Hi, Name's Hank: The Shiny Dex Challenge (Warning Spoilers)

[Hank A. Nghiem]

INTRO: BEGINNING AND END

Hi, name's Hank,

 

I'm not technically new to the reborn forums but my last post on my old account which I can't remember anything about was somewhere around 7 years ago, so yeah...

 

Anyways I had no intention of posting this, but my friends heavily insisted. Now, I'm no beginner to reborn I've played since Ralts was where Espurr is. I've done casual playthroughs, serious breeding meta playthroughs, monotype challenges, nuzlockes and more. Thing was though while my friends went through chapter 17 and chapter 18 I never did. Time passed, and Pokémon Reborn was now but a fleeting joyful memory. Then one day when playing D&D with my friends one of them said, "hey did you know Chapter 19 will be Reborn's last chapter?", and the metaphorical dam broke. I didn't say anything at first, but I was already downloading the latest chapter. I thought I'll just load up my old save file, and catch up from there... No... no, no, no. When was the last time you even played Reborn Hank? Do you even remember? No start again, remind yourself. On August 30th, 2021 I loaded up Reborn and set one rule for myself. I was going to catch every single Pokémon and they had to be shiny. Ultimately my final run time would be 603 Hours and 47 Minutes not counting resets when breeding or encounters.

 

*I'm going to apologies because I don't have many screenshots during the run as I never intended to post this on the forums. I hope the screenshots of the Shiny Mons relevant to the segment will suffice.

 

CHAPTER 1: I DIDN'T PLAN AT ALL

My starter was Froakie. I like Froakie, and Greninja is a very strong Pokémon. So I began resetting; 50 resets, 100 resets, 150 resets... what were the Shiny Rates for Pokémon Reborn again? 1/100. Guess I'm unlucky. 200 resets, gosh already off to a rough start, and on top of that I want a Protean Froakie. Still, I knew this was going to be a long haul... 238 resets, It's SHINY! Checking it's ability... Protean and a Jolly nature; honestly well worth the delayed arrival.

 

Thrilled with such a great starting Pokémon I eagerly ran off to battle Cain... where he scored two crits in a row at the start of the battle and wiped the floor with me. At least I beat Victoria. Now given the freedom to explore the city I shall now spend hours never going any further than the grass right outside Grand Hall. I had a hurdle to overcome and a mini hurdle before that. I needed Bibarel to get Female Combee as it was the only Pokémon that learned Headbutt in the area. See if I had taken any time to plan, I wouldn't have searched for a Female Combee right now. You can also find Combee in Adventurine Woods, and by then hopefully have a Shiny Male Lopunny with Cute Charm increasing the rate of a Female Combee from 12.5% to 66.7%. Better yet Igglybuff is nearby and can also have the ability Cute Charm, but as the title of the chapter states I didn't plan.

 

 

So I grinded away looking for shiny Pokémon. Then my first shiny appears, and little did I know, I would come to depend on this Pokémon more than I could ever imagine. Watchog was the MVP of this challenge run. It has the ability Illuminate which increase encounter rate, learns Super Fang a very handy move for capturing Pokémon, and can learn the majority of HM moves. I was disappointed that I didn't find a Meowth first, but over the course of the run I came to value Watchog more and more, and I can't imagine the run without her. After Watchog came Meowth, and a horde of Rattatas. Still I needed Bidoof, and eventually I got one. I also managed to catch all the others in the area except for Hoothoot and Spinarak, but trust me even without planning I wouldn't need to; THEY ARE EVERYWHERE.

 

 

With Bidoof in hand I quickly leveled him up to get access to headbutt. I actually really liked the headbutt mechanic as a kid playing Pokémon Crystal; brings back feelings of mystery and wonder. My upbeat happiness will be short lived however, little did I know Reborn trees are made out of grenades. Why oh why does Pineco learn SELF-DESTRUCT AT LEVEL 6! I can only imagine what the nurse in the Grand Hall is thinking when I walk in covered in explosive burns with my fainted Pokémon. Me coming to the desk asking her to heal them up just for me to walk outside, and then the sound of explosives going off again. Still my Bibarel's head is made of adamantium as I tell it to headbutt over and over again. During those hours I came across many, many shiny Pineco's and I didn't catch most of them. I should have started with Mudkip it has access to Damp which negates Self-Destruct and Explosion; again title of the chapter. Still they aren't the target no we have a much more elusive predator to look for. Couple hours later the first Shiny Combee arrives of course it's male I wasn't expecting much else. Unfortunately I killed it because by now my Bibarel is level 20, and well I overestimated Combee's tankiness. More Combee's appeared all being male of course even had a Shiny Spearow drop in. Then suddenly she appears a Shiny Female Combee on my fifth Combee. I consider myself incredibly lucky I was preparing to be here for two days at least, but the RNG gods saw otherwise they won't be so nice in the future.

 

 

Satisfied that I had accomplished my goal for the area I finally muster up the courage to talk to the little girl blocking my way out to the rest of Reborn. She tells me her Stufful won't listen to her anymore because she doesn't have the level appropriate badge, and that Pokémon of Reborn won't listen to you no matter how buddy buddy you are with them. Considering how I treated my Pokémon to explosive ordinance and Biberal's head is caved in I wouldn't blame them. Looking out into the horizon I only had one goal in mind; Home Invasion of an Elderly Man. I think this is a good place to stop. If you're interested, and want me to continue let me know, but if this annoys and bothers people I'll stop. Oh wait... here's 500 bucks fisherman I'll see you in a couple weeks.

 

NOTES:

*I know my grammar, word choice and general story telling is awful I get enough of that from my Architecture friend whose side hobby is writing stories, so feel free to badger away.

*Some of the Pokémon met dates will be off because of messing with system time for weather event specific Pokémon, and the fact that I often transferred my save file to a laptop to take to work to play during break, or when it's a very slow day at the hospital. It's a very old laptop and dies if it's not plugged in.

*If you're wondering why many of the Pokémon are Level 69 it's because I took like two days to grind all my Pokémon to that level just before the level cap of 70 you know before Agate Circus. I stopped doing this afterwards it its tedious with 15 boxes of Pokémon.

[Pemseles]

please continue this, it's very entertaining to read :), mostly because i also did a similar playthrough about a year ago where i filled up the pokedex with only shiny mons. my method was a little different because when i got to the daycare i used a mod called speedbreed, which adds some panels to the daycare allowing you to instantly collect 5 eggs and hatch them immediately (i have an attention span of like 4 seconds ok), but before the daycare & when dealing with unbreedable mons i just soft-resetted as well

[Hank A. Nghiem]

CHAPTER 2: CASCOON, CASCOON, SILCOON and A TESTAMENT OF WILL
After busting into an old man's apartment, it was time to search for quite a list of Pokémon. I quickly notice on the Wiki that Trubbish has a 1% chance of spawning, so I'm not going to worry about it here, and Stunky as well since I know they are also in Peridot Alley. The focus right now is Cherubi, Spinarak, Ledyba, Hoothoot, Caterpie, and Wurmple <.< ... The first Wrumple arrives and I really like it, but I know I'm going to need a couple of them to get both Dustox and Beautifly. Not long after a Shiny Ledyba appears... and another... and another..., and oh my lord please no. Yeah I was being swarmed by these things, and they are found in multiple areas in Reborn they will plague me throughout the run not as much as another Pokémon that starts with T, but it's third. I then luck into a Shiny Cherubi not bad.

 

 

Having acquired most of the morning Pokémon, I change my system time to night and continue hunting. I catch a few more Wurmples up to four by the time I finish catching all the other night time Pokémon. Spinarak, Hoothoot, and Caterpie is caught without too much trouble. By the way, my friends and I were discussing what Pokémon we used in Generation 1. I told them I kept Butterfree all the way through the game, and my friends asked me why. Butterfree is pretty fast, and has Compound Eyes Sleep Powder need I say more. Also Butterfree is pretty handy Pokémon to have on this run primarily for Compound Eyes to increase item collection rate, and Sleep Powder a very accurate move in the hands of Butterfree and a nice status condition to help capture Pokémon. I'll be using the Ariados later to help deal with a Pesky Land Shark, but that's way later in the run. With four Wurmples in hand I begin leveling each one, and evolving them odds are I'll get one of each no problem. First one evolves into a Cascoon, and that's one down now just need a Silcoon. Second evolves again Cascoon to be expected, but surely the next one will be a Silcoon. The third one evolves; another Cascoon, I'm starting to sweat. The last one evolves... it's a Cascoon. I'm pretty much defeated. At this point I still haven't learned to check where else I can find Pokémon later in the run to counter the early woes. I jump back in to find another Wurmple, and desperately level it up praying to whichever god would hear me out. It's evolving, and finally I get my one Silcoon. All right Bibarel you know what time it is. Nothing too interesting here I find both a Male and Female Burmy for Mothim and Wormadam. I really like Wormdam's Shiny sprite neat concept.

 

 

After causing the next extinction event in the Old Man's precious garden I head off to the lake to go fishing. Every time I have to fish I deactivate speed mode because I do not have a fast enough reaction time to keep it on maybe younger me could do it, but younger me thought Drakengard 1 was an easy game on the hardest difficulty. Two Goldeens, 1 Finneon, and 1 Grimer later, and I'm done packing away the Old Rod for what will be a very long time. Now a quick stop in the alleyway. I gather the rest of the crew; Poochyena, Stunky, and Trubbish. All done yup nothing left in the alleys we're good to move on to the event Mons... A Wild Purrloin appeared... Nani? I didn't know Purrloin was here. I totally missed it when looking up the WIki, and it never appeared during my search for the other shinies... YOU HAVE A 21% CHANCE OF FINDING IT HOW DID I NEVER SEE IT TILL I WAS ABOUT TO LEAVE. A bit more searching, and done Shiny Purrloin acquired now we're done.

 

 

It's on to the event Pokémon. First one to bat is Pachirisu being cornered by some hooligans honestly at this point every battle is a curb stomp since my Pokémon are around level 18-20, so every fight is going to be a foregone conclusion. About 58 resets later, and Shiny Pachirisu is in the bag. I make a quick stop to nab myself another Bidoof just a normal one this time quick and simple and speed level it by fighting all the fights I avoid up to this point. Pay some money to a dude in an alley to get out of the way, and next up is Espurr... 428 resets... I actually started to give up. I mean in Sword and Shield I have boxes of shinies but you know its like 1/512 so 1200 Mons after I'm still motivated to keep going, but Reborn's 1/100 can be demoralizing. By the way my Espurr was female so just note that... just something I'd like to point out... Blitzle, Joltik and Tynamo all take swings at my determination with 212, 359, and 520 resets really testing my patients aren't you guys. Fortunately those are the worse of it. Pansear takes a good 145 resets, but not too bad. I totally forgot Woobat and Noibat are around here so I go out of my way to catch them too didn't take long. I secure a shiny Igglybuff from a scared old lady, and I'm not giving it back unless she can tell me what color her Igglybuff was. Surskit, Whismur and Gulpin are caught with just 8, 21, and 32 resets; about time I got easy wins. Teddiursa is no where to be found, and I searched everywhere I just can't find it. I'll end up returning and nabbing it later. Heading into an apartment, Shelly asked me to take a Shiny Kricketot with me on the 13th parallel universe. Lastly it's late at night I'm exhausted from spending nearly 20 hours hunting for shiny Pokémon, and I have one to go. I walk in, and begin trading my Plain, Normal, Non-Shiny Bibarel for Greg's Munna. I get it on second try is what I would like to say. No, my dingus smooth brain hits F12 without even looking, and my subconscious tasers my brain to attention to realize I just reset over a shiny. I would like to give you a number of resets, but no it gets worse I reset not once, not twice, but three times over a shiny Munna. I wanted to go to bed 4 hours ago. I gather my brainpower just long enough to nab the fourth shiny that appears, and head off to bed it's been a long day.

 

 

Now with everything checked off, and done it's time to progress the plot I post a screenshot to my friends right before I fight Fern, and they remark on what in gods name took me that many hours to get to Fern. It is at this point they realize what I'm doing. Fern doesn't stand a chance six level 20 Pokémon vs his three that are barely out of their teen levels. Quiver Dance Mothim just annihilated him, and I had five more Pokémon that never saw combat. The battles with Team Meteor were pushovers as well at this point my character is jaded the woes and concerns of both my allies and team meteor are but white nose to the cries of a Butterfree coming out of its Pokeball for the twenty thousandth battle in a row. I meet Julia at her gym and Moxie Mightyena sweeps her team. I had Loudred on my team to counter her sonic boom. Pachirisu with Volt Absorb to counter her damage, Kricketune as a back up sweeper, Persian for fake out and revenge killing. None of it mattered Mightyena had it handled. This is a good place to stop for Chapter 2 up next something far worse than what I had to deal with.

 

NOTES:

*I'll be taking a bit of time in between post. I essentially devoured Reborn over the course of a month with very little sleep, and a whole lot of shiny hunting. So I just need to spend some time doing other things, and catching up on games I didn't bother touching.

*One of the reasons I rushed through the game in one month like this was because I was worried Reborn would be done before I finished the run, and I wanted to finish the run before Chapter 19 came out.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Hank A. Nghiem

[thisgameishard]

RESPECT, to you for resetting that much man. That takes dedication. Im enjoying the series, keep it up!!!