Challenge Ultra Sun Damageless- What could possibly go wrong?

[Ironmage]

So I've been seeing a couple of no-damage runs around on the internet, so I figured "why not try this on the game known for strong single opponents hard to brute-force"? I came up with several good reasons, but promptly ignored them. I will not be using trades or refresh, but I will be using my save liberally and will likely use Pelago for AFK EV/Exp grinding. Version choice is based on what I happen to own.

part 1

After mashing through the intro cutscenes, it's time to pick a starter.
Popplio has early access to Aqua jet, and it forces Hau to pick the only starter that doesn't naturally learn priority. Not only that, it also gets a STAB spread move and covers the only Akala totem not weak to Flying.

Buneary has a 30% encounter rate in the right spot on route 1, and know four moves, only one of which does damage. This makes them our best grinding option until we can OHKO things.

I make my first attempt against Hau at level 8. Considering how much Litten is faster than Popplio, I clearly don't have much confidence in his ability to pick the correct move. Well, in any other situation, Ember would have been the wrong choice. Back to grinding, I guess.

I take out Hau at level 10, with a crit that may or may not have mattered. Some cutscenes later, we have a rematch. I don't OHKO pichu or outspeed litten this time, but Hau goes for Charm and Growl, so I still manage it first try.

Protip: Grind before going to Kukui's lab. The grass can spawn level 7 wingulls, which you are not guaranteed to escape from at level 11. While I was doing this, I caught a pikipek, for its flying STAB and access to fighting moves.

Two of the reqiured fights at the trainer's school were simple enough, but Youngster Joey (I'm serious, that's his name) swapped his rattata for a top percentage grimer, which is markedly sturdier. After a reset-heavy grind aganst the wilds in the school ground, the final two students fell easily to my now-evolved starter. The teacher tried to have a type advantage via rowlet, but I already knew Icy wind. Ilima is the only battle I remember being difficult on this island, so he'll get to star in next part.

The team so far:
Brionne Lvl 17
icy wind
water gun
aqua jet
disarming voice

Pikipek Lvl 12
peck
growl
echoed voice
rock smash

 

[sb879]

Good luck with this. Here's some boss data you might find helpful:

Totems
Trainers

fwiw boss fights in this game don't really go for priority unless they can pick up the KO with it or it's their strongest option, which generally isn't the case beyond Golisopod's First Impression (which you can just Protect). So I don't think you need to worry about, say, Hau's Raichu necessitating a Ghost or a priority OHKO due to Quick Attack, because in practice you're not going to see it. Fake Out is a different matter, but I don't think anything mandatory besides Nanu's Sableye has it. Normal trainers of course still have the worse AI and you can see priority whenever with them so take precautions as necessary. Queenly Majesty Tsareena might be a good investment. Also, you'll either need a sandstorm-immune Pokemon or to pick up the Safety Goggles in the Haina Desert for E4 Olivia.

I've never actually used Pelago Exp Grinding, but I hope it's good because good god is super overleveling awful with scaled exp.

 

[SadisticMystic]

Curiously, your best grinding option that early in the game is to find level 4 Buneary and throw a Poke Ball at it; until you go to Iki Town to fight Hau, all balls still have the 100% early-story catch rate. No need to risk the 1/4 shot that they pick Pound.

 

[Ironmage]

replies

Pelago is honestly pretty slow at EXP farming, but even a few exp per minute while sleeping/doing schoolwork/etc. helps.

Thanks for pointing out sandstorm! I may still want to grab the goggles, but I'm leaning a lot more towards Rampardos as the Mold Breaker user (for Mimikyu).

I'm still early-game enough for 40-power priority to be selected if its availible, and I expect I will need to handle Sucker Punch as well as First Impression. I likely was going to use Tsareena, since Guzma's Golisopod knows both of these and I don't expect to do even half with aqua jet anytime soon.

Didn't know about the guaranteed catch rate at the very beginning. Certainly seems like it would have been useful now that I am reminded that I need to find 75 pokemon to box in order to max out the training island in Pelago.

part 2

I was going to grind pikipek to level 14 for its evolution. I managed to get pokerus. I don't think that has happened since the first time I played Diamond. So I did the only logical option: catch the first thing I manage to, name it "pestilence," and dump it in storage to preserve its virulence. I also used up my stash of great balls on just increasing the number of boxed mons.

The first Skull grunt was non-threatening, though possibly only because I managed to get a quick claw activation against zubat. Meanwhile, Trumbeak's Rock Smash only does 50% to Ilima's Yungoos. This is going to be a while. I play out the rest of the battle before resetting in order to see how strong I need to be against smeargle. It does more, so if I can beat Yungoos, I can beat Ilima. That said, I won't be getting better fighting coverage without first beating him. I still focus on training trumbeak despite brionne having a roughly equivalent output because I want to be ready for the totem.

At level 16, trumbeak learns pluck, which the damage calculator tells me slightly outdamages rock smash against yungoos. I make another attempt to gauge progress. About 70%, and puts smeargle in the red. Not bad. Also not exactly good. I realize at this point that one of the mons I just caught is a Pickup Meowth, who is currently gathering leaked exp since eventually getting free rare candies sounds pretty darn nice.

I make another attempt at level 18. I put Yungoos in the red, but they go for leer instead of something useful. Ilima's potion does not save him. Glad that's over.

Watch out for the youngster on route 2, his drifloon has aftermath.

Since I can't easily leave an ongoing trial, I need to be prepared beforehand. Some approximate calcs show that I need to be around 25 on trumbeak for brick break to KO. Crabrawler can manage it at 20, but it's a big pain to get ahold of. Makuhita can do it at 23, which is most likely not worth it. Actually doing the trial will be in the next part.

The team:
Brionne lvl 19:
icy wind
water gun
aqua jet
disarming voice

trumbeak lvl 18:
peck
pluck
echoed voice
rock smash

meowth-A level 14
scratch
fury swipes
bite
fake out

 

[Jerry the great]

Just thought I'd warn you about Mimikyu. Totem Mimikyu to be exact. It has disguise, and all of it's moves are attacks. Don't try using sleep or paralysis to beat it damageless either, as it's lum berry would easily take care of that. Don't bother with fake out for obvious reasons. Don't try using mold breaker rampardos to win, as although it's attack stat is very high, it's much slower than Mimikyu. Unless of course, you over leveled it enough to where it out speeds... But that'd take ages. Yeah, just giving you a heads up + giving you some advice.
Edit: Yeah I didn't think about those two... They still have rather high attack stats, and are faster, so now that I got reminded of them, I figure those two are your best bets.

 

[Ironmage]

In other words, you're recommending I use pinsir or haxorus as my mold breaker against mimikyu (the other users are HA, megas, or pangoro, which has the same speed as rampardos). Haxorus has the better coverage, but I can start training pinsir a bit earlier. Chances are I will still use use rampardos for the E4, since beating sturdy while immune to sand damage is most likely going to be useful.

 

[Hematite]

wow that advice wasn't at all condescending

Hmm... for what it's worth, Totem Mimikyu has exactly 126 Speed after its Totem aura, which is outsped by nothing slower than Swoobat (base 114) at level 35 even assuming maximum Speed investment; you're probably not going to have anything to match it at that point.
The only thing that can naturally outspeed it at any reasonable level is Mold Breaker Hawlucha (base 118), but as you pointed out, that's its Hidden Ability (and the in-game trade is Unburden).
For what it's worth, Hawlucha wouldn't be able to oneshot until a much higher level anyway (its strongest move at this point in the game is a 160 BP Corkscrew Crash off of Steel Wing, which only has even a chance to oneshot at level 40 and doesn't do it 100% of the time until 45, which seems pretty much out of the question), so it's probably fine to dismiss it - you're not really missing out for want of its HA, haha.

That said, it might be possible to do it with a Quick Claw instead? You're okay with soft-resetting as long as you eventually do it without damage, right?
A Quick Claw makes the Speed difference irrelevant and lets you continue to use Rampardos (which I agree is a much better option in the long run) - its Iron Tail (Heahea Beach tutor) is actually stronger than Hawlucha's Corkscrew Crash anyway, and provided that it has an Attack-boosting nature, it can theoretically do it as low as level 38 (or 37 with an Attack IV of at least 24) and guarantees the oneshot by level 42 (or as low as 40 with a perfect Attack IV).
It'd definitely be hard to get that set up, but it does seem like... well, a better option than Pinsir or Haxorus - that's for sure.
On the bright side, Poké Pelago should make the EV training side of it easy - it's just a matter of level grinding (and making sure you get an Attack-boosting nature)!

 

[Ironmage]

Failing to OHKO means that I would need to handle the reinforcement, so I'm going to stick with mold breaker. I just realized that rampardos isn't actually the only thing available that can beat sturdy under sand, since I would only be needing this against (partial) rock-types I can make use of Sunsteel strike instead. Haxorus starts outspeeding at level 39 (31/252/boosting nature), and will KO if it outspeeds, even if it ends up with timid. Seems that it doesn't get much better than the low 40s.

 

[SadisticMystic]

Max attack Cloyster with Never-Melt Ice would need to be level 59 in order to KO Mimikyu with the 4 remaining hits of Icicle Spear after the first hit breaks the disguise. Not a very appealing option with the huge gap between that and your opponent, but it is an option.

 

[Ironmage]

part 3

Went back to the city for a bit since it was late and the rattatas know quick attack. Tried catching a few abras, since there's no risk of damage if I failed. 4th one is jolly synchronize. Basically everything I consider using is physical and limited by speed. For the purpose of this run specifically, it's possibly a bigger boost than pokerus is.

And now we're at the point where I start mashing B for meowth, since Persian doesn't keep Pickup. I suppose I could use an everstone, if a) I had one and b) it didn't defeat the entire point of keeping something around entirely for Pickup.

Finally got trumbeak to level 25, let's try this. I grab the brick break TM and easily plow through everything here. Just as planned.

I just need to take the time to laugh at a quirk of the writing here. Dulse says he's impressed on me clearing the trial under my own power rather than relying on technology. As if I didn't run simulations of this fight beforehand and my strategy didn't expressly rely on a TM to pull off.

It takes a minimal amount of grinding to beat Dulse's furfou at the end of route 3. Avoid using the cottonees in the meadow, since they have prankster stun spore. I had no problem with the Hau fight immidiately after, though I was worried I wouldn't outspeed noibat if I took a hit from pikachu's static.

Unfortunately, Hala's makuhita knows fake out, and I don't yet have access to protect. Fortunately, he forgot to run coverage on it. I catch a drifloon, and head back to check how good Hala's AI is. I correctly predict his switch to pursuit-carrying crabrawler, and double-switch to trumbeak. I bring back drifloon to take fake out again, and use trumbeak's keen eye to easily take a sand-attack on the switch. Always nice when you can figure something out that doesn't involve grinding.

I do some backtracking with Tauros, getting some exp from fighting wild mons as I go. Most notably, I pick up the Flyinium Z from Ten Carat Hill. Akala will start next part.

The team:
Brionne lvl 26
Icy Wind
Bubblebeam
Aqua Jet
Disarming Voice

Trumbeak lvl 26
Smack Down
Pluck
Fury Attack
Brick Break

Meowth lvl 22
scratch
fury swipes
feint attack
fake out

kadabra lvl 19
teleport
kinesis
confusion
disable

Drifloon lvl 15
constrict
minimize
astonish
gust

 

[TM13IceBeam]

Failing to OHKO means that I would need to handle the reinforcement, so I'm going to stick with mold breaker. I just realized that rampardos isn't actually the only thing available that can beat sturdy under sand, since I would only be needing this against (partial) rock-types I can make use of Sunsteel strike instead. Haxorus starts outspeeding at level 39 (31/252/boosting nature), and will KO if it outspeeds, even if it ends up with timid. Seems that it doesn't get much better than the low 40s.

i'm probably missing something but fraxure doesnt evolve into haxorus until level 48 so you arent getting one at 39, since there isnt a wild one from sos battles (fraxure doesnt outrun mimikyu either)

 

[Ironmage]

That is something I missed the first time around, which means that my options look like this (assuming perfect IVs, jolly):
Rampardos quick claw iron tail (15%): level 40
Rampardos quick claw iron head (20%): level 45
Rampardos Z-iron tail: level 53
Haxorus Z-iron tail: level 48 (can be done as long as it's not a -speed nature)
Pinsir Z-rock slide: level 61 (lacks SE moves)
Cloyster Skill link icicle spear: level 59
(no other skill link mon can use their STAB)
Dugtrio Iron head flinch (30%)-> earthquake : level 72

Basically, Haxorus is probably still the best option if I'm pessimistic about my luck, especially since EXP grinding can be done AFK while soft-resetting the entire trial at once (to avoid softlocks) can't be.

 

[Ironmage]

part 4

I run through the course a few more times to make sure I had enough battle points (regardless of how they were earned, it's a more accurate descripiton of why they will be spent).

On my first attempt, I was caught with the wrong lead against Hau, and Smack Down barely didn't OHKO. Unfortunately for the next attempt, I'm not strong enough to win the priority duel with pikachu. Why he uses quick attack against a water type is anyone's guess. Looks like it's a damage roll at 27. Rather frustrating since this fight is immediately before I can get the mystic water. His eevee also knows quick attack, but forgot to bring anti-ghost coverage.

Route 5 has the first required double battle. It was not eventful.

I swap Z-crystals to fighting for Gladion, since Null is a lot bulkier than anything else at this point. He leads zorua, pretending to be zubat. Other than that, pretty standard fight.

Onward to Brooklet Hill! The power spike from "coverage" to "STAB Z-move" is enough that I shouldn't need to grind much, if at all. Yep, first try, no grinding required. Seems like a reasonable place to end this part.

The team:
Brionne lvl 28
Icy Wind
BubbleBeam
Aqua Jet
Disarming voice

Toucannon lvl 28
Smack Down
Pluck
Fury Attack
Brick Break

Meowth lvl 24
Scratch
Fury Swipes
Feint Attack
Fake Out

Kadabra lvl 23
Psybeam
Kinesis
Confusion
Disable

Drifloon lvl 20
constrict
payback
ominous wind
gust

 

[Ironmage]

part 5

The required Battle Royale is pretty scary, since I don't expect to take anything out with non-STAB icy wind after the spread reduction. First try, everybody goes for rockruff, who protects. I get hit on turn 2. Somewhow, I pull it off second try by dropping a Z-move on rockruff while Hau and Gladion fight each other.

... Totem Marowak knows detect. Hydro vortex does a little over 25% through it. I am probably going to fill out my boxes for pelago and grind to 34 so I have a strong spread water move.

...And it doesn't use detect once I show up prepared. Oh well, at least I have enough boxed mons to get Pelago up and running.

So I kind of forgot Lurantis is at +2 speed instead of +1, so I can't just walk in and Skystrike. I'm not sure whether Golisopod or Fletchinder is the better choice here (or later), but I now have the option of EVing both overnight, and dumping some extra EXP in the rest of the team while I'm at it.

You know, I'm impressed. I picked up this run because I wanted something where using one mon exclusively was less viable, and this is exceeding my expectations. Golisopod can take out lurantis as soon as it evolves. On beating that, I catch a Steenee for later use. Took an unreasonable number of tries to get one with Oblivious.

Hau's use-imparied in the multi battle, so he takes friendly fire from sparkling aria. I then pick up a skull fossil, in case I choose to focus on rampardos I can start training early. Next part will be the grand trial.

Combat team:

Primarina lvl 39
Sparkling Aria
Aqua Jet
Disarming Voice
Hyper voice

Toucannon lvl 37:
Drill peck
Smack Down
Brick Break
Fury Attack

Golisopod lvl 30:
Struggle Bug
Sand-attack
First Impression
Sucker Punch

Steenee lvl 21:
Rapid Spin
Razor Leaf
Play Nice
Sweet Scent

Drifblim lvl 28:
Constrict
Payback
Hex
Gust

Fletchinder lvl 31:
Flail
Roost
Flame Charge
Natural Gift

Cranidos lvl 15:
Leer
Focus Energy
Pursuit
Take Down

Support Team:
Meowth lvl 35
Kadabra lvl 29

 

[Ironmage]

Alright, the local mimikyu planning update is here. Hau's tauros is giving me trouble, and I'm going to need to spend a lot of time not playing because my coursework scheduling can be described as a boat collision. I am most likley not going to make it to mount Hokuloni today, which means I will not be able to get axew before cranidos gets a sizable level lead on the wild ones.

 

[Ironmage]

part 6

Plumeria's golbat actually speed-ties primarina, and I lose to confuse ray. RNG why. I try again with Toucannon (who outspeeds by 3 whole points!) and succeed.

Primarina does at least outspeed Olivia's anorith, but I don't risk it against lycanroc. Since I want to keep my Z-move availible for it, I use golisopod against lilleep.

Nihilego's aura is physical defense, which does not help it against sparkling aria.

Next island, next hau fight. Sparkling Aria against torracat, then bring out Golisopod. First impression for leafeon, then two sucker punches against noibat and raichu. Unfortunately tauros is fast and has intimidate. He also runs pursuit, so no ghost-type cheese. A bunch of pelago exp while I do RL work later, primarina is level 46 and outspeeds.

Other than elekid knowing quick attack (it dies to aqua jet), if you have enough force to beat a fast mon at ~lvl 30 with intimidate, you can beat something fast at ~lvl 30 with +1 defense.


I see if I can use rampardos to bait razor shell on Guzma's golisopod instead of one of the priority moves. I also swap Primarina's item to mystic water to guarantee a KO on masquerain, since I intend to use my Z-move on Golisopod to get a free switch on KO rather than needing the same mon to handle both. Bait is successful, and my one special attacker takes out another intimidator. Next part will most likely include what you've all been waiting for, mimikyu.

The main combat team:
Primarina lvl 47
sparkling aria
aqua jet
hyper voice
moonblast

toucannon lvl 40
smack down
fury attack
brick break
drill peck

golisopod lvl 35
struggle bug
sand attack
first impression
sucker punch

rampardos lvl 37
scary face
assurance
brick break
rock tomb

tsareena lvl 31
low sweep
rapid spin
trop kick
stomp

the support team:
meowth lvl 38
kadabra lvl 42

the auxiluary team:
drifblim lvl 40
fletchinder lvl 32

 

[Jerry the great]

Oh crap, the next part is going to get GOOOOOOD.

 

[Ironmage]

part 7

I train a bit on the wilds so I can get the choice specs from the dragon tamer in tapu village (but man, do I wish it was a scarf instead).

I make my first run at the trial when Rampardos is at level 44, enough to KO with quick claw iron tail. That said, I'm not exactly expecting to beat mimikyu this run. I'm also testing my ability to handle the other fights in this trial, against the gastly line. They're fast, and run hypnosis, so sucker punch isn't a guarantee. I expect they're on wild (i.e. random) AI, so I don't expect to deny Haunter's own sucker punch with primarina. Tsareena outspeeds haunter, but I don't get a good figure on whether payback is relible since I crit. Gengar stocks no priority and is quiet nature, so it's actually the least threatening

Moment of truth. I don't get the quick claw, it doesn't miss play rough (though it's good news if the AI consideres the non-perfect accuracy move the best option), and I don't even KO. All in all, not great.

next attempt, level 46. Tsareena can in fact beat hauter reliably. I forgot to equip quick claw, I had swapped back to rockium for better accuracy. It does seem like mimikyu uses play rough consistently, but I haven't got a miss yet. Try again with the right item, and I get the activation, but fail to KO. Am I missing something in the calculator? I already have the +1, nature, and EVs accounted for. Anyway, I don't dodge this time, so I'm going to wait for next level.

47. I get the quick claw activation and proceed to miss. This is the first time mimikyu summoned banette rather than jellicent, despite the reference mentioning banette as the one to watch for. I'm wondering if which summon spawns is based on the Totem's HP, with banette being what happens at full.

Seriously, another failure to KO? Is this at +2 instead of +1? That would make it nearly impossible to use an outspeeding strategy instead of a quick claw one. I now notice that I was using a sheer force calc instead of a mold breaker one, but I'm still not doing enough for it to only be +1 (my last attempt didn't even put it in the red). At the same time, I've done too much previously for it to be a pure +2. Just what are this thing's aura boosts?

Whatever, I beat it on my first attempt at level 49. Now to harness the power of Disguise myself...Good old 40% success rate on a 5% encounter rate. Second try, only took 45 minutes. Synchronize didn't trigger, because why would it? At least Mild is basically neutral. Gonna call this part done while I set up the EVs on it. Next part, we'll use team skull and potentially aether foundation as ways to get mimikyu some EXP.

The main team:
Primarina lvl 51
sparkling aria
aqua jet
hyper voice
moonblast

Rampardos lvl 49
Iron tail
rock tomb
brick break
bulldoze

Golisopod lvl 43
Struggle Bug
Sand-attack
First Impression
Sucker Punch

Tsareena lvl 41
trop kick
stomp
payback
low sweep

mimikyu lvl 31
shadow sneak
mimic
feint attack
charm

support team:
meowth lvl 44
kadabra lvl 43

reserves:
toucannon lvl 46
drifblim lvl 41
fletchinder lvl 34

 

[DrPumpkinz]

 

[Ironmage]

part 8

With the exception of Primarina (due to being worried about unintended move replacements), I got a good chunk of EXP during downtime while EVing mimikyu. I aslo use one of my stored rare candies to evolve fletchinder, so I finally have something that could be considered truly fast (gen 7, amirite?).

I need it against Plumeria, whose golbat doesn't take enough against my availible priority. I use Z-fly to take it out, since I need a 25% to KO with acrobatics. salazzle is still threatining, but kadabra can actually do something in combat. Psychic easily KOs.

I swap out Meowth for Po town since the PC is a lot farther out of the way than PP restoring is.

I try to bait Guzma to use razor shell with rampardos, which works, though rock tomb fails to OHKO with rockium equipped. I do outspeed pinsir, and use my Z-move on it. Tsareena finishes off golisopod when it comes back in. Time for masquerain, and talonflame's secret weapon: Natural gift. Wiki berry makes it a power 80 rock move, easily capable of beating masquerain though intimidate.

I use Z-fly against gladion's golbat, like before. I correctly guess that he sends out zoroark first, and KO with first impression. Against Null, I risk the sub-perfect accuracy of Tsareena's High Jump Kick, but it works out.

Both Nanu's sableye and his persian know fake out. Sableye can be handled relatively easy, since it's slow. Persian is a different story. It's faster than everything except talonflame, it has a protect-breaking Z-move (though it will only use it turn 1 if nanu expects me to deny fake out i.e. I have Tsareena or Mimikyu out), and I'm pretty sure it has fur coat. Fortunatley, krokorok is a liability, because it will attempt to use swagger its first turn. This is going to get crazy.

The plan is as follows: Take out sableye with protect into Z-move of choice (I don't use primarina since I can't replace its moves), then switch to talonflame against krokorok. Set up Tailwind (glad I saved the BP), and use a persim berry to remove the confusion. KO with +1 acrobatics and switch to rampardos. protect against fake out, then win with brick break on the last turn of tailwind. Somehow, it worked flawlessly. I was originally intending to go further with this part, but I'm not expecting anything this awesome anytime soon.

The combat team:
Rampardos lvl 56
iron tail
rock tomb
protect
brick break

primarina lvl 53
sparkling aria
aqua jet
hyper voice
moonblast

tsareena lvl 50
trop kick
low sweep
High Jump Kick
payback

Golisopod lvl 50
First Impression
Sucker Punch
Liquidation
Protect

Mimikyu lvl 38
shadow sneak
shadow claw
feint attack
X-scissor

Talonflame lvl 49
tailwind
natural gift
fly
acrobatics

the support team:
mewoth lvl 49
kadabra lvl 48

Reserves:
Drifblim lvl 48
toucannon lvl 50

 

[Ironmage]

part 9

Unfortunately, you can only get Mimikyum Z and the saftey goggles at night, so I kill time by progressing the main plot. Hau gives me a max revive going in. What does he take me for? Unfortunately, this section has a few multi battles that put me at his mercy. He's going to end up taking a few specs sparkling arias as collateral.

Both Faba's hypno and his grunt's ledian outspeed primarina. I'm not getting through this with talonflame's heat wave anytime soon, or with rampardos' bulldoze ever. I tried betting on Hypno trying to sleep me, but losing specs means I can't take out the electabuzz in the battle immediately beforehand. Said electabuzz also outspeeds Gladion's Null. rock slide on rampardos is an option, but I really wish Hau would bring something other than his raichu for claydol and the grunt's pupitar (ledian also outspeeds rampardos, and doesn't reserve its bug buzz for the psychic type) Stop "helping" me, you two idiots! I don't have anything clever here. I'm gonna need to grind.

Rampardos starts outspeeding ledian at level 64. This would be enough to protect through turn 1 while Raichu handles ledian, even with using an electric move being too much to ask, but Hau will sometimes decide that using Psychic on Claydol is his best option. The AI is not quite as stupid as he his, and ledian will at least target Raichu if my mon resists Bug Buzz. Primarina outspeeds hypno at level 61. Of course, the spread penalty means I don't OHKO, so it's back to grinding. At least we've exhaused Primarina's level-up movepool, so I don't need to worry about move replacements when using the pelago. This could have been so easy: talonflame takes out faster opponents, while rampardos bulldozes or rock slides everything left. Good news, I can now get the stuff I need still lying around Akala island.

Main combat team:
Primarina lvl 61
sparkling aria
aqua jet
hyper voice
moonblast

rampardos lvl 66
iron tail
rock slide
bulldoze
protect

mimikyu lvl 50
shadow sneak
play rough
shadow claw
pain split

tsareena lvl 56
trop kick
low sweep
high jump kick
power whip

golisopod lvl 55
first impression
sucker punch
brick break
liquidation

talonflame lvl 58
tailwind
acrobatics
natural gift
fly

support team:
meowth lvl 55
kadabra lvl 52

reserves
Drifblim lvl 51
toucannon lvl 56



"I'm happy Hau's with us!" Shut the f*** up, rotom.

 

[Ironmage]

part 10

With Primarina at level 64, I see new behavior from the AI: ledian used light screen. fortunately, I still take out it and claydol. I then switch to mimikyu as Hau's leafeon at least manages to take out pupitar with giga drain (not sure why it leans special). I use items to resist hypnosis, while leafeon quick attacks and downs hypno. This is an order of magnitude better than his raichu. mimikyu can handle bruxish on its own. Turns out all you need is not raichu.

I lead Tsareena against guzma and KO golisopod with Z-power whip. Talonflame comes in and takes out masquerain with natural gift and pinsir with acrobatics. I then switch to rampardos against vikavolt, now that there's absolutely no chance of being outsped.

Dulse's X defense means poiple lives a hit from rampardos, but it doesn't get a turn to actually attack.

Man, that's a long cutscene before fighting lusamine. Let's hope this is first try. I lead rampardos. Iron tail on clefable, switch to talonflame and acrobatics on lilligant. Tsareena and power whip against milotic, mimikyu gets a Z-move against lopunny (I was worried about speed and lack of SE moves), primarina moonblasts bewear. Simple enough, though a few risks taken with accuracy.

Kommo-o has a Roseli berry, so fariy is only as good as any other weakness. I try talonflame's Z-brave bird first, due to the level and move power advantage. I crit. Okay then, moving on.

I run Z-shadow claw for dusk mane, since it has STAB, I'm not getting through prism armour with mold breaker, and I can follow up with a second move. let's hope this works, because it's a long cutscene to try again. Of course I now realize that sunsteel strike still threatens me. Necrozma is willing to run though all its morning sun PP while mimikyu has only taken one hit to psyhco cut, and then I lose to night slash. Dang.

If we assume that the healing is a strategy of the AI and not the RNG being weird, my best option becomes primarina since Specs are going to be a larger boost in a longer fight. Alright, about 75%. Could have done it if necrozma went for healing. That said, that's enough that running Z could get me an OHKO. Yep, that works. I probably should have just calced this encounter.

Heading to Megapolis would cut some time between attempts at Ultra Necrozma, but it also cuts off any other wormhole destination, with both catching opportunities and the exp from level 60s until it's beaten. In other words, we would be committing to a fight.

So naturally I want the least grinding-intensive strategy availible. Since this fight is supposed to be difficult, it's reasonable to expect Necrozma to use actual AI. And since Necky has a 4 attacks set, that makes him predictable. Let's try getting a freshly-caught zorua and this tentacool I have lying around. It goes for smart strike on turn 5 of toxic stalling. Worrisome. It's time to increment the complexity.

Turn 1: necrozma is poisoned.
turn 2: zorua protects
turn 3: switch to rattata. This means that Necrozma won't use photon geyser next turn.
turn 4: rattata protects.
turn 5: switch to mimikyu. necrozma happens to go for dragon pulse, but anything not photon geyser would have been enough.
turn 6: shadow sneak.

I was afraid that I wouldn't still take photon geyser on turn 3, but his worked out well enough.

zorua and rattata gained 22 levels, and tentacool gained 4. Mimikyu unfortunately did not level, despite being the most likely to be used at a later time.

I guess I'm ending this part here? A lot of progression happened, even if I think I mostly just stumbled forwards.

Main combat team:
Primarina lvl 67
sparkling aria
aqua jet
hyper voice
moonblast

rampardos lvl 73
iron tail
rock slide
bulldoze
brick break

talonflame lvl 64
tailwind
natural gift
acrobatics
brave bird

golisopod lvl 62
first impression
sucker punch
liquidation
brick break

tsareena lvl 63
trop kick
High Jump Kick
Power Whip
Low Sweep

Mimikyu lvl 59
shadow sneak
play rough
protect
shadow claw

Support team:
kadabra lvl 52
meowth lvl 58

Reserves:
toucannon lvl 59
drifblim lvl 53
zorua lvl 27
tentacool lvl 20
rattata lvl 25

 

[SwampySwampert]

Interesting strategy for Ultra Necrozma! Considering how broken it is in-game, a damage-free battle is pretty impressive.

 

[Ironmage]

I figured I had three options:
1) train golisopod until I can KO with first impression
2) train mimikyu until I can KO with Snuggle into shadow sneak, hoping that necrozma doesn't use photon geyser
3)use Illusion, hoping that necrozma only uses photon geyser

I didn't bother trying to train zorua because I didn't expect necrozma to catch on if they didn't by turn 2 (making this barely better than using mimikyu), though my first attempt had them figure it out turn 5. The switching and protect spam was so that I could be readier for something changing.

Now that I think on it, I wonder if Necrozma's AI is coded to always go for smart strike if they fail the same move enough times. My other attempt had them prefer Dragon Pulse against a known dark type, and falling back on smart strike specifically would also leave it less vulnerable to evasion strategies.

 

[SadisticMystic]

If they have multiple moves that would all be capable of KOing what appears to be in front of them, "smart" trainer AI (which is also used by totems, UBs, and Ultra Necrozma) will be prone to choosing any of them (but Necrozma probably gives extra weight to moves that would let it take advantage of Neuroforce). A level 16 Tentacool is thus so insignificant that even the resisted Smart Strike is powerful enough to KO; if you had gone to route 15 and caught a level 35 Tentacruel instead, that would no longer be the case and is one fewer move it might pull out at random. Certainly if you had raised Tentacruel up to level 50, that can be enough to get it out of range of Power Gem and Dragon Pulse, thus guaranteeing that Necrozma's first 5 moves would all be Photon Geyser, and you could confidently click Protect (or switch to Mimikyu) on turn 6.