Last time we had just defeated Erika. This time we're gonna go right uptil Sabrina, which is like 4 battles.
First order of business is to go into the game corner, which was blocked off before Erika.
Time to buy TMs!
After this we run out of money, so its back to Route 4.
Took an hour.
Generically good TMs that will see a lot of use.
Lyca learns it over Bite, and Exca learns it over Rapid Spin. Sometime in the middle of Game Corner, I went with Crunch > SD on Lyca cuz it rarely needed to set up in any case.
Exca also gets a straight up improvement over metal claw.
Lastly, we pick this up in the Rocket Game Corner.
And immediately fly to Saffron.
"Oh Terry, why are you wasting this on a Flash Fire Tyhplosion, there are so many better options" Chill, all part of the plan. All will be revealed in a later update.
We also pick up Taunt from the hideout.
Here is where I replaced SD.
Leech Life and Return.
This is why I wanted a No Guard Machamp. Also, a big reason why Im using Machamp over another Fighting type is that it gets a new mega evolution in this game, and Machamp has always been a favorite of mine and I cant NOT use a Mega Machamp if I have the option to use it.
Celadon Giovanni is a joke. Forgot to Screen Record this battle, but he has a Nidoking, Rhyperior, Mega Kangaskhan and Honchkkrow. Only Nidoking is a threat, and its taken care of by Ice Punch + Bullet Punch Machamp. Exca sets up an SD on Honch and sweeps everyone else.
We get it, you're evil.
Anyways, Giovanni leaves and we are free to progress to...another Rocket Base? Really?
God I forgot how tedious the Kanto games were.
I would really love to go catch some pokemon to deal with this base, btw, specifically a Venusaur, but we cant go towards Fuschia without defeating Sabrina cause that would mess up the almighty level cap.
Onwards to Lavender we go.
Once again, the rival fight in Lavender was removed so as to not mess up the level cap, so the only thing of note in Pokemon Tower is that Marowak is, fittingly, Alolan. Wish we could catch this, honestly, but its not a big miss.
Rescue fiji, get the Poke Flute and...onto Saffron for yet another Rocket base. For f*cks sake, Kanto.
Now, the level cap before Giovanni is 57. Cynda needs to be at Level 64 before I can let it evolve. We arent hitting that until after Sabrina (cap before Sabrina is 59). This is doubly annoying because I misread the docs and thought Cynda would learn Eruption at 55, not 64. I was very hyped and I cried a little when it didnt learn eruption at 55.
Look I was so excited I even took a screenie ;-;
Anywho, lets turn it up for Baba.
I need you guys to know this fight is the worst boss fight in this game so far. It is frustrating. It is the absolute worst. I was going through the tower with a rain team. I had to change it back to my sun team for this fight. It took resets, painful strategising, and calculating exactly how much stress I could go through before this playthrough became not worth it anymore. Let me show you not only this battle, but exactly how much thought went into making it consistent.
Baba starts off with Staraptor. So do we. Since he has an actual EVed Staraptor, it outspeeds us always. This is good, actually.
Now, his Staraptor will always use BB first turn out, and any turn out after that VS Staraptor, it appears. This is bad because two BBs will KO us, and he'll have the switch advantage vs our revenge killer. However, if you use Close Combat first turn, because of the defense drop, he will use Quick Attack the next turn, but only if he gets a high damage roll and we have less than 90 HP after his first BB. I dont know why either. Staraptor can juuust avoid killing itself with BB recoil while knocking it out.
Next comes in Azu. I f*cking hated this Azu. My original plan was Ninetails -> Victreebell, but Giga Drain is a 2HKO, and even with sleep powder it was shaky, because sometimes he would just switch out a sleeping Azu into his Charizard or something, which is bad, because we really needed Azu gone by the time Lyca came out. So, our next plan was to let Azu kill Staraptor, then bring in Ninetails. I was originally hardswitching into Ninetails to preserve Intimidate for another poke, but I didnt really need the attack drop VS anything so it was fine to let staraptor die.
Ninetails can burn Azu with Will o Wisp. It can always take 2 Liquidations from a burnt azu under sun, so it would use the second turn to Hex azu into Giga range. Hard switch into Victreebell, and take it out with Giga Drain. On the recorded attempt, Giga got a low roll and didnt KO, because ofc, and I had a heart attack. If Azu lasted another turn, the sun would fade by the time Charizard came out, which is bad because then Charizard Y's drought will activate, and it'll be able to use Solar Beam VS Lyca. But luckily the burn damage took it out.
Next come Charizard, who I put to sleep with the last turn of sun as it mega evolves. Hard switch into Lyca, but Char wakes up and Flamethrowers us for half. This isnt ideal, but Accelerock takes it out.
Next comes Jumpluff. Lyca can sometimes survive a Seed Bomb from full, which is why I wanted it to be at full to get off a second accelerock, but its no major loss. In comes Exca, who tanks a Seed Bomb and kills with Rock Slide.
Lastly, Electivire. Now, Electivire is KOed around 50% of the time by Machamps Cross Chop into Bullet Punch. To make that more consistent, have it come out VS Exca, who it will Close Combat. Since Machamp will always survive one Plasma Fists, this makes it much easier to cleanly KO with Cross Chop.
I hate myself for having put this much thought into f*cking Pokemon, when I have a Calc 2 final tomorrow.
Now onto the second boss battle of Silph Co.
Oh dear jezuz
Honestly, this battle is always 90% dumb luck. I tried it three different times and won three different times in three different ways using the exact same team. I'll just show you the one I recorded.
Its a tag team battle VS the Rocket Admins with Brendon as our teammate. Im sure that will be very fun.
We use a team of Staraptor, Machamp and Excadrill. In retrospect, Lyca Machamp Exca was probably better.
Please just watch the video so I dont have to go through that f*cked up battle again. A battle which, btw, has TWO MEGA EVOLUTIONS ON THE OPPONENTS SIDE???? HOW IS THAT f*ckING LEGAL???????????
Okay deep breaths. Deep breaths.
The remaining two boss battles in this update were much easier.
First, Giovanni.
I actually really enjoyed this battle. It was a lot like strategizing with Baba, but less stressful, since I had a general vision of how to deal with him. Giovanni's AI is also a little bit more random, and will not always do the same thing in the same scenario, which is what made Baba beatable, so for Giovanni I had to be a little bit more general with my strat and leave room for error, so it was idk. I enjoyed this battle a lot.
BTW Brendan gives us a Treeko then f*cks off after the battle. Id say thanks for nothing, but honestly if I had to tag team giovanni with him, I would probably f*cking shoot myself.
Now, I tried Giovanni with our sun team, and it just wasnt working. With some hax I could get through it, but nothing consistent. So, it was time to revive our rain team. But I would need something better than Seismitoad for this.
And so we catch a Lotad. This is not an amazing Lotad, but it will do for our purposes rn.
We get it to 44 for Hydro Pump before we use a Water Stone.
While we are at it, we also grind Palpi.
Everybody be pumpin
Lastly, we teach Hydro Pump and Hurricane to Pelipper. Not that it ended up mattering, honestly.
Also, weird thing with our video: For some reason two of my attempts got mashed up, so in the yt video, after we beat giovanni it just shows the remainder of our unsuccessful fight as well. Just ignore that, the battle ends at 3:26.
AND NOW, ONTO GIOVANNI.
Giovanni leads with Hippowdon as we lead with Ludicolo. Im actually f*cking glad he leads with Hippo, truth be told, because we need sand up for this battle and it saves me a teamslot for Hippopotas. Anyways, Hydro Pump (assuming it doesnt miss) will SOMETIMES ohko Hippo, but mostly it wont. If it does, good, but if it doesnt, its honestly not a big loss. In our recorded version it came OH so close, but no dice. Hippo gets up rocks before dying. Again, no biggie.
Now, Giovanni will send out either Poltergeist or Kanga when Hippo dies. In our case it sent out Kanga. If it sent out Pol, I've forgotten exactly what to do, but 2x Giga is the most likely thing. In any case, when Kanga comes out, switch Exca as it megas and goes for Fake Out. Exca can always live a Parental Bond Fake Out - > Power Up Punch combo, so we use this to set up an SD. After an SD, under Sand, Exca can easily OHKO Garchomp, Poltergeist and Kanga with Earthquake. Garchomp crit didnt matter, +2 Earthquake will also OHKO from full, barring a Sand Veil miss, ofc. Next, he sends out his Excadrill, who KOs our Exca with Earthquake. Now Breloom comes out. As Exca has a Focus Sash and cant OHKO, it goes for the SD, as we hit two Mach Punches to get the win. And thats Silph Co done with.
Honestly? If not for Exca and Sand, this would be much harder. Also, if it had sent out Poltergeist, it would have been hell on earth, because usually Poltergeist will go for Shadow Ball VS Ludicolo, but it can occassionally go for Shell Smash. If it does, its game over. Also, we cant even Knock Out for a consistent 2HKO, as it will activate weak armor. Also, if Kanga gets a crit with Power Up Punch VS Exca, its game over. Also, instead of SR, Hippo can also occassionally go for Roar, which will f*ck us over if it brings out Pelipper, because Exca needs the sand to sweep.
And thats why we had a rain team; as backup. The recorded version was p much a perfect battle, but theres a lot of sh*t that could have gone wrong, and we needed the backup of Rain Boosted Hydro Pumps coming from Ludi to make it perfect.
Now, after a couple of really good battles with a lot of strategising, its time to move on to another form of battling:
Cheese.
Because Sabrina is a Double Battle. And this makes this fight, so, so, so easy.
But before that, some plot:
TA DA
Also we get this. Next update we will be swinging by our old haunts for this.
Now, heres the thing with Sabrina: its a really hard f*cking battle, because she loves to use Trick Room and Expanding Force and its just a really hard battle, especially since we dont have a dark type.
Atleast, thats what I would say if a certain Rock Type move didnt exist.
C H E E S E
With Wide Guard under our belt, this battle is 0 skill. Everything except Porygon 2 carries only multi-target moves, so its very easy to have Machamp use Wide Guard 10 times in a row while Lycanroc cleans up besides it, since literally nothing can hit us with Wide Guard up. Infact, this cheese is so effective that even with terrible hax (Lyca misses both of its Stone Edge attempts on Hatterene), we still win, just because of the fact that nothing can touch us. Its a mindless battle, so mindless that I went into it with 2 pokemon and 4 pokes that were just there to grind experience. I didnt even have 4 underlevelled pokemon, so I brought along Farfetchd. Thats how f*cking easy this battle is with Wide Guard. I brought a Farfetchd into this battle. I had so much confidence in Lycanroc and Machamp soloing it that instead of bringing idk Excadrill or something, I brought FARFETCHD. This is probably my favorite battle of the entire game, just because of how f*cking hilarious it is. I love this battle more than I love my ex. I love this battle more than i hate the tagteam battle from earlier. If I could marry this battle, I wouldnt, because I would never sully something so beautiful with my wretched existence. I am undeserving of this battle. It is too gracious, too f*cking funny for me to soil.
The point is, this is a hilarious battle because you can tell it was meant to be really frustrating, but because of a rare oversight by the developer, it is easier than f*cking Brock. This is a hack where Sabrina is easier than Brock.
I love Radical Red.
