Challenge Nothing Lasts Forever - Playing through Sapphire without healing (Finished!)

[sb879]

Back in April, I did a run through Yellow version without using Pokemon Centers or Marts. The idea was to make healing items a limited resource by limiting them purely to what could be found on the land. This worked well for a while, but as the game went on my stockpile got bigger and bigger, to the point where healing became plentiful. I still enjoyed it all the way through, but it did lose some of the point later on. So I wanted to do a run that maintained that tense spirit where every hit I took mattered, where every PP had to be carefully considered. How to properly restrict healing, then? Hell if I know, let’s just take a sledgehammer to the issue and ban it outright!

I picked Sapphire to do this in because it and Ruby are the only other games besides Gen 1 that have no forced heals after the obligatory post-first battle one. Note the lack of Emerald – it sneakily added 2 forced heals that the game doesn’t even mention. Sucks to not get to play the enhanced version, but oh well. It’s not like it’s a Diamond->Platinum transition.

To be clear about what “no healing” entails:

• Gaining HP in any fashion except for a level-up.
• Gaining PP for a move in any fashion.
• Removing status conditions. This is minor and truthfully doesn’t make this run any more interesting, but it’s here anyways.

And some other minor rules:

• No re-teaching (either by move relearner or buyable TM) a move that has had its PP used at some point. This prevents me from essentially restoring PP of certain moves.
• Set mode. Not too relevant for the most part as soloing is the way to go, but it matters occasionally.

With all that said, let’s move on to the run!

The first choice is which starter to pick. Like any serious run through RS, the best option is clearly Mudkip. It has several good gym match-ups, and its sole weakness is almost non-existent outside of the rival fights. Its IVs are not very evident at Level 5, but I can at least tell when some of its stats are over 20, so I reset for one with 20+ attack. I easily dispatch the Poochyena chasing Professor Birch, and afterwards am healed for the first and last time in this run.

May (Route 103)

Now I have the option to go fight May or grind up on wild Pokemon. Neither is very nice, as Mudkip isn’t overleveled yet and has no type advantage to work with. I end up going straight to May, as grinding here doesn’t really help that much for May and I think will deplete more HP/PP than it ends up saving. As the first trainer fight in the game May is of course trivial to beat, but is actually very annoying in this case because there’s nothing I can do to avoid taking lots of damage. I start with Growl to essentially neutralize the worst thing May can do, Leer->Poundx3. She never seems to use Leer multiple times, so after this I take 4 Pounds as I 4HKO back with Tackle, and get to Level 6, learning Mud-Slap. I’m left with 8/20 HP, and while the yellow HP bar looks very daunting after only the first battle of the game, it’s more relevant to look at how much HP was lost, as that’s what actually stays constant as Mudkip levels up. 12 HP lost becomes a smaller and smaller percentage as Mudkip gets more HP, so it’s not as bad as it looks.

With that out of the way, Poke Balls are obtainable and Mudkip can receive some much-needed help. That being said, Mudkip still wants to get as much EXP as possible to evolve into Marshtomp before Roxanne, where the Rock resist and Mud Shot are both invaluable. As such, Pokemon that assist Mudkip will ideally faint before finishing the opposing Pokemon so Mudkip can snipe the KO for full exp.

The first trainer I need to fight is Youngster Calvin with his mighty Level 5 Zigzagoon, which is too draining on HP for Mudkip to fight alone. I catch a Zigzagoon of my own at Level 3, which repeatedly Tackles Calvin’s. His uses Tail Whip and Growl a lot so it takes longer than expected to KO mine, which is good as it gets weakened enough for Mudkip to come in after my Zigzagoon faints and get the KO. Zigzagoon is faster, annoyingly, but it just uses Tail Whip as Mudkip finishes it with Tackle to get to Level 7. With 2/3 odds of not using Tackle, Mudkip is favorable to escape this fight unscathed.

The next mandatory trainer is the Aqua Grunt in the Petalburg Woods, but at Level 9 it’s a bit daunting. I take the opportunity to grind a Mudkip a few levels on the wild Ralts on Route 102, who are incapable of hurting Mudkip and also have very low defense in spite of only using Growl. As a rare encounter it’s a bit annoying to grind against, but it only takes 7 of them (and 16 Tackle PP) to get to Level 10 and learn Water Gun.

Now it’s time for that Aqua Grunt. Mudkip matches up with it fairly well, but I still decide it’s safer to get a helper. I catch another Zigzagoon, this one Level 5, to assist. It ends up being Naïve which despite the level gap actually makes it faster, which is pretty helpful. I soften up Poochyena with 2 Tail Whips, then begin Tackling. It wastes an absurd number of turns using Howl and Sand Attack, so much so that Zigzagoon actually needs to hold back to not steal the exp for itself. Once Zigzagoon is down, Mudkip comes back in and finishes with a Tackle (stronger than Water Gun due to Tail Whip).

The Road to Evolution

Now armed with a STAB move that can hit things super-effectively, Mudkip is now much more independent as it can seek out favorable match-ups to grind up on. I start with the Bug Catcher with a Nincada soon after the Aqua Grunt, which is an easy KO that brings Mudkip to Level 11. The double battle is completely avoidable on the bridge (they always are in RS), so I go ahead to Roxanne’s gym and beat the two trainers. Their 4 combined Geodudes naturally go down to 4 Water Guns, and get Mudkip up to Level 13. I then go up to Route 116 and fight the 3 Geodude Hiker, bumping me up to Level 14. At this point I’ve exhausted all the trivial trainers, but the Bug Catcher on this route isn’t too bad. His Wurmple is 2HKOd by Tackle and uses String Shot and Poison Sting for 2 damage in return, his Nincada is OHKOd by Water Gun, and his Silcoon goes down to Water Gun+Tackle. This gets me up to Level 15 and 352 exp away from the coveted evolution.

Unfortunately, no good trainers remain to fight, so I need to set my sights back on wild Pokemon. Nincada is the best option, going down to a Water Gun and giving either 55 or 65 exp per KO. It takes 6 of them to get to Level 16 and evolve into Marshtomp and learn Mud Shot. Now it’s time to take on the gym.

Roxanne

So, I played this on an emulator, and figured I may as well record the boss fights. Would people rather I embed these or use hyperlinks?

Roxanne’s Geodude is no different than any other and goes down to Water Gun, but Nosepass is fairly annoying. I need to be very conservative with my Mud Shot PP, because it has a weirdly low total (15). Furthermore, Roxanne is very Potion-happy and seems to use Potions if Nosepass gets even under half HP, not just red. So a Mud Shot 2HKO turns into 4 PP depleted as she uses 2 Potions. X Attacks are buyable, but +1 Mud Shot is just out of OHKO range and +2 takes more damage on Marshtomp than I’d like. The optimal strategy ends up being Water Gun into Mud Shot, which does a very convenient ~45 to ~55 one-two punch to get a 2HKO without triggering Potions. Unfortunately since I need to use Mud Shot second, Nosepass outspeeds on the second turn since I couldn’t match the speed drop from Rock Tomb. It uses Tackle, which combined with the previous Rock Tomb does 8 damage, so it’s not a big deal.

With that, Marshtomp defeats its first Gym Leader and gets the Stone Badge, which gives an Attack boost. Unlike Gen 1 there aren’t any glitches associated with these, so it’s just a straightforward 10% boost, which is very handy.

That’s it for now. Next time, we’ll fight the next Gym Leader, and have a rematch against a certain someone’s Treecko…

Status:
Marshtomp Level 17: 31/51 HP
14/15 Mud Shot
7/25 Water Gun
10/10 Mud-Slap
10/35 Tackle

 

[Altissimo]

now make it a nuzlocke (I have actually seen nuzlocke no heal runs before)

nah I love watching any kind of challenge run like this, will definitely be sticking around to see how it turns out!

 

[adman2]

I actually lost on the "trivial" 1st rival battle in my solo playthrough of Sapphire. It was the only Death Count for the whole game since my Mudkip kept missing with Tackle.

"No Healing" is a fun challenge to read about. It must take a lot of planning to get around PP issues. I probably wouldn't do it myself, so thanks for taking it on!

 

[sb879]

Taking care of Devon Business

Marshtomp’s first order of business is a rematch against the Petalburg Woods grunt. No longer needing to hide behind a Zigzagoon, it proudly OHKOs Poochyena with Mud Shot. Next, I deliver the Letter to Steven, then head back to Rustboro to get the Exp Share. This could have been a gamebreaking item for this run if I was willing to abuse it more. Because the Exp Shared Pokemon can get exp without fighting, as long as I have money to repeatedly catch Pokemon (practically a non-issue, literally a non-issue factoring in Pickup) to fight in its stead, I can easily grind up whatever I want without consuming its HP or PP. Given that this involves fighting shitty wild Pokemon at half exp, it’s ridiculously tedious in addition to defeating the point of the run, so I’m going to minimize its use. In retrospect I probably would’ve disallowed it outright.

Anyways, with that received I move on to Slateport to continue on to the next gym in Mauville. Hm? No, I didn’t forget anything. The Aqua Grunts in the museum don’t put up much of a fight. Between the two of them, both of their Carvanhas go down to Mud Shot while the Zubat is 2HKOd by Tackle, only using Leech Life in return.

May (Route 110)

Video

Next up is May, now armed with Grovyle and a Grass move. This isn’t really possible for Marshtomp to break through alone with its current HP, as her lead Wailmer isn’t easy to set up on. To assist Marshtomp, I catch 2 Gulpins. One is for Yawning Wailmer, while the other is for taking down Grovyle. In order to do that, it needs to be at Level 14 to learn Sludge. This is only 1 Level away, so I also catch a Wingull and give Gulpin the Exp Share. Originally I was going to grind on Geodudes in Granite Cave, but even if it’s technically PP-inefficient I decide Nincadas back at Route 114 are quicker as they appear twice as frequently. Wingull is being used solely for training Gulpin, so it doesn’t matter how efficiently its PP is used. I accidentally run into the 6 Wurmple trainer on the way there, but Wingull OHKOs them with Water Gun so it's fine. Gulpin gets to Level 14 before too long and learns Sludge. I think in retrospect I could have grinded it without Exp Share by OHKOing Route 101 Pokemon with Pound, but it’s too late now. Onto the battle!

I start with the support Gulpin versus her Wailmer. I use Pound on the first turn because Wailmer 3HKOs with Water Gun, and I want to get the optimum amount of sleep turns. So after Gulpin gets hit once, I use Yawn so that it falls asleep on the next turn where it will KO Gulpin. The only wrench in this plan is that sometimes Wailmer can use Splash, which is a rather, uh, stupid way for a plan to go south. It only matters if it uses it on the turn I use Yawn, though.

After Gulpin faints, I send in Marshtomp. To save on Mud Shot PP, I use 2 X Attacks to get an OHKO instead of a 2HKO. This is very inefficient turnwise, though. Not only does it cost an extra turn over just going for the 2HKO, but Wailmer is faster and gets another chance to attack if I go for the X Attacks due to the lack of a speed drop from Mud Shot. I need 3 turns of sleep to get through this unscathed, which is reasonable but still kind of annoying. In retrospect I think I might have just gone for the 2HKO.

The set-up is short-lived, though, as Grovyle comes in afterwards. I swap out to the Sludge Gulpin, and have an amusing little optimization where Gulpin’s Liquid Ooze hurts Grovyle from Absorb. Once in, Gulpin can take 2 Pursuits while 2HKOing in return. Last is Numel, who I let KO Gulpin so Marshtomp can come in for free and get an easy Water Gun KO on.

Around Mauville

Now the path to the Mauville Gym is open, but Marshtomp definitely needs some more exp to keep up – there’s a dearth of mandatory exp in general in RS, so Marshtomp is only Level 19 right now. Unfortunately Mud Shot is very limited and the only new move available is Rock Smash (lol), so the only place that’s really worth it is Cycling Road, which has tons of easy targets for the otherwise useless Mud-Slap. Most of the trainers’ Pokemon are Magnemites, but there’s also 3 Voltorbs in total which for some reason are Level 7…? Well, can’t complain. I Mud-Slapped the first one, but realized that since they’re so low-leveled that I should Tackle the other two, as Tackle is easily the least valuable PP. All this brings me up to Level 22.

Wally is guarding the gym with his Ralts, but it’s so weak that I don’t want to waste a Mud Shot on it. Still, Tackle isn’t strong enough either, so I need to use the Rock Tomb TM from Roxanne. Before teaching it, I use the 6 remaining Tackles on Whismurs from Rusturf Tunnel, then go on and OHKO poor Ralts with Rock Tomb.

Mauville Gym

Mauville Gym has a mandatory triple Voltorb trainer at the end, and then depending how you do the puzzle you can either fight 1 or 2 trainers. The 1 trainer route seems like the obvious winner, but I don’t care for it. That trainer has a Meditite, which is faster than Marshtomp, does not get OHKOd by Mud Shot, and Confusions for around 8 damage, which sounds minor but that’s a fairly large amount of HP to lose from a normal trainer.

The other route it is, then. The first trainer has an Electrike which is faster and uses Leer that gets Mud Shotted, and then a Magnemite that gets Mud-Slapped. The other has a Zigzagoon that is OHKOd by Mud Shot. The last trainer’s Voltorbs are of course faster too, but using an X Speed on the first turn lets Marshtomp outspeed all of them and OHKO with Mud Shot. It takes a Tackle when it sets up.

Wattson

Video

If there’s one word that’s popped up a lot in this update, it’s faster. As I found out later this Marshtomp has an 8 Speed IV, which has caused it to miss a lot of speed thresholds. I definitely should’ve reset for a 20+ IV. I bring this up for Wattson because this low speed just barely screws Marshtomp over here twice. First, it’s slower than his Magnemite. Secondly, it’s slower than his Voltorb even after an X Speed. Given Electric’s ineffectiveness versus Ground this may not seem like a big deal, but all 3 of Wattson’s Pokemon have Sonicboom, so minimizing time versus them is crucial.

So, as silly as it seems, I end up catching another helper for this battle, an Electrike to paralyze Magnemite so Marshtomp can outspeed. Electrike uses its free turn to use Leer, as Mud-Slap sometimes fails to OHKO otherwise. Marshtomp comes in after Electrike faints and gets that KO. Voltorb is next, and fortunately the weak link. It seems to use Sonicboom or Rollout roughly 50/50. Rollout obviously does less damage, and it’s especially good as it makes the next move laughable as well. I take advantage of this, and set up an X Speed on Voltorb. It feels a bit cheesy, but otherwise I’m risking Sonicboom twice. On the next turn Marshtomp takes a doubly strong pittance from Rollout and OHKOs with Mud Shot. Magneton is last, but with the prior set up provides the least resistance and is outsped and OHKOd by Mud Shot.

After beating Wattson, I get access to another badge boost, this time Speed. Could’ve used that…4 times this update >_> Oh well.

Next time, an awkward match-up for Marshtomp without any easy solutions from nearby Pokemon…

Status:
Marshtomp Level 25: 43/71 HP
3/15 Mud Shot
6/25 Water Gun
0/10 Mud-Slap
9/10 Rock Tomb

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Even if it doesn’t matter that much for most of this run, I’m really glad you’re playing on Set.

Are you going to be making use of the Move Relearner? Seems like that’d be an easy way to get more Mud Shot PP once or twice and it’s not technically healing, but it’d also make sense if you decided that it would be against the spirit of the challenge.

 

[sb879]

Even if it doesn’t matter that much for most of this run, I’m really glad you’re playing on Set.

Are you going to be making use of the Move Relearner? Seems like that’d be an easy way to get more Mud Shot PP once or twice and it’s not technically healing, but it’d also make sense if you decided that it would be against the spirit of the challenge.

I won't be using it to relearn moves in that fashion as it is indeed against the spirit of the run, but I am fine using it to "relearn" moves the Pokemon has never actually known.

 

[Altaria55ps]

I'm not sure how this is to work without encountering forced battles against anyone in which they heal your pokemon right after, like May/Brendan under the Cycling Road.

 

[Altissimo]

I think in these kinds of runs it's generally accepted that forced heals are forced and the game is played with that in mind.

 

[sb879]

I'm not sure how this is to work without encountering forced battles against anyone in which they heal your pokemon right after, like May/Brendan under the Cycling Road.

There's not a forced heal there (maybe you're thinking of ORAS?). There aren't any period except for after the first Poochyena and after beating Steven, which for all intents and purposes are totally irrelevant for a run through just the main story. That's mostly why I picked Sapphire to do this on.

 

[Altaria55ps]

There's not a forced heal there (maybe you're thinking of ORAS?). There aren't any period except for after the first Poochyena and after beating Steven, which for all intents and purposes are totally irrelevant for a run through just the main story. That's mostly why I picked Sapphire to do this on.

Ah, yeah. I was thinking about ORAS, not Sapphire.

 

[sb879]

Problems on the Horizon

So, the next big fight is Archie. While not an outright bad match-up for Marshtomp, it requires lots of set-up with nothing good to set up on – every Pokemon has a 60+ BP STAB. Additionally, wild Pokemon at this point are not particularly helpful for assisting (take a gander at how messy the 0 EXP battle against him is). And soon after is Norman, whose Slakings are so bulky that I’m pretty sure even at +6 Marshtomp fails to OHKO them coasting off mandatory EXP. Obviously, Marshtomp needs some levels.

Fortunately, at the somewhat distant level of 37, Marshtomp learns Muddy Water, a very strong 95 BP STAB move. And just as importantly, it will evolve into Swampert. Note that Marshtomp learns Muddy Water at level 37, so it needs to delay evolution once to get it; otherwise, it learns the move at level 39. Now, despite there being a whopping 14 Rare Candies available throughout the game (excluding Pick-Up, which I’m selling any Rare Candies from), only 2 are available in the first half of the game. One in Granite Cave, and the other from the Trick House. This means that Marshtomp needs to reach Level 35 from actual exp. Currently it’s at 25, but Marshtomp now levels up noticeably slower, as it’s leaving the ridiculously fast leveling the Medium Slow curve has in the earlier levels and slowly transitioning to a more typical exp curve. It needs 24,431 exp to reach Level 35, more than double the exp it’s received so far.

The Road to Evolution, Part II

On the bright side, good move options besides Mud Shot become available now. 15 PP from Strength, 20 PP from Secret Power, and 10 PP from Dig. This lets Marshtomp be much more flexible with what it can fight. The closest one of these is Strength from Rusturf Tunnel, and I fight the Bug Catcher on the way on Route 117. His Nincada goes down to Water Gun, but the real prize is that he has both Beautifly and Dustox, which give over 500 exp and both go down to Rock Tomb. The Dustox KO is favorable but not guaranteed at this point, which is why I waited until after Wattson to do this fight. While I fought that Bug Catcher because I’m almost certain he’s worth the PP (Rock Tomb is not very good), I’m otherwise very conservative with what I fight, so I make the loop back to Rustboro City only fighting what’s required, which as it turns out is a whopping 1 Cooltrainer. I teach Strength over the empty Mud-Slap and fight her. Her Wingull is faster and Water Guns before I can Rock Tomb, but her Roselia and Numel are outsped and both OHKOd by Strength.

The first trainers I fight after her is the double battle pair on Route 114. They have a Roselia and a Graveler, both of which are easy KOs and high exp. The only problem is that double battles halves the exp, and you can’t do them solo. So, I deposit my Roselia (a leftover from a failed Wattson strategy) so my only other Pokemon is Wingull. I then give Marshtomp the Exp Share. In the fight, Marshtomp Strengths Roselia (obviously a big threat), while Wingull does whatever as Graveler OHKOs it. Next turn Marshtomp gets the KO with Water Gun. This gives Marshtomp ¾ of the exp from Roselia, and all of it from Graveler. As I complete the loop back to Rustboro City, I go back to Dewford Town, where I pick up the Rare Candy, and then catch an Abra and pick up the Silk Scarf. The latter two I really should have done the first time, but didn’t occur to me. Let’s just say with the trainers I fight as scattershot as they are, Teleport saves quite a lot of time…

Now my main order of business is to deplete Water Gun so I can make room for Secret Power. I start with Camper Shane back on Route 111, whose Sandshrew goes down to Water Gun, and his Nuzleaf to Strength. I then go back up to Route 113, where I fight Ninja Boy Lung with Nincada and Ninjask, who get Water Gunned and Rock Tombed. Obviously I’m slower than Ninjask, and take a Leech Life in return. Next is Youngster Dillion on this route and Pokemaniac Steve on the next that both have 1 Aron, which use up the last 2 Water Guns. Secret Power is taught over it.

Easy Pickings

For a quick level update, Marshtomp is now Level 28. There’s no particular goal for this next batch of trainers, other than to get lots of exp (ideally 400+ exp per Pokemon) while outspeeding and OHKOing every Pokemon. So here’s a list:

Picnicker Nancy: Marill (Strength), Lombre (Secret Power)
Camper Larry: Zigzagoon (Rock Tomb), Nuzleaf (Secret Power)
Picnicker Carol: Taillow (Rock Tomb), Lombre (Secret Power)
Aroma Lady Rose: Shroomish (Secret Power), Roselia (Secret Power)
Collector Edwin: Lombre (Secret Power), Nuzleaf (Secret Power)
Aroma Lady Daisy: Roselia (Secret Power)
Pokefan Isabel: Plusle (Secret Power), Minun (Secret Power)
Fisherman Claude: Goldeen (Secret Power), Goldeen (Secret Power), Goldeen (Secret Power), Barboach (Secret Power)
Fisherman Nolan: Barboach (Secret Power)
Cooltrainer Wilton: Electrike (Rock Tomb, Quick Attacks me), Wailmer (Mud Shot), Makuhita (Secret Power)

Tougher Trainers

Now, at this point I’ve exhausted most of the good trainer options. Those remaining either don’t give much exp, or are too much effort to fight (not OHKOd or faster). But Marshtomp is only Level 31 (where it tried to learn Take Down, lol), so there’s still a fair amount of exp needed. Luckily, Route 114 is actually fairly nice with wild Pokemon, with either Seviper or Lombre appearing 30% of the time, which give ~350 exp. So I grind here until Level 33. I Mud Shot the first 2 Sevipers I run into, which is the last of the Mud Shot PP. I replace it with the mostly equivalent Dig. From there, I Dig 6 Sevipers, Secret Power 1 Lombre and Strength another to get to my desired level. Now, I can go fight the trainers that were too difficult previously. I start with Collector Hector on Route 115 since I’m now faster than his Zangoose, which I OHKO with Dig. Next, I go back to Route 113 and Secret Power Youngster Neal’s Trapinch and Dig his Linoone, which was previously faster. While there, I fight Ninja Boy Lao with his 4 Koffings that all get Strengthed, reaching Level 34 before the last higher-leveled one, making Strength a consistent OHKO on it.

One Last Push

1 more level to go! Too bad now I’m really scraping the bottom of the barrel for exp. Fittingly, it’s time to make room for a bottom of the barrel move: Rock Smash. I get rid of my last 2 Rock Tombs on Kindler Bernie with Wingull and Slugma, then teach it. The best exp for it is a double battle on Route 113 versus 2 Whismurs, where I adopt a similar strategy to the previous double battle to get most of the exp, this time sacrificing Abra (it can still Teleport, though). Now is also a good time to get the second Rare Candy from the very underleveled Trick House. Two trainers need to be fought, the first of which has 2 Zigzagoons which both get Rock Smashed. The other has a Skitty that gets Rock Smashed, and then a Shroomish and Marill that unfortunately require slightly stronger firepower; Strength and Dig, respectively. Dig isn’t needed to KO Marill vs Strength, but I want to deplete it to make room for Muddy Water. Since Strength is an HM, I don’t have that option with it (deleter is in Lilycove). The second Rare Candy is now mine, but I still need some more exp. The extremely underleveled Breeder Isaac on Route 117 is the solution: nothing on his Level 12 team resists Rock Smash, and they all have crap defense. After defeating those 6 Pokemon, Marshtomp finally gets to Level 35, and I give it the 2 Rare Candies to end up with a Muddy Water Swampert! The only slight wrinkle is Dig still had 1 PP when I forgot it, but it’s not a big deal.

Mt. Chimney

First I need to fight a Grunt with Zubat and Poochyena, which go down to Strength and Rock Smash. Next is an Admin with 2 Carvanhas and a Poochyena. Carvanha’s Rough Skin is pretty annoying and highly encourages non-contact moves, and factoring in the Sharpedo Archie will have, I routed my Secret Power (non-contact move) PP a little sub-optimally. I only have 2 left, which means I have to Muddy Water 1 of these Carvanhas, which is an annoyingly strong and scarce (10 PP) move to use on something that dies to literally everything. Oh well. The other gets Secret Powered and the Poochyena gets Rock Smashed.

Archie (Mt. Chimney)

Video

And finally the genesis of all this grinding. I wanted to OHKO all 3 of his Pokemon with no set-up, but annoyingly his Golbat barely survives Muddy Water. If I still had Rock Tomb, it actually would have OHKOd due to a much higher Attack stat+badge boost. I’m not sure how that would have worked out moveslot-wise, though. Anyways, I have a spare Electrike from Wattson planning, which I use to absorb Mightyena’s Intimidate, then send in Swampert to set up an X Attack. Since I need to set up anyways, going physical saves some Muddy Water PP. It takes a Bite in return for 11 damage. Afterwards, Mightyena and Golbat are OHKO’d by Strength, and then Sharpedo goes down to Secret Power. With Archie defeated, I continue my proud tradition of never remembering to pick up this damn Meteorite and the associated Return TM. Here it’s a bit more than an annoyance, as a Pokemon trainer pops up after you leave, but PP is very limited so I don’t bother.

Next time, I remember that the goal of Pokemon is to get badges…

Status:
Swampert Level 37: 69/123 HP
9/10 Muddy Water
0/20 Secret Power
1/15 Strength
2/15 Rock Smash

 

[sb879]

Alright, nothing left to do for now but clear out some gyms. Let’s start with…

Flannery

Video

No trainers need to be fought besides her, and she’s completely trivial. I use my last Strength PP on her first Slugma, then Muddy Water the other two Pokemon. Time for Norman!

Brawly

Video

Wait, no, this guy exists. There’s no reason to fight him before he’s required and he’s not particularly easy for Marshtomp at first, so he was skipped until now. Even though Swampert can easily defeat him, it’s not worth the PP. In retrospect I could have gotten Return for Swampert and been fine (I forgot you get 2 of them in this game), but instead I catch the mighty Spoink. As a Level 20 Psychic Pokemon with Psybeam, it clears out the 1 mandatory trainer (Meditite) in this gym and Brawly with no issue whatsoever. Moving on…

Petalburg Gym

Somehow I never noticed that no matter which path you pick to go up, you end up fighting a Delcatty, Linoone, and Zangoose in this gym. Swampert is just strong enough to OHKO all of these with Muddy Water, and while the Linoone is faster, its turn is wasted on set-up.

Now, before I go ahead and fight Norman, I have one last thing to do. And that is…taking damage. On purpose. Not a lot, to be fair – juuuust enough to make Norman mostly consistent. I switch between Swampert and Spoink on Route 102 to take damage without consuming PP. It actually takes an annoyingly long time for Swampert to get hit twice, and Spoink ends up taking quite a bit of damage. Not that Spoink's HP matters.

Norman

Video

Alright, so this one is a little bit more involved than the last two. Even for my very overleveled Swampert, Norman still puts up a fight. Everything is faster, the Slakings aren’t even 2HKOd by Muddy Water, and everything does respectable damage. Fortunately, Slaking’s Truant ability is a great help in setting up. I lead with Spoink for two reasons. First, Spoink fainting immediately lets Swampert come in on a Truant turn. Second, it gets Swampert in on Slaking past the first turn. Gen 3 smart AI has several (generally set-up/status) moves that it prioritizes on the first turn, making it likely to see them. In Slaking’s case, this means Yawn instead of Façade. With Truant eating up half my sleep turns, this isn’t necessarily fatal, but it’s an annoying random element that’s nice to see removed regardless.

Anyways, once Swampert comes in, I start by setting up an X Accuracy on the Truant turn, then an X Special on the next. Slaking Facades me down to 38 HP in the process. 38/127 is under 1/3, which means Swampert’s Torrent activates and gives a strong boost to Muddy Water, a x2.25 damage boost factoring in the X Special. This is why I took some damage on purpose, to ensure I got into Torrent range. It’s a little more than strictly required but I wanted to be safe, especially as Swampert levels up mid fight which is unfavorable for Torrent (HP goes up by 3, but the Torrent threshold only goes up by 1).

For the last bit of set up, I set up an X Speed on the next Truant turn. From here Swampert OHKOs both Slaking and Vigoroth with Muddy Water. Norman’s last Slaking is a little higher level, though, and actually still barely survives Muddy Water. However, it has Focus Punch. In my experience it doesn’t shy away from using this anyways, but in this case I think it’s especially likely to use it because Focus Punch KOs while Façade doesn’t. This is great, as it easily allows Swampert to weaken it with no retaliation. I use Rock Smash to interrupt it and chip at it slightly, then finish it with Muddy Water next turn.

With Norman defeated, I get access to the third badge boost, Defense. Not as useful as the last two since obviously the goal is to get hit as infrequently as possible, but still nice to have.

The Future of Swampert

While Swampert’s PP situation has gotten dire, Norman gives Façade, I’m about to get Surf, I can go and get Ice Beam, and in the distant horizon there’s still Blizzard, Hyper Beam, Dive, Waterfall, and Earthquake waiting for me. Things are looking up for Swampert!

Or are they? It’s not just PP Swampert needs to keep track of, there’s HP too. And that’s not looking great – at 41/130 HP, it’s missing 89 HP. Unlike the first May battle’s misleading yellow bar, that amount of missing HP is always going to be a pretty large wound. Furthermore, like Archie before, Swampert has several match-ups coming up that are solid in normal play, but are pretty bad when needing to be stingy with HP. And now there’s no evolution to reach for, either.

So, before too much exp is invested in this sinking Swampert, it’s time for some fresh blood. The next part of the game is pretty open-ended, very little but a Rival fight and some Team Aqua losers gate the way to anything before Victory Road. Still, nothing quite compares to a Swampert. And pretty much anything I catch will have some catching up to do, too. So which Pokemon will take up Swampert’s torch?

Find out next time!

Status:
Swampert Level 39: 41/130 HP
1/10 Muddy Water
0/20 Secret Power
0/15 Strength
1/15 Rock Smash

 

[R_N]

seeing you pull out spoink was shocking to me because I kept getting it in my head this was a weird solo run

 

[sb879]

seeing you pull out spoink was shocking to me because I kept getting it in my head this was a weird solo run

I actually did consider enforcing this as a solo run, but in retrospect I'm glad I didn't 'cause I don't even know if I could have gotten past the second rival battle, lol. Plus this way Spoink gets its time to shine :)

 

[adman2]

I actually did consider enforcing this as a solo run, but in retrospect I'm glad I didn't 'cause I don't even know if I could have gotten past the second rival battle, lol. Plus this way Spoink gets its time to shine :)

If Spoink were available earlier in the game, I probably would have used it for my Sapphire solo run.

 

[sb879]

Replacing Swampert

So, what’s the best Pokemon for the remainder of the game? Well, as anyone familiar with RSE knows, the most common type from this point on (especially in Sapphire) is Water. And after that are Flying types. Obviously, the ideal typing is Electric. Most Electric-types in this game are pretty similar: fast, offensive, and frail. Frailty is a pretty bad attribute to have, taking hits is inevitable even if discouraged. So that rules out most options. For what breaks this mold, there’s Lanturn (who has Slow exp curve, mediocre Special Attack, and needs Dive access), and there’s my new main Pokemon: Magneton. Boasting an impressive 120 base Special Attack and a satisfactory 70 base Speed, its offense is about as good as it gets. And while its durability stat-wise is mediocre, its Steel typing gives it an absurd number of resistances, making it fairly bulky in practice. One other nice quality about Magneton (all Electrics, really) is how much STAB PP it has: Thundershock (30), Spark (20), Shock Wave (20), Thunderbolt (15), and Thunder (10), for 95 in total. After that, move options take a nosedive in quality, but let’s not get too far into that…

I go off to New Mauville to catch one. Both Magnemite and Magneton are found, which appear 49% and 1% of the time, respectively. Both appear up to Level 26, but I still really want to catch Magneton specifically because Magnemite’s 45 base Speed is terrible to deal with, even if I only have to use it until Level 30. 1% evolved encounter that I can’t weaken, lovely… I also really don’t want it to use any of its Spark PP, so realistically I can only throw a few balls each attempt. I can alleviate this a little bit by catching a Level 26 Voltorb then using Repels, which filters out all the low level Magnemite/Voltorbs. Still pretty bad, though. The first Magneton I catch has poor IVs, but it lets me use Repeat Balls at least. The second one is pretty good, though, so I’m good to go.

On the Sea

I start by teaching it Shock Wave over Supersonic, then Teleport back to Petalburg to go and get the Amulet Coin in Littleroot. I run into a wild Zigzagoon, Lotad, and a Lass on the way, using Sonicboom to OHKO all of them. At a fixed 20 damage, Sonicboom is rarely more useful than this. With the Amulet Coin, I look up the trainers on the sea routes connecting Petalburg/Dewford/Slateport, and the results are underwhelming. Unevolved Pokemon plague these waters, and while Magneton really does need exp ASAP (Level 26 is slightly underleveled for this part of the game), I don’t fight most of them. The big exception is Wailmer, who gives solid exp, so I Shock Wave the 3 that trainers have on these routes. I then go and teach Magneton Thundershock over Thunder Wave, and go back and fight a Swimmer with 2 Goldeens and a Wingull, all of which get Thundershocked. Goldeen isn’t as good as Wailmer exp-wise, but it’s okay.

Route 119

This route is filled with Bird Keepers and Bug Catchers, which are a great opportunity for Magneton to catch up. The first trainer is a Bird Keeper with Taillow and Swellow. Surprisingly I’m faster than Taillow, but not Swellow who fortunately just uses Focus Energy. Both get Thundershocked. Next is a Bug Catcher with Ninjask who Fury Cutters me for a whopping 1 damage as it gets Thundershocked.

Then, I fight a Bug Maniac with Wurmple, Silcoon, and Beautifly. Obviously Beautifly is the prize here exp-wise, but the Wurmple and Silcoon are deceptively nice too. Because they’re so terrible, they’re actually safe to just whittle down with Sonicboom, saving valuable PP on moves that are actually useful. Wurmple gets 3HKOd while using String Shot and Tackle, and Silcoon gets 4HKOd doing nothing. The String Shot makes Beautifly faster, but it just Morning Suns as it goes down to Thundershock. The next trainer is a Ninja Boy with Nincada/Ninjask/Koffing. Nincada is similar to Wurmple and gets similarly 3HKOd by Sonicboom, using Mind Reader and False Swipe. Ninjask futilely Double Teams as it gets Thundershocked, and Koffing goes down to a Shock Wave. Last normal trainer is a Bird Keeper with another Swellow, which Quick Attacks as it goes down to a Thundershock.

Weather Institute

Mandatory Team Aqua grunts are kind of annoying since they give crap exp yet their Pokemon aren’t quite weak enough to safely Sonicboom. The two grunts here have 2 Carvanhas and a Poochyena between them, which all go down to Thundershock. Last is Shelley, whose Carvanha goes down to Thundershock, but Mightyena is a bit tougher. I take a Bite in the process of setting up an X Special to OHKO it with Shock Wave.

May (Route 119)

Video

For how easy this fight usually is, Magneton is actually pretty bad here. Numel is a Ground type, while Grovyle resists Electric and still hits pretty hard even with a resisted Leaf Blade. I give it the Exp Share since it won’t be doing most of the fighting. Swampert comes back into the action to Muddy Water her Numel before Grovyle forces it out. Wild Oddish caught on this very route can easily deal with Grovyle due to a 4x Grass resistance, Sleep Powder, and Acid. Last is Wailmer, who is weakened by Oddish’s Acid so Magneton can come in and get full exp with Thundershock.

To the Fortree Gym

Before entering Fortree, I fight one last trainer on Route 119, a Ninja Boy with Ninjask, who Double Teams as it gets OHKOd by Thundershock. I then Thundershock the Goldeen and Wailmer of the Parasol Lady on Route 120. Afterwards I get the Devon Scope and enter the Fortree Gym. Not all the trainers are required, but higher-leveled Flying Pokemon are a goldmine for Magneton. Everything (2 Taillow, 2 Swellow, Doduo, Swablu, Pelipper) goes down to a Thundershock, except unevolved Swablu of all things, whose 75 base Special Defense needs a Shock Wave to pierce. One of the Swellows tries to Endeavor me, but Magneton's low HP is a blessing and renders it ineffective. The other uses Wing Attack. Now it’s time for…

Route 120

Wait, what? Okay, so Winona is a little more difficult than the type advantage might make it seem, since Altaria has huge Special Defense, Dragon-typing, and Earthquake, which necessitates a lot of set up to deal with. So I want some more levels. First up is another Bird Keeper, whose Natu and Swellow get Thundershocked, Swellow only using a failed Endeavor in return. Next is a Ninja Boy with Nincada/Ninjask/Koffing (seem familiar?), which goes down to Sonicboomx3 (take Fury Swipes/Mind Reader), Thundershock, and Shock Wave, respectively. The rain here makes one of the Cooltrainer’s Castform Water type, so it goes down to Shock Wave. Next is the infamous Cooltrainer with Milotic, but with an Electric-type, it simply gets, um, not OHKOd by Spark, and KOs in return with rain-boosted Water Pulse. Wait, shit…

Okay, let’s reset and pretend that never happened. Magneton is unstoppable! Next on its path of destruction is another Ninja Boy with Koffing and Ninjask, which get Shock Waved and Thundershocked, with Ninjask using Fury Cutter. I then loop back around to Route 118 and give Magneton the Exp Share for the double battle against Beautifly and Dustox. Swampert assists...well, really, Magneton assists. Torrent Surf does most of the work as Magneton uses Sonicboom on Dustox for the remaining damage. This gets Magneton to Level 36, which in theory is a good level for Winona – enough to 2HKO Altaria with Thunderbolt and outspeed it with the badge boost. First though I need to make room for it, so I use the remaining 2 PP of Sonicboom on a low-level Ralts trainer blocking progression in the Trick House (the Magnet is eventually a prize).

Winona

Video

So, slight wrinkle. Altaria apparently has a speed-boosting nature, so Magneton isn’t actually faster and needs to spend an extra turn setting up an X Speed. This isn’t a big deal, though, because her lead Swellow is excellent set-up fodder. It has a strong preference for setting up Double Team (pointless due to Shock Wave), only occasionally using Quick Attack. If I waited until later, it would actually be very likely to do this fight without getting hit at all, only needing 1 X Special to go for a sweep. But I REALLY want Fly. So optimization be damned, 3 turns of set-up it is: 2 X Special, 1 X Speed. This gives Swellow 4 chances to use Quick Attack. In my case, I only see it once during set-up (fairly typical). From here everything goes down easily: Swellow to Shock Wave, Altaria to Thunderbolt, Skarmory and Pelipper to Thundershock. Pelipper could potentially waste a PP with Protect, but it doesn’t happen here. Wouldn’t be too big of a deal if it did, though.

Next time, we’ll see a different side of Magneton…

Status:
Magneton Level 37: 59/93 HP
10/20 Shock Wave
14/15 Thunderbolt
1/30 Thundershock
20/20 Spark

 

[adman2]

Does this "different side of Magneton" mean "using Hidden Power because GameFreak is biased against Electric types and won't give them proper movepools"?

 

[sb879]

Does this "different side of Magneton" mean "using Hidden Power because GameFreak is biased against Electric types and won't give them proper movepools"?

No, I played as if Hidden Power didn't exist. Since it's so random to get a good one (especially on top of Magneton being a 1% encounter), I didn't want to rely on it, even if a decent HP Ice would have helped in several places. fwiw Magneton had HP Water with 31 BP which would help occasionally, but it's a small loss.

 

[bwburke94]

Next is the infamous Cooltrainer with Milotic, but with an Electric-type, it simply gets, um, not OHKOd by Spark, and KOs in return with rain-boosted Water Pulse. Wait, shit…

Okay, let’s reset and pretend that never happened.

I suppose "no resets" wasn't in the ruleset, but resets kill the credibility of a challenge run.

 

[Texas Cloverleaf]

Some serious challenge run elitism going on lately

 

[Anna says hi]

The challenge here doesn't come down to doing everything on the first try, but more so to planning the route around the restrictions. Resets work fine for these kinds of challenges, and in OP's "living off the land" run of RBY, he reset a lot as well for things like catching important mons with only one or two balls to work with.

e: Forgot to mention this, but are draining moves (Absorb, Mega/Giga Drain, Leech Seed) explicitly disallowed? Since they have limited PP, allowing draining moves could be a viable place to bend the rules.

 

[Cobalt Empoleon]

Ooh good point, but healing moves do seem easily exploitable. Leech Seed in particular would enable lots of team healing from high HP mons like wild Wailmer

Edit: I think the rules cover this under ‘no gaining HP by any means whatsoever’. I think that does constitute explicitly disallowing recovery as the secondary effect of move

 

[Merritt]

To be clear about what “no healing” entails:

• Gaining HP in any fashion except for a level-up.

This is pretty cut and dry.

I don't think resets are an issue as long as it's not exploiting for incredible luck - particularly in challenge runs which already have enough restrictions. Seeing the run end due to a minor miscalculation would be very disappointing for me personally, so I'm quite fine with the reset to avoid the trainer.

Since I didn't see the oh so common rule about "no legendaries", are you planning to have Kyogre help with the last bit of the game? What with how many very strong moves it'll have access to (Water Pulse, Waterfall, Surf, and Hydro Pump just for 55 PP of rain boosted Water moves alone) it seems like it'd be pretty much perfect.

 

[Ryolain]

I suppose "no resets" wasn't in the ruleset, but resets kill the credibility of a challenge run.

IMO this is more like a TAS where it’s about optimization to see if a ridiculously hard challenge is possible via careful planning vs something like a Nuzlocke run where it’s been proven to be doable, it’s just harder/a unique experience compared to the vanilla game.

 

[sb879]

I suppose "no resets" wasn't in the ruleset, but resets kill the credibility of a challenge run.

I mostly just use resets to see if I can OHKO things; calculating everything is tedious. I don't abuse them, closest thing was going for the 50/50 for Sonicboom vs Rollout on Wattson's Voltorb, and that's about as inconsistent as I'm willing to go and I wasn't really happy about that either. If it helps assuage your fears about reset abuse, there literally isn't a single point of damage Magneton took in the last update that I couldn't have avoided with luck, but I didn't.

This is pretty cut and dry.

I don't think resets are an issue as long as it's not exploiting for incredible luck - particularly in challenge runs which already have enough restrictions. Seeing the run end due to a minor miscalculation would be very disappointing for me personally, so I'm quite fine with the reset to avoid the trainer.

Since I didn't see the oh so common rule about "no legendaries", are you planning to have Kyogre help with the last bit of the game? What with how many very strong moves it'll have access to (Water Pulse, Waterfall, Surf, and Hydro Pump just for 55 PP of rain boosted Water moves alone) it seems like it'd be pretty much perfect.

Technically it's a "no Kyogre" rule but it ended up being a "no legendaries" rule because I'm dumb. I initially was going to allow the box legends, but even without healing I think they are a little much, especially with all the Rare Candies to pump them up.