Fixing it up (A Pokemon Reborn Hardcore Playthrough)

[Dragon116]

I always struggle at Corey. At that point in the game, the pokemon available are pretty terrible. You should be getting into the clear now that you've got a nice selection of ground types coming up.

[Commander]

Episode 3.1 And to the Victoria go the Spoils

bad pun is bad. Anyways, not much really went on outside of raising Mahogany my Phantump and Underdog my now Granbull. I just realized how brutal I was in Lapis so trainers got a slight level nerf to make it a little bit easier. Slight doesn't really mean that much. I'm going to skip the Aster and Eclipse fight even though that Rhyhorn did give me a pretty good beating. The rest were kind of pathetic. Orderly John Cena was a toughie and I really don't think I need to level or team adjust him given his team is quite good. Very fun and difficult fight, but not too difficult.

Stuff happens and we get to Victoria who isn't too tough but she kicked my butt. That Scrafty KO'd Granbull and Mahagony with a Poison Jab (after a Dragon Dance) in which both were KO'd by the Poison. Manectric came in and finished the job though. Next came out Gallade so I sent out my ace this run, Creepy Bird! (Seriously, Pelipper is an amazing Pokemon so don't judge). It used a Swords Dance Shadow Sneak combo which did about 1/3rd of Mickey's HP 1/3rd! Then it died to Air Cutter. Manectric one shotted Poliwrath with a Crit hit Discharge (thank go). Swalot then came out to take on the Hariyama. Shaggy poisoned it while Hariyama used the Belly Drum. I then used this time to heal up a couple of my Pokemon just in case (Victoria used her Super Potion during this time). The next turn, she nailed Swalot with a brick break...which knocked it down to 4 HP. Let me just give you an example of how powerful that attack is. It's like a jet plane crashing into a woods and the explosion caused from it hitting a man in blank zero range. Yeah, that's not a weak attack at all.

I had no choice but to send Creepy bird to protect stall. Victoria used another Super Potion, but Creepy Bird was able to protect 3 times in a row to watch his foe fall to the poison. I told you Mickey was my ace. Next came out Emboar so I sent out Grumpig. I used Confuse Ray to dodge a Sucker Punch and then it hit itself twice before dying to a second Psybeam.

There's definitely a ton of experience in this area so I was actually able to raise a team of 8 with ease. I only hit above the cap with Mickey fighting Shelly's gym trainers, but nobody else even got close. My current team actually got swept by Shelly, but I'm adding a few little buffs to her Pokemon. The only thing I would remove is Vespiquen for Escalvier, but I really like her team. If you guys want to say something you can, but I'm not gonna make a poll for her.

The Team for the Episode:

[Dragon116]

Victoria's team is fantastic. For Shelly, Masquerian, Heather the Yanmega, and Bugsy the Volbeat need to stay. Illusmise, Vespiquen, and Armaldo are debatable. Illusmise just spams Struggle Bug mainly, which can be done by so many others. Vespiquen is mediocre, so I can see why you'd want to replace her. Armaldo serves as the Fire/Flying resistance, but maybe put Crustle in here? Make it match with her Asylum team. Galvantula could be another fun one to consider for Vespiquen, since you have 3 flying types atm (Heather, Vespiquen, Masquerian).

[Commander]

To be honest, it's the Rain Dance what's screwing the fight over now. Galvantula would actually make the fight easier given Armaldo would shred it to pieces. I probably would give Armaldo stronger moves to compensate for it's others failure (EQ, XScissor, Aqua Jet, Rockslide). All I really did was add a crap ton of bulk to her Pokemon and she's kicking my butt way harder than Corey...I barely won that battle...I mean barely won. I think she's going to keep her team as I actually got Vespiquen to set up as a bulky Pokemon. It has defenses higher than a Shuckles after one Defend Order which it often uses first now. I'm probably going to keep it like this as when a Rain Dance AI is implemented...(trust me, I tried hard to get it to work)...she'll probably be too difficult. Now for the battle:

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Episode 4: Shelly Got Game

God I forgot how painful the bookcase puzzle was, but I survived. Anyways, Shelly managed to kick my butt 10 times with her modifications. 10 times. I wasn't using a Fire type because I need to test for monotypes now since those are a thing. New Shelly is harder than Corey, that's saying something.

The battle started out with Manectric and Trifecta (Onix). Shelly's Illumise used Confuse Ray my Onix while Masquerain Scald burned it. Manectric used Discharge to nail both of his opponents while Onix managed to pull through with a Stealth Rock before dying to the burn. This was looking like another ugly episode so I sent Mickey in to use Protect while Manectric got confused, but pulled another Discharge off. I decided to take a gamble and had Pelipper protect on more time and Manectric pulled off a Discharge before getting double shotted by Struggle bug. Seeing both my opponents in red, I decided to have both use quick attack on Masquerain. Illumise decided to be a prick and launched a Confuse Ray on Mickey, but Mickey pulled through and KO'd Masquerain.

Armaldo came out next and while Pelipper KO'd Illumise, Armaldo KO'd Manectric with Rock Slide and put Pelipper into the red. Stoutland came out next against Yanmega. I decided to have Mickey use Protect in an attempt to KO that Yanmega with take down. Of course I missed making the turn pointless. I decided to go with Fire Fang this time which got it down to the red while I healed Mickey with a Super Potion. I then decided to Sacrifice Mickey by having him Quick Attack Yanmega to death. While Stoutland did a Chunk of Damage to Armaldo. Said foe used Rock Slide KOing Mickey and putting Stoutland in the yellow. This was now a 3v3 and...it was still a toss up who won.

So I decided to send Kawaii bear out next. Seeing as Armaldo was the lesser of two evils, I directed both their attacks to Vespiquen, but unfortunately, Stoutland decided to disobey me and Kawaii bear chipped Vespiquen down to the red...when the darn thing just had to use Defend Order. Screaming in rage, I watched Stoutland go down to a bug bite. I sent out Shaggy who poisoned Armaldo with Toxic while Kawaii bear managed to finish Vespiquen off with a Slash. I don't remember what Armaldo did but it hurt.

Now comes the end. I had Shaggy Toxic Bugsy who used a Tail glow while Kawaii bear used Baby-Doll Eyes on Armaldo. I had Shaggy use Amnesia the next round while I healed up Kawaii bear...and now I had only two super potions. Seeing as Shaggy would be slaughtered alone, I healed both Pokemon up at once and Kawaii bear just managed to leave another harsh blow. The next turn Bugsy killed Kawaii bear with Struggle bug, but thankfully Armaldo was down to the poison. Now I just had to outlive this demon. When it got down to the red it used moonlight, but Shaggy's sludge combined with the poison finished it off. (I'm not sure how exactly the battle went thinking I lost because that was too close...Shaggy was in the red with 10 HP close).

I have to say Bugsy really isn't that much of a threat even with a ton of EVs jammed into him, but when he tail glows...it's going to put a dent into both Pokemon. Not kill but barely not kill.

[Hiroki Tatsumi]

Hmmm

Shelly seems to be really hard now, to be honest, i just went like i will hit strong and fast to beat her, but you placed a nice strategy to beat her. I guess that will be interesting to deal with her new version. I'm looking forward that

I see you're testing in monotype conditions, i guess that's cool for us

My MVP of the run is Mickey the Pelipper, i like him and it is surprisingly working cool, though i wouldn't keep quick attack on him but it has proven its value. That's what i like about reading your Playthroughs, there is a good variety of strategies to beat the game, and even more in harcore ^^

Looking forward Shade's gym , it was a piece of cake for me because of sucker punch x)

[Commander]

Sadly, Mickey is starting to fall from grace as well as many others in my party. I'll try to keep him on my party, but if it gets to be too much, he'll be put in the reserves for a bit. As for the battles, I'm going to skip the rivals as I kind of forgot what I did, I know I used Leech Seed and stalled Cain (Mahagony was the MVP there killing Fern's Roserade and destroying Cain's Muk) and both battles were kind of close. Only big difference is that Cain's Nidoking is now Lv 39.

I decided to make a poll for Shade due to a couple little things I want to see. This will be the final poll before 1.8 is released with the fixes from the beginning of the game to Shade. The only huge difference outside of Florinia so far is a couple level nerf (to make it easier on you guys) as well as some of the leader's weaker mons getting buffs. There's not too much you'll be missing. (1.9 will be released at Noel and 2.0's big focus will be a heavy nerf on the Blake and Fern fight at the Maison).

[Commander]

So I finished up all the stuff for 1.8 so you can download that on the front page if you want. Dumb old me may have forgotten to delete the PBS file on it, but that's pretty much worthless outside of getting info on trainers/leaders. I fixed that though. You can download it on the first post. Shade got some revamps as well (3 members changed) so I'll be putting this one in the spoilers:

Episode 5: The Real Slim Shade(y)

The battle started off with Rotom...which I forgot about his new (well technically his old ancient lead) lead and had Manectric out. Bite basically did next to nothing and almost died to Shadow Ball. Remember this for later on. I decided to switch in Nala (the newly evolved Pyroar) and unexpectedly, Shade switched in that Golurk...which cause me to scream in rage. Why Golurk? Something has to deactivate the field if it gets supercharge. Nala pulled a Flamethrower before getting shot down by an Earthquake. I decided to send in Shing (Lilligant) who put that Golurk to sleep and used a couple quiver dances. The Golurk woke up and nearly KO'd Shing with a Shadow Punch. I decided to use Sleep Powder and thank god it didn't miss. I then had Shing use one more Quiver Dance before one shotting the beast with Giga Drain.

Next came out Aegislash and seeing as my fire type was dead, I decided to stay in with her. I predicted a King's Shield and put it to sleep with Sleep Powder. It then eventually changed stances giving me the opportunity to KO it with two Giga Drains or something. Next he was going to send out Corey so back comes out Manectric who is nearly dead. Corey decides to become Mega (in E16 if this isn't fixed, I'll edit the sprite to make it nicer to look at) but gets one shotted by Manectric's Discharge. That thing is strong, but since it drops from 31 to 0 IVs it shouldn't be too OP. It is fast though and Shadow Tag basically makes you have to deal with confusion if he uses it. Next came out Dusknoir and Shing decided to make a comeback and put Dusknoir to sleep while setting up some quiver dances. She then took a Shadow Punch but used up her remaining PP for Giga Drain to KO it...fu pressure...fu. Next came out rotom who I think either died to Shing's Magical Leaf or a Manectric's bite...doesn't really matter at this point because it wasn't able to do much. And now came out the big bad Chandy.

Don't really know all the details, but I do know Stoutland withstood a Flamethrower to avenge his comrade with Retaliate (such a good move) due to his awesome Scrappy ability. It only did about half though. It then died to a Flamethrower. Next Cologne (Amorasitte...or however you spell it) came out to lower its special attack with Moonblast before dying to an energy ball. All I have left is Creepy Bird who honestly couldn't take the HP electric on the Factory field and Manectric who was nearly dead. So basically Manectric came in and Discharged it to dead. And with that, I claim victory. It's kind of funny how in my old challenge run, Lilligant destroyed regular Kiki with ease, but she barely could put the amount of force on Shade's Ghosts.

Here's a pic of the team:

Again, 1.8 is available in the OP like right at the top. Most of the leaders only got slight buffs to help round out their teams or make their overall teams/aces stronger.

[Dragon116]

Putting this in spoiler to support Commander's surprise wish.

I like Shade leading with Corey. It's a really nice shock value. Starting Rotom works too I suppose.What is the third new member? I only see M.Bannette and Trevant getting swapped for Rotom and Golurk. Also EQ is rather powerful for this point in the game. I would suggest dropping it to Dig or Bulldoze.

[Commander]

Putting a spoiler for the response to a spoiler.

When I create or vamp up a leader I go through a lot of tests. One example of a move being too strong was Florinia's Breloom's Facade. It just did too much so Retaliate was a good substitute for a surprise counter. Golurk can kind of get away with strong moves since it's supposed to be a stronger Trevenant. Shadow Punch does more damage so unless you're running an electric type, you'll probably never see it...but I don't know why you'd keep an electric type in on that. Electric monotypes can pretty much sweep Shade outside of Golurk so that's kind of a challenge for them. Anyone else should have an easy time taking it down. If EQ gets a lot of complaints, I'll nerf it to Bulldoze...which would more or less still be a stronger earthquake with that speed reduction. Mega Gengar needed a huge nerf though so I wasn't even think about Golurk who is strong but not OP with its moveset.

[Redo.]

Golurk is not OP, well, at least no with Iron Fist.

If EQ is too bad, you can add the challenge of no ground moves but No Guard Dynamic Punch + Stone Edge maybe?

Also, for future reference, what did you do to MGengar to make it not OP (That thing can easily sweep through most of out stuff for Shade (bar a Speed Boost Sharpedo with some boost in, but that thing was made to kill Shade anyway).

Also, Shade leading with Rotom is a good idea, it stops Sharpedo from getting boost early in the battle.

[Commander]

@Redo: Good luck getting a Sharpedo though. That fight now has 5 Pokemon instead of 3 (or was is six?) and it's quite an interesting reference along with the two leaders still sharing parallels. I'd really be interested in an Archer vs Maxwell fight with those two teams.

As for Shade, I chose the said moves in order to help with that factory field problem he has with Rotom as it usually kicks on at some point. Electric types are very OP in that setting. And as for that Mega:

The original Gengar has 31 IVs and Modest nature which I originally reduced to 10 to test. Due to things barely surviving, I decided to drop it to 0 IVs in order to make it slightly stronger than normal Gengar. The other reason I gave Shade Mega Gengar is because Cain is probably going to lose his as well as Mega Banette just wasn't using Prankster like it needed to and wasn't meeting requirements for the fight even with Sucker Punch and that high attack. As for Cain's Mega, it might be Absol due to Cain needing all the help he can get in that fight...though I'm getting a lot of giving him Mega Beedrill in place of Galvantula. I'll make that one a poll or something since I'm getting complaints about it "not being a poison type." Regular Gengar works for Cain...but that whole fight is more or less a complete joke and Mega Gengar is kind of pitiful in it.

Now onto a slightly long Episode 6: Mind over Volcano?

I'll start out by saying there were quite a few new teammates added after the Zel fight. I'll introduce them right away: The Grim Creeper (Dusclops), Happy-Go-Lucky the Blissey, Hudson the Nidoking, and Sunshine the Solrock. I'm going to need a bigger box for all these pokemon, aren't I. Well here's a pic of most of the team and some possible future Pokemon (RIP Leon)

Feel free to make any suggestions, but not everybody can be part of the team. inb4 everyone makes jokes about using buizel.

So let's get started with Zel (I forgot to have pics so you'll just have to listen to my ramblings...it also means I have to try):

Zel was kind of harder than I remembered. The battles went pretty smoothly with Nala spamming Flamethrower to KO that Glaceon after an Icy wind and Ice Beam. Next came out Pulse muk so Jack the Grumpig decided to have a little fun. Jack knocked its HP down to Half with Psyshock before being KO'd by a Discharge (this thing has pitiful Defenses). Can't actually remember who got the KO. I think I had Nala use Flamethrower before being KO'd and Creepy bird finished it off with a Quick Attack. Next came out Jolteon as I had Shaggy poison it with Toxic and then used Amnesia while it eventually died to the poison (that or Creepy bird came in to finish it off). Next came out Flareon, but Mickey laughed at its pitiful Flare Blitzes and KO'd it with a Second Brine.

Now came out Umbreon, but I had a plan for this one. I sent out Cologne (did I mention its a male?) who set up a couple calm minds before KOing Umbreon with a few Drain Kisses and a Moonblast. Next came out Espeon who was hit hard by Moonblast before being KO'd by a Psychic. I think Manectric then came in and finished the fight off with a Discharge. Sorry, it's been like 3 days and it wasn't too interesting of a fight.

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And now there was a side grind fest before Cal as I realized I didn't have that good of a team. So I began training those said pokemon above...which actually didn't take as long as you think. The Lucky Egg and Exp Share Combo was such a good idea and cut back so much time. Heck, it was way faster than that Challenge run which could take hours for one Pokemon and it was nearly impossible to train new guys. Now onto Cal:

Vs Cal

This fight was actually kind of hard. I decided to lead with Sunshine (Solrock) who tanked a Close Combat before OHKOing that Infernap with Psychic. Next came out Typhlosion so I activated my master plan and sent out Happy-Go-Lucky the Blissey. Part A of my strategy was to have Happy use minimize which due to the field was maxed out in 3 turns. I don't really know what Typhlosion did as it usually missed or did laughable damage. I began setting Blissey up for charge beam...but then I realized Charge Beam only has 10 BP. My only attack move is kind of pitiful. Anyways, Cal wastes all his potions before the Johto starter faints. Next comes in Blaziken who misses a Fire Punch and is nailed by a Charge Beam. Then my master plan backfired. Hi-Jump-Kick somehow hit a Plus 6 Evasion Blissey killing it. After a moment of swearing, I send out Jack who finishes the foe off with Psybeam. This is not looking good since my tank was um...dead.

Next came out Charizard so I sent out Shaggy to poison it. Shaggy lived a Mega Zard's Dragon Claw and nailed it with a Toxic. I decided to heal Sunshine up with a Super Potion before Shaggy died to a Dragon Claw. Hudson (Nidoking) came out lived a Dragon Claw and finished Charizard off with an Earth Power. Next came out Delphox and I'm like thinking I'm going to lose. I sent out Manectric, he lands a Discharge and Parahaxes the Delphox letting him KO it the next round without getting hit. Then it happened again with Magmortar, but Magmortar landed a Blast Burn KOing Sparkplug. I raised my hands in victory because I just one the battle. I send out Sunshine and he (technically it) finished the Ace off with Stone Edge giving me victory. That battle could've ended much, much worse, but a hax for a hax I suppose.

here's a pic of that team after the battle:

The Victoria fight really isn't worth mentioning. Only highlight was Creepy Bird being Creepy Bird and Mega Gallade using Night Slash on Cologne for some reason. I did get my butt handed to me by the Scrafty the first go around though. DD OP plz nerf. As for the Kiki fight, I had a pre buff where it was pretty close, but seeing as I had to test the Machamp buff out, I begrudgingly battled her again. The highlight of the first battle was where Dusclops got a will-o-wisp off on the Medicham and started kick its butt with Shadow Sneak until Ice Punch Freeze haxed it to death. Creepy Bird came in and finished it off with a Quick Attack (he does that a lot) as seen in this pick.

Now for the fight with the buff (Machamp just got a buff in defenses...I like her team and think it's pretty good. I had trouble with it). So the battle started out with Colongne who basically got nailed with a Dynamic Punch after a Meditate as Machamp survived a Moonblast. I was able to KO it with a Second Moonblast after Kiki healed it once...I hate that thing. Next came out hitmonlee who...I don't really remember what happened. I think it had something to do with Sol KOing it with Psychic before Dying to Toxicroak's sucker punch. I then sent in Grumpig who activated the Sash, but was in KO range for Sucker Punch. I predicted Sucker Punch but Toxicroak had to be that guy and use Gunk Shot to Poison Creepy bird. I had Creepy Bird KO it with Quick Attack. Scrafty came out so I kept the bird in while I healed up Cologne and I think the bird died to Drain Punch and Poison. Cologne came in and spammed Draining Kiss. Then came out Lucario...who was a big problem. I had Cologne set up a Calm Mind while Lucario attacked with Aura Sphere. Cologne then KO'd it with Moonblast. Then Medicham came out and scared the crap out of me with Meditate as nothing would survive that. Cologne then OHKO'd it with Moonblast leading me to be victorious. Seriously, I don't see anything wrong with this fight outside of Machamp being a little slow and frail. Here's a pic of Cologne winning the fight:

(Seriously, this Pokemon is so underrated)

Well that's it for this episode. Next time, I'll have to figure out some way to beat Solaris...that'll be fun. The challenge is doing it without Sash Counter. Hopefully I can do it.

And since I have no pic, I'm just going to name off the main team members this time:

Pokemon who made an appearance:

Mickey "Creepy Bird" the Pelipper lv 43

Cologne the Amorasitte lv 45

Jack the Grumpig Lv 43

Hudson the Nidoking Lv 44

Sunshine the Solrock Lv 44

The Grim Creeper (Dusclops) Lv 41

Happy-Go-Lucky the Blissey Lv 42

Shaggy the Swalot Lv 40

Sparkplug the Manectric Lv 43

Scotty the Stoutland Lv 42

Pokemon in the Reserves (Didn't make a major appearance, but were involved somehow)

Mahagony the Trevenant Lv 41

Gypsy the Venomoth Lv 43

Shing the Lilligant Lv 41

Moonshine "Kawaii Bear" the Ursurang Lv 35

[Dragon116]

I'm surprised the ZEL fight bored you. They gave me a run for my money. Victoria is good for what she needs to be. Kiki is solid. Machamp is a great lead as it prevents set ups. Even Sweetbat would die trying to set up a Calm Mind against Rock Slide. The only possible replacement I see is Toxicroak for pretty much anything. The key problem with that is all to good ones are already claimed by Victoria, Samson, and El. Those that remain expose double typing (pure fighting, fight/dark pangoro).

[gryson]

i think level 20 magmar and electabuzz before julia is a little bit to hard

[Commander]

i think level 20 magmar and electabuzz before julia is a little bit to hard

Feedback like that is worthless. Why is it too OP? If I didn't notice a different topic, I actually would've thought it was Electabuzz and nerfed only that very hard.

I'm surprised the ZEL fight bored you. They gave me a run for my money. Victoria is good for what she needs to be. Kiki is solid. Machamp is a great lead as it prevents set ups. Even Sweetbat would die trying to set up a Calm Mind against Rock Slide. The only possible replacement I see is Toxicroak for pretty much anything. The key problem with that is all to good ones are already claimed by Victoria, Samson, and El. Those that remain expose double typing (pure fighting, fight/dark pangoro).

Sorry, Zel didn't bore me, but it was kind of hazy and nothing hilarious or unexpected happened. Yeah, I don't want to have dupes to any boss fight as that's what makes them all kind of unique and lets me show off how good some pokemon can be. (I did move DD Scrafty back to give some other fighting types a chance they normally wouldn't get). Kiki is all about the mind and Meditating so that's kind of what her team is based off of (And Lucario is her Secondary Ace).

I actually am up to Fern now (I just beat Cain), but I have to go to work. I actually managed to beat Solaris without Sturdy, A fighting type, or counter, and let me tell it was balls to the wall hard. It took so many resets to get just right. There's also a new nickname for a certain Pokemon. "Grim, the Potions Master." You will understand why in the update tomorrow.

[Dragon116]

Something to do with Professor Snape from Harry Potter? My guess is Amoongus.

[Commander]

Okay, here we go. This is going to be a long, long post since it's the beginning to the end of Ep 7 (from Taka to Aya long). So let's get it started:

Episode 7: Chatots and Garchomps and Nidos OH MY!

So...we're just going to skip that embarrassing moment of an Aster and Eclipse battle. I may have used a revive due to bringing a level 5 Budew. I may have regret not training up Leon now. The one time that HM slave would've been useful. The battle was kind of easy (probably should've used Eviolite Rhydon, but oh well). The Taka battle got a little revamp so please avoid if you don't want spoilers.

Vs Taka

So Taka decided to be a little troll and use Swagger with Klefi. I know Flamethrower barely wouldn't kill so he used up all his Potions before switching to that Floatzel (Klefki was in red). Don't really know what happened, but it had something to do with Dig, Levitate from Solrock and probably Solrock dying. I just know that Grim, tanked a Crunch and nailed it with Will-O-Wisp. Grim...then began to potion spam again (due to his tiny health, a super potion pretty much gives him nearly full health) and I started calling him the Potions master since we'll be seeing that a lot. The Floatzel eventually died and then the battle kind of dragged out for a long time with a lot of Will-O-Wisps until Cradily. Cradily managed to KO the rest of my team and all I had left was Venomoth (Gypsy). Venomoth actually nailed it down to the KO range, but it barely lived an Ancient Power. Killing Klefki would rely on luck, but then a miracle happened, he switched to Klefki who died to a Signal Beam then Cradily died to a Signal Beam letting me win. Talk about lucky. The only thing bad about this fight is Aerodactyl...who I hate to admit it, kind of sucks...but I'm not going to change it...err...I just gave it better moves and removed its Choice Band. His team is a lot better now and on par with his E3 fight.

Here's the team after that battle:

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Vs Solaris

I'm just going to tell you about my first attempt. I was actually so damn close to winning. Like if I had Grim use Shadow Sneak instead of Will-O-Wisp hoping to live, I would've won.I didn't realize Pyroar would outspeed Excadrill which made me so made. My successful attempt was so intense and let me tell you that without Sturdy/Counter, this fight is balls to the wall hard as Solaris can just destroy you so easily. (This took about 15 attempts btw)

Alright so in the successful run, I had to use the Sash for Nala (she could outlive if min damage) as an Occa Berry let Scizor live...the one time I wish Unnerve worked for them. Scizor then went down after a full restore. Those full restores are what make this fight so hard. Next, Solaris sent out T-tar who was the major problem for my team. I decided to send out Cologne who basically used Moonblast and survived a Rock Slide Super Power onslaught. Eventually, Solaris did use up all his Full Restores on T-tar which is very important. He eventually did switch from T-tar into Mandibuzz who basically finished off Cologne with an Air Slash. Manectric came in and took down Mandibuzz and one shoted Gyarados with Discharge. (If you don't have a fast electric type...Gyara is super dangerous). So then Garchomp came out...unfortunately and I had Dusclops Will-O-Wisp for a very long stall battle (I wanted Excakill out to get rid of it ASAP). When Garchomp was down, Solaris had to be that Guy and send T-tar back out. T-tar wasn't the problem, but I had to stall out 8 turns. Basically, I will-o-wisped him without choice as that thing hit too hard. I then chose to revive Manectric just in case I needed an extra turn...let me tell you, it was close. T-tar when down then Excadrill came out. Grim and Sparkplug were able to ding it a little bit with Shadow Sneak and Quick Attack, but Excadrill shot down all of my Pokemon one by one until the sand faded (thank god!) Nala with 1 HP came in and finished it off with Flamethrower.

I don't have any pics because I thought Solaris was gonna say something. Oh well. And yeah, I had to use my Sash up for this but totally worth it.

Pic of team:

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Vs Cain

Cain actually got a little nerf...and I actually forgot what happened most of the fight (though it was close). It was raining so I think Creepy Bird barely took down Venomoth after a potion Spam. Gengar gave me a ton of trouble but Grim was able to finish it off with Shadow Sneak. Samurott went down to Manectric with two Discharges. I forget how Nidoking went down but it took out a couple members (I think Jack took it down or close with Psyshock). The highlight was Gypsy (who earned the name Haxmoth) too down a Muk with max sleep time from Sleep Powder and Psybeaming away by living two Ice Punches. Somehow. The battle ended with Sunshine taking down Weezing with a couple Psychics (and of course it gets poisoned in the process).

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Vs Fern

Nala one shotted Ferroseed with Flamethrower. Shin put Krookodile to sleep after taking a crunch, Giga Drain to waste all of Fern's potions before a Quiver Dance Giga Drain to KO it. Nala Flamethrower spammed to KO Scizor after take a couple weak attacks. Haxmoth was able to take down Mega Sceptile with a Signal Beam to confuse it and when it hit itself, it went down to a Second Signal beam. Serperior came out next and nailed Gypsy with a Leaf Storm while it tanked a Signal Beam. It missed its Second, but landed its third leaving Gypsy in the Red, but Gypsy was able to KO the darn thing (this ended me on my first attempt). Roserade came out, but Grim's Wil-o-Wisp and Jack's Psyshock took care of it rather easily. While both these battle are hard, they aren't the main event.

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Vs Aya

This battle is hard, but I had a brilliant strategy. (It would've been better if Shade handed out Shadow Ball instead of Claw). I had Grim use Will-O-Wisp while Happy used Minimize (which is doubled on that field). After a long onslaught of healing, setting up, confusing, and stalling, I believe both Pokemon went down while both Grim and Happy were pretty healthy (actually both were poisoned due to Toxic Spikes...which is evil on that field). So next came out Gengar and Dragalge. I switched Grim out for Stoutland who laughed at the double shadow Ball while I had Happy set up a charge beam on Gengar. I decided to heal Happy's poison while Stoutland barely survived a Slude wave to land a Crunch and Dragalge killed him with a Dragon Pulse. I sent Grim back out to KO Gengar with Shadow Sneak before Grim died to something (probably Shadow Ball). Next came out Hudson against that Drapion. Drapion decided to be an idiot and Target happy, but happy dodged with ease letting Hudson land an Earth Power on that Drapion. Drapion decided to be a douche and use Confuse Ray on Hudson and Hudson hit himself instead of KOing that opponent. I sent Nala in who finished the job and I believe dodged or live a Hydro Pump. Next came out Venusaur and Nala was able to land a Flamethrower (or two) at the Venusaur before dying to some attack. Blissey slowly spammed Charge beam. Next came out Jack who put a pretty big dent in Dragalge with Psyshock before going down. Happy finished Venusaur off with Charge Beam.

While I probably could've stalled this one out, I decided what the heck and used a revive on Stoutland (mostly because Happy was poisoned). Stoutland finished Dragalge off with Retaliate ending the battle. (Yeah, yeah, I know I'm cheap using revives, but I didn't have the right team for this).

Here a pic of the team for that battle:

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Sorry if some of my battles aren't super perfect or anything. This section didn't need any real adjustments so nothing really needs to be described. Also, I have some amazing explanations for those inconsistencies:

Cain's Dewott:

Don't really have an explanation for this but it's kind of like the Ghost gym leader in Rejuvenation. You don't see that Dusclops on normal difficulty...so maybe it's implied it evolved right before the battle. Just saying some things are okay to be inconsistent.

Corey's Pokemon:

So...I'm just going to say Corey has many Pokemon and so do other leaders and what Pokemon they pick depends on your skill. We're just seeing the last of Corey's Pokemon leave him.

Solaris:

This one is actually interesting. Solaris says he only needs one Pokemon and that's a bit cocky of him. When he sees you put a big dent in his Scizor, that's where he decides to get a bit more serious breaking his promise. He toys with you a bit testing your strength, but eventually he grows bored with you since he was only fighting with half his strength. Technically, you only put a big dent in all his Pokemon and not KO any of them.

[Dragon116]

Bumping and passing the level cap, Solaris did give you a run for your money. Also, it seems Sturdy or Prankster is a must for Solaris.

[Redo.]

What are Solaris's pokémon level, like... I need to beat him with a team full of NFE, and I don't have that many options at that point.

[Commander]

What are Solaris's pokémon level, like... I need to beat him with a team full of NFE, and I don't have that many options at that point.

His team level average is 48, but they range from 44 (Excadrill) to 50 (Garchomp). Nobody has had an easy time with him even with fully evolved team and very strong Pokmon. I don't really see how you can win this cutting away anything that could possibly beat him (Dusclops was my bulkiest Pokemon but loses about 75-85% of its HP on Solaris's strongest attacks).

[Lord Chespin]

His team level average is 48, but they range from 44 (Excadrill) to 50 (Garchomp). Nobody has had an easy time with him even with fully evolved team and very strong Pokmon. I don't really see how you can win this cutting away anything that could possibly beat him (Dusclops was my bulkiest Pokemon but loses about 75-85% of its HP on Solaris's strongest attacks).

Well, somebody managed to beat Madame X with a NFE team in Pokemon Rejuvenation, so I guess anything's possible...

[Commander]

Well, somebody managed to beat Madame X with a NFE team in Pokemon Rejuvenation, so I guess anything's possible...

Wasn't that due to an exploit? I really need to stop making assumptions anymore because there will be that guy to prove me wrong. If I really wanted to make the Solaris fight unwinnable, I would've made all of his team lv 75 (and then somebody would prove me wrong).

[Dragon116]

Full team of sturdy counter sudowoodo. Somehow get 5 max revives. That would likely beat anything. Or lv 1 sturdy seed bonsly.

[Commander]

Full team of sturdy counter sudowoodo. Somehow get 5 max revives. That would likely beat anything. Or lv 1 sturdy seed bonsly.

You'd probably be able to use the fear strategy on it. Don't really know honestly as I pretty much put it on the borderline of cheap stratagies speaking of cheapness...let's get onto Episode 8:

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Episode 8: The hax level is too damn high

So this is probably not going to be a super interesting one (spoilers) but I decided to grind up a couple new members. Meet Leonardo the Blastoise, Pumba the Emboar, Curse the Spiritomb, and Countdown the Forretress. And since our reserves box is getting a little bit cramped, I decided to put some Pokemon into retirement. Shaggy the Swalot, Mahagony the Trevenant, "Kawaii Bear", and pretty much all the Pokemon you haven't heard from since Ep 7 like Lord Yum-yum. Also, I'm getting rid of Cain's Nidoking's Sludge Wave for Sludge Bomb. That thing be super annoying (sometimes it was a blessing though). So anyways, I decided to give Sigmund the go around this run...and it went pretty badly the first go around.

Vs Sigmund

So basically this is the major picture you should imagine. Cain spammed Sludge Wave dealing massage damage to Emboar/My Pokemon and his enemies take pretty heavy damage. Emboar was able to KO Raichu with Head Smash, Cain's Nidoking finished Luxray off in turn 2 with sludge wave before my Emboar died. I think Spiritomb took down Electivire, I just know Discharge was being spammed and my Pokemon were not having a good day. Nidoking did eventually knock Electivire out or something before both Nidoking and half my group was dead. Basically, Cain was doing the work while my Pokemon were getting beat up until finally it was down to his Lanturn and Rotom. His Venomoth and my Lilligant combined efforts to defeat the beast with Giga Drains and it eventually was taken down. Rotom really couldn't do anything at that point as it slowly got its butt kicked.

...Also, I feel like Doubles AI is smarter then singles...seriously, Sigmund on the first fight made a brilliant switch to dodge a Dig attack due to his Levitating Pokemon. Seriously, the bloody "AI is shit" flag is a false proven statement as we've seen. It may not be perfect, but it does a decent enough job at high levels.

Pic of team at this point:

(I didn't have that good of a team there though as I was kind of grinding up some new guys.)

I also noticed I missed quite a few newer event trainers so that weird random level gap should be fixed in the next update (I might wait until Radomus to get the Rival battles fixed). Onto interesting stuff:

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Vs Bennett

Again, I didn't have a super high level team as most of my Pokemon were ready to go for Serra so I brought some oldies to help. The battle started with Jack (Grumpig) barely living a bug bite, while spamming 3 power gems to KO Larvesta. That thing is a little bit scary. Next came out Scyther who used Swords Dance (yikes) but thankfully, Sparkplug para haxed that Scyther with a Discharge and KO'd it eventually with a Quick Attack not even taking any damage. (Seriously, that Scyther could've on shotted my team). Next came out Heracross who used a Close Combat on Creepy Bird. Creepy Bird then took it down with one Air Cutter (or maybe it had to use quick attack, same dealeo regard less).

Next came out Villv...Vivill...Satan Butterfly against Pyroar and that thing exchanged a Hurricane for a Flamethrower with both barely surviving. Nala fainted to a bug buzz, but Creepy Bird took it down with a Quick Attack. Next came out Butterfree and Manectric hit it hard with a Discharge before fainting to a boosted bug buzz. Creepy Bird came back in, got hit pretty hard with a Giga Drain, hit it hard back with Air Cutter, then KO'd it with a Quick Attack. Next came Venomoth so I switch out a couple of Pokemon as fodder in order to heal Creepy Bird up. I had my ace in the hole, Forretress who just had to use Explosion to win should worse come to worse. Creepy Bird pulled through though tanking two Bug Buzzes and finishing the Venomoth off with a Quick Attack after two Air Cutters. Creepy Bird FTW!

Here's a pic of my underleveled Pelipper who kicked butt:

And a pic of that team:

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Vs. Serra

Believe it or not Serra was kind of easy for me, though I had an Ace up my sleeve: Blastoise. I used a Revive just simply not wanting to have to do the fight all over again and I can buy those at the candy store anyways.

The battle started with Countdown (Forretress) against Mega Abomasnow...when my master plan failed miserably. I was able to get a toxic spike up when I saw that beast had focus blast. Let's say Countdown counted his seconds before being knocked out. I sent in Pumba (Emboar) to OHKO that Mega with a Flamethrower. Next came out Mamoswine and my trump card Blastoise came out. Mamo released a super powerful Blizzard attack which did pretty heavy damage on Blastoise, but Mirror Coat one shotted the oversized pig easily. Next came out Cloyster and Sparkplug activated its Sash before being nailed by Waterfall. Cloyster fainted to the Poison damage.

Next came out Glaceon so I decided to sacrifice Spiritomb (Curse) in order to remove that dangerous crit hit trigger. After being one shotted, I decided to send in Emboar who OHKO'd Glaceon with head smash. Next came out Vanilluxe so I sacrificed Manectric to heal up Blastoise. Blastoise tanked a crit hit boosted Frost Breath and then spammed a bunch of Mirror Coats while Serra wasted all her items. Unfortunately due to the accuracy drop, Blastoise wasn't able to land any hits after a certain point and I had to stall out for the poison damage.

Next came out Frosslass, but Blastoise was unable to outlive a Crit boosted shadow ball as I was hoping. I then sent in Emboar and realized I forgot it didn't have Sucker Punch...so I decided to use a revive on Curse since I was so close to winning anyways. Emboar died so I sent Curse out to Sucker Punch Frosslass killing it. Cheap, but if Emboar had Sucker Punch, I would've easily won this fight.

Here's a pic of that team:

And with that we've past the halfway point. \o/. Even better news is that I will be a little bit more detailed in the next few updates as some bigger changes are going to happen (such as Noel getting a team vamp). Expect a poll within the next update for his team.

[AnimeFg]

Nice dude, I just recently beat Aya with my ground mono, so I'm not too far behind you. If someone didn't remind me about mist getting rid of the field for a few turns I think I might have just given up on the run.

[Lord Chespin]

Nice job! As for the poll, I know he's not a leader but the Mt. Pyrous Solaris fight was my favorite battle so far...