get some more information on Blake in particular if he makes another appearance. Cal was someone I warmed up to a lot over the course of the story (pun sort of intended), as I think his degree of self-reflection makes him extremely compelling, and though Blake seems like a bit of an asshole as of now, I would really like to get to know more about his motivations at some point. His backstory would be quite the delight to read about, too (including the reason why he retired as Ametrine City’s gym leader). Furthermore, I was appreciative of the fact that we got a little glimpse of backstory for Fern (who, obviously, we are meant to feel a good amount of animosity towards due to the story’s framing), though I am craving more of that. Kiki never really resonated with me early on in the story (I mean, her lessons seemed rather clichéd, and I thought of her as the stereotypical wise and experienced sensei character training Fighting-types or Psychic-types), but the information about her backstory and internal struggles led me to sympathize with her quite a bit. There’s also Lin’s fatalistic attitude and her implied background with Dr. Connal, which leaves me rather curious. All in all, there are just so many characters I am dying to see more of. There’s one more point I wanted to comment on – one of my favorite parts of Reborn is that all characters are given at least somewhat understandable motivations, leading you to vaguely see where they’re coming from even if you disapprove of their actions. All too often, villains (a category of characters quite dear to my heart for personal reasons) are treated as being irredeemable in storytelling, and attempts to add context so as to understand them are dismissed because even, say, a tragic past does not erase people’s agency. I respectfully disagree with that assessment, for I think we are all ultimately slaves to our circumstances. And while a negative impact can never be undone no matter the individual’s motivations or backstory, there lies no harm in developing a grasp of their character (if anything, in order to simply prevent others from going down the same road). Some Lessons on Strategy Putting the absolutely mesmerizing plot aside, I was really happy about the battle design and the manner in which field effects allowed for situational advantages and/or disadvantages to make use of. I’m a more casual Pokémon player, and I’d say I’m at the somewhat awkward point where the official franchise games generally don’t pose a serious challenge to me whereas competitive playing is way out of my league. In this intermediate position, the level of difficulty in Reborn was just right for me. Now, I actually did a monotype run with just Ice-type Pokémon from just before Shade’s gym onwards (what can I say? I really love monotype challenges, Ice is one of my favorite types, and I could scarcely contain my excitement when I realized I could obtain plenty of Ice-types fairly early on in the game – which is usually not possible in the main franchise –, so I spontaneously decided to just make it a monotype run), and one of the reasons I find monotype challenges so incredibly fun is that they force you to get creative in terms of strategy – it’s no longer enough to just use a Pokémon that’s well-positioned against a given trainer, and if you’re at a disadvantage against a gym, you’ll just have to find out a way to prevail regardless. Now, Reborn with its elevated difficulty certainly hammered home this point all the more, and in fact, the experience of playing through what there is so far with a monotype team really highlighted the value of strategizing to me. Now, one of the leaders I was most afraid of would be Titania, and thanks to a bit of maneuvering (and X Defends), I was ultimately able to beat her on the first try with just my Sandslash, whom I had taught Brick Break beforehand. I mean, what can I say? Hail made it twice as fast, Swords Dance maxed out its Attack in two turns, I could terminate the Aurora Veil whenever I wanted, and the enhanced Defense stat basically made my Sandslash invincible (fortunately, I did not fall victim to a critical hit at any crucial point) because her team was so reliant on physical moves (and didn’t carry one Fighting or Fire-type move). In fact, the only leader I was theoretically at a disadvantage against that I seriously struggled with was Charlotte, owing to the fact that my Pokémon weren’t fast enough to quickly fire off a Blizzard and terminate the field effect. As a somewhat contrary tale, the gym leader who gave me the most trouble by far would be Terra – mainly, I would say, because I didn’t prepare adequately for the gym battle. After seeing her team and how weak it was to Ice, I got kind of cocky and really didn’t even read about the field she was fighting in, expecting the battle to be a complete and utter 6–0-type blow-out. And what a blow-out it was – just not in the direction I had been expecting. The reversal of the Physical-Special split made all my physical Ice-types almost completely useless in the gym, and that Assault Vest Garchomp with its coverage moves that, in case Stone Edge and Flamethrower didn’t already take out whatever I would send in, would just spam an always-neutral STAB Draco Meteor enhanced by the Assault Vest that would never get weaker because the damage calculations were made based on its Special Defense anyway – it completely destroyed me. I still recall my jaw dropping upon seeing how little an Ice Shard (which I had figured was all I could do) did to that thing. I lost to her twice before finally breaking through at the third try – and in hindsight, my Ninetales (which was basically the VIP of my team in the late game because I made the natural choice of running a hail-based team, and Aurora Veil allowed sweepers like my Sandslash or my Cloyster to set up fairly reliably) might have been able to deal with the Garchomp, but I couldn’t evolve a Vulpix at the time because the one Ice Stone obtainable before returning to Reborn had already been used up on evolving Sandshrew. It’s really quite something how much a bit of strategizing beforehand can do – after Terra, Ciel was a breeze (naturally enough), Adrienn was not really a big problem once I carefully brought Sandslash in, my somewhat cowardly strategy allowed me to get past Titania without issue, a Blizzard ended Amaria’s terrain advantage, and not even Hardy was really that difficult thanks mostly to my Cloyster. One of the things about Pokémon I think many people do not realize is just what a plethora of strategies and tools are at our disposal as players – and I by no means exhausted the options I had (I never used Revives in-battle, for example). That’s one of the reasons I feel like this monotype run taught me a lot, and ultimately, the field effects are such a nice way to add a strategic layer that they easily stand out as one of the best parts of the gameplay (at least to me). Conclusion Playing Pokémon Reborn was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I would like to utter my thanks to the creators for this lovely product that gave me so much quality time completely free of charge. I would certainly be interested in making at least a slight financial and/or creative contribution (to the extent that I am able to) in exchange for one of the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had (although, to be fair, I don’t play a lot of video games either). Either way, I’m already planning another playthrough (maybe a Nuzlocke this time?), and I’m really excited to do it again – the game is just that good.