Emerald Mono-type Challange.....

[Damien.Taylor]

Ok, so i dug out my old copy of emerald last night, and decided to do a "monotype" challange.

I never did one of these when it was "vogue" to do them, so im going to try now, with the bug type
(underpowered you say??? we'll see!)

- ok, so my young wannna-be gym leader Kemushi pulls up in the moving van to his new house in littleroot
- i chose torchic from the professers suitcase, so i would get mudkip on my rival, nice and fair compared to the other two
- ok jump to me after receiving pokedex , wandering on route 101 with torchics ball in my hand (stop sniggering at the back there!) i run into wurmple, hmm lv 2, out pops my lv 6 torchic.....murder in his eye he launches a scratch attack on the beleagured wurmple....... and kills it with a critical..........

ok so a few more of the same happens, until finnaly i catch a female lv2 wurmple (barely clinging on with 1 hp remaining)

-back to town, drop of torchic, "bye torchic you murderer" and off i trotted back to route 101 to train......... (by train i mean die lots)

-eventually i got wurmple to lv 6, he learned poison sting which helps imensly.

- travelled through rt 102, killed most things in 1 or 2 hits after poison hits in. had a bit of trouble with tailow half way through, but after a couple of tries (some lucky crits and his unlucky misses) i passed 'unscathed', and waurmple evolved into Silcoon, woot Silcoon!

-spoke to dad/helped wally

- dropped into petleburg, and caught a lv 7 female cascoon to compleate my wurmple collection, gotta catch em both!

-saved devon researcher/visited flower house

- fought hlley before the brifge to rustboro, and both my 'coons evolved

-made it to rustboro and saved

current party....

Beutifly @ ....
swarm
tackle
poison sting
stringshot
absorb

Dustox @ ...
Shield Dust
tackle
poison sting
stringshot
confusion



ok well thats the first installment, firstly, is this something that you would be interested in reading? if not i wont continue........

if it is then i'd be looking to go right through to catching all legendaries eventually, and a little bit of battle tower.............. updating every other day.....

ok, so if you want this to stay let me know, is this how youd want it set out? any extra information you might want as i go along, talk to me guys!

 

[Tina]

I did a monotype "challenge" on my only playthrough of Emerald.. it's kinda not interesting though unless you're doing a particularly poor type or something - like.. I dunno, fire, since you're pretty much forced to go through the first 3-4 gyms with a Torchic.

If you're gonna be 'writing' a challenge to see if people are interested, you might want to change your writing style. It's kinda boring as it is. >>;

 

[Damien.Taylor]

yeah, unfortunatly i update this at work, in a very busy office, so dont always get a chance to wright as much i would like like to.......

it was more so supposed to be an interesting veiw on which types have troubles and which dont, and was hoping to get other people joining in with different types.......

 

[0_o o_0]

ive done one of those on emerald with water i think

 

[System Error]

I've done this a lot on Sapphire. I did it with Dark, Psychic, Fighting, Poison, and Flying. I believe I was working on Ground, too, but stopped partway through.

It's only really hard when you get stuck in terms of species. But here's what I found.

Dark:
Get by with multiple Poochyenas early on. Make sure you're playing Sapphire or Emerald for Sableye, as Shiftry isn't very good compared to Cacturne.

The Rock gym is probably the toughest part. If you're on Sapphire, flinch everything to death with Bite. I had to use three Poochyenas to take that bastard Nosepass down. Emerald and Ruby can use Nuzleaf.

Sableye laughs at the Fighting Gym. Just make sure you kill them before they use Foresight.

Unfortunately, you can't get a Crawdaunt or Sharpedo before the Fire Gym, but my Mightyenas handled it easily enough for me.

With Sableye, the Normal Gym is your bitch.

You really only have seven choices here. If you're on Ruby or Sapphire, you'll only have six, but Emerald will have all seven. Two sets of two of them are the same type, but Crawdaunt and Cacturne are the better two of their types. Shiftry can be very beneficial early on, but becomes essentially obsolete with Cacturne. Sharpedo can at least stand out from Crawdaunt, despite its shit defense. Of course, nothing's stopping you from raising a Nuzleaf to take down the Rock Gym, then dropping it later.

Swords Dance Crawdaunt is an interesting thing to try. Make sure it has appropriate moves, though. Stick it with Aerial Ace, Rock Tomb, and Brick Break if you do.

For the Flying Gym, Ice Beam everything with Sharpedo, but be careful, because of its shit defense. Crawdaunt is also an option. If worse comes to worst, abuse Intimidate with multiple Mightyenas.

Against the Water Gym, Cacturne will dominate. I believe Sableye can use Shock Wave as support. Shiftry's usefulness really comes into question here, as all it can use is Bullet Seed (lol), Giga Drain (weaker than Needle Arm and has too little PP), and Solarbeam (Might be useful against the leader if you have Chlorophyll and Sunny Day, but they'll try to Rain Dance it away). Also of note is Crawdaunt, who is particularly effective at killing Lombres and Ludicolos with Aerial Ace or Sludge Bomb.

The Elite 4 are nothing special.

Try to dump some X-Items on Sharpedo when fighting Shelgon, so it can kill everything with Ice Beam more effectively. Alternatively, use Crawdaunt, Swords Dance up, use some X-Speeds, and sweep.

The latter . is weaker than Needle Arm, but the former might be useful if you can get off a Sunny Day and have CHloyophyll


Psychic:
Pretty easy, despite the limited selection. Ruby is better here, as you can pick up a Solrock (better physical attacker). Medicham is also a good physical attacker that you should get, another must-have. You also get Starmie, which can pretty much kill half the things in the game on its own with the right moves. Other good choices include Xatu and Claydol. You can choose between Gardevoir and Alakazam, or use both (you'll have to use the former first anyway, at least in its pre-evo forms). Don't bother with Wobb' or Chimecho.

Flying:
Would be the easiest ones, if it weren't for the electric gym. With all the variety in typing, how could it not be? There are so many great choices here. When starting off, don't waste your time with Beautifly. Definitely get Wingull and Taillow, though. Later, you can get Crobat, Skarmory, Xatu, Gyarados, and Altaria. Don't count on Tropius being much help, though, except maybe against Whiscashes. Other ones to note are Ninjask (speed and support), Dodrio (Drill Peck; also good for breeding), and Salamence (if you can get that high leveled). Masquerain worked fine for me; it's better than Beautifly, at least, and can provide Intimidate support (but make sure it stays a Surskit long enough to get Bubblebeam), and...

The electric gym can be very tough. If you're not including tradeovers (if you are, just use Gligar), your best bet is to flinch everything to death with Crobat's Bite and Confuse Ray.

However, an alternative method is to pick a male Mudkip as a starter, daycare it up to Level 15, use a Rare Candy to evolve it, and breed it with a female Surskit or Masquerain to get Mud Shot on it. The only downside is the speed disadvantage, so be sure to pack X-Speed and plenty of healing items (it should be able to take a hit if it has decent levels). Either way, be prepared for a few resets in this battle.

For the normal gym, just teach something Protect. Gyarados and Masquerain work well against the underlings because of Intimidate. The Slakings are a joke with Protect, and Vigoroth will fall to whatever you've got. If you're on Emerald, it should be a little tougher (IIRC, you can't get a fighting move on anything at this point), but you should manage. This is the case almost all of the time.

Pelipper cleans house in the Flying Gym if you teach it Shock Wave and Ice Beam.

The Water Gym is probably the only time Tropius is useful. But if not (and who wants to use Tropius), Shock Wave again works well, and Masquerain can be taught Giga Drain for additional support.

Poison:
Dustox is a solid Pokemon to start with. Your selection is kind of limited here, but you get a lot of good ones. Tentacruel is a must-have, as is Weezing. Vileplume is probably better than Roselia, despite the limited movepool, so go with that. Again, you can use Crobat here, though the ground immunity isn't as much of a justifiction as you think. Use it if you have nothing else, though. Finally, the rest are Seviper, Swalot, and Muk. Muk has the best defenses, HP, and Attack, decent movepool. Seviper has the best Special Attack stat and Dark moves, but a more limited movepool. Swalot's main selling points are its support moves, notably Yawn and Encore.

The rock gym is another instance where a few resets may be required, but being around Level 14 should get you the win easily enough.

Gloom isn't as handy as you might think against the electric gym, even given its resistance, though it does better on Emerald. It just has no attacks. Roselia is slightly better, but it becomes inferior soon enough. Your best bet is a straigh-up fight. Gulpin or Swalot can shine here if they know Amnesia, however. Just watch out for the magnets. The magnets are the biggest concern here, but if you use Swalot and support it with X-Items, you should be all right.

For the flying gym, you should have an array of moves by now. Most notably, Tentacruel gets Ice Beam, and Weezing gets Thunderbolt, so let them take on all the birds. Muk can use Thunderbolt too, and Swalot can use Shock Wave.

The Psychic Gym is actually easy. They usually waste time using Calm Mind, so you can Encore it with Swalot. Tentacruel should be able to take them on no problem. Bubblebeam works better than Surf for individual targets. Thunderbolt or Ice Beam Xatu if you're on Emerald. Muk is also a good choice here, as it can take hits like nobody's business.

Thunderbolt everything in the water gym and Giga Drain everything you can't.

That's pretty much it.

 

[Damien.Taylor]

Wow, that's pretty comprehensive........

any others to add to the list

 

[Shinx3000]

I tried this on sapphire with normal types. But tried getting through the whole game this way. Think I had:

Delcatty, Loudred, Linoone, Slaking, Swellow and wigglytuff, plus I could use Linoone to surf, but I could not get into sootopolis that way nor evergrande. I alos had a swellow for a normal flying which I used after beating all Gyms, which was hard and Brawly is not so easy, since normal is weak to fighting. Slakings counter is always a good move to use after it loafs about. Don't think I beat E4 this way, bu then my pokemon had to be around lv80 or above when I challaned them the second or third time(which takes freakin forever in sapphire without cheats)

 

[Tina]

Ruby is better here, as you can pick up a Solrock (better physical attacker)

Emerald has Solrock too.. I was gonna use it on my Psychic playthrough but I never ended up training it very much.

...You're making me want to play through RS now with a Flying team now. XD

 

[Damien.Taylor]

WELL WHY DONT YOU!

 

[System Error]

Forgot I did Rock too.

Rock:
You can't actually start this until you reach Dewford, but it's one of the more interesting ones. You get a fair amount of variety without being too varied, decent challenge at times, and even a legendary Pokemon.

Aggron and Graveler/Golem (their pre-evos, at least) are the first two you get access to, and are good for most of the game. You may want to drop Graveler for Rhydon later, however.

Nosepass is inferior to Regirock, so only use it if you're having serious problems with 4x weaknesses. I haven't tried Magcargo much, but it probably has its uses. Not many, though. Between the two floating stones, Lunatone is more than likely the better one, because of higher special attack (more variety), and Ice Beam. Either are useful for Levitate, at least. Sapphire is obviously the best choice. Again, there is a clear choice between the two fossils: Cradily. It may be your only hope for water busting.

The two water/rocks you can get are a little more amigious. Personally, I'd go with Corsola, as it can use special attacks better, but you need a Relicanth anyway (though not necessarily a raised one) if you want Regirock. Relicanth is faster and has better defenses/HP, but pretty much any Rock type has better defense and HP, so the only thing that might interest you is its speed, higher than average for a rock type (though that's not saying much), and Yawn.

- The fighting gym...fuck, we're already off to a hard start, are we? Personally, I got a bunch of Geodudes, and put in work for Allah (i.e. Selfdestruct). Aron with Iron Defense might be able to work, but criticals will kill you dead.

- Surprisingly, gyms 3-6 are all a joke. For the electric gym, there's a small hitch in the form of Graveler not having any ground moves until Earthquake, and Aron having Mud Slap but no electric resistance, but you'll manage. This is one of the times where an HM move can be useful: teach Rock Smash to Graveler, and it'll have no problem with the Magnets.

- Watch out for Numels on the way to the Fire Gym. They can fuck you up pretty bad. Once you get to Meteor Falls, though, you can pick up a Lunatone or Solrock, which makes them easy to deal with. Lunatone is probably better (which means use Sapphire) for its higher Special Attack, though.

- Magcargo has a unique type, but I've never tried it. It might help against Grass types, but there aren't many of those you'll be fighting. Could be useful against Skarmory, though.

- Thanks to the conveniently positioned floating rocks, the Fire Gym shouldn't give you much trouble. As long as it can kill the Numels and Camperupt, Torkoal should go down without a hitch.

- Cradily is the better fossil, as its grass typing provides much-needed water-killing support.

- Normal Gym isn't worth writing about. Just use the usual Protect strategies on the Slakings, and watch out for random Focus Punches on other Pokemon.

- Magcargo could probably help you beat Skarmorys in the Flying Gym, but watch out for Pelippers. Nothing else to say about this.

- You should strongly consider switching out Graveler for Rhydon when you hit the Safari Zone. Rhydon has better moves than Graveler (though no Selfdestruct/Explosion), and all-around better stats. Even if you're using trades (if only for Golem), Rhydon still has more Attack and HP (it lacks special stats and has a little less defense and speed, but those are all irrelevant).

- I believe you can get a Corsola and/or a Relicanth before the Psychic gym. Use one of them and you shouldn't have too much trouble. Cradily is also useful, because they're both Rock types, and it kills Claydol, too. Just crush Xatu under a rock and have done with it. Lairon/Aggron can work wonders against them with Steel moves.

- Yes, you can (and should) get Regirock.

- Cradily is your horse for the Water Gym. If it goes down, you're dead, so either scrounge by the battle you're in and go heal afterwards, or pack Revives. Make sure you pack some PP healing items too, as Giga Drain has low PP (PP Up it while you're at it). Corsola/Relicanth are probably your next best bet because of being neutral to water moves.

- Elite Four 1...use Cradily on the dual-Water types, and Lunatone w/Ice Beam or Magcargo if you have it on the dual-Grass types. If you're a real man like me and playing Set, watch for the hit on the switch. Mightyena falls to whatever.

- Elite Four 2. Just hit them with whatever you've got that can hit them.

- Elite Four 3. This can be a fun one, as you both have a lot of Super Effective moves. Aggron can kill the Glalies no problem, but watch out for the Sealeos and Walrein. Lunatone and Solrock should both be faster, and it's the one and only time the latter is better than the former here. If not, you should still be able to manage. Corsola or Relicanth are probably your best bet if you're not running Solrock, but I took them down without them.

- Elite Four 4. Ice Beam everything with Lunatone. Maybe X-Speed and X-Special a bit, first.

- I've only fought Steven with this Rock team, but don't remember too much about the fight. Magcargo should again be useful on Skarm, and even Cradily and Armaldo (though Cradily can also be Ice Beamed with Lunatone and Armaldo can be Surfed with Corsola/Relicanth). Aggron dies to Earthquake, plain and simple. Metagross also dies to Earthquake, but be careful if you want to Flamethrow it with Magcargo in hopes of resisting Meteor Mash, because it has Earthquake. Regirock should be able to take a hit if you have it. Cradily, Corsola, or Relicanth can kill Claydol.

- If you're up against Wallace, things will be tougher. Again, Cradily's your best bet. One thing that might work: On turn 1, Giga Drain. If Wailord hits Blizzard, reset. If it misses uses anything else, you should be good. Protect every other turn until it runs out of PP for Blizzard. X-Speed 6 times, X-Special Attack 6 times...hell, drop on X-Defense 6 times for the hell of it, and Giga Drain everything to death. Make sure it has support in the form of Ingrain and Leftovers, too, just in case.

Otherwise, you'll have to get lucky. Lunatone should be able to Psychic Tentacruel; just hope that Hydro Pump misses. Cradily beats Whiscash, obviously. For Milotic, Toxic it, stall, and finish it off before it gets into Full Restore range. Armaldo could be handy against Ludicolo (Aerial Ace), but you'd have to sacrifice Cradily, which just isn't worth it. If you're using trades, Aerodactyl can be an INCREDIBLE asset here, killing Ludicolo, Gyarados, and Tentacruel with superior speed. Besides that, good luck, and be prepared for several resets.

What I did with ground up until I stopped...

Ground:
Ground has lots of things going for it, and yet, it's so limited at times.

First off, you got the readily-accessable Swampert; nothing too bad there. Graveler and Rhydon are also usable in this challenge as they are in the Rock challenge, and are just as good. You also have the obtuse...Nincada! You can't evolve it, but it might come in handy. At least at the start. If you're going to use it later than, say, Mauville, be sure you breed Silver Wind onto it somehow.

You really get a lot of stuff at the desert. Flygon, Claydol, and Sandslash all make great additions to your team. Before that, you get Camerupt, who is perfect for destroying pesky grass types.

Whiscash is inferior to Swampert. Don't bother with it. Donphan is a viable substitute for Sandslash, though it lacks the movepool options.

You get goddamned Groudon for god's sake if you're playing Ruby. I mean, god damn. On that version, everything will be cake after you get it.

- Start with Mudkip, obviously. Swampert is better than Whiscash, and it's better than pissing around with Nincada to beat the Rock Gym.

- Marshtomp walks all over the Rock Gym.

- Nincada could come in handy in the Fighting Gym thanks to its resistance, but can't really do much itself. Marshtomp can handle it easily enough anyway.

- lol @ electric gym and fire gym

- For the Normal Gym, come preped with your desert Pokemon sufficiently leveled, and have at them. Graveler can be useful here too, but again watch out for Focus Punches.

That's around where I stopped. But I should be able to predict the rest...

- Flying Gym. Graveler should be able to handle this, except for the Pelippers.

- Psychic Gym. You can't hit anything here with ground moves, so attacking with your secondary types will be required. Swampert should obviously be your first choice; use a Whiscash as your second if you have one/raised one for the occasion. Flygon should be able to cause some chaos with Crunch.

- Water Gym. Flygon or Claydol will probably be your best bets. If you have Ruby and don't mind using him, send in Groudon and Solarbeam everything. With trades, Quagsire w/Water Absorb can be handy.

- Not sure about the Elite 4, but the only real threat should be the Sealeos and Walreins (and Wallace if you're on Emerald). Don't bother fighting the fourth one with Flygon, either.