[Spoilers] Intense Mono-normal Challenge! (Updated 15/07/21)

[Glint]

Hi all!

 

This is my first post here, nice to meet you all! I've just finished my first run of rejuvenation on normal and I really enjoyed it, so now I've decided to try again...but just a little bit more difficult this time round. I'll be playing on intense, and just to make things a little more interesting I'll be doing a mono-normal run. The rules will be as follows:

 

1. Set mode, no items in battle and all standard competitive clauses in place, i.e sleep clause, species clause, OHKO clause and so on.
2. Only normal types are or those with a normal type in their evo line (e.g eeveelutions, azumarill). I'll extend species clause to only use one from each evo line in my team at any one time, so I can't just use a team full of eeveelutions.
3. Breeding is allowed, but no egg moves that can only be obtained from non-normal types can be used.
4. All team members must be nicknamed!

 

This will not be a nuzlocke, I'm nowhere near crazy enough to try that yet, but I still think it'll be a challenge! Depending on how this goes I might do some more runs in future, most likely with harder monotypes and further restrictions, but for now we'll stick with this.

 

Anyway, the lucky victim of this run will be Emma (Aevia) because I'm feeling kinda cute today. I'll probably post updates every now and then, most likely after each significant fight.

 

Stay tuned!

 

p.s: be heroes and pray for Angie to go away xoxo

 

Links to segments (updated 15/07/21):

Spoiler

Chapter 1 (No Videos):

Melia (Goldenwood Grove)

Zetta (Goldenwood Forest), Rift Gyarados (Pre Incident)

Novae (Battle Room), Venam (Gym Battle)

 

Chapter 2:

Jenkel/PULSE Musharna

Nim (Route 2), Zetta (Amethyst Cave), Rift Galvantula

Novae (Amethyst Cave)

Keta (Gym Battle), Madelis (Carotos Mountain), Rift Volcanion

Spectral Keta (Amethyst Grotto)

 

Chapter 3:

Amanda (Gate Plaza), Rorim B. (Route 3), Ancient Guard Kingdra

PokeGang Crobat, Marianette (Gym Battle)

 

Chapter 4:

Rift Gyarados (Post Incident), Aelita (Goldenwood Town)

 

[Kamado]

What do you mean your Playing  on intense? But  anyways GoodLuck I'm doing the Game with two Pokemonand  Permadeath challenge, so if I black out I start over.

Edited June 23, 2021 by Kamado

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

man that challenge is really difficult with out healing. good luck u can do it . actually i tried poison and flying mono run 

in normal i think you will get litleo,lilpup,as main mon the lilpup will have psychic fangs work up takedown.cinccino too start will be difficult 

[ffdfsdfdd]

Cincinno will be difficult if you dont have skill link, Skill link is pretty op, crit chance and damage is pretty good.

 

 

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

true but it is difficult in the start and you can actually get cinccino at before second gym 

[ffdfsdfdd]

 

 

true

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by ffdfsdfdd

[Glint]

6 hours ago, Kamado said:

What do you mean your Playing  on intense? But  anyways GoodLuck I'm doing the Game with two Pokemonand  Permadeath challenge, so if I black out I start over.

 

By intense I mean the built in intense mode, it ups the levels, movesets and rosters of a lot of the 'boss trainers'!

[Kamado]

ok, I wasn't aware of that for some reason but good luck!

 

[Glint]

Here's the first update for the run!

 

As the starter didn't particularly matter for this run, I used the randomiser which gave me a Bulbasaur! I named Bulbasaur "Onion" and proceeded to lose badly to Amanda's Litten, but as Shrek taught us, onions have layers...which is probably a metaphor for needing a thick skin to finish this run, or something. Anyway! After taking out Ren I went outside and caught a Pidove which I named Birb, before putting Onion in the box where he'll spend the rest of his days cheering us on. Sleep tight Onion (22/06/21 - 22/06/21).

 

Along the way we made a few more friends:

Spearow (Violence), Skitty (Tabby), Patrat (Scout), Bidoof (Deus)
Pidgey (Borb) - Shiny, Rattata-A (Shadowrat), Fletchling (Firestorm), Cherubi (Cherry) - Trade for Buneary (Bun)

 

After grabbing the various items scattered throughout Gearen and catching everything that we can up to this point we meet Venam, the purple haired menace. We make quick work of the sewers and use the free healing from Ren as an opportunity to gain a few levels. We also get lucky and bump into a couple of shinies! I'll be catching these for the AP along the way, but won't be using them unless they fit the rules.

 

Before we head to Route 1 to continue the story, we take a quick detour to the casino to pick up Helioptile which we name Flash, and TM70...Flash, which will come in handy later on. We make our way to the train station to join Melia and Venam on Route 1, but on our way we're ambushed by a guy who demands a toll. The fight was more difficult than expected thanks to his Lv 16 Hippopotas, but fortunately Violence prevails with some lucky 5 hit Fury Attacks! Who said Violence never solved anything?

 

Upon arriving at Route 1 we take the time to add a few more members to our roster:

Deerling (Bambi), Sentret (Crash), Whismur (Reverb)

 

We team up with Melia in Goldenwood Cave, who seems to enjoy knocking out my team members with her Stufful's Brutal Swing. After gaining a few more levels from the trainer battles, Birb learns Roost.

At the end of Goldenwood Cave comes our first real challenge, Melia. Here's our lineup for the first attempt:

 

Spoiler

 

This was a mistake...as her Buneary rips through our entire team the first time round. Fortunately we have quite a while before we hit the level cap on most of our team and a few evolutions available to us, so we head back into Goldenwood Forest and train for a while.

 

After littering the forest floor with critters, our team looks a little better prepared to take on Melia:

 

Spoiler

 

This time it wasn't really a fight as Violence ripped through her entire team with Aerial Ace, resulting in a 6-0 sweep...it turns out that Violence was the answer all along!

 

Before we have time to celebrate there's an explosion in the distance. Rift Gyarados awaits!

 

That's the end of this segment, I'll probably post again around about the first Venam fight!

 

Until then, peace!

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

ok you did a little bit of mistake early game gyardos is like a monster you should have gotten youself the lilipup inorder intimidate and baby doll eyes that thing or may prove difficult question isnt fletchinder fire flying

[Glint]

6 hours ago, Ram Cxz 007 said:

ok you did a little bit of mistake early game gyardos is like a monster you should have gotten youself the lilipup inorder intimidate and baby doll eyes that thing or may prove difficult question isnt fletchinder fire flying

 

As far as I know, Lillipup isn't available until after you finish the events in Goldenwood Forest. 

 

I'm also allowing myself to use stuff that has a normal type in its evo line, so I can use Fletchinder as Fletchling is a normal type. 

 

[Glint]

Hi guys, here's the latest update on the run.

 

We pick up where we left off after Violence tore Melia's team to pieces in Goldenwood Grove and head towards Rift Gyarados. Along the way we fight Mars, whose team all go down to a single Aerial Ace from Violence. She gifts us with a Sewaddle, which we name Cabbage before storing it in the box alongside Onion.

 

Next up we fight a Xen Grunt, who has a Shadow Meowth that we capture and name Rocket. It won't be much use to us until we get to Sheridan. After making our way through the Xen Grunts, we arrive at the edge of Goldenwood Lake. First we team up with Melia against Eli and Sharon, who don't give us much of a challenge. Next up is Zetta, who takes a bit more of a beating but still goes down fairly easily.

 

Finally, we're ready take down Rift Gyarados. Our team hasn't changed much since we fought Melia, but for completeness:

 

Spoiler

 

This fight was surprisingly tough. We lead with Reverb to take the intimidate on behalf of Violence, who also sets up confusion on Gyarados with Supersonic. After two lucky turns of confusion and Echoed Voice, Gyarados KOs Reverb with about 50% HP remaining. We switch into Violence, who is outsped by Gyarados and is nearly taken out by a single Thunder Fang. Before going down, Violence gets Gyarados down to around 10% HP with an Aerial Ace. Firestorm switches in, but gets insta-KOed by a Thunder Fang. Luckily, Birb saves the day with a crit Quick Attack, ending Rift Gyarados. That was a close one!

 

Before we head back to Jenner's Lab we make a quick stop off at the Violet Building to pick up Lillipup, which we name Emmy. Upon inspection back at Jenner's Lab, Emmy has 31 speed IVs and Adamant nature which makes her a little powerhouse! She also has access to Psychic Fangs, which will come in handy against Venam later.

 

We continue the story and watch Jenner's unfortunate encounter with Crescent. Afterwards, we spend a little time doing the sidequests in East Gearen, which give us Minccino (Dusty) and Litleo (Pyro). That wraps up all of the allowed encounters for Chapter 1!

 

Before we head off to fight Venam we take on our next difficult opponent, Novae, with Violence looking angrier than ever:

 

Spoiler

 

We lead with Violence against Novae's Trumbeak, which in hindsight was a mistake as it almost takes out Violence with a Rock Blast. Violence takes out Trumbeak, and Rockruff switches in. We switch to the newly evolved Reverb, who shouts at Rockruff a lot without achieving a great deal. We lose Reverb to Rockruff, but finish it off with Flash. Novae's Sandygast comes out, so predicting a ground move we take the free switch into Borb. Borb spams Gust until Sandygast eventually switches into Charjabug, which takes out Borb...this isn't going so well. After an accidental switch, we lose Violence to and Acrobatics from Charjabug. Fortunately, Emmy is there to pick up the pieces and takes out Charjabug, Sandygast and Steenee, KOing herself in the process with a Take Down. Sleep tight pupper. Last up is Passimian, which OHKOs both Firestorm and Flash, losing us the battle! In hindsight, I really should have thought a bit more about this one. Passimian was hard enough on my regular playthrough, so on an intense mono-normal it turns out to be quite the threat!

 

Anyway, that's it for today. We'll come back stronger and take down Novae!

 

Until then, peace!

 

p.s. I'll be away for a few days, so it'll be a little while before I get chance to post another one of these. Thanks for following.

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

 

WAIT WHOSE EMMY AND DID A GOOD CHOICE INTIMIDATE RIFT G AND STAR DROPPING ITS ATTACK LIKE CRAZY THEN IT WILL BE EASILY BE DEFEATED

[Glint]

Hi all! I'm back from my trip, so here's another update for those of you keeping up with the run.

 

We pick where we left off after our close loss to Novae. I didn't feel that the last fight was a loss because a bad team so much as a lack of strategy, so the team this time round is the same as before:

 

Spoiler

 

This time we lead with Flash against Trumbeak, who gets a 2HKO with Thunder Shock after surviving a Rock Blast thanks to its Oran Berry. Novae answers with Sandygast, and we take the free switch into Borb who whittles it down with Gust. Novae switches into Rockruff at low HP and we switch into Reverb, who outspeeds Rockruff and 3HKOs it with Extrasensory. Next up is Steenee. We switch back into Borb, who almost gets a KO but is unfortunately taken out by Steenee. Firestorm cleans up Steenee and Sandygast switches in. We attempt the KO with peck, but Novae cheats and uses a Super Potion...clearly she's not playing by the same rules as me! We switch back into Reverb who is immune to Sandygast's Astonish and counters with a Bite that gets a lucky flinch. Two more hits with Bite take Sandygast out. Passimian switches in and I die a little bit inside, before sacking Reverb to get the free switch into everybody's favourite angry bird, Violence. Violence does a fantastic job and 2HKOs Passimian with Aerial Ace. Last up is Charjabug. For some reason I decided to risk a Fury Attack against Charjabug, which only hits twice and we lose Violence. Fortunately we still have three members left, including Emmy and Firestorm. We switch Emmy in, who gets unlucky and misses 2/3 hits with Take Down, but leaves Charjabug at low HP. Firestorm comes back in and cleans up with an Ember. Victory!

 

This was a fun one! The trick was to save Violence for Passimian, as we had no real answers to it otherwise. At this point in the game it outspeeds and "out-damages" most things, but fortunately we have a fast, hard-hitting flying type in Violence. Being conservative in the fight definitely paid off, as without doing so we might not have had anything to fall back on against Charjabug. With Novae out of the way we're able to claim a Pichu which we name "Zap" and store it in the box alongside Onion.

 

Going forward, I'll probably only include details of the attempts where I beat encounters in my posts, unless something particularly interesting happens or I use a different strategy/team entirely between attempts.

 

Having finished all of the sidequests, it was finally time to take on Venam's gym. The trainers here give us zero challenge, and Violence takes them all out with an Aerial Ace or two. At last we take on Venam, with pretty much the same as against Novae:

 

Spoiler

 

This fight was almost a walkover, but ended up a little spooky towards the end. We lead with Emmy, and take the opportunity to get to +2 attack with Work Up whilst Nidorina sets up Toxic Spikes. At +2, Emmy is able to OHKO Nidorina, Ivysaur and Mareanie (even through Payapa berry) with Psychic Fangs, as well as Grimer-A with Take Down. Whirlipede survives Psychic Fangs with a tiny sliver of health thanks to Eviolite, and next turn KOs with Venoshock after receiving +1 speed with Speed Boost. Fortunately, we're really far ahead at this point. Borb switches in and revenge kills Whirlipede with Quick Attack. Last up is Seviper, who takes very little damage from Borb's Quick Attack and OHKOs her with Venoshock. Reverb switches in, but is taken out with a single Venoshock after the combination of field damage and Toxic Spikes. The angriest bird in town switches in an attempt to save the day, and gets Seviper down to low health with a flurry of Aerial Ace, burning through Venam's Super Potions in the process. Violence goes down after a couple of Venoshocks, but leaves Seviper very weak. Firestorm does her best to bring down beastly serpent but fails in her duty, but not before burning Seviper with her Flame Body. This leaves Seviper just about weak enough for Flash to get the win with a Thunder Shock, netting us our first badge and signalling the end of Chapter 1!

 

At this point I'd like to share my thoughts so far. The step up from normal to intense has certainly been noticable, but at this point nothing has felt unfair, probably due to the level cap being quite a bit higher than most of the trainers. Playing with a restricted pool of encounters has been a lot of fun! It's been fun to see my team grow, especially as I've been sharing it with you guys. I'll certainly continue this, and I hope you all enjoy following along!

 

Until then, stay tuned for Chapter 2!

  

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

some iv are bad but you could manage after some time your team is going to be buff do not forget get those crest for normal pokemon chapter 2 is going to awesome and fletchiner is fire /flying so you know what i meant so please explain

[Glint]

Hi all, this is just a short update on my plans for the run going forward.

 

So far I've just been posting explanations of my battles and the teams that I've been using, but honestly, who wants to read a battle? So I've decided to start recording the important battles going forward and spent the last couple of hours building an overlay, here's a sneaky preview:

 

 

I'm a little new to this, so let me know what you think! Hopefully this will make it a little less TLDR for those of you keeping up with the run. Thanks for following!

 

Until then, peace!

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

yo thats awesome where is it

[Glint]

9 hours ago, Ram Cxz 007 said:

yo thats awesome where is it

 

Thanks! There are no videos just yet, but starting from my next update I'll be including videos of the important battles.

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

cool i like to see how other people try to complete the game in their own way 

 

[Glint]

Thanks for your patience everybody! Here's an update on the run.

 

We pick up where we left off after a close battle against Venam. As soon as we leave her Gym we're approached by Karrina who wants us to deal with Jenkel and his PULSE Musharna, so we head on over to Junction Bridge. Given the short time since we fought Venam, our team is exactly the same as before:

 

Spoiler

 

Here's the battle!

 

Spoiler

 

 

Despite losing four of my team, that wasn't too difficult of a fight. Borb's Gust blowing away the Misty Terrain helped a lot...I definitely planned for that to happen and it totally wasn't an accident or anything. With Jenkel out of the way, Karrina gives us TM94 Rock Smash and we're ready to continue with our journey!

 

Next we head to Route 2, but on our way we pick up a Thunderstone from Magnolia Library so that we can evolve Eevee a little later on. As soon as we reach Route 2 we encounter Nim and immediately start having Trick Room flashbacks...let's hope that when we get there this time we're a little more prepared than I was on my first playthrough. Access to Route 2 also means access to new encounters, so we make a few new friends:

 

Igglybuff (Yoomtah)
Shiny Hoothoot (Hootdini)...this one was bad, even for me.
Aipom (Gary)

 

Finding Igglybuff might have been the most excruciating part of the run so far, it honestly took me 45 minutes to find and I was almost convinced that it had been removed. We also encounter a shiny Spearow during our searches for Igglybuff, which we name Savagery!

 

And that's all for today folks. I had hoped to fight Nim today, but the search for Igglybuff just ate all of my time and there's no way that we beat Nim with a team full of flying types. Hopefully you're enjoying the new format with the videos, suggestions are always welcome!

 

Stay tuned!

 

p.s. We'll be getting Eevee soon and all of the evolutions that come with it but I'm still looking for a nicknames, preferably with some reference to their types. Feel free to comment suggestions if you have any!

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

good fight

[Glint]

Hi all, we're back with another (slightly longer) update!

 

Picking up where we left off, we need to get past Nim. Unfortunately, our current team is very unlikely to be able to make a dent in her Solrock and Lunatone lead, so we're going to need a new strategy. Taking a look at our box, Bambi seems like a great choice due its part grass typing, but unfortunately it doesn't learn any good grass type moves until Lv 32. We're also unable to rely on Shadowrat and Violence for dark moves, as Nim's psychic terrain cuts the damage from dark type moves in half. Sleep clause also stops us from cheesing the fight with Hootdini and Yoomtah.

 

After a little brainstorming and training (during which we get the Exp. All, which will help a lot), here's the team I came up with:

 

Spoiler

 

And here's the video:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Phew! That was a close one. My strategy here was to make it a 2v1 with Dusty's Sing, whilst keeping Solrock weakened so that it can't spam Rock Slide and wipe our entire team. In the end it worked pretty well. Her other two team members Espurr and Inkay were surprisingly tough to get through thanks to Eviolite, but it turns out that everything can be solved with Violence. Everybody having 252 speed IVs also helped quite a lot here, as our entire team was faster than Nim's. Other than that, I made a mistake in the fight by using Quick Attack on Psychic Terrain, which of course failed.

 

After beating Nim she rewards us with a TwistedSpoon for our efforts and we head into Amethyst Cave to save Melia from Team Xen!

 

Inside Amethyst Cave we stumble upon disaster...Melia has been eaten by a Galvantula! Well, I guess that's the end of the run and we should go and play Reborn instead, or something. Melia definitely won't be coming back later. Aaaanyway, we team up with Ren against Zetta, whose Frogadier should hopefully give us the type coverage that this team desperately lacks. Here it is, for reference:

 

Spoiler

 

And here's the fight:

 

Spoiler

 

 

Honestly that video makes the fight look a lot easier than it actually was. My first two attempts involved some seriously bad luck (namely back to back AP boosts on Minior, and lots of misses) combined with Ren being an absolute idiot. Fortunately this time it went quite well, and we were able to dismantle Zetta with the help of Frogadier as expected.

 

As soon as we beat Zetta we're sucked into the dimensional rift, where we take on Rift Galvantula alongside Venam with the same team as above:

 

Spoiler

 

Here's the video!

 

Spoiler

 

 

This wasn't much of a challenge in the end. I originally thought that psychic type moves were weakened on the dimensional field which cost me my first attempt. My second attempt was plain sailing after I realised otherwise, though. Venam probably wasn't the best choice of partner in the end as her poison type moves couldn't do a great deal against Rift Galvantula, so she seemed to think that Magical Leaf is a good idea instead....

 

Either way, that's the big fights in Amethyst Cave out of the way, so it's time to make our way to Sheridan at last!

 

Until next time, peace!

[R.A.M CXZ 007]

man the fight was cool but the voices in the battle is slower than video for eg your litleos battling sound was heard after it fainted

[Glint]

On 7/3/2021 at 7:04 AM, Ram Cxz 007 said:

man the fight was cool but the voices in the battle is slower than video for eg your litleos battling sound was heard after it fainted

 

Thanks for the heads up! I'll look into it and see if I can notice anything myself.

[Glint]

Hi all, here's another update on the run!

 

We pick up where we left off after defeating Rift Galvantula, and make our way through Amethyst Cave to Sheridan Village. We switch out a few of our team members along the way to try and gain some easy levels from the trainers inside Amethyst Cave.

 

Once we reach Sheridan we take on the trainers and Hootdini evolves into Noctowl, whose psychic and flying type moves should serve us well against Keta a little later on. Whilst we're here we also start the Ditto questline, which will come into fruition quite a while later. We make our way to Keta's House to continue the story, catching a Swablu along the way which we name Cumulus. Importantly these Swablu all know Mist which allows them to change the field to Misty Terrain. This may come in handy later!

 

After accepting Keta's request we make our way to Amethyst Grotto, which allows us to gain a two more team members:

 

Girafarig (Greg), I've grown insensitive to it over the years, but seriously what is going on with this thing's tail?
Dunsparce (Serenity)

 

Before we move on with the story, we spend a little time completing all of the help centre quests in Sheridan. This will eventually give us access to Eevee, at the cost of another (much harder) battle against Novae *shudder*.

 

On our way to Novae we get a Water Stone from the Hidden Library 2 quest, which will give us access to Vaporeon a little later on. Unfortunately we get an Ice Stone from the Kecleon Quest, which means we won't be able to evolve Dusty until we reach Terajuma later on. I could probably have reset here to force a Shiny Stone, but that's not really in the spirit of things.

 

After finishing off the rest of the help centre quests, it's finally time to take on our old nemesis. This is going to be a tough one as her team both outlevels and outclasses ours, but the team I came up with should be able to get the job done:

 

Spoiler

 

Before we show the video, let's discuss the team a little for a change.

 

At a glance, the biggest challenge on Novae's team is going to going to be her Lycanroc, which hits hard whilst outspeeding and resisting most of what my normal types can throw at it. Clearly then, we're going to need a solid strategy to deal with it.

 

Introducing Deus the Bibarel, which gains access to a powerful water STAB in Aqua Tail as an egg move through Azumarill, which makes it legal for our run. All it costs is one Heart Scale, which is in truth a bit pricey given that we won't have a sustainable source until accessing the Lv 51+ pickup table, but nevertheless is worth it to get past Novae.

 

That all sounds great, but there's just one problem that observant amongst you may have noticed already...Deus doesn't know Aqua Tail. It turns out the Move Tutor's sister doesn't teach egg moves, so we're stuck with Aqua Jet for now. We also evolved Bun into Lopunny during this segment, whose decent attack and access to Jump Kick should help resolve any of Deus' shortcomings.
 
And here's the video!

 

Spoiler

 

 

Checkmate.

 

Wow...what a battle. That really was the definition of every HP counts. We got a little lucky at the end with the confusion on Passimian, but I'm confident that we'd have won there regardless as Violence was at full HP and can 3HKO Passimian with Aerial Ace.

 

That fight took quite a few attempts, team revisions and strategy changes, but we got there in the end. Importantly, we got decent luck in the last fight with no misses on Hypnosis or Take Down, whilst her natures (which I believe are random every time) were fairly kind. For example, from my previous attempts I found that a +Atk nature Lycanroc can OHKO Bun and Deus, whilst a -Def Lycanroc (surprisingly, this is a bad roll) goes into red range after a Jump Kick and triggers a hyper potion from Novae on the next turn.

 

Anyway, with Novae finally defeated for good and definitely never ever coming back, we can claim our Eevee! It's kind of fitting that one of the hardest fights of the run locks away one of the best normal types. We hold off on nicknaming Eevee right now until we decide what to evolve it into.

 

That's it for this (very challenging) segment, hopefully you guys are still enjoying following along! Next up will be Keta and Carotos Mountain!

 

Until then, peace!