Challenge Pokemon Sun: Bug Monotype Run (Kukui Defeated!)

[SwampySwampert]

I've been looking around for a challenge to put myself through for a while that isn't as luck-dependent as a normal Nuzlocke run, and I think I've found it. See, in the original Alola games, there are only ten fully-evolved Pokemon that are at least partly Bug-type and can be encountered before the postgame, and all of them are originally found on the first two islands. Bug in particular is a type that doesn't mesh well with this game, as Bugs are either resisted by on offense or are weak to two of the Grand Trials, three of the Elite Four, and two of the Trials while only being super-effective against one Grand Trial (Nanu) and one Trial (Lurantis). Knowing these disadvantages, I've still done some research and I'm curious whether it can be done.

The rules of this challenge are simple: I must catch the first Bug-type I see after the capture tutorial, and once that happens, I cannot use any other non-Bug type in my party. I can't officially deposit my starter in the PC until after the festival, but I can just stick it at the back of my party and not use it until then. (I have to do one mandatory battle with Litten at the start, but since you battle Hau right away again at the festival this isn't an issue). I'm also disallowing the use of Pokemon Refresh or Poke Pelago.

First things first, the choice of starter. I decided to go with Litten. There's a reason for this. Since Hau chooses the starter that's weak to yours, if I take Popplio, he will have a Litten with Ember at the festival to happily fry my band of unevolved insects. If I take Rowlet, this will result in Ilima having a Smeargle with Ember, which isn't too awful, but the bigger issue is that the Champion, Kukui, will have an Incineroar, and I'd rather not make this more difficult for myself than I have to. Anyway, let's get into the run! I haven't been too far into the challenge yet, but I'll try and keep this concise and update it often if I can.

Beginnings

Almost immediately after starting, I grab a Caterpie and Ledyba as my starting bugs, and run into a problem right away: these two Pokemon are absolutely terrible. Both are Level 3, so it takes me a little while to get them up to Level 6 so that I can actually survive the first couple trainer battles. It's slow going because every time I encounter a Pikipek, which happens 30% of the time on Route 1, I have to try and run away since all of these little jerks know Peck as their only attacking move. I also only have seven Potions, which I want to try and conserve for battling Hau at the festival. This means I have to keep running back home for free heals. Luckily, there's a solution at hand.

Once I get past the first two trainers, which are fairly easy with just a Rattata and a Caterpie, I can run around in the patch of grass near Iki Town for a 10% chance at encountering a Grubbin. There's two main reasons why I want one: it has 62 base attack and it knows Vice Grip right out of the box, which is a 55 power Normal-type physical move. Not bad for something I can encounter right away. They can appear from Level 3-5, but I got lucky and my first Grubbin encounter was a Level 5. Since Pokemon can't break out of balls thrown at them before the festival, it was no trouble to add to my team. After more grinding (this whole section took me about an hour), Grubbin added Mud-Slap at Level 7 and I made the short trek up to the festival. While it's a Special move and can't benefit from Grubbin's great Attack stat, it has the great side-effect of lowering Accuracy and will come in handy against Hau. Caterpie also evolved into Metapod while I was here, so that was a nice bonus.

Hau's first Pokemon is a Pichu, which can be a pain with Thunder Shock and Static. I used Mud-Slap twice to get a little damage in while lowering its chances of hitting me with Charm. It soon went down easily with Vice Grip. Next up was Hau's Rowlet, but this wasn't too much of a problem since I resisted its STAB Leafage with all of my Pokemon. The only annoying part was that it likes to spam Growl if it can't get a good hit, which made this battle take longer than it should have. After the fight, Ledyba leveled up to 8 and learned Swift. That would've helped now, would it? After winning, I get the Z-Ring and check out Kukui's lab, where he gives me the Rotom Dex. I also went back to Route 1, since I was now playing at night, and grabbed a Spinarak. Its movepool at the moment is crap, but it will provide valuable type coverage later on.

Trainers' School

This is a short section, but contains a couple of sneakily difficult fights and proved to be surprisingly difficult for my team. Luckily, I have the Exp. Share now, so I won't have to do as much outright grinding. The first Trainer I fought was Youth Athlete Hiromi, who sends out...Pikipek. Great. There was a reason why I was avoiding these things earlier, and that's because I don't have an answer for them beyond brute strength. I open up with Metapod, but have to switch out after taking two consecutive Echoed Voice moves from Pikipek. I switch out to Grubbin, and luckily Pikipek doesn't use a third consecutive Echoed Voice, which would have likely been an OHKO. Instead, she uses Peck, which does a fair bit of damage, but then goes back to a base-power Echoed Voice, which allows me to 2HKO with Vice Grip.

The next fight up is Youngster Joey (no, not that one). His only Pokemon is a Metapod, which as everyone knows likes to spam Harden. Thankfully, I have a Ledyba with Swift, which is a 60-power special move that makes this a short battle. The third trainer is Preschooler Mia with Bonsly. Normally this would be a problem, but it turns out its only moves that can possibly deal damage to me are Flail and Copycat. I switch in my Spinarak and manage to luck into a 30% chance to poison the opposing Bonsly on the first attempt. After that, it's just a waiting game with Metapod using Harden until it faints. The final battle with the students is a Rising Star with an Alolan Grimer. It's more difficult to deal with than the other trainers, but a few Swifts from Ledyba do the trick until Ledyba gets poisoned. I then switch out to Grubbin to finish the job with Mud-Slap. The Rising Star gives me TM01 (Work Up) as a reward, but nothing I have right now can learn it so it gets tossed in my bag for a while.

There is, however, the battle with Teacher Emily which is notorious for being difficult right away. Since her Magnemite is Steel-type, this would be a major issue for my squad of four Bugs. However, my Grubbin made a complete mockery of this battle with Mud-Slap easily taking out Magnemite in two hits before Spinarak came in to finish the job with the newly learned Infestation taking out Alolan Meowth. Thanks to the experience from battle, Metapod then evolved into Butterfree afterwards, giving me what will probably be the first fully-evolved member of my long-term team.

Hau'oli City

There's not too much to do here, and I haven't progressed beyond the city yet, but there are a couple of battles I have to get through. First, I grabbed the TM49 (Echoed Voice) from a small field in town, but unfortunately, once again, nothing I have can learn it. The first is a Team Skull grunt with a Zubat, which goes down easily to a 2HKO from Grubbin with Vice Grip. Next up is a more difficult fight: Ilima. His Yungoos and Smeargle hit annoyingly hard with Tackle, and Smeargle has Water Gun for a special option. I sent out Spinarak first to try and get a poison status effect on Yungoos, but it didn't work, so I switched out to Butterfree and took it down with a 3HKO from Gust, which was newly learned upon evolution. Next up was Smeargle, which was more annoying since Ilima used a Potion on it halfway through. It took a full team effort from Ledyba, Butterfree, Grubbin, and Spinarak, but it went down eventually without any of my team members fainting.

Next, I'll be going through Routes 2 and 3, completing the first Trial and the first Island Kahuna battle, and hopefully adding a little bit of Akala Island into the next update as well. There's also one more new Pokemon I can grab for my team while I'm on Melemele Island, so that'll be pretty fly!

If you have any suggestions for me for things to do during the run or ways to make it a little more difficult, feel free to comment!

Current Team Evaluation

Butterfree (Level 11)
- Tackle
- Confusion
- Harden
- Gust

Butterfree is the main special attacker I have so far. The movepool it has is okay, as it learns some good moves early. I expect Butterfree to get some good use in during the battle with Hala.

Ledyba (Level 10)
- Tackle
- Supersonic
- Swift

I'll come right out and say it: Ledyba won't last on this team, so don't get too attached. Its stats are absolutely pathetic even after it evolves into Ledian, and its two best STABs are based off of 55 Special Attack and don't arrive until around Level 40. However, it has been very useful in the early-game with using Swift to break down physically defensive opponents.

Grubbin (Level 11)
- Vice Grip
- String Shot
- Mud-Slap
- Bite

This guy will likely be the ace of the early-game. Vice Grip off of 62 base Attack is nothing to sneeze at, with Bite for coverage. Mud-Slap also came in handy for getting around Emily's Magnemite.

Spinarak (Level 10)
- Poison Sting
- String Shot
- Absorb
- Infestation

Spinarak has been kind of meh so far, but I expect it to be very useful later in the run. It gets great STABs like Pin Missile, Poison Jab and Cross Poison while also being able to learn Shadow Sneak and Sucker Punch.

 

[SwampySwampert]

Back at it. I ended up playing as far as Paniola Town in this section, so it’ll be a decent-length update. When I left off, I was about to head down Alola Route 2 towards the first trial. My first stop was at Hau’oli Cemetery, where there are some trainers I can grind for experience. There’s also TM100 (Confide) here, which I grab, but as it’s a pretty useless move I don’t bother teaching it to anything. Next, I drop by the Berry Fields to clear out our old friends from Team Skull. It’s fairly easy with Grubbin’s Bite. I also grab the Silver Powder, which powers up Bug-type moves. Given the type of run I’m doing, this is definitely an item to grab.

The final significant thing that happened on this route was the addition of a new team member: Cutiefly. It’s an easy catch on the first one I encounter, and is the last new Pokémon that I can add on Melemele Island. I hadn’t originally planned to get one until after the first trial, but Cutiefly makes a good addition now. As a bonus, I also get $3,000 from a woman in the Route 2 Pokémon Center for having it in my Pokédex. Who says entomology isn’t lucrative? Grubbin also leveled up to 13 and learned Bug Bite, which I happily taught it over the useless String Shot. Effectively having a 90-power move at this early a level is definitely something I’m happy to have on my team.

Verdant Cavern

On to the first of my seven trials. Since I’m playing Sun, the Totem Pokémon is a Gumshoos that calls a Yungoos. It’s probably because I’m used to just beating this thing with my starter, but this trial was actually harder than I expected, and I’ll get to why. The first two Yungoos were pretty easy to beat with Cutiefly, which I was trying to train up to catch up with the rest of my team, but the normal Gumshoos was tougher to take down and I had to bring in Grubbin to do it. I also picked up TM31 (Brick Break) in the cave, but the only Pokémon on my team that learns it is Ledyba. Since its Attack stat is so bad and I’m using Ledyba mainly for setting defensive screens and countering Sand Attack users, I don’t use it.

For the Totem Gumshoos, I opted to lead with Grubbin, figuring I’d lead with STAB Bug Bite and hopefully end the battle quickly. However, this only does about a quarter on Gumshoos, so I switch to Spinarak as I take a Super Fang in return on Grubbin. After two Poison Stings fail to poison the Totem Pokémon (although the Pecha Berry was removed by Bug Bite), I send in my strongest special attacker: Butterfree. One Gust does about a third of the remaining damage, but Butterfree takes a hard hit in return, so I opt for Compoundeyes Sleep Powder to deal with the Gumshoos. From here, it’s an easy 2HKO with Gust. However, the fight can’t end until the ally is gone too, and Butterfree is low on health, so I switch out to Grubbin to finish the fight. With this battle done, I obtain the Normalium Z. The obvious candidate for it would be Grubbin with its Vice Grip, but I’m not sure how much Z-Moves would break the run, so for now I’m not putting it on anything.

Route 3

There’s not much to write home about on this route, other than a fairly easy victory against Hau’s Pikachu and Rowlet. He really needs some more Pokémon on his team.

Grand Trial Vs. Hala

I won’t sugarcoat it: this was probably the easiest battle in the entire game. I just let my Butterfree loose to lay waste to Hala’s three Fighting-types. It got sketchy near the end due to low health, but Manley and Crabrawler were both 2HKO’d, while Makuhita took longer due to its bulk. With that, I have now beaten Melemele Island! As well, Grubbin reached level 16 and learned Spark, which will be critical for the next trial. After a quick spin around the island to grab a Nugget and Star Piece for cash, I hop on Kukui’s boat for Akala Island.

Road to Paniola

This might only be a short stretch of game, but there are a couple fights worth noting. The first one is against Dexio. While his Slowpoke goes down easily to two Struggle Bugs from Cutiefly, his Espeon comes in and one-shots it with Confusion. It nearly does the same to Grubbin. Eventually, I just ended up sending in Butterfree, and I’m able to put Espeon to sleep and take it out with Gust. Route 4 isn’t much to write home about, but once I get to Paniola Town, I am immediately dragged into a battle with Hau. His Pikachu is still more annoying than dangerous and goes down easily to two Bug Bites, but Hau’s Dartrix is more of a threat as it knows Peck, which has the ability to rip holes in my team. Fortunately for me, Dartrix only uses it once and I’m able to poison it with Spinarak and wall it to death. After the fight, Ledyba reaches Level 18 and evolves into Ledian, which is a really good step. While Ledian’s offensive stats still suck, its Special Defense is quite good, allowing it to serve as a solid support member for the team.

In the next update, I’ll probably do all three Trials on Akala Island. As well, all five of the remaining Bug Pokémon available for capture before the postgame can be found on Akala, so the team will likely undergo a couple of changes. Til next time!

Team

Grubbin (Level 18)
- Vice Grip
- Bug Bite
- Spark
- Bite

Spinarak (Level 18)
- Poison Sting
- Scary Face
- Infestation
- Night Shade

Ledian (Level 18)
- Mach Punch
- Reflect
- Swift
- Light Screen

Cutiefly (Level 17)
- Absorb
- Draining Kiss
- Silver Wind
- Struggle Bug

Butterfree (Level 18)
- Sleep Powder
- Psybeam
- Stun Spore
- Gust

 

[SwampySwampert]

Time for the Akala Trial Extravaganza.

Route 5

This is a decent-length route on the way to Brooklet Hill for the next trial. I make sure to fight every trainer I could to ensure that Grubbin evolved into Charjabug before fighting Totem Wishiwashi to take advantage of STAB Spark. Gladion's Zubat knocked out my Cutiefly and his Type: Null is annoyingly bulky and hits pretty hard with Tackle, but sending in Butterfree and putting it to sleep took care of it.

Brooklet Hill - Trial Vs. Wishiwashi

For this Trial, I let the newly evolved Charjabug take the lead. Besides battling the two base form Wishiwashi, I also want to make an addition to my team: Dewpider. This Bug/Water type is the only Pokemon available that can survive Kiawe's trial next, so this is a critical element. Unfortunately, they aren't the easiest to find because Dewpider has at most a 20% encounter rate in a certain grass field, and while it does appear 40% of the time while using Lapras, the encounter rate on Lapras' back is rather low. After about 15 minutes, I finally find and catch a Dewpider, and I can move on. Spinarak also evolved into Ariados while here, which is a nice addition.

The trial actually doesn't end up being as difficult as I anticipate. I lead with Charjabug, and use Charge to boost up for Spark on my second turn as the Totem Wishiwashi uses Water Gun on me and calls in a base form Wishiwashi. The boosted Spark does about 75% damage, but its Sitrus Berry heals it up to half. After two Sparks on the Totem Wishiwashi and one more to mop up the ally, the second trial is complete.

On the way out, I make sure to grab the TM for Scald and teach it to Dewpider over Spider Web. There's also a hidden Rare Candy, which I pick up to save for later.

Route 6, Royal Avenue, Route 7

Route 6 is a fairly ordinary path, but I go through here to clear it out so that I have a path through back to Heahea City if I need. I also take part in a Battle Royal with Hau, Gladion, and totally not Kukui in disguise. I actually lost this battle thanks to Hau's Dartrix going straight after my Dewpider which I had in front while training it, but the story progresses regardless of the result of the Royal.

Next, I head up to Route 7. First, I stopped by the small island to get TM73 (Thunder Wave) for future use. I need my Dewpider to evolve into Araquanid to have a go at the next Trial, and since I'm only at Level 19, I make sure to defeat every Trainer on Route 7 and Wela Volcano Park. Doing this gets it to Level 21, and using the Rare Candy I found in Brooklet Hill elevates Dewpider to Level 22, allowing it to evolve and giving me a shiny new Araquanid.

Wela Volcano Park - Trial Vs. Salazzle

Turns out Araquanid absolutely trashes the Totem Pokemon, so I don't need to go into too much detail here. The combination of Water Bubble and Araquanid's insane special bulk makes this trial ridiculously easy. Salazzle starts by using Torment, but I had planned for this. I open up by using Scald, which takes off about 60-65% of Salazzle's health. Since I can't use Scald again, one Bubble Beam finishes off the Totem Pokemon while Salazzle fires off an ineffective Flame Burst and its ally Salandit poisons me. After this, a single Scald polishes off the ally Salandit and I've completed my fourth trial. I promise there is a challenge in this run!

Route 8

Route 8 isn't too long, but has some nice goodies to pick up. First Colress meets me and hands over TM43 (Flame Charge), which predictably, nothing on my team can learn. Most of the Trainers on this route aren't too challenging, but Rising Star Nicki owns a Miltank. And it knows Rollout, Stomp, and Milk Drink. Johto players are well aware of the pain this thing can cause. Rollout went for all five turns and took out both my Araquanid and Charjabug. Thankfully, it only used Milk Drink once and I was able to use Butterfree to put it to sleep. There is one Pokemon that can be added to my team on this route, which is Wimpod. It's luckily pretty easy to catch, as its fleeing mechanic can be neutralized by using Tauros Charge and it is caught easily in one Net Ball. Wimpod does need to be babied due to its poor stats and movepool, but it pays off at Level 30 once it evolves into Golisopod, a very bulky physical attacker. With this addition, it's time to retire Ledian. It had a good run and was very helpful at the beginning of the game for helping Caterpie get the strength to actually attack things, but Ledian doesn't have the stats to be an asset at the end of the game.

Lush Jungle - Trial Vs. Lurantis

This was easily the most difficult of the three trials on Akala Island. The one major event that happened during the collection phase was that Cutiefly reached Level 25 and evolved into Ribombee, giving it a decent boost to its stats to become a useful special attacker. I knew where all the items were from a previous playthrough, however, so it wasn't too tedious. Totem Lurantis is a bad matchup for my team because while it's a Grass-type and my team is mostly Bugs, its allies Trumbeak and Castform both have a type advantage over five of my Pokemon, so I'll have to put up with the allies as well. Lurantis' Aura also doubles its Speed, so it'll always go first by far. I led off with Araquanid, as while it takes neutral damage from Lurantis' STAB attacks, I should also be able to knock off health with STAB Bug Bite to force it to bring in Castform first, which is easier for me to deal with than Trumbeak. However, Power Herb Solar Blade does about 2/3 damage to Araquanid, whose physical bulk isn't very good, and I know Araquanid won't survive Pluck, so I go out to Charjabug, who can take physical hits pretty well. Charjabug absorbs one Solar Blade and two Plucks while using Charge and Spark to one-shot Trumbeak. It takes one X-Scissor while hitting Lurantis back with Bug Bite, and is knocked out by a second X-Scissor. This allowed me to send in the freshly evolved Ribombee and end the fight with a single Pollen Puff. Kukui shows up and gives me TM67 (Smart Strike), a Steel-type move with perfect accuracy. I need all the Rock-type advantages I can get for the Grand Trial, and Ariados can learn it, so I gladly do so.

With the Grassium Z in hand, there is one more order of business to accomplish in Lush Jungle. I can now catch Pokemon in this area, and one in particular is useful: Pinsir. The reason for adding one to the team is because when Charjabug evolves into Vikavolt at Vast Poni Canyon (Game Freak, why??) it will become a special attacker for whatever reason, leaving my only physical attackers as the bulky but slow Golisopod and the slow Ariados. Pinsir has 85 base Speed, which makes it the second-fastest team member behind Ribombee. They can only appear at a 10% rate, but luckily for me, a Pinsir showed up on my very first try and I was able to catch it. I decide to put it into my team and retire another one of the OG team members, Butterfree. While the big butterfly was invaluable for me in getting through the early game, it is rapidly becoming outclassed by Ribombee. Its Flying-type STAB in Gust is weak and covered by Bug- and Fairy-type moves, and its movepool can mostly be covered by other Pokemon. Pinsir can also learn some useful TMs, so I immediately teach it Brick Break and Rock Tomb, then go down to Route 5 and collect and teach a Dark-type move in Brutal Swing for coverage.


With all three Trials on Akala Island out of the way, next up for me is to battle Olivia in the Rock-type trial, then visit Aether Paradise as well as doing the Electric-type trial.

The Team

Araquanid (Level 26)
- Aqua Ring
- Scald
- Bug Bite
- Bubble Beam

Singlehandedly tanked the Fire trial and has incredible special bulk. Araquanid is one of the prime team members at this point in the game. I do wish it had a better movepool, as its Attack is a bit higher than its Special Attack at 70 versus 50 and it can't learn a good physical Water STAB until reaching Poni Island, but I'm not complaining.

Charjabug (Level 26)
- Crunch
- Bug Bite
- Spark
- Charge

Another strong member of my team, taking down Wishiwashi on its own and putting in work against Lurantis. Strong physical offensive and defensive stats, but Charjabug has abysmal Speed and can't evolve until the endgame because Game Freak is a dick.

Ribombee (Level 26)
- Absorb
- Draining Kiss
- Silver Wind
- Pollen Puff

Has some great STAB special moves in Pollen Puff and Draining Kiss, as well as the highest Speed on the team by a mile. As well, Shield Dust is a great ability to prevent added status effects or stat drops. Unfortunately, it can't take hits all that well.

Ariados (Level 27)
- Poison Sting
- Swords Dance
- Smart Strike
- Shadow Sneak

Ariados has pretty solid Attack and a decently varied movepool. It's valuable for coverage, but doesn't learn a single good physical Poison-type move until near the end of the third island and is very slow. Swords Dance is great for setting up though.

Wimpod (Level 22)
- Struggle Bug
- Sand Attack

Nothing really to say about this one until it evolves into Golisopod, since I've been keeping it away from combat.

Pinsir (Level 19)
- Rock Tomb
- Brick Break
- Revenge
- Brutal Swing

Pinsir could very well end up being the star of the show once it gets trained up, with very good bulk and pretty decent Speed. Pinsir also has a really strong movepool that can be bolstered through TMs. The only downside is that it can only get STAB on one move: X-Scissor.

 

[SwampySwampert]

All right, back to it. I did one Grand Trial and one Trial in this run.

Before facing Olivia in the Rock-type battle, I had to pass through Diglett's Tunnel to get to Konikoni City. There aren't any items or Trainers really worth discussing on these routes, although I used the wild Diglett to give my Pinsir more experience for the upcoming battle. Next up is Memorial Hill, which just contains a handful of trainers. There's also a battle with Plumeria from Team Skull, but this wasn't too much of a problem.

Grand Trial Vs. Olivia

This fight was the absolute worst. It took me two tries to defeat it because I got wiped the first time around due to sloppy play and nearly lost the second time as well. The reason this battle is so difficult is because every one of her Pokemon has a STAB super-effective attack against my entire team, and since two of them have Sturdy while the other one is fast, I'll always be getting hit.

Olivia leads with a Nosepass, which likes to start with Thunder Wave to paralyze before spamming Rock Slide. The first time I did this battle, I led with Pinsir and had it neutered right off the bat, so the second time around I used my Charjabug to avoid paralysis while hitting back with Spark. Luckily, Nosepass has a pathetic Attack stat and is slow, so even a 225-power Rock Slide doesn't even take out half health and Charjabug can outspeed it. It gets three Sparks off before going down to Rock Slide, and I send in Pinsir to mop up with Brick Break.

Next up is Olivia's ace: Lycanroc. It outspeeds almost every Pokemon on my team except for Ribombee and has a very powerful Attack stat to utilize its super-effective Rock Throws. Oh, and it has a Z-move to automatically OHKO whatever it decides to use it on. I actually made a mistake against it deviating from my plan, so while I was still able to take it down, the toll on my team was higher than it would have been. Thanks to sb879's Aurorus solo run, which can be found here, I knew that the Nature Power TM that I got for beating all the Route 5 trainers would become Energy Ball in the Grand Trial, so I went and threw that on Ribombee. My plan, which I had done in the first battle where I lost, was to use Ribombee to outspeed and do damage with Nature Power, faint from Continental Crush (which it would've done anyway), and then send in Araquanid to finish the job. Since Araquanid survived a normal Rock Throw from full health in the first battle, I knew this was possible. However, I screwed up and accidentally sent in Araquanid first to battle, which obviously died instantly to Continental Crush. I then sent in Ribombee, which got off a Nature Power attack that did about 75% before being also OHKO'd by a normal Rock Throw. I sent in Pinsir again to finish it off, but Pinsir eats a Rock Throw before dealing the final blow with Brick Break. Again, this was sloppy play by me that almost cost me the battle.

Olivia's final Pokemon is a Boldore. It's incredibly slow, but is bulky and has Rock Blast, which is an unpredictable attack due to its multi-strike nature. Pinsir gets off a Brick Break before going down, which does less than half damage. Ariados comes in at functionally my last shot at winning, since my actual 6th Pokemon is a Wimpod that only knows Struggle Bug and Sand Attack. I used Smart Strike while taking a Rock Blast, so both Pokemon are now at low health. However, Olivia uses her Super Potion here as I deal another hit with Smart Strike. It's at this point that things get sketchy. Boldore is only a 2HKO with Smart Strike unless I can get a crit, while one Rock Blast finishes off Ariados. I got some major luck here, though - Boldore's Rock Blast that would have KO'd Ariados missed, allowing it to use Smart Strike again and win.

So there it is, Olivia defeated. I definitely could've tightened up the battle in some parts, but I got a bit of luck and escaped with the win. It's definitely possible to win against Olivia with only Bug types, though.

I'm just going to skip over the Aether Paradise section since there's nothing of note there, although I did get TM29 (Psychic) and gave it to Ribombee for extra coverage.

Malie City, Mt. Hokulani

First thing that happens after I step off the boat is a required battle with Hau. His lead is now an Alolan Raichu, which is fast and hits hard with Psychic. Since I had Wimpod out first for training, I switched out to Ribombee, which tanks a crit Psychic with 3 HP before OHKOing back with Pollen Puff. His Dartrix is annoying because it knows Pluck, but sending in my Charjabug with Spark and chipping it down takes care of that. Hau's final Pokemon is a Vaporeon, and since my Charjabug didn't have enough HP left to take it down, I switched out to Araquanid and used Bug Bite to whittle down its HP and win. After the fight, my Wimpod reached Level 30 and evolved into Golisopod, becoming a bulky physical attacker.

Route 10 is a short route, but it does have some Trainers to battle to help my Pinsir get more levels. I also retrieve all eight Stufful for a lady on the route, which nets me $15,000. After stopping Team Skull from trying to literally steal a bus stop, I take the Exeggutor Express up the mountain to go to my next Trial.

Before I can get into the observatory, I have to fight Molayne, who is a Steel-type trainer. This battle was one that I was wary of, since all of his Pokemon are Steel-type and have another type to factor in, but it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. He leads with Skarmory, which is a pain to deal with because it has Air Cutter, but Spark from Charjabug deals with it. Next up is his Metang, which is an issue because of its defensive typing. I didn't really have an option for this fight but to send in Pinsir and use Brutal Swing, which ended up being a 3HKO. Next up is his Dugtrio, which was easily one-shotted by Araquanid. With that out of the way, I can finally access the fifth Trial.

Hokulani Observatory - Trial Vs. Totem Vikavolt

This battle was more annoying than it was a real threat to take me down. I led with Pinsir and did decent damage with Rock Tomb, which was the only way to deal super-effective damage that I had on my team. However, Vikavolt's Spark paralyzed my Pinsir on the first turn, and then I got fully paralyzed on the second turn. With this and chip damage from the ally Charjabug's Vice Grip, there was no way to reliably take out Vikavolt, so I switched out to Charjabug. Charjabug had its own issues taking on this Totem since its only non-resisted attack was Crunch, but making do with what I had, I was able to knock out the Totem Vikavolt. After switching to Ribombee to finish off the ally Charjabug with Draining Kiss, I had my fifth Trial complete.

I'm busy the next couple weeks, so I may not be able to get the next update out until Tuesday, but I will probably do the Acerola trial fight and play up to Po Town next. After that, I'll likely devote one update to Aether Paradise and Poni Island, and after that, one to the battle with Motherbeast Lusamine, Victory Road, and the Elite Four and Champion.

Note: I turned off the Exp. Share for now because my levels are already higher than the next Trial, just to make sure this doesn't get too easy.

Team

Pinsir (Level 31)
- Rock Tomb
- Brick Break
- X-Scissor
- Brutal Swing

Araquanid (Level 34)
- Aqua Ring
- Scald
- Leech Life
- Bubble Beam

Golisopod (Level 33)
- Struggle Bug
- Sand Attack
- First Impression
- Sucker Punch

Ariados (Level 35)
- Poison Sting
- Swords Dance
- Smart Strike
- Leech Life

Ribombee (Level 33)
- Nature Power
- Draining Kiss
- Psychic
- Pollen Puff

Charjabug (Level 34)
- Crunch
- X-Scissor
- Spark
- Thunder Wave

 

[sb879]

fwiw Wimpod actually can learn TMs, so it could've helped finish off Boldore with Scald even if Boldore didn't miss Ariados.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, btw, it's been a good read.

 

[Nimbus-Skye]

Hey, I just want to let you know that you have a nice big audience here. Keep up the great writeups; I particularly enjoy this as a very nice distraction from the daily grind of competitive battling.

Furthermore, there is a Bulldoze TM in Malie City for $10k, which will be very helpful against the myriad of fire, steel, rock, and poison types along your way. Pinsir will likely use to it to great effect.

Ribombee will actually become a powerful glass cannon later on, as it learns Quiver Dance and its best STAB moves, Dazzling Gleam and Bug Buzz.

Your team is overall the best that it could be, but it does have a huge fairy weakness. Ariados is your only resist but its bulk is meh and it's extremely slow. It's a real shame that the better Bug/Poison types are unavailable and Bug/Steel is nowhere to be seen.

 

[SwampySwampert]

fwiw Wimpod actually can learn TMs, so it could've helped finish off Boldore with Scald even if Boldore didn't miss Ariados.

Thanks for taking the time to write this up, btw, it's been a good read.

Thanks! For whatever reason, I saw Wimpod's lacking level-up movepool and assumed that was all it had, and didn't try and teach it anything.

Hey, I just want to let you know that you have a nice big audience here. Keep up the great writeups; I particularly enjoy this as a very nice distraction from the daily grind of competitive battling.

Furthermore, there is a Bulldoze TM in Malie City for $10k, which will be very helpful against the myriad of fire, steel, rock, and poison types along your way. Pinsir will likely use to it to great effect.

Ribombee will actually become a powerful glass cannon later on, as it learns Quiver Dance and its best STAB moves, Dazzling Gleam and Bug Buzz.

Your team is overall the best that it could be, but it does have a huge fairy weakness. Ariados is your only resist but its bulk is meh and it's extremely slow. It's a real shame that the better Bug/Poison types are unavailable and Bug/Steel is nowhere to be seen.

Thanks for the tips! I was considering buying Bulldoze the first time at Malie City, but I actually ran out of money buying the Aerial Ace and Swords Dance TMs, so I hadn't yet. Ribombee is definitely my best special offensive weapon right now, my only wish is that it could actually take a hit without immediately dying. Agreed on your last point! My team can't really improve membership-wise, and I do have some holes in coverage against Fairy-types. Kukui's team is going to be tough because he has two Fairy-types in Ninetales and Primarina as well as Snorlax, Braviary, Lycanroc, and Magnezone, which all pose their own issues.

 

[SwampySwampert]

After grabbing my fifth Trial win from Hokulani Observatory, it's time to head back down the mountain. First, I have to head down to Malie Garden to give the Professor the Royal's Mask that totally doesn't belong to him. When I get there, Team Skull's boss, Guzma, is waiting for me. After some tough talk, he challenges me to a battle. I have to say, these two battles against Guzma were probably some of the most fun I've had so far in this run, mostly because I get to kick his ass with better versions of Pokemon. A Rock Tomb from Pinsir quickly forces out his Golisopod and deals with his Ariados, so this fight wasn't too difficult. Next up are Routes 12 and 13, which don't pose a significant difficulty to my team. Soon, I get to the ruin of the Tapu Village, where I can restock before heading out to the Thrifty Megamart for my next trial. After meeting up with Acerola in the Aether House, I can finally go over there.

Thrifty Megamart - Trial Vs. Mimikyu

Welcome to Thrifty Megamart, a prime example of why you shouldn't pursue urban development on sacred ground! In this trial, I have to battle all the members of the Gastly line to get to the back room and battle Totem Mimikyu. I led with Ribombee during the lead-up because it knows Psychic, which was a one- or two-hit KO on all the Ghost-types. I went into the battle with the Totem Pokemon with Ariados as my lead, figuring that Smart Strike would be able to do a good chunk of damage. The Disguise was put out of commission right away, but when I tried to use Swords Dance to boost up the power of Smart Strike once the disguise was broken, Ariados took enough damage that it was knocked out before actually getting to attack the next turn. My next Pokemon up was Charjabug, who is tanky enough to survive the physical-focused attacks from the Mimikyu and Ally Haunter to Paralyze the Mimikyu twice (it has a Lum Berry which I had to get out of the way first). With Mimikyu slowed, I was able to bring in my Ribombee after Charjabug fainted and take out both the Haunter and Gengar with a single Psychic each while only taking one hit in return. After Ribombee was fainted, I sent in Araquanid, but Scald wasn't able to do much against Mimikyu's high Special Defense and its lackluster physical bulk meant it wasn't able to finish the fight. However, this cleared the way for me to send in Pinsir to end it with Rock Tomb, giving me my sixth Trial victory.

Routes 15 & 16

Turns out Team Skull had a little visit to the Aether House while I was out, and they took the Preschooler's Yungoos. After battling Plumeria outside the house in a battle that proved to be pretty easy, I have to head all the way to Po Town to go get it back. On the beach, Grimsley, formerly of he Unova Elite Four, gives me Sharpedo Jet. Armed with the ability to break through rocks, I backtracked to Melemele Island and picked up the Rock Slide TM, which serves as an upgrade for Pinsir's Rock Tomb. I also grabbed TM93 (Wild Charge) from Route 15. As I don't really like recoil moves, I have the option to teach it to Charjabug, but I don't for now. On Route 16, there's not too much of note, but I do get the X-Scissor TM, which provides solid physical STAB coverage for my team if I need it.

Route 17 & Po Town

Well, I've made it to the route before Po Town, and it's absolutely crawling with Team Skull Grunts. My team is decently leveled, so I only battled the ones I had to fight to get to the top of the cliff on the right side. By jumping down the left side of these ledges, I can pick up the TM for Poison Jab, which finally provides a good STAB Poison-type option for my Ariados. After talking to Nanu in which he delivers one of the darkest lines in the history of Pokemon, I head on in.

Po Town, the gloomiest place in the region, has been completely taken over by Team Skull, and there are five Grunts to fight before even going inside Shady House. Most of these Trainers have Pokemon I've dealt with several times before, so it's not too big of an issue. Shady House has several Grunts, but there's only one man here I'm interested in fighting: Guzma. Sidenote: all these Grunts keep talking about how Guzma is going to be the "strongest Bug-type Pokemon user in Alola". My dudes, have you seen my team?

Guzma's team is the same two Pokemon as last time, although they're now at Level 37 instead of 31. Regardless, I mostly use the same strategy as last time, utilizing Rock Tomb and Psychic to great effect to deal with him. After beating Guzma, I snag a Buginium Z for future use and head out to meet Nanu.

Turns out that whole Po Town thing was a diversion so Team Skull could kidnap Lillie. Gladion comes racing in and immediately challenges me to a battle. His Type: Null poses a major threat due to its Crush Claw hitting really hard, but his Golbat and Sneasel aren't a problem. After beating him, it's off to Aether Paradise to go save Lillie, but first I have to battle Nanu in the Grand Trial. I was expecting to be able to sweep this entire fight with Ribombee due to typing, but his Persian is really fast and has Power Gem, so it poses a bit of an issue, but Araquanid takes care of it easily.

That's all for now! Off to Aether Paradise next!

Team

Ribombee (Level 36)
- Nature Power
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Pollen Puff

Golisopod (Level 36)
- Aerial Ace
- Swords Dance
- First Impression
- Sucker Punch

Ariados (Level 36)
- Poison Jab
- Swords Dance
- Smart Strike
- Leech Life

Pinsir (Level 37)
- Rock Slide
- Storm Throw
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance

Charjabug (Level 36)
- Crunch
- X-Scissor
- Spark
- Thunder Wave

Araquanid (Level 36)
- Aqua Ring
- Scald
- Leech Life
- Bubble Beam

 

[Jerry the great]

So about Guzma:

In my runs, he's pretty scary, because I tend to use only my favorites, and they are not all that great, and his mons movesets are more than ready to eat my team. Their stats are also scary.

But in your mono bug run, he's just a weaker version of you! Like wow!

 

[SwampySwampert]

This portion of the run covers the most battle-heavy portion of the game, so there's a lot to get into. I went all the way up to the base of Victory Road in this part.

Aether Paradise is now swarming with Aether Foundation employees, all of whom I fight for the experience. None of them really pose an issue. The first fight against Faba, as well as the team fights with Hau and Gladion as partners, aren't that difficult, until I arrive at...

Guzma

This fight made me regret turning off the Exp. Share after Sophocles' trial, because it is hard with the team I had. Guzma has leveled up his team even more since the last battle, and has also added two new Pokemon: Masquerain and Pinsir. He still leads with Golisopod, as always, but his second Pokemon will be Masquerain, which can rip through my specially-poor team with super-effective Air Slash as well as the high-power Bug Buzz. This fight took me two attempts because the Masquerain did enough damage that I had nothing left to beat his Pinsir last. Because I don't really have type advantages over his team, since they're basically all the same Pokemon as I have, all I can really do is hit as hard as possible. I was able to exploit him somewhat, though - in the second battle, he sent out his Pinsir third, which I defeated with my own Pinsir. His last Pokemon is Ariados, and it is seemingly coded to always go for Sucker Punch every time until it runs out of PP for the move. I was able to abuse this by just switching in my own Ariados, boosting up to +6 Attack, and 2HKOing it with Smart Strike for the win. Regardless, I did have to go back and grind some levels as well as turning the Exp. Share back on for the rest of this part. As I'm still underleveled, it'll probably stay that way. This game really does make you grind if you don't use it.

There's actually a fun little thing I discovered in this game. When you go to battle Guzma, Gladion is still smarting from his loss. However, if you lose to him or leave to go to another island beforehand, since you can't fly back to Aether Paradise until after defeating Lusamine, Gladion will be hanging out on the Malie City pier, waiting to give you a ride. Apparently he can be in two places at once.

Lusamine

After going through my entire supply of Revives to recover from that damn Guzma fight, I then have to go into the President's Mansion and battle Lusamine to save Nebby. Lusamine's Pokemon are all Level 41, but I can at least take advantage of type matchups this time. Her first Pokemon is Clefable, and I lead off with my Ariados. It likes to use Metronome, and I'll just take a second to list off the moves that it managed to get from the roulette, in order: Acid Armor, Thunderbolt, Sacred Fire (missed), Sand Attack, Psycho Cut, and Dark Void (which it's thankfully not allowed to use). Luckily, it's not that bulky and gets 3HKO'd by Poison Jab. Next up is her Mismagius, which gets 2HKO'd by Araquanid's Crunch. Lusamine's third Pokemon is Lilligant, which goes down easily to Pinsir. Fourth is Milotic, which hits pretty hard with Hydro Pump, but my Charjabug actually managed to tank the hits pretty well and take it out with Spark and Thunder Wave paralysis. Finally, her Bewear is easy pickings for Ribombee. With the fight over, Cosmog escapes the machine and evolves into Cosmoem, and Lusamine is pulled into Ultra Space along with Guzma and Nihilego.

Poni Island

The first stop on the way to saving Lusamine and Nebby and everyone is Seafolk Village. First, I have to go get Hapu, which requires me to traverse the Poni Wilds. Even the Wild Pokemon outlevel me here, so this was a fun area to get through. There's also a random trainer in the middle of the area that has a Toxapex with a Poisonium Z, who I forgot was there. After getting Hapu and Machamp Shove, I can take a quick stop back to Ten Carat Hill and grab the Acrobatics TM (it doesn't need Machamp, but somehow I never went there the first time around) and the Flyinium Z, which nothing on my team can use. Yay! After a visit to Hapu's and a quick stop at the Ruins of Hope to crown Hapu the kahuna, it's time to go get the Sun Flute. There's only one battle here, which Pinsir takes care of in two hits. Once that's obtained, I can get over to Vast Poni Canyon and start my path toward the Dragon trial, but not before beating the horde of Skull grunts and being given the Poisonium Z by the newly reformed Plumeria.

Grand Trial vs. Hapu

Before being allowed to enter the canyon, I have to defeat Hapu in the Poni Island grand trial. Her first two Pokemon are Dugtrio and Flygon, which are easily taken out by Araquanid and Ribombee respectively. Hapu's third Pokemon is her vaunted Mudsdale, which poses a huge issue because of Stamina and a Z-Crystal. I sent in Araquanid to deal with it, and Araquanid rewarded me by tanking a Tectonic Rage from Mudsdale with red HP and getting a burn using Scald. After a quick heal and dealing with some item spam from Hapu, Mudsdale is down. I decided to leave in Araquanid for her last Pokemon, a Gastrodon, since I don't really have anything to beat it with. It has Recover, which is a pain in the ass, but after using about ten more Scalds on it, it finally goes down. As a bonus, since this battle technically takes place in Vast Poni Canyon, Charjabug leveled up during this fight and finally evolved into Vikavolt, learning Thunderbolt in the process.

Vast Poni Canyon

I admit it: I nearly lost to the first goddamn trainer in the canyon. Veteran Harry has a Torkoal with Drought and an Arcanine, which was a nightmare for my team. I barely pulled through with one Pokemon remaining, but it was an embarrassing schlep back outside the door to get my team healed by Lillie. Later Trainers were easier, or at least until I walked into one cave the wrong way and got promptly swept by Veteran Lynn and her Acrobatics Talonflame. Type coverage? What the hell is that? Luckily, with enough items and Lillie encounters for healing and just avoiding some of the last few Trainers, particularly the Scientist in the last cave with Alolan Muk and Magnezone, I'm able to get to the gates of the Dragon Trial. Shoutout to Veteran Eric's Alolan Golem for Exploding on my Araquanid on the first turn it was out and preventing me from having to deal with it myself.

The Trial against Totem Kommo-o went fairly smoothly. It used Protect on its first turn, crushing my hopes of taking it out in one hit with Ribombee, but the Ally Hakamo-o went down in one shot with Dazzling Gleam and the Totem went down with one more. The issue was the Scizor that it called, as I don't have a Fire-type move. Fortunately, it's only Level 32, and falls to a single +2 Bulldoze from Pinsir. With my Trials all complete, I can now climb up to the Altar of the Sunne and go to Ultra Space.

Motherbeast Lusamine

Time to battle the scariest Eldritch monster that Game Freak has ever created - Motherbeast Lusamine! She has all the same Pokemon as last time, but at Level 50 now. First up again is Clefable, which only uses Metronome once for a Mirror Shot that missed, against my Ariados. The main issue this time is that this little jerk now has Moonlight for recovery, which drags the matchup out far longer than necessary. Luckily, once it runs out of Moonlights, it can only use an ineffective Moonblast before falling to Poison Jab. Mismagius and Lilligant are easily dealt with by Araquanid. Lusamine's Milotic hits very hard with Hydro Pump, but luckily after Vikavolt gets its health down with Thunderbolt and paralyzing it with Thunder Wave, it gets locked into using Recover and Safeguard repeatedly, making it easy pickings. Lusamine's final Pokemon is a Bewear, which is two-shotted with Ribombee. With Lusamine defeated, everyone gets to go back home. I laughed at the line "I'm relieved to see you all unharmed!" from Hapu, when Lusamine's unconscious body is about three feet away from her.

There's one more item I have to take care of before getting out of here: catching Solgaleo (it's not a Bug-type, but you have to catch it). This fight took me two tries for the dumbest reason ever: after my Vikavolt fainted, which I was using for Thunder Wave and dealing damage, I stupidly decided to send in my Golisopod, forgetting what Emergency Exit actually did in wild battles. Oops. On the second try, I avoided using it and caught it on the fifth Ultra Ball or so. Lillie goes on about how Nebby is going to have so many great adventures. I don't have the heart to tell her that it's going to be left to rot in my PC. Once that's out of the way, Nanu climbs all the way up the stairs just to find me and give me a free ride back to Tapu Village, where I'll take on Victory Road and the Elite Four in the next and final part of this playthrough! That'll be after some grinding, though, because I am severely underleveled at the moment.

Team

Vikavolt (level 48)
- Dig
- X-Scissor
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave

Took them long enough to evolve, but Vikavolt is a huge asset to have: something that can actually take care of Kahili's team with STAB Thunderbolts.

Ribombee (level 48)
- Protect
- Dazzling Gleam
- Psychic
- Pollen Puff

My second Special attacker, has great Speed and type coverage with Dazzling Gleam, Psychic, and Pollen Puff. It'd be nice if it could actually take a hit back though.

Araquanid (level 47)
- Aqua Ring
- Scald
- Lunge
- Crunch

Araquanid is a pretty good mixed attacker at this point, but its main use is as one of two Fire-type resists and one of the only Pokemon on my team with special bulk.

Ariados (level 49)
- Poison Jab
- Swords Dance
- Smart Strike
- Pin Missile

Ariados is kinda slow and doesn't have great bulk, but it's the only Pokemon on my team that can deal with Fairies with STAB moves and has good enough Attack.

Pinsir (level 47)
- Bulldoze
- Superpower
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance

Pinsir is one of the best threats I have on this run. It has 125 base Attack which can be boosted to very high levels with Swords Dance, and it can surprisingly outspeed some things. The versatile coverage movepool is the icing on the cake.

Golisopod (level 48)
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
- First Impression
- Liquidation

A very strong and bulky Physical attacker, Golisopod was worth the babying it took to get it to evolve. It's a shame that it has an Ability that tends to keep getting in the way of my plans.

 

[SwampySwampert]

So about Guzma:

In my runs, he's pretty scary, because I tend to use only my favorites, and they are not all that great, and his mons movesets are more than ready to eat my team. Their stats are also scary.

But in your mono bug run, he's just a weaker version of you! Like wow!

It's funny that this post was made before I wrote up the update where I lost to him lol

 

[SwampySwampert]

Here we go - the final leg of the trip. Apologies for the slight delay - I had to do some grinding in addition to figuring out a way to beat the E4 and Champion.

Gladion

Before I can head up the mountain to the Pokemon League, I have to defeat Gladion first, His team isn’t too awful at first - I’m used to dealing with his Crobat by now, Weavile goes down easily, and his Water Silvally is also dispatched with a 2HKO. The issue is his Lucario, which is a Fighting/Steel type that my team doesn’t handle well. Fortunately, it’s not too bulky and my Pinsir handles it. With that out of the way, I can head up the mountain to traverse the worst Victory Road ever.

Hau

The last battle before the Pokemon League is another face-off with my rival. Hau’s Alolan Raichu can be obnoxious with Psychic and Thunderbolt, but it’s frail and gets OHKO’d by Ribombee. His Vaporeon is bulky, but dealt with by Vikavolt, and his Komala goes down to a Superpower. Finally, Hau’s Decidueye actually did a pretty smart thing and trapped my Vikavolt with Spirit Shackle and KO’d it, but I was able to take it down with my Ariados. I can finally take on the Elite Four now!

From this point, I’m mostly discussing the strategies from my final and successful run - I probably failed about seven or eight times. I actually used the E4 for grinding, as I had defeated basically every trainer on a comparable level that would have been useful for leveling and my team was good enough that I could make money from the process. I also went back to Lush Jungle and grabbed TM53 (Energy Ball) from Lush Jungle and taught it to Vikavolt and Ribombee, as well as buying the Pixie and Zap Plates from Hau’oli City.

Kahili

I was initially concerned about this battle, since Flying-types have a type advantage over most of my team. It actually turned out to be the easiest one. I led with my Vikavolt with the Zap Plate being held while Kahili sent out Skarmory first. I used Agility to boost up Vikavolt’s Speed enough to be able to take down her Crobat, and used Energy Ball, which I had taught Vikavolt via TM53, to break Sturdy. At about half health from three Slashes, Vikavolt is free to go to town with Thunderbolt. Kahili switches out to either Oricorio or Toucannon in this case, but it doesn’t matter because Toucannon, Oricorio, Crobat, and Skarmory all get one-shotted by Thunderbolt. Mandibuzz is more annoying because of its bulk, but luckily Vikavolt can survive one shot in return from Brave Bird or Punishment as long as it doesn’t crit, which it didn’t in this case. Mandibuzz is either a two- or three-hit KO, and Kahili is dealt with.

Hala

My initial plan for this battle was to lead with my Ribombee, boost up with Quiver Dance twice, and then sweep with Dazzling Gleam. Since Ribombee has Shield Dust, it can’t be flinched with Fake Out, allowing it to get the first boost in. However, this didn’t work because two Quiver Dances don’t give Ribombee enough of a boost to OHKO Hala’s Crabominable that comes in second, and Ribombee can’t take hits enough to get three up. My next plan was to use the Pixie Plate to enable me to deal OHKOs with two Quiver Dances. The issue with this plan, though, is that if Ribombee holds the Pixie Plate, Hala’s lead Hariyama will use Knock Off instead of Close Combat, which not only does more damage to Ribombee but doesn’t cause the Defense drop that is necessary to OHKO Hariyama. The eventual solution that I found was to level up Ribombee enough to the point where it could juuuuuust survive one Fake Out and two Close Combats from Hariyama to get the third Quiver Dance up. Once this was set up, Ribombee proceeded to nuke everything with OHKO Dazzling Gleam.

Acerola

This battle didn’t go as planned, but that was mostly due to bad luck rather than my team weakness. I once again planned to deal with her Sableye and Froslass, the first two out, by using Quiver Dance to boost twice and use Dazzling Gleam, this time with the Pixie Plate, to OHKO both of them. In my practice runs, Sableye had been using Fake Out on turn 1, giving me a window to boost up before it tried to confuse me. However, on my final run, Sableye used Confuse Ray right away, I hit myself with confusion trying to boost up a second time, and it took off most of my Ribombee’s health bar with a crit Shadow Claw. Sableye was OHKO’d, but Ribombee failed to OHKO Froslass and was taken down by Blizzard. Araquanid came in and took care of it with a 2HKO Crunch. Acerola’s third Pokemon is a Dhelmise, which is annoyingly bulky. Ariados took off a decent chunk of health with Swords Dance into Poison Jab, but fainted from Shadow Ball. Pinsir came in and finished it off. Next up was Palossand. In my practice runs, I knew Vikavolt could survive a Never-Ending Nightmare from full health, and it outsped Palossand, so I used Energy Ball on turn 1, aiming for a 2HKO. Luckily, Palossand seems to be coded to use Iron Defense on the first turn, so it never even got a chance to use its Z-Move and was easily taken care of. Drifblim was last, but only used two Ominous Winds that didn’t do much before being 2HKO’d by Thunderbolt. Three down, one to go!

Olivia

This battle was just as difficult as the last time. Olivia leads with a Relicanth, which is a joke and goes down in one hit to Vikavolt’s Energy Ball. Next up is her Lycanroc. I decided to go back to the old standby of sending in Ribombee on a suicide mission to do as much damage as possible before eating a Z-Move, then using Pinsir to use Bulldoze for speed control and then KOing with Superpower. I knew that Pinsir could survive a non-crit Stone Edge. The key phrase being: non-crit. Lycanroc got a critical hit, then OHKO’d my Araquanid when I sent it in to try and KO with Liquidation. I ended up taking it down with Vikavolt using Energy Ball. Third was Olivia’s Carbink. I switched Ariados in to use Smart Strike after a Swords Dance, but it got a Reflect up. Ariados still took it down, but this proved to be an issue later. This was where things got sketchy. For her fourth Pokemon, Olivia used Probopass and I responded with Golisopod. Probopass got the sandstorm up, but because of Reflect, Liquidation from Golisopod wasn’t a 2HKO potential and Power Gem forced me out. Thunder Wave also hit, paralyzing Golisopod. Vikavolt was able to take care of the Probopass, but both it and Ariados were taken down by Alolan Golem. Left with only a paralyzed, low-health Golisopod in the sand to deal with Olivia’s last Pokemon, I got incredibly lucky: Golem’s Thunder Punch left Golisopod with 5 HP remaining and Liquidation KO’d the Golem. I was one turn away from a blackout.

Kukui

This battle is a difficult one that requires a good bit of skill as well as some luck with what Kukui’s Pokemon do. A few things absolutely have to go right in order to win. First off, Kukui’s lead Pokemon is a Midday Lycanroc with Stealth Rock. If it uses Stealth Rock on the first turn, just reset and try again, because as far as I can tell, there is no way to win the battle with rocks up and there is no way to get rid of them with only Bug-types. I had Ribombee out there because I thought it could outspeed Lycanroc, but with Kukui’s Pokemon having better IVs and being EV trained it outran my Ribombee and one-shotted it with Stone Edge. I sent in my Vikavolt next, and got lucky with a Stone Edge miss as I OHKO’d with Energy Ball. Next up was Alolan Ninetales. I sent in Ariados and used a Swords Dance into OHKO Smart Strike, as it set up Safeguard and a missed Blizzard in return. Third was Braviary, which I sent in Vikavolt to deal with. Now, if it uses Tailwind here (as it did on my first attempt), the battle is essentially over, because even though Vikavolt OHKOs with Thunderbolt, Tailwind-boosted Magnezone will be able to outspeed my Pinsir and OHKO with its own Thunderbolt, then run roughshod over the rest of my team. If it uses Tailwind, just reset and try again. Without Tailwind, Kukui’s Magnezone is slower than my Pinsir, which means that it will try and use Thunder Wave to slow me down before attacking. I got lucky again with a Thunder Wave miss, although it doesn’t actually matter here because after the Bulldoze speed drop it’s still outsped by a paralyzed Pinsir and I’m able to 2HKO with Bulldoze.

Kukui then sends out his ace, Primarina. I switched to Ariados to try and get a Cross Poison off, but it eats a Hydro Vortex straight to the face. Golisopod, Pinsir, and Vikavolt soon meet the same fate with Moonblast, with only Pinsir getting a hit in with Bulldoze, and it seems like this battle is going to be a sweep with only my Araquanid left. Luckily, Araquanid is not only a physical attacker against the specially oriented Primarina, but its highest stat is Special Defense, meaning that it can nicely sponge Moonblast. Although Primarina resists every attack Araquanid has (Liquidation, Lunge, Crunch, Ice Beam), its Defense is low enough that Araquanid can eventually whittle it down to nothing, even after Kukui used a Full Restore on it. The final obstacle between my team and the Champion’s chair is Snorlax. I heal up to full health with a Max Potion while taking a Body Slam for about half health. Araquanid outspeeds, so I use Lunge to deal damage while also neutering Snorlax’s Body Slams. Kukui obnoxiously used two Full Restores during this fight, but once Snorlax was at -6, I switched to using Liquidation and Snorlax went down. Victory is mine!

This was a really fun run to do, as it really forced me to think about my movepool choices. Dealing with basically my entire team having three mutual weaknesses was quite the challenge to work around as well. Finally, I was not expecting the Speed of my whole squad to be as atrocious as it was. I might do a little “bonus episode” where I do the UB sidequest and try and make it to the Battle Tree, but the main goal of becoming Champion of Alola has been achieved.

As for doing this on Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, I would say it’s probably a step up in difficulty. You are able to use Forretress, Volcarona (if you have the patience to get a Larvesta), and if you’re playing Ultra Sun you can get Armaldo, and Vikavolt is accessible before Totem Mimikyu, but the easily-cheesable Hala Elite Four battle has been replaced with a nightmare of a fight in Molayne, Hau’s team now has a Noivern instead of Braviary, and Ultra Necrozma’s attacks hit every single Bug-type available but Forretress for at least neutral damage.

Hope you enjoyed following this playthrough!

Team

Vikavolt (Level 61)
- Agility
- Energy Ball
- Thunderbolt
- Thunder Wave

Easily the MVP of the Elite Four run, taking down Kahili and half of Kukui’s team by itself and putting in work in every battle except for Hala. This isn’t even accounting for how useful Grubbin was on Melemele Island back when my team was awful and Vice Grip was the best attacking option.

Ribombee (Level 57)
- Quiver Dance
- Dazzling Gleam
- Energy Ball
- Pollen Puff

Soloed Hala and was extremely useful throughout the entire run as the fastest team member. I’m surprised that Ribombee still trusts me after the sheer number of times I sent it out there specifically to get flattened by Lycanroc or other Z-moves.

Golisopod (Level 59)
- Rock Slide
- Swords Dance
- First Impression
- Liquidation

Emergency Exit might have gotten in the way more often than not, but the final Elite Four run doesn’t happen if Golisopod doesn’t heroically tank that Thunder Punch against Olivia.

Araquanid (Level 58)
- Crunch
- Liquidation
- Lunge
- Ice Beam

Araquanid served as a great special wall throughout the run, easily taking down Totem Salazzle, who I otherwise had no answer for. It then proved its worth again during the Kukui fight, walling Primarina and Snorlax to bring it home.

Ariados (Level 59)
- Cross Poison
- Swords Dance
- Smart Strike
- Sticky Web

Ariados was never the star of the show, but it was a very useful team member for dealing with my team’s inability to handle Fairy-types, and got its time to shine during the Kukui fight, OHKOing Alolan Ninetales.

Pinsir (Level 56)
- Bulldoze
- Superpower
- X-Scissor
- Swords Dance

Pinsir largely took a backseat during the final stages of the game, as its movepool didn’t mesh super well with the types that I was dealing with. It was, however, invaluable during the middlegame on Akala Island and Ula’ula Island, providing strong coverage options and decent Speed for a team that lacked both.