Last year, I did a playthrough of Pokemon Sun using only Bug-type Pokemon and no Z-Moves. Since that was a lot of fun to do, and since I’m at home now due to the virus, I figured I’d do the sequel with a much more difficult game: Pokemon Black 2. The selection of Pokemon that I can access is worse in this game than in Sun, the old version of the Exp. Share necessitates more grinding and smarter play, and the Trainers that I’m facing will be more difficult than in Pokemon Sun, so it’ll be a change of pace from the last challenge.
Getting right into the rules:
I start off the game in the normal fashion, and make sure to pick Tepig. This ensures that Hugh picks Oshawott, which is neutral against Bug-types, but also ensures that he’ll have a Simisage later on. This also makes the two trainers in Alder’s house have a Pansage and Panpour. My advantages in this run are limited, so I’ll take them where I can get them. I play through normally to Floccesy Town, but I don’t face any Trainers other than the first rival battle so this really doesn’t matter. Once I get to Route 20, I have to face two mandatory Trainers with my starter, but here the run essentially begins by catching a Sewaddle. They appear from Level 2-4 on this route, so I take a little extra time to catch one at Level 4. This doesn’t make a huge difference in the long run, but it does save me a little bit of time grinding. Once it’s in my possession, I head back to Floccesy Town and box my starter forever.
The Beginning
The very beginning to the monotype challenge isn’t great. Sewaddle has okay defensive stats, but it’s at a low-level and has to solo the entire beginning of the game up until the first badge. It takes Sewaddle seven Tackles to take out the first Pokemon it sees, a Level 4 Purrloin. After some grinding, Sewaddle reaches Level 8 and learns the move that will carry it through the first part of the game: Bug Bite. A 60 BP STAB move is a godsend at this point in the run. I continue up towards Floccesy Ranch, and go in at Level 9. Right away, there’s a rival battle with Hugh, but thankfully he hasn’t added any other Pokemon. His Oshawott easily goes down in two hits. I was surprised by how Sewaddle essentially snapped the early-game over its knee here. The Herdier sidequest is no trouble either, and I rescue it and head back towards Floccesy Town. Alder pulls me aside and makes me battle his students. Both of them are easily taken down with two Bug Bites each. With that out of the way, it’s off to get my first Gym Badge with a Level 14 Sewaddle.
Aspertia Gym
I really thought this would be more difficult than it actually was. Both of Cheren’s two students have a Patrat and a Lillipup. As with Alder’s Trainers before, both of them are easy 2HKOs with Bug Bite. Moving on to the Gym Leader, Cheren’s Patrat is first up, and is 2HKO’d with Bug Bite while Sewaddle absorbs a Tackle for 6 damage in return. His Lillipup is tougher, and while my first Bug Bite takes off over half his health, the second one got a low damage roll and didn’t finish the job. Lillipup used Work Up on both of these turns, and on the third turn Cheren used a Potion to heal Lillipup, but the next Bug Bite was a crit and took it down, earning me the Basic Badge. With the victory, I also get TM27 (Return), which I immediately teach to Sewaddle over the useless String Shot.
Heading back to Route 20, I defeat the Hiker and can access the rest of the route. Cheren shows me the dark grass section, which is important to me because I can add a new Pokemon to my team here. Venipede appears in the dark grass 20% of the time, and its Poison immunity will come in handy for the next Gym. It takes a few tries to get one to appear, but it’s an easy catch and addition to the team. Most of the Trainers on this route aren’t an issue, with the exception of the Nursery Aide that has a Dunsparce with Rollout. Once I get to Virbank City, I heal up and head straight to the Complex to grind. Once I’m at a satisfactory level, I head for the Gym. Roughneck Nicky has a Grimer and a Koffing, and Guitarist Billy Jo has a Venipede and a Koffing. The same strategy was used for both: by using Defense Curl into Rollout, they can be taken out with little trouble. While Rollout doesn’t have the greatest accuracy, Venipede is immune to being poisoned and resists most of the Gym trainers’ attacks. Roxie is a little more complicated. I wanted to use the Defense Curl/Rollout strategy again, but the Rollout missed after one turn and I couldn’t build a combo. After an Assurance crit from her Koffing put me down to 3 HP, I used up a turn to heal with the free Fresh Water, then managed to get a 2HKO with Rollout from about 60% health. From there, Roxie sent in her Whirlipede, which was taken down from full health with a single Rollout, giving me the Toxic Badge.
I still had a few housekeeping items to take care of first, though - I had to do the horribly dull Pokestar Studios tutorial and deal with an annoying Team Plasma sidequest with a Patrat that just kept spamming Sand Attack and Detect. I also got Cut from Roxie, which I taught to Sewaddle since it's mildly useful and I didn't really have anything else to do with it. With those out of the way, I was finally able to board the boat to Castelia City.
In the next update, I’ll probably finish Castelia City and Nimbasa City and their Gym battles, and possibly Driftveil City if I have time. I’ll also be able to add Dwebble, Combee and Heracross to the team at various points in the next update.
The team at Castelia City:
Sewaddle, Level 17
Venipede, Level 18
Getting right into the rules:
- Once I catch a Sewaddle on Route 20 (first Bug-type available), I may only use Bug-type Pokemon for the remainder of the run. A brief exception exists to be able to use Surf when necessary, as no Bug-type can learn it in this game, but that’s it. Said Surf user is never allowed to battle.
- This list of allowed Pokemon consists of: Sewaddle line, Venipede line, Dwebble line, Combee line, Heracross, Pinsir, Shelmet, Karrablast (I do not own another DS or another copy of the game, so these two cannot evolve), Larvesta line, Joltik line, Durant, Skorupi (which is not allowed to evolve), Shuckle, and the Yanma line.
- As for Hidden Grottos, I get one shot for each Grotto that generates on a given route. If a Bug-type Pokemon isn’t generated in the Grotto, I’m not allowed to keep trying until one appears. This means that I am most likely not able to obtain a Pinsir, as this is the only way to get one in Black 2.
- No duplicates of the same evolution line are allowed.
- Join Avenue cannot be built up and use of the Entralink is not allowed. While tedious and not really feasible since the Wi-Fi networks were disabled, Join Avenue can be built up to get shops that can be used to get useful items. Simpler to just ban it outright.
- This will be played on Normal difficulty, because even though I’m probably a masochist by doing this run in the first place, I don’t hate myself enough to do this on Challenge mode.
I start off the game in the normal fashion, and make sure to pick Tepig. This ensures that Hugh picks Oshawott, which is neutral against Bug-types, but also ensures that he’ll have a Simisage later on. This also makes the two trainers in Alder’s house have a Pansage and Panpour. My advantages in this run are limited, so I’ll take them where I can get them. I play through normally to Floccesy Town, but I don’t face any Trainers other than the first rival battle so this really doesn’t matter. Once I get to Route 20, I have to face two mandatory Trainers with my starter, but here the run essentially begins by catching a Sewaddle. They appear from Level 2-4 on this route, so I take a little extra time to catch one at Level 4. This doesn’t make a huge difference in the long run, but it does save me a little bit of time grinding. Once it’s in my possession, I head back to Floccesy Town and box my starter forever.
The Beginning
The very beginning to the monotype challenge isn’t great. Sewaddle has okay defensive stats, but it’s at a low-level and has to solo the entire beginning of the game up until the first badge. It takes Sewaddle seven Tackles to take out the first Pokemon it sees, a Level 4 Purrloin. After some grinding, Sewaddle reaches Level 8 and learns the move that will carry it through the first part of the game: Bug Bite. A 60 BP STAB move is a godsend at this point in the run. I continue up towards Floccesy Ranch, and go in at Level 9. Right away, there’s a rival battle with Hugh, but thankfully he hasn’t added any other Pokemon. His Oshawott easily goes down in two hits. I was surprised by how Sewaddle essentially snapped the early-game over its knee here. The Herdier sidequest is no trouble either, and I rescue it and head back towards Floccesy Town. Alder pulls me aside and makes me battle his students. Both of them are easily taken down with two Bug Bites each. With that out of the way, it’s off to get my first Gym Badge with a Level 14 Sewaddle.
Aspertia Gym
I really thought this would be more difficult than it actually was. Both of Cheren’s two students have a Patrat and a Lillipup. As with Alder’s Trainers before, both of them are easy 2HKOs with Bug Bite. Moving on to the Gym Leader, Cheren’s Patrat is first up, and is 2HKO’d with Bug Bite while Sewaddle absorbs a Tackle for 6 damage in return. His Lillipup is tougher, and while my first Bug Bite takes off over half his health, the second one got a low damage roll and didn’t finish the job. Lillipup used Work Up on both of these turns, and on the third turn Cheren used a Potion to heal Lillipup, but the next Bug Bite was a crit and took it down, earning me the Basic Badge. With the victory, I also get TM27 (Return), which I immediately teach to Sewaddle over the useless String Shot.
Heading back to Route 20, I defeat the Hiker and can access the rest of the route. Cheren shows me the dark grass section, which is important to me because I can add a new Pokemon to my team here. Venipede appears in the dark grass 20% of the time, and its Poison immunity will come in handy for the next Gym. It takes a few tries to get one to appear, but it’s an easy catch and addition to the team. Most of the Trainers on this route aren’t an issue, with the exception of the Nursery Aide that has a Dunsparce with Rollout. Once I get to Virbank City, I heal up and head straight to the Complex to grind. Once I’m at a satisfactory level, I head for the Gym. Roughneck Nicky has a Grimer and a Koffing, and Guitarist Billy Jo has a Venipede and a Koffing. The same strategy was used for both: by using Defense Curl into Rollout, they can be taken out with little trouble. While Rollout doesn’t have the greatest accuracy, Venipede is immune to being poisoned and resists most of the Gym trainers’ attacks. Roxie is a little more complicated. I wanted to use the Defense Curl/Rollout strategy again, but the Rollout missed after one turn and I couldn’t build a combo. After an Assurance crit from her Koffing put me down to 3 HP, I used up a turn to heal with the free Fresh Water, then managed to get a 2HKO with Rollout from about 60% health. From there, Roxie sent in her Whirlipede, which was taken down from full health with a single Rollout, giving me the Toxic Badge.
I still had a few housekeeping items to take care of first, though - I had to do the horribly dull Pokestar Studios tutorial and deal with an annoying Team Plasma sidequest with a Patrat that just kept spamming Sand Attack and Detect. I also got Cut from Roxie, which I taught to Sewaddle since it's mildly useful and I didn't really have anything else to do with it. With those out of the way, I was finally able to board the boat to Castelia City.
In the next update, I’ll probably finish Castelia City and Nimbasa City and their Gym battles, and possibly Driftveil City if I have time. I’ll also be able to add Dwebble, Combee and Heracross to the team at various points in the next update.
The team at Castelia City:
Sewaddle, Level 17
- Cut
- Return
- Bug Bite
- Razor Leaf
Venipede, Level 18
- Defense Curl
- Rollout
- Venoshock
- Protect