Which Pokemon can beat Emerald's bosses by themselves?

How should i do the Tate & Liza fight?

  • Fight alongside a dud

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Fight alongside a clone

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • Skip Tate & Liza altogether

    Votes: 1 50.0%

  • Other solution (please specify)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    2
Now let's look at some numbers, to see which categories of mons did well in this fight and which did poorly. I will be looking at introductory generations and types. In total, 66% of all pokemon beat Roxanne, so any number above that means a category of mons is overperforming, while a number below that means the opposite.

Gen 1Gen 2Gen 3
27/52, 52%16/23, 70%97/135, 72%
Didn't expect gen 1 to do this poorly, but i guess that happens when you introduce mons like Abra and Magikarp.

NormalFightingFlyingFireDragonWaterIceGrassBugElectric
12/27, 44%10/11, 91%8/22, 36%6/10, 60%8/10, 80%38/47, 81%5/6, 83%21/21, 100%4/16, 25%4/14, 29%
PoisonGroundRockSteelDarkGhostPsychic
10/17, 59%20/22, 91%16/19, 84%8/12, 67%9/10, 90%5/6, 83%25/31, 81%
Much of this is what you'd expect, given how these types match up against Rock/Ground. Shoutout to the Grass type; in Johto this type consistently performed the worst throughout the early game, but now it's the only type to have retained all of its mons. That early Bullet Seed TM is a blessing. 4 types have fallen below the 50% mark though, with the Bug type performing worst at 25%.
 
Time for Brawly. For this fight, i get access to all items obtainable before beating Brawly or Route 110 Brendan. Beating Roxanne got me TM39 Rock Tomb. We then beat up an aqua grunt in Rusturf Tunnel, then we head south to Mr. Briney's house, picking up the Miracle Seed in the Petalburg Woods along the way. We take the boat to Dewford, where a guy gives us the Silk Scarf. We head into Granite Cave and give Steven the letter; in return he gives us TM47 Steel Wing. We also take a Hard Stone from the wild Aron here. We then take the boat over to the beach south of Slateport; a little kid here gives us his Soft Sand. In the city itself, we can use Berry Powder to make as many PP Ups as we want; i still have no idea what berry powder is or how it works, but that's apparently possible. We also head into the Battle Tent, where a guy gives us TM41 Torment. Our next stop is the Pokemon Fan Club, where a guy will teach our pokemon Swagger. We then head into the museum to stop Team Aqua, and one of the grunts recognizes us and gives us TM46 Thief.

With all that done, it's time to take on Brawly. We challenge him, use Thief to get his Makuhita's Sitrus Berry, lose, then challenge him again. So let's have a look at what we're up against.

Brawly leads with his level 16 Machop, with the ability Guts and the moves Karate Chop, Low Kick, Seismic Toss and Bulk Up. Carrying only fighting moves is a choice, and i doubt this thing has the bulk to effectively use Bulk Up. Second up is his level 16 Meditite, with Focus Punch, Light Screen, Reflect and Bulk Up. The screens will be annoying when dealing with Makuhita, but this thing will usually see the kill with Focus Punch so as long as i keep up the offensive pressure, he does nothing. Lastly, there's his ace, a level 19 Makuhita. It has the ability Thick Fat, is holding a Sitrus Berry and knows Arm Thrust, Vital Throw, Reversal and Bulk Up. The one mon of his that might get some use out of Bulk Up; those Reversals may sting.

All in all, there's no coverage of any kind here, and these pokemon aren't all that strong in the first place. I don't expect many losses here.

Treecko could Bullet Seed through Machop just fine, and then use Absorb to heal back to full vs Meditite, but Makuhita was seriously tough. Just spamming Bullet Seed wouldn't cut it; in the end, i had to resort to Swagger and hope for self-hits. Which i got in attempt 6. Grovyle didn't use Swagger in the end; Bullet Seed was enough to survive on 1 HP in attempt 8. If Grovyle can do it, obviously so can Sceptile. Combusken and Blaziken had it easy; they just spammed Peck and won. You'd expect Mudkip to be more difficult, but he was actually my first first-try victory; i used Water Gun to kill the first two mons, and then i used Mud-Slap and Swagger to incapacitate Makuhita as i killed him. Marshtomp tried this strat, but after failing a few times, he just crit a Water Gun for the win. Swampert needed neither strats nor crits; he just spammed Water Gun and won.

That win streak couldn't last though; next was Poochyena. His Tackles did very little, and Makuhita could two-shot him, or one-shot after a Bulk Up. I needed to get a bunch of Sand-Attacks off hoping i could then get some howls in, but this never paid off. Poochyena is out. Mightyena has better stats and Intimidate, so you might expect him to do better, but no. I did see a shipper of hope; if he could get his sand-attacks off and then get 4 Howls in against Makuhita, and then kill him, i could get a 5th Howl in on Meditite as Brawly healed, but 5 howls wasn't enough to OHKO Makuhita. Couldn't experiment with strats against him either, as i only made it there once. Mightyena is out. Next up was Lotad who tried the same strat as Treecko, but because he's a much weaker pokemon, he wasn't even guaranteed to get to Makuhita, and he never could get the right Bullet Seed ranges or confusion self-hits to win. Lotad is out. With Lombre, i came close a few times, but almost winning is a synonym for losing. Lombre is out. Fortunately though, all is not yet lost for this family; Ludicolo did have the stats to Bullet Seed through.

Unlike his counterpart, Seedot did not have Absorb to heal against Meditite, but he did have Growth and Harden. I'd set up a bunch of Hardens and then all my Growths, then i'd spam Bullet Seed until all foes were dead. This strat was surprisingly effective, getting me the win in attempt 3. Nuzleaf however is a Dark type, meaning the enemy's attacks did way too much damage despite my Hardens. I could never set up enough Growths to beat everyone; Nuzleaf is out. Shiftry however needed only 2 Growths, and in attempt 4 he got enough Bullet Seed hits to kill Makuhita. After that, Wingull and Pelipper obviously wiped the floor with Brawly, as did Kirlia and Gardevoir.
 
There Is No Arceus said:
thus far i've thought of 3 options: my pokemon can fight them alongside a clone of themselves, they can fight them alongside a dud, or i can skip the twins for this challenge. I don't like the first two options, but i especially dislike the third.
Click to expand...
I've been thinking about this and tbh the clone option is probably the most fair to the challengers. especially since tate and liza are a really hard gym leader as is.
 
Surskit resists Fighting, but that's the only thing he had going for him. His stats are garbage, and his only offensive moves are Bubble and Quick Attack. This did so little damage that the enemies could set up all the Bulk Ups they wanted and kill me anyway. The only way to do serious damage was to use Swagger and hope for self-hits, but this meant boosting their attack for them and taking massive damage when they hit me. In the end, there was no way through. Surskit is out. Shroomish however did have options. He used Mega Drain as his main form of offense, with Bullet Seed as secondary STAB. This allowed him to stay healthy against Machop and heal back to full against Meditite. I'd then hit a Leech Seed on Makuhita for chip and continue spamming Mega Drain. In attempt 5 i got a crit on Machop, allowing me to reach Makuhita with my Sitrus Berry intact. This provided the HP i needed to pull the strat off, and Makuhita went down. Breloom has the same moves but much higher stats, so i think you can predict how that went.

On to Norman's boy Slaking, but things didn't go very well for him. He could not keep up the offensive pressure on Meditite, and thus got Focus Punched in the face. That alone usually wasn't lethal, but that wasn't the only fighting move i had to tank due to Truant. There was no way to win this, Slaking is out. Kadabra and Alakazam won, so next is Nincada. Nincada resists Fighting and has Harden, so he could just play defensively. I set up the first few hardens against Machop, but he has Seismic Toss so i ended up spamming Fury Swipes to kill him. I set up the rest of my Hardens vs Medicham; i didn't fear Focus Punch. I'd then spam Leech Life to restore most of my HP, after which i easily tanked everything Makuhita did while i chipped away with Fury Swipes and Cut.

With Exploud i set up 3 Howls and then went for Uproar, which killed them all. That means we're on to the mirror match. My Makuhita can make use of Guts, sacrificing survivability for power. The damage from this racks up however, and for the first 4 attempts i couldn't make it work. Then in attempt 5 i crit the enemy Makuhita for the OHKO. With Hariyama however, things worked out rather quickly; his Guts Vital Throws were strong enough. After that came Azurill; take a guess how that went. Azurill is out. Marill however isn't weak to Fighting, so he could set up some Defense Curls, and then attempt to role through with not very effective Rollout. It ran out after KOing Meditite, so i had to start a new rollout against Makuhita; this all worked out in attempt 4, getting me the win. Azumarill did the same thing, but one Rollout was enough to roll all over Brawly.

With Geodude, setting up my Defense wouldn't be enough to counteract their supereffective hits, so i was forced to play the Magnitude lottery. While i never got the high magnitudes i wanted, i did crit a Magnitude 6 on attempt 3, which also got the job done. Graveler got the needed Magnitudes on attempt 2, while Golem only needed one attempt. Their Granite Cave colleague, Sableye, would confuse his foes with Swagger and then spam Foresight until they killed themselves in confusion. This worked surprisingly well; i was still at full health by the end of the fight. Course, it's also possible that i was just clowning on him because i know none of Brawly's pokemon have any moves that can hit ghosts. Thins were quite different for his counterpart though. Mawile is weak to Fighting and the only move she has that isn't not very effective is Astonish. The only strategy i could figure out was to try and incapacitate my foes with Swagger and flinches, but this never worked out. Mawile is out. Aron's typing meant he had it rough too. He needed to set up Iron Defense to not get OHKOd turn 1, then he had to use Swagger to get enough damage in on Machop and Makuhita. They always broke through though; Aron is out. For his evolution Lairon, the combination of Iron Defense, Headbutt and Swagger was usually enough to reach Makuhita, but not to kill him. Lairon is out. For Aggron though, a few Iron Defenses provided enough bulk to spam Headbutt and win.
 
Time for another mirror match. My Machop could beat the enemy Machop with a few Karate Chops, then i'd bring Meditite into healing range and set up a Focus Energy as Brawly wasted his potion on a dud. I needed the focus energy, as without crits i couldn't beat Makuhita. I got the crits i needed in attempt 7, and so Machop grabbed the victory. His evolutions didn't need crits; they just powered through. This was followed by another mirror match, but unlike Brawly's Meditite, mine isn't a dud. Confusion spam made short work of all three foes, and Medicham had an easy time as well.

With Voltorb, i unfortunately had to conclude that SonicBoom has fallen off. It did not get the damage i needed. I didn't really have any other offense either, aside from Tackle off base 30 Attack. My strat was to Sonicboom the Machop down, manipulate Meditite's HP so that Brawly would use his potions on her (you won't believe how many crits you get when you don't want them), and then hit Sonicbooms on Makuhita until i was in kill range, at which point i'd Swagger and hope he hit himself. Swaggering earlier was not viable as it meant he could kill me immediately. This strategy of course did not work; Voltorb is out. Electrode's strategy was basically the same, but he had more bulk and thus could get in more Sonicbooms before he had to Swagger; he made it through on attempt 3.

Next up was the Oddish clan. 3 of them resist Fighting and have Absorb to heal up against Meditite, so this was as easy as it gets. Even Bellossom, who does not resist Fighting, had an easy time thanks to her powerful Magical Leafs. For Dodrio it was as simple as spamming Peck, and Roselia copied what she had seen the Oddish clan do. Gulpin and Swalot resist everything these foes can do, so they could just fling Sludge at them and win. Unfortunately though, things weren't as easy for Team Aqua's boy, Carvanha. He is weak to Fighting and his only offensive moves are Bite and Rage. I tried relying on Swagger and flinches to get them to do nothing, but just like all previous times i tried this, it didn't work. Carvanha is out. For Sharpedo though, it worked out as early as attempt 5, in no small part because the Focus Energy i got in while Brawly healed Meditite got me a crit on Makuhita. On to Wailmer; i'd Water Gun down the Machop, then i'd start a Rollout on Meditite in order to hit Makuhita with the 5th hit get the OHKO. It missed the first time, but second time's the charm. I saw little reason to switch things up with Wailord; he won first try.
 
Team Magma's boy Numel tried his luck with Magnitude, and he got the right ranges immediately, with a crit Magnitude 9 finishing Makuhita. Camerupt didn't get a crit, but Magnitude 10 can kill Makuhita regardless of whether it crits. Its colleague Magcargo had more trouble, with its bad typing and no move that worked well vs Makuhita due to Thick Fat. I could always yawn Machop to sleep and then Ember him down, but this didn't work vs Makuhita. In attempt 9 though i just decided to spam Ember, and i got the lucky burn which allowed me to tank his hits and wear him down. For Flannery's boy Torkoal, the answer was to Curse. I could set up the first few curses vs Machop, but he had Seismic Toss so setting them all up there was too risky. After i Embered him down though, i set up the rest of my Curses on Meditite, easily tanking Focus Punches. For Makuhita, i went for Fire Spin and Ember; i was bulky enough to chip him down with those. Unfortunately i got nothing physical to work with Curse. Last for the Fiery Path, Grimer and Muk spammed Sludge and won.

Spoink has fortunately learned Psybeam since we last met him; no more of that Psywave torture. Grumpig also has that move, so he also won. As for Sandslash, he would get in a few Sand-Attacks vs Machop, then he'd set up all his Defense Curls. This allowed Machop to get in a ton of Bulk Ups, so rather than taking him on directly, i Swaggered him and got in the rest of my sand-attacks. I'd then spam Cut until all my foes were dead. This strategy was very crit-prone, so it took until attempt 4 before it worked, but eventually it did. As for our favourite dizzy panda, Spinda could spam Twistedspoon-boosted Psybeams, killing the foes before their fighting moves killed me. I should note that this required them to use Bulk Up at least once. Skarmory of course could spam Peck and win, bringing us to the Trapinch family. The man himself has an excellent attack stat, but his only physical move is Rock Tomb so that sucked. My strat ended up being to use Sand-Attack and Swagger on Machop, and then rely on Swagger and Bite-flinches vs Makuhita. Surprisingly, this actually worked, and attempt 7 brought victory. His evolution Vibrava gets Steel Wing which can get him defense boosts and is quite strong in general, but the enemies could Bulk Up and decimate my damage output. I also tried the same strat that worked for Trapinch, but it didn't work here. Vibrava is out. Flygon however just spammed Steel Wing and won.

Cacnea still uses Bullet Seed for STAB and has pretty bad stats, but none of that matters if you can use Absorb to heal to full vs Meditite and get a Growth off as Brawly heals her. This also worked for Cacturne, despite his weakness to Fighting. Zangoose was next, and he set up 2 Swords Dances as Machop Bulk-upped, then he OHKOd everything with Slash. Seviper's toolkit was less insane, but he does have a very good typing for this fight, and Poison Tail got the job done. We finish today with Tate & Liza's boys, Solrock and Lunatone. They're psychic types, so of course they won.
 
Barboach really had only Magnitude to work with, but in attempt 5 he crit a Magnitude 9 to kill Makuhita. Course, if a lowly mon like Barboach can do it, the greatest pokemon of all time (Whiscash) doesn't have any trouble either. On to Corphish, and if this was FRLG, he'd have Bubblebeam. However, this is Emerald, and the best offense he has is ViceGrip. I'd set up a few Hardens against Machop while he bulked up, then i'd hope for a crit. Once that was done, i'd get either one or two more Hardens in on Meditite while Brawly healed, depending on whether he had used one of his heals on Machop. I'd then continue to spam ViceGrip on Makuhita. This all worked out in attempt 8. Crawdaunt may be a Dark type, but his Hardens combined with a crit on Makuhita earned me the win in attempt 2. This was followed by Baltoy and Claydol, who are psychic types and thus won easily.

On to the fossils. Lileep has a bad type and terrible moves, and its stats aren't all that great either. The only strat i could come up with was to just spam Buller Seed, and Swagger Makuhita once i was in kill range. Surprisingly, this actually worked; in attempt 7 he hit himself often enough for me to win. Cradily also had Ingrain to set up while Meditite healed, so he could win by attempt 5. Their counterpart Armaldo had it a lot easier; he could set up all his Hardens vs Machop and then spam Water Gun. For most pokemon this strat would be crit-prone, but Armaldo is immune to crits so it worked out in attempt 1. Milotic was next and she only had Water Gun to attack with, but she's strong enough to be able to spam that and win. For Castform though, things were hopeless. He was one level shy of learning his weather moves, so he was stuck as a normal type. The strat was to spam Tackle, swap to Water Gun after they Bulk Up, and use Swagger when things got dire. I almost got the win in attempt 9 when Makuhita was one self-hit away from killing himself, but almost winning is a synonym for losing. Castform is out.

Now we're on to Misty's boys. Staryu proved to be great at the stall game, having access to both Harden and Recover. I got to +6 and killed everyone with Water Gun while they could barely scratch me. Starmie doesn't get Harden, but he's a Psychic type do their moves did next to nothing anyway; easy win. Kecleon came thereafter, and while he had to sustain one supereffective hit, he became a fighting type thereafter and could spam Psybeam to his heart's content. We've now arrived at the Mt. Pyre crew; with Shuppet, the strategy was to spam Screech until they were at -6 and then spam Knock Off and Thief, ignoring the fact that those are special moves in this gen. Sadly, i ran out of PP for these moves before Makuhita was dead, so i had to Swagger him instead for the kill. For Banette though, this was a close one. His strategy was to Curse the enemies and then spam Screech until they were dead, but while my Sitrus Berry allowed for 3 Curses, it left me with just3 HP remaining at the end of the fight. With Duskull, the strategy mainly relied on screwing with Brawly's move choices; Disable and Torment severely limited his options. I then hit a Foresight to ensure my following moves would hit, so i could finish off Brawly's mons before they regained their senses and attacked me. With Dusclops, the strat was to hit Bind, disable a move, and then spam Foresight to ensure all my Foresights would hit. However, i ran out of Bind PP against Makuhita and i didn't have any other offense, so we ended up in a PP-stalling war. He ran out first though, and struggled himsef to death. Tropius couldn't just clown about, but his Gusts were strong enough to get him through. Lastly for the Mt. Pyre crew, Chimecho spammed Confusion and won.
 
We start today with Jessie's boy Wobbuffet. Wobbuffet is a one trick pony, but in attempt 5 the enemies cooperated and i could counter them to death. Its Safari Zone colleagues Xatu and Girafarig won with ease, spamming Peck and Confusion, respectively. Donphan got in a few Defense Curls, then he spammed Horn Attack until they were all dead. Pinsir also Hardened up, using ViceGrip and Seismic Toss to end his foes' life. Rhyhorn had it rough though. He's weak to fighting and he had no moves other than pure offense. I hoped for crits, but they never came when it counted. Rhyhorn is out. Rhydon on the other hand was strong enough to spam Horn Attack and win.

We're now on to the Shoal Cave crew, but i suspect this won't go too well for them. Case in point: Snorunt. He had to rely on Swagger and Headbutt flinches to avoid their fighting moves, but his weakness to ice meant he had to dodge so many hits, there was no way it would happen. Snorunt is out. Glalie however could 2-shot Makuhita with Icy Wind, so he only had to play the confuse-flinch game vs Makuhita, which he won on attempt 3. Spheal was up next, but he had Ice Ball. It took a few tries before Machop cooperated, but Makuhita was immediately hit by the 5th hit upon switching in, and that's an OHKO. Sealeo and Walrein copied this strat and also won with it.

On to the deep-sea crew. Clamperl could set up a few Iron Defenses at the start, then he spammed Water Gun for the W. Huntail however had less luck. His movepool at this point consists of Whirlpool, Bite, Screech, Rock Tomb and Swagger. The strat was the usual confusion/flinch, but it never worked out for Huntail. He just didn't have the damage output. Huntail is out. His counterpart Gorebyss had Confusion, allowing for an easy win. As for Relicanth, he'd get 2 Hardens in on Machop, then he'd Water Gun him to death. I'd get 2 more Hardens off on Meditite on the turns when Brawly healed, allowing me to tank Makuhita's hits and Water Gun him down. This strat was very crit-prone, so it took until attempt 4 before it succeeded. Corsola went for an even more crit-prone strat, setting up all its Hardens on Machop while Recovering in between, then Swaggering him and spamming Bubble. I finally got past him in attempt 5, and Makuhita never crit me, so i could take him out without even using Swagger. Chinchou then surprisingly got a first-try victory. He Water-Gunned Machop down, and then used a combination of Water Gun and Flail to manipulate Brawly into using both his potions on Meditite. I crit a Water Gun on Makuhita, but that alone wasn't enough for the win, as his berry healed him back up while he got me into kill range. So out of desparation, i hit a Swagger, which caused him to hit himself, winning me the match. Lanturn didn't need such strats; Water Gun spam was enough. Last for today is Luvdisc, who would Charm her foes' Attack into oblivion, and then spam Water Gun to kill them.
 
Horsea's moveset consists of just Bubble, Smokescreen, Leer and Swagger, so he had to lower Machop's accuracy so that he wouldn't hit me, and then spam Bubble. Smokescreen doesn't work on Makuhita, so once i was in kill range i would swagger him and hope for self-hits. Surprisingly, this actually worked, and i got the win in attempt 6. His evolutions didn't have to rely on that crappy strat though; they had Water Gun, and spamming that proved enough. That means we're now on to the pseudos; for Bagon, spamming Headbutt the entire fight proved enough. Shelgon gets the same moves as Bagon, and thus used the same strat, and while Salamence also gets Steel Wing, i saw no need to switch things up. As for the other pseudo line, Metang still has no levelup moves other than Take Down, but he does have Cut, Rock Tomb and Swagger at his disposal. Didn't need most of those though; Take Down was used on Machop and Makuhita, and Cut was used on Meditite so as to not waste HP. Metagross gets actual moves; he Confusioned them down.

On to Hoenn's legends. Latias spammed Cut to win because there's no way i'm using Psywave again, and Kyogre OHKOd everything with Water Pulse. Groudon had Mud Shot to spam, Rayquaza used Twister to kill them all, Jirachi used Confusion and Deoxys spammed Night Shade. Our HGSS legends are up next, with Snorlax leading the charge. You'd think this gym would be tough for him, but no. The enemies here are so slow even Snorlax outspeeds, and his Headbutts were enough to kill them all on try 1. Suicune then won by spamming Bubblebeam, Mewtwo won by being Mewtwo and Mew spammed Steel Wing despite not having wings. Last are our two remaining gimmick mons, but Smeargle was in trouble. There's no sleep moves to sketch before this point, so there was no reliable way to incapacitate Makuhita. I ended up sketching Sand-Attack off the Poochyena on Route 110, Charm off Tuber Lola's Azurill, Bulk Up off Brawly himself and Peck off the wild Taillow. However, i could never get enough of these moves in in order to Peck my foes to death. Smeargle is out. Only Unown survives of our gimmick mons, and he managed to win on attempt 1 thanks to a lucky crit on Makuhita.

And that's everyone. Of the 140 pokemon that made it to Brawly, 121 were able to beat him, while only 19 faltered. These 19 will now go on to face Brendan on Route 110.

Here's the table showing how many mons beat each boss:
StartAfter RoxanneAfter Brawly
210140121
 
Just realised i forgot to look at the stats; here they are. In total, 58% of all pokemon made it this far, so categories above that are overperforming, while categories below that are underperforming.

Gen 1Gen 2Gen 3
25/52, 48%15/23, 65%81/135, 60%
Gen 1 still underperforming, though Gen 2 has overtaken gen 3 as the gen that's performing the best.

NormalFightingFlyingFireDragonWaterIceGrassBugElectric
8/27, 30%10/11, 91%8/22, 36%6/10, 60%7/10, 70%33/47, 70%4/6, 67%18/21, 86%3/16, 19%3/14, 21%
PoisonGroundRockSteelDarkGhostPsychic
10/17, 59%18/22, 82%13/19, 68%5/12, 42%5/10, 50%5/6, 83%25/31, 81%
Grass is no longer at 100%, meaning every type has now lost at least one mon. In fact, Grass is no longer even at the top, with fighting now performing best at 91%. The biggest drop we see is in the Dark type, which went from having 90% of its members surviving Roxanne to only 50% surviving Brawly. Steel also fell below the 50% mark, dropping fron 68% to 42%. Poison, by not losing any pokemon here, has once again achieved an above average score. Meanwhile, Bug somehow lost yet another soldier in Surskit, cementing its place at the bottom.
 
Now it's time to take on the speedrunner's nightmare: the Brendan fight on Route 110. For this fight, we have access to all items obtainable before facing Brendan. Beating BRawly got us TM08 Bulk Up, after which we beeline straight for said route. So let's have a look at what we're up against.

Brendan's team fully depends on which starter he chose. If he did doesn't have Marshtomp, he will have a level 18 Wingull, knowing Growl, Water Gun, Supersonic and Wing Attack. This water type won't be a pushover for the grass types that would normally trample that type, and he might be tough for fighting types too. If he doesn't have Grovyle, he'll have Lombre, also level 18, knowing Astonish, Growl, Absorb and Nature Power. I don't really fear this thing, though i guess Nature Power can be sorta strong. If he doesn't have a Combusken, he has Slugma, level 18, knowing Yawn, Smog, Ember and Rock Throw. most pokemon wek to fire will not be fighting him, so i'm not sure if he's gonna be doing much. Course, there's also the starters themselves. They're all level 20; Combusken will know Focus Energy, Ember, Double Kick and Peck. This guy's a step above the fighting types Brawly wielded, and also the first real Fire type we have to face. Marshtomp will have Water Gun, Foresight, Mud Shot and Bide; let's hope he really likes Foresight and Bide. Mud Shot is really scary at this point in the game. Finally there's Sceptile, with Absorb, Quick Attack, Fury Cutter and Pursuit. All-out offense and decent coverage, but his STAB of choice is garbage; i think this will be the easiest one to beat.

Which version of Brendan my guys will face depends on their primary type:
Grass, Bug, Steel, Ice, Normal and Dark types will face Combusken
Fire, Rock, Poison, Fighting and Dragon types will face Marshtomp
Water, Ground, Psychic, Ghost and Electric types will face Grovyle

So let's get things underway. Our first pokemon, Treecko, immediately ran into trouble though. He could OHKO Wingull just fine, but he couldn't remotely match Combusken's damage output. Swagger didn't work out either; Treecko is out. Grovyle unfortunately ran into the same issues. He has nothing good to hit Combusken with, and thus he got taken out. Swagger again was no help; Grovyle is out. Sceptile however could power through with Cut, and Brendan's other two mons posed no real resistance. Combusken didn't have the same issues as his counterpart; he had Double Kick to take care of Marshtomp. Course, it did help that both hits crit in attempt 1. Peck took out Lombre and Rock Tomb killed Slugma. Blaziken got only one crit, but that was enough to win first try. As for Mudkip, he had Mud-Slap to make the enemy moves miss all the time, and he could easily tank the Absorbs that broke through. Slugma and Wingull were non-issues, so Mudkip is now the only base form starter still here. Marshtomp and Swampert had some more trouble tanking 4x effective Absorbs, but through accuracy and Swagger, they managed to beat Grovyle.

Time for a family reunion, or what would have been a family reunion if Ludicolo didn't face the Grovyle team. Wasn't much of a match though; Nature Power-turned-Swift made short work of all three foes. As for Seedot, you'd think this was hopeless, but in attempt 3 Blaziken cooperated, hitting himself in confusion twice after a swagger. As usual, the starter is the only difficult foe in this fight, so that was a win. His final form Shiftry can just spam Nature Power and win, provided Combusken used Focus Energy on the turn he fell into Blaze range. Now on to a pair of mons for whom this fight is trivial; these foes can do absolutely nothing to Wingull or Pelipper.

Kirlia's Confusions by themselves weren't enough to break through, but in attempt 3 this move confused Grovyle and he hit himself often enough to die. Gardevoir needed no such luck, her confusions were strong enough in and of themselves. On to Shroomish, who relied on parafusion to incapacitate Combusken. This surprisingly worked, and Shroomish won. His evolution Breloom was the first to make use of Brawly's TM, setting up vs Wingull and then Tackling everyone to death. Kadabra and Zam spammed Confusion to win, and last for today is Nincada. For him, the starter actually wasn't the most difficult foe. Wingull has Keen Eye so i couldn't Sand-Attack him, and he has two supereffective moves to hit me with. All i could do was Swagger and hope for the best. Eventually he hit himself often enough, and Combusken was kind enough to hit himself in confusion 3 times in a row making my sand-attacks useless. Course, while Wingull actually did something, Lombre did nothing as always.
 
Exploud would get in a few Howls, then he'd use Uproar to take out all his foes. Makuhita and Hariyama were next, but Guts-boosted Arm Thrusts, Vital Throws and Rock Tombs proved enough. Marill and Azumarill used Defense Curl plus Rollout to win, but next was Geodude, who had serious trouble. The few times he withstood Lombre's Absorbs, he'd get outsped and OHKOd by Marshtomp. I tried with Quick Claw, but to no avail. Geodude is out. Graveler had the same problems as Geodude, and also failed to overcome them. Graveler is out. Golem however not only outsped, he could also tank a hit, so he could fish for a good Magnitude to kill Marshtomp with, which worked immediately.

Sableye was next, and Night Shade took everyone out. Aggron had it harder, but the key was to set up an Iron Defense vs Wingull. This gave me the bulk to hit Combusken with the Rock Tombs i needed to take him out. The Machop family all won with Guts-boosted Karate Chop, and Meditite and Medicham had Huge Power combined with 70BP physical Hidden Power Fighting. Electrode was next, but while i had previously concluded that Sonicboom had fallen off, it worked just fine here and got me an easy win. On to Oddish, who showcased that sleep isn't an insta-win. He could use sleep and Swagger to try and incapacitate his foes, but with no offense or speed, he couldn't really capitalize on that. Combusken always ended up waking up, not hitting himself and killing me. Oddish is out. For Gloom however, it did work out; Combusken hit himself often enough for me to Cut him down. Vileplume however doesn't get Sleep Powder, nor any other good moves. Stun Spore proved enough though, incapacitating Combusken enough to allow me to kill. Finally for today, Bellossom did the same thing as her cousin, and it also worked out.
 
Dodrio spammed Peck to get through, but next was Roselia. Roselia succesfully incapacitated Combusken with Stun Spore and Swagger; in attempt 2 i got 3 self-hits and one full paralysis, getting me the win. As for Gulpin, the strat was to use Yawn and Swagger while Marshtomp used Bide, and then chip him down. Tis did not work out as planned; in the winning attempt Sludge poisoned him before he fell asleep, but thanks to enough self-hits, i still won. With Swalot though, i remembered the TM for Bullet Seed, so i won with that. Archie's boy Sharpedo finished Grovyle off with a Rock Tomb and a Bite, and Wailmer and Wailord rolled all over Brendan with Rollout. Things went less well for Team Magma's boy Numel; he was outsped and one-shot by Marshtomp. I had to run a quick claw to get in a swagger, and then hope he'd constantly hit himself. never happened; Numel is out. Torkoal however had the bulk to tank one Water Gun, allowing him one shot at getting a high enough Magnitude, or more if Marshtomp went for Bide. That's what happened on attempt 3, allowing me to take it down and win. Magcargo however was in the same position as Numel, and also failed to make things work. Magcargo is out.

Flannery's boy Torkoal would get a ton of Curses in vs Lombre, then he'd Body Slam all his foes to death. Grimer then got in a ton of Hardens and used Swagger, Poison Gas and Sludge to kill Marshtomp. Muk repeated that strat, and Spoink and Grumpig spammed Psybeam to win. Sandslash was next, and he could use Rock Tomb and Cut to easily overpower his opponents. Spinda would then start an Uproar against Wingull, and kill Combusken with Psybeam once he calmed down. Another uproar took out Lombre. Certified gen 3 pokemon Skarmory could Peck Combusken apart, but up next was Trapinch, who wasn't so blessed. He's weak defensively and gets no STAB moves, and his base 10 speed isn't doing him any favours either. Grovyle's only grass move is Absorb, so i could tank a few of those and i could try to Swagger him, but the few times he hit himself often enough to not kill me, my HP was so low Wingull would then finish me off. Trapinch is out, and gets to join Vibrava in the great beyond. Finally for today, Flygon would avenge his child, killing all enemies with Rock Tomb and Steel Wing.
 
Things were pretty hopeless for Cacnea. If Wingull hit a Wing Attack, Combusken could OHKO me. if Wingull hit Supersonic and i hit myself, Combusken could OHKO me. If Supersonic missed or i didn't hit myself, i had to hit all 5 hits of Bullet Seed to one-round him, in order to reach Combusken with good HP and not get OHKOd. I'd then try to incapacitate him with Swagger and Sand-Attack, but that never worked out. Cacnea is out. Cacturne however took much less damage from Wingull, so with the help of a Sitrus Berry and a speed tie with Combusken, i could spam Cut and win. Next was Zangoose, but he gets Swords Dance so this was easy. Seviper's toolkit isn't as insane, but Swagger worked out fine to get Marshtomp to hit himself; combined with Poison Tail, this allowed me to win the fight first try with zero damage taken. Next up were Tate & Liza's boys; Lunatone would put his foes to sleep with Hypnosis and then spam Confusion, but Solrock doesn't get Hypnosis. Just spamming Confusion proved enough though; Marshtomp got confused and hit himself, allowing me the win.

Up next was Barboach, and his chance of beating Grovyle was surprisingly not zero. He could tank one Absorb, after which i got a Rock Tomb in to outspeed. I'd then Swagger Grovyle, and if he hit himself, a sufficiently high Magnitude could finish things. This all came to pass in attempt 7. The best pokemon ever created (Whiscash) then displayed its superiority by performing Barboach's strat way better than Barboach ever could. Corphish then used Swagger and ViceGrip to dispose of Grovyle and his weak absorbs, and Crawdaunt didn't even need Swagger. Batoy had the bulk to tank Grovyle's Pursuits, but was almost killed by Wingull's Wing Attack. Fortunately, i had lowered his speed with Rock Tomb, so i could finish him the next turn. Obviously that meant Claydol could do it as well. As for the fossils, Lileep and Cradily faced Marshtomp so they won easily, and while Armaldo had it slightly more difficult, all he needed was one confusion self-hit, which i got attempt 1.

Wallace's girl Milotic won by spamming Water Pulse even when it was not very effective, but Misty's boy Staryu had a more elaborate strat. He'd use Camouflage to get rid of his water type, and Water Gun to kill Slugma. He had no offense to use against the other two though, so he used Swagger to get self-hits and Recover to stay healthy. Misty's other boy Starmie doesn't get Camouflage, but he does get Swift to deal actual damage to the foes thar resist water, using it for the win. Finally for today was Kecleon, who killed Wingull with Rock Tomb and the rest with Psybeam, completely ignoring that my enemies were changing my type all the time.
 
We now move on to the Mt. Pyre crew; this time the fight won't be free. Case in point, Shuppet. He had to Swagger Grovyle so that he wouldn't get hit by more than two pursuits, and could spam Night Shade. However, Grovyle never cooperated; the few times i made it past him, i had so little HP left that Wingull would outspeed and finish me. Shuppt is out. Banette doesn't get any moves her pre-evos don't get, but her much higher bulk meant that only 1 self-hit on Grovyle was needed. Still took until attempt 9 because of bad crit luck and Wingull confusing me, but in the end i won. Their counterparts Duskull and Dusclops would simply Disable Pursuit and spam Night Shade. Tropius could dispose of Combusken with Gust, and last for the Mt. Pyre squad was Chimecho, who just spammed Confusion and won.

Next up is the Safari Zone crew. Wobbuffet won by doing as Wobbuffet does, Xatu pecked his foes down, and Girafarig had Confusion for Combusken. Donphan used Horn Attack to make short work of his foes and Pinsir tanked a crit Ember and killed everything with ViceGrip, but the final Safari Zone mon, Rhydon, had it tough. While Absorb wasn't a 2-shot thanks to Sitrus, it would bring me low enough for Wingull to get the kill. So i once again had to rely on Swagger; one self-hit was enough to get me the win. As for the Shoal Cave crew, Glalie's Headbutts and Icy Winds were sufficient to kill everyone before they killed me, but Spheal was outsped and one-rounded by Double Kick. NPCs don't see the kill with that though, so he would sometimes go for focus energy. In the winning attempt, i got 2 hits of Ice Ball in on Wingull, a third as Combusken used Focus Energy, then my Quick Claw activated and got me a fourth Ice Ball to finish the chicken. Lombre then died to the fifth. I planned to use the Ice Ball strat with Sealeo too, but fate had other plans; Brendan switched in Combusken early just as i missed an Ice Ball, then my Water Gun crit and OHKOd him. I still used Ice Ball to roll up the other guys though. Walrein however did execute Ice Ball as planned.

Next, we have the deep-sea crew. Clamperl was another of those mons that had to rely on Swagger to do anything, but fortunately Grovyle cooperated as early as the third attempt, and killed himself. Gorebyss had Confusion, but it still had to rely on Swagger to get enough hits in and block the healing from Absorb. Relicanth also needed Swagger, but he got the luck he needed right in attempt 1; good thing Absorb is such a weak move. Finally for today, Corsola obviously needed Swagger too, but her Defense was good enough and Rock Tomb did enough damage that one self-hit was enough to secure victory.
 
Chinchou needed only 2 self-hits to get past Grovyle, which he got on attempt 2. With Lanturn i tried that strat too, but once i reached low health on attempt 1 i switched to Flail to kill Grovyle and Wingull. Luvdisc came after, and though this is an absolutely terrible pokemon, it still had Swagger like everyone else, and could thus confuse Grovyle. Two self-hits were enough to get me the win. Horsea was less lucky though. At this point, his moveset consists of only Bubble, Smokescreen, Leer and Swagger. I could try a combination of Swagger and Smokescreen to make Grovyle hit himself and not me, but this only got me past him once, and i only had 3 HP left so Wingull finished me. Horsea is out. Seadra gets Water Gun too, but what made the difference were his better stats, allowing me to tank more Absorbs that got through the smokescreens. Thus he could grab victory, and Clair's boy Kingdra had no problems at all since it's not weak to Grass.

On to the pseudos. The Bagon family had the stats to spam Headbutt and win, but in Bagon's case only because Marshtomp sees Mud Shot as a speed control move and won't use it when he's faster. Metang finally gets some real moves at this level, so he spammed Confusion and won, and the same goes for Steven's boy Metagross. This means we've now arrived at the legendaries. Latias spammed Dragonbreath to win, Kyogre spammed Water Pulse, Groudon combined Mud Shot, Ancientpower and Slash, and Rayquaza spammed Dragon Claw. Jirachi has Psychic to spam, and for Deoxys, Night Shade and Rock Tomb worked well enough.

Now we're on to our HGSS champs. Snorlax would set up Belly Drum, heal a bit with its Sitrus and then Headbutt everything to death. Suicune's Bites outdamaged Grovyle's Absorb, Mewtwo won by being Mewtwo and Mew could get a few Bulk Ups in before killing his foes with Steel Wing and Rock Tomb. Finally, there's our sole surviving gimmick mon: Unown. Unfortunately, his gimmick proved insufficient here. I could sometimes Hidden Power my way past Slugma and Grovyle, provided good damage ranges and no yawn or Ember-burn, but there was no way i could beat Wingull with Hidden Power Fighting. Struggle didn't work either; Unown is out.

And there we have it. Of the 121 pokemon that made it to Brendan, 109 managed to defeat him, while 12 went down in defeat. This fight has a reputation as the only tough rival fight; we'll see how well Brendan does in our future encounters. Anyway, next up these 109 will face Wattson.

Here is the table showing how many mons beat each boss:

StartAfter RoxanneAfter BrawlyAfter Route 110 Rival
210140121109
 
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