Let's Play! Weathering The Storm in Radical Red!

[Ardy]

Hello everyone! Im Ardy, you may know me from my abandoned Blazed Glazed playthrough, or my abandoned Gaia drunklocke, or my abandoned GPS Monster Scouter playthrough, or my abandonment issues rooted in a childhood fear of loneliness. If you dont, excellent! Welcome to my playthrough of Pokemon Radical Red, my newest obsession! If you do, I am so sorry. I definitely plan on completing atleast the Gaia drunklocke when my life is held together by more than that one skirt I always wear when Im sad.
In any case, lets get started!

The Game

Pokemon Radical Red is a rom hack of, well, FireRed, that is currently making the waves in the romhack community for being, well, one of the fucking best rom hacks out there. Just the quality of life features it offers would be enough, but Radical Red amps it up a notch by increasing the difficulty severely, being updated to Gen 8 in terms of movepool and Pokemon, and a very improved AI that utilises competitive sets. In short, it is awesome, frustrating, and has made me shut off my laptop and do a shot more times than I am willing to admit. (6 times. 4 of those were vs Sabrina.) While Im enjoying my main run through the game, I realised this is a perfect candidate for a Lets Play on this forum, especially the way Im playing it.
Basically, in my main run through the game, Im running a Sun team, which has its ups and downs. While playing through there were definitely times when I wished I had chosen another strategy, maybe rain or sand or (lol) hail or Trick Room or something.
Well
Why not all of them?
Or atleast Sun, Rain and Sand. I fucking hate Hail and Trick Room.
Radical Red gives you the tools to make these teams VERY early on, and its something I've enjoyed doing. So this is my multi-weather playthrough of Pokemon Radical Red!

Misc information

If you went through the Pokecommunity Page, you might have noticed the astounding list of features this game has. For brevitys sake, Im going to mention the ones most important to this playthrough: Buffs to many pokemon, a working Dexnav feature, Gen 8 Breeding mechanics, Battle Style forced to Set, a better system for determining IVs of a Pokemon, and a Nature Changer in every town.
Apart from that, Im going to be posting videos of most major boss battles, rather than putting up screenies. This is because I am addicted to save state resetting, and this is the only way to physically stop me from cheating during Misty.
I am going to leave nicknames to the side for the early game, until we get to the Name Rater in Lavender. This gives you all ample time to help me with nicknames, because two of my cats were named Pepper and Salt. Pepper was white and Salt was black. I am not good with names.
I may cry multiple times during this playthrough. Viewer discretion is advised.

Without further ado, let us begin!

Chapter 1: The One Where A Lot Of Grinding Happens, And Not The Fun Kind

I did not pay for this, but this game is definitely gonna make me pay for playing it

Standard intro, no changes afaik.

We've been over the Capitalisation in p much every playthrough Ive posted, blah blah nostalgia, blah blah my life sucks and I am clinging to any scrap of childhood I have left, you get the gist.

Okay this is the name the Starbucks lady wrote on my exes cup this one time and it was fucking hilarious cause it means daddy in our language, idk why this popped into my head for the name but its sticking.

Dropped into our room. Take the potion out of the PC as always.

This game has an inbuilt randomiser option, which is neato, but not for us right now. Maybe on another playthrough.

Skipping thru the basic bitch opening that we have all seen before

Finally
Okay so straight up: we are going to abandon our starter very soon. Bulbasaur would be a god tier option, but at this point we dont have an accurate way to check IVs for quite some time, and we arent gonna have access to the Hidden Ability changer until Saffron, so we are gonna ditch it around Misty, maybe sooner.
So really, the only reason this choice matters is VS brock.
However, the game uptil Brock will be made much easier with Sleep Powder, so we go for my fav kanto starter after all.

Si senor.

We beat Baba with minimal effort, however this may be because we spawned with an Oran Berry and he did not.

Blah blah plot plot
There is something neat here though

Every pokemon center has this. For the moment we are too broke for this, however even if we werent we dont want this until misty.

God, I hate this useless shite in Firered.

However, I do not hate this.

Take the town map from daisy, and NOW we can finally get some shit started woot woot

Firstly we are going to skip right past anything and head towards Viridian, so we can run into this Aide.

Now lets get this party started.

This is what the Dexnav looks like. It is very helpful for grinding as well as finding pokemon with whatever combination of egg moves/IVS/abilities you want. Our first pick is a Starly on Route 22.

Pretty decent starly, albiet with shit speed. I didnt know how shit until later in this update. It has Fury Attack as an egg move.
Next on our list is a Rockruff, who is the first pokemon that will most definitely appear on our endgame team! We hunt and catch one, and-

oh dear lord jesus in heaven no

One save reset later, we get one with some actual attack. Im not happy with this one, so we will probably backtrack and replace it later on, but for now, it will do. It comes with Sucker Punch as an egg move.

With its Rock typing, Rockruff is very easy to train on Route 22, where you can just dexnav normal/flying Pokemon whose attacks you can easily shrug off. Great pick for the early game.

After some grinding, our team looks like this, and we are ready to head onwards to Viridian Forest!
The forest itself is not at all threatening or notable, Starly wipes out all the trainers with ease, but theres a trainer battle ne-

O
This could be useful.
I catch it and it has shit IVs, so I reset and kill it.
Anyways, theres a-

Seriously?
This one is pretty good, actually, but it has a -speed nature, and the only reason I would consider a Chu is to outspeed Misty, so nah. Reset and kill.
ANYWAYS
Theres a trainer battle at the end of the Forest, and I swap out Starly and Bulbasaur for it.

I hated you in Emerald. Can you redeem yourself?

BRING IT ON

He has a Corphish and a Treeko.

Corphish is easy, goes down to a single Vine Whip. I Growl Twice on Treeko for good measure before switching to Starly.

Who takes a Quick Attack and knocks it out with a single Wing Attack. Damn.

OH BRENDAN CAN MOST CERTAINLY REDEEM HIMSELF IN THIS GAME
These are *monumental*.
EXP Share is the Gen 6 onwards EXP Share, where it distributes amongst all pokes in your party. We are keeping this on for the rest of the game.
AND THEN THE STAT SCANNER!
Gives you exactly your IVs and EVs of the Pokemon you scan, and it is the most useful key item in this goddamn game.
We quickly scan our party members.

Bulbasaur. Pretty average all across, makes me glad we are dumping it.

Rockruff. Loving the Attack, but the Speed is so short Im definitely going to replace him soon.

Starly. And HOLY shit 1 Speed. Babe. Honey. Princess. Why.
I dont replace either of them at this point, I'll save that for next update.

Anyways we make it to Pewter. Lets go check on the gym an-

Oh. Right. Id forgotten about that.
Before we can fight Brock, we have to go to the museum and fight Falkner. There is no way in hell we are ready for that fight with our current team, so lets go to Route 2 and catch something that is.

MINE

Hoooly fuck thats a good Mareep.
Wont keep it on the team for long in any case, but thats still a very good Mareep.

We grind it against Poochyena until it learns Thundershock, and now we are ready to start looking for a permanent member of our Rain Team on here. Also Bulba gets Sleep Powder.

Wingull is not only great grinding for Mareep, but great because we do need a Pelipper for our Rain Team, obviously. We catch this one and...

Lord Krishna in the sky help me
It is female, atleast, so its useful for breeding.

OR NOT BECAUSE THIS IS THE MALE I CATCH!
Before remembering that Pelipper overwrites Hydration with Drizzle, not Rain Dish. Fuck.
Oh well.
We can always just look for one with Hydration.

Dear God, Im sorry I liked that video of my best friend from 7th grade where he flipped off the religious texts section in the library. I am no longer an athiest, I know you are real and I believe.
Anyways, perfect Wingull done with (we dont even really need to breed), we are ready to fight Falkner!

Shame

BRING IT ON!

My first playthrough, my strategy was convoluted and involved a Houndoor for some reason. This will be much easier.

Mareep handily deals with all three Pokemon with ease. I had my doubts about Corvsquire,

But it manages him with 3 HP to spare. If Mareep had gone down in the middle of Corv, I would have used Rockruff and spammed Bite and Sucker Punch to deal with it, since its only attacking move is Aerial Ace, afaik.

WOOHOO!
Starly replaces Growl and Wingull gets it as a fourth move.
Anyways, the gym is now open, so onto Brock.

The trainer before Brock gives enough EXP to get Starly to Staravia. Not really any point, since we'll be replacing it, but nice to know nevertheless.
AND NOW ONTO BROCK!

Its a pretty easy fight, all things considered. If you cant watch the video, heres a breakdown:
Bulbasaur puts Geodude-A to sleep and kills it with 3 Vine Whips while it sleeps. Brock sends out Vulpix, and we take a Will-o-Wisp as we send out Wingull to deal with it. Thankfully, this isnt a Drought Vulpix, as that would just kill our strat of tanking embers while using Water Gun. Eventually Vulpix dies, and Onix comes out. We sack Wingull to send out Bulbasaur, who takes a Bulldoze as he puts Onix to sleep. 2 Vine Whips and 1 Bulldoze later, the badge is ours. We get Rock Tomb for our trouble.

Which Rockruff immediately learns over Leer.
Thats all for this update! Probably gonna have another one up soon.

Thanks for reading, everyone! Hope to have another update soon. Please nickname my Pokemon before I name my Bulbasaur weed, please, god, Im begging you.
Also, suggest nicks for these upcoming Pokemon (possibly):
Machop
Noibat
Vulpix
Bellsprout
Tympole
Smoochum
Petilil
Shroomish

 

[Ardy]

Alright you bastards, Im addicted

Chapter 2: The One Where We Use A Lot Of Balls, But Not The Fun Kind

First order of business is Pokeballs. There will be a lot of catching to do this update.

I also buy Repels to make chaining easier with the DexNav.
I backtrack to Route 2. First order of business is to pick up a decent Rockruff.

That defense is a blow, but Lycanroc should not be taking hits in any case, so its a small loss for that AMAZING speed and attack. Our good boi joins the team.
Next, Starly.

Goddamn this would have been a good one if not for the 0 speed. Reset and kill.

Youre actually fucking with me. Reset and kill.
Finally, after 34 Starlys, I find The One.

Its really a beauty to behold.

With the chaining done, its time to head towards Mt Moon. Before we can enter Route 3, however, an Aide shows up.

This is...something, I guess. We will not be using this.

Whole buncha evolutions through Route 3 trainers. All 3 of these pokemon have been abandoned by the end of this update.

We also pick up the TM for Calm Mind, and then its time to look for...

YOU
Breloom is a great poke, and will fit in on our Rain team.
This Shroomish was Poison Heal, however.
Since Im going to be chaining Shroomish, and they have a chance of holding a Mushroom, i might as well pick up another one of my Pokemon first.

This is a pretty fucking shit Noibat. However, since Noibat will never see any actual combat, it does not matter.
I pick up Thief from the basement of the cave, fighting only the mandatory Rocket infront of it, and then make my way back up for the Shroomish chaining.

Leggo

Noibat has Frisk and can learn Thief, meaning that it is very useful for farming items, such as the Mushroom, which we are going to need soon.
It takes something like 40 shroomish before we find our shining star.

Not ideal, but it will most certainly do.

Now to our next pick.

I spend a long time in Mt Moon chaining Machop. I was looking for a No Guard Machop with Bullet Punch. I found every variation of Machop except for that. This is what I ended up settling for, a Guts Machop with Bullet Punch. I will breed it soon to get my No Guard Machop. I swear it by the stars.

I also pick up this nifty Tympole with Swift Swim, which will suffice until we get a better Swift Swimmer later on.

Last, but not least, a Drilbur with Sand Rush from the basement.
These three pokemon took 1.5 hours total to get. I hate myself for doing this.

Anyways, our team locked and loaded, we battle Rockets, clear house, and pick up the Helix Fossil, because FUCK Kabutops. Now time to move onto greener pastures and-

Ofcourse we get ambushed.
I havent even healed

Also I forgot to take a screenie but somewhere in the chaining Shroomish evolved and learnt Mach Punch. I also taught it Bullet Seed using a TM we found around Mt Moon, and Rock Tomb.

The admin is a non issue (all 3 go down to Mach Punch, and Impidimp gets off a prankster Thunder Wave), but our Machop levels up and picks up Knock Off.

This is a good moveset.

Thats what my ex said!

Finally

This is the move relearner. Very useful because we need Lycanrock-Dusk to get Accelerock ASAP.
Now, I want to breed my Machop, so lets go do the dig qu-

Oh right I forgot about Nugget Bridge entirely

Hello, friend. Hello, Friend? That sounds lame. I should give you a name. But thats a slippery slope. You're only in my head, we have to remember that.

BRING IT ON

In order: Rock Tomb, Rock Tomb, Water Pulse, Water Pulse, Water Pulse. Everything except Charm is an OHKO.

Thanks for nothing you useless bastard
Anyways
It was 6:50, and Rockruff was at level 22. I had 1 rare candy. I had 10 minutes to get it to 24 so I could get my grubby hands on a Lycanrock-Dusk. Fortunately, the Nugget Bridge beckoned.

YAS I MADE IT
6:57 with 3 mins to spare

We do not learn Thrash.

Before Misty, and we have a 30 Attack / 31 Speed Lycanroc Dusk with Accelerock. I love this fucking game.

Blah blah we get the Nugget with our awesome team
BTW I should mention
at this point my team is Breloom / Lycanroc / Wingull / Machop / Drilbur / Tympole.
Anyways, route to Bills House is really uneventful.

This is the only thing that really happens.

31 Sp.Atk / 31 Speed Drizzle Pelipper before Misty. God I LOVE this fucking game.

Blah blah we have all played this game too many times to care

I also pick up the TM for Flame Charge beneath the Nugget Bridge. Not useful rn, but will be soon.

Outside Bills house is Bugsy, staring longingly into the water. We dont HAVE to fight him, but the reward is pretty fucking nice.
On my first playthrough, this almost ended me, despite me using a Sun Team, because I did not have the foresight to farm Mushrooms to get Lycanroc Accelerock. This time, however, it was pretty easy.

Bugsy starts off with Ariados, while I start off with Breloom. Rock Tomb ends Ariados, while we take a Poison Fang, getting poisoned in the process. Ledian comes in, and we chip it with Mach Punch as it kills us with Aerial Ace. Lycanroc comes in. Ledian in RR is Bug / Fighting, so our Rock Tomb juuuust comes short of knocking it out, and it U-Turns out to Scyther. Scyther sets up an SD as we Rock Tomb. It survives cause of the rock-weak Berry. However, accelerock takes it out the following turn, as it does the Ledian hanging on by a strip of health, and we beat Bugsy and get U-Turn.
The next hour of my playthrough was spend on breeding.
First, I hunted in Route 5 for a Drought Vulpix, which I bred until I got one with good IVs.

Look at this beauty. Adamant Nature, but we will soon change that to Timid.
Next, I spent 30 mins looking for a Weather Ball Bellsprout, then 15 looking for a Giga Drain Bellsprout. Both were female. I caught a random male Bellsprout. I then bred this with the Giga Drain Bellsprout until I got a male Bellsprout baby with Giga Drain. I then bred this baby with the Weather Ball Bellsprout until I finally got this motherfucker.

I did not pay to change the nature. This is just dumb fucking luck.

Maybe this isnt as impressive after our Vulpix up there, but keep in mind this is a Sleep Powder/Growth/Weather Ball/Giga Drain Bellsprout right before Misty.
That being said, we wont be using Vulpix, or our Bellsprout against Misty.
Even at Weepinbell, we cannot outspeed Misty's Starmie under sun with a Modest Nature, as I learnt on my first playthrough of the game. A Victreebell will outspeed and annihilate the fucker, but we dont get a Leaf Stone just yet and I dont wanna cheat. So all we can do is just strategize our way through her.
After a couple tries, I figured out how to get past her with 5 Pokemon. I put Bellsprout in the 6th spot just to give it EXP, since its going to be very useful in upcoming battles.

This was a tense battle.
Let me break it down.
Misty leads with Protean Frogadier. Breloom kills it with two mach punches, but gets into Red by an Ice Punch in the process. Floatzel comes out and Fake Outs Breloom to death. Machop comes in and Low Sweep + Bullet Punches Floatzel to about half. Pelipper comes in, sets rain, and spams air cutter until Floatzel dies. It gets off a Quick Attack on Starmie before dying. Palpitoed comes in. Now, because of Swift Swim, Starmie will use the much weaker Icy Wind over Psybeam. This gives us a couple turns breathing space, which Palpitoed uses to Mud Shot Starmie's speed down to negligible. Rain fades and Palpitoed goes down. Now faster, Lycanroc finishes it off with a Bite. Or it would have, if I hadnt misclicked Tackle. Thankfully, Starmie just goes for Icy Wind, which brings us down to -1 speed. Since shes at -2, we still outspeed and KO with Bite, and the battle is ours.

I take the oppurtunity after the battle to teach Pelipper U-Turn over Quick Attack, since we shouldnt need it any more.
Thats all for this update! Next update we do entirely too much work, and show off our growing Sun Team.

Thanks for reading!
Upcoming nickname oppurtunties:
Darumaka
Cacnea
Hippopotas
Helioptle
Cyndaquil (possibly)
Ferroseed

 

[Ardy]

Okay it is 3am and I am missing my ex

Chapter 3: The One Where It's Pretty Hard, But Not The Fun Way.

Okay we swap around after Misty. The sun team is gonna take over for this next portion of the game, up until probably Saffron Giovanni. Maybe even Sabrina.
We spend some time breeding for a No Guard Machop, but after an hour or so I give up. We will get the Ability Capsule soon, anyways.

So I suppose the next thing to do is go to Vermillion and-
Wait a second we are low on cash

That is pathetic
We DexNav Meowths on Route 5 and use Noibat to farm for Nuggets.

It is harder than farming for Shrooms, because Meowth have a significantly lower chance of holding an item, even if it is boosted by Frisk. (Frisk copies Compound Eyes overworld effect in RR)

So I call up my bestie while I farm. This is after an hour of mindless farming. It will do for now.

Yes maam.

God I love this game.
If you're wondering why so many of them are at Level 27, I forgot to mention that RR has a level cap system. Before every major boss, your experience gain drops around a certain level to something like I think 0.25 of the normal, to prevent you from just overlevelling before fights. Misty's cap is 27, which is frustrating because Machop evolves at Level 28.

NOW onto Vermillion.

I think this is the only way to get an Eiscue in this game. Not worth it in any case.

We blaze through Route 6 onto Vermilion. Ideally at this point I would go to Rock Tunnel and catch a Hippopotas, but theres a boss fight infront of Rock Tunnel, so we shall head strait for the SS Anne.

Before that, however, lets do some imp things in the town. First up, we pick up the Old Rod, mostly out of habit. We arent really gonna be fishing, I think.

This guy is a godsend.

Over Rock Tomb.

Over Tackle.

We do not backtrack yet, as theres better things coming up soon.

This is a Farfetch'd G. Sirfetch'd is great, but we dont have a Corvsquire yet.

Onto the Anne!
This is more EXP farming than anything. The rival battle towards the end has been removed completely.

We teach Vulpix Wisp over Payback.

We pick up the TM for Brick Break.
Machop learns this over Low Sweep.

Lycanroc also temporarily takes this over Bite.

Benefits of farming.

We get Cut. You dont need an HM Slave in this game, simply having the HM will allow you to use it.
Now, we are gonna do something that is probably inadvisable, but that I want to do anyways. We are going to skip Surge for now, go through Route 9 to Rock Tunnel, speed ahead to Celadon and pick up evolutionary items.

But first lets clear this.

BRING IT ON!

Brick Break, Dual Wingbeat, Giga Drain, Brick Beak, Brick Break.
Brendan continues to be the easiest rival.

I actually love you, Brendan.

FUCK YESSS

If I asked you to marry me, what would you say? Haha jk...unless?

Anyways lets head towards Rock Tunnel.

Aerial Ace on the route to Rock Tunnel.

WOOT WOOT

We might as well, since we're already here.

WOOT WOOT!

It has surprisingly good IVs too. We could use this until we get the Rock Smash TM, actually, now that I think of it. Maybe we will backtrack some more.

Rest in Rock Tunnel.

Lycanrock gets Rock Slide over Rock Tomb, fucking finally.

And Staraptor! WOOT WOOT

Funny enough we pick up the TM for Rock Slide almost instantly as well.

Iron Tail and Facade en route to Lavender.

Theres only one mandatory trainer battle between Lavender and Celadon, so that was fun.

Maybe I should call my mom

Over Thunder Fang.
We pick up the Leaf Stone, Fire Stone and Link Cable from the Department Store.

Our entire team is fully evolved before LT Surge.
In hindsight, this was a dumb move, if only because the level cap was 37 before Surge and I hit that in Rock Tunnel. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.

Now lets get a move on and fight the military industrial complex.

Right after we chain for a Slack Off Hippopotas.

This battle was fairly simple. Excadrill Bulldozes Pinchurin twice and takes a scald in the process. As Manectric comes out, we switch to Hippo to put up sand. Hippo instantly dies to Flame Burst. Exca comes in and now handily kills Manectric and Raichu, taking only a Grass Knot from Rai in the process. Rock Slide crits Vika to death, but even if it didnt Vika cant really do much to us in any case.

Surge out of the way, we head back to Celadon and pick up Fly from the old lady. Now we can backtrack properly.
Firstly, we go back to Viridian and go to route 2 and Thief Red Shards from Houndour. Why? You'll see.
Actually, since we are here already, we fly to Route 4...

And get some more Nuggets from Meowth there.

We revive the Helix Fossil. Itll be useful for the Rain Team.

This is why we thiefed Red Shards.
Now, I want a female Cyndaquil so I can breed for good IVs.
There are 6 possible fire starters. Assuming each of them have a 1/6 chance of hatching, combined with Cynda's 12.5 chance of being female, there is a...

2% chance of hatching a female Cyndaquil. Fucking fabulous.
Hence we have 5 shards. We dump everything except Flame Body Magby into the PC, then save state infront of the egg vendor. After getting 5 eggs, we cycle to hatch them ASAP, and if none of them are a female cyndaquil, or atleast a male with good stats, we reset and try again.

I am not joking when I say getting this male Cyndaquil took 13 resets and the better part of half an hour.
Im still not 100% happy with it, but this is servicable for our purposes.

Next we go to Saffron and pick up an ability pill from this guy.

p l e a s e

We grind a bit to get everyone to hit the Level 44 level cap. I stop Cynda from evolving because I need it to learn Eruption at level 55 or I will shoot myself.

Lastly, I catch an Abra, evolve it to Kadabra, and then buy a link cable to get an alakazam. Grind it against Audino to hit the level cap, and now we are set for Erika, who should be a cakewalk with a Sun Team, if not for her annoyingly thicc Mega Venusaur. But thats why we have Alakazam.

She leads with Rillaboom as we lead with Ninetails. Rilla SDs as we switch to Victreebell, who takes a Grassy Slide as he KOs with Weather Ball. Venu comes out, and we switch to Staraptor, who survives a Sludge Bomb. Staraptor valiantly Dual Wingbeats for about half, before dying to Giga Drain. Alakazam comes out and kills Venu with Psychic. Serperior comes out and slaughters Ala with Leaf Storm. Ninetails comes out and takes a Leech Seed and Leaf Storm as he Flame Bursts Serperior down to death. It is annoying that we do not get Flamethrower until after this fight. Anyways, Meganium comes out. Ninetails Flame Bursts Meg to yellow and dies to Ancient Power. Victreebell finishes off with Weather Ball, and the Rainbow badge is ours.

Sorry this update was so dry, I am sleepy and pissed at my ex. I'll have more next time.
Im at the name rated, so name my pokes you heathens.
Love you all, thanks for reading, I'll be back tomorrow. Send good vibes my way.

 

[Scorpio]

Is it just me or do Gym fights give reduced Exp, cuz there is no way a Lv. 40+ fully-evolved Pokémon should be giving out only ~100

Also,

name my pokes you heathens.

OK, I suggest the nickname “you heathens” for, uh... Alakazam.

 

[Stellar]

Is it just me or do Gym fights give reduced Exp, cuz there is no way a Lv. 40+ fully-evolved Pokémon should be giving out only ~100

Also,


OK, I suggest the nickname “you heathens” for, uh... Alakazam.

There’s a level cap before receiving each badge. If you hit the cap, you receive severely reduced EXP. He had hit the cap before the gym battle.

 

[CoolMan6001]

Wow these "revamped" teams are basically not even the same team.

Part of me feels as if this hack would be better if it took place in its own region instead of trying to fit into Kanto. (Also that level curve is this supposed to be dark rising or something?)

 

[Ardy]

Okay this one is because I have an exam tomorrow.

replies

Scorpio : Yeah, theres a level cap that I hit. Also well played @ the nickname.
Stellar : *she
CoolMan6001 : This would definitely be a perfect hack in a new region, if only just because the level cap takes away from Kanto's open endedness in the midgame, which sucks because that kinda defines the region. Also lmao yes the curve is insane, although I still think DR is a million times worse. Also, Lycanroc and Machamp are prolly going to be the only permanent members of the team throughout the entire run, so yes lmao its just 3 different teams by the end of the game.

Also, boy, dont you love an update with 4 boss battles?

Chapter 4: The One Where We Make It Rain, But Not In A Fun Way

Last time we had just defeated Erika. This time we're gonna go right uptil Sabrina, which is like 4 battles.

First order of business is to go into the game corner, which was blocked off before Erika.

Time to buy TMs!

After this we run out of money, so its back to Route 4.

Took an hour.

Generically good TMs that will see a lot of use.

Lyca learns it over Bite, and Exca learns it over Rapid Spin. Sometime in the middle of Game Corner, I went with Crunch > SD on Lyca cuz it rarely needed to set up in any case.

Exca also gets a straight up improvement over metal claw.

Lastly, we pick this up in the Rocket Game Corner.

And immediately fly to Saffron.

"Oh Terry, why are you wasting this on a Flash Fire Tyhplosion, there are so many better options" Chill, all part of the plan. All will be revealed in a later update.

We also pick up Taunt from the hideout.

Here is where I replaced SD.

Leech Life and Return.

This is why I wanted a No Guard Machamp. Also, a big reason why Im using Machamp over another Fighting type is that it gets a new mega evolution in this game, and Machamp has always been a favorite of mine and I cant NOT use a Mega Machamp if I have the option to use it.

Celadon Giovanni is a joke. Forgot to Screen Record this battle, but he has a Nidoking, Rhyperior, Mega Kangaskhan and Honchkkrow. Only Nidoking is a threat, and its taken care of by Ice Punch + Bullet Punch Machamp. Exca sets up an SD on Honch and sweeps everyone else.

We get it, you're evil.
Anyways, Giovanni leaves and we are free to progress to...another Rocket Base? Really?
God I forgot how tedious the Kanto games were.
I would really love to go catch some pokemon to deal with this base, btw, specifically a Venusaur, but we cant go towards Fuschia without defeating Sabrina cause that would mess up the almighty level cap.

Onwards to Lavender we go.

Once again, the rival fight in Lavender was removed so as to not mess up the level cap, so the only thing of note in Pokemon Tower is that Marowak is, fittingly, Alolan. Wish we could catch this, honestly, but its not a big miss.

Rescue fiji, get the Poke Flute and...onto Saffron for yet another Rocket base. For fucks sake, Kanto.
Now, the level cap before Giovanni is 57. Cynda needs to be at Level 64 before I can let it evolve. We arent hitting that until after Sabrina (cap before Sabrina is 59). This is doubly annoying because I misread the docs and thought Cynda would learn Eruption at 55, not 64. I was very hyped and I cried a little when it didnt learn eruption at 55.

Look I was so excited I even took a screenie ;-;

Anywho, lets turn it up for Baba.
I need you guys to know this fight is the worst boss fight in this game so far. It is frustrating. It is the absolute worst. I was going through the tower with a rain team. I had to change it back to my sun team for this fight. It took resets, painful strategising, and calculating exactly how much stress I could go through before this playthrough became not worth it anymore. Let me show you not only this battle, but exactly how much thought went into making it consistent.

Baba starts off with Staraptor. So do we. Since he has an actual EVed Staraptor, it outspeeds us always. This is good, actually.
Now, his Staraptor will always use BB first turn out, and any turn out after that VS Staraptor, it appears. This is bad because two BBs will KO us, and he'll have the switch advantage vs our revenge killer. However, if you use Close Combat first turn, because of the defense drop, he will use Quick Attack the next turn, but only if he gets a high damage roll and we have less than 90 HP after his first BB. I dont know why either. Staraptor can juuust avoid killing itself with BB recoil while knocking it out.
Next comes in Azu. I fucking hated this Azu. My original plan was Ninetails -> Victreebell, but Giga Drain is a 2HKO, and even with sleep powder it was shaky, because sometimes he would just switch out a sleeping Azu into his Charizard or something, which is bad, because we really needed Azu gone by the time Lyca came out. So, our next plan was to let Azu kill Staraptor, then bring in Ninetails. I was originally hardswitching into Ninetails to preserve Intimidate for another poke, but I didnt really need the attack drop VS anything so it was fine to let staraptor die.
Ninetails can burn Azu with Will o Wisp. It can always take 2 Liquidations from a burnt azu under sun, so it would use the second turn to Hex azu into Giga range. Hard switch into Victreebell, and take it out with Giga Drain. On the recorded attempt, Giga got a low roll and didnt KO, because ofc, and I had a heart attack. If Azu lasted another turn, the sun would fade by the time Charizard came out, which is bad because then Charizard Y's drought will activate, and it'll be able to use Solar Beam VS Lyca. But luckily the burn damage took it out.
Next come Charizard, who I put to sleep with the last turn of sun as it mega evolves. Hard switch into Lyca, but Char wakes up and Flamethrowers us for half. This isnt ideal, but Accelerock takes it out.
Next comes Jumpluff. Lyca can sometimes survive a Seed Bomb from full, which is why I wanted it to be at full to get off a second accelerock, but its no major loss. In comes Exca, who tanks a Seed Bomb and kills with Rock Slide.
Lastly, Electivire. Now, Electivire is KOed around 50% of the time by Machamps Cross Chop into Bullet Punch. To make that more consistent, have it come out VS Exca, who it will Close Combat. Since Machamp will always survive one Plasma Fists, this makes it much easier to cleanly KO with Cross Chop.
I hate myself for having put this much thought into fucking Pokemon, when I have a Calc 2 final tomorrow.
Now onto the second boss battle of Silph Co.

Oh dear jezuz
Honestly, this battle is always 90% dumb luck. I tried it three different times and won three different times in three different ways using the exact same team. I'll just show you the one I recorded.

Its a tag team battle VS the Rocket Admins with Brendon as our teammate. Im sure that will be very fun.
We use a team of Staraptor, Machamp and Excadrill. In retrospect, Lyca Machamp Exca was probably better.
Please just watch the video so I dont have to go through that fucked up battle again. A battle which, btw, has TWO MEGA EVOLUTIONS ON THE OPPONENTS SIDE???? HOW IS THAT FUCKING LEGAL???????????
Okay deep breaths. Deep breaths.
The remaining two boss battles in this update were much easier.
First, Giovanni.
I actually really enjoyed this battle. It was a lot like strategizing with Baba, but less stressful, since I had a general vision of how to deal with him. Giovanni's AI is also a little bit more random, and will not always do the same thing in the same scenario, which is what made Baba beatable, so for Giovanni I had to be a little bit more general with my strat and leave room for error, so it was idk. I enjoyed this battle a lot.

BTW Brendan gives us a Treeko then fucks off after the battle. Id say thanks for nothing, but honestly if I had to tag team giovanni with him, I would probably fucking shoot myself.
Now, I tried Giovanni with our sun team, and it just wasnt working. With some hax I could get through it, but nothing consistent. So, it was time to revive our rain team. But I would need something better than Seismitoad for this.

And so we catch a Lotad. This is not an amazing Lotad, but it will do for our purposes rn.

We get it to 44 for Hydro Pump before we use a Water Stone.

While we are at it, we also grind Palpi.

Everybody be pumpin

Lastly, we teach Hydro Pump and Hurricane to Pelipper. Not that it ended up mattering, honestly.
Also, weird thing with our video: For some reason two of my attempts got mashed up, so in the yt video, after we beat giovanni it just shows the remainder of our unsuccessful fight as well. Just ignore that, the battle ends at 3:26.
AND NOW, ONTO GIOVANNI.

Giovanni leads with Hippowdon as we lead with Ludicolo. Im actually fucking glad he leads with Hippo, truth be told, because we need sand up for this battle and it saves me a teamslot for Hippopotas. Anyways, Hydro Pump (assuming it doesnt miss) will SOMETIMES ohko Hippo, but mostly it wont. If it does, good, but if it doesnt, its honestly not a big loss. In our recorded version it came OH so close, but no dice. Hippo gets up rocks before dying. Again, no biggie.
Now, Giovanni will send out either Poltergeist or Kanga when Hippo dies. In our case it sent out Kanga. If it sent out Pol, I've forgotten exactly what to do, but 2x Giga is the most likely thing. In any case, when Kanga comes out, switch Exca as it megas and goes for Fake Out. Exca can always live a Parental Bond Fake Out - > Power Up Punch combo, so we use this to set up an SD. After an SD, under Sand, Exca can easily OHKO Garchomp, Poltergeist and Kanga with Earthquake. Garchomp crit didnt matter, +2 Earthquake will also OHKO from full, barring a Sand Veil miss, ofc. Next, he sends out his Excadrill, who KOs our Exca with Earthquake. Now Breloom comes out. As Exca has a Focus Sash and cant OHKO, it goes for the SD, as we hit two Mach Punches to get the win. And thats Silph Co done with.
Honestly? If not for Exca and Sand, this would be much harder. Also, if it had sent out Poltergeist, it would have been hell on earth, because usually Poltergeist will go for Shadow Ball VS Ludicolo, but it can occassionally go for Shell Smash. If it does, its game over. Also, we cant even Knock Out for a consistent 2HKO, as it will activate weak armor. Also, if Kanga gets a crit with Power Up Punch VS Exca, its game over. Also, instead of SR, Hippo can also occassionally go for Roar, which will fuck us over if it brings out Pelipper, because Exca needs the sand to sweep.
And thats why we had a rain team; as backup. The recorded version was p much a perfect battle, but theres a lot of shit that could have gone wrong, and we needed the backup of Rain Boosted Hydro Pumps coming from Ludi to make it perfect.
Now, after a couple of really good battles with a lot of strategising, its time to move on to another form of battling:
Cheese.

Because Sabrina is a Double Battle. And this makes this fight, so, so, so easy.
But before that, some plot:

TA DA

Also we get this. Next update we will be swinging by our old haunts for this.
Now, heres the thing with Sabrina: its a really hard fucking battle, because she loves to use Trick Room and Expanding Force and its just a really hard battle, especially since we dont have a dark type.
Atleast, thats what I would say if a certain Rock Type move didnt exist.

C H E E S E

With Wide Guard under our belt, this battle is 0 skill. Everything except Porygon 2 carries only multi-target moves, so its very easy to have Machamp use Wide Guard 10 times in a row while Lycanroc cleans up besides it, since literally nothing can hit us with Wide Guard up. Infact, this cheese is so effective that even with terrible hax (Lyca misses both of its Stone Edge attempts on Hatterene), we still win, just because of the fact that nothing can touch us. Its a mindless battle, so mindless that I went into it with 2 pokemon and 4 pokes that were just there to grind experience. I didnt even have 4 underlevelled pokemon, so I brought along Farfetchd. Thats how fucking easy this battle is with Wide Guard. I brought a Farfetchd into this battle. I had so much confidence in Lycanroc and Machamp soloing it that instead of bringing idk Excadrill or something, I brought FARFETCHD. This is probably my favorite battle of the entire game, just because of how fucking hilarious it is. I love this battle more than I love my ex. I love this battle more than i hate the tagteam battle from earlier. If I could marry this battle, I wouldnt, because I would never sully something so beautiful with my wretched existence. I am undeserving of this battle. It is too gracious, too fucking funny for me to soil.
The point is, this is a hilarious battle because you can tell it was meant to be really frustrating, but because of a rare oversight by the developer, it is easier than fucking Brock. This is a hack where Sabrina is easier than Brock.
I love Radical Red.

Anyways, thats all I have for this update.
Thanks for reading, you all!
I am going to nickname Breloom weed next update. This is a threat. You all could have prevented this. But you did not.

 

[Fishechka]

Hello, what about naming Cyndaquil "Priority"?

 

[Hex Poisonous]

Wow these "revamped" teams are basically not even the same team.

Part of me feels as if this hack would be better if it took place in its own region instead of trying to fit into Kanto. (Also that level curve is this supposed to be dark rising or something?)

Kanto is really just the structure to the hack itself.

 

[Ardy]

SORRY FOR DISAPPEARING I LOVE YOU ALL
This is a short update but I'll have more later sorry everyone

Chapter 5: The One Where I Abruptly Return From A Hiatus Without Explanation

After defeating Sabrina, you can go back and rebattle the previous gym leaders for some nice rewards. Which is what we're gonna do now, in Pewter.

Doubtful but okay

So brock isnt hard, ever, and this battle is no exception.

Our strategy is VERY straightforward. Brock leads with Gigalith, who sets up sand. This allows our lead Exca to SD as he sets up rocks, then sweep the entire team. Gigalith, Sandslash, Omastar, Lycanroc-Dusk and Tyranitar all fall to a +2 Earthquake, and Aerodactyl falls to Iron Head, and thats Brock done with.

We get Stone Edge as a prize! Which is fucking AMAZING We also get the Aerodactlite but thats not as good.

We also get access to this move tutor in Saffron.

These are all great moves, and we will find use for most of them later. But for now, we'll skip.

Theres a house in Saffron where this is this demon of a little girl. I hate her. I hate her so much. But we need to battle her.

This is what happens if you select yes.
If you select No, however...

Lets select no again and..

And then she battles us with a rain team thats stradding the level curve with a Mega Swampert.

I didnt take a video cuz honestly I had to abuse the hell out of savestates to make it through this fucking battle. I hate it so fucking much.

This is the only way to get a mudkip ingame.
Since I dont have a ditto, I reset until I get one with good-ish IVs.

This is serviceable for now.

Then we'll go to Fighting Dojo. We can either do single battles or double battles. Im shit at doubles, so we'll do it slower and go single.

We make it to the end and defeat the grandmaster. He has three pokemon iirc (these screenshots are all like a month and a half old) and his poliwrath knows Rising Strikes (or whatever its called, the urshifi water move). Not an easy battle, but not a hard one either.

We get Drain Punch as a reward!

We also get the focus sash, which is useful.

We get the choice between Crabrawler and Clobbupus.

We choose Crabrawler! We wont use it so it doesnt matter but its an aesthetic choice.

Well this sprite is cut off.

This was such a bitch to catch honestly I hate Snorlax

We also evolve Mudkip into Swampert!

WE HAVE THAT!

WOOT WOOT

We also catch a skarmory. It has Frisk and can learn Thief. This will be useful later.

 

[Fishechka]

Very good playthrough, I wish you better RNG

 

[Ardy]

Chapter 6: The One Where I Yell At My Laptop

Another short update, sorry guys, but my laptop keeps shutting down while Im playing its v fucking frustrating I would not wish this on my worst enemy

The first thing we do after the whole thing with the last update is go here, to Route 14, and start hunting for Bulbasaur. It takes me 47 chains, but I finally find this beauty of a beast.

In the meantime, Cyndaquil FINALLY learns Eruption. This is amazing. It will already come in handy this update alone.

Quickly grind a couple levels and we have the soon-to-be-MVP of our Sun Team!
Why, you ask?

Typhlosion gets a Fire Type clone of Gale Wings. Which means as long as we can keep sun up and hazards down (not hard tbh), we will rule with an iron fist over these puny mortals.

Typhlosion had an Electric HP, so this seems like a pretty great moveset for now. Lets be honest though, its gonna be clicking Eruption 99% of the time.

Now lets hit up the tutor in Saffron...

And the move relearner...

And voila. Our modest 31sp.atk/31spe Bulbasaur is here to crush hearts.

Now to do some item grinding.

We go on down to Route 14, where we can find wild Pelipper and Torkoal to steal from. Why, you ask?

Should be obvious, really. Dont you feel ashamed for asking such obvious questions?

Evolve Bulba twice and voila. Venusaur is here to break hearts.

Machamp finally learns a good Fighting Type move.

We also pick up this nice 31 Attack Scyther from a Raid Battle.
And now, lets do some plot before we run more errands.

Yeah, we run into Brendan outside the Safari Zone. And this is where you see Typhlosion shine.
Brendan leads with Metagross as we lead with Ty. This is actually why I was so adamant on Ty getting Eruption early. Flamethrower will not OHKO Metagross, giving it the oppurtunity to set up rocks, but Max Power Eruption from a 31 Sp.atk Typhlosion definitely will. Brendan switches in Crawdaunt, and we switch to Venusaur, who takes three Aqua Jets while 2HKOing with Giga Drain. It has a high chance of OHKOing with Giga, so I was more than a bit annoyed that didnt happen in the run I recorded, but whatever, it doesnt change anything in the long run. Gardevoir comes in, and I switch to Ninetails, who takes a Psychic for about half. The next psychic brings it to 8 HP as it Flamethrowers. Now heres where I got nervous. After two psychics, for whatever reason, Gardevoir will ALWAYS use a coverage move instead of Psychic to knock out Ninetails. Usually its Moonblast, but here it was Focus Blast. Which missed turn 1. This is bad, because I need Ninetails to die ASAP so that Ty can have more turns of sun-boosted havoc. Thankfully, the second Focus Blast connected and knocked out Ninetails. Then Ty comes back in, Flamethrowers Ninetails, and then a sun boosted max power priority Eruption OHKOs Medicham, Exploud and Mega Sceptile, and thats Brendan done with.
Now, we are free to enter the Safari Zone. We get Surf, Rock Smash and Strength from here, and then its time to run some errands. Except that we need Kogas badge to use Surf. Ah, fuck.
Oh well. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Koga is a GOOD fight. Kind of reminds me of the Silph Co Rival Fight in that I had to fight him some twenty odd times before I figured out a consistent strategy. Speaking of, Im glad this isnt a nuzlocke because these fights are hard enough even when you sack something. Anywho, Koga leads with Swellow as we lead with Lycanroc. Lyca OHKOs Swellow with Stone Edge, but takes a Boomburst in return. Greninja will sometimes use Surf instead of Water Star, which allows us to get an Accelerock off, but in this run it used Water Star and KOs us before we can do anything. No biggie. We switch to Machamp, who takes a Surf (ive checked, and Surf NEVER OHKOs from full, this was a max roll), and OHKOs with Close Combat. Next Comes Accelgor, who knocks out Machamp. In comes Ninetails, who Flamethrowers Accel to death while taking half to Focus Blast. Drapion comes in next and KOs us with Wicked Blow. Everyones fav Typhlosion takes the stage and easily knocks it out from full with sun boosted Eruption. Next comes Dragapult. I brought along Klefki specifically to beat Draga, so Klefki comes in on a Dragon Darts and Thunder Waves Draga. Draga gets a turn of full paralysis, which, funny enough, I dont want. I have limited sun turns, and this strategy is EXTREMELY reliant on utilising all of them, for which I need Klefki to die instantly. Alas, I have to burn a turn, and Kleki gets OHKOd by Shadow Ball the next turn. Next comes Venu, who Solar Beams for about half before dying to Flamethrower. This allows Typhlosion to kill with a sun boosted Eruption on the last turn of sun. Now, Ty absolutely NEEDS sun to kill Draga from half, but Im not sure if it needs it to be able to KO the Mega Toxtricity that comes afterward. My gut instinct tells me no, but Im not sure. Logically, 75/80 bulk isnt good enough to stomach a full power Eruption, right? In any case, it seemingly does not matter, as I get a lucky crit and never have to find out one way or the other, and thats Koga done with.

The first thing we do is Surf to the Power Plant. We have to pick up two very important things from here.

The first is this Dracozolt with Sand Rush I got from a Raid Battle. I also reset until the post-Raid Battle drops gave me a Choice Scarf, cuz Im tired of having no good items to use during battles.

In the meantime, my Hipp evolved! Sand Team is going to be taking over in a bit, just because the combined power of Excadrill + Dracozolt, and the fact that Hippo has the bulk to stay around long enough to keep weather up for longer battles, makes it a good choice in the upcoming endgame.

The second thing we do is go fight this dumbass trainer in the power plant.
He has 6 Pokemon. Typhlosion OHKOs four of them with Eruption. When his Machamp comes out, we hard switch to Ninetails, who sets up the sun required for Ty to OHKO the remaining two as well.
As a reward we get...

FINALLY WE GET ACCESS TO MY FAVORITE MEGA IN THIS ENTIRE GAME!!!!

90/145/100/65/105/75
This is simply one of the best things I have ever seen.
Lets break it down.
Firstly, a very good boost to its bulk with a +20 to both Defenses. Since Machamp is kinda a tanky role on our team, this is WONDERFUL. Secondly, 145 / 75 is a welcome upgrade from 130/55. But the best thing about Mega Machamp is its ability: Its Gen 6 Parental Bond for Punching Moves. This is HUGE. You can do all sorts of crazy stuff with this, like run all Elemental Punches for 112.5 BP Coverage, or have a 60BP Bullet Punch, or even do something wacky like run Power Up Punch for +2 attack every turn.
Personally, I run Drain Punch / Ice Punch / Knock Off / Bullet Punch, since Drain Punch is now more powerful than Close Combat that also heals for 50%. But really, this Mega is great for the amount of options it can have. Also its sprite is so fucking cool.
Next, we go to Route 14, and I start hunting for Dittos. This takes. Hmm. An hour and a half. No wonder my parents are disappointed in my life choices.
Our best catches are:
spaaeed : 31 Sp.Atk, Sp.Def, Speed
Deffy : 31 Def, Sp.Def
Atticus: 31 Hp, Attack
Speedy: 31 Hp, 30 Attack, 30 Def, 31 Speed.

And finally, lastly, we pick up all 6 Power Items for more efficient breeding.
And thats all for this update! Next time, we are gonna make our beloved pets FUCK.

 

[michaeloche]

I can't beat the shit out of you without getting closer.

Also, I don't think I want to know how long your IV hunting is taking.

 

[Ardy]

Also, I don't think I want to know how long your IV hunting is taking.

Its actually not THAT bad with the DexNav, but yeah, chaining a pokemon usually takes anywhere from 15-45 mins after finding it unless I get SUPER lucky

 

[Ardy]

Well.
I have really bad news.
My save file got corrupted because of the aforementioned problem of my laptop randomly shutting down.
Honestly dk what to do this is really depressing I put a lot of work into this game.
Oh well.
If anyone has any solutions please let me know.
Love you all.

 

[Ardy]

Hey guys
I really want to continue this run, so I have a question for you all
Do you know of any save editors or any other tools I can use to rebuild my collection of pokemon in this game? I have like 0 experience with that stuff
My other run(the run I wasnt posting here) is around Saffron, and I can easily just edit the pokemon and take over that one if I know how to do it.
If anyone can help out please let me know!