ai attempts curselocke

[distant monolith]

you know what beats this guy?

ho-oh

not "ho-oh and support"

just, ho-oh

ho-oh sweeps him while numbed because i missed the move and didn't give it a cheri berry, even

electric/fairy with huge hp bar, fighting/steel with inner focus and big damage, fairy/rock with defensive setup and passive damage immunity

cv steel atlacross beats clefable, ho-oh demolishes riojin, sandslash/reavor pivots should be safe enough on dedenne

maniklaw and blissey as default backups

this is the first time in a very long time that sandslash has actually been allowed to have stab on its set

usually i delete it so the ai doesn'ts witch

it feels a little bad that the Technician guy reavor's "60 bp" move is rake, at 65 bp

[cerulean cypress]

does it not get a 60BP bug physical move

[distant monolith]

it does by mentor

but i mean by level

[cerulean cypress]

oh

seems suboptimal

[tame void]

the problem is that rake is the one that makes thematic sense (as a blade move) but not mechanical sense by the ability

but also, like, why should rake not be 60 bp crit when it's basically just baby x-scissor

[distant monolith]

i support rake becoming 60 bp crit

and there's no way to x ray the clerk once you start the tour the first time since her follower disappears

fire/steel with fire/steel, trapping on fire, secondary poison on steel
fairy with fairy/dark, moonglow setting
poison/steel with poison/steel, explosion, trash treasure, secondary poison on all moves
psychic/fairy with psychic/fairy, sucker punch, offensive setup + killjoy

ambipom can clearly answer the lead and u-turn out
aromatisse is a weirdo mon that actually resists fairy/dark
4x bug weaknesses continue to be good targets for switch in sandslash, u-turn out

adaptive moves are always the higher attacking stat and not "most damage", right

like, if i put blissey in on a special attacker i'm not going to take surprise physical explosion

[tame void]

I believe so, yes

[distant monolith]

okay nevermind ho-oh gets eq i'm just going to make that my garbodor

it's funny i distinctly remember my first playthrough

(which was like two months ago)

thinking that cv looked awesome and not finding many times to use it

and now it's on almost every fight for me

[tame void]

aromatisse does make it better I think lol

but yeah, CV feels like one of those items that just becomes a lot better once you know more about what you're doing with the game and the new abilities and such

[distant monolith]

aromatisse is certainly very strong but that's definitely not the only reason, and this applied to previous aromatisse-less locke attempts too

mostly yeah, that

kinda funny to rejoin the tour after beating everyone else

you know

i actually do not think i can solo victoire

novel

you know

i never realized fire blast didn't have an effect chance before

okay, atlacross looks like it could almost solo victoire but it doesn't quite get there

this seaking has four different types of moves and yet they're all resisted by grass

m. musharna is the worst bronzong answer ever because it deals no damage but it has eerie spell so it doesn't even really matter that that's the case

just an awful, awful moveset

...i guess it's REALLY easy to make rain Just Not Trigger on this fight

there are 3 different multi-hit moves that are super effective on australia and ambi gets none of them

intellect herb froslass should work

since it can show its death without showing its kill

mismagius is a little scary but blissey exists

bronzong, deceat

wait, no

bronzong, blastoise

these are how the calcs look with regular ampharos

[distant monolith]

doing a nuzlocke where you delay 17 of your pre-surf encounters also forced me to learn to use cv to cover my type holes very quickly

i think that's actually the biggest thing that changed - none of my runs before trying to nuzlocke really even had type holes

and bronzong... is probably not that large a threat in general

dudunsparce looks like the cleanest thing i have but this isn't particularly important

ampharos probably beats it even after beating blastoise

wait no this is really bad if it's rain

however!

victoire is like

embarrassingly easy

to stop from setting rain

she has two setters, one of which is her lead and can be ohko'd

and the other of which is ability only, so blissey will just dizzy it

victoire team: ready

aaaand surprise switch on 1

starbreath... i didn't realize victoire would switch on you i'm sorry. your sac was thus necessary

okay it's just a mix of like

a. offensive matchup score less than i expected because fire blast is inaccurate

b. i didn't give it ghost stab so all the steel types are like "free switch?"

c. blastoise saying yes. i do want to set up rain thank you

i'm just not used to mons switching out when they have kills

random encounters box tiered by weight pulled since acquisition

(rubarior belongs in the top row but i ran out of space)

(left to right not ordered)

oh i see why a. slash / atlacross is a problem

a. slash doesn't outspeed chatot

is there a fixed fairy i can get and dump....

cottonee! do you matter cottonee

goldeen is also a fairy and i'm more happy to get rid of it but idk what trades for it in the first place

m gigalith would but. no

okay bye m munna i need a golisopod

not to use but relicanth gets harbor breaker even later than the 60 cap

bye sang

i didn't actually need to switch out blissey but it made me feel better since chatot has protect in its moveset

so now what's left is what

major: samorn, masked villain teal, whitebloom, tournament, sang 3 (but it still dies to atlacross/slash...), two masked villains or their sidequests, regigigas, 3x another possibles, finale
not major: samorn gym trainers, 1 trainer in cave of hatching

there really are not many non-major fights left

[distant monolith]

choices: fossil, galar fossil, dragon egg, fire starter, grass starter
not listing fixed encounters
lingering delta, eleig crossing, county park, repora forest, eleig stretch, frostflow farms, highland lake, volcanic shore, [boiling cave], [sandstone estuary], [underground river], [abyssal cavern]
kilna ascent, svait, stone nest, ancient sewers, nebula ruins, [carnation tower], prizca east [dupe minccino and maybe snubbull first], plaza underground, ruined tower, cave of hatching, [whitebloom town], sweetrock harbor
menagerie, fishing contest

not comprehensively listing

plenty of stuff to go grab

damn

kilna ascent / nebula ruins require fighting stuff and i d

so dududunsparce after being very close to nothing for the entire game looks like an incredible samorn opener

it shows kill to flygon, can outspeed it with an agility herb and kill it first, while also showing a kill on towerpoda without showing a kill back, so it should force a switch

(i wouldn't want to bet the run on what that switch is to)

there's no real reason to do any samorn planning before i get my kilna ascent encounter, because "do i have frosmoth" will affect the planning massively

and i'm not fighting beartic tonight

though i'm 35 levels up so it's not like it's a rela threat

still not tonight

[mellow basin]

Ow
Ow
Ow
Ow
Ow
(Hit 5 times!)

[distant monolith]

i had no idea what you were talking about at the time and only just now realized that i called hymnus australia

[mellow basin]

lmao

[distant monolith]

okay, yay, snom

so my samorn should go something like

dudunsparce scares off duraludon to scizor, agility herb dudunsparce kills flygon, cv (fairy? rock?) frosmoth quiver dances

scizor sees kills but not with bullet punch and doesn't see death so it tries to use slow move, volcarona deals 99% to dudunsparce, frosmoth kills volcarona with ward press, dudunsparce kills scizor with flamethrower

1 qd cv frosmoth and dudunsparce can clean everything up since reavor is the only thing with priority

which basically means the other four slots can be dedicated to not losing to learning that i'm wrong about the ai

which is important because i don't trust doubles ai

[tame void]

frosmoth kills volcarona with ward press???

Clearly I have never run calcs on this thing

[distant monolith]

at +2 spdef with cv fairy or rock

[tame void]

ah setup

[distant monolith]

or with sky fall for fun

stopping the sand doesn't matter (and is actively bad with cv rock) but

frosmoth could do this

normal mons still can't kill volcarona with neutral stab at +2 attacking stat though

this really is frosmoth

ice scales diff

i am entirely sincere when i say that actually using this mon makes it make sense that it evolves at yez 4 cap on live

(tho it's a ward press thing in significant part)

[cerulean cypress]

you will never guess what we made available at the same time as frosmoth

[distant monolith]

is it ward press

is it the ward press tm

[cerulean cypress]

Sylveon learns it upon evolution by shiny stone

[distant monolith]

terrifying

[tame void]

gender stone

[cerulean cypress]

oh is it the gender stone right

[tame void]

why would Sylveon not be the gender stone

[cerulean cypress]

anyways if you beat a gauntlet and an avatar you deserve a big fat bug to roll your foes for a little while

[tame void]

anyway, this is something we'll keep an eye on I guess
(the real question if this proves to be a bigger game-wide problem is possibly more like should Frosmoth get ward press at all lol)

[distant monolith]

my incredibly strong bug

[cerulean cypress]

Wait this is not a dev channel

[distant monolith]

it is not, no

instead of solving samorn and accounting for the potential to mess up i am trying to read the ai code this is why i don't defeat the Ux color identity allegations

[cerulean cypress]

aiCheck is a black art

[distant monolith]

it's not that black of an art..... especially since the parts that are usually Hardest To Get are switches and stuff

the move scoring seems more inscrutable simply by virtue of every effect having its own effect chance and sometimes a complicated one

plus i can learn things like

the ai will always treat its defensive score as if it's against the worst matchup on the field

which is important, because it means if a mon is its worst defensive matchup and its best offensive matchup i can map my singles intuition onto it without fear

stuff like this is black arts for sure though

like i know what this means

okay and i can't delete moves to make the ai less likely to switch, good to know

[tame void]

fear of unknown
we are teaching the AI existential dread

[distant monolith]

teaching the mon more stab moves to make sure the ai doesn't switch is a horrifying thought

[cerulean cypress]

that would be a completely insane idea

[distant monolith]

it would impact the switch ai

[cerulean cypress]

but at what cost

[distant monolith]

stepping into the black arts...

but now i'm learning that it's nuzlocke optimal to teach mons that don't need their full movepool as many stab moves as possible if i don't want the enemy to switch smile

we're learning so many good facts, aren't we?

🙂

[cerulean cypress]

bringing moves you never intend to to click because you know the AI can read your mind is uh

[tame void]

this is actually one of the best uses of exhaust moves

[cerulean cypress]

just bringing big scary numbers LMAO

[tame void]

threaten the AI with a hugebigclick so they won't switch even though you never plan to use it

[distant monolith]

you know what would be even worse

bringing level 29 mons to rafael

to get the earlygame ai nerf

oh wait it's <= 30

not <30

so rafael just has the ai nerf always all the time

see i didn't know any of this

(the part before the if is that kills are 250, which i did know)

oh wait that's the ai mon too

nvm

the offensive score formula is just ( round(best move score/2.5)-40)/2

so i can predict in advance that flygon's offensive score will be 30, since it sees a fast kill
so i can predict in advance that towerpoda's offensive score will be.... it deals 88%, which is 150 + 38 = 188, minus 70% since it's seeing that it can die first makes it 56.4 (the debug console rounds it but that's only for display)

so it's offense score should be -9

then the defensive score is the same calculation but negative, plus the extra stuff for unknown moves ai, and something else extra for anti-setup that i'm going to ignore and isn't relevant until i start quiver dancing

cv fairy frosmoth shows a kill to flygon so it would have an offense score of ... it's not going to die so 250....... -30? i don't want to give it -30, so giving frosmoth cv rock is good to hide ward press

cv rock frosmoth would have an offense score of 0 since it doesn't have rock, ice, or bug attacking moves

dudunsparce with invisible adapted shows 80% damage which is 180, minus 70% since it, becomes 54... 14..... 7. defensive rating of -7, plus i'm locked into using two invisible moves for a defensive rating of -11, giving it a stay-in rating of +19. probably

i think giving frosmoth cv fairy would give it a stay-in rating of -4 instead, which probably would be fine but i don't super want to do that

[mellow basin]

oh shit we're doing ai cooking

er

lmao

[distant monolith]

it works either way!!!

also i've lead a frosmoth here before and flygon didn't switch. BUT the other mon was a titanix so that might affect the switchins (though it probably doesn't()

oh, wait, quiver dance is probably auto ai known

i don't know where to check the list of that

but it doesn't want to switch on a quiver dancer

so on turn 1 frosmoth is known quiver dance but hasn't quiver danced yet, so it's urgency is 10

what that means is that the 70% cut for being dead to a faster mon doesn't happen, and that any mon with an offensive rating that's already sub-0 (in other words, mons that deal less than half % hp damage and don't faint the target) loses an extra 5

there are some other triggers that happen if urgency gets to 20 but that won't happen until frosmoth starts quiver dancing

wait no it's not half % hp damage

wait yeah it is nvm i was right the first time

so towerpoda's offense score is actually +17

the defense score is -34, since it's seeing a fast death with two unknown moves, for a stay-in rating of -17

i'm not setting hazards, so i don't have to learn about that part of the black arts

garchomp has an entry ability, which is possibly relevant and should be considered

especially as i can't quite show kill so it's hard to just be "nope, it won't do that"

it's not much of a worry if it shows up on turn 2 because once frosmoth quiver dances once i show fast kill

so on a normal switch (read: not a pivot move or after a death), defensive matchup rating is.... the same as normal defensive matchpu rating, but it's multiplied by 0.75 instead of 0.5

and offensive matchup is the same, but it's multiplied by 0.25 instead of 0.5

regardless of frosmoth's cv dudunsparce shows more damage to reavor than frosmoth does and shows 41.25%
i don' thave to worry about adapted because on live adapted is bugged to never be ai-relevant (and it wouldn't be relevant on turn 1 anyway)

oh i've been putting the unknown moves in the wrong place

they're before the halving, so the defensive score on towerpoda is actually -32 for a stay-in rating of -15

anyway

reavor has -2 defensive rating becuase of that

((( (100 + (41.25-33) ) / 2.5) - 40)*0.75*-1

and its offensive rating is +15

for a total of +12

garchomp takes more damage and deals less damage by a substantial amount against cv fairy frosmoth

against cv rock frosmoth though, dudunsparce only shows 55% and it sees it has a kill

oh wait i messed up reavor's defensive rating

wait, no i did it right i just wrote it wrong

should be 100 not 50

garchomp's offensive rating should still be +15, and its defensive rating is ( 155/2.5 - 40)*0.75 so -16 (or -17)

but it has as an extra ability Scoured Silhouette which means it should have a higher rating than that

lmao

so both of my mons would have special attacks and only have special attacks
the AI doesn't seem to care that reducing special attack doesn't do anything to ward press

so each battler would get a score of....

20, *2 because it drops two steps, *1.2 since it's their first turn on the field, *1.2 since they have at least half hp, *0.5 since they can switch out, ceiling

= 29

from getMultiStatDownEffectScore

which is divided by 2.5 and then ceilingd to convert to switch scoring

so garchomp gets an extra +12

which should still be lower than reavor but it's terrifyingly close

like, +10 vs +12 close

i've also realized doing all this that my original plan completely forgot about dawnfall so dudunsparce would have mysteriously died

which is honestly fine

i don't think it's coming to the tournament or whitebloom yez

i could switch it out while frosmoth protects, though

ho-oh just has an incredibly good switch in like the balanced pokemon it is

(although in this case it really just needs to be a fire type with a speed stat)

(and my other fire type option is torkoal)

the problem then is that that probably convinces reavor to bullet punch it

okay i feel comfortable verifying my intuition that the ai only cares about priority if it either kills with the priority move or would be fast-killed

so as long as i'm showing reavor a slow kill on something it shouldn't use bullet punch

actually showing it a slow kill on something doesn't matter, i just need to not be showing it a fast kill and not be showing it a kill with bullet punch

[distant monolith]

today i have realized that marshadow says party members and not ACTIVE party members for the first time

and things suddenly actually make sense

[cerulean cypress]

so that's why Bella bothered to bring six pokemon to those battles

[distant monolith]

moreso. so that's why marshadow is actually good and not the worst thing ever

[distant monolith]

at some point i will come back and defeat samorn
i think frosmoth + dudunsparce should 2v6

with quiver dance, ward press and scorching sands, moonblast, flamethrower, protect

so the rest is just a. beating her gym trainers first and b. deciding a backup team in case that gets somehow fucked

so the mandatory gym trainers

5hp/18spe/20def/7spdef cv fairy frosmoth should sweep bernard with quiver dance -> ward press x4

looking at the goodra trainer and happily ignoring her

oh, i don't seem to have ward press

and the tm is Somewhere in split peaks

which i avoided because i didn't wanna fight excapuff

so i Could go get that

or!

i could evolve an eevee into sylveon

evolves eevee into sylveon to teach frosmoth ward press
sweeps the trainer with sandslash instead

[cerulean cypress]

[distant monolith]

so rangsan gets swept except the lead by ambipom

not even for skill link reasons

they're just a 4x weakness addict

oh it looks like ambipom can probably just kill the lead too

that one actually is skill link

as long as i'm correct in that agility herb gets used up if i fake out the enemy

[tame void]

You can check that against Pichu I think

wild ones

[distant monolith]

oh i suppose yeah

i am too far into the process of loading a debug save to fight yez 2

but that probably would have been easier

okay yeah confirmed worked as desired

i do not seem to have fire punch or ice punch

[cerulean cypress]

holy shit no T1 at samorn

[distant monolith]

fire punch is surprisingly uncommon

darm, machamp, 2 starters, marshadow

do i go get marshadow just to learn fire punch for a random samorn gym trainer.....

[cerulean cypress]

[distant monolith]

the answer is no

i just sweep with atlacross the balanced

[distant monolith]

confirmed sweep with atlacross the balanced

it was even easier than expected because uh. they switched in frosmoth who immediately died

meaning i got extra shell bell healing

[tame void]

ah, shell bell

i always foroget shell bell exists

[distant monolith]

okay right what do i need again.
dudunsparce shows kill on towerpoda without adapted, dudunsparce outspeeds towerpoda, dudunsparce outspeeds
dudunsparce shows kill to reavor with non-priority but not with bullet punch
dudunsparce shows taking more damage from volcarona than frosmoth does
frosmoth doesn't show kill to reavor after 1x sandstorm proc

dudunsparce kills flygon with adapted (preferably not without)

frosmoth doesn't show kill to reavor with bullet punch after 2x sandstorm proc but that should follow from the rest

okay nevermind that's completely hopeless listed in full as is

oops

i spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to make dudunsparce not die to reavor and volcarona past sandstorm chip

however, it is a ground type,

welp do or die

unfortunately i died

i kinda just forgot that she could send out garchomp instead of volcarona

which was a huge issue

since sand-intimidate

val lost a gym fight and her timeloop reset

i clicked bounsweet by accidentand val's timeloop reset again

this is not the run where i beat eko without kingler abuse

reruns

not a rerun

sword... i won't leave you in on a zorua because i'm not paying attention! i would never do such a thing

[tame void]

we have m. ninetales at home

(it's not even m. ninetales at home it's just different good)

((m. ninetales at home is haunted rotom wearing a CV steel))

[distant monolith]

aegislash is very funny

aegislash vs regirock is very funny

[tame void]

that it is lol

[cerulean cypress]

sord

[distant monolith]

huh, actual choice

i think exeggcute is a substantially better mon but houndour is a fire type

[cerulean cypress]

also he gives burning jealousy disgustingly early

[distant monolith]

this is true

the problem with early burning jealousy is that the second gym is eko and the third gym is helena

okay so
honedge is a free croagunk and also riolu
a. shrew is my only ekans
spritzee pancham
exeggcute... can exeggcute deal with zorua idk?
shuppet shooooould beat binacle

tbh spritzee can probably be both pancham and zorua

oh spritzee just one hit kills both of thme

yeah this is fine

[tame void]

lmao

spritzee gaming sure is a thing on lambert

[distant monolith]

i was good i didn't even switch between a steel type and a ghost type for 60 turns lambert juts die already

lambert was defeated cleanly after ten trillion years

so... can these mons just defeat yez

i don't get any evos of them

okay i don't think any of these beat larvesta

[distant monolith]

hmmm but bunnelby-numbed spritzee actually probably does

well

not larvesta but noibat

which should free up the fixed slot for kingler

kingler for smoochum/larvesta, ghost makes whismur free, spritzee for noibat, both ghosts for joltik
exeggcute for bunnelby i guess that's not great

[distant monolith]

spritzee sweeps isai when he doesn't get crit, honedge probably would've swept uriel but i used shuppet too

went for this instead of trying to push the margins on yez 1

actually really funny

[cerulean cypress]

makes a sandshrew even more cracked

[distant monolith]

this is true

[distant monolith]

tragically i have freed skyler again because this team doesn't have a good wartortle answer
can't use shuppet against 30% dizzy... honedge and pineco are physical tanks not special...

pineco made nidorino pretty easy since it can just sit on the second phase

and spam stab bug moves

covet debug celebration etc

[distant monolith]

shoutouts to recurring secret fixed encounter DEXNAV the clobbopus

and its important support from the donation box

clerk lily should go down to.. egg + spritzee for pikachu, kingler for sealeo, everything else for frillish

[nimble grail]

Why are you beating up my wife

[ripe orchid]

;-;

My sealeo...

[nimble grail]

https://tenor.com/view/passing-the-ball-psyduck-pansear-sealeo-pansage-gif-17747753147039741162

[distant monolith]

your sealeo is between me and my crystal veil...

[distant monolith]

at any rate though i'm deep in the tft mines so this is likely on hold

[distant monolith]

alright, i am ready to go back in the grinder

i'm tempted to try not krabby but then i would have to make a better eko plan

[cerulean cypress]

steener is a good Eko mon

double speed bulldoze and passive follow me

[distant monolith]

however unfortunately it does not kill their entire team by itself with support that is almost always available

i am going to try skwovet though

well, with a meditite it wouldn't be aggressively less relevant

as long as i get to actually catch it..

[cerulean cypress]

Skwovet is guaranteed rock moves

Also the earliest rock blast for a shrew

[distant monolith]

a. shrew does not get that move

[cerulean cypress]

how does the meditite kill itself out of curiosity

[distant monolith]

it wishes

[distant monolith]

it doesn't

the pichu kills my krabby

[cerulean cypress]

Oh sure right

[distant monolith]

and i could continue with a dead krabby but i don't want to

however since krabby is dead i will try a different starter as a sign

i forgot about this because it's been a while but

it's genuinely nuzlocke important to not take scenic trail tall grass as your first encounter with a krabby

for this reason exactly

okay eko and lambert solved

and no more catches required on casaba i believe

in fact i don't even think i need the a. shrew but i'll still grab it

okay well i did dumb things and lost a. shrew to random bonsly kid so i should wait to do this another time

or in an hour, one of the two

i need food at some point

[distant monolith]

huh, i hadn't realized malice was "below 50%" and not "half or below"

hm

so snorunt does not have much going for it really at any point in the game, and azurill is a fairy

okay yeah

also a water type

[tame void]

snorunt is level 20 icicle spear but yeah azurill is probably better still

[distant monolith]

i forgot pseudo levels for a second and was very surprised to see my levvel 7 beat the level 14 chikorita that i walked into fighting on accident

so this is the 4-pack of the run

[novel vector]

oooooo

[distant monolith]

so azurill destroys pancham

houndour has a bad matchup into everything else so it's for zorua

sinistea is only useful into croagunk

so between shuppet and my fixed encounter i'd have to deal with binacle, riolu, ekans

which i don't think works

unless azurill can just beat pancham and binacle which honestly maybe

[novel vector]

ekans is scary……

i feel like out of all lambert’s mons its the one that consistently gives me the most trouble

(although that might also just indicate that i’ve never packed the right answers for it)

[distant monolith]

the 3.3 nuzlocke would be a lot more scared of ekans but

you always have a. shrew

who crushes it

[novel vector]

the a in a. shrew stands for awqsome…….

the shrew in a. shrew stands for. sandshrew /silly

[distant monolith]

i'm going to grab foreclosed tunnel and hope it's not machop

[novel vector]

good luck…!

[distant monolith]

see nothing bad has ever happened and herding is not necessary

[novel vector]

:]

[distant monolith]

okay can onix actually beat anything i need it to beat

okay yeah it beats binacle pretty easily

physical bulk is good against phys attacker, who knew

[novel vector]

onix power….!

[distant monolith]

it's in the foreclosed tunnel so his name is mortgage

[novel vector]

mortgage the onix i believe in u…….

[distant monolith]

this lambert battle went as planned except that houndour ignited riolu for fun which made everything easier

[novel vector]

omg awqsome!! really well played….

[distant monolith]

uriel easily goes down to houndour / azurill / sinistea

isai went down to azurill / shrew / shuppet

the smeargle / anorith double scares me

so i will never fight it ever ever

ghost type trivializes whismur

a shrew beats joltik and noibat as ever

bunnelby loses to everything that has ever lived

sinistea is probably a good smoochum answer? houndour seems like it would be but it's kinda hard with the 100% chill

i mean it still does it's just not very reliable since it could result in it dying if it has to switch in several times

sinistea is just immune so point moot

houndour for larvesta for similar reasons

[novel vector]

bunnelby stays losing......

[distant monolith]

it also just instadies to azurill specifically

[novel vector]

azurill stays winning...!!

[distant monolith]

not really a hard fight, my only regret is that if i taught sinistea aromatherapy my party showcase screenshot would have had more aura

tragic: this is once again not that good of an anti-arya party

(this is tragic because this means freeing skyler)

it might be doable actually

but i kinda do wanna wait if i can on covert cloaks at least for the next like, eight fights before lillipup

[novel vector]

nodsnodsnods

[distant monolith]

arya wartortle scary

and it has 30% dizzy

so effectively nothing you send out has an ability and everything takes 25% more damage

i'm not actually sure i have a good nidorino answer though

but now i quest for food

[novel vector]

foodquest…! good luck with foodquest…!

[distant monolith]

jonas would have lost badly no matter what he did but he switched in aron into houndour and it dies on the switch

the weirdest ai behavior to me continues to be how much it loves switching into mons that outspeed and 2hko

with known moves

so now i need to beat arya, the double, or nidorino

the double is scary and i would like to ne er

oh, taking skwovet does have a small advantage here where i don't need to beat this battle to get covet

so max money and exp candy xls as usual from debug

arya's tranquil doesn't have a 1/4 hp amount and i'm not confident in how the rounding works... hm, maybe i can do it anyway?

i'm pretty sure i can beat arya but i am seriously considering whether it's nuzlocke reasonable to stink bomb her a decent % of the time

i'm quite sure i could beat arya with a covert cloak steenee

[distant monolith]

i'm actually gonna try shelf tall grass this time

i got one of these, which is decent

grass has all the theoretically best mons but i haven't found a lot of earlygame use of them, and tall grass is a reliable grass or steel type

(mud might actually also be good?)

first grass encounter while looking for zorua to steal from was a pansear

i'm not entirely sure which one i'd prefer, honestly

huh. steenee doesn't have natural leech seed

i didn't realize this

arya time

arya is scary

malice shuppet beats tranquil, covert cloak steenee beats wartortle, pansage beats goldeen it was pretty easy with the cloak though

honestly, with how it went it was doable without it but i wasn't AI-confident enough to take that risk

since it would have been a problem if wartortle used water pulse on the switch from shuppet to steenee

steenee getting low kick at level 20 is depressing everything weak to fighting has 30bp weight

[distant monolith]

steenee does make alice a little easier

by beating the frillish

[distant monolith]

branimir is fake as usual

though this is because of sandshrew only

philip down so just clerk lily left

actually clerk lily is probably a more relevant stink bomb consideration

not in this case though since i took foreclosed tunnel

so i have onix

getting philip also gets me strong berries (kee/maranga/rowap/jaboca), but those aren't that useful for lily

[distant monolith]

marie is easy with azurill/sandshrew, dexter is also easy with sinistea/azurill

[distant monolith]

okay, so eko

onix's lack of t1 rock move is depressing here

it has 1 hp investment

1

yeah steenee does seem good here if hard to use and certainly worse than kingler

the problem being that it doesn't do anything to half the team even if it's very strong on the rest

sinistea has a weird problem here where it can't passive follow me because it has defensive stats, but it's still an ice type so it has no other role here really

[tame void]

steenee is a in combination with basculin thing as I recall

works well with probably any water type, except that there isn't easy access to water random encounters yet lol

[distant monolith]

huh

i hadn't realized that fake out's flinch effect score has like

nothing to do with the target at all

so it just picks based on damage

except that this happened

[tame void]

huh

I was convinced it was a speed thing

[distant monolith]

oh nope

(first one is kingler / second is magnemite so damage makes sense here)

yeah fake out just always has an effect score of 100 (200 in doubles) basically

(flinches are just doubled effect score in doubles for some reason in general)

it's also halved in moonglow (regardless of which turn it is) against mons who are not known to be immune

[distant monolith]

the thing is that basculin is just substantially better than any non-kingler water type you could possibly have

hm. somehow something i did in debug has resulted in
no matter what save i load i instantly get a pokemon center visit dialogue and party heal

this is also resulting in me going one tile down afterwards

okay actually using a pokemon center fixed it

[distant monolith]

there are other good water types but in general they're slow, and steenee would really prefer to be paired with fast

since it fits much better into a "double fast kill" double style than it does to a "one side gets kills while the other side uses passive follow me" style

although even then basculin is still the best one

because it has 90 attack and 80 speed and a life orb ability and 65 bp stab at level 20

just strong

buizel could probably fulfill the same role

and dewott, mostly because dewott has 75 bp stab at this level for reasons unknown

[tame void]

the reasons are "oops canon did a stupid thing and we hadn't realized it to clean it up yet"

(it has since been fixed on dev)

[distant monolith]

fair

dewott is distinctly worse because it doesn't have aqua jet and thus cannot prevent tailwind but is otherwise filling the same role

buizel can basically just fulfill exactly the same role, it has worse attack but technician is busted early for obvious reasons. it does need somethign to mentor it spattering ram to be good though

nothing else can i think? you need the lorb ability to be a good fast offensive water type or you just don't get the kills and you have to get the kills, and those are the only water types that are fast with lorb abilities and available now

anyway this is not particularly relevant to the current run

i think it might be literally imposssible to get salandit to not click fake out unless you send out two ghosts

or exactly a cv ghost moonglow setter and a non-moonglow immune mon i guess

[distant monolith]

this is my favorite / least favorite damage calc screenshot i've ever had

i'm just. it has 1 hp investment. amazing.

it has 1 hp investment and that's why it doesn't die to life orb onix mud shot.

anyway something that's probably strong here is courage badge pansage

or agility herb pansage, these are exactly the same mon

pansage / onix -> salandit fake out pansage, pansage fake out fletchinder, fletchinder flinch, onix ko fletchinder should be a strong opener

i know i'm making Good Doubles Strategies ™ when i'm mimimizing my defense investment on purpose on a mon that isn't going to click attacks

eko has four different mons with status moves that apply burn/poison and i don't think i've ever seen any of them click those moves

genuinely the 1 hp investment camel is a serious problem here

i'm fairly certain it's tynamo after fletchinder dies, but after tynamo i think it's camel, since vulpix can't get a ko

fletchinder sees a kill on pansage and doesn't see a death, so that turn 1 should be reliable

with this box i'm pretty sure my preferred fixed encounter is actually just gonna be a. graveler

which means i need to acquire a. graveler, which shouldn't be a problem with onix

electric/rock phase is for onix + whoever with cv ground, grass/normal phase is for sandshrew + ..sinistea?

oh wait that's grass/electric

i have no idea what's happening with these numbers

oh, hm

[distant monolith]

ctrl fing "graveler" in the server to hope somebody posted an image so i can remember its level

i still don't remember nidorino's

a. graveler get

i forgot both a) how switching in fake out mons worked on avatars and b) that it was a grass type so i couldn't leech it

so my pansage did nothing

this was fine though burning jealousy and charm are good

back to figuring out how to deal with camerupt and its 1 hp investment

salandit should never click ignite on onix since it'll be score 60 and min score of damage is 70, which is good

salandit can thus live forever

eh maybe not i don't really wanna risk secondary effect chances

and i can't afford to covert onix

[novel vector]

salandit’s fire pulse rlly rlly loves proccing the burn at the worst possible moment, in my experience

[distant monolith]

the problem with this line that i need to figure out a way around is that onix is my best answer to the front of this fight and also my best answer to the back of this fight

so i basically need it to be in the entire fight while holding a life orb

which is. difficult

if it kills itself it can't kill the enemy

as i understand these things

[novel vector]

waaaa </3 nodsnods

[distant monolith]

oh. hm. actually

graveler i believe in you... you can kill tentacool... probably...

[novel vector]

omg… graveler power…!

[distant monolith]

i just feel like he could've made it easier on me though

just a little bit more speed...

[novel vector]

aouhgh… just a little more speed…..

[distant monolith]

the plan

leads:
Friend Guard Pansage @ Courage Badge, Radiate Onix @ Life Orb

turn 1:
AI: Fletchinder clicks ?????, Salandit clicks Fake Out Pansage
turn: Salandit Fake Out Pansage, Pansage Fake Out Fletchinder, Fletchinder flinch, Onix Sling Shot fletchinder kos
AI sends out Tynamo

turn 2:
AI: Salandit Fire Pulse (or Clear Smog, i'm pretty sure it's Pulse but it doesn't matter) Pansage, Tynamo Poison Fang Pansage
turn: Pansage Protect, Salandit Fire Pulse into protect, Onix Sling Shot Salandit, Tynamo pfang into protect

turn 3:
AI: Salandit Fire Pulse Pansage, Tynamo Poison Fang Pansage
turn: pansage switch to A. Graveler @ Covert Cloak, Salandit Fire Pulse, Onix Sling Shot KOs Salandit, Tynamo Poison Fang
AI sends out Camerupt

turn 4:
AI: Camerupt Mud Shot ????, Tynamo Bullet Charge Onix
turn: A. Graveler Helping Hand, Onix Mud Shot KOs Camerupt, Tynamo Bullet Charge Onix
AI sends out Vulpix

turn 5:
AI: Vulpix Draining Kiss Onix, Tynamo Bullet Charge Onix
turn: Onix Protect, Vulpix Kiss into protect, A. Graveler blunt force Tynamo, Tynamo Charge into protect

turn 6:
AI: Vulpix Kiss Onix, Tynamo Bullet Onix
turn: Onix switch to Pansage, Vulpix Kiss Pansage, A. Graveler blunt force kills Tentacool
AI sends out Tentacool

turn 7:
AI: Vulpix Fire Spin Pansage, Tentacool Sludge Pansage
turn: Pansage Protect, Vulpix Fire Spin into protect, Tentacool Sludge into protect, A. Graveler Spark murderizes Tentacool

turn 8:
AI: Vulpix Fire Spin Pansage
turn: Pansage switch to Grit Azurill @ Rowap Berry, Vulpix Fire Spin Azurill, takes 25%, A. Graveler Blunt Force kills Vulpix

[cerulean cypress]

what the girls outside the show say

[distant monolith]

party showcase screenshot called shot: Azurill 69 HP, Onix 11 HP, A. Graveler ~57 HP (Covert Cloak isn't on the calc rn so this might be inexact), Pansage 42 HP

i gues that's not on the screenshot

no statuses on my team

actually pansage will be 36 HP i had the wrong stats on calc when i did that

the other numbers are as expected

let's see

salandt will definitely fake out pansage since that does more damage

tynamo will definitely come out since it sees a kill and takes the least damage out of mons that do

salandit and tynamo have kos so they will try to kill apnsage

camerupt will come out since it sees kills and doesn't get fast killed first

Tynamo Bullet Charge is its biggest-damage attack and deals enough damage to be prioritized over Envenom even on high-hp target Graveler

Vulpix will come out before Tenta because Tenta gets fast killed

Vulpix and Tynamo will target Onix since they see KOs only there

Vulpix and Tentacool will target Pansage since they see KOs only there (shoutout Friend Guard) (actually I think Friend Guard is barely not relevant [whirlpool deals 56] but i'm not complaining)

Vulpix will target Pansage again since still sees KOs only there

okay that's enoguh double checking for an eko fight

well i'll double check my moveslots too

onix needs mud shot, sling shot, protect, life orb, radiate, has those

pansage needs protect, fake out, friend guard, courage badge, has those

graveler needs helping hand, covet, blunt force, covert cloak, galvanize, has those

azurill needs jaboca berry, has it

it's a doubles fight so everything on the team should have protect, correct

battle begin

[novel vector]

cheering you on!!

[distant monolith]

turn 1 on track

turn 2 salandit appears to have taken exactly 1 less damage than expected but that's actually fine

turn 3 on track

okay so. on turn 4 tynamo used poison fang instead of bullet charge. this is scary

effect score bonuses damn you...! how dare you give my onix more hp than planned!!

this changes nothing though

okay. i don't know why tynamo is above 50% hp

i would really like to know why tynamo is above 50% hp to be honest

[novel vector]

<- girl whos also thinking abt it and cant figure anything out

[distant monolith]

(this may have been a lie)

graveler being snarled is some amount annoying

though the more significant thing is tynamo taking 10 less damage than expected and i genuinely have no idea why

oh

i see

galvanize is boosting every move by 30% on the calc

well.

that's not what that ability does.

[novel vector]

OH

[distant monolith]

so let's see

i am pretty sure i implemented this so this is specifically a result of my own actions

[mellow basin]

Uh oh

[distant monolith]

anyway

if i use double attacks on tynamo

then vulpix SHOULD snarl again since nothing changed, and tynamo should die

so graveler will be at 43 hp and onix will be at 23 hp, tentacool will come out

okay well i think i fixed the thing but i can't check because of weird bugs that are definitely on my end

anyway i don't know what tentacool will target

vulpix will... just snarl again

okay so tynamo uses bullet charge last turn and so it should do so again

okay it looks like. somehow it's reading something unrelated to tectonic as part of my locally stored teams

which, the fuck

so if i blunt force tynamo and switch in azurill

as long as tynamo doesn't suddenly switch to poison fang after using bullet charge last turn which i don't think it will

then azurill takes snarl, vulpix takes rowap, azurill takes bullet charge, that's all fine

then tynamo tries to murder azurill and vulpix probably just snarls again

[cerulean cypress]

shopify moment

[distant monolith]

unfortunately the thing that is doing this is something i actually need (work related library)

if tynamo didn't speed up that's probably completely fine and graveler can kill tynamo and azurill kills vulpix

if tynamo does speed up

oh. i gave azurill the wrong berry

it was supposed to be rowap

(special)

[novel vector]

awawa……

[distant monolith]

anyway pansage died

everyone else lived

if azurill had the right berry it would've been fine

don't actually watch this because it has infinite break time

[novel vector]

😭 closet the pansage your sacrifice will be remembered...

[distant monolith]

congratulations to houndour and onix and azurill on evolving

so let's see. yez 2

shuppet / steenee should be strongest lead

since shuppet makes morgrem not want to leave and life orb steenee kills sandaconda with ruinous

[novel vector]

omg... steenee power......

[distant monolith]

the issue at hand is that i'm not sure if sandaconda switches or not

probably not?

[cerulean cypress]

might like switching into dartrix idk

[distant monolith]

if i minimize shuppet spdef it sees like

92% damage dealt

and 87% damage taken

[novel vector]

it has supereffective on steenee too, right?

[distant monolith]

and dartrix doesn't see a kill

yeah but steenee has a special defense stat

unlike shuppet

[novel vector]

ah </3 yeah nodsnods

[distant monolith]

also bluster sucks

it has t0 flying coverage

40bp

i think sandaconda stays in

and then i think dartrix comes in on its death

if marill has frolic it probably chases out morgrem to magneton?

the problem with this fight is all the "probably"

so

turn 1 marill takes like 16%, sanda dies,

on turn 2 if it's magneton marill + steenee kill it

if it's centiskorch steenee protects and marill kills it

if it's dartrix marill kills it with frost barb and steenee ?? protects ??

it's never poliwhirl since steenee outspeeds and kills it

if i don't scare off morgrem with frolic... then centiskorch should always be last

they all see kills as long as morgrem is around

probably dartrix first

so steenee protects the assurance and marill frost barbs dartrix, magneton comes out and tries to kill one of them doesn't matter which

steenee stamps down and marill wavebreaks, steenee tanks an assurance

centiskorch comes out

steenee protects both kill attempts and marill wavebreaks to kill skorch

[novel vector]

awawawa... scary fight....

[distant monolith]

poliwhirl comes out

marill helping hands steenee and steenee murders morgrem

marill was holding a jaboca berry earlier (for real this time)

poliwhirl does nothing that matters all that much

poliwhirl dies

steelix in the back to beat everything really

just in case

[novel vector]

steelix awqsome......

[distant monolith]

okay i. forgot to give steenee punisher and lost

er

swift stomps

okay it wouldn't have worked anyway

because of a. assurance life orb and b. apparently morgrem can actually click reflect

[novel vector]

awawawawa

[distant monolith]

(elaboration: i forgot that life orb recoil would cause my steenee to fucking die to assurance)

i'm pretty sure that kingler is the best starter for both yez 2 and for eko and those feel like the most important fights to select a fwg starter for

[novel vector]

nodsnodsnods

[distant monolith]

though steenee basculin probably always beats eko so with less restrictive fixed encounter rules it's probably less obvious?

i do want to keep trying skwovet and maybe i'll give camel a chance

[novel vector]

cheering u on...! camel power...

[distant monolith]

shuppet rerun

pidgey run unfortunate...

[cerulean cypress]

comic...

[distant monolith]

comic?

[cerulean cypress]

pidove trade

[distant monolith]

ah

[tame void]

sadly pidove trade eats windy way so is doubly bad

[distant monolith]

yes and it's a fixed encounter so in this run ruleset it's triply bad

[cerulean cypress]

[tame void]

oh true

[distant monolith]

anyway i think pidgey is probably the worst one of the four
i think pidove would probably still be the worst one of the four but is probably better than pidgey?
i'll give it a chance of course though

shuppet is probably the best out of its four (meditite is close, they're both very useful to have in very different ways) so it evens out

and another probably-best one

(i think vanillite is actually very good as well, but these two are clearly the Good Rolls and i think the other two are the not so good rolls)

[novel vector]

honedge gaming :]

[distant monolith]

so i could take a third ghost or an egg

[novel vector]

omg maid the pidgey.......

[distant monolith]

Sandcastle the sandygast has arrived...

so let's see.

honedge for riolu croagunk

pidgey for.. pancham?

hm. the problem is that these ghosts cannot deal with honedge, zorua, or ekans

pancham* zorua or ekans

[novel vector]

nodsnodsnods.....

[distant monolith]

i may sacrifice the ampharos chance here

well this is the boring option but m. dustox is fine

[novel vector]

murmple :]

[distant monolith]

hm. does murmple actually beat any of the mons i needed an answer to though...

the other three options for this roll definitely did

murmple in theory beats zorua it just gets awkward when it switches on turn 2

yes, this mon most definitely suffers from doesnothingitis

[novel vector]

</3 murmple despair…..

[distant monolith]

oh wait i can just 2v1 zorua perfect

murmple i never doubted you for a second

[novel vector]

murmple delight….!

[distant monolith]

i never doubted murmple never ever

shoutouts to shuppet for not coming out

congratulations to pidgey and murmple for evolving...

they're going to celebrate by genocide route casaba

[distant monolith]

how will i defeat whismur....

pidgeotto larvesta, cascoon smoochum, sandshrew joltik/noibat, random ghost whismur, random mon bunnelby

[novel vector]

murmple power…!!

[distant monolith]

tragic: i have a good nidorino team and a bad arya team

[novel vector]

misery and agony.........

[distant monolith]

time to teach every single mon on my team protect

nidorino is level 23

also dead

incredibly polite. incorrect

[cerulean cypress]

me pausing my life's death spiral just to add a fourth option here that just says "gross."

[distant monolith]

thsi is just like some trainer but shuppet is beautiful

this six seems worse than the last six
then again i haven't taken foreclosed tunnel, and this six spikes very hard on 30

still kinda sad to not feel great on 2 20 evos

but cascoon doens't really do much

pidgeotto is fine flying is just not a useful typing for anything around here

lily seems completely unbeatable with this team

though if i got covert cloaks and an absol that would change i think

so i guess it's just looking at eko now

[novel vector]

waaaa nodsnods

[distant monolith]

my team is not very good at killing eko's mons with types other than ground

graveler is obviously right there and very useful

[nimble grail]

Can steal them from Zorua if you are in dire need

[distant monolith]

yeah

it's just ideal if i do that post-eko
but i'll probably need cloaks for eko so we'll see

yeah, i think i do need cloaks

so what do i roll...

well. hm.

i haven't used either of these mons but they intuitively both seem strong to me

[novel vector]

seems quite good yeah

[cerulean cypress]

arbok is good

passive trapping if you squint

[distant monolith]

arbok is shuppet at home

can you binding band this damage

[tame void]

I think you can't?

I remember noting when I was working on [REDACTED] that clearly there should have been some logic in the constrictor code that uh. wasn't.

[distant monolith]

it looks like you said binding band works and grip claw doesn't

[tame void]

that sounds right

[distant monolith]

ctrl fing now

[tame void]

I knew there was some issue but didn't remember what exactly it was

[distant monolith]

binding band is a balanced item in pokemon tectonic 3.3

i'm saying lies recreationally ^

tbh is this even better shuppet maybe not

anyway i'm gonna use the ekans

[cerulean cypress]

you forgot a redacted in there

constrictor does not have any code that is similar to it

[tame void]

I forgot to redact a thing that no longer is lmao

or well no, it is

that code was such an odyssey I no longer remember the details lol

[distant monolith]

passive trapping will reign forever

[distant monolith]

anyway ekans may be shuppet at home but that just means i have two shuppets

they may be higher level than 7 but that will not stop their reign

similarly binding band on an ekans is just rowap berry at home

but that means i have two rowap berries

[distant monolith]

actually i said this but i think binding band is perfectly fine in 3.3 except for klawsar
strong-but-niche, leftovers at home on its most obvious users

huh, draining kiss activates after rowap

i guess that makes sense

okay so eko

graveler can slow ohko tentacool and fletchinder, and then also vulpix with an item, but to get an item it either has to be life orb or i have to use my gigalith's guts encounter so i can covet a hard stone

camerupt can do work somewhat more easily thanks to being faster but i don't think i have any way to really kill fletchinder then

if graveler uses rock polish i can get rid of that word "slow"

the problem with trying to set up a graveler sweep is that camel is there

[distant monolith]

the issue with a camel sweep is fletchinder, which is a pain but probably a more navigable one

since i can do something absurd like... switch through shuppet into ekans

19 hp/0def cascoon always gets targeted by aerial ace and fake out over any camel or over tailwind

can switch into 10hp/0def shuppet, which is immune to fake out and tanks aerial ace, triggering malice dealing 25% . camerupt uses rock polish here

then switch from there into ekans, which can tank the attacks and trigger constrictor. jaboca berry + malice x2 + binding band constrictor now means fletchinder is dead without being attacked a single time. camerupt uses incinerate here i guess actually, since that deals enough to avoid the binding band use

[distant monolith]

this is what happens when a girl doesn't have rock type moves

[novel vector]

omg.....

camel sweep... i believe in camel sweep....

[distant monolith]

ekans shoudl have covert cloak here so it doesn't randomly die to burn, which means i can guarantee it's in tynamo kill range so tynamo will tfang it

absol is also shuppet at home...

can shuppet at home sweep (no)

[unkempt stump]

shuppet is so good i have to use it more on my next playthrough ...

[distant monolith]

leads: 0hp/0def flame body cascoon @ covert cloak, 20atk/6spe camerupt @ life orb @ unfazed @ rock polish/incinerate/mud shot

t1:
cascoon switch to 9hp/0def shuppet @ malice @ jaboca berry, salandit fake out (ghost type), fletchinder aerial ace (malice trigger, jaboca trigger), camerupt rock polish, curse damage

t2:
shuppet switch to ekans @ constrictor @ covert cloak, camerupt incinerate (life orb recoil), salandit fire pulse ekans, fletchinder aerial ace or flame charge ekans (constrictor trigger), curse damage constrictor damage fletchinder dies, tynamo comes out

t3:
ekans switch to honedge @ crystal veil flying, camerupt mud shot salandit kos, tynamo thunder fang honedge, vulpix comes out

t4:
honedge protect, camerupt incinerates, tynamo thunder fang into protect, vulpix single target special move into protect

t5:
honedge switch to pidgeotto @ covert cloak, camerupt mud shot kills vulpix, tynamo thunder fang deals half to pidgeotto, other mon comes out

t6:
pidgeotto protect, camerupt mud shot kills other mon, tynamo thunder fang into protect, other mon comes out

t7: pidgeotto switch to cascoon. camerupt mud shot kills other mon, tynamo thunder fang new switch in

t8: camerupt + cascoon kill tynamo

this is so scuffed

this is so so scuffed

[novel vector]

awawawawa

[distant monolith]

this ekans plan is the worst iron barbs i've ever imagined

it should work it's just. still scuffed

[novel vector]

cheering u on...!!

[distant monolith]

oh wait i want. to switch to cascoon last

because an ally flame body proc would be rng

[novel vector]

ooo nodsnods

[distant monolith]

once again i have set up my entire eko team before remembering i didn't beat their gym trainers

THIS IS HOW CRYSTAL VEIL WAS MEANT TO BE USED

the battle is 100% according to plan and it's glorious

i'm satisfied because i used crystal veil to take more damage from an attack on purpose

and because there are three different mons who have style point setups specifically to take as much damage as possible, and a fourth mon who is styled to take a relatively specific amount of damage

anyway there's no way i'm fighting yez 2 with my current mons

[novel vector]

OMGOMG LETSGOOOOOOOO

[novel vector]

incredibly cool&awqsome omg

[distant monolith]

ludmila: honedge trivializes rattata and beats golbat too for that matter, which makes everything else easy

honedge,,, you can have a good type again

actually the mime jr. is maybe a real issue?

wait no i ahve a dark type!!!

it can't trap me mwahaha

[unkempt stump]

this is such absolute gaming omg

[distant monolith]

jerel should be easy with ghosts

i only grabbed three covert cloaks because i didnt' want to put in teh effort to get all six but there seem to be battles where i genuinely want more

eko only wanted the three at least

[tame void]

yeah it's useful to have uhh four I think. more than that probably less so

at this particular point in the game they're as much as anything because the quality of held item available is so low lol

[distant monolith]

yeah true

the held items: 1x leftovers, 1x life orb, infinite covert cloaks, sometimes rowap/jaboca berry

(okay tehre's a bunch more niche. and cystal veil)

[tame void]

sometimes sitrus etc comes up, but yeah

[distant monolith]

but covert cloak is really good if the enemy move says the symbol %

because i don't want the move to say that it's not allowed

did misclick on ludmila and undo it which will be an asterisk* if the run goes anywhere but the state i'm playing it i don't want to lose things for that i'd rather play and experience

[tame void]

yeah I think misclicks should be allowed for undos lol

[distant monolith]

the usual terror is up next

(freedom)

[tame void]

ah yes

dreading figuring out a new fixed encounters only line for that guy lol

[distant monolith]

noxious is scary

what did the old one use for mareanie

[tame void]

a. sandshrew basically iirc

[distant monolith]

ah

[tame void]

I think it was like, chill, use a. sandshrew to block attacks, do some switching until it dies

probably a. meowth in there

[distant monolith]

it's a shame it has poison gas i've been looking for a chance to try rowap recycle skwovet

well it would be jaboca in this case

[tame void]

hm interesting idea

but the poison gas messes with it yeah

[distant monolith]

it's just another shuppet at home option

because it makes the enemy health bar mysteriously disappear without stalling that hard and without attacking

shuppet is so good

ekans has been good but it definitely is shuppet as home

binding band has been fine but never better than jaboca would be

i can't use shuppet for mareanie though because it might noxious me below half

and i don't have the faith in myself necessary to believe i'll make it work

i guess it's probably binding band ekans + something with a jaboca berry

and then ..? for nuzleaf

hm pidgeotto outspeeds

maybe it's just shuppet

it's always shuppet

i feel like shuppet doesn't come to any of the five most important teams in the game but comes to basically every single other battle in the entire playthrough

yeah, perfect, colbur berry shuppet

covert camel for sinistea since it's immune to burn + cloak deals with Chill Out, ekans + whoever with a jaboca berry for mareanie

colbur berry is the most used type resist berry for me. this is because it goes on shuppet and only because it goes on shuppet

i could use sitrus to the same effect here i suppose

honedge can hold the jaboca, cascoon for bonus sinistea backup just in case, pidgeotto for nuzleaf also just n case

oh i don't have my colbur berry

whoops bluepoint beach looting fail

hwan is scary

camerupt is the obvious answer to scizor but it probably can't take the fixed encounter slot, i think i need to use that on poliwhirl

i don't actually have non-fixed chill access, which is the problem ehre

i do have absol, though

ekans beats gigalith and cascoon beats scizor pretty well... i think i'm good, then

not even shuppet

wait. i can't ekans a moldor

e

my backup plan clears so it's fine

but like

rock tomb isn't physical

here

oh i think it might be time to grab m. munna

i don't have a great answer to this duraludon otherwise

[distant monolith]

m. munna answered the duraludon
it was surprisingly clean becausse it didn't even try to stall

[novel vector]

m.munna swagful…..

[distant monolith]

now genevieve...

hitmonlee. i'm going to introduce you to your new best friend. you'll hate her. her name is sandygast

[tame void]

XD

[distant monolith]

at least i have a sandygast

[tame void]

yeah that'll work

[distant monolith]

no switching for fifty turns for once!

that's optimal without one but it's painful

the lunatone is scary but sitrus berry absol with shiver is the play, i think

[tame void]

(sinistea is the usual approach and works fine but that requires you use your fixed encounter slot)

[tame void]

sounds right

once you chill lunatone basically anything with spdef works well enough I think

[distant monolith]

yeah
the aforementioned sandygast, probably

i long for recovery moves other than slack off

none of my non-fixed mons learn it

[tame void]

yeah 😔

it's an issue

[distant monolith]

although only two of them have recovery anyway

well

shuppet gets stitch up eventually

but i don't think there's any way to get that at 25 in the game

[tame void]

yeah it's post-surf only it looks like

surprisingly few things actually learn it

[distant monolith]

i guess i can actually get encounters before genevieve if i want

the lillipup is like

right there

[tame void]

you can yeah

genevieve is only necessary for flame spikes

[distant monolith]

i think it would be nice if i had an encounter that was good into
say
yez 2
i don't think most of mine are

so maybe i'll go and look for a way to fix that

right i do need to actually get the pup first

i would debug all mons seen if i could lol

not caught since that fucks with encounter rolls

but seen

i'm looking at yez's team and then looking at my non-fixed encounters and i just don't see how i kill any of these mons

and it's doubles so i do need things that actually kill the mons

[novel vector]

awawawawa.....

[distant monolith]

i do have infinity encounters to take

so smoochum can kill things on yez 2 and is also non-fixed chill access

slurpuff... does this mon do anything?

especially since i'm past eko

so now i can kill the magneton and sandaconda on yez 2

the issue is that i don't have a way to kill the morgrem i think

i miss kingler

anyway

1 encounter option: svait, velenz, luxtech campus, grouz, grouz mine, ice cave, carnation graves [behind theoni], luxtech sewers, gigalith's guts, hollowed layer, team chasm hq, stone nest

2: shipping lane, feebas' fin, eleig river crossing, foreclosed tunnel, repora forest

3: kilna turf, county park, lingering delta

4+: velenz menagerie

this feels like a small number of spare encounters relatively somehow even though it's 21

i think it's because i didn't include post-beartic (nebula ruins/ascent) and post-keycard

i wonder how good swadloon is on this fight

poor seel

4 true level 30 full evos, a 5th mon that evolves at 30 then by stone, and a 6th mon that evolves to middle stage at 30

just two more fights...

i could definitely beat genevieve now that i have smoochum but not much point

[distant monolith]

swadloon is probably good here i'm just not sure what happens... i don't think i have an opener other than swadloon smoochum

morgrem definitely stays in and tries to murder smoochum.... so swadloon can agility herb bladebrained rake murder it?

not clear what sandaconda does here (it probably runs away?)

if it does run away it's surely a switch to centiskorch. magneton dies a fast death so it should never come in after seeing smoochum attack, it's probably poliwhirl but it could be dartrix

dartrix sees itself dying horribly but it has shadow sneak so it gets something off first

the issue with the smoochum / swadloon lead is just that centiskorch means both of them can't exist

pure-bait honedge might do it better? instant switch to pidgeotto while swadloon gets the agility herb kill

aeroshell pidgeotto might do work here

okay i am closing pokemon tectonic

[distant monolith]

well, okay

i was here for a fire resist, but i'll take it

[cerulean cypress]

it's a special resist if you click sandstorm ig

[distant monolith]

it's a passive trapper

this actually does bring me to 2 sand mons but not nearly enough

[tame void]

it's also steel which is relevant

[distant monolith]

scrapper tournament is stalled for reasons of oh god tournament terrifying
i don't feel like returning to the existing run and i don't really want to do full reset rules right now, so

CURRENT RULES

• tectonic-discord typical nuzlocke rules (no prestatus, no predamage, one mon per route except for impromptu lab, mons die
• no fixed encounters in trainer battles. i can take my starters with me to catch my first two wild mons
• if i lose or if a battle had more deaths than i'm willing to accept i can reset, but my goal is to get through the main story with as few resets as possible
• i can ALWAYS reset if it's:
  a. the first turn of the battle
  b. bug clause for a bug i wasn't aware of (including 'the AI isn't aware of this ability and it should be')
• debug is legal but i have to do it mtg-in-person-judge style, i.e. i have to record what game actions i'm pretending i'm doing in this channel (for example, 'i covet one metagrillion power herbs from seedots and sell them' to debug in infinite money). it's also legal for estrogen

fixed encounter total removal is not necessarily a difficulty change that is good for me but a) playing out runs where i lose makes me more willing to accept it and b) i do not really enjoy fixed encounters in this run

[novel vector]

oh debug mtg-judge rule is rlly fun+cool

[distant monolith]

so since i can't use fixed encounters. let's analyze starters by movepool for mentoring

camerupt: completely worthless. it has dazzle and fake tears for avatars i guess

krabby: gets rake at 25 cap which could be useful for yez 2. can tutor water types trapping moves

bounsweet: gets bar pre-eko and a bunch of kicking moves to tutor. i don't think this actually matters unless i get a hitmonlee

oh krabby also gets wide guard Eventually which is highly valuable but i'll probably have it by then

and both krabby and bounsweet get swords dance at 48

conclusion: krabby is the best for mentoring purposes

No Fixed Encounters, Attempt 1

Resets: 0
Deaths: 0

Encounter Log

Casaba Villa (Grass): M. Sinistea [Wild Tea]
Scenic Trail (Tall Grass): Pichu [Nuzzler]
Old Ice Cream Shop (Grass): Toxel [Shrill]
Bluepoint Beach (Grass): Houndour [Doomdomme]
Bluepoint Grotto (Sparse Grass): Shellder [Juliet]

Encounter Log (Fixed / Battle-Illegal)

Impromptu Lab FWG Starter: Krabby
Impromptu Lab Normal Starter: Skwovet
Casaba Center: A. Sandshrew

Major Fight Log

oh i can't pin in my own threads sadge

mentor pool comparison for normal starters

skwovet gets covet pre-arya, recycle on casaba, and rock moves earlier than other mons most notably rock blast

zigzagoon gets sharpen on casaba, covet pre-arya, very late belly drum, and fairy coverage to tutor for lambert

patrat gets glare on casaba, heal pulse for avatars, high powered normal moves for the level, and eerie impulse for avatars

this is a less obvious choice but i do think it's skwovet

oh

rule addendum

debug estrogen is also legal

debug testosterone is not

so bug catcher caitlyn is between me and game progression

so i need non-fixed encounters to beat her

i have three zones: casaba grass, scenic trail, and windy way

the easy thing to do is to take scenic trail grass first, but i can't actually do that because i took krabby lmao

or maybe i could actually. it's okay if krabby dies

i'm going to save krabby's life and go for casaba grass first

or hmm

yeah, casaba grass first

Tea from Not Even The Tea Store

with krabby out, i can take scenic trail tall grass doubles

i don't think riolu does anything

other than be a steel type

[ripe orchid]

its also legal for estrogen
peak

uhh u can trade riolu for bonsly

[distant monolith]

lmao

[ripe orchid]

who does even less

[distant monolith]

and is not battle legal

in this ruleset

[ripe orchid]

oh right no fixed

lmao

[distant monolith]

the team has defeated youngster harvey!

[ripe orchid]

lets gooo

[distant monolith]

i think this team might not be able to perfect lass sienna. so we'll ignore her for now

it can't beat hiker dave, either

purchase: 1 Repel

the team has defeated bug catcher caitlyn!

'

oh i was wrong about which starter is optimal for mentoring

oh well

the right answer is numel

because you trade it for spheal immediately

the team has defeated sailor dylan!

a. sandshrew get!

the team has defeated ninja boy matthew!

[cerulean cypress]

you can but not on mobile

[distant monolith]

i'm not on mobile

next up is vigoroth

now that i don't have sandshrew i have to actually have a team for this

once again i have no idea what level this vigoroth is

[tame void]

yeah I think someone changed settings and now contributors don't have pin powers anymore

[distant monolith]

oh it's 15

< girl who checked bella's curselocke playlist for this lmao

this vigoroth has a very illegal moveset lmao

phase 2 illegal moves are whatever but it doesn't actually get bite

hp mult of 3 so each phase has 1.5x hp

pichu is like completely worthless for this (it can survive one turn of phase 1 attacks and nuzzle)

i really wish i could debug "have seen every mon"

windy way grass is probably worthless for vigoroth, anything except murmple in the tall grass probably beats it

i guess i might as well foreclosed tunnel first

oh wait

i have pichu and toxel and these are ground types

i think bluepoint beach grass is better but honestly both have their positives

i kinda don't really want a clamperl or inkay though

this will do

[ripe orchid]

yooo its bug! or houndoom i suppose

[distant monolith]

it may be houndour for. where else am i gonna get a fire type privilege

anyway. i still can't safely catch a mon in foreclosed tunnel doubles

so i think everything in the sparse grass would help

Skill Link

[ripe orchid]

the skill is linked

[distant monolith]

this shellder is named Juliet to me and i don't know why

[ripe orchid]

do you think theyd be friends

[distant monolith]

definitely yeah

the montagues want romeo to set sun instead of juliet's beloved rain or hail

[ripe orchid]

weather-crossed lovers...

[distant monolith]

anyway phanpy is really good for vigoroth so i feel much better about it

especially since shellder can tutor it ice shard

with burn out

wait. i forgot. burn out doesn't work

well! hopefully it's fine

it was fine

i underestimated pichu and houndour's ability to clear 1

but the mon is still scary

especially since i have zero trust in avatar targeting consistency

[cerulean cypress]

if the avatar has two moves it's able to cycle through and doesn't see any immunities it's predictable, if it has 3+ moves or you're showing immunities it can get more complex

[distant monolith]

oh. burn out isn't dawnfall

whoops