[Jimera0]

Alright, this'll be my main post for my Hard SoulSilver Gauntlet!

First off the challenges! Note I will be playing on Set style, regardless of the fact that was not issued to me as a challenge. Also, the challenges carry over from stage to stage, so a full game challenge given in stage 1 will last until the end of the game.
My comments will be in bold

Stage 1, Badges 1-4

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Originally Posted by Fat The Reptile

Jimera0, all pokemon that you own can only evolve after soloing an entire gym or soloing your Rival. Ok sounds fair

Originally Posted by Fat King Serperior

I'll give one of these that I'll call the the extinguisher!!! None of your pokemon can evolve from their first stage until LV. 30 and their last stage until LV. 50.

Bonus: You can't use pokemon that aren't able to evolve when caught (wild Steelix, Fearow, Farfetch'd, etc) or pokemon not in their basic stage upon capture (Pidgeotto, etc..). Note that this is a BONUS addition to the above challenge ^_^Ok combining that with my last one I'll have a lot of unevolved Pokemon

Originally Posted by Fat Zaccheaus

Jimera0, whenever you buy an item, you must buy a multiple of 5 of that specific item TMs just became more expensive!

Originally Posted by Fat Arcticblast

Jimera0, you may not catch two Pokemon of the same primary type. Normal/Flying Pokemon are considered to have both Normal and Flying as a primary type, because Flying is (almost) never a primary type.

Example: You can't have Rattata + Pidgey or Spearow + Pidgey, but you can have Ledyba + Pidgey. Diverse team, here I come!

Originally Posted by Fat 2sly4u

Here's a one time challenge! You need to beat Whitney without using any items, Fighting type moves, or Geodude. Failure to do so means you cannot buy healing items until after obtaining all the badges (you can still use ones you find though). You get three chances. This will be tough, especially combined with the evolution restrictions.

Originally Posted by Fat DEMo Gorgon7

Alright Jimera0, here is my challenge to you: You must pick either Cyndaquil or Chikorita as your starter, and once you do you cannot use ANY pokemon that has a weakness to one of the types your starter is weak too. (Screw water-types with their two weaknesses, I want you to have common weaknesses) To simplify; no Pokemon can share weaknesses with my starter. HM slaves don't count as long as they do not battle.

Stage 2, Badges 4-8 (E4 not included)

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Originally Posted by Fat TheMagicalCake

You can only use stab moves on odd numbered turns.

I'll probably forget this like crazy early on but I'll take it lol EDIT: Changing it to can’t use STAB moves twice in a row, same idea but is MUCH easier to keep track of. There isn’t a turn counter in game you know >.<

Originally Posted by Fat Yarnus of Bethany

Your pokemon become unable to use damaging moves if they ever go below 1/4 health for the rest of the battle. (unless all other PP runs out)

Makes doing solos much more challenging, I'll have to be careful!

Originally Posted by Fat Naix

You may not use items in or leave Blackthorn Gym (once you've entered) until you defeat Clair. If you fail to do so in 5 tries, permanently delete one moveslot on each of your Pokemon. (it can still have moves in that slot, but it can't use them, in or out of battle. If one of your Pokemon has no PP on any of its other moveslots, that Pokemon can't fight until its PP is restored).

This'll be a good challenge. Shouldn't take me 5 tries... I hope.

Originally Posted by Fat Nov

Jimera0, for a one time challenge you must defeat Jasmine using only not very effective moves!

This is going to be rough. I'm assuming status moves are allowed as well though.

Originally Posted by Fat King Serperior

You may not enter a Gym unless your team's weight is under 500lbs.

Interesting, won't really kick in until my whole team evolves but will be restricting once it does.

Originally Posted by Fat luigiowns

You may not use any moves that can be taught through TM or HM while fighting Chuck, as proof man is mightier than machine. Also, you cannot use STAB moves while fighting Chuck. Why? because the first part of this challenge isn't hard enough.

Forces me to shuffle around my planned solos but I think I got it covered. Thankfully there's a nice loophole one of my team members can exploit.

Stage 3, Elite 4 - Kanto Badge 4

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Originally Posted by Fat Sage Chow

Dear Jimera0,

It seems to me that with a prepped team this Gauntlet is going along way to comfertable. Kanto is way more fun with new untrained pokemon, so you'll have to ditch some of your old team members. You see, professor Oak has been very displeased with your pokedex progress so far. You haven’t shown him a goddamned thing and now he’s starting to wonder why he hired you to tour Johto in the first place. The old scrooge decides to take one pokemon back to his lab for further study. Throw a dice and place that pokemon in a box before entering the boat. Bilious is immune to being boxed due to the fact that if I box him I lose 3/4 of my HMs. Everyone else is fair game.

Yeah, time to get some new pokemon and what better place to do so than the safari zone! Actually, lets make this entire sub-challenge about the Safari. You know, just catching one pokemon isn't going to cut it. After each Kanto gym, you'll travel back to the Safari zone to catch yourself a new pokemon. This pokemon will be your team-member until the next gym and you'll be expected to grind it a little. It must solo a gym trainer as a token of your supreme pokemon trainer skill and participate in the actual gymfight whenever possible. I'm also throwing the "no pokemon can share a weakness" thing overboard on this one. No. The pokemon's typing is regarded "SAFARI" and that is weak to nothing! *sighs* Just, think of one team-slot as your special “safari-mon slot”. So basically it ignores the use and collection rules laid out earlier in my challenge, meaning I'm unrestricted as to which Safari Pokemon I catch and use in that slot.

But I guess you requested a hard challenge. So to top things off you’ll have to solo Blue with a team of six safari-mon to complete this gauntlet. As long as you try to use your wits and catch the very best pokemon there should be little need for serious grinding! In fact I'd be very dissappointed if your pokemon were above level 50 for this one.

And so, finally, you’re doing what every trainer is supposed to be doing: Catching them all. Playing pokemon like a boss. And I’ll tell you what, If you manage to catch every goddamned safari-zone pokemon and show them to the prof, you can have your boxed pokemon back from the storage! Impossible due to prior challenges but I wouldn't do it anyway.

I wish you loads of Gauntlet/Safari fun!

Love and Peace,

Sage Chow.

Originally Posted by Fat Espeon65

Jimera0: You must defeat Bruno using no SE moves or pokemon that resist fighting type moves, as proof that pure might can overcome anything.

Originally Posted by Fat King Serperior

Hmm...lets see......Ok, all Will's pokemon know Psychic. Your pokemon must survive at least one psychic before being able to deal direct damage to that mon. Note that if your Hypno takes a Psychic from Jynx and KO's her, he must take another before he can attack the next mon. Switching out removes this, so that mon must take another Psychic to directly attack.

Originally Posted by Fat Naix

Jimera0, because Koga's room is forest-like, you may only use Pokemon who can be found in forests when fighting him. For example, in your current team, you won't be able to use Quilava/Typhlosion, Quagsire, or Umbreon.

Originally Posted by Fat Ziposaki

@Jimera: I'll give you a one-time challenge. I'll give you one regarding Lugia, because you've already got some for the Elite 4 and it's kind of vague which order you're fighting them in, so...

For a guardian of the seas, Lugia's weird. Psychic/Flying, really? I can understand Psychic for whirlpools, but Flying? Hello, that's what Levitate's for. Do you really need Pressure anyways? I mean, is the Flying just to spite Ho-oh or something? That's cruel. It's not like Ho-oh's a Water/Flying to spite you. Anyways, Aeroblast won't mind being Water. Just change the name.

So, to help this lesson stick, you need to defeat Lugia using only Water type moves, just to show how superior of a type it is so Lugia can gain some sense the hard way. And by Water-type moves, I mean status moves too.

Originally Posted by Fat TalkingLion

Jimera, you cannot use any status healing items throughout the game.

Updates:
False Start

25/07/2012: The Decision

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After the fiasco of my false start I have decided to figure out exactly what I can and cannot use BEFORE I start the game.

There are four key restrictions that limit the Pokemon I can use in this playthrough. The first and most drastic is DEMo Gorgon7’s restriction based on my starter, which prevents me from using any Pokemon that are weak to the same types as my starter. This rules out whole swaths of Pokemon whether I chose Chikorita or Cyndaquil, at least as far as using them in battle. The next biggest one is Articblast’s restriction that prevents me from even so much as obtaining two Pokemon of the same primary type, which means I’m limited to a maximum of 16 Pokemon to obtain in the entire playthrough. Another restriction that seems small compared to the other two but actually makes a big difference is King Serperiors evolution restriction, which also includes the stipulation that I can’t use any Pokemon that do not evolve, many of which have useful type combinations that could otherwise be very useful to me. Finally, an indirect restriction comes from The Reptile, which has Pokemon needing to solo gyms or my Rival to evolve. On its own this does not remove any Pokemon, but combine with DEMo’s restriction, it means I cannot use Pokemon like Scizor, as their first form is unable to be used and therefore I am unable to evolve them. The way these restrictions interact means my choice of starter will impact the rest of my game very severely. So, let’s see exactly what Pokemon I won’t be able to use if I chose either starter:

Chikorita:
-No Grass-types even once with it as a secondary typing, as they all share weakness with Chikorita
-No Ice types except for Cloyster and Dewgong. Lapras cannot evolve and so cannot be used.
-No Bug types due to Flying and Fire weakness
-No Steel types due to Fire weakness, since there are no steels in Gen II neutral to fire
-No Flying types due to Ice weakness, as the flying types neutral to Ice cannot evolve
-No Dragon Types except for Kingdra due to Ice weakness
-No Ground Types except for Quagsire, who is the only obtainable ground type to be neutral to Ice without being weak to Fire
-No Pre-Elite 4 Dark type Pokemon due to Bug type weakness, with only the Houndoor line being available afterwards due to the Murkrow line being weak to Ice
-No Psychic type Pokemon due to Bug-type weakness. Natu line is weak to Ice.
-No Fighting types due to all of them being weak to Flying
-Poison weakness is irrelevant since it only applies to grass types, which I can only have one of anyway.
-No Rock types until after the elite four as all the other ones available prior have dual Ground typing or cannot evolve (Sudowoodo), making them weak to Ice. Oh, and breeding a Bonsly won’t work because that’d cause me to obtain two primary rock types, breaking Articblast’s restriction.

Cyndaquil:
-No Fire types even those with it as a secondary typing, as they all share at least one weakness with Cynadquil
-No electric types at all due to Ground weaknesses all around
-No Poison types except for Koffing line, due to Zubat line being weak to Rock and the rest being weak to Ground
-No Steel types since they are all weak to ground and Skarmory does not evolve
-No Rock types at all, as the only Rock type to be neutral to ground or better obtainable to this game is Aerodactyl, who is weak to Rock and does not evolve.
- No bug types due to the rock weakness. The bugs that are neutral to rock cannot be used due to not evolving (Heracross) or being only obtainable as unevolved Pokemon that are weak to rock (Scizor and Forretress).
-No flying types due to rock weakness. The only flying types neutral to rock are Skarmory (unevolvable) and the Gligar line (Weak to water).
-No Ice types at all, as the only Ice types neutral to rock (Swinub line) are weak to water.
-No Ground types other than Wooper line due to Water weakness.
-No Rock types prior to the elite four, as only the Kabuto and Omanyte lines are not weak to Water and cannot be obtained until after Kanto is reached.

If we look at these lists in detail we can see that interestingly, most of the types that cannot be used are the same no matter which starter I chose. No matter which starter I choose, I cannot use Steel, Bug or Flying Pokemon. Either way my Gound type choice is limited to Quagsire, and my Rock types limited to the Mt. Moon fossil Pokemon. Since these are the same they play no role in my decision. The ones that are different do.

If I use Chikorita I gain potential access to an Ice type. However, because that Ice type will necessarily have water as its primary type, it prevents me from using Quagsire as my Ground type, a massive sacrifice since Ground is usually so much more useful than Ice in game. I gain access to an Electric type, which is a big deal, since Ampharos is very, very useful and versatile in game. I also gain access to a much wider variety of Poison types which... is a much smaller deal since I still can’t use the best Poison types (Nidoking/queen, Crobat) due to their additional Ice weaknesses. I also get access to Houndour late game I suppose, but that’s probably too late and evolving it would be massively difficult since the solos it would need to evolve would be very hard for an unevolved Pokemon at that point. What I lose cho0sing Chikorita over Cyndaquil is access to Dark, Psychic, Dragon and Fighting types, all of which are available to me if I chose Cyndaquil. It’s undoubted that this outweighs access to Poison types and a couple Ice types, however passing up Ampharos is a large price to pay. This is especially true since Dragon is pretty much useless in-game for me, and the only Dark type I can obtain pre-elite four is Umbreon, which would require me to sacrifice my primary normal type for it since it’d need to be an Eevee first. Still, that is a sacrifice I might make and losing ALL Psychic and Fighting types is a BIG deal. Ultimately it comes down to the question of what is worth the most to me; access to Psychic and Fighting type Pokemon as well as Umbreon, or access to Ampharos (screw the other electric bitches). As much as I love Ampharos, in a playthrough where my options are so limited I think I have to go with Cyndaquil and the extra types it allows me to use. As such, Limit the Cyndaquil will indeed be rejoining my game.

26/07/12: Flying high

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Well the first bit here is going to hardly be more difficult than an ordinary playthrough, as most of my restrictions are based on obtaining and evolving Pokemon. I can obtain 4 Pokemon to use before the first gym that are actually worth getting (fuck Unown), so that’s all good. No, the difficult bit is going to be mid challenge when all my Pokemon are unevolved weaklings but still have to solo stuff way more powerful than they are. For now I got it easy though... anyway, enough looking into the future.

Alright, so first off, I get Limit again... and soft-reset a few times until I get a nature that isn’t shitty (Jolly? Twice? CMON GAME!) I go through the motions of the early game, name my Rival Silver because I’ve never really been into naming my Rival rude names, and proceed to Violet Town. I catch myself a Belsprout again and name it Bel again because I’m pretending the false start NEVER HAPPENED. I then raise Bel until night falls, at which point I go catch myself a Ghastly I name John (don’t ask why, it has something to do with Homestuck but even I’m not sure how I made that connection anymore) and a Wooper which I name Bilious (yes after Homestuck again. Yes I know Wooper isn’t a frog shut up). The reasoning for choosing John is simple; what the fuck other ghost type am I going to use? With Bilious, it comes down to really, really wanting a Ground Type. They’re just too damn useful to not have one and if I have to give up the Water spot then so be it. It’s not like Quagsire sucks THAT badly or anything. I then proceed to train these two, hoping to get Night Shade for John and a physical move for Bilious... neither happens, as apparently I’ll need a lot more levels before I can do that. Oh well. I also visit Bellsprout Tower in bits and spurts, finally beating the final sage right before I challenge Falkner’s gym.

I think about doing it with John even without Night Shade, betting on being able to use Curse and Hypnosis in combination with a fuck tonne of potions to win, but then I realize that I have two trainers to take down as well and decide to fuck it and go with Limit. I’m sure that John will have a field day with Bugsy anyway so no worries.

So I go in and start burning birds left and right, filling the air with the stench of burning feathers and flesh and Falkner’s all like “OH NO YOU AIN’T STINKIN UP MY ROOST” and I’m all like “BRING IT MOTHERFUCKER” and then I roast his little birds with ease. Yeah, I crit his Pidgeotto twice for a 2HKO and it was kind of luck based, but he critted me with his first Gust so it’s fair right? The second crit probably didn’t even matter anyway, I'm pretty sure it was in normal KO range. He then gives me the normally extremely useful Roost TM, but since I can’t use a flying type like, ever, it’ll never, ever get used.

But wait, we’re not done! As soon as I leave the gym I get a phone call about that mysterious bullshit egg I gave to Elm which he is now giving back to me. Why he couldn’t let me keep it earlier? I guess Togepi breaks the first gym or something retarded like that. Anyway, I take the egg I plan on never hatching so I can get an Eevee later. The aide tells me that Elm couldn’t think of anyone better to take it! Clearly, this means Elm cannot think much at all. Then a Kimono girl ambushes me and tells me the egg is important too, and I agree. It’ll be an important source of protein in my breakfast tomorrow.

The Team:

Limit the lv 15 Cyndaquil

Moveset:
-Ember
-Smokescreen
-Leer
-Quick Attack
Solos: Violet gym
Notes: Now I have to stop it evolving for 15 more levels woooo! But hey, I got a solo taken care of and man did he ever own Falkner. I had just as easy a time as I had with Cleopa- wait I wasn’t talking about that forget I said that.


Bel the lv 13 Bellsprout

Moveset:
-Vine Whip
-Growth
-Wrap
- Sleep Powder
Solos: None
Notes: Sleep Powder is obviously going to be a huge boon and I intend to abuse it to its fullest. In fact, I think I see a plan for taking on Whitney forming...

John the lv 13 Gastly

Moveset:
-Lick
-Hypnosis
-Curse
-Mean Look
Solos: none
Notes: John was pretty easy to train actually due his resistances and immunities, his crappy attacking move be dammed. Still, I can’t wait for Night Shade in a couple levels since that’ll give him some much more consistent damage. Also, Bugsy is going to fail so hard against John, since he can’t really touch him with any of his moves. They are ALL 4x resisted or completely ineffective. Easiest HGSS Bugsy fight EVER coming up soon!

Bilious the lv 12 Wooper

Moveset:
-Water gun
-Mud Shot
-Mud Sport
-Tail Whip
Solos: none
Notes: God Bilious is a pain to train with all the Bellsprout running around. He’s so slow he can’t even run away from them properly. Oh well, at least Mud Shot has decent power at this point despite Wooper’s lowish Special Attack. I can’t wait until he gets some physical STAB moves...

27/07/12: Buggin' the Bugs

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^^Yes I am that totally cheesy.

Anyway, I explore the rest of Route 32, get a few phone numbers to ensure I will be annoyed for eternity, as well as a couple useful hold items. Then I go through Union Cave. Woo hoo, so exciting. Why don’t I just cut to the interesting shit for once?

So after kicking Team Rocket out of the well with 0 trouble at all, I go to get the Cut HM from Ilex forest... only to be ambushed by my rival when I am not really ready for him. While my team is thankfully at full health, I’m not leading with Bilious, who I intended to solo him with. As such, in order to maintain the solo Bilious is forced to take a Lick from his Gastly as he switches in, paralyzing Bilious much to my annoyance. Bilious still manages to beat it without much difficulty, but Silver’s Croconaw comes out next and I know Bilious doesn’t stand a chance unless I heal him. So I switch out to Bel, who is unfortunately forced to sacrifice herself for the greater cause of ensuring this stupid Wooper’s evolution. She faints after two attacks, hanging on just long enough to get Bilious back to nearly full health, surviving Croconaws second bite with only 1HP. Bilious comes in again and I first try a Mud Shot, which does pitiful damage much to my alarm. Thankfully, I had recently taught him Rock Smash and Slam, which gave me a new idea on how to take this monster down. Even more thankfully, Silver decides to have his Croconaw make funny faces at me for three turns while I chip away at its defenses with Rock Smash. Two slams later and Croconaw faints, and good thing too because it finally used bite doing a massive amount of damage to poor little Bilious. His final Pokemon is a Zubat, and just to be safe I am forced to use one of my limited supply of Super Potions on Bilious. After that, Zubat goes down pretty easily and I can rest in the knowledge I’ll never have to solo anything with Bilious again.

After getting Cut and teaching it to Limit, I head to the Gym with John in the lead. I expect him to be able to easily solo the entire gym. And you know what? I was right. Shit, it almost felt unfair, like I was using a cover legendary or something. They could hardly even touch him. Even Scyther’s U-turn did less than 10 damage to John. Needless to say, I won without much difficulty. Time to head through Ilex Forest and move on to what I think will be the biggest challenge of this segment of my gauntlet; Whitney.

The Team:

Limit the lv 16 Cyndaquil

Moveset:
-Ember
-Smokescreen
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Didn’t see much use due to being over-leveled from his solo of the Violet City Gym, but is serviceable as always. I taught her Cut because I remember from my previous file on this game that Cyndaquil was never exactly starved for move slots, so she could spare one for Cut.


Bel the lv 16 Bellsprout

Moveset:
-Vine Whip
-Growth
-Wrap
- Sleep Powder
Notes: Made a noble sacrifice in the line of duty, but otherwise did very little this chapter, since all the major stuff was solo’d. She’s still waiting for a special move to take advantage of Growth. If she doesn’t get one before Whitney, I could be in trouble.

John the lv 20 Gastly

Moveset:
-Lick
-Hypnosis
-Night Shade
-Confuse Ray
Notes: Ditched the Curse-look strategy because it sucks balls. Confuse Ray is his only way to damage normal types now but I don’t particularly care. His solo of Bugsy’s gym was a joke. Seriously, easiest gym solo EVER. Also I didn’t intentionally over-level him, he just gained 3 levels inside the gym and there isn’t much I could do about that.

Bilious the lv 17 Wooper

Moveset:
-Water gun
-Mud Shot
-Rock Smash
-Slam
Notes: His solo of Silver was my biggest challenge so far, but he pulled through. Rock Smash is actually decent at this point in the game, dealing good damage and lowering defense at the same time. Slam is actually his most powerful move right now, but the accuracy blows as always.

28/07/12: I’MA FIRIN’ MA LAYZAH

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So after defeating Bugsy, I make my trip up to Goldenrod, fighting trainers along the way. Knowing this is the first place where I’ll be able to encounter actually usable psychic types, I take a look at my options. Abra, the usual default for this point in the game, is out of the question, due to the need for it to solo a gym or my rival to evolve... an impossibility with only Teleport, since all the special attacks it can learn via TM aren’t obtainable until much later. A quick check of the psychic types available reveals that my options are limited to Espeon and Drowzee. I plan on getting an Umbreon though, so my choice is clear. I catch a female Drowzee and name it Silph, training her up to match the rest of the team on the trainers that litter the area around Goldenrod. I pick up a couple useful items around town too, including a Leaf Stone for Bel’s eventual evolution, TM 26 Dig which I immediately teach to Bilious, and Quick Claw to help compensate for Bilious’ low speed.

But this is all the easy part. The whole time I’m doing this the massive challenge waiting at the end of this stage of my adventure looms. Just how am I going to take on Whitney? Using no Fighting or Rock types is easy, seeing as I have no access to those anyway right now (unless I’m willing to give up my Drowzee anyway), but no items makes soloing her for the evolution much more difficult. I contemplate not soloing her at all, and using my whole team to succeed, which should ideally make my task much easier. However, I find a problem with this; Bel doesn’t get any good match-ups until around level 30, at which she should be evolving, and by that point I doubt an unevolved Pokemon could solo a gym at all. Even the decent matchup against Pryce is fraught with danger. I realize my only hope for evolving Bel at a decent level is to solo Whitney... no easy task, as I am sure that Miltank both outspeeds Bel and does massive damage with stomp. Worse, I have no way to heal damage before I encounter Miltank or boost defenses with items, due to the restriction. And I only have 3 shots at it before I lose out on buying healing items for the rest of the game.

A strategy forms though, if an expensive one. I know that Bel stands no chance with her current moveset. Vine Whip is far too weak to do significant damage to Miltank, and Miltank holds a Lum berry, ensuring that Bel will be KO’d before she can put it to sleep. I realize that what I need is a way to bypass all the usual shenanigans with healing and stomping that Miltank employs; I need to kill it in one shot. Thankfully, the local Department Store holds the key; Solar Beam TMs. And I have just enough cash to buy 5 of them. I also have Growth and a vulnerable Clefairy to set up, allowing me to easily boost to the point where a single Solar Beam would OHKO the infamous cow. However, some obstacles still apply. Bel is still outsped and hit hard by Miltank, and because of Solar Beam’s charge turn she needs to be able to survive two at least Stomps in order to get off her Solar Beam... and avoid Stomp’s deadly flinch chance. Still, I think I’m ready so I give it a go.

First attempt ends in disaster, but yields useful information. I boost up to +4 against Whitney’s Clefairy before KOing it with Vine Whip. However, Clefairy manages to deal a small amount of damage before going down. Miltank then comes in, and 2HKOs with Stomp before Bel can fire off its Solar Beam. However, I learn that Bel can indeed survive two Stomps... assuming it’s at almost full health. Almost any prior damage ruins any chance of survival barring Miltank using something stupid like Rollout. Undeterred, I try again... only to have a similar result. This time I do make a change, using Solar Beam to KO Clefairy, since Vine whip is a 3HKO. Still, Bel takes too much damage before Miltank hits the field and falls again.

I step back for a moment to think of anything I could do to improve my chances. This is my last shot, and if Bel faints this time I’m going to take Miltank out with the rest of my team to avoid the penalty. I don’t want to risk that. So I do a calculation, and find out that I had been taking an unnecessary risk by boosting up to +4; I only needed +2 for a guaranteed KO. Boosting less greatly reduces the chance of taking damage from Clefairy, and so I take this information to my final attempt. First, I use Sleep Powder on Clefairy so I can begin boosting... only for it to miss. Thankfully, all Clefairy does is use Mimic. I put it to sleep the next turn and boost twice while it sleeps. Then I make a horrible blunder and accidentally use Wrap instead of Solar Beam, having deleted Vine Whip this time instead of Wrap to make room for Solar Beam. It even misses, much to my horror and Clefairy wakes up to use Metronome... which draws Splash. Breathing a sigh of relief, I put it to sleep again and fire off a Solar Beam to finish it, with Bel still at full health. Now all I need to do is avoid a flinch or crit from Miltank. Of course though, the first attack does Flinch Bel. I despair, knowing my only chance is for the next attack to miss. The next Stomp comes, brining Bel to 5HP as she charges her beam. I start thinking of how to beat Miltank with the rest of my team... but then a miracle occurs. Miltank uses Rollout instead of Stomp. AND IT MISSES! Bel then fires off her insanely overpowered Solar Beam and blasts Miltank into oblivion, causing me to literally cheer in excitement at the unexpected victory. No more worrying about evolving Bel, no more worrying about how I’m going to manage being unable to buy healing items. Now I can proceed to Ecruteak City, secure in the knowledge that at least this next leg of my journey should go according to plan...

The Team:

Limit the lv 20 Cyndaquil

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flame Wheel
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Still doing just fine, now with Flame Wheel providing a powerful physical option for her to use.

Bel the lv 22 Bellsprout

Moveset:
-Solar Beam
-Growth
-Wrap
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Her battle with Whitney was one for the ages and perhaps the most intense in-game battle I’ve ever had. Solar Beam is much more powerful than two Vine Whips, so I decided to keep it for the time being. I can always replace it with Bullet Seed later if it proves an issue, but combined with Sleep Powder I think I’ll be OK.

John the lv 20 Gastly

Moveset:
-Lick
-Hypnosis
-Night Shade
-Confuse Ray
Notes: Saw no use at all due to being over-leveled. Now on par with the rest of my team so there we go.

Bilious the lv 20 Wooper

Moveset:
-Water gun
-Dig
-Rock Smash
-Headbutt
Notes: Dig finally gives Bilious a powerful STAB attack that’ll serve him well for a long time. Replaced Slam with Headbutt simply for reliability. The power loss is negligible anyway, and I have Dig for most opponents.

Silph the lv 20 Drowzee

Moveset:
-Confusion
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Disable
Notes: The newest addition to my team, Silph has done pretty well so far and had no difficulty catching up with the rest of the team. On another interesting note, my team now has 3 sleep inducers.

29-31/07/12: Can’t Touch This

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Alright, so now that Whitney is done I go smush Sudowoodo, and make my way to Ecruteak City. First thing I do is visit the Pokemon Center where Bill is, so I can then head back to Goldenrod and pick up the final member of my team from him; Slick the lv 5 Eeevee, who I intend on evolving into an Umbreon. First though I have to train him up, which I do while I travel around searching for shit with the Dowsing Machine I also picked up in Ecruteak. I also end up getting HM 04 Strength and HM 03 Surf while I do stuff, which gives me two more good moves for Bilious, though he’ll have to wait til he evolves to learn Strength.

After I get him up to par with the rest of my team and end up visiting both Olivine and Mahogany town in the process, I head back to Ecruteak, ready to take on my Rival in the Burned Tower. In preparation I have also raised Silph up to level 24, which is admittedly a little bit over-leveled, but I needed him to live powerful Bite attacks from his Pokemon. Thankfully the solo goes smoothly, especially since his Croconaw opts to use Sacry Face 3 times in a row again, which combined with Hypnosis allowed me to defeat it without taking a blow. Now I have just one solo left in order to get all my team ready to evolve once; Slick needs to solo Morty.

However, a problem crops up. I had planned to use Bite to easily defeat him, but discovered that Silph doesn’t learn it until level 29. That’s around 6 more levels than I wanted to grind, so instead of doing that I came up with a different strategy. Looking at the Pokemon in that gym, it became clear that none of them could scratch Slick outside of Curse or Dream eater. All I needed to do is switch out whenever cursed and use Awakening whenever put to sleep, and I can stall them all out. The fact that all but one of the Pokemon in the gym also have curse only made it easier, since they’d kill themselves. Unfortunately, most of them also carry mean look, which meant I needed two Shed Shells, one for Slick and another for the Pokemon I’m switching him out with. I get one from the Bug Catching contest on Saturday, but I have to wait until Tuesday to get the second.

Several days later I go in, fully prepared and begin stalling out every last ghost Pokemon in the gym.

It took a while and was incredibly boring (I watched youtube videos the whole time) but eventually I was successful! It took forever, but eventually I got TM 30 Shadow Ball and the Fog badge, and now I’m FINALLY ready to continue on with my journey... What new challenges will await me? Well I’ll have to wait for your submissions to find out.

The Team:

Limit the lv 24 Cyndaquil

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flame Wheel
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Nothing really new here. Just waiting to evolve in a few levels like everyone else.

Bel the lv 23 Bellsprout

Moveset:
-Solar Beam
-Growth
-Acid
-Sleep Powder
Notes: I kept forgetting to put enemies to sleep before using Solar Beam but aside from that everything is all cool. Also, Acid is nice as a secondary STAB, but now I need to give it something for poison types... but I don’t want to give up Growth now that I actually have two STAB special moves. Choices, choices...

John the lv 23 Gastly

Moveset:
-Lick
-Hypnosis
-Night Shade
-Confuse Ray
Notes: I could teach him Shadow Ball immediately but he learns it naturally in 6 levels anyway so I won’t bother. Still needs an attack to hit normal types with.

Bilious the lv 24 Wooper

Moveset:
-Surf
-Dig
-Rock Smash
-Headbutt
Notes: Even with the very welcome power boost from Surf Bilious freaking blows. ALL his stats are lower than everyone elses except for HP, and that doesn’t help very much. Can’t wait until he evolves and becomes somewhat useful again.

Silph the lv 25 Drowzee

Moveset:
-Confusion
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Disable
Notes: Not really that great right now, as his bulk isn’t very good on the physical side and he his quite weakly. Still better than Bilious though.

Slick the lv 24 Eevee

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Tail Whip
-Helping Hand
-Sand-Attack
Notes: His solo of Morty is easily my most unusual solo to date. He didn’t actually damage his opponents at all; all the damage the opponents took was self-inflicted. Worked like a charm though. Outside of that, Slick is pretty average. He’d be quite weak without Adaptability boosting his attack. Looking forward to his evolution, though having to do it at night will be annoying.

03/08/12: The Hax Master

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Alright, so after I leave Ecruteak Gym I decide that I’m going to go to Cianwood first, like I normally do. One thing you ought to know though, is that having unevolved Pokemon at this point is really, really bad. Like, I almost got swept by 2 level 20 Gyarados’ with a team of 6 level 26+s bad. It’s a damn good thing I don’t have any Pokemon Center restrictions because I’d be totally screwed then.

So I finally make it to Cianwood city and notice Suicune hanging out north of town. Suddenly I remember that that Eusine will battle me here. I heal up and go to battle him, not expecting any trouble since he’s never given me any in the past. Of course, in the past all my Pokemon had evolved at least once by now. I am ashamed to say that Bilious and John actually got taken out by his Drowzee (well Bilious was asleep and at 10HP, which with my new challenges means he might as well have fainted). After that I smartened up and Silph owned the rest of his team, even his Electrode which took like 8 hits to take out (thank you Hypnosis!).

After that embarrassment, I debate to myself as to whether I want to challenge the gym right away or not. I end up deciding that I might as well since my Pokemon of choice, John the Gastly, isn’t going to be getting any more immune to most of Chucks attacks any time soon. You see, I’ve been challenged to beat Chuck without using any TM or STAB moves. Thankfully, John has Night Shade for consistent, non-STAB damage and is also conveniently immune to Chuck’s most damaging attacks. Less conveniently he also has the defenses of a wet paper bag, which becomes apparent when he fails to beat the Hitmonchan wielded by one of the gym trainers on his first try. Yeah, it has all the elemental punches (which Hitmonchan can actually use in this generation), and the first time I did it they dropped John past ¼ health, and Hitmonchan was most uncooperative with regards to smacking itself in the face. Seriously, 4 turns of confusion before John fainted and it didn’t hit itself once >.> Next attempt went better as it hit itself once and when it did hit John, John managed to be 2hp above ¼ so he could finish it off with Night Shade.

Now this is rather worrying, because Chuck’s Primape has Rock Slide and Vital Spirit, meaning I have to hope to God that I get some confusion hax on it. Also, for a few extra HP and defense points, I decide to grind John up one more level so he can finally evolve. Yes. My first evolved Pokemon. Yes. Hell yes! HELL FUCKING YES!

Anyway, I go in to fight Chuck, with John now ascended up the echeladder a bit more (and if you don’t read homestuck I just totally lost you), ready to kick some ass. Or I would, if his Primape didn’t use Double Team, causing Confuse Ray to miss. Then he does it 6 more times. Confuse ray misses SIX TIMES IN A ROW! Even with evasion boosts thats ridiculous. And when it finally DOES hit, it only lasts for two turns, and he uses Leer twice on John. It then uses Rock Slide, which, to my amazement, John survives. But now he can only use Confuse Ray to hurt Chuck at all, so I just give up and try again.

Next attempt starts out OK, but then I make a stupid move and chose not to heal after getting hit by Rock Slide once. Of course, Primape snaps out of confusion the next turn and KOs John. I could revive him, but again, I’d then have to attempt to solo him with Confuse Ray, something I’d rather not attempt. Thank god there’s no penalty for failing this. Next attempt sees John getting flinch haxed to death by Rock Slide, as Primape continues to act as if it is not confused at all. I think the RNG Gods have a vendetta against me. The good news is that I learn that John doesn’t even take half his health from Rock Slide unless he’s been Leered at a few times, which is very encouraging. Next attempt sees Rock Slide crit John on the second turn. Again, through confusion. What. The. Fuck. Next attempt? 2 Turn confusion (doesn’t hit self), Rock Slide crit for the OHKO. AGAIN. This is getting ridiculous.

Finally, on the sixth attempt, the RNG gods smile on me. Primape uses Rock Slide first instead of double team, John does not flinch and confuses it, and then Primape proceeds to hit itself 3x in a row while I heal and KO it. About motherfucking time. I’m the one using the condition that screws people over 50% of the time, I don’t see how I kept getting haxed to death on 30% and lower chances!

Next up is his Poliwrath, which I immediately put to sleep and just start Night Shading. It’s all going exceedingly well until it wakes up with sliver of health left and uses Surf, which thankfully does nowhere near ¾ of Johns health. Figuring that Chuck is likely to heal Poliwrath, I take the opportunity to heal John. Sure enough, that’s what happens, so I start the process over again. 3 Night shades later, it wakes up again and uses another Surf, but John is still in the clear and Night Shades again for the win! Or he would, if Chuck didn’t have TWO MOTHERFUCKIGN HYPER POTIONS BULLSHIT. I’m forced to risk the Hypnosis or be locked into a cycle of taking Surfs and healing. Thankfully, Hypnosis hits and I heal up John safely. 3 Night Shade’s later, Poliwrath FINALLY goes down and I secure myself John’s next evolution, the Storm Badge, TM01 Focus Punch, and HM02 Fly from his wife! A nice big haul, and a good thing too because I went through HELL to get it! Next time, I go to Mahogany town and take on Team Rocket and Pryce! But I’ll have to get there by Surfing, because I don’t have any flying types in my PC to teach this HM to...

The Team:

Limit the lv 27 Cyndaquil

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flame Wheel
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Got most of his levels on Tentacool that lacked Water Type moves, but got OHKO’d by a couple higher level ones that surprised me with Bubblebeam. Thank god this isn’t a Nuzlocke.

Bel the lv 27 Bellsprout

Moveset:
-Solar Beam
-Growth
-Acid
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Actually did pretty terrible on the water route surprisingly enough, due to being slow and frail and needing to use a 2 turn move to attack. I really should replace Solar Beam with Bullet Seed but Bullet Seed just sucks so much I don’t want toooo. Besides, when it does fire off Solar beam just wrecks shit up.

John the lv 30 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Night Shade
-Confuse Ray
Notes: Finally has a move to take advantage of his massive Special attack. If only I could have used Shadow Ball during the solo, then it might’ve been a lot easier since I bet I’d OHKO or 2HKO that stupid Primape. Instead I get haxed to a loss 6 times in a row. Ah well, John’s still awesome so I’m not complaining.

Bilious the lv 27 Wooper

Moveset:
-Surf
-Dig
-Rock Smash
-Headbutt
Notes: Had a very good time on the water route, thanks to Water Absorb and Dig hitting all the Tenta’s for OHKOs. Still weak as shit everywhere else though. Shit, John had better attack than Wooper BEFORE HE EVOLVED. That... that’s just embarrassing.

Silph the lv 27 Drowzee

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Disable
Notes: Learn Psybeam, giving him some much needed power. Actually did pretty good on the water routes, thanks to Hypnosis and again, all the Tentacool.

Slick the lv 27 Eevee

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Tail Whip
-Helping Hand
-Sand-Attack
Notes: The mon most affected by the new restriction preventing me from using STAB twice in a row, since his only attack current gets STAB, forcing me to use a non-damaging move every second turn. Still did an impressive job though, considering it’s a goddamn Eevee. Gets Bite in a couple levels then evolves immediately afterwards, looking forward to that!

03/08/12 Part 2: Ice is NOT Nice

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So not having anything that can use fly, I take the long way to Mahogany town. Joy. Then I go up to the Lake of Rage, battling trainers and gathering items along the way. Once there, I decide to catch the shiny Gyarados, because so what if every game has it it’s still shiny. I won’t use it for anything at all, don’t worry it’s just because I can’t pass up a shiny OK?

Anyway, after that Lance recruits me to take on Team Rocket’s base in Mahogany, which I gladly do. After fighting the same grunts at least 6 times each I finally make it downstairs. I quickly discover that my team is getting pretty freaking weak being all unevolved, and I have to backtrack to the Pokemon center frequently. Finally, after waaaaay too long I battle Proton, who goes down easily. However I don’t go and heal afterwards, and when I get ambushed by Ariana and her goon before entering the Electrode room I almost panic. Thankfully, since Lance helps you and he has a level 40 Dragonite (wait level 40?), it wasn’t too hard since his Dragonite did most of the work. I actually have more trouble with the last Electrode which managed to hax Bel almost to death and completely haxed John to death.

There is good news though, because after I made it out of there Bilious and Limit had both evolved finally! Everyone else is one level away from evolving themselves, but since it’s not night yet I can’t evolve Slick. After I quick trip to Goldenrod to stock up on healing drinks, I decide to just take on Pryce already and get this over with. First I level up Bel one more level so she can finally evolve and become slightly less frail. Maybe a wet paper bag instead of wet toilet paper. Now, I have a decision to make. Do I solo Pryce with Bel, or with Limit? Both can probably beat this gym fairly easily. More worrying is that whoever doesn’t solo Pryce’s gym has to solo my rival next chapter. I decide that even with the hell that Silver’s Feraligatr is going to be, that it’ll still be easier to solo him with Limit than with Bel, since literally all of his Pokemon except Feraligatr have a type advantage against her. The first thing I do is teach Bel Bullet Seed, since I can’t really afford to take two turns with each attack against Pokemon with Super-effective moves. I just pray that I don’t get too unlucky with the damn thing. Why can’t it have 25BP per a hit in generation IV? WHY? Well in any case, I have enough X-Attack that I should be able to ensure OHKOs against Pryce’s team when the time comes.

And then the first trainer in the gym has a lv 29 Jynx. And Sleep Powder misses. FUCKING BULLSHIT. Retry #1 in the first battle... god I’ve gone and fucked it all up again didn’t I? Well actually no, second attempt goes by much better when it uses Mean Look instead of Ice Punch then gets 2HKO’d by Bullet Seed after being put to sleep. Alright, let’s hope I don’t screw up and have to do that again...

I nearly do against a Dewgong later on, as it turns out they outspeed Bel. Well fuck, this is looking like a more terrible idea all the time...

Finally, after the second to last gym trainer, I suddenly remember that I can actually access TM36 Sludge Bomb now. I immediately go and get it and teach it to Bel, hoping it’ll help me out somehow during this battle. If not, well it’ll certainly help me out later.

And then I immediately get my ass kicked by the final gym trainer’s Dewgong. Bullet Seed fucking BLOWS. I decide to go back to Solar Beam, as now I’m pretty sure it outdamages Bullet Seed 9x out of 10 over two turns anyway. Also, I have to take an extra turn off every time I need to 2HKO something with it, which blows. Also, turns out I hadn’t saved in like 3 battles. I am so smart, S-M-R-T! So I change my moveset again, to Solarbeam, Sludge Bomb, Growth and Sleep Powder and get back to work, and take on that Dewgong aga- it just OHKO’d because it critted with Ice Shard. This is... just... *cries* AND I DIDN’T SAVE AGAIN! GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

The next time I try it, Dewgong decides to just sit an look pretty while Bel charges up Solarbeam for the OHKO. Now THAT’s what I’m talking about! Finally, I’m ready to take on Pryce! I have my game plan set and get ready to go for broke...

The plan is to set up against his Seel, with a Yache Berry equipped just in case. I’ll use 1 X-Accuracy and 1 X-Speed, to ensure that Sleep Powder hits his Pokemon before they can do anything. Then it’s just sleep, solar beam, repeat. As long as I don’t get retarded amounts of hax, this should work out perfectly! I hope.

And it starts out OK... until Solar Beam BARELY fails to OHKO his Piloswine, who proceeds to wake up and hammer me with Blizzard. Even with the Yache Berry, Bel falls below ¼ health and I need to try again. DAMN IT! Why couldn’t it just work the first time? I reset and try again, this time setting up 1 Growth as well to ensure I get the KOs I need. But this time Seel wakes up after only 1 turn and uses Icy Wind, lowering Bel’s speed, and I have only one X-Speed making this impossible. Third attempt I make EXTRA sure that doesn’t happen again using a Guard Spec. I’m very glad I do, because sure enough the Seel hits Bel with Icy Wind again. It then has a 1 turn sleep and hits Bel AGAIN with it, but thankfully Bel doesn’t take enough damage for it to cripple her. After putting his Piloswine to sleep I’m forced to use a Fresh Water on Bel because his Dewgong has Ice Shard. To my relief, it doesn’t wake up and Solar Beam does its job. I need not have bothered though, since his Dewgong does not use Ice Shard immediately and falls peacefully asleep... and then it uses Sleep Talk, to my horror. Thankfully, it only draws Rest, and Bel is able to OHKO it with Solar Beam, finally winning the match!

Well that was a lot harder than I was expecting... but honestly, I doubt Silver would’ve been any easier for Bel to solo. At least I only have one more solo left! Oh, I guess I also got TM07 hail, which is probably the since worst weather condition my team could be in. Guess what I won’t be using!

The Team:

Limit the lv 30 Quilava

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flame Wheel
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Underwhelming throughout the chapter, but now has finally evolved. She will hopefully be slightly less underwhelming now.

Bel the lv 33 Weepinbel

Moveset:
-Solarbeam
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Fuck I did not expect her solo to be so freaking hard. But hey, you do what you have to do. Sludge Bomb is an awesome addition to her movepool and will help a lot against most Pokemon. Turns out Bullet Seed is completely outclassed by Solarbeam with my current challenges! I should be shocked, but I’m not. Bullet Seed is like the worst move ever prior to generation V.

John the lv 30 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Night Shade
-Confuse Ray
Notes: Did nothing by faint to an Electrode this chaper, though it should be noted the fainting was due to more BS hax. Been letting the others catch up.

Bilious the lv 30 Quagsire

Moveset:
-Surf
-Dig
-Rock Smash
-Headbutt
Notes: Lots of poison types this chapter so actually did pretty well. Now that he’s evolved he should be a lot more potent than he was before. Good thing too because Wooper is ridiculously weak...

Silph the lv 29 Drowzee

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Disable
Notes: Consistently underwhelmed this chapter, but evolves in a level. After that I expect him to die a lot less at the very least.

Slick the lv 29 Eevee

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Tail Whip
-Bite
-Sand-Attack
Notes: Finally learned Bite, giving him the ability to attack twice in a row! Just got to wait for another hour or so before I can finally evolve him to his final form...

08/08/12: Short and Sweet

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So not a lot happened between Pryce and Jasmine. I traveled around a bit and evolved Slick and Silph before giving the medicine to Amphy. As soon as I left the Lighthouse I was called by Balboa about the Safari Zone, so I went and checked it out, battling a few trainers and gaining a few levels on the way. When there I caught a Geodude for his damned test, and then left again. When I got back to Olivine I challenged Jasmine.

Being forced to use NVE attacks meant that I couldn’t go the easy route and just demolish here with Billious’ massive type advantages over her team. Instead, I was forced to slowly use Strength on her Magnemite until they finally succumbed, and then I used Silph and John to sleep and smash her Steelix until it finally fell as well. Towards the end I started letting team members faint rather than heal them because why waste perfectly good healing potions. It wasn’t particularly challenging or exciting, but hey I got it done! As soon as I left I get a call from Elm about Team Rocket taking over the Radio... something tells me my next update will have a little more content.

The Team:

Limit the lv 30 Quilava

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flame Wheel
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Underwhelming throughout the chapter, but now has finally evolved. She will hopefully be slightly less underwhelming now.

Bel the lv 33 Weepinbel

Moveset:
-Solarbeam
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Didn’t use her at all due to her being overleveled.

John the lv 31 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Night Shade
-Confuse Ray
Notes: Was able to hit Janine’s Steelix the hardest of any of my team members with Shadow Ball, but fainted when Hypnosis missed. I didn’t really care though, since the fight was hardly challenge anyway...

Bilious the lv 31 Quagsire

Moveset:
-Surf
-Dig
-Rock Smash
-Strength
Notes: Much better this chapter thanks to his evolution. Did most of the work against Jasmine’s Magnemite due to him being immune to their electric type attacks. Interestingly, now his whole moveset consists of HMs, and he’s not any less effective for it!

Silph the lv 31 Hypno

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Disable
Notes: Evolution has given him a nice boost in power and survivability. Did most of the work against Jasmine’s Steelix since John got taken out early.

Slick the lv 32 Umbreon

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Tail Whip
-Bite
-Sand-Attack
Notes: OMG UMBREON IS LIKE SOOOOOO AWESOME! IT’S LIKE ALL BLACK AND CUTE AND BADASS AT THE SAME TIME AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH A- ahem. I mean, Slick is doing pretty damn well. He dealt the finishing blow to Jasmine’s last Magnemite when I let the others all faint.

10/08/12: Gator Huntin'

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So I don’t waste any time heading to Goldenrod to smack down team rocket. After the sequence where silver strips me out of my Team Rocket uniform (think about that for a second), I go up and start smushing Rocket grunts. The first admin I face, Petrel, goes down really easily due to his team consisting of nothing but Koffing line Pokemon. After that it’s down to the basement of the department store, where my real challenge awaits me. I have to battle my Rival with Limit, which would be easy enough if he didn’t have a level 32 Feraligatr. I stock up on X-items, seeing as Limit doesn’t have a lot of tricks up her sleeve other than flat out attacking. My plan is simple; get in, get to a Pokemon that can’t really threaten Limit, boost up and then sweep.

Unfortunately a wrench is thrown into my plans right off the bat, as he switches in his Feraligatr as soon as I manage to take down his Golbat. Without any boosts and being confused from Golbat, I’m forced to switch Limit out and back in... only for it to take a critical Thrash as he switches back in. Rather than revive and try fruitlessly to boost against his most dangerous Pokemon, I reset and try again. This time everything seems to be going to plan. I let Golbat sit there and attack weakly while I pump Limit full of X-items. I go in for the kill on Golbat after Limit reaches +3 SpA, +1 Spe, +1 SpDef and +2 Def. Yeah, I wasn’t taking any chances. And yet, against his Feraligatr I still fail since even at +3 SpA Swift barely misses out on a 2HKO. I decide to just attack 3 times in a row, since Feraligatr is using Water Gun which seems to be around a 3HKO. Unfortnately the game was tricking me, because Water Gun gets a higher damage role on the second attack and KOs Limit. I restart and try again, this time using 4 X-Special instead of 3 to ensure I get a 2HKO with Swift on Feraligatr. This time it finally goes according to plan, and after Feraligatr faints nothing else on his team can take a hit.

Victorious, I continue down the path and rescue the Director, who gives me the Card Key with which to reach the top of the Radio Tower. On the way to the top I battle Proton and Ariana again, with neither giving me much trouble. Having not beaten a generation 2 game or remake in some time though, I don’t realize what’s waiting for me at the top is pretty much an extra gym battle. Archer, the top Team Rocket Executive, is no push over and has a level 38 Houndoom, outleveling all my Pokemon by at least 4 levels. Thankfully, with a little bit of help from some healing items Bilious is up to the task and I manage to beat him. The director congratulates me and gives me a Silver Wing with which to summon Lugia.

And here I decide to leave off this update, because there’s a lot more to go before I reach Blackthorn Gym. Next time, I battle the Kimono Girls and Lugia! And that’s it, because I think that’ll be enough for an update in and of itself. After those 3 gyms in quick succession, shit sure is slowing down all of a sudden...

The Team:

Limit the lv 34 Quilava

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flame Wheel
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Still underwhelming. Being a 2nd stage evolution that usually evolves in two levels, it’s going to really stink having her unable to evolve until level 50. At least I got her solo done now... If I had to delay it I think it’d become impossible.

Bel the lv 34 Weepinbel

Moveset:
-Solarbeam
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Got used a bit towards the end where it manhandles a few Koffing with Solarbeam. Not much else to say though since has still seen very little use recently.

John the lv 34 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Night Shade
-Confuse Ray
Notes: Hits the hardest of anyone on the team but also is the frailest of anyone on the team. For some reason Hypnosis’ accuracy dropped to around 25% this chapter too which didn’t make things any easier.

Bilious the lv 34 Quagsire

Moveset:
-Surf
-Dig
-Rock Smash
-Strength
Notes: Quite impressive now, with his good typing, coverage and bulk making him a very useful member of the team. Not bad for a Pokemon with nothing but HMs for moves.

Silph the lv 34 Hypno

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Disable
Notes: Still doesn’t hit very hard but gets the job done. Hypnosis’ bizarre drop in accuracy this chapter hurt him too though. I had it miss 4 times in a row against one Pokemon....

Slick the lv 34 Umbreon

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Tail Whip
-Bite
-Sand-Attack
Notes: The bulkiest member of my team, if I need to switch out to something he’s usually my guy. Still doesn’t have great power, but you take what you can get. Hoping to get him some more useful status moves soon, as I feel he’ll do better as a tank than an all out attacker.

20/08/12: Dragon my feet

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Ok that title is a terrible pun but it works too damn well to not use it XD.

So I start off fast, heading straight to the Kimono girls... only it seems that I got the order mixed up, since they’re not ready to fight. That’s fine, Clair will fall before me then! I blast my way through all the new trainers I can access and explore all the new areas open to me... only to find I’m still several levels shy of Clair’s Pokemon. Without access to any source of healing in her gym, this is a problem. So it’s time to grind. Finally, I get everyone to level 40, as well as grinding at Voltorb Flip to get Thunderbolt for John to use. Ready, I prepare to enter... by calculating just how many of my teammates I could bring in. For the previous few gyms it didn’t matter because my team didn’t hit the weight limit of they were solos anyway, but now with a lot of my team evolved and heavy, I have some calculations to do.

The weight limit for entering the gym is 500 pounds. Let’s see how much each team member weighs...

Limit: 41.9lbs
Bilious: 165.3lbs
John: 0.2lbs
Bel: 14.1lbs
Silph: 166.7lbs
Slick: 59.5lbs
Total: 447.7lbs

Wait a second; I’m still under the weight limit? HELL YES! Thank you for weighing virtually nothing John, that really helps shit out!

Alright, so I go through leading with Limit since she won’t be very useful here. She faints fairly early to a Brine from a Seadra. Also a casualty before I reach Clair is Silph. When I get to her both Bilious and Bel have taken significant damage. The battle starts with John OHKOing her Gyarados with Thunderbolt, as planned. Next comes in one of her Dragonair, both of which have Thunder Wave, so I switch out to Bilious to be Safe. Bilious is ready to dish out the pain with EQ and does so, but eats a critical Dragon Pulse leaving him with one HP. A critical hit at a critical moment you say? No, I never have those -.-. So I switch Bilious out hoping to later restore some HP with Water Absorb, to Slick who finishes it off with Bite. Next up is her deadly Kingdra, who I attempt to confuse with confuse ray to make it much easier. This should work, but for the sole purpose of annoying me her Kingdra carries Smokescreen, which of course causes the 100% accurate Confuse Ray to miss after 1 use. Smokescreen lowers accuracy by 6 stages in one go right? Because that’s sure what it seemed to do. You see, when I switch out to Bilious hoping to absorb a Hydro Pump, he gets Smokescreened. He deals some good damage with EQ as Kingdra thankfully uses Hydro Pump, though it only restores a little of his HP. Next attack, Quick Claw activates! 2HKO! Or it would be, if it didn’t MISS. Bilious is KO’d by Dragon Pulse after this, and I send in Bel hoping to put it to sleep. Amazingly, it works and Kingdra decides to use Hydro Pump, which misses. I then boost once with Growth knowing I’ll never KO without the boost, and fire off two attacks, the first one activating its Sitrus berry and the second one brining it to the red. Of course Clair breaks out the Hyper Potions and heals it back up, but Sludge Bomb is still promising to KO the next turn. But no, bad luck strikes again and THIS is the turn it wakes up and it crits with Dragon Pulse, KOing Bel. I bring in John hoping to outspeed and put it to sleep to use Dream Eater... only to find it ouspeeds him due to his Quiet nature (GODDAMIT WHY). Hydro Pump doesn’t KO John, but John’s hypnosis misses eliminating any hope of healing with Dream eater. Realizing that John is dead meat I sack him to bring in my final Pokemon, Slick, the only one bulky enough to stand a chance. I manage to confuse Kingdra this time, and after a bit of hax on both sides (Confusion for Kingdra and smokescreen induced misses for me) it finally goes down, leaving Slick at around half health. She sends in her final Dragonair to fight him. Bite hits and flinches the first turn, but things go downhill after there with miss hax and paralysis hax kicking in. But finally, I have it within KO range of Quick Attack. Slick is paralyzed and at low health, but barring more hax this should be i- OH MY GOD NO STUPID FULL RESTORE NOOOOO! And so ends my first attempt... round 2 go!

Attempt #2 I make it to Clair with the same casualties but better HP on both Bilious and Bel. Maybe those two can help out more now. John OHKO’s Gyarados again and gets a nice little bonus in the form of a level up. Maybe now it can outspeed that Kingdra should I need it... Anyway, I don’t keep it in against Dragonair and instead switch to Bilious again, who ignores the incoming Thunder Wave like a boss. Quick Claw activates and EQ hits Dragonair for most of its health, and with no crit involved this time he easily tanks the Dragon Pulse. I have him use Strength but Clair busts out a Hyper Potion, forcing Bilious to waste more PP. Bilious hangs on against the incoming Dragon Pulse with 5HP and retaliates for the KO. Her Kingdra comes in, and rather than switch out and risk losing HP on the rest of my team which is still largely fresh, I go for the EQ to go down fighting. I have no luck though and Kingdra uses Dragon Pulse, finishing Bilious off. I send in Bel next to attempt what I tried last time, but the motherfucker uses Smokescreen so of course Sleep Powder misses. Rather than tempt fate with more misses I switch to Slick to try and take out Kingdra through attrition, but another Smokescreen comes his way. Seriously stop it with that move Clair... I attempt to fire off a confuse ray but it misses and Slick has his accuracy lowered even more. I make one more attempt, with Slick tanking a Hydro Pump nicely and finally confusing it. I switch back out to Bel, not expecting to do much with -2 Acc. But NO it uses smokescreen again! Since Bel needs all the accuracy she can get, it’s back to Slick again... Thankfully it hits itself on the switch. It attempts to use Hydro Pump the next turn but it misses. I have Slick use Bite but it does less than impressive damage, so I switch tactics to using Sand-Attack against it. Let’s see how it likes some of its own damn medicine... Of course, it snaps out of confusion and hits Slick with another Hydro Pump in the process. I figure the best route is to cripple it as much as I can before Slick faints, so I confuse it again as it misses with Hydro Pump. Unfortunately, despite being at -1 Acc and confused the next Hydro Pump hits and KOs Slick. Bel comes in hoping to finally land a Sleep Powder, and finally does as Kingdra hits itself. I have Bel use Growth twice to avoid seeing another hyper potion or full restore before going on the attack with Sludge Bomb. Thankfully Kingdra remains peacefully asleep while I kill it, and Bel redies herself to KO the crap out of her Dragonair. Or not... it has Fire Blast and outspeeds, KOing Bel before she can act. John comes in as my last hope. I don’t mess around with Hypnosis and get straight to Shadow Balling, the first hit of which lowers Dragonair’s SpDef, not that it matters since it’s a 2HKO. But then John gets paralyzed by Thunder Wave. Fearing more insane hax, I just go for it and hope to finally end this gong show. Thankfully, hax decides not to rear its ugly head and I finally win the battle!

Man, that was a lot harder than I expected it to be, but I did it! Thank lord, I did NOT want to lose a moveslot on all my Pokemon. Before I end this update though, I go through the Dragon Den and claim my damn badge and TM dammit. Of course I have to battle a few more jerks along the way, as well as requiring me to replace Rock Smash on Bilious with Whirlpool so I can get there. After answering a few questions with single word responses that make me sound like a caveman (“What are Pokemon to you? Full answers are “Ally” “Junior” and “Friend”), I finally get my goddamn badge and TM, but before Clair drops the “THAT CANNOT BE!” line like a cheesy movie villain. Seriously, something is wrong with this world.

The Team:

Limit the lv 40 Quilava

Moveset:
-Ember
-Lava Plume
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Lava Plume gave her a pretty immense jump in power but her bulk is still very much lacking. When she finally evolves it’ll be such a relief.

Bel the lv 34 Weepinbel

Moveset:
-Razor Leaf
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Razor Leaf means she FINALLY has a reliable, immediate grass-type STAB move. It’s not the best but it’s better than having to spend a turn charging, that’s for sure. Growth is still very useful for powering up Sludge Bomb. If only it boosted both attacking stats in this generation...

John the lv 41 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Dream Eater
-Thunderbolt
Notes: Dream Eater and Thunderbolt finally give him some coverage, though Thunderbolt took several hours of Voltorb flip to earn, it was worth it and has already proved invaluable, even against Clair. Dream Eater is nice should he be sleeping an enemy anyways, which is pretty common since I can’t use STAB twice in a row.

Bilious the lv 40 Quagsire

Moveset:
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Whirlpool
-Strength
Notes: Earthquake has really amped Bilious up and made attacking much faster. It’s just a shame he can’t use his STABs twice in a row otherwise he’d 2HKO pretty much anything. Still very useful for my team. Whirlpool is only temporary; I’m ditching it as soon as I can.

Silph the lv 41 Hypno

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Flash
Notes: Flash was taught over Disable so I could navigate Dark Cave better since I never really used Disable anyway. Still pretty weak and his lack of physical bulk is getting fairly noticeable. Hopefully when he upgrades his Psybeam to Psychic he’ll get a little more useful.

Slick the lv 40 Umbreon

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Confuse Ray
-Bite
-Sand-Attack
Notes: Confuse Ray is his first step towards awesome tankdom. As soon as he can get Moonlight he’ll become one hell of a tough opponent to take down. Also, maybe I’ll be able to replace Quick Attack soon since it’s pretty damn weak without STAB.

09/09/12: Well, we're finally back!

---

Alright, so first off I now have no use for any items that heal status, since I cannot use them. Selling binge time! Apparently I bought 15 Full Heals at some point. That turned out to be a good investment.

Also, looks like Prof. Elm has something for me. Turns out it’s the Master Ball, another thing I can’t use. But more importantly, the Kimono Girls are also looking for me, which means that yes, it is time to battle the eevolutions! Up to Gen II anyway.

The battles go pretty well up until Jolteon, where it haxes half my team to death between Double Team, Crits, and not hitting itself even ONCE over the course of FIVE TURNS OF CONFUSION. I really do have the worst luck ever in this game... but after that I do manage to eventually win, and got the Tidal Bell for my troubles. Looks like it’s time to go pay Lugia a visit...

This is essentially going to be my gym battle for the chapter and as such I have to prepare accordingly. Only being able to use Water-type moves to beat Lugia means that I have to use Bilious, since not one of my other team members can learn a damaging water type move. However, Silph and Slick can learn Rain Dance. Lugia itself also has Rain Dance, meaning I might not need it that much. Still, I’ll teach it to Slick as a back-up should I need it. I do have Heart Scales to spare. Billious is conveniently immune to Lugia’s Hydro Pump. However, he will take massive damage from both Aeroblast and Extrasensory. This will probably necessitate several X-SpDefs and lots of healing items. Revives may also be necessary. Conveniently, Bilious learned Rain Dance himself by leveling up shortly after the start of the chapter. It will replace Earthquake temporarily, with Waterfall replacing Strength temporarily as well, since I need Surf and Whirlpool to navigate the islands. It’s not like he’ll be using his non-water moves anyway I suppose. Whirlpool might actually be useful during set up, since its damage occurs even when I’m mucking around setting up and bypasses Lugia’s immense defenses. With all my preparation though, this is still looking to be a mighty hard fight.

Preperation takes some time, seeing as I have to backtrack to the Slowpoke well in order to get Rain dance and basically travel all over Johto to get everything I need. Goldenrod holds the healing and boosting items, and Blackthorn is where I can replace Bilious’ moves. Then after that I have to head back to Olivine in order to get to the Whirl Islands. I could just fly but... well Bilious needs all the levels he can get for this.

*but then on second thought....*
You know, I’m not sure I want to waste that Rain Dance TM on Slick. I might need it later when I get my Safari mons. Well for now I’ll just leave it... if I end up needing it I can always teach it to him when I’m actually saved in front of Lugia.

After a long trek through the caverns collecting all the items there, I finally reach Lugia, ready for the difficult battle to come. Finally it comes time and Billious takes his place.

And it’s the easiest shit ever. Oh, it probably SHOULD have been hard, but all Lugia did was use Rain Dance 3 times and Hydro Pump once. Bilious didn’t even have to take a hit. I have to say... I’m kind of disappointed at how easy that was. Oh well, off to Victory Road now!

Now, as much as I’d like to get rid of Whirlpool right away there is one more place I must use it before I can go on, but after that I’m getting rid of it ASAP. Whirlpool is such a goddamn bad move.
So I work my way through the next couple routes, taking the time to remove Whirlpool after the last area cut off by it is accessed. Victory Road itself is no challenge, holding no trainers at all for some reason (never understood that really... guess the trainers on routes 26 and 27 were supposed to be that?). Just my Rival, ready to challenge me at the end is a threat.

Or so I thought, but Silver proves to be no challenge at all. Not one of my Pokemon falls, even without any items used. That’d possibly different if Razor Leaf hadn’t critted his Feraligatr, but hey, who’s going to complain about the AI falling victim to hax eh?

And that’s it for this installment, because now I have some serious preparing to do for the Elite 4. That’s looking to be a real challenge for once with all the challenges people have given me for them.

The Team:

Limit the lv 43 Quilava

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flamethrower
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Still frail but at least she’s fast and hits pretty hard with her good SpA and powerful STAB moves. Still will be a relief when she evolves though. Shame that won’t happen until AFTER the Elite 4 though. Oh, and when she uses Flamethrower it looks like it’s coming out of her eyes, which is pretty badass.

Bel the lv 43 Weepinbel

Moveset:
-Razor Leaf
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Bel is having issues as of late due to her low speed combined with her bad bulk. She relies on Sleep powder heavily to beat anything she can’t OHKO, and if hax strikes then she’s in real trouble. Still hits pretty hard though and being able to attack reliably with Razor Leaf is a massive boon for her.

John the lv 43 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Dream Eater
-Thunderbolt
Notes: Thunderbolt continues to prove to be worth the investment in time, as it allows John to decimate even more foes with his great speed and power. Dream Eater hasn’t been seen much, mostly because it’s usually unnecessary for John to put the opponent to sleep. I expect it’ll see some use at the Elite Four though.

Bilious the lv 42 Quagsire

Moveset:
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Waterfall
-Strength
Notes: Bilious was definitely the star this chapter, soloing Lugia without a hitch and also easily handling most of the foes he’s put up against. His high powered STAB attacks are the primary reason for this due to their great super-effective coverage, but his bulk, resistances and immunities certainly help out as well. Glad I’ll be able to keep him for certain past the Elite 4.

Silph the lv 42 Hypno

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Flash
Notes: Flash proved its usefulness again in the Whirl Islands, making me glad I didn’t replace it. Aside from that Silph hasn’t really been doing much. He’s just not as good as most of my team members with pretty poor coverage and only decent bulk. I expect his usefulness to pick up when he finally gets psychic though. It can’t happen soon enough.

Slick the lv 43 Umbreon

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Confuse Ray
-Bite
-Sand-Attack
Notes: Slick has become a haxing machine between Confuse-Ray, bit and Sand-Attack. He might not hit super hard but his bulk is the best of all my team members and he’s pretty reliable when I need someone to take a hit or three. I just wish he got a better STAB move, so he could actually do some good damage. Oh well, can’t have everything!

13/09/12: Hax is King

---

So the Elite 4 this chapter. Yeah...

Well let’s start with Will. I took two attempts at this. Two, long painful and expensive attempts at this. The first attempt got canceled when I realized I was completely forgetting about several restrictions. However, even before the second attempt I realized I had to dump Yarthus’ “your Pokemon can’t attack directly if their HP drops below ¼” challenge completely, because it’d literally make this impossible. So I’m dropping it, just so I have a chance at it.

The second time worked. For the record, it involved painfully baiting psychic using John as bait repeatedly, relying on low BP, low damage attacks to take his Pokemon down and eventually having to get his Slowbro to Struggle to death as it KO’d one of my Pokemon with its last psychic, meaning none of my Pokemon could attack it directly and seeing as I had no means by which to deal indirect damage to a Pokemon with Own Tempo. In short, IT SUCKED. I immediately saved after Will so I’d never have to do it again.

And it’s a good thing I did. My first attempt of Koga went by with ease. Bruno was another matter, necessitating several uses of Revives (not counting those as status items or again, we’re talking about a nearly impossible challenge here). I beat him though... only for Karen’s Hax abusing, Double Teaming Umbreon to tick me the hell off so bad I reset the game, only to discover it meant I have to do Bruno and Koga again.

Koga again goes without too much difficulty, but this time Bruno takes his turn at frustrating me. It seems to be going OK until his Machamp lands a crit with his very first Cross Chop, KOing Bilious (who was at +2 from his Hitmonlee’s Swagger). It only got worse from there, as I attempted to stall out his Onix and Hitmonchan (who has no fighting type moves) with Slick... only for them to hit themselves in confusion all of 3 times before I run out of confuse ray PP (from 7 starting PP). To add insult to injury, Sand-Attack seems to have no impact at all on Hitmonchan, who doesn’t miss ONCE despite eating at least 3 Sand-Attacks. After around 10 turns Hitmonchan lands and ill timed crit, KOing Slick and causing me to reset AGAIN out of frustration. This time I had saved after Koga at least, so I only had to fight Bruno again.

Hitmontop is never an issue, but his Hitmonlee is brutal thanks to Focus Energy and Swagger. With my luck, I’m almost guaranteed to hit myself and take a crit. This time, fortune smiles on me and Bilious hits through confusion, KOing it before it can use Hi Jump Kick. Machamp takes a lot from a Strength that gets through Swagger’s confusion, but I end up cycling for a Cross Chop Miss with Lemonade afterwards. Of course, Machamp crits before it misses or runs out of PP, KOing Bilious from full health. I send in Limit to attempt to KO with Flamethrower, but it barely misses out. Limit is brought down to virtually no health by Rock Slide, but he survives! I know I can KO with another Flamethrower though, so I heal Limit to survive 1 attack and attack with another Flamethrower the turn after. It works like a charm, though limit is now at very low HP. Slick comes in next and slowly stalls out his Onix and attempts to do so to Hitmonchan... though Hitmonchan pulls the same shit as before and paralyzes Slick, and THEN just as it’s about to go down Bruno pulls out a full restore. Rather than waste a massive amount of healing items attempting to stall futher, I revive Bilious and have him finish the job. This time, I make sure to save.

For Karen, I tried the same strategy I had in my first failed attempt. This was to try and put it to sleep with Bel, before boosting up high enough to OHKO it with Sludge Bomb. Last time, I barely missed out on the KO, causing Karen to restore it back to full health at +6 evasion, leading to my rage quit. This time I’m making sure that doesn’t happen. Also, it’d help if I didn’t get a 1 turn sleep like last time. Of course, I get no such luck and though Sleep Powder hits immediately, it last only for one turn yet again. Rather than try (and most likely fail) to put it to sleep again, I simply boosted with Growth twice more before using Sludge Bomb to try and KO that motherfucker. Even though it confuses Bel, Bel does eventually land two Sludge Bombs, KOing it. However, Bell only survives with a sliver HP left, so Murkrow must be taken on by others. Murkrow has Sucker Punch, so I can’t just switch in John and Thunderbolt it to oblivion. Instead I have Slick switch in, in an attempt to confuse it... but Slick is FP’d 4 times, and doesn’t even get a chance to move before getting Whirlwinded out (but not before consuming several lemonade). Thankfully, who should be brought in but John! John takes a Pluck but puts Murkrow asleep, and then blasts it to kingdom come with Thunderbolt. Houndoom comes out next and with Nasty Plot I know I have only one option, to KO it as soon as possible with Bilious. Bilious does this but takes much damage, and Vileplume comes in next. Limit is clearly the ideal choice for this next task, and she switches in easily on Petal Dance and OHKOs with Flamethrower. Her final Pokemon, her Gengar, is too dangerous for anyone but Slick... who eats a Focus Blast as soon as he switches in and is OHKO’d. It isn’t until after that that I realize its only Ghost-type attack is Lick, and send in John to KO it with Shadow Ball. This works but the cost is high; John gets paralyzed. This is very bad, because it means that Lances Gyarados suddenly becomes much more difficulty to take down.

Despite John’s paralysis I lead with him against Gyarados anyway. If I can KO Gyarados with him then that’ll make everything else much easier. If not, well when I revive John he won’t be paralyzed.

To my surprise, John does survive and fire off his Thunderbolt, OHKOing the very dangerous Gyarados in on go. His Aerodactyl comes out next and I abandon any thought of John beating it. Instead, I sack him to get Bilious in safely. Bilious takes it out but because he fails to OHKO he consumes a Hyper Potion in the process. His strongest Dragonite comes out next and I switch to Slick to take the incoming Outrage or Hyper Beam. It uses Outrage and with some Hyper Potions to aid in the stalling, I let confusion make the job easier for me. Of course though, despite Sand Attacks every outrage it uses seems to hit 3 times, consuming my Hyper Potions much too quickly. Slick ends up fainting when I think to myself that SURELY it can’t hit a 4th time in a row at -3 Acc and confused. Bilious is KO’d as I revive Slick with a Max Revive. I revive Bilious the same way, needing it for Charizard later. Finally I take it down. He still has two Dragonite left however, though neither thankfully knows Outrage. After paralyzing the first one with Synchronize, confusing it and lowering its accuracy I attempt to switch to Bel, but it snaps out of confusion the same turn. While its attack misses I know it’s too risky to keep Bel in, and instead switch to Silph, who fights until he faints. Slick confuses it again, and I start the stalling process anew until it finally faints. Lances THIRD dragonite comes out, and Slick starts again this time without the benefit of Dragonite being paralyzed. Thankfully, Dragon Rush’s low accuracy makes stalling easy even with occasional bouts of full paralysis. Unfortunately, Lance’s 2 Full Restores has the opposite effect. I have to start dipping into my supply of Max Potions, but eventually it goes down. Lance’s final Pokemon, his Charizard, comes out next. Rather than switch Bilious directly in I use Slick to cripple it as much as possible before he goes down. With it at -4 Acc and around a quarter of its health gone, Slick goes down and I send in Bilious to clean up. Of course, Waterfall JUST barely fails to KO even from that health, leading to another Full Restore being used (Seriously that’s 4 this match). To my astonishment, Charizard actually crits Bilious and KOs him with Air Slash. Bel comes in, praying for a miss. She gets it, and hits Charizard with Sludge Bomb. Again though, it survives with a sliver of health left, and the next move does not miss. Limit comes in, but I can’t risk being outsped and OHKO’d as that’ll cause me to lose immediately. Instead, I heal Bilious with a max revive as a buffer. Air Slash misses Limit though, so I decide to go for the kill. Charizard does outspeed, but finally that -4 Accuracy comes through and Limit misses and KOs that god forsaken Charizard once and for all.

So that’s it. The hardest Elite 4 challenge I have ever, ever attempted. And yet, I can’t help but to wonder if my Black Scramble is going to top it in a couple days. I also tremble at the thought of my second challenge later in this gauntlet...

The Team:

Limit the lv 46 Quilava

Moveset:
-Ember
-Flamethrower
-Cut
-Quick Attack
Notes: Didn’t do a whole lot against the Elite 4 but did help KO a couple key Pokemon. Also landed the final blow against Lance’s final Pokemon which is kind of cool at all in a number of thematic ways, but really it was Billious and Slick who did the hard work.

Bel the lv 45 Weepinbel

Moveset:
-Razor Leaf
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Fuck. Aside from Umbreon, Bel did god fuck all this chapter. Slow, Frail and lacking in power and coverage, Bel just plain sucked. Evolution in 5 levels will be very welcome though and will hopefully turn things around.

John the lv 46 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Dream Eater
-Thunderbolt
Notes: John on the other hand was extremely useful, though somewhat limited against Will and useless against Bruno, I could not have done it without him. The only sweep I got was with him against Koga, who he flat out dominated with Hypnosis, Dream Eater and Thunderbolt. Evolution will just make him more awesome than ever.

Bilious the lv 46 Quagsire

Moveset:
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Waterfall
-Strength
Notes: Bilious was incredibly useful against the Elite 4, though his power and bulk would seem lackluster on an ordinary team. He did very well against every Elite Four member except Koga (who he was banned from fighting) and I could not have done it without him. Glad I won’t have to ditch him next chapter.

Silph the lv 45 Hypno

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Flash
Notes: Being my only Psychic resist he was essential against Will, though all his kills were slow and painful. Indeed, outside of that he was pretty much useless, not even seeing use against Koga where you’d expect him to shine. He learns Psychic at level 50 though, so that should help him out a lot.

Slick the lv 45 Umbreon

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Confuse Ray
-Bite
-Sand-Attack
Notes: Slick ended up being my one and only answer to almost half the league. His defenses and haxing support made him absolutely vital to defeating a huge number of Pokemon, including ALL of Lance’s Dragonite, which I had no answer for otherwise. The only bad thing to be said is that he ended up using a HELL of a lot of healing items doing all that tanking. I really need to restock on everything now.

16/09/12: I'M ON A BOAT

---

First things first after this... I need to roll which Pokemon I have to ditch. The results are in and it’s Limit the Quilava! Probably one of the best possible results, though I’ll need to teach Bel Cut now.

Now I need to catch a Pokemon to replace him. Things I need to consider:
All catching restrictions are off for this, meaning I can catch any Pokemon I want, including evolved Pokemon and Pokemon unable to evolve, Pokemon of types I already have and Pokemon weak to Ground, Rock and Water. If I decide to get a Pokemon that can evolve, it’ll have to solo the gym I’m using it for that chapter if I want it to be fully evolved for Blue. And that’s important, because that final battle against Blue could be tough.

Thankfully, the Safari Zone in Johto is unlike any other and has a ridiculous selection of Pokemon to choose from, meaning I won’t be starved for choice at least. Still, I’ll have to choose very carefully if I want to have a somewhat easy time of this.

I eventually decide that my first Pokemon will be Lapras, who will be of great help against 3 of Blue’s Pokemon and doesn’t need to evolve. Also, the only objects I have that help with getting Pokemon right now are Waterside type...
*After a while I catch a lv 15 Female Lapras and name her Alice*
Alright... got a ways to train her but I got it no-
*Brave nature, shell armor*
... Alice never existed.

Now I catch Ness the male lv 16 Lapra-
*Also Brave and Shell armor*
... What are the fucking chances?!?!?!??!?

Ok, meet Ness the lv 15 Male Lapras... With Relaxed and Water Absorb. Alright, NOW we train.
*Much, much, much training later*
I think I made that much harder than it had to be...

Anyway, now to board the boat to Kanto! OUR ADVENTURE BEGINS NOW!

So I get to Vermillion and there’s not much here. Snorlax is blocking Diglett Cave and the area beyond, but I can go to Saffron freely. Indeed, it seems I can go all the way to Cerulean, and can probably make my way all around the region with minimal obstacles. This... is going to be weird for my update format. I guess I’ll do two gyms an update since otherwise some chapters are going to be about 10 minutes of playtime for me. Well, 10 minutes after I train one of the Pokemon I caught to level 50ish anyway.

Anyway I only explore a bit before deciding to challenge Lt. Surge. His Pokemon have very little in the way of coverage moves, meaning it should be an easy battle for Bilious to take care of. Oh, the gym trainers, I had Ness fight 2 of them and she actually won easily. She’s so bulky she hardly gets hurt by their super-effective attacks. God I love Lapras.

Unfortunately, Surge uses Double team a lot, making the battle against him quite annoying, especially when Static activates on Bilious adding more hax to the equation. He’s still not a threat since he can hardly scratch Bilious anyway, but damn can it be annoying. And again, also expensive because it forces me to use more items as even small hits add up over time. His Magneton in particular took forever to down because some bad luck at the start let it get multiple Double Teams. It also has Supersonic and Mirror Shot (which can and did lower my accuracy) to boot. Thankfully Slick can take the hits from Surge’s Pokemon almost as well as Bilious, allowing me to slowly stall it until finally enough moves connected to bring it down (despite Surge’s use of a full restore). By the time that happened, it was down to just Shock Wave PP... His last two Pokemon go down easily though, giving me an easy if annoying victory.

So, now I need a new Pokemon, so I go to the Safari Zone and catch myself a level 42 Magneton, which I name Triclops. Hasty nature, Magnet Pull (not like either ability is much help in-game). I’ll just train him up, and it’ll be my answer for Sabrina. He resists all her moves, and while he’ll be hitting on their stronger specially defensive side, at least I’ll be hitting them neutrally while they struggle to do damage.

*much training later*
Alright, I think he’s ready for Sabrina now. I’ll solo the whole gym with him so I can evolve him into Magnezone should I wish to. Here we go!
*A few battles later*
Ok I need a non-STAB move that isn’t screech right now. I cannot afford to be basically idle every second turn. I’m making it learn Tri-Attack right goddamn now. Also, Metal Sound because I don’t need Magnet Bomb when I don’t have Screech. Now, back to business.

Alright getting to Sabrina after that was easy. But against Sabrina... well first shot found that Espeon, at +1, 2HKOs with Psychic and there’s not a damn thing I could do about it sooooo.... reset.
Second attempt sees it CMing twice while Metal Sound misses AGAIN. it has 90% accuracy but now it’s missed twice in a row... after that it nearly OHKOs Tripclops. I fire off a Tri-Attack which burns it... but Sychronise burns it also KOing me -.-. RNG is evil.

At this point, I just decide to screw it. I’ll use Triclops without evolving it to Magnezone. It’s only a partial upgrade anyway... It should be able to take on Blue’s Gyarados and Pidgeot without evolving just fine. Slick takes over and easily demolishes Sabrina with his overwhelming type advantage. Sometimes, you have to know when the hard way just isn’t worth it.

So that’s that for this chapter. Two Gym leaders beaten, two new Pokemon trained. What’ll I pick next time? Well I guess you’ll just have to wait and see won’t you :P.

The Team:

Bel the lv 48 Weepinbel

Moveset:
-Razor Leaf
-Growth
-Sludge Bomb
-Sleep Powder
Notes: Still hasn’t evolved just yet, but very close to it now. Didn’t do too much this chapter, but what she did do she did fine. Still can’t wait for evolution though. Not only will Bel get a full upgrade, I can also replace Razor Leaf with Leaf Blade for some real power on her Grass STAB.

John the lv 48 Haunter

Moveset:
-Shadow Ball
-Hypnosis
-Dream Eater
-Thunderbolt
Notes: Didn’t get used much either, but still dominates everything he gets sent out against. Can’t imagine what he’ll be like when I evolve him in a couple levels. He’s crazy powerful enough as it is...

Bilious the lv 49 Quagsire

Moveset:
-Surf
-Earthquake
-Waterfall
-Strength
Notes: As dependable as ever, Bilious made Lt. Surge easy. Nothing much to report here as Bilious probably won’t be changing for the rest of the challenge.

Silph the lv 49 Hypno

Moveset:
-Psybeam
-Headbutt
-Hypnosis
-Flash
Notes: One more level to Psychic and some actual attacking power! To be fair, what Silph did fight this chapter proved no match for him. Still, he’s easily among the least useful members of my party, at least when I’m not up against Fighting or Poison types.

Slick the lv 49 Umbreon

Moveset:
-Quick Attack
-Confuse Ray
-Bite
-Sand-Attack
Notes: I don’t think Slick will ever stop shitting on everything. Seriously, nothing can take this motherfucker down and he haxes like a Jirachi. He’s been creeping up to MVP status for the past several chapters and his performance in both gym battles this chapter only makes that even more clear. Just goes to show that brute force isn’t the only way to win in Pokemon.

Safari Pokemon:

Ness the lv 49 Lapras

Moveset:
-Body Slam
-Confuse Ray
-Ice Beam
-Surf
Notes: Ness exceeded even my high expectations for him this chapter. Lapras has always been a beast in game with its great coverage, decent power and exceptional bulk and this time is no different. It even took super-effective attacks from Lt. Surge’s lackeys like a boss. I wish I could use him more often. He’ll be my primary Pokemon against Blue, having a straight advantage over two of his Pokemon and a partial advantage against two more.

Triclops the lv 49 Magneton

Moveset:
-Discharge
-Tri Attack
-Metal Sound
-Mirror Shot
Notes: At first Triclops worried me with its rather lackluster start, but the application of a couple Heartscales to lean some new moves remedied that in a hurry. Still, it just wasn’t bulky or powerful enough to beat Sabrina’s higher leveled and more powerful Pokemon, despite his type advantage. That’s OK though, he’ll only need one shot against each of Blue’s Pokemon that he’s supposed to take down when the time comes.

Questions: @ The Reptile: Do I have to do a solo per an evolutionary stage, or can I evolve to the final stage after one solo?
Confirmed 1 solo per an evolution