Fixing it up (A Pokemon Reborn Hardcore Playthrough)

[Hiroki Tatsumi]

Even with a mono fight, i did beat Radomus easily. I think he deserves a huge buff aswell.

As for El, i think some pokemons besides arceus are needed aswell, because anything that take 1v1 as destiny bond makes this ridiculous ^^

Anyway, gg, and yeah, 10 Episodes for a mon is really cool

[Commander]

Alright, I decided to consider giving Radomus back his singles team fight temporarily due to his AI problems. I just want to emphasize that this WILL NOT be a permanent change and will be reverted back once trick room for the AI works. Unlike Shelly, it is clear Radomus is unable to hold his own without his mean strategy meaning he's kind of easy. I will test it each episode update and once it works like it's supposed to, I will drop the Calm Mind team.

This is a very serious situation as there's nothing else I can do to fix the big issue since Radomus cannot outspeed anything with his team. When speed is an issue, it's almost impossible to work around. I want very serious feed back on this and would not like to change Radomus's doubles strategy, but if the fight is really that weak or bad, I don't want to try fighting the AI. This is the one time I will only change Radomus if the poll gap is really big (like around a 10 vote difference between the two).

[AnimeFg]

I love the idea of a trick room team, as most of my runs turn into them, it's just such a shame that the AI doesn't work with it. But I say to keep it as a double battle for now, because there's more options, and it makes it feel more chess-like for me. How about a double battle calm mind team, and have his mega be something like mega alakazam. And maybe, if the AI gets fixed one day, maybe we can have a combination of the two and have him have something along the lines of a calm minding mega slowbro with trick rooms set up. I think in a perfect world, that would be a great fight.

[Redo.]

If the AI doesn't work, then go for CM.

[Personthing]

If the AI absolutely refuses to cooperate at all, then just go for the calm mind team. It'll save the headache of trying to fix Radomus, and is a good temporary fix. For the other questions on the poll, Bennett should drop Butterfree, that species is way too weak to even be considered a threat by that point in the game and is just OHKO fodder. Samson, I'm a bit torn on his mega. Mega Blaziken is nice and kind of overkill, but Lucario is merely OHKO fodder without the mega. My current vote on that is for Blaziken though.

[Commander]

If the AI absolutely refuses to cooperate at all, then just go for the calm mind team. It'll save the headache of trying to fix Radomus, and is a good temporary fix. For the other questions on the poll, Bennett should drop Butterfree, that species is way too weak to even be considered a threat by that point in the game and is just OHKO fodder. Samson, I'm a bit torn on his mega. Mega Blaziken is nice and kind of overkill, but Lucario is merely OHKO fodder without the mega. My current vote on that is for Blaziken though.

Doubles is a pain in the ass to manipulate and unlike Shelly I only have about 60 EVs I can tamper with instead of 300 to help adjust difficulty and override the AI. I spent two months on this project and could honestly tell you it could take a week or two of working on that to get a possible, finicky solution due to how much the AI hiccups. A Calm Mind team would be a good substitute until either A) a trick room is fixed in a later episode or B. the game is finished. If B happens (which I doubt will be needed) I will personally try and code it in. It's just that after each episode release I have to more or less start from scratch in terms of game adjustments. (Trainer data is easy to transfer).

As for Bennett, Butterfree is already gone. I'm not sure how you guys will feel about it's replacement, but it should work. He also got a new Mega, but Hera is still there. As for the other news, I defeated Luna, but I probably won't update until I beat Samson (I challenged her with level 60-61 Pokemon and think she's fine in that range). Luna and Samson really aren't going to see too many adjustments (Poor Bisharp though. A good Pokemon, but horrible because everybody knows she has one for a lead). All I'll say is thank god that Umbreon was Dark Pulse spamming.

[AnimeFg]

Did you give Bennett a pinsir/mega pinsir? That's what I feel it is.

[Dragon116]

Bennett's team is great, other than that Butterfree. People dismiss Venomoth as weak, but as Cain has shown, Venomoth is dangerous. Heracross is solid, only weak to Flying mainly, otherwise it survives and hammers out serious damage. Mega Hera sucks imo, so it's better you did move to another bug mega. Yanmega is doubled because of Shelly, but it's seriously the best non-mega bug. Escalliver would be awesome too, but it's slow and weak to special which is what most Fire types are. Scizor beats it in that role, and Yanmega trumps Scizor with Speed Boost and a great movepool. Throw a Sash on Yanmega and it will sweep for days. Throw a Sash on Scizor and it will still die in 2 hits.

[AnimeFg]

Stealth Rocks will pretty much sweep Bennett's team regardless of what kind of bug types you put on there. Butterfree was just more fodder for stealth rocks, so I'm happy to see it get removed.

[Redo.]

Bennett's team is great, other than that Butterfree. People dismiss Venomoth as weak, but as Cain has shown, Venomoth is dangerous. Heracross is solid, only weak to Flying mainly, otherwise it survives and hammers out serious damage. Mega Hera sucks imo, so it's better you did move to another bug mega. Yanmega is doubled because of Shelly, but it's seriously the best non-mega bug. Escalliver would be awesome too, but it's slow and weak to special which is what most Fire types are. Scizor beats it in that role, and Yanmega trumps Scizor with Speed Boost and a great movepool. Throw a Sash on Yanmega and it will sweep for days. Throw a Sash on Scizor and it will still die in 2 hits.

>Implying the AI works

>Implying you don't use entry hazards.

Volcarona IS the best non-Mega bug hands down (Even better than Dennis Genesect), hell, it can even be on par with some Mega bugs too.

If you don't use entry hazards it's the best candidate for Focus Sash, as it should go for Quiver Dance and then it has Fiery Dance to even boost more it's Special Attack, and that's Yanmega other weakness, it doesn't have any mean to boost itself, meaning special can sponge the damage.

Yanmega needs to Life Orb, and for the Mega, well, Scizor is a good choice if you don't go for the easy Choice Band, or Pinsir is a good bet too.

[Dragon116]

Fern already has Mega Scizor, no sense in having Bennett use it too. Also, I have never used Volcarona, so I can't claim it is or isn't. I have, however, watched Yanmega pose a significant threat to every team that comes in contact with it, be it against Shelly or Bennett. Shelly constantly went up against Electric types with her Yanmega during the Orphanage, and it would take 4-5 hits before it went down, usually killing at least 2 in the process. I have seen Volcarona on Charlotte and Bennett's teams, and it generally sucks. I've never been threatened by it as it's checked easily by water, rock, and flying, which I have at least one of on any given team.

[AnimeFg]

Fern already has Mega Scizor, no sense in having Bennett use it too. Also, I have never used Volcarona, so I can't claim it is or isn't. I have, however, watched Yanmega pose a significant threat to every team that comes in contact with it, be it against Shelly or Bennett. Shelly constantly went up against Electric types with her Yanmega during the Orphanage, and it would take 4-5 hits before it went down, usually killing at least 2 in the process. I have seen Volcarona on Charlotte and Bennett's teams, and it generally sucks. I've never been threatened by it as it's checked easily by water, rock, and flying, which I have at least one of on any given team.

I don't know about you, but as soon as I hit that yanmega with a rock slide on my hardcore run, it went down, same as how a volcarona would. Supposing that the AI works correctly and sets up a few quiver dances, the game can be over just from that. Most bug types are really frail tbh.

Edited November 8, 2015 by AnimeFg

[Commander]

Let's not get in a big debate about this here. Yanmega makes for a decent special based bug being really fast and has decent special attack stats. The only other thing that challenges that is Vivillion due to having Hurricane and Sleep Powder. I'm going to retest him but I'm thinking about giving him a Durant instead of a Scizor just for speed reasons and the fact that every other character and his mother uses a Scizor when Scizor is only alright imo. (Titania, Solaris, Fern, and Bennett all have Scizor for their teams currently).

As for hazards, that's really a tough call. Generally the only hazard I use is toxic spikes so it's hard to assume that the masses use hazards in play. Then we get into the can of worms where I think hazards are overrated in competitive play, but that's not what we're talking about. Bennett isn't meant to be at full power. Though I only had one Pokemon alive at the end of the battle so take that as you will.

Venomoth is difficult for those who play on set. If you have the wrong Pokemon out, whoever switches in is gonna get hurt no matter what due to Tinted Lens. I wouldn't say it's the best Pokemon but it's not bad this late in the game. Probably his weakest Pokemon. (Volcarona is about at half strength as what it will be when the next Bennett battle happens so that's his second weakest).

[Hiroki Tatsumi]

Voted for calm mind radomus, if AI doesnt use trick room, there is no sense to keep that.

Also, Butterfree is ridiculous in Bennett's team tbh ^^

[Commander]

Well that took a lot longer than anticipated. Let's see Radomus now has two team, the level cap has been fixed (gdi Ame) for Luna and Samson, and a few team changes here and there. A couple like Craudberry's have been implemented in 1.9, but some haven't. Anyways, I'll make a quick update from what I remember on the run.

Episode 11: Darkness is love

Vs Bennet

Well this fight changed a bit because some ding-dong put the wrong ability on his last Pokemon (that ding-dong was me). Anyways Bennett lead with Volcarona who died to a Head Smash from Emboar which all Volca did was Quiver Dance. Pumba lost about half his HP which is a little scary. I believe Venomoth came out next so I sent my own Venomoth to fight him, but Gypsy eventually was taken down by either a Bug Buzz or a Sludge Bomb so Manectric came in to finish it off. Up next came Bennett's Heracross and I'm trying to remember what I did to him. Oh yeah, I sent Cologne out who hit Heracross with a Moonblast, but was taken down by a second Stone Edge. I think Manectric came in and finished it off (he likes to do that a lot). Anyways, Mega Pinsir came out next and it only put a big dent in Manectric before dying to a second discharge (yay para hax). Scizor came out next, but Pumba finished it off with Flamethrower. Next came out Bennett's new Ace, Vivillon. Just imagine something with 100% accuracy hurricanes putting dents in my team until Manectric finished it off or something. I hate that thing.

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

Hopefully new Bennett is a bit better. Since I know we're fighting him at least one more time, that's when I'll make him full power (this is about half as hard as I could make him). Luna also got a minor team change, but it's still more or less the same. It can just handle things a little bit better.

Vs Luna

I think I lead with Emboar using Flamethrower to waste all of Luna's Hyper Potions before KOing Bisharp with Super Power. Great Pokemon, terrible lead. Anyways, she decided to send out Spiritomb next which I had Armo...Cologne out to handle it. Both used Calm Mind and after a tense battle, Colonge remained victorious. T-tar was coming out so I quickly switch out to...ah! Sir Robin the Gallade. That T-tar didn't last long thanks to Sir Robin's Close Combat, but I believe it lived and countered with Iron Head or something. Sir Robin the KO'd it next round. Up next came out Sableye...which I sent Gypsy I believe to weaken it down so Pumba could finish it off with a Flamethrower. That thing is both scary and annoying when it knows what it's doing. Next came out Mandibuzz...who pretty much started plucking my team one by one seeing how hurt they were. Eventually I took it down, but all I had left was a Lilligant and Aroma...Cologne in the the red. I lead with Colonge who managed to land a single Moonblast before dying. Shing pretty much went in all types of directions and kept barely living in the fight and missing Sleep Powder. I had to spam giga drain just to live through some of those Dark Pulses and this was with X2 defenses. It took some work, but I eventually got it down to the zone where I could KO it with Petal Dance to end the fight.

Here's a pic of the team...again (I used the same one for Bennett):

Again, sorry if the updates seem lackluster, but I've actually been busy with about 5 previous fights including the two above to try and adjust the Pokemon a bit. Radomus now has a Singles that rewards calm mind, but his trick room team will be my main focus. You have the option to face either though and I will probably keep it that way. The only fight that is kind of sucky in 11 now are the Magma/Aqua boss fights, but I'm not going to spend time on that one. If somebody wants to revamp their teams they can. Just PM me and I'll give you the format and explain how it works.

Next, I'm going to edit Samson a bit now that I know how to do level caps. (If he's too hard, I'll adjust Luna's level cap to 67 to give some leeway).

[Dragon116]

When are we going to see the revamped versions of these fights? I want to see you take those new fights on too!

[Commander]

When are we going to see the revamped versions of these fights? I want to see you take those new fights on too!

I might do some livestreaming or something, but whatever I do it won't be a part of this run. This is more like a progress report...and we're almost to the end. That's something I'll do at the end or something. Singles Radomus is harder than Doubles because if he sets up a calm mind...GG. The only thing that's different from his old team is the lack of Alakazam. Radomus's Doubles team no longer has Gallade...cause that thing was the problem in the first place for some reason. Unlike Shelly's Rain Dance, I can manipulate Trick Room. I'll fight both though, but I'm not sure I'll win given my team in the test run.

I'm not going to do Luna or Benett as they are very similar to their old fights just updated a bit. I just use a really weak, but well rounded team to make sure everything is right and working properly for each Pokemon. The only issue I'm having is the "Attack Hiccup" which is problematic in the official game as well. But yeah, tests are kind of boring so you probably wouldn't want to watch them. Samson's new team will be put here though. I almost beat him with the test team...then Hawlucha. I have more trouble with that than anything else on his team.

[Dragon116]

Hawlucha is also a nightmare in Rejuv. It's worse on Samson's team because it gets High Striker and Trapeze field bonuses.

[Commander]

So...believe it or not this is going to be a super short update because I swept Samsons new team. But trust me, it took 6 attempts to even do it. Literally his team only gives you one very small opening to even sweep before he just slaughters you with his revenge killing most of the time. Lucario got scrapped so you'll never see from him again. I love Lucario, but this new Pokemon just outclasses him in terms of field effects. I'm not going to spoiler it since I swept.

Episode 12: Striker's Revenge

So the battle started off by having Gypsy use sleep powder. This is a very risky strategy because Gypsy could die to any attack he had. I got really, really lucky because I was able to set up a quiver dance and use a Psychic without waking him up. When he healed Hariyama with a hyper potion, I opted for Gypsy to use Quiver Dance once more because last time I didn't and it just barely couldn't kill Mega Blaziken. Then began the sweep. Hariyama, Mega Blaziken, and Mienshao all went down to a single Psychic each. Then Heracross came out and outlived a Psychic to counter it with Strength. I'm so glad is only got a 2x Multiplier otherwise Gypsy would've been a dead Venomoth. (I'll show the pic here in a minute of how much damage that did). He then switched over to Hawlucha who got one shotted by Psychic before Heracross came back and was KO'd. Samson then sent out his ace, Conkeldurr...who barely lived a Psychic who KO'd Gypsy with an Ice Punch. I sent Abraham the Alakazam to trick the Assault Vest off as I thought he had another Hyper Potion, but he didn't and KO'd Abraham with Earthquake. Sir Robin then came in and finished the job with Psycho Cut ending the fight.

Here's a pic of how hard Gypsy was hit:

Here's a pic of the team:

Sorry the fight was rather anti-climatic but trust me when I say if Gypsy was KO'd it would've been hell for me. It's really difficult to beat Samson if any of his Pokemon set up...especially with that newly required Heracross. I like his team and he is IMO the toughest leader in the game just due to how Big Top is honestly his personal field (Ciel...doesn't use it quite as effectively).

[Commander]

Bah, they say the partner AI is bad. ROFL, Aya actually saved my butt on the Aster & Eclipse fight. Anyways, I actually did beat Charlotte, but I'm thinking of scrapping that Volcarona...mostly because I've never seen it as an actual threat unlike the rest of her team. Charizard Y is in consideration...but that might be a little bit too extreme given her field effect hits like a truck already. I'll have it up probably by Friday or Saturday since her team isn't getting a big change.

[Hiroki Tatsumi]

Zard Y for Charlotte please, Double Drought team is pro That would be cool because any rain dance setter (And there is many) can make the girl lose badly. Well, Rain dance is cool , but it shouldn't be an instant win imo.

And Aya saved my butt against A&E too x) They're tending to ruch together on your single mon, letting Aya kill them smoothly

[Dragon116]

The AI cannot use Volcarona effectively, so definitely drop it. Delphox or Talonflame would be good options to replace it with. Mega Y instead of Houndoom would be a good option.

[Commander]

The AI cannot use Volcarona effectively, so definitely drop it. Delphox or Talonflame would be good options to replace it with. Mega Y instead of Houndoom would be a good option.

I don't think you guys understand the sheer amount of difficulty you're trying to throw upon this by giving her Y. If I gave her it, it'd automatically axe Typhlosion because Typhlosion at that point is completely inferior considering Eruption is about 75% of whatever Charizard could do and Charizard is more or less 2 (argubly 3) Typhlosion jammed into one pokemon. Smogonbird I'm more willing to give her as it's just a little bit weaker than Darmanitan (who I could argue is her second strongest Pokemon. Charizard...only something with Thick Fat and a crap ton of Special defense could take a Charizard Y's attack due to the Sun...and even then it's debatable that only about 8-9 Pokemon available could handle something like that...especially due to how good her field is. Even if you could KO Charizard, your team would be so heavily beat up...she'd be next to impossible to win.

If I was making a hardcore plus or something, that'd definitely be in, but I promise I will use that in the post game if Ame doesn't include it. Her team is very good and already in the top 3 most difficult leaders so I'd rather not make her impossible for nearly all the runs out there. Just picture Mega Glalie levels of damage without any consequences. Actually, pre-nerf Pulse Abra is a better description of level damage. Not everybody is going to have access to Trick Room and Rain Dance so I'd rather not punish them and 100% force those strategies (it's already reaching boderline). I hope you guys understand my reasoning. Anyways, I'll get back into the run now:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Episode 13: The Scars of Hell

The Aster & Eclipse battle is kind of hard to remember mostly because things were dropping dead every turn. Golurk was what gave me the most trouble with that Bulldoze from Golurk. It pretty much went that I died along with all of Eclipse's Pokemon and Aya finished off Aster with her Venusaur and Draporion. Seriously, the AI is so much better than people give it credit for. Back in 13 aka when the AI is the best, Aya screwed me over by using Icy Wind instead of Shadow Ball to win. Aya did pretty good this go around and finished that Slurpuff off with Cross Poison. I did give her a very slight buff, but she didn't honestly need it.

Just a little update on Charlotte the first go around I basically set up Trick Room then rain dance while Nidoking had a field day with Earth Power...until Trick Room died. I managed to win, but I lost quite a few Pokemon. I then dropped Volcarona...and it took me about 5 attempts to beat her. I hate that Darmanitan so much.

Vs Charlotte

Basically, I had to pray that Darmanitan didn't do something crazy and thankfully it used rock slide and Typhlosion used Eruption leaving both Blastoise and Grumpig in the danger zone. Grumpig used Trick Room and Blastoise used rain dance. I figured Darmanitan was the greater of two evils here so I had Leonardo use Hydro Pump on it to one shot it while Grumpig managed to put a dent in Typhlosion with Power Gem. Both my Pokemon were barely holding on (I forget what Typhlosion used. Talonflame came out next. Now witness the greatest strategy in the world. I had Leonardo use protect to absorb all the damage while Jack KO'd Talonflame with Power gem. Next rotom came out. I had Leonardo finish Typhlosion off with Hydro Pump before dying to a Volt Switch. Next came out Ninetales and Houndoom...and my Trick Room ended...which was bad. I sent out Nidoking and thank the lord almighty Ninetales used Nasty plot while Nidoking was able to KO houndoom with earth power. Next came Sir Robin out along with Curse and they pretty much cleaned up the rest of the team for me. I got very lucky with Hydro Pump hitting and that Protect predict which really helped me win.

Here's a pic of the team...not sure which battle this was from:

[Dragon116]

Are you telling me Sir Robin and Curse couldn't take a hit? I find that crazy. Pumba obviously could, but damage would be terrible.

In regards to Mega Y, you either keep Houndoom, or you're forced to use Mega Y since Cal already claimed Mega X. Samon just got upgraded to Mega Blazekin, so that's out too. Maybe give Mega Y an Iron Ball?

[Hiroki Tatsumi]

Or just not full EV investment. 100 Speed BS isn't that hard to get over with.