Pokemon Reborn E18 Speedrun in 6 hours, 26 minutes and 46 seconds!

[Arkadius]

Hello everyone, 

 

I finally was able to complete another speedrun of Reborn. It is another segmented run like last time and the time before that. Segmented means that the speedrun is done in parts. Because of work and such single segment runs (start to finish without any break) were not viable to me. Instead, I decided to focus on doing another segmented run and really see how much I could improve the previous run I did, which completed episode 18 in 7 hours, 11 minutes and 59 seconds:

https://www.rebornevo.com/forum/index.php?/topic/45015-pokemon-reborn-episode-18-speedrun-in-7-hours-11-minutes-and-59-seconds/

 

This run beat episode 18 in 6 hours, 26 minutes and 46 minutes, an improvement of about 45 minutes.

 

 

Youtube Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1soDJJkbF9Iv40NuK8vrjSRJAsYFNvc

 

 

Because I wanted to see how much it could be improved, there were more resets between the segments. I also added a few segments (or split certain segments I suppose):

- Aya until the Sirius fight in the Yureyu Building. This was done so that the Serra split would be shorter. Serra is one of the worst fights in the game. You have no good way of destroying the field and Blaziken only has physical moves, one of which is High Jump Kick... 

- Charlotte until the Blake Fight on Ametrine Mountain. This was done to split the Terra segment. Terra is an annoying fight. Luckily there's a better strat now in which Sharpedo only has to tank 1 thunderbolt of the Nidoking. 

- Terra until the Taka fight in the Water Treatment Center. This was done so split the Ciel segment, more specifically because of the chain battle at the Fiore Mansion. 

 

Overall I am extremely happy with this run. All the splits were really good. Execution, like movement and decision making was better all around. There were improved and more consistent strats. I think the only split I lost time on in comparison to the 7h 11m 59s run is the Charlotte split. This was mainly because of training sharpedo against wild encounters to save a rare candy. 

 

I will post a link here later on to the youtube playlist.

 

Looking forward to E19! 

 

-Arkadius

 

Splits:

Julia split: 18:31
Florinia split: 39:52
Corey split: 56:19
Shelly split: 1:19:37
Shade split: 1:50:28
Kiki split: 2:09:44
Aya split: 2:27:58
Sirius MT split: 2:46:32
Serra split: 2:55:36
Noel split: 3:14:40
Radomus Split: 3:30:54
Luna split: 3:54:11
Samson split: 4:05:48
Charlotte split: 4:25:10
Blake split: 4:40:45
Terra split: 4:45:58
Taka split: 4:58.29
Ciel split: 5:11:18
Adrienn split: 5:31:50
Titania split: 5:43:28
Amaria split: 5:49:02
Calcenon City split: 6:13:07

Hardy & E18 Complete Split: 6:26:46

 

 

 

[andracass]

big support for them strats

[Xander]

Can't wait to see

[Vinnie]

Looking really good. I'm a big follower of pokemon speed running and I indulge in it myself occasionally. 

 

I also can't help but laughing at the time because it's pretty similar to the amount of time USM speedruns average(lolcutscenes). 

 

Oh and I read on the other thread that you don't use the speedup function, which is pretty normal, but have you considered using it and just considering it a TAS run(Tool-Assisted Speedrun) just to see how quickly you can finish?

[Arkadius]

Here's the youtube playlist for those interested:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLV1soDJJkbF9Iv40NuK8vrjSRJAsYFNvc

 

I might do a commentary later on. 

 

@Vinnie I do use the speed up function, as explained in the 7h 11m 59s thread:

 

Quote

My view on this is as follows: the speedup function is an developer intended mechanism in the game. If it wasn't there, and you had to use cheatengine to speed up the game I would never allow it in a speedrun. Given the fact that it's present in the game and can be used without any form of external program needed in my view it's perfectly fine to use it in a speedrun. Using RTA (real time attack) timing is also perfectly fine. Originally the pokemon speedrunning community used to always time their games with the ingame timer. A few years ago the choice was made to switch from the ingame timer to a RTA timed runs. One of the reasons for this was the strange way the game rounded down or rounded up the ingame time. 

In pokemon yellow for example, the WR at some point was a 1:55 (1 hour and 55 minutes) while the RTA time was 1 hour, 56 minutes and 49 seconds. Reborn also round down to the minute. Even though at this point it is extremely unlikely that it matters, I believe RTA timed runs are better. 

It also allows people who have less time in real life to try and do a run. 

Forcing people to not use the speedup function results in 20+ hour runs. I would not be doing any more attempts at that point. 

But there is no one to stop you from doing a run without the speedup function, so if you want to do it go for it. 

 

[Vinnie]

Oh my bad @Arkadius I actually read that the wrong way. 

[andracass]

my concern with speedup is that it's incredibly dependent on the user's CPU power to function effectively, so people with older/worse computers would be at a disadvantage.

obviously it's still worth using speedup, but that's probably something that's also worth keeping in mind.

[Vinnie]

1 hour ago, andracass said:

my concern with speedup is that it's incredibly dependent on the user's CPU power to function effectively, so people with older/worse computers would be at a disadvantage.

obviously it's still worth using speedup, but that's probably something that's also worth keeping in mind.

Speedrunning tends to have different categories. 

 

So using the speedup would fall under TAS or Tool Assisted Speed run, which is usually very diverse category with a wide variety of times because of that. Its also not a category that receives a lot of attention compared to regular, % runs and even glitched runs for that reason since it's a bit inconsistent. 

[andracass]

i don't see this qualifying as a TAS given that the player is still making inputs in real time. if speedup makes this run a TAS, text skip makes this run a TAS.

other load intensive games go based on in-game time, but reborn's in-game timer doesn't account for differences in speedup.

a possible (but somewhat unideal) solution would be to somehow incorporate a frame counter instead.

frankly, if there are solutions we could implement, i wouldn't be opposed to including them in e19. speedrun password system or something.

[Vinnie]

7 minutes ago, andracass said:

i don't see this qualifying as a TAS given that the player is still making inputs in real time. if speedup makes this run a TAS, text skip makes this run a TAS.

other load intensive games go based on in-game time, but reborn's in-game timer doesn't account for differences in speedup.

a possible (but somewhat unideal) solution would be to somehow incorporate a frame counter instead.

frankly, if there are solutions we could implement, i wouldn't be opposed to including them in e19. speedrun password system or something.

It could be it's own category then. The reason I consider it to be worth putting in a TAS category is because in the past we'd consider emulated runs where the player would use slow mo controls given by the emulator to be TAS runs, so to me it'd also make sense if the opposite were true.

 

A frame counter would work or maybe you could lower the speedup down to a certain amount where the majority of pcs out there could achieve the same rate. 

[andracass]

slow-mo controls in an emulator would be tools that a player would not be able to use in a standard playthrough on a console. the PC is the console here, and the speedup is an established part of the game. while it may be the opposite of slow-mo, it's still a developer intended tool. if you, perhaps, doubled the effect of the speedup, that'd be an unintended feature. 

as for lowering speedup, if your PC is enough of a potato, normal areas will also lag. there's really not a lot we can do about that, and it'd frankly just add more tedium to the run.

[Vinnie]

12 minutes ago, andracass said:

slow-mo controls in an emulator would be tools that a player would not be able to use in a standard playthrough on a console. the PC is the console here, and the speedup is an established part of the game. while it may be the opposite of slow-mo, it's still a developer intended tool. if you, perhaps, doubled the effect of the speedup, that'd be an unintended feature. 

as for lowering speedup, if your PC is enough of a potato, normal areas will also lag. there's really not a lot we can do about that, and it'd frankly just add more tedium to the run.

Ah, that makes a lot of sense. 

 

I suppose a frame counter is probably the only way track this accurately then. It feels really weird but I'll take your word for it.

[Alisae]

now submit the run to GDQ

[andracass]

after we release plz i don't wanna be C&D'd

but after that yes definitely let's make it happen

[Alisae]

oh wait they wouldn't accept it anyways I don't think GDQ would take a 6+ hour run of a not really known game, they only do that for stuff like earthbound or FF7

[andracass]

nah, that's why we got the strats

sub 5 and we're in

[Arkadius]

On 8/6/2019 at 4:48 AM, andracass said:

i don't see this qualifying as a TAS given that the player is still making inputs in real time. if speedup makes this run a TAS, text skip makes this run a TAS.

other load intensive games go based on in-game time, but reborn's in-game timer doesn't account for differences in speedup.

a possible (but somewhat unideal) solution would be to somehow incorporate a frame counter instead.

frankly, if there are solutions we could implement, i wouldn't be opposed to including them in e19. speedrun password system or something.

On 8/6/2019 at 5:12 AM, andracass said:

slow-mo controls in an emulator would be tools that a player would not be able to use in a standard playthrough on a console. the PC is the console here, and the speedup is an established part of the game. while it may be the opposite of slow-mo, it's still a developer intended tool. if you, perhaps, doubled the effect of the speedup, that'd be an unintended feature. 

as for lowering speedup, if your PC is enough of a potato, normal areas will also lag. there's really not a lot we can do about that, and it'd frankly just add more tedium to the run.

 

This is for sure an issue in speedrunning. Certain communities tried dealing with the issue by having fixed frame rates and things like that. But at that point you're using third party software to influence the game.

Using the speedup function is definitely not a TAS, because indeed, as you mentioned, the speedup is a developer intented tool. A TAS of Reborn would be interesting though, but I do not have the knowledge nor skill to make it. 

The solution imo would be to simply have two categories, with and without speedup. The issue is that computer hardware differences simply exist. Even if you do not use the speed up function, there will still be differences in the gameplay. On my old laptop, the Jasper Ward area would lag like crazy with the Pulse and everything there, even without speedup. On my new PC the area lags significantly less, again, without speedup enabled. So you would always keep that difference, despite of the speedup function. A frame counter could be more accurate assuming there's no frame rate lag. But even then, the player that has the worse PC will be be affected by the lag, make movement errors because of it and lose frames. I would stick with RTA timing. 

 

Reborn at a GDQ would on the one hand be amazing but on the other probably terrible because of the exposure it would get and the risk of shutdown...

Maybe it can at some point be featured in the Pokemon Speedrunning Community Marathon. 

 

Thanks for the comments btw!

 

[bloo123]

hey man, big fan of pokemon speedrunning in general and major props on routing this. really like your choice of mons as a whole since they compress all the hms needed as well as sporting really good type synergy overall(aside from ground types), with the added benefit of getting boosted experience by virtue of being pokemon with a different trainer ID. i was testing out this route myself and was really amazed by how effective and streamlined it all was, however i still think there are some things that can be improved upon:

 

julia split - it is pretty comprehensive but aside from sring for a good torchic and a decent male espurr, the only other major time sink is potentially catching the right poochyena. its levels range from 9-13, and while either level 12 or 13 can easily reach 17 after grinding in the factory with fern, i'm not sure if that would be the case with one that is lower level, so probably have to get additional experience elsewhere or maybe reach 17 vs the gym trainers and candy in there idk? also fight #2 in the factory with poochyena can go very poorly. its vs roggenrola and bounsweet i think and they can kill you turn one with razor leaf+headbutt so i switched to combusken and split experience with it. am not sure if it was because i had bad defense so they targeted me or if that is what they always go for. julia fight is free for the most part since the seed and a backup super potion will pretty much guarantee victory. also another potential time sink is probably getting a great torchic but with the wrong ability, which means you have to save that ability capsule for it over getting a quick feet poochyena, forcing you to find a rattled poochyena but not much can be done about that.

 

florinia split - your notes say to skip it, but i would actually recommend fighting the posh lady with the two meowths on the bridge with just espurr since the experience given from that fight gives you just enough to reach level 12 before victoria and having a level 12 espurr vs her ralts makes it so that disarming voice isn't potentially a 3hko with good rolls and also allows you to outspeed and 4hko it with covet. fighting a weak trainer to make the victoria battle a lot easier is worth it i feel. for the scraggy fight, using sand attack x3 vs the level 14 scraggy means that it won't use headbutt and will prefer to use faint attack on combusken, meaning you won't have to heal during this fight. to clarify, sand attack with mightyena and switch espurr, sand attack again and kill the other scraggy with combusken, sand attack a 3rd time and 2hko the scrafty, then switch mightyena to espurr and sweep with combusken. cain fight at the pier is actually very random. after grimer dies, cain can go to any of his 3 mons which can be troublesome since espurr needs all of that experience and you don't really know for sure how this battle will play out and may result into some unwanted resets. strats for florinia are good, but for cottonee you should switch pidove to combusken after you're leech seeded and used leer since it will always go for protect the next turn which wastes time and its only other move to hit you is poison powder. if you stat drop it too much it also switches. one leer means flame charge will kill it guaranteed. this fight is free outside of having to hit cacnea through sand veil, but can't do much about that.

 

corey split - for the trainer with golbat, if the golbat happens to outspeed you, splitting the experience with combusken is better as opposed to healing up and risking bite flinch. this just means that for the last trainer you face before taka, sharing the experience with solrock should make up for that lost experience. also id reccomend switching espurr to the front for the 2nd meteor grunt in the forest who leads with a venipede. killing this off ensures that espurr will get level 25 after taka, meaning you won't have to waste time waiting for repel to wear off and grinding an encounter or two for a kill and repelling after again. this does mean combusken will almost be level 29 before taka, but being a level under doesn't matter since chatot is 2hkod by seeded flame charge and you'll get the level up to deal with tangrowth. taka+zel double fight is pretty well mapped out, only thing i would change is psyshock>charge beam espeon turn 3. it still guarantees the 2hko with flame charge and it doesn't miss. the corey fight with the new strat of bulk up+x attack from croagunk is far more consistent. however this is contingent on meowstic intentionally putting itself in red from skrelp and that is not reliable considering acid does ~35%. two acids will bring you around to 30 hp. this is not good since another acid will kill you, but you would be at too high a range for croagunk not to kill you with venoshock after light screen, which means you have less light screen time(and you need all your turns). my suggestion would be not to take the center after the taka+zel double fight. you need to manipulate meowstic's hp so that it is preferably 45-60% range after the taka+zel fight which is extremely manageable. also don't level meowstic up to level 28 in the wild grass. keeping it at level 27 is preferred for the skrelp+croagunk. just make sure to potion combusken to full before the fight. this saves time not only in the fight, but also not having to take the center as well as not having to grind for 1 or 2 encounters in the grass. to reiterate, fake out, fake out again to be in red, kill skrelp with psyshock, fake out croagunk on sucker, light screen then die, bulk up x3, heal, x attack, heal, kill croagunk+skuntank, heal on mareanie then kill it, ember nidorina and let it disable ember, which manipulates him switching to crobat which you can 2hko with flame charge on the switch without risking a 1v1 endgame with it. kill nidorina and win. 

 

EDIT: also there's no need to equip a pecha berry on meowstic for corey.

 

i'll keep you posted on the rest of the splits. there is a lot to deconstruct so will take some time. 

 

 

 

 

[bloo123]

shelly - after you equip persim berry on combusken and light clay on meowstic, i recommend taking the opportunity to teach flaffy charge beam>thunder wave (DON'T DELETE COTTON SPORE, cotton spore will be useful later on and can still drop speed similarly to thunder wave without missing). this makes the fight vs the aqua grunts easier since you can one shot their mons as well as making the squirtle grind at the grand hall faster since you can one shot them with boosted metronome charge beam over thundershock. also ensures the 2hko vs the mudkip trainer in lapis whereas thundershock is a roll to 2hko. make sure to mention in your notes to walk across the bookshelves after you complete shelly's puzzle to lock it in place because if you don't then the entire puzzle resets. shelly fight isn't too bad, but you don't need to blaze kick illumise after the 4th bulk up, flame charge is enough to kill it in rain since seed gives you an additional +1. if later in the match it is anorith+masquerain on the field, go for the 5th bulk up and sack pidove to anorith since seed gives anorith protection. the 5th bulk up ensure the ko on araquinid with blaze kick without having to rely on a double up. you have to heal meowstic up often since its 2hkod by struggle bug, meaning it can't reliably attack without risk of dying itself which is why the 5th bulk up is important. you can focus on the other side since masquerain can't do much.

 

shade - since i was using charge beam, i taught thunderpunch over thundershock on ampharos and charge beam is replaced by power gem once you get it. give ampharos the rock incense, carvanha metronome and escape rope beryl cave once you get nidorina to save a couple of seconds. for the double battle inside the doctor's office which is vs diglett lombre lead, if you have good defense on sharpedo the diglett will use earth power>dig on sharpedo. this is bad because shelly's yanmega won't giga drain the chinchou and will opt to go for struggle bug so the chinchou can live struggle bug+slash and kill you with discharge so switch out if diglett goes for earth power>dig. there is no need to teach poison fang on sharpedo since you never use it and is replaced once you get aqua jet. shade fight while is straightforward, is reliant on sharpedo tanking a tbolt which is unreliable and might result in numerous resets. a better strat i think would be to let it keep metronome. lead ampharos and cotton spore gengar. sacrifice mightyena after and go into pedo and crunch. he sends out rotom next which you can crunch as well. if you get cursed body hax from gengar then switch to meowstic on rotom. rotom will go for shadow ball on meowstic so go into sharpedo here and tank it and kill it with crunch. he sends out doublade next which you can go to blaziken for. after that sharpedo sweeps with crunch and dbond mimi. this strat is also better since ampharos is level ~39-40 so it should get to level 40 from the gengar experience in order to learn discharge(this is helpful for the tv girl since you can discharge her pokes to ohko them without having to two shot them).

 

kiki - i see no reason to teach shadow claw to nidorina. not only is it not used at all, but disable will come into play in a later fight which will save time. zel fight is straight forward. also you should say in your notes to fake out hakamo-o with meowstic since psychic is a guaranteed ohko after fake out. for the cal fight, i actually equipped the charcoal>black belt on blaziken. i know that +4 double kick will ohko the turtonator with a black belt and without black belt it doesn't, but +4 blaze kick guarantees the roll on charizard with charcoal. you can still get the kill on turtonator without black belt. turn 1 kill off barbaracle with ampharos, turn 2 he sends in hakkamo-o. fake out, light screen (DON'T USE REFLECT) and then kill it off with psychic, he sends out turtonator after. since light screen is up, turtonator opts to go for head smash>dragon pulse the first turn which actually does less than dragon pulse after +1 bulk up. the recoil from head smash actually puts it in range of +4 non black belt double kick (assuming no attack boosting nature). you also don't need to heal since you aren't going for +5 and can sweep from there saving you time by not having to go for the 5th bulk up and healing. also this is the only fight where black belt is relatively helpful, otherwise charcoal is pretty much the better item throughout the speedrun. if turtonator misses head smash, it does mean you have to go for the 5th bulk up since it will go for dragon pulse after and if it crits you, obviously have to heal or reset. victoria fight, since blaziken is holding charcoal it can one shot raichu and mienfoo with flame charge after a bulk up which is more reliable than risking blaze kick. kiki fight can be optimized as well. meowstic kills off machamp, send out blaze to deal with luc, when hitmonlee comes in go to meowstic and fake out+psychic to guarantee knock it out. when gallade comes in stay in with meowstic. go to sharpedo on night slash. sacrifice mightyena to poison jab and go back to meowstic. then go to sharpedo on night slash. sharpedo should be at half and is in range of poison jab so go for destiny bond and kill off the gallade(the reason this is done is because poison jab+night slash can be a roll to kill pedo depending on its stats and also chance to poison which you do not want to risk). go to meowstic to finish off toxicroak and medicham. since meowstic is at full for medicham it can stay in and 2hko it with psychic since crit from medicham does not kill it to save time. if toxicroak decides to sucker punch meowstic when it is at full(which is very rare) heal it before hand to deal with medicham.

 

EDIT: HOLY SHIT i just realized you can catch a level 16 natu with teleport at the totem pole through beryl cave, which is right next to nidorina. natu is the only feasible mon that gets teleport at this stage in the game and this can save a LOT of time by not having to travel to and fro certain areas. this would be exceptionally useful until you get fly and there are a ton of instances where i can see this saving a lot of time since movement in this game on speed up is pretty difficult. this shouldn't be much of a problem since rock smash and strength can be taught to other members. 

 

EDIT 2: it saves you time from battling cain at the cemetary to teleporting to grand hall, from shade to grand hall to get to coral, coral to grand hall to reach blacksteam factory, factory to grandhall to coral, healing at apophyll so u can battle cal then teleport to kiki, after freeing cain then teleporting back to apophyll, heal at coral then battle aya, teleport out of the wasteland back to coral, heal at grandhall after ev training, after doing yureyu and underground railnet teleport back to grandhall and make your way to the move tutor. make your way to belrose manse and heal there, make your way to spinel and beat serra, teleport back to belrose manse and do the meteor base and teleport back and fight noel, after noel set up healing point in nature center and make your way to radomus. after beating cain teleport back to nature center then fight dittoceus and teleport back to nature center. make your way to coral and go to the castle with everyone. after beating radomus teleport to nature center and go to 7th street. once finished 7th street teleport back to nature center and ride the bull to the top to go to iolia valley. beat luna go to the circus and heal in the tent. make your way to fiore and teleport back and fight samson. go back to fiore to get surf and go to calcenon and beat charlotte. after beating charlotte do ametrine and once that is done teleport back to the circus and fight terra. then do the WTC and after the gauntlet teleport back to ciel and beat her. this is just a rough guess to how much teleport would be used since you get to fly right after.

[bloo123]

aya - aster eclipse fight looks good, but your route is risking rock slide flinch on meowstic and ampharos which can be bad if they get it and force you to heal. 5 turns is at best the shortest this fight can come down to. i suggest going for fake out>reflect on solrock and crunching lunatone. then double ko with psychic and crunch on passimian and solrock. they send out lycanroc dusk (over midday since you are at full) and oranguru next. crunch lycanroc and reflect, they go for thunder fang on sharpedo and reflect themselves. pedo is at less than half. the metronome crunch damage means odd incense psychic from meowstic kills after and crunch oranguru for the double knock out. then their last is mid day which you can destiny bond and kill off without risking flinches and can switch meowstic to ampharos to split experience if needed. this route is a lot safer, but contingent on not having a garbage meowstic with bad sp atk or getting terrible rolls so you can 2hko the lycanroc dusk but just thought i should mention. taka fight right after looks straight forward as well, but there is no need to equip nevermeltice. when meowstic comes in on gligar, gligar can either uturn or acrobatics. either way odd incense psychic 2hkos the gligar if it stays in and if he uturns he goes to exeggutor which you can chip with psychic and both are in range of ice fang after chip. nevermeltice isn't used for any other fight so should keep metronome on sharpedo. for the first double fight with victoria you should attack venomoth with nidorina in case victoria uses darkest lariat vs venomoth which almost kills but not quite. if you are at full before milotic comes out in the second fight, go for DISABLE on milotic on aqua tail. this means you won't have to heal as much in this fight since it can't touch you. you don't need to equip fighting gem for this third fight, double kick 2hkos everything with incineroar anyway. the fourth fight is extremely random. they can go for fake out on either nidorina or incineroar and fire fang is a 50/50 roll to kill tsareena and delcatty outspeeds both and can put both to sleep with sing or be annoying and use attract(only if it is a male delcatty). if fire fang doesn't kill tsareena, he switches to houndoom so go for double kick to revenge tsareena in case it does that. should mention in this fight that you need to let nidorina reach level 43 and die soon after since if it grows another level it won't learn earth power. solaris and cain fight is clean. fern fight you don't need three bulk ups for, two is enough to kill everything and going for the third means he has an extra chance to crit you with rhyhorn. you should not have to heal during this fight, even if you get poison pointed by roserade. krookodile's ability is random and can be intimidate. if it is intimidate, you still knock it out with +1 double kick but the decidueye is a roll with +1 charcoal flame charge so go for blaze kick instead. otherwise flame charge+double kick kills everything. aya fight can also be optimized. fake out+ep nidoqueen, then REFLECT>light screen and ep salazzle. meowstic dies now send in ampharos as she sends in venusaur. soft sand ep is a roll to 2hko the venu so go for ep on venu and heal nidoqueen on ampharos' turn. venusaur will go for power whip on nidoqueen and toxapex will sludge wave, which also now guarantees the 2hko on venusaur. ep the venusaur to knock it out and heal nidoqueen on ampharos' turn. drapion comes in next and will go for knock off on ampharos since it is at lower health. go for earth power to knock out drapion and heal up ampharos on its turn. dragalge is last. go for earth power on it to 2hko it, but switch ampharos out to mightyena and sacrifice it. bring ampharos in after and kill the dragalge with earth power and heal up ampharos. then double up toxapex with earth power+discharge and win. this avoids excessive healing as well as her going for icy wind to drop speed with toxapex/dragalge which can be time consuming. reflect is better to cover for venusaur and drapion while toxapex is her main damage dealer which crits through light screen anyway. this fight is free for the most part aside from random status that can happen by her spamming sludge wave all the time because of the field so be careful of that.

 

sirius MT - for a new strat, i actually did not activate the toxic cannisters in order to get the focus sash in the wasteland. getting the focus sash wastes ~3 minutes+ and is not necessary for el in order to beat the dittoceus fight which i will explain once we get there(i know you fight it for experience). you do forgo getting a telluric seed on the way to get the focus sash but that will not be necessary any time soon. the battles leading up to sirius in yureyu are free for the most part and are tactical place to ev train the team. beating the first four mons on sirius' team is pretty easy with discharge spam but the chandelure can be problematic. its ability is set to infiltrator so going for light screen with meowstic is pointless. once chandelure comes out, sacrifice mightyena and then bring in nidoqueen to revenge kill with earth power. if however the field turns into short circuit once chandelure comes out because of ampharos' discharge, it will have magnet rise due to its seed. in this instance send out sharpedo and go for crunch. chandelure is forced to target either you or cain so if it kills you then cain will get a hit off it, otherwise chandelure will die to crunch. if you die, then cain will get off chip vs chandelure with any of his members to the point where crunch from nidoqueen should kill it. pretty easy split but a formative one nonetheless. 

 

serra - this is probably one of the worst fight in the game time sink wise so i developed a new strategy to combat serra's bullshit. fake out on meowstic is not really needed nor is it used from this point onward so teaching misty terrain over fake out should help in this battle(it will also help for samson and probably saphira in the next update). unfortunately meowstic is at level 45 at this stage in the game and it gets it at 50 and grinding meowstic to 50 before serra is out of the question since there are no trainers that can efficiently get it to that stage in a streamlined manner. you're money is at about 40k after spending on super repels and berry ice cream. also misty terrain can only be abused for 5 turns which is too short for an entire battle. in order to prep, we need to backtrack a couple splits. after you get the bike and make your way to the magma gang, take a detour to the underground staircase. since you have rock smash, you can get the amplified rock which is just down a ladder right near the entrance. we also need 5 rare candies to get it to level 50. you already have 1 from a rock in the rhondochrine forest. the second rare candy we get by saving the day care couple. should probably do this on our way to coral ward after beating shade. this does mean you have to defeat the imposter meteors, but it shouldn't be too bad since it is a tag battle and they only have 4 pokemon. get the harbor key from the house in the park and free the day care couple in coral. open the warehouse at the end of the ward and talk to the meteor grunt in there. this sets up for ditto to appear at blacksteam factory later. once you're there and are doing the prison puzzle, if you transform ditto into lickitung, lickitung will give you a rare candy. the third rare candy you get at dr. connal's orphanage. free the kid from the prison cell and talk to him until he gives you a rare candy(idk why this was skipped since it's really fast). the fourth rare candy you get on your way to spinel town. you need to go to the train anyway to get a heart scale for the nature changer as well(also its faster to get it on your way to fight serra than it is to backtrack later and get it). the fifth rare candy you have to buy since those are all the available rare candies at this point in the game. it should be bought after getting the sticker in the center from the guy you saved underground en route to the move tutor. you can also forgo doing the daycare sidequest since that probably takes the longest to set up, but does mean you would need to buy another rare candy which means you would have to buy less berry ice cream and super repels(it also means this uses up all your money which i don't recommend). should have ~20k after buying everything. this also means that you do not need to equip the exp share onto meowstic to split experience with it since its usefulness begins to decline after aya. with all that set up, give meowstic amplified rock. for bennett, reflect into misty terrain. then switch to blaziken. you only need to bulk up twice, not four times. after that fire punch kills everything. misty terrain will wear off and not be in effect for his last 2 mons which are dustox and butterfree. if you miss once then heal. if larvesta flinches you with zen headbutt, kill it after x2 bulk up+masquerain and heal up on venomoth when he sends it out(it only has sleep powder and signal beam, can't be put to sleep in misty terrain). dustox and butterfree can only hit you with signal beam so they shouldn't be a problem even if you miss. his vivillon also has bright powder, but its best move to hit you is draining kiss so should not be a problem if you miss vs that either. for serra, equip charcoal>power bracer on blaziken and heal it to full, don't heal meowstic if it took damage from bennett(also don't take the center since unecessary time waste). lead meowstic and misty terrain. if you are chipped and die to glaceon switch to blaziken, if not hard switch to blaziken regardless. fire punch everything and hjk aurorus. terrain should last the entire fight and she should NOT get any evasion buffs this fight aside from her glaceon lead that has +1 evasion. missing vs glaceon is OK since it can only ice beam, jynx and froslass both have bright powder, but froslass also has snow cloak active from hail. if you miss vs jynx or hjk miss aurorus RESET. missing frosslass is OK since it only has ice beam to hit you and shadow ball is nerfed in misty terrain. if you miss it, heal if necessary or go for flare blitz since it goes for aurora veil if you are healthy, which kills through veil. 

[bloo123]

noel - do not take off amplified rock on meowstic for light clay, light clay won't be necessary nor useful for a while but extended misty terrain will. your connal fight in your video went the same as it did for me, he never went to evire first>raichu cuz they usually send out their ace last but good fight. all the battles in tanzan meteor base are efficient as well. you actually shouldn't take the healing machine before steelix(the only chip damage sharpedo should have is from the trainer with palossand). the reason is because if you are at full, the steelix may use iron head which you may live if you have good defense, but also there is no need to heal at the machine since after you beat it, your team will already be healed to full to deal with pulse abra. pulse abra is also clean. since i candied meowstic up to 50 for serra, didn't need to switch train experience for it, also it being higher level than normal lets it have better odds of one shotting the gurdurr and passimian trainer with psychic. noel fight is also clean(don't need light clay for this fight). good split.

 

radomus - fern is good, lead blaze bulk up x3 into fire punch everything(including fraxure and krook, krook's ability is set to moxie this fight) and hjk rhydon is a lot faster while equipping exp share to pedo. if you get poison point from roserade, take the healing star right after you kill the bouffalant with blaziken. if it is raining during that fight, hjk fraxure and krookodile. unsure why you take charcoal off blaziken, there is no need for it to be itemless in this fight vs cain. go for misty terrain(muk can't poison blaziken that way) and then die, bulk up x2 and x attack after. fire punch everything, including nidoking and flare blitz primarina and marowak(don't need to hjk prima) and heal on muk when necessary(want to be at mid to high greenish health after killing it), same with mimikyu if it brings you down to 60% or less. reflect is not necessary since x2 bulk up is enough to wall muk, and going for reflect means muk can potentially 3hko meowstic with knock off, meaning after the second knock off meowstic can be at low health and in red which manipulates muk to go for power up punch>knock off to kill off meowstic. going for misty terrain also saves time from having to heal off poison which muk is likely to get with poison touch knock off and gunk shot. after beating cain, heal at the machine and switch sharpedo to the front. after making your way past the labyrinth, battle the hiker that is facing towards iolia valley. he has a linoone that will double edge your sharpedo, but will not knock you out and crunch twice to kill it off. having sharpedo at low hp is necessary for the next fight. go into the nature center and get the wide lens on the third floor, this boosts hjk's accuracy to 99% and will make it much more spammable during certain sections without risking a reset. the formula of hjk missing once is 1-(1-0.1)^(n) with n being the number of times it is used during a battle, and the odds of you hitting get especially egregious when it is used 3 times or more. after making your way to el and climbing the aerie, it's time to face dittoceus. lead meowstic and go for light screen. if meowstic survives the judgement go for misty terrain. go into ampharos and cotton spore. then sacrifice mightyena. go into nidoqueen to let it get some experience. sacrifice blaziken. go into sharpedo and go for destiny bond. since you are at low health, arceus is most likely to kill you off with shadow ball. this way you don't risk judgement turning into a psychic move(if you weren't able to misty terrain) or a focus blast miss. this is also the primary reason why we needed cotton spore>thunder wave on ampharos since arceus can full paralysis on destiny bond, as well as the fact that el has two full heals that he randomly uses. this also saves time not getting the focus sash from the wasteland which as i said before takes ~3 minutes+. radomus time, charcoal is actually better>black belt for this fight. this fight is very weird, for me he ALWAYS goes to metagross after killing reuniclus turn 1 with crunch+fire punch, so i will give my strat for radomus if he opts for metagross turn 2 which has proven to be very consistent. crunch+fire punch to knock out reuniclus turn 1 with nidoqueen and blaziken. gallade will always knock off nidoqueen. x defend nidoqueen and go for bulk up. the metagross goes for ice punch and gallade will knock off nidoqueen. heal nidoqueen on its turn(USE A LEMONADE) and bulk up again, they will do the same thing. heal nidoqueen again(lemonade again) and go for fire punch to kill metagross. you only need two bulk ups for this fight. slowking comes in after. crunch+flare blitz to knock out the slowking guaranteed. he sends out malamar next. double it up with fire punch and earth power in case fire punch doesn't knock it out. gardevoir is last and flare blitz will knock it out, fire punch with charcoal has very high chances of knocking it out however(+2 charcoal fire punch is the same roll to kill gardevoir as it is malamar). then kill gallade after and win. if metagross freezes nidoqueen with ice punch, use a full heal on the turn you kill metagross with fire punch, the battle should still play out the same. the reason why lemonade is the preferred healing item is because it heals less, which keeps nidoqueen healthy, but not healthier than blaziken after flare blitz recoil. we want gallade to keep spamming knock off on nidoqueen instead of target blaziken(the ai targets the pokemon that is closer to fainting). there is a rare instance where metagross will go for zen headbutt on nidoqueen, if that is the case RESET if nidoqueen faints. if gallade gets a very low roll with knock off on nidoqueen turn 1, this compels the metagross to go for zen headbutt on blaziken on the first bulk up. this is still salvageable, heal blaziken on nidoqueen's turn and go for bulk up again. this just means that you will have to heal blaziken instead of nidoqueen. make sure you use moo moo milks on blaziken for this permutation. gallade will also knock off blaziken's charcoal in this scenario, make sure you heal blaziken constantly and use flare blitz to kill the malamar and gardevoir. finish off gallade with fire punch.

 

luna - once you level up ampharos to 65 at the grand hall, teach thunder over cotton spore, we won't be needing it anymore. 7th street arc is pretty straight forward, looks good. for the bennett fight before luna, you don't need to bulk up at all. flare blitz larvesta and yanmega is a guaranteed kill. fire punch is a guaranteed kill vs everything else. heal after using the light shard. for luna you dont need to equip the black belt either, equip the wide lens. blaziken should get level 60 before umbreon and +1 hjk should be a guaranteed ko after ev training and changing nature to adamant. your strat for luna is clean. good split.

 

EDIT: will have to buy some extra rare candies on you way to coral to meet up with adrienn and co. since we used our stock for meowstic, but should have enough money to buy extra after selling everything.

[bloo123]

samson - this is a pretty fast split, but what would save a lot more time for this is not having to do the crustle puzzle for the top half of route 2. not only is this not mandatory, but is a pretty big time sink ~3-5 minutes+. you also skip having to face the hiker with the camerupt. the only time you use the top half of route 2 is when you finish blake and go straight to terra, which is unnecessary since you can just go through ametrine and get to the circus from celestine cascade. or you can just use teleport which will get you there even faster. also make sure blaziken is stil holding wide lens when fighting the trainers on route 2. another huge disclaimer would be that if blaziken somehow dies when battling any of the trainers on route 2, DO NOT reset. resetting the game will also reset the crustle positions, meaning you will have to do the crustle puzzle over again if you did not push them into the holes. after you go to fiore and backtrack to fight samson, put meowstic in the front(you should still be holding amplified rock). misty terrain turn 1 and go for psychic turn 2 for some chip on hariyama(we can't use reflect because brick break). go to blaziken which should be holding synthetic seed. bulk up x3 and heal. kill off hariyama and hawlucha that comes out next with fire punch. misty terrain wears off and synthetic seed should give you another +1 attack. flare blitz and kill blaziken here, should bring you down to red to orange range. fire punch and kill mienshao. heal up on lucario here and kill it with fire punch. make sure your blaziken has 100 hit points or above before you kill off lucario. his last is conkeldurr which you can flare blitz to knock out. we need to have 100hp+ to survive the recoil from flare blitz. this strategy makes it much safer to set up on hariyama and takes a lot less time since you are only healing twice, three times at worst and makes it so you don't have to x defend, twice. it also means we won't have to risk hjk hitting and also killing conkeldurr since if you roll WEAK! on the big top, you won't kill conkeldurr with +4 hjk, same goes for hitting blaziken.

 

charlotte - after making your way to fiore and getting surf, its bonding time with aya yay... the double fights leading up to aster and eclipse can be a bit dicey so save before every fight, but is for the most part manageable. this fight is probably the worst fight in the game, up there with serra. aster and eclipse spam rock slide and bulldoze relentlessly, which not only is very effective vs you and aya, but there is a lot of randomness associated with this battle based on how the first few turns go or what pokemon are out on the field at any given point, as well as rock slide flinches. rare candying sharpedo to level 68 over 67 is also ideal for this fight, also equip light clay on meowstic and wide lens on blaziken now if you haven't already. for this fight we want to focus down aster since he has more threatening mons and then 2v1 eclipse at the end. CRUNCH SOLROCK turn 1. lunatone will use moonblast on sharpedo. moonblast is a roll to kill on sharpedo. if moonblast doesn't kill sharpedo, they will send in passimian next. go for destiny bond and kill off passimian. after that they will send in krookodile so send in meowstic. if moonblast does kill sharpedo turn 1, they will instead send in krookodile>passimian. in this case go meowstic as well. go for reflect as krook goes for bulldoze, lunatone will either light screen or blizzard here but meowstic should survive this turn. go for light screen after and faint. send out blaziken next and hjk krookodile to kill it. let blaziken do as much damage as possible to aster as it can before it goes down. once blaziken faints, send in nidoqueen. lunatone should be dead by this point and vileplume should be sent out already or fainted. go for toxic spike with nidoqueen. this makes the rest of the battle a lot easier since residual chip as well as it enabling aya's merciless toxapex to crit everything. if for some reason vileplume has not been sent out, don't go for toxic spike. the rest of the battle should be manageable for ampharos and nidoqueen once aster's krookodile and golurk goes down. if nidoqueen does faint, send in mightyena after and use revive on nidoqueen if golurk is in kill range of earth power, otherwise revive sharpedo. this route is a lot safer than your current route since killing solrock denies reflect, and it is much more feasible to tackle this battle by focusing down on one first, especially since eclipse can't do much damage outside of her own lycanroc and milotic. lycanroc and passimian will also not be out when meowstic sets up screens meaning they can't use brick break to negate them. milotic and krookodile will not be on the field either when nidoqueen goes for toxic spike as well. you should not need to reset for this fight. she does not have accelerock on her lycanroc either so you should not fear that. charlotte fight is almost a breath of fresh air compared to this, but can still be optimized. give sharpedo back the metronome. x spdef blaziken and light screen with meowstic. darmanitan has a small chance of using flare blitz>rock slide which brings blaziken to red so use an ultra potion if that happens, otherwise hyper potion when you send in mightyena and use bulk up. send in ampharos and get off the second bulk up and use hyper potion on blaziken, ampharos dies here, so send in sharpedo. use fire punch on the darmanitan to kill it off after shell trap, typhlosion will use heat wave and bring sharpedo to around half hp. crunch the typhlosion with sharpedo to 2hko it. delphox comes in next, use fire punch on the typhlosion to kill it off(its ability is set to blaze not flash fire) and use crunch to kill off the delphox to get a double knock out. rotom and volcarona are next. use fire punch to kill volc and crunch the rotom. the rotom will use reflect here. ninetales comes in and set up sun. use flare blitz and kill the ninetales and crunch the rotom for the 2hko and win. since it is a doubles battle, reflect reduces the damage by a third and not half, +2 flare blitz under burning field and sun is a guaranteed knock out on ninetales. your current method relies on hitting hjk on everything when that is not remotely necessary and relies heavily on blaziken to sweep her when sharpedo can as well, which takes less time and makes the battle a lot shorter. also i don't have the balls to hit 5 hjks in a row so yeah. 1-(1-0.1)^5 ~ 40% chance of missing once.

 

blake -  don't take the center, there is no need. make your way to pulse avalugg. lead blaziken and sacrifice nidoqueen. go to sharpedo and use destiny bond. take the light shard after(going to calceon's center also means that you can't teleport back to the circus once you need to battle terra). no need to take ametrine's center after doing the sticker sidequest since shelly heals you after the double battle you will have with her later, also for the same reason for teleport. huge emphasis on getting the full restore when climbing ametrine, it is very necessary in dealing with amaria! all the battles leading up to blake look free since shelly and cal are very competent partners. waterfall on blaziken from gyarados is actually a roll to kill at level 71/72, one that is extremely in your favor unless your blaziken has less than 20 ivs in hp and defense. don't go for discharge and instead use thunder on gyarados if blaziken does survive, since thunder is 100% accurate on snowy mountain. if blaziken survives, switch it out to meowstic and x sp atk ampharos. they will go for power up punch and thunder onto meowstic, which it should survive. since meowstic is not at full hp, this manipulates the weavile to go for power up punch instead of ice shard since it always goes for power up punch on low hp so use misty terrain and x speed on ampharos. this gets rid of snowy mountain so the sandslash can't rock slide flinch you as well as prevents him from freezing you with blizzard. the reason why we hard switch blaziken to meowstic is because weavile goes for power up punch on blaziken which gives it +1, and it would use +1 ice shard and outprioritize and kill meowstic if we did not do this. go to mightyena next and fodder it to discharge and get a double knock out. go to nidoqueen next and use earth power on walrein as well as discharge to get a double knock out on sandslash and walrein. +2 discharge has a high chance to kill sandslash, but if it doesn't, it will use earthquake on walrein to kill it and will die to nidoqueen's earth power instead. if blaziken does die to gyarados' waterfall, go to mightyena next turn. sacrifice mightyena and go for x sp atk. go to meowstic and use misty terrain and go for discharge to get a double knock out. go to nidoqueen next and heal ampharos to full and discharge. sandslash goes for earthquake instead of rock slide under misty terrain, but ampharos should live that plus walrein's surf. discharge will kill both after they friendly fire themselves with earthquake and surf. 

[bloo123]

terra - probably the shortest split. glitch mewtwo fight is very efficient. terra fight is also very good, but can be optimized. lead meowstic and light screen. hard switch to nidoqueen and toxic spike twice. earth power to chip the nidoking. sacrifice mightyena and bring in sharpedo. go for x sp atk and surf after to kill it off. when quagsire comes out, go for surf first. then x sp atk twice after. going for surf first forces quagsire to recover after and will continue to do so to combat the toxic damage, meaning it will never attack sharpedo and you will not have to heal during this fight. you should have a 2x multiplier with metronome surf before garchomp comes out. x2 +6 surf does more to the garchomp than ice fang does and will more than likely kill it, so DO NOT use ice fang vs garchomp. surf should kill the rest of her pokemon. 

 

taka - now that we have waterfall, go into ametrine from celestine cascade. go down the waterfall on the right, and do so again to get to B2F. surf left until you encounter a strength boulder on ice. use strength and push it left and move left as well. save and reset. now you should be in the boulder, move right and move back left. this will allow you to move up and get a LIFE ORB. equip life orb onto nidoqueen and use an escape rope. life orb is an extremely versatile item that can be abused by sharpedo, blaziken and nidoqueen, especially sheer force nidoqueen. getting it costs about 30 seconds and is most definitely worth taking. we could have gotten this before radomus but would take a lot longer having to slather honey and kill bouffalants and pinsir, also there aren't any battles from radomus to now where life orb would be essential so getting it here is better. this split is very straight forward. all the battles in the WTC are nothing to be concerned about, and are routed well. just be mindful of everyone's levels so they aren't overleveled for the next split. equip wide lens on blaziken. for the taka fight, there is a chance klefki will use light screen>foul play turn 2. if that is the case, waste a turn by throwing a poke ball at klefki, it will go for thunder wave again. heal the status and it will use foul play. then proceed to kill it with fire punch. using bulk up means foul play would do less damage because of the increased defense, and blaziken would be at too high a range for klefki to not use foul play next turn and will use thunder wave when you kill it, hence throwing the poke ball is much preferred. blaziken should sweep after.

 

ciel - fiore gauntlet is up next, but is not as bad as you would think. first battle is free, reflect and kill as much as you can with nidoqueen and switch to ampharos and sharpedo to split experience. second battle, go for reflect and discharge with ampharos after meowstic dies. sacrifice mightyena and switch to sharpedo to deal with krookodile and mamoswine. blaziken should clean both of them after. third battle, reflect into spam waterfall on solaris with sharpedo. killing tyranitar with sharpedo is a roll however after two uses of metronome waterfall, but is a roll in your favor(ideal if sharpedo gets level 75 before facing the tyranitar). the rest of the battle should go well since dragon pulse into hp ice from julia's rotom and ampharos will pick up the kill vs garchomp if sharpedo dies early and can't chip it. after dealing with solaris, focus down on the orderly. heal and revive when necessary. if nidoqueen is overleveled before facing solaris, do not attack with it. ciel fight is also clean, but it should be noted that if you have a -speed nature on ampharos, you need to go for a third x speed to outspeed noivern(you need to have at least a speed stat of 96 to outspeed noivern at +4). lead meowstic and light screen, then go to ampharos. x sp atk x3 and x speed twice, or three times if you have bad speed. spam power gem cuz mashing a and kill everything. you should not need to heal this fight unless togekiss crits you while setting up. 

[bloo123]

adrienn - after stocking up on x items, you should go next door and stock up on revival herbs in the meganium mart. these are much more useful than revives and will definitely help you out in a tight spot, and would also save time having to revive a mon, and healing it to full after with another item. i would probably buy 10, they are pretty inexpensive. teaching nidoqueen strength and having to reteach it sludge wave takes more time than just flying to spinel town and making your way to the underground railnet for the devon raid, so don't do that. all the fights leading up to victoria are clean, just have to not overlevel nidoqueen and blaziken. victoria is also clean, make sure you x defend first after you reflect as opposed to just x attack since mienshao can and probably will outspeed blaziken after +1 speed. wide lens is preferred for this fight and all the fights leading up to victoria since you will be relying on hjk a lot. this does mean that you need to flare blitz togekiss over fire punch since fire punch is a roll to kill without charcoal at +2, but blaziken will tank 2 hjks from mienshao and live the recoil from togekiss so there is no need to heal this fight. arclight can be improved. you only need to x speed twice in this battle if your nidoqueen has terrible speed. having a speed of at least 141 is necessary to outspeed jolteon after +2. otherwise you only need to use 1 x sp atk and 1 x speed as opposed to 2 of each. equip life orb for this fight, black sludge takes too much time per turn to activate and is not necessary. use +2 sludge wave to kill everything, but use earth power on ampharos. you do not need to heal in this fight. for the zel fight equip charcoal on blaziken. turn 1 go for misty terrain, meowstic should survive tbolt from aurorus. if aurorus crits meowstic turn 1 RESET. go for light screen after. go into blaziken and x attack, aurorus will go for stealth rock. go for fire punch now, it will tbolt for a sliver. this turn use bulk up as it goes for tbolt again. hail should wear off. fire punch the rest of their team, but flare blitz umbreon>hjk. you need to have a minimum of 103 hp to survive flare blitz recoil on umbreon, and you should have around 115-130 hp on blaziken by then. going for misty terrain means that aurorus can't paralyze you with thunderbolt, and it won't be terrain boosted. you should not have to heal in this fight unless aurorus crits blaziken. the reason why you need to fire punch first before going for the bulk up is because if you don't, aurorus will switch and set up hail again which will mean you will not be able to flare blitz umbreon and will waste more time with hail. this also doesn't risk having to use hjk on umbreon. when getting the fourth volunteer from onyx arcade, go to the top left corner of the onyx ward. there is a goth girl who will give you a full restore which will be important later on. your adrienn strat is very good, but you don't need to x speed nidoqueen, nor does it need to hold black sludge since it wastes time and is not necessary with hyper potions, so let it keep life orb. light screen into x defend, go into pidove and guard spec and x sp def. sharpedo and heal using hyper potion and x special. ampharos and hyper potion and x special again. ampharos lived the last turn so hyper potion nidoqueen and sludge wave here to knock them out. mawile and whimsicott come out, heal nidoqueen on blaziken's turn and earth power mawile, whimsicott will use tailwind. togekiss comes in next. let blaziken die and kill them off with sludge wave, togekiss goes for dazzling gleam while whimsicott uses hurricane on blaziken. last is florges which you can kill with sludge wave. ultra potion if nidoqueen gets crit by the lead match up but survives, if it dies RESET. x speed is only needed to outspeed gardevoir, which you will take a hit from anyway when using x speed on it so there's no point in doing so when you can make the battle go faster by taking the hit from it and kill it, also means that you won't take another earthquake from granbull. you may or may not be able to outspeed togekiss or florges at +2 depending on your nidoqueen since they have tailwind, nor can they do anything to you anyway.

 

titania - teach rock smash>sludge wave on nidoqueen. we will need surf later and sludge wave won't be useful for a while. when travelling up to the scrapyard, there might be a hiker on the tracks leading up to it depending on the positions of the oases at any given point, so be sure to go out of your way to avoid him if he is there. equip wide lens on blaziken, charcoal won't be necessary. for the first knight, use an x attack on blaziken, hjk mawile and fire punch escavalier. escavalier has +1 defense from the field because of shell armor, so bulk up into fire punch will not kill(fire moves in fairy tale field have a dragon subtype so it is x2 and not x4 vs escavalier) and flare blitz recoil is undesirable and takes longer since you're forced to heal after. blaziken should get level 80 from this fight, if it wasn't level 80 already. rare candy it up to level 85 once it reaches level 80, it is better to do this right now than before titania so the experience from these fights will count towards the glass gauntlet. second and third fight are free. fourth fight lead sharpedo and use waterfall twice, it needs all the experience it can get. fifth fight is also free with blaziken. once you wake up in the bed, your entire party will be healed for zekrom, you should not have to heal when battling the knights or after. switch sharpedo to the front. if your sharpedo has a speed stat of 185 or above, it will outspeed the zekrom after the speed boost. there is no need to equip focus sash since the zekrom will always use its z move turn 1 which you live. if you are slower, just use destiny bond turn 1. if you are faster, go for crunch, then use destiny bond turn 2. if zekrom crits you or it misses bolt strike turn 2 RESET. you do not need to equip magical seed onto blaziken for titania, let it hold onto wide lens. your titania strat is very good, sandslash will always go for aurora veil turn 2 on blaziken when reflect is up, just execute your usual strategy. the +1 attack and the protection from the seed boost is unnecessary, and you kill everything with +4 fire punch and hjk(also wide lens for no missing). if sandslash crits blaziken that is a RESET. if excadrill crits blaziken, revive meowstic and use reflect. send in nidoqueen after. excadrill will use smart strike which will not kill you, and you can kill it with earth power.

 

amaria - nvmd this is probably shorter than terra. after you convince amaria to fight you, get this full restore on the way to the telepad(you should have three full restores, they will be useful for amaria and for the glass gauntlet). your current strat for amaria is very fleshed out, but is risking getting crit after taking 15+ hits as well as being forced to heal a lot if she scald burns you which she most likely will. getting crit with ampharos is also a RESET, so instead of rare candying ampharos to level 88, rare candy sharpedo to level 85 instead and let it hold the elemental seed and let ampharos hold the exp share. go for light screen on meowstic, and light screen again since reflect wastes time and is not necessary. go to sharpedo and use x spdef, starmie will use tbolt for 35-45, now go for x attack as she goes for light screen. x attack again as she goes for tbolt. x attack once more as she tbolts again, you will live this. if she paralyzes you, use a full restore. after that crunch and sweep her entire team. this strategy makes it so you don't have to heal constantly, and is much much faster and safer since she will only attack you at least three times and is less likely to crit. crunch is a guaranteed knock out on all of her mons at +6.

[bloo123]

calcenon city - let blaziken keep holding wide lens, nidoqueen life orb, sharpedo black glasses and ampharos exp share. blaziken is level 85, nidoqueen 82, sharpedo 85 and almost to 86, ampharos 83. the team is more balanced in regards to levels and having life orb on nidoqueen means it makes all of the battles leading up to the glass gauntlet much more feasible by securing certain ohkos. there is no reason to teach nidoqueen flamethrower, there is no use case for it during this final part of the game since the other members are capable of beating solaris 3 and serra+radomus so don't teach it. since ampharos has the exp share, its best not to let it battle and have the other members obtain experience alongside it. first battle is fine, but kill barbaracle with nidoqueen instead of ampharos. second battle is good. third battle is fine, but  let sharpedo kill solrock. sharpedo will get chipped by rock slide since unfezant set up tailwind but that is ok. let nidoqueen kill golem and blaziken kill escavalier. third battle is good. fourth battle is a double battle, lead blaziken and sharpedo. since sharpedo is chipped, zoroark will use dark pulse on sharpedo instead of focus blast which you live, so use hjk on zoroark and crunch trevenant. fire punch vikavolt and crunch grumpig next turn. this makes the battle a lot shorter and also not having to heal in between battles. every member on the team should be alive after this battle, with only sharpedo and nidoqueen being low but that is ok, there is no need to heal. lead sharpedo, it should be level 86 by now. for aster use crunch to knock out solrock which kills with black glasses. he goes passimian next so go meowstic and use reflect. once meowstic dies go into blaziken and use bulk up. kill it off with flare blitz. krookodile will be sent next, so use hjk and kill it off. golurk is next so go back into sharpedo and kill it off with crunch. his last are two lycanroc which you can kill off both with waterfall. time for the glass gauntlet. equip charcoal>wide lens onto blaziken, soft sand>life orb on nidoqueen and switch meowstic to the front and blaziken second. make sure to common candy meowstic down to level 48, we want it to not survive certain hits and go down as quick as possible. nidoqueen alongside blaziken will get the most experience for these battles, so continue to let ampharos hold the exp share. there are two possible scenarios for this first fight, both of which occur on the first turn. either ribombee goes for sticky web or dazzling gleam turn 1. your current method relies on no sticky web turn 1 and not getting boned by marowak and focusing down on shelly first, which takes more time and is more risky since marowak is always targetting blaziken(shadow bone defense drops are very bad). it is faster and albeit still manageable to tackle them on both at the same time. always go for light screen and bulk up twice with meowstic and blaziken. here are the different ways the battle will go depending on the first turn:

 

sticky web turn 1 -> earth power marowak and bulk up(light screen and marowak survives and shadow bones blaze), surf and heal blaze with an ultra(dazzling gleam), heal blaze and fire punch meowstic(dazzling gleam), fire punch ribombee and ep muk(knock off into nido), heal nido and fire punch scolipede(knock off), ep muk(cain switches to nido when light screen ends once muk is chipped) and fire punch vivillon double knock out, ep muk and fire punch yanmega double knock out, ep mimi and fire punch volc(thunder into blaze), heal blaze and fire punch leavanny(thunder into blaze), switch nido to pedo and heal blaze, heal blaze if necessary and fire punch mimi, flare blitz and crunch prima. 

 

dazzling gleam turn 1 -> earth power marowak and bulk up(sticky web), heal blaze and fire punch meowstic(dazzling gleam),fire punch and ep ribombee(light screen and knock off into nido), x defend nido and fire punch vivillon(knock off), heal nido with a lemonade and fire punch yanmega(knock off),heal nido with a lemonade and fire punch scolipede(knock off), ep muk and fire punch volc(knock off), ep muk(cain switches to nido when light screen ends once muk is chipped) and fire punch leavanny double knock out, heal blaze and fire punch muk, switch nido to pedo and fire punch mimi(thunder into blaze), heal blaze if necessary and fire punch mimi, flare blitz and crunch prima.

 

it's important to have backup full restores for this fight in case mimikyu paralyzes blaziken with thunder, and you should have at least 1 and at most 3 leading up to this battle. the reason why we need to switch out nidoqueen to sharpedo near the end is because if ribombee got up webs early, nidoqueen will not outspeed primarina and +2 charcoal flare blitz is a roll to knock it out (also prima will naturally outspeed nidoqueen if you have bad speed), hence doubling it up at the end with sharpedo. we also use lemonade's on the second iteration to bait muk to target nidoqueen>blaziken since it would be at lower health. you should not have to reset this fight unless blaziken gets crit early and dies. if your meowstic has a +def nature, it has a small chance to survive marowak's rock slide, if meowstic lives or dodges rock slide RESET. we want it to die turn 1 to make this battle go faster and setting up reflect makes the battle much more volatile as cain will do some funky shit otherwise. 

 

your luna strat is good, but you need +4 to guarantee the knock out on gothitelle with charcoal fire punch, its a so-so roll in your favor to kill at +3 but is not worth risking. reflect and sacrifice mightyena. go for x attack twice on weavile as it repeatedly goes for low kick. fire punch the rest of her team. flare blitz the umbreon since it kills at +4 and is not risking hjk. you should not have to heal during this fight unless weavile crits you while setting up. 

 

radomus and serra can also be improved. since meowstic is lower level, the clefable will be more inclined to attack and use dazzling gleam and the ninetales will use aurora veil which is ok. use light screen and x attack turn 1. switch meowstic out to nidoqueen and fire punch ninetales. heal blaziken and go for fire punch on jynx. clefable will go for thunder wave this turn but that's ok. heal the paralysis next turn and go for fire punch on glaceon, heal nidoqueen next turn and use fire punch on sandslash, use an ether for fire punch and use fire punch on bronzong, heal the paralysis and fire punch froslass and serra should go down here, heal up blaziken and use flare blitz on clefable, aurora veil should wear off now, switch out nidoqueen to sharpedo to let it get some experience and fire punch the rest of radomus' team. once sharpedo gets level 87, switch to meowstic to let it regain some experience. you do not need to talk to kiki in the void. 

 

hardy - blaziken is level 88, nidoqueen level 84, ampharos level 90 almost 91, and sharpedo is level 87. give blaziken back the wide lens, nidoqueen life orb, ampharos rock incense, sharpedo keep black glasses, rare candy nidoqueen and sharpedo to level 88, and common candy ampharos to 89. first battle is good, but kill aggron with nidoqueen, second battle is faster to solo with blaziken(hjk everything but flare blitz lurantis), third battle is also good, but kill belossom with nidoqueen. tag battle with hardy is fine, once sharpedo dies send in nidoqueen to lategame and sweep. solaris is also clean, since meowstic is lower level staraptor guarantee knocks it out after reflect which is ideal since we want all of our turns of reflect. make sure to waterfall again when you bring excadrill to its sash, this baits in the gyarados which you can 2hko with crunch. when setting up blaziken on scizor, you only need +5 and not +6 to kill the garchomp guaranteed, so use bulk up first then x attack twice afterwards. you should not have to heal unless scizor crits you. unfortunately scizor knocks off your wide lens so if you miss hjk RESET.  for the first trainer in hardy's gym, after chipping armaldo with sharpedo and dying, go into ampharos to revenge kill it. it should get level 90 from this if it hasn't already which makes the carracosta after a guaranteed kill with discharge. the second and third trainer just lead blaziken and hjk 4 times. make sure to save before the second trainer since he has +1 evasion mamoswine. for the hardy fight, make sure blaziken is in slot 1 and meowstic is in slot 2, that way blaziken won't take full damage from rock slide and only 75% of the damage once a teamate faints. do not take the center since it takes longer. heal blaziken to full and revive sharpedo. equip amplified rock onto meowstic and make sure blaziken is still holding wide lens. turn 1 x defend and use misty terrain. go to pidove and use x defend and heal blaziken. send in sharpedo to heal blaziken and use bulk up. send in nidoqueen after and use hjk on aerodactyl and earth power gigalith. hjk archeops and earth power gigalith for a double knock out. hjk lycanroc and heal blaziken as rampardos goes for rock slide. hjk lycanroc and use earth power on rampardos for a double knock out. his rampardos is sheer force so he won't flinch nidoqueen. all of hardy's pokemon will die to a +1 hjk and setting up misty terrain is essentially the same as going for reflect since it removes the field boost he gets from his rock slides. it also means that his seed on lycanroc won't activate so he will not get +1 evasion. also a small thing, since he sends out his last with another pokemon on the field as opposed to just it, he wont appear and say any text which wastes time. if blaziken gets crit and dies that is a RESET however. you do not need brick break for this fight, your welcome. this is as optimized as i can make the speed run atm not accounting for buggy teleport so im hoping for a sub 6 or 5:30 ish, can't say for sure until e19 comes out so we will see!