I’m nearing the end of my Black 2 Bug-type mono run, having reached the Elite Four (final post on that will come once I beat them but I’m fairly confident) and while some of the fights have been extremely difficult, it just hasn’t been different enough from a normal run. I can still switch, and difficult fights can somewhat be cheesed by just throwing several Pokemon at a tough opponent. So to pass more time in quarantine and to give myself a bigger threat, I looked for a way to neuter those advantages. After thinking it over, I decided to go for a solo run, and since I have a soft spot for Bug-types and did some research, I found the perfect Pokemon to do this run with: Beedrill on Pokemon X. Beedrill is one of my favourite Pokemon and since it can’t be obtained before the postgame in Black 2 or at all in Sun, it’ll be a fresh challenge. Weedle can be caught from the beginning of the game, so despite being unable to trade (I only own one 3DS) it’s a doable solo for me. Beedrill got a major upgrade in the Hoenn remakes with the Beedrillite, but even without the Mega Evolution, it’s got some nice upside in this game. Beedrill has 90 attack and 75 speed, which can be worked with. Its defenses are average to bad, with 65/40/80 bulk being kind of middle of the pack. As for moves, Beedrill has access to nice dual STABs in X-Scissor and Poison Jab, coverage options like Aerial Ace, Brick Break, Acrobatics and some Dark-type options, and best of all, it has access to both Swords Dance from close to the beginning of the game and Agility at Level 31, so Beedrill can sweep if it gets the chance to set up. Unfortunately, it also has a long list of drawbacks. As mentioned before, Beedrill’s physical bulk is pathetic. As well, it does not have access to a single move to hit Fire-, Dragon-, or Flying-types for super-effective damage, meaning it’ll either have to set up to attack these Pokemon with strong neutral attacks or target their secondary types. This will raise issues for fights like Malva, who will likely be one of the biggest challenges in the game and is someone I’m already planning strategies for, but I’m pretty excited to try and route this game. I’ve seen Beedrill solos done in Kanto, but to my knowledge one has not been done for X or Y.
The rules are fairly simple and mostly follow up from my previous runs:
The game begins with me picking Chespin and battling Shauna. This is the only Trainer battle I’m required to do with a Pokemon that isn’t Weedle or its evolution, but it’s inconsequential. Afterwards, I head up to Route 2 and sit through the capture tutorial. I originally thought Weedle could only be caught in Santalune Forest, but it turns out that in X only, I can encounter Weedle at an 11% rate. I specifically want a male one for Malva-related reasons later down the road, and luckily it’s the very first wild encounter after the capture tutorial and it’s even at Level 3, so I catch my Weedle that will be my life partner for the entirety of the run and name it Pikachu. If you’ve ever seen the Pokemon Rusty YouTube series, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
The Beginning (aka Instant Regret)
Now here’s where the game gets absolutely stupid. See, Weedle only knows two moves: Poison Sting and String Shot. String Shot is useless, and while Poison Sting has a 30% chance to poison the opponent, it also only has 15 base power, so at first it usually took me about seven Poison Stings with the Poison status effect activating on the first or second try to actually take something out. I absolutely have to be at Level 7 and evolve into Kakuna before I even have a chance against the first Trainer in the game, Youngster Austin and his Level 5 Zigzagoon. I tried this fight with a Level 6 Weedle, and it’s just not possible to defeat him without evolving, as you just die too quickly. And Weedle is a terrible, terrible Pokemon to use for this challenge. To start with, I have to always, always run from Pidgey, since they only know Tackle and just knock me out right away. Other Weedle need to be avoided too, since they give crap experience and they’re just a waste of my time to fight. There’s not even really any strategy to this grinding, either. All I can do is use Poison Sting, hope it gets the status effect on the first try, and hope the wild Pokemon move roulette selects its stat-lowering move enough times that it doesn’t knock me out before I can win. Even if I did succeed, Weedle was almost always on low health so I had to run back to Aquacorde Town’s healer to try again, and as I only have one Potion to start the game and can’t earn money until I can defeat that one Trainer, I can’t use items to speed this up. I can buy Potions in Aquacorde Town, but it would be a waste of money to use them now. It’s pure RNG and not enjoyable at all. There is no honour in losing to a Level 3 Scatterbug. To give you an idea of how long this took, I caught my Weedle at somewhere between 15-20 minutes of in-game time, and took down Youngster Austin with my Kakuna at 1:26. I spent over an hour just spamming Poison Sting until I actually won a battle, running back to Aquacorde Town to heal, and repeating the process until I evolved. After evolving into Kakuna, I finally took on the Youngster Austin battle, and it’s not that intuitive either. I just used Poison Sting until I got the status effect and then used Harden to boost my Defense while hoping Zigzagoon went for Growl enough times to not take me out. Anyway, that’s my rant over.
Fortunately, the game gets a little easier in Santalune Forest. Shauna gives me free heals after every battle, the Trainers in the forest are less threatening to my Kakuna, and I can knock out things quicker with my level advantage, particularly Pansage, which gives nice experience and goes down in two Poison Stings. The Lass with the Pikachu is particularly useful since I gain a lot of experience from defeating her. I made it out of here at Level 9. Route 3 is also fairly easy, and after defeating the Preschooler with the Pichu, I finally get my Beedrill, which learns Fury Attack. While it’s an RNG-dependent attack due to its multi-strike nature, it’s worlds better than Poison Sting. None of the Trainers on this route pose any threat, so I make it to Santalune City without trouble. I head through to Route 22 to do a little extra training to be ready for the Gym, and for the first and only time in the run, I am going to catch a Pokemon that isn’t Beedrill. My HM coverage can be mostly sorted with the gift Lapras, but I need a Pokemon that can use Cut and Fly, and I want to get it as soon as possible. Luckily, there’s an option readily available: Farfetch’d. It’s a 10% chance to appear on Route 22, but I can also use the 20% odds of catching a Bunnelby and trade it to an NPC in Santalune for a Farfetch’d, which was the route I took. Farfetch'd will be boxed until I get to Parfum Palace anyway.
Viola
This fight is honestly really unintuitive. Viola’s Pokemon is Surskit, which can’t really do anything to Beedrill, so I first use a turn to set up Focus Energy, which in Generation VI gives every move afterwards as long as Beedrill is in battle a 50% chance to be a critical hit. Afterwards, all I do is just spam Fury Attack and hope to get enough critical hits and that Fury Attack has enough high rolls to take out both her Surskit and Vivillon. I beat it on the first try, but I misclicked Focus Energy a second time when the Vivillon came out, which wastes a turn, and didn’t get great luck with the Fury Attack rolls. It came down to the wire with Beedrill finishing with 4 HP, but I got the Bug Badge. I really don’t like the RNG of this strategy, but luckily it’s the last major fight where it’ll be that random.
Thankfully, once I progress through Route 4, the battles up until around Grant’s Gym are about to become really consistent and easy for a couple reasons. First, Beedrill reached Level 16 and learned Twineedle, a two-hit STAB move that effectively has 50 base power and can poison. I also got the Poison Barb, which will come in handy later, and TM27 (Return) from Sina and Dexio, a strong Normal-type attack. Finally, I reached Lumiose City and was able to pick up the most important TM of the run: Swords Dance. Getting it this early in the game is incredible and will make a lot of fights for the next little bit of the game very easy. Sycamore is next, but he’s a complete joke. He leads with his Bulbasaur, which can’t do anything to Beedrill. I set up two Swords Dances while taking a missed Leech Seed and a 4x resisted Vine Whip in return, then swept through his entire team with Twineedle and Return one-shotting everything. Route 5 is more of the same, as there’s no real strategy other than “click Twineedle”. Once I got to Camphrier Town, I decided to call it quits for this segment of the run. The next segment hopefully should be me playing up to Korrina. Until next time!
Beedrill:
Level 18
The rules are fairly simple and mostly follow up from my previous runs:
- As soon as I catch a Weedle (which can be caught on Route 2), it is the only Pokemon that can be on my team. If I’m ever forced to send in another Pokemon (which happened once near the beginning unavoidably but I’ll avoid it where possible), it cannot attack. Exceptions are made for HM slaves, but the Exp. Share will not be used so that there is no possible way any of them could be at a high enough level to actually do something.
- I’ve minimized the usage of items in battle in my Black 2 run and didn’t use any items after Roxie, but this time I’m going to explicitly ban their use.
- In past runs, I’ve picked the Fire starter to make sure my rival can’t have it. I decided to give myself a bigger challenge this time, and made sure to use Chespin. This gives Serena Jolteon (meh) and Delphox (challenging).
- I rarely use it anyway, but Pokemon-Amie is banned due to its ability to give me beneficial outcomes via RNG.
The game begins with me picking Chespin and battling Shauna. This is the only Trainer battle I’m required to do with a Pokemon that isn’t Weedle or its evolution, but it’s inconsequential. Afterwards, I head up to Route 2 and sit through the capture tutorial. I originally thought Weedle could only be caught in Santalune Forest, but it turns out that in X only, I can encounter Weedle at an 11% rate. I specifically want a male one for Malva-related reasons later down the road, and luckily it’s the very first wild encounter after the capture tutorial and it’s even at Level 3, so I catch my Weedle that will be my life partner for the entirety of the run and name it Pikachu. If you’ve ever seen the Pokemon Rusty YouTube series, you’ll know exactly what I mean.
The Beginning (aka Instant Regret)
Now here’s where the game gets absolutely stupid. See, Weedle only knows two moves: Poison Sting and String Shot. String Shot is useless, and while Poison Sting has a 30% chance to poison the opponent, it also only has 15 base power, so at first it usually took me about seven Poison Stings with the Poison status effect activating on the first or second try to actually take something out. I absolutely have to be at Level 7 and evolve into Kakuna before I even have a chance against the first Trainer in the game, Youngster Austin and his Level 5 Zigzagoon. I tried this fight with a Level 6 Weedle, and it’s just not possible to defeat him without evolving, as you just die too quickly. And Weedle is a terrible, terrible Pokemon to use for this challenge. To start with, I have to always, always run from Pidgey, since they only know Tackle and just knock me out right away. Other Weedle need to be avoided too, since they give crap experience and they’re just a waste of my time to fight. There’s not even really any strategy to this grinding, either. All I can do is use Poison Sting, hope it gets the status effect on the first try, and hope the wild Pokemon move roulette selects its stat-lowering move enough times that it doesn’t knock me out before I can win. Even if I did succeed, Weedle was almost always on low health so I had to run back to Aquacorde Town’s healer to try again, and as I only have one Potion to start the game and can’t earn money until I can defeat that one Trainer, I can’t use items to speed this up. I can buy Potions in Aquacorde Town, but it would be a waste of money to use them now. It’s pure RNG and not enjoyable at all. There is no honour in losing to a Level 3 Scatterbug. To give you an idea of how long this took, I caught my Weedle at somewhere between 15-20 minutes of in-game time, and took down Youngster Austin with my Kakuna at 1:26. I spent over an hour just spamming Poison Sting until I actually won a battle, running back to Aquacorde Town to heal, and repeating the process until I evolved. After evolving into Kakuna, I finally took on the Youngster Austin battle, and it’s not that intuitive either. I just used Poison Sting until I got the status effect and then used Harden to boost my Defense while hoping Zigzagoon went for Growl enough times to not take me out. Anyway, that’s my rant over.
Fortunately, the game gets a little easier in Santalune Forest. Shauna gives me free heals after every battle, the Trainers in the forest are less threatening to my Kakuna, and I can knock out things quicker with my level advantage, particularly Pansage, which gives nice experience and goes down in two Poison Stings. The Lass with the Pikachu is particularly useful since I gain a lot of experience from defeating her. I made it out of here at Level 9. Route 3 is also fairly easy, and after defeating the Preschooler with the Pichu, I finally get my Beedrill, which learns Fury Attack. While it’s an RNG-dependent attack due to its multi-strike nature, it’s worlds better than Poison Sting. None of the Trainers on this route pose any threat, so I make it to Santalune City without trouble. I head through to Route 22 to do a little extra training to be ready for the Gym, and for the first and only time in the run, I am going to catch a Pokemon that isn’t Beedrill. My HM coverage can be mostly sorted with the gift Lapras, but I need a Pokemon that can use Cut and Fly, and I want to get it as soon as possible. Luckily, there’s an option readily available: Farfetch’d. It’s a 10% chance to appear on Route 22, but I can also use the 20% odds of catching a Bunnelby and trade it to an NPC in Santalune for a Farfetch’d, which was the route I took. Farfetch'd will be boxed until I get to Parfum Palace anyway.
Viola
This fight is honestly really unintuitive. Viola’s Pokemon is Surskit, which can’t really do anything to Beedrill, so I first use a turn to set up Focus Energy, which in Generation VI gives every move afterwards as long as Beedrill is in battle a 50% chance to be a critical hit. Afterwards, all I do is just spam Fury Attack and hope to get enough critical hits and that Fury Attack has enough high rolls to take out both her Surskit and Vivillon. I beat it on the first try, but I misclicked Focus Energy a second time when the Vivillon came out, which wastes a turn, and didn’t get great luck with the Fury Attack rolls. It came down to the wire with Beedrill finishing with 4 HP, but I got the Bug Badge. I really don’t like the RNG of this strategy, but luckily it’s the last major fight where it’ll be that random.
Thankfully, once I progress through Route 4, the battles up until around Grant’s Gym are about to become really consistent and easy for a couple reasons. First, Beedrill reached Level 16 and learned Twineedle, a two-hit STAB move that effectively has 50 base power and can poison. I also got the Poison Barb, which will come in handy later, and TM27 (Return) from Sina and Dexio, a strong Normal-type attack. Finally, I reached Lumiose City and was able to pick up the most important TM of the run: Swords Dance. Getting it this early in the game is incredible and will make a lot of fights for the next little bit of the game very easy. Sycamore is next, but he’s a complete joke. He leads with his Bulbasaur, which can’t do anything to Beedrill. I set up two Swords Dances while taking a missed Leech Seed and a 4x resisted Vine Whip in return, then swept through his entire team with Twineedle and Return one-shotting everything. Route 5 is more of the same, as there’s no real strategy other than “click Twineedle”. Once I got to Camphrier Town, I decided to call it quits for this segment of the run. The next segment hopefully should be me playing up to Korrina. Until next time!
Beedrill:
Level 18
- Twineedle
- Poison Sting
- Return
- Swords Dance
