Fixing it up (A Pokemon Reborn Hardcore Playthrough)

[Commander]

Let me just show you just what I'm talking about:

Spiritomb and Blastoise vs Darmanitan and Charizard Y (Timid Nature):

(That is from a single heat wave from Charizard...Solarbeam would OHKO blastoise)

Darmanitan and Charizard vs Blastoise and Grumpig

(Darmanitan used a Single Flare Blitz on a thick fat Grumpig aka my bulkiest Pokemon)

Hudson died from a single Heatwave...or Flare Blitz though I don't have a pic. Charizard is probably the weakest member. The issue is that I don't have bulky enough Pokemon to survive a Fire Attack. The only chance I have winning is if the AI screws up now as there's nothing I have to survive that attack. I could make a much bigger list if you want me to. And remember...this is a Timid Charizard, not a Modest.

Charizard is also able to take a power gem from Grumpig leaving it in the red. Do you really want me to continue with these pics because these are my stronger Pokemon of all my options?

Edit: As a bonus, here's what a single heat wave did to my Gallade (and this thing has a ton of Sp Def EVs):

[Dragon116]

Yes but you took out half of Charizard's HP in one go. I think a better prepared team could take Charizard Y down without suffering many casulties. Ultimately it's up to you and what you want this game's difficulty to be.

[Commander]

Yes but you took out half of Charizard's HP in one go. I think a better prepared team could take Charizard Y down without suffering many casulties. Ultimately it's up to you and what you want this game's difficulty to be.

Yeah, but 3-5 are my Pokemon are dead before I can KO one of them. You're asking me to screw everybody who plays the game over just because you felt Charlotte was easy. If you feel Rain Dance and Trick Room make her too easy, then don't use them. That's an easier solution then forcing it upon me to spend hours recalculating damage and EV spreads just so people can't use Rain Dance on her. I like her team and I think it's a really good team which is why I used Trick Room and Rain Dance...which is still hard to win with especially for monotypes. If anything, I'd argue trick room makes her too easy and rain dance still gives her a fighting chance.

If I add Charizard Y, Darmanitan, Talonflame, and Typhlosion would all have to be scrapped because they are just too powerful and Chandelure, Torkoal, and Volcarona would have to take their place. Delphox would replace Houndoom again. Think about it one more time, do you really want me to add Charizard Y so badly that I have to scrap almost all of her current team just because one single strategy is too good so that nobody else should be allowed to use it. Changes, especially doubles, are rarely ever some magical light edits and take hours to get the damage ratio right. Aya was easy because she was so well built. Shelly...took about a weeks worth of time to even get to that level. Her current team is way too good to run under the sun which is why I'm not changing it. (She got the champ rank for a good reason).

[Commander]

Alright just an FYI, I've gotten past both Blake and Terra and they only received slight buffs and modifications (Rotom-F now has Thunder). As for that whole Charlotte Mega Charizard issue, I can run Y, but I have to drop Darmanitan completely because it's just too strong in those conditions. A lot of her Pokemon would also lose their perfect EV spread, if any other than Ninetales and Charizard would even keep them (maybe Torkoal would get them). If people all agree on Charizard Y, I will change her team up, but again, she'll be getting nerfed hard if I do to make her more or less tolerable under sun conditions.

As for why nobody else is on, there's just so much to do and polls with them would basically have no impact. Solaris is getting a Mega, but it isn't Garchomp for an FYI. As for Fern, my planned team for him is Ludicolo, Mega Sceptile, Krookodile, Scizor (Banded), Roserade, and Serperior, but if one of the pokemon gets a higher vote I'll certainly reconsider. As for Megas on Julia and Flo, that won't really have that much of an impact on the difficulty and would be a cool little feature if you want it.

Ciel and Taka are a whole different story. I already know Arceops is going back to Ciel, but I think Talonflame is going to be a Charlotte exclusive...if Houndoom is voted on (it's just too weak for Ciel to really use). The only thing out of question for Ciel is Dragonite and Salamence, but the rest are pretty much game if someone wants to make a suggestion. America Bird...while I love it is probably getting the axed and I'm really debating on that Chatot as well. Seriously, nothing is safe from the axe (except Mega Altaria) so throw suggestions down there if you want. Right now, I'm going to test Charizard and possibly Skarmory to see what I can do with them. Taka...I'm going to try a couple things with, but I don't think he's going to be super hard. Floatzel is better than Huntail though without question.

Edit: The next update might not appear for a few days though because it's a huge post.

[Dragon116]

I voted Mega Houndoom because I like Charlotte's whole team being awesome, rather than just 1 pokemon. Fern seems to have a mixed bag of support. Personally, I rather only see Megas on Julia because you only get her if you beat Solaris, which would be a great reward.

Keep Togekiss for Ciel too. It's bulky and has enough offensive presence to prevent setups (other than Clefable, that shit is beyond broken). Ciel's current team is way too vanilla, so definitely scrap the other 4. Skarmory would be awesome, but Titania claimed it >.>. Drifblim would be badass, since it can D-Bond, Stockpile, and just be a nuisance. Emolga would be awesome as well. Honchkrow might be good here, but its defenses suck ass. There really aren't any good options for dealing with Ice, which is why Talonflame is important on her team, but then it falls to their other weakness, Rock. Hawlucha could handle both Ice and Rock, but you seem hesitant to use it since Samson already has it.

[Commander]

I'm not against doubling up on Pokemon if I have to. Hawlucha is on my consideration list, but Talonflame doesn't make the cut. Talon works better competetively because things it is up against are much more frailer compared to what it faces in Reborn which is why people felt Talonflame wasn't as threatening as they though it'd be (also that 80 atk base starts to show even during Charlotte's fight). If Ciel and Samson were flipped, they'd both be really good and close fights.

Ice is a problem but Charizard is actually a better option than Talon for Ciel. I have quite a few options including making it mixed with the D-dance boost. It's actually just as strong Physically as Talon would be and just as "bulky", but the key difference is that it could run without Swords Dance...which is a necessitly for Talonflame to even put a hurt on the opponent (it's very, very situational unlike Charizard). I don't like Charizard that much, but I can nod my head saying it's not a bad Pokemon Reborn wise.

Driflim actually might not be too bad. That might actually replace Gliscor considering Gliscor really isn't doing anything for anyone tbh. I think that should round off her team a bit better especially with the Acrobatics buff coming in E16 (which would more or less be a bit stronger than Brave Bird in terms of damage). She's probably going to need a few more tweaks then she'll be good. Terra, on the other hand, was actually an AI hellhole, but her team is actually really good. I upped it to 100 and she seems to do a little bit better (seriously, she would have Excadrill use EQ on a Lilligant of all things...it even has X-Scissor).

[Commander]

Alright, alright, alright, it's time for the second to last update before this run is done. So here we go:

Episode 14: Chilling in Glitch City

Vs Avalugg

Believe it or not, I actually struggled a lot on this fight. It pretty much grinded down to Sir Robin dodging a Rock Slide to 2KO it with Close Combat. Seriously, I got walled so hard by the team I had and I don't know why. Anyways, that fight is done and over with so not much changed.

Vs Blake

This is going to be quick because of the strategy I used. I opened with Blissey and Grumpig to do my Trick Room and Light Screen Combo watching as Grumpig died next round to Energy ball I think. The battle pretty much grinded down to Emboar and Gallade having a field day until Trick Room ended right when Glalie and Rotom were out (btw, I sacrificed Blastoise to set up Rain Dance to cancel the hail out). I don't remember what happened but both managed to survive and wipe out the other side of the field without that Glalie exploding. Weavile KO'd Gallade so I sent out Rotom (Heat) to finish it off with Overheat or something. Things were dropping dead like crazy. It ended up grinding down to his Walrein vs my Rotom and Rotom became the hax god and parahaxed that Walrein to death without taking a hit. That fight is hard.

Pic of Team:

Vs Commander

Pretty much this battle came down to me getting my butt kicked by Zuko, but Gallade was able to finish it off with Close Combat. Seriously, that thing is crazy in a glitch field for an unprepared team. Abraham also knocked out another of my Pokemon, but thankfully base Vanilluxe lived a Psychic and countered with Mirror Coat to one shot it (I knew I should've brought Jack). The rest of the battle consisted of Sir Robin trying not to die while slowly wittling away at his opponents. Very close battle mostly due to my carelessness.

Pic of Team:

Vs Metwo

I don't actually remember this one being too tough honestly. I don't even remember what happened but I believe Techie was able to parahax it with Discharge making my life easy. Seriously, I can't remember and I don't know why.

Vs Terra

This one I'm going to go into more detail because she kicked my butt 8 times. 8 TIMES (I beat her in one try in the original test run). Giovanni used Sludge Wave and Techie (the Rotom-W) barely live and hit with Hydro Pump. Thankfully, this drained her of all her Hyper Potions and she didn't switch into Hippowdon this time. That thing was the bane of my runs half the time. Next came out Claydol who Shing (Petilil) managed to put to sleep and set up one quiver dance. A couple giga drains and it was down. Next came out Hippowdon who died to a Petal Dance. Then came out Excakill. All this thing had to do to end me was X-scissor, but by some miracle, it used Earthquake and even the crit barely did any damage to Shing before she finished it off. Quasire was up next, but seeing as my Lilligant was confused I switched out to Abraham who set up a Calm Mind and damaged it pretty hard with a Psychic. Seriously though if you don't have a grass type...you're in for a bad time against this thing. Abraham eventually got knocked out and Shing came into to save the day. She then got knocked out by Garchomp (Sandstrom was also still in effect btw). Sir Robin came in and tanked a Draco Meteor (thank god it wasn't an Earthquake) and nailed that Garchomp hard with a Close Combat before finishing it off with a Shadow Sneak. (I believe Emboar was fodder for something...but I don't remember).

Here's a pic of the team:

And admittedly, I wussed out on the Taka fight. My team was a little slow and I made him a little bit more hyper offensive. He's not that much different, but my team was just a little slow for this point in time which was a problem. I also used Sash Mirror Coat for that Swalot.

See you guys on the final episode before 2.0.

[Dragon116]

Now this final update is the one that interests me. I felt this part never got the proper attention, so I'm eager to see what you did and how you faired.

[Commander]

Now it's time for the last update of my run...this is kind of sad honestly. I'm not going to go into too much detail on the Fern/Blake and Solaris fights as you really have to experience it to get the feeling. They aren't as high leveled, but they're still hard for those who aren't prepared. Solaris is a bit harder though.

Vs Blake and Fern

Sir Robin was able to one shot Walrein making my life much easier. Fern's Ludicolo was annoying, but it was the lesser of two evil because thank the lord it didn't rain dance. I slowly tried taking Blake's team down, but Florinia was actually putting in work especially with her Mega (it replaced Torterra and I feel it's much better of an option). I had to use a max revive to bring back Emboar but Florinia Cradily put in work by sweeping a few of Blake and Fern's Pokemon with that Curse strategy (yay!). Fern does skew a bit more to the Grass mono again only having one non grass member this go around.

Vs Solaris and Johnathan

This fight is hard. It's actually where my first attempt ended because Solaris now has a new Mega (I'm not saying which one as it could be any of his 4 options...it's not Garchomp though). This battle was pretty intense but Sir Robin was able to live long enough to KO his Excadrill. Things were dropping dead a lot on both sides about equally so it was hard to say who'd win. I had to use a couple max revives near the end when his Garchomp activated his Liechi berry. What was so cool was that the battle ended with Solaris's Garchomp against my Rotom-W and Julia's Helioptile. Thank the lord Helioptile was faster and finished Garchomp off with a Focus Blast. Techie's Hydro Pumps could barely dent it with the screens up. (I also really regret not bringing Van Ice to the fight).

Here's a pic of my team for that fight (it really grinded down to Techie in the end though):

Vs Ciel

The only super spoilery thing is that she now has a Gyarados. All of her Pokemon have something based on Sound and Dance, but they lean more towards offensive now instead of defensive. Her AI is a little wonky so it'll either be super hard, super easy, or possibly somewhere inbetween. I'm satisfied with her current team though. I also tested Charizard and Drifblim, but neither are really able to do the damage they need to at this point in the game. Charizard is leagues better than the Life Orb Talon though. Anyways, here's how my fight went:

I lead with Van Ice trying to take the Togekiss down...which is honestly the bane of my existence. Thankfully I got 3 blizzards in a row and managed to Freeze hax it. She then switched to Archeops so I was able to get two Ice Shards on it before the bird took Van down with Stone Edge. Jack came in, set up a Trick Room then finished it off. Next came out Noivern...and for some odd reason it used Heat wave on a Blastoise (I was actually planning on mirror coating a Dragon Pulse...and if that thing used Boomburst...I was done for). I had to switch back to Jack...Leonardo got burned btw and Jack did something to finish it off. Togekiss came back out and Chubb actually got KO'd by it since it defrosted. Techie came back and got his revenge though. Next came out Gyarados...who had nothing to take on Techie. After a Discharge, it switched out to Gliscor who is immune to discharge. One Hydro Pump and it was down though. I then sent out Sparkplug who finished off Gyarados with Discharge. Next came out Ciel's Ace, Altaria and I had nothing on this thing. My plan was to send out Grim who used Will-O-Wisp on it while surviving and Earthquake. Then he died a single Hyper Voice so no potion making for him. The fight basically was Leonardo using protect before switching to someone to fodder off until that Altaria finally died to burn damage. That fight took me about 4 attempts, but the switches were so lucky as all her Pokemon can hurt.

Here's a pic of the team afterwards:

Just one little bit message before I close: 2.0 isn't going to be released today as there are some little things I need to do such as dialogue editing and a couple more adjustments. I'm going to push the little post game challenge back until 2.1 which will be the last update until E16 is released. Thank you all for supporting the mod and this run and hopefully the revamp helps deliver a better challenge that people are looking for.

[Hiroki Tatsumi]

Gratz on finishing the run , when you'll release the 2.1 version i will switch to it aswell, while i'm currently on the 1.9 for Miltank's Rebellion.

Your changes are worth i guess, because i'm already feeling something harder than before, like the Cacturne change from Florinia, that's very cool.

I'll try to make a full comment about 2.1 at the end of the run, i'll send it to you if you release it in the meanwhile time ^^

[Dragon116]

So new Ciel is now Togekiss, Archeops, Noivern, Gliscor, Gyrados, and M.Altaria. I'm feeling ambivalent towards this. One one hand, you struggled with this team, which definitely says something. On the other, you have Noivern and Gliscor still promoting the extreme weakness to Ice attacks. I think a Hawlucha for Noivern would provide a better balance, but that might make her team too tough. I really like that Archeops and Gyrados are here though, since those two are fantastic powerhouses.

Congratulations on getting through your own hell known as Hardcore! I enjoyed reading this, and would love to see you do a monorun of this modified hell.

[felixng2016]

Im gonna fight Charlotte soon. I will tell you how it goes. I will definitely use Rain dance for it lol.

[felixng2016]

Beat Charlotte it was a difficult fight. Only my Greninja was left vs Ninetales and Rotom. I used Rain Dance and a rainbow was created then I used surf which one shotted both of them at once.

Mega Houndoom was a major disappointment though and got easily taken out by close combat but I don't know what other fire mega would be a better substitute. Blaziken is out of the question obviously and Charizard X/Y are probably too much.

Still I think its a good difficulty fight overall. Not everyone is going to use rain dance.

Edited November 17, 2015 by felixng2016

[Commander]

Okay you can download 2.0 here and this time I didn't forget to delete the PBS files. Anyways here are the links:

Mega

Mediafire

Also, here's the change log:

-It now rains in Shelly's Room before the fight happens (Illumise still knows Rain Dance though to make up for this)

-Noel recieved a team adjustment losing his Mega Pidgeot and Sawsbuck in the process

-Radomus recieved a few team adjustments as well as an optional singles fight

-To fight the singles fight, step up to Radomus on the far right side of the staircase (if anyone is confused by this I'll make a picture)

-Bennett received a huge buff

-Luna received a slight team change

-Samson received a slight team change along with a new mega

-Charlotte received a slight team change

-Blake and Terra received slight buffs

-Taka received a slight team change

-Fern's team changed leaning more towards grass again

-Solaris, Florinia, and Julia all received Megas in the maison fights

-Ciel received a team change now leaning more towards offensive tactics

-A couple npcs were added to explain Shelly and Radomus's additions along with some text edits for the Commander fight

I noticed a couple things I forgot to delete so I recommend upgrading to 2.0 soon if you're playing 1.9 unless you want to fight an Orderly with a Mega Banette (seriously can't believe I forgot to get rid of that). Anyways, nothing will change from 2.1 main game wise as it's more of an additional content update.

[Personthing]

Okay you can download 2.0 here and this time I didn't forget to delete the PBS files. Anyways here are the links:

Mega

Mediafire

Also, here's the change log:

-It now rains in Shelly's Room before the fight happens (Illumise still knows Rain Dance though to make up for this)

-Noel recieved a team adjustment losing his Mega Pidgeot and Sawsbuck in the process

-Radomus recieved a few team adjustments as well as an optional singles fight

-To fight the singles fight, step up to Radomus on the far right side of the staircase (if anyone is confused by this I'll make a picture)

-Bennett received a huge buff

-Luna received a slight team change

-Samson received a slight team change along with a new mega

-Charlotte received a slight team change

-Blake and Terra received slight buffs

-Taka received a slight team change

-Fern's team changed leaning more towards grass again

-Solaris, Florinia, and Julia all received Megas in the maison fights

-Ciel received a team change now leaning more towards offensive tactics

-A couple npcs were added to explain Shelly and Radomus's additions along with some text edits for the Commander fight

I noticed a couple things I forgot to delete so I recommend upgrading to 2.0 soon if you're playing 1.9 unless you want to fight an Orderly with a Mega Banette (seriously can't believe I forgot to get rid of that). Anyways, nothing will change from 2.1 main game wise as it's more of an additional content update.

Oh cool, glad to see that the new update is out. I've been playing through Reborn hardcore to kill time before Super Mystery Dungeon's launch, so this update will be a treat.

Edited November 17, 2015 by Mighty Kamina

[Restal]

I was wondering where the experience share and the lucky egg were found..

I battled Techie Jonathan outside of the Grand Hall but he doesn't give me anything after.....

[Commander]

I was wondering where the experience share and the lucky egg were found..

I battled Techie Jonathan outside of the Grand Hall but he doesn't give me anything after.....

Taken straight from Chubb's guide

If you're playing in Reborn Hardcore mode, you can find a Lucky Egg and an Experience Share here. This is so you can level up easier, since you'll probably need it. Beware the Techie here, though, he has a level 70 M-Rayquaza, which is meant to be a reference from when Ame forgot to take out that Pokemon in a release of the game (she was testing out the M-Rayquaza and Primal Kyogre and Groundon).

This is one of the very few things you might hear about Reborn Hardcore mode due to most of the other changes either being changed trainer teams (duh, it's called HARDCORE) and two new battles by the creators of it.

[Dragon116]

I'm hoping you manage to get 2.1 out before I need to start my run, otherwise I'm probably going to stick with 1.8

[Restal]

Taken straight from Chubb's guide

If you're playing in Reborn Hardcore mode, you can find a Lucky Egg and an Experience Share here. This is so you can level up easier, since you'll probably need it. Beware the Techie here, though, he has a level 70 M-Rayquaza, which is meant to be a reference from when Ame forgot to take out that Pokemon in a release of the game (she was testing out the M-Rayquaza and Primal Kyogre and Groundon).

This is one of the very few things you might hear about Reborn Hardcore mode due to most of the other changes either being changed trainer teams (duh, it's called HARDCORE) and two new battles by the creators of it.

Hmm...

I must have downloaded something wrong even though when I open my file it says Pokemon Hardcore 2.0..

I don't see this and the techie doesn't have a rayquaza..

Any ideas??

[Commander]

Hmm...

I must have downloaded something wrong even though when I open my file it says Pokemon Hardcore 2.0..

I don't see this and the techie doesn't have a rayquaza..

Any ideas??

I'm looking into it, but it's either possible the PBS folder is reading off of Episode 15's official stuff or you're not clicking the right icon. In the 2.0 folder there should be a Reborn icon with game that you should use. If somebody else is having trouble please let me know (also let me know if it is working properly).

I know 1.81 works properly so you can use that one for the time being here

[felixng2016]

I am using Reborn 1.7 right now and just beat Charlotte. Should I switch to this version?

[Commander]

I am using Reborn 1.7 right now and just beat Charlotte. Should I switch to this version?

Other than Ciel, you're not really missing out on that much compared to if were somewhere like Florinia. A lot of leaders got slight adjustments to their weaker Pokemon, but you're not missing out on that much. 2.0 kind of brings more balance to the overall game. I mean unless you want to fight the strongest possible Ciel, you're better off waiting for 2.1 as that's where the post game challenge is going to be added (data miners could probably figure it out even though it's only mapped in 2.0). Btw, I'm about 10-15% done and about a fourth of the way done eventing. It takes a while when you have to do stuff like this:

As for 2.0, it worked completely fine with my save and I even checked the Exp Share and it was there.

[Restal]

I'm looking into it, but it's either possible the PBS folder is reading off of Episode 15's official stuff or you're not clicking the right icon. In the 2.0 folder there should be a Reborn icon with game that you should use. If somebody else is having trouble please let me know (also let me know if it is working properly).

I know 1.81 works properly so you can use that one for the time being here

I'm assuming that it's because I'm opening the .rar file with the RGSS Player but I'm not sure how to turn a .rar into a .zip so that I can open it like I normally do..

Also I don't think that the hyperlink is working for me.

If you can find any solution that would be great, I'm not a very techy person :/

Edited November 17, 2015 by Restal

[Commander]

Pretty sure everybody uses either winrar (what I use) or 7zip to extract those files. That's something I'm going to shove on Solarence though or somebody else because I'm not the most techy kind of guy. I'm just a really fast learner is all. Thankfully a lot of the things I'm doing won't take that long to replicate in future releases. But yeah, tech people, this is where you can come in and save the day.

[Dragon116]

Well, to start with, just keep the file as a .zip when your crew uploads it Commander. You have to go out of your way to compress the file as a .rar, since windows can compress any file into a .zip through the right click menu, as shown here http://prntscr.com/93wtla

As for people downloading this, I suggest WinRar as it's essentially free (even though it complains that it's not).