Challenge Living Off The Land - Playing through Yellow without marts or centers

[sb879]

I’ve wanted to do a challenge run that involves items in some meaningful way. I usually ban items in battle, relegating them to the mundane task of healing between battles. My issue with them is that they’re extremely powerful without restriction, and their intended restriction of costing money doesn’t matter much in a practical setting. So naturally I wanted to find a way to restrict their usage. The least arbitrary way I could think of to do this was to ban marts all together, leaving only items scattered throughout the world to rely on. This by itself still wouldn’t be very hard, though – I don’t even use that many items in my casual runs, since it’s not hard to get through routes with minimal item usage when there’s a Pokemon Center waiting at the end. But what if I didn’t have that lifeline, and had to do all my healing with items I found? Well, let’s find out – introducing Pokemon Yellow without marts or centers!

Since forced heals largely undermine the point of this challenge, I chose Yellow since Gen 1 is the only generation where I’m certain there are none. Even beating the E4 and using the PC doesn’t heal you! Other gens might have this quality as well, but it’s a hard thing to look up so I went with what I knew. Gen 1’s open-endedness is also quite handy for routing.

Formally, the rules I’ll be using are:

• No healing at the Pokemon Center, or any equivalent service.
• No buying items at Pokemon Marts. One exception is needed for progression, but that’s it.
• No whiting out. Losing at any point without resetting causes you to get fully healed, so that must not happen. Obviously, I’ll be saving frequently.
• Set mode. Honestly this is mainly just because it’s how I’ve played for years. Soloing is done as much as possible in this run so it doesn’t matter that much.
• No legendaries.
• No Nidoking. Okay, this sounds pretty out of place, but let me explain. Gen 1 speedruns solo the game with Nidoking, and minimize centers and marts already because they use up time. Now, it’s not like using a Nidoking in this run would make it the same as a speedrun or anything, as even the speedrun does use centers occasionally, and there are a decent number of match-ups that become more complicated without X items to blast your way through them. Still, to keep things as fresh as possible, I won’t be using one.

With that out of the way, let’s get started!

Of course, I get the Potion from my PC. In Yellow, there is no actual starter choice, just Pikachu. I use it to win the first rival battle for the EXP. I’m technically wrong about there being no forced heals – win or lose Pikachu is at full health after the fight, but it’s the least consequential one possible. I make sure to pick up both the Potion on Route 1, and the hidden one in Viridian City. Now, it needs to be mentioned: Pikachu has no future in this run. It loses terribly to the first gym leader, and even if I were to get past him, progressing through the game makes Pikachu’s poor stats abundantly clear. So a replacement is needed ASAP. Without Nidoran-M, there are three options for getting past Brock:

• Nidoran-F. Once TMs start appearing more often, Nidoqueen is basically the same as Nidoking, but before evolution, it’s not even close. Nidoran-F’s attacking options are simply not good. It has no way to boost its damage like Leer, and until Double Kick at level 12 it has nothing stronger than 40 BP. And to make things worse, Fighting resists are common, so even after that it has to make do with 40 BP moves for a while. Tackle and Scratch may have a lot of PP, but when you have to use 3-4 for every single Pokemon, they go away fast. I don’t think this has the means to get past the early game.
• Butterfree. Butterfree itself destroys the early game, but getting there is another story. Caterpie is much worse than Nidoran-F, who was already subpar. I don’t see any way to have enough PP to get to Butterfree.
• Mankey. While the Scratch it starts with isn’t that strong, Mankey has a very high base 80 attack and Leer to help conserve PP. It also learns very nice moves – Low Kick at 9 (it’s just a static 50 BP in Gen 1), and Karate Chop at 15, which is essentially a 110 BP Normal move with Gen 1’s insane crit mechanics.

The choice is clear – I need a Mankey. But unlike future gens, no 5 Poke Balls are given to you for free in this game. Fortunately, there’s one up ahead in Viridian Forest that I can use to catch a Mankey. Unfortunately, this is where the dumbest aspect of this challenge rears its ugly head – one is in Viridian Forest. And I really don’t want to weaken Mankey, because I then have to keep that damage once it’s mine. So I have one chance to catch a full health Pokemon. And I really, really, want to catch a Level 5 one as opposed to Level 3, which are noticeably less common. Fun. 20 minutes later, I finally catch a Level 5 Mankey, and we can really begin.

Viridian Forest

While I do want to stop using Pikachu soon, I need it for a little while to help get Mankey started. Thundershock is one of the only special moves available right now, which is really helpful versus Metapods, who are a massive PP drain otherwise. Because they’re also harmless, I find two Metapods in the wild (level 4 and 6), and use Pikachu to defeat them while sharing the EXP with Mankey. I also collect 3 Potions and an Antidote.

Now, onto the trainers. Only one of them is mandatory, and while I generally want to avoid skippable trainers to conserve PP, it’s critical that Mankey reach Level 9 for Brock. So I need to fight most of them. I start with the Bug Catcher with two Metapods and a Caterpie, all Level 7. Mankey leads, but I switch to Pikachu to deal with Metapod. Once Caterpie comes in, Pikachu uses Tail Whip 3 times on it so Mankey can then 2HKO it with Scratch. I go back to Pikachu for the second Metapod. Both Pikachu and Mankey took 3 damage from Caterpie’s Tackle.

Next, I fight a trainer with a Level 8 Caterpie and Metapod. Again I lead with Mankey, but it’s only at Level 6 so I still feel more comfortable switching to Pikachu to deal with Caterpie. Pikachu takes two 4 damage Tackles in the process, but emerges victorious. Metapod comes in, and I switch back to Mankey to get the EXP, but to my surprise it Tackles on the switch. Pikachu switches back in to deal with it, and thankfully only takes 1 Tackle as it's finished off. At this point, Mankey has 17/24 HP remaining, and Pikachu has 9/24.

The last trainer I deal with is the only mandatory one, who has a Level 10 Caterpie. Since Pikachu is low on HP and I don’t want to use any healing items on it, Mankey deals with this by itself, now at Level 7. After 3 Leers, 3 Scratches KOs Caterpie. Unfortunately, Caterpie is tough and without a long streak of String Shots a Potion is needed mid-battle. Ideally this should always be avoided since it’s a free turn to get attacked, but it can't always be helped. At the end, Mankey levels up and has 18/26 HP remaining.

Rival 2

At this point, Mankey is still Level 7 and is in no shape to go fight Brock. So I go back to fight the optional Rival battle. On the way back, I defeat another wild Metapod with Pikachu (sharing the EXP with Mankey, of course) to get it to Level 8 for the upcoming fight. For the rival fight, Mankey isn’t in a great position against Spearow, but still needs to lead for the EXP. I switch to Pikachu who gets Pecked on the switch, bringing it to 5 HP. Thundershock 2HKOs while Spearow Growls me. Eevee comes out next. Ironically, Mankey doesn’t fare too well versus it without Low Kick, but neither can Pikachu with its low HP. The best option here is to use Growl with Pikachu before switching out – it’s the only option I can safely use without risking death (except from a crit), and I still want Pikachu alive for a little bit. I do it twice before Eevee Tackles, which only brings Pikachu to 2 HP. I switch to Mankey, who takes a 5 damage Tackle. I need to use Leer 3 times to 2HKO with Scratch. As I’m Leering, Eevee first Tail Whips then Tackles twice, leaving Mankey with 1 HP. I use a Potion, and get Tail Whipped again. Tackle now does 7 damage as I use my first Scratch, so this needs to end soon. My next Scratch finishes it off… or it would have, but I crit. If you’re not aware, crits in Gen 1 don’t only ignore your stat drops/opponent’s stat buffs – they ignore your own buffs and opponent’s stat drops. So in this case a crit actually does less due to the 3 Leers. Fortunately, Eevee only uses Sand Attack, and I hit my next Scratch for a victory.

Now, fun fact. You actually can get 5 Poke Balls from Oak in Gen 1, though you need to work for them. I’d never actually done it ingame before, but from what I’d heard, you have to win this optional Rival fight without buying Poke Balls. So I thought I was going to get 5 Poke Balls from Oak after this, but as it turns out, that’s not quite how it works. It actually checks how many Pokemon are registered in the Pokedex, so by catching a Mankey with the Viridian Forest Poke Ball I could no longer get the 5 free ones. Still, to get them, Mankey would have been unable to get any of the rival EXP, so I’d say this was the better choice.

Sadly, Mankey is still not quite Level 9, but it’s getting close. There’s a trainer in Brock’s gym who would give plenty of EXP, but he’s very tough without Low Kick. So I grind a bit on wild Pokemon. Switching to Pikachu to deal with 2 Metapods, as well as Mankey defeating a Level 3 Caterpie on its own with Leer+Scratch gives it just enough EXP.

Pewter Gym

I decide to fight the trainer in Brock’s gym now, since while the temporary goal of getting Low Kick has been achieved, I also really want Karate Chop ASAP. He has a Diglett first, which goes down with a Leer+Low Kick. Unfortunately, it’s faster and can only use Scratch, so I take a good chunk of damage. He then has Sandshrew which is really bulky and needs 2 Leers to get 2HKOd by Low Kick. Like Diglett, it also only uses Scratch, so I take quite a lot of damage here and have to use 2 Potions in this fight. In retrospect I’m not entirely sure this fight was worth doing, but oh well. It did get Mankey to Level 10 for Brock. Brock went really well – Low Kick flinched Geodude so I didn’t take any damage from it. Then, Onix failed a Screech as I Leered it. It Tackled as I Leered a second time, then finally it used Bide which rendered it helpless as I 2HKOd it with Low Kick.

That’s all for now. Next time we’ll go up to the next Rival battle and catch another Pokemon.

Pokemon Status:
Mankey Level 11: 12/34 HP
26/35 Scratch
18/30 Leer
14/20 Low Kick

Pikachu Level 8: 2/26 HP
3/30 Thundershock
38/40 Growl
27/30 Tail Whip
20/20 Thunder Wave

Healing Items:
2 Potions
1 Antidote

 

[Champion Leon]

Hide

Don’t forget there is a moonstone in mt moon before the exit and fossil (it’s a hidden item), you may want to check serebii for all hidden items. It will be useful for Nidorina, Clefairy, or Jiggypuff. The latter of which can use Sing, allowing you to switch in another Pokémon and use attacks while the foe is asleep, and gain Experience.

Just a tip, I can delete this post if you prefer. Just “Like” this post to signify its been read and then I can promptly delete.
Hope it helps :)

 

[sb879]

Hide

Don’t forget there is a moonstone in mt moon before the exit and fossil (it’s a hidden item), you may want to check serebii for all hidden items. It will be useful for Nidorina, Clefairy, or Jiggypuff. The latter of which can use Sing, allowing you to switch in another Pokémon and use attacks while the foe is asleep, and gain Experience.

Just a tip, I can delete this post if you prefer. Just “Like” this post to signify its been read and then I can promptly delete.
Hope it helps :)

Yeah, I know. I've been using atsync's very helpful hidden item guide on the main site in addition to Serebii (which is definitely missing some hidden items). And you don't need to worry about deleting anything.

 

[Zowayix]

There actually is a way to get 5 free Poke Balls in Gen 1 - defeat the Rival on Route 22, then go back to Prof. Oak's lab before ever obtaining a Poke Ball. It's obscure enough that Oak's speech has an overlapping text glitch that the testers missed.

 

[sb879]

Route 3

By using Pikachu to help out a lot, Mankey was able edge out enough EXP to get Low Kick for Brock. But now, Pikachu’s HP/(attacking) PP is almost completely spent, and Mankey needs to fight by itself. And Route 3 is not a fun place to start – it’s filled with Bug Catchers that resist Mankey’s shiny new Low Kick, and Karate Chop is still a ways off. And worse, my Potion supply is dangerously low with only 2 left, and one needs to be used immediately…

So, I do just that before fighting the first Bug Catcher. He has a Caterpie, Weedle, and another Caterpie. Each take a Leer and 2 Scratches to KO. As such, Mankey has to take 2 attacks from each bug. I actually have to reset the first attempt since I saw no String Shots and realistically can’t take that much damage without getting really lucky on all the other fights. The second attempt is the opposite – the only attacks I take are two Poison Stings from Weedle. I do have an Antidote so getting Poisoned is okay, but I do have to spend an extra turn curing it ASAP so it’s still nice to avoid.

Next up is a choice between a Lass and a Bug Catcher. Less fighting resists is good, so I go with the Lass. She leads with a Rattata, but I miss the first Low Kick. It just uses Tail Whip so I roll with it as the next Low Kick OHKOs it. Her other Pokemon is Ekans, which is actually super annoying. I need 2 Leers to get a 2HKO with Scratch, so it has 3 chances to attack me. The first turn it uses Poison Sting, but it uses Wrap on the second. Wrap is obnoxious in Gen 1 since it immobilizes you while it’s active. It’s not too bad when you’re faster, but this early in the game it’s still essentially a high power move to take. One other difference, though, is that it actually doesn’t trap you. So, after the first bit of Wrap, I switch out to Pikachu to stop it, though it dies in the process. When I come back in, it fortunately just uses Leer after my first Scratch, and I finish it the next turn.

Next up is a Youngster with a Rattata and Nidoran-M. Rattata is OHKOd by Low Kick, and Nidoran-M takes 1 Leer and 2 Scratches. It tries to copy my strategy and uses Leer into Tackle, lowering me to 11 HP. I use my last Potion before fighting the last mandatory trainer before Mt. Moon, a Bug Catcher with a Caterpie and Metapod. Caterpie takes a Leer and 2 Scratches and only hits Mankey with 1 Tackle, but Metapod is annoying. I wanted to have Pikachu alive for it, but Ekans’ Wrap was too annoying otherwise. So I had to defeat it with just Mankey’s physical moves, needing 5 Scratches, which is pretty ridiculous for a Pokemon I outlevel.

Speaking of level, Mankey is almost at level 14 and is getting close to Karate Chop. The wild Pokemon here are actually a decent level, so I have Mankey OHKO a wild Rattata with Low Kick to get to 14. I was hoping this would be enough to OHKO the nearby Lass’s Jigglypuff with Low Kick, but sadly Mankey fell short. Fortunately, it only uses Disable which fails so all it takes is an extra Scratch to finish it.

Mt. Moon

Despite typically being thought of as the gauntlet, there’s actually less trainers needed to fight in Mt Moon than on the previous route. First thing to pick up is the Water Gun TM, a Rare Candy, and an HP Up. Another 2 Potions are also available to replenish my healing stock… to some extent, anyways. Potions are rapidly becoming worse and worse, only healing about half of Mankey’s health now. Still, it’s certainly better than nothing. Before I can go on to the end, though, I really need to learn Karate Chop. The best candidate for this is a Hiker at the end of the first floor with 2 Geodudes and an Onix. Unfortunately, Low Kick falls just short of OHKOing Geodude, so I finish them off with Scratch. I opt for this route over Leer+Low Kick because it gives me a chance to flinch them, and I do just that on one of them. The other one gets a Tackle off on me. Last is Onix, which goes down to Leer+Low Kick and misses a Tackle, and Mankey finally learns the coveted Karate Chop.

Time for the other optional trainer here – one of the Rockets in the Mega Punch TM room is blocking a hidden Ether. He has a Zubat and an Ekans. I was really hoping Karate Chop would OHKO both of these, but sadly it fell a bit short in both cases. One downside of Karate Chop is that I can’t use Leer to save attacking PP with it due to how Gen 1 crits work. So I have to use Scratch to finish both Zubat and Ekans off. It takes a Leech Life and a Poison Sting in the process, lowering it to 23/41 HP.

Now, onto the end. There’s a hidden Moon Stone to pick up near the end. Before I fight the Super Nerd, I use the HP Up to get Mankey to 42 HP, then use one of my Potions so it heals closer to the full 20. He leads with Grimer, which I 2HKO with Karate Chop while taking a Pound. Next is Voltorb, which annoyingly is still faster, but goes really well as it fails Screech twice as I 2HKO with Karate Chop. Last is Koffing, which is really bulky and avoids a 2HKO from Karate Chop (needs to be finished with Scratch) while using Tackle and a missed Smog in return. This went a lot better than expected and I didn’t even quite need the Potion.

Last up are Jessie and James, fused into one trainer a la the 5 Team Skull Grunts in SM (some things never change). They lead with Ekans who is 2HKOd by Karate Chop and Poison Stings back. Next up is Meowth, who is also faster and Scratches me before I OHKO with Low Kick. Finally there’s Koffing, who is an identical fight to the Super Nerds, down to the Smog miss.

Getting a New Pokemon

And Mt. Moon is done! But, I wasn’t optimistic about the future. Even with how well those last fights went, I still only had 1 Potion left, which I would need to use immediately if I wanted to keep using Mankey. And Karate Chop wasn’t quite the OHKOing machine I had hoped – I hadn’t OHKOd anything with it at all! Coming up, there’s the Rival fight in Cerulean, and a bunch of trainers leading up to Bill. What there aren’t are any HP healing items at all. And if I’m not going to be OHKOing everything, then I’m going to take a lot of hits, which without any healing items is… yeah, not good. With the Rare Candy from Mt. Moon and the one in Cerulean, maaaaaybe I could get to the threshold where Karate Chop could truly take out the trash, but I really didn’t want to take that risk.

But, there’s hope yet. Just outside of Mt. Moon is a Great Ball, so another Pokemon can be added to the team. Most options are bad, but one stands a cut above the rest – Clefairy. It can be immediately evolved with a Moon Stone, yielding Clefable who is titanic for this stage of the game, especially since it has access to an 80 BP STAB with Mega Punch. Mega Punch only has 85 accuracy, but that's not too bad with being able to save anytime. There’s another issue, though. The highest-leveled Clefairy is Level 13, a fair ways behind Mankey’s Level 17. Even Clefable can’t really go too far at that level. Luckily, a PP-efficient grinding method is also available here in Mt. Moon. By using the Water Gun TM, Clefable can effortlessly KO Geodudes. By KOing 22 Level 11 ones, Clefable can jump up to Level 18 and be ready for combat.

Unfortunately, Level 13 Clefairies are rare in addition to only appearing 10% of the time (on the bottom floor). And I still can’t afford to weaken them, so a Great Ball only has a 38.9% chance of catching them. All things said this took about an hour to get. And then after that, grinding on Geodudes meant I only had a 15% chance to get an encounter for EXP. So that took about 45 minutes. Fun stuff! But the worst is over (for now…), and Clefable’s reign can begin.

Rival 3

Moving onto Cerulean City, I pick up a hidden Rare Candy in someone’s backyard before moving on to fight my rival. His Spearow is faster and Pecks me, but it gets OHKOd by Mega Punch. Sandshrew actually survives Water Gun and Scratches me, but a Pound afterward downs it. Rattata and Eevee are both OHKOd by Mega Punch. Even those 2 attacks Clefable took failed to take more than a quarter of its health. And those were from Pokemon at the same level, which won’t be the case for much longer. Clefable is definitely proving its worth.

That’s all for now. Next time Clefable continues dominating up to Lt. Surge.

Pokemon Status:
Clefable Level 19: 52/68 HP
2/25 Water Gun
17/20 Mega Punch
15/15 Sing
34/35 Pound

Mankey Level 17: 15/46 HP
1/35 Scratch
10/30 Leer
4/20 Low Kick
14/25 Karate Chop

Pikachu: RIP

Healing Items:
1 Potion
1 Ether
1 Antidote

 

[sb879]

Saving Bill

For Clefable, the only real threat here is running out of Mega Punch. I try to conserve its PP by 2HKOing weaker things with Pound. For the first trainer, I Mega Punch Caterpie and Poundx2 Weedle. I deem Caterpie a bigger threat because a String Shot from it means both it and Weedle will get an extra hit on Clefable. Next up is a Lass with a Pidgey and Nidoran-F. Pidgey gets OHKOd by Mega Punch, but Nidoran-F survives a Mega Punch. Nothing it can do is actually threatening, but it uses the least effective option, Growl, anyways as I finish it with Pound.

The next Youngster has his Rattata and Ekans demolished by Mega Punch, and his Zubat gets 2 Pounds. Zubat is no threat at all when the last Pokemon – the odds of seeing Supersonic at all, it hitting, and Clefable hitting itself are very low. In this case, it just misses Supersonic. The next trainer is a Lass who for some reason has the exact same team as the previous one but 2 levels higher. Fittingly, the fight itself plays out identically. The last of the Nugget Five has a Mankey who is faster than Clefable and fires off a Karate Chop before getting Mega Punched. Better than seeing Low Kick, I guess. At the end, I’m rewarded with an offer I can’t refuse. Given that he just has a truncated version of one of the Youngster’s teams, it’s a pretty empty threat. Ekans get a Mega Punch and Zubat gets 2 Pounds while firing back with a laughable Leech Life.

At the top of the route is a guy who give you a Charmander. Charmander is way too underleveled to be of any combat help, but the fact that it learns Cut is actually very helpful since Balls are so limited and nothing I currently have can use it. The Thunder Wave TM is also here, to be used later.

On to Route 25. Only one of the 2 Hikers at the start needs to be fought, but it’s worth fighting both anyways. I start with the bottom one who just has one Onix. Onix gives pretty good EXP and only requires 1 Water Gun, which is my least valuable attacking move anyways. Before fighting the other one, I go to fight the mandatory Lass with both Nidorans, which uses up 2 more Mega Punches. The other Hiker is worth fighting since he guards a hidden Elixer. He has a Machop which is bulkier than most Pokemon here, so I wanted the extra level before fighting it. His other Pokemon is Geodude which is Water Gunned. I only have 5 Mega Punches left, so I use the Elixer on Clefable immediately. Given that I only have 3 attacking moves, this wasn’t optimal and it likely would have been better to just use an Ether on Mega Punch. Still, it works out.

The next part has a choice between a Hiker and a Jr. Trainer. There’s also a hidden third option where you can fight the Hiker, then bait the Jr. Trainer as far down as you can in order to move him out of the way of the Seismic Toss TM before you can use Cut. Seismic Toss is terrible when you’re overleveled, though, so I opt against this and just fight the Jr. Trainer by himself since he has fewer Pokemon. Clefable’s getting a pretty solid level lead, which means really weak Pokemon like this guy’s Rattata can be OHKOd by Pound, which is very nice. His Ekans still needs a Mega Punch, though. The last trainer on the way to Bill’s house is a Lass with 2 Oddishes and a Pidgey. I Poundx2 the first Oddish (it hasn’t learned any powders so it’s harmless), a single Pound for the Pidgey, then figure I’ll save some attacking PP by switching to Charmander for the second Oddish. Afterwards, I collect a hidden Ether right by this Lass, then save Bill to get the SS Ticket. Clefable continuing to prove its worth here – even after all those trainers, it’s still at around half HP.

Getting to Vermilion City

Misty can be fought now, but there’s no reason to do so until I need to. I first have to deal with the home intruder, whose Machop and Drowzee both go down to Mega Punch. Then I take an underground path to Route 6, which has a hidden X Special and Full Restore, both of which are much appreciated. I do love how my only 2 HP-restoring items are a Potion and a Full Restore – bit of a difference there! Route 6 has 2 mandatory fights at the end. The first has 3 Pidgeys, which are a bit higher leveled than the Lass’s and need to be Mega Punched. One of them gets off a Quick Attack. The other one has a Spearow which needs 2 Pounds and uses Leer, and the other is Raticate who is actually slower with the large level lead and gets OHKOd by Mega Punch.

SS Anne

Only the rival needs to be fought on the SS Anne, but there’s several nice, guarded, limited-time items to collect here as well. First is the very nice Body Slam TM, which is only guarded by 1 Nidoran-M that just gets Mega Punched. Next is the Rest TM, where I need to fight a Tentacool and a Staryu, both of which get Mega Punched. Now, Rest gave me a bit of a dilemma. Rest is a complete heal, and its drawback can be rendered meaningless by just using it on some garbage like Magikarp then running away after waking up. So this gives me 10 complete heals, and anytime I restore PP I get another 10. Should I allow this? Even if it renders HP management trivial, does the complication it adds to PP management by taking up a moveslot balance it? Does the fact that it’s not very helpful healing in boss fights balance it? Even if I do allow it, should I actually use the TM, or wait for a later Pokemon? All these questions swirled around in my head as I played through the game, before ultimately beating the game without ever finding a need to use it. So uh, dilemma averted, I guess? ._.

Before doing more looting, I decide to fight my rival for the EXP. He has the same team as last time, except now I outlevel him. Now I outspeed Spearow (still need to use Mega Punch, though), can just Pound and Water Gun OHKO Rattata and Sandshrewm, respectively. Eevee still needs either a Mega Punch or 2 Pounds, though. I opt for Pounds since Eevee isn’t dangerous – in this case it just uses Tail Whip. Clefable gets to Level 26 afterwards. At this point, I’m almost out of Mega Punch again (4 left), but rather than restore PP I use the Body Slam TM, teaching it over Sing. I was initially going to use this for something else later, but it’s definitely better used here.

Now, time to loot the rest of the ship. First up is the kitchen, where I find a Great Ball in the trash, which is indeed a great find. Next, there’s a pair of trainers guarding a Max Ether. The first trainer starts with Goldeen which I Mega Punch, and then I Body Slam his remaining Tentacool and second Goldeen. The other trainer has Pokemon which are ~5 levels higher than all of the other normal trainers on the ship. Sadly this means his Voltorb is faster, letting it use a Sonicboom, which is easily the most damaging attack an overleveled Clefable can see at this point. Still, it goes down to 1 Body Slam and so does the Magnemite that comes after.

In the next room over there’s a Rare Candy guarded by a Gentleman with Growlithe and Ponyta. Despite the type advantage, Water Gun still doesn’t OHKO so Pound works just as well to 2HKO them. Clefable takes a Roar (which never does anything in trainer battles in Gen 1) and an Ember in the process. The last item to pick up here is guarded by another 2 trainers. The first is a Fisher with a Tentacool (OHKOd by Pound), a Staryu (2HKOd by Pound, take a crit Water Gun in return), and a Shellder (OHKOd by Body Slam). The other just has a Machop, which I use a Mega Punch to defeat. My reward is a hidden Hyper Potion in the bed at the end of the room. I go to finish the SS Anne by giving the captain a backrub, only to find that I’ve been collecting too many items to get Cut and need to deposit some. When I return the captain has apparently gotten sick again in the 5 minutes I’ve been gone. Not sure how safe people should feel with this guy at the helm… Fortunately, once I get the Cut HM I no longer need to be a passenger.

Getting a Hyper Potion

Before going to fight the gyms, I go right to Route 11, which leads to Route 12. There’s a hidden Hyper Potion after the route connector, but I need to fight a trainer to get to it. I initially decided to get this by going the other way from Lavender Town, avoiding all the trainers once I had Surf. But, I decided the small PP penalty was worth it to get such a potent healing item. I Mega Punch his Voltorb, then double Pound his Magnemite while taking a Tackle, and finally pick up the Hyper Potion.

Gym Time

Now it’s time for Gyms. Misty is guarded by a Swimmer with a Goldeen, which I Poundx2 while taking a Peck. I haven’t mentioned Clefable’s health since Bill’s house (where it was half) – a testament to how bulky it is – but by this point, Clefable is at 11 HP and in desperate need of healing items if it wants to fight Gym Leaders. So I use a Hyper Potion. First up is Misty. Staryu isn’t very threatening despite being a Gym Leader Pokemon, so I use 2 Pounds on it, and take a Water Gun. Next up is Starmie, who even with the 7 level difference is still faster. It takes a Body Slam and a Pound to go down, while using Tackle and Water Gun, both of which crit. I’m left with a little over half HP, but I can now use Cut. Now for Lt. Surge. His puzzle is even dumber than usual when you’re trying to avoid the trainers, but I get it done. His Raichu is also faster, but still gets 2HKOd by Body Slam. It uses Mega Punch twice, the latter of which crits and leaves Clefable with low HP. But I still got through Misty and Surge on one health bar, which was my goal. It’s worth noting that Lt. Surge doesn’t actually need to be fought at all until you need to access Victory Road, and if the reward weren’t worth it, I would’ve done this fight way later instead – no need to take so much damage otherwise. But the Thunderbolt TM is well worth the pain.

That’s all for this update. Next time we’ll go up to Pokemon Tower, and Clefable’s reign continues… but not forever.

Pokemon Status:
Clefable Level 30: 19/104 HP
9/25 Water Gun
1/20 Mega Punch
7/15 Body Slam
13/35 Pound

Mankey and Pikachu are the same as last time and not really important now, so I won’t bother showing them off going forward. Same with Charmander.

Healing Items:
1 Potion
1 Full Restore
1 Hyper Potion
1 Max Potion
1 Antidote
2 Ethers
1 Max Ether

 

[adman2]

I deem Caterpie a bigger threat because a String Shot from it means both it and Weedle will get an extra hit on Clefable.

I never thought I'd see a line like that in a Let's Play. :p

This challenge reminds me of a Final Fantasy 1 challenge "Sullla" did here:

http://www.sullla.com/FF/LOTL1.html

Live Off the Land in Pokemon is fun to read about, but it would probably take too much planning for me to want to attempt it. How much of a difference would infinite TMs make in the Unova, Kalos, and Alola games?

 

[DrPumpkinz]

I never thought I'd see a line like that in a Let's Play. :p

This challenge reminds me of a Final Fantasy 1 challenge "Sullla" did here:

http://www.sullla.com/FF/LOTL1.html

Live Off the Land in Pokemon is fun to read about, but it would probably take too much planning for me to want to attempt it. How much of a difference would infinite TMs make in the Unova, Kalos, and Alola games?

Infinite TMs would make PP conservation much less of an issue, as you could forget and reteach a TM move to refill its PP (I'm pretty it works like that, as least). Rest would almost definitely need to be banned, as whenever one of your Pokemon is hurt, you could teach it Rest, heal up on a Route 1 mon, and replace Rest with whatever you had before.

 

[sb879]

I never thought I'd see a line like that in a Let's Play. :p

This challenge reminds me of a Final Fantasy 1 challenge "Sullla" did here:

http://www.sullla.com/FF/LOTL1.html

Live Off the Land in Pokemon is fun to read about, but it would probably take too much planning for me to want to attempt it. How much of a difference would infinite TMs make in the Unova, Kalos, and Alola games?

Yeah, I like Sullla's stuff a lot too and I've even read that report, didn't realize I'd subconsciously stolen the name lol.

In Gen 5, TMs actually are not learned with full PP when replacing a move, and instead just take the value of the move they replaced (unless it was higher than the new move's max PP). Level-up moves might have this property too? idk. So in that respect, it would actually make it more challenging. Clefable in this run greatly enjoys being able to get routine PP refills from learning new TMs, for example. Though now that I think about it, you could bypass this by using the Move Deleter before learning a TM. Gen 6 and 7 remove this restriction, though, so you can just cycle through the same TMs and effectively have infinite PP of any TM move. So you'd definitely need to disallow that to keep the spirit of the challenge. Easiest way would just be to disallow a Pokemon from being retaught a TM it's learned before.

The other aspect is being able to teach the same TM to multiple Pokemon, but I don't think this is a big deal. You're not going to be using that many different Pokemon. And since the only reason to stop using a Pokemon is because it runs into some kind of issue, the replacement is by necessity going to be fairly different and probably not have that much (important) TM overlap anyways.

 

[papab3ar31]

This is awesome can't wait to read more.

 

[sb879]

Route 9

Route 9 starts with a Lass with a 2 Oddishes and 2 Bellsprouts. I Pound the first Oddish twice, risking status. Since I’m so low on HP (19 left), I figure even if it happens it’s a solid time to use the Full Restore anyways. But my risk pays off and I only see a 3 damage Absorb. The Oddish gets safely Body Slammed, and the Bellsprouts are fragile enough to go down to a single Pound. There’s a hidden Ether on this route, but I need to fight a Bug Catcher to get to it. It’s a pretty good optional fight to do anyways, since he has 2 Beedrills which gives lots of EXP and are easy to KO. I use my last Mega Punch and a Body Slam to get rid of them. The only other trainer is another Bug Catcher, who leads with a Caterpie. It barely survives a Pound, and retaliates with a crit Tackle before falling to a second Pound. His Weedle and Venonat go down with a Pound and a Body Slam, respectively.

Rock Tunnel

I pick up a hidden Super Potion outside the cave, and immediately use it to get Clefable up to 64 HP. As for the darkness, Pikachu can learn Flash, but with how limited my Poke Balls are I can’t actually get enough Pokemon for the HM. So, going blind it is. To be fair Gen 1 has the most forgiving darkness, as you can still see the walls. Anyways, it’s time to teach Clefable Thunderbolt over Pound. Pound still has 5 PP so it would’ve been optimal to use up those last PP on some random wild Pokemon, but it’s not necessary.

Now for the trainers. The first one starts with Cubone. I Water Gun it twice while taking a harmless Growl. He also has a Slowpoke, which gets fried with my new Thunderbolt. By getting more and more strong moves, Clefable doesn’t need to use weak moves to budget its strong move PP as much, so it can go all out and OHKO everything else here. As such it’s easier to just go through the PP count:

Slowpoke: Thunderbolt
Oddish/Bulbasaur: 2 Body Slams
Geodude/Geodude/Graveler: 3 Water Guns
Meowth/Oddish/Pidgey: Thunderbolt/Body Slam/Thunderbolt

Upon leaving the tunnel, there’s a hidden Max Ether to get.

Route 8

Now to go to Celadon. On the way, there’s a choice of a Gambler – sorry, Gamer – or a Lass. The Lass has Clefairies which are too resistant to Water Gun (3HKO) to go down effectively, and I’m trying to use up my remaining Water Guns (4 left). So I fight the Gambler instead, whose Fire-type Growlithe is 2HKOd by it (seriously, overleveled and super-effective and it still can’t OHKO. Water Gun is really bad at this point!). I wanted to save the remaining 2 for something else, so I Body Slam the Vulpix that comes next. By cutting through the bushes, I can now freely take the Underground Path to Celadon, where there’s a very nice hidden Elixer.

Celadon City

Now, I’m afraid I must commit a most grievous sin. I am going to buy an item. Hold your pitchforks, I have a good reason. At some point, the Saffron guards need to be satiated, and as far as I can tell, no drinks exist anywhere on the overworld. So I buy a Lemonade. And it’s rather important that I do this now so I can get the Psychic TM.

Onto the Rocket Hideout. I Thunderbolt the poster boy’s Raticate and Zubat, then pick up a hidden PP Up by the entrance. I first loot the maze room a floor down to get the Horn Drill TM and a Super Potion. There’s a Double-Edge TM in the floor below as well, but it’s guarded by a trainer and a recoil move is terrible in this kind of challenge. More importantly there’s also a Rare Candy. Lastly I get a Hyper Potion on the first floor.

Now for the trainers. Not many need to be fought, thankfully. First is the guy holding the Lift Key, whose Koffing and Zubat both get Thunderbolted. With all the loot and the Lift Key obtained, I can go to B4F, where I first pick up and HP Up and Carbos. Before moving onward, I forget Water Gun for Psychic. I wanted to use up the last 2 Water Guns on Giovanni, but I needed Psychic to deal with Jessie and James effectively. In retrospect I should’ve just Water Gunned the previous Zubat. With Psychic, their Koffing and Ekans go down effortlessly, and I use a Thunderbolt on Meowth.

Last up is Giovanni, who doesn’t put up much of a fight. Rhyhorn and Onix both go down to a Psychic, and Persian takes 2. It’s faster, but Giovanni wastes one of the turns using a Guard Spec. and only uses a weak Pay Day on the other. Before leaving with the Silph Scope to go ghostbusting, I pick up a hidden Super Potion behind Giovanni.

Pokemon Tower

First up is my rival, who is hopelessly outleveled. His Fearow is still faster, but it only uses Leer as it gets OHKOd by Thunderbolt. His Shellder and Vulpix are slower and meet the same fate. Sandshrew naturally needs to be Psychic’d, and Eevee takes a Psychic and a Thunderbolt (conserving a Psychic so I have 2 left) while using Growl.

All the Channelers in the bulk of Pokemon Tower just use Gastly with the occasional Haunter, but despite their high speed, they’re too low-leveled to outspeed Clefable and get destroyed by Psychic, which I use on all of them. Things start out pretty calm with only 1 Channeler on 3/4F, who has 2 Gastlies. I use my remaining 2 Psychics so I can cleanly defeat her, then get the full 10 PP back by using an Ether on it afterwards. I pick up an Awakening and an Elixer on 4F. On 5F there’s a hidden Elixer by the entrance, and something ironically dangerous – healing tiles. If you walk through the apparent path these are unavoidable, but on the first run through they can be bypassed by baiting the trainer near the stairs to clear a path. She just has a single Haunter.

On 6F, there’s an optional Channeler guarding an X Accuracy, which needs to be picked up now and not later if I want to avoid the healing tiles. This Channeler has 3 Gastlies. There’s 2 more Channelers on the way with 1 Gastly each. That’s the end of all the Channelers, and I pick up a Rare Candy before fighting the Marowak spirit. It takes 2 Psychics and gets off a Bone Club.

In Red and Blue, there was a full gauntlet of Rockets on the top floor, but in Yellow it’s just Jessie and James. Quite a boon for my PP, as Clefable’s is dangerously low! I Psychic their Arbok and Weezing, and Thunderbolt Meowth. With that done, I’m warped out to Mr. Fuji’s house to get the Pokeflute. This is more helpful than it seems, as I would otherwise have to use an Escape Rope to avoid the healing tiles. In Gen 1 they take you to the last Pokemon Center you used, which in my case defaults to Pallet Town since I’ve used none. Yeah >_>

That’s all for now. Next time, we defeat Koga, and replace the mighty Clefable with an even greater Pokemon. Far-fetched as the notion may be, such a Pokemon does exist!

Pokemon Status:
Clefable Level 38: 39/131 HP
0/10 Psychic
0/20 Mega Punch
0/15 Body Slam
1/15 Thunderbolt

Healing Items:
1 Potion
1 Full Restore
2 Hyper Potions
1 Max Potion
2 Super Potions
1 Antidote
1 Awakening
3 Ethers
2 Max Ethers
3 Elixers

 

[DrPumpkinz]

That’s all for now. Next time, we defeat Koga, and replace the mighty Clefable with an even greater Pokemon. Far-fetched as the notion may be, such a Pokemon does exist!

You can't possibly be implying what it sounds like you're implying, right?

 

[adman2]

What made GameFreak decide to make Water Gun a TM? I've wondered that for a while.

We're all looking forward to Farfetch'd. It had better make it to the Hall of Fame.

 

[sb879]

To Fuschia City

There’s two ways to get down to Fuschia City. One is going down from Lavender Town, taking you through 4 different routes and a whole lot of mandatory trainers. The other is west from Celadon into Cycling Road, which has no mandatory trainers. The choice is obvious. But I ran into a rather embarrassing problem. I, uh, forgot the Bike. Now, I’d actually realized this before I even entered Rock Tunnel, but I didn’t feel like going back for it, not remembering it was actually required for this. So I had to go all the way back to Cerulean City. I went back to Lavender, then slugged my way through Rock Tunnel again. One annoying thing about this run is that there aren’t any Repels, so that was extra annoying. Anyways, once I got through there it wasn’t much longer before I got to Cerulean and got the Bike. Of course, now I had to go back through Rock Tunnel again to get back. Wait… no I don’t. I unlocked Saffron City. I can just go through there. I could’ve gone through there the first time, too. God damn it!

Believe it or not, that isn’t even the dumbest waste of time in this run.

Anyways! Before I entered Cycling Road for real, I picked up the Fly TM. Once on Cycling Road, I started picking up hidden items. There’s actually quite a lot of them, and they’re useful, too. Namely, a Rare Candy, Full Restore, Max Revive, PP Up, and a Max Elixer. Without any trainers to fight, I got to Fuschia City pretty quickly. The first order of business is the Safari Zone. This actually lets me catch Pokemon freely, but unfortunately none of the options wowed me. So, I just came here to get items. Namely, Carbos/Max Potion/Full Restore/Skull Bash TM/Protein/Gold Teeth/Double Team TM/Revive/HM03. There’s also another Max Potion and a Max Revive, but they require Surf to get. Once I run out of steps, I trade the Gold Teeth for the Strength HM. Clefable can learn this, and happily teaches it over its exhausted Mega Punch.

Getting a New Pokemon

Now, it’s time to use the Great Ball from the SS Anne and catch a new Pokemon on Route 13. This is part of the other way to Fuschia City, but it’s still beneficial to go through Cycling Road first since only 1 trainer needs to be fought if you go through the bottom. Said trainer is a Bird Catcher with 4 underleveled birds, and they all just get OHKOd by Strength. I’m able to pick up a Calcium on the way. Once I Cut my way into Route 13, it’s time… for Farfetch’d. Yes, I was being coy with my last post, I am indeed getting a Farfetch’d. Now, don’t get too excited. Farfetch’d is, indeed, bad. It’s not sweeping the rest of the game, or even very much of it at all. In fact, Farfetch’d only has one goal outside of this update. But it’s a very important one, and indeed the only reason it’s being trained at all. So, what’s the deal with Farfetch’d? Well, it learns Swords Dance and Agility, so if it ever gets the chance to set up, it wins. Simple as that.

Finding Farfetch’d is not a pretty task. This incredible bird has a matching incredible rarity at 5% chance of being found at all. Furthermore, it can appear at Level 26 or 31, and I really want the Level 31. As per usual, the level distribution is not uniform and the Level 31 ones are definitely less common. And it also has an incredible catch rate of 60, meaning a Great Ball only has an ~11% chance of catching it at full health. Yeah, this sucks. The odds can be improved a lot by getting it under half health (~22% catch), and healing items are a bit less restrictive now, so I opt to do that. Run into kind of a dumb issue, though – Clefable is too strong to weaken it. But, even if this has functionally been a rotating solo run, I do have other Pokemon still. Namely, old Mankey. At Level 17, it’s certainly not too strong to weaken a Level 31 Farfetch’d, and needs a whopping 3 Karate Chops to get it under half HP. As for why Mankey wouldn’t just get destroyed, Farfetch’d only has one attacking move at this level (Fury Attack), so it only has a ¼ chance to KO Mankey each turn. Even if Mankey does faint, I can just go for the 11% catch chance.

For how this played out, I found 2 Level 26 Farfetch’d, then a Level 31 one. Mankey successfully weakened it, and I caught the Farfetch’d on my first attempt. Well, that was lucky. To demonstrate how bad this could’ve been, though, even this lucky attempt took 45 minutes total. I’ll take it.

Training Time

Farfetch’d’s first order of business is to get Fly over Leer, so it has a good attacking move. Next, it’s time for Celadon Gym. Naturally this is easy pickings for Farfetch’d and here it gets a large chunk of the EXP it needs. Everything is OHKOd by Fly except Erika’s Tangela. I prioritize trainers that have an evolved Pokemon on their team. So I fight the 4 trainers with Bulbasaur/Ivysaur, Bellsprout/Weepinbell, Oddish/Gloom, and Ivysaur/Weepinbell/Gloom, respectively, which eats up 9 Fly PP total. I make an exception for the Beauty with 4 unevolved Pokemon, as they’re so weak that after a Swords Dance even 2 hit Fury Attacks OHKO her entire team. I take a failed PoisonPowder from the lead Oddish in the process. Versus Erika, I Swords Dance and take a 3 turn Bind, then OHKO her team with Fly (3 used).

Time to get some more EXP. I thought the Fighting Dojo would be a good place for this, but despite the Flying weakness everything here is strong and the evolved stuff here either outspeeds Farfetch’d or can survive an unboosted Fly. So, I only fight the first trainer here since it’s the best use of resources – unevolved lead to set up on, 3 Pokemon worth of EXP to get. I use Agility on his Machop as it uses Focus Energy, then OHKO that, his Mankey, and Primeape with Fly. I then go and pick up the Swift TM in Route 12 below Lavender Town, and teach Farfetch’d that over Fury Attack. I also used an Ether on Fly since I was fresh out.

Fuschia Gym

Back to mandatory stuff. Two trainers need to be fought in Koga’s Gym, the first of which is a Juggler with 4 Pokemon, leading with a Drowzee. By setting up a Swords Dance and Agility, his entire team (2 Drowzees, 2 Kadabras) is OHKOd by Swift. I took 2 Headbutts in the process, going down to 14 HP. I Super Potioned afterwards up to 64 HP. I wanted to heal up Farfetch’d and have it deal with the next trainer – a Juggler with a Drowzee and Hypno – but it proved to be too much for Farfetch’d to do without losing too much HP. So back to Clefable. I used the Potion from way back when to get me up to 59 HP to deal with this safely. Both Pokemon were 2HKOd by Strength, and… I’m not entirely sure what I saw in return, because I guess I forgot to record it. Whoops. Well, I survived with 23 HP after leveling up, whatever they were. Now, I still wanted the EXP from that fight to get up to Level 36, so I went out to fight some wild Pokemon to get there. The most PP-efficient way was to fight either Gloom or Weepinbell (10% chance to find one of them) on Route 15. I ran into 2 Glooms, and surprisingly, 2 Venomoths which are a 1% encounter. They’re not ideal since they’re faster than Farfetch’d, but I had HP to spare since I needed to use another Super Potion before Koga anyways, and with 64/97 HP, I had some free HP I lose. The two Venomoths used Confusion and Leech Life, bringing me to 47/97, leading to a rather precise Super Potion use afterwards.

Farfetch’d needs to set up 2* Swords Dances and an Agility to sweep Koga. His lead Venonat is Level 44, and has Tackle/Psychic/Sleep Powder/Toxic, plus Koga can use an X Attack on it. Tackle does barely anything, and believe it or not, Psychic is only a 4HKO on Farfetch’d. Yeah, Venonat is pretty bad. Sleep Powder is essentially just “roll again” since the Pokeflute undoes it, and Toxic doesn’t matter since I can use an Antidote before sweeping. Easy enough. My first attempt, it used Tackle, Toxic, then Psychic as I used the 3 set-up moves, and then Koga used an X Attack as I used an Antidote. Perfect! Click Fly, let’s go… oh, Venonat has somehow survived a +4 Fly with half health. What fresh Gen 1 hell is this…

Apparently, if you heal a status condition in Gen 1, while it doesn’t erase your buffs necessarily, it ignores them until stats are recalculated again (i.e., you buff again). So in that Koga fight, while the game remembered that Farfetch’d was at +4 after using the Antidote, it didn’t actually apply the corresponding stat buff. But if I were to use Swords Dance again, I would be at +6 attack and get the x4 attack as I’m supposed to. So I could’ve theoretically salvaged that attempt by using another Swords Dance, but I was too low at that point.

So, let’s try this again. I can afford to get Toxic’d, but I have to heal it when I’m at +2, then hope I don’t see it again as I go to +4. My next attempt gets Psychic first, then Toxic which handily misses and avoids the Toxic roulette I’d be playing later otherwise, and then an X Attack. Fly then rampages through Koga’s team, for real this time. I get a bit scared as Venomoth uses Double Team when I Fly up, but fortunately I still hit it. Victory for Farfetch’d!

*So…I technically only need 1 Swords Dance, but this is by taking advantage of a glitch (woah!) in Gen 1. See, when Gym Leaders give you a badge and tell you it boosts some stat, they’re actually not talking out of their ass. It gives a 12.5% boost to the mentioned stat. The glitch is that whenever your stats are recalculated, the badge boost is applied again. So if I were to use 1 Swords Dance and 1 Agility, it would be applied 2 extra times and make me (1.125)^2=1.265625 times stronger than I ought to be, and would give me enough power to OHKO Venomoth with Fly which I couldn’t do otherwise. But I prefer not to abuse glitches if I can help it.

That’s all for now. Koga lets me use Surf, which opens the world up considerably. With this level of freedom, there’s lots to do. Going to Cinnabar, Seafoam Islands, Power Plant – pretty much anything that’s not the very end of the game. I’ll explore and then go up to Sabrina. And this time, I’ll actually get a Pokemon better than Clefable. Honest!

Pokemon Status:
Farfetch’d Level 37: 68/99 HP
2/15 Fly
16/20 Swift
26/30 Swords Dance
28/30 Agility

Clefable Level 39: 23/135 HP
0/10 Psychic
7/15 Strength
0/15 Body Slam
1/15 Thunderbolt

Healing Items:
3 Full Restores
2 Hyper Potions
2 Max Potions
1 Antidote
1 Awakening
2 Ethers
2 Max Ethers
3 Elixers
1 Max Elixer
1 Revive
1 Max Revive

 

[DrPumpkinz]

The first order of business is the Safari Zone. This actually lets me catch Pokemon freely, but unfortunately none of the options wowed me. \

But... but Tauros.

 

[sb879]

But... but Tauros.

Slow exp curve doesn't work out that well when you're soloing, plus Tauros is caught really low-level in Yellow (21).

 

[sb879]

A Pokemon to Surpass Clefable

Now to explore the open seas! …after getting something to Surf with. Fortunately Yellow’s freebies save the day again, as I can pick up a Squirtle in Vermillion City. After teaching it Surf, I pick up a Hidden Max Ether in the side of a house that can only be reached with Surf. I then go back to Fuschia City and use Strength in the warden’s house to get another Rare Candy.

The first place to Surf to are the Seafoam Islands, and I go through Cinnabar Island to get there. There’s not much here, but what is here is important. First is an Ultra Ball which I'm just about to use, and the other is a Max Elixer. I then Fly back to Cinnabar Island and enter Pokemon Mansion, where I’ll be looking for a Level 38 Growlithe to use my new Ultra Ball on. So, let’s talk some numbers. Growlithes appear 20% of the time, and can come at one of Level 26, 30, 34, or 38. As per usual, the higher level ones are much less common. I’m not entirely sure exactly how common each level is, but on average it took 20-30 minutes to find a Level 38 Growlithe. Now for catching it. At full HP, the Ultra Ball has a 33% catch rate. If weakened under half HP, that shoots up to 66%. Clefable can weaken it using a Thunderbolt. There’s two things that can wrong, though. Growlithe can use Roar 25% of the time and instantly end the battle, or Clefable can crit with Thunderbolt 11.7% of the time. Despite these risks, the overall chance of success by weakening Growlithe ends up being 43.7%. The numbers don’t lie – weakening Growlithe is clearly the correct choice.

But holy shit was the game determined to prove me wrong. I mean 43.7% chance of success aren’t the best odds, but it still should only take a few tries. Yet Growlithe saw fit to use Roar not once, not twice, not thrice, but six times! This made me doubt my own calculations, and the next Growlithe I saw I instantly through the Ultra Ball at it, which still failed to catch it, and then Growlithe failed to use Roar – after it was too late to matter.

For my insolence in daring to doubt the vengeful math gods, I was then subject to the next Growlithe using Roar, then critting the next four that appeared. Failing this many times was almost a 1 in 400 occurrence. This was absurd!

Then finally on the 12th Growlithe, I was able to successfully weaken Growlithe without it Roaring. Now, keep in mind catching it at this point isn’t even guaranteed, and could still fail 34% of the time. But the game finally showed me some mercy and let me catch the Growlithe. Recall it took about 30 minutes to find each Growlithe. Yeah, that’s right, I spent six hours trying to catch this damn thing. And what do I get out of it? I mean, I can’t even get a Fire Stone, so I’m obviously not using it for combat. No, I’m trading it to a woman in Cinnabar for a far better Pokemon: Dewgong.

Pokemon Analysis

Unlike Farfetch’d, Dewgong is actually really good, and will be the main Pokemon for the rest of the game. I didn’t bother expanding on why Farfetch’d wouldn’t be dealing with the rest of the game as I think it’s self-evident, but I should explain Clefable’s shortcomings. Once Clefable’s level gap with opposing Pokemon begins to close, its low speed becomes more of a hindrance, and it’s also less flexible with what moves it uses to KO Pokemon. Previously, Body Slam would OHKO most Pokemon. But by the end of the game, an 85 BP move from 73 base attack is not very impressive and requires Clefable to use coverage moves more. Clefable’s coverage moves are unstabbed, too, and while they are sufficient for normal trainers, boss Pokemon with good Special often won’t go down in one hit with no way to boost Special (besides 1 X Special). And the worst case is when Clefable can’t hit super-effectively at all. This isn’t too common, but Blaine (Bubblebeam is too weak to really count) is easily the worst offender of this. His entire team outspeeds Clefable and gets at least 2 hits in on it, with Arcanine probably being able to get 3. Not a pretty fight, and would definitely burn a lot of healing items. Now, none of these are necessarily fatal flaws, and Clefable may have been able to cut it for the lategame, but I wanted something better.

Why Dewgong, then? First off, Dewgong in Gen 1 has 95 Special, effectively giving it 25 more Special Attack than later Gens, which is huge. While its movepool is narrow, it has lots of useful attacking PP from its STABs. 20 from Aurora Beam which it comes with, and another 20 from the Bubblebeam TM, which are both moderately strong at 65 BP, and can be used to OHKO weak Pokemon or moderately strong Pokemon weak to one of them. It also has another 15 from Surf, which is a strong move that OHKOs pretty much anything weak to it and Pokemon with average to low Special. It also learns Ice Beam and Blizzard later on for more strong moves. And with 50% extra EXP from being a trade, its higher level furthers all of its strengths. Its only flaws are poor coverage versus other Waters (which aren’t too common), and mediocre Speed (still a fair bit better then Clefable, though, base 70 versus base 60 and it will be a higher level).

Getting Dewgong Started

So, I complete the trade and teach Dewgong Bubblebeam and Surf, ending up with a set of Headbutt/Surf/Aurora Beam/Bubblebeam. I then dump all the vitamins I’ve been hoarding throughout the game on it. I start with an HP Up, and am taken aback at Dewgong gaining 5 HP from it. I thought this might have been some kind of glitch, but further research showed that vitamins are just better in Gen 1, being roughly equivalent to getting 25 EVs as opposed to 10 EVs later on. I then use another HP Up, a Carbos, and a Calcium. I was initially considering doing the remaining looting later, but decided to do it now since there’s a fair few vitamins to get.

I start with the Power Plant, where I find HP Up/Carbos/Max Elixer/PP Up/Reflect TM/Thunder TM. There’s an optional trainer outside who I fight on the way out. His Rhyhorn gets Bubblebeamed, and his Lickitung falls to Headbutt+Surf. Then, I go back to the Pokemon Mansion to finish up there. I fight 2 more optional trainers in there, who have Charmander/Charmeleon and Growlith/Ponyta, all of which go down to Bubblebeam. For items, I get Iron/Carbos/Calcium/Max Potion/Max Revive/Blizzard TM/Full Restore/Secret Key. I use all the vitamins I received from both places.

Silph Co.

In spite of how huge Silph Co. is, there’s not very many mandatory trainers. Yet, as the fact that I’ve already fought 3 optional trainers indicates, I actually do need EXP. Mandatory EXP can only keep Dewgong’s level afloat so much as the lategame levels rocket up. It’s easiest to start on 5F to get the Card Key, which is guarded by a Rocket with an Arbok that goes down to a Headbutt+Aurora Beam. I get a flinch, which is a nice perk of Headbutt. From here, I go floor-by-floor and fight the trainers with fully-evolved Pokemon.

Like with Rock Tunnel, most Pokemon here get OHKOd, so a list is the best way to show how it went down. I prioritize Aurora Beam over Bubblebeam when they’re the same power because the latter is more useful in Blaine’s Gym:

Golbat/Raticate/3 Zubats: Aurora Beam/Bubblebeam/3 Headbutts
Koffing/Grimer/2 Weezings: Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam/2 Surfs
Magneton/Koffing/Weezing/Magnemite: Surf/Aurora Beam/Surf/Aurora Beam
Machop/Machoke: Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam
Sandshrew/Sandslash: Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam
Raticate/Arbok/Koffing/Golbat: Bubblebeam/Bubblebeam/Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam
Electrode/Muk: Surf/Surf
Weezing/Golbat/Koffing: Surf/Aurora Beam/Bubblebeam
Machoke: Bubblebeam

A few Pokemon put up more of a fight, on the earlier floors where I hadn’t accumulated as much EXP. First is a guy with 2 Raticates and a Hypno. Both Raticates fall to Aurora Beam, while Hypno takes 3 Headbutts. I was hoping for a flinch, but I didn’t get one. Dewgong took a Confusion and a pointless Disable on its Surf. Next up is a trainer with an Electrode that outspeeds Dewgong and uses Light Screen to avoid an OHKO from Surf. It uses Screech the next turn, while my Headbutt finishes it off. Fortunately Light Screen only lasts for the Pokemon that’s out in Gen 1, so Surf is able to OHKO the Weezing that comes after. Last of the tougher Pokemon is a trainer with a Kadabra, which just gets OHKOd by Headbutt, and a Mr. Mime, which survives a Headbutt but only uses a Barrier. Aurora Beam finishes it off next turn.

Now my rival returns with a much-improved team, most notably evolving his Eevee. I don’t have how this works too ingrained. Even though I’ve played Gen 1 a lot, I only played Yellow for the first time when it came out on VC. It depends on how the first two fights against him go. If you win both, he has Jolteon, if you win one of them he has Flareon, and if you lose both he has Vaporeon. I guess it’s supposed to make it easier or harder as needed for your Pikachu? Still pretty weird. I misremembered and thought he would have Vaporeon, but he actually has Jolteon in this case, which is pretty bad with Electric STAB and high Special+Speed.

The fight starts off pretty simple, with both his Sandslash and Ninetales going down to a Bubblebeam. Next is Cloyster, which as a Water-type is a coverage blind spot for Dewgong. I start with Surf, which looks like it will 2HKO. Cloyster responds with Supersonic. Dewgong hits itself in Confusion, and Cloyster uses Supersonic again. Okay… Dewgong tries for Surf again next turn, and succeeds but fails to KO. And then Cloyster uses Supersonic yet again. Next up is Kadabra who is pretty low-level compared to Dewgong (35 versus 47) so it gets outsped and OHKOd by Headbutt. Last up is Jolteon, who thankfully only has Thundershock this time. It’s faster and paralyzes on the first one as I use Bubblebeam. Being paralyzed doesn’t matter too much when I’m already slower, though. I take another Thundershock next turn and finish it off with Surf. After the fight, I need to heal off Paralysis and get HP back, so a Full Restore is a natural option.

Near the end is the final Jessie and James fight, which is truly climactic as Weezing and Arbok get Surfed and Meowth gets Aurora Beamed. Dewgong is now out of Surf, and is pretty low on its other PP as well, so I use an Elixer to heal it. Last is Giovanni, but he can’t do much. Nidorino gets Surfed, Persian gets Surfed, Rhyhorn gets Aurora Beamed, and Nidoqueen gets Surfed. Easy. The president gives me a Master Ball, which would’ve been reaaaaaaaaal nice a little while ago…

Speaking of items, here’s the relevant stuff I found in Silph Co: Hyper Potion/Max Revive/Full Heal/HP Up/X Accuracy/Calcium/Carbos/Rare Candy/Elixer/Max Potion. I used the vitamins immediately.

Sabrina

Like Koga, Sabrina got a pretty big level jump in Yellow, but unlike Koga she uses the indisputably broken Psychic type and is very scary. I took Dewgong for a test spin here for giggles, and it won, which it really shouldn’t have been able to do. Her Abra only uses Flash so it’s purely an annoyance, but Dewgong needed to switch out after it finished Abra off to get rid of the accuracy drops. Kadabra and Alakazam both outspeed Dewgong, and took 2 and 3 Surfs to finish respectively. Now, if they kept using Psychic, they easily could’ve won, as even Kadabra’s weaker Psychic did about a third. This isn’t even getting into the overbearing random factors of crits and special drops, ~20% and 30% respectively. But only Kadabra used Psychic, while Alakazam had an X Defend used on it then used Reflect twice.

But I was sure that in a world where the AI had even the slightest clue what it was doing, Dewgong would not have won, and that’s what I planned for. So I reset and brought out the amazing Farfetch’d. This is the battle it had been training for. Since Abra only uses Flash, it can set up to its heart’s content here. And by using Swift to attack, it ignores the accuracy penalty. So after switching out Dewgong (to get a bit of EXP from Abra), Farfetch’d sets up its Attack and Speed to max (I actually lose track and use a 4th Swords Dance), and then annihilates Sabrina’s team with Swift.

That’s all for this update, and Farfetch’d as well. Next time I’ll go up to the penultimate rival battle, defeating the last two gyms in the process.

Pokemon Status:
Dewgong Level 50: 178/178 HP
12/15 Headbutt
7/15 Surf
12/20 Aurora Beam
17/20 Bubblebeam

Farfetch’d Level 37: 68/99 HP
2/15 Fly
13/20 Swift
22/30 Swords Dance
25/30 Agility

Clefable Level 39: 13/135 HP
0/10 Psychic
7/15 Strength
0/15 Body Slam
0/15 Thunderbolt

Healing Items:
3 Full Restores
3 Hyper Potions
4 Max Potions
1 Antidote
1 Awakening
1 Full Heal
2 Ethers
3 Max Ethers
3 Elixers
3 Max Elixers
1 Revive
3 Max Revives

 

[adman2]

Are you going to use the Master Ball on Zapdos? It sounds like a good option for Lorelei at least.

 

[sb879]

Are you going to use the Master Ball on Zapdos? It sounds like a good option for Lorelei at least.

Nah, no legendaries. I am using the Master Ball there, though.

 

[Caramel Prisoner]

First off, this is super lovely, very fun to read, so kudos to your sir. One thing I've been wondering about though.. why go through the trouble of finding that level 38 Growlithe when you'd just trade it anyway? Wouldn't any level have sufficed for that? Or is there a reason it had to be the highest level that I'm missing?

 

[sb879]

First off, this is super lovely, very fun to read, so kudos to your sir. One thing I've been wondering about though.. why go through the trouble of finding that level 38 Growlithe when you'd just trade it anyway? Wouldn't any level have sufficed for that? Or is there a reason it had to be the highest level that I'm missing?

Right, I forgot this is different in later gens. In Gen 1 (and I think up to Gen 3?) the level of the Pokemon you get in a trade is equal to the Pokemon you trade for. The most infamous example of this is in RB, where there's a person in Cinnabar who wants an Electrode for a Raichu, but since Pikachu just needs a Thunderstone to evolve, you can get a Level 3 Raichu and trade it for a Level 3 Electrode, a fun little oddity.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Right, I forgot this is different in later gens. In Gen 1 (and I think up to Gen 3?) the level of the Pokemon you get in a trade is equal to the Pokemon you trade for. The most infamous example of this is in RB, where there's a person in Cinnabar who wants an Electrode for a Raichu, but since Pikachu just needs a Thunderstone to evolve, you can get a Level 3 Raichu and trade it for a Level 3 Electrode, a fun little oddity.

Ooh this feeds into my question. I understood why you caught the highest level Growlithe available, but then why didn’t you grind it up as many levels as possible before trading it? I suspect the answer is a combination of ‘I worked out that it didn’t make a big difference in the end’ and ‘training a Growlithe I spent 6 hours catching would be a nightmarish hellscape’, but I’m curious.

 

[sb879]

Ooh this feeds into my question. I understood why you caught the highest level Growlithe available, but then why didn’t you grind it up as many levels as possible before trading it? I suspect the answer is a combination of ‘I worked out that it didn’t make a big difference in the end’ and ‘training a Growlithe I spent 6 hours catching would be a nightmarish hellscape’, but I’m curious.

I mean, honestly? It just didn't even occur to me to do that. I don't think Growlithe could feasibly get more than like, a level or two, though. It's not worth it if it needs to use any healing items, so it would need to OHKO stuff. I could teach it Dig to OHKO Magnemites at the Power Plant, and its Ember could OHKO Oddish/Bellsprouts at Route 15 (I honestly don't think it would be strong enough to OHKO Gloom/Weepinbell despite being 8 levels higher). I probably would have done it if it came to mind, though. Better safe than sorry.

 

[sb879]

Cinnabar Gym

First, I go back to the Pokemon Mansion and fight a Burglar I skipped before with a Level 38 Ninetales, which is now trivial to take care of with a Bubblebeam. Now for Blaine’s gym. Everything here is trivial to KO with Bubblebeam, so I pick out the trainers with evolved Pokemon to fight. I fight 4 trainers total. With Growlithe/Vulpix/Ninetales, Vulpix/Vulpix/Ninetales, Ponyta (not fully-evolved but gives a lot of EXP regardless), and Rapidash, respectively. 8 Bubblebeams used total.

Blaine himself is deceptively draining despite Dewgong’s type advantage, mainly because its Ice-type neutralizes the Fire resistance. His entire team is faster and have strong moves. He starts with Ninetales which does around a third with Flamethrower and gets OHKOd with Surf. Rapidash is next and can be pretty obnoxious with Fire Spin. Faster Fire Spins are basically free damage. Fortunately, it doesn’t use it an instead does a bit with Stomp as Surf also OHKOs it. Last is Arcanine, who is too bulky to get OHKOd by Surf, so I go for the 2HKO with Bubblebeam instead. It starts with Fire Blast while I use Bubblebeam. Unfortunately it brings me too low to safely finish it off, so I use a Hyper Potion as it misses with Take Down. It fires off a final Flamethrower before succumbing to another Bubblebeam. With how much damage even Dewgong took, Clefable definitely would have burned through a lot of healing items here.

Viridian Gym

The final gym has 8 trainers in it, all of which are worth fighting since they give decent EXP and are easy to KO. In order:

Sandslash/Dugtrio: Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam
Rhyhorn: Aurora Beam
Machoke: Headbutt (flinch)->Aurora Beam
Nidorino/Nidoking: Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam
Machoke/Machop/Machoke: Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam/Aurora Beam
Arbok/Tauros: Aurora Beam/Surf
Machop/Machoke: Bubblebeam/Bubblebeam
Rhyhorn: Bubblebeam

I also pick up a Revive, which is here for some reason.

Now for Giovanni. He leads with Dugtrio which outspeeds and uses Dig, and I use a Headbutt on this turn so I don’t waste more important PP. When it comes back up I KO it with Bubblebeam. This brings Dewgong up to level 56 where it learns Ice Beam, replacing Headbutt. Persian is next and I mean to OHKO it with Ice Beam, but I misclick and hit Bubblebeam again. I get lucky in a roundabout way here as Persian uses Double Team and causes Bubblebeam to miss, preventing me from wasting an Ice Beam PP. Next turn it uses Screech and I OHKO it with Ice Beam as intended. After that his team falls easily. Both Nidos go down to an Ice Beam, and Rhydon to a Bubblebeam.

Rival 6

Jolteon was a bit of an annoyance last time I fought it, but now it’s a very big problem. The level gap is closed a lot (48 vs 40 last time, 58 vs 53 this time), and it has a big offensive upgrade from Thundershock: Thunderbolt. Dewgong can’t really do this without burning my 1 X Special, and this isn’t a long-term solution since Jolteon needs to be fought again in the Champion battle. So I need a new Pokemon for this. I decide to go the Power Plant and pick up an Electrode for this. I think it would have been possible to enter Route 23 before beating Giovanni and get a Nidorina (up to Level 44), evolve it into Nidoqueen and teach it Earthquake, but I figure Electrode is still a better option since a fast Thunder Wave is good glue for any other problems that may arise later.

Catching Electrode is a huge breath of fresh air after Growlithe Hell. Guaranteed encounter as a false item, guaranteed level 43, guaranteed catch with a Master Ball. Beautiful. I teach it the Thunder and Thunder Wave TMs over Swift and Sonicboom, giving it a set of Thunder/Selfdestruct/Light Screen/Thunder Wave.

Now that I’m prepared, it’s time to fight my rival. The first half of his team falls with no trouble. Sandslash and Exeggcute go down to Aurora Beams, and Ninetales goes down to Surf. Next is Cloyster. Cloyster isn’t really much more than an annoying PP sink, but since I have Electrode anyways I switch to it to handle Cloyster. I take a Clamp on the switch in which lasts for 2 turns. Once I’m out I OHKO it with Thunder. Kadabra comes next. It’s so tempting to just explode on this, but obviously I still need Electrode for Jolteon. Charmander gets switched in for its second chance of combat in this run, but any confidence it gained from beating a Level 14 Oddish ages ago is wiped away as it gets demolished by Psychic.

Dewgong comes back in, faster than Kadabra since it switched out. What’s the significance of switching Dewgong out? Well, this is another glitch related to badge boosts. Whenever you level up in a fight, you lose all your badge boosts until you switch out. Since Dewgong leveled up after beating Ninetales, it lost the 12.5% speed boost it needed to outspeed Kadabra. With the boost, it 2HKOs Kadabra with Ice Beam while taking a Psychic in return. Last out is the dreaded Jolteon. I sacrifice Squirtle to safely bring Electrode in, who to my surprise is faster than Jolteon. Not that it really matters, though, as my plan was always to Thunder Wave into Selfdestruct. It took a Pin Missile in the process, but obviously it’s at 0 HP now anyways. Dewgong comes back in, and easily picks off the paralyzed, weakened Jolteon with an Ice Beam.

That’s all for this update. Next time I’ll finish the game.

Pokemon Status:
Dewgong Level 58: 57/208 HP
4/10 Ice Beam
3/15 Surf
0/20 Aurora Beam
0/20 Bubblebeam

Electrode Level 43: 0/108 HP
9/10 Thunder
4/5 Selfdestruct
30/30 Light Screen
19/20 Thunder Wave

Healing Items:
3 Full Restores
2 Hyper Potions
4 Max Potions
1 Antidote
1 Awakening
1 Full Heal
2 Ethers
3 Max Ethers
3 Elixers
3 Max Elixers
2 Revives
3 Max Revives

 

[sb879]

Victory Road

Before entering Victory Road, I have to go through the badge checks on Route 23, which has a few items: an Ultra Ball, Max Ether, and Full Restore. Surprisingly, Victory Road itself does not have a single mandatory trainer, but it’s definitely worth picking up some EXP here before the Elite Four. Unfortunately, a lot of the trainers have a bulky water somewhere on their teams, which generally aren’t worth the effort. I fight mostly everyone else, though. The first is a Cooltrainer with a Persian and Ninetales, which get Ice Beamed and Surfed, respectively. Next is another Cooltrainer with the 3 middle-stage starters and Charizard. Ivysaur gets Ice Beamed, Wartortle takes two Ice Beams while using a weak Bite, and Charmeleon and Charizard both go down to Surf. After this fight, Dewgong is clean out of PP, so it’s a perfect time to use a Max Elixer.

The next two trainers are trivial. First is a guy with two Machokes and a Machop, all of which get Bubblebeamed. Next is a trainer with just a Mr. Mime who gets Surfed. The last trainer I fight in Victory Road is a Cooltrainer who has a Water-type (Cloyster), but is worth fighting because Cloyster isn’t bulky on the special side and his team gives a lot of EXP. His Exeggutor goes down to Ice Beam, Cloyster to 2 Surfs (it uses Supersonic, but Dewgong never hit itself in confusion), and Arcanine gets Bubblebeamed. Now, that was the last trainer I fight in Victory Road, but there is one more Pokemon of interest: Moltres! I may not be using legendaries, but they’re still fair game to KO. Despite its high level and Special, it goes down to a Surf.

Elite Four

And so, Dewgong arrives at the Indigo Plateau at Level 62. I picked up a few items of note in Victory Road: Guard Spec/Full Heal/Explosion TM/Max Revive/Full Restore. I use the Max Revive and Explosion TM on Electrode, forgetting Selfdestruct. I haven’t been showing my stock of X items throughout the playthough as they haven’t been relevant, but they’ll be used now. So, I have 2 X Accuracy, 1 X Special, and a Guard Spec. Not a big pile, hence why I’ve been stingy with them. Now, on to the Elite Four!

First up is Lorelei. She would be a huge problem, as despite being an Ice specialist, most of her consists of Waters, with high Special to boot. In fact, her Slowbro would basically be impossible for Dewgong to deal with due to Amnesia and Psychic. But Dewgong has something on its mind for this. See that six-inch horn? Don’t be fooled by its size: it is a spear of fucking destruction. See, Dewgong can learn Horn Drill. And OHKO moves are actually really good in Gen 1. Instead of using their own accuracy formula that ignores accuracy boosts and drops, accuracy boosts do affect them. And rather than having a bunch of different stages of accuracy boosts, Gen 1 has only one: you use an X Accuracy, you don’t miss. One thing to watch out for, though. Rather than needing to be a higher level for OHKO moves to work, in Gen 1 you need to be faster. Normally this is very beneficial to the player, but Dewgong outlevels everything in the Elite Four anyways, so it’s actually detrimental as a few things are still faster.

So, I use the Horn Drill TM on Dewgong and forget Bubblebeam, and go to fight Lorelei. She leads with her own Dewgong, but it thankfully hasn’t honed its own horn yet. I use an X Accuracy as hers uses a weak Take Down. From there, I have 5 Horn Drills while she has 5 Pokemon. You do the math.

Next is Bruno, who has the questionable honor of being the easiest boss fight in Pokemon history. Before fighting him, I teach the Blizzard TM over Aurora Beam. It’s worth noting that it has 90 accuracy in Gen 1. Now, his 2 Onixes (lol) and Hitmons have atrocious Special. On an earlier attempt I was able to OHKO them all with Aurora Beam. Yes, even the Hitmons that aren’t weak to it. But since I decided I wanted Blizzard, I don’t have any weak moves left to waste on this trash, so they all have to go down to Surf instead. Machamp is the only vaguely threatening Pokemon on his team, but only because of the detrimental glitch where leveling up removes your badge boosts. With the special boost, Dewgong would OHKO Machamp with Blizzard, but without it I need to sacrifice Clefable to get the boost back. After that, Dewgong OHKOs Machamp as it should have been able to.

Oh yeah, Dewgong’s weak to Fighting.

Agatha’s up next. Before entering the fight, I heal up Dewgong to full with a Hyper Potion. Because Gengar is so annoying with its high Speed and Special, I decide this is the best time to use my X Special. As I use it, Gengar uses Substitute. The next turn I’m faster (because using the X Special multiplied my speed badge boost) and break the sub with Surf as it uses Mega Drain. From here, Blizzard finishes it off. It would have KOd it from full health as well. One thing that fortunately didn’t happen here was seeing Confuse Ray: because of the glitch that resets your stat boosts when healing a status, I can’t actually remove it without getting rid of the X Special boost too. It’s not fatal if it happens, but definitely an annoyance I can do without. After that is Golbat who gets destroyed by Ice Beam, then Arbok and Haunter who get OHKOd by Surf courtesy of the X Special. Last is a second Gengar, which Psychics me for modest damage, then barely survives my Blizzard, but gets frozen in revenge. Given that I would OHKO it if I hadn’t leveled up and lost my special badge boost, I figure it’s only fair. Another Surf finishes it off.

Lance, the Dragon Master! …versus Dewgong, the Ice type. Nice try. Well, he’s not completely trivial, but certainly not because of his Dragons. Gyarados takes a little over half from Ice Beam, then actually nearly finishes off Dewgong with a critical Hyper Beam. I use a Hyper Potion on the recharge turn, then finish it off with a second Ice Beam. His two Dragonairs go down to Ice Beams. Aerodactyl is next and fires off a decently strong Hyper Beam before Surf OHKOs it. And last is Dragonite, which meets a predictably cold end from ice Beam.

Champion Fight

I’m almost there. Before entering the final fight, I use an Ether on Horn Drill. He leads with Sandslash, which will go down easily, but it’s more important to set up a little on it first. I use my last two battle items, an X Accuracy and a Guard Spec, as Dewgong takes an Earthquake and a Slash into critical health. As I heal up with a Max Potion, Dewgong takes another Earthquake. Now I’m ready to go. Ice Beam OHKOs Sandslash, and then Alakazam comes out. I’m able to 2HKO with Surf, but it’s faster (and therefore can’t be Horn Drilled) and is able to get 2 hits off on me. This is the reason for the Guard Spec: it prevents the annoyingly common 30% Special drops from Psychic, which prevent Dewgong from 2HKOing and therefore take additional Psychics that now deal over half its HP. Very nasty. It also has Kinesis which lowers accuracy and would mess Dewgong up, but the X Accuracy negates this. All it ends up doing is Kinesis twice while getting 2HKOd by Surf.

Now, since I have the X Accuracy up, Exeggutor, Cloyster, and Ninetales are all Horn Drilled. Only Cloyster really needs this, but if it’s operational, why not use it? Last is Jolteon, who is just as big of an issue as last time. I switch out to the godly Farfetch’d as, well, death fodder, but it won’t go down that easily. Jolteon uses Thunder Wave on the switch in, but then proceeds to miss twice with Thunder. This is your chance, Farfetch’d!! I use Swift twice for…20%, maybe? Then Thunder finally hits and Farfetch’d is zapped out of existence. Well, you tried, buddy. Electrode comes in to do the job proper. Jolteon first misses a Pin Missile while getting Thunder Waved. Then, it fires off a final Quick Attack before Eletrode uses Explosion for massive damage. Dewgong returns, and finishes the champion battle with one last Ice Beam.

And with that, Pokemon Yellow has been beaten without ever using a Pokemon Center or Mart!

Hall of Fame:

Pikachu may not have been able to progress very far, but it was crucial in getting Mankey up to par. A special attacker is invaluable in the beginning of the game, so it worked out alright as a starter Pokemon.

Mankey was the first heavy lifter of the run, soloing Pewter City through Mt. Moon. It might sound small, but it’s actually one of the denser parts of the game trainer-wise, and also the scariest part of the entire run item-wise, constantly running on empty. So props to Mankey for getting through all that.

Clefable took up the reigns after Mankey lost steam. It was entirely dominant throughout its run, brute-forcing its way at first with Mega Punch and Body Slam, then adding Psychic and Thunderbolt for more targeted coverage as Pokemon got a bit stronger. It may have been a little inadequate for the late game, but like Mankey it took care of a very trainer-dense portion of the game, and with little effort.

Thanks for learning HMs. No, seriously, with how limited Poke Balls are I would have otherwise had to plan my catches around Pokemon that could learn Cut and Surf so I could progress.

Farfetch’d may be a living joke, but it makes the best of life with Swords Dance and Agility. It beat more Gym Leaders (Erika, Koga, and Sabrina) than any other Pokemon in spite of its terrible stats. It even tried to come out with one last hurrah at the very end of the game. Shine on, you crazy duck.

Dewgong came in to close out the run. With its boosted EXP, high Special and good defenses, it was able to consistently stay around the lategame level spike and not have much trouble getting through all the strong endgame Pokemon with its great STABs. And for everything else, there’s Horn Drill.

Electrode had a very limited role, but it was a necessary addition to not get owned by Jolteon. Nothing like a good band-aid to salvage mistaken planning.

Hall of Shame:

Fuck you.

Healing Items Remaining:
5 Full Restores
3 Max Potions
1 Antidote
1 Awakening
2 Full Heals
1 Ether
4 Max Ethers
3 Elixers
2 Max Elixers
2 Revives
3 Max Revives

Items Used:
6 Potions
3 Super Potions
4 Hyper Potions
1 Max Potion
1 Full Restore

3 Ethers
2 Elixers
1 Max Elixer

1 Max Revive

1 Poke Ball
2 Great Balls
1 Ultra Ball
1 Master Ball

TM 12 (Water Gun)
TM 01 (Mega Punch)
TM 08 (Body Slam)
TM 24 (Thunderbolt)
TM 29 (Psychic)
TM 39 (Swift)
TM 11 (Bubblebeam)
TM 14 (Blizzard)
TM 25 (Thunder)
TM 45 (Thunder Wave)
TM 47 (Explosion)
TM 07 (Horn Drill)

6 HP Up
4 Carbos
4 Calcium
1 Iron

2 X Accuracy
1 X Special
1 Guard Spec

Closing Thoughts

This was definitely a departure from the kind of challenge runs I usually do, where the challenge comes from trying to get past difficult individual battles, rather than long-term resource management. Doing this run kept me on my toes with how much I needed to plan out the Pokemon and moves I used at every little step. But all the planning paid off, as despite how tight resources were near the start, the Healing Items list kept getting bigger and bigger, and the Elite Four didn’t deplete my resources that much. I still had 8 HP-restoring and 7 PP-restoring items by the end. And for that matter, I didn’t even dip into my huge 12 Rare Candy stash, which would have instantly elevated Dewgong to godhood if I needed it. While having all of these resources by the end did remove a lot of the tension in the lategame, I still had fun shuffling through all of these different Pokemon to break through the end with minimal resource use.

If you liked reading this, I’ve done some other write-ups here, namely the Untrained NFE Run and an Aurorus Solo. As mentioned above the focus of the challenge with these is a bit different, but the Untrained NFE Run in particular goes through a lot (a ton, really) of different Pokemon to get through the game, so if you liked that aspect of this run you should give it a look.

Thanks for reading!