[Challenge] The Monotype Challenge v8, Tera Edition

Pokémon Ruby Cross (Standard Mode)
Mono-Psychic - Stargazer Astrid
Update 5 (Route 111 Desert -> Petalburg Gym)

A short update today, with only a couple moveset updates. The biggest changes to my team are that I evolved my Kirlia into a Gardevoir, making him easily the strongest team member in every stat except physical attack and defense (which are still good), and caught a Baltoy. My Baltoy has decent defenses and can hit every Pokemon in the game for at least normal damage, but doesn't have great attacking stats right now. It'll be better when it evolves into Claydol, but for now, it isn't going to be carrying my team in any important battles. Finally, I learned Toxic on my Solrock and Spoink, giving me a couple options for stalling if I need it.

Norman was easier than expected. I used Gardevoir to stack Double Team and Calm Mind while his first Slaking was loafing around, then swept his team with Psychic.

Team

Spoiler:
 
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Pokémon Xenoverse (FREE MODE)
Mono-Fairy - Fallen Star Mintaka
Update 7 (Vega City - Kanto - Dimension Rocket - The Xenoverse)

Team:
-Shyleon Astral Form (Pascal), level 73
-Granbull (Diana), level 77
-Grudako (Ranmaru), level 74
-Fatail (Aniceto), level 73
-Mimikyu (El Mimi), level 72
-Marius (Primarina), level 61

We're back and stronger than ever!

I'm proud to say that after some technical difficulties, we managed to get all Gym Badges, put an end to the threat of Team Dimension, and defeat the gargantuan entity inside the Xenoverse (but not quite destroy it, otherwise the Universe would collapse on itself.) There was a very real possibility that I'd have to start this run again, but I'm just so, so glad that didn't come to pass.

As foreshadowed in my last real update, I caught a Popplio around Newtron City and called him Marius! At first I was hesitating to keep him in the team because he was a kind of drag-along member (I originally wanted Azumarill, which is post-game only), but he proved to be invaluable in defeating the ??? entity in the Xenoverse. Pascal also reached his Astral Form at last, as well; I've decided I want to keep him in the team for the battles against the Cardinals/Elite Four. The rest of the team did phenomenally in the battles against the robotudos and their humans too. And when entering the Xenoverse, the last wild Pokémon to greet me right before I went off to fight Dragalisk and the entity was... Pyukumuku X. I know he wasn't there with it, but I still nearly teared up. All's well ends well.

Next up: the game's equivalent of the Pokémon League, and getting rid of my very last opponent in this quest: Aster. He waxes too lyrical to not know anything about what's going on. And I'll see to it that he never, ever sends any recently graduated assistants to die against Pokémon he himself owns. He must be stopped.
 
Soul Silver Update 13

Gyms Completed
Faulkner
Bugsy
Whitney
Morty
Chuck
Jasmine
Pryce
Clair
Lt. Surge
Sabrina
Erika
Misty
Janine
Brock
Blaine
Blue

Current Team
Spoiler:


I left Pewter City for Viridian Forest. I made my way through Routes 2 and 1, made it to Pallet Town, and surfed through Route 21 to Cinnabar Island. After healing up at the Pokémon Center, I surfed through Route 20 and reached the Seafoam Islands. I entered Blaine's gym, and fought the trainers all the way to Blaine himself.

I sent out Blarrg as my lead Pokémon against Blaine's Magcargo. Blarrg took a good chunk of his HP out with Ancient Power, and got the much coveted stat boost. Another Ancient Power took out the Magcargo. Blaine sent out his Magmar next, and set up Sunny Day. An Ancient Power nearly took him out, and Blarrg got another stat boost. Blaine healed him with a Full Restore, but Ancient Power took him down.. Last was Rapidash, who used Bounce, thus dodging Ancient Power. However, Bounce missed, and Rapidash was almost destroyed by Ancient Power. Blaine healed him with a Full Restore, but he went down to Ancient Power. Thus, I won against Blaine.

I left the Seafoam Islands to do some training in preparation to face off against Blue. Once I was finally done leveling everyone up to Level 60, I flew to Viridian City and entered Blue's gym. I fought through any trainers in my way,, and eventually reached Blue.

I sent out Ember as my lead. She took out Exeggutor with one Megahorn. I switched Ember out for Bunga against Rhydon, and he set up a Sunny Day. Bunga promptly took out Raymond with a Solar Beam.

I switched Bunga out for Elmo against Gyarados, and he nearly took him out with Thunder Punch. Gyarados set up a Dragon Dance. The next turn, Blue used a Full Restore on Gyarados, and thus he took another Thunder Punch from Elmo, though he was paralyzed by it this time. Elmo destroyed him with another Thunder Punch.

Blue sent out Machamp. A Flamethrower from Elmo took him to half his HP, but he used Earthquake and nearly took out Elmo. Luckily, since Elmo was faster than Machamp, he took him out with another Flamethrower.

I switche Elmo out for Blarrg against Arcanine. Blarrg's Quick Claw activated, allowing him to hit Arcanine with an Ancient Power, and tanked a Dragon Pulse from Arcanine. The next turn, Arcanine outsped Blarrg, hitting him with another Dragon Pulse. Arcanine withstood another Ancient Power. Since Blarrg's HP was getting low, I healed him, and Blue healed Arcanine. Once again, Arcanine used Dragon Pulse, while Blarrg used another Ancient Power.

Blarrg used Ancient Power again, and I soon found out how he was able to outspeed Arcanine despite his Quick Claw not activating: Arcanine used Roar. Ember was sent out, and Blue healed Arcanine again. Ember continuously used Poison Jab, the third of which poisoned Arcanine. Not that it mattered, since Arcanine used Flare Blitz after that, taking himself out from the recoil damage.

I switched Ember out for Blarrg against Pidgeot. Pidgeot used Air Slash, which Blarrg survived. Blarrg then used Ancient Power. This repeated until Pidgeot went down, winning me the battle against Blue.

I got the phone call from Professo Oak after setting foot outside the Gym. After healing my Pokémon, I made my way to Pallet Town and spoke with Professor Oak. I was given the HM for Rock Climb, as well as accessibility to Mt. Silver (which I will traverse after rematching the Elite Four). With all 16 badges in my possession, it's time for the task of training for the Elite Four rematch. Stay tuned, everyone!
 
Pokémon Xenoverse (FREE MODE)
Mono-Fairy - Fallen Star Mintaka
Final Update (Victory Road - Mt. Zodiac)

WE MADE IT!! We made it to the top of Mt. Zodiac, and back to the skies! Oh, and the blue-haired devil was finally forced to acknowledge I was the brightest star in the sky. (Actually, no, I'm not, but the image of him kneeling down after throwing a huge tantrum was hilarious.) He got a good roll down Mt. Zodiac for his trouble.

The only battle I could say was really difficult was against Cardinal Niva, as always. Aster's Electaburst (the very Pokémon that marks his implicit betrayal of the MC) was difficult to deal with as well, though, because its biggest weakness (Ground) cannot be exploited due to Levitate and I had no Rock-types to take it down with. Thankfully, a well-placed Poison Jab from Aniceto and the subsequent poisoning did the job... at the cost of Aniceto's whole health bar. ;_; He did very well. So did the whole team - I'm so proud of all of them! They're easily my best squad in any playthrough of this game so far... where do we go from here?

Final team:
Spoiler:


With that concludes my Mono-Fairy run! Seeing as I have to continue preparing my Didactics II final, I won't be aiming for the extra goal this time, as much as I want to - or at least I'll put it on hold until I've finished all my class summaries, and then do an additional update with my battle against the secret post-game boss. Thank you, everyone!

Spoiler:
 
Pokémon Ruby Cross (Standard Mode)
Mono-Psychic - Stargazer Astrid
Update 6 (Route 105 -> Fortree Gym)

It's been a while since I last updated, but I finally made my way across Hoenn to Fortree City, getting several TMs along the way, but no new Pokemon. Metang learned Aerial Ace from Winona, giving it a Flying-type move to help it beat Bug-types and Grass-types. Gardevoir learned Thunderbolt after I explored New Mauville, replacing the weaker Shock Wave it used to know. Solrock learned Flamethrower from the Game Corner TM, and I also checked its Hidden Power in the save editor and it, surprisingly enough, had Hidden Power (Flying) at one point away from the highest base power it can get. I had originally planned to get a Xatu, but with my strongest Physical attacker having a Flying-type Hidden Power, I'm actually planning to change my mind and catch a Medicham instead. Finally, I taught my Baltoy Ice Beam from the Abandoned Ship, and evolved it into a Claydol right before facing Winona. It's still mediocre offensively, but it has very, very good defensive stats, making its six weaknesses much less scary than they were when it was a Baltoy.

Winona, like most of the other Gym Leaders, was soloed by my Gardevoir, this time by Thunderbolt for her first three Pokemon and Psychic for her Altaria. All in all, I'm having an easier time with the gym leaders than in my previous monotypes and they aren't that exciting. The Elite Four should be more challenging, hopefully.

Team

Spoiler:
Spoiler:
 
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Pokémon Ruby Cross (Standard Mode)
Mono-Psychic - Stargazer Astrid
Update 7 (Route 120 -> Mossdeep Gym)

In terms of team composition, I finally found a sixth Pokemon useful enough to stay on my team, and ditched Spoink for a Meditite from Mt. Pyre, and she evolved into a Medicham in the Magma Hideout. Don't let that low base attack fool you, her ability, Pure Power, doubles it, making her easily my best physical attacker, and Bulk Up can make her even stronger. Hi Jump Kick is kind of risky, and I'm planning to switch it for Brick Break once I reach Sootopolis, but Shadow Ball is a strong physical attack in Gen 3, and Facade is an excellent fallback if she's ever hit by a status condition. I got the Shadow Ball TM on Mt. Pyre, and I quickly taught it to all my physical attackers. It's a very strong Ghost type move that isn't resisted by many Pokemon, and helps cover my Ghost weakness a lot. Solrock also learned Rock Slide, which gives it a STAB Rock move that replaces the mediocre Rock Throw. Finally, I taught Calm Mind to my Alakazam, which evolves from Kadabra at Level 37 in this romhack. I do plan to box it now, though. Alakazam, without egg moves or move tutors, is very much a one-trick pony in Gen 3 and that one trick is something most of my team can do. In its place, I want to catch a Starmie, which I can now catch and evolve because I now have access to the Super Rod and, with Dive, a Water Stone.

During the battle against Liza and Tate, I led with my Solrock and my Alakazam. The latter may not have been the strongest option, but I wanted to give her one last send-off before she was boxed after I catch a Starmie. Alakazam and my Solrock teamed up on Liza and Tate's Solrock with Thief and Shadow Ball, forcing them to use both Hyper Potions. Alakazam got burned by Flamethrower the first turn, which triggered Synchronize and burned the Gym Leader's Solrock as well. My Alakazam fainted around the Leaders' Solrock, and I sent out Gardevoir, hoping to paralyze Lunatone as it had already built up multiple Calm Minds. This didn't happen, and it put my Solrock to sleep with Hypnosis, then wounded my Gardevoir. Then, my Solrock woke up and Lunatone fell to a pair of Shadow Balls. Liza and Tate are the hardest gym leaders I've faced this run, though this is not a high bar as they've been the only ones to actually faint a Pokemon of mine.

Team

Spoiler:
 
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User: StenirRPG
Type: Fire
Game(s): Blue / Gold / Emerald / Shining Pearl / Black / X / Ultra Sun
Single / Ultimate: Ultimate
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE's BACK! Starting tonight, will update tomorrow on progress!
 
Pokémon Ruby Cross (Standard Mode)
Mono-Psychic - Stargazer Astrid
Update 8 (Route 125 -> Sootopolis Gym)

I have my last gym badge! With the capture of a Staryu and its evolution into Starmie, I now have my final team that'll take me through the Pokemon League. Starmie is an excellent special attacker, and though its special attack isn't as high as Gardevoir or the Alakazam it replaced, it is has much better coverage, with both a STAB water move and an ice move available to it. The latter will be invaluable against Drake, as my only other Pokemon with an Ice move was Claydol, which has lackluster offensive stats. Starmie is also my fastest Pokemon, beating out Gardevoir and Alakazam.

For my other five Pokemon, all of them saw moveset changes. Claydol, Metang, and Solrock all learned Earthquake, giving all my physical attackers a strong Ground-type move. Medicham and Metang both learned Brick Break, giving both a way to hit Dark and Steel type Pokemon super effectively, and giving Medicham a STAB move that doesn't have a small risk of missing and hurting it. Finally, Gardevoir replaced Double Team with Reflect, a much more reliable defensive move for protection from physical attacks. I also got a Shell Bell, a Focus Band, and a King's Rock, which will let me ditch some of the minor type-boosting held items that don't really do much.

Against Maxie, I led with Medicham, which used Brick Break to take down Mightyena. Maxie sent out Crobat and fainted Medicham. I sent out Solrock, hoping to hit Crobat with a Rock Slide, but he confused Solrock and eventually used enough Bites to faint it. I switched to Starmie, used Thunderbolt a couple times, and took down Crobat, then 1HKOed Camerupt with Surf.

Against Groudon, I had my Solrock go out, but I forgot it had Bulk Up, so it didn't do much damage. I sent out Claydol next, brought it into the red with Ice Beam, and caught it with my second Ultra Ball. I can't actually use it until the challenge is over, but I want an extra Groudon for later, just in case I need it for something.

Against Wallace, I led with Gardevoir as usual, and I got three Calm Minds off before Luvdisc infatuated and confused my Gardevoir. I tried in vain to finish stat boosting, but eventually I just gave up and Thunderbolted it, which 1HKOed it, 1HKOed his Whiscash with Psychic, and 1HKOed his next two Pokemon with Thunderbolt. I almost 1HKOed Milotic, but it survived and retaliated with an Ice Beam. I used another Calm Mind while Wallace healed, and then Thunderbolted Milotic once to win the match.

Calm Mind is really powerful, and most trainers in this game don't really have ways to counteract it.

Team

Spoiler:
 
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Ultimate Fire Run
Blue / #1 / Brock, Nugget Bridge, and the S.S. Anne

In this post:
1.) Pick up Charmander
2.) Beat Brock
3.) Beat Nugget Bridge
4.) Beat S.S. Anne
5.) Prepare for Misty

The first battle against Gary kinda sucked because Tail Whip. I ended up having to use my Potion because I want that sweet sweet Exp. Otherwise, it's a fairly easy run up to Brock. Brock isn't really that hard with Ember, though it does take longer than normal since even though it's a Special attack, it's still resisted.

(It doesn't help that I managed to figure out my DVs for Special it's a whopping 0. So...yeah.)

Pushing through Mt. Moon was fairly easy, since I had Charmeleon shortly after entering Route 3 and fighting all those trainers. I did clear out the area of trainers and items (yay money). I was getting tired of using Ember at this point, but not as tired of that as I was of Scratch.

I knew I stood no chance against Misty, so when I got to Cerulean, my devision was simple - do Nugget Bridge, do the S.S. Anne, and then come back for Misty. I am still debating on whether or not to use HM01/Cut on Charmeleon, to have a stronger physical attack. (Yes, I later learn Slash, so no need.)

The fight with Gary always sucks because of Sand-Attack. I decided the best thing I could do would either be to use Bide (since I believe it skips the accuracy check, but doesn't really help if I'm not getting hit) or use Rage. Yeah, I used Rage. So, when I hit, I hit harder. I missed quite a lot, but Rage just keeps on going, so it's the ROn Popeil of moves - just set it and forget it. I did lose once, but the second time I made it through.

No issues on Nugget Bridge, nor on the S.S. Anne. The final battle for this entry is against Gary on the ship, and I'm already level 34. I have Slash now, instead of Scratch. First Slash crits on the Pidgeotto, taking it down. Second Slash crits on the Raticate, taking it down. Well, you know what'll happen with the Kadabra. I still get a crit. I get a crit on the Wartortle (resulting in my winning the battle and reaching level 35), but I was never really worried about it...I mean, c'mon, Bubble and Water Gun against something that is 14 levels higher even though it would be STAB and super effective? Misty's going to be worse.

My plan is to try once with Charmeleon, but if that doesn't work, I'm close enough to Charizard that I'll probably just go ahead and evolve it and then try again.

My team:
Charm, L35 Charmeleon
HP 97 / Atk 65 / Def 55 / Spd 77 / Spc 57
Ember / Slash / Rage / Leer

Quick update: Two uses of Slash and Misty is done.

So...continuing from that point in the next entry!
 
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I've added two new multi-run challenges to the opening post, the Type Mastery Challenge and the Game Mastery Challenge. Unlike the Ultimate Challenge, which is about mastering a single type over many games, the two new challenges involve a monotype run of every type, with Type Mastery being spread across any number of games, and Game Mastery being a challenge to do every available monotype run in a single game. Because there are twice as many types as regions, these are going to take roughly twice as long as an Ultimate Challenge, so make sure you're prepared.

Now, I'm going to sign up for a Type Mastery Challenge of my own, counting my completed and in-progress single monotype runs as my first steps towards completing this challenge.

Code: 
User: Explorer of Time
Game(s): [S]Shin Red (Flying), Gold (Ground), Perfect Crystal 2020 (Poison)[/S], Ruby Cross (Psychic), Colosseum (Water), FireRed+ (Normal), XD (Dark), Emerald Cross (Grass), Diamond (Fighting), Platinum QoL (Steel), HeartGold (Rock), Black (Fire), Black 2 (Electric), X (Fairy), Omega Ruby (Bug), Sun (Ghost), Ultra Sun (Ice), Sword (Dragon)
Challenge Type: Type Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode
 
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Pokémon Ruby Cross (Standard Mode)
Mono-Psychic - Stargazer Astrid
Update 9 (Victory Road -> S.S. Tidal)

The final update of the run! The only Pokemon that had any moveset changes this late was Metagross, who finally evolved right before Victory Road, and who forgot Psychic, since it isn't super-effective against any Pokemon at the League, and Metal Claw since it's very weak and I really should've ditched it earlier. In its place, I learned Shadow Ball and Iron Defense. The latter ended up being the key to winning the whole league.

I don't remember much about the battle against Wally other than that I led with Gardevoir, which fainted, had a second Pokemon faint, and didn't use Metagross. That being said, I did note down all of the Pokemon League battles, of which I lost two matches, one to Drake and one to Steven.

Sidney: I initially led with Medicham, hoping to sweep his team with Brick Break, but after taking down Mightyena, Absol got a critical Aerial Ace against it, and it fainted. I switched to Metagross, which used Brick Break again to faint Absol, Cacturne, and Sharpedo, with Sharpedo simultaneously fainting Metagross with Rough Skin. I switched to Solrock and had it use Hidden Power to win the match.

Phoebe: I led with Solrock, again, hoping to use Shadow Ball, but her first Dusclops fainted both Solrock and Medicham with Shadow Punch, the latter being a critical. I sent out Claydol, which fainted it. Phoebe sent out a Banette, which fainted Claydol, then I switched to Starmie, which fainted both her Banette with STAB Surf. Her second Dusclops then swept through my entire team except for Metagross, which took down its last bit of HP and then fainted Sableye.

Glacia: I managed to set up 6x Calm Mind with Gardevoir and sweep through her whole team. No surprises here.

Drake (Loss): My Starmie fainted Shelgon and wounded the first Flygon, but it fainted both Starmie and Solrock. I took it down with Medicham, but it was defeated by his next Flygon. I KOed this Flygon with Claydol but then he sent out Salamence and wiped the floor with the rest of my team.

Drake (Win): This time, I led with Metagross, wounding Drake's Shelgon before he switched it out, and also wounded one of his Flygons before fainting. I switched to Claydol, fainted the Flygon, then switched out to Gardevoir and healed Claydol, but Gardevoir was hit by a critical Crunch and fainted to Shelgon. I switched to Starmie, which Ice Beamed Shelgon, but got 1HKOed by Salamence. Claydol, however, tanked Salamence's Crunch and Ice Beamed it too. Drake sent out Altaria, which fainted Claydol, and I switched to Medicham and used my Max Revive on Claydol while Medicham fainted. Altaria had built up multiple Dragon Dances while healing, but it inexplicably used another one before I Ice Beamed it, which froze it. Drake used a full restore, then Ice Beam froze it AGAIN, then I fainted it. The last Flygon inexplicably used Sandstorm and Dig against Claydol, which did literally nothing, and fainted to a pair of Ice Beams.

Steven (Loss): My Gardevoir set up Reflect, then Thunderbolted Skarmory twice to KO it. I let Cradily faint Gardevoir, then I switched to Medicham and built up 6x Bulk Up. I swept through all of Steven's Pokemon except Metagross, which KOed Medicham with Psychic and then 1HKOed the entire rest of my team.

Steven (Win): Like last match, I 2HKOed Skarmory with Thunderbolt, this time switching to Metagross, which used Iron Defense three times and then slowly defeated every one of Steven's Pokemon without getting close to fainting. Cradily was very slow to beat because of Confuse Ray, and ended up running out of PP for anything other than Sludge Bomb, but Steven wasted every single Full Restore he had on it. Steven's Claydol went down to a few Shadow Balls. Aggron was 1HKOed by Earthquake. Steven's Metagross was 3HKOed by Earthquake. Finally, Armaldo came kind of close to fainting Metagross with Water Pulse, but eventually fainted from a Shadow Ball.

All in all, this monotype was the easiest one overall, though it had a very high difficulty spike once I reached the Pokemon League. I had little to no access to status conditions, but I had several very good stat boosting moves available to me, and both physical and special sweepers with good type coverage.

Gardevoir was the MVP of the run, having soloed six of the eight gyms, and could probably have soloed Lavaridge as well if I didn't want to use Solrock. It dropped in relative effectiveness late in the game, but early access to Calm Mind and Double Team made it nigh-unstoppable if it got a chance to set up and was facing special attackers and/or slower Pokemon. I do not believe I've had a Pokemon in a monotype run be this disproportionately useful before.

Metagross took a while to get going, but when it finally evolved, it had some absolutely amazing stats. It was well worth training up from a weak Beldum, and it easily held its own as a Metang throughout most of the game.

Solrock was a Pokemon that I was initially very lukewarm about, but it ended up being a surprisingly powerful option. Though it took a while to get a good moveset, once I got some TMs, it became an excellent physical attacker and lucked into an amazing Hidden Power option that changed the course of my team for the better.

Claydol, on the other hand, ended up being a little less exciting than I expected. It was a good defensive mon, but I had plenty of moves to buff specific defenses on specific Pokemon, so it ended up not being that useful. In retrospect, I really should've taught it Cosmic Power to replace Psychic before the Pokemon League. Teaching it four attack moves, was, looking back, a clear mistake.

Medicham was excellent at physical attacks, especially if it got to Bulk Up. Its fragile defenses, however, made it less likely to do so successfully than Gardevoir. But when it got going, it really tore through just about everything, with perfect neutral coverage.

Starmie came very late, but it was really good against all the Water trainers in the later routes, with a resistance to Water, and Thunderbolt. It was very fast and had very good coverage, making it an excellent special sweeper for situations where I couldn't set up Calm Mind or Bulk Up.

Lastly, I had Alakazam, which entered the box right after the Mossdeep Gym. It was an amazing special attacker held back by a poor moveset, with its only good attack move being Psychic, since I didn't want to bother breeding for the elemental punches. It helped me through the midgame, but it didn't fill any niche I couldn't fill with my other team members, and that was a fatal flaw that kept it off my Hall of Fame.

EDIT: I guess I also had Spoink too, but it was only actually used in like three battles so I can't say much about it. It wasn't very strong when I had it, but it might or might not have gotten better later on.

Team

Spoiler:
 
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User: Poohbear1
Type: Normal
Game(s): Blue, Gold, Ruby, Pearl, White, X, and Moon
Challenge Type: Ultimate Challenge
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard Mode
 
Game mastery in Platinum is already a mini-project of mine that I'm gonna work on for the next year or two so I might as well post the sign up and share my progress here

User: Kostucha
Game(s): Platinum
Challenge Type: Game Mastery
Standard Mode / Free Mode: Standard
Previous progress: Flying, Bug and Rock are already done
Spoiler:
 
Ultimate Normal Mono-type Challenge

Pokémon Blue

Boulder Badge
Spoiler:


Poohbea's Party
Spoiler:
 
Ultimate Normal Mono-type Challenge

Pokémon Blue

Cascade Badge
Spoiler:


Pooh Bea's Team
Spoiler:
 
Ultimate Normal Mono-type Challenge

Pokémon Blue

Thunder Badge
Spoiler:


Poohbea's Team
Spoiler:
 
Ultimate Fire Run
Blue / #2 / Surge, Erika, a Hideout, and a Ghost

In this post:
1.) Defeat Lt. Surge
2.) Travel through Rock Tunnel
3.) Pick up Vulpix
4.) Pick up Eevee, Evolve to Flareon
5.) Defeat Erika
6.) Defeat Team Rocket Hideout
7.) Complete Pokemon Tower

So, after the fun of using Slash all over the place to get through not only Misty's gym...but also Lt. Surge's as a starting point for today, I ended up having my Charmeleon evolve to Charizard right before the battle with Surge. Would have been worried since it gains the Flying type, but as you can guess, a couple of uses of Slash and his team is down.

Rock Tunnel - pfft...Slash, Ember, Slash, Ember. If a Rock type, Ember, otherwise Slash. While I was running a little low on supplies, I did make it through without a map. I really should pull one up next time, but I did do better than on my Bug and Rock Ultimates. I was actually decently stressed with Charizard, because there are a bunch of Slowpoke users, but also because if anything used a Rock move, it would be doing 4x damage. Nothing like trading two 2x weaknesses for a immunity and a 4x weakness.

Lavender Town is just a quick stop to heal up, and then I head west to pick up Vulpix. It's obviously horribly underleveled (L19 to Charizard's L38 by this point). I spent some time switch training it through the battles on my way to Celadon. Once I get to Celadon, I pick up the Eevee, get a Fire Stone, and evolve it. Now with my trio that I'm going to have until I reach Cinnabar, I have a few decisions to make. Obviously, the best thing to do is get Erika's gym out of the way. Do I get Ponyta and Magmar before fighting Sabrina, or after? I have to do Koga anyways, so I have a bunch of trainers to get through on Cycling Road first.

Why can't Charizard learn Fly in R/B anyways? Hopefully just an oversight, but moving on...

In order to do Koga, gotta get the Snorlax out of the way, so time to do the hideout, where my Vulpix basically wipes the floor with almost everything. Oh, wait, I taught it Dig. I gave Flareon Body Slam, but Vulpix just did so much more damage to everything. The final battle with Giovanni was nothing but me using Dig, but eventually I had to switch out Vulpix due to lower health and felt it had done enough to warrant Charizard showing up to finish the battle. Especially for a crit on Kangaskhan. Like old times from the previous post.

Pokemon Tower - Gary was a pushover. As for the Ghost types throughout, that's what Dig was for. Dig is a little overpowered, but eventually we'll get some Earthquake going...in another 4 gyms...

My team:
Charm, L40 Charizard
HP 126 / Atk 91 / Def 80 / Spd 105 / Spc 83
Ember / Slash / Rage / Leer

Vulpi, L30 Vulpix
HP 69 / Atk 40 / Def 38 / Spd 51 / Spc 49
Ember / Dig / Quick Attack / Confuse Ray

Flare, L30 Flareon
HP 83 / Atk 92 / Def 46 / Spd 53 / Spc 82
Tackle / Sand-Attack / Body Slam / Quick Attack
 
Obligatory "I started this challenge before joining the forum, so it doesn't count."

I finally challenged the Elite Four with more or less the moveset I discussed on page 1 of this thread (aside from Light Screen on Claydol and Earthquake/Surf/Toxic/Amnesia on Whiscash).

Sidney and Phoebe put up more of a fight than I thought, but that might be due to the fact this is a mono type run. I did look up each team before challenging each Elite Four member since this is not a speedrun or anything like that.

Glacia was a real [provocative language blocked] though! She came at me with everything! Her first Glalie was already such a pain to kill. I sent out Ellie the Donphan in the hopes its Iron Tail would do something against Ice, but it immediately misses. Glacia and I effectively went back to neutral when we both healed at the same time, but that hail was already in effect. That hail, man. Thank goodness for Amnesia and Toxic on Taxman the Whiscash. It really helped here. I forgot her Walrein doesn't use hail, so when it came out as hail ended, I messed up a bit. Walrein kept using Blizzard, but by the end, I had to be careful not to get Walrein too low on health before the KO because I didn't know how many items the Elite Four used (I probably should've looked beforehand because I think she'd already used both of hers). Swampert used Waterfall for this reason, and Walrein tried Sheer Cold a second time, so I used Earthquake to finish the nightmare once and for all.

Then Drake. Oh, gosh, Drake! It didn't start off too badly against his Shelgon, but it took quite a few turns for Taxman the Whiscash to finish it off (thanks in part to three different uses of Amnesia; dang, what a tank that must've been!). That Altaria was also mildly dreadful, but only because toxic and the recoil damage from its own Take Down helped me so much. I think Drake sent out his "Sandstorm/Dig/Fly/Dragonbreath" Flygon first, and that was a mess. I sent out Flygon to finish the opposing Flygon, but then I paniced a bit when I remembered that was only his third Pokémon. Due to effort values or something, my Flygon was faster than Drake's two Flygon, so that was wonderful. That Salamance was scary. I'm trying to remember. Flygon was at half health (exactly 72/144), so I sent out Claywell the Claydol. Unfortunately, Claydol's Ice Beam was rendered useless cuz I chose to heal Flygon instead, and Salamence used Crunch followed by Dragon Claw. So Camerupt's Eruption was no match for this Salamence, and Flygon failed to knock it out as well. At least it used the Sitrus Berry, so Lance wasn't tempted to heal it (assuming he hadn't already done it twice in this battle). Swampert finally beat the Salamence with Surf after surviving Fly. Drake was finally down for the count, but at what cost!

I had some potions left, but only two Revives. I decided to use the Max Revive on Glacia, I think. It was probably necessary for that Walrein, but I can't remember. I had to challenge the Champion with only Camerupt, Swampert, and Flygon.

Steven greets me without saying anything about blood-covered ruins downstairs. We start fighting, and Blaine the Camerupt gets poisoned right away, but thankfully, he still one-shots Skarmory with full-health Eruption. I think his next Pokémon was Aggron, which went down in one hit to Swampert's Earthquake. Yeah, so much for the ability "Sturdy." (Sarcasm) Then that monstrosity from the depths of the ocean Cradilly killed my Flygon and my Camerupt. That thing was committed and coming straight for me. Thankfully, I killed it with Swampert. Then Steven sent out his Claydol, which survived Swampert's Surf with one hit and set up Light Screen ... and Reflect. I tried to stall out these lingering effects, but then it used Light Screen one more time before I could finish it with another Surf. Yes, Light Screen made Metagross all the scarier. Now I think this is the part where Steven really lets the opponent have it with Full Restores, so I was really on my toes. Swampert used Earthquake, and Metagross used Earthquake. Metagross was in the lower yellow part of health, so it used its Sitrus Berry. For some reason, Swampert was really fast against these last two Pokémon. Metagross went down to the second Earthquake. All that was left was Steven's Armaldo. I used Blizzard, and it's at this point, I realize Light Screen is still in effect. I stall out with some of my last Max Potions. It scared me the first time I used the Full Restore on Swampert when its Slash got a critical hit, but the second time, it didn't happen, and I realized: It's time to break down this rock with Surf! With the last attack, I became Champion! I had conquered the Hoenn Region with just Ground-type Pokémon (with a little help from the pickup items from four Zigzagoon). I can rest easy on my thrown now. Thank goodness! I felt like I was in the original finale to the Dragon Ball Super anime. Yeah, I know about hardcore nuzlockes, but I did accomplish what I set out to do. I wear the crown!
 

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I've been thinking for a while about changing the Standard Mode rules to allow some, weaker, legendaries, as was the case in the fourth, fifth, and sixth incarnations of the thread. The reason is, most of these Pokemon are equal in power to or weaker than Pokemon such as Garchomp that've been allowed in every incarnation of this thread, and are weaker than most Mega Evolutions in games that have them. Some of them, such as Gen 1 Moltres, are outright worse than other Pokemon of the same typing, even though their base stats are a little higher.

That being said, I don't have experience training most of these and I'd like to make sure I'm not letting something brokenly good slip through. I have a preliminary list, banning Legendary Pokemon with a base stat total of higher than 600 (equal to that of pseudo-legends), with the exception of Regigigas because of its Slow Start ability:

Banned: Mewtwo, Ho-Oh, Lugia, Latios (Mega), Latias (Mega), Groudon, Kyogre, Rayquaza, Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, Arceus, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Xerneas, Yveltal, Zygarde (Power Construct), Diancie (Mega), Hoopa (Unbound), Solgaleo, Lunala, Necrozma, Zacian, Zamazenta, Eternatus, Calyrex (Ice/Shadow Rider), Koraidon, Miraidon.

Allowed: Articuno, Zapdos, Moltres, Mew, Raikou, Entei, Suicune, Celebi, Regirock, Regice, Registeel, Latios (Non-Mega), Latias (Non-Mega), Jirachi, Deoxys, Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf, Cresselia, Heatran, Regigigas, Manaphy, Darkrai, Shaymin, Cobalion, Terrakion, Virizion, Tornadus, Thundurus, Landorus, Victini, Keldeo, Meloetta, Genesect, Zygarde (Aura Break), Diancie (Non-Mega), Hoopa (Confined), Volcanion, Type: Null, Silvally, Tapu Koko, Tapu Lele, Tapu Bulu, Tapu Fini, Cosmog, Cosmoem, Magearna, Marshadow, Zeraora, Meltan, Melmetal, Kubfu, Urishifu, Zarude, Regidraco, Regieleki, Glastrier, Spectrier, Calyrex (Non-Rider), Enamorus, Wo-Chien, Chien-Pao, Ting-Lu, Chi-Yu, and all Ultra Beasts.

(Mythicals and postgame legendaries are included for the sake of fangames and romhacks that may allow them to be caught before the postgame.)


Feedback would be much appreciated.
 
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