Let's Play! Herman Gigglethorpe's Pokemon Solo Playthroughs

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As soon as the postgame began, Norman showed up, gave May the SS Ticket, and then left home again. She’s the only player character who has a dad in the whole Pokemon series, and he never stays home. Even May’s mom comments on it! The SS Ticket grants entrance to the Battle Tower, a facility where level 50 and level 100 Pokemon can try for winning streaks against powerful AI trainers. Unlike later games in the series, there’s no temporary level scaling, so NOWEAKNESS couldn’t participate unless I decided to level him to 100. I’m not going to do that, since it took the entire playthrough plus Rare Candies to get to the late 70s.



There remained four non-roaming legendaries for NOWEAKNESS to kill, so May took her Wailord and Relicanth out of the PC for the first and last time. A Dive point concealing a mysterious cave was west of Pacifidlog Town. This cave had inscriptions written in Braille, and fulfilling their very specific instructions unlocked the Hoenn legendary trio. The first required placing Relicanth and Wailord in the first and last positions of the party. Other instructions told May to wait in place for two minutes, use Fly in the middle of a room, or move in a certain direction and use Strength. The buildup to fighting Regirock, Regice, and Registeel was more difficult than the battles. All three were only level 40. Regirock and Registeel had high Defense, requiring two Brick Breaks. Regice specialized in Special Defense instead, and only needed one Brick Break.



Pokemon Sapphire’s postgame final boss was Rayquaza at the top of the Sky Pillar east of Pacifidlog Town. Sky Pillar is the most annoying dungeon of the game because you have to steer the Mach Bike through cracked floors, and it’s easy to fall to a lower floor if you don’t have perfect reflexes.


Rayquaza itself was the only legendary to pose a threat because it was level 70. Its first attack Fly made NOWEAKNESS lose over half his health, making May use a Hyper Potion. A critical hit from Fly could have easily ended the battle. Instead, the wild Pokemon AI kicked in and Rayquaza tried useless Normal type Extremespeeds on NOWEAKNESS. When Rayquaza was low on health, it used Rest to fall asleep and recover all its health. Rest has a specific sleep counter unlike enemy-induced sleep moves such as Spore. That meant enough free turns to hit Rayquaza with Shadow Balls to kill it for good.



What’s left for May and NOWEAKNESS? Being the Pokemon League Champion isn’t enough for her. Pokemon Contests are a minigame unique to the Hoenn games that’s sort of like a dog show or a talent contest. First, 4 Pokemon are shown to the judges, and receive points based on the stat relevant to the contest type (e.g. Beauty, Smart). Pokemon gain these stats based on Pokeblocks made from blended berries. The second round involves the contestants taking turns using moves to appeal to the judges and receive “hearts”. Turn order is important here, because it’s possible to intimidate the other Pokemon into losing hearts or their next turn. If the audience is excited enough, a move will gain extra hearts.



NOWEAKNESS has a Mild nature most suited to Beauty contests, but its Ghost and Dark moves fall into the Smart category. So May stuffed her Sableye with Bitter Pokeblocks to increase his Smart stat and headed off to Verdanturf to dazzle the judges. . .

 

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May and NOWEAKNESS the Sableye's adventures have come to a satisfying end. It's less depressing than Firestorm the Butterfree's failure at the Battle Tree at least!


Before starting the first Contest, I replaced Brick Break with Calm Mind to have a fourth Smart move. There aren’t any more battles for NOWEAKNESS to fight anyway. The other contestants tried to impress the Verdanturf judges with a Shroomish, a Zubat, and a Whismur.

Shroomish spent most of its time trying to sabotage other Pokemon with moves like Mega Drain. Zubat was similar, but also used Confuse Ray to alter the turn order. Whismur also messed around with the turn order with Uproar, and startled everyone on the last round with Screech. NOWEAKNESS took advantage of Faint Attack’s point bonus when he moved first, and got even more when the crowd’s excitement level reached the maximum. On one turn when he moved last, NOWEAKNESS got another crowd approval bonus when he used Night Shade to startle his competitors. Calm Mind prevents enemy Pokemon from startling the user once, and that helped a bit. NOWEAKNESS won the Normal contest easily in both rounds. May told the interviewer COME ON when asked about the Contest. He called it an “edifying comment”.




Fallarbor Town had the Super Rank Contest featuring Roselia, Doduo, and Trapinch. Doduo seemed to think it was in a Cool Contest instead of a Smart one, because it kept using Peck and Fury Attack. Roselia should have been in the Beauty Contest, since Petal Dance would have made more of an impression there. Trapinch was the most formidable opponent. Its appeals won many points, and Dig prevented the competitors from startling it. Ultimately, NOWEAKNESS achieved victory in the first round’s stat check instead of his appeals.




As I found out at the end of Appeal Time, NOWEAKNESS didn’t have a Smart stat advantage for the Hyper Contest in Slateport. Sableye was up against a Ninjask, a Mightyena, and a Seaking. All had strong appeals. Ninjask startled the contestants with Sand Attack and Fury Swipes. Mightyena copied its opponents’ appeal score with Thief, but did it too often and lost points for using it twice in a row. Seaking’s Supersonic scrambled the turn order, and its horn moves got combo bonuses. In the end, Faint Attack and a lucky crowd bonus with Calm Mind gave NOWEAKNESS another ribbon.



NOWEAKNESS’s final challenge was the Master Smart Contest in Lilycove. Wobbuffet, Pichu, and Delcatty appeared to challenge him. I wasn’t optimistic when I saw no hearts appear above the audience in round 1. Having a Beauty nature for a Smart Contest is a major disadvantage. Then again, not being controlled by the atrocious AI helped NOWEAKNESS a lot! Wobbuffet made a grand appeal with Destiny Bond. . .a move that prevented it from acting in the later rounds. Delcatty’s Tail Whips and Attracts failed to impress. Pichu often went last and got a bonus from Tail Whip, but the AI’s insistence on using it so often bored the judges. NOWEAKNESS often went first, and Faint Attacks and Calm Minds made him the smartest Pokemon in Hoenn!




As a suitable finale for the playthrough, NOWEAKNESS’s appeals impressed a Lilycove artist so much that he made a painting of Sableye, which was featured in the local museum. NOWEAKNESS isn’t just the greatest combatant in Hoenn, but also fine art.



Solo Sableye was far easier than the Simipour and Butterfree solos. NOWEAKNESS never died, in fact. My Mudkip’s inability to hit Brendan’s Treecko with Tackle is to blame for the one Death Count. The old experience formula is generous to solo characters, and I can see why GameFreak wanted to change it when developing the Unova games. Having a Ghost/Dark defensive typing with no weaknesses and 3 immunities makes up for the lack of any base stat over 75. My next playthrough will be Pokemon Pearl. It’ll be interesting to see how the maligned 4th generation holds up.

 

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The 4th generation brought many improvements to the Pokemon series. Physical and special moves were no longer based on type. This was especially good for Water types like Gyarados and Feraligatr that had much higher Attack than Special Attack. Gengar could finally use Ghost type moves effectively. Tyaranitar’s Crunch had more bite. Some older Pokemon got much-needed evolutions that allowed them to be viable in multiplayer, like Sneasel and Togetic. Diamond and Pearl were also the first online Pokemon games, allowing players to play competitive matches and trade Pokemon without having to attend tournaments or hunt down someone with a link cable.



However, there were also some unpopular elements in these games. Players now dislike the Sinnoh games for their excessive use of HMs, a low amount of new Pokemon, and introducing Stealth Rock via a TM. The last point is more relevant to multiplayer, because Stealth Rock is an entry hazard move that is affected by the enemy Pokemon’s resistance or weakness to Rock. Poor Charizard loses half its health upon switching in! It’s easy to set up because it only has to be used once to be at its strongest, unlike Spikes or Toxic Spikes.



Sinnoh itself is one of the less popular regions. I’ve played Pokemon Pearl more than probably any other game, yet I’ve almost forgotten its locations entirely. A lot of that was because I played many Wifi matches at the time, but perhaps some of that is the fault of the game design. I thought it was time to revisit Pearl and see if the region is unfairly criticized.




An old man named Professor Rowan greeted me on the first screen, and asked me to pick the male or female trainer. I picked the girl and gave her the official name of “Dawn”. As soon as the game began, the rival Barry was hasty and charged around everywhere. Both Dawn and Barry had seen a news report about the Red Gyarados at the Lake of Rage, and Barry thought he might find a similar rare Pokemon there. This is a reference to the Johto games, and confirms that Pearl takes place at the same time as Gold, Silver, and Crystal. Lake Acuity didn’t have anything that Barry was looking for, but it did have a briefcase with 3 Poke Balls. You can probably guess what was inside.



While they were looking, Starlys attacked, so Dawn and Barry were forced to use the Pokemon in the briefcase to defend themselves. I chose the Water type Piplup to make the first Gym easier, like I did in Pokemon Sapphire. A few Pounds knocked out the Starly, and Professor Rowan agreed to let Dawn keep Piplup. Barry charged off to Jubilife City, and Dawn received her Running Shoes. On Route 201, Piplup beat up a few Bidoofs and Starlys to level up. Piplup’s level up moveset is a bit weird, and it didn’t learn a Water type move until level 8.



Jubilife leads to many locations in Sinnoh, and it’s a surprisingly large area for the early game. I tried going north to find my solo Pokemon, but it turned out the northern half of the route was sealed off until I found the Rock Smash HM.




Looking around the routes near Jubilife made me think that the Pokemon selection for the early game is quite good. Starly’s final form Staraptor would make a solo too easy! It has Close Combat, a base 120 physical Fighting attack, and Brave Bird, a base 120 physical Flying Attack. Bidoof makes a good HM Pokemon, but also evolves into the Normal/Water Bibarel. Normal/Water is a good offensive combination, and Bibarel can have the ability Simple that doubles the effect of stat buffs. Shinx is an early physical Electric that can eventually learn a wider variety of moves like the elemental Fangs and Crunch. Zubat, Psyduck, Geodude, and Onix can be found in early caves. None of these were exactly what I was looking for.



The inventor of the Poketch asked Dawn to talk to 3 clowns scattered around Jubilife, who all gave basic combat tips. He gave Dawn the Poketch after she did this. The Poketch takes up the bottom screen of the DS, and has features like a 4 function calculator, a clock, and a Daycare watcher. Its appearance reminds me a bit of an old green screen Game Boy.




Barry said that the next destination was Oreburgh City to fight Roark, the first Gym Leader. Guess what type Roark uses based on the name. Barry challenged Dawn to a battle on the route east of Jubilife, but Starly and Turtwig was no match for an overleveled Piplup. It didn’t even have a Grass move! Oreburgh City was a coal mining town, and had a distinctive appearance. The city’s economy was so lopsided that the museum only had coal mining exhibits. Roark was working in the local mine, so Dawn had to put up with an annoying random encounter rate to find him.




Roark’s Gym was similar to Brock’s in Kanto and Roxanne’s in Hoenn. His subordinates used Geodude and Onix, which Piplup eroded with Bubble. Roark’s first two Pokemon were Geodude and Onix too. Onix got in a Rock Throw due to its high Speed, but that part of the fight was easy. Cranidos took more effort. It was a pure Rock type, and therefore didn’t have the double weakness that the Ground type added to the first two Pokemon. Cranidos’s base 125 Attack (!) made its Headbutts hit hard. To put that in perspective, 125 Attack is only 5 less than Garchomp, the endgame Dragon type of Sinnoh. Piplup had to drink a few Potions to make it through that fight. It leveled to 16 after the fight and evolved into Prinplup.



Roark awarded Dawn with a Stealth Rock TM and the ability to use Rock Smash outside of combat. Now she could get past the Ravaged Path cave and go to the flowery town of Floaroma. Team Galactic was attacking Professor Rowan and the Valley Windworks, and Dawn had to stop their legion of. . .Wurmples. Yes, they seriously thought they could stop me with Wurmples, Silcoons, and Cascoons. Not a Beautifly or Dustox in sight.




Commander Mars was the only competent member up to this point. Her Zubat knew Toxic, so I had to use an Antidote before the poison got out of hand. Metal Claw of all attacks was the strongest technique Prinplup had at this point. Remember when I said Piplup had a weird level up moveset? Purugly was second, and it was quite durable for an early game opponent. I used an X Defend to ensure the lack of a Death Count, and Prinplup chipped away at Purugly with Metal Claw. An Oran Berry dragged out the fight a bit, but Prinplup won with the aid of a few Potions. Team Galactic fled, and the scientists told Dawn that there was a “balloon Pokemon” that appeared on a specific day of the week. They were referring to Drifloon, a Pokemon with a then-unique Ghost/Flying type.



Defeating Team Galactic let Dawn go onto Route 105, where she caught her solo Pokemon. . .Pachirisu! It’s one of many “Pika clones”, but has a better design than Dedenne, Plusle, or Minun. Pachirisu is a pure Electric type with the abilities Pickup (get a random item after the battle ends) and Run Away (guaranteed to run away from wild Pokemon). Its base stats look like this:

HP: 60
Attack: 45
Defense: 70
Special Attack: 45
Special Defense: 90
Speed: 95

Pachirisu is somewhat fast, and can take special attacks decently well. Its Attack is on par with. . .Butterfree, and its Special Attack is equally abysmal. Expect me to rely on items this playthrough! Dawn’s Pachirisu is a male with a Quirky nature and the “Strong willed” and “Happily eats anything” characteristics. I named him SEJUNPARK in honor of the Korean player who used a Pachirisu effectively at a Doubles tournament.

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 1: Even Butterflies Are Stronger Than Squirrels



Pachirisu was only at level 9, and I needed to get him to 13 before he could learn his first Electric move. That meant fighting a few trainers that I skipped. Most were simple, if slow because base 40 power Quick Attack didn’t do much with base 45 Attack. Then SEJUNPARK had a nasty encounter with a Machop in Oreburgh Mine. It started the fight with Focus Energy to buff its critical hit rate. Remember that critical hits ignore defense buffs and attack debuffs. Pachirisu could Charm to reduce Machop’s Attack, and then a critical hit Rock Smash made Dawn “black out”.


Death Count: 1

SEJUNPARK got his revenge on the second try against the miner’s Machop. The trainers didn’t give enough experience, but slaughtering the Route 205 Buizel population taught Pachirisu how to use Spark, a base 65 physical Electric move. It was a step up from Quick Attack!



Hiker Daniel was the first major obstacle for Pachirisu to deal with. He was a mandatory battle, and had two Geodudes. If you ever try to kill a Geodude with Bide, you’ll wonder if the trainer AI is super-intelligent or acts randomly. Geodude kept using Defense Curl or Rock Polish instead of Rock Throw while SEJUNPARK was storing energy, and it used Rock Throw when I wasn’t using Bide. The battle ended as well as you’d expect.



Death Count: 2



I was in such a desperate situation that I used the Hidden Power TM from the Trainer’s School in Jubilife. Hidden Power: The last refuge of the Electric type. Electric types in general have awful type coverage, so they often resort to Hidden Power even in competitive battles. If SEJUNPARK’s IVs aligned correctly, it could save me, but if the Hidden Power type turned out to be Electric or something, this would be far more painful than the Butterfree playthrough.

Testing out Hidden Power on Hiker Daniel’s Geodudes was a success! They died in one hit, making me suspect the type was Water or Grass. It definitely wasn’t Fighting, because it hit Bidoof for neutral damage. Now I had something to deal with pesky Ground types. So far, I like this playthrough. Having bottom-tier stats forces you to be a bit more creative.



(Correction: Hiker Daniel is a “spinner”, meaning he can be avoided. SEJUNPARK would have to defeat Ground types eventually, so it was nice to find a solution now.)



Using Hidden Power against a wild Buizel proved it was Grass type. Ice would be good for a certain Pokemon at the end, but Grass will do. Spark paralyzed Picknicker Siena’s Shinx, and it failed the roll to attack that turn.



She also had a Pachirisu with Spark at level 12. Maybe she bred it to get that move? Hidden Powers and Sparks finished off the rival squirrel, and SEJUNGPARK received a surprisingly high amount of experience.


A trainer named Cheryl wanted another trainer’s protection in Eterna Forest. She claimed it was because of Team Galactic’s presence, though she should have mentioned al l the aggressive Double Battle trainers. Most of them used various Bug types like Kricketune, Dustox, and Beautifly. One unfortunate Cascoon couldn’t move for a turn after a Spark paralysis, but its Shed Skin ability cured it quickly.


Cheryl had a Chansey, which was weak but at least did her job of taking hits for SEJUNPARK. Cheryl was courteous enough to heal Pachirisu after every battle too. Was she the character who started the “medic NPC” trend found in the later Pokemon games?


Eterna City had background music that sounded almost as if it were from a Western. Team Galactic worked openly here, and one Grunt said “Team Galactic is so stinking rich that we can have one built instantly!” He was referring to a building that had a sign saying “Team Galactic Eterna Building: We Want Your Pokemon!”. It also has spikes jutting out of the side, in case you didn’t know they were evil. Police barely exist in the Pokemon world, so I guess Team Galactic can get away with advertising its crimes. Then again, Team Galactic often uses cocoon Pokemon that only know Harden, so I’m not sure how they can rob the average trainer. The mysterious trainer Cynthia appeared and said she was interested in Pokemon myths. She handed Dawn the Cut HM and walked away.



Inside the Gym, Gardenia told Dawn she wouldn’t accept challenges until all her trainers were defeated. So much for speedrunners! The advisor in the lobby recommended using Fire types, but there’s a bit of a problem with this advice. There are only two Fire type lines in Sinnoh before the postgame! If you didn’t pick Chimchar at the beginning, you’ll have to settle for Ponyta. Perhaps the advisor should have mentioned the Grass type’s Bug and Flying weaknesses instead, because they’re much more common than Fire. Gardenia had a forest inside her Gym, making me think the ceilings were extremely high. The first trainer’s Cherubi Leech Seeded Pachirisu, which was annoying. Having an enemy steal 1/8 of your health per turn is much worse in a solo run where you can’t switch! Fortunately, a Spark made Roselia stiff and unable to move for a turn.


It still wasn’t enough to overcome Leech Seed healing and Mega Drain absorption, and Roselia stalled out SEJUNPARK. The lack of Hidden Power Ice really hurts right now.


Death Count: 3


Cherubi took 3 hits to kill with Spark on take 2. The second hit prevented it from moving. It still managed to launch Leech Seed on turn 1. Only a critical hit Spark could save SEJUNPARK from Roselia, and he succeeded the turn before he would have died. When an underleveled Roselia is a serious threat, you have problems. The other trainers had Budews and a Turtwig. It’s nice to see random enemy trainers with starter Pokemon. A level 17 Roselia could have been trouble, but it kept missing with its attacks, and it even lost a turn once.


Gardenia led with the dreaded Cherubi and its Leech Seed. A protracted battle involving not very effective Sparks ensued, and then Gardenia sent out Turtwig. Its Reflect and Withdraw were too much for Spark, so I tried Bide against the Razor Leafs. It didn’t work out well.

Death Count: 4

It may take a bit of level grinding to get through this Gym! It's obvious level 23 isn't going to work with a moveset that bad.

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 2: Smogon Should Ban Leech Seed


At level 25, Pachirisu replaced Bide with Sweet Kiss, so I tried again. Of course, the confusion attempt failed on Cherubi, so Leech Seed came next. Turtwig’s Razor Leaf and Leech Seed draining meant Dawn would black out once again.


Death Count: 5



Sweet Kiss was much more useful on the next attempt. Cherubi was confused, and used Safeguard and Growth instead of Leech Seed for once. Spark killed Cherubi after a few strikes. Pachirisu kissed Turtwig after that, and the grass turtle even knocked itself out while confused. Gardenia’s final monster was a level 22 Roserade, a Pokemon good enough to compete in Smogon’s “Overused” tier during the 4th generation. After it missed once, Roserade paralyzed SEJUNPARK with Stun Spore. SEJUNPARK paid in kind with a Spark paralysis late in the fight. Sweet Kiss combined with critical hit Sparks forced Gardenia to concede the badge and a Grass Knot TM!



The Gardenia fight required luck more than skill, and I’m relieved it’s over. Grass Knot may eventually replace Hidden Power Grass. It’s a move that can have up to 120 power if used on heavy Pokemon, and most Rock and Ground types are fat enough to make Grass Knot worth considering.



Now that Dawn could use Cut outside of battle, she ordered HM MULE to slash the trees in front of the spiky Team Galactic building. The Grunts clearly spent more on hair dye and haircuts than Poke Balls, because the best Pokemon they had were Wurmples, Glameows, Zubats, Silcoons, and Cascoons. Some of them bragged about how they stole these Pokemon from weak trainers, making me wonder why they didn’t mug someone on one of the eastern routes instead. Several of the Grunts talked about how they were loyal to Team Galactic’s plans, even though they didn’t understand any of them.



Commander Jupiter was on the top floor, and sent out a level 18 Zubat first. One Spark could kill it even with base 45 Attack. Her final Pokemon was a level 20 Skuntank, a Poison/Dark type that was only weak to Ground. It wasn’t immune to confusion, so Pachirisu kissed it. Skuntank Night Slashed SEJUNPARK and lowered his Defense with a harsh Screech. I thought for a bit that a lucky Night Slash would get a critical hit and add to the Death Count. Fortunately, a Spark eventually paralyzed Skuntank, and it killed itself while confused.



After defeating Commander Jupiter, Dawn freed the Bicycle man. He talked about how Team Galactic demanded that he hand over his Clefairy because it “came from space”. Team Galactic members weren’t the sharpest pencils in the pack. Dawn received a Bicycle as a reward, and could now move through Sinnoh more quickly. Beating up the trainers on Cycling Road and the surrounding routes leveled SEJUNPARK to 29, and now I could replace Spark with the superior base 80 power special move Discharge.



Mt. Coronet’s caves split the Sinnoh region in two, which I thought was an interesting concept. In Japanese, it’s called “Tengan Mountain”, hinting at magnetic properties that evolve Magneton and Nosepass. Inside, a strange man talked to Dawn about how the universe began and how human nature corrupted it. He left Dawn perplexed, and then took the western exit. On the east side of the mountain, there were several Hikers that SEJUNPARK defeated with Hidden Power. Is it just me, or do more trainers carry Rock and Ground types in this game? It fits the mountain theme of Sinnoh.



One martial artist gave Dawn an “Odd Keystone” and said “Go to Route 209! Go underground! Listen to the stone pillar! Talk to people underground!” He’s referring to Spiritomb, a rare Ghost/Dark Pokemon that’s unlocked through a tedious multiplayer feature. Most players got it through online trading instead, because Spiritomb can be bred.



Hearthome was the first major city on the east side of Sinnoh. Remember how I said Contests were exclusive to Hoenn? Well, that’s not quite correct. Sinnoh has Super Contests, but they’re much different. They involve a rhythm minigame and dressing up your Pokemon. The Cool, Beauty, etc. stats still exist, and are increased with Poffins instead of Pokeblocks. Making Poffins is a good way to murder your touch screen, so I probably won’t do it. Super Contests seem like a bizarre transition between the Hoenn Contests and the Pokemon Musicals of Unova, and I never played much with them.



An interviewer in the Fan Club asked Dawn about her time with Pachirisu, and she said “DIFFICULT”. Dawn likes to shout at NPCs like her Hoenn counterpart May. On the second floor of a nearby building, a woman handed Dawn a spare Shell Bell. May couldn’t get this in Sapphire because the “Berrypocalypse” stopped time and the tides, but Dawn could simply get a Shell Bell from a midgame city. The Shell Bell restores some HP in proportion to the damage you inflict, allowing Pachirisu to survive longer. It’s not often used in competitive formats except for certain gimmick strategies, but it might come in handy here.



Hearthome also had the only cathedral in the Pokemon series, though the people inside gave cryptic statements. I wonder if they were more overtly religious in the Japanese version. One girl outside said “I’d like to live in Hearthome when I get married. But my boyfriend wants to live in Veilstone ‘cause of its Game Corner. . .” Dawn couldn’t tell her “DUMP HIM NOW”, so she simply listened and walked away.



Amity Square, a park available only to “cute” Pokemon was on the north side of Hearthome City. No, it’s not based on the “Cute” stat. Rather, it’s restricted to several Pokemon with overworld sprites, and Pachirisu happens to be allowed! SEJUNPARK took a stroll with Dawn through the park, and found the Attract and Secret Power TMs there. One martial artist at the entrance said “I’m appalled! They refused entry to my Pokemon! Oh, my poor GYARADOS and STEELIX! This is discrimination!” I have to agree with him. Any Pokemon can raise its Cute stat with the right Pokeblocks/Poffins, so why not let in his Steelix?



Another Jubilife TV interviewer was in the same room, and asked for Dawn’s opinion about her walk with Pachirisu. She responded “LET ME THINK”, which the interviewer appreciated. Several other houses in Hearthome had elevators but no stairs. Do safety codes even exist in the Pokemon world? Then again, the Gyms require you to shoot yourself out of a cannon and slide on ice over bottomless pits, so chances are the Pokemon government is too corrupt to notice.



Fantina, the local Gym Leader, refused to challenge me until I became stronger. Barry volunteered to fight me instead in his usual hasty manner. His team was a joke even when I severely handicapped myself by using Pachirisu. SEJUNPARK was at level 30, and his highest level Pokemon was 21 or so. Starly, Buizel, and Ponyta all fell to Discharge without much trouble. Grotle resisted Discharge, but a combination of Sweet Kiss confusion and Discharge paralysis prevented it from attacking SEJUNPARK at all.



The next few routes were bland grasslands with some occasional rainy spots. Areas like this made me miss the colorful GBA graphics of Sapphire. Most of the trainers were easy, and a detour into the Lost Tower had someone who gave Dawn the Strength HM for climbing to the top. Discharge took out the trainers, along with HM MULE in Double Battles.



Veilstone City had the Game Corner and another Team Galactic building with spikes on the side. Dawn investigated Team Galactic, and the Grunts said they were developing new energy sources. Spikes on the side of a building have to be inefficient no matter what new technologies you develop. Maylene, a Fighting type specialist, was the local Gym Leader. You’d think it would be a Ground or Steel Gym based on the “meteorite” and “stone” theme of the city, but I guess they need someone who can use Rock Smash.



To prepare for the Gym, Dawn went south of Veilstone and mugged most of the trainers nearby. Except for one who had a level 22 Roselia. Yes, you read that correctly. SEJUNPARK at level 39 was stalled out by a Roselia 17 levels lower. Leech Seed is the devil if you’re using a Pokemon with attacking stats as low as Pachirisu, and Mega Drain doesn’t help either. Super Fang couldn’t overcome its healing, and Discharge failed to make it lose more than 1/3 of its maximum health or so.


Death Count: 6

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 2: Smogon Should Ban Leech Seed

To prepare for the Gym, Dawn went south of Veilstone and mugged most of the trainers nearby. Except for one who had a level 22 Roselia. Yes, you read that correctly. SEJUNPARK at level 39 was stalled out by a Roselia 17 levels lower. Leech Seed is the devil if you’re using a Pokemon with attacking stats as low as Pachirisu, and Mega Drain doesn’t help either. Super Fang couldn’t overcome its healing, and Discharge failed to make it lose more than 1/3 of its maximum health or so.


Death Count: 6

lol.

Worth noting you should be able to get a Substitute TM in the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest. Idk how common Leech Seed actually is, though.

 

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lol.

Worth noting you should be able to get a Substitute TM in the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest. Idk how common Leech Seed actually is, though.

Enemy trainers use a surprisingly high amount of Grass and Electric types in this game. I should have kept a "Pachirisu becomes paralyzed" count because of all the Stun Spores and Electric attacks the AI throws at you. The Roselia family in particular is common enough that I wonder if it was one of the developers' favorite Pokemon back in the Hoenn era.

SEJUNPARK managed to brute force his way through Collector Douglas's Roselias eventually.

As for Substitute, Pachirisu suffers from "4 move syndrome" more than any Pokemon I've ever dealt with in a solo playthrough. It needs an Electric attack for STAB, so Discharge is there. Another move is needed for Ground types, so I guess I'll replace Hidden Power Grass with Grass Knot soon. That leaves two moves.

Sweet Kiss helped me deal with Gardenia, so I don't think I'll drop it any time soon. Paralysis and confusion can help a lot if you're using an underpowered Pokemon. I haven't got much mileage out of Super Fang, but that will probably change in the Elite Four matches. If I replace any move with Substitute, it'll be Super Fang.

Right now, I'm deciding whether to defeat Maylene or Crasher Wake first. I'm leaning towards Crasher Wake because Sinnoh is the last region that allows for any kind of "sequence breaking", and Pachirisu will have a type advantage for once.

One thing I'm wondering is why the areas linking Hearthome, Pastoria, and Veilstone all have trainers with Pokemon in the low 20s level range. It's a bit weird considering SEJUNPARK is now level 43. I'm not sure if even NOWEAKNESS the Sableye was this overleveled relative to his opponents.

Try playing through a Pokemon game with a "too low even for PU" Pokemon sometime if you like my posts. It's fun!

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 3: Uninspired Gyms and Even Less Inspired Villains


SEJUNPARK later beat Collector Douglas and his rascally Roselias with lucky Discharges. Other trainers on the outskirts of Pastoria and Veilstone were experience point fodder who only had Pokemon in the low 20s. Sinnoh is perhaps the last Pokemon region to allow some freedom regarding Gym order, so I could choose to take on either Maylene or Crasher Wake first.


Crasher Wake specialized in Water, one of the few types Pachirisu had a decisive advantage over. Dawn headed over to Pastoria and electrocuted all the Buizels, Wingulls, and Marills in its Gym. A few carried Water/Ground Barboaches, but SEJUNPARK had Grass Knot to trip them up. A lot of those trainers looked a bit young to work in a Pokemon Gym, but then again there were Preschoolers in the postgame Battle Tree in Moon.



Crasher Wake led with the Water/Flying Gyarados, a Pokemon with a critical weakness to Discharge. SEJUNPARK didn’t care about Intimidate’s Attack debuff because both Grass Knot and Discharge were special. Next, he sent out the Water/Ground Quagsire, a Pokemon which could have been annoying. . .if Grass Knot didn’t make it fall in one hit. The last Pokemon was a level 30 Floatzel, a pure Water type. I thought at first Discharge wouldn’t take it out in one hit, but I shouldn’t have doubted a level 44 Pachirisu.



Crasher Wake surrendered a Brine TM and the ability to use Defog outside of battle. Defog is widely considered the worst HM in the series, because Pokemon Pearl came out before Defog acquired its ability to remove enemy entry hazards like Stealth Rock. (And even then, nobody cares about Stealth Rock and Spikes in the main story.)



The level advantage gained from fighting Pastoria trainers helped out a bit against Maylene’s Fighting Gym in Veilstone. All the “Karate Quad” trainers had Machokes and Meditites. At least the inner tube kids in Pastoria had a little more variety! Maylene herself wasn’t much better. Two of her Pokemon were Meditite and Machoke in about the late 20s level range. Machoke was also the last Pokemon she sent out for some reason. Her second Pokemon and star of the team was level 30 Lucario, a Fighting/Steel type often used in competitive matches. A Sweet Kiss confused Lucario and made it hit itself once, allowing SEJUNPARK to finish it off with two Discharges.



A Bibarel was needed to learn several HMs that Bidoof couldn’t, so Dawn caught a wild one near Pastoria and named it HM MULE 2.



Maylene gave up the Drain Punch TM after her defeat, as well as the ability to use Fly outside of battle. When Dawn left the Gym, Lucas appeared and told her Team Galactic stole his Pokedex. Pokedexes are considered rare items in this world for reasons unknown to me. The Team Galactic Grunts decided using evolved Pokemon was a good idea, so they threw Dustox and Beautifly at Dawn and Lucas. Lucas had a Clefairy who used Gravity, an interesting field move that increases the power of Ground moves and enables them to hit Flying types. SEJUNPARK didn’t use Ground moves, and Bug resists Ground anyway, so Clefairy was useless.


Discharge friendly fire took out Clefairy, and Lucas sent out Kadabra next. No matter what Lucas did, SEJUNPARK won the fight alone. The Grunts blurted out their evil plans for Pastoria, and they left their Fly HM in the warehouse. Dawn then caught a Staravia named HM BIRD and taught it Defog and Fly. The fight with the wild Staravia came close to a Death Count, because it had Endeavor. Endeavor reduces the target’s HP to the user’s current HP. Combined with a Focus Sash, Endeavor enables a level 1 Pokemon to take out much stronger Pokemon, but this is a gimmick strategy that often fails against human opponents.



While chasing after Team Galactic, Barry interrupted Dawn with a battle. He still didn’t evolve his Pokemon, since he was stuck with Grotle, Starly, Buizel, and Ponyta. At least get a Floatzel and Staravia, Barry! Concerning the Team Galactic member, he said “If you’re not a Pokemon, and you run like that. . .you’re a bad guy”. Wouldn’t that make YOU a bad guy, Barry? His main personality trait is running around everywhere. . .



Cynthia showed up near Lake Valor and gave Dawn the item necessary to make the Psyducks on Route 110 leave. After that, she told Dawn to deliver an item to the elder of Celestic Village. Getting through the routes to Celestic Town was irritating because I kept running out of PP for Discharge. A Team Galactic Grunt threatened to destroy the town because it was useless. Team Galactic is probably second only to Team Magma/Aqua in the “blandest villains” category, and things like this are the reason why.


The Grunt had a Beautifly and a Croagunk which were easily defeated. The elder thanked Dawn and gave her a Surf HM, but she couldn’t use it outside of battle until Fantina bothered to appear in her own Gym in Hearthome. Dawn learned a few myths about Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, and then Cyrus showed up and made a few cryptic comments about creating a world “without strife”.

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 4: The Laziest Gym In Sinnoh


While still in Celestic Town, Dawn encountered a man who gave her Choice Specs, a new item at the time of Pearl. Choice Specs increase Special Attack by 50% if held, but limits the user to only one attack unless it switches out. This is a risky item for a solo character, but if the opponent doesn’t have a Ground type, it’s worth considering. The next Gym was Ghost type, and there were no Ghost/Ground types until the Unova games. Fantina’s Gym allowed Dawn to skip the trainers if she knew basic arithmetic, but fighting the trainers gave extra experience anyway. It was funny that all the trainers wondered if I threw the quiz or I was so bad at math I didn’t know how to cheat with the Poketch calculator.



At level 49, a Choice Specs Discharge from SEJUNPARK failed to knock out a level 30 Misdreavus in one hit. That’s sad! Pachirisu grew to level 50 after that battle, and y’all will laugh at his stats:



HP: 127

Attack: 68

Defense: 88

Special Attack: 65

Special Defense: 110

Speed: 124



Choice Specs trivialized all the trainer battles, including the Gym Leader. Fantina led with a Drifblim, and SEJUNPARK took it out with one Discharge due to its Ghost/Flying type. Gengar was second, and I thought it would be a threat at first. But the only move it managed to use was Spite, which reduced Discharge’s PP by 2. One Discharge paralyzed it and sent it into critical HP. The AI prefers to heal its Pokemon at critical HP instead of attacking almost every time, so SEJUNPARK had free turns to defeat Gengar with more Discharges. A level 36 Mismagius was last. It used Psybeam and ate a Sitrus Berry to restore some HP, but Choice Specs brought it into 2 Hit KO range anyway. If you know what enemy trainers are using, Choice Specs is a good option for special attackers.



Fantina gave Dawn the Shadow Claw TM and the ability to use Surf outside of battle. Cynthia waited outside the Gym and recommended that Dawn go to the western city of Canalave to study more about ancient Pokemon. It’s unlikely I’ll be able to use the Choice Specs as freely for Canalave’s Steel Gym, because chances are there’s a Steelix in there or something else that’s immune to Discharge.



But before going to Canalave, it was time for backtracking! Now that Dawn had Surf, HM MULE 2 could take her across the sea south of Sandgem Town and battle some trainers. Surfing is much slower in this game compared to Sapphire, and it would have been torture if Sinnoh had been an island region like Hoenn. Everything in general feels a little slower because of the questionable engine used to program Pearl. That’s why I made sure to turn off combat animations as soon as I started. Supposedly, Platinum fixes some of these issues, but I don’t have that version. Pal Park wasn’t completed when Dawn reached the far end of the sea, and she couldn’t Fly back there. You’d think the developers would have restricted that area to the postgame if you couldn’t use its features until then.

One Smogon user named “sb879” gave me a tip about a TM location. In the Old Chateau in Eterna Forest, Dawn found the Substitute TM, a move that could be useful in the future. Substitute sacrifices 25% of the user’s maximum HP to create a doll that takes attacks in its place. More importantly, Substitutes block ailments and other hindering moves like Leech Seed. Substitute is such a good move that I may get rid of Super Fang in order to take advantage of it. I should remember to come back to the Old Chateau in the postgame to beat up a certain Pokemon that appears in a haunted TV. . .



Surfing north of Valley Windworks revealed a Thunderbolt TM. Thunderbolt has 15 more base power than Discharge, but it has a lower paralysis chance. I’ll probably need to paralyze Elite Four Pokemon, since there’s no way a Pachirisu is going to knock them out in one hit without using 6 X Specials. And maybe a Dire Hit too.



Fuego Ironworks was to the northwest of Valley Windworks. There were spinner tiles inside, which made me wonder how anyone was supposed to work here in the first place. I learned the answer when Dawn made it through the puzzle and met Mr. Fuego. He admitted that he made them, but realized the workers hated them because the spinners made them dizzy. This proves once again that building codes don’t exist in the Pokemon world. Dawn found a Flamethrower TM and a Fire Stone here, so taking a detour to Fuego Ironworks is worth it if you’re using Chimchar or Ponyta. (Though neither of them use Fire Stones. . .)



Canalave was the only place left to go. An NPC in the Pokemon Center said he found the Strength HM in the Lost Tower, but he couldn’t use it on the field without the Canalave Gym badge. That made me wonder why GameFreak handed out a few HMs in this game long before the player could use them outside of combat.



Barry interrupted Dawn on the bridge and challenged her in his usual rude manner. He evolved Starly into Staravia and brought a Heracross this time. When SEJUNPARK was fighting Heracross, the only move it used was an Aerial Ace. Why would the AI use a weak Flying move on a pure Electric type? Maybe the moves are selected randomly like in Dragon Quest games? Grotle had the dreaded Leech Seed and Mega Drain combo, and Pachirisu came close to death. He eventually powered through with Discharges. Dawn made sure to heal SEJUNPARK with a Hyper Potion before the Buizel knocked him out with Aqua Jet. Paranoia is not a bad thing when you’re playing Pokemon!



I replaced Super Fang with Substitute after the fight to spite Leech Seed users, and it proved useful while exploring Iron Island. Take that, random trainer’s Cherrim! Iron Island’s other opponents had the usual Hiker Pokemon like the Geodude, Onix, and Zubat families. Team Galactic was trying to steal Pokemon, and I’m not sure how they manage it when they’re forced to use Beautifly and Dustox. Someone named Riley showed up to be a Double Battle partner, and his Lucario was slightly useful. In a moment worthy of a blooper reel, SEJUNPARK got a critical hit with Discharge and killed Lucario in one hit during the Team Galactic fight.



Riley gave Dawn a Riolu egg, and now it was time to take on the Canalave Gym. One of my update titles had the phrase “Uninspired Gyms”, and this was definitely the case here. All the Gym trainers had Onix or Steelix, with the exception of one random person who had an Azumarill. You call this a Steel Gym? At least give them a Lucario or something! Byron turned out to be Roark’s father, fitting the theme of Steel being a sort of upgrade to the Rock type. (Jasmine from Johto used to be a Rock Gym Leader until she found out about the Steel type.)



Byron lead with a Bronzor, whose poor offense made it perfect Substitute fodder. SEJUNPARK’s Substitute dodged a Confuse Ray for him as he Discharged to kill the Bronzor. Steelix was smart enough to use Sandstorm, since weather damage bypasses Substitutes. Byron’s final Pokemon was Bastiodon, a Rock/Steel type with base 138 Special Defense. Discharges and Grass Knots did little to it, while Sandstorm slowly drained SEJUNPARK’s HP at the end of each turn. But Bastiodon couldn’t do much to Pachirisu either due to my ridiculous level advantage, and couldn’t even break the Substitute. SEJUNPARK was at about 60, and Byron’s Pokemon were in the mid 30s.



After beating the Gym Leader, Rowan wanted Barry, Lucas, and Dawn to investigate Sinnoh’s three lakes and their legendary Pokemon. Then an “earthquake” occurred. An NPC explained that Team Galactic had blown up Lake Valor, so Dawn had to go there immediately to stop them. The Grunts were searching on the lake bed for the legendary Pokemon, but could only find Magikarp flopping around. They had the usual allotment of weak Bug and Poison types, which SEJUNPARK easily defeated. Commander Saturn wasn’t much stronger, but he at least had the sense to carry a Kadabra and a Toxicroak. He taunted Dawn about how Team Galactic’s next target was Lake Verity near her hometown of Twinleaf. (Remember, Lake Verity is where Dawn got Piplup.)

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 5: It Created A Substitute!

This episode is shorter due to a busy schedule today.


Lake Verity had more battles with Team Galactic Grunts who were too weak to be worth mentioning. Commander Mars had a Golbat, a Bronzor, and a Purugly. Golbat died to one Discharge, Bronzor was good Substitute bait, and Purugly was much easier with Pachirisu than Prinplup. Mars informed Dawn that all 3 legendary lake Pokemon were sent back to Team Galactic’s headquarters. Then Rowan asked Dawn to check on Barry, who was going to Lake Acuity in the far north of Sinnoh. That meant trudging through the blizzard on Routes 216 and 217. For all the criticism the snow routes of Sinnoh get, they add some distinction to an otherwise bland region. I used a PP UP on Discharge so Pachirisu wouldn’t need to be healed so often, but SEJUNPARK still had to rest at a nearby lodge occasionally. Many of the trainers had Ice Pokemon such as Sneasel and Snover that had good enough Special Defense to require more than one hit to kill. When you’re 30 levels higher than your opponents and you still have trouble knocking them out in one blow, you have problems. A Rock Climb HM was lying on the ground outside a Hiker’s lodge. I wonder how many kids missed this when they were playing Pearl in 2007. That was yet another of GameFreak’s questionable game design choices.



Dawn couldn’t go to Lake Acuity yet because Team Galactic Grunts were blocking the way. Since Lance and his Hyper Beam Dragonite weren’t available, Dawn had to go to the Snowpoint Gym instead. One of the trainers inside didn’t understand the concept of an Ice Gym, and used a Pelipper, a Golduck, and a Steelix instead. Most of the rest had the Sneasel and Snover families. The ice sliding puzzle was so frustrating, it probably took me more time to get past that than to defeat all the trainers with an underpowered Pachirisu.



The battle with Candice made up for the annoyance somewhat. She led with Snover, whose Snow Warning ability caused permanent hail. Several Hyper Potions were needed to restore the health lost to bad weather and Substitute creation. Do not pick Pachirisu if you want to play a “no item” solo. I doubt it could be done even at level 100. Candice’s star Pokemon Abomasnow came out of its Poke Ball next. Substitutes were essential for dodging Swagger confusion and Grasswhistle sleep, so everyone give a round of “sb879” for proposing Substitute as an option for SEJUNPARK. Discharges did little damage, but paralyzing Abomasnow was worthwhile. Sweet Kiss came in handy to cause confusion damage too. Candice used a Hyper Potion instead of a Full Restore for some reason, which made the paralysis stick. Two critical hit Grass Knots in a row did most of the damage during round 2. Good thing Abomasnow is so fat, or I would have run out of PP with Discharge!



Medicham and Sneasel were Candice’s last two Pokemon, and she had the decency to put Ice Punch on Medicham to fit the Gym’s theme. Discharges defeated them, and Dawn acquired the ability to use Rock Climb outside of battle after her victory. (Defog? Rock Climb? If this game is ever remade, they need to pass the “Alola Act” to abolish situational HMs like those.

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 6: Copy and Paste Writing Staff

Barry was somehow too weak to fight off a Team Galactic Commander at Lake Acuity. How did he fail? Anyone could beat Team Galactic, including the Preschooler trainers. A Grunt in Veilstone dropped the key needed to enter the underground passage that led to the headquarters. All the Grunts used the typical Zubat and Wurmple families, and SEJUNPARK dispatched them with Discharges. Navigating the headquarters required figuring out a pointless teleporter maze.


One bedroom sign said “Ensure the bed is unoccupied before getting into it!” I like to think this isn’t innuendo, but rather that the Team Galactic Grunts are so stupid that they injure each other by flopping onto the bed when they don’t notice someone sleeping there. Cyrus made his nihilistic pre-battle speech and sent out a Murkrow, a Golbat and a Sneasel, all in the low 40s. Even Team Galactic’s commander uses Pokemon that aren’t fully evolved? In a generation before Eviolite existed?




He didn’t seem to care that he lost, because he handed over the Master Ball and opened the way to the room where the lake Pokemon were located. Uxie, Mesprit, and Azelf were imprisoned inside machines in a room that made me appreciate how lazy Pokemon X’s plot was. Lysandre essentially did the same thing with Xerneas that Cyrus did with the lake legendaries. He also had the “become the ruler of a new world” sort of agenda. Commander Saturn attacked Dawn with a Kadabra, a Bronzor, and a Toxicroak in the high 30s to low 40s, but they were no match for Pachirisu Discharges. Saturn allowed Dawn to release the lake Pokemon, and mentioned Cyrus was going to use a “Red Chain” on the summit of Mt. Coronet.



Mt. Coronet was a maze filled with weak Team Galactic members. I had to leave once to restore PP at a Pokemon Center because there were so many easy fights. Barry decided to be useful for once and assisted Dawn when Commanders Mars and Jupiter challenged them to a Double Battle. (Wow, there are more mandatory Double Battles in Pearl than any other main series Pokemon game!) One funny moment that occurred was when Barry’s Staraptor killed itself with the recoil from a critical hit Take Down on Skuntank. Most of the fight was just killing everything with Discharge. Barry then healed Dawn’s Pokemon and ran away, leaving her to fight Cyrus for the last time. Cyrus summoned Palkia with the Red Chain in an attempt to create a new universe for him to rule, and the sky above Sinnoh changed to psychedelic colors. Mesprit, Uxie, and Azelf used their powers to stop Palkia and went back to the lakes. Cyrus vowed to make a new Red Chain and become a god, but he couldn’t do that with Dawn in the way.



Cyrus evolved his Pokemon this time, but 3 of them were Flying types and therefore weak to Discharge. I used Substitute once in case Honchkrow decided to use Sucker Punch or something, but it hit SEJUNPARK with Steel Wing. Yes, a Steel type attack is sure going to show a pure Electric type! Weavile was the hardest opponent purely because it had a decent Special Defense stat. Brick Break broke the Substitute, and X-Scissor did a decent amount of damage. When Cyrus healed Weavile after a few rounds of combat, Pachirisu became angry and killed it with one critical hit Discharge.



Now Palkia wanted to fight Dawn to be free from the Red Chain’s brainwashing effects. I always KO the legendaries in my solo playthroughs, but this time it felt more fitting to the story. SEJUNPARK sent the heavy Water/Dragon Palkia back to its home dimension with two critical hit Grass Knots in a row. To stop anyone from using the lake legendaries for evil again, Dawn backtracked to Lake Acuity and Lake Valor.



The battles were so unexciting that even Uxie Yawned at SEJUNPARK. As for Mesprit, it flew off after Dawn talked to it at Lake Verity. I’m not going to bother tracking down roaming legendaries. Pokemon Pearl is already tedious enough, and its legendaries are probably the most forgettable in the series. GameFreak didn’t remember to give them Fairy types in the 6th generation, despite them being based on fairies. (It’s not just the English names either, so GameFreak really had no excuse. Azelf is “Agnome” in the original Japanese.)




Dawn couldn’t go to Sunyshore City at first because the Gym Leader caused a blackout when he renovated his Gym, but now she could. Yes, that’s really what happened. Giovanni the mob boss probably caused less harm to his city than Volkner of Sunyshore. Wait a minute. A major area is blocked off due to a blackout that’s arbitrarily resolved later in the game? Pokemon X recycled another plot from Sinnoh. GameFreak really was phoning it in with the Kalos region plot!

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Part 7: Return of the Death Count

Sunyshore City had a Gym Leader who was bored from the lack of decent challengers. I can’t blame him, I guess. Pokemon Pearl is so bland in comparison to other games in the series that this playthrough is now a slog. Then Dawn arrived with her level 72 Pachirisu to give him some excitement. The first trainer had a level 44 Pachirisu. This was probably the hardest fight in the Gym due to Super Fang and unlucky paralysis. Make School Kid Tiera the Gym Leader instead of Volkner! She knew what she was doing.



Volkner started off with a decent strategy involving the use Light Screen to buff Special Defense for his team, but Grass Knots and confusion damage wore it down. Luxray came next and fell to the same tactic. Then he sent out. . .Octillery? And Ambipom? Did they not have enough Electric types in Sinnoh to give its specialist more than two? Maybe he can commiserate with Flint, the Fire type Elite Four member with only two Fire types. Discharges finished off the non-Electric Pokemon, and Volkner awarded Dawn with the Charge Beam TM and the ability to use Waterfall outside of combat. (More HMs? Ugh!)



Route 223, the way to Victory Road and the Pokemon League, was a surfing area much like the last routes of Hoenn. Except less interesting, without any shipwrecks or underwater coral reefs. The trainers here used typical Water types, which SEJUNPARK murdered with Discharge and Grass Knot. By the time SEJUNPARK reached Victory Road, he reached level 75 and had these stats:



HP: 190

Attack: 104

Defense: 130

Special Attack: 100

Special Defense: 164

Speed: 185



Yes, you read that correctly. It took 75 levels for Pachirisu’s main attacking stat to reach the three digit mark. The beginning of Victory Road was uneventful, until I met Ace Trainer Mariah and her Blissey. Anyone familiar with competitive battling will be laughing right now, but I’ll explain for those who don’t know. Blissey has very high Special Defense, and possibly the highest HP of any Pokemon. This tub of lard forces most special attackers to switch out, and I have to take it out with an abysmal stat. Fortunately, the AI was too stupid to use Softboiled when Blissey was low on health, so she (Blissey is female-only) slowly died to Grass Knots and confusion damage. I used an X Special just to stand a chance.



One random trainer in Victory Road caused trouble with a Light Screen Clefable and a Leech Seed Torterra. After that fight, I should have to write on a chalkboard “I WILL USE SUBSTITUTE WHEN FIGHTING A GRASS TYPE” 50 times.



Death Count: 7 (It’s been a while)



SEJUNPARK got his revenge on Ace Trainer Sydney after some preparation. Using a Substitute and 2 X Specials while fighting Clefable allowed Pachirisu to one-shot Torterra with Grass Knot. After this victory, Sydney said “It doesn’t appear as if anyone could even try to stand against your might. The Elite Four should just surrender”. I agree. It would let me play something else instead of Pokemon Pearl. One Black Belt said “I’ve made it this far in life using the karate I learned on the Internet!” I have to admit that was a cute line. One of the English translators was a Something Awful member if I’m not mistaken, so expect to find memes in the dialogue.


After going through the Cave of Superfluous HMs, Dawn found herself at the Pokemon League. Barry rushed in to challenge her one last time before the end of the story, and he actually had a decent team this time. Perhaps I should have used a few X Specials while Staraptor was out, because he sent out Torterra much sooner than I expected. He didn’t bother with Leech Seed, and went all out with Leaf Storm and Earthquake. SEJUNPARK managed to hold on with 1 HP due to a fluke (Affection doesn’t exist in this game), and defeated Torterra with Grass Knots. The rest of the fight with Rapidash, Snorlax, Floatzel, and Heracross was easy by comparison. The only fights left were the Elite Four and the Champion. . .

 

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Misadventures of Dawn and Pachirisu Finale: Rodent Roid Rage

Aaron was a Bug trainer, an odd type for an Elite Four member. He led with Dustox, which seemed like perfect Substitute fodder. But its Double Team evasion and Light Screen buffs proved annoying. It took several X Specials and a Dire Hit to prepare for that. The rest of his team was fairly easy after the buffing item overkill at the beginning. Heracross, Vespiquen, Beautifly, and Drapion all died to Discharges without too much trouble. (Drapion is Poison/Dark, but at least its pre-evolved form Skorupi is Bug/Poison. . .)



Bertha, the second Elite Four member, specialized in SEJUNPARK’s worst type matchup: Ground. Fortunately, she led with the fairly mediocre Quagsire, which had a critical weakness to Grass Knot due to being Water/Ground. A Substitute worked out nicely, since it wasted its turn setting up a Sandstorm instead of attacking with Earthquake or something. One use of X Special later, I found out it had Double Team, so I had to take it out with Grass Knot before evasion got out of hand. Hippowdon took 2 Grass Knots because of its high bulk. Sudowoodo of all things managed to survive and break SEJUNPARK’s Substitute, probably because of the 50% Special Defense buff Rock types receive in sandstorms. Golem and Whiscash weren’t worth mentioning.



Flint the Fire member was third. Sinnoh is a region with a notorious lack of Fire types, so he only had two on his team: Rapidash and Infernape. One of those was a starter too. SEJUNPARK began the fight with Substitute, while I pumped several X Specials into him. The AI insisted on using Bounce (a 2-turn Flying physical attack) twice in a row for some reason, so Pachirisu wasn’t in any real danger. Infernape’s Mach Punch destroyed the Substitute, but it was frail and died to one Discharge. Lopunny was a Normal type, but Flint gave it Fire Punch as compensation. Lopunny failed to die to one boosted Discharge. I cannot emphasize enough how pathetic 45 base attacking stats are, and a Pokemon that weak can disappoint even when given massive quantities of performance-enhancing drugs. Drifblim deflated with one Discharge, and Steelix tripped on a critical hit Grass Knot.



Lucian used Psychic, a more typical Elite Four Pokemon type. Mr. Mime’s behavior was so erratic that Substitutes were useless. Whenever I set one up, it used Psychic to break it, but when Pachirisu was out in the open, it attacked with Thunderbolt. A few healing items and X Specials were useful for waiting out Light Screen. Pachirisu choked once again and failed to one-shot a lower level Pokemon. Bronzong took two Discharges due to its high defensive stats, but wasn’t much of an offensive threat. Its critical hit Gyro Ball managed to break a Substitute, though. Medicham, Alakazam, and Girafarig weren’t worth mentioning.



Cynthia was the final boss, and one of the most difficult Champion battles in the series. Back when I was level grinding Pokemon for my competitive team, her Garchomp sometimes managed to KO my level 100 Palkia if it whiffed a Spacial Rend. Garchomp was one of the few non-legendary Pokemon banned from Smogon’s “Overused” tier at the time, and you can see why if you fight against it. First came Spiritomb, which I thought was easy Substitute bait because competitive players used it defensively at the time. Cynthia’s Spiritomb had 3 attacking moves instead (Psychic, Dark Pulse, Silver Wind), which broke my Substitutes quickly. Gastrodon died to one Grass Knot. . .but Garchomp didn’t even with what must have been 4 or 5 X Special boosts. Its Earthquake crushed Pachirisu in two hits.



Death Count: 8



Dawn made sure SEJUNPARK was prepared for Round 2. A Dire Hit and 6 X Specials went down Pachirisu’s esophagus before he defeated Spiritomb with a Discharge. Setting up a Substitute against Gastrodon was viable, because it used Sludge Bomb instead of a Ground move. Garchomp came out next, and SEJUNPARK broke its legs with a single critical hit Grass Knot. Enough amps went through Milotic’s body that it too died to one critical hit. Lucario fell to one Discharge too. Cynthia’s final Pokemon was Roserade, a fitting end to this playthrough where the Roselia family caused so much trouble for SEJUNPARK. A Discharge sent Roserade into critical health, and it used Extrasensory to break the Substitute in retaliation. Cynthia healed Roserade with a Full Restore, but it wasn’t enough for it to survive a barrage of Discharges. SEJUNPARK the Pachirisu became the one and only member of the Hall of Fame!



Final Stats:



Playtime: About 23 hours. Some of that was spent typing the updates in MS Word, so it’s shorter than what the game indicates.



SEJUNPARK the Pachirisu, Level 83

Quirky nature, Strong Willed characteristic

HP: 210

Attack: 115

Defense: 143

Special Attack: 110

Special Defense: 180

Speed: 205



Playing with a Pokemon as terrible as Pachirisu was the only thing that redeemed this otherwise bland entry in the series. I don’t think I’ll tackle the postgame, even. Chances are I’ll play something other than Pokemon for a while to avoid burnout.

 

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I'd rather dig up my old thread than make a new one. It's time for the solo Jigglypuff Pokemon Fire Red playthrough! I was debating on going with Mankey or Jigglypuff, but thought the latter would be funnier. I wrote the first two posts in Microsoft Word before posting them here. Although I post many RPG challenges on Realms Beyond, I'm busy with a Chrono Cross low tier character playthrough there. Smogon might like this better too.

(You'll already know a lot of the stuff I post about game mechanics, but I also intend to post this on Realms Beyond later, where the viewers may not be as familiar with it.)


Fire Red is the underappreciated 3rd generation remake of the 1st generation games. Passive abilities and the IV/EV stat system are the same as Ruby and Sapphire. Fire Red predates the physical/special split, so all attacks of a given type fall into one of the two categories.


One thing I appreciate about Kanto is the relative non-linearity compared to later regions like Unova and Alola. It’s possible to do some Gyms, trainer battles, and locations out of order as long as you know what to do. There are tutorials in Fire Red for new players, but they’re not nearly as intrusive as the cutscenes in the Alola games.

For something different from a typical Kanto run, I picked the female trainer and named her GREEN because I was unoriginal at the time.

I couldn’t start with my preferred Pokemon, so I picked Squirtle to breeze through the early game. Or so I thought. The Potion in the Pallet Town PC was needed to survive the first fight against Gary’s Bulbasaur due to an unlucky critical hit Tackle.

Squirtle leveled up to 7 by fighting wild Pokemon so she could learn Bubble. After that short grinding session, Squirtle was ready to fight Brock. To do so, she had to sneak through Viridian Forest and avoid every trainer except Bug Catcher Sammy at the end. Sammy’s level 9 Weedle almost caused an early Death Count. Bubble was a weak attack even with Squirtle’s same type bonus, and Weedle’s Poison Sting could inflict poison. Fortunately, Squirtle defeated the bug and limped into Pewter City.


Green may have been “light years” away from facing Brock according to his one subordinate, but both trainers were easy. All Brock’s Geodude could do was Defense Curl. That was a useless buff considering all Water moves used Special Attack in this game! Onix attempted to use Bind, but it failed. A few Bubbles later and Green received the 1st badge and the Rock Tomb TM. (Brock’s TM was Bide in the original games. At least GameFreak gave him a Rock type move in this remake!)


Green was as stealthy in Route 3 as she was in Viridian Forest. Squirtle mostly fought the weak Bug Catchers on the way to the patch of grass where my chosen Pokemon awaited. A level 5 Jigglypuff appeared after a few encounters with common birds. I was worried that Bubble would kill it in one hit, but Jigglypuff survived with about half her health.


Upon catching Jigglypuff, I learned she had a Sassy nature and the Cute Charm ability. Sassy increases Special Defense by 10% and decreases Speed by 10%, explaining why she took the Bubble hit so well. A Speed hindering nature could be a problem later on, since 1 Speed makes the difference between going first and going last in a round of combat.


Cute Charm has a chance of making an enemy Pokemon of the opposite gender “infatuated” if Jigglypuff is hit with a “contact” physical move. Given the stupid AI in these games, it’s rare to see an enemy Pokemon switch out and cure infatuation. If an enemy Pokemon is infatuated, it has a 50% chance of being “immobilized by love” and losing its turn. It’s a situational ability, but I’ll be fighting enough male Pokemon where it might have an effect.


Jigglypuff didn’t start with an attacking move, only Sing and Defense Curl. So Green wandered around in the Route 3 grass patch and did the old bait-and-switch leveling trick against Spearows and such. Once Jigglypuff reached level 9, she finally learned Pound. Green deposited Squirtle in the PC for good and then started mugging the Viridian Forest trainers. Metapods and Kakunas were easy prey for Jigglypuff since they couldn’t attack at all. Caterpies and Weedles did around 4 to 5 damage, though Weedle’s poison was still a potential threat.


Gary on the route west of Viridian City was a joke. His Pidgey’s Sand Attack accuracy debuff concerned me a little bit, but Pound hit its mark anyway. I tried out Sing against Bulbasaur, but Gary’s starter was a light sleeper. Growl reduced Jigglypuff’s Attack, but she kept Pounding away. A Tackle activated Cute Charm, though Bulbasaur was never “immobilized by love”.


The Route 3 trainers were a little tougher. There were two “shorts kids” in this remake, so some translator knew about that joke. Youngster Calvin’s level 14 Spearow had Fury Attack, and it rolled more than 2 hits once and caused major damage. Fortunately, it was “immobilized by love” once so I could use a Potion. Youngster Ben’s Ekans caused gradual damage at the end of every turn with Wrap. Good thing this wasn’t generation 1 Wrap where it could immobilize any slower Pokemon indefinitely! I didn’t bother with Sing or Defense Curl and simply Pounded the enemies to death.


I bought some Repels, Potions, and Antidotes and saved outside Mt. Moon to start the next chapter of the game. . .


Jigglypuff Stats

HP: 59
Attack: 19
Defense: 13
Special Attack: 17
Special Defense: 13
Speed: 10

Moves

Sing
Defense Curl
Pound
Disable

 

[adman2]

Parts 2 and 3 will go in a second post to avoid massive walls o' text.

Pokemon players dread going into caves for a good reason. The random encounter rate tends to be high, and you run into swarms of Zubats that are difficult to run away from due to their high Speed. Mt. Moon was no exception in the solo Jigglypuff challenge. Her Sassy nature prevented her from running away from Zubats 12 levels lower occasionally. This is why I usually carry Repels when doing solo runs.


Some trainers, such as Bug Catcher Robby with his Caterpies and Metapod, were so easy they were barely worth mentioning at all. Lass Iris had a level 14 Clefairy, and that match almost felt like fighting myself. Two cutesy Normal types with Sing slapping each other around was pretty silly. (Fairy types didn’t exist until the Kalos games.)


One Team Rocket Grunt with a Sandshrew, a Rattata, and a Zubat was tough enough to be memorable. Sandshrew constantly lowered Jigglypuff’s accuracy with Sand Attack, making the next two much more difficult. Zubat happened to be male, and fell victim to Cute Charm after it used Leech Life. (For those accustomed to Alola, Leech Life is 20 base power in the older games.) Zubat knew Supersonic, and confused Jigglypuff with it. Between Jigglypuff whiffing her Pounds and Zubat being immobilized by love, this match took a long time. Jigglypuff still managed to win with the help of a few Potions. (If you really think I’m going for a no battle item run with Jigglypuff’s stats. . .)


Hiker Marcos was the most difficult trainer other than that Team Rocket Grunt. He had two Geodudes and an Onix, and this time I didn’t have Squirtle to kill Rock types. Jigglypuff’s Pound did very little damage, and Geodude’s Defense Curl buffs made matters worse. A buff-ignoring critical hit Pound took out the first Geodude, but I was worried I would run out of PP for my only attacking move. Jigglypuff reached level 19 during that fight, and could thus use Rollout against the Onix. Defense Curl has a hidden property that doubles Rollout’s power, so I made sure to do that. Even with Onix’s base 160 Defense and Rock resistance, Jigglypuff could defeat it with combo Rollouts.


Super Nerd Miguel’s Grimer used Disable to knock out Rollout once, but then I put it to sleep. Disable wore off, and then Jigglypuff could Defense Curl and Rollout to victory. Voltorb and Koffing were crushed too.


Since I couldn’t sell the Moon Stone, I permanently deposited it in the PC. This challenge is funnier with Jigglypuff than Wigglytuff! Next up is Misty’s gym and the Gary battle.


(Part 3 begins here. I took a break between the previous paragraph and the next one.)



To show off the non-linearity of Fire Red and add some variety to the playthrough, I’ll do some of the Gyms out of order. In Cerulean City, I battled the two trainers in the Gym, then ignored Misty and marched north toward Nugget Bridge.


Gary had improved since last time. His Pidgeotto used Sand Attack, crippling Jigglypuff for the rest of the battle. Debuffs hurt a lot more when you can’t switch Pokemon! Cute Charm affected both Pidgeotto and Rattata, giving me a few free turns. I certainly needed those. Rollout had questionable accuracy already, and Sand Attack made it even more unlikely to hit. Eventually, a Rollout combo defeated Rattata, Abra, and finally Bulbasaur. Bulbasaur got in a Vine Whip right before dying, reducing Jigglypuff to 3 HP! My victory raised Jigglypuff to level 23.


Nugget Bridge’s trainer gauntlet had some memorable moments. Youngster Timmy’s Sandshrew spent much of that battle “immobilized by love”. Lass Reli’s male Nidoran made for a battle of contact abilities. Cute Charm made Nidoran infatuated with Jigglypuff, and Nidoran’s Poison Point poisoned Jigglypuff when she attacked with Rollout. Camper Ethan had a Mankey with Low Kick, a move whose base power varies based on the opponent’s weight. Jigglypuff was practically a balloon, and thus took less damage than a super effective hit would suggest. Its Karate Chop, however, sent my solo Pokemon into critical HP.


The Team Rocket Grunt at the end had watched The Godfather one too many times and made Jigglypuff an “offer I couldn’t refuse”. Ekans fell prey to Cute Charm, as did Zubat. However, Zubat’s Supersonic caused confusion problems. Confusion is yet another thing that solos have trouble dealing with. Jigglypuff couldn’t tag out to cure it!


The rest of the route north of Cerulean was somewhat easier. Hiker Franklin had a Machop who pummeled Jigglypuff with a critical Low Kick, but this ended up Cute Charming it. For whatever reason, there were so many male Pokemon in this area that my Jigglypuff had a unique advantage. Gender usually isn’t this relevant to a playthrough! Franklin said a Zubat bit him in Mt. Moon, removing any doubt that wild Pokemon attack humans.


Visiting Bill activated the event flag that moved the cop away from the house that lead to the Cerulean City exit. You don’t have to fight Misty until after the S.S. Anne when you need to Cut trees to proceed. Keep this in mind for your Charmander playthroughs, kids! A Team Rocket Grunt had stolen a Dig TM, and attacked me when he was cornered. Machop was Cute Charmed, while Drowsee used Confusion to. . .cause confusion.


Route 6 to the south of Cerulean City had more female Pokemon, so Cute Charm wouldn’t be as effective. Bug Catcher Elijah’s Butterfree confused Jigglypuff with Supersonic, then made her snooze with Sleep Powder. The AI was moronic in this fight, and kept using Supersonic even after Jigglypuff was already confused.


Before boarding the S.S. Anne in Vermilion City, I headed to Route 11 on the east side of town. This place had several notable opponents. Youngster Dave’s male Nidoran poisoned Jigglypuff, and I only avoided a Death Count because Nidorino wasted a turn using Focus Energy instead of attacking.


One notable case of 3rd generation censorship is that all the Gamblers have become “Gamers”. Nobody calls them that unless they work for a casino or something. Anyway, both of “Gamer” Jasper’s Pokemon used Poisonpowder on Jigglypuff. Oddish used it first, then Bellsprout did it after I used an Antidote. Rollout missed often enough that I had to use a Super Potion.


When I saw Engineer Bernie, I wondered if the Trainer Class had a different name in Japanese. He was clearly an electrician instead of an engineer. When I looked it up on Bulbapedia later, it turned out that Engineers were originally “Old Electricians”. Bernie’s level 18 Magneton was one of Jigglypuff’s toughest opponents. Unlike the original Kanto games, Magneton was a Steel type that resisted both Normal and Rock. It knew Supersonic to cause confusion, and could use Thundershock with a high Special Attack stat. I tried Sing, but Magneton woke up early. Sleep was much more powerful in the 1st generation games since you had to spend an entire turn waking up. A Super Potion was necessary to survive. Fortunately for me, it kept using Tackle because the AI was stupid as usual.


I boarded the S.S. Anne at level 32. After many battles against fairly weak trainers, Jigglypuff leveled to 34 and replaced Pound with Body Slam. Body Slam was far more reliable than Rollout in most cases thanks to its 100 base accuracy, and had a respectable base 85 power along with the same type attack bonus. It also had a 30% paralysis chance. I may keep this for the rest of the game.


Gary was much tougher than the other passengers on the cruise ship. Pidgeotto used Sand Attack just like last time, and then got Body Slammed to death. Raticate didn’t last long either. Kadabra was a pain. It used Disable to block Body Slam, then Kinesis to lower Jigglypuff’s accuracy. I had to use Rollout to kill it. Ivysaur almost made me regret picking Squirtle to breeze through Brock. Sleep Powder was as annoying as always, and Leech Seed drained Jigglypuff’s HP every turn. Super Potions were needed to survive. Vine Whip activated Cute Charm despite being a special attack. (It would become physical in later games.) One Body Slam eventually took out Gary’s starter.


Before leaving Vermilion, I caught a Spearow and traded it for Farfetch’d to make sure I had a good HM mule. I couldn’t go anywhere else without defeating Misty, so level 35 Jigglypuff took her on. One Body Slam murdered Staryu even after Harden, but Starmie barely survived one after using Water Pulse. (Water Pulse is the replacement TM for Bubblebeam from the 1st generation games. Water Pulse is probably worse because it can cause confusion.) Misty’s Super Potion couldn’t save her star Pokemon from an overleveled joke character.


I was supposed to get the HM for Flash to get through the dark Rock Tunnel, but I fumbled through without it. If you come prepared with Super Potions, Repels, and an Escape Rope or two, 3rd generation Rock Tunnel isn’t hard. All those Hikers’ Geodudes and Onixes were so annoying that towards the end of the dungeon, I replaced Sing with the Water Pulse TM.


Route 8 had a “rambling, gaming” character. Was this a hidden snide remark about increasing censorship? At least one Pokemon fan has suggested that Lass Andrea with the 3 Meowths is in fact the player character’s mom from the Alola games. I don’t know whether that’s true, but then again Munna was inspired by dialogue from a minor character in the original games. . .


Instead of buying a drink from the department store’s vending machine to give to the Saffron City guard, you have to get Tea from the Pokemon Mansion in Celadon. This was probably meant to prevent accidental unwinnable states (i.e. somehow running out of money with no way to get more.) Now that I could go to Saffron, I could start the Silph Scope story arc. After I get the Poke Flute, Jigglypuff could defeat the sleeping Snorlaxes blocking Cycling Road and the route south of Lavender Town. Doing that would let me go to Fuchsia City. I’ll have to defeat Koga before going to Cinnabar Island, but other than that, I could fight the central Kanto Gym Leaders in an unorthodox order. With all these possibilities, Kanto is really an underrated region.


Jigglypuff Stats

Level 44

HP: 167
Attack: 54
Defense: 37
Special Attack: 47
Special Defense: 30
Speed: 32


Moves

Water Pulse
Hyper Voice
Body Slam
Rollout

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: Most Obvious Front For a Criminal Syndicate Ever


Before taking on the next few dungeons, I went to Mr. Psychic’s house in Saffron City to pick up the Psychic TM. This would be useful for the many Poison types I would be facing. This included all Kanto Ghost types too, because the only 1st generation Ghosts were Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar, which all had a secondary Poison type. Psychic would also be super effective against Fighting types, the only element that Jigglypuff was weak to.



A Team Rocket Grunt in the Celadon Game Corner said he was “guarding this poster”, which was suspicious. After defeating him, he went down into Team Rocket’s secret hideout in the basement. The poster concealed the switch that opened up the stairs. All the Team Rocket Grunts were easy to beat at such a high level.



Giovanni wasn’t much tougher. One Water Pulse drowned Onix and Rhyhorn. Jigglypuff needed to use 3 Body Slams to kill Kangaskhan, and the second hit paralyzed the enemy. Maybe I should use that Brick Break TM I found on the S.S. Anne to deal with sturdy Normal types later on?



Gary challenged me again in the Pokemon Tower in Lavender Town. I think Pidgeotto only got to use Gust before falling to a Body Slam. Gyarados’s passive Intimidate ability lowered Jigglypuff’s Attack, so I used Hyper Voice. (It uses Special Attack in Generation 4 and later, so it was force of habit and a stupid move on my part. All Normal moves are physical in this game. I should know better. I’ve been playing Pokemon since Blue first came out!) Gyarados Thrashed a couple of times before being KOd. Growlithe Intimidated Jigglypuff once again, but one special Water Pulse beat it in one shot. Gary’s starter Ivysaur was also a Poison type, making it another target for Psychic.



The Channelers on the higher floors kept attacking with Gastlys and the occasional Haunter. The Gastlys had an annoying tendency to use Confuse Ray and Spite (lowers a move’s PP). The AI was sometimes stupid enough to use Curse on the first turn. When used by a Ghost type, Curse reduces the user’s HP by half, in exchange for taking away a quarter of the opponent’s HP at the end of every turn. If Curse is used by a non-Ghost, it reduces Speed by 1 stage and increases Attack and Defense by 1 stage. (The reason for this is based on a Japanese pun, or so the Internet tells me.)



The Silph Scope obtained from the Team Rocket Hideout revealed the Ghost to be a Marowak. Jigglypuff’s first move was a critical hit Water Pulse that defeated Marowak in one shot. The Team Rocket Grunts at the top of the tower were easy as usual. They used the typical Pokemon like Koffing and Zubat. Mr. Fuji gave me a Poke Flute as a reward for saving him and putting ghost Marowak to rest. Now I could get past the Snorlaxes and go to Fuchsia City if I wanted to. All of that was accomplished without even visiting the third Gym! Kanto really is a non-linear region compared to the other games.



Stats


Level 50 Jigglypuff


HP: 191

Attack: 63

Defense: 43

Special Attack: 56

Special Defense: 35

Speed: 39

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: Return of the HMs


The Silph Co. building opened up after I cleared the Pokemon Tower, but Green didn’t feel like stopping the villains and instead beat up a bunch of bikers on Cycling Road. Jigglypuff killed Snorlax with two Body Slams, sending it back to the mountains. (Possibly referring to Sinnoh?) I got Fly from the house in the northern part of the route and taught it to Farfetch'd. I couldn't use it outside of battle until I defeated Lt. Surge in Vermilion City, though.


Psychic really paid off here because they used almost exclusively Fighting and Poison types, mostly the Machop, Mankey, Grimer, and Koffing families. Their level range hovered in the mid 20s to early 30s, but a few still outsped Jigglypuff and got the first move. What was worse was that Psychic sometimes failed to defeat a Machamp or a Muk in one hit despite the massive level advantage. The Elite Four will be tough with stats this low!


One interesting battle was a Young Couple with a Rapidash and a Ninetales, both level 29. This was a Double Battle, so Farfetch’d came along for the ride. My opponents must have been perplexed when Jigglypuff Body Slammed her partner to death on the first turn! Rapidash survived an attack and used Fire Spin a lot. I should have targeted Ninetales first because it knew Confuse Ray. Fortunately for me, Ninetales had awful Defense and died in one hit once Jigglypuff got over her confusion. My solo Pokemon was down to less than half health after that match.


Once I reached Fuchsia City, I made sure to get the key items in the Safari Zone. I don’t know why the evolution music played in that area when the Route 1 remix sounds much more appropriate for a safari area. Flying type solos should go here as soon as possible to pick up the Steel Wing TM, in case they have trouble with Rock or Ice types. I found the Secret House and got the Surf HM, as well as the Warden’s Gold Teeth. Warden Slowpoke gave me the Strength HM as a reward for bringing back his dentures. Jigglypuff could do many things, but Surfing was oddly not one of them. So I taught Surf and Strength to Squirtle so she could serve as a non-combat HM mule. I couldn’t push boulders with Strength until getting Erika’s badge in Celadon City anyway. My next Gym Leader will probably be Koga so I can Surf to Cinnabar Island.



Stats



Level 55 Jigglypuff

HP: 209

Attack: 72

Defense: 50

Special Attack: 61

Special Defense: 37

Speed: 45



Moves


Water Pulse

Hyper Voice

Body Slam

Psychic

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff Mini-Update: First Death Count

Before taking on a Gym, I thought I'd train Jigglypuff some more by having her mug random trainers on Route 15. It started well enough. Jigglypuff Body Slammed, Psychic'd, and Hyper Voiced her way through Bikers, Bird Keepers, Beauties, and Picnickers. Then I entered a Double Battle with "Crush Kin" Ron and Mya.

Ron and Mya sent out Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan, both level 29. Jigglypuff started by killing her partner Farfetch'd with Water Pulse. Hitmonchan used Mach Punch on Jigglypuff, and Hitmonlee buffed his critical hit chance with Focus Energy. On Turn 2, I had Squirtle use a Super Potion on Jigglypuff while Jigglypuff targeted my starter with Body Slam.


A Jump Kick (Either that or Hi Jump Kick?) knocked out Squirtle before Jigglypuff got her turn. For some odd reason, Hitmonchan used Ice Punch instead of a Fighting move and became infatuated with Jigglypuff. Body Slam automatically aimed for Hitmonchan and knocked him out in one hit. Then Hitmonlee got a critical hit Hi Jump Kick and sent Jigglypuff to the hospital.


Death Count: 1


The money loss in Fire Red is merciful compared to RPGs with similar "death taxes" like Earthbound or Dragon Quest. This is probably because some kids ran out of money in Red/Blue and couldn't enter the Safari Zone or something. I lost less than 2000 Pokedollars even though I had more than 60,000.

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: Jigglypuff Liberates Saffron City


Jigglypuff beat up most of the trainers on Routes 12 and 13 without too much trouble. She sent the 2nd Snorlax back to the mountains for good measure. It wouldn’t be a Herman Gigglethorpe solo without killing off as many unique Pokemon as possible! (Well, except for Pearl’s postgame, but Pearl had the worst single player mode in the series and I was sick of it by the time I beat Cynthia. . .)



All this training was necessary once it was time to save Saffron City from Team Rocket. Or put more accurately, save Silph Co. from Gary and Giovanni. Most of the Grunts and scientists were easy, but Magneton’s Steel type was annoying to punch through with Jigglypuff’s type coverage. I was so sick of Magnetons that I replaced Hyper Voice with the Brick Break TM. Too bad I had already killed off the magnets before I did that!



Silph Co. was a teleporter maze, and that was so awful I had to look up a map to get through it. The employees must spend half the day trying to warp to the right office. Gary had Pokemon in the mid 30s to 40 level range, and he had surprisingly good AI during this fight. His Pidgeot led with Featherdance to debuff Jigglypuff’s Attack by 2 stages. This was one of the worst things that could happen for a Pokemon reliant on physical moves.



Gyarados Intimidated Jigglypuff to lower her Attack even further, and then attacked with Dragon Rage. Dragon Rage always deals 40 damage regardless of stats, and that hurt. A few Psychics dealt with Gyarados, thanks to its random Special Defense debuff. Growlithe also had Intimidate, but was taken out with one Water Pulse. I was surprised Gary hadn’t evolved it this late in the game. Alakazam’s Defense must have been pathetic. Jigglypuff may have had reduced Attack, but Body Slam could still kill it in about 2 hits.



Venusaur was the worst opponent of all. It was faster than Jigglypuff and quickly sent it to the Kingdom of Lunesta with Sleep Powder. I couldn’t use Awakenings here because Gary would just do it again. The only option was to wait for Jigglypuff to wake up and hope it could survive Razor Leafs. One of those was a critical hit. It took a Hyper Potion and a Full Restore to do it, but Jigglypuff barely survived and knocked Gary’s starter out with two Psychics.



Giovanni was difficult only because I didn’t bother to buy more healing items like I should have. The regular trainer battle music played because the developers were too lazy to give him his own theme. Nidorino died to one Psychic, but Nidoqueen was tougher. Her higher Special Defense and HP meant Jigglypuff had to take a super effective Double Kick, since two uses of her Psychic powers were needed.

Kangaskhan’s Tail Whip and Mega Punch combo dealt significant damage. Jigglypuff endured long enough to Brick Break Kangaskhan twice and send her back to her Poke Ball. Rhyhorn was slow and took quadruple damage from Water Pulse. And so a solo Jigglypuff saved Silph Co. (Notice how none of the Team Rocket Grunts attacked Gary, and he was just standing there waiting for Jigglypuff? Maybe he was in on the plot. . .)


You can see Jigglypuff’s low stats are starting to catch up with her, and overleveling can’t solve everything. Chances are you’ll see a lot of healing potions and X item buffs in future updates.



Stats


Level 68 Jigglypuff


HP: 258

Attack: 90

Defense: 63

Special Attack: 75

Special Defense: 46

Speed: 57

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: You Better Have Burn Heal!

I had been thinking about a nickname for Jigglypuff. It felt wrong to fight Koga without picking the least tasteful name possible, so I biked back to Lavender Town and visited the Name Rater. Jigglypuff's new identity was now OG PUFF. Really, Jigglypuff was both one of the original 151 Pokemon and one of the 12 Super Smash Bros. 64 fighters. What more does she need to qualify as OG PUFF?

With her new name, OG PUFF Body Slammed, Water Pulsed, and Psychic'd her way through Koga's apprentices. They had surprisingly few Poison type Pokemon, and they seemed to prefer Drowzee (Psychic), Hypno (also Psychic), and Sandslash (Ground). What makes this really weird is that Kanto has a disproportionate amount of Poison types compared to other regions. Was Koga so cheap that he couldn't get a Tentacool from the ocean south of town for his underlings?

Koga was barely a challenge at all. Psychic killed his two Koffings and a Weezing easily. Muk's HP and Special Defense were high enough to survive one Psychic, and it managed to dodge one attack thanks to a Minimize evasion boost. It used Sludge and then died to Body Slam. (I didn't want to waste Psychic PP on misses.) Koga gave me his badge and permission to use Surf outside of combat. Now, OG PUFF could beat up the trainers in southwestern Kanto.

The trainers on the aquatic routes south of Fuchsia and south of Pallet Town had surprisingly low level Pokemon for this point in the game. Several of them had unevolved Pokemon in the low 30s. I wonder if the developers compensated for non-linearity by giving Kanto a flatter level curve than places like Unova or Alola.

One memorable moment is when Swimmer Matthew's level 30 Poliwag outsped my level 71 Jigglypuff. . .with Water Gun. No Swift Swim or any other factors could account for this, just OG PUFF's pathetic Speed stat. His Poliwhirl got the first move and used Hypnosis, which was annoying. Poliwhirl then used Doubleslap and fell in love with OG PUFF.

Body Slamming one other trainer's Seadra led to Poison Point activating. As much as I like Pokemon, mechanics like "contact" and "sound" moves are unwieldy at best. Yes, I'm saying this even though I've benefited from contact moves for much of this playthrough because of Cute Charm.


Fisherman Wade was the obligatory joke trainer with 6 Magikarps. I expected to see that earlier in the game.


Blaine was a jerk who locked his Gym on Cinnabar Island for no good reason, so OG PUFF had to slap around a few Burglars and Scientists. These often used Fire Pokemon such as Charmander, Ponyta, and Vulpix, or Electric types like Electrode and Magnemite. To get through the dungeon, I had to activate various switches to lock and unlock doors. The scattered notes were about the discovery of Mew in Guyana and Mewtwo's creation. (There are a lot of real world references in the first few generations compared to later games.)


Fighting Blaine's Fire-themed trainers leveled Jigglypuff to 76 and finally raised Attack to the three digit range. That was sad! Blaine led with Growlithe, whose Intimidate weakened Body Slam. I used Water Pulse instead. One of those knocked out Growlithe. Ponyta used one Fire Blast before dying to Water Pulse. Rapidash got not only a critical hit Fire Blast, but also inflicted burn status. OG PUFF survived with barely 10 HP. Next came Arcanine, one of the most dangerous Pokemon in this playthrough. I used a healing item, but its Fire Blast was too strong. Yet another burn from Fire Blast drained Jigglypuff's remaining HP and sent her to the hospital.

Death Count: 2

Round 2 wasn't much more successful. Arcanine's Fire Blast could 2HKO Jigglypuff. There was no way OG PUFF could compete without using items. I went back to Celadon's department store and looked for an X Special Defense, only to realize in horror that no such thing was available. Did it not exist in the 3rd generation? If so, that must have been a remnant of the original Special stat that was used for both attack and defense in the original games.

Death Count: 3


Round 3 was proof that Pokemon was always a Pay to Win game. Blaine used a Hyper Potion once on Rapidash when it was at yellow health, then once again at red health. When one Water Pulse confused it, Blaine wasted a turn using a Full Heal to cure it and gave me the chance to get the KO.

The tactic I used on Arcanine was to chug potions until Fire Blast either missed or ran out of PP. Arcanine whiffed one of its attacks, and a second Water Pulse got me another badge. This was such a shameful battle that both Blaine and OG PUFF should have been disqualified from the Pokemon League. Oh well. That's what happens when you play with a Pokemon that has base 45 attacking stats, Defense at base 20, Special Defense at base 25, and Speed at base 20.

As soon as I walked out of the Gym, Bill took me to the 3rd generation exclusive region, the Sevii Islands. I could only go to the first three islands before beating the game, but it was still neat to go here when I only had 4 badges. Bill and his friend Celio sent me on a fetch quest to deliver a meteorite to someone whose name I can't recall on Two Island. Does the Internet not exist in the Sevii Islands? Celio said he was having trouble linking the PCs or something like that until Bill helped him.


OG PUFF Stats

Level 77

HP: 291 (At least Jigglypuff has base 115 in that stat. . .)
Attack: 102
Defense: 71 (Chances are OG PUFF got a lot of EVs from Geodudes, Onixes, and such. . .)
Special Attack: 85
Special Defense: 51
Speed: 63

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: Sevii Island Hopping

Bill trapped me on the Sevii Island archipelago, and I couldn't escape until I delivered the Meteorite. But the Game Corner manager on Two Island refused to take it until I rescued his unfortunately named daughter Lostelle on Three Island.


Three Island was more populated than the first two. A biker gang from the Kanto mainland was terrorizing the town. Of course, Jigglypuff was the Original Gangster, and could mug these losers. I even deposited my HM Mules in the PC just to humiliate them further. They had the typical Biker Poison types like the Koffing and Grimer families. After Jigglypuff made them question taking up a life of crime, the bikers returned to Kanto.

Several other easy trainers gave Jigglypuff experience and cash on the way to Berry Forest where Lostelle was waiting. It turned out a level 30 Hypno was trapping there. She should have been terrified of OG PUFF instead. Jigglypuff killed Hypno with one Body Slam. Lostelle teleported me back to the Two Island Game Corner, and her father rewarded me with. . .a Moon Stone? That was the ultimate insult. OG PUFF did not NEED to evolve to bully Kanto's children, thank you very much!

The ferry took me to Cinnabar Island, and Bill informed me that I could return to the Sevii Islands via the Vermilion City port. I headed back through Diglett's Cave to get to Vermilion, then decided to beat up Lt. Surge. Like any Pokemon player, I wondered what war the Gym Leader had fought in.

Lt. Surge's highest level Pokemon was a level 24 Raichu. Do I really need to elaborate on what happened when he fought against a level 80 Jigglypuff? Anyway, now I could use Fly outside of combat, not that it was all that necessary. Kanto is a compact region. Lt. Surge's TM Shock Wave was a significant downgrade from Thunderbolt in the original games.

Next up was Saffron City and its two Gyms. (The Fighting Dojo might as well be a Gym, and was until Sabrina used her type advantage to demote them from official Pokemon League status.)


OG PUFF Stats

Level 80

HP: 302
Attack: 105
Defense: 73
Special Attack: 88
Special Defense: 53
Speed: 66

Moves (Same as before)

Water Pulse
Body Slam
Brick Break
Psychic

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: Enough Sequence Breaking. Let's Get Some Badges!


Sabrina’s Gym in Saffron City was a teleport maze, because old RPGs were a bit too fond of those. The trainers there talked about how brute force couldn’t win every time, but then again they never fought against a level 80 Jigglypuff before. Some mentioned how Sabrina defeated the Karate Master and stripped the Fighting Dojo of its official Gym status. This makes me wonder about Pokemon League infighting. Most of OG PUFF’s opponents used the Slowpoke, Abra, and Mr. Mime families, but there were a few Channelers who had Gastlys and Haunters instead. What were those Ghost/Poison types doing in a Psychic Gym?



Sabrina made a disingenuous comment about “disliking battles”, then began the fight. If she hated battles so much, why’d she become a Gym Leader? Her Pokemon were in the high 30s to low 40s level range and had low defenses, making them easy fodder for OG PUFF. Kadabra outsped me but wasted its turn using Calm Mind right before being Body Slammed to death. Her final Pokemon Alakazam did the same thing. OG PUFF at least managed to outspeed Mr. Mime and Venomoth, and KOd them with Body Slam and Psychic respectively. (Why did she have a Bug/Poison type? Did she steal it from Koga? It would make sense considering her fondness for bullying Gym Leaders she had a type advantage over. . .)



Sabrina’s TM was Calm Mind, an improvement over Psywave from the original games. Maybe I should have used this when I fought Blaine? *Checks TM compatibility*. No, Jigglypuff can’t learn that. OG PUFF learns every move, except the ones you’d expect her to. The only Pokemon in the Fighting Dojo that damaged Jigglypuff at all was a Primeape that outsped me and used Seismic Toss. None of the other trainers were noteworthy, and used mainly the Machop and Mankey lines. The leader Black Belt Koichi sent out level 37 Hitmonlee and Hitmonchan. Neither got in a move before being Psychic’d back into their Poke Balls. Koichi offered me a Pokemon, but Green simply walked out without taking Hitmonlee or Hitmonchan, knowing her Jigglypuff was superior.



The only place left to go before revisiting Viridian City was the Celadon City Gym. An old pervert was waiting outside saying the Gym was “full of women!” Unfortunately, Jigglypuff couldn’t Body Slam him. Lass Kay said “Only real ladies are allowed in here!” Insert your own joke about sexism in Pokemon here. Beauty Tamia said Grass types were “easy to raise”. She wouldn’t have made that comment if she lived in Johto where they have a disadvantage against most of the Gyms!



The trainers tended to use Pokemon of the Bulbasaur, Bellsprout, and Oddish families. (Why did GameFreak make so many first generation Grass types Grass/Poison?) One opponent was an exception and used the Grass/Psychic Exeggcute. Not even Erika had one of those. Erika herself was easy. One Psychic beat her level 29 Victreebel and Vileplume before they could act, and Body Slam took out the pure Grass Tangela. Her badge gave me permission to push boulders with Strength. This was one reason I skipped the Seafoam Islands earlier. Her TM was Giga Drain, an upgrade to the original Mega Drain.



The mob-controlled Gym in Viridian City specialized in Ground Pokemon such as the Cubone, Rhyhorn, Nidoran, Geodude, and Sandshrew families. These were usually in the high 30s to low 40s level range and were beaten with Water Pulse and Psychic. A few trainers used other types. Tamer Cole threatened Jigglypuff with his whip and sent out Arbok and Tauros. Two Intimidates in a row were annoying, and so I used the special Psychic since OG PUFF’s Attack was at -2. There were a couple of Black Belts with the Machop family too.



Giovanni, the head of Team Rocket, was also the Gym Leader. His team ranged from the low 40s to level 50. Both the level 45 and level 50 Rhyhorns had a double weakness to Water Pulse and fainted in one hit. (Why not a Rhydon? This is the final Gym!) Nidoqueen couldn’t survive a Psychic. Nidoking and Dugtrio were fast enough to get in Earthquakes before being one-shotted by Psychic and Water Pulse. OG PUFF was at 217/321 HP after the battle. Losing to a level 85 Jigglypuff humiliated Giovanni so much that he disbanded Team Rocket and left Kanto. Right before doing that, he gave me the final badge and an Earthquake TM. Now that I had all 8 badges, it was a good time to take a break.



OG PUFF Stats


HP: 321

Attack: 112

Defense: 78

Special Attack: 93

Special Defense: 56

Speed: 70



Moves

Water Pulse

Body Slam

Psychic

Brick Break

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: The Road to Victory


Gary appeared once again on the route west of Viridian City. He never learned from the past 5 times a lone Jigglypuff maimed his team. Gary sent out Pidgeot first, and I was a bit worried about Featherdance debuffing Jigglypuff’s attack. It used Wing Attack instead and fell in love. OG PUFF responded to his flirting with a critical hit Body Slam. Rhyhorn died to Water Pulse like every other Rock/Ground type.


Gyarados was a threat. Its Intimidate lowered OG PUFF’s Attack by 1 stage, and it was sturdy enough to require 3 Psychics. It hit Jigglypuff with several Hydro Pumps, but Gyarados was hit hard by the separation of Special Attack and Special Defense in Johto, so each one didn’t deal much damage. Growlithe couldn’t take a Water Pulse, but an extra Intimidate caused problems.


Next came Alakazam, a Pokemon that both outsped Jigglypuff and could buff its Special Attack with Calm Mind. It set up with that move once, and then launched a delayed attack with Future Sight. Two Body Slams were enough for Alakazam even with -2 Attack. Venusaur was last. It could now use Growth to buff its Special Attack, and then hope for critical hits with Razor Leaf. I used Body Slam instead of Psychic hoping to paralyze it. What happened instead was OG PUFF finishing it off with a critical hit Body Slam after several attacks. One piece of game mechanic trivia: critical hits ignore attack debuffs and defensive buffs.


Victory Road is the traditional final dungeon of Pokemon games, and Kanto’s version earned that distinction. Jigglypuff had a difficult time against some trainers despite her extremely high level. Cool Trainer Rolando’s level 42 Charizard could deal quite a bit of damage with Flamethrower.


The standout fight was Cool Trainer George. He led with Exeggutor, a tough Grass/Psychic type that resisted everything I had but Body Slam. Body Slam paralyzed it and left it with a sliver of health. This was enough of an excuse for George to give it a Hyper Potion. Sleep Powder made OG PUFF snooze for a few rounds, and a secondary effect from Confusion made her confused too. When she finally woke up, OG PUFF knocked out Exeggutor with one Body Slam. Maybe the first time was an awful damage roll?


George’s Electrode set up a Light Screen and then used Sonicboom. I think Jigglypuff hit herself in confusion once. Hyper Potions were needed several times throughout the fight to keep OG PUFF alive. Sandslash made the worst possible move for a solo run and used Sand Attack to lower Jigglypuff’s accuracy. Cloyster used Spikes of all moves. A field effect that would damage grounded Pokemon upon switching in is useful for multiplayer, but would be useless against a single Jigglypuff. George’s last Pokemon was a level 41 Arcanine, which brought back bad memories of Blaine. Jigglypuff must have remembered too, because she reserved her critical hit Water Pulse specifically for Arcanines.


The other trainers had an eclectic mix of Pokemon, but not many that were threatening. One named Tyra said “You’ve taught me that power can be infinite in shape and form”. She knew how to fear the ‘Puff.


After leaving the cave, I walked to Indigo Plateau to trigger the Fly point, then returned to Celadon City to buy a TM and X item buffs. After that, I flew back to Indigo Plateau and deposited my HM Mules in the PC. Stocking up on Full Restores and Max Potions would help for the final battles of the main story.



OG PUFF Stats

Level 89

HP: 335

Attack: 117

Defense: 81

Special Attack: 97

Special Defense: 58

Speed: 73



Moves

Water Pulse

Brick Break

Body Slam

Psychic

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: The Last Temptation of Bird Jesus


There was no way OG PUFF was going to defeat the Elite Four as easily as random trainers and out-of-order Gym Leaders, so I made sure to buff with two X Attacks when Lorelei’s level 52 Dewgong appeared. It gave me enough time to set up because its first two moves were Safeguard and Hail. Hail was a rather smart move by Lorelei, since it would reduce Jigglypuff’s high HP by 1/16 per turn while leaving most of her Pokemon untouched. A +2 Brick Break shattered Dewgong in one shot.



In what is possibly one of the worst AI moves ever, Cloyster opened with Spikes. Against a solo Pokemon. A bad damage roll left Cloyster with just enough health for Lorelei to use a Full Restore, but a second Brick Break knocked it out from full health. Slowbro could be hurt by Hail since it was Water/Psychic instead of Ice. However, it didn’t make much of a difference. It took two Body Slams to KO it, and it chose to buff its Special Defense with Amnesia before dying.


Lapras used Surf before dying to Brick Break. Jynx was the biggest threat of all due to her sleep-inducing Lovely Kiss. Fortunately, Jigglypuff managed to dodge that, though she had to take an Ice Punch before Body Slamming Jynx back into her Poke Ball. Jigglypuff leveled to 90 by the end of the fight, and was left with 228/339 HP.



Bruno would be much more difficult. His lead Onix was perfect setup bait for X items, but I clearly didn’t use enough. Onix’s Earthquakes softened up Jigglypuff for Hitmonchan to finish her off with a Sky Uppercut and Mach Punch.


Death Count: 4


On Attempt 2, I was a bit more careful. I set up with 2 X Specials, 2 X Speeds, and several X Defends. The first Onix happened to know Rock Tomb, a move with a Speed debuff, so solo players should take note not to use X Speeds for this fight. Onix used Earthquake like before.



Hitmonchan hit with Sky Uppercut and Hitmonlee used its stubby arms for a Brick Break, but neither got a critical hit. Those X Defends were worth it! Machamp Bulked Up instead of attacking. All these Fighting types had their minds crushed with Psychic. Water Pulse drowned the two Onixes. (Why didn’t he have a Primeape or a Poliwrath? Those were first generation Fighting types. . .) Jigglypuff was at 147/339 HP by the end.



All of Agatha’s Pokemon were weak to Psychic, since GameFreak decided to make a Ghost Elite Four member in a game with only 3 Ghost types. They had to make do by stuffing her team with Poison Pokemon instead. Her first Gengar led with Double Team and then used Confuse Ray. I knew I had no choice but to stop setting up with X Special and attack immediately. Gengar used Toxic right before dying, causing yet more problems. Though Toxic meant Hypnosis wouldn’t work. . .



Golbat also used Confuse Ray, much to my annoyance. Gengar 2 preferred Sludge Bomb. Arbok tried to use the Defense debuff Screech, but Jigglypuff must have had Soundproof for that turn because it missed. Haunter was oddly the hardest one of the whole lot. Its Ghost type Curse sacrificed half its HP to drain a quarter of OG PUFF’s health per turn. It also used the Hypnosis and Dream Eater combination. This was almost a loss, but Jigglypuff woke up just in time to finish it off with a Psychic. 73/339 HP? That was a close fight!



Lance the “Dragon” master was stuck in a game with only 3 Dragon Pokemon. He led with a level 56 Gyarados, and I set up with X Specials. It liked to use Dragon Rage a lot for some reason, which was one of the worst moves it could make against a Pokemon whose one good stat was HP. I tried to Body Slam it down so Ice Beam could finish it off, but Lance healed it at yellow health. Yes, Ice Beam was the TM I spent tens of thousands of Poke Dollars on in Celadon City!

Aerodactyl used Hyper Beam before being frozen to death. Dragonite only had time to ward off status ailments with Safeguard before dying. One Dragonair used Dragon Rage. The second was the most difficult Pokemon. Why did Jigglypuff have so much trouble with not fully evolved Pokemon?


Dragonair 2 opened with Thunder Wave and made Jigglypuff lose 2 turns to paralysis. Then it got a critical hit with Outrage and sent my solo character into critical health. It took a Full Restore to survive. Safeguard wore off right before Outrage ended and confused Dragonair. Dragonair hurt itself in confusion, then a final Ice Beam ended the battle with Lance.



Champion Gary’s Pidgeot led with Featherdance, then Aerial Ace and Sand Attack. This was a pain. I should have used Guard Spec to prevent this! A critical hit Ice Beam finished it off after a few turns of setting up with X items. Alakazam was a pain. Its Psychics could hit as hard as Blaine’s Arcanine, and it had Future Sight and Reflect too. Setting up on it was a mistake. Two Psychics sent OG PUFF into critical health, and then the Future Sight prediction was successful. Time to reload a save!


Death Count: 5


On Take 2, I had a plan. Guard Spec shrouded OG PUFF in Mist, preventing Pidgeot’s Featherdances and Sand Attacks from debuffing her. One other thing that helped: Pidgeot was male and susceptible to Cute Charm! While OG PUFF was chugging all sorts of X items, Pidgeot spent most of his turns immobilized by love. Jigglypuff’s X item habit let her outspeed Alakazam and Body Slam it to death. Rhydon fell to Ice Beam.


Gyarados was allowed to get a turn because Guard Spec wore off right after it blocked Intimidate. Guess what move it picked? Dragon Rage! The AI never fails to disappoint me. Both it and Arcanine fell to Body Slam. Venusaur dropped after OG PUFF used her last Psychic PP. Professor Oak scolded his grandson for not using the power of love, while I knew it was the power of items and overleveling that let me beat the game. Wait a minute. Gary’s lack of affection towards Pidgeot could explain the bird's lust for OG PUFF. . .


And so the main story is finished. Don’t worry. Jigglypuff isn’t done yet. She has plans for the Sevii Islands, legendary Pokemon, and Indigo Plateau Round 2. . .But first I have to catch 60 Pokemon to appease Professor Oak.


EDIT: Wait. I forgot to include Jigglypuff's stats!

OG PUFF Stats

Level 92

HP: 346
Attack: 120
Defense: 84
Special Attack: 100
Special Defense: 60
Speed: 76

 

[adman2]

Pokemon Fire Red Solo Jigglypuff: OG PUFF Kills the Pokemon Universe


Professor Oak has been the most obnoxious character in the game so far. He favored Green and gave her a Pokemon before his own grandson, whose name he couldn’t recall. Then he scolded me about using key items in the wrong places, and no, that wasn’t Green’s imagination. He really was talking to Green when I accidentally used the Super Rod instead of the Bicycle. The worst part of all was preventing me from playing the postgame until I caught 60 Pokemon. This wasn’t easy with fewer than 150 Pokemon available. Some of those were Leaf Green exclusives, and some such as Mewtwo couldn’t be found without completing postgame quests.



Doing this part of the game cost most of the money I had saved. Most of it went towards Ultra Balls, and the rest was for Game Corner purchases and Safari Zone fees. (Wait a minute. If Team Rocket runs the Game Corner, does that mean the prizes are stolen Pokemon?) As annoying as the Safari Zone mechanics can be, it was one of the most cost-efficient methods of filling the Pokedex. I finally had a use for those Moonstones: evolving Nidorina, Nidorino, and Clefairy. You didn’t think I’d evolve OG PUFF, would you? No! The integrity of the ‘Puff must be maintained, no matter what Professor Oak says!



For more gratuitous references to old memes, I evolved the gift Eevee into Flareon and resurrected the Helix Fossil. Aerodactyl came back to life too. To pay respects to Bruno’s Hitmonchan, I took the Hitmonchan Poke Ball from the Fighting Dojo. Ingame trades got me Mr. Mime, Tangela, and Lickitung. The final Pokemon required to reach 60 was a Drowzee east of Vermilion City.



Zapdos outsped Jigglypuff and paralyzed her with a Thunder Wave. OG PUFF responded with an Ice Beam that froze the legendary bird and sent it into critical health. Zapdos thawed itself out the next turn with a Drill Peck that reduced Jigglypuff’s HP to 284/346, and OG PUFF finished off her opponent with another Ice Beam.


Articuno was even easier. It used Mind Reader on the first turn, and then OG PUFF Body Slammed the ice bird so hard it became paralyzed. The Speed reduction from paralysis let Jigglypuff go first and finish it off with another Body Slam.


Moltres was similar to Articuno. It buffed itself with Agility on Turn 1. That was unnecessary considering OG PUFF’s abysmal Speed. Jigglypuff’s Body Slam paralyzed another bird, and sent it into red health. Agility made Moltres go first even with the Paralyze debuff, but it couldn’t move. Jigglypuff killed her third legendary Pokemon with a final Body Slam. One thing that surprised me was that Fire Red put Moltres in Mt. Ember on One Island. It lived in Victory Road in the original Kanto games.


Talking to Celio on One Island activated an event flag that opened up another part of Mt. Ember. Two Team Rocket Grunts dared to challenge the ‘Puff, and their Cubone and Rattata families were slaughtered. This made OG PUFF reach level 93. A Ruby was at the bottom of the cave along with some visual Braille messages I didn’t bother to translate into the Roman alphabet. Giving the Ruby to Celio unlocked Four through Seven Island, and he gave me a quest to look for the Sapphire. I set off for Four Island, only to find Gary there taunting me about how he got a Pokemon egg. The next update will involve exploring the remaining Sevii Islands.


OG PUFF Stats

Level 93

HP: 350
Attack: 122
Defense: 84
Special Attack: 101
Special Defense: 61
Speed: 76

Moves

Ice Beam
Brick Break
Body Slam
Psychic