How do you play Pokemon in-game?

[darknite]

I usually go through with a team of six, but for SS I decided to mix it up and go through with a smaller team without using legendaries for the challenge and because you don't have to grind as much with a smaller team. When plaing in-game I don't care about natures/EVs/IVs because it doesn't really matter, and I never trade over mons from my other games because it takes the fun and challenge away for me.

From the outset I knew I wanted to start with Cyndaquil because Typhosion is just awesome (and its Flamethrower/Eruption dominate in-game), and I also knew I wanted an Alakazam to beat up on Koga and Bruno in the Elite Four.

Then I decided that I wanted my Flyer to be part of my main guys, so I caught a Spearow. I chose Spearow/Fearow over Pidgey/Pidgeot becase Spearow learns Aerial Ace at an early stage which is extremely useful and learns Drill Peck later on as a Fearow which is a really great hard-hitting STAB attack to have at your disposal.

From there I realized I was going to need a Surfer and something that knew Ice Beam to deal with Lance. Lanturn came to my mind. Its dual typing was an added bonus, allowing me the luxury of dealing with water types. Lanturn provided me with Surf, Ice Beam, and a strong electric move in Discharge.

I figured those four mons would suffice as a team. Now all I needed were HM slaves. I caught a Staryu and Kangaskhan on my Pokewalker to fill those roles, Staryu learning Flash, Surf (again), Whirlpool and Waterfall, and Kangaskhan learning Cut, Rock Smash, Rock Climb, and Strength.

So to recap, I have:
Typhlosion
Alakazam
Lanturn
Fearow
Staryu
Kangaskhan

I beat the Elite Four the first time with my four pokes at lvl. 50/high 40's (with the help of items), breezed through Kanto, and am currently grinding to beat the Elite Four the second time through.

The highlight of my playthough was destroying Claire with an Alakazam Calm Mind sweep with Psychic, and the lowlight was grinding playing the Voltorb Flip to get Ice Beam for Lanturn. They freakin' had to do away with just buying coins....

 

[Zowayix]

I try to plan out my team to get STAB super-effective moves on all the Gym Leaders and Elite Four members. Because of the STAB requirement, I often have one or two team members restricted to a certain type, such as Bug in RBY on Sabrina.

This usually lets me have a varied team without ending up randomly picking members because they "look cool" or w/e.

 

[Airfoil]

lol. Psychic was uber back then. w/ out any bug attacks (bar leech life) how did you defeat Sabrina? I can't remember how I did it (I was young back then, and now I can't remember).

 

[Zowayix]

The only damaging Bug-type moves in RBY were Leech Life, Pin Missile, and Twineedle.

Because of the STAB requirement, the only team members I could even consider were Venomoth and Beedrill. (The rest don't learn any damaging Bug type moves!) I picked Beedrill of course.
TM03 Swords Dance + X Speeds and Twineedle spam = win

If you're wondering, I used the Ditto glitch in Yellow to get Beedrill.

 

[Railith]

I use a team of four with two HM slaves. I'll usually port over some 100s if I'm able to keep the game flowing with minimal grind.

 

[Airfoil]

Yes but getting lv 100s way to early in the game makes it a lot less fun. You end up OHKO everything without having to do anything....which kind of escapes the purpose of training up your own Pokemon (why badges are needed to let pokemon of a higher level listn).

 

[DDRMaster]

Yes but getting lv 100s way to early in the game makes it a lot less fun. You end up OHKO everything without having to do anything....which kind of escapes the purpose of training up your own Pokemon (why badges are needed to let pokemon of a higher level listn).

Agreed. Usually I avoid using legendaries as well for the same reason. Previously, I would usually sweep the Pokemon League with the main legendary and it just took the fun out of it. My brother basically swept everyone with Lugia and when he got to Kanto, he realized it was his only decent Pokemon.

 

[Probably]

I use my Starter, and 2-3 other Pokemon, and up to 3 HM Slaves, it depends on my main Pokemon. I tend to skip things, but I do get every item possible, catch as many Pokemon as I can, and I usually don't heal, as I am cheap, and I will run to the Pokemon Center if needed. After I beat the entire ingame, I EV Pokemon for the Battle Frontier/Tower and competitive battling.

 

[Airfoil]

I do the same thing, except I usually have 4 Pokemon when I beat the e4 (5 when I beat SS because of the second region).

Agreed. Usually I avoid using legendaries as well for the same reason. Previously, I would usually sweep the Pokemon League with the main legendary and it just took the fun out of it. My brother basically swept everyone with Lugia and when he got to Kanto, he realized it was his only decent Pokemon.

I really prefer to avoid legends, or sometimes even ubers altogether. I hate how overpowered they are. I think it's cheap when people run an all uber team in standard play against me, and I'm sure people will also think I only won because I used ubers (that, and running an all-uber team against non-ubers is an unsatisfying victory. That's why there are so many "Magikarp sweeps" and "NFE sweeps" on youtube, and why I avoid PBR Wi-Fi).

I only use the ubers because, as I said, I have 4 good Pokemon by the time I hit the e4, and my HM Slaves won't help much, So I usually run the main legend (Palkia in Pearl, Giratina in Platinum, Lugia in SS, etc) to help when I enter the e4, then bury them in PC again.

lol. Being stuck w/ Lugia.

 

[Lucalibur]

some time ago i noticed that i make single runs, i pick a pokemon (in SS case, scizor) and almost only use him, but to make sure i dont make him overpowered fast i pick a pokemon like eevee and give exp share AND put another pokemon for double battles, in this case it was lugia but only because my hm slave was pathetic and i wanted a coller one, but hey...at least lugia cover fire types with hydro pump...i needed a friend help to evolve scyther into scizor but it was damn worth because the scizor had great ivs, was adamant and had tech.

 

[Abhorsen]

I don't plan my team at all, I just kinda go ''Cool, and ekans, I wouldn't mind later having an arbok...*catches ekans*'' And I ususally make the mistake of raising only my starter until I get to the 8th gym XD That proves to be very troublesome and means I have a LOT of grinding to do :(

 

[Airfoil]

I have never planned my team (xcept once in Pearl....but it wasn't EVs or competitive, just 5 Pokemon I thought looked cool). I usually pick whatever starter I like (although sometimes I'll just pick whatever ones my freinds don't pick. i.e. I couldn't choose wich Johto starter I wanted inn SS, so I picked Chickorita because I liked him and both my friends wanted Cydiquil and Todadile) and go on until l I find another Pokemon I think is cool and train him..

some time ago i noticed that i make single runs, i pick a pokemon (in SS case, scizor) and almost only use him, but to make sure i dont make him overpowered fast i pick a pokemon like eevee and give exp share AND put another pokemon for double battles, in this case it was lugia but only because my hm slave was pathetic and i wanted a coller one, but hey...at least lugia cover fire types with hydro pump...i needed a friend help to evolve scyther into scizor but it was damn worth because the scizor had great ivs, was adamant and had tech.

My friend did the same thing in his Diamond. made it to the 7th gym w/ nothing but Empoleon. I told him that he should get another Pokemon, and he gave an EXP Share to Dialga....not what I meant....lol

 

[Anti-H]

I hadn't played a Pokemon game since the original Gold way back when, so I started out with a team of my starter Totodile and a couple of trash Pokes. I proceeded to get trashed by the first three gym leaders, so I switched to Totodile/Furrett/Quagsire/Togepi. Evo'd Togepi to Togetic and dumped it, ended up breezing through the next couple by counterpicking their specialty and using my starter as a bulky Water. Pidgeotto is flybitch, current HM slave is the Quagsire.

E4 beaters were Feraligtr/Hypno/Ampharos/Lake of Rage Gyarados. Got to Lance with just those that group, but ran out of items and Dragonite > *, so switched in Entei and Lugia as contingency. Only needed them once apiece.

 

[Galactic Boss Cyrus]

Beedrill used to be crazy... I'm using one in RBY and Pin Missile and Twineedle actually did damage back then.

 

[arsyniiC]

I powerlevel my starter until he evolves then continue to catch a party of 6. Complete coverage in game is what I aim for. When I catch legendary pokes, I just store them in my last PC box until they gather dust. Beat E4 and finish all side quests like catching all pokemon and what not. Then I start making teams for competitive battling.

 

[polarchuck99]

I usually take my time through my first run like in my first run, i had this team to beat the E-4
Typhlosion 47
Crobat 45
Ampharos 46
Alakazam 49
Bellossom (IDC if you don't like bellossom, he's a great grass-type) 50
Poliwrath 48

Then, in my second run, i blow through with my starter, here's the team in second run of SS at E-4

Feraligatr 65
Lugia 52

 

[Sceats]

I also did a no-evolution play through on Diamond which was probably the most challenging ingame experience I've had. My team was Chimchar, Remoraid, Onix, Starly and Chingling (lol) for anyone interested... basically Chimchar and Remoraid were my "powerhouses", and the rest were just type fillers for when I needed to heal those two :D

Hrrmm thats not a bad idea. Its got me interested in trying it out on plat with 5 mons instead of 2. Im also gonna avoid using the mons like scyther and sneasel that are banned from lc to add to the challenge. Should be fun!

 

[Lucalibur]

i did something almost like that, but it was second form main evo run instead, to put it short, i only evolved to the second form, my monferno never evolved into infernape is a great example of that.

 

[Nida]

E4 beaters were Feraligtr/Hypno/Ampharos/Lake of Rage Gyarados.

In my SS game, I've had a team of Feraligatr/Hypno/Ampharos/Steelix through Gym 8, and now I've just finished EVing LoR Gyarados to add for E4. :P (Also considering adding GameStop Jirachi to the team, since it's on the cart anyway, but I may save that for Kanto or going after Red.)

----

I used to just breeze through with whatever critters I liked, grinding for levels rather than replacing team members if I was getting trounced. Nowadays I plan out a team for the E4 before even starting, then acquire those critters as I play through.

For SoulSilver, though, I didn't do any serious planning - I'd never played Gen II, so the contents of the game are all-new to me, and I didn't want to spoil anything. I only added something to my team if I thought it would be useful throughout the whole game, and I testbuilt a complete moveset for each member before finally deciding to make the addition.

This is also the first time I've ever bothered to EV for the E4, since I'm planning on tackling them seriously underleveled. LoR Gyarados was simple enough since I kept it clean before EVing it. I'm still debating using EV reducing berries on the rest of the team and getting them properly trained, but it might be just too much of a hassle.

 

[Lightsabre]

in HG I basically went in with the mindset of getting the elemental types(water,fire,electric,and grass), a good flyer, and whatever caught my fancie. Make sure I can spread the HMs around to all of them, and then storm through the game. My final team for Red was this


Typhlosion LV 90
Flamethrower/Eruption/Flame Wheel/Quick Attack

Amphros LV 90
Discharge/Rock Climb/Signal Beam/Power Gem

Raticate LV 90
strength/Rock Smash/Quick Attack/Crunch

Fearow LV 90
Fly/Drill Peck/Return/filler(some sort of normal move)

Poliwrath LV 90
Surf/Whirlpool/Waterfall/Wake-up-slap

"Queenbell" Victrebell LV 90
Giga Drain/Leaf Blade/Cut/flash(not sure about flash, think it was replaced, but w/e)


so, in the end, I had a team that would take on ALMOST everything(stupid GF getting rid of the "buy coins" option so I couldn't get ice beam for Dragons) and it swept through with relative ease. The only real problem I had was that I couldn't find a Water Stone for AGES. Amphros was always my MVP. Signal Beam and Discharge doing a majority of the work, and Charge(since replaced by power gem) was infinitely useful against the lv 49 Dragonites. After a few SPDEF boosts hyper beam did squat, allowing me to take them out without worry. ftr, I tackled the E4 with lv 45-47 pokes(had lots of troubles with the lv 50 Dragonite)

 

[Jonathan]

:/ How did you get your Pokes up to level 90? For Red on my first run through, I had a team of Typhlosion / Ampharos / Crobat / Lanturn / LoR Gyarados / ES Dragonite, all around level 56/57. Actually I didn't even have Typhlosion because I had to switch him out for an HM slave to use Rock Climb.

 

[Ironic Demise]

I generally get 4 good pokemon and have two others that are used as HM pokemon.

For example, in HGSS, i've used
Aipom / Ambipom
Typhlosion
Ampharos
Noctowl
Pinsir
Quagsire / Qwilfish / Corsola

Really, I plan out two or three, and as I play I decied the other three or four as I go.
For example, I bought both, so I let my sister play one, and from the start I knew I wanted Typhlosion / Ampharos. As I was playinh, I knew I needed a pokemon for fly, so I went with Hoothoot / Noctowl (Forming 3). Eventually, I got headbutt, and my sister kept needing help so I asked her to start headbutting random tree's for me. An Aipom came out of one, so I decieded I wanted it. Pinsir came into my team (replacing a bellsprout) when the bug catching contest was on, and my three water pokemon gets tossed around depending on how i feel. Qwilfish is an atm.

On FRLG however (and most other games now that I think about it), I generally get a starter pokemon, and then a secondary pokemon. First time I played through LG, I used Charizard and Beedrill, then Charizard and Raichu (This was before competitive battling, i've only recently started), and often a legandary pokemon. Articuno seemed to always fill the place for some reason.
RSE was always Starter + Flygon, and DPP was either Torterra + Honchkrow (First time around) or Empoleon + Lucario.

However, I often do go back and try and make mono types (using breeding from my Diamond).

I do, however, miss the days were I could sit down and enjoy the games, rather than go "hmmm, rather than care about what others think of my team, i'll just catch this Lugia once, and idgaf about it's IV's or nature."

I'm hoping that when Gen 5 comes out, i'll be able to use one as my "fun" game and the other as my "serious game".

But yeah.

 

[Lightsabre]

Jonathan- calling the Gym leaders and about an hour each with lucky egg got me from lv 60(when I beat blue) to lv 90

except victrebell. because at the E4, she was only lv 3(hm slave)... yeah she took a bit longer

 

[Baztard]

The E4 are always a joke even underlevelled. In Platinum my highest level party member was lower than the lowest of Aaron's. The Johto league just takes the absolute piss. The only struggle was Houndoom as he kept crunching my Slowking (which had previsouly set up 3 Nasty Plots), Lance's level 50 Dragonite and the Aerodactyl. My highest level in the Johto league was 42.

 

[DDRMaster]

Yeah Dragonite was definitly the hardest part of the entire game for me (haven't beaten Red yet and I have a feeling Snorlax will be a pain to take out even with Medicham and Tyranitar). My only Pokemon that could take an Outrage was my Golem that was around Lv. 45. I had to keep spamming Hyper Potions until it hit itself in confusion.