There's numerous Pokemon one has to ask themself if it's even possible to beat the game with: Ditto, Wobbuffet, Sunkern, Magikarp...but one that goes under the radar is Azelf. To date, no one has even attempted this ludicrous challenge. Today, that's going to change. I'm even going to give myself a huge advantage and start at max level just to give myself a fighting chance. One Level 100 Azelf, no in-battle items – let's get it.
First, I need to decide which starter to replace with Azelf to influence my Rivals' Pokemon. While the FWG triangle is mostly irrelevant for Azelf, the Fighting-type Tepig will evolve into will be a bit easier than the others. So I pick “Oshawott” to give Tepig to Bianca and eventually weaken her team.
With that out of the way, let's get started! The first fight is Bianca's Tepig, who gets OHKOd by Extrasensory. After that I have to fight Cheren's Snivy, which is a bit bulkier. But, I get a lucky crit and OHKO it as well. While I don't like relying on this kind of luck, these kinds of hardcore runs don't always leave you with another option. Ah well. At least the next part is a bit of a breather, since Route 1 has no trainers. Once I get to Accumula Town, though, things heat up again. It's my first encounter with Natural Harmonia Gropius, who has the Dark-type Purrloin to throw a wrench into my Extrasensory strategy. But Purrloin's awful, so I just need to use any other damaging move. I don't have a berry to use Natural Gift with, but I still use it and Extrasensory to get closer to validating Last Resort. Now I just need to use...
Hm. Well. This will certainly knock out Purrloin, so maybe it will count as a victory for me?
Nope. Well, I've got other options. Struggle is my first thought, but this runs into the exact same issue as Last Resort – I need to use Explosion to trigger it. This wouldn't be an issue if I could remove Explosion, but there's no way to do so. No TMs are available, the move deleter and relearner aren't until Mistralton, and I can't level up to learn anything new to replace it.
I then reconsider Natural Gift. While no NPCs give berries, maybe I can get one from the wild Pokemon on Route 1? The answer ends up being no, but it's tantalizingly close: Audino have a high chance of holding Oran Berries and appear on Route 1, but they don't appear until you get the first badge! The dread begins to set in...am I really going to be stuck by the third battle in the game?
I have one more idea. While I can't use Struggle, maybe I can get him to Struggle and succumb to the recoil. Extrasensory, Last Resort, and Natural Gift have 50 PP combined before I have to use Explosion. But his Purrloin knows Scratch and Growl, which combined have 75 PP. So my next attempt ends up at this:
So...it looks like Azelf's run ends here. But what if I was a dishonorable player and allowed items? Well, in that case, it would be possible. While I don't have the money to buy enough Potions to stall out the PP (I can only afford 13 plus the one you get for free, and I need to stall for 29 extra turns), Poke Balls are a bit cheaper, and far more importantly, not actually consumable when used in a trainer battle. So I can simply spend 79 turns playing tennis with N as his Purrloin wastes itself.
But, such a victory is entirely pyrrhic and demonstrates why items shouldn't be allowed in runs like this. Azelf is simply such an awful Pokemon that you can't fairly solo a game with it even at Level 100, and it's become very clear to me why I've never seen anyone else attempt this challenge before. Perhaps N has a point and forcing Pokemon through these kinds of brutal challenges is, in fact, wrong. After I had Azelf spend 50 turns doing nothing only to explode itself, it's hard to argue otherwise. In the end, I think it's only fair that I release Azelf according to N's wishes:
So to answer the title,
First, I need to decide which starter to replace with Azelf to influence my Rivals' Pokemon. While the FWG triangle is mostly irrelevant for Azelf, the Fighting-type Tepig will evolve into will be a bit easier than the others. So I pick “Oshawott” to give Tepig to Bianca and eventually weaken her team.
With that out of the way, let's get started! The first fight is Bianca's Tepig, who gets OHKOd by Extrasensory. After that I have to fight Cheren's Snivy, which is a bit bulkier. But, I get a lucky crit and OHKO it as well. While I don't like relying on this kind of luck, these kinds of hardcore runs don't always leave you with another option. Ah well. At least the next part is a bit of a breather, since Route 1 has no trainers. Once I get to Accumula Town, though, things heat up again. It's my first encounter with Natural Harmonia Gropius, who has the Dark-type Purrloin to throw a wrench into my Extrasensory strategy. But Purrloin's awful, so I just need to use any other damaging move. I don't have a berry to use Natural Gift with, but I still use it and Extrasensory to get closer to validating Last Resort. Now I just need to use...
Hm. Well. This will certainly knock out Purrloin, so maybe it will count as a victory for me?
Nope. Well, I've got other options. Struggle is my first thought, but this runs into the exact same issue as Last Resort – I need to use Explosion to trigger it. This wouldn't be an issue if I could remove Explosion, but there's no way to do so. No TMs are available, the move deleter and relearner aren't until Mistralton, and I can't level up to learn anything new to replace it.
I then reconsider Natural Gift. While no NPCs give berries, maybe I can get one from the wild Pokemon on Route 1? The answer ends up being no, but it's tantalizingly close: Audino have a high chance of holding Oran Berries and appear on Route 1, but they don't appear until you get the first badge! The dread begins to set in...am I really going to be stuck by the third battle in the game?
I have one more idea. While I can't use Struggle, maybe I can get him to Struggle and succumb to the recoil. Extrasensory, Last Resort, and Natural Gift have 50 PP combined before I have to use Explosion. But his Purrloin knows Scratch and Growl, which combined have 75 PP. So my next attempt ends up at this:
So...it looks like Azelf's run ends here. But what if I was a dishonorable player and allowed items? Well, in that case, it would be possible. While I don't have the money to buy enough Potions to stall out the PP (I can only afford 13 plus the one you get for free, and I need to stall for 29 extra turns), Poke Balls are a bit cheaper, and far more importantly, not actually consumable when used in a trainer battle. So I can simply spend 79 turns playing tennis with N as his Purrloin wastes itself.
But, such a victory is entirely pyrrhic and demonstrates why items shouldn't be allowed in runs like this. Azelf is simply such an awful Pokemon that you can't fairly solo a game with it even at Level 100, and it's become very clear to me why I've never seen anyone else attempt this challenge before. Perhaps N has a point and forcing Pokemon through these kinds of brutal challenges is, in fact, wrong. After I had Azelf spend 50 turns doing nothing only to explode itself, it's hard to argue otherwise. In the end, I think it's only fair that I release Azelf according to N's wishes:
So to answer the title,