We've proven that Shuckle can take out Togekiss while setting up Rocks and Webs, and I see no reason not to do the same here. Once Togekiss goes down, Magnezone comes in on a Zap Cannon, which gives me a free switch to Claydol. I don't know if the AI understands that Shuca Berry means Magnezone is safe from Ground moves -- the AI sometimes reacts like it's dead even when it's holding a berry -- but against Claydol Magnezone is actually super dead because Leyline Burst is 8x supereffective rather than 4x, so it should switch out! That will let me Burn Gyarados. Then we swap in Whimsicott, attack Magnezone then U-Turn to Claydol or Ho-oh depending on whether Protect reveals Steel Beam or Flash Cannon. Ho-oh can KO with Overheat thanks to chip damage -- I got Rotom so I had Overheat access! -- while Claydol should KO with Leyline Burst, and can even eat a Steel Beam or two while setting up Reflect. I'm not quite sure what happens after Magnezone comes in the second time, but these four should still collectively deal with Togekiss, Magnezone, and Gyarados. Chandelure is 1v1ed by Ho-oh thanks to Earthquake and our hazards, and I'm pretty sure that Polteageist beats Regirock and Haerobic both but I also have M. Mandibuzz to provide backup in the same role. M. Mandibuzz also is a secondary counter to Magnezone if I need one.
#Bella Tries Her Hand at Curselockes
knotty solar
I think I feel good enough about this fight, and honestly this is probably the one I understand better than any other fight in the game so I feel pretty confident with my intuition here. Let's run it.
vague peak
lets go lets go
knotty solar
triple-checked stuff because im paranoid but I think it all looks good
wait hold
ah, I see, I have room for exactly one steel beam on claydol
oh well
no better way to do this I think
the theory is solid
and if I wipe then I have another chance at sheep run I guess
going in for real
the one thing about the shuckle opening is that it takes forever lol
vague peak
knotty solar
4 HP shuckle . . . that baits gyarados
well then
nope that's fine; this is why we have cotton decoy
and that's a zap cannon coming in hot!
shuca berry falls to 8x damage
polteageist in on haerobic
worn down and it withdraws!
ho-oh in on chandelure on a flamethrower; easy
we need to tank one shadow ball but we do that for days
next up is regirock
but ho-oh baits the weak accelerock haha
let's get sucking
iron wolf
Tbh accelerock isn't nearly as weak as I'd like it to be coming off a level 65 legendary with paleolithic
knotty solar
it's weaker than adamantine press! and means that polteageist survives
and that's it
iron wolf
Fair lol
vague peak
huge
knotty solar
I built in so much redundancy in case something went wrong!
and then nothing went wrong
time to shut up an edgelord
vague peak
so the order for next section is gonna be sang -> victoire -> whitebloom -> samorn?
knotty solar
sang -> victorie -> samorn -> whitebloom
I think I have a plan for Samorn
I am pretty sure that Talonflame + Sylveon basically solos her, and the extent to which it doesn't I can address with backup
(basically it's a 'theoretically they could solo if Samorn makes suboptimal plays but Talonflame could die if she makes more optimal plays', but I think I can cover every possibility)
but I'll go into more detail when I get there; for all I know I could accidentally lose something important and have to completely redo my plan!
so for Sang I'm pretty sure that A. Sandslash and Atlacross in my box means skill link go brrr and I finish in four turns before perish song goes off
he's got no fancy tricks besides the perish song and we're in the part of the game where two really good attackers can clean sweep a doubles fight
my main concern is actually building the team so that I can switch out and then back in if it looks like the counter is going to zero
this worked with a. sandslash and sirfetch'd before, but that was actually more fragile than a. sandy and atlacross, and this would free up an encounter for me to take Cursola instead!
sacred vine
We've proven that Shuckle can take out Togekiss while setting up Rocks and Webs,...
A note on this: a high hp shuckle actually baits in regirock, not magnezone
wide trail
"Um ackurary you are using 4 guarenteed encounters here" /lh
But also hot damn good job
vague peak
the spirit of the challenge is preserved, this was not the same game plan as before
wide trail
the spirit of the challenge is preserved, this was not the same game plan as bef...
Yes I'm aware, I was being a pedant for the funnies.
knotty solar
honestly I think I would have wiped if I didn't use that many guaranteed encounters lol
mostly because I struck out on the other answers to Gyarados
and M. Ninetales and Ursaluna and Ampharos and Bronzong and etc.
I have a very long list of great Yez counters that I simply never ran across 😭
I wonder whether Gliscor would work on Chandelure? answer: sort of; not really
wide trail
I have a very long list of great Yez counters that I simply never ran across 😭
Oof..
Do you have the game open rn btw?
wide trail
Yeah but just realized yoy wouldn't be able to
Do you know if Deoxys's ability is immutable off hand?
knotty solar
not off-hand
wide trail
Damn.
knotty solar
luna's pokedex doesn't indicate whether it's immutable or not; that's annoying
vague peak
it is immutable
wide trail
Cheers
vague peak
ironically
knotty solar
immutable but not immutantable
okay, time to hopefully shut this edgelord up for the first time
imagine if i do deathless yez only to wipe to sang lol
no protect first turn is a good sign
no maestro from wigglytuff!
protect baited from chatot with 1 turn remaining; we should be out
SHUT UP EDGELORD
wide trail
Lmao
knotty solar
okay, we're now at the post-rock climb section!
knotty solar
I think the next thing to do (well, probably after I take a break tbh) is actually go back and beat up the trainers I missed lol
knotty solar
you should immediately go and beat sang again
. . . hm. can I do that?
we would be below the level cap, but it would also make travelling around extremely convenient
oh right, I can't quite do that yet
very important question I have to answer: how does Registeel's Everhone interact with Arm Thrust
Indestructible, rather
the ability that gives it immunity on hit
just realized that I went completely deathless on this segment of the game!
no idea how I did that (answer: I avoided basically every trainer, and Bence & Zoe are frauds)
vague peak
especially if you sequence break to get a leg up vs them
knotty solar
I don't think that made much of a difference lol
bence & zoe have been particularly vulnerable to just about everything I've tried across multiple playthroughs, not just this one. i doubt the five levels actually made much of a difference
wide trail
Meanwhile I find them horrifying
knotty solar
it's just like
zoe's team is like half unthreatening mons, bence's team is either fast and extremely frail or slow and easily outsped, and I usually find it pretty easy to find something that beats them without much trying? and then once bence's team is down zoe's can't really touch you if you play halfway cautiously
wide trail
Yeah that's true. Its just a scary fight to steer imo
knotty solar
cleared out almost everything but the gauntlets pre-level 30 cap; let's now look at Yveltal!
#-------------------------------
[YVELTAL]
Ability = DARKAURA
Moves1 = OBLIVIONWING,LASHOUT,PRIMEVALCURSEDOATH
Moves2 = DEADEND,DRAINPUNCH,PRIMEVALCALMMIND
Moves3 = PSYCHIC,TEMPEST
HPMult = 8.0
Item = SALACBERRY
#-------------------------------
once again we have a mixed attacking avatar of course
vague peak
damn you're like 25 levels over
knotty solar
it really has to be said that I did 90% of my level grinding via sewers for candy and did not do any fighting of trainers where I could do something else lol
going to eventually upload the full videos of the playthrough and half of it is going to be like 'gee bella is in the sewers again'
vague peak
VIP Card XS candies got me acting unwise
knotty solar
literally
I'm going to overplan for this as if it's not a level 30 avatar lol
- we can lead Bastiodon and set up diamond field! we also need three things in the back to swap in when Primeval Cursed Oath goes off.
- sylveon should be decent against the current thing
- carbink should be good for phase I
- delcatty will allow for phasing and sylveon to come back in on phase II
- m. carnivine should be good for phase II?
- aerodynamic jumpluff actually goes pretty hard against the last two phases
this is half-assed but like this isn't gonna be hard
wait ho-oh would be quite good here huh
yeah that was easy as predicted
so uh sweetrock. I think we go in through the south? because the avatars of excadrill and slurpuff legitimately scare me
vague peak
yeah they can be rough
knotty solar
oops
i accidentally ran into gardener jacek and found out the hard way that the calculator does not account for tough claws boosting attack
I had better switch-ins too but I didn't think to check carefully
knotty solar
😭 I missed that
anyway this is literally me paying for not fighting the random trainers and clearing the pathway before so joke's on me I guess
one more
funny how there's so many fewer trainers this way than the other way lol
uhhh that kabutops is dangerous. I think I need flame spikes
so uh
- lead cv ice delphox (to prevent frostbite) and go crimson storm into flame spikes into flame spikes
- cv normal saurenaid then stops jellicent in its tracks
- klawsar can then tank kabutops's attacks pretty okay it looks like
- bewear can't touch porygon-z
- wormadam is stopped by ho-oh
- noxious toxapex does a decent job if I need a second tank
wait, strike vest exists; klawsar was totally fine
oh well I'm going with this plan anyway
and then jellicent immediately switched out but also it didn't matter lol
god fuckin damnit i rolled the imogenes
okay, so let's try to lead Delcatty and Cotton Decoy Whimsicott. We Fake Out Regirock and hit Gothitelle with a Bug Gem U-Turn; Gothitelle will probably Core Collapse, which will take it down into range where it gets KOed by U-Turn.
We swap in fast attacker 7-league boots cloyster, which oneshots Gliscor and Shedinja (through focus sash!), and should also get Regirock after chip and Golisopod into Emergency Exit range. The other we'll try dealing with using Volcarona? Or at least we sort of will -- we have the option of using Eject Pack to Overheat and get out, giving us another free switch.
glass stag
imogenes on this run is really funny
knotty solar
I always get the imogenes on every run and this one of course couldn't be different 😭
legitimately I am so annoyed by this fight; I find it really difficult to plan around
and it shows up all the fuckin time for me
iron wolf
"the masked villains are randomised so every playthrough is different!"
imogene:
knotty solar
yyyyyep
iron wolf
something something fate and scrying
knotty solar
uhhh m. mandibuzz for another slot because physically defensive ghost and uhhh
you know swanna could actually go hard here between the typing and intimidate
wide trail
"the masked villains are randomised so every playthrough is different!"
imogene:
There are 2 of them
knotty solar
so here's a team?
I thiiiink this plan is okay
oh well I think I'm just gonna run it
at this point it's not going to be a big deal if I lose most of these lol
wide trail
Inb4 wipe (hope not)
knotty solar
looking at everything I should have enough redundancy and outs to make it work
and one thing about the Imogenes' team is none of them really put on too much pressure
and everything is faster so I can force out Golisopod and such
but 
it's a double and things go wrong in doubles
i . . . completely forgot about the curse . . . but also it looks like im getting out deathless so never punished?
follow me is such a fuckin dumb move on m. mandibuzz btw
though honestly it's probably not particuarly better than on other tanky pokemon
i just keep coming up with opportunities for poeple to click not very effective moves into a pokemon that will not blink if you don't hit it supereffectively
wide trail
What is the curse again?
knotty solar
they explode for 25% of health upon defeat
I think their health specifically but not sure there
wide trail
Ah ic
knotty solar
unfortunately I did not realize OBS was recording my voice and was chatting to people in the meantime so I need to find some way to edit the video before I post it here lol
knotty solar
okay, so if I don't wanna mess around with teleporting back to base:
- arm thrust/pin missile/rock blast kife orb atlacross solos lass carmen
- boots atlacross with same set solos clerk rosalie
- energy lock pure energy heatmor solos worker paul with flamethrower/fragmentation
- energy lock pure energy heatmor solos lass carmen
- energy lock pure energy heatmor solos beauty brenda with scorching sands
knotty solar
i did not account for dedenne's sitrus berry cheek pouch and almost lost the run
thankfully i was smart enough to put toxapex in the back of the party and that allowed me to save myself through a PP stall
iron wolf
yeep
knotty solar
and then I tried to do it to myself again, which is a signal to me that I should probably stop for tonight
o7 to klinklang
the worst part is that I should have known this was an issue from prior runs and I just ignored the thing in the back of my mind that said it was more complicated than that
iron wolf
never nuzlocke while sleepy
knotty solar
not even sleepy exactly just like
brain probably cooked lol
which i unfortunately realized a little too late, in the middle of the pseudo gauntlet
should have just warped back to the center
oh well
klinklang was fortunately not too bad of a death so I'm not scrambling
we will drop this here so I'm thinking about it in the back of my mind and then i'm quitting for the time being
proxy fist atlacross looks like a very solid lead here
(atlacross threatens an OHKO on most things here, and what it doesn't threaten OHKO on are Bronzong and Blastoise, they both go down to 2HKO and are switch-ins, and they both have contact stuff I don't want to activate)
crystal veil grass full blubber walrein full walls mismagius
heatmor is my typical deceat counter and still works here
meganium is useful against seaking as a real grass-type
cursola looks good against Bronzong so long as Rain isn't up (and if Rain is up then Meganium is a great wall to stall it out)
this is the sort of team that ends up with a delcatty in the sixth slot because it doesn't feel like it's missing anything
knotty solar
So here's why I made that list last night. I had a late-night brainworm: I'm assuming the tournament is going to be a problem because I can't use the same lines. But, well, I can use most of the same lines — Ho-oh, Meganium, Obstagoon, and Magearna are available to me and form a solid core. The question is what I would need to supplement them with — in other words, what do Empoleon and H. Typhoosion actually do?
After reviewing my own footage and taking some notes, it looks like what I really need is a special tank Water and a physical tank Steel to give me a shot into the most difficult fights. Ideally one of them should also know a hazard-clearing move. After some looking, I think what I really want is Titanix. This is a 51% shot in Crumbling Canyon so definitely not guaranteed, but it's also very plausible to get. Titanix + Milotic is I think my best option here, though I need to check exact calcs to make sure. Corviknight could also work, but its added Flying typing might make certain parts of this spooky. Lugia is also optimal if I can actually pull it, but of course that's very unlikely! I'll reevaluate later, but right now I think my number one goal should be seeing if I can land the Titanix.
knotty solar
random thought: floatzel + sylveon lead into yez v with hoopa-u, delcatty, and eject button m. mandi in the back
vague peak
Floatzel to try to bait the eleki not to set screens?
knotty solar
floatzel to bait eleki into staying in and eating a fake out, at which point mist burst should double kill
floatzel also oneshots tyranitar with scythe kick if it swaps in next
knotty solar
oh fuck
vague peak
deceaved
knotty solar
I should still play this out, right? I still have a bunch of stuff and a bunch of time and even if I did lose one of my best Pokemon into the tournament this isn't a reason to throw it away yet. I just need something to replace meganium on the tournament. which was on uhh every single fucking battle uhhh
ferrothorn would do it, I think
knotty solar
possible grass type encounters remaining: victreebel, lurantis, (h.) liligant, carnivine, (cherrim), ferrothorn
in box: a. exeggutor, whimsicott, sawsbuck, jumpluff
vague peak
exeggutor is pretty bulky if memory serves
knotty solar
no ferrothorn
oh my god
okay, thinking is centering around two options: zarude and celebi. jumpluff is theoretically a contender but practically is probably not good enough
I do think I now really, really need titanix
the problem that I'm having is that Meganium was supposed to be a hazard clearer as well as a tank
that and strength sap being important
vague peak
zarude does eat the estuary encounter
knotty solar
I have not used that yet
however, looking at this further, celebi is the better option anyway I think
time skip is still broken
vague peak
celebi is my goat
consider though
it does not get protect
that seems like it might be relevant
knotty solar
I shouldn't need protect at least
autumn elk
oh no it can't be
knotty solar
double leech seed + leftovers turns are good enough for healing
knotty solar
okay, refocus. next step is to go through sang and samorn and get to the next level cap. then we can tackle crumbling canyon. we try for titanix, and if that doesn't work we go for magnezone or corviknight and hope to god one of those hits
melmetal is also an option, I suppose
vague peak
melmetal is encountered in a unique room so it's free iirc
knotty solar
it is
I just don't know how much risk I want to take to get there
the reality is that if my tournament team is okay, I think this run is still favored provided we can do samorn and whitebloom without too much difficulty
it's just that 'provided the tournament is okay' is a very big if
right I need to put this one into debug
or rather
I need to go into debug on a different save file to test this
this being
specifically the interaction between indestructible and arm thrust
vague peak
reasonable
knotty solar
i am not yoloing into a plan that is dependent on an interaction between multi-hits and an ability
excellent it doesn't work the wrong way
vague peak
it triggers upon move resolution rather than upon damage calc?
knotty solar
yeah
or rather, after the last hit rather than the first
certain things (e.g. weakness armor) trigger on each hit
but this is like emergency exit
okay, with that knowledge sang was swept easily
atlacross and a. sandslash got him (and likely will get the third battle as well)
let's tackle bernard
atlacross sweeps okay that solves that
ominous egg spits out a master ball!
not even joking I'm going to use that on titanix if I see it
- leading Swanna basically stops Dracovish in its tracks
- durant stops sceptile and also frosmoth if I get the switch-in right
- ho-oh stops durant
ohkay
vague peak
the cheater
knotty solar
initial stab; gonna double-check stuff in the calculator next
basically the idea is that talonflame sets up tailwind and then she + sylveon can sweep, with Floatzel in the back in case Talonflame goes down to Garchomp's adamantine press and a bunch of eject buttons in case I need to waste a turn
- Turn 1 we set up Tailwind. Sylveon's Mist Burst is transformed from slow kill to fast kill on both Towerpoda and Flygon. Samorn could switch here, but we show 2HKO to everything in the back so I doubt she will.
- Samorn is most likely to send out Reavor (because fast kill) and Garchomp (either because it sees slow kill on talonflame or because it scoured sillhouettes or because it's the next thing up in the party). This is the worst position for me because it means that Talonflame can die to an Adamantine Press. That's fine. This is the point in the game where I can plan sacrifices. Anything else I think is an instant win.
- Ideally, we Flare Blitz into Reavor, Protect Sylveon, and Garchomp aims Poison Jab into Sylveon. Then we sweep over two turns because we're faster and have kills and Samorn has no priority. In that case we win. If Garchomp Undermines we have to phase for a turn. If Garchomp Adamantine Presses we put in Floatzel.
- In any other circumstance we have Flare Blitz and Sky Fall/Divining Talon to KO the non-dragons, Mist Burst and Ward Press for dragons, and Divining Talon to pick up enough chip for Mist Burst to kill if we have all dragons out.
I think this will work, and frankly at this point if it doesn't I'm not going to be too sad about having to go back and make another attempt. And while I would ideally like everyone to stay alive of course, only Sylveon and Floatzel are part of any future plans, and I can make other plans for Whitebloom.
(if this seems like a fast turnaround, that's because I've been planning for this fight for days at this point)
vague peak
we need a "let's fucking go" emote
knotty solar
mist burst does not kill towerpoda if flygon swapped for garchomp, it turns out. but also spdef investment means talonflame lived so this is still a double kill position
o7s in chat for talonflame
tailwind is down but only flygon is left
and flygon is down
glass stag
https://tenor.com/view/invulnerable-gif-22484955
Oh no it cant be
(Awkward pause)
Invincible
knotty solar
swanna has not honestly done much lol
he has applications though! just, uh, has usually been a plan B I didn't ened
a quick load of another save and testing in debug reveals that you can't stink bomb the another possibles. this means that it's time for me to start uncorking it on random trainers -- say, that psychic blocking the way to whitebloom
theoretically you could spin-dodge your way past them. practically . . . we ain't risking that
avatar of togekiss is up next
#-------------------------------
[TOGEKISS]
Ability = SERENEGRACE
Moves1 = AIRSLASH,MISTBURST,PRIMEVALIRONDEFENSE,PRIMEVALLOOMOVER
Moves2 = SLAG,GUTTURALROAR,EMPOWEREDCRUELTY,TAKESHELTER
HPMult = 8.0
#-------------------------------
bastiodon is amazing against both phases! toxapex should be solid against phase I. a. sandslash can come in on both and chill
m. mandibuzz is generally very good versus avatars. gliscor has good spdef and can't be poisoned I guess? Delphox can come in and Fascinate stuff
vague peak
can gliscor not be poisoned?
knotty solar
grotesque vitals says it can't yeah
vague peak
damn i have never read that text
knotty solar
my brain is cooked I just read sapping jealousy as "sapphic jealousy"
skyler
important question: is his second masked villain battle also a triple, or is it singles?
fun fact: it looks like expert belt fast attacker scarapace sweeps this team
wide trail
Neato
knotty solar
only thing faster is absolus and it only does ~60%
glass stag
I dont actually remember what his fight is as a mask
however, Alessa's fights are always singles despite being a doubles trainer in every other instance
knotty solar
yeah
and he's singles here I'm pretty sure
so my guess is he's also singles as a mask
that would be good if true
Atlacross also works lol
I'm going to start with Scarapace because I'll be less sad if I lose it, but I think I'll just put these two together and have a good time
yeah uh
that was fun
anyway we're at whitebloom! time to go off on an adventure
vague peak
fragile locket gaming?
knotty solar
oh I mean this is where I start chasing the encounters in the optional dungeons
because my current plan is to go into Yez with Hoopa-U
and this is about when I should start planning to do that
that being said there may still be some fragile locket gaming in this run
we do have xatu
knotty solar
I've heard as much yeah
vague peak
mostly from me i think
knotty solar
and sylveon is (a) slow enough to be used in trick room (b) really good into whitebloom yez (she has no fairy resists)
vague peak
as a word of warning i think it was unusally powerful for me because i did the fight underleveled
knotty solar
I have a solid plan for the start that doesn't even use it, I think
so it's there to help the back half, probably combined with melmetal
together I think that gives me enough juice to not worry about it (please please please be true lol)
(1) crumbling canyon -- we need Celebi and a shot at Titanix
(2) abyssal cavern -- clear the way
(3) clear out the water encounters bar the OFC itself
(4) circuit cave because it's there
(5) trade for kecleon with an extra water encounter
(6) cave of hatching and whitebloom -- corviknight and magnezone shots if we don't get the titanix
(7) we go after hoopa-u
(8) alloyed forest if we need to
vague peak
any interest in doing the drillers before the tournament?
knotty solar
hell no
we are not doing a back-to-back-to-back in a nuzlocke
or a 3v2
hmm
okay, I think I'm actually going to start by taking the whitebloom encounter. that will give me important information re: routing
Rookidee! That guarantees me something into the tournament at least. Buneary is also here, but at this point Corviknight is better for my specific needs than M. Ninetales unfortunately
With that in my box, I think I actually go to Abyssal Cavern next, because I realized there was a potential dupe route this way
we're sacrificing some amount of Lugia % but I think that was always a pipe dream
(and also came from me overestimating how bad the tournament would be, honestly)
actually no; next stop is boiling cave
we durant this I think
we did not durant this but we did use the rest of the team
atlacross sweeps this with a white herb according to the calc
okay, so boiling cavern! The Dark Ground is the objective here; we're trying for Solrock
and there it is
oh fuck solrock knew explosion
well good to know for next time
no encounter but no one died
next we have the underground river, which we just roll
luvdisc, staryu, and mantyke! we want mantyke here
next we finally get our Prizca East encounter, trading Clefable for Relicanth
- toxapex can weaken Turtonator
- Talonflame should also go down to Toxapex, but also Klawser should be decent
- Palossand can't touch Dodrio
- Cradily is stopped by Amoonguss
the big threat here is m. gigalith, but it looks like claydol handles it
toxpaex for floatzel
atlacross for cacturne
m. mandi for golisopod
okay! before we do the next one we get our Catacombs encounter
dusknoir, druddigon, noivern -> noivern (or druddigon if it dies somehow)
okay, next we trade turtonator for wimpod
wait no we decided on the other route there
dark ground in abyssal cavern yields lunatone!
and it learns explosion at 56, not 55 (its level), so we're safe from that
time to roll sandstone estuary
and there's the wailmer
we now need to trade a water-type for Kecleon, and I think that's Saurenaid
cave of hatching time
two larvitars and a zubat means we're catchign larvitar
(whihc is what I wanted!)
magnezone was plan c, but we have plan b now with corviknight. so we get one more dupe towards titanix. with solrock I would have duped out 3/5 encounters in the area but I forgot about explosion lol
okay, that was good enough. crumbling canyon awaits when I come back
iron wolf
Late response but I'm 99% masks are always singles unless they're Imogene
iron wolf
Well, late because the conversation moved on lol
iron wolf
I skimmed to catch up, is there any world where we do the sidequest to skip the helix fights or is this question because you'd rather do masked Skyler than triple Skyler (which. Very reasonable)
knotty solar
that is exactly the plan
especially once I saw that skyler is literally soloed in singles by scarapace
turn my brain off and sweep? in a nuzlocke? yes please
- klawsar for pteroflyte
- throh for a. raticate
- turtonator for reavor
- ho-oh beats florges (only 54% from rock weather burst??)
uh except the curse might be a problem
lemme check if that's still a thing
iron wolf
Oh yeah I have no fucking clue what the helix curses are lol
knotty solar
it's the raf curse apparently
wait
hilarious
scarapace also ignores that
I think; I should debug check that too I guess
(against raf himself obviously so I don't gain any extra information)
yep. it works
hilarious
so in fact scarapace is literally the perfect encounter for that
and to think I got it by accident and I wanted the other grass patch!
for the record, Masked Villain(s) Crimson have the Lambert Curse (torment)
though unfortunately it appears that Scarapace no longer solos him with Sigilyph on the team. Oh well; the fight still should be easier than the triple lol
(looking at the damage calculator this time)
iron wolf
Not even if you give it rock blast or something? ...can it get that. Does that even exist in tectonic
knotty solar
rock blast definitely exist in tectonic (cinccino learns it)
scarapace isn't the skill linker but it does get adamantine press
hm
in fact it's entirely possible that this baits sigilyph to switch in on scarapace and no it'll stay out because skewer is a fast 2hko
iron wolf
Oh lol my bad my brain was thinking of atlacross probably
knotty solar
they do feel like almost the same pokemon lol
they're functionally different sometimes, but scarapace still wants to click bug and fighting moves because those are the ones that drop its stats in exchange for a power boost
throh died. did not plan well enough around that raticate
or the dragon dancing pteroflyte for that matter
oh well; should be able to just create shortcuts so I can avoid that guy
next we have the avatar of archeops, who is technically optional but I'm not risking the run on my ability to dodge
#-------------------------------
[ARCHEOPS]
Ability = PERFECTIONIST
Moves1 = ROCKALANCHE,SKYFALL,PRIMEVALLASERFOCUS
Moves2 = SLAG,METALSOUND,MIRRORSHIELD
HPMult = 8.0
#-------------------------------
wait does diamond field just negate this guy
hilarious
okay so wailord is really good against phase I; Gargantuan completely blocks Rockalanche! and then we have Bastiodon for Bastiodon things.
phase II corviknight is real good and then we can add toxapex and m. mandi I guess. and gliscor.
easy
I think we're just gonna stink bomb the next ancient priest because i ain't dealing with no m. gigalith
oh fuck
I tried to use the stink bomb, it didn't work, and then he turned around and noticed me when I tried to get closer
I am not prepared for this
at least I'm fully healed
iron wolf
OOP
iron wolf
whew
knotty solar
FARADAY CAGE AND IT'S DEAD LET'S GO
wide trail
eyyy
iron wolf
Stink Bomb inadvertently saved
knotty solar
arctozolt looked scary but m. mandibuzz looks like it stopped it
YES
and now h. zoroark ain't doing shit to ho-oh
and we're out thank fuck
wide trail
wooooooh
iron wolf
Titanix?
knotty solar
titanix!
threw a master ball with the quickness and we are outta here
triple battles can be really scary against the fully evolved things; I'm honestly not sure I would recommend them against the encounter zones where everything is fully evolved unless you very desperately need something
notably this solves several problems that losing Meganium created -- for instance, Titanix is a Mimikyu counter against X
anyway! i would have just left it there had I not gotten her killed, but with Meganium dead I need to go after Celebi, which means there's a very scary avatar duo waiting for me
iron wolf
Oh yeah Them
knotty solar
I am relatively confident in my anti-avatar abilities, but these two test my limits quite a bit
#-------------------------------
[STONJOURNER]
Ability = POWERSPOT
Moves1 = PRANK,ADAMANTINEPRESS,PRIMEVALTORMENT
Moves2 = NIGHTCHILL,BRUTALSWING
HPMult = 4.0
#-------------------------------
[CLAYDOL]
Ability = MAGICBOUNCE
Moves1 = REFLECT,LIGHTSCREEN,EARTHPOWER,PRIMEVALMOONGLOW
Moves2 = PSYCHIC,DAZZLINGGLEAM
HPMult = 4.0
#-------------------------------
okay, so we can't status them (or at least not claydol). that's annoying but okay to work around. claydol is going to put up screens but that's fine. the annoying thing is that earth power is going to hit bastiodon real hard, so maybe I put him in on Magnet Rise again? that sounds like a decent plan
I think we want to leave Claydol alone initially and go after Stonjourner
prank reduces special attack so I can just bounce it back with Mirror Armor I guess?
watchog's great special defense should give her a slot
. . . okay, I'm struggling to fit my counters all onto the team; maybe I'm more fine than I thought
oh that's right; titanix means I have terraform access again!
okay, think i'm more or less ready. nervous but it's go time
if nothing else I think playing scared makes me better
stonjourner down with no losses
and now we get to debuff claydol
i think it's over
YES
as I thought, it looks like you're just not allowed to stink bomb the ancient priests
fuck doubles
iron wolf
those masks have gas filters
knotty solar
apparently!
knotty solar
fuck doubles
(I don't actually mind doubles in concept but they're really really scary to have to deal with in-game)
unfortunately these two can't be easily swept it looks like
(toucannon coulda done it i think)
. . . I could just do this later
I don't have to pick up Celebi until the level 70 cap
wait
hm
noivern
can I exert Noivern pressure
and just win that way
yes, that does it!
if I simply have Noivern flinch everything one by one, Atlacross can go cleaning up behind
except cinccino fuck
okay literally levelling to 70 lets atlacross outspeed; I think we just do that unless I come up with a great idea in the meantime
okay, I think I'm going to stop for tonight
today has been a rollercoaster but I got some really good results, and despite everything I think I have a decent shot at the tournament
and I think my brain and nerves are shot lol
as a review for anyone watching, my boxes
the tournament team so far and potential candidates for the last slot
and the death box
knotty solar
I have to say, I really hope I don't wipe to the upcoming stuff or white bloom Yez — I think I actually ended up with a better team for the tournament than last time (though it could have been better; rip megamingum) and my finale team is interesting and I genuinely want to see them in action
sacred vine
Bella gon take the W on her first run lmao
knotty solar
we'll see lol
theoretically I have a good chance, but also (a) I could have screwed up my calcs (b) there's a lot of random trainers I could wipe to still to get through
not to mention whitebloom yez
I think I have a plan but she still scares me
wide trail
I'm wishing you luck, but also wishing for a chance myself XD
may put in a lot of time the next few days since I have off time
vague peak
turns out playing through the game with a limited pool of mons and moves and an obsession with eliminating randomness will actually prime you pretty well for a nuzlocke
knotty solar
I suppose so!
wide trail
yep
knotty solar
That and a pinch of ruthless optimization and (as it turns out) some very good encounter luck
like really I can't discount that I got turtonator/m. vullaby/gligar and they immediately became the core of the next gym team
knotty solar
this nuzlocke isn't so bad provided you spend half your time in the damage calculator and treat every single fight like if you lose you will literally die in real life
(this is a joke)
knotty solar
okay, playing scared got me through the ice place and let me catch hoopa. now we got alloyed forest and then we're onto the end of the game tomorrow I think
well, probably over the course of two or three days. my nerves are going to be shot at some point(s)
or y'know i could just wipe at whitebloom. that's also a very real possibility
freaking out? me? never
#-------------------------------
[LEDIAN]
Ability = STARGUARDIAN
Moves1 = XSCISSOR,BRICKBREAK,PRIMEVALNUMB
Moves2 = THUNDERPUNCH,CROSSCHOP
HPMult = 8.0
#-------------------------------
[GSTUNFISK]
Ability = DETERRENT
Moves1 = FARADAYCAGE,SNAPTRAP,PRIMEVALRAINSTORM
Moves2 = LIQUIDATION,CURLUP
HPMult = 8.0
#-------------------------------
ledian should be easy because you can murder the first bar on turn 1, so we only have to plan for phase II. it looks like divining talon will just punch through the barrier so that solves that problem. dodrio and ho-oh will do the most damage. in phase II, we'll bring amoonguss, m. mandi, mimikyu, and m. aromatisse.
knotty solar
next up is g. stunfisk. phase I should work with fire types, except that phase II is there to fuck you over. to compensate, we'll use Amoonguss, which has lots of healing even though it doesn't resist Faraday Cage, and couple it with Corviknight, which isn't weak to anything there and has healing. (Tentacruel would have been perfect for this, but . . . ) In Phase II, we'll go for Toxapex, A. Exeggutor, Swasbuck, Wailord, and Cloyster.
knotty solar
#-------------------------------
[ARIADOS]
Ability = SENTRY
Moves1 = TOXICTHREAD,FELLSTINGER,PRIMEVALSPIKES
Moves2 = CROSSPOISON,TRAMPLE
HPMult = 8.0
#-------------------------------
knotty solar
gotta prep for this one in case I screw up avoiding it
#-------------------------------
[BRONZONG]
Ability = LEVITATE
Moves1 = METALSOUND,SLAG,CONFUSERAY,PRIMEVALROCKPOLISH
Moves2 = PACIFY,METEORBEAM,PSYCHOBOOST
HPMult = 8.0
#-------------------------------
ninjaed
knotty solar
#-------------------------------
[REAVOR]
Ability = TECHNICIAN
Moves1 = BUGBITE,BULLETCHARGE,EMPOWEREDBULLETPUNCH,PRIMEVALDRAGONDANCE
Moves2 = BREAKINGSWIPE,DUALWINGBEAT,EMPOWEREDBULLETPUNCH
HPMult = 8.0
#-------------------------------
#-------------------------------
[MUK]
Ability = CORROSION
Moves1 = POISONGAS,VENOMDRENCH,PRIMEVALWHIRLWIND
Moves2 = SLUDGEWAVE,MUDSLIDE,POISONGAS,ROOST
HPMult = 8.0
Item = LEFTOVERS
#-------------------------------
knotty solar
- we get to surprise thsi guy, so we can lead Cloyster and Bubble Barrage out Golem
- H. Zoroark can't do anything to a ghost
- Zoroark itself is exploitable so long as we carry the right resistances -- Tyranitar can do 3/4 moves, and then we need a Bug resist for the fourth
- Chatot is basically stopped by Aerodynamic Mantine
- Melmetal can't really do much to Titanix
- Grimmsnarl is also stopped by Titanix, but we'll also put in Durant for it
so this is Cloyster, Rotom-H, Tyranitar, Mantine, Titanix, Durant
knotty solar
After some deliberation, this is my current concept for a team to beat Whitebloom Yez. Any and all feedback very welcome; I'm a lot less confident in this battle plan than the rest of my preparations! I'm going to run some things through the damage calculator, eat, maybe nap a bit, etc. before I actually fight her.
answers to obvious questions:
- Hoopa has the Lumber Axe instead of the Reinforcing Rod because it actually speed ties Chandelure; Lumber Axe lets it outspeed in Trick Room
- Floatzel is statted and equipped to outspeed Haerobic in a scenario where Trick Room isn't available and has Liquidation because Royal Majesty is a fuck
- we're using Dark Pulse instead of Hyperspace Fury because that move lowers Hoopa's Defense and its physical bulk is already pretty thin
- I'm not actually sure if Hyperspace Hole on Hoopa-U is supposed to be legal, but the game seems to think it works?
oh and regirock's ability should be core provenance
knotty solar
Okay, I know I solicited feedback, but as I think about it more and more I think it's just time to go in. My gameplan feels solid. I've spent a long time thinking about this and I can't find a wipe angle, and every time I've actually prepared meticulously for a battle I've come out the other end cleanly. Mistakes won't be very costly so long as I win; none of these Pokemon is necessary beyond this point. Omnishelter is a ridiculous advantage so long as Chandelure doesn't come out, and the structure of this team is such that I should never see a surprise Chandelure. I do legitimately feel good about this even if my nerves are shot to hell.
three more changes: regirock changed to core provenance as previously stated, floatzel's moveset changed from liquidation to flip turn (liquidation doesn't kill), floatzel changed from physical tank to special tank to live Chandelure's energy ball
let's also put drain punch on regirock
one more check and I think we're as ready as we're ever going to be
alright
going in
only possible switch-in should be togekiss. ice punch into regieleki to break sash and chunk togekiss if it comes in, then mist burst.
there it is
right into the ice punhc
DOUBLE KILL
this is going to be two moves into sylveon so we swap to regirock
haerobic and tyranitar out
hoopa flinches due to fake out but taht's fine; we live! now it's omnishelter and drain punch time
tyranitar down
eleki in!
one more turn of trick room. let's take down haerobic and hit eleki
wait that was the wrong move fuck
oops hoopa died to my own stupidity
that being said i think we win these
mist burst and omnishelter
eleki down and chandelure chunked, but regirock and sylveon very low
swap out sylveon to mandibuzz and leave regirock in to die
out comes flotzel
follow me and fuck that doesn't work right
fuck m. mandi down
but it's just linoone and chandi and we should take down chandi
oh wait sylveon dies now
oh well
linoone phase I down
and nope
I misplayed too hard
this probably should have been 6-0
but instead the run is over
yeah I went in another time just to check my intuition and it was a pretty clean 4-0 scenario when I reset
wide trail
damn...
sacred vine
DANG
knotty solar
I cooked it fine but I panicked too much and auto-pressed drain punch into haerobic instead of hyperspace hole
it was literally my nerves that were the problem
wide trail
offers hugs
knotty solar
the good news here? this is a stable, guaranteed line into yez V. attempt two wins if it gets that far
disappointing but oh well; frankly half of me is just happy that it's over lol
this doesn't count anymore but I'm still gonna play this run out though; we don't have much left and I want to see if my tournament strategies were actually cooked correctly at least
wide trail
okidoke! Good luckj
knotty solar
this position easily saves hoopa if I jus run Protect too
yeah this was a great cook in retrospect
knotty solar
you know, the thing that really bothers me about that loss (I apologize in advance for everyone who's going to be hearing me complain about that for weeks) is that in hindsight, I not only cooked the fight well, I completely predicted everything that was going to happen -- I predicted the Togekiss switch for Regieleki, I expected Tyranitar and Haerobic to come in even if I talked myself out of putting Protect on Hoopa to account for it, and I only lost because I failed to click Hyperspace Hole at the obvious time when I had planned in advance to click it! My planning was actually really, really good; I just failed myself in the heat of the moment.
wide trail
sadly following the plan and fighting nerves is as much of a skill as incredible planning. But its one that grows with practice ^~^
glass stag
you had the farthest bounty attempt out of anyone, which is a huge accomplishment in of itself
wide trail
tied with @sacred vine I think, though you did a lot more side content
could be wrong thou
knotty solar
I think we did about the same amount; we went after most of the same legendaries
and she had Cobalion which I didn't
knotty solar
so basically I rolled all my worst matchups on the tournament and proceeded to roll them, which is something
the bad news is that this team construction needs Titanix or maybe Corviknight; the good news is that you have two chances to get both and once you do it's basically guaranteed (the other component is a specially defensive Water/Flying type, for which I used Wailord but Mantine should work just as well, both of which you get multiple chances at, or Lugia obviously if you get massively lucky)
a side note is that it's a little annoying how centralizing Ho-oh is for tournament strategies
I think we're already bouncing around some ways to address that on dev, but I'll write down more concrete thoughts at some point. wondering if there's a few design tweaks we could do to make it a bit better
sacred vine
yeah i also got an attempt to whitebloom
knotty solar
okay, I feel a little better now; I had put together a team that was fully capable of 6-0ing the finale, but I was unclear on some interactions that would have probably led to the attempt wiping anyway, especially combined with imperfect play. The team just plays a lot differently and on smaller margins without Delcatty! That being said, the data from this is good enough to suggest that my overall strategies are solid, I think.
knotty solar
locking in while extremely nervous is hard, anyway
that and the thing I already knew, which is that Delcatty's job is (1) to take an existing good team and make it better (2) to make eclipse specifically more powerful
both of those being missing turned out to be important lol
knotty solar
So the lesson learned is that locking in is hard
but yeah like, the thing is that every other fight before this I did lock in for (except for Victorie, and even that one I recovered what probably should have been a run-ending scenario even if I did it suboptimally)
but there was a lot more pressure at whitebloom
hm
I should really check out the machines at luxtech hq, now that I think about it
knotty solar
an underrated thing with the nuzlocke thing, at least based off my, uh, one (1) nuzlocke attempt ever, is that sometimes you put together a team (especially for doubles) and you haven't practiced and you don't really know how all the tech you put together works and all the synergies that are there
like I think that's ultimately why my team would have been stopped by the finale; I just wasn't practiced enough at an eclipse team that didn't include Delcatty phasing
which I guess you're just supposed to get from experience from having done multiple runs
but having a way to test for free in-game would be helpful lol
(this is really a doubles issue more than anything; in singles your pokemon don't really work together in the same way)
knotty solar
thinking over attempt 1 in preparation for attempt 2. Besides the obvious stuff (don't misplay), what if anything about my overall approach do I want to change for Attempt 2?
- I think I can relax the restrictions I put on myself before. Beyond a general 'don't use the exact same lines' rule being useful -- that one I'll keep -- I don't think the restrictions really did much besides make the run arbitrarily harder, and I junked some of them over the course of the run because they were overly restrictive anyway. And honestly, what I discovered over the course of the run is that my planning process is a lot more solid than 'just use fixed encounters only lines'! Ironically, most of my strategies did resemble the ones I originally came up with in that run, but that's because those strategies were already solid. I typically just found better pieces to execute a somewhat similar gameplan, and when I did default to the same pieces (Yez IV, Victorie) it's because I didn't have other options available.
- I'm not going to plan around duping for Lugia this time. I do think saving the Chroma Clarion for most of the same areas is useful, but that's for different reasons than previously -- I think Titanix is so strong on a team built around Ho-oh that it's worth specifically routing for! I also think it's potentially worth saving County Park for a shot at Talonflame; the strategy I came up with for Samorn was very strong, and I think I could maybe save Talonflame's life if I did a few things differently.
- Apart from that, I think the plans stay mostly the same. My biggest question is whether I can still get away with pushing some of the limits I pushed (is Xerneas possible with a different box? What about Entei and Raikou?), but the only way I'm going to figure that out is through repeated attempts.
hm, starter choice. Thinking back to my last run, I was actually really feeling a lack of solid Grass and Dark types. That implies Bounsweet is the best choice here if I take that as a significant risk. I'm probably taking similar encounter areas, so I'm definitely risking ending up with the same distribution. That also suggests I could take Skwovet as my Normal starter to use another thing I haven't really experimented with, and that sounds interesting -- it's a great defender on both sides of the spectrum and it has the ability for repeated healing through Recycling a berry, which also means I can put something on it other than Leftovers when that item is heavily contested. Plus I get Rock Blast by Helena, and Super Fang is the sort of move that will have all sorts of interesting applications. Let's try this!
and the first encounter is Pidgey. Decent.
next up is Pichu. hm.
we are still skipping Windy Way; I want my 40% shot at sheep gaming
side note: it is really annoying that Mareep has such a low encounter rate compared to everythign else! It has the significant disadvantage of being in a patch of grass with two Pokemon that have two forms, which means that (per the way Tectonic does encounter rates) it only has a 1/6 chance of appearing instead of the usual 1/4. Slightly lower than that, actually. sigh
admittedly this would be a little less annoying if I didn't like Ampharos a lot for non-optimization reasons
iron wolf
I think despite appearances forms are supposed to be balanced to only add up to one encounter slot worth of probability
knotty solar
i might mean alternate evolutions instead of forms; not quite sure what the proper terminology is
but e.g. m. wurmple has twice the encounter rate because it has two evolutions
iron wolf
Ohhhhh
I didn't know that was a thing but I guess it makes sense
Rough though here yeah
wide trail
niceeee
knotty solar
I was honestly thinking beforehand that if I really wanted to optimize around trying to Win The Bounty instead of just doing the curselocke well, it would probably behoove me to reset until I got Mareep or Onix here. Now that isn't even a question (provided I can beat Lambert . . . lol)
anyway this is actually really solid into Helena too; Steelix is probably Toxtricity's best counter
okay, Bluepoint Beach! This time I really need to roll Puddle to see if I can get a Fairy, or honestly any Water-type would be nice right now
M. Goldeen! Okay this looks a lot more solid into Lambert now
and another Toxel on the ice cream shop. I literally never took mine out of the box last time -- this time it probably turns into M. Carni.
knotty solar
or possibly just I got different Pokemon that did the job
this run already looks a lot different so I'm not going to assume that which Pokemon I use stays the same eitehr!
wide trail
Fair
knotty solar
government-mandated shrew acquired
wide trail
trickle down sandshrewnomics
knotty solar
why do my pokemon feel so frail? she wonders, before noticing that none of her pokemon are holding berries
wide trail
lmfao
knotty solar
hmmmm bluepoint grotto
ferroseed is the obvious big hit and paras also matters a lot, but dark ground does have noibat and noibat is quite good
salazzle gives me a fire-type
no but I think I'm talking myself into a bad thing. ferroseed and paras are a good 50% and shellder has skill link and solves bence & zoe
and guess who's back
. . . my box contains the HGSS Onix/Cloyster joke and I'm mildly disgusted
knotty solar
hmmm okay. Zorua is going to be dealt with by Pichu, I think, given her surprisingly high SpDef. Binacle loses to Tough Shellder? Pancham goes down to M. Goldeen. Sangfroid is an actual problem for my box, but I guess we'll just assign Skwovet to it? And Ekans is of course stopped by A. Sandshrew.
this box is unfortunately not great into Lambert
you know who would fix this? Mareep
. . . or Ralts I guess
I would really like to try for the sheep run, but I think I may actually have to take the windy way encounter to avoid wiping to Lambert. I have a future Titanix already.
damage calc time
Ah, I see. What I need to do is assign Pichu to Sangfroid, Nuzzle it, and then I'll have an easier time with the rest of the team. That means that I put Skwovet on Zorua.
actually, Zorua is always M. Goldeen, right? I'm talking myself into a bad play when M. Goldeen stops all of its stuff and still has juice for Pancham thanks to its typing
vague peak
m.goldeen is great
knotty solar
it's definitely great; just a question of how much I can rely on it
I used it on several runs and I used to know this lol
vague peak
i ran it with irrefutable and just went bonk bonk bonk until I was fully set up
knotty solar
hm
it's always felt too frail for me to do that, but maybe I was just underestimating it
vague peak
maybe it gets better at that as it goes through the game
knotty solar
possible. we'll see.
wait i didn't plan a croagunk counter
guess that's pidgey
actually, Toxel does that decently well?
in the end it was quite clean
hm, so let's see. Shipping Lane grass has bugs + diglett + pikipek at the bottom and m. sentret + slakoth + venipede + igglybuff at the top. last time I took the bottom thinking that a bug would be good to trade for carvanha, but I ended up not doing that (and I don't think that one is particularly valuable anymore!) however, pikipek is still good, and forretress could do some stuff? admittedly I mostly want to try trumbeak again after her premature death last time
however we got the pineco
uhhh wait that's spike cannon for yez i let's go?
knotty solar
i know that lol
i just forgot
. . . what I also forgot is that you do not have infinite XP candy before eko. uhh better hope I have the right team for yez I trained I guess!
looking ahead a bit because oooops
so bunnelby is an a. sandshrew angle. steenee looks really good against whismur with its special bulk. smoochum goes down to skwovet? joltik is beaten by onix; larvesta loses to idgeotto
okay fortunately that's most of the Pokemon I put to 20
vague peak
. . . what I also forgot is that you do not have infinite XP candy before eko. u...
you can get quite a lot from the various candy machines tbf
knotty solar
yeah I used those already somehow -_-
beat all the trainers but the duo on casaba too
fortunately I shoudl get some xp on teh next route so we'll be fine, and then I'm fine once I get to novo
vague peak
and obviously you don't have that many candy machines before you get past yez 1
There are two in feebas fin I think?
And the one on casaba
knotty solar
yep
thankfully I found the saccharite deposit and the crisis has been completely averted
wide trail
...rip
knotty solar
skwovet was not the pick for this fight I think
maybe I wasted too much time cheek pouching but in general it was taking too much damage to do the cheek pouch recycle loop and also put any sort of pressure on. that and pidgeotto didn't really do what I needed it to do
pikachu instead of skwovet maybe solved it, but honestly maybe the box was just not great at this point in the game. then again if I had predicted the chill correctly on the second time after I saw the switch the first time that would have been enough. oh well.
. . . what I am noticing, looking back at my footage a bit, is that skwovet actually did fuck-all on the important fights in this split, which suggests to me that it is not the pick for the starter in the part of the game where every single encounter matters
knotty solar
on second thought, I would have won that if I remembered which type of tank I made my Onix, wouldn't I. oh well.
knotty solar
took a few hours to allow myself to be disappointed by what was frankly a pretty sucky day in nuzlocke terms, then got back to it. this is the box after landing at Feebas's fin and getting our Shipping Lane encounter. This box didn't feel great into Lambert, but somehow we perfected him anyway! And hopefully we scale from here.
knotty solar
was feeling kinda antisocial today (and yesterday post-wipes for that matter) so I wasn't posting, but here's the current progress. I've cleared up to Team Chasm HQ (through LuxTech, the usual way) and filled my box up to here. I'm probably going to fight Eko next, but that's going to take quite a bit of planning, I think (plus I'm going to have to cash in at least one token I think . . . suggestions welcome)
knotty solar
is this the stupidest plan i have ever come up with?
we lead cv ghost frustrate g. zigzagoon and courage badge perennial payload h. voltorb (in that order). g. zig lowers fletchinder's speed on entry so that it underspeeds h. voltorb with gale wings. turn 1 we helping hand kaboom, which if the calculator is right oneshots fletchinder and salandit through domineering.
problem is I'm not sure what happens after that; we probably put our water starter in, but how does Eko pick switch-ins? we get one based on g. zig and one based on both. hm.
knotty solar
okay, reworking this. what I really want is the ability to use both helping hand and follow me. As it turns out, a Pokemon that gets both of those is Steenee, who also has actual bulk as a second-stage evolution and therefore can take several attacks from Eko's mons. We can then partner it with Twisted Spoon Braixen as our third Pokemon, which has the juice to take out Tentacool and Tynamo in one hit and Camerupt and Vulpix in two. We can then use Follow Me to redirect attacks or Helping Hand to give Braixen the power to one-shot.
knotty solar
I thought it over and I've decided to quit
Like I went through Eko, beat them soundly except for one stupid mistake that lost Onix, at which point I got to the showcase screen and was so mad and frustrated that I reset anyway
Like this just isn't that fun for me? Nuzlocking is skill intensive and interesting from the outside, but I guess what I'm realizing is that I really like using my favorite Pokemon to do cool things, and not being guaranteed to get anything I like and having to play perfectly forever if I want to keep using them is soul-draining
vague peak
it's okay to like the science and process of the nuzlocke but not actually doing it
wide trail
Hey that's valid
knotty solar
It sucks because I really feel like I'm close to working out a pretty consistent line that beats most of the game, but it's not worth the effort or the emotional energy for a bounty and clout I don't really know what I would do with lol
wide trail
I'll carry the torch in your stead 
knotty solar
❤️
vague peak
Your knowledge has been extremely valuable, use it to support the folks who are willing to put themselves through it
knotty solar
I will stick to suggesting cool lines when I think of them lol
Which fwiw I have a lot of (and don't have any reason to keep private for like intelligence reasons or anything anymore lol)
Maybe the next thing for me to do (well besides a more fun run where I actually get to use SHEEP stuff I like again for once) is a run focused on limit testing more where I figure out how much you can push the resources you — this is literally just reinventing fixed encounters only isn't it
vague peak
Maybe uh
sacred vine
Oh dang o7
Trying a nuzlocke and quitting when you realise its not for you is based
vague peak
Fixed encounters only but instead of fixed encounters you use only nuzlocke random encounters
knotty solar
plus it lets me test my intuition in some of this, like I have this idea that a lot of lines basically work the same if you swap out certain Pokemon for others that fill similar roles
e.g. the Bence & Zoe sweep started with Empoleon plus a conga line of distractions, then became m. mandi + cloyster, and now I'm pretty sure you can actually do it with wise hunter Greninja, basically any bulky thing with follow me, and cv steel
vague peak
also random encounters only gives the run replayability in a way that I suspect fixed encounters only doesn't
knotty solar
this is true lol
fixed encounters is useful for figuring out things for nuzlockes because the combination of high amount of fixed encounters + basically no ability to guarantee any particular random encounter means that planning in Tectonic kind of "should" end up being about supplementing the fixed encounters with whatever random guys you roll imo
it's less useful for, like, not doing the same thing over and over again, because the number of answers you have is always very small
vague peak
you know it's quite funny that we have a fully complete walkthrough for how to 100% guaranteed finish a cursed nuzlocke and it's just sitting there unclaimed because we all respect each other
sacred vine
kinda based
knotty solar
very true lol
tbf that one does have absolute ninja shit with Cinccino vs Samorn, so, you know
(on the flip side there's a world where I end up cooking the line that just gets cress at the 60 cap and eclipses its way through the rest of the doubles)
glass stag
Fixed encounters only but instead of fixed encounters you use only nuzlocke rand...
fixed encounters but none of the ones you used in battle in the previous run
use that bonsly
anyways is totally fair, was interesting to see your run make it to where it did anyways
knotty solar
so you know, I said I should quite nuzlocking, and I meant it. Except then I had a few days to sit on it and not do it, and I kept in my head going back to how I would further optimize the run. And as I kept doing that over a few days I realized that I actually wanted to try again -- maybe my adverse reaction to the whole thing the first time was less about my feelings towards nuzlocking itself and more the pressure of Attempt 1 looking like it could go the distance plus having to endure more normal setbacks after the miracle first attempt?
so, uh, I sat on this for a bit to see how I would feel in the middle of actually making an attempt. So this is my way of saying not only that I am trying again but also that Attempt 4 is live, six badges are down, and we just got the Chroma Clarion. Yez 4 is up next after we chase down some encounters.
boxes and death box. box 2 is arranged so that row 1 is the sewer grinding team, row 3 is for spiritomb, row 4 is for yez, row 5 is for xerneas at the time of taking the picture -- I hadn't yet kicked the deer's ass (deathless btw!) Deaths were A. Meowth due to poor planning vs Reporter Helga, M. Sinistea due to mismanaging a wild bronzong/baltoy double, braixen via getting sloppy vs Helena's Chinchou, Weavile because I'm apparently incapable of getting it past Raf
iron wolf
Oh shit 
sacred vine
Oh shit, crazy run
Some really good encounters too- donster, reavor, titanix and annihilape go hard
From my experience, stamp down annihilape basically counters regirock on yez4
wide trail
Oh heck
knotty solar
Donster has been like low-key carrying tbh (also gave me a flame spiker for when I lost braixen, and in the process I think I found out how to skip the mental herb for Yez III!)
also, you know, Titanix, brick wall, etc. also I didn't get toucannon fuckin killed this time and did you know that skill link go brrr
wide trail
Donster has been like low-key carrying tbh (also gave me a flame spiker for when...
Donster is so good
knotty solar
Donster is real good
Especially for a run that wants to fight a lot of avatars? goated
glass stag
The return of the queen
wide trail
The return of the queen
Am I not the queen 
iron wolf
Not necessarily meaning pressure on your performance just that watching you tackle this so methodically is awesome
wide trail
/lh.
knotty solar
(this is probably a joke; I am pretty confident in my catacombs planning lol)
iron wolf
All Nuzlockers are queens
glass stag
Am I not the queen <:sadLagi:725806699415601313>
All of you are for putting yourself through hell for this bounty lmao
wide trail
Its a very different vibe than mine I feel, which is rad.
knotty solar
I don't even care that much about the bounty I just think the optimization exercise is cool 
iron wolf
Two (or 3 or 4 or 5) cakes
iron wolf
Come for the bounty stay for the community
wide trail
Not letting this game beat me down, and if I can be the first, even better.
knotty solar
interesting bit of optimization from this run btw: I think we were all way underrating bounsweet as a starter
It's obviously pretty good into Helena as-is, and it actually is excellent on Eko between helping hand/follow me support and fast Stamp Downs so long as you give it CV ground
wide trail
Interesting.
But does leave you wanting for a Magnezone answer.
Whatcha thinkin there?
knotty solar
I think I calced and Rotom-Heat works
wide trail
Also lmfao nice Nibelong
knotty solar
(but then I rolled Claydol and we're probably going with that)
Nibelong is actually pretty good against Raf! (and is probably gonna get his ass traded for a snubull for duping purposes but let's ignore that)
I was rolling for shroomish but oh well
knotty solar
The actual cracked normal support mon is Gigachu tbh, but I had that or meditite and didn't know this was gonna be an Onix run at the time
wide trail
Early
iron wolf
I love Nibelong but I can't imagine the reason why is too reliable in a heavily fight-planned Nuzlocke lol
knotty solar
Yeah you just have to beat suicune [my phone just autocorrected that to something very bad . . . ] and roll meowth on repora forest, which I think is like a 40% anyway?
I was going for shroomish for the anti dark ability and the stink bomb but meowth ain't bad
wide trail
Yeee understandbale
knotty solar
It helps that suicune is the one you actually can use Chansey on because it has no sneaky physical moves
unlike the other two cries in dead herdier and Chansey from attempt 1
wide trail
Rest in pepperoni...
I almost lost Blissey early
^dumbass forgot Gutteral Roar did physical damage
knotty solar
god yeah that would have been bad!
vague peak
interesting bit of optimization from this run btw: I think we were all way under...
tbf a big part of that was it being a guaranteed encounter in late game
knotty solar
Assuming it was against that one drama I literally was scared enough to go assault spines av a sandalash
knotty solar
tbf a big part of that was it being a guaranteed encounter in late game
this is true, but iffy matchup into Eko and Lambert didn't help it's case
But increasingly I feel like the starters aren't best-in-class post-surf (well besides occasional Dromerupt Things™) so we should be valuing early performance way more
sacred vine
All Nuzlockers are queens
What about ex-nuzlockers 
/j
knotty solar
SHEEP RUN
wide trail
Oh boy.
knotty solar
funnily enough I'm not even sure if sheep fits into my team concept for the tournament, but she's gonna be a very important piece
in particular I now have my actual Magnezone (and Chandelure) counter
wide trail
Pog
knotty solar
next up is County Park
(specifically saved this one after realizing that Talonflame gives a solid Samorn line)
but we did not get it! oh well we're gonna strike out on some 20%s
hattena, bunnelby, or makuhita
wide trail
Hat
knotty solar
oh hatenna is interesting into sang actually yeah
wide trail
Hat clowns on sang one and is good into sang2
knotty solar
and there we go
always scared something is going to go wrong on these triples lol
I had a few close calls on attempt 1 lmoa
feebas's fin is up next
and there's the chingling
has anyone here used late-game crobat? wondering if it's worth trading for a better shot at heracross
my instinct is yes but I'm not 100% on that
knotty solar
it's a dupe now though
knotty solar
yeah
araquanid can also do a few things
but yeah
my experience has always been that crobat is fantastic early but then falls off
relatively at least
vague peak
I mean I have enjoyed crobat but I'm not y'all so
knotty solar
and atlacross guarantees me some lines
wide trail
I mean I have enjoyed crobat but I'm not y'all so
You aren't 
That reminds me, I'm yet to roll Eleig
knotty solar
I mean I have enjoyed crobat but I'm not y'all so
oh trust me if crobat weren't fun to use and pretty good I wouldn't even bother asking
forgot what I was doing in the middle of mentoring lunge off crobat and I guess it's time for prizca west now
everything but the fox lol
ambipom's got skill link but I think I value divining talon access more tbh, plus super luck does stuff
(koffing already boomed)
okay, so eleig stretch is tall grass
hera! rolled all three I didn't have actually, but hera
there we go
wide trail
Eyy
knotty solar
3/5 hits ain't bad at all
we now need to roll some dupes before stone nest/river crossing
ancient sewers looks to be next
and there's yamask!
in fact there's two of them
oops spiritomb killed them
oh well no encounter here
shoulda quick balled but didn't realize
. . . we need to beat up virizion to access split peaks, huh
knotty solar
and the swimmer
last time I had Floatzel which solved it; I'm much less confident in my ability to do it this time
guess we roll battle plaza next
let me tell you having to lead stoutland on everything makes this feel much more like an emotional roller coaster lol
two sawks! I think we might be iterating on Emmi's strat this time
vague peak
Bert and Bert
knotty solar
gottem
wide trail
Bert and Bernie
wide trail
two sawks! I think we might be iterating on Emmi's strat this time
The teacher learns from the student 
knotty solar
hey it had to happen sometime
wide trail
Yeeee
knotty solar
(also not like this is the first time given I stole half my fixed encounters line from your raf strat)
wide trail
knotty solar
why does titanix learn dragon dance? oh well not complaining. anyway time to trade nibelong I think
wide trail
why does titanix learn dragon dance? oh well not complaining. anyway time to tra...
Its a noodle
Pasta=dragon
knotty solar
okay, got snubbull so I can roll prizca east now
you know, as much as I hate every battle being a heart attack risk with the chroma clarion I do kind of like it from a design perspective; it imposes an actual cost on something that could otherwise be unambiguously OP
all three I didn't have!
vague peak
So what's the pick
knotty solar
smeargle
knotty solar
hey if cancer is legal im gonna play it
vague peak
It is extraordinarily valuable for non-cancerous reasons
vague peak
In a nuzlocke specifically it opens up your tutor pool dramatically
knotty solar
oh hm true
it started struggling and I needed to use a potion ball lol
(and then I caught it)
okay! that leaves stone nest, river crossing, and the prizca west sewers
(and split peaks)
theoretically the water encounters too but I want to see if I can optimize those a bit more first
Ampharos might work in the water slot for the tournament, but the ideal is actually Wailord
(or lugia, but y'know. lugia.)
hmm this is actually basically everything I need for Yez and Sang actually, and then that gives me another Battle Report to make this process a little easier
(atlacross + a. sandslash should guarantee sang)
vague peak
I want to see Lugia in the nuzlocke I cannot lie
knotty solar
gonna eat and such first but I think this is what my yez 4 looks like
I really wanna try annihilape but I think stoutland is safer and I want to optimize around not losing the run lol
knotty solar
theoretically, ampharos could take three on this fight (chandy + magnezone + haerobic! and maybe even more, from what I remember!) But realistically I expect her to just get Magnezone and Chandelure. Thunder Cage is there to make sure Magnezone (non-threatening) sits on Amphy going super saiyan, Recover is there to grind out the match (that's how mega ampharos works), and brick break is there to break Magnezone's screens. Then Amphy can come in safely on Chandelure and grind it down. Blissey is obviously backup. Polteageist is a documented Regirock + Haerobic killer by itself but Stoutland is of course great backup for that. Whimsicott is here because something needs to take out Gyarados, and Shuckle is here because Shuckle
knotty solar
this seems p good
yeah. i'm gonna eat and let it sit for a bit in case I have any more thoughts, but I expect this to go smoothly tbh
knotty solar
okay, ate, cleared my head, then remembered that I have an avatar to fight first lmao
#-------------------------------
[SPIRITOMB]
Ability = ODDITY
Moves1 = DEADEND,BLACKOUT,PRIMEVALHEALORDER
Moves2 = MASSDESTRUCTION,BUGBUZZ
#-------------------------------
remembering that I no longer have A. Persian as an easy go-to option for these lol
I really should go get a. raticate (but I don't wanna)
oh right odd room is a factor here
okay arbok time
#-------------------------------
[ARBOK]
Ability = CONSTRICTOR
Moves1 = TOXICTASTE,CRUNCH,PRIMEVALSUNSHINE
Moves2 = FIRELASH,SOLARGLIDE,EMPOWEREDMYSTICALFIRE
#-------------------------------
vague peak
I really should go get a. raticate (but I don't *wanna*)
you must overcome cinccino
knotty solar
it's purely like i want to get to yez lol
which is not smart
checking this, constrictor only activates on physical moves, so I can present Titanix and Donster on Phase I and laugh
bastiodon actually, if I give her a special move
that's better
. . . or stonj actually
then I will simply ampharos and darmanitan in phase II
EZ
knotty solar
I said it was EZ before actually doing it but it was lol
mega ampharosing solves a lot of problems
I don't even know if she's coming to any particular major fights yet (well besides Yez), but just having a big fat wincon in my box is honestly a big relief
if there's ever a tough battle I always have a panic out now
well, almost always; ironically she's probably bad against the worst fight I had last time (Victorie)
wide trail
Oof
knotty solar
but Victorie I can beat with better prep work fine
if nothing else, Durant makes the Heatmor position versus Deceat safe
I only lost the last one because I misjudged Sucker Punch AI
well, didn't lose, but lost five things which feels maybe worse lmao
knotty solar
lol I built spiritomb up to be really scary in my head and then it was a pushover
alright, time for yez
final check; I think everything's ready to go
realistically this should work
I'm just nervous
two roosts in
three
four
wide trail
knotty solar
five
artemesia down
gyarados out is what I want!
down
magnezone is out
it is time
thunder cage goes off!
TRANSFORM
heal back to full
magnezone light screens as it wears off, we break it, and we're out with full HP
haerobic in! polteageist time
SUCK
down
you silly little chandelure you really think i'm gonna stay in don't you
regirock is all that's left
stoutland time
wide trail
Eyyyy
wide trail
Gg
knotty solar
okay, now as I recall Sang is a pretty simple A SANDSLASH ATLACROSS HULK SMASH FACE
SKILL LINK SKILL LINK SKILL LINK\
etc
wide trail
Lmfao
knotty solar
anyway yeah uh SKILL LINK SKILL LINK SKILL LINK
anyway going to the sewers for awhile
knotty solar
gotta say, grinding via perrserker is so much comfier and brain turn off-y and easy and lucrative than other stuff lol
very good for when I want to be doing something else at the same time
wide trail
gotta say, grinding via perrserker is *so* much comfier and brain turn off-y and...
I miss it so muchhhhhh
vague peak
why do you miss it? He's a guaranteeable encounter so it's always an available option
knotty solar
you still need to trade a cat and a. persian is really strong
vague peak
wide trail
Was one of the trainers south of sweetrock
knotty solar
okay so this guy
he's level 41 yes but that doesn't mean I'm going to take him lightly
sacred vine
Ah yes, my friend the stink bomb target
knotty solar
LMAO fair
sacred vine
Seaking and annihilape are both terrifying
And you need something thay can take that first hit from behee
sacred vine
I think this guy and estuary trainers post climb are the best stink targets
knotty solar
depends on whether you're going after some of the optional dungeons but yeah
well
i think bombing the m. mandi trainer in cave of hatching actually
knotty solar
yeah but like
do I want to risk that
that's a fight that I've seen go badly even when I did plan well lol
sacred vine
I dont think its that hard to do, personally
But i get that
(Also hyper beam porygon-z solos that fight, lol)
sacred vine
I love exhaust herb strats
knotty solar
hmm heatmor does stop pyroar entirely
titanix is funny versus armaldo (why is it allowed to no-sell liquidation)
that metagross is kinda fucked though
meganuim does kinda do it
kinda
okay maybe it's doable
we'll see when I get there
porygon-z would be really helpful here lol
I keep thinking that I should work out a line for Eko that doesn't go through Basculin so H. Zoroark is possible . . .
we can get a good shot at guaranteeing gumshoos but realistically that's a level 70 cap thing
granbull probably does decent against Annihilape?
Titanix probably just gets seaking to stay in and die huh
let's try tsareena against spinda
. . . and now I have to eat dinner but this looks like a decent team
we do have like a fourteen level advantage anyway
knotty solar
does anyone know if knock off triggers red card?
iron wolf
I don't know for sure but from how I've seen other interactions play out I think it wouldn't
knotty solar
that's also my guess
if that's true, then I think Atlacross sweeps the next trainer
iron wolf
like i feel like i have a memory of knock off not triggering an eject button
iron wolf
yum
knotty solar
well hold up
I should really go fight one more trainer first
time to get durant, which means time to get sawsbuck
I don't think I want to try for Togedemaru on this run compared to guaranteed durant, and durant + my other encounters makes Alloyed Forest a 50/50 ferrothorn/ditto zone
knotty solar
clean atlacross sweep yeah, and Knock Off did not trigger Red Card (though honestly it was a OHKO so maybe it just works the same?)
okay, next up!
so: meganium basically just stops jellicent in its tracks
wormadam can't do anything to a fire/flying huh
looks like we're getting ho-oh
as I recall I literaly could not find something to stop kabutops without stoutland
yeah I have Titanix now but it still takes 49% from torrent scythe and that can crit
polteageist does stop bewear so that's one big problem down
hmmmmm can I flame spikes on jellicent
that blocks kabu from being a fuck
knotty solar
knotty solar
So examining this, what I need is Cinccino (or really anything, but Cinccino doesn't proc a switch) to take out Regirock, literally any ghost to bait Giganteon into switching out, any Heart of Justice 'mon to eat Houndominus's Dark attacks, and Ampharos for Manergetic
I think literally any of the swords of justice do the thing, but we get them all the same way
I guess it's time to look at terrakion and virizion
vague peak
You're over leveled so I wouldn't sweat it too too much
knotty solar
yeah I'm not actually worried about that lol
#-------------------------------
[TERRAKION]
Ability = HEARTOFJUSTICE
Moves1 = SIEGEBREAKER,SACREDSWORD,PRIMEVALSTRINGSHOT
Moves2 = SIEGEBREAKER,XSCISSOR,LATCHON,PRIMEVALDESTINYBOND
Moves3 = SIEGEBREAKER,VIMRIPPER
HPMult = 10.0
Item = EXPERTBELT
#-------------------------------
[VIRIZION]
Ability = HEARTOFJUSTICE
Moves1 = BLADESOFGRASS,SACREDSWORD,STRENGTHSAP,PRIMEVALNUMB
Moves2 = BLADESOFGRASS,VOLTTACKLE,DISCHARGE,MINDSAP,PRIMEVALFLOWSTATE
Moves3 = BLADESOFGRASS,LIQUIDATION,SURF
HPMult = 10.0
Item = PROXYFIST
#-------------------------------
(we already beat Keldeo pre-Surf so that's not an issue)
virizion up first I guess
grass + fighting
grass + electric
grass + water
knotty solar
think I should go to bed and just worry about this tomorrow. I do think I have a working team but I need some sleep and recharging before I do anything serious I feel
knotty solar
okay, woke up, saw my plan was good, and it went better than I had imagined
terrakion up next?
rock + fighting
rock + bug (+ leech)
rock + ghost
all physical here
sacred vine
cant really hit bulky poisons from my experience
knotty solar
oh duh that is true! very helpful thank you
realistically my true advantage here is being 20 levels higher, of course. that helps a lot
sacred vine
oh yeah that too lmao
knotty solar
catching time in a bit
Terrakion: CV ghost Stoutland. Numb then charm 4x (to counter swords dance) and throw slice balls into timer
cobalion basically the same
virizion we may leave til last, but basically the same
vague peak
absolutely wild that you get all three
knotty solar
eifion went down easy; now it's gym time
knotty solar
okay, victorie time
realistically, I know she should be easy. emotionally . . . I almost wiped here last time, lol
that being said, this time I have durant to lead which should make things much simpler
knotty solar
hmmmmm
so here's the problem. theoretically, the fixed encounters only opening works fine -- Hymnus swaps into Blastoise in the face of Durant and I earthquake itdown. practically, this doesn't quite make sense -- durant can't actually blast down hymnus turn 1 and hymnus wins if it hits the fire blast. This opening works because the Rain AI prioritizes setting up Rain via switching to Blastoise and getting hit, but it doesn't work if anything has changed or I do anything wrong. So I kind of want to ditch it and go to the Atlacross open instead. However, that means I have to plan around the Deceat swap
hm, does proxy fist work with special attackers? it should, but I should test that via debug first
I think this works if I have Heatmor carry Overheat as well as Flamethrower -- Flamethrower into Overheat KOs Blastoise before it gets a move off if it switches if I do Pure Energy and carry the Proxy Fist instead of the Energy Lock. Though I have to get Rotom too for this
#-------------------------------
[CLERK_M2,Alejandro]
Pokemon = CLOYSTER,38
Moves = SPIKECANNON,FURYPECKS,ICICLESPEAR,CLAMP
AbilityIndex = 0 # Tough
Item = LOADEDDICE
Pokemon = ZEBSTRIKA,39
Moves = INERTIASHOCK,DROPKICK,FLAMECHARGE,NUMB
AbilityIndex = 0 # Sap Sipper
#-------------------------------
[CLERK_M2,Marton]
Pokemon = KLEFKI,38
Moves = JAVELIN,ENCHANTINGSONG,BREAKINGSWIPE,SWEETKISS
AbilityIndex = 1 # Kleptomaniac
Item = CADOBERRY
Pokemon = CENTISKORCH,39
Moves = AGONIZE,COIL,BURNINGJEALOUSY,THUNDERFANG
AbilityIndex = 0 # Firefighter
#-------------------------------
[CLERK_M2,Zoltan]
Pokemon = TROPIUS,38
Moves = COLDFRONT,PROTECT,GIGADRAIN,TAILWIND
AbilityIndex = 1 # Berry Bunch
Item = YACHEBERRY,OCCABERRY
Pokemon = SWALOT,39
Moves = STELLARATE,CLEARSMOG,ENCORE,YAWN
AbilityIndex = 0 # Thick Fat
#-------------------------------
quick wild battle test via debug reveals that proxy fist does work on special attackers
expected but good to know
team draft
now for the clerks
cinccino right, toucannon center, a. sandslash left
iron wolf
uoooogh beatoriche
knotty solar
one obvious change: Strike Vest Titanix is actually a much better panic out to Deceat than Stoutland thanks to resisting everything bar the relatively weak Sucker Punch. Fixing that. Also changing Tsareena's style points to spdef instead of def. Other than that, I think this team is good to go!
time to wipe lol
. . . I did not teach overheat