Ha. this was fun. Hard, but fun. And as I created this specificaly just to beat The League, I'm not even attempting the Postgame

So first got a Quiet one. Yeah, yeah, Speed-lowering nature, but the calculation said it would still equal to a 40 base speed pokemon, and that can be ... solved, so I thought, let's use this. But then gave it a second thought, and as I found that I made a backsave during the SOS-chain, I changed my mind and spent like half a day looking for an attack-boosting nature hidden ability one. Totaly did worth it. Was so much more functional.

Btw, as hidden ability barely occured unlike for Kecleon, I thought maybe its island-coding, but when I hit the entry up, turned out you can only get Spinda at 1 place, so what could I do. Anyway, let's start the go.

Totem 3 was done at 32, and Spinda pretty much sucks until you gain Dizzy Punch, because that at least has SOME power. Unfortunately the moves' power-level will be stuck at the range for the whole game, so yeah, this is not Luvdisc. Two move you also want to preserve for ever on your moveset: Hypnozis and Sucker Punch. Both are pretty much cheat-moves. Treasure them. Without Hypnosis for instance I'd've needed much more than lvl 35 to pass Totem 4. Dunno, but I put at least 3 times in a row sleep the opponent.

Another fun move is Brick Break. I rarely get to use fighting-type moves, just because pokemons rarely have them in this one, but they are good. On the other hand fights like Hau 6 (the first fight on Ulaula island) is complicated, you need a bunch of moves - I used Hypnozis, Sucker Punch, Brick Break and Dizzy punch all at 41. Totem Togedemaru is not better either, although maybe a bit more predictable.

Against Guzma you'll need Protect, so that's one moveslot, and while the first time I could use just Dizzy Punch and Sucker Punch, for the other two Rock Slide was necessary. But as I noticed Dizzy Punch's confusion rarely if ever played any role, with easy heart changed it to Facade when it came to that. Not forgetting that after Guzma 3 (ok, Nanu exactly) you get Return too.

And Facade is not entirely useless, as I used it against Gladion 2, where I don't remember, got maybe poisoned, or something like that.

Lusamine is tricky, as you want to get over her being one of the biggest obstacles, so you try every trick in the book before trying brute force (aka. overleveling). I got lucky at 66(6) using Return metronome, but 70 is the more realistic number. Now the secret here is to roll a fight where the Clefairy throws Charm at you, buffing your Attack.

Kommo-o is a very annoying totem, I threw at it Hypnotize Z (yes, it was for the speedboost), Zen Headbutt and Return (for the minion). I passed at 71, but that involved affliction, range and luck, so you probably will overlevel too much here just because of this, but I passed, so moving on.

DMN was Thief on metronome. I tried various options before this, but only this passed at 71, without affliction.

For UN I passed at 72, but it's underestimating it. You need 1-2 more levels to have it in range. You need an affliction first turn, hitting it with hypnozis, which shall last for 3 turn (meaning you hit it 3 times with thief on metronome - Spinda really doesn't have much attacking power by itself, and the normal typing doesn't help either), THEN still must be hit with a Sucker Punch. I had to use 2 of this latest, but as said you just need 1-2 more levels to have the thing in range. It still requires everything to work on your favour, but that CAN work out.

Then comes the Gauntlet Trial, and that's where you start learning the Elemental Punches. First shall be Ice Punch against Mallow (grass), and Hapu (ha, so she is Ground). on the Volcano you can just use Sucker Punch, that'll work out fine. Against Gladion 3 pick up Thunder Punch (along it I used Ice Punch on the grass type Silvally).

Gladion was über-hard by the way, had to climb from 79 to 93. Already had to grind from 73 to 79 between Totem Ribombee and Hapu, but yeah, this was a big gap, and obviously Rare Candy time. I had 19 of this, so only had to manualy grind to 81. It's overdoing it, but I always do it this way.

Did The League from right to left as usual (all metronome): Thunder Punch, Ice Punch, Brick Break, Fire Punch. Yeah, all the elemental punches appeared. Still kept Sucker Punch just in case, so Brick Break went in place of Thunder Punch. Could choose Ice Punch given the order, it didn't really matter much in the end. And I think I once did the ghost room with PPMaxed Sucker Punch, if you are wired that way.

Interrestingly this time Hau was no biggy. Just put on Return, and metronome his team. See, with Contrary as ability you get at least one boost from the Tauros to your Attack, and that's more than enough.

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This little buddy is not as bad as people say. Well, not for single. But it's slowness is a serious threat to it at key places though. I took it on my Primarina-savefile, and that might not have had been the best idea, but I wanned to make the run "fair". Reap what you saw.

Easily grinded to lvl 29 to fight Totem 3 with Bubble Beam, Ancient Power and Recover. Recover is cool. The little bugger has enough bulk to get use of it occasionaly. Lefotver on the other hand is insufficient. So just use Wise Glasses, Choce Spec and Metronome with this one.

Oh, yeah, let's mention the movepool. It's narrow, though you can buy all kinds of TMs in the shops. The Beaches... are not that useful, not useful at all. And for some weird reason Corsola gets a ton of physical moves, which it is not set to use. Even though its only potential ability that might be of any use, at least in theory, is Hustle, an ability that buffs physical moves. Whatever.

For stats it has 35 base speed, so it won't really outspeed key things, and its other stats pretty much suck too, so my thought-process was that if I can't outspeed, at least be able to hit hard, so that's why that ability. Also, my Hidden Power was Dragon, which do not help.

Needed a serious grind for Totem 4, grass being supereffective against us, so slipped through at 39, with Ancient Power, an omniboost in the first turn, and Recover. Don't get used to Ancient Power, as Island 3, and definiitely 4 gets a big nerf on chances for condition activation, and 10% is not great to start with, so at 41 swap it out for Power Gem. That's just power, but power is good.

Our water-move will be Bubble Beam with its 65 power and chance to slow, but when the time comes, we'll switch it out for various TMs. That will be our TM-slot, because otherwise the moves we learn are not relearnable, and simply are too good to abandon: Recover, Earth Power, Power Gem.

Against Totem Mimikyu we'll have to pick up Shadow Ball with choice spec, and if we'd ever need to have a water-move back, we could get Water Pulse, but we won't need that, and later we get Scald. That'll be a good one.

As Corsola's stats stink a bit (and we didn't even get to the bottom of the barrel with Bastiodon), Choice Spec is generaly better than Metronome.

Btw, Guzma while occasionaly uses First Impression does not worth putting up Protect, the move is not super-effective. Just tank the hits and knock down his pokemons.

Lusamine is a problem on paper the very least, but at 62 starting with Psychic, then managing health with Recover, and when running out of PP changing to Power Gem, the encounter is manageable.

Reached the Kommo-o Lair at 68, but could only beat it at 78 with Psychic Z (and power gem). this level is also good for the necrozma-battles, which are delt with Shadow Ball Z, though UN is trouble, as it is faster, and a 2-turn fight, so you'll need an affliction along surviving a turn on bulk.

At Ilima I had to set up Reflect, because everything hits hard and supereffective, and that pesky Wood Hammer only deals recoil-damage if it is actualy causing damage. Crap. Whatever.

On the Volcano during the gauntlet-trial I adwise Wise Glasses as held item, because of the cursed body. the rest is kinda obvious.

Gladion 3 is annoying, because there is a random factor on wether the Zoroark will and which turn use Z-move. Seems entirely random, unfortunately. But it is 2-turn at 89, so it has its chances. By the way I got there at 80, with 19 candies, so only grinded 1 level, then started chemicaling up. You either should neglect the Z-threat, or try to block it with Protect. Hail can be advantageous to you because of ranges... Ugh, this fight is complicated. Not to mention you'll use all 4 moveslots, as you'll need Power Gem to get rid of the bat, Earth Power for the Zozorark + Lucario, and you better recover before you move on from the Zoroark, else you definitely won't have enough HP against the Silvally...

Moving on: climb the mountain, went into The League. From right to left (held item: choice spec).

Kahili: 89, Power Gem

Acerola: 90, Psychic

Olivia: 90 -> 91, Scald

Molayne: 91, Scald.

Hau was again a wall for this one, just push it to lvl 100, no need to complicate things. I tried both with Choce Spec and Metronome, and the whole thing is largely the same. Shoot down the Raichu, and if you want to be sure roll for damage-avoiding affliction against the Leafeon (or just have a different starter thus a different - and most importantly slower - eeveelution), continue with the Tauros, the Crabominable is like nothing, Incineroar is a joke, but the Noivern is still there, so if you just survived on 1 HP, you are in danger. Also nte that that this time, for whatever miraculous reason, Hau can use like 5 fullheals, so Metronome has a definite advantage here. But it's no clear, because you have a chance to have the Leafeon in range, and I think I was speedtied with it, so it's a big roll of dice here.

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This is a gimmick-pokemon, An interresting one, but to give it true justice, some future speedrunner has to do the post-game knowing the AI and stuff, because it's complicated.

Let's talk about moves: you'll need them. And without good stats, don't even try the run. The moves mostly come from leveling up, and a lot of them are just so cool, and not re-learneable, so you'll constantly hesitate to override anything.

At the beginning you'll start with Rollout, or even better Charge Beam. With Serene Grace that move 100% of the time buffs your special attack. That's great. For the same reason never ever remove Ancient Power - that's your ultimate buffcard, a true ace. You have trouble - start fishing for the omniboost.

Totem 3 is the Volcano trial, can be done at 28. Start by fishing for the omni-boost, and be sure to outspeed the totem. Then do Drill Run. That move is sooo useful (and on Island 3's beach relearnable).

Totem 4: 30, Olivia: 34, Nihilego 36, Totem Togedemaru 41/42. There use Yawn to pass the first turn where it casts Spikey Shield. Then Ancient Power for omniboost, Drill Run and Body Slam for damage.

Against Guzma 1 do a Rock Tomb. You won't really use physical rock moves with this one, with the exception of this. Usualy Body Slam is just way more profitable being STAB and the additional effect.

Totem Mimikyu is an interresting one as you don't really have a move against it, but with Choice Spec the Shadow Ball TM can solve all your problems somehow. Dunsparce while voulnerable and strange, somehow has a tiny bulk that allows you to tank some hits.

At Guzma 2 I used Protect and Ancient Power. I carry my shame.

At Nanu use Protect to block his Z-move. Aside that, that fight is not really threatening.

For Guzma 3 I was at lvl 57, and relied on omniboost to pass, then had to go out and grind to 61 to succeed against Lusamine. I don't really have advice there, I ended up using all kinds of moves in whatever order... Not random button-mashing, but it's just complicated, you understand.

Reached the Kommo-o lair at 66, but had to grind to 73, and to be honest I should have grinded more, to 75 to ensure this. Dragon Rush would have been used here, which I learnt ditching Yawn, which is a very good move, but is only against single targets (aka. totems), so not endgame material. Now as you can't get the Z-crystal until you beat this totem instead went and learnt Zen Headbutt, and used Z with that. There came a lot of swapping beach-moves, so have like 50 BP in your pocket to not get stuck.

Because I overrided Drill Run with Zen Headbutt, I decided to use Bulldoze against Dusk Mane Necrozma just in case we run into speed-issues.

UN was 2 turns, the first I survived from my HP. That went down at 76. now THAT was where I used Dragon Rush Z.

Against Mina yet again used Shadow Ball. I know that's weird, but it worked, so it was fine. The other parts of the gauntlet-trials are not easy, I could say complicated even, but you can manage it... Interresting fact is, I passed Totem Ribombee by using Ancient Power. I got one of those rare multi-omniboosts for the first try, so I ran with it.

Against Hapu Zen Headbutt served after an omniboost at lvl 78.

Reached The League at 79, with 19 candies, so grinded to 81 and entered. First did Acerola, so Zen Headbutt could be overwritten if needed. Aganst Kahili I tried my luck first with Body Slam, it worked, so I did not think more about that. The other two were obviously Drill Run, using an ether to refill the PP, than thinking about Hau I was really not sure how it will go, so I drank the elixir too to refill all my PPs.

Thought about starting with an omniboost, but the Raichu is very-very fast, and has a fighting-type move, so it was just not worth it. I mean with that effort I could have just fish for an avoid damage affliction, pfff. Then I seeked out the order things coming at me, and checked how much damage I'm doing against them with different moves... And by consuming a candy each try I started to worry, because of the speed, and the damage taken, damage delt... It seemed I wouldn't even gain anything by learning Return!

Finaly reached lvl 100, so it was either now or never. The idea was to Drill Run the Raichu, the Tauros, then the Incineroar (bare minimum preventing it from trying its Z-move), then have enough HP to survive the Leafeon (the Crabominable was not really a problem), and finaly the Noivern. And I did it. And I asked no further questions.

So this little thing is interresting to play, and somewhat more powerful than you would imagine, and King's Rock don't really help (actualy Leftover is a good item to have on it until the end of midgame outside the trial-battles), but it's more of professional youtuber material, who have patience to try the same battle a million times, and probably have bigger brain to do the setup-moves and stuff for the postgame. For me, it sounds like a headache trying. But feel free to do yourself, I'm not stopping you.

Btw, this was one of the original pokemons I considered running, maybe, but it looked too slow and gimmicky to try. Turned out I used it in the end. It was fine to do the stuff up to this point. I recommend it if you are looking for an interresting challenge.

I'm not sure why I did not ditch this one, but it did worth it.

So made myself a new savefile for like the half a dozen next plathroughs, catched myself one Dewpider in Brooklet Hill (totem 2 area), and started the run after EV-training.

Sure, this thing is not the fastest (42 base speed), but it is tanky to the point it is worth using Leftover sometimes (not against the challange-points, but overall).

The hardest part of this is the movepool, which is practicaly nonexistent, and any good move it can have is learnt by levelups: Crunch, bug-moves, water-moves - ending with Liquidation, the only physical water move accessible. Given this pokemon has way higher physical attack than special... But even until that its ability pushes the special water-moves to the point they can easily compete with the phyiscal ones, and if you get rain on Island 3, that's just amusing.

Totem 3 (the Volcano trial, fire trial) was done at lvl 25, and for either the tankiness, or just for sheer luck I did not have to grind at all until Ultra Necrozma.

At totem 4 start with Aqua Ring (that move is practicaly useless outside of this moment) so the Kecleon is summoned and not the Comfy, which provides a defensive boost to the Lurantis, what is not good, because eventualy it'll just outheal your damage.

Plumeria was not that weak this time, but not very strong either, so duh.

Against Olivia use Bubble Beam and Leech Life. I hesitated which bug-move to use all the time, but you can re-buy Bug Bite at the beach, and you get Leech Life from TM. X-scizor is not good, it's only advantage would be the more PP, and that's not a real factor here. On the other hand Lunge is bloody worth it, do not give it up.

On the other hand Mirror Coat is not required at all, so as you always need your 4th slot to swap in and out TMs, forget that.

Against Totem Togedemaru (lvl 41) start with Aqua Ring (you can delete it after this one), then Bubble Beam and Crunch yourself out of the fight. Bug Bite is also adviseable to steal the totem's Sitrus Berry.

Guzma is a big nuisance, because you'll definitely need Protect against it, and you have no supereffective option against it, and your bulkyness definitely has its limits. So you'll either need to overlevel a lot, or hope for afflictions (those for some strange reason consistently showed up during this playthrough).

A sidenote: Araquanid's backsprite is good. From the front it is just a bubble with legs, but from the back it has all kinds of details, so it rocks. Metaphoricaly. Has no rock-moves.

As you have a strong water-move which is boosted further by your ability, you won't have problem for the majority of the playthrough. On the margin of this though: seems the Water Z is NOT boosted by your ability for whatever reason, so you might as well skip that option, because the moves normaly do as much as a Z-move, so metronome (or whatever else) in that case is just better.

On the Aether Paradise (2nd visit) I finaly got Liquidation (if you don't get it via levelup the only access is at the Battle Tree, meaning you won't get it even for the postgame, being locked behind one of the highest level challenges).

I won at lvl 58 against Lusamine using Lunge, and some affliction. It's not even neutral aganst everything, so if you decide to seriously overlevel her, you can just use Return instead, but I found this more exciting.

Totem Kommo-o is the first real problem where you have to grind, I did from 65 to 71, and still had to have affliction to support me. As said affliction came into play regularly in this one, but there was a point it no longer saved me, just wait and see.

Against Ultra Necrozma used my water move, that giving me the best damage, and though I could survive 1 turn from bulk, damage was lacking, so needed 3 turn, aka. 2 affliction at lvl 72. I got that fast, but it's far from ideal, you should definitely grind some more to make it a 2-turn encounter.

After that it was more Liquidation (and a Lunge against Mallow). this even worked against Gladion 3, IF I got an affliction to avoid the damage from the Crobat.

At the door of The League I forgot to eat for candies, so grinded from 75 to 84 (had 16 candies), but it didn't really influence the final outcome.

Lvl 84 was more than enough for the Elite 4: against 3 of them used Liquidation, 1 time used Crunch. But then came Hau, and that hurt.

It barely mattered what I used aganst Hau, just hit big, so I used another PP-refiller afetr the first two. The problem was, the Raichu, the Noivern and the Tauros outsped, and the Leafeon coming last could easily finish me off with priority-move. So I just needed more HP. Thus I started to munch candies. I had to crawl up to 91, trying after each one, for the game to let me win.

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Postgame... On one hand I'm not really interrested, but maybe this one deserves it.
the postgame... is mostly a bunch of Liquidation. The Z-boss is easy to be honest, and against Faba you have poison Jab and Crunch. Now Archie. Archie is hard, so max out your level and stats before even trying. Combine Liquidation and Lunge. And possibly set up a Reflect? That might help against Hau too. Against the RR-bosses it's either Liquidation, or Liquidation plus Lunge. It works, trust me. And Giovanni is actualy doable without affliction, because the MU2X uses Stone Edge, which has a good chance to miss!

Now Red and Blue. Don't even attempt Red. The Raichu outspeeds with supereffective move, so you simply has no chance there. On the other hand Blue... Well, he isn't a cakewalk either, but as you can see, I've done it.

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Mars was also not easy. Had to grind to 23 to oneshot the zubat so it does not Toxic me, and that level was also enough that though the Purugly still outsped me with supereffective damage, twoshot the kitty.

Gym 2 was expectedly easy with Flying HP (lvl 29).

Jupiter is slower, but that skunktank is a tank - not just can stand hits, but deal them too. At lvl 32 it is range-dependent, 1 more level would push the odds to your favour.

Gym 3 (the ghost gym) is such a trolling-gym of this generation. Will-o-wisp, Confuse-ray, Curse...

She sends her ace, the Mismagius second, so your first t6ask is to outspeed that. The second would be to oneshot the duskull at the start, but I only had it in range at 42+, but I got lucky 'cause the MM shot a Confuse Ray at me in the first turn, and I got lucky to punch through it - this only happens like 10% of the time, 90% of the time you hit yourself in confusion. Then it got into a healing-loop, only hitting me with 1 Shadow Ball. The Haunter was onshot fortunately.

At 47 and access to Metronome washed over gym 4, the fighting gym. Seriously, a single set of Hidden Power PPs was enough to beat everyone inside.

Gym 5, the water gym was a bit more interresting, which has strong pokemons, and a quite long puzzle to reach the boss. Had to grind to 54 to pass it. The problem was, the Buizel is faster, so it was either me outspeeding it gaining 2 turns, or getting enough damage to oneshot it. See, that and the Gyarados both have Crunch, and that hurts. I got a critical on the Buizel by the way, so you might need more grinding than me. (PS: there is a code for Rare Candies. I used that code, and poof, all my medicines are gone now. Also can not pick up any new item that goes into the medicine pocket (they just disappear from the game). The only solution was to use the All Item code, and that gave literaly every item in the game, what is not good, but that's just how it is I assume. I do not have eg. the SuperRod though, nor any badge I've not aquired, so while the situation is not optimal, not everything is lost. If You need a rare Candy, try this fan-made code instead.)

On Route 210 there is a Probopass, and that's hugh and annyoingly paralyzes and flinches you. Save before encountering it.

The 6th, Steely-gím was hard. I guess you noticed my level.

The 7th, Ice gym at lvl 81-82 with neutral damage is smooth sailing. So even if it'd turn up I screwed up picking the Hidden Power type, until this point (unless maybe if you are Ice-type), it is definitely doable. Not with a team, but a single Unown.

Cyrus in the GHQ went down at 83 for me. I got speed EV from 12 pokemon which each gave me 2*3 Speed EVs. Maxed the the SAtk EVs, the rest went into HP EVs.
Now he in the Distortion World is a bit more interresting. Choice Spec is a better item here than Metronome, otherwise you have to fish for a Will-O-Wisp miss and more. At lvl 85 seemed the Weavile (nasty thing with all kinds of supereffective moves) started the battle again, but turned out in the 2nd turn we are actualy speed-tied, because at that time I won the lottery. But then the Crobat Toxiced me, so my hopes fell hard. And eventualy died, when he used a Full Restore on the Gyarados. But then I still had 3 HP left in the next turn!

The 8th, final, electric gym is bonkers. I wanned to write these pokemons aside the Magnetons, which caused me problems in the Steel gym back then, are not very buff, so every type of Unown should have a good chance here, but the Leader is actualy nasty.
1 - Jolteon shoots Thunder Wave which paralyzes you, and onehitting it is a bit much to ask. So I advise here to fish for a crit against it.
2 - Raichu will use Signal Beam which has "10% chance to confuse the target". Yeah. "Ten percent". Whatever, twoshot this, and hope that it won't crit, and even if you get confused you shoot through the confusion, because Unown doesn't really have HP to tank hits. And I have a nice amount from EV to tank with.
3 - Luxray uses Crunch, which is yet again supereffetctive. At least it doesn't have a status condition to apply.
4 - Electivire has a Sitrus Berry or what, making it a 3-shot, what is not ideal. And uses Thunder Punch to paralyze you. And has a Full Restore.
But against all odds, turned out with my EV-set (Timid nature) 93 IS the bare minimum level to beat this. Well, I assume if I'd never got the paralyze from the Electivire I could have passed lower, but I got a crit against the Jolteon, and did not get confused by the Raichu, AND I hit through the paralysis, so realisticly speaking yes, this was the best I could claim victory.

Whoever the rival is in this - the game automaticaly named him Diamond for me, I thought he is Barry -, at the gate of The League, at lvl 95, I won without taking a single hit. Of course that I got 2 criticals during this fight might have helped for that, either way the point is, he wasn't much of an obstacle.

Bertha is hard. I pumped up to lvl 100 because there remained no reason not to at this point.
The Whiscash is oneshot, the hippo is oneshot to, but brings Sandstorm what is taking away 102 HP even at best case scenario (a 6-turn fight). The Rhyperior is a hugh problem, because I think it rolls to check wether its move will connect, so if it shoots the super-effective Mega Horn, it'll always connect, and if it would not connect, THEN it casts Avalanche.
Then comes the Golem which isn't THAT bad, but is definitely at least 2 turns. And because of ranges can turn out to be 3-turn. And uses Thunder-punch to potentialy paralyze you, or Fire-punch to potentialy burn you.
So I figured out how to speed up the gameplay, unfortunatly only *4 speed is available, and now fishing for a fight where the Rhyperion casts avalanche, and I get a critical in the 2nd turn against it.
The Golem seems fix 3 turn unfortunately, and easily gets a Full Restore dang it, but if I could pass it, the battle would be won.
Uhm... so Mega Horn actualy can miss, and it has a 3rd rock-type move which is just as bad a Mega Horn. So what I need is it etiher miss with Mega Horn and then cast Avalanche, or miss with MM and I crit, or it cast Avalanche and I crit. Also possible to get the crit in the 1st turn. This'll bring me through with 150-175 HP to the Golem. Against THAT I need a 2nd turn crit. As far as I can see, that's my only chance.
In the end what I got is a miss from Mega Horn, and a crit on the Rhyperior, gaining me 2 turns of no damage.

If we get past the above, the fire-elite is easy, even if you get burnt the first turn.

The psychic, final elite is also no match to us.

Cynthia:
1 - Spiritomb: range
2 - Lucario: range
3 - Garchomp: two-shot, Dragon Rush damages ca 100 HP
4 - Milotic: 2-shot. If it casts Mirror Coat, that's Game Over. Surf hurts ca. 80 HP.
5 - Roserade: oneshot
6 - Togekiss: 2-shot. Let's hope this one don't crit either.

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Choice Spec rules in this game, a definite improvement compared to Metronome, unlike in the Ultra-games.

Fortunately max-IV (dark type 70 dmg) Unown is just working here with Modest nature.

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Of course I first tried to just change the starter, which immediately had red flags delaing Psychic damage, so needed a swap, and that's when I discovered there is Action Replay code for setting the IVs to max.

That worked fine, until reached Norman and his Slaking with Counter. Alraedy had the usual problem att he electric gym, but getting oneshotted wasn't funny, so I knew it was time for another swap, because my nature was Lax, and that's not optimal so to say. Also discovered the Macho Brace, so it was not just about nature, but also EV-training.

With all that tried Norman the same level as before (45), and as that time the gorilla only used Facade, easily passe with a 3-turn victory outspeeding the ape.

Some people were worried about Archie and Maxie (the Aqua/Magma leaders), but you easily outlevel them, so no worry there. The real problem is Sidney, who not just resist your moves/have enough buff that each of its pokemon be 2-hit, but also does evasion tactics, confusion, Torment and Leech Seed. That's super annoying, everything falls back to Real Life Luck.

With only 1 move using PPUps was super obvious, and the Elixirs are aplenty for that. So even if you encounter something stalling you (like the champion's Milotic with Recover and all the healing poitions in the world) your PP is enough. On the other hand don ot even dream about beating Steven in the postgame. That just won't happen.

So, I mixed up the T-rex pokemon and the Godzilla-pokemon, thus only fair if I did this run.

And as it is a pseudo-legendary when I've seen I have a Pupitar in one of my savefiles, I made the run with it, despite being a random pokemon with speed-hindering nature on top of it. Because it is a pseudo-legendary. What of course doesn't mean it faces no problems.

I had the Pupitar on my party while training up the previous two pokemons I made playthrough with, so went in to Totem Togedemaru at 44, and buldozed it to the ground, and Guzma wasn't a problem either (have Protect though), but then we got to Totem Mimikyu, and I did not check the shops, so had to train to 54 and used Earthquake to pass the test. Maybe Shadow Claw could have helped, maybe not.

Lusamine was the point I did have to check the shops, because despite all my stats, Return did kinda nothing. So I bought Aerial Ace and put it on metronome, and passed at 65 (grinded from 60). My guess here the AI is choosing moves at random, as the Beware again could have just off me, but did not.

Then Totem Kommo-o posed a problem, had to grind from 69 to 73, so finaly Aerial Ace Z put it down, with support from the Sandstorm conjured by the ability. Scary how many pokemon simply do not have more than 1 ability.

DMN: Crunch Z

UN: Crunch Z, and had enough bulk to tank one hit. On the sidenote if your pokemon can have Sturdy, you should play with the tought. Funny thing was, Probopass did not need that here, but elsewhere it was life-saver - and its other ability was even more useless, that was the only thing I had it running!

Mina: earthquake

Ilima: crunch (you won't believe how long it too me realising dark is STAB now)

Mallow: aerial ace

Kiawe and the Hiker: earthquake (and of course have crunch, or rock slide or something just in case Curse Body activates, and there is the bird... I think such stuff is obvious, you will have something at you anyway with the 4 moveslots)

Sophocles: earthquake

Totem Ribombee: Rock Slide Z at lvl 74

Hapu: crunch

Gladion 3: rock slide -> Brick Break. Rock Polish is advisable.

Went in to The League at 76 with 17 candies, and no intention for the POSTGAME. It is a physical pseudo-legendary with Earthquake, Return, and more. Obviously it could. Even if the speed would be an issue, that's my fault not picking a damage-boosting or speed-boosting nature So why bother, we could learn absolutely nothing from it. Now back to The League:

Kahili: Rock Slide

Acerola: Crunch

Olivia: Earthquake

Molayne: Earthquake (an elixir refilled to PP)

Hau: now Hau "of course" had all kinds of super-effective move against not-godzilla, so I had to start consuming candies. The Raichu outsped and shot Focus Blast, the Tauros outsped and hit with Earthquake (and was 2 hit anyway), and the Primarina was 2-shot too. Crabominable and Flareon was meh, the Noivern did some minor damage - but that still could terminate the run.

So I started to try the run after each candy, hoping for the necessary afflictions, or just turning the tide by incrising the stats. At lvl 87 got 1-1 affliction against Tauros and Primarina, and the rest could not stop me (obviously), so that was the end of this.

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This is an important run, because we've reached a limit. The limit under which pokemons will have to rely on affliction.

Sure, everything falls back to movesets in the end, but the stats reached the limits considering power of moves, bulk, damage-ranges, speed...

I consider myself bloody lucky choosing this nature to fall on, boosting damage instead of speed. From the previous playthroughs I knew the speed of a pokemon with base speed 40 should be enough. And it was. Actualy, 35 could work the same. But under that...

But let's start it the beginning.

Evolving is only possible after Totem Togedemaru, so I was leveling up, and sometimes remembering I wanna shimmy this up to max affliction, just to be sure. I got there at 42 (the answer to the universe, life and everything), and Earth Power easily delt with the hedgehog.

The other important move was Power Gem. That thing has high damage (especialy considering Ancient Power's 50), and ton of PP. And hits 100% of the time. A bit overpowered, I'd say, but not complaining.

Totem Mimikyu was Power Gem on Choice Spec - an item this pokemon fell back most of the times.

I did not like Gladion, or any dual-battles in which I had to fall back to Discharge, that's just a nasty move, but Volt Switch has its own problems, so what can one do until island 4 and machop shove to get Thunderbolt, right?

Now Nanu was the first real problem, grinded from 52 to 58, and still only won because the Krokorok for some unfathomable reason decided it'll Swagger me instead of Earthquake. Oh, how I hate when that move is supereffective against me!

At Lusamine I used Tri Attack, a kinda useless move in this run, although until I just HAD TO switch it off, it surved well. No grinding, at 62 it was a first try victory, but only because I got 2 affliction, and the Beware for Azatoth's command tried to use Zen Headbutt against me. Well, I took my victory and ran away before somebody start asking questions.

Passed Kommo-o at 71, I so "love" when you have the super-effective move, but no Z-crystal. So I used Choice Spec.

DMN: earth power, choice spec

UN: dazzling gleam, choice spec, still at lvl 71, because this thing simply couldn't harm me in any meaningful way.

Then it was a series of Earth Power and Power Gem, until reached Hapu's grand trial at lvl 73, and my nose got bashed so hard it bled. Hard. The only move I could fall back, which was not resisted, was Dazzling Gleam (I'd've welcomed it when going against Lusamine by the way). Probopass simply does not have anything else here, and you should be happy with the neutral damage. And that is a problem. I always considered Hapu a good final trial-master with pretty bulky pokemons, but this was a bit much. Passed at 89, and only because I critted the first two pokemon of the dw.... magical forest creature. And that was with 232 special attack on choice spec.

Gladion 3 after this with thunderbolt was a laughingstock, but our trials did not end yet.

The League you can do in like any order you wish, though Molayne is always the hardest. Entered at lvl 90, at Molayne was 91, if that matters. I only had to use Power Gem (has 20 PP, so that's fine) and Earth Power (needs an Elixir to refill PP). I brought in Magnet Rise, but it was not needed - or simply was no time to apply it.

See, Hau was the final frontier here, and if he was that hard, the postgame would totaly just falling back on affliction, and I just don't care that much about Mr. Corn Moustache. It started with Raichu, which started with the supereffective Focus Blast. So activating Magnet Rise was out of question. Next, just to mess with me, came Tauros. That thing has BULK, not to mention can deal damage. It's Earthquake did ca. the same as Raichu, if affliction did not activate of course. And though I did pass first try at 92, I loaded back, and rolled to not get any affliction, at least until the Primarina, as the second half I could oneshot all. The Noivern did some negligeable damage, still counts, but I had enough bulk to tank that damage too, though I had like 30 HP left top. So outspeeding the first three just didn't really happen, thus my only option was to oneshot the Primarina. I sped the game to 10 times speed, and started shooting to a roll where I did no crit, and still could oneshot the seel. Because I wanned to know, if it is within the range, or out of it. After like 20 tries, I finaly got the oneshot, so yes, it IS possible, though barely, to solo with Probopass, no affliction. But this was at level 100, the bulk was at its limit, the damage was just range, and the speed just did not help more (had maximum IV, but obviously you can see it on the attached picture, as well can put the lvl 100 stats into the calculator).

So this is it. It was quit enjoyable, but this is a treshold. There are more pokemons coming, but yeah, we got to some goal.

https://preview.redd.it/uwbhfky5rlvd1.jpg?width=2244&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=61e4815a41cd1cf36f086abeaf7541faf1c616ef

I'm slowly working my way towards Bastiodon, this is the next step towards that goal.

First grinded to evolve, because yes, I can still use my savefile at Totem Togedemaru. Then I went in, used Echoed Voice to shoot things down, and when the Skarmory hit me with Taunt switched to Psychic and Charge Beam.

Against Guzma you definitely need Protect, on the other hand you have an electric move, even if not the best, it works.

Totem Mimikyu as always a nuisance, but Psychic with Choice Spec at lvl 54 was fine, assuming the Banette did not Curse me.

Plumeria is again negligeable, Gladion is a bit annoying, but Nanu is finaly a bit interresting: Signal Beam works best at him, pretty much a one-time move for this run, and Protect mitigates the Z-move's damage so you don't have to grind like 2 more levels from 67. That's still 10 level of grinding from the Gladion-fight (57).

Against Lusamine Psychic on metronome works again, no biggy, especialy that I had nature-boosted damage. And was STAB.

Totem Kommo-o: Psychic Z

DMN: Shadow Ball Z

UN: Shadow Ball Z at lvl 72, and I both had the bulk AND the damage to knock it down full legit

The gauntlet-trial is pretty much Shadow Ball and Psychic, the interresting part is Totem Rimbombee, where sure, Psychic Z is nothing new, but Steel Wing, a physical move works wonders on the Blissey. Hapu is Energy Ball.

Gladion 3 was again a big wall, because his pokemons are fast (actualy faster than the pokemons of The League!), and that Dark Z is just too much, plus the chip-damage, and the Sucker Punches... Passed at 86, 11 more levels after Hapu.

Let's talk a bit on moves that worth holding to. Recover is something you will like, but Calm Mind is simply not needed, and you get it as TM later too. So you have 2-3 moveslots to work with, and I regularly swapped in-and-out moves. Would have been easier if I would have known I could remove Calm Mind. Then when you go in The League, I suggest bringing in Signal Beam. You don't absolutely need it, but it makes life much easier, despite at this point I was using candies obviously.

Went from right to left as usual: Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball. Real shame is, Mirror Coat is not a priority-move, so it is useless thinking using that against the Klefki. Passed Molayne at 88 at the price of 1 affliction (beside removing the paralyzis).

Against Hau I won at 91, though that jump is mostly thanks to I was inevstigating empiricaly wether I can shoot down the Tauros, and did not try Signal Beam, because that's one less charge on metronome. Turned out that was unnecessary, and despite not really outspeeding like anything, you have the bulk to stand the damage (you outspeed Primarina, Flareon and Crabominable with my speed).

POSTGAME:

I'm not interrested. The design does not touch me, the stats are very similar to Palossand, there's no mechanical gimmick, so I'm just moving on to the next playthrough.

https://preview.redd.it/wyh3rdcq2evd1.jpg?width=2388&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ce7ee6400ee265b68e410237184a3d32820a1622

This was very similar to Gastrodon, meaning similar speed, similar bulk. A bit more weaknesses, and a more diverse movepool. Also both had access to healing moves. This time I got better IVs and a boosting nature, so healing was less necessary, but the main lesson of this run was teaching me about bulk. Bulk is good, can compensate for some of the speed lost. To be honest, most of the speed lost.

Now I came out of training pretty late, because I wanned Earth Power to fight Totem Togedemaru. And, you know, you must grind sooner or later anyway. Used Iron Defense, Earth Power and Shadow Ball there.

Most of the stuff was delt with Shadow Ball. It is pretty much as effective as Dark-type damage, plus it deals at least neutral damage, and this time it is STAB, so it was pretty all-around move.

At Nanu Giga Drain took over, but at lvl 57 I still needed more speed. I mean would need, as I jjust passed with affliction. Those bloody Z-moves really teaches you, Do Not Neglect Speed.

As a sidenote I mention that after the Aether Island the Choice Spec will become very useful alternative to Metronome, many times preferable over that.

Totem Kommo-o went dow to Psychic Z.

DMN: Shadow Ball Z.

UN: Shadow Ball Z at 73, at which level I easily (49 HP left) tanked a hit. Bulk is good.

Then came the gauntlet-trials, where earth Power and Sludge Bomb dominated. Hapu though was Psychic.

Against Gladion I started to grind for levels, but at 80 it got very sluggish, so looked through my backpack, and realised i have Rock Polish, and form that it became easy-peasy. I wrote up my speed this time, it was 140, and that was not at all enough, worst enemy being the Zoroark, which either did Dark Z, or Grass Knot, both super-effective, so you definitely need to ouspeed there.

Anyway, started The League with 17 candies, went right to left: SLudge Bomb, Shadow Ball, Shadow Ball (I was going to preserve PP, and this just worked first try), Earth Power.

Hau was no biggy, given I had Sludge Bomb, a powerful poison move, and my starter was the owl, so he had Primarina and fire-eevee.

POSTGAME:

I thought I'll try my luck with this one, just to see how it goes. It is clearly a special attacker, I won't try to respec to physical build, just see in this form how it goes. It's kinda good all in all until now after all.

And I was right. Went against the Z-Boss for first as he is as usual the weakest. Earth Power the Carbink, then Shadow Ball.

RR: Archie: Shadow Ball. Maxie: Shadow Ball. Lysandre: Sludge Bomb. Cyrus: earth power*2, poison sludge, psyíchic, earth power. - and an affliction was needed at 94, so there was space for improvement. Ghetsis: Earth Power, except against Hydrei... which was Sludge Bomb. again, an affliction was needed, but there was still room for leveling up. I forgot to heal, but shrugged and tried anyway. The Dugtrio did Sandstorm what is good, outsped the majority of his team, then got the affliction against MU2X. Earth Power for the win!

Red / Blue: went for Red, just to figure it out wether it is possible, after all he is stronger, but possibly smoother. At lvl 100 (no hyper training!) Sludge Bomb on metronome took him out. Now THIS felt satisfying.

https://preview.redd.it/eeblgtco40vd1.jpg?width=2364&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b21d49a913da632d9dfc6d67ca4efc7d43db863d

So, I thought, it's time to make some of The Slow Ones. I made the save during the Electabuzz-run, so I could go for SOS-chain. Because if it is slow, it better have stats. On this sidenote, WHEN one summons an ally IMMEDIATELY knock it down, and continue the chain with the new one. I tested it, and 1 ally per mon is what you get here. Considering Relicanth, we must consider ourselves lucky.

Anyway, I got one with neutral nature which Speed was only like 10 IV, but I thought this is a perfect pokemon to check out how a Slow One works. It has decent bulk just be looking at it, and practicaly no weaknesses (the only grass-type move that threatened me was Tsarena's Z-move during the gauntlet-trial), PLUS it has Recover, what is seriously good.

The HUGH problem here is, that like Electrabuzz, it practicaly has no ove-variety. It has 2 water-moves (Muddy Water and Scald), 2 ice-move (Blizzard and Ice Beam), 1 poison move (at this point you don't have to worry about double-battles, so, you know), and that's pretty much it, at least until you reach The League, where you can get Mud Bomb from the Move-reminder (which I did not use in the end).

Went against the Team Skull-line at lvl 50, but in the end you have to do serious grinding to have a chance against Totem Kommo-o. There I went at lvl 67 with Blizzard. Not the most accurate move, but you only have to use like 2 times.

DMN: Muddy Water Z, 67

UN: Bliizard choice spec, survived 1 turn naturaly, 1 on affliction

I pretty much left on Choice Spec for the gauntlet-run. Mina: muddy water. Ilima: I used sludge wave at 68, but muddy water (or scald) would probably be better (higher damage results in less hits to take). Mallow was an important lesson, as it turned out, Tsareena has a Z-move, and grass is devastating, so had to use an affliction here, plus Blizzard was the move to use (Ice Beam is only on Victory Road unfortunately). Kiawe and the Hiker: muddy water. Sophocles: mw. Totem Ribombee: Sludge Wave Z, and Scald finishes the rest (that burn is super-helpful against the Blissey). Finaly Hapu: scald.

Gladion 3 was Blizzard start, then Scald. The starter on this save-file was Decidueye. I know, most fair would have been Primarina, but I shrugged that off for now.

The League went from right to left, its 2 ice beam metronome and 2 scald metronome. Nothing really effects you from their side. Hau was not too bad, used Sludge Wave and Recover. Without the healing that would be candies or affliction.

POSTGAME:

Not interrested. The naked snail design doesn't really catch me, and I dleiberately left in the low speed IV, not even rolling for a damage-boosting nature. And just by the look of it, maybe at times I'd re-draw the EVs to physical build to use Return... After all there's only 9 base point difference in ATK and SAtk, so it'd definitely wouldn't be farfetch'd, but I lack the patient to even try. Theoreticaly it has the moves to succeed, unless of course Faba stands in the way, what is not at all impossible.

https://preview.redd.it/mxzzreaugpud1.jpg?width=2380&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=454f99c9050deffc0a4d9b5efdaf8f9150ecd16e

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So, Electabuzz. I wanned to do a trade-evolution line without the trade-evolution, and after a lot of consideration my choice fell on Electabuzz.

It is a horrible pokemon by the look of its movepool, though its stats are at least good, definitely compared to what I'm used to here.

This thing literaly barely have any move at all: a couple of electric type moves (thunderbolt and discharge are keepers), Round (pathetic, but necessary against Krokorocs - eg. Nanu has one), Psychic (this one is good), and it gets Focus Blast on Island 4.

Technicaly it also has access to Magnet Rise and Signal Beam, but I did not need those. And obviously yes, I went with the special build. That's always easier.

Because of the nonexistent movepool I grinded to lvl 49 against Togedemaru - turned out this wasn't stricktly necessary, as they neither had moves to hurt me much. On the other hand, sooner or later you just have to grind.

Against Guzma you need Protect, but otherwise goes down easy to Thunderbolt, like most opponents.

Lusamine was done at lvl 61 with Psychic metronome. No, this playthrough wasn't all just metronome, Wise Glasses were used for grinding purposes, Choice Spec and Z-moves for various opponents.

Like Totem Kommo-o (lvl 66) was Psychiz Z, then Discharge.

DMN: Focus Blast Z

UN: now this was troublesome, barely done any damage to it for some reason. Grinded to 76, at which point I could naturaly tank a hit, hit it with Thunder Wave to rise my chances, and also there is the affliction-system, so now I could roll for a battle which I could pass. It was still awful, but I'm not grinding 10 more levels to make it somewhat more sustainable!

The gauntlet-trial went smooth, Totem Ribombee was a Thunder Z at 77. No, not Thunderbolt, but Thunder. The extra damage was needed.

At Hapu I passed with Psychic metronome, but I have a strong hunch choice spec would work even better (the Golurk uses Earthquake, so shooting it down before it acts would be nice).

Within The League went from right to left with metronome: Thunderbolt, Psychic, Thunderbolt, Focus Blast + Thunderbolt. I did use a MaxPP on Focus Blast, but urned out it was unnecessary: the Magnezone came last, and is twoshot because being sturdy, so you really don't have to if you don't want to.

POSTGAME:

I'm simply not interrested. I guess it would have problem in RR for lacking move-variety, what maybe could be solved by rebuilding EVas to a physical build or something, which I can not bother, especialy that this isn't even a fully evolved pokemon. So I'm fine with quitting at this point.

https://preview.redd.it/t41210enwiud1.jpg?width=2378&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9bdef3199d7f4d62ecda0ac356fbe3bb69476f15

This one reached way above my expectation.

Turns out ice is a lategame element in this one - still does not make ok Sneazel only being on Victory Road, khm.

I also rolled bloody high on the IVs at the start, so that didn't hinder either.

This time I did not forget the day-requirement for evolution, it was just not in sync with me leveling up, so ended up with 46 going against Togedemaru. Aurorus don't have a good move against it, so a bit of "overleveling" didn't hurt. Thought about learning Encore, but of course this time the thingy does not use Spiky Shield, grrr.

Against Guzma you don't even need Protect this time, so he and Plumeria are very forgetable for the run.

By the way, all the ice-moves promise you stuff, but don't fall for it. Freeze-dry is a magnificient move, Forst Breath is also a good thing, but Ice Beam barely offers much, and Blizzard is just too inaccurate. More on this whole situation as we go along, because there will be exceptions.

Lusamine was done on 60, but that whole fight depends on the Lilligant using Teeter Dance (confusion) instead of Petal Dance (damage).

Totem Kommo-o: psychic Z, Dusk Mane Necrozma: thunder on metronome and hope it does not use THAT move. Ultra Necrozma: Blizzard choice spec after surviving on afflction. I used choice spec a lot.

For the gauntlet-trial it's mostly ice-moves, sometimes Ancient Power, sometimes Flash Cannon. Sophocles IS THE problem, grinded from 67 to 72 there, used Frost Breath on metronome, but still had to have 1 afflction against the Magnezone.

Now we are at Gladion 3, and that's where I had to grind from 73 to 76 to have Lucario in range of - Blizzard metronome. Yes, we do Red's trick from gen 2: in Hail, what is the natural weather there, Blizzard is 100% accurate.

Entered The League with 18 candies, and the place is easy-peasy until you reach Molayne, against whom you simply have nothing. Let me explain. So in the other 3 roomes used Freeze-Dry and Flash Cannon. That's good. At Molayne you don't have the move-variety to rely on super-effectiveness, so you have to use a water-move. The only water-move you can learn is a tutor-move: Water Pulse. That's not very strong, and is only doing neutral damage. So had to candy up to 95, AND rely on 2 afflction (one to get rid of the paralyzis so nothing new there, the other to not die on the Magnezone). Note: just in case you might also want to bring in Magnet Rise.

Hau on the other hand was the usual PPMax Ancient Power metronome.

POSTGAME:

Z-Boss: Magnet Rise is probably not the worst idea here, then Flash Cannon the Carbink, and Ancient Power the rest.

For RR: Ice Beam, Thunderbolt, Ancient Power are the key moves, and you can add Psychic at Lysandre to start the fight, Flash Cannon against Xerneas, Ice Beam against the dragons, whatever you can come up with against the Bisharp, and that's pretty much it. Against Giovanni you can NOT win without afflcition, but that's nothing new. Do the Hyper Training anyway, then Ice Beam yourself to MU2. Roll the fight, so the Dugtrio summons Sandstorm not Earthquake - or not, it doesn't effect that against MU2's drain Punch you can only survive on affliction, so who even cares, right?

Now Red or Blue - I chose Blue, because from Omastar I had a possible strategy. Turned out the order of the mons were different this time, meaning the Arcanine came last, so it was 5 times Ice Beam - then another ice beam. I saved at that point just to check if Ancient Power will be needed to try or something, but Ice Beam knocked it down, so that was a clear win at least.

https://preview.redd.it/fizmn4o8h5ud1.jpg?width=2380&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b48d23ecf079ef1b6bd6697d2ad4b99e4b80fd8e

Yeah, this was fast. Deal with it.

This beast is a beast. I got surprised. Point for the T-rex pokemon.

So I went against Totem Togedemaru at 42, because I forgot the day-requirement for the evil-ution. Had to stand around for like 2 hours in *10 speed, then had to restart it because the whole thing crashed. Started with Spikes, just for the fun of it, but it was not at all necessary, could have preserved Rock Slide, but then again, that too had no consequences, so whatever, right?

See, that's the thing with Tyranitar: it gets crazy moves early, like Dragon Claw and especialy Earthquake which TM is postgame by the way, so eventualy your moveslots fill up, and you have to make a decision. Oh well. I "suggest" to preserve Earthquake, Crunch and Dragon Claw, but what do I know, right?

Anyway, your 4th moveslot will rotate between Iron Head, a rock-move, Zen Headbutt, and Return. Just go with the flow.

There were a couple of times I just went with the affliction, because that was easier than not to do so. Like Nanu at lvl 56 was Dragon Claw + Brick Break, and an affliction. Give it 2-3 more levels and it'd happen naturaly, but yeah. Who likes grinding.

Lusamine is one hell of an opponent, everything is hugh, and has a supereffective move just against you, so when I passed at 65 (after a failure at 60 this was like first try), I just did not ask questhuns, because 5 more level of grinding was in the deck.

Mina is hard, you don't need an affliction at lvl 71 with Earthquake and Iron Tail, but that's not the most accurate move. Oh, by the way, I had good IV on Speed and ATK, but everything else was negligable (around 5).

Hapu: Dragon Claw metronome works, but at lvl 72 I needed an affliction. To pass w/o it, you'd need 5 more levels. I'm just eyeballing it of course.

DMN: lvl 70, Crunch Z.

UN: lvl 70, Dragon Claw Z after surviving on affliction.

Entered The League with 19 candies, started with Olivia, because then I could just get rid of Iron Head, a move specificaly brought in just for her. Next went against the ghosts, easy-peasy. Molayne started at 81, finished at 82, earth quake dominated. Finaly swapped in Rock Slide and delt with the birds.

Hau was again almost negligeable, though had to consume 1 candy to have the necessary stats to Dragon Claw metronome the bunch (lvl 83).

POSTGAME:

This is where the problems came, realising I can't do Z-Boss, and definitely not R / B right nao, so went to do RR, but even Archie was a wall, so had to candy to 89. Archie: dragon claw. Maxie: dragon claw. Lysandre: return (because of Xerneas), and 1 affliction on lvl 90. Cyrus: 91, dragon claw, and 1 affliction - needed like just 1 more level to have Dialga in range. Ghetsis: more dragon claw, and an earthquake against the Bisharp.

Was still at lvl 91 only at this point, Giovanni proved to be the Final Frontier. I tried him and Red in that order after every candy, and 94 was the point an affliction won me the battle. The problem was, the Dugtrio outsped (usualy not a problem, it casts Sandstorm most of the time, or spikes), the Rhyperior was 2-shot, and MU2 again outsped, and I just did not have the bulk to survive 2 Earthquake. This is why Hyper Training is BS, it should be available after beating The League the very least. Whatever, went against Red, and the Pikachu didn't curse me with paralysis in any way and nothing detrimental happened at all, so won at the same level with dragon claw metronome. So for this mon Giovanni would be the thoughest opponent.

Oh, before I forget, my nature was Jolly, but I decided to go with it, because wynaut. Turned out fine, right?

https://preview.redd.it/mchd5f4dvstd1.jpg?width=1588&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1404bb1dabb4b58b2f8f5dcb3162df1d06e085a3

Having the fossils being so close in type, definitely fastens these runs, I guess.

So came out of training and defeated Togedemaru at 42 with Double Team, Bulldoze and Fury Cutter. Held item my favourite: metronome. Fury Cutter is a downgraded Echoed Voice, still overpowered as F on metronome, but not neutral typing, and 5% chance to miss just messes with the bug-type for no other reason because they are bug-type.

At Mimikyu I was again impatient, so Metal Claw, Brutal Swing and an affliction carried me through at 49. Nanu was similar at 55 with Fury Cutter - an affliction pushed through.

Lusamine: Fury Cutter, and not even affliction was required at 61.

Against Totem Kommo-o I just pushed for affliction for the sheer fun of it, to spare maybe 2-3 level of grinding, maybe more. The strategy was Aerial Ace Z, then Rock Slide, and a couple more level would have ment both the minion and the totem going down the 2nd turn. (Grinded from 69 to 76.)

DMN: brutal swing Z, 76

UN: X-scissor Z after surviving on affliction, 77

Gauntlet trials: Mina: bulldoze, metal claw Z, rock slide. Then: Brick Break (if I have a fighting move, I'll use it, heh) / fury cutter / rock slide / bulldoze / stone edge Z against the Totem Ribombee.

Fought Gladion 3 at 80, entered The League at 82 with 18 candies. Grinded like 2 levels to do so.

The League was nothing new in comparison at all, but Molayne was a brick wall for my stats probably. See, while my Speed and ATK EVs were 25+,the rest was around 5, so had to candy up to 94 to pass the dude. Tbh, without other means as affliction to neutralize the paralyses from the Klefki, this fight is pretty luck-based anyway, but I just didn't have good luck here, so pushed the level up to oneshot more and more opponents.

Hau is not even worth mentioning.

POSTGAME:

walked to the Battle Tree entrance, and fought the Z-boss, which took me to lvl 100, so without hesitation went to the Hyper Trainer, because why bother, right? Then flight back to where I came from, and decided to try my luck against Red, just to measure the situation up. Well, that was a mistake. I mean I passed first try with Return Metronome, but just because I got at least 3 bloody crucial affliction. So Red is absolutely unrealistic beside getting crazy real life luck with this pokemon.

Now how went Rainbow Rocket? At least that went fine. For Faba I put back the Metal Claw by the Move Reminder just to be fair, steel moves are best against the left side. The right side is usualy victim of dark moves, but maybe unconsciously I valued my partner in this fight, or simply forgot to put it up, but then I realised they are all psychic types on the right, so bug move it is (Fury Cutter, X-scissor - probably doesn't matter). The rest was Return on metronome, Earthquake swapping in when it came to that, and Rock Slide against the Hidrogenion. Giovanni was the accustomed pure Earthquake metornome, and din't even need any affliction.

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At this point I have like zero doubt Tyrantrum can't do it, and mybe there's minimal chance that Aurorus can squeeze itself through, at least The League. I have zero idea about Bastiodon though. That thing is just awful.

This fossil is VERY different from the others in accessible move-types. And it is VERY slow. And its other stats aren't exactly high. It does worth taking a Speed-boosting nature, but given that you lack normal damaging power, and the damage-boosting nature, you simply can't afford to loose bulk, so go with Timid nature. Rolling for fossils are "fun".

My goal was 21+ Speed IV and 20+ SAtk IV, and eventualy I got one with both of these. The more damage the better. The speed obviously helps outspeeding stuff, what is expecialy important in The League. The postgame is obviously optional. Spoiler: I managed to do it.

So right away get rid of the sucky moves by learning whatever TM you have in your backpack, so you can start training. It's not too bad, because you have different weaknesses too. Not having a water-weakness helps tremendously to catch up with training.

Went against Totem Togedemaru at 43. Lacking moves I did a Double Team to avoid the initial Spike Shield, we'll overlevel like crazy later anyway. Ancient Power did the trick for now.

Guzma is again: Protect, Ancient Power. Plumeria is so forgetable I even forgot to mark what level I fought her at.

Mimikyu is ironic, as it uses Drain Punch, while you are using Giga Drain, so it's a battle of attrition. Do not let the minions live by the way, that'd be death-sentence. The Jellicient does PP-burn only by the way, but the Banette's Curse and stuff is just big no-no.

Gladion wasn't too annoying this time, Ancient Power and Giga Drain does the trick. On the sidenote of this, Cradily has absolutely shallow movepool, and from the "wrong" types for the Ultra-games. Along these two you want to preserve Brine at all cost, just so you know. The 4th slot is Acid until you get the Sludge TMs (or have to put up Protect).

Nanu (lvl 55) is Giga Drain metronome. Everything is metronome if I don't state otherwise.

Lusamine: Giga drain again, at 62. there was not much grinding this time.

Now Totem Kommo-o is a nuisance, a brick wall if you want, you totaly don't have any moves, so grind to lvl 83, and do Hyper Beam Z, finish it off with Hyper Beam, then shoot down the minion with Ancient Power. Yes, this bugger also has Drain Punch. Very annoying.

Dusk Mane Necrozma: Brine Z, Brine.

Ultra Necrozma is another difficulty-spike where you can't do anything clever, just grind to 87 and do Hyper Beam Z, then finish off with Hyper Beam. Cradily had the natural bulk to stand the hits, so there was no affliction this time.

This level of overleveling made the gauntlet-tiral pretty easy: sludge wave, brine, ancient power, giga drain...

Entered The League at 91 with more than enough candies. The birds were obvious (ancient power), so started there. Went to Olivia, another obvious: Brine. Molayne is usualy stronger, but another row of Brine. Had to use an Ether to refill the PP for this. After that I consumed an Elixir to refull the Ancient Power and Brine PPs, both being needed for the ghost-room. Then used a Max Ether to refill Ancient Power, because I had no regular Ether. Probably there is some, but why bother. Medical facilities are easy to access, and you get a good handful of PP-restoring items if you collect the stuff you can see, so I never really bothered to learn the hidden items with a couple of exceptions. Finished Hau off at 93.

POSTGAME:

Z-boss surrendered to Ancient Power metronome at 97. Because I guessed Red/Blue would be hard went intstead doing Rainbow Rocket, where at the first boss I was already lvl 100.

Maxie: Brine. Archie: Ancient Power, Giga drain. Lysandre: same. Cyrus: just Ancient Power. Ghetsis: AP, got 1 omniboost. I felt the need of Hyper-Training, so Giovanni got full power. Giga Drain conquered, but I crited the MU2, and MAYBE that was necessary (that thing also uses Drain Punch, so it's very annoying).

Had no idea which would be worse Red or Blue, and Cradily doesn't have the raw power to just do a normal-metronome. Tried to do a poison-metronome as that move has 95 power, but fast saw that's not ideal, I'll have to rely on supereffectiveness. So rolled a fight where Pikachu did not set up Light Screen, so could oneshot it with Ancient Power, just like Charizard. I constantly hoped for an omniboost, but that never happened. Charizard hurts, but comes Lapras and Blastoise you can heal back on with Giga Drain. Both of them will end up in the red after one GD, so I tried to go for the omni-boost. After that it was a bit of a blur, but these two moves were used alternately that's for sure. You MUST have good HP against the Snorlax that's for sure, because it hits ca. 50% with its supereffective, so you need to sustain yourself (hint: use Giga Drain). Eventualy, the team went down without the need of affliction. I think it happened without the need of affliction, but as I said, after the 4th mon it's a bit of a blur, not sure in what order I delt with the Venosaur and the Snorlax. But if you get an omni-boost, that'd definitely ensure your victory here.

https://preview.redd.it/vjz2x4n8nbtd1.jpg?width=1584&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=00b447a6f606f1974a01d6df826c6cb6e2c3898b

This thing is fat. It doesn't seem that well on the basic illustration of it, but it is FAT.

Now its stats as you expect: has too much Attack, just a bit lacking Speed, and barely any defense (but not nonexistent). So the solution is obvious: a Speed-boosting nature. Doesn't really matter what gets a minus, though obviously not Attack. The best if Special attack, second best is Special Defense, at least in Ultra Sun.

It wasn't my favourite playthrough, but it was at least predictable: early game it has high damage low speed, lategame its damage starts somewhat lacking while its speed thanks to the nature catches up and surpasses ATK. But if we make an average, this one is above-average pokemon - with some flaws.

Hit down Togedemarus at 36 with a 1st turn critical bulldoze, then it was Guzma, and he is easy because you outspeed, and first time it randomly chooses First Impression and Shell Smash, the later being adventageous as it just won't happen.

At Totem Mimkyu (lvl 43) finaly got what Breaking The Mold means, as there was no Decoy-turn. What was very good, given Rampardos lacking tanking abilities. Or like self-buffs in general. Though use Focus Energy against the Togedemaru. But otherwise it's kill or be killed. Oh, and bring here Iron Tail to do good damage. Rampardos at certain points very obviously lack dmaage lacking the damage-boosting nature.

After a bunch or Rock Tomb and Rock Slide got to Lusamine, and for whatever reason it was daytime, and as usual I wanned to turn back for Return, but obviously I couldn't, so went grinding, and just left the game at *10 speed to pass time. Btw, I crawled up to 250% speed with this one. That's not healthy for surfing though, not when you go for the Golden Battlecup, so that's back to 175% speed. With that I can't do 100,000 scores, but that's self-prestige, the game doesn't care. You only have to reach like 58K on Poni Island.

Then we reach Duskmane Nekrozma, and it wasn't too bad with Zen Headbutt. Ultra Necrozma on the other hand hurt, and the game did not want to give me a row of afflictions, so I just went to grinding until my brain fell off. Grinded from 74 to 84, so candy was plenty. The best I could do was Thief Z, and I passed still by an affliction, but who cares, right? On the sidenote: at lvl 74 there was already a chance to survive 1 turn naturaly. Well, none cared.

Then it was back to Rock Slide and Bulldoze, though just because i could I used Brick Break against Ilima, and Stone Edge against Totem Ribombee. Weird that Rampardos can't buy the usuall endgame moves, like Giga Impact/Hyper Beam.

At Hapu it was (again) Zen Headbutt, and against Gladion 3: Zen Headbutt followed by 3 Brick Break.

The League was the usual metronome story: Rock Slide, Thief, Iron Head, Bulldoze (why I never did this against Molayne until now? Nothing even levitates there). Hau was done with the usual Return.

POSTGAME:

Never ate a candy at this point, aeverything is metronome.

Z-Boss: 94, Rock Slide

Faba: 95

Archie: starting the fight at 96, finishing at 97. Return.

Maxie: 98, Return. At this point I remembered I could use Earthquake, so went to the Zygard Cave, and di the fight at 99, reaching 100 with their last pokemon knocked down.

Lysandre: return, and a range/affliction. So after the fight went hyper-training.

Cyrus: Reutrn, finishing with Earthquake on Dialga.

Ghetsis: Rock Earthquake with the exception against the Hidrogenion which is Rock Slide.

Giovanni: Earthquake, and while the MU2 still was faster, its Earthquake did not oneshot me, giving me the victory.

Red/Blue: I got a bit bored, so went against Red with Return metronome because that's simpler. And that was it.

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the fossil-turtle is slow, and has a very shallow movepool. Evolving only adds the chance for Zen headbutt even, so it's worrying. Not to mention there are a bunch of levelup-moves you WOULD LIKE to keep around, but of course you can't, and that's always a dangerous decision. I took the right path appearently.

For EV-training my concept was, sure it's slow, but there is overleveling. So it does not worth a Speed-boosting nature, but worth EV-trainig, and if things fall off, just remove them with EV, and put the points to HP.

First real fight was Togedemaru, at lvl 37: curse, crunch, bulldoze, aqua jet, and an affliction to save my hide from grinding more.

Against Guzma the usual supereffective rock move works, but he used First Impression this time, and that hurts, so you had to put up a Protect in the first turn only eventualy. I did so at the 2nd Guzma-fight at the price of Aqua Jet, as I did not feel the advantage of moving first. It was better to just hit hard. By the way at one point I learned Hydro Pump not realising it is special, but it worked, so only changed back when I had to tutor-shopping anyway and saw the charts, and Aqua Tail is just more accurate.

At Totem Mimikyu (lvl 49) crunch against the minions, Iron Tail the totem. Held metronome to ensure knocking down the ally.

Plumeria was again not a threat.

At Nanu I used his moves against him, rolling a run where the Krok hit me with Swagger (it usualy did). It's a shame you can't target YOURSELF with that move.

Squeezed myself through Faba at lvl 57. At once instead of everything attacking me the AI decided to only attack Hau. I hate double-battles.

Lusamine was a hugh wall, though maybe a factor was that I forgot to put up metronome in place of Muscle Band (10% bonus to physical attacks). So grinded from 59 to 70 to finaly force myself through with Return metronome. Or muscle band. Lol. Well, you just have to grind sometimes. At least thus Kommo-o and Necrozma were in my reach. For UN I probably needed 5 more levels though to pass him on just 1 affliction instead of 2, but I decided to just roll for 2 affliction for 30 minutes on 10 times speed, and I got it, and ran with it.

Against Mina it was Iron Head time, which immediately changed down at the next boss, hehe. Because at Mallow you are better off with more power, so Iron Tail it is. (we are talking lvl 75 this time)

Sophocles is always easy if you have a ground move, so moving on.

Gladion was the next wall, grinded to lvl 81 (had 19 candies). This battle required puzzling things out: zen headbutt, 2*aqua tail, blizzard, 1 affliction and an anti-grass berry.

Entered The League at lvl 82, went from right to left: rock slide metronome, crunch metronome, aqua tail metronome*2.

Hau was again a difficulty-spike, so candied up to 96, at which point I probably outsped what I could, and Hau had to use his potions at inconsequential times, so totaly benefitting me with it (the extra turns pumping metronome-damage). Still required an affliction against the Noivern, but at least the earthquakes barely hurt me.

POSTGAME:

Was surprisingly faster than many things.

Z-Boss: aqua tail to prevent the Carbink setting up Reflect, then Rock Slide on metronome.

Archie was easier, did at 98, return metronome. Maxie: Aqua Tail. Lysandre: 99, Return. Cyrus: 100, Return, and the Dialga with Earthquake is either range, or you should do hyper-training. Ghetsis: I did the hyper-training, and was the usual Earthquake on metronome, except against the hidrogenion (Rock Slide). Giovanni was patheticaly easy with Aqua Tail metronome as only the Dugtrio (started a Sandstorm, lol) and the MU2 outsped me, and the MU2 just tried Earthquake which is like nothing for Carracosta.

Had serious doubts if Red/Blue will be possible or not, so picked Red just to test the water (no pun intended), as that's just a return metronome texas sharpshooting, and felt if some things work on my favour, then yes, it will be possible, so started rolling Red with the main thing being Pikachu missing its attack. On the successful run (3rd-5th) Pikachu actualy just cast Light Screen which was obviously entirely useless, so I didn't even need affliction. Outsped the Venosaur because Static did not paralyze me, then came the Charizard which was the second serious threat potentialy, but it shot Will-O-Wisp (which can be devastating of course halving my damage) - and it missed! Halfway done already, so started to have high hopes for this riot-police pokemon, and the Bulbasaur + Sorlax went down without being able to do anything, then thought I should save against the Lapras, you know, Rock Slide would be super-effective, but my fingers moved faster than my brain, hit Return - and boom, it went down!

https://preview.redd.it/mdejp9psqcsd1.jpg?width=2388&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86708068d38a2d60bb5af67e214e14b5d1e5cc2b

This little bugger surprised me with its damage. I thought it will be worse. All hail the physicalspecial split I assume, only fater that you can feel the real difference between this and Kabutops.

The Hasty nature and all that led to just the perfect playthrough. Many-many times Mud Shot was the thing giving me the constant speed-advantage.

Omastar/Omanite has a very limited access to moves, so... let's get on with this.

Got through Totem Togedemaru at 42. Did the single use of Withdraw in the entire playthrough, then it was Ancient Power and Mdshot. Ancient Power is yet another move you should never ever remove once you have it.

As Oma is a special attacker, against Guzma the held item was Wise Glasses.

At Totem Mimikyu used Hidden Power (Steel). I was darn lucky with that one. Affliction got rid of the Banette's burn, and it never even tried Curse, so passed at lvl 47.

Plumeria again was piece of cake.

Passed Nanu at 53, but have to mention he didn't do his usual Z-move for whatever reason. I'm not complaining of course.

Guzma 3 was his toughest to the point I had to learn Protect to stop First Impression. But otherwise it was the same.

Against Lusamine I again applied Hidden Power (Steel), the only other option being Round metronome. Again, this was a lucky concidence.

To get to Totem Kommo-O sometimes is hard mostly against the last of the three guards. Had to learn Blizzard - so lucky that's in the shop.

Against DMNecrozma the best I could do was choice spec Mud Shot. At UN survived on affliction, and a critical blizzard took it down. Yeah, had nothing supereffective to use as Z-move.

When it came to the "rematches" learnt Scald. Yeah, when the whole thing started asap learnt that 60 power tutor move instead of the 40 power learnset, then came Brine, now Scald. When Hydro Pump came I learnt that along Scald just to be safe. Was not needed, but you know. Against Totem Ribombee, and a couple other times did use Hydro Pump though - against the totem as Z-move even.

In The League started with the ghost room as I knew ice is good there, and Omastar can learn Ice Beam (Blizzard's accuracy is something you don't wan't to stand up to if you don't have to).Than Scald metronome against Olivia and Molayne, then cheked the bird-resistances and ice beam was good there too.

Did not have to consume candies - which I had only 16 this time when entering -, so with hau reached only lvl 86. To deal with his team PPMaxed Ancient Power. That is super-effective against certain pokemons of his, like Incineroar, so thought will be more beneficial than trying to use Round. And I was right, appearently.

Yeah, the timer is beyond anything, but don't forget, I spent like a week or more to collect every fossil on one save, so duh.

POSTGAME:

At 87 delt with the Z-boss shooting down his starter with scald, then Ancient Power metronome.

Faba was a nuisance, had to candy up to lvl 90 to pass him. Again Hidden Power Steel saved me, as the left side had to be shot down faster.

The RR bosses were all on metronome: Maxie: ice beam. Archie: ancient power (at 92, ate a candy). Lysandre: avoid the high-jump kick and mud slap (even if not ko, you'll now outspeed), then ancient power. Affliction needed against the ace, but maybe more speed (higher level) would solve that. I passed at 93 (ate a candy). Cyrus is ancient power again, and you either need an omniboost or an affliction to two-shot Dialga with Mud Shot. Ghetsis needed more tactics: 2*hydro pump (allowed to not connect once), mud shot, 2*ice beam. Giovanni: ice beam metronome and affliction. You need a couple more level to oneshot the MU2, and outspeeding that or the dugtrio would also be nice.

Blue/Red: I chose Blue, because I had notes to deal with him: ice beam against the alakazam and the exeggutor, hydor pump against the machamp and arcanine (here may be ranges and stuff, so maybe you can shoot down the machamp with ice beam, and only use hydro on the dog), finish with ice beam again. The Alakazam started with Reflect when I passed instead of Future Sight, and maybe I got also lucky, but passed at 97.

https://preview.redd.it/sizxz6yxz0sd1.jpg?width=1590&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f39dfa90b3b9be21cd40f307d380ffbb0841b30e

I know, I know, but I made important update on my lists. Let's do this.

Gen1 (includes any remake):

1. Charmeleon
2. Weedle/Kakuna in Let's Go P/E might be possible, otherwise impossible
3. Nidorina
4. Nidorino
5. Machoke
6. Graveler

Gen2 (only the originals, national dex):

1. Metapod is probably impossible
2. Kakuna is probably possible
3. Pidgeotto
4. Arbok
5. Pikachu
6. Sandshrew
7. Nidoran/Nidorina
8. Nidoran/Nidorino
9. Golbat
10. Gloom/Vileploom
11. Parasect
12. Dugtrio
13. Psyduck
14. Growlithe
15. Poliwhirl
16. Kadabra
17. Machoke
18. Weepinbell
19. Graveler
20. Ponyta/Rapidash
21. Slowbro
22. Doduo
23. Seel
24. Shellder
25. Haunter
26. Voltorb
27. Marowak
28. Hitmonlee/Hitmonchan
29. Seadra
30. Seaking
31. Porygon
32. Dragonair
33. Bayleef
34. Quilava
35. Crocnaw
36. Flaafy
37. Skiploom
38. Pupitar

Can you believe there are 4 water/rock fossil pokemon? Originaly that was Kabutops and Omastar, which are obviously a special/physical pair, but in that generation - nor in the remake - such split did not yet exist, so this fact rises serious questions on the design-process.

That aside, this was a pretty smooth run. Kabutops have pretty good stats, and an ok movepool. No idea why it mostly gains special moves, probably leftover tradition from Gen1... Btw, I got very lucky and rolled Adamant nature. ATK-boosting nature is definitely the thing you want to go with.

Not having any ground move Totem Togedemaru happened at lvl 48. I definitely wouldn't try below lvl 45. The good news is, Kabutops have access to Brick Break - but only after evolving. No idea why, and the evolution only happens at lvl 40, what's pretty late if you ask me. Or I'm just using crap pokemon, and those tend to evolve very soon.

Guzma seems to not pose problem for almost no fossil pokemon, because of rockm oves.

Totem Mimikyu was kinda interresting, beaten at 51, knocking down the minions first in the turn they appeared. I guess that ability preventing criticals on me played a part here.

Plumeria also was and probably will be negligeable with fossils.

Against Nanu used X-scizor at lvl 56. Still got a useful affliction, but bug-type moves are fun. Interresting fact that in none of the pokemon games you get or can pick bug type as a starter. Not even as part of dual-type, not even in later evolution of your starter. The only other such type is Ice.

Things went pretty much the same as for Archeops, except against Ultra Necrozma you only have Night Slash which falls in category one lower than an 80 power move would, so lvl 78 was required there.

Btw, while not at trials, not really, Aqua Jet is a great move to have until The League. So keep it around. I also like to try out new moves, so I kept Slash until I absolutely had to switch it to something stronger (Return).

Against Hapu had to pick up Aqua Tail. As it is not 100% accurate, I kept around Aqua Jet too just in case. Usualy had 2-3 moves from TM anyway on this one, so had the space.

At Gladion 3 was Rock Slide, Brick Break*2, X-Scizzor. At lvl 79.

Entered The League with 19 candies. The place wasn't a big problem: Rock Slide against Kahili, Night Slash against Acerola, Aqua Tail against Olivia, and that again to Molayne, though there had to level up with candies to 84. Filled the PP with an ether. Swapped around the moves too often to use a PPUp. You should consider doing a Rock Polish in the first turn to compensate the slowdown from the Paralyzis. Not more, in case the Klefki start to use Flash Cannon - you don't rly have the HP for such instances, but speed is of the essence here, and Rocjk Polish is a bit more chance to not wait on affliction to remove the paralyzes en-masse.

Against Hau I brute-forced it with Return metronome, though probably could have used super effective moves against his pokemons, but you know, Kabutops is strong enough to play lazy. As price had to level up to 90.

POSTGAME:

Tried to go for Sword dance, but there was a speed-issue; the funniest thing was when it had been ok to try it, I forgot to use it anyway. Btw, dark move metronome is the simplest thing at the cav's enterance, but the Mega Alakazam has 240 speed, so you either roll for affliction, or come back later.

The Z-boss also was a wee bit of a problem, so had to go back tere at lvl 93. Otherwise there's plenty of exp to gain anyway, so doesn't really matter. The RR-bosses weren't really interresting, nothing new, but I should rmeind myself that Dialge is resistent to normal type moves, so the return metronome need some help (either another move, or affliction).

Now Ghetsis was a real nuisance, went for hyper trainig at him. This is where starting with Swords Dance would be a goor idea I assume, given the Cofagiragus usualy starts with Power Split or whatever (still no idea what that does). So shoot down the coffin with Night Slash, then I did Brick Break metronome. Zekrom is hugh, but at least not resistant to that, still, a Swords Dance would help against it too.

Giovanni is left from RR, and that's just another aqua tail metronome.

Finaly Blue/Red. I chose Blue simply because I did him not recently. Started with Brick Break to break down the Reflect, then Return metronome until the final Aerodacty, against which I chose Aqua Tail. And that was it. Kabutops can do the Ultra-games. I think it'll be fair to do Omastar next. The special attacker fossils are definitely lack speed...

https://preview.redd.it/wiesde5sslrd1.jpg?width=794&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15eb30ea804913be9fc88d3260d2557999664bcf

Relican't can.

But YOU reli-can't SOS-chain a Relicanth catch. It does call for help, but the help only arrives 50%. Meaning half the time until one empties its movepool and kills itself with Strougle.

Now catching one is only available on Island 4. So almost nothing to do with it, but whatever. Also the level you catch it on varies between 20-50, and you usualy arrive the place at lvl 60, so it is "a bit behind" so to say. I repeat: whatever.

Mine came at 38, which is lucky high considering. With Impish nature, so it didn't play much either way, but w/o SOS-chain high overall IVs was the best I could do. With a 10% catch rate on bubbling water, that's excellent actualy.

I've beaten the team Skull line before Poni Canyon at 44, but Totem Kommo-o was at 65. Relicanth by the way has a pretty shallow movepool, that sometimes caused me scratching my head, but has a hidden weapon: Yawn. Do NOT erase it until you enter The League. Also, pick Rock Head to not care about recoil-moves. You learn only 2: Head Smash and Double Edge - the later I only used inside The League, so a luvdisc-scale went to the Move Reminder. I'm not sure I ever used her in this generation. Maybe once.

Dusk Mane Necrozma was no biggy with Water Z, but R has no super-effective move against UN, so it was Yawn-time. The fish survives with a good chance (50%+) one hit naturaly, you still need an affliction to survive the 2nd turn, then Yawn must last enough to cause damage, and Head Smash has to connect, but it is doable.

Aqua Tail is a BP-tutor move, it'll remain constantly useful, has good power, not too low PP, and adequate accuracy. Zen Headbutt also will be needed a couple of times, but that's cheaper to replace if you know what I mean. Because you'll need like Bulldoze at Sophocles.

At Gladion 3 speed is key, so I had to grind there to lvl 78.

Entered The LEague with 18 candies, and fast consumed a lot to be 95, because the ghost room is simplest with Zen Headbutt metronome. I won't be designing strategy if I can just bash through with raw power, khm.

Against Kaili Head Smash metronome was used, and I didn't even need PPup for first try victory.

Then I used up almost all Aqua Tail PP at Olivia, so did a MaxPP to do the same against Molayne.

Hau was pretty easy with Double Edge metronome.

Other held items was Muscle Band, which I have no idea where I found. Ah, Bulbapedia helps with this.

A bit of help: Zen Headbutt, Aqua Tail and a rock move (i never removed Head Smash) is ideal for late-game grinding. Yawn remains on the 4th slot of course.

My guess goes, the postgame is doable.

POSTGAME: the Z-boss was easy, and being able to learn Earthquake of course made me go into the Zaigarde Cave.

From Red and Blue interrestingly Red is the easy solution, as you just have to push Double Edge metronome. At Blue 9 out of 10 the Alakazam halves your damage with Reflect, then you don't deal enough damage to the Exeggutor anyway, so just do Red. And this is with Hyper Training.

Rainbow Rocket is actualy easy, except against Maxie, where against Groudon you need an affliction, or Solar Beam will toast you. Otherwise here you need Double Edge, Aqua Tail, Earthquake, Rockslide when the hidrogenion shows up, and that's about it.

https://preview.redd.it/3qnzg8d7pyqd1.jpg?width=794&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7c92aec7f9ca9760e9b7dd64c790de38101c85f

Dudes and dudetts, we have the reverse-Minior itself! Fragile, but at least consistent with it. It's swipe, or be swiped. This monster at high enough level is only stopped by the abilty Sturdy.

Hatched like all the other fossils at the door of Totem Togedemaru, which it shot down at lvl 37 with a critical Bulldoze. Or use metronome with the dame effect. Or hold a HP-berry, and hope you are in the range to activate it. Moving on.

Guzma is vulnerable to Rock moves, so that's that.

Against Totem Mimikyu learn Iron Tail. Not the most accurate mmove, but Z-moves hit 100% of the time either way. Support it with Crunch.

Nanu was finaly a wall, outspeeding the Persian is crucial. Did so at lvl 55 with 164 speed.

Against Lusamine I went and picked up Return. Heheh.

Against Totem Kommo-o first try got a critical Z Pluck at 66, and that was it.

Ultra Necrozma is annoying as always, and on two wastly different level I left it at "1 HP" after a Crunch Z from full HP (affliction avoid damage) + Crunch from 1 HP (again, affliction). The 2nd time I got yet another affliction, and that's how I passed. I take it, as always. By the way got the proper formula, UN's speed is 240, or 267, or 294 depending on nature which it gets at random. If you don't want to rely on pure affliction, now you can grind to outspeed, maybe.

For the re-battles: steel wing, rock slide, aerial ace, rock slide, bulldoze, steel wing, zen headbutt.

Gladion 3: zen headbutt, bulldoze, 2*pluck. Because I forgot to put on U-Turn, and had a save way before. And I don't like to just give up.

Entered The League with 19 candies. Acerola: Crunch. Kahili: Rock Slide. olivia: Steel Wing, but the Gigalith MUST miss with its Stone Edge. If you don't like this, bring in Iron Tail. The best news is, Sandstorm don't harm fossils, them being Rock-type. Molayne was the real problem where I started eating candies like no tomorrow. The problem was, the sturdy Magnezone is shooting supereffective Thunder so an elemental berry is in order, but after that comes the metagross which has insane HP and again hits supereffective. MAYBE at lvl 100 that thing would be onehit.

Hau has zero hope at this point, and I suspect the same for the postgame opponents. Archeops is a deathmachine with a wide pool of moves, so rly the only thing that can stop it is something with Sturdy and a supereffective move.

POSTGAME: it can do it. Barely, when maxed out with Hyper Training, but can do it. The "if you are under 50% HP then you are dead" rule applies without question now. There are some opponent that are range, but you can roll the range, and they are using less than 100% accurate moves, so you have an acceptable chance.

https://preview.redd.it/a110azmntmqd1.jpg?width=796&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5f23735b70832c9e68589566db6cab13a8e56d21

This went better than I expected.

But first, I'm definitely not doing the postgame with this one. Probably could, but Miniior has a special little problem: its form-change. Which is an interresting gimmick, but is many times in the way. With Meteor Form you are kinda slow. Not too slow, but still. You also have damage-problem. I mean aside the fact that this physical attacker gets only special moves via levelup. The problem is, without your shield, Minior is a total glass-cannon. Really. If the Meteor outlay comes down, you are almost sure to be just 1 hit from KO. Your Speed and Attack goes up - but not that high. the HP should go up too or something to make this thing viable.

I had Jolly nature, and that worked fine. I even outsped Ultra Necrozma once. But let's go in order.

So, grinded to lvl 40 against Totem Togedemaru. There I got that time a critical hit with Bulldoze, and to my surprise that knocked the hedgehog down. Won't complain.

At Guzma Golisopod is a nuisance, because it hits super-effective with Razor Shell or something. So you need to hit through the range to knock it below 50% so it exists. Another problem with that is, it isn't voulnerable to rock, like the other bugs on Guzma's team.

At Totem Mimikyu I bought Iron Head, and that remained on me after that. The spikes (stealth rock) are pretty much useless, but stick to Shell Smash, that is a good move to boost yourself with occasionaly. Not really in the League, but at that point who cares. Minior has a pretty limited movepool, but it does its job, so it's fine.

Lusamine was tricky, as the only move that gave me hope to pass on a decently low level was Acrobatic. Yes, Minior can learn a Flying move. Even a Bug-move. That's cool. Now the trick was (I was lvl 57) to hold a berry, do a Shell Smash, get hit by the Clefairy instead of Charm, activate the berry to get back to Meteor Form, and start sweeping now that my hand was empty. It's finiky, and everything is about ranges, but yeah, I'm pretty proud of myself for coming up with this.

Totem Kommo-o is another problem, at lvl 63 Acrobatic did the job (barely), but maybe Dazzling Gleam with Choice Scarf would work too by the look of it. I leave it on you to try which is better if you want.

At Ultra Necrozma I went in Core Form as the stats doesn't actualy matter there, and with 239 speed (the character sheet only tells the speed of Core Form, never meteor-form!) I just outsped the beast. I did not check if this was because it rolled a speed-hindering nature or what. I do know that it has random nature, and could outspeed it with Crabominable if it rolled hindering nature. Had 30 Speed IV and speed-boosting nature back then. This time had speed-boosting nature with 2 Speed IV. Both times maxed Speed EV. After a bug-Z still had to survive on affliction, and roll a critical U-turn. I did not like my chances, but I passed, so it was fine in the end. I really start to hate Ultra Necrozma.

Totem Ribombee was weird. It did 3 Quiver Dance instead of attacking, and the Pelipper did only Stopckpile while I sniped down both.

Against Hapu I had to grind to lvl 75, and buy Zen Headbutt, which I overwrote inside The League.

Gladion was as always not simple, It was Zen Headbutt on the Golbat, Bulldoze, then finaly Iron Head. I start to wonder what type the Silvally is here, and wether it depends on your starter, because it is definitely not Normal type.

Within The League started with the birds, as those had the obvious weakness to rock: rock slide metronome at lvl 82 (had 18 candies).

Noticed that Olivia is also uncomplicated. Stone Edged the Armaldo, then Bulldoze the rest at 85.

My old notes told me steel metronome will work on the ghosts, so Iron Head metronome there.

Molayne: Bulldoze metronome. I was stepping up slowly by candies, so I empiricly can tell on lower level the Magnezone shot Screech, but now (lvl 87+) it shot Thunderbolt. That made me susceptible to Metagross' priority-attack, but I got an affliction at 88. Gained decent HP though, so 2-3 more levels would have been enough to pass without that.

Now Hau is a problem. I had way enough speed, no problem there, but I lacked damage. So if I lost the Meteor Form, I was toast. I started to think that instead of just plainly leveling up and hoping I'll be fast enough and hit hard enough eventualy, especialy with suffering enough damage to get the form-change-boost this will eventualy happen, maybe I should try, I don't know, Shell Smash, or instead of plain Return metronome try hitting the opponent weaknesses... But I got the necessary afflictions (tauros, leafeon AND incineroar, which still had enough HP left to survive one 5-turn metronome boosted Return with maximum friendship!), so I said I'm taking it.

As my IVs are pretty bad I'd get a hugh boost from the Golden Nottlecup, but this whole glass-cannon form-gimmick is just not inspiring enough to bother with the whole postgame. It probably can, having Return on the moveset, full physical build, and speed on the skies, but this time I say, it was enough for me. It probably can, but I'm not interrested actualy doing it. I'm tired. Maybe just the weather, but I am. I think I'll sleep through the weekend.

PS: Ah, just before I go, there is ONE MANDATORY DOUBLE BATTLE on Island 3 at leas, to enter Po Town (Team Skull's place). Some Z-kahuna also requires double-battles to be fought, though I don't remember them giving out anything that good. Should be checked.

https://preview.redd.it/r8i7e0kg80qd1.jpg?width=794&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=03b397ad69b4b25904bdf832e989573fe1783f99

This was a weird one. I like those.

So Castform is a hard-to-catch pokemon with 70 in all stats. That's not too bad, but it's definitely not very resilient. At least it has 60+ speed, which means it does not demand a speed-boosting nature.

Then there is the typing. At the getgo it is Normal. It can transform into water, fire and ice. No idea why it can not turn into rock during Sandstorm, as that weather still effects Weatherball.

And Weatherball is a very problematic move. We have a kinda fragile pokemon which has this weather-adaptability going on. So why doesn't its unique move work that it becomes effective AGAINST the weather-condition brought up? I mean when the opponent brings in some weather it's good to have resistance against said condition (again: why not against sandstorm), but then the opponent is obviously resistant too! So why not make the Weather Ball hit super effective against the weather? It just makes no sense.

The other problem with Castform is its movepool. It will not gain ANY TM until the FOURTH AND LAST island! So you have 3 options to choose from until then:

1 - go with 40 power moves with a lot of PPs

2 - set up weather in every single battle, and rely on Weather Ball which sounds frustrating, and again: you don't really have much bulk

3 - switch to 5 PP 110 power abysmal accuracy moves until you can do otherwise.

I did the third, and at one point even replaces Weather Ball with Hurricane. Came out of EV-training at lvl 20, which soon went up to 30 against Plumeria, and 34 against Olivia. As said: Castform doesn't really have bulk. And i had to accept affliction to pass Olivia.

The next wall was Totem Mimikyu, which is just the worst. At that point had Weather Ball, Blizzard, Hydro Pump and Fire Blast - none of which is super-effective against the little ghost! So I did some digging, and finaly decided to give up Blizzard, and learn Shadow Ball instead. Still had to grind to 52, and still affliction saved me only. At least now I had a good option against Ultra Necrozma.

But first Lusamine. Her Milotic is a hugh special wall, so it was back to grinding. At lvl 66 I got a critical hit against the thing, which made it 2 hit instead of 3, and that made all the difference at that point. Without that who knows, maybe lvl 75.

Against the UN I got lucky, and passed at lvl 71 with a critical Z. On the sidenote: Castform did survive there naturaly 1 turn, so with an affliction rolled to the pool, that's 2 turn to finish the thing off. Or, you know, just roll for a critical Z.

Next challenging thing was Totem Ribombee, there again I rolled for a critical Z at 73. Then I remembered I have Fire Blast TM which freed up a moveslot, and that I can get Energy Ball, which is a good move against Hapu. So I did that.

Gladion is as usual was an obstacle, passed at lvl 73, though the Crobat is a nuisance, so maybe it would be more reliable to apply Thunderbolt there to your moves.

Arrived to The League at 76 with 13 candies, so I only needed to grind 6 levels and eat 100 candies. I trained 1 more level and spared 50 candies (and a lot of hassle sorting the box).

Inside The League went to the ghost trainer as I knew the solution (Shadow Ball metronome), then I remembered Thunderbolt so delt with the birdies. Put on Scald to shoot down Olivia's horde instead of PPMaxing Hydro Pump and bother with the RNG.

A previous run's note said I'm good against Molayne with fire, so I put on Flamethrower. Did 3 turn of Work Up at the Klefki which took me to 50%, then I swept.

Hau was still the champion-threat he usualy is, but i again could rely on previous notes which said just do electric moves after shooting down the Raichu. Well, it was not that easy: Shadow Ball shot down the Raichu, then came Flareon and after that Tauros with their high-damage recoil moves, so I fell back to water-moves. I did not want to bother with RNG, and had a lot of levels ahead of me, so made an archive save before putting up Scald, so I had Scald, Thunderbolt, Shadow Ball and Hurricane, which was preserved as it was a possible alternative against the Crabominable and such. At lvl 88 still could not oneshot the Flareon, seemed the damage barely crawls up, but I still had 10 levels to candy up, so I was not worried. Affliction helped me at this point, and there's the fact that I outsped the Noivern. No idea what its speed is, because most of the times (doing a try after consuming each candy, every time hoping to finaly oneshot the Flareon, sparing HP there) I did not reach there (Primarina is twoshot, and I tried to find the best order of moves because of that). Point is, with 202 Speed I outsped the Noivern. Just some empirical data over theoretical equations.

And yes, this was Timid nature, so did not have the usual high damage, which shows potential of runs in that aspect. I mean I did a lot of oneshot against Hau with 70 base SAtk (and 252 EV).

Won with time 59:17. No idea how good it is, but there. Also, interresting cliffnote that I put up Silk Scarf against one trialmaster, which was the only held item in the run aside Metronome and Wise Glasses. So no Choice Spec for example. Though as mentioned of course used Z-crystals.

PS: I tried it out, and double-battles are not mandatory, those trainers will only look at you pitifully that you only have 1 single pokemon at your hand. I still always do double-battles because I'm wired that way, but maybe in the future I'll consider just skipping those if I just don't like my chances.

https://reddit.com/link/1fjq191/video/1iuw4u8kmjpd1/player

POSTGAME:

First I went against the Z Boss: Scald metronome + a thunderbolt to shoot down the Pelipper

Second went against Red/Blue: I chose Blue for convenience sake.At lvl 96 with 220 speed still not outsped the Alakazam which could help, but it turned out ok with affliction at this point. Good to know that the AI will only shoot Bulldoze if you outspeed the Arcanine and not Extreme Speed or whatever that hits like a truck.

Then comes finaly Rainbow Rocket, where everything is metronome to have enough damage.: Maxie: ice beam. Archie: thunderbolt. Lysandre: thunderbolt (but the mienshao HAS to die or miss its jump). Cyrus: flamethrower. Ghetsis: Shadow Ball to knock down the coffin, then flmaethrower, then ice beam. Finaly Giovanni: had to finaly pump up my IVs to the max with the Golden Battlecap, but then it was just Ice Beam on metronome. That way you outspeed everything and the only thing you do not oneshot is the MU2, which does Drain Punch, but does not heal enough to ruin your fun.

⚠️ There are some considerations for this run, for more information, read the notes at the beginning of this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoloPokes/s/7nCAJT2ao3 ⚠️

Life is full of irony, right? Recently, one of our dear colleagues created a post about a run with Mew in Pokémon Crystal: https://www.reddit.com/r/SoloPokes/s/nnwEb45Z5S

... and yesterday, I also got this Pokémon randomly... but in Pokémon Blue.

What can I say about Mew? It's the first Mythical Pokémon from the franchise, it has high stats in practically everything, it learns every single TM and HM from the game and it has Psychic typing.

Everything against Mew will be defeated, obliterated either by its versatility, or later on, by its brutal physical combos, thanks to its access to Swords Dance, Earthquake and Hyper Beam.

However, despite all those incredible gifts, its level up learnset starts with Pound, and later on, with Transform, so it requires some leveling up against Brock.

I'd say playing with Mew offers you a very enjoyable and fast run full of resources and ideas, but it has a bitter start that makes it perform worse than other Pokémon that aren't even legendary or mythical, like Gengar, Alakazam or Cloyster.

Nevertheless, if you don't want to get the lowest level you can, like me, you'll really enjoy this one.

Level: 51.

Moveset: Thunderbolt, Swords Dance, Earthquake, Hyper Beam.

video link to youtube

Just so you don't have to watch the video:

Mew is the only pokemon in Gen2 (Gen2-remakes are Gen4) that can learn all the necessary HMs.

First you have to learn Cut as soon as you get it, then you need Surf when you travel to Cianwood, where I also learnt the TM Rock Smash to get a Max Ether. You can re-buy that TM anyway.

You'll have to learn Whirlpool to deal with the Dragon Cave at the Dragon Gym, then you can delete it and take on Waterfall, which you'll need to reach The League. I think you also need Strength there. You can delete Cut for now, I kept Psychic as my attacking move. Sure, you learn it pretty late...

By the way, there are 2 fights until this point to look out for: the Rival in the Burnt tower, which starts with him throwing Curse at you (only deals damage if you don't KO a pokemon in the turn), then paralyze and confusion, and the last pokemon throws Poison at you just for the heck of it. This Real Life Luck thing is why I don't like the 2D era.

The other is the Ghost Gym, which either tries to sleep you, and/or burn your PP in mass quantity. I had to Transform and use Nightshade to deal with the last Haunter.

Anyway, don't forget to get the Radio-app before you travel to Kanto. Or not. I tell you why in a moment.

In Kanto you'll need Surf and Cut. For a third I used Fly for convenience (and because I didn't know I'll need the Radio app to wake up Snorlax). Before going to Kanto I deleted all by Psychic from my moveset (and instantly putting up Surf, as that was evidently needed, plus wanned more PP).

Used like 2 Rare Candies against Lance the Champion - maybe because I forgot to bring in Paralyze Heal berries. I didn't want to go out to change things. I didn't need to "grind" (aka. consume Rare Candies) anywhere else in the game despite traveling in a straight line, and skippin Whilrpool Islands, Dark Cave etc.

I did swap in Flash when going to Mount Silver the fight Red, but that was useless. The Snorlax is annoying, and the biggest threat.

Another memorable trainer-pokemon is Lance's 3rd Dragonite, which is FAT. Has so much more HP than the other two.

Cheers.

Bzzz bzzz!! When I first got Electabuzz randomly, the first thing I thought was that this Pokémon would be an Electric type variant of Magmar with extra help... but I didn't imagine it would be so drastically different.

In fact, their stats are very similar, both have limited tolerance to damage because of their mediocre to low HP and Defense, and have access to similar TMs, like Psychic and Hyper Beam. However, Electabuzz got several gifts that make it shine where Magmar would usually suck.

For example, Electabuzz is quite fast, its typing allows it to face very tough opponents easily, like Lorelei or any trainer with a Gyarados, and it has some extra interesting moves, including Light Screen by level up, and Reflect and Thunderbolt by TM, the last one being available just after defeating LT Surge.

Overall, Electabuzz performance was lacking against Brock, Erika and Koga, and it also had a tight victory against Blaine because of its relative fragility, but it performed very well with the rest.

In the Elite 4, Agatha was quite hard, and Lance, a living nightmare, specially because of his dragons exploiting Electabuzz's poor Defense and HP. In my run, I forgot to get Reflect to protect against Lance sheer physical strength, but considering how limited my moveset was, the best I could do was mimicking Agility and getting Lance Pokémon to perform unfavorable moves.

Once I got to the Champion, I needed just 2 tries to defeat him.

Overall, the gameplay was very fast and easy, except for the previously mentioned trainers, and it was enjoyable discovering this Pokémon gifts.

Level: 60.

Moveset: Thunderbolt, Light Screen, Psychic, Rest.

the video is too long for reddit

I lost the lvl 5 duel against the rival, and had to "grind" (aka. use rare candies) to get to lvl 20 against the ooptional rival-fight at the beginning towards Victory Road.

After a while started to travel in a straight line, finished at llvl 75 without any serious problem.

In this gen you can even avoid gist-pokemons entirely (like Eevee and Lapras). In Gen2 the best you can do is a pokemon egg in your box.