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Which pokemon can beat Platinum's bosses by themselves?

Nicolas721 said:
There is no Arceus indeed lol
Hopefully Smeargle makes it better this time, I wonder what you can come up with.
Deoxys being locked in Speed form will be interesting since it's pretty much a glass canon.
Click to expand...
I really like using Smeargle to see how far stealing others' moves gets him, hence why i include him in my challenges even if he's not actually in the dex. Unfortunately though, his stats aren't doing him any favours. He couldn't even one-shot Geodude with a 4x effective move. Things will probably get better once i can swipe Sleep Powder off of something, but there's zero chance he'll make it to the late-game.

Deoxys-Speed is actually the most well-rounded of the bunch. its HP is bad, but its offenses and defenses are all 90 or 95. Normal and Attack forms are the glass cannons.
 
Time to go fight Mars. For this fight, we have access to all items obtainable before fighting Valley Windworks Mars. Beating Roark got us TM76 Stealth Rock as well as the ability to use Rock Smash outside of battle. With that ability, we head back to Jubilife and then up north, fighting some Galactic grunts on the way. In the Ravaged Path, we use our new HM to clear the boulders and find TM39 Rock Tomb. After exiting the ravaged path, we find ourselves on the northern part of Route 204, where we find TM09 Bullet Seed lying around. We press on to Floaroma, where a lady outside the flower shop gives us TM88 Pluck, and another lady gives us the Gracidea flower. In the flower shop, we are gifted the Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst and Aspear berries. We then head east towards the Valley Windworks, where we catch a Buizel in the grass and take its Wacan Berry. We beat the grunt at the gate, but he locks the door behind him. So we head back to Floaroma and beat up the two grunts in the meadow. As a reward, we get the key as well as some honey, which we slather on the trees to find Cherubi and Munchlax and take their Miracle Seed and Leftovers, respectively.

With all that done, we storm into the windworks, fight our way through the grunts and face off against Mars. So let's have a look at her team.
Spr_DP_Mars.png
100px-0041Zubat.png
100px-0432Purugly.png
Level1517
AbilityInner FocusThick Fat
Gender♀♀
Held ItemOran Berry
Move 1BiteFaint Attack
Move 2Leech LifeScratch
Move 3ToxicFake Out
Move 4

The Zubat may get annoying with Toxic, but the real threat here is obviously the Purugly. Its moves aren't all that threatening, with its strongest STAB move at 40 base power, but it is the first fully evolved pokemon we're facing, so it may well take down some pokemon.

Turtwig two-shot the Zubat with Return, then he set up some Curses on Purugly, healing with lefties. Once i was in Overgrow range with no chance of getting KOd, i Razor Leafed the big cat down. Grotle did the same thing, but Torterra got poisoned and thus just killed the cat with Return. Monferno and Infernape would then Taunt the Zubat to prevent Toxic, and then spam Return; that move is stronger against Purugly than either Rock Smash or Mach Punch, despite type effectiveness. As for Dawn's boy Piplup, he and his evolution Prinplup would Growl Purugly's attack into oblivion, Pluck its Oran and spam Return. Empoleon gets Swords Dance, so he instead boosted his attack vs Zubat and then one-shot both his foes.

Starapter and Bibarel both get STAB on their Returns so they won that way, and next was Kricketune. I needed Zubat to not poison me, but i couldn't run Pecha as i needed Leftovers. In attempt 8 he finally cooperated, and i could Growl Purugly's attack down. Return did the rest. Luxray would of course Spark down Zubat and Return Purugly, but Kadabra was in trouble. He obviously OHKOd Zubat, but Purugly would outspeed and 2HKO. Inner Focus protected me from Fake Out flinch, but Confusion wasn't even a two-shot. Kinesis was useless since Faint Attack never misses, so my only hope of victory was if Confusion confused my foe and he kept hitting himself. Never happened; Kadabra is out. Zam however was able to outspeed and tank a Faint Attack, so he could avenge his younger brother by spamming Confusion.

Gyarados had only Return spam, but what more do you need? Good stats apparently; Budew could not do it. I tried setting up Growths, three-shotting Zubat with Return and then attacking Purugly, but even if his Fake Out didn't kill, he'd just outspeed and kill me with something else. I found no tools that would make this fight possible; Budew is out. Roselia's stats still aren't good by any measure, but it at least could stick around long enough to fire off a Growth-boosted Mega Drain, healing back more than Purugly could deal per turn. Thus, Roselia managed to win. Roserade doesn't get Growth, but she didn't need it either as her Mega Drains did enough already. On to the first mirror match; my Zubat was able to beat Mars's rather easily, but Purugly would outdamage me. All this could be solved by a simple Supersonic though; with enough self-hits, and a Pluck to steal his Oran, i could take Purugly down; took just 2 attempts. Golbat ditched Supersonic and just spammed Return, while Crobat gets Cross Poison.
 
Geodude and his evolutions killed the bat with Rock Throw and then used Magnitude until the cat was dead as well. Brock's boy Onix doesn't get Magnitude, so against Delcatty it got a few Rages in and then got the kill with Return. As for Jasmine's boy Steelix, there was nothing Mars could do that my leftovers wouldn't immediately undo, so i just spammed Return. The fossils are next, starting with Roark's boy Cranidos. Rock Tomb killed the bat, and my Returns did more than Purugly did to me, so i won. Rampardos obviously copied that strat, and Shieldon and Bastiodon won because this fight is completely free for Steel types. The Machop line all went in poisoned; Guts-boosted Rock Tombs and Low Kicks brought all of them victory. However, next was Misty's boy Psyduck, and he had a problem. He has no real tools to deal with any of these foes. Zubat was a two-shot with Return, but i had no way to outdamage Purugly. The only strat i could think of was to hit Rock Smash for the defense drop, and then hope for a crit Return the next turn. That never happened; Psyduck is out. Golduck's stats are much better though, and he easily outdamaged Purugly with Return, finishing things off with an Aqua Jet.

We're now on to Beautifly. Return took care of Zubat, but Purugly dealt a bit too much damage. I had Stun Spore though, so all i had to do was hope for good paralysis luck. I got it in attempt 3; Purugly was fully paralyzed twice, and i got the win. Its counterpart Dustox was unphazed by Fake Out thanks to Shield Dust, and could Protect every other turn for added Leftovers recovery. Thus, while he didn't have much of a damage output, he was able to chip away at the cat until he won. On to Vespiquen; Return took out Zubat, then i got a few Defend Orders in before killing Purugly too. Buizel though was in a lot of trouble. Neither his Returns nor his Sonicbooms did enough to Purugly. I tried Growling my foe down, i tried Rock Smash to lower defense and i tried Rock Tomb to gain the speed advantage, as well as combinations of these things, but nothing worked. Buizel is out. Buizel's problems were not shared by Floatzel; his Returns did do enough. Last for today was Cherrim; lefties and Leech Seed kept me healthy as i Returned away.
 
Shellos and Gastrodon would Return the Zubat down, then they used Hidden Power Fighting on Purugly. Heracross was next, and he won with Guts-boosted Returns. His honey tree collagues Aipom and Ambipom got through with STAB Return, but Drifblim actually didn't have it easy. His weakness to Dark meant that Purugly could outspeed and outdamage him. I found a strat though; set up Focus Energy on Zubat as he used Toxic into my Pecha Berry, then hope he wouldn't go for a second Toxic as i returned him down. Unburden meant i was now faster than Purugly, and the Focus Energy got me some key crits that allowed me to win. Buneary and Lopunny came thereafter, and they had STAB Return, though Buneary did need to finish things off with a Quick Attack in order to win.

Gengar gets no special moves yet, so he Returned Zubat down, put Purugly to sleep with Hypnosis and then Returned him down too. Misdreavus had more trouble, since Confuse Ray was my only way to ward off supereffective Faint Attacks. I needed self-hits almost every turn but remarkably Purugly cooperated with this as early as attempt 4. Fantina's girl Mismagius doesn't get Confuse Ray though, nor does she get any other good moves. I could not outdamage Purugly with either Return or Magical Leaf, so all i could do was hope for crits that never came. Mismagius is out, but at least Misdreavus is still defending the family honour. Its counterpart Honchkrow had no trouble at all, spamming Return for the win. We're now on to the mirror match, though it was more of a mirror massacre; my Purugly flattened Mars's by just spamming Return.

Goldeen was up next to try and prove her win vs Roark wasn't just a fluke, but all she ended up proving was that flukes can happen in two boss fights in a row. She got two crits during the fight; had either of those not been crits, Goldeen would have lost. But they were crits, and Goldeen won. Its victory will be short-lived though; i doubt it can fluke its way past Gardenia. Speaking of pokemon that stand zero chance against Gardenia, next up is Barboach. Barboach isn't gonna lose to Gardenia though, because he's not getting there. He had no damage output and no way to avoid damage from Purugly. I had Mud-Slap, but my foe has Faint Attack so that doesn't fly. Barboach is out. Whiscash however is the greatest pokemon in the history of pokemon, so he easily tanked Purugly's moves and hit back with Return to wear the big cat down. After this though came Chingling; take a guess how well a baby Psychic type did in this fight. Chingling is out. Chimecho's stats are a lot better, but he still needed Purugly to get confused from my Confusions and then hit himself at least once. That would allow my Confusions to kill. As for Stunky, his strat was to set up Focus Energy vs Zubat, kill the bat, and then land a Screech on Purugly so that Return would two-shot. Didn't end up needing the Focus Energy. Last for today is Jupiter's boy Skuntank, who beat its counterpart with Return spam.
 
Meditite and Medicham both felled Zubat in one Pure Power Return and Purugly in two Rock Smashes. Bronzor and Bronzong then won by putting Purugly to sleep and chipping away at it, and Rapidash just spammed Return. Things also went great for Bonsly and Sudowoodo; Rock Throw one-shot the bat, and Low Kick easily outdmaged Purugly due to these mons' good defenses. Sudowoodo even won while Toxic-poisoned. As for Mime Jr, it wasn't as hopeless as i had originally thought. Filter weakened their supereffective hits, and my Barriers weakened them further. I did have to get two of those off against Zubat without being poisoned, and i couldn't run a Pecha as i needed my lefties. Eventually though, Zubat cooperated. I got my final Barrier in against Purugly, then i clicked Confusion until the cat was dead. Ash's dad only needed one of his Barriers to be set up against the bat, but Zubat just wouldn't cooperate and would keep poisoning me. Took all the way until attempt 6 before i finally won.

Blissey time. Base 10 Attack is apparently enough to three-shot Zubat with Return; he never poisoned me. Then against Purugly i Growled his attack into oblivion, after which i spammed Serene Grace Rock Smash which eventually got the better of him. Clefairy was next, and thanks to Magic Guard i could spam Defense Curl on Zubat without fear of getting poisoned. Clefable doesn't get Defense Curl, but spamming Return worked fine. Raichu would then kill Mars's squad with STAB Thunderbolts, so we're now on to number 108, Spiritomb. Fortunately i didn't need 108 Returns to seal the deal; i'd have run out of PP. 4 Returns proved enough. After that came the Gible family, who once again showed us how OP Dragon Rage is in the early game. Munchlax was next, but sadly he doesn't get Immunity like his evolution. Not needed though; Return spam was enough. Course, if a baby could do it, three-time champion Snorlax also had an easy time. Course, this win streak couldn't last forever; next was Unown. For once, Purugly wasn't the problem; my 4x resisted Hidden Powers could not break through Zubat. I tried with Leftovers and with the Metronome, but nothing worked. Unown is out.
 
Riolu could Return the bat down with ease, and thanks to Inner Focus i didn't fear Fake Out and i could take out the cat in 3 Force Palms. Lucario also gets these tools in addition to better stats and the Steel type, so obvs he also won. Things were less easy for Wooper though. I could Return past Zubat no problem, but then came Purugly. He would three-shot me with Fake Out and two Scratches; my bad speed meant i only got one hit in, and it wouldn't kill even if it crit. Wooper is out. Quagsire then avenged his child by spamming Return. Next was Wingull, but if i was hit by either Bite or Toxic from Zubat, Purugly could outspeed and 2-shot me before i could even move. I had to carry a Pecha Berry to even have a chance, and even then my damage output was negligible so i had to rely on Supersonic and self-hits. Never worked; Wingull is out. Fortunately, Pelipper has actual stats, so it won by spamming Return, combined with a Pluck to steal Purugly's berry.

Girafarig got the win by spamming STAB Return, after which Hippopotas took a Toxic to the Pecha and Returned all the enemies down. Hippowdon has Ice Fang, so he didn't even have to worry about Toxic. Marill needed to get a Defense Curl off on Zubat, using its Pecha Berry to avoid Toxic one of the three turns until i could 2-shot. In attempt 3 he did not use Toxic again, and so i could chip away at my foes with Huge Power Return. Azumarill didn't need the Defense boost; Return spam was enough. Drapion came thereafter; Thunder Fang killed the bat, Return killed the cat. However, things went less well for its Great Marsh colleague Croagunk. STAB Rock Smash didn't do quite the damage to Purugly i needed it to; even with the Defense drop i could only bring him to a sliver. I did not find a way around this; Croagunk is out. The family honour now rests with Toxicroak, who was able to kill Purugly with Rock Smash. Carnivine however just spammed Return.

On to Sinnoh's many waters. These guys had it easy against Roark, but Mars is less forgiving. Remoraid would have needed a Sniper-boosted crit to kill Purugly before it killed me, but i didn't have Focus Energy or anything so that crit never came. Remoraid is out. Octillery didn't need a crit, but he got one anyway, on the turn Purugly would have died anyway. Finneon was another pokemon that only beat Roark because he's a water type; he has absolutely no damage output. He could set up rain, which was good for Swift Swim, but my rain-boosted Water Guns were still weaker than my Returns. I usually got only one or two Returns off before Purugly killed me, and that was not enough. Finneon is out. Lumineon however could outcompete Purugly in terms of raw damage, and could thus get the win. Last for today was Wallace's girl Milotic, who won by spamming Water Pulse, plus one Refresh to get rid of Toxic.
 
For Mantyke things seemed hopeless. Bubblebeam didn't deal remotely enough, so i had to use Supersonic and hope Purugly would hit himself pretty much constantly. I also needed Zubat to not poison me for this to work. In attempt 6 though, the stars aligned and Purugly hit himself often enough for me to win. Mantine had it a lot easier; he one-shot Zubat with Psybeam, and he easily outdamaged Purugly for the win. Snover meanwhile won on try 1; Zubat was an OHKO, then i put Purugly to sleep and chipped away at him until he too was dead. Obamasnow has Ice Punch which made Zubat even more of an OHKO, but i remembered just in time that Purugly has Thick Fat, so i killed him with Return instead. Sneasel then outsped Purugly and Returned it to death, not caring about Fake Out. Weavile doesn't get Inner Focus, but he does get Revenge to OHKO Purugly with, so all was well.

Time for the first batch of legends. The lake trio all Confusioned Zubat and Returned Purugly, while Dialga, Palkia and Manaphy spammed Return. On to the Platinum additions, first of which was Rotom, still deprived of its appliances. Zubat was obviously a one-shot, but Purugly threatened with supereffective damage. I used Thunder Wave and Confuse Ray to incapacitate him, after which i'd chip away with Thundershock. This worked out surprisingly well, getting me a first-try victory. Gligar and Gliscor came thereafter, and thanks to their amazing defenses they took pretty much no damage from what Purugly did. Return spam did the trick. After this came Roxanne's boy Nosepass; i opted to go in paralyzed so that i wouldn't have to worry about poison and i could set up all the Hardens i wanted. This made me impervious to their hits thanks to my lefties, so i could chip away with impunity. Its evolution Probopass doesn't get Harden, but it's a steel type with high Defense so there was nothing Mars could do that my Leftovers couldn't immediately undo. After this came a case i thought was hopeless, but it turned out i was wrong. Kirlia could trace Zubat's Inner Focus and thus not get flinched from Fake Out, but Purugly would still 2HKO me while i came nowhere close to dealing enough damage back. I had to hope the one Confusion i got off confused my foe, and he'd kill himself in confusion. That's exactly what happened in attempt 5. This win was a fluke, but i'll take it. Wally's girl Gardevoir meanwhile has much better Special Attack, so she was able to just spam Confusion and win with 1 HP left, no self-hits needed. Her brother Gallade is not weak to Dark, and could kill the cat with STAB Rock Smash.
 
Lickitung and Lickilicky spammed Return to win, meaning we're on to the Eeveelutions. They actually have moves of their own types this time; Vaporeon killed them with Water Gun which did slightly more than Return. Jolteon did the same with Thundershock, but Umbreon and Leafeon preferred Return over their STAB, and while Glaceon would have loved to spam Icy Wind, Thick Fat made it useless against Purugly except for speed control, so i again won with Return. After this it was Altaria time; he spammed Return, plus one Pluck to get rid of Purugly's berry. Togetic also spammed Return, while Togekiss instead used Aura Sphere on the cat. Houndoom's Returns also proved strong enough. The Magnemite family was next, but they are all Steel types so the fight was completely free. Tangela set up an Ingrain to get the bulk to Return them down, but after my first-try victory i saw that the Ingrain probably wasn't even needed, so with Tangrowth i didn't bother and just spammed Return. Yamnega spammed Return plus one Bug Bite to heal off Purugly's Oran, winning first try despite getting poisoned. Tropius did what so many have done already and spammed Return to win, and last for today was the Rhyhorn clan, who all won by Rock-Tombing Zubat and Returning Purugly.
 
Dusclops would Thunderpunch Zubat, then he'd disable Purugly's Faint Attack. Purugly couldn't do anything else, so i won with ease. Primal Dialga's servant Dusknoir did the same thing, so we're now moving on to the Porygon clan. I'd have loved to pull a strat with Conversion or Conversion2 since those are very fun moves to use, but alas, the porygons were able to win with Psybeam and Return so i didn't get to have my fun. Scyther then won by Returning the bat down and hitting technician-boosted Rock Smashes on the cat; its evolution Scizor won by being a steel type. Elekid was next, and he got lucky. First Zubat missed me, then Purugly's Fake Out triggered Static allowing me to outspeed, and finally i got a crit Low Kick to finish things, all in attempt 1. Its evolutions didn't need such luck to win though. Their counterpart Magmortar had Thunderpunch for Zubat, and Return for Purugly.

Piloswine time. I used Ancientpower to kill the bat, but i didn't get an omniboost. Didn't need one either; Return spam got rid of the cat. Mamoswine did get the omniboost, so things weren't too hard for him. I didn't have high hopes for his fellow Ice type Snorunt, but in attempt 6 a crit Icy Wind on Zubat got me to Purugly in full health. I proceeded to hit a Leer on his Fake Out turn, courtesy of Inner Focus. I still needed to hit the right ranges with my Return spam, but eventually i got there. Glalie needed no luck to pull this strat off first try, but Froslass is less bulky and has a weakness to Faint Attack. Fortunately i got a crit Return first try and i could thus win with ease. Absol could kill his foes with Return spam, bringing us to Lucifer. Giratina is of course strong enough to just spam Return and win. Last for today was Heatran, who won because he's a steel type.
 
Regi time. Regirock would kill Zubat with Rock Throw, then he Returned Purugly to death. Regice did the same but with Icy Wind, Registeel is a steel type and Registeel didn't need to get things going, killing the bat with Thunderpunch and the cat with STAB Return. Cresselia killed its foes with Twistedspoon-boosted Confusion, meaning we're on to the mythicals. Phione's stats aren't great, but a Charm against Purugly allowed me to Return him down. Darkrai also Returned its foes down, but next came Shaymin and i encountered a bit of a problem. You see, i like to do this challenge in the evening, but Shaymin cannot be in its sky form in the evening. It was fine in this battle as Return spam was enough to bring Mars to her knees, but this may well become a problem later on. My emulator draws on my PC's system time, so i can't just change the settings. I'll have to find a workaround for future fights. But we've spent enough time talking about the gen 4 mythicals; there definitely wasn't another one that won by spamming STAB Return.

On to our Emerald champs. Zangoose has Immunity and Swords Dance, so i just got to +6 and swept. Pinsir's tools are less broken, but a crit Return to OHKO Purugly did make things easier. Ash's girlfriend Latias used Return for damage and Wish to stay healthy, winning the fight at 2 HP. Kyogre then spammed rain-boosted Water Pulse, Groudon and Rayquaza spammed Return, Jirachi is a steel type, and Deoxys's Returns also beat out Purugly's Faint Attack, tough only because i had the speed advantage. Suicune set up rain and swept with Bubblebeam, Mewtwo won by being Mewtwo and Mew would Return the bat down, use Rock Tomb on Purugly for the speed advantage, then Pluck its berry and Return away for the kill. That means only the gimmick mons are left. For this fight, Smeargle took most of his moveset from the honey trees. I sketched Leech Seed off Cherubi, Protect off Burmy and Defense Curl off Munchlax, in addition to sketching Toxic off Mars's own Zubat. I went in paralyzed since poison would obviously ruin this strat, then i got my Leech Seed off on Zubat and spammed Defense Curl. Once the bat was down, the cat was seeded and poisoned, and i protected every other turn for optimal damage and recovery. Our other gimmick mon also didn't run any offense; Wobbuffet easily Countered his foes to death.

And that's everyone. Of the 183 that got to Mars, 170 managed to beat her, while only 13 went down in defeat. In normal playthroughs, she's one of the toughest bosses in the early-game, but i guess that's because you're fighting her with first-stage mons who don't all have Return with maxed-out friendship. Anyway, the surviving 170 will take on Gardenia next.

As usual, here's the table showing how many pokemon beat each boss:

StartAfter RoarkAfter Valley Windworks MarsAfter GardeniaAfter Eterna JupiterAfter FantinaAfter Route 209 RivalAfter MayleneAfter Pastoria RivalAfter Crasher Wake
236183170
After Celestic CyrusAfter Canalave RivalAfter ByronAfter Lake Valor SaturnAfter Lake Verity MarsAfter CandiceAfter Veilstone CyrusAfter Veilstone SaturnAfter Spear Pillar AdminsAfter Distortion World Cyrus
After VolknerAfter Pokemon League RivalAfter AaronAfter BerthaAfter FlintAfter LucianChampionsAfter Fight Area Flint & VolknerAfter Stark Mountain AdminsAfter Survival Area Rival
 
Now let'look at the stats, to see which categories of pokemon have been doing well so far, and which haven't. 72% of all pokemon have made it this far.

Gen 1Gen 2Gen 3Gen 4
33/49, 67%26/40, 65%28/38, 74%85/110, 77%
Gen 2 is now performing the worst, though i still find it surprising that the generations are already showing such big differences in how well they're doing. I guess it's to do with the large number of legendaries and cross-gen evos in gen 4, as well as the Emerald champions bolstering gen 3's numbers.

NormalFightingFlyingFireDragonWaterIceGrassBugElectric
34/39, 87%11/12, 92%22/34, 65%6/12, 50%9/9, 100%26/38, 68%11/12, 92%14/17, 82%8/20, 40%10/15, 67%
PoisonGroundRockSteelDarkGhostPsychic
11/18, 61%23/27, 85%16/16, 100%15/16, 94%11/13, 85%9/14, 64%22/28, 79%
Fighting's no longer at 100% due to the loss of Croagunk; Dragon and Rock still going strong. Bug's still doing the worst, despite losing no one against Mars. The biggest drop though is in the Water types; they went from 87% all the way down to 68%. My guess is that this is because while most types lost all their weak pokemon to Roark, Water types tended to win against him so the weak ones instead went down here. No idea why we don't see something similar with the grass types though.

BabiesCross-gen EvolutionsStartersHoney Tree PokemonLegendaries
6/14, 43%27/29, 93%14/20, 70%9/19, 47%26/26, 100%
Babies have dropped below the 50% mark, though they're somehow still doing better than the Bug type as a whole. Cross-gen evos lost Mismagius, whom i expected would do way better, but i digress. No starters, honey tree encounters or legendaries were lost in this fight.
 
There Is No Arceus said:
You see, i like to do this challenge in the evening, but Shaymin cannot be in its sky form in the evening. It was fine in this battle as Return spam was enough to bring Mars to her knees, but this may well become a problem later on. My emulator draws on my PC's system time, so i can't just change the settings. I'll have to find a workaround for future fights. But we've spent enough time talking about the gen 4 mythicals; there definitely wasn't another one that won by spamming STAB Return.
Click to expand...
Oh crap, I forgot about Shaymin's Sky form requiring daytime! That can definitely be a little problem, especially when they both have different typings and abilities. There may be battles where Shaymin has an easier time in one form than the other.

Also, I know that your name excludes him, but I feel a certain someone can kinda easily clear this challenge. Not gonna name names. But... yeah. I think you know.
 
RichestAirPirate said:
Also, I know that your name excludes him, but I feel a certain someone can kinda easily clear this challenge. Not gonna name names. But... yeah. I think you know.
Click to expand...
No idea who you're talking about. Course, if there was a pokemon with the ability Multitype and base stats of 120 across the board, that pokemon would have a really good chance of making it to the end. But no such pokemon exists, so there's no need to speculate about that.
 
There Is No Arceus said:
No idea who you're talking about. Course, if there was a pokemon with the ability Multitype and base stats of 120 across the board, that pokemon would have a really good chance of making it to the end. But no such pokemon exists, so there's no need to speculate about that.
Click to expand...
If such a Pokémon exists, they would dominate.
But such a Pokémon is a hypothetical, at least I think it is. The name of it is on the tip of my tongue...
Eh, whatever. They'd wreck everything anyways.
 
Time for the second gym leader, Gardenia. For this fight, we have access to all items obtainable before beating Gardenia. After beating Mars, we head north of the Valley Windworks until we reach Eterna Forest. We team up with Cheryl to traverse this forest, taking the time to catch Buneary for its Chople Berry, and find ourselves in Eterna City. In the condominiums here, we get TM67 Recycle and trade a Buizel for a Chatot holding a Leppa Berry. It is also in this city that we find the Underground Man; he gives us a kit to go digging, so we take to the mines. We dig up a Hard Stone, a Light Clay, an Iron Ball, a Damp Rock, a Heat Rock, a Smooth Rock, an Icy Rock and 16 different Plates. As we head to the east of town, we meet Cynthia who gives us HM01 Cut. We head for Route 211, where we find TM12 Taunt under the bridge. We also catch a wild Bronzor here and take its Metal Coat, and we do the same with Chingling for its Colbur Berry.

With all those tools in hand, we head back to the gym, beat up all the gym trainers and make our way to Gardenia. So let's look at what we're up against.
Spr_Pt_Gardenia.png
100px-0387Turtwig.png
100px-0421Cherrim.png
100px-0407Roserade.png
Level202022
AbilityOvergrowFlower GiftNatural Cure
Gender♂♀♀
Held ItemSitrus Berry
Move 1Grass KnotGrass KnotGrass Knot
Move 2Razor LeafMagical LeafMagical Leaf
Move 3Sunny DayLeech SeedPoison Sting
Move 4ReflectSafeguardStun Spore

Reflect will be a problem since all my good moves are physical, and Sunny Day will make Cherrim much more dangerous, but i think Turtwig should be easy enough to remove from the field before it can do much. The other two however are strong. Those Magical Leafs are gonna sting, especially for pokemon weak to Grass. There's absolutely no coverage here though, so pokemon that resist Grass should have an easy time.

We start off with a mirror match, though it was more massacre than match. Gardenia can't hurt her fellow Grass types, so Turtwig could get in as many Curses as he wanted and sweep with Return. Grotle copied this, but Torterra doesn't resist Grass and is in fact quite heavy. Curse didn't protect me from their special moves, and both my fully evolved enemies outsped me. I needed some curses to kill them, so Turtwig was guaranteed to get Reflect off. I tried a few things that didn't work, then in attempt 7 Gardenia decided to throw the match. She had her Turtwig use Razor Leaf several times, and Cherrim used Safeguard as i killed him. This meant Roserade didn't see the kill either, and she decided to paralyse me as i one-shot her. Monferno and Infernape sadly couldn't abuse Gardenia's sun as Turtwig died too quickly, but the others all died quickly too so it was fine. The third starter line didn't have it easy though. Piplup's Sky Plate-boosted Plucks couldn't even OHKO Turtwig, and he could bring me to the red in one move. I did outspeed and could two-shot if my foe didn't Reflect, but Cherrim and Roserade weren't any easier. Piplup is out. Prinplup could potentially have won if Turtwig went for Sunny Day instead of Reflect and Cherrim went for Safeguard, but they never cooperated. Not sure it would have worked anyway; Roserade would probably have killed me. Anyway, Prinplup is out. Empoleon however is not weak to Grass and gets Swords Dance, so i got to +6 against Turtwig and swept with Pluck.

Staraptor outsped and OHKOd everything with Sky Plate Pluck, but Bibarel had problems. Reflect was obviously an issue for this physical attacker, as there was absolutely no way to deal enough damage if that was up. So i Tainted Turtwig to prevent that, then i used Headbutt to flinch Turtwig and Cherrim so i could arrive at Roserade in good health. In attempt 10, i finally managed to reach Roserade with full HP, only to be outsped and 2-shot. Bibarel is out. Kricketune came thereafter and this fight was free because of its typing, so i decided ton equip a Metronome and spam Fury Cutter, to watch the damage spiral out of control. Luxray was up next; i set up 6 Charges to raise my Special Defense, then i spammed Return knowing the enemies could do nothing. Alakazam would then spam some plate-boosted Confusions for an easy win, after which came Gyarados. Gyarados could Taunt Turtwig to prevent Reflect, but he needed a Bite flinch on Cherrim in order to arrive at Roserade with enough health to not die instantly. That flinch came in attempt 3, but i would have still lost to Roserade if it weren't for a lucky crit.

Roselia time; i doubly resisted everything except Poison Sting, in addition to a Leech Seed immunity. I decided to clown on Gardenia and spammed Poison Sting until all her pokemon were dead; Leftovers ensured i stayed healthy. For the mirror match though, i decided to use Gardenia's own sun against her; my Roserade one-shot hers with Weather Ball. Zubat has the same resistances sans the Leech Seed immunity, but with Taunt i figured i could still fuck around. I decided to use Supersonic and Confuse Ray to have the enemies beat themselves to death, but i got bored of this and killed them with Return. Golbat carried only Leech Life for offense, so i had to Screech my foes' defenses down in order to do much of anything. With Crobat i opted to spam Astonish to get the maximum amount of flinches possible; of course i didn't lower my enemy's defense since that would shorten the battle and thus reduce the amount of flinches i could get. Unfortunately i ran out of Astonish PP and i had to finish it with the other troll moves i was running, confusing them with Supersonic and screeching them so their self-hits did a lot. For the record, the amount of flinches i got was 9.
 
Geez, Torterra just squeezed by.
Would've been embarrassing if it failed but its pre-evos didn't.
Especially when it's NOT one of those cases where the evolution doesn't play completely differently from the previous stage.

But it doesn't matter. The damn thing is gonna die to Candice frame one.
 
RichestAirPirate said:
Geez, Torterra just squeezed by.
Would've been embarrassing if it failed but its pre-evos didn't.
Especially when it's NOT one of those cases where the evolution doesn't play completely differently from the previous stage.

But it doesn't matter. The damn thing is gonna die to Candice frame one.
Click to expand...
We'll see. I did some lookahead and devised a strategy that might get him past that foe, but we won't know whether it works until we get there. Assuming Torterra makes it there of course.
 
We start today off with the Geodude line. Things did not go well for the Geodude line. Geodude himself was a range to get one-shot by Turtwig's Grass Knot, and could only do just over half in return. Even if he crit and took out Turtwig, he'd obviously get wrecked by Roserade. Geodude is out. Graveler has better stats, but he also weighs more so Grass Knot was always an OHKO. Graveler is out. Golem was in the same stuation as its pre-evo; Golem is out. After that came Brock's boy, but this isn't exactly an easy fight for Onix either. Onix has only one good stat, and it happens to be the only stat that's completely irrelevant in this fight. I never got him to live past turn 1; Onix is out. Jasmine's boy Steelix isn't 4x weak to Grass, but it's still a slow, heavy pokemon with bad special defense. I had Fire Fang to make use of Gardenia's weather, but regardless of whether i equipped a Flame Plate or Leftovers, i did not have the offense to kill my foes or the bulk to tank their moves. Steelix is out.

Up next were the fossils, starting with Roark's boy Cranidos. Cranidos has good Attack, but not good enough to one-shot things, and he's slow. I tried setting up Focus Energy to get crits, but while this could get me past Turtwig, it never got me past Cherrim. Cranidos is out. His evolution Rampardos is just as slow and also has no special bulk, and while he does have higher Attack, it still just missed out on the OHKO on Turtwig, meaning Reflect went up. Cherrim and Roserade would then wreck me; Rampardos is out. The other fossil, Shieldon, has an actual Special Defense stat, but sadly no HP to go along with it, nor any offensive stats to hurt its opponents while it tanked their hits. I was able to Return my way past Turtwig, but nothing i tried got me past Cherrim. Shieldon is out. Bastiodon's stats are all much higher so he was actually equipped to play the stall game, but unfortunately Gardenia has a pretty effective tool against bulky mons with Leech Seed. If i wasn't seeded, i could Protect every other turn for extra Leftovers, but once i got seeded it was game over. I couldn't do nearly enough damage to conteract that, and Cherrim outsped me so Taunt couldn't prevent it either. I never found a way to get Bastiodon past the finish line; Bastiodon is out.

Machop was up next. He's slow, and even with Guts i could not OHKO Turtwig; Reflect always went up. With that up, there was absolutely no way i could deal meaningful damage to Cherrim or Roserade. Machop is out. For Machoke, Turtwig was a range with Guts-boosted Return, but the poison left me too weak to take out both Cherrim and Roserade, and going in paralyzed meant Turtwig would outspeed me and get Reflect off. Using Focus Energy to try and crit my way through also never worked; Machoke is out. This lose streak had to end somewhere though; Machamp had the bulk to take their hits and kill them all with Guts Return. Next though was Golduck, who is weak to Grass and has no tools to fight back at this point in the game. If we had stuff like Ice Beam or Aerial Ace, he might have had a chance, but we won't get those for a while. As it stands, Golduck is out. This stands in stark contrast to Beautifly, who doubly resists all of their moves and could kill with Gust. Dustox would Gust them while Reflect was up and spam Return when it was not, and Vespiquen spammed Gust the whole fight.

Floatzel time, but unlike the other water pokemon we've used so far, Floatzel did have the tools. He outspeeds everything and has Icicle Plate-boosted Ice Fang. While this didn't OHKO either of the fully evolved mons, Cherrim went for Safeguard and Roserade couldn't OHKO me. Thus, Floatzel becomes the first pokemon weak to Grass to make it past Gardenia. Up next was the final mirror match, but like the previous mirror matches against Gardenia, it didn't amount to much. Gardenia can't hurt Grass types, so my Cherrim simply Returned hers down with ease. It was now time for Shellos, a slow, weak pokemon weak to Grass with no tools to deal with Grass types. Shellos is out. Gastrodon is just as slow, and while he has much better stats, he also has a double weakness to Grass, meaning that Roserade could outspeed and OHKO me from full health. I had to run Quick Claw and hope i could get a Mud-Slap in so that Roserade would miss every turn; this happened exactly as often as you'd expect. Gastrodon is out.
 
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