A Pokemon Reborn run with 0 Exp and a TON of other Restrictions

[Guzam]

Title is self-explanatory, here's a video!

 

Description of said video which details the rules and restrictions of the run are in the spoiler below

A 0 exp run of the pokemon fan-game: Pokemon Reborn which has a sort of notoriety for it's darker, grittier atmosphere and story, and most importantly, higher than average difficulty for a pokemon game. The way Reborn does difficulty is mostly through limiting what good stuff is available to it, be it pokemon, tms or even held items. Most stuff you'll find in the OU tier of Smogon? Pretty much gone until the endgame. Speaking of endgame, Reborn is interesting in that it has a loooooong story, with 18 gym leaders, an Elite 4, and a tooon of other bosses to fight along the way, including rivals, the evil team, or even super strong pokemon that act as trainers and as such, can't be caught.

For those not in the know, A 0 exp run is a variant of the self imposed low-level run restriction done in various rpgs. At the end of any battle, Pokemon will receive 0 exp so that no level ups will ever occur. As such, the Pokemon at your disposal will never grow, growing obsolete after a short while (with some exceptions of course). This means I will be constantly shifting up the party as new wild pokemon that are higher leveled become available.

Before I jump into Ferns team, I'd like to go over a few other restrictions I've set in place for this run.

-No Items can be used in battle

The only exception to this is held items. Aside from those, there will be no healing items, no X items, etc. Z-stones and Mega stones which appear later on will also be allowed for usage.

-No TMs, Move Relearner or Move Tutor

This is what really makes the run what it is. The game would be a lot easier if you could teach some of the available pokemon TMs or have the later ones relearn moves so they aren't stuck with crap, but I've found the game is doable without them, and as such I won't be using them in this run.

-Set Battle Style

This one should be obvious. It's done to make battles a lot more interesting and challenging. This also gives me the chance to mention that a lot of Reborns bosses fight in Double Battles, where you can't switch out anyway. Due to this being a fan game and the code for it not being implemented yet, there are no triple battles.

-Species Clause

Some bosses can be cheesed if multiple of the same pokemon are used. While that's cool and all, I like a fair challenge a lot more, so I'll be restricting that kind of play from myself.

It is currently not possible to set up a run like this without modding your game to do so.

With the intro out of the way, let's jump into the first "real" rival battle of the game against Fern, a cocky dickhead who thinks he's 2cool4school and says he's gonna beat ur ass. With how many options are available before him, he's an absolute joke.

Gulpin can be found in one of the starting areas in a dumpster and with liquid ooze, it completely destroys his lead and its AI.

Next up is Sandile, who isn't too bad as the available pokemon can greatly outlevel it. It my case, I caught an event Teddiursa and reset until it was Adamant nature, which allowed its Fury Swipes to obliterate the thing.

Ferns ace, Rowlet, comes in right after and sits there to eat up some more fury swipes from Teddiursa before dying. Fern isn't quite a challenge whatsoever given how many high leveled poison types you can find before him, and other various high leveled pokemon, be it events or in the wild. He serves moreso as an intro the concept of a 0 exp run for me.

 

Leave any questions in the replies below, or in the video above.

[Guzam]

Part two is up people!

Description is very long. As with last post, it's in the spoiler below:

After infiltrating a factory filled with Reborns evil organization Team Meteor inside, we make our way to the first REAL battle of the 0 Exp run, and what a tricky one it is. The things mentioned in the previous video about how Reborn does difficulty (By limiting pokemon and items available to you) and the restrictions I've put on myself make this for an extremely tough fight.

Julia is Pokemon Reborn's first gym leader of many, and astute viewers (or people who've played the game before) may have noticed that Julia has a weird battle background, and flavor text that says the field is hyper charged. This is another way Reborn creates higher difficulty: Field effects.

Field effects will pop up all throughout reborn and will greatly influence how a battle is played. Certain moves will gain increased power in them, while some may decrease in power. There are also many field effects in Reborn ranging from factories that can power on and off, Swamps that can sap the speed of grounded pokemon, and fire that can deal fire scaling damage to grounded pokemon, and the list goes on. It's a very welcome addition as it spices up what could've been a rather lackluster battle with something to make it more interesting for both sides. Will you play around the field effect, or use it to your advantage?

Back to Julia however, you may have also noticed something else Reborn does to make bosses difficult. Each gym leader will be equipped with not just a field effect, but 6 pokemon as well that all share the leaders signature type. This makes Julia quite the challenge for this run, especially with how strong some of her pokemon can get using the field, and with the restrictions I'm using, I'm only making her stronger too.

With how limited our options are, there's not much that can be brought here to win the battle. One could probably swap out a few of the selected pokemon I brought and come out just fine, but I've also had runs where I only needed my lead (Trubbish), Blitzle and Purrloin. This fight is volatile, much like Julia herself.

Julia will kick off the battle with her Minun, and this will immediately pose a problem for us, as after a couple of charge beam boosts, nothing can take its hits. This forces us to bring in our two best options for tanking in this fight: Lightningrod Goldeen, which can be obtained in a house pool with the Old Rod, and Motor Drive/Lightningrod Blitzle, which can be obtained right outside Julia's gym during a thunderstorm. Julia's Minun only has one attacking move that isn't electric type, and that's Quick Attack, and the same goes for her Plusle which appears later on too. This makes it near useless in the face of Goldeen or Blitzle... So why did I lead Trubbish then?

Trubbish comes with two incredible moves for how early it can be obtained: Toxic Spikes and Acid Spray. After one layer of Toxic Spikes is set up, most of Julia's Pokemon are either put in 2HKO range of Modest Blitzle, or can now be stalled like her Ace later on. Acid Spray, while not shown off much in this fight, will be key for taking out a boss that appears very soon, so it's going to be wise to get Acid Spray on Trubbish whenever we can.

Moving on, after Trubbish gets its spikes up, it doesn't matter if it acid sprays or not on Minun. Blitzle comes in right after and uses Charge, which due to the field effect sharply increases it's Special Defense. A few Shock Waves from here dispose of Julia's Minun, and she will then bring out her Voltorb.

Voltorb is oddly enough, one of the most threatening Pokemon on Julia's team. It's fast and has the dreaded early game killer: Sonicboom, a normal move that deals exactly 20 damage every time it hits. This poses a very real threat to any of my pokemon as most are either 2HKO'd by it, or give it a chance to spam Charge Beam. However, using an Oran Berry (which can be obtained from the wild Gulpin if lucky) or getting a Sonicboom miss will allow Blitzle's Shock Wave and the poison damage from TSpikes to kill Voltorb.

Afterwards, Julia brings in her Alolan-Geodude, which is shiny. Reborns shinies all vary slightly or significantly from the main game shinies, so it's pretty cool to see one so early on. Why am I talking about this? Because Julia's Geodude is unfortunately not enough of a threat to be taken seriously. Two Shock Waves can ko it, or a Shock Wave and in my case a Bite from Poochyena can. The thing is much too slow to cause any real trouble for the team. What can cause trouble for the team however, is Julia's next pokemon.

Julia proceeds to send out Oricorio. This thing is a pain to deal with, as it comes with Work Up and Air Cutter. Air Cutter does a significant amount of damage to anything it hits except Blitzle, who can be dead at this point. With enough brute force from Poochyena and the Adamant Teddiursa from the Fern video though, it should fall as well.

Julia's next pokemon is Plusle, which suffers from the same exact problems as her Minun did in that any electric absorbing pokemon walls it. Goldeen comes out and sits in front of it until it falls. Not much to say about it other than what was said about Minun. What can have a lot said about itself is Julia's late game cleaner and ace.

Electrode! Electrode is Julia's final pokemon and a strong run killer being a fully evolved pokemon with the same threatening potential as her Voltorb, but even moreso being its evolved form and all. It has three of the same moves her Voltorb has in Charge Beam, Sonicboom and Rollout, with its last move being the dreaded Charge, used earlier on in the video by our Blitzle. After one charge, the thing becomes near unkillable without some form of status or a strong physical attacker which can tank a few beams and booms, of which we only have access to one, status. Status alone isn't enough to secure a victory, however, as Julia's Electrode is strong enough and fast enough to wipe out our whole team. That's where our final team member comes into play.

Prankster Purrloins can be found in the northern alleyways of Peridot Ward and come with Sand Attack. Some of you may have noticed that out of all of Julia's attacking moves, not one of them is 100% accurate. For this reason, we abuse prankster to outspeed the Electrode and lower its accuracy to a point where it will have trouble hitting us. From here, with some luck, the poison, and a few hits of our own, Electrode will go down, but it's also important to note that if you want to take down Electrode with a physical attack, you will want a spare pokemon, as Electrodes ability is Aftermath, which could potentially cost you the battle.

With the battle over and done with, Julia gives us our badge, the TM for Charge Beam and a hint on where to go. She points us in the direction of the Obsidia Ward which seems to be having some gardening problems. This in turn will lead us to the Onyx Ward which houses the next gym leader, Florinia, a grass type gym leader. From Julia to Florinia, there's a lot of areas, Pokemon, and bosses to fight, so stay tuned for those, and take care.

Part 3 will include the fights with Victoria and Cain that happen before the PULSE, so stay tuned for that, and as always, take care.

[Guzam]

We out here gettin them almost double uploads (It's 1 AM where I'm at rn).

As per usual, here's the description detailing events in the video

When I said there were quite a few bosses between Julia and Florinia, I did mean that. Upon entering Obsidia ward and seeing the destruction caused by their very poor gardening, you're forced to take a detour that will see you facing three different bosses.

Not all bosses are created equally though. In fact all three of these are so short and easy that they can be put into one video and description! Let's start with the first of the three in question, Victoria.

Victoria is one of your rivals and acts as a sort of roadblock to your progress in most instances she's fought, and it's no different here. She does have good intentions though as she wants to make sure you're strong enough to make it through Obsidia's Slums on your own. A kind gesture, but a roadblock she is no less. Luckily for us, our arsenal has gained much more variety upon entering Obsidia.

Victoria will lead with a Ralts and you'll notice I lead with a Klink. Klink and Noibat are two party members I've picked up from the underground railnet which is accessible from a house in Obsidia. Klinks Gear Grind and Noibat's part dragon type make them both worthwhile additions for this fight. One Gear Grind later, and Ralts go down.

Victoria sends out her Pichu next. Being a Pichu, it's by far the weakest thing you'll be fighting for a while. I switch out to another new addition to the team, Numel, who can be obtained in lower Peridot on rainy days. One well timed Magnitude sees the Pichu fallen, and Victoria brings out her ace, Torracat.

Torracat isn't much of a threat as it can barely stand up to Numel, and practically can't even touch Noibat. A higher Magnitude roll could likely see it taken out in one hit, but Magnitude rolls aren't reliable so I find this to be fine. With Victoria beaten you move through the slums and encounter a group of angry pokemon.

The Scraggy gang is one of those instances of wild Pokemon acting as trainers for boss battles in Reborn that I mentioned back in part 1. It's three Scraggy's and a Scrafty ganging up on you in a double battle. Luckily, Obsidia and the Slums give us access to a Swirlix, which you can obtain for completing a puzzle, a Pidove, which can be found at level 15 in the slums with Air Cutter, a higher leveled Trubbish, and a Makuhita which can come with Fake Out and Force Palm. These four pokemon are all it really takes to make quick work of these four fighting types. After coming out of the slums, you'll be forced to take yet another detour into the Coral Ward, and it's here that you'll encounter your other rival, Cain, for the second time.

Cain has gotten far stronger than Victoria has since battling you after you got your starter. He's got three new team members and has evolved his Nidoran into a Nidorino. Luckily, the fight isn't as hard as it was in earlier versions of Reborn, but it's still a little interesting and one of his later mons which I underestimated actually caused me to flub quite a bit.

Cain leads with an Alolan-Grimer as I lead with Numel, and you might have noticed we have yet another field effect, which is basically a souped up Misty Terrain from the main games. It'll buff various moves and fairy type moves, but doesn't do much in this battle. Still something to keep in mind though. Grimer doesn't stick around for long as Magnitude shows off just how powerful it could end up being, and OHKO's the Grimer.

Cain brings out his Cubone next. In order to combat this, I send out Vanillite, which can be obtained from an ice cream machine in the same area as Swirlix. You'll need one Ice Cream Cone before grabbing it though, as a child is blocking off the machine. Said cones can be obtained on sunny days in front of the Grand Hall. A few Icy Winds from Vanillite will take out the Cubone and cause Cain to send out his latest addition to the party, Popplio.

This thing caused me more trouble than I thought it would, as its Aqua Jet 2HKO'd Blitzle due to the rainy weather that was around before I started the battle. I had to bring out the newly acquired level 20 Skitty you can get in the Coral Ward to damage it, and that still wasn't enough (though I could've used sucker punch to kill it whoops). Pidove came in to finish it off with a Quick Attack, and with that, Cain brings out his ace, Nidorino.

Nidorino comes in at a hefty level 20 with some decent attacks, and can threaten a lot of my lower leveled mons. Keeping that in mind, I growl it and then bring out Trubbish to Acid Spray it until Trubbish dies, and Numel can finish it with a Flame Burst.

Three short and easy battles, and two more slightly tougher boss fights before we can reach Florinia. With how much becomes accessible between each boss, we'll come out just fine. Stay tuned for next time, and take care.

Part 4 will see the PULSE and Fern be taken on. Until then, take care.

[enu]

Hmm, this looks like an interesting challenge. I wonder what you'll do against higher ranked leaders when most pokes are unly available unevolved.

 

Are you allowed to evolve your mons using stones and/or Rare Candies?

 

Is your game also rigged to not gain EVs or is that allowed?

 

Btw. the battles might be a bit more interesting to watch with attack animations on.

[Guzam]

8 minutes ago, baldr said:

Hmm, this looks like an interesting challenge. I wonder what you'll do against higher ranked leaders when most pokes are unly available unevolved.

 

Are you allowed to evolve your mons using stones and/or Rare Candies?

 

Is your game also rigged to not gain EVs or is that allowed?

 

Btw. the battles might be a bit more interesting to watch with attack animations on.

This is a good post as it has quite a few questions some people usually asked me when I did my first attempt of a run like this. I'll start with the evolution question. Yes and no. Yes, I can use stones such as the fire stone, water stone or link stone to evolve pokemon, but no, I cannot use Rare Candies to level pokemon up. Any other methods of evolution that don't involve leveling up are fair game though.

 

As for EV's, I can indeed still get EV's be it through battle or through item usage I've found that in some cases, while not always required, EVs make a lot of Reborn's later battles much easier to deal with.

 

As for animations, I'll consider turning those on. The only reason I don't have them on right now is mostly due to not wanting them to take up even more time while I'm recording, as some of the boss fights can take upwards to 6 minutes per attempt already, and stretching that out to 7-8 minutes due to animation and then having to reset and record another attempt can stack up extra minutes off my time pretty quickly. I'll make an effort to start using them from here on in, but in the future when I get to some of the multi-stage battles like the mansion gauntlet, I will be turning them off for sure, for my sanity's sake.

[Guzam]

Juuuuuuuuuuuuuust a little late on this one

Only a little though. Video Description as usual

Don't upload for one day and suddenly lose all drive to do this. Yikes.

The last of the bosses that stand between us and Florinia, with one being far more interesting than the other (though not as hard as you'll see).

The first of the two is the cause of the Obsidia Wards plant issue, that being the PULSE Tangrowth. For those who haven't played Reborn, or have but don't remember, PULSE is an acronym for Pokemon Ultimation Link-System Exaggerata. It's basically meant to take a pokemon's ability to the extreme as shown by this Tangrowth. Imagine mega evolution, but far more powerful and destructive. The PULSE was set up by Team Meteor to run people out of the Obsidia Ward, and of course, being the silent protagonist we are, we're going to put a stop to it.

The fight opens with our opponent ZEL, who is actually three people trapped in one body, leading with the PULSE Tangrowth. If you thought the PULSE would simply be limited to the overworld due to the Tangrowth not looking any different though, you're sorely mistaken, as ZEL opens the battle by transforming the Tangrowth into it's PULSE form in a manner similar to mega evolution. And much like evolution, the PULSE Tangrowth undergoes a type change, ability change and stat change. Its defenses skyrocket, being around double Tangrowths normal defenses, while its speed takes a huge hit, making it slower than just about everything. It also becomes Grass/Poison and gets Filter as its ability, and combined with the fact it comes with Mega Drain, it can be one tough wall to break down. Luckily for us though, getting access to Cut just before this battle gave us a brand new assortment of pokemon to use against this PULSE, including another Acid Spray Trubbish, who gets the PULSE to -6 special defense. Perfectly set up to be taken down by a few sludges, and a Flame Burst from an Electrike you can get in the same place as the Trubbish (after a rather rough battle with some Mightyena). Said Electrike isn't guaranteed Flame Burst though, and as such, other pokemon such as Pidove, Noibat or Vanillite can also be used to ko the PULSE. A very easy battle, though not the last we'll be seeing of the PULSE or this ZEL individual. With Obsidia saved, we make our way up to Onyx to challenge Florinia...

That's what we would be doing, if Fern weren't blocking our path. Fern, being the grade A douche that he is, decides to try and lock you out from fighting his sister (yes the two green haired grass type users are siblings, whoa, shocker) and makes you run all the way around the trainer school to get to him. He makes it very clear that he intends to beat you down here once and for all, and he means business too, but little does he know we've also got some new tricks up our sleeves.

The Onyx Ward opens up the Onyx Arcade to us, which houses three new pokemon: Shinx, Nidoran and Slugma, two of which we'll use against Fern. Fern leads with Sandile, which hits pretty darn hard as it would turn out. Luckily for us, Nidoran's poison point and double kick deal a hefty amount of damage to the Sandile while also leaving it poisoned. Poison Point doesn't have to proc on turn 1 if you bring an Adamant Nidoran, or have it proc on turn 2, so long as Sandile is left within killing range of Plusle's Swift, all is well (Plusle being yet another pokemon made available in the same place Electrike is).

Fern then whips out his Roselia, which Plusle can outspeed and Sing against. This is also as good a time as any for me to bring up that some of Reborn's event pokemon, like the Electrike used earlier or this Plusle here can come with various egg moves. In my case, I got lucky enough to get Flame Burst and Sing which help a lot, but each of these battles is doable without them (albeit a little more tricky).

I switch out from Plusle to Trubbish on the sleeping Roselia and begin to spam Acid Spray. Fern, noticing the trouble his Roselia is about to be in, switches to his ace in the hole and team killer, Dartrix. This thing hits hard and tanks hits too, so the Acid Spray drop on his switch in is absolutely welcome. Fern swiftly ends my Acid Spraying however with a Pluck on Trubbish, but not before taking some Aftermath damage for it. I then send in Plusle to Electro Ball the thing and do a good chunk to it, but when I said this thing hits hard, I meant it. It uses Razor Leaf and OHKO's my Plusle from full, leaving me to go to my Koffing and hope it can tank nature power, which turns into tri attack here. It does just that and ko's the Dartrix while Roselia comes back in and ko's Koffing.

From here, I send in Slugma who begins to spam Incinerate while Fern spams Mega Drain. Things get a little dicey as it seems Fern is about to KO Slugma with the third mega drain, but he low rolls and Slugma is able to KO with its third Incinerate. While things got a little close here, Electrikes Flame Burst or an Oran Berry on Slugma could've accomplished the same result in the end. With that battle done, Fern rushes off in a hissy fit cause we showed him who's stronger. With him out of the way, we can finally continue on to our second gym leader, Florinia, who's quite the step up from Julia in terms of difficulty if I'm being honest. Luckily, with Fern away from the school, we gain access to another new area, which gives us some vital tools for taking down Florinia... in the next part that is. Until then, stay tuned and take care.

Part 5 will feature Florinia. Stay tuned for that, and take care.

[Guzam]

Star Wars in Reborn :OOOO

I don't like sand.

After a long road building up to her, we finally reach Florinia, Reborn's grass type gym leader, and second one in this run. Compared to Julia, she's definitely a lot tougher too, and that's mostly due to the fact that her being tough is less due to how lucky you need to get and more due to how strong her actual team is.

Much like Julia, Florinia has a field effect to go with her grass type team as well, though it might throw you off a bit to find out that it's actually a desert field. Florinia's nickname around her gym is the "Desert Rose" and with this you can practically see why, she uses plenty of grass types that do well in the sand, and her signature move only makes her mons that much more threatening in it.

Where Julia was rocking Charge Beam, Florinia is using Nature Power, which in Reborn, changes with each field effect it's used on. In the desert fields case, it becomes Sand Tomb, and in the desert, it not only receives a power increase, it deals more residual damage to you as well. This makes it hard to bring in fire types against her, as many of them will eat a super effective sand tomb and fall to the chip damage it does to them. What can potentially make the chip damage even worse is Florinia's lead, Maractus.

Florinia's Maractus comes with Spikes, an entry hazard similar to Toxic Spikes that deals damage to grounded pokemon upon entering the battle, rather than poisoning them. If she gets Spikes up, and sandstorm later on, expect to start taking a lot of residual damage very quickly. Don't expect flying types to save you either, as Florinia packs a very nasty surprise for them too. We'll get to that later though. First, my lead, Trubbish yet again. You're going to notice Florinia misses a Sand Tomb against me turn 1 and this allows me to get up two layers of Toxic Spikes, and that's great for this run, but by no means is it required. In fact, in retrospect, it would be far better to wait until later on to set up Toxic Spikes, as the next two pokemon from Florinia aren't effected by it anyway, and one of them is prime to have them set up on it. But, Hindsight is 20/20, and I don't feel the need to rerecord the run when I have another successful one right here.

Tangent aside, Trubbish falls to the Maractus and in comes what I should've actually lead with, Tranquil. As noted in the previous video, with Ferns defeat a new area opened up to us and gave us access to high leveled Tranquils and a Spearow with Aerial Ace, which can work wonders here. Tranquil lands two Air Cutters and sends the Maractus packing, keeping it from getting up spikes.

Florinia then decides it would be a good idea to send out her Breloom? I don't quite get it either, but it's great for us. It goes for a Mach Punch which fails to kill Tranquil and we respond in turn with Air Cutter yet again and OHKO the Breloom. This thing can be far more threatening if you don't use Tranquil as it carries Leech Seed and Spore, though the department store in Obsidia sells Chesto Berries, so this thing really shouldn't cause you too much trouble. Be aware that it does have Poison Heal though, which is the main reason why it would be best to set up TSpikes on Florinia's next pokemon instead.

Ferroseed. This is the thing I should've been setting up Toxic Spikes on, as it doesn't hit as hard as Maractus, and is slower than Trubbish to boot. It's not exactly Florinia's best pokemon, but there are a few points of interest with it, namely sandstorm and the Telluric Seed it carries. Sandstorm piles up more residual damage on you and makes Florinia's last few pokemon more threatening, and the Telluric Seed buffs Ferroseeds Sp def and Def at the cost of putting it in a Sand Tomb. Reborn features 4 different kinds of seeds that can grant their holders various effects in certain fields such as this one. It makes this Ferroseed in particular a lot harder to take out, though luckily, it can be stalled just as well as it can stall. The Tranquil we caught comes with Roost which is great in a run like this where no healing items are allowed. It allows me to keep Tranquil healthy enough to end up weakening Ferroseed for Spearow to take out (albeit after a LOONG time).

Next is Cottonee, an interesting choice so to speak. It has prankster leech seed, poison powder and nature power, and coupled with its last move protect, it can start piling up residual damage on any pokemon you have super quickly. For this reason, we've equipped Spearow with a Pecha berry to keep it from getting chipped at as much as possible. Combined with Aerial Ace and Koffings Sludge after it falls, Cottonee rather easily falls, but we are soon met with that nasty surprise I mentioned earlier. It's Florinia's ace, Cradily!

Cradily, much like Julia's Electrode is a super strong pokemon to be fighting here early on. It's got high bulk and some decent attacking stats and coupled with the sand it can be even more menacing, but it can be exploited much like Julia's Electrode can be. Firstly, it has no way to deal with status, much like the Electrode. Secondly, its moves are also what allows it to be as easy as it is, as it comes with Stockpile, Recover, Sandstorm and Smack Down. With how Toxic Damage builds up over time, and Cradily only having one attacking move, the way to win here is to make the staller become the stalled. We switch from Spearow to the Makuhita we caught in the slums in order to eat some Smack Downs and keep the toxic damage piling up. A Fake Out causes damage to build up even more, and Sand Attack (whose accuracy dropping powers are amplified here) allows for less damage to potentially be done. From there it's just a matter of continuing to keep Cradily on the field taking more damage until it drops.

Finally, Florinia brings out her last Pokemon, Cacnea. Despite the fact its got Sand Veil and plenty of annoying moves like Leech Seed and Sand Attack, it's arguably the easiest pokemon on her team to take out, as it's rather slow, not very bulky, and can't hit any flying type, or our Koffing very hard. Some well placed Sludges finish it off, and we finally earn our second badge.

With our second badge in hand and the Nature Power TM, Florinia tells us to make for the Jasper and Beryl Wards, which are also experiencing some plant issues. Beryl is also home to the next gym leader, so we'd be heading up there eventually anyway, best to do that now. Many new areas will open up on the way to the next leader, and while there are less boss fights on the way too him, the road is rather long and filled with many new pokemon to catch. Said pokemon will be key in taking out the next leader, as he's a rather big step up in difficulty compared to Florinia and Julia. Until then, stay tuned and take care.

Part 6 will feature the first Taka battle, and the double battle with Taka and ZEL. Until then, stay tuned and take care.

[Guzam]

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

PULSEgrowth stuff.

On our way to the Beryl Ward gym leader, Corey, we are forced to take on two more PULSE Tangrowths that are blocking the way to it, one in the nearby Jasper Ward, and one in the Beryl Ward itself, and much like the Obsidia Ward PULSE, both are being kept safe by team Meteor admins. The first we fight is Taka in the Jasper Ward, who unlike ZEL, also uses his own pokemon in battle too, alongside the PULSE Tangrowth, making for a much more interesting battle, though still relatively easy.

Taka will lead with an Exeggcute which is extremely weak to the numerous grass types found in the forest right next to Jasper. The one I bring in particular is Carnivine, which comes with Bite. It makes quick work of the eggs and forces out Taka's real threat, Chatot. Chatot is a bit of a menace as, much like Julia's Electrode, it's fast and hits hard. Not only that, it's immune to spikes and comes with Nasty Plot and its signature move, Chatter, a special flying type attack that will always confuse whoever it hits. If it gets off even one Nasty Plot, a run can be lost. This is why I bring in Emolga, another pokemon made available in Jasper that comes with Nuzzle, an electric type move that paralyzes 100% of the time so long as it hits. Combined with Plusles Electro Ball, Chatot goes down relatively easy. With that down, Taka is then forced to bring out the PULSE Tangrowth. Not much to say here that I didn't say last time, a few Acid Sprays from the same Trubbish before and a strong special attack and it's down. A relatively easy battle. The next one, not so much.

Upon entering the Beryl Ward, you'll be forced to divert into a nearby jungle which is home to quite a few good pokemon, most of which don't see any usage here, except one, which I'll get into in a bit. The jungle and the rest of the Beryl Ward house some police officers, who if saved, will head back to the police station in Jasper. If you talk to the chief after saving 4 and finding one deceased officer, he'll give you a Growlithe and come to your aid after the battle with the Beryl PULSE. Said Growlithe can come with a few moves, the one I got came with Close Combat, which isn't bad, but I would've much preferred Morning Sun. It also didn't come with Intimidate, but it came with Adamant nature, which is all I really wanted, for this battle and the gym battle. Growlithe aside, upon reaching the PULSE we will be confronted by Taka, ZEL and a cloaked individual who seems to be their superior. He orders Taka and ZEL to fight us while he deals with a young girl who flies in to assist us, and thus, the battle commences.

This is the first double battle fight of Reborn that's worth showing off, and rightfully so. It's a 6v6 double battle with ZEL now using their full team and Taka using their team + Tangrowth. Taka's team is unchanged, but ZEL's team proves to be quite threatening this time around as they pack a Glaceon, an Espeon and an Umbreon, two of which are bulky and hit hard, and the other is fast and hits even harder. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to approach this battle again, but by my third attempt I finally had a winning plan.

The duo leads with Exeggcute and Glaceon, Glaceon being the biggest problem here. I lead with Growlithe and Makuhita. Makuhita's only purpose in this battle is to Fake Out the Glaceon so that Growlithe can 2HKO the thing without getting hit by its Icy Wind. After taking some chip from Exeggcute, I switch it out for more fake out usage later on and bring in Ledian, who I was referring to before.

Ledian comes with Silver Wind, a move that can be useful in this battle being effective against half of the pokemon on the opponents side. It's also prone to increasing every single stat of Ledians. It's not required, but it makes this fight so much easier. Growlithe takes out Glaceon and Exeggcute continues to not do much. Espeon comes in and from here, Growlithe takes the hits from it so that Ledian can take it out.

As ZEL brings in their Umbreon, I bring out Trubbish once more to Acid Spray the Umbreon and make Silver Wind nearly KO it. I then switch Trubbish to Makuhita and watch as Ledian falls to Umbreon. Tranquil comes in and uses Air Cutter to bring down the Umbreon and deal big damage to Exeggcute. With ZEL taken down, we can finally get to work on taking out Taka. The fight from here goes about the same as last time, only this time in doubles, and with no move to paralyze Chatot. I equip my pokemon with Persim berries in an effort to make the Chatot easier to hit and it works, leaving me with Plusle and Trubbish to take out the PULSE Tangrowth. I have Plusle use Sing on it, and Trubbish spray and sludge, defeating it. With the battle over, the meteors superior runs away and we can now face the gym. Until then, take care.

Next part will feature Corey and maybe commentary if I think it turns out ok, since there's a few things that should be said about that battle that I don't want to pack into the description. Until then, stay tuned and take care.

[Guzam]

solid oof

Sample Text

Shortly after the Team Meteor superior from last video ran off, the police ambushed him and revealed him to be none other than Corey, the Beryl Ward gym leader! But what happens if you don't get the police to ambush here? Reborn will have moments in the story like this where making one choice can alter certain story events as they happen, and this is one such event. If Corey is not ambushed here, he will actually fight you with a different field effect. While there are other events kind of like this, I find this one to be the most drastic in terms of how it changes difficulty.

Corey can come with one of two fields, Corrosive Field if he wasn't ambushed, and Corrosive Mist Field if he was. The Corrosive Field deals type scaling poison type damage to all grounded non-poison/steel types upon entry. I find it to be the much easier of the two because it has various other beneficial effects such as upping all powder moves accuracy to 100, Upping Acid/Acid Sprays power, and the entry thing. Corrosive Mist on the other hand poisons you at the end of each turn, heals dry skin mons, ups bubbles and fire moves power, amplifies aftermath, and causes special flying type attacks to gain additional poison typing. It can seem extremely threatening... at first, that is. I'll get to why it actually makes the fight easier later on.

Corey leads with a Skrelp holding a focus sash, it's not too much of a threat at all as it's slow enough to the point where it'll only ever hit you once and then die. I bring Plusle back once more to use Electro Ball against it, knocking it down rather easy. Though the poison mist does poison our team, pecha berries bought from the department store give us one turn without being poisoned, which is one of the reasons the mist field is a lot easier to deal with. Corey then brings in Croagunk, which is just as much of a threat as his Skrelp, so not at all. One Switch to Fearow and an Aerial Ace later and its gone.

Next comes Mareanie which seems threatening on paper, having Merciless proccing at all times and getting boosted Venoshocks to boot, but its so weak and not too bulky that it goes down as easy as the Skrelp and the Croagunk. It does take out Fearow unfortunately, but Plusle comes in soon after to net the KO. Next comes one of the only actual threats on Corey's team, his Skuntank.

This thing is fast, bulky, hits hard as hell, and has a great defensive typing. I'd say it's easily the most threatening member on his team if you DID bring a steel type with you. If you didn't, it's the second most threatening. It outspeeds my Plusle and finishes it off, so I bring in an Arbok caught just outside the gym. Using Glare and Screech that it comes with, we've now set the stage for our Skuntank killer to come in. Huge Power Bunnelby's can be caught in the Rhodocrine Jungle with Take Down. After one screech, an adamant Huge Power Take Down sends the Skuntank packing, but we also take a hell of a lot of damage from recoil and Aftermath.

Corey's third most threatening member, Nidorina comes in. While not as bulky as Skuntank, the thing can hit pretty damn hard due to having Hustle as its ability. That's also a major disadvantage for it too though, as Hustle causes it to miss not one, but two attacks in this fight, which causes it to fall without dealing any damage to our Growlithe. Then comes Corey's ace and potentially most threatening team member, Crobat.

This thing is like Julia's Electrode and Florinia's Cradily combined. It's fast, it's bulky, it takes advantage of the field, it has set up, and it hits hard as hell. Much like the other two though, it also has a fatal flaw. Remember earlier how I said the mist field adds additional poison type damage to flying moves? Corey's Crobat comes with Air Cutter and Venoshock as its only attacking moves. This in turn makes it unable to hit any steel type whatsoever, making it the most laughable threat ever. Corey sets up to +6 in our face and can't even do anything with it. How sad. I use a Klink from way back in Obsidia to wall the bat and hit it a lot until it falls. All in all a very weird fight, challenging at first glance, but easy once you learn the field and Corey's team.

It's not over for us yet though, as Corey seems reluctant to give us our badge. He heads out and we follow him. Where will we go from there? Well, you'll just have to stay tuned to find out.

Part 8 soon(?) Idk, I've started up College so uploading schedule will be volatile. Next part will feature Aster+Eclipse 2 and Victoria 3, until then stay tuned and take care.

[Guzam]

When a gamer ?????????????????????????

A thing

After our battle with Corey in the Beryl Ward, the man decided he had had enough and took himself out of the game to put it lightly. That means no badge for us. Fortunately though, we witness a terrorist act take place from a top Beryl Bridge, giving us a place to head off to next, that place being the Grand Stairway in North Obsidia and the Lapis Ward, home to another... really difficult gym leader. Can't wait for that one. Back to that terrorist act though.

Turns out Team Meteor blew up the Grand Stairway and is making their way down towards some ruins at the bottom of it. They also nab Victoria, who's only able to fight when she's trying to stop us apparently. Good stuff. Anyway, we meet a mysterious man who points us in the direction of the two goons who nabbed Victoria, Aster and Eclipse.

Seeing as how they have 4 rock types and you're paired with Victoria here, there's really no way a player should be losing this battle, even with a terrible team. Speaking of terrible, our options in this portion of the game are absolutely horrible, maybe not for this fight, but for the next gym leader, definitely so. Here, they're extremely useful. We get plenty of good dark types from alleyways, and good rock/ground types from under the stairway. Persian and Graveler in particular are very good for this fight against Aster and Eclipse.

Shortly after saving Victoria, she's in our way again, this time acting so as to keep us from fighting the young gym leader, Shelly, who is more likely than not traumatized by Corey's departure and the other events taking place around her. Again, a considerate move on her part, but she is still a roadblock... Just as easy of one as last time too.

Fearow deals with her new lead, Pancham, very well, demolishing it with Aerial Ace and forcing in Victoria's Pikachu. This Pikachu, as expected, can't do jack to a Graveler from the Stairway. Kirlia comes in after and we pull out our new Stunky from an alleyway to deal with it. It has no moves that can touch it, so it's doomed to a slow Acid Spray death. Victoria tries to save it by bringing out her Torracat, but this thing is incapable of much too, falling to the combo of Graveler and Alolan Persian, and from there, it's an easy win.

Certainly an easy series of battles, but don't let them lead you into a false sense of hope. Hell, don't let any of the easy matches and gym leader flaws from the early game fool you. This next gym leader battle really amps up the difficulty, gunning for a spot as the hardest battle in the run. It's absolutely brutal. You'll have to stay tuned to see it and find out why though. Until next time, take care.

Part 9 will be featuring one of the highlights of this run. Look forward to it.

[rayyan]

Just saw this and have one word to say "WOW!"

 

[Guzam]

Here it is, the highlight of the entire run thus far:

You really should give this description a read if you have the time.

This is it, the contender for the hardest fight in the entire run. Shelly is the 4th gym leader we fight and a bug type gym leader, it really seems like she shouldn't be too hard. All that gets flipped on its head though when you realize this is a double battle in a field that buffs her and she's got plenty of utility and moves that hit both of your pokemon at the same time. This is a battle where I'm going to have to go over every factor just to really help you guys get how barbaric this fight is/was. So stick with me for a bit here and get ready for a long read.

Let's start with availability. This includes items, pokemon, etc. When it comes to this portion of the game, we had some great options for taking on the previous two bosses, fast hard hitting dark types and bulky ground/rock types and some flying pokemon left over from Beryl. Unfortunately for us though, these pokemon have flaws, that being they're either weak to bug and thus can't do anything here, or they lack any bulk and or speed whatsoever so they won't live past Shelly hitting them twice. Not to mention everythings level is super low. The highest leveled pokemon you can catch before Shelly that isn't over the level cap is Dunsparce at level 35. The next highest leveled mon is level 27. To put this into perspective, Shelly's levels range from 31-35. Shit. Items at this point are pretty scarce too, but luckily we do have access to the 4th floor of the department store which gives us useful items such as the white herb (which is used in this fight) and the air balloon. What's even more important than those however is a hidden item that you can pick up two of before this point, the Telluric Seed. One is hidden in Malchous Forest and the other is in a house in North Obsidia. These will boost a pokemons attack by one stage on this field and also grant them spiky shield for a turn. It's very broken and abuseable, and pretty much downright required to win this fight. You might be able to slip by with one, but two makes it so much more easier on yourself. With that out of the way, let's go over the field and battle format and what it means for us.

Shelly battles us in a double battle. She is the first gym leader to do this to us, and alone, it wouldn't be as bad. Factor in her field effect though, and she's now become a nightmare. Shelly's signature move is Struggle Bug, which hits both of your pokemon, and also gets buffed by the Forest Field effect. Couple this with the fact that we have lower levels, non-fully evolved mons, and the fact that every member on her team will be spamming it (bar 2 of them) and your team is primed and ready to be wiped out if on the field for too long. Looking at the forest field though you might come to the realization we can change it into a burning field via a move like flame burst, from the Electrike we got. This sounds great at first, until you realize Shelly leads with Prankster Illumise which has Rain Dance and is holding a Damp Rock. Rain Dance prevents the field from being burned, and will stop it from burning if it's used after the field starts to burn. Just great. While I'm on the subject of Illumise, now is a good time to go over Shelly's entire team and what they do, and why each of her team of 6 is a threat here.

Shelly's designated lead here is Illumise and Masquerain. I'll start with Illumise. As mentioned before, Illumise is packing Prankster and a Damp Rock to make Rain Dance last for 8 turns if it uses it. It comes with Confuse Ray as well, coupled with Prankster means it will always be able to confuse you at the start of the turn if it feels like doing so, which becomes a huge problem for my strat later on. As for the attacking department, while it might be Shelly's weakest, that doesn't mean anything here, as it's just the weakest of 6 strong team members. It comes with Struggle Bug which becomes field boosted and hits both team members, and Dazzling Gleam, which also hits both team members. I really do hate this thing a lot, it's bulky, annoying and is always chipping away at the team. What doesn't make it any better is it's co-lead, Masquerain.

This Masquerain is what makes the lead match-up so rough to figure out as it comes with Intimidate, meaning all the good physical attackers you'll want to run due to struggle bug spam get -1 upon leading and thus have an even harder time taking out these two. It and Illumise are already relatively bulky to begin with, and this doesn't help either. Did I also mention it hits hard? Because it does. Despite having an Adamant nature (done to try and make it not too crazy) it's holding Silverpowder, which buffs bug type moves. Combine this with the Field and STAB and Struggle Bug will still be killing everything. Struggle Bug isn't the only move it has that you need to worry about though. It also has Icy Wind, which can lower both of your team members speed, Bubblebeam, which hits rock and fire types hard in the rain and Energy Ball, to nail water types trying to take advantage of the rain. This thing and Illumise form a killer lead, and it only gets worse when one of them drops.

From here, Shelly has quite a few options she can bring in. More often than not, I usually see her Anorith come out. Anorith is by far the biggest hurdle to overcome in this fight aside from Shelly's ace of course. This Anorith comes packing a Telluric Seed, which if you recall is quite busted on this field, and Swift Swim. Couple that with the fact that it's more than likely raining, and things have already been set up for disaster, but it gets even worse. Anorith comes with Aqua Jet, a priority water move that gets boosted power in the rain, don't expect any heavily damaged pokemon to live it if it goes for it. It also has Rock Slide, which is hits both pokemon like Struggle Bug, but has Rock Type STAB (to kill fire and flying's) and can also flinch you. Combine it with its super speed, +1 attack and a confuse ray from Illumise and it's now capable of wiping the floor with our team. Our only real hope to taking this thing out is a Telluric Seed of our own as it'll protect us from this threat. Less threatening is that it has Rapid Spin and Knock Off. Knock Off is nothing special, and Rapid Spin is only there for if a player has stealth rocks (which we don't btw, it'd be really helpful to have here).

Up next is Yanmega.Yep. An early game Yanmega, what could possibly go wrong here. Literally everything. The thing has 116 base special attack and is packing a modest nature, not just this, it's got Speed Boost too, so don't think about outspeeding it here. It's got Struggle Bug which is bound to annihilate most pokemon that step to it, Giga Drain which gets boosted damage from the field to kill rock/ground types and heal itself, Air Cutter to hit both of our mons with its Flying STAB, and Ancientpower to kill flying types. This thing needs to be dealt with ASAP as well, as it's just as threatening as the Anorith is.

What's arguably Shelly's least threatening pokemon is her Araquanid. It's not that it's any weaker than anything before it, it's a few things actually. For one, the thing is slow, we'll be able to outspeed it with just about anything and usually hit it for massive damage to boot. Not only this, it's also packing no Struggle Bug. It's only move to hit two pokemon at the same time with is Icy Wind, which will be doing jack shit with its base 50 special attack. It's other moves can be a little scary though. It has a Damp Rock and Rain Dance as well to clear up burning fields that some how made it past Illumise. Combine that rain with its ability Water Bubble and Bubblebeam, and you probably aren't going to be living that. Bug Bite is it's last move, and while not as threatening, still hits hard coming off of STAB and 70 base attack. Overall the weakest link, but something that can't be ignored either.

Finally, we have Shelly's Ace, Volbeat. This thing is the late game run killer. I know I called Illumise the weakest member earlier, but I'm pretty sure this thing is, rocking a base 47 special attack. The real problem with it, is how bulky it is compared to the rest of Shelly's team. While everything else can be taken out in 1-2 hits, we'd be lucky to KO this thing is 2 at all, even with boosts. It's got the same bulk as Illumise, but is also rocking a Bold Nature, Leftovers, Prankster Moonlight and 31 IVs. It cannot be taken down easily, not to mention all the while it's still throwing off boosted Struggle Bugs at you or Dazzling Gleams. This late into the run, a bulky killer is the last thing we want to see, but it can get even worse if Shelly decides to use Tail Glow, which boosts the damn things Special Attack by 3 stages and now allows it to KO basically anything.

Alone and in singles, Shelly's team could be a cakewalk, but in doubles with the constant dual hitting moves, the field and a lack of options, the battle becomes a nightmare. However, there is still a way to win this, a strategy that can end the battle with a bit of luck. A strategy that took me nearly 30 attempts to find and get working and eventually succeed with. Here's the set up.

The lead is a high leveled Dunsparce from beneath the stairway with Rattled, and an Adamant Fearow with enough speed IV's and EV's to break 60 speed. This needs to be done in order to outspeed the Masquerain on turn 2 and KO it, while also dealing heavy damage to Illumise on turn 1. Rattled will boost Dunsparce speed any time a bug type move hits it, which will eventually get it to a point where it outspeeds most of Shelly's mons. These two are equipped with White Herbs so that they regain their attack after being intimidated. Dunsparce needs to put Masquerain into range of Fearow's Aerial Ace, and Fearow has to put Illumise in range of a boosted Dunsparce Take Down. If all goes according to plan, turn 1 should end with Dunsparce at +1 speed, and Masquerain and Illumise chipped by Take Down and Aerial Ace respectively. Next, Fearow needs to KO Masquerain while Dunsparce begins to set up Coil's on itself. This will be done in an attempt to take the brunt of Anoriths attacks, while also boosting its attack to deal major damage later on. Turn 2 should end with Masquerain down, Dunsparce with boosted stats, and both mons alive.

From here, Shelly should bring in Anorith. What's done from here is we switch Fearow out to random fodder that absolutely has to be KO'd by Rock Slide here, while Dunsparce use's Roost to heal up. The absolute worst case scenario here is if Dunsparce flinches and Rock Slide misses your fodder. A reset is usually what follows. From here, we bring in a Telluric Seed Graveler, with an attack boosting nature and Sturdy. Due to being protected on this turn, it's free to use Smack Down on Anorith and OHKO it while also being invulnerable to Rock Slide and Struggle Bug. From here, Dunsparce can either Roost or Coil again depending on how much HP it has. Roost is the safest option as Take Down recoil could hurt later. Turn 4 ends with Dunsparce healed, Graveler at full health and +1, and just Illumise on Shelly's side. Yanmega should come in, and from here Rattled Dunsparce needs to outspeed Illumise and likely break through confusion to KO it with Take Down. Yanmega will more likely than not Struggle Bug here which can potentially kill Graveler, hence the Sturdy. Smack Down after a Sturdy proc should get the Yanmega down.

Next comes the final two, Araquanid and Volbeat. Depending on how much health Dunsparce has left, you should either Take Down Araquanid (high health) or Take Down Volbeat (low health). If Dunsparce lives the turn, it should immediately go for a Take Down on Volbeat thereafter. My turn ends with Dunsparce living, Graveler fainting and Araquanid being chipped. From here I bring in Telluric Seed Doduo, who I have use Pluck on Volbeat this turn while it's protected. Coupled with the Take Down, Volbeat is very nearly down and out. I bring Fearow back in to hit up Araquanid while Doduo hits Volbeat. As long as no lucky crits are scored, Fearow and Doduo should live and finish out the fight.

There's a lot that can go wrong here if you couldn't tell, but it was all I could come up with, and hey, it worked out in the end. All's well that ends well. With Shelly defeated we get her badge and she informs us to speak with Ame at the Grand Hall about Corey's replacement. With probably the hardest battle in the run over and done with now, we can head on with a renewed vigor. This was uh... fun, I guess. I certainly enjoyed it when I finally conquered Shelly, but I'm more than happy that this next portion of the game is something I can just sort of coast through. With this long ass write-up concluded, I ask you to stay tuned, and take care, as usual.

Part 10 will feature Fern 3 and Cain 3. Until then, take care and stay tuned.

[Guzam]

Yikes

Short description this time

Thankfully after that last battle with Shelly, things become so, so much easier for a while. These two battles really help to show off just why that is too... sort of.

As I show off in the battles here, with Shelly defeated and us now having access to rock smash, so many new pokemon become available to us that we no longer have to worry about a huge level gap or lack of options now. Despite that though, there can still be difficulties encountered here, namely in the fight with Fern.

As shown, everything in the Fern battle goes relatively smoothly, he doesn't seem like much of a threat as his two ground types and Dartrix are easily taken out by new additions Shiinotic and Alolan Sandslash. What's not so easily taken out however is his newly evolved Roserade. This thing has good coverage, and hits hard to boot with hidden power due to having technician. As if that wasn't enough, it comes with Giga Drain and Leftovers, making it a nuisance to kill much like Shelly's Volbeat. Thankfully, using a Diggersby I caught with a sp def increasing nature, and flail, I damage the thing enough to a point where newly caught Vivillon can (barely) live and KO on the next turn. Simple stuff.

Just as simple as Fern is Cain. Despite how shoddily I play the battle out here, I believe it's pretty clear just why he was never going to win the battle in the first place, unfortunately for him. Much like Fern, his lead is easily taken out by Shiinotic, and despite my losing Golett to his Alolan Marowak, and getting Donphan burned by its Will-o-Wisp, Donphan proves that even while burned, it still manhandles this fight, plowing through Marowak, Grimer and Nidoking with relative ease.

Two very short and easier fights that are extremely welcome after what came just before. As for story, something something orphanage, something jailbreak, turn on the old power plant, it just so happens the next gym leader is there, tah dah. Until next time, stay tuned, and take care.

Part 11 will feature Shade. cool and edgy.

[Guzam]

Holy shit, fucking finally, amirite?

?????????????? Below

 

College has really been hittin me hard if you guys couldn't tell.

 

That said, I do have a bunch of videos coming down the pipeline, I mostly just need to type up their descriptions now and we're good. Aside from that, we've got a relatively simple leader battle compared to Shelly last time, so I'll keep this run down as short as I can.

After helping a bunch of Orphans run away under the railnet, we're tasked with going to the abandoned power plant to turn the power back on for the railnet. In order to do that we'll have to defeat Reborn's Ghost leader Shade, an entity who doesn't say or do much aside from hang out in their creepy gym... Except they've actually got an extreme amount of plot relevance later on, so it's like ???

Anyway, Shade, being a ghost leader in a dark room gets some major buffs to his mons go figure and right away he leads with a killer in Gengar, aptly named Corey too as Shade ended up taking Corey's body away after he took himself out of the game. Yikes. Anyway, I use a newly acquired Scraggy and a Cell Battery to eat a TBolt from the Gengar and OHKO it right back. That's really the best way to kill the thing due to its speed and power. Afterwards, Shade sends out his Banette which I didn't expect to be as annoying as it was. The thing gets boosted Shadow Claws and Dazzling Gleams meaning it can hit pretty hard on most of the available team members. I use intimidate Mawile to lower its attack and then Baton Pass out of there after landing one crunch to bring in Donphan who KO's the thing. Donphan comes out here in order to manipulate which pokemon Shade brings out next.

Said pokemon being Rotom. This thing seems threatening on paper, but luckily for us, wild Diggersby end up destroying this thing and Shade's AI. Rather than switch out against something he can't hit, he spams confuse ray and pain split while I odor sleuth and double kick/Facade him to death. Dhelmise comes out next and I mud shot it with Diggersby just to make sure Alolaslash can outspeed it next turn. I bring in Alolaslash (who's holding nevermeltice from the cave below the power plant) and begin to spam Ice Ball, which ends up destroying Dhelmise and heavily damaging Shade's Doublade, so much so that Donphan can come in right after and KO the thing with Knock Off. Then comes Shade's ace and most threatening mon, Mimikyu.

Mimikyu is a late game killer. It's fast, has disguise, has SD, and comes with buffed up Shadow Claw and fairy moves to boot. It's pretty damn dangerous so I opt to try and break its disguise first with Donphan (and fail) and bring out Mawile to intimidate it and try to do the same again. That fails too, but luckily we can still win with our final member, Klang. Klang comes with Gear Grind which can do a huge number on Mimikyu, and can bulk two of its -1 Shadow Claws assuming it doesn't crit. This allows it to pick up the kill and secure our win against Shade. Good stuff. Also the orphans get captured as soon as the railnet door opens. Oops. Guess we'll have to find a way to save em, next time.

 

Part 12 will feature ZEL 2, Cal and Victoria 4. Until next time, bye.

[Guzam]

Don't ever ask me for anything again

Here's your description:

Yeah yeah I'm late, fuck it, whatever

I'll keep the description short and sweet for this one this time, I think I'll get back to longer descriptions at gym leader battles and other late game boss battles. That said, it's time for a rematch with ZEL.

ZEL leads with Glaceon, it's not too scary, goes down really easy to a lead Klang with Gear Grind. Espeon comes out next and is a little scary, being fast and having Psychic which hits pretty hard. Luckily Klang gets a Grind off before falling. I then send in Alola-Slash to spam NeverMeltIce boosted Ice Balls on Espeon until it dies. Muk comes out next, and as seen, it's another PULSE mon. It's really bulky and has protean so all of its moves hit decently hard. Luckily Alolaslash hits one last Ice Ball before going out, leaving sturdy Donphan free to come in, eat a hit and KO. Donphan has to be the one to come out, otherwise ZEL will use their hyper potions on Muk. Umbreon is the last thing out, and while bulky, it's not exactly a threat, hit with some bug buzzes, double kicks and flail, it goes down easy enough. After this battle, we travel to the lone island of Apophyll to get strength from the next gym leader. Before that, this dude Cal needs to be fought.

Cal fights you on top of a volcano, so the field he has is pretty good for fire types. Luckily, Cal is pretty easy on account of the fact you're given Gravelers before hand that come with Stealth Rock, and a lot of other ground types in general before him. His lead Barbaracle goes down pretty easy to capturable high level Stunfisks. With a combo of static and discharge, his Barbaracle, and next mon Hakamo-o both go down to some well timed paralysis and bounce styling. Typhlosion comes in next, and it's a bit of a bitch to take out, luckily Sturdy Nosepass can set up Sandstorm in its face and KO with some rock blasts after Stealth Rock chip. Turtonator comes in, KOs Pass, I bring out a Magcargo and use Amnesia, and Cal reveals Head Smash. At first I thought, well shit, wasted a mon, but then the AI went for Pulse thinking it could kill, and it didn't. Good stuff. Charizard comes in next, I throw Donphan at it and kill it by spamming knock off. Magmortar comes in last and it's pretty fucking scary, luckily a captured adamant alolan dugtrio is able to one shot it after stealth rock chip. Another one bites the dust.

Everyone's favorite roadblock, back at it again. This time, Victoria is pretty tough too. She leads with Pangoro which hits really hard. I use Vivillon to Draining Kiss it, but to no avail and it drops, leaving Pangoro in the red. Dugtrio comes out to pick up the kill, and Mienfoo comes out in response. I send out Shiinotic in response, it gets paralyzed, I Giga Drain and Mienfoo gets eject buttoned out into Alolan Raichu. This thing sets up a bunch of Nasty Plots and KOs Stunfisk and Graveler, luckily they chip it enough that Dugtrio doesn't have to worry about trying to kill it. Mienfoo comes back out, Shiinotic comes in and Giga Drains on it, it drops and Gallade the killer comes out. This thing is one of the scariest mons up til this point, luckily the AI sucks at performing against mons with Dig, and I use that to my advantage to take out Gallade. Incineroar comes in last and unsurprisingly falls victim to my remaining ground types.

Whoops, sorry for the delay i guess lmfao. Gym leader battle is next time.

Kiki is up next, hopefully I don't take 2 months on this one too lmfao.

[AyTales]

This is easily  the most impressive run of this game I've seen.

 

What resources are you using to find all of the Pokemon that are available?

[TK3600]

At some point you are going to run into full EV team which you would have none.

[Guzam]

On 11/12/2018 at 1:09 PM, Aegisth said:

This is easily  the most impressive run of this game I've seen.

 

What resources are you using to find all of the Pokemon that are available?

Thanks.

 

As for what resources I'm using to find pokemon, I have the PBS files for Reborn open at all times so I can check which encounters are in which areas. If I'm ever not too sure which area is which though (for example some route 4 areas have different encounters, but share the same map name) I have RPGMakerXP on hand so I can check which map is which. I also run Cheat engine so I can run the game at 2x speed (I do know alt increases the speed, but I'm far more used to 2x speed rather than alts speed increase). Finally, after I've got everything set up and checked out, I Just run around a map until I either find what i want, or I find a high leveled pokemon. Once I find something high leveled, I use all that money I can't use to buy healing items (and money left over after buying a shit ton of balls of course) to buy repels and keep finding more and more high leveled pokemon.

 

I do not use pokemon above the level cap though. Won't even common candy them. Reason is that if I catch a level 65 pokemon in an area where 55 is the cap, and they get moves at 65, and i lower them to 55, they've still got all those moves from being level 65. It's basically a reverse of the argument for why I don't use rare candies this run. While this can make it annoying to find pokemon, I have plenty of time, and usually have plenty of ways to tackle a situation without said pokemon.

On 11/12/2018 at 6:02 PM, TK3600 said:

At some point you are going to run into full EV team which you would have none.

This is indeed the case, I will inevitably run into teams that have EVs where I don't. Fortunately for me though, There's no restriction set on myself for EV training (though if I'm being honest, the run probably could be beaten without it, it'd require even more luck than what's already needed though). As we approach the lategame, our options for good pokemon will stagnate, to the point where I won't need to change my team between each battle and will instead be rocking a more standard Reborn team of say, 8-12+ pokemon. Due to how high leveled everything in the late game is and how many great options I'll have available to me at that point when it comes to actually making a team that synergizes well with itself, and due to how easy Reborn makes it to EV train, this really won't be that big of an issue (at least for the lategame, the middle stretch though can get pretty weird as more and more things get EVs and my team changes from area to area).

 

Next episode should be up soon (like, less than a day from when I post this (I'm only saying this so I'll feel obligated to do it)) Thanks for the replies.

[TK3600]

8 hours ago, Guzam said:

 

This is indeed the case, I will inevitably run into teams that have EVs where I don't. Fortunately for me though, There's no restriction set on myself for EV training (though if I'm being honest, the run probably could be beaten without it, it'd require even more luck than what's already needed though). As we approach the lategame, our options for good pokemon will stagnate, to the point where I won't need to change my team between each battle and will instead be rocking a more standard Reborn team of say, 8-12+ pokemon. Due to how high leveled everything in the late game is and how many great options I'll have available to me at that point when it comes to actually making a team that synergizes well with itself, and due to how easy Reborn makes it to EV train, this really won't be that big of an issue (at least for the lategame, the middle stretch though can get pretty weird as more and more things get EVs and my team changes from area to area).

The problem is how do you get EV without xp? Are you OK using common candy to delevel back? Would it breach the rule? Or do you waste money on vitamin? Another concern is late game. When you want to keep a steady team, wild pokemon level still rise while your pokemon stay. Would full EV outweight great level difference?

[Guzam]

13 hours ago, TK3600 said:

The problem is how do you get EV without xp? Are you OK using common candy to delevel back? Would it breach the rule? Or do you waste money on vitamin? Another concern is late game. When you want to keep a steady team, wild pokemon level still rise while your pokemon stay. Would full EV outweight great level difference?

I had to check rn just to be sure, and it turns out, I was not gaining EVs despite killing pokemon. This shouldn't have been the case as the intention was for exp gain to be done like it is for level 100's, who despite not gaining exp, do gain EV's upon killing pokemon in reborn. I've changed the script accordingly and now properly get EVs, though this does make me want to revise some of my lategame strats that did use EV's to see if I can do them without.

 

As for Lategame team, most of the wild pokemon by lategame come at levels 80-90, and at levels that high, it doesn't matter too much if the levels rise to say 90+ or 100. By that point, level gap hardly matters at all, and what does matter is EV's, IV's, items, natures, what moves i have available etc.

 

Very glad this remark came up so that I could fix this issue and remind me to see if I can EV proof this run.

[Guzam]

H

10 days, new record amirite? Description below

Hey look at that, it only took me... 10 days this time : ^) 

So after beating up a girl for trying to do what she thought was best for her master, we go to beat up her master. Why? So we can get Strength and the badge to use it of course :^)

Kiki is tough. Like, REALLY TOUGH. Like a sort of "I actually underestimated and forgot" kind of tough. Her lead Machamp hits hard as hell and is pretty bulky to boot, so I did the best thing possible to beat it. I lead Pyukumuku and clicked Counter and killed it. Easy lead. Now its a 5v5.

After getting hard countered, Kiki brings in Hitmonlee. This thing is a bitch to take out. It'll fake out turn 1 to increase its speed, and then use Meditate (which raises its attack by 3 stages on Kiki's field) and proceed to sweep more often then not. To counteract this, I bring Sand Veil Palossand who comes with Hypnosis and Bulldoze and use all three attributes to my advantage to set Alolan Dugtrio up for a kill. 4v4 now.

Toxicroak comes out next, an odd choice to be sure, though it can be pretty scary itself if left unchecked. One dig from alolan Dugtrio is (thankfully) enough to finish it off. 4v3, starting to swing in our favor now right?

Kiki brings in her ace next, Medicham. This thing is also a run killer. Even by sacking Yamask to it to get rid of its ability (Pure Power) it still hits really hard and has Meditate to boot. A bad Magnitude Roll with Donphan lead to it not going down like it potentially can, but it ended up fine as even with a Hyper Potion, Donphan procced a Magnitude 8 and 9 to keep the damn thing in the red. Based. Too bad Kiki uses another Hyper Potion when Dugtrio comes out, making that low magnitude roll to start that much more important. Thankfully, much like with Victoria, the AI bugs out at the sight of Dig an allows me to kill it. 2 to 2.

Gallade comes out next and much like Victoria's, gets bodied by buggy AI. Even if Duggy did fall here, I did have a safety net in Quick Claw Stunfisk. The fight would usually go good magnitude procs, gallade kills phan, stunfisk comes out and kills lade (or chips to a point where Duggy can kill) and the last mon comes out. 2 to 1.

Kiki's last mon is Lucario which unceremoniously goes down to Dugtrio in one dig. This thing is a fucking beast though, with one nasty plot and a dead Dugtrio, there's basically no saving the run, so it's absolutely important Dugtrio stays alive.

While I had hoped not to AI cheese with Dig, it happened at a point in the battle where not much would change if I did or didn't (only difference would be that Stunfisk dies to either Gallade or Lucario and Dugtrio comes in to clean both really). A tough battle to be sure, but not super bad.

After battle Kiki drops dead... jk, she's just really sick. We're forced to leave and go find Cain who went missing on his way here. Great. That'll have to come next time though, see u guys then.

Next part will feature the battles with Aster and Eclipse, Taka and Solaris. See you guys then.

[Commander]

@Guzam I don't know the line off the top of my head but you have to edit the scripts a tad bit more to make EVs work. It's like just below what is used to determine exp.

[Guzam]

I am unfortunately not dead. This time around I just kind of ended up forgetting about this, oops.

 

That said, Next part will be up within the next 24 hours, though due to video issues, Solaris' battle will have to be uploaded separately as its own part, which is fine really, just annoying cause the video's gonna be so short. But hey, maybe that means I can make my description like one sentence this time lmao.

[Guzam]

Back

Your dole dippers, madame

oof

I'm only slightly late here. Sorry about that. This is definitely still a thing though, for sure.

Thankfully, both of these battles are easy and won't require much explanation.

Aster and Eclipse is another double battle, though this time around we don't get a partner. Fine by me, as the two together aren't actually that tough, even with us at a disadvantage. This is because as of right now, it's still a 6-on-6 really, as we go further we'll find some 12-on-6's, but thankfully we aren't there yet. Anyway where was I with these two? Right, easy.

Lead is Solrock and Lunatone, just like last time. With access to a new area granted to us, the pair goes down quickly to the Palpitoad and Amoonguss obtainable there. Next comes Passimian and Lycanroc, Pass being new to the team. Despite having Swift Swim on Palpitoad, Lycanroc still comes through and destroys it. I bring in Palossand in response, and am promptly met with rock slide flinches. Cool. Donphan comes when Amoonguss falls and also flinches. Thankfully, Palossand manages to KO Lycanroc-Day, and Oranguru then comes out. From here the battle is just a slugfest until Oranguru and Donphan get knocked out, prompting Lycanroc-Night and Stunfisk to come out respectively. From here, Stunfisk chips Passimian to death, chips Lycanroc, and Dugtrio comes in to finish the job. Onto Taka.

The dudes only got 4 pokemon, but he puts up a hard fight regardless. His lead, Klefki, sets up Spikes for him, which sucks for my team cause living his blows is hard enough as is, but we can live with it. Klefki goes down and Gligar comes out. This thing is pretty dumb, its Acrobatics hits hard, but other than that it doesn't usually do much. Alolaslash comes in to Ice Ball it away, and Taka brings out his ace, Chatot. This thing is oof. Nah jk, it KO's Alolaslash only to be one-shot seconds late by Stunfisk, who can tank any hit from it. Taka brings out the real problem child, Alolan Exeggutor. Seeing as how Sandslash is dead, the only real option here is to chip it down to a point where my Vivillon can then kill it, which isn't too hard. One Toxic from Amoonguss and a few stalled turns late and boom, it dies to Bug Buzz. Easy fight all around.

With that battle done, we save Cain and make our way back to Apophyll cause Team Meteor is gonna try and explode the Volcano. Ok. That'll have to come next time tho, as video recordings don't want to work with me. Epic. See you guys then.

Next part will have Solaris, and will go up tomorrow for sure too.

[Guzam]

make sure you read the description on this one js

Right here as always:

hahaha

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Remember that time when I said I was back? Remember when I said I was back again? Remember when I said I was back for real?

Yeah no more of that, I'll just be uploading whenever from now on. Don't expect much until I start Spring Break. That doesn't mean I won't upload anything (I probably won't), just that if I do upload, it's not gonna be very often.

So uh yeah, Solaris? He's got a level 75 Garchomp. Uhhhhh. Just intimidate it and sand attack it and get lucky. Not much else that can be done really. Yeah uh, fun stuff.

The run will be finished before the last update for the game goes up at least, I swear.