Slow Burn: A mono fire run starring Camerupt!

[GenOneRaisedGenY]

So I'm doing a mono fire run. These are the rules I'm imposing on myself:

• As a general rule, I only fight with fire Pokemon
• I can temporarily raise a non-fire Pokemon for breeding purposes (ie. to obtain a breedable an egg move) but cannot use it on important fights
• From post-Julia onwards, Numel/Camerupt is my ace and must be in my party at all times (Trick Room is going to be my best friend eventually)
• EDIT: I'll probably need a Water pokemon for Surf, Dive and Waterfall. IT WILL ONLY BE AN HM SLAVE THOUGH.

As of now I've already beat Julia, and from this point on I'll be logging my progress after each gym.

Chapter 1: Kaboom!

Team: Monferno, Pansear

I'm probably not going to put a strong effort into the story aspect of this log. Suffice it to say I'm a wildfire expert from a region north of Reborn (really, this isn't a stretch from IRL me).

I chose Chimchar as my starter, and got a female one. Before I fight Flo I plan to breed Chimchar with a Purrloin to obtain a Chimchar with Fake Out. This move will matter to my team later on, namely in double battles when setting up Trick Room.

I also rescued Pansear, just so I could have another fire pokemon in my team. Pansear will probably not be on my team for very long.

I fought Fern and my fire types roasted his grass types with ease.

Julia was the first interesting fight. I went into it with Monferno and Pansear, both level 18.

Had to reset twice, but in the winning fight I lead with Monferno and used mach punch to one-shot Helioptile. Pansear fought the Emogla and two Voltorbs, as its typing wasn't prone to Acrobatics and Incinerate wasn't prone to the Voltorbs' Aftermath. Monferno two-shotted the Blitzle, and then Pansear and Monferno both chipped in to take down the Electrode.

...that was it for the first badge. The next logs will obviously be more eventful.

Edited December 10, 2015 by GenOneRaisedGenY

[Kuma]

Camerupt? That's going to be interesting since 4x Water weakness :v

#Cameruptdeservessomelove

Fire is a pretty basic type but it doesn't count with so many Mons if you exclude the starters, so I'm curious to see how your team will be.

[Narckarth]

Your biggest threat will be fast rock types that can take a mach punch. Fire types aren't the bulkiest of pokemon and those that are I rather poor choices for a well thought out team. This should go without saying but Will-O-Wisp will eventually become key to you taking on the more powerful ground and rock types of the later game unfortunately the only fire types that learn this are Vulpix which has been moved from its spot and the Fennekin Line I don't know if the Will-O-Wisp TM Is even in Reborn but I suggest finding out quickly and then getting it making full use of how burn reduces the attack of an afflicted Pokemon I cannot stress enough is important for much of the game and much of the tougher pokemon that will sweep your fire type otherwise even with more defensive Pokemon like Camerupt, Marcargo and Torkoal.

[Damage]

I just completed a fire run not too long ago. Blaziken, Camerupt (tough camel outside of water), Magmortar, Volcarona, Ninetails (because sun) and Chandelure (2nd favorite ghost since Aegisteel is being kept away) Rotom Fire was on rotation until I decided Sunny day wasn't needed.

[AuthorReborn]

For this sort of run, Fenniken would have been my go-to starter, especially since it learns Trick Room, something no other Fire types besides Chandelure and Victini do. Not to mention that Fenniken completely takes out Victoria, Cain, and Fern (not to mention things like Florina, Kiki, Samson, Aya, Corey, Serra, Blake... the list goes on). Magician is also a super great ability to have since you can steal items from wild Pokemon without even known they have them. So you could end up stealing a Quick Claw from a Meowth or something like that. Anyways, good luck

[GenOneRaisedGenY]

Chapter 2: Two Ferns, Two Monfernos

My log:

Party (new members in yellow):

Numel (24) - Ability: Simple - Moves: Flame Burst, Magnitude, Iron Head, Amnesia

Monferno (24) - Ability: Iron First - Moves: Mach Punch, Flame Wheel, Feint, Taunt

Litleo (23) - Ability: Unnerve - Moves: Ember, Headbutt, Fire Fang, Work Up

Pansear (22) - Ability: Blaze - Moves: Flame Burst, Bite, Yawn, Cut

Monferno (15) - Ability: Iron Fist - Moves: Fake Out, Mach Punch, Ember, Taunt

Breeding Mons: Purrloin (21)

Previously I beat Julia. I guess you could say things are heating up now. First thing's first, I rescued Numel from its mid-life crisis in the rain. Fittingly enough, its ability was Simple and it came with the egg move Iron Head (not bad!).

Numel was an MPV against Victoria, one-shotting both Ralts and Pignite with Iron Head and Magnitude respectively.

Numel also wrecked Cain, minus his Oshawatt for obvious reasons.

Three fire types against PULSE Tangrowth was easy enough.

I rescued Litleo from the level 35 (iirc) Klinklang. Numel did most of the heavy lifting; he set up with a Simple-boosted Amnesia, then ate up a flurry of Flash Cannons with relative ease. However, Numel went down just before the fight was over, so Monferno got the winning Mach Punch in.

At this point I rescued the Day Care couple. Then I went back to the Peridot Ward to catch and raise a male Purrloin to level 21, at which point he learned Fake Out. I bred my Monferno and Purrloin and obtained a Chimchar egg. The baby Chimchar had Fake Out in its moveset (and Assist, but wtf is that good for).

Upon defeating Florina, I plan to stop raising Monferno Sr. and get Monferno Jr. caught up to speed.

I fought Fern at the Onyx school. Mono fire vs. mono grass was a one-sided fight, but I was able to grind baby Chimchar up to level 14. (I could have gone higher, but I wanted it to evolve and learn Mach Punch. In retrospect Nasty Plot was a compelling move had I waited, but whatever).

Flobot was way easier of a fight compared to Julia, considering the type advantage and the fact I had five pokemon instead of two. I got cocky when she brought in Ferrothorn, and figured my level 14 Monferno's Ember could one-shot it. The Ferrothorn was able to kill Monferno Jr. with a desert-boosted Sand Tomb (after factoring in residual damage). I also underestimated the Cradily. I sent in Numel since it could take the Smack Downs. I forgot Stockpile was a thing, and Flo just set up on me. Iron Head helped, but Numel went down and I had to use my remaining Pokemon (all of which were at low health) to chip away at the thing.

Nevertheless I did win on my first try, even despite a few sloppy moves on my part.

Responses to other comments:

Camerupt? That's going to be interesting since 4x Water weakness :v

#Cameruptdeservessomelove

Fire is a pretty basic type but it doesn't count with so many Mons if you exclude the starters, so I'm curious to see how your team will be.

Love the hashtag. It's now the official one for my run!

Also worth noting: I plan on trying to use mostly under-appreciated fire Mons, so the only three starters I plan to use are Infernape, Emboar and Delphox.

Your biggest threat will be fast rock types that can take a mach punch. Fire types aren't the bulkiest of pokemon and those that are I rather poor choices for a well thought out team. This should go without saying but Will-O-Wisp will eventually become key to you taking on the more powerful ground and rock types of the later game unfortunately the only fire types that learn this are Vulpix which has been moved from its spot and the Fennekin Line I don't know if the Will-O-Wisp TM Is even in Reborn but I suggest finding out quickly and then getting it making full use of how burn reduces the attack of an afflicted Pokemon I cannot stress enough is important for much of the game and much of the tougher pokemon that will sweep your fire type otherwise even with more defensive Pokemon like Camerupt, Marcargo and Torkoal.

Tbh I'm more concerned about Ground and Water types than Rock types. Infernape and Camerupt are both neutral to Rock, and are capable of dealing STAB super-effective damage to most Rock types. I also plan on using Emboar. Lunatone and Solrock may be a problem, but I can figure out counters to them.

I just completed a fire run not too long ago. Blaziken, Camerupt (tough camel outside of water), Magmortar, Volcarona, Ninetails (because sun) and Chandelure (2nd favorite ghost since Aegisteel is being kept away) Rotom Fire was on rotation until I decided Sunny day wasn't needed.

Nice! I'd probably keep Rotom Fire until after Amaria -- the water field effect halves the speed of grounded mons (not that Rotom's fast), and a STAB, super-effective Electric attack boosted by the field is going to be OP. Then again, you've already done the run and I haven't, so maybe I shouldn't be giving advice

For this sort of run, Fenniken would have been my go-to starter, especially since it learns Trick Room, something no other Fire types besides Chandelure and Victini do. Not to mention that Fenniken completely takes out Victoria, Cain, and Fern (not to mention things like Florina, Kiki, Samson, Aya, Corey, Serra, Blake... the list goes on). Magician is also a super great ability to have since you can steal items from wild Pokemon without even known they have them. So you could end up stealing a Quick Claw from a Meowth or something like that. Anyways, good luck

I considered that, but I really wanted Fake Out Infernape. Besides, you can get Fennekin at the Water Treatment Plant and one of its egg moves is Heat Wave. I have no idea when to expect event Chimchar in the game - if it even shows up at all.

Also, "luck is merely an illusory essentialization of statistics, and is not inherently good or bad in any way."

Edited December 10, 2015 by GenOneRaisedGenY

[Kuma]

Lol Numel rules

Klinklang got rekt

Litleo would be so much useful with Moxie, specially with Shade

But unfortunately life didn't want to.

[GenOneRaisedGenY]

Why didn't you get Torchic as your starter? Torchic sweeps everything weak to Fire and Fighting with Speed Boost!

^ That's why lol. Blaziken is one of my favourites but this is supposed to be a tough run. Besides, my goal is a Trick Room fire team so Speed Boost wouldn't do me any favours.

[GenOneRaisedGenY]

Chapter 3: Citizen Arrest (versus Corey)

Current Team:

Camerupt (lv 33) | Ability: Solid Rock | Moves: Flame Burst, Earth Power, Iron Head, Curse
Monferno Jr. (lv 32) | Ability: Iron Fist | Moves: Mach Punch, Flame Wheel, Fake Out, Taunt
Vulpix (lv 30) **NEW** | Ability: Drought | Moves: Flame Burst, Will-o-Wisp, Quick Attack, Ember
Pansear (lv 30) | Ability: Blaze | Moves: Flame Burst, Bite, Yawn, Cut
Growlithe (lv 30) **NEW** | Ability: Justified | Moves: Flame Burst, Close Combat, Take Down, Fire Fang
Litleo (lv 30) | Ability: Unnerve | Moves: Ember, Headbutt, Endeavor, Fire Fang

Breeder Pokemon in PC: Purrloin, Poochyena, Monferno Sr.,

---

Progress log:

The first thing I set out to do after beating Florina was to finish grinding up my (baby) Monferno. (ICYMI, I bred my original Monferno with a Purrloin to get Fake Out onto the new one). As of now, Monferno Sr. is in my PC and will probably never become an Infernape. Monferno Jr. is now a permanent member of my team.

I fought Taka in the Malchous Forest. Contrary to what I'm supposed to advise against IRL, I set the forest ablaze with Numel's Flame Burst and proceeded to rip through Taka's team with fire-boosted attacks. That poor Tangrowth didn't stand a chance.

After that, I rescued the four police officers and obtained a Growlithe. In retrospect I probably should've reset the game for a better ability, but oh well.

I caught a Poochyena from the North Peridot alleys and bred a Growlithe egg.

I traded the egg for a...Vulpix egg! I would've been content to wait until the Circus for Vulpix, and I technically still could, but nah. Sometimes you catch a lucky break and just gotta take it, you know?

Besides, what came next was a ton of super lame grinding to make Vulpix usable.

Also, I fell into the Nuzleaf cage, told Fern where to go and how to get there, and proceeded to cook myself dinner while leaving the game open (because let's be real, I'm not going to stare at my screen just waiting around for Taka's Chatot).

Fast forward to the third PULSE Tangrowth, and admittedly I had to reset once on this fight. My team (namely Numel) tore a strip through mostly everything, only to get haxed to bits by Taka's super lame Chatot. (Okay to be fair, it DID rescue me from the Nuzleaf cage).

The second time around I didn't get haxed (as badly) and won the fight.

I was a bit underlevelled when I first attempted to fight Corey. No point in elaborating how it went down -- it didn't go well. Raising both a Vulpix and Chimchar from eggs so early in the game will do that, especially since I tend to procrastinate grinding until I show up to a fight underlevelled haha.

So, I grinded up all my Pokemon into their late 20s or early 30s. I brought my Numel up to level 33, thereby evolving it into Camerupt.

Fast forward to my rematch against Corey. I lead off with Vulpix to set up Drought to counter my team's weakness to his Skrelp's bubble (Skrelp is sashed, otherwise I would've just OHKO'd it with Camerupt). After Drought was set up, I switched in to Camerupt and proceeded to sweep through everything minus Crobat with Earth Powers. ...Camerupt made the fight too easy, tbh.

With an abundance of Pokemon left in my team, I decided just to Flame Burst the arena at that point, killing off that Crobat before it got the chance to set up on me.

TL;DR - Camerupt is still MVP

Edited December 13, 2015 by GenOneRaisedGenY

[Genesis]

hmm since you are doing under appreciated Fire Pokemon I would like to suggest the following that might make it tougher starting from good to pretty darn terrible

Torkoal - This thing is slow but can take a hit and dish them out. Definitely good for what people say about it.

Heatmor - Like above but not as good

Magcargo Like Camerupt except its weakness really hurt with a dual x4 weakness to water and ground. Its stats suck and the only way I could see it getting the light of day is with trick room. When I tried using it in my mono gen 2 run I gave up on for its glaring weakness to ground with EQ being very common at that point in the game. I imagine with trick room it could be pretty great, but until then. Yeah. The great thing is these are all available from Apophyll

[GenOneRaisedGenY]

hmm since you are doing under appreciated Fire Pokemon I would like to suggest the following that might make it tougher starting from good to pretty darn terrible

Torkoal - This thing is slow but can take a hit and dish them out. Definitely good for what people say about it.

Heatmor - Like above but not as good

Magcargo Like Camerupt except its weakness really hurt with a dual x4 weakness to water and ground. Its stats suck and the only way I could see it getting the light of day is with trick room. When I tried using it in my mono gen 2 run I gave up on for its glaring weakness to ground with EQ being very common at that point in the game. I imagine with trick room it could be pretty great, but until then. Yeah. The great thing is these are all available from Apophyll

Actually I was looking to replace Pansear and Growlithe around that time (both are Fire Stone evolvers I can't justify until Vulpix evolves). I'd love to make Torkoal a recurring nightmare for Meteor Grunts. . I may use Heatmor too for a bit, although I eventually want to catch Tepig and breed it with a diglett for Sucker Punch Tepig. I actually got a Slugma from the Game Corner but, with Camerupt already in the team, I can't justify another x4 water weakness