Fern Burn - Hardcore Fire Monotype Reborn run (EP15 Complete)

[Commander]

I believe the reason why Commander is there is kind of a funny one. In the first release of Hardcore Terra was one of the easiest leaders in the game tied with Ciel and Shelly (yes Shelly was the easiest leader at one point). She didn't really use the Glitch Field to the fullest potential so I tried thinking of a guy who really liked Psychic types and used a lot of gimmics and weird mon choices to fill the void. Just a fun fact but the original ace for me was going to be a shuckle but it didn't really work like it was supposed to so...yeah I decided to pick one of my favorite Psychic types to replace it.

The air balloon exploit is one of those things I was holding off on trying to fix in hopes E16 would be coming soon like a year ago and now it's at the point I may as well wait. I also believe Terra originally had a Mega Swampert, but that didn't work out as well as Quagmire due to it not being able to recover or just take a Surf to the face. Diggersby was also there but it was no Claydol. My only other mega options were Mega Rawrchomp or Replace Excadrill with Mega Steelix. Since Excakill is her secondary ace (technically her ace in the other season), I chose to mega Rawr.

CoM was one of those projects I created a long, long time ago (like 1.7 and had 70% of the project implemented) but I got burned out after spending like 3 weeks working on it and Hardcore fixes at the same time. 22 fights were originally planned in which I think I had to ask like 4 different people to try and help since that's a lot of fights that need quality checked (tbh I still haven't finished quality checking all of them) so eventually I grabbed Trevore who did a ton of the extra fights and Julia's as well. Around 40 trainer files were added in total and two maps that were made from scratch. Only one event is not fleshed out (I'm altering it since 100-200 lines of text is just too much for a single event). I was also working on a lot of the features for 1.5 when I picked the project back up. I tried my best to designing as close to the actual league challenge as possible.

[Lissandra]

This is awesome, very well documented. Just how much harder would you say this reborn is compared to the original? I recently did a water monotype on the original and found it quite difficult so I can't imagine how hard it would be on this if the difficulty is really much harder.

[drevance]

I believe the reason why Commander is there is kind of a funny one. In the first release of Hardcore Terra was one of the easiest leaders in the game tied with Ciel and Shelly (yes Shelly was the easiest leader at one point). She didn't really use the Glitch Field to the fullest potential so I tried thinking of a guy who really liked Psychic types and used a lot of gimmics and weird mon choices to fill the void. Just a fun fact but the original ace for me was going to be a shuckle but it didn't really work like it was supposed to so...yeah I decided to pick one of my favorite Psychic types to replace it.

The air balloon exploit is one of those things I was holding off on trying to fix in hopes E16 would be coming soon like a year ago and now it's at the point I may as well wait. I also believe Terra originally had a Mega Swampert, but that didn't work out as well as Quagmire due to it not being able to recover or just take a Surf to the face. Diggersby was also there but it was no Claydol. My only other mega options were Mega Rawrchomp or Replace Excadrill with Mega Steelix. Since Excakill is her secondary ace (technically her ace in the other season), I chose to mega Rawr.

CoM was one of those projects I created a long, long time ago (like 1.7 and had 70% of the project implemented) but I got burned out after spending like 3 weeks working on it and Hardcore fixes at the same time. 22 fights were originally planned in which I think I had to ask like 4 different people to try and help since that's a lot of fights that need quality checked (tbh I still haven't finished quality checking all of them) so eventually I grabbed Trevore who did a ton of the extra fights and Julia's as well. Around 40 trainer files were added in total and two maps that were made from scratch. Only one event is not fleshed out (I'm altering it since 100-200 lines of text is just too much for a single event). I was also working on a lot of the features for 1.5 when I picked the project back up. I tried my best to designing as close to the actual league challenge as possible.

I'm sorry but I just started laughing when you said Shelly was the easiest leader at some point. I can take a guess that her difficulty is why the rain was added because burning her team to the ground is one of the easiest things to do. I can't imagine how I would tackle a Shuckle as the ace tbh. I mean I'm currently playing with the AI since it won't use Psychic on a Houndoom so it spams Energy Ball...

If I didn't have the air balloon I'm not sure how I would have overcome that battle TBH. Nidoking forces me to sacrifice someone and either try to OHKO it or inflict a status. I can't risk getting it below half because Terra will heal it and if I can't OHKO it will destroy me. Part of me thought that Mega Swamp would be there but at the same time the other part of me didn't think so because 1. Quagsire and 2. I'm expecting the water gym to have it. Also - do me a favor and imagine Mega Swampert with Sap Sipper. LOL.

I'd honestly expect Steelix from the Steel Gym which I don't think we know who that is? Still, Exca and RAWR are scary threats considering their speeds.

I'm going to prove that conquering the CoM is possible on a fire mono attempt to conquer the CoM and hopefully not meet rain dance team but I do have Happy the Drought-Bringer, so we'll see. Going to breed and stuff for when I get to that point (which is soon)

This is awesome, very well documented. Just how much harder would you say this reborn is compared to the original? I recently did a water monotype on the original and found it quite difficult so I can't imagine how hard it would be on this if the difficulty is really much harder.

Thank you! Although I admit I got a bit lazy with the documentation post-noel, which is easily noticeable at Agate onward.

As far as difficulty goes I think the most difficult part is just starting the game. Early game Hardcore (both regular and this monorun) has a really noticeable difficulty change. However, once you reach Serra/Noel it seems to be pretty alright as things pretty much stay the same. I recently started a regular run of Hardcore and am shocked at how much easier it is than a monotype run. I'm not longer terrified of facing water types or anything of the sort. Early game is still a challenge but there are a few pokemon added to the early game that help move things along. (Psyduck, Shellos, the random water types from Team Magma, Corey's new mons)

Pretty much all trainers are much more threatening than regular Reborn but it gives out some generous experience which combined with the Lucky Egg and early EXP Share makes leveling no longer an issue (which I had in reborn) and rather overleveling becomes the problem. It actually promotes more of a rotation IMO which leads back to what I learned about Reborn my first run, to have more than just a standard team of 6 and to use pokemon that you wouldn't normally.

Although, if I had to rate the difficulty to reborn I can't give just a generalized one. I can however tell you from my personal experience whether a hardcore leader or regular was more difficult.

Hardcore Julia

Hardcore Florinia

Hardcore Corey (both fields)

Hardcore Shelly

Shade was about the same difficulty IMO

Cal

Solaris

Hardcore Kiki

Aya was about the same difficulty IMO

Hardcore Archie

Serra

Noel was about the same difficulty IMO

Hardcore Radomus (both single and doubles)

Luna. In regular reborn I had to collapse the cave to win

Hardcore Samson

Charlotte

Hardcore Terra

I'm currently right before the PULSE in Water Treatment center so I'll give my opinions on that and the rest of E15 when I do my next update.

Some of these might be biased as up to Shade is how far I am on my reg run, the rest are from this Fire run compared to my first run through the game. Some of the leaders could have been more difficult, but again due to the nature of the run I had some serious advantages when the NPC didn't. Cal running Mega Zard X didn't help him, Serra in singles was a breeze. Charlotte's lack of Flash Fire to take full effect of the field and her Mega Houndoom's solar power just worked against her.

I've been going on and on but basically regular Reborn seems to catch up to Hardcore around Agate, with Hardcore still leading in difficulty. If anything, being able to control the weather is one of the biggest deciding factors in most of my battles tbh.

[Commander]

If you want a real kicker, Ame (or whoever does the fights) actually inflates the Pokemon levels more than I do. In fact, the aces of all the leaders from Radomus on have not increased in level (maybe Luna's) from their original release level. So technically aces have been nerfed a few levels for Hardcore based on the fact players would be higher level for the fights.

You will also learn that people like me to eat my words as I thought monotyping this game was impossible but surely enough people proved me wrong. Heck, I didn't even know if Solaris was even beatable at a point because his team is really good for that point in time. Someone even beat CoM which was another thing I set up to be insanely difficult (they even said it took many resets for that last fight though).

[drevance]

OH MY ARCEUS IT FINALLY HAPPENED!

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After somehow managing to burn Terra to the ground, she went into hiding. We were finally able to use Waterfall and made our way to the water treatment center and WHOA BOY WAS IT TOUGH. I had conveniently forgotten to heal my pokemon from after the Terra battle and didn't know until later that I could reclimb the waterfall, so that sucked. Thanks to the level limiter though as I made my way through the Plant my team, minus Shame , were able to mostly ding L75. Honestly I'm so glad that the exp is so generous in hardcore. OMG.

ANYWAY. Pulse Swalot was something to overcome. I ended up using a combination of Curse and Confusion to fell it. Took a few attempts but /shrug. Finally being able to traverse the plant was totes worth. Now we had to free our favorite Aegislash user. After a few minutes she was free and we made our way to the boss room and found Taka. After listening to him and being majorly confused by his actions I walked away. While I could help him by battling him so that his father knew he at least put up a fight, that isn't something I would do. Taka should face his father considering his actions prior. I won't help him continue his lie or facade.

Anyway we get back and Team Meteor assaults us. The two Aces prove challenging, especially when SOMEONE's MEGA STEELIX SPAMS EARTHQUAKE FFS FLO!

Blake and Fern are next and LOL eruption spam.

Next is yaboi John and Solaris. This was a bit trickier, with Mega Gyrados causing me problems. Like seriously, I was pretty frustrated here. Much salt. Few tears. Anyway, getting it to miss was my advantage and a lucky crit did it in. After that I got schooled and Flo finished the battle for us (I can't wait to get my revenge on you in the CoM. I'm going to burn you to ashes)

Surprisingly that was fun, and after a few little twists we made our way back to Agate to challenge Ciel, the last leader standing in our way (presently).

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Did I mention I hate Noivern?

This thing was the bane of my existence. ANYWAY.

I just kept resetting this fight. Man, I'm not going to lie, this battle had me yelling a few times. The guy that lived next to me actually knocked on my door to see if everything was cool and I told him I was just getting my ass handed to me and he laughed.

Finally, the stars aligned.

Amon vs. Skarmory.

Flamethrower and Ironhead. With sturdy it survives with 1HP. Nasty Plot and Hyper Potion. Nasty Plot and Stealth rocks. Flamethrower KO.

Amon vs. Gyrados

Dark Pulse OHKO

Amon vs. Gliscor

Flamethrower OHKO

Amon vs. Noivern

Hurricane misses, and Dark Pulse OHKO GET OUT OF HERE YOU STUPID BAT I HATE YOUR ENTIRE EXISTENCE

Amon vs. Togikiss

Flamethrower almost KOs it and it gets off an Air Slash which takes Houndoom down low. Hyper Potion and Flamethrower x2. Finally Togi goes down.

Amon vs. Mega Cloud Server

Flamethrower because its dead anyway. The Cloud Server KOs Amon with Hyper Voice.

Cinder vs. Mega Cloud Server

Smokescreen and Hyper Voice KO

Happy vs. Mega Cloud Server

Confuse Ray and hits itself. Flamethrower and hits itself. It's getting near death. Flamethrower and it KOs with Hyper Voice

Sabrina(Rotom-H) vs. Mega Cloud Server gets KO'd

Cobalt is next and gets KO'd

Krakatoa is up last and KOs Cloud Server with a Sun Boosted MAX HP Charcoal Eruption. GG.

I take a screenshot and gasp. F12.

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My next attempt, on the next day ends up ending on Mega Cloud Server. I decide not to reset and take my first money loss from Ciel. Except that when I appear at the heal station she battles me again?

Except its doubles with no field.

I recorded the battle and I will be uploading it today after classes (I have one soon) I did defeat Ciel though here. It was pretty tough still, although without the field boosting Hyper Voice Mega Cloud Server just got rekt. Here is this to tide ye over.

Anyway, with that we got our last badge and Acrobatics. We were informed about some books ([ and with that, completed Pokemon Reborn Hardcore Episode 15!

OH MY ARCEUS I AM SOOOOOOO HAPPY. omg. You have no idea. Holy moley. That was the most intense Pokemon experience that I have had to date, and the most fun. Not only was it difficult but it forced me to improve how I battled and used certain moves/mons. While I've never really battled competitively on showdown or anything (aside from Random battles) I felt that this helped me move into that direction.

So next thing is next, tonight or tomorrow I'm going to do my best to write up and 'rank' each of the fire types that I had. I'll show pictures of them and their move sets etc. My next step is getting everyone breeded and leveled up to 80 to take on the CoM. My former roommate really liked seeing the battles I recorded, so I might stream them and just record the stream to put it up or I'll record it. But regardless, I'll have proof and probably type out my thoughts/why I did what I did for the battles. I don't know how fast/long it will take me but I will get to it (I promise). Although if I complete the CoM and Episode 16 is not yet released then I will be looking for something else to do potentially. Perhaps another monorun or I might even (plsno) attempt a nuzlocke which I have never done before. We'll see.

However, with being in school my updates will slow. I'm in multiple upper division classes this semester. Now while that might not mean much, it means that from the last week of September to the first week of November anything I do will be halted. I have something like 6 books that I will be reading and writing reviews on for my classes, in addition to already having books I need to read for small groups. That is only from two of my classes.

But if anything I'll try to get at least a CoM battle every few days if I'm not done by end of September.

Anyway, I just want to thank anyone who happened to read this and join me on this rocky hot road to episode 15. Hats off to the hardworking people behind Reborn and those behind the Hardcore mod.

Yeah I don't know what else to say really. Maybe end it here?

Actually nvm -I wrote a paragragh here about something but I'll just include it in my post following about the mons/the run-

Anywho, cya next time!

[Commander]

...Whoops, that was a my bad moment. I kind of forgot to delete that when giving the option to make Ciel either doubles or singles...and it seems like I forgot to edit that whole thing fully for the gym guy as well. Lovely. I'll get to fixing that though I'm surprised this one had errors compared to the Radomus one where I had to do that 8 times.

I'm glad you found Ciel to be difficult because it took forever to get her to where she is now as she's a mix of both performing and defensive maneuvers. For every gym leader I create a checklist and I make sure they are able to fulfill everything on that checklist. Like you have no idea how happy I am someone found Ciel tough after 65 revisions. I have given her almost every flying type that isn't a dragon and tried out every single Pokemon idea possible and she still did not work too well.

That skarmory also has one of the most hilarious stories behind it. In the beta, she had a Skarmory which didn't have sturdy and died so much it was scrapped and replaced with that Archeops. Knowing this, I didn't bother with Skarmory the first time. She's among the weakest of the leaders imo, but she's leagues above her regular reborn team minus her nerfed Altaria (that thing did not get a level increase from Reborn same as Terra's Rawrchomp).

[drevance]

...Whoops, that was a my bad moment. I kind of forgot to delete that when giving the option to make Ciel either doubles or singles...and it seems like I forgot to edit that whole thing fully for the gym guy as well. Lovely. I'll get to fixing that though I'm surprised this one had errors compared to the Radomus one where I had to do that 8 times.

I'm glad you found Ciel to be difficult because it took forever to get her to where she is now as she's a mix of both performing and defensive maneuvers. For every gym leader I create a checklist and I make sure they are able to fulfill everything on that checklist. Like you have no idea how happy I am someone found Ciel tough after 65 revisions. I have given her almost every flying type that isn't a dragon and tried out every single Pokemon idea possible and she still did not work too well.

That skarmory also has one of the most hilarious stories behind it. In the beta, she had a Skarmory which didn't have sturdy and died so much it was scrapped and replaced with that Archeops. Knowing this, I didn't bother with Skarmory the first time. She's among the weakest of the leaders imo, but she's leagues above her regular reborn team minus her nerfed Altaria (that thing did not get a level increase from Reborn same as Terra's Rawrchomp).

Beside Noivern, Skarmory gave me the next most trouble. Due to setting up on Skarmory, if it uses whirlwind then I just reset because otherwise Gyra sweep. Honestly I feel that I should have brought Darmanitan or something over Rotom because discharge took out half of Gyra's HP and wow so bad. Why did I hype Rotom up when its so meh. /sigh

Ciel in my opinion is the hardest gym battle that neither side had the type advantage. I mean like Glisgor I oneshot without the Sun, but Noivern, Skarmory, Togekiss, Mega Cloud Server, and Gyra were all difficult in which I had to tackle them if Houndoom couldn't do the job. I mean Gyra kept me at bay for a few attempts and then Noivern and I hadn't seen Togekiss at this point. So my hat is off to you.

I didn't see a gym guy until after the battle (if the guy talking about the books counts)

EDIT:

Edited August 31, 2016 by drevance

[Commander]

And this here folks is a great example of why beta testers are important. What happened was that I forgot to delete the fight afterwards since I have to copy and paste a lot of things and a variable check was a little janked up. Nothing game breaking would've happened and it would've reverted if you lost (it's not an infinite loop). Just a hilarious exploit.

[drevance]

Here we go.

I'm missing Fennekin but /shrug.

I put them in order in the box as I collected them [:

Charizard was my faithful starter who was in nearly every important battle yet. Starting off early game with Dragon Rage and Smokescreen, it proved to be an invaluable team member. Dragon Rage helping by finishing off pokemon with low HP or doing damage to fire resistant mons, only to be replaced late gate. Smoke Screen helped secure victories against Radomus, Ciel, and some major battles such as rivals. Being one of the fastest and strongest team members, it's a no brainer that Charizard earned its spot nearly permanently on the team.

Rank A

Man oh man was Pansear an interesting pokemon. Being the only other pokemon besides my starter for Julia, it always will have a place on my starting teams that will allow it. Yawn was crucial for the early game as it allowed either for me to KO something or lower its accuracy to the point we'd be fine. It was also important for setup as it could sleep a pokemon and allow someone to switch in and setup. Evolving it into Simisear only made it much better. While better options existed mid to late game, Simisear was the reason that we were able to beat Terra. With Hidden Power Ground and Grass Knot, it basically handled Terra on it's own. Early Flame Bursts helped destroy fields and take advantage of fields.

Rank B

Wow. Camerupt is a force to be reckoned with. First of all, Fire/Ground is a very impressive typing. Secondly, evolving around Corey makes it incredible. Early access to Earth Power, Lava Plume, Curse, and Rock Slide is pretty great. Camerupt became available after Julia and from Julia to Radomus it was the team member that I counted on the most. Being able to absorb many attacks, such as poison types from Cain, ghost from Shade, Camerupt easily earns the early game MVP. Being able to completely dominate Kiki by singlehandedly sweeping her with Curse and Earthquake, destroy Cain, and Sigmund/John it is a must have for early to mid game Fire Runs. I can't imagine when we can find the mega stone for it because I'm anxious to try out Mega Camerupt. Unfortunately as the game progressed Camerupt's lack of speed and defenses made it a liability. However with upcoming gyms, such as Rock, Steel, and Dragon I am confident that it will shine once again.

Rank A

Magcargo was one of the first additions to the team, and unfortunately was replaced almost immediately. It simply lacked the power to destroy anything due to it's poor speed. Most things were able to down it quickly. Those that couldn't, usually just had the field destroyed or found themselves around half hp. What he was useful for was for switching out to take a hit or to heal someone. I was there was more for Magcargo but perhaps in the Dragon gym he'll be used once again.

Rank D

Pyroar was an unexpected surprise. Why? The normal typing. Getting access to STAB Headbutt, Echoed Voice, and Hyper Voice was something that made the run doable. Being able to trick Qwilfish into spamming Signal Beam, or Water types to not use water moves, such as Radomus's Starmie was something that made the run possible. Early access to flamethrower and destroy fields, Pyroar was a necessity for the run. Outspeeding Noel, it proved a useful companion up to Luna.

Rank B+

My favorite pokemon. Also one of the best members on the run. Having access to Intimidate and Flash Fire via capsules, it was an amazing help. Combined with Close Combat and Thunder Fang, Arcanine was able to provide coverage that others were simply not able to. While growlithe was a bit poor, Arcanine made up for it by being able to take out Luna's Mega Ttar with ease, taking care of Water types with thunder fang, and ruining rock types in general with its speedy CC. My only regret was not getting Flare Blitz for it, but Arcanine is another solid team member to use up to Agate.

Rank A-

Fairly obvious. I mean, if there is ANYONE to be given the title of MVP of this run, who better? Acquired after Shelly, Vulpix was in every SINGLE battle for the remainder of the game. Flamethrower boosted via the Sun, Confuse Ray to save the team more times than I can count, Extrasensory to help get lucky flinches or to KO poison types, and Hex to deal decent damage to fire resistant types when burned. Ninetales is the MVP of the fire monotype with Drought and is a must have. I cannot imagine how this run could have been done without Ninetails. It was defensive enough to eat many attacks to confuse, to burn, to switch out. It was the spine of the team. Ninetales is going to end up being a permanent member of rotation on all future teams for me. SUNNY DAY FOR LIFE!

Rank S+

Heatmor is a strange pokemon. While it didn't receive much battle time, it was my first shiny of the run. It's bug bite was useful for dealing with Dark/Psychic types and it's White Smoke ability helped save it. Perhaps in the future it might have more utility but it wasn't used very much in the run. It was eclipsed by pokemon at the time.

Rank D

Torkoal is practically in the same place as Heatmor. With the exception of it's defenses with Amnesia and Iron Defense, it saved me a few times in battles where I needed to have strong defense. Other than that, it didn't see much use. Perhaps in the future? But I doubt it.

Rank D.

So if Ninetales is the overall MVP and Camerupt is the early to mid game MVP then that would make Houndoom the late game MVP. STAB Dark Pulse and Flamethrower with Nasty Plot is just as nasty as it sounds. Being the one who single handled swept Ciel in 1v1s, did solid damage to Radomus, tanked Luna, helped to destroy Charlotte and many major battles. Houndoom was a key member of the team and is a recommendation for any fire run or run in general. The only downside was Archie had to be defeated to obtain it, which meant defeated Mega Sharpedo. Houndoom will continue to have a place on the team as the game progresses as in the water treatment plant it showed who was boss.

Rank A

Flareon was something I hadn't used since I played Pokemon Red. Wow. Why so long? Given that you obtain it mid game, having access to Flash Fire and Flare Blitz it was naturally something I would use. Many mons that had neutral weakness to fire were brought to their knees with a STAB Drought Boosted Flare Blitz. Flareon was the one who brought Arceus to its knees with a combo of Fire Spin and Lava Plume. With decent stats it was able to eat some water attacks to KO with fire or shadow ball even. Flareon was a pokemon that was worthy of being rotated constantly into the team when I was unsure of what was ahead of me. A must have in rotation.

Rank B+

I'll be honest, I've never used Rapidash in any pokemon game. I wasn't sure what to expect, so I was nervous. I was looking at it on Bulbapedia and saw that it could learn Drill Run and looked at Drill Run and gasped. Rapidash having Flare Blitz, Bounce, and Drill Run saved the team a few times. It was responsible for destroying Mega Blaziken which had its way with the team, and helped take down Charlotte's gym trainers who rocked Flash Fire. Another member worth keeping in Rotation.

Rank B

Obtained so late, and for good reason. I spent so much time resetting for that damn shiny. It was worth it. Why? Eruption. But Typhlosion is kinda meh right? Wrong. Fire Hold item + Sunny Day + Full HP = GG NO RE. Typhlosion was key for coming in speedily and just destroying opposition. He helped take down Samson, he destroyed Blake by himself, he burned Charlotte's team to a crisp, and easily destroyed Fern and Blake at Fiore. Typhlosion gave no heed to the late game where it was obtained. Several pokemon that would resist fire had no chance against his eruption. He was most definitely worthy of the name Krakatoa. Actually I had specifically chosen that name before the run because I was always amazed by Mount Krakatoa. Flamethrower was used when he took damage, Smoke Screen because it saved my ass more times than I have toes and fingers. Finally, rollout to deal with some flyers that might resist fire. Solarbeam is going to replace it. A must have.

Rank A+

Had to pay homage somehow. When Chimchar or Torchic is available I'll name them Hiroki. Emboar provided coverage like a champ and is going to be relied on in future episodes to help handle Hardy and the steel leader. Possibly the dragon gym given Head Smash. Wasn't used much yet but I have a feeling that Emboar will have its time to shine.

Rank C

Never used one of them thangs before. Much like many of the pokemon in this run. WOW. WoW, Curse, STAB Shadow Ball and Flamethrower. Key player late game, much like Typhlosion. Curse helped me destroy PULSE Swalot, and it was key in taking down slower water types, Mega Slowbro, and other threats. It was a strong team member alongside Ninetales who took advantage of powered up Hex from burning. Most definitely recommend. Someone important to keep in rotation.

Rank B+

Another I hadn't used previously. Surprised with it. It was able to KO mostly anything it went up against and took no prisoners. Laughing in the face of advantage or disadvantage, Darmanitan had no qualms with destroying types super-effective against it. Superpower helped smash people to pieces. One of the few pokemon that I relied on when the going went tough to just come in and clear a path. tl;dr Saitama. Someone who is going to stay in rotation and have a key role and showing the next few gyms what offensive means.

Rank B+

Obtained SUPER late, but provides the type that I so desperately needed. Being able to tank a STAB Waterfall from unmoxied Gyra was key. While it was not as useful as I had originally hoped, it did carry some weight and will hopefully be of more use in the future. I have little to no experience with it, so the moveset could use some help, but overall it was a useful member for avoid ground moves and hitting people with a sun boosted Overheat.

Rank C+

Someone who hasn't received any time on the team, but has high hopes placed on them. In the future when it can become Magmortar, I expect great things from it, to not be able to take prisoners is the first thing. I look forward to it becoming a permanent member of the team's rotation.

Rank ???

So next would be a ranking of gyms I guess. Hardest to easiest.

1. Ciel
2. Radomus
3. Corey
4. Julia
5. Terra
6. Aya
7. Kiki
8. Shade
9. Samson
10. Flo
11. Shelly (perma rain is rank 0)
12. Luna
13. Charlotte
14. Noel
15. Serra

Next would be key battles

1. Cain
2. Eclipse/Aster
3. Solaris/John
4. Taka
5. Solaris
6. El
7. Sigmund
8. Victoria
9. Sirius
10. Fern
11. Blake
12. Cal

Pulses

1. Swalot
2. Muk
3. Abra
4. Avalugg
5. Tangrowth

I think that is about everything? If I missed anything or if there are any questions I'm more than happy to answer.

[drevance]

Anyway, long time no see. I've been living in the library quite a bit irl. Plus trying to figure out how to better the team and I played around to get energy ball on a pokemon or two on my team.

Anyway, with some new and improved mons, I can finally begin my attempt at the CoM! I attempted Julia a few times with my post Ciel team and couldn't get past her lead....

Then my first attempt at Julia came out to a victory. Pretty funny if you ask me since it took me what, 27 or 28 attempts to beat her normally?

Anyway, I did it at work so couldn't record as I would be interacting with people etc.

Just incase of CoM spoilers for people who haven't got there yet, going to text up the battle in spoiler box.

So I started off with Ninetales vs. Rotom W.

It missed a hydro pump and I confused it. Energy Ball took it to like 51% HP and Hydro Pump misses again. It also broke out of confusion ASAP. Another Energy Ball takes it to like 1-2% and Hydro Pump hits under the sun for about 30% of Ninetales HP. Finish it off with Energy Ball.

Next comes out Electivire and I swap into Camerupt to takes a Wild Charge for no damage. I use curse and Cross Chop crits me to 17 HP. Camerupt KO. Next comes out Chandelure to burn it with will-o-wisp and Shadow Balls it only to get KO. Next comes Arcanine who Flare Blitz's it for the KO.

Magnezone comes out next and Flare Blitz KO

Electross comes out and eats Flare Bltiz for like 97% HP and uses Flamethrower. I expect another so I swap to Typhlosion only for a volt charge or w/e the move is the electric u-turn. RIP. Out comes Manectric who mega evolves (OMG I EXPECTED AMPHOROS or however you spell the electric/dragon) and KOs yaboi Typhlosion.

Arcanine comes back out to lower its attack and gets that Flare Blitz KO.

Electross comes out and I switch to Ninetales and tank flamethrower.

I KO with flamethrower and out comes Electrode, which I forgot about. Confuse Ray and it uses Rain Dance. It hits itself and I use Will-O-Wisp. Swap to Arcanine for the Intimidate and it hits itself again. Go for the flare bltiz and Thunder KO. Ninetales comes back out for the Drought and thunder KOs it.

At this point it's like 35% HP from lifeorb and burn and confusion.

Houndoom comes out and uses Dark Pulse because the trainer Drev is an idiot and forgets that its weakened by rainbow. Rain Dance and Dark Pulse KOs Electrode for the win!

Edited September 9, 2016 by drevance

[drevance]

After realizing my mistake I just deleted the save and restarted from Julia. I fixed the errors. I have two separate teams. One that I'm going through the game with and one that I'm doing the CoM with. I made the CoM team.

I have Ampharos and Sawsbuck trained up for their respective moves for my regular team.

For the sake of it;

Typhlosion(Flame Plate) [252 Speed/Special Attack/4HP]{Flash Fire} is Modest running Flamethrower, Eruption, Rollout, and Sunny Day

Ninetales(Heat Rock) [100HP/100Special Attack/100 Special Defense/200Speed]{Drought} is Calm running Flamethrower, Confuse Ray, Will-o-wisp, Eball

Camerupt(Earth Plate)[248 HP/176Special Attack/84Speed]{Solid Rock} is Modest running Curse, EQ, Lava Plume, and Earth Power

Houndoom(Charcoal)[252Speed/Special Attack/4HP]{Flash Fire} is Timid running Nasty Plot, Flamethrower, Dark Pulse, and Hidden Power

Arcanine(Flame Plate)[252 Attack/Speed]/4HP{Intimidate} is Adamant running Flare Blitz, Bulldoze, Crunch, and CC

Chandelure(Spell Tag)[252 Speed/Special Attack/4HP]{Infiltrator} is Timid running Curse, Confuse Ray, Shadow Ball, Flamethrower

Defeated Julia again pretty much the same way except with Eball

Flo

vs Flo

Camerupt vs. Cacturne

Toxic Spikes and Curse

Needle Arm and Curse

Reset

Vs Flo

Ninetales vs Cacturne

Flamethrower but it's Focus Sash let it use Needle Arm

Repeat but it used Sucker Punch. KO'd with Flamethrower

Ninetales vs. Torterra

Swap to Camerupt and EQ crits and KOs Camerupt.

Typhlosion vs. Torterra

Eruption OHKO

Typhlosion vs. Tangrowth

Eruption OHKO

Typhlosion vs. Exeggutor

Eruption OHKO

Typhlosion vs. Cradily

Eruption OHKO

Typhlosion vs. Ferrothron

Eruption OHKO

Shelly

Vs Shelly

Ninetales and Chandelure vs Heather and Noel

Rainbow takes field effect due to Rain and Drought

Flamethrower OHKO Heather and Noel

Ninetales and Chandelure vs Cain and Armaldo

Flamethrower OHKO Cain and crits Armaldo Armaldo

Ninetales and Chandelure vs Bugsy and Illumise

Bugsy uses tail glow. Ninetales uses flamethrower on Bugsy and crits. KO. Chandelure OHKO's with Flamethrower.

Shade

Vs Shade

Ninetales vs. Chandelure

Swap to Houndoom and eat Energy Ball

Houndoom vs. Chandelure

Energy Ball hits again and Dark Pulse OHKOs

Houndoom vs. Golurk

Dark Pulse crits OHKO'ing

Houndoom vs Corey

Dark Pulse OHKO's M-Gengar

Houndoom vs. Jellicent

Dark Pulse doesn't KO and Scald finishes off Jellicent

Ninetales vs. Jellicent

Confuse Ray and it hits itself. Flamethrower doesn't do much and Dazzling Gleam does 37 damage, confusion fades. Why didn't it use Scald? KO'd by EB

Ninetales vs. Aegislash

Shadow Sneak takes Ninetales down to red. Flamethrower KOs with help from Aegislash's Life Orb

Ninetales vs. Dusclops

Confuse Ray and Dusclops uses Trick Room. Accidently spam C and confuse ray again after Dusclops hits itself.

It hits itself again and Will-o-wisp burns it. Hits itself again and Flamethrower does barely anything.

Sunlight fades and swap out to Arcanine.

Arcanine vs. Dusclops

Dusclops snaps out of confusion and uses Night Shade. Trick Room wears off. Crunch finishes it off.

Stuck on Aya currently. Muk uses Shadow Sneak to nerf Eruption and Dragalge comes out after Muk and destroys everyone.

[gryson]

what's the tip to avoid the rain in shelly's gym?

[drevance]

what's the tip to avoid the rain in shelly's gym?

in the most recent version of Hardcore you can choose to battle in the rain or not I believe.

[gryson]

in the most recent version of Hardcore you can choose to battle in the rain or not I believe.

hey, doing a hardcore fire run myself, and i just beat shelly, it's a good thing you can choose the battle without the rain....

[drevance]

hey, doing a hardcore fire run myself, and i just beat shelly, it's a good thing you can choose the battle without the rain....

Nice, congratulations on beating Shelly. I wish you luck with the upcoming Cain/Solaris/Kiki battles.

[gryson]

Nice, congratulations on beating Shelly. I wish you luck with the upcoming Cain/Solaris/Kiki battles.

thanks, but i had some pokemon hacked in (using vulpix and ponyta from the beginning), so its a little easier than your run

[drevance]

thanks, but i had some pokemon hacked in (using vulpix and ponyta from the beginning), so its a little easier than your run

Nice. I look forward to hearing what your team is at the end of episode 15.

I've been a bit busy lately with schoolwork and having someone stay with me for football games. I gave Aya another shot and failed unfortunately. I could have possibly won looking back but /shrug.

vs Aya

Ninetales and Camerupt vs. Tentacruel and Muk

Confusion Ray hits Muk

Muddy Water hits both Ninetales and Camerupt, critting Camerupt but not KO'ing

Muk uses Ice Punch on Camerupt bringing him to red HP

Camerupt uses Earth Power on Tentacruel, taking it to 2/5ths

Ninetales Will-O-Wisps Muk

Tentacruel uses Blizzard which Ninetales avoids and KOs Camerupt

Ninetales and Houndoom vs. Tentacruel and Muk

Houndoom uses Nasty Plot

Ninetales uses Flamethrower on Tentacruel taking it to Red.

Tentacruel uses Toxic Spikes

Muk misses Gunk Shot

Muk shadow sneaks Houndoom for little damage and flinches, FML.

Ninetales uses flamethrower to take Muk to half hp

Tentacruel uses sludge wave

Dark Pulse KO's Tentacruel

Flamethrower KO's Muk

Ninetales and Houndoom vs. Dragalge and Drapion

Houndoom uses Dark Pulse on Dragalge

Ninetales confuses Dragalge

Drapion misses Aqua Tail

Dragalge hits itself in confusion

Dark Pulse and Flamethrower hit Dragalge, taking it to 1HP

Drapion KO's Houndoom with X-Scissor

Dragalge snaps out of confusion and KO's Ninetales with Dragon Pulse

Arcanine and Typhlosion vs. Dragalge and Drapion

Typhlosion uses Eruption and KO's both Dragalge and Drapion.

Forgot Bulldoze hits me as well, Typhlosion takes small damage + speed loss

Arcanine and Typhlosion vs Nidoqueen and Gengar

Gengar OHKO's with Focus Blast

Bulldoze hits Nidoqueen to lower speed

Earth Power OHKO's Arcanine

Chandelure vs. Nidoqueen and Gengar

I mess up and confuse ray instead of shadow ball Gengar....................... Focus Blast misses

Earth Power OHKO.

FML I'm stupid.

-----

Should have used confuse ray on Nidoqueen and taken it out first if Gengar would have kept spamming Focus Blast which was 4/5 a the time of sending Chandelure out. /shrug. Maybe next time.

[drevance]

Streaming for about 90 minutes for a friend to see the CoM and I was stuck on Luna for a while and then finally beat her to get stuck on Charlotte because OH MY STARS SHE IS SO MUCH MORE DIFFICULT.

I eventually overcame her stupid focus sashed and seemingly lightning fast Chandelure which was complete bullsh- only for me to get stuck on Terra. Holy hell.

Whoever designed CoM Terra I am torn. I both love and hate you. Getting rid of weather is no big deal, but RAWRCHOMP as the next send in literally ruins everything. 5 attempts and I let Terra beat me so I could go buy air balloons. Going to try again probably tomorrow. But DAMN is Terra tough. I might need to reevaluate my team idk. Hopefully I can air balloon Terra again [:. We'll see. I just lack the power to deal with it effectively atm. Oh well. Once I have a way to beat it I'll make a video of doing all the battles in one go and then I'll wait start my next run I have planned.

EDIT: I could always export the broadcast to youtube if anyone was interested as it's archived. if not I'll just keep it there

Edited September 25, 2016 by drevance

[Commander]

<<<Designed every fight whose name isn't Julia

Many of the leaders I'm not going to hold any punches back on, unlike in Regular Hardcore. I did not design CoM fights to be easy so if you're team isn't rounded enough, one of the leaders is gonna tear you to shreds (similar to how the Reborn league worked...which this is as close to a substitute as I could make). After you get past the current final leader in each episode, that's where all the fun stuff happens. Like I'm surprised people are even able to beat it because I can defeat everyone but that one last fight.

[drevance]

<<<Designed every fight whose name isn't Julia

Many of the leaders I'm not going to hold any punches back on, unlike in Regular Hardcore. I did not design CoM fights to be easy so if you're team isn't rounded enough, one of the leaders is gonna tear you to shreds (similar to how the Reborn league worked...which this is as close to a substitute as I could make). After you get past the current final leader in each episode, that's where all the fun stuff happens. Like I'm surprised people are even able to beat it because I can defeat everyone but that one last fight.

Kudos then. Some leaders that we're easy originally were much, much more difficult. Like let's take Charlotte. Darmanitan was terrifying. But that wasn't all. Infernape was equally as scary because it basically countered Typhlosion. Chandelure was the third scariest thing because of Flash Fire. OH MY ARCEUS IS THIS WHAT ALL THE NPCS FELT FACING ME? That was horrible as it destroyed my non flash fire mons with ease.

Also is Ice Punch something that can flinch or does Aya's Muk/field have something to do to that? I've never experienced that before and just curious if that's something new.

Also Aya - I difficult.

I noticed you don't hold punches. Like there are some battles where I can make mistakes or I can be more free in my choosing of moves/mons. But there are some where it is only possible if I do certain moves in a certain order. Like it's crazy. I don't think Hardcore forced me into this except with Terra's gym battle and I conveniently forgot Terra existed until today. I have no clue honestly how I'm going to deal with Terra but I have a few strategies to work on.

So far difficulty has been

CoM Julia

Florinia

Shelly

Shade

CoM Aya

CoM Serra

CoM Noel

Radomus

CoM Luna

Samson

CoM Charlotte

CoM Terra

is as far as I've got. This is just at the time of battle the level of difficulty for the run. I can give a more indepth reasoning if you'd like/help. But personally this is how it feels to me.

[drevance]

I'm still stuck on Terra. Even Air-Ballooning her isn't working. So I'm probably going to wait for new mons to be added in EP16 and try CoM again. Not to mention that Luna/Charlotte are huge pains that prevent me from even getting to Terra. I'm not going to give up trying the CoM, just not going to bash my head in repeatedly for now. Besides even if there are two new fire types added it could help. Camerupt could be replaced if the mega isn't given this episode. So, we'll see. IDK what would. Perhaps Delphox? We'll see. Back to the burning drawing board. Anyway, thought I'd give a little update.

[drevance]

The run will be resumed once the spoiler lock is lifted, because frankly I don't want to spoiler code an entire post because I'm A. Lazy and B. don't like how it looks.

[PedroHenrique]

You mind IV's or don't care about them?

[drevance]

1 hour ago, PedroHenrique said:

You mind IV's or don't care about them?

 

Don't really care for em. If I get low IVs meh, no harm done. Natures are more important to me.