Help with the team?

[CaptainMomo]

Alright, so I just got to the Agate Circus, and I'm thinking my team needs an overhaul. Either my team is too frail, only good at one trick, or balanced with no moves to use (FERALIGATR). I wanna start grinding people up to level 62 so they can fight evenly, but I am not in the habit of wasting time. I had to cut a couple members since they got too weak, but other than that, it's been consistent. Here's the main team.

Johnny the Feraligatr

Level 57

Sheer Force

Crunch, Water Gun, Ice Fang, Strength

Honestly, I just want a better water attack. I know he can learn Aqua Tail at level...63? I want him to stay if only because he's my starter.

Arthur the Escavalier

Level 57

Overcoat

Iron Head, X-Scissor, Swords Dance, Iron Defense

I love Escavalier, but I think I need to replace Iron Defense with something. Drill Run?

Ninja the Drapion

Level 56

Sniper

Struggle Bug, Poison Fang, Crunch, Hone Claws

He needs better attacks. Struggle Bug was only taught so I could beat Luna. That, and Fell Stinger wasn't coming in handy.

Zen the Girafarig

Level 57

Sap Sipper

Shadow Ball, Trick Room, Psychic, Nasty Plot

Honestly, I want him gone. He's too frail, his ability is too situational, and he was just meant to fight Radomus with Shadow Ball. That being said, he also has my only Psychic and Ghost attack, so he's hard to replace.

Decepticon the Donphan

Level 56

Sand Veil

Earthquake, Rollout, Giga Impact, Rock Smash

This has been with me for a long time, and I don't wanna retire him. However, his heyday is long gone, and I know it's just a matter of time before I need to replace him with someone better.

Braveheart the Pyroar

Level 59

Moxie

Flamethrower, Work Up, Dark Pulse, Hyper Voice

The ace of the team and my glass cannon. I love her to death, but I know better fire types are out there.

I do have options in the box, but I'm hesistant to bring back my Hariyama. He's strong, but he's slow and that HP doesn't do much if you're still made of paper.

I'll gladly take suggestions. Thank you.

[Omega_Ra1der]

Probably train that meditite to replace girafraig because you might need a fighting type to take on a certain douche. Psychic for the upcoming gym leader. Yeah replace iron defense with drill run. But without gira, teach feraligatr shadow claw to help the situation of have both ghost counter and physical moves. Do you have a fire stone at hand because growhilte might help to replace pyroar. At this point of the game, pyroar is weak because the remaining gyms have something to counter fire types badly. But arcaine with outrage, flare blitz, crunch and heat wave will cause some havoc.

Edited July 18, 2015 by OmegaRa1der

[Etesian]

If you just got to Agate, beat the next 2 gyms and you can get a Snover, which gets Ice Punch. Breed that and Dragon Dance onto Feraligatr. You'll also get the Waterfall HM soon-ish. Keep Crunch. There's also a Life Orb in the game and Sheer Force negates LO recoil if a move is affected by SF.

Honestly, SD is bad. While it is bulky, it's guaranteed to be worn down due to it's low speed. Give it Drill Run and Knock Off. Or keep SD and give it Drill Run, but I'd go with 4 attacks.

Drapion gets SD and Agility/Dig via breeding in pre-E13, check the pinned guide in this section for details. Anyways, definitely go with SD, no reason to run Hone Claws. Dig/Agility is your choice, I'd go with Dig to make sure no special attacker outspeeds and just OHKOs you.

Also, ditch Crunch and Poison Fang. Give it Night Slash, level up once more to get Cross Poison and give it a Scope Lens as held item. A high-crit move with a Scope Lens has a 50% crit chance.

Don't worry about Girafarig being your only Ghost attacker. Since Radomus, Ghost and Dark coverage are nigh useless, not worth a slot unless it's a STAB or desperately needed for coverage.

So you wanna replace it, get a Reuniclus, those are not only strong on their own, it's a very reliable setter of Trick Room, which your team could find useful. Regenerator with Psychic, Trick Room, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball/Hidden Power. EB is gotten via E12 breeding, Swirlix>Castform>Solosis.

Soooo do you wanna keep 'im? If you do, go back to pre-E13, breed Camerupt>Swinub>Phanphy/Donphan to get Rock Slide and Ice Shard onto it. Also visit a Move Relearner and give it Knock Off, Fire Fang or Thunder Fang (I'd say Knock Off, 100 BP if the foe has an item).

There sure are better. The best Fire types in Reborn are Ninetales, Arcanine, Darmanitan and Chandelure. I'd usually say "what you wanna use is up to you", but If you're using Trick Room with Reuniclus (which your team really would benefit from lots), then Darmanitan or Chandelure are ridiculously good.

Sets would be Sheer Force with Flare Blitz, Hammer Arm, Rock Slide, something (I'd usually mention Dig, but a 2-turn move is obviously not good for Trick Room's limited duration, so give it whatever, maybe Facade from the game Corner?) for Darmanitan and Flame Body with Flamethrower, Shadow Ball, Energy Ball, Memento/Psychic (Energy Ball via Swirlix>Castform>Litwick, Energy Ball and Psychic via Swirlix>Castform>Solosis>Litwick) for Chandelure.

Let everything that's in that box stay there. Unless you wanna replace Donphan, Bouffalant can work very well since you have TR. Other replacement options for Donphan also exist, good Ground types, for you would be Krookodile, Nidoking, Mamoswine, Golurk and Diggersby, Krook especially is great since you have TR, though all of those work even without it (except for Golurk).

[CaptainMomo]

Probably train that meditite to replace girafraig because you might need a fighting type to take on a certain douche. Psychic for the upcoming gym leader. Yeah replace iron defense with drill run. But without gira, teach feraligatr shadow claw to help the situation of have both ghost counter and physical moves. Do you have a fire stone at hand because growhilte might help to replace pyroar. At this point of the game, pyroar is weak because the remaining gyms have something to counter fire types badly. But arcaine with outrage, flare blitz, crunch and heat wave will cause some havoc.

I think Meditite will work out, as she'll cover my niche I need. I lack a Fire Stone because I don't know where to get them, and I don't know how to get heart stones to make my team REALLY strong.

But Zen is leaving for Tina the Meditite. Also got the Dive TM and gave it to Johnny so he could ACTUALLY hit something with a good attack! Also, again, don't know where Shadow Claw is.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see you post, Etesian! In regards to breeding...I can do that, but that just makes things tedious. I ain't the world's biggest fan of breeding, but DDance on Feraligatr is really solid. I'll give it some thought. I don't know what SD is. Swords Dance? OK, I could replace it with Knock Off...if it didn't mean breeding. It's been so long that I completely forgot how I evolved Arthur.

I was planning to get Cross Poison, but again, I don't know where a lot of items are nor how to get Night Slash. Besides, I can't leave town to go back, and I'm not sure what's ahead.

Everything else is still good, might replace Donphan with Nidoking or Manoswine. Thank you.

Any other advice?

Edited July 18, 2015 by CaptainMomo

[SkyRunner]

There's a Fire Stone in Pyrous Mountain with the Heatmor. You can also get them from mining. Same with Heart Scales. There are a few hidden across the region, and there's a chance of wild Luvdisc holding them. As of E15, Shade gives out Shadow Claw once beaten.

[CaptainMomo]

...and I am way past Shade, because I still have Shadow Ball. So there's that plan shot.

[Etesian]

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see you post, Etesian! In regards to breeding...I can do that, but that just makes things tedious. I ain't the world's biggest fan of breeding, but DDance on Feraligatr is really solid. I'll give it some thought. I don't know what SD is. Swords Dance? OK, I could replace it with Knock Off...if it didn't mean breeding. It's been so long that I completely forgot how I evolved Arthur.

I was planning to get Cross Poison, but again, I don't know where a lot of items are nor how to get Night Slash. Besides, I can't leave town to go back, and I'm not sure what's ahead.

Everything else is still good, might replace Donphan with Nidoking or Manoswine. Thank you.

Any other advice?

Check the guide here, just get Cheat Engine (google it, it's like the first result that shows up) and do the stuff mentioned in the guide, it'll take you like 1-2 minutes per 'mon. And yeah, SD is Swords Dance. And Escavalier and Accelgor are gotten by trading them for the other's pre-evolution, a guy in Spinel does that for you.

Scope Lenses can be found in the Department Store and you get Night Slash by going to the relearner (or by level-up if you breed a new one).

And about you saying you can't go back, download E12 from the guide. As soon as you beat the first gym leader after you enter the circus, save and launch the game from the E12 folder, you can then go back through the Agate checkpoint and go back to the city.

[CaptainMomo]

I already have Cheat Engine, but that's just to speed things along such as grinding. But alright, I'll give it a shot.

So far, I'm grinding up Tina the Meditite, and...if she's gonna be a mainstay, I feel she needs a physical Psychic attack, and the only one I think of is Psycho Cut, which means I gotta get an Abra, grind it up to learn Psycho Cut, then breed. Fun.

Outside of that, I probably will go through and get the mining kit since I can't recall where the mountain is where I can get a fire stone.

Only thing I'm concerned with is getting Heart Scales for the relearner and the Department Store. I onyl have 2 stickers, am I supposed to have more?

Thank you.

[Fumble]

Yes. Sticker Guide: http://www.pokemonreborn.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9720

Also, Pyrous Mountain is at Apophyll Beach.

[CaptainMomo]

...welp, I've been quite igornant of the game. Had I done this all earlier, I would be pretty set. Oh well. ONWARDS.

Thank you all! I'll update with progress reports.