E18- Team Help - Early story battles

[PESH1]

Spoiler

I am having difficulties in the Cain/Shelly battle in E18. 6v12 is hard.

 

My team is the following (all of them between L85-90)

Empoleon, Arcanine, Sylveon, Metagross, Mamoswine, Raichu

 

In rotation

Gallade, Roserade, Donphan, Absol, Leavanny

 

All of them have decent movepools, no attention has been paid to EV/IV.

 

From what I have seen in the forums regarding suggestions in this battle is to set up with Blaziken/ Gyarados/ Volcorona / Aegislash etc and sweep one trainer and double team on the other or use sleep/paralysis/confusion or trick room/tailwind or get Magnezone/ Jolteon and abuse the factory field.

 

I have enjoyed Pokemon Reborn thoroughly for it's immersive storyline and I have somehow scrapped through most battles till E17 using suggestions from forums like set up stealth rocks against Charlotte or grassy terrain against Amaria. Against Arceus/ Pulse Swalot and such boss battles, I resorted most times to use perish song/ destiny bond etc.

 

Now with E18, and almost every non-legandary Pokemon available and with mega ring and mega stones. The game obviously is going to become more challenging. My question is the following with regard to current and future episodes(Elite 4 included). 

 

1) Is it not viable to further progress in story line without EV trained pokemon (here referring to the ones having overall base stats 480-520)?

 

2) Or just the need has become to upgrade the team to Garchomp/ Dragonite/ Tyranitar etc since they are available/ or hunt mega stones? I have also seen a lot of praise for Magnezone and Gardevoir.

 

I really appereciate Pokemon Reborn for making the players think and come up with novel strategies to overcome the challenging battles, this makes the experience enriching I felt.

 

Also I have never been a competative player, I have seldom used life orb/ choice specs/ leftovers etc; I guess I need to put them to use now.

 

I have done magikarp, litwik, heracross and larvesta events, I obtained torchic, froakie, marill in wonder trade.

 

For now I have decided to train Breloom with spore, Gyaradaos with dragon dance, Volcorona with Quiver Dance, Gallade with wide guard, Ampharos with the mega stone and probably a Crobat with defog and I will get a team ready. It doesn't seem like a coherent team. But anyways I will grind in grand hall, it'll take many hours, it'll be fun too I suppose.

 

[Rayu]

Alola pal,

 

Spoiler

 

I'd highly recommend getting urself a scyther (which is obtainable at route 4 with a very low encounter rate) and evolve it into Scizor (with knock off and bullet punch as well as swords dance) which will help u a lot in the fight.

Also since shelly only uses Bug pokemon you should be able to lead with arcanine (maybe give him a balloon) and mamoswine and oneshot at least every pokemon of shelly and 4 out of 6 from cain with earthquake since he has 4 mons weak to ground. If your balloon gets popped too early, I suppose you might try using another ground move that will hit only one adjacent pokemon or talonflame/some other flying type on the other side of mamoswine.

Primarina should be be the biggest hazard for this lead-duo but scizor/empoleon/raichu are good vs that.

 

To answer your question about having the need to upgrade your team with either evs or better pokemon. I dont think u need to do that but It surely would help a lot if you are not that experienced in competitive play since you can outplay/counterteam foes, but that might be very hard at given times. 

Also there are a lot of niche pokemon that arent considered that good in competitive play but are really good in playthroughs, for example Electivire.

 

For training you might want to set your day to saturday to do the double fight which gives the most ep and money.

Feel free to ask more

 

 

Edited August 13, 2018 by Rayu

[Wheel]

EV's/IV's/Nature are definitely significant, at this point in the game, but are not some magic formula that will make any team capable of winning any battle in game. What a proper spread will do, is it will ensure your team performs how you expect them to and will increase your consistency. Most of the time in Reborn, you can compensate by using boosting items and potions if your strategy is sound. 

 

That is not to say that you shouldn't do it. Like Rayu said, EV training will help a lot if you aren't experienced in competitive play. If you do want to try to EV train, my recommendation is to use the power weight items from the department store and farm the woobats and noibats in the shadows under the railnet since they always give 1 speed EV and you can guarantee their spawns.

Spoiler

provided that you haven't donated for the railnet reconstruction yet, in which case your best bet will probably be via fishing somewhere.

Fishing is also a pretty good option, but i don't know all the fishing tables so i'm afraid I can't tell you which spots are best.

 

As for recommendations for the fight

Spoiler

Having Donphan set up stealth rocks and rapid spin away the sticky web will probably help a lot. You can switch in Arcanine a couple times to intimidate Cain's Alolawak into uselessness and then ignore him while focusing down Shelly's team as well.

 

[wcv]

Spoiler

Poison Heal Breloom holding a Toxic Orb was a life saver for me. Not in the first battle against Cain and Shelly. But against the Dark team and then the next double battle its great. Breloom can wall the Umbreon that ends the single battle indefinitely. You can use that time to revive and ready the rest of your team. Then it can keep the Clefable asleep using spore, and if taught Brick Break it can smash the Aurora Veil of Ninetails if that gets set up.

 

I don't really think Sylveon is good in this battle. Its weak against Cain, not great againt Shelly, you have other options for the first question mark, and there are quite a few fairies on the team of the double question marks.

 

[Mudcrab]

Spoiler

I managed to beat most of that battle by first beating down the Ribombee with any steel move, it has focus sash so you'll have to hit it twice. Needed to take it down first due to its sweet veil.

 

After that Lilligant put Cains mon to sleep and Aegislash set up. After that Shadow Sneak wiped everyone.

 

If you have access to a sleep move and a set up pokemon with stuff like Dragon dance, Quiver dance or Sword Dance you can use the same strat.

 

[Bardechia]

Spoiler

Something that helped me out a lot was leading off with my Espeon and having the sticky web magic bounced onto their side. After this I just focused on Shelly’s team first to set up 2v1 against Cain

 

[Q-Jei]

Spoiler

I see you have a Mamoswine in your team, which is definitely a good thing. Most of Cain's Pokemon are frail to Earthquake. Using it along with a strong flying mon like Gyarados will make you immune to the attack. Also, you may prefer priority moves like Ice Shard for Mamoswine or even Mach Punch for Breloom which is a very useful asset for the next battle after you defeat Cain & Shelly. Heat Wave is a lifesaver too, don't hesitate to check the Move Tutors in Peridot Ward once you get Volcarona. And if you didn't know, you can now choose the nature of your mons by going to the Psychologist in 7th Street. However, you'll need three heartscales instead of one to make it possible. Finally, to make the things even more convenient during the fights, I would recommend the use of HP-draining moves like Drain Punch for Breloom and Giga Drain for Volcarona. Then, you must be prepared enough for what's coming next.

 

[PESH1]

Spoiler

Thank you all so much for your help. I successfully overcame all the three battles, using a combination of your strategies. In the first battle, Arcanine two intimidates made Alola Marowak ineffective and Gyarados set up multiple dragon dance to sweep Shelly first and then Cain next. In the next battle, Breloom walled Umbreon and gave me opportunity to revive my team. In the last battle, Breloom put one side to sleep and then Metagross and Scizor took out the other side.

 

What followed later on was magical and by the time it was done I had experienced a myriad of emotions and by the end of it I had tears in my eyes. Off to Agate now for the next adventure.