I completed a 100% Story Mode run (all snags and all trainers) and documented the journey for
MMII. Also tagging Pokemon Colosseum enthusiasts
Eledyr Lasen and
Aberforth
Teambuilding
The main intent of this run was to test the viability of Octillery. I previously put this Pokemon in D Rank viability for its inexplicable LV. 20 snag and competition with other Water-types. It's been years since I've used this Pokemon in a run and had the idea of assessing Octillery's niche as a Water-type that learns Fire Blast by putting it on a sun team that maximizes its potential in a run.
An in-game sun team needs to be founded on potent sun abusers. Jumpluff is the best Pokemon in the game when under sun due to the lack of Sleep Clause, boasting the most accurate Sleep-inducing move in the game, pseudo priority with Chlorophyll, and resilient effective bulk with Synthesis and high Special Defense. Flygon is the most versatile sun abuser with access to Fire-type coverage moves and Solarbeam in combination with STAB Earthquake + filler options such as Crunch, Dragonbreath / Dragon Claw and physical beat stick attacks Return / Hyper Beam. Jumpluff and Flygon additionally provide the team with two Ground resists, an essential trait for strong teams in Colosseum since these moves are used by some of the game's most powerful trainers: Dakim, Gonzap, Evice, and Somek.
The choice between Typhlosion and Entei as a Fire-type and sun setter was difficult; however, my prior run utilized Entei in a partial Sun role and Typhlosion proved to be an opportunity to once again evaluate its title as the second most offensively efficient Pokemon in the game. Typhlosion also has an edge with stronger Fire-type attacks which can be brought to nuclear levels with its ability Blaze and sinks exp to a lesser extent.
Espeon and Umbreon with their recovery moves Morning Sun and Moonlight and ability to learn Sunny Day prove to be the only balanced sun abusers to add to the team. Espeon nevertheless justifies itself on any Pokemon Colosseum team as being a starter and being the Pokemon with greatest offensive efficiency. Umbreon takes on the role as team anchor to once again test its immense bulk, reliable recovery, and Toxic stalling potential.
Run Highlights
Espeon was obtained with a Bold nature and Umbreon with a Modest nature, shifting focus to using a non-mixed Umbreon. The game's first bottleneck occurs at Mirror B in Pyrite Cave. The strategy was to prioritize exp onto Espeon so that it reached LV. 36 to learn Psybeam in time for this battle, which consistently 2HKOs Mirror B.'s Ludicolos or OHKOs them with chip from a teammate. Quilava was obtained with a Modest nature, Skiploom with a Bold nature, and Remoraid with near-perfect offensive IVs. All three had their heart gages cleared prior to Mirror B. and all other exp was shunted to Umbreon. At this point Espeon has access to the Twistedspoon from the Meditate snag and Quilava came with Charcoal. Mantine was used as a filler but went unused.
With Psybeam and Sleep Powder obtained, Espeon and Skiploom proved to 6-0 Mirror B. and prepared Sudowoodo for a successful snag. This initial performance affirmed the offensive potency of Espeon and the additional benefit of learning Psybeam prior to Mirror B. Skiploom's sleep support demonstrates how even under rain the Pokemon is able to simultaneously limit damage and support snags.
In Agate the squad is able to expand significantly towards its ultimate composition with immediate evolutions of Remoraid and Skiploom. Obtaining the EXP Share in Agate is also convenient for Octillery to help bring it up to level with the rest of the squad. Phenac Colosseum is completed to evolve Qwilava and obtain the TMs for Sunny Day, Giga Drain, and Solarbeam, which are among the most important moves for this team. Sunny Day is given to Jumpluff since its mediocre offenses place it comfortably in a support role and its high Speed means that it will consistently set sun before abusers Typhlosion, Octillery, and ultimately Flygon. Solarbeam is saved for Flygon so Giga Drain is given to Jumpluff to replace it's pathetically weak Mega Drain. Octillery proves to be the MVP of the famously brutal difficulty spike against Dakim, securing OHKOs on Golem, Camerupt, and 60% chip on Entei with Bubblebeam, reinforcing the importance of a Water-type in this battle. Espeon sets Reflect to further invalidate Metang's already weak Earthquakes and Psybeams down Marshtop. Typhlosion switches into Entei Fire Blast to OHKO Metang and Smokescreens Entei until it's moves are virtually unusable. Jumpluff switches in to sleep Entei to get snag.
Between Mt. Battle and the showdown with Venus in The Under, exp is dumped onto Espeon until it reaches LV. 46, at which point one of the three Rare Candies obtained immediately prior to Venus can be used to bring it to LV. 47 when it learns Psychic, while the other two are saved for Vibrava. The Under also unlocks the TM shop, which gives Typhlosion and Octillery Fire Blast, and Hyper Beam to Octillery. Hidden Power is taught to Espeon and Typhloshion, but unfortunately both have Hidden Power Fighting as Special Attackers with -SpA natures. Psychic Espeon and Fire Blast Typhlosion are able to outspeed and OHKO the first four of Venus' Pokemon. Jumpluff is safely brought out against Suicune to Sleep, snag, and close out another 6-0.
Throughout The Under and the Shadow Pokemon Lab Jumpluff is able to expedite snags with it's consistent sleep. Pyrite Colosseum is cleared at a 10-15 level deficit thanks to abusing Typhlosion's Blaze. Focus Punch is taught to Typhlosion to replace it's weak Hidden Power Fighting. Vibrava is obtained with a Lax nature, but has nearly perfect offensive IVs across the board. Against Ein Espeon blasts down targets with fast neutral Psychic while Octillery cleans them up. Sun is used to dodge Thunders and force Ein to re-set Rain Dance while Jumpluff Sleep is used to snag Raikou.
A Time Flute, the two saved Rare Candies, and TM 26 obtained after Ein are used to obtain instant Earthquake Flygon. Under Colosseum and Mt. Battle Zones to 80 are completed prior to the Realgam Admin rematches. Enough poke-coupons are obtained to purchase the Psychic TM for use by Umbreon as special coverage for Fighting-types. Protect is taught to Typhlosion and Espeon for use alongside Flygon. Sun strategies and level advantage proves overwhelming for the AI who are 6-0ed in the Admin rematches. Flygon and Typhlosion prove exceptional as sun abusers and Jumpluff as a supporter. Unfortunately Octillery doesn't get much chance to shine outside the occasional Ice Beam or sun-boosted Fire Blast.
Prior to the Realgam gauntlet Mt. Battle is completed in story mode, which levels Pokemon nearly up to Nascour and Evice. Zone 10 of Mt. Battle is arguably more difficult than the final Realgam gauntlet, depending on how effective your team's means of ensuring snags are. Using Sleep from Jumpluff and Typhlosion + Sun + Blaze abuse to their maximum potential, even Mt. Battle Master Somek is 6-0ed with only two Pokemon.
The same strategies prove just as effective in the Realgam gauntlet. Typhlosion replaces Fire Blast with the more consistent Flamethrower at LV. 60. Jumpluff and Typhlosion not only manage to secure all four snags, but do so across four battles with perfection, taking zero damage.
Against Nascour his initial leads of Walrein and Blaziken prove dangerous to Jumpluff, which switches out of the incoming Ice Beam for Umbreon while Typhlosion sets sun. Nascour X Specials on Turn 2 while Typhlosion's Sun-boosted Flamethrowers mow down Nascour's remaining Pokemon turn after turn. Jumpluff is brought back in to sleep Metagross and Typhlosion safely chips it down for snag with free Focus Punches.
As a wonderful treat every Pokemon got to shine at least once in the final battle against Evice while still preserving the 6-0. Typhlosion got a quick OHKO against Scizor. Unfortunate RNG meant Salamence dodged a Sleep Powder to get a Dragon Dance before getting a subsequent Aerial Ace Crit, which the switch into Umbreon from Jumpluff was able to tank. Octillery Ice Beamed Salamence for the OHKO and Umbreon switched to Espeon to get the OHKO on Machamp. Flygon and Jumpluff together took down Slaking and Slowking with a combination of Sleep Powder and Earthquakes.
Into postgame the rematches against Gonzap and the Cipher Admins proved worthy challenges. Emphasis on Sun use, primarily from Jumpluff, Typhlosion, and Flygon remained a powerful tactic. Octillery showed little use outside the occasional Ice Beam, and unfortunately felt its low Speed during the more critical battles. Against Mirror B. Umbreon was able to Toxic stall a Ludicolo and Armaldo simultaneously with Sun support. Deep King Agnol's unusual team composition also gave Umbreon a rare opportunity to showcase its offensive use and earn yet another 6-0.
Shady Guy aka Cipher Peon Fein was the final trainer of Story Mode. In the postgame there was a consistent use of the EXP Share on Umbreon and Octillery to help keep them leveled with the rest of the squad, showing them to unfortunately be exp dumps. Fein uses a balanced combination of high-level effective Pokemon in which type advantage and Speed are important. Nevertheless Espeon and Typhlosion were able to overpower most of his squad, with Flygon cleaning up the final members before the snag on Shadow Togetic. I've included an importable of the final team.
(Pokemon Colosseum Squad Importable)
Umbreon @ Black Glasses
Ability: Synchronize
Level: 62
Modest Nature
IVs: 7 HP / 0 Atk / 26 Def / 29 SpA / 16 SpD / 16 Spe
- Toxic
- Moonlight
- Psychic
- Feint Attack
Espeon @ Twisted Spoon
Ability: Synchronize
Level: 65
Bold Nature
IVs: 26 HP / 5 Atk / 23 Def / 24 SpA / 13 SpD / 28 Spe
- Protect
- Reflect
- Morning Sun
- Psychic
Typhlosion @ Charcoal
Ability: Blaze
Level: 65
Modest Nature
IVs: 26 HP / 8 Atk / 20 Def / 26 SpA / 11 SpD / 30 Spe
- Protect
- Sunny Day
- Focus Punch
- Flamethrower
Jumpluff @ Miracle Seed
Ability: Chlorophyll
Level: 63
Bold Nature
IVs: 0 Atk / 17 Def / 16 SpA / 29 SpD / 22 Spe
- Sunny Day
- Sleep Powder
- Synthesis
- Giga Drain
Octillery @ Mystic Water
Ability: Suction Cups
Level: 65
Lax Nature
IVs: 29 HP / 28 Atk / 17 Def / 29 SpA / 6 SpD / 17 Spe
- Ice Beam
- Bubble Beam
- Fire Blast
- Hyper Beam
Flygon @ Soft Sand
Ability: Levitate
Level: 65
Lax Nature
IVs: 31 HP / 31 Atk / 17 Def / 15 SpA / 2 SpD / 24 Spe
- Return
- Solar Beam
- Fire Blast
- Earthquake
(S Rank)
Espeon proves once again that it's the most offensively efficient Pokemon available in the game. Its use is greatest near the start of the game when there really aren't other options for getting good damage against opposing Pokemon. It falls off a tiny bit in effectiveness into the late game due to how shallow it is, but nevertheless remains a powerful and efficient special attacker that is always useful. Helping Hand is a seemingly nice support move, but in practice this move is horribly suited for Espeon because more often than not clicking anything other than Psychic STAB reduces its net productivity. Reflect has the same problem, but to a lesser degree because it increases overall team physical resilience rather than shifting damage output, and ultimately gets more practical use than Helping Hand. Morning Sun, even with sun support, unfortunately isn't really worth using because in the few battles where it ever wants to recover health, it's better off securing the KO against the physically offensive tank. In practice Espeon is better off running Protect, and Hidden Power if the type is at all usable. Espeon has but a single weakness in terms of its offensive efficiency, which are Dark-types, and unfortunately no coverage options to offset this. Regardless, Espeon can merely be paired with a Pokemon that can hit Dark-types, and does even better when used alongside a Pokemon that comfortably hits Dark-, Steel-, and Psychic-types, most notably Fighting-types, Fire-types, or the ultimate which hits all three with STAB and super-effectively; Heracross. In this run it paired best with Typhlosion, which makes sense as the team did not use a Fighting-type and the WR Speedruns for Any % and 100% both use Typhlosion as Espeon's partner.
(B Rank)
Umbreon is Colosseum's ultimate damage sponge, great at simultaneously chipping Shadow Pokemon and absorbing their attacks. Unfortunately Umbreon isn't too useful beyond this, with the exception of functioning as a powerful Toxic staller, a tactic which is not efficient but is effective if relied upon. When played well and kept at a strong level, the AI simply cannot KO this Pokemon; team anchor. Ironically the support moves of Helping Hand and Reflect that Espeon gets would be incredible in Umbreon's arsenal and could propel this Pokemon to A Rank status since they would allow it to offset its greatest weakness of poor offensive efficiency. Umbreon is stuck with a pitiful base 60 Special Attack and an equally pitiful STAB that never improves in base power beyond 60, meaning that even super-effective attacks rarely OHKO. As a result Umbreon needs to be paired with an exceptionally strong attacker if it's going to do anything other than snag Shadow Pokemon or Toxic stall. In this run, that meant Espeon or Typhlosion, who can dump enough damage on a Pokemon to put it in range for Umbreon to pick it off, working from the Mirror B. fight all the way through post-game. Fortunately Umbreon was able to make real use of sun support through its use of Moonlight, though has to contend with the aggressive rain setting strategies used by Mirror B. and Ein.
(S Rank)
If this playthrough proved anything, it would be that Typhlosion is cemented as the second best Pokemon in the game. Again and again Typhlosion shocked and stunned with the sheer power of its attacks, at times making Espeon look weak in comparison. Sun-boosted blaze-fueled Fire Blasts were enough to allow Typhlosion to 6-0 many of the game's most challenging trainers, being capable of OHKOing even resisted targets. In Pyrite Colosseum Typhlosion was able to OHKO targets when at a 15 level deficit. To put this into perspective, Typhlosion has the same offensive power as Soul Dew Latios after two Calm Minds, a premier threat of tournament ADV singles:
+2 252+ SpA Soul Dew Latios Thunder vs. 144 HP / 136+ SpD Snorlax: 318-375 (63.9 - 75.4%)
252+ SpA Blaze Typhlosion Fire Blast vs. 144 HP / 136+ SpD Snorlax in Sun: 316-372 (63.5 - 74.8%)
This power when contextualized to a casual playthrough is obscene, and allows Typhlosion to OHKO Evice's Slaking even when at a 10 level deficit. Fire is a great offensive type, and allows Typhlosion to fair well as a partner to a variety of attackers, from Espeon to Flygon to Octillery to even Jumpluff. Typhlosion does unfortunately suffer from being nearly as shallow as Espeon, having no good special coverage moves to utilize outside of Hidden Power. It can at least make effective use of Focus Punch, Brick Break, or Earthquake as coverage if these TMs don't need to be used on a Pokemon better suited to them, and also obtains Sunny Day upon purification. In comparison to Entei it's effectiveness as a mixed attacker is worse, however this is overshadowed by the sheer potency of its special attacks. In practice Typhlosion's lower bulk as compared to Entei also isn't an issue because it helps to active Blaze while still having enough bulk to survive a majority of super-effective attacks; the only move in the entire run that OHKOed Typhlosion was a rain-boosted Hydro Pump.
(A Rank)
Jumpluff confirmed its place as the best Pokemon in the game under sun, and is arguably S Rank depending on how much one weighs outright offensive efficiency. Sleep Powder with pseudo priority is a broken move that turns 2v2 matchups into 2v1 matchups on turn 1, and potentially 2v0 matchups by turn 2. Jumpluff is the primary reason the squad was able to not only 6-0 many of the game's most challenging matches, but secure snags on hard-to-catch Pokemon first try. The ability to simultaneously increase the odds of snagging a Shadow Pokemon, incapacitate a Shadow Pokemon so it cannot chip at your team while you attempt to snag it, and stop a Shadow Pokemon from KOing itself with recoil simply can't be overhyped. Synthesis and STAB Giga Drain to maintain health insurance against missed Sleep Powders and early wakes is just icing. However, in terms of sheer offensive efficiency, Jumpluff isn't particularly good due to it's reliance on a pathetic base 55 Special Attack and the poor offensive typing of Grass type attacks, but does at least get OHKOs on otherwise hard to hit Water-Ground types. As a result, much like Umbreon, Jumpluff is dependent on its teammate to secure kills, but is nevertheless incredible at offering support in this capacity. The Ground immunity even makes it an incredible partner for Earthquakers, notably demonstrated by Flygon in this run.
(C Rank)
The star of the team that ultimately wasn't really the star of the team, Octillery did at least prove itself a niche Water-type rather than being outright bad like initially thought. It's a Water-type that can function well on a sun team by simultaneously reducing its risk to Thunder while getting pseudo-STAB Fire Blasts, and that's notable enough to justify it in this specific capacity. Other areas where Octillery shines are it's fairly strong offensive stats of 105 and its great movepool that also includes Ice Beam, Bubblebeam, Hyper Beam, and even Psychic if you're so inclined. Bubblebeam proves itself to be a far better Water-type stab to be reliant on as compared to Surf, sporting an effective base power of 97.5 as compared to Surf's split power 71.25, which only serves to needlessly threaten Shadow Pokemon and increase time wasted in animations. Octillery's low Speed is unfortunately felt during some major battles, but not too much otherwise. Beyond this Octillery has shown how important Water-types are in the first Dakim battle, and how useless they are otherwise. From the Shadow Pokemon Lab all the way into postgame Octillery's primary use is as a pseudo Fire-type that has Water's defensive typing, and as an Ice Beamer. What's become clear in this run is that Water-types are mostly only good for beating Dakim, and their primary use after that is their access to Ice-type attacks, an important offensive type in major late-game battles.
(A Rank)
Flygon is the best Earthquaker and an exceptional sun abuser. Where Espeon and Typhlosion are shallow one-trick Pokemon, Flygon is a versatile generalist. It's extensive movepool allows teams to customize it to fit their needs, and it fears little other than Ice Beam from bulky Water-types, which can be mitigated through use of Solarbeam. It's fast enough to almost always move before opposing Pokemon, and it's Earthquakes are just strong enough to typically OHKO neutral targets. Perhaps even more notably, Earthquake has a way of dual hitting targets like no other move in the game does, securing KOs against pesky specially defensive Pokemon and Electric-types alike. Fire Blast lets it annihilate Ground-type resists of Grass- and Bug-types, and hits Flying-types hard under sun. An additional coverage move such as Return, Hyper Beam, Crunch, or Dragon STAB lets it chip at anything else, always giving Flygon something to do. Flygon can also offer snag support of strong Shadow Pokemon since it usually has at least one move that will deal less than 50% damage and Dragonbreath has good paralysis rate. In practice Flygon's greatest weakness is that its partner needs to be able to accommodate it's Earthquaking, either through being a Ground immune, or less optimally through use of Protect.
