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  This will be my first SSLP where I don't use image filenames as alt text. As fun as it is, it also makes assembling updates take significantly longer, and is one of the primary reasons I always burn out on these. In 1998, Nintendo and Gamefreak released Pokémon Blue, one of a pair of games that My name is Wait, what? This is not my first attempt at a Pokemon Stadium LP. Last time, I bit off more than I could chew with an absolutely ridiculous idea that strangled the LP in the crib. Said idea was to make a challenge run, because with no limitations on what I could use, the game would become hilariously easy (at least until Round 2/New Game+). Except I went too far in the other direction, and made something completely Pokeball-busting. This time, I've found what should hopefully be a more acceptable middle ground. Here's how it works. I will play Pokemon Blue up to each gym battle, mostly skimming over gameplay except for newly obtained Pokemon (more on that in a minute). Then, before I challenge the gym leader, I jump over to Pokemon Stadium, and beat that round of the Gym Leader Castle. I cannot advance in Blue until I've beaten that round in Stadium. Sounds simple enough, right? There's a catch, and if you think like the kind of masochist I am, you may have caught on already. Alright, what's the challenge? I can only use imported Pokemon accessible at that point in my journey through Blue. In addition, in order to prevent cheese and save me horrendous grinding, I cannot use any Pokemon at a higher level than the Leader's strongest Pokemon. For example, Brock's strongest Pokemon is a level 14 Onix, so I will be entering Brock's Castle with a Bulbasaur, a Butterfree, and whatever else I can scrape together from Route 2 and Viridian Forest, all of whom must be at or below level 14. I will be temporarily leveling my Pokemon up to 50 with the use of Shenanigans, as that's the minimum level for NPC trainers in the Castle, but they will be returned to their natural levels at the completion of the castle. As I advance further through the game, my stock of available Pokemon will grow, as will my access to TMs. However, I am also prohibited from trading, so once I use my Dig TM, that's it, no other Pokemon are learning Dig if they don't do so naturally. This will provide an extra axis of difficulty on my journey, as I must carefully decide when and how to use my TMs. (I will be buying a lot of Submission and Mega Kick TMs in Celadon.) My final goal is to complete the entire castle, and defeat the Elite Four and Rival at the top. (There were plans for more LP beyond that, initially, and you'll still find references to it here and there in certain updates.) Okay, why Blue? Why not Red? Short version, for the purpose of this challenge, Blue has better version exclusives. Long version, we'll get there when we get there. Is there audience participation? Kind of? Feel free to suggest nicknames for Pokemon, as everything but my starter has a name that is completely up to the thread to decide. Once we get into midgame, the stock of reasonably-viable Pokemon will grow significantly. As such, if posters in the thread express special interest in whether a Pokemon is usable in this challenge or not, I may attempt to do so (or show in some detail why they are not.) What's the spoiler policy? Last time, I tried to have a 'don't spoil the weird mechanics' rule, but that just got strange and awkward. Spoiler policy is open season. These games are literally 20 years old. If you want a relatively unblemished look at Gen 1, I recommend Crosspeice's Pokemon Yellow LP. Format? Screenshot. Pokemon Blue isn't new, I have nothing worthwhile to add about playing it that someone else hasn't said better, and so will mostly be skimming over those parts of the LP. Meanwhile, the Stadium battles are relatively slow, there's quite a lot of them, and the announcer's pool of lines is... limited. It's just better for everyone involved if most battles are communicated in a few screenshots. Anything else? Seriously, please don't derail with arguments about how every generation after the last one you played is terrible, or negatively comparing it to Digimon, or Shin Megami Tensei, or RoboPon, or whatever the gently caress else. These are games for children and we're posting on a dead gay internet comedy forum, have some chill. Please. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Mar 23, 2022 |
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Full List of Viability Rankings (#01-73) 5.0:        4.5:         4.0:   1          3.5:            3.0:             2.5:         2.0:           1.5:     1.0:   1  1    0.0:  Other:    1 - These Pokemon have had their scores and evaluations reconsidered/corrected since the update they first appeared in; their initial entries are kept for archival purposes. Please see Pokemon Center 5 for details. Bulbasaur   Viability: 5/5 The Grass/Poison starter has a type advantage against the first several gyms, has solid bulk, and learns some excellent moves by level up, including Razor Leaf, Sleep Powder, and Leech Seed, to the point where it can thrive without using a single TM. However, it has an unfortunate Psychic weakness, and fills about the same niche as a much more common Pokemon, Victreebel, though Venusaur is slightly faster than it at the cost of a lower Attack. Charmander   Viability: 4/5 The first Fire type available until we have access to Celadon, and one of only three viable ones for this challenge. It's fast, it's strong, and it learns Flamethrower and Fire Spin on its own... but not any kind of Flying attack, not until Yellow. Decent defensive stats are undercut by its long list of weaknesses, as well. Squirtle   Viability: 3/5 Squirtle gets us through Brock, has some solid physical bulk, decent all around stats, and learns Hydro Pump naturally. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it is far from the only Water-type that can say that. Gyarados is available before we even beat Misty, and the competition only gets stiffer from there. Without any unique niche, offensively or defensively, it completely fails to stand out by midgame against the myriad other options. Sorry, bud. Caterpie   Viability: 2/5 Ash's first catch evolves quickly, and learns Confusion as soon as it's a Butterfree. This makes it good for about ten minutes, until its terrible stats, typing, and movepool catch up to it. Fortunately for it, we are in those ten minutes. Weedle   Viability: 1/5 This thing is a pain in the rear end to catch in Blue, and it is not even remotely worth bothering. Before level 20, when it learns Twineedle, its Fury Attack on average deals slightly less damage than a Quick Attack from a Rattata of the same level. After level 20... that Rattata is now a Raticate with Hyper Fang, and is now dealing half again as much damage as Beedrill's Twinneedle.  Please don't use Beedrill in Gen 1. Pidgey   Viability: 2.5/5 It suffers from mediocre stats and a lack of a good Flying moves until the Fly HM three badges from now. Unfortunately, Pidgeot's moveset paints it as a late bloomer, but its stats don't match up to that promise. Even more unfortunately, something that outclasses it is only one route away... Rattata  Viability: 3.5/5 Rattata isn't a world-shattering superstar, either, but its reliability, early evolution, and quick access to the excellent Hyper Fang means it's going to be sticking around for a while yet. Spearow  Viability: 3.5/5 My dear friend here seems to have dedicated its entire life to clowning on Pidgey. It gets immediate access to Peck, has a higher Attack and a higher Speed, and its evolution, only two levels after Pidgeotto, can arguably be favorably compared to Pidgeot. Ekans  Viability: 2.5/5 Arbok is a Pokemon that feels like a near miss in a lot of ways. It has Wrap, not terrible speed, and its signature move, Glare, can paralyze Ground Pokemon. But at 75% accuracy, you're probably better off putting something to sleep, and it is extremely lacking in ways to deal any decent damage, its best option without TMs being Acid, a move that will deal the same amount of damage as Bite, after STAB. With an Attack of only 85, a Speed of 80, and lacking 60/69/65 defenses and a bad defensive typing, its only niche is as a mediocre annoyer that disintegrates as soon as that strategy falls apart. And, just like Sandslash, it evolves at 22, whereas Misty's strongest Pokemon is 21. Poor thing. Pikachu  Viability: 4/5 Finally, a rare Pokemon worth the hassle! The only Electric type available before Celadon, and it learns Thunder Wave beautifully early. Once Raichu is available, the arguably-superior Jolteon is as well, so it gets some serious competition for the Thunderbolt TM there. In the mean time, though, I am happy to add this adorable little glass cannon to my team. Sandshrew  Viability: 3/5 I really want to like Sandslash. Good Attack and Defense, and 100% crit Slash, but a mediocre Speed and dependence on TMs for STAB hold it back from really standing out against Graveler, and someone else we'll be seeing soon. If only it evolved one level sooner, at 21 instead of 22, that would make it usable now, and give it at least some kind of niche. As-is, it's not bad, but it struggles to stand out amongst the competition. Nidoran F   Viability: 3.5/5 An unevolved Nidoran F has nothing notable to bring to the table. No decent STAB moves, no exceptional stats, no good coverage... This'll change once we get to Mount Moon and find some Moon Stones. Nidoqueen has a potential niche, a good all-rounder Pokemon with a wide TM movepool, and it learns Body Slam early. But, for now, it's a bench warmer. Nidoran M   Viability: 3/5 Nidoran M is also around here, though at a much lower spawn rate in Blue. Nidoking is similar to Nidoqueen, with higher offensive stats in exchange for less bulk, and learning the dubious Thrash instead of the excellent Body Slam. It would be rated a lot higher if the TMs it wants weren't in such high demand. Clefairy  Viability: 3/5 The Moon Stone user within Mount Moon itself, Clefable is to Wigglytuff as Fearow is to Pidgeot: superior in every way that matters. Its 95/73/85 defenses make it bulkier, its 70/85 attacking stats make it more threatening, and its 60 Speed edges out WT's 45. It even has access to Sing, as well, if you need some early-game sleep stalling. Uuuunfortunately, being better than Wigglytuff isn't a high bar to cross. It's still slow, mediocre offensively, and extremely dependent on TMs. It's got some pros over the Nidos as a rolefiller (Normal STAB, no Psychic weakness, but also some serious cons (no resistances or immunities, and it's slower). Still, they fill about the same role with about the same effectiveness, so they deserve about the same rating. Vulpix  Viability: 5/5 Most Fire-type Pokemon in RBY have a problem. They learn Ember quickly... and then absolutely no other Fire-type moves until almost endgame. Even unevolved, most of them aren't learning Flamethrower until the mid-40s or even 50s. In a challenge like this, that's a problem. Vulpix, by contrast, learns Flamethrower at 35. Even Charmeleon just barely squeaks by learning it before Koga, but that means keeping it unevolved for Erika. Ninetales doesn't have this problem, as long as you catch two, a very easy task. And its stats aren't bad, either! 73/75/100 defenses, 76/100 offenses, and 100 Speed make it a formidable Pokemon even before it gets the moves it really wants. And did I mention it learns Confuse Ray by level-up, too, just for extra shenanigans? Jigglypuff  Viability: 1/5 Wigglytuff is a strange Pokemon. 140 Base HP sounds absolutely incredible, but it comes at the cost of literally every other stat. Its miserable 45 Defense and 50 Special means those big HP numbers aren't actually going to be lasting very long, and with the added penalty that percentage-based damage, such as from being poisoned, is actually more effective. Zubat  Viability: 2/5 Golbat is not the Pokemon that most desperately needed an evolution in Gen 2, that honor goes to Onix, but oh boy does it appreciate it. If you don't look too hard, Golbat seems like it might be alright. Decent base stats, and access to the ever-annoying Confuse Ray, as well as Haze to clear away stat boosts. However, that's where the benefits end. Golbat's movepool is anemic. No STAB more substantial than Wing Attack (it doesn't even learn Fly until Gen 4!), very few other tricks, and a horrendous list of weaknesses: Psychic, Electric, Rock, and Ice. The only thing keeping this poor bastard out of a flat 1 is the possibility of a gimmick Substitute/Toxic/Double Team/Confuse Ray stall build, but even that requires the valuable Toxic TM, and there are much better users of that. Oddish   Viability: 2.5/5 Vileplume is to Victreebel as Pidgeot is to Fearow, a Pokemon similar in many respects, but lacking in just enough to really lose its luster. The only stat advantage is Defense, but its lower HP makes that marginal, at best, it's slower, and instead of the excellent Razor Leaf, it learns the risky Petal Dance, which might be an interesting trade-off in a game with sane critical hit rates. If I was playing Red, and thus using Charizard, I'd probably use it, if only for lack of better options. But, I'm not, so I'm not. Paras  Viability: 1/5 Hoo boy, Parasect. Its only damaging move without a TM is the pathetic Leech Life, and its only Grass moves are Mega Drain and Solarbeam, both via TM, rendering its decent 95/80 attacking stats completely null. It has what might just be the worst defensive typing in RBY, with two quadruple weaknesses, as well as weaknesses to Ice and Rock, rendering it completely unable to withstand a solid hit, even from things it's supposed to check. Spore might be able to help with that, except for one little problem: There are no fully evolved Pokemon in RBY with a lower base Speed than Parasect. Sleep is absolutely busted in Gen 1, no doubt about that, but it's not because of a slow, weakness-laden Pokemon with no offensive presence. Hell, there's two better Sleep abusers in this very update. When you manage to be worse than Gen 1 Wigglytuff, you know there's problems. Venonat  Viability: 3/5 I like Venonat. That isn't just me being charitable, Venomoth is neat. 90 Speed puts it just a hair slower than the other good sleep users, and while it's kinda frail with only a 90 Special, it does get Psychic by level-up, which is always nice. Not much in the way of coverage, and its typing is downright terrible, but it's a good Sleep user, so I can't be too cruel. If you really like all-terrain vehicles, then I can't fault you for wanting to use it. Diglett  Viability: 4/5 Some Pokemon get high ratings for being able to do lots of things decently well. Dugrio has flimsy 35/50/70 defenses, no resistances, only one immunity, and its Attack is only 80. So why is it rated so highly? It is the best physical glass cannon in RBY. That 80 Attack is bringing down naturally-learned Digs and Earthquakes, its Slash always crits, and its 120 Speed doesn't go faster than everything, but it ties with Alakazam, scares out Jolteon, and Electrode and Aerodactyl are very niche. Anything that does survive to hit it back is probably going to take it down, but it has to survive it first, and lots of very good Pokemon want nothing to do with its Earthquake. We'll be seeing what he can do very soon. Meowth  Viability: 3.5/5 Persian has two gimmicks. First, it's the strongest, fastest user of Slash, allowing it a gimmick of having a powerful Normal attack that bypasses all defensive boosts. It isn't quite strong or tough enough to really make excellent use of it, but it's certainly there. The second gimmick is its signature move, Pay Day, learned at level 17, which gives you just a little bit of money every battle you use it in. I'm not actually using it for grinding, but I can now guiltlessly Shenanigans myself infinite money. Psyduck  Viability: 3/5 It's... fine? I have been writing about a lot of 3/5-ish Water types today and I'm super close to the end of this update, so I'm gonna be brief with this one. It's kinda fast and it learns Amnesia, but it doesn't actually get Psychic STAB or much in the way of coverage moves, and it also can't do anything to realistically threaten Electric Pokemon who're in position to crit it with Thunderbolt. Use it if you wanna, but it doesn't have anything to make it must-have. Mankey  Viability: 3.5/5 In Yellow, Mankey is a Pokemon with a great niche as an early Fighting-type, knowing Low Kick as soon as you catch it, before Brock. In Red and Blue, however, it doesn't learn a Fighting-type attack until... hang on, let me check my notes. Oh. Never. Luckily for it, Submission is an unlimited-purchase TM in Celadon city. An Attack of 105 and a Speed of 95 make it a solid Fighting-type, standing out well against Machoke, its main competition. Not well enough to give it an edge over something else we'll get later, though. Growlithe  Viability: 3.5/5 Arcanine's not a bad Pokemon. 90/80/80 defenses are nice, and it's got 110 Attack, giving its Normal moves a decent punch. It even has Agility to turn its 95 Speed into something truly fearsome! Buuuuut that's not enough to make up for its shortcomings in comparison with Ninetales. Having three very common weaknesses severely undercuts its bulk, and the 20 points lost in Special keep it from really sweeping with Fire moves the way it'd like to. Which is even more of a problem because Growlithe does not learn Flamethrower until level 50. I will literally have the Fire Blast TM before I can legally use that. Poliwag   Viability: 3.5/5 I've said multiple times that a Water Pokemon needs something special to set it apart from all the others, and Poliwrath has chosen to do this via its secondary typing and actually managing to properly build itself as a jack-of-all-trades. Submission and Hydro Pump/Surf give it two potent STAB moves, allowing them, in combination with the naturally-learned Body Slam, to make a decent mixed attacker. It has Hypnosis, it learns Amnesia if it wants to buff up its Special some more, it's got a pretty broad pool of TM moves... and a list of flaws just as broad. It's mediocre, Speed-wise, its bulk is nothing special, its typing is less than the sum of its parts defensively, Submission being its only STAB Fighting move severely cuts into its longevity, and Hypnosis is still an unreliable move. If it had a higher Speed, Agility, instant recovery, some kind of edge, Poliwrath would earn an easy 4, maybe even a 4.5. It's able to slot into the usual Water slot, while also pinch-hitting as a setup sweeper or Normal check, and it's able to do all of this without TMs. It's just never going to excel the way something specialized might. Abra   Viability: 4.5/5 Generation 1 has a Thing for 'Pokemon that start as a pain in the rear end and train into something incredible'. One of the most infamous members of the not-at-all-busted Psychic-type, Kadabra learns Psychic, Recover, and Reflect all by level-up, allowing it to shore up its lacking Defense and keep on its feet. Unfortunately, without the boost from Alakazam, that Defense is really lacking, at a whopping 30, with 40 Hase HP to match. There are several Pokemon fast enough to take huge chunks out of it before it can even think of the word Reflect. Still, once it has that wall up, it's much hardier, and STAB Psychic coming off of a 120 Special and 105 Speed is hard to ignore. Honestly, though, the only thing keeping it out of a 5 is how boring it would be just sweeping the entire game with a Kadabra. Machop   Viability: 3/5 Machop evolves just before the cut-off point for Erika's gym, so it's actually got something of a use in this run. 100 Attack isn't awful, and we're about to get access to Submission TMs, so it even has a decent reliable STAB move. The recoil and its low Speed and 80/70/60 defenses really hold it back, but between now and Saffron City, I can probably get some decent use out of it. Bellsprout   Viability: 4.5/5 Victreebel is not the reason I chose Blue, but it is the reason that I would've felt safe picking something aside from Bulbasaur when I did so. It's an excellent Pokemon, learning Wrap, Vine Whip, Growth, and Sleep Powder all before evolving at level 21, and Razor Leaf only a few levels after Venusaur (as long as you keep it as a Weepinbell until then). 105/100 offenses and access to Swords Dance means that it can also threaten with powerful Normal moves. Victreebel's Achilles heels are its 65 defense, lacking defensive typing, and merely mediocre 70 Speed, but even that is easy enough to ignore when you consider everything else it has going for it. Tentacool  Viability: 5/5 Hot diggity, two fives in one update! There are so many good things going for Tentacruel. 100 Speed makes it the fastest Wrap user. Swords Dance turns its 70 Attack into something horrendous. 120 Special gives its Surfs or Hydro Pumps an absurd amount of power. Tentacruel's Achilles heel is its mediocre 65 Defense and lack of recovery moves besides the unreliable Rest. If Tentacruel learned Recover, I think I might have had to give it a 6. To #74-151 girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 18:27 on Mar 12, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2019 11:01
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Route 1: Let's Get Underway Before we get anywhere in Stadium, we're going to need to start up Pokemon Blue.    It's a bad idea to give the internet your real name. I'm doing it anyways.    Fasslp stands for 'Finishing A Screenshot LP.' My one true rival.     Here is the first run-defining choice we get, as our starter is not only the first Pokemon we get, but it's also going to be one of the most reliable throughout the whole game. As we encounter them, Pokemon will be rated by viability in this challenge on a scale of 1 to 5, based on stats, movepool, availability, and how many or few TMs it needs in order to be functional. I will also explain my logic for this rating, giving a small rundown of the Pokemon's pros and cons. Please be aware this is not about how good the Pokemon is in the handheld games, or competitively, and giving your favorite Pokemon a 2 does not mean it's a sucking sucker who sucks  Bulbasaur Viability: 5/5 The Grass/Poison starter has a type advantage against the first several gyms, has solid bulk, and learns some excellent moves by level up, including Razor Leaf, Sleep Powder, and Leech Seed, to the point where it can thrive without using a single TM. However, it has an unfortunate Psychic weakness, and fills about the same niche as a much more common Pokemon, Victreebel, though Venusaur is slightly faster than it at the cost of a lower Attack.  Charmander Viability: 4/5 The first Fire type available until we have access to Celadon, and one of only three viable ones for this challenge. It's fast, it's strong, and it learns Flamethrower and Fire Spin on its own... but not any kind of Flying attack, not until Yellow. Decent defensive stats are undercut by its long list of weaknesses, as well.  Squirtle Viability: 3/5 Squirtle gets us through Brock, has some solid physical bulk, decent all around stats, and learns Hydro Pump naturally. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, it is far from the only Water-type that can say that. Gyarados is available before we even beat Misty, and the competition only gets stiffer from there. Without any unique niche, offensively or defensively, it completely fails to stand out by midgame against the myriad other options. Sorry, bud.  In the end, if the viability numbers weren't a giveaway, I decide to grab Bulbasaur. By the time we absolutely need a Fire-type, we'll have access to other, arguably superior options, and Squirtle is rendered obsolete by a goldfish I buy outside of a cave.  I name him Oberon because that's what I called my Grass/Fairy Bulbasaur in Pokemon Insurgence, and it's just stuck with me since. Nothing else we get before the end of this update is irreplacable, but this name is the hill I die on.     You know how it goes from here. Fight the rival, get the parcel, get the dex, then finally back to Viridian.  Now we can start catching things.    Pidgey Viability: 2/5 It suffers from mediocre stats and a lack of a good Flying moves until the Fly TM three badges from now. Unfortunately, Pidgeot's moveset paints it as a late bloomer, but its stats don't match up to that promise. Even more unfortunately, something that outclasses it is only one route away... Rattata Viability: 3/5 Rattata isn't a world-shattering superstar, either, but its reliability, early evolution, and quick access to the excellent Hyper Fang means it's going to be sticking around for a while yet.     Spearow Viability: 3/5 My dear friend here seems to have dedicated its entire life to clowning on Pidgey. It gets immediate access to Peck, has a higher Attack and a higher Speed, and its evolution, only two levels after Pidgeotto, can arguably be favorably compared to Pidgeot. Nidoran F Viability: 3/5 An unevolved Nidoran F has nothing notable to bring to the table. No decent STAB moves, no exceptional stats, no good coverage... This'll change once we get to Mount Moon and find some Moon Stones. Nidoqueen has a potential niche, a good all-rounder Pokemon with a wide TM movepool, and it learns Body Slam early. But, for now, it's a bench warmer. Nidoran M Viability: 3/5 Nidoran M is also around here, though at a much lower spawn rate in Blue. Nidoking is similar to Nidoqueen, with higher offensive stats in exchange for less bulk, and learning the dubious Thrash instead of the excellent Body Slam. It would be rated a lot higher if the TMs it wants weren't in such high demand.     Caterpie Viability: 2/5 Ash's first catch evolves quickly, and learns Confusion as soon as it's a Butterfree. This makes it good for about ten minutes, until its terrible stats, typing, and movepool catch up to it. Fortunately for it, we are in those ten minutes. Weedle Viability: 1/5 This thing is a pain in the rear end to catch in Blue, and it is not even remotely worth bothering. Before level 20, when it learns Twineedle, its Fury Attack on average deals slightly less damage than a Quick Attack from a Rattata of the same level. After level 20... that Rattata is now a Raticate with Hyper Fang, and is now dealing half again as much damage as Beedrill's Twinneedle. Please don't use Beedrill in Gen 1. Pikachu Viability: 4/5 Finally, a rare Pokemon worth the hassle! The only Electric type available before Celadon, and it learns Thunder Wave beautifully early. Once Raichu is available, the arguably-superior Jolteon is as well, so it gets some serious competition for the Thunderbolt TM there. In the mean time, though, I am happy to add this adorable little glass cannon to my team.    And now that the fun part's out of the way, we get to the real draw of playing a run like this... walking back and forth for an hour!  Once that's finally done with, we're ready for our first voyage into the Castle... next update! Next Time on Multi-Track Battling: Psh, we'll be fiiiiine. Complete Roster 5: 4: 3: 2: 1: There's not a lot of variety in Pokemon to choose from, my team for this first round is mostly set, but feel free to start recommending nicknames and, of course, criticizing my viability rankings! girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 18:16 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 30, 2019 11:02
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Okay, this is a pretty nifty idea. I'm definitely on-board with this.  Best of luck getting this done!
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Sep 30, 2019 11:30
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I'm down for this, should be interesting. Played Gen 1 a LOT, but only ever played Stadium a couple of times at a friend's house since I didn't have a N64 - I remember using Jolteon to utterly wreck poo poo left right and centre, but not the specifics. I think Toxic was involved and used extensively. I mostly agree with your viability so far, though Rattata's better than just about everyone gives it credit for once you've nursed it past the first few levels where everything squishes it. I would have argued more for Nidoking, but yeah, TM scarcity in the early gens hurts a lot of really good pokemon.
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Sep 30, 2019 13:43
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This is really cool challenge! I'll definitely peek in on this from time to time.
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Sep 30, 2019 15:46
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Since I do care enough about the Pokemon meta to nerd rant a bit, I'd like to point out that the world record speedrun chooses one of the Nidos (I forget which off the top of my head) as the main fighter, plus whatever HM slaves necessary to get through the HM-gated portions. I think there's just a little bit of grinding in the Mt. Moon region to feed the Nido enough EXP to evolve to its second stage, and then the runner uses the guaranteed Moon Stone pickup there to put it into the third stage. After that, it's just a matter of buying the X-items to make it through the trickier bosses, because a third stage Nido is a goddamn tank for most of the game even against not very effective enemies because the Gen 1 Special stat covers both Sp. Atk and Sp. Def. A lot of the game is also spent in red bar to the runner can save time by making the game play the low health beep rather than several musical stings, so it's not the most fun speedrun to watch at full volume. 
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Sep 30, 2019 17:09
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Choosing the grass starter is the morally correct choice, always.
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Sep 30, 2019 19:27
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dotchan posted:Since I do care enough about the Pokemon meta to nerd rant a bit, I'd like to point out that the world record speedrun chooses one of the Nidos (I forget which off the top of my head) as the main fighter, plus whatever HM slaves necessary to get through the HM-gated portions. I think there's just a little bit of grinding in the Mt. Moon region to feed the Nido enough EXP to evolve to its second stage, and then the runner uses the guaranteed Moon Stone pickup there to put it into the third stage. After that, it's just a matter of buying the X-items to make it through the trickier bosses, because a third stage Nido is a goddamn tank for most of the game even against not very effective enemies because the Gen 1 Special stat covers both Sp. Atk and Sp. Def. Nidoking IIRC, and you're missing the point of why it is the selected Pokémon for speedruns. It learns Horn Drill, a OHKO move. Normally, this would be limited by low accuracy... But in Gen 1, X Accuracy causes a move to ignore accuracy checks. Thus, it can now kill anything in one hit that won't miss. This is not possible in Stadium since it doesn't have items. PMush can't abuse that strategy.
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Sep 30, 2019 19:50
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Full List of Viability Rankings (so far), (#74-150) Back to #01-73 Geodude    Viability: 3.5/5 Without access to trades, Graveler is forced to stand on its own feet. In the early game, this isn't too much of a problem. It's the only worthwhile Rock type until a certain pain in the rear end the Safari Zone. It's got a respectable 95 Attack, an excellent 115 Defense, resists Normal, is immune to Electric, and learns Self-Destruct, Explosion(!), and Earthquake(!!!) by level-up. Two quadruple weaknesses, a weakness to Ice, and an atrocious Special all severely hinder its ability to wall effectively, but it's far from a bad Pokemon, and I don't at all mind using it until I have to go waste hours of my life throwing rocks in a nature reserve. Ponyta  Viability: 2/5 There's no easy way to put this. Rapidash is a slightly faster but otherwise worse Arcanine. Lower Attack, lower Defense, and significantly lower HP make it extremely unthreatening on the physical side, and it never learns Flamethrower at all. Instead, it learns Fire Spin, and while it is technically the fastest user of a binding move, Tentacruel is only five points slower, and otherwise better in just about every way. And, if what you want is a fast Fire-type, Ninetales is also only 5 points slower, and also better in just about every way, including a much higher Special. In Yellow, Ponyta can be found on the Cycling Road, which is a better place for it than this close to the end game, but even there, it still wouldn't match up well against Arcanine. Slowpoke  Viability: 4/5 Slowbro is SO close to being 5/5 excellent, and on paper, it really should be. It's Psychic-type! It learns Psychic by level-up! It has Amnesia, unambiguously the best all-purpose boosting move in Pokemon history! It can shore up both defenses by combining that with Reflect! It even has Thunder Wave and good coverage moves via TM! It is also tied for the slowest fully-evolved Pokemon in RBY, has no stand-out traits without getting a boost, has no instant recovery, and critical hits, especially crits from fast Electric types like Jolteon (who, remember, has a 25% crit rate), annihilate it. As long as your opponent isn't packing an Electric-type, it's an excellent stall Pokemon... but that 'not packing an Electric-type" can be a pretty big ask sometimes. Magnemite   Viability: 2.5/5 I feel bad for Magneton. It's got a fantastic Special, 120, and a pretty decent 95 Defense. Even its 70 Speed is kind of workable. Unfortunately, any chance of it getting used runs into two major problems. First is that unlike most Electric Pokemon we could be using by this point, it won't ever learn any Electric move stronger than Thunder Shock. It doesn't even learn Thunder Wave until almost 40. Remember Thunder Wave? That move that TATERS had in time for Brock? Yeah. Level 38. Not really any coverage or utility moves to speak of, either. Well, there's Supersonic, if you want some budget parafusion, but there's much better options for that. The second problem is that there are other Pokemon in this same building that outclass it entirely: Electabuzz and Zapdos. Farfetch'd  Viability: 2/5 Farfetch'd has base stats comparable to Spearow, but doesn't evolve, doesn't learn Drill Peck, and doesn't have any business being on a serious team. It's got Swords Dance, after which, it does deal more damage with Fly than Fearow would, but its 52/55/58 defenses and 60 Speed make it both difficult to get that boost, and to actually use it. Doduo  Viability: 4.5/5 Fearow is very, very lucky. Doduo evolves at 31, two levels past Erika's max, while Spearow learns Drill Peck exactly at that same maximum. This gives it one more day in the sun before Dodrio steals its lunch and eats it in front of them. 110 Attack and 110 Speed makes Dodrio a Pokemon with another simple, very obvious gimmick. "Go fast, peck out eyeballs." With STAB on Drill Peck and Tri Attack (both of which it learns naturally), and even Hyper Beam, it's a Pokemon with a lot of oomph. It's not quite as fast as Jolteon, and it's even more frail, having poor 60/70/60 defenses, but it's something that can punch giant holes in any team that doesn't have a member fast or bulky enough to resist this bird-shaped wrecking ball. It's walled by Rocks and Electrics, and doesn't have any coverage moves, so it also misses out on the rare 5/5, but only just barely. Seel  Viability: 3.5/5 God, do I want to like Dewgong. It's such a cool Pokemon, with such a great design! None of its stats are awful, it's Water/Ice, a very good typing in Gen 1, and it learns Ice Beam by level up for damage, and Rest for defensive utility. So, what's the problem? Bluntly? Lapras exists. While none of its stats are Awful, none of them are great, either. Lapras is slightly slower, but it more than makes up for it with 40 more HP and 15 more Attack. That bulk increase is significant, and not only does Lapras learn Ice Beam sooner, it also learns Hydro Pump, Confuse Ray, and Body Slam, giving it much more flexibility in its build. Much like Kangaskhan before it, Dewgong is a Pokemon that would be much more notable if it was available a few badges earlier. Grimer  Viability: 2.5/5 If it was almost any other type, Muk would be pretty alright, maybe even good. 105 HP and Attack, a decent 80 base Defense, and access to Acid Armor would make it an extremely competent physical tank, and it can still serve that role if you really want it to, even with its unimpressive 50 Speed. Muk and Weezing are also the only two Pokemon with access to the move Sludge, the strongest Poison-type attack, which also comes with a 40% chance of poisoning the target... Except Sludge still only has 65 Base Power. It can learn Explosion, which is nice, but without being able to learn either Strength, or even Take Down, that lackluster Sludge is the only thing it can reliably do with that Attack. There's some alright Special options, Fire Blast and Thunder/Thunderbolt, but with 60 Special, and no Water or Ice moves to deal with Ground and Rock-type Pokemon, it just doesn't have the ability to be a consistent threat. And let's not forget that Psychic weakness. Sorry, bud. You kum close to being useful, but you're not quite there. Shellder  Viability: 3/5 Good God do I wish Cloyster was faster. It's got solid stats across the board, an incredible Defense, Clamp is a Wrap-like that lets it chip things down into range of a KO, either with its excellent Water/Ice STAB combination, or a Normal move coming off of its quite passable 95 Attack. It even learns Self-Destruct and Explosion by TM! It also has 70 Speed and only 50 base HP, which tragically holds it back from being truly great. A higher Special also would not go amiss, as 85 is good, but nothing too special, and its only naturally-learned Ice move is the mediocre Aurora Beam. Another "will get the job done" Pokemon that just doesn't have enough to stand out from the pack. As-is, it's outclassed by other, better Water/Ice types. Gastly   Viability: 2/5 Gengar has a few interesting niches. It's the only Pokemon to learn Dream Eater naturally, the only Pokemon to learn Night Shade at all, is the fastest user of a sleep move, and it's got an excellent Special of 130. Haunter... can't quite say this. It's still got natural Dream Eater, Night Shade, and a good Special. However, it is now tied for speed with another Pokemon with a more accurate sleep move, better typing, and a wider and deeper move pool. One that we've got access to in this very same update. It's still the only Pokemon immune to Explosion, but that requires risky prediction, as coming in on an Earthquake instead spells immediate and messy doom. Even Rock Slide is an easy 2HKO. I wish I had kinder things to say about Haunter, as it's one of my favorite Gen 1 Pokemon, but there's just no real mechanical reason to use it without access to trade evolutions. Onix Viability: 1/5 Onix is another story entirely. Again with one stat being excellent at the cost of all the others! Onix has the opposite problem as Wigglytuff, an incredible Defense, but a base HP of 35, and an even lower Special. It's got 70 Speed, which isn't the worst, but its 45 Attack keeps it from doing anything worthwhile with it. If I was going to use early-game Wrap spam, I would legitimately rather use Arbok. Or something else coming up soon! Drowzee  Viability: 4/5 Hypno's defensive stats of 85/70/115 make it the only Psychic type in Gen 1 with some physical bulk, it has Hypnosis from very early on, access to Dream Eater gives it recovery, and Drowzee learns Psychic a few levels earlier than Kadabra. A decent 70 Attack plus Meditate let it come in on said Alakazam and either scare it out or leave a solid Mega Kick-shaped dent, which is a guaranteed 2HKO after a Meditate boost (as long as you don't miss.) Its Speed, a terrible 67, and its lack of special coverage do hold it back, but it's still a solid Pokemon. Krabby  Viability: 3/5 We talked about it a bit when comparing Omastar and Kabutops, but Kingler's got a niche as a Swords Dance sweeper with a Water STAB move and a chunky Defense. Compared to Kabutops, it's slower and weaker on the Special side, in exchange for a higher Attack and a Water coverage move that deals significantly more damage on a crit. Which you pick is up to preference, but since the thread already decided on the Dome Fossil, I don't think Kingler's gonna see much play. Voltorb  Viability: 2/5 Electrode is another Pokemon like Wigglytuff: One very high stat and the rest quite mediocre. In Electrode's case, that is Speed, an incredible 140. Unlike Wigglytuff, however, the rest of its stats aren't completely awful. That 80 Special lets it hit decently hard with Electric moves... none of which it learns naturally. Not even Thundershock. Even its gimmick of being the fastest Explosion user doesn't really stand out, as its 50 Attack keeps it from taking advantage of that. It's got what's at least a theoretically useful gimmick, which is why it avoids the dreaded 1/5, but only barely. Exeggcute  Viability: 4/5 You do not know how much it kills me to rank Exeggutor this low. Eggcelent stats ( ), Psychic type, a sleep move, Explosion, aaand... a complete and utter dependence on high value TMs to have any kind of offensive presence whatsoever. No recovery besides Leech Seed means it can't even serve the back-up role as a wall that its level-up movepool tries to suggest it should, and that Grass typing gives it some easily-exploitable weaknesses, especially Ice.It's far from a bad Pokemon, and using Psychic on Eggsy isn't a move you'll regret. But I just can't justify rating it higher than Starmie, who also wants that TM, and can do so much more both with and without it. Cubone  Viability: 1/5 In GSC, once hold items are introduced, Marowak will gain access to Bone Club, an item that shoots its mediocre Attack to levels that allow it to hit the stat cap with a single Swords Dance. Without access to the Thick Club, Swords Dance, Rock Slide, or even a mediocre Special Defense, it's just... I'll be blunt. It's a worse Sandslash. Hitmonlee Viability: 3.5/5 Comparing them side-by-side again, I think I may have underestimated Primeape a bit. Not enough to change its rating, but I apologize to any Mankey fans I may have indirectly insulted. Hitmonlee is far from a bad Pokemon, it's got access to multiple signature moves, including the most accurate Fighting move and the most powerful one (they are, sadly, not the same move). High Jump Kick is not nearly as powerful as it is in later generations, which is something I maaay have forgotten about when writing about Primeape. Still, it's nice to have, and that plus its decent Speed makes it the best Fighting-type in Blue. That said, it's very frail, with 50/53/35 defenses and a Psychic weakness, and 87 Speed is good, but not great. Not something I'll use much except when I specifically need a Fighting-type, but when I do, it'll get the job done just fine. Which is far, far more than can be said for... Hitmonchan Viability: 0/5 Behold, the first and only zero on my viability chart. Lower Attack than Hitmonlee, lower Speed, that same 35 Special, and a move gimmick that won't be even remotely relevant until three generations from now when the physical/special split makes it kind of sort of viable. Right now, not only is it worse than Hitmonlee, it is at best a sidegrade from Machoke, who at least learns some niche coverage moves like Earthquake and Rock Slide. Hitmonchan earns this score not just for being terrible, but by also permanently locking you out of a much better Pokemon for picking it. There is no reason to use the Pokemon in the 1 category. They're bad, many other things do what they do better, they all have glaring flaws, and so on. But none of them, none of them, actively harm your chances just by deciding to even consider using it. Lickitung Viability: 1.5/5 Here is what Lickitung has over Clefable: It learns Swords Dance, Surf, and Wrap, its Defense is two points higher, and it doesn't need a Moon Stone. Here is what Lickitung does not have over Clefable: 15 points in Attack, 25 points in Special, 30 points in Speed, Psychic, Thunder Wave, Sing, Solar Beam, Metronome, and not being horrifying to behold. Koffing  Viability: 2.5/5 Of all the pure Poison-type Pokemon, Weezing is arguably the most viable. That's not a high bar, but credit where it's due. 90 Attack, 85 Special, and a Speed slightly higher than Muk's make it more likely to be able to threaten something, though it also suffers from the exact same coverage issues. (They're actually worse, since at least Muk can learn Body Slam via TM.) Its only worthwhile Special options come from high value TMs, and 120 Defense is extremely solid, but that 65 HP really holds it back from being as bulky as it looks like it should be. Still, its defenses are at least enough to probably let it get off one attack, then Explode on something that doesn't have a good way to KO it first. I'd still hesitate to call it good, but if you really want to use a pure Poison-type, Weezing will get the job done. Don't worry, Team Rocket fans, Weezing gets much better in Gen 3. Rhyhorn  Viability: 4.5/5 Another RBY OU staple, and the true first Pokemon, Rhydon is often in direct competition with Golem for a team slot. I'll write up the full comparison of who would win out if both were accessible, but for this run, that's irrelevant. Rhydon is, no questions asked, the best physical wall we've got. 105 HP, 120 Defense, Rock typing, and the monstrous offensive presence of STAB Ground and Rock coming off of a ridiculous 130 Attack. Normally, this is where I go into a long spiel about how it's murdered by its lack of depth. And, to be fair, that depth is atrocious, even worse than Exeggutor. Here's the thing, though: The TMs Rhydon needs are in much lower demand. Rock Slide isn't actually that great without STAB, and, unlike most viable users of the Earthquake TM, Rhydon can also learn Dig. In PvE, that is almost as good, as they have the exact same base power in RBY. Yeah, maybe the AI will switch to a Flying type in response, but the only one of those that Rhydon fears is Articuno, who has... other problems. Even Fighting types can't guarantee they'll win a 1v1, especially if they eat an Earthquake on the switch. Terrible Speed and a horrendous list of Special weaknesses keep Rhydon away from a 5/5, but only just. Chansey Viability: 5/5 The superstars just keep coming, don't they? Chansey is, in some ways, a counterpart to Rhydon. Whereas Rhydon is the premier Physical wall, Chansey is the undisputed lord of Special walls. Chansey's obnoxiously high 250 base HP is completely unmatched in RBY. Soft-Boiled provides recovery, Reflect shores up its weak Defense, while Counter punishes trying to exploit it, and Seismic Toss gives it offensive presence without use of a valuable Special TM. In PvE, where the AI doesn't like switching, it's also an excellent user of Toxic. Hell, it even learns Sing by level-up, if you're feeling extra cheeky. Normally, I avoid giving 5s to Pokemon that can only do one thing, but Chansey's thing is so unique and completely unparalleled, there's no way I can justify any less than a perfect score. Tangela Viability: 1.5/5 Tangela is an interesting Pokemon. Pure Grass type, with 65/115/100 defenses, it seems like it should be pretty solid. ...well, no, it isn't. Tangela has a problem, and that problem is its moveset. Defensively, it's got some great options. Sleep Powder, Growth to boost its Special both offensively and defensively, a Wrap-like in Bind, and... that's it. It doesn't even learn Vine Whip until Yellow. It's a defensive Pokemon with no offensive presence and no reliable sources of healing outside of Rest and the 40 BP Mega Drain, both via TM. Even Leech Seed would pair reasonably with Bind. What keeps Tangela out of a 1 isn't actually much more than trivia. After a Growth, Tangela has a decent Solarbeam in RBY, but that's at least two turns of setup, counting Solarbeam's charging turn. If you can pull it off, it's going to do a decent amount of damage to anything that doesn't resist it. Every other Grass type can deal more damage in the same amount of time, but if you really, really want to make this tangly boy work, a team with lots of paralysis support might be able to buy you enough time to get its combo off once. I still like it a lot, as you might be able to tell from all these words, but it is, sadly, the worst fully-evolved Grass type in RBY. Kangaskhan Viability: 3.5/5 I feel really bad for Kangaskhan, honestly. 105 HP, 95 Attack, a decent 90 Speed, and a pretty good (if one-note) level-up moveset... It's got a lacking Special, which means it can't really take advantage of its good movepool, but that can be said for a lot of Normals. If it showed up earlier, around Vermillion or Celadon, it'd be a sensible upgrade from Raticate as a fast Normal-type attacker. Unfortunately, it does not, and this leaves its in the same kind of lurch as Pidgeot and Wigglytuff: Kangaskhan is ompletely outclassed in every meaningful way by something obtainable in almost exactly the same area. Lower Attack, lower Speed, much lower Special... Kangaskhan's only advantage over Tauros is access to Surf, but even with a 4x weakness, it still doesn't have enough oomph to OHKO Golem and Rhydon. "Budget Tauros" isn't a badge of shame, but there's no situation or niche where it's strictly better than the bull, and that's left Kangaskhan trapped in "good enough to use if it's one of your favorites" mediocrity. Horsea  Viability: 3/5 Seadra is not horrendously terrible, I will give it that. Nothing it does is especially unique, but with 95 Special and 85 Speed, it's certainly a better Water-type Agility user than Seaking. It's just not really noteworthy outside of that. No real coverage besides the obligatory Water/Ice, a bad Attack means it can't use Normal coverage well, its bulk is only average, and even with the Speed boost, it doesn't have the oomph to guarantee it won't just get wiped out in return. It's the best Water-type user of Agility, even outspeeding Electrode assuming it manages a turn of setup. Isn't a great niche, not really able to effectively sweep by itself, but it's a niche. Goldeen  Viability: 2/5 And almost as if in deliberate contrast with excellent Tentacruel and niche-but-useful Kingler, we have Seaking. With so many Water Pokemon in RBY, every one of them needs something to stand out. Seaking gets Agility, Waterfall (a signature move that's actually weaker than Surf), and... Peck. Not Drill Peck, just Peck. In exchange, it's got mediocre stats across the board, notable only for a lack of any kind of glaring flaw, since they're all equally meh. I mean, it's still functional, so it'll get you by if you're really insisting on a decade-old meme, but that's about all you're going to get. Functional, memey, and completely outclassed. Staryu  Viability: 4.5/5 Starmie has Recover by level, it gets STAB on Psychic, it gets Thunderbolt/Thunder, Reflect and Light Screen to bulk up, and it has 100 Special and 115 Speed. Starmie is excellent. I really, really wish that it learned a Psychic move by level-up, even just Confusion or Psybeam, but such is not the case, and so it barely misses out on being the third 5/5 in this update. There's just too many Pokemon that want that TM to justify it, when its Depth is lacking like this. Still, whether you need something that can set up screens, blast away with a single attacking move and Recover all the damage off, or a Special sweeper that doesn't collapse if attacked back, Starmie is far, far from your worst choice. Mr. Mime Viability: 2.5/5 Mr. Mime compares unfaborably to Kadabra in almost every way. Sure, it learns some different moves, like Light Screen and Substitute, but the latter is an infinite-supply TM, and neither are worth not having Recover and Psychic on its movelist. That said, it's still a Psychic Pokemon, and has decent Special and Speed so I can't give it too low a rating. I'm kind of glad it's bad, though, because now I don't have to look at it any more. Scyther Viability: 2/5 Hoo boy is Bug bad in Gen 1. Scyther has some great stats! 110 Attack, with naturally-learned Swords Dance, 105 Speed, even its 70/80/55 defenses could be worse. Real shame it has nothing to do. It has no moves that use either of its STABs, its best naturally learned attack is Slash, which is a complete nonbo with Swords Dance in Gen 1, and it has an incredibly long list of bad weaknesses, on both sides of the spectrum. If you really, really want to use it, Scyther can certainly do alright, filling a similar "spam Slash forever" niche as Persian, but there's just so many other Pokemon that does what it does better. Jynx Viability: 4/5 If you're charitable, Jynx is based on the Nordic goddess Hel, who ruled over ice and cold and had a half-black-half-white face. If you're slightly less charitable, she's a caricature of ganguro fashion. And if you're uncharitable, she's a caricature of black women with a name that means bad luck. She is also an excellent Pokemon. Best sleep user in RBY at 95 Speed and 75% accuracy, and learns Ice Punch and Blizzard by level-up. She is also the best Exeggutor check in the game, and potentially checks Zapdos, Golem, and Rhydon if you come in on a predicted switch. That said, her Defense is paper thin, she can't really switch into anything except other Psychic, Water, or Ice moves, she's not actually that fast, she doesn't learn any Psychic moves by level-up, and she is, again, potentially a racist caricature. I still want to teach her Dream Eater no questions asked, and it's a drat shame that it's not possible, that'd bring her up to 4.5. Without it, she's one more Pokemon in competition for the only Psychic-type TM in Blue, and one with a very unfortunate appearance. Electabuzz  Viability: 3.5/5 Exclusive to Pokemon Red, Electabuzz is mostly a sidegrade to Raichu, being slightly faster and very slightly bulkier physically in exchange for lower offenses. In the moveset department, Raichu comes out slightly ahead, with Pikachu learning Thunder at about the same time that Electabuzz learns the unique but unexciting ThunderPunch. It still learns Thunder, just not until the low-50s, which is disappointing. Still, if you want an Electric mixed attacker, and you're getting frustrated by Thunder's 70% accuracy, you could do worse than Electabuzz. I mean, I can't, I'm playing Blue, but you theoretically could. Magmar Viability: 2/5 Congratulations, Rapidash, you aren't the worst Fire-type in Gen 1. That honor goes to Magmar, another high Attack Pokemon who compares unfavorably to Arcanine, except it can't even say it's faster. Being the only viable user of Fire Punch, and having access to Confuse Ray and Submission are nice, but they don't make up for everywhere else that it's lacking. I can't even give it any points for being able to learn Psychic, as there are literally a dozen better Pokemon to use that TM on. Pinsir Viability: 1.5/5 We don't get Scyther in Blue, though. We get Pinsir. Look at all of Scyther's problems, then take away half its weaknesses.. and 30 points in Speed. 125 Attack and nothing to do with it. 65/100/55 defenses that don't remotely make up for its weaknesses. One really, really bad Pokemon. Tauros Viability: 4.5/5 In RBY competitive, you don't need reasons to use Tauros, you need reasons not to use Tauros, and that's a short list. It's fast, it's strong, it's got just enough coverage to get through drat near anything that stops its Body Slams and Hyper Beams, and it's even got passable 75/95/70 bulk. However, in this LP, those reasons do exist. First, without trades, that coverage comes in the form of Blizzard and Earthquake, which are TMs that keep coming up as high-value. They're very well-used here, but I can't overlook the opportunity cost. Much more damningly, with Stadium lacking the 'skip the recharge on kill' glitch that makes Hyper Beam so critical in RBY, Tauros' most damaging move is Double-Edge. This drop in power is significant, and while DE has more versatility as a general-purpose attack, the recoil also severely cuts into Tauros' long term survivability and leaves it vulnerable to getting outsped or worn down. In Stadium's 3v3 format, that's something of a liability. I'm going to get drawn and quartered for this, but with all the changes and obstacles this LP brings, Tauros just isn't as good as in cart battles. It's still absolutely excellent, don't take this the wrong way. Tauros's combination of speed, power, and coverage is unmatched in a physical attacker, but there are drawbacks now. The king has been made to bleed, and now all of his subjects know he is mortal. Does that make Snorlax Leonidas? I guess? I dunno. Don't think about the metaphor too hard, I certain't didn't. Magikarp  Viability: 5/5 Every time I tried to write a summary of why I like Gyarados so much, it turns into a multi-paragraph rambling. So, here's the incredibly short version. It's available early, has excellent stats, a unique typing, doesn't need TMs, and very quickly pays off the investment on babying it for a while. Keep an eye out for an in-depth analysis of why I love this Pokemon so much very soon. Lapras Viability: 4/5 There's a lot to like about Lapras. Water/Ice gives it a niche over the deluge of available Water-types, as well as decent stats, and extremely solid defenses of 130/80/95, only hindered somewhat by Ice being a terrible secondary typing for taking hits on. That typing is used very well offensively, however, as Lapras learns Ice Beam by level-up, as well as Body Slam (coming off a respectable 85 Attack!), Sing, Confuse Ray, and Hydro Pump. As you've probably noticed by now, needing zero TMs to function is a trait I absolutely love to see in a Pokemon. 60 Speed isn't quite glacial (  ), but it and a not-quite-stellar 95 Special on the offense keep Lapras away from the 5/5 I really wish I could give it.Ditto Viability: 1/5 Ditto is a gimmick Pokemon that transforms into its opponent, except probably with lower HP, and definitely losing a turn in the process while also being completely predictable. Anything strong enough to be worth transforming into is going to have no trouble punching through Ditto's 48/48/48 defenses, and- I promised to be nice to the next bad Pokemon. I promised to be nice. ...Ditto is very cute. I like its little face and I like it whenever it shows up in the anime or a movie. Eevee Viability: ?/5 Eevee's whole gimmick is its versatility. Able to evolve into three different forms based on what your team needs, I can't evaluate it under a single umbrella, I need to look at all of them individually. Starting with... Vaporeon Viability: 4/5 Hey, look, another pretty good Water-type! Vaporeon's gimmick is being an absolutely monstrous wall. The obvious gap in its 130/60/110 defenses is shored up by being the only Pokemon besides Muk to learn Acid Armor, the best Defense-boosting move in RBY. It learns Sand-Attack from Eevee, as well as the obligatory Hydro Pump and, in Yellow, Aurora Beam. That 110 Special means that even Venusaur and Jolteon can't guarantee a 2HKO. However, its low Speed, otherwise shallow movepool, and lack of recovery keep it from really being all it could be, and specifically, make it compare unfavorably to Starmie, who fills a similar niche, but with a much higher speed. Jolteon Viability: 4.5/5 In RBY competitive, Jolteon is a Pokemon that is in direct competition with Zapdos, one that it often wins out! 130 Speed make it the fastest viable Pokemon in the entire challenge, and give it an incredible 25% critical hite rate. Coming off of its 110 Special, that makes its Thunderbolts absolutely terrifying. That is a very, very good trick, and it is... basically the only one Jolteon knows. With 65 Attack and no Special coverage moves, Jolteon is hard walled by anything that resists or is immune to Electric, and its high Speed comes at the cost of HP, giving it a glaring weakness not just to Ground, but to physical attacks in general (although learning Reflect by TM does help a bit with that). Even one, just one good coverage move, or more bulk, and I'd gladly give Jolteon a 5/5, but without any way to diversify, it's close but no cigar. Flareon Viability: 2.5/5 Scroll up a bit. You see all that stuff I said about Arcanine? Crank that up to 11. Every -eon gets a 130, and Flareon's got it in Attack. Its 110 Special is no slouch either, a benefit it has over Arcanine. However, its Speed, rather than being 95 with Agility, is 65, with no way to boost it, and it has those same 65/60 physical defenses. It also takes the longest to learn Flamethrower, at 54. That is after Giovanni. And, again, no coverage moves to speak of. I wish I could rate Flareon better. It's very cute, very fluffy, and its idle animation in Stadium is rudely shaking its butt at the opponent. It's just... It's just not very good. Porygon Viability: 1.5/5 I'm going to level with you all. I didn't even actually get a Porygon. 6500 coins is just too many for something this disappointing. There's a term in Magic the Gathering, a "dead fish strategy." That is, a plan that can only work if your opponent does absolutely nothing for the entire setup. Porygon is the Pokemon equivalent of that. Sharpen boosts its Attack, Agility raises its Speed, Recover restores its HP... and its stats guarantee that none of that actually matters. I mean, sure, if your opponent just sits there and lets you buff up for 3-4 turns, Porygon can do some damage, but if they do, it's just out of pity from when they see you trying to use Porygon. Omanyte  Viability: 4/5 Omastar is an incredibly bulky Pokemon, with downright absurd 70/125/115 defenses, and that 115 Special gives it the second-strongest Hydro Pump in RBY. As a bulky Water-type, its claims to fame are its high defense and its Normal resistance, allowing it to check powerful offensive threats, as long as they aren't carrying Submission. In exchange, though, it's extremely slow, and doesn't have many viable moves outside of the standard Water/Ice pair. It is, in short, the pokemon Blastoise wishes it was. Kabuto  Viability: 3/5 Kabutops is less generically useful than Omastar, but it is also much more unique. Access to Swords Dance, 115 Attack, and 80 Speed make it an excellent physical sweeper, crashing through teams that have been softened up by its allies, while its high Defense and Normal resistance keep most physical attackers and walls from making a dent. And as for other Rocks, Kabutops also has Surf, allowing it to flatten Golem and Rhydon without any fear or risk of reprisal. So, why is it not rated higher? Two reasons. First, while 80 is fast, it's not unbeatably fast, and there are several key Pokemon that can bring it down, especially if they're carrying Thunderbolt or, God help you, Thunder. Second, Kabutops is in direct competition for its exact role with Kingler, who has an even higher Attack, and the high-crit Crabhammer (though it is slower and lacks a Normal resistance.) Aerodactyl Viability: 2/5 Aerodactyl is almost the exact same story as Tangela, and a lot of other RBY Pokemon: Great stats, and nothing to do with them. 105 Attack and 130 Speed! Rock/Flying is a fairly solid offensive typing, except Aerodactyl doesn't learn any Rock moves. Not by TM, not by anything. And unlike Tangela, its 80/65/60 defenses and terrible defensive typing makes Sky Attack something of a pipe dream. 130 Speed, and the associated crit rate, is nothing to sneeze at, and Fly isn't actually bad in PvE, and with a 105 Attack, that really does hurt, but 99 times out of 100, I'd rather just use Dodrio, who is significantly slower, but has a slightly higher Attack, comparably poor defenses, and gets STAB on its Normal moves. Snorlax Viability: 5/5 How do I love thee, Snorlax? Let me count the ways. 160/65/65 defenses that actually do what Wigglytuff was trying to do. Body Slam and Double-Edge both by level-up, and 110 Attack to really make use of them. Amnesia by level-up, allowing it to either shore up its defenses to Rest off damage, or to wind up for a high-damage Special coverage move. Which it learns many, many, many of, by the way. It would be shorter to list the notable moves it doesn't learn via TM or HM. Power, Bulk, Width, Depth, Snorlax has got it all. The only thing it's really lacking is Speed, but Body Slam's 30% paralysis chance means even that's not a sure thing against anything with a Speed of 120 or lower.  Also, it's #relatable. Articuno Viability: 4.5/5 So, is Articuno worth the trip to the hellhole that is the Seafom Island? In short, yes, with an asterisk. Two of Articuno's moves, at level 51 and 55, are are Blizzard and Agility. With 120 Base Power, a type that very very few Pokemon actually resist (and many are weak to), 90% accuracy, and a 10% chance to freeze, and thus effectively instantly KO any Pokemon, and all of this coming off of a 125 Special? Articuno is a beast in direct special damage. Additionally, Articuno's good-but-not-great 85 Speed is doubled by Agility, allowing it to be faster than even Electrode. So, with a turn of setup and a touch of luck, Articuno can blast through entire teams, occasionally even freezing its checks and counters solid. 90/100/125 bulk and decent defensive typing is even enough to make getting that Agility off not an impossible prospect. If you want a Pokemon that can use one boost, and then be ready to sweep an entire weakened team without any trouble, Articuno is the bird for you. Here's the asterisk: Articuno is, once again, something of a one-trick pony. Fly is decent in PvE, but it still only has 70 Base Power, off of an 85 Attack, and its only use is as a way to hit the bulky waters who resist Blizzard. Even then, the damage Fly deals is almost always the same or even less than Blizzard, and without the freeze chance. Said Blizzard will rarely OHKO anything not weak to it, and Articuno's bulk is good, but not good enough to want to deal with protracted slugfests. Paraysis, in particular, either from a bulky Water or Chansey's Thunder Wave or Thunderbolt, or a physical beater's Body Slam, can ruin Articuno's day. Articuno does not have any terrible Achilles' Heel that ruins its potential as a top-tier threat, but its second two moves might as well be blank. It is a cleaner, a Pokemon who mops up when you've worn down the opponent's team, and it does that with aplomb and without a single TM. A team with Articuno on it will never regret that choice. Just don't expect it to do everything by itself.  It is also the prettiest Gen 1 Pokemon, and no I will not take criticism on this. Zapdos  Viability: 5/5 Zapdos is the Pokemon that makes every other Electric-type look like a chump. Immunity to Ground comes at the cost of weaknesses to Rock and Ice, but Zapdos doesn't really need to fear the stray coverage move. This is because of Zapdos's deceptively high 90/85/125 defenses. Add that to 90 Attack, 125 Special, and 100 Speed, and you've got a Pokemon with great stats across the board. So what does its movelist look like? In short: Pretty dang good. The only one of the legendary birds to learn a usable Flying-type attack, Zapdos rocks the naturally-learned combination of Drill Peck, Thunder, and Agility. The lack of coverage, and the only other natural move being the unusably-late Light Screen, doesn't really even matter, and that fourth slot can be used for a decently powerful Take Down or Hyper Beam, a disruptive Thunder Wave, or even a cheeky Mimic or Rest. Zapdos is unquestionably one of the two best Electric-types in RBY, rivaled only by the faster and frailer Jolteon. Neither is strictly better or worse, they've both got pros and cons, and they're both fantastic and completely capable of wrecking all kinds of poo poo. Moltres  Viability: 4.0/5 The third of the legendary birds has many of the same excellent qualities as its siblings. However, it also has a few flaws that limit its potential. First, Fire/Flying is a horrendous defensive typing, making it weak not just to Rock and Electric, but Water and, in RBY, Ice. That's right, Moltres is the only Fire-type we have access to that's weak to Ice-type attacks. And the types it hits super-effectively with its twin STABs have a depressing amount of overlap. Fire's a rare type, though, and it has Fire Spin, an excellent move, right? Yes, but that is the only Fire move it learns naturally. No Flamethrower, no Fire Blast, not even Ember. Giving it a powerful STAB move that doesn't require a turn of charge up (either Fly or Sky Attack) requires using the incredibly useful Fire Blast TM, something quite a few good Pokemon would love to get as a coverage move. Something with the stats and sweeping potential of a Legendary Pokemon can never be rated too low, especially with 125 Special and Agility, but it's still probably the least threatening of the three. Dratini   Viability: ARGH/5 Do you want to be annoying? Do you want to be the most horrendous, irritating piece of poo poo to ever play Pokemon? Has Untitled Goose Game awoken a desire in you to be an unmitigated bastard to everyone you meet? Then oh boy do I have the Pokemon for you! From the moment you get it, Dratini has all the tools it needs to be a controller-thrower of a bastard: Thunder Wave, Wrap, and Agility. Agility brings Dragonite's 80 Speed up to something unmatched without a boost, and then Thunder Wave and Wrap together lock the opponent down for as long as your luck holds out. Now, in the long run, this probably isn't going to deal much more damage than just a Body Slam off of its 134 Attack, but that's not why you use Dragonite. You use Dragonite if you want your opponent to never, ever play Pokemon with you again. Mewtwo Viability: LOL/5 Mewtwo, despite initial appearances, actually has a few problems holding it back from- ahahaha, gently caress no, could you imagine? It's Mewtwo. 154 Special, 130 Speed, Recover, Barrier, Amnesia, and STAB Psychic all by level-up. If you want to be extra gratuitous, it also learns basically every TM worth knowing. Blizzard annihilates Exeggutor, Thunder demolishes Starmie and Slowbro, Submission crushes Chansey, and Self-Destruct is just mean. You can't even use Mewtwo in most Stadium game modes, this is just a victory lap. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 10:41 on Mar 11, 2021 |
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Sep 30, 2019 19:59
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I agree with the Nido assessment. They are really strong and flexible, but rely on TMs for a lot of that strength. Which means to make the most of them it comes at the expense of the strength of the rest of the team.
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Sep 30, 2019 20:35
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Blaze Dragon posted:Nidoking IIRC, and you're missing the point of why it is the selected Pokémon for speedruns. It learns Horn Drill, a OHKO move. Normally, this would be limited by low accuracy... But in Gen 1, X Accuracy causes a move to ignore accuracy checks. Thus, it can now kill anything in one hit that won't miss. Ah, I was conflating several early gen speedruns. I remembered Gen 1 buys a lot of a particular kind of X-item, but off the top of my head I couldn't remember which. Thanks!
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Sep 30, 2019 20:50
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Ooh, this is definitely interesting, everyone pulling together to LP all the random side games makes doing every Pokemon game an eventual reality! Also feel free to crib as much from my Yellow LP as you'd like, figuring out the viability of every Pokemon takes a bit of time, let me tell you. I would definitely agree that Pikachu is a bit too high, while Nidoran M is a bit too low. The best mons in this game are fast and have a wide variety of physical or special moves, so not much has really changed, but Raichu really suffers with the lack of options, while Nidoking has no such problem. Also agreeing that Raticate is a cool friend.
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Sep 30, 2019 20:59
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Pokemon Center 1: Oh, It's Nidoking! I expected I'd need to do something like this sooner or later, so let's start with the first Pokemon to get pushback for its rating. Nidoking, in particular, is both very cool and a common choice for speedrunners. So why did I only rate it at a 3? Let's go into that. When looking at ranking a Pokemon's viability, I rated them on Power, Bulk, Speed, Width, and Depth. Let's go through each of those in order. Power: Nidoking has 95 Attack and 75 Special. That is far from the worst stat spread in the game, but King is held back from really using these decent stats to their full potential. Its only Poison move at all is the hilariously awful Poison Sting, and it doesn't learn Earthquake without the TM from Bulk: With a defensive spread of 81/77/75, Nidoking looks like it's got a pretty decent set of defensive stats. No single stand out, but they're all solid. So why is its bulk only average? The same reason most Poison types have trouble, it's got several crucial weaknesses, without many important resistances to compensate. As a Poison/Ground, it is immune to Electric, but it is weak to Water, Ice, Ground, and, most importantly, Psychic. All of these attacks are going to deal double damage to Nidoking. A Psychic from any competent Pokemon is going to knock of more than half of its HP, usually 2/3rd or more, and the same story with Surf. Blizzard and Earthquake, two of the most powerful and dangerous moves in RBY, are a 2HKO from almost anything that has any business using them, even without STAB. With STAB, it's going come very close to being one-shotted by them. This might not be a problem, as long as it hits first, except for... Speed: Nidoking has a base speed of 85, which sounds pretty good. When speedrunning, or even playing normally, that's usually quite sufficient. However, in the Gym Leader Castle, all Pokemon are the same level, and I don't have access to X-Items. 85 Speed, with no way to boost it, is merely average, and is beat out by several Pokemon who can ruin its day, including Kadabra (and Alakazam), Jynx, Mr. Mime, Starmie, Tentacruel, and Dugtrio. As a Pokemon that both can deal and can be dealt 2HKOs by so many Pokemon, being outsped by most of the ones it has a real problem with is not a good look. Width: The real appeal of Nidoking is the width of its movepool. Blizzard, Fire Blast, Earthquake, Thunderbolt, Rock Slide, Surf... It has a lot of options. Unfortunately, all but one of those options don't get STAB, which means it misses out on crucial OHKOs. Even Gyarados, a Pokemon who takes 4x damage from Electric moves, is only 2HKO'd by Thunder and Thunderbolt. It is the second-fastest Ground type, after the Dugtrio line, and the only one that can safely tank a non-STAB Surf, but in every other case, there are several other Pokemon who can also use that TM. Which is a problem, because... Depth: Nidoking lives or dies on the TMs and HMs it has access to, as the best moves it learns on its own are Double Kick and Thrash. In a speedrun, or competitive, this is not a problem, it can greedily hoover up every single one of those shiny disks with no guilt. But, in this challenge, every TM I use on Nidoking is a TM I'm not using somewhere else. Using Earthquake and Rock Slide on Nidoking means that Rhydon and Tauros aren't getting some of their best physical moves. Without Blizzard, most Water types miss out on their best coverage option, and without Thunderbolt, there's not a single viable attacking move for Electric types until they start learning Thunder at about level 50. In a challenge where I need both type variety and move variety, these are resources that I have to carefully hoard. Overall: Nidoking is a great Pokemon, a jack-of-all-trades that can reliably 2HKO most relevant threats in the metagame, making it a fabulous choice if you have a choice of only one Pokemon to sink your resources into. However, without the speed to hit threats first, the bulk to really slug it out, or any options for recovery, a jack-of-all-trades is all it can be. It will never excel in any area where another Pokemon might, and so it ends up with a suitable rating for a Pokemon that's good at lots of things, but not great at any one thing, and takes up a lot of resources to do so. Viability: 3/5 girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Sep 3, 2020 |
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Sep 30, 2019 23:06
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Nidoking isn't actually locked out of Earthquake 'til near the end. In Gen 1, Giovanni hands out the Fissure TM, and Earthquake is just sitting around on one of the higher floors of Sylph Co., ready to be snapped up right around the middle of the game.
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Oct 1, 2019 00:23
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Welp, that's one thing I forgot! I'll change that. Doesn't change my rating, Earthquake is a TM in very high demand, but that's something I'll fix.
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Oct 1, 2019 00:36
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play the stadium minigames or it isn't a real lp
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Oct 1, 2019 00:41
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Shiny777 posted:Nidoking isn't actually locked out of one of the higher floors of Sylph Co., ready to be snapped up right around the middle of the game. That's uh, pretty late in the game. Like last couple badges late. Theres only one route between you and victory road when you get there.
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Oct 1, 2019 01:00
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FoolyCharged posted:That's uh, pretty late in the game. Like last couple badges late. Theres only one route between you and victory road when you get there. Depends on when you do it, because you can go through Silph Co as early as 4 or 5 badges in, meaning you could get the TM before you face Koga and definitely before Sabrina or Blaine.
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Oct 1, 2019 01:09
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Some Numbers posted:Depends on when you do it, because you can go through Silph Co as early as 4 or 5 badges in, meaning you could get the TM before you face Koga and definitely before Sabrina or Blaine. The guard doesn't move before you reach fuschia. Literally the only route left before victory road at that point is the water one to cinnibar. I mean yeah, you could skip koga and fly back, but why would you bother?
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Oct 1, 2019 02:16
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The guard's only requirement is Pokemon Tower, so you can get it before badge 3 if you skip Surge and use a Poke Doll on Marowak. But that's just nitpicking, Nidoking depends very much on how the rest of the team go.
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Oct 1, 2019 02:24
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I want to show the full gameplay cycle pretty quickly, so expect the update with the other half of the Boulder Badge challenge up tonight or some time tomorrow.
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Oct 1, 2019 03:28
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Bogart posted:play the stadium minigames or it isn't a real lp I agree with this statement. Those were so good, and we'll never get anything like them again.
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Oct 1, 2019 03:31
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Bogart posted:play the stadium minigames or it isn't a real lp The real Pokemon stadium right there. Also I hope you've already unlocked Doduo tower bacause playing the Gen 1 games at their normal speed is unbearable for me.
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Oct 1, 2019 09:01
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loving love Fiona Apple posted:The real Pokemon stadium right there.
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Oct 1, 2019 10:40
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Discuss how stat experience works or it isn’t a real lp
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Oct 1, 2019 17:38
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Bogart posted:Discuss how stat experience works or it isn’t a real lp You kill stuff and your stats gain experience based on what you killed. That's it. Theres nothing more for them to explain. This isn't gen 3+ where there's actual nuance involved.
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Oct 1, 2019 17:58
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Mods???
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Oct 1, 2019 19:55
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Well, my computer decided to do a system reset, so I lost a lot of work on the next in-progress update, so yeah, sure, gimme a bit, I'll throw together a mini info update.
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Oct 1, 2019 20:47
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PokeStop 1: What's the Value of Your Effort? There is going to be a lot of grinding in this LP. Like, a lot a lot. This raises a question. If I can use Shenanigans to temporarily increase the levels of my Pokemon to 50, why can't I use those Shenanigans to skip grinding entirely? Well, while I technically could do that, and I may have given some early boosts to my Pokemon a little bit in that way, doing so for the entire game would render the team significantly weaker in the long run than if I did it naturally. Why is that? Because of something called Stat XP. Every Pokemon has three hidden stats that help determine what their HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, and Special will be. They are Base Stats, Individual Values, and Stat Experience. Base Stats: The base stats of a Pokemon are, for the most part, self-explanatory. Bulbasaur has a Base Speed of 45, while Pikachu has a Base Speed of 90. This means that, assuming they're of equal level, a Pikachu will be, on average, about twice as fast as a Bulbasaur. We'll get to see this in action once we Shenanigans everyone up to 50 for the first time. This is not, however, always true, and even two of the same Pokemon at the exact same level can have some pretty significantly different stats. This is because of two things... Individual Values: Every Pokemon has a range of Individual Values, which determine how naturally good or bad a Pokemon's stats are. For example, a Pikachu with a high Speed IV has a better natural potential at being fast than one with a low Speed IV. However, that slower Pikachu might have better Special and HP IVs, making it bulkier and potentially better at slugging it out. Every Pokemon has these, and unless you know how to calculate it, or you're using a save editor, you'll never even know what they are. They range from 0 to 15, with 0 being the worst, and 15 being the best. If you're curious, in Generation 2, to preserve backwards compatibility, one IV dictates both Special Attack and Special Defense, the Attack IV is also used to determine a Pokemon's gender, and a formula factoring in all the IVs is used to determine the type and strength of a Pokemon's Hidden Power. In more modern generations, each stat has its own IV, which ranges from 0 to 31, and it is entirely independent from gender and Hidden Power type. Stat Experience: And here's why I can't just Shenanigans everyone constantly. Here's why your team of MissingNo-glitch Rare Candy-stuffed Level 100s will always get bodied by that one obsessive kid's who leveled them up naturally. Even the official guides told players that a trained Pokemon of a certain level will usually be stronger than a wild Pokemon of the same level, but they did not explain why. Here's why. Every time you get XP from a Pokemon, you also get a hidden kind of XP, Stat XP, equal to that Pokemon's base stats. Defeat a Pikachu, you'll get 35 HP XP, 55 Attack XP, and so on. These values range from 0, at minimum, to a maximum value of 65535 (216 - 1), with no cap except how much you are willing to grind. In Generations 3 and later, Stat XP is replaced with something called Effort Values, a more complex system that requires a competitive trainer to decide how they want to specialize in training their Pokemon. This had the side effect of absolutely murdering the potential of jack-of-all-trades Pokemon, but that's a story for another update. One last question you might have. Sure, that sounds all well and good, but how is that actually used to calculate the stats? Well....  It's complicated. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 23:34 on Oct 27, 2019 |
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Oct 1, 2019 22:05
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 Good, my Shenanigans worked! Just for gits and shiggles, let's compare our team to the equivalent rental Pokemon, which are about equal to the ones we'll be facing.  ...oh. Oh dear. We may be in for a bit of a struggle.  
girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 00:56 on Oct 2, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 00:20
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Route 2: Can Strategy Overcome The Level Disadvantage?  Here we are, finally, the Pewter City Gym. After a rather significant amount of grinding (most of which I had to redo because of a computer error), I'm finally done. Every relevant Pokemon on our team is now at the highest level where they can learn a new move without outleveling Brock's Onix. We are ready!  After I walk back to the Pokemon Center and save again, because as dramatic as this position is, Pokemon Stadium can't read your save if you're not in a Pokemon Center at the time.    Everything loads up okay, seems my technical issues are, for the moment, behaving.   For our first castle, we've got a Bug  And let's look at what we've got.    Looking pretty good so far. Everyone is at Level 50, the Shenanigans were successful, and they've got the most complete moveset available to them. But, just as a benchmark, let's go ahead and compare them to the rental Pokemon available at the same level, the ones included by the game and intended to be difficult, but usable.    Oh. ...oh dear. We might be in for a bit of an uphill climb. For those of you who don't feel like scrolling up and down over and over again, our Pokemon are, on average, lacking 10 points in each stat compared to the rentals, in addition to having significantly weaker moves. But we should be fine, right? ... Right?   Our first opponent is a Bug Boy with the full suite of Viridian Forest bugs, most of whom are mostly harmless, and all of whom are weak to Flying. In Pokemon Stadium, while you choose six Pokemon to bring total, each battle is only a 3v3. Which members you choose for each fight can be just as important a piece of strategy as what you choose to bring in general. I decide to open with Spearow because it has a type advantage against all of his Pokemon, then Rattata for Hyper Fang as a reliable source of damage, and Butterfree for the Confusion, which should basically flatten Weedle, Kakuna, and will give Beedrill a real headache.    The only thing to Spear is FearItself. Beedrill shouldn't be too much of a problem. We have a type advantage, and I even spent a whole paragraph talking about how quickly its high Attack becomes irrelevant.   Okay, well, being the equivalent of about ten levels lower made that hurt a bit more than I expected, but we should be fine. A couple of Pecks and it'll drop like a stone.     I said a couple of Pecks and it will drop like a stone.  Thank you.     Okay, new problem. Butterfree's not especially strong, but it has a significant stat advantage right now, and it's packing a move with pretty decent base power. But you know what they say...   It takes a Freef... To catch a Freef.    I changed my mind, Butterfree's Viability is upgraded to 6/5. No, wait, 7/5!   Bug Boy's last Pokemon makes a valiant attempt at keeping him in the game. If his last Pokemon has been Kakuna or Metapod, we might've been at the mercy of the RNG, but a Weedle's Poison Sting can't beat Margarine in a damage race.   So, that was it. The very first battle of the challenge, and we only survived because of several well-timed critical hits. Another battle with any more pushback, and we may be in trouble.     Well, okay, maybe not this guy, but someone actually threatening.   There we go. No fronting, if cool guy here chooses Dugtrio as one of his three to bring into the battle, there is absolutely nothing I can do to stop him. I lead with Oberon because there's a 2/3 chance he'll lead with something weak to Vine Whip, followed by FearItself to switch into a predicted Earthquake or Dig, and finally Tartar for once again being a solid damage dealer for where we're at right now. And he opens with...   Farfetch'd. Welp, so much for leading with Oberon!   Tartar gets in a slugfest with the only Pokemon to have avoided getting a 1 in Viability purely for comedy value, and she is losing.   Farfetch'd took off for a Fly, dodging my next Hyper Fang, so I decided to switch out for Fear again. My logic is that if I can get off a Growl or two, Tartar should survive one more attack, and be able to finish Farfetch'd off with another Hyper Fang.   It... kind of works. Losing Fear sucks, but I need to save Oberon, there's still a pretty good chance that he can turn it around for us. As long as Cool Guy doesn't have his Dugtrio, we should be alright.   Alright, yeah, Diglett is still scary. A glass cannon is exactly the kind of thing we don't want to be fighting right now, but as long as Oberon can take it down with a Vine Whip, we should be okay.      Well, alright then. That was pretty definitive. Looks like I'm not going to make much headway until I can make up for the stat difference. Don't worry, goons, I have a cunning plan. Next Time on Multi-Track Battling: Gonna need a montage! girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Oct 27, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 02:30
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I didn’t think of this till you showed the comparison but it jumps off the page: Your entire team combined has a total of two or three late game caliber moves - Hyper Fang and Thunder Wave, plus maybe Sand Attack. Everything else is poo poo that would normally be long gone by level 50. Interested to see how you’re fixing this without violating your rules. Also, going forward, can you please show off the enemies’ list of potential Pokémon like you did with the third trainer? I like reading the cutesy nickname trends (all ending in ‘y’ for the first trainer, the ‘ster’ ending for the third one, etc). Don’t judge me.
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Oct 2, 2019 03:38
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MagusofStars posted:Also, going forward, can you please show off the enemies’ list of potential Pokémon like you did with the third trainer? I like reading the cutesy nickname trends (all ending in ‘y’ for the first trainer, the ‘ster’ ending for the third one, etc). Don’t judge me.   Edit: Those came out a bit bigger than I was expecting.
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Oct 2, 2019 03:44
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I'm not going to be mad about viability rankings because I know my favorites are good in RBY.  (And some only in RBY.  )
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Oct 2, 2019 04:14
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Weedly is an excellent name.
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Oct 2, 2019 10:25
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MagusofStars posted:Also, going forward, can you please show off the enemies’ list of potential Pokémon like you did with the third trainer? I like reading the cutesy nickname trends (all ending in ‘y’ for the first trainer, the ‘ster’ ending for the third one, etc). Don’t judge me. If you haven't already, I'd totally recommend you read the Pokemon Adventures manga, if only for equally cutesy nickname trends, and some of the most intriguing and/or hilarious alternate character interpretation this side of [insert your favorite region here]. It's not all super teenage edgelord dark and gritty reboot, either; it just doesn't shy away from addressing the full implications of all those really weighty topics the actual games brush over because it's from the perspective of a ten-ish year old kid who doesn't get why all of the adults around them seem to be so sad all the time--I mean, everybody gets to run around with up to six potentially world-ending monsters in their pockets, how bleeping metal is that? (Pants, shittingly terrifying, as it turns out, but there's plenty of good, old-fashioned fun and high heroism to be had as well.)
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Oct 2, 2019 12:35
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Route 3: It's Building Up Energy For The Next Attack! So, that was fun. Looks like, between the stat disadvantage and the lack of strong moves, we're going to need some kind of edge if we're going to get this challenge rolling. I suspected this might happen, and I made plans for it. Terrible, terrible plans that would not subject anyone else to in a million years. So, let's get right into it, shall we?     Step one, start a new game.     Step two, continuously quit and restart until you get a Bulbasaur with good IVs. That took eleven tries, for the curious. Eleven.   Step three, lose to your rival.    Step four, get and return the parcel without defeating any wild Pokemon.    Step five, buy as many Pokeballs as you can, and save just outside of the grass in Route 1. Step five-and-a-half, use Shenanigans to give yourself 99 Ultra Balls instead so by constantly running back to release instead of restarting, you can show how long this will actually take with the in-game timer.     Step six, catch a Level 2 Pidgey, still not gaining any experience, then check its IVs. Reset until you get a good Pidgey, then save.     Steps seven through ten, repeat this process for a Level 2 Rattata and Nidoran F, and a Level 3 Spearow and Caterpie in Viridian Forest. (You could also go for a Pikachu instead of a Pidgey or Nidoran, but that rat bastard has a 5% spawn rate, so gently caress that, one Pikachu's enough for me.)   Step eleven, stand in the shower for forty-five minutes wondering how your life brought you to this point.    Step twelve, return to Route 22. Fighting only Level 2 Nidoran F (the highest Base Stat Total among Level 2 Pokemon) and Rattata (the highest Speed among Level 2 Pokemon), grind for levels and Stat XP. Make sure to save regularly! At some point, work in fighting the two mandatory Bug Catchers, without getting any more experience from wild encounters.   Step thirteen, stop doing this once everyone is at the desired levels, or once you start hearing the Nidoran scream your name in your sleep. (Don't worry about it happening when you're awake, that's normal.)  Step fourteen, compare you new Pokemon to the old ones you had before, in order to convince yourself that all your suffering actually meant something. I can't say how much of this is the good IVs and how much is the training, but it looks like Attack and Defense are mostly about the same as before, but Speed and Special have gotten boosts across the board. Not quite enough to be even with the rentals, but we're certainly less outmatched than we were... six hours of playtime ago. Step fifteen, pray to any god that will listen that this was worth it. Next Time on Multi-Track Battling: We work smarter and harder! ...I'm going to bed. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Oct 27, 2019 |
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Oct 2, 2019 13:21
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| # ? May 7, 2024 09:33 |
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...Well, if I ever saw a cry for help, I think that was it.
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Oct 2, 2019 13:29
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