Fire Monotype - Jaggi burns things

[Gentleman Jaggi]

We have Grass and Water Monotypes running now, so I'll be the one to complete the triangle. (Sorry Wolfox)

Unlike my previous run this one will only be battles. It's a lot faster that way.

 

First off, our protagonist:

Spoiler

 

And our starter:

Spoiler

This guy doesn't have the best LevelUp movepool (*cough*Fire attacks and Swift*cough*) but Nature Power should help with that.

 

The introductory battles against Cain and Victoria go without a hitch. Not much to see here so no pictures.

 

Somewhat unfortunately we can only get one additional team member before facing Julia:

Spoiler

 

There's no Fire Stone until about Lv. 40, so this guy will get boxed as soon as I get some other team members.

 

 

Now, after some leveling up against random trainers (there's quite a lot of Water Types running around...), it's time to meet up with Fern. Cue Battle

VS Swag Jockey Fern I

Spoiler

 

Cyndaquil evolves at Lv. 14, but I'm so used to training my starter to 15 and having it evolve by beating Fern...

Anyhow, Lotad knows Bubble, but still doesn't deal much damage. It goes down to two Embers.

 

Snivy manages to just barely survive and Ember and attacks with Wrap. It gets healed next turn, but goes down to a second ember anyway.

 

Budew goes the same way that Snivy did and Cyndaquil levels up!

 

Breaking News: Type Advantage is luck now

 

RIP Fern, you will never amount to anything on this run.

 

Cyndaquil evolves, yay! Now he'll have to stand back and watch Pansear get a bunch of levels. (He's at 12 right now.)

 

The next battle is our first Team Meteor boss battle

VS Meteor Grunts Aster & Eclipse I

Spoiler

 

Magby's not really a threat to me, especially with Fern drawing its attacks away from my Pokémon. Elekid on the other hand is pretty dangerous here, so I focus my attacks on it. It falls to Mega Drain, crit Ember and Ember within two turns.

Budew faints on the second turn as well, to two Fire Spins and their DoT.

 

That leaves Magby. It takes one Tackle+Mega Drain and brings Quilava down to barely any HP.

 

Another Tackle+Mega Drain would knock it out, but likely only after Quilava has fainted, denying me exp, so I switch out to Pansear.

 

They used a Potion instead. Forgot they have that. Lotad's Bubble continues being weak.

Two turns of Licks, Bubbles and Fire Spins later Magby goes down.

 

I wonder if they're both saying this in sync.

 

Straighforward battle here. Nothing to say.

 

With that over it's time to go for our first Badge. Cue Battle

VS Cheer Captain Julia

Spoiler

 

I might be a tiny bit overleveled. Eh, gonna need that.

Quilava can take a Thunder Shock fairly well and hits Heliolisk with Ember two times, using up one of Julia's Potions.

 

Voltorb I goes down to three Embers after using one SonicBoom and Potion each.

 

Voltorb II uses SonicBoom as well, leaving Quilava with critical HP.

 

I have Pansear first use Yawn to give me some turns to set up again for Electrode. I haven't collected any X-Items so far, meaning "setting up" boils down to just healing.

Emolga wakes up ight at the turn I had Pansear KO it, so he left the fight with some HP missing anyway. I think it should be enough to take a Charge Beam.

 

Quilava is still at critical HP because a Blaze-boosted Ember OHKO's Blitzle.

 

Fire and explosive things don't go together very well...

Due to the Electric Field I can't put Electrode to sleep, so I'll have just try and deal as much damage as I can and maybe get lucky with the attacks it decides to use against me.

Electrode uses SonicBoom rather than Charge Beam, lucky. That's a guaranteed survive and no boost. Pansear also has Blaze, so now his Incinerate does a bit more damage than usual. Pansear's second turn gets used to heal Quilava with a Super Potion, but Electrode's second Sonic Boom misses. Unfortunately there's nothing I can use that additional turn for, so Pansear will go down anyway.

Or so you'd think, but Sonicboom misses again and Pansear gets another Incinerate in!

Electrode finally had enough of that and finishes him off with Charge Beam, naturally also getting a boost in the process.

 

Time for the finale. Electrode uses SonicBoom for some and Quilava's Ember leaves it with very little HP.

 

A Quick Attack finishes it off and Quilava easily survives Aftermath. He also learns Flame Wheel.

 

Due to sheer dumb luck on my part, admittedly.

 

This battle was fairly troublesome. Heliolisk and Blitzle couldn't really damage Quilava and those two Voltorb could only do it if they used SonicBoom, but Emolga and Electrode were more trouble. Emolga has high defenses for that point, making it the only one of the grunt Mons I couldn't 2HKO. It's also faster than Pansear, which was bit troublesome with getting Sleep to stick long enough.

In the end, this battle was decided by luck.

 

We get a Badge! It raises that looming level cap!

Also Charge Beam, don't think I'll be able to use that.

 

That's it for today

Until next time, see ya!

Edited May 8, 2017 by Gentleman Jaggi

[Jess]

Great job and good luck at your new start! Just one question... You mention that due to Electric Field you can't put Electrode to sleep...

13 minutes ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

Due to the Electric Field I can't put Electrode to sleep

Which is true, but then how did you utilize Yawn on Emolga to setup and heal?

13 minutes ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

I have Pansear first use Yawn to give me some turns to set up again for Electrode.

Shouldn't it be immune to sleep as well?

 

Edit: My mistake, forgot Emolga is not grounded! Great strategy part there!

Edited May 8, 2017 by Jess

[Gentleman Jaggi]

8 minutes ago, Jess said:

Edit: My mistake, forgot Emolga is not grounded! Great strategy part there!

Pokémon being either grounded or not grounded is something is still haven't quite grasped somehow, so it actually took me some time to remember that Emolga isn't affected by the field.

The fact that it's a rather arbitrary distinction (Flying Types and Levitate are not grounded) doesn't really help. Jupp, Dusknoir's grounded, nevermind that the fact that it's visibly a floating ghost. Same thing with Chandelure. On the other hand, Dodrio isn't grounded. A non-grounded Ostrich, explain that one to me. o.ö

Edited May 8, 2017 by Gentleman Jaggi

[Jess]

1 minute ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

Pokémon being either groundedor not grounded is something is still haven't quite grasped somehow

Let's not discuss the criteria about which Gengar (till Gen VI) could not be hit by Earthquake cause of levitate, while it obviously has feet and stands on them, while Dustox/Beedrill are damaged (even neutrally) by Ground, even though they are flying bugs... GameFreak/Nintendo/whoever should really add a category of Pokemon that are immune to ground for obvious reasons (their ability to fly), instead of just force them to waste their ability slot with Levitate.

 

I'd also recommend triple typing for some pokemon, even though this would maybe create triple weaknesses too and a huge pool of STAB moves (perhaps game-breaking for this reason)...

[Gentleman Jaggi]

Just now, Jess said:

instead of just force them to waste their ability slot with Levitate.

I mean, I'd hardly call an immunity to Ground a wasted ability, especially on stuff like Gengar that would be weak to it otherwise, but it's all rather inconsistent. On the other hand, trying to keep a few hundred of these creatures consistent is likely just plain impossible. Or at least detrimental to freedom of creativity.

 

Triple Typing could be funny. add in abilities and you could have quadruple weaknesses/resist! Add in dual( or more)-typed attacks like Flying Press and all bets are off. "This thing would be the best wall in the game ever if it didn't take x16 damage from [X]."

[Jess]

5 minutes ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

I mean, I'd hardly call an immunity to Ground a wasted ability

This is true.

 

In some cases, double abilities would help in preventing the points where logic is violated. For example, would it make Beedrill OP if it had Levitate and (say) Sniper simultaneously? Even Mega-Beedrill would be ok to have Levitate and Adaptability, provided that I doubt that any sane people would try to check it with ground type attacks... If it would be game-breaking at situations, then a clause could be put in, where (in case of a pokemon that has dual ability (levitate+something)) the second ability is toned down at the 2/3 of its original power (in case of single ability pokemons). There are ways to avoid inconsistencies and make the game more realistic, I'm stunned that nobody has thought of this in 7 generations.

[Gentleman Jaggi]

15 minutes ago, Jess said:

If it would be game-breaking at situations, then a clause could be put in,

The issue with that is that it would basically require a check for every single possible combination. Plus whatever is neccessary to keep moves like Role Play etc from breaking things. And it's pretty much impossible for the developers to foresee how much potential each individual combination could have. Sometimes it's hard enough to anticipate simple combinations like "this ability" plus "that attack". That's why we get things like nerfed Gale Wings or Parental Bond. 8And then even nerfing PB didn't fix the issue of double extra effects being hilariously abusable.)

Even Adaptibility is an ability that partially breaks part of the games system just by itself. A Pokémon with that ability will only need coverage against Types that resist its STAB(s), since neutral STAB hits now deal as much damage as a super effective non-STAB.

(On a sidenote: Mega-Beedrill's stats are completely nuts and I love it! That 15 Sp.Atk next to 150 Atk. And 145 Speed! It's nuts. And then it even gets one of the best abilities.)

[Jess]

I agree that we have seen many abilities being absurdly overpowered and that when you make the game more complicated it is gonna be even harder to check for game-breaking things (a lot of balancing issues will arise). 

3 minutes ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

Mega-Beedrill's stats are completely nuts and I love it!

That is true! I dislike using Megas in general, so I will not use it, even if I get the opportunity too, but its stats and ability are really crazy. I don't feel Megas were necessary at the first place, and were only implemented for the commercial reasons, not really to help bad pokemon shine again (apart from very few exceptions). For example, why would Mewtwo, a powerhouse get TWO Megas, but Dunsparce gets none? Besides, Pokemon like Latias/Latios/Blaziken etc. were already strong enough, giving them Mega forms was just to satisfy their huge fanbase (utterly ridiculous imho).

[Neco]

Raging about Megas? While I do like to use them from time to time, I never really understood the sense why Pokémon need to do this other than copying Digimon.

 

Anyway, best of luck for your run. Before I chose grass I considered fire, but this would've probably fallen in the category of "most hated type" (it's at least one of those for me).

[Jess]

2 hours ago, Neco said:

Before I chose grass I considered fire, but this would've probably fallen in the category of "most hated type"

My next plan is to do a Poison Mono (cause I love Garbodor-I am weird, I know) and then a Grass (because I absolutely adore Sawsbuck). I don't have a hated type, but I find water types especially boring for some reason that I never understood...

 

2 hours ago, Neco said:

Raging about Megas?

Always! I dislike them because of how common Mega-sweeps have become. I love how we have no Megas in Reborn currently. Only one I'd ever consider using is Mega Lopunny if I ever did a Normal monorun...

Edited May 9, 2017 by Jess

[Gentleman Jaggi]

@Neco Thank you; funnily enough I might have actually done a Grass Run if you hadn't beat me to it. Mostly for those Contrary Shenanigans.

I don't have any "hated" Types, though I'm not particularly fond of Fairy due to its late introduction into the series.

 

@Jess Poison is another run I've been wanting to do for some time, but I'm holding out for E17's release and Salazzle. Hopefully Salandit won't show up too late.

 

 

 

Now, after defeating Julia there's a new Fire Type available. It's one I'm rather familiar with.

Spoiler

 

Can't say I'm particularly enthused about using her again. Though her IV this time are really good and Iron Head might find some niche.

I just don't want to deal with that low Speed again. I'm gonna box this one after Pansear.

 

 

Over in Obsidia Ward Victoria is once again blocking the way, cue Battle!

VS Apprentice Victoria II

Spoiler

 

Somehow, this feels familiar.

Ralts's Trace copies Numel's Simple and it decides to make use of that by using Double Team. Numel meanwhile sets up Focus Energy.

After another turn (Numel missed and took miniscule damage from Disarming Voice)) Victoria switches Ralts out for Makuhita, who gets hit with a crit Iron Head.

 

After getting flinched by Fake Out once Numels finishes it off with Magnitude 9 next turn.

 

Pignite hits twice with arm Thrust, then gets OHKO'd by a crit Magnitude 8.

 

Numel leveled up, so I decide to send in Pansear instead. He KO's poor Ralts with two Licks.

 

Juuuust maybe though.

 

Easy battle, moving on

 

The slums turn out top be a non-issue and we quickly reach the miniboss battle at the end.

VS Pokémon Gang

Spoiler

 

(The fourth and fifth Pokémon in the team are Pickup-Zigzagoon and a Drowzee Egg I picked up along the way.)

 

Quilava uses Ember on the left Scraggy, burning it, and Pansear uses Yawn on the right one so that one side of the enemy can't act.

Another Ember finishes off the burned Scraggy and Incinerate deals about half HP damage to the other one.

 

Ember burns the left Scraggy again and Incinerate finshes off the sleeping one in addition to bringing the burned Scraggy into critical HP. It throws out one last weak Feint Attack on Pansear before fainting to burn damage.

 

Quilava's Ember doesn't deal much damage, but Pansear manages to use another Yawn before getting knocked out.

 

Quilava's Flame Wheel doesn't deal any more damage, but does burn its target. Numel's Flame Burst deals about a third of HP damage.

 

Another Flame Wheel and Burst combo, Scrafty gets out one last attack and then falls to burn damage.

 

...rrrrrrruff!

 

Quite a lot of burns in this battle. Fitting for a Fire Type run. Nothing more to say about this battle.

 

The next battle is down at Coral Ward; unfortunately the weather is currently stuck at rain. Nevertheless, cue Battle!

VS Pretty Boy Cain II

Spoiler

 

This, too, feels quite familiar. Right down to the weather.

Numel manages to be faster for once and OHKO's Grimer with Magnitude 7.

 

Oshawott is next, of course. It's raining and my entire team is weak to Water, cool.

I attempt some flinching with Pansear's Bite, but it doesn't work and he gets 2HKO'd.

 

Cain tries to heal Oshawott with Potions, but Quilava defeats it with a bunch of Tackles anyway.

 

Back to familiar sights. Nidorino uses Focus Energy and loses half HP to Magnitude 6. Next turn Numel takes a 4-hit Fury Attack and finishes her foe with Magnitude 7.

 

"... rough, huh?"

Do not hit on my Pokémon.

One Ember and crit Flame Wheel later Venonat goes down.

 

Honestyl, that should be my line. I'm the Fire guy here.

 

Eternal rain is annoying, though this fight still isn't much of an issue.

 

We go back north to Obsidia Ward, get Cut, and use that to go on a bit of a detour, netting us a new team member:

Spoiler

 

Very nice Speed, decent Sp.Atk. The nature might help with Fire Fang until some special fire attacks better than Ember show up. She evolves somewhat late, so hopefully she'll be able to keep up until then. Until that point Moxie should be useful as well.

 

 

With this it's now time to return to Obsidia Park and have our first PULSE Battle.

VS Meteor Admin ZEL I

Spoiler

 

Their only Pokémon in this battle is PULSE Tangrowth.

Pansear opens the fight with Yawn and gets Acid Sprayed in return. Incinerate barely deals any damage due to the rain, another Acid Spray leaves Pansear in critical HP.

Unfortunately Tangrowth is only asleep for one turn, after which Pansear gets knocked out by another Acid Spray.

 

Numel spams a whole lot of Flame Bursts, each time getting Vine Whipped or Acid Sprayed in return, until she eventually goes down to a stray Mega Drain.

 

It's Quilava's turn now. His first Ember burns Tangrowth.

I think he might be a pyromaniac. Or a sadist. Maybe both.

Tangrowth tries recovering its HP with Mega Drain, but doesn't even heal the damage from Ember, let alone the following burn damage. Two Flame Wheels later Tangrowth finally goes down.

 

 

All those burns. Rainy weather made this battle last way longer than it should have.

 

 

That's it for today. Next destination will be Florinia's Gym up in Onyx Ward.

Until then, see ya!

[Jess]

8 minutes ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

I might have actually done a Grass Run if you hadn't beat me to it. Mostly for those Contrary Shenanigans.

I was considering starting with a Snivy on literally every single run I've had, but never did, because I absolutely wanna tear my eardrums off and become deaf every time I listen to Serperior's cry.

[Neco]

About fire: with most "hated" I probably chose the wrong wording (as I don't really hate any). During my childhood, many of my friends talked about how good the fire type is and at some point I started to dislike the type for the sake of giving contra. There are some fire mons I like (I look at you Cyndaquil line), but the giving contra still is slightly present in my thinking xD

[Gentleman Jaggi]

@Jess Well it's kinda high-pitched I suppose, but far from the worst thing I've heard. Jynx's cry is pretty horrible though.

 

@Neco No yielding to the mainstream, eh?

I know that situation, though only with specific Pokémon.

 

 

With Team Meteot thrown out of this Ward (for now) it's time to head on to Onyx for our next battle. The Game Corner here has Slugma, but I don't need another pure Fire Type and I don't want another slow party member.

Therefore we head straight for the Gym, Fern's attempts at keeping us out only making our team stronger. Cue battle

VS Swag Jockey Fern II

Spoiler

 

Quilava spams Flame Wheels while Lombre tries to damage him with Fake Out, Fury Swipes and a stray Absorb. Fern also uses up his two Super Potions for this fight trying to keep up with Flame Wheel and burn damage. Yes, Quilava burnt another enemy.

 

Roselia is next. Surprisingly, it's faster than Quilava and hits him with Leech Seed. Next turn he gets poisoned by Poison Sting (of course) and Roselia goes down to a second Flame Wheel.

 

I'm a protagonist, of course I'm special.

I would've liked to have Quilava deal with this alone, but that won't work out when Leech Seeded and poisoned. Numel gets Leech Seeded as well, but two Lava Plumes and one Mega Drain later servine is down.

 

This fight sure is.

 

Type Advantage, yay.

 

With that out of the way, it's time for more Type Advantage, this time against Florinia. Cue Battle

VS Head Instructor Florinia

Spoiler

 

The first Fire Fang is already a critical hit, putting Maractus down to a pixel of HP. Maractus retaliates with Pin Missile.

Next turn Florinia uses a Super Potion, but Maractus is knocked out by a crit Ember anyway.

 

Florinia sends out Breloom and I decide to keep Litleo safe for now. Numel gets Leech Seeded, but Lava Plume OHKO's Breloom.

 

With Breloom out of the way Litleo has free reign now. Ferroseed's basically a free Moxie Boost.

Or so I thought, but it actually manages to survive one hit. Colour me surprised. Of course it just has to use Leech Seed of all things. Ember KO's it and Litleo gets a Moxie Boost, but I switch her out to get rid of LS.

 

Flame Burst puts Cacnea into critical HP, then Pansear gets Leech Seeded. Another Flame Burst takes it out.

 

Maybe this time it'll work out...

Litleo gets Leech Seeded again and deals about half HP damage with Fire Fang. The recovery from that is just enough for Cottonee to survive another Fire Fang, it also poisons Litleo.

Florinia pulls out another Super Potion she'd apparently been hiding until now, so Ember fails to KO the enemy. Next turn Litleo gets finishes off with Nature Power=>Sand Tomb...

 

Quilava gets poisoned as well and finishes off Cottonee with Flame Wheel.

 

Only one left now. Pansear uses Yawn and then gets KO'd by Smack Down.

 

Cradily uses another Smack Down and Numel uses Lava Plume, then Cradily falls asleep.

Numel spams some Lava Plumes and Cradily wakes up right on the turn on which it gets put into critical HP. Next turn it KO's Numel with another Smack Down.

 

Quilava finishes the job with Flame Wheel. Victory!

 

Well now!

 

This would've been so much easier if Leech Seed didn't exist. Poor Litleo was denied the Moxie Sweep at every turn. Other than that pretty straighforward killing with Fire.

 

We earned a Badge, raising the Level Cap, as well as TM Nature Power. That last one is good for Quilava, since it'll be quite some time until he learns a better Fire attack.

 

That's it for today. Next time will see the events at Jasper and maybe Beryl Ward.

[Gentleman Jaggi]

After defeating Florinia we're off to defeat some more PULSE Tangrowths. The first one is located in Jasper Ward and Taka is the one watching over it. Cue Battle

VS Meteor Admin Taka I

Spoiler

 

Another familiar situation. I swear I'm just throwing out whichever one has the lowest level at the moment.

Anyhow, Numel's Lava Plume crits, burns Lileep and sets the Forest Field on fire. Not bad for a first turn. Lileep then confuses Numel with Confuse Ray.

After one turn of Numel hitting herself and Lileep getting healed it gets KO'd by Lava Plume+Field damage the next turn.

 

The bird everybody hates. Chatter confuses Numel and she hits herself again, ending up at critical HP. Another Chatter KO's her.

 

Quilava is faster than Chatot and nukes it with a Nature Power=>Flamethrower.

 

Tangrowth II goes down after three turns of Ember/Fire Fang and Field damage.

 

And that's all that matters!

 

Easy battle thanks to the Forest Field. Chatot is the only thing that's somewhat of a threat due to confusion hax.

 

The third Tangrowth is waiting for us over in Beryl Ward, but right before going there we go back to collect the Growlithe from the police station.

Since I had to breed it anyway to get the Mystery Egg I also decided to try and breed a stronger Growlithe than the one I got. Here's the result:

Spoiler

 

Getting decent IV took a bit without Power Items... Arcanine obviously should have good Atk and Speed stats, but Sp.Atk should also be good for the time before it evolves. I also usually keep Heat Wave as a second, non-suicidal STAB, so good Sp.Atk. is neccessary.

I have no idea how a giant Fire dof using Close Combat looks like, but it's easily his best Egg Move.

Quilava is his dad.

 

And as for the Mystery Egg:

Azurill? Frillish? Either way it's of no use on this run.

 

 

 

After leveling up our new party member a bit it's time to return to Beryl Ward. Cue Battle

VS Meteor Admin Taka II and Meteor Admin ZEL II

Spoiler

 

Pansear uses Yawn on Lileep, so we'll hopefully have to deal with fewer Confuse Rays from it, while Litleo attacks Glaceon with Fire Fang. Glaceon attacks Pansear with Ice Fang, but doesn't deal much damage and Lileep uses Confuse Ray on Pansear.

Next turn Glaceons gets KO'd with Fire Fang+Flame Burst and Lileep confuses Litleo as well before falling asleep.

 

Espeon's Future sight is a major pain, but Psybeam hurts a lot as well. A crit one KO's Pansear, Litleo Headbutts Espeon for about 1/4 HP damage.

 

Gotta get rid of that Espeon. Quilava's Nature Power=>Tri-Attack hits the correct target, dealing about another 1/3 HP damage and Espeon then sets up Future Sight. Litleo hits himself while Lileep keeps sleeping.

Next turn Espeon gets KO'd by Quilava's Flame Wheel and Litleo hits himself again. Lileep wakes up and uses Confuse Ray on Quilava.

 

I switch Quilava out for Numel. Litleo snaps out of confusion and Headbutts Umbreon, dealing some damage, followed by getting hit by Feint Attack and Future Sight, which he just barely survives. Lileep uses Ingrain.

 

Another Headbutt causes Umbreon to flinch, followed by Numel attacking with Earth Power. Lileep then KO's Litleo with Acid, also dealing some miniscule damage to Numel.

 

Umbreon attacks Growlithe with a weak Quick Attack before it gets KO'd by Close Combat+Earth Power. Lileep uses Constrict on Growlithe.

 

We're down to a favorable 2vs1 now. Growlithe and Numel keep Lileep from acting by using Fire Fang and Iron Head, flinching it and KO'ing it after the second combo.

 

Growlithe's Fire Fang misses before he gets KO'd by a crit Acid Spray. Thanks game. Numel deals some damage with Flame Burst.

 

Tangrowth goes down after two turns of Flame wheel+Flame Burst, hitting Numel with a Vine Whip inbetween.

 

Our favorite bird again. I use a Potion on Numel to make sure it doesn't faint and Quilava deals about 1/2 HP damage with Flame Wheel. Numel takes a Chatter reasonably well, but naturally gets confused.

Another Flame Wheel finishes off Chatot.

 

Soo, you didn't try this time?

 

Always.

 

This battle took some tries, partly because of Espeon and Umbreon and partly because I wanted Growlithe to collect some exp during it. It probably would've worked this time if Tangrowth hadn't gotten lucky.

 

That's it for today; the battle against Corey will follow some time in the coming days.

Until then, see ya!

[Gentleman Jaggi]

After clearing the city from all its rampant plantlife it's time to chase down Corey who has himself holed up in his Gym. Cue Battle!

VS Agent Corey

Spoiler

 

This battle is somewhat tricky. The Corrosive Mist is really just a nuisance, but the fact that most of my Fire STABS will nuke the area is pretty troubling. Both Quilava and Growlithe could have Flash Fire to protect themselves from the explosions, but I don't want to use Ability Capsules just for that. Plus neither of them even knows any attacks that will cause an explosion yet. On the other hand, all fire attacks that don't explode get a boost.

Anyhow, I start off with Numel, hoping that she won't get Bubbled. She manages to outspeed Skrelp and trigger its Focus Sash with Earth Power, but then gets put into critical HP by Bubble+poison.

Corey uses a Super Potion on the next turn, but Skrelp goes down to a second Earth Power anyway. Numel barely survives one more turn of poison damage.

 

I'm pretty sure Croagunk has Dry Skin, making it take more damage from Fire attacks. Growlithe's Intimidate also lowers its Atk. Fire Fang is a OHKO!

 

Numel can survive one more turn against poison. She makes this one count by OHKO'ing Grimer with Earth Power.

 

Growlithe goes up against Nidorina and lowers it Atk with Intimidate. He manages to land two Fire Fangs thanks to Nidorina's Bite missing, but falls before he can finish it off.

 

Litleo finishes it off and collects a Moxie Boost.

 

She gets to stay and make use of her boost, losing a bit under half HP to Skuntank's Pursuit and dealing roughly the same damage with Fire Fang.

I expect her to get finished off before she can act this turn and use a Super Potion on Numel, but she manages to survive Skuntank's Incinerate+poison damage.

Another Potion for Numel, then Litleo goes down.

 

Quilava will have to finish this. His Ember puts Skuntank into critical HP and he easily tanks one Pursuit before getting poisoned. Another Ember and Skuntank goes down.

 

Finishing stretch! I accidentally skipped Corey's dialogue here.

I wanted to just nuke Crobat here, but Pansear gets OHKO'd by Venoshock.

 

Good thing I healed Numel. She easily tanks an Air Cutter and then destroys everything with Lava Plume.

 

The only remaining Pokémon here is Quilava. The sixth, unused Pokémon is Pickup-Zigzagoon that I had KO'd before the battle. And this right here is the reason why:

 

The result of my second try against Corey. All my Pokémon except Zigzagoon were down, but Quilava burnt Crobat beforehand and it went down to that immediately after that.

As far as the game was concerned I had won, but according to my Monotype rules I lost.

I could have properly won if I hadn't had Quilava forget Quick Attack... (That sentence sounds weird.)

This battle took some tries, with Crobat often wiping up the remainders of my team. Skuntank did pretty well in softening me up as well and Skrelp was annoying because pretty much everyone except Numel proved incapable of properly dealing with it.

I would've prefered to beat Crobat the usual way, but whatever works, works? This thing is too stupidly fast.

 

Next part should hopefully go up until Shelly.

Until then, see ya!

[Gentleman Jaggi]

I'll be taking a little break from this Monotype.

The reason is simple: I got the new Fire Emblem early, so now I'll be busy with that one for some time. Burning critters will resume once I'm through with FE. I promise I won't be gone for a month this time.

[Gentleman Jaggi]

Alright, I'm back!

 

An interesting battle is waiting for me in Lapis Ward, so time to deal with all of the stuff before that.

 

After watching Corey up on Beryl Bridge and then checking out his mess down in Lapis Ward, as well as Meteor's mess at the Grand Staircase before that, we find ourselves down in the cave system facing Aster and Eclipse to rescue Victoria. Cue Battle

VS Meteor Grunts Aster & Eclipse II

Spoiler

 

Type Matchups aren't looking too well here.

I don't want Quilava to level up another time before Shelly, but I'm gonna need every bit of fighting strength for this fight, because Rock Slides are kicking my ass.

Quilava's Nature Power=>Power Gem gets either a Grass or Water charge and OHKO's Lunatone; I'm impressed. Pignite's 3-hit Arm thrust takes out roughly a quarter of Solrock's HP, followed by Quilava surviving a Grass or Fire charged Rock Slide with half HP and Pignite dodging that same attack.

 

Quilava manages to survive Electabuzz's Shock Wave and uses another NP=>Power Gem and hits Solrock. It's uneffective this time, but still deals about half HP damage. Pignite finishes it off with another 3-hit Arm Thrust, with the last hit being a crit.

Quilava levels up to 36...

 

Quilava's barely holding on and I know that at least Electabuzz is faster than him, so trying to attack doesn't make much sense right now. Instead, I use a Lemonade on him to survive the enemies' Shock Wave+Flame Burst. I do the same thing on the next turn and this time Quilava gets hit by Swift+Flame Burst. Meanwhile, Pignite took half of Electabuzz's HP with Heat Crash and a 3-hit Arm Thrust, miraculously managing to not get paralyzed by Static.

On the next turn I decide that I can risk trying to attack and indeed I can, but only because Electabuzz gets a Super Potion used on itself. Magmar is unfortunately faster than Quilava as well. It hits Quilava with another Flame Burst and he in turn ignores my orders due to the level cap. Dang. Pignite uses another Arm Thrust.

Next turn I'm back to using a Lemonade to heal up, but this time Electabuzz uses another Swift and Magmar's Fire Spin misses, leaving Quilava with enough HP to actually get to attack next turn! Pignite also pulls off a 5-hit Arm Thrust on Electabuzz, bringing it down to 1/4 of HP, though it does get paralyzed this time.

 

This is the situation right now. I've heal-spammed three Lemonades so far.

Electabuzz, predictably, gets healed with their second and last Super Potion while Magmar Fire Spins Pignite. Quilava actually attacks this time and his crit Fire Pledge leaves Electabuzz in critical HP. Pignite tries to follow up with Takedown, but misses.

Pignite manages to survive another Shock Wave and Flame Burst, but we fail to knock out Electabuzz due to Quilava ignoring orders and Pignite being pralyzed. Fire Spin then takes our ally's last sliver of HP.

 

I want to spread Exp around and switch in Numel, correctly predicting a Shock Wave from Electabuzz. Magmar's Flame burst meanwhile deals some major damage to Scraggy, followed by it KO'ing itself with a failed High Jump Kick. Good job!

 

Does this guy have Thick Fat? I sure hope this guy has Thick Fat.

Numel easily tanks a Low Kick from Electabuzz, but Magmar's Flame Burst deals a lot of damage. Hariyama then finishes off Electabuzz with Force Palm (finally!) and Numel follows up with Earth Power, dealing a bit under half HP damage to Magmar.

 

Magmar's Fire Spin misses and it gets knocked out with Smelling Salts and another Earth Power.

 

Aaaand I missed their defeat quote, dangit.

 

Right after the battle, Quilava evolves to Typhlosion. Neat, though I wanted to hold off on that until the fight with Shelly...

This fight was kind of a pain. I tried to not use Quilava due to his level, but he's the only one of my team mebers that could consistently outspeed Solrock and Lunatone. All the other guys just got their asses kicked by Rock Slide. You'd think Pignite being there would draw the occasional Psywave, but no, it's Rock Slide Central.

I'm not sure how I feel about having had to rely on Pignite to buy me some turns against Electabuzz, but at least it's a Fire Type, I guess? I'm just glad it decided to attack Electabuzz and not Magmar; getting burned would have pretty much screwed us both over. I just remembered Fire Types can't get burned, derp. <_>

 

We've rescued Victoria from Team Meteor, so now it's time for our next Gym Battle!

...

Nnnnope, we first have to go visit the orphanage/psychatric clinic, but then it's time for our next Gym Battle!

Right after Victoria stops meaning well.

VS Apprentice Victoria III

Spoiler

 

Scraggy's pretty dangerous with its High Jump Kick, Growlithe's Intimidate allows him to at least survive one hit from it. I have Growlithe use Fire Fang, hoping for either a flinch or burn. It's a crit and flinches, allowing Growlithe to finish off Scraggy with Close Combat on the next turn.

 

Pansear just barely survives a Heat Crash before he gets to use Yawn.

Next turn, I switch into Numel who loses a bit less than half HP to another Heat Crash before Pignite falls asleep.

 

Pignite keeps sleeping while Numel spams Earth Powers. Victoria tries to keep it alive by using all her Super Potions, but the Sp.Def. down effect from Earth Power allows umel to outdamage her healing.

 

Hariyama is a pretty major threat. Fortunately Pansear is faster and can Yawn at it before he gets knocked out by Smelling Salts.

 

Growlithe comes out, reducing Hariyama's Atk with Intimidate. He first uses Fire Fang to stall one turn, but also gets paralyzed by Hariyama's Force Palm. I use a PArlyz Heal while Hariyama sleeps and then have Growlithe use two Close Combats until hariyama wakes up and KO's Growlithe with Smelling Salts.

 

Numel can't take a Force Palm and goes down.

 

I wanted to not use Typhlosion, but Litleo can't take a hit from this. Typhlosion first ignores my orders and gets paralyzed by Force Palm on the same turn, before countering the second Force Palm with a NP=>Tri-Attack that freezes Hariyama.

 

Since Hariyama is now no longer a threat I send in Litleo. One Headbutt later she gets half the Exp and a Moxie Boost.

 

Kirlia Traces Litleo's Moxie, which won't hel it in any way and also ends up getting flinched by Headbutt. Another Headbutt KO's it, ending this battle.

 

Now get outta my way.

Please?

 

Trying not to use Typhlosion here resulted in a lot more tries than I expected. In the end, even with as much luck as I had here, I only managed to reduce his actions to taking out Hariyama...

I'm not sure if my team's kind of weak right now or I'm just not using the right tactics. Anyhow, it's time some of these guys evolve. I also need something to replace Pansear (because the first Firestone is a long way off and also reserved for Growlithe) and some more secondary STABs.

 

After grinding a few more levels and dealing with Shelly's Gym Puzzle it's time four the next Battle.

VS Bookworm Shelly

Spoiler

 

We've got a solid Type Advantage here, but Illumise's Rain Dance makes that practically completely moot. I'm gonna have to stall that one out.

Illumise, of course, sets up Rain Dance, followed by Pansear using Yawn on Masquerain. Masquerain attacks Pansear with Bubble Beam, but he miraculously manages to survive! Camerupt's entire point here pretty much was to draw bubble Beam away from him, but okay. Her Rock slide gets dodged by Illumise, but puts Masquaerain into critical HP. This was turn 1/8 of Rain Dance.

Turn 2/8 Shelly uses an Ultra Potion and I use Camerupt's turn to use a Lemonade on Pansear. Illumise deals some damage to both my Pokémon and Pansear uses Yawn on it.

Turn 3/8 Illumise uses Confuse Ray on Pansear, but he manages to set up an Amnesia anyway. Camerupt's Rock Slide deals some damage to Illumise and puts Masquerain back to critical HP.

 

Turn 4/8 Shelly uses her second and last Ultra Potion on Masquerain. Both enemies continue sleeping while Pansear hits himself. Another Rock Slide from Camerupt puts both enemies into critical HP.

Turn 5/8 I need to stall out the last few turns. I use Camerupt's turn to use a Potion on Pansear, who manages to set up a second Amnesia despite his confusion. Illumise continues sleeping, but Masquerain wakes up and uses Bubble Beam on Pansear. Thanks to +4 on Sp.Def. it doesn't even deal half HP damag by now, but does lower his Speed.

Turn 6/8 More stalling; Camerupt's turn gets used up for another Super Potion on Pansear. Illumise wakes up and uses a weak Dazzling Gleam, followed by Masquerain attacking Pansear with an equally weak Energy Ball. Finally Pansear snaps out of confusion and uses Yawn on Masquerain again.

Turn 7/8 One more turn to stall out; Camerupt's turn gets used up for a Potion on herself this time. Illumise uses a weak Struggle Bug against my Pokémon, followed by another weak Energy Ball from Masquerain, but it does lower Pansear's Sp.Def. a bit. Pansear finally uses another Yawn on Illumise and Masquerain falls asleep again.

 

Turn 8/8, the last one. Illumises needs to go down now. It uses Confuse Ray on Pansear again, but he manages to use Flame Burst anyway, KO'ing Illumise. Camerupt's Lava Plume also KO's Masquerain. The rain ends.

 

With the Rain gone Anorith here can't sweep me with Swift Swim Rock Slide. It still needs to go down, of course.

Unfortunately Yanmega's Ancient Power and Anorith's Rock Slide KO Pansear before he can act. You did a good job little one, this wouldn't have worked out without you. Camerupt takes some pretty high damage from Rock Slide as well, but retaliates with Lava Plume, setting the Field on fire and burning Yanmega.

 

Yanmega tries to finish Camerupt with Giga Drain, but the field reduces the damage it does and she easily tanks it. Litleo's Fire Fang KO's Anorith, netting her a Moxie Boost, and Camerupt's Flame Burst takes out Yanmega.

 

Well well, here we are already. Volbeat sets up a Tail Glow and manages to just barely survive Litleo's Fire Fang. Camerupt meanwhile manages to tank Wormadam's Psybeam and retaliates with another Flame Burst, OHKO'ing it. Volbeat then goes down to Field damage, ending this battle.

 

I completely countered your strategy, so there's little you could have done here...

 

There was no way for me to counter Rain Dance with my own weather, nor to keep Illumise from setting up in the first place. Tanking it out was all I could do.

That said, it worked out perfectly. I'm actually rather surprised. I did have to retry the battle once, but that was only because Camerupt's Rock Slide dealt a crit on Masquerain, allowing Anorith to come in while rain was still up. It then proceeded to kick my ass with Rock Slide. 

 

As a reward, we gain the Cocoon Badge, raising our Level Cap to 40, and the TM Struggle bug, which is of no use to us.

 

That's it for today. Next part will see a bunch of Rival Battles and maybe Shade, we'll see.

Until then, see ya!

Edited May 27, 2017 by Gentleman Jaggi
typos

[Gentleman Jaggi]

Upon attempting to report Corey's death to Ame we run into Fern at Grand Hall. He goes on his usual spiel and then challenges us to a battle, because apparentally he still hasn't learned that Fire beats Grass.

VS Swag Jockey Fern III

Spoiler

 

This thing should just automatically combust if its opponent happens to know a special Fire attack.

 

This guy, on the other hand, actually can tank some Fire hits. Water Gun puts Pansear down to critical HP right away, while Acrobatics knocks off about half of Ludicolo's HP.

Next turn Fern uses a Super Potion, but Acrobatics outdamages the healing it did. A Water un on the following turn KO's Pansear. It's also a crit, because that was totally neccessary.

 

I don't feel like dealing with this guy for too long, so Typhlosion takes over. Fire Pledge finishes it off.

 

Roserade is evil. Growlithe survives an Extrasensory, but gets flinched. Next turn he goes down to Giga Drain. Great.

 

Camerupt takes a Giga Drain rather well, losing a bit under half her HP, and retaliates with Lava Plume. dealing about 2/3 of Roserade's HP after Leftovers. She just barely survives another Giga Drain with 4 HP and again retaliates with Lava Plume, which Roserade manages to endure as well, but it also gets burned. The fact that Leftovers activates before burn damage saves it from being KO's this turn.

Finally, Fern attempts to save Roserade with a Super Potion, but Lava Plume KO's it anyway.

 

For some reason I thought he would already have Serperior here, huh. Well, just makes this easier. Litleo easily tanks a bunch of Leaf Tornados and 3HKO's Servine with Fire Fang, ignoring the fact that Leaf Tornado lowered her accuracy three times.

 

booN...

 

"Talk about cheap" Pfft, you don't get to talk.

The contrast between those two fights is really funny (at least for me; you guys can't see all those failed tries back then). Fern once again got thrashed on the first try, will he ever learn? (He won't.)

 

Next stop is Beryl Cemetary to meet up with Cain. Cue Battle.

VS Pretty Boy Cain III

Spoiler

 

Typhlosion's Nature Power=>Rock Slide deals about half of Dewott's HP while he easily tanks a Night Slash. Next turn Cain attempts to heal with a Super Potion, but Dewott goes down to two more Rock Slides without getting to do anything more.

 

Camerupt tanks a Poison Tail and puts Nidoking down into critical HP with Earth Power. Cain tries to heal again, but a Super Potion isn't nearly enough and his Ace goes down to another Earth Power.

 

Growlithe takes a crit Psybeam and retaliates with Fire Fang, putting Venomoth into critical HP. Unfortunately due to the crit he goes down to a second Psybeam.

 

Pansear gets to finish this one off. After he just barely survives a Field-boosted Silver Wind (which also boosted all of Venomoth's stats) he collects his exp with a Field-boosted Acrobatics. He also levels up and learns Fire Blast, not bad.

 

Pansear's Fire Blast takes half of Grimer's HP before he goes down to Mud Bomb.

 

Two Headbutts finish off Grimer, with the first one having flinched it.

 

Why is it so hard to just give out that key? You could've literally tossed me that one in the time it took you to say where you're going.

 

Victory on the first try; Dewott isn't yet a threat and Nidoking gets handily countered by Camerupt.

 

That's it for today. The Gym Battle against Shade will follow next time.

Until then, see ya!

[Jess]

On 5/28/2017 at 2:34 AM, Gentleman Jaggi said:

There was no way for me to counter Rain Dance with my own weather, nor to keep Illumise from setting up in the first place. Tanking it out was all I could do.

Good job Jaggi! That is true, you had no chance of doing something else. It was pretty much same for me in my Bug Mono, maybe a bit worse for you cause you had to deal with water while being fire. Or for me cause I didn't have type advantage, I don't know, lol!

If I were you I would've started with Chimchar (of course, Infernape <3) and bred Fake Out on it (possible with Meowth/Liepard I think), to prevent Illumise from setting up.

 

Edited May 31, 2017 by Jess

[Gentleman Jaggi]

20 hours ago, Jess said:

Good job Jaggi! That is true, you had no chance of doing something else. It was pretty much same for me in my Bug Mono, maybe a bit worse for you cause you had to deal with water while being fire. Or for me cause I didn't have type advantage, I don't know, lol!

Well, I could turn the Field around to my favour, so I'd say that I was in a better spot once rain stopped. Of course, you also had several Flying Types to use, so Type doesn't make that much difference. ;p

 

20 hours ago, Jess said:

If I were you I would've started with Chimchar (of course, Infernape <3) and bred Fake Out on it (possible with Meowth/Liepard I think), to prevent Illumise from setting up.

But I like Typhlosion much more!

Yeah, efficiency isn't always my top priority. xD This run started about 70% because I wanted to do something with Typhlosion. (The other 30% are Arcanine. I love that giant fluffmonster.) I pretty much just decide one some Pokémon to use because I like them and the rest gets figured out whenever it pops into my head.

[Jess]

3 minutes ago, Gentleman Jaggi said:

Well, I could turn the Field around to my favour, so I'd say that I was in a better spot once rain stopped. Of course, you also had several Flying Types to use, so Type doesn't make that much difference. ;p

 

But I like Typhlosion much more!

Yeah, efficiency isn't always my top priority. xD This run started about 70% because I wanted to do something with Typhlosion. (The other 30% are Arcanine. I love that giant fluffmonster.) I pretty much just decide one some Pokémon to use because I like them and the rest gets figured out whenever it pops into my head.

Of course, always go with what you like best! When I started my mono run, one of the rules i inflicted on myself was to use a smaller or equal amount of healing items to the ones my opponent is using at each fight (e.g, on my latest fight uploaded, Samson has 2 Hypers, so I could use less than that to beat him. ofc revives are out of the question) . So, i can't not put efficiency as my first priority, xD

[Gentleman Jaggi]

3 minutes ago, Jess said:

Of course, always go with what you like best! When I started my mono run, one of the rules i inflicted on myself was to use a smaller or equal amount of healing items to the ones my opponent is using at each fight (e.g, on my latest fight uploaded, Samson has 2 Hypers, so I could use less than that to beat him. ofc revives are out of the question) . So, i can't not put efficiency as my first priority, xD

I usually go with any healing I can get. Most of the time my Pokémon's HP quickly overtake what the available potions can heal, so I consider heal-spam to be balanced by better Potions not being available. xp

[Gentleman Jaggi]

There was a whole bunch of running around to do before I got to this part. I also started the Aqua/Magma sidequest that will eventually add Houndour into my team, but for now Archer's Lv. 45 Sharpedo isn't something I wan't to deal with. Houndoom's movepool only really gets good later on anyway.

Now, however it's time for our next Badge. Cue Battle

VS Entity Shade

Spoiler

 

Gengar is, unfortunately faster than everything on my team, so I have to rely on my only team member that it can't use Thunderbolt on. Camerupt takes a Shadow Claw fairly well, losing less than half of her HP, and retaliates with Lava Plume. It deals about half of Dead Guy's HP damage and causes Burn, further weakening the enenmy's offense.

Camerupt tanks another Shadow Claw and then defeats Gengar with Lava Plume.

 

Banette is kind of whatever... I have Typhlosion use Nature Power=>Discharge to get rid of the buff to Ghost attacks, but Banette manages to sneak in a Shadow Sneak beforehand. taking roughly 1/3 of Typhlosion's HP. His Discharge then deals 2/3 HP damage.

Shade uses an Ultra Potion next turn and Typhlosion's Fire Pledge deals half HP damage to Banette. After two more Fire Pledges and Shade's second Ultra Potion Banette goes down, but did manage to sneak in another Shadow Claw.

 

Doublade manages to hang on after Growlithe's Flamethrower, but gets burned. It puts out one weak Brick Break and then goes down to Burn damage.

 

Ugh, Rotom. Pansear instantly gets taken out by a crit Shadow Ball, great. I also appreciate the fact that Rotom is evidently faster than Pansear. I had hoped to Yawn and then Amnesia stall this thing...

 

At least Camerupt can't get Discharged. I heal her back up with a Lemonade and she takes a hit from Rotom's Shadow Ball, losing slightly more than 1/3 of her HP.

Next turn Rotom uses Confuse Ray, but Camerupt manages to deal great damage with a critical Lava Plume anyway. On the third turn Rotom now uses Pain Split this time, buying itself one more turn to live. Camerupt instantly snaps out of her confusion and deals another heavy hit to Rotom, dropping it down to critical HP.

 

She survives one more Shadow Ball, now at 9HP, and then finishes off Rotom with a third Lava Plume.

 

Pyroar resists Grass and nullifies Ghost, so I wonder what that tree is going to do.

Lech Seed is what it's going to do, of course! Before that, it loses a bit over half HP to Fire Fang. A second Fire Fang falls short of KO'ing Trevenant and it gets to use Horn Leech, dealing a little damage. One more Fire Fang and Pyroar has finished off Trevenant, collecting a Moxie Boost in the process.

 

Unfortunately she isn't going to get to do anything with that boost, because Chandelure resists Fire and nulls Normal as well. So rather than attacking, Noble Roar lowers Chandelure's offenses by one stage each. Its Energy Ball easily gets tanked, although Leech Seed then brings Pyroar into critical HP. Another Noble Roar, then Pyroar falls to Energy Ball+Leech Seed, but she managed to significantly weaken this last enemy.

 

Growlithe, unfortunately, can't do much against Chandelure either (Crunch Lv. 39...), so I use his turns to heal Typhlosion and Camerupt. He manages to survive one Shadow Ball, so that's just enough to use a Lemonade on each.

 

I wanna try this out, Ace vs Ace time! Unfortunately I forgot that Nature Power on a Factory Field turns into Gear Grind, not Discharge... >_>

It still deals decent damage, thanks to the first hit being a crit, but Chandelure also manages to throw out a crit Shadow Ball, putting Typhlosion down to critical HP.

 

This thing has Flash Fire, I think, so I can't even use a Blaze-powered Fire Pledge this turn. So another Gear Grind it is.

It triggers Chandelure's Sitrus Berry, healing back roughly the same amout of damage Typhlosion just managed to inflict. Cool.

 

Seems like this is going to boil down to another familiar situation, after all. Camerupt easily tanks a Flame Burst (why?) and then finishes off Chandelure with Earth Power.

 

I still don't know if that's a good or bad thing...

 

This battle went decently well, if you ignore that derp-moment at the end there. Technically it was the third try, but the first two were just testing if Typhlosion or Pyroar can outspeed Gengar. Of course they couldn't. Camerupt put in some really great work there against Rotom. I'll never understand why that thing tends to be such a pain for me.

 

Another victory, another Badge. The level cap is raised to 45 and we get the TM Shadow Claw, which isn't that useful.

 

That's all for now, more will follow tomorrow.
Until then, see ya!

[Gentleman Jaggi]

Before we get to go on a (fetch) quest to save the kids there's the matter at Peridot's Blackstream Factory to attend to.

At its end we're awaited by Solaris and ZEL; as Amaria takes on the former, we're left to deal with the latter and their PULSE Muk. Cue Battle.

VS Meteor Admin ZEL III

Spoiler

 

Pyroar starts out with Metronome-boosted Echoed Voices; the first one gets Mirror Coated, but afterwards Glaceon uses Icy Wind instead. I'm not particularly happy about getting Speed reduced. On the third turn ZEL use an Ultra Potion, but by now Echoed Voice is enough to OHKO Glaceon.

 

Espeon sets up Future Sight and then gets annihilated by another Echoed Voice. Got lucky here, as Psychic would've likely KO'd Pyroar.

 

Another Echoed Voice and another OHKO!

 

Last is Muk

 

or more precisely, PULSE Muk

Another Echoed Voice deals more than half of Muk's HP damage before Pyroar goes down to Sludge Wave. It was a good run.

 

Pansear sets up Yawn on Muk before getting OHKO'd by Sludge Wave.

 

I suppose in a sense, Muk is ZEL's ace right now, no? Unfortunately Fire Pledge doesn't deal much damage and Typhlosion gets paralyzed by Discharge.

Doesn't really matter, however, as he then gets knocked out by Espeon's Future Sight.

Right after Muk falls asleep due to Yawn.

 

Unfortunately I forgot that ZEL still have one Ultra Potion left, which they proceed to use on Muk. Growlithe's Flamethrower only deals negligible damage.

 

I decide to switch out to Camerupt as long as the Factory Field is still shorted out.

Muk manages to sleep through two Earth Powers, but wakes up before a third can finish it off. Protean changes its Type to Water and it proceeds to not OHKO Camerupt with Muddy Water, because the field adds Electric to that attack. *points* Haha!

Camerupt's third Earth Power then finishes it off.

 

Yeah, now get outta here.

 

Pretty easy going here; I somewhat tried to not abuse the AI's inability to consider field-added Types, but ZEL basically set themselves up for that. I'm not going to decline a free first try-victory. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

This victory earned us Amaria's boat! So now we can head to Apophyll, get the sticker there, and then immediately return to Reborn City for EV-training!

We also have our team's Hidden Powers checked by the Sage: Typhlosion has Electric, which is going to be quite nice to deal with those pesky Water Types.

 

Soon enough Kiki sends us out to climb Pyrous Mountain to find and battle a student of hers up there.

On the way up there we capute a new team member:
 

Spoiler

 

Not sure how I long I'll keep her around, but for now she replaces Pansear, who just couldn't keep up.

Might use her with Shell Smash, White Herbs are pretty cheap after all. Might end up changing her ability to Weak Armor as well, to get more Speed.

 

 

Our opponent is waiting at the top of the volcano, right next to the crater. Cue Battle

VS Ex-Leader Cal

Spoiler

 

Battle of the Fire Specialists. Unfortunately Cal's team has better coverage.

Typhlosion's Nature Power=>Heat Wave deals considerable damage to Infernape, almost 2/3 of its HP, while the enemy's Close Combat only deals less than half HP damage to him. Heat Wave also turned the Field into a burning one, further buffing all the Fire attacks that will probably get thrown around in this battle.

Next turn Typhlosion's Nature Power=>Flamethrower finishes off Infernape.

 

Magcargo's first battle and she already gets to do important stuff. She tanks a Dragon Claw, but Charizard also manages to hang on after her Ancient Power. That's fine with me, since that will prompt Cal to use up his Potions.

Magcargo's second Ancient Power raises all her stats, allowing her to finally OHKO Charizard with her third AP.

 

Gotta try to get some more use out of that All Stats Up! Magmortar uses Focus Miss and gets hit for more than half its HP by, of course, Ancient Power.

Cal withdras Magmortar on the next turn and Delphox ends up taking the fifth and last Ancient Power.

 

Magcargo tanks a Shadow Ball and retaliates by putting Delphox into critical HP with Nature Power=>Flamethrower. She further survives a Magical Fire (Cal, water you doin) and finishes off her enemy with another NP=>Flamethrower.

 

Hello Magmortar. This time Focus Blast hits, ending Magcargo's role in this battle. Guess I was pushing my luck here.

 

Ace vs Ace time, although one of them is a bit more beat up than the other.

Typhlosion's NP=>Flamethrower takes out this enemy.

 

"Hello, my name is Speed Boost." Camerupt takes a Double Kick and OHKO's Blaziken before its Speed can become a threat.

 

You're just salty that I'm the better Fire Guy here.

Typhlosion sets up Sunny Day and manages to squeeze in one additional attack with Flame Charge, but goes down to Pyroar's third Echoed Voice.

 

Hm-hm.

 

Easy victory on the first try. Magcargo put in some pretty commendable work here, considering it was her first battle. I'm going to keep her around for now.

 

So, that means we passed Kiki's test and can have Strength, right?

Nope. We have to face her in a Gym Match first.

Beofre that, however, Victoria once again tries to stop us. Cue Battle

VS Apprentice Victoria IV.

Spoiler

 

Growlithe once again faces off against Scraggy. They both Intimidate each other.

Growlithe's Heat Wave crits, putting Scraggy into critical HP, while Growlithe himself gets High Jump Kicked for about 3/4 of his HP. Victoria tries to save Scraggy with Choc Ice Creams, but two Close Combats outdamage the healing and take it out.

 

The last time these two faced off against each other they both hadn't yet evolved to their final forms. Camerupt takes a 3-hit-Arm Thrust and retaliates with Earth Power, putting Emboar into critical HP. She survives an Assurance with 1/4 of her HP remaining and finishes the enemy with Earth Power.

 

Heracross easily gets annihilated with Flamethrower.

 

Will Hariyama get its revenge for getting frozen back in Shelly's Gym?

A crit Nature Power=>Tri Attack deals a bit under half of Hariyama's HP damage, followed by Hariyama removing Typhlosion's Metronome with Knock Off. I needed that!

Another Tri Attack puts Hariyama into critical HP while Typhlosion easily tanks a Force Palm. Man, and here I was actually kind of worried that this thing might be a threat. A third Tri Attack finishes it off.

 

Gotta try to have Magcargo do something as well.

Gallade uses Swords Dance while Magcargo boosts herself with Shell Smash; her lowered Defenses get fixed by a White Herb.

Next turn Gallade loses over half its HP to Lava Plume and gets burned in the process. It retaliates with a crit Psycho Cut, leaving Magcargo in critical HP. Another Lava Plume and the enemy goes down.

 

I forgot to screencap her Defeat quote.

"...please"

No?

 

Another pretty easy victory on the first try. By the next time we'll run into her I'll also have plenty of coverage against her Fighting Types.

 

Now that Victoria won't stand in our way anymore we can battle Kiki. Cue Battle

VS Sensei Kiki

Spoiler

 

I wish I had better Fighting coverage right now.

Pansear makes a temporary return to the team! But only to Yawn at Machamp; he gets annihilated by Rock Slide immediately afterwards.

 

Typhlosion sets up a Nature Power=>Meditate and then loses less than half his HP to Payback before Mqachamp falls asleep.

Another Meditate while Machamp is asleep, then a max power Flame Charge puts it into critical HP. Kiki tries to heal it, but another Flame Charge puts it right back. After Kiki used her second Ultra Potion a third, now sufficientlyy Metronome-boosted Flame Charge OHKO's Machamp.

 

Gallade gets annihilated by a crit Shadow Claw.

 

Toxicroak gets destroyed by Flame Charge.

 

Hitmonlee, for some reason, decides to not break up Typhlosion's killing spree with Fake Out and gets OHKO'd by Flame Charge as a result.

 

Another Flame Charge and Typhlosion hits the level cap...

 

It's Ace vs Ace, but one of them is ridiculously boosted.

Medicham falls to Shadow Claw.

 

 

This battle was fairly troublesome. I barely even got past Gallade because its high SpDef. totally shut down most of my Pokémon. Strength also teared though all of my Pokémon's HP harder than Rock Slide.

And for all that trouble I didn't even get a Badge. :I

 

That's all for today; quite a bunch of Boss Battles. Even more will follow tomorrow.

Until then, see ya!