MonoGen challenge

[Dragon116]

Well...you can actually save between the gauntlet parts by using quicksave whe there is no dialogue on screen. It helped me at Belrose Mansion when Sirius kept being cheap and got sick of fighting the Orderlies.

[CURIE]

Update 78: The Fiore Gauntlet: Part 1

Unlike the last gauntlet, this one doesn’t let you take breaks in between. So no changing your team, not going off to buy more items, and if a Pokemon goes overlevel, you can’t use a common candy until the whole thing’s over. For this reason, I bumped the six aforementioned Pokemon down to 74 before beginning. Except for Braveheart, I sent her to 73 because of her boosted exp gain.

The first battle has you paired with Florina, and your opponents are two generic Meteor grunts, who lead with Levanny and Grumpig. Pumpkin only had enough time to put up both screens before dying, and so I sent Braveheart to one-shot the Levanny. Flamethrower also took Grumpig down, and the Sandstorm finished it off. That’s when I realized Hippowdon was causing more problems for me than for the enemy, because it kept spamming Earthquake. Braveheart only had one turn left before she went down, so I spent it using Hyper Voice, which was enough to KO Darmanitan. That left only her, Hippowdon, and Noctowl on the field at the time. And guess what? My “ally” used Earthquake. For the head of a trainer school, Florina isn’t a very good strategist.

Strider came out next, and the sandstorm finally subsided. I used Surf, and yes that was intentional. Tropius came out next, but my own guy had gotten hit with Dynamicpunch and was confused and at 40% health. I was torn: Should I spend the turn to heal his confusion, or his health? I went with healing health, hoping Tropius would KO at least one of the opponents (who were both almost dead). He did, but it made things worse for me, because the next Pokemon to come out was Manectric who took out all the health I had with Discharge. Machamp went down that turn too, and was replaced by Golem. Strider was almost dead and still confused, and I knew any further attempts to heal him would be futile. I knew my only move was to use Surf and hope t worked. It did, and both guys almost died (Golem had Sturdy). Tropius took down the Golem, but Manectric took down Strider. I tried using Thunderbolt on the new opponent (a Purugly), but it turns out the Manectric had Lightningrod. Purugly did me the favor of killing it, though, with Bulldoze. It opened itself up to Thunderbolt, which one shot it. All that was left was a Vileplume, who went down eventually even though it took Tropius and Apollo with it.

[CURIE]

Update 79: The Fiore Gauntlet, Part 2

Battle 2 has you paired up with Florina again, and this time your opponents are two actual characters: Blake and Fern, who lead with Walrien and Haxorus. In both turns it took for me to put up screens, Walrien killed both of Florina’s Pokemon: Hippowdon and Torterra. Needing to stop that thing, I used Swagger on it before dying to a critical hit Surf and going to Apollo. One Thunderbolt later and it was donwn. Mamoswine was out next, so I went to DiggersbyTho and spammed Earthquake, since my new partner was Tropius. Well that didn’t last too long, because Tropius got killed by Icicle Crash that same turn and was replaced by Ferrothorn. Hey, at least it took down Mamoswine and Haxorus both, though. Next was Jynx and Krookodile, so I went to Strider and was about to use Surf, but then Ferrothorn used Gyro Ball and OHKOed Jynx, and it was replaced by Rotom Fridge. …Eh, still using Surf. I lost that gamble, because Ferrothorn’s power whip missed and I got one shot by Thunderbolt. Oh well, at least Krookodile went down.

The sandstorm subsided, so I went to Dashie and did the whole Echoed Voice thing. By the time she was forced to end her streak via knockout, she had already taken down Roserade, Rotom, and Rhyperior. Now a Scizor was out on the field, so I went to Braveheart and OHKOed it with Flamethrower OHKOed Weavile with Drain Punch. She also took down Serperior and Frosslass with one hit each, and went up to level 75. Good thing I used an extra common candy on her, otherwise I’d be unable to use her at all for the final battle.

[CURIE]

Update 80: The Fiore Gauntlet, Part 3

Your third and final battle is against Solaris and a generic minion. Now, chances are you fought him with Florina by your side, however if you beat Solaris’ Garchomp back on Pyrous Mountain like I did, the scene is a bit different. Instead of ragequitting Team Meteor, Fern says something along the lines of “we could’ve done this together, but YOU threw me away” and “you really are a stupid robot with no feelings” to Florina. She begins to show a bit of emotion for once at this, and then Fern storms out. This time, however, he says he’ll meet up with team Meteor later, meaning that in this timeline he’s still in their club. He also says he’s fine if they kill Florina, which Sirius tries to do with Seviper’s Poison Fang. She survives but is knocked out. Just when it seems like you’re gonna have to fight Sirius alone, Julia busts out of her icy cage and comes to help you.

The two opponents for this battle lead with Wishcash and Scizor, and Julia starts with Electrode (finally, no more Sandstorm!). After putting up dual screens, I went to Strider, and Scizor U-turned on me and went to Excadrill. I had to take a turn to heal, and when I did Electrode killed Excadrill and out came… oh great. Tyranitar. I AM gonna have to deal with Sandstorm after all. It took two Grass Knots to take Tyranitar down, and while I was doing that Julia Boomed herself. It accomplished nothing, as it barely did any damage to anyone but herself. Her next Pokemon was Elektross, and Scizor came back out. I switched to Braveheart, but it didn’t matter because Elektross also had Flamethrower. Also Scizor had somehow predicted the switch and used Superpower to bring me to half health. No, it couldn’t have been planning to use it on a Dark type Strider, because he was Grass type at the time.

Gyrados was next, and I knew it would use Waterfall or Aqua Tail, so I switched to Apollo to eat that up. Thunderbolt obviously took it down in one hit, and Elektross used Giga Drain to FINALLY kill Wishcash. Mandibuzz replaced Gyrados and Kecleon replaced Wishcash. Electross used Volt Switch and switched to Magnezone, but Kecleon ALSO predicted it and used Drain Punch. Mandibuzz went down to Thunderbolt, and now it was Garchomp’s turn. Shame I didn’t bring Strawberry along. Well instead I went to Dashie, and due to Magneton exploding I realized I couldn’t get a single move off before it took me down. I had to sacrifice both Pumpkin and Braveheart just to use a Hyper Potion on Dashie and get her on the field without being 2 shotted. Now that I had my chance, I knew I couldn’t waste it trying to set up Echoed Voice, so I just went for Moonblast hoping for a OHKO. I got it, thankfully.

Turns out that was Solaris’ last Pokemon, leaving only the generic minion’s side of the field left. After a quick Moomoo Milk, I started spamming Echoed Voice, and after being properly set up it swept every enemy left.

The whole scene with Chandelure and flooding the house stays the same, but afterwards the characters have to tend to Florina. Now, if you were paying attention to certain diary entries back in the Onyx School, you’d already know that Titania was the reason Flobot is… the way she is. Well if you didn’t find that, then this storyline is where you find out. Apparently Florina trusted Titania with something, and then was betrayed. The details aren’t elaborated on, but the scene with Amaria continues as normal. “But wait” you say. “Florina had a bunch of lines in that scene but right now she’s unconscious!” Yeah, it’s weird, in the middle of the scene she just pops back up acts as if nothing had happened. She still talks like a robot.

Now all that’s left is my final battle with Ciel. For now, I’m gonna go bring all my guys back to level 75, stock up on supplies, and teach my new HM move to the new HM slave. See you next time.

[CURIE]

Update 81: Ciel

For the first time since I’ve started this run, I’m at the end of the current episode. All that’s left is a gym battle, and it happens to be the first gym leader with a mega evolution. Like with Samson, it’s in the Big Top field, so like last time I brought DiggersbyTho despite type disadvantage.

First up was Togekiss, who I knew was a fast paraflinch haxxer with a King’s Rock and Serene Grace. After setting up screens (it couldn’t flinch me because Prankster) I went to Apollo, who is not only faster but immune to Thunder Wave. One Thunderbolt almost KOed it, but of course Ciel tried to delay things with Hyper Potions. I used weaker moves to keep the thing barely alive, so as to let her waste her healing items. Next up was Archeops, and while that thing was fast, Apollo was faster. Thunderbolt one shot it.

Next up was Noivern, and the whole monkey business with Togekiss had wasted my screens already. I went to Pumpkin to put them back up, and he died by the time they were finished. I went to Dashie and tried to get the ball rolling with Echoed Voice, but it wasn’t to be. I one shot Noivern, but the second hit was only barely survived by Gliscor despite being stronger than Moonblast AND boosted by the field. Oh, and Dashie herself was almost dead. I had to get her out of there and sent in Strider, who finished it off with Surf. Talonflame was next, and I gave DiggersbyTho a turn. He one shot it with Rock Tomb. And for the grand finale there was the Pokemon I was most worried about, the Mega Altaria. I kept DiggersbyTho in as a sacrifice, to heal Dashie with a Hyper Potion. Diggersby obviously went down to a Hyper Voice.

Now was the moment of truth: Could Dashie survive a field boosted Pixilated Hyper Voice before OHKOing with the Nuclear Trump Card? Well, I guess we’ll never know, because Altaria used Earthquake instead. It only got a “nice”, so Dashie survived it easily, and the Nuclear Trump Card won me yet another key battle. I’m now finished with the story of the current release.

Under normal circumstances, I would be hesitant to go back to the city while I wait for the next episode. It wouldn’t feel “legit” to be doing things that I’m supposed to be locked out of. However, it’s pretty much 110% confirmed we will be going back there canonically in episode 16, so I’m fine with it this time. That’s why I’ve waited up until now to do the Fennekin event, because I was waiting to have some key EV training spots opened back up for me.

[Dragon116]

Great job on this run! I'm surprised it took you so long to beat it, but you managed it

[vszarpellon01]

just out of curiosity, which EV spots are you talking about?

[CURIE]

Great job on this run! I'm surprised it took you so long to beat it, but you managed it

Long story short, I wanted to wait to continue the story past a certain point until after episodes 14 and 15 came out respectivley. After episode 16 came out, well, it took that long because of a combination of business and laziness

just out of curiosity, which EV spots are you talking about?

Mainly Pyrous Mountain for Special Attack training. But also the Citae Arc d'howeveryouspellit for Special Defense

[vszarpellon01]

Mainly Pyrous Mountain for Special Attack training. But also the Citae Arc d'howeveryouspellit for Special Defense

Got it, thanks. Congrats on the run, one of the best I've seen. Love how you made every decision based on the secret ending and actually explained the outcomes.

[CURIE]

Update 82: Abigail

So, first things first. I grinded everyone up to the level cap of 80. That is, everyone except Sassy. Why did I skip her, you ask?

Well, meet the newest member of the team. I went back to the Water Treatment Center and soft reset a ton for a Fennekin with good IVs and Heat Wave. The result I named Abigail, after my waifu partner in Super Mystery Dungeon who was also a Fennekin. I trained her to the max in Special Attack, and split the remaining EVs evenly in speed and the defenses. Threw the leftovers into HP. I also, of course, evolved her and grinded her to the level cap. She is Sassy’s replacement. Sorry Sassy, but unlike Pumpkin you don’t have an amazling ability to keep you relevant despite having sub-par stats.

Anyway, Abigail’s moves are Psychic, Heat Wave, Will-O-Wisp, and, well, wasn’t sure what to use for the last move slot. If I had the TM for it, I would have said Calm Mind. But until then, I guess I’ll just go with Grass Knot to cover against Rock, Ground, and Water types. She will not hold an item, because I intend to take full advantage of her ability being Magician. If needed, though, I’ll give her a fire/psychic gem for a bit extra power. Also, I can’t help but notice that she gets boosted exp as if I got her in a trade. Not sure why that is, but I’m not complaining.

Sorry for the short update, but there’s not really much else I can do as I wait for the next version to come. I wonder, though, if Abigail will end up replacing Braveheart as well as Sassy. Only time will tell, I guess. See you when episode 16 is here. Which will probably be a really, really, REALLY long time.

P.S. In case you’re curious about Abigail’s hidden power type, it’s Bug. So basically it’s a Signal Beam without the chance to confuse. I think I’ll stick with Grass Knot.

[CURIE]

UPDATE 83:  IT'S BEEN 3,000 YEARS...

Spoiler

Actually it's only been 3 and a half years.

 

I'm back and have not one, not two, but three more episodes to do!  Well actually... it's only two episodes.  At some point after the release of episode 16 I completed its events on this file, but either forgot or didn't bother to post the updates here.  So, uh...  I guess we're starting with episode 17 now.  Since it was so long ago I can't actually tell you what you missed, but I can at least tell you what changes have been made to the team.

 

First of all, see how in the post above I remark that Abigail could end up replacing Braveheart?  I was exactly right and Braveheart is retired.  She isn't the only one either; I was able to obtain Randall's Klefki (you know, the guy who I never mentioned despite being 90% sure he'd be important) and its typing and stats are WAY better for a Prankster 'mon than Pumpkin's.

And as you can see, I am very creative and good at naming.

 

There were some other adjustments to the rest of the team, like Dashie finally getting Hyper Voice, Strawberry getting the Leftovers, Diggersby getting Gunk Shot (presumably for Adrienn), and Fangorn getting Trick Room.  I gave Apollo Rain Dance to boost his synergy with Strider (also to be ironic considering his name) and Sunny day to Abigail, partially to not get stuck in the Rain but mostly because I just never used Grass Knot.

 

 

The first project I funded was the Obsidia Housing, so that I could get this guy here.  No plans to actually use him on the team yet, but he's there if I change my mind.  It means I can also enter the Employee area of the Grand Hall, which means...  absolutely nothing to me right now.  Every item that's there, I can't use.  There are a couple I can use, but can't get yet... or ever, since the sidequests would require me to obtain non-gen 6 Pokemon.

 

I still let the Vulpixes out because how could I not?  They're so cute

 

Since I can reach the Evolution Stone floor of the Department Store, I finally got around to evolving the rest of my Foettes.  Now the only Pokemon in Gen 6 left unobtained are the Fletchling line, the Honedge line, and the legendaries.  I couldn't find the Corin-Rouge NPCs, so I guess I did that part of the quest already.  Also I used the Sandbox mod to give myself the 7th street Pokemon back, as I had released them earlier not realizing I still needed them.  Ame put a failsafe in episode 17 that pre-17 save files could use any Pokemon of the same species for that quest, let's hope it still works in 18.

 

Since my Pokemon are already all at the level cap, there doesn't appear to be anything left but to hop on the train and head out!

 

There are only a few trainers in the area, and none of their battles were particularly noteworthy.  What is noteworthy is the TM for Return, and you know exactly who I'm teaching THAT to.  After wasting an afternoon running over the entire desert multiple times (seriously, those oaisises... oasi?  Whatever, they kept appearing in the absolute last places I checked!) I finally unlocked Mirage Tower, and picked up the Dragonium Z before entering.  I don't think I'll ever use it, but better to have it just in case.

 

None of these things are useful to me, why did I faint all my Pokemon to get here-

Well, got me there. I guess this was worth it.

 

Now to deal with these puzzles.  Now I remember when episode 17 first came out, I had a horrible time with these thing.  Now it's been so long and I don't remember the solutions even remotely, I bet I'm gonna rage...

 

...ooooooor just do them easily.

 

Did Ame nerf these puzzles or does my brain still subconsciously retain the solutions?  It seems very unlike Ame to nerf a puzzle.  Regardless, I can now pick up the Normalium-Z (this one, I KNOW I'll use) and Honedge.

Oh nice, an attack-boosting nature.  I bet its attack IV sucks tho-

HOLY FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

 

Well I was debating whether or not I wanted to make Aegislash a member of the main squad, but with a PERFECT attack stat I can't say no, now can I?  This ended up being a much longer update than the others throughout the history of this run, but part of the reason was because there was a whole episode of catching up to do.  Next one will be shorter.  Probably.

 

[CURIE]

UPDATE 84:  THE NEW WORST POKEMON

Spoiler

First of all, I need to bring up something important I forgot to mention last time:  The alternate story lines and the secret ending.  Back in the day I considered it a pretty big deal in my run to take the routes that I thought/knew would lead to bonus content and the secret ending.  Then as I reached the points of the plot that were changed as a result of those choices, I would describe in sort-of-but-not-exact detail what was different, for those of you who didn't take those routes (and didn't want to find out yourselves).  Well, I picked the wrong choice on one of them.  Specifically, when I chose to fight Taka in part 77.  Since I did fight him, nothing happened when I first entered Tourmaline Desert.  If you didn't fight him however, he's waiting for you when you disembark the train.  Tells you something about his dad kicking him out of Team Meteor, and teams up with you.  While you're with him you can take him to several key landmarks in the desert and he'll tell you further lore, and there is some more plot involving him later.  I can't say any more specifics and may have details wrong, as I have not actually played this storyline myself.  But considering all the content I'm missing out on by having fought him, I think it's safe to say I made the wrong choice.  And if you were following this thread back when it was active and made that choice because of me, I apologize.

 

But secret ending or not, the game must go on.  I went looking through my backup save files to see if I had one left over from before Taka, but the only one I found was from aaaaaaaaaaall the way back at Noel.  I ain't doing nearly half the game over again.

 

I evolved that Honedge and gave him the moves I wanted (crazy how his learns all his best moves naturally), but haven't bothered training him up yet since he's not going to be useful against the next two leaders.  Sure Titania's field gives him crazy buffs, but adding Steel type to Sacred Sword means he can only hit her neutrally.  Okay now that I type that it doesn't seem so bad, maybe he will be useful against Titania...  But still, I'll train him later.

 

With him evolved, I only have the Fletchling line to capture and I'll have every non-legendary gen 6 Pokemon.  But before that, I want to get the Stone Edge TM from Sugiline Cave, more so just to have it than to actually use it.  And that means I've gotta fight a couple level 75 Garchomps, because I'm pretty sure it's actually impossible to make it through the Garchomp Gauntlet without fighting at least two.  If you've read the rest of this thread, you know exactly who I called in for this.

He didn't even need Reflect or Charm support this time.

 

Okay NOW it's time to go get the Fletchling line.  Now remember way back in part 28 when I declared Binacle the worst 6th Gen Pokemon to find?  Well that ain't true anymore, the new worst is Fletchling/Fletchinder.  First of all, I have to go through Teknite Cave and do its puzzles, which involve several switches between Crystal Cave and regular Cave fields in wild battles.  Doesn't help that Power Gem, the only* move to make a Crystal Cave, is learned by exactly one Pokemon* in all of gen 6.  When I finally make it to the ridge, I have to wait because Talonflame doesn't spawn until night (or morning, but I don't have time for this game in most mornings).  When it DOES spawn, it's at a 1% chance according to the wiki.  That's even rarer than a shiny considering I have the shiny charm!  And when I DO find a Talonflame, there's a 50/50 chance it's useless to me!  Since I don't have Ditto, I need it to be female otherwise I won't be able to breed a Fletchling/Fletchinder.  As an added insult, most of the significant things in this area are items I can't use or Pokemon I can't get.

 

At least the music here is great.  Oh wait, it's interrupted every ten seconds by the mandatory wild battles.

 

*Yes, there's Diancie.  But she's postgame.

 

[Urist_Imiknorris]

Isn't Fletchling available in Beryl Ward near the cemetary or is that a V18 change?

[CURIE]

2 hours ago, Urist_Imiknorris said:

Isn't Fletchling available in Beryl Ward near the cemetary or is that a V18 change?

Holy crap you're right.  I remembered seeing it one in the Teknite Ridge and just assumed that was the only place to find it without consulting the Pokemon Location Guide or even the in-game Pokedex.

 

I'm an idiot.

[CURIE]

UPDATE 85: THE REST OF TOURMALINE

Spoiler

 

After the embarrassment of realizing I could have gotten a Fletchinder easily the whole time, I now have every non-legendary Gen 6 Pokemon in my dex.  All that's left is to grab SlaveTho for Rock Smash and go to the Scrapyard.  A healthy amount of reckless train driving later, I've made it to Train Town.  Around this point if you were with Taka, he would take his leave.  He knows your next stop is Titania's gym and he doesn't want to see her again for obvious reasons.  Although in my case he'd actually be slightly wrong:  My next stop isn't Titania, it's this guy.

 

 

Yeah, I know I can't actually get Magikarp due to the rules, but I've done the sidequest all the way through the game to this point, it would be wrong to leave this boss unfought.  Corin tells me his sob story about having to steal stuff to keep some totally-not-made-up innocent victims alive and needs to keep the ultimate Pokemon Magikarp to save them, or something like that. And so the battle begins.

 

Now, I'm not sure but I think I obtained and trained up Randall after beating Adrienn, so this might be his first major battle.  I lead with him and- 

 

Well, this is awkward.  It's even more awkward that this Kelfki outspeeds me in the priority-tie and Thunder Waves me, which immobilizes me because of course it does.  After that it Swaggers me, but Randall pulls through and uses Reflect.  Knowing I'd only waste precious turns trying to get light screen up, I switch to DiggersbyTho.  She's immune to Thunder Wave, so I figure the enemy Klefki would go for Swagger which would help me more than harm in the long run.  The AI doesn't fall for it and uses Spikes instead, and I oneshot it with Earthquake.  Next comes Sandslash, and I have Diggersby set up Swords Dance.  Turns out it outspeeds me and also uses Swords Dance, and on the next turn does just over half damage.  Diggersby oneshots it in return and next comes out Cacturne, who gets outsped and killed by Gunk Shot.  The fourth Pokemon is Delphox, and despite being a bad idea I stay in and see if Diggersby could outspeed or survive it.  Neither happens, especially since Delphox's Heat Wave is boosted by the field.  I bring in Strider and attempt to kill it with Dark Pulse, but it... outspeeds me and kills me with Dazzling Gleam?  What?  Greninja's base speed is a whole 18 points higher!

 

I send in Apollo, who is faster than Strider, and HE gets outsped too.  Just to be clear, Heliolisk has 5 more base speed than Delphox, and Apollo here has 252 speed EVs and a speed boosting nature.  Delphox doesn't have a Choice Scarf either, it used two different moves.  The ONLY reason I'm losing here is because he doesn't have an exactly perfect IV.  What bullshit.

 

Nothing else on my team can stand up to a field-boosted Delphox, so I soft reset and go to 7th Street to get a speed-boosting nature for Strider before trying again.  This time Klefki gets Reflect off first turn, meaning I can predict the Swagger and switch DiggersbyTho into it.  She wrecks the first three Pokemon as usual, only hitting herself once.  Delphox comes out, I switch to Strider... Yes!  He outspeeds the thing now!  He uses Dark Pulse and-

You gotta be kidding me.

 

Well, he gets oneshot by Dazzling Gleam like last time.    The good news it that it was still sandstorming, so the Delphox died too.  Not knowing what will come in next, I send Randall in again.  It's Liepard.  I oneshot it with Dazzling Gleam, and it's time for his final Pokemon...

Yep.

 

So after that he ragequits and goes back to Reborn City to turn himself in out of shame.  But wait dude, who will take care of those very-much-real people without you around?  You can't mean to tell me you made it up?

 

 

And then I leave the poor fish to shrivel up and die in the brutal desert.  I'm glad Ame gave us the option do do this quest and not pick the Magikarp up, it'd be a shame if I had to undo ruining that guy's life.

 

Next stop:  Titania's "gym".  I went in leading with Abigail, because the Fairy Tale Field gives her crazy buffs against anything that's not Fairy Type.  Just for having Magician she gets a free +1 to Special Attack, and Mystical Fire gets a 1.5x boost as well meaning she's basically hitting things with a +2 buff for free!  It also becomes part Dragon type, meaning it does neutral damage to steel, but that doesn't even matter!  As long as I don't run into any fairies I'll be-

Of course.  OF COURSE the first Pokemon of the first trainer is a fairy.

 

Well aside from that Mawile she wrecked everything.  Anything that resisted Mystical Fire went down in one hit to +1 Psychic, even the Alolan Ninetales that "Rylin" used.  Well except another Delphox a guy had.  That I outsped with Strider and (thankfully) onshotted this time.

 

I don't think this choice really matters for anything other than relationship points, so I just said yes to be nice.  She said "Really?  After everything I've done?  Thank you" which sounds oddly... well, thankful of her.  It might be different if you didn't give her the Blue Moon Ice Cream, I'm not sure.  Anyway now it's time for the Legendary Boss fight.  If you hadn't fought Taka, you'd be fighting Reshiram, but since I didn't I fight Zekrom.

 

Zekrom is mainly geared toward physical attacks, so against my better judgement I led with Abagail to see if I could burn it.  Oh shit it's fafter.  Oh shit it's got Tectonic Rage!  OH SHIT IT'S FIELD BOOSTED!  Abigail's so dead-

 

...or not?  Well I got the burn I wanted so I switch to Strawberry since physical attacking dragons are his area of expertise.  He ate a couple of Bolt Strikes like the boss he is and set up Cotton Guard, and was just about to get to work when it used Earth Power, got a crit, and killed him.  So its Tectonic Rage was a special move, I guess that's how Abigail survived (plus the field made it part fire, so she took neutral damage).  I go to Randall and set up Reflect, then let him go down to bring in Diggersby.  I shouldn't have to explain what happened next.

 

 

It's at this point that the story REALLY starts to diverge if you didn't fight Taka, so I'll stop talking about that timeline to avoid spoilers and totally not because I can't be bothered to research it since I've never done it myself.  After this scene I get a chance to use a PC before fighting Titania, and I switch out Strawberry for obvious reasons.  Not that I actually need to, I feel like I can win this next fight with only three Pokemon.

[CURIE]

UPDATE 86: GYM BATTLE DOUBLE SPECIAL

Spoiler

The fight against Titania took me several tries to get right, not because I had difficulty beating her, but because I didn't want to back off my challenge of beating her with only three Pokemon.  I kept falling just short and having to resort to a fourth, but eventually I figured it out.  Here's what I did.

 

I wan't joking about only using 3 Pokemon.

 

I lead with Randall and set up Reflect.  For whatever reason the AI on Sandslash doesn't use Aurora Veil until the second turn, allowing me a free switch in to my second Pokemon, Abigail.  She gets outsped because of Slush Rush and eats an earthquake, but survives thanks to the Reflect.  She retaliates with Mystical Fire, and even with Aurora Veil, even with the field reducing him to x2 weakness rather than x4, he still dies in one hit.  Abigail's free +2 buff is just THAT good.

 

Titania bringing in Excadrill gives me a chance to switch out, and I take it.  I bring in my third Pokemon, and the one who will be doing most of the legwork for the rest of this battle:

 

Since both of us have a Magical Seed, we're both behind King's Shield for this turn and can't actually hit each other.  Titania uses this free turn to set up Swords Dance, bringing Excadrill's attack to a horrifying +4.  However, I do some setting up of my own.

 

Yes, really.  You may not have heard so let me do you a favor and tell you real quick:  In gen 7, X items got buffed and now raise the stat by +2.  Yeah, they're actually really good now, which is why Ame moved them so high up in the department store.  So now Excadrill's +4 Attack means nothing because I outspeed and kill it first- with Brick Break.  Yeah, I replaced Swords Dance with Brick Break earlier, because why waste a move slot on a +2 attack move when I have a +2 attack item?  Anyway with Aurora Veil gone, It's almost a clean sweep from here.  Klefki either doesn't have Prankster or doesn't want to use it, so it goes down to the quake.  Scizor survives one hit, meaning it gets two Bullet Punches in, but it isn't enough.  The problem is when Aegislash comes out.

 

This guy also has a Magical Seed, so he's basically invincible on this turn.  Diggersby is dead meat if she stays in, and neither of my remaining two can handle both Aegislash and her last Pokemon Empoleon.  And if she DOES switch out, she loses her +1 to attack and +2 to speed!  I tried healing her to full with a max potion, but it did no good.  Reflect fades the very same turn Aegislash comes in, so its field-boosted Sacred Sword oneshots me.  I tried switching in to either of the other two Pokemon, but both of them get killed by this thing eventually.  But then, I realized that actually want that to happen, because Diggersby can beat both of Titania's Pokemon, even without the buffs.

 

I switch to Abigail, who somehow dies to Sacred Sword despite 4x resisting it.  Diggersby comes back in, and since she's 1) faster and 2) immune to Shadow Sneak, the Aegislash can't do anything but take the Earthquake and die.  Well, it could have used King's Shield, but didn't.  Even if it did, it'd only prolong the inevitable.  Finally, to my surprise, Empoleon doesn't have Aqua Jet, and Diggersby both outspeeds and oneshots it.

And that's how you beat Titania with only three Pokemon!

 

My reward for this fight is the TM for Flash Cannon, which could be a good alternative to Dazzling Gleam on Randall.  However I'm keeping Dazzling Gleam for now, because Amaria's next.  As you may have guessed from the title, I'm going straight into Amaria now... wait that didn't come out right.  I'm going straight to fighting Amaria now.  I deposit Diggersby and Abigail because, well, type disadvantage, and instead bring in... well, everyone else really.  I have an 8-Pokemon rotation team here.

 

Oh shit, I forgot about this.  Usually I'm a singles guy, but I had some ideas coming into this with a double battle in mind.  So I'll try that first.

 

 

I lead with these two and set up Light Screen while Dashie tries to start an Echoed Voice sweep.  Turns out I should've gone for Reflect, as Vaporeon gets a crit with Dive and kills Dashie right away.  Okay, new plan.

 

This one's more straightfoward.  Strider goes for Grass Knot and easily gets the kill, while Apollo uses a field-boosted Thunderbolt and also kills, with the added bonus of removing the threat of the battle being taken underwater... at least for now.  Next up is Blastoise and-

 

Dammit, why do all the worst characters in this game get Primarina?  My second favorite Pokemon deserves better than them...  Anyway I try to go for the same moves a second time, but forget that Blastoise has Swift Swim.  It outspeeds me and kills Apollo with a Z-move, and barely survives Grass Knot before Strider gets almost killed in return.  I send in Dashie, who gets a special defense boost from her elemental seed, and try to switch to Randall while Dashie gets some damage in with Hyper Voice.  Randall eats both a Dazzling Gleam and a Whirlpool, and is left almost dead and confused, but alive.  That's all I need.  I go for the Prankster Light Screen, and it works!  He dies immediatley after, but that's fine.  Now Dashie can change the field to misty, and... oh no she got hit with whirlpool too and is confused now.  Aaaand she hurt herself.  Well there goes that plan.  Perhaps I should have used Misty Terrain first.  I try to salvage the battle, but I've fallen too far behind and get wrecked.

 

On attempt number two, something... different happens.  Vaporeon goes BEFORE Apollo this time.  Apparently with his halved speed, Apollo is exactly tied with that thing.  Rather than starting over, I Strider's resultant death next turn as an opportunity to bring in Randall.  As for Apollo, I switch him out to Fangorn, not only to avoid the Z-move, but also to execute my new plan.

 

...it doesn't work.  Even with light Screen, even with the Sitrus Berry, EVEN WITH A FREAKING RESISTANCE TO WATER, a double field-boosted Surf is just too much and he dies before he can use Trick Room.  I'm running out of ideas.  At the very least, I need to go buy a Rare Candy so that Apollo can beat that dang Vaporeon consistently.

 

[CURIE]

UPDATE  87: ONE MOVE MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE

Spoiler

I knew that if I could just use Misty Terrain or Trick Room once, I could turn everything around.  I've been trying to just get one of those two moves off this whole time, but Amaria's field is just so broken it killed me every time before I could.  Well after a bunch of experimenting, I found an opening, and it's on the first turn of the battle.

 

Randall uses Light Screen and Fangorn uses Trick Room.  The resulting Double Surf is enough to kill Randall, but Fangorn survives due to the fact that Seismetoad and Vaporeon have lower Special Attack than Blastoise and ESPECIALLY Primarina.  I finally got Trick Room up, and that makes ALL the difference.  Next I bring in Dashie, and her elemental seed gives her a buff before she uses her newfound "speed" to set up Misty Terrain.  Meanwhile, Fangorn kills Seismetoad easily and recovers all the HP he just lost.  Vaporeon tries to use Dive, but since the Water Field is gone it's reduced to a 2-turn attack like normal.  Primarina comes out, and her Elemental Seed does little good as Fangorn whacks her with Wood Hammer and kills her.

 

And as you can see, Dive did pitiful damage when it went off.

 

Blastoise is more than physically defensive enough to survive a Wood Hammer, so I try hitting Vaporeon instead.  It almost kills and Dashie finishes her off with Hyper Voice, also dealing over half damage to Blastoise.  Unfortunately I underestimated how much recoil Fangorn would take, and he died to Blastoise's Ice Beam even with the Sitrus Berry.  I had one turn left of Trick Room, so instead of bringing a fast 'mon in I sent in Strawberry.  Lanturn came in to replace Vaporeon.

 

Dashie out-slowed Strawberry and her Hyper Voice killed Blastiose, but didn't do nearly enough to Lanturn as I had hoped.  Neither did Strawberry's Play Rough, and the Trick Room ended just as Deliverance came in.

I'll at least give Deliverance the respect of using her nickname, since she's relevant to the plot.

 

It's the last Pokemon, and possibly my last chance to use it before Dashie goes down.  I drop the Nuclear Trump Card.

OH COME ON

 

So that doesn't happen.  Even worse is that Lanturn just barely survives Play Rough and the field returns to normal.  Ball's back in Amaria's court, but have I pulled far enough ahead to still win?  I focus both my Pokemon on Lanturn hoping at least one of them will take him out before going down.  Amaria uses and Ultra Potion so that doesn't happen, but on the bright side Lapras goes for another Protect so nothing bad happens.  I try again, and this time Lanturn uses Surf (and Lapras does a TRIPLE Protect).  Both guys survive it (Strawberry just barely) and take him down.

Just then our Light Screen fades, but it doesn't really matter as this battle's over.  Dashie sets Misty Terrain back up while I switch Strawberry to Apollo.  Deliverance didn't stand a chance, despite her +1 to Special Defense.

 

Turns out I actually didn't need to buy Apollo that Rare Candy.  Whatever, it's a bit less level grinding in the future for me.

 

[CURIE]

UPDATE 88: THE Z-RING QUEST

Spoiler

I now have a bunch of miscellaneous side content to take care of, but before I get to any of it I go to Calcenon and advance the plot just enough to get Rock Climb.

 

Now just to teach it to someone and...

Oh no

 

Yeah... I was afraid of this.  No gen 6 Pokemon learns Rock Climb through level up or breeding, and of course not through TM either since it hasn't been a TM since gen 4.  I was hoping that Ame would give it to some gen 6 Pokemon on a logical basis, especially Gogoat since, you know, his whole thing is being a mountain goat.  You'd think he'd learn the mountain climbing move.  But no, I went through everything in my PC and nothing learns Rock Climb.  I absolutely have to make an exception and catch a non-gen 6 Pokemon as a Rock Climb slave, otherwise I won't be able to finish the game.

I went with Bibarel, as she learns every HM move except Fly and Flash.

Now it's time to get on the Mega-Z-ring quest.  Thankfully Ame's failsafe still works in episode 18, so I was able to re-make the Pokemon I had released with the help of @Waynolt's Sandbox Mod.  The first fight of the quest against Santiago was easy.  Everything he had was weak to something on my team and went down in one hit as a result.  Next was the optional fight against Mkcrezzy for the Hyper Beam TM, which wasn't much harder.

 

As great as Echoed Voice was in the past, I haven't found the time to succesfully set it up ever since coming back to this run.  I don't have many other choices for Dashie's fourth move right now (Psyshock would be cool but it's not available), so I'll go with this and see how well it does.

 

Now for the real challenge of the quest:  The final two battles.  Starting off with the double battle against the two thugs.

 

It happened to be raining that day, so I led with Strider and Apollo.  Extrasensory killed the Wheezing, and Mudsdale was next.  That'll be easy, I have STAB Grass Knot and Mudsdale is one of the heaviest Pokemon ever, plus it's weak to Grass!  It's totally gonna die-

 

...okay, it somehow barely survives and wrecks both my guys with Rock Slide.  I try again this time with a Grass Gem on Strider and-

Good to know type gems actually don't do anything!

 

Okay, new plan.  Apollo temporarily replaces Rain Dance for Hyper Voice, since he won't need the former for this battle.  Strider Surfs the enemies, almost killing them both, and Apollo finishes them off.  Next come in Tsareena and Zangoose.  I try to switch in to Abigail, but the AI somehow predicts in and hits her with Shadow Claw.  WTF?  I try soft resetting and trying again, but then this happens instead:

 

I guess I got lucky with a maximum damage roll or something, because every other time I do this Mudsdale barely survives and Tsareena comes in an wrecks me with her Life Orb.  After many attempts, I beat her by letting both my leads die and bringing in Randall, who sets up Reflect, and Dashie, who spams Hyper Voice.  All that leaves is Lickitung.  Randall puts Light Screen up to defend against the Muddy Water, and I start healing up the rest of the team.  Strider I know I'll need at full health, so I use a Max Revive on him.  When I'm done, I finish Lickitung off with my new Hyper Beam-

I hate this game

 

Then Randall tries to finish it off with Dazzling Gleam, but misses.  Of course, Dashie can't finish him off either, because she just Hyper Beamed.  Next round, they both miss, and by the time someone finally takes it down Randall is almost dead.  But that's not a big deal, he has Prankster right?  It shouldn't matter, right?

 

RIGHT?

 

So immediately after this battle, you're forced to fight their leader, with no chance to heal.   I lead with Strider and he leads with Manectric.  Knowing Surf won't oneshot, and knowing it'd go for thunderbolt, I use Grass Knot instead.  That way I resist Thunderbolt, survive, and deal enough damage to get the kill with Surf on the next turn.  Next comes in Scizor, and I bring in Randall.  He sets up Reflect and-

 

Oh.  Turns out Bullet Punch beats me in priority.

 

And then Scizor just wrecks my entire party.  Abigail can't kill with the rain, which is why I needed to set up Reflect first.  She uses Sunny Day and then dies to Thief.  And everyone else just gets obliterated by either Bullet Punch and Superpower.  I try to recreate the situation that let me beat the first battle, this time to make sure Randall ends it with full health, but the Tsareena keeps destroying me.  I need to come up with another strategy.

 

[CURIE]

UPDATE 89: THE CASUALTIES OF MY RULESET

Spoiler

Turns out I really didn't need a new strategy.  It happened to still be raining today, so I went with the same strategy as last time but with a key difference:  I realized I had could get the Life Orb now.  With that, I was finally able to kill Mudsdale with Grass Knot.  Apollo tries to kill the Alolan Muk with two Thunderbolts, but it barely survives and kills Strider.  That actually works out for the better, as I am able to kill Zangoose and turn the battle into a 2v1 before Tsareena comes in.  With Reflect backing me up, I take her down and heal the rest of the team up, including a Max Revive on Strider, before finishing Lickylicky off.  Thankfully my moves actually hit it this time.

 

My rematch against Eustace goes like last time, but Klefki survives the Bullet Punch due to having almost full HP and gets Reflect up.  Abigail comes in, sets up Sunny Day (also causing a Rainbow Field), survives a Thief, and gets the kill.  Next is Sharpedo, who is outsped and oneshotted by Apollo.  Next is Alakazam, so I send in Strider to use Dark Pulse...  Oh crap I forgot!  The Rainbow Field weakens Dark Pulse!  So Strider goes down to Dazzling Gleam, but I'm not worried, I have Dashie.  First I send in Randall to get Light Screen up, then switch to Dashie and obliterate him with my shiny new Hyper Beam.  Last is Sceptile, no problem.  The sunlight is gone but Abigail can still oneshot him, I'll just send her in and-

 

Well I'm an idiot.  Delphox's base speed is only 2 higher than Sceptile's, and this thing is two levels higher and probably has a perfect IV.  Of course it'd be faster.  So Abigail dies and I'm in some trouble.  My remaining team members are an almost dead Randall, DiggersbyTho who could kill him with Gunk Shot but is weak to grass, Dashie who maybe could kill him but is down a chunk of HP and has bad defense, and Apollo who just doesn't stand a chance.  I pick in Randall and put Reflect back up (it had gone down by now), and when he dies I bring in Diggersby.  I choose Gunk Shot, hope for the best, and...

 

Wow, that wouldn't have even killed if I DIDN'T have Reflect.  Diggersby is awesome.  And so I finally win.

 

I meet the kid back at his house to deliver his Vanillite, and finally!

 

I have an item that's... just okay.

 

Yeah, this is where the real consequences of my rules start to show.  Obviously, I can't use any of the Megas this unlocks, as the only Gen 6 Pokemon with a Mega is Diancie.  That just leaves Z moves, but even that is very limited.  I have the Normal and Dragon Z crystals right now, only one of which is relevant to me.  Let's look at the others that are available in the game right now.  Grass, not happening.  Gotta catch non-gen 6 Pokemon to get it.  Psychic?  Same thing.  Ground?  DEFINITELY not.  That would've been one of the most helpful ones too.  Electric?  Nope, that would've been good to have as well.  Any of the Pokemon-Specific Z moves?  Well technically I could use Eevee's under rule 2A, but I consider that an exploitation of the rule and won't do it.

 

So let's look at the ones I CAN use.  So far, Diggersby is the best canidate.  Z-Return acts as a base 80 move and becomes 160 when powered up into Breakneck Blitz, which is a bit of a damper but still a solid choice.  I also really like the idea of using Poisonium Z, for a 100% accurate Gunk Shot.  Every other option is mediocre though.  Fire would be good on Abigail, but she'd lose her whole item stealing gimmick.  Strider would make good use of both the Water and Dark Z-crystals, but for that he'd have to sacrifice the Life Orb he just got (I guess he could lend it to Diggersby).  Dragon will only be useful if I train up Goodra, which I'm not really feeling into.  Rock could be used if I need to put Stone Edge on DiggersbyTho for a bit, but otherwise no.  Ice WOULD be good, if I had the TM for Ice Beam or Blizzard.  But I don't.

 

Z-moves aren't the only casualty of my rules either.  I haven't really talked about it yet, but I can't get the Choice Specs from the Aqua Gang, as it comes packaged with a Litten.  The TM for shadow ball would've been great, except it's locked behind the same quest the Psychium-Z is.  Similar story to the TM for Psyshock.  Sorry Dashie, you'll never have a solid fourth move.  And it's not an item, but you know how I picked Froakie as my starter?  If I had picked either of the other two, I'd have to go catch over 200 random non-gen 6 Pokemon just to get Froakie!  It would've been a nightmare!

 

Anyway I've complained about my lack of toys long enough so here's a couple other things I did.

Fought this guy just for giggles.  Apollo twoshot him

 

Renovated Azurine Island just for this, specifically for Strawberry.  He's been falling behind ever since I came back to this run, hopefully this will give him a boost?  I really don't want to retire him, he's awesome.  Also I picked up the Poisonium-Z while I was in the area

 

Got taunted by both a Heracross and a SHINY Pinsir when I was running around the island killing Foonguses.  Of course this thing would never appear on the file where I actually WANTED IT.

 

[CURIE]

UPDATE 90:  A STORM APPROACHES...

Spoiler

I had a whole written-up description of the ecoterrorism quest and the super hard battle against those tree-cutting guys, but something happened and I lost it all.  Don't feel like writing it all again.  The TLDR is that Strawberry made his comeback and proved he still belongs on the team and it was awesome.  God I love Slurpuff.  As for the other fight against the Gulpins, it was easy.  Now I have the Waterium-Z.  I also ran around the region picking up whatever else I could get from Rock Climb, most importantly the Rock and Ice Z-crystals and the TM for Focus Blast.  The only Pokemon on my rotation who can effectivley use it is Apollo, so I replaced Parabolic Charge.  Sad to say, I can't even remember the last time I used that move.

 

Not much else to do now but continue the story.  I head to Route 4 and start Rock Climbing around, and there isn't much to be said about the Trainer battles other than that Abigail destroyed them all by burning down the forest field.  As for the parts where you have to change the terrain to progress, it happened to be hailing today so I just let the field turn snowy on its own.

 

 

Finally, I've been waiting for this.  To be honest, Prankster Swagger hasn't been useful in like, forever, and this would be a way better option.  I replaced it immediatley.  Even though I can't actually get Ghastly, let's go over to the Mecha-Breloom whille we're here and try it out.

 

Hmm, I feel like I'm forgetting something... Oh right, I was supposed to actually put the Tunderwave Guy in the front.  Oops.  Well I know this thing is at least part Steel type, though I don't know it's second type if it has one.  So I use Heat Wave to see if Abigail's faster.  She's not, and gets destroyed by a field-boosted Shadow Punch.  THEN I bring in Randall, use Thunder Wave, and get lucky with it not being able to move that turn.  Good thing too, because the next turn where I use Reflect it hits me with a field-boosted Magnet Bomb that does over half Randall's health.  Expecting Randall to go down next turn I use Dazzling Gleam, and it does neutral damage so this thing must be Steel/Fighting type.  To my suprise, the thing uses Shadow Punch instead this time and Randall barely survives with 2 HP.  Not wanting to disrespect that clutch by letting him faint, I switch to DiggersbyTho who of course no-sells Shadow Punch.  She outspeeds it and one Earthquake later, it's almost dead.  However it uses Shift Gear, meaning not only is it stronger but faster.  I pick Earthquake again and hope for the best...  And it reveals that its final move is Spore.  CRAP.  I feed Diggersby some Pop Rocks and get lucky with the thing not moving that turn, and next turn its AI goes for Shift Gear again for some reason.  Diggersby finishes it off.

Winning this battle doesn't actually get me anything, but damn if it wasn't a successful test run of the new move.

 

 

Nothing up here for me, but I wanted to take this screenshot so Ame knows there's a visual error here if she didn't already.

 

Oh hey look another one

 

Hey look Absol's here to warn us that we're approaching the worst part of the game

 

I don't think this choice really changes anything more than dialouge and relationship points.  Also, I really did forget.

 

Not bad damage from the new move, I guess.

 

This I'm sure doesn't change anything either, but you're playing the game wrong if you say no.

 

So after beating up some Meteor Grunts and making the glass puzzle WAY harder for myself than I had to (I didn't remember there was a "wait here" command until the very end when you absolutely need to use it), all that's left is the worst part of the game.  I'm gonna need to take some time and prepare for this.

 

[CURIE]

UPDATE 91:  THE WORST PART OF THE GAME, PART 1

Spoiler

When I say the gauntlet at the Glass Factory and its subsequent cutscenes are the worst part of the game, I don't just mean they're the hardest, although yes it is the hardest part of the game.  But it's also the worst part in terms of being just... bad.  Don't believe me?  look at Shofu's videos on the subject.  They're the last ones he ever did.  He didn't stop out of rage for being unable to win, he actually did beat it (with outside help but still).  He just didn't play anymore because this one part was so awful.  This game's biggest source of publicity, gone forever.  All because this one section is THAT BAD.

 

As we get into this segment of the game, I'll do my best to explain why this section sucks and suggest what can be done to make it... less bad.  I won't say "fix" it, that makes me sound like I have all the answers and I don't.  But I want you to at least consider my input if you're reading this, Ame.  I feel guilty for not speaking up about this during the beta.

 

But first, new team member!  I finally got around to training this guy up.

Spoiler

A more creative name than any actual sword pun I could come up with.

Also as you can see I temporarily changed out Sacred Sword for Head Smash to use the Rockium-Z with.  Wasn't really planning on utilizing DiggersbyTho since her best move hits her ally, so the only other option for a Z-move was Strider.

 

 

When you enter the cutscene, the first thing you see of note is that Zel has gone completely batshit insane ever since his other two personalities got yanked out of him.  Now he has ACTUAL multiple personality disorder.  This part's actually pretty cool, Ame you did good here.  Of course real life psychologists mostly agree that actual MPD doesn't happen, but in this guy's case it's understandable because he actually did have multiple people inside his head until recently and suddenly he's all alone in there.  No complaints from me here.

 

 

Next Bennet goes on a monologue about how you suspiciously always come out on top no matter the odds, alluding to how you as the player have infinite attempts and can't really lose.  He then says he's going to test your "fortune" (aka patience) to its breaking point.  I get that  it's foreshadowing for some fourth-wall breaking in episode 19, and I don't have any problems with it on its own, but it's basically used as an excuse for the bullshit that follows, and yet simultaneously shows why the bullshit that follows doesn't HAVE to be such bullshit.  We'll come back to this part later.

 

He reveals that he was the cause of everyone in Calcenon disappearing, because when he captured one person more would come, and he'd capture them, and so on until you arrived.  None of them could do anything about it, because the PULSE Hypno can just zap anyone to sleep in an instant and then mind-control them (although it can only control two people at a time).  He brings out his two most recent mind-slaves and so your first battle begins, against both the worst character and the best character in the game.*

 

*Note:  It's late game Shelly I like the most, as early-mid game Shelly is just... eh.  But discussing why I do and don't like these guys is off topic to my critique of this section of the game, so I won't go into it here.

 

Description of battle (in case Ame sees this and wants to skip it)

Spoiler

 

It's important to figure out who you want to lead with because you won't get a chance to change your lineup, heal, save, or do ANYTHING between battles.  That's one of many reasons this part is so bullshit.  I led with Randall in front and Abigail next to him, and started by setting up Reflect as worst character's Marowak is a big threat to both of them.  Also doing her part to mitigate Marowak's threat, Abigail Heat Wave's them both.  Since doing so uses up "Anna"'s Focus Sash, it isn't stolen and instead the Thick Club is, cutting the thing's attack in half.  Nowhere's the problem.  It seems to be a 50/50 split on whether Marowak uses Fire Punch or Shadow Bone.  When he uses Fire Punch, "Anna" uses Light Screen next and that's a huge problem since the team I'm bringing into this is mostly special.  When he uses Shadow Bone, it does too much damage and Abigail gets outsped and oneshot the next turn by "Anna".

 

After several soft resets, I took a different approach.  Had both Abigail and Randall attack so as to kill Anna on turn 1.  Obviously this means Abigail dies when Marowak uses Shadow Bone, but I resetted until he hit Randall with Fire Punch.  "Heather" came in and Randall took the opportunity to set up Light Screen while Abigail finished off Marowak with Psychic.  "Heather" tried to be cheeky and finish off Randall while he was weak, but thanks to Prankster he got Light Screen up first and survived.  Obnoxious guy replaced Marowak with Meowstic, and Abigail whacked them both with Heat Wave while Randall finished his job by getting up Reflect before dying.  "Heather" dies and Meowstic only barely survives, although I get lucky that time and she gets burned, which finishes her off.  I send in Dashie, and the next to Pokemon are Alolan Muk and player-named Leavanny (I'm so glad Ame figured out how to get that to work, you're awesome Ame.  Don't take the mean things I'm gonna say personally, I say it because I love the game)

 

Dashie has a Nuclear Trump Card primed, and since this is the only battle in the Gauntlet where I can actually use it, I drop it on Muk.  Turns out I didn't need to, as Heat Wave did over half its health.  As for Leavanny... Yeah I think you can guess what happens to him.

 

"Noel", "Cain", and the real Cain's Mimikyu all meet similar fates.  Next is "Cal" and the Pokemon I probably should have saved the Nuclear Trump Card for, Primarina.  Knowing "Cal" is the bigger threat to the team at large, I focus my fire on him, and BOTH ATTACKS MISS.  "Cal" gets a free Quiver Dance and wipes my team.

 

A few soft resets later, I get a similar chain of events to happen with the key difference being that Dashie keeps her Trump Card until "Cal" comes out.  Also that Meowstic gets a Reflect off before dying.  Even though "Cal" resists fairy, I use it and Psychic to see if combined they'll take him down.  This time he doesn't use Quiver Dance, instead going for the kill on Abigail immediately, so it does kill him.  Not sure if it would have had he got that +1 Special Defense.

 

That was Heather's last Pokemon, so I send in Apollo who outspeeds and oneshots Primarina.  Dashie levels up to 90, which could be a problem later.  Next time (and there probably will be a next time) I'll switch her out while Apollo's doing his thing.  For Mr. Obnoxious' final Pokemon, I switch both my 'mon's and send in Strider and the new guy.  Strider kills Nidoking while Sword Pun protects.

That was the easy part.  THE EASY PART.

 

In case you weren't counting, those trainers each had 6 Pokemon for a total of 12.  This isn't the first battle against 12 Pokemon, but it is the first where you aren't partnered with someone else meaning you're going 6 against 12 (unless I missed a sidequest somewhere).  And honestly... viewing it in a vacuum, I'm fine with that.  This is supposed to be a hard game, 12-Pokemon battles have already been established, and the "stakes" of the difficulty have been going up throughout the whole game.  Plus, neither of these trainers really use the field against you like a gym leader or another such major boss would.  It's manageable and fits in fine enough with the overall difficulty curve of the game...  ON ITS OWN.

 

Everything that comes after it, however...

 

[Sceptilespy]

I don't think the Glass gauntlet is that bullshit. Yes at first glance it's unfair but some pokemon like Mega Houndoom outright 36-0 the Glass Gauntlet. I personally obliterated the gauntlet with Gyarados and Metagross, and beat the final two with just Gyarados and Metagross. The only point I'd agree with is that the Gauntlet didn't really need to happen, as Bennett admits he could've just put us to sleep. 

 

It's only "bullshit" at first glance. Forum users haven't really caught up yet, but I can confirm that discord users regularly stomp the gauntlet with little to no effort, no items, and sometimes no ev training. That's not to sound like an elitist, but a well put together strategy makes this battle as hard, or as easy as any other one in Reborn. Honestly I'm surprised the first battle took you so many tries, given you had Aegislash which is like a free win to that battle. 

 

I just wanted to give my thoughts on the situation; I didn't just pop in to counter something you said and bounce. Keep up the playthrough.

[CURIE]

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I don't think the Glass gauntlet is that bullshit. Yes at first glance it's unfair but some pokemon like Mega Houndoom outright 36-0 the Glass Gauntlet. I personally obliterated the gauntlet with Gyarados and Metagross, and beat the final two with just Gyarados and Metagross. The only point I'd agree with is that the Gauntlet didn't really need to happen, as Bennett admits he could've just put us to sleep. 

 

It's only "bullshit" at first glance. Forum users haven't really caught up yet, but I can confirm that discord users regularly stomp the gauntlet with little to no effort, no items, and sometimes no ev training. That's not to sound like an elitist, but a well put together strategy makes this battle as hard, or as easy as any other one in Reborn. Honestly I'm surprised the first battle took you so many tries, given you had Aegislash which is like a free win to that battle. 

 

I just wanted to give my thoughts on the situation; I didn't just pop in to counter something you said and bounce. Keep up the playthrough.

I understand, and as you'll see I had a much easier time overall than in my first playthrough.  But I still feel like this sequence is bad design, and for more reasons than being hard.

 

UPDATE 92:  THE WORST PART OF THE GAME, PART 2

Spoiler

 

After beating that fight, which was definitely a step up in difficulty but nothing unmanageable, Bennet shows what you probably had inferred by now:  The he was just toying with you and could have taken over your mind at any point the whole time.  So he does that.  Being mind controlled, you can't see what's happening and can only hear small, broken snippets.  Then you get thrown into a battle against someone whose identity you can't see, although from the Pokemon being used you can infer that it's Luna.

 

Spoiler

 

Leading with Randall as usual, I set up both screens before twoshotting the poor Weavile, who just couldn't do anything.  Dashie oneshot Honchkrow but not before taking a Brave Bird and losing just under half her health.  Next is Gothitelle, and not wanting to risk losing Dashie I went to Strider who twoshot it with Dark Pulse.  It tried to set up Calm Mind but it was meaningless.  Absol was coming in so I went back to Dashie as she has type advantage, went to oneshot it with Hyper Voice and-

Oh no

Okay good it used Knock Off, that scared me for a second.

 

So Absol gets oneshot and Reflect goes down, but Mismagius is coming in next and I still have Light Screen.  It's fine, I think.  I can stay in, tank whatever special attack it uses, blast it with Hyper Beam, and switch out.  Then it comes in with the Synthetic Seed, boosting its attack AND guaranteeing a crit next turn.

 

Well then.

 

Hoping it goes for a ghost type move, I switch to Apollo.  I guessed right, and twoshot it with a field boosted Thunderbolt while it wastes its only opportunity to hit me with Nasty Plot.  All that leaves is Umbreon, and while I know Dashie can solo him normally I'm not sure since her hp is low.  I go back to Randall, set Reflect back up, applied an Ultra Potion, and moved Dashie in.  What did Umbreon do during these turns?  NOTHING.  It just used Protect and Wish despite being full HP.  Dashie oneshotted it with Hyper Beam.

Okay I lied last time.  THIS is the easy part.

 

Having to do this fight right after the first one isn't a big deal.  After all, your party gets healed and this fight is honestly nothing compared to the one before.  It's a fair 6v6, doesn't use the field much outside of a Synthetic Seed on one Pokemon, and in general is just way easier.

But then the third fight starts.

 

Notice in my description of the Luna fight, I took great care not to let anyone faint even though the battle was more than easy enough for me to win even if I did lose them.  It's because in between fights 2 and 3, your Pokemon will have their HP and Status healed, but won't be revived if they fainted in fight 2.  Now if you KNOW this, it'd be one thing.  But since you're mind controlled and can't see or hear what's happening, the average first-time player will look at their unconscious mon's still being unconscious and think "THEY DIDN'T HEAL ME WTF".  I would know because that's what happened to me.  The way it works is kinda explained in a cutscene later, but that's after the fact.  And that cutscene is a whole different can of worms that I'll get to later.  Since I (and probably many other first-timers) didn't get the whole picture, the second battle went from easy to a horrible chore as I was trying to heal everyone to as close to full HP as possible before killing the Umbreon, which was spamming Toxic the whole time. 

 

The whole "half heal" thing is a cool idea, but dropping it on the player for the first time with no explanation is bad design.  I know there isn't really room in context to give the player an explanation, but... well, let's get to that part after the third and final fight.

 

Which, by the way, is ANOTHER 6 versus 12 fight.

Spoiler

 

THIS is why I led with Randall and Abigail.  That Alolan Ninetails does exactly what you think it does, it outspeeds you and sets up Aurora Veil on the first turn.  That's why as you can see, I've replaced Thunder Wave with Sunny Day on Randall.  With Prankster, he changes the weather and makes Aurora Veil useless before Ninetales can use it.  Abigail's there because, well, you know.

 

To my surprise however, Abigail outspeeds the Ninetales.  It was at this point that I noticed the levels:  These guys are way lower than me.  I... will admit.  When I came to this point in my original run, I had not grinded to just under the level cap like I did here.  I guess I was making it harder on myself there.  But my point about the other game design elements still stand, and as I mentioned there's more wrong with this sequence than just "being hard".  Anyway, Ninetales obviously dies and Clefable uses Thunder Wave... on Randall?  I would've used it on Abigail if I were him... whatever.  Next comes in Bronzong and both go down to Heat Wave while Randall gets his screens up. 

 

Glaceon dies too, but then Gossip Gardevoir gets in a Calm Mind (also she's faster) and Jynx comes in with the Synthetic Seed.  It's looking like the end for Abigail, so I get Randall out of there and let her got out Heat-Waving.  Unsure of who to switch to, I go with Apollo since he's... uh... how do I put it nicely... dedicated to taking one for the team?  Well it didn't matter because to my surprise G.Gardevoir DIDN'T use Shadow Ball and instead a field-boosted Thunderbolt.  Okay then.  And it turns out Apollo was actually the right guy for the job, as he outspeeds Gardevoir and takes her down.  I apologize Apollo, you're still awesome.  Jynx goes down and next is Alolan Sandslash who doesn't have the Slush Rush, so he meets the same fate as all his ice friends- or he WOULD if I didn't miss.  He retaliates with Knock off and Abigail finally goes down.

 

I send in the new guy, thinking it's his chance to shine.  Well the problem is that Bisharp is next, and now I'm regretting getting rid of Sacred Sword.  I use King's Shield and HOPE Apollo lands a Focus Blast...  And he does!  Bisharp goes down and next is Metagross.  And the King's Shield is wasted because Sandslash used Knock off on Apollo, doing over half his health.  Not wanting to chance Focus Miss twice in a row, I go for the field-boosted Thunderbolt on the 'gross and Blow my Z-Move on Sandlsash.  The latter gets the kill, but Apollo goes down and I'm running out of Pokemon who can take a hit.  I send in Dashie, hoping I can finish off Metagross with Shadow Sneak before he... Metagrosses her.  It works, but the Froslass who comes in is revealed to have a Z-move of her own!  And Sword Pun's still in his vurnerable state!

 

...And she uses it on Dashie instead.

 

So the rest of the battle was a sweep after that lol

 

...Okay so I actually beat the second two battles first try.  But that's because I knew what was coming!  For first-timers, this whole game is about struggling with hard battles, hitting F12 when things go south to start again immediately, and coming right back until you "solve" the fight.  In this gauntlet you do that for the first fight, then blow through the second easily before getting slammed in the face with the third.  Then you go through the same "formula" with that fight, but instead of a lightning-fast respawn like most (good) hard games, you gotta slog through fights you've already solved.  Actually it's even worse than that, most first-timers would need to re-solve the first fight so as to lead with someone better suited for the third fight!  That is why I feel like this is bad design, it's the same formula as the rest of Reborn, but made worse by forcing you to waste your time.  Especially with fight 2, it's so much easier it might as well not be there.  Story-wise you'd obviously have to fight Luna, but in terms of game design its only purpose is to make use of this new "half-heal" mechanic with isn't even explained to the player.

 

Obviously, I am speaking from experience here.  I was a first timer too, and that's exactly what happened to me.  Even in this run, I had a backup save where I went through the gauntlet again a couple times to test some things, get a better idea for how I'd design it better.  And every time, it took several resets just to get past the first fight.  If I had gotten unlucky on fight 3, or the strategy I thought up didn't work, then I'd have to go through all that over again just to get another shot.

 

So how WOULD I change this segment of the game?  Well my first idea would be to just make victory in the last two fights optional.  Make it one of the things you need to get the secret ending.  Let's go back to that scene from before the first fight, where Bennett's explaining how you seem to always come out on top.

 

A reference to the two optional losses against Solaris' Garchomp and El's Ditto Arceus, but also literal admission that you don't HAVE to win every fight to win the game.  Like say, these fights.  In the context of the story, it doesn't even matter if you win.  The TLDR of what happens when you're unconscious (and BOY is that acronym appropriate, but I'll get to that later) is that Luna, Radomus and Serra come to investigate, and the bad guys test their new weapon (you) on them for funsies.  When you beat them, they reveal that like last time, it didn't even matter.  Bennett goes to press the "sleep" button and Gardevoir saves you all (except Cain lol) by doing the Gardevoir thing.  So just make it that if you lose, Zero says something like "huh, I guess [playername] isn't infallible after all" and Bennett goes "well I've had my fun, time to put you all under now" and Gardevoir goes "Ima blow up" and so everything continues as normal.

 

Of course if you're reading this Ame, I'm not you.  Maybe there's something in the story that I don't know about, that makes it so you HAVE to win these fights.  If that's the case, I suggest you cut out the middle fight.  Introduce the "half-heal" mechanic somewhere else, in a scene where you can ACTUALLY TELL the player about it.  As for what Luna herself would do in this scene, make it that the bad guys actually use Cain (he literally just stands in the corner for Arceus' sake).  Have Radomus and Serra be like "We know [playername] is a powerhouse, so we'll double team him.  Luna, you take Cain" or something like that.

 

The actual battles are over, but we're still in the midst of the worst part of the game.  My criticism and suggestions for alternatives will continue in part 3.

 

[CURIE]

 

UPDATE 93:  THE WORST PART OF THE GAME, PART 3

Spoiler

 

After finally beating the gauntlet you go through this sequence in the... Void?  Afterlife?  Whatever you call it, you run along a linear path as you pass by visions of your journey through the game, like it's a physical manifestation of your life flashing before your eyes before you die.  Also the game throws in bits of extra lore for the characters you see here.  Honestly, I believe this part of the game is fine.  I also think it's a nice touch that while Cain's there, he's stuck on his own path that you can't see and only sometimes intersects with yours.  It represents how you both took different paths through life, and the points where they intersect are the parts of the story where you meet up with him.  Who would've guessed, Ame did something with Cain that I actually liked.  Also I appreciate that Ame gives you a light shard at the beginning even though you won't really be doing any more fighting.  If she hadn't, I totally would have wasted a bunch of healing items on my first playthrough.

 

This sequence fell flat for Shofu, but that's because he had only been playing the game in short spurts over the course of years, not thinking or caring about it at all in between.  So everything you see here held no meaning to him.  That's on him, not the game.  This section isn't perfect though, there are still some things I would change if I were Ame.

 

There are several points where you're just walking in a straight line and not seeing anything.  This doesn't build tension, or add to the atmosphere, or whatever other excuse you can come up with.  It's just boring and dumb and makes the player say "can something happen already?"  I'd cut these stretches down.

 

 

The first vision of Cain's family was fine, but the second and third were just redundant.

 

 

Out of all the things you see in this afterlife sequence, this thing about Cal and Blake is EASILY the one I care about the least.  Unless something happens in episode 19 that makes this important (which I doubt), I suggest you cut it and those redundant Cain visions out, as this sequence has already started to overstay its welcome at this point.  Or maybe replace them with something about the Belrose family, I don't think they even appeared once during this whole sequence.

 

 

After Luna showed up and opened the way to the world of the living, I backtracked aaaaaaaaall the way here just to see if there was an Easter Egg or something.  There wasn't.  If there isn't gonna be anything back here, close off the path after Luna shows up so players don't waste their time.
 

So just when the player is getting tired of this flashback stuff, Luna shows up and takes us back to the world of the living.  "Great, now I can actually get back to the game" the player thinks.  But what they don't realize is that they've stepped into the absolute worst part of the worst part of the game, the part that ACTUALLY made Shofu quit:  The horrendously long cutscene.

 

 

Now to be fair, Ame has implemented means for people who don't care about the story to all but skip it.  Namely, the fast-foward button and the thing where you hold down "B" and the text scrolls by automatically.  However in my experience, new players (to any game, not just this one) at least try to follow the story until something happens that makes them stop caring.  So when someone gets to this cutscene, and finds themselves reading dialogue for over a freaking hour, there's more than a good chance they stop caring and just skip through it.  The way I see it, that's bad game design.

 

Going back to the fast foward text scroll, it lets you skip dialogue so quickly that in most cutscenes, you can skip the whole thing in under 10 seconds.  You know how long it takes when you do it for this cutscene?  1 minute 40 seconds.  I timed it.  And I wasn't kidding about the hour long thing, either.  Shofu's video on this scene + the afterlife sequence was 40 minutes long, and that's WITH him giving up halfway through and just mashing "A" (he didn't seem to realize holding "B" would make it scroll faster).   If he had actually taken the time to read everything, it would have been over an hour of cutscene.  Obviously, all my suggestions regarding this part will be about cutting it down to a more... manageable level.

 

First of all, let's take a look at my stopwatch app when I timed this cutscene:

Spoiler

 

"Lap 1" is the section before the flashback, "Lap 2" is the flashback, and "Lap 3" is everything after.  Now from this it looks like the vast majority of this cutscene is in the flashback, right?  Well... that could be a little misleading.  Holding "B" only speeds through the dialogue, when something happens in the scene it goes at normal speed (or 3x speed, since I was using the fast forward key).  Most of these "actions" took place in the flashback, which would total up to a not-insignificant number of seconds if I were to actually bother keeping track of them.  But even with a generous estimate of 10-15 seconds total, that would still mean over half of this cutscene is in the flashback.  You're probably thinking I'm about to suggest you cut out the flashback, and... you're partially right.

 

 

First of all, the part of the flashback taking place outside the Glass Factory is WORTHLESS.  Remove it entirely.  The player wasn't here, so it's not informative on what they missed when they were mind controlled.  We don't learn anything in regards to the story, or even in regards to the lore of any of these characters.  It's just Radomus going "Hey look at how quirky I am!" and Serra going "I'm totally setting myself up to be lectured about the magic of friendship later in this cutscene" and Gardevoir going "Have I mentioned that I want to bang my master?".  It's a waste of time.

 

 

Obviously this part serves much more of a purpose, but... hear me out, I don't think it's absolutely necessary.  I'm not suggesting you cut it out entirely (except for the part outside the factory.  Cut THAT out entirely), I'm suggesting you make it optional.  Bennet wanted to go destroy the security camera footage, right?  Make a sidequest where you help him do that, and before you destroy it you have an option to watch it, and that's how you access this flashback.  The only things that are absolutely necessary for the player to know can be summarized in a few sentences by Serra.  Not Radomus though, he'd be an idiot about it and waste more of the player's time with non-sequiturs.

 

With those flashbacks dealt with, let's look at the scene that takes place in the present.  I feel like there's some stuff that can be cut out here, too.

 

 

The scene before the flashback is fine.  I was originally gonna suggest you cut down on Radomus wasting the player's time with his usual nonsense, but then I noticed he stopped that shit entirely when he finally met his kids.  I actually like that detail.  Besides, the scene after the flashback is four times longer than this.

 

 

I feel like you should take the explanation of the crystal keys and move it to Calcenon City as optional dialogue.  Obviously they're a big part of why Radomus hadn't seen his kids since they were toddlers, but he could just say something along the lines of "I had to send you away to protect you for Team Meteor, but that's a story for another time".  Then he gives her the Amethyst Pendant and we're about to leave when the two ZEL girls show up.  Yes, I know there's more dialogue in between those two points of the cutscene.  I'm suggesting you cut it out.  Noel's whole thing about accepting his sister is more "special" than him can be optional dialogue in Calcenon, and Serra getting lectured on the magic of friendship is a waste of time, not to mention ground that was already tread earlier in this very cutscene.  Just have it go from "Radomus gives Anna the Amethyst" to "Lumi and Eve show up".

 

 

I was considering suggesting you also move their whole story to Calcenon as well, but it's pretty important.  Maybe keep the part where they explain how they were merged into one body and forced to develop PULSES in return for both their bodies being preserved, and move the story of their plans in the Glass Factory to Calcenon.

 

 

Shelly waking up doesn't even have to be onscreen.  It's just more wasted time.

 

 

Same with this paragraphs-long explaination that Hardy won't wake up.  Just say "We found another guy unconscious in the elevator, let's take him too" and just end the cutscene already.  The player can find out he still won't wake up after getting back to Calcenon.

 

And after all that, Anna asks the player if they want to warp straight to Calcenon and the worst part of the game is finally over.  OR IS IT?  Hardy's still unconscious and the story won't continue until he wakes up, which is after you've talked to Eve at least once.  However the average first-timer won't know it's just Eve he has to talk to, and will probably think he has to go around and talk to EVERYONE first.  Meaning this could still be interpreted to be an extension of the painfully long cutscene.  This is dumb, and will especially be a waste of time if you take my suggestions and move a bunch of that cutscene's dialogue to Calcenon.  Just have Hardy wake up after you reach Calcenon, and give the player the ability to move on with the story immediately.

 

Also, there's a bug:

Serra appears in this building whether or not you've spoken to Shelly, and has a conversation with Shelly despite her not being there.  The other Serra is still outside too, meaning there's two Serras.

 

If you're reading this Ame, I hope you consider at least some of my suggestions here.  I wouldn't talk so much shit about this part of the game, if I weren't a huge fan of the rest of the game and wanted it to be better.

 

So, a recap of all my suggestions:

Spoiler

• Make the second and third third fights scripted losses, but you need to win them for the secret ending.
• If you don't want to make them scripted losses, cut out the middle fight.  Introduce the half-heal mechanic somewhere else, and actually tell the player about it this time.
• In the afterlife sequence, cut down the parts where you're running in one direction with nothing happening.
• Cut out some of the redundant and less important visions in the afterlife, maybe add something about the Belrose family.
• Remove the flashback taking place outside the Glass Workstation entirely.
• Take the rest of the flashback, and make it part of an optional sidequest where you help Bennett destroy the security camera footage.
• Cut parts of the non-flashback cutscene, and make them optional dialogue in Calcenon.  Namely:  Radomus' story about the keys, Noel accepting that his sister is more "special" than him, and Lumi/Eve's story about their Glass Workstation plan.
• Remove the lecture Serra gets entirely.  It's redundant.
• Just have Hardy wake up when you get to Calcenon.
• Fix that bug with Serra.

 

[CURIE]

UPDATE 94:  THE MOST EMBARRASSING FIGHT SO FAR

Spoiler

Now that my thesis on the glass workshop is finally over, I can finally get back to playing the actual game.

 

I haven't really been feeling Head Smash when not using it as a Z-move, and since the gauntlet's over I went with Shadow Claw instead.  While level grinding him up, there were a lot of times I was wishing I had a stronger ghost move than Shadow Sneak.  I know I'll be getting into some double battles in the future, so I've put Diggersby on the burner for now and have given Strider the Waterium Z as well as replaced Surf with Scald.

 

Before I get tot the double battles though, I have to fight a couple grunts one-on-one.  Most of them went down easily, but one guy's Mantine gave me a ton of trouble because it just spammed roost and refused to die.  I could have ended it easily if I had Apollo on my team, but I didn't.  Eventually [Sword Pun] was able to kill it with Shadow Claw after I used an X Attack.  Oh right, there was this weird bug where whenever enter Agate, or leave a battle from inside it, the peaceful Agate theme plays for a seemingly random amount of time before the meteor theme abruptly starts playing instead.

 

 

The first (big) fight in the gauntlet is between two grunts, and Hardy is your partner.  Usually leading with Randall is the best idea, but I don't wanna always do the same thing so I led with Strider.  He almost killed the Beheeyem with Dark Pulse, and my ally finished him off with Rock Slide.  Seismetoad was next, and he got Grass Knot'd by Grass Knot.  Next was Electross, and by this point both Strider and my ally Lycanroc were almost dead.  This would be his last turn on the field, I thought, so I went for the Hydro Vortex, but the thing used priority Ion Deluge, and when my Z move landed it did less than half damage due to becoming part electric type.  Good news is that Strider didn't die that turn like I expected, and the Magneton on the other side of the field was at 1 HP and went down to hail.  Lapras was next and I know Lapras is a thiccc girl, so I went for Grass Knot.  It very nearly killed, and both of us went down.

 

Thinking Hardy's next 'mon might be something slow, I send out Fangorn for some Trick Room fun.  I was wrong, Areodactyl was next.  I hide with Phantom Force and let Hardy take it from there, and oh boy did he take it from there.  Rock Slide killed both bad guys, and their replacements were Cryognal and Lanturn.  One of them died to the next Rock Slide, and the other was finished off by my Phantom Force.  Areodactyl died to a field boosted Surf though, but it turns out they were both the bad guys' last Pokemon.

 

After that I get a free heal and it's time for the rematch the game has been building up to for a long time:  a true one-on-one with Solaris.  No option to lose here, no tag-team crap with a gym leader backing me up, just me vs him.

 

His first Pokemon is Staraptor.  Since I led with Strider earlier I lead with him here and-

 

Oh right.  I forgot about the level cap.  I'm an idiot.  I go for the Hydro Vortex just to see if I get lucky and Strider obeys me, and he does!  Maybe it's a guaranteed thing with Z-moves.  Next is Scizor who I attempt to Heat Wave, but miss and it crits me with the Knock Off and kills Abigail.  I send in Randall to set up Screens and paralyze it, but realize I ALSO forgot to put Thunderwave back on him.  This battle's just one disaster after another.  I could soft reset and fix these mistakes, but I want to see if I can pull through anyway.  I set up both Screens, and just after I do Scizor gets a crit on Bullet Punch and kills Randall.  Sword Pun comes in and kills it with Shadow Claw, but not before losing his Leftovers.  Tyranitar is next and I switch to Fangorn.  He survives Crunch and gets Trick Room up, but guess what?  I FORGOT TO REAPPLY THE SITRUS BERRY TO HIM TOO.  I think this is the most embarrassing fight I've done in this run.

 

He still is able to kill Tyranitar though, healing enough from Horn Leech to survive another round.  Next is Excadrill who strangely enough, uses Swords Dance on the turn I hit him with Phantom Force.  That means Fangorn would get an extra turn, but Trick Room runs out jut then.  And so does Reflect.  Yeah, Fangorn totally dies.  I probably should have used that turn to use an item, maybe revive Randall or something, but guess what.  I forgot.  Excadrill's health is low so I try to get him with Shadow Sneak, but it barely doesn't work so Sword Pun dies too.  All that's left is Strider who is overlevel, and Dashie who will be outsped and destroyed.  I sacrifice Strider to revive Sword Pun, but to my surprise the AI uses Iron head and he survives.  I go for an attack, and it works!  Excadrill goes down.  I dunno if Z-moves always work with the obedience mechanic, but there I know I got lucky.

 

Next is Gyrados and I don't dare to push my luck even farther.  I spend Strider's last turn to revive Randall, who comes in next.  Obviously I use Reflect, but then I use Sunny Day to further weaken the thing's attacks.  I guess it wasn't entirely bad that I forgot to give him Thunderwave back.  Randall dies and Sword Pun comes in... Oh no.  I thought it'd go for Waterfall.  It used Earthquake and King's Shield was negated.  I have no choice but to go for Shadow Sneak, which of course doesn't kill, and Sword Pun dies.  Now all that's left is Dashie.  She survives the first move, losing over half her health, but her Hyper Voice just BARELY doesn't kill.  I have to sacrifice her and revive Sword Pun AGAIN (I don't know why, but I was really determined to win this) this time using a Max one.  She takes another hit and-

 

She survived?  Holy crap.  Not wanting to lose her, I switch to Sword Pun who takes a +2 Waterfall like a champ.  I go for Shadow Sneak... and Solaris uses a Full Restore.

 

I really wanted to say I had won the most embarrassing battle I've ever done, but at this point I'd had enough of this bullshit and just soft reset.  I'll be more prepared next time.