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Welcome to this challenge, where all levels are equally important. This is an idea I have had for a long while, I have been thinking about doing it from time to time, but never got around to it for various reasons. Now, it is finally time. This is my second challenge here on the forums, it has been two years since my previous one, so I feel ready for another.
All levels at once? What does that mean?
I’m sure most players are familiar with the concept of a living dex, where you have one of every single Pokémon species that exist, all located in the same game (or storage app like Bank/Home). Obtaining a complete living dex is something I have never done, and it is not something I will ever do now that dexit is a thing. But there’s this other idea I had. What if, instead of having all Pokémon species, you had a Pokémon at every single level from 1-100, all on the same game? I have never heard of someone doing such a thing. So I thought I should do it! And that’s what this challenge is all about.
Why Platinum? Why not another game?
Obviously, this would work for most Pokémon games, the main exceptions being the Gen 1-3 games since you can’t legitimately obtain a Pokémon at level 1 in those games. However, some games are better suited for this type of challenge than others. Since getting to the higher levels will require a lot of grinding, a Gen 5 or Gen 6 game would be optimal since those games have amazing training spots. On the other hand, a game with really bad training spots like the Johto games or S/M would be really terrible due to their lack of good training spots. Platinum doesn’t have the greatest training spots in the series, but they aren’t downright bad either. I think it will be a good middle ground, it will be challenging (or so I hope) but not completely unbearable.
There’s one other big reason I’m doing this in Platinum. Everyone who has played the Sinnoh games knows that there’s an NPC in a house on Route 221 who wants to see a Pokémon at a specific level, which changes every day. By showing him a Pokémon of that level, you get an item. Wouldn’t it be fun if I had a Pokémon at every level, just so I would always be able to show him the one he wants to see? That’s why I wanted to do this in a Sinnoh game. As for why it is Platinum, the answer is simple. D/P were always out of question due to their slowness (and they have worse training spots than Platinum) while I don’t have BD/SP. So Platinum it is.
I have two copies of Platinum, and I will do this challenge on my second one. Simply because I have a lot more empty box space on this file as I never completed the Pokédex or obtained a lot of Pokémon on it in general (though I still caught quite a lot). I played through the main game in 2015, and I’m not going to restart since it feels pointless. It would also require me to trade over all of my notable Pokémon to other games (and I have many). Plus, the main game isn’t relevant to this challenge at all. So I will do everything in the post-game.
I have set some rules for this challenge, which are the following:
- The Pokémon I obtain for the challenge must be from 100 different species. Multiple Pokémon from the same line is fine as long as they are not the same species. This means I can have both Bidoof and Bibarel, but not two Bidoof or two Bibarel.
- All Pokémon must be new, everything I have previously caught/obtained on this file can’t be used for the 100 Pokémon I will obtain for the challenge. However, I can use other Pokémon to help catch/train the ones that will be obtained for the challenge.
- No trading, everything must be caught/obtained within the game. This includes trading for trade evolutions, or trading over items from other games. Likewise, using Pal Park to send over Pokémon from Gen 3 will not be allowed.
- I can use alternate encounter methods, such as Swarms, PokéRadar, GBA insertion, Trophy Garden and Honey Trees.
- No legendaries, gift Pokémon or Events. Legendaries and Events wouldn’t be possible anyway since I have already caught/obtained all of them. I have already received all one-off gift Pokémon as well, so the only ones that remain are fossils, which can be obtained indefinitely. However, those will not be allowed either.
- Breeding may only be used once, to obtain a Pokémon at level 1. This is because that won’t be possible otherwise. Apart from that, all Pokémon I obtain must be caught in the wild.
- Just for fun, I must nickname all 100 Pokémon that I obtain for the challenge. Their nicknames will probably be very random. If I should miss a nickname, I must go to the Name Rater to fix it.
- Once a Pokémon has reached its desired level (or before), it must be given a hold item. This is because I have so many items in my bag, and this will be a good way to get rid of many of the less important ones.
I thought about adding more rules, like some time limit. I thought about something like 30 days, or maybe 50 hours of playtime, but I decided to scrap that. Instead, I will simply see how long it takes me to complete this, both in terms of days and playtime. I will not include my playtime in every post, just towards the end (and maybe if I hit some notable milestones). Maybe I’ll add more rules later on, if the above should turn out to make this too easy.
Will this challenge be possible? Yes! Even with all the restrictions I set for myself, Platinum has way over 100 Pokémon that are available. I did some counting, and there are way over 300 Pokémon that can be obtained within the game. And as said earlier, Platinum has quite good training spots, so training Pokémon to high levels should be feasible.
I will include photos in my posts, but since I’m playing on a retail cart, and the DS doesn’t have a screenshot button, I will have to take them manually, so don’t expect a lot of them.
My plan is to play a little every day, but I might not post every day, we’ll have to see how it goes. I’m still going to work for a few more weeks before my vacation starts, so progress will likely be slower during weekdays.
Just like my previous challenge, there will be music! I’ll try to pick songs that are relevant to the challenge, there will be at least one in every post. The name of my previous challenge was inspired by a song, while this one is inspired by a musician. But I will include music from many different artists. For now, let’s start with one of my favorites from the person who gave me the name for the challenge:
- Breeding may only be used once, to obtain a Pokémon at level 1. This is because that won’t be possible otherwise. Apart from that, all Pokémon I obtain must be caught in the wild.
Pretty sure you don,t need to breed. I haven,t played Platinum, but if I don,t remember wrong, Cynthia gives you a Togepi Egg somewhere and some guy on Iron Island gives a Riolu Egg.
Pretty sure you don,t need to breed. I haven,t played Platinum, but if I don,t remember wrong, Cynthia gives you a Togepi Egg somewhere and some guy on Iron Island gives a Riolu Egg.
They probably obtained them already so it's not eligible. There is a possible level 1 Magikarp encounter though you can't increase the odds of that one.
They probably obtained them already so it's not eligible. There is a possible level 1 Magikarp encounter though you can't increase the odds of that one.
Yeah, as said in the first post, I have already obtained all one-off gift Pokémon in this game, so I can’t get the Togepi or Riolu. Fun fact: I used Cynthia’s Togepi on my in-game team, it is currently a level 81 Togekiss! You’re right about Magikarp though, but it seems that the odds of finding a Magikarp at level 1 are very low. And I’d much rather try to catch a Magikarp at a high level. So I’ll stick to my breeding plan.
One thing I forgot to mention is that in-game trades will not be allowed either. I’m not sure if I have completed all of them on this file, but it doesn’t matter.
Now, let’s start the challenge!
Part 1: Highway of Endless Dreams
Before starting for real, time to check some statistics. My playtime is at 76 hours, while my Pokédex is at 371 seen and 186 caught. I have no plans to complete the whole dex here as I have already done it in my main Platinum file, as well as on both D/P and HG/SS. But it will be fun to see how many new Pokémon I add during this challenge.
Now, the journey can begin! Have some adventurous music to start with:
I’m starting from Jubilife City, it has become my traditional “starting point” in the Sinnoh games. Before leaving, I go check the Lottery… but I don’t win anything. Doesn’t matter though.
Now, where to begin? Which level should be the first? I decide to start with the breeding just to get it out of the way, and it feels suitable to make level 1 the first level I get. I fly to Solaceon, but what Pokémon should I breed? The most logical thing would be to hatch a Pokémon that can’t be caught in the wild. So let’s go for that.
I deposit some members of my in-game team, then I withdraw a Magcargo with Flame Body, and a Ditto I had Pal Parked over from Emerald in the past. I leave the Ditto in the Day-Care with my starter Infernape. I start biking along the Solaceon breeding route (as I have decided to call it), and not too long afterwards, an egg is generated. I obtain it and withdraw my Infernape and Ditto. I continue biking along the breeding route, and after a few minutes, the egg hatches into a Level 1 Chimchar! It is female, surprisingly. I nickname it Minieldapa and give it a Charcoal to hold.
One down, 99 left to go.
So that’s it for the breeding. With it out of the way, the catching can begin! But first, I should do some preparations.
Just in case anyone is wondering, my in-game team on this file consists of Infernape, Togekiss, Gallade, Gastrodon, Magnezone and Froslass. I trained them a lot in the past, they are all at level 80+. Either way, I fly (with Togekiss) to Veilstone City where I buy a False Swipe TM at the Department Store, which I teach to Gallade. Magnezone knows Thunder Wave, so those two should be helpful for catching Pokémon.
With that done, I fly back to Solaceon. There’s a Pokémon I want to catch here. I head out to the Ruins, and encounter a Level 26 Unown-T. I catch it, nickname it Timeless, and give it an Iron Ball to hold. I was surprised to see that it was at such a high level, I thought it would be lower. It turns out that the Unown here are at higher levels in Platinum than in D/P. Not bad.
Next, let’s go for some lower levels. I fly back to the beginning of the game, Twinleaf Town, and head out to Route 201. I love the music here, it feels so adventurous! In the grass, I first encounter a Level 3 Starly. I catch it and name it Lee Starr. It gets to hold a Scope Lens. Soon afterwards, I run into a Level 2 Bidoof. I catch it, nickname it Majava and give it a Quick Claw.
I continue to Sandgem Town. Since I’m here, let’s see what today’s Swarming Pokémon is. Little sis tells me that it is Pinsir on Route 229. Cool. Let’s go get one! I fly to the Resort Area, head up to Route 229, and immediately run into a Pinsir. Since it turns out to know both Submission and Thrash, I decide to not swipe it down to 1 HP. It turns out to be a little harder to catch than the previous three, but 3 Net Balls later, I have a Level 48 Pinsir. I name it Hjortebill and give it the Silverpowder to hold.
With that done, I fly back to Sandgem and head up to Route 202. I head into the grass to see what I can find. After quite a while, I run into what I was after, a Level 4 Shinx. I catch it, name it Gaupe, and give it a Zap Plate. I continue up to Jubilife and head out to Route 203. The first Pokémon I run into here is a Level 6 Seedot, as I have Ruby inserted in the GBA slot. I catch it, name it Corna, and give it a Big Root to hold. I hadn’t caught Seedot on this file before, making it my first new Pokédex entry.
I continue to Oreburgh Gate. The first Pokémon I run into here is a Level 5 Zubat, which I catch and name Baiat. It gets to hold a Lax Incense. I decide to look for more Pokémon here, and after a while, I run into a Level 7 Psyduck. I catch it, nickname it Quack and give it a Mystic Water. I leave the Gate and head through Oreburgh City up to Route 207, where I find and catch a Level 8 Machop. It gets to be named Styrkur, and I give it a Fist Plate.
We’re off to a very good start! Which isn’t too strange, I expect this challenge to go very quickly in the beginning, then get slower and slower the higher I have to go. I’m making this post now, but I’m not done for the day as I plan to keep playing and hopefully make another update later today.
Also, to those who are following this challenge, feel free to suggest Pokémon you think I should catch (nickname suggestions are welcome as well) and I’ll take them into consideration. I have several ideas of my own, but I’d love to get ideas from other people as well.
I have mostly caught low-leveled Pokémon so far, so let’s change things a bit and go for something really high-leveled! I fly back to the Resort Area just to see what I can find here.
Something lurks here, indeed. But what could it be?
You all know what this is about. Since Magikarp can be caught at any level here, I want to catch a high-leveled one. However, I would prefer to not catch one at level 100.
The odds aren’t equal for all levels, unfortunately. But I will give it a try. I start fishing, and quite quickly, I hook a Level 82 Magikarp! I catch it and name it Fishplash. It gets to hold a Splash Plate.
I keep fishing, but the Magikarp I find are at too low levels. Is there any way to increase your odds of finding higher-leveled ones? I search a little, and find this strategy. Now that's something I didn't think of. I know there are several Abilities that have an effect outside of battle, but apart from Synchronize, I tend to forgot about them. I look through my boxes, and find a Delibird with Hustle. I withdraw it, give it a Smoke Ball, and put it in my lead.
I continue fishing, and after a while, I find another Magikarp that’s good enough, this one is at level 80. I catch it and name it Stargazer. I will get back to it later, but for now, it will have to stay in a box.
With that out of the way, let’s go back to the lower levels. I fly to Floaroma Town, the flowery theme of this place is really lovely. What can be found around here? Many things. I go east to the southern part of Route 205, and the first Pokémon I encounter is a Level 9 Shellos-West. I catch it, name it Zlug, and give it a Sea Incense. One thing I have forgotten to mention for this challenge is that different forms will not be considered different species. Now that I have a Shellos-West, I can't use a Shellos-East, nor can I use any other Unown letter since I caught Timeless earlier.
After catching Zlug, I continue north to Eterna Forest, and along the way, I run into a Level 10 Buizel. I catch it and name it Hina, it gets to hold a Wave Incense. There are so many items that boost Water-type moves! Feels really good to get rid of some of them.
Let’s head into Eterna Forest! I love how this place looks in Platinum, the design and the atmosphere makes it feels really cozy. I had also forgotten how big it is. My first encounter here is a Level 11 Buneary, which I catch and name Rabbitears. It gets to hold a Shed Shell. I then find and catch a Wurmple at level 10, I name it Le Pwurm, but it is not done yet. Before leaving the forest, I also catch a Level 12 Silcoon. I name it No So Lic and give it an Insect Plate.
I leave the forest, head out to the northern part of Route 205 and continue to Eterna City. At the Pokémon Center, I withdraw Le Pwurm and give it an Exp. Share. It will be the first Pokémon for the challenge that will get some training! I head out to Route 211 to train it, but it is goes slowly. I enter Mt. Coronet instead, but it is still pretty slow, though Le Pwurm reaches level 11 and evolves into… Cascoon! Nice.
I leave Mt. Coronet, fly to Pastoria and head out to Route 213. The training here isn’t that much better, but a little at least. Le Pwurm reaches level 12 and evolves again, then it grows another level, giving me a Level 13 Dustox. I give it a Poison Barb instead of the Exp. Share. And with that, it is done.
I fly back to Eterna and head out to Route 211 once more. In the grass, I encounter a Level 15 Meditite. I catch it, name it Animus and give it a Mental Herb. I keep looking for more Pokémon, and after a little while, I find a Level 14 Chingling, which I catch. I name it Kengele and give it an Odd Incense.
Where to next? I look at the encounter slots for various nearby areas, then decide on my next destination. I go back to Eterna and withdraw a Scyther which knows Cut. I head down and go through the Cycling Road, then I continue out on the real route, beyond the cuttable trees and into the grass. I quickly find a Level 16 Gligar. I catch it and name it Escorpio. It gets to hold an Earth Plate. I continue looking for Pokémon, and I soon run into a Level 17 Ponyta, which I catch. I name it Sunset and give it a Flame Plate to hold. With that, I’m done here.
I fly to Hearthome and head out to Route 208. My first encounter here is a Level 18 Budew. I catch it and name it June, then I give it a Meadow Plate to hold. Several encounters later, I find a Level 19 Roselia. I catch it, name it Flow, and give it a Black Sludge.
I don’t feel like spending any more time here, so I fly to Veilstone and head out to Route 215, where it rains… just like it has done most of the day where I live. Either way, I head into the grass and after a while, I find a Level 20 Lickitung. It is the hardest capture since Pinsir as it takes me 2 balls to get it. I name it Jack and give it a Lagging Tail.
With that, I have all levels from 1-20. Not a bad first milestone. Next, I want to do something different. I fly to Celestic Town and withdraw a Staravia which knows Defog. I head out to the nothern part of Route 210 and into the grass. After quite a long while, I find what I am looking for, a male Zangoose. I catch it, but it takes two balls here as well, though I decided to catch it in a Premier Ball for style. I name it Axel. It is at level 30, but it is not done yet as I will train it further in the future.
I fly back to Celestic Town… and you know what? I’m stopping here for today. To end this, have some music, a really underrated remix which I can’t get enough of:
I made some really good progress today. I have already caught over one fifth of the Pokémon I need! Too bad not all levels are equally easy to obtain. If that was the case, then I could have completed this in a week. But I will continue, no matter how long it takes.
I'm starting from Celestic Town today. I head back to the northern part of Route 210, there are some Pokémon here that I met yesterday, but didn’t catch. I suppose I should have done that in order to save some time, but it can’t be undone (or perhaps I should say re-done?). So I’ll do it now instead. I head into the grass, where I quickly find and catch myself a Level 27 Swablu. I name it Fluffify and give it a Sky Plate to hold. Immidiately afterwards, I encounter another Swablu, also at level 27. I catch it and name it Cloudsday. It will stay that way for now, but I’ll get back to it later.
Many Swablu later, I find a Level 28 Bibarel. I catch it, name it Majava-2, and give it a Pure Incense. I keep looking as there is one more Pokémon I want from this route. Many encounters later, I finally find a Level 29 Seviper. I switched from Ruby to Sapphire in the GBA slot, and I decided to catch Seviper since I caught Zangoose yesterday. I catch it, name it Repives and give it a Cleanse Tag to hold.
One thing I have noticed about the numbers of the Sinnoh routes is that they are all over the place. Especially in the mid-game, it feels like the routes aren’t ordered by how you are supposed to visit them, nor are they ordered in the way you are likely to visit them for the first time. Compare this to Johto, which is non-linear but still have the Routes numbered in the order you are supposed to go through them. Kanto is mostly the same, with Routes 24/25 being the main exceptions. It has been a while since I played a Hoenn game, I remember that it is a bit similar to Sinnoh in this regard, though probably not as bad. I might be wrong though. This was just something I observed now after flying back and forth a lot in Sinnoh. None of the linear regions have this problem, which is something I appreciate.
Anyway, I leave Route 210 and fly to Sandgem to check today’s Swarming Pokémon. What could it be? The answer is Delibird on Route 217! Let’s go there and catch one! I fly to Snowpoint City, head out to Acuity Lakefront and down to Route 217.
I love snow, both in video games and in reality, so the northernmost areas of Sinnoh are my favorite parts of the region. The music makes it even better.
It is messy and you can barely see a thing, but that’s just how blizzards are.
My first encounter here is a Level 33 Sneasel. I catch it and name it Weavler. I am about to give it the BlackGlasses, but it turns out that it was holding a Grip Claw upon capture, which it might as well keep. The BlackGlasses will be saved for someone else. Soon afterwards, I encounter and catch a Level 34 Swinub. I name it Sikacochon and give it an Icicle Plate to hold. A little later, I finally find a Level 32 Delibird. Took surprisingly long despite the 40% appearance rate. I catch it and name it Santa Cool, it gets to hold a NeverMeltIce.
Now done here, for the moment at least. I fly back to Solaceon, there’s one thing I want to do here. Which is to plant some berries, for the sole reason that I have three different kinds of Mulch in my bag, and I want to get rid of them. Plus, I don’t think I have ever planted any berries on this file before. And I got some really cool event-exclusive berries from injecting wondercards a few years ago. So let’s plant them! I use the Mulch I have and plant Micle, Custap, Jaboca and Rowap Berries. Not sure how long it will take before they are done, but I’ll check back often.
From Solaceon, I head north to the southern part of Route 210 (that sounds strange) and further to Route 215. Here, I encounter many cool Pokémon, including a Level 22 Staravia. I catch it, name it Avya Starr and give it another Sky Plate, as I somehow had two in my bag. However, Avya Starr used Endeavor on my Gallade after I had swiped it down to 1 HP, so I need to go to Veilstone and heal. I do that, and instead of going back afterwards, I head down to Route 214.
Here, I encounter a Level 21 Rhyhorn. I catch it, name it Nose Horn and give it an Earth Plate. Then I meet a Level 23 Houndour. I catch it and name it Dogge Doge. Since Weavler didn’t get the BlackGlasses earlier, I give them to Dogge Doge instead. I continue down to Valor Lakefront. For some odd reason, the levels of the wild Pokémon are a bit higher here, despite being next to Route 214. The first Pokémon I meet here is a level 28 Houndour (which I don’t catch). Another thing I should mention is that I’m not a fan of the music here (and at the Resort Area). I think it sounds a bit too sad, to the point that it becomes almost depressing. One of my least favorite tracks from Sinnoh.
I continue down to Route 213, and meet a Level 25 Wingull. I catch it and name it Galeb. It gets to hold a Light Clay. I head into Pastoria and further to the southern part of Route 212. The first Pokémon I meet here is a Lotad, because I still have Sapphire in the GBA slot. This Lotad is at level 26. I catch it and name it Loco, will get back to it later on. After that, I run into a Level 24 Quagsire, which I catch. I name it Mr. Fishy and give it a Soft Sand.
Now, where to next? I fly to Floaroma, withdraw my Gastrodon and sneak out to Route 205. I head into the water and surf up to Fuego Ironworks. I really love secret/hidden areas in the Pokémon games, and this is a perfect example of such an area. It is really cool. I head into the grass and run into a Magnemite at level 29. Lower than I wanted, but I catch it anyway and name it Mike. Soon afterwards, I meet a Level 30 Floatzel. I catch it and name it Big Hina. It gets to hold a Destiny Knot since I can’t think of anything better, I have gotten rid of so many items in my bag now (which is a good thing) but I want them to be at least somewhat related to the Pokémon that gets to hold them. At least for as long as possible.
With this, I have obtained a Pokémon at every level from 1-30! Now that's a milestone. Before I started, I had prepared boxes which will feature all levels in order, so here’s the first full one:
One done, two and a third left. Though it is a little less in reality since I already have a few Pokémon in the other boxes.
To celebrate, have some music, another track from ALAO. Apart from originals and remixes, he did some covers of various songs, and this is one of my favorites. Despite the name, it is anything but melancholic!
Next up, I decide to train Mike a bit, so I give it an Exp. Share. I saw a Pikachu in the Floaroma Pokémon Center earlier, let’s check it out! Of course, it is a Poké Kid in a Pikachu costume. I beat the kid, but Mike doesn’t get a lot of Exp, it doesn’t even grow a level. I fly down to Jubilife and beat a Reporter in the Pokémon Center here, which is enough for Mike to grow 2 levels! It is about to evolve into Magneton… but I stop it, giving me a Level 31 Magnemite. I give it a Magnet to hold, the most suitable item for it.
After this, I want to do something else. I have quite a lot of Honey in my bag, might as well use it for something. I like the Honey Tree mechanics, but despite that, I never really used them that much in the past. Not sure if I have ever tried them on this file. Well, no time like the present! I slather Honey on six different Honey Trees around Sinnoh, I mark them on my map so I will remember where they are. There are a few Pokémon I sort of want to get from the trees, but there’s nothing forcing me to catch one if I should find one I don’t want. It would also be funny if I should find a Munchlax, because that is the one Pokémon I have never gotten from a honey tree (I always Pal Parked over Snorlax from Gen 3 when I wanted a Snorlax/Munchlax in D/P/P).
In the past, I never learned in detail about how much time needs to pass from when you slather honey to when you can find a Pokémon in the tree, but according to Bulbapedia, it goes like this:
“If the player slathers Honey on a Honey Tree, a wild Pokémon may appear on the tree 6 real-life hours later. If a tree is left unchecked for 24 hours, both the Honey and any Pokémon will be gone. Changing the game system's clock will have no impact on the Honey Tree's timer.”
24 hours, that will give me plenty of time. I’ll check the trees immediately after I get home from work tomorrow. For now, I fly back to Solaceon, and I’m stopping here for today. We’ll have to see what I’ll get from the honey trees, and how long it takes for my berries to grow.
I made some really great progress today as well, even if I didn’t play as much as yesterday. I now have over one third of the levels I need. As long as I can catch Pokémon at the levels I want (or close thereunder) this should keep going quickly.
I feel like if I were doing this, I'd be doing it entirely backwards to you... since the lower-levelled Pokemon will be vastly easier to obtain, I feel like I'd gravitate towards trying to get the really high-levelled mons sooner. Offhand I think the highest levelled wild Pokemon in Platinum would be those in Stark Mountain, which are in the mid-50s? Discounting Arceus/Magikarp, of course. But that still leaves all the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s to go. I can't even think of the easiest way to level quickly in Platinum... Elite Four rematches, I guess?
Did a quick look just now and I'm surprised there's not a "highest-levelled non-legendary wild Pokemon you can find per game" guide easily available online. I'm sure someone must have made something of that nature. Hmmm. Maybe not. A Youtube video informs me that the highest-levelled wild Pokemon in RB is... Ditto, which can be caught as high as level 67 (though Yellow for some reason nerfs that to 65 at its highest). In FRLG, it's... Ditto again, and also Kadabra - both can be level 67 in Cerulean Cave. While in GSC it's Golbat, at level 53; in RS Altaria can be found at level 60, but sadly nothing in Emerald is that powerful.
Also, damn, I just realised how much easier this challenge would be post-Gen IV. O-Powers, easy access to the Lucky Egg, SOS Battles and exp scaling... yeah, this is a pretty tough quest. Looking forward to seeing how you progress.
I also attempted a similar challenge to this in Pearl, nice to see that it's becoming more well known! My progress has been glacially slow, but has been a fun thing to do whenever I return to the game. How I approached this was with the intent to min-max a good amount by looking up the experience requirements per level, and breeding about 30 Zangoose, 20 Seviper, 30 Misdreavus, 10 for some Medium Slow Pokemon (so far undecided) and 10 more for every level ending in 1 as a Pickup Pokemon - mostly Aipom. Each of these have the least experience required for a specific level range due to their experience groups. After reading your posts, I realize your idea of one level per species would make the collection process a lot more fun, given the variety in Pokemon used, and would be more nice to look back on as a memento rather than many boxes of the same Pokemon. Nicknaming them was especially a nice touch.
Misdreavus was particularly chosen because I predicted to have a surplus of Dusk Stones from Pickup by the time I was done with Zangoose (this was correct), but unfortunately I had no other ideas for what to use the Shiny and Dawn Stones for. Most likely it'll be either Roselia or Kirlia if I'm fine with the Zangoose/Seviper imbalance later on, if not I'll stick with Seviper.
While I could've bred the trainee Pokemon on another game and traded them here, I wanted to keep the grind as organic as possible and trading 100 Pokemon over from Platinum or HeartGold felt like such a drag. As such, I bred all of them within Pearl itself, though it realistically would've been a better time-save to trade them if I was going for optimum efficiency.
Anyway, as for some bulk of my progress through the challenge so far and some neat observations: (this is long, so spoilered for brevity)
Most of my time early on was spent in Stark Mountain since I wanted to both shiny hunt and pickup farm as much as possible. Particularly, Stark Mountain has the highest levels of all wild Pokemon in DP! Well, except for Turnback Cave but there is no way I'd dedicate an extra party slot just to Defog when it could be used for Pickup instead - and Ambipom can learn all of the needed HMs to get you to Stark Mountain from the Resort Area. I picked Azelf as my lead of choice to train the Aipom squad first via Exp. Share, mainly thanks to it being the strongest user of Extrasensory: 80 base power with 30 PP makes it an excellent move to spam without needing to retreat for healing (final moveset: Confusion/Water Pulse/Grass Knot/Extrasensory @ Choice Specs - OHKOs every Pokemon in there with proper move allocation). With this, the Aipom squad was about half done, levels 71, 81 and 91 being finished, 91 being the lone Ambipom.
At this point, I was getting a bit annoyed that I had to return and heal as the journey to and from was taking a while (despite the low frequency), so I decided to take a tangent and train up another Level 100 Pokemon to sweep through the hordes of Stark Mountain with even more PP - Scizor. This one was a unique pick because Scizor couldn't actually learn Bullet Punch in DP - so I traded one over from HeartGold specially trained to have the necessary stats to OHKO most Pokemon in there, bar the high Defense Weezings. With a final moveset of Metal Claw/Bullet Punch/Vaccum Wave/Wing Attack @ Wide Lens, it had more than enough PP to get the job done. I was also able to trade over a few PP Ups from there giving this even more longevity. With this, the Aipom squad was completed.
Now, it was time to move onto the Zangoose - and while I finished level 99 for Zangoose #1 in Stark Mountain, it was starting to get a bit boring, with still no shinies found. Though I did have a decent Rare Candy stash from Pickup, I decided to wait on using it as long as possible. I realized that after a point given Zangoose's respectable stats, I could use it to knock out the other Pokemon rather than just holding the Exp Share, and this needed a change of place, turning my attention to trainers instead. The Pokemon League gave out good experience, but it needed a Fly user to easily spam - same situation as Turnback Cave needing an extra party member. Though I did remember one tiny detail that made the grind a lot more fun and bearable...Route 214's PI Carlos!
So our gambler PI Carlos here is a fun NPC. For one, he's easily right next to Veilstone, so going back to heal isn't a chore. But his true purpose is endlessly battling. For his final VS Seeker rematch team, he's got three Seaking - each at Levels 56, 57 and 58. What makes these Seaking so great to train against is their move choice - they only know Horn Drill and Flail! So, if you were to roll up with a higher level or a Ghost type Pokemon, there nearly nothing they can do to damage you, and you can rack up experience like there's no tomorrow. Even the somewhat slow and underlevelled Zangoose are able to outspeed his ace, and if they're Level 57 or higher, there's no risk of Horn Drill shenanigans. So by equipping a Lucky Egg onto the main Zangoose and training up a secondary one with an Exp Share, I'm able to get two trained for the price of one!
Admittedly, while the split experience does lower the effect of the Lucky Egg, it is necessary to keep the cycle going. Zangoose's early access to Swords Dance and good level up moves let it freely set up on the first Seaking and sweep the rest, taking little damage from Flail. Even better is Seaking giving out Attack EVs, so Zangoose is amping up strength a lot faster than you'd expect. It's actually possible to OHKO these fish at a much lower level - minimizing the risk of high power Flail being an issue (+4 Slash is enough for lower levels, +2 for around the same level, and +0 when you're 80 and above), but Horn Drill can really be annoying to deal with early on so it's much better to wait until the trainee Zangoose hits Level 57 to take on the fish.
Unfortunately, Platinum throws a wrench in this plan because now he has only one Seaking, while it is higher levelled at 64, it additionally has Megahorn which could complicate things at lower levels.
Conversely, there's Psychic Abagail just above him, who makes for a good Misdreavus training dummy when I get to that, also awarding Sp. Atk EVs with Ghost weaknesses on her team. Though this fight isn't quite as effortless as Carlos', as her Pokemon have actual moves.
And that's where I currently am - levels 95 to 99 for Zangoose are currently completed, while I'm looking into more areas with varied trainers I could rematch. The trio north of the Fight Area seemed promising, but Scizor is incapable of OHKO'ing the Slowbro or Skarmory there with its current moveset, and while Azelf is able to handle itself with proper move management, the exp yields themselves aren't particularly great. More importantly, the trainees can't reliably defeat these opponents, even if they're around level 60! Perhaps eventually I'll find a different training spot with easy PC access, but until then PI Carlos' value will be hard to beat.
For me, this challenge started about a year and a half ago, and I've worked on it occasionally for a few minutes every few days or weeks. In turn, that is also why my progress has been really slow. That being said I'm sure you'll be a lot faster than I am, so don't feel discouraged at my slow pace. After completing my recent run of Pearl there wasn't too much to do otherwise and my interest in the game dropped, but a fun endless quest would be a good way to always have something to do when I did return. And that's what I treated this as essentially, which is why I don't feel the need to rush ahead with it.
I feel like if I were doing this, I'd be doing it entirely backwards to you... since the lower-levelled Pokemon will be vastly easier to obtain, I feel like I'd gravitate towards trying to get the really high-levelled mons sooner. Offhand I think the highest levelled wild Pokemon in Platinum would be those in Stark Mountain, which are in the mid-50s? Discounting Arceus/Magikarp, of course. But that still leaves all the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 90s to go. I can't even think of the easiest way to level quickly in Platinum... Elite Four rematches, I guess?
I can see where you’re coming from, and I’m planning to do something similar later on. Once I am done with the lower levels, I am planning to do the higher high levels first, then the lower high levels, but not exactly. It is hard to explain, and I’d rather not spoil my plans too much, so I’ll leave it with that for now.
While the lower levels are much easier to obtain, the main reason I’m doing them first is because there are less options for them. Without breeding, there are not many Pokémon that can be found at level 2. But the higher you get, the more options you get. For level 10, you have plenty to choose from. And once you get to level 55, I think every single non-legendary is available as an option (unless there’s something that can only be caught at level 56 or above, but I don’t think so). That’s why I’m starting with the lower levels.
I have looked at the encounter slots a bit, and outside of the Magikarp at Resort Area, the levels of wild Pokémon in Platinum seem to cap at around level 55. As for training, there’s also the Vs. Seeker, the Battleground, and trainers in Pokémon Centers. Dragonflycave has a very useful VS. Seeker guide, which I might use to start with. Though after a while, I’ll probably remember where the best training spots are. I have trained a bunch of Pokémon to high levels in Platinum in the past, so I know that the game has quite good training spots, even if they are by no means the best in the series.
Did a quick look just now and I'm surprised there's not a "highest-levelled non-legendary wild Pokemon you can find per game" guide easily available online. I'm sure someone must have made something of that nature. Hmmm. Maybe not. A Youtube video informs me that the highest-levelled wild Pokemon in RB is... Ditto, which can be caught as high as level 67 (though Yellow for some reason nerfs that to 65 at its highest). In FRLG, it's... Ditto again, and also Kadabra - both can be level 67 in Cerulean Cave. While in GSC it's Golbat, at level 53; in RS Altaria can be found at level 60, but sadly nothing in Emerald is that powerful.
I’m not sure if such a guide exists either, though I have never tried to find one. Either way, I took a quick look at D/P just to compare, and it appears that these games have wild Pokémon at considerably higher levels than Platinum. You can find wild Golbat, Haunter and Bronzong up to level 66 in Turnback Cave! This was kept in BD/SP, but unfortunately nerfed quite hard in Platinum since the area becomes accessible much earlier there. The wild Pokémon in Stark Mountain are also at higher levels in D/P than in Platinum. I guess D/P aren’t completely without merit for a challenge like this.
Also, damn, I just realised how much easier this challenge would be post-Gen IV. O-Powers, easy access to the Lucky Egg, SOS Battles and exp scaling... yeah, this is a pretty tough quest. Looking forward to seeing how you progress.
Yeah, it would have been a lot easier in one of the modern generations, I think it would have been the very easiest in Gen 6. O-Powers, the new Exp. Share, plus easy grinding against Audino trainers at the Battle Chateau in X/Y, or Blissey bases in OR/AS. Platinum will be harder, but it should be feasible since it has solid training spots, unlike certain other games (looking at you, HG/SS).
I also attempted a similar challenge to this in Pearl, nice to see that it's becoming more well known! My progress has been glacially slow, but has been a fun thing to do whenever I return to the game. How I approached this was with the intent to min-max a good amount by looking up the experience requirements per level, and breeding about 30 Zangoose, 20 Seviper, 30 Misdreavus, 10 for some Medium Slow Pokemon (so far undecided) and 10 more for every level ending in 1 as a Pickup Pokemon - mostly Aipom. Each of these have the least experience required for a specific level range due to their experience groups. After reading your posts, I realize your idea of one level per species would make the collection process a lot more fun, given the variety in Pokemon used, and would be more nice to look back on as a memento rather than many boxes of the same Pokemon. Nicknaming them was especially a nice touch.
Cool! I didn’t know other people had tried this sort of challenge as well. I searched a little but couldn't find anything like this, the only things I found were guides and info about how to reach levels 41+ in Pokémon Go. Though maybe I just searched for the wrong words/terms, don’t know if this type of challenge has an “official” name (like the living dex does). Your approach is very interesting (and very different from mine). A high-level Pickup user is something I have thought about, maybe I’ll give it a spin if I can find an Aipom or Zigzagoon.
As you say, having 100 different species just felt more fun, the same goes for nicknaming them. That said, in some early ideas I had for this challenge, those things weren’t included. Initially, I was thinking about just obtaining a Pokémon at every level, with multiple of the same species being an option, and Pokémon I already had could have been included as well. This would have allowed me to use members of my in-game team and some others (like my high-leveled legendaries and mythicals from events, can’t check right now but I think I have a few). But as I kept thinking about how to do this, I changed things and added more restrictions just to make it more of a challenge, and more fun!
Misdreavus was particularly chosen because I predicted to have a surplus of Dusk Stones from Pickup by the time I was done with Zangoose (this was correct), but unfortunately I had no other ideas for what to use the Shiny and Dawn Stones for. Most likely it'll be either Roselia or Kirlia if I'm fine with the Zangoose/Seviper imbalance later on, if not I'll stick with Seviper.
While I could've bred the trainee Pokemon on another game and traded them here, I wanted to keep the grind as organic as possible and trading 100 Pokemon over from Platinum or HeartGold felt like such a drag. As such, I bred all of them within Pearl itself, though it realistically would've been a better time-save to trade them if I was going for optimum efficiency.
I wish Misdreavus (and Murkrow, for that matter) were available in Platinum. Mismagius and Honchkrow are really cool Pokémon, and since I can’t get them, my Dusk Stones will be completely useless. I’ll probably give them as hold items to random Pokémon later on. I think I have some Shiny stones as well, maybe I’ll make some use of them since I have thought about training both Togekiss and Roserade in the future. I think I also have a Dawn Stone in my bag, despite having used both Gallade and Froslass on my in-game team.
Breeding/catching the Pokémon on another game and then trading them to Platinum would have helped for the ones that need training, but it would have been a bit tedious to trade them over, and it would make things less challenging. This is something I have done in the past, but for completely different reasons. When I made training squads on HG/SS in 2015 (to help with training when completing the Pokédex), I first bred them in my two copies of HeartGold, then traded over them to Platinum (giving them boosted Exp) where I trained them to level 70. I then traded them to HG/SS, but I made sure they weren’t in the same game they were bred in, thus giving them even more boosted Exp! They got a lot of good training that way and all of them (six in total, three on each game) ended up reaching level 90 in the end, which was cool but unexpected.
Anyway, as for some bulk of my progress through the challenge so far and some neat observations: (this is long, so spoilered for brevity)
For me, this challenge started about a year and a half ago, and I've worked on it occasionally for a few minutes every few days or weeks. In turn, that is also why my progress has been really slow. That being said I'm sure you'll be a lot faster than I am, so don't feel discouraged at my slow pace. After completing my recent run of Pearl there wasn't too much to do otherwise and my interest in the game dropped, but a fun endless quest would be a good way to always have something to do when I did return. And that's what I treated this as essentially, which is why I don't feel the need to rush ahead with it.
This was a very interesting read, thanks for sharing your notes and strategies! Platinum buffed some VS. Seeker trainers, while others got nerfed, but I still think Platinum has the upper hand over D/P when it comes to training spots, mainly thanks to the additions of the Battleground and a stronger E4 during rematches. I hope you can complete your challenge eventually! I’ll continue with mine for now, I’m hoping to be done with it sometime during the summer, preferably before my vacation starts. But we’ll see how long it takes.
...
Haven’t played since my last post (I’m posting this from work), but there was one rule I should clarify. Once a Pokémon has reached a desired level and been added to the list of completed Pokémon, it can’t be changed. For instance, I obtained Nose Horn the Rhyhorn at Level 21 yesterday. Since it has been added, I can’t train it any further in the future, nor can another Pokémon at level 21 take its place. Just wanted to make this clear.
When I got home today, I checked my bag and PC. I have 3 Dusk Stones, 2 Shiny Stones and 1 Dawn Stone. Plus several other stones and various other evolutionary items. I might use some of them during this challenge, we’ll see. Some notable Pokémon in my PC are a level 100 Arceus, another one at level 80 (not fully legitimate since the Azure Flute was never officially released), a level 100 Regigigas, as well as various other legends and events at level 50-70. And my level 47 Giratina, of course. But none of them will be used for this challenge… and maybe they will never be used for anything at all, sad as it is.
Back to the challenge. I checked my berry trees, but none of them were done. In fact, they were all still at the first stage. I guess this will take some time. I watered them and left them for now.
After that, it was time to check my Honey Trees! Tree 1 had nothing, which made me wonder if I had misunderstood how they work regarding time. But I hadn’t, there is simply a chance you might get nothing, which is just what happened here. I continue to tree 2, and it has a Pokémon! What could it be? Let’s check.
…
No way. Are you kidding me? What are the odds of this?
Big enough for it to happen, apparently. Since I didn’t know where any of my Munchlax trees were located, the odds of this were 4/21 x 1/100, which is 0,0019, or 0,2%. I think so at least (I’m not the best at math). I hope I’ll have this luck whenever I go back to trying to beat the Battle Factory in my main Platinum file.
Obviously, I have to catch this. I use False Swipe and learn that this Munchlax holds a Leftovers. I catch it in a few balls and name it Lucky Lax. It will be trained later on. I remove the Leftovers from it now, but will give it back later.
The Lucky Honey Tree. Never forget.
While I’m at it, I might as well check where my other Munchlax trees are, just for fun. I know my SID and by using a calculator, I learn that the other three trees are at Route 205 North, Route 213 and Route 221. Nice. Though I don’t need another Munchlax. Funny how this was my first wild Munchlax in Gen 4, it happened when I didn’t need it at all.
I continue by checking the other trees. Tree 3 has nothing. Tree 4 has a Wurmple. Hard pass, so I defeat it. Tree 5 has a Male Burmy at level 11. Now this could be something. I catch it and name it Toast. It will be trained later on. Tree 6 has another Burmy, which I defeat.
Very unexpected results from the Honey Trees today (but in a good way). I have more Honey in my bag, so I’ll continue with the Honey Trees later on. For now, I fly to Sandgem and check today’s Swarm, which turns out to be Electrike at Valley Windworks. Very nice. I’m a big fan of Manectric, but the levels are a little too low, so I’ll pass on this one for now.
Before I go back to catching more Pokémon, I am going to train a Pokémon. If I have a Pokémon that can help with training others, it can get some training of its own along the way, which will speed things up a (little) bit. Basically, two Staraptor with one Rock Slide!
I withdraw Stargazer, the second Magikarp I caught earlier. It is at level 80 and needs 24301 Exp. to grow a level. Now this will be a grind. Since it can’t beat anything reasonably strong on its own, I’ll have to count on my in-game team members to help it. I give Stargazer an Exp. Share and head to the Battleground.
Three trainers are here today, Maylene, Roark and Buck. I beat them all but they are tougher than expected, my team members can’t OHKO all of their Pokémon and I take a lot of damage, so I have to heal after beating Buck and Roark. I then beat Maylene as well. Stargazer doesn’t grow a level, but it gets a lot of Exp, needing only 4842 more to grow a level afterwards.
I fly to Resort Area, head north to Route 229 and use the VS. Seeker to rematch the two Ace Trainers here. They give even more Exp. to Stargazer, it grows to level 81 and evolves into Gyarados! Nice. Though it is still far from done. But now it should be able to defeat Pokémon on its own… though it needs better moves first. Splash, Tackle and Flail won’t do. I teach it Waterfall through HM… only to notice that scrolling down to the bottom of my TM bag takes a while. I have a ton of unused TMs, maybe I should get rid of some of them? Notably the useless ones. I have to remember that later on.
I fly to Pastoria and head to the move relearner, I have a bunch of Heart Scales that I might as well use for this challenge. I teach Stargazer Ice Fang and Dragon Dance, replacing Tackle and Splash. It can keep Flail for now, but I’ll probably replace it with something else later on. I also give it an Amulet Coin to hold instead of the Exp. Share. Might as well farm for some money along the way, chances are I’m going to need it.
Now, back to catching some Pokémon! I fly to Snowpoint City and head out to Acuity Lakefront since there are some more icy Pokémon I want to catch. I encounter and catch a Level 35 Snover. I name it Enjunju. I was about to give it a Rose Incense, but it holds a NeverMeltIce and might as well keep it. I thought about catching something more here, but decided not to. Instead, I fly to Sunyshore and head out to Route 222.
Here, the first Pokémon I encounter is a Level 41 Electabuzz. I catch it and name it Wacke, it gets to hold an Electirizer. I’m not going to evolve it, but it is a very suitable hold item either way. My next encounter is a Luxio at level 40. I was planning to catch it, but it used Roar to end the battle. Too bad. I head to Veilstone to heal (Wacke had paralyzed my Gallade), then I head out again. Now, I encounter a Level 38 Chatot. It turns out to be my toughest capture so far. I swipe it down to 1 HP and paralyze it, but it just won’t stay in the balls. It also knows Roost to heal itself, forcing me to swipe it down again, which is annoying. After maybe 10 balls, I finally get it in a Repeat Ball. I name it Parrot Top and give it a Sticky Barb to hold.
I decide to stop here for today, mainly since I have to charge my DS. I fly back to Solaceon to check on the berries, and three of them have grown into the second stage. Nice. I water them again, and do one more thing unrelated to the challenge. Since I have the Adamant/Lustrous/Griseous Orbs in my bag, I withdraw my three Sinnoh dragons and give them their correct orb. Three less items to scroll past next time I need to dig out something from my bag.
Didn’t get a lot done today, but that’s okay. I wasn’t sure if I should make a new post, but I felt like I had to after what happened with the Munchlax. More next time.
This seems quite interesting. At first I thought you meant all Pokémon at every level and I was like “Yh box space lol” I remember on Ultra Moon I got half way through breeding all competitives. On AS I started breeding a shiny dex. It would look even better if #1 was level 1 etc although you’d have to get the other 2 starters.
This seems quite interesting. At first I thought you meant all Pokémon at every level and I was like “Yh box space lol” I remember on Ultra Moon I got half way through breeding all competitives. On AS I started breeding a shiny dex. It would look even better if #1 was level 1 etc although you’d have to get the other 2 starters.
Thank you! And yeah, getting all Pokémon at all (possible) levels would have required a ton of box space, plus it would have been an insane grind. Just one Pokémon for every level is enough for me.
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I played quite a lot yesterday, but didn't make a post, so here's an update from both yesterday and today.
Part 5: A New Side of the World
Yesterday’s Swarm was Beldum. I would have loved to catch one or even three, but the fact that it has a catch rate of 3 and its only move is Take Down makes it a hard pass. Instead, time to catch some other Pokémon. I fly to Snowpoint and head out to Lake Acuity. I am a big fan of the lakes in Sinnoh, they are nice and the atmosphere is great.
I surf to the grass, the first Pokémon I catch here is a Snover at level 38, which I name Snowblind. I will get back to it soon. After that, I catch a Level 39 Golduck, which I name Cataquack. It gets to hold a Dusk Stone since I have three but have no use for them.
I leave the lake and fly to Sunyshore, where I head north to Route 223. Haven’t done a lot of surfing and fishing, so it is time for a little bit of it. Surfing here, I run into a Level 47 Tentacruel. That was a surprisingly high level. I catch it, name it Ultra Bleh and give it another Dusk Stone. Soon afterwards, I encounter a Mantyke at level 35. I want to catch it, but it is a little tricky. I can’t use False Swipe since it has Take Down. I paralyze it with Magnezone and let my HM slave Staravia (which I had in my party) use Endeavor, bringing the Mantyke to low HP. I catch it and name it Mantini. It will stay that way for the moment, but I’ll get back to it soon. After catching Mantini, I do some fishing. I encounter a lot of Gyarados at first, then I manage to fish up a Wailmer at level 33. I catch it and name it Whalemore.
I have caught three Pokémon which aren't on their desired level, which means that it is training time! I fly to the Survival Area, withdraw Whalemore and give it an Exp. Share. There are four trainers at the Battleground today: Marley, Fantina, Candice and Wake. I beat Marley and Fantina, which makes Whalemore grow three whole levels, giving me a Level 36 Wailmer. It gets to hold a Full Incense. I also teach it Double Team through TM. This is a new addition to the challenge, which I hinted at last time. For the Pokémon that I train, I will try to use one or more TMs on them, the usefulness of the TM(s) depends on how far I’m planning to train the Pokémon in question.
I deposit Whalemore and withdraw Mantini instead, giving it the Exp. Share. Back to the Battleground, where I battle Candice. I use Stargazer against her and almost manage a full sweep after 2 Dragon Dances, but unfortunately, Stargazer falls against her Glaceon. I miss with Waterfall due to Hail+Snow Cloak, and Glaceon uses Blizzard, which is enough for a KO because of the damage Stargazer had taken previously. I was still quite impressed though. Either way, this battle causes Mantini to grow a level. I go out to Route 225 afterwards, and after beating some wild Pokémon, Mantini grows another level, giving me a Level 37 Mantyke. I give it an Oval Stone to hold and teach it Attract through TM.
One more Pokémon to train. I deposit Mantini and withdraw Snowblind, which gets the Exp. Share. I beat Wake, causing Snowblind to grow a level. I then fly to Resort Area and head out to Route 228 where I use the VS. Seeker to battle the first two trainers on the route. This makes Snowblind grow another level and evolve, making it a Level 40 Abomasnow. I give it the Rose Incense which was meant for Enjunju earlier. I also teach it Frustration and Bullet Seed. With all of this, I have all Pokémon from level 1-40! Another milestone reached.
Now, where to next? I need to find Pokémon at level 42 and above. In order to do that, I fly to the lower part of the Pokémon League and enter Victory Road. Here, I find a Level 42 Graveler. I catch it and name it Microdeval. It is holding an Everstone, which it might as well keep. However, I realize that I should have brought an Escape Rope with me, since exiting Victory Road otherwise will be a pain if I get too far in. I fly to Sunyshore and buy an Escape Rope, then I go back. My first encounter now is a Level 43 Rhydon. I catch it and name it Rhi-no, it gets to hold a Protector.
I continue looking for more Pokémon, but find nothing interesting on this floor, and I’m a bit unsure about how to get to the other floors. It has been a long while since I last traveled through the Sinnoh Victory Road, and I don’t have a map. I decide to leave, but along the way, I run into a Gabite at level 41. Since it is a rare encounter, and since I had been thinking about training one later on, I catch it and name it Cave Shark, it will be put on hold for now.
I leave and head to the upper part of Pokémon League, where I go down the waterfall and enter Victory Road from the backside. I head down to B1F, where I find and catch a Level 44 Golbat. I name it Guldbat and give it an Everstone. I continue up to 2F where I find a Steelix at level 44. I think this and Gengar are the only trade evolutions that can be caught in the wild in D/P/P, correct me if I’m wrong. Either way, it is too cool to pass up on. I catch it and name it Ironix, will train it later on. I feel done with Victory Road now, so I use my Escape Rope to get out.
Let’s go to the post-game areas! I fly to Fight Area and head out to Route 225. Here, I catch myself a Level 49 Fearow. I name it Birb and give it a Razor Claw since I had two in my bag… and maybe I'll actually use the second one later on? Haven’t decided yet. I encounter more wild Pokémon, and soon find a Level 50 Machoke. I catch it and name it Echo-Mak. It gets to hold another Protector since I had 2 of those as well.
Yesterday was drawing to an end, but before I was done, I decided to do last thing. Once more, I fly around to various Honey Trees to slather them with Honey. This time, I make sure to avoid all of my Munchlax Trees since I have no need for a second Munchlax. Random thought, but I wish there was a Honey Tree checker app on the Pokétch. There’s a Berry checker, so a Honey Tree checker would have been nice too. Or maybe there could have been a Honey Tree function on the Berry checker app? Just a random thought. For now, I use my marking map to mark the locations where I placed the Honey.
Today, I checked the Honey Trees when I got home in the afternoon. The results were 2 Burmy, 2 Combee (both male), a Cherubi, and nothing. I didn’t catch any of them. I thought about catching the Cherubi, but decided to skip it. I still have some Honey left, so my Honey Tree adventures aren’t over quite yet.
Today’s swarm was Snubbull, but I didn’t catch one. Didn’t really feel like it. I’ll keep checking the swarms every day, but from now on, I’ll only write about them if they feature a Pokémon that I catch.
Where to next? My current level targets are 45-46. I thought about going to Turnback Cave since Serebii had listed that you could catch Pokémon at level 45-46 there, but upon checking Bulbapedia, that turned out to be wrong. While Pokémon at those levels are programmed into the game, they can’t be caught legitimately. Serebii, I am very disappointed. I go to Lake Valor instead. I try find a good Seaking through fishing here, but I mostly find Gyarados, and the few Seaking I find are all at too low levels. So I give up.
Instead, I fly to Fight Area and head out to Route 230, where I surf in the water. My first encounter here is a Level 45 Pelipper. I catch it and name it Pelly Khan. It gets to hold a Rock Incense. A little later, I meet a Level 46 Sealeo, which I catch and name Nardo. I give it a Hard Stone.
With that, I have all levels from 1-50, and I am halfway done with the challenge! Have some party music to celebrate:
I stay on Route 230 a little longer and head into the grass, just to see what I can find. First a bunch of Pelipper, then I find a Weepinbell at level 49, which I catch and name 2Leaf. I’ll train it later. I leave and head to Route 228, since I haven’t caught anything here yet. My first encounter is a Level 52 Cacturne. I catch it and name it Sagu Aro. It gets to hold a Miracle Seed. A little later, I meet a Level 51 Dugtrio, which I catch and name Digneton. It gets to hold a Dusk Stone, the last one I had.
Decided to stop here for now. I am almost at the point where I have gotten all Pokémon that can be caught directly on their desired level. Just a few more, then it is grinding time.
No photos this time since I couldn’t think of anything relevant to show. I hope that doesn't make this post too boring to read! I'll be sure to include at least one photo in every post from now on. Either way, my progress during the past two days has been great. But it will soon slow down. I’m busy tomorrow so there will be no update then, expect the next one on Saturday.
In terms of levels to just catch:
Base game has wild Pokemon ranging from level 2 to 62 (of all things, Vaporeon that show up in Area Zero takes this honor).
6* Raids offer level 75 Pokemon and there's a level 75 Tera Dragonite wandering around elsewhere.
With DLC, Kitakami's wild Pokemon can get from 50 to 74 in the post game, with certain set spawns getting to 76 and an inexplicable level 86 Tera Lampent. Blueberry Academy also has a high level range
In terms of grinding:
EXP candies are in abundance if you decide to go deep on raids or just circle the region exploring and gathering every sparkle spot you see. This makes them much easier to get than SWSH or L:A
As outlined above, there's a lot of spots around the region to beat up for levels that suit what you want. This includes wild Chansey and sometimes Blissey.
If you want trainer EXP you have a variety of replayable trainer fights with high leveled Pokemon with the Academy tournament, the Team Star rematches and if you have the DLC the League Club.
If you have any gifts or legends on the table you also get access to things like weird levels (66 ruinous legends, 72 raidon, 85 terapagos, 88 pecharunt, trade poekmon at various levels, etc)
There's also such a variety of Pokemon between the areas you could probably get one of each level 2-76 without having to grind anyone to those levels or doubling up on lines
I want to do a run where I make the most of egg moves. I think it’s a shame that Bulbasaur can’t make sure of petal dance in gen 3 for example. The 3 star restaurant in XY is dumb for xp lol especially if you abuse o-powers.
In terms of levels to just catch:
Base game has wild Pokemon ranging from level 2 to 62 (of all things, Vaporeon that show up in Area Zero takes this honor).
6* Raids offer level 75 Pokemon and there's a level 75 Tera Dragonite wandering around elsewhere.
With DLC, Kitakami's wild Pokemon can get from 50 to 74 in the post game, with certain set spawns getting to 76 and an inexplicable level 86 Tera Lampent. Blueberry Academy also has a high level range
In terms of grinding:
EXP candies are in abundance if you decide to go deep on raids or just circle the region exploring and gathering every sparkle spot you see. This makes them much easier to get than SWSH or L:A
As outlined above, there's a lot of spots around the region to beat up for levels that suit what you want. This includes wild Chansey and sometimes Blissey.
If you want trainer EXP you have a variety of replayable trainer fights with high leveled Pokemon with the Academy tournament, the Team Star rematches and if you have the DLC the League Club.
If you have any gifts or legends on the table you also get access to things like weird levels (66 ruinous legends, 72 raidon, 85 terapagos, 88 pecharunt, trade poekmon at various levels, etc)
There's also such a variety of Pokemon between the areas you could probably get one of each level 2-76 without having to grind anyone to those levels or doubling up on lines
Good points. I think ScaVio would be pretty easy games for a challenge like this, not sure if they would be the very easiest but maybe you're right about that. I know from experience that training is very easy in the Indigo Disk, my team got to level 100 even if I wasn't really trying. And in addition to the things you mentioned, ScaVio don't have any random encounters, and you can see the levels of wild Pokémon directly on the overworld, which makes it easy to avoid anything that's at a level you don't want/need. Playing Platinum again has once more made me realize how terrible random encounters are... I'm glad they have been removed in the newer generations.
Part 6: The Longest Road
Yesterday was Friday, and I was considering catching a Drifloon at Valley Windworks, but decided not to. Maybe another time. There will be more Fridays before this challenge is over. Instead, I caught some other Pokémon. Yesterday’s Swarm was Krabby at Route 226. Since it appears at a reasonably high level, and since I was planning to go there anyway, I ended up catching a Krabby at level 49, which I named Edgepawn. To be trained later.
I continue to Route 227, where I run into a Level 53 Camerupt, which I catch and name Plumerupt. It was holding a Rawst Berry, which it gets to keep. I go north to Stark Mountain.
This is one of the many areas Platinum definitely changed for the better. The addition of falling ash and lava really makes it feel more like an actual volcano.
I head inside, and manage to get past the first Strength puzzle after a while. Annoying how you have to go through it every single time, make me wish Strength puzzles were one and done like in Gen 5. Either way, I reach the interior of Stark Mountain. I meet a wild Weezing at level 54, but it uses Explosion before I can catch it, defeating Gallade! I then meet a Level 55 Magcargo. I catch it and name it Lava Snale, it gets to hold a Stone Plate. I then meet another Weezing at level 54, I let my Togekiss use Flamethrower against it, but it turns out to be too much and the Weezing faints. Too bad. I keep looking, and run into a Koffing at level 53. Not quite what I wanted, but it will have to do. I catch it and name it Poimog.
I leave and head down to Route 226 again, there’s one more Pokémon I want to get from here. I have yet to use the PokéRadar, so I want to use it to catch an elusive Pokémon! I make some preparations, but when scrolling to the step counter app in my Pokétch, I notice on the berry checker app that some of my berries have finished growing! So I fly to Solaceon first.
Rare Berries obtained! Will I ever use them for anything? Maybe as hold items for Pokémon that I complete later in the challenge...
Only three of the berry trees were done, though. For the fourth one, I think I used a Mulch which slows down the growth time a fair bit. But that’s fine, I can wait. I head back to Route 226 and use the Poké Radar. I never used it that much in the past, so I’m definitely not an expert on it. When I played D/P/P in the past, the only thing I used it for was to catch the Pokémon that were exclusive to it. I never bothered trying to chain for shinies, or getting high chains in general. Pretty sure my highest chain is 24. Either way, I use it a little now. First, I run into two Krabby, then I find my target, a Primeape. It is at level 50. I catch it and name it Babian. It will be trained soon.
Before I get started on that though, I’m going to train Poimog a little bit. I head to the Survival Area, withdraw it and give it the Exp. Share. I battle Roark at the Battleground, which gives Poimog quite a lot of Exp. I then go out to Route 225 and beat a wild Fearow, causing Poimog to grow a level and evolve… but I stop it from doing that, giving me a Level 54 Koffing. I give it a Magmarizer to hold. I also teach it Swagger through TM.
With that, I have all Pokémon from level 1-55. I have nothing left that can be caught directly at the level I want it. Which means that next up… it is training time. Or grinding time, depending on how you want to look at it. I already have Fishplash the Magikarp at level 82, so I need to obtain 44 other Pokémon at levels 56-100. I expect this to take a while. My plan is to train these Pokémon in teams of six at a time, which means I will have to train 7 teams + 2 extra Pokémon. But before I can start, I need to put together the first team. I have already decided on the members, but I don’t have all of them yet. Still need to catch two more.
Today, I went Route 229 in the morning, where I caught Ledian at level 50, which I named Key Maid. To be trained later. I have trained a Ledian to level 85 on Diamond, so I know that it can be trained to be pretty good (relatively speaking) if you just try. After catching it, I fly around to various Honey Trees and use my five last pieces of Honey.
Next, I should get the two last members for my first team. I start by going to Eterna Forest where I use the Poké Radar again, this time to catch myself a Nincada at level 12, which I name Earthfly. Then I fly to Canalave where I do some fishing. I had hoped to catch a Lumineon at a high level, but they just refuse to appear! I first catch a Staryu at level 50, which I name Stairs. To be trained later on. It holds a Stardust, which I remove and sell. I then settle for a Lumineon at level 40 (had hoped for one at level 55, but I don’t have infinite time or patience), which I name Neon Blue.
With that, I have all six members of my first team! But before I start for real, I want to make sure they are all fully evolved. I fly to the Survival Area, withdraw Cloudsday the Swablu and give it an Exp. Share. Since it is Saturday today, I can battle my rival! So I decide to do that. I battle him, then I go into the Battleground, where today’s trainers are Cheryl, Candice, Gardenia and Byron. I battle Cheryl first, but I had forgotten that she leads with a Wobbuffet, which makes me believe she is secretly a sadist in disguise. At least I’ll never forget that now. Anyway, I beat Cheryl, Candice and Gardenia, Stargazer manages to sweep Candice this time (though I had to use a Max Potion), and after all these battles, Cloudsday evolves into Altaria!
I deposit it and withdraw Earthfly instead, which gets the Exp. Share. I beat Byron, which gives Earthfly a bit of training, and Stargazer grows to level 82 during the battle, which is nice. After that, I beat a trainer with the VS. Seeker as well as a wild Pokémon, which makes Earthfly grow to level 20 and evolve into Ninjask! I thought about getting a Shedinja alongside it, but I decided not to. I guess it could technically be allowed for the challenge since it doesn't really break my rules. While it isn’t a capture, it isn’t exactly a gift Pokémon either. But it would probably be annoying to train to a high level, so I scrapped it. Anyway, with Earthfly evolved, I withdraw Cloudsday, Axel, Neon Blue and Babian. Those, together with Stargazer, will be my first team.
Now this is an odd team. Will it even work? I’m about to find out.
Why did I pick these six? Altaria, Lumineon, Ninjask and Zangoose were chosen because they are all in the Erratic Exp. group, which means they only need 600,000 Exp to get to level 100. Thus, training them to high levels should be pretty easy (in theory, at least). Gyarados since I already have one at a high level, Primeape because I felt a Fighting-type might be good, and it could be caught at a quite high level. Out of these Pokémon, Lumineon is the only one I have never used before. Though it has been a very long time since I last used Ninjask and Zangoose. To prepare a little, I gave the team all the vitamins I had in my bag and taught them some new moves through TM and the move relearner. Now, they just need to get stronger. Much stronger.
Before starting the challenge, I had traded over a Lucky Egg from Diamond to make things a bit easier. You need to prepare well if you want to win, and there's no need to make things take more time just for the sake of it. I started a little on the training today, got both Earthfly and Axel to level 31. But there’s still a long way to go.
In the afternoon, I also checked my Honey Trees. The results were: Burmy, Cherubi, 2 Male Combee, and nothing. I had hoped to get a Heracross or Aipom, but I can live without them. I am done with the Honey Trees for now since I have no more Honey, but maybe I’ll give them another chance later on, not sure.
It will probably be a while before the next update. I don’t know how long it will take me to train those six to the level I have planned to get them to, and I think I’ll play a little less every day from now on. I have played Platinum so much for the past week that I haven’t had much time over for other games!
Once again, feel free to leave suggestions for Pokémon you think I should train in the future, nickname suggestions are welcome too, and I will take them into consideration.
It has been two weeks since my last update, but now, it is finally time for another one. I wanted to post this yesterday, but it became too late and I was tired, so I decided to wait until today. I have played a lot since last time, and many things have happened, so this will be a long post. I’ll go over everything, but not in chronological order.
First of all, my last berries had finished growing. I got 5 Micle Berries! Don’t think I’ll plant any more berries now as I don’t have more Mulch to get rid of, and I’m not exactly in dire need of more berries either.
Next, the team I have been training. There’s a lot to say about it. First of all, this is what the team members look like right now:
They have grown a lot. But none of them are done yet. I’m planning to go back to them and train them even further in the future.
Since I’m going to make seven teams, I have decided to give a name to every team, because it is more fun that way! This team has been named Stargazer’s Dreamchasers.
In order to hopefully make this somewhat interesting, I’ll share the details for the team, as well as some short thoughts on both the team members and the team on the whole.
Cloudsday could have gone either Physical, Special or mixed, but since it has an Adamant Nature, I decided to make it a Physical Dragon Dance attacker. Since I still had the Dragon Claw TM, I decided to make use of it here. Pluck for secondary STAB, it rarely got to steal any berries though. I wanted to use Earthquake, but since I didn’t have the TM, I couldn’t. I considered Steel Wing as well, but decided to not use it. Fly was mainly for the HM, but I used it in battles occasionally if I needed a slightly stronger Flying-type move.
Overall, Cloudsday was pretty good. It has solid bulk which gives it plenty of opportunities to boost, Natural Cure is also a great Ability. That said, it was pretty weak and slow before boosting, so dancing was pretty much necessary most of the time. It didn’t have the best coverage either. But it worked.
Neon Blue
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Lonely
- Surf
- Ice Beam
- Silver Wind
- Rain Dance
I decided to make Neon Blue a Rain Dance sweeper since it has Swift Swim, and the Rain gives Surf a boost as well. Sadly, it doesn’t get a whole lot of good coverage options outside of Ice Beam. I considered U-Turn, but went with Silver Wind in the end. Not the most useful move, but better than nothing. A Lonely Nature is far from optimal, but it is at least not a major hindrance. Though I really wish it had been Modest.
Overall, Neon Blue was unfortunately pretty weak. Surf hits pretty hard during Rain or if it is super effective, but other than that, it had a hard time scoring KOs. Ice Beam even failed to OHKO a Noctowl at 10 levels lower! That said, it is pretty fast during Rain, and it was sometimes surprisingly fast outside of Rain too. It was also bulky enough to take at least one hit, allowing it to set up Rain. Not the best, but still okay.
Earthfly's moveset is pretty obvious. Dig is an excellent move since it allows it to hit Electric-, Fire-, Rock- and Steel-types for super effective damage, while also dodging the opponent’s move and getting a free Speed Boost at the same time! It doesn’t have to worry about being hit by Earthquake or Magnitude thanks to being a Flying-type. Dig feels like it was a move made for Ninjask. I considered Baton Pass, but decided to not go with it, and I think it was for the better. Earthfly is really fast, so a Sassy Nature made no difference. It benefits from the Sp.def boost while the lower Speed makes no difference as it will outrun everything anyway, and if it doesn’t, it will after it has gotten one or a few Speed Boosts.
Overall, Earthfly was great. It could potentially set up and then sweep entire opposing teams as long as it got the opportunity. Strong enough STABs, solid coverage, and Aerial Ace allowed it to bypass any evasion boosters, which was nice. It was ironically also the best Pokémon I had against Volkner, since it could use Swords Dance and then sweep him with Dig (unless it got paralyzed by Raichu’s Static).
Axel
Ability: Immunity
Nature: Lax
- Return
- Close Combat
- Shadow Claw
- Swords Dance
Axel also has a pretty obvious moveset, no explanations needed. I’m glad it learns Close Combat through level-up, and since I had the Shadow Claw TM, I decided to use it. I had Slash in the first slot for a while, but changed to Return once our friendship was magic enough. A Lax Nature isn’t optimal, it made its defenses very lopsided, giving it good Physical bulk but making it weaker to Special moves. Adamant or Jolly would have been better, but I can’t do anything about that.
Overall, Axel was solid. It has great coverage, it is pretty fast, very strong and it gets even stronger after a boost. If it can set up 1-3 dances, it can sweep opposing teams. However, it was notably slower than some really fast Pokémon like Espeon and Alakazam, they would often outspeed it and deal heavy damage or OHKO it before it could move. It was still great though, easily one of the better members of the team.
Babian
Ability: Vital Spirit
Nature: Bashful
- Close Combat
- Low Kick
- Assurance
- Rock Slide
Babian is a standard Physical attacker. The reason it has both Close Combat and Low Kick is for the PP. Close Combat alone only has 5 PP, which felt too low. Assurance to hit Psychic- and Ghost-types, Rock Slide against Flying-types. There are other options though, I thought about teaching it an Elemental Punch through Move Tutor, but decided not to. A Bashful Nature makes no difference, which is okay.
Overall, Babian was pretty good. It is quite strong and fast, but the lack of boosting hurts since that means it needs to be able to KO opponents directly. If it can’t, it will have to take a hit afterwards. It also has to be careful after using Close Combat since the defense drops means it will take even more damage. It grew slower than the first four members of the team, which isn’t too strange since it belongs in the Medium Fast Exp. group. Pretty good, but not the best.
Stargazer wasn’t used that much since it was at a much higher level than the others to begin with. For the most part, it was mostly used as a win-coin against high-leveled opponents. The moveset is obvious, I got rid of Flail for Secret Power in order to have consistent damage, and Water+Normal offers excellent coverage. I guess I should have used Return for even more power, but I didn’t. A Lonely Nature is actually pretty good since it boosts Attack, and the Defense drop isn’t too bad since it has Intimidate.
Overall, Stargazer was really great. It could often set up and sweep if necessary. It has only grown 10 levels since I caught it, but even so, I noticed that it leveled up considerably slower than the others, which is to be expected since it is in the Slow Exp. group.
Regarding hold items, the team members weren’t holding any specific individual items when I trained them. I just rotated between the Lucky Egg, Luck Incense and Amulet Coin. The latter two ended up giving me a lot of money, I even maxed out my money without noticing. I’ll keep a closer watch on it from now on and spend some on vitamins, coins or other useful stuff whenever it is close to being maxed.
I have beaten the Elite Four three times with the team. The first time was tough, it had been so long since I last beat them in Platinum and I had forgotten many of their movesets and strategies. The most notable being Aaron and his Yanmega with Double Team. Well, I learned something from it at least. The second and third times went much better.
As for the team on the whole, it is very unbalanced. It has a very heavy bias towards Physical as I only have one Special attacker. It also has four setup sweepers and one weather sweeper, and all team members are mostly offensive, none of them are particularly geared towards defenses. Their defensive synergy isn’t very good either.
The team has three weaknesses to Electric but not one single resistance, giving me a huge weakness to Electric-type users like Volkner. It also has three weaknesses to Rock, but only one resistance. Plus unresisted weaknesses to Flying, Psychic and Dragon.
The team was pretty fun to use, but also difficult at times since it was so unbalanced, and some members of it were pretty weak. While training, I was thinking about obtaining my members of future teams with useful Natures, maybe good IVs, and then EV-train them as well. But I have decided not to since that would take much longer, and all of this is just for fun in the end.
That’s it for Stargazer’s Dreamchasers… for now. Their journey isn’t quite over yet, but it will be put on hold for the moment (they will be on vacation!). The most important thing I learned from using them is that my future teams must be more balanced. I will also try to keep having a Flyer and a Surfer on every future team, just because of the great convenience it offers.
How did I train the team? The main way was through rebattling various trainers with the Vs. Seeker. When the team got to level 60 and above, I added the Battleground, Rival rematches on weekends and the daily trainers in Pokémon Centers. When they were in their late 70s, I battled the Elite Four for the first time. There were also wild Pokémon at high levels, but I found myself using those less and less often the higher the team got.
I made a list/document for when the daily trainers in Pokémon Centers can be battled. Mostly for personal reference, but I thought I might share it with everyone else as well. It can be found here. I just put together the data from Dragonflycave and Serebii. If anyone uses this list and finds any mistakes, message me and I’ll fix them.
With my first team done (for now), I should get started on the next. But first, I need six new team members. Before we get to that though, there are some other things I should talk about. You don’t know what I did last Saturday, so let me tell you all about it.
The real Lake of Rage.
I don’t know who came up with the idea of finding Feebas through this annoying method in R/S/E, and I don’t know who decided that the concept should be kept for D/P/P, but it was. I’m glad they scrapped it in future generations (except BD/SP which appears to have kept the way it worked from D/P/P). Either way, I wanted to catch a Feebas for this challenge. Previously, I have only caught Feebas once in Gen 4, which was on Diamond, and it must have been in 2008. Now, it was time again.
I decided to start from the bottom of the lake and fish three times in every square, which felt like it should give me good enough odds. Unfortunately, doing this was extremely boring and monotonous to the point that I had a hard time keeping my concentration and focus. I probably fished 2 or 4 times in several tiles. In addition to that, I have never liked the fishing mechanics in Pokémon. I definitely prefer the regular overworld encounters. Along the way, I decided to train my team a bit against the wild Gyarados and Whiscash I met, to make it less of a waste of time. Three of my team members grew several levels, which was great. I also caught a Whiscash at level 51, which I named Cashwish. To be trained later on.
I expected this to take a while, but unfortunately, it took even longer than that. After over three hours of playtime (with breaks in-between) and after having fished in every water tile in the 9 bottom rows of the lake, I still hadn’t found a single Feebas. I must either have fished in a Feebas tile without finding one, or accidentally missed a tile containing Feebas. Either way, this was getting frustrating, and I was considering giving up… but I really didn’t want to. My patience isn’t infinite, but I can be really stubborn at times. Since I had set out to catch a Feebas, I decided to keep going, but change my approach a bit. I decided to “restart”, by going up to the top of the lake and start from there instead. I also decided to only fish twice in every tile, and to not defeat any of the wild Pokémon I met, just to save time. This felt a bit more efficient, and after a while, my efforts bore fruit. On the first tile I fished in on the sixth row, I finally found a Feebas!
The Feebas spot.
I’m glad I fished twice in every spot, since this was my second encounter in that spot. Obviously, I caught this Feebas. And with that, I should be done, right? Nope. I continued fishing until I had caught four more Feebas. One unwritten rule I have had for this challenge is that I must keep the first Pokémon I catch of every species, but I decided to make an exception for Feebas. The reason is that I wanted my Feebas to have a good Nature. As everyone knows, Feebas evolves through maxing out its Beauty stat, which is partly tied to its Nature. I didn’t want a Nature that lowers Sp.att/Beauty since I don’t know if it will be possible to evolve it then.
I went to a Pokémon Center to check the Natures of the five Feebas I had caught. They were Careful, Timid, Rash, Brave and Naive. Timid or Rash are obviously the best, and I went with Timid since it is the most useful from a battle perspective. I know from experience that you can evolve a Feebas which has a Nature that’s neutral regarding Beauty. This Feebas is Female and at level 10, so it will need a lot of training later on. I went to the Name Rater in Eterna City and named it Essa. I’ll get back to it soon.
This whole Feebas ordeal took me over four and a half hours of total playtime. Was it worth it, or was it just a huge waste of time that could have been spent on something better? I don’t know yet. The future will tell. I feel like I had some really bad luck with finding Feebas. Maybe I used up all my good luck when I found Lucky Lax earlier, which I didn’t even want.
In addition to this, I have caught some other Pokémon that will be trained in the near and far future. First, some swarming Pokémon: a Doduo at level 2, named Threehead, a Snubbull at level 18, named Snowball, and a Makuhita at level 48, named Fightbag. Those will all be trained later on. I also caught 2 Snorunt. One Male named Jack Frost, and one Female named Snow Queen. Both at level 33. To be trained sooner and later.
Next, here’s what I did yesterday. The swarming Pokémon was Zigzagoon on Route 203. I want one. Since it is right next to Sandgem Town, I go out and immediately run into a Zigzagoon at level 3. I catch it and name it Zigzagzug. It has Pickup, which is great since that’s the Ability I wanted.
I continue by catching more Pokémon. I fly to Fight Area and head out to Route 226. Here, I use the Poké Radar in the grass since there’s a specific Pokémon I want from it. But it takes a while before I finally find what I want: a Togepi at level 49, which I catch and name Jetblade. I catch it in a Luxury Ball. Afterwards, I fly to Resort Area where I immediately withdraw Jetblade and give it a Soothe Bell since I want it to evolve ASAP. While I’m here, I might as well visit the Ribbon Syndicate. I go there and let Jetblade get a massage in order to raise its Friendship a bit.
Next, I head up to Route 229. There are some Pokémon I want to catch here. My first encounter is a Pidgey at level 50. I catch it and name it Pi D. Geot. I then meet an Illumise at level 49, which I catch and name Light-Down. Then, after a while, I finally find the third Pokémon I want from here, a Volbeat. It is at level 49, I catch it and name it Mindlock.
After that, I fly to Oreburgh City and head out to Mt. Coronet. It is the landmark for the Sinnoh region, and just like it divides Sinnoh in two, it has divided the fandom as well. Some fans hate it, others like it. Personally, I am a huge fan. I love the music on the upper levels, the snow, and being able to explore it on the outside makes it feel more like a real mountain rather than just another generic cave. Either way, the only two Pokémon I have caught from here so far have been Essa and Cashwish. I want to get one more, but not through fishing this time. I make my way to one of the higher floors and start looking for Pokémon. After a while, I find what I want, a Medicham at level 37. I catch it and name it Psykick.
With this, I have caught enough Pokémon for the time being. Let’s do some evolving instead! I fly to Veilstone, and while I’m here, I might as well give Jetblade another massage. I head to the massage-giving woman and let her give Jetblade a massage. Then, I go to the Pokémon Center where I withdraw Snow Queen and Essa. I have one Dawn Stone in my bag, which I use on Snow Queen, and it evolves into Froslass. Next, I head to the Dept. Store basement. I have never been a fan of the Poffin making minigame, I’m glad Platinum added the option to just buy Poffins. You can also buy berries here, which is nice. Plus Lava Cookies! I buy one just for fun. Then I buy several Dry-Sweet Poffins which I give to Essa. Once its Beauty is maxed out, I leave and Fly to Survival Area (I have Cloudsday in my party). I head out to Route 225 with Essa in the lead, and Cloudsday beats two wild Graveler (though they technically beat themselves as the first one used Explosion, while the second one tanked a Dragon Claw and then KO’d itself with Double-Edge). This gives Essa some experience, enough for it to grow a level and evolve into Milotic!
With this done, I can finally assemble my next team. I fly to Sandgem, where I deposit Cloudsday, and withdraw Ironix, Mindlock and Psykick. Along with Essa, Snow Queen and Jetblade, those will be my next team.
Now this is a team. Will it work? Will it be fun to use? I sure hope so.
Why those six? First, experience groups. Milotic and Volbeat are both in the Erratic group, while Togepi (to be a Togekiss) is in the Fast group. Froslass, Steelix and Medicham are all in the Medium Fast group. That means none of them should be too annoying to train. Compared to Stargazer’s Dreamchasers, this team will be more balanced, since it is going to have 2 Physical attackers, 1-2 purely Special, one mostly Special, and one that will probably be Mixed, but I might make it either full Physical or Special, haven’t decided yet. Their defensive synergy is also better.
Out of these Pokémon, Volbeat is the only one I have never trained before, but it has also been a very long while since I last trained a Steelix. Unlike Stargazer’s Dreamchasers, this team does not have a high-leveled win-coin, so I need to be careful and avoid strong trainers early on.
This team needs a name, but I haven’t come up with one yet. I’ll think of one while training them. I also need to improve their movesets through TMs and maybe MTs, which will be the first thing I do before I start training them. And give them some vitamins to boost their power levels!
With that, it is back to some training. Before I start, I need something to give me energy. Maybe some music? Have a Hyperdrive horse remix. I posted a remix by Foozogz earlier, but you can never have enough of his music.
I also mentioned that I should post my playtime whenever I reach a milestone, so let’s do that now. Here’s my current playtime:
I have clocked in over 100 hours on this file now, and my playtime is at 105:41, which means that the time for this challenge is 29:41. I have been playing for almost 30 hours! How long until it is done? Time will tell.
Pokémon obtained in this part:
None
Caught but not complete:
Threehead, level 2 Zigzagzug, level 3 Jack Frost, level 33 Fightbag, level 48 Light-Down, level 49 Pi D. Geot, level 50 Cashwish, level 51
Even if I didn’t add any new levels in this part, I still made some great progress with the challenge. Once again, it will probably be a while before the next update. Maybe two weeks, maybe more, maybe less. I had hoped to be done with this challenge sometime during July, but as things are looking now, it will take longer than that. Either way, this will be my last update for June.
It has been over two weeks, but now, it is finally time for another update.
Let’s start with the team. First of all, Jetblade has evolved all the way into Togekiss! All the things I did to raise its Friendship early on helped a lot. It evolved into Togetic upon reaching level 50, and immediately afterwards, I used one of my two Shiny Stones to evolve it into Togekiss. I taught it Fly, which meant I no longer needed Cloudsday in my party to travel around Sinnoh.
As for the team on the whole, they have grown a lot. This is what they look like right now:
Two of them are done:
- Ironix ended up as a Level 89 Steelix. It gets to hold an Iron Plate.
- Psykick became a Level 90 Medicham. It gets to hold a Mind Plate.
The others will be put on hold for now, but I will return to them and train them more later on.
The team has been named the Guardians of the Lost Legacy. Because it sounds cool.
Next, the team details. Just like last time, some short words about the team members and the team on the whole.
Essa has a mostly obvious moveset. Surf for STAB, Ice Beam to hit Grass- and Dragon-types. Dragon Pulse was mostly to hit opposing Water-types, though it wasn’t used much. But since I had the Dragon Pulse TM, I figured I might as well use it. Recover to heal, which was very useful at times. Marvel Scale is a great Ability since it makes Essa physically bulkier if it should get statused, though that never happened. The Timid Nature made it a bit faster, which is nice.
Overall, Essa was great. It could hit pretty hard, was bulky enough to take a hit, was fast enough to outspeed many opponents, and it could heal itself. What more could you ask for? A little more power, I guess. While it could pick up KOs if it could hit opponents super effectively, it often needed two or more hits to beat targets that only took neutral damage. And while it had great bulk, it could be 2-3HKO’d from really powerful hits. But even with those shortcomings, it was one of the best members of the team. Looking back now, I’m glad I caught a Feebas for the challenge since Essa turned out to be so great.
I wasn’t sure what to do with Mindlock. A Jolly Nature combined with the fact that it has higher Attack than Sp.att made me consider making it a pure Physical attacker. But it gets Tail Glow, which made me consider a Special attacker instead. Or it could combine both and become mixed. Before making a final decision, I decided to see how it worked in battle. While training it, I quickly noticed that it was more effective to set up with Tail Glow instead of attacking right away. If it could get to +6, it became quite strong. So I ended up making it a pure Special attacker.
Bug Buzz for main STAB, it hits hard but since it is a sound-based move, I couldn’t use it to beat opposing Mr. Mime! Which was annoying as that is an opponent I should otherwise have been able to beat. Thunderbolt and Giga Drain for coverage, the latter also allows Mindlock to heal itself, which is nice. Tail Glow to set up and boost, though it is only a two-stage in Gen 4. After one Tail Glow, Mindlock had a higher Sp.att stat than both Essa and Snow Queen. After two, it got higher than Jetblade, which means that it is the strongest Special attacker on the team when it is at +4 or higher. It has Illuminate as its Ability, which is really bad as it is useless in battle, Swarm would have been better. A Jolly Nature isn't very good for a Special attacker either.
Overall, Mindlock was one of the weaker members of the team, but still surprisingly solid. It was decently fast, but it didn’t hit particularly hard before boosting. It wasn’t super bulky but it could often take at least one hit. I had to be careful when using it, but if I could set it up correctly, it could sweep opposing teams. Thunderbolt and Giga Drain also gave it very useful coverage, notably against Water-, Rock- and Ground-types (and Flying-types to an extent). At the Battleground, it could sweep Crasher Wake after a Tail Glow, and when fighting the Elite Four, it could sweep Bertha after two Tail Glows. Mindlock wasn’t the best member of the team, but it was really fun to use. Using it here made me want to use Volbeat again in a newer generation in the future, but with proper EVs/IVs/Nature/Ability.
Jetblade’s moveset is mostly standard. Air Slash for flying STAB, it hits hard enough and has a high Flinch chance, which is nice against slower opponents. Unfortunately, there’s no good Normal STAB. Tri Attack can only be obtained from the Shadow Togepi in XD, which was completely out of question for this challenge. Hyper Beam requires a recharge turn, which I didn’t want, and Togekiss couldn’t learn Hyper Voice until B2/W2. Instead, I went with two coverage moves. They became Aura Sphere and Flamethrower, which were helpful against various opponents. Fly was only for the HM, I never used it in battle.
Jetblade has a Bold Nature which is amazing for it since it boosts Defense at the cost of Attack. Serene Grace is the better of its two Abilities, doubling the flinch chance for Air Slash and the burn chance for Flamethrower.
Overall, Jetblade was solid. It could hit pretty hard, was bulky enough to take some hits, and it was reasonably fast too.
Snow Queen is a standard Special attacker. Ice Beam for Ice STAB, Ominous Wind for Ghost STAB since I didn’t have a Shadow Ball TM. It is quite weak and has low PP, but it was better than nothing. Thunderbolt for coverage, and Ice Shard in the last slot since I couldn’t think of anything better. It could be used to pick off opponents at low HP. A Rash Nature isn’t too bad since it boosts Sp.att, making it hit harder. The lower Sp.def didn’t make a huge difference since Snow Queen is pretty frail as it is. Snow Cloak is the only Ability it has in Gen 4, and it is unfortunately quite useless.
Overall, Snow Queen was solid. It could hit pretty hard with strong moves, but it needed good matchups to be at its very best. It wasn’t super bulky, but could often take at least one hit. It was also the fastest member of the team by a wide margin.
Psykick
Ability: Pure Power
Nature: Quirky
- Force Palm
- Zen Headbutt
- ThunderPunch
- Ice Punch
Psykick was the main Physical attacker for the team. Force Palm for Fighting STAB, it is quite weak but I had nothing better. I had already used up my Brick Break TM, and Hi Jump Kick felt risky due to the miss chance combined with heavy recoil. Zen Headbutt for Psychic STAB, it was pretty strong and the flinch chance was nice, but it was annoying when it missed. For the last two moves, I went with the BoltBeam punches for coverage. It has a Quirky Nature, which makes no difference. Pure Power is an amazing Ability since it doubles Psykick’s Attack stat, which is what makes it worth using in the first place. It also meant that it had the highest unboosted attacking stat on the whole team.
Overall, Psykick was solid. It could hit very hard and the great coverage allowed it to hit most opponents for at least neutral damage.
Ironix
Ability: Rock Head
Nature: Impish
- Iron Head
- Crunch
- Double-Edge
- Curse
Ironix was the second Physical attacker of the team, and it was the most defensive member of the team. Iron Head for STAB, it is weaker than Iron Tail but has higher accuracy. Steelix does sadly not learn Earthquake through level-up (nor does it learn any other damaging Ground-type move). I had already used my Earthquake TM, so it had to do without Ground STAB. Instead, I went with Crunch and Double-Edge for coverage. I considered Stone Edge, but scrapped it due to low PP and poor accuracy. Curse in the last to boost. Raising Attack and Defense is never bad, lowering Speed did not make much of a difference since it is pretty slow to start with. An Impish Nature is really great since it boosted Ironix’s Defense even further. Rock Head is an okay Ability, it made Double-Edge worth using since it meant no recoil damage. If it had had Sturdy, I would probably not have used Double-Edge.
Overall, Ironix was great. It had amazing Defense to the point that it could take even powerful Supereffective STAB moves and survive. After a few Curses, most Physical attacks did laughable damage, and the Attack boost allowed it to hit very hard. Unfortunately, Ironix was very slow (it was even the slowest member of the team), which meant that it would generally move last. It also has really poor Sp.def. Even resisted Special moves did a lot of damage, and neutral ones could even KO if they were powerful enough. I made sure to avoid super effective special moves as far as possible. The lack of a Ground-type move also gave it worse matchups against certain Electric-types like Magnezone. But despite these flaws, it was mostly great.
That’s what I have to say about the team members. When training the team, I used the same training spots as last time. I was a little reckless early on as I accidentally got into battles against high-leveled trainers. I won those thanks to using type advantages (and sometimes the AI being stupid), but it was not easy and 1-2 team of the members would often faint in these battles. But it gave them a lot of experience, which was nice.
Once all members of the team were at level 80, I decided to battle the Elite Four for the first time. I have beaten the Elite Four three times with this team, just like with my previous team. The first time, I beat Aaron, Bertha and Flint with just a few minor issues, but I had some problems against Lucian and Cynthia. On the two following attempts, it went much better against them.
This was after I beat the Elite Four for the third time with the team. It was the best Hall of Fame image I got with them since you can mostly see all of their faces.
Regarding hold items for team, it was the same as last time. I just rotated the Lucky Egg/Luck Incense/Amulet Coin between the team members. Jetblade was holding the Soothe Bell until it evolved.
This team was far more balanced than my last team, and it was generally a lot easier to use. I had 2 pure Physical attackers, 2 Pure Special, and 2 mostly Special. Their defensive synergy is also good.
I have at least one resistance/immunity to every type. The only real issue is that I have three weaknesses to Fire but only one resistance, but other than that, no major problems.
That’s it for the Guardians of the Lost Legacy. It was a really fun team to use.
With this, I have 10 Pokémon at level 90 which aren’t done yet. They will be trained to levels 91-100 in the future, but I am going to wait with that. My plan is to do that as the very last thing I do for this challenge.
What else has happened since last time? Not much. I haven’t caught a lot of new Pokémon, only two in total. Both from Swarms. The first one is a Natu, which I caught at level 50 and named Utan Xatu. The other one is a Spoink which I caught at level 21. I named it Neuf. I have been checking the Swarms every day, but they have mostly featured Pokémon I already have, or Pokémon I’m not interested in. There are still a few Swarming Pokémon I want to get, so I’ll keep checking and hope they will appear one day. If not, then I will have to catch others instead.
Beyond that, I have nothing notable to report. Instead, let’s move on to the next team! I have decided that before I do the next batch of high levels, I’m going to get the lowest levels I have left to get. And I already have all the team members! I withdraw Fightbag, Edgepawn, 2Leaf, Light-Down, Pi D. Geot and Cashwish. Those six are my next team.
Another unusual team. I hope it will be good enough.
Why these six? No particular reason, I just put together six Pokémon I have caught at relatively high levels, which means that training them shouldn’t take too long. I haven’t had any thoughts regarding offensive or defensive synergy for this team, so I don’t know how it will work. As for Exp. Groups, Kingler and Whiscash are in the Medium Fast group, Pidgeot and Victreebel in the Medium Slow group, while Illumise and Hariyama are in the Fluctuating group. The last two would require a ton of Exp if they were to be trained to high levels, but since I’m not going to train them very far, it won’t matter much.
I have never used Hariyama, Illumise or Whiscash before. I don’t think I have used Victreebel either, I can at least not remember having used it in the past. And it has been a very long time since I last used Kingler or Pidgeot. In other words, these Pokémon are mostly new to me. So this should be fun. My first step is to make sure they are all fully evolved, then the training can start for real. I should also improve their movesets a bit. My target levels are 56-61, so this shouldn’t take too long. It should definitely go faster than two weeks, hopefully it won’t even take one.
This team already has a name, it is named The Higher Lows since they will be the highest of the low levels I obtain. Or the lowest of the high levels, depending on how you look at it.
With all of this said and done… it is back to training. I’m going to start later today.
I made some solid progress this time around as well. Even if I only added two new levels, I still got a lot of things done.
One thing that is somewhat related to the challenge is that my vacation started two days ago! Or I guess it technically started today, depending on how you look at it. This gives me a lot more time to play. Though there are other games I want to play, and other things I want to do, so I’m not sure how much of a change it will make.
And this is my 700th post here on the forums. In addition, it has been 13 years since I finally signed up here after having lurked Smogon since 2006. Time really flies...
This went faster than I knew. It only took two days.
Team update time! The first thing I did with the new team was to make sure everyone got fully evolved. I let Fightbag and Edgepawn gain a level each, which was enough for them to evolve since they were at so high levels to start with. Pi D. Geot had to grow two levels before it was fully evolved. I also evolved 2Leaf by using the one Leaf Stone I had in my bag. Then I trained the team to their desired levels. Here’s the result:
All of them are done.
- Light-Down ended as a Level 56 Illumise. It gets to hold an Odd Keystone because I have nothing better, and I have no plans to catch a Spiritomb on this file.
- Pi D. Geot ended as a Level 57 Pidgeot. It gets to hold another Odd Keystone, since I had two.
- Edgepawn ended as a Level 58 Kingler. It gets to hold a Dubious Disc since I have nothing better, and I have no plans to get a Porygon-Z either.
- Fightbag ended as a Level 59 Hariyama. It gets to hold a Flame Orb.
- 2Leaf ended as a Level 60 Victreebel. It gets to hold a Dread Plate simply because it knows a Dark-type move.
- Cashwish ended as a Level 61 Whiscash. It gets to hold another Dubious Disc, because I had two of those as well.
Below are the team details, pretty short since I didn’t use this team very much.
Illumise has better Abilities and higher Sp.att than Volbeat, but this comes at the cost of not learning Tail Glow. I felt that Light-Down would still do best as a Special attacker, though. Bug Buzz is the obvious STAB move. I looked through my TMs and decided to teach it Water Pulse at first, then Thunder, and finally Rain Dance, turning it into a Rain Dance attacker! It felt so random and fun that I just had to go with it. Unfortunately, it has a Jolly Nature, just like Mindlock. Oblivious isn’t the best Ability, but it does something at least. Tinted Lens would have been better, though.
Overall, Light-Down was unfortunately very weak. It didn’t hit particularly hard, and having to set up Rain Dance meant it usually had to take a hit before it could attack. It wasn’t the bulkiest, but once when it was at pretty low HP, it survived a Hyper Beam from a Gyarados and lived with 2 HP left, which was cool. It was pretty fast, so that’s at least something. I decided to end it at level 56 since it wasn’t that good and I didn’t feel like training it any further.
Pi D. Geot
Ability: Keen Eye
Nature: Relaxed
- Pluck
- Fly
- Tailwind
- Roost
Pi D. Geot the Pidgeot ended up getting a very bad moveset. I taught it Pluck since I had the TM, Fly since I needed it for the HM, those two ended up being its offensive moves. I wanted it to have a Normal-type move as well, I could have used my Facade TM since I still have it, but I want to save it for later. I could have bought a TM for Return or Giga Impact, but it felt pointless since I wasn’t going to train it very far. Instead, I went with Tailwind and Roost, both of which it knew upon capture.
I used either Pluck or Fly depending on how much power I needed. Tailwind could be nice to raise its Speed, or for team support. But it was pointless in most cases since it only lasts three turns this generation. Roost to heal, it was nice in theory but didn’t work that well in practice since Pi D. Geot was so frail to the point that after using Roost, it would generally take as much damage as it had recovered (if not more). A Relaxed Nature wasn’t very good since it lowers Speed, the Defense boost didn’t make much of a difference due to its frailty. Keen Eye is an okay Ability, not very useful but once again, it does something, and that’s better than nothing!
Overall, Pi D. Geot was not good. Lackluster coverage with weak moves (though that is my own fault) combined with low speed and bad defenses meant that it needed a really good matchup in order to win. Before it evolved, training it was an utter pain since even resisted moves hurt a lot, it felt like everything was a 2HKO at worst. It ended at level 57 since it was so weak.
Since Edgepawn has high Attack, it became a Physical attacker too. Crabhammer for STAB, X-Scissor for coverage since I still had the TM. I was unsure about whether to use it here or save it for the future, but I decided to use it since Edgepawn needed a good secondary move. Strength and Flail were filler moves that I never used. I considered some other moves as well, but it didn’t feel worth it. Hyper Cutter is a solid Ability since it blocks Intimidates and other Attack drops. A Sassy Nature isn’t super great, Edgepawn doesn’t really benefit from either the Sp.def boost or the lower Speed.
Overall, Edgepawn was okay. It could take down opponents with ease as long as it had a good matchup, but it was slow, which meant that it would generally have to take a hit before moving. It didn’t have the best coverage either (but once more, that’s my fault) nor did it have particularly good bulk. But it was better than both Light-Down and Pi D. Geot, which is why it ended at level 58.
Fightbag
Ability: Guts
Nature: Quirky
- Close Combat
- Thunderpunch
- Ice Punch
- Rock Tomb
Fightbag is another Physical attacker. Close Combat for STAB, it hits like a truck at the cost of lowering defenses. BoltBeam punches for coverage, Rock Tomb in the last slot since I had the TM. It could be used to lower the Speed of opponents, or to defeat opposing Shedinja… if there had been any. Guts is a solid Ability, but it never activated. It has a Quirky Nature (just like Psykick, which is funny since they are counterparts just like Mindlock and Light-Down!), which makes no difference at all.
Overall, Fightbag was a disappointment. While it was really strong, it was slow and not particularly bulky. High HP looks good at first glance, but it is brought down by low defenses, which gets even lower after a Close Combat. It would generally move last, and every move it had to take did a lot of damage, giving it little to no longevity in battle. Due to Close Combat’s low PP, I often had to go back to the Pokémon Centers to heal in order to restore its PP. I ended it at level 59 since it was difficult to train and I didn’t feel like using it any more.
2Leaf became yet another Physical attacker. Leaf Blade for STAB, Sucker Punch for coverage since that was the best I could think of. After using the Move Tutor to teach 2Leaf Sucker Punch and Fightbag the Elemental Punches, I have no Blue Shards left! I will have to make a visit to the Underground if I should need more in the future. Sleep Powder to shut down problematic opponents, Sunny Day to lower the damage of Water-type moves and to boost its Speed thanks to Chlorophyll. It has a Careful Nature, which is fine.
Overall, 2Leaf was one of the better members of the team. I mainly used it to beat Water-types, but it was great against those. It also managed to beat an opposing Abomasnow once, which was cool. Since it was pretty easy to train, it ended at level 60.
Cashwish became a mixed attacker. Waterfall and Earthquake for Physical STAB (why does Whiscash learn Earthquake though level-up when Steelix doesn’t?), Surf for Special STAB. Blizzard for coverage, I had the TM and decided to use it here. Anticipation was another Ability that’s just okay, though most of the time I already knew when an opponent would have a Grass-type move. A Naive Nature was okay, it feels like any mixed or neutral Nature would have worked here.
Overall, Cashwish was great. It was the best member of the team. It had solid bulk, could hit hard with good coverage and was surprisingly fast too. Since it was the easiest team member to train, it ended at level 61.
Regarding hold items for the team, they were the same as always. The training spots I used here were quite limited. At first, I battled wild Pokémon until everyone was fully evolved since I found myself having trouble when I tried to beat trainers with weak and unevolved Pokémon. After that, I primarily used the daily Pokémon Center battles and VS. Seeker rematches for training. I didn’t use the Battleground this time since their levels were too low.
This team isn't very well-balanced. It features 1 Special attacker, 1 Mixed and 4 Physical. Their defensive synergy isn’t very good either.
I have three weaknesses to Flying and one to Psychic, but not a single resist! I have no resistances to Normal or Dragon either, but since I don’t have any weaknesses to them, that’s less of an issue.
That’s it for The Higher Lows. This team wasn’t very good, unfortunately. But that’s okay. It was fun to try some odd Pokémon I had never used before, and some that I hadn’t used in a very long while.
With this team done, I have all levels from 1-61. And with that, my second box for this challenge is complete!
Two done, just a little more than one left to go.
To celebrate, have some party music! Insomniac City is a banger and one of my favorites from P@D: Aurora.
With this team done, let’s move on to the next one. First of all, I need to catch some new Pokémon. I fly to the Pokémon League where I head down to Victory Road and out to Route 224. Getting through the Victory Road extension is a bit of a mess, but I use an external map to make it easier. During this challenge, I have been here once before, which was when I caught Utan Xatu. However, there is one more Pokémon I want to get from this place, and I regret not catching it last time I was here. Once I am on Route 224, I head into the grass, and my second encounter is the Pokémon I want, a Gastrodon-East at level 49. I catch it and name it S.L.U.G.
While I’m here, I might as well go to Flower Paradise, just for fun. I head north and continue to Seabreak Path. I have heard that (an unknown amount of) players use this place for breeding since it is very long, hatching eggs here should go easily and quickly. Personally, I have never done that, the reason being that getting here takes too long. It also requires several HMs. If it had been possible to fly here, it would have been a different story. Either way, I continue north and arrive at Flower Paradise.
Across the ever-growing green and everything that’s in between
The world is harmonizing now, so hold your breath and take a vow
I’ll take the sadness all away and sing to it that it’s okay
And from the corner of your eye a spark of hope will start inside
I love this place. But since I have already caught Shaymin, there’s nothing to do here apart from looking at the beautiful flowers. So I leave. Next up, I need to catch some more Pokémon. I fly to Veilstone and head south to Route 214. I have LeafGreen in the GBA slot, there’s one Pokémon I want to catch with that. I head into the grass, and after quite a while, I meet my target, a Vulpix at level 24. I catch it and name it Nein Tails. It is holding a Rawst Berry, which I remove for now. I continue by flying to Eterna and head west to Route 211. Here, I use the Poké Radar, and after a short while, I meet a Tyrogue at level 14. I catch it and name it Scuffle.
With that, I have caught all the Pokémon I need for the time being. Next up, it is time for some training. I fly to the Survival Area where I withdraw Scuffle, Zigzagzug and some strong Pokémon from previous teams. I put Scuffle in the first slot in my party, give it 10 Protein to bulk it up, as well as the Exp. Share to hold. I head into the Battleground where I battle Gardenia. This gives Scuffle enough Exp to grow to level 21 and evolve into Hitmonlee! Next, I put Zigzagzug in the first slot in my party, give it the Exp. Share, and battle Candice. This makes it grow to level 20, which is just enough for it to evolve into Linoone.
With that done, I fly to Pastoria City. I go to the move relearner and let him teach Brick Break to Scuffle, since it needs a good STAB move. Then I head to the Pokémon Center where I deposit the Pokémon I used for training. I withdraw Nein Tails, Jack Frost, S.L.U.G. and Utan Xatu. Together with Zigzagzug and Scuffle, those are going to be my next team.
Another somewhat odd and unique team. I hope it will be good and fun to use.
Why those six? First of all, Exp Groups. Or rather, Exp Group. All of them are in the Medium Fast group, which means they should grow equally fast. As for team balance, there will be two pure Physical attackers, one Special, one mostly Special, one mixed, and one that will likely be mixed but can go either Special or Physical as well. Their defensive synergy should be pretty good too (I think, haven’t checked yet). One specific reason I am using Linoone is because of Pickup, I hope it will find some good items along the way (but hopefully not too many Dusk Stones!).
I don’t think I have ever used Xatu before, I can’t remember ever using it in the past. It has been a long time since I used Kantonian Ninetales and Hoennian Linoone. I have used Glalie, Gastrodon and Hitmonlee in recent years, though.
Before I start training, I should improve their movesets as usual, as well as pump them full with Vitamins. I have a lot of money that needs spending! I should also evolve Utan Xatu immidiately, because I learned now that Natu can’t learn Fly! I am going to wait a bit with evolving Nein Tails though, there might be some more moves I want it to learn through level-up. Jack Frost will evolve once I get around to training it.
This team needs a name, but I don’t have one yet, will have to come up with one as I play. My target levels are 83-88, so they will need quite a lot of training.
And so… it is back to training once more. I’m going to start later today.
Good progress this time too. I obtained 6 new levels, which will be the standard for most of the remaining parts of the challenge. It will probably be a while before my next update, but I’m hoping to be done with this new team before the end of July. We’ll see how it goes.
July is almost over, but before August begins, it is time for another update for this challenge.
Let’s start with the team. Utan Xatu gained a level, which made it evolve into Xatu! Now I was no longer without Xatu. I taught it Fly, making it the flyer for the team. The others have evolved as well. Jack Frost evolved into Glalie at level 42, and once Nein Tails had reached level 44 and learned Extrasensory, I used a Fire Stone to evolve it into Ninetales.
The team is done, here’s the result:
- Utan Xatu ended as a Level 83 Xatu. It gets to hold an Up-Grade since I have nothing better.
- Scuffle ended as a Level 84 Hitmonlee. It gets to hold another Up-Grade, since I had more than one.
- Jack Frost ended as a Level 85 Glalie. It gets to hold a third Up-Grade, since I had three!
- S.L.U.G. ended as a Level 86 Gastrodon-East. It gets to hold a Hard Stone since I found one and had nothing better.
- Zigzagzug ended as a Level 87 Linoone. It gets to hold a Shell Bell.
- Nein Tails ended as a Level 88 Ninetales. It gets to hold the Rawst Berry it originally had when I caught it.
The team is named Interrogation Magnification. Because why not? I couldn’t think of anything better.
As usual, the full details for the team can be found below.
Utan Xatu
Ability: Early Bird
Nature: Serious
- Psychic
- Fly
- Heat Wave
- U-Turn
Utan Xatu ended up becoming a Mixed attacker. Psychic for Special and Psychic STAB, it hits really hard. Fly for Physical and Flying STAB. It doesn’t hit quite as hard, but Utan Xatu has respectable Attack, allowing it to deal a decent amount of damage. Xatu does unfortunately not learn Air Slash in Gen 4, which leaves it with Air Cutter as the best option for Special Flying STAB. I was considering it, but scrapped it because it felt so weak. Heat Wave for coverage, it was mainly useful against Steel-types. In the last slot, I had Ominous Wind for a while, but got rid of it. I considered Signal Beam, but decided to not go with it since I didn’t want to go down to the Underground to find even more Blue Shards. Instead, I went with U-Turn since I still had the TM. It could be useful to switch out and deal damage at the same time, or downright KO opponents in some instances.
A Serious Nature is fine since it makes no difference. Early Bird is an okay Ability, letting it wake up earlier when put to sleep, but I don’t think it ever came into effect. Not sure if Synchronize would have been better.
Overall, Utan Xatu was pretty good. It could hit hard, usually tank a hit, and it was fast, but it generally needed a good matchup in order to win.
Scuffle became a pure Physical attacker. Close Combat and Brick Break for STAB, which one I used depended on how much power I needed. Just like when I trained Babian earlier, having two STAB moves were very useful because of the PP. Sucker Punch for coverage, it is a great move since it is Super effective against Psychic- and Ghost-types, while having priority at the same time. Blaze Kick in the last slot for coverage, it was mostly useful against Bug- and Grass-types. It had Fake Out for quite a while, but I got rid of it after a while since it wasn’t that useful.
A Naive Nature isn’t too shabby, it boosts Speed which is nice, and the lower Sp.def wasn’t too much of an issue since Scuffle has pretty high Sp.def anyway. Limber is a great Ability since it prevents paralysis, which meant I could hit any opposing Pokémon with Static without risks, and I never had to worry about getting Paralyzed from Electric-type moves.
Overall, Scuffle was solid. It was very fast, could hit hard and had solid coverage, making it a vital member of the team. It had pretty low defense though, so it had to watch out for powerful Physical attacks.
Jack Frost
Ability: Ice Body
Nature: Jolly
- Ice Beam
- Crunch
- Iron Head
- Ice Shard
Jack Frost became a mixed attacker. With the TMs I had left, I felt that it was the best option. Ice Beam for main (Special) STAB. For some reason, Glalie learns Ice Beam naturally, while Snorunt and Froslass doesn’t. Crunch and Iron Head for coverage, the former was helpful against Psychic- and Ghost-types, the latter against Rock- and Ice-types, though it was rarely used. Ice Shard for priority and secondary (Physical) STAB, though I mostly used it to pick off opponents at low HP. It is the opposite of Ice Beam as it is naturally learned by Snorunt and Froslass, but not Glalie! Though Glalie can still get it by learning it as a Snorunt. I was considering Signal Beam, but decided to not use it. Unlike Froslass, Glalie does not learn Thunderbolt, which is a shame as that could have been a good option.
Jack Frost has a Jolly Nature, which is alright. The lower Sp.att meant that Ice Beam would do less damage, but the Speed boost was very useful as it was often surprisingly fast. Ice Body was the Ability it got, and it was useful whenever I battled in Hail. Being healed a little at the end of every turn is never bad. The other alternative would have been Inner Focus, which is also very situational.
Overall, Jack Frost was okay. It was pretty fast, but its moves were quite weak, so it often needed a good matchup in order to win.
I wasn’t sure what to do with S.L.U.G. Should it be Physical, Special or Mixed? I decided to try battling with it before I decided, and the initial results showed that it would be best off as a pure Special attacker. Surf is the obvious Water STAB move, no explanation needed. Ice Beam for coverage, mainly useful against Flying-types. I generally avoided using S.L.U.G. against Grass-types since it is weak to Grass, and I never used it against any Dragon-types. Earth Power for Ground STAB. After using Ironix and Cashwish on my earlier teams, I learned that a Ground-type is a lot more useful if it knows a Ground-type move as well. Recover in the last slot to heal. I had Waterfall for a while, but scrapped it since Surf was enough. Earthquake could have been cool, but it was out of question since I didn’t have the TM. I am pretty sure I used it on the Gastrodon I used on my in-game team.
S.L.U.G. has a Jolly Nature, which is pretty bad for it. It doesn’t benefit from increased Speed since it is pretty slow even with the boost, and the lower Sp.att made its attacks weaker. It has Storm Drain as its Ability, but since this was before it got buffed in Gen 5, it is mostly useless here. No immunity to Water and no boost upon being hit by a Water-type move meant that the only purpose it had was to draw in Water-type moves in Double battles, and that never happened. Since S.L.U.G. doesn’t even resist Water-type moves, Storm Drain had no real purpose. Sticky Hold is the other Ability it has, but it wouldn’t exactly have been better.
Overall, S.L.U.G. was pretty good. It wasn’t the strongest as it could rarely OHKO opponents without a super effective hit, but it had good coverage and it was very bulky. It could often take multiple hits and Recover if needed. The immunity to Electric was great, but the Grass weakness meant that I had to keep it away from all and any Grass-type moves since most of them would OHKO, even without STAB or high base power. It also had a weird speed tier since it was generally slower than Pokémon with high or average Speed, but faster than other Pokémon with low Speed.
Zigzagzug became a Physical attacker. Return for STAB, it had Headbutt and Slash at first, but I upgraded to Return once we were friendly enough. Seed Bomb for coverage, it was the best I could think of. I really wanted to use Dig or Shadow Claw, but I had to skip those moves since I had already used both TMs. Belly Drum to set up. It was very risky, but if it could set up and live the incoming attack, it would annihilate anything that didn’t resist its moves or had high Defense. Rest to heal and recover, it could be useful in combination with Belly Drum, or if it was at low HP and up against a weak opponent which couldn’t hurt it much.
An Adamant Nature is amazing as it is the best possible option for Zigzagzug, boosting Attack at the cost of Sp.att, which it doesn’t need. Pickup is a useless Ability in battles, but it was very useful for finding items afterwards. Zigzagzug picked up lots of good items when I trained it… and some less useful ones, including a Dusk Stone. It also found a TM01, which had a 1% chance of happening!
Overall, Zigzagzug was the very definition of high risk, high reward. If it could successfully set up with Belly Drum, it would win. Other than that, it mostly needed a good matchup in order to win. Return wasn’t always super strong, but would often get the job done. Seed Bomb made it a good counter to Water-types, as well as Rock- and Ground-types to an extent. It wasn’t super bulky, but it was very fast, which was nice.
Nein Tails
Ability: Flash Fire
Nature: Hardy
- Flamethrower
- Dark Pulse
- Extrasensory
- Nasty Plot
Nein Tails became a Special attacker. Flamethrower is the main STAB move, Dark Pulse and Extrasensory for coverage. Not the most useful coverage moves, but better than nothing. They helped against Psychic-, Ghost-, Poison- and Fighting-types, giving Nein Tails pretty weird but very useful coverage. Nasty Plot to set up. Nein Tails doesn’t have the greatest Sp.att, but it becomes really strong after a Nasty Plot, not to mention 2 or 3. One move I really wanted to use was Energy Ball, but for some reason, the Vulpix line only gets Energy Ball as an egg move in Gen 4! Which meant that I couldn’t use it.
A Hardy Nature is okay since it makes no difference. Flash Fire is a great Ability since it gives it an immunity to Fire, allowing it to switch into Fire-type moves aimed at other members of the team, notably Jack Frost.
Overall, Nein Tails was very solid. Setting up 1-3 Nasty Plots were usually no problems, and from there on, it could sweep teams. It was also pretty fast and was bulky enough to take a hit, its Special bulk was especially impressive.
Hold items for the team were the same as always, though one special rule I had here was that if Zigzagzug wasn’t holding the Lucky Egg, I made sure it wasn’t holding the Amulet Coin or Luck Incense either. This was just so it could find more items through Pickup.
Training spots were also the same as usual. I have beaten the Elite Four three times with this team. On the first attempt, Aaron, Bertha and Flint were easy, while Lucian and Cynthia were a bit harder. During my second and third attempts, I used some different strategies against them, and had a much easier time.
The Hall of Fame image after I beat the Elite Four for the second time with this team. Another picture that came out pretty well.
I have now beaten the Elite Four 12 times on this file. Since I have beaten them more than 10 times, my Rival will now be stronger when I battle him at the Survival Area. I need to keep that in mind so I don’t accidentally challenge him with an underleveled team!
Out of the teams I train for this challenge, this will be the last team I beat the Elite Four with since my three upcoming teams will be at too low levels to take on the challenge. But I haven’t beaten the Elite Four for the last time on this file.
In the end, this team was pretty good. It had a solid offensive balance, with 2 Physical, 2 Special and 2 Mixed attackers. And outside of S.L.U.G., all members of the team were really fast, which was nice. Their defensive synergy was mostly great too.
It is not perfect as I have one unresisted weakness to both Water and Flying, but it never caused any major issues when I used the team.
And that’s it for Interrogation Magnification.
Next, something that is partly related to the team. In order to teach Sucker Punch to Scuffle and Heat Wave to Utan Xatu, I had to go down to the Underground and get 8 Blue Shards. It had been a while since I last played in the Underground, so I thought I’d share my thoughts on it in general.
I think the Underground is pretty fun, definitely one of the better minigames in the Sinnoh games (I am not a fan of the Poffin making or the Super Contests). The Secret Base function isn’t as great as in the Hoenn games, but it is still okay. I have unfortunately never had the chance to try the multiplayer features in the Underground together with someone else (I have only used them myself, with two games and two systems). Maybe it would have been more fun together with someone else, but doing it on my own was still okay.
Looking for items is mostly fun, but it is pretty random and luck-based if you are looking for a specific item. You can spend an hour without finding what you are looking for, or find multiple within a few minutes. When I played now, I found a lot of unnecessary items which I ended up putting in my bag. So much for making space. But I decided to skip many items I found by not completely digging them up. I mostly focused on getting Shards, as well as other moderately useful items like elemental stones.
After maybe one hour in total, I had found what I needed in the form of 7 Blue Shards and one Star Piece (which I traded for Shards). I also found a Claw Fossil which I resurrected into an Anorith, but since I have banned fossils, I won’t use it for the challenge. Instead, I put it in a PC box. It also seems like I had used the Underground more than I remember on this file in the past. I found many buried spheres in various locations, and I buried even more now.
Looking back now, maybe I shouldn’t have used the MTs on Fightbag and 2Leaf earlier, it would probably have been a better idea to save them for Pokémon I am going to train to higher levels. But I can’t undo that now. I also wish that Shards were even easier to find (like in B2/W2), and that Platinum had infinite TMs. But you can’t have everything. Chances are I will have to go back to the Underground more times before this challenge is over, we’ll see.
Another thing that happened now is that I maxed out the steps on my Step Counter.
I reset it before I started training Stargazer’s Dreamchasers, and this is how long it took for it to max out. Will it be maxed more times before I am done with the challenge? Very likely. It is currently back at over 25000 steps, so it will probably be maxed at least once more. I wonder how many steps I have walked IRL since I started this challenge? I haven’t counted, but hopefully more than in the game.
Other than that, I have caught another swarming Pokémon. Corsola were swarming at Route 230, so I went there and caught one. It is at level 48, I named it Scarlette. This was the last swarming Pokémon I really wanted, so I stopped checking the swarms after catching it. There were a few more I was considering, but I decided to skip them. There aren’t that many Pokémon I have left to actually catch for the challenge, and I have already decided on most of the remaining ones.
With all of that out of the way, it is time to move on to my next team. I have three teams left to make for the challenge, so let’s get started on putting together the next one. But first… there’s one thing I have wanted to catch ever since this challenge started. And that is… a shiny! Wouldn’t that be cool? Yes, it would. But how should I get it? The regular odds are 1/8192, which is way too low. I’m not skilled enough with the Poké Radar to get long chains. Can’t use breeding or Masuda Method either since I have banned breeding. So, how should I get a shiny? If you know me, you know that the obvious answer is through RNG abuse. I wanted to share the full details of it, but I put it in a spoiler in case people aren’t interested.
I guess I should start with a short backstory. Why do I have two copies of Platinum in the first place? I kind of hinted at this earlier when I linked to my Shaymin post, but RNG abuse is the reason. I originally learned to RNG on Gen 5 in 2011, then on Gen 4 in 2012. Back then, I was part of a RNG community (mainly on Serebiiforums, but a little here on Smogon as well), and we had lots of fun together!
When I learned RNG abuse in Gen 4, I hadn’t caught many legendaries in HG/SS, so I could RNG the majority of them. But I had already caught all legendaries in D/P/P (except the Regi trio since I didn’t have an event Regigigas). I really wanted to get the Sinnoh legends with better Natures/IVs, but I didn’t want to restart. Instead, I ended up getting a second copy of Platinum. I got it in 2012, but I didn’t play through it until 2015. When I started, I made sure to RNG my ID/SID to give me a 31/12/31/31/31/31 Modest/Timid shiny spread. ID/SID abuse is not the easiest, but I have done it twice. First on HeartGold and then here on Platinum. According to my notes, it took me 16 tries to get it right on Platinum. But it was worth it, because I could catch most of the legends as shiny with perfect IVs! And many years later, when I got the ability to inject wondercards, I could get even more. Including Shaymin, Darkrai and even Arceus! Which isn't completely legitimate since the Azure Flute was never officially released, but it is fun to have for personal use (though ever since I caught it, it has just been sitting in a box without doing anything).
So that’s the backstory. Back to the present. The last time I did any RNG on Gen 4 was in 2022, so I might be a but rusty. But I’ll try. The first thing I should do is to find a suitable seed. I want a Modest shiny with my perfect IV spread, and the Pokémon I am after can be found on encounter slots 0, 9 and 11. I start my trusty RNG Reporter, search, and find several results.
When it comes to RNG in Gen 4, I generally prefer a low frame and a high delay, as opposed to a high frame and a low delay. So I’m going for the one with the lowest frame. I need a Modest Sync, but I have one in my PC, so no issues there. Next, let’s generate some possible times for this seed.
Since one of the possible dates was today, I decided to go for that. Next up, time to do some preparations in the actual game. I withdraw my catcher Gallade, 2 Chatot, my Modest Sync Abra and a Tropius which knows Sweet Scent. Then I record a Chatter for my Chatot and switch to the Coin Flip app on my Pokétch. After that, I head to Trophy Garden, since that’s where my target can be found. I also put in the right time values in EonTimer:
And with that, I’m ready. It takes me 9 tries to hit my delay, which I guess isn’t too bad, but I am definitely a bit rusty. After my first try, I learn that in order to hit odd delays for 2024, I need a GBA game inserted, so I put Emerald in the GBA slot. One random thing I thought of that I want to mention is that when it comes to verifying my seed, I prefer to use Elm Calls in HG/SS instead of Coin Flips in D/P/P. I think it might be because when I first started with RNG in Gen 4, I started with HG/SS, so Elm Calls feel a bit more natural to me. And they have always felt a bit “safer” too, not sure how else to describe it. But the Coin Flips are a bit faster, so they are not without merit. Anyway, after I manage to hit my delay, it is time to advance the frame.
I need to do 6 Chatters to reach my target frame, so I do that.
After all of these preparations, I use Sweet Scent and encounter my target!
A shiny Pichu at level 22. I switch to Gallade, use False Swipe, throw a Repeat Ball, and it is caught.
Modest with IVs of 31/12/31/31/31/31. I name it Corachu. I want it to evolve ASAP, so I give it a Soothe Bell to hold. It will not be the only shiny I RNG for this challenge, but the only one for now. The next ones will have to wait until later parts of the challenge.
I still need one more Pokémon for my upcoming team. I fly to Eterna City and head out to Route 211, where I use the Poké Radar in the grass. I quickly meet my target, which is a second Tyrogue. I catch it and name it Middle Mac. It is at level 14, so it needs some training. I give it 10 Iron and let it hold the Exp. Share. I fly to Veilstone where I deposit Gallade, Tropius, Abra and both Chatot, then I withdraw Middle Mac and some members of older teams which are at level 90. I rebattle a trainer with the VS. Seeker, which causes Middle Mac to grow to level 20 and evolve into Hitmonchan!
With that, the time has come to assemble my next team. I keep Middle Mac and Corachu in my party and deposit my level 90s. Then I withdraw Neuf, Snowball, Threehead and Scarlette. Those six are going to be my next team.
Another strange team. Will it work? Yes, I will make sure it works. But how well will it work? I will find out.
The usual question: Why those six? The usual answers. First, Exp. groups. Grumpig, Granbull and Corsola are in the Fast group, while Hitmonchan, Dodrio and Raichu are in the Medium Fast group. So training them should go pretty quickly. The team also has good defensive synergy, and on the offensive side, it will feature 3 Physical and 3 Special attackers, which means that it should be balanced.
I have never used Grumpig or Hitmonchan before. Last time I used Granbull and Corsola were on an E4 rematch team I made on Black in 2011. It is funny how I used both of them on the same team back then, and now I’m doing it again! Last time I used Kantonian Raichu was for a Battle Maison team on Alpha Sapphire in 2016. It feels like it wasn’t that long ago, but it has been 8 years. Last time I used Dodrio was on a cancelled replay of LeafGreen I attempted a few years ago, making it the one I have used most recently.
This team already has a name, it is named 9G-3C. My target levels are 76-81. The levels I aim for with my new teams will only get lower from here on, I no longer have to train anything new to level 90 or above. For this team, one of the first things I should to is to evolve all the team members that need to evolve. I should also give them vitamins to make them stronger, and improve their movesets with what moves I can get from TMs and MTs. But first, I need something to give me more energy… like some energetic music. Have some really hard beats in the form of a remix of a song from an anime I have never watched.
One more thing. My playtime has reached yet another milestone.
It is at 151:14, which means that this challenge has been going on for 75:14! That’s a lot of time. And I played for over 40 hours in July alone. I guess it will take over 100 hours in total before I am done. This challenge takes time, but it is honestly really fun.
Good progress this time as well, I obtained 6 new levels, just as planned. This will obviously be my last update for July. Not sure how long it will take until next time, but I would assume around 2 weeks as usual.
I also realized that some of the photos in this part are a bit blurry. Sorry about that. I will try to take better photos for future updates.
We’re halfway through August, and another part of this challenge has arrived!
Let’s start with the team. All team members are fully evolved. Snowball, Neuf and Threehead evolved upon reaching their evolution levels. Corachu evolved into Pikachu at level 23. I did everything I could to raise its Friendship as much as possible, which paid off. After it learned Thunderbolt at level 26, I used a Thunderstone to evolve it into Raichu.
Then, it was training, training, and even more training. The team is done, here’s the result:
- Scarlette became a Level 76 Corsola. It gets to hold a Hard Stone that I accidentally picked up in the Underground.
- Threehead became a Level 77 Dodrio. It gets to hold a Reaper Cloth since I have nothing better.
- Snowball became a Level 78 Granbull. It gets to hold the Dusk Stone Zigzagzug picked up earlier.
- Middle Mac became a Level 79 Hitmonchan. It gets to hold another Reaper Cloth since I had two.
- Neuf became a Level 80 Grumpig. It gets to hold the Wise Glasses.
- Corachu became Level 81 Raichu. It gets to hold a Light Ball which I had in my bag, probably obtained from an event.
You know what’s next. Team details below.
Scarlette
Ability: Natural Cure
Nature: Quirky
- Surf
- Power Gem
- Earth Power
- Recover
Scarlette became a Special attacker. Surf and Power Gem for STAB, Earth Power for coverage. Recover to heal, I wasn’t sure if I would ever use it, but it was surprisingly useful at times. I considered Ice Beam, but didn’t really feel that I needed it. I already have Power Gem against Flying-types, I didn’t meet any Dragon-types, and I’d rather not have Scarlette battle any Grass-types. So Ice Beam wasn’t necessary. I didn’t consider any other moves.
It has a Quirky Nature, which is fine since it is neutral. Natural Cure is a good Ability, allowing it to cure itself of status by switching out (or immediately after a battle).
Overall, Scarlette was very weak. I wouldn’t say it was a disappointment since I had rather low expectations, but it didn’t exactly surpass them since it wasn’t particularly useful most of the time. It is a shame since it has a good movepool, a great Ability and an okay typing, but is brought down by bad stats. I feel that Corsola is a Pokémon that pretty much requires good IVs/Nature and proper EVs in order to be good in battle. As it was now, I had to be very careful when training it so it wouldn’t faint. In most cases, it needed a good matchup in order to win.
Threehead became a Physical attacker. Return for STAB, which I taught it very early since the only Physical Normal-type moves it learns early on are Quick Attack and Fury Attack, both of which are very weak and stop being useful quickly. Now that I look at its learnset, Doduo learns Double Hit at level 32, while Dodrio doesn’t! Either way, I had Quick Attack as the main Normal-type move before upgrading to Return. Drill Peck for secondary STAB, I’m glad Dodrio learns Drill Peck since that means it doesn’t have to rely on Fly. It didn’t learn Drill Peck until level 47 though, and I had Peck prior to that, so I used Fly as the main Flying-type move before Drill Peck.
Steel Wing for coverage, it could be useful against Rock- and Ice-types. Though it was risky since Threehead is weak to those two types, and many Rock-types have high Defense, which meant that they could live a Steel Wing and strike back afterwards. Fly for Flying STAB early on, then only for the HM. I didn’t consider any other moves.
Threehead has a Quiet Nature, which is really bad for it since it doesn’t benefit from either increased Sp.att or lower Speed. Run Away is a useless Ability since it doesn’t do anything in battles, and being able to escape from any wild Pokémon isn’t super useful since it eventually got fast enough to outrun everything without relying on the Ability.
Overall, Threehead was okay. It was pretty strong and reasonably fast, but very frail. It didn’t have the best coverage either. It could usually win, but it mostly needed a good matchup since it didn’t have the best coverage, mainly relying on its STAB moves.
Snowball became another Physical attacker. Return for STAB, it hits really hard with no drawbacks. I had Headbutt at first, but upgraded once we were friendly enough. The other moves were for coverage. Crunch is helpful against Psychic- and Ghost-types, though I had Bite for a very long time as Snowball didn’t learn Crunch until level 59! Superpower helps against Normal-, Rock-, Ice-, Steel- and Dark-types. It hits hard but comes at the cost of lowering Attack and Defense, so I mostly used it as a finishing move, and never multiple times in a row. Ice Punch in the last slot to nail Flying-, Ground-, Grass- and Dragon-types. These four moves gave Snowball really good coverage, it could hit a lot of Pokémon super effectively. I considered ThunderPunch and Fire Punch, but decided to not use them.
It has a Sassy Nature, which is a mixed bag. The increased Sp.def is okay, but Snowball still felt pretty frail. I don’t think the lower Speed made a difference as it is pretty slow to start with. Quick Feet was the Ability it got, but it was unfortunately not very useful. It got statused several times, but even so, it was still very slow afterwards to the point that it still couldn’t outrun many faster opponents. Intimidate is the other option, and I think it would have been better.
Overall, Snowball was okay. It could hit very hard, but it was slow and not super bulky, which limited its usefulness.
Middle Mac
Ability: Iron Fist
Nature: Sassy
- Close Combat
- ThunderPunch
- Ice Punch
- Fire Punch
Middle Mac is the third and final Physical attacker of the team. Close Combat for STAB, it hits hard at the cost of lowering defenses. I had Mach Punch first, which I upgraded to Sky Uppercut after a while, and then finally Close Combat. I had some thoughts about having a second Fighting-type move in order to have more PP (like I have on Babian and Scuffle), but I decided not to. And I found that Close Combat was enough in most cases. For coverage, I went with all three Elemental Punches. Sucker Punch would have been nice, but unlike Hitmonlee and Hitmontop, Hitmonchan can’t learn it! Early on, I had Bullet Punch and Fake Out, but I replaced them since they aren’t that useful in the long run.
It has a Sassy Nature, which is decent. It has very high base Sp.def to start with, but I guess raising it even further is never bad. The lower Speed was a bit of an issue, but Middle Mac wasn’t super-fast to begin with, so I’m not sure if it had much of a difference. It is funny how it has a Sassy Nature, since it is the total opposite of Scuffle which has a Naive Nature! Iron Fist was the Ability it got, and it is really great since it boosts the power of the Elemental Punches.
Overall, Middle Mac was really good. It could hit hard with excellent coverage, it had pretty good bulk, and okay Speed.
Neuf
Ability: Own Tempo
Nature: Adamant
- Psychic
- Charge Beam
- Signal Beam
- Power Gem
Neuf is the second Special attacker of the team. Psychic for STAB, it had Psybeam at first which I upgraded to Psychic once it learned the move. Charge Beam in the second slot. It had two purposes, the first was to offer coverage, and the second was to give Neuf a chance to boost boost its Sp.att. Though it is a bit unreliable since it only has a 70% chance of granting a boost, the imperfect accuracy was also annoying. Low base power also meant that it didn’t deal a lot of damage, but it was better than nothing. Signal Beam and Power Gem for even more coverage, not the best coverage moves but they were what I had. An alternative would have been Energy Ball, but I wanted to save my Energy Ball TM for a Pokémon I will train in the future.
Neuf has an Adamant Nature, which is very unfortunate as that is the worst possible option. Another Nature would have been better since the lower Sp.att made Neuf quite weak. Fortunately, it has a solid Ability in Own Tempo, blocking Confusion is never bad. There are several in-game opponents which just love to use moves that (has a chance to) cause confusion. The other alternative is Thick Fat, which is probably the better alternative, but Own Tempo worked.
Overall, Neuf was okay. It didn’t hit particularly hard, but it could boost with Charge Beam and then deal high amounts of damage afterwards. It was quite bulky but not super fast. In general, it needed a good matchup in order to win. Not the best, but it was very fun to use.
Corachu is the third and final Special attacker, and the only real set-up sweeper on the team. Thunderbolt for STAB, the only damaging Electric-type move it ever had. It had nothing upon capture, and I considered using the Move Relarner to teach it Thundershock early on, but it felt pointless. Instead, I waited until it learned Thunderbolt. Signal Beam and Focus Blast for coverage, not the best coverage moves but they were what I had. I am not a fan of Focus Blast due to its bad accuracy, but I decided to go with it here. The results were sometimes really disappointing. One time, I decided to use Focus Blast to beat a Finneon just for fun, but it missed all five times in a row! I have seen people say Stone Edge is the worst move in Gen 4, but I think Focus Blast is a good candidate as well. Nasty Plot in the last slot to set up, boosting its Sp.att to sky-high levels. At +6, Corachu could OHKO Cheryl’s Blissey with Focus Blast, which was fun. Grass Knot would have been a good coverage move, but since I had already used the TM, I couldn’t go with it.
I RNGed Corachu with a Modest Nature since it is the best alternative for it, and the perfect IVs made it even stronger. Static is a solid Ability since it means that any opponent who touches Corachu is at the risk of being paralyzed.
Overall, Corachu was great. It was the best member of the team for sure. I just needed to keep it away from Ground-types and it was smooth sailing. Nasty Plot 1-3 times, then it could wreak havoc. Sometimes it didn't even need to set up.
The hold items for the team were the same as usual, though Corachu held a Soothe Bell until it evolved. Regarding training spots, I battled wild Pokémon, daily trainers in Pokémon Centers, and regular trainers with the Vs. Seeker. I didn’t take on the Elite Four or my Rival with this team.
I also had to go down to the Underground a few more times in order to get more Shards for the MT moves I used on the team. Hopefully I won’t have to go down to the Underground that many more times during the challenge. It is fun, but it takes a lot of time that I’d rather spend on other things.
The defensive synergy for the team is good.
No unresisted weaknesses, and no major issues against any types.
Overall, this team was okay. Not as great as my previous teams, but still fine for what it was.
And that’s it 9G-3C. But before we move on, I suppose I should explain why the team is named as it is.
9: Neuf is French for nine
G: Grumpig and Granbull
3: Threehead
C: Corsola and Corachu
But what about Middle Mac? It is the line in the middle.
I realize that the name does not make complete sense, but that was never the point. After all, what fun is there in making sense?
I should mention one new thing related to training. I have made an update to my sheet of the trainers in Pokémon Centers, since I discovered that Roxy & Oli can be fought in Veilstone City on Thursdays. This isn’t listed on either Serebii or Dragonflycave. Maybe I should tell them about it. Either way, the updated sheet can be found here.
With all of that out of the way… it is time to move on to my next team, which will be the second last team I make for this challenge. I planned this team quite a while ago, and I have really been looking forward to it! The first thing I need to do is to obtain all the team members I don’t have yet. First of all, I want to RNG some more shinies.
I won’t go over all the details this time, so have some short summaries. I do some preparations for my first target, then I fly to Hearthome City and head down to Trophy Garden once again, since this is where my target can be found. It takes me two tries to hit my delay, then I meet and catch my target.
A shiny Roselia at level 23, nicknamed Blossom. Modest with 31/12/31/31/31/31. After catching it, I immediately continue with getting my next target. I fly to Floaroma Town and head out to Fuego Ironworks since the Pokémon I am looking for can be found here. I can use the same seed as for Blossom, so there’s no need to change anything regarding the preparations. This time, it takes me three tries to hit my delay. I meet and catch the Pokémon I am after.
A shiny Magnemite at level 30, nicknamed Industrial. Like Blossom, it is Modest with 31/12/31/31/31/31.
I had originally planned to only RNG those two, but I thought things over and decided that I might as well do one more while I’m at it. For it, I need to do some new preparations, which includes finding a new seed, changing to a different Sync. and teaching Taunt to my Gallade. Once that is done, I fly to Veilstone City and head down to Sendoff Spring, where my target can be found. Like with Industrial, it takes me three tries to hit my delay. I then find and catch my target.
A shiny Staravia at level 40, named Apto Starr. It has an Adamant Nature, but since I don’t have a Adamant shiny spread with Flawless IVs, I had to do some compromises. Its IVs are 31/31/19/24/28/31, which is actually pretty good even if it isn't completely flawless. The date is also off since there weren’t any options for the actual date (which was yesterday, August 15th). Since it knows Take Down, I couldn’t use False Swipe to bring it down to 1 HP, and since it knows Whirlwind, I had to use Taunt to stop it from ending the battle by whirling me away. But I still caught it in the third Luxury Ball I threw. I could have caught it as a Starly at a lower level, but I wanted to get it at the highest possible level so I wouldn’t have to train it as much.
With these three caught, I won’t RNG any more shiny Pokémon for now. I still need one more Pokémon for the team, but it will be a regular encounter since I’m not very fond of its shiny. I fly to Snowpoint City and head to Snowpoint Temple. After meeting several Golbat, I find my target in form of a Sneasel at level 51, which I catch. I name it Vyx.
Those were all the Pokémon I needed to catch. I have Blossom, Industrial, Apto Starr and Vyx, and to them, I add Cave Shark and Stairs. These will be my next team.
The strongest team yet? I hope so.
Why these six? Unlike my previous teams, I didn’t really consider Exp. Groups or anything. These are six Pokémon that I just really like a lot. But let’s take a look at the Exp. Groups anyway. Magnezone is in the Medium Fast group, Staraptor, Roserade and Weavile are in the Medium Slow group, while Garchomp and Starmie are in the Slow group. Which means that training this team will be a bit slower than previous teams, but that’s okay. I checked the defensive synergy for the team a while ago, and it looked good. Offensively, it will consist of three Physical and three Special attackers, which is also good.
The last time I used Magnezone was on a Battle Maison team on Omega Ruby in 2016. Last time I used Garchomp was on a Battle Tree team in Moon in 2017. Weavile was last used on my post-game team for Ultra Sun in 2019. I used both Staraptor and Roserade on my in-game teams for L:A, which was in 2022. Last time I used Starmie was also in 2022, I used it on my in-game team when I replayed Black 2. So I have used all of them quite recently.
This team has been named Mighty Powerforce because they are all really powerful. Which is also one of the reasons I like them.
Music time! Instead of something energetic, have the opposite in the form of a really chill song which I love:
And so… it is back to training again. None of the members of the team are fully evolved, so evolving them has high priority. I should also give them vitamins and improve their movesets. My target levels are 70-75, which feels pretty low since I have previously trained so many Pokémon to level 80-90, but 70-75 is still quite high. I don’t know how long it will take to get there, but hopefully not too long.
Good progress this time too. I now have 3/4 of all levels! The end approaches. My goal is to be done with this new team before the end of August, which gives me around two weeks. Feels like it is always two weeks in this challenge, for some reason.
One thing related to the challenge is that my vacation has ended, I went back to work this week. That means I won’t have as much time to play, but I’ll still try to play a little every day.
August is coming to an end, and so is the summer. I don’t know about everyone else, but I feel that time goes by very quickly these days. Maybe that’s just what happens as you get older? It feels like it hasn't been that long since this challenge started, but it will soon be three months.
Speaking of time, it has been almost two weeks since my last update, which means that it is time for a new one. Let’s start with the team as always. All team members are fully evolved and have been fully trained, here’s the result:
- Stairs became a Level 70 Starmie. It gets to hold the Choice Specs.
- Blossom became Level 71 Roserade. It gets to hold a Spooky Plate because I have nothing better.
- Cave Shark became a Level 72 Garchomp. It gets to hold a Dragon Fang.
- Vyx became a Level 73 Weavile. It gets to hold a Grip Claw.
- Industrial became a Level 74 Magnezone. It gets to hold a Metal Coat.
- Apto Starr became a Level 75 Staraptor. It gets to hold a Life Orb.
Team details below. Pretty short this time since I feel like I am mostly explaining the obvious, there’s no need to go overly deep into all details.
Stairs is a special attacker. It has the standard SPIT set, featuring both of its STABs and two great coverage moves. The only other move I considered was Recover, but an all-out attacking set felt better. A Bashful Nature is okay since it is neutral. Unfortunately, Illuminate is by far the worse of its two Abilities since it is useless in battle. Natural Cure would have been a lot better.
Overall, Stairs was great but not amazing. It could hit hard, but it often missed out on important KOs, opponents had a tendency to survive hits from its moves with just a little HP left. It was very fast, but not super bulky, many moves would 2HKO. I like Starmie, but I think it needs proper EVs in order to really shine.
Blossom
Ability: Poison Point
Nature: Modest
- Energy Ball
- Sludge Bomb
- Weather Ball
- Synthesis
Blossom is another special attacker. Energy Ball and Sludge Bomb for STAB, they both hit really hard. Energy Ball is one of my favorite Grass-type moves, Grass Knot is otherwise a very popular choice (especially in competitive), but I have always liked Energy Ball better since it deals consistent damage. In addition, I had already used the TM for Grass Knot, while I still had a TM for Energy Ball. Weather Ball for coverage, it was very situational but I had great use for it when battling on Route 215. That place has constant Rain, turning Weather Ball into a relatively powerful Water-type move, which is great. Synthesis to heal. I had Giga Drain for a while and I considered keeping it, but ended up not doing so. I really wanted to use either Sunny Day or Rain Dance, but since I had already used the TMs for them, I couldn’t.
Blossom has a Modest Nature, which is the best possible option. Poison Point was the Ability it got, and it was pretty good. It meant that opponents who used contact moves were at the risk of getting poisoned, which is never bad. Natural Cure is the other option, and it would have been good as well.
Overall, Blossom was great. It could hit really hard with its STABs, but limited coverage meant that it couldn’t defeat every opponent, it generally needed a good matchup in order to shine.
Cave Shark is a Physical attacker. Dragon Claw and Dig for STAB, it doesn’t learn Earthquake through level-up, but Dig is better than nothing (looking at you, Steelix). Though it was annoying when I battled opposing Magneton and Magnezone as they often used Magnet Rise while Cave Shark dug, rendering it useless. Crunch and Fire Fang for coverage, they were both very useful. I didn’t consider any other moves.
It has a Serious Nature which is fine since it is neutral. Sand Veil is unfortunately a mostly useless Ability, it does nothing outside of Sandstorm, and it only gives a slight evasion boost when there is one. I with it could have had Rough Skin like it can in Gen 5 and on.
Overall, Cave Shark was great. It is Garchomp after all, so I shouldn’t have expected anything else. It was fast, powerful and quite bulky. One of the better team members for sure.
Vyx is another physical attacker. Night Slash and Ice Punch are the best STAB moves. Poison Jab was a filler move, I used it simply because I had the TM in my bag. I was going to use a Fighting-type move at first, but ended up not doing so. The move I considered was Rock Smash, but I scrapped it. I wish I still had a Brick Break TM, that would have been great. Poison Jab wasn’t super useful, but it could be used to hit Grass-types that take neutral damage from Ice Punch, such as Ludicolo and Abomasnow, though I rarely used it. Ice Shard in the last slot for priority.
Vyx has a Timid Nature, which isn’t very good. The boosted Speed is nice, though I’m not sure how much of a difference it makes since it is pretty fast to start with. The lower Attack is unfortunately a big negative. Pressure is the only Ability it has, and it is mostly useless.
Overall, Vyx was pretty good. It was very fast and could hit hard, but it was frail and easily KO’d if it couldn’t KO the opponent first.
Industrial
Ability: Sturdy
Nature: Modest
- Thunderbolt
- Mirror Shot
- Signal Beam
- Tri Attack
Industrial is the third and final Special attacker of the team. Thunderbolt is the best Electric STAB it gets, hitting really hard with no drawbacks. Mirror Shot for Steel STAB, it is quite weak and annoyingly inaccurate, but I went with it anyway. Since I had already used my Flash Cannon TM, there was no other option. Signal Beam and Tri Attack for coverage, not the best but they worked. I didn’t consider any other moves.
It has a Modest Nature which is amazing, letting it hit even harder. Sturdy wasn’t the most useful ability, but it came into use once when I had accidentally gotten into battle against a Seaking at a higher level. It tried to beat me with Horn Drill, but it failed thanks to Sturdy!
Overall, Industrial was great. It could hit really hard, and it was quite bulky too. But it was a bit slow and would often move second when up against fast opponents.
Apto Starr is the third Physical attacker of the team. Return for Normal STAB, it hits hard without any drawbacks. I thought it Return early on since it didn’t have any other good Normal-type moves, it had Take Down for a while, but I never used it. Brave Bird for Flying STAB, it hits like a truck at the cost of heavy recoil. I had Aerial Ace at first, but upgraded once it learned Brave Bird. Close Combat in the third slot for coverage, it was useful against Normal-, Rock-, Ice- and Steel-types. It hits hard at the cost of lowering defenses. However, I missed out on it for a long while since Staraptor learns it at level 34, and I caught it as a level 40 Staravia! But better late than never. Fly in the last slot, it was mostly for the HM, but I occasionally used it in battle if I needed a Flying-type move but didn’t want the recoil from Brave Bird. I didn’t consider any other moves than those four.
An Adamant Nature is the best possible Nature, letting it hit even harder. Intimidate is a good Ability, lowering the Attack of opponents when Apto Starr is sent out, making any Physical attacker hit less hard (if they even get to move at all).
Overall, Apto Starr was great. It was fast, decently bulky, and could hit really hard, but the recoil from Brave Bird combined with Close Combat lowering Defenses meant that it could quickly be worn down.
As for the team overall, it was great, but perhaps not as great as I had expected. The team members were really powerful, but somehow, I thought they would be even better. Maybe they would have been if I had given them proper EVs and/or trained them to higher levels, and if some of them had had better movesets.
The hold items for the team were the same as always, though Vyx held a Razor Claw until it evolved. Regarding training spots, I battled trainers with the VS. Seeker, daily trainers in Pokémon Centers as well as the Battleground, and occasionally wild Pokémon.
The defensive synergy for the team is great.
I have at least one resistance to every type, even 2-3 for the majority of them! Though I also have 2-3 weaknesses to several types. But the good outweighs the bad, and it was great on the whole.
That’s it for Mighty Powerforce.
Before moving on to the next team, there are some other things to do. Now that I have 82 levels, I decided to go see the old man on Route 221 to see if I can show him a Pokémon at the level he wants to see. There’s a 82% chance of success. Let’s see how it goes!
Of course, he just had to ask for a level I don’t have yet. Oh well. I’ll try again later.
Last Friday, I went to Valley Windworks since there was a certain Pokémon I wanted to catch.
I have been thinking about getting one ever since the challenge started, and I decided to get it now. I also decided to RNG a shiny while I’m at it. It took me 5 tries to hit my delay this time.
A shiny Drifloon at level 15, named Break It. Modest with 31/12/31/31/31/31. I caught it on the first turn with a Quick Ball. It will not be on my next team, but I wanted to catch it now just so I have it. I have also decided that this will be the last Pokémon I RNG for the challenge. The few that remain will be regular captures.
With that out of the way, it is time to put together my next team! To start with, I need to catch some new Pokémon. I withdraw my catcher Gallade and a Bibarel with Cut, then I head out to Route 206 and into the grass. I quickly find what I’m after, a Gligar at level 18. I catch it and name it Violette. With it caught, I fly to Pastoria and head out to Route 213. Here, I use the Poké Radar in the grass, and after a short Buizel chain, I find my target, a Swellow at level 26. I catch it and name it Liftoff.
I continue by flying to Floaroma Town where I head out to Valley Windworks. My next target can be found here… but finding it takes a while. I use the Poké Radar again, and along the way, I manage to get some “high” chains, which end up becoming my two new best ones on this file. First I get a chain of 8 for Shellos, then I get a chain of 6 for Shinx. After that, I finally find my target, a Mareep at level 11. I catch it and name it Aetherwake. It took surprisingly long to appear. It has a 22% chance to appear according to Bulbapedia, but only 12% according to Serebii. I wonder which of them is right? I usually trust Bulbapedia more, but this time, it feels like Serebii is more correct. Doesn’t matter though, the important thing is that I found it in the end. One thing worth noting here is that Aetherwake is the last Pokémon I actually catch for the challenge. I have 100 different Pokémon, now I just need to get 100 different levels!
Anyway, I have all members for my next team. Violette, Liftoff and Aetherwake are in my party, and to them, I add three Pokémon I have caught in the past: Lucky Lax, Key Maid and Loco.
The last full team I make for the challenge. Will it work? Will it be fun? Will I find out? Yes.
Why these six? Munchlax, Lotad and Ledian were picked simply because I caught them earlier in the challenge but never ended up using them on any previous team, so it was basically now or never. Swellow since I needed a flier, Gligar since I have a Razor Fang in my bag which I might as well use. Mareep since I wanted a Special attacker as the last member of the team, for balance.
Let’s look at their Exp. Groups. Ledian is in the Fast group, Gliscor, Swellow, Ampharos and Ludicolo are in the Medium Slow group, while Snorlax is in the Slow group (that makes a lot of sense, thematically). So training them shouldn't be too bad.
When was the last time I trained/used any of these Pokémon? The last time I trained Snorlax was for the Emerald Battle Frontier in 2006, which was 18 years ago. Last time I used Swellow was for my in-game team on Omega Ruby in 2015. I then used Gliscor on a Battle Maison team in OR/AS, and Ampharos on my post-game team in Alpha Sapphire, both of these were in 2016. Last time I trained Ledian was on a mid-game team on Ultra Moon in 2018, and last time I trained Ludicolo was also on Ultra Moon. I used one on my post-game team there, which was in 2019. So apart from Snorlax, I have used all of them quite recently.
This team already has a name, I named it Lucky Lax & Loco's Lackeys. Because it sounded fun.
Now, it is training time. I want Lucky Lax to evolve ASAP, so I’m giving it a Soothe Bell to hold, and some massages to make it friendly. Before I get started for real, I need to give vitamins to the team and improve their movesets. Four of them also need to evolve, but that should happen as I train them. My target levels are 64-69, which feels very low. Hopefully, this shouldn’t take too long.
I need something to motivate me, so it is music time!. Have another song by Levels. In 2011-12, he did various covermixes of MLP songs from the early seasons. That’s obviously how I discovered him in the first place. This was the last one he did, and I think it is one of his best.
Before we’re done for now, there’s one more thing to talk about, namely another update for my playtime.
It is at 183:03, which means that the total time for the challenge is 107:03! That’s a lot of time. Will I be done with the challenge before I clock 200 hours on this file? Probably not. I don’t have that much left, but it might still take a while.
Good progress as usual. I got 6 more levels, just as planned. This will be my last update for August. I don’t know how long it will take before I am done with the new team, but probably somewhere around two weeks as that has become the norm. Since I don’t have that much left on the challenge, I’m hoping to be able to complete everything at some point in September.
It has been over two weeks. This took a little longer than I wanted. Unfortunately, I lost a bit of motivation for the challenge during early September. For the first time since the challenge started, I went a whole day without playing Platinum at all! Fortunately, there’s not much left now.
The team has been trained and all team members are fully evolved, here’s how they turned out:
- Key Maid became a Level 64 Ledian. It gets to hold a Micle Berry.
- Lucky Lax became a Level 65 Snorlax. It gets to hold the Leftovers it originally held back when I caught it.
- Aetherwake became a Level 66 Ampharos. It gets to hold a Dawn Stone since I have nothing better.
- Loco became Level 67 Ludicolo. It gets to hold another Dawn Stone because I had two in my bag and I’ll never use them for anything.
- Liftoff became a Level 68 Swellow. It gets to hold an Everstone since I have nothing better.
- Violette became a Level 69 Gliscor. It gets to hold another Everstone since I had three in my bag, but I only need to keep one.
Key Maid became a Special attacker. Bug Buzz for Bug STAB, it had Silver Wind for a short while at first, but I upgraded to Bug Buzz once it learned the move. Air Cutter for Flying STAB, it is pretty weak but it was the only option. Air Slash would have been better, but unfortunately, Ledian doesn’t learn Air Slash in Gen 4. But at least it gets a Special Flying-type move in Platinum thanks to Air Cutter being available from the Move Tutors. Focus Blast for coverage, not super useful and very inaccurate, but it was what I had. Reflect in the last slot. Since Key Maid has low Defense, it could be used to raise its bulk a bit, and it could be good for team support as well. I didn’t really consider any other options.
It has a Naive Nature, which is decent. More Speed is always welcome, and the lower Sp.def isn’t too bad since it has very high base Sp.def to start with. Swarm was the Ability it got, and it was okay, boosting the power of Bug Buzz when it was at low HP… though that didn’t happen very often.
Overall, Key Maid was unfortunately very weak. Just like when I trained Scarlette the Corsola earlier, I can’t call it a disappointment since I had pretty low expectations. Key Maid often failed to OHKO opponents even with a super effective STAB Bug Buzz. Ledian is yet another of those Pokémon that needs proper EVs/IVs/Nature in order to be even moderately useful.
Lucky Lax became a slow Mixed attacker and a special wall. I had originally not planned that it should be mixed, but that's what happened, and it worked. Return for STAB, it is powerful with no drawbacks. I was originally thinking of using Body Slam since Snorlax learns it through level-up, but I decided to go with Return since I wanted maximum power. Crunch to hit Psychic- and Ghost-types. Surf was originally a filler move I taught it early on in order to hit Rock/Ground-types with high Defense. But it ended up being far more useful than I expected, so I kept it all the way to the end. Rest in the last slot to heal. Lucky Lax was bulky enough to take a few hits and then Rest when it got low at HP.
Snorlax has a very wide movepool, and there were several other moves I considered. I was originally going to use Sleep Talk instead of Surf, but ended up not going with it. One move I had for a long time was Defense Curl, which was very useful for raising Defense, letting Lucky Lax take Physical hits better. I had some thoughts about keeping it, but I ended up getting rid of it in the end.
It has a Serious Nature, which is fine since it is neutral. Immunity was the Ability it got, and it is good, being immune to Poison is never bad. The other alternative is Thick Fat, which would have been good as well.
Overall, Lucky Lax was solid. It could hit hard and was bulky enough to tank multiple hits, but it was very slow. It would pretty much always move last unless it was up against another slow Pokémon.
Aetherwake
Ability: Static
Nature: Relaxed
- Thunderbolt
- Focus Blast
- Signal Beam
- Power Gem
Aetherwake is another Special attacker. Thunderbolt for STAB, it hits really hard. Zappy! As Yunaka would say. The other moves are for coverage. Focus Blast is strong but inaccurate, Signal Beam and Power Gem are less powerful but more accurate. Not the best coverage moves, but they were what I had. I rarely used them though, I just went with Thunderbolt most of the time. I didn’t consider any other moves, but it had Charge and Thunder Wave before learning Signal Beam and Power Gem.
It has a Relaxed Nature, which is actually quite good. Higher Defense is never bad, and the lower Speed didn’t make much of a difference since Aetherwake is quite slow to start with. Static is the only Ability it has, and it is good since it means that any opponent who uses contact moves is at the risk of being paralyzed.
Overall, Aetherwake was solid. It could hit really hard with Thunderbolt and it was bulky enough to take a hit, but just like Lucky Lax, it was slow and would pretty much always move last unless it was up against an opponent which was even slower.
Loco
Ability: Swift Swim
Nature: Adamant
- Surf
- Seed Bomb
- Ice Beam
- Drain Punch
Loco was originally going to be a Special attacker, but when I saw that it had an Adamant Nature, I decided to make it Mixed instead. It doesn't have super high Attack, but its Sp.att isn't that high either, so I thought it should work. Surf for Special and Water STAB, Seed Bomb for Physical and Grass STAB. It had Mega Drain for a short while at first, but I quickly upgraded to Seed Bomb. I considered Energy Ball for a while, but I didn't go with it. While I don’t have a TM, it is learned naturally by Lotad… at level 45! Which was why I scrapped it. Ice Beam for coverage, it was helpful against Grass- and Flying-types. I considered Ice Punch, but decided to go with the Special alternative here. Drain Punch in the last slot, it was mainly a filler move that I decided to use since I had the TM. It could be useful to heal and attack at the same time, but I rarely used it since it was pretty weak. Ludicolo gets a lot of other cool moves, some that I considered were Fake Out, Thunderpunch and Fire Punch. I like how Ludicolo gets Fire Punch despite being a Water/Grass-type. Maybe I should have used it just because of that? It would have been fun, but it is too late now.
It has an Adamant Nature, which as said, was the reason I made it Mixed in the first place. Its offensive stats were mostly even while I trained it. When it got to level 67, its Attack was 138 and its Sp.att was 141. Swift Swim was the ability it got, it was mainly useful when I battled on the rainy Route 215, though a certain Floatzel was still fast enough to outspeed Loco during Rain.
Overall, Loco was pretty good. It could hit reasonably hard and take a hit, but it mostly needed a good matchup in order to really shine.
Liftoff became a Physical attacker. Facade for Normal STAB, I decided to use it here since I still had the TM. It hit extremely hard whenever Liftoff was statused, but it was only average otherwise. Aerial Ace for Flying STAB, it had Wing Attack at first but I upgraded once it learned Aerial Ace. It isn’t super strong, but it had the benefit of having perfect accuracy, allowing it to always hit a certain Clefable which ended up annoying me a lot with Minimize when I trained the team. Quick Attack for priority, I had nothing better. Fly was mainly for the HM, though I occasionally used it if I needed a somewhat stronger Flying-type move, or if I wanted Liftoff to dodge a move. Some other moves I considered were Roost (since I have the TM) and Endeavor, but I decided to not use them.
It has a Hasty Nature, which is okay. It is really fast as it is, but more Speed is never bad. The lower Defense didn’t really make a difference either since Liftoff is quite frail to start with. Guts is the only Ability it has, and it is great. Whenever Liftoff was statused, its power shot through the roof, and Facade became incredibly powerful. My preference of status was, in order: Burn, regular Poison, Toxic Poison, paralysis. The downside was just that I had to get Liftoff statused in order to awaken its true power. I realized that the best way to do it was to use a Flame Orb. So I borrowed the Flame Orb I had given to Fightbag the Hariyama in the past, let Liftoff hold it, got into a battle and used Fly, which Burned Liftoff. Then I gave it the Lucky Egg and went back to training. This meant it would take damage over time as battles went on, so I had to heal it with Potions (not Full Restores) when its HP got low. A bit convoluted, but it worked.
Overall, Liftoff was great. It was the fastest member of the team, but it was very frail. Lacking coverage also meant that it couldn’t hurt opposing Rock- and Steel-types. It wasn’t super strong without a status, but when it was statused, it would annihilate most opponents that didn't resist Normal or Flying.
Violette
Ability: Sand Veil
Nature: Timid
- X-Scissor
- Stone Edge
- Fire Fang
- Swords Dance
Violette became a Physical attacker. There was just one issue. No STAB moves! Sad as it is, neither Gligar nor Gliscor learn a single damaging Ground- or Flying-type move through level-up. And I had no TMs left to use. So Violette would have to be STABless. Fortunately, Gliscor learns a ton of great non-STAB moves. I took a look at the moves it learns and did some coverage calculations which showed me that Bug/Rock/Fire offers great coverage.
X-Scissor hits Grass-, Psychic- and Dark-types super effectively, while being neutral towards Normal, Rock, Ground, Electric, Water and Dragon. Stone Edge is super effective against Ice, Bug, Flying and Fire, and neutral to Poison and Ghost. Fire Fang is super effective against Steel and Grass, and neutral to Fighting. Those three moves allow Violette to hit everything except Poliwrath for at least neutral damage. Swords Dance in the last slot to boost. Without STAB, boosting to give it some extra power felt necessary.
I expected Stone Edge to be a disappointment due to low accuracy, but it really surprised me by how often it hit. Felt like it had 95% accuracy rather than 80. After training Violette, I feel that Stone Edge does not live up to its epithet as the worst move in Gen 4. Before learning X-Scissor, Violette had Knock Off, which later became Faint Attack, and then Night Slash. It also had Quick Attack for a short while early on.
It has a Timid Nature, which is a bit of a mixed bag. Higher Speed is very welcome, but lower Attack is not. Jolly would have been better. Thankfully, it could raise its Attack with Swords Dance. Sand Veil was the Ability it got, and it is mostly useless. Hyper Cutter would have been a lot better.
Overall, Violette was great. It did usually not have any problems setting up 1-3 Swords Dances, and from there on, it could often perform a clean sweep. It was fast enough to outspeed most opponents and bulky enough to take several Physical hits, but it didn’t have the best Special bulk. But the good outweighs the bad by far, and it was one of the best team members for sure.
Regarding hold items, I just rotated between the Lucky Egg, Luck Incense and Amulet Coin as usual. Though Lucky Lax held a Soothe Bell until it evolved, and Violette held a Razor Fang until it evolved.
When it comes to training spots, I mainly battled trainers with the Vs. Seeker, though I also used wild Pokémon on some occasions. I battled the daily trainers in Pokémon Centers towards the end, and I had a few battles against trainers in the Battleground, but not many.
What about the defensive synergy for the team?
It is not very good. I have 3 unresisted weaknesses to Ice, 2 to Rock, and one to Fire. When planning the team, I was thinking of using a Steel-type as the last member to improve the defensive synergy somewhat, but decided not to.
Overall, this team was okay. Not the best, but it worked most of the time. Some of the team members were really fun to use, which was neat.
That’s all I have to say about Lucky Lax & Loco's Lackeys.
With them done, I have 88 levels. Let’s go see the old man once more to see if things go better than last time.
It did, thankfully. I’ll go back and see him again in the near future.
What else has happened since last time? Not much. One thing that happened which I guess deserves a mention is that I maxed out the steps on my step counter again. For the second and last time for the challenge. No photo this time though.
Before we move on, I need something to give my back my motivation for the challenge. Like some great music. Let’s go with some game music this time. This is a track from a game I have only played very little once when I visited a friend, but I love this song and I really hope this game gets a port for the “Switch 2” so I can play through it for real.
And now, it is time to get started on the next part of the challenge. I have trained my seventh and last team, but I still have two levels left to get from 1-90. So let’s get started on them right away! I head to a PC and withdraw Toast and Break It. Those two will be trained next.
Why these two? Simply because these are the last two untrained Pokémon I have, so it is literally now or never. Since they are just two and not a full team, I don’t need to think about team balance. Regarding Exp. Groups, Mothim is in the Medium Fast group, while Drifblim is in the Fluctuating Group. Training Drifblim to a higher level would be a pain, but since the target level is so low, it should be easy. I have never used Mothim before, and the last time I used Drifblim was on a post-game team in Pearl, which must have been in 2008. 14 years ago. Either way, I hope that those two will be fun to train.
Since this isn't a full team, they are simply The Last Two Left. My target levels are 62-63. Training these two should go very fast. It is only two Pokémon, and my target levels are low. In fact, it will go even faster than you know.
Good progress as usual, I got six new levels as expected. And the challenge has now been going on for over three months. My goal is still to be done with it before the end of September, and since half the month has already passed, it gives me a little more than two weeks. This should definitely be possible.
Before I started training The Last Two Left, there was one small thing I wanted to do. I put Break It in the first slot in my party and went to Hearthome City. I headed north to Amity Square. Since Drifloon is one of the few Pokémon that you can walk with here, I decided to do it a little just for fun.
I like the following Pokémon in Amity Square, and a very unpopular opinion of mine is that I think it is way better than the following Pokémon feature in HG/SS. One thing I especially like about Amity Square is that the Pokémon stand still when you stand still, they aren’t constantly moving (which always annoyed me in HG/SS). Plus, going here is completely optional instead of mandatory. The music is also charming, and the Pokémon can find useful items if you talk to them. It was also fun to see Break It “walk” with its strings/arms/whatever they are. Overall, I think Amity Square is one of the best executions of the following Pokémon feature in the whole series to date.
After walking with Break It for a short while, I leave. Time to start on the training. The first thing I do is withdraw some strong Pokémon to have in my party while I train Toast and Break It. I decide to evolve Toast before starting for real, since it will be very weak otherwise. I give it an Exp. Share, then I fly to the Survival Area, head to the Battleground and beat Marley. This gives Toast a bunch of Exp. It grows to level 20 and evolves into Mothim! Now, the training can start for real. I train Toast and Break It, the latter evolves into Drifblim at level 28. I train them until they are both at level 49. And with that… they are done? Well, almost.
One previously unwritten rule I have had for the challenge is that Rare Candies would not be allowed. But since I want to get rid of as many useless items from my bag as possible, I decided to make use of all the Rare Candies I have. In order to not make it feel like “cheating”, I decided to use them here on The Last Two Left instead of some Pokémon that will end at higher levels. I have 27 Rare Candies in my bag, I had some before the challenge started, then I got some more that Zigzagzug picked up when I trained Interrogation Magnification. Now, I give 13 Rare Candies to Toast, making it a Level 62 Mothim. It gets to hold an Exp. Share since I have two in my bag, but there’s no need for more than one. After that, I give my remaining 14 Rare Candies to Break It, which turns it into a Level 63 Drifblim. It gets to hold a Spell Tag. And so, they are done!
Details for them can be found below, pretty short since it is only 2 Pokémon and I didn’t train them very much.
Toast is a Special attacker. Bug Buzz for Bug STAB, it hits really hard, though it didn’t see much use since Toast didn’t learn it until level 47. It had Bug Bite at first, which later became Silver Wind, and finally Bug Buzz. Air Slash for Flying STAB, I’m glad Mothim learns Air Slash since it is a great move, the flinch chance was really nice too. Before getting Air Slash, it had Hidden Power. Since the Burmy line gets Hidden Power naturally, I decided to check which Hidden Power type Toast had, and it turned out to be Flying. So I had it as the secondary STAB move before it learned Air Slash. I considered Gust, but decided to skip it. While I don’t know the base power for its Hidden Power, keeping it felt better than changing to Gust.
Psychic in the third slot for coverage. It had Confusion at first, then Psybeam, and finally Psychic. For some odd reason, Mothim learns several Psychic-type moves. I don’t know why, but I approve of it. Roost in the last slot to heal. Since I still had the TM, I decided to use it here. It was useful on many occasions since Toast was often bulky enough to tank one or a few hits, allowing it to heal when needed.
Swarm is the only Ability it has, and it is okay since it allowed Toast to hit harder with Bug Buzz when it was at low HP. It has a Calm Nature, which is great since it boosts Sp.def at the cost of Attack, which it doesn’t need.
Overall, Toast was good. It could hit pretty hard with its moves and was bulky enough to take at least one hit, often several. It was fun to use, I’m glad a gave it a try.
Break It
Ability: Unburden
Nature: Modest
- Shadow Ball
- Air Cutter
- Thunderbolt
- Silver Wind
Break It also became a Special attacker. Shadow Ball for Ghost STAB, though it didn’t see that much use since it wasn’t learned until level 44. It had Astonish at first, then Ominous Wind, and finally Shadow Ball. Air Cutter for Flying STAB. It had Gust at first, and I wasn’t sure if I should bother teaching it Air Cutter, but after seeing how little damage Gust was doing, I decided to upgrade. And it turned out to be a great decision, since Air Cutter was much better. The high Crit chance was nice too. Thunderbolt in the third slot for coverage, it was helpful against Water- and Flying-types. Silver Wind was a filler move I taught it early on since I had the TM. It was pretty good before it learned Ominous Wind, and getting an all-stats boost could be a nice bonus too, but I used it less and less the further I trained Break It.
Unburden was the Ability it got, but it is unfortunately useless. Break It was always holding either the Lucky Egg or nothing, and there were no situations where it lost the Lucky Egg. Plus, it is quite fast to start with, so the speed boost would likely not have made much of a difference. The other alternative is Aftermath, which would have been “better” since it can actually do something, but my goal was to train Break It, not let it faint, so it wouldn’t have been that useful either. It has a Modest Nature, which is the best possible since that allows it to hit harder.
Overall, Break It was great. It was fast, could hit hard, and it was quite bulky, mostly thanks to high HP. It also had a great typing, giving it plenty of useful resistances and immunities. Like Toast, Break It was really fun to use and train.
Regarding hold items, I only used the Lucky Egg this time around since there’s no real need to obtain more money as I am almost done with the challenge. For training spots, I mostly used the Vs. Seeker to battle trainers, and fought wild Pokémon. Though there is one other training spot I used a little, which I have also used a few times in the past, but forgotten to talk about. It is the Seven Stars Restaurant at Valor Lakefront. It is pretty good for training Pokémon which are around level 25-30.
There’s no need to talk about defensive synergy this time since it was only two Pokémon and not a full team. Overall, training The Last Two Left was fun, and I want to use both of them again at some point in the future.
That was The Last Two Left.
With them done, I have all levels from 1-90! And my third full box is complete.
Three out of three full boxes! Just the last box left, which will only be filled to 1/3.
To celebrate, have some party music in the form of one of the most underappreciated Balloon Party songs ever:
Now that I have 90 levels, let’s go see the old man once more. There’s a 90% chance of success.
Easy. I will go see him once more before the challenge is over, but it will have to wait for a bit.
Now, for the final part of the challenge. 10 levels remain. And I have 10 unfinished Pokémon at level 90 from previous teams. They are the members of Stargazer’s Dreamchasers, and 4/6 of Guardians of the Lost Legacy. These 10:
They will be the last Pokémon I train for the challenge. My target levels are 91-100. Though they will need to grow 55 levels in total.
Good progress as usual. I only got two new levels, but that was just what I had planned, so it is great. And there's still 12 days left before September is over, so I still have lots of time.
Before I started with the training, there was one other thing I wanted to do. I decided to use up all of the remaining TMs I had in my bag. I withdrew several Pokémon that I have caught but not trained during the challenge and taught them all the TMs I had left.
No TMs? No problems!
Now, let’s begin… with some music. I haven’t featured a song by Jyc Row yet, which is something I feel that I must do. Have an epic masterpiece by him, PrinceWhateverer and Celica Soldream. Thematically, it would be more suitable for Alola, but I doubt I’ll ever do a challenge for an Alola game so I’m featuring it here instead.
All right, the time has come to start training the last 10 Pokémon! Since I have shared the details for them in the past, I won’t do it again. In order to make this at least somewhat interesting (or so I hope), I have written some short logs of how I have been training them.
Thursday, September 19th
I start by withdrawing Babian, Jetblade, Mindlock, Neon Blue, Snow Queen and Stargazer. With them in my party, I head to the Pokémon League and challenge the Elite Four. It has been a while since last time. Since the whole team is at level 90, I expect it to go easy. I have no problems against the actual E4 members, but Cynthia gives me a bit more trouble than I expected. I shouldn’t have underestimated her. Either way, several members of the team grow 1-2 levels during the challenge, which is nice. I get to enter the Hall of Fame again.
Afterwards, I fly to the Survival Area and enter the Battleground. Four trainers are here today: Gardenia, Byron, Candice and Mira. I start by battling Candice, and during the battle, Babian grows a level and becomes a Level 91 Primeape. It gets to hold the Black Belt I received from the old man earlier. I continue by battling Byron, and now, Stargazer ends as a Level 92 Gyarados. It gets to hold a Life Orb. I battle Gardenia and Mira afterwards, which gives the other four a bit of Exp.
Friday, September 20th
I start from Survival Area. There are three trainers at the Battleground: Gardenia, Fantina and Cheryl. I start by battling Gardenia, then Cheryl. While battling Cheryl, Snow Queen grows into a Level 93 Froslass. It gets to hold a Spell Tag. I battle Fantina afterwards, but no more Pokémon get completed. I fly to Hearthome City and head inside the Pokémon Center, where I battle Kinsey and Tevin. After beating both of them, Jetblade becomes a Level 94 Togekiss (not a Togetic, I know I have accidentally used the wrong minisprite in two previous posts, which has since been corrected). It gets to hold a Soothe Bell since I had two in my bag, but I don’t need more than one.
With those four done, I deposit them and withdraw Axel, Cloudsday, Earthfly and Essa instead. Together with Mindlock and Neon Blue, these are the very last six Pokémon that I will train for the challenge, so they might as well become a new team. Since they are all in the Erratic Exp. Group, their team name is The Erratics. I continue by flying to Celestic Town where I battle Lee in the Pokémon Center there, then I head to Veilstone where I battle Roxy and Oli.
Saturday, September 21st
Let’s challenge the Elite Four again! I fly to the Pokémon League and take on the challenge. I beat the Elite Four and Cynthia without major issues, though things didn’t go exactly as I had planned. Anyway, this gives the team a lot of Exp, many of them grow 1-2 levels. I have now beaten the Elite Four for the 14th time on this game. This was the last time I beat them during the challenge, but I have still not beaten them for the last time on the game.
Afterwards, I fly to Survival Area. Since it is Saturday, I can battle my rival. And this is the first time I get to battle him after his team levels have been increased, so this will be fun. I get into battle with him… but for some reason, the levels of his team have not been increased. Why? Have I done something wrong, or misunderstood what you need to do in order to increase the levels? I still battle him and got a lot of Exp, but not quite as much as I had hoped.
Next, let’s check out the Battleground. Four trainers are here today: Cheryl, Crasher Wake, Byron and Candice. I beat all of them for even more Exp. Then I fly around Sinnoh and beat all the daily trainers in the Pokémon Centers. Once that is done, I head north from Resort Area to Route 229, where I use the Vs. Seeker to rebattle Felix twice. All of this has given the team a ton of training, and one of them is done. Neon Blue ends as a Level 95 Lumineon. It gets to hold a Damp Rock that I accidentally picked up in the Underground a while ago. The other five have all grown to level 95 as well.
Sunday, September 22nd
I start by battling my rival again. Still no level increase. I searched a little, and it appears that other people have had the same issue in the past, with his levels not increasing even if they have beaten the Elite Four 10 or more times. I wonder what you actually need to do in order to increase his levels? At least it seems like it is possible, as can be seen in this video. Either way, beating him now gives the team some more good training.
Afterwards, I head inside the Battleground, where I find three trainers: Volkner, Maylene and Buck. I start by battling Volkner, then Buck. While I battle him, Mindlock grows into a Level 96 Volbeat. It gets to hold the Expert Belt I got from the old man earlier. I then battle Maylene, and now, Earthfly becomes a Level 97 Ninjask. It gets to hold a Metal Coat since I had one in my bag, and I have nothing better. I then train Cloudsday, Essa and Axel a bit by battling some trainers in Pokémon Centers: Roxy and Oli, Kinsey, Tevin, Ariel and Arturo. The three of them all reach level 97 in the end.
I deposit Neon Blue, Mindlock and Earthfly. Only Axel, Cloudsay and Essa are left. I guess you can call them the ACE of The Erratics, and of the whole challenge as well, since they will be the ones that reach the three highest levels. But which one of them will reach level 100? It will be revealed in the next part.
Great progress. For the first time since part 5, I added over 6 new levels! Which will also be the last time since it won’t happen again during the challenge. I have only three levels left now, and I will get them next time.
Yesterday, I went to the Battleground. Four trainers were there: Roark, Gardenia, Crasher Wake and Mira. I started by battling Gardenia, which made Cloudsday grow into a Level 98 Altaria. It gets to hold the Luck Incense since I don’t need it anymore, and I have the Amulet Coin anyway. Next, I battled Roark and Wake. This gave Essa and Axel so much Exp. that I didn’t really need to battle Mira for both of them to be completed. So I left. Sorry Mira, see you another time. I continued by flying to Canalave City. In the Pokémon Center, I battled Arturo, which made Essa grow into a Level 99 Milotic. It gets to hold a Leftovers.
With Cloudsday and Essa done, there's only one Pokémon and one level left. Since the first level I got for the challenge was 1, it felt suitable that the last level would be 100. Obviously, Axel is the Pokémon that will get to level 100. It was something I decided on during the very first day of the challenge, since that’s when I caught Axel. It was also the last Pokémon I caught that day.
A Zangoose named Axel. Z-A. The end and the beginning. The first shall be the last. It wasn’t really planned to be that symbolic, it just sort of happened.
Why is it named Axel? I have nicknamed 100 Pokémon during the challenge, but the only one I have explained the origin for is Mindlock the Volbeat, so I suppose I should give the explanation for one more. The name Axel is after a childhood friend of mine. We were really close friends and had lots of fun together. We didn’t see each other much in school since we were in different classes (and he was one year younger than me), but we would often hang out during weekends and vacations. We had many interests in common, one of them being Pokémon. One of Axel’s favorite Pokémon from Gen 3 was Zangoose. Unfortunately for him, he got Sapphire, so whenever he wanted to use a Zangoose, I had to catch one in Ruby and trade it to him. I’m pretty sure that happened more than once.
Now, it has been over 18 years since I last saw Axel. As we grew older, our interests grew in different directions. We started to drift apart, and eventually, our friendship just ended. But I’ll always cherish the memories from our time together. In memory of him, this Zangoose named Axel will get to the very highest level for this challenge.
Axel needs very little Exp. to grow to level 100, so who should I battle? I take a look at my list of the daily trainers in Pokémon Centers and decide. I fly to Jubilife City and head into the Pokémon Center, where I battle Kinsey. And during this battle
Axel becomes a Level 100 Zangoose!
But the challenge is not over yet. There’s one last thing to do. I fly to Pal Park and Route 221. Old man, I hereby challenge you. Can you request a level I don’t have?
I give Axel this Focus Sash to hold.
And with that… the challenge is complete!
The last box, with the 10 highest levels.
Let's take a look at some statistics. First, my playtime.
It is at 203:05. Which means that the time for the challenge ended at 127:05. I hit 200 hours in total before my last update, but I decided to not make a playtime update back then since I was so close to the end. In terms of days, the challenge started on June 9th and ended today, on September 24th. Or technically yesterday, but the challenge isn’t over until this post. So it took me 108 days. Though there was one day where I didn’t play Platinum at all. But that doesn’t count.
Next, my Pokédex progress. With the challenge over, it is at 237 caught and 391 seen. Which means that since the challenge started, I have seen 20 new Pokémon and caught/registered 51 new. Not bad, even if I still have zero plans to complete the Pokédex in full on this file.
Am I the first person to complete something like this? If so, then that’s really cool. And if not, then I'm still happy about it. But I am not the first to start a challenge like this since WarriorGallade beat me to it.
Music time! Here’s a song (parody) which I like a lot since it is really inspirational and encouraging. Never give up on your dreams. One day, you’ll be in the Hall of Fame and Above the Clouds!
The challenge is over, but I am going to make one more post within a few days, with some thoughts on various things related to the challenge, and some bonuses.
Minieldapa, Level 1 (Charcoal)
Majava, Level 2 (Quick Claw)
Lee Starr, Level 3 (Scope Lens)
Gaupe, Level 4 (Zap Plate)
Baiat, Level 5 (Lax Incense)
Corna, Level 6 (Big Root)
Quack, Level 7 (Mystic Water)
Styrkur, Level 8 (Fist Plate)
Timeless, Level 26 (Iron Ball)
Hjortebill, Level 48 (SilverPowder)
Zlug, Level 9 (Sea Incense)
Hina, Level 10 (Wave Incense)
Rabbitears, Level 11 (Shed Shell)
No So Lic, Level 12 (Insect Plate)
Le Pwurm, Level 13 (Poison Barb)
Kengele, Level 14 (Odd Incense)
Animus, Level 15 (Mental Herb)
Escorpio, Level 16 (Earth Plate)
Sunset, Level 17 (Flame Plate)
June, Level 18 (Meadow Plate)
Flow, Level 19 (Black Sludge)
Jack, Level 20 (Lagging Tail)
Fishplash, Level 82 (Splash Plate)
Axel, level 30
Nose Horn, Level 21 (Earth Plate)
Avya Starr, Level 22 (Sky Plate)
Dogge Doge, Level 23 (BlackGlasses)
Mr. Fishy, Level 24 (Soft Sand)
Galeb, Level 25 (Light Clay)
Fluffify, Level 27 (Sky Plate)
Majava-2, Level 28 (Pure Incense)
Repives, Level 29 (Cleanse Tag)
Big Hina, Level 30 (Destiny Knot)
Mike, Level 31 (Magnet)
Santa Cool, Level 32 (NeverMeltIce)
Weavler, Level 33 (Grip Claw)
Sikacochon, Level 34 (Icicle Plate)
Loco, level 26
Enjunju, Level 35 (NeverMeltIce)
Parrot Top, Level 38 (Sticky Barb)
Wacke, Level 41 (Electirizer)
Toast, level 11
Lucky Lax, level 15
Stargazer, level 81
Whalemore, Level 36 (Full Incense)
Mantini, Level 37 (Oval Stone)
Cataquack, Level 39 (Dusk Stone)
Snowblind, Level 40 (Rose Incense)
Microdeval, Level 42 (Everstone)
Rhi-no, Level 43 (Protector)
Guldbat, Level 44 (Everstone)
Pelly Khan, Level 45 (Rock Incense)
Nardo, Level 46 (Hard Stone)
Ultra Bleh, Level 47 (Dusk Stone)
Birb, Level 49 (Razor Claw)
Echo-Mak, Level 50 (Protector)
Digneton, Level 51 (Dusk Stone)
Sagu Aro, Level 52 (Miracle Seed)
Cave Shark, level 41
Ironix, level 44
2Leaf, level 49
Plumerupt, Level 53 (Rawst Berry)
Poimog, Level 54 (Magmarizer)
Lava Snale, Level 55 (Stone Plate)
Edgepawn, level 49
Key Maid, level 50
Stairs, level 50
Earthfly, level 31
Cloudsday, level 35
Neon Blue, level 40
Babian, level 50
Threehead, level 2
Zigzagzug, level 3
Jack Frost, level 33
Fightbag, level 48
Light-Down, level 49
Pi D. Geot, level 50
Cashwish, level 51
Essa, level 11
Snow Queen, level 33
Psykick, level 37
Jetblade, level 49
Mindlock, level 49
Neuf, level 21
Utan Xatu, level 50
Jetblade, level 90
Pi D. Geot, Level 57 (Odd Keystone)
Edgepawn, Level 58 (Dubious Disc)
Fightbag, Level 59 (Flame Orb)
2Leaf, Level 60 (Dread Plate)
Zigzagzug, level 20
Scuffle, level 21
Nein Tails, level 24
S.L.U.G., level 49
Utan Xatu, Level 83 (Up-Grade)
Jack Frost, Level 85 (Up-Grade)
Nein Tails, Level 88 (Rawst Berry)
Snowball, level 18
Middle Mac, level 20
Corachu, level 22
Scarlette, level 48
Threehead, Level 77 (Reaper Cloth)
Snowball, Level 78 (Dusk Stone)
Neuf, Level 80 (Wise Glasses)
Corachu, Level 81 (Light Ball)
Stairs, Level 70 (Choice Specs)
Blossom, Level 71 (Spooky Plate)
Cave Shark, Level 72 (Dragon Fang)
Vyx, Level 73 (Grip Claw)
Industrial, Level 74 (Metal Coat)
Apto Starr, Level 75 (Life Orb)
Break It, level 15
Aetherwake, level 11
Liftoff, level 26
Lucky Lax, Level 65 (Leftovers)
Aetherwake, Level 66 (Dawn Stone)
Loco, Level 67 (Dawn Stone)
Violette, Level 69 (Everstone)
Toast, Level 62 (Exp. Share)
Break It, Level 63 (Spell Tag)
