Challenge Pokemon moon mono-bug challenge

[Magnus0]

I lost my pokemon moon cartridge last year. I thought it was gone for good, but then my sister found it in our caravan when going on vacation. I was really glad and relieved, so I was excited to try another run of moon right away. I had already started a mono-bug run last year, apparently, so I decided to restart that run and record it here on the forums. Bug is one of my favorite types, and it has enough options available at the start of the game. All bug types in the dex are found on the first two islands, but then again, so is like 95% of the alolan dex it feels like.

The main idea of the challenge is simple. I can only use bug types in battle. The one exception is my starter, which I can use until I beat the first trial. This might seem like an arbitrary rule, but I allow myself to use my starter early on to not make the run needlessly grindy. Running back and forth to mom with a level 3 caterpie isn't fun for me, and it's not fun for any readers either. That said, I will try to use my starter as little as possible. Anyway, here are some additional rules I have given myself

- I play the game on set
- two in-battle items per battle only
- no pokemon refresh or Pelago
- the exp. share is allowed, but I may never be 3 levels above the ace of the next major battle


Start of the game CUTSCENES
After the cutscenes, I can finally pick a starter. I chose litten, for a simple reason. It's so that neither Hau or Kukui can use it. I head off to route 1 with my new little kitten and catch a Caterpie. It's always day before the festifal it seems, so I also catch a Ledyba. They have a hasty and gentle nature respectively, so pretty good. I DO NOT pick up a grubbin, simply because I don't really like it. This is a huge risk though, since Charjabug is the only available bug type that isn't weak to flying. I hope that will turn out allright. Anyway, I grind up my caterpie to level six. From there, it can defeat all the trainers on route 1 without help from Litten, though it did need a potion or two. Caterpie quickly evolves into metapod and ledyba gains some levels, but not enough to get to level 8 where it learns swift. This was a mistake... After route 1, you have to fight Hau in Iki town. His pokemon are not directly threatning to my team, but his pichu has charm. This is a problem because I don't have any special attack yet. I am forced to use litten to finish this fight because metapod and ledyba do like 2 damage with each tackle.

After Lilly explains what a pokecentre is, I head to the trainer school. The first thing I do here is grind a bit with littens help. I train metapod to level 10 so it evolves and can start holding its ground, and I train ledyba to level 8 so it learns swift. After that, I make quick work of youngster Joey's metapod with swift. There is a trainer with a pikipek I was kinda weary of, but her pikipek was outsped and 2HKO'd by gust and it didn't even try to peck on the one turn it had. Preschooler Mia actually proved to be the biggest challenge here. She has a Bonsly, though thankfully it doesn't get a rock move. I tried using supersonic because I thought it would do more damage than a resisted non-STAB swift from Ledyba. I only missed 6 times in a row (not a joke btw, I actually missed 6 consecutive supersonics). Bonlsy did finally get confused and it hit itself, but it didn't do much damage. I use swift a couple of times, but the more I damage Bonsly, the more dangerous it becomes because it has flail. I have to switch to Butterfree to deal some extra damage. Butterfree faints, but leaves bonsly at low enough HP for Ledyba to finish up with a final swift. The dude with a grimer is defeated by the team effort of both ledyba and butterfree.

Now then, the final boss of the trainer school: Emily. This fight is hard even in a casual run, but it's near impossible in a challenge run. Her magnemite completely walls me and deals a lot of damage with thundershock. I just use litten to burn it to the ground. Buttefree deals good damage to meowth, but I let it faint on purpose to safely get ledyba in. Ledyba finishes the fight and reaches level 10. After the trainer school, I put litten in the PC.


Hau'oli city
There are like seven consecutive cutscenes here. Other than that, there isn't much to do so I level both my pokemon to level 11 before facing Ilima. I spam swift against Ilima's lead, which doesn't do a whole lot of damage. Meanwhile, tackle is a 2HKO after one leer. Ledyba gets yungoos in red before fainting. Ilima then uses a potion as I use gust, but this isn't even enough for a 2HKO even after the previous damage from swift. This means that Yungoos can still get a tackle off before fainting. To make things worse, Smeargle outpseeds. It does quite a lot of damage with tackle, but it also takes a good amount of damage back from gust. The next tackle leaves Butterfree at very low health, but the next gust also leaves Smeargle at low health. It's a close fight, but a potion from me swings the fight in my favour.


Route 2 and Verdant Cave
I ignore most of the trainers here as to not overlevel my pokemon for the totem fight against A-raticate. I also catch a new addition to my team: Cutiefly. I get one with shield dust after not too long, but it has a relaxed nature, which sucks. I try catching some more in search for one with a better nature. However, I noticed that the relaxed one had noticably higher special attack than all of the other ones I caught. I decided to check it's IV's, and it turns out it has a perfect IV in special attack and a near perfect IV in speed, so I decided to just roll with it. Cutiefly immediately proved its usefulness by taking out all of the A-ratatta in Verdant Cave with fairy wind. I does need some help against the Drowzee of the team skull grunt though. After all this, Cutiefly reaches level 10 and it learns struggle bug. I heal up, and go straight into the totem fight.

A-raticate outspeeds, but its tackle doesn't actually deal all that much damage to Cutiefly. Maybe that relaxed nature wasn't so bad after all. Struggle bug deals about 1/3 of damage. A-raticate then brings in an allied A-ratatta. This doesn't matter too much since struggle bug is a spread move, so it can hit both opponents at once. However, this also reduces the damage by 25%, so Cutiefly fails to get a 3HKO on Raticate. Therefore, I have to use a potion. After a clean victory from Cutiefly, I completed the first trial.


The team
Butterfree (Butter): level 13
- confusion
- sleep powder
- poison powder
- gust

Butterfree is my main attacker. It's been reliable since evolving. I'm not sure if I will keep it around for the entire run, but for now it is my most important pokemon.

Ledyba (Aroma): level 12
- reflect
- light screen
- swift
- safeguard

It hasn't been very useful thus far, but I really want to make it work somehow. I plan on making it a full support for my team. If it doesn't become more useful during the mid game, I might replace it for a charjabug later on though.

Cutiefly (Honey): level 11
- absorb
- fairy wind
- stun spore
- struggle bug

I have only used it for the trial, but is absolutely soloed this part. I think Cutiefly will be one of my main powerhouses in the run.

Yes, I'm very creative with nicknames.

By the way, this is the first time I am doing one of these challenge run threads. So, if you have some tips about my writing or something, please let me know. Thank you for reading!

 

[Magnus0]

Route 3
I grab the sharp beak for butterfree here, and infestation for... pretty much anyone. The fight against Hau was pretty easy. Cutiefly beat pikachu thanks to the sp. attack reduction of struggle bug, and butterfree outsped and 2HKO´d Rowlet with gust. easy. There is actually a much more interesting fight on this route, the one against the ace trainer. His rockruff always leads with stealth rocks, which is disastrous for my team. I tried putting it to sleep with sleep powder, but it also has vital spirit. Needles to say, I got outplayed hard on the first turn. I then use confusion and get forced out by red card. Cutiefly can safely deal with rockruff since its only attacking move is bite. However, his second pokemon slowbro also has a red card to force me back into butterfree. Butterfree is really low on health at this point, so I have to use a potion before starting a sleep war on slowbro. It takes a while because of yawn and slowbro´s good bulk, but eventually I win the fight. I really hope the new games will have more tricky, gimicky fights like this.

Hala
This was honestly a really easy fight. Cutiefly beat manky easily, after which Hala sends out makuhita. Instead of attacking, makuhita starts spamming sand attack. Feeling smart, I switch into ledyba because ´swift can´t miss´. Swift obviously doesn´t do any damage, and I realised that sand attack can´t hit ledyba in the first place. So, I set up a reflect and switch to butterfree who takes care of the rest of the fight with gust.

Heahea city and route 4
I pick up the tm for reflect and light screen here. Other than that, there isn´t much to do here besides one quite difficult fight against Sina. Her delibird wasn´t much of a problem. However her glaceon does mayor damage to my entire team. I let ledyba set up a light screen, but it got outsped and OHKO´d by icy wind. I then send out cutiefly, hoping it would be strong enough to deal with glaceon alone. Cutiefly outspeeds, and even icy wind can´t change that thanks to shield dust. Struggle bug reduces glaceons special attack to the point where it doesn´t even try to use icy wind anymore. It instead just spams quick attack, which doesn´t do an overwhelming amount of damage. I have to use one potion, but cutiefly prevails in the end.

Route 4 is quite short and not very important. There is only one thing I get out of this route: a new teammate! This is actually a quite unusual one that some people might not know about. On thursdays, the island scan pokemon of Akala is venipede, and it comes with toxic spikes. It's a bit annoying to catch because I have to change the date of my 3ds. Other than that, I caught it without any trouble. Scolidpede is the only available physical threat with speed, so I think it will play a major role later on. It gets good coverage moves like rock slide and bulldoze too.

In Paniola town, there is another fight with Hau. It went exactly the same as last time. Cutiefly beats pickachu with struggle bug, and butterfree beats dartrix with gust. Again, easy fight, although I had to use my freshly caught venipede as switch fodder.

The road to Brooklett hill
Right of the bat, there is an elderly lady trainer with a carbink. I decide to avoid her because I don't think I can deal with her just yet. Smack down does major damage to my entire team, and carbink has insane bulk this early on with no weaknes I can exploit at this point. The rest of the ranch is fairly uneventful, but I make sure to pick up the amulet coin here since I need to buy quite some tm's in Malie city later on. Ledyba also evolves here, which is nice.

Route 5 is a bit annoying because there is a fight with Gladion and a double battle with a vullaby and a rufflet. Butterfree does heavy damage to his zubat with psybeam, but it also takes heavy damage in return from wing attack. Type null is annoyingly bulky, so I have to heal butterfree and abuse sleep powder to beat it. Once I get through this, I have access to Brooklet hill, where I will add not one, but two new pokemon to my team. First, I catch a surskit. After changing the time on my 3ds, I used said surskit to check for a Paras with dry skin.

I go back to route 5 to train my new surskit and paras up for the upcoming two totems. I also beat all trainers in Brooklet hill. After all that, Paras hits level 18, which I figured would be enough to beat totem whishiwashi. I also pick up scald here obviously.

Totem whishiwashi
This was really really easy. Paras walled and soloed whishiwashi completely, it didn't even take damage once thanks to dry skin. Whishiwashi started growling in fear after a while, but it didn't matter because paras' damage output with fury cutter was insane. Good job paras.

Update on the team

Butterfree (20)
- psybeam
- silver wind
- sleep powder
- gust

Butterfree has been a great asset so far. Its sleep powder is valuable, but its stats and movepool are already falling a bit behind. I expect Masquerain to outshine Butterfree in the near future, so I think I will replace butterfree with Golisopod in the next update.

Ledian (20)
- brick break
- acrobatics
- swift
- light screen

Ledian has been decent at route cleaning so far actually, thanks to the insane power of STAB acrobatics. It's performance in major battles hasn't been stellar thus far though. I think its support potential only really starts to take off when it learns baton pass.

Cutiefly (20)
- draining kiss
- fairy wind
- stun spore
- struggle bug

Cutiefly has been quite useful. It does reliable damage and its fast enough to outpace most of the game at this point. It's just good, nothing too special.

Venipede (19)
- toxic spikes
- pursuit
- screech
- poison tail

Venipede has taken a back seat since catching it because it had no movepool to start with. It recently got a usable STAB in poison tail though, so I expect it to do better from now on.

Surksit (18)
- scald
- hidden power (ground)
- infestation
- water sport

It's already pretty poweful because of STAB scald. Surskit will be my main player in the upcoming totem battle against Salazzle. Intimidate Masquerain will probably be one of my most versatile pokemon in the mid-late game.

Paras (19)
- brick break
- stun spore
- fury cutter
- absorb

It absolutely wrecked wishiwashi. I hope paras will be able to keep up the good work throughout the entire run, though it will probably take a back seat when I reach Wela volcano park.

 

[SwampySwampert]

Nice to see someone else try this challenge! (I did one earlier this summer and won)

The self-imposed challenge of not using Grubbin is an interesting one, since in my challenge Grubbin was invaluable in the early game and Vikavolt demolished half the E4. Charjabug will definitely be useful later on if you do get one.

Olivia is a super difficult battle due to completely unresisted STAB, so watch out for that.

 

[Magnus0]

Nice to see someone else try this challenge! (I did one earlier this summer and won)

The self-imposed challenge of not using Grubbin is an interesting one, since in my challenge Grubbin was invaluable in the early game and Vikavolt demolished half the E4. Charjabug will definitely be useful later on if you do get one.

Olivia is a super difficult battle due to completely unresisted STAB, so watch out for that.

I am glad that you don't mind me doing a very similar challenge run to yours.

At this point, I'm not too worried about the E4 overall, so I don't think vikavolt will be necessary. I will cath a charjabug and put it in the day care just in case though. It might replace Ledian in the future.

Olivia is definitely the biggest obstacle in the entire run. I managed to beat her today (update will be out tomorrow), but I only won because I got lucky. Next time, at the E4, I need to be better prepared.

 

[Magnus0]

Route to Wela Volcano Park
After beating totem Whishiwashi, I head to route six. It´s a really basic route with some trainers. I beat up some team skull members with the help of Hapu, and then I go to the royal avenue. I buy the rain dance TM here, which will be important later on. To my surprise I realised that you don´t actually have to enter battle royale dome, so I skip it and go straight along towards route 7. I beat all the trainers there to level my surskit to level 21, which is the exact level it should be before fighting totem Salazzle. I then scale the mountain and reach the top. Here´s the catch though: Kiawe isn't at the top of the mountain unless you enter the battle royale dome. So, I have to back to trigger the cutscene after all before I can fight salazzle, UGH.

Totem Salazzle
You might think that this fight would be really hard without aranquanid, but I had a different strategy planned. It played out exactly as planned the first time, so I was pretty proud of that.

I lead with Ledian. afaik, Salazzle always uses torment on turn 1 if she can't OHKO her target. I abuse this free turn by attacking with acrobatics, which depletes a respectable 1/3 of Salazzle's health bar. On turn two, she attacks with flame burst, which fails to OHKO, as I set up a light screen. The salandit used taunt, but by then the screen was already up. Ledian faints on turn 3, which is good because now I can get surskit in while the screen is still up.

Salazzle uses toxic as I set up a rain dance to activate swift swim. The salandit uses venoshock on this turn, which actually does a LOT of damage, but not enough to OHKO thanks to light screen. On the following turn, surskit surrounds itself with Z-power and delivers a super effective, rain boosted STAB hydro vortex based on scald to Salazzle to take it out. Surksit levels up and learns agility, but then faints to another venoshock. Butterfree punishes the salandit for that with psybeam to finish the fight.

Surskit evolves and learns two new moves, scary face and air cutter. My new masquerain is by far the strongest team member in terms of stats, eclipsing butterfree in every single stat.

Route 8 and lush Jungle
Another very basic route. Colress gives me the flame charge tm, but nothing on my team can learn it anyway. I get throught this route as quickly as possible so I can catch a wimpod. It's a bit annoying to catch because if you mess up, you have to soft reset. I teach it scald and rain dance, but I don't really use it in battle because it is very weak.

I go into the lush Jungle and start the trial. along the way I pick up the grass knot tm in case I need it against Olivia later on. I also get the big root here for some leech life shenanigans. Whirlipede has some fun with the Shiinotic here before I face off against Lurantis. This is definitely the hardest of the three Akala trials, surprisingly.

Totem Lurantis
Lurantis itself is absolutely no problem at all. It poses no threat and does single digit damage to pretty much my entire team after an intimidate from Masquerain. However, both Trumbeak and Castform are very annoying to deal with, and I can't beat Lurantis quickly enough because it has synthesis.

I lead with Masquerain to abuse intimdate immediately. The very first air cutter crit, which dealt slightly over half of Lurantis' HP. This is really good, because I forced Lurantis into synthesis right away. I continue to spam air cutter, and castform luckily didn't set up sunny day. It used headbut instead, which dealt quite a bit pf damage to Masquerain, but not an overwhelming amount. About two air cutters later, castform does set up sunny day. When masquerain finally faints, castform has about 1/3 of its health remaining while lurantis is totally fine because it kept using synthesis. It does have only 1 or 2 pp left for it though.

This next part was just a massacre. I used Ledian to take out castform, but then trumbeak immediately came out and OHKO'd Ledian. Nothing else on my team could stand up to trumbeak at this point, so I had to revive masquerain to intimidate it. Masquerain thankfully gets a crit on trumbeak. I have to use a super potion before taking out trumbeak once and for all. At that point, lurantis had no synthesis pp left so I could wittle it down. In hindsight, I really should have taken the time to evolve cutiefly, who was majorly underleveled at like level 21. Either way, after this not very well thought-out battle, I go back to route five to beat all the trainers so I can get nature power, which is needed against Olivia. After that I head to proffesor Burnets Lab.

Olivia
When I passed through Diglett Tunnel, both paras and cutiefly evolved. In Konikoni, I picked up eviolite for whirlipede. I guess Plumeria is around here as well, but she is such a pushover anyway. After some more prep time, I really have to take on Olivia, the biggest obstacle so far.

I decide to lead with Parasect. I use spore, but nosepass is actually faster and uses thunder wave. Parasect is paralyzed and can't move. It can get one brick break off before being paraflinched to death, poor thing. Ribombee finishes with an energy ball called from nature power. In the following turn, I switch in whirlipede as death fodder against continental crush. I bring in masquerain for intimidate, but lycanrock outspeeds and OHKO's with rock throw. I have to bring in ribombee again. Lycanrock outspeeds even ribombee, BUT, it misses rock throw. You won't believe it, but it misses another rock throw before being taken out by a second energy ball. I use another energy ball against boldore, but rock blast takes out ribombee. Wimpod of all things then finishes the fight with scald.

Update on the team

Ledian (27)
- silver wind
- acrobatics
- swift
- reflect/light screen

Ledian has definitely stepped up its game since last time. It was a critical member against Salazzle, and its acrobatics is actually really strong against random trainers. I hope it will continue to do well for a while.

Ribombee (26)
- draining kiss
- pollen puff
- nature power
- struggle bug

Cutiefly had a hard time from around level 20 to 25, but it is currently back in the game after it evolved. It was the mvp against Olivia with nature power. I'm still quite bumbed about its nature though, because I notice it gets outsped by things it really shouldn't get outsped by, such as lycanrock.

Whirlipede (26)
- toxic spikes
- bug bite
- iron defense
- poison tail

It still hasn't performed in a major battle, aside from beign death fodder. However, it holds its ground against regular route trainers. I believe it will get its spotlight eventually.

Masquerain (27)
- scald
- scary face
- air cutter
- agility

The absolute mvp since it evolved. Intimidate is an essential part of many of my strategies. It's just so versatile, with good stats across the board, and good speed control options as well. It's also my main answer against fire types thanks to scald.

Parasect (25)
- brick break
- leech life
- spore
- absorb

It's alright. It had some bad luck against Olivia, but parasect is still my main answer to rock types. Its attack is decent and it's movepool is good, but I have a feeling that its stats might not hold up in the late game. Also, since it kind of wants to have giga drain, which is not a TM, I can already see a 4 slot movepool syndrome coming because it also wants swords dance, brick break, aerial ace and leech life, as well as spore.

Wimpod (25)
- rain dance
- sand attack
- scald
- struggle bug

I haven't used this thing at all. It is living off the exp. share right now. Next update, it will have likely evolved though. I'm sure it will be more useful then.

 

[Darvin]

It's a shame you got rid of Butterfree before the Lurantis trial and Olivia, since its Compound Eyes Sleep Powder allows it to hax wins in these battles, making them much easier. In my challenge run (which was a 400 BST limit, rather than a type restriction) my Butterfree solo'd the Lurantis trial due to lucky sleep turns on the support pokemon while hard-walling Lurantis itself, and put in a surprising amount of work on Olivia.

 

[Magnus0]

It's a shame you got rid of Butterfree before the Lurantis trial and Olivia, since its Compound Eyes Sleep Powder allows it to hax wins in these battles, making them much easier. In my challenge run (which was a 400 BST limit, rather than a type restriction) my Butterfree solo'd the Lurantis trial due to lucky sleep turns on the support pokemon while hard-walling Lurantis itself, and put in a surprising amount of work on Olivia.

I honestly doubt that my butterfree would be able to outspeed and deal with Trumbeak, because I was pretty underleveled at that point. And I am confident that butterfree would be useless against Olivia´s most problematic pokemon, lycanrock, though I guess it would be useful for breaking sturdy on her other two pokemon. Since I already knew that I would replace it, I got a bit greedy and wanted to have wimpod on the team to get exp. share experience. You´re right in that I could have at least tried to use butterfree though, since it would still be more useful than some of the other team members. Thanks for the feedback

Btw, I´m hoping to get the next update out somewhere tomorrow.

 

[Magnus0]

Malie City
The first thing I do after taking the boat to Malie City is fight Hau. I lead with parasect against his now fully evolved A-raichu. Raichu does a lot of damage with psychic, but then it gets OHKO'd by leech life and parasect heals back to full HP. So good start. I let my parasect faint on purpose against the incoming dartrix, so I can get masquerain in safely. It 2HKO's dartrix with air cutter, but takes one pluck in return. Another air cutter and some pollen puffs from ribombee take out vaporeon. Overall, a pretty easy fight.

There are quite some useful tm's in Malie. I pick up swords dance, bulldoze, u-turn, payback, roost and aerial ace. There are some cutscenes with Lillie and Acerola here. I also take the time to do the little sidequest at the recycling plant. After all that, I head towards the Hokulani Observatory.

Hokulani Observatory
Before I can enter the building, I have to fight Molayne. I beat skarmory by spamming scald with masquerain. Molayne has a full heal, so he wastes a turn on getting rid of burn, which is nice. I have to use a potion of myself, but eventually masquerain wins with a fair bit of HP remaining. Molayne then sends out metang, which deals very little damage even without factoring in intimidate. I spam scald again until I win. Parasect then defeats A-dugtrio with brick break. After this fight, whirlipede evolves into scolidpede. I can now teach it rock tomb, which immediately proves useful.

After the quite annoying sound trial, I face the totem pokemon. I lead with masquerain again, just for intimidate. I fish for a burn with scald, but I don't get it. Spark doesn't OHKO, but it does cause paralysis so masquerain can't get another move in before fainting. I bring out scolipede and set up an iron defense, after which vikivolt doesn't deal much damage at all. The rest of the fight is just scolipede spamming rock tomb while tanking hits like a champ. This was definitely one of the easier totems so far.

The road to the Thrifty Megamart
After beating the trial, you have to go back to Malie Garden to bring back the 'professors mask' to totally not the professor. Guzma is introduced here as well, and you have to fight him right away.

I lead with masquerain, as usual, and immediately force out golisopod with air cutter. Guzma sends out Ariados. I use air cutter again, which does a lot of damage, but before masquerain uses air cutter it gets hit by a sucker punch, which also crits. Masquerain is at very low HP at this point, so it gets taken out by another sucker punch the next turn. I bring in ribombee, who then cleans up both of Guzma's pokemon. After the fight, wimpod evolves.

Route 11 and 12 are fairly boring routes. I get mudsdale here I guess, seemingly just for this one route, but nothing else of real importance. I do pick up the psych up tm just in case though, but I don't know yet if I will be able to use it. Apparently, the little oasis before Tapu Village is also a route, even though it takes less than a minute to traverse. I do pick up the x-scissor tm here though.

I heal up in Tapu Village and go to the Megamart. Before I enter, I pick up the conveniently placed shadow ball tm for masquerain. After beating the whole ghastly family, I face totem mimikyu.

I lead with masquerain for intimidate again. Mimikyu outspeeds, but it uses mimic on turn one, which means that I can break its disguise for free. Masquerain takes a shadow claw and retaliates with shadow ball. Shadow ball crits and deals about 2/3 of mimikyu's health bar. Masquerain faints on the next turn, so I bring out Scolipede. Mimikyu also outspeeds scolipede thanks to its aura buff, but it gets taken out by a super effective smart strike. Scolipede then cleans up the ally haunter. This fight was really easy, but I did get lucky with the crit on shadow ball.

Team Skull
When I go back to the aether house, Plumeria is there. Golbat uses confuse ray as I set up a swords dance with ledian. Golbat then uses poison fang, but I pass the boost to scolipede. Scolipede OHKO's golbat with rock tomb thanks to the boost. Salazzle outspeeds and OHKO's with flame burst on the following turn though. I bring in masquerain, who barely survives one flame burst and retaliates with a powerfull scald. This brings Salazzle in red. Golisopod then finishes the fight with first impression.

I have to go to Po Town now. To get there, I need sharpedo from uncle Grimsley. I actually take a little detour back to Melemele first, in order to get the rock slide tm for scolipede and golisopod. Then I do finally head to Po town. I fight most of the grunts there to level up a bit. After some prep time, I fight Guzma.

The fight went almost the same as last time. I immediately forced out golisopod with air cutter. Ariados used sucker punch again, but this time it didn't crit. HOWEVER, I missed the second air cutter. 95% accuracy my ass. Ariados got lucky again, so I bring out my golisopod to finish the fight. Guzma really needs some more pokemon.

I quickly pick up the poison jab tm for scolipede before I head back to the aether house. Here I learn that Lillie has been kidnapped by Plumeria. Gladion suddenly comes in and he is so angry that he fights me on the spot. My ribombee does a lot of damage to golbat with psychic, but it's not enough for a OHKO while golbat does OHKO with acrobatics. Scolipede outspeeds and kills with rock slide. I set up iron defense against type null, but type null keeps lowering my defense again with crush claw. Poison point activates though, so I decide to just stall a little by using iron defense repeatedly. I heal up and finish type null with poison jab. Gladion also has a sneasel, but it's very weak so scolipede just takes it out with rock slide without problem.

Kahuna Nanu
The final fight on Ula'Ula is against Nanu. I cheesed this fight hard with ribombee. Sableye and A-persian both used fake out, but shield dust prevents the flinch. This essentially gives ribombee a free turn against both of them. Dazzling gleam 2HKO's sableye and pollen puff OHKO's Persian. Krokorok actually outspeeds, but all of its moves are not very effective so this doesn't matter. It is also OHKO'd by pollen puff.

The team
Ledian (37)
- silver wind
- agility
- swords dance/ screens
- baton pass

Almost all of the recent major battles were against physically based opponents. This means that Ledian almost never found an opportunity to set up. Ledian is mostly used as death fodder at this point.

Ribombee (37)
- dazzling gleam
- pollen puff
- psychic
- hidden power (fire)

It has been great ever since evolving. Its the only thing on my team that can learn psychic, which is very useful against Team Skull. It also effortlessly cheesed Nanu. The only thing that worries me a bit is that it gets outsped left and right by things that should have no business outspeeding it, such as krokorok.

Scolipede (37)
- baton pass
- iron defense
- rock slide/bulldoze/smart strike
- poison jab

Scolipede is a very versatile teammate. It has great stats, especially speed, and an amazing movepool. It has good synergy with ledian because they can chain around baton passes. Scolipede was critical in both of the two totem fights as well.

Masquerain (36)
- scald/ shadow ball
- agility
- air cutter
- silver wind

It is still great. Intimidate is simply invaluable against boss fights. It does really need some more powerful STAB options to stay relevant, but with a few more levels it will learn air slash and then bug buzz to take care of that.

Parasect (36)
- swords dance
- spore
- leech life
- aerial ace/ brick break

It can be good, but only in very specific matchups. It was actually really good against the grunts in Po town thanks to aerial ace. It hasn't found much use outside of regular trainer battles though.

Golisopod (37)
- leech life
- first impression
- rock slide/ brick break
- sucker punch

It has by far the highest attack and defense on the team. It has great coverage options as well, which makes golisopod a powerful tank. Emergency exit is annoying to deal with sometimes, but it can also be genuinly useful for getting a different pokemon in safely while still having a first impression nuke in the back.


Overall, Ula'Ula went pretty well I think. Next time I'm going to fight Lusamine and friends.

 

[Magnus0]

I have slowed down a bit thanks to some irl stuff. I wanted to do everything up until the E4 in one go, but considering my schedule, I think it´s better to split it up into two parts. So here goes the first part

Aether Parasdise
The first ´major´ battle here is against Faba. True to his character, he completely underestimates the player and only brings one pokemon: hypno. The most notable thing about Faba is that I can say that technically my ledian soloed a boss fight.

After going down and up with the elevator, there is a rematch with Faba right away. This time he leads with slowbro, which should be easy pickings for Hau's raichu, except for the fact that Hau is absolutely incompetent. He kept on spamming psychic on slowbro or electro ball on ledian, but never the other way around. Meanwhile, I tried getting rid of the enemy ledian as quickly as possible because it has screens and super effective coverage against both me and Hau. I use air slash with masquerain, but ledian is faster and reduces a lot of damage with light screen. Slobro uses yawn, so masquerain can only get one more air slash in before fainting.
I bring in golisopod. At this point, I realised that it was actually smarter to keep ledian alive. Sure enough, golisopod OHKO's slowbro and gets forced out by air slash from ledian. Exactly as planned. I then bring in scolipede to quickly get rid of ledian, but scolipede is then OHKO'd by psychic fangs from bruxish. Golisopod comes in again to revenge kill bruxish and OHKO hypno on the next turn. Overall, it was an easy fight, but that was to be expected.

The next major fight is against Guzma. I again force out golisopod immediately with air slash. The enemy masquerain comes in for the ditto fight. Sadly, Guzma's masqeurain is faster and OHKO's mine with air slash. I send out my fastest pokemon, scolipede, and OHKO masquerain with rock slide. With masqeurain out of the way, there is not a single special attacker left on Guzma's team, so I decide to use iron defense three times on ariados. Scolidpede takes out ariados and almost finishes golisopod with rock slide, but it took a crit from razor shell. I baton pass to my own golisopod who then cleans up the rest of Guzma's team with rock slide.

Now it's time for Lusamine. I lead with scolipede and take out clefable easily. It only gets one chance to use metronome, but it called infestation which isn't really a problem. Out comes mismagius. To my surprise, it outsped and KO'd scolipede with shadow ball. I brought in golisopod and OHKO'd it back with sucker punch. Lusamine brings out lilligant, who immediately gets OHKO'd by leech life from golisopod. She sends out milotic, so I bring out parasect to hardwall it. Parasect is free to set up swords dance and OHKO milotic with leech life. Bewear uses baby-doll eyes, but it doesn't matter as it is OHKO'd by aerial ace. This was one of the easiest fights in the game actually, because I had a counter to all of her pokemon.

Lusamine and Guzma disappear in the ultra wormhole. After this, there are some cutscenes with Lillie and Gladion about 'the plan'. They want to safe their mother, and they need the legendary pokemon to do that. So, Lillie and I head to Poni Island.

Poni Island
There are some tm's I pick up here. I get blizzard for masquerain and I get solarbeam just in case. I might need it for Olivia later on, idk.

Poni wilds is a fairly generic route. I pick up focus sash as a reward for beating the route kahuna, and there is also a rare candy here. When I reach the Ancient Poni Path, I get access to machamp shove. This is used for the """""puzzle""""" in the ruins of hope. Hapu tells you that she is the kahuna of Poni island here. After that, Lillie and I go to Exeggutor Island for the moon flute. This is just a fetch quest, so I'll skip straight to the fight with Hapu

Hapu
I lead with scolipede and set up three iron defenses against dugtrio. I need to heal after that because of chip and sandstorm damage. Scolipede takes out dugtrio with bulldoze, and Hapu brings out mudsdale. I pass the defense boosts to parasect, who I taught grass knot just for this battle btw. Mudsdale uses a Z-powered earthquake, but it does exactly 6 damage to parasect thanks to the defense boosts. Grass knot comes close to OHKO'ing mudsdale. Hapu uses a potion here but it doesn't really matter anyway. Out comes flygon, who has a specially based moveset actually. Dragon breath got parasect just under half of its health, but flygon is then put to sleep with spore. Leech life is a 3HKO on flygon. It wakes up just before the third leech life and paralyzes parasect with dragon breath, but thankfully it doesn't leave parasect immobilized. Parasect levels up and learns giga drain, just in time to OHKO the incoming gastrodon.

The team

Ledian (44)
- air slash
- bug buzz
- agility
- baton pass

Ledian soloed the first fight against Faba, I guess...

Ribombee (44)
- dazzling gleam
- pollen puff
- psychic
- hidden power (fire)

It is still good against random trainers, but it didn't see much use in the major battles. This says more about how good the two star players (golisopod and scolipede) are than it says about ribombee though.

Masquerain (43)
- scald
- agility
- bug buzz
- air slash

Once the mvp of the run, but now it's degraded to an intimidate bot. Don't get me wrong, it is not bad, but it really needs quiver dance to take back the spotlight.

Parasect (44)
- brick break/aerial ace/swords dance
- spore
- leech life
- giga drain

Parasect has really upped its game since last time. It was great verses Lusamine and it handled most of Hapu on its own. Still a bit niche and matchup-dependent, but in the matchups where it does have the advantage, it is very dominant. I'm glad I kept this thing in my team.

Scolipede (45)
- baton pass
- iron defense
- poison jab/x-scissor
- rock slide/bulldoze

Absolutely the most versatile pokemon on the team. It has great matchups which makes it good in nearly all major battles. Baton pass + iron defense has also been very useful vs Guzma and Hapu.

Golisopod (44)
- leech life
- first impression
- brick break/rock slide
- sucker punch

Golisopod is just as good as last time. It's a great tank and a powerful nuker, with two priority options to boot. I actually really like its ability, because it allows golisopod to use first impression more often. Definitely an amazing pokemon for major fights as well.

 

[Wishy]

I applaud you for using Ledian for so long and it not being total dead weight. Amazing. I don't think there is any other Bug (or Pokemon, period) that has such a bizarre and useless stat spread.