Challenge Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness Draft / Challenge

Which of these rules would you rather see in place of Rule #2 under "In-Game Rules"?

  • Make Teddiursa free to use for the entire game

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • Make Ledyba free to use for the entire game

    Votes: 2 33.3%
  • Have no other Pokemon (other than Eevee) be free (though you may have to battle 1v2)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Keep it as it is

    Votes: 2 33.3%

  • Total voters
    6
  • Poll closed .

HotFuzzBall

fuzzy-chan \(ㆁヮㆁ✿)
is an Artist


approved by Codraroll and DHR-107
idea adopted from Serenes Forest


Pokemon XD Gale of Darkness is fun but... it is always nice to have a more challenging approach to the game. This challenge aims to make the game slightly more difficult through the use of a snake draft to decide the Pokemon arsenal of each player. Also if an XD In-Game tier-list does resurface, you can use your experience here as evidence ^^
Draft Rules
1. This number of players allowed to participate will differ (minimum of 6 and maximum of 10, 8 drafted Pokemon each) depending on the turn out and interest level.
2. This draft will be a snake draft (click here if you don't know what it is). The time of the draft will be determined after sign-ups.

3. Don't feel discouraged if you have not played through the game before, everyone is welcomed to participate.

3. The game will "end" when you defeat Grand Master Greevil.

4. I recommend catching every shadow Pokemon you encounter either for the added challenge or to avoid having the Mirror B. Radar go off every 10 minutes.

5. The draft will follow the honor system so please do not cheat. I mean why did you sign up if you plan on cheating anyways? It defeats the whole purpose of the draft.

6. Don't use the Pokemon you did not draft.

In-Game Rules
1. Eevee (along with its Eeveelutions) are free to use.

2. Teddiursa will be free to use until you are able to catch your earliest draft Pokemon.

3. The Day Care Center will be banned.

4. Elekid and Electabuzz will be drafted separately.

5. Whoever drafts ZAPRONG (Elekid) may not be able to use Togepi in battle (a purified Togepi must be traded for this Elekid).

6. Players who draft Meditite, Shuckle, and Larvitar will be able to catch Trapinch, Surskit, and Wooper for the sole purpose of trading with Duking, therefore they should not be used in battle.

Banned Pokemon
  • (all part of the challenge right?)
  • (all 6 are part of Greevil's team so, there's no point in using them)
  • (available during the post-game)
  • (undrafted)
Pokemon List (88 Total)

Tier List (Outdated)


Pokemon HQ Lab

Gateon Port


Shadow Pokemon Lab

Rock PokeSpot

Oasis Pokespot

Cave PokeSpot

|

Pyrite Town (Trade w/ Duking)

ONBS Station

Phenac City

Outskirt Stand
|

Wandering Mirror B.

Cipher Key Lair

Citadark Isle

Your "in" post should include...
Discord Name -
Timezone -
Any questions / concerns / comments you may have

also PM me if you would like to join but, you don't actually own a copy of the game

Signups will end on 10/4/2017 @ 11:59 PM or whenever the spots are filled (whichever comes first)

If you do signup, please vote using the poll \(ㆁヮㆁ✿)
 
Last edited:
Even after reading I still don't completely understand what a snake draft is but another excuse for me to play XD is always good for me.
In
Discord Nam: Mellow
Timezone EDT
Question: what if someone gets drafted The Legendary Birds/Exeggutor/Tauros/Rhydon? will they have to repick because they'd basically only have 5 Pokemon (or less) for the whole game?
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
Question: what if someone gets drafted The Legendary Birds/Exeggutor/Tauros/Rhydon? will they have to repick because they'd basically only have 5 Pokemon (or less) for the whole game?
Literally says in the OP these guys are banned...

Anyway I might as well sign in for this, no idea if Ill have the Memory Card room but we will see...

Discord Name - DHR
Timezone - UK Time (GMT)
 
Even after reading I still don't completely understand what a snake draft is
It's the way where players alternate picking members.
It's essentially the same way you see picks going in things like League or Dota2, except extended to multiple players, where you pick 1 pokemon each per player, then again one pokemon each in reverse order, then again in starting order, then again in reverse, and then finally again in starting order.
It's meant to trade the advantage of picking first early with the disadvantage of being left with the worst at the end, and other way around, trade the disadvantage of losing potential powerful picks early in trade for getting the A/B tier picks before the opponents.
 

HotFuzzBall

fuzzy-chan \(ㆁヮㆁ✿)
is an Artist
alright everything has been updated so far, though I would like to see more participants if possible

MellowBusiness Yeah the shadow mons in Greevil's team are all banned and will not be draftable.
 

Diana

This isn't even my final form
is a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Oh, I've needed a reason to get back into Pokemon XD since I stopped trying to speedrun the game. It'll be refreshing to avoid the RNG hell for once. Definitely in.

Discord name: snowpointsecret
Time zone: GMT -4
 

HotFuzzBall

fuzzy-chan \(ㆁヮㆁ✿)
is an Artist
Diana WreckDra MellowBusiness I need the #numbers next to your discord name! Going to send out the friend requests as soon as I get the numbers (fyi my discord name is Wuzzy#4096)

You can still sign up if you're interested but, I'll probably close signups as soon as I add everyone to a group chat and a draft date has been established.
 

HotFuzzBall

fuzzy-chan \(ㆁヮㆁ✿)
is an Artist
This is the result of the draft, I guess here is the spreadsheet for those who want to view it?

HotFuzzBall -

WreckDra -

MellowBusiness -

DHR-107 -

Diana -

Worldie -
 
Last edited:

Inspirited

There is usually higher ground.
is a Contributor Alumnus
I stopped right before Lovrina with a team that looks like this:
Lv: 19
Lv: 19
Lv. 20
Lv. 20
Lv. 16
All Purified!

Ledian is still pulling some weight with its relatively high BP Aerial Ace but is still missing its level 23 moves that make it useable after Aerial Ace falls off. Numel is worse than Ledian so far but that is because its starting level is awful and crits KOing it at rather obnoxious times. Nuzleaf missed Fake Out because of how much experience I fed it as a shadow Seedot, but it came with Giga Drain so it should still do OK. I plan to keep it as a Nuzleaf until it learns Faint Attack though. Jolteon has been amazingly useful even though it doesn't have Thunder Wave yet. Something completely coincidental that has happened so far is that the entire team is female (yes I somehow got a female Eevee that also came with a hasty nature!). I wonder how long that will continue.

Even though this is a limited Pokemon run, I am still attempting to snag as many Pokemon as possible so long as they don't break the run somehow. To me, snagging adds quite a bit of difficulty especially with Lovrina's Delcatty (I already had a go at snagging it and it failed) and other admin Pokemon. I also don't want to have to hunt Miror B. all that much during the postgame. So far, I have missed Spinarak and Carvhana thanks to crits but that is it. Lovrina's Delcatty is a problem (Shadow Rush's BP is very high for this stage of the game), but part of me just doesn't want to send it to the "Miror B. realm". We'll see what happens...
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
DHR-107 -


So I guess I am first to post up on this crazy show! Had to reset a few times but ended up with a Perfect HP IV Bold Eevee (which considering I was picking Jolteon seemed like a good deal). Blitzed through the first section of the game to get my first two mons from the infamous Hexagon brothers. I love their entry and everything about these characters. It's so silly they can't count to 6. Taught Jolteon Thunder Wave in Agate too from the Teacher lady who hides round the back of the trees in a little hollow. Going to be incredibly useful for catching things and for slowing down other problem mons as I progress through the game. Have a few plans with the mons I've got after looking over their purified moves.

ANYWAY:

Currently at the Cipher Lab with the Hexagon Bros.

Lv 15 /
Lv 17 (Shadow) /
Lv 17 (Shadow)

I believe I have to wait now for a while for my next mon which should be Snorunt and Lunatone in Phenac (unless I got Pokespot Aron earlier). I briefly used Teddiursa as allowed and as soon as I got Gulpin it went to the PC. Carrying around Ledyba and Poochyena for a bit too so I can purify them slowly.
 

HotFuzzBall

fuzzy-chan \(ㆁヮㆁ✿)
is an Artist
Right so I'll be posting an update as well

So I'm pretty behind atm since I didn't have time to play XD yesterday but, the weekend is coming up so I'll hopefully get a lot of progress done.


Just gonna share my opinions and thoughts on my line-up and why I picked each mon to give this update some volume lol...
- Originally I was going to evolve my Eevee into Umbreon but, then I realized I would end up with 3 support mons so I decided that I would choose Vaporeon instead. Basically I didn't want to use Flareon or Jolteon because I already had 2 fairly strong Electric and Fire-types, and I didn't want to use Espeon because I always use Espeon and I want to switch it up. Also having Carvanha learn Water Pulse naturally is pretty huge since I can give Vaporeon the Water Pulse TM when I get it.

- I picked Carvanha mainly because it was the first mon I saw on the fairly outdated XD tier list. I was pretty skeptical on it S (or High) ranked placement mainly because Carvanha/Sharpedo don't seem like very good in double battles due to their frailty (the lack of Surf also kinda sucks too), though on the flip side Carvanha gets Water Pulse upon purification and it has Dark-Stab to utilize as well which is pretty nifty. It also can learn Earthquake, coming with a base 125 attack which is another plus. So pretty much I picked this mon so I can see whether or not its placement is accurate or not.

- Mareep is pretty solid early being able to get Thunder Wave early and it transitions very well since it'll probably evolve into Flaaffy pretty soon after its purification. Not much else to say other than Ampharos is a pretty solid mon with the combination of it utility (Light Screen and Thunder Wave), offense, and bulk.

- One of my favorite gen 1 mons and it also gets access to Heat Wave which is fantastic in my book. Though it will probably be pretty difficult to use in the Phenac City shenanigans considering the next available Fire Stone is located in SS Libra.

- I didn't want to use Gardevoir or Espeon since I tend to gravitate to both of them every time I play XD so I wanted to mix it up a bit. Ngl Natu is probably going to be a pain in the ass to train (moreso than Ralts) which is going to be rage-inducing. I will probably won't be benching it (unless it gives me some severe problems) since I plan on using it as my screens setter.

- One of my favorite mons to use, like Natu it'll definitely be a pain to train if I don't get a Hoppip that's level 17+ so it can evolve into Skiploom ASAP. Jumpluff will probably get benched at some point tbh but, I'm hoping it'd prove me otherwise since there's an actual move reminder in this game (so I can teach it Leech Seed, the powder moves, etc.) to make it an annoyance. Too bad DHR can't use this beauty of a mon though :C

- Tbh I'm not entirely sure why I drafted Primeape, I guess it seemed like it was a good idea at the time? Not sure when I will be using it but, it seems like it'd be an okay mon to use.

- Kangaskhan gets some solid moves such as Dizzy Punch and Earthquake (upon purification) which is very good. Also I plan on teaching it Fake Out since there's a move reminder in the game. It'll definitely be a power house during the late game.

- Like Primeape, idk why I drafted Altaria. I probably won't be using it at all honestly, I guess it'll be the team's benchwarmer because it's so fluffy?

Anyways onto the real update, not much happened lol. For some reason, I always seem to get lost during the early stages of XD (basically when you act as an errand boy) since it took me a while to find Jovi because I forgot you had to find Adon and I was too stubborn to use a guide, also I took me a while to find Krane because I forgot you needed to talk to the old man on the 2nd floor so he can be all like "oh Krane went downstairs a minute ago." So that took me like 25 minutes to figure out sadly lol... So at the moment, I made it Gateon Port after catching Shadow Teddiursa (who will stick around until I catch Mareep) and got myself the Water Stone from the sailor (or captain w/e) to evolve my Eevee into a Vaporeon. Then I saved my game and stopped since it was getting pretty late for me.

Current Team

Vaporeon
Ability: Water Absorb
Hasty Nature
- Bite
- Tackle
- Tail Whip
- Sand Attack


Teddiursa
Ability: Pickup
??? Nature
- Shadow Rush
- Shadow Mist
 

Diana

This isn't even my final form
is a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
I've been playing quite a bit, if only because I was really anxious to get the rare PokeSpot Pokemon, Wooper, out of the way so I could get my Larvitar. I was lucky and Wooper showed up before I ran out of that first batch of Poke Snacks only to find out that you can't actually trade for Larvitar until after saving ONBS! Oh well.

It took me five tries to get a good Eevee. And by good I mean remotely adequate; I got Brave, Brave, Adamant, and Relaxed as my first four. Fifth was Naive which I took and evolved to Espeon. The first bit felt like forever since it was just the typical Espeon+Teddiursa I've used a million times before until the Hexagon Brothers, but once I got Houndour it felt a lot more fresh and I got Teddiursa into the box. Lovrina was a lot easier than usual just because of the added levels from facing extra trainers compared to what I'm used to and the fact that Houndour is amazing. After that it was just going through, catching every shadow Pokemon I could, and trying to purify my team members as I got them. I'm about to go into Phenac when I play again this weekend but here's my team so far and my impressions of it:


Espeon Lv. 26 @ TwistedSpoon
Naive Nature
-Confusion
-Tail Whip
-Bite
-Quick Attack

Espeon is as great as ever. Bite holds it over until getting STAB Confusion at Level 16, and the two combined with good offensive stats make it do very nicely in pretty much every battle. Struggles a bit against Dark-types but that's about it. Also Bite 2HKOs that Carvanha in Shadow Pokemon Lab which is hilarious. Definitely recommended.


Houndoom Lv. 25 @ Charcoal
Naive Nature
-Faint Attack
-Ember
-Charm
-Roar

Houndoom's not as strong or fast as Espeon but is definitely good. Faint Attack hits rather hard for this point in the game, though Ember's a bit weak even with Charcoal helping it a little. I worry that it'll struggle later on when opponents use more moves like Rock Slide and Earthquake, since it's weak to like every spread move, but it's been great early on. Charm's cute when you're trying to throw balls at Shadow Pokemon and want to mess up their damage-dealing ability while you wait to catch them.


Breloom Lv. 25 @ Focus Band
Rash Nature
-Mach Punch
-Refresh
-Headbutt
-Stun Spore

Breloom was kind of a pain as a Shroomish since even Rash Mega Drain was pretty weak. Stun Spore helped with catching Shadow Pokemon, at least. I haven't had enough time with it as a Breloom to say much, but STAB Mach Punch with backup from Headbutt on something with that Attack stat is probably going to be awesome. More to come on this Pokemon next update.


Duskull Lv. 19+
Adamant Nature
-Shadow Wave
-Shadow Hold
-Astonish
-Confuse Ray

Duskull's still a Shadow Pokemon and it's completely awful to use. It's just ridiculously weak with Shadow Wave even against frail opponents. I'm hoping it gets better in the future but this is trash in the short time I've used it.


Larvitar Lv. 20
Mild Nature
-Sandstorm
-Dragon Dance
-Bite
-Outrage

I haven't done a battle with Larvitar yet. Is probably bad until it gets Rock Slide at Level 22, at which point it'll probably be pretty awesome. We'll have to wait and see.

Other Pokemon on my list that I don't have yet:
 

DHR-107

Robot from the Future
is a Member of Senior Staffis a Community Contributoris a Smogon Discord Contributoris a Pokemon Researcheris a Smogon Media Contributor
Orange Islands
DHR-107 -



So I guess my team appears so late I appear to have a giant level advantage at the moment... I just beat Lovrina with the following:

Lv 23
Bold - Volt Absorb
- Thundershock
- Bite
- Sand Attack
- Thunder Wave

Lv 23
Timid - Sticky Hold
- Shock Wave
- Sludge
- Sing
- Toxic

Lv 23
Bold - Levitate
- Psybeam
- Mud-Slap
- Refresh
- Rock Tomb

Walked around Gateon port enough to also Purify Houndour and Spheal, threw them into the purify machine. This will hopefully grow out and help me purify lots of things. Caught all shadow mons so far without many problems, but I definitely think having a small team at this point is pretty useful. Lovrina was pretty easy, only lost Baltoy and thats because I forgot Roselia was Poison typed...

Off to Pyrite town shortly in order to further the story after picking up a bunch more Pokeballs from Agate.
 
gosh, its taking me a lot longer than usual to try and get things rolling. atm I can only play XD on Dolphin, but suddenly Dolphin wants to give me issues when it never did previously.
 
gosh, its taking me a lot longer than usual to try and get things rolling. atm I can only play XD on Dolphin, but suddenly Dolphin wants to give me issues when it never did previously.
What issues you getting with Dolphin? I was able to setup it and run easily on W10 so maybe I can help :o
 
What issues you getting with Dolphin? I was able to setup it and run easily on W10 so maybe I can help :o
sometimes the game would randomly crash, there's small graphical issues every once in a while (but thats no big deal) sometimes when I go into the items and choose a ball, the game would lock up. It's odd because I played through XD last year and ran into zero issues, except for one crash that never happened again, but now the game is just being more unstable these days.
 

HotFuzzBall

fuzzy-chan \(ㆁヮㆁ✿)
is an Artist
Alright update #2

Basically I ran all the errands I needed at Gateon Port and did all the other stuff to get to the Shadow Pokemon Lab (like going to Mt. Battle). I forgot that you don't get access to the Shadow Pokemon Lab until you do a couple other things so, that was a bit of a shocker. Anyways, I decided to nickname all of my Pokemon after Fire Emblem characters because... Idk why actually it just seemed like a good idea. At the Lab itself, I snagged myself my Teddiursa replacement (Mareep) and I was also surprised with how high leveled it is (Vaporeon was level 14 while Mareep was 17) which seemed odd to me since the shadow Pokemon within the lab were Level 14-15. Anyways, after battling more falling Cipher grunts I snagged myself the 3rd member being Carvanha.

I wanted to try to purify Carvanha before I battled Lovrina but, it didn't happen since Carvanha never got into Fever Pinch mode while I was "training" it, so that was a bummer. Onto Lovrina, the battle was a lot harder this time around mainly due to RNG. Her Beautifly and Roselia kept critting me with Mega Drain and Gust which forced me to use quite a few potions, Delcatty was also a pain since it took me a couple tries (like around 4 maybe but, Shadow Rush from it hurts like a mofo) despite it being in the red and paralyzed. Regardless, managed to defeat her and moved on. After more dialogue, I went back to Agate to cologne spam Carvanha until I purified it.

So far, I have not gotten the natures I wanted. I mean Adamant Flaaffy speaks volumes by itself and while Jolly Carvanha is good in other games (Gen 4+), I was hoping to make Carvanha a mixed attacker with dual stabs + Earthquake but, I guess that's going to be difficult :/. Carvanha was also a pain to train since the trainers always attacked it (probably due to its low HP) and would always deal a sizable chunk with a single attack.

Current Team

Vaporeon (Shigure)
Level 22
Ability: Water Absorb
Hasty Nature
- Water Gun
- Bite
- Tail Whip
- Sand Attack


Flaaffy (Abel)
Level 22
Ability: Static
Adamant Nature
- Thundershock
- Body Slam
- Thunder Wave
- Heal Bell


Carvanha (Klein) @ Black Glasses
Level 17
Ability: Rough Skin
Jolly Nature
- Water Pulse
- Bite
- Refresh
- Scary Face

Shadow Pokemon Caught

Also MellowBusiness I had the same problems as well with my game freezing and so far uninstalling/reinstalling Dolphin seems to work as of now.
 
sometimes the game would randomly crash, there's small graphical issues every once in a while (but thats no big deal) sometimes when I go into the items and choose a ball, the game would lock up. It's odd because I played through XD last year and ran into zero issues, except for one crash that never happened again, but now the game is just being more unstable these days.
Have you checked if the ROM file is damaged? assuming you backup the memory card (which I believe is possible) you could try redownloading the ROM and see if it keeps freezing.
 
I actually found out my major problem. I realized that "Enable Cheats" was checked, and for some reason XD doesn't play nice when cheats are enabled (even if you're actually not running any) and loads of issues happen with the game. I turned it off and it now works fine for the most, still a few freezes here and ther but much less common than before.

MellowBusiness -


So anyways, I got a run going and I decided to further challenge myself by not allowing items inbattle, and no call command unless in Reversal Mode). out of my draft I caught Teddiursa, Ralts, Makuhita, Surskit, and Pineco. All thats left to catch is Growlithe, Zaprong (Togepi), and Dodrio. I decided since I actually never used an Espeon in an XD playthrough, that I will use one now.
Since Espeon and Teddiursa were my only teammates, i had to use them for all of the Lab and half of ONBS, which means they are at a higher lever than the rest of my team. As one would expect from the Speedrunning duo, everything that faced them crumbled to their might. Makuhita and Ralts were easy enough to catch but a bit difficult to purify with both being frail and slow. Makuhita was the easier of the two due to hitting harder. I purified both of them and they have both evolved as well

Now I'm in Phenac and just caught my Pineco so my team atm is



lv. 28
Confusion
Bite
Sand Attack
Tail Whip

lv. 28
Return
Faint Attack
Fake Tears
Metal Claw


lv. 24 (Guts)
Brick Break
Refresh
Fake Out
Rock Tomb

lv. 21 (Trace)
Shock Wave
Sing
Calm Mind
Confusion

lv. 11
Bubble
Quick Attack

Pineco
lv 20+

I'm putting off training Surskit since its a pretty awful Pokemon and its at such a lower level than my team, but I will stick with it. Unless it becomes a actual detriment to my team it will stay on (at least until Dodrio shows up). Once I'm done with Phenac, I'll start to regulate my teams levels. I'll replace Espeon down the road (probably when Growlithe shows up) but all of my team (except for Kirlia) are doing rather well for themselves, especially the two S tiers.
 
Last edited:

Diana

This isn't even my final form
is a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
Got another several hours of play in and went through a lot more of the game, beating Phenac, Snagem Hideout, and all that stuff in between. Still don't have Miror B.'s Nosepass since he's only shown up in Realgam Tower (which I am not ready for), but I've caught every other Shadow Pokemon, including everything I drafted except for the very late Electabuzz.


Espeon Lv. 33 @ TwistedSpoon
Naive Nature
-Psychic
-Confusion
-Bite
-Swift

Still good. Psychic came from the TM in Snagem Hideout and really pushed its power to another level. I find myself going to this a lot in tougher battles just because of how overwhelming it is. Not much else to say about it, really.


Houndoom Lv. 32 @ Charcoal
Naive Nature
-Flamethrower
-Charm
-Bite
-Roar

Houndoom had a slight moment where it was just decent. Bite was still quite solid but it was well short of Espeon levels. Then that Flamethrower TM came from the SS Libra and it caught up quickly. Just slightly behind Espeon even now, but Fire attacks are great for punching through Steel-types and if there was a VR I'd be on the fence between S and A rank for it.


Breloom Lv. 31 @ Focus Band
Rash Nature
-Mach Punch
-Counter
-Headbutt
-Stun Spore

STAB Mach Punch is awesome, and Stun Spore helps with catching things. That defensive typing is quite nice as well and I find myself switching it in quite a bit just for that. The problem is that the strongest move it has is non-STAB Headbutt so it's really not as strong as you'd think. It's still pretty good, but as much for its defensive qualities as its offense.


Duskull Lv. 31
Adamant Nature
-Shadow Ball
-Helping Hand
-Ice Beam
-Confuse Ray

Well, Duskull got better. Marginally. Getting Shadow Ball after purification was nice, but the gem here is Helping Hand on a bulky Pokemon. Have fun just killing things with your strong attackers. I gave it Ice Beam despite it being hilariously weak with a -SpA nature just because it got it and nothing else on my team would until postgame. Still fun against all those things that are 4x weak to it, at least. Don't get me wrong: Duskull's still bad, but less so than I had feared.


Pupitar Lv. 31 @ Hard Stone
Mild Nature
-Rock Slide
-Dragon Dance
-Bite
-Outrage

DD+Rock Slide is an insane combo. That's why I picked it since I wanted to try it. STAB Rock Slide is pretty cool, but it actually feels a bit weak. Being dead weight against any opponent with a Ground-, Fighting-, Water-, or Grass-type Pokemon just sucks. On the other hand, it has nice resistances to work with and if it can get a DD off it's still pretty scary. It hasn't had too much time as a Pupitar yet so it still has a chance to be better soon.


Seel Lv. 31 @ Leftovers
Modest Nature
-Surf
-Helping Hand
-Ice Beam
-Rest

I actually like this thing. It has decent bulk (and that's before evolving), STAB Surf and Ice Beam, Rest in a game with a call feature to wake it up, and Helping Hand for support. Dewgong's never going to be amazing competitively or anything but this game gave Seel the best chance to succeed that you could ask for. I'm all for it.

Now for the Bench!


Roselia isn't getting a chance, sadly. It's kind of interesting as a Grass-type in a game where status is awesome but it just doesn't work when I have Breloom. I'll have to try it out in another run someday.


Fearow was on my team for a little bit, but it was really, really frail. It hit decently hard with Aerial Ace but didn't do much else. I have a feeling it could be reasonably good in the right circumstances, but I already have Espeon and Houndoom for sort of frail, fast attackers and I really didn't need a third one. Especially since Pupitar isn't all that bulky right now either.


It's near the end of Citadark Isle. I don't have it yet. I only picked it for Shadow Half.
 

Inspirited

There is usually higher ground.
is a Contributor Alumnus
About fifteen and a half hours in and things are still going swell even if I did miss a few snags here and there.

Hanford Lv 25 w/ Stench; Lax Nature;
Sludge Bomb / Helping Hand / Minimize / Shadow Punch
It is freshly purified at this point, so I haven't got to use Helping Hand or Sludge Bomb at all yet, but I do see potential. I ended up failing the original snag because I did not expect Jolteon's Bite to KO it after two Bullet Seed hits from Nuzleaf (it was near full when it took the Bite). Because of this, it is a little under-leveled, but I can catch it up while I am searching for Trapinch to trade for Meditite. I am excited to starting using Helping Hand antics like Helping Hand + Icy Wind and whatnot. It should be fun to use.

Snowball Lv 29 w/ Thick Fat; Bashful Nature;
Ice Beam / Water Gun / Body Slam / Icy Wind
I taught it Icy Wind because it and Numel being slower than everything was getting on my nerves and it is also a decent spread attack to use when attacking + switching. I am glad you get the Ice Beam TM in Phenac because Aurora Beam's power was beginning to fall off along with Spheal's less than desirable special attack. I would like to replace Water Gun at some point, but it is still OK for those 4x weakness Pokemon. I like it as a cute little snowball, but the sooner it morphs its hideous teenage form, Sealeo, the better.

Jolteon Lv 29 w/ Volt Absorb; Hasty Nature;
Thunder Shock / Thunder Wave / Bite / Sand Attack
Jolteon has been awesome so far although it is starting to feel the low base power of Thunder Shock. It is much better at assisting snags than the other Eeveelutions I have used just because of Thunder Wave and Bite is usually weak enough to miss the KO on shadow pokemon (unless it's Grimer xP). I also abused Volt Absorb along with Voltorb's Spark in order to save on potion costs. Unfortunately, every Poison Sting that hits it ends up poisoning it which made Peon + Snattle a little more difficult than it should have been. I am definitely using this Eeveelution in the future, it's fantastic.

Shelly Lv 28 w/ Early Bird; Serious Nature;
Bullet Seed / Giga Drain / Secret Power / Refresh
Nuzleaf feels just like it did in my mono-dark run, not fantastic at anything but does OK at everything. Whenever I find the heart to save up 1000 pokecoupons I will teach it Fake Out, but for now it shall keep its purified moveset. Bullet Seed has been fantastic for breaking down shadow pokemon slowly while Giga Drain is usually used to finish off non-shadow pokemon (particularly Miror B.'s Ludicolo). It can also face-tank Numel's Magnitude 10 and heal most of it off with Giga Drain next turn.

Architect Lv 29 w/ Early Bird; Relaxed Nature;
Aerial Ace / Reflect / Light Screen / Comet Punch
Ledian is surprisingly amazing at many things in this game. The early Aerial Ace is still doing very passable damage and Reflect and Light Screen are still invaluable. It actually reached level 29 when most of the team was around level 24-26 and I had to force myself not to use it in order to get everyone else up to speed. I kept Comet Punch instead of Psybeam which may seen strange at first, but its awful signature move is actually very handy when snagging weaker pokemon that I missed earlier; It is also the main reason why the PAGT (more on this later) exists. It is also the reason why I never used Teddy at all in this playthrough so... bonus points I guess?

Helen Lv 29 w/ Oblivious; Bold Nature;
Ember / Dig / Take Down / Magnitude
This thing was really dragging until it learned Magnitude, then it became insanely useful for for wiping out the field. It likes using Magnitude 10 way more than it probably should, but I will never complain about that because Magnitude 10 is probably the most broken move in the game. I am very glad I picked up Ledian and Nuzleaf, otherwise Magnitude would be very hard to use. While its nature isn't the best, Magnitude's power alone makes this one of the highest damage output members on the team. I do hope it gets another fire move soon though. If not, I will probably go through Mt. Battle a little ways to pick up Flamethrower.

All Pokemon so far, with the exception of Voltorb, are female.

Current Bench:

Orbit Lv 29 w/ Static; Hasty Nature;
Spark / Self-Destruct / Refresh / Swift
It has been excellent in all places except for where Spark was resisted, then it was just a healer for Jolteon. I dropped it for Grimer because while I have used Voltorb before, I have never used Grimer.

Currently Missing:
Purification Army of Ground Types
Or WreckDra's reason to catch the Gligar and Sandshrew he runs into while tirelessly searching for Trapinch. These Ground types, consisting of Sandshrew grunts and their Gligar Commanders, have a goal of taking the Purification Chamber by storm in order to make sure no shadow pokemon leaves impure. They are happily accepting new membership.
Current Roster:
Commanders:
x1
Grunts:
x3


So far, the run has been rather smooth with the exception of Peon + Snattle and trying to snag Lovrina's Delcatty. ONBS was rather easy with Numel having Magnitude and Jolteon being faster than the commander's Girafarig. Phenac City was also fairly breezy with the exception of the last. Peon + Snattle. Jolteon and Voltorb ended poisoned by the peon's Qwilfish which made Metang + Castform difficult to take down together (I learned the hard way Castform had Water Pulse). I did fail to snag Grimer and Swinub. Grimer because Jolteon's bite basically knocked it out from near full health, Swinub because its partner got crit which redirected Numel's Ember. I have snagged everything I originally missed from Miror B. though as he was kind enough to stay in Pyrite for awhile. I plan to stop moving forward until I have Meditite though, so the next update may just more PAGT members being added to the Purification Chamber.
 

Diana

This isn't even my final form
is a Researcher Alumnusis a Top Contributor Alumnus
So I figured out I screwed up with Breloom to the point that, if you asked me to tier it, I don't think I could. You can get the Brick Break TM from beating the Pyrite Colosseum just once, and the Pokemon in there are around Level 20. It would not have been hard to go through that much earlier, and I didn't realize my mistake until Breloom was 2 levels away from getting Sky Uppercut. I will have to do a run on my own someday using Breloom correctly.

Other than that, things have been okay. I missed Tangela as a snag but Miror B. quickly showed up... In Realgam Tower. I tried it but my team just couldn't hold up to repeated SolarBeams and Thunderbolts. After Cipher Key Lair he showed up in Pyrite though, so I got that and learned about the Brick Break thing. Oh well, it was too late to give it Brick Break but I gave it to something else to be a backup attacker for Normal-types. Here's how things are going as I prepare for Citadark Isle.


Espeon Lv. 36 @ TwistedSpoon
Naive Nature
Synchronize
-Psychic
-Psybeam
-Bite
-Swift
I could probably put a screen or Protect over Swift tbh, I might do that. It doesn't matter that much. Psychic is still insane, and if I remember right it 2HKOed a Forretress last night. Psybeam is also here for PP issues since it actually hits reasonably hard against a lot of things. It can OHKO frailer things or certain mons that are weak to it. It's not quite as amazing as it is in the speedrun since this Espeon's at a slightly lower level and lacks the +SpA nature but it's still useful. Espeon has 5 other Pokemon to back it up here as well.


Houndoom Lv. 36 @ Charcoal
Naive Nature
Early Bird
-Flamethrower
-Charm
-Bite
-Roar
Spam Flamethrower. That's just what Houndoom does. Okay, so Bite comes in handy when something is weak to it or a mon resists Flamethrower but you're mostly just burning things. I'm not using Charm or Roar much at all but there isn't much else to give this thing! Shadow Ball seems pretty useless. Maybe Fire Blast could go in there for extra power? Houndoom almost never needs it though. Definitely a strong Pokemon.


Breloom Lv. 37 @ Focus Band
Rash Nature
Effect Spore
-Sky Uppercut
-Mach Punch
-Headbutt
-Stun Spore
Finally, a strong STAB move. Again, I can't say how good it would have been if I had Brick Break on it, but its defensive qualities are really falling off. It just falls to random moves all the time. Gust Beautifly comes to mind as something you might not think of but still exists. This is the point of the game where every trainer seems to have random, decent coverage moves on their Pokemon so it gets harder to tank things. Luckily it has Sky Uppercut now so its damage output should be great. Expect better news on this in my postgame recap.


Duskull Lv. 35
Adamant Nature
Levitate
-Shadow Ball
-Helping Hand
-Ice Beam
-Confuse Ray
Still not very good. Ice Beam has been known to bop a few random mons like Vibrava or Skiploom but other than that it's been pretty bad. Shadow Ball's its best move but even that's weak. Helping Hand support is still nice and it probably goes up a bit once it evolves in 2 levels so we'll see. It's not efficient at all, sadly.


Pupitar Lv. 35 @ Hard Stone
Mild Nature
Shed Skin
-Rock Slide
-Dragon Dance
-Brick Break
-Earthquake
Brick Break isn't required here but it's better than nothing. Anyway, Pupitar's become much better. I didn't want to wait until postgame to get Earthquake so I used the TM here. It's not like I really needed to save it for anything. It's still not going to blow you away but getting off a DD can happen as long as the opponent doesn't have random Water Pulse or something (it has happened). Rock Slide/Earthquake are just nice spread moves and work really nicely with a Helping Hand user. This feels like a middle of the road mon. A lot of effort gets put into it but it's starting to pay off.


Dewgong Lv. 35 @ Leftovers
Modest Nature
Thick Fat
-Surf
-Helping Hand
-Ice Beam
-Rest
It's stronger and bulkier now. That's all you really need to know. Well, I guess random Fighting and Rock moves hurt more, which sucks, but the positives of evolving outweigh that by a ton. Surprisingly solid for an NU mon.


Meanwhile, I've been purifying and catching a few wild mons along the way and here are my sets to get to max for anyone curious.

1: Seedot>Sandshrew>Nosepass>Butterfree
2: Shuckle>Roselia>Spheal>Phanpy
3: Aron>Gligar>Mareep>Carvanha
4: Ralts>Zubat>Ledyba>Poochyena
5: Baltoy>Vupix>Mawile>Snorunt
6: Natu>Gulpin>Hoppip>Pineco
7: Lunatone>Makuhita>Swinub>Spinarak
8: Togepi>Pidgeotto>Meowth>Delcatty
9: Numel>Growlithe>Beedrill>Paras
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 1, Guests: 0)

Top