Challenge Pokemon Omega Ruby - Nuzleaf Solo Run [COMPLETE]

[SwampySwampert]

So it's been a while since I've done a Pokemon run, and was looking for a challenge to do. My Beedrill run was fairly successful, and I didn't want to do a Nuzlocke, but that got me thinking - I've never done a challenge run in Omega Ruby before and haven't played through the story of this game in years, and Seedot is available from the very beginning of the game, so an unmodded solo run is totally possible and perfect for what I want. After looking at Shiftry's stats, I figured it would be a little too good, so I opted to restrict myself to only using Nuzleaf. It has...decent stats. 70 attack and 60 special attack along with a pretty diverse coverage movepool give it a lot of options for dealing damage. The main issues are twofold: Nuzleaf has pitiful 40/40 defenses, and at 60 speed it's only mediocre. Regardless, it should be a fun challenge, so let's get into it. All the usual rules apply: no using other Pokemon to battle, no Pokemon-Amie or Super Training, no items in battle.

I opt to pick Treecko as my starter. This is less consequential than in other games, but this does impact the rival's choices. Their team will be the starter, Raichu, Swellow, and two of Wailord/Breloom/Magcargo. Since I chose Treecko, this means the rival has Wailord/Breloom/Blaziken. The starter is obviously the biggest concern, but I can work with this. The initial Poochyena battle and the rival battle have to be done with the starter, but after getting my Seedot the real fun begins. Now, to anyone thinking of doing this run: don't. The simple reason: Seedot's only attacking move is Bide, and the only other level-up moves it gets before evolution are Harden (pretty much useless) and Growth (good for later). (It does learn Nature Power at level 15, but this requires another level past evolution and I was sick of Bide by then.) This essentially turns the entire early-game into a complete crapshoot. The only way to deal damage is to take damage back, and the only real way to deal with trainers with multiple Pokemon is to use my very limited supply of Oran Berries. The crowning moment of this came when I encountered Youngster Billy on Route 104 to discover that his lead Pokemon was...a Seedot. With no options, I was left with the humiliation of watching two Seedot stare at each other until his Taillow came in and Pecked me to death. I won't go into the details of how long it took to evolve Seedot (which I named Pikmin for obvious reasons) or how many times I blacked out, but I evolved into Nuzleaf immediately before facing Roxanne at about two hours of in-game time. With this, Nuzleaf learns Razor Leaf and I can now progress with a way to deal direct damage.

Roxanne

Even with Nuzleaf learning Razor Leaf upon evolution and having a type advantage, this battle still isn't free. Roxanne's Geodude has Sturdy, meaning Nuzleaf takes one Rock Tomb back before taking it out. Nosepass is problematic as unboosted Razor Leaf at Level 14/15 is only a 3HKO, so I need to set up with Growth to turn it into a 2HKO or else Nosepass can outspeed me after the second Rock Tomb and faint me before I can beat it. However, this means I take more damage from Geodude, so I need one of a few things to occur:

1. Geodude to not use Rock Tomb twice.
2. Either Geodude or Nosepass to miss with Rock Tomb.
3. Razor Leaf to get a crit against Nosepass.

I ended up getting the first of those options, as Geodude went for a Tackle on its second turn instead of two Rock Tombs. Without the extra speed drop and being at +1 from Growth, I was able to take down Nosepass and earn my first Gym Badge. This also allows me to teach Nuzleaf Rock Tomb, giving it another option for dealing damage. After dealing with the Team Magma member in the tunnel, I rescue Peeko and can go off to Dewford Town. The cave where I'd find Steven is blocked for now, so the only path forward is to go to the Gym. I haven't actually beaten Brawly yet as I wanted to get this out to start, but I'm working on strategies for it! It's a tricky one, as Brawly has a type advantage over me, but I'm hoping to figure out a way around it without overleveling.

"Pikmin" the Nuzleaf, Level 18
- Razor Leaf
- Rock Tomb
- Torment
- Growth

 

[SwampySwampert]

Hello again! Made some decent progress on the run, so it’s time for another update.

Brawly

This battle took a bit of crafting to work around, but was an easy win once I got a strategy down. The issue is that Brawly’s Pokemon are both Fighting-type, which combined with Nuzleaf’s horrible Defense is a bad situation. Razor Leaf 2HKOs Machop, but wouldn’t leave Nuzleaf with enough health to deal with the Makuhita that follows it up, especially with likely needing to set up with Growth to even get that far. I also have a very restricted movepool, and pretty much only have Razor Leaf as an attacking move at this point. Fortunately, by taking the boat back to Route 104, I can catch a Zigzagoon (which I need for HM purposes anyway) and teach it Cut, which is used to access a bonus area of Petalburg Woods. A girl there will give me a Miracle Seed, which boosts the power of Grass moves by 20%. Perfect. After heading back to Dewford, I jump back into the battle. After Growth, the power boost from the Miracle Seed at Level 18 is enough to reliably OHKO Machop. Makuhita is next up, and as long as Karate Chop doesn’t crit (which it did on my first attempt with this strategy), I can win. For some reason, Brawly’s AI decides that a resisted Knock Off is a better solution than Arm Thrust (the AI is really bad at knowing how multi-hit moves work), meaning Nuzleaf doesn’t get knocked out. I did miss my first Razor Leaf, but the second one critted and OHKO’d Makuhita. I don’t know if it would have been a OHKO without the crit, but as my first Razor Leaf missed and I outsped Makuhita it’s a wash anyway. Two badges down!

Moving on to Slateport City, there isn’t much to do here outside of the story quests. I can pick up the Soothe Bell from the Fan Club, but as Return is an endgame item anyway it doesn’t matter. The bigger reward comes from the Oceanic Museum, where a grunt gives me the TM for Thief. While its item-stealing capability isn’t likely to see much use, it’s still a 60 BP STAB move with no drawbacks, so I happily teach it to Nuzleaf, replacing Torment. The battle with the grunts upstairs is slightly problematic, as it’s a gauntlet of Numel/Zubat/Numel between two trainers with no chance to heal. Jumping into it, Thief juuuuuust misses OHKOing the first Numel and Nuzleaf takes a Flame Burst for heavy damage. Zubat outspeeds and goes for Supersonic, which misses, and the second Numel uses Ember which doesn’t knock out Nuzleaf, allowing for Thief to be a 2HKO on it as well. I could have grinded a level or two to make this battle essentially free, but I still won so it’s no big deal.

Rival 2

What is a big deal, however, is one of the most infamous battles in the game in Rival 2. Brendan (I’m playing as the girl) has a Level 18 Wailmer, a Level 20 Combusken, and a Level 18 Shroomish, in that order, and I have a Level 21 Nuzleaf. +1 Miracle Seed-boosted Razor Leaf OHKOs Wailmer, but the bigger issue is Combusken. At +1 from Growth, Rock Tomb doesn’t even do half damage to Combusken, and it has Double Kick and Flame Charge to demolish Nuzleaf. I even went up to +3 with Growth before taking out Wailmer to see if that was enough for Rock Tomb to be an OHKO on Combusken, but it isn’t and the chip damage taken from Wailmer’s Rollout and Whirlpool takes Nuzleaf’s HP down to where Combusken to finish it off. My first thought for getting around this issue was to get a Hard Stone – with a 20% boost to Rock moves, if I can just find a way to get up to +4 attack I should be able to OHKO Combusken with boosted Rock Tomb. However, the only places to get a Hard Stone before the fourth badge are from a man on Route 114, from the second puzzle in the Trick House (which requires Rock Smash) or by looting wild Aron or Nosepass for their held items in Granite Cave (requires a bike and the latter only appears with Rock Smash), so that’s out of the question. My only other option without leveling up a lot is to find out at which level Nuzleaf can 2HKO Combusken at Rock Tomb while surviving whatever move it takes back. As it turns out, this comes at Level 24. Part of what helps with this is that Wailmer can sometimes use the relatively useless Astonish instead of Rollout or Whirlpool. With Wailmer using Astonish twice, I can get up to +2 with Growth before cleanly OHKOing with Razor Leaf - any higher and I risked being KO'd by Combusken and the stat boosts wouldn't help. Combusken comes in and takes a Rock Tomb for about 2/3 health while taking down most of Nuzleaf’s health with Flame Charge. The speed drop from Rock Tomb actually matters here, or else I would have had to level even higher, and a second Rock Tomb deals with it. The rival’s last Pokemon is a Shroomish, which is easily taken down with the newly learned Feint Attack. The rest of the route to Mauville City is of little trouble.

Wattson

As it turns out, the Electric-type gym leader is actually a complete joke, and this is for two reasons. The first is that I can buy the TM for Power-Up Punch from the Poke Mart, a Fighting-type move that has 40 base power and gives a +1 to Attack when used. The second is that a man on the top floor gives me the Metronome, an item that boosts a move’s power by 20% (additively) each consecutive turn that a move is used. See where this is going? I go into the battle with Nuzleaf at Level 26, a little overleveled but not extremely so (scaling doesn’t really work when one Pokemon does all the fighting itself, though I try not to battle optional trainers if I don’t have to). Power-Up Punch and the Metronome are still only a 2HKO on Magnemite, and I get paralyzed and take a Tackle in the process. Next up is Magneton, who thankfully doesn’t have Sturdy, but it does use Supersonic to confuse me. Somehow, I don’t get paralyzed or hit myself in confusion on that turn, and a T3 Power-Up Punch at +2 Attack easily dispatches Magneton. Wattson’s last Pokemon is a Voltorb, and the luck that I got for that Magneton OHKO comes back to bite me as I get fully paralyzed on consecutive turns. Fortunately, Voltorb doesn’t do anything but spam Charge and one Feint Attack easily deals with it. Wahahahahahahahaha, victory is mine!

Currently working my way up to Fallarbor Town, but as I’m still a bit away from another major battle I thought this was a good place to write an update!

Current status:
Nuzleaf, Level 31

• Leaf Blade
• Feint Attack
• Growth
• Power-Up Punch

Nuzleaf doesn’t have great matchups against some of the remaining Gyms (Flannery and Winona, this means you), but Leaf Blade being its main STAB provides decent coverage, and as more TMs are unlocked it’ll become more versatile.

 

[SwampySwampert]

After disappearing for like a year, it's time to get this show back on the road.

Flannery

As would be expected, Flannery is awful for a Nuzleaf to face. I initially went into this battle at Level 33, and it didn’t go well. Her team is incredibly slow, so even Nuzleaf is able to consistently go first, but the problem is Overheat, an extremely powerful move that has to be considered. Slugma is an OHKO with Dig (which can be picked up from the Fossil Maniac west of Fallarbor Town) but then Torkoal comes in. Even with the Soft Sand equipped, Dig doesn’t do half damage and Torkoal just obliterates my Nuzleaf with sun-boosted Overheat. I tried using one or two Swords Dances (can be picked up in Lavaridge Town) to try and make Dig a one-shot on the Torkoal (Slugma usually cooperated by using Sunny Day and Light Screen), but the new issue is now with the AI. Torkoal likes to go for Curse on its first turn, and with the defense boost Dig is no longer a one-shot at +4, meaning it stays alive to use Overheat. Slugma only has Overheat and Rock Throw as attacking moves, so other than praying for the 10% odds of an Overheat miss along with it not going for it on Turns 1 and 2 setting up a third Swords Dance isn’t an option.

I next tried leveling up to Level 35 to see if that would be enough to make Dig a 2HKO (OHKO after Swords Dance), but something interesting ended up happening. Instead of going for Sunny Day on Turn 1 like it had been doing, the Slugma went for Overheat on the first turn, which at this level I was just able to survive . I then picked it off with Dig, but now when the Torkoal came out the math had changed. Since I was now in KO range, Torkoal went for Overheat rather than Curse while I was underground, and without that defense boost and my increased level my +2 Dig was now a one-shot. Numel is a joke and gets taken out by Dig (it used Amnesia, which is whatever). Victory!

Norman

Going into this battle, I was cautiously optimistic for Norman. Since Dig is a two-turn attack and I outspeed his first Slaking at Level 36, I figured that I could just use Dig every other turn and not get hit due to Truant. I used Dig and…it didn’t do much as I take back a Retaliate for minimal damage. (Turn 1 Retaliate, new meta folks.) While I’m not getting hit, Dig would be a 5HKO and I wouldn’t have enough left for his second Slaking, so I switched gears after the first Dig. I went for Swords Dance and took a Yawn in response. I meant to go for Leaf Blade on the next turn, but misclicked and accidentally hit Swords Dance instead, getting up to +4 but falling asleep. Thankfully, this Nuzleaf has Early Bird (in the greater context of things I would’ve preferred Chlorophyll, but what’re you gonna do), so I get the zero-turn sleep and am able to finish off the first Slaking with Dig. Vigoroth is slower than Slaking, so Dig on that was a simple outspeed and OHKO, but my concern is the second Slaking. I wasn’t sure if I outsped it since it’s Level 30, but I do. Unfortunately, Dig isn’t a OHKO, but it uses Chip Away (I honestly don’t know why it didn’t go for Retaliate, which would have one-shotted me) which doesn’t knock me out and I can finish off Norman the next turn.

After this battle, I have to do the forced sidequest with Steven and get a free Latios, so I have to go back to Mauville City to box it. This actually ends up being really helpful, since between Latios and the Treecko I took for my starter I have perfect HM coverage between just two Pokemon without having to expend the effort to catch any. Thus begins the adventure of the most overqualified HM slave of all time.

Winona

I was actually unaware of this until this point, but you can’t leave Winona for later anymore in ORAS like you could in the original games, as an Ace Trainer won’t let you go any further on Route 120 until you have the badge from this Gym. If only this was still a thing, we could proceed to Lilycove and beyond and take on Tate and Liza, which would be a much better matchup, but alas that’s gone. Though this is a bad matchup for Nuzleaf, all I can do at this point is take it on.

Once I get in the door of the Gym, I immediately realize I’m in trouble. The first Bird Keeper has a Level 30 Swellow, and Rock Tomb, the best move I have to get through this Gym, isn’t even a one-shot while its Wing Attack does about 60% to me. Winona’s Swellow is three levels higher and has Quick Attack to compensate for the speed drop, and she has three more Pokemon after that. I really need to emphasize how bad Nuzleaf’s moveset is here - we’re only halfway through the game and we’re using a combination of Leaf Blade, Swords Dance, Rock Tomb/Dig, and Feint Attack. Return, Rock Slide, and Brick Break are all endgame items.

My first attempt at Winona at Level 41 failed, though I did see a path to win. Nuzleaf was outsped by Swellow and took an Aerial Ace for about two-thirds, while a Rock Tomb took Swellow down to red health. My plan was to use Swords Dance on the healing turn and OHKO with Rock Tomb (going first due to the speed drop). Pelipper really likes to use Protect on the first turn, so it was setup fodder there and was a consistent OHKO with Leaf Blade, but the issue is Skarmory. Even at +4 Attack, a STAB Feint Attack doesn’t take it out from full health and Skarmory just finishes off whatever’s left of my Nuzleaf with Aerial Ace.

The only real option here is to level up, as there’s not much in the way of creative strategies that can be used here (or are worth going all the way across the map and back for since I don’t have Fly). Once we get to Lilycove City, a huge chunk of the game opens up, but for now there’s not much that can be done. Level 44 turned out to be the important threshold, as with this level Nuzleaf now both outspeeds and OHKOs the lead Swellow. Pelipper goes for Protect as always as I boost to +2. I need to get a second Swords Dance up to take on Skarmory, and take an Aerial Ace for about a third in the process (Pelipper has horrible Attack). Leaf Blade takes care of the Pelipper, and Winona sends out the Skarmory. I go for Feint Attack, but Skarmory survives with minlmal HP. I had the Rocky Helmet equipped hoping it would go for Aerial Ace and knock itself out on the recoil (as well as being a backup plan for if Swellow wasn’t a OHKO) but Skarmory went for Air Cutter for some reason. Winona heals and my next Feint Attack still wasn’t a one-shot (it might have been an unfavourable range but I’m not sure) but I’m still faster so it’s no harm. Finally, Altaria is outsped and easily dispatched with a single Rock Tomb. This was a very messy fight to plan for, but it's good to get out of the way since I can finally use Fly, which I dutifully teach to my boxed Latios.

That’s all for this (extremely delayed) update! Next time will be the story stuff and probably the last two gyms as well. Looking ahead, Tate and Liza should be a total joke and I don’t foresee problems with Wallace either. Maxie looks awful though, and if it wasn’t for the Master Ball fighting Primal Groudon could honestly be an issue.

“Pikmin” Nuzleaf - Level 45

• Leaf Blade
• Rock Tomb
• Swords Dance
• Feint Attack

 

[SwampySwampert]

Brendan

I haven’t played these games up to this point in years, so I completely missed that the rival battle in Lilycove City is now mandatory. For anyone who played the original games, he has been buffed significantly. He now leads with a Swellow, which outspeeds Nuzleaf, and once I knock that out he then sends out a Blaziken. His fully-evolved starter is Level 39 and has Blaze Kick, which does massive damage to me and is a knockout if I’ve already been hit by Aerial Ace from Swellow, so unsurprisingly I need to figure out a way to make this a OHKO. I went back to the Trick House and got the Hard Stone, but even though I outspeed Blaziken, a 1.2x Rock Tomb barely does a third at my level and…yeah. I’m going to need a new plan. I was initially curious how much Dig would do, but I couldn’t use this because then I wouldn’t be able to OHKO Swellow and I need Feint Attack to avoid Double Team shenanigans. There’s nothing else that can be done in the game until this battle is complete, so all I can do is level up.

I also changed up my strategy a bit. Since Swellow always uses Double Team on the first turn, I decided to set up Swords Dance, then knocked it out with the always-accurate Feint Attack while taking back an Aerial Ace for over half. Since I outsped Blaziken, I can use Dig and avoid a Blaze Kick. Something else that can happen is Blaziken can use Bulk Up sometimes, but that didn’t happen here and Dig was an easy OHKO. Breloom comes out next, and it’s a problem because it can use Mach Punch. All of my moves are resisted, so I just went for Leaf Blade for the most power while Breloom uses the utterly useless Mind Reader (seriously, why does it even have this move with three 100% accurate attacks). The next turn, I take a Mach Punch and barely survive with 8 HP before finishing off Breloom, so leveling up to Level 52 was necessary here. Wailord is frail and gets taken out with one Leaf Blade. The Magma Hideout was uneventful and I grab the Master Ball for Groudon and TM97 Dark Pulse for later.

Tate and Liza

Tate and Liza won’t battle you without two Pokemon in your party, so I grabbed a Zigzagoon to serve as fodder, but even then this battle is completely free. Lunatone does not have a move capable of hitting Dark-types and I don’t care about Light Screen or Calm Mind, and Solrock doesn’t have Flamethrower like it did in the original, so the only question is if I can outspeed Solrock (to avoid sleep shenanigans from Hypnosis). Leaf Blade is a OHKO on Solrock and Lunatone uses Psychic on Zigzagoon (it’s whatever, even if it hit me with sleep it can’t actually do anything) before meeting a quick end on the next turn. Now that I have Dive, I go ahead and unlock Sootopolis City to use as a forward operating base for the next part of the game, as well as grab Return from Pacifidlog for a better neutral-effective option.

Maxie

As I foreshadowed in the last update, this battle is absolutely brutal for Nuzleaf. There isn’t just one Pokemon that is awful here, it’s his whole team. Mightyena is the only thing I can even remotely try and set up on, and it likes to be a giant troll with Scary Face and Taunt. If I’m slower than Maxie’s Weezing, it can use Explosion and take off pretty much all my health, and it has Sludge Bomb as well. Crobat has Poison Fang and Acrobatics, and while Camerupt thankfully doesn’t have any fire moves it can put me to sleep with Yawn while buffing itself with Curse. I can get a White Herb from two different places in the game, both of which are available, but even with that it’s obvious I need to level up - a lot.

4-moveslot syndrome strikes hard here - I need Leaf Blade for Mightyena and Swords Dance for setting up, while Dig is my only super-effective move against Camerupt it can’t hit Weezing or Crobat, Rock Slide is my best option against Crobat since that has to be an OHKO, and Dark Pulse attacks into the much weaker Special Defense of Weezing to lessen the chances it arbitrarily decides to use Explosion. I think the safest option is to use the White Herb to outspeed Weezing and maybe hope for a flinch at 20% odds, but with how long it takes to even get to the Maxie fight I’ll need to be sure that I have a workable strategy before going in.

The good part about leveling up here is that there are a ton of Swimmers to KO for easy experience, so this didn’t take too long. At Level 56, I went back and tried the fight again with the White Herb strat and using Leaf Blade/Swords Dance/Dark Pulse/Rock Slide. Mightyena is unsurprisingly an OHKO with Leaf Blade after the Swords Dance, and the White Herb cancelled the Scary Face as expected. Weezing is next and Dark Pulse does over half, but it screws me by using Haze. This happened a few times and because I’m boosted it’s his preferred move to eliminate that. To my surprise, at this level Nuzleaf actually outspeeds Crobat, but Rock Slide isn’t an OHKO and while I can survive the Acrobatics that it fires back I don’t have enough HP left for Camerupt after its Mega Evolution and it finishes me off. It was a really close miss on Crobat with Rock Slide, so I just opted to level up and at Level 59 Rock Slide did OHKO Crobat (it did land a crit on that turn, but I don’t think it mattered and I’d have just gone up another level if it didn’t). Now at full health for Camerupt, it was an easy 2HKO with Leaf Blade + Dark Pulse as it only used Curse.

With Maxie defeated, he immediately awakens his kaiju and I have to go solve a bigger problem. Dick. Going into the Primal Groudon fight in the Cave of Origin, I initially tried to take the coward’s way out by running away, but that’s another thing that was fixed in the remakes and the cutscene will just play again. I just threw the Master Ball at it and called it a day, and went outside to celebrate with everyone.

Wallace

The hardest part of the Gym was relearning the puzzle and it took me a few tries to get right. Other than that, Wallace is a joke. Luvdisc can’t be set up on since it knows Draining Kiss, but it doesn’t matter anyway. Everything is an outspeed + OHKO except Sealeo, which doesn’t matter since Rock Slide got a flinch. With the eighth badge, I have completed my goal of turning one of the most powerful Pokemon in Hoenn into a taxi.

That’s all the Gyms done! I’ll have one more update for the Elite Four and the Champion, and another for the Delta Episode. The difficulty curve in this run has been pretty all over the place, with the early game being pretty easy, the mid-to-late game being super difficult, and then it cooling back off for Wallace before spiking again for the end. Till next time!

“Pikmin” Nuzleaf, Level 61
Leaf Blade
Swords Dance
Rock Slide
Dark Pulse

 

[SwampySwampert]

The long-overdue ending!

Wally

On paper, Wally is a terrible matchup for Nuzleaf as he has several type-resists and his ace is a Gallade that has Close Combat. It actually didn’t end up being as bad as it seemed, though. My first attempt fainted to Roselia since Screech from Magneton into Petal Blizzard is just awful, but I changed up my strategy and went back in. Since I’m so overleveled from the Maxie fight, Altaria is a 2HKO with Hard Stone, though it just uses Cotton Guard. I mispredict a heal (I don’t think he has any Full Restores) and I take an Aerial Ace for ~30%. This is not ideal, though not the end of the world, and I take it out. Next up is Delcatty, which is an easy OHKO with Brick Break (gotten in Sootopolis). Magneton comes out third and has Sturdy which means it will always get off a Screech, but realistically Gallade would obliterate Nuzleaf with Close Combat anyway. Roselia is next and is OHKO’d by a Rock Slide, and finally Wally sends out his Gallade. The only question here is if I can outspeed and OHKO it before it destroys me, and it turns out that Leaf Blade does. In Gen 6 only, speed is determined before a Mega Evolution, not after it, so that was the only way I could make this work.

Sidney and Phoebe

The Elite Four get off to a good start, as Sidney is pretty consistent with Brick Break. His lead Mightyena is an issue because it has Intimidate, but I can get rid of that by using a Swords Dance and everything is an OHKO. The only other snag is that Mightyena also knows Swagger, but thankfully it doesn’t have the best accuracy so this battle is pretty easy - if I was really worried I could equip a Persim Berry, but it’s not a big deal. Moving on, Phoebe’s Ghost-types aren’t an issue for their pure strength, but more because she can be really trolly. Dark Pulse with the Expert Belt easily one-shots the first Dusclops (important since it knows Curse), but at my level of 64 the Dusknoir is an unfavourable damage range from what I saw. If it survives, it can do massive damage with Fire Punch, and if it gets a burn that’s a reset since Sableye has Fake Out to waste a turn. Sableye was also not a knockout with Leaf Blade so it nearly knocked me out, but ultimately grinding up a level or two was the more consistent strategy anyway. At the higher level, Dusknoir is a consistent OHKO, and we’re moving on.

Glacia

Glacia is the first real challenge of the Elite Four. She’s not difficult in and of herself, as Nuzleaf outspeeds and OHKOs everything after a Swords Dance, but the issue is that her lead Glalie will always use Hail on the first turn and have Ice Shard for priority. Glacia’s two Froslass compound the issue by having Snow Cloak to up their evasion, and if an attack misses they can instantly end the battle with Blizzard. There are thus two issues here - one is the chip damage from Ice Shard and Hail, the other is the randomness of Snow Cloak. The chip damage can be pretty much eliminated by using the Shell Bell from Shoal Cave, and if everything hits I finish the battle near full health. The randomness could be worked around by using Feint Attack to avoid the accuracy drop, since it can be relearned, but I’d have to keep it for Phoebe since I’d be missing out on valuable extra power from Dark Pulse that makes Dusknoir an OHKO. With Dark Pulse it’s a 64% chance to hit both times so it’s a little better than a coin flip, but since Sidney and Phoebe are pretty much free at this point I’m more than okay with those odds since I can easily get back here.

Drake

Not gonna lie, I was terrified of Drake. His lead Altaria has Cotton Guard and Aerial Ace, his ace is a Salamence, and all of his Pokemon have strong moves. As it turns, I needn’t have worried. At Level 69 (nice), Nuzleaf is strong enough to survive two Aerial Aces from Altaria, allowing it to set up, and even with Altaria at +3 from Cotton Guard a +4 Rock Slide is a one-shot. I even missed once and was still able to do it. Surprisingly, Nuzleaf actually outspeeds Drake’s entire team at this level and is able to one-shot them with its Attack boost. On to Steven!

Steven

The Champion’s team is no joke. His lead is a Skarmory that has Aerial Ace and Toxic, complicating any set-up attempts against it, his Armaldo is bulky and can one-shot me from full health with X-Scissor, and of course there’s Metagross. Even though Claydol looks like a delicious set-up candidate, Steven knows that and won’t send it in until later, instead opting to always send out Armaldo second. Therefore, the challenge is clear: I need to find a way to one-shot Armaldo. The complication of this battle is that the optimal way to tackle each of Steven’s team members requires a different move - Swords Dance is necessary for setup, Dark Pulse is the only way to 2HKO Skarmory without grinding to an absurd level to where +2 Rock Slide would do so as well as being the best move for Metagross; Rock Slide is the only super-effective option for Armaldo; Brick Break is the best option for Aggron and Cradily; and while Leaf Blade isn’t the best option for this specific fight, it’s the only one that I can’t get back without going to the Move Relearner, so if I delete it and can’t beat Steven at that level then I’m stuck until I can fish up a Luvdisc.

I eventually made it back to Steven at Level 75, this time using the Shell Bell strat again for a bit of extra recovery and using Brick Break/Rock Slide/Swords Dance/Dark Pulse. This level is important because I now survive two Aerial Ace attacks from Skarmory, meaning I can use a Swords Dance and 2HKO with Dark Pulse. Armaldo is the scariest member, but it goes down with a single Rock Slide, and Cradily soon follows with Brick Break. The huge issue here is Aggron. It has Sturdy, meaning it will survive a Brick Break, and even with Shell Bell recovery from Armaldo, Cradily and Aggron, Stone Edge or Iron Tail is still enough to take me out. I need either a flinch on Skarmory or a Stone Edge or Iron Tail miss from Aggron, both of which are a 20ish% chance.

The break I needed came on my sixth attempt at this level. For whatever reason, Steven inexplicably decided to use Toxic on turn 1 (he did it on the prior attempt as well, but did it on Turn 2 which is worse because it's less turns to work with it), and more importantly it missed, meaning that I was still at half health when it went down. Armaldo and Cradily went the same, and while Aggron still hit with Stone Edge I was still at about half health for Claydol - Steven also used both his Full Restores here. Since Nuzleaf basically walls it completely, I took the opportunity to set up two more Swords Dances. I'm lucky here that even though Claydol can't do anything to me, it will always go out 5th because Steven will always send out his Metagross last as his ace. After knocking it out, I was at about 80/210 HP for Metagross. Even though I was at +6, Brick Break still only did about two-thirds (Mega Metagross is really tanky), but then the final piece of luck I needed happened - Metagross used Giga Impact and it missed, securing the victory.

Wish I could have gotten this challenge out sooner, but I think the battle with Steven made it well worth it and was a huge upgrade over the way the Beedrill challenge ended. Sure, it was a lucky strategy, but I had to deal with the Glacia lottery just to get there, so I have no complaints with how this went. I don’t think I’ll do the Delta Episode for this run, since none of the trainers on it are difficult and the game forces you to use Rayquaza, but I am curious on what to do next. Thanks for reading!

Final

“Pikmin” the Nuzleaf, Level 76
@ Shell Bell

• Brick Break
• Rock Slide
• Swords Dance
• Dark Pulse