Challenge Skitty Solo Through Every Gen - Black 2 Finished

[UberSkitty]

I started this a decent while ago, and and as the name suggests, I'm doing a solo of every game using only Skitty! (And HM Slaves ofc). Also sadly not Gens 1 and 2, since Skitty ain't in them. And I just gotta say, if you feel like ur fav mon sucks in game, this is a fun thing to do. While the games are often hardest at the beginning, by the mid/end Skitty has been able to just sweep due to being overleveled and a great movepool. Another thing that's great about Skitty is that it only evolves via Stone, so I don't have to worry about the evolution thing popping up after battles like it would via level/friendship.

I've been using Emulators, setting Skitty as my starter. However, the Skitty is not IV/Nature set, I just use what I'm given. The exception of this being if I get Normalize. Sue me. Also the nicknames are random words people gave me in Discord. Discord is where I talked about this most, specifically PU Discord In-Game Room. Even found the day I announced and started the challenge:

Will prob also refer to Discord for some stuff I don't remember as well, specifically the earlier games.

Some other general rules I play by:

1. If Skitty got KOed, I'd just SR and hope I saved recently.
2. No using mons other than Skitty outside of double/triple matches, in which they just use non-attacking moves. And eventually the exception of Battle Factory.
3. Healing items are allowed. No X-Items in battle, can instead use them against wild mons to raise Skitty's friendship.
4. Avoided using Assist, bar one instance when I couldn't hit a Gastly in HG.

Here's the playthroughs I've done so far with some pics and details about the hardest battles, starting with Emerald: (prob gonna make a couple separate posts for more likes so it looks nicer and stuff when adding on more games)

Emerald​

This was the first playthrough, being over half a year ago at this point.

Skitty has an alright movepool early on, specifically Sing/Attract/Growl to try to hax/outlast threats. And one of the biggest threats was early on, with the first Gym leader being a Rock-type! (A common trend in games sadly). My best way to hit her mons was by getting a good amount of hits with Double Slap. Second Gym is Fighting-type, so you can imagine that took me a few tries. After that things got easier, bar some random stuff like Brandon's Aron.

Skitty's coverage luckily gets much better later on, like learning Faint Attack via level and Dig via TM. Not to mention better STABs like Secret Power, Return, and Double Edge. Normal STAB is amazing in-game, just sayin.

So yeah, Skitty continued to get more and more over-leveled and learned a bunch of new coverage moves via TM like Shadow Ball and Ice Beam. Fast forward, I finally reached the E4. Had to wait a while though cuz I wanted the Shell Bell and Shoal Cave wasn't being nice.

I used a set I'd end up using a lot, BoltBeam/Calm Mind/Substitute. I'd often just be able to set up Sub and spam CM against their first mon and sweep. Was even able to get around moves like Curse thanks to Substitute and Sheer Cold thanks to being overleveled. IIRC I did have some trouble with Wallace though, specifically that damned Double Team Ludicolo. But I still beat him so bop.

Finished the entire playthrough in a few days, and started LeafGreen a couple days later.

Some point around (I wanna say before?) the Diamond playthrough I decided to battle Steven. I was honestly really scared of him, even looking into stuff like EVs and IVs. Leveled up my Skitty a bunch via those reporters, and caught some mons that I felt would make things quicker, specifically a Minun with Protect/Helping Hand/Encore/TWave. And a couple of Pickup mons in the back for potential Rare Candies. Eventually I finally felt prepared for Steven, using the same moveset as the E4, but now with Lefties! And then...I p much just set up on his Skarmory lead and won with ease. Was very anticlimactic.

Went back and took some pics while making this thread, post Steven fight: (can't remember how to screenshot in this emu tho so the pics are kinda off)

Also this is my secret base, made it while waiting for the Shoal Cave tides :)

LeafGreen​

Like I said, I had only started this playthrough days after finishing Emerald (but before beating Steven).

The beginning of the game was pretty similar, with Skitty's level up moves and the slow first gym battle against Rock-types, tho definitely not as bad as that Nosepass in Emerald. Also got Water Pulse and Dig early on so Rock mons in general weren't too bad, not to mention the only Steel mons being Magnemite and Magneton. Outside of that, coverage moves were pretty limited, with most of the good ones being sold at the Game Corner. But even then, Normal coverage hits most mons anyway, so it wasn't too big of a problem. Usually just had two Normal moves for PP reasons, again between Secret Power, Return, and Double Edge.

I honestly don't remember a lotta what happened throughout the replay, or at least anything special. I did do those Sevii Island missions for some grinding tho if that counts. But fast forward...

By the time Victory Roar came along, I decided to finally get some stronger coverage moves, aka Game Corner time. Luckily it turned out I was rich enough at that point to just buy all the coins needed for Ice Beam+Thunderbolt (each 4000 coins).

And after Victory Road, it was time for the E4. It was around then that I realized I probably should've caught a Snorlax for the Leftovers. I didn't have the Item Finder either. So I opted for a Magnet, which can only be found on wild Magneton. Naturally I made the logical move of catching every Magneton I found instead of just bending my rules and using a Dugtrio with Thief. Alas, I eventually got one, and all it took was 20 min with the emulator at x4 Speed!

Used the same moves against the E4 as in Emerald, BoltBeam/Substitute/Calm Mind, and again worked like a charm. Bruno was kinda a pain though, trying to use his Onix to setup on while having to keep up Sub in fear of Rock Tomb. Either way, with LeafGreen complete, so was Gen 3 and Gameboy.

Also fun fact, Skitty doesn't count towards unlocking item from Oak's Assistant since it's not in the Kanto Dex, hence the No. ???.

Recent pic, Post E4:

I plan to add onto this later on, both my other finished playthroughs and whenever I start my next one, XY on Citra the 3DS!

 

[UberSkitty]

Ok on to Gen 4!

Diamond​

I know, I know, most people would've chosen Platinum. Well I did, originally. And then I accidentally deleted that save file somehow. Started a second time and mde it all the way to Roark, another Rock-type first gym. Yay. Geodude and Onix were a pain as expected, but Cradidos was a beast, especially with Skitty already being worn out and at -6 Def from Onix's Screech. I couldn't get hit once, so I'd have to rely on the hax of Sing and Quick Claw to get past it. Also made the mistake of forgetting Attract beforehand. And if things didn't go my way, I had to go through the slow Geodude and Onix matches all over again. That would be when I gave up and switched to Diamond, where you get the Hidden Power TM early on which you apparently don't in Platinum.

Meet Door! (Same name as my Platinum Skitty).

So yeah I made it back to Roark in this game now with Hidden Power, and I was even lucky enough for it to be Fighting-type. As you can imaging the gym was much easier. Eventually beat the Grass gym, unlocking the Underground! But then after some exploring I triggered a Leaf Trap and got stuck since I couldn't blow on my emulator to escape.

Would later find out there's apparently a button to do that. But yeah had to sot-reset and lost the Underground progress and had to redo it since it's not like I can just completely skip/ignore it.

I eventually left the Underground and made actual progress in the game. I was excited to reach Hearthome City and walk with my Skitty in Amity Square, only to find out you can only walk with the NatDex mons Post-Game so I had to walk around with a Psyduck instead to get the items in there. On another note, Diamond has some great and easily accessible TMs. Got Grass Knot from Gardenia, Return from the Lost Tower, and Blizzard/Thunder from the Department Store. Even ran out of space for everything eventually.

Also some great items like Amulet Coin and Soothe Bell for grinding money/friendship, the usual stuff like Shell Bell and Soft Sand, and most notably Choice Specs for a fun time.

After a little more progress, took a break from the playthrough, playing a lotta Animal Crossing and sandwich shiny hunting in Violet, but eventually got back into it and reached the E4. Naturally, before facing them, I had to prepare. By making DOOR a Ball Capsule.

May have gone a little over the top.

Used similar to the same strat as the last two games, but with Calm Mind being a post-game TM, went for Charge Beam instead. On the bright side this did mean I had my setup move and Electric move in the same slot, giving me an extra slot for Shadow Ball, Though I ended up changing it to Attract for Cynthia and switched out Shell Bell for Quick Claw. That is, in between the countless attempts to beat her.

Remember that time in the anime Paul battled Cynthia hoping she would use Giga Impact and things would go his way? Yeah, that was pretty much me. But Garchomp itself wasn't actually too bad, it couldn't OHKO me so I just repetitively healed to fish for Giga Impact or a Dragon Rush miss. The biggest challenge was her lead Spiritomb, specifically because of Embargo. Lucario was the whole reason I was running Attract, it being the only male on Cynthia's team, so I just had to hope for some good luck against it. And then Milotic...

Eventually gave in and took a break for a few hours. But once I returned (and after a few more tries):

15 HP. Bop.

And DPP was checked off, more adoorable than ever.

Also fun tidbit I pointlessly randomized the demonstration capture at the beginning and Lucas decided to steal the box legendary...

Writing this also inspired me to go back into the file to unlock the NatDex, visit Amity Square with my Skitty, and try to find some Skitty Dolls for my Underground base.

HeartGold​

Probably infamous for some of the hardest battles, including Lance, Red, and ofc, Whitney. Not to mention the double region thing. What could possibly go wrong? Let's find out!

Yes, her name ended up being DOG. Blame Chloe.

Don't have a screenshot of the initial summary, but here's DOG early on against a wild Hoothoot.

Didn't have too much trouble at the beginning, with the usual Attract+Sing combo. The gym leaders took a couple tries though, between Falkner's Sand Attack spam and Bugsy's fast af Scyther. However, the first real struggle started after Bugsy, the match against my rival, aka Lyft.

Gastly, having forgotten Foresight a good while back and had no TMs to hit it. And DOG was only in low 20s and wouldn't getting Faint Attack until lvl 29, unlike DP where it gets it at lvl 25. Grinding a bunch was an option, but I'd be grinding off mons below lvl 10, so yeah no. I had one idea though, using Gastly's Curse against it. Luckily Gastly's attacks were both Ghost, so the only ways it could hit DOG were through Curse and Confuse Ray. So the plan was to get Gastly to KO itself with it's own Curse, which would mean it would have to use it 2 or 3 times. Naturally it only used Curse once early on, so I ended up having to PP stall it until it could only use Curse. Was a pain, especially when losing 25% every turn, but I eventually got there, just to find out...

Now that's what I call a curse word! But yeah it turns out Gastly doesn't lose more HP afterwards so it was all worth nothing. At this point I decided to slightly bend the rules from previous playthroughs, and grinded it up a little to learn Assist, which I used to copy Togepi's Extrasensory. Don't worry though, since I made sure to replace it with Headbutt as soon as possible! And speaking of, Headbutt was so nice to have, being such a strong option for that point in the game.

Eventually reached Goldenrod City, did the usual Goldenrod City stuff. Bought the TMs for Thunder and Blizzard, went underground to get DOG a massage, and did the Pokegear quiz to unlock Whitney's gym. Also beat all the trainers on the following routes and National Park. One thing I didn't do, and never did, was get the bike so I could always be walking alongside DOG <3. Ended up having to skip cycling road in Kanto cuz of this. I don't remember the fight with Whitney much, but I don't think it was too bad. DOG was immune to Miltank's Attract and ultimately just paraflinched it to death with Thunder+Headbutt.

Around then I took another break for a few days and played a bunch of Animal Crossing.

After my break was over, I returned to Goldenrod City to get the Return TM. Otherwise, my journey continued. Luckily I had Faint Attack by the time I reached Morty, so no more Assist gimmicks needed! Naturally still a pain though with Gengar being fast AF and spamming Hypnosis. Chuck wasn't as hard as he seemed, since his only mons' only Fighting-type move was Focus Punch. Jasmine was kinda a pain though, with her Magnemite barely living DOG's Dig and using Thunder Wave+Supersonic. Ended up having to hold a Cheri Berry to play around it. Also Steelix was a pain to slowly wear down, especially while taking Sandstorm chip damage. Time skip, I eventually reached Clair, who took a few tries and some luck. But before battling her, I went back to Goldenrod to play Voltorb Flip to buy the Ice Beam TM. Took a while.

The Kimono Girls were as big a pain as ever, though I was able to get through them with some grinding+max power Return. Just used my Master Ball on Ho-oh. Looking back, SoulSilver might've been the better option with Lugia being a much better HM slave. Doesn't matter now though. I progressed to the Elite 4. Was planning on going with Calm Mind, but is again a post-game TM, being a Battle Frontier prize. So I went back to good ol' Charge Beam. Also played more Voltorb Flip to get the Substitute TM.

Got through the Will and Koga pretty easy, but Bruno was naturally a threat. Especially with his lead Hitmontop having Triple Kick, so I couldn't just set up a Substitute. I honestly don't remember how I got through him. Karen wasn't too bad, and while Umbreon's Double Team was annoying, it was still setup bait. And finally, Lance. Was able to 2HKO Gyarados with Charge Beam while getting the boosts. IIRC his Aerodactyl and Charizard outsped DOG, but I was high enough leveled to tank their hits. And then Ice Beam just massacred all his Dragonites.

Next up, Kanto!

I think we can all agree Kanto is pretty anticlimactic. DOG was over leveled at this point so the gyms were pretty easy. Pretty much felt like grinding for the E4 rematches and Red. But before I could face them, there was one thing I had to do. Get the Calm Mind TM, meaning I'd have to grind for BP. Went with the Battle Factory since it wasn't like I had a bunch of competitive mons sitting around. I guess another instance of me bending the rules of using only Skitty.

DOG was mid-90s when I challenged the Elite 4. While Charm is prob not the most commonly used move this late in the game, it really helped against Bruno. I'd spam Substitute+Charm until they couldn't break the Sub. Though I pretty much had to do this with all of his mons, so it took a while. Especially since I had to do it multiple times...

I don't remember much of the Lance fight, itself, but by that point DOG had reached lvl 100.

But what I do remember is despite being lvl 100, DOG was still outsped by Salamence and Garchomp. It was a pain, but I guess DOG's Ice Beam was just too much for them. Lance's Altaria apparently has Perish Song, a solo playthrough's nightmare, so I'm guessing I was able to OHKO that. I beat Lance eventually though, making there only one challenge left...Red. Gonna skip all the overthinking and planning, this is what I ended up running:

(Ignore the HM Slaves)

I confidently walked up to him, ready to kick ass.

Turned out Pikachu was the biggest threat, being faster than DOG and both Thunderbolt and Volt Tackle OHKOing. But after some thought, I figured out how to beat it, albeit would need some RNG luck. Quick Claw. But even then Blizzard wouldn't OHKO. So what I'd need was for Quick Claw to trigger turn 1 so I could set up a Calm Mind, letting DOG live Pikachu's Thunderbolt, which it would have to have used instead of Volt Tackle. Next turn I'd need Quick Claw to trigger again, now being able to OHKO Pikachu with Blizzard. Once I beat Pikachu, I was able to get through the rest of Red's mons first try. Not gonna go into detail for all of them tho, so here's the TLDR:

And after the battle, as Red disappeared before the credits, I was able to get one final screenshot.

JK I didn't get the screenshot on time before the credits played. So afterwards I went back up Mt. Silver just to take this. And my player still stands there, I guess Pink is the new Red. Also the end of Gen 4! Yay!