How the heck do we beat rift gard on V13? (intense)

[7ravens]

I honestly can't cook up anything to beat her. She's too fast, hits too hard, is too tanky, and is immune to any kind of hax. All my mons are getting one shot even through screens and most of them can't even break through a single shield bar even with their strongest stab moves. The old strat on V12 was to change the field to misty terrain that way her dark moves get nerfed, she can't put you to sleep, and faries move get boosted vs her. But with the way terrain works in V13, you can't change the field at all and her field halves fairy damage. Also I'm pretty sure misty terrain is bugged since it isn't boosting fairy moves (you would think the dimensional terrain nerf and misty field boost would even out, but the misty field boost doesnt seem to apply at all) and also she's still able to put my mons to sleep despite misty terrain. So fairies who used to be her counter are now useless vs her. Also she seems completely immune to hax. I've tried paraing her but with litterally dozens of resets i've never seen her full para once. I've tried using flash/double team to hax her out via accuracy but again, I've never seen her miss a move. Stalling her out with toxic or leech seed doesn't work because I've never come close to being able to status her and also break her shields (statusing her usually costs 2 mons, since she now has a lum). Her chance to hit herself while confused seems lower too, (out of dozens of attempts i've only seen her hit herself a couple of times). While replaying v13 there's been a lot of super tough fights that I've gotten through but I just don't see a way vs her. Your lucky to be able to trade 1 mon for 1 of her shield gauges, and that's just nowhere near enough to be able to kill her.

[Feng Lei]

She was already formidable and intimidating enough for me to consider her final boss material but this... now she truly is a nightmare. There needs to be dialogue regarding her later about how traumatizing she is to the Interceptor and his friends... especially poor Ren. Though he tries to save her. And no way in hell would anyone want to save that monster. Killing it would leave anybody falling on their face in a state of exhausted and spent relief.

[7ravens]

I've thought about trick room as an option. But that means I would need to reset my game to chapter 8 to catch an oroguru or get porygon-z (their the only mons that learn trick room by level up, and you dont get a tr tm at this point). I neglected getting those since the team i've used up to now has revolved around tailwind and is very fast, so trickroom would actively cripple my team (altho the gard outspeeds eveyrthing now). I really don't want to reset since there are a bunch of nightmarish battles that ive had to go through since then (especially puppetmaster and melanie). Also even with tr I dont really see this being a win, since you would lose a mon to get the trick room up. Leaving you with 5 mons left against her 5 shield bars + her entire hp bar. That also doesn't seem winnable. 

[Arthesia]

Just beat her. Some tips.

 

First pokemon out needs to set screens.

Something like Amoongus can use Spore + Poison STAB to get through two shields.

After any Sleep tactics get someone to use Thunder Wave so the rest of your pokemon can outspeed her.

You can bait her into wasting a turn on top of that by having a berry to wake up from sleep, letting your best pokemon hit her twice.

Last pokemon out needs to be your hardest hitter. You can also try Sandstorm/Hail + Revive spam if you're really desperate.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Arthesia

[7ravens]

2 hours ago, Arthesia said:

Just beat her. Some tips.

 

First pokemon out needs to set screens.

Something like Amoongus can use Spore + Poison STAB to get through two shields.

After any Sleep tactics get someone to use Thunder Wave so the rest of your pokemon can outspeed her.

You can bait her into wasting a turn on top of that by having a berry to wake up from sleep, letting your best pokemon hit her twice.

Last pokemon out needs to be your hardest hitter. You can also try Sandstorm/Hail + Revive spam if you're really desperate.

That set up seems extremely optimistic. Maybe it might work for lower difficulties, definitely not for intense. Amoongus with screens takes one hit at best, since hyperspace hole hits for se and gets a big bonus from the field. You click spore and then she wakes up instantly with her lum berry. Now you've lost one mon to set up screens, and your amoongus is prob at like 30%-40% and all you did was burn her lum. Maybe you can sac another mon to get regenerator on amoongus to just barely survive one more hit and if she gets full sleep turns then you can get  a couple of shields. Then your amoongus is dead as soon as she wakes up. You can twave her at that point, but that's another mon dead for that. By that point you've lost 4 mons and she still has 3 shields + her entire hp bar. You also do not get to use any items on intense. Although I've already made a strategy for tackling her on intense. I had to reset to get an oranguru to get trick room, and the focus sash you get right before the fight should let oranguru get off the tr guaranteed. The rest of my team is gonna be 5 alolan muks with gunk shot. I've done some theorizing and Alolan Muk with gunk is the only mon along with sturdy+gyro ball forretress that can both take a hit and break one of her shields in a single move. Still, this fight on intense is bonkers and I don't think anyone really play-tested this before they released the game. 

[SilentEevee]

19 hours ago, 7ravens said:

I honestly can't cook up anything to beat her. She's too fast, hits too hard, is too tanky, and is immune to any kind of hax. All my mons are getting one shot even through screens and most of them can't even break through a single shield bar even with their strongest stab moves. The old strat on V12 was to change the field to misty terrain that way her dark moves get nerfed, she can't put you to sleep, and faries move get boosted vs her. But with the way terrain works in V13, you can't change the field at all and her field halves fairy damage. Also I'm pretty sure misty terrain is bugged since it isn't boosting fairy moves (you would think the dimensional terrain nerf and misty field boost would even out, but the misty field boost doesnt seem to apply at all) and also she's still able to put my mons to sleep despite misty terrain. So fairies who used to be her counter are now useless vs her. Also she seems completely immune to hax. I've tried paraing her but with litterally dozens of resets i've never seen her full para once. I've tried using flash/double team to hax her out via accuracy but again, I've never seen her miss a move. Stalling her out with toxic or leech seed doesn't work because I've never come close to being able to status her and also break her shields (statusing her usually costs 2 mons, since she now has a lum). Her chance to hit herself while confused seems lower too, (out of dozens of attempts i've only seen her hit herself a couple of times). While replaying v13 there's been a lot of super tough fights that I've gotten through but I just don't see a way vs her. Your lucky to be able to trade 1 mon for 1 of her shield gauges, and that's just nowhere near enough to be able to kill her.

My go-to was chesto berry sturdy magnezone. Lovely kiss has low enough accuracy that you can get it to miss one and manage to get off a thunder wave. If you're lucky, she'll miss both, after which the AI goes into attack mode and doesn't bother attempting to status you any more. However, with sturdy and no sleep, you can get 2 flash cannons off, managing to take down 1-2 shields (I don't quite remember the specifics, since I beat her two days ago).

 

After that, though you can't exactly sweep her, her speed is drastically nerfed, allowing for more powerful pokemon to cheese it if you have some more good steel/poison/fairy pokemon. My go-to was a team with cinderace with poison sweep and crobat.

 

If you need a chesto, you can farm it off of Spina in route 5. Feel free to consult this item guide, because a lot of useful items can be found if you're willing to put in the effort with a thief/compound eyes/frisk pairing, including things like sitrus berries, which are OP as hell in the early game. Also bright powder exists for extra cheese- get yourself a snow warning mon, stick the powder on a froslass, maybe add a double team to the mix, and have fun never being hit.

 

 

That being said, the Gardevoir is easy compared to what comes next. My advice- get a trace pokemon, ideally a porygon, and teach it

Spoiler

something that boosts its attack or special attack. You're definitely going to need it to take on the zone zero mon, and that's the only strategy that managed to work for me, after hours of pain and tears.

 

But yeah, V13 is OP as hell.

 

[fellowry]

I agree that this battle is really hard but its certainly doable, and yes Misty Terrain is likely bugged so gotta pray to RNG god for that lovely kiss to miss or just get a chesto berry

 

Granted i did this battle with my mono steel team when i first fight it so it might be harder on other teams cus mine is easier in terms of dealing damage, but i will share the strategy

 

This is My Team:

 

Excavalier (Shell Armor) (Magical Seed) 

Move: Iron Head, Sword Dance, X scissors, Iron Defense

 

Durant (Hustle) (Magical Seed)

Move: Iron Head, X Scissors, Slash and Burn, T Wave

 

Magnezone (Sturdy) (Chesto Berry)

Move: Flash Cannon, T wave, Discharce, Double Team

 

Togedemaru (Sturdy) (Chesto Berry)

Move: Zing-Zap, Iron Head, Spiky Shield, electric terrain

 

A-Dugtrio (Sand Force) (Muscle Band)

Move: Iron Head, Dig, EQ, Sucker Punch

 

Bastiodon (Sturdy) (Chesto Berry)

Move: Taunt, Heavy Slam, Rock Slide, Metal Burst

 

Note:

- The AI will ALWAYS use Lovely Kiss on Sturdy pokemon, but when you held a berry she will switch tactics and immediately attacks so give your sturdy pokemon a Chesto Berry so that you can eat those hits, the shop in the city sells Sitrus and Chesto berries so you can get it there

- Magical Seed will activate Trick Room for 5 turns (8 if your lucky) so your pokemon will always be faster than gardevoir, give it to them asap

- She have a freakin 6 free shield, so most of your pokemon need to deal enough damage to 1 shot her shield or you can forget about killing it

 

Strategy:  Basically use the seed to set up wonder room and just chip it away until its dead. I lead with seeded Excavalier, wonder room makes it move first and mine is sp ded build so Gardevoir need 2 hits to bring it down, which give me enough hit to kill 2 of its shield. then came Magnezone cuz i'm holding chesto berry it will not use lovely kiss and atk it instead, which is enough to deal 2 hits till it dies, then i repeat using Togedemaru and by now i effectively remove all her shield, but now Wonder room will end, so you need send out one more seeded pokemon, and just repeat the above strategy till its dead

 

The hardest part is to find pokemon that can remove gardevoir shield in 1 hit which not many can do considering Fairy is nerfed hard on this field, alternatively you can put it to sleep but beware because she also holds Lum berry so your sleep setter need to survive 1 hit to get the job done, Paralyzed it is also an option but its too RNG heavy

 

[OldSoulja]

I remember using a Chesto Berry and hoping for Lovely Kiss to miss so that my NON-PRANKSTER Grimmsnarl could Thunder Wave her twice (since nothing in her moveset could OHKO Grimmsnarl, unlike the rest of my team) Then letting something else die, then using Mud Shot with A-Roserade*, Tearful Look with Inteleon*, and using everyone else besides Grimmsnarl to chip away at the shields. The attack drop part is vital, because while Grimmsnarl is not OHKO'd by anything, it IS 2HKO'd by Sacred Sword normally, but not guaranteed with the drop. The Speed drop is also important because Grimmsnarl isn't faster even after Paralysis.

 

After all this, its basically a stall war. Better have bought a LOT of Energy Roots in GDC for this one.

 

* Doesn't need to be Mud Shot from A-Roserade, anything that Drops Speed, and is faster after her paralysis works.

* Doesn't need to be Tearful Look from Inteleon specifically, anything that drops Attack works, or an Intimidater with Confide also works.

[DaWolfie]

I think I'm pretty late to reply already and I didn't do it on intense but my strat was Nancy's sylveon (max evs on special atk and special def), she couldn't kill sylveon in 2 hits so I did moonblast, moonblast, ultra potion, btw you gotta wish on every moonblast that sylveon wakes up XD, but yah, I was able to go through her (normal diff again), with just sylveon

[Cyphre]

Surprised no one talks about our lord and savior Lord Pyuku. Purify will cleanse the arena and Gard has no way to revert it back, making Lovely Kiss a move that can actually miss, which helps a lot, and reduces her damage, and gets rid of passive sleep damage.