Which pokemon can beat HGSS's bosses by themselves?

[There Is No Arceus]

We start today on a sad note. Parasect unfortunately could not do it. Not only does he have double weaknesses to two of ???'s pokemon and a regular weakness to one more, he also has no speed and severe movepool issues. I tried a set where i would Spore my enemies and then Swords Dance, but since i also needed Resto-Chesto to recover from his Air Cutter, that meant only one offensive move. Parasect's only moves that can hit all the enemies are grass moves, Leech Life and Thief. None of these cut it, but that barely even mattered because there was no way i was even getting a hit on Quilava. I even tried a hail-mary with a Quick Claw, but that would have to proc multiple times in the battle for me to win, which wasn't gonna happen. Parasect is out.

Poliwrath had far less issues than that. He killed Golbat with Ice Beam, tanked a Petal Dance thanks to his Rindo Berry, put Meganium to sleep, 2HKOd it with Ice Beam, Rested vs Magnemite, and killed the remaining 3 mons with Submission and Ice Beam. His brother Politoed doesn't get Submission, so he used Hidden Power instead. Slowking had serious problems though, due to its speed and Meganium's Petal Dance. In attempt 10 though, i found a way to make it through. I'd yawn to put Golbat to sleep, get in all 6 curses, put him to sleep again, Rest up and kill him. I'd then yawn Meganium as he set up Reflect, then i'd Rest after tanking a Petal Dance. I woke up earlier than him, allowing me to kill before he woke up. Haunter and Magnemite then died easily, but because Zen Headbutt was my move of choice, i could not hit sneasel; planning error on my part. He was the last pokemon though, so i wasted all my PP and struggled him to death.

Hypno was another pokemon for whom i could not make things work. Psychic types are hit supereffectively by 4 of 5 enemies, and Hypno is slow so he was hit by most of them before he could move. I tried putting my enemies to sleep with Hypnosis, and resting up while they were asleep, but i always got unlucky Hypnosis misses or they woke up too early. Maybe this could work with more luck, but u didn't get that luck. Hypno is out. Kadabra however is not slow. He outsped and one-shot everything except Feraligatr, who died to two Charge Beams as my Colbur Berry allowed me to tank a hit. Zam of course repeated this, and the Nido royals won through use of Thunderbolt, Double Kick, Shadow Ball and Rest. Yanmega came after, and Tinted Lens meant i could safely KO everything with Specs Ancientpower. That however was not the story of Exeggutor. Exeggutor is another slow psychic type just like hypno, but this time with a terrible special defense to boot. Golbat and Haunter both outsped, and their one-two punch of Air Cutter and Shadow Ball was guaranteed to kill me. I tried with Light Screen, but while this allowed me to get past those two, i'd die to Quilava and his fire moves. I even tried with Swords Dance and a Quick Claw, but i never got lucky. Exeggutor is out; Johto really hates Grass types.

Sudowoodo was another mon who had a difficult time. He's slow and was instantly brought to the red by Petal Dance. The only strategy i saw was to tank a hit, Swagger my foe, Rest up and then try to Rock Slide him down. Never worked though. Sudowoodo is out. Such was not the story of Venomoth, whose Specs Tinted Lens Silver Winds landed no less than 3 omniboosts as she tore through ???'s team. Its fellow bug Scizor also did not run into issues; he swords danced to +6 and then killed everything not named Haunter with Technician Quick Attack; Haunter died to Pursuit. Its counterpart Pinsir would set up a Swords Dance, pull a Resto-Chesto and then kill everything with Return and Dig, which worked on Haunter thanks to Mold Breaker. Heracross didn't need to dance with swords, as his Guts Brick Breaks and Night Slashes OHKOd everything but Golbat, who was a two-shot.

James's boy Weezing has Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Shadow Ball to hit everything supereffectively, so he won. This is also how Muk got the victory, bringing us to the final mirror match. The actual mirror never happened though. Magnemite may resist everything the enemies threw its way, but resistances can only carry you so far when you have no defenses. I tried Charge Beaming up against Golbat and then using Flash Cannon on Meganium, but it would always deal so much damage with Petal Dance that Haunter could then outspeed and finish me. I also tried swaggering him, but this also didn't work out. Magnemite is out. Magneton and Magnezone though did have the stats to tank these foes' hits and actually reach ???'s Magnemite, whom they of course OHKOd because that thing has no defenses.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

We start today on a sad note. Parasect unfortunately could not do it. Not only does he have double weaknesses to two of ???'s pokemon and a regular weakness to one more, he also has no speed and severe movepool issues. I tried a set where i would Spore my enemies and then Swords Dance, but since i also needed Resto-Chesto to recover from his Air Cutter, that meant only one offensive move. Parasect's only moves that can hit all the enemies are grass moves, Leech Life and Thief. None of these cut it, but that barely even mattered because there was no way i was even getting a hit on Quilava. I even tried a hail-mary with a Quick Claw, but that would have to proc multiple times in the battle for me to win, which wasn't gonna happen. Parasect is out.

Poliwrath had far less issues than that. He killed Golbat with Ice Beam, tanked a Petal Dance thanks to his Rindo Berry, put Meganium to sleep, 2HKOd it with Ice Beam, Rested vs Magnemite, and killed the remaining 3 mons with Submission and Ice Beam. His brother Politoed doesn't get Submission, so he used Hidden Power instead. Slowking had serious problems though, due to its speed and Meganium's Petal Dance. In attempt 10 though, i found a way to make it through. I'd yawn to put Golbat to sleep, get in all 6 curses, put him to sleep again, Rest up and kill him. I'd then yawn Meganium as he set up Reflect, then i'd Rest after tanking a Petal Dance. I woke up earlier than him, allowing me to kill before he woke up. Haunter and Magnemite then died easily, but because Zen Headbutt was my move of choice, i could not hit sneasel; planning error on my part. He was the last pokemon though, so i wasted all my PP and struggled him to death.

Hypno was another pokemon for whom i could not make things work. Psychic types are hit supereffectively by 4 of 5 enemies, and Hypno is slow so he was hit by most of them before he could move. I tried putting my enemies to sleep with Hypnosis, and resting up while they were asleep, but i always got unlucky Hypnosis misses or they woke up too early. Maybe this could work with more luck, but u didn't get that luck. Hypno is out. Kadabra however is not slow. He outsped and one-shot everything except Feraligatr, who died to two Charge Beams as my Colbur Berry allowed me to tank a hit. Zam of course repeated this, and the Nido royals won through use of Thunderbolt, Double Kick, Shadow Ball and Rest. Yanmega came after, and Tinted Lens meant i could safely KO everything with Specs Ancientpower. That however was not the story of Exeggutor. Exeggutor is another slow psychic type just like hypno, but this time with a terrible special defense to boot. Golbat and Haunter both outsped, and their one-two punch of Air Cutter and Shadow Ball was guaranteed to kill me. I tried with Light Screen, but while this allowed me to get past those two, i'd die to Quilava and his fire moves. I even tried with Swords Dance and a Quick Claw, but i never got lucky. Exeggutor is out; Johto really hates Grass types.

Sudowoodo was another mon who had a difficult time. He's slow and was instantly brought to the red by Petal Dance. The only strategy i saw was to tank a hit, Swagger my foe, Rest up and then try to Rock Slide him down. Never worked though. Sudowoodo is out. Such was not the story of Venomoth, whose Specs Tinted Lens Silver Winds landed no less than 3 omniboosts as she tore through ???'s team. Its fellow bug Scizor also did not run into issues; he swords danced to +6 and then killed everything not named Haunter with Technician Quick Attack; Haunter died to Pursuit. Its counterpart Pinsir would set up a Swords Dance, pull a Resto-Chesto and then kill everything with Return and Dig, which worked on Haunter thanks to Mold Breaker. Heracross didn't need to dance with swords, as his Guts Brick Breaks and Night Slashes OHKOd everything but Golbat, who was a two-shot.

James's boy Weezing has Thunderbolt, Flamethrower and Shadow Ball to hit everything supereffectively, so he won. This is also how Muk got the victory, bringing us to the final mirror match. The actual mirror never happened though. Magnemite may resist everything the enemies threw its way, but resistances can only carry you so far when you have no defenses. I tried Charge Beaming up against Golbat and then using Flash Cannon on Meganium, but it would always deal so much damage with Petal Dance that Haunter could then outspeed and finish me. I also tried swaggering him, but this also didn't work out. Magnemite is out. Magneton and Magnezone though did have the stats to tank these foes' hits and actually reach ???'s Magnemite, whom they of course OHKOd because that thing has no defenses.

Holy cow. A ton of losses today! Sudowoodo, Exeggutor, Hypno... Wow. I'm surprised Magnemite made it this far though. However, it's gonna be up to its big siblings to carry the torch onwards.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Holy cow. A ton of losses today! Sudowoodo, Exeggutor, Hypno... Wow. I'm surprised Magnemite made it this far though. However, it's gonna be up to its big siblings to carry the torch onwards.

Turns out a good typing will carry you far, even if you don't have any stats. Also helped that he faced the Chikorita rival who could barely scratch him before now, rather than the Cyndaquil rival who would have destroyed him back in Azalea.

but yeah, this fight is turning out more difficult than i thought. Didn't expect psychic types to have a hard time, especially since 2 of the enemies are weak to that type.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

For Electrode, only Bayleef was a problem. I outsped though, so i could keep my Light Screen up at all times and win the stall war. I had to burn through all his Synthesis PP, but eventually i wore him down. For Granbull though, things were easy; he killed them with Thunderbolt, Dig and Shadow Ball. Ninetales also had it easy; she set up a Nasty Plot and then swept with Flamethrower and Power Herb-Solarbeam. Growlithe did have it difficult though. His offensive output versus Feraligatr was simply not enough to outdamage the Water Guns. I tried a variety of strats, including Natural Gift, dealing a bit of damage and Roaring him out, and even a Bite + King's Rock flinch strat, but nothing worked. Growlithe is out. Arcanine then avenged his son with Thunder Fang. Stantler came thereafter, but he has Calm Mind, so he set up 6 of those, rested up and swept.

With Azumarill, it took a few tries before i figured out that Huge Power wasn't the way to go. Rather, i should run Blizzard to kill Meganium while he set up Reflect and failed to two-shot me thanks to a Rindo Berry. After the grass monster was down, i Rested up on Magnemite whose supereffective Sparks barely scratched me, and then i Returned and Blizzarded through the rest. On to Primeape. He Thunderbolted Golbat down, hit a U-Turn on Meganium as he set up reflect, and then set up a focus energy to try and crit through that Reflect. The Focus Energy never served that purpose though; i kept up the offensive pressure and my foe kept Synthesising until the screen ran out and i killed him. I did crit Haunter to death, and i landed another crit on Magnemite, which brought the win. Time for Giovanni's boy Persian, who had no issues and killed everything with Return, Dig and Shadow Ball.

Machoke however couldn't make things work. He could one-shot Golbat with Guts-Facade, but Meganium's Reflect made it impossible to do anything serious to him. I tried various moves, and i even tried resto-chesto, but it didn't work out. Machoke is out. Machamp could win though; he killed Golbat with Facade, pulled some fire blasts and a resto-chesto on Meganium and a Payback on Haunter; magnemite and sneasel could do nothing. As for the hitmons, Hitmonchan won with Fire- and Thunderpunch, but things were rough for Hitmontop. He had no way of outdamaging the damage i took from Petal Dance after Reflect, nor any way to reduce damage taken. I tried stalling out the enemy Petal Dances with Rest, but this was only possible if my foe never crit, nor hit himself so much he'd fall into Overgrow range. In the end, Hitmontop couldn't do it. Hitmontop is out, and now Hitmonchan has to defend Hitmon honour all on his own.

Tauros massacred them with Zen Headbutt and Silk Scarf Return, which means we've once again arrived at Whitney's disgusting beast. Even Bulbapedia agrees that this thing should lose, giving me a 503 error when i try to access its moveset. Unfortunately though, Serebii exists, so the cow did get a moveset to work with. This thing couldn't even come up with its own strategy though, instead just copying what Tauros did, which unfortunately worked. Shame, guess we still don't have a cow-free run. Anyway, Magmortar slapped on Choice Specs and spammed Flamethrower, even 2HKOing Feraligatr thanks to a burn. I tried doing the same thing with Jynx, but its Defense is so abysmal that either Quilava or Sneasel could kill if i didn't crit them. So i instead tried it with a Lovely Kiss set, which did work; Quilava was successfully put to sleep and everyone else was outsped and one-shot by ice beam or hidden power.

Electabuzz had to stall Meganium out of PP, but unlike Hitmontop, he actually had the means to do so, with his fast Light Screens. Meganium was also the last pokemon to come out, so it didn't matter that i ran out of PP for some moves. His older brother Electivire didn't have to play the stall game, as he had Fire Punch. Last for today is Ash's dad. Mr. Mime relied on a range to OHKO Golbat, as he ould not tank more than one hit and Sneasel outsped him. When i got that range though, i could kill my remaining foes with Psybeam, Hidden Power and Magnet-boosted Thunder.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

After a Swords Dance and an Agility, Farfetch'd outsped and one-shot everything. Qwilfish came next, and he set up 3 Stockpiles before barraging his opponents with Surf and Sludge Bomb. Kingler also won through setup; i needed 2 swords dances to OHKO Meganium, but after that everything was a walk in the park. Octillery chose to set up via charge beam, though in the winning attempt that crit the Golbat to death without getting me a boost. Meganium however wasted a turn with Reflect rather than two-shotting me, so i could two-shot him with Ice Beam; Rindo helped me survive a crit. With Chinchou i tried something similar, but unfortunately i got terrible luck every single attempt. I'd constantly get flinched or hit myself in confusion, so even if i survived at Meganium with enough health to tank a Petal Dance, i'd always die to the second one before i got my ice beams in. Chinchou is out. Lanturn initally had the same rotten luck as its pre-evo, but eventually i got a run in which Golbat, Meganium and Haunter all cooperated and he won.

Things were rough for Seel. He was two-shot by Meganium if he didn't Swagger her into hitting herself all the time, but even getting to Meganium was an issue. After i hit an Ice Beam on Golbat, ??? would often switch to Magnemite on the next one, and i could not OHKO Magnemite. He'd paralyze me and hit me enough so that even my Rindo wouldn't let me tank a hit from Meganium. I found no strat past this. Seel is out. Dewgong however could one-shot Magnemite and could also two-shot Meganium with Ice Beam, allowing it to win. Lickitung and Lickilicky then set up a bunch of Swords Dances and swept, so we're on to Tangrowth. With him, my strat was to Rock Tomb Golbat down, then put Quilava to sleep and get some Swords Dances in. Rock Tomb then took care of all remaining foes.

Time for the surviving Eelveelutions to show ??? who's boss. Jolteon got some Charge Beams in on Golbat and then swept with Thunderbolt and Hidden Power. Flareon meanwhile slapped on a Charcoal and killed his foes with Flamethrower and Return, and Glaceon won by one-shotting everything but Quilava, who died to Black Belt Hidden Power. Seadra then got a Sniper-crit on Meganium and won on his first try, and while Clair's boy Kingdra did not get a crit, he did have te raw stats to power through and kill them with Ice Beam, Surf and Hidden Power. This was followed by Gligar, who set up 3 Swords Dances, Roosted and OHKOd everyone, which worked because Sneasel, the only foe i didn't outspeed, went for Fury Swipes rather than Icy Wind. Gliscor of course repeated that strat, meaning we're on to Pryce's boy Piloswine. Piloswine would have won had Haunter ever gone for anything other than Shadow Ball; Golbat and Quilava generally went down with enough HP to spare to tank one Shadow Ball but not two. Alas, Haunter always Shadow Balled me without fail, meaning i had no opportunity to kill him. Piloswine is out. Mamoswine came out for vengeance, and froze the ghost solid with an ice beam.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Teddiursa often had bad luck with Confusion so i didn't get to seriously try out all that many strats, but considering his bad stats i'm not sure it would have helped. Everything except Magnemite outsped me, so they'd all get a hit in and there was never a safe time to Rest. I tried powering through and i tried with Swords Dance, but both strategies were doomed to fail. Teddiursa is out. This prompted Ursaring to avenge his son; he started the battle poisoned so he could Return Golbat to death, then he OHKOd Magnemite with Hidden Power. Unfortunately Smokescreen meant i couldn't hit Quilava so i had to Rest off my poison, but the remaining mons died easily nontheless. That brings us to an unexpected problem child: Mantine. On paper, this pokemon has everything he needs to succeed: good stats, varied moves, and no weakness to grass. Things didn't pack out that way though. He needed two hits from Ice Beam for Golbat, and 3 for Meganium. That gave my foes plenty of time to confuse me and Petal Dance me, including a dance in Overgrow range. I could not Rest-stall them out, so i had to power through. Every time though, no matter what i tried, Sneasel would kill me after Petal Dance damage. The one time i got a lucky crit on Meganium and got past Sneasel, i played my cards wrong against Haunter and Rested when i should have attacked. This resulted in me getting cursed and losing. Sorry Mantine, you'd have won had i played better, but it didn't happen. Mantine is out. Its counterpart Skarmory did have what it takes; he could tank all their hits with ease, and Roost up when necessary. I just hit one Agility at the start and then killed everything with Sharp Beak Fly or Hidden Power (which couldn't one-shot anything, but that didn't matter).

Dugtrio killed them with Return, Hidden Power and Pursuit, though he did need a Black Belt to OHKO Magnemite. We now run into yet another problem child though: Ponyta couldn't do it. He was faster than everyone, but he didn't hit hard enough to compensate for his frailty. I needed Power Herb Solarbeam to dispose of Feraligatr, but that didn't even OHKO so i had to soften him up first. That allowed the gator to do so much damage that Haunter could just finish me off with Shadow Ball. The one time i crit Haunter and got to Sneasel, he crit a Faint Attack right back and killed me anyway. Ponyta is out. Rapidash did have the stats to win on try 1, though even she didn't have the Special Attack to OHKO Feraligatr. Return finished the thing though, and combined with Flamethrower it finished the rest too. Kangaskhan also didn't have trouble; Silk Scarf Scrappy Return took out everything but Magnemite, who was killed by Dig.

With Rhydon, it took a while before i found the strat, but things did work out. First i KOd Golbat, then because Sneasel will not use Icy Wind if he outspeeds, i could safely set up. I'd first spam Rest to stall out any lingering confusion, then i'd get all my Swords Dances in and continue spamming Rest until Sneasel did not use Faint Attack. This would leave me with enough HP to tank a Water Gun thanks to the Passho Berry, and the Shadow Ball that followed. The same strat obviously brought victory to Rhyperior as well. Honchkrow set up Nasty Plot and swept, and Houndoom had the good fortune of facing the Meganium team so he could OHKO everything with Specs Flamethrower. Slugma did not have that good fortune, but he did have the good fortune of being able to set up both his defenses with Harden and Amnesia, as well as reliable recovery in Recover. Thus he set up his bulk until he was unhittable, and then started flamethrowering. Took until attempt 5 due to how crit-prone this strat is, but eventually it worked. Magcargo didn't fear Golbat's crits, so he could set up to his heart's content for a pretty much guaranteed win (provided no Curse).

Time for another family reunion. Weavile is 100% outgunning Sneasel though. I could set up all the nasty plots i wanted vs Golbat, then Weavile wiped the floor with everyone, including his younger brother Sneasel. On to Misdreavus, who was hit supereffectively by all but one of the foes. She found a way though; a Colbur Berry allowed her to take Golbat's Bite with enough health left to survive Sneasel's Faint Attack. She then outsped and OHKOd Haunter and got a crit Thunderbolt on Feraligatr. For good measure, she also OHKOd Magnemite. Lastly for today, Fantina's girl Mismagius outsped everything and her Magnet allowed her to OHKO all except Feraligatr, but she could tank one hit easily.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

The Porygon clan made short work of their foes with Magnet-boosted Thunderbolt, Hidden Power and Shadow Ball, plus of course Recover. Lapras then once again demonstrated the power of sleep, putting Meganium to sleep and then Ice Beaming it to death; everything else died easily. That means we've once again arrived at the fossils, though for Lord Helix things were quite hopeless. Omastar was OHKOd by Petal Dance even if he was holding a Rindo Berry. The only strat i saw was to use Rain Dance-Swift Swim to outspeed, and then to try and freeze him with Ice Beam. This obviously didn't work; Omastar is out. Kabutops however did have the means; he could set up 2 Swords Dances so as to sweep with Return and Aqua Jet. Last of the fossils was Aerodactyl, who destroyed his foes with Thunder Fang, Fly and Hidden Power.

Time for the sole surviving baby. Munchlax would start by setting up 3 Stockpiles to make himself unhittable, then he'd start spamming Silk Scarf Returns, and Shadow Ball for Haunter. Things went wrong a few times because Quilava hit so many Smokescreens that i couldn't hit Haunter before Curse took me out, but eventually things went right; we will continue to have baby representation in this challenge. Snorlax doesn't get Stockpile, so he just set up some Defense Curls and Amnesias and then Rock Tombed away. He encountered the same Smokescreen-Curse problem, but lucky strats don't really work for my foes considering they have to win 10 times in a row and i have to win only once.

On to the Kanto starters. For Ivysaur though, i saw little hope. He has Sleep Powder, but he doesn't really have the moves to abuse a sleeping foe. I tried Swords Dance and Return, but because everything outsped me, they could just gang up on me and kill me before i could kill them. This was made worse because i couldn't run Rest as i needed Razor Leaf for Haunter. I tried equipping a Lum Berry, a Quick Claw and an Occa Berry, but none of those made the difference. Ivysaur is out. Venusaur had the same moveset issues, but because of his higer Speed, he outsped them all and could kill them after a few swords dances. Charmeleon doesn't get Sleep Powder, but he does get speed, so he could outspeed and kill most enemies after a few swords dances. I chose not to repeat that strat with Zard; instead i copied Typhlosion's strat of Specs Flamethrower. Things were less hopeful for Wartortle though. He needed a Rindo Berry to even survive one hit from Meganium, and he could not one-shot in return. I had to rely on Swagger and hope he'd hit himself twice in a row, but i never got the luck i needed. Wartortle is out. Blastoise did not share in that story of failure; he outsped Meganium and could thus easily two-shot. Nothing else posed a threat, so Blastoise dispatched them all.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

On to the legendary trios. Articuno wrecked his foes with Ice Beam, Ancientpower and Hidden Power, while Zapdos replace Ice Beam and Ancientpower with Thunderbolt and Fly. Moltres meanwhile fried his foes with Flamethrower and Power Herb Solarbeam. The beasts also had no trouble; Raikou went for Specs Thunderbolt, which to my surprise was actually enough to outdamage Meganium and kill him before he could kill me. Entei followed this example with Specs Flamethrower, but while Suicue tried to do the same thing with Ice Beam, it didn't work out and i had to ditch the specs. Still beat them all down with a combination of Ice Beam, Hidden Power and Surf.

The pseudos were next. Dragonite massacred them with ThunderPunch and Hidden Power, and Tyranitar easily tanked Petal Dance due to the sandstorm, striking back with Ice Fang and killing the other guys with Rock Slide and Hidden Power. The boxarts of course had it easy as well; Lugia killed them with Extrasensory and Hidden Power, Ho-Oh slapped on a Choice Specs and Flamethrowered, and Mewtwo did the same thing except without STAB.

Mew combined Psychic, Thunderbolt and Hidden Power for an easy win, which means we've arrived at the FRLG champs. Truant isn't the best ability to have, but legendary-level defenses are a good thing to have; Slaking one-shot them all. Armaldo's strat was basically to spam Ancientpower against Golbat and hope for an omniboost; i got it in attempt 3, allowing me to crush the rest of the enemies with Return. Latios then destroyed his foes with Luster Purge and Hidden Power, Kyogre drowned them with Specs Surf, Groudon fried them with Specs Flamethrower, and Jirachi massacred his foes with Psychic and Hidden Power. Last but not least, Deoxys took out all his foes with Hidden Power and Magnet-boosted Thunderbolt.

And that's everyone. Of the 132 pokemon that made it here, 111 managed to beat the rival, while 21 faltered. Next time, the surviving 112 will be facing off against this region's big bad, Archer. (don't be ashamed if you have to look up who that is)

Here is a nice table showing hoe many mons survived after each boss:

Start	After Falkner	After Bugsy	After Azalea Rival	After Whitney	After Burned Tower Rival	After Morty	After Chuck	After Pryce	After Jasmine
283	254	204	189	180	168	153	148	134	132
After Goldenrod Rival
111

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Now let's look at the numbers. In total, 40% of pokemon got this far; above that is good, below that is bad.

Gen 1	Gen 2	Gen 3	Gen 4
54/151, 36%	34/100, 34%	7/10, 70%	15/22, 68%

Gens 1 and 2 sustained big hits, while gens 3 and 4 escaped completely unscathed. Was to be expected i guess. Gen 2's kinda gaining on gen 1, only being 2% behind now.

Normal	Fighting	Flying	Fire	Dragon	Water	Ice	Grass	Bug	Electric
25/52, 48%	7/13, 54%	21/43, 49%	12/21, 57%	3/6, 50%	18/53, 34%	7/13, 54%	3/26, 12%	6/24, 25%	11/20, 55%
Poison	Ground	Rock	Steel	Dark	Ghost	Psychic
10/37, 27%	9/29, 31%	7/21, 33%	5/8, 63%	5/9, 56%	4/5, 80%	12/30, 40%

This region really hates grass types. They lost over half their remaining mons in this fight, and are the worst performing type by quite a margin. Normal and Flying fell below the 50% mark, but other than these things there weren't really major shifts in how the types did compared to each other. Only Dragon, Dark and Ghost lost nobody in this fight; ghost still firmly in the lead with 80% of its members surviving, for lack of a better word. Guess they don't really have natural enemies in Johto.

Babies	Cross-Gen Evos	Starters	Fossils	Legendaries
1/15, 7%	21/29, 72%	10/29, 34%	3/6, 50%	15/17, 88%

Munchlax still hanging on. Lost a lot of the starters this fight, with all the middle stages except Charmeleon biting the dust. Fossils are down to the 50% mark too now, thanks to the loss of the Helix Fossil.

Now let's have a look at how our Kanto champs are doing, even though nothing has changed in 8 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 the world's most forgettable pokemon villain. For this fight, we have access to every item that's obtainable before beating Archer. Beating the Goldenrod rival gave us access to the basement of the department store, where we find TM82 Sleep Talk. We also free the director and fight our way up the radio tower, making our way to the observation deck. There, our next foe is waiting. So let's have a look at what we're up against.

Archer leads with his level 35 Houndour with Faint Attack, Fire Fang, Bite and Roar. Roar is a dud, and these other moves aren't that strong coming off base 60 attack. I can set up here just fine. Second is his level 35 Koffing, with Sludge, Smokescreen, Tackle and Haze. Playing super defensively wont work here as he'll haze my boosts away, but he shouldn't be too tough to remove from the field. Of course, there's also his ace, Houndoom, at level 38. It knows Faint Attack, Fire Fang, Bite and Smog. Archer, my boy, this is why no one remembers you. Well, this and your complete lack of story presence, your absence from both the anime and the manga and the fact that you didn't even have a name until gen 4. This fight is still part of the reason though. Seriously, Houndoom is a special attacker. Why not give this thing Flamethrower or Dark Pulse?

All in all, i think this fight will be a bit of a breather after that ??? fight. It's also the calm before the storm; i expect the 8 bosses after this to all be exceptionally difficult, or at least a step up from what we've seen so far.

So let's get these fights underway. With Typhlosion, i decided to test of Specs-HP worked as well here as it did vs Jasmine. It did work, but Houndoom and Koffing both got hits in so this might not be viable for pokemon less speedy or offensively strong than Typhlosion. Feraligatr is one of those pokemon, so he instead used Specs Surf. Pidgeot forewent specs altogether, instead beating them down with Silk Scarf Return. That was also the strategy of its fellow early-game bird, Fearow, but Noctowl went for Specs Air Slash instead. Raticate tore through his foes with STAB Guts Silk Scarf Return, and Raichu tore through with Specs Thunderbolt. Crobat then spammed Sharp Beak Fly, though he did finish things with Hidden Power after he got burned.

Clefairy would set up 3 Stockpiles against Houndour and then Return away; fortunately Houndoom came out second so i could Return him down before Koffing hazed all my defense boosts away. Clefable doesn't get Cosmic Power, so she just pre-poisoned herself and spammed Silk Scarf Facade. Hereafter came Togekiss, who won with Specs Aura Sphere. Arbok then copied Clefairy's strat and won with ease, and our FRLG champ Dunsparce set up a Defense Curl and then Rolled Out all over them. Jasmine's boy Amphy then put on his Choice Specs and killed everything with Thunderbolt. The next pokemon, Haunter, actually had trouble though. He was outsped and OHKOd by Houndoom, so he had to find a way around that. Quick Claw Hypnosis wasn't gonna work due to Early Bird, and Choice Scarf didn't work as i didn't OHKO. The only solution i saw was to equip a Colbur Berry, tank a hit and Swagger my foe. A self-hit then left him in range of a Hidden Power KO. This eventually worked out, against all odds. Gengar however outspeeds, so he could just OHKO Houndoom with Specs Hidden Power.

Jumpluff had a type disadvantage against every one of Archer's mons; Johto really hates grass types. However, she did have Swords Dance; setting up one of them allowed me to Return everything to death thanks to a crit on Koffing, and survive the fight with just 3 HP left. This was followed by Poliwrath and Politoed who both deployed the same strat: Specs Surf. Slowking was too slow to pull that off though; he'd get worn down by all the dark moves and ended up getting killed by Koffing. So instead i Cursed and then Returned the hounds down. Koffing did haze my curses away, but i had Zen Headbutt for him so it didn't matter.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

Time to face the world's most forgettable pokemon villain. For this fight, we have access to every item that's obtainable before beating Archer. Beating the Goldenrod rival gave us access to the basement of the department store, where we find TM82 Sleep Talk. We also free the director and fight our way up the radio tower, making our way to the observation deck. There, our next for is waiting. So let's have a look at what we're up against.

Archer leads with his level 35 Houndour with Faint Attack, Fire Fang, Bite and Roar. Roar is a dud, and these other moves aren't that strong coming off base 60 attack. I can set up here just fine. Second is his level 35 Koffing, with Sludge, Smokescreen, Tackle and Haze. Playing super defensively wont work here as he'll haze my boosts away, but he shouldn't be too tough to remove from the field. Of course, there's also his ace, Houndoom, at level 38. It knows Faint Attack, Fire Fang, Bite and Smog. Archer, my boy, this is why no one remembers you. Well, this and your complete lack of story presence, your absence from both the anime and the manga and the fact that you didn't even have a name until gen 4. This fight is still part of the reason though. Seriously, Houndoom is a special attacker. Why not give this thing Flamethrower or Dark Pulse?

All in all, i think this fight will be a bit of a breather after that ??? fight. It's also the calm before the storm; i expect the 8 bosses after this to all be exceptionally difficult, or at least a step up from what we've seen so far.

So let's get these fights underway. With Typhlosion, i decided to test of Specs-HP worked as well here as it did vs Jasmine. It did work, but Houndoom and Koffing both got hits in so this might not be viable for pokemon less speedy or offensively strong than Typhlosion. Feraligatr is one of those pokemon, so he instead used Specs Surf. Pidgeot forewent specs altogether, instead beating them down with Silk Scarf Return. That was also the strategy of its fellow early-game bird, Fearow, but Noctowl went for Specs Air Slash instead. Raticate tore through his foes with STAB Guts Silk Scarf Return, and Raichu tore through with Specs Thunderbolt. Crobat then spammed Sharp Beak Fly, though he did finish things with Hidden Power after he got burned.

Clefairy would set up 3 Stockpiles against Houndour and then Return away; fortunately Houndoom came out second so i could Return him down before Koffing hazed all my defense boosts away. Clefable doesn't get Cosmic Power, so she just pre-poisoned herself and spammed Silk Scarf Facade. Hereafter came Togekiss, who won with Specs Aura Sphere. Arbok then copied Clefairy's strat and won with ease, and our FRLG champ Dunsparce set up a Defense Curl and then Rolled Out all over them. Jasmine's boy Amphy then put on his Choice Specs and killed everything with Thunderbolt. The next pokemon, Haunter, actually had trouble though. He was outsped and OHKOd by Houndoom, so he had to find a way around that. Quick Claw Hypnosis wasn't gonna work due to Early Bird, and Choice Scarf didn't work as i didn't OHKO. The only solution i saw was to equip a Colbur Berry, tank a hit and Swagger my foe. A self-hit then left him in range of a Hidden Power KO. This eventually worked out, against all odds. Gengar however outspeeds, so he could just OHKO Houndoom with Specs Hidden Power.

Jumpluff had a type disadvantage against every one of Archer's mons; Johto really hates grass types. However, she did have Swords Dance; setting up one of them allowed me to Return everything to death thanks to a crit on Koffing, and survive the fight with just 3 HP left. This was followed by Poliwrath and Politoed who both deployed the same strat: Specs Surf. Slowking was too slow to pull that off though; he'd get worn down by all the dark moves and ended up getting killed by Koffing. So instead i Cursed and then Returned the hounds down. Koffing did haze my curses away, but i had Zen Headbutt for him so it didn't matter.

Oh god Archer...
This dude is Team Rocket's makeshift leader btw. But oh my god, this team is trash. I won't be surprised if we lose 0 Pokémon to him.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Oh god Archer...
This dude is Team Rocket's makeshift leader btw. But oh my god, this team is trash. I won't be surprised if we lose 0 Pokémon to him.

yeah, i know who this is. I included him because i wanted to have some evil team representation, but Johto Team Rocket is a joke. he might pose a problem for Misdreavus or psychic types though; we saw that he was difficult for Haunter.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Kadabra's Colbur Berry allowed him to barely tank one of Houndoom's Bites, surviving in the red. This allowed him to get the 2-shot with Hidden Power. Zam of course repeated this, and the Nido royals won with Specs Surf. Yanmega then killed Archer's mons with Specs Ancientpower, so Venomoth was next. Houndoom brought me to the red with one Fire Fang, but Black Belt Hidden Power killed in return. Time for Scizor. If any pokemon was gonna fail here, one would expect it to be him. However, despite his double weakness to fire, he found a way through. He'd simply spam Iron Defense so that their Fire Fangs could barely scratch him, then he'd get some Swords Dances in and kill with Technician Quick Attack. Scizor lives to fight another day. Pinsir didn't have Iron Defense, nor did he need it; he could use Brick Break to kill the hounds, surviving 2 hits from Houndoom thanks to his Occa Berry. I then Rested up and killed Koffing with Return. Heracross did the same thing except he was pre-poisoned for Guts, bringing us to a family reunion. James's boy Weezing is a defensive powerhouse though, so he could easily tank hits and kill the Houndour and Houndoom before resting up against his younger self. Sleep Talk yielded nothing useful, so i killed my foe after waking up.

With Magneton and Magnezone, i set up Rain Dance to weaken the Fire Fangs, then i killed them with accurate Thunders. Their fellow Electric type, Electrode, won with Specs Thunderbolt. Granbull meanwhile went the physical route, killing the hounds with Soft Sand Dig and Koffing with Return. Ninetales plotted something nasty and killed everyone with Hidden Power and Flamethrower, which means it's now time for a fire dog vs fire dog showdown. Arcanine proved the stronger hound though, using Soft Sand-boosted Dig to kill his rival. Stantler had the sheer power to barge through with Silk Scarf Return, and Azumarill won with Specs Surf. Primeape for some reason gets barely any fighting moves by levelup, but Karate Chop proved strong enough, though i did need to Rest up before Returning Koffing down. Finally for today, Persian killed them with Silk Scarf Return.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

Time for Scizor. If any pokemon was gonna fail here, one would expect it to be him. However, despite his double weakness to fire, he found a way through. He'd simply spam Iron Defense so that their Fire Fangs could barely scratch him, then he'd get some Swords Dances in and kill with Technician Quick Attack. Scizor lives to fight another day.

AND THAT'S WHY SCIZOR IS THAT GUY

Honestly, I forgot about Scizor's double weakness to fire, but I'm not too shocked that Houndour was still set up bait for him. Considering Scizor and Houndour have the same base speed, it makes me wonder how much Houndour's fire fang did/would do to an unboosted Scizor depending on if Scizor outsped or not.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Considering Scizor and Houndour have the same base speed, it makes me wonder how much Houndour's fire fang did/would do to an unboosted Scizor depending on if Scizor outsped or not.

Over half, but not an OHKO. I know this because i first tried with just Swords Dance, but i couldn't get the OHKO on Houndoom with just one dance. btw base stats aren't everything; enemies tend to have no IVs or EVs while i have 2 IVs in every stat and EVs spread evenly among all stats. So i'd always outspeed.

 

[RichestAirPirate]

Over half, but not an OHKO. I know this because i first tried with just Swords Dance, but i couldn't get the OHKO on Houndoom with just one dance. btw base stats aren't everything; enemies tend to have no IVs or EVs while i have 2 IVs in every stat and EVs spread evenly among all stats. So i'd always outspeed.

Ah, so you'd have access to get off at least 1 Iron Defense safely against Houndour. I dunno how many SDs or Iron Defenses made you safe against Houndoom but still, clever play there. I have high hopes for Scizor in this challenge.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Ah, so you'd have access to get off at least 1 Iron Defense safely against Houndour. I dunno how many SDs or Iron Defenses made you safe against Houndoom but still, clever play there. I have high hopes for Scizor in this challenge.

there's a decent chance he'll beat the league, but he will run into serious trouble once it's time to face Blaine

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Machamp went in poisoned for Guts and used Wake-up Slap to kill the hounds, and Return to kill Koffing. Koffing was a 2-shot, so i ended up surviving on just 1 HP. Our sole surviving hitmon, Hitmonchan, had Sky Uppercut and Return to kill them, no issues. Tauros killed them with Silk Scarf Return and Zen Headbutt, but then Archer showed what a truly irredeemable villain he is by not ridding us of Whitney's hideous cow. He just let her set up Defense Curl and Rollout all over him. I guess this is his ultimate revenge for our attempts to stop team rocket; now the challenge continues to be plagued by this pink monstrosity. Anyway, Magmortar slapped on Specs and blasted them all with Thunderbolt, but then we run into our first real problem child: Jynx. Jynx's typing and bad defense meant that she was outsped and one-shot by all of Houndoom's moves, and even if she held a Colbur Berry, she still couldn't win because she couldn't one-shot even with Focus Blast. Houndoom triggering the Colbur wasn't certain either; Fire Fang also killed. I tried putting Houndoom to sleep for long enough, i tried Swagger hoping for self-hits and i tried setting up Reflect vs Houndour so i could forgo the Colbur in favour of a Black Belt. Nothing paid off though; i didn't get the luck i needed for the former two, and for the latter strat, Houndour did so much damage to me that Houndoom could finish it. Jynx is out.

Electabuzz and Electivire put on their Choice Specs and Thunderbolted away, so we're on to Ash's dad. Mr. Mime spammed Barrier a few times against Houndour, then he used Hidden Power to kill the hounds. This only worked on try 1 because Houndoom missed something, but after that i of course made short work of Koffing. With Farfetch'd, i had forgotten that Koffing has Haze, but it ended up not mattering. He did haze my Swords Dances away when i roosted up against him, but i set one up again and used it to kill both Koffing and Houndoom. Qwilfish of course used Specs Surf, as did Kingler, Octillery, Lanturn and Dewgong. Lickitung does learn Surf, but he wasn't fast or strong enough to pull off the strat; the enemies all outsped him and beat him down. So instead i equipped a Chesto Berry and healed up after i had dealt one hit to Houndoom, so that i had the HP to wear him down. Against Koffing i had to play the stall war because of all the smokesreens he threw my way, but eventually i did hit and kill him. Lickilicky did have the stats to pull off Specs Surf, so that's what he did.

Tangrowth had trouble because Johto just hates grass types, but he found a way. Houndour didn't do all that much to me even though he was supereffective, so i set up some swords dances, hit a stun spore to outspeed and then Rest-stalled him out of his Fire Fang PP. This allowed me to reach the other two pokemon with just enough HP to tank their attacks and one-shot them with Return. The Eeveelutions are next, starting with Jolteon who killed them with Specs Thunderbolt. Flareon killed the hounds with Dig and Koffing with Thunderbolt, and last was Glaceon, who set up the rain to reduce fire damage and then Hidden Powered the hounds down; Koffing died to Ice Beam.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Clair's boy Kingdra and its pre-evolution put on specs and Surfed them to death. This was followed by Gligar and Gliscor, who would set up Swords Dances against Houndour, kill Koffing before he could haze them away and then one-shot Houndoom with dig. Mamoswine didn't have Swords Dance but he did have Soft Sand Dig, and Ice Fang for Koffing. Ursaring massacred them with Guts Facade, bringing us to Skarmory. Skarmory won on try 1 because he managed to crit a Fly on Houndoom; this may well have turned into a drawn-out stall war otherwise. Dodrio's Silk Scarf Returns proved sufficient, and Rapidash killed them with SilverPowder Megahorns supplemented with some Returns. Kangaskhan beat them to a pulp with Silk Scarf Return, and both Rhydon and Rhyperior killed the hounds with Dig; Koffing died to Return.

Honchkrow set up 3 Nasty Plots and then Hidden-Powered everyone down, meaning it's time for the only mirror match against Archer. My Houndoom has Hidden Power Fighting though, which he used to destroy the one Archer sent into the field. Slugma was up next, but just setting up its defenses wasn't gonna save it this time. Koffing outsped and had Haze, undoing all my beautiful defense curls. I'd still set those up against Houndour, then i killed him with Ancientpower hoping for an omniboost. I didn't get that on thewinning attempt, so i yawned Koffing as he hazed my boosts away, then i hardened up a bit. I then killed him too with Ancientpower, getting no less than two omniboosts, which i used to annihilate Houndoom. That strat was obviously not gonna work twice, nor did i need it to; Magcargo had the natural bulk to Ancientpower them to deatheven without any omniboosts.

Weavile's not scared of a few fire types; he set up a Swords Dance and killed them with Dig and Return. Misdreavus however had serious trouble. She survived Houndour's attack but could not one-shot in return, and she couldn't even wield a Colbur Berry because she needed Black Belt to OHKO Houndour with Hidden Power. My strategy was thus to OHKO Houndour and then confuse ray the Houndoom, hoping he'd hit himself in confusion enough for hidden power to kill. This never worked out as intended, but in attempt 9 after hittimg himself once, Houndoom decided to try and finish me off with Fire Fang, which missed and allowed me to get the kill and the win; Koffing was obviously easy. Fantina's girl Mismagius didn't have these kinds of troubles though; she outsped Houndoom and could two-shot before he two-shot me.

Porygon's Download meant that one Sharpen was enough to OHKO everything with Return. Its evolutions don't get Sharpen for some reason, but they could run Specs Thunderbolt to kill everything. Lapras and Kabutops then won with Specs Surf, and last for today, Aerodactyl killed them with Rock Tomb and Return.

 

[There Is No Arceus]

Back from my trip to france, we start today off with our sole surviving baby, Munchlax. He set up 3 Stockpiles to make himself unassailable; fortunately i could Return Houndoom down before Koffing came in and hazed my stockpiles away. Snorlax doesn't get Stockpile, nor did he need it; he would Defense Curl up, Rest, Belly Drum, Rest again and then spam Return. Koffing came out second though, so this strat didn't work as planned. Still tanked their hits long enough to kill them though.

On to what's left of the Kanto starters. Venusaur had a lot of trouble, but in attempt 8 i managed to find a line. I'd go for Growth on Houndour, tanking his Fire Fang with an Occa Berry so that i could tank Houndoom's fire fang later. I then outsped and killed the lesser hound, but Houndoom outsped me, so he could hit a nasty Fire Fang before i Hyper Beamed him down. On the recharge turn, Koffing got me down to just 2 HP, but i then finished him with another Hyper Beam. Charmeleon and Charizard had no such issues; they simply killed the hounds with Soft Sand Dig, and Koffing with Flamethrower. Blastoise of course won with Specs Surf.

And so we move on to the trios. They had it easy; Articuno used Specs Ancientpower, Zapdos Specs Thunderbolt, Moltres Specs Ancientpower, Raikou Specs Thunderbolt, Entei Soft Sand Dig and Flamethrower, and Suicune Specs Surf. As for the pseudos, Dragonite and Tyranitar both had Specs Surf to work with; apparently Tar gets that for some reason. Lugia also gets Specs Surf, but Ho-Oh decided to show off his shiny Life Orb, using it to Flamethrower and Pluck his foes down. Mewtwo then destroyed them with Specs Thunderbolt, and Mew did the same with Specs Surf.

Finally, we've arrived at the FRLG champs. Norman's boy Slaking had to endure hits from both Koffing and Houndoom, but that's quite manageable when you have legendary level stats; he Returned them to death with ease. Armaldo, not fearing crits, could safely get in all his defense curls and swords dances, and since he then outsped and OHKOd koffing, they couldn't even be hazed away. Latios and Kyogre of course blasted them apart with Specs Surf, and Groudon killed them with Earthquake and Flamethrower. Jirachi's Specs Thunderbolts destroyed her foes, and last but not least, Deoxys set up Reflect, used its cover to kill the hounds with supereffective Focus Blasts, and then killed Koffing with Thunderbolt.

And that's everyone. Of the 111 pokemon that got here, 110 managed to beat Archer, while only Jynx faltered. Thus ends the calm before the storm; next, these 110 pokemon will be facing off against Clair.

Here's a nice table showing how many pokemon beat each boss:

Start	After Falkner	After Bugsy	After Azalea Rival	After Whitney	After Burned Tower Rival	After Morty	After Chuck	After Pryce	After Jasmine
283	254	204	189	180	168	153	148	134	132
After Goldenrod Rival	After Archer
111	110