Monotype Advice

[Cassandra]

Hey, everyone!

 

So, I just finished episode 5 of Desolation after being intrigued by the Darkrai quest in Reborn's postgame referencing the project a few months ago, and as I usually like to do, I made my first playthrough an Ice monotype. In creating this thread, I would primarily like to reach out to fellow monotypers and ask for their input based on their own runs, given that – spoiler alert – I am not happy with how I handled a lot of the early game; as a secondary goal, I would like to document my own game experience.

 

Now, Desolation seems like a fantastic choice for an Ice monotype at first glance, given that Spheal is a possible starter, which allows you to obtain your monotype starter fully legitimately and get started right away. However, the issue arises when you consider that, unless I overlooked something huge, Spheal is literally the only Ice-type obtainable before freaking Silver Rise, with an intermediate period that notably forces you to 1v6 a certain Fire-type gym leader who likes setting his field on fire; and it's not like Spheal is fast enough to viably go for a sweep to counteract the fact that, even assuming a clean OHKO for every Pokemon of his, field damage has a neutral opponent lose 62.5 % of its HP either way. I am fairly certain that this fight is impossible with just Spheal, and if some madlad actually manages to do it, they have my undying respect. Either way, I went for a bit of a cop-out by using Debug mode (which I had blindly imported from Rejuvenation – luckily, I did not break the game, or at least not to my knowledge) to gift myself a special Ice-type starter in lieu of the normal starter obtained just before Connor (a selection which, of course, does not include any Ice-types), and I chose Amaura, given that Aurorus is one of the Pokemon not yet available as of E5 and might as well be my signature Pokemon at this point. Even then, facing Connor with just these two Pokemon was by no means a trivial matter, and neither was 2v6-ing Aderyn with Sealeo and Amaura, a fight for which I relied greatly on Ancient Power boosts from the latter.

 

The part until Silver Rise is what I would really like to refine in retrospect – as soon as I had a full Ice-type team, I had more room to strategize, which allowed me to rely less on a 10 % boost chance and more on actual planning. Tristan was still a fair challenge thanks in large part to his Mega Lopunny, which, to my great chagrin, carried Drain Punch to heal itself up if I did not manage to take it out in one hit; Emily was also somewhat difficult, owing in large part to me not having any Rapid Spin users to dispatch with her Sticky Web (although I could have done something like train up an Avalugg or another Alolan Sandshrew, though a lack of Ice Stones would not have allowed me to evolve it, if things had gotten really out of hand), which allowed Pokemon like Electivire to outspeed my party and wreak havoc. The last three gym battles were definitely on the easier side by comparison – in fact, I beat all three on my first try –, which reminded me a lot of how I experienced the mid-game of Reborn. In my experience, Ice is a monotype that is kinda tricky in the beginning but will reward you as soon as you get the obligatory avalanche of type choices in a snowy area, giving you a lot of space for team synergy and some pretty good Pokemon that will easily carry the mid-game (the one exception to that being Rejuvenation's Intense difficulty, where mid-game opponents like Crawli and the Zetta/Geara Doubles fight will still make for a considerable challenge) and hold up well even into the late game.

 

So yeah, I would be interested in the experiences of other monotypers, most especially ones who have found themselves in a similar predicament of only having like one or two Pokemon for a while. How did you approach Connor and the early game more generally? I would love to read your responses.

[Zargerth]

I did a Ground monotype run of the game some time ago. It wasn't my first run of Desolation, so I had some foreknowledge of what to expect. I specifically chose Ground type because I wanted to have options for my team from the get-go. When you do a monotype run as your first run, you can't really plan ahead and know what mons are available to you and when they'll be available.

 

Ice types tend to be rare in the early portions of almost any Pokemon game, unfortunately. I wouldn't fault you for using Debug mode; at the end of the day, it's your run, your rules. It's almost a necessity when you take into account level caps and the scarcity of mons of your chosen type.

 

If deviating from the "intended" way of playing makes the game more enjoyable for you, you should feel free to do so.