Which pokemon can beat HGSS's bosses by themselves?

[There Is No Arceus]

Hi guys, as a followup to my thread where i pitched every pokemon from the first three generations against FRLG's bosses, i'm now going to do the same thing in HGSS. I will however be doing it with a smaller roster than last time; rather than every pokemon in the game, i will be using all the pokemon in the HGSS pokedex and their evolutionary relatives, as well as all the Hoenn pokemon that managed to beat all the bosses in FRLG (Slaking, Armaldo, Latias, Latios, Groudon, Rayquaza, Jirachi and Deoxys). That brings our grand total up to 283 contestants.

Rules will be as follows:

1. I will be treating them as if they are my starter, so only levelup moves and TMs/move tutors available before the relevant boss are allowed. Same for held items; they must be available before the boss fight.
2. My pokemon will be at the level of the boss's ace, unless that level cap would go down between fights, in which case they will stay at the previous level cap.
3. Bosses will be challenged in level cap order if there are multiple bosses that can be accessed at the same time. If the level caps are identical, I will start with the boss whose defeat opens up more of the world.
4. Each pokemon gets 10 tries to beat the boss, though i may give up after 5 if i see no pathway that could possibly lead to victory.
5. No items in battle; held items are allowed
6. All my pokemon will have IVs of 2 across the board, EVs evenly distributed between all stats and a neutral nature. This means Hidden Power will always be a 70BP Fighting move.
7. In cases where my pokemon's gender is relevant, it will be the gender it's most commonly found as, or female if is gender ratio is 50/50
8. In the interest of being able to focus on the battle at hand and not having to plan ahead, i will pretend that pokemon can relearn levelup, TM and move tutor moves at will, and can switch abilities at will. That way i'm not stuck with an ability that worked against Falkner but was useless after.
9. The moves Double Team and Minimize are banned. The TMs for Substitute, Attract and Flash are also banned, though these moves may be used if they are part of a pokemon's levelup moveset.
10. Since only Deoxys-Defense managed to beat FRLG, Deoxys will be stuck in that form until we reach the meteorites on Route 3
11. Only pokemon with the ability Pickup may use items that are gained through that ability.

The order in which we face this game's bosses will thus be Falkner - Bugsy - Azalea Rival - Whitney - Burned Tower Rival - Morty - Chuck - Pryce - Jasmine - Goldenrod Rival - Archer - Clair - Kimono Girls - Victory Road Rival - Will - Koga - Bruno - Karen - Lance - Janine - Surge - Misty - Brock - Sabrina - Erika - Blaine - Blue - Red.

Since i don't feel like testing at what point the player's mom buys the various items she buys, i'm just sprinkling them in at points that seem appropriate for each item. There are however two items that i don't really know what to do with: TM78 Captivate and the Life Orb. Captivate is located in the Goldenrod Game Corner in the Japanese version but is unavailable until Celadon in the international versions of the games. Thus i can give myself the item before Whitney or after the Pokemon League. As for the Life Orb, it is in a room in the Ruins of Alph that you can only enter with a Ho-Oh in your party. Ho-Oh is available after the Kimono Girls in Heart Gold, but not until you reach Pewter City in Soul Silver. Thus, if i am testing whether these pokemon can beat either HeartGold or SoulSilver, i should give myself the item before the League, whereas if i'm testing whether they can beat both HeartGold and SoulSilver, it's after the league. Alternatively, i can choose to only let Ho-Oh use the item; he gets it after Morty regardless of which option i go for. I will make a poll to decide these things, though of course the poll will just be advisory.

The first fights against Falkner should be up later today.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Time to start this challenge by taking on Falkner. For this fight, we will have access to all items that are obtainable before the first gym. We choose our starter, head back and forth to Mr. Pokemon and beat up our rival, then on route 31 we run into Bug Catcher Wade, who will occasionally call us on the pokegear to give us a berry. Through him we obtain the Cheri, Chesto, Pecha, Rawst, Aspear. Leppa, Oran, Persim, Sitrus and Lum berries. We can also find wild Rattata here, from whom we can take their held Chilan Berries. Once we arrive in Violet City, we make a detour due west, where a guy gives us HM06 Rock Smash. We then clear Sprout Tower, get a TM we can't use and head for the gym.

So let's have a look at what we're up against. Falkner leads with his level 9 Pidgey, knowing Tackle and Sand-Attack. Accuracy shenanigans are always annoying, but other than that i don't see him being a threat. The real deal though is his level 13 Pidgeotto, with Tackle, Roost and Gust. Reliable healing means hitting harder isn't a guaranteed road to success, and he can hit me on both the physical and the special side. Both of these pokemon also have Keen Eye, so no accuracy strats from my side. All in all, these pokemon aren't too strong, but i have very limited options to deal with them, so we will see how this goes.

We're gonna go in Johto pokedex order, with families grouped together and the Hoenn champs at the end. That means we're starting with a pokemon that obviously doesn't have the best matchup: Chikorita. Chikorita could poison her foes and had Synthesis for healing, but Pidgeotto dealt a lot of damage and basically kept me trapped in a healing loop, and even if i did get his health low, he'd heal up himself. I gave this one up after try 5 as i saw no way to win. Chikorita is out. Bayleef had the same moves as Chikorita, but much better stats. It could tank hits better and dish out more damage, especially when i correctly predicted a Roost and hit a Razor Leaf. Thus Bayleef succeeded where Chikorita failed. Meganium outsped and could thus never hit a roosting Pidgeotto, but he had enough bulk and offense to out-stall his foe.

Against Cyndaquil, Pidgeotto decided to throw the match and never Roost. With Quilava he was less profoundly stupid, but my Embers still overpowered him. This obviously meant Typhlosion could do it as well. With Totodile, i set up a few Rages vs Pidgey and then used Bite to get Pidgeotto down. Its evolutions didn't bother with Rage and spammed Bite to get the birds down.

Time for a pair of mirror matches. My pidgey was obviously way stronger than Falkner's, being 4 levels higher and having EVs. It was not stronger than Pidgeotto and did not have Roost, but a lucky crit got me the win anyway. My Pidgeotto also didn't have Roost, but Falkner decided to throw the match again; he never healed, allowing me to Quick Attack him to death. Their big brother Pidgeot of course wiped the floor with its younger siblings, especially since Falkner again didn't roost. As for their colleague Spearow, he doesn't have the highest stats, but Fury Attack does some serious damage, especially after a Leer. He was able to two-round the Pidgeotto after getting a Leer in. Fearow didn't need the Leer; he just Fury Attacked his foes down. Their Johtonian colleague Hoothoot could put things to sleep with Hypnosis, but his attack was abysmal. He would need two crits to kill Pidgeotto before it could wake up and Roost up. Fortunately, i got those crits. Noctowl however had 140 base power Sky Attacks to throw around, so he won with ease.

As for the early-game rodents, Rattata could get poisoned off either the Weedle or the Spinarak on Route 31, allowing him to rip through with Guts-boosted Quick Attacks. He still needed a Tail Whip for Pidgeotto, but that was no problem. Raticate didn't need the defense drop; he just massacred everything. Sentret however doesn't have a good ability, nor really good moves. All he could do was just Fury Swipes away and hope to hit a lot of times. In attempt 4 though, Falkner decided not to Roost and i could get him to the red, allowing a Quick Attack to finish him. With Furret though, i felt i was strong enough to just spam Quick Attack, which turned out true.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

I forgot to mention that since the other berries are useless, my pokemon will be holding either an Oran or a Sitrus berry in all fights unless i specify otherwise.

Pichu and its evolutions ripped through Falkner with Thundershock, though in Pichu's case he only won due to paralyzing Pidgeotto. That means we've now reached Caterpie. Caterpie may not have done too well in the previous challenge, but he started this one with renewed hopes and dreams, aiming to be the very best like no one ever was. So it is with full confidence that he stormed into Falkner's gym, armed with Tackle, String Shot and endless determination. Yeah, he's out. Metapod is also out, but Butterfree had actual tools to work with. It could use Sleep Powder and then confusion away as Pidgeotto slept, getting the win in one try. Weedle and Kakuna are also out, but with Beedrill i saw a line that might potentially lead to victory with enough luck. I got only 2 moves, Focus Energy and Fury attack, so i'd set up a Focus Energy against Pidgey and then spam Fury Attack hoping for enough hits and crits to take out Pidgeotto before the Gusts got to me. Unfortunately though, the luck i needed never came. Beedrill is out.

Ledyba's moveset at this point consists of Tackle, Supersonic and Comet Punch. He'd Comet Punch Pidgey down and then try to confuse Pidgeotto hoping he'd hit himself constantly so i could get enough comet punches in to kill him. This never happened. Ledyba is out. Ledian has one additional move: Rock Smash. He used this move to lower Pidgeotto's defense after confusing him, increasing the damage of self-hits and Comet Punch. It took a while for this to bear results,but in attempt 5 i got all the self-hits i needed to win. Spinarak however had no strategy it could use; its moves at this level are Poison Sting, String Shot, Scary Face, Contrict and Leech Life. Nothing above 20BP, and struggle is bad in this gen so that wasn't an option either. Spinarak is out. Ariados had these same moveset issues, and while he came close a few times due to Pidgeotto not roosting for some reason, he never was able to power through with these weak moves. Ariados is out.

Geodude and his family obviously wiped the floor with Falkner as they do in every Johto playthrough, bringing us to the Zubat family. Zubat deployed a strategy of confusing Pidgeotto with Supersonic and then Biting away, which worked in attempt 3 because Pidgeotto decided never to Roost. Golbat however had no need for confusion as he could just Screech his foe's defense down and then Bite at the weakened defense. Crobat has even better tools than that; he has Cross Poison to kill both of these foes.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Cleffa doesn't have the strongest offenses or defenses, but she does have good tools. She could confuse Pidgeotto with Sweet Kiss and infatuate him with Cute Charm. I originally intended to use Encore to make him waste all his Roosts and Copycat to copy Roost and get some survivability, but the opportunity never presented itself; i just killed him while he couldn't do anything. Clefairy had no Sweet Kiss nor Copycat, so she had to shut him down with 55% accurate Sing after taking one of Pidgey's sand-attacks. She had Rock Smash though to lower his Defense, which allowed DoubleSlap to outdamage Roost for the win. With Clefable, since i knew i was gonna win anyway, i decided to have some fun with Metronome. Pidgey died to a Solarbeam and a Wring Out, and Pidgeotto went down to Sacred Fire and Flamethrower, with many useless moves in between. On to their jiggly counterparts. Igglybuff deployed the same strategy as Cleffa to win on try 1, and while Jigglypuff lacked Rock Smash and therefore couldn't copy Clefairy exactly, sleep and infatuation meant the bird could almost never do anything, and i could bludgeon him to death. Wigglytuff also won with that strat.

On to Misty's boy Togepi. Togepi gets no offensive moves other than Rock Smash, so after confusing my foes, i would spam Metronome and hope for something good. I ended up landing a Sheer Cold on Pidgeotto, granting me the win. Togetic gets only 1 move Togepi doesn't: Magical Leaf. I decided it would be better to keep Metronoming, and though nothing as spectacular as Sheer Cold happened, i got the powerful moves i needed to take them out. None of this applied to Togekiss though; he had STAB Extremespeed to kill both foes. On to Sandshrew, who didn't have a lot of damage output but could use Rock Smash to lower Pidgeotto's defense. I was also slower so Rock Smash became supereffective after Roost and actually dealt decent damage, allowing me to take the bird out. Sandslash was speed-tied so my rock smashes didn't always hit after the roost, but other than that, the strategy was the same and led to the same results.

Ekans's Glare and Bite allowed for paraflinch strats, coupled with a defense drop from Leer. This allowed me to incapacitate him and take him down. Arbok didn't need these strats though, as he gets Ice Fang and Thunder Fang. That means we've arrived at the first of our winners from Kanto: Dunsparce. We'll see whether he manages to repeat his accomplishments here in Johto. He definitely beat Falkner with ease though; spamming Rage was enough to kill both birds. The Mareep family obviously had no issues either. Wooper was less lucky though. He had basically no damage output, to the point where it took 3 hits to kill Pidgey. All the sand-attacks i sustained because of this meant i couldn't hit Pidgeotto with anything; not that it would have mattered if i did hit him consistently, as i had no damage output. I could theoretically have won this had my Water Gun crit every time and had Pidgeotto never gone for Roost, but this obviously never happened. Wooper is out. Quagsire then came in and took his vengeance on the birds; his Water Guns did do meaningful damage.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Gastly had a problem. His moveset consisted of Hypnosis, Lick, Spite, Mean Look and Curse, so i had no way of dealing damage other than Curse, which costs half my HP. Pidgey can't hurt me though, so i tried using Spite and Lick to stall him out of all his PP so he'd kill himself with Struggle. Didn't work; Struggle did more than a single Curse would have done to me. Pidgeotto could always just kill me; i often didn't even get a curse off. Gastly is out. Haunter was in a better spot though. Its higher defenses meant it tanked Struggle better, so he had enough HP left to Curse Pidgeotto and then hit a Hypnosis through all the sand-attacks to put him to sleep. He stayed asleep for 3 turns, allowing the curse to do its job. As for Gengar, he did have a real move in Rock Smash, which allowed him to kill Pidgey without taking damage and Curse Pidgeotto to death.

Unown won by doing what it does, after which Brock's boy Onix and Jasmine's boy Steelix both massacred them with Rock Throw. Things went less well for Bellsprout though. He only had Wrap and Vine Whip for damage, meaning that even Sleep Powder couldn't keep Pidgeotto down long enough for me to kill him. Gust was devastating; i didn't stand a chance. Bellsprout is out. Weepinbell had the same moves but more bulk and firepower, so with enough luck i could make it. It required no misses on my part and for him to always stay asleep 3 turns and never use Roost, but i actually got that luck on try 10, meaning Weepinbell lives to fight another day. Victreebel gets it a lot easier; he gets Stockpile and Spit Up, so he just needed to set up while Pidgey was asleep, then once Pidgey was dead, Spit Up would kill Pidgeotto.

Hoppip on paper has a bad matchup, but that's only if you don't take stupid AI into account. Synthesis, Tail Whip, Tackle and PoisonPowder proved enough; he could have kept up the offensive pressure forcing me to Synthesis every turn, but he found it more important to Roost off 1 turn of poison damage, so i got in all the tail whips i needed to outdamage Roost and beat him down. The strategy worked even better for Skiploom, as he outsped Pidgeotto and thus didn't have to predict Pidgeotto's moves. If Skiploom can do it, obviously so can Jumpluff. Paras though did about as well as you'd expect from a bug/grass type; Paras is out. Surprisingly though, Parasect did have the tools to beat these foes down. It had Cross Poison, though i still had to Stun Spore pidgeotto and hope for either a paralysis or a crit in order to beat the bird before it beat me. This finally happened on attempt 6, allowing our favourite zombie bug to move on to the next fight.

Poliwag and his family could Hypnosis their foes to sleep and then spam Water Gun, or BubbleBeam for the fully evolved ones. Magikarp is out, which brings us to our final pokemon for today: Gyarados. Gyarados had only 1 move in Thrash, but it didn't need anything else to beat them to a pulp.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Goldeen and Seaking had the powerful Horn Attack, which after a few Tail Whips easily dispatched Pidgeotto. This was followed by Slowpoke and his evolutions; the poke and the bro would set up a ton of curses and then tackle their foes to death, while the king had access to Power Gem to massacre them. Oddish was less lucky though. At this level, he has Absorb, Sweet Scent, Acid and Poisonpowder. I could have won this had Acid gotten enough special defense drops, but i never got more than 1 and Pidgeotto always killed me before i could kill him. Oddish is out. Gloom however was tanky enough to tank enough Gusts to allow him to kill his foe with Acid. Vileplume doesn't get Acid and only had Mega Drain for damage, but that proved effective enough, especially on turns when Pidgeotto Roosted his flying type away. Bellossom did have a great tool though in the form of Leaf Blade. It dealt more than Pidgeotto did to me and he could not safely Roost the damage off as that would make my move normally effective. Bellossom thus beat him down.

Drowzee had to put his foe to sleep in order to get enough Confusions in to take him down. In attempt 3 my foe also got confused and tended to hit himself when awake, allowing me to put him back to sleep and beat him down. Hypno however didn't need Hypnosis and just Confusioned them down. Their fellow psychic type wasn't so lucky though; all Abra could do was struggle. Abra is out. Kadabra and Alakazam did a lot better; their amazing special attack allowed them to easily Confusion their foes to death. Our next pokemon though is a gimmick pokemon whose gimmick really doesn't work in this fight. Ditto tried transforming into Pidgey and struggling his way through, but neither worked. Ditto is out.

Pineco would probably have won if even a single one of his Take Downs crit the Pidgeotto, but this never happened and he was always Gusted down. Pineco is out. Forretress however was less susceptible to Gusts, and thus he could Take the pidgeotto Down. We've now arrived at the Nido clan. They all had Double Kick as a reliable, Roost-proof way of dealing damage, though Nidoran-Female did need to get a Tail Whip in to do enough damage. Her male counterpart didn't need that as he could just run Rivalry over Poison Point.

 

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Yanma may have stood a chance had i allowed the use of Double Team, but as it stands, he just had Tackle, Foresight and Quick Attack. I gave up after 5 attempts; Yanma is out. Yanmega however gets Night Slash so he could just massacre them. On to the pokemon with the lowest base stat total of all: Sunkern. With Sunkern, i saw a path to victory, but it required a lot of luck. I'd Grasswhistle the enemies to sleep, set up a bunch of Growths vs Pidgey and then spam Mega Drain. Unfortunately though, Pidgey had a tendency to use Sand-Attack when awake, lowering Grasswhistle's already shaky accuracy. I found it impossible to put Pidgeotto to sleep and buy myself the turns i needed to drain him down. Sunkern is out. Sunflora however had Pound to kill Pidgey quickly, and he could tank multiple Gusts, giving me the time to set up some Growths and spam Mega Drain to kill him.

Exeggcute had Hypnosis to incapacitate the enemies and Leech Seed for longevity, but he had to rely on Barrage for damage since Uproar doesn't combine with Hypnosis. It took several tries, but eventually Pidgeotto cooperated and didn't roost when he really should have, so i won. Exeggutor didn't have Leech Seed, but he did have Confusion which outdamaged even supereffective Gusts and easily killed Pidgeotto. On to Bonsly, who doesn't get any rock moves at this point. He had to rely on Low Kick for damage, but since my foes had no damage output against me, i could wear them down. Sudowoodo does get a rock move in Rock Throw, so he killed them easily. As for Wynaut, he had problems. He doesn't get Counter or Mirror Coat until level 15, so he was stuck with Splash, Charm and Encore. Struggle is bad; Wynaut is out. Even if he could Counter though, it probably wouldn't have mattered, as evidenced by Wobbuffet's performance. Pidgey's Tackles did very little, meaning i did very little in return and he could get a ton of sand-attacks in, meaning my counters would miss. When we came to Pidgeotto, it was completely random whether he would go for the physical Tackle or the special Gust, so i had to guess each turn, and even if i guessed correctly i often still missed. There was also nothing i could do against him Roosting back up. Wobbuffet is out.

With Venonat i would use Poisonpowder to get him to Roost at inopportune times, and Supersonic to get him to do nothing many turns. Confusion then took him out. Venomoth also gets Silver Wind, which thanks to Tinted Lens deals neutral damage and could kill both birds. This was followed by Scyther, who set up a Focus Energy that never got me a crit and then spammed Technician-boosted Quick Attacks to kill both of its foes. Its evolution Scizor repeated this strat and also won. Finally for the National Park crew, Pinsir set up a Focus Energy at the start and then killed both foes with his ViceGrips, actually getting a crit against Pidgeotto.

Heracross may have a double weakness to Flying, but he wasn't OHKOd by Gust and thus he could 2HKO Pidgeotto with Guts-boosted Night Slashes. Koffing may not have a weakness to Flying, but his only moves were Poison Gas, Tackle, Smog and Smokescreen. I could poison Pidgeotto, but my low Attack and Special Attack meant i could not keep up the offensive pressure and he could always take me out. Koffing is out. Weezing had these same moves, but much better stats allowed him to wear Pidgeotto down. Grimer might seem to be in a similar situation as Koffing, having Pound, Harden, Poison Gas and Disable (and Mud-Slap), but Disabling Roost actually turned out useful and allowed me to overpower Pidgeotto. With Muk, i accidentally disabled Gust rather than Roost, but my higher attack meant i could still overpower the birds.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

The Magneton family obviously wiped the floor with Falkner, as did the Voltorb family. Aipom needed some Defense drops from Rock Smash, but it got those in attempt 1 and could Scratch Pidgeotto down. Ambipom however had Technician to power up his Scratches, so he won with ease. This was followed by Snubbull and Granbull, who both get Ice Fang apparently; they won with ease. With Vulpix, i found that trying to Tail Whip down my foe's defense wasn't feasible as he'd beat me down before i killed him, so i just spammed Ember and hoped for a crit or a burn. I got a crit in attempt 7, granting our six-tailed friend a hard-earned victory. Its nine-tailed brother was capable of plotting nasty things, so a single Nasty Plot against Pidgey allowed Ninetales to sweep. Growlithe didn't need nearly as many attempts as Vulpix because Pidgeotto decided not to Roost; a single defense drop from Rock Smash let me Bite him down. Its older brother got Thunder Fang; Arcanine won.

Stantler spammed his STAB Stomps, bringing us to Azurill. Azurill may have Huge Power, but that doesn't help much when your moveset consists of Splash, Charm, Tail Whip and Bubble. These moves weren't even guaranteed to get me past Pidgey, and while going for Huge Power Struggles consistently got me to Pidgeotto, he would consistently kill me. Azurill is out. Marill however had Tackle and Rock Smash to make use of Huge Power; i needed some Defense drops, but i got them on try 4. Azumarill gets the same moves as Marill, and could make them work on try 1. Which brings us to our next problem child: Diglett. He could not use his STAB, and his scratches did very little. He also couldn't rack up Rock Smash defense drops as his abysmal defenses meant he'd be KO'd before he got Pidgeotto to that point. Diglett is out. Such was not the story of Dugtrio, who had Night Slash to spam and got a crit to kill Pidgeotto.

 

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Mankey set up a Focus Energy vs Pidgey and then spammed Karate Chop. Didn't get any crits, didn't need any. Mankey has won. Primeape got crit by Pidgey, which triggered Anger Point and allowed me to one-shot both foes. Meowth had Technician, allowing him to kill Pidgey with a Fake Out and a Bite, but against Pidgeotto i had to hope for Bite flinches so that he would do nothing. This worked out in attempt 2 though, and i got the win. Persian straight up one-shot Pidgey and did almost half to Pidgeotto, so he had no trouble. Psyduck could have lost if Pidgeotto roosted off my Water Gun damage, but he didn't and i won. Golduck also spammed Water Gun and thus also won. After this came the Machop line, who powered through their type disadvantage with Guts-boosted Karate Chops.

On to the Hitmon clan, starting with Tyrogue. Tyrogue unfortunately didn't do too well. He had Guts, but while this allowed him to two-shot Pidgey, Pidgeotto did over half to me and i didn't do nearly that in return, with my measly Tackles and Rock Smashes. I found no way to win; Tyrogue is out. Things weren't so dire for its evolutions though. Hitmonlee could kill them with Reckless Jump Kicks, Hitmonchan killed them with Revenge followed by Bullet Punch and Hitmontop had his Technician-boosted Rolling Kicks. This was followed by Girafarig Stomping his foes into the ground, and by Tauros impaling them with Horn Attack. Unfortunately though, Whitney's stupid cow also easily made it through; decent chance we'll have to gaze upon her fat face throughout this challenge. Finally for today is the Magmar family. Magby managed to burn Pidgeotto with Flame Body, allowing him to Ember the bird down. The same thing happened again with Magmar, but Magmortar gets Thunderpunch for some reason so he used that to massacre Falkner.

 

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Whoever came up with the idea for Smoochum ought to be in jail, but i guess i'll give her a fair chance just like all the others. Powder Snow decimated the fliers, and Jynx obviously won just as hard. The Elekid family obviously won too, zapping them with Thundershock. Mime Jr got a lucky crit on one of his Confusions, which allowed him to kill Pidgeotto without fear of Roost. Ash's dad didn't need a crit, but he got one anyway; Mr. Mime won. That brings us to one of the most unique pokemon for the purposes of this challenge: Smeargle. Smeargle doesn't learn moves through levelup or TMs, rather he copies them off of foes i fight. I have no access to supereffective moves at this point, but i was able to cobble together a moveset that works. I copied Hypnosis and Growth off Elder Li, and i got Roost and Gust off Falkner's own Pidgeotto. I'd put Pidgey to sleep and set up a bunch of Growths, though this did require me to tank some sand-attacks. Didn't matter though, as after i Gusted him down, i found that Pidgeotto could not outdamage my Roosts and my +6 Technician-boosted Gusts did over half, so i managed to take him down eventually.

Farfetch'd strategy wasn't all that far-fetched; he just spammed Aerial Ace until the enemies were dead. Natu needed 2 Leers to 3-shot Pidgeotto, which worked out on attempt 4 because he was too stupid to roost. With Xatu, i tried what would happen if i didn't Leer at all and just spammed Peck, which got me the win because he again didn't Roost. Qwilfish also won because Pidgeotto didn't roost off my Water Guns, but my foe did Roost off Tentacool's Acids. No matter though; Tentacool can just hit a Supersonic to stop him from consistently doing so, thus getting the win. Tentacruel could overpower the Pidgeotto with just Acid, so he did just that.

Krabby's ViceGrips weren't strong enough to overpower this foe, but when i decided to start Rock-Smashing to lower his Defense, he just kept using Roost and making my rock smashes supereffective. Thus, after racking up some defense drops, rock smash could kill. Kingler however could just power through with ViceGrip. Things did not go so well for Shuckle though. Shuckle has amazing defenses but no offense, and at this point he also had no way of dealing passive damage, with his moveset consisting of Constrict, Withdraw, Bide, Encore and Rock Smash. Even taking out Pidgey generally cost most of my Rock Smash PP, and i sustained many sand-attacks in the process. Thus i never even got close to getting all the Defense drops i needed to take out Pidgeotto. Shuckle is out. Things weren't as hard for the next two pokemon though; Misty's boy Staryu could Water Gun through, and the same obviously applies to Kanto champ Starmie. Shellder then killed them with Skill Link Icicle Spears, and finally for today, Cloyster killed them with Aurora Beam.

 

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Corsola resisted all of their moves and had Recover in case they somehow did do serious damage, but that proved unnecessary as i could kill them by just spamming Rock Smash. Remoraid was only 1 level shy of learning Aurora Beam, but Psybeam proved strong enough. Octillery does get Aurora Beam, so he obviously won. Chinchou used parafusion strats to prevent Pidgeotto from resting, so that he could Water Gun his foe down. Lanturn however needed no such strats; he just powered through with Water Gun. Seel and Dewgong then Icy-Winded their foes down, but Lickitung only had Rock Smash and Knock Off for offense. Rock Smash proved sufficient though, and a few defense drops later, victory was mine. This obviously meant Lickilicky could do it as well. Surprisingly, Tangela also managed on his first attempt. He put Pidgey to sleep, set up Ingrain and started Rock-Smashing. Pidgeotto also cooperated and went to sleep every time, so i could just spam rock smash, accumulate defense drops and take him down. I naturally tried this with Tangrowth too, though it took until attempt 2 for it to work due to sand-attacks.

On to the Eeveelutions. They all get the same levelup moveset at this point with Tackle, Tail Whip, Helping Hand and Sand-Attack, though some also get Rock Smash. Eevee himself cannot smash rocks, so he just powered through with his Adaptability Tackles, paired with one tail whip. Vaporeon, Flareon and Jolteon all spammed Rock Smash, though the latter ran out of rock-smashes and had to finish things with Tackle. Espeon and Umbreon did not get Rock Smash, but a few Tail Whips allowed Tackle to do all the damage i needed it to. Leafeon did get Rock Smash, but his typing was obviously a problem. I needed to not miss a single Rock Smash against Pidgeotto and i needed to get at least one Defense drop, and of course no crits against me. All the stars aligned in attempt 4 though, and i managed to beat the Pidgeotto. Finally for today, Glaceon spammed Rock Smash.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Horsea's Water Guns got a Sniper-boosted crit, so he won. Its evolutions needed no crit and just powered through. This was followed by Gligar, who had the bulk to tank Pidgeotto's hits and spammed Rock Smash to kill it while it didn't roost. Its evolution Gliscor didn't have to bother with smashing rocks, as he had Ice Fang to kill them. Our next contestant is Delibird, who is terrible and can only know Present at this point, a move that has a chance to heal the opponent. Things did work out though; after 7 attempts of hurling presents at Pidgeotto, they finally did enough damage to kill him.

Swinub had Powder Snow, but since Pidgeotto liked to Roost ever turn and get rid of his Flying type, it was more effective to spam Rock Smash, drop his defense and kill him. Piloswine and Mamoswine did Powder Snow their foes down though. That brings us to Teddiursa and Ursaring, who both managed to beat both of these foes using Fury Swipes. Its counterpart Phanpy had Take Down, though it needed a defense drop from Rock Smash before that outdamaged the enemy's roosts. Donphan doesn't get Take Down, but he does get Thunder Fang, which was far more effective.

Mantyke crit one of his Bubblebeams against Pidgeotto, but he probably would have won regardless. Mantine did not get a crit, but his Bubblebeams were strong enough to two-shot regardless. His counterpart Skarmory was pretty much impervious to everything they threw at him, and could Peck until they died. Doduo then spammed Rage to win, while Dodrio got access to the way stronger Pluck. Ponyta then embered her way through, and finally for today, Rapidash killed them with Poison Jab.

 

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Cubone's Headbutts were not strong enough by themselves, but after a few defense drops from Rock Smash, i could kill Pidgeotto. Marowak needed no drops and Headbutted the beast to death. This was followed by Kangaskhan, who one-shot Pidgey with Fake Out and only needed two Comet Punches to kill Pidgeotto. As for the Rhyhorn family, they took next to nothing from the enemies' attacks, so of course they won. Murkrow had nothing but Pursuit to deal with its foes, but Super Luck gave me the crit luck i needed to bring this to a good end. Its evolution Honchkrow needed no crits, as it had the powerful Wing Attack to work with. Houndour also got good crit luck, critting his Ember to kill Pidgeotto, but its evolution Houndoom had Thunder Fang and thus had no need for crits.

Slugma and Magcargo are gen 3 pokemon and you cannot convince me otherwise, but they're in this dex somehow so i'll allow them to compete. Slugma would Yawn Pidgeotto to sleep and spam Rok Throw, with no risk of Roost. With Magcargo though, Pidgeotto got burned off Flame Body, so my Rock Throws forced him to Roost every turn; once he stopped, he died. As for Sneasel, he unfortunately gets no Ice moves at this level, but he does get Screech, which made his Quick Attacks hit as if they were Ice moves. Weavile didn't do that, he just spammed Assurance. Their fellow Mt. Silver mons Misdreavus and Mismagius had only Psywave for offense, which is normally a terrible move, but it actually carried them through the fight and hit hard when that was needed.

The Porygon clan all used Conversion to become Psychic and spam STAB Psybeams, which got them all the win, with Trace copying Keen Eye and stopping accuracy drops. Porygon-Z got Adaptability rather than Trace, but that also worked out well. Happiny's story wasn't so happy though. She has pretty much no Attack or Defense, and her only moves at this point are physical. My main form of damage against Pidgeotto was self-hits from confusion, which was very unreliable since i had usually sustained a billion sand-attacks before Pidgey finally died. I essentially required constant self-hits from Pidgeotto to win, which never happened. Happiny is out. Chansey's Attack and Defense are just as garbage, but she has better HP and better moves. She gets Softboiled to heal off the damage the enemies did, allowing her the survivability to Growl Pidgeotto's Attack into oblivion and spam Rock Smash until the bird was dead. Finally for today, Blissey did that too.

 

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Lapras's Ice Shards got the best of these foes, bringing us to the fossils. They all resisted everything these enemies can do, so they could easily batter away at them and grab the win. With Munchlax, i decided that spamming Metronome was probably quicker than trying with the weak moves you get at this level, and while i did get a perish song, i killed Pidgeotto before the timer ran out. Kanto champion Snorlax didn't get Metronome, so he just Tackled these foes until they were dead.

We've now arrived at the Kanto starters. Bulbasaur may be weak to Flying, but he has the tools to circumvent this, most notably Sleep Powder and Leech Seed. He'd put Pidgeotto to sleep, seed it for recovery and then spam Rock Smash until the enemy was dead. This worked for his evolutions as well. Charmander and Charmeleon could Ember their foes down, and Charizard had access to the mighty Dragon Claw. Squirtle and Wartortle had success with Water Gun, and lastly for the Kanto starters, Blastoise Flash Cannoned them to death.

That means we've arrived at the lesser legendaries, starting with the legendary birds. Articuno spammed Powder Snow and Zapdos spammed Thundershock, and while Moltres's Wing Attacks weren't supereffective, he nontheless won with ease. The beasts also didn't exactly have a rough time; Raikou won with Thundershock, Entei deployed Ember and Suicune spammed Bubblebeam.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

We're now at the pseudo-legendaries. Dratini had trouble, as its best offensive move, Twister, barely did anything. It could use Thunder Wave to paralyze Pidgeotto though, which in attempt 3 led to him being fully paralyzed at key moments when roosting could have saved him. Dratini thus won by sheer luck. Dragonair did have the stats to just spam Twister, and Dragonite had Thunderpunch. The other pseudo line had no real issues; Larvitar beat them with Guts-boosted Bites, Pupitar did it with non-boosted Bites and Tyranitar had Thunder Fang.

Next are the boxart legendaries, who obviously all won. Lugia and Ho-Oh spammed Gust and Mewtwo spammed Confusion. As for the mythicals, Mew took these foes out with Mega Punches, and Celebi's neutral Confusions did more than Pidgeotto's supereffective Gusts.

That leaves only the Kanto champs. While Slaking's scratches outdamaged Pidgeotto's Gusts even with Truant, the fact that i could only move every other turn gave him much free time to rest, so i had to yawn him to sleep to prevent that from happening. Armaldo deployed the age-old strategy of Rock Smashing until the defense drops let me KO, but the Lati twins had a problem. Their only offensive move at this point is Psywave, a move whose damage varies but is always low. It somehow got Misdreavus the win earlier, but Latias even had trouble killing Pidgey, which led to a billion sand attacks and missing all my psybeams on Pidgeotto. In 10 tries, i never got the luck i needed. Latias is out. Latios also only has Psywave for offense, but he has access to Heal Block, so i could prevent my foe from Roosting off all the damage i did to him and thus i could keep up the offensive pressure until Pidgeotto was dead. Kyogre of course one-shot them both with rain-boosted Water Pulses, and Groudon relied on the tried and true Rock Smash strat. Jirachi's Confusions proved effective, and finally, Deoxys-Defense spammed Rock Smash.

And that's everyone. Of the 283 pokemon that started this challenge, 254 managed to beat Falkner, while 29 faltered. These 254 will now be moving on to face off against Bugsy. Here is a nice table showing how many survived after each boss; it's not very informative yet, but i intend to include it after every boss so i might as well start now.

Start	After Falkner
283	254

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Let's now do some statistical analysis of all the pokemon that made it past Falkner. In FRLG i only did this for the pokemon that managed to beat the league, but i think it'd be interesting to do this after every boss to see how things develop. I will be looking at introductory generation and type. In total, 90% of all pokemon made it, so a higher percentage than that means the category overperformed while a lower percentage means they underperformed.

Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 3	Gen 4
137/151, 91%	89/100, 89%	7/10, 70%	20/22, 91%

It's interesting that gen 3 underperformed this badly when most of their numbers are the pokemon that are here because they beat the Kanto league. Wynaut and Azurill are genuinely garbage i guess. Every other generation is around the expected number.

Normal	Fighting	Flying	Fire	Dragon	Water	Ice	Grass	Bug	Electric
49/52, 94%	12/13, 92%	41/43, 95%	21/21, 100%	5/6, 83%	51/53, 96%	13/13, 100%	21/26, 81%	12/24, 50%	20/20, 100%
Poison	Ground	Rock	Steel	Dark	Ghost	Psychic
28/37, 76%	27/29, 93%	20/21, 95%	8/8, 100%	9/9, 100%	4/5, 80%	26/30, 87%

Fighting types thus slightly overperformed despite their type disadvantage. What's also interesting is that we've already lost half of our bugs; they did way worse than even other types with a disadvantage. Poison is probably this low because of how many poison types are also bug or grass; losing by association.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Time to start the fights against Bugsy. For this fight, we will have access to all the items you can get before fighting Bugsy or the Azalea Rival. Beating Falkner got us TM51 Roost, as well as the ability to use Rock Smash outside of battle, which allows us to collect shards to trade for a Wiki Berry. After getting his badge, we can also get the Hard Stone, Poison Barb and Twistedspoon from the weekday siblings. Heading south from Violet City, a guy gives us the Miracle Seed as a reward for beating the gym, and on this route we can also find TM09 Bullet Seed and the Shell Bell. In Union Cave, we can find TM39 Rock Tomb on the lower floors. Once we reach Azalea, we head down the Slowpoke Well to help Kurt out, and while there we take a Lagging Tail from the wild Slowpoke.

With all that done, we can finally enter the gym and challenge Bugsy. So let's have a look at what we're up against. Bugsy leads with his only dangerous pokemon: his level 17 Scyther, who has Technician, is holding a Sitrus Berry and knows U-Turn, Quick Attack, Leer and Focus Energy. We're dealing with a fast pokemon that likes to U-Turn out into his duds to deal damage without a possibility for counterattack. Quick Attack is also dangerous due to Technician, but Scyther might be too frail to pull off Leer or Focus Energy. Bugsy's other pokemon are a level 15 Metapod and Kakuna, knowing Tackle and Poison Sting respectively. These are duds, but while they primarily serve as Scyther's meat shields, they may allow some free setup or healing for me. Kakuna can also poison me though; that may pose issues.

Let's get the fights started now. Unfortunately, we have to start this on a sour note; Bayleef had no chance. It only took one Leer to get OHKOd by U-Turn, and even if i did tank a hit, my damage output against Kakuna was so low that he was guaranteed to poison me even if i held a pecha berry. I had Synthesis for healing, but there was no way to take Kakuna out without taking at least one turn of poison damage, which made the next u-turn lethal. Bayleef is out. With Meganium, it took two Leers for me to fall into OHKO range, but this was not a meaningful difference as my low damage output meant he always got those in. Meganium is out. The Cyndaquil line had a much easier time; while Cyndaquil himself needed his Ember to crit against Scyther (a crit he got), Quilava could just power through with his Embers and Typhlosion got Rock Tomb. The Totodile line all got Rock Tomb too, which is pretty much a win button in this fight.

Pidgey ran into trouble. His supereffective Gusts did far less than Technician Quick Attack, especially after a few Leers. I had to Sand-Attack my foe's accuracy down, but i could never get him to miss enough. Pidgey is out. Pidgeotto however could get enough sand-attacks in to make him miss all the time, so my Gusts could kill him. Pidgeot however just powered through, though critting at the end did help. Spearow did better than his cousin because he gets the mighty Aerial Ace; this move would have two-shot Scyther if not for his berry, but a three-shot was also fine. Fearow used Pluck instead for exactly that reason. Hoothoot however did have trouble; his strategy relied on putting Scyther to sleep and then Pecking at him whileoccasionally roosting up, but i never got the sleep luck i needed; i was always Leered down and killed. Hoothoot is out. Noctowl however had Sky Attack, which was an OHKO.

As for the rodents, Rattata was out of luck. Even a Guts-boosted Hyper Fang did only just below half to Scyther. I needed one ormore crits, on a try where he didn't immediately u-turn out (u-turn cost me almost all my HP). This unfortunately never happened. Rattata is out. Raticate however was in a much better spot; he went in paralyzed and the guts boost allowed him to two-shot Scyther as he went for Focus Energy and Leer. Sentret's strategy here was to spam Defense Curl until he had u-turned out to Metapod and my defense was at +6, and then to spam Fury Swipes. I'm convinced this could have won with the right luck, had Fury Swipes consistently hit 5 times and had Scyther consistently done stupid stuff like leering my defense back down. I never got that luck though; Sentret is out. Furret did however have the offense and the defense to pull this off.

 

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Pichu was outsped and one-shot by U-Turn, there's nothing i could do. Pichu is out. Pikachu needed to be Leered first before he got one-shot, but Thundershock did next to nothing. The only possible route to victory i saw was paralyzing him with Thunder Wave and then hoping he got fully paralyzed every turn, but since we live in a world where the laws of probability apply, Pikachu is out. Their older brother Raichu could win though; he outsped and Thunderbolt only just missed out on the OHKO. This was followed by Butterfree who would Sleep Powder the Scyther to sleep and then spam Gust until he died. The other surviving early-game bug, Ledian, wasn't so lucky. The only strategy i saw for him with his current moveset relied on confusing Scyther and having him hit himself for damage; my own Comet Punches were laughably weak. I also had Reflect to reduce damage taken and Roost to heal, but a few Leers always got me back to where i started, and he often killed me with quick attack when the reflect faded. With astronomical luck, i might have made it, but i did not. Ledian is out.

The Geodude family obviously wiped the floor with Bugsy as they do in every johto playthrough, and while his fellow cave pokemon Zubat needed a self-hit from Supersonic, that family all beat them with Wing Attack. On to Cleffa, whose strategy relied on incapacitating her foe with Sing and Sweet Kiss. I needed to incapacitate Scyther pretty much every turn though; one U-Turn would bring me into kill range for the next U-Turn once Scyther came back. I never had the luck i needed; Cleffa is out. Clefairy however did have a good strategy: after putting Scyther to sleep, she'd set up some Defense Curls, then she'd continue Defense Curling while Scyther tried to Leer me down, until he u-turned to metapod and i could get the rest of my setup in. My pounds still weren't doing a lot, but at least i tanked everything that came my way. One attempt was foiled by Kakuna poisoning me, so i ended up running Magic Guard in the winning attempt. Clefable didn't get Defense Curl; instead she put Scyther to sleep and tried Metronome, hoping for something good. She ended up killing him with a Thunder, an Extremespeed and a Weather Ball.

Igglybuff tried to repeat Clefairy's strategy, but missing a single Sing generally meant i got leered and OHKOd. Focus Energy-induced crits also spelled doom, and i had no way to protect myself from Kakuna's poison. In the end, she couldn't make it. Igglybuff is out. Jigglypuff however could make Defense Curl work because of one other move she had: Rollout. I got my defense up against Metapod, then i rolled right over all Bugsy's mons. Wigglytuff unfortunately could not roll out, so she just defense curled up to +6 and tanked everything. She had very little PP for her only offensive move though (Doubleslap), so she ad to beat the cocoons by disabling their one move and having them struggle themselves to death.

Our next pokemon, Togepi, had no damage-dealing moves at all, so it had to rely on Metronome to pull something good. Unfortunately though, i never got the Sheer Cold i wanted. I did kill Scyther once, but i just ran out of PP against the duds and they killed me. Togepi is out. Togetic does get an offensive move in Magical Leaf, which de facto meant i still had to Metronome. Metronome actually got me Transform this time, so i used Scyther's moveset against him and Quick Attacked him down as he tried to Leer me down, then i dispatched the duds with Quick Attack and U-Turn. Togekiss does get a real move; it killed them with Air Slash.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Sandshrew and Sandslash obliterated their foes with Rock Tomb, as did Ekans and Arbok. Our first reigning Kanto champ, Dunsparce, instead decided to go for Rollout and roll all over Bugsy's team. On to Mareep, who had Thunder Wave but didn't have a lot of damage output, and after a Leer U-Turn was a range to OHKO. I needed some paralysis luck to Thundershock the Scyther down, but eventually i got that luck and Mareep won. Flaaffy's defenses were a lot higher, so she did not need any luck to win, and neither did Ampharos. Quagsire had Rock Tomb to throw around, and both Haunter and Gengar were either immune to or 4x resisted everything Bugsy could do. With Gengar i even decided to fuck around and Spite him out of all his Tackle PP so he'd struggle himself to death.

Unown was a range to be OHKOd by U-Turn, but even if he wasn't OHKOd, his only move is the 4x resisted Hidden Power Fighting. Yeah, Unown is out. The next two fights were also forgone conclusions, but in the other direction; Onix and Steelix obviously won. Things were less easy for Weepinbell though; he could put Scyther to sleep, but his only way of dealing damage that isn't grass-type is Wrap, which does next to nothing. Scyther could always kill me easily, and i gave up after 5 tries. Weepinbell is out. Victreebel however did have offense: i Stockpiled 3 times as he tried to Leer my defense back down, then i OHKOd him with Spit Up. I repeated this against the duds for the win.

With Hoppip i also saw no road to victory. He could put opponents to sleep, tail whip a bunch and then tackle, but U-Turn reset my tail whips and kill me if he got even one Leer in. My damage output was also so low that i had to Tail Whip the Kakuna to not be outdamaged by his Poison Stings. Hoppip is out. Skiploom's stats are slightly less pathetic, but not to the point that it made a difference. Skiploom is also out. Jumpluff also had no offenses, but its defenses were good enough to handle the occasional wakeup from Scyther as i Sleep Powdered him, Tail Whipped his defense down and then chipped away with Tackle. Finally for today was Parasect, who is weak to Bug but had Spore and Cross Poison to make up for that. In the winning attempt, i got no less than 2 crits and i perfectly predicted when he would wake up so that i could immediately spore him back to sleep, which allowed me to take him down.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Poliwag had hypnosis, and he might have been able to win had DoubleSlap done consistent damage, but my enemy always woke up on turns i didn't predict and two-shot me. There was nothing i could do here; Poliwag is out. Its evolution Poliwhirl might have won had Hypnosis always hit when i needed it to and had DoublSlap always yielded good results, but it didn't. Poliwhirl is out. Poliwrath however had Rock Tomb which is a win button. Politoed did not have Rock Tomb, but he did have Bubblebeam which he could spam after putting Scyther to sleep. Scyther constantly went for Quick Attack when awake and never u-turned out, allowing me to wear him down.

Gyarados has only Thrash here, but that proved enough to destroy Bugsy. Our next fishing pokemon, Goldeen, would Supersonic to confuse her foe, then it used Tail Whip before spamming Peck. On attempt 3, i got the self-hits i needed in order to safely kill him. Seaking did the same thing but with Poison Jab, though it did help that i got a lucky crit and that i poisoned him with just a sliver left, killing him before Bugsy could heal. On to Slowpoke, who may have a weakness to Bug, but he had a deadly combo in Yawn and Curse. Yawn allowed me to put my foe to sleep, so that i could Curse up free from his constant Leering. Once i was out of Curse PP, i hit a few tackles to kill him. Since this worked so well for Slowpoke, i repeated the same strategy with Slowbro, but Slowking didn't need it as he could just kill with Power Gem.

Gloom's strategy was to put him to sleep and then spam Acid hoping for defense drops. I only managed to drop his defense once, but an unfortunate early wakeup still allowed him to kill me. Gloom is out. Vileplume however was in an even worse spot, as it did not have Sleep Powder and its only offense was the 4x resisted Mega Drain. I tried poisoning my foe, i tried Struggle, but in the end, i gave up after try 5. Vileplume is out. Bellossom's 4x resisted Leaf Blades didn't prove much more effective; Bellossom is out, and with her dies the hope of the Oddish line. This really is a bad region to be a grass type.

This isn't a great fight for Psychics either. Drowzee was outsped and one-shot; there's nothing i could do. Our favourite kidnapper did have the tools though; Hypno could put Scyther to sleep with Hypnosis and then trap it in a Nightmare, after which a few Headbutts sealed the deal. Its colleague Kadabra had only Confusion, Teleport and Kinesis, so i relied on Kinesis to make him miss as i confusioned him down. Surprisingly, this worked on try one and i never got hit. Alakazam had these same moves, but it took until attempt 7 for the strategy to work again; in all other attempts, Zam was one-shot by U-Turn. Finally for today, Forretress had Rock Tomb and used it as a win button.