Under 450 - Challenge Run

[Edo]

Hey everybody,

I've just recently joined here, but have been playing Reborn since a year ago. After seeing lots of people do Monotype or themed playtroughs, I thought of trying out a new kind of challenge to spice up the game - which I will name the Under 450 Run.

If you're wondering "What does that name mean?": It's derived from the main rule this run is based on: I will only use pokemon with a Base Stat Total (BST) of 450 and below.

 

If you're not familiar with those numbers, let me give you some examples to show you why that would be considered a challenge:

Legendary Pokemon usually have a BST between 580 (trios like the birds or dogs) to 680 (Mewtu, Rayquaza, etc.), the strongest being Arceus with 720.

Pseudo Legends like Metagross or Garchomp all have a BST of 600.

Starters and Gen 4 new evolutions (Electivire, Mamoswine, etc.) are located somewhere around 520-540.

Pidgeot is at 479, Solrock: 460, Sandslash: 450, Wigglytuff: 435, Mightyena: 420, Ratticate: 413 and Butterfree: 395.

This little overview should let you picture what kind of pokemon i will be using.

 

Now to the rules: The rules I set for this run are as follows:

1. Only Pokemon with an original BST of 450 or lower are allowed in battles.

2. The Battle Style will be on 'Set'.

3. Bag Items are not allowed during Trainer battles.

4. Trading is prohibited to prevent unfair early advantages.

5. Moves that directly boost stats won't be allowed, neither status moves like Swords Dance nor attacking moves with a passive boost like Flame Charge.

 

Early game will basically be the same as normal runs since there aren't really any pokemon with a BST over 450 to use. Therefore the real challenge will only start from mid game onwards.

I've been planning this run for quite some while now, and I'd really like some feedback from you guys and to hear your ideas on what pokemon to use.

Edited January 4, 2020 by Edo

[N1Dude]

Nice idea!

Wish you good luck with it!

You'll probably be abusing the f*ck out of moxie mightyena and swords dance alolan sandslash

Don't forget the simple mons like swoobat and bibarel they'll be handy too.

I don't remember if the eviolite will be available soon but pre evolutions are available as well ofcourse so keep that in mind. Like eviolite gurdurr, piloswine, doublade or even chansey are very powerful.

I might even try this one out myself!

Minior is available too for some nice shell smashing. Intimidate Arbok could come in clutch even.

Quagsire is even available woah did not expect that.

(Alolan) marowak with thick club hits extremely hard, same for huge power diggersby and huge power belly drum aqua jet azumarill though. And pure power medicham ofcourse.

Vivillon is Nice as well for sticky web for instance.

You could also use it and something like venomoth to quiver dance up.

And murkrow and wobbufet for some sneaky plays. 

Those are like pretty much all your options but when used well not even that bad now that I look into it!

[Edo]

5 hours ago, N1Dude said:

Nice idea!

Wish you good luck with it!

Thanks! I also first thought about some eviolite mons like Piloswine or Klang. And yeah, I had Sandslash in mind as well haha (oops, just noticed I wrote Sandshrew instead in my initial post, edited).

As for Murkrow/Wobuffet: I'll first try without too cheesy tactics, since it's supposed to be a challenge, but if I have to...

[Bennylava]

I think Eviolite is available after the restoration, iirc.

 

That's a really cool idea. I'll definitely bookmark this and look forward to your updates.

[N1Dude]

4 hours ago, Edo said:

Thanks! I also first thought about some eviolite mons like Piloswine or Klang. And yeah, I had Sandslash in mind as well haha (oops, just noticed I wrote Sandshrew instead in my initial post, edited).

As for Murkrow/Wobuffet: I'll first try without too cheesy tactics, since it's supposed to be a challenge, but if I have to...

Haha yeah makes sense about not wanting to use those,  but could definitely come in handy against some high level bosses.

Don't forget about mons like snover and hippopotas to get a up a quick hailstorm or sandstorm to boost your sand slashes.

What are your thoughts about wishiwashi by the way? Because it starts at 175 total but transforms in battle into this beast with 620 base stat total. But it's slow with low hp so in my opinion you can get away with it .

Makes me think, eviolite Duosion could be cool as well, you'll probably have some pretty slow mons as well so duosion can take a hit and set up a trick room if you want while still having a base sp.attack in 125(!) which is just as high as reuniclus'.

[Edo]

2 hours ago, Siv said:

I think Eviolite is available after the restoration, iirc.

 

That's a really cool idea. I'll definitely bookmark this and look forward to your updates.

Yes the eviolite is underwater, so I can't get it until then. I've already started so it won't be long for the first update :)

4 minutes ago, N1Dude said:

Haha yeah makes sense about not wanting to use those,  but could definitely come in handy against some high level bosses.

Don't forget about mons like snover and hippopotas to get a up a quick hailstorm or sandstorm to boost your sand slashes.

What are your thoughts about wishiwashi by the way? Because it starts at 175 total but transforms in battle into this beast with 620 base stat total. But it's slow with low hp so in my opinion you can get away with it .

Makes me think, eviolite Duosion could be cool as well, you'll probably have some pretty slow mons as well so duosion can take a hit and set up a trick room if you want while still having a base sp.attack in 125(!) which is just as high as reuniclus'.

For Hail I thought of using Amaura because it knows Stealth Rocks, makes for a good start.

Wishiwashi was probably the first mon I thought about when coming up with the challenge but I'm still unsure about it. It's definitely "legal" since 175 is the original BTS while the Ability gives it that huge boost (after all you could just disable its ability in some way thus making it useless). But it really feels more like Archeops or Slaking: an overpowered mon with a negative ability to balance it out, so I was pondering if I should ban it for the challenge, especially since I don't think any opponent in the game will use Gastro Acid or something else on it. With those stats it'll definitely survive most hits, even effective ones, but late game getting it down to 25% HP will likely happen often, so it might be okay using it. It would be kinda comparable to high risk mons like Wobuffet or Shedinja: It can become your trump card or be totally useless. So I guess I'll let it slide and just emphasize the 'original' in Rule 1

Trick Room Duosion with Wishiwashi, so tempting haha

 

Damn so many good options, but I'll have to choose only a few since I'd rather not train so many.  It kinda killed the fun in Rejuvenation when I did that, so I won't be able to try out lots of them. Maybe I'll just test them along the way.

[FriarTruck]

Good luck! Some of those later battles are going to be really hard challenges for you to pass. Although Sandslash, Quagsire, Marowak? Such interesting pokemon you'll get to use through your playthough.

 

Some other mons that are worth looking into could be Kadabra (glass cannon, but will drop off late game, no strong moves), Metang (good typing, defences with eviolite), Tangela (physical tank with eviolite + high special attack, heals) and Emolga (motor drive, heaps of utility moves, free switch-ins always help on set mode).

 

Which parts of the run are you dreading? I think Blake will be kinda hard, and... deciding which mon will get the eviolite 

[Edo]

9 hours ago, FriarTruck said:

Good luck! Some of those later battles are going to be really hard challenges for you to pass. Although Sandslash, Quagsire, Marowak? Such interesting pokemon you'll get to use through your playthough.

 

Some other mons that are worth looking into could be Kadabra (glass cannon, but will drop off late game, no strong moves), Metang (good typing, defences with eviolite), Tangela (physical tank with eviolite + high special attack, heals) and Emolga (motor drive, heaps of utility moves, free switch-ins always help on set mode).

 

Which parts of the run are you dreading? I think Blake will be kinda hard, and... deciding which mon will get the eviolite 

Thanks for the suggestions. Kadabra would be a good revenger. I tried out breeding Emolga with Speed Swap beforehand for the Run, but it's not working unfortunately. Would have been really interesting combined with something like Marowak.

I guess everything from Charlotte on might be pretty hard, since I will lose the advantage being the only one with EV training. My lower base stats will likely become very noticable from then on. I'm especially worried about staying alive in longer Double Battles like the Fiore Gauntlet or the Glass gauntlet. I'll need some tanks that are really hard to kill, something like Stockpile Eviolite Munchlax.

 

Hmm, about the eviolite: Let's just say I have a plan regarding that

[Edo]

Update #1

 

 

First Update is finally ready. As I said, early game will look pretty much like a normal run, so I won't go much into detail until Shelly, because that's the point where several pokemon would've already reached their final form and be too strong for me to use.

Since I won't be using my starter for long, it doesn't really matter which one I choose. I decided to go with Charmander, because with Dragon Rage I can quickly beat the normal trainers and don't need to waste my time resetting for good IVs or for EV training.

 

The mons I caught before Julia:   (Actually I caught some more which I thought of using for the Run, but later decided not to, so I won't write about unnecessary stuff.)

 

- fetched the Kricketot

- went to Seacrest's garden to catch a Burmy.  (Also got a shiny Caterpie! Evolved it into Butterfree, only to then decide I wouldn't use it after all, haha)

- got Pachirisu on the bridge

- got the dumpster Gulpin

- caught Goldeen with Lightning rod at the pool

 

Then came the battle against Julia.

 

Julia:

 

Team: Charmeleon (405), Kricketune (384), Pachirisu (405), Goldeen (320), Burmy (224), Gulpin (302)

 

Julia was pretty easy. Vlad and Pac rocked that fight. I started with Bard and immediately switched Vlad in to activate the Lightning Rod boost and defeated Minun, Plusle and Voltorb with Water Pulse. Send Pac in for Oricorio and Geodude, and for Electrode Pac weakened it enough so that Vlad could finish it with Flail (Aftermath killed Vlad as well).

 

 

- Caught Klink in the Railnet. Gulpin out, Klink in.

- Burmy evolved into Wormadam and learnt Quiver Dance, nice!

 

Pulse Tangrowth battle: nothing noteworthy

 

- played some Voltorb flip and bought the 3 TMs and a Slugma (for battling and egg-hatching)

 

Florinia:

 

Team: Charmeleon, Kricketune, Pachirisu, Slugma (250), Wormadam (424), Klink (300)

 

Not much strategy here, Kricketune and Slugma destroyed her. Fury Cutter and Incinerate decimated half her team. Cradily was a little problematic, but Nia finished the job.

 

 

- got a Venonat on the Rooftop in Onyx Ward

 

The next two Pulse Tangrowths were no problem as well.

 

Corey:

 

Team: Charmeleon, Goldeen, Venonat (305), Slugma, Wormadam, Klink

 

Lost the first fight cause I was severely underleveled. After bringing everyone to the same level as Corey's team, he went down. Fluff killed Skrelp, and Brim took care of Skuntank. Wormadam was the MVP of this fight, defeating the last four members of his team by herself.

 

Edited February 14, 2020 by Edo
BSTs added

[Edo]

Update #2

 

On time for Christmas, the next update:

Spoiler

Now that Corey is defeated, Shelly's up next. On my way back I fetched the Growlithe from the police station, bred it and got the mistery egg.

I was hoping for a Sneasel or Axew because I thought that would be the best mons under 450 BST , but what I got instead was this:

 

 

 

An Azurill egg!! So lucky! I didn't even realize at first that Azumarill (420) is allowed and was like "Meh, why did it have to be this one?" Almost dumped it in the PC where I would have forgotten about it, so stupid  

 

This will be great for the Run as soon as I breed one with Aqua Jet+Belly Drum, but because I chose the Aqua Gang, I can't get Buizel for Aqua Jet anymore. I'll have to wait for Rain so I can catch Surskit, but the weather has not been in my favor so far.

 

In order to properly EV train and for breeding, I started making some cash so I could buy Power Items. Went around with a full Pickup team and sold most of the collected stuff. That way I had enough money to buy at least the Power Anklet and Lens so I could train EVs in Speed and Sp.Att.

 

After reaching the Crystal Cave beneath the Grand Stairway, I caught a Geodude (Graveler: 390), Sandshrew (Sandslash: 450) and Diglett (Dugtrio: 425). Also went back to catch a Meowth.

 

Since Azurill is a baby pokemon it comes with three 31 IVs. Together with the Pichu from Onyx Ward and the Power Items/Destiny Knot, I was able to breed Meowth, Sandshrew and Diglett with really good IVs.

 

After lots of hatched eggs, it was finally time for Shelly. For the fight, instead of preventing the rain to burn the field, I decided to abuse her rain with Seaking (450), which knows Water Fall by now, and changed his ability to Swift Swim so it could outspeed Anorith. Swift Swim wasn't really necessary to win, but Anorith can deal lots of damage and even flinch with Rock Slide, which would have been annoying. Also gave Persian (440) a Metronome to hold to keep up the damage if it gets hit by Struggle Bug.

 

 

Turn 1:  Kill Masquerain with Power Gem, lay out Stealth Rocks

 

 

Turn 2:  Switch out Persian for Seaking to prevent the Sp.Att. drop from Struggle Bug, Graveler defeated by Aqua Jet and Struggle Bug

 

 

Turn 3:  Persian in again, spam Power Gem and Water Fall from here on

 

 

Turn 6:  Finish her!

 

 

 

In the end Shelly was defeated much easier than anticipated. That little Devil took me about 40 tries on my very first playthrough of this game and was by far the hardest Gym leader to beat for me back then. I dreaded facing her again, but with this I've finally gotten over my trauma

 

Edited February 29, 2020 by Edo
BSTs added

[Bennylava]

Would you consider recording your important battles rather than screenshots?

 

At least from this point onward things are going to get interesting. Brilliant getting Azurill lol.

[Edo]

Yeah I planned so, even have Shade recorded already, just need to write the next update now.

 

Edit:

I just realized I should have written down the BSTs for all pokemon I'm using, cause people reading this might want to know and shouldn't have to look it up themselves. So here are the BSTs for every pokemon from the previous two updates:

 

Charmeleon: 405   Charizard: 534

Kricketune: 384

Pachirisu: 405

Goldeen: 320   Seaking: 450

Burmy: 224   Wormadam: 424

Gulpin: 302   Swalot: 467

Slugma: 250   Magcargo: 430

Klink: 300   Klang: 440   Klinklang: 520

Venonat: 305   Venomoth: 450 

Azumarill: 420

Graveler: 390   Golem: 495

Dugtrio: 425

Sandslash: 450

Persian: 440

 

Red numbers are obviously too high, so I can only use the pre evolution.

 

Edited December 26, 2019 by Edo

[areason]

Loving it so far!

[Edo]

Update #3

 

I'll be writing a little more about the story, like a short summary, from here on to make reading this a little bit more enjoyable for you guys, hope you like it.
 

Spoiler

 

After Shelly's defeat, I went back to the Grand Hall to report to Ame about Corey's death, just to run into Fern, sighhh.

 

 Oh, am I? And what are you gonna do about it? Lose on purpose?

 

After kicking his butt I made my way to the Beryl Cemetery to ask Cain for the Key to Byxbysion, where I had to fight him as well!

 

 

 

He didn't give me the key when I won even though he promised, how nice of you Cain. Instead I now have to go after him all the way back to Lapis Ward.

 

But while passing through Peridot, I made a little detour and got a Surskit to breed a Marill with Aqua Jet so it can finally join my team.

 

As soon as I arrived in Lapis and met with Cain, Heather and Shelly, we crossed ways with Dr. Connal on the streets.

Shelly had the brilliant idea to tell this crazy, child abusing doctor that Heather is an orphan, whereupon he immediately seized her.

So now we have to raid the orphanage and save Heather.

 

 

Shelly was actually doing a really good job as partner which made things here very easy.

Soon we arrived at the top floor and cornered Dr. Connal, who had no choice but to let Heather go.

 

 

After escaping with the kids to the Railnet, I set off for the Abandoned Power Plant to challenge Shade. But before fighting him, I added a Togedemaru (BST 435) to my team.

 

Battle VS Shade

 

My strategy for Shade was pretty straightforward, just used whatever was effective as you can see. I started with Dugtrio to outspeed and oneshot Gengar, followed by Persian to take care of Dhelmise and Rotom before sending in Togedemaru to wrap it up.

 

(By the way, keep in mind that the 18.2 Patch didn't only improve the AI, it also added changes to trainers, like Shade's Banette now holding a Synthetic Seed.)

 

 

Edited December 28, 2019 by Edo

[AyTales]

One thing you might want to add to the rules are the BST of a Pokemon can never exceed 450. That stops you from being able to use buff moves and the like.

[Edo]

1 hour ago, Aegisth said:

One thing you might want to add to the rules are the BST of a Pokemon can never exceed 450. That stops you from being able to use buff moves and the like.

I wanted to implement that rule actually, but I'd have to consider items and abilities as well, and calculating those in is kinda hard. I mean, how am I supposed to calculate the improvement by Leftovers? They surely increase its holder's "battle power", but you can't really express that by BST. There are items that directly increase stats, like Choice Band, so that could be calculated, but not compared to others like Leftovers. Or how would the Choice Band's side effect of only allowing one move be included? How would that decrease the BST?

There's the same problem with abilities. Some are pretty direct, like Guts giving +50% Att, but what about Technician? It basically has the same boost, but gets applied to the moves base power, not your Att or SpAtt stat, so that would have no affect on base stats.

Also since buffs improve the stats of a pokemon, and not the base stats, EVs and IVs will influence the buffs as well. I'd have to constantly calculate back and forth to determine the new "would be" base stats, since some buffs might not let the BST exceed 450 and would still be "legal" per rules, but then after a few more EVs gained it's suddenly too much and I'd have to change my move set. On that note, what about the stat improvement from EVs and IVs themselves? If they cause the BST to go over the limit I'd have to keep them down as well.  (Imagine Sandslash, which has a BST of 450 already, not being allowed to have any EVs or zero IVs only)

 

What I'm trying to say is that it would be too complicated and too much work to do so. After thinking this through a lot (maybe too much ) when I was setting this Run's rules, I decided to keep it simple for convenience's sake and allow every pokemon with an original BST of 450 and lower, doesn't matter if it exceeds it afterwards through different means.

 

Of course you could simplify it by adding the rule explicitly as "no buff moves allowed", but everything else is okay. Adding that as extra rule for this kind of run to make it more challenging sounds interesting. But I'd like to first try out how well this will work out as it is, since having no buff moves makes this more challenging which means it'll likely take longer to play through the game. I might become pretty busy from mid- or end-January, and I don't want to cancel this Run because of lack of time.

[Edo]

Update #4

 

Spoiler

Before going on with the story, I finally trained up my Sandshrew I got before Shelly.

 

 

Since I need Strength to proceed through the Railnet, I had to find a way over Azurine Lake to reach Apophyll and get the TMX from Kiki. That's when I met Amaria who needed help with investigating Blacksteam Factory. After being captured by Team Meteor, I met this little guy:

 

 

Ditto (BST 288) should come in very handy for some of the upcoming battles.

 

 

After fighting my way through the factory, I finally reached the source of the lake's contamination, the Pulse Muk. I lost many times against ZEL, his Muk was too bulky to overcome the Leftovers' regeneration. Klang's field-boosted Gear Grind dealt the highest damage, but it wasn't enough and Klang died pretty fast every time. Weakening it with Pachirisu's Super Fang was my next idea, but it didn't survive for long either, and I couldn't manage to finish it off with the following pokemon. I finally managed to beat it after lowering its Defense with Rock Smash.

 

Battle VS:  ZEL and Pulse Muk

 

Afterwards I got the keys for Amaria's boat and arrived at Apophyll Academy. But before Kiki would accept my challenge, I had to prove myself first by defeating her strongest student, the Ex-leader Cal, who was waiting atop of Pyrous Mountain.

 

Battle VS:  Cal

 

Thanks to Magcargo and Dugtrio, defeating Cal was a cakewalk.

 

Returning victorious, Kiki prepared to battle me, but Victoria, worried about her well being, tried to stop me from challenging Kiki by fighting me herself.

 

 

Victoria was fairly easy as well. Azumarill's Play Rough killed Pangoro, then Sandslash took care of the rest. Next up was Kiki:

 

Battle VS:  Kiki

 

 

Beause Cain still hasn't shown up in Apophyll since departing from Coral Ward, I searched on the midway located Azurine Island for him, only to stumble upon Aster and Eclipse in an abandoned looking building. In the basement, I found that not only Cain was there, but Taka as well. He didn't stand a chance against my Azumarill. Fortunately his Chatot didn't use Chatter immediately, but instead tried boosting itself with Nasty Plot, giving me the opportunity to sweep him with Azumarill.

 

 

 

 

 

Together with Cain and Victoria, we again make our way to the top of Pyrous Mountain to stop the impending eruption which Team Meteor plans to cause with their Pulse technology. But what awaits us at the volcano's summit is a climactic battle with Team Meteor's founding leader, Solaris.

 

Battle VS:  Solaris

 

With a Quick Claw, Venomoth was able to move first and paralyze Garchomp. Thanks to Ditto's Imposter, it can copy Garchomp's high stats and deal high damage. But due to its relatively low HP, it rarely survives a hit. Still, the damage is high enough for my remaining party members to finish it.

My first strategy was to use Magcargo's Flame Body to burn Garchomp. But he would only use a contact move, Fire Fang, against Venomoth, and else only Earthquake. But even then, the chance for him to use Fire Fang or get burned is not 100%, so it took lots of attempts to get that far. Yet I still couldn't beat him that way because he could still at least 2HKO everything, and whatever damage I caused wasn't nearly enough since his Leftovers kept his HP up.

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Edo

[AyTales]

2 hours ago, Edo said:

I wanted to implement that rule actually, but I'd have to consider items and abilities as well, and calculating those in is kinda hard. I mean, how am I supposed to calculate the improvement by Leftovers? They surely increase its holder's "battle power", but you can't really express that by BST. There are items that directly increase stats, like Choice Band, so that could be calculated, but not compared to others like Leftovers. Or how would the Choice Band's side effect of only allowing one move be included? How would that decrease the BST?

There's the same problem with abilities. Some are pretty direct, like Guts giving +50% Att, but what about Technician? It basically has the same boost, but gets applied to the moves base power, not your Att or SpAtt stat, so that would have no affect on base stats.

Also since buffs improve the stats of a pokemon, and not the base stats, EVs and IVs will influence the buffs as well. I'd have to constantly calculate back and forth to determine the new "would be" base stats, since some buffs might not let the BST exceed 450 and would still be "legal" per rules, but then after a few more EVs gained it's suddenly too much and I'd have to change my move set. On that note, what about the stat improvement from EVs and IVs themselves? If they cause the BST to go over the limit I'd have to keep them down as well.  (Imagine Sandslash, which has a BST of 450 already, not being allowed to have any EVs or zero IVs only)

 

What I'm trying to say is that it would be too complicated and too much work to do so. After thinking this through a lot (maybe too much ) when I was setting this Run's rules, I decided to keep it simple for convenience's sake and allow every pokemon with an original BST of 450 and lower, doesn't matter if it exceeds it afterwards through different means.

 

Of course you could simplify it by adding the rule explicitly as "no buff moves allowed", but everything else is okay. Adding that as extra rule for this kind of run to make it more challenging sounds interesting. But I'd like to first try out how well this will work out as it is, since having no buff moves makes this more challenging which means it'll likely take longer to play through the game. I might become pretty busy from mid- or end-January, and I don't want to cancel this Run because of lack of time.

Hmm, those are fair points. When I've done runs with similar premises, I didn't allow myself to use an Azumarill with Huge Power because it turned it from a very meh mon to a pretty decent mon. It went against the spirit of the challenge. I can understand not wanting to implement the rule without hard and fast reasons behind every ban, though.

[Edo]

On 12/31/2019 at 2:15 AM, Aegisth said:

Hmm, those are fair points. When I've done runs with similar premises, I didn't allow myself to use an Azumarill with Huge Power because it turned it from a very meh mon to a pretty decent mon. It went against the spirit of the challenge. I can understand not wanting to implement the rule without hard and fast reasons behind every ban, though.

You know what? I've been thinking after your suggestion not to exceed my BST limit with boost moves to make the run more difficult. Even though I said I might not have the time for it, I have to admit that I want it to be more challenging. And let's be honest, using boost moves can be kinda cheap. So F* it, I'll do it! No stat boosting moves for this challenge.

 

But I'll limit it to only stat boosting moves. Items and abilities will all still be allowed since, like I already said, comparing them can be really complicated. Also boosts from items and abilities are more moderate: They usually grant something like a 10 or 20% boost, 30 or 50% at most with drawbacks though, and only Huge/Pure Power or special items like Light Ball give 100%. But boost moves can increase your stats by up to 300% without any drawback, and in cases like Coil or Quiver Dance it even applies to 3 different stats at once.

 

I added the new rule to the list in my initial post and I have already redone the battles from the previous update #4 where I had used boost moves and relinked them to the new videos (ZEL, Cal and Kiki).

The next update is ready as well.

 

 

Update #5

 

Spoiler

After receiving Strength from Victoria, I needed the next badge to use it, so I returned to Reborn City.

Cain was already waiting to fight me at the entrance to Byxbysion, where the next gym is located, before letting me in. Half his team is weak to ground, so I had an easy time thanks to Dugtrio.

 

 

I crossed through the Byxbysion Wasteland and reached Aya's gym. Fern, who was already there, challenged me to a battle. As always, his Roserade was really tough.

 

 

Following that I battled Aya. It took quite some attempts to find a good starting pair. Eventually I decided on Venomoth and Dugtrio. Dugtrio would quickly take care of her pokemon while I would leave Toxapex since it doesn't do much damage. With the paralysis it would occasionally not attack. Since Nidoqueen knows Stomping Tantrum I had to use Venomoth instead of my electric rodents. For some reason, at the end Toxapex was spamming Toxic Spikes even though it had no effect. But since Icy Wind was it's only way of dealing damage at that point, it wouldn't have made any difference either way.

 

Battle VS:  Aya

 

With Cain as partner, we stormed the Yureyu HQ where the kids were held hostage. I decided not to fight Sigmund for that satisfying scene at the Belrose Mansion later

 

Therefore I had to face Sirius instead, but thanks to Cain the fight wasn't all too hard.

 

 

 

After freeing everyone, we escape through the Railnet and make our way to the Chrysolia Region.

 

Edited January 4, 2020 by Edo

[AyTales]

I hope it makes it more interesting and challenging for you!

[Bennylava]

Genuinely loving this.

Looking forward to seeing how you manage the harder gyms later on.

 

Do you have a list of the mons available to you?

 

I would love to try my hands at this once I finish my dark run.

[Edo]

5 hours ago, Aegisth said:

I hope it makes it more interesting and challenging for you!

Thank you . Wish you good luck with your Mono Ice Memeborn Run, too!

4 hours ago, Siv said:

Genuinely loving this.

Looking forward to seeing how you manage the harder gyms later on.

 

Do you have a list of the mons available to you?

 

I would love to try my hands at this once I finish my dark run.

I usually use some pokemon wiki sites like bulbapedia, here's a list. You can sort them by their total or average numbers for a better overview.

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pokémon_by_base_stats_(Generation_VII)

 

Considering your eyesight I looked for a list with dark background as well, but could only find one with up to 6th gen pokemon.

http://pokemon-index.com/base

[Bennylava]

On 1/5/2020 at 11:01 AM, Edo said:

Thank you . Wish you good luck with your Mono Ice Memeborn Run, too!

I usually use some pokemon wiki sites like bulbapedia, here's a list. You can sort them by their total or average numbers for a better overview.

https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/List_of_Pokémon_by_base_stats_(Generation_VII)

 

Considering your eyesight I looked for a list with dark background as well, but could only find one with up to 6th gen pokemon.

http://pokemon-index.com/base

Brilliant! Thanks.

[Edo]

Update #6

 

Spoiler

Upon arriving in Chrysolia, Charlotte led us to her family's home to hide from Team Meteor. But Anna became sick on the way, so I was sent to buy medicine for her at Spinel town.

 

On my way I caught a new pokemon: a Kecleon (BST 440), then went back to the daycare for breeding. Also decided to breed a Pachirisu with Follow Me.

 

Got some nice shinies, so I took the chance to make new sprites, because a) I didn't really like Pachirisu's sprite, and b) according to Pokedex entries, and what I remembered from the anime, Kecleon only can't change the zigzag pattern on its torso, so the Reborn sprite with the yellow part of its head still visible felt kinda wrong. Also thought it would be cooler to leave it slightly visible to "show its camouflage", since real chameleons don't become completely invisible either.

 

 

 

Back in Spinel Town; next up is Serra's gym. First comes the fight against Bennett. He was actually much harder to beat than Serra cause he would always use Sleep Powder then repeatedly Quiver Dance and at that point just sweep my team. So I went back to grab my Graveler and Persian. With Stealth Rocks and Power Gem I beat him so easily it felt like a joke, so I won't bother uploading a video for this.

 

 

Next is Serra. Not sure if setting Stealth Rocks for her battle was even worth it, but whatever. Mirror Shot was super helpful since it can't miss on her field so all her Evasion buffs become pointless.

 

Battle VS: Serra

 

Finally got the medicine for Anna, but just then Team Meteor attacks the mansion and the battle against Dr. Connal starts.

 

Battle VS: Dr. Connal 

 

After Sirius comes in and goes upstairs in search of the children, Saphira enters the house and,  when confronted with Dr. Connal, becomes reeaally pissed off and starts pushing him around.

 

 

Saphira getting revenge for her sisters, love that scene.

 

While we managed to protect the kids, Saphira got abducted instead. To rescue her, Laura and I infiltrate Team Meteor's base inside Tanzan Mountain. But that badass woman didn't even need any help and just broke out herself. At the end of the base we ran into ZEL yet again and the Pulse Abra, which teleported us down to the depths of Tanzan Mountain, where we encountered the giant steelix causing all those earthquakes.

 

Against Steelix, I decreased its accuracy with Flash and Mirror Shot, so every time a contact move missed it damaged itself due to the terrain. And thanks to its very slow speed most mons can easily overtake it and attack first. That's probably the main reason why this fight is so much easier than Solaris' Garchomp.

 

 

Following that, back at the base, I battled the Pulse Abra, probably the easiest of all the Pulse mons.

 

 

 

Afterwards the only thing left was the gym battle against Noel.

 

Battle VS: Noel

 

Used Shadow Sneak against Porygon-Z to prevent getting hit by STAB Tri Attack and eventually get a status problem. Against Bewear I send in Venomoth first before Azumarill to weaken it, so Azumarill could keep enough HP to live a hit from Swellow. Togedemaru would have been faster, but gotten too much damage and I wanted to keep it for Cincinno (it outsped me in previous attempts, if I knew I would be faster this time I would've gone for Zing Zap immediately, also misclicked when I used Nuzzle a second time).

 

[Edo]

Update #7

 

Spoiler

So the new part starts with a battle against Fern. Roserade and Decidueye were annoying as always, especially now that the field boosts their Grass STABs. The rain just made it worse since Magcargo was my only counter to them, and Kecleon, even though it knows Ghost and Dark moves, wasn't much help either against Decidueye since it can't take physical attacks at all. Had to use some para-flinch with Togedemaru against Roserade and hope Fern wouldn't heal it up again. Managed to get a little lucky against Decidueye with Kecleon and weakened it considerately.

 

 

After doing all the Aventurine Woods stuff along Route 1, I made it to Vanhanen Castle and fought Cain, who was much easier than Fern. Just had to make sure Dugtrio stays alive so I could oneshot everything weak to Earthquake.

 

 

Afterwards I followed Elias to the Citae Astrae and faced off against his Ditto-Arceus. My strategy here was to Nuzzle it first, then use Earthquake 3 times to make the ceiling crumble which immediately kills the Arceus. Since I only have two mons that know Earthquake, I had to hope for either the para-hax or Judgment being not effective.

 

 

Now it's time for the gym battle against Radomus.

 

Battle VS: Radomus

 

Beat him on the first try, yaayy. Ducked up a little at the start. But as you can see, the Pachirisu+Kecleon combo was amazing, defeating over half his team.