Help beating Hardy in my Normal mono-typr run

[cakeofdoom]

Hey people. I've reached Hardy's gym in my normal monotype run. Generally I haven't had many problems in this run except Kiki and Amaria. My team isn't really optimized in terms of IVs and stuff like that because I find breeding and IV training tedious, but the natures are generally useful. Another problem is that I didn't fund all of the restoration projects so I think that means I am not able to get Lopunite, which is a bummer since I imagine mega-Lopunny would be useful. My team's the following. 

 

Slaking --------- naive nature ---- Fist Plate

-Hammer Arm

-Strength

-Ice Punch

-Punishment

 

Porygon Z ------- Hasty nature ---- Wise Glasses ---- Adaptability

Trick Room/Thunder Wave/Psychic

Hyper Beam

Zap Cannon

Signal Beam

 

Diggersby ----- Gentle Nature ---- Iron Plate --- Huge Power

-Earthquake

-Strength

-Hammer Arm

-Iron Tail

 

Snorlax ----- Hardy Nature ---- Metal Coat --- Thick Fat

-Belly Drum

-Body Slam

-Amnesia

-Heavy Slam

 

Pyroar ----- Naive Nature --- Charcoal ---- Moxie

-Will-O-Wisp

-Overheat

-Headbut

-Crunch

 

Ditto ---- Quick Powder ---- Imposter

-Transform

 

Pidgeot ---- Naive Nature --- Pidgeotite

-Fly

-Hurricane

-Tailwind

-Mirror Move

 

Those are the Pokemon that are currently around lvl. 88-90.

 

My problem is pretty much that I have a hard time dealing with his opening of Aerodactyl and Gigalith. I'm not really able to do much against them since they destroy any opening I make unless I KO one of them. So far my best attempts have involved starting with paralyzing Aerodactyl and hitting Gigalith with Slakings Hammer Arm, which puts it to about 1/3rd hit points. Then I sent out Ditto to copy mega-Aerodactyl, hit Gigalith and send out Snorlax to hit Aerodactyl with Heavy Slam, which puts it in the red, but Aerodactyl KO's Ditto. I sent out Diggersby, he sends out Archeops. Snorlax OH's Archeops after it hurts Diggersby and Snorlax pretty bad and Diggersby wipes out Aerodactyl, but then Lycanroc pretty much destroys me. I don't really know what to do ... Anybody got any ideas for better mons or maybe a strategy I haven't seen. Anyone else done a Normal Mono-run?

[Lord Drakyle]

32 minutes ago, cakeofdoom said:

Hey people. I've reached Hardy's gym in my normal monotype run. Generally I haven't had many problems in this run except Kiki and Amaria. My team isn't really optimized in terms of IVs and stuff like that because I find breeding and IV training tedious, but the natures are generally useful. Another problem is that I didn't fund all of the restoration projects so I think that means I am not able to get Lopunite, which is a bummer since I imagine mega-Lopunny would be useful. My team's the following. 

 

Slaking --------- naive nature ---- Fist Plate

-Hammer Arm

-Strength

-Ice Punch

-Punishment

 

Porygon Z ------- Hasty nature ---- Wise Glasses ---- Adaptability

Trick Room/Thunder Wave/Psychic

Hyper Beam

Zap Cannon

Signal Beam

 

Diggersby ----- Gentle Nature ---- Iron Plate --- Huge Power

-Earthquake

-Strength

-Hammer Arm

-Iron Tail

 

Snorlax ----- Hardy Nature ---- Metal Coat --- Thick Fat

-Belly Drum

-Body Slam

-Amnesia

-Heavy Slam

 

Pyroar ----- Naive Nature --- Charcoal ---- Moxie

-Will-O-Wisp

-Overheat

-Headbut

-Crunch

 

Ditto ---- Quick Powder ---- Imposter

-Transform

 

Pidgeot ---- Naive Nature --- Pidgeotite

-Fly

-Hurricane

-Tailwind

-Mirror Move

 

Those are the Pokemon that are currently around lvl. 88-90.

 

My problem is pretty much that I have a hard time dealing with his opening of Aerodactyl and Gigalith. I'm not really able to do much against them since they destroy any opening I make unless I KO one of them. So far my best attempts have involved starting with paralyzing Aerodactyl and hitting Gigalith with Slakings Hammer Arm, which puts it to about 1/3rd hit points. Then I sent out Ditto to copy mega-Aerodactyl, hit Gigalith and send out Snorlax to hit Aerodactyl with Heavy Slam, which puts it in the red, but Aerodactyl KO's Ditto. I sent out Diggersby, he sends out Archeops. Snorlax OH's Archeops after it hurts Diggersby and Snorlax pretty bad and Diggersby wipes out Aerodactyl, but then Lycanroc pretty much destroys me. I don't really know what to do ... Anybody got any ideas for better mons or maybe a strategy I haven't seen. Anyone else done a Normal Mono-run?

if you catch a Girafarig from Radomus castle area you can skill swap away Slaking's Truant, this will basically mean you dont gotta keep waiting a turn with him though im not sure about Hammer Arm on him, make sure the Girafarig has Inner Focus and is bred from a Sylveon to have Skill Swap on it, you will need to outspeed the Aerodactyl or survive it's attack for it to successfully skill swap so ya may need to either have something to speed up girafarig or something to help it take the hit better but getting Inner Focus on Slaking will mean ya got a beast who doesn't flinch and no longer waits hitting like a truck, keeping him alive will help you greatly, i would opt to get a Bibarel as it's Normal/Water with access to stuff like Surf i think should help you out too, i wouldn't use Pidgeot even as a mega in this fight as it's just taking up a slot and isn't worth much to you with those moves or even in the battle, Pyroar can help if he lands them wisps

[EternalJinn]

Could you catch a bewear? I know it might have trouble with aerodactyl and archeops but it does have fluffy which should allow you to tank any rock moves. If you pair it with someone like porygon2 or oranguru you could set up trick room and potentially sweep. 

[N1Dude]

Maybe a sand rush stoutland could help out as well.

Jolly sand rush stoutland only needs 16 EV's with a perfect IV in speed to outspeed max speed aerodactyl.

Stoutland also gets rain dance and wild charge to change the field (when sand rush is no longer needed) and punish aerodactyl and archeops for good damage.

Non invested in attack EV's, Stoutland's wild charge still easily 2HKO's Aerodactyl and fully invested adamant has a great chance of OHKO'ing Archeops. I did the calcs.

You could also run Iron Head on it, it is a little less powerfull but doesn't give you recoil. I'd say go for that cause Iron Head still 2HKO's aerodactyl.

I'm not sure how much Aerodactyl does to you with stone edge or rock slide (can't really calc cause of the field and stuff) but you could even soft reset until you flinch it with Iron Head if really needed. You could even give it a kings rock to hold to up the chance of flinching. Or give it an electrium Z or steelium Z to straight up OHKO the aerodactyl.

Stoutland also gets thunder wave to cripple the lycanroc a lot.

It gets superpower and rock smash (rock smash is highly buffed on Hardy's field).

 

Girafarig could help a lot too like @Lord Drakyle said. This man gave me some great, awesome and fun ideas to play with

Pair it up with the stoutland, outspeed and OHKO the aerodactyl with stoutland, then set up a reflect with Girafarig cause it should be able to outspeed the gigalith and you might be able to sweep a couple of mons with your stoutland.

The Bibarel option sounds also good. With its simple ability and It gets Swords Dance and aqua jet by level up. So 1 SD gives you a +4 boost. Pair it up with girafarig who gets rain dance and Bibaril might be able to sweep a couple of mons after Stoutland as well. 

 

These are just idea's out the top of my head so I can kinda predict what's going to happen but not everything. Like the reflect is probably not enough for anything to live 2 hits from rampardos.

And Gigalith's Throat chop is going to hurt your support mon Girafarig very bad (ran the calc, you'll need some hp and defense EV's to NOT to get OHKO'd while reflect is up) so you just need to see what order of moves and mons is best.

I just hope that these idea's help you further.

 

I know you're not into breeding but still maybe you find some1 who's willing to breed for you or something. So here's probably the ultimate Stoutland set who will put in work against Hardy.

 

Stoutland @ Steelium Z
Jolly Nature
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Atk / 16 Spe
- Iron Head
- Wild Charge
- Superpower
- Thunderwave/Protect/rain dance

[Lord Drakyle]

17 minutes ago, N1Dude said:

Maybe a sand rush stoutland could help out as well.

Jolly sand rush stoutland only needs 16 EV's with a perfect IV in speed to outspeed max speed aerodactyl.

Stoutland also gets rain dance and wild charge to change the field (when sand rush is no longer needed) and punish aerodactyl and archeops for good damage.

Non invested in attack EV's, Stoutland's wild charge still easily 2HKO's Aerodactyl and fully invested adamant has a great chance of OHKO'ing Archeops. I did the calcs.

You could also run Iron Head on it, it is a little less powerfull but doesn't give you recoil. I'd say go for that cause Iron Head still 2HKO's aerodactyl.

I'm not sure how much Aerodactyl does to you with stone edge or rock slide (can't really calc cause of the field and stuff) but you could even soft reset until you flinch it with Iron Head if really needed. You could even give it a kings rock to hold to up the chance of flinching. Or give it an electrium Z or steelium Z to straight up OHKO the aerodactyl.

Stoutland also gets thunder wave to cripple the lycanroc a lot.

It gets superpower and rock smash (rock smash is highly buffed on Hardy's field).

 

Girafarig could help a lot too like @Lord Drakyle said. This man gave me some great, awesome and fun ideas to play with

Pair it up with the stoutland, outspeed and OHKO the aerodactyl with stoutland, then set up a reflect with Girafarig cause it should be able to outspeed the gigalith and you might be able to sweep a couple of mons with your stoutland.

The Bibarel option sounds also good. With its simple ability and It gets Swords Dance and aqua jet by level up. So 1 SD gives you a +4 boost. Pair it up with girafarig who gets rain dance and Bibaril might be able to sweep a couple of mons after Stoutland as well. 

 

These are just idea's out the top of my head so I can kinda predict what's going to happen but not everything. Like the reflect is probably not enough for anything to live 2 hits from rampardos.

And Gigalith's Throat chop is going to hurt your support mon Girafarig very bad (ran the calc, you'll need some hp and defense EV's to NOT to get OHKO'd while reflect is up) so you just need to see what order of moves and mons is best.

I just hope that these idea's help you further.

 

I know you're not into breeding but still maybe you find some1 who's willing to breed for you or something. So here's probably the ultimate Stoutland set who will put in work against Hardy.

 

Stoutland @ Steelium Z
Jolly Nature
Ability: Sand Rush
EVs: 252 HP / 240 Atk / 16 Spe
- Iron Head
- Wild Charge
- Superpower
- Thunderwave/Protect/rain dance

I would actually still choose Iron Head not only because it doesn't damage me in return but because it has flinch chance which causes the flinched to take field damage which could potentially be enough for a one hit ko depending on how the damage works.

[N1Dude]

1 minute ago, Lord Drakyle said:

I would actually still choose Iron Head not only because it doesn't damage me in return but because it has flinch chance which causes the flinched to take field damage which could potentially be enough for a one hit ko depending on how the damage works.

You're absolutely right, totally forgot about the flinch damage in the field.

Then you could switch out wild charge for Strength. I have the field note in front of me;

Strength changes into a 120 BP move and it gains the rock typing. I don't know if STAB is still active because it gains the rock typing. But if it is, Strength OHKO's aerodactyl anyways so you can use the Z-move for something else. Or you could give it a telluric seed to boost your defense because the main cause of the Z-move was to nuke the aerodactyl. But this is something that @cakeofdoom is able to play with on its own haha!

[Lord Drakyle]

3 minutes ago, N1Dude said:

You're absolutely right, totally forgot about the flinch damage in the field.

Then you could switch out wild charge for Strength. I have the field note in front of me;

Strength changes into a 120 BP move and it gains the rock typing. I don't know if STAB is still active because it gains the rock typing. But if it is, Strength OHKO's aerodactyl anyways so you can use the Z-move for something else. Or you could give it a telluric seed to boost your defense because the main cause of the Z-move was to nuke the aerodactyl. But this is something that @cakeofdoom is able to play with on its own haha!

even without the STAB, a Hard Stone or anything to boost rock, general physical attack or attack in general should help finish the job though in a pinch also an intimidate Tauros might also be worth it thinking about it to soften up Hardy's front line attackers, he could be a support Tauros with Rain Dance just in case, Endeavor and Helping Hand, for this i would opt for a fast Tauros with invested defence roll in with the intimidate, helping hand so that strength is guranteed to do it's job on Aero and then use endeavor if low on hp to weaken whoever seems more like a threat, Aqua Jet on whoever can get it would also be great because if ya can't outspeed the archeops, priority hit it to hopefully trigger defeatist.

[cakeofdoom]

Thanks guys. I'll get back to ya once I actually get around to adapting some of these strats. This community really keeps being amazing.