Which pokemon can beat HGSS's bosses by themselves?

[There Is No Arceus]

The Porygon clan all get a special attack boost from Download, which they used to spam Choice Specs Psybeam. Lapras did not have Download, but he did have Choice Specs and used it to Thunderbolt them both down. That means we've arrived at what's left of the fossils, starting with Helix Senior. With him, i spammed Withdraw against Primeape and then Surfed him down. Against Poliwrath, i then rest-stalled until he did something stupid, which was safe because Shell Armor meant no crits. When my foe did do something dumb like Body Slam, i'd hit him with a Mud Shot. This eventually wore him down, granting me the win. His colleague Kabutops needed no stall though; he set up his Hardens and then Returned away. Lastly for the fossils, Aerodactyl destroyed them with Wing Attack.

Munchlax has both Defense Curl and Amnesia, but i found that even at +6 Focus Punch still did almost half, so shoring up and stalling wasn't viable. I instead spammed Return hoping the enemies would be stupid with Focus Punch; they were and i won. Snorlax did the same, once again finding that Chuck isn't very smart. That means that next up are the Kanto starters. Ivysaur would Leech Seed Primeape, Return him down and then OHKO Poliwrath with a crit Power Herb Solarbeam. Venusaur instead used Sludge Bomb on Primeape because i remembered that move exists, but Solarbeam didn't OHKO the 'wrath and i had to finish it with another Sludge Bomb. Charmeleon however had it rougher, as he had very few tools to deal with Poliwrath. Primeape would die to two Flamethrowers, but Poli could two-shot me with surf and i couldn't do nearly that much back. I ended up swaggering him hoping for self-hits, and in attempt 9, Poliwrath cooperated and killed himself in confusion. Zard however had none of those issues, as he could kill his enemies with Air Slash. Wartortle and Blastoise had no issues at all, Withdrawing up as Primeape double teamed and then killing them with Surf and Return. It helps that Chuck likes to switch in Poliwrath the moment i whiff a Surf, thus getting rid of all Primeape's double teams.

We round today off with the legendary birds, who all destroyed Chuck with Pluck.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

On to the beasts. Raikou destroyed them with Thunderbolt, Entei Flamethrowered Primeape and Returned Poliwrath and Suicune did the same except with Surf. The pseudos are next; Dragonair used Return on Primeape and Thunderbolt on Poliwrath, while Dragonite just replaced Return with Dragon Claw. Pupitar however had massive difficulties; it could not deal any real damage and it was OHKOd by either Focus Punch or Surf. I tried various strats including Sandstorm and Swagger, but nothing paid off. Pupitar is out. Its older brother Tyranitar of course came out for vengeance and destroyed its foes with Return and Thunder Fang. We're now moving on to the boxart legends; Lugia and Ho-Oh had Extrasensory to spam, and Mewtwo killed them with Confusion.

Mew didn't use its extensive TM movepool this time, instead killing its enemies with STAB Specs Psychic. That means we've finally reached the FRLG champs. I thought Slaking might run into issues here because he can't consistently break the enemies' focus, but nope. He just OHKOd primeape, dodged a Hypnosis as he loafed, then tanked a Focus Punch to the face on his second loafing turn before he finished Chuck off. Armaldo then made good use of the fact that he can't get crit by Hardening up, Swords Dancing up, Resting up and Returning away. Latios then won with Dragon Claw and Roost, Kyogre with Surf and Thunder, Groudon with Flamethrower and Solarbeam and Jirachi with Psychic. Last is Deoxys, who doesn't have one flashy insta-win move, but a few Charge Beams followed by a few Thunderbolts got the job done.

And that's everyone. Of the 153 pokemon that made it to Chuck, 148 have successcully beaten him, while only Quilava, Sandslash, Magby, Mime Jr and Pupitar failed. Next up, these 148 will go on to face Pryce.

Here is a nice table showing how many pokemon survived after each boss:

Start	After Falkner	After Bugsy	After Azalea Rival	After Whitney	After Burned Tower Rival	After Morty	After Chuck
283	254	204	189	180	168	153	148

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Now let's look at the numbers, as always after beating a boss. Things won't be very interesting though, considering only 5 pokemon went down. In total, 52% of pokemon are still here, so percentages above that are good while percentages below are bad.

Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 3	Gen 4
76/151, 50%	48/100, 48%	7/10, 70%	16/22, 73%

Gen 2 has fallen below the 50% mark now, with the loss of three pokemon. Gen 3 and 4 of course are still doing well because of which mons from those gens are here, with gen 1 slightly underperforming.

Normal	Fighting	Flying	Fire	Dragon	Water	Ice	Grass	Bug	Electric
33/52, 63%	9/13, 69%	29/43, 67%	14/21, 67%	4/6, 67%	24/53, 45%	8/13, 62%	7/26, 27%	9/24, 38%	13/20, 65%
Poison	Ground	Rock	Steel	Dark	Ghost	Psychic
16/37, 43%	12/29, 41%	9/21, 43%	7/8, 88%	6/9, 67%	4/5, 80%	15/30, 50%

No interesting shifts have happened here, except that Psychic now sits exactly on the 50% mark. The Grass type is still doing the worst despite losing no pokemon for 5 bosses now, but Ground is approaching the bottom fast. Steel is still on top, and will probably stay there.

Babies	Cross-Gen Evos	Starters	Fossils	Legendaries
1/15, 7%	24/29, 83%	13/29, 45%	4/6, 67%	15/17, 88%

Munchlax is now our sole surviving baby. We'll see how far he gets; whether he can bring glory to babies everywhere.

Now let's have a look at how our Kanto champs are doing, even though nothing has changed in 5 bosses:

Latias lost to Falkner

Starmie lost to Bugsy

Celebi lost to Bugsy

Snorlax, Zapdos, Mewtwo, Mew, Dunsparce, Suicune, Lugia, Ho-Oh, Slaking, Armaldo, Latios, Kyogre, Groudon, Jirachi and Deoxys are still going strong

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Time to face off against the Teacher of Winter's Harshness. For this fight, we will have access to all items one can obtain before fighting Pryce or Jasmine. Beating Chuck got us TM01 Focus Punch, and the moment we step outside, his wife gives us HM02 Fly, which we immediately use to fly over to Mahogany and challenge Pryce.

So let's have a look at what we're up against. Pryce leads with his level 30 Seel, which knows Icy Wind, Rest, Snore and Hail. He can set up hail and slow me down, but in general, i think this pokemon is the ideal setup fodder if i don't care about my speed. Second up is his Dewgong at level 32, which has Thick Fat and knows Aurora Beam, Rest, Sleep Talk and Ice Shard. This will be the main offensive threat i think, as there is no way of tricking it into not using its STAB Ice moves. Finally, there's his ace, Piloswine. It is at level 34, is holding a Sitrus Berry, has the ability Snow Cloak and knows Blizzard, Ice Fang, Mud Bomb and Hail. The only mon on his team with any coverage, and he'll be a pain to hit if he gets the hail up.

I don't think this will be a terribly difficult team to deal with, but it will be a step up from Chuck, where being weak to his specialty type was actually a good thing most of the time.

So let's get started. Typhlosion Returned Seel down after it set up hail, and OHKOd Piloswine with Flamethrower. Against Dewgong, i tried a power herb Solarbeam, but i forgot it's weakened in the hail. Didn't matter though; Dewgong could barely hurt me so i wore it down. Croconaw and Feraligatr also had it easy, Swords Dancing up against Seel with the knowledge that pretty much nothing on this team can hurt them. Pidgeot however didn't have setup, nor a type advantage. I did have Silk Scarf STAB Return, but this wasn't even enough to OHKO Seel. Dewgong did over half to me before i took it out, but i had a strategy to still survive against Piloswine. Roost takes away the Flying type for the duration of the turn, so i spammed that until he was out of Blizzard PP. Ice Fang wasn't strong enough to kill me, so i Returned him to death. I should note that that didn't go as planned until attempt 5.

Course, if Pidgeot struggled, that means Spearow had no chance whatsoever. Even in the attempts where Seel didn't burn through my Yache Berry, i was sill easily two-shot by Dewgong while i couldn't do anything in return. I never even saw Piloswine. Spearow is out. Fearow had a much better chance; it tried the same strat as Pidgeot, but after Pilo missed a Blizzard and i hit a Return, i saw that it brought him into the yellow so i pressed the attack and won. Noctowl didn't have the Attack to make this strat work, so instead he used Hypnosis to put them to sleep and prevent the nastiness. Dewgong had Sleep Talk, so i needed to luck out and have that hit Rest often, but Piloswine was defenseless while asleep. Still took until attempt 8, but eventually Noctowl got through. Their fellow early route mon Raticate had no issues though, as his STAB Silk Scarf Guts Facade OHKOd all but Piloswine, who was a 2HKO. Surprisingly though, Furret had issues. He had no way of outdamaging his foes, and would just get stuck in Rest loops against Dewgong which Dewgong would eventually end by critting me. I tried setting up rain and using Thunder and Surf, i tried just powering through with Return, i tried pre-paralyzing and using Facade and i even tried a hail-mary with Specs Focus Blast. Nothing worked though. Furret is out.

Raichu had little issues, Thunderbolting the seals and killing the swine with two Black Belt Focus Blasts. Things weren't as easy for Butterfree, but as always, sleep is broken. I'd put Seel to sleep and spam Silver Wind, hoping for an omniboost which i needed to survive against the other two. The omniboost i needed came in attempt 6, and i got two more for good measure. This allowed Butterfree to win yet another match. Golbat however wasn't so lucky. His best offense was Sludge Bomb, which could only barely 2-shot Seel. Icy Wind from Seel spelled doom; it would cause Dewgong to outspeed and 2-shot me. So i used Confuse Ray to try and get Seel to do nothing. This allowed me to Roost and Sludge Bomb my way past Dewgong, but Piloswine was also a big issue. I tried spamming Roost to stall him out of Blizzards, but i always ended up frozen. Golbat is out. Crobat however was able to perform this strategy, as his higher offenses meant he didn't need to run Poison Barb and could run an Aspear Berry instead.

Clefairy did not care about the hail and could set up Cosmic Power with impunity after which she stalled her way through all of Pryce's team. Clefable didn't have Cosmic Power, but she did have the bulk to just barge through with Thunderbolt and Hidden Power Fighting, resting up in the process when she was too damaged. Togekiss had the type disadvantage, but it turns out that doesn't matter much when you have Specs Aura Sphere. This was followed by Arbok, who won by setting up all his Stockpiles and then chomping down on them with Thunder Fang and Fire Fang. On to our FRLG GOAT, Dunsparce. Once again, he found a way to prevail against all odds. He would launch a Charge Beam at Seel, then follow it up with a boosted Thunderbolt. Piloswine's Blizzards were trouble, so i had to Roost until he was out, but then i Flamethrowered him down. Dewgong of course also died, to Thunderbolt.

Our boy Amphy had Thunderbolt for the seals and Black Belt Hidden Power for the swine, and Haunter and Gengar ended up winning by hypnosising their foes and then bombarding them with Thunderbolt and Hidden Power.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

On to the beasts. Raikou destroyed them with Thunderbolt, Entei Flamethrowered Primeape and Returned Poliwrath and Suicune did the same except with Surf. The pseudos are next; Dragonair used Return on Primeape and Thunderbolt on Poliwrath, while Dragonite just replaced Return with Dragon Claw. Pupitar however had massive difficulties; it could not deal any real damage and it was OHKOd by either Focus Punch or Surf. I tried various strats including Sandstorm and Swagger, but nothing paid off. Pupitar is out. Its older brother Tyranitar of course came out for vengeance and destroyed its foes with Return and Thunder Fang. We're now moving on to the boxart legends; Lugia and Ho-Oh had Extrasensory to spam, and Mewtwo killed them with Confusion.

Mew didn't use its extensive TM movepool this time, instead killing its enemies with STAB Specs Psychic. That means we've finally reached the FRLG champs. I thought Slaking might run into issues here because he can't consistently break the enemies' focus, but nope. He just OHKOd primeape, dodged a Hypnosis as he loafed, then tanked a Focus Punch to the face on his second loafing turn before he finished Chuck off. Armaldo then made good use of the fact that he can't get crit by Hardening up, Swords Dancing up, Resting up and Returning away. Latios then won with Dragon Claw and Roost, Kyogre with Surf and Thunder, Groudon with Flamethrower and Solarbeam and Jirachi with Psychic. Last is Deoxys, who doesn't have one flashy insta-win move, but a few Charge Beams followed by a few Thunderbolts got the job done.

And that's everyone. Of the 153 pokemon that made it to Chuck, 148 have successcully beaten him, while only Quilava, Sandslash, Magby, Mime Jr and Pupitar failed. Next up, these 148 will go on to face Pryce.

Here is a nice table showing how many pokemon survived after each boss:

Start	After Falkner	After Bugsy	After Azalea Rival	After Whitney	After Burned Tower Rival	After Morty	After Chuck
283	254	204	189	180	168	153	148

Chuck's low amount of losses isn't that shocking. I feel like if he weren't so focused on using Focus Punch and had some other fighting-type attack instead, the amount of failures would've increased substantially. But alas, he's spamming focus punch, which is extra exploitable.

Also, Bugsy having the highest fail count of 50 is honestly surprising. Scyther really was that much of a threat? Damn.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Chuck's low amount of losses isn't that shocking. I feel like if he weren't so focused on using Focus Punch and had some other fighting-type attack instead, the amount of failures would've increased substantially. But alas, he's spamming focus punch, which is extra exploitable.

Also, Bugsy having the highest fail count of 50 is honestly surprising. Scyther really was that much of a threat? Damn.

yeah, Scyther really is that much of a threat, though he probably wouldn't be as impressive if he didn't have two meat shields to u-turn into. Guy's fast so he outspeeds most mons and can thus get 2 free hits off this way. We also didn't have Rest yet (it's in Goldenrod), so pokemon without Roost couldn't use the duds to heal off the damage. In addition, even if he didn't have 2 duds, there aren't a lot of good TMs before Bugsy so many mons cannot hit him with something above 40BP while he's throwing 70BP U-Turn at me.

Couse, one reason why the bosses after him have a low fail count is because Bugsy culled off a bunch of weak pokemon that would have lost against any fully evolved mon

 

[RichestAirPirate]

yeah, Scyther really is that much of a threat, though he probably wouldn't be as impressive if he didn't have two meat shields to u-turn into.

The inclusion of Metapod and Kakuna just being mostly harmless sitting ducks was like the saving grace, I feel. Imagine if he had something like Ledian or Ariados, things that could actually deal damage.
Okay, realistically they'd give him Ledyba and Spinarak but those guys also suck bootycheeks meanwhile their evolutions suck slightly less bootycheeks.

 

[Greninjaman]

Are you doing Kanto after you do the league?

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Are you doing Kanto after you do the league?

yup, and Red after Kanto

 

[Greninjaman]

yup, and Red after Kanto

Assuming you have anything left by then.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Today, we unfortunately have to start things off on a sour note. Jasmine's boy Steelix did not have what it takes. He was slower than everything and took way too much damage from Piloswine's Mud Bomb and Blizzard. I tried various strats, including Fire Fang, Shuca Berry, Swagger and Flash Cannon, but nothing paid off. Steelix is out. James's boy Victreebel had no issues though, as he could Stockpile up against Seel, get a few Swords Dances in and Razor Leaf away. His fellow Grass type Jumpluff cannot set up its defense, but it can put Seel to sleep while it sets up its offense. Three Swords Dances was enough to kill the seals with Return, but Piloswine survived a hit. Fortunately, he proceeded to miss a Blizzard, allowing me to kill him anyway. This was followed by Parasect, who only won due to dumb luck. He would spore Seel and get his swords dances in before doing a resto-chesto to be healthy for the next two mons. Because he was so slow though, they were both guaranteed to hit him, and could two-shot him if they worked together. In attempt 4 though, Piloswine decided to miss a blizzard, allowing me the opening to OHKO him.

With Poliwrath, i decided to use Chuck's strategy. I killed Seel with Return, then i put Dewgong to sleep. I then tried Focus Punching, but i had forgotten about Sleep Talk. His attacks did next to nothing though, so i could focus punch him on the turn he woke up. For Piloswine, the strat did work as intended. His brother Politoed kept it simple though; Choice Specs Focus Blast. Our next pokemon, Slowking, noticed that Seel was trying to lower my speed, so he opted to help out with that. 6 Curses later, i Zen-Headbutted everything to death. Dewgong then showed us once more how broken sleep is, by putting his enemies to sleep and then shadow-balling and hidden-powering them to death. His fellow psychic type Kadabra had some issues due to his low Defense and HP, but i found a line: i'd set up a Reflect against Seel so as to tank Piloswine's Ice Fang, then i'd kill Seel and spam Black Belt Hidden Power against the other two. Zam didn't need the Reflect though, so he just slapped on a Choice Specs and Hidden-Powered away.

On to the remains of the Nido clan. The queen had trouble due to her typing, but i found a way. If i used some Thunderbolts on Seel, Pryce would sometimes switch in Piloswine early, allowing me to get a Focus Blast off. Another hit would then kill him before he could kill me, and Thunderbolt took care of Dewgong. If all of them cooperated and used enough bad moves, that is. Took until attempt 4 before it worked out. With Nidorino however, things went sour. He had no way of outdamaging Piloswine, nor any real way of setting up. I tried various strategies including Focus Energy, Rain and Specs, but nothing worked out. Nidorino is out. The King then came out for a vengeance, outspeeding and OHKOing everything with Specs Rivalry Focus Blast. Yanmega was next, and i spammed Specs Silver Wind hoping for the omniboost, which i got in attempt 3.

Exeggutor put Seel to sleep, got some Swords Dances in and killed everything with Seed Bomb. Its fellow tree Sudowoodo had Rock Head Wood Hammer, which got me the win thanks to crits on both Piloswine and Dewgong in attempt 3. Venomoth then tried the same strat as Yanmega and got the omniboost immediately, on try 1, the first Silver Wind i used. That of course made the fight very easy. Next was Scyther, who had Swords Dance to set up its attack and Agility to counteract Icy Wind, allowing it to outspeed and OHKO everything. This strat was of course repeated by Scizor, and lastly for today, Pinsir set up a swords dance and killed everything with Return and Brick Break.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Assuming you have anything left by then.

i won't have a big squad left by then, but i do expect some 10-15 pokemon to make it that far

 

[RichestAirPirate]

Today, we unfortunately have to start things off on a sour note. Jasmine's boy Steelix did not have what it takes. He was slower than everything and took way too much damage from Piloswine's Mud Bomb and Blizzard. I tried various strats, including Fire Fang, Shuca Berry, Swagger and Flash Cannon, but nothing paid off. Steelix is out.

The loss of Steelix was kinda crazy to me at first but then I realized Steelix doesn't get a good strong physical steel move until Iron Tail at level 41.

If it got access to Iron Head via level up or even Gyro Ball at level 20 like it does in Gen 6, then it would likely have a solid shot. But alas...

 

[There Is No Arceus]

The loss of Steelix was kinda crazy to me at first but then I realized Steelix doesn't get a good strong physical steel move until Iron Tail at level 41.

If it got access to Iron Head via level up or even Gyro Ball at level 20 like it does in Gen 6, then it would likely have a solid shot. But alas...

aye, Steelix took me by surprise too. Looking at its moveset though, i now realise there's one strat i didn't try: Rock Polish and Sandstorm to try and get Blizzard to miss. This is very luck-based though and probably wouldn't have gotten me the win either.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

aye, Steelix took me by surprise too. Looking at its moveset though, i now realise there's one strat i didn't try: Rock Polish and Sandstorm to try and get Blizzard to miss. This is very luck-based though and probably wouldn't have gotten me the win either.

While it is very luck dependent, it MIGHT be able to just barely squeeeeeeeze out a win. Probably not worth it though considering that Mud Bomb already does a lot of damage.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Heracross tore through Pryce with Guts Brick Break, and James's boy Weezing gets both Thunderbolt and Flamethrower, though the latter needed Charcoal in order to deal enough damage to Piloswine. Grimer had more trouble though. He could not to much damage to Piloswine, who could two-shot in return. I also had no real setup options, so things were pretty bleak. I tried with Swagger, but this would make Ice Fang an OHKO. I also tried lowering his accuracy with Mud-Slap, but that didn't work cause Blizzard always hits in hail. In the end, i found no way through. Grimer is out. Muk however had the bulk to easily tank even Mud Bombs, so he could Flamethrower the swine down. Because Seel had switched out earlier, he came back in before Dewgong, allowing me to rest off all my damage before facing the competent seal.

On to a pokemon for whom things were surprisingly not hopeless. Magnemite did need some very specific things to happen in order to win. He had to set up Light Screen on Seel before Thunderbolting it, so that my Shuca Berry would allow me to tank a Mud Bomb with some health left. I'd then need to swagger Piloswine, and he had to hit himself for my Flash Cannon to kill. In attempt number 10 though, he missed his Mud Bomb and hit himself, so i reached Dewgong with full health. Dewgong's resisted Aurora Beams also packed a punch, but because i crit him, i managed to get the win. That win was a fluke, but hey, a win's a win. Its evolutions didn't need Swagger, they outsped and OHKOd all but Piloswine, whose Mud Bomb they tanked with a Shuca. Their fellow Electric type Electrode hit two Charge Beams on Seel, then he Hidden-Powered Piloswine and Thunderbolted Dewgong.

Sadly, things did not go as well for Aipom. He didn't have the raw firepower to overpower Piloswine, and while he had other toys to try out, none of them paid off. I tried using Screech to lower his defenses enough, and i tried to flinch him with King's Rock Fury Swipes, but these things did not pay off. Aipom is out. Surprisingly, things were also bad for Ambipom. His Technician STAB Silk Scarf Double Hits somehow didn't do enough to kill Piloswine, so i had to try other strategies. I tried the King's Rock Fury Swipes strat, and i tried Technician-boosted Natural Gift, but neither of these strats paid off no matter how often i tried them. Ambipom is out. Snubbull also couldn't do it; his offense just isn't enough to make it through, and he doesn't really have anything other than offense. He was slow, so Piloswine was guaranteed to get me to the red before i could do anything; even if i had somehow killed him, Dewgong would finish me. Snubbull is out, and Pryce is quickly shaping up to be the massacre i thought Morty would be. Granbull however did have the power to just destroy them with Silk Scarf Return.

With Ninetales, i set up a Nasty Plot turn 1, then i killed Seel with 2 Hidden Powers. Flamethrower killed Piloswine, and i had a Power Herb Solarbeam for Dewgong, which somehow didn't kill so i had to resort to Hidden Power. With Growlithe, i also found a way through; i'd Return Seel and Flamethrower Piloswine, then i turned things into a stallfest against Dewgong. Even carried Odor Sleuth to waste time and not damage him so his Rests wouldn't allow him to not use PP for 2 turns. It took forever, but it got me the win. Arcanine replaced Odor Sleuth with Thunder Fang, and dispatched Dewgong with ease. Our next mon is Stantler, one of the very few mons that can set up their Special Defense at this point. He Calm-Minded to +6 against Seel, then he killed the seals with Thunderbolt and the swine with a Power Herb Solarbeam. On to Azumarill and i actually found a use for Thick Fat on this mon. I started by setting up Aqua Ring, then i spammed Defense Curl knowing there was nothing Seel could do. I then used Hard Stone Rollout to take out Seel and Piloswine, but it missed against Dewgong. Not that that mattered; he could not outdamage my Aqua Ring.

Dugtrio had a problem. He was two-shot by Dewgong and couldn't one-shot in return, not even with a Magnitude 10. I tried confusing him with Swagger, but i never got the self-hits i needed. Dugtrio is out. Primeape was next, and he set up a Focus Energy on turn 1. This paid off; i crit both Seel and Piloswine, and Dewgong couldn't stand up to my Karate Chops. Finally for today, Giovally's boy Persian killed Seel with Fake Out and Return. I then took on Piloswine with a Return and a Hyper Beam; this allowed Dewgong to get a free hit in, but that didn't matter as he died to a Thunderbolt and a Hyper Beam.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

Damn, Pryce is catching bodies! I'm surprised that his team's that tricky to get around.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Damn, Pryce is catching bodies! I'm surprised that his team's that tricky to get around.

a large part of it is that, unlike Morty and Chuck, Pryce will actually attack me. There's no way to trick him into doing nothing.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Machoke couldn't beat them if he was pre-poisoned for Guts, but since i was slower anyway i instead pre-paralyzed him, which allowed me to two-shot Seel with Black Belt Karate Chop and one-shot the other two with Low Kick. Machamp of course used the same strat and also won. Its fellow fighting types Hitmonchan and Hitmontop also won easily; Hitmonchan spammed Iron Fist Thunderpunch and Mach Punch, and Hitmontop spammed Technician Rolling Kick. Our boy Tauros then won by spamming Silk Scarf Return, but only because Piloswine missed a Blizzard on attempt 3. Course, that means we've now arrived at the most hideous, disgusting pokemon in existence: Whitney's demon cow. Sadly, this gym posed no threat to it, as Thick Fat let it tank their moves with ease. Thus this abomination continues to plague the challenge with its presence.

Magmortar then beat them with Thunderbolt and Flamethrower, and after that was Jynx, who was quite happy to use Pryce's hail against him and Blizzard Piloswine to death. Pryce's other mons can't hurt ice types, so that was an easy win. With Electabuzz, i set up a light screen against Seel and then used Thunderbolt to kill the water types and Low Kick for the pig, but this only worked out because i crit against Dewgong. Electivire needed no luck; he just straight up killed everything. On to Ash's dad; Mr. Mime set up a trillion Meditates against Seel, set up a substitute, rested and then Returned everything down. After the mime comes the painter; Smeargle as always is a fascinating mon for this challenge. Fir this fight, i sketched Amnesia from the Quagsire in Union Cave, Curse from Morty, Roost from Falkner and Rock Slide off Chuck's Primeape. The strategy here was obvious; boost my defenses and my attack, and then sweep.

Farfetch'd Swords Danced to +6, used some Agilities to counteract the Icy Wind, Roosted up and swept with Return. Its fellow flying type Xatu had serious trouble though. It had no meaningful way to set up, nor any good STAB moves to hit them with. I tried Confuse Ray, i tried Light Screen, i tried combining those two and i even tried a hail-mary with Specs Hidden Power, but nothing worked out. Xatu is out. Things of course weren't so dire for Qwilfish, who could Stockpile up to +3 and then spam Rest to survive Piloswine's Mud Bombs. This had the unintended side effect of decimating my Accuracy, so while Piloswine ended up dying to poison point after an Ice Fang, i had to stall Dewgong out of all his PP to take him out. Kingler was next, and he just set up some Swords Dances and swept. Octillery is also a water type so he also won easily; Gunk Shot and Surf killed them. Chinchou, despite being a water type, didn't win by default because he's also electric, but when i equipped a Mystic Water, my Surfs outdamaged Piloswine's Mud Bombs and i won; same goes for Lanturn. We finish today off with two particularly uninteresting mirror matches: Seel and Dewgong could Surf the Piloswine, and their counterparts only had ice moves which did nothing.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Lickitung and Lickilicky could both set up all their Swords Dances and sweep. On to tangrowth, whose type disadvantage proved difficult to overcome. I'd put Seel to sleep and set up some Growths, then i'd Mega Drain the enemies. However, i did not outspeed either of the real threats and Piloswine could kill me in one shot. In attempt 3 though, he missed a Blizzard and i OHKOd him. That means the Eeveelutions are next. Jolteon's Thunderbolts and Black Belt Hidden Powers made short work of the enemies, and while Flareon had little to hurt the seals, they had little to hurt me in return, so once Flamethrower OHKOd Piloswine, victory was certain. Glaceon also could only be hurt by Piloswine, but she used Pryce's hail against him to Blizzard the enemy to death.

Seadra won because he's a water type, but Clair's boy Kingdra, despite being a water type, doesn't actually resist Ice. Not that that mattered; Seel died to return, Piloswine to Surf and Dewgong to Hidden Power. This was followed by a pokemon of whom i initially thought it was completely hopeless. Gligar's double weakness to ice meant that any ice move that wasn't Icy Wind would OHKO, and Icy Wind would cause both the other enemies to outspeed. I needed to Swagger Seel and hope he hit himself a billion times while i set up all three swords dances i needed to OHKO the other enemies. Or so i thought. In attempt 9, Seel stupidly went for rest for some reason, allowing me to get all my dances in and Dig all my enemies to death. Gliscor couldn't recreate this exact chain of events, but because he had Fire and Thunder Fang, he only needed two swords dances, which he got right in attempt 1. This means we're on to the final mirror match; swine vs swine. This turned into a stallfest though; i used Dig, Protect and Rest to stall the other Piloswine out of his Blizzard PP, then i used my enemy's hail to hit him with Blizzards despite him decimating my accuracy with Mud Bomb. That wouldn't work against Dewgong though, so i had to stall him out of all his PP, which took forever but eventually worked. Course, his older brother Mamoswine could just power through the weaker swine with Soft Sand Dig.

Teddiursa is weak, frail and slow. I had to get at least 2 swords dances in, and i would usually still die due to how much damage Piloswine's Blizzard did. Only when i wasn't hit by Icy Wind did i stand a chance, so i had to Swagger Seel. In attempt 5 the stars finally aligned; seel used Rest at a dumb moment and i arrived at Piloswine with near-full HP. This allowed me to tank hits from both the swine and the seal, getting me the win. Course, Ursaring had no such issues, tearing through with Guts Return. Mantine then Returned through Seel and Surfed down Piloswine, but he didn't have the offense to break through Dewgong so i had to play the stall game again. I was PP-stalling him, when 2 successive Surfs of mine crit and took him out. Mantine's counterpart Skarmory isn't that bulky on the special side, but he doesn't need that bulk. A crit Fly in attempt 2 meant Seel never Icy-Winded me, so i outsped both of the others and could Roost away my Flying type whenever that was opportune. A barrage of Steel Wings thus destroyed my foes.

With Doduo, i contemplated whether the move Acupressure is allowed, considering it has a chance to sharply boost evasion. In the end, i decided the move was too powerful, and would trivialize every matchup in much the same way as Double Team or Minimize. Course, without Acupressure boosts, Doduo was one-shot by Dewgong; there was nothing i could do. Doduo is out. Dodrio is not out, but only because he got extremely lucky. In attempt 7, he crit Dewgong for the OHKO and Piloswine's attacks all missed, allowing me to win without even consuming my Yache Berry. Last for today are Ponyta and Rapidash; Flamethrower took out Piloswine, and rather than stall Dewgong out of PP as so many others have done, they instead Tail-Whipped his Defense down and then Returned.