Help and Encouragement needed for Badge 10

[Spoon123]

Heya everybody,

picked up the game recently, mostly because I can't play Pokemon Go on my lovely iPhone3 (not really). Like it a lot, love the challenge... at least I did until now. The subject of my anger and confusion is Samson, Fighting-Type gym leader and master of great Big Top annoyance. The thing is, I don't think he's that strong, at least compared to the other gym leaders I've already fought. In fact, I have a pretty good typing when it comes to battling Fighting-Types, with 2 Faeries, 2 Psychics and a Flying-Type in my arsenal (more on my team later).

Due to the sheer number of cool Pokemon available, I always lack behind in levels, which usually just requires a bit more grinding to get back up to speed before challenging a new gym, picking the proper team and kicking their butt. The situation would probably be the same here (my average level is about 58, with his Pokemon starting at 63 and only going up from there)... but then story happened. I usually used the trainers in the Grand Hall for reliable and relatively fast experience, which is currently not possible due to story-related events. Training against the wild Pokemon is completely unreasonable if I wanna ever finish the game.

I know there's one clown you can challenge repeatedly for shards, thing is, even he kicks my butt a bit too hard to reliably win against him. I also can't prepare for those battles since his team is constantly switched up. So I'd effectively now need to train my Pokemon to train my Pokemon... Trainception if you will. Anyway, enough of that, here's what I got to work with:

Meowstic (56, Prankster, Light Clay) - Psychic, Psyshock, Light Shield, Reflect

Arcanine (61, Justified, Charcoal) - Flare Blitz, Flamethrower, Close Combat, Strength

Slurpuff (59, Unburden, Meadow Plate) - Play Rough, Draining Kiss, Energy Ball, Cotton Guard

Honchkrow (60, Insomnia, None) - Dark Pulse, Night Slash, Wing Attack, Roost

Mawile (57, Initimidate, None) - Play Rough, Iron Head, Sucker Punch, Rock Smash

Ampharos (61, Static, Zap Plate) - Discharge, Signal Beam, Power Gem, Thunder Wave

And on the bench we have:

Vileplume (56, Chlorophyll, Big Root) - Giga Drain, Nature Power, Cut, Sleep Powder

Muk (57, Stench, None) - Gunk Shot, Sludge Wave, Mud Bomb, Acid Armor

Alakazam (50, Synchronize, Twisted Spoon) - Psychic, HP Fire, Calm Mind, Recover

Dusclops (52, Frisk, Spell Tag) - Shadow Ball, Shadow Sneak, Strength, Will-O-Wisp

Gastrodon (54, Sand Force, None) - Mud Bomb, Muddy Water, Recover, Rock Smash

(Wish I could get rid off some of those HMs... but yeah, currently not possible)

There are several more that are just sitting around at 30 - 50 that I've used during my playthrough (all hail the shiny Weezing that destroyed our lord and savior Arce... I mean Ditto).

My question is: How? I'm pretty much stuck, can't move forward or backwards. Is this doable without much training? Am I missing something?

I don't claim to be the greatest Pokemon player on earth, but by god, I made it this far, and I'm not gonna bow down just yet, because I do enjoy this more than I thought I could when I first read about this.

Any help is greatly appreciated, sorry for the wall of text.

So long,

Spoon

[Sly fox5]

Get a crobat. Teach it acrobatics and cross poison and you'll destroy him. Not only has crobat helped me with every single battle since I got him, but he's also the best Mon on my team and I still use him today.

If that's not an option acrobatics on anything should do just fine.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Sly fox5

[Spoon123]

Get a crobat. Teach it acrobatics and cross poison and you'll destroy him. Not only has crobat helped me with every single battle since I got him, but he's also the best Mon on my team and I still use him today.

If that's not an option acrobatics on anything should do just fine.

I checked the Pokemon Location Guide, and I don't think I can catch a Zubat or Golbat currently. I've had too many Zubats in my past, so even though I like the Pokemon, I didn't catch one this time. So no, that's not an option.

The only Acrobatics currently on the team is Vileplume with Nature Power... I kinda doubt that will quite do it. I don't have the TM (if it's even obtainable) and exactly one other Pokemon in my entire library that can learn it via level up: Hoppip (Level 16). Which leaves me with the leveling problem described above.

Anyway, thanks for the advice, will continue to try.

[Timber Dragon]

Ahh yes, clown grinding. It takes some trial and error, but my trick for the clown is to have a certain Pokemon in the lead, and just reset until he picks a 'color' that I can handle. You can lead with Ampharos because a lot of the 'colors' lead with mons that're weak to Electric. At the top of my head, Green leads with Hawlucha, Yellow (or Black?) with Sigilyph, Pink with Gorebyss, and Blue is all Water-types. Slap an Exp.Share on a mon you want to grind up, and take it from there. It worked for me, at least.

For Samson himself, you might wanna hold off on using Psychic-types. They tend to be squishy and with the field effect, Samson's team hits hard. I also learned the hard way that Samson covers his weakness to Fairy-type better than Kiki did, what with him using some Poison-type attacks and Lucario (well, Kiki had a Lucario too, but whatever). If you feel like grinding up a new mon, in my bird-themed run I found good use with a Braviary with Sky Drop. Muk might also be a good choice with its Acid Armor and a poison stall strategy.

Edited July 28, 2016 by Timber Dragon

[Spoon123]

Ahh yes, clown grinding. It takes some trial and error, but my trick for the clown is to have a certain Pokemon in the lead, and just reset until he picks a 'color' that I can handle. You can lead with Ampharos because a lot of the 'colors' lead with mons that're weak to Electric. At the top of my head, Green leads with Hawlucha, Yellow (or Black?) with Sigilyph, Pink with Gorebyss, and Blue is all Water-types. Slap an Exp.Share on a mon you want to grind up, and take it from there. It worked for me, at least.

For Samson himself, you might wanna hold off on using Psychic-types. They tend to be squishy and with the field effect, Samson's team hits hard. I also learned the hard way that Samson covers his weakness to Fairy-type better than Kiki did, what with him using some Poison-type attacks and Lucario (well, Kiki had a Lucario too, but whatever). If you feel like grinding up a new mon, in my bird-themed run I found good use with a Braviary with Sky Drop. Muk might also be a good choice with its Acid Armor and a poison stall strategy.

Guess that's better than trying to take down that Ursaring... what a pain.

Braviary seems to be good advice, I might give that a shot. Though Sky Drop should not work on Hariyama, correct?

Thanks for the help, going into the grind now and see how that works.