Challenge Pokemon sword: Unevolved Dark type run (COMPLETED!!)

[Jerry the great]

Approved by DHR-107

Hello everyone! I will be doing an unevolved mono dark run! This intro will explain some ground rules I'll be abiding in this challenge, as well as some thoughts. All of my posts in this after this will contain images of my team members at the end, as well as how major battles went and stuff.

Rules I'll be following:
No evolving Pokemon or catching evolved Pokemon or using any Pokemon other than dark types (besides the starter for before I get my first dark type)

No using single stage mons such as sableye

Pokemon that evolve into a dark type but aren't one (such as pancham) will not be allowed to be used in this challenge. Because that for me, kills the purpose of the whole unevolved run spirit.


Now that the rules are explained, let me say how I feel this might go. I feel as if early game won't be too bad, but it'll be really grind heavy once we reach Kabu. I'll be playing on sword version for extra challenge (as Bea is a fighting type master, while allister is a ghost type master). I also know it's possible, but it's brutal. Pokemon Sword and shield for me was a challenge already, but only against specific major battles. So it'll make me happy to know much more bosses will be an actual challenge. I hope you all enjoy this just as much as I know I'll enjoy playing it!

Now that I said all my thoughts and rules, I'll just go on ahead now and say that I should be saying my progress after beating Nessa. For now though... Bye! I should be telling my progress on that tonight or early tomorrow.

 

[Jerry the great]

Well that took quite a while... Anyways! I managed to beat Nessa so this is where I shall show my progress.

Surprisingly, the first route where I could use dark types (Galgarian zigzagon and nickit) was the hardest route. I was so close to losing to the first trainer with my only party member being a level 7 nickit. I was pretty much taking far too much damage, while dealing little damage myself, but I managed to live on thanks to my many potions... At first. However, he debuffed my defense by two and then started attacking, doing half my health for damage. I thought "this is it. It's over. I'll have to grind to level 15 I suppose..." But then lord RNG gave me his respect. He just kept on spamming tail whip once I got him to a quarter of his health and didn't attack ONCE. I finished him off 3 quick attacks later. The other trainers required me to use a potion or two, but that's about it. Thankfully every random trainer after the first one so far in the run was no big deal. I caught a Galgarian Zigzagoon before fighting Hop, as well as went behind the professor's house to get TM payback. His Wooloo went down with relative ease, though a potion was needed. His Grookey came out, and that was by a long shot his most formidable member. I was doing so little damage to him, but he did so much to me. Thankfully Grookey had an attack lowering move instead of a defense lowering move. Eventually, after getting Grookey down to enough health, I was getting very low on potions. So I switch Zigzagoon into a scratch, it survived a branch poke after that with two HP and KO'd with payback, and Rookidiee came out. I swap into Nickit, and using the last of my potions, I did manage to beat it. I know he isn't required to beat in this fight, but I still wanted the EXP. Soon, I reach the wild area, where I was caught with a problem: I couldn't seem to beat any dynamax Pokemon. That is a HUGE problem because I REALLY needed EXP candy... At first I wasn't able to. Thanks to the storm mechanic. However, I did eventually find a wild dynamax natu, beat it with just one turn left to spare, and showed mercy by letting it flee from me instead of forcing it to join me. I got the candies, made Galatian Zigzagoon stronger with some candies, caught a wild Purrloin, and then went on a rampage to beat (but not catch any besides a stunky due to it being part dark type) a bunch of dynamax Pokemon, and got lots of candy. This candy proved to be useful later on, and I know it will in the future. Anyways, the next Hop battle was no big deal as one of the TRs I got was Throat Chop, and I taught it to stunky, which allowed me to beat him without too many issues. Thank goodness, as the last Hop battle was VERY tedious. Anyways, Bede was a total joke as I expected due to him having only psychic types, I swept Milo with Stunky, and the next Hop battle was also no big deal. Nessa was coming up, and I knew she'd cause problems, so I used a TR on seed bomb and taught it to Zigzagoon before entering her gym. The battle with her was pretty similar to how the battles against her in my normal runs went: Goldeen and that other fish was a joke, but Drednaw was a nightmare. This thing always gave me trouble when I fought her. Just like in my normal runs, I couldn't beat her with pure force, so I used strategy. It OHKOd my Zigzagoon, I sent in Purrloin, which I thought could stall a turn with fake out, but sadly I forgotten dynamax prevents fake out from flinching it. I sent out Stunky next, doing... Meh amounts of damage with throat chop, it barely survived at full HP, dynamax wore off, and this is where the strategy came to play: I intentionally let it die so the effects of Aftermath would occur. I then sent out Nickit, revived stunky, let Nickit die, used my last revive on Zigzagoon, let Stunky die to take advantage of aftermath again, used a X defense of Zigzagoon so it'd survive a razor shell, healed it, Drednaw used it's last razor shell, and water gun and bite didn't do much. 2 seed bombs and one super potion later, I won. That was a very close battle. I then decide to go have sushi with Chairman rose so I could get TM retaliate from Sonia, and saved my game.
Here is my current team members! I wish the pics looked a bit clearer, but hey I took them directly off my switch so this was the best I could do.

My next rundown should be Sunday, considering the next three will likely be the hardest of them all. I will beat Kabu, Bea, and the old fairy gym leader, and that'll be where I stop. To be continued...

 

[Jerry the great]

Well it took me a lot less time to beat Opal than I thought it would. Anyways, time to give another rundown.

So Bede was a joke just like last time. Kabu was scary, just as I thought he'd be. Before I fought him, I went to the wild area to catch some level 28-30 mons. Marnie was easy, as Inkay OHKO'd crogaunk, and with a super potion, took down the other two. Anyways, when I fought him, I used Stunky to fight his Ninetales and Arcanine, since they have Will-O-Wisp and everyone but Stunky had exclusively attack or status moves (minus sneasel who had icy wind for a special attack). With lot's of super potions combined with the toxic + venoshock combo, I took em both out without Stunky dying. Then Centiskcortch came out, and that thing was just as scary as I thought it'd be. I tried using toxic on it, but it Dynamaxed, outsped me, and OHKO'd me with Max Flutterby. I then used strategy tactics, in which I mean I sent out sneasel since I knew it'd outspeed, used icy wind to slow down Centiskortch, and went down to the fire dynamax move. I then sent out Zigzagoon as bait to revive stunky. It died to a Max Flutterby as I predicted. Then I sent out Stunky, used toxic, and then barely survived as I used a max revive on it for some reason. I then used venoshock, did solid damage, and stalled it's last turn by sending in scraggy and making it use protect. After this, I got scared since I knew Bea was coming up. So I had Inkay do lot's of battles and fought dynamax mons again. The next Hop battle was a joke, besides Cramorant who nearly beat Inkay. After beating him, I used all my exp candy on it and got it only to level 36. So I did some battles and dynamax battles, and all the exp candy + wild battles + a rare candy was enough to get it to level 40. I think I over prepared myself though, as I had X attacks and X defenses stashed in my bag, and I used 3 of both, which made Inkay easily sweep her. Opal was next, and man that went terrible the first time. Stunky only had 3 venoshocks left, so it's not like I could toxic venoshock combo again. So before the battle, I took the eviliote off of it and put it on sneasel. It was able to deal with Galatian Weezing without too much troubles with metal claw. Then Togekiss came out. I swear, I did so little damage while Togekiss was doing so much + Healing via draining kiss. So I sent in Stunky and used toxic. Toxic + aftermath did a good number, but it just kept on doing so much damage + healing while taking little damage itself. Eventually, after many of my Pokemon going down, I sent out Impnimp and had it use torment, which wouldn't have worked if Togekiss hadn't hit itself from confusion from swagger. Impinimp went down, but my next Mon was Scraggy. It used ancient power, I live and do little damage, and it goes down to toxic poison. Mawile then comes, and via swagger luck + my team coming at it (although severely beat up from Togekiss) I took it out. Lastly came Alcremie, and my team was too weakened to beat that thing. So I come back again and thankfully since I didn't have to do the gym mission, so I had eviliote back on Stunky, and I came back with all my venoshock PP. I use 2 X special defenses, get the first question right for a speed buff, use 3 X Sp.Attacks, and dynamax and OHKO with max ooze, get the next question right for more special defense buffs, OHKO Togekiss (which felt GOOD after last time), and then resort to using a bunch of dark moves on Mawile and it healed almost none and did little damage thanks to my special defense buffs, and two hit KO'd alcermire with it dynamaxed with venoshock.

I won't be resorting to pictures this time since they aren't the clearest + They take up loads of space so I'll just type the info from here.

Stunky: Level 40
Item: Leftovers
Moves: Toxic, Night Slash, Sucker Punch, Venoshock

Impidimp: Level 37
Moves: Nasty Plot, Sucker Punch, Swagger, Dark pulse (it forgot torment after the battle)

Sneasel: Level 39
Moves: Quick Attack, Metal Claw, Icy Wind, fury swipes

Inkay: Level 43
Item: Leftovers
Moves: Swagger, Superpower, Foul Play, Psycho cut

Zigzagoon: Level 38
Moves: Double Edge, Seed Bomb, Counter, Payback

Scraggy: Level 38
Moves: Headbutt, Beat Up, Brick Break, Swagger

And that's it for this rundown folks! Man, the lower stats of unevolved mons are starting to cause problems now... Anyways, my next rundown will be running down all the way until Raihan, and the rundown after that will be until the end of the game, which will be my final one. I think I'll beat Raihan tomorrow, but hey you never know. Until then, to be continued...

Edit: Sorry this is being delayed... It's just that I'm beginning to have less free time + trying to find a Deino takes forever.

 

[Jerry the great]

Sorry for the massive delay. It's just that life is giving me less free time these days + Getting a Deino felt like an eternity. But I persisted though... I never gave up... I searched and searched... I used bulbepedia to know what dynamax dens contain it... I kept getting more wishing stars... And last night, I finally had the right weather condition to find a Deino. Took a long time to find one, and even longer to find a level 50 one (as I only had 6 badges). But I eventually caught one. Anyways... Time for a rundown!

This time, Hop was a legitimate threat. ... Though mainly because of his Snorlax and Rilaboom. They just kept on hitting like a truck and took my hits like a boss. Corviknight was also somewhat scary, but manageable. The Dubwool was a joke though. But thanks to Stunky's toxic, I didn't have to grind. Now for the rock gym leader... That barbaracle was probably his scariest member. It took a team effort of Inkay (who died without getting to do anything, which surprised me), sneasel, who used icy wind to slow it down, Stunky, to toxic it, Zigzagoon who used seed bomb on it and died, and the toxic poison killed the Barbaracle. Then comes out Shuckle. My pawniard made it a total joke, what with defiant and the part steel type and whatnot. Then stonojourner comes. I revived Stunky to use toxic on it, it barely survives due to eviliote, uses venoshock, and goes down. Then scraggy comes out, and I toxic stall that thing with revives. Then Carcoal came out. Thanks to me being so weakened, that thing was scary. Thankfully I was aware this dude would cause issues and bought 99 revives before entering the gym. So I stall the thing out of it's dynamax form, stall out it's heat crashes, have Stunky survive a rock tomb, use toxic on it, and toxic stall it. I swear, the sheer amount of revives this took was absolutely insane... I had only like, 9 left with me starting at 99. That's 90 revives just to beat one battle! Then Hop thinks it's a good idea to battle again, so I was the warrior of darkness I was by accepting his challenge. It's a similar case compared to last time, only except the addition of the electric one who was a joke. After I get the upgrade on my bike, I go hunt for a Deino. Eventually, after days, I find one. Afterwards, I use all my candies from the dynamax dens to get my entire team to level 52-54, knowing Piers basically has 3 2.0 versions of my team and 1 3.0 version of my ex member Zigzagoon. Thanks to my massive level advantage, Scraggy attacked Scrafty first, and survived a fighting attack (although just barely). It then beat Scrafty with another fighting attack. Then Malamar came out, and I sent out Stunky to use toxic. I then start stalling it with some of my hyper potions and my venoshock. Then the almighty Obstagoon came out. I switched for Inkay to use superpower, and apparently, despite Obstagoon's 4X weakness to fighting, it only dealt half of it's HP. Thanks to superpower weakening my defense, throat chop did huge damage, and thanks to my attack being weakened, I only got it down into the red. That's alright though, as Deino finished it with a dragon pulse. Then skuntank comes out, and Stunky took out Skuntank with 4 flamethrowers (though screech + Sucker punch proved to be a problem, but that was fixed with hyper potions). Then Raihan was coming. I start out the battle using Stunky to dynamax and go for max flare, knowing sandstorm would be an issue. After some max oozes + Foul plays from Inkay and stunky respectively, Gigalith goes down. Sandacoda comes out, and, not wanting to trigger a sandstorm, have stunky use toxic on it. Inkay then goes down, but Deino comes and uses dragon pulse on Flygon, knocking it out, although stunky thanks to all the breaking swipes and stuff from before, gets KO'd by Sandacoda. Durladon comes, and so does my Scraggy. Durladon's Max Knuckle + Sandacoda's Earth Power knock out Deino. Sneasel then comes and uses icy wind, which slows down Durladon so it cannot outspeed Scraggy and do some damage to both Durladon and Sandacoda, and Scraggy finished Durladon with another High Jump Kick. By now, Toxic has gotten to be too much for Sandacoda, so I won the battle.

Here is my team!

Stunky: Level 56
Item: Eviliote
Moves: Toxic, Flamethrower, Sucker Punch, Venoshock

Inkay: Level 55
Item: Leftovers
Moves: Swagger, Superpower, Foul Play, Psycho Cut

Deino: Level 54
Moves: Nasty Plot, Hyper Voice, Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse

Pawniard: Level 54
Moves: Scary Face, Night Slash, Revenge, Slash

Sneasel: Level 52
Moves: Quick Attack, Metal Claw, Icy Wind, Beat up

Scraggy: Level 55
Item: King's Rock
Moves: Head Smash, Beat Up, High Jump Kick, Swagger

In the next and final rundown, I'll be doing everything up until I beat Leon! Thankfully since there is no super rare dark type to hunt this time, there shouldn't be delays. I expect to get done on Saturday.

 

[CoolMan6001]

Stunky: Level 56
Item: Eviliote
Moves: Toxic, Flamethrower, Sucker Punch, Toxic

Uhhh...

 

[Jerry the great]

Uhhh...

My sincere apologies. That's supposed to be venoshock

 

[Jerry the great]

Well here I go. The final rundown!

Marnie was pretty easy. Inkay took care of Toxicroak, and Stunky and Scraggy took care of the rest. Then with Hop... Well even his starter and snorlax weren't so threatening anymore. Oleana wasn't too much to note, though that milotic with recover was very annoying to take down... But with Hyper Potions, three nasty plot boosts, and some dark pulses, I did eventually take it down... Though that thing just wouldn't die, so I had to use dark pulse 3 times before it finally went down. Other than that, nothing interesting of note. Bea comes, and Pawniard and Stunky took care of his team... The Hatterene took both to take it out, but overall no big deal unlike the last fairy master. Bea comes, and it was scary, but not so scary I lost. I tried using loads of healing items as a hope that Hawlucha would miss after hitting it with Inkay's Psycho cut, but it never happened. So I let Inkay die. So Stunky comes in and uses toxic, then a combination of that + Aftermath take it out next turn. Sadly I cannot seem to remember much about the battle with Nessa, Raihan, or anything in the battle after that with Bea, though I do remember using loads of revives against Bea. Chairman rose went about how I expected: Scraggy's High Jump Kick and Stunky's Flamethrower worked wonders. I had Stunky stay in for Copperajah so I could fully heal Scraggy, it faints, I send in Scraggy, it dynamaxes, and two Max Knuckles finish the job. Enternatus was a big problem. It took out almost my entire team! Had it not been for swagger luck and dragon pulses from Deino, I for sure would've had my soul handed to me. After Enternamax Enternatus (which was far easier), I grinded, knowing the level advantages Leon would have and the much higher stats of his Pokemon. Such was why this was delayed... Anyways, after getting my Pokemon to higher levels, I try him out. I send out Deino first, predicted Aegislash's King's Shield by going for nasty plot, but Deino went down to sacred sword. Yeah I forgot his Aegislash had that. I send in Inkay and had it use swagger. I got lucky as swagger caused it to hit itself twice. Then Dragapult came out and my god that was a beast. It KO'd Inkay, I tried having Sneasel use icy wind but it got OHKO'd. So I try Stunky, have it use toxic, heal, and KO with Sucker Punch. Then Haxorus comes. I switch into Pawniard so I can heal Stunky, pawniard gets wrecked by Earthquake, and Stunky comes and uses toxic. That grinding paid off, as it barely survived an Earthquake. So I heal twice and use venoshock and get KO'd by earthquakes. Then Inkay comes and Leon uses a full restore. Perfect. I use swagger, get lucky with Haxorus hitting itself, and KO with foul play. I then max revive Stunky, and Inkay goes down to 2 snipe shots. Stunky comes, and Inteleon uses tearful look. Glad it didn't attack or something... Anyways, 2 venoshocks + toxic poison finish the job. I then max revive pawniard, get taken down, Pawniard lives thunderbolt, and KO'd with iron head. His by far most famed member, Charizard, comes out. I max revive Stunky, Pawniard goes down, Stunky gets hit by G-Max Rockfall, uses toxic, goes down to the flying dynamax move, ungigantamaxes, and then two Max Darknesses from Deino + the toxic poison and sandstorm finish Charizard off. So now I'm not just the warrior of Darkness, I am the master of darkness! Of course, Leon congratulates me for beating him as he hasn't been defeated ever since he had his title, talks about how great of a champion I'll be, and then we all party! Phew. That was a long journey of fighting racoons, turtles, fairies, dragons, the source of dynamax, and so much more. Now, for the final team!

Deino: Level 70
Moves: Nasty Plot, Hyper Voice, Dragon Pulse, Dark Pulse

Scraggy: Level 70
Item: King's Rock
Moves: Head Smash, Beat Up, High Jump Kick, Swagger

Pawniard: Level 70
Moves: Iron Head, Night Slash, Revenge, Swords Dance

Sneasel: Level 66
Moves: Slash, Metal Claw, Icy Wind, Foul Play

Stunky: Level 70
Item: Eviliote
Moves: Toxic, Flamethrower, Sucker Punch, Venoshock

Inkay: Level 70
Item: Leftovers
Moves: Swagger, Superpower, Foul Play, Psycho Cut