Timber's Mono Dark-type Run of Masochism

[Timber Dragon]

AKA the "Throw Mightyenas at it until it dies" run, or the "Timber you suck enough at Reborn in a normal playthrough, why make it even harder?" run.

This isn't any kind of how-to guide so much as it is a log of my own experiences in this challenge, which may help anyone who wishes to try it themselves. Arceus only knows why you would, though. (Also feel free to move this if it's in the incorrect section.)

The rules I've set for myself are:

-Only Dark-type Pokemon are allowed (naturally). All other Pokemon are illegal.

-Dual-typing is permitted. If a Pokemon is not Dark-type, or never gains that typing, it is illegal.

-If a Pokemon is not Dark-type, but gains that typing in a higher evolution, it can be used. That means Froakie/Frogadier, Skorupi, etc. are permitted even though they are technically not Dark-types. Mega Evolutions do not count, as we'll probably never be able to use them, so sorry Vinny. No Gyarados.

-Illegal Pokemon may be caught and trained for breeding purposes, but they may only battle wild Pokemon i.e. battles with no bearing on game progression. If an illegal Pokemon is in my party and I run into a trainer, that Pokemon may not participate in the battle for any reason, not even switch training. If illegal Pokemon are my only surviving mons, I'll consider the fight lost. If I accidentally enter a fight with an illegal Pokemon as my lead, I must restart regardless of when/where I last saved.

-HM slaves are allowed, but they must abide by the above rule.

Those rules are probably very lenient. I'm sure some hardcore players probably wouldn't permit the use of illegal Pokemon for breeding or HM slaves, or allow the use of Pokemon that don't initially have a Dark-typing, but I am far from hardcore. In fact, I am so un-hardcore that it's counterproductive put myself through something to make Reborn even harder. I'd like to say it's for the sake of doing something different to keep myself occupied, but I think the real reason is that I just plain hate myself.

So! Why Dark-types? Good question, actually--I guess they're just cool. Of course, even before I actually started, I was already planning on which (currently available) Pokemon I could use. Dark-types offer a decently wide range of dual-typing to cover plenty of situations, which is good news for me because just Biting everything to death will get boring after a while. Unfortunately, Biting will be all the rage for the first chunk of the game.

I'll probably only talk about battles I found particularly notable or difficult. I'll definitely discuss the gym leaders, but I'll only discuss rival and Meteor battles if I needed to go out my way and strategize to beat them.

Starting out

I was strong-armed into picking Froakie since it eventually gains the Dark-typing. Of course, if I didn't have the spine of a Tentacool, I'd have abandoned the poor thing the second I got a Stunky or Poochyena. Because really, those two Pokemon were my only options. Them and Purrloin, but Purrloin is... yeah. I figured Froakie's Protean ability would be key to winning many battles, but honestly, as of this typing, Froakie/Frogadier hasn't done me much good. My front liners so far have been Mightyenas.

Fighting Fern and storming Team Meteor's factory was a little tedious, but nothing terrible. Bite is a decent STAB move and its Flinching side effect helped me out at times. They didn't truly come in handy until they evolved into Mightyenas and gaining Intimidate/Moxie.

Julia

So far I've been relying mainly on Poison stalling strategies with Stunkies, but Julia's team can't be stalled for long without them becoming dangerous. Her team spams Charge Beam, which raises Sp.Atk with each use. That means Intimidate does little good, since they mainly use special moves. I managed to sweep her whole team with just a decently-leveled Mightyena. It didn't have Moxie, but I used Howl enough times where it could faint her mons in one or two hits. Her Electrode was dangerous, but manageable.

Really, it was a fight I just had to brute force. I had to be economical with my moves, too. Sonic Boom could knock my mons into the yellows or reds, and each Charge Beam used meant greater and greater danger. Many of her team had Static to boot, meaning each time I used Bite was a chance I could get paralyzed. I couldn't find any safe openings for my Stunky to get in any Poison Gasses or Screeches. I had to hit hard and fast and pray for a little luck.

I'd discuss this fight more in depth, except I don't remember everything that happened and honestly, it really was just me throwing a Mightyena at her and hoping for the best. But I will say that it was the first time I fought Julia that took multiple attempts, since I was testing the waters to see what could handle what. And it turned out Mightyena could handle everything.

Fern (before Florinia)

Of all the Fern fights, this one always seems to give me the most problems, because his team is very meaty and cheap for this stage in the game. I had trouble with him when I had Pokemon with an advantage, let alone all Dark-types.

This is the time where I obtained multiple Migthyenas, as a single one couldn't cut it. Some of them had Intimidate, some had Moxie.

I opened with Intimidate Mightyena to cut Lombre's attack a bit. Lombre's Tri-Attack hurts and can cause status changes, and many of my restarts came from it spamming that move twice in a row. Hope that it uses Fury Swipes or Absorb instead, as they don't particularly hurt--the former tends to miss a lot or not connect many hits, and the latter doesn't do much damage. Fake Out is a minor annoyance at best. Use this chance to stock up a Howl or two, and a Bite should be enough to one- or two-shot it. Try to make Fern waste his Super Potions here. You do not want him to use them on his Servine or Roselia.

Servine was very meaty and annoying, and Intimidate was pointless since all its attacks were special. I had to pray it didn't have Contrary and switched to Stunky for one or two Screeches. Stunky didn't survive long enough for me to do more. Two Leaf Tornadoes was enough to faint it, and that's without Servine spamming Growth. Sometimes I had to make do with one Screech and one Poison Gas, although I had to hope both of them connected, as they don't have 100 percent accuracy. I waited for Stunky to faint since I couldn't risk a turn switching it out, and hammered with Servine's defense lowered (and poisoned, ideally), I hammered it with Mightyenas. If I found an opening, I risked a Howl to raise its attack further.

A Howl served me well since Roselia was fragile in comparison. Since it was part Poison-type, I couldn't rely on a Poison stall strategy, so brute force saved the day.

Florinia

Hoo boy, Flobot was a hell of a brick wall. Surprisingly, it wasn't her infamous Cradily that gave me problems, but her part Fighting-type Breloom. This fight took me multiple attempts to see which Pokemon could handle what, for how long. I got another Stunky as backup, because no one Pokemon could last forever in this fight. I relied mostly on Poison stalling, Screeches, and Intimidates, and enough luck to get those attacks in before fainting.

I opened with Intimidate Mightyena to lower Cacnea's attack. I immediately switched to Stunky to get in a Screech (one was enough). Cacnea usually uses Sandstorm, a minor annoyance at best, though Pin Missle can hurt if it connects enough times. Luckily, Stunky's part Poison-type means Bug-type attacks are neutral against it, and neither it nor Grass Knot will do significant damage with Cacnea's attack lowered. When Stunky got in a Screech, I switched back to an Intimidate Mightyena and one-shot it with Bite.

When Flobot switched to Maractus, I switched to a different Intimidate Mightyena to lower its attack. It's quite important because Maractus has Pin Missle as well, which is super effective against Mightyenas, though not against Stunky. After the Intimidate, I switched to Stunky for a Screech. Since it most likely took damage from Cacnea previously, it'll most likely only last long enough to get in a single Screech, which should be enough. You can either wait until Stunky faints, or you could switch it out without wasting a turn (I managed to switch it out with 1 HP left), and switch back to Intimidate Mightyena, lowering its attack further. Bite wasn't enough to OHKO it, and I didn't want to risk setting up a Howl, so I used this mon to waste Florinia's Super Potions. After that, it was only a matter of one final Bite.

Then it was Breloom. God damn it, Breloom, with its priority super effective Mach Punch. Even Stunky, who isn't weak to Fighting-type, can't survive too many of those. I got in a Screech (though it'll probably faint by that point, but that's what your backup Stunky is for!) and then I switched to another Intimidate Mightyena (I had, like, three btw), and the first thing I did was Roar it out of the battle. I needed to whittle down its strength and defense before I was ready to fight it.

After Roar, Florinia will either send out Cradily, Phantump, or Grotle. If it's Phantump, congratulations on encountering one of the blessed few Pokemon you're super effective towards. Bite that thing and move on. Grotle isn't bad, either. It will probably summon a Sandstorm to buffet itself, the poor dear, and two or three Bites will be enough to down it. Be wary of Razor Leaf. If you didn't get Florinia to waste her Super Potions on Maractus, Grotle is another safe option.

If it was Cradily, I immediately switched to my backup Stunky for Poison gas. I didn't bother with Intimidate or Screech since Cradily likes to spam Curse. Its only offensive move, Smack Down, will hurt, especially with multiple Curses in place. I found it was a matter of me outlasting it. I healed after each Smack Down, and when I thought I had an opening, I used Bite. Be glad if it causes Flinching, or that Cradily doesn't use Recover. Eventually, it'll fall to Poison damage.

After beating Cradily, Phantump, or Grotle, Florinia might send Breloom back out again. If she tries, send out an Intimidate Mightyena and Roar it back out. Mach Punch hurts and there's no safe time to set up Howl. After about two Intimidates, it should be safe to send out Stunky for Screech. The Screeches are very necessary since Bite, which Breloom resists, is Mightyena's strongest attack. With enough Screeches in place, though, even Bite will take a huge chunk out of its HP.

Take your time, whittle down their stats, and pray for the RNG to be on your side, and take sweet sweet victory.

Taka fight #1

I beat this guy on one try.

Not easily, mind you. That Chatot brought some casualties, but another Poison stalling was enough. A Howl or two from my Mightyenas was enough for Lileep and Tangrowth.

Off to play moar!

[Guest]

Timber Dragon... you are making me so proud...

Rest assured... if you ever feel like you've fallen into the void, i'l have a whole pack of Mightyenas to back you up. xD

This run is doing more than making you lose your fear of the dark (if you ever hard any). It's making you understand it, and let it become your ally.

Indeed, even God has his shades of gray doesn't he? I've always lived with the philosophy that there's always a flip side to everything, and that made me understand weakness to become strong, understand wrong to know right, and understand darkness to know light.

Welp, boring comments aside, you're really proving yourself as a darn skilled player and master of the dark-type. congratz.

[Lost Lore]

Mightyena army, huh? No one will ever call them useless again.

If you really want them to clean house, find yourself one of those two hidden Heart Scales from earlier on in the game and teach one Crunch. Because Crunch is crazy over-powered. I'm not kidding. You think Bite is strong, Crunch is worse + comes with the chance of a Defense drop. My Mightyena cleaned house with it.

Also good luck Vs. ZEL & Taka, you're going to need it. Only beat them by stalling with Sand-Attack from Prankster Liepard + setting up with Hone Claws... that's how I beat a lot of the early game, actually, by being as obnoxious as I possibly can. It worked, so no complaints here.

[Magus]

Taka and Zel will be fun good luck with that one.

[Yazmat]

For Taka and ZEL you should definitely buy some Persim Berries because Taka´s Lileep can be really annoying with Confuse Ray.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Yazmat

[Felicity]

*HIGH FIVE*

'nuff said

[Ojama Yellow]

I feel bad for Purrloin. Why no Purrloin?

[Timber Dragon]

Taka and ZEL

Beat on my first try with only one casualty.

I was warned about how awful this fight was, so I planned a strategy before I even faced them. The main idea was isolating that Chatot so it'd be manageable.

I opened with Stunky and Intimidate Mightyena, and focused completely on ZEL's team. Taka's Lileep was annoying with its Confuse Ray, but I did my best to deal with it and attacked ZEL's Eeveelutions. With both Taka and ZEL's team on the field, I mainly used another Poison stall. Stunky used Poison Gas, and Mightyena kept Biting Glaceon while Stunky assisted with Slash. With both Mightyena and Stunky hammering it, combined with poison damage, ZEL didn't seem to get a chance to use Super Potions. Glaceon fainted, Stunky used Poison Gas on Espeon (just in case), and Mightyena used a super effective Bite to faint it fast. Umbreon was a little trickier since it resisted Bite. I switched to Frogadier (and forgetting Taka's Lileep had Storm Drain, whoops) and pummeled Umbreon with Quick Attack. It didn't do much damage, so I was relying on Stunky's Poison Gas to wear it down. It eventually fell, though, and with ZEL's team gone, it was two against one.

From there, it was just a matter of double-team Biting. Taka got in his Super Potions on his Lileep and the Tangrowth, but my glorious Mightyena army just kept pounding everything. I didn't even need to rely on Poison Gas or anything. Chatot hits hard, but it's also fragile. Even if it did manage to faint a Mightyena, I had more waiting in the wing, and it wouldn't stop the second Mightyena currently on the field from finishing the job. Self-damage from confusion made it a close call, but poor Chatot just couldn't take a hit. Maybe that's why its chatter is so powerful: it's compensating for something.

You guys scared me. D:

I feel bad for Purrloin. Why no Purrloin?

Because I'm too lazy to grind something else. Also, when I first started out, Purrloin was too weak to bother with, and with more varied Pokemon coming up soon, I'm not bothering.

Plus I guess my heart is too calloused to give it a chance.

[Azeria]

Taka and ZEL

Beat on my first try with only one casualty.

I was warned about how awful this fight was, so I planned a strategy before I even faced them. The main idea was isolating that Chatot so it'd be manageable.

I opened with Stunky and Intimidate Mightyena, and focused completely on ZEL's team. Taka's Lileep was annoying with its Confuse Ray, but I did my best to deal with it and attacked ZEL's Eeveelutions. With both Taka and ZEL's team on the field, I mainly used another Poison stall. Stunky used Poison Gas, and Mightyena kept Biting Glaceon while Stunky assisted with Slash. With both Mightyena and Stunky hammering it, combined with poison damage, ZEL didn't seem to get a chance to use Super Potions. Glaceon fainted, Stunky used Poison Gas on Espeon (just in case), and Mightyena used a super effective Bite to faint it fast. Umbreon was a little trickier since it resisted Bite. I switched to Frogadier (and forgetting Taka's Lileep had Storm Drain, whoops) and pummeled Umbreon with Quick Attack. It didn't do much damage, so I was relying on Stunky's Poison Gas to wear it down. It eventually fell, though, and with ZEL's team gone, it was two against one.

From there, it was just a matter of double-team Biting. Taka got in his Super Potions on his Lileep and the Tangrowth, but my glorious Mightyena army just kept pounding everything. I didn't even need to rely on Poison Gas or anything. Chatot hits hard, but it's also fragile. Even if it did manage to faint a Mightyena, I had more waiting in the wing, and it wouldn't stop the second Mightyena currently on the field from finishing the job. Self-damage from confusion made it a close call, but poor Chatot just couldn't take a hit. Maybe that's why its chatter is so powerful: it's compensating for something.

You guys scared me. D:

Because I'm too lazy to grind something else. Also, when I first started out, Purrloin was too weak to bother with, and with more varied Pokemon coming up soon, I'm not bothering.

Plus I guess my heart is too calloused to give it a chance.

How 0_o ?

i lose that fight at least once every run unless you got some extreme hax damn it espeon why you have future sight

[Timber Dragon]

How 0_o ?

i lose that fight at least once every run unless you got some extreme hax damn it espeon why you have future sight

Haha, probably. The main idea is that I'll always have two Pokemon pounding on one, as well as backups. One advantage to having a huge team of doubles is that, even though it's boring, if one faints, your strategy doesn't really change.

Lileep is relatively safe compared to Taka's other team. Confuse Ray was a nuisance, but it's better to deal with that rather than a buffed up Tangrowth. As for the Eeveelutions, neither Espeon nor Umbreon would use any of their dangerous STAB moves, because my team is all Dark-type--Espeon and Umbreon were pretty much stuck with Swift and Quick Attack, and those are easily managed.

Actually, I think this fight was easier for me than in a normal playthrough. o.o

[Azeria]

Haha, probably. The main idea is that I'll always have two Pokemon pounding on one, as well as backups. One advantage to having a huge team of doubles is that, even though it's boring, if one faints, your strategy doesn't really change.

Lileep is relatively safe compared to Taka's other team. Confuse Ray was a nuisance, but it's better to deal with that rather than a buffed up Tangrowth. As for the Eeveelutions, neither Espeon nor Umbreon would use any of their dangerous STAB moves, because my team is all Dark-type--Espeon and Umbreon were pretty much stuck with Swift and Quick Attack, and those are easily managed.

Actually, I think this fight was easier for me than in a normal playthrough. o.o

Mono types make it easier it seems oh well now if only you could get the metal coat way earlier than like in the 50s a steel mono might actualy be possible without beingraped by the first 2 leader

Edited May 3, 2014 by Azery123

[Timber Dragon]

Mono types make it easier it seems oh well now if only you could get the metal coat way earlier than like in the 50s a steel mono might actualy be possible without beingraped by the first 2 leader

Heh, I wouldn't say it's easier. Julia gave me more trouble than in a normal playthrough, and the strategy I cooked up for Florinia took how many attempts of trial and error before I figured something out. The only way I can consider this run "easier" is that your strategies are limited with a limited team, so it's just a matter of making due with what you have. When you think about it, in a normal playthrough, you have the burden of choosing which Pokemon out of how many will work, and only a few of them will get you what you need.

[Azeria]

Heh, I wouldn't say it's easier. Julia gave me more trouble than in a normal playthrough, and the strategy I cooked up for Florinia took how many attempts of trial and error before I figured something out. The only way I can consider this run "easier" is that your strategies are limited with a limited team, so it's just a matter of making due with what you have. When you think about it, in a normal playthrough, you have the burden of choosing which Pokemon out of how many will work, and only a few of them will get you what you need.

thats if you use a mono team thats not Poison

Why cause the poison type is the following : abundant , good for stalling , has lots of status moves and it Has Crobat gengar and nidoking .crobat is pretty much S tier if you could get it at the original location but now its B tier cause of when you get it oh well. Now if only the next episode could come out and i could bust out my Alakazam again after boxing it for Luna

[Timber Dragon]

Corey

(Alt Header: Crobat Must Die)

I realized my usual strategy of poison stalling wouldn't exactly be effective against a Poison-type leader, so I had altered my tactics to focus on Howl buffs and Screech debuffs. I got off to a rocky start, but my second attempt went surprisingly well--in retrospect, I was very lucky. Things could've gotten complicated if Trubbish or Stunktank spammed Acid Spray instead of their other moves, lowering my team's sp.atk; or if Croagunk got in more than one super effective Drain Punch; or if Grimer's Minimize let me hit it or not. But things went well. I didn't need to be too conservative. I had plenty of openings to heal or get in a buff/debuff. Aside from two or so super effectives, most of my team was neutral to or resistant towards Corey's moves--Poison-types tend to have some Dark-type attacks, and usually just minor annoyances like Sucker Punch. There didn't seem to be much threat.

I should have learned by now that that's just Reborn's way of lulling you into a false sense of security, so the subsequent sweeping is all the more humiliating.

Crobat came out, got in a Nasty Plot, and OHKO'd each of my front liners and my supports. It even got two critical Venoshocks in a row--and none of my team was even poisoned! Needless to say, that was a disappointing turn of events, and I realized any subsequent strategy I used would revolve around preparing for that unholy Crobat.

My updated strategy basically hinged on a Mightyena getting in five or six Howls to faint Crobat in one or two hits--it's too dangerous to let it stay on the field for any longer than that. I figured that one Nasty Plot and it was over--as the sweeping during the previous battle demonstrated, literally none of my team was strong enough to survive it. It was Death or Glory, and my front liner needed to remain healthy to make it happen.

I opened with Stunky to combat Trubbish. I couldn't risk Trubbish getting in an Acid Spray on Mightyena--the lowered sp.def would be pretty much the same as a Nasty Plot from Crobat, and Mightyena needed to survive at least two of Crobat's attacks. I got in about two Screeches to help offset Trubbish's Stockpile spamming. Stunky resisted its offensive moves, and Toxic Spikes were easily countered with my Backup Stunky. Since Stunky isn't exactly a heavy-hitter, I got Corey to use up all his Super Potions here. Then it was just a matter of Slashing until it fainted.

I switched to Backup Stunky to absorb the Toxic Spikes Trubbish had set up, and got in about two Screeches on Croagunk before it fainted. I switched to Intimidate Mightyena, which offset its super effective Drain Punch a bit. I managed to get in a Howl, the first in the line of buffs, and OHKO'd it with Bite despite the resistance.

Skunktank is a wall, so I switched to Stunky to get in a Screech or two to make things easier for Mightyena. I figured it was either going to be Skunktank or Grimer where I would set up Mightyena's Howls--I was leaning towards Grimer since Skunktank has Acid Spray as well (and though Grimer has Mud Bomb, between lowered accuracy and lowered sp.def, Mud Bomb was the lesser of two evils). Setting up buffs on Skunktank rather than Grimer was actually a risky move on my part. If at any point Skunktank used Acid Spray on Mightyena, that Mightyena would be worthless against Crobat. Luckily, Skunktank was more inclined to spam Slash and Pursuit. Though that, I was able to Howl Mightyena's attack to its max, and proceeded to OHKO it as well as Grimer.

Crobat time! I was hoping to OHKO it as well, but Crobat truly is a sturdy fellow. It took two Bites to faint it, and that was after it used two Venoshocks to put Mightyena into the reds--and that was without being debuffed or poisoned. It'd have been a guaranteed faint if Mightyena had taken an Acid Spray previously. But lo and behold, Crobat fainted, thereby eliminating the main threat and leaving me a blessed mon that's actually weak to my attacks, Haunter.

It used Confused Ray on Mightyena, Mightyena attacked itself, and fainted. My other Mightyena finished it off, but it was still embarrassing.

Overall, Corey was a fight that relied on a lot of things going well. There were many more attempts in this fight that failed simply because of too many Acid Sprays, too much damage, too many misses, etc. I wish I could have thought of a strategy that relied on more guarantees, but that's the price to pay when all you have is a hammer Mightyena and Skunktank army.

[Vinny]

You know, i really want to make a Skuntank army now.

[HolyKnight]

Timber Dragon, you deserve all the cookies of the world. And coffee. Cookies whit Coffee are awsome.

To play this game using only Dark Type pokemon is too way awsome. Specially when you´re gonna face Kiki and Noel. Im looking foward this,

[Vinny]

Timber Dragon, you deserve all the cookies of the world. And coffee. Cookies whit Coffee are awsome.

To play this game using only Dark Type pokemon is too way awsome. Specially when you´re gonna face Kiki and Noel. Im looking foward this,

If there's one thing that i noticed on monotypes, is that people have trouble with stuff that they don't expect.

I remember Hinaru-Sama's Normal monotype, and he had no trouble to get past Kiki. But Aya was a pain in the ass.

I guess there's a good reason for that: If you're doing a monotype, when you go against your worst enemy (a.k.a Fighting, Bug and Fairy in a Dark monotype), you're going to prepare yourself even more than normally.

But oh well, good luck when you face Kiki! Like i always said before: It's your problem ^^

I still want to make a Skuntank army tho...

[Ojama Yellow]

Timber Dragon, you deserve all the cookies of the world. And coffee. Cookies whit Coffee are awsome.

To play this game using only Dark Type pokemon is too way awsome. Specially when you´re gonna face Kiki and Noel. Im looking foward this,

Take my cookies and you will die. Anyways...going better than I imagined, but the worst needs to come...THE NOEL.

[Cepheus]

Take my cookies and you will die. Anyways...going better than I imagined, but the worst needs to come...THE NOEL.

The only thing that's scary about Noel with Dark types are his Clefables Moonblast and Staraptors Close Combat.

(What type were his Hidden Powers again? that's why I HATE Hidden Power that it doesn't have a set type...)

With Skuntank (Poison/Dark) both of these become normal effective.

Noel cannot use his overpowerd Psychic agains Dark-Types, YAY!

But Clefable is still bulky as hell... needs a way to get rid of it... Toxic should help a ton.

[Tempest]

Toxic stall with Umbreon?

[Lost Lore]

I actually had the most trouble with Aya, not Noel. So I dunno...

...Then again Noel's AI was derping for a good portion of that battle. Seriously, U-Turn into Clefable on my fucking Drapion, why don't you... some prodigy you are.

[Azeria]

All of a sudden i want to pick up on my mono water run and start training my lvl 6 magikarp comparing to my lvl 10 fineon goldeen and piplup

[Yazmat]

I actually had the most trouble with Aya, not Noel. So I dunno...

...Then again Noel's AI was derping for a good portion of that battle. Seriously, U-Turn into Clefable on my fucking Drapion, why don't you... some prodigy you are.

Well against Aya I would recommend Spiritomb. Timber will definitely need Super Potions because it´s quiet slow. After 3 Nasty Plots it has potential to do heavy damage to her Team although can´t really compare it to my battle because I could boost Spiritomb´s speed and could set up Spikes which probably helped a lot. Would still recommend it because of the poison and ghost resistance.

Edited May 6, 2014 by Yazmat

[Timber Dragon]

Spiritomb is on my to-get list, as well as Drapion. I'm on the fence with Umbreon, though. It looks like a pretty good wall but it doesn't seem to have enough moves available to it to compliment its role, whether from its natural moveset or the currently available TMs. Drapion might make the better wall. Its Poison-typing means it resists Dark's usual weaknesses, so all I need to worry about is Ground.

I'm nowhere near Noel and I'm freaking out about him. I'm already entertaining strategies for beating Aya, but I really should be worrying about Shelly since I'm about to face her soon. Stunky (hopefully soon-to-be Skuntank) will probably be my shining mon in that fight.

[Timber Dragon]

Sorry for the double post, but I finally get to showcase my progress.

Shelly's Hell

A while back I had asked for the logic behind the Bug > Dark matchup, and I think the best answer that came up was that you really don't want to encounter a spider when you can't see it. I used that brilliant analogy to terrify myself for the match against Shelly. To prepare, I took some time for a bit of grinding on the Unowns underneath the Grand Stairway. My Mightyenas were already properly leveled (after being on the front lines for so long, they'd better be), but I didn't anticipate using them, so I focused my efforts elsewhere.

Stunky evolved into Skuntank and learned Flamethrower in the process. It also learned Toxic to replace Poison Gas, but that was incidental compared to me obtaining an official flaming fart skunk. I also leveled up Frogadier into Greninja—oh yeah! Frogadier. Remember that guy? The starter Pokemon that got, like, two mentions tops because between the first two gym leaders being Electric and Grass, and my Mightyena army handling the front lines, it was pretty much worthless? Well, I wanted to evolve it to get some more brute force on my side. I didn't expect to use it much due to both its Water- and now Dark-typing against a Bug gym, but I figured I could make some use of it while Skunktank suffocated everything.

It turns out Frogadier can learn, of all things, the Rock-type Smack Down.

You didn't think the header “Shelly's Hell” was in reference to Shelly giving me hell, did you?

Shelly, I am so sorry for how badly I destroyed you. Learning Smack Down was the most random thing ever, but with Protean giving Greninja both a Rock-typing and a STAB by using that move, I might as well have went in with a machine gun that fired bug spray pellets.

I opened with my machine gun-wielding Greninja. Dwebble's Sturdy meant it survived what should've been a OHKO from Water Pulse, but that just gave me a chance to make Shelly use up all her Hyper Potions. Although Dwebble got in some good hits with Bug Bite, Greninja had become rather durable since evolving and it was a simple matter of healing when Shelly did the same. By the second Hyper Potion, I finally used Smack Down to get rid of that pesky super effectiveness. It didn't OHKO it, which meant both Sturdy wouldn't activate and Shelly used her last potion. I finished it off from there. It never got the chance to use Stealth Rock, which had worried me at first but chances are it wouldn't have made a difference one way or the other.

Poor Yanmega, Scyther, and Wormadam didn't even get a chance to do anything. Yanmega and Scyther's 4x weakness to Rock didn't do them any favors, and Wormadam was… there. Masquerain was the first of Shelly's team to not be weak against Rock. Greninja took a heavy blow, but luckily, Skuntank was more than ready to finish it off with Flamethrower.

The only one of Shelly's team who wasn't totally helpless was Volbeat, and that was only after Tail Glow upped its special attack way high. Even with Skuntank's neutrality to Bug, I anticipated that sort of raw power would still leave a mark, so I settled with a simple Toxic stall. Volbeat's Leftovers couldn't compete with the poison damage, and all Skuntank had to do after Toxic was sit there while I healed it and Volbeat slowly suffered. To Volbeat's credit, I settled for Toxic stall because I had the feeling there wouldn't be any safe opening for an attack; some of its moves left Skuntank in the reds, and it was only its general beefiness that let it survive Volbeat's attacks at all. But they weren't enough. Volbeat couldn't handle the Toxic, and fainted.

And that was how I destroyed a gym leader who had the advantage in one sweeping try.

(Well, technically it took two; I restarted after accidentally opening with Backup Stunky, who I was training in the event things with Shelly went south. Look how that turned out.)

The Retiring of Brave Soldiers

Completing Shelly's gym unlocked multiple Dark-type options, which was great because honestly, Biting everything to death was getting boring. There's a reason most of my strategies up until now had involved some sort of stalling or (de)buffing. With how limited my options were, I didn't have much choice. But not anymore.

Having destroyed Shelly, the second half of the Underground Railnet can be traversed, the Dull Key can be collected, and the second Magma Gang quest can be finished. This means that I can now obtain Skorupi, Scraggy or Pancham, Houndour, and Zorua (and possibly Murkrow, if I can find the damn thing). Combined with Greninja, that's almost a full team right there. As those Pokemon are stronger, more useful, and more diverse, it's time to end a major chapter and lay some brave soldiers to rest.

Mightyenas and Stunky, thank you for your efforts. You have Bit, Screeched, and Poisoned through first wave of battles, paving the way for the new generation, one with more strategies available to them. I now welcome my new team which, although will certainly experience rotations, will probably stay with me for the long future. I have done the necessary grinding to get everyone up to speed, and until further notice, my team now consists of:

-Greninja

-Skuntank

-Drapion

-Houndoom

-Zoroark

-Scrafty

Shade

Shelly was a landslide victory I hadn't expected, but I expected it for Shade. I mean, really. Throwing a bunch of Dark-types at a Ghost-type gym leader would lead to a pretty self-explanatory conclusion. The only notable things that happened in this battle was me forgetting Shade opens with Rotom and accidentally having Greninja in my lead, Chandelure breaking Drapion's kill streak with the brute force of a Flame Burst + burn damage, and Spiritomb getting in two Nasty Plots that would've hurt my team from raw strength alone. But in the end, our mysterious ghostly entity just couldn't handle the Dark.

This battle was like the game threw me a bone, but with Cal and especially Kiki on the horizon, I know better than to get complacent. Reborn won't let me.

Cal

Cal was surprisingly unremarkable. Drapion and Houndoom fainted in the end, but my battlers contributed where it counted. Cal sometimes gives me problems in a normal playthrough because imo, he's a gym leader with one of the best coverage against types with the advantage. But, sticking with Dark-types means that, Infernape and Blaziken aside, no one was a huge threat to anyone, so it was just a matter of whittling everyone down.

I opened with Drapion to set up two Toxic Spikes. Drapion was beefy enough to survive Infernape's Close Combats and Mach Punches during the set up, and with Infernape's Defense stats lowered from the Close Combats, Drapion finished it off. From there, a combination of simple attacking and Toxic damage was enough. The only other real threat was Blaziken. It was only a combination of Water Pulse and Toxic stall that got me through it.

There's really not much I can say here except, yay team, and oh fuck Kiki's next.